Chili-Half Marathon (2026)

I showed up to the Chilly Half Marathon on a properly cold March morning with two things in mind: experiment a little, and stubbornly try to get a great photograph of my mother and my brother, who were both running the half marathon.

Cold races have a certain atmosphere. Breath hangs in the air, runners bounce in place trying to stay warm, and once the race starts everything becomes movement — shoes hitting pavement, long shadows stretching across the road, faces locked somewhere between determination and survival.

For me the day became a small creative playground. I tried a few traditional race shots, but I also let myself experiment more than usual: chasing motion blur in the runners’ shoes, photographing shadows instead of people, and cropping in tight on moments that felt more like fragments of motion than documentation of a race.

Of course, every time a pack of runners came through I was scanning the crowd, trying to spot two familiar faces. Photographing family during an event like this is strangely motivating — you become a little more patient, a little more determined to get the frame right.

In the end, the day was less about perfect photos and more about curiosity, persistence, and the quiet joy of standing in the cold waiting for the right moment to run past.