Outside Magazine

My 2010 incident with Tough Mudder was mentioned in this month's Outside Magazine cover article.

I have posted a brief comment about it to my Google Plus page. Please click here to read it:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/103285433060201598953/posts/an6PJQvmfDe

There is no "i" in Blog

Of the few readers I get to this blog, I know that one or two were at one point eagerly anticipating my Umstead report. I'm sure they have given up. I have been trying - for months - to try to wrap it up, but I've not had the motivation to.

I think I know why, too. When I read old posts in this blog, I'm surprised (and a little embarrassed) at how self-absorbed I am. And when I look at the in-draft Umstead report and see that I've written 7000 words so far about myself, I wonder.. Who cares? And what's the point?

In my personal blog reading feed, the list of subscriptions has changed over the years. I used to subscribe mostly to blogs that were a lot like mine - primarily race reports, or one-sided discussions about their personal training and running experiences. They have mostly been replaced by those that - for lack of a better term - are more educational. And by using that term, I don't mean to imply that I don't learn anything from reading people's race reports - but rather I seem to get more out of reading blogs that are less about the writer and more about some aspect of the activity.

Before I go any further, I need to point out that I get the irony of this self-absorbed blog post about my self-absorbed writing. But I think this is necessary to point out that I intend to switch the direction of this thing. Like my reading preferences, I want to move my writing topics away from the writer (me) and towards something else.

So the next question is, "what is this 'else' that I'll write about?" Long term, I don't know. When it comes to running, I don't consider myself qualified to authoritatively write about anything technical. It's not in my nature to be artistic or existentialist. Any my past attempts at idle entertainment taught me that it's best to leave such ventures to those with actual talent. I do have opinions - in fact, strongly held principles, but again - experience has taught me that opinions are best kept to myself.

However, in the short term, one thing that I do feel like I can write about is discoveries. Or, if you prefer, tips. Things that I have learned in my day-to-day life. Since these are by their nature based on my own experiences, there is again a fine line between another self-absorbed "Look at this amazing insight thing *I'VE* discovered!" post and something that isn't so much about me. Also, by their nature, these insights don't come as often as they used to, and sometimes they turn out to be incorrect. So posts may be few and far between, which isn't all that different from how it's been lately anyway. But until I get qualified, change my nature, or get some talent from somewhere, that's all I've got.

I might still write race reports, but they'll be short and more about the race than about me. And I still intend to publish the Umstead monstrosity, because I'd hate for all that work to go to waste. But in general, future posts on this blog will have less usage of the word "I". This post notwithstanding.