Brendan Leonard, also known as the brain behind the comical writings and drawings of Semi-Rad, makes sure the world of ultrarunning is staying in check, and that we don’t take it too seriously. It’s just running, after all. Here’s my conversation with the man, the myth, the semi-rad human, Brendan Leonard.
Runner and creative, Brendan Leonard. All photos courtesy of Brendan Leonard.
You just ran The Rut, right? How’d that go?
It was great. I haven’t been able to train a ton this summer. I’ve been sick from a two-year-old’s diseases from daycare for over a year now, and I just keep getting my ass kicked. But it went as well as I could expect. My wife ran too, so we had a free day to just run.
Didn’t you backpack the Sangres Traverse?
Yeah. We didn’t stay up top the whole time. We kind of kept dropping down to the lakes and skipped a bunch of the big summits. I’d be interested to go back now. That was 11 years ago, and I’d probably have a way better idea of what to do.
What is the background behind Semi-Rad?
I started it in 2011, I want to say January, or maybe February. I got a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Montana. I tried to work at newspapers, and tried to write for magazines for several years. And I had watched a friend start his own thing. He just got sick of magazine editors telling him they don’t want to publish this stuff, and he just started reading stories into a recorder in his closet and started what I think was probably the first podcast I ever listened to, which is the “Dirtbag Diaries.” It immediately became pretty successful, and turned into a part-time job, and then a full-time job, very quickly for him. And I was like, well, maybe I’ll do that too.
I have all this stuff that I think is funny and I’m just going to put it out there. And I thought, I’ll do one of these a week and see how it goes, and if it starts to take off, maybe it’ll be a thing. And pretty quickly it started to get a little bit of momentum, and a few people started noticing it.
And then eventually, I think it was 2017, an editor at “Outside” reached out to me and said, “Hey, we know you write something every week. We like it. Can we just republish it on our website, and we’ll pay you for it?” And I was like, “absolutely.”
If you were to give advice to a young artist, in terms taking that leap or progressing, what would you say to them?
I think the biggest obstacle people have in my experience is giving yourself permission to do it. We have a really hard time spending our free time doing something creative, there’s all these hang-ups about it, like “Oh, I don’t feel like a real artist,” but then we’ll go and spend hours watching Netflix, and I’m like, “Art should just be your source of fun.” That’s the way I’ve always done. It’s making my own fun, and I can always entertain myself by trying out a new idea, even if it doesn’t turn into anything.
I think what you need for creativity is stillness. And we always think, I need to go to this cabin in the woods where it’s quiet and be away from all my stuff and have no Wi-Fi, and then I’ll finally write my book. But it’s better and also more challenging to try to find micro doses of stillness. Like a walk where you leave your phone at home, or stay away from the distractions for 30 minutes to an hour, until you come up with a good idea.
What’s the connection between running and creativity for you? Is running also a creative outlet, or is it more of a meditative thing?
It’s where I go to actually think. My work is, I sit in front of a computer or an iPad and move words or images around, and you don’t have ideas in front of a computer. Your ideas come from those moments of stillness.
So, it’s useful to me in that way. And I’m not fast, and I don’t have high running volume, but I’m spending six or seven hours a week running. That’s a great amount of time to generate ideas or work through problems.
One of Leonard’s graphics.
When did you start running? What got you into it?
I started trail running for real and ultrarunning in 2015. I was mostly a climber and mountaineer up until that point. So, I came at it from a different angle. I ran track in high school, and was fairly successful in the 4×100- and 4×200-meter relay. I wasn’t explosive, but once I got going, I was fast enough. We missed the state track meet by four hundredths of a second in my senior year.
Do you have any artists or runners who you’re really inspired by?
I have millions, really. But I think writing wise, probably my main influence is Kurt Vonnegut over the years, and then some adventure writers. But yeah, one of my favorite artists ever. But more recently, I follow a ton of cartoonists on Instagram. There’s a guy whose Instagram handle is @pantspants, and he makes these just bizarro single panel comics that are absolutely hilarious. There’s a guy I follow who I think lives in Pittsburgh, his name’s John and he paints a canvas three times a week and just puts ’em up for sale on his web store. And they’re super irreverent. The one I wanted to get, that he sold out of before I had a chance, it was the crucifixion scene, but it was a minion being crucified.
There’s just endless amounts of stuff like that. There’s a guy named Ivan Montaña, who draws little cartoon characters driving cars and stuff, and they’re like, so I do a terrible job describing it, but it’s like these interesting paintings, these little characters that almost look like they are in a kid’s room, drawn with crayon, and they’re just absolutely adorable. There’s some joy in it that I can’t quite wrap my mind around.
Have you always used humor as your…
Crutch? Yeah. I just don’t know what else to do. It’s desperation. I teach a writing workshop every year, and I was trying to think about how to teach humor, and how it works. And one of the points that I found in a book that’s by two Stanford University professors, actually business professors who wrote about humor, is that the main goal is not always to get a belly laugh from people, but humor provides levity to a story. If I just tell you a story about running a race, and I’m dead serious about it the entire time, it’s heavy, and it can also feel a little self-centered or a little arrogant maybe. But if I crack a few jokes, and talk about when I fell on my ass, or whatever, it brings it down a notch and people can relate to it a little bit more.
You’re a dad. Has that changed your perspective on things in life?
Entire life. It’s awesome. And running has become even more important since having a kid. You actually get some time to get away for a few minutes or an hour or whatever. I’ve become a morning runner, which is really, really helpful. But I get opportunities or people ask me to do stuff and I’m like, “Yeah, I’m not spending another week away from my kid.” Sorry, he’s only going to be two for a year, and if I miss two weeks of that, that’s fine. But I have other ways to make money where I can stay home and just be around and watch him do dumb stuff all day, which is the real source of joy in my life. So yeah, it’s just changed everything.
You said you were a climber/mountaineer. Why did you switch to running?
I just wasn’t having as much fun with it. And there was a lot of fear. This guy had an accident right next to us on Castleton Tower in Moab, Utah, and that kind of made me think, well, maybe this isn’t that fun anymore, and it’s also very dangerous. And I just had been curious about trail running and ultrarunning for a long time and decided to give it a whirl.
Do you ever have running or writing mental blocks?
I think Seth Godin says, you don’t run out of ideas. You run out of good ideas. That’s a problem. You don’t have an idea that you think is good enough. And that’s the biggest problem for me. But I don’t know, running, it’s like somebody asked me, “What do you do when you feel like you want to quit?” And I was like, “I don’t even have that.”
Just keep moving. Just keep going forward and something comes out of it. And it may not be your best work every time, but that’s what it is.
Leonard’s work offers a refreshing outlook on life.
Are there any local places you go to see art in Missoula?
There are, and if I didn’t have a toddler, I would probably do more of it. We have a great little art center here, and I haven’t been to very many events there. There’s a great indie theater that we go to a lot, I actually rent it out for my birthday every year.
And we have First Friday art walks and galleries and stuff like that, and a huge literary community. I don’t go to readings as much as I should, but I’ve done readings. It’s great for a city this size. It’s actually really incredible.
As a creative person, how do you structure your day? Do you have a routine?
That’d be a good idea! We get the little guy to daycare four days a week, and then the other days, figure out what we’re going to do with him. I don’t want to structure my day too much. It doesn’t leave anything open for leaving things up to fate or whims or whatever. But if I have a deadline, that’s structure right there. It’s like, you got to get this done by Thursday, and then if I have time after I’ve met those deadlines, then I work on the other stuff.
This is a question I’ve asked all the other artists. If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
Ponderosa pine. They make me happy every time I see ’em.
Call for Comments
Are you a fan of Semi-Rad? Any favorite creations?
