Music+Food+Art+Exercise. Four simple words offered by 2dumbrunners, a/k/a Scott Higgins and Michael Lang of the Happy’s Running Club. Yet, their Nightlife Series races are anything but simple. Rather, the series is a melting pot of runners, artists, foodies, families and social aficionados. This weekend, the series returns to its roots with their annual spring race: [...]

Runners who take on half-marathons, marathons and ultra-marathons are selfish. Yes, I said “selfish.” We wake up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and run for several hours. We squeeze in evening runs after not seeing our family all day. We join up with fellow runners on weekday and weekend group runs. We spend countless [...]

As many CYJ readers know, the inaugural Louisiana Marathon is taking place this weekend in Baton Rouge. In preparation for the full marathon, I recently drove the route to get a preview of what I would encounter along the way.   The race starts at the Louisiana State Capitol Building. Runners will be gathered in [...]

A good friend of mine asked me yesterday about my “26.2” magnet on the back of my car. My reply was that it stood for the distance of a marathon: 26.2 miles. While I repetitively think about the term “26.2” in training for the current marathon season, my friend’s curiosity served as a reminder that [...]

  It was this time last year that an injured IT band put a halt to my training for my longest race to date: an ultra-marathon 50K put on by Q50 Races. Missing an event put on by a great race organizer and incredible person such as Cesar Torres of Q50 Races was more disappointing [...]

Injuries are inevitable in long distance training. For me, it was tendinitis in late 2009 and early 2010 leading up to my first marathon. In late 2010, it was my IT band just 3 weeks prior to my first ultra-marathon. The IT band pain was severe enough to make me pull out of the race [...]

For many of my fellow runners, the passion of running does not kick in until they have reached some goal. It could be as small as a completing a speed workout or a long run during training, or as exhilarating as completing a person’s first 5k, half marathon or full marathon. Once you get a [...]

My sister recently asked me for some advice on running shoes. It was at that moment that I realized that I really don’t know much about running shoes. But why is that a shocker? I have only purchased running shoes from 3 different companies:  Saucony, Mizuno and Brooks. Plus, I have always relied upon the [...]

“It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.” R.E.M. (1987)   The 2012 phenomenon is a “range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012.” I’m not sure what an eschatological belief is, but I can say that I have recently experienced the 2012 phenomenon.   [...]

As much as I wanted to blog today about my memories of September 11, 2001, I would rather give recognition on this day to a person whose life was touched in a much more intimate way than mine.   Last night, I caught clips of the Time/HBO special “Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience”, a documentary [...]

With all their glory and good causes, weekend races (particularly road races) can become dull even to novice runners. Don’t get me wrong: I do support any and every race, particularly races that raise funds for worthy causes. However, every once in a while I need a change in pace, forcing me to look for [...]