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As you know, I love a good comeback story as well as people who have conjured up a unique, daunting challenge to tackle.  In this episode I chat with an old coaching friend, Karen Smidt, who is the long-time head cross country and track coach at Brighton High School, in a growing suburban, formerly rural, community northeast of Denver.  Karen is a Navy veteran, and has been the head librarian at the school for many years.  She is very welcoming as a coach and her teams routinely attract large numbers of kids to come out, and more importantly stay out, and her Bulldogs regularly finish at the top in their league championships.  Karen has always enjoyed running herself, especially on trails, but she hit a major bump in the road several years back when she required neck surgery, and then that procedure led to what are likely nerve issues that have left her with almost no feeling in her hands and feet.  That’s obviously not very ideal for a runner, much less a trail runner.  So she did what any self-respecting WASP guest would do, she created a challenge, and hers is to run fifty 50-mile races, one in each state, while she is in her 50s.  And she didn’t get started until arriving in her mid-50s, plus several states don’t have 50-mile races, so that’s added to her quest to complete this challenge before she hits 60 years old.  As Karen’s husband Dan said to her after we recorded this, the only thing she likes more than running is to talk about running, so hopefully you’ll also enjoy our lively chat about her inspiring quest.

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https://www.commfound.org/grants/get-grant/Boulder-County-Wildfire-Fund

Coach Karen Smidt
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Instagram @karensmidt

Bill Stahl
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