Relentless Romero Blogs

Click HERE to watch the YouTube video Be Outstanding. Outstanding is different than good. It's different than great. Good may start at 7 am, great at 5 am, Outstanding starts at 3 am, 2 am. You cannot rest. You cannot stop because you are so convicted. "To give less than your best is to sacrifice the gift" - Steve Prefontaine. Why does the standard need to be so high? Because that is what we are capable of. When you're Outstanding, you're going to be uncomfortable. We live in a life where we think comfort is the goal. It's not! Wrong! We have climate controlled environments, we have cars, we have telecommunication that give us instant feedback. Life is not supposed to be comfortable. Not if we are living an Outstanding life. Nothing great is easy. There are no short-cuts in this life.  In order to be Outstanding, you are going to need to dream. You are going to need to have epic dreams, grandiose dreams, bigger than you have ever thought; ...

Sometimes the most difficult thing a person can do is to ask for help. Ironically, many times when the request comes, we think we are too busy to help our family, friend or colleague who is vulnerable and asking for support. I recently found myself in a situation I could not fathom and my back was up against the wall. There was no way out, and I needed the help of every person I knew, and didn't know. My requests for help became pleas for support and aid. I was desperate. To my surprise, some people who I thought were very close to me, were actually very distant. In response to my request for help, one person told me "if this is an emergency, call 911." Another friend told me his travel schedule - I think that was an indirect way of telling me he was busy with work. A couple of other people never responded. I didn't have time to internalize the hurt or disappointment of this behavior, I had to try to solve the situation that was before me. The majorit...

Nicola Elliott-Savage @ Rio del Lago 100 Endurance Race This past weekend I got the rare opportunity to crew somebody who was running a 100 mile race. Usually, I am the runner who has other people supporting me. This weekend, the roles were reversed and I experienced something magnificent. I witnessed humanity at its finest, and this blog is about that experience. The runner was well trained for this race, had assembled a capable support crew (team), and was an experienced ultra-runner. She also had an aggressive time goal of running a sub-24 hour trail 100 mile race. She had a plan to run "easy" up until mile 75, then move quickly in runnable sections to finish with a sub-24 hour race. As the race started, she was excited, injury free and fit. She ran through the first section perfect according to her plan - 3 hours and 15 minutes. She achieved the second aid station at mile 23.5 within a couple minutes of her plan. The third aid station was right on plan and aid sta...

Tonight I was re-reminded how important mentors are in our lives. I have had many mentors in my life for many different areas including business, running, family, faith, blindness and relationships.  However, I will never forget my first mentor, and I was his first mentee.  When I was in law school, the Bar Association matched law school students with local attorneys. I was matched with Bill Lucero, who was an Assistant Denver District Attorney at the time. I thought Bill was going to mentor me about how to be a good attorney; as it turns out, he was a mentor about how to live an outstanding life. Several weeks ago, Bill invited me to attend the 27th Annual DU Law Stars event, where he was being honored with the Robert H McWilliams, Jr. Professionalism Award . He told me that I had been important in his life, and he wanted me to sit with his family at the event. This man has been a hero of mine in so many ways. As the night's program began, I thought about the traits tha...

September 28, 2019 (Denver, Colorado) - Blind runner Jason Romero (T13/B3) set two new World Records at the Bear Chase Trail Race for trail running at the 100 kilometer (62 mile) - 11 hours 32 minutes 43 seconds  - and 50 mile (84 kilometer) distances - 8 hours 54 minutes 42 seconds .  So how did this thing unfold, because that run was definitely not what I expected. 8 days before this race, I had ran an easy 50 miles with a friend who is training for a 100 miler. I also had trained hard for my A-race of the year, the Leadville 100 (which was 1 month prior). I was not sure I was going to run this race until the day before the race (September 27). When I went to register for the race, I discovered that registration had closed. I e-mailed and called the race director to see if I could sign up race morning. In the afternoon, I had confirmed that I would be able to sign up for the race on race morning. My late entry meant that I would have to run without a guide. I ha...

This race report has been a long time coming - it has been close to 3 1/2 weeks since I ran the Leadville 100 Trail race. My stats for this race are 6 starts with 5 finishes. This year, I had the lofty goal of trying to finish in under 25 hours to earn the coveted "Big Buckle". Usually, less than 10% of the starters of the race are able to successfully earn a Big Buckle. No blind person has ever earned a Big Buckle, and I'm the only known blind person to have finished the Leadville 100 Trail Run. TRAINING I made the Leadville 100 my "A-Race" for the year - meaning, I wasn't racing multiple 100 milers, or crazy adventuring during the 8 months prior to Leadville.  My plan was to be able to "run" the entire 100 miles - where the terrain was runnable. I incorporated several 50 mile runs every 2 weeks into my training. I also ran a couple 100 mile races early in the year to build a solid base. with 2 months to go, I incorporated mountain and...

This morning was walking to the local coffee shop in Leadville, Colorado to get a morning pick-me-up. En route, I passed the Leadville Race Administrative building. I decided to pop-in and see if any familiar faces were around. As soon as I opened the door somebody said, “Hi Jason!” Within seconds a figure appeared, walking towards me. It was Quinn Cooper, a LifeTime Fitness employee who is responsible for all the logistics of the Leadville Race Series, and a multitude of other LifeTime athletic events. We hugged, caught up, and before departing I wanted to reconfirm with Quinn that I would be having Guides as I attempt to complete the Leadville 100 Trail Race this weekend. I told Quinn that I had “GUIDE” bibs and vests that they would wear. Quinn said, “Don’t worry about that. I ordered ‘Guide’ bibs for your guides.” I was silenced. I couldn’t process what Quinn’s words meant. All I had to do was just show up and run. They knew my condition, and the accommodations I neede...

June 29, 2019 - History was made today in the world of trail running at the ultra-distance. The oldest 100-mile organized trail race - The Western States 100 - become inclusive today for blind and visually impaired runners who need guides to compete. At 5 am Pacific Daylight Time, a legally blind runner started the race with 368 other racers. The legally blind runner also had a guide - so there were actually 370 people who began the race. This is an important point. The field limit size for the race is 369 people. However, the blind runner was able to have a guide and the field size was not compromised.   The Western States 100 has set an historic precedent for itself - it will allow blind and visually impaired runners to have guides. One year ago, this was not the case at the Western States 100 trail race. The race had prohibited visually impaired and blind runners from bringing their own guides. Visually impaired and blind runners were told they had to "follow another...

50 miler today, after two 25 miles runs and a double-marathing in a 2 week time period #1 SLEEP & #2 DRINK WATER Now you can move on and focus on your training instead of reading countless articles about how to recover. A couple weeks ago, I ran a double marathon, and for grins I google'd "How do you recover from an ultra marathon?"  I was amazed, and a little shocked, at what I found. There were a lot of articles from people purporting to be "experts." One guy had actually finished one 100 mile race in his running career....that's it. I thought that was pretty gutsy to be dispensing advice to the masses without significant experience. Also, recovery from your first "hundo" is much different than recovering from your 5th, 10th or 20th hundred mile race. There were also "non-running" physical therapists dispensing advice that they learned from books. All in all, there were a lot of "tips" and people seemed to t...