Marathon #15 is in the bag – I finished the New Orleans Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon in a time of 05:15:05 yesterday.  Here’s a video of me crossing the finishing line.

It was a beautiful day for a marathon – the temperature was 50 degrees and the sky was clear.  There were about 18,000 runners (most for the half marathon) and like most Rock ‘n’ Roll races it was extremely well organized.

This was the inaugural  Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon in New Orleans.  The course was great – it was flat, covered a lot of the city, and had some nice long stretches around City Park.  The only downer was there were very few spectators on the course.  Even with all… Read more

Well – the 2010 marathon season is upon us.  As I prepare to head out for a three hour run, I decided to finalize my 2010 calendar. 

2009 sucked for me – I didn’t complete any marathons on my way to doing a marathon in every state by the time I’m 50.  Mild injuries, several colds, fatigue from work and travel, and general lack of rhythm are my excuses while a temporary failing of my iron will is the real reason. 

Out with the 2009 lameness – it’s a new year and we’ll try again.  My best year was 2008 when I did five marathons so let’s up that by one and do six this year.  Here are the one’s I’m currently planning to do.

1. 02/28/10

I heard this phrase at about 75 minutes into my run this morning.  It’s from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a book I’ve read a half dozen times over the years.  I decided to listen to it on my iPhone while training for an upcoming marathon, just to see what different things I’d pick up from listening to it read to me rather than reading it myself.

The actual paragraph is in the middle of Chapter 11 as the narrator is discussing Phaedrus’ lateral drift.  He shifts back to the present time and talks with some trepidation about heading up over mountain beyond Red Lodge. 

‘We walk past ski shops into a restaurant where we see on the walls huge photographs of the route we will

The DailyBurn Fitness Challenge started today.  For those of you that don’t know DailyBurn, it’s one of the TechStars Boulder 2008 companies (it used to be called Gyminee).  More on the fitness challenge from Andy Smith, the CEO.

This morning I weighed in at an uncomfortably high weight (fuck, fuck, fuck) – not quite as high as my jihad inspiring weight – but uncomfortable.  I refuse to be over 200 pounds on the anniversary of my jihad on my weight (10/27).  So, I’m going to get religious about using DailyBurn.

Fortunately for me, the DailyBurn iPhone app was released today.  This was one of the things holding up my… Read more

As my endless effort to become skinnier continues, I carefully read Ian Rogers post “…look at me I’m skinny…” Diet, exercise, nature, and nurture.  I’ve enjoyed getting to know Ian through our investment in Topspin and have had several significant substantial meals with him.  Little did I know that I was actually doing all the eating (well, I did, I was just in denial.)

Ian’s post is dynamite.  If you struggle to keep the pounds off, run (don’t walk) over to FistFulaYen, toss your Coca-Cola down the drain, and read “…look at me I’m skinny…”

As I whittle away a little bit of weight each week, I just keep telling myself “eat less, exercise more.”  As my weekly running mileage continues to creep up (I’m now… Read more

I find trail running to be a magical experience.  I live behind Eldorado Canyon State Park just outside of Boulder and have a plethora of trail runs that I can start and finish at my house such as Eldorado Canyon Trail, Walker Ranch, Rattlesnake Gulch, Fowler Trail, Dowdy Draw, Mesa Trail (and all the branches), and South Boulder Creek Trail.

I’ve run them all – many times – in many different permutations.  Since Amy and I own a lot of property that is adjacent to Colorado State Park land and Boulder Open Space, I’m very respectful of staying on the trails as it makes me crazy whenever someone comes off of the Eldorado Canyon Trail or Rattlesnake onto our land.

So… Read more

In 2006 I ran the Boston Marathon as a Charity Runner for The Michael Lisnow Respite Center.  I had a tremendous Experience At The Boston Marathon even though I got a nasty email from someone a few days before that was a Major Emotional Bummer for me.  I learned plenty from processing the entire experience (good and bad) and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

A year ago I adopted Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis as one of my official 50×50 marathon sponsors.  They are a great nonprofit based in Boston that is working to cure MS by determining its causes. It turns out that they have some extra Boston Marathon charity passes this year.  They asked me if I wanted to run Boston again… Read more

As 2008 winds down, Amy and I are having a traditional New Year’s Eve filled with debauchery.  She’s eating a bowl of tomato soup with cheddar cheese and crackers in it; I filled up on appetizers at our friends’ house down the block where we hung out until the late hour of 8pm so we could make it home in time for bed by 10:05pm (yes – we consider that midnight here in Colorado.)

Earlier today I had a fantastic last run of the year.  I did one of my traditional “5-ish” mile runs in Keystone, hammered it the whole way, and set a PR by about four minutes.  The high altitude and hill training of the past few weeks are definitely having a positive impact.  Since I nailed… Read more

A marathon wouldn’t be a marathon without my sherpa.  Amy plays the role perfectly, including taking all the important pictures.  My favorite:

Marathon #14 is done.  It was fantastic – I finished in 4:39:21 which is my fourth best time of the 14 marathons that I’ve run.  The course was fantastic, the weather was perfect, and I had a great pace car (Matt Shobe).

As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn’t feel particular ready for this one.  My running has been solid and steady with a good base, but I was feeling tired from the cumulative effect of travel combined with four other marathons this year.  I had a great vacation a week ago, but last week was brutal and I didn’t really spend any time thinking about the marathon until Friday.  Oh – and I’m still heavier than I want to be (although lighter than when I… Read more

I’m running the Rocket City Marathon tomorrow.  It’ll be my 14th marathon in my quest to finish one in every state in the US.  My co-host in this experience is Matt Shobe, one of the founders of FeedBurner.  Matt’s a real runner (PR of 3:25) but, as he writes in his post This time, I’m running for charity, he’s going to pace his slow friend Brad.

I’ve had a hard time getting my head into this marathon.  I had a great week off the grid in Mexico but then returned to an incredibly intense week.  After four 15+ hour days, I finally had a little chill time which masqueraded as "travel to Huntsville day".  I went to the Expo (small and cute), got my number, and started to… Read more

Yesterday, I got the following question via email: "I was wondering if you think running has had a long-term impact on your professional self? Does it help keep you focused and motivated while you work, or does it reduce the amount of time you could spend reading about business and financial trends?"

This question hit an interesting chord with me – both because of the general nature of the question as well as the "or" part (e.g. the specificity of the "reduce the amount of time you could spend reading about business and financial trends.")

Running has definitely had a long-term impact on my professional life.  I categorize it as a hugely positive long-term impact.  While I’m physically healthier, I’m also mentally healthier as I find running to be my… Read more

Maine has been conquered by the Feld Marathon Machine.  I finished my 13th marathon on Sunday – the Mount Desert Island Marathon that started at Bar Harbor, Maine.  It was hilly.

Really hilly.  But beautiful, perfect weather (40 to 50 degrees), no wind, blue skies, and wonderful people along the course including the "beer girl" (a girl – probably 12 – with her mom that had a sign that said "Finish = Beer").  Did I mention the course was hilly – check out the insulting, endless, torturous climb from mile 21 to mile 25.

A few days before the marathon, I read the "mile by mile route description" and decided that it was highly unlikely that I’d break my goal of 5 hours given how difficult the… Read more

On Saturday I ran the Mesa Falls Marathon.  I’ve now completed a marathon in 12 of the 50 states – almost 25% of the way there.  My co-conspirator for this one was Matt Blumberg, who ran the last half of it with me and wrote about it in Half as Long, One Third as Hard.

This was a small marathon – my guess is around 150 people ran it.  My goal was to finish in the top 200 which I accomplished comfortably.  My serious goal was to break 4:45.  My official time was 5:02, although according to my Garmin 305 my running time was 4:52.  I can confirm that I lost about 5 minutes to a bathroom break at mile 10 and another 5 minutes… Read more

Marathon #12 is on Saturday.  I’ll be running the Mesa Falls Marathon in Ashton, Idaho.  157 people ran it last year so it’s a deliciously small one.  I’ve been training with a new coach – Gary Ditsch – for the past six weeks with a goal of ultimately getting below 4 hours.  My goal for Mesa Falls is sub-4:45 which given my training and how I feel should be achievable.

If you recall from my last marathon (a mere two months ago in Duluth) I’m now running to raise money for the Accelerated Cure Project.  My goal is to have raised $100,000 at the end of running 50 marathons ($2,000 / marathon); to date I’ve raised $2,375.

As a result of my two anchor sponsors -… Read more