The Year That Was: 2019

The Year That Was: 2019

My 2019 was a year of contradictions, marked in equal measure by thrilling successes and crushing failures. I raced my longest-distance race to date at the Forget the PR 50K and I got a new full marathon PR one month later at The Flying Pig … but I also experienced the longest furlough in my running career after breaking my ankle. Continue reading The Year That Was: 2019

Race Report: The Flying Pig Marathon

Race Report: The Flying Pig Marathon

And then there was the Pig. 29 days after running my first 50k, I ran my eighth full road marathon. I seemed to recover fairly quickly from the Forget the PR Mohican 50k, so it didn’t seem entirely crazy to put all of this season’s speed work to the test at the Flying Pig Marathon roughly one month later. There were complications from the very start of this year’s Flying Pig, though, so it quickly became clear that this was not going to be my day to run a 3:20-3:30 marathon. Continue reading Race Report: The Flying Pig Marathon

Four Months In And #NoDaysOff

Four Months In And #NoDaysOff

I blinked and April was over. In what seemed like no time at all, my first 50k was in the record books and I had already returned to training with the BERunProject team. Since the turn of the year, I’ve run 626 miles, pedaled 676 miles with Peloton and spent about 14 hours in semi-private personal training sessions at Beyond Exercise. That’s a combined 135 hours worth of training over the last 18 weeks … all while continuing to observe #nodaysoff. Continue reading Four Months In And #NoDaysOff

Race Report: Forget the PR Mohican 50k

Race Report: Forget the PR Mohican 50k

After training for 18 weeks, 539 miles and 22,675 feet of vertical gain, I finally completed my first ultra distance on Saturday, April 6, 2019. The weather was just about perfect for the Forget the PR Mohican 50k, which is held in northern Ohio’s expansive Mohican State Park each spring. While not everything went according to plan during the race, I still had an awesome time in a surprisingly beautiful part of my home state. Continue reading Race Report: Forget the PR Mohican 50k

The Road To 50k: First Steps

The Road To 50k: First Steps

I wasn’t always a runner. Although I’ve engaged in what you might call endurance sports (specifically cycling and hiking) for most of my adult life, my running career didn’t begin until 2013. Prior to that, running was a gym class punishment at best. It was a schoolyard humiliation, not something I willingly did for hours on end. Continue reading The Road To 50k: First Steps

In the Beginning…

In the Beginning…

This blog is the warts-and-all account of my evolution as a better-late-than-never endurance athlete. My progress has been slow, my personal records are all modest, my finishing times unremarkable, but that hasn’t made the journey any less fulfilling. Continue reading In the Beginning…