Sometime yesterday Nirbhasa Magee got inspired.  Now not just one of those little aw shucks kind of inspirations but one of the really really big kinds.  The sort of inspiration that gets you right to the very top of a mountain.  He had already taken a huge risk just by entering the 10 day race, […]

In a little less than 24 hours from now 82 superb endurance athletes will be able to sit or lie down and no longer feel a mean hard stretch of asphalt constantly calling out to them.  They will have taken long warm showers, changed into clean fresh clothes, and had a hot meal from  a […]

One morning, a little more than 35 years ago, Luis Rios set off from his apartment in Coney island and went for a run in Prospect Park.  It was in February so it must have been pretty cold that day and yet on his very first run he completed more than 6 miles.  All of […]

When I arrive today at the Self Transcendence race Phil McCarthy is heading to his tent to take a break.  Handling him, and seeing to his needs this afternoon  is veteran runner Al Prawda.  Who besides keeping a close eye on Phil is also keeping a tight track of his watch.   Then in what appears […]

In October last year an Austrian sky diver, Felix Baumgartner set a new record for plunging from the very edges of outer space.  Sponsored by a sport drink company the 44 year adventurer jumped from a helium balloon nearly 128,000 feet above the earth.   It was an incredible achievement and thrilled people around the world […]

It is Monday afternoon and the one mile loop of the Self Transcendence races is alive with movement.  Some like Alex Swenson are running with such strength and poise that I have to remind myself that he has been here now for more than 24 hours and has already completed 116 miles in that time. […]

The 44 runners of the Self Transcendence 6 day race started their epic journeys today.  Blessed by a bright blue infinite sky above them, the group set off precisely at noon towards their own individual destinations, dreams, and transcendent goals.   Somewhere ahead of them is a finish line of course, but between here and […]

There are some places in this world of ours in which just the very sound of their names creates mysterious and wonderful images in our imagination.  Most often they are far far away and are simply so exotic and so remote that you can’t ever really imagine actually going there.  I spoke with Pati Ibinova […]

Ron Clarke was one of Australia’s greatest runners.  At the height of his middle distance running career in the 1960’s he was able to establish 17 world records.  He was certainly loved and respected not just in Australia but around the world.  In what  has to be one of the oddest circumstances of his lengthy […]

Fairly early one day last summer or maybe it was the year before, a satellite passing over New York took this picture of Flushing Meadow Park.  Endlessly circling at an altitude of  a little more than 400 miles it’s very precise camera probably took many thousands of pictures that day.  Ever vigilant as it observed […]