Jeff Browning started trail running competitively in 2001 and is one of the premier endurance trail runners in the country. With gold, pirate-style earrings dangling from both ears and a tattoo on his forearm, Browning doesn’t fit the image you might have of the stereotypical “jogger,” but then again, what Browning does bears little resemblance to the leisurely runs that most of us associate with the sport. He has finished 11 of the sport's ultimate tests – the 100-mile trail run – and won seven of those races. He sat with the Source recently to discuss his thoughts on the science and the spirituality of endurance running.
How did you get into running?
I played traditional sports growing up – football, baseball and track. I got into mountain biking in college and started running to cross train for mountain biking…When I moved west and started climbing in Colorado, I had some extra pounds and started running again to lose a little bit around my waist.
I was a big mountain biker the first year I was here and then started hanging out with a good friend of mine, Rod Bien, and he had just gotten into ultra marathons and had just run a 150k. He said, “Hey, there is this thing called a hundred miler.” I was intrigued, coming from a mountain biking background and backpacking so I just started going on some trail runs with him. I was trying to get him into mountain biking and he was trying to get me into trail running and he won.
