September 10, 2024 I sent an instagram DM to a renowned chef in Austin tx: “hey, I just wanted to touch base about creating a speed project-like race between Austin & SA.. lmk if you think this is crazy”
November 21, 2025 I stood on the rooftop of a parking garage in downtown Austin with the same chef, saying: “we did the damn thing.”
Bloody noses. Achy knees. Sweaty towels. Misplaced headlights. Soggy socks. Questionable gas station coffee. Jammed van doors. Cowgirl potty stops. Wrong turns. 3 am hallucinations.
Everything I imagined & more.
For the last few years, I’ve had this quiet dream tucked in the back of my mind: No rules, no set route, just a team, the open road, and the kind of chaos that makes you question what the hell you are doing. Right up until the exact moment you remember: this is what running is supposed to feel like.
That dream kept tugging at me. I’d talk about it here and there, float the idea to people who might understand the thrill of chasing something a little unhinged.
It’s the kind of event built on camaraderie, a little bit of recklessness, and the specific brand of suffering that somehow bonds a group of strangers into an irreplaceable friendship. The kind of experience where the memories don’t need to be explained because the only people who really understand them were crammed into a van with you at 4 a.m.
And somehow ~ miraculously, with the help of a few very key people ~ I got to see this dream come to life and be a part of it.
The thrill, the laughs, the delirium, the hype up music in the van, the quiet moments during your stretches when you’re staring at the stars and thinking, This is exactly where I’m supposed to be.
I’m grateful for the runners who trusted me, the captains who welcomed me, the community that keeps saying “yes” to big, (absolutely) ridiculous ideas, and the fact that wild dreams have a way of finding their way back to you at just the right time.
UNRTD was a relay. But it was also proof that the best things in life are often the things with no set route.
And the best people are the ones who show up in the dark and run with you until the sun rises again. (Or run for you when your knee is giving out)
I’m grateful for a lot of things. But today, I’m especially grateful for this:
For the people who built this wild, chaotic thing with me.
For the ones who said yes to 90-ish miles, questionable decisions, and still 10/10 would do it again.
UNRTD 2025.. see you next year.
I’m sooooo happy it worked out!!!