There's a lot of variation in 100 mile distance and the type of terrain that you can have, you can have a totally flat course, you have an insane mountain course, you can have a hot desert course.

So I spent a lot of time doing that and experimenting with that, and just getting more comfortable with that distance. There's so many factors, so many things that could happen during that time that you want to learn how to manage yourself pretty well.

With transitioning, there was certainly an adjustment in terms of dealing with surgeries, hormones and training, and my metabolism shot way up and suddenly I had to figure out how to feed myself better during races and training.

So I spent a number of years doing that before I even thought about going further. But in the last five or so years, 200 mile races have become a thing in the United States. They're really quite new, so there's just a handful of them and they're starting to pop up more.

I spent a few years looking into it first because they're a lot more expensive, and obviously it's intimidating, it's more training and more time. But again, I was like, "Why not? What can I do? What am I capable of?"


Especially in terms of trans athletes, right? You don't see a lot of us in the ultra distances, at least not many of us who are open and vocal about it. It's very difficult to know.

I don't even know if I'm the first openly trans athlete to run a 200 mile race. I may not be, but there's such little conversation there. There's such little visibility that it's really difficult.

But the ultra community, for the most part, is pretty open and accepting because it's just this group of misfits already.

[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued]