“I’m 53 years old. I’ve been practicing law in Michigan with a specialty in advanced estate planning and post-death estate/trust administration for 25 years. I’ve always been active but I made the deliberate choice to devote my first 10 years of practice to my job/career. Coincidentally, the end of those 10 years coincided with my employer’s bankruptcy and resulting loss of most of the benefits a young lawyer would expect to receive from those efforts, and I was sadly overweight and out of shape, so much so that I failed a life insurance exam. I immediately started running again, but couldn’t run continuously one entire lap around a track at first. But I kept at it, every day, I would cover 4 miles on the track, running as much (and walking as little) as I could each time. After a month, I could run a continuous 4 miles. I lost 40 pounds in 80 days (after which I was re-examined and qualified for the insurance policy). Not content to backslide, I put a marathon on my calendar for about 9 months out—which was the San Francisco Marathon in July 2001. I enjoyed it so much, I just kept putting marathons on my calendar.

“Fast-forward 15 years, and I have now run 70 marathons and 65 races of other distances, from 5Ks to 100-milers. I have qualified for and run in the Boston Marathon for 15 consecutive years (and qualified for No. 16 next year). But for me the adventure really started when I began running ultra/trail runs in 2012, beginning with the White River 50 mile run in 2012 on my 50th birthday. I have run at least one such race each year since, with my goal each time being to requalify for the Western States Endurance Run (entry is by lottery but you must run a qualifying race each year). If/when I gain entry into Western States, I aim to complete the “Grand Slam” of ultra running (i.e., Western States, Wasatch Front, Vermont and Leadville 100-milers) in the same year.

“The photo is of Mount Ranier with me (in an orange shirt) in the foreground, at the 2012 White River race outside of Seattle. I like the beauty and challenge of mountainous endurance runs since I have spent pretty much my whole life in the relative flat lands of Michigan, near sea level.

“There is some commonality between ultra-running and my practice of law. I have found that in a journey of 100,000 steps, none is more important than the next step you take; that while you need to have a “big picture” eye on your environment and distant horizon for changing conditions, you must never lose sight of the path right in front of you. So it is in my practice of law. I guide clients along paths best suited for them while avoiding problems and pitfalls they may not even see.”