Fellrnr.com is dedicated to making you a better runner, whether you're a beginner or a competitive athlete. Many of the articles are general in nature, but specific attention is given to the marathon and ultramarathon distances. I don't claim to have any specific training beyond my own experience as a competitive ultrarunner and I advise you to Trust No One. I'm a believer in the scientific method, and so this site is a mixture of my personal perspective and an analysis of the available scientific evidence. I have learned that Documentation Is Evil and therefore try to keep things short and to the point, so a lot of articles on this site may be shorter than you might expect.

1 Product Reviews

Because this site is to make you a better runner, I have avoided putting any advertisements on this site. I do have a number of product reviews that use "affiliate links" which result in a small commission of any resulting sale without increasing the cost to you. You may find that the product reviews on this site are a little more critical, and I will often recommend the cheaper, better value for money products where possible. This is partly because I have no relationship with a supplier or manufacturer that I need to protect, and I am in a financial position to run this site at a loss. The products I review I pay for just like you would. (I do occasionally take part in product development by giving feedback or data to manufacturers, but this is not intended to be used to develop content for this site. This includes an NDA with Garmin.)

2 My Story

Because of my skin condition I never did any exercise as a child. By my early-30s I was overweight inactive and not terribly healthy. It was at this point I got my "wake-up call" in the form of a particularly severe migraine. This migraine was unusual in that the early symptoms included not only loss of vision but also impaired the speech center of the brain. I was unable to speak coherently, understand what was said to me, or even read and write. In many ways the symptoms mirror those of the stroke, and were quite frightening. This migraine did not last long and I recovered fully but it made me realize that unless I did something can to improve my health than the stroke was a very real possibility. I started off by joining an aerobics class and got into running as a way of getting to and from the class. My weight dropped from its high of 205 pounds and I started getting into longer distance running. I entered my first half marathon woefully unprepared having only run a maximum of 6 miles before. I was nearly the last one to finish the race competing for DFL with a 70-year-old woman. I could barely walk for a week afterwards, so naturally I signed up for the London Marathon. I finished the London Marathon in 1999 and moved to the US in 2000, where I continued running marathons. After a few years of marathon running I realized that speed was not my forte but I did have a lot of endurance. I found the world of ultrarunning rather more relaxed and over time found myself becoming competitive in the longer distances.

3 My Genetic Profile

I've had genetic testing using 23 and Me, and published an overview of my genetic testing results.

4 Bio

Me, circa 1995 at about 205 pounds.

Me again, but at Hinson Lake in 2010, weighing 135 pounds.

Name: Jonathan Savage
Nom de plume: Fellrnr
Location: Charlotte, NC, USA
Occupation: Software architect specializing in security.
Started running: 1997 (For most of my life I avoided exercise due to a genetic skin condition Epidermolysis Bullosa)
Started running ultras: 2005
PRs: 146 miles in 24 hours, 100 miles in 15:58, 100K in 9:31, 50 miles in 7:08, 50K in 3:38, 26.2 in 2:53.
Favorite Run: 2008 Double Crossing of the Grand Canyon.
Typical training week: See Training Macrolog.
Injury history: Epidermolysis Bullosa and Back Surgery .

5 Supporting this web site

If you shop at Amazon.com,Zappos.com, RoadRunnerSports.com or REI.com, then clicking on these links will result in a commission coming back to help fund this site. This has no cost to you.

6 Privacy Policy

This site does not share personal information with third parties nor do I store any information about your visit other than to analyze and optimize content and reading experience through the use of cookies. You can turn off the use of cookies at anytime by changing your specific browser settings. I am not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on September 9th, 2014. If you have any questions feel free to contact me directly.

7 Why 'fellrnr'?

I wanted fellrunner, but that username was taken on the first site when I tried to use it, so fellrnr was a natural abbreviation. The shorter 'fellrnr' also has the advantage of being unique and fitting on a NC vanity license plate. I like the name especially because of the ambiguity of 'fell', which has at least three meanings in English:

'fell running' - the English term for trail running, coming from old Norse Fjell, meaning hill.
'fell' - 'Of an inhumanly cruel nature; fierce'.
'fell' - one who has taken a fall.

8 Why the Logo?

The logo for this site shows someone running downhill, and this represents my belief in the importance of Downhill Running.

About Fellrnr

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