The Blog is Back!

Hopefully I still know how to work this thing!  My long-time friend Bret recently updated his blog over at A Slug's Tales.  We've been lamenting the decline of the running blogs so I decided to post too.   It's been over 6 years since I've updated mine so I have a lot of running, hiking, racing and adventuring to catch up on! 

Hard to believe but back in 2006 when I started this blog it was extremely difficult to find information and connect with others in the trail and ultra community.  Through an internet search I found Olga' blog Run More Talk Less and was excited to discover that not only was she local, but there was a network of endurance (trail, marathon and ultra) runners connecting through their blogs.  It was also around this time that I discovered the Marathon Maniacs (who were those people dressed in yellow I kept seeing at races?) and I realized I'd found my running community. Many of the runners blogging were also part of this small and PNW centric (at the time) club.  I spent a few months reading and commenting on the network of blogs and finally took the plunge and wrote my first post in May of 2006.  I wanted to call it Snot Rocket but that was already taken so Hooked On Trails it was.  

In October 2006 I qualified for Marathon Maniacs (#355 thank you very much!) and also ran my first 50k's.  While I started running marathons in 2001, I feel like 2006 was the year I was truly born as an endurance runner and found my passion hobby that I still love to this day.  And in those early days blogs were a huge way to fuel that passion outside of training runs and races.  Of course we posted about all our races, but we also posted about our daily runs, hopes and dreams, and life in general.  Those first few years I'd post 2-3 times a week.  Eventually it dwindled down to just posting race reports but those early days were fun with more of the back and forth that today's social media offers, but so much better in the depth of relationships developed and fostered.  I'm no longer an active Marathon Maniac and I race less.  But I run more miles every year. (In 2021 I averaged almost 50 miles a week.) I love running and I love the trail and ultra community.  I may run a lot of roads out of necessity but my heart is still with the trails.

My initial plan was to catch up all in one post but I've realized that would be way too long and probably way too boring to read all in one sitting.  So you're on notice that there is more to come soon!