My name is Keith Nolan. I live in Cork, Ireland, and I originally created this site in 2013 as a training log while preparing for endurance events and ultramarathons.

At the time, running was a huge part of my identity. I loved the structure of training, the discipline, the challenge, and the feeling that difficult things could be overcome one step at a time. Over the years I completed multiple marathons, ultramarathons, and eventually the Jungle Ultra in the Amazon rainforest.

But life does not move in straight lines.

Over time, this site slowly became something much more personal than a running blog.

I am a father of five children. My daughter KatieAnn was born and died in 2011. In 2021, my transgender son Haze died by suicide at the age of 15. Those experiences changed me completely and reshaped how I see life, grief, love, strength, and meaning.

Alongside grief came other major changes — chronic illness, leaving a long career in technology leadership, divorce, and more recently beginning treatment for severe sleep apnoea.

For a long time, simply surviving felt like enough.

Today, I’m trying to rebuild.

This site has become a place where I document that process honestly:

• returning to fitness,
• learning how to live with grief,
• rebuilding health,
• swimming and running,
• fatherhood,
• technology and self-tracking,
• adventures,
• setbacks,
• and the ongoing attempt to reconnect with life.

I don’t write because I think I have answers.

I write because documenting the journey helps me understand it.

If you happen to find something useful, meaningful, or familiar in these pages, then I’m glad the site found its way to you.

— Keith