On paper, 2019 probably looks like a rough year for me.
Fractured calcaneus two weeks before the Barkley Marathons (making that four stress fractures in three years)? Check.
Spent three months in an eating disorder treatment facility? Check.
DNF’ed both Big’s Backyard Ultra and World’s Toughest Mudder? Check.
Still didn’t land that Pop-Tarts sponsorship? Cheeeeeck.
Thankfully, paper lies. Because despite all of that, I will forever look back on 2019 as one of the best years of my life, and that has nothing to do with running. Was it terrifying, extremely hard, and humbling as shit? Absolutely.
But it’s also the first time in 20 years that I finally feel like me. Where I feel like what I put out externally matches up to how I feel internally. And where I finally felt like I was able to start to live again.
Without fear.
Without apprehension.
Without preconceived notions of what I “should” be or “should” do.
And that’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. For me, 2019 was a year of rebirth.
Continue reading 2019: A Year of Rebirth