Contributors

We thought you’d like to know a bit about those folks who contribute to making iRunFar your source for mud, mountains, mile, and more. If you’re interested in contributing any of your various talents to iRunFar, please take a look below
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Anthony Portera
Anthony “Tony” Portera is the voice behind This Week in Running or TWIR, as we tend to call it. During the day, Tony is a New York real estate attorney, but don’t hold that against him. We swear he’s a good guy! Tony joined iRunFar back in the summer of 2008 and has been writing for us nearly every week since. If you enjoy Tony’s unique voice, go read about his personal adventures at iRunUltras.com

Allison Pattillo
Allison Pattillo is the newest member of the iRunFar editorial staff. A Carbondale, Colorado-based outdoor enthusiast and former editor at Trail Runner Magazine, we couldn’t be more excited about adding her contributions under the moniker of Non-Gear Girl. Why Non-Gear Girl? Because Allison appreciates useful products, not extraneous “gear” for gear’s sake. Allison explains: “My take on gear is that it has to serve its purpose, be good quality and easy to use. I don’t like gimmicks and tend to be rather suspicious of new things and updates — what was wrong with the old one? But once a product proves its worth, I’m sold. But if gear doesn’t augment my running experience, it goes straight to the interns – used to anyway! “Allison recently began sharing her always humorous life adventures at 40 and Fired.

Meghan Hicks
We doubt Meghan expects to be on this list, but we’d be remiss to leave her off it. While Meghan may not have some fancy column name, she often contributes engaging gear reviews to iRunFar. Beyond having the distinction of being an in-house gear tester, she’s frequently a part of the adventures you read about on iRunFar and provides many an unattributed photo. She’s also quick to proof articles (when we ask) and to provide counsel on what direction iRunFar should head in next. More of Meghan’s excellent writing can be found on her blog, Meghan’s Crooked Trails.

Elyse Braner
Elyse became iRunFar’s first female columnist when she started writing Elyse’s Closet back in late 2008. It should also be said that she was an inspirational example for Bryon Powell’s move to make trail running his profession. You see, despite Elyse’s youth, she was an appointment level State Department employee in the Bush administration. With the change in presidents, Elyse was at a professional crossroads. During that time, she was routinely approached by big-money consulting companies. She turned them all down in favor of making running the basis of her career. She now writes about running in multiple venues, is Lululemon’s DC running coordinator, and is the coach for The North Face Endurance Challenge – Washington, DC.

Technical Support and Graphic Design
While Bryon takes care of the day-to-day design and technical needs of iRunFar.com, the website wouldn’t be what it is without outside support from generous iRunFar readers. Here are a few folks who have volunteered their time and skills to make iRunFar even better:

• Mitchell Goodman provided iRunFar with the most excitement it saw in 2009 by being the brains that made the Western States 100 prediction contest possible.
• Brendan Trimboli has made a difference you can see, literally. If you like the Non-Gear Girl logo and the new logos for This Week In Running and Elyse’s Closet, you can join us in thanking Brendan.
• John McAlister is a web designer who did a lot of handholding while we prepared for the big move. He provided both design advice and technical support.
• Brad Koenig provided MySQL database advice that saved us countless hours in the transition to the new iRunFar.com.

Become a Contributor
If you have skills that you’d like to contribute to iRunFar, please get in touch with us! We’re always looking for good writers for guest posts (opportunities are limited), photographers looking to share their work, graphic artists to help with small projects, web designers and traditional publishers for their feedback and consultation, and anyone else with technical or artistic skills who is willing to make iRunFar even better. Even if we don’t have an immediate need for your skill, we’re building an iRunFar volunteer list just in case we need help in the future. Let us know if you want to be included!

Last updated: January 13, 2010