Delights for All, Please
In an essay I wrote for the latest issue of Trail Runner, I collected some of my thoughts on anxiety, running, motherhood, COVID-19 and the cultivation of small delights in our daily lives. I looked forward to sharing this essay…
The Merits of Obsession
After Fat Dog, I enjoyed getting interviewed by Eric Schranz on Ultrarunnerpodcast. It was fun to be on the other side of interview questions for a change. But, as is the case anytime I’ve shared something personal in a non-written,…
Beautiful, Cruel Patagonia—My Ultra Fiord Race Experience
(Warning: This is a “long read.” Grab a cup of coffee and settle in.) Two months have passed since I traveled to Patagonia to run the Ultra Fiord 100. Until today, despite ample previous attempts, I haven’t felt able to sit…
Only Small Things: Reflections on Excess
“You think you have to want more than you need. Until you have it all, you won’t be free.” – Jerry Hannan, “Society” This week, I’ll be moving. Again. My ninth move in the past seven years. In the weeks…
The Secret That’s Haunted Me
Once upon a time, a boy I’d recently started dating peered into my eyes and asked me, “What’s your secret?” “Huh?” I said. “Everyone has a secret,” he said. “So. What’s yours?” It was the most intimate question I’d ever…
In Praise of the Desert: A Road Trip
I am not a desert person. I know some of these people—the “desert rats”—who feel at home, at peace, among the sand and stone and open sky. I am not, at least by nature, one of those people. I do…
What It Means to Tell the Truth
When I was little, I was very insistent about the fact that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up—but not a journalist. An author, yes; a novelist, yes. As the fiercely independent daughter of a longtime newspaper…
Exploring the Relationship Between Tragedy and Humanity
As the country, if not the world, struggles to come to terms with what happened in Boston on Monday, the Internet is filled with people’s stories of how close they were to the blasts—how many minutes before or after 4:09…