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2025/2026 Winter Update: Part 2 - HM Race Report

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  All race photos are from the Clark County Running Club. THANK YOU I love the Vancouver Lake Half Marathon because it manages to stay small and affordable. The park can only fit so many runners and there's limited parking, so the field is capped at around 300 runners and walkers. The thing I do not love about the course is that because its in the middle of winter, it's always usually cold and raining, and this year was no different. Because the parking lot is limited, most of us try to get there at least an hour early. Except there are no heaters and everyone is trying to keep dry and warm for almost an hour before the race starts. They did have a bag check so I kept my jacket on up until about 20 minutes before the race started. Next time I will bring a blanket to stay warm.  The last time I raced this course, I was modest and placed myself somewhere near the back half of the field. I was using up a lot of extra energy and honestly felt like kind of a jerk weaving arou...
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2025/2026 Winter Update: Part 1 - 5K Time Trial

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Starting this winter, I needed to re-dedicate myself to structured training. Nothing too complicated. In the words of the great Frank Shorter  -    “Two hard interval sessions a week and one long run – 20 miles or two hours, whichever comes first. Every other run is aerobic, and you do as much of that for volume as you can handle. Do this for two or three years, and you’ll get good” That's basically the bones of my training. Structure, consistency, and a little math. I want to use this framework for the rest of 2026, adjusting the kinds of efforts I'll be doing, depending on the race I'm training for. Following up on my last post, the first task is to sharpen up my 5K. Sorry Frank Shorter, I'll do the 2 hour long runs, but with all due respect I'll be nowhere near 20 miles after 2 hours.  5K Time Trial Prep  After recovering from my  Marathon , I hit the roads again with an eye to do a mini 8 week training block with a time trial sometime near the...
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Don't Chase the Fitness, Let the Fitness Come to You: Reflections and Looking Forward to 2026

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I took 2 weeks off to reflect on this past year. I had tons of fun, no doubt. Over the past year, I ran 2 road marathons, a 50 km ultra marathon, a 50 mile ultra marathon, a 197 mile road relay (Hood to Coast) and just recently I ran a 7 mile trail race. But there was still a part of me that didn't feel satisfied. The arbitrary goal of hitting sub 4 hours in a road marathon eluded me and I was getting increasingly frustrated that I kept falling short. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that I was so hyper-focused breaking 4 hours goal that I ended up skipping steps. I got a little drunk off the allure of the marathon distance. It's an admirable distance for sure, but running a marathon does not make you "more" of a runner than someone who hasn't run a marathon. I spent months chasing after goal marathon pace and completely ignored all my other paces.  I've been preaching "go slow to run fast," which is absolutely true. Turns out if I go slo...
Location: Portland, OR, USA
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Columbia River Gorge Marathon Race Report

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Holy Smokes. That was Hard. The views at the summit of this course were breathtaking. But the course itself took my breath away in a "kick your butt, here's a humble sandwich" kind of way. The hills seemed never-ending and the elevation gain --about 1900 ft-- is no joke. But you get rewarded with a beautiful view of the gorge from Rowena Crest! If you are lucky, then you might also get some views of rainbows on your way back. If you're unlucky, you might get a good old-fashioned rain dump. Last Sunday, I got all of those things and a bag of chips so I don't know what it says about my luck. The bag of chips was delicious, though! They came with my sandwich after the race. What I didn't get, however, was a shiny new PR. It didn't happen that day, and that's ok. We press forward. Let's break down the training block and this race.  Training: Show Up, Eat Miles This block was minimalist and stupid simple. In general, I made Sunday morning a long...
Location: Hood River, OR 97031, USA
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Mt. Hood 50 Miler Recap: Recap and Lessons Learned

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  (Photo Credit: the wonderful photographers they have at  Go Beyond Racing )   The Mt. Hood 50 Miler is done and dusted, and I’m here with the real talk—what went well, what didn’t, and what I’m taking into my next ultra adventure. Course Description The course itself its kind of like a double out-and-back. You run north 14 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail, 14 miles back to the start. Then you run 11 miles south along the Pacific Crest Trail, then back to the start again to total approximately 50 miles. Lets breakdown my race     The First Half — Miles 0 to 28 The race kicked off at 6 AM near Timothy Lake, with a cool mountain breeze and fresh legs. The first half surprised me by being less steep than expected, so I didn’t need the trekking poles much early on—lesson learned, those babies are for the back half. Its hard to know when to need them because if you look at the elevation profile, it doesn't look particularly obvious that I'd need them or not ne...
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Why I Run.

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Whenever someone finds out I run marathons or ultras, the first question is almost always: "Wait—why??  All that pain? And you sign up for it?? I usually smirk and say, “So I can feel alive again.” The funny thing is… I used to think I was joking.  But I’m not. Numb is Safe. But It’s Also... Numb. For a long time, I kept everything at arm’s length—emotionally, mentally, physically. That distance helped protect me from painful or overwhelming feelings. But it also dulled the good ones. The joy. The pride. The wonder. The awe.   Even those became muted. Growing up, I learned—like a lot of people do—that my emotional needs came second. Or third. Or not at all. There was always something bigger, scarier, more important going on. So I made myself small. I stopped asking for space, attention, or care. And eventually, I stopped expecting it altogether. I got really good at surviving. And somewhere along the way, I forgot I had a voice. The Run That Changed No...
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Mt. Hood 50 Miler: Where We're Going, We Don't Need... Roads. (Pre Race Post)

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It’s go time. The Mt. Hood 50 Miler is coming up, and I wanted to drop a pre-race post to share a little about my training block, my gear, my fueling strategy, and the chaotic stack of snacks I’ll be hauling through the woods.  Also—just to set the tone— "Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need... roads."  50 Miles. All on trails, baby!   Training Block Summary I kept things pretty simple. I'm slightly allergic to structure and my brain doesn't like thinking too much when I run, so I went by these general guidelines:   Tons of easy miles. I needed to build my aerobic base, along with communicating to my muscles that we'll be doing this for a long LONG time .  Tons of elevation gain. Fortunately I live in a relatively hilly neighborhood so I got a bit of practice going up and down hills. Still, I'm at the point where I typically just walk up anything that is more than slightly inconvenient.    Long runs every weekend.  Lets also talk about strides...
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