124. You Didn't Come This Far to Only Come This Far: Lessons from the Final Climb | Part 2 of the 29029 TRAIL Challenge

In This Episode:

midlife women podcast, 29029 event, endurance events in midlife, personal growth in your 40s and 50s, finding strength in midlife, midlife transformation, women who hike, overcoming limits

🎙️ Show Notes:

You’ve trained. You’ve climbed. You’ve cried. And you still have another mountain day ahead of you.

In this powerful conclusion to Laurie’s 29029 Trail Challenge recap, she brings us into Day 3 — the longest, hottest, most grueling stretch of the entire event. And yet… it’s also the most meaningful.

From GI issues (real talk: diarrhea at elevation is not glamorous) to the final unexpected hill before the finish line, Laurie shares every honest, gritty, and hilarious detail of how she kept moving. More importantly, she unpacks the life lessons that only show up when you push your body and soul to the limit — and still choose to keep going.

You’ll learn:

• Why you can train alone, but you finish with a team
• The truth about fear in midlife — and how to stop mistaking it for a stop sign
• Why recovery is just as important as effort (yes, even for high-achievers)
• How to stop waiting for “someday” and start living the life you say you want now

If you're in midlife and wondering what’s next — or if you're simply trying to remember who you are outside of your job, your to-do list, and your roles — this episode will move you, motivate you, and make you laugh-snort at least once.

👟 Plus: Cheese quesadillas. Porta-potties. And why trusting a fart on Day 3 is never a good idea.

Resources Mentioned:

• Part 1: The 29029 Trail Challenge Recap – Start Here
• Best Life Retreat in Sun Valley

Quotes to Share:

“Fear doesn’t mean stop. It means focus.”

“You don’t come this far to only come this far.”

“The real finish line is knowing you didn’t waste the time you were given.”

“Even if you’re a fiercely independent midlife woman… you still need a team.”

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Transcript

​[00:00:00] What happens when you hike three mountain marathons in three days? You cry, you curse a little. Or maybe like in my case a lot, you question your sanity, but if you're lucky, you also find out what you're really made of in today's episode. Which is part two of the recap from the 29 0 2 9 Trail Challenge.

I'm sharing with you what I learned at the event, the pain, the power, the perspective that only comes when you do something really fucking hard, and you do that on purpose. And if you haven't listened to part one yet, make sure you pause this, Go back, listen to part one. It's gonna make way more sense and it will get you caught up to day three of the event. You're not gonna wanna miss days one and day two. Let's dive into it.

Welcome to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson.

This is the podcast for the midlife woman who starting to [00:01:00] ask herself big life questions. Like, what do I want? Is it too late for me? And what's my legacy beyond my family and my work. Each week we're answering these questions and more. At the School of Midlife, we're learning all of the life lessons they didn't teach us in school and we're figuring out finally what it is we want to be when we grow up. Let's make midlife your best life. 

Welcome back to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson, and this is part two talking all about the 29 0 2 9 Trail challenge. We're gonna start with day three, and we're gonna end the episode with some lessons that I learned along the way that I think apply beautifully to midlife. If you haven't already listened to part one, you are gonna wanna pause this episode now, go back and listen to part one, So that part two actually makes some sense. It'll give you the context around the event, the challenge. It [00:02:00] will tell you what happened in days one and two, and you'll be ready to hear day three.

Let's get started.

Day three, wake up. 4 45. Get ready. Just like every day, do my Morning 5-10-5, drink my strawberry protein smoothie shake. Walking outta my room and I have the terrible feeling that I'm gonna puke.

Endurance events are notoriously bad on the GI system. Not only are you eating a lot of gels and chews for energy, so there's a lot of sugar in them. But you're, you're drinking electrolytes because it's so hot and you're eating protein bars. You're just not eating like you usually do. You're having small bites of things all day long and you're choosing things that will break down quickly and will settle in your stomach 'cause you don't want 'em to keep coming back up.

Well, after three days of [00:03:00] hiking in the hot sun and, and pretty grueling hiking, my body was like, hell no. We are not interested in doing this today. Don't know what you're planning to feed me today, but if it involves eating on a trail for 29 miles, I am not interested. And that's, that's of course before the day started. And, and I didn't actually know it was gonna end up being 29 miles on a course that was mostly in the sun on the hottest day of the event.

But I get to the start line on day three, and I tell team LFG. I'm gonna puke. Like I, I don't know how I'm going to get through the first couple of miles without throwing up.

I do know because I've had a similar feeling before at other events, The key is to keep eating and drinking, which I did. And I never did throw up. After probably three and a half, [00:04:00] four hours in for the day. I no longer felt like I was gonna puke, so that was a win. I did, however, hit the porta-potty at every single aid station on day three. And there were seven of them, um, six of them with a, with a bathroom. I hit every one of them because I couldn't kick the diarrhea. I mean, there's a reason why they call it the runs. TMI maybe, but judging for my conversations with everyone else on the course and the lines of the porta-potties, I wasn't the only one having similar issues. At the start of day three, Michele even joked that none of us could trust the farts on day three, and, and she wasn't wrong. If potty humor isn't your thing, then I'm sorry, but I'm just keeping it real here with you guys.

Day Three. Seven Hills. Seven hills on day three. And when I say hills, several of them, maybe three of them, maybe maybe four of them were straight up a ski run, So they were pretty steep. And [00:05:00] it was hot and there was zero shade. It was so hot on day three that we would dunk our hats into ice buckets at each of the aid stations to cool off, and we put 'em back on our heads and they were dry within five minutes back on the trail. I mean, it was, it was hot.

And it was long. The challenge is billed as three mountain marathons in three days. But because it's in the mountains, it's not like a regular road race where you can actually measure out 26.2 miles, which is how long a marathon is. So they say it's 2 6.2 ish miles with an emphasis on the ish. And day one was 27 miles. Day two was 27 and a half.

And on day three, because we had climbed all over these trails for two, [00:06:00] uh, we're on day three, right? We knew when we hit mile marker 24 on day three, In the middle of climbing up a ski run, We knew at that point that we were more than a half a mile away from the last aid station.

We also knew that that aid station was at least three miles up. 'cause again, we, we'd been all over these mountains and the math starts getting a little tricky at that point because you're a little rummy. You've been on the trails for days and hours today, and you're looking at the time on your watch because you have 12 hours to finish each day, and you know that you've got all of this mileage to go and the clock's ticking and we're in the heat of the day.

I mean, it was just like it, it was, it was pretty apparent that day three with its seven hills and its [00:07:00] hottest temperatures was also going to be the longest day as far as mileage.

Once we reached the last aid station, and God bless the gentleman who were staffing that last aid station. They were making cheese quesadillas in a waffle iron, and that may sound silly, the best cheese quesadilla of my life. It's just a tortilla with some cheddar cheese on it smashed in a waffle iron. But when you are 10, 11 hours into an event and you haven't really eaten any real food, oh my God, it was heavenly. I can't even describe it, but best cheese quesadilla of my life. Um, thanks to the angels at the last aid station that day.

But we finally get there, we have our cheese quesadillas. I of course have hit the porta-potty before I eat my cheese quesadilla. [00:08:00] We get started back on the trail. They tell us great news, you only have 3.8 miles to the finish. Okay? So we are probably 25 miles in at this point, and we've got another 3.8 to go.

I mean, that math isn't math, right? And at this point. We're also starting to butt up against the time cutoff are, are we gonna make it in 12 hours? Because like the team and I were talking about, it would be a real fuck you to come this far, literally, and figuratively, and not make the cutoff time because the trail was so fucking long on day three.

It seemed like we'd be okay, but we also didn't know exactly how they were gonna get us down this mountain because we still had about four miles to go and we knew we, we still had a lot of elevation to get rid of. So that meant steep. [00:09:00] We hit mile 26, which should

be the very end of the day; right. But it's not. We know we have at least two and a half miles to go because we, we've been at this exact spot before. On day one, there was an aid station at this spot before. At this exact lodge, and we, we also know because we had to hike down it on day one, that we have a very steep red shale rocky path in front of us. And it's, I don't know, quarter of a mile long. Maybe I, maybe not that long. I don't know. Super steep, awful time in the event for that to happen because your legs are spent. Your, your muscles that are trying to balance you and keep you upright. I mean, they're already 26 miles in on day three, so your muscles are having a really [00:10:00] hard time keeping you balanced and then keeping you supported when you lose your footing.

So I, it was just, it was. It was kind of, it pissed us off a little bit because we were so close to the end and we knew we still had so far to go and they're giving us like this, the shittiest way down the mountain to get down the mountain. From there, it was literally all downhill, mostly on a mountain road. Um, pretty decent descent. On loose rock. You know, every step we're taking, we can still feel it in the soles of our shoes. Our feet are angry, but it's better than it has been. And it's kind of runnable. I mean, shuffle-able I mean, we're, nobody's running at that point, but, you know, you can kind of, you can kind of jog along and, and that's pretty good.

And we know we're getting closer. We're getting closer to the bottom. We've been [00:11:00] here before we, we know that the end is in ,sight and we know we're gonna finish and we know we're gonna make the cutoff. So that's incredible.

We also know, because day one and day two, I mean, we had the same finish, so we're about probably a quarter mile from the finish, maybe a third of a mile. We know exactly how we're gonna go through the plaza. Except they change it for day three, and as a final just fuck you, They change the finish so. We get to go up another fucking hill to finish the event. We can, we get to go up and, and that's not as big as the seven others that we've already climbed that day, but it's still a hill at the very end.

After more than 28 and a half miles on our feet. After three days of events, we gotta go up another fucking hill and we do. And we finish. [00:12:00] And day three, I think we finished in, I don't know, 11 hours and 10 minutes, 15 minutes, something like that. So we, we made the event, we, we finished on time, which was great. Am thrilled that I have, I finish so that I don't have to go back and do it again because I didn't finish.

Let me ask you something. When was the last time you stepped away from your life to actually focus on your life? No emails, no group texts, no one asking, what's for dinner? Just space. Just time for you.

If one day sounds like a dream, imagine what an entire weekend could do. 

I am inviting you to join me for the next Best Life Retreat in breathtaking Sun Valley, Idaho, a luxurious, intimate escape, designed specifically for midlife women like you .

We [00:13:00] will spend the weekend diving into powerful group coaching sessions that help you reconnect with who you are, what you want, and what your best life looks like right now. And between those breakthroughs, you'll enjoy sunrise hikes, spa treatments, gourmet meals, curated cocktails, and the best gift bag you've ever seen.

This isn't a vacation, it is a turning point. One woman has even described the weekend as: that retreat changed my life. Space is limited to just eight women, and when the spots are gone, they're gone. So if you're craving some space, clarity, connection, and maybe even a little magic, click the link in the show notes and grab your seat right now. And I'll see you in Sun Valley .

I've been thinking over the past week about not only all of the time I spent on the Hill with my friends, my new friends, my lifelong friends. It's really hard to go through something like that and [00:14:00] not, Then become very close to the people who you suffered through it with. But as I've, I've been recovering in the last week, I've been trying to figure out if there were some lessons that I learned on the mountain that I could pass along to you, and I've come up with a couple.

Number one, you can train alone. But you finish with a team. There is no question in my mind that I finished this challenge because I met Michele and Mike and Scott at mile 16 on day one. I had trained solo. I had, I'd been hiking solo up until that point, but I finished because of them.

Even if you are a fiercely independent midlife woman. And I know you are. It's like, hi, hello. We're we all are. Hear me when I say [00:15:00] you're not meant to go through the hard parts of your life alone. The right people around you, In my case for this event, it was team LFG. Those people lift you out of the pain cave when you can't find a way out by yourself. You need people. It's okay to rely on them. It's okay to lean on them. And then know too that at some point they're gonna be leaning on you, So it goes both ways. When you need the help, ask for it. When people volunteer to help you let them. It's okay to go it alone for most of the time. But you're gonna finish as a team. Find your team, love them well.

Number two, preparation matters, but flexibility matters more. Like I said, I had trained to climb the hills, run the [00:16:00] downhills until the downhills tried to kill me. I mean, you can plan the whole damn thing in your head. Your life, your training, your career, and it still won't go the way you expected, but that's okay.

Don't panic. There's no need to panic. You just need to adjust the plan. You just need to be flexible. You just need to know that there are, there's more than one way to get to where you're going. And because you're prepared, You are going to be, you're gonna have the tools and the experience and the knowledge, which are gonna help you be more flexible when you butt up against the thing that's, that's preventing you from moving forward.

So you can prepare all you want, but it's important to keep moving, to be able to adjust a plan, to stay the course. Be flexible.[00:17:00] 

Number three, and I'm learning this one this week a lot. Recovery is just as important as effort. If you wanna show up again tomorrow, you better learn how to recover today. For this event that meant cold plunges and massage tents and electrolytes, and emotional release, whatever your version is of recovery, you need to build in recovery time.

I used to be one of those people who would schedule the latest flight back from a vacation Sunday night just so I could maximize the vacation. I've learned that I actually need a couple of days to recover, right, to get back to feeling like I'm ready to go back to work the next day. I don't schedule the last fight home anymore.

I've also learned that contrary to what our brain might be [00:18:00] telling us, we don't bounce back quicker in midlife by pushing harder. We bounce back by learning how to rest and honor the struggle. Give ourselves some breathing room without quitting. We don't have to keep pushing forward. We have to know when it's time to step back, take a pause, take a beat, and honor the recovery.

Number four, fear doesn't mean stop. It means focus. Satan's Gullet. Tombstone. Crazy Miner. Those descents on day two scared the shit out of me. I mean, like I said, we were literally on a trail they called Tombstone. steep drop offs, Literal and metaphorical, Those are just part of the climb. Whatever [00:19:00] your mountain looks like, if you are. Shaking in your trail shoes like I was, you're not failing unless you stop or you quit. If you're shaking in your trail shoes,

that just means that you're paying attention. You're hypervigilant and aware of where you are, what your limits are, what you're butting up against. You just need to keep going. You just need to focus.

So fear and it will always show up. It shows up in all sorts of different ways. On my way to Park City, I'm driving down five and a half hours. I get the worst headache of my life. Uh, that's a little dramatic. I get a very bad headache. And I realize, and, and, and so I start thinking, maybe I shouldn't even start. Maybe I'm getting sick. Am I getting a migraine? Maybe I'm just too, maybe my body's worn down. Maybe I'm getting COVID. I mean, all of these things, I start thinking of them.[00:20:00] 

That's just fear. That's my monkey brain fear, trying to protect me. That is my security based brain saying if she doesn't start, then she can't fail at it. Because there were moments leading up until this challenge when I didn't know if I could do it. So my body says, you know what, well just if, if she gets sick, she doesn't have to do it. We'll give her a headache. We'll, we'll see. We'll see. No. Fear doesn't mean stop. It just means focus.

Related to the headache and the GI issues, And another lesson I learned, you don't come this far to only come this far. I said it on day two at the aid station when they were interviewing my team and me. That [00:21:00] mantra carried me through the weekend. I did not go through six months of training, time and sacrifice and money and re I like, Everything was put on hold so that I could train for this event. I didn't do that for six months to only get to the start line. I didn't go through 10 hours on day one to only get to the start line on day two. I didn't go through 10 and a half hours on day two to only get to the start line on day three. You don't come this far to only come this far.

In life so many of us have done too much work. We've lived way too much life to turn around now or to think our best lives are behind us. That's not what it is. Midlife is not your permission slip to coast. It's your chance to go further than you ever thought you could, but further on the things that you want, that are [00:22:00] important to you that symbolize what success means to you.

You go further on living your best life once you figure out what that looks like. You didn't put in the time and the reps and, and chase the promotions and, and raise up the small humans and devote so much of your time and energy to everyone else in your life to just get to midlife, throw up your hands, and be like, yeah, it's been a good life. I'm, I'm so blessed. Hashtag blessed.

I'm sure you are, but you didn't come this far to only come this far. Honor the struggles, the journey that you've had so far, and channel that into what is ahead for you.

And finally, this one, like the prior episode, the real finish line is knowing that you did not waste the time that you were given.[00:23:00] 

Day one was on my dad's birthday. I remembered why I was there. I wasn't going to let his untimely death at 66 be in vain. I mean, you might not be climbing mountains like I was.

Whatever your mountain is, by climbing it, by towing the line, by getting your ass to the start line, you're proving to yourself that you're not waiting for someday. It's okay to not finish. It's okay to fail at something. It's okay to be a beginner at something, but the important thing is knowing that you gave it your all. That you didn't wait until retirement, or the time was right, or the kids were outta the house. You didn't wait to do the things that were important to you. You didn't waste the time you were given. [00:24:00] You lived it all, not only to the best of your ability, but to the extent of your wildest dreams.

That's what it means to make midlife and beyond your very best life. That's what we do here at the School of Midlife. So remember, that the real finish line in all of this is knowing that you didn't waste the time you were given.

Those are the lessons I learned on the mountain. I'm still in recovery mode. I think I probably will be for a while. I, I just feel like my body's gone through a, a huge physical, mental, emotional challenge. Um, definitely feeling better, but. It was, it was a great experience. I don't have another one on the calendar. I'm not sure that I will do another one. We'll see.

I'm sure that it's probably like pregnancy and [00:25:00] labor and delivery where it hurts really bad while you're going through it and then you kind of forget about it and you decide to have another kid. I haven't, I haven't birthed a child, so I don't know. But my guess is it's probably similar.

But I appreciate all of the words of encouragement while I was training all of the notes during the event. It, it means so much to me that you are supportive of the things that I do to make midlife my best life, and I hope that I can return the favor for you as well.

Thanks again for being here today. I will see you right back here next week when the School of Midlife is back in session. Until then, take good care.

 Thank you so much for listening to the School of Midlife podcast. It means so much to have you here each week. If you enjoyed this episode, could you do me the biggest favor and help us spread the word to other midlife women? There are a couple of easy ways for you to do [00:26:00] that first. And most importantly, if you're not already following the show, would you please subscribe? That helps you because you'll never miss an episode. And it helps us because you'll never miss an episode. Second, if you'd be so kind to leave us a five-star rating, that would be absolutely incredible. And finally, I personally read each and every one of your reviews. 

So if you take a minute and say some nice things about the podcast, well, that's just good karma. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you right back here. Next week when the School of Midlife is back in session until then take good care.