I'm sure I'm not the only person who dreads the end of summer. Maybe dread is too strong a word. How 'bout lament? Yes. That's more romantic. Lament, noun, a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. Boom. Nailed it. I'm sure I'm not the only person who laments the end of summer. In Michigan, a …
Tag: trailrunner
Any way the wind blows…
The strange saga of racing in a "bomb cyclone" With five minutes to race time, we reluctantly staggered into the pouring rain and howling wind. As we ventured from our safe haven of the Loy Norrix High School lobby, sheets of rain blew across the parking lot, carried by the improbable 50 mph winds. The announcer, already soaking wet and …
Running Jams: Weezer’s “White Album”
Want a hot take? The White Album is Weezer's best album. I realize this statement will be received in exactly two ways: "Are you out of your mind? This is late-career Weezer. This is lightyears away from the Blue Album and Pinkerton" or "What is Weezer?" No matter which camp you belong to, I hope you hear …
No Country For Slow Men
"Oh no. You're going to write about this in your blog." The famous last words of my dear friend Jon Schlosser. OK, maybe not his actual last words (thankfully) but his last words after a long and arduous ordeal where, after exerting improbable mental and physical energy, our bodies spent and beaten in the snow, …
Running Jams: 2018
Welcome to the final edition of A Running Life for the year 2018. I started this blog in September to share stories from the trail, drop some halfhearted wisdom, and take time to truly reflect on this foolish obsession of mine. I've managed to string together a few hundred words every Thursday and some people …
Numbers.
Showing off my half-marathon number (and month-old tattoo) on Mackinac Island, October 2009. On Monday I ran my 2,500th mile of 2018. It was the first time crossing that elusive threshold in a calendar year — and there's still about two weeks left to tack on another hundred miles or so. A few years back, maybe 2011 or 2012, I challenged myself to join the (imaginary?) 2,000 …
Running Jams: The Hold Steady’s “Stay Positive”
"I was a skeptic at first, but these miracles work." Welcome to RUNNING JAMS, a new dimension of the blog where I will break down some of my favorite albums for running in particular and listening in general. In previous installments of the blog I mentioned how essential music and podcasts are to my daily …
Continue reading Running Jams: The Hold Steady’s “Stay Positive”
The Iceman Cometh.
"Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks." — Tom Petty This morning's run was a rock. I lumbered my way through the usual 3-mile loop with all the grace and dignity of a broken washing machine, shuffling from side to side to avoid patches of black ice while hacking up the lingering phlegm of a …
Thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. It is currently Thanksgiving morning, 7:32 am. I'm sitting in our room at the Holiday Inn Express in Frankenmuth, Michigan, looking out the window at a gorgeous sunrise coming up over the Yankee Candle and Tervis Tumbler stores. I wasn't planning on writing anything today; but as I sit …
The Streak.
Young Kato after finishing the Kalamazoo Marathon in 2014, the first year of THE STREAK Today is day 1,780 of my running streak. I haven't missed a day since January 1, 2014 and am currently tied with 16 other lunatics for the 510th longest active running streak in the United States. (Apparently the first of …
A Running Life 