Name:  Stephanie Ehret

Event: Ultrarunning

Hometown: Boulder, CO

Sponsor(s): Montrail, Patagonia, Clif Bar, Petzl, Smartwool, First Endurance

Date of birth: 1/12/63

Height: 5'1"

Weight: 100 lbs

Years running: 30

Running specialty:  I'm a generalist rather than a specialist. I love it all -- trail, road, track, mountains, flats, smooth, technical, etc. About the only way to narrow it down is to say I prefer hot weather to cold and long runs/races to short.

Career Accomplishments: Since 1996, I have run over 40 ultramarathons from 28 to 710 miles. They include 50K, 50-mile and 100-mile events, 24-hour runs, team and multi-day races. I have won four ultras outright (male and female), placed first female in 18 and set eight course records.

Top performances include: IAU 24 Hour World Challenge (2004) - Bronze medal, 140.16 miles, ranking 3rd on all-time list for American woman; Javelina Jundred (2003) - 1st overall (men and women ) in 17 hours, 38 minutes; Trailwalker Hong Kong 100k (2002) - member of 1st place women's team, 6th overall of 600 finishing teams; La Transe Gaule (Race Across France), 710 miles, 18 days (2002) - 2nd Female; Western States 100 mile (2000) - 3rd Female in 21 hours 45 minutes; Leadville Trail 100 mile (1999) - 2nd Female in 22 hours 17 minutes

Running achievement I am most proud of: Winning the bronze medal at the IUA 24 Hour World Championships (2004).

Why I run: It is intimately connected with my sense of self. It reminds me of who I am and gives me a glimpse of what I can become.

Future Goals: To inspire, encourage and assist others in challenging their limits as a means of self-discovery.

Favorite quote:  I have a few:..

"The true harvest of life is intangible...a little stardust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched." -- Henry David Thoreau.

"You are what you love, not what loves you." ---Adaptation (the movie)

"We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are." ---Tobias Wolfe

"Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Additional comments/thoughts: At 42, I'm running and racing better than ever before. I'm not stronger, fitter, tougher or training harder or differently; I'm just loving it more and worrying about it less. It's taken me half a lifetime to recapture what it was like to run as a kid: carefree, spontaneous, joyful, a bit reckless and with little thought of the outcome.

04/05