Little Mac: America’s First Great Marathoner

The Boston Athletic Association’s (B.A.A.) Tom Burke called out each entrant’s name. Hamilton Gray, representing the St. George Athletic Club of New York, had won a national 10-mile championship. In Harvard’s crimson was medical student and star miler Richard Grant, the local favorite. And wearing the dark blue singlet and baggy shorts of New York’s … Continue reading Little Mac: America’s First Great Marathoner

High Jinxed

A Hiker Investigates His Fear of Heights I. One of my oldest memories survives from an unknown year in the early 1980s, when I was 6 or 7, and takes place near the top of a long-since-forgotten mountain in Acadia National Park. I had been following my parents as usual when we stepped out from … Continue reading High Jinxed

One of the Team

Dogsledding in the Maine Wilderness I’m wary of big dogs, especially those that look like wolves. So when Stephen Madera asks me to help Teddy, a 50-pound Siberian husky, get down from the kennel on the back of his truck, I’m nervous. “He might like to use your shoulder,” Madera says. I hook a hand … Continue reading One of the Team

The Professional

Lauren Fleshman Finds Herself in Oregon A few wisps of dirty blond hair and a primal “OOOOOOW!” emerge from inside Lauren Fleshman’s hood. She holds her black sweatshirt above her navel to keep it dry and lowers her legs into the Willamette River’s frigid current. It’s a cold Friday morning in mid-December. She soaks here … Continue reading The Professional