Kate reached a do or die moment, her senior year of college, a moment where she either made a drastic change or let her spirit wither away. The 2 words that kept repeating were CHANGE and RUN. So with the need to feel powerful and the thrill to seek adventure and new roads, she signed up for a 50-mile race… her first ever running race with only 3 cold Chicago months to take her non-running self across the finish line of a grueling footrace in the  backwoods of Pekin, Illinois (McNaughton Trail 50-miler 2007). That singular 50-mile race changed the course of her life forever!