Friends Along the Way. June 2019. At 7:10 on Memorial Day morning my Lyft driver has just dropped me off at the Northwest District entrance to Portland's Forest Park. I'm walking along the broad path that begins Forest Park's iconic Leif Erickson Trail, to check in for the 50k. Read more.

Primal Running. June 2018. It doesn't seem possible. You complete an entire training cycle in which your fastest training run is 10 min 16 sec per mile, and then you go out and run a half marathon at a pace that is more than 30 seconds per mile faster than that. But I trust to the magic, and I trust the training. It's what I've learned from reading "Primal Endurance". Read more.

Push Back the Hands of Time. April 2018. Mile Five approaches, and while I'm feeling the effort, in the back of my mind I know I'm having a pretty good race. I love the social aspect of a race, and so I don't usually race with headphones on. But 10K -- the shortest distance I run -- is all about speed and focus. With no room to be social -- or so I thought -- I use music to help me find focus. Read more.

Redemption. October 2017. Dear 2015 Mark: This is your future self. I know you're disappointed with dropping out of the Gorge Waterfalls 50k, but I'm here to tell you that it all turns out okay. Let me tell you about the race we just finished, and then about the journey that began with your race. Read more.

Heart Rate Training Year One. March 2017. A year ago I stepped out of the hospital after a week long battle with a rare blood infection and decided it was time. Time to commit to heart rate training. Since completing my first 50k the previous October I had been focused on speed training, trying to regain some of the tempo I had lost after months of focusing exclusively on endurance. I was frustrated. My usual high intensity training routines were not yielding results, and I felt I was breaking down more than I was building up -- pushing myself right to the edge of injury without meaningful results. My Spring race plans had been upended by hospitalization, so for better or worse I was truly starting fresh. It was the perfect time for a new training approach. Read more.