Here was our pitch to the family: you can run when you want to. You can walk when you want to. And you can rest when you want to. You’ll get to hang out with some really cool people. You get a medal at the end. And the a...
Articles by Cory Reese
Let me tell you what isn’t an effective ultramarathon fueling strategy: chili dogs. Two gigantic chili dogs. Considering that a theme of this issue is race fueling, noting what fuels don’t work is at least as important a...
There is a scene in the Oscar-worthy film Dumb and Dumber when Jim Carrey trades in a dog-shaped van for a child-sized moped to drive across the country. In a look of seeming disgust, Jeff Daniels looks over at Carrey an...
There’s something about standing on the side of the highway in Iceland hitchhiking with your wife that has a way of bringing you together. We stood there in the kind of storm where at any moment it will literally start r...
I’ve been waiting for a good opportunity to tell you about my wife Mel. It is fair to say that Mel has a love/hate relationship with running. Approximately 3% is love. And the other 97% is hate. So you can imagine my sur...
My friend Scott came out of his camper holding a paper cup. He handed it to me and said, “Here, do you want to drink this?” I was immediately suspicious. Judging by the slightly yellow tint of the liquid, it looked like...
Billy Joel is an amazing musician. And I’m completely prepared to fist fight anyone who believes differently. Earlier this year I watched Joel perform his song “Miami 2017” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. As he wa...
I’d like to think that the characteristics needed to run ultramarathons can translate to other areas of everyday life. The attributes of determination and perseverance are important to finish a race, and I was able to ap...
As I’m writing this article, I will be starting a 100-mile race in less than 24 hours. I am not a stranger to this beast called the Zion 100 with whom I have a brunch date scheduled tomorrow. I’ve run the race many times...
Not too long ago, my family and I took a trip to Disney World. If eating five theme park churros in one day is wrong, I don’t want to be right. While I enjoy whiplash-inducing roller coasters and outrageously priced chur...
I once heard someone say that two horses pulling together can pull more than the sum of the two horses pulling separately. I found the idea intriguing and went to the internet to see if this was true (because of course e...
“I think I might throw up,” I heard Shacky mutter during the steep climb. My friends Vanessa and Shacky and I managed to make it to the top of Gooseberry Mesa without anyone throwing up (or dying). The climb to the top o...
My wife’s idea of a perfect vacation is to find a spot on a beach to inhabit and soak up the sun for the weekend. I can take about an hour of that before I start to go stir crazy. My idea of a perfect vacation involves e...
This morning, my alarm clock was an inconsiderate jerk. It rudely started squealing at 5:00 a.m. like a wailing newborn infant. My wife and I threw on our running clothes, then headed out the door. On the schedule today:...
A while back, our family put on our tourist hats and went on vacation to California. We saw how astronauts go to the bathroom at the California Science Center. We tried to pet Jaws at Universal Studios. And we ate ridicu...
I suppose I was drawn to Badwater, described as “the world’s toughest foot race,” for much the same reason that I was once compelled to stop and eat at a food truck that advertised “the world’s largest corndogs”: the cha...
If I were pinned down and forced to choose a single image that portrayed the grit, difficulty and triumph of ultrarunning, it would be a picture of my friend Jared Thorley after finishing his first ultramarathon, the Ult...
Sometimes the best lessons about ultrarunning come from that race when your feet simultaneously give birth to seven gigantic blisters, you run out of water, you bonk with 11 (or 72) more miles left to go, and the best yo...
Above all else, I believe that running should be two things: 1) A perfectly legitimate justification for the combo meal at In-N-Out Burger, and 2) Fun. I’ve come to realize that one of the best ways to sprinkle a dose of...
I am a member of a special club. You pay the membership dues with grit, tenacity, stubbornness and courage. The members of my club understand each other on an unspoken level. We feel each other’s pain. We relish each oth...
In southern Utah, our summer temperatures regularly resemble standing on the surface of the sun… while wearing sweat pants. Because of this, I have more than my share of experience running in the heat. I know tricks to m...
There’s a Dating For Dummies book. There’s a Personal Finance For Dummies book. Next thing you know, there will be a Binge-Watching Downton Abbey For Dummies book. But in all my research, I’ve never found a book called R...
I circled the high school track, loop after loop, hour after hour, mile after mile. For 100 miles, to be exact. It was July in southern Utah, where summer temperatures feel like you’re standing on the sun. The high was 1...
Maybe it was the Native American prayer spoken by a Navajo leader in the predawn light before the start of the race. Maybe it was the sense that I was running right through the middle of a John Wayne movie. Maybe it was...