Running News Daily

Adults will take recreational cues from their children, “unprocessed” will become a marketing asset, and rodents will show us the way to eternal life. 

It’s almost a wrap for 2023, which means it’s time for our annual list of fitness predictions for the coming year. As in the past, we reached out to several experts to ask what we should expect for 2024. Beyond forecasting a specific food fad or workout craze, these predictions are often about identifying a subtle shift in the zeitgeist when it comes to how we think about what it means to live well.

Over the years, a consistent theme has emerged: How do we embrace advances in science and technology without losing sight of the tried-and-true, or letting them corrupt an essential humanist element? This question has probably never been more urgent than in our era of accelerated machine learning. When I recently spoke to my friend Scott Lachut, a longtime veteran of the trend forecasting industry, he told me that he’d come across a few examples of gyms that offer AI-based trainers with different “personalities.” Depending on whether you wanted to be coddled or subjected to dominatrix-style abasement, your virtual coach would be able to accommodate your needs.

“I personally think that generative AI being able to offer personalization at scale is going to be pretty interesting, if a bit Big Brother-y,” Scott told me. This reminded me of that frequently cited proverb of uncertain origin, “May you live in interesting times.” Depending on your source, the line is either meant as a blessing, or a curse.

My guess is that “ultra-processed” will be the food term of the year as everyone who cares about what they eat realizes that they need to cut down on foods that are industrially produced, use industrially extracted ingredients, and are designed to replace real foods and be “addictive.”

Much evidence associates these foods with overweight and obesity-related chronic diseases (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, etc), and overall mortality. One clinical trial supports the addiction hypothesis; it demonstrates that people who eat ultra-processed diets as opposed to matched diets based on minimally processed foods take in many more calories. I would not be surprised to see non-ultra-processed products starting to be advertised as such.

—Marion Nestle, professor emerita at New York University and author of the Food Politics blog

Sometime in 2024, we will learn of an epochal breakthrough in the quest for longevity. There will be a molecule that, when given in sufficient quantities to certain transgenic rodents, extends life by an amount that, when extrapolated from rodent-years to human-years, is statistically significant. Human trials will be planned; venture capital will flow like red wine; extremely long podcasts will be recorded. Obscure herbs that contain molecules distantly related to the breakthrough will flood the Internet. The global wellness market will reach a projected size of $6.6 trillion. Life expectancy in the United States will continue its decade-long decline.

–Alex Hutchinson, Outside Sweat Science columnist and author of Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

For too long, runners at the back of the pack have felt left behind by the larger running community. Few running clubs provided support for the 12-minute (or more) mile crowd, and many race organizers packed up water stations or ran out of medals before the slowest runners crossed the finish line. Thankfully, this is beginning to change, largely due to the work of slow-running activists like Martinus Evans, founder of the Slow AF Run Club, who published a book by the same name last summer. As Evans’s star has risen, so has support for his cause: The virtual club is now more than 18,000 members strong, and runners around the world have been inspired by his calls for greater inclusivity in fitness. The past few years have also seen the launch of several in-person pace-inclusive running groups.

As more slow runners feel welcome at running events, the average course time for many major races, including the New York City Marathon, is slowing down. “The stigma of being a back-of-the-pack runner is slowly going away,” the marathon’s race director, Ted Metellus, recently told The Washington Post.  Most of us face plenty of barriers to simply lacing up sneakers and finding the time to move. I’m hopeful that, for growing numbers, speed will no longer be one of them.

—Danielle Friedman, journalist and author of Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World

Amidst the increasing chaos and tumult of everyday life, people will crave stability and simplicity from their health and fitness routines. There will never be a shortage of those who are into the latest fad or bro-science gimmick, but it seems more and more people are becoming tired of this. There is already so much noise in the world, and one’s health and fitness approach need not contribute to it. 

I suspect it’ll increasingly be back to basics—because not only do basics work, but they aren’t so exhausting. Out with the social media hype speeches from $8,000 cold plunges at five in the morning, in with a morning pot of coffee or tea, reading a book, and 30 to 60 minutes of movement that you can do consistently. The former sounds cool. The latter is the path to actual health and well-being.

—Brad Stulberg, executive coach and author of Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything is Changing, Including You

Social media can have an unfortunate flattening effect—it can feel like every person on your feed wants the exact same thing. Angels Landing is the only hike worth doing, Yosemite the only public land worth visiting, and the six big-city marathon “majors”—New York, Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin, and Tokyo—are the only footraces worth contending. Interest in these races has boomed (Boston qualification keeps getting harder, lottery applications to Chicago have more than doubled over the last decade) even as smaller marathons stagnate or even decline. Something has to give, just as a matter of pure arithmetic, so perhaps this will be the year of flexing on your followers with a PR in your local grassroots 10K.

–Chris Cohen, deputy site editor and wellness editor at GQ.com

Everyone is lonely. We are starved for human connection and contact. We are starved for reasons to go outside. We are all withering and calcifying, physically. The natural answer is, of course, stay with me, PvP zones. What is a PvP zone, you ask? PvP zones, in open-world video games, are designated areas where players are able to directly interface with—OK, attack—one another. I do not mean for there to be actual violence, obviously. But a place for adults to engage in relatively unstructured play? We need it, now more than ever. 

I see you shaking your head, but that only proves how badly you need to engage with your fellow humans in a PvP zone. You may think I’m joking, but I am entirely serious. I take my dog to the dog park, and then I sit there roiling with jealousy for 45 minutes. How is it that we have a place for her, a dog, to get up to shenanigans with her fellows, while the only acceptable thing for me to do outside is sit on a bench? It’s preposterous.

I, we, have basically all the same needs as a dog for play and exercise and, most importantly, fun with others. We are grown adults. We should, theoretically, be allowed to do whatever we want. Why is “goofing around in parks” the provenance of only dogs and children? Why are we not allowed to do some good old-fashioned light roughhousing, to chase one another in and out of trees, just because it’s fun and funny only if you, very crucially, don’t think about why or what for at all? If you are thinking “You’re just describing jiu jitsu class, or recreational softball”: sort of. But the most crucial aspect of the PvP zone is that it’s structureless, a place where no one loses and skill doesn’t matter. 

I don’t think anyone would argue that many of us think entirely too much now. Perhaps the solution to all of our ills is to just designate an area of our parks where it is acceptable to go up to another person you don’t know and say “tag, you are it” and then run away. PvP zones. It could, and should, and by my estimation will, happen.

—Casey Johnston, creator of the She’s a Beast newsletter

A combination of sustainable lifestyle changes and personalized solutions will reimagine sick care. I think health spending will shift from reactive to proactive care in the coming decades. More movement and healthy food should be the first line of defense. Building on that foundation, health trackers, preventative diagnostics, and coaching/care platforms will help save the U.S. healthcare system trillions of dollars in the long run.

—Anthony Vennare, co-founder of the Fitt Insider newsletter

People have come around to the fact that shorter workouts still have benefits (see exercise snacks!) and that high intensity workouts do not have to be long. What we are going to see next is the swell of lower intensity workouts having a lap in the spotlight. More men taking Pilates, people walking, lower intensity steady state exercise (Zone 2 and otherwise), and wanting to feel better instead of just being fitter.

As millennials’ life responsibilities start to pile-up as this cohort of individuals who were born into the wellness boom continue to age, the wear and tear that intense workouts have on the body will rear its head. Additionally, people are starting to understand more of the science behind benefits of lower intensity steady state work, especially for the heart. The “soft life” mindset will show up in the gym.

—Joe Holder, founder of The Ocho System and GQ wellness columnist

We’re at a point where I think we’re going to have to redefine how we see health and wellness in a number of ways. On the one hand, we’re going to have to reckon with the environment we’ve created. There’s an increasing acknowledgement that having phones everywhere, at all times, is causing some disastrous mental health in teens and young adults. And for the rest of us, the impact of neglecting green space, parks, walkable areas, and so much more in our day-to-day living is setting us up to fail.

On the other hand, the promise of medical discoveries like GLP-1 drugs bring much needed avenues for meaningful change. The first legitimate drug for obesity will force us to wrestle with how we see health, from both a personal and medicalized approach. My hope is that we find ourselves wrestling with the nuance in the middle, finding ways to utilize medical breakthroughs, while creating an avenue for long-term sustainability by making our environment invite healthier actions.

—Steve Magness, track and field coach at the University of Houston, coauthor of The Passion Paradox and Peak Performance, and cofounder of The Growth Equation

Growing up in an Asian-American family, the greatest compliment anyone in my family could give about a dessert was, “it’s not too sweet.” This aversion to cloying sweetness, which was hard coded into my palate from a young age, has caught on with the mainstream. Starting with long overdue realignment of the soda industry toward sparkling water as the hero, to the continued rise in popularity of Asian food with its greater emphasis on savory over sweet, to the all-too-common experience of asking your server for a wine recommendation that’s “on the drier side,” sweetness continues to be marginalized.

But while sugar has been demonized for decades from a nutritional standpoint, eaters are now reducing sugar intake for purely taste reasons, not just health ones. Even people who aren’t militant about avoiding sugar are moderating it because they want to actually taste their food, not have their taste buds smothered in a wave of sweetness. And with rising negative sentiment around the healthfulness of artificial sweeteners and the general affinity for more unadulterated foods, diets in 2024 and beyond might not only continue to reduce sugar levels, but whatever small amounts of sugar they do eat will come from natural sources, not synthetic ones.

—Mike Lee, Founder of The Future Market, a trend forecasting company for the food industry

You used to have to go to a sterile clinic to get a longevity boost with Vitamin IV drips and stem cell therapy but resorts are now partnering with longevity centers to offer onsite treatments. Guests at Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea can get a poolside NAD+ IV drip. Katikies Kirini in Santorini now has an outpost of a ZOE Bio Regenerative Wellness Clinic where guests can get live blood analysis. And Six Senses Ibiza has partnered with biotech company RoseBar to offer guests full diagnostic testing that can inform biohack treatments like localized cryotherapy.

—Jen Murphy, Outside contributor and longtime fitness columnist for the Wall Street Journal

I think in 2024 sotol will take over from mezcal as the “it” cocktail. Cheers!

Jakob Ingebrigtsen brought his remarkable 2026 season to a fitting close on home soil, winning the men’s street 1500m at the inaugural Runfest Norway in Sandnes on Friday.

Competing in front of an enthusiastic hometown crowd, the Olympic and world champion took control of the race from the early stages and maintained his authority through the finish, stopping the clock at 3:40.7.

Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen followed in second in 3:43.3, while Sigurd Tveit completed the podium in 3:47.8.

The unusual street race added another dimension to the occasion, with 273 runners taking part on the same road and sharing the course with one of Norway’s most accomplished distance runners. For the recreational participants, it offered a rare opportunity to compete alongside Ingebrigtsen in an event that brought elite athletics and mass participation together.

The victory also provided a fitting final chapter to a season that began with significant uncertainty for Ingebrigtsen. After undergoing major Achilles surgery in February, the Norwegian was forced to miss a substantial portion of the summer campaign as he worked his way back to full fitness.

His return, however, quickly developed into another championship-winning chapter. In Birmingham, Ingebrigtsen captured European 5,000m gold before adding another major title at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, where he won the 5,000m.

Those performances transformed what could have been a disrupted season into another year defined by championship success and a determined return to the highest level.

Now, with the Sandnes victory added to his 2026 record, Ingebrigtsen closes the year exactly where it began in spirit — overcoming adversity, rebuilding his form and once again competing at the front.

From Achilles surgery in February to major championship victories and finally a 1500m win before his hometown crowd, the Norwegian has given his 2026 season a memorable final scene.

Olympic 100m hurdles champion Masai Russell has announced her engagement to longtime partner Robert “Robbie” Springfield, adding a major personal milestone to the remarkable journey of one of America’s leading track and field stars.

Russell shared the news with her followers, revealing that Springfield had proposed and that she had accepted. Reflecting on their relationship, the Olympic champion described him as her best friend and expressed her excitement about spending the rest of her life with him.

The couple’s relationship dates back to their college years at the University of Kentucky, where both were student-athletes and competed in track and field. Russell established herself as a standout hurdler, while Springfield competed in the long jump, giving them a shared understanding of the demands, sacrifices and pressures that come with pursuing success in athletics.

Springfield has since transitioned from competition into coaching. A former collegiate long jumper, he is now part of the coaching staff at Morehead State University, where he works with the programme’s sprinters and jumpers.

Their relationship has developed alongside Russell’s rise to the top of the sport. The defining moment of her career came at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where she captured gold in the women’s 100m hurdles, securing her place among the sport’s Olympic champions.

Away from competition, Springfield has remained a familiar part of Russell’s journey, sharing in the demanding periods of training and competition that accompanied her pursuit of Olympic success. Their connection has consequently grown from a college athletics relationship into a long-term partnership.

The engagement now marks another significant chapter for Russell, this time away from the track. After reaching the pinnacle of her sporting career in Paris, the 100m hurdles champion is beginning a new phase of her personal life alongside a partner who has been part of her journey since their university days.

From competing on the same collegiate stage to building a future together, Russell and Springfield’s story has evolved alongside two careers shaped by track and field. The Olympic champion will now balance this new personal chapter with her continuing ambitions in athletics

The women’s race at the 2026 TCS Amsterdam Marathon is shaping up to be one of the most competitive editions in recent years, with a deep international field set to take on the fast Dutch course on Sunday, October 18.

At the centre of the contest will be four Ethiopian athletes who have already broken the 2:20 barrier, creating the prospect of a fascinating battle for victory and a possible assault on the course record of 2:16:52.

Defending champion Aynalem Desta will return to Amsterdam looking to retain her title after producing the biggest performance of her career at last year’s 50th edition. Desta won in a personal best of 2:17:37, establishing herself among the leading marathoners in the field and setting the benchmark for this year’s contenders.

Standing in her way will be fellow Ethiopian Meseret Belete Tola, a former Amsterdam champion who knows exactly what it takes to succeed on the course. Belete Tola captured the 2023 edition in 2:18:21, and her return adds another layer of experience and proven quality to an already formidable lineup.

The field also includes Mestawut Fikir Truneh, who arrives with an impressive marathon pedigree. Truneh finished runner-up at the 2024 Berlin Marathon in 2:18:48, demonstrating her ability to compete at the highest level on one of the world's major marathon stages.

Completing the quartet of sub-2:20 Ethiopians is Buze Diriba, whose personal best of 2:19:34 places her firmly among the leading contenders. With four athletes possessing credentials below 2:20, the race is likely to develop into a tightly contested battle from the opening kilometres.

The depth extends well beyond the leading quartet. Desi Jisa Mokonin, representing Bahrain, Yeshi Kalayu Chekole of Ethiopia and Nazret Weldu Gebrehiwet of Eritrea have all established themselves as serious marathon competitors with performances approaching the 2:20 mark.

Another major name to watch is Abeba Aregawi, the former 1500m world champion representing Sweden. Aregawi has successfully transferred her talents to the marathon and made headlines earlier this year by setting a Swedish national record of 2:23:12 on her debut. Her presence adds another intriguing dimension to an already high-quality field.

Amsterdam’s marathon course has consistently provided an opportunity for elite athletes to produce fast times, and this year’s women’s lineup has the depth to turn the race into a genuine test of both championship racing and outright speed.

With four athletes already inside 2:20, two former Amsterdam champions returning to the start line and several other accomplished marathoners ready to challenge them, the battle is expected to remain open deep into the race.

The ultimate target will be the Amsterdam women’s course record of 2:16:52. Whether the leading contenders can threaten that mark remains to be seen, but the quality assembled for October 18 ensures that the record will be firmly in the spotlight when the race reaches its spectacular finish inside the Olympic Stadium.

The 2026 Valencia Half Marathon is shaping up to be a thrilling contest of speed, endurance and tactical brilliance, with some of the world’s finest road runners set to converge in Spain on October 25.

Kenya’s Daniel Ebenyo and Alex Matata will be among the leading contenders, facing a formidable Ethiopian challenge spearheaded by Jemal Yimer and Tadese Worku. The field also features Rodrigue Kwizera, who boasts the fastest personal best among the leading entrants at 58:16.

Ebenyo arrives with a personal best of 59:04, placing him firmly among the athletes capable of sustaining a demanding pace over the 21.1-kilometre distance. Matata, who owns a 59:11 best, adds further Kenyan strength, while Andrea Kiptoo brings another sub-60-minute credential to the race.

Yimer has already established himself as one of the fastest athletes in the field with a 58:33 personal best, while Worku has clocked 58:35. Kenya’s Owen Korir, with a best of 58:58, further underlines the remarkable depth of the men's lineup.

Valencia Half Marathon 2026 Entries

1. Rodrigue Kwizera (Spain) — 58:16

2. Jemal Yimer (Ethiopia) — 58:33

3. Tadese Worku (Ethiopia) — 58:35

4. Owen Korir (Kenya) — 58:58

5. Daniel Ebenyo (Kenya) — 59:04

6. Alex Matata (Kenya) — 59:11

7. Andrea Kiptoo (Kenya) — 59:11

8. Thierry Ndikumwenayo (Spain) — 59:42

9. Said Mechaal (Spain) — 1:00:24

10. Adel Mechaal (Spain) — 1:02:30

Kwizera, who finished second in Valencia last year, leads the field on paper and will be seeking another standout performance on the famously fast Valencia course. With several athletes carrying sub-60-minute credentials, the race has the ingredients for an aggressive battle from the opening kilometres.

Beyond the headline names, the men’s field is deep and highly competitive, bringing together a strong collection of experienced international athletes with proven ability over the half-marathon distance. With so much quality packed into the lineup, the race promises an intriguing battle in which tactics, endurance, positioning and finishing speed could all play a crucial role in determining the eventual champion.

Yet personal bests will count for little once the gun goes off. The title could ultimately be decided by patience, positioning and the ability to respond when the pace begins to rise in the closing stages. Every surge, every tactical move and every second saved could prove decisive on the road to the finish.

With Kenya, Ethiopia and Spain represented by athletes of exceptional quality, Valencia promises a high-octane men's showdown in which the leaders are likely to be separated by only a handful of seconds. The final kilometres could provide the defining moments of a race packed with speed, ambition and anticipation.

On October 25, the question will be simple: who has the strength to command the streets of Valencia and claim the coveted half-marathon crown?

 

April 19, 1982. The Boston Marathon unfolded under unusually warm, sunny conditions, and by the closing stages, the race had become a private battle between two very different American runners: Alberto Salazar, already one of the biggest names in distance running, and Dick Beardsley, the Minnesota runner who had emerged as a serious marathon contender.

For roughly nine miles, from the Newton Hills toward the finish, Beardsley did much of the leading, with Salazar tucked close behind. Neither man could shake the other. They ran deep into Boston locked together, trading surges and refusing to surrender an inch as the crowds along the course grew louder.

Salazar finally made his decisive move with less than a mile remaining. He opened a small gap, but Beardsley refused to disappear. The Minnesota runner chased him through the final streets, closing again as they approached the finish.

Then came the final sprint.

Salazar held his form and reached the finish first in 2:08:52, with Beardsley only two seconds behind in 2:08:54. It was an extraordinary result: both men broke 2:09 in the same Boston Marathon, and both shattered the previous course record.

The race became known as the “Duel in the Sun,” and it remains one of the most celebrated head-to-head battles in Boston Marathon history. Beardsley had not won, but his performance established him as one of America's elite marathoners.

For Salazar, however, victory came at an enormous physical cost. Immediately after crossing the finish line, he collapsed and required emergency treatment, including several litres of intravenous saline. The combination of heat, dehydration and an all-out effort had pushed his body to the limit.

Salazar's marathon career would never again produce quite the same kind of performance. His celebrated 1981 New York City Marathon victory had produced what was initially considered a world record, although the course was later found to be short. His Boston triumph therefore became one of the defining victories of his career.

Beardsley's story would take an even more difficult turn. Injuries disrupted his career, and after returning to the highest level, he suffered a devastating farm accident in 1989. Further accidents, surgeries and severe physical pain followed, eventually leading to a long battle with painkiller addiction.

He eventually overcame that struggle and transformed the darkest chapters of his life into a story of recovery, resilience and redemption.

That is what makes the 1982 Boston Marathon more than a two-second victory.

For one extraordinary afternoon, Salazar and Beardsley produced a marathon duel in which neither man was willing to give way. One crossed the finish line first. The other finished only two seconds behind him.

Two seconds separated them at Boston. Decades later, their legendary duel remains one of the greatest chapters in marathon history.