"I had my eye on the 100 Mile sterling silver necklace for a long time. I found it when browsing through the Tarma website after receiving an advertisement for the site at one of my ultra marathons. I fell in love with the necklace the moment I saw it but wouldn't allow myself to buy it until I earned it...which meant I needed to complete a 100-mile ultra marathon.

Being an ultra runner, I've finished many ultras from 50K to 50 miles, to 100K, to 68 miles. I was very proud of my accomplishments and have even placed first, second, and third in many of these grueling races, but there was something missing. I needed to finish a 100 mile ultra marathon.

I registered for my first 100-miler and trained extremely hard for it but failed to finish the race for many reasons that were out of my control. I immediately entered another 100-miler and failed again. Refusing to give up, I did a lot of thinking and made some important changes to myself and to my training when I decided to register for another 100-miler.

Third time was a charm and I finally reached the finish line of a 100-mile ultra marathon (despite getting lost for two hours at mile 93 causing me to complete a total of 106 miles!) After the race and all that I went through, I told myself that I had definitely earned Tarma's 100-mile necklace now and gave myself permission to order it. My necklace quickly arrived in the mail and it was more beautiful than I had imagined. To this day, I rarely take it off.

Shortly after my first 100-miler, I went on to complete another and have many others coming up (including being chosen to run Western States 100 this year!) I can honestly say that if it weren't for my dream of owning Tarma's 100-mile necklace, I don't think I'd be where I am today with my running accomplishments.

Thank you, Tarma for giving me the inspiration and motivation to follow my dreams, keep on pushing and never give up!"

-@one.tough.chick