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Semi-Rad

Brendan Leonard

Writer, artist, filmmaker, columnist for Outside Magazine. My newsletter about creativity, running, and enthusiasm goes out to 15,000+ subscribers every week.

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Friday Inspiration 429

Friday Inspiration 429 If you live in Washington DC or Chicago:I will be in your city May 6 (DC) or May 8 (Chicago) delivering a goofy presentation called “30 Questions You May Or May Not Have About Ultrarunning” at your local Arcteryx store. It’s based on my new book, which is only for sale at these events until May 23. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but the events we’ve done in Seattle, Portland, and Boulder have all been standing room only and not a single attendee has thrown a...

about 4 hours ago • 2 min read

Moby-Dick Is My Literary Ultramarathon The evening of September 4th, 2013, freshly zipped into my sleeping bag next to my friend Jim, inside a lightweight backpacking tent near the ridge of the north end of the Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado, I opened a copy of Moby-Dick, Bantam Classic edition. I read the opening line, one of the most famous in the history of western literature: “Call me Ishmael.” Then I read maybe five pages before I clicked off my headlamp and went to sleep. I...

1 day ago • 5 min read

Friday Inspiration 428 BOOK TOUR UPDATE: I will be signing and selling copies of my new book, Ultra-Something, at the Arc’teryx store in Boulder next week at 6 p.m. April 24. It’s full, but so were the events in Seattle and Portland, and we still had room for people who just showed up the night of the event. More info here. I’ll also be in Washington DC and Chicago, and if you can make either of those events, RSVP here:Washington DC: May 6 Chicago: May 8 The book goes on sale in mid-May, and...

7 days ago • 1 min read

Friday Inspiration 427 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: I have a new book called “Ultra-Something” coming out May 23rd, but I’m doing a sort of advance book tour April 17-May 8, in Arc’teryx stores in the following cities: Seattle: April 17 Portland: April 18 Boulder: April 24 Washington DC: May 6 Chicago: May 8 If you’re in one of those cities, here’s a page with more info and RSVP links. If you’re not in one of those cities, and you want info about the book, here’s the basic gist (and a link to get a...

14 days ago • 2 min read

How I Handwrite My Illustrated Stories A few months back, I posted on Instagram a short video of myself hand-writing something on my iPad, and someone commented, "You mean you actually write that stuff out by hand?" And I realized, I've never really explained how I make these handwritten and illustrated stories, so I thought I'd take a minute to do that in this video. (OK, it's actually 3 minutes and 29 seconds) And of course, here's a handwritten + illustrated version of the above video: If...

15 days ago • 1 min read

Friday Inspiration 426 I think it’s a testament to Beau Miles’s YouTube following that he can make a 7-minute video about sorting old screws and it gets half a million views. Did I watch the whole thing? I did. In one shot. (video) IMPORTANT: If you missed this announcement last week, TODAY is the LAST DAY to order a limited edition Periodic Table of the Elements of Adventure Nalgene bottle. You have until midnight MST tonight. We’ve sold 200+ so far, so thanks to everyone who’s ordered. OK...

21 days ago • 1 min read

Friday Inspiration 425 After 45-ish seconds of this, I was kind of thinking, “Is this just a video of a guy running to my favorite The War on Drugs song?” and then at exactly the 1:44 mark, which I have been long convinced is the greatest “woo!” in the history of recorded music, I was like Yeah, this is a video of a guy running to my favorite The War on Drugs song, and that’s why it’s so great. It’s very simple, but captures the feeling of running in a city, and I think that’s why I like it...

28 days ago • 2 min read

How I Became A Cruiser Bike Guy If you enjoyed this piece, please consider supporting my work. --

29 days ago • 1 min read

Friday Inspiration 424 Although I think the title of this is a teeny bit drastic, and maybe we should just “focus” on wonder and focus less on happiness, instead of giving up on happiness—but I love the idea here. (video) Thanks to everyone who completed last week’s survey! I ended up with way more responses than I thought I’d get (1400+), and I’m slowly making my way through your comments and suggestions. A few people were interested in the survey results, so here are some of them: Readers...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

Friday Inspiration 423 I have a quick favor to ask: If you have two minutes, would you help me out and take this 9-question anonymous survey about this newsletter? I’ve never collected any information about anyone who reads this (I’m trying to be polite), but that also means I have no real way of knowing who is reading it. So I created a quick survey, sort of “what do you like/dislike about the newsletter” and a few demographic questions, and some optional space for additional comments. It’s...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read
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