Last week my colleague sent me a message on Slack casually asking, "you busy the first week of October? 👀 lol" and I responded with, "Haha, no idea that's a little ways out!" Until today, I didn’t realize that simple message exchange would be a catalyst to shaping how I spend a significant portion of my time and focus this year; the first week of October is when UTMB Chihuahua 2025 is being held...

A 92 km trail race with 4,400 m of elevation gain - I won't lie, that scares me. The longest race I have done to date is a 21 km Spartan race. It's time though. Time to do an event that intimidates me enough to take the training and preparation seriously to see what I am capable of. To see if I can find my limits. Because I maintain a decent level of baseline fitness, I typically will sign up for events and wing it. I don't think that is going to work here.

My colleague had mentioned this race to me before. I never thought too much about it. More of a, "that's cool, I'm stoked for you and your goals" mindset without really considering participating myself. After sitting with it for a few days this week, I've come to realize that I need to join him (and another colleague!) on this adventure. There has recently been too many reminders of the fragility of life that have been recalibrating my perception of time. If not now, when?

I've registered. See you in Mexico.