Colorado Trail Race 2025 – Walk Ski Cycle

540 miles
74,000 ft elev gain
4d:23h:20m- New Women’s FKT
1st place female, 4th overall

12:20pm, day 4: a stop to pee turned into a 20 minute nap when the grass nearby looked too soft to pass up. I was just ahead of the women’s record dot when I left Leadville an hour before, but the weight of my eyelids was making it too hard to stay awake even after another nap earlier that morning. I had not slept well the night before; the smoke had wrecked my lungs and sinuses again, and I spent half the night blowing snot rockets and hacking up the sticky flem that settled into the back of my throat every time I lay down.

Most of the racers I spoke with had similar experiences throughout their races. And many people can define their experience during the 2025 CTR as an attempt to manage themselves and push hard through daily wildfire smoke. Some people scratched early for concern over their health, some pushed through and ended up hospitalized for smoke related breathing issues, and some of us got lucky, struggled a fair bit but ended up generally alright.

Based on other racers’ reports, I made it over Blackhawk pass about an hour ahead of the worst of the smoke on day one (which included raining ash), which set me up relatively well for the rest of my ride. So I ended up in the latter group–lucky– able to push through to the end without sacrificing more than my voice and any chance at a really good night sleep during the race. I hope that this race report does not make it seem like I gritted through what others could not; for some, it was a matter of health and wellbeing, not toughness.

Of course, there is so much more to this race and ride than the air quality. I am super thankful to have been able to make this year happen. Finishing this race in less than five days has been my main goal since I left the trail last year. Every time I did something hard, went out to train, or was lacking motivation, I would remind myself of this goal. To have achieved it is extremely fulfilling and humbling.

A huge thanks to all the people that made this happen: Mark for being my training partner, life partner and best friend; all the riding and skiing buddies for continuing to push me; my mom and dad for all their support and for being awake at 3:30am with calls of congratulations; Justin for lending me his puffy jacket last minute when I forgot mine for the race; KJ for hosting us the night before; Andy and Sandy in Littleton for welcoming Mark and I into their home post race; all the other racers who are the reason I do events like these (special shoutout to Willis, who I was so thankful to have as a riding buddy days 2 and 3); everyone who watched the dots and fueled the stoke; and Jefe for putting in the work to hosting this race. The list of thanks goes on, but I will leave it there for now.