Mission: To educate, entertain, and encourage high maintenance runners.

The High Maintenance Runner’s Manifesto:

Running is a low maintenance activity, but not all runners are low maintenance. In its simplest form, running requires minimal gear: a pair of shoes, weather-appropriate apparel, a watch to know when to turn around. High maintenance runners, however, turn this fundamental human movement into a complex pursuit that goes beyond getting out the door and logging miles.  

We aren’t high maintenance in the typical sense. The term implies that someone is demanding and makes their needs the center of attention. Sure, we might have these traits, but we are also flexible and self-motivated, so we try not to cause trouble for anyone else. We are high maintenance for ourselves. We are grateful for our loved ones who support our beloved hobby because they know it brings us joy.

Our obsession spills into day-to-day life by waking us up early, making us late for social functions, and determining what, when, and how much we eat. We devote energy to less enjoyable activities that help us stay healthy because we can’t imagine our lives without running. Foam rollers and exercise bands complement sports massage and physical therapy sessions. We accumulate recovery tools and make time to use them.

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, and then rush to sign up for the next 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.