As spring training begins to grip you with its nasty, muddy hands, and you come to terms with the miles that lie ahead this season, don’t forget to schedule in some time to volunteer this year.As seasoned ultrarunners kn...
March 2020
Features
While much of what you do each day seems like it takes deliberate thought and willpower, your habits dictate more than you realize. Daily bad habits can lead to negative cycles. While it’s tough to change these for the b...
As winter gives way to spring, it’s time to tune your training up a notch. Hopefully, as March rolls around, you have a solid foundation of time under your running legs. You’ve done some high intensity work and most impo...
If you search online for the phrase, “What is race weight?” you will find site after site toting the magical ideal of the lowest fat percentage for performance. As we have seen over the years, these written “ideals” to p...
As the dark and cold winter months slowly start to fade, a new season of mud and sun begins to surface. If you’re like many runners, you likely took it easy over the winter with some skiing, time in the gym, chilling wit...
How can you get a 4% improvement in your running? Some say you just need to buy a new pair of shoes, but the science tells us plyometrics may be the answer.One of the things I like most about running is its efficiency. T...
Somewhere between winter and spring, lies the frustration of ice and mud season in the Northeast. This time of treacherous running can last anywhere from a week to a month, but the most challenging conditions are when bo...
Whether we realize it or not, runners are environmentalists.Most of us prefer to run outside. We would probably never exclusively run on a treadmill, so that means we care about running outside.Since I care about running...
There’s an indescribable joy of being able to run an ultramarathon again after what you thought was a career-ending injury. As John Trent recently explained in his column, “A resigned look in an orthopedic surgeon’s eyes...
There was only one thing left for Maggie Guterl to do, and that was to run.She was wrapped up in the middle of a strange gathering of runners in someone’s backyard. To call it a competition several months later, now that...
The benefits of merino wool are well established. The fabric is naturally breathable, moisture-wicking, odor resistant and maintains its insulating properties, even when wet. When merino is combined with modern synthetic...
Jim Walmsley and Ellie Greenwood are the North American Ultrarunners of the Decade for 2010-2019.Greenwood, who was Ultrarunner of the Year three times (2011, 2012 and 2014) edged out Courtney Dauwalter, Kaci Lickteig an...
Where are you going, and how are you preparing to get there? It’s a question that we ask ourselves when we throw a goal race on the calendar and establish a training plan. That’s typically how it goes, right? But what if...
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...
Upon finishing a 100-miler, we often receive a shiny new belt buckle. Now what? I concede that my approach to wearing belt buckles may be all wrong. For years, my personal philosophy has been that a belt buckle deserves...
With all the attention focused on training and fueling in this issue, I thought it important to examine a sometimes overlooked byproduct of our athletic pursuits, tooth decay. Being married to a dentist, I’m well aware o...
The start of spring evokes themes of cleaning and regeneration. The longer days and greening of the hillsides traditionally prompt people to get organized and perhaps celebrate rebirth as part of a religious or pagan tra...
Spring is in the air. But what does that even mean? In one half of the world, it’s spring. For the other half of the globe, it’s autumn. As I sit here in Australia, sweating my way through summer, spring feels like a lon...
Age: 41Where do you live currently? San Diego, CAWhere did you grow up? Marin County, CAOccupation: Director of IT Operations at Cognella Academic PublishingFamily (kids, spouse, pets)? Jenny (spouse) and four cats (Dang...
Race Reports
One does not simply register for Hellgate. Runners must submit an application along with their credentials to the race committee. I was set on being one of those runners, so in a box I included a completed application wi...
Back in 2001, there were only 28 100-mile ultras in North America. HURT was established to give Hawaiian ultrarunners a “local” event. There were 29 starters and 8 finishers the first year, and it took six years before a...
Alligators can run up to 20-miles-per-hour in one direction: forward. Race director Rob Goyen said, “Do not F#*%*NG jump over their head,” as we all assembled for the athlete meeting during packet pickup. As a resident o...
The night before my 100k race, I meticulously packed and organized my nutrition. Each drop bag had copious amounts of waffles, gummies, protein bars and squeezable apple-banana sauces. I even perfected my own individual...
Mike Bialick, 38, of Minnetonka, MN, won the Tunnel Hill 100-mile run for the second time. His victory gives him two firsts, and two second-place finishes in his four attempts. In fact, it took a world record 100 by Cami...

Denise Bourassa tackles the muddy and root-covered trails during the HURT 100 in the mountains above Honolulu, Hawaii. Denise was the second female to finish in a time of 32:03. Photo: Gary Wang