My first surgery – Hiatal hernia repair
For a long time I’ve lived with something called a hiatal hernia. This is a situation where my stomach is pushing up through my diaphragm. This means that the opening into my stomach is above where it’s supposed to be, which leads to the classic symptoms of GERD such as acid reflux, heartburn, chest discomfort, […]
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Quick and dirty bike stand
Over the years we’ve started to acquire a few too many bikes, and figuring out a good way to store them in the garage can be a challenge. Not because there isn’t a good way to do it, but because there are 100 ways to do it. From expensive systems that hang from your ceiling […]
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Altra Timp 4: The 130 Mile Review
This has been one of the hardest reviews for me to sit down and write. Ever since I started running in zero drop Altra shoes a few years ago, the Timp has been my go-to trail shoe. I was a fan of my original 1.5’s and I’ve owned 3 different pairs of the 2.0. Since […]
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Lake Bemidji State Park Bog Walk
Last month when we were up in Bemidji, MN we stopped by the Bog Walk at Lake Bemidji State Park. My wife loves bogs and the flowers that grow there, and as a photographer I always like the opportunity to shoot something new. The bog walk at Lake Bemidji State Park is only a half […]
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Race Report: Freedhem 46 gravel race
With my wife’s departure from the trail running world (due to knee issues) she’s taken a shining to gravel biking. I’ve happily joined her in this since, from outward appearances, gravel biking has a very similar ethos to trail running. In general it feels like sports that are “dirt” oriented are pretty akin to one […]
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Big Bog SRA June 2022
We just got back from a big vacation up in the Bemidji area of Minnesota. While we were there we visited the Big Bog State Recreation Area again. We first visited last year in May and not a lot was blooming yet. Now that it’s June we got a chance to see a lot more […]
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Race Report: Kettle 100K
As I contemplated my running goals for 2022 I knew that one thing I wanted was to attempt a race distance over 50 miles again. I hadn’t completed a race over 50 miles since my Savage 100 race in 2019 and it was about time I get back to some longer distances. As I was […]
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Topo Lines
I love topo lines. That seems like a weird thing to say, but let me unpack this a little bit. Ever since I was little I’ve been fascinated by maps. I loved looking through maps, figuring out routes between places, and generally geeking out about them. If I had my life to do over again, […]
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Old Abe Trail biking, to avoid the rain
Sunday morning was meant to be a beautiful ride around the NW metro area with my wife, clocking in a 50 mile distance. However, as the forecast started to develop it became apparent that we might be looking at a very wet ride instead. When I woke up I took another look at the forecast […]
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Elm Creek Backyard Ultra photos
A week ago I had the opportunity to photograph the first ever Elm Creek Backyard Ultra. This is a last man standing style event, which means that participants have 1 hour to traverse a 4.167 mile looped course. They can then rest until the top of the next hour when they do it all over […]
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Quiet on the blogging front
After many years of blogging regularly (some years every single day) I ended up stepping back for the past month to take a breath. I last posted in March about turning 48 and then ended up going silent for a while, and I decided that’s OK. It’s not for lack of ideas for content, I’ve […]
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48
Today the year of age 47 comes to an end. I believe it started sometime around March 2020 but I can’t be sure anymore. Or maybe it was 46…. Frankly during the last couple of years I lost track of how old I am. I’m not really joking. I do know that today starts 48 […]
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Second Runnings 