Although I enjoyed physical activity, I was a bit of a fat kid in high school and college. But at Dartmouth College (grad school) I learned to be more active, and then when I took up running seriously after leaving Dartmouth I was amazed by how much my weight went down and my speed went up. The Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club in Amherst, Mass., played a big role in my development.

Top Twelve Racing Highlights

Nov 1980. Foxboro Marathon, 2:47:00. I had run 2:50:30 a few months earlier, but in those days a sub-2:50 was needed to qualify for the all-important Boston Marathon. So I trained even harder and was rewarded by a time about 2 minutes faster than I expected. Then I ran 2:52 at Boston, my last road marathon. In 1987, in Rome, I met Jock Semple, who said they would have let me in with the 2:50:30.

June 1980. Laurel Highlands 70-mile Run, 14:20, 7th place. 10000 feet of climb. My first ultra.

August 1980. Timberline Trail around Mt. Hood in 8.5 hours.

Sept. 1981. 100 miles on the Bowdoin College track in 23:53.

Nov 1983. Grand Canyon Double Traverse in 10:53. 40 mi, 12000 feet climb.

May 1984. Multiple Wrightson Massacre: 3 times up and down Mt. Wrightson near Tucson, within 12 hrs. I finished in second place. 12000 feet climb.

Late 1980s. A 25-mile race from Tuolomne Meadows to Yosemite Valley over the top of Clouds Rest. Two leaders took a wrong turn and I finished first by about two minutes.

Sept. 1991. Superior Hiking Trail 100-Mile Race: 29:05. 14000 feet climb.

May 1995.  59.7 secs for 400 meters. I had been trying to break a minute for years; finally did it at age 43 on the Macalester track (solo, spikes).

March 2001. Elk Mountain Grand Traverse with partner Phil Williams. 11:20 for the 37-mile ski race carrying 20 pounds, and with 7000 feet of climb. We were 24th out of 96, far better than expected.

March 2005. Leadville Ski 100, 100 Mile ski race. 16:25. 8th of 13. Total climb of about 6800 feet. The course had four laps of a 25-mile route, some of which was steep, narrow trails. Skiing those by headlamp was a challenge. I got lost in the last lap adding about 3/4 of a mile.

March 2004. Leadville Ski 100, 100-km ski race. 8:11. 14th of 21. Very satisfying time (under 8-minute-per-mile pace) for a course with 6200 feet of climb and between 9700 and 10700 feet above sea level. I had my skis waxed professionally, which made a big difference. The course was a double out-and-back around Turquoise Lake. My first split was 1:51. The last 25 km were in slushy conditions, but I changed skis for that and managed in 2:11. This race was to have been 100 miles long, but serious melting caused a change of course.


Not a career highlight, but of recent interest:

March 2006. Coureur des Bois 90 km ski race from Steamboat Lake to the Wyoming border and back. I was the last finisher at 9:36 (time limit was 10 hours) so this could hardly be called a great race for me. Yet just finishing this one is an achievement since the total climb is 6500 feet and it all seemed a bit difficult -- even harder than the 100-miler of 2005. The course is a beauty: One giant loop through lots of interesting terrain.

March 2007. Coureur des Bois 90 km ski race from Steamboat Lake to the Wyoming border and back. Conditions were very fast for first four hours. I finished in 8:20, in 64th position of 69 starters. 76 minutes faster than last year!

March 2008. Coureur des Bois 90 km ski race from Steamboat Lake to the Wyoming border and back. Conditions were very slow for the day (cold and fresh snow). I finished in 8:48, slower than last year, but not as much slower as most others were. Place was 54th out of 62 finishers, with 13 DFNs, so 54/75. Course was especially beautiful with no snowmobilers (they were warned off) and lots of new snow. GPS info seems to indicate course is 82 km long; short course is 42.73 km. This does make sense considering the climb of 6500'. GPS reports climb of 9000', but that is incorrect.

Created by Wolfram Mathematica 6.0  (20 March 2008)