Last Chance Running: Sobriety x Running

Text and texture from the path.

Running lets us fully experience the present moment, yet also connect with something ancient and ethereal. It’s easy, it’s difficult. We’re fragile, we’re strong. In these contrasts – this groundlessness – we find unexpected strength. We loosen our grip, become more patient, work with discomfort… The same building blocks, it turns out, of alcohol-free living. Last Chance Running explores the intersections of running and sobriety, and how we might tap this powerful combo for a life of self-reliance, calm, creativity, and deep presence. Thanks for being here. | More About This Project

Recent Articles

Let’s Go Streaking: The Power of Continuity

Let’s Go Streaking: The Power of Continuity

Why does starting and maintaining a streak motivate people so effectively, while breaking one has the opposite effect? Something interesting is at play. Let's dive into the power of streaks in creating habit change.

Give Yourself the (Re)Boot

Give Yourself the (Re)Boot

Healthy humans are constantly evolving. Taking a planned break from habits is a great way to clear the slate, refresh perspectives, and reorient your compass to the person you're becoming. Here's how (and why, and when) to do an old-fashioned system restart.

Temperance and Tapering: The Trials of Cutting Back

Temperance and Tapering: The Trials of Cutting Back

Change is disorienting. Anyone who’s trained for a marathon knows well the physical and psychological challenges of tapering (a reduction in running as the goal race nears). Same goes for restricting alcohol. You know it’s a good thing, but damn is it hard.

A Simple Formula for Difficult Things

A Simple Formula for Difficult Things

Consistency. Stress. Rest. Combined in the right order, with intention and direction, these three unfussy words coalesce into The Formula, the closest thing I’ve found to a universal maxim for sustainable success in sobriety, running, and all the other grueling, glorious things you’ll undertake in life.

Why is it so hard to talk about running?

Why is it so hard to talk about running?

There's a family dinner. You're close with a few folks, acquainted enough with the rest to make comfortable conversation. Comfortable, that is, until someone lobs the inevitable, "How's the running?" You flush. A rush of feelings and emotions wash over.

From the Journal

Going to the Mountains

It’s a Saturday in late December of 2013. My father is spending the last few hours of his life in bed, finally conceding to the cancer he’s fought for over five years. Just three of us now and the muted television. Aerial alpine scenes from somewhere, as if transmitted live by bird.

Mindset Matters: Four Minutes Faster

I held my running more gently this year, showed myself some patience and grace. It was all quite intentional… A grab at something deeper than the time on the finish clock. Going into the final "A" race of the season, I was just as intentional, with a twist.

Back to Boston: Training Hopefulness

It's a mistake to cling to rigid training modalities and success metrics. Rigid systems break. When things get difficult, we're wise to pause and remember that we always have options. Deploying thoughtful and intentional choices gives us agency… and agency is the bedrock of hope.