Our Michelle competed in the breathtaking Power of Four 50 kilometer trail run in Aspen in July 2018. Inconceivably, this run traverses all four Aspen Snowmass mountains (Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, and Snowmass Mountain) in its 31+ miles and has 12,178 feet of elevation gain and 11,632 feet of elevation loss.
Michelle was the first woman to finish the race, finishing before a number of front runner men, but her time ultimately didn't count. Poor course markings with a directional sign down caused her to follow several front runner men off course for awhile and midway through the course, she was informed that she and the 9 others making the same mistake were disqualified. (NOTE: The Fan Club is very upset about this whole thing because it happened in this race the year before -- the race organizers should have taken care of the problem). In any case, Michelle made us so proud by continuing on to the finish.
She said: "I discussed it for 10 minutes with the people who notified me of the disqualification and considered ending the run but, then, I decided it's beautiful here. I love trail running. I can do this. I'm happy I finished and I came in (unofficially) first among the women even though I wasted 10 minutes talking and also wasted time running off course."
Ultimately, she was awarded 6th place in the 25K run.
See the article in the Aspen Times link for additional details:
https://www.aspentimes.com/news/sports/max-taam-caroline-tory-win-power-of-four-triple-crowns/