Migrants crossing sign near Mexican border

Racism, Misogyny, Intolerance in the San Diego Ultrarunning Community: A Compilation

A compilation of racism, misogyny, intolerance, and hate publicly directed at writer Myriam Gurba by ultrarunners in California   Introduction Last June, Myriam Gurba and I went down to Cleveland National Forest for an intended weekend…
Myriam Gurba on the Pacific Crest Trail
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Racism, Ultrarunning, and San Diego 100

Sunrise Aid Station, Cuyamaca 100K, 2018 Back in early June 2019, Myriam and I took a weekend to head down to Cleveland National Forest. We’d been there before, just a few months earlier. The town of Julian doesn’t look or feel at all…
Brown Mountain
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Euphoria, Brown Mountain, Bloody Knee

Sitting in my car on Altadena Drive, having just finished a run. The door is open and my leg is hanging out while I check my phone. My leg is covered in dried blood. A guy pulls up and asks if I need help. He can see that these are just scratches,…
Me, mile 50

Cuyamaca 100K Race Report – 2018

Here we go again. I’d put myself on the waiting list for this always sold out race sometime back in the spring. It seemed unlikely that my name would ever come up. I was a few weeks out from running Stagecoach 100 when I got the invite…
Stagecoach 100 Buckle

Lost in the Dark: Stagecoach 100 Race Report

Salida, Colorado I'd spent the week camping in near Monarch Pass, in the Sawatch range of Colorado, where only six weeks earlier I'd tried and failed at High Lonesome 100, dropping out angry, frightened, and miserable in the middle of a dark…
Me at unnamed pass
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Goat Rodeo: High Lonesome 100 Race Report

August 3, 2018, near Buena Vista, Colorado, in a field at the base of Mt. Princeton, 6am. This was the start of the second running of High Lonesome 100, up in the Sawatch Mountains of Colorado.It seemed the entire Southwest on fire. Smoke…
Kearsarge Pass selfie
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Kearsarge Pass

Extremely good news. "Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news" - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche I was in Albuquerque in April to run Cedro Peak 50K on my birthday. Ken Gordon said "You're running High Lonesome!" Ken is running it…
Cedro Peak singletrack
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More Songs About Cornbread and Jail

Harvoni treatment, month 1 My history with drugs is a colorful one. The colors are mostly shades of dark. For a very brief time, forty years ago, I was an iv drug user. It all ended a long time ago, I stopped shooting dope not long after…
Harvoni
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Hepatitis C, Harvoni, week one

Newly sober, 1997 It was spring of 1997. I was just a few months sober, in a women's clinic in Santa Monica, because in those days there weren't that many places that you could get a free HIV test, and an HIV test seemed like an urgent piece…
Clouds over the Sandias
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New Mexico Sky

Albuquerque, New Mexico Apartment hunting in Albuquerque. The courtyard. Not so far from mountains. Just off San Pedro. Quiet at 8:37 am on a Saturday. Cars are a little beat up. Not bad. "Don't use that tone of voice with me, young man."…
San Joaquin River
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San Joaquin River Trail Race Report

EconoLodge. "Fuck you!" "No, fuck you!" This is the sort of well thought out argument that takes place between two drunk women in the room next to us at the Econolodge in Fresno. A good night's sleep was not in the cards. Andrea…
Highline Trail Red Rocks

Mogollon Monster 100 Race Report

Frustration, bad spills, and broken bones.I'd signed up for Mogollon Monster 100 almost on a dare to myself. My success at 100 mile races has been, well, not very successful, with a lot fewer finishes than I have starts. Things always fall apart…
Driftwood, Vancouver Island, 1994
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Depression: Neither The End Nor An Easy Beginning

Silver Moccasin Run. For about 3 years I have been planning to do a run along the length of the Silver Moccasin Trail. This morning we got up at 3am and headed out to Vincent Gap. Andrea would drop me off, and meet me along the way as…
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Hardrock 100, mile 89: KT Aid Station

In the counter-clockwise direction, KT is the next-to-last aid station before the finish. At mile 89, the runners have just come up Grants Swamp three miles earlier, a harrowing climb, and then descended via the Ice Lake Trail followed by an…
Mt. Williamson
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Fear’s a Man’s Best Friend

Oh baby, baby - Oops I did it again. I've signed up for Mogollon Monster. I feel as though I haven't been running well for the last year and a bit. I feel as though age has caught up to me. I feel as though my performances, from now on, will…