I own The Black Mountain Running Co. The shop has been DEAD lately so I thought I would share a very cool story with you. As most of you know, I lost my Mother, Hillary Ripmaster to Breast Cancer the day after my birthday in 2000. You might also know that I was a WRECK after this for many years. Needless to say, the following years were the least productive years of my life. I was drinking HEAVILY and the most important things to me were when and where Widespread Panic (my favorite band at the time) was playing.
     Years later, my luck turned when I met Kristen Van Hoy. Kristen was this SMOKING HOT southern girl who took Telluride by storm. I would sit and watch guy after guy try their pick up lines on her while buying her drinks. As there about 5 guys to every girl in Telluride, i'm not sure Kristen EVER brought her purse out to the bar. I watched from afar because I wasn't the type to stand in line.
     Then the incredible happened, Widespread Panic came and played Telluride. I was shirtless and jammin' during the show. Next thing I knew, Kristen was standing right next to me and there was some serious electricity between us. Come to find out, Kristen had a crush on me and was dared by a friend to come dance with me. We had a great time that night and at the end of the night, I had a feeling I might get lucky. Boy, was I wrong. Kristen left the concert and left me wondering if I was imagining the electricity.
     I got her number the following day and called her up. I said something to the effect of  "I really liked dancing with you and I would like to take you out". I was having a party up at my families ranch outside of town and I invited her up. She never showed up that night and I realized that the electricity was in fact one sided. Something deep inside was telling me to pursue her even harder. I was to move to Missoula, Montana the following week to go back to school. I made one last ditch effort to ask Kristen out and she accepted this time. We went out to dinner in Ouray, CO and then went to The Black Canyon to explore the park a bit.
     We had the greatest date two young folks could ever have. As we were leaving The Black Canyon, we saw the most majestic rainbow we had ever seen. At the time, I was emotional thinking this was my Mom's way of saying "I approve". Little did I know at that time it was actually God saying the same thing!
     I went to Missoula and the second I got there, I bought Kristen a plane ticket to come up and visit. Needless to say, we fell in love. Kristen brought so much light to my life and REALLY helped me through a very dark time. With Kristen's help, I was able to get my shit together and I thank her, to this day that she was in my life.
     After getting married, I felt like I could finally do something in the name of Cancer Research. This was a promise I had made to my mother on her deathbed but was unable to do because I was a mess for so long. I decided to attempt a marathon. I was 230 pounds and completely out of shape. I finished that marathon and went on to attempt to run 50 marathons in 50 states while raising money for Breast Cancer.
     While I was out on these runs, I felt close to my Mom's spirit. If you only knew how many times I would be balling like a little baby running by myself in some random city/town. One fall race, I was bonking pretty hard and I asked my Mom to give me a sign that she was with me. I had become a Christian by this time and I was getting more and more in touch with my spirituality. Later in that run, a lone leaf fell from a tree. As it fell to the ground, I reached out and swiped it out of mid air like a ninja! That was it, I felt that was my Mom communicating with me. Of course, this became a theme and in every fall race I ran you could see me running sideways just attempting to catch a leaf.
     Then during the Manchester City Marathon in 2011, the unthinkable happened. As usual, I had bonked because of lack of training. It was normal for me to run pretty hard for about 16-19 miles, then hit the wall and shuffle to a finish. I was at about mile 23 when out of the blue, a leaf fell off a tree and landed PERFECTLY between my lips. It stuck there and I just about lost it. I challenge any of you scientific types to tell me the probability of that happening! I had been kissed by Hillary! That moment gave me more motivation and FAITH than any other moment in my life. Truly, I was never the same after that moment.