I started running at the beginning of college and immediately fell in love with endurance sports. I spent much of college doing triathlon and road running. Last year, I found trail running when hiking at Letchworth State Park (nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the East). I decided to do a race that circled the whole park, so in July 2023, I did my first trail race. I may have skipped a few steps and went right to a 45 miler. I was hooked! I knew this was a sport I wanted to stay involved with. I had made my way through training with a decent amount of knowledge from my previous running and countless of podcasts listened to. 

Unfortunately, as a medical student time and money are not things I have a lot of, but I wanted to keep racing. I figured I skipped the 50k step, so maybe if I could find one close by, the training would be manageable during my busy third year of school. When I heard of TRACER, I knew I wanted to give it a try. I have enough baseline knowledge to come up with a basic training plan but to get one from experts like Sage Canaday and Sandi Nypaver (Higher Running) that adapted to my busy schedule at a reasonable price seemed like a great choice!

I raced a local 50k on a rainy and cold day in April, but it went so well! I stayed consistent with my effort throughout the whole thing and felt very strong. I came away with 2nd female and incredibly satisfied with my performance. I really loved how I could adapt the training plan to how I was feeling that day. It was also reassuring to follow a plan from a trusted source. I think if I didn’t know where the plan came from, I would’ve been nervous doing some of the things it asked me to do for 50k training. However, I trusted the plan and it clearly paid off on race day! I would highly recommend TRACER for people who may not have a ton of money to spend on a coach, those with busy lives, and people who just want a good training plan.