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Caroline Boller Sets American 50-Mile Trail Best Time
by wasoxygen

    Boller started running just four years ago, at the age of 38. A stay-at-home mother of two then-toddler boys, she "had never run more than a few miles." But when her husband started venturing onto the trails behind their northern California home, she got intrigued.

    "He would come back so happy and refreshed," says Boller. Craving an outlet of her own, Boller started running on a treadmill in the garage. She kept a baby monitor in the cup holder so she could hear when her two sons woke from their nap.

    "I felt like dying after half a mile," she says. "But I continued to build up."

    The turning point came in April 2013, when Boller took a field trip to the finish line of California's competitive Lake Sonoma 50-miler.

    "I hadn't even run a marathon yet," she says. "Fifty miles seemed impossible."

    But as she watched runners pass through the finish arch, she was shocked to discover that they all looked ... fine.

    "No one looked like they were going to keel over and die," she says. Realizing that 50 miles was an attainable distance, Boller immediately turned her thoughts to running a 50-miler of her own.

    "I really enjoyed my time on the trails," she says. "I figured, the longer you go, the more time you get on the trails, the more enjoyment you get."