What makes a race hard? Most people will immediately think of elevation gain/loss. Technical trails, high altitude or extreme weather are also things that make a race difficult. Basically, anything that slows you down are good criteria for determining what’s a hard race. I know this is how I’ve been conditioned to think: More vert…
2024 Schedule
It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally settled on my 2024 schedule. For the longest time, I had been planning on doing what I was calling the Pennsylvania 500 which consisted of the five PA hundred mile races. I thought it would be cool to do them all in the same year. Two of…
The Nuances of Running A Hundred Miles
A lot of people probably question my obsession with hundred milers. Goodness knows my wife does. So why do I keep signing up for race after race? It’s because the sheer quantity of nuances involved keep the distance fresh and challenging for me after all these years. Or it’s possible that I’m just a very,…
The Big Three Challenges of Running a Hundred Miles
In my opinion, there’s three big challenges in running a hundred miles. I’m going to ignore fitness when talking about challenges though. There’s a base level of endurance competence that you need to bring to the table. If all you’ve ever done are 5Ks or day hikes, you’ve no chance of moving your body 100…
Chasing 10K Update: Halfway to Halfway
For the uninitiated, this blog is documentation of my ultimate ultra career goal of finishing a hundred 100 mile races. 100 x 100 = 10k. Rather amazingly enough this was something I came up before I had even toed the line at my first hundred miler. As I was getting into ultras, hundred milers had…
Tussey mOUTaiNBACK 50 Mile Race Report
By popular demand – less words, more pictures! This was my first year running Tussey, which had been on my bucket list for quite some time. I read up about the race as much as possible, however still had a couple gear decisions that I was unsure about. The first was whether or not to…
Tussey mOUTaiNBACK Preview
I guess I need to start with the name, which has always challenged me. I can never seem to remember which letters are supposed to be capitalized and which not. It’s just an odd look. The second thing is that the name is flat out false advertising. You see the format is a a giant…
My Ultra Lifestyle
If I’m being honest, running ultras has become more of a lifestyle choice for me than a hobby. Consistently running. I managed to run 12 miles the week after Buckeye. I’ve logged 2,000-2,500 miles per year since 2018 and at least 1,700 miles since I started back in 2013. All of this without any injuries…
Buckeye 200 Mile Race Report
I came. I saw. I slew some monsters. Buckeye 200 is an out-and-back race from Ashtabula to Wellsville mostly following Ohio state route 45. The format is set up as a journey run, which means no course markings or aid stations. You can either do this crewed or screwed as they say. I chose the…
Buckeye 200 Preview: Thar Be Monsters
Nine years ago I began Lewis and Clarking my way through ultras. I had been running steadily for a couple years and spent a lot of time reading about the sport, but overall it was this large blank canvas. What to eat, how to pace, best way to prevent blisters, handling rain; I was faced…