Running up that Hill

Before I talk about Ouachita, let me give you a brief backstory of my running. I started running in the Summer of 2011. I started out as a road runner, tackled a few 5ks, a few half marathons, and in 2015, the Chicago Marathon. In 2014, I had started dabbling in trail running and by 2016 I was sticking mostly to trails and starting to form an interest in this thing called ‘ultra running’. I had read the book Born to Run (what runner hasn’t??) and the idea of running beyond a marathon distance was both scary and intriguing to me. I had also met my now husband, James, himself an ultra runner, and this further increased my interest in ultras. In 2017, I ran my first official ultra, Dogwood Canyon 50K and in 2018, my 2 nd , Psycho Psummer 50K. Once those were under my belt, I was ready to set my sights on a 50 miler. I decided on the Ouachita 50 for a few reasons. I knew several people who had run it and they spoke highly of the race course, the aid stations and the race directors. It