Earth from Above
I wake up this morning before my alarm. This is usually a good sign – as my body adjusts to the (relative) reduction in self-imposed physical distress, I start waking [...]
Streaks
I’ve got to admit, I have a soft-spot for streaks. A few years ago, I had my first-ever Big Mac. What can I say – my parents weren’t big proponents [...]
Living with Black Swans
When I look at the wall of my bedroom, which has now been plastered with three-and-a-half months worth of weekly training schedules, I’m reminded of something Jon said to me. [...]
A Change of Seasons
I sometimes listen to the online broadcast of Boston’s NPR station here in Quito. Part of me likes the familiarity of the various hosts –Tom Ashbrook’s mellow interview voice like [...]
Twenty-Six
In early December, my coach, Jon, and I sat down at my parents’ house in suburban Massachusetts to discuss how I could best prepare for the Boston Marathon, then 19 [...]
Race Against Time
Before we get to the good stuff, I want to take a second to say a quick “sorry” and “thank you.” First, I’d like to apologize for my relative absence [...]
World Record Attempt: Half Marathon on Treadmill
Sometimes I feel like a broken record. When I first started to think about how to present this announcement, I felt that everything I wrote, I’d said before. When I [...]
Lo Primero
I explore the grooves of the rock with my right thumb and they become comfortingly familiar. The curves conform to shapes and creases of my cupped fingers perfectly; this rock [...]
Flying on Planes with Cats
EDITOR'S NOTE: In the weeks since this was published, I have been contacted by Delta Airlines who offered what appeared to be sincere apologies and some financial compensation for what [...]
All In
There’s a funny quote that my coach, Jon Waldron, has repeated over the years. Brendan Foster (one-time world-record holder in the 2-Mile, bronze medalist in the 1976 Olympic 10,000m, and [...]