My Bio

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll have noticed three major threads: running, barefoot running, and meditation. To put those in context, here’s a brief bio I wrote recently for another project. (I’ll post more about that project later.)

I started running in 1978, at the age of 30, in order to lose weight. I ran for the next couple of years, completing a couple of 10K races and two marathons. Then life happened, and I was away from running for about 30 years. I got back to it late in 2007, at the end of 14 months of physiotherapy for a broken hip. (I’d been run over by a truck while cycling, and now have stainless steel rods and pins in my left hip.) I’ve survived two bouts of prostate cancer, in 2006 and 2010, and am planning to live for a very long time. I’m a vegetarian and a nutrition freak.

I started barefoot and minimalist running in the summer of 2008, after reading about it, trying it, and finding it to be a natural way of running that fits me perfectly. Since then, I’ve run a number of 10K races, a couple of half-marathons, two 30K races, two marathons, and two 50K ultras. I’m currently training for a 6 hour race, with a 30K and a half marathon as training races along the way.

I first started exploring meditation when I was 15 and became interested in Buddhism, particularly Zen Buddhism. Later influences included Hindu philosophy, the Human Potential Movement, depth psychology, and Christian liberation theology. I have an undergraduate degree in Latin and Greek, and a graduate degree in theology. I don’t consider myself a religious or spiritual person, just someone who’s exploring what it means to be fully human.