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congratulations on your two years and nearly 2,000 subscribers! I just crossed 1,000 myself and would love if you could share the survey you fielded, as I'm planning on doing the same thing... You can reach me at bdwelle@gmail.com

Also -- I'm a trail runner but not an ultra runner by any means. I think I'd be down for some ultra walking though -- I love backpacking and time in the mountains, doing what I call "the Goat Work," as I've written about here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bowendwelle/p/life-as-a-goat

Cheers Sarah, way to go!

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Hi Bowen, thanks for reading my post and congrats on your 1000. Here is a link to my survey, if you'd like to emulate it or get ideas for doing your own: https://forms.gle/4zLXevjuoZPASvxv9

The secret to ultrarunning is there's no shame in hiking breaks -- much of mountain "running" involves hiking and embracing hiking as a lower gear. It's all about forward locomotion on trail, at whatever pace feels most sustainable!

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It just came to mind that I've actually written a fair fit about running and about big a part its played in my own journey, in particular with regard to connecting with my intuition / voice of self / unconscious / whatever you want to call it -- for example, this chapter from my memoir material:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bowendwelle/p/waking-up-running

I'd love your reaction and to hear if other runners have experienced anything like this!

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thank you for sharing -- and for the note on hiking breaks :) that's encouraging actually. Maybe I'll sign up for something longer!

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Thank you

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Thank you. I just finished a long three day weekend race in Mammoth and I found myself contemplating a ‘big break’ because of all the excuses I sometimes have around the time training requires with family and profession. I wrestle with it often and your article helped me be reminded, yet again, to normalize my abnormal passion. Congratulations on two years.

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Thanks for reading! And remember, running is more time efficient & less costly than golf or cycling!

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Congratulations on two years! I love this meditation on ultra friendships. I haven't run an ultra yet (injury sidelined me a bit this year) but the trail running community I met when I moved to my little mountain town has been a huge part of why I love it here so much. Everyone is welcoming and friendly on group runs, and encourages setting big goals and pushing limits, and up for planning mountain adventures, and ready to commiserate when things don't go according to plan. And in a funny crossing of paths, I actually live in the same town as Becky, and it was so cool to read your profile of her! She really is such a force of nature and fabulous human.

Here's to the next two years, and beyond!

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Thank you! Becky would be a great mentor :-) Good luck to you!

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I'm sad the camp wasn't advertised better, I would have loved to attend. I'm on Hardrock email list and FB/IG, and still haven't heard a thing. Thanks for the write up though. Hopefully I get to visit and run together:)

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Olga, I wish you'd been there! I recall an Instagram post or story from HR about it, and a letter went out to Nevers who applied in the last lottery, I think. Perhaps they didn't promote it more since it was the first year, and they didn't want to be overwhelmed with participants. I need to get up to your neck of the woods to run with you. And I need to catch up on your blog!

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