The Multisport Maniac: Adventures of the Endurance Kind

"Endurance is the never ending pursuit of seeing what your body is willing to give you."    Pre-Race Expo   Just three weeks after finishing the Southern States 100, I completed the Paris Marathon.  Was I fully recovered from my 100 mile race? No.  Was I excited to see what my body was willing to give me for this race?  Yes. Paris, New Years, 2009 Last fall a few of my friends discussed going to Paris for the marathon.  Excited about the prospect, I went home and asked Amy ... and in turn she texted my friends and said I'm coming to Paris with you.  They responded with "Is Scot coming too?" New Years 2009  Amy and I first went to Paris with her sister Laura over New Years 2008-2009 where we watched the Eiffel Tower turn blue at midnight.  This was in our pre-kid era where we were traveling on a shoe-string budget and staying at hostels.  It's funny how 18 years ago seems like such a blur at this point, but seeing some of the same si...

"Burn the ships!" -  Hernán Cortés (1519) I came across the above phrase early last week and something about it really stuck with me.   The quote signifies that if you want to succeed, you must remove all safety nets or "exit doors."  It is used as a metaphor in business and personal growth to stop overthinking, cease looking back at past lives / failures, and fully dedicate oneself to a new, often difficult, path.   After I completed the Tahoe 200 back in June of 2024, I really thought that I was invincible ... that there really was no challenge that I wasn't strong enough to mentally take on.    Then last year happened.  Taking care of and ultimately losing both my parents took a very heavy toll and unfortunately collided head on with my last ultra, the Kodiak 100k, which I quit at my mile 46.  Never in my life had I wanted to be anywhere else than running.  The place that I have always been able to take solace in. ...

"The only way out is through." - Robert Frost I don't want to say 2025 was an off year, but after 2024 delivering on very high expectations, it is hard to think of it any other way.  After a long year coupled with losing my parents, false starts, canceled trips, and a DNF, I'm happy to simply be still running.   The year started off like the last few with a big January, knocking out 345 miles including a marathon (training run) in the snow.  This is also when we kick started the "lets go to bakeries 3 or 4 times a week" which we pretty much held onto the entire year.   February is where the year initially went off the rails.  Amy, the kids, and I were set to go to Disneyland and Joshua tree national park for February break.  First, we had to change our flight due to an impending snow storm, then hours before boarding the flight my father had an aneurysm and ended up in the hospital.  The next month was a bit of a blur as we juggled to take ca...

"Talent is a factor, but training and discipline is what truly defines a person's success." - Ahsoka Tano This past week our family visited Madeira Island where I ran the Madeira Island Ultra Trail (MIUT) Marathon.   This was our first time back to this part of the world since our trip to La Palma and Gran Canaria in 2018 where I ran Transvulcani .  Madeira is a Portuguese island about 500 miles north of the Canary Islands and 600 miles west of Sete Cidades (Azores) Morocco.  I became familiar with it, because they have an ultra marathon festival .  Amy also has a friend that had visited recently and highly recommended it and as luck would have it, the race coincided with school break for the kids.  In short, it checked all the boxes.   Late last year I began tracking flights and when they dropped in price in October, I jumped on board.  Once again, as luck would have it, our 4 hour layover in the Azores (another Portuguese in the middle of ...