The legendary Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile mountain ultramarathon from Olympic Valley to Auburn, California, climbs through snowy alpine passes and drops into sun-scorched canyons. It is a demanding 18,000 feet of ascent and an even more punishing descent.

This grueling race has tested many great runners, but one rookie runner encountered its deepest lessons before even reaching the starting line.

For ultrarunner Hans Troyer, the most important life lessons came not on the trails of the High Sierra but in a desert hospital. There, his body swollen with fluid, his kidneys ravaged by rhabdo after he refused to quit a race he had no business finishing, he came to a quiet realization: the race he most needed to finish wasn’t on a trail, but within himself.