A weekly letter about running across countries, aging without slowing down, dogs who changed my life, and the people and places along the way.
Training Log: Six Months Out from China
On August 10, six months before I begin running across China, I sat down with my coach, Lisa Smith-Batchen, to record the first Lisa's Coaching Corner. Since then: a sore knee, a return to Florida heat, a son who wants to run the Brazil 135, and learning that tired is not hurt.
Running To Redemption
In January 1986, Mike Rouse was in a federal prison in El Reno, Oklahoma, and could not make a single lap of the yard without stopping. He kept going. Forty years later, at 74, he runs every day, for the love, the passion and the feeling.
Speed Kills (Joy)
For years I chased personal bests and qualifying times, and slowing down felt like failure. Then I started crossing continents at roughly 3 mph and found something better. Here is the case for a conversational pace, and the two articles that just backed it up.
Fatherhood, Failure and Freakin’ Old Age
In March, I lined up at the Mt. Gaoligong Ultra in Tengchong, China, a 104 miler through the Yunnan mountains, alongside my 31-year-old son Gabriel. It was our first race together. Five miles in I went down on the rocks, and somewhere in that fall was the realization that I am getting freakin' old. Twenty-four hours later my lungs put me in an ambulance and my race was over. Gabe's was not.
The Half-Full Way
People always ask how you train to run across a continent. The real answer took a scientist to pull out of me, and it has nothing to do with going faster.
Appreciative Urgency
Ultrarunner Bob Becker lying on the grass in front of the Mt. Zion Cemetery headstone during David Green's run across America, July 2021.
Make The Right Choice
David Green celebrates at the Pacific Ocean after running across America in 2021, clasping raised hands with a Lisa Smith-Batchen at Muir Beach.