Squaw Peak 50 report

On June 6th I again set out hoping for my 3rd finish of Squaw Peak 50. This was my sixth start, and I have not successfully finished Squaw Peak since 2010. After starting coaching almost a year ago with Lisa Smith-Batchen, I've slowly started to see glimpses of possibility of running with speed and endurance again. It has not been easy. My POTS symptoms have improved a lot, but I still have some disadvantages. No matter how hard it train, I still have extreme difficulty with speed uphills. I started my journey with Squaw Peak at 3 am, and surprisingly did not get passed by any runners until mile 12. The heat started making me sick around mile 20, but I was slow and steady and able to make the cutoff at mile 33 by 1:45, 45 minutes before the cutoff. The last 17 miles were rough due to the heat, over exerting myself in the heat to make the cut off, and some extreme blistering, but I finished! That's to Gary Wood and Lynne Neilson for pacing the last 17 miles.