Welcome to my Blog!

There have easily been 15 occasions during the past when I have stated that I am glad that the internet wasn't utilized for chat rooms and blogging so much when I started to run ultramarathons back in 1995. By 1995 I had already been a runner for 17 years. I had run cross country and track in high school and college and I had completed several marathons. I even ran pretty well in some of them. In fact I had a lot of 100 mile weeks behind me. But ultras seemed different...and they were.

I couldn't quite figure them out. By 1995 I was feeling past my PR's and I had put on a lot of weight during a few down years. But the problem wasn't fitness, it was juggling. When I ran long it took me so long to recover that my fitness suffered. Gradually, over time, I started to figure things out. Fourteen years later I still don't quite get it...still learning. But the salient point in all of this is that if I had read what is available on Blogs today back in 1995 I would have become intimidated and quit the sport. I would have looked at the training programs some people post and run (jogged) off screaming. I still read Blogs today where people speak of running 50 miles one day and a marathon the next....then speedwork on Tuesday and a 40 mile training run the next saturday morning. Good heavens! The only reason on earth that I think that I can run a 100 mile run on 50 miles per week and some carefully planned long runs is because I have done it. But I did it before reading of the horrors that some people put themselves through.

Sometimes I wonder if some of it isn't false. Sometimes I wonder if the "expert" advice offered on-line isn't more damaging than helpful. I actually believe that some of it is. Thats why I always swore I would never have a Blog.

But then....I started reading Rob Powell's Blog. Then Kim's, then Nick's. These writings helped me to get out the door on tough snowy nights. They inspired me. I read several other Blogs that were not helpful at all. Some were obnoxious... but I read still others, including Don's and Michelle's and Lucas' and found them to be inspiring as well. I started to feel kinda bad that I was getting a kick out of their sites but not adding my own thoughts or entertaining anyone myself.

The funny thing about the group I just mentioned is that some of them are very fast...others are quite slow. Some train very very hard, others are more moderate. But none of them are arrogant. None of them try to hold themselves out as experts. All of them convey a sense of continued development...and dag-gonnit they are just nice and encouraging people. Don't take my word for it. You can access their Blogs from this site. I won't ever place a link to a Blog on this site that will connect you to a self-described expert (or a peer-reviewed Know-it-all).

So here I am. I hope you check this space from time-to-time. I hope it gets you to run in the rain now and then instead of sitting indoors. I hope that you become an accomplished runner and loan me some sorta fancy salt-pill out on the trail some day when I really need one.

You will get no training advice here. I can't really tell you what kind of shoes to wear, and I firmly believe that no person on this earth should ever accept advice on their own gastrointestinal system from someone other than themself...so no dietary advice to be sure. Just some stories, some observations, some wonderings, and hopefully a burgeoning friendship or two.

Peace. --Mark