Episode 65: Unapologetically Extreme: Aimee Warnke on Cancer, Comebacks, and the Triple Crown
This week on Endurance State of Mind, we sit down with one of the most fearless and inspiring athletes we've ever had on the show. Aimee Warnke. Active duty Army physical therapist with over 14 years of service. Former Ironman World Championship qualifier. Collegiate cyclist at Saint Louis University. And now, one of the most exciting names in the ultra running world.
But Aimee's story doesn't follow a normal endurance athlete arc, and that's exactly why this episode matters.
In 2024, as a brand new ultra runner with only a handful of races under her belt, Aimee showed up at Dinosaur Valley and won the 100K and the 100 miler outright. Not the women's race. The whole field. Two days later, her pre op scans came back with a diagnosis that would have stopped most people in their tracks: chondrosarcoma, a rare malignant bone tumor in her left pelvis. Doctors initially told her she'd need a hemipelvectomy within six months. Translation: cut out a major section of her pelvis. Translation behind the translation: she'd likely never run the way she does again.
She refused the standard answer.
Instead, Aimee, armed with her own clinical background and a refusal to accept the first diagnosis as the only diagnosis, advocated for herself, found a team of trauma surgeons willing to pursue a never before attempted 3D printed pelvic reconstruction using her own iliac crest, and asked for time to race the Dinosaur Valley 100 first. She got it. Today she's in surveillance and watchful waiting status. The tumor hasn't grown. Her mileage has.
In this conversation, we go deep on the entire journey:
How a junior high counselor noticed she was getting picked on for a speech impediment and quietly handed her a borrowed bike, an entry to a sprint triathlon, and the community that would change her life.
Her early triathlon career: Age group Team USA at the 2008 ITU Long Course World Championships in Holland, the 2009 Half Ironman Worlds in Clearwater, the bike crash mid race that broke her clavicle and several ribs, the compound fracture surgery, and how she ended up qualifying for Ironman Canada through a Power Bar raffle she'd entered the same weekend (yes, really).
Four years racing collegiate cycling at Saint Louis University, the team time trials, the breakaways, and what it taught her about being the only woman on the start line at the top level.
The pivot to the Army, fourteen plus years of active duty service, deployments, becoming an Army Baylor DPT, and the side quest into Pacific Northwest backpacking, skiing, and obstacle course racing that quietly built the engine for everything that came next.
Finding trail running through the Hawaii Spartan Ohana, watching the Hurt 100 from the volunteer side and thinking "this is insane, but I'm doing it someday," and eventually returning years later to win that very same race outright.
The Dinosaur Valley 100K and 100 mile sweep, including how Zach (also racing the 100K that day) watched her pull away from the entire field and realized he was witnessing something special.
The diagnosis. The dark month of trying to process a cancer diagnosis alone, before she told anyone, not her parents, not her best friend. The "rage runs" through tears between patient appointments. The phone call from her ortho oncologist that quietly changed everything.
Javelina 100 and the femoral nerve hematoma that almost ended her race at mile 70, and what it took to come back from it.
The freak infection in spring 2025 that left her unable to walk up a flight of stairs, the ER visit, the steroid course, the 3 week reset, and the comeback timeline that took her from zero running to a 100 mile training week in under five weeks, just in time for the Tahoe 200.
Inside her Tahoe 200. Competing for the women's podium, the mid race mistake that cost her hours, the throw up and shake it off low point, the 35 minute nap that saved her race, and
1 SPEAKER_01: Early mornings, late night, on the fake.
Don't let the massive state of mind.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to Endurance State of Mind.
We have a very special guest for you all this week.
Our next guest brings a truly unique endurance background from
cross-country and triathlon to competitive cycling, military
service, and now ultrarunning.
She's an active duty army physical therapist who has
turned her passion for the trails into pursuit of some of
the toughest challenges in the sport.
We'll talk about her path into ultrarunning, the lessons
learned from pushing through a 200-mile race, and how adversity
can shape the way we approach endurance in life.
We're also excited to dive into her perspective on the
incredible rise of women competing at the highest levels
in the sport.
Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please help me
welcome Amy Warky to the podcast.
Amy, welcome.
How are you?
SPEAKER_05: Good.
Thanks so much for having me on today.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thanks for thanks for coming on.
We're excited to kind of break down your story.
We've uh Zach and I, we talk about the story arc a little bit
for our audience.
So Zach and I have been doing a little bit of reviewing on your
story arc.
I think we've both been in there for about an hour and a half,
and we're we're pumped to like really dive into this.
So I'm just gonna start it with how I typically do.
Amy, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Tell us kind of how you got into endurance sports, and then we'll
go from there.
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, well, I think Zach kind of told me some some
about myself, like with this intro, but I um I'm in the army,
active duty physical therapist, and have been in the army for
just over 14 years now, which is crazy to think.
Have always really enjoyed pushing myself physically,
whether that's been running, triathlons, cycling, that kind
of got me through college and then shifted into more of a
pursuit of adventure with that.
Um once I joined the army, got into a lot more backpacking,
skiing, just being outside and exploring, and somehow got back
into combining both of those things together with obstacle
course racing when I was stationed in Hawaii and got my
post first expo exposure to a hundred mile race with the HERT
100 and thought it was absolutely insane, but that I
wanted to do that at one one point in time and try to get
there at some point.
And but while I was there yeah, really fell in love with trail
obstacle course racing, but then I found out that I really just
like the trail running part part of the obstacle course racing,
maybe not as much as the the obstacles themselves, and that
kind of got me into trail running specifically.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
So you you obviously you're you're watching a big a big
race, that's kind of what gets you there.
You have a you have a long history with endurance sports,
though, however, because it seems like you were into you
were kind of this was like my transition into ultra
marathoning, was I did triathlons as well.
So can we like go all the way back to like the very start of
it whenever you were doing junior high triathlons?
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so I I got into triathlons actually because
of my junior high counselor at the time, and kind of the funny
story to all of this is it was because I was picked on a lot as
a like younger like kid into my teens because I had a speech
impediment for up until I was probably 15, 16 years old.
I couldn't say my R's correctly, and I got made fun of a lot for
that.
And he had recommended that I do this.
He knew he was just like, I know you like running, I knew you do
swim team.
You should try doing a traplon.
And I'm doing a traplon, like try newbie kind of developmental
camp for it was it was all adults except for me, and he
gave me a bike, like loaned me a bike to borrow and train on.
I was started riding with a bunch of guys that were about my
dad's age and got dropped on every single ride until I could
keep up, and then I was just hanging on for dear life.
And I found my community of people, and it was it gave me an
outlet and a space and a community where I wasn't made
fun of at all.
And I found out that I was really good at this thing that I
was doing and started competing more in triathlons and got
pretty competitive at it.
Um it was kind of like my kind of ironically, like my
experience with ultras is I did my first one, I did a sprint
triathlon, then I did an Olympic, and then but the
following summer I was just like I'm gonna do a half iron man,
and I had no business doing a half iron man, but I got hooked
to it and just kind of kept going from there.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's funny.
I actually did this, I I kind of have a a similar story, Zach
knows, and a few people have heard it before.
I um so I was overweight, did my first half marathon, and then
literally went from all right, I'm gonna do a half marathon and
jump straight to a half Iron Man.
So I mean makes sense.
I I knew I knew didn't even know how to ride a bike and already
had signed up for a half, so it's it's one of those funny
things.
You got pretty it looks like though you got fairly
competitive when it comes to Iron Man's.
It looks like you've been to went to a world championship in
2008.
Am I correct on that?
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
Yeah, I I think I I kind of got lucky in that I got into the
sport early before it kind of did the boom that it is in now.
Like I don't think I would be at that level if I was racing now
in the sport, but I I disagree.
SPEAKER_02: I disagree.
You're being very humble.
I can't wait till we get your ultra-running career, but I
disagree, audience.
We'll get there, wait for it.
SPEAKER_05: But I I I was also one of the youngest people, like
kind of competing at long distance type stuff at the time,
but I did get the opportunity to race with like age group team
USA, like ITU Long Course World Championships in Holland.
That was in 2008.
And then I did Half Iron Man World Championships in
Clearwater, Florida in 2009, and I had a really bad bike crash
during that race, and I ended up having a compound fracture of my
clavicle, like broke several ribs.
Did not finish that race, but still I during that race, they
you know how they have like raffles when you go through and
do the like expos for different races.
I when I did Half Iron Man World Championships, I had put my name
into a power bar raffle and I ended up winning, which was
great for a college student, a year's supply of power bars, so
I kind of lived off a power bar for a year, but um a year supply
of power bar and an entry into Iron Man Canada in the following
year.
And so I found that out like after I'd had surgery because I
had to have a plate and screws put in for the fracture that I
got from the race, and I found that out from that, and I'm
like, well, guess I'm doing an Iron Man next next year.
So yeah, that was my first Iron Man after that.
SPEAKER_03: That's funny.
Let me ask you a curious question.
Do you still eat power bars today?
SPEAKER_05: I do not.
I think I had one a long, like not too long ago, and I was I
yeah, but but I had them for about a year straight.
I had a lot of them.
SPEAKER_03: You had enough of them at that time.
Awesome.
Iron Man Canada, you obviously switch over into a full.
It looks like you had done two fulls, and then you did a you
were competitive in cycling as well.
This is why we're yeah, you're you're humbling yourself.
You're telling us like I was early on, and here you are,
college cyclist as well.
So tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I I did collegiate cycling for four
years, and I had so much fun racing cycling in college.
Uh, it was road racing, criteria like crit racing and time
trials.
And we just kind of traveled all over, had our school bands would
get, you know, just spend the whole weekend cycling different.
We their team kind of setup we never had.
We we always had a pretty strong guys team.
I was pretty much the only female that was racing like at
the the top level for for that.
And so I'd always like train with your guys, but uh I would
always kind of partner up with some of the other schools
because cycling is kind of a team sport.
You kind of need a team to be able to go for breakaways or
anything else.
And I was pretty good friends with some some of the gals from
Notre Dame and Ohio.
Kind of still friends with them today, which is kind of funny,
but uh but they I would always just kind of join their teams to
be able to make it for any of those breakaways.
But yeah, had fun doing cycling.
I raced with there's Big Shirk Michael Boltra team in St.
Louis that I also raced with in the summers.
And the last big race I did was the Gateway Cup.
Um that was which is again thought I would get back into
cycling after I came back from deployment and did not, but it
that was in the or spring of twenty twelve, I guess.
Fall of I don't know, sometime around this.
SPEAKER_03: Where do you where did you go to where'd you go to
college at?
SPEAKER_05: St.
Louis University.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_05: I I'm curious from the time trial standpoint, does
that look very similar from a team's side, kind of like what
you would see at a time trial at like let's say Tour de France or
Yeah, we we would normally always do a co ed team because
it was uh again, we it it would be like me and three of the
guys, and because you had to have one one female three guys
when you did the co-ed team, and yeah, you just uh it'd be a set
distance, and then how however you break up drafting and
pooling, just whatever team can get done in the fastest.
SPEAKER_03: And was it all four of y'all had to finish it?
SPEAKER_05: Yes, yeah, there is a distance.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
All right.
Zach, what you got for us?
I've went through a little bit of stuff.
I want to make sure you get to ask some questions here.
SPEAKER_02: No, you're doing a great job.
I have so many questions to ask.
So, Amy, you came onto my radar in 2024 at Dinosaur Valley.
We both were in that event.
I was in the 100K.
You were in the hundred mile.
That race director, Anthony This is funny.
She actually gives you two results for the 100 milers, the
100k result and the 100 mile result.
Amy won the 100k outright.
The race I was in, going full gas at that distance, and went
on to win the 100 miler overall.
So I'll tell you this story.
I've like long since kind of like fanboyed followed Amy,
daughter of three girls.
I love Amy, I love pointing to strong women on our sport.
My girls see me running all the time.
It's always in a soccer these days, and she's 10, and she has
guys that want to compete with her on the road.
So I always like point to like strong females that are good
role models for.
So I remember talking to her about that a day about that
race.
But it's a long-winded way of saying it's somebody I've
followed for a while, and your journey has just continued to
inspire me, so it's exciting to get you on the podcast.
Quite frankly, I didn't think we were big enough to have you on
when we first started, and you've been one of those ones.
Like, I was just like, let's let this play out a little bit
podcast-wise.
So I'm happy to talk to you now.
But anyways, I guess I didn't know any about this former
endurance background that you had previously.
Tell our audience how you took it from competitive triathlons
and cycling into where running kind of got back onto your radar
kind of as your main focus.
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I like running never went away, but it was
always like cycling was always my strength in triathlons.
Like triathlons, and then obviously I did cycling in
college, but I've always kind of just kept running for fun.
Um and it it really was like graduating from college 2012,
and then did my basic officer like training course, and I I
was an army engineer at the time, but I went to my first
unit and deployed right away to Afghanistan, and then came back
and had all intentions to get back into triathlons and running
or triathlons and or cycling.
And I like I said, I kind of just took a detour and went into
full adventuring mode.
And Pacific Northwest was beautiful, like really learned
how to ski, loved that.
Did the backpacking, lots of backpacking, like a lot of
miles, so maybe that helped with some like building some hiking,
like muscles and during and I really started to do a lot of
just army competitive things in schools.
So I've done like aerosol, jungle school, the FMB, some
other like schools and training type things in the army, and and
kind of more went career focused for a little while.
But I I was running and I would do local races, but I never
considered myself like a competitive runner like I was a
cyclist.
And so yeah, it was really just for fun.
And when I went back to so I went to the Army Baylor DPT
program.
So I went back to school to be a PT.
And during that time, I actually did do a half iron man during
that time, and I was just like, oh yeah, like definitely gonna
get back into tries.
School got really busy and did a lot of just running races.
Like we have a local series here in San Antonio called the
Scalywampus series, and they they have anywhere from like a
5k to a 20 mile run, and so I did a lot of those races, and I
was competitive from age group or like you know, could maybe be
like top five female for those, but I wasn't really training and
pushing myself that like to the extent that I am now, and yeah,
it was really going to Hawaii after that and finding that that
community, that group with the the Spartan training group, it
was Hawaii Spartan Ohana, and there was actually a friend who
actually paced me at Tahoe 200 uh from Hawaii Jano.
He leads that group, and he was the one there that was just like
you need to go into the competitive category for the
Spartan races, and in and because I think you could do
really well with that and brace it hard, and that kind of
brought back the competitive stance in me from a like
endurance perspective.
I did do so the HERT in Hawaii, they have the Hurt series, it's
not just the Hurt 100, and I did start doing those races there,
and man, I got like my ass handed to me when they started
doing that because I like I was so clumsy on trails, and it was
just a different level that I was not expecting, but I had so
much fun with it, I just kept on coming back.
SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
So that's awesome.
Uh curious to understand that.
So when I heard you mention, I think earlier in the in the
episode about 2023, 2024 time frame was when you first got
into Ultras was Dinosaur Valley, 100 mile.
You didn't come out of the gate and sign straight up for that,
did you?
Or did you run a couple before that?
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I did a couple before that.
So my first ever 50k was actually when I moved, I came
back to San Antonio, was doing uh like a postdoc DSC fellowship
training.
The Army's paid for a lot of school for me.
I'm very grateful for that.
But I was doing this program and uh signed up for Dogwood
Challenge 50k in the Ozarks, and my family is from the Ozarks,
and so like that was just kind of like going back to that area
was kind of like going home.
But did that and I was just like, man, this is the hardest
thing I've ever done.
This is this is crazy.
I want to do it again.
And and like it wasn't a blowout race by any means.
Like, I think I was I have no clue what I even placed in that
race, to be completely honest.
Um, but I remember finishing and being like, man, that was hard.
And then the next day it was like the North Face challenge,
so the next day did a 15k.
And then I was originally signed up for a Bandera hundred or 50k
in January, and I had a friend that convinced me to do the 100k
instead of the 50k, and so I did the 100k, and it's kind of funny
because that race I can come back to that like the the
following year when I did the 100k on a harder course, I
dropped my time by like a couple hours um just from like I had a
just fully committed into ultra running after that, but yeah,
did the hundredk Bandier 100K and I did pretty good up until
mile 50, and then I was just like, oh man, I should have
trained to people to go farther for this, and I finished, it was
rough.
Um couldn't walk for like a week, and then I was just like,
I'm I'm gonna do a hundred miler, and I ended up signing up
for Dino because I was looking at that point, and with the
program that I was in, I couldn't really take leave or
much time away.
So I was just like, it needs to be in Texas, I need to be able
to drive to it and be able to get back to work on Monday.
And I wanted something with hills, and so at that point it
was either Dino Valley or Brazos, and and I was just like,
Dino looks more fun, so I I signed up for that.
SPEAKER_02: Wow, that's incredible.
So you're I feel like you're still new into endurance
running.
SPEAKER_05: I'm definitely new into ultra running for sure, and
like being competitive with running for sure.
SPEAKER_03: What do you feel like earlier you would have said
seeing you like seeing volunteering at the HERT 100 and
then go into a sign-up list at Dino Valley, 100 mile or like
what it what do you tell yourself in between those two
time frames?
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05: Like Yeah, I think when I set my mind to something,
I'm gonna do it.
And so I knew I was eventually gonna do it, and it was really,
really cool to go back to Hurt this year and actually go back
and do that because I think that was like the full circle moment
for me.
But I like I knew I was going to get there, but I didn't think I
I never had the thought that I could be competitive in this
sport.
I thought I would do it and I would be able to complete it and
it'd be really, really hard.
But being able to figure out that hey, I can actually be
pretty good at this if I uh if I kind of try to figure it out and
and yeah, I I don't think I would have ever thought I could
be this competitive at the sport.
SPEAKER_03: Well so you obviously you don't really train
as much as you think you need to for the hundredk for your first
hundred K.
Then does the switch happen where you go from the hundredk
to the hundred miler and you like overtrain?
Essentially I don't know that you can over-train for a hundred
miler, but you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_05: Like There was a lot of things that were happening in
that time period.
And yes, I I got really excited after Bandura and it kind of
turned on the switch to probably me back being competitive with
tries and cycling, and I was just like, I want that in my
life at again at this point.
And the really funny part of this is when I went into this
like postdoc fellowship program that I was doing, we had a like
a sit-down talk to at the beginning of the program saying
this is not the time to be doing a marathon or doing anything
else.
And in the back of my mind, I'm like, hmm, okay, like we'll see
how this goes.
Um but I really wanted to get back to it, and I was I realized
it was a part of my life that I'd been missing, like being
competitive and then like really challenging.
And pushing myself physically in like a competition atmosphere.
And I did not initially go into Dino Valley with a thought that
I would be competitive at like my first hundred.
And honestly, I was kind of scared into training.
Like I was running what I thought would be my biggest
mileage weeks ever.
And I was running like probably about 60 miles a week.
And I was thinking, I really have no clue what the heck I'm
doing.
And so I ended up reaching out to Ryan Miller.
I have a friend, a close friend that was also coached by him in
San Antonio.
And I reached out to him to see if he would coach me.
And so he started coaching me in July.
Yeah, May 24th.
And that was actually the first time I ever started implementing
like speed work into my training and having more structure
because I was just going out and running like very early in the
morning before I had to be at work and just trying to build
mileage.
But so I started to have more structure into my training, and
I felt started feeling like an athlete again, like something
I'd been missing since college.
Of because like the cycling team, like we had structure, we
had training and everything else that we were following.
Had the same with travel ons, but then I finally had that with
running, and it was just really, really fun to have that.
SPEAKER_03: Were you doing running?
Like were you running by yourself or did you have a group
that you were running with?
Because we found, interestingly enough, like people seem to do
better with groups compared to just solo runs all the time.
SPEAKER_05: It's it's kind of been a combination of both.
So I do, I mean, I train really early in the morning, um, not
necessarily by choice, but just because of work.
Like right now, I will wake up like at two o'clock in the
morning and then run, lift, and then get into work after.
So there's not very many people that want to wake up that early.
I do have a really close friend here in San Antonio who it
wasn't yeah, it was right uh close before Dino when I started
running with him.
Uh he was a drill sergeant.
Um so he also had weird hours and started very early.
And we were both running around base very early in the morning
and ended up just we were running on parallel sides of a
road, and I'm like, I'm either gonna be like running awkwardly,
like across the road or slightly behind him once I realized we're
going into the same area, or I could just catch up and you
know, maybe scare him, but didn't have somebody to run
with, and we started running together a lot of mornings.
But yeah, I have I have friends that I do long runs with on the
weekends.
There's an awesome community of runners in San Antonio.
Um, but I do let's say the majority of my weekday morning
runs.
I have one other gal now who will join me on some early runs,
but kind of a mix.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
I I I do find it, I do think that it makes it easier.
Just you know how it is, get your mind off of like the actual
fatigue that is running whenever you've got somebody to chat with
and you're going through suffering through something
together.
I so I was just curious if you found that yeah helpful.
SPEAKER_05: I I do completely agree with that, but I also just
I really, really love it.
Like I I don't really know how to explain it, but I it's not a
chore to me to wake up early to run.
Like I will be upset if I actually slept accidentally
slept through my alarm and am not able to run because it's
just my favorite part of my day.
Like, I absolutely love it.
SPEAKER_03: Well, I I've I've seen it happen to folks.
Some some like our podcast hosts who I literally thought was
gonna have like I he was we were out in Arizona and he was like
freaking out basically because it was three o'clock in the
afternoon, probably five our time Zach, and he had not had
his 10-mile run in that day, and he was like antsy about getting
to the Airbnb so that he could go run.
So I I totally get that.
I I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you.
I I know there's some stuff that you've said you kind of put in
here that you didn't want to talk about.
You you lead all the way up to July of 2024, and then you get a
diagnosis in August.
If you don't want to talk about it, we can pass over it.
SPEAKER_05: Completely fine with talking about it.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, perfect.
I I feel like I'd be remiss if we didn't talk.
So tell us what goes on in August of 2024, because this is
like I think this is kind of a huge monumental point in your
story arc as well, to like why why you do what you do at this
point.
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05: No, it absolutely is.
So, and this was also like a month in to me being coached by
Ryan.
Um, things are going really smooth.
Like I had finally gotten to a point with my fellow like I
honestly felt like life was at a good point.
Like I was kind of at a point with my fellowship training, and
that like everything was going well.
I was kind of backing up a little bit, Memorial Day weekend
had done a 50k and that 50k for whatever reason for like two
weeks after I was having pretty like like really bad hip pain
that I couldn't like bear weight on my hip at all.
I thought I might have a stress injury.
That was the only thing I could really think of because I was
just like I've tested everything else out, couldn't really figure
it out, and ended up having a coworker because I can't order
imaging on myself, order imaging to roll out a bone stress
injury, and imaging came back and no bone stress injury.
And we see incidental findings on imaging all the time, and
there was an incidental finding for a chondroid lesion that I
just completely disregarded because I was just like, okay,
that isn't it.
Um I actually had another friend in town, Nick Aski, he ended up
helping me with some rehab stuff, and I was able to get
back to running without any issues, was able to run.
Um, but then I ended up getting a call from the orthor oncology
at BMC because my images had signaled basically automatic
review to the tunior review board there.
And they told me I needed to get additional workup and for the
chondroid lesion that was found.
And I was initially initially I was just like, no, no, no, my
symptoms have gone away.
I'm back to running, I'm fine.
Um, I think it was just an incidental binding.
And then Dr.
Mills, who is my orthoroncologist um now, he
called me up and he was just like, Amy, please go get these
images.
Like, we really need you to be worked up.
Um I know you see our patients, like, like let us take care of
you, let us like like you're gonna be the patient at this
point.
It might just be an incidental finding, but we need to get this
worked up.
So I finally agreed and got the images.
This was like in July time period when I got the images,
but I kind of put it aside because I wasn't having any
pain.
I was running, I thought it was fine.
And I ended up going in in it was the second Monday of August.
Um when I went in and sat down and talked with him.
Turns out that incidental finding was chondrosarcoma in my
pelvis, um, left superior pubic ramus, and it is a malignant
bone tumor, but it is resistant to chemo and radiation.
And I was told that I needed to have it out within six months,
or it could kill me because it could metastasize, and when
they're in the pelvis, they can be very dangerous.
And to take it out, they would be doing a hemipulvectomy, so
basically just cutting out that part of my pelvis, and those
people do okay, and by okay, they're able to walk afterwards
with a partial pelvis.
And I was just in shock.
I was just like, there is no way that this is what I was
expecting going in here.
And second of all, I I was just like, no, not okay with that.
Like, you're gonna need to figure out a better option
because I'm a PT.
I know that I don't want a partial pelvis, and I really
love running, so you're gonna need to figure out and also I
don't think the army would let me stay in with a partial
pelvis, so let's figure out something else.
And I think he was kind of taken back by that too, to begin with,
and he was just like, Well, we can get another opinion, we can
like see what else there is out there, and I'm like, Yeah, that
sounds like a good idea.
But yeah, so I ended up leaving that and just being in like just
complete shock, like what the heck just happened, and kind of
long story short, over the next month, we I ended up talking to
a couple of other people, getting some other really
amazing docs and like experts in the field kind of involved in my
case, which I'm very fortunate to have with military medicine
because everything that I'm doing is not standard of care at
all.
And I that kind of goes to the fundraiser stuff that I'm doing
now, but they're like this would not be an option for somebody
like a normal person with normal insurance.
But spent a month and just really messed up headspace, like
100% messed up headspace because thought I had a tumor that was
gonna kill me.
I at that point did not have a lot of support at home at all,
kind of the opposite of that, and was just I had friends, but
I wasn't really letting them like I didn't tell anybody about
it.
Um and I was trying to deal with all of this on my own.
And running was my outlet, like hundred percent running was my
outlet through all of that.
Like I would get like I had several just like completely off
the training plan, just rage runs during that time when I was
just like running to try to process things and or just like
crying and running because I still had to see patients that
day and put myself together because again nobody knew about
it until it yeah, it took three to four weeks, like it probably
took three weeks until I even told my parents about it.
Um my like best friend about it, and then finally had some
answers and a plan in a way forward, and we had a plan for
reconstruction with some really awesome trauma surgeons in a
team that was gonna develop like a 3D printed graft for my iliac
crest to be able to reform my pelvis um following the surgery
to give me the best chance to get back to running, and it
hasn't been done before, but not saying it won't work.
And um, because it's been done with trauma, just not with
cancer, because the purpose with oncology is to save your life,
not necessarily to restore optimal function, and so just
getting the right people on board.
And I also made an agreement with my surgeon that I wanted to
run Dino Valley first because I really wanted to run 100 Milear.
Um, so I was gonna run Dino Valley first, and it would also
allow me to do the clinical hours that I needed for my
fellowship DSC program to be able to get through that
program.
So yeah, I I knew that Dino Valley was gonna be my what I
thought was gonna be my last big for sure thing.
And really from there, that probably like turned on the
final switch of I was already wanting to be competitive, but
now it was I am going to run and enjoy this and make the absolute
most of it, and that kind of changed it for me at that point.
SPEAKER_03: What a what a what an awesome enlightening story
though to like go through that and it's like the deepest of
deeps of like you're essentially isolated, you feel like it
mentally, I'm sure, at that point, when you're kind of
scared to tell everybody because you don't really know what
they're gonna say to you, nor do you know what to tell them
you're gonna say to them.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I I've never been there, so I can't really like insinuate
I know what I'm s what I'm saying here, but it's just like
hearing it from you, I can think about like going to your parents
and telling them, like, hey, I've got potentially six months
to live.
You know, like that seems like an extremely hard thought out
thing.
And then I was thinking in my head while you were talking
about this, you were talking about rage running and doing
that, and then I think like how we talk about therapy.
We Zach and myself, our wives are both in the mental health
space, so we talk a lot about mental health, but then I was
thinking about how running is just such a therapy, like
inducing mental health savant, you know, because it's just like
you can do so much in in a 10-mile run.
Absolutely mentally.
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_03: So you're obviously going into Dino Valley kind of
with the like raw emotion of like this is my first big run
and potentially last.
Yep.
And but at the same time, I mean, I know that's like huge
headspace to be in.
It also seems like it kind of like shifted you into a narrow
point of like a hundred percent focus, and I'm gonna like focus
on doing something I love every single day.
Uh like I'm not gonna let somebody tell me I can't.
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03: I love to hear it.
Zach, you gotta please jump in on something here.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that gave me goosebumps.
You telling that story, Amy.
I that's like the strongest why I've ever heard of somebody
getting to their first star line and much much less all of what
you said to advocating for yourself and not just like
accepting the diagnosis you were given.
That's really cool and powerful.
It explains to me in hindsight how nobody on in that race today
stood a chance.
You were running out mind, body, heart, and soul on fire.
That's really cool.
I I I you know it kind of makes me most think about I saw that
performance that day, and you were all on you were in a
different zone and now getting to hear the inside of what's
going on.
Like, that's deep, that makes sense.
That's really that's really powerful stuff.
I am so fascinated to understand kind of like what your current
outlook is, because I'm so I'm so excited to talk more about
what's happened since Dinosaur Valley and up until like the
past weekend or two, right?
I'm excited to get our audience there, but I'll say she hasn't
slowed down, ladies and gentlemen, but I don't know what
the details of that are.
So, what's the current outlook, Amy?
Like post-dinosaur valley, if you want to pick that powerful
story up for us.
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I um so I had my pre-op scanned two days after
Dino Valley.
Um, and it was so crazy because I went from this like absolute
high that was Dinosaur Valley, and I had so many friends out
there to support me and pace me, and I was not expecting that at
all.
Like, I honestly was planning to go there solo and I knew a
couple of people, and then everyone was just like, wait,
no, you can have pacers, right?
Like, okay, I'm coming out to pace you, and like two of my
best friends, one of them came in from Washington, like came to
crew me the whole time, had friends just to come and like
support and cheer, and it was it was really cool.
And I was it that in and of itself was and that's why I
always like to have people with me at races now, too, because
that was so impactful for me to be like, I'm not alone.
Like, I even when I've like tried to put myself alone and
like with everything else I was going through, not even just
like with sport, but like like home life and everything else,
like I was just like, I am not alone and I don't need to be
alone.
But then going from that to their surveillance scan, and it
was like going from this absolute high to this like low
low of being like, gosh dang it, like I have to do this now.
And I left the hospital that day from the scans, and I was
driving on I-35, which if anyone knows San Antonio and I-35, it's
not a place to have this happen.
But I ended up calling my best friend and kind of telling her
everything else about my life.
And like, I'm like, okay, I'm doing the surgery.
I'm really alone right now, even though I'm not like I don't have
anybody, and I had a panic attack on this, like on I-35
while I was driving, and I was just like, it was not good.
But she talked me through it, and she had plans, like, made
plans right then.
Like, I'm gonna be there, like we're gonna get through this,
and ended up getting a call the following week by Dr.
Mills, and ended up going in, and he was just like, you know
how I told you that before that if you're my sister, you needed
to have this taken out.
Well, we all don't understand this, but the tumor hasn't
changed, like it's stayed the exact same, hasn't changed, this
hasn't ever happened before.
And now I'm telling you, if you're my sister, you should
continue to run and we should wait.
And so that's what we've been doing ever since December of
2024 is watchful waiting, I guess.
So initially I was doing scans every three months, now it's six
months, and basically until the tumor change changes, I am able
to keep doing exactly what I'm doing.
And I've had a lot of people be like, why don't you just get it
taken out?
Like if you know that it's because I I did have a bone
biopsy terrible procedure, but it was able to like confirm like
like malignities and everything else.
But like, like to me, it would be scarier not doing everything
that I want to do and like just living my life, everything that
then being like too scared and going into that surgery too
early because I know my life is gonna drastically change.
Like, well, I don't know what the outcome is gonna be.
Like I said, it hasn't been done before, so you know, maybe I'll
be fine, but I know that it's it's gonna be like I'm gonna be
on a wheelchair for 12 weeks afterwards, and I'm gonna have
to go through a lot of rehab and figure out how that all works,
and I would r rather just take advantage of all this time and
run with it, literally, but embrace it and see see what I
can do.
So that's that's been kind of my like goal, but I also started
fundraising like through my races for uh with this too
because it's like running it's always it's always been felt
like it's a lot bigger than just me, but like being able to use
it for a cause that's big bigger than me too is really freaking
cool.
So that's that's like just another why to kind of help spur
that.
SPEAKER_03: If you don't mind, or if you have it offhand, um do
you have like a website or anything for the audience to for
fundraising?
SPEAKER_05: I do.
I actually include it in the notes so I can but it's so it's
through Christ's children's.
So my orthoroncologist, Dr.
Mills, also does work for them, and they serve underinsured and
uninsured children in the South Texas region.
And 70% of people with the type of cancer I have are kids, and
it's insane to me to think that people like kids, especially
like don't have health care just provided to them.
And like like I've said a couple of times, like I am so fortunate
through the military to essentially have unlimited
medical support.
Also being a medical provider, like I have I have a lot of
friends that are pulling for me and help helping me out and like
making sure I get the cure that I need, but there's a lot of
kids that don't have that, and so it's really cool to be able
to.
So I'll say like a donate a like pledge to donate an amount per
mile that I run.
Um, for some of the races, if I'm feeling spicy, I'll say
like, you know, if I can make it on the podium as well, like uh
for a bonus pledge amount, and then yeah, whatever uh whatever
I'm able to raise goes directly to the the cancer center.
SPEAKER_03: Perfect.
For the audience, we will have the link in the uh show
description, so just for everybody to to know.
SPEAKER_02: So, Amy, so right now it sounds like you've that
handshake relationship with your doctor originally where you
advocated for your health, came back and he gave you sister
advice that wasn't what he originally told you, but it was
and it that's awesome.
On a much less serious topic, we've talked about campaigns and
the stage candidate saga over the last couple weeks, where Cam
effectively did the same thing for himself, where he took PC
157 because he didn't want to have a potential of foot surgery
where his doctor sounded like it gave him some similar advice
that he might not be the same forever in that foot strike.
So he kind of made that decision.
So much more serious, much cool.
The outlook now is like every six months type of scan.
Are they giving you any symptoms to look for like in case in
between those scans?
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so I know what to look for for that.
So the tumor is right below my femoral artery, vein, and nerve.
And so I would basically have like femoral nerve type
symptoms.
And thankfully I know exactly what that is because of my
profession.
I've only really like I'll occasionally have symptoms, not
much, but like the only time I really had a lot of symptoms
that were really concerning was Havelena hundred last year and
went into that race wanting it to be a big race and like 70
miles in, like, man, I like my left hip and I didn't know if it
was what exactly it was.
I had my scans the week after that as well, but I ended up
having ephemeral nerve like hematoma that maybe was because
of increased vascularization around the tumor.
I haven't had any issues since, but um basically the symptoms
that I had then would be what to look out for.
So at least I have you know a precursor, a taste of what to
experience if if that is to come.
But yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And and I assume the I say first of a kind we call
folk in data center industry, the first of a kind that
reconstruction surgery is still on the table if and when it gets
there before you have the option.
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's that's her plan for what we'll do.
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
So, in between uh me first, you know, knowing you're at Dinosaur
Valley in 2024, you did just mention Javelina.
You've ran some really epic races.
Most of our audience will know about Javelina, Leadville, and
then we didn't explicitly, we kind of danced around you going
back to Hurt.
Kind of walk us through that and get into the Hurt start line and
what that was like.
I saw Iron Farr covering you during the race.
I was like, that's the Amy I saw at Dinosaur Valley.
She's at the on the podium right now.
So give our audience kind of like how that race went for you.
What was it like to be back having volunteered and done some
of the mini-series before leading into the race in the
race result?
SPEAKER_05: It was so freaking cool to be back.
So I had had a uh a good friend, a couple friends actually, they
knew that multiple people knew that like Hurt has been like,
you know, like on my bucket list.
And last year was all about my bucket list races.
I was just like, I am gonna do these either races in beautiful
places or these big, you know, like iconic races and want to go
after those and learned a lot through those, had a lot of fun.
Me in high altitude is not the greatest, but but and then
Havelena was really wanting to go and just have really like
fast race, and then the hit stuff kind of happens.
But was it it was either the week before or the week after
Havelena?
Where I had entered in, so a couple of friends sent me they
had a rabbit giveaway for an entry into Hurt 100, and um
you're kind of supposed to tell your story about why you want to
do it, and there's like you should enter, like you like you
get it, and I I was just like, you know what, might as well
shoot my shot and try to enter it.
And so I entered into the giveaway, and I was super
surprised when I got it and super stoked because I was just
like, I get to go back and do like where it all came through.
And I was also like scared to death because I had I've always
ever done one of those hurt loops, and man, like they would
be an all-day adventure when I would just do one of those loops
back when I lived in Hawaii, and I'm like, how the heck am I
gonna do five of those?
But where'd it go in?
Um and then the injury the hematoma came up after Havelina,
and it took a couple of weeks to be able to like get that to go
down.
A lot of like some weird things to get it to like a lot of cold
plunging, actually, to like get the hematoma to reabsorb um and
then be able to like walk again and then run again.
Um and I was just like, okay, we're gonna turn this around,
get the training on board, try to hit as many hills as I could
and went home to Missouri over Christmas, ran on like Ozark
trails to get a lot of hills, did a little mini training camp
at Guadalupe Mountains over New Year's, and I was just like,
I've done everything that I could we're gonna go back out
there and had PT school classmates came out to crew, and
then I have some close friends still on the island that uh
paced me for the race, which was so freaking cool.
Um, especially the last lap ran with well, the last two laps
Andrew and Endorf, who did a lot of running with him in the army
for like Army Ton Myler, Baton Death March, uh got him into
trail running, but he ran that with me.
And then the last lap ran with really close friend Irina, who
lives on Island and ran with her, and she was it was so fun
the last lap with her because like man, she had us both crying
probably the last three miles because she's just like Amy,
you're freaking doing this, and was just she was just like,
You've done all these things, and it it really was like I knew
so many people out there, and it was just so fun to see
everybody, but then it was just really crazy to be out there and
be like, Man, I've come a long way in this sport, and that
could be out there and like pushing it and feeling strong
the entire time and was not expecting to be able to go there
and win it, but it was really, really freaking cool to do that.
SPEAKER_02: I can't imagine you could have probably couldn't
have drawn it up any other way.
Anthony, you've got to look this race up.
It is it seems it's a j it's effectively a jungle, right?
It is a jungle, it's humid.
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's a jungle.
You're it's it was 27,500 feet of elevation and 100 miles.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I've I've done some research on this race
before, oddly enough, but I'm actually on the website page
already.
Typically, when somebody says something, then I'm like, okay,
I'm interested.
I I'll pull it up mid-podcast.
So I'm on the website page looking at it right now.
It looks pretty, it looks pretty freaking epic, is what I think.
It is, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_05: It's so cool.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
So you go from her 100, and then now you've got your most recent
feat.
You want to tell us a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, well, it was a little bit of an adventure to
get here too.
So I ended up having I apparently I like to be like a
freak zebra unicorn medical patient, and like it really
needs to stop.
Like, I think I had my limits of it this this spring, but I ended
up like ultimately my legs just stopped working.
I had kind of this weird freak infection thing happen, and I it
progressed from like mid-March through I don't know exactly
when Easter was.
But I ended up going to the hospital the Friday before
Easter because it had gotten to the point like I work up on the
fourth floor at my work and I always take the stairs.
I w I parked like about a third of a mile away from where my
building is.
And I was like dreading trying to walk in.
I couldn't take a step up, like I had to use the elevator, and
by the time I got off work that day, like my knees were
buckling, and I was just like, This is not good.
I know too much medically, like ended up going to the emergency
department and having a nice little stay there afterwards,
but I essentially like I was not able to really run or train like
I had to take three weeks just completely off from anything,
and then was able to I started back with altar G.
I was doing a lot of like PT at a we have center for interpret,
like a kind of a specialized PT area that I was going to and had
to do like pretty high course of like stirbs for the treatment
for like all the inflammation and everything else.
Um I honestly was like I signed up for the triple crown.
So long story short, I signed up for the triple crown last year
because I'm just like I'm really curious, like there's this 200
mile thing, and you know what, might as well go all in and do
three of them in a year, why not?
And so it's Tahoe 200, Bigfoot 200, and Moab 240.
And initially I was just like, I really want to go in and brace
these hard and see what I can do about this triple crown record
that exists.
But then this thing happened with my legs, and honestly,
through all of it, that's probably like the darkest I'd
been at with like just extreme frustration because I was just
like, I was doing so good with training and everything else,
and I I definitely had those questions of like why do I have
to be the one that gets all these stupid things that come
up?
And I I I stopped coaching for a little bit because I I I
couldn't even bike for 30 minutes, like for a couple of
weeks there, because I just had just extreme like neurofatigue.
I was trying to do something and I would like get out to the
trails, do something on a weekend, and then be comp was
just like wiping me out for like the following week, and then it
got progressively worse.
Like then I couldn't even do the weekend things, and it felt like
I was I would try to run and it felt like I was like on spilts
and I just couldn't get my legs to work.
And like I knew something was up.
I honestly thought it was like overtraining to begin with, and
then when it got to the point where it was like progressing
up, I was just like, okay, I need to get this checked out.
But yeah, at that point I was just like, hey, and then
especially after I got worked up, got kind of diagnosed,
started to get treated, like everyone that I was seeing was
just like, maybe you should rethink trying to run 200 miles.
Like you haven't been even able to walk.
Like I was limping, like I couldn't walk normal.
Like it was a like everyone at work, like I worked with a bunch
of PTs and you know, teach PT techs, and they were you know,
like everyone was calling me out because like in a in a you know
nice way, but like because I I couldn't walk.
And I was just like, if there's a way, I'm gonna still do it,
and you can't get a refund for these races either.
And I'm like, it was like a financial commitment to to raise
the triple ground.
And so I was just like, I'm gonna try to do everything I
can.
And I had asked my PT and she's like, Well, we'll see, like, see
how it goes.
And like, really, the only people like my ortho oncologist,
Dr.
Mills, like he tracks and follows me.
Like, I text him all my race stuff now for everything, but
like he he knew I was still gonna do it, like, and so he was
like connecting me to the right people to make sure I got the
cure that I needed.
And so starting on May 1st, I had an EMG like nerve conduction
study, and my nerves are like normal again.
So I was able to start training, and I started with Ultra G, but
May 1st was my first run back, and it took like probably three
weeks, two and a half, three weeks to just build normal
running, like, and I was just running hills every and I live
in like the hilliest part of San Antonio intentionally.
I moved out and moved here so I could have all the hills, and I
I was just like, okay, when I go uphill, I can think of form, and
it's easier to focus on form.
So I was just like focusing on form, but I was running so slow
compared to what I was running before.
But I was just like, I need to just keep on trying to do this.
And I thought initially I was gonna have like I created this
whole plan out from May 1st to Tahoe 200, where I could run
every other day and maybe get there again, but then I was
like, I wasn't having that fatigue anymore, so I was able
to run every day.
And if you look at my Strava, it's kind of funny because they
go like 0, 0, 0, 30, 60, 90, 90, 100 for my training mile weeks.
Probably would not recommend this on anybody.
And Brian, he's awesome.
He he never gave up on me either.
And it was really funny because I called and told him
beforehand, I'm like, hey, I'm just gonna take a break.
I don't know what I'm gonna be able to do.
This is a rehab game.
But every time I was putting stuff into Final Surge, he was
like, once he started running, he would like comment and be
like, hey, like this is awesome, this is a great side, but still
commenting.
And so, like, three weeks later, he was just like, you know, if
you do want to bounce ideas off, like just let me know.
He's been a close friend ever since like we've started working
together, and I'm like, all right, let's try to put
something together in this last like three weeks that we have
before Tahoe, and we're gonna see what happens.
And somehow, like my body just came together, and I knew I was
gonna be okay because again, kind of cutting it close to the
wire, but again, I didn't have very much time to get there.
Um, I had like five weeks to train, but two weeks out, I did
a 40-mile run one day, and then the next day just did like 15 or
something.
But the 40 mile run I felt good, like I felt good the entire
time, and then next day I felt good, and I'm like, we're gonna
do this thing, and I really wanted to still go into Tahoe
like competitively, but I also knew that it was not going to be
like it wasn't going to be a like my best race, like just
physically.
I knew that like I haven't done any speed work at all since
March.
Like I've done some hill strides, that's about it.
And I like knew that like the edge wasn't there, but I had
enough running in me.
And I and I've also been doing a ton of strength training.
That was the other thing.
Is I started in before I could even run.
Because my form was so bad, I normally I have a home gym set
up.
I normally strength train on my own.
Um, but like I could not control anything, I had no motor control
because of the nerve stuff.
And so I decided to go to a gym, and I've been going to Iron Fit,
a gym here in San Antonio for started like mid-April, so that
I could have a coach like look at me for my form the entire
time during the classes.
And I think that made a huge difference too.
So I started five days a week.
Once once I got back up to like 90 miles a week, I I cut down to
four days a week.
And yeah, I think between the strength and got had enough of a
base before to be able to put it together enough for it to be.
SPEAKER_02: It's crazy the adversity you faced just to get
to the start line.
I saved you, Anthony.
I saved Anthony audience.
We're gonna joke, we'll keep this in.
But Anthony was talking with his mic on me to get everybody.
It was a perfect say, but you had to ruin it.
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
All right, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02: No, I was saying it's it's amazing, Amy, like how
you're having to fight to get to the start line, and people that
look at you from the outside are like they first off, they don't
understand the goal when you're healthy, and then when you have
these setbacks after setbacks, you're probably thinking, God,
why make it?
Do I not have enough going on with me?
Like, what's going on here?
It's hilarious.
I get I fully get it too.
Like, I understand it.
I resonate a lot with what you say, and I feel like the people
that ask those questions have their day wrong.
Like, I think they're missing out on my anchoring on the
morning run, like, you know.
So I completely get it.
I think the wild thing too, Amy, is it's not like these things
are spread out by like three months.
Don't they go like alternating months type of thing from here
on out?
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, pretty much.
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
SPEAKER_05: But but I'm gonna have more time to train for
Bigfoot with than I did for Tahoe, and I'm not gonna be
starting from rock bottom.
So, you know, that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: That is very good.
Here I was gonna just say people should just start telling you
you can't do something, because it seems like whenever they say
you can't do this, you're like, Yeah, okay, watch.
Hold on.
Let me let me show you, you know.
So that's uh awesome, but it's gonna be it's it's gonna be
awesome to watch you um race these next two events.
So I'm I'm pretty excited to keep up with you now.
SPEAKER_05: I am so stoked for Bigfoot.
I I learned so many mess lessons at Tahoe I kind of I I had tried
to be like a student through podcast and like everything I
could to learn about the 200s, like talk to people that have
done them.
I don't know really anyone who's done them competitively, so I
wasn't able to talk to anybody like on that stance, but like
listening to podcasts for people that have, and I thought that
like I honestly went into it with a lot of naive thoughts.
And I made some really dumb mistakes that probably like
honestly cost me like like six, seven hours out there that I'm
excited to learn from and do better with at top at Bigfoot.
SPEAKER_02: That's the glass half wool to think about it.
You know, Anthony and I have been more and more starting to
look at some of these longer distances, and I feel like it's
exciting probably for you because you get another shot so
soon, and minor tweaks on the back end of these things feel
like they can make hours of difference.
So I imagine you're like, and and especially that coupled with
the fact that you were hurt and didn't have much time to train.
I imagine you're like, y'all, you know, I've got a lot left
out.
Y'all y'all haven't seen yet, you know.
I'm I'm sure.
SPEAKER_05: Watch out, we have some things coming.
SPEAKER_03: We don't need to tell them all the tickets off
yet, guys.
It's still got two more races.
SPEAKER_02: Look, audience, let's be real factual.
I usually am really good about the details.
She was competing for the podium for a large part of the race and
still finished, I think, sixth overall for women, right?
So, like, we're not talking about fading to DFL or whatever
the acronym is for back of the pack.
SPEAKER_05: It was all in the last 30 miles, too.
But I uh yeah, I I ended up having some big issues come up
in the last 30 miles.
But you know what?
I was so freaking surprised, and honestly, even looking back at
this, like I my like the fatal mistake for this race was
ultimately the last crude aid station.
Is I was just on this like happy cloud nine of like I only have
36 miles left.
This is gonna be great.
Get to run with one of my really good friends, uh Courtney, and
it's gonna be awesome.
I wasted so much time, like we were literally just hanging out,
and um, I should have napped.
I shouldn't have been just sitting in the sun and like
chatting and stuff.
Like I kind of forgot it was a race because I was just in this
la la land.
Um there's so many things that I should have done, but then once
we started going, like I man, I went to a low that I didn't
think I could get to, and then came back from the dead.
And the fact that you can do that, like I went from being
like throwing up, shaking cold, like out of water for two hours,
like don't remember anything that happened the last four
miles to get to that aid station, and got in a whole
bunch of fluid, slept for 35 minutes, had some ramen, and
then like realized at that point that the podium chances were
completely gone.
But I like Courtney and I, like Courtney's awesome, but I was
just like, you know what?
We're gonna have fun these last 18 miles.
Like, we're gonna finish this on a high note, and and we did.
Like, we like I honestly had so much freaking fun after almost
feeling like I like we even had a moment out there before I like
went into delirium, like zombie walking is how she would call
it, is like I don't know how I was moving forward, but I I even
told her I'm just like if I pass out out here, because Courtney's
tiny, like I was just like, if I pass out out here, like you're
gonna have to run to the aid station and just tell them like
I need help because uh there's nobody out here, we have no
signal.
Um, that's a very real possibility.
I can't see straight, like but the fact that you can bounce
back from that and just keep on going, and yeah, we power hiked
like pretty much the first 12 miles back because it was all
basically uphill.
And I was kind of concerned if I tried to push it too much after
all of that, that I would just like bonk even harder, and then
we shuffled, walked, and the last three miles we had like
music blaring, and we're singing 1985, like and just like having
a good old time the last three miles, and it was great, like
ended on like like such a high positive note that I'm just like
that was wild.
I it was brutal.
But also really freaking badass and cool.
And I can't wait to do this again, but do it a lot better.
So, and that's what's gonna happen at Big Fun.
SPEAKER_03: There we go.
SPEAKER_02: We've got a topic we've got to get to before we
let you go.
I just looked at the clock.
I can't believe we're this far in already.
You you love absorbing content.
I watched Heather Jackson's documentary on her Coca-Dona 250
experience.
Have you seen that yet?
SPEAKER_06: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: Wow, wow.
Yeah, a lot of what you're saying.
I'm like, wow, okay, yeah.
Okay.
This is to do with oh, go ahead.
SPEAKER_05: Oh no, uh Courtney had actually brought up uh she
was just like she's like, just channel Heather Jackson out here
out here.
I'm like, yep, that's what we gotta do.
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
Perfect segue.
So Anthony and I were in Sedona and Flagstaff for Coca-Dona 250.
We had a friend running Sedona 125.
It was awesome.
And we've been following this trend.
There's a woman in our southeast region, Louisiana, Mississippi,
this area, who's just crushing outright stuff.
And I kind of think about you that way too.
You win races outright, you're competing for all the women
podiums, and I see you as like these 200s, like I you gotta be
in the top 10 at least.
That's just the way I factor you.
So we have Anthony and I are sitting here like come trying to
come up with these theories, but we're guys and we're theorists.
So we're like, we're having Anthony on.
Let's ask somebody like actually competing for these spots to get
her opinion.
So we'd just like to get your feedback on a couple of
questions with respect to that topic.
I've got it drafted up here.
So we've seen more and more women not only competing at the
front of ultra races, but winning overall.
From your perspective, someone racing at that level, what do
you think is driving that shift?
SPEAKER_05: I think there's a like especially at this 200
distance level.
Yes, it comes down to like to a certain extent, like aerobic
capacity.
Yes, you still have to be fast, even if you're going far to be
able to compete at like at that level, but there's just so much
mental like to it.
Like it's just such a mind game, and just being like there's a
point in these races, and I like found that at this at Tahoe, and
I don't think I've ever really channeled this before, and I'm
excited to like use it more in that like yes, everything's
gonna hurt, but you just have to turn it off and let your mind do
the work.
And I think that when you get like these longer and longer
distances, it's not so much about the physical capabilities
alone, but it comes into the the mental capabilities as well.
And when you get to that, it's an even playing field.
Like it's it's anybody's game at that point.
SPEAKER_02: I want to pull on that just a second.
Uh is there a specific mental trait you think allows women to
excel in a longer or maybe something adjacent to it?
SPEAKER_05: That's a good question.
And I don't know if it comes to like women specifically, but I
think it is it's the it's like commitment and drive, I think,
combined with just a I would almost say combined with
curiosity, like being curious about pushing the boundaries and
being okay with being unknown what those results are gonna be.
SPEAKER_02: That's good stuff.
Anthony, you want to hop in here?
I could have many more, but I saw what time it was.
SPEAKER_03: I've I've got one for you for someone standing at
the start line of their first ultra.
Let's say they're standing beside you, completely unsure if
they even belong there.
What would you tell them?
SPEAKER_05: That it's time to have some fun, that they
absolutely belong there, and it's time to have some fun.
SPEAKER_03: Perfect.
Anybody you're anybody you're listening to right now that's
like just got you psyched for ultra running when it comes to
podcast, or you know, like we're talking about um talking about
Heather Jackson just a second ago.
SPEAKER_05: Anyone else that just like Yeah, like there's so
many amazing people out there to listen to.
I I jump around to so many different podcasts.
Um like for sure, Heather Jackson Jackson.
I was eating up all the all of the stuff for like Killian and
Rachel, like from Coca Dona, and just trying to like tap in on
lessons learned.
Alyssa Clark, like badass.
Uh like she's has the women's course record for her 100, but
also has one oh I'm 240.
Um like there's there are so many like it is really cool with
the sport of ultra running, like how how so many people are just
kind of pressing the edge of what's possible and continuing
to kind of push that forward and trying to bring the whole sport
forward with them.
And I love it that there's so many people that it's like an
unknown game um to an extent, especially in the 200 space.
Like I I really appreciated like Rachel has put out like a whole
um on Substack, like how to train competitively for 200s and
like mindset and everything with that, and she was just like, you
you know, you don't have to go about this as a like just uh
completion, like you can race these and sharing what works for
her, and she is like a goat different level.
I tried tried to implement some of those things, some of them
failed for me.
And but I I think that there are other things to implement from a
bunch of different people and sources out there to um even
just listening to things about foot care or you know, like just
there's so much you can learn from like mid to back of the
pack packers too, like that really help to like just from
the mental and mindset game of things that yeah, I think just I
listen to a lot of podcasts when I run, so I'm always open to
suggestions.
SPEAKER_02: There was there was something in your show notes
that has to make this audio.
It's a quote directly attributed to you.
I've got one final question to end this, and I think it'll put
a nice bow on a thing.
You said I've allowed myself to be unapologetically extreme in
my pursuits and chase the joy and adventure that is trail
running.
That's super inspiring.
How did you decide to choose that instead of being a victim
of your circumstances?
SPEAKER_05: We we've only got one shot of this like beautiful,
awesome life, and we might like who cares what it is that you go
all in at, but just choose that one thing that just lights your
soul on fire and go for it.
Like it is it's probably the most freeing and like just just
fun thing to do of going after this and then just being like,
I'm I'm going all in.
Like, who cares if I you know you know fail in in the process
or you know, don't get exactly where I want to, but go all in.
SPEAKER_03: Love it.
That's uh that's I think that's a mic drop right there.
Zach's already mic dropped me here.
He overshadowed me.
Amy, we appreciate you so much for coming out.
SPEAKER_04: We hope to have well thanks so much for having me,
and I hope you guys have a great rest of your great rest of your
night.
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Turn it up.
Yeah.
From back rows to start lines, early mornings, late nights,
miles on the pavement, head down, chasing daylight.
Mississippi heartbeat, sweat mixed with the grind.
The pain in the legs, but it's all in the mind, a turn state of
mind where the weeds don't last.
From miles long rides, we're built for the past.
In the future, no shortcuts, no skipping the test.
When it's forward your punishment, give it your best.
Five days to hunches, well, dust in our lungs.
Every story earned, every finish hard one.
No heights, just truth, no filter, no fashion.
If you know, then you know.
SPEAKER_00: Stay the mind.