Never Finished: Michael Sosnowski

In mid-October of this year, I finished my latest film, Never Finished: Tamalpa Headlands 50k. This film follows a 77-year-old ultramarathoner runner’s quest to break a long-standing age-group course record at the 2025 Tamalpa Headlands 50k. A 50-kilometer trail race with nearly 6,700 feet of elevation.

Michael Sosnowski is the definition of you are never too old to do anything. While looking for potential stories to tell, I stumbled across him on ultralive.net, and after connecting and talking, I knew there was a story to tell with him.

He started running in his mid-20s and kept running into his mid-40s before an old client introduced him to mountaineering. Then for about 20 years, he rock climbed, peak bagged, and mountaineered throughout the western United States, Mexico, and Peru, including climbs in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. But when he was nearly 68, looking for something new, he took up running again.

He tries to do one race a month, and averages around 2,500 miles a year, an impressive schedule for a 77-year-old. But running is not his only talent. As someone who enjoys challenges but also wants to create meaningful moments in his life, he continues to push himself, inside and outside of running. For his birthdays, he likes to push himself to the extreme to make them memorable. Since turning 70 he has celebrated birthdays with a 135-mile bike ride and for another, two legs of an Ironman (a 112-mile bike, and a marathon in the same day).

While always trying to get onto the age podium in his races, for the Tamalpa Headlands 50k, he sought to break the age-group course record of 6 hours and 11 minutes, set 20 years earlier. Leading up to the race, he slightly strained his calf, which is far from ideal for a race of 6,700 feet of climbing. Regardless, he showed up prepared and ready to take on the race and claim the age group course record.

His story and the race, are in the documentary below!