Mission:

To educate, inspire, and entertain high maintenance runners.

The High Maintenance Runner’s Manifesto:

In its simplest form, running is a low maintenance activity that requires minimal gear and preparation, but not all runners are low maintenance. Some of us turn this fundamental human movement into a complex pursuit that goes beyond getting out the door and logging miles. We are high maintenance runners.

We don’t demand attention from others, and when our obsession spills into day-to-day life we are grateful that our loved ones realize the joy running provides. We’re not high maintenance in the typical sense. We are high maintenance for ourselves.

We ride the line between too much and just enough training. We devote energy to activities that keep us healthy because we know the consequence of being injured is a temporary life without running. Though we may accumulate recovery gadgets and experiment with supplements and protocols, we know that there is no substitute for nailing the basics.

High maintenance runners look unhinged to outsiders. Slogging through snow, battling wind, and enduring hellish heat, we take it as a compliment when someone calls us “crazy.” We spend months training for a race, push our bodies to exhaustion, then rush to sign up for another event moments after we swore we wouldn’t do it again. We set high standards for ourselves, and it’s hard for us to be happy with just crossing the finish line. Failure to set a PR or finish on the podium can temporarily break our hearts, but we turn failure into fuel. 

A relentless pursuit of self-improvement drives us to complicate this simple sport, and we know that all the effort is worthwhile. Running connects us to nature, to other people, and to ourselves in a way that nothing else can. Being high maintenance allows us to get more from running, and from life.