One thing I've had on my running bucket list for a while (I only have what, 10 more years to do this?) has been to win my hometown marathon, and I was finally able to accomplish it this past weekend, in 2:37:48!

I've been putting in a lot of high-effort long runs on Sundays -- 24@6:05, 23@6:20, 20@6:01 -- and I thought a long run of this type of effort might be enough to win the Duke City Marathon in a down year. I knew it would be a bit of a crapshoot. In the decade since I started pay...

Sunday, April 10th was a beautiful day in Rotterdam. It was mostly sunny, and about 50 degrees. Fortunately, then, that Rotterdam had designated that date for the 41st Rotterdam Marathon. Maybe a tad sunny for my liking -- I spend my winters running happily in the pitch-black pre-dawn, and my summers waking up even earlier to escape the light -- but any marathoner will tell you that it doesn't get much better that that. I ran a 2:22:38 with a negative split, my best time and easily my best pe...

This past Sunday, I finally ran the Virtual Boston Marathon. It's not exactly the experience I had anticipated when I signed up last fall, but I'm glad I was able to participate in some manner even after the race was postponed and then cancelled.

I ended up running 2:33:22, an average of 5:51 per mile for 26.22 miles. Given the short training cycle, the lack of competition, and the altitude, I am incredibly pleased with this performance. I also know I didn't give near my full effort; I ...

Just a quick update, as this past week went by much like the one before it. I hit right around 90 miles again, but I felt it was a much more relaxed effort. The long run in particular -- 20 miles again -- didn't hurt nearly as badly this time, and it was several seconds per mile faster.

I had one real workout, which was a 10 x 3:00 on / 2:00 off. I didn't feel great going into it, but I surprised myself by the end. Again, it's very difficult to get the legs to move as quickly as ...

I completed my first week of real, intentional training since Boston was postponed in March. It may have been a tad too aggressive, considering I'd been averaging about 45 miles per week since May, but I'm stubborn enough that I'll pretty much do anything I have written in my calendar no matter the cost to my body and soul (I think that's a helpful trait in a runner as long as you're not prone to burnout or injury). I ended up with 89 miles total, including one easy workout, a 14-mile midweek...

I was signed up this spring to run my fourth marathon in Boston. I ran a great half-marathon in Phoenix in January during my build-up, and everything was going great. Then, the Big 'Rona started to rain down on the world, far away at first but then closer and closer to home. I think I had accepted it sooner than most of my friends, but it still was not fun to hear that Boston was postponed. As weeks passed and the world shut down, I started to think that the race would eventually be completel...

Minor spoilers for Run With The WInd....

I'm a fairly entry-level anime fan, but there are several things that I greatly appreciate about the medium. One of those things is the broad appeal that anime has in Japan, as opposed to more narrow audience targeted by western cartoons. In my experience, cartoons in the US are mostly bite-size, fun, colorful productions intended for kids. While many of these are incredible, they generally shy away from more adult themes and long, seria...