Regular readers know I trained for last year’s marathon, then hurt my foot just before the event, after already running a few 20+ miles runs. Postponing gives you automatic entry the following year, which I did, and just got an email that I’m in this year. Congratulations, Joshua! You’re in. Welcome to the Class of 2014, New York City Marathoner! You’ll be on a runner’s journey through the five boroughs[…] Keep reading →

I looked forward to reporting on running the marathon yesterday. After at least 300 miles training without incident or injury, I hurt my foot last week — I don’t think anything permanent, but enough to make running impossible. I put off deciding as long as I could, but with a heavy heart and tears almost welling in my eyes on as beautiful a fall day as you could hope for,[…] Keep reading →

Wait, I want to lead better. Why should I care about marathons? Running a marathon takes discipline, dedication, practice, drive, determination, and many skills relevant to becoming a leader and practicing leadership. You’ve heard many parts of leadership described as marathons, not sprints. Whether you want to train for and complete a literal marathon or just something like one, having marathons in your life as a competitor or spectator, improves[…] Keep reading →

So many people apply to run in the New York City Marathon, you usually have to get lucky in the random draw to get accepted. If you apply and don’t get in three years in a row, you get in automatically the fourth year, which worked out for me this year. So I just got my guaranteed acceptance to this year’s marathon! I also just got my new Vivobarefoot running[…] Keep reading →

Monday night I told my second story at the Moth, to about two hundred people. A bit scary, though not as scary as last time, but awesome! Improving public speaking improves your abilities in almost any field. Few structures match the story structure in engaging people to listen. That’s why I stuck my neck out to practice storytelling in public — to exercise useful skills. And to have fun, of[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written before how I like to read the results of the finishers of marathons I run, especially the last and oldest. From the publicly published information, it’s the most inspiration you can get. I’m sure it barely scratches the surface of what some athletes overcome to finish, but I look for inspiration where I can. Since I registered for last year’s New York City marathon lottery (but didn’t get[…] Keep reading →

A reader emailed me: I really enjoy your podcast and greatly appreciate your work. It was very exciting to someone else thinking about personal choices the same way I do and effectively influencing others to do the same. I want to commit to a new personal challenge of only buying food without packaging — I’m almost there now but I want to publicly commit and go all the way …[…] Keep reading →