Change of Plans

you can't spell badass b*tch without BTC

As I mentioned in my last post chronicling Patrick’s Boise Trails Challenge journey this summer, I simply wasn’t feeling up to it this year.

Perhaps I can unpack that feeling in another post, but the short version is that I’m just not sure what’s been up with my running journey this spring. In February I felt like a fell off a cliff, abandoning a six week speed block about four weeks in. Since, I’ve been down a Dr. Stacy Sims rabbit hole exploring menopause and the aging athlete, and though I’ve seen improvements in my overall energy levels as a result of some of her recommended interventions, I’ve also seen weight gain and a general slowdown. These interventions also meant a decrease in overall mileage, so to say I wasn’t feeling up for the Boise Trails Challenge’s 164.7 miles and 36,000 feet of elevation was kind of an understatement.

But, boy, was I pumped to support Patrick! (Even more so once he was all in on chasing down a top-twenty hat!)

Still, being around all of the BTC hype was very inspiring . . .

And I couldn’t help wondering if I would regret not participating? Even if a top twenty hat wasn’t within my reach this go-around, would I be sad not to have a 2025 finisher’s cup?

Here’s my 2024 BTC finisher’s cup looking down on me from the top shelf while I was unloading the dishes one morning a few days into this year’s challenge.

In retrospect, I knew this was a possibility. Although I definitely wanted to prioritize not only my niece and cousin’s visit, but Patrick’s first BTC run as well, I also kind of knew that I might just switch gears and enter. This was most evidenced by the fact that I recorded my hikes with my family that first Friday of the challenge on my GPS watch—just in case. Although I hadn’t registered and didn’t have the Boise Trails Challenge map or app on my phone, I knew the map from planning with Patrick, and I actually jogged a small section of Brewer’s Byway back to the start of the trail to officially start my watch after I realized that I wanted to be sure it was all recorded.

(In the case that you’re not using your app or if your app malfunctions, BTC has a method for uploading your GPX files into their app for credit. Since the GPX files are timestamped, the only concern is that you record the whole segment, and that you do it within the challenge time limits.)

So, my first BTC 2025 trails were hiked with my visiting family, up on Bogus, on the second day of the challenge.

We hiked Brewer's Byway, Elkhorn Mountain, & Tempest together.

After my family boarded their plane back east, I continued this behavior for a few days—driving Patrick to a trailhead, nabbing my own low-key miles on my watch “just in case,” and looking longingly at the map and leaderboard in the meantime.

By the time I secured my entry and downloaded my GPX files into my account about one week in, I’d completed about 30% of the required trails.

Still, the priority remained Patrick’s top twenty hat.

And, I didn’t want to cancel any plans I’d already made for June—including a weekend out of town, and a camping trip. Plus it was important to be around for my youngest daughter’s first semester of summer school on-line classes, and her transport to and from driver’s ed each day. This was not the year to go all in.

This approach (which I was tempted to call “the normal person way") worked well that first week. We were working around Patrick’s work schedule anyway, so I was up early and out late with him—which means that some of the trails we did together.

One or two times, I got out during the day—once knocking out a short nearby trail while my daughter was at driver’s ed, and another couple of trails while meeting a friend for an afternoon hike.

I actually texted this friend from the trail when I was over 150 miles into the challenge:

“It's just me—future Kim—dropping in to say thank you so much to past Kim and Amanda for doing that little section of Three Bears so that right now I can jump right onto Freestone and not worry about it!”

When we hiked that little section of Three Bears as an out and back on an incredibly hot afternoon, I didn’t realize how much it would be helpful later on in my challenge journey. At the time of the hike I was still looking at the challenge as a long game—my goal was to finish within the thirty day BTC limit.

And so it went. Keeping up with daily responsibilities, leaving town on schedule and having a great weekend, helping Patrick with the challenge as much as possible.

Until . . .

Patrick finished.

As mentioned in the last post Patrick finished in eleven days, well within the top-twenty at number fourteen.

That Sunday night happened to be the beginning of an unusually free week for me. The camping trip that I had scheduled was cancelled, my daughter’s on-line summer classes were taking a week long break for Independence Day, and her month long driver’s ed class had officially concluded.

So now that I didn’t need to shuttle Patrick around the trails either, I was free to complete the rest of the BTC as quickly as I could manage.

This is where this idea of “the normal person way” goes completely into the garbage. What a lovely theory.

On Monday night, I pulled an all-nighter to do one of my longest point to points in the dark to beat the heat.

On Tuesday morning I was on the trail again bright and early to finish off Polecat.

On Wednesday I met a fellow BTC participant at 5:30 am to get a shuttled five mile route done together, parking at each end. And we did another four mile loop together because we had time. Then I still had time and motivation and the weather was right, so I knocked out another 2.6 mile loop before heading home that morning.

And because the weather was right, and because I was properly motivated, after a reset and refuel at home, I headed up the mountain to finish off the rest of the Bogus Basin miles.

Bogus has some of the best views of the BTC. I saw the rainbow coming off of Mores Mountain, at the end of a very, very long day.

I’m not sure if it was this particular evening, or another one that week, that I contemplated with Patrick whether or not it was still possible to pull off a top twenty ladies finish. He reviewed my numbers, looked at the ladies ahead of me on the leaderboard and said, “Well, sweetie, it was a valiant effort.”

I know he meant it well.

I know that the numbers were against me.

(At this point I think he counted that I still had 60 BTC miles ahead of me, whereas the ladies still competing for the last five spots or so had 40 or less.)

But there’s a certain kind of motivation that comes with this idea of someone telling you it’s not possible.

I continued to work and plan and knock off miles as though it were possible, conceding only when the last two ladies clocked in their last miles on July 4th and 5th, when I still had two significant sections to complete. Because I’d already decided I wasn’t doing this “the normal person way” any longer, I stuck to plan, and finished as fast as was reasonable for me, on Sunday evening July 6th, putting me in 22nd place on the women’s leaderboard. (Which was still a significant climb up the ranks to where I’d been earlier that week!)

Patrick shuttled me and a trail running friend, Maritza, to the top of Hard Guy for the final hike. We waited until sunset, and took it super slow, conversing the whole way. Maritza even wore her “Party Pace” hat, which was the perfect accessory for my final BTC uphill miles.

I felt proud that I’d finished as well as I did, and was very pleased with my effort and progress—even my recoveries between runs were doing a lot for my motivation and feelings about being a runner in this stage. I’m so glad that I went for it—for so many reasons, but not the least of which because it got me back into the ultra endurance runner mindset—peri-menopause or not, I needed this little BTC training camp to remind me that ultra running is my thing. I love this, I’m motivated by this, and I can find a way to run big miles even after falling off the previously mentioned proverbial cliff.

I did it! A number 22 rank, eighteen days into the BTC isn’t too shabby. I am going to treasure that 2025 finishers cup for sure!

---

AND THEN . . .

YOU GUYS!!!

After several days of recovery, and even another early morning out on trail shuttling and joining Maritza on some of her still required miles, I saw this email . . .

I screen-shotted, highlighted, and sent it on to Patrick and a couple of friends who were invested in my journey. All while whooping like a maniac around our house!

“YESSSS!!!!”

Man, I wish I could bottle up that feeling. It wasn’t about the hat, but somehow, the hat validates the massive effort I put into giving the Boise Trails Challenge my best possible finish—even once I saw that top twenty wasn’t in the cards.

I am beyond thrilled.

On my way up Five Mile Gulch Trail.

And seriously, hats off to EVERYONE that finishes the Boise Trails Challenge. If there is something that my first ten days or so of the challenge taught me in 2025, it’s that there is no “normal person way” to do this thing! Working around work, normal life routines, and other calendar events is in many ways *more* challenging than just going for it like I did last year.

Last year’s effort was an accomplishment for sure, but I just might be more proud of this year’s come-back story than of last year’s stats.

Now to get as many participants across the finish line as possible. Let me know if you’re out there and you need a shuttle!