Time for Healthy Activities Other than Running

Plus, an ultra photo album that makes me feel all the feels

Hi friends, this week’s post is lighter on text, heavier on photos, because I’m pressed for time to meet deadlines for my column for UltraRunning Magazine and a feature for Telluride Magazine. I hope this week’s installment generates a vibrant, inspiring comment thread—so read on, and please consider commenting below, thank you!

Balancing act and recovery

When I ran my first 100-miler a decade ago, 2014’s Rio del Lago, I was in peak condition and finished in 21:43, which still stands as my 100-mile PR. But a friend warned me after that finish, “It’s a cruel irony that you’ll feel in your worst shape ever after a 100-miler.” It’s true, and the same can be said for finishing a 170ish-mile self-supported stage race, as I did eleven days ago.

My body, after this recent extra-long ultra and after every 100, feels beat up from the impact and effort, and temporarily bloated from inflammation. The HRV (heart rate variability) reading on my watch, a measure of stress, remains unbalanced on the very low end of its range, indicating the autonomic nervous system is in a chronic elevated state of “flight or fight” response. I’m sleeping eight to nine hours continuously, which is great, but I’m groggy instead of refreshed when I wake. I had to wear flip-flops for nearly a week because my toes hurt in regular shoes, since a whole layer of blistered dead skin needed to peel off, and the nerves of the new skin burned when rubbed in socks and shoes.

I took a week off from running (but made the mistake last week of an arduous 13-mile hike with my husband over a 12,000-foot pass, which set back recovery from blisters and fatigue, but I didn’t want to miss the fall foliage with him). I did my first little comeback run Sunday, three easy miles, and ran six yesterday. Although my leg muscles felt fresh, I was overly out of breath on these allegedly easy runs. I told the friend I ran with yesterday, half joking and half serious, “I feel like I’m starting over and in awful shape!”

All of which is to say, recovery from an extreme endurance event takes time and shouldn’t be rushed, especially for a middle-aged mid-fifties body.

The upside is: a recovery period allows more time to do fun, healthy activities other than running!

The other day, I read

Katie Arnold

’s latest newsletter post that describes playing around with balancing on her daughter’s slack line, just for fun and for the process of learning, and for making peace with being only so-so instead of great at something. Her post inspired me to get out a balance board (the Revbalance Swell 2.0) I bought three years ago and play with it again.

Here’s my Instagram post from three years ago, when I first learned how to use it:

sarahrunning

A post shared by @sarahrunning

I was nervous to start over and feel awkward. But it was fun as well as challenging—and good for the body, developing balance and proprioception, which is useful for promoting good posture and preventing falls. It’s also meditative; I pick a point in the distance to stare at, tune into my body, and focus solely on achieving balance.

I’m going to spend more small chunks of time—such as when I take a break from working at my desk—to hop on the thing for a few minutes. My goal is to progress from the wide-legged stance pictured above to a split stance (facing the end of the board, one leg in front of the other) and then, like my skateboarder son, jump from one position to the other without losing the balance, keeping both ends of the board elevated rather than touching the floor.

I also rediscovered iFit videos and am exploring them for strength and mobility. I barely use my iFit subscription, which is a waste, and now I see there’s a whole library of good fitness videos, so I’m curious to try different workouts with different trainers. Lastly, I’m also back to riding our two horses several days a week, working on their western dressage development in the arena as well as taking them on trail, all of which involves gentle movement and calming focus.

These activities feel good and restorative, as well as challenging in a low-stakes, enjoyable way devoid of self-pressure. I need this recovery period for health and wellness, and taking a break from run training is necessary to avoid burnout and injury.

My husband’s photo of me on Maverick last week, with the 14er Wilson Peak in the background.

So my question for you is: what are you doing, other than running, for fun and wellness? It doesn’t necessarily have to be for fitness; it could be for mental wellness, such as reading or knitting. In the comments below, I’d love to read about ways that you all are having fun and/or managing stress in a healthy way that recharges rather than depletes your metaphorical batteries.

A Grand to Grand Ultra photo album

Maybe you’re tired of me writing about the Grand to Grand Ultra (as I did in this pre-event post and this one right after I finished), but I hope you will enjoy these visually stunning professional photos by event photographer Anastasia Wilde. These photos capture the feel of the running, downtime, remoteness, camaraderie, and the incredible landscape.

Running shots: Starting Stage 1 dead serious, then happy; running the hard-packed runnable stretches as best as I could with a 20-pound pack; and finishing Stage 2 with Alix Noblat of France, who ultimately finished 2nd Female, and I was 5th, in the self-supported category.

Getting up a challenging part of a red-rock butte in the early miles of the 53-mile Stage 3, when temps hit the mid-90s. The silly-looking fabric covering my Hokas are full-sand gaiters, which kept the sand out. We ran countless miles through deep, soft sand.

My awesome tent mates, whom I got to know very well; at Camp 1 when we're all clean, and midweek when we're filthy, me eating a precious dehydrated meal-in-a-bag. (L-R group shot) Thomas of Texas, Troy of Canada, Julie of Boulder, Jakub of Czech Republic (living in Florida), Inia of New Zealand, me, and Lucia of Boulder.

A climbing section that wasn't very difficult but made for cool photos.

The beautiful slot canyon in Stage 5.

More off-the-grid, device-free downtime, which was such a gift, as I wrote about in last week's post.

Final finish line sequence, Stage 6, September 28, with race directors Tess and Colin Geddes. 56 runners started, and I was one of 38 to finish, 13th overall.

I miss camp. Camp 1 was on a remote portion of the north rim of the Grand Canyon, near the Marble Canyon portion of the river corridor and northeast of the popular South Rim visitor center.

A photo from the awards ceremony of all the Grand to Grand Ultra finishers who’ve finished it more than once, with the race directors on the right. To the right of me is my buddy and tent mate Julie White, whom I adore and kept me laughing all week. We also shared a tent at the 2017 Mauna to Mauna Ultra and 2019 Grand to Grand.

My collection of Grand to Grand Ultra awards from 2012, ‘14, ‘19, and ‘24, which I treasure and use as bookends.

As mentioned last week: If my posts related to the Grand to Grand Ultra have sparked your interest, registration for the 2025 edition is open on their website, and the dates are September 21 - 27. Additionally, the organizers are starting a new single-stage continuous race with 115-mile and 50-mile divisions, May 16 - 18, 2025. Called the Utah 115, it will start and end in Kanab and cover much of the Grand to Grand’s long stage, including a stretch on the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. Watch their website or Facebook page for an announcement soon.

Final call to donate to Conservation Lands Foundation!

If you appreciate the undeveloped landscape of the West, such as the areas I ran through and near during the Grand to Grand Ultra, I hope you will support Conservation Lands Foundation to protect sensitive parts of these public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Please visit my fundraiser page to learn more and help me reach a goal of $5000, all of it for Conservation Lands Foundation. I’m proud we’ve raised $4385 so far!

A couple of Anastasia Wilde's photos of the southern Utah landscape around the Grand to Grand Ultra route.

Two recommended newsletters

You might recall my post on

Yitka Winn

, “How a Working Mom Trains for the Hardrock Hundred,” and my experience pacing her at Hardrock. Yitka wrote a lovely essay about her Hardrock crew and some similarities between ultrarunning and writing. Runner parents of young kids will especially appreciate it, I think. Read it here:

The works of the village

And,

Ken Seals

has developed a Substack,

The Ultra Minute

, that aggregates ultrarunning news, mostly posts on Substack (and I appreciate that he often links to mine). His newsletter is like a Substack version of the old Daily News roundup that Eric of UltraRunnerPodcast used to do in his heyday a decade ago. It’s a useful one-stop read for short updates from the ultrarunning world. (But, don’t stop reading iRunFar’s site and UltraRunning magazine; they still provide the most comprehensive coverage.)

Thanks for reading this far, and don’t forget the comment prompt: What are you doing, other than running, for fun and wellness?