The Hidden Cost of Our Running Gear
Introduction As trail runners, we view ourselves as stewards of the Earth, spending countless hours immersed in nature, running through desert, woodland, coastlines, and mountains. We are one with the natural world around us. Indeed, we comprise a critical fabric in the web of nature, though too often in the Global North (includes North America and Europe), we tend to forget that through our choices, we
The Twisting Branch Part 7
As I was chatting with Addie Bracy on our second mental performance coaching session, after we had our conversation about my complicated relationship with running these past few months, there was a little time left over for me to turn the tables and ask her some questions of my own. I thought it might be interesting or even useful for anyone reading about my journey,
The Twisting Branch Part 6
The first time I met with mental performance coach Addie Bracy, it had been a month since I finished Twisted Branch. I had planned some down time, or more correctly, I deliberately didn’t want to commit to anything for the remainder of the year. I toyed with the idea of doing a solo 135-mile endurance run this fall to raise money for a local charity
The Twisting Branch Part 5
The e-mail came through at 12:31 pm. This meant I had been racing Twisted Branch for 6.5 hours. Of course, I didn’t read it until 12 hours later, as my crew chief Keith was driving us back to his place where we would crash for the night. I don’t know how exhausted I was in that moment. I didn’t feel angry or hurt by what it
The Twisting Branch Part 4
Leave it to me to get four parts into this blog before even giving the race report! This is what I wrote on social media in the immediate aftermath, and though I spent some time trying to find what was authentic within me, I’m not fully bought into the narrative I spoke at the time. If I had to write a race report from scratch
The Twisting Branch Part 3
“Ultrarunning is 10% physical and 90% mental.” How often have you heard that maxim? I recently heard a different interpretation: Rob Bell put it that sport is still 90% physical, but the 10% mental component is the key that unlocks the other 90%. Dr. Bell is Certified Mental Performance Consultant, a qualification registered with the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). Even for an engineer like
The Twisting Branch Part 2
This is the second in a series of posts by Trails Collective athlete Clem Chung. Click here for Part 1. Now that fall is here, these days it’s so hard to get out of bed in the mornings. The weather is getting cooler, and run before work requires the use of lights and reflective gear. The biggest thing stopping me going out for a run at
Searching For a Girl Gang
Raise your hand if you have recently read an article, or listened to a podcast, that proclaimed, “The future of ultrarunning is female!” Ann Trason and Pam Reed must be so glad that the world finally caught up to them. Being competitive with and beating the men of their heydays was the norm for these two legends, however part of what made them extra legendary
The Twisting Branch Part 1
The record shows that I finished the 2022 Twisted Branch Trail Run 100k in 19 hours, 18 minutes, and 48 seconds. In doing so, I qualified for the Western States Endurance Run lottery. I had achieved the one running goal I had set out at the beginning of the year. I had never before been singularly focused on one objective since I took up this sport
No More Expectations
We all have expectations. Expectations about things, people, relationships, jobs… and running. I think it might be time to let them go. At the very least, we need to make these expectations more flexible. Not that long ago, I was a pretty decent runner, especially at distances between ten and fifty miles. I wasn’t elite by any stretch, but I was competitive. Then, slowly but surely,
