She had climbed every fourteen footer in Colorado in just over two weeks, conquered some of the most grueling multi day adventure races in the world, and pushed her body beyond what most would consider humanly possible.

But in December of two thousand and six, it wasn't a race course or a competition that nearly killed Danel Bolenji.

It was a solo training run just outside her home in Moab, Utah.

What followed was a brutal, fifty plus hour fight for survival and the story of a dog who became a hero.

I'm Megan, I'm Danielle, and this is off the trails.

She did?

How many in two weeks?

Oh?

Just wait, I go into more detail of all of her accomplishments.

I feel so unaccomplish already.

Yeah, you'll feel even more unaccomplished.

Like I'm lucky if I get like a few things off my to do list over the weekend.

This girl's like, don't worry, I'll do all these things in two weeks.

Yeah, we're like, did I get my steps in today?

Right?

So, first and foremost, I just want to apologize for the wonky schedule that we had the last couple of weeks.

I've just been dealing with some personal stuff and unfortunately it did impact our release schedule a little bit and my engagement on socials.

But that being said, we are back on track and appreciate your understanding, and we do have a new Patreon Heidi, thank you for joining us on there.

And if you're not on Patreon, you should be.

You should be, and I am finally putting together our Patreon Thank you kids, like I've actually addressed a hand full of them.

I don't know when they'll make them put of the post office, because course post office is open like eight to five when I'll be at the office today and tomorrow, but maybe wednesdayes sneak out of work a little early and hit the post office nice, So.

At least you all can be expecting those.

If you're on Patreon, yes, they will hit the mail this week, whether it's today or Wednesday or somewhere in between.

I don't know.

Perfect.

Outside of that, do we have anything?

I don't think so?

Okay, So now here's where I make you feel even more unambitious.

Perfect.

Danelle Bilenji wasn't your average athlete.

She had won the Pike's Peak Marathon four times.

She had raised up all fifty four of Colorado's fourteen thousand footers or four two hundred and sixty seven meters peaks in less than fifteen days, faster than any in history.

How is that even possible?

I don't know.

I really don't, okay.

She had competed in four hundred and forty one endurance events races that took from an hour to ten days to finish since nineteen ninety five, and finished in the top three in three hundred and ninety of them.

Three times, she was part of a four person team that won one of the most punishing endurance events in the world, called primal Quest, a four hundred mile or six hundred and forty three kilometer trek over land and water, mountain and desert terrain.

She had earned six US Athletes of the Year titles in four different endurance sports, so whether she was semonying mountains or crossing deserts, her grip was legendary.

I mean, I don't even feel bad now about myself, because she's not someone you compare yourself to.

She is superhuman.

Yeah.

In the summer of two thousand and six, Grand County Search and Rescue paramedic John Marshall watched her run about sixty miles or ninety six kilometers through blistering one hundred and fifteen degrees or forty six degrees celsia's heat.

She showed up at his medical station with blistered feet, completely dehydrated, and semi delirious, and he's like, hey, girl, let's get an IV in you.

And she's like, nah, give me some duct tape, give me something to drink real quick.

I'll be good.

So she takes her shoes and socks off, wraps her feet in duct tape, and puts them back on and takes off again.

It's like bordered, Like I don't know if I'm impressed or if I'm just like, girl, that's stupid.

It's like both, I don't There must be a word for that.

That's like something that is so outrageous and bordering dumb, Like there must be a word for that.

I don't know what it is.

But yeah, there has to be.

There has to be a term for that.

There's a term for everything.

But I did see where she In one of her interviews, she did mention that she is very good at listening to her body and never pushing herself beyond what she feels is unsafe for her.

So of course what we see her pushing herself to where like that's unsafe for me.

But she was very in tune with where her line was and she would always try to not cross that and become reckless.

Okay, but her line is well beyond like ninety eight percent of people.

Yet we cannot relate to her line.

Yeah, yeah.

So in two thousand and six, with winter on the horizon, Denelle aimed to stay in peak condition for upcoming snowshoe races and winter tryacalons.

She had planned a short to two and a half mile loop for three to four kilometers on a remote trail just outside of town that she hadn't visited in a little while.

But first, this was just a normal morning and she had some personal matters to handle.

On the morning of Wednesday, December thirteenth, she was replying to sponsor emails, writing articles, and addressing client questions from her personal training business.

She left her home on Cliff View Drive in Moab around ten am with some landlord duties to deal with along with managing three rental properties in Colorado.

She rented out part of her Moab house, and that day she actually needed to visit the bank to for a fraud case involving a tendance friend.

So she was just dealing with some stuff.

But it was pretty normal business, all right, And it was only after handling these tasks that she would finally be able to enjoy the highlight of her day, which would be that trail run with her three year old dog, Taz.

Three years earlier.

She had adopted him from a shelter as a puppy.

He was an energetic, playful mix who instantly stood out to her, but when another woman picked him up, Danell panicked and she just kind of lingered, lurked in the background, waiting for this woman to set him down, And as soon as she did, she ran in, scooped him up and said he's mine, damn yeh, and the two had been inseparable ever since.

So on that Wednesday, the duo climbed into her white Ford Ranger truck with her kayak secured on the roof, because naturally, after she goes for this run, she wants to hit the water.

I mean, I will say, if you're a personal trainer and like you, I assume her schedules probably pretty flexible.

It sounds like she's self employed, so you know you've got the schedule of flexibility and that's literally your job is fitness.

Like I guess it makes sense, like I do make a mean spreadsheet in my personal time.

But you know that's a yeah.

I am just thinking, the last thing I want to do after going for a trail run is then go kayaking in the winter in particular.

Oh yeah, was this the winter?

Yes, this is December.

Yeah, we typically have chunks of ice in most bodies of water in December, and yeah, I'm going to pass on those icebergs.

Yeah.

So, she had realized she'd skipped breakfast, and on her out to the trail, she stopped at a Burger king and grabbed a chicken sandwich, French fries, and a coffee.

When she arrived at the parking area for the massive back trail, about five miles or eight kilometers outside of town, she decided to keep driving about another quarter of a mile to a turn off near a cliff.

And she did this to shorten her run because she was just feeling a little bit lazy that day and all I could think was again her version of lazy in mine are vastly different.

Oh yeah, no kidding.

Temperatures that day hovered just above freezing, even though it was sunny out, and she was wearing leggings, running shoes, a T shirt and a lightweight zip up.

She had grabbed her waist pack and water bottle, left her phone in her wallet in the truck, and her and Taz took off across the rug desert terrain.

According to the Runners World article, her plan was to run and hike an eight mile or twelve kilometer loop.

She would start on the amassa back trail popular among bikers and hikers, especially in spring and fall, but she would veer off of it after just a few miles, just before the top of a mesa, where she would follow a seldom used jeep trail known to the locals as the mine Sweeper, and into a hidden canyon.

Then she would scramble up the rocks of that canyon toward her raw pass, onto another seldom used jeep trail, through another canyon, up some more rocks, and she would eventually land back on another jeep trail that would take her back to a road that led to her truck about an hour in she had already covered about five miles or eight kilometers as she ran across a rocky unmarked ledge with Taz in front of her.

But this is when her foot hit some ice covered rocks, and before she could react, she slipped and she started sliding.

The rock face steepened, she picked up speed, and she slid about forty feet or twelve meters down, and then another twenty feet or six meters of sheer freefall, landing feet first on a ledge below.

And I know you're grimacing, and you should be, because the impact shattered her pelvis, it split her sacrum, and fractured three vertebrae, so it was ultimately just soft tissue that was holding the lower half of her body to the top Halfugh.

Yeah, So as she came to, she very quickly realized that she wasn't dead, miraculously, She's like, how did I just survive that?

But immediately her fear was that she was paralyzed.

So with her right hand to her right leg and her left hand to her left leg, she started feeling around and was very relieved to know that she had not lost feeling in her legs, but she couldn't stand, and the pain she was feeling was pretty indescribable.

She also knew that she needed to move fast somehow someway because she would be running out of daylight within hours, and the clothes she was wearing was not suitable for the weather that she would be exposed to.

It was already just above freezing, that temperature would be dropping quickly as the sun set, and her adrenaline must have been firing on all cylinders because she actually tried to stand up, and unfortunately she pretty much just folded immediately and fell back to the ground.

And she knew she was in big trouble.

She's trying to just process everything and how she's so, how do I get back up there?

How do I get out of this canyon?

And as she lay on this ledge above the canyon floor, Taz came running over to her.

So as excited as she was to see him, she was also excited about the fact that if he could reach her, then there had to have been a way off this ledge, if he had been able to access it safely, which also, I'm like, the dogs will just off road.

Right, And I think that's also a big difference between getting down to a location and then getting back up, Like, there are plenty of times where like I've jumped down, you know, obviously not a ledge like she fell, but you know, a small ledge, and then you're like, okay, well now I need to use my upper body strength to get myself back up.

It's not always both directions as easy, right, And it was difficult for me to sort of visualize this whole setup of these ledges and this canyon floor.

And I think the way she saw is, even though they came from above, if she could reach the floor the canyon floor, if you could go further down, then that will typically if you can follow, that lead you to normal ground, okay.

And if he had come around to the bend onto this new ledge that she had fallen onto, then maybe there was hope that coming from that direction it would go down, okay.

So she just slowly began dragging herself along that ledge that she had fallen onto, using her elbows to inch her way forward, screaming in pain with every movement.

And what would have taken three minutes to walk now took her over for five hours to cover a quarter of a mile or half a kilometer.

When she finally made it to the canyon, floor.

She searched that waste pack that she had brought with her, and she didn't remember what was in it, what she had left in it from a previous run, and she was relieved to see that she had found a gel energy pack, which I know a lot of runners and endurance athletes use for you know, that kind of instant energy that they need that was left over from a previous run, as well as a shower cap, which she elaborated on in is that they put that over a hat to conserve heat INLD weather.

Okay, and she had two ibuprofen.

So between the sources, one said she only had one of the gel packs.

Once said that she had two of those gel packs, and so she had potentially taken one right now, but she may have also only saved the only one that she had.

But at this point she did take the ivy profen and just kept crawling through shrubs, sand and snow.

She came across a small puddle of water which she managed to break through the top layer of ice, and this water would ultimately become her lifeline.

She tried dragging herself a little farther and peered over the edge of a rock so and see this is where I'm like, but if you're on the canyon floor, it goes deeper, like there's more drop right right, So I think, really, what it comes down to is I need to go to Moab.

Oh see, I was gonna say, uh, this is a nightmare and it doesn't matter what it looks like, because it's horrible.

We went in two completely different resits.

Did Yeah.

So she had dragged herself a little farther and peered over the edge of a rock.

It was about a four foot drop and clearly not the right route, so she dragged herself back to the spot near the puddle and propped herself against the rock wall, and Taz also was staying right beside her.

As night fell, the temperatures dropped to the low twenties, or about negative six degrees celsius, so it didn't take long for her to start becoming pretty hypothermic and her hands and feet becoming frosteden.

She lay on her back and stuck her hands between her legs to try and warm them, but she realized she needed to do more, so she decided that she needed to do crunches all night and in order to stay awake.

She figured if she did one every five seconds.

She could keep her body temperature up, her blood flowing, and stay awake.

Are you feeling unambitious?

Still?

Yeah?

I really am.

Yeah.

So with her, you know, pretty much at this point useless bottom half of her body, her beyond painfull mid section, She's like, I will do crunches with the top half of my body every five seconds.

And she did that for about six hours straight.

So at first light, Denelle tried to shift her position and continue dragging herself out of the canyon, but even the slightest movement triggered waves of excruciating pain.

So the day before she at least had adrenaline to fuel her, but at this point the adrenaline was gone and the full severity of her injury set in.

She sort of fell into a cycle where she would attempt to move, stop to recover, then try again, with each effort more draining than the last.

She screamed for help, hoping that someone might be nearby, or that someone might just be making their way up the canyon, but obviously no one else was out there with her or near her, and the positioning of that little puddle of water to where she was it was too difficult for her to try and fill the bottle itself, so she would have to fill it cap bi capbule and then when she got just enough.

Yeah, so she was laying on her side and with her left hand and not even really being able to look at it.

She's just trying to grab a little bit of water at a time, put it in her water bottle and get some hydration from it.

But she also didn't want to overhydrate because she did not want to have to pee, because if she peas, she's just soaking her pants and that's really not good in these cold temperatures that she's facing.

Right, And obviously she's literally not in a position to be able to appropriately disrobe to go to the bathroom.

And yeah, also another more serious issue was unfolding.

She noticed that her stomach had become swollen and soft feeling, and at first she thought it was just inflammation, but it was actually due to internal bleeding from her shattered pelvic bones that had torn through blood vessels in her abdomen, so she was also bleeding out this full time.

I did wonder that when she was doing all those crunches, if she had internal injuries like that.

Yeah, And unfortunately she did, so as she lay there, everything sort of hit her, and she hadn't told anyone where she was going.

One of the sources did mention that she had spoken to a friend the morning that she had taken off, and she had mentioned that she was going for a run and that she would be back in a couple hours.

But she I didn't see that mentioned in the other articles, and it didn't sound like she really gave them a whole lot of details.

And it may have been just via email, Okay, So it wasn't a message of hey, I'm going here.

If you don't hear from me by this time, something may have happened right an email.

Who knows when that other person even read it.

Was it, you know, pretty much instantly, or was it twelve twenty four hours later?

Right?

And it was hard to get specifics on that interaction that she had with that friend.

So as the hours turned into days, she just began to grasp the grim reality that there was likely no one who even knew she was missing.

That night, which would be her second night out in the desert, was worse.

It felt colder, it felt longer, and that's when she remembered that she had that shower cap.

Unfortunately, it wasn't within arms reached though, it was about two feet out of reach, and she was determined to get it because she knew she needed to keep as much body he as possible.

It took her one hour just to reach the shower cap that was only two feet out of reach.

She also sort of began hallucinating at this point.

She said that the stars in the sky turned into these moving stripes, and everything was just looking a little wonky to her.

She was thinking of her family and her friends, and she had also just met a man recently in Colorado right before her, like a week before her run, and she'd hoped that she'd be able to see him again.

And then she's like, well, I guess that's not going to happen now, And she just think about everything, like how did I end up here?

How is this really my fate?

Is this really happening?

She's quoted as saying, I wanted so badly to live.

I wasn't ready to die.

I thought about my life, my family, and my friends and how much they meant to me.

I wanted to tell them all how much I loved them.

Those thoughts were so strong.

I didn't really feel pain when I was lying there.

All I wanted to do was survive.

So that night she kept tapping her feet together, rubbing her hands together, and doing her small crunches for another fourteen hours.

You know, when you were saying, she's tapping her feet together, rubbing your hands together, I was literally about to say, but no crunches on this night, and I would be wrong.

You are wrong.

She did the crunches again.

She was determined to stay awake because she knew that if she fell asleep, it was game over.

And Taz, who was always near by, even though he would venture out throughout the day and come back, he was always nearby and he would always come back and check in on her.

But he was also starting to act a little strange toward her.

He began pacing.

He'd kind of keep a slight disc and he'd walk over to her and sort of you know, sniff and say hi.

But then he'd retreat again, and he seemed to sense that something was just really wrong with his mom.

At this point, she said, I told Tas I love him and just to go get help.

I didn't think he understood, but I would try anything.

So at first light Denelle made another attempt to move, and with pain more intense than anything she'd ever experienced, she managed to roll over onto her stomach.

So she you know, summoned what little strength she had left and she just began to drag herself forward using her arms, just determined to find anything anyway out.

She had previously, you know, found that ledge that dropped about four feet, and so she knew that she wouldn't make it out of there.

She dragged herself only to end up stuck in this sort of little pothole on top of that same ledge that she had tried to reach before.

And it just took forever just to get out of that little divot and to return to that small little area next to the water that she had found.

So she propped herself back against that rock wall she laid on her back.

Her vision was starting to sort of fill with those black spots, and she knew she was fading, so she just called out, please, someone notice that I'm missing, And unbeknownst to her, someone had the day before, which would have been Thursday.

Back in Moab.

As the second night approached, her neighbor Dorothy raised the alarm.

So Dorothy Resignel, a seventy six year old widow and self proclaimed nosy neighbor in Moab, is known around town for her curiosity and colorful personnel.

A former miner's wife with a passion for geology, and spent her days volunteering, gardening, and eating lunch at the Senior Center.

She had developed a friendship with her neighbor when Denelle had moved next door, and although Dorothy was initially cautious, she warmed up to Danell, especially after Taz would start visiting Dorothy, and while Donelle was often away training, Dorothy would look after her home and mail and they just sort of formed a quiet little connection with each other.

And it was actually that first night Wednesday, when Taz didn't show up for his usual visit, that caught Dorothy's attention, and she had noticed that Dannelle's truck wasn't in the driveway, her curtains were open, her lights were on, and even her laptop was glowing from the coffee table.

Okay, and Dorothy that Dannell was often off training or visiting her parents in Colorado, or spending time with friends, and that sometimes she just left without telling anyone.

So she wasn't really quick to panic, and she also didn't want to overreact or waste to lease time if her neighbor was just off living as.

Right she does, she just went to go visit her parents, right.

So she just went to bed that Wednesday night.

But by Thursday evening nothing had changed.

Everything still looked the same at her house and there was no sign of Danell or Taz.

And that's when she called Gary and Peggy Blenji, Danell's parents in Evergreen, Colorado, and she just told them that she was a little worried.

And that call set things in motion because they then turned around and contacted Moab police after not being able to reach their daughter.

At the local police station, Sergeant Mike Wiler, who had stopped by Dannell's home, likely for a wellness check, was telling Shumway, a detective, that she was missing.

The case had been passed to the Grand County Sheriff's Department, and police had issued an ATL or attempt to locate, but in a town like Moab, where people were known for going off the grid for days at a time, it was just difficult to assume anything was wrong.

So Dorothy noticed that Danelle and Taz were gone on Wednesday, Thursday night, she called the parents to parents contacted police, and so at this point it's now Friday morning.

Sergeant Sweiler had gone to the house that morning or you know, the night prior, didn't see anything.

And so now Friday morning, he was talking to Detective Shamway about it.

And although he wasn't assigned to the case, he did say that he was heading out to the backcountry that morning.

So he's like, okay, well, while I'm out there, i can just like go take a look, check some trailheads see if I'd noticed anything unusual.

So while he was out there, he found nothing.

At the Sovereign Trail.

He also passed the Amassa Back Trailhead parking lot.

Okay, and if you'll recall, she had driven beyond that parking area to shave off some time from her run, and he had just sort of, he said, he really can't explain it.

He just decided to drive a little past that trailhead parking area and as he did, he spotted her truck.

So he took out his camera and he started just photographing the scene in case a crime had been committed.

He had no idea what had taken place, or write anything.

So he just started taking pictures and that's in one of those photos.

When he was looking at it, that's when he noticed the Burger King receipt from that Wednesday, And that's when he got worried himself.

He was like, if this girl has been out here since Wednesday, she's in trouble.

So it was shortly after this discovery that the Grand County Search and Rescue team was mobilized.

They knew that if Danelle was somewhere in that canyon and somehow still alive, her chances of survival were shrinking by the minute.

And it was actually John Marshall, who we mentioned earlier in the episode, who was manning the tent that check in tent.

Oh yeah, six months earlier.

He was assigned to lead this field operation just by chance, okay, So when he heard her name, it immediately registered.

This wasn't a lost tourist or inexperienced hiker.

They were looking for a world class endurance athlete.

And if she'd been missing for two days already, he knew the situation was critical.

He said, I'm thinking this was a world class I eat nails for breakfast person we're looking for.

I'm thinking she's been out there for two nights.

I'm thinking she didn't twist an ankle.

I'm thinking there's something very very serious going on.

And back in the canyon.

As her body weakened, her mind was drifting again to her family and friends in the life that she was preparing to let go of.

Desperate, she pleaded with Taz again, begging him to go get help, and he listened.

He took off, disappearing around a corner and out of sight.

So meanwhile, search and rescue teams had arrived in the a massive back area, and as John Marshall was scanning the rugged terrain through his binoculars, something unexpected caught his eye a dog sprinting out from the canyon, heading directly toward the team.

At first, he actually did fear the worst because if the dog had abandoned its owner and was running around on its own, that could potentially mean that his owner would deceased somewhere in the canyon.

Otherwise he likely wouldn't have left their side, right.

Dogs usually stick by their person.

My dad would be gone, but my dog's an exception, so he ran up to the crew and he's just running around.

They're trying to, you know, call him over, but he's having none of it.

He's almost just it's like he's trying to, you know, round them up.

Yeah, yeah, yep, So trying to get their attention.

At the same time, John had dispatched Melissa Fletcher and experienced backcountry mountain bike guide up Jackson's Trail, which is a steep and narrow single track known for its difficulty, and he remained near the truck to coordinate the search, and although not an official Search and rescue member, Craig Shumway had gone home to change into hiking clothes and climbed the cable Arch trail after reporting his discovery, just to be sure that she wasn't there.

John also sent two men and a woman up via massa back trail on ATVs.

Riding in the second vehicle was Mike Coronella and Barb Bencham, and leading the way was sixty year old Bago Gerhardt, who was a commercial heating and refrigeration installer, and without knowing where exactly Dannelle could be, which he said was somewhere within a sprawling twenty square mile area, he just throve off and began his search so Bago.

Gerhardt was a volunteer and just didn't look like your typical backcountry rescuer, but he's one of the most dedicated.

He was a former Eagle scout who drifted into Moab in nineteen seventy and he'd been with Grand County Search and Rescue for over a decade.

He even helped on high profile rescues, including Aaron Ralston's incident Okay, yep, that in Blue John Canyon, which we covered in an earlier episode.

He also worked on film sets like Vertical Limit, and in the same year two thousand and six, he served as a consultant on a little show called I Shouldn't Be Alive.

Oh there you go, right, it comes full circle and he had actually, out of the ninety one rescue calls that the Grand County Search and Rescue Team received, he had answered to eighty eight of them, which was more than anyone else.

Of Course, his employers like, come on, man, you have to come to work.

At some point, He's like, you know you have a job, right, I can't keep paying you every day when you don't show up.

Meanwhile, Taz had after he had kind of just like stirred everything up with all the you know, the crew.

He just ran back toward the canyon and John followed his movement through his monocio and he noticed the dog heading back up the Amassa backtrail, so he radioed to Bago, let him pass the ATV and follow him.

And Bago was actually known as being an exceptional and skilled tracker.

As it is, as he had said, he had no real direction where to go.

I mean, this was a large area that he would have to cover, and given the terrain, it's not just flat land of twenty square miles, it's all these canyons and ledges and as we talked about, very confusing yeah, topography.

Also, unfortunately, they were in a race against time because with nightfall approaching, there was also snow in the forecast, heavy snowfall.

Okay.

So as Bago was scanning the landscape and also keeping an eye on Taz, he was looking for any sign of dinel and he said that whenever he passed area that had sand, he would look for tracks, and he did eventually spot Prince that appeared to be within the last couple days, and they were dog tracks next to human shoe prints.

Okay, so he knew he was at least like on the right track.

He followed Taz deeper into the canyon, where the terrain became treacherous, and unfortunately, because he was on an ATV, that meant he had to slow down and he also risked losing sight of Taz by doing so.

So while he was trying to follow the dog, Taz had returned to Danell and she immediately noticed that something had changed.

He had run up to her, tail wagging.

He seemed energetic.

He ran over to her puddle started drinking all her water, and she's like, yo, that's mine.

But she noticed she was like that he he almost had known that that was my water, so he hadn't been drinking from that before.

So while of a sudden does he feel comfortable with drinking this?

She was also just hit with a lot of a lot of emotion too at this point because this was her dog, that her best friend for the last three years and now she's just seeing him full of life, and of course she could be hopeful, but she had no idea the search operation that had, you know, launched, and so she's still just thinking she stranded in this canyon, right, and she's going to She's never going to see Taz again, and you know, so she's just going through it, And she said she had later recalled saying she was thinking.

She had thought about a lot while she was lying out there, about enjoying the little things like the sound of a bird, a cup of coffee at sunrise, a beer after a bike ride, sharing stories around a campfire, hugging my teammates after a race, and relaxing in bed after another good day.

And you know, you're just I think it's really it's really sad because you're seeing this person who is so physically strong and has shown a lot of mental strength as well, and unfortunately all of that can only get you so far.

And so it's not even a matter of her giving up on her situation or giving up on herself.

It's that there's literally nothing else she can do.

So she has to sort of hit that step of acceptance of her circumstances and acceptance of potentially never making it out of that canyon alive.

Regardless of how fit physically or mentally she is, She's still human and you're still going to hit that limit.

Exactly.

So, the sun had broken through the clouds and it cast this warm light across her as she lay there, and at this point it had been like sixty hours without sleep, and she thought to herself, maybe I just allow myself to fall asleep now while I'm warm in this light, so that I don't have to go another night to be dealing with the cold and succumbing to that.

But Taz ran over to her.

He licked the tears off her face.

He curled up next to her, and he rested his head on her chest, and that's when she thought she heard something.

It was the distant hum of what sounded like a plane, but she couldn't see anything.

And then she heard it again, and this time it sounded closer.

It grew louder until it stopped just below the ledge that she had earlier considered dropping herself from, and she called out for help, and Bago heard her, and she was crying and calling out for help to a face that she couldn't yet see, and that's when he was able to and he spotted them.

Lying on her back on a rock in the small hidden canyon was Danell, and beside her, resting his head on her chest, was Taz, and she's just crying.

I'm so glad to see you, and he said I'm glad, you're glad, and that you can say so oh.

He remembers her as emotional but surprisingly coherent, and he was concerned about her body temperature, so he retrieved a thick sleeping bag with bell crow straps and carefully wrapped her in it.

He kept her talking while radioing for help, and he was scanning for a safe landing zone for the rescue helicopter, and he was putting her hands into insulated gloves talking to her.

And although Danelle confirmed this is all what took place when you know, for the initial rescue, she also recalls that he too was crying.

Oh.

So Taz ran up and he was licking Bago and that's when he turned to Denell and said, you've got one heck of a dog.

Within minutes, four more members of the Star team arrived to assist with the evacuation, and just before nightfall, a helicopter found a nearby place to land.

Dannell was airlifted to the hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, where she underwent emergency surgery to repair the severed blood vessels that had caused three pints of blood to pool in her pelvic cavity and to repair her shattered pelvis.

It was like a six hour operation that I read.

Doctor said the combination of blood loss, exposure, and trauma should have killed her, and even though she had a successful surgery, she wasn't out of the woods.

They were still cautious.

The damage was extensive and they warned her that she might not walk again.

She could be wheelchair bound, and they didn't want her to get her hopes up.

So as she recovered in the hospital, the Today Show reached out to her for an interview and at first she was like, absolutely not.

But then they're like, how about we reunite you with Taz, and she said of course, So she hadn't seen him since her rescue.

Okay, They brought Taz to the hospital and the reunion was emotional and the story of Taz's loyalty touched people across the country, and one viewer from Michigan even sent him a box of a bunch of Ribbi steaks like dry age steaks and a Christmas stocking with his name on it.

And despite the heartwarming attention, she did face serious challenges.

She couldn't walk.

She had spent fifteen days in the hospital, struggling just to sit up.

Medical bills were mounting, and her insurance offered little help.

Friends and fellow athletes organized fundraisers, and she slowly began her recovery, grateful, determined and hopeful that one day she would be able to run again and beating the odds yet again, she did just that.

And I actually read that just one hundred and fifty days after this ordeal, she ran one of her crazy races.

That's why I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know what one, but she wasn't like walking around her neighborhood.

She was right, just the fact that she was running only a few months after they said she may never even walk, let alone take a run.

Yes, so I do want to share a July twenty first, twenty sixteen update from the Runners World article.

Denell still runs the route she took that fateful day, nearly a decade ago.

It's part of the Moab Trail Marathon, which she has been directing since twenty eleven, and part of her duties involved marking the route.

I get super nervous going up to that spot, and I'll pause for a moment, she says.

There's still that anxiety.

She chose to include the canyon, which she calls Taz's Canyon, because it made logistical sense for her race, so also out of respect for everybody who saved me, the rescuers, my dog, my neighbor, and two of the first responders who assisted Danell, John Marshall and Melissa Narne formerly Melissa Fletcher even worked the aid station at the spot where she fell.

Oh Danell, now forty four, still competes in trail and adventure events three or four times a year, although race is now double as family vacations.

She married b.

C.

Laprade, whom she had met in Colorado before her accident.

So it was that guy that she had just met.

He wasn't like, oh man, I met this's girl and she like ghosted me for weeks.

Well.

They do have two boys, Noah seven and Will five, and in twenty sixteen, Taz was fourteen, and he remains a celebrity.

He recently received a hero's welcome from a classroom of first graders after Noah shared the story about the time his dog saved his mom's life.

Oh Taz walks the local trails with Dinell and still perks up when he sees a bunny, he might be able to chase, she says.

You know.

So Denelle's survival came down to physical fitness, mental toughness, emotional resilience, sharp resourcefulness, and perhaps most heartwarming of all, the unwavering devotion of a loyal companion.

So here are just a few important takeaways.

Tell someone where you're going.

Even elite athletes aren't immune to accidents, so we everyday average folks certainly are not immune to them.

You know, pack essentials, even on short trips.

A small item like an energy gel can make all the difference.

And trust the bond you have with your animals.

Taz ultimately ran more than twenty miles total or thirty two kilometers, tirelessly trying to get help and guiding rescuers straight to her.

In the end, he wasn't just a dog, He was a lifeline.

So that is the really incredible survival story of Danel Bilanci.

And also we've mentioned it before.

We don't really as touching and as emotional as you know, for different reasons that a lot of these stories that we cover are.

It doesn't always invoke that raw emotion from yourself.

And I was tearing up a few times with this one during the research and even just reading it now.

Yeah, this one just strikes the chord.

And obviously, I you know, if you have a dog, that makes a huge difference, if you have a very strong bond with the dog, and.

There are certain stories that you just connect with on a different level.

Yeah, they really just resonate with you or they hit you differently.

So yeah, so that's that's it.

Yeah, this is a good one.

Start the week off with something positive.

It got there, it got positive, It did.

That?

Does it for today's episode?

If you're on Patreon, we have an episode coming out on Thursday, and if you're not, we'll see you next week.

All right, thanks,