With the growth of ultrarunning has come the increased popularity of 100 mile races, with 152 different “hundos” in our North American Ultra Calendar for 2016. Everyone seems to be doing them. But in fact, that is hardly...

Dear Ann, Doing 100-mile races is a huge challenge, but all the training and hard work on race day is really rewarding to me. So much so, that the worst part by far is the comedown in the days and weeks after a 100-mile...

Writing this, I’m on a plane on the way back from my favorite race. It’s an event that draws me year after year to travel across the world in cramped planes. Every time, it offers something unique and special to me. It c...

As ultrarunners, we are often forced to plan out our race calendar many months, and sometimes a year or more, in advance. This can be because we are trying to get into races which require qualifiers or enter races which...

We know we need carbohydrates during an ultra. It’s up to you to decide what type of carbohydrate best works with your system. Many people prefer some type of gel during a run because they are easy to carry, quick to dig...

The allure of ultramarathon running is, in large part, due to its complexity: navigating the challenges of distance, terrain, weather and how those variables affect the body and mind. Whole industries have developed to p...

I feel sorry for the Bud People. We only have five senses with which to enjoy our running, and they blithely toss one of them away. Ears plugged, they never hear the sounds of the birds singing to greet the new day. Lost...

The dog days of summer, especially in August, when the heat can go through the roof, will put your eating and drinking practices to the test. Staying properly hydrated is a real challenge when you’re sweating profusely a...

This is the column that those of you who love your sleep have been waiting for. Recently, the importance of sleep has had a bit of renaissance. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington wrote a book called The Sleep...

We all know ultrarunning is going to beat us up physically from time to time, but we sometimes overlook the way we beat ourselves up mentally – both in running and in life. A few years ago, I realized some of my own nega...

Every ultrarunner knows there will come a point when things get tough. Just as smooth seas do not make a skilled sailor, smooth roads do not make a good runner. It is during these defining moments that we build our runni...

“Ebb and flow” is an expression that the Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms defines as “a recurrent or rhythmical pattern of coming and going, or decline and regrowth.” I love this definition and think that it describes...

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...

Every year since Gordy’s first trek from Squaw Valley to Auburn, many runners have tried to answer the call of the wild and make that epic journey. For some it’s been a successful quest, for others it’s been a dream unfu...

Southern California continues to experience severe drought, and the predicted El Niño for 2016 did little to fill up the reservoirs and lakes that surround the San Diego 100 course. However, spring mountain rains resulte...

There is a Zen koan, or riddle, that goes, “How do you put out a fire that’s 20 miles away?” The answer is “Be the fire.” I heard this koan a few days before I flew from Santa Fe to San Francisco to run the Miwok 100K...

Together, over a surprisingly frenzied weekend in late June, three runners came to represent the ultimate triumph of dreams that can be realized or be dashed at the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run. There was the...

After two long weeks of rain, the sun finally made an appearance at the fourth annual Singletrack Maniac 50K in Williamsburg, VA, on May 14, 2016. Everyone came out to bask in the sunshine. The dark, wet branches created...

I could hear footsteps becoming exponentially louder, charging in my direction. My eyes darted across the horizon, unable to detect the source of the noise. Like a ghost, a runner slipped out of the fog, soaked from the...

The Monday before the McDonald Forest 50K, my favorite weather app showed plump sun icons all week, leading up to a big gray scab of a rain cloud on race day. The forecasts in the valley may be notoriously unreliable, bu...

Late last year, our youngest son, Sebastian, who is an experienced trail runner, expressed an interest in running the iconic Santa Barbara Nine Trails 35 Mile Endurance Run. It came as no surprise. This run, founded by P...

The 2016 Promise Land 50K was held on April 30. This was the 16th year of the race on the exact same course for every year. I really believe it is the best 50k in the East. You may say I am biased because I created it, a...

The Chippewa 50K, held on the Ice Age Trail in and around New Auburn, Wisconsin, late each April, is a smooth, rolling course, amenable to a fast early tempo. That, along with a start list full of local hotshots looking...

Early frosts and below-average winter snow depths that lead to crunchy dry trail conditions were supposed to be this year’s headline, until “hot” weather and runners stole the show. “Hot” in the North only means high 70s...

Heading into the famed Midwest trail ultramarathon, the Ice Age Trail 50, in southern Wisconsin, I was very confident, yet very curious. I was in the best shape of my life just a year removed from two injury-riddled coll...

The morning of the race found hundreds of runners gathered under low, heavy clouds behind historic War Eagle Mill. The buzz died down as the much anticipated pre-race briefing began for the 2016 Hobbs War Eagle Trail Run...

The Transvulcania experience begins with the island’s mystique. Isla de la Palma is the fifth-largest island of seven islands located off Morocco’s southern coast that constitute the Canary Islands. Due to its secluded l...