It’s been a minute since I shared one of your stories, and I can’t wait for you to meet , who writes the wonderful newsletter , in which she shares her adventures (and amazing photography) of all her, well, outdoor adventures — running, hiking, skiing, and exploring of all kinds.

One of the things I love most about Jenn’s story is the legacy her mother — whom she describes as “fiercely strong and independent,” and who encouraged her daughter to cultivate those same qualities — gave her. Because I’m a parent of two myself, seeing how deeply Jenn’s mom influenced her has given me so much to think about.

Jenn came to running a little over two decades ago, and has since achieved things many of us dream of — running the Boston and New York marathons, as well as many ultra-marathons. She’s just amazing, and I know you’ll love her story as much as I did.

As always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going. And if you’d like to share your story here, please reach out! — Terrell

So, let’s hear a little bit about you! Who are you, your age (if you’d like to share), where you’re from, what you do, etc.

My name is Jenn Woltjen and I am now 68 years old. I live in upstate New York near the Finger Lakes. I retired from a career in higher education about 10 years ago.

Since then, I’ve devoted my life to pursuing my love of endurance sports and my passion for sharing my adventures through my writing and photography. You can find more about me, my writing and photography on my new website at JennWoltjen.com.

What does your running routine look like? How many times a week, and how far do you run?

These days, my exercise routine is more about listening to my body than about training plans.

My general goal is to run or cycle about 3 to 5 times a week. I wake up, check in with how I feel, and go from there. Some days call for miles. Other days, I may do yoga or lift weights.

When my body asks for it, I lean more on cycling and less on running. It allows me to stay active while reducing impact and giving my legs a break. In the winter, I cross-country ski more.

Earlier in my running career, I would run 5 to 6 times a week when training for a marathon or ultra. While I’d love to run that much now, those days are behind me. My goal today is to stay active — with cross-country skiing, running, cycling, and other sports — for as long as possible.

Were you an athletic kid growing up? What are your early memories of what fitness and health were about?

I wasn’t a runner growing up — and I wouldn’t have described myself as particularly athletic.

I loved being outdoors, shaped in large part by my mother. A fiercely strong and independent single mom, she encouraged that same spirit in me — signing me up for Girl Scouts and opening the door to camping, hiking, and life outside. Those experiences built my confidence and independence.

I was also drawn to horses. When my mother could afford it, she took me to a local stable that offered trail rides. Getting out onto the forested trails on horseback opened up a new world for me.

How did you first get into running? Was there something that inspired you — like a performance at the Olympics, for example, or a runner you discovered by watching them on social media or TV? Or was there someone in your own life who inspired you to think, ‘maybe I can do this?’

I was not born to run. My first love was cross-country skiing and I took up running simply to stay in shape.

After my mom passed away in 1996 from Alzheimer’s, I stayed rooted in those same pursuits — skiing, hiking, moving through the woods. When I started running in the early 2000s, it was still just a tool to help me get in shape for skiing.

At first, I wasn’t sure how far I could run. My first half marathon felt like a major accomplishment. I was slow, and I didn’t have the confidence to go faster — let alone imagine finishing a marathon. But I did have endurance built from my years of cross-country skiing.

So I made an unexpected leap — from half marathons to ultras. To me, ultras felt like a natural extension of what I already loved: a combination of fast hiking and slow running, often on trails. I finished my first ultramarathon in 2014, and I loved it. Being out on the trails made all the difference.

Over time, running became something more. I’ve since run marathons, including New York City and Boston, along with many long-distance races in between. I often think about how proud my mother would have been — and wish she could have been there at the finish line.

In 2019, I ran the Chicago Marathon in her honor, raising awareness for Alzheimer’s disease. In many ways, running became an extension of what my mother started — another path to the same sense of adventure she first introduced me to.

What do you balance your running with? Do you have a family to take care of? Kids, parents or other relatives or loved ones? If so, how do you balance all of it and still make time to run/care for yourself?

I balance physical pursuits with my work in writing and photography and with time with my family. I don’t follow a strict schedule — I fit it in where I can and adjust based on how I’m feeling. For me, running, cycling and cross country skiing is part of how I take care of myself.

Is there anything you’re especially proud of that you can point to your running and say, ‘this helped me achieve ______’?

Running has helped me build confidence in myself — and prove that it’s never too late to set meaningful goals.

I came to running later in life and started out unsure of how far I could go. But over time, I kept increasing my goals as I became more confident. I think my biggest and hardest effort was spending three years devoted to running 5 to 6 days a week to qualify for the Boston Marathon — all in my early 60s. I ran the Boston Marathon in April 2022.

That journey to Boston taught me patience, discipline, and resilience. It showed me that progress takes time — and that no matter when you start, you can still achieve things you once thought were out of reach.

That’s what I’m most proud of.

What have you learned about yourself from your running journey? Is there anything that’s changed about you since you started?

I’ve learned to trust my body — and to listen to it.

When I started running, I focused on distance and goals. Over time, especially as I’ve gotten older, that shifted. Longevity matters more than pushing through at all costs. Some days I go farther, some days I pull back — and both are part of the process.

Running has also shown me that I’m more capable than I once believed, even starting later in life. Growth still happens — often just beyond what feels comfortable.

Where would you like to go with your running? Is there anything special you’d like to achieve — like, say, running all six World Marathon Majors, or running an ultra?

I’m currently working through an injury, which has shifted my focus. But I’m already thinking about the next chapter — hopefully a return to running another ultra.

What keeps you going? Especially if you’ve been running for a while — do you ever get bored with it? How do you find new things to motivate you, to keep you going?

What keeps me going is the pull of new trails and the simple desire to stay active — and to stay in shape for cross-country skiing, especially as I hope to do more long-distance ski events.

I don’t really get bored with it because it’s never just about running. It’s about being outside, exploring new places, and moving through the woods and mountains. That sense of discovery keeps it fresh.

Look back at yourself when you were a kid, maybe say 10 years old. Remember how you felt, what you thought, especially what you thought you were capable of back then. If you could talk to that kid now, what would you say?

I’d tell her to trust herself — and to be patient.

I’d tell her that you do not need to have it all figured out. Your love of the outdoors and the quiet confidence you are building will come together over time.

And I’d tell her to pay attention to her mom — to her strength, her independence, and the opportunities she created for you. That influence will carry you further than you can imagine.

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There are so many more reader stories we’ve shared — don’t miss these:

This is one of those questions I can’t believe I haven’t already asked, but when I stumbled across this story earlier this week, I knew I needed to check in with you all.

When you read running magazines or follow famous runners on social media, it’s very easy to get the impression that many (most?) runners are constantly changing out their shoes.

But I really… don’t. The common rule of thumb is that you should replace your shoes after about every 300 to 500 miles — but that’s really just a guideline. There are people who run a lot less (and a lot farther) in their shoes than that.

So, my question to you is: how often do you get new running shoes? When do you know it’s time for a new pair? And, do you run in multiple brands, or stick to one? — Terrell

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A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with a friend at work. He’s pretty disciplined about what he eats, I’d noticed, always bringing fresh fruit, salads and other healthy choices for lunch.

Our conversation drifted toward strength training, which he does regularly and… I wish I did. I know I need to — I’ve known it for years! — but I find it so difficult to find the motivation to do it, let alone set aside time for it.

(Maybe that’s why I found myself bringing it up, as I’m fully aware I need to, and yet for some reason keep finding excuses not to… then again, maybe that’s a subject for another day!)

He asked me what I wanted to get out of working out, a question that reminded me of the first time I ever worked out with a personal trainer, which now is more than a decade ago. The first time I visited a gym, the trainer I met with asked me, “what are your goals?”

Goals? So, people have goals when they work out?

“Yeah,” he replied. “Where do you want to get to? What do you want to look like?”

To be honest, I’d never thought that way at all. All I’d had was a general sense it would be a good thing if I was stronger, if I was in better shape. Never gave it a single thought beyond that.

“Well…” I replied, hesitantly. “Actually, I’m not sure.”

That’s okay, the trainer assured me. I was far from the first person who’d walked in there without a clue. We’d start with some basic workouts, and move around to different parts of the body over the course of a few sessions. Piece of cake, right?

Turns out… it wasn’t! But that’s another story for another time too 🤣

Now, all that came back to me the other day when I was sitting and having lunch with my friend. Because when I thought about working out with weights, all I could think of was how difficult it was, how arduous I remember it being.

I must have been sharing that, because the next thing he said made me do a double-take: “Do you really want to get bigger? You don’t have to, you know.”

Even though I knew I didn’t want — or even think it possible — for me to become some musclebound bodybuilder, for some reason I equated lifting weights with that. Meaning, why would you lift weights if you didn’t want that?

No, he told me, you can just work out a little bit — incorporate a few small things into your routine, just two or three times a week. There’s no need to make a huge production of it; just make it a natural part of your life.

“Just add some stretching, a couple planks, some squats,” he told me. “You don’t have to be like these people on Instagram.”

That’s stuck in my mind so much these past few weeks, because with my new job — and the five-day-a-week commute — I haven’t been running like I used to. Really, the only time I’m able to get a run in lately seems to be on Saturdays, when I have a couple-hour window to just go and be by myself.

But because my running doesn’t look like it used to — my mileage stats on Strava are pretty low these days! — I’ve started to tell myself I’m not a “real” runner anymore. (And I write this newsletter!)

What I’m trying to remember is, what I can do right now may not look like it did a year ago. Someday I’ll be back to running the kinds of miles I used to run, but right now isn’t that time. That’s okay; for the moment, I’m needed elsewhere.

You’d think that by the age I am now, 55, I’d long have become accustomed to the seasonality of life. But I still have to learn, I still have to adjust. I still have to figure out how to be patient, and let what needs to happen, what needs to be right now, be.

Someday I’ll be in a different place and be able to devote more time to it. But now, I’ll need to take what I can get and do less — and hopefully, someday it’ll be more again.

Does this make sense? Does it sound off the wall? I hope not — I’m also really curious if you go through phases like this in your own life, whether you go through seasons.

How does it work for you?

As always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going.

Your friend,

— Terrell

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All this past week, my wife, little T and I have been watching the University of Georgia baseball team compete in the Men’s College World Series in Omaha, Neb. It’s been a blast, not least because my wife is an alumni and while I’m not, I was born and raised here, and so red and black are our colors for life.

We’ve been living (or dying!) on every pitch, every swing, every home run that Bulldogs catcher Daniel Jackson hits 447 feet into the stands — and it’s been so awesome to see, as this year is the team’s first trip to Omaha in almost twenty years.

This is also the first time little T has ever really been into watching baseball, my first love as a sports fan back when I was a kid. He’s humored me here and there; we’ve taken him to see the Atlanta Braves play, but at those games the highlight was the ice cream (!), not anything happening on the field.

I must admit, the sport has tried my patience too in recent years. First, the steroids scandal of two decades ago, but more recently the emphasis on sports betting has slowly but surely drained away a lot of the enthusiasm I once had.

That may be why the college game has been such a breath of fresh air. There’s local pride involved; that’s our Bulldogs competing up there in Nebraska, you know? (Even though we don’t personally know a soul involved with the team!)

I realized, I’d forgotten what the rhythm of baseball feels like. In recent years, we’ve watch a lot — a LOT — of college football, which is bursts of action but mostly a lot of… standing and walking around. Golf, also a love of mine, is similar; it’s mostly preparation for (very) brief bursts of action.

Baseball, on the other hand, is subtly misleading. Yes, there’s a lot of standing out in the field. (Especially for the outfielders.) But even in moments when the game feels slow, there’s an undercurrent of action, of thought and strategy bubbling just below the surface.

When you really get into it — when you’re thinking along with the pitcher and the batter, deciding whether the next pitch should be a fastball, curveball or changeup, or which part of the field the batter will try to hit to — you realize how absorbing it can become.

You find yourself leaning on the edge of your seat with every pitched ball, every swing of the bat. (“No way that was over the plate!” you say to yourself when your team gets robbed on a two-out called strike three.) You get wrapped up in it, because it’s fun to get wrapped up in it — it’s fun to care.

Even though you know heartbreak is part of the deal… as, sadly, it was for our Bulldogs. After losing to the University of Oklahoma on Monday, they faced the University of Texas in must-win elimination game on Tuesday; for several innings, they couldn’t put any runs on the board.

Very late in the game, though, UGA broke through with a pair of runs to take down the Longhorns, which gave us hope! But then last night, they had to play Oklahoma again and friends… it’s wasn’t pretty.

Georgia gave it everything they had, but the game reminded me so much of what it was like to watch the Braves battle the New York Yankees in both teams’ heyday thirty years ago. The Yankees played on a completely different level back then, just like Oklahoma did last night.

We were sad, not so much about the loss but that this fun ride for UGA had now come to an end. After all, I’ve seen a lot of baseball games in my life, gone through a lot of disappointment. At 55, the games don’t matter to me like they once did.

But for little T, this is all new to him. Caring about games is new to him; he doesn’t have years or decades to draw on, to know that once the season is over, it’s time to leave it behind and think about the next one. That you’ll get a chance to start anew.

So, I probably don’t need to tell you that there were quite a few tears after last night’s loss. We had to process it, figure it out. “Why couldn’t they beat Oklahoma?” I don’t understand it either, I told him.

There’s a part of me, in moments like this, that wants to calm him down, tell him it’s no big deal, to shrug it off and look forward. But then I remind myself, it’s good to care, you know? It’s good to put our hearts out there, to wear them on our sleeve.

Adulthood has a way of taking a lot of that away, as we all know. And of course, we do have to mature as we grow up and get older; it’s part of how we deal with life, I know. But there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to let go of really caring about something to the point that it breaks your heart.

Maybe that’s because when we can care that way, it means we’re more than just automatons bobbing about, more than the technology we carry around in our pockets — we’re flesh and blood, with heart, sinew and bones inside, a real person who cares.

It’s all too easy, as we get older, to sand these edges of ourselves off. To forget what we were like when we were kids, to leave the things we once cared about behind.

Maybe I needed to be reminded that we shouldn’t. Like Faulkner once said, maybe we need to be reminded of “the old verities and truths of the heart,” you know?

Anyway, I hope you’ve had a wonderful week and have gotten some great runs in — as always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going.

Your friend,

— Terrell

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I’m out of town this weekend, catching up with some old college friends. So I won’t be in your inboxes with my normal posts.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share some pieces you might have missed, especially if you’re new here — or even if you’ve been a longtime subscriber.

These are some of my favorite essays, and if you are new, they give you an intro for the kinds of things I write about when my mind gets percolating.

So, here we go: in this first selection, I wrestle with feelings of being in a rut, with feeling stuck, and not knowing which direction to go:

And in this one, I share what it’s like to watch my son grow up and start to leave behind being a little boy:

Even though I’m a huge fan of , I let his book The Power of Regret sit on my shelf unread for years. Once I finally remedied that, I had a revelation:

How much emphasis to place on work in our lives is also something I’ve wrestled with, really ever since I first started working full-time, right after college. And I’m still wrestling with it:

When the seasons change, I always find my mind drifting off to a place of reflection (like you, no doubt). Last fall saw my little man get into football for the first time, something we shared (and learned about) together:

I stumbled across this book by James Hollis in ’s wonderful blog and newsletter, about finding what we’re meant to do, even when we’re well into our lives:

And here’s one last essay, about a professor I knew way back in college who knew a little something about love, and when you might need to drop everything and go find where it takes you:

That’s all for now; there’s lots more to share from the newsletter archives — maybe I’ll share more in another issue like this?

In the meantime, I hope you have a fantastic weekend and get some great runs in. As always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going.

Your friend,

— Terrell

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So far in our profile series, we’ve heard entirely from runners. But when I first heard from the person you’ll meet today, she told me that while she does run, her true passion now is cycling — and could we talk about that?

It struck me as the perfect opportunity to open up our series to people with different experiences, who have stories that are a little outside the strike zone of what we normally cover — and that that could be a great thing.

And when I first read what Catherine had to say, I knew she’d be the perfect person to kick off a new direction — I just loved what she shared about growing up in the U.K. and living now in the Basque country that straddles France and Spain, and all the adventures she has.

I think you’ll love her story too — as always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going! — Terrell

So, let’s hear a little bit about you! Who are you, your age (if you’d like to share), where you’re from, what you do, etc.

Hi! I’m . I’m a freelance writer and editor. I’m 33 years old, I live in the beautiful Basque Country, but I grew up in the equally beautiful county of Essex, in the U.K.

I used to work in policy in London, but I quit and ran away to be an English teacher. Now I write for organisations including the Kyiv Independent, an English-language, independent Ukrainian newspaper. I also run a cycling Substack (Spinning Tales), and work part-time in a bike shop.

What does your cycling routine look like? How many times a week, and how far do you bike?

My routine really depends on the season! I try to cycle twice in the week and then do a long ride at the weekend — “try” being the operative word. In the autumn and winter a lot of rides end up being on the indoor trainer because the Basque Country is very wet and windy.

Rides in the week can be pretty short, only one or two hours, but weekend rides can be much longer. The distance also depends on what kind of cycling I’m doing, and the elevation. You can do way more kilometres on the road than on mountain bike trails.

This spring I was preparing for the Kyiv Half Marathon, so from January to April I was running three times a week and cycling twice a week.

Were you an athletic kid growing up? What are your early memories of what fitness and health were about?

It’s funny, I never thought of myself as athletic because I wasn’t good at the sports we played at school, but actually I always did lots.

My mum was really into sailing — she taught it when she was younger — so I first learnt to sail a dinghy aged about four, and we used to go sailing after school and at the weekends in the summer.

I learnt to ride a horse when I was very little too, and I’ve got lots of memories of swimming and cycling and enjoying it. But I don’t think I ever thought of any of that as “fitness” or something to do to be healthy. It was all just fun.

When I was 11 I started fencing. Someone came in to run a class at my school, and I was good at it because I was tall and left-handed. I kept doing it and by the time I was 13, I was representing Great Britain in the Cadet (under 17) team. I carried on doing that until I was about 16.

Fencing competitively was probably what first made me think about my fitness. I used to do circuit training — it would probably be called CrossFit now! — to build muscle, run a bit for aerobic fitness, plus I went to weekly pilates classes with my mum.

How did you first get into cycling? Was there something that inspired you — like a performance at the Olympics, for example, or a cyclist you discovered by watching them on social media or TV? Or was there someone in your own life who inspired you to think, ‘maybe I can do this?’

I first rode a bike when I was very small, but then when I was maybe eight or nine I had a crash and smashed my front teeth out. I didn’t really pick it up again until I moved to London at 18.

I got a single speed bike and rode it around London for years — I don’t think my legs have ever been so strong! I used to do spinning classes too, which I love, they’re such a weird cross between exercise, a night out, and church.

When I was about 26, I started mountain biking with my boyfriend at the time who used to race Enduro, a downhill mountain biking discipline. I was very scared the first few times and I realised that, if I was going to stick with it, I needed to convince myself that it was something cool girls did — not just my crazy boyfriend!

I started following female mountain bikers on Instagram: Kate Courtney, Jolanda Neff, Rachel Atherton and Tahnee Seagrave, to name a few. I did think they were cool, and they really inspired me. They’re still inspiring me now!

Later I got more into gravel and road. The pro cycling teams are a real inspiration. I’m a big fan of athletes like Puck Pieterse and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot who compete across different cycling disciplines.

How has your interest in cycling — and, by extension, fitness and health — evolved since then? Do you bike farther, or faster now?

Cycling is such a huge part of my life now, it’s hard to believe I only really started a few years ago! I have three bikes, a cycling Substack, and I work in a bike shop.

But honestly, the biggest thing, and the thing that surprises me the most, is what I am now capable of on my bike, both in terms of distance and skill.

When I first started, a 30km bike ride felt like a lot. Last summer, I cycled 1,200km from the Basque Country back to the U.K., cycling over 100km every day, carrying my tent and all my stuff, and I absolutely loved it.

On my mountain bike, I can now ride trails that I remember thinking I would never, ever even want to ride when I first saw them. It sometimes blows my mind how far I’ve come — though I’m really still not particularly good!

What do you balance your cycling with? Do you have a family to take care of? Kids, parents or other relatives or loved ones? If so, how do you balance all of it and still make time to bike/care for yourself?

I don’t have children or caring responsibilities so I am super lucky to be able to organise my time largely around my own whims. Of course, sometimes I don’t quite manage to balance things anyway!

Is there anything you’re especially proud of that you can point to your cycling and say, ‘this helped me achieve ______’?

My dad died about six weeks before I was meant to start my cycling trip from Spain to the U.K. It very nearly stopped me going — there was so much to do, I hadn’t trained in the way I wanted to, and I was worried about how I would feel.

But in the end I decided to go anyway, and it turned out to be exactly what I needed. All that time on the bike really helped me process my emotions. It’s not so much an achievement, but it’s definitely something that cycling helped with in my life, and I am proud of myself for going even though I was scared.

What have you learned about yourself from your cycling journey? Is there anything that’s changed about you since you started?

I’m naturally quite an impatient person, and that doesn’t pair well with a) starting a new sport as an adult, or b) doing any endurance sport.

Learning to mountain bike was very frustrating for me to start with. But I stuck with it, and I got better, slowly but surely. I’m now more confident that if I can’t do something, I can learn how to.

On longer rides, and particularly in races, I find it very hard to pace myself. I want to go fast from the beginning and I can’t imagine I’ll run out of energy, until, of course, I do. I’m gradually learning that slow and steady wins the race (or at least finishes it with a bit less drama).

Where would you like to go with your cycling? Is there anything special you’d like to achieve — like, say, biking a particular amazing place in the world, or a particular distance?

There are so many places I would like to cycle!

In terms of long-distance road or gravel rides, I have plans in the works to cycle Corsica from North to South, and to cross the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean back to the Basque Country. The Atlas mountains in Morocco, the Balkans, and Kyrgyzstan all look amazing too.

For mountain biking, there are a ton of bike parks I still need to get to in Europe, but I am actually dying to go to North America. I would love to go back to Colorado for mountain biking, and to visit Whistler one day.

What keeps you going? Especially if you’ve been doing this for a while — do you ever get bored with it? How do you find new things to motivate you, to keep you going?

There are always new places to go on my bike. I like to give myself a challenge every year, instead of a New Year’s Resolution.

Last year I did what I called the Txakoli Txallenge — trying a different kind of txakoli, the Basque lightly sparkling white wine, every month — and this year I’m operating the Trail Centre Taskforce, which means I’m inspecting (visiting) every trail centre here in the Basque Country.

When I was running, I started having to drive myself to new places to keep it interesting. The feeling of adventure and exploration is very important to me.

Look back at yourself when you were a kid, maybe say 10 years old. Remember how you felt, what you thought, especially what you thought you were capable of back then. If you could talk to that kid now, what would you say?

Enjoy being a child. Just keep playing, keep exploring the things you’re interested in. No one knows you better than you do, so try to stay tuned in to how you feel and what you want.

If it’s not fun, what’s the point?

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Morning, friends! ☀️ It’s (slightly) unseasonably chilly here in Atlanta this first Friday of June, which I’ll gladly take as we no doubt have plenty of sweltering weather ahead of us here this summer.

For this morning’s thread discussion, I thought I’d throw out a question I love to ask, as it shows how far and wide we all hail from — over the years, I’ve heard from readers in just about every state, plus Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Jerusalem, Tajikistan, India, Italy, France, Poland, Lithuania… the list goes on and on and on.

And, since so many new people have joined over the past week — thanks to THM being featured in Substack’s The Weekender — I wanted to say welcome and ask everyone, newly joined or longtime members:

• Where are you from/where do you live, and

• Where is your favorite place, or your favorite distance, to run?

I’ll start in the comments, and I really look forward to hearing what you have to share 😀 — Terrell

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Sometimes you meet the most amazing people doing the most amazing things, taking on challenges I’d never even imagine.

That’s what impresses me again and again about the people I’ve met through writing this newsletter, people who aren’t thrown by what might seem impossible to many of us.

And that’s definitely the case with today’s interview, a man from New York named Kenneth Posner, who since he took up running has completed more than 100 marathons and ultra-marathons — and more than two dozen of those, he ran barefoot!

You’ll understand why when you read Ken’s interview, so why don’t I put down the mic and let Ken take his turn — I know you’ll love and be as awed by his story as I was. And, as always, if you’d like to share your story, I’d love to hear it!

Keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going. — Terrell

So, let’s hear a little bit about you! Who are you, your age (if you’d like to share), where you’re from, what you do, etc.

I’m a runner, writer and analyst. Aged 63, I live in New York’s Hudson Valley, and work as a consultant advising companies on strategy and investor relations.

What does your running routine look like? How many times a week, and how far do you run?

Every week is different because my goals are constantly changing, and I'm always super-focused on how I'm feeling, rather than trying to follow a rigid plan.

I love track sessions, where I practice what I call “controlled intensity interval training." This could be 1/4's or Yasso splits or a mix of things, but as the title implies, with an intense focus on control.

I believe that control is one of the most important attributes in life — and if you don't believe me, ask a race car driver or a fighter pilot! For runners, the reality is, as we get older, injury risk and recovery time increase, meaning we have less room for error, and precision becomes more important.

I've built some controls into my training log to track injuries and irritation, which helps me confront the reality when things aren't going well. Having said that, I still feel a need....for speed! Why, I love running hard and fast and I crave the intensity.

As we get old, we don't want to get too cautious. We don't want to give up. I like to borrow a phrase from our Army friends — "stay in the fight." This means still practicing "grit," which is another way of saying, still taking on some level of risk, because without taking risk, you can't learn.

For easy runs, I love to visit the local grasslands, where the trail is soft and grassy, sometimes sloppy mud and puddles after rain, or sometimes hard-baked in the dog days of late summer.

There are a couple sections with some gravelly rocks, which forces me to pay attention as a barefoot runner. These grasslands have amazing wildflowers — wave upon wave of color changing from spring to fall — butterflies and birds galore — a herd of deer which always see me first unless I turn a corner when the grass is high and surprise one from behind — and coyotes which never come out during the day, but you see their scat.

Racing is a big focus for me. I love every distance from 5K to ultra. Tomorrow is a half marathon on a smooth flat course, and I'm really excited to get out there and try.

Were you an athletic kid growing up? What are your early memories of what fitness and health were about?

Growing up, I was an athletic disaster. I still remember how a kindergarten friend once pushed me and I was so upset, I couldn't move.

By age seven, my baseball dreams were over, as I discovered that baseballs are actually quite hard, and if you close your eyes they're difficult to catch (I learned to keep my eyes open when I was about 40). I hated gym class. I was literally the last one picked for every game.

By the time high school rolled along, I was starting to try a little harder, thanks to some encouragement from the coach. Outside of school, I had fun with karate and fencing.

As for running, however, I suffered from debilitating shin splints — later diagnosed as chronic anterior compartment syndrome — which caused my shins to swell and go numb after about 10 minutes, although weirdly, if I persisted and clumped along for 45 minutes or so, the condition would begin to fade.

It was so frustating! My career as a runner started with endless frustration. Eventually I had surgery to alleviate the condition.

How did you first get into running? Was there something that inspired you — like a performance at the Olympics, for example, or a runner you discovered by watching them on social media or TV? Or was there someone in your own life who inspired you to think, ‘maybe I can do this?’

In high school, my fencing coach had me do some running to build stamina, but due to the compartment syndrome I never ran more than a mile. After college, somehow I made it through four years in the Army, where better overall fitness helped me manage the shin splints most of the time.

The Army is where I first discovered the importance of physical and mental endurance... and the deep sense of satisfaction that comes from a hard day's work with both body and mind.

I started to get more serious about running in my thirties, after surgery for the shin splints, although now my problem was Iliotibial Band (ITB) syndrome, which, strangely, no one seemed able to diagnose.

During this period, I was working on Wall Street and saw colleagues getting sick and falling by the wayside. In fact, there was a boss who had a mild heart attack and retired early, which led to me getting a promotion. And then a colleague who smoked and drank and disappeared on a medical leave, which led to another promotion as I was assigned her workload.

I decided that if I was going to last, I had better invest in myself. About that time, a memory from my teenage days resurfaced about a man who'd celebrated his 40th birthday by going for a 40-mile run.

With my 40th birthday looming, I suddenly realized that I would have to do something like that, but long distance running was so painful and boring it actually took me until age 42 to get it done, which is when I discovered ultra-running.

How has your interest in running evolved since then? Do you run farther, or faster now?

The initial hook into ultra-running was the chance to travel to beautiful places (my first 50K was on Angel Island, in the San Francisco harbor).

Very quickly, ultra-running became a huge passion. The sport nearly took over my life. It was a good fit for me, since it didn’t require any special coordination or skill, which had never been a strength of mine, and thanks to the shin splints and military experience, I’d gotten used to persevering in the face of difficulty.

It was SO THRILLING to discover that I could reach the finish line for longer distances than I’d ever imagined possible. With training and racing, I got faster, eventually setting all my PRs in my early fifties at distances from one mile (faster even than I’d run in college) to 100 miles.

I also set a handful of multi-day fastest known times (FKTs), including for the 350-mile Long Path in New York State and the 294-mile Badwater Double, which stretches from Badwater Basin in Death Valley to the summit of Mount Whitney and back.

I like to describe running as the ultimate source of self-empowerment, because with each race you prove you can manage yourself in a high-intensity, high-stress regime. The rest of the world may be totally outside of our control, but at least you can control yourself.

By my mid-fifties, however, I began to face a new set of injuries, partly related to the inevitable aging process, but also partly related to bad form that I believe I developed from running in shoes.

The worst was posterior tibialis tendinitis, which dogged me for two full years and ended the aggressive phase of my ultra-running career. I was forced to pivot, shifting to a lot more hiking and taking on different kinds of challenges like a peak-bagging project called the “Grid,” which is the subject of my book Chasing The Grid.

The Grid is a big project, entailing 420 separate climbs. But there’s no rush. You can take multiple years to get them done. The Grid is more like a pilgrimage, rather than a race.

During this period, I was spending a lot of time in the mountains and I began to change. I started running and hiking barefoot. I experimented with fasting. I got into cold training (running shirtless in the winter), moving at night without lights, natural navigation (off-trail without map/compass or GPS).

Overall, I tend to think of this new style as “super-minimalist” or as “running naturally,” the way our ancestors used to, instead of the more conventional running we practice today, especially the new super-shoes, [and the] preoccupation with complicated metrics like VO2 max and HRV, and now the 120g/hour carb-fueling. Increasingly this looks like tech-enabled running.

What do you balance your running with? Do you have a family to take care of? Kids, parents or other relatives or loved ones? If so, how do you balance all of it and still make time to run/care for yourself?

I like to joke that my biggest challenge today is balancing running and hiking! All kidding aside, I don’t really use the idea of “balance” in my life. I consider myself aggressive and action-oriented.

I’ve done some things, and I want to do more. That means embracing an execution mindset, which includes detailed planning, ruthlessly cutting out the non-essential, and accepting some risk of conflict and chaos.

Now, it’s easier for me today because I’m single and an empty nester, which allows me to live a very frugal and simple life with minimal distractions.

Having said that, family occasions are still the top of my priority list, and if one of my kids calls, I slam the brakes and pull over to talk and everything else goes on hold.

I’m getting close to retirement, but still looking for ways to make a difference in the corporate sector, which at this point is a lot of fun for me, since I’m really good at my specialty.

I love my community and am constantly looking for ways to give back, which I do in part as board chair for two organizations, the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference and Run Wild, Inc. Given my love for getting outdoors, land conservation is very exciting for me, as is the chance to create opportunities for kids to experience nature.

To be honest, one of the keys to my current “success” is the decision I made a few years ago, to stick with my current corporate specialty, rather than stepping up to a bigger leadership role. Maybe this is a limitation, but if I don’t get enough running and time outdoors, I pretty quickly start to feel unhappy.

Is there anything you’re especially proud of that you can point to your running and say, ‘this helped me achieve ______’?

I’m proud of every race I’ve finished and every mountain I’ve climbed — although to be sure, some are more memorable than others. “Proud” not in the sense of being arrogant, but that deep sense of satisfaction that comes from having gone out there and done something.

By the way, I love my finishers’ awards because they remind me of what I did — I have boxes of the trinkets!

Does running help me achieve things? For sure. Running is a practice which in my opinion generates the full mind-body engagement that is our birthright as human beings. Running taps into the deep wells of strength and energy that all people have — the strength and energy our ancestors needed to survive living naked in the forests.

My sense is that in the modern world, with so much emphasis on comfort and convenience, there’s a risk of settling for less intensity, which means less engagement and less independence.

For me, the most powerful aspect of running is the sense of self-empowerment which spreads throughout life. This — not how you feel right after a race — is the real “runner’s high.” For me, running provides the energy that powers the rest of my life and it is also key to the positivity that I bring to my relationships with other people.

What have you learned about yourself from your running journey? Is there anything that’s changed about you since you started?

For me, running has also turned into a gateway to the inner world of subjectivity and spirit. I believe this inner world is super important because it contains the genetic wisdom accumulated over billions of years of evolution, what Carl Jung called the "collective unconscious."

This inner world contains our sense of intuition and judgment, our connection to nature, and the true magic of life.

I am very curious about indigenous culture, as a window into how people thought before the introduction of modern industrial technology — for example, the Lipan Apache concept of "good medicine," which refers to special experiences in nature, and how they can spread a glow throughout your life and change your thinking.

In this regards, I think of running and hiking outdoors in part as a practice of vision-questing, and really as the spiritual foundation for my life.

Where would you like to go with your running? Is there anything special you’d like to achieve — like, say, running all six World Marathon Majors, or running an ultra?

In my forties and fifties, it was all about those A races, like Leadville, Badwater, Boston, New York, etc., and then the FKTs. In other words, my goal was to break through perceived limits and discover what I could truly do.

Now that I'm in my sixties, my goal is to sustain the practice. Instead of individual events, today I'm more focused on multi-year initiatives. For example, I've run 117 marathons and ultra's (29 of which were barefoot), and I'd like to keep growing this count.

I've climbed 647 mountains barefoot, towards a multi-year goal of 1,000, and I'm constantly thinking about the next set of peaks to go after. I celebrate every 1,000 miles of barefoot training (running/hiking/walking) and want to keep growing that number.

For this year, goals include taking another shot at some of my barefoot PRs (I set a new 10k barefoot PR last year and a 5k PR the year before), as well as getting back to 100 miles in 24 hours (or closer, anyhow).

What keeps you going? Especially if you’ve been running for a while — do you ever get bored with it? How do you find new things to motivate you, to keep you going?

Goals keep me moving. Goals generate energy. The positive outcome from achieving a goal times the probability of success = the energy budget available to pursue it. Set the right goals and you can live a life of virtually unlimited energy. I come up with new goals all the time, mainly by letting my imagination run.

Boredom isn’t typically a problem for me. If you think about “flow state,” recall the “flow channel” as defined by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, the psychologist who coined the term, is bounded by anxiety on one end, and boredom on the other. Anxiety is when intensity is too high for us to manage, boredom is when intensity is too low.

One way to deal with boredom is to work on structuring your thought processes, for example, by taking the dreaded treadmill workout and adding micro-intervals where you are constantly varying speed and inclination or by breaking the session down into smaller parts (yay, I just got to 10%...yay, I just got to 20%...etc).

Having said that, okay, I admit it — treadmill runs are sort of boring.

Look back at yourself when you were a kid, maybe say 10 years old. Remember how you felt, what you thought, especially what you thought you were capable of back then. If you could talk to that kid now, what would you say?

What I generally tell young people is, go for it. Action produces outcomes, so whatever happens, you are guaranteed to learn and grow.

As you get older, you develop greater capacity for patience (old people are crafty) — but this is rarely the right course for young people, who are charging forward into the unknown.

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We have an action-packed issue today so I won’t take up too much of your time here, but I have a question for you, especially if you’re a new subscriber who just signed up this weekend.

Out of the blue yesterday, somewhere north of 200 people subscribed to the newsletter (and a number of them became paying subscribers, which is awesome!). What’s interesting is… this has never happened before!

My question is, I have no idea who linked to The Half Marathoner or shared us with their audience, so I thought I’d ask: how did you find us? If it was from another newsletter, I’d love to send a note to whoever shared us, as we’ve had a huge day (maybe the biggest ever!) in THM history.

In the meantime, I hope you have an amazing Sunday out there wherever you are in the world, and get a great run in — as always, keep in touch.

Your friend,

— Terrell

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🏃‍♀️ To run

🍒 Meijer Festival of Races. You’ll get to run among the beautiful farmlands and tree groves of the Old Mission Peninsula, “an 18-mile sliver of land that juts out into the turquoise-blue waters of Grand Traverse Bay and teems with natural beauty and some of the most stunning vistas in the region,” according to the Traverse City Tourism board, at a race that celebrates the end of this region’s annual National Cherry Festival. After the first couple of miles along trails, the rest of the race features a long stretch along the shoreline of the bay, running south on Peninsula Drive all the way into Traverse City. Set for Saturday, July 11.

🐻 Sleeping Bear Marathon + Half. “Miles of sand beach, bluffs that tower 450 feet above Lake Michigan, lush forests, clear inland lakes, unique flora and fauna make up the natural world of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, where this early fall race takes place. You’ll run through the village of Glen Arbor and past Little Glen Lake, as well as past the “Dune Climb,” a popular spot for attempting to climb up pure, wind-blown sand dunes. “At the peak of fall color season, the tree-lined course will be one that both runners and spectators won’t soon forget.” Set for Saturday, October 3.

🌴 Vietnam Jungle Marathon. The second in a three-race series of trail marathons that feature once-in-a-lifetime, jaw-dropping running tours of the mountains and jungles of Vietnam, this race unfolds along the challenging hills of Pu Luong Nature Reserve, which lies just over 100 miles from Hanoi. Filled with waterfalls, old-growth jungles, dramatic limestone cliffs and views of rice paddies in the valleys below the trails, the 43,000-acre preserve offers runners several race distances to choose from — a 25K (slightly longer than a half marathon) in addition to a 10K, 50K and 70K. Sign up for the race only, or for a trip that includes overnight stays in one of the villages inside the reserve. Set for Saturday, October 17.

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The other day I took my son to play golf, which has become the thing we do on the weekends lately. He’s been into the sport, big time, ever since we watched the Masters this past April.

I’ve loved how he’s taken to it, as I love to play too and have since Tiger Woods first turned pro back in the late nineties. Even though he’s only been playing for a couple of months now, he’s already improving, hitting shots he couldn’t when we first started. It’s so much fun.

One time, on the drive home, I asked him what he liked so much about golf. His reply has stuck with me: “It’s the only sport I’m half-good at.”

I assured him what he said wasn’t true. But, as you might imagine, it stuck with me because I felt a little sting of recognition — I remember feeling like that when I was his age, too.

When you can do physical things well, it makes you feel good, you know? You feel strong, you feel capable, you feel alive. And when you can’t — especially when your peers can — it’s more humbling than we’d like to admit, isn’t it?

However: when you do find that thing you can do well — whether it’s running, or cycling, or playing tennis or pickleball — it’s like your wings expand, and you can finally fly.

I thought I’d ask today: what was your experience with sports like, especially growing up — and what did it feel like when you found the thing you could do?

— Terrell

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Last night, I had a Substack Live conversation with and about everything that inspires us about running and sports, especially the books, movies and stories we love.

That’s when it dawned on me: the stories I love most involve a character — like Louis Zamperini in Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, or really all the lead characters in her bestseller Seabiscuit: An American Legend — who discovers a talent they didn’t know they had, often well into mid-life.

I think that’s what I found so inspiring about Wendi Anderson’s story, whose path echoes many of ours — as a mom who found herself facing a potentially serious health challenge in her forties, she realized she needed to make a change. A big change.

Instead of shying away from it, or burying her head in the sand, she faced it. And ended up changing her life (for the better!) in ways she never could have expected.

I found so much to love and relate to in her story, and I know you will too. As always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going! And if you’d like to share your story, I’d love to hear it. — Terrell

So, let’s hear a little bit about you! Who are you, your age (if you’d like to share), where you’re from, what you do, etc.

Hi, I’m Wendi… an almost 51-year-old wife, boy mom, photographer, and outdoor enthusiast. I work full time and LOVE to run events of all kinds!

What does your running routine look like? How many times a week, and how far do you run?

I am a hybrid athlete, so I have an extremely varied workout schedule. I usually run 3 times a week. These are quite often 60-minute zone 2 runs, occasionally longer on Saturday. Sometimes intervals and speed work thrown in.

The other three days of work are either weight lifting, my first love, or DEKA skill work. This year I am trying to trifecta qualify for DEKA Worlds in the Ruck division, so some days the workouts or runs include wearing a 20-pound ruck pack.

Were you an athletic kid growing up? What are your early memories of what fitness and health were about?

I wasn’t allowed to play sports growing up. I danced, but dance looked different 40 to 45 years ago than it does today, so although it was active I never considered it to be an athletic endeavor. Sports were for the boys at my house.

How did you first get into running? Was there something that inspired you — like a performance at the Olympics, for example, or a runner you discovered by watching them on social media or TV? Or was there someone in your own life who inspired you to think, ‘maybe I can do this?’

It was an evolutionary accident!

Back in 2017, I was over 200 pounds with extremely high risk of developing diabetes. I was working full time, had three boys all in sports year round and was earning a bachelor’s degree (I was attending college as a “mature adult” after spending most of my life thinking I’d never earn a degree).

I knew I needed to get my health in check, so I made the decision that after I graduated I would then take on that pursuit. That summer, my lifestyle change began. My only goal was to get healthy to avoid diabetes.

Fast forward to 2019, I am down 70 pounds and loving working out and adjusting to my new body. I had run out of time at the gym to complete a full workout — thanks to mom duty — so decided that I would run at the park where my son was having baseball practice.

I was just doing laps around for 30 minutes and when I looked at my watch I saw how far I had gone with surprise. I think it was about a 5K. I thought to myself, that’s kinda fast… maybe I should run a Spartan.

Where that came from I really don’t know. I didn’t know anyone that had done one, really didn’t know anything about it. Well, I told my friend, who I then found out had done one — and she said let’s do it. We did, in June of 2019. I… was… hooked.

That day, I decided I would try and do a Trifecta in 2020. I started my pursuit in January, finishing another Spartan Sprint, which is a 5K with obstacles. Then, of course, 2020 happened and halted it all, but I continued to train, but still not running very much.

Once things began to open up and my 2021 plan was in place, I started to work towards the required distances for the Super and Beast. I generally ran once a week and started increasing from 3 miles up to 6 for the 10K Super.

After I finished my first of that distance, I increased a bit, running the half marathon distance once before taking on the Beast course. To this date my longest training run is a half marathon distance, and I think I’ve only done that twice. Running at this time was purely to build confidence about running the distance between obstacles. (My hashtag was #notarunner!)

I earned my first Spartan Trifecta in 2021, and have gone on to complete 8, a couple of which are known as “ultra-fectas,” and several accomplished in a single weekend. I am also working on my fourth DEKA Trifecta.

How has your interest in running evolved since then? Do you run farther, or faster now?

Now, I am a trail runner and an athlete — two terms that I had a very hard time internalizing and saying without being uncomfortable. I wish I could say I have gotten faster, but that is not entirely the case. Farther, definitely.

I went from running between obstacles to simply running. I have completed two trail 50Ks, a 50-mile lap race, numerous 10Ks and half marathons with more than a few local 5 and 10K road events. I usually just do those to support local charities. Next weekend I will take on my first 100K — I’m pretty nervous, but excited to see how it goes.

What do you balance your running with? Do you have a family to take care of? Kids, parents or other relatives or loved ones? If so, how do you balance all of it and still make time to run/care for yourself?

As far as balance, I probably do more races/events than my family would like, but they are super supportive and don’t hold me back. I try to maintain a reasonable schedule of local and travel events so I am not gone too much.

My boys are adults now, with the “baby” graduating in June and the older two out of the house. Even so I am very connected to them, and being a good wife is super important to me, so I still keep most of my workouts to an hour and in the morning before work, so that I can have evenings to focus on family.

Is there anything you’re especially proud of that you can point to your running and say, ‘this helped me achieve ______’?

Finding the Spartan and Trail running community has changed my life. It has put me down a path I didn’t know existed.

It has given me a place of belonging and challenge I could have never dreamed of. There are moments throughout that have changed me as a person and opened up doors I never thought I’d walk through.

Little things like learning to eat alone, the empowerment that comes from traveling alone and learning to fill the space that comes with that. These are the things that I never even knew I needed to learn until I got there.

What have you learned about yourself from your running journey? Is there anything that’s changed about you since you started?

I often tell people: this was never the plan. I have learned that I can achieve things that I never even thought to consider.

Like my husband likes to remind me, especially when I am upset about a race result, in the not-so-distant past I couldn’t run to the mailbox. Now I am running 50-plus miles…wow.

Where would you like to go with your running? Is there anything special you’d like to achieve — like, say, running all six World Marathon Majors, or running an ultra?

I don’t have any big running goals past the 100K this weekend. I have several races on my list, but haven’t set any more goals. I think it will start being more about locations than adding distance.

I love variety and to start getting into 100-mile-plus races would push my training needs in a direction I am not sure I want to go. I’d still rather lift than run anyday.

My biggest goal is DEKA Worlds. I am looking to get in a couple more qualifiers and be faster there. I want to make sure I am competitive at all 3 events.

What keeps you going? Especially if you’ve been running for a while — do you ever get bored with it? How do you find new things to motivate you, to keep you going?

I love events. I sign up for as many as I can, while staying married and not going broke 🤣 Honestly it’s an addiction, and if I don’t have something scheduled I am a wreck.

I’ve had different addictions throughout my life though — not drugs, thank goodness; that’s something I knew I couldn’t handle, so I never even smoked —and this is the healthiest.

Look back at yourself when you were a kid, maybe say 10 years old. Remember how you felt, what you thought, especially what you thought you were capable of back then. If you could talk to that kid now, what would you say?

I don’t know. I don’t have a whole lot of childhood memories, and I don’t think I can even picture myself at that age. I might warn her that even when she is 50, Dad wouldn’t like her doing sports stuff, ha.

I guarantee there is no way she would believe any of this, there was too much darkness. Probably a big part of why I push myself the way I do, is the life that got me here, especially the hard parts. I think I am trying to mostly learn to look forward.

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This weekend marks the unofficial start of summer here in the U.S., and already where I live we’ve started experiencing some summer-like heat and humidity (along with some very summer-like thunderstorms ⛈️).

I’ve started thinking ahead about summer already as I’ve been hearing — and probably you too — about the powerful El Niño that’s brewing right now in the Pacific Ocean, which could lead to some big changes in the weather we experience this summer.

And that made me wonder: what’s your threshold for running outside in the summer heat, what’s your red line between “sure, I love the heat!” and “this is too much, I’ll stay inside or run on my treadmill”?

How warm is too warm for you to run outside, and what is the hottest you’ve ever found yourself actually going outside to run? — Terrell

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I know it’s late so I won’t dawdle, but I’m really excited for you to meet Thu Nguyen, who reached out when I asked you to share your stories last month. She had just one condition: “If you really promise that excitement is not the required vibe from a running story, I’m happy to answer some questions.”

On the contrary, I found Thu’s story inspiring and a reflection of the poet she has become — she notices every small detail, and fully experiences every moment she spends running in a way that’s, dare I say, poetic.

I found so much to love and relate to in her story, and I know you will too. As always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going. — Terrell

So, let’s hear a little bit about you! Who are you, your age (if you’d like to share), where you’re from, what you do, etc.

My name is Thu Nguyen, and I am a 46-year-old woman who has lived around the Washington, D.C., area for more than half her life now. I first moved here after graduate school to teach, and I did that for about 15 years before I set off on my own to write (I am a poet) and paint full time.

What does your running routine look like? How many times a week, and how far do you run?

My running routine is really dependent on if I am training for a race. Ideally, I like to do one “big” race a year. I just ran the Eugene Half Marathon at the end of April, and it was the first time I trained for a spring race.

Winter race training is no joke! This winter was particularly difficult because the roads were so icy for so long. I ran twice a week on my treadmill, and did my long run outside. I used to run 4 to 5 times a week when I was training for races, but that kind of mileage ended up injuring me a couple of times.

For the past two race cycles, I’ve only run three times a week (one with hill intervals, one tempo, and one long). That kind of running seems to be my sweet spot.

When I’m not training for a race, I typically go out for a few miles, 2 to 3 times a week. I still try to go for an hour or so outside once a week just to stay in the habit.

All the flowers are in bloom where I am, and I am so grateful that I get to see this season as I run. Yesterday on the trail, I saw the fattest, happiest groundhog. That felt like a boon.

Were you an athletic kid growing up? What are your early memories of what fitness and health were about?

I was not athletic as a kid if you think of athletics as team sports. My family and I were all immigrants who owned restaurants, so I spent every day after school and every weekend at work with my family.

But if you count roaming neighborhoods by foot and bike for hours at a time, then I was definitely athletic. I also played a lot of tennis in high school because my boyfriend played tennis.

I guess my athleticism was based on friends and being outdoors, which honestly, I think suited me best.

How did you first get into running? Was there something that inspired you — like a performance at the Olympics, for example, or a runner you discovered by watching them on social media or TV? Or was there someone in your own life who inspired you to think, ‘maybe I can do this?’

The very first time I ran was when I joined my local shoe store’s Couch to 5K program. I was lonely because I had just moved into a new neighborhood, and I thought it would be a great way to make friends — and it was!

I have since recommended programs like that to people interested in getting into running. So low-key, and mostly just walking to begin with. The program also helped me get to know the local running routes.

I think I am glad I wasn’t trying to run a super long distance, or live up to a running idol when I began. I was just impressed that I could run at all.

I started running again after I had my two boys, one right after the other, and my goal was really different the second time around. I had postpartum depression, and nothing made me feel as alive as running did.

Those long runs made me feel so capable and strong. That was when I first started training for longer races. I needed bigger goals to look forward to.

How has your interest in running evolved since then? Do you run farther, or faster now?

I was actually just telling a friend that I ran this year’s half marathon slower than the last one I ran, and it was remarkable. Choosing to run slower for me has meant choosing joy.

The reason I ran faster than I probably should have a couple of years ago was because it was freezing out, crowded, and everything was so chaotic that I just wanted to get it over with. Last month in Eugene could not have been more the opposite.

I met the loveliest pacer, and we chatted on and off for most of the race. At mile 10, she looked at me, and said, “if I have been doing my job, you should feel great now, and really go for it.” She gave me the confidence to leave her, and I felt the best I have ever felt completing a race.

You could say the last three miles were negative splits, but I remember them more as joyful. At Eugene, you end the race inside Hayward Field, and the entire stadium is filled with people cheering on runners.

I know they weren’t all there for me specifically, but it felt so much like they were that I got emotional at the end. This was my year coming back from injury, and I was grateful for every single step that I ran.

My main goal for Eugene actually had to do with what was going to happen afterwards. I wanted to run a race with enough ease that I could hang out with my friends afterwards. I remember other years and races when I would finish, and not be able to walk anywhere.

One year I immediately got sick afterwards because I had put my body through so much. After Eugene, my dear friends (who I never get to see) picked me up, and we walked around town. I spent the rest of the afternoon soaking in the sun with them, took a nap in a hammock, and had energy enough to go out to dinner to celebrate. That, to me, is the perfect race day.

What do you balance your running with? Do you have a family to take care of? Kids, parents or other relatives or loved ones? If so, how do you balance all of it and still make time to run/care for yourself?

I’m not sure about balance, but I have worked out a schedule where I take one of my boys (15) to the bus stop, and then run on the treadmill, and then take the second one (14) to the bus stop.

It’s tight, but probably best for me to keep my running in check. I would — and have in the past — overdo it otherwise. My injuries have always been from too much mileage, so the boundaries of a busy workweek help a lot.

The boys come to my races if they are in town. In Philly they met me a few miles in so I could throw my outer layers at them. When I ran Eugene, they tracked me by my bib number and congratulated me by text. Most importantly, they know that I feel so much happier if I have run.

Weekends when I come back from long runs, we eat big breakfasts and relax together. I know I am so privileged to be able to fit running into my life. I work for myself now, and mostly from home, so if I need to move a run to a different time, I can do that.

I do travel for work at times, so finding time to run is hard, but the challenge has been rewarding too. I was in Paris during my race training this year, and I got to see parts of the city I have never seen before because I needed to run while I was there.

I also just happened to run my fastest 5K of the season while I was there, and I think it was because there is nothing like the Jardin de Tuilleries first thing at the break of dawn.

Is there anything you’re especially proud of that you can point to your running and say, ‘this helped me achieve ______’?

I think as I’ve gotten older, I have had to be so much more flexible with my expectations, and with allowing myself to pivot when I need to. When I am injured, I take time off. I do physical therapy. I cross-train. I go to bed so early so that I can get up early.

And I am still a deeply curious person, so this year I decided to see what finding gels that I could actually swallow would do for my long runs. And now there are so many more choices than even just a few years ago!

It’s so boring and true that sleep and fuel will get you so far. I’ve learned that I can be really good to myself, and it pays off.

What have you learned about yourself from your running journey? Is there anything that’s changed about you since you started?

I’ve learned that people run for all kinds of reasons, but I run for my mental health. I run to be outside. Everything else is nice to have: good gear, good company, etc., but I don’t need anything except that time alone.

I’ve learned that it’s okay to do things seasonally. I can still call myself a runner even in the summer when I refuse to run in the 90-plus degree heat of D.C. I used to have such strict ideas about what made someone an athlete or a runner, and now I know that it’s more about a mindset than anything else. Every time I see someone running on the roads as I drive by, I am clapping for them in my head. I cheer for everyone.

A couple of years ago, I signed up for a running retreat in Alaska. I didn’t know anyone on the retreat, but I wanted to see Alaska, and I wanted to do some trail running. Our group ran and walked at such a diverse range of paces, and it was the first time I really gave myself permission to not go all out every time.

I ran a 10K, and then the next day I felt like I wanted to walk to the glacier lake instead of running it. The person I was with felt like she wanted to run. We high-fived, and then went at our own paces. On the way back from the lake, I felt like running, so I caught up with another couple in our group.

I loved getting to know them through this run. I learned that I can really listen to what I want and need in the moment, and that giving it to myself is the right thing to do.

Where would you like to go with your running? Is there anything special you’d like to achieve — like, say, running all six World Marathon Majors, or running an ultra?

I honestly just want to continue to love running. I want to be able enough to keep doing what I love. I never say never to anything, but I don’t want running to feel like a burden.

Right now, training for a half marathon is just right for me as far as time commitment. I am super interested in ultras because of the terrain. The shorter trail runs I have done have been so great.

I also want to keep integrating my creative life into my running. This summer, I am co-leading a running retreat with two friends, and my contribution will be to lead workshops on writing and painting after our runs.

Running sparks so much creativity for me, and I want to share with others how running can be a way to unlock different parts of a person’s identity and talents.

What keeps you going? Especially if you’ve been running for a while — do you ever get bored with it? How do you find new things to motivate you, to keep you going?

I am different every year, every reason, every day that I show up to run. A few years ago, I could only listen to books while I ran. This year I listened to music. Maybe one day I won’t need to listen to anything.

I don’t really get bored of running because I always look for new challenges. I try to sign up for my big race in a new city every year. I try to go where friends live. Sometimes I throw in a relay with friends, and we have more run than we actually race.

The best thing I have done is join my local running community. Montgomery County Road Runners Club has been so welcoming to me. When I am running with them, I don’t have to think about anything because they come up with the track workouts, and long run locations.

Most importantly, we have monthly low-key races all over the county. They are free for members, so I have at least one 5K race to look forward to every month. Two friends of mine and my husband usually run those races with me. It feels so good to do hard things with your loved ones.

Look back at yourself when you were a kid, maybe say 10 years old. Remember how you felt, what you thought, especially what you thought you were capable of back then. If you could talk to that kid now, what would you say?

I would tell that kid that I had no idea what I was capable of! I would tell her not to pay attention to the mile test they give in P.E. It’s not about winning or racing. I would tell her just to keep doing what feels good to her.

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There are so many more reader stories we’ve shared — don’t miss these:

Lately, I’ve been juggling a few different books, putting one aside while I read another, then moving on to yet another one… and then going back to the first one again. I’m enjoying each of them, but none has really grabbed me and pulled me in.

That got me wondering a question I’ve asked here before, and always love hearing your answers because I love knowing what’s absorbing you — what are you reading? What has taken you by surprise, piqued your interest, or otherwise set the world on 🔥 for you?

Especially now that summer is almost here, which is my favorite time to really dig into a book: what are you reading that you’re loving right now, or what books are you excited about? — Terrell

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It’s a little after 9:00 a.m. on the east coast, the sun is shining here in Atlanta where I live and it feels like a brand new day. And I’m really glad it does, because that reminds me of the person I want to introduce to you today, a runner I’ve gotten to know through Substack, .

For those of you who don’t know her, Verity is a longtime U.K.-based runner who managed her own running club for more than a decade. But an injury forced her to step away from running for an extended period, time she spent reassessing a lot of things — which she’s written about eloquently in her newsletter, RunVerity.

I’m always drawn to people who’ve gone through things — who’ve hit some turbulence in the air and been tossed around, and have had to figure out where to go and what to do when “fear obscures the path,” as Mary Chapin Carpenter once sang.

That’s why I’m so drawn to Verity’s story, and I think you will be too. As always, I’d love to hear your story too! If you’d like to share it, just reach out by replying back or in the comments. — Terrell

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So, let’s hear a little bit about you! Who are you, your age (if you’d like to share), where you’re from, what you do, etc.

I’m Verity Wright, 57 years old and live in the U.K.

I set up an inclusive running club in 2014 and closed it in December 2025 after eleven years. I’ve been running for over 25 years and I’m currently rehabbing a broken ankle from November 2025 by writing a book about why women stop running.

What does your running routine look like? How many times a week, and how far do you run?

My running routine has dramatically changed in the last six months, I've gone from running six days a week, three of those days twice a day, with a weekly mileage of 45 miles.

I’m now building endurance back up slowly having started run/walking for 20 mins in January. I’m pleased to say I’m running four times a week now with my longest run of 13 miles a couple of weeks ago.

Were you an athletic kid growing up? What are your early memories of what fitness and health were about?

No, I really wasn't an athletic kid. I was firmly placed in the "not sporty" category at school and to ease the visible exasperation of my P.E. teachers, many blind eyes were turned on my forged "please excuse me" notes.

I left school with a well-honed smoking habit that was perfected on those Wednesday afternoons.

How did you first get into running? Was there something that inspired you — like a performance at the Olympics, for example, or a runner you discovered by watching them on social media or TV? Or was there someone in your own life who inspired you to think, ‘maybe I can do this?’

My dad was a runner, and I used to go and support him at race events. He ran the Everest Marathon in 2002; I hadn’t started running then, but it was there in the background.

Once my children were born, I became more active, throwing myself around an aerobics class, mainly because the leisure centre provided a free creche for my kids.

I’d always wanted to be able to run, but just didn’t think I’d be able to. Then one Christmas in France I went out with my dad, there I was, puffing and panting, trying to keep up with him, but he just said three words: “slow it down.” I did, and I was hooked.

How has your interest in running evolved since then? Do you run farther, or faster now?

Since my ankle break, it feels like my running has come full circle, because where I am now really reminds me of when I first started.

I’m building confidence and endurance again, sprinkled with just a dash of speed to see how it all fits and I’ve entered a few new races that I’m using to benchmark this new, older version of a runner.

I still love it, but, just like when I started, I’m building a new relationship with it, we’re finding out what works with my new routine and I’m developing confidence again, both physically and mentally.

It feels a bit like getting back on a horse that’s thrown you off, tentatively re-establishing those bonds of trust.

For eleven years I ran with the community I’d created, and it was fabulous to have that accountability and support. Now I’m learning to run on my own again and be accountable only to me.

This is new and it’s scary, but also exciting, it’s running in its simplest form; what can I achieve when nobody’s measuring but me?

What do you balance your running with? Do you have a family to take care of? Kids, parents or other relatives or loved ones? If so, how do you balance all of it and still make time to run/care for yourself?

When I had my run club it was hard to fit my own running around the club sessions and family life. I have a husband, two children and three grandchildren, and I used to be out four nights a week and most weekends. Now [that] I can fit running in around what matters to me, running doesn’t feel like a grind anymore.

There were mornings when I was meant to run for me, but I’d tell myself I wouldn’t go because there was always tomorrow, or I’d be too tired to run, so wouldn’t go because I knew I’d have to run with my club either that evening or the next day.

Now, especially after my injury, I know that running tomorrow isn’t promised, so I just go. It’s hard going on your own, I’m not going to lie, it would be a lot easier to stop running all together but, I keep putting my trainers on and showing up.

To help, I run with a friend once a week, and my daughter, which is a joy, and go to parkrun to push myself. My whole running landscape has changed.

Is there anything you’re especially proud of that you can point to your running and say, ‘this helped me achieve ______’?

I’m proud of so much, I don’t know where to begin.

For me, running gave me a purpose, it changed my life and gave me a confidence I never knew I needed. I remember after running my first marathon I felt I had something to hold my head high about, I was a late starter in everything, running, my Psychology degree, this all of it happened in my 30s and running made me feel as though I belonged.

Then I started teaching everyday people how to run, people just like me, who’d been told they weren’t sporty or good enough when they were at school.

Their internal narratives still stung as they turned up on the first night of my beginner’s course “You don’t look like a runner” “You’re too slow”. “You can run; you’ve got asthma”. And I watched what running did for every single one of them as they crossed many finish lines in bodies they’d spent years hating.

I won a Changing Lives Through Physical Activity award which was a wonderful moment. I still get messages from people telling me what they’ve achieved through running. Giving people the tools to do this, to run in their own bodies, at their own pace is what I’m proudest of.

What have you learned about yourself from your running journey? Is there anything that’s changed about you since you started?

I’ve learnt that I’m tough and resilient. Running has been a complicated relationship that at times has been hard to navigate. I suppose a bit like a friendship, sometimes we’ve fallen out and I’ve been angry and frustrated with it, stubbornly ignoring it for months.

And then they’ve been other times when we’re never apart, and the joy and laughter make all the bad times worthwhile. I’ve also been to some wonderful races, and run through breathtaking scenery — the Yosemite Half Marathon last year was a highlight.

I’ve run marathons through the streets of Paris as though I mattered to everyone there. And sometimes I’ve had people turn their back on me as I’ve run past, clear signals of dislike. But I’ve just kept on running. It’s just something I must do.

Where would you like to go with your running? Is there anything special you’d like to achieve — like, say, running all six World Marathon Majors, or running an ultra?

I’m excited to see what’s next. I’m 57 years old and a nanna. Some women my age might be thinking about giving up, well I’m not.

I don’t know what a 57+ women can achieve because the research hasn’t been designed with women like me in mind, so I’m going to try and rip up the nanna stereotypes and just keep going.

Last week I achieved my highest ever age grade percentage in a race and I thought that was cool, so who knows what’s around the corner. More marathons, not this year, but next.

What keeps you going? Especially if you’ve been running for a while — do you ever get bored with it? How do you find new things to motivate you, to keep you going?

I don’t know, it’s just something I must do, it’s who I am and part of me now. I've been doing it for over 25 years, and I've never really got bored of it because it's never been the same twice. Different routes, different paces, different bodies, different reasons.

Right now, it's about coming back from injury and seeing what this new version of me can do. Next year a marathon, just for me. The year after, something else. The running keeps changing because I keep changing, and that's what keeps it interesting.

Look back at yourself when you were a kid, maybe say 10 years old. Remember how you felt, what you thought, especially what you thought you were capable of back then. If you could talk to that kid now, what would you say?

That what other people think of what you look like when you run is bollocks. Don't let their comments stop you from doing something you love.

One of the reasons women don't run is their fear of judgement of what people think they look like. I’ve learnt no matter what you do, people will always have opinions of you.

But if they stop you feeling the confidence and joy you get from running, what would your 85-year-old self regret more? Running with a red, sweaty face or sitting the race out because you don't look like how a woman should look. What, happy?

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Just a quick note before we get out there — and of course happy Mother’s Day to everyone celebrating (and being celebrated) today. The weather here in Atlanta has been mostly gorgeous lately, unseasonably cool and sunny, perfect for running.

I hope you’re able to get out there today and enjoy some of it, wherever you are in the world …

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I started thinking to myself, remembering a time when I trained for a marathon, back when I was in my mid-twenties. A woman who was training with us was having serious difficulty keeping up with the mileage, especially when she joined us on the long runs each weekend.

But still, she kept at it.

Until one long run, when an ambulance had to be called — she’d taken a fall and hurt herself pretty badly. I felt terrible for her, and don’t remember seeing her come back after that.

And I thought of myself, sticking with things in my own life that I knew weren’t working, but I kept at them regardless, out of a sense of needing to persevere — even though I knew they weren’t right for me.

Have you ever experienced this — in running, in sports, or in life? What did you do, and what did you learn? — Terrell

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If you’ve followed the career of former Olympian Kara Goucher for any length of time, you know what a hero she’s been to so many in the running world. (And to me!)

And if you have, then you know the challenges she’s been dealing with ever since she was diagnosed back in 2022 with runner’s dystonia, a rare neurological condition that makes her left leg muscles contract involuntarily, causing her to lose her balance and fall whenever she ran.

The years since have seen steps forward and steps back. After retiring from her marathoning career — and flirting briefly with ultra running — she has since retired from competition altogether, as her condition no longer allows it.

But Goucher’s spirit is still very much alive, in both what she shares in her social media feeds and the podcast she co-hosts with the now also-retired 2018 Boston champ Des Linden.

Thanks to medication and physical therapy, she’s been able to keep running — shorter distances, of course. (Much shorter, in fact.) But that she’s able to run at all is a victory — she didn’t have to give up the thing she loved to do, that gave her identity and a sense of purpose.

But saying “thanks to medication and physical therapy” elides just how difficult it’s been for Goucher to get to a place where she can share an experience like the one above, her longest run in years.

That’s a huge part of why I’m so drawn to her story, why I find her so inspiring even now after all these years.

Of course, I can’t do what she’s done in competition — I’m not even in the same galaxy as her, or any runner at her level. Never have been, and never will be. (Certainly not at age 55, anyway!)

What I can relate to, though, are the difficulties she’s gone through and the courage she’s shown in overcoming them. And maybe — maybe? — that’s something I can replicate in my own life.

One of my favorite writers is Candice Millard, the author of books like The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic, about the all-too-brief presidency of James Garfield, who was inaugurated in March of 1881 — only to be shot at a Washington, D.C., train station that July.

In this beautiful tribute, Millard shares something Garfield wrote that echoes to me what Goucher’s past few years have been like:

“I have sometimes thought that we cannot know any man thoroughly well while he is in perfect health,” Garfield wrote. “As the ebb-tide discloses the real lines of the shore and the bed of the sea, so feebleness, sickness, and pain bring out the real character of a man.”

Honestly, had something similar happened to me, I’m not sure if I’d have reacted the way Goucher did after receiving her dystonia diagnosis. I might very well have said to myself about running and exercise, “okay, that’s the end of that!”

But she stuck with it. And in doing so, she’s given us something more special than any medal she’s ever won: she’s shown us what it’s like when the tide goes out, when we get to find out who we really are.

That maybe we do have a little bravery, a little courage down in there. That maybe we can find it too, when we need it most.

I hope you’ve had a great week so far and have had a chance to get some great runs (or walks, or hikes, or rides) in — as always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going.

Your friend,

— Terrell

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I know it’s been a while since you’ve seen me in your inbox on Sunday, which has been a staple of this newsletter for a long time. I’m happy to tell you I’m bringing it back, but let me explain a little of what I’ve been thinking and why I put it on pause for a bit.

For a while, I’d begun to feel a sense of overwhelm from all the other newsletters I receive — not that any of this was those writers’ fault; I’d subscribed to all of them of my own volition!

But they all started to feel like too much, you know? So, I thought to myself, what if I send only one newsletter per week? Would that be enough, or too little? So, that explains the experiment I’ve been doing for the past couple of months.

What I’ve found is that I miss having more frequent contact with you all, the subscribers — because I skipped a lot of Friday Thread discussions, I missed hearing about what you were up to, hearing your thoughts. Even though there are Fridays when not that many people chime in, there are plenty of Fridays when they do, and those discussions are still a ton of fun for me.

Lately, it started to occur to me that a better approach to the newsletters I send might be “mend it, don’t end it” — so, today’s Sunday edition looks very much like the ones you’ve seen in the past, but I hope will be the start of something new, as I evolve and refine it into something new.

So, stay tuned and, as always, I’d love to hear any ideas or questions you might have — in the meantime, I hope you have a great rest of your weekend and get a great run in out there.

Your friend,

— Terrell

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If you’re looking for something to run…

🚜 Mad Marathon + Half. Giant red barns, tall silos, covered bridges, wide-open farm fields and quiet country roads form the backdrop you’ll see along the route at this mid-summer race. If you’re a skier, you’ll find it familiar, as the Green Mountains of Vermont here are home to wintertime ski destinations like Mad River Glen and Sugarbush. The race has earned accolades from the likes of Runner’s World in recent years thanks to its gorgeous, bucolic scenery throughout, and the quaint charm of the small town where you start and finish the race. Set for Sunday, July 12.

🏜️ Monument Marathon + Half Marathon. A starkly beautiful run through a rocky landscape that’s home to historic stretches of the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, this race unfolds through Nebraska’s 3,000-acre Scotts Bluff National Monument, known for its namesake bluff that towers some 800 feet over the North Platte River below. The area you’ll run through has seen people from the earliest Native Americans to expedition parties back in the early 1800s, for travelers approaching the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the west. This is a small race — most years see only a few hundred runners cross the finish line in all distances combined — which allows the field to spread out, and runners to take in the beauty of the landscape all around. Set for Saturday, September 26.

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Or, do you have a place you’re excited to go run (or walk, or hike) that’s in a beautiful place you’re excited to explore, like a new city, or a national park or trail?

Love hearing what you’re exploring and where you’re going ❤️ — Terrell

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