I have an extraordinarily overwhelming amount of feelings and details to share about all the madness that occurred this past weekend. Unfortunately, the time and care I need/want to put into it isn’t quite available to me currently. So for right now, I’ll just give a quick overview.

In a word, it was incredible. Incredible, in the very all-encompassing sense of the word. Incredible difficulty. Incredible fun. Incredible heat. Incredible women. Incredible support. Incredible scenery. Incredible inspiration.

The list really goes on and on. And while I’m kind of still in the midst of unraveling from the adventure itself, I’ve already realized the biggest takeaway I learned this weekend: It’s the hardest things, the most trying events, that make the greatest and most lasting impact.

I’m sure you can guess, then, that this race was not easy for me. Not that I expected a fun run, of course, but for a multitude of reasons—this was perhaps the hardest race of my entire life. It was humbling, and I learned a lot about myself as a runner. All the details will be saved for later, and believe me—there are lots of ugly ones.

But, pain and fatigue and chafing and discomfort aside, the thing I feel more than anything right now is pride. My team wowed me the entire time, and it was truly an honor to run alongside such strong females.

We finished the race in 33 hours, 13 minutes, and 21 seconds, and finished as the first women’s ultra team. Every single one of us was beyond thrilled to see that finish line.

A true race recap will follow soon, and I hope I can try to convey the grit shown by these badass chicks on my team, not to mention to professional-level driving and general race support done by our awesome driver.

And the best news is (thanks solely to my teammates) there are tons and tons of photos.

Stay tuned…