When 57-year-old Ninette Banoun of Oslo, Norway, entered the Quarry Road aid station at mile 90.7 of the Western States 100 at 8:21 a.m. on Sunday morning, she was 11 minutes on the wrong side of statistical history....
Articles by Jeff Kozak
In early June of 2009, prolonged storminess had left me feeling restless and trapped in the Owens Valley. All spring, after excitedly realizing that my planned route was 100k in round-trip length, I had been patiently...
View from Gooseberry Mesa onto the Virgin River lowlands that comprise the middle miles of the Zion 100K. Before 2019 was fully in the rearview mirror, I had decided to step away from ultras for a year....
I keep a duffel bag in my truck at all times with the essentials I need to run – anytime, anywhere. It’s a small bag for such a boundless pursuit and a continual reminder that the fundamental beauty of running lies in...
The beat-up SUV barreled southbound through the early September high desert heat, as Springsteen’s blue-collar baritone clawed at my “itchin’ for somethin’ to start” soul through scratchy speakers: “The dogs on Main S...
The text arrived, immediately conjuring up an ultra career’s worth of nostalgia: “Hey Jeff! I saw you at States! I was running in with a client in the Golden Hour. I’m going to be in Bishop Wed-Friday. You around?” Th...
My head leaned heavily against the window of a teammate’s car as he drove several of us back to campus after another sweltering South Carolina afternoon cross country practice. Piling out of the vehicle, someone pointed...
Long before Theodore Solomons envisioned a continuous trail paralleling the granite crest of the Sierra Nevada while gazing eastward from the Central Valley lowlands in May of 1884, the range had been well-traveled by...
There was a period of time, several years ago, when Weird Al Yankovic would join me on most of my easy runs. Okay – not literally – but his characteristic long curly hair, porn star mustache and Coke bottle glasses we...
On paper, a 20:41 100-mile finish time would be the obvious performance choice over a 21:57 result at the same race. Both of these efforts led to second place showings, at the 1988 and 1987 Western States 100, respect...
Running has been a steadfast tread on the path my life has travelled since discovering track in junior high. In high school I became a devoted disciple of the sport, falling in love with the year-round cycle of cross cou...
George Carlin did this outrageous stand-up bit in the mid-80s about the dilemma of deciding what to bring when packing for small situational snippets of our lives: from home to vacation rental, from rental to quick weeke...
Darkness had barely laid its full cloak upon the Quarry Road aid station (mile 90.7 of the Western States 100 course) and Hal Koerner was chatting, almost casually, with a runner that had just arrived. The guy looked lik...
The suburbs of Cincinnati were a good place to grow up, I suppose. That is, unless you felt the deepest stirrings of your soul when surrounded by mountains and big sky country. Those soul-meets-landscape connections were...
Regardless of whether the December lotteries brought additional holiday cheer, or a wild-hair moment finally forced a hesitant Ultrasignup hand, a summer ultra can seem infinitely far away when viewed from the dark reces...
If you’re an endless summer runner at heart – one whom can’t help but secretly cringe at crisp fall color because you know it means a dark, cold and potentially wet blanket is about to suffocate your ambition – take sola...
It’s difficult to discern nature versus nurture with 16-year-old Sierra Burror. But when it comes to a passion for endurance activities and the outdoors, perhaps it’s irrelevant as she brings both sides of the behavioral...
“Did you hear what happened?”I was the first one out to the rendezvous point after assisting with the freshly dismantled Brown’s Bar aid station (mile 90.7) at this year’s Western States, and was eagerly anticipating cat...
The low point of the course turned out to be my low point as well. Downtown Ashland, at 1,950 feet, looked disturbingly close considering I was at mile 40ish and still had to get back over the summit shoulder of Mt. Ashl...