Every trail starts with a question: What if I could…?

This question is what Heretic Trail exists to answer — through structure, curiosity, and devotion to reality— what if I could . . . ? Because endurance isn’t just about getting stronger. It’s about learning to live inside what’s real, and to move through it with grace.

I began my career in engineering and mathematics, building systems designed to make the impossible work. What drew me then — and still does now — is the bridge between vision and execution: the art of understanding the desired end state and working backward until you can touch it.

That’s how I approach training, too. Whether you’re preparing for a hundred-miler or a trip to Europe, for returning to better health after injury, or finding your first trailhead, the process is the same: define the future you want, and then build the structure that makes it inevitable.

Over the years, I’ve learned that most athletes don’t fail for lack of effort — they fail for lack of alignment. Too much of what they already have. Too little of what they actually need. When you strip away the excess, what’s left is space — and space is where progress happens.

Training is engineering made human: inputs, feedback, iteration, and sensitivity. But the equations only matter if they’re lived. That’s where coaching becomes relationship — a partnership built on shared curiosity. I don’t hand down formulas. I help you build your own lab of one.

I started Heretic Trail because mountain, ultra, and trail running is the most human pursuit I know. It’s play, meditation, and meaning, all bound by movement. The people drawn to it — and made by it — are thoughtful, resilient, and endlessly curious. They show up for each other. They practice joy as much as effort.

This is a pursuit you can grow old in. One where the last finisher is cheered like the first. Where every summit, every sunrise, every finish line whispers the same truth: endurance is art.

Whether you’re a lifelong competitor or an adventurer finding your way back to movement, this is your invitation.

To train with clarity. To move with purpose. To build something that lasts.

Heretic Trail is relationship in motion — structured enough to hold you, open enough to evolve with you, devoted enough to make what’s possible real.

Your choice. Your Trail.

-James D. Bishop

UESCA Certified Ultrarunning Coach since 2024