I ran a mile today.

Two days before Christmas, we were almost done unpacking the important stuff after moving to a new place. (For the first time in either of our lives, we’re actually living inside the Portland city limits! But that’s a story for another time.) That’s a ceramic platter we have. It weighs nine pounds.  It f

I have a pretty good streak going: I have finished this race every single year it has been held. (This was its second year.) Here’s my report from last year. You will note that I have reused the same scenic picture. Ah, you’ve seen one giant waterfall with little ant-like people running behind it, you’ve

A picture of the smoke, at its worst, on the highway near the McKenzie River trail run. <Cough, cough.>

(Preliminary) official results The McKenzie River 50K is usually a pretty easy run, at least as far as thirty-one mile trail races go. Yes, there are a few miles of “technical” rocky trail where you have to pay attention to every footstep. And, yes, there is a bit of climb in the first few miles. [...]

I suppose it is good once in a while to run yourself into the ground, then force yourself to keep on going. That happened to me on Saturday, twenty miles into a 25.6-mile run in Forest Park. I started at the Leif Erickson trailhead (at the top of Thurman Road) but turned off almost immediately, [...]

Hola, amigos. I know it’s been a long time since I rapped at ya, but at least the running has been going better than the writing. July and August have been good training months. I’ve had three recent weeks with more than 40 miles of running, and recent long runs of 19, 21, and 18 [...]

The last few weeks have found me in a pretty consistent training pattern. Monday I’ll feel good and run hard. Tuesday I’ll struggle some through an easy run. Monday’s fast pace is still catching up to me during Wednesday’s run, too, and I start to feel some worrying aches and pains in my feet, ankles

I almost didn’t feel like going through the hassle of driving to a trail to run this morning, instead thinking about doing a street run from my house. But then I remembered that I I had bought a shiny new pair of trail shoes earlier in the week (Brooks Adrenaline GTSes) and that gave me [...]

In Forest Park, the old classic trail signs, like this: …are slowly being replaced with a new generation of signs, like this: The old ones are made of painted wood, apparently hand-stenciled. They could degrade fairly quickly in our wet conditions, but they must have been pretty inexpensive to replace. To my eye, they

Most people probably say we had a crappy spring in Portland this year, but except for some rain, it’s been ideal for running. Warm enough for shorts and short sleeves, but still nice and cool. But today it was in the 80s, and I’m as far from acclimatized to the heat as you can get. [...]

My thighs are still quite sore from Sunday’s marathon, but I went out for a two-mile jog anyway, just to let my legs know I still expect things from them. It was painful, but not in an alarming way. All the pain was in the muscles, none in the knees, ankles, or feet. My legs [...]

Why are marathons always so early? Who wants to get up at five a.m. for a seven a.m. start time? Well, there’s a good reason for it in the summer months, at least: the later it gets, the hotter it might be. But that wasn’t a problem today — it was fully cloudy with fairly [...]

That’s right! Sunday! Sunday! SUNDAY! One day only! Your faithful blogger will be running in the Inaugural Zeroth Annual Vancouver USA 26.2 mile marathon! Starting around seven in the morning Vancouver, Washington time, you can track me live on a little map here. Which will be awesome. I’m not going into this wi

It’s two weeks until my next marathon, the inaugural Vancouver USA Marathon. (Vancouver is in Washington, right across the Columbia River from Portland.) Ideally, then, I would already have been tapering some this weekend. Things have been far from ideal, though: it is only in the last few weeks that I have begun to f

I was feeling pretty good last week until Thursday, when I offended the god of running shoes by trying a very short barefoot jog. I have read many stories of injury-prone people finding more success by ditching their shoes, and I thought it was worth a try, as an experiment at least. Could it build [...]

Sorry about the quiet blog lately — there just hasn’t been much going on. I’m continuing to rebuild after Boston. Last weekend I ran six easy miles on Friday, then tried for 10 on Saturday. I made it to about nine and a quarter before my knee started feeling funny,  and I walk-jogged the last [...]

As you may recall, my left knee got tight and painful during the Boston marathon. I’ve had this happen before. It didn’t surprise me when it was sore for a couple of days afterwards. And it didn’t surprise me when running more than a few miles made it sore again in the following weeks. So [...]

After Boston, my legs were tender as hell and my left knee was sore. I didn’t run at all for a week — walking up and down the four big flights of stairs to our Manhattan hotel room was quite enough exercise, thanks. Actually, we walked a lot in New York, which was fine. In four [...]

I apologize for how late this is; after the marathon, I was on vacation for a while and only had my phone. Composing a full-blown race report by phone was not going to happen. Plus I was really busy overeating and overdrinking. Pre-race Saturday morning we took a fairly early direct flight between Portland and [...]

I think I might have had a 3:25 in me today, but surely not the 3:17 I was going for. The first 19 were fun and right on plan, but my quads got a bit sore around mile 13 — way too early for a great day. The last two Newton hills did a number [...]

The trip here went really well. Everything was on time and the plane was in a pretty good mood, since at least half the people on it were bound for the marathon.  Everyone on the plane was so skinny! The airline probably saved a lot of money on fuel on that flight. It was a [...]

We’re getting on one of those new-fangled “aeroplane” contraptions tomorrow morning and flying to Boston. I won’t be blogging much, since writing on a phone, even a smart one, is a real chore for me. But! By way of special apology bonus! I offer you: Minute-by-minute live tracking of my position duri

Some sources are predicting things to be a little warmer than they did yesterday and some a little cooler. There’s still almost nobody predicting rain. Winds are still supposed to be from the west or southwest. Runners could hardly ask for better. It’s a little too perfect if you ask me — a vast conspirac

All of the Boston Marathon weather forecasts seem to have moved the same way overnight: a little warmer, and maybe a little breezier. Those breezes are still supposed to be from the west or southwest though — tailwinds, in other words. Most of the predicted highs are in the low 60s now, which isn’t too [...]

Monday, April 18th is now in-range for seven-day forecasts, so I was able to dig up more forecasts. WHDH is the Boston NBC affiliate. Local stations can be a good source for forecasts, since they often have an actual human being involved, rather than just leaving it entirely to some computer model. I’m not saying [...

I’m deep in the middle of tapering for Boston but haven’t had much in the way of the usual tweaking yet. No mysterious sharp pains, no feeling completely exhausted and out of shape. I guess it’s a good thing. Saturday’s long run was just 12 miles. Almost every step of the way was up or [...]

Here are today’s forecasts for Boston’s weather on April 18. (Well, Wellesley’s weather, really.) Intellicast (and the Weather Channel): High 54, Low 39. Partly cloudy. 10% chance of rain. Winds 13 mph from the west. Foreca: High 54, Low 37. Partly cloudy. 5% chance of rain all day. Winds 11 mph from the w

Actually, as I look around the web, there aren’t as many sources making 10-day forecasts as I was expecting. Here are the ones I found for April 18th in Boston though. Actually, I’m looking at the forecasts in Wellesley now instead of the city of Boston. Wellseley is halfway along the marathon course and wonR