Howdy my fellow readers, runners, and everyone in between! My name is Paul and I have a history of being an average runner. What a joy that is though and I sure love to write about it!

I set a fun goal to see if I can turn from an average runner to a competitive ultra runner looking to raise $100,000 dollars for charity! I currently have no background or credibility that hints this as a likely possibility. For this blog, I wanted somewhere to record my journey and more importantly, to make corny jokes and tell myself people are laughing behind their screens. I may not be Olympic material in my running or jokes but, oh well.

Although my name may never reach those of Courtney Dauwalter, Kílian Jornet, Scott Jurek, or Will Ferrell, I absolutely love ultra running (jogging) and shall do my best to make a fool of myself on the trails and share the stories here!

(San Luis Obispo, California. I stopped to catch my breath for five minutes at the top before smiling for this photo).

WHY DO I RUN?

My background in running began in 5th grade and I quickly fell in love with the sport. That is, I only felt that way a full week after my first run on my cross country team where I wisely thought two glasses of milk was a good pre workout choice…

Following that rough initiation into the sport, I love the adventure, the team bonding, and the true accountability of growth for yourself. You get out of the sport what you put into it and as my Dad used to say, “The track never lies.” He also used to say I needed to speed up on the hills but luckily my other brothers were able to fulfill that role.

And somedays, I am not sure why I do it so I look to one of the running greats who can describe it well. “I just felt like running.”

Over the years, I had the opportunity to run throughout junior high, high school, and one year of college. During those three phases, I set a record in junior high for the mile. The school began tracking records my first year there and my record stood until the next track season. I think it may even be like a minute faster these days. I was a junior varsity runner during high school for my cross country team and I ran one year in college with the back of the pack.

I have had the opportunity to finish two ultra marathons. You have never heard of them because I was too cheap to pay for an actual race and made up my own course. My first one, the 2021 – ’94 Corolla Run (Sponsored by the aid station of my ’94 Corolla) was a 50 mile attempt that I finished in about nine hours. The highlight was being passed by an 80 year old man speed walking on the same trail and eating a pizza halfway through without losing the meal.

My second ultra was a 12 hour fundraising event in 2024 in the heat of a Texas summer. I covered 52.2 miles which someone pointed out I managed to finish right before completing a second marathon. It is pretty hard to look like the worse one out in downtown Austin on sixth street when sober but I held the crown that night. I only cried one time (maybe twice), did not manage to eat a pizza or any food really the last five hours, and the greatest achievement is that I remained married to my wife who crewed for me for her first time! (The ’94 corolla had since died on us).

Since then, I look forward to finding more time to run in 2025 and possibly find a legitimate race to make an ultra marathon debut with some more fundraising along the way. The goals will be to finish, maybe cry a little less, and find a way to keep positive.

Thank you for spending your time here with me and I hope one of these posts can bring a smile to your face and for some, maybe lace up the shoes to see what the world has to show us today.