In the middle of summer 2013, I walked back into the front door of my house covered in sweat. “This is the fastest 5 miles I’ve ever run before,” I told my step-dad. I was visiting my hometown after a spending a few months in Colorado, passing through before I left for Spain and the […]

  When my box arrived from the awesome folks at Merrell, I thought they must have messed up the size or accidentally sent me sandals. The ‘light’ in their name is no joke. With a weight of just 227g, and a soft flexible sole, I was in love with them before I even put them […]

Dear Xavier, You absolutely went out of your way to help me get to the start line of Korea 50k, and despite your help, all you asked for in return was a fancy bottle of soju. I have failed you. But I have a good excuse. Here’s what happened… It started back last week when […]

.Explore Your Backyard started three years ago as the brainchild of the popular chia seed based energy bar company, Runivore, and ultramarathon race organizer Taiwan Beast Runners. The issue in Taiwan is not the lack of gorgeous trails to run on, but the abundance. Despite my two years of running trails here in Taipei, I […]

“Well, that’s dumb,” I said to Lizzie, my then-girlfriend, while I traced the course map of the Tarawera Ultramarathon with my mouse cursor. “Look. They have a perfectly good 87k course, but in order to make it more than 100k, they have it go off on this big loop through forestry roads, then come back.” […]

The temperature has dropped. The eggnog is warm. Time to reflect on your fantastic year of running and start getting ready for next year. This is where I find myself scrolling through race websites, flipping back and forth between my calendar trying to plan my races and travel to get the most I can out […]

I’m writing this while I come to terms that I will be scratching the Taipei Marathon. My biggest goal for the year, set sometime in June, was to have a break-out marathon. I ran plenty of races, but my nightly rituals on the riverside revolved around this idea of a sub-3-hour marathon. Now, with my […]

There is no big secret to running faster, and it can’t be done easily. Eat well. Get good gear. Build muscle to sprint quicker and create those fast-twitch muscles. Study your stride to get good form and energy economy. Cross train to build cardio to deliver oxygen to your muscles faster. These are all essential, […]

I have one of those awesome skills where I wake up 5 minutes before my alarm goes off, no matter what time I set it. I have no idea how it works. So when I set my phone for 3 A.M. after dinner and crawled into my tent with Xavier, I knew it was just […]

Hey it’s Cory. Mister Second Place! Oh crap, not this again. I have a problem: Ultra Trail Yilan I got 2nd place behind Petr. Explore Your Backyard I got 2nd place behind Chen. Hill Runner 550 I got 2nd place behind some Chinese guy. Pinglin Ultra Marathon I got 2nd alongside my good friend, Rob. […]