"He would come back so happy and refreshed," says Boller. Craving an outlet of her own, Boller started running on a treadmill in the garage. She kept a baby monitor in the cup holder so she could hear when her two sons woke from their nap.

"I felt like dying after half a mile," she says. "But I continued to build up."

"I hadn't even run a marathon yet," she says. "Fifty miles seemed impossible."

But as she watched runners pass through the finish arch, she was shocked to discover that they all looked ... fine.

"No one looked like they were going to keel over and die," she says. Realizing that 50 miles was an attainable distance, Boller immediately turned her thoughts to running a 50-miler of her own.

"I really enjoyed my time on the trails," she says. "I figured, the longer you go, the more time you get on the trails, the more enjoyment you get."