As ultrarunners, we live for planning. Lotteries. Race calendars. Training plans. Sound familiar? Normally, this is the time when we’d be planning for the year ahead. Yes, things have changed. The anticipation of race...

USA Takes Top Spots at Golden Trail Championship Jim Walmsley and Rachel Drake both finished second overall in the Golden Trail Series Championship 4-day stage race. The race included an international...

It’s safe to say that the 2020 running season didn’t go as expected. However, winter is the ideal time to work on consistent speed work without the interruption of races. In some cases, it makes perfect sense to back...

Let’s face it, the days are getting shorter and colder. Runners everywhere are digging out their headlamps from the far corners of their gear bins. We search for the rechargeable battery pack and then the...

It’s 4:30 p.m. and I’ve been at work since 8 a.m. There are still emails to reply to and admin tasks to complete, but those don’t matter now – it’s time to quickly tidy my desk and head out the door. A brisk walk home...

Winter running adventures can come in many different forms. There’s the stereotypical Rocky Mountain winter run which includes snowshoeing through 3 feet of fresh powder. Winter runs in the Pacific Northwest bring to...

What if decision fatigue leads to physical fatigue? The concept that mental fatigue is related to physical fatigue is an active area of research. There are a few theories which are being tested. The first is the centr...

Winter in New England is always full of cross-training, as it’s hard to maintain regular running without a bit of flexibility and creativity. Snow-covered trails, slick roadways and sub-Arctic temperatures often force...

I grew up in the sprawling suburbs south of Denver. It was on a 70-mile, crushed gravel path that runs through Denver – the Highline Canal – that my love for running blossomed. Even though I’ve spent years living in p...

2020 has been a year of race cancellations, which have persisted longer than anyone could have anticipated. On March 15, I shook my head in disbelief as I saw the pictures of 6,200 runners lining up to race the Bath H...

If you think hard enough, you can feel the footsteps and hear the voices of all the races you’ve ever run. They become like a thin veil between the ambition of youth and the perspective of age. The problem, of cours...

For more than 30 years I was a drystone mason, building rock walls without mortar. It was a very pleasurable, if somewhat arduous profession. The pace and cadence, visualizing of the outcome, handling of the stones an...

Without a doubt, it’s been a difficult year. Fortunately, many of us have been able to maintain some sort of running and training routines to keep us sane. Here are some gift ideas to keep your favorite runner happy an...

It’s a frigid, surprisingly damp, January night in northern Minnesota. All Gretchen Metsa can hear is the swish of her snowpants and the scraping of the sled she’s dragging behind her on the icy snowmobile trail. She’...

During the 2018 Big’s Backyard Ultra in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, Courtney Dauwalter arrived at the starting line for her 68th lap standing shoulder to shoulder with Stockholm’s Johan Steene. After running through two...

I’ve run plenty of 100-mile races, and those who know me would say that I never mentioned wanting to run a 200-mile race. Well, have you ever heard of the power of suggestion? I raced the HURT 100 in January with Cand...

“Bob, it’s minus-35 degrees.” His idea was cockamamie enough, even in ideal running conditions, but in this frozen and vast polar plateau, it was beyond ludicrous. The ramifications were unthinkable. Still. As the pa...

Ultrarunners often talk with excitement about the races they plan to train for in 2021. Western States, Hardrock, UTMB and numerous ultras hold an almost sacred place in our minds, representing hope and faith in a bri...

This year, I endured my first winter in Australia. It may sound like a small feat, but for six years I have followed the sun around the globe while chasing the running calendar. Winter in Australia makes a lot of peop...

Age: 31 Where do you live currently? Boulder, CO, but I split time between Minneapolis, MN, as well due to my partner’s work schedule Where did you grow up? Sweet Home, OR Occupation: I’ve been a full-time profess...

“It wasn’t supposed to go this way.” How many times have those words been spoken, grumbled, whined, even cried in the midst of an ultra? In my case, at the Heartland 100, they started before the race. For many of us,...

My husband, Brian, comes home when the sky has been dark for hours, with shoes full of sand, 2:1 chainsaw fluid in his shirt, and half a dozen brand new wounds that, at one point, could have used a stitch or two. Bu...

I like to think of myself as an open-minded person, yet after living my entire life in various parts of Oregon, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. One area of the state in particular has fascinated me since first d...

Looking at this year’s results of the Yeti 100 on Ultrasignup, you can get a snapshot of what transpired over the course of 100 miles. Patrick Reagan decimated the rest of the field, winning in 13 hours and 33 minutes...