One of my goals in life is to create my own ultramarathon. The more I am surrounded by the people and community at these events the more I fall in love with the sport. While I know I will never be a professional athlete, I would love to leave my mark on the sport someday by creating a truly great race. There are so many behind-the-scenes logistics that go into planning and managing a marathon or ultramarathon. I know that it will require a significant amount of effort to bring all those things together. 

A good starting point for me will be to volunteer and work at as many races as possible. I can start codifying what works well and what causes issues. I also just love being at these races. How frequent should there be aid stations? How many volunteers are necessary? How long do you need to set up the race? How do you deal with logistical permitting? How do you finance the race? How are elite racers treated? There are endless questions. 

Perhaps someday, my professional career will take me to a place where I spend my days energetically answering these questions. I will visualize every moment of race day, for 364 days a year. I think I would enjoy that. Frankly, I have never had a great answer to what I want to do with my professional life. However, I know I would love to create space for people to go enjoy being outdoors and test themselves through a raw endeavor like running. 

I often visit Santa Fe, NM to visit my Aunt and Uncle, Patrice and David. The last time I was there I was once again astounded at the beauty and breathtaking mountain views (literally, Santa Fe sits at +7,000ft elevation. Breathing gets harder). Directly east of Santa Fe, hundreds of miles of rugged mountain terrain and trails spread across the Pecos Wilderness, Morphy Lake State Park, and the Coyote Creek State Park. I figured an area this majestic and relatively well-known must have a race that existed through these mountains. While there are a few shorter ultras (yes, short ultras are a real thing), I have not found anything that truly enables the runner to bound through the Santa Fe mountains like they should. 

So, I went to onthegomap and crudely plotted out a 100 mile race that at least puts a decent dent into exploring this region. I have never explored these areas and am ignorant to the true nature of the route I am plotting. It just goes to show that there are definitely way more than 100 miles of trails and roads out there, all it takes is some creativity and dedication to connect them in a safe and executable fashion. Still just a dream for now.