Category Archives: Trail Updates

“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks disappearing? —It’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy adventure beneath the skies.” -Jack Kerouac Two days ago I kissed my husband André goodbye, gaveContinue reading “The Open Road”

Training in Portland this winter has me feeling a bit like a caged lion. With Forest Park practically in my backyard, I’ve gotten to know its trails like the palm of my hand. Each day sort of melts into another, most runs feel more or less the same, and any sort of forward motion orContinue reading “A Run Up Saltzman”

I’m a creature of habit. I like everything from my daily routine to my calendar year to be “just so”. Since 2012 or so I’ve done my hair the same way, latched onto a style that my friend Lauren calls my “personal color palette” which has remained largely unchanged, I’ve eaten the same thing for breakfast and lunch everyContinue reading “You Can Take the Runner off the Track, But…”

Get to know me well enough, and you’ll learn before long that I’m a wee bit obsessed with George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire. In this fictional world, seasons last for years and end unpredictably. Once, winter lasted an entire generation. It was a period known as theContinue reading “The Winds of Winter”

Maybe I’m tempting fate. Or is it simply a calculated risk? Should I listen to the alarm bells going off in my head, permeating through my body in shivers and shakes? What if? What if? What if? As an athlete, I’m continually seeking to expand my limits when it comes to my physical and mentalContinue reading “A Long Way to Go”

It’s possible, and okay, to feel more than one thing. I tried to remind myself of that as I spent my last waking moments of 2020 sniffling in bed being comforted by my husband Andre, my thoughts ricocheting in my head like a pinball on all the times I let down or disappointed people thisContinue reading “A Time to Heal”

I don’t know how the day got away from me. After spending the afternoon responding to a slew of emails and checking off to-dos, I eyed the clock and realized I had exactly thirty minutes to make it across town, during rush hour, to drop off a batch of apparel at the screen printers beforeContinue reading “A Choice to Be”

Greetings from Paducah, Kentucky! It’s been just over two weeks since I completed the Appalachian Trail on August 27th. I’ve begun several new long journeys since, including physically recovering, mentally unpacking my time on the AT (or at least trying to), and a solo road trip back home to Oregon. You’ve likely heard by nowContinue reading “A Happy Beginning for “THE TOE””

From Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katahdin in Maine, my nearly 52 days spent on the Appalachian Trail were like a hyperlapse of rising and falling suns, moons, stars, storms, calm, mountains, valleys… it wasn’t so much a daily endeavor, but more like a singular continuous stretch, moving ever forward. I felt so confident andContinue reading “Musings from Mercury”