At a recent press conference for Ken Burns’ forthcoming Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies feature series, airing on PBS March 30–April 1, the mood was rather upbeat for a discussion on America’s second leading cause of death. Doctors raved … Continue reading →

This past Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of the JFK 50 Mile ultramarathon, a footrace inspired by John F. Kennedy’s call to his armed forces to meet a challenge first conceived by Teddy Roosevelt: cover 50 miles by foot in less than a day. Three of us from The Experiment made the trip to see 71-year-old Ed Ayres, whose book The Longest Race uses this historic race as a framework for remembering a lifelong dedication to long-distance running, as he competed against a field of 1,500 runners. We stood in a group of about a hundred supporters, watching as Ed and others careened down the rocky Appalachian Trail at Weverton Cliff, a treacherous stage of the race that Ed vividly recounts in his book. We witnessed the danger firsthand in the form of not-infrequent scraped and bloodied faces, legs, and knees of the runners going by. As Ed reached the foot of the cliff, he high-fived us and looked OK, but he let us know after the race that by the time he saw us he’d already fallen twice. And Weverton is only mile 15! Continue reading →