In 2017, my first attempt at a 50k race was an absolute disaster. Despite vowing never to do an ultra again, I found myself repeatedly signing up for longer races. Along the way, I stumbled through some failures but also managed to learn a few things. I figured out how to fuel, the benefits of strength training, and the wonders of recovery techniques like rolling out. But I couldn’t quite master the training plan.

I tried just about everything—books, internet plans, pestering the elite runners in town—but nothing seemed to stick. Injuries, missed long runs, and just plain old boredom with the routine kept tripping me up. I tried hiring a personal coach but that was just awkward. I wasn’t in it to win it…. I just wanted to push my own boundaries without risking injuries or setbacks.

What I really wanted was a personal coach's expertise and flexibility, minus the whole human interaction thing.  I heard TRACER was looking for early access testers for their King Marathon Program and was intrigued at the idea of using AI to create a flexible training program. After taking a year off from long races to clear my head, I was gearing up for another shot at a 100-miler and figured it would be fun to try something new.  I enrolled in the program and signed up for a local marathon to gauge my fitness level leading into the big race.

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Having already completed one 100-mile race, I was beginning to feel relatively confident in my ability to plan my own training. I figured TRACER could be a fun program to test out, but I didn’t expect it to become my go-to for race prep. However, from the moment I started using TRACER, I was hooked. I loved the ability to customize my runs based on how I felt, and the variety in the daily workouts kept things engaging. Plus, the app made it super easy to check the day's workout, or view the week at a glance, without having to remember to bring along a printout of a program.  During testing I encountered a non-running related injury that required time to heal and TRACER made it super easy to get back on track without risking more injury or spending ages redoing my plan.  I loved that.

I ran the marathon as a training run, not pushing the pace or aiming for any records. I just wanted to get a sense of how my training was going.  I felt great during the run!  I was strong, I ran without injury and I surpassed my goal time. I immediately knew that I would be using this program again and have been waiting for it to be released to the public!  I am currently enrolled in the Higher Running 50K program and will then transition to the Corrine Malcolm 100 mile program to prepare for my upcoming race in July.  I can’t imagine training without TRACER.