Susan Donnelly

In the last week or two, things in my life seem to be breaking.  Nothing is safe. Two weeks ago it was my car.  I still don’t have it back from the shop and the estimated bill is at least one digit higher than my comfort level.   This weekend, it was my camera, my [...]

Thank goodness we had a weekend off.  From racing, that is.   It was a much-needed break to re-organize and take care of household stuff (cats got their shots), plus spend a day exploring potential trail for the 50k. The exploratory run on Saturday turned out to be a surprise.  It had rained for the [...]

That can only be answered with three (of course!) more questions. What Was The Toughest Part? Without a doubt, all the mileage accumulated on dirt road.  Had I been on trails the whole way, it would have been tons easier on my legs.  The second most difficult part was the packing, unpacking, and staying organized [...]

As the sun sets on the weekend, I have a 50k finish but no Subaru in the driveway. I had to work most of Friday, my day off, and set out for Oak Mountain 50K in Birmingham, Alabama, later than desired.  Around 6:30pm, just past Chattanooga, the gas light went on.  Several exits later, I [...]

There, on page 70, were more familiar names.  Cool.  Pretty picture of a boat at the bottom of the page…wonder where that is…WAIT!  One of those names has never been in Ultrarunning before!  WOO-HOO!!!   It’s Liza, a great friend that Rob and I paced in her first 50K in January in Tsali, NC.   [...]

Wow.  Three days hanging out with my utrarunning tribe challenging ourselves on some gorgeous world-class trails?  3 Days of Syllamo is hard to describe but more than worth a try. On paper, you run a 50K on Friday, a 50 miler on Saturday, and a 20K on Sunday, all starting at the Blanchard Springs campground [...]

Three could be 3 Days of Syllamo (three races in one weekend!) that I’m packing for right now, or the three consecutive race weekends in a row this is a part of.  Yeah, racing this much requires some concentration on the logistics, for sure, but it’s an awful lot of fun.  I wish I’d been [...]

With a 3-day event looming next weekend and a 50K the weekend immediately after that, it would have been easy to go through the entire 50 miles of Old Pueblo this weekend focused on what’s ahead.  Or my finish time.  Not to mention that vague “how am I doing compared to last year?” thought that [...]

For those of you that don’t know, the Knoxville Track Club is hosting a new 50K this year and my name shows up on the schedule as race director. With an embarrassing abundance of trail riches in any nearby direction, the tough part was choosing The Trail. Rob and I spent the better part of [...]