James Boler is a lifelong Memphis resident who has had a lifelong love of being active.

He says he's always been an athlete mainly in the baseball world.  He played competitive softball from age 22-38.    After that, he started running, at age 40 .He  made a bet with his wife that he could run a half marathon without training.  He ran the race and regretted not training as had to walk pretty much the entire race. Once he ran the half he decided to run a marathon the next year but would actually train for it.   

Since then, he's finished three hundred milers and tried a 200, but dropped at (only) 140 miles.

He will return to Cruel Jewel on May 19 and plans to conquer the Cowboy 200 in September, after last year's DNF.

He is going to be a first-time race director in November when he is in charge of the Mamba 100. There are shorter distances, too.