Mistakes are gifts. When we screw up or face big setbacks, we can learn from those experiences and reset our resolve to achieve goals and live the life we want. Behind every successful and happy person are many big mista...

Dear Ann, When races go seriously wrong and my dreams are shattered, I ask myself, “Why am I running ultras?” After a DNF at Lost Souls I had trained hard and was ready, but then everything I wanted was denied. I went o...

There’s nothing like spring weather to get you excited about buying a new pair of kicks, but with so many options out there, which ones are right for you? The 2009 publication of Born to Run spurred a minimalist trend...

One of the most common topics that comes up with the runners I coach is about how many races to enter and whether to race the weekend after an unexpected development such as injury, illness, work/family emergency, poor t...

Courtney Dauwalter The books and articles on what we are supposed to eat, how, when and why could fill a library, but many of us have an inner self, or at least I do, that wants everything contrary to those books to be...

Many runners casually throw around the word “cross-training” in conversation – we talk about speed intervals, special diets, the latest gear and… cross-training – it’s like it can almost be a bragging point that someone...

I grew up in New England and I was a cross-country ski racer in my youth. I’ve always played outside in the winter – no matter the weather and no matter the temperatures. I am in my happy place when outside on the snow....

The stress of any given training is due to the intensity and duration of the types of running that occurs. The idea of periodization of training is that during some periods you may train at a low intensity for a long dur...

Winter is here, and if your enthusiasm for getting out the door to run is low, your enthusiasm for wanting to read yet another running book review is likely even lower. But fear not! This review involves asteroids hittin...

Captured by a crew member on cell phone video, the scene is captivating: Family members scream urgently towards the dark woods until, finally, a runner emerges on the trail, sprinting for all he’s worth, blowing right th...

Precision marks a lot of the important things in Chris DeNucci’s life. He is, after all, an M.D. in musculoskeletal radiology, a field of medicine that deals with imaging of bone and joint abnormalities, including ort...

Some people can run ultramarathons for years, even decades, and never get a serious injury. Others are very injury-prone, forced into taking extended breaks often. Surely, some runner’s bodies are better suited to the de...

When we presented our first all-wool apparel review a few years ago, the fabric was still establishing a foothold among dedicated trail runners. Since then, wool has exploded in popularity, and a number of new players ha...

Darcy Piceu has become one of the most accomplished ultrarunners in the history of the sport. She completed her first ultra, a 50-miler, in 2001 at the age of 26 and then less than a year later completed the Leadville 10...

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...

The call I made was quick. “Topher, put your running gear on, it’s time to try yoga.” “Yoga? Isn’t that for old people?” “I’ll be there in five.” “Wait, here, at my house? You’re coming here…” I interrupted, “Ge...

It’s early in the year and as they say, “Hope springs eternal.” But when formulating plans for what’s to come it’s also important to start considering what your future exit strategy might be. While being vibrant and o...

There are many treasures of running Brazos Bend 100 and the one that sticks out the most to me is the scenery and beauty of nature throughout the park. Huge oak trees with endless amounts of Spanish moss hanging from bra...

Welcome to northeast Alabama and the Pinhoti 100. In its tenth year, Pinhoti 100 has lured runners from all over the U.S, and many foreign nations to the Pinhoti Trail for a point-to-point 100-mile race from Heflin, Alab...

My mom wasn’t my top choice to crew for me at Pinhoti, my first 100-miler. Okay, I’ll be honest; she was my very last resort. It’s not that I didn’t want her as part of the team; it’s just that the closest she had ever b...

Hellgate 100K is actually 66.6 miles starting at 12:01 a.m. on the second Saturday in December at the northern terminus of the Glenwood Horse Trail at the Big Hellgate Parking lot next to Big Hellgate Creek in Central Vi...

Nearly 400 runners huddled near propane heaters inside an oversized white tent, waiting for the start of the Back 40 Trail Race in Bella Vista, Arkansas, on December 9. A chilly Saturday morning welcomed participants fro...

The all-time list of JFK 50 Mile champions is a virtual who’s who of U.S. ultrarunning. Eric Senseman etched his name among the elite on Nov. 18 in the 55th annual edition of the nation’s oldest and largest ultramarat...

The adrenaline was electric at the starting line of the Devil Dog 100 ultramarathon in Prince William Forest Park, Virginia. It was 5:59 a.m. on December 2, 2017 and with only a minute to go. I glanced at the faces aroun...

I was already in awe of the task, knowing the course intimately, and the eight inches of snow only added to my feelings of insignificance. With these thoughts in my mind, I began the race thankful to be with wonderful pe...

The North Face Endurance Challenge co-founder and event host Dean Karnazes said, “San Francisco is the most international of cities and this was the most international of races. We had 45 different countries represented...

Tunnel Hill Founder and Race Director Steve Durbin knows gnarly courses. A six-time Barkley Marathons competitor, he is a member of a secret band of ultrarunning scalawags that descend on Frozen Head Park each year, dete...

As the 50-mile runners toed the line in the early morning darkness, they were greeted by flickers of light in the sky. What was a beautiful showcase of lights overhead was lightning that quickly changed into a loud, thun...

There is always that ugly moment in a race where I ask myself foolhardy questions like, What are you doing here? Why did you sign up for this race and pony up all that money for inevitable suffering? It happens every tim...