The Montebello Country Store sits unassumingly on a country road high atop the Blue Ridge Mountains in Nelson County, Virginia. Life is noticeably slower here, with no cell service to be found, but plenty of horses and cattle.
After giving a talk to a group of school kids and describing the sport of ultrarunning, they gave me mixed looks of confusion, awe and concern for my sanity.
The Tussey Mountainback may best be known for its iconic, single-loop 50-mile course on mostly unpaved forest roads. The Mountainback’s 50-mile race has seen 26 incarnations since its inception in 2000.
The inspiration for this event and founder of the Snowdrop Foundation was Chelsey Campbell who, in 2006 at age 15, underwent a record-breaking 27-hour surgery for a rare cancer.
There’s something special about Guthrie, Oklahoma, on race morning. Maybe it’s the crisp air rolling off Lake Liberty, the quiet hum of runners warming up or the feeling that you’re about to step into a small story that becomes a big memory.
A DIY training camp is not about doing more work for the sake of doing more work, and it should be used sparingly and with intention. It is a deliberate tool designed to address a specific gap in long-distance preparation: the ability to execute well under deep, accumulated fatigue.