It has been a very long time since I have written anything on this blog about my running. For the past seven years I have been busy researching, writing, and podcasting about ultrarunning history. I continue to put on my race each year, in its 21st year, the Pony Express Trail 50 and 100.
My personal ultrarunning has been an adventure. In 2018, my nearly bone-on-bone knees began severely affecting my running. Things got progressively worse, as can be seen in the times for my 100-milers after 2018. My finishes at Across the Years at the end of 2021 and Grandmaster 100 in early 2022 were so painful, I finally was convinced that my 100-mile career was over with 108 100-mile finishes.
This biography also presents twenty-three years (1879-1902) of the amazing pedestrian era history as experienced by Hart when ultradistance running was the most popular spectator sport in the country. He competed in at least 110 ultras, including eleven in Madison Square Garden, where he set a world record, running 565 miles in six days in front of tens of thousands of spectators and wagerers. During his running career, he won the equivalent of $3.5 million in today’s value and lost it all.
The journey to becoming an ultrarunner has many varied paths. I personally never dreamed to be a runner of any kind and in fact most of my life, pretty much despised running. But along these unexpected paths, running somehow evolved. This story is mostly for me, to look back and understand where I came from, but it also may be of interest to others as they too become an ultrarunner. Perhaps this is my runner memoirs. It is an attempt to bring together many of my experiences and lessons learned over the years. In 2018 I finished my 100th 100-miler.
