Before racing the 2016 edition of the Sweltering Summer 8 Hour ultra I had won 6 races overall in my running "career" (including the 2015 edition of this race). I had the mindset going into this race that it would absolutely be my 7th career win. That's how I tend to approach most races these days, unless of course I know it's not realistic. Also, coming into this race I had never successfully "defended" a title either. I also expected that to change. Suffice it to say that

This race is my first attempt at the 24 hour distance and the first in my quest to eventually make the US Men's National team for the 24 hour event. The minimum qualifying standard for the USMNT is 140 miles in 24 hours (about 10 minute pace per mile), though in all reality to make the team I would have to run at least 145-150 miles to be in the top of qualifiers. I started out the race super easy and actually was afraid that I was spending too much energy trying to slow myse

My first 100 mile race. I've been looking forward to this distance for a long time and planned on putting myself into a position to be up on the podium at the end of the day. Unfortunately my body had other plans in store for me. We'll start things off a few days later. I'm finally physically feeling a bit better on Wednesday, and Tuesday was worlds better than Monday. At this point, it's mostly just some achy ankles and knees, and for some strange reason both of my wrists hu

(Post republished from previous blog www.ironzoom.com) The very first thing that I did when I woke up this morning, the morning after the 2013 Boston Marathon was cry. I’m not exactly sure why, but I was just overcome with sadness from everything yesterday and I guess it finally hit me. Hard. The very next thing I did was put on my running shoes and my marathon shirt and went out for a run. I held my head high and ran proudly in memory of the people who lost their lives yeste

(Post republished from previous blog www.ironzoom.com) 19 days! In the last 19 days I’ve done 24 runs which covered 169 total miles; the majority of which were done on the Boston Marathon course. I’ve also added in some lifting and a few swims to break things up. Even though it was not intentional or deliberate this is by FAR the most days I’ve ever went in a row without a rest day. During this time my “rest days” typically consisted of 35 minute recovery paced runs. During