2025 Year in Review
As 2025 comes to an end, it’s left me with one final gift… sickness. We’ve been surrounded by it for weeks with various friends and family going under the weather, and it’s finally our turn. I’m grateful that I had already taken off most of the week from work, but I’m also peeved that I […]
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2025 Activities year-in-review
This year I’m compressing my running and biking review posts down to just one post and talking broadly about the trackable activities I did over the year. Broadly, this was a MUCH lower intensity year than I’ve had for a while. I got in just over 2100 miles throughout the year across running, biking, walking/hiking, […]
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Review: Fenix HM65R-T V2.0 headlamp
I started my running career using a Petzl Tikka+ headlamp that got the job done, but after a year I decided to up to a Black Diamond Spot. Both of these headlamps were solid choices and they helped me through a lot of late night and early morning runs. Yet, as the calendar keeps moving […]
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The ode to the (mini)van
When I was a very young child we had some family friends who had a classic VW bus. This was 1980, so not as “classic” as it stands today, but I vividly remember crawling into the back of the van to go to drive-in movies. Then a couple years later when I had joined a […]
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The blessing of ski trail lights
This morning I opt’d for a walk over at Elm Creek. It’s been a long summer with lots of travel, running, biking, and generally living life to its fullest. But even the joy that comes with living adventures doesn’t happen without demanding sacrifice. Over this summer I’ve traveled close to 8,000 miles for running, biking, […]
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Some running race stats
This weekend I’m pacing and crewing a friend of mine at a 100 mile race out of state, and as luck would have it, I was reminded that 6 years ago I completed my first (and only so far) 100 mile race. It got me thinking about how many races I’ve run over the years, […]
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An Amtrak fail
A couple weeks ago I needed to be in Boston for a big public transportation conference for work. I’m not a huge fan of flying, I’ll do it if I need to, but it’s not my favorite way to get places. I’ll often plan longer driving trips just so that I can see the countryside, […]
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Race Report: Philmont Trail Marathon
I was never a Boy Scout, but Mike was and a few years ago he heard about a new trail race starting up on the site of the Philmont High Adventure camp. He had been there a few times as both a youth and a troop leader and was excited to experience the place as […]
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A little north shore bikepacking adventure
Earlier this year my wife suggested a trip up to the Superior National Forest to explore some of the gravel roads and campgrounds via bike. It sounded like a great idea and so we floated it to various friends who might want to join. However, as the year progressed our friends ended up not being […]
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First foray into the BWCA Day 4
It takes a lifetime to findThe life like the life you had in mind– Trampled by Turtles We all awoke early on our last day, even our birthday girl. When we were putting together this plan there was a happy coincidence that we’d be waking up on Beth Lake on Beth’s actual birthday, and now […]
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First foray into the BWCA Day 3
I awoke groggily on day 3 to the final sounds of rain on the tent fly. The lightning had abated and left us with a pleasant night of rain that helped lull me into a deep slumber. Eventually though the bladder decided that it was time to see what the storm had left us with […]
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First foray into the BWCA Day 2
I awoke bright and early on day 2 after having a really restful night of sleep. The sun was shining and the lake was mostly calm. I began the morning with a little breakfast of oatmeal with granola and chocolate chips and proceeded to wander around the island to see what I could see. Eventually […]
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Second Runnings 