Hey Folks,

Just like that I am typing this final blog post from my own laptop en route to Cape Town to rest for one day before continuing the transit over to the USA. The moments after the race are so surreal and magical as you reflect back on what you have taken yourself through in mind, body and spirit over the past week. At times, you almost wonder if it even really happened. Yet, then you feel your chapped and sunburnt lips or little aches here and there as well as many rocking tan lines, as well as taking peeks into your travel bag to see your awards and know it really did!

The last stage was totally surreal for me. I had the normal athlete nerves kick in the night prior as I listened to the wind rocking out tent and I could not sleep. Those thoughts when you are so close to victory that you can almost taste it but you still need to successfully make it through the last 6 miles. Those fears that something totally wild would occur cross, or that you would wake up and be sleeping in your bag and everyone is gone. Those thoughts come and go and you keep visualizing the finish line as the champion to allow them to pass.

The last stage was actually one of my favorites. I love project running along the rocks, rolling sand dunes and granite fields. The wind was mighty strong, but the scenery was epic. And the finish line was one of the most magical moments of my life. My last goals for the race were to maintain my positon as 6th overall with the guys, and run the last 10k in less than an hour. I wanted to break 30 hours as well when the cumulative time came together. In the end all of those goals came to life. I was the female champion officially by a lead of 53 minutes, secured 6th overall, ran the last 10k in 57:41, and had a total cumulative time of 29:10.20. So epic! I cannot believe it!

That moment crossing the finish line was absolutely surreal. I cannot believe it. I am so honored to have the opportunity to inspire the masses with this accomplishment and raise funds and awareness for the LymeLight Foundation. It is truly magical to begin to login to social media and see how folks reacted to Lance's posts. It is the best award ever to see the inspiration grow like wildfire!

As an end to this blogroll, I will leave you with a rough version of the speech I gave at the awards ceremony when accepting my female champion award:

First and foremost, I would like to give a huge round of applause to the Racing The Planet event staff, volunteers, medical team, local ground crew in Namibia, and so many more that worked relentlessly behind the scenes to make this event possible for all of us to accomplish. To my friends, family, sponsors, husband Lance and pup Loki, thank you near and far for supporting me through this quest to achieve my goal today. To tent 16, thank you so much for all of your support and encouragement to help me believe that this was really possible. To the 4 top ladies, including Maki, Kathia and Magdalena congratulations on your hard work this week. The competition was not easy out there. In fact, it was a race all of the way until the last day where Kathia caught up to me. At that point I had to decide how bad I wanted to win. I had to dig so deep and put my head down and for the last 26 miles that day push the pace in order to increase the gap vs reduce it. It took all of my will and might and ended with me completely famished and exhausted as I collapsed at the finish line. To win this race, I could never take a moment to walk and had to run the entire course. I additionally had to speed through every check point and constantly keep pushing nonstop. All of you are incredibly strong, beautiful and talented ladies and runners. To all of the competitors in this room, today all of you are champions. What you have completed less than 1% of the world will ever do. Each and every one of you will come home to your friends and families and even strangers as beacons of inspiration. To Mary and the entire Racing The Planet team, thank you for creating an event that is so epic that it tests our limits in mind, body and spirit. Thank you furthermore for creating the opportunity to compete the Grand Slam and the Grand Slam Plus. I am so honored to attempt to become the first woman in the world to cross the finish line in Antarctica accomplishing the Grand Slam Plus. This opportunity is allowing me to inspire the masses to move their bodies as a way to prevent disease. Additionally, it is allowing an opportunity to raise awareness and funds for Lyme Disease through the LymeLight Foundation. I will leave you with a quote that my husband wrote in his note to me on day 5 from Albert Einstein.

Hey folks!

The end is near! Wahoo. I am so pleased to announce that the long stage ended with another win! Yea! I was 6th

Hey folks!

Day 4 is complete and with anther WIN! So stoked. I can

I forgot about a couple notes for today

Hey folks

Today was a great day and ended with a stage win!! So stoked. This also reduced my gap to Kathia by 15 minutes! I am guessing I am roughly a minute behind now =)

It was a perfect day enjoying dry heat again. 33deg Celsius today and in the direct sun it feels even hotter. The terrain started with the first stage of 7.5 miles in sandy / rocky terrain. It was followed by rocky terrain through an area that looked like a different planet again. Moments of rocky rolling terrain reminded me of the Atacama Desert as well. The course notes for today titled the day as The Red Planet which was quite fitting. As a guy said to me just now, if you were to film a movie in mars, it would look like this. So epic. It was fitting that Lance

Howdy folks,

Day two is in the books! It was a very gruelling stage. There is word that it may be one of the most challenging of them all. The beginning was really pretty and traversed up and down over the ridge by the beach. At about 5 miles in we arrived at the coast where we followed it along in deep beach sand for over 25k. It was rough. The highlight was seeing a seal colony and a shipwreck at checkpoint 3. From 3 to 4 it was noted to be difficult with wind and uphill and undulating terrain. Nothing a little black eyed peas, salt-n-peppa and many other artist couldn

Yo folks

Day one is complete. Wahoo. In

Hey Everyone!

Day 0 is here. The hustle and bustle of folks preparing to ditch all of their belongings and take one pack out into the desert to make magic happen in mind, body and spirit. The nerves are high as the meetings take place and gear check in occurs.

I am so glad to be here after 24 hours on planes, and 24 hours of lay overs combined. It feels so great to see so many familiar faces here and feel the positive momentum among the masses. There is a sold out roster of atheltes here topping at 223 from all over the world. I am honored to run alongside each and every one of them.

It was extra humbling to see Thanh who is also trying to make history like me for women. We love being roomies before the race goes off and I am so glad she is pushing to be the first female for Vietnam and Southeast Asia to complete the Grand Slam. That means that the two of us will now get to be together at each of the rest of the 4 races.

It is wild to think that this race will be the 2nd of 5 in 10 months. With Atacama crossing added from last year, it will be 6 races in 13 months. WOW! One step at a time right?!?

Athlete checkin was a breeze today. My pack came in at 8 kilos, which is 4.2 kilos lighter than it was at the Atacama Crossing. Yeahoo. I feel fit, strong, healthy and the best that I have felt so far for a race.

So here we go for race two of the journey to become the first female in the world to complete the Grand Slam Plus with stage 2. I am stoked for the conditions, and the climate is my style all of the way with hot and dry and cool at night.

I will blog each day from the field. See ya out there in spirit.

Jax

Hey Everyone!

Just like that a new blog roll begins for the 4 Deserts Race series this year to become the first female in the world to complete the Grand Slam Plus! I cannot wait to get to the starting line in Namibia. With just 6 days to go, I will entertain you in this post with a summary of the final preparations before I jump on my flights starting the travel to Africa on the 27th at 8am.

TRAINING.