Depressed? No way. She was a supercharged ultrarunner. She raced hundreds of miles on the toughest courses, and won. Then one day Lisa Smith-Batchen woke up and couldn't run a step.
By Christopher McDougall
Lisa Smith-Batchen didn't even know why she was behind the wheel that afternoon in early 2005, until she saw the long plunge to the rocky canyon floor beneath Teton Pass and it suddenly made sense. She hates heights, but for once the view didn't frighten her. It felt restful. It felt…responsible.
"Everyone will be better off without me," she told herself. All the misery her husband, Jay, had gone through because of her. All the terror her 5-year-old son, Joshua, had endured because of the mistake she'd made. All the chaos that 20-month-old Annabella had been through. All because of her.
She hadn't planned to drive off the bridge when she set out this afternoon. Or had she? Was it a coincidence that after months of barely being able to drag herself around the house, she had this overpowering urge to get behind the wheel and go? Maybe she just refused to admit, even to herself, the real reason she was backing the van away from her home in Driggs, Idaho, and heading east toward Jackson Hole, Wyoming........
