Welcome, and thanks for visiting The Running Philosopher!
I’ve been pursuing two of my loves — running and philosophy — since at least eighth grade. That year, in the awkward dawning of early adolescence, I began two life strategies that remain close and trusted companions to this day.
Shortly after school started that year, with its new and not entirely welcome revelations about bullies, puberty, and unrequited lust, I started my first journal, written in leaky pen on a velour-covered notebook I got for my birthday.
Since that first eighth grade journal, I’ve written about topics as personal as depression and sex and as technical as statistical methods, and everything in between. Above all, I love to write about philosophy, exploring the big questions: Why are we here? What does the good life look like? What is our purpose in life? How can we help? How do we find meaning and happiness?
That same fall back in 1983, I laced up the navy blue running shoes my mom bought me at Marshall’s and joined my middle school’s track team. Short, small, and timid, I perenially finished DFL, but even so something important was taking hold.
I ran cross-country in high school, then ran casually until I moved out to Colorado at age 27 and entered my first actual race: the Canyonlands 5-Miler, outside Moab, Utah. The scenery was spectacular, and I suprised myself to boot, winning a ribbon for third place in my age category.
I stayed mostly on the roads, dabbling in 10-k’s and the occasional half marathon, until 2016. That’s when a few friends invited me to do something that seemed very strange. They were going to put on running shoes, and run — in the middle of winter — up a very steep, snow-covered mountain. I struggled to keep up, but I was hooked. Trail running found me at a simultaneously vulnerable and opportune moment, and I’ve supplemented my road diet with long miles on the trails.
For me, deep thoughts and long runs go together quite naturally, and I started this site to share both. When I’m not running or writing, I am husband to the funny, beautiful, and mostly indescribable love of my life, Lisa; and dad to my two creative, fiesty, independent, and hilarious daughters, Nina and Lilah.
When I’m not running or philosophizing, I’m an education research consultant, and I help build and evaluate high-quality early childhood systems (I have a Ph.D. in quantitative research methods, so you might see some of my endearingly geeky love of numbers peek through here and there).
I live outside of Boulder in Longmont, Colorado, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Even when life takes me away from the trails for a while, it’s reassuring to know that the mountains are still there, and always will be.
Thanks again for visiting, and I hope you can find a moment to share your thoughts in the comments sections or drop me a line. ‘Til then, happy running and deep thinking to you!
