Tom Held

Memories of running cross-country for the Slinger Owls motivated Tom Held to get his body moving again when he turned 30. Almost two decades later, he's still on the move. The 49-year-old bikes, runs and skis, and covers news for similarly active people as a freelance writer and blogger.

He spent 26 years as a daily news reporter, and applies that experience to dig out stories about athletes, races, endurance sports, fitness and self-propelled transportation. His work has appeared in Silent Sports Magazine, Wisconsin Trails and Cross-Country Skier.

Held lives in the Bay View neighborhood, where he counts being Dad to twin daughters part of his daily workout.

Recent Articles

	Sports - May 17, 2013
	Couple expands love of terror: Wisconsin Zombie Mud Run
	The husband-wife operators of the ghoulishly acclaimed Wisconsin FearGrounds have created a new haunt that makes "run for your life" a realistic exercise.

	Sports - May 4, 2013
	Welcome to the Rock Sports Complex
	Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor threw out the first pitch to open the Rock Sports Complex last weekend, and in a couple months someone will take the opening plunge on the mountain bike park being sculpted on the former landfill previously known as Crystal Ridge.

	Sports - April 26, 2013
	Stripped down to self-discovery over 135 miles - MS Run the US
	Chellie deGelleke ran a marathon every day for five consecutive days and finished the first leg of the MS Run the US Relay full of admiration. Not for herself, but the people who live with multiple sclerosis and "are running a marathon every day of their lives just to function or find some sort of comfort within their discomfort." It's the kind of revelation one can find in distance running, or in this case, ultra-distance running.

	Sports - April 19, 2013
	The 2013 Oak Leaf Discovery Tour
	Bunkie Miller woke one day this week with her mind spinning bike routes off the Milwaukee County Oak Leaf Trail to McGovern and Doctors Parks. Both locations have been added as stops on the 2013 Oak Leaf Discovery Tour, compelling Miller to navigate and pedal more miles to replicate last year's successful adventure - a group ride to collect all of the tour passport stamps in one day.

	Sports - April 12, 2013
	TeamLifestriders, 103 strong, surpasses Guinness Book of World Records
	Sarah Knowles claimed a Guinness Book record running her very first half marathon. And that accomplishment was secondary, almost an afterthought, easily surpassed by her son's smile. She walked to support the horse-riding therapy program at LifeStriders in Delafield, which has greatly benefited her son, Matthew.

	Sports - April 5, 2013
	Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin lobbies for vulnerable user law
	Last October the Waukesha County District Attorney wrote a letter to Roger Gunderson's widow, explaining why he had declined to issue criminal charges against the man who dozed off while driving to work, crossed the centerline and killed her husband. He expressed his condolences, but said he could not prove the driver, Andrew Yang, had driven in a criminally negligent or reckless manner. He paid a $126 fine.

	Sports - March 30, 2013
	An OnMilwaukee introduction to the city's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator
	Three weeks into her new job as the head planner of Milwaukee's bicycle and pedestrian pathways, Kristin Bennett has decided on her first major supply requisition: dry erase markers.

	Sports - March 23, 2013
	Glory days return for runners in Wisconsin Trail Assail Series
	Sean Osborne is giving old cross-country runners like me a chance to relive those varsity experiences with a new race series, the Wisconsin Trail Assail, starting in May. The six-race series includes 5K and 10K cross-country races in Waukesha County Parks: Menomonee Falls, Nashotah, Minooka, Fox River and Muskego.

	Sports - March 16, 2013
	Valenti art chases the extremes of bicycling for Midwest BikeShare
	Michael Valenti's poster art has an eccentric element that fits the absurd reaches of his subject matter: bicycling and the riders and venues of the great European races. Those drawings caught the attention of Ken Hanson, a principal in Hanson Dodge Creative. The firm hired Valenti to create a poster to promote Midwest BikeShare, the effort to bring a short-term bicycle rental system to Milwaukee.

	Milwaukee Buzz - March 9, 2013
	Menomonee Valley challenge: name that park
	The developers of the park, including the Menomonee Valley Partners and Urban Ecology Center, have been stymied, for roughly a decade. They raised $22.5 million for a project, designed a park landscape and moved tons of dirt, but still don't have a name. Wisely, they turned to the community for help.