.jpg)
A few miles past the halfway point of the Newport Coast 50K
For most of us, life gets busy sometimes, and we can't always devote as much time to certain areas of our life as we would like. A lot of people have had that discussion with a friend, family member, or colleague where they reminisce on when they used to do something regularly like working out, running, painting, etc. Then they talk about how they do it less frequently these days and the reason they give for pulling back is "I just got lazy". It's a straightforward and easy answer, and a simple way to justify taking a break from a life activity. Usually the other person nods in agreement or says "oh, okay", and just rolls with it. But when people say they don't do something anymore because they got lazy, I'm not so sure that is the real reason. I had a work colleague tell me recently that she used to go to the gym near our office after work all the time, but then she got lazy and hasn't done it in a while. I asked her "is it really laziness? Or have you just gotten busy and have you needed to shift your attention somewhere else?" I think a lot of people confuse laziness with changing priorities. Perhaps what actually happened was they pulled back because they had other things going on. Maybe they needed to devote more time to their career, or maybe they've gotten busier with activities involving their kids. It's not that they're lazy, it's that these other activities have depleted the mental or physical energy that they used to reserve for doing this particular thing they no longer do.
I remember in eighth grade I was taking guitar lessons once per week. I usually practiced, but there were definitely some weeks in the winter months when skiing was taking up a big chunk of my free time. If I wasn't out skiing, doing schoolwork, or goofing off with my buddies, I wanted some downtime to rest, and practicing guitar moved down on my priority list. My teacher could always tell when I hadn't practiced. I would confirm his suspicions and say that I didn't have time. He was an easygoing and understanding guy, but he politely told me that my excuse was bullshit, because I actually did have time. If I practiced fifteen minutes four times per week, that would have been an hour. And everyone has an hour in a full week to do something. Even that one hour would have made a difference when I was learning those scales.
Lately I've been running enough to keep up my endurance level up and keep myself fit, but so far this year, I haven't been running as many miles as I would like to. It's not that I don't have time to log double digit mile runs on weekend mornings, it's just that I've had other priorities in my life this year, and handling those priorities has left me with less mental energy for running. Lately on weekend mornings, I've found myself sleeping in a little later, frequenting local coffee shops, and then running shorter miles that might surprise some of the people who think I'm a running machine. Ultimately what it comes down to is work, being a dad and husband, and studying have been consuming a lot of my time and mental energy. It's been a busy year, but I've still managed to carve out time to run, do strength training, and go to spin class. I only had one chance to go snowboarding this year. It was a single day trip up to Mammoth late in the season. It may not have been much, but it was something, and I'm grateful that I was able to do it. Managing all these components of my life is an exciting challenge. It keeps me fulfilled, even if it gets quite overwhelming at times. On the surface it might look like I have it all together, but that's certainly not always the case. I was supposed to run a 100-mile race this summer up in Burney, but I made the tough decision to postpone it until next summer when hopefully I'll have more energy to train. The lack of miles has not stopped me from signing up for shorter ultramarathons though. I guess because I've been running ultras for long enough, I've reached a point in my fitness level where as long as I'm running enough to stay fit, I can usually grind my way through a marathon or a 50K as long as the terrain isn't too unforgiving.
The Newport Coast 50K, which I ran on May 9th, isn't exactly known for having gentle terrain. The elevation gain is around 5,600 feet. Not flat, but also not insanely high for a 50K in Southern California. The frequent steep climbs and the lack of shade on the course is where the challenge lies. The 2025 Newport Coast 50K was fun, and I'll always cherish the experience, but for reasons outside of anyone's control, it was a total shit show. There wasn't a cloud in the sky all morning, and it was forecasted to be unseasonably warm. By the time it was 9:00 AM it was already starting to feel hot. The temperature ended up reaching a high of eight-seven degrees, the hottest day of the year in Newport Beach up until that point. Aid stations were running out of water, runners had to be airlifted off the course, and the medical staff who were volunteering onsite where overwhelmed by all the runners who were suffering from heat exhaustion. I was being hit pretty hard by the heat and the sun and as I approached the aid station at mile twenty-two, I wondered if I would make it another nine miles. Once the aid station came into view, a volunteer called out to me and told me the remainder of the race had been cancelled due to the heat. I was a little bummed out that I wouldn't get a chance to try to finish, but I was more relieved than anything. The thought of trying to rally another nine miles seemed daunting. I will always humorously remember the 2025 Newport Coast 50K as the race that DNF'ed itself.
The 2026 race was a whole different story. The temperature was twenty degrees cooler, we had a nice marine layer hovering over Crystal Cove from the ocean, and things went much more smoothly than in 2025. I powered through the race pretty well and it ended up being one of my better 50K performances. To top it off, Samantha and Aidan met me at the finish line, we walked across the street, and spent some time at the beach. Aidan sat in the sand and played with his beach toys while I laid next to him in the sand like a washed up seal. At one point I was about to fall asleep until Aidan tossed a scoop of sand in my hair. I'm glad he didn't want me to chase him because that would have put me in a world of hurt. When I stepped off the start line earlier that morning, I wasn't sure how things would go, but despite the lack of training, it was a great day out on the course. Spending time at the beach with Samantha and Aidan afterwards was even better. Having good core fitness helps me haul myself up those steep climbs, so I like to think that perhaps the strength training helped, as well as the spin classes I've been taking on Sunday mornings. Whatever works.
It's now almost the middle of the year and even though I've made the choice to postpone the 100-miler to next summer, I still have plans to run more races this year. Hopefully I can put in some bigger miles during the second half of the year, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it or put too much pressure on myself. To me, running is supposed to be a way to relieve stress not cause it. I want to perform well, but as soon as I start putting too much pressure on myself, it becomes not fun anymore. And if it's not fun, what's the point? Keep running fun.
