Happy 40th Birthday UltraRunning

When I was asked to write something about the 40th year of UltraRunning Magazine I thought, “This will be easy.” After all, I have literally grown up with the magazine.

I could not have been more wrong. How do you compress 40 years into one short article? How do you mingle the three storylines: the path taken by the sport, the growth and transitions of the magazine and pretty much my whole life?

UltraRunning came along during the first ultrarunning “boom.” It is hard to relate to today, but the biggest issue was whether the sport could retain its intimacy. If we had too many ultrarunners, it would be impossible for everyone to know each other. Before the magazine came along, everyone waited