*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on August 26, 2019. An image of the column is included below, as well as the text of the essay. It’s post-race Monday, so thousands of readers are ripping open the paper and looking online to check the times put up by the thousand-plus Pikes…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on August 12, 2019. An image of the column is included below, as well as the text of the essay. “I’m looking for the Garden of the Gods. Can you point me in the right direction?” She’d pushed her stroller-bound kid a bit off course,…
*Note: This essay was published in the New York Daily News print edition on November 5, 2017. It can also be found online here. Sunday, 50,000 physical elites will line up to run the New York City Marathon. Watch and you’ll see the best of the endurance world: lean, lithe and little in the way of body…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on July 11, 2017. It can also be found online here. The Manitou Incline’s rules do not prohibit downhill traffic. They should. On the Fourth of July, I ran up the Incline through a herd of holiday hikers and just below the top a group…
I just raced the Dead Horse Ultra near Moab, Utah, and I can’t stop wondering what killed the horse. Was it the breath-removing beautiful red vistas? Or the dangerous drop-offs from rock ledges that promise certain death? While most race reports ponder trail conditions, shoe selection, gear tradeoffs, course advantages and disadvantages, and some might…
I’ll get to how great the Pikes Peak Ultra was in a minute, but first I have to tell you a story. I knew something wasn’t right when the world seemed like I was staring down into an industrial-strength washing machine. Everything was spinning, and I certainly wasn’t in a laundry room; I was actually 15…
Photo of the arrival at the 50-yard line in Baltimore; image courtesy of the West Point Marathon Team. After losing to Navy for the baker’s dozenth time, I have a message for Army football fans: Quit the crying. Wipe the tears. End the sobbing. Halt the sniveling. Cease the bawling. No more weeping. Because the school you…
I was still at senior at West Point, roughly 50 miles north of New York City on the Hudson River, on September 11th, 2001. I was in a course on Chinese politics, about to listen to a lecture from U.S. Defense Attaché to China, when my professor turned on the television in time to watch…
So, this is what 50 miles looks like ~ a very squinty eyed, salt stained expression of semi-agony. It took about 3 hours for the blood to come back to my arms and hands, as it had become fairly settled in my legs over the past 7 hours and 43 minutes.
On Saturday (Friday in the US), I’ll be running a 50 Miler as part of the Great Naseby Water Race. It will be a very small field ~ probably only 40 people spread across the 100k, 80k (50 mile), and 60k events. It will be miniscule compared to the event I’m accustomed to doing in…