Human Race
Runner's World|Issue 3, 2021
JIM BLANDFORD, 51, ELEVATION EXPLORER, HAMBURG, PENNSYLVANIA
JIM BLANDFORD
Human Race

When I first started running, I was always on the road. Born and raised in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, I didn’t discover the Blue Mountain Ridge here until I was 21. But once I found it, everything changed. Now I run its trails nearly every day.

When the pandemic hit, a friend and I met daily to run on the local trails and gravel roads, which put my training on track to hit big elevation numbers. In May, I participated in a seven-day challenge, spending about 10 hours a day on the hills in Port Clinton. In that one week, I hit 100,000 feet of climb. By summer, I knew I’d reach a million feet of vertical in 2020 if I stayed healthy and motivated.

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