Friends, beers, running, and rain made these 52 miles some of the best I've ever run!

"Get to the top of the hill, then run as fast as you can the rest of the way and I'll stay right behind you." I said to Woo as we approached mile 53 (ish) of the 62 mile race. A few miles earlier, I had run into the last aid station and she and my brother-in-law, Mike, asked where the other pacer I was running with was. I said I wasn't sure but I thought I lost him a few miles earlier. Woo asked "do you think I can keep up" and without much thought I gave a quick "probably no

General wrap up from the year.

It was several years ago that I was first introduced to the idea of running the Boston Marathon not once, but twice in a day. This was well before my first ultra and before my first ever Boston Marathon...but something in me said "I want to do that one day." April 17, 2017 was that day. After qualifying at the 2016 Quebec City Marathon, 2017 was set to be my 4th running of the Boston Marathon. Though, at the time when I signed up for it, I didn't realize I would be racing a 2

"You're just not there yet." These words were uttered to me by a very close friend the day after my soul-crushing disappointment of a race this past weekend. I'm not sure if those are the hardest or the easiest words to hear in this case. On one hand, maybe it's true. Maybe I'm just not yet capable of running 150 miles in under 24 hours. If that's the truth, then that's easy. I just keep running more and running harder and I'll teach my body to get there. Sure, I wanted to be

On the morning of our wedding, Woo and I participated in the Lobsterman Triathlon. Before the race it was announced that as part of the race the organizers were giving away a trip to Aruba to compete in the Challenge Aruba half-iron distance race. I briefly even heard this as the race was beginning announcements before the first (WEDDING) wave of the race for our group. We did the race and went on about our day and wedding. Several hours later the president of our tri team Zo

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

Okay, so we all know I've not been doing any swim or bike training. Let's just be clear about that from the get-go. I swam twice all year (once in the pool and once in the freezing cold ocean) and biked maybe a dozen times before this race (max of 45 miles). I had been recovering (aka drinking beers) from the 24 hour race and this week was my first week back to actual full training mode. I had been doing an average of about 40 miles per week running up to this point with mayb

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