All right, welcome back or welcome to the single track podcast.

I'm your host, Finn Melanson, and in this episode, Tara Dauer returns to the show,

and we talk all about her course record performance this past weekend at the Havillian 100.

We also look forward to Western States next year and how she might fill her calendar in 2026.

Before we get started, though, thank you to our partners,

Delta G ketones, Norda, makers of my favorite shoe to zero zero five, goreware, makers of my

favorite trail running apparel, knack, makers of some of my favorite trail running nutrition,

and raid research, makers of my favorite belt, the LF2L. One of the best ways you can support the show is by heading to the show notes of this episode,

clicking on our partner links, and checking out their stuff, making a few purchases, keeps

the lights on here.

With that, let's get on to this conversation with Tara Dower.

All right, Tara Dower, great to have you back on the show.

I think congrats are in order, win, massive

course record, punch the ticket to Western States. When you cross that finish line,

is it joy, is it exhaustion? Is it something else? What were you feeling?

I don't know. I was just like, I was just stoked. Like I've talked about this with you before, but it's just like, I'm just proving it to myself over and over, like, especially like Black Canyon was a huge confidence builder, especially after the 18, like, not knowing if my body would bounce back.

And then I had some, like, pretty lows, pretty big lows this year after that, like the

two DNFs that I had. And so that, like, I think just woke me back up. I was like, oh, my gosh,

like, what if I can't do this? And then I finished this race and a really good result I was not expecting.

And I was just like, I was in disbelief, honestly.

I remember just like laying on the ground and literally being like, am I dreaming?

What is going on?

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