Jessi (Jessilynn) was born in a small town in Southern Alberta Canada. She grew up on a ranch and has always loved being in the mountains. She moved around quite a bit as a child and is now living in Sandy, UT, USA.
Jessi started competing in cross country in high school but stopped due to illness, which later was diagnosed as Lyme Disease. After going through treatments in the United States, Jessi spent three consecutive summers in Kerala, India where she learned the value of meditation and building a relationship with herself.
After having her daughter, who is now seven, Jessi decided to run her first marathon. She went on to compete in many ultra-marathon distances and recently won the female division at Moab 240 in October 2020.
Jessi recently wrote a book called, Defying the Odds, which talks about her journey and how she used mental fortitude to become the person she is today.
CONTENT WARNING - Rape is mentioned and miscarriages are discussed in detail.
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Show notes
- Growing up in Alberta, Canada on a farm
- Moving to Texas with her mum when she was in the 10th grade
- Going to 15 different high schools
- Her passion for ultra running, yoga and meditation
- Staying in Utah
- Trying different sports but never sticking at any one sport
- Getting into running and falling in love with it
- Becoming a PT
- Having her daughter and running her first marathon
- Not being a natural runner
- Doing the mile test
- Running at night around the farm
- Running while pregnant
- Having multiple miscarriages
- Being active during pregnancy
- Running her first marathon 4 months after having her daughter
- The Boston Marathon bombing
- 48 hr labour
- Why her first marathon was a disaster
- Signing up for her first 50 mile race
- Using running for therapy
- Feeling healed
- Increasing the mileage and going outside her comfort zone
- Feeling so nervous doing her first 100 miles
- Hearing about the Moab 240 race
- Breaking down the race into smaller distances
- Why she enjoys the longer distances
- Nutrition and problems with digestion
- Having chronic lyme disease
- Staying on top of hydration
- Mindset and mental resilience
- Why running ultra's is like life
- Being the fastest woman running Moab 240
- The final stretch
- Winning her first race
- Being humble and wanting to be relatable
- Book - Defying the Odds
- Final words of advice
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