Stephanie Case

What a race!!

The sensible thing to do would have been to start off conservatively, manage my nutritional intake, take care of the legs and then when I got to the last 40km, throw it down.

But sometimes it is just too much fun to run way too fast, see where your legs can take you, and lead the race, even if it is short-lived 😆

Do I regret it? No. Those first 75km gave me confidence that hey, I CAN run fast, and that was so cool while it lasted. But I definitely need to change my strategy next time as I spent the rest of the race dry heaving and puking 🥴😏 I also got blurry vision for the entire night section, like I was looking through Vaseline, and that made the technical descents quite tricky.

Huge kudos to the other women in the 100 miler: the starters, the finishers, and the ones still out there! Let’s sign up for hard things and not be afraid of failure. And in particular, massive congrats to Michaela Lishakova in first and in third! 🥳 It was amazing to see Michaela FLY past me at 98km in the night. So strong 😍

As I line up to run the 100 miler today, I can’t help but wonder - was my performance at just a one off? Maybe I’m just a one-trick pony and I’m going to totally blow up!

Worrying is a part of my DNA 😅 😮‍💨 And I’m prone to a lot of self-doubt. But then I look at the squad of amazing women around me and I snap myself out of it. I am so lucky to be surrounded by funny, strong, smart and dedicated women whose adventures I get to be a part of and who have done so much to support me. And how can I feel any self-doubt when I have the most perfect little daughter looking at me for guidance? 🥰🥰

Even if this race doesn’t go according to plan (and let’s face it, I rarely have a solid plan other than to get to the end 😆), I know I’m not a one-trick pony. I am a race horse 🏇🏾 and I am celebrating my third race within the first year of having little Pepper. How awesome is that?? 🤩

Let’s do this!