Articles by James Raia

Out of the Mainstream

Tim Keown is a young, established sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle. He attends sporting events in the country’s largest arenas and stadiums and he reports on games for which huge sums of money are bet....

Mandatory Volunteerism: An Oxymoron Whose Time Has Come?

Considering the strenuous nature of the sport, ultramarathon running is surprisingly tranquil and forgiving. Regardless of the journey and the various obstacles, runners usually go about the task at hand with remarkable...

Western Words Dick Collins: A Runner's Life In His Own Words, Part Two

View Part 1 By 1985, long distance running was ingrained into Dick Collins’ lifestyle. A husband, father, grandfather and successful businessman, he had woven the sport into his world with as many challenges on foot a...

Western Words Dick Collins: A Runner's Life In His Own Words

One day, a short while after his retirement in the fall of 1995, Dick Collins telephoned me. We weren’t close friends, but we had spoken at numerous races and I had written a few newspaper and magazine articles about his...

Western Words: Mo Bartley: She Just Wants To Have Fun

A parking lot is a parking lot, unless it’s the parking lot at the Auburn Dam Overlook, in which case nearly anything is possible. Show up early on nearly any weekend morning and the parking lot or the adjacent dir...

Western Words: Fatherly Advice Rethought

Somewhere around 40 miles, depleted, nauseated and suddenly sufficiently uninterested, I came to an abrupt conclusion. After running in circles for nearly eight hours at the low-key Pony Express Endurance Run in Cameron...