Running News Daily

Running News Daily is edited by Bob Anderson in Mountain View, California USA and team in Thika Kenya, La Piedad Mexico, Bend Oregon and Chandler Arizona.   Send your news items to bob@mybestruns.com  Advertising opportunities available.   Over one million readers and growing.  Train the Kenyan Way at KATA Running Retreat Kenya.  (Kenyan Athletics Training Academy) in Thika Kenya.  Opening in june 2024 KATA Running retreat Portugal.  Learn more about Bob Anderson, MBR publisher and KATA director/owner, take a look at A Long Run the movie covering Bob's 50 race challenge.  

Index to Daily Posts · Sign Up For Updates · Run The World Feed

Articles tagged #Bucket list
Today's Running News

Share

Tips to take your running from zero to marathon

Is your goal of completing a marathon daunting because you’ve never run before? Maybe running a marathon is on the bucket list, you're looking to challenge yourself physically, lose weight, or raise awareness for a charity important to you. Whatever your motivation, the first step is finding that ‘why’ and reminding yourself of it along the way.

Beyond having a reason to keep you going, know the techniques for how to start running and hit the distance in the half-marathon or full marathon with our tips below.

1. SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

Avoid burning yourself out right from the start by gradually building up your runs. Slowly increasing the time and distance you run by 10-20% each week and you’ll be less prone to suffer an overuse injury and tightness. Many run related injuries are caused by a rapid increase in the amount of running done. Give yourself plenty of time to train - around 6 months is ideal for a first-timer. Consider completing a couch-to-5k or other fun run event as part of your training. It’s hard not to fall in love with running once you get going and the temptation may be to run too far too soon which your body won’t thank you for. Instead, work up to those milestones slowly and bit by bit.

2. INVEST IN YOURSELF WITH THE RIGHT RUNNING SHOES

Finding the right footwear specifically for your running style is paramount to feeling good on your runs and sticking with it. Take the time to visit a Running Expert location near you to be assessed for your foot type and gait pattern. Through this process, you’ll learn the level of stability and support best suited for you. It’s important to have your running shoes dialled in well before race day to break them in and be sure they don’t cause you any pain.

3. PICK A MARATHON TRAINING PLAN

Following along with a training plan will offer a clear approach on how to train for a marathon and is essential to being ready for race day. A structured plan with a variety of runs with help you complete those 42.2km as strong as possible. Check out our half-marathon training plan and full marathon training plan.

It’s recommended you have a base of at least 4-8 weeks of running regularly before starting on a training schedule. Setting the foundation first will ensure you have a solid base to start your marathon training feeling ready to take on longer distances. Use a running app like ASICS Runkeeper to receive guided training, set goals, and track your progress along the way. Seeing incremental improvement will motivate you to keep going.

4. INCORPORATE STRENGTH TRAINING AND REST DAYS

Strengthening the muscles that power your running will give you better stamina and endurance. Helping you to run further distances and feel stronger while doing it. Balance your training by scheduling in days for focusing on strength. Two of the key muscle groups to work on strengthening are your core and glutes. Try simple targeted exercises like the ones highlighted in our article on Stretching and Strength Training for Runners.

Avoid running yourself into the ground by giving yourself dedicated rest days. It’s important to allow your body time to recover and repair itself. Without a rest day, you risk overtraining, burning yourself out, or even causing an injury.

5. FIND THE BEST FUEL FOR YOU

Don’t risk an upset stomach on the day of the race. Identify during your training what works best to fuel your running. Test out different carb-heavy breakfasts a few hours before your bigger run days. For a full rundown on how to dial in your nutrition, read our article from Claire Turnbull. During your runs over 90 minutes, it’s important to aim to consume around 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour. Test out different on-the-run fuel that’s simple to eat, digest, and carry. Running gels and chews are a good go-to as they’re easy to carry and contain a nice dose of quick carbs. Another part of fueling is hydration. Race organisers often provide the option of dropping personal drink bottles at stations along the way for when you think you may need more than just the cups they hand out. 

One last highly important key to running a solid race, don’t try anything new on event day.

(01/10/2024) Views: 234 ⚡AMP
by ASICS
Share
Share

Mumbai Marathon 2024: Olympic medalist Meb Keflezighi named brand ambassador

Celebrated long distance runner Meb Keflezighi, who won a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, has been named brand ambassador of the 19th Tata Mumbai Marathon scheduled to be held on Sunday.

The race is a World Athletics Gold Label event and Procam International is the promoter of the event.

Celebrated long distance runner Meb Keflezighi, who won a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, has been named brand ambassador of the 19th Tata Mumbai Marathon scheduled to be held on Sunday.

The race is a World Athletics Gold Label event and Procam International is the promoter of the event.

“The Tata Mumbai Marathon has been on my bucket list for the longest time, and finally being able to witness Mumbai’s indomitable spirit, is indeed exciting,” Keflezighi, an Eritrea-born American, was quoted as saying in a press release.

“This event inspired a country to run and changed mindsets, that is the true legacy of a sporting event. Mumbai’s incredible energy and enthusiasm, combined with the dedication of its runners, embodies the universal language of endurance. I will only say this… remember to run with purpose, embrace the journey, and move ahead together. In every stride, find the strength to go the distance and make a difference to what you believe in.”

Keflezighi has several record-breaking accolades in his career.

He scripted history when he became the only runner to win an Olympic medal (2004), the New York City Marathon (2009) and the Boston Marathon (2014).

In 2009, Keflezighi became the first American since 1982 to win the New York City Marathon. He has achieved the feat of being in the top 10 in the New York Marathon for a total of eight times in his career.

In 2015, he set a TCS New York City Marathon masters event record with a timing of 2:13:32sec.

In 2014 he won the Boston Marathon (2:08:37), the first American male to do so since 1983, and the first American since 1985.

Since 1930, Keflezighi has held the record for being the oldest winner of the Boston Marathon as he triumphed there when he was 39 years old.

He is also a former USA National 10,000m track record holder.

The Tata Mumbai Marathon will flag off from the iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus on Sunday.

(01/08/2024) Views: 244 ⚡AMP
Share
Tata Mumbai Marathon

Tata Mumbai Marathon

Distance running epitomizes the power of one’s dreams and the awareness of one’s abilities to realize those dreams. Unlike other competitive sports, it is an intensely personal experience. The Tata Mumbai Marathon is One of the World's Leading Marathons. The event boasts of fundraising platform which is managed by United Way Mumbai, the official philanthropy partner of the event. Over...

more...
Share

30 Hours at Javelina Jundred, the Burning Man of Trail Running

Inside the spectacle of ultrarunning’s most festive top-tier 100-mile race

It’s a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon in the desert northeast of Phoenix, and Lindsay DesRochers is being chased by a dinosaur—as if 85-degree heat, a creaky left knee, and a hot spot on her right big toe aren’t enough to worry about during her first attempt at running 100 miles.

The 44-year-old senior creative recruiter from Scottsdale is 41 miles into the Javelina Jundred, and she also has to contend with a Tyrannosaurus rex who’s making her giggle. The dinosaur is, in fact, local trail running legend, Jerry Bloom, who is sweating and gasping for air inside an inflatable costume that’s kept afloat with a tiny battery-operated fan. He is dressed up as the dino-in-residence and runs alongside DesRochers briefly as she finishes the second loop of the five-lap course before sitting down to refuel and rehydrate in her crew tent.

“The problem with this thing isn’t the heat. It’s just that there’s no oxygen in here. If you run very far, you get oxygen deprivation,” says Bloom, 70, a three-time Western States and Hardrock 100 finisher who’s also run Javelina twice. “For me it’s all in good fun to support Lindsay. I’ve given up trying to be fast a long time ago. But what I’ve learned is that it’s not how far you go and it’s not how fast you go, it’s how you look while you’re doing it.”

Welcome to the Javelina Jundred—the biggest, wildest party in the trail running world.

It’s pretty obvious that the Javelina Jundred is the zaniest event in trail running and, to be frank, nothing even comes close to this dusty desert cavalcade of curiosities. It’s not quite the Burning Man of running, but it might just be better because, first and foremost, it’s a legit ultrarunning event.

More than 850 enthusiastic runners toed the starting line at 6 A.M. to begin the five-lap 100-miler, and about 400 more began the three-lap 100K an hour later. There’s also a single-loop, 19-mile nighttime race called the Jackass Night Trail for about 200 runners that includes a wild DJ’ed party at the Jackass Junction aid station and finishes as the Saturday night revelry is still going strong back at the race compound.

But because Javelina always happens on the weekend before Halloween, there’s a natural party vibe and a non-mandatory-yet-compelling reason for runners, pacers, and support crew to wear costumes. And, let’s face it, Halloween gives everyone license to fly their freak flag, so when you mix that with ultrarunning, just about anything goes. Only here it’s known as Jalloween.

This year’s most popular dress-up themes seem to be tropical and western, but, almost predictably, there are quite a few Barbie and Taylor Swift cosplayers, as well as a few heavy metal rock stars, glow-in-the-dark skeletons, and several very creepy clowns. Dozens more runners race through the desert wearing bunny ears, fox tails, and devil horns.

“This is a safe space for everyone to have fun in their own unique way,” adds Dan Gampon, a Hoka sports marketing representative from Hawaii. “It’s a fun way to give the people a chance to be weird and bring a part of themselves that they might have been wanting to bring out, and give them the opportunity just to have fun anyway they want to.”

Some crew tents are decorated with accouterments to match a particular theme, but most feature colorful holiday twinkle lights, camping chairs, sleeping bags, and coolers full of adult beverages. While there’s a stash of fancy engineered nutrition supplements and electrolyte drinks in every tent, there’s also the widest range of healthy and not-so-healthy snack food you can imagine. (I’m looking at you, guy simultaneously drinking a Red Bull and eating a handful of marshmallow Peeps.)

The Javelina staff and volunteers are fully into the Jalloween theme, too, especially race director Jubilee Paige, who dons several costumes during the 30-hour event—including getups she calls Race Director Barbie, Weird Barbie, The Dude, Cousin Eddie, Chef’s Kiss, and A Macaroni Penguin. She once again ends the event dressed as the Pope—a.k.a., “her Joliness”—because she considers Sunday “Jallelujah Javelina,” a day of celebration.

The Javelina Jundred was founded in 2003 by Phoenix ultrarunner Geri Kilgariff as an irreverent, party-oriented run on a multi-loop course, and gradually gained regional and then national popularity as word spread through the ultrarunning community about how much fun it was. Local ultrarunner Jamil Coury took over as race director in 2008. The next year he started Aravaipa Running, a Phoenix-based company that bought and now owns 75 other running events in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and New Hampshire.

Despite increased popularity and significant growth, Coury, Paige, and the rest of the Aravaipa crew have been able to maintain Javelina’s grassroots experience while growing it to about 1,500 runners in three events with at least that many pacers, crew, and family members hanging around the race compound. In many ways, it represents the best of both where trail running has been, but also where it could be heading.

“The race was born from a fun spirit of running with friends and looping in the desert—shout-out to Geri Kilgariff for her creation of the event in 2003,” Paige says. “But as it’s evolved, we saw opportunities to elevate the race to an ‘event’ experience for runners and crews—an ultra festival—the music and lights and entertainment just enhances that experience. However you experience Javelina, I just want you to have fun!”

As the sun begins to set, several top competitors in the 100-miler are scattered out on the remote sections of the course in hot pursuit of four Golden Ticket entries into next summer’s Western States 100. (Two tickets each for the men’s and women’s races.) That includes Boulder, Colorado, runner Jonathan Rea, who is back after a second-place finish a year ago, and—with newfound confidence from a fourth-place finish at the CCC 100K in Chamonix, France—is tearing up the desert trails on course-record pace. Triathlete-turned-ultrarunner Heather Jackson, who splits time between Bend, Oregon, and Tucson, Arizona, also takes it out hot, hoping to make up for a frustrating fifth-lap fade last year after unbearable quad pain reduced her to a walk and forced her to settle for a fifth-place finish in her 100-mile debut.

Earlier in the day, Denver’s Rajpaul Pannu and San Francisco’s Anna Kacius made quick work of the less-competitive, three-lap 100K race, finishing first and second overall, respectively, and setting new men’s (7:15:53) and women’s (8:13:07) course records in the process, while winning by more than an hour over their nearest competitors.

Ultrarunning GOAT Courtney Dauwalter from Leadville, Colorado, is out there, too, but she’s not racing for the win. She’s running the 100K with her mom, Tracy, a 66-year-old avid trail runner from Edina, Minnesota. They attempted a 50-miler in Minnesota last fall, but were timed out before the finish, so this year they chose the big party race in the desert where Courtney set a course record in 2016 before she became a household name. They’re not in costumes, but they’re running as Team Bucket List and wearing matching white shirts, cactus-themed socks, and olive-green-and-black shorts.

Because runners constantly revolve through the turnaround point at the start/finish area, everyone else is always on the move throughout the race compound. Some are drinking craft beers and mingling as they wait for their runners, while others are watching the race livestream on their phones or from the jumbotron in the Javelina Jeadquarters circus tent. Still others are devouring freshly cooked artisan pizzas made to order in the Freak Brothers Pizza mobile brick wood-fired oven.

Rousing cheers and applause catch everyone’s attention every few moments as an elite runner arrives—including the ever-smiling Jackson, who quickly heads out on her fifth and final lap with a 30-minute lead in the women’s 100-miler.

“Heather is just amazing,” says Troy Brown, 48, a trail runner from Coto de Caza, California. “She’s always smiling. I’m just a fanboy, but I like anyone who can smile that much through pain.”

After Jackson runs out of sight, Brown quickly shifts his focus to getting his feet into an inflatable T-Rex costume so he can participate in the costume contest, an informal event that brings out a sheriff riding an inflatable rooster, Minnie Mouse, a foursome of Teletubbies and, of course, several dinosaurs. There’s also a guy dressed as Aladdin wearing a large golden lamp around his waist who is joined by a scantily clad Jasmine character who not-so-discreetly rubs the lamp in a Not Suitable for Work (NSFW) scene that draws both raucous laughs and shocked gasps from the crowd.

One of the best dressed-up groups of the event is a foursome of women from California’s Healdsburg Running Company: Dominique Chevalier (“Western Barbie”), Krista Kappus (“Alien Barbie”), Saddie Alloway (“Rootin’ Tootin’ Diva Barbie”), and Susan Oh (“Disco Bob Ross”). But the costume contest winners are the Montana Mermaids, a bikini-and-grass-skirt trio from Bozeman—Lena Romeo, Kara Haskell, and Liv Bleskin—who were there to crew and support elite runners Rachael Norfleet of Montana in the 100K and Utah’s Ryan Montgomery in the 100-miler.

The sun begins to set, but the party’s just getting started as DJ Colter Stillwell pumps tracks through the sound system as a full moon rises in the eastern sky. One of the rowdiest dancers is Brendan O’Hara, a Colorado trail runner who’s dressed up in a red-and-white mouse outfit with flashing lights similar to what popular Canadian electronic musician Deadmau5 wears on stage. As lots of energized runners entered in the Jackass race are about to head out into the night, two professional fire dancers perform a mesmerizing routine adjacent to the start line.

Just after dark, Rea comes flying into the finish area, stopping just short of the finish line to pantomime deadlifting a colossal barbell before crossing the line in a new course record of 12:43:10. Seattle runner Blake Slattengren stopped the clock next in 12:58:07 to claim the second Golden Ticket, while Montgomery ran another strong race to take the final podium spot in 13:01:14.

Redeeming herself from last year, Jackson finishes strong to win the women’s race and finish sixth overall, thanks in part to the aggressive pacing of Devon Yanko. Jackson’s time of 14:24:47 is the second-fastest women’s time ever behind Camille Herron’s 14:03:23 course record from 2021. Spain’s Ragna Debats (14:55:27) outran Riley Brady (15:29:17) to earn the second women’s Golden Ticket.

Not long after midnight, the Dauwalters finish, too. Covered in dust, sweat, and even a little bit of blood—Tracy took a tumble on the first lap early the previous morning—they cross the finish line after 17 hours of running with big smiles and hug in a classic mother-daughter moment. Late Sunday morning, DesRochers makes it to the finish line, too, in 27:31:41, battling hard to overcome dehydration, an upset stomach, and nagging hip flexor pain at various points during the race.

“I was prepared for it to be hard, and I knew I was going to hurt. At some point, I was like, Oh, right, this is what running 100 miles feels like,” DesRochers says. “It was difficult, but I kept my positive mental attitude the whole way. I have a buddy who has a saying, ‘Forward is a pace,’ so I kept repeating that and kept putting one foot in front of the other and I didn’t quit.”

Something that’s especially apparent at Javelina is that everyone is celebrated as an equal, regardless of finishing times, trail running experience, athletic ability, age, or any other dissimilar details. The event goes out of its way to create an environment that promotes visibility and inclusion for everyone, and the community of participants seems to embrace it by cheering and encouraging for everyone the same.

It has partnered with Native Women Running, Latinos Run, and Black Men Run each of the past several years to bring their runners to the race, and it was also one of the first ultra events to offer a non-binary category. This year there were six non-binary runners racing over its three races, led by Willow Dolde in the 100-miler (20:01:29), Andreas Anderson in the 100K (13:54:30), and Tasha Hartwig in the Jackass 31K (6:42:07). (Although Brady, a non-binary runner from Boulder, was competing in the women’s division because they were racing for a Golden Ticket, they were also, unofficially, the top non-binary runner in the race.)

As the golden hour comes and goes early Sunday afternoon—and final finishers Holly Sitzmann,  Jim Buckley, Brittany Edmiston, and Leslie Astle squeeze under the 30-hour cutoff with help from their pacers and crew—it’s clear that everyone at Javelina is celebrated equally and enthusiastically. That also includes two unofficial finishers—Rayna Rodriguez and Tatiana Orozco—who complete the 100-mile course just outside of the time cutoff, but are welcomed by a scream tunnel of remaining spectators and the adulation of Paige even though neither will receive a finisher’s buckle.

“Javelina is a celebration, and the invitation to run and participate at Javelina extends to everyone,” Paige says. “I want to ultimately show how amazing the community is and that this sport is for everybody and every body—the spirit of ultra is diverse and should be celebrated.”

(11/05/2023) Views: 291 ⚡AMP
by Outside online
Share
Share

Australian ultrarunner makes history by racing UTMB and Ironman World champs

Ultrarunner Lucy Bartholomew made running and triathlon history on Sunday, becoming only the second woman ever to finish the 171-kilometre Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) as well as the Ironman World Championships in the same year.

Bartholomew ran remarkably well at both events, taking a tenth-place finish at UTMB in 27:39:22, and completing what was only her second Ironman in 10:43:41, with a 3:31 marathon time.

The double–nearly 400 kilometres of challenging racing–has only been conquered by one woman before Bartholomew: Ireland’s Diana Hogan-Murphy, in 2014. Bartholomew is also the fastest person of any gender to have completed both events in the same year.Bartholomew shot to fame in the ultrarunning world in 2018, when she was the third female at the Western States 100. The runner shared on social media that she lost some of the joy in racing in the years following her WSER podium, and after her 2022 race ended in a DNF, she wasn’t sure if she’d race 100 miles again.

“You show up (almost) every day to run so that you can run even more on the race day, finish and not be able to run, only to want to run, and then run to aid in the recovering of the running and to prepare for more running,” Bartholomew explained. “To take myself out of this cycle I decided to tick a bucket list idea to do an IRONMAN triathlon. It was a ‘one day, someday’ objective that I pulled forward to help pull me out of feeling stuck.”Bartholomew’s first Ironman, in Western Australia in December 2022, qualified her for the Kona World Championship event in Hawaii.

While the runner had only planned to complete one Ironman, she felt she couldn’t miss the opportunity to race in Hawaii. “Not being one who steps down from a challenge, it seemed right to go one more,” she said.

“I’ve swum, biked and run my way to fantastic recovery from UTMB and moderate triathlon fitness for Kona,” Bartholomew said pre-race. “It was a fun, fine balance to play with these two big events so close to each other.”

 

(10/21/2023) Views: 342 ⚡AMP
by Running Magazine
Share
Share

TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon: elite women’s and men’s preview

For the first time in the 34-year history of the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, the race has reached over 25,000 runners. Toronto has established itself as Canada’s premier marathon and has set a precedent in the global running community, with participants coming from 78 countries around the world for the marathon on Sunday, Oct. 15.

The elite field at the 2023 edition of the marathon looks significantly different from last year, and two new champions will be crowned on the men’s and women’s sides, as Ethiopia’s Yihunilign Adane and Kenya’s Antonina Kwamboi will not be returning. The 2023 elite field features up-and-coming stars, along with several American women aiming to achieve the Olympic standard of 2:26:50 ahead of the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials in February.

The race will also determine two new Canadian marathon champions, with compelling storylines on both the men’s and women’s sides.

Women’s race

Will we see an American winner?

It has been 22 years since an American woman last won the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon (Leslie Gold in 2001) but in this year’s field, two American elites could possibly end the drought. One of them, Emily Durgin, a road racing specialist based out of Flagstaff, Ariz. came to Toronto looking for redemption after a less-than-ideal marathon debut in NYC last year.

Durgin said during Friday’s elite press conference that she felt the pressure to hit times and perform during her debut and ended up dropping out of the race before 30 km. “I learned a lot from New York and my build for Toronto has been different,” said Durgin. “As for a goal time, I want to run in the low 2:20s and be competitive.” The 29-year-old marathoner hopes to use Toronto as a stepping stone for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2024 in Orlando. Durgin was able to qualify for the trials from her time at the 2022 Houston Half Marathon where she finished 6th overall, clocking the seventh-fastest half-marathon in U.S. history with 67:54. “I came to Toronto to be competitive and contend for the the podium, as that’s what it will take to qualify at trials come February,” she said.

Another U.S. name in the women’s elite field to watch is Molly Grabill, who is running her sixth career marathon in Toronto on Sunday. Grabill told the media that she has similar plans to her compatriot Durgin and hopes to bounce back after, in her words, falling short of her goals in her last marathon in Hamburg earlier this year. Although Grabill ran the second-fastest marathon time of her career in Hamburg, she said she was disappointed as she took a swing and missed, struggling in the second half. “The goal in Toronto is to control the second half of the race better and gain strong momentum heading into the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials,” said Grabill. The 31-year-old from Boulder, Colo., is coming off a top-15 finish in 69:53 at the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, earlier this month, which she says has given her a lot of confidence for Sunday.

Eyes on the course record?

Outside of the American duo, two other international athletes to watch are the Ethiopian duo of Afera Godfay and 2023 Ottawa Marathon champion Waganesh Mekasha. For Godfay, Toronto is her first marathon in three years after giving birth to her daughter. Her last marathon came in 2020 when she ran 2:26:43 to place third overall at the Xiamen Marathon in China. In her first two races back since becoming a mother, Godfay has run respectable half marathon times of 70 and 71 minutes but has not yet returned to her previous form. She said at Friday’s press conference that she hopes to come through the half mark in 1:11 and feels well-prepared for her marathon return. A glimpse of hope for Godfay is that she currently trains alongside the new women’s world record holder Tigist Assefa in Ethiopia. So, who knows what she is capable of?

The favourite in the women’s race is Mekasha, who is coming off a win in the scorching heat at the 2023 Ottawa Marathon in May. Mekasha is targeting the Canadian all-comers’ women’s marathon record on Sunday of 2:22:16, set four years ago by Kenya’s Magdalyne Masai at this race. Mekasha holds a personal best of 2:22:45 from the 2019 Dubai Marathon and said that she expects around a similar time on Sunday. “If the pacemaker runs a good pace, I hope to break the course record,” says Mekasha.

The Canadian contingent

Two of the top three Canadians from last year’s race have returned to the 2023 field, with Malindi Elmore, the reigning Canadian marathon champion, opting to run Berlin, where she clocked the second-fastest time in Canadian history (2:23:30). Returning are second and third place Canadian finishers Dayna Pidhoresky and Toronto’s own Sasha Gollish. Pidhoresky had an iconic moment here in 2019, when she raced just under the Olympic standard at the Canadian trials, winning in 2:29:03–qualifying her for the marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Although the Olympic marathon didn’t go as planned for Pidhoresky, she was able to bounce back at this event last year to place seventh overall (second Canadian) in 2:30:58. 

“Growing up in Windsor, Ont., I came to Toronto for so many races,” said Pidhoresky on tackling on her fourth Toronto Waterfront Marathon. “I feel I know the course very well, which is helpful in a marathon, and it’s great to have a high-quality field that’s close to home.” Pidhoresky told the media that this build has not been smooth but she is still confident she can run a personal best Sunday. “This course is advantageous, and I need to be smart and just run my race,” she said.

It is a similar story for Gollish, who is running in her second consecutive TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, less than eight weeks after her last marathon at the 2023 World Championships in August. Gollish told Canadian Running at the press conference that she wants to go into this race with a similar mindset that she had in Budapest. “It feels like a privilege to be here, and I am not putting any pressure of a personal best on myself,” says Gollish. “For the longest time, I avoided this race because I felt there would be pressure to perform, but why not run something in your backyard fuelled by a community that has done so much for me?” Last year, Gollish surprised herself with a personal best time of 2:31:40 after a short marathon build. Could she do the same on Sunday?

A few other Canadian marathoners to watch are Emily Setlack, Toronto’s Liza Howard and Kim Krezonoski of Thunder Bay, Ont. It has been four years since Setlack has last touched the marathon, but with a personal best of 2:29:48 from the 2019 edition of this race, her potential to finish as the top Canadian should not be ignored. Setlack has had a quiet 2023 season but has strung together solid performances, winning Toronto’s historic Sporting Life 10K and placing eighth overall at the Canadian 10K Championships in May.

Howard has a personal best of 2:35:29 (Chicago 2022) and was the top Canadian finisher at the 2023 Boston Marathon (37th overall) in cold, wet and windy conditions. Krezonoski moved to Toronto within the last year and has been studying the course thoroughly in the hope of crushing her marathon personal best come Sunday. She ran her personal best of 2:37 at the California International Marathon last year but has dropped her half-marathon PB by nearly four minutes since. The spots on the domestic podium are up for grabs, and each of these three women could break through. 

Men’s race

The rise of Elvis 

The absence of Adane opens the door for several East African men hoping to establish their marathon careers in Toronto. One of these men is Kenya’s Elvis Kipchoge, who may already lay claim to the title of the best running name. This Kipchoge is a little less well-known than the former world record holder but boasts a faster half marathon personal best of 59:15, which earned him third place at the 2022 Barcelona Half Marathon. However, this Kipchoge has not had much luck in the marathon. At the young age of 27, he ran 2:10:21 at the Vienna Marathon earlier this year. He hopes to turn things around on a fast and flat Toronto course. Kipchoge has ties to the race, training alongside women’s course record holder Magdalyne Masai in Iten, Kenya. 

While there is no relation between Elvis and Eliud Kipchoge, besides sharing the same last name and initials, Ethiopian athlete Adugna Bikila hopes to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, Worku Bikila. Worku was a world-class 5,000m runner who finished sixth in the 1992 Olympic 5,000m final in Barcelona and took fourth place at the World Championships the following year. Bikila enters Toronto with the fastest time in the field, holding a personal best of 2:05:52 from the 2022 Seville Marathon, where he finished fourth.

All the East African men will be aiming to break the Canadian all-comers record and course record of 2:05:00, held by Kenya’s Philemon Rono, set in 2019. The weather forecast for Sunday indicates cool and favourable conditions for both the men’s and women’s fields, which should make both course records vulnerable.

Who’s next for Canada?

A new men’s Canadian champion will be crowned Sunday, and for the first time since 2016, their last name will not be Levins or Hofbauer. The 2023 men’s field is full of up-and-coming Canadian talent on the precipice of breaking into the elite scene. Mississauga’s Sergio Raez Villanueva returns to Toronto after a stunning 2:18:04 debut last year, which earned him top-five Canadian honours. Challenging Raez Villanueva is Ottawa’s Blair Morgan, who was the second Canadian at the hot and humid Ottawa Marathon in May, running 2:19:50. Morgan ran his personal best of 2:18:29 at the 2018 Toronto Waterfront Marathon but is looking for a sub-2:18 result this time around.  

Challenging Raez Villanueva and Morgan are debutants Thomas Broatch of Vancouver and 4:01 miler Kyle Grieve. Broatch is coming off a win at the Vancouver Eastside 10K where he beat three-time Toronto champion Trevor Hofbauer. “Winning the Eastside 10K was a huge confidence booster for me,” says Broatch. “Whenever you take the start line the objective is to win and run fast.” The 24-year-old software engineer told Canadian Running that he has ambitious goals to run under 2:15 on Sunday and that his marathon build has gone near perfect.

For Grieve, who grew up and still resides in Toronto, this marathon has always been on his bucket list. “I’ve been wanting to try a marathon for a few years and have just kept putting it off,” says Grieve, who got married in the summer. “Canada Running Series is a big reason I am still competing today, so it was never a question of where I wanted to run my first marathon.” His goal is to be competitive against a strong Canadian field and let the time come along with it.

How to watch?

Marathon fans from around the world will have the opportunity to watch the 2023 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon live on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, beginning at 8:00 a.m. ET with a pre-race introduction followed by the introduction of the elite field. The gun for the men’s and women’s elite field fires at 8:45 a.m. ET. All race action can be followed on torontowaterfrontmarathon.com or CBCsports.ca /CBC Gem or AthleticsCanada.tv.

(10/14/2023) Views: 355 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson
Share
TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon

TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon

The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Half-Marathon & 5k Run / Walk is organized by Canada Running Series Inc., organizers of the Canada Running Series, "A selection of Canada's best runs!" Canada Running Series annually organizes eight events in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver that vary in distance from the 5k to the marathon. The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and Half-Marathon are...

more...
Share

Naked trail race in England brings out running buffs

Scores of runners in England joined in a bold display of raw talent this month, baring all for a 5K trail run in which participants stripped down to their socks.

The Naked 5K took place Sept. 10 near Orpington, a community just southeast of London. The town is home to the Naturist Foundation, an organization dedicated to the “pursuit of personal well-being and wellness through naturist recreational activities,” according to its mission statement. The group’s 53-acre Brocken Hurst property is host to a range of Naturist Foundation events, from concerts and holiday celebrations to this month’s 5K trail run, which was the 20th such race the group has organized.

The organization’s milestone event appears to have attracted not just a large crowd, but a fairly speedy one. Leading the pack of 130 runners was Mark Jessett of Llandudno Junction, Wales, who won the race in 18:50. (As the race format would leave runners few options for pinning on a race bib, runners are given lightweight anklets to make chip timing possible.)

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Nature Foundation featured a shot of Jessett wearing nothing but his winner’s medal. “Congratulations to the winner of yesterday’s #BH5K trail run, with a time of 18m50s,” reads the post. “An impressive feat given the heat, with a high of 30ºC! We had extra water stations and misting sprays, but not surprisingly some DNFs too.”

No matter how liberally Jessett might have applied sunscreen for the race, the blistering rays clearly left an impression on the Welshman. “Scorching conditions!” he wrote in his Strava recap of the Naked 5K, in which he described the race as “basically a trail course through trees with a short section of road.”

In a reply to the Naturist Foundation’s post on X, he wrote: “Thanks everyone and well done to everyone else also! Fantastic day out in lovely (but scorching) conditions surrounded by so many friendly people!”

Others who responded to the post offered Jessett kudos for a strong run given the heat and, at times, challenging terrain, while some were curious about what motivates runners to sign up for the Naked 5K, and what kind of crowds the races attract.

One commenter replied that “some are running club members a bit bored of the regular parkrun and fancy a change. Many are regulars that we only see twice a year. Some are doing it for bucket list or charity reasons. Some do get the naturist bug as a result.”

The Naturist Foundation hosts its next Naked 5K in May.

(09/30/2023) Views: 328 ⚡AMP
by Running Magazine
Share
Share

Training Advice from the Greatest Women Masters Marathoners Alive

While Jeannie Rice and Jenny Hitchings are busy setting masters world records, their differences in training are even more instructive than their similarities

The spring marathon season has come and gone, and it didn’t disappoint, producing sensational races and world headlines. This was particularly true in Boston and London. However, you might have heard little or nothing about two of the best marathon performances in those events.

The big media coverage went to seemingly-unbeatable Eliud Kipchoge, who finished sixth at Boston, where Evans Chebet gained his third straight World Marathon Major victory in 12 months. At the London Marathon, Kelvin Kiptum ran 59:45 for the second half, en route to a course record 2:01:27, and Sifan Hassan demonstrated that she can win in the marathon as she has at multiple shorter distances.

But 75-year-old Jeannie Rice and 59-year-old Jenny Hitchings outran them all, on an Age-Gender performance basis, both setting new world records for their age groups. Rice’s 3:33:15 in Boston won’t count, since the Boston course is considered ineligible due to its significant downhill slope and point to point layout, which allows for a tailwind boost. Still, she beat the fastest 75-79 age-group male runner by more than 20 minutes, which has likely never happened before in a global marathon. And five weeks before Boston, at age 74, she ran 3:31:22 in the Tokyo Marathon.

A week after Boston, Hitchings ran 2:45:27 in London—a marathon world record for women in the 55-59 age division. Remarkably, she’s at the high end of that age range, as she’ll turn 60 in early July. Not only that, but it was her personal best marathon in 40 years of running.

Rice was born in South Korea and immigrated to the U.S. in her mid-30s. A retired real estate agent, she now divides her time between south Florida and Cleveland. Hitchings is a longtime resident of Sacramento, California, where she works as a middle-school cross-country coach and a private running coach.

Rice and Hitchings live on opposite coasts, but they have much in common. They’ve both been running for decades, both are extremely consistent in their training, and both log multiple 20-milers in their marathon buildups. Surprisingly, neither makes a particular effort to include hill training, a staple among other top marathon runners. Both are small and lean. Rice stands 5-foot-2 and weighs 96 pounds; Hitchings is 5-foot-4 and 100 pounds.

But Rice and Hitchings also present some stark contrasts. These differences carry an important message: There are many paths to marathon success, and the best senior runners understand this. Through their experience and wisdom, they’ve learned to focus on the positives and jettison the junk.

Here’s a look at some of the major contrasts between master marathon greats Jeannie Rice and Jenny Hitchings.

Both Rice and Hitchings had previously won age-group titles at Boston. Rice chose to return there in April for emotional reasons, as Boston marked her 40th anniversary of marathon running and her 130th marathon. Hitchings selected London for technical reasons. In 2021, she ran 2:45:32 at Boston. It would have been a record except for the point-to-point course prohibition. So this spring she opted for London’s record-eligible course.

Rice: “Boston has always been a special marathon for me,” said Rice. “My preparation wasn’t the best, as I ran the Tokyo Marathon in early March, and then did some traveling. But I wanted to have my Boston celebration, and I had quite a few running friends there with me.”

Hitchings: “London was on my marathon ‘bucket list’ anyway, and it gave me a great opportunity to set an age-group world record,” said Hitchings. “Since my 2:45 at Boston didn’t count, I figured I should take a crack at London while I was still in the age group.” [She will turn 60 in early July.]

Rice has always been self-coached. Hitchings, a running coach herself, has had a longterm coach-athlete relationship with Chicago-based Jenny Spangler. Spangler won the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in 1996 and ran a 2:32:39 marathon in 2003, after turning 40.

Rice: “I’ve been approached by people who wanted to coach me, but they seemed expensive and had other demands I didn’t like. I listen to what my friends do and what others are doing in training. I try to run 50 miles most weeks, and a bit more before my marathons. But I don’t actually follow a schedule. Mostly I just train the way I feel. I’m still running strong and beating records, so I must be doing something right.

“I know it’s possible that a coach could help me the way Gene Dykes’s coach helped him, but it’s also possible that things could go wrong. I like to decide my training according to how I feel each day.”

Hitchings: “I coach other runners, and I could certainly coach myself, but you know what they say about doctors who treat themselves: They have a fool for a patient. I think that can also apply to athletes who coach themselves. It’s just smarter to have someone looking over your shoulder, and adding some perspective.

“I’m one of those who’s often guilty of running too fast on my easy days, or getting excited and going too hard when I’m training with friends. Jenny [her coach] holds me accountable for those kinds of things. She has a great personal performance record that I respect a lot, and has been coaching for many years.

“It’s also important to me that she’s a female coach of my own age. She understands what I’m going through and dealing with in terms of female physiology.”

Both runners say they enjoy a relaxed morning cup of coffee before launching into their days. But Rice is up earlier, and often out the door quicker. Hitchings needs more time to be ready for a solid run.

Rice: “I like to get my run done early, so I have the whole day in front of me when I get back home at 7:30 A.M. or so. I’m usually running by 6 A.M. In Florida, where I spend my winters, that can be important for the cooler weather.

“But on days when I’m going 20 to 23 miles, I’ll get up at 3:30 A.M.  and begin running at 4:30 A.M.  I’ll go two hours on my own, and then join a local training group for their morning loop, which gives me another hour or so.”

Hitchings: “I coach a number of people who can roll right out of bed and start running. I’m not one of those. My favorite time to run is about 8 A.M. or 8:30 A.M. in the morning. I like my coffee first, and the morning newspaper, and I always make sure to get a light breakfast in my stomach. Since my favorite place to run is the American River Parkway, that gives me another 15 minutes of drive time before I get going.

“There have been times when I had to be a noontime runner, and that was OK, too. But 4 P.M. or 5 P.M.? That’s not going to happen. By that time of day, I’m too tired or depleted.”

This one is easy for Rice, who has never been injured except for a fall (and banged-up knee) in 2021 that cost her several weeks of running. Hitchings also considers herself relatively injury-free, but she has encountered an assortment of typical runner injuries through the years: Achilles tendinitis, piriformis pain, and surgery for Haglund’s deformity (a bony growth at the back of the heel resulting from mostly genetic causes).

Rice: “I go to the gym three times a week for a light strength workout, some pushups, and some stretching. But it’s not a serious session at all. I also golf for fun; I really enjoy golfing.”

Hitchings: “I try to do light weight work as much as I can, and I ride my bike 20-30 miles a week outdoors, and do Peloton indoors. Recently, I added Pilates once a week to improve my strength and mobility.

“Also, Jenny and I have agreed to take one hard running day out of my weekly schedule. I used to do speed work of some kind on Tuesday and Thursday, and a long weekend run. Now I’m down to speed on Wednesday, and a weekend long run that often has some tempo-pace segments.”

While both are clearly fit, Rice and Hitchings say they enjoy a wide variety of foods, and have no particular restrictions in their diets. Both enjoy wine drinking. Hitchings admits to a sweet tooth, too, but desserts are not a problem for Rice.

Rice: “Breakfast is usually oatmeal with fruit and nuts. At lunch and dinner, I enjoy a green salad with some sort of seafood or fish on top. I’ve never liked sweets and don’t crave them, but I love cheese and nuts. That’s my big downfall—cheese and nuts. The only supplements I take are calcium with vitamin D, B-12, and magnesium.”

Hitchings: “I eat  ‘clean,’ a well-balanced diet with an emphasis on carbs. I simply don’t feel good if I eat heavy, creamy, or fried foods. I get most of my vitamins and minerals from real foods, though recently I’ve added Athletic Greens to my routine.

“When I’m in heavy marathon training, I find it hard to maintain my weight, so I’ll have some protein shakes and maybe one chocolate bar, muffin, or pastry per day. I’ve got a drawer full of vitamins, calcium, collagen, and iron supplements, but I never seem to stick with any for long. It’s just too much.”

While realistic about their futures, neither Rice nor Hitchings sound the least bit intimidated by the unwritten future. Despite aging, both are driven to perform. They hope to keep running hard and fast, and chasing age-group records. Both plan to run the Chicago Marathon on October 8, as it will be the site of this year’s Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group Championships.

Rice: “Getting faster at 75 is almost impossible, but this year I’m going to run a few road miles to work on my speed. I’ve won my age group in every World Marathon Major but London, so I want to get back to London in the next several years. I want to run the Sydney Marathon, the Ho Chi Minh City Marathon, and, of course, I must run the Seoul Marathon in the country where I was born.”

Hitchings: “I’m running faster at 60 than I’ve ever run in my life. My time in London was literally my lifetime best, and I’ve been running a long time. Sometimes I get asked, ‘When are you going to stop running?’ My answer is always: ‘Why would I stop?’ I’m still getting faster, and I’m still enjoying it.”

Rice, though 15 years older, feels the same. It’s fun winning major marathons, of course, especially when she beats most men her age. In local and regional races, she challenges herself to finish as high as possible in the masters division against females three decades younger (and sometimes wins outright).

“I love competition,” she says. “I’m motivated to train hard, and I’m excited about setting more records as long as I can. Maybe into my 80s.”

Running is about finish times, sure, but it’s even more about attitude. Find the goal that’s right for you, and go after it. This is the approach both Rice and Hitchings have followed successfully, and neither plans to change course now, no matter how many candles adorn their next birthday cake.

Both are on a shared mission, and they’d like others to join them. As Hitchings says: “I think if we keep a positive attitude and motivation, we can go out there and do much more than people think. It’s important to show others that we can defy the way aging has been defined for us for so long.”

(06/24/2023) Views: 368 ⚡AMP
by Outside Online
Share
Share

Moh Ahmed, Cam Levins to face off at Ottawa 10K

Two of the fastest distance runners in Canadian history will go head-to-head.

Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend will once again host the Canadian 10K Championships in 2023, and as always, this is an event that no runner or fan will want to miss. Two of the best distance runners in Canadian history, Cam Levins and Moh Ahmed, will headline the men’s race alongside former national champions. And four of the top five women from last year’s championships are returning, making the Ottawa 10K one of the most anticipated races on the 2023 event calendar.

It’s an equally fun and exciting race for non-elites, as the 10K follows a beautiful course through Ottawa, one of Canada’s most beautiful cities. The 2023 Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend is set for May 27 and 28.

The elite fields

Canadian Olympic marathoner Dylan Wykes has been the elite athlete co-ordinator at Run Ottawa for four years, but due to the pandemic, the 2023 race weekend will mark only the second in-person edition of the event he has worked on since taking over the role in early 2020. Wykes says this year’s race will be a special one, as “the best 10K runners in the country will be hitting the streets of Ottawa.”

Headlining the event are Levins and Ahmed, neither of whom have ever competed at Ottawa Race Weekend. Ahmed, a 2020 Olympic medallist in the 5,000m, holds the Canadian record for 10,000m (26:34.14 on the track), but has not yet raced on the roads in his professional career. Ahmed is amped about the opportunity to kick off his 2023 season at the Ottawa 10K and make his road-racing debut.

Levins told race organizers he’s eager to check the Ottawa 10K off his bucket list. “The opportunity to run in such a competitive field in Canada is really great,” Levins said. “Ottawa has always been an event at which I’ve wanted to race.” Joining Ahmed and Levins in the men’s field are 2:10 marathoner Tristan Woodfine, U Sports cross-country champion Max Turek, Canadian cross-country champion Connor Black and others. 

The women’s field is equally stacked, with four of the top five women from the 2022 Ottawa 10K returning to this year’s championship race. Natasha Wodak, who won last year’s race, will not be back to defend her title, but second-place Leslie Sexton, third-place Sasha Gollish, fourth-place Emily Setlack and fifth-place Cleo Boyd are all in the lineup and ready to fight for the win. “It’s a really great group of women,” Wykes says, pointing out that the field spans more than 15 years in age. “All these women have great stories and are an inspiration. 

“This is a great opportunity for fans of the sport to see [these athletes] in action,” Wykes continues, pointing to Ahmed and Levins, who headline the men’s 10K field. “Levins is performing incredibly well right now, as well as any Canadian ever has on the roads at the world level, so it’s an exciting opportunity for fans of the sport to get to see him compete on home soil.”

Wykes adds that the 10K isn’t the only spectacle for fans who will be in Ottawa on May 27 and 28. “The entire weekend is a great opportunity to see some of the world’s best runners,” he says. “Our marathon is a World Athletics Elite Label event and will have athletes from three of the best marathoning nations in the world: Ethiopia, Kenya and Japan.” 

The race

For runners who aren’t looking to go sub-30 at the Ottawa 10K, this is still a great race. One detail Wykes points out that makes it unique is the race’s start time. “I think it is special because it is an evening race,” he says. “Most road races are held in the morning, so there is definitely a bit of a different feel to things when the race is in the evening.” 

Wykes says fans are “a bit rowdier” than they might be at the crack of dawn, and he says there’s “a bit more of a party atmosphere.” This all adds up to a great night of adrenaline, fast racing and post-race fun. 

The race starts on Elgin Street, not far from Parliament Hill, and takes runners down to the Rideau Canal. “Elgin Street is lined with patios and restaurants,” Wykes says, so there are plenty of people to cheer runners on as they kick off the race. Once at the Rideau Canal, runners follow the water all the way to Dows Lake, then cross a bridge and head for the finish on the other side.

“The final mile of the race is packed with fans along the Pretoria Bridge and Colonel By Drive,” Wykes says. “I’m getting excited now, just thinking about it.” 

(05/11/2023) Views: 506 ⚡AMP
Share
Ottawa 10K

Ottawa 10K

Ottawa's course is fast, scenic and few elevation changes. Considered to be an excellent course for first timers and should provide an environment conducive to setting a PR. The Ottawa 10K is the only IAAF Gold Label 10K event in Canada and one of only four IAAF Gold Label 10Ks in the world. The Ottawa 10K attracts one of the...

more...
Share

Are You Ready To Run A Half Marathon?

So, one minute you've just taken up running and the next, you find yourself entering a half marathon! Whether it's for charity or simply a personal goal, a half marathon is on the bucket list of many runners.

One of the biggest mistakes that many people make when they step up to the half is that they fail to respect the distance and as a result, don't prepare properly. Of course we'd all like more time to train and to get fitter before any race and you certainly don't have to reach the training volume of an elite athlete. However, if you do want a positive experience, you will need to ensure that you've done your groundwork. So, how do you know if you're ready to run 13.1 miles (21.1km)?

You can run for 90 minutes or more without stopping

You probably don't need reminding that 13.1 miles (21.1 km) is a very long way! The volume of your training will of course be dictated by your experience and your aspirations. You don't necessarily have to have covered the half marathon distance beforehand in training but you're more likely to feel more physically and mentally comfortable if you're able to run for a substantial amount of time continuously.

If there is one type of training session that you're going to do when training for a half marathon make it a weekly long run.

If there is one type of training session that you're going to do when training for a half marathon make it a weekly long run. The long run should be the bedrock of any distance runner’s training programme and is definitely bread and butter for half marathoners. Running long causes a number of physiological adaptations to your aerobic metabolism, including improving your body's ability to store glycogen (carbohydrate) and to burn fat for fuel.

If you're new to running then it's best to start with blocks of running, interspersed with blocks of walking. As the weeks go by you should aim to gradually increase the length of the running segments and reduce the length of the walking segments, with the aim of being able to build up to completing a continuous run. Once you can run for 90 minutes continuously you should be half marathon ready.

You've trained consistently

You don't have to rack up the miles of an elite runner or subject yourself to a brutal training regime before entering your first half marathon, but it's certainly a good idea to have some consistent training under your belt. The amount of preparation you'll need obviously depends on your fitness levels, your goals and your running history.

If you're new to running, you'll generally need at least 16 weeks of training, ideally 2-3 times a week, before hitting your first half.

However, if you're new to running, you'll generally need at least 16 weeks of training, ideally 2-3 times a week, before hitting your first half. It's important to remember that your training doesn't have to be record-breaking it just has to be consistent with no lengthy breaks due to illness or injury. If you can achieve that, it will stand you in good stead, leaving you physically and psychologically ready to tackle a half marathon.

You've done some training on the roads

In order to condition your legs to the impact of the road, it's a good idea to hit the roads for some of your training so that you don't experience any unnecessary muscle cramping during the later stages of the race. However too much road running too soon can pose an additional injury risk so be sure to build this into your training gradually and ensure that your shoes have the appropriate level of cushioning.

You have some race experience

A half marathon is kind of a big deal so it's a good idea to try and gain some race experience over a shorter distance, such as a 5k or a 10k beforehand. Not only will this give you an indication of your current fitness levels and your potential over the half marathon distance, thus providing guidance when deciding upon a time goal, but it will also allow you to practice key aspects of your pre-race routine. Good luck and happy half marathoning!

(05/09/2023) Views: 410 ⚡AMP
by Louise Damen
Share
Share

Five reasons to try a marathon

For many runners, the marathon is high on their race bucket list. There are a lot of runners out there, however, who couldn’t care less about the marathon. If you’re one of those people, it’s totally fine to stick to half-marathons and 10Ks, but it’s worth trying the full marathon distance at least once. 

New mental challenges 

No matter the race, you’re going to experience a mental battle at some point. Unlike a 5K, which is over relatively quickly, in the marathon, you can hit the wall with more than an hour left of running, which means you’ll have a lot of time on the race course trying to convince yourself to keep pushing. This is when the race shifts from a physical battle to a mental one, and while it’ll be tough, it will also be incredibly rewarding to grind through those dark moments. 

Confidence boost 

Even if you don’t do another marathon, knowing you conquered such a massive race will definitely boost your confidence. Shorter races will still be hard, but when things get tough in those runs, you’ll be able to draw on your experience in the marathon and remind yourself that you’ve gone much farther and pushed through more exhaustion before. 

Trying new things 

It’s easy to stay inside your comfort zone, but it’s incredibly valuable to venture outside it from time to time. Doing a marathon is scary, there’s no doubt about it, but you’ll grow as a runner if you take that leap and give it a try. Also, you might love it. If you never try a marathon, though, you’ll never find out if it’s the distance for you. 

You can do it 

If you’ve run other races, you can complete a marathon. It’s definitely a commitment–you’ll need to train properly and prepare well for the race (plan on devoting about four months to your “build”), but, as any marathoner will tell you, it’s be worth it for the fitness and endurance you’ll be creating, and for the sense of accomplishment that comes with completing a marathon. 

The marathon is ‘the’ race 

Rightly or wrongly, the marathon is considered the ultimate running event. Everyone knows about this race, and, when the topic of running comes up, runners and non-runners alike are always going to ask you if you’ve done a marathon. We don’t agree that the marathon is the most important event out there, but you might as well do at least one so you can answer yes when people inevitably ask you that question. 

(05/06/2023) Views: 385 ⚡AMP
by Running Magazine
Share
Share

every runner should try the marathon at least once in their career

For many runners, the marathon is high on their race bucket list. There are a lot of runners out there, however, who couldn’t care less about the marathon. If you’re one of those people, it’s totally fine to stick to half-marathons and 10Ks, but it’s worth trying the full marathon distance at least once. We know you’re probably tired of hearing people tell you that you should run a marathon, and we’re not saying you have to become a marathon runner for life, but here are a few reasons to consider trying it out.

New mental challenges 

No matter the race, you’re going to experience a mental battle at some point. Unlike a 5K, which is over relatively quickly, in the marathon, you can hit the wall with over an hour left of running, which means you’ll have a lot of time on the race course trying to convince yourself to keep pushing. This is when the race shifts from a physical battle to a mental one, and while it’ll be tough, it will also be incredibly rewarding to grind through those dark moments. 

Confidence boost 

Even if you don’t do another marathon, knowing you conquered such a massive race will definitely boost your confidence moving forward. Shorter races will still be hard, but when things get tough in those runs, you’ll be able to draw on your experience in the marathon and remind yourself that you’ve gone much farther and pushed through more exhaustion before. 

Trying new things  

It’s easy to stay inside your comfort zone, but it’s incredibly valuable to venture outside it from time to time. Doing a marathon is scary, there’s no doubt about it, but you’ll grow as a runner if you take that leap and give it a try. Also, you might love it. If you never try a marathon, though, you’ll never find out if it’s the race for you. 

You can do it 

If you’ve run other races, you can complete a marathon. You’ll need to train properly and prepare well for the race, but it’ll be worth it. You’re capable of running a marathon, so why not do it? 

The marathon is ‘the’ race 

Whether you like it or not, the marathon is considered the ultimate running event. Everyone knows about this race, and runners and non-runners alike are always going to ask you if you’ve done a marathon when the topic of running comes up. We don’t agree that the marathon is the most important event out there, but you might as well do at least one so you can answer yes when people inevitably ask you that question.

(05/02/2023) Views: 517 ⚡AMP
by Ben Snider-McGrath
Share
Share

Sifan Hassan is set to make her marathon debut at London

Sifan Hassan’s 2023 London Marathon challenge: “I’m going to finish the distance or the distance is going to finish me” the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan said in February when announcing she would race in 23 April’s London Marathon.

While the words were delivered with a customary laugh, there’s a real element of the unknown about Hassan’s jump from the 10,000m on track to a distance of over four times that where many runners' dreams have been scuppered.

Heck, even the marathon race itself is based on the legend of an ancient Greek messenger who drops stone cold dead after running it.

But if there’s one thing Hassan is known for above anything else, it’s her love of a challenge.

“Many people say I’m crazy,” she said of her previous big challenge of racing in three distances at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics that took place in 2021. “Believe me, I think I’m crazy too.”

Sifan Hassan: From refugee to the elite athletics star with energy to burn

In many ways, Hassan’s decision to run the London Marathon is reminiscent of her first big distance race in Eindhoven in 2011.

Just three years after arriving in the Netherlands as a refugee from Ethiopia, she told her coach, Ton van Hoesel, that she wanted to run a half marathon - even though she hadn’t trained for the race.

“I told her OK but do not start too fanatically because you might get injured. Well, she won the race!” recalled Van Hoesel in an interview with thenationalnews.com.

With the London Marathon, Hassan will once again be stepping into the unknown. However, this is an athlete who has faced and overcome fierce challenges both in running and in life.

While Hassan doesn’t talk about the reasons she left Ethiopia as a teenager, her experience after arriving in the Netherlands, which included being housed in a centre for minors for eight months in Zuidlaren where she “cried every day”, was one of the hardest challenges of her life.

Soon after, her introduction to the world of athletics gave her a new focus. After borrowing used spikes and kits from her local club, she began a journey that would take her to even more challenges - one of which is among the most breathtaking in Olympic history.

The London Marathon 2023: Hassan steps into the unknown

Hassan’s attitude to life so often mirrors her success in running - and she’ll need to draw upon her own mantras more than ever when she takes on her first-ever marathon in London.

“I tell people, when life is hard you will see yourself like you never imagined,” she said after her history-making showing in Tokyo. “Never give up.”

There is a playful curiosity about Hassan, who seems to peek over at new challenges and ask herself the question, “why not?” when so many others would get stuck on the “why”.

“I just want to see what I can do in the marathon,” Hassan said when announcing she would race in London, as if ticking off another item on a whimsical bucket list.

While the London Marathon doesn’t mark a permanent transition to the longer distance for the 29-year-old, who has said she plans to return to the track in time for Paris 2024, it does open up yet more possibilities for someone who is once again pushing the boundaries of track & field.

This is an athlete whose satisfaction comes from achieving the extraordinary. Even when some, including herself, think that borders on the preposterous.

As she herself said in Tokyo: “The last two weeks, sometimes I woke up from a nightmare and I asked: ‘Why do I have to make myself so stressed? But something inside me said to keep on going. I think I was kind of crazy, but now I am really happy."

(04/20/2023) Views: 483 ⚡AMP
by Sean McAlister
Share
TCS London Marathon

TCS London Marathon

The London Marathon was first run on March 29, 1981 and has been held in the spring of every year since 2010. It is sponsored by Virgin Money and was founded by the former Olympic champion and journalist Chris Brasher and Welsh athlete John Disley. It is organized by Hugh Brasher (son of Chris) as Race Director and Nick Bitel...

more...
Share

Eliud Kipchoge: Three down, three to go

“I want to not only compete in all six but to do so and win. These are two different targets. What’s more, I have added another challenge of getting course records for the other half of the races,” Kipchoge said in a recent interview with NN Running Team, setting out a new goal for an athlete who has achieved almost every target put in front of him.

Already a two-time Olympic champion, reigning world record holder and the only man to run a marathon in under two hours, it would be easy to forgive Kipchoge for wanting to rest on his considerable laurels after a career in which he has won 15 of the 17 marathons he has run.

But the man who is a living personification of his catchphrase “No human is limited” is on a mission to change the face of history by winning the six most prestigious marathon races on the planet in record time.

He currently owns the course record in three marathons, London (2:02:37) set in 2019, Tokyo (2:02:40) set in 2022 and Berlin, the current world record of 2:01:09 also set in 2022.

That leaves three left on his bucket list, starting with the Boston Marathon, which takes place on April 17 2023.

(03/30/2023) Views: 515 ⚡AMP
Share
Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon

Among the nation’s oldest athletic clubs, the B.A.A. was established in 1887, and, in 1896, more than half of the U.S. Olympic Team at the first modern games was composed of B.A.A. club members. The Olympic Games provided the inspiration for the first Boston Marathon, which culminated the B.A.A. Games on April 19, 1897. John J. McDermott emerged from a...

more...
Share

Five unusual races to add to your running bucket list

If you’ve run a lot of road races, you may feel that they’re all pretty similar. Whether you’re racing in Tokyo or Boston, South Africa or the U.K., you’ll probably be running a classic distance on a typical course. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to these kinds of runs, but if you’re looking for a new, think-outside-the-box race, here are a few you should check out.

1.- Défi Escaliers

The Défi Escaliers is a super cool (and extremely difficult) race in Quebec City that takes runners up and down the historic city’s many staircases and features three distance options—9K, 13K and 19K. If you enter the 9K race, you’ll face 1,250 steps between the start and finish. Despite being only 4 km longer, you run double that stair tally in the 13K, hitting 2,500 steps. Finally, in the 19K race, you’ll run up or down all 40 staircases connecting Quebec City’s Lower Town and Upper Town for a grand total of 2,828 steps. This is not a race for the faint of heart, but it is sure to be a fun time, and you couldn’t ask to run it in a cooler city.

2.- Red Bull 400 

The Red Bull 400 is a race series with events held around the world. These races are 400m in length, which would be pretty easy if they didn’t go up Olympic ski jumps. Runners who are brave enough to take on this challenge will face a whopping 140 metres of elevation gain in the quarter-mile race.

Your legs and lungs will be screaming at you if you give this run a shot, but once you make it to the finish, you’ll be glad you went for it. OK, it might actually take a few hours before you stop hating yourself for putting your body through such a brutal race, but we promise that eventually, you’ll be proud of your accomplishment. (Until the pandemic, there was a Red Bull 400 event in Whistler, B.C., but it has yet to return since the pandemic cancellation. However, there are other Red Bull 400 events held around the world, e.g., Japan, Bosnia and Austria), so if you ever get the chance to run one, you should consider it. 

3.- CN Tower Climb 

We know, we know–there are way too many races on this list with a focus on running up, but runners love challenging themselves, and running uphill or up stairs will never not be tough. The CN Tower Climb for Nature is yet another brutal challenge that takes place in Toronto every year. Participants in this run will climb 1,776 steps, but unlike the Défi Escaliers, you won’t have flat sections of road between staircases for some mid-run recovery. Not that you need another reason to run the CN Tower Climb, but it’s also a fundraiser for the World Wildlife Fund Canada, and the proceeds will go toward restoring and protecting Canada’s ecosystems. This year’s race goes on April 15 and 16. (Note: there is also a CN Tower Climb sponsored by United Way; this year’s race is Oct. 21 and 22.)

4.- Great Wall Marathon

If you’re looking for an international destination race, the Great Wall Marathon in China is an amazing option. Once again, it involves climbing a lot of steps (more than 5,000), but the views, the atmosphere and the fact that you’re running on the Great Wall of China make it well worth the effort. The race has been around since 1999, and it is extremely popular, so if you’re interested, you should register well in advance. 

5.- Wings for Life World Run

Finally, a race on this list that doesn’t necessarily involve stairs or steep inclines. The Wings for Life World Run is another Red Bull event, and anyone can do it, no matter where in the world you live. There are in-person Wings for Life runs, but the entire event is app-based, so there’s no need to travel to an actual course. What makes it unique is the fact that you run until you either want to stop or you get caught by the “Catcher Car,” a virtual car that starts behind all the runners and slowly catches up to every participating runner. This is another fundraising event, and Red Bull donates all proceeds to spinal cord research. 

(03/29/2023) Views: 551 ⚡AMP
Share
Great Wall Marathon

Great Wall Marathon

Since its inception in 1999, the Great Wall Marathon has become revered as one of the world's most challenging marathons. Run the most challenging marathon of your life along one of mankind's greatest monuments. Since the inaugural Great Wall Marathon in 1999, the field has grown steadily to a sellout event with...

more...
Share

Five tips to help new runners find success

When you first start running, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the sport is simple. You just have to run, right? Well, just because the sport itself isn’t incredibly complex doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot to learn. We can’t get into teaching you everything you need to know as a new runner right here and now, but we do have a few tips that will help you find success in running if you follow them. 

1.- Do your warmups and cooldowns 

Please don’t skip these. We know you want to, but don’t. If you always force yourself to warm up and cool down properly you will greatly lower your chances of getting hurt. We know that as a new runner you may not be running all that far each workout, and because of that, adding 10 or 15 minutes to either end of the session will seem like a lot, but it’s so important that you do it. Plus, if you get into the habit now and warm up and cool down every workout, it won’t feel like as much of a chore as you progress in the sport since it’s what you’ve always done. 

2.- No pressure 

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. We know that you want to get faster and perform well in workouts and at races, but try to remind yourself that your times and results aren’t that important in the grand scheme of things. By all means, set goals for yourself, but don’t stress if you fail to reach them. The great thing about running is that there will always be another workout and another race for you to enter, so it’s no big deal if you fall short every now and then. 

3.- Find your gang 

Run with other people. Whether you get a single running buddy or join a running club, finding other runners to hit the road, trails and track with you will make things way more enjoyable. However, you shouldn’t feel pressured to run with someone else all the time. Save some days for solo runs (if that’s what you want) and dedicate a few to your running buddy or group. 

4.- Enter a race

Most runners are probably keen to race, but there are some people out there who only want to run for fitness. That’s great, but trust us, it’s way more fun to race. Even if you think racing isn’t for you, just give it a try. Enter a local 5K and get a feel for it. If you really don’t enjoy the experience, you can check it off your bucket list and leave racing in the past, but we’re willing to bet that you will fall in love with the atmosphere and the competition. 

5.- Listen to your body 

It’s easy to get caught up in training and convince yourself that all of your hard work will go to waste if you miss too many workouts. That’s not the case, and if you feel like your body needs a break, it’s best to give it one. If you ignore the signals your body sends to you and push onward, you’re apt to get injured (at which point your progress in training really will disappear). Don’t be afraid to take some days off. 

(02/22/2023) Views: 585 ⚡AMP
by Ben Snider-McGrath
Share
Share

Ethiopian Derara Hurisa to defend crown at 2023 Tata Mumbai Marathon

Ethiopia’s Derara Hurisa returns to defend his crown at Asia’s most prestigious Tata Mumbai Marathon on January 15, 2023, in a competitive Elite men’s field, with a dozen runners holding personal bests under the 2:08:09 course record he set in 2020.

The 18th edition of the USD 405,000 prize fund World Athletics Gold Label Road Race takes place after a two-year pandemic-forced break and will also witness over 55,000 amateurs across six categories on its much-awaited return.

The elite men’s and women’s winners will take home USD 45,000 each. The runners will be

further incentivized by a Course Record Bonus of USD 15,000.

“I’m up for the challenge and have set my sights on the title,” said Hurisa, who clinched the 2021 Guadalajara Marathon in Mexico in a time of 2:12:28.

Toeing the start line in the men’s section are also Hurisa’s compatriots Ayele Abshero and

Hayle Lemi and Kenya’s Philemon Rono, a training partner of the legendary Eliud Kipchoge.

Abshero was runner-up here in 2020, 11 seconds adrift of Hurisa, on an AIMS-certified course that is widely regarded as challenging. Abshero, who finished 10th at the 2022 Linz Marathon in Austria in 2:09:37, has a personal best of 2:04:23, which makes him the fastest in the field.

With a personal best of 2:04:33, Lemi is the second fastest in the group.

“I’m excited about my first Tata Mumbai Marathon. I’ve heard it’s a tough course,” said Lemi, winner of seven marathons, including the Boston Marathon in 2016 and Dubai in 2015. “It’s a tremendous field and is going to be close,” added the Ethiopian, a.k.a. Lemi Berhanu, who was runner-up in the 2021 Boston Marathon.

Rono finished an impressive sixth at the 2019 Boston Marathon and won the Toronto Marathon the same year in 2:05:00. He recorded sixth-place finishes at the 2021 Abu Dubai Marathon and the 2022 Seoul Marathon.

Chepkech, the dark horse

In the women’s field, seven runners hold personal bests under the course record of 2:24:33 set by Valentine Kipketer in 2013, with Dera Dida (Ethiopia), Sharon Cherop (Kenya) and Rahma Tusa (Ethiopia) leading the charge on their debut here.

Silver medalist at the 2019 World Cross Country Championships, Dida won bronze in 10,000m at the 2019 African Games. In 2022, she won the Bejaia Half Marathon in 71:17 and finished eighth at the Great Ethiopian Run 10K.

“The Tata Mumbai Marathon has been on my running bucket list for some time. I’ve heard the people of Mumbai and India are very passionate about the running festival, and I look forward to this experience,” Dida said.

Cherop won marathon bronze at the 2011 World Championships and emerged victorious at the 2012 Boston Marathon. In 2022, she finished third at the Nairobi Marathon and the Buenos Aires Marathon.

Tusa took fourth place at the 2022 Sydney Marathon in 2:26:30 and the 2021 Valencia Marathon (in 2:23:20). She was fifth at the 2018 New York Marathon and won in Rome the same year.

Kenya’s Sheila Chepkech, also a first-timer in Mumbai, is the dark horse here. She won the 2022 Nairobi Marathon in 02:27:04. Previously, she finished second at the 2018 Milan Marathon and the 2017 Kosice Marathon. Also in the fray is the 2019 winner Worknesh Alemu of Ethiopia.

Vivek Singh, Jt MD, race promoter Procam International, said: “A truly world-class field will descend in Mumbai for the Tata Mumbai Marathon, a reflection of the event’s stature as one of the top 10 marathons in the world. The TMM returns bigger and better, and the spirit of #HarDilMumbai will burst to life come race day, with runners taking part across six categories.”

International Elite field:

Men:

Derara Hurisa (ETH) 2.08.09 (Course Record holder)

Ayele Abshero (ETH) 2.04.23

Hayle Lemi (ETH) 2.04.33

Philemon Rono (KEN) 2.05.00

Kebede Wami (ETH) 2.06.03

Aychew Bantie (ETH) 2.06.23

Hailu Zewdu (ETH) 2.06.31

Merhawi Kesete (ERI) 2:06:36

Masresha Bere (ETH) 2.06.44

Okubay Tsegay (ERI) 2.06.46

Reuben Kerio (KEN) 2.07.00

Hosea Kiplimo (KEN) 2.07.39

Abdela Godana (ETH) 2.08.06

John Langat (KEN) 2.09.46

Abida Ezamzamil (MOR) 2.09.52

Mesfin Nigusu (ETH) 2.09.53

Augustine Choge (KEN) 2.20.53

Women:

Dera Dida (ETH) 2.21.45

Sharon Cherop (KEN) 2.22.28

Rahma Tusa (ETH) 2.23.20

Sifan Melaku (ETH) 2.23.49

Adanech Anbesa (ETH) 2:24:07

Zinah Senbeta (ETH) 2.24.21

Ayantu Kumela (ETH) 2.24.29

Worknesh Alemu (ETH) 2.24.42

Letebrhan Haylay (ETH) 2.24.47

Zenebu Fikadu (ETH) 2.25.11

Rodah Tanui (KEN) 2.25.46

Kumeshi Sichala (ETH) 2.26.01

Lemeneh Kasu Bitew (ETH) 2.26.18

Sheila Chepkech (KEN) 2.27.04

Beshadu Birbirsa (ETH) 2.30.03

Gode Chala (ETH) 2.33.22

Anchalem Haymanot (ETH) Debut.

(01/04/2023) Views: 695 ⚡AMP
by Sports Africa
Share
Tata Mumbai Marathon

Tata Mumbai Marathon

Distance running epitomizes the power of one’s dreams and the awareness of one’s abilities to realize those dreams. Unlike other competitive sports, it is an intensely personal experience. The Tata Mumbai Marathon is One of the World's Leading Marathons. The event boasts of fundraising platform which is managed by United Way Mumbai, the official philanthropy partner of the event. Over...

more...
Share

Legendary climber Alex Honnold is also a ninja ultrarunner

On Saturday, world-renowned climber Alex Honnold surprised runners and fans when he hopped into the Red Rock Canyon 50K Ultra, just outside of Las Vegas, running to sixth place in five hours and twenty-three minutes. Honnold, 37, has a home in Nevada with his wife, Sanni McCandless, and their daughter June.

Ultrasignup shows Honnold as having completed one other ultra in 2011, but he’s also flown under the radar with some running accomplishments, including a casual R2R2R (Rim to Rim to Rim) of the Grand Canyon in 2021–an endurance challenge that is on many runners’ bucket lists.

In 2017, Honnold became the first climber to ascend Yosemite’s El Capitan without ropes, documented in the popular film Free Solo, and holds numerous speed-climbing records. He’s also known for long traverses–in October he established a roughly 60-kilometre traverse that included 14 Red Rock multi-pitch routes, hiking and scrambling for well over 7,000 metres of vertical in a 32-hour push. He called the traverse Honnold’s Ultimate Red Rock Traverse or HURT.

While an ultra may seem like a natural extension of those long traverses, Honnold did share some thoughts on trail running back in 2016 with Trailrunner Mag, when he explained that he felt running wasn’t particularly beneficial to climbing.

“It uses energy that could better be used doing my actual sport. But at the same time, I like running around and seeing new trails,” Honnold said. “I just enjoy moving quickly through new areas outside. I really like new trails and hills. I like seeing new things.” 

“Sometimes it’s just nice to run,” he shared. “Like a kid.”

While most of us can’t comprehend summitting a steep rock face without a rope, the joy of running like a kid is something we can all relate to. It’s unlikely we’ll see Honnold challenging Jim Walmsley to a run-off any time soon, but the accomplished athlete may pop up in an ultra near you, ninja-like. You never know.

(11/17/2022) Views: 869 ⚡AMP
by Keeley Milne
Share
Share

Eliud Kipchoge can go faster 'in near future'

Marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge believes he can get even closer to a possible sub-two hour marathon after narrowing the gap by 30 seconds when setting his recent world record in Berlin last month.

The 37-year-old ran a time of two hours, one minute and nine seconds to beat his previous benchmark, which had stood since 2018.

"I believe that I still have time to show the world how to push limits," the Kenyan told the BBC World Service.

"I can still run my personal best in the near future. I can still try again."

Four years ago, Kipchoge took 78 seconds off compatriot Dennis Kimetto's 2014 record of 2:02.57.

He then became the first man to run a marathon in under two hours in 2019, yet the time in Vienna could not be an official world record since it was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating pacemakers, among other measures.

Kipchoge ran the first half of late September's race in Berlin in 59 minutes and 51 seconds, prompting thoughts that he may become the first runner to break the two-hour mark in an official race.

He had played down his chances of a world record in the build-up, but admits lowering his time had been his stated aim in the German capital.

"My plan was not to run under two hours, my plan was to break a world record," he said.

"I realise that we are fast enough to run under an hour in a half-marathon, which was really motivating for me.

"And it's a good sign also that the future is clear. I'm showing the people that you can [go] as fast as you can for the half-marathon and still do something good at the end of it."

Kipchoge turns 38 next month and now says winning the Olympic marathon at the Paris Games in 2024 is on his "bucket list".

He was won the past two Olympic titles - becoming just the third person to defend a marathon title when he crossed the line in Tokyo - and a third successive triumph would be a first for a man or woman.

"I trust that all things will carry me well up to 2024 to present myself at the starting line," he said.

"What I like is history. To be the first human being to run back-to-back-to-back for three times and win Olympic marathon gold medal, it's my bucket list.

"It's there in my mind. I don't know what will happen but still, for now, I want to concentrate on recovering my body."

Paris victory would be 'phenomenal'

Former women's marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe says she is "in awe" of Kipchoge's continued "stunning performances".

"I think we all thought that if anybody was in shape right now to take down that world record, it would be him," the 48-year-old Briton told the BBC World Service.

"Each year as he gets a year older, the odds are against him a little bit more - and he still manages to defy them.

"He doesn't put limits on himself. And I think that really helps his mind set. He loves setting himself those targets just to get better, to try and move things forward to move the bar that little bit higher all the time.

"If he gets that balance perfectly right between the first and second half, he can maybe take it (the world record) down even further."

Already regarded as the greatest marathon runner of all time, Radcliffe says that if Kipchoge were to win a third Olympic gold in Paris it would rank along his sub-two hour marathon as his greatest achievement.

"I think even to get it right for two marathons in a row is hugely impressive, especially given the way the goalposts moved with the Tokyo Olympics," she said.

"To put it in perspective, it's getting it right one day every four years, for 12 years. And history shows that that's extremely difficult to do.

"If anybody can do it, he can do it. But it will be a phenomenal achievement that perhaps would put him on the level with having gone through that two-hour barrier."

 

(10/04/2022) Views: 717 ⚡AMP
by BBC Sport
Share
Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Paris 2024 Olympic Games

For this historic event, the City of Light is thinking big! Visitors will be able to watch events at top sporting venues in Paris and the Paris region, as well as at emblematic monuments in the capital visited by several millions of tourists each year. The promise of exceptional moments to experience in an exceptional setting! A great way to...

more...
Share

Some races are down since the pandemic took charge of road racing for a couple of years but there is some good news

Even marquee events have seen declines of 25 percent or more between 2019 and 2022.  

Across the country, many road races are returning after the COVID-19 pandemic forced them into a two-year hiatus. But runners haven’t yet come back to those events in the same numbers as they were turning out in 2019.

A few examples from the first eight months of 2022: 

The BAA 10K in June had 5,144 finishers, down from 8,003 in 2019, a decrease of 35 percent. 

The Utica Boilermaker 15K in July had 5,848 finishers, which was up from 2021, when it had 3,480, but down from the 2019 tally of 11,194, for a three-year decrease of 47 percent. 

In Colorado, the Cherry Creek Sneak, a 5K, 5-miler, and 10-miler in Denver, had its final running in 2022 after 40 years. Combined participation in the three events had already been falling before the pandemic, and it fell an additional 38 percent between 2019 and 2022 (from 3,390 finishers to 2,092). 

Larger, well-known events haven’t been immune from the declines. The Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run in April in Washington, D.C., had 2,700 fewer runners, for a decline of 15 percent. 

The Falmouth Road Race in Massachusetts and the Beach to Beacon 10K in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, two popular destination summer road races, saw declines of 24 percent and 16 percent, respectively. The town of Falmouth reduced the field size of the race to 10,000 runners this year (from its usual 12,800) but only 8,610 finishers appear in the results. 

Jean Knaack, CEO of the nonprofit Road Runners Club of America, wrote in an email to Runner’s World, “We are seeing a slow recovery in 2022, and we are tracking with participation data showing about 84 percent return.” 

Why aren’t runners coming back to events? Industry experts cited many theories: 

The economy: “I think inflation will be a factor for 2023 as events plan and people pick what events they can afford to run,” wrote Knaack. The cost of travel to races—for flights, hotels, rental cars, gas—has gone up. So, too, have race entry fees for many events, especially for runners who wait until the last minute to register. 

Competing events: Long-postponed weddings are back on. So are family vacations. The annual road race might need to take a back seat this year. 

COVID concerns: Many runners worry about contracting COVID at a race, or they get sick at an inopportune time, keeping them from the starting line. 

Shifting priorities: Erin Vandenberg, 42, for years raced at least monthly, often more, at distances from 5K to the marathon. Running a race with coworkers and then getting drinks after in downtown Chicago was a common occurrence. But she always felt a certain pressure to be training hard and performing well, worried what the time read on the clock at the finish.

Since the pandemic, she has taken a new approach to running. “I want to enjoy it; not stress myself out about it,” she said. “I don’t know that getting up at 5 a.m. to hit a certain pace and worry whether I’m fueling correctly is how I want to spend my time.” 

Vandenberg has run three races in 2022—including one with her dog. 

Not every race is down. Michelle La Sala, president of race management company Blistering Pace, says two of the events her company works on—the Big Sur Marathon and the Napa Marathon—have emerged largely unscathed from the pandemic. Big Sur was down only 240 runners (6.8 percent) and registration is tracking strongly for 2023. Same for Napa, which “should grow significantly this year,” La Sala said. 

The bigger “bucket list” marathons, with a few exceptions, are not having any problems at all, she said, while smaller, regional races, without a compelling point of differentiation, are “on the struggle bus.”

Grandma’s Marathon along Lake Superior in Minnesota was off only 6.4 percent in 2022 from its 2019 tally, and well up from 2021. The Eugene Marathon, in May in Oregon, and the Missoula Marathon, in June in Montana, were both well ahead in finisher numbers, although many might have been deferred entries from the cancellations of 2020 and 2021. Vandenberg has a deferred entry from the Chicago Marathon in 2020, and she plans to use it in 2023. 

John Mortimer, owner and founder of Millennium Running in Bedford, New Hampshire, sounded an optimistic note as well. Millennium has 30 of its own events of varying distances, manages and times others, and it has a running store. Sales are strong at the retail location, showing him that people continue to walk and run, even those who took it up during the pandemic. 

And race participation in Millennium events continues to be robust, in part, because the company developed a time trial start system during the pandemic as an alternative to a mass start race. For many months, they had the only events happening in New England. 

The company kept in frequent contact with runners and tried to make the race experience safe and convenient for them. They continue to offer the option to make any race a virtual race, up until the last minute, if runners would otherwise have to be a no-show at an event—thereby ensuring the runners would at least be mailed their tee shirts and medals. 

That policy will continue, Mortimer said. “Every week we’re shipping out apparel and medals and bibs,” he said. “We’re trying to make it easy for the participant to be a part of the running community.” 

The effort aimed at keeping relevant has paid off, Mortimer said, and registrations for most of the company’s events haven’t declined. The same can’t be said, he knows, for races that have been off for two years. 

For them, “It’s out of sight, out of mind,” he said. “People have moved on.”

(09/18/2022) Views: 716 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World
Share
Share

Heart of America Marathon celebrated 63rd annual year

Boone County’s Heart of America Marathon celebrated its 63rd annual race year Monday morning, making it the second oldest continuously running marathon in the United States.

The race director Kathy Lee said the Labor Day marathon put on by The Columbia Track Club is rooted in history.

“It’s been going every year since 1960 starting right here in Columbia,” Lee said.

Lee said people travel far and wide to race in the Heart of American Marathon. She said in previous years, they’ve had runners from overseas. However, this year, the farthest runner was from Alaska.

She said the challenge is what brings people from all over to the mid-Missouri marathon.

“This is a bucket list marathon, it really is,” Lee said. “Because we advertise heat, hills and humidity, it’s tough. It was rated on RavesReviews as one of the toughest marathons in the country. Some people like the challenge,”

Thomas Sinnott is a Pennsylvania native who made the journey to Columbia to take part in the 26.2 miles.

“Well, I’m a 50-stater. There’s a few of us that try to run marathons in as many states as possible,” Sinnott said.

Missouri is Sinnott’s 32nd state in his journey to 50.

He said he was most looking forward to the race, seeing a new part of the country and meeting like-minded runners.

However, mid-Missouri offers humidity Sinnott wasn’t particularly looking forward to.

“The thing I dread honestly, this is a humid part of the world. So, without too much detail, sometimes it’s the chaffing and the grinding, that makes for an unpleasant rest of the day,” Sinnott said.

Sinnott was joined by almost 250 fellow runners taking part in the Heart of America Marathon.

Lee said there is a ton of preparation that goes into each year’s race.

“In fact, we’ll start on Tuesday to prepare for next year’s marathon,” Lee said. “It takes months.”

At the finish line, there was a pizza party for runners and volunteers, a masseuse and a chiropractor for the runners, and all participants received a medal.

(09/06/2022) Views: 909 ⚡AMP
by Elise Person
Share
Heart of America Marathon

Heart of America Marathon

This annual Labor Day race takes runners through the city of Columbia, Missouri. Our awards: Framed posters to overall male & female winners; running shoes to overall winners and first age 40+ male and female; plaques to first 3 males and females in age groups 0-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60+; medallions and T-shirts to all finishers. ...

more...
Share

Eliud Kipchoge picks his next marathon he will be racing the Berlin Marathon for a fifth time on Sept. 25

Eliud Kipchoge will race the Berlin Marathon for a fifth time on Sept. 25, returning to the German capital event for the first time since he broke the world record there in 2018.

“Berlin is the fastest course, it’s where a human being can showcase its potential to push the limits,” he said in a press release.

Kipchoge has the greatest marathon record of any man, winning 14 of his 16 starts and becoming the first and so far only person to run 26.2 miles in under two hours (doing so in a non-record-eligible event).

Kipchoge, 37, chose Berlin over London, his other usual marathon, and the other fall major marathons, Chicago (which he raced once in 2014) and New York City (which he has never raced).

London, usually in April, will be held in the fall for a third consecutive year due to the pandemic before returning to its spring date in 2023.

Kipchoge called it a “really hard” decision to go with Berlin over the others, speaking in a virtual press conference from training in Kaptagat in his native Kenya.

Kipchoge has said that he hopes to run all of the World Marathon Majors, which would require making his debuts in Boston, which is contested every April, and New York City, which is in November.

So far, Kipchoge has primarily run London every April and Berlin every September, never doing more than two marathons in a year.

He said Friday that Boston and New York City remain targets, and when asked specifically about Boston, said it was on his bucket list.

Kipchoge is expected to race the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he could become the first marathoner to win three gold medals (or three medals of any color).

He has never raced a fall marathon in an Olympic year, so if he doesn’t race New York City in 2023, he may not do so until, at the earliest, 2025, when he will be three days she of turning 41 years old.

Kipchoge said Friday he may continue racing after the 2024 Olympics and into his 40s. He plans to focus on major city marathons rather than specialty races, such as his 2017 and 2019 attempts to break two hours for a marathon in non-record-eligible events.

He ran 2:00:25 on a Formula One track in Italy in 2017 and 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019.

In Berlin, he has three victories and a runner-up. In 2018, he broke countryman Dennis Kimetto‘s world record, lowering it from 2:02:57 to 2:01.39. The next year, Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele won Berlin in 2:01:41 with Kipchoge not in the field.

Kipchoge and Bekele, 40, have not gone head-to-head since then. Bekele, who hasn’t broken 2:06 since Berlin 2019, signed up for London on Oct. 2.

The other headliner in Berlin is defending champion Guye Adola of Ethiopia.

In 2017 in Berlin, an unknown Adola came out of nowhere to finish 14 seconds behind Kipchoge in the then-fastest-ever marathon debut on a record-eligible course, sticking with Kipchoge until the last mile. Adola didn’t know he was running until four days before the race and wasn’t meant to start with the elite group.

Adola said he hopes to break 2:03 this year.

(07/08/2022) Views: 784 ⚡AMP
by OlympicTalk
Share
BMW Berlin Marathon

BMW Berlin Marathon

The story of the BERLIN-MARATHON is a story of the development of road running. When the first BERLIN-MARATHON was started on 13th October 1974 on a minor road next to the stadium of the organisers‘ club SC Charlottenburg Berlin 286 athletes had entered. The first winners were runners from Berlin: Günter Hallas (2:44:53), who still runs the BERLIN-MARATHON today, and...

more...
Share

Ultramarathoner Michael Wardian Runs Across the U.S. in 62 Days: 'I Feel Like I Was Made to Do This'

Wardian ran roughly 50 miles every day to complete the cross-country adventure in under 75 days

Move aside Forrest Gump: Michael Wardian, a 48-year-old man from Arlington, Virginia, ran more than 3,200 miles to cross the U.S. in 62 days, finishing on Friday.

Wardian is a former Michigan State lacrosse player who has since turned his athletic focus to running, and ultramarathons in particular. "Starting on May 1st, 2022, I will be running across the entire continental USA, starting in San Francisco, CA, and ending at my home in Rehoboth Beach, DE," Wardian wrote.

"This will be my longest run ever," said Wardian.

The ambitious athlete planned to run primarily along Route 50, with a goal of completing the journey in 75 days or less. Wardian ultimately finished ahead of schedule, arriving at Delaware's Dewey Beach on July 1, 62 days after he departed from San Francisco, California.A video of Wardian's big finish can be seen on his Instagram account. He celebrated by running through the finish line and straight into the ocean for a swim.

"Every day I'm seeing new things, getting to have new experiences," he told reporter Tom Schad of USA Today on day 59 of his adventure.

"I feel like I was made to do this," Wardian said. "This is my jam, for sure."

According to USA Today, Wardian has previously tackled other monumental runs, including doing seven marathons on seven continents in just seven days. He also once held the world records for fastest marathons on a treadmill and while pushing a stroller.

The outlet reported that Wardian's average time running per day was between 11 and 15 hours. At night, Wardian joined crew chief Eric Belz who drove an RV along the runner's route.

"It takes a lot of grit and a lot of passion," Belz told USA Today.

The Forrest Gump inspired journey had been on Wardian's bucket list for years, but when he started dealing with health issues — Wardian has what's known as athlete's heart, where the heart is enlarged — the runner knew it was now or never.

It was really humbling," Wardian said of his health concerns. "You always think you have more time."

Wardian had the support of his wife, Jennifer and teenage sons on his journey. What's more, Wardian's cross-country trip raised over $107,000 for World Vision's clean water work around the globe, for children and families to have access to clean and safe drinking water.

(07/02/2022) Views: 642 ⚡AMP
Share
Share

Aliphine Tuliamuk, Jared Ward, Caroline Rotich and Abdi Abdirahman are ready to race the streets of Pittsburgh

Aliphine Tuliamuk, Jared Ward and Abdi Abdirahman are ready to race the streets of Pittsburgh in the UPMC Health Plan Pittsburgh Half Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, May 1. Each of the members of this talented trio have a special connection to the City of the Champions and will embrace the city’s renowned sports fans and spectators to help them shine on race day.

Men’s Division

Ward and Abdirahman lead a talented field of top international and American runners who will be competing for the $10,000 top prize. Abdirahman, who is a 5-time Olympian, has never been to Pittsburgh but is a big fan of the city.

“It has been a dream of mine to race in Pittsburgh,” Abdirahman said. “It will be my first time in the city, and I am a big Steelers fan. I am looking forward to running the Pittsburgh Half Marathon. Training has been going great leading to this race, and I am excited to test my fitness.”

Ward will finally make his Pittsburgh racing debut after planning to run in 2020 and 2021 before the in-person events were canceled both years. He is excited to return to the city, which he hasn’t visited since he spent two years on Mormon mission after high school.

“I’m beyond excited to return to Pittsburgh,” Ward said. “I feel like I grew up here, while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I look forward to seeing friends and touring around ‘dahntahn’ – this time on the streets as a runner.”

Joining Abdirahman and Ward in the men’s race is James Ngandu of Kenya, who earlier this year won the Houston Marathon, and American Lawi Lalang, an eight-time NCAA champion who holds a half-marathon personal best of 1:02:49. Wesley Kiptoo, who was the 2021 NCAA Indoor National Champion at 5,000 meters, will also make his half-marathon debut at the event. Local runners Colin Martin, who holds a personal record of 1:05:19, and Nick Wolk, who won the 2021 Richard S. Caliguiri City of Pittsburgh Great Race 5K and 10K, will also race.

Women’s Division

Aliphine Tuliamuk is excited to return to Pittsburgh to run her first race since the Tokyo Olympics. In 2015, she ran her first marathon at the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon, finishing in second in 2:34:44. She returned in 2018 to win the USA Half Marathon Championships.

“Pittsburgh has become a special city for me,” Tuliamuk said. “It’s where I learned that the marathon was painful but worth the struggle. Winning the 2018 USATF Half Marathon Championship gave me much needed confidence as I built toward the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials.  This year I am hoping for the same competitive atmosphere that Pittsburgh always brings. It will be my first race in a while, and I wanted to come to a place where I feel comfortable.”

Her speed will be tested against Caroline Rotich, who won the 2015 Boston Marathon and has a half-marathon personal best of 1:08:53.

“This will be my first time coming to Pittsburgh,” Rotich said. “It’s always exciting to travel to new places and Pittsburgh has been on my bucket list.  I’m motivated to capitalize on my training this spring, rather than refocus on another marathon. I am feeling fit and ready to run fast in Pittsburgh.”

The field also includes Jordan Hasay, who is the fourth fastest U.S. women’s marathoner of all-time and Canadian cross-country skier and Olympian Anne Marie Comeau. Local Pittsburgh runner Margo Malone, who ran in the 2020 U.S. Marathon Olympic Team Trials, will also compete.

This year’s UPMC Health Plan Pittsburgh Half Marathon offers a prize of $58,000, including $10,000 each for the top men’s and women’s finishers. For the first time, the event has been awarded a World Athletics Road Race Label. Only five other U.S. races carry a label from World Athletics.

About the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon Weekend of Events

The Pittsburgh Marathon was held annually from 1985-2003. After a five-year hiatus, the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon was relaunched in 2009 and debuted with a sold-out field of 10,000 participants. It has grown each year since, evolving from a single race day into a weekend of events for the whole family that annually attracts nearly 40,000 runners.

For more information about the 2022 DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon Weekend of Events, visit www.thePittsburghMarathon.com.

(04/21/2022) Views: 961 ⚡AMP
by Running USA
Share
Dick's Sporting Good Pittsburgh Marathon

Dick's Sporting Good Pittsburgh Marathon

This race is your game - however you decide to play it. As a competitor. A fund raiser. An enthusiast. A veteran. A team player. It's whatever you want it to be. It's whatever you make it. It's YOUR game..... Run it. Play it. Own it. Love it. Runners will race on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, cross each of...

more...
Share

Big Sur International Marathon makes its return Sunday

Three years is a long time to wait at the starting line. But the Big Sur International Marathon is raring to go.

Canceled in both 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19 safety concerns, the world-renowned race returns this weekend, where a sold out slate of about 9,800 entrants will take part.

“It feels good to be back,” said Doug Thurston, race director and executive director of the Big Sur Marathon Foundation, which organizes both the Big Sur International Marathon and Monterey Bay Half-Marathon each year. “Runners have responded well, and we’re ready for a great race.”

Speaking to an unabated enthusiasm for the event, Thurston explained that racing slots filled as quickly – if not quicker – than they “ever had before.” The Big Sur International Marathon has sold out in each of the past 10 years it has been held. To the excitement of Thurston, the Big Sur Marathon Foundation, and a more than 100-person organizing committee that manages the event year-round, 2022 proved to be no different.

“It’s a great testament to our volunteers and the community,” said Thurston. “The scenery can’t be beat, but good scenery doesn’t mean a great race. Great volunteers and community support for more than 30 years speaks volumes to how important the race is. (And) they’re anxious to provide a world-class experience to people this weekend.”

The much-anticipated affair will kick off early Sunday morning, with marathoners taking their mark at Big Sur Station at 6:35 a.m. Beyond the 26-mile, 365-yard scenic stretch along Highway 1, runners are set to take part in a host of other races happening alongside the big distance, including a 21-miler, 11-miler, 12K and 5K. All are set to commence before 8 a.m. Sunday.

Though years have passed since runners were last invited to skirt the Big Sur coastline, Thurston said the course itself is reminiscent of previous races, barring a few recent upgrades meant to render routes safer. Those include a freshly paved roadway and a revamped starting line process, Thurston said.

Yet, what may bring an added element of notoriety to this year’s slate of races – apart from the anticipation of their return – is an enhanced backdrop, Thurston continued, even if topping the peak of picturesque is hard to imagine.

“I think these mid-spring rains that we had last weekend and are anticipating over the next couple of days will make this one of the most green and most spectacular races for runners to enjoy,” he explained. “There’s going to be some special color along hills with wildflowers and things. … It’s going to be beautiful.”

Entrants set to relish in the panoramic trek include five-time Big Sur International Marathon men’s champion Adam Roach, defending 2019 men’s champion Jordan Tropf and elite runner Ben Bruce. Between the three, Thurston is anticipating an “interesting” race, particularly among Tropf and Bruce, who both just competed in the Boston Marathon Monday.

The Big Sur International Marathon includes a special category for those runners determined enough to take on both events: Boston 2 Big Sur. Attracting 400 of the world’s fittest athletes, the challenge combines Boston and Big Sur chip times and awards participants for their pace across the two marathons. This year, the races are less than six days apart. That’s more than 52 miles of running in the span of a week.

Besides those poised to push racing limits, Thurston said he’s particularly looking forward to a group of runners he dubs the “grizzled veterans,” who have participated in every Big Sur International Marathon since it started in 1986.

Still, Thurston said well over a majority  – more than 80% – of entrants in the races each year are first and only timers to the event.

“For thousands and thousands of runners, this is their one opportunity to experience something like this,” he said.

That desire to check off the Big Sur International Marathon on a larger running bucket list, Thurston added, is a factor in why 30% of runners previously entered in the canceled 2020 event returned this year to finally satisfy their ambition. These already listed entrants had priority coming into the 2022 race. Thurston is glad to see some retain their racing plans two years later.

“People had invested time and energy in preparing for the race,” he said. “Nobody knew in the summer of 2019 when folks registered that there would be a pandemic in late winter of 2020. …But it was canceled five to six weeks before they could participate. Now they can look forward to doing it again.”

For non-runners looking to watch, the only spectating opportunity will be at the finish line at Rio Road in Carmel. There will be no points to watch at the start or along the course. Non-official bicycles are likewise not allowed Sunday. While the marathon goes on – which is bound to a six-hour course limit – Highway 1 will be closed to traffic. It will reopen at 1 p.m. Sunday.

While proof of vaccination or recent negative test will not be required to attend the event per current county guidelines, organizers are strongly encouraging all entrants and attendees to arrive fully vaccinated or be tested for COVID within 48 hours of their visit if unvaccinated. Thurston also noted that masks will be worn on buses carting runners to the starting line. Those taking part in Friday and Saturday’s pre-race Health and Fitness Expo at the Monterey Conference Center will also be asked to wear masks, Thurston said.

More information about this weekend’s Big Sur International Marathon can be found at https://www.bigsurmarathon.org/.

(04/21/2022) Views: 833 ⚡AMP
by Tess Kenny
Share
Big Sur Marathon

Big Sur Marathon

The Big Sur Marathon follows the most beautiful coastline in the world and, for runners, one of the most challenging. The athletes who participate may draw inspiration from the spectacular views, but it takes major discipline to conquer the hills of Highway One on the way to the finish line. Named "Best Marathon in North America" by The Ultimate Guide...

more...
Share

The secrets behind Eliud Kipchoge's winning mentality

The world's fastest marathoner Eliud Kipchoge admits that he’s had to dig deep to find the strength to keep going.

Kenya's Double Olympic men's marathon champion says he often turns to the millions who have been inspired by his runs, his grandeur achievements, and his motivating quotes.

“I struggle with motivation, but I try all the time to get inspired by fans messages around the world,” Kipchoge said on Wednesday (April 6) during a webinar organized by his NN Running Team to mark five years of the athletics management group.

“I have been inspiring people around the world and [the thought of this] is what sometimes gives me the energy to jump out of bed and do the necessary.”

As amazing as his athletic accomplishments are, the world record holder has always been forthright on how much sometimes his passion hurts.

“In the journey of life, there [are] ups and downs. In marathon, there [are] a lot of challenges, ups and downs. There is pain in training, pain in running,” he shared on the documentary titled Kipchoge: The Last Milestone that focused on his successful attempt to become the first person to run a marathon in under two hours.

The 37-year-old champion cemented his position as the greatest distance runner of all time, by becoming the first man in 40 years to win marathon gold at successive Olympic Games, when he won at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.

And, as he targets an unprecedented third Olympic marathon title at Paris 2024, Kipchoge gave a sneak peak on how he manages to stay focused on his staggering racing goals.

“[When I am running] Many things are always crossing my mind from West to North, East to South, but I try to block them and concentrate fully on the road, concentrate fully on the task ahead and finishing the race,” the Kenyan, who enjoys his long runs, offered.

“After training for four months [for a race] I know that the only way to block what’s in my mind and concentrate fully is by making my mind easy and block any [distracting] messages coming in.”

During the hour-long webinar, the NN Running Team shared insights from the their management, physiotherapist, nutritionist, and Patrick Sang, the lead coach at the simple Kaptagat training camp.

“Running is a team sport. It is no longer an individual event as people think," four-time Olympic medalist Kipchoge said.

"When NN formed the running team we discovered that the team is especially important especially in marathon running, helping each other both physically and mentally.”

That team was formed in April 2017 by Jos Hermens, who assembled the some of the best distance runners in the world, led by the two fastest marathoners, Ethiopia’s triple Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele, and Kipchoge, to train in structured training camps.

It's a concept that the man who has won 14 of the 16 major marathons in his career claims has made him a better runner. Kipchoge also explained that during the pandemic he found it difficult to go back to training alone due to lockdown restrictions.

What next for Eliud Kipchoge in 2022

Kipchoge He opened his season on March 6 running the fastest time ever in Japan of 2:02:40 to win the Tokyo Marathon.

Since then, he has tapered down his training, focusing more on the gym sessions despite not ‘liking the weightlifting’ bit, but he’s enjoying working on his core muscles.

The huge Kelly Clarkson fan has not yet decided if he will do a marathon towards the end of the year, but has just added a new sport on his bucket list.

“I am bad at swimming. I don’t know how to swim…that’s on my bucket list…”

(04/07/2022) Views: 1,024 ⚡AMP
by Evelyn Watta
Share
Share

How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon

So you want to qualify for the Boston Marathon? You’re not alone. As an age-group or recreational runner, it’s one of the noblest (and most common) goals to set your sights on.

The history and prestige of the Boston Marathon are unparalleled in the world of running, which is why getting the opportunity to run the famed 26.2-mile route from the start in Hopkinton to the finish line on Boylston Street in downtown Boston is a top-shelf bucket list goal for many runners.

And rightly so. With the challenge it requires to qualify, the experience of running Boston is all that and more.

6 Tips on Qualifying for Boston

For most age-group runners, qualifying for Boston isn’t a simple task. Every athlete’s journey to trying to earn a Boston-qualifying time (BQ) is unique, and your approach needs to be specifically catered to who you are as a runner. And, like with all things running, there are no shortcuts for earning a BQ—but there are some key points to consider on your quest.

1. State Your Intention.

If you’re truly interested in qualifying for Boston, it’s a good idea to make it one of your primary goals (both in running and in life) so you can focus as much energy as possible toward it and take a smart and healthy approach to achieving it. That doesn’t mean you have to post it on Instagram, but it’s something you should share with your significant other, family members, and running buddies to generate long-term excitement and support as well as keeping you accountable on your journey.

Every age group has a different qualifying time that needs to be attained in a two-year window prior to registration opening in the fall prior to the next race the following April. For women, the age groups and times are:

18–34: 3:30.00 (3 hours, 30 minutes, and zero seconds)

35–39: 3:35.00

40–44: 3:40.00

45–49: 3:50.00

50–54: 3:55.00

55–59: 4:05.00

60–64: 4:20.00

65–69: 4:35.00

70–74: 4:50.00

75–79: 5:05.00

80 and over: 5:20.00

Men

18-34: 3 hrs 00 min 00 sec

35-39: 3 hrs 5 min 00 sec

40-44: 3 hrs 10 min 00 sec

45-49: 3 hrs 20 min 00 sec

50-54: 3 hrs 25 min 00 sec

55-59: 3 hrs 35 min 00 sec

60-64: 3 hrs 50 min 00 sec

65-69: 4 hrs 5 min 00 sec

70-74: 4 hrs 20 min 00 sec

75-79: 4 hrs 35 min 00 sec

80 & over: 4 hrs 50 min 00 sec

There’s also the added complication that just hitting the time doesn’t guarantee entry to the race. Runners typically need to also meet faster cut-off times if registration exceeds the race capacity (see tip #6).

“It’s a great goal and a very relevant goal for a lot of a marathoners,” says New York City–based running coach Elizabeth Corkum. “When it’s your first Boston, it’s a big deal and definitely something you should be excited about.”

2. Set a Realistic Goal

For many runners, it takes a full year or two—or maybe even five or more—to develop the aerobic strength and overall fitness to be in position to reach the qualifying time in your age group.

The first step: Understand that the path to running fast enough to earn a BQ standard isn’t a quick process of instant gratification.

“A lot of runners will come to me and say I want to qualify for Boston this year because a lot of runners are always eager to do it now, but the reality is that it might take a few years,” says Chicago-area coach Jenny Spangler, who won the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon. “It’s a great goal for many people, but it’s a commitment and you have to be realistic about where you are and where you need to get. For some runners, it will take a while. Sometimes I’ll have runners aim for running a fast half marathon first and then next year start to focus on a fast marathon.”

If you’re serious about qualifying for Boston, it’s best to connect with a coach or local training group that has a history of helping runners achieve a BQ. You’ll want to find a coach who will take into consideration both your history as a runner and as an athlete as well as your current fitness level, previous races, monthly mileage volume, injury history, and, perhaps most important, your ability to commit to a complicated training program amid your work-life balance.

“You don’t like to discourage anyone, but a Boston qualifying time is hard,” Spangler says. “So for people who can’t commit the time for training or maybe just don’t enjoy running or don’t want to put in the mileage, it might not be possible. It’s a commitment and it’s just not for everybody.”

3. Pick a Qualifying Race

One of the keys to qualifying for Boston is running a fast, USATF-certified course with a high probability of running your goal time. Typically, the races with the most qualifiers are the New York City Marathon and the Chicago Marathon, and, of course, Boston itself, but that’s largely based on the volume of runners in those races. However, those marathons can be hard to get into, so unless you already secured an entry, you should plan on another race with a high propensity of Boston-qualifying times.

One of the best options is the California International Marathon (CIM), where 25 to 35 percent of the field typically earns a BQ. The only challenge about qualifying at CIM is that it’s held the first Sunday in December, so you’ll have to wait and enter for the next Boston Marathon 16 months later.

Another great option among mid-sized races is the mid-June Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, which typically has both a large number of qualifiers and a relatively high percentage of BQers. In 2019, 1,108 of its finishers (18.2 percent) earned BQ qualifiers. From 2010-2021, an average of 15.8 percent of Grandma’s finishers earned BQ times.

“Usually when people come to me, they already know which race they want to run,” says Nell Rojas, a Boulder, Colorado–based professional runner for Adidas who also coaches age-group runners. “But if not, I usually recommend California International Marathon or Grandma’s Marathon, which are fast marathons that are easy to get into with a lot of people that will be running their same speed. And that’s key because that means there will be people to run with at the pace you want to run the whole way.”

Since 2017, some of most prevalent qualifying races have been “last chance” races designed to get runners qualified right before the opening of Boston registration in mid-September. The Last Chance BQ.2 race in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has had an average of about 60 percent BQ’ers every year since 2015, while its sister event, Last Chance BQ.2 race in Geneva, Illinois, has typically had at least 50 percent of its field qualify. But both of those races are small, usually 350 runners, and registration fills up fast every spring. (The Geneva race added a spring race in 2018 and it has also typically had a 50 percent qualifying rate.)

Other small, early September races with high BQ percentages include the Erie Marathon at Presque Isle (Erie, Pennsylvania), Via Marathon (Allentown, Pennsylvania), and Tunnel Light Marathon (North Bend, Washington). A few key marathons with downhill profiles and high qualifying percentages are the St. George Marathon (St. George, Utah), Revel Big Bear Marathon (Big Bear, California), and Mountains 2 Beach Marathon (Ojai, California). Cities with mid-sized marathons that are known to have good courses for qualifying: Philadelphia; Indianapolis; Houston; Eugene, Oregon; and Santa Rosa, California.

4. Get Some Super Shoes

If you’re interested in maximizing your race-day performance, then you should consider investing in a pair of shoes enhanced with carbon-fiber plates. Yes, they’re expensive, ranging in price from $180 to $275, but the technology works—and can give you 3 to 6 percent advantage over shoes with typical foam midsoles. Nike, Adidas, Skechers, ASICS, On Brooks, HOKA, New Balance, and Saucony all make super shoes, and some of their models are among the best. But each fits and feels slightly different, so visit a local running store, if possible, and try on several pairs before buying.

“Super shoes definitely allow you to run faster,” says ASICS-sponsored pro Emma Bates, who was second at the 2021 Chicago Marathon in 2:24:20 wearing a pair of ASICS Metaspeed Sky. “I love them because they’re so comfortable, but the biggest thing is that I feel that I can recover so much quicker after a workout or a race. After Chicago, I felt like I could do a workout the next weekend. That’s insane. I love the shoes and would never imagine running in anything else ever again.”

5. Train Methodically and Consistently

Going through significant training adaptations is a key part of the process for most runners, especially if they’re new to the sport or don’t have a lot of experience with the various types of workouts in most marathon build-ups. Progress occurs based on how well you handle training volume, how much you recover, and how much time and focus you put toward non-running elements like strength work, nutrition, and rest.

“All of those things factor into how you’re going to direct someone to get to that goal, and it’s different for everyone, for sure,” Corkum says. “Some people have all the time in the world to train and that’s fantastic because we can probably stress their bodies a little bit more with training, knowing that they can rebound. But someone who is only able to sleep four hours a night and has a newborn at home, they already have that additional stress so they have to be careful about adding training stimulus so they don’t get injured or burn out.”

Most coaches recommend going through a 16-week training plan to build up to a marathon, though it could be shorter if you’re already pretty fit or longer if you need more time to get used to the rigors of high-mileage running. A good plan will include periodized segments that include two to three weeks of gradual building of aerobic fitness followed by a slightly relaxed week to allow for recovery and the training adaptations to take place.

Depending on your background and fitness, you’re likely going to be running between 50 and 80 miles per week during the peak weeks of your training plan, Rojas says. While pro runners run between 100 and 120 miles per week, she warns that excessive running volume for age-group runners can lead to fatigue, burnout, and injuries.

A training plan should include a once-a-week long run, one or two faster workouts like a tempo run or an interval session, and several recovery runs. As the training plan progresses, there will be a greater emphasis on up-tempo workouts and your long runs will approach 18 to 22 miles and start getting faster.

But even if you’re following a plan that’s the same or very similar to your running partner’s, your quest to reach a Boston qualifying time will be an individual one.

“Runners come from all different levels of fitness,” Rojas says. “It all depends on what a runner can handle, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are.”

Spangler says most age-group runners who come to her for help in achieving a Boston qualifier typically need more mileage than intensity in their training, but sometimes it’s both. In addition to ramping up mileage gradually, she’ll sprinkle in spicier workouts like fartlek intervals or hill repeat sessions—as much as she thinks an athlete can handle.

She’ll also prescribe periodic longer tempo runs of 8 to 10 miles at marathon race pace and often have them race a half marathon midway through their training program as a way to gauge a runner’s fitness and boost confidence.

“You can just kind of see how they’re starting to handle workload hitting the paces of the workouts they’re doing and feeling good doing it,” Spangler says. “That’s when you start to get a sense that they’re going to be ready, and that’s when I start getting confident they’re ready to handle the marathon at that pace.”

6. Don’t Get Discouraged

Even if you’re well trained and in the best shape of your life, you need everything to go right on a race day to run your best. Achieving a Boston Marathon–qualifying time can take several years and, if you miss it once or twice, it can start to feel like a never-ending process. Unfortunately, even when you achieve the time, you still might not be able to run the race. Because of field size limitations and increased interest, runners usually need to also meet faster cut-off times than the time listed in tip #1 to get in.

While every runner who applied for the 2022 race was granted entry—likely because of a downturn in interest because of the still-lingering COVID-19 pandemic—in the previous 10 years runners needed to be 1 minute, 2 seconds to 7 minutes, 47 seconds faster than their qualifying time to get in. Depending on the year and the volume of qualified runners, that’s meant that the BAA has had to reject between 1,947 and 9,215 qualified runners.

“It’s such a tough thing and to recreational runners, I think it’s a bit jarring because they’re not used to that,” Corkum says. “One of the beautiful things about Boston is that it’s one of those few marathons where you can’t just send in your credit card number and know that you have it on your calendar. You have to earn it. But the other side of that is the emotional investment and highs and lows that you’re accepting along with it.”

Developing an indefatigable sense of optimism and a love for running will be helpful in your quest to qualify for the Boston Marathon and eventually running it. There will be plenty of hiccups along the way (missed workouts, injuries, life events) so it’s best to make it part of the fabric of your life and not merely a box to check off, Corkum says.

“Running is a patient person’s sport and I think that’s why you really have to love it,” Corkum says. “I think some people might not necessarily love running but they love the idea of achieving ‘that thing,’ and you have to realize there are so many hours and steps that go into making it a lifelong thing, and for a lot of us it becomes that.”

(03/30/2022) Views: 1,043 ⚡AMP
by Brian Metzler
Share
Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon

Among the nation’s oldest athletic clubs, the B.A.A. was established in 1887, and, in 1896, more than half of the U.S. Olympic Team at the first modern games was composed of B.A.A. club members. The Olympic Games provided the inspiration for the first Boston Marathon, which culminated the B.A.A. Games on April 19, 1897. John J. McDermott emerged from a...

more...
Share

Sara Hall on Tokyo Marathon, Her Busy Schedule, & What’s Written on Her Bathroom Mirror Right Now

Few professional runners will have a busier first seven months of 2022 than Sara Hall. The 38-year-old American kicked off the year by running 67:15 to break the American half marathon record in Houston on January 16 and on March 6 ventured to Tokyo in an attempt to break the American record in the marathon. While Hall was on record pace through halfway (69:29), she faded over the second half but still ran 2:22:56 to finish 8th overall in the Japanese capital.

Hall is not resting on her laurels, however, as she will race the NYC Half on Sunday before tackling the Boston Marathon on April 18 and the World Championships marathon in Eugene on July 18. LetsRun.com caught up with Hall after she returned home from Tokyo last week to discuss her racing schedule, how she keeps improving deep into her 30s, how much faster she thinks Americans can run with the supershoes, and what goals she has written on her bathroom mirror.

You ran the Tokyo Marathon over the weekend. I assume you’re back stateside at this point. How are you feeling, and how is your body feeling after the race?

It feels pretty good. I would say pretty similar to other flat marathons I’ve done, maybe a little bit more sore on my right side, just with my knee, I think it’s been pulling a little more weight. But thankfully the knee came out of it really well and that was the main concern going in. And so I’m really excited to regroup toward the NYC Half and Boston, assuming I can stay healthy and have good training.

I emailed Ryan (Hall’s husband and coach) before the race and he mentioned that you fell and injured that knee in training a few weeks ago. How much did it affect your preparations for Tokyo, and how much, if at all, did it affect you during the race?

It didn’t affect me at all in the race. I didn’t feel it at all, thankfully. But it was one of those weird things where it just kind of dragged on. I didn’t expect it to be as much of an issue as it was but it was a pretty big setback at a pretty important time. It was hard to quantify how much it affected [my buildup] but I didn’t get in as much in the fourth and third weeks before the race. 

With 10 days out from the race, I was feeling really good and it was finally responding really well to training. So I felt really good going into the race and was optimistic that all the training I had done prior to the knee was still in me and I’d be okay and I still wanted to stick to my original goal and stuff. But unfortunately, I wasn’t quite able to hold the pace I thought I would be capable of out there.

You just ran Tokyo and you’ve got a pretty busy schedule in 2022. You’ve got the NYC Half next weekend and then Boston and then the Worlds in July. You didn’t have to run Boston, but you are running it, so what made you want to run that race?

Well because it’s Boston. I’ve only gotten to run Boston once, it was absolutely incredible as an American out there and [a race where] I really saw Ryan come alive running in his career, probably his favorite spot. The one time I ran it, it was off really limited training off a stress fracture, so I didn’t really get the full experience because I crashed and burned pretty hard. But yeah, I think also having the chance to compete in a marathon, I definitely want some more opportunities for that. I really loved London [in 2020, when Hall finished 2nd] where I just got to compete out there and time was out the window. I think [ahead of] Worlds, [Boston] gives me another opportunity to do that. But really it’s just for the fun of it. I just love racing marathons and am really excited to experience it out there.

Your best marathons so far have come on flat courses. You mentioned you didn’t run as well as you liked in Boston (in 2019, when Hall was 15th), that was also coming off of injury. Do you think you’re a better flat runner than hill runner? And do you expect you might be able to do better on the hills this time around? Have you changed anything that you think might be able to help you succeed on the hills in Boston?

I feel good about the uphills. I do need some more downhill training between now and then, especially because I was starting to do that right when the knee happened, and then that was the absolute worst thing for the knee at the time so I definitely feel a little behind on that, and I think that’s a big factor in Boston to handle the pounding early on of the downhills. It’s a net downhill course. So looking to continue that, and I’m going to really need to stay on top of my recovery, my protein intake with the MuscleTech Pure Series because that eccentric load just really beats you up, so it’s just a fine balance with that. But I’m hoping also the supershoes factor will help, just because it’s my first hilly marathon in a super-cushioned shoe and that, I know from training, helps with the pounding component.

You turn 39 a few days before the Boston Marathon, but you’re not really slowing down very much – you just ran an American record in the half marathon in January. How much longer do you think you can keep going at this level?

It’s a good question. It is kind of surreal to think I’m going to be a masters [athlete] in a year. [laughs] I would have never thought I’d still be competing as a masters. It’s something I try not to think about – I learned this from Terrence Mahon, one of my coaches early on. Deena [Kastor] was joking about being old and he was like, “Deena, once you start saying you’re old, you start the clock.”

I was only, like, 23 at the time, but for some reason that stuck with me, that what you speak about yourself and expect makes a big difference. So I’ve just tried to be really intentional about not joking about that or expecting to slow down. My body’s still handling training really well, I’m finding ways to train smarter because I can’t really train harder or necessarily do more than I’m doing. Obviously my therapist John Ball in Phoenix has helped me so much with staying injury-free. That’s really the biggest limiter. Later in life, you can keep building aerobic capacity for a lot of years, but it’s really just can you stay healthy? So that’s a big focus. Recovering from training, obviously protein intake with MuscleTech, the recovery part is just an art that I’ve continued to try to perfect over the years. So I’m optimistic that my best marathons are still ahead. 

You mentioned training smarter because there’s a limit to how hard you can train. Can you give me an example of something that you feel has helped you in that area to train smarter?

There’s some outside-the-box-stuff I do that I don’t really talk about because they’re my secret weapons. But I feel like those things are really what has allowed me to have the realistic jump I had in Berlin (in 2019 when Hall lowered her pb from 2:26 to 2:22) and I’ve really continued to do more and more of that type of training. They’re kind of secret, but I think what’s helped me is getting outside the groupthink of marathon training in the US. And that goes back to running Boston and Worlds and all these races. There’s a culture of we do things a certain way, but for me, I’ve been able to train in Kenya and Ethiopia and I’m just a curious person. I like to come up with outside-the-box stuff and Ryan’s similar. So I think some of that has really benefited me, having different perspectives and trying different things. 

Since the supershoes came along a few years ago, we’ve seen the half marathon and marathon world records have drop quite precipitously. Recently, we’ve also seen the American records in those events have been lowered in those events, but not quite as much. How much lower do you think those records can go? Now that pretty much every American has access to some form of supershoe, what kind of times do you think Americans can run in those events?

That’s a good question. I think how I felt in Houston after that (where Hall ran 67:15 to break the AR in the half and Keira D’Amato ran 2:19:12 to break the AR in the marathon), and this sounds ambitious, but Josh [Cox, her agent] and Ryan and I are like, maybe breaking 2:18, that might be possible at some point. I’m not there yet, but thinking if you can just keep chipping away little bits. Definitely, the later stages of the marathon, [the shoes] just save your legs. And I think if I can do that, definitely some of these other people – Keira, the people that are running well – can do that too.

As far as the half, I think I can break 67:00. I’m sure other people can too. So we’ll see. Probably under 66:00 eventually, which sounds nuts.

Maybe not as nuts now that the world record is 62:52, right?

Correct, yeah.

You’ve run all of the World Marathon Majors. You’re running the World Championships this year. I know you’d like to run the Olympics one day. Are there any other races on your bucket list that you haven’t gotten to do yet?

Really it’s the Olympics at this point for me. I’d like to podium at a major in the US, but I’ve gotten to experience them all. NYC Half is one that surprisingly I’ve never run and I’ve won all the marquee New York races like the Fifth Avenue Mile and Millrose Games and Mini 10K and Dash to the Finish 5K. And obviously, the marathon is the hardest one to win, so that one and the Half, that would be amazing to go for those at some point. But just to experience the Half will be fun next weekend.

I have one more question. You’re famous for writing your goals on your bathroom mirror. So I’ve got to ask you: what’s written there right now?

Well my Tokyo goals got erased. So now I just have Boston and a picture of a medal and Worlds and a picture of a medal there right now. Those are really gonna be really insanely hard goals. And I think my personality is one where going into Tokyo, it wasn’t an ideal buildup but I’m still gonna just go out there and go for it.

And that has its hard parts with that personality, because you struggle with disappointment a lot. Medalling in those races, that’s a really big ask. But at the same time, you do have those moments where it does come together like those Houston days or the London Marathon days, so I’m going to keep taking big swings and having fun with the process.

 

(03/21/2022) Views: 645 ⚡AMP
by Let’s Run
Share
Share

What are the Fastest Marathons in the UK?

The marathon distance is something that many runners aspire to. It’s a lot more taxing than a half marathon and requires serious mental and physical resilience to complete. Most people can run a 5k or 10k without a lot of training. It’s even possible to get around a half marathon on minimal training, although it won’t be a pleasant experience! But if you want to bag a coveted marathon medal, you’ll need to train hard and long.

Chasing a PB

Completing a marathon isn’t enough for some runners, since they are intent on chasing a personal best. If you fall into this category, a fast marathon course is essential. After all, you have zero chance of achieving a PB if you enter the Snowdonia Marathon, which includes 1,685 metres of ascent. You’re also likely to end up with very sore calves and quads!

Luckily, there are a few flat marathons for runners hoping to smash their personal records over a 26.2-mile course. And if you can’t face the idea of all that training, visit OnlineCasinos and find an online casino where you can place a bet on one of the pro athletes who will be out to break a record or two. OnlineCasinos lists casinos with the best welcome bonuses and rates them too.

Read on to discover which marathon races are the flattest, with the best PB potential.

Edinburgh Marathon

Edinburgh has a flat and very fast course and Runners World voted it the fastest marathon in the UK. If you are chasing a PB, this is the race for you.

Edinburgh Marathon is extremely popular, with both casual runners and elite runners. It attracts more than 30,000 runners each year and is the second-largest marathon after London, so it is a good idea to get your entry in early if you want to compete.

One of the great things about Edinburgh is that the support is excellent. Some less popular marathons have large sections with few spectators, which makes it hard for any runners who are struggling. In a typical year, tens of thousands of people line the route to cheer runners on, and it makes a big difference!

Another reason to sign-up for Edinburgh is that the course is very scenic and takes in a lot of the most famous parts of the Old Town. You will pass Greyfriars Bobby, run along the Royal Mile, and go through the Prince’s Street Gardens. It’s a fantastic course!

Manchester Marathon

Manchester Marathon has a fantastic reputation for being fast, flat, and very well supported. This one takes place in the spring and is an excellent race to target if you don’t get a place at London. In 2015, Manchester Marathon was voted the Best Marathon in the UK for the second time, which goes to show just how amazing this race is. It’s also the fourth most popular marathon in Europe, in a strong field that contains the Rome Marathon, Paris Marathon, and Berlin Marathon.

Why is Manchester so popular? Aside from the speed of the course, with no horrific hills to sap your will to live, there is entertainment around the course, with bands and singers there to keep tired legs going. In addition, the race finishes in Man United’s home at Trafford Park, which is sure to appeal to footy fans.

If you do enter Manchester, keep an eye out for Olympians, as the course usually attracts some of the world’s best elite runners.

Blackpool Marathon

The seaside resort town of Blackpool is famous for its promenade light displays, but it is equally famous for the annual Blackpool Marathon. The course is fast and flat, and you can score a PB running down the iconic promenade.

The Blackpool Marathon is a two-lap course, which might not appeal to everyone. But it attracts thousands of runners and there is lots of support along the course. You get to run along the famous Golden Mile, with amusement arcades on one side and the sea on the other. The course then takes runners out to Lytham St Annes, where there is a turnaround point, all the way back through Blackpool to Cleveleys, before heading back into town again.

Enter this race if you fancy making a weekend of it. You can run the marathon while the rest of your family chills on the beach or blow their pocket money in the arcades.

Milton Keynes Marathon

MK Marathon starts in the city centre, but soon winds out into the countryside. It’s a great race for novices new to the marathon distance, but equally, because the course is fast and flat, the Milton Keynes marathon also attracts more experienced runners.

As well as lovely scenery along the route, which takes runners through country parks, woodland, and past lakes, you can look forward to a fantastic stadium finish. The race is limited to 3,000 runners, so the route won’t be too crowded if you dislike having to fight through the crowds, but there is still plenty of atmosphere to keep runners motivated.

This event is also a qualifier for London and Boston if that’s important to you.

Yorkshire Marathon

The Yorkshire Marathon is one of the newer full-distance races on the racing calendar, with the first event taking place in 2013. Not surprisingly, thanks to a fast course, this marathon has proven popular and each year, the event grows bigger and more prestigious.

The route is very scenic. It winds through some historic parts of York before meandering out into the adjacent villages, along pretty country lanes. There is plenty of entertainment and support along the route, which will distract you from the pain of the last six miles.

If the Yorkshire Marathon is on your bucket list, make sure you enter early, as places usually sell out quickly.

Other flat marathons for PB chasers include Chester Marathon, Abingdon Marathon, and the most iconic of them all, London Marathon. And if a marathon is a step too far, why not enter a half-marathon instead?

(02/21/2022) Views: 2,620 ⚡AMP
Share
Share

Tips for getting ready for your first marathon

Have you signed up for a marathon? Signing up to run a marathon is a challenge most people aspire to overcome. Some join a marathon for health and fitness goals. Some join marathons to test their limits and improve them. Others join a marathon for charity or raise awareness, while others accompany a friend who made them sign up. However, after all, the excitement of signing up has died down. The overwhelming fear of whether you are ready for the marathon creeps in.

You need to prepare yourself to run the entire 26.2 miles, and this is not something you can wake up and do. It would be best to prepare your body to strengthen your body train and even eat right to be ready.

If you are about to participate in a marathon for the first time, worry not. Here are some awesome tips you can take to help you get ready for the day.

Focus on your nutrition

When getting ready for your first marathon, you don’t only focus on training, but also you need to have a solid nutrition plan. Ensure you calculate how much you will be running during training and how many calories you burn. 

If you are not practicing for longer than two hours a day, you don’t need to increase your calorie intake that much. The essential thing is to listen to your body. If you get hungry, you should eat. When training and you feel sluggish, try to figure out why. Maybe you are not getting enough nutrients or eating the wrong foods.

The food you eat on the days leading up to the marathon matter a lot because it will determine if your body is stocked up on enough fuel, you will need for the run. 

It’s essential to load up on healthy and clean foods so that your body’s metabolism is working at peak levels—stock up on carbohydrates, foods rich in proteins, and complex sugars. Eating a healthy balanced diet will work as stored energy that will come in handy during the race.

For extra added fuel, you can also reach out for an electrolyte drink from Tailwind nutrition which can offer energy during training and the marathon day.

Come up with an effective training plan.

You can’t just wake one day and run a 26.2-mile marathon. It would be best if you came up with a plan that will aid your body build tolerance, endurance, and mileage while resting enough to avoid injuries.

Your plan should consider your sporting background, if you are an athlete or not. Creating a plan is essential in building your strength and endurance gradually and carefully to meet the demands of the race.

If you want to build endurance, start running a few miles per day, increasing your limits every day. Once in your training, you must run the entire 26 miles to see how you perform. 

 It’s not a must you train every day of the week to ensure you have ample time to rest and allow your body to recover from the training. Remember two weeks to D-day to decrease your level of training. You can also include strength training in your daily runs to increase your body’s endurance. This will help your body heal and have a fresh start on enough fuel for the day of the marathon. 

Prepare yourself mentally

The confidence and mindset you have on how you will perform on the day of the marathon will significantly influence the overall results of the race.

One way to improve your mental preparedness is to have awesome results during your training sessions. This will enhance your confidence significantly.

You can start by studying the course you will use for the marathon, checking maps, or going physically. This way, you will avoid any surprises and train for it. Mental preparedness will increase your confidence, and you will be more relaxed during the race, which will increase your chances of successful results and completing the race.

Ensure you have the right running shoes

When choosing your running shoes, ensure you get a light, comfortable, and flexible pair. Numerous stores sell sports attire, and you can try on different pairs to get a feel of how they fit. Even specific stores will let you run in the shoes and give you the right pair of shoes that fit right for your foot.

During training, ensure you change your running shoes every 400 miles. This is because they lose their ability to cushion the strain and weight of your body.

Remember also to get high-quality socks when buying your running shoes. The socks should be protective and also comfortable. During the marathon or just before you wear your shoes before running, apply a thin layer of Vaseline on your feet to avoid blisters.

Bonus tip: Never wear new shoes on the day of the marathon. This means that you should have new shoes that have to go a few miles during training but are still fresh and comfortable to be worn during the marathon day.

Get a medical checkup.

Talk to your doctor to ensure your body can endure the strains and stress of running a marathon. If you have a preexisting condition, your doctor will help you with what to do during the race and check if it’s safe for you to participate.

Your doctor will also be of great help by giving you nutrition tips to ensure your body is well prepared for the marathon and that you are eating right.

It is essential to have a complete physical and get a clean bill of health during the marathon day so that you don’t have any accidents or risk an attack or worsening your condition.

The few days leading up to D-day will undoubtedly be the most nerve-racking days. Getting through these days in the best mental, physical and emotional health will help prepare you for the stresses of the marathon and will determine whether you succeed or not. Whether the marathon is something on your bucket list, doing it for charity, or reaching your fitness goals, it is essential to prepare well. Follow the above strategies to ensure you succeed your first-time running a marathon.

(01/08/2022) Views: 923 ⚡AMP
by Colorado Runner
Share
Share

World 100 meters champion Christian Coleman to make his return from 18 months suspension at Millrose Games

Christian Coleman, who served an 18-month ban for breaching anti-doping whereabouts rules, plans to race for the first time in nearly two years at New York's Millrose Games, the American told Reuters.

Millrose Gemes will be his first since February 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic and the anti-doping suspension curtailed the 25-year-old's career.

"I think it will be emotional to get out there and finally display my talents again," the indoor 60m world record holder said by telephone from Lexington, Kentucky, where he trains.

The Atlanta sprinter had been given a two-year suspension by an independent tribunal of track and field's Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) before it was reduced to 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Under the so-called whereabouts rule, elite athletes must make themselves available for random out-of-competition testing and state a location and one-hour window where they can be found on any given day.

"I think it comes down to being more responsible," said Coleman, 25, who has never failed a doping test but was suspended after three failures to be at a location provided to anti-doping officials.

"Those are the rules and I just have to do better."

An alarm on his phone that reminds him to update his schedule daily and a new doorbell that alerts him to visitors are helping to prepare for testers, he said.

Training continued throughout most of the suspension, which ended in November, and he had begun speed work, Coleman said.

He does not see Millrose as just a trial run.

"I want to win," said Coleman. "I think I have a higher standard for myself than just being back out there and being average."

He said he would see how his body feels before determining his indoor season, though defending his world indoor 60m title in March in Belgrade is definitely on his schedule.

"The ultimate goal is to be ready for the world (outdoor) championships" said Coleman.

That meet in Eugene, Oregon in July will be the first World Championships held in the United States.

Whether Coleman will just defend his 100m title or add the 200 remains to be seen but he plans to run both during the regular season.

While he said he had "come to terms" with missing the Tokyo Games because of his suspension he wants to compete in Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles four years later.

Beyond that, Usain Bolt's 100m world record of 9.58 seconds remains on his bucket list.

"As time goes on, I think it is possible," said the American, who ran a personal best of 9.76 in winning the 2019 world championships.

Coleman said he wanted to be remembered as "one of the great competitors in sport".

"I want people to think of me as one of the legends, one of the great sprinters who have come through the USA ranks," he added.

(12/20/2021) Views: 904 ⚡AMP
by Gene Cherry
Share
NYRR Millrose Games

NYRR Millrose Games

The NYRR Millrose Games,which began in 1908 as a small event sponsored by a local track club, has grown to become the most prestigious indoor track and field event in the United States. The NYRR Millrose Games meet is held in Manhattan’s Washington Heights at the New Balance Track & Field Center at the Armony, which boasts a state-of-the-art six-lane,...

more...
Share

How one runner made a bucket list trail running trip into reality - The Dream: Running Hut-to-Hut in the Dolomites

By Andy COCHRANE

I was no more than 8 years old when I saw my first photo of someone running in the Dolomites. Red windbreaker, dark shorts, storm brewing over a line of jagged peaks. I cut it out of the magazine (don’t tell my mom) and still have it in my wallet today. For years, trail running in the Italian Alps wasn’t on my bucket list; it was my bucket list. 

This fall, I finally got to check it off. Along with two friends and my coach Magda Boulet, I flew to Venice and drove north into the Dolomites. We spent a week running from hut to hut, meandering 20 miles each day, stopping for cappuccinos and strudel and staying at small, family-run rifugios high up in the mountains.

It was a trip of hearty laughs, long meals, stout climbs, loose descents and a handful of exposed ledges to tiptoe across. But the top of the long list of highlights was the people we met. The kindness and care we received from total strangers was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

Route & Rifugios

We worked with a local guiding company, Dolomite Mountains, that made our planning easy. They offered suggestions on trails, places to sleep and peaks to climb. Our route took us 100 miles from San Candido to Compatsch, along a few of the major thoroughfares. We ran through the Sesto subgroup of mountains, on the border of Italy’s German-speaking South Tyrol and the Italian Veneto region, which was the frontier of Austria and Italy in World War I. 

Many of the trails here were developed by soldiers– old trenches, defensive barricades and forts are still visible in many places. On our first day we ran under Tre Cime, a trio of peaks that reminded me of home in the Tetons. We continued through remote valleys and high passes in Fanes-Sennes-Braies Nature Park, through the iconic Alta Badia valley, past Puez Nature Park to Val Gardena, through a beautiful alpine meadow called Alpe di Siusi, then summited Plattkofel and climbed up Rosszahnscharte, our last major pass, before running all the way down to Compatsch.

For the first two days we were led by Paolo Posocco, a local runner and incredibly knowledgeable guide, who offered a steady buffet of insights on the ecology, history and trails of the area. After two days with Paolo, we were sad to see him go– and still stay in touch to this day. 

There are dozens of bucolic rifugios, but a few stand out from the rest. Drei Zinnen Blick is in a valley adjacent to a beautiful lake, close to Tre Cime. Rifugio Fodara Vedla is perched high in the range, with no cell service and warm and friendly hosts that make you feel like family. Rifugio Sassopiatto has some of the best views, perched on a ridgeline. Gostner Schwaige, a small restaurant near the very end of our run, was hands down the best food we had all trip.

Weather & Seasons

We spent the last week of September in the Dolomites, which is squarely in the fringe season. With cool temperatures (we had more than one frosty morning), leaves changing color and admittedly fickle weather, I think it was the perfect time to visit. There were considerably fewer tourists than during the peak seasons, making trails more fun to run. Midday rifugio stops were quieter and we had a lot more options for places to stay, making our interactions with hosts and immersion into local culture that much more intimate.

Gear We Used & Loved

Outdoor Voices Exercise Dress–  OV only recently started making gear for the running scene and hit the mark with this dress. Breathable fabric, adjustable straps, two pockets and a built-in liner make it great for long days in the mountains. 

Outdoor Voices Fast Track Shortsleeve– Less is often more. This running tee is comfortable, breathes well and is lightweight, everything I ask for in a good running base layer.

Stio Fremont Stretch Fleece Jogger– We had a lot of cold mornings when shorts wouldn’t quite cut it. These breathable fleece tights move with you and are some of the comfiest tights we’ve ever tested.

Stio Alpiner Hooded Jacket– A must-have layer for any high-output alpine missions, the Alpiner rarely overheats even when you’re sweaty. Stretchy and water resistant, it was perfect for our cool, misty days. 

Tracksmith Brighton Base Layer– One of the brand’s most popular pieces for a reason. With a Merino wool mesh that’s more open around the core, it keeps your extremities warm while not overheating the rest of you. Plus it’s odor resistant, which is a huge bonus on a week-long trip.

Tracksmith Off Road Shorts– Designed for long days on the trail, these 2-in-1 shorts have a light outer layer with compression shorts underneath, a back belt for carrying an extra layer, two waist pockets for snacks and liner pockets for your phone or keys. 

Ciele ALZCap– The newest iteration of the widely popular GOCap, it has more mesh coverage to maximize breathability and a more fitted, low profile look than previous versions. 

Skida Nordic Hat– The brand’s first product hasn’t changed in years, for good reason. Originally designed for cross country skiing, we found the Nordic hat to be perfect for fall running. It wicks moisture while keeping you comfy and warm, and is easy to stow when not in use. 

Brooks Catamount Trail Shoe– The trails in the Dolomites are rocky and rough, which means a shoe with good traction is key. With a unique rubber grip, foam cushioning and a protective midsole layer, the Catamount helped us get up and down half a dozen mountain passes.

Coros Apex Pro Watch– With an incredibly long battery life, accurate tracking and well-designed mapping features, the Apex Pro played a key role in keeping us on route and on time.

(12/18/2021) Views: 1,062 ⚡AMP
by Trail Runner Magazine
Share
Share

Eliud Kipchoge would like to become first athlete to three-peat in the Olympic marathon

World Athletics sat down with the marathon world record holder and double Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, to reflect on his great career. Kipchoge cited his previous Abbott World Major Marathon wins, his world record and running the first sub-two-hour marathon (unofficially) as things he joyfully looks back on.

When asked about his future goals, he said he wants to become the first athlete ever to win three straight Olympic gold medals in the marathon. 

“My goal going into the 2020 games was to win back-to-back Olympic golds, and I’d like to win the third one,” Kipchoge said to World Athletics. He also mentioned other goals on his running bucket list, such as running all six Abbott World Marathon Majors and lowering his half marathon personal best. 

If Kipchoge defends his title at the 2024 Paris Olympics, he would become the first-ever athlete to three-peat. Currently, he is in an exclusive club of three, the other two athletes being Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia (who won gold at both the 1960 and 1964 Games) and Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany (who won gold at the 1976 and 1980 games, but it’s been highly speculated that he was part of East Germany’s state-sponsored doping program during the 1970s).

When he was asked about giving the world record another shot, Kipchoge said, “There are many people who could break my marathon world record. I think Geoffrey Kamworor will one day break the world record. Joshua Cheptegei will also make his mark in the marathon, and Kenenisa Bekele is still there.”

As his 2021 season comes to an end, Kipchoge isn’t sure of his 2022 race plans. “I always strive to improve my fitness, and I approach it like education. For example, if you have an exam in two years, you have to plan carefully for it to have success.”

(12/10/2021) Views: 1,014 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson
Share
Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Paris 2024 Olympic Games

For this historic event, the City of Light is thinking big! Visitors will be able to watch events at top sporting venues in Paris and the Paris region, as well as at emblematic monuments in the capital visited by several millions of tourists each year. The promise of exceptional moments to experience in an exceptional setting! A great way to...

more...
Share

Top mistakes beginner runners make

Running isn’t easy, and there are many myths about how beginners can improve. If you are a new runner or someone who’s considering trying out the sport, take a look at these mistakes runners make before heading out the door, so you can avoid them.

Overtraining

Many runners go from doing nothing to high-volume training in a short period. This is an injury waiting to happen, as there is no better way to shock your body than going from nothing to running five days a week. Running more distance needs to be done gradually. Some runners follow the 10 per cent rule, which follows a slight increase in mileage each week.

Running the same route at the same pace

It is great to have favourite routes, but running the same distance at the same pace on the same route won’t help if you are looking to improve. Try mixing up the route and adding a bit of distance to your current route. You can drop down the pace if you are feeling good that day. If you are wanting to run further or improve your endurance, you will need to make time each week for a longer run. Speed workouts are also important once or twice a week for runners looking to improve their speed. Try this speed workout for all levels.

Running hard on easy runs

Newsflash: unless it’s a race, no one on Strava cares about the pace of your easy run. This mistake goes hand and hand with overtraining. The point of easy runs is to keep your heart rate low recover from faster efforts. Your body will take longer to recover if you are doing hard effort after hard effort. You should be able to engage in conversation on your easy runs. If you can’t, it’s a sign that you are going too fast.

Choosing your running shoes by the way they look

The most important consideration should be comfort, not colour The point of buying running shoes is to have a pair that can get you from point A to point B without pain or discomfort. When buying shoes, it’s important to find the right pair. Be open to the shoes that are recommended for your feet and check out online reviews.

Many new runners fall victim to the hype and hysteria of “bucket list” type achievements like running the marathon. While certainly an achievable goal for most, marathons require a lot of time and training. Runners are better off starting with reasonable short-term goals over a month or two. Those new to running should also complete shorter benchmark races and distances such as the 5K, 10K and half-marathon before moving on to the marathon. Don’t try to run before you can walk – racing shorter distances will build up your confidence and running experience.

Ignoring your body

Don’t feel like you have to run. No one has to run, especially if you’re injured or tired. It’s important to listen to your body when you are starting. Don’t make running harder than it should be.

(11/11/2021) Views: 810 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson
Share
Share

Retired american auto race driver Danica Patrick preparing for first Boston Marathon

Three years after she retired from professional auto racing, Danica Patrick is preparing to take on the Boston Marathon.

The 39-year-old is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing. Boston will be her very first marathon. She said it’s something that has been on her bucket list.

“I didn’t put much thought to it other than I want to run a marathon, but when the opportunity came up to run Boston, that was like a for sure yes,” Patrick said. “It wasn’t a put it off another year kind of thing, that was like let’s go.”

At the beginning, Patrick said she wasn’t sure if she wanted to train for the marathon.

“Part of it was kind of wanting an excuse if it didn’t go well maybe, but then the other part of it was, I just like running,” she said. “So, I thought I’ll be able to do this. It will be hard but I think I could go do it mentally tomorrow, because I’m strong mentally, but that was kind of that turning point where after those 16 and 18 mile runs, I was like, whoa I better put the miles in.”

Since her racing career ended, she said she has found herself doing lots of things out of her comfort zone including skydiving, bungee jumping and snowboarding.

“I realized I really enjoyed putting myself in those uncomfortable positions to really test myself,” she said.

Patrick is running as the captain of the Light Foundation marathon team.

(10/05/2021) Views: 919 ⚡AMP
Share
Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon

Among the nation’s oldest athletic clubs, the B.A.A. was established in 1887, and, in 1896, more than half of the U.S. Olympic Team at the first modern games was composed of B.A.A. club members. The Olympic Games provided the inspiration for the first Boston Marathon, which culminated the B.A.A. Games on April 19, 1897. John J. McDermott emerged from a...

more...
Share

Big Sur Marathon will return in 2022

The absence of the world-renowned Big Sur International Marathon for the past two years has left a void for the local running community. But while normalcy remains in the distance, organizers from the Big Sur Marathon Foundation have announced the event is returning on April 24, 2022.

“That’s our goal,” said Doug Thurston, race director and executive director of the Big Sur Marathon Foundation.

Registration for the race will begin Monday.

The decision to bring back the marathon was made with input from a health advisory committee the Big Sur Marathon Foundation formed in navigating through the pandemic.

“We looked at the current and projected data,” Thurston said. “We felt by April the pandemic would be a little more settled, and more importantly, the rate of vaccination use will be high enough for runners and volunteers to feel safe.”

The event has sold out in each of the past 10 years it has been held, bringing thousands of runners from all over the world to take part in one of the more grueling, but picturesque races on the globe.

“It is a bucket list event,” Thurston said. “More than 80 percent of our marathon competitors do it one time.”

All of next April’s events could come with strings attached. While nothing has been decided, it’s likely that proof of vaccination or a negative test for COVID will be required to compete.

“What we are saying at this point is runners and volunteers should all anticipate that they’ll need to show proof of vaccination or have a negative test three days before the race,” Thurston said.

Because priority for the marathon race will go to entrants from the canceled 2020 race, availability to the general public could mean fewer spots in 2022.

“We have not reduced capacity as much as we are providing priority to those that signed up in 2020,” Thurston said. “We don’t know how many of those 2020 entrants will return. But we think the number of available spots for the general public will be fewer.”

While there are several other shorter races going on along Highway 1 simultaneously during the marathon, the maximum entrees for the 26-mile, 385-yard event is limited to 5,000.

“Based on the interest we’ve gathered, we anticipated all the races to sell out,” Thurston said.

There will be another registration date in late November that will be called a second chance drawing, according to Thurston.

Because the Big Sur Marathon Committee doesn’t know how many spots will open up, it will have just two drawings this year.

“We have a supply and demand situation,” Thurston said. “Historically, we have more people that want to get in than we have space. So we’ve gone to a random drawing this year.”

The Monterey Bay Half Marathon, which is also organized by the Big Sur Marathon Committe and has traditionally been run in November, has been canceled the past two years because of the pandemic.

Thurston said the two annual races often raise more than $400,000 for 100 non-profit organizations in the county,

“We’re a nonprofit organization raising money for other nonprofit organizations,” Thurston said. “It’s been trying times for our organization to not give grants to the community. It’s why we put these races on.”

While the past 18 months have been challenging for the Big Sur Marathon Committee, Thurston said that the organization is looking forward, not backward.

“In some ways, it went real slow,” Thurston said. “But here we are getting ready for April, 2022. As the pandemic has taught us over and over again, it makes its own rules. Most of the plans you make are subjective to whatever is happening with the pandemic.”

Because the race day experience is primarily outdoors, Thurston is confident that the event can be held in a safe and healthy manner as runners flood scenic Highway 1, where often the only sounds are the shoes slapping pavement, the wind howling off Hurricane Point and the ocean waves crashing against the rocks below.

“We will follow whatever the federal, state and county health departments provide,” Thurston said. “We are a health and fitness organization. We feel April 24 will be a viable date to host the race.”

(08/18/2021) Views: 1,087 ⚡AMP
by John Devine
Share
Big Sur Marathon

Big Sur Marathon

The Big Sur Marathon follows the most beautiful coastline in the world and, for runners, one of the most challenging. The athletes who participate may draw inspiration from the spectacular views, but it takes major discipline to conquer the hills of Highway One on the way to the finish line. Named "Best Marathon in North America" by The Ultimate Guide...

more...
Share

Meet the Texas man running 50 marathons in 50 weeks in 50 states

In November 2015, Houston’s Aaron Burros was shot five times. He was at work when he heard a commotion and went to help whoever was in distress. Burros did help, distracting the enraged individual while everyone in danger got away, but he was not so lucky. Lying on the ground after tackling one of the assailants, Burros stared up at another man, who was ready to shoot him. He now says everything slowed down in those moments, giving him a chance to wonder if he was going to die.

Fortunately, the gunman misfired his first shot, which only grazed Burros’s torso, giving him just enough time to get up and run away. As he fled, he was hit in both glutes, but he managed to get to safety without being shot fatally. Almost six years later, Burros is still plagued by the terrifying memories of that day, and a bullet fragment left in his right glute is a physical reminder of the attack, still sending shots of pain up and down his leg with each step. Despite all of this pain, both physical and mental, he continues to run, which he says gives him purpose, even in his darkest moments. 

Today, Burros is in the middle of a year-long running challenge in which he is looking to run 50 marathons in 50 weeks in the 50 U.S. states, all as a celebration for his 50th birthday. He’s using the challenge as a way to fundraise for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, with the hope of raising a grand total of $50,000.

So far, Burros has completed 24 races this year, leaving him a little behind his goal of close to one per week. He has missed a few races, for various reasons, but he has made it to the start line of most of them, and he’s continuing to work toward his ultimate goal of raising $50,000. 

Burros’s running journey 

In 2010, years before he was attacked, Burros weighed close to 400 pounds. Looking to lose weight, he began running, slowly at first and only for 15 minutes or so each day. As any runner knows, though, with persistence comes fitness, and after a year, Burros had lost 100 pounds and gotten much better at running. By 2015, he was a seasoned marathoner, and he signed up for a 50-miler. 

“That was set for two weeks after I got shot,” Burros says now. After undergoing surgery to have the bullets removed from his glutes, Burros asked his doctor if he could still run the race. His doctor told him that it would be a brutal run, but he wouldn’t cause any further damage, so Burros decided to go for it. 

“I played sports my whole life,” Burros says. “My threshold for pain was high, so I just went out and tried to do the ultra.” He made it to about the 40-mile mark, but then he started falling down over and over again. He wasn’t tripping on anything, but he simply couldn’t stay on his feet. “There was this medic there who kept asking if I was OK. He told me to walk.” 

Burros took the advice and slowed down, but not even a mile later, he was hit with an anxiety attack. “That was when my PTSD kicked in,” he says. “The anxiety, the depression, the crying spells. I couldn’t even walk in a straight line.” Burros didn’t make it to the finish that day, and he required assistance to get off the course. Going into the race, he had figured that the only obstacles he would face would be physical, and while he encountered his fair share of those challenges, it was the mental injury he suffered that forced him to pull out of that race. 

“I had no clue what I was going through at that point,” he says. “I was facing all kinds of emotional battles.” For the next four years, Burros saw a number of specialists to help him work through the trauma, but he says his mental state only continued to worsen. It got to the point where he stopped doing pretty much everything, including running.

“I would wake up, sit at Starbucks all day, then go home and go to sleep,” he says. “I did that for four years. Unless I was going to my appointments, that was it, I didn’t go anywhere else. I didn’t know how to function.” In that time, he regained much of the weight he had lost before he was shot, until the scale eventually said 299. 

“I told my psychiatrist I had to do something, that I wasn’t going back to the 300 club,” Burros says. “For me, gaining weight back was just as damaging as being shot.” He got back into running, setting a big goal for himself: to run each of the six World Marathon Majors (WMMs). In 2019, Burros checked four of those races off his list, running in London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City.

He had plans to run the Tokyo and Boston marathons in 2020 and complete his goal in just one year, but both mass participation events were cancelled due to COVID-19. This year, he will run the Boston Marathon, and he hopes to check Tokyo off his list in 2023. (Organizers of the Tokyo Marathon have closed the race to international runners this year and next, meaning anyone like Burros has to wait until at least 2023 to cross the event off his bucket list.) 

Coming into 2021, Burros decided to celebrate his 50th birthday with a goal even more audacious than his plan to run all six WMMs. “I was turning 50 and I wanted to do something meaningful, to have some hope,” he says. “I know what running means to me, so I chose to do something with my running.” 

50 in 50 in 50 

Burros billed his event as running 50 marathons, and while most races he’ll run this year are 42.2K, he has mixed in a few 5Ks, 10Ks, half-marathons and even some ultras. Running 50 races in 50 weeks in all 50 states is a big goal, and it has taken its toll on Burros. “It’s been challenging, frustrating and overwhelming at times,” he says. But he has held onto hope throughout the journey, and managed to push through tough times. Two of his driving forces come in the form of children: Aiden and Gabby.

Aiden is a boy Burros met at the Chicago Marathon in 2019. He suffers from multiple illnesses, and Burros began to pray for him, but he didn’t think that was enough, and he decided to take action. After researching different causes, Burros decided to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“I know medical costs can break a family, so I wanted to do something to help them and honour Aiden and Gabby,” he says. Burros only met Aiden briefly, but he has a close connection to Gabby, who is his grand-niece. Just before starting his 50 in 50 in 50 challenge, Burros heard from his brother, Gabby’s grandfather, that Gabby had been diagnosed with kidney cancer. Her kidney was successfully removed, but doctors found tumours in her skull. 

Burros has had a tough time with his running challenge so far, and understandably so, but he uses Aiden and Gabby as inspiration to keep going. He knows he may miss a few weeks along the way, but the number of races he runs isn’t his priority, and instead, his main goal is to help as many children in similar positions to Aiden’s and Gabby’s as possible. To learn more about Burros’s journey and to follow along, click here, and to donate to the cause, click here.

(07/03/2021) Views: 991 ⚡AMP
by Running Magazine
Share
Share

Eliud Kipchoge will be attempting to become only the third man to win back-to-back Olympic marathon gold medals

Eliud Kipchoge will be a man on a mission on  August 8, 2021 when the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games men's marathon takes place in Sapporo.

No defending Olympic champion has won a second straight marathon gold medal since Waldemar Cierpinski did so at Moscow 1980 as the reigning champion from 1976.

Now, more than 40 years later, Kenya's Kipchoge will attempt to become just the third person, after Cierpinski and Ethiopian legend Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964) to win back-to-back Olympic marathon titles.

The effort will come nearly two years after becoming the first man to run a marathon distance under two hours, when he completed the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna in 1:59:40.

That particular achievement will be celebrated in August with the release of a new documentary, titled Kipchoge: The Last Milestone.

Eliud Kipchoge 1:59 documentary

The trailer for the Kenyan's new film has just been released, with Kipchoge writing on social media: "I hope by watching this film you will also feel inspired to run."

In the trailer, the 38-year-old says: "In the journey of life, there [are] ups and downs. In marathon, there [are] a lot of challenges, ups and downs. There is pain in training, pain in running, and joy at the end of the marathon."

The documentary will tell the story of how Kipchoge prepared for the monumental task.

Ridley Scott Creative Group, the documentary's producers, said in a statement that the film offers "unprecedented access to Eliud […] ahead of his attempt to achieve the seemingly impossible," including "footage from his home in Kenya, interviews with those closest to him, details of the daily rituals of his life and the dynamics within his team and community."

Kipchoge's training routine and how Covid affected it

The Kenyan has always been one who prefers training in a group.

He once said: "You cannot train alone and expect to run a fast time. There is a formula: 100% of me is nothing compared to 1% of the whole team."

However, the Covid-19 pandemic changed that. Suddenly, Kipchoge was forced to run alone on his training sessions due to lockdown restrictions.

"It was really hard to go training and not mix with people to fight the virus," he said in March ahead of the NN Mission Marathon, originally scheduled for Hamburg before being moved to Twente Airport, the Netherlands.

"I am happy to have since resumed training with the team, but we continue to make sure we do so safely within the protocols because the virus is still with us.

"Life has been hard but that is the way of the world – we need to get through it but I think we are on the right track to a brighter future.

"Life cannot stop, it does not stop for a single second. But what everyone should know is, the pandemic is just one of life’s challenges. Marathons are just like life, there are ups and downs every kilometre. Every mile there is a challenge.

"We should all be prepared to accommodate challenges in life but above all enjoy and embrace the challenges."

Kipchoge was vaccinated against Covid-19 at the end of April.

What next for Kipchoge? The star's future plans

The immediate future for Kipchoge consists of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic marathon in Sapporo, but beyond that, the 38-year-old has a "bucket list" of items he wants to check off.

Speaking recently to the Flotrack podcast, Kipchoge revealed that he wants to have competed in every World Marathon Major.

Kipchoge has competed in the Olympic Games, World Championships, London, Berlin, and Chicago Marathons, leaving him with the Boston, New York, and Tokyo Marathons.

He also admitted that he would like to run even longer distances, beyond the marathon's 42.195km.

"I would love to try 80km, 60km. I need to go to California and hike for six hours," he told Flotrack.

(06/28/2021) Views: 1,046 ⚡AMP
by ZK Goh
Share
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Fifty-six years after having organized the Olympic Games, the Japanese capital will be hosting a Summer edition for the second time, originally scheduled from July 24 to August 9, 2020, the games were postponed due to coronavirus outbreak, the postponed Tokyo Olympics will be held from July 23 to August 8 in 2021, according to the International Olympic Committee decision. ...

more...
Share

Eliud Kipchoge wants to run ‘all major marathons’

Boston, New York, and Tokyo are on the GOAT marathoner's bucket list

Eliud Kipchoge has revealed he would like to run “all major marathons” in the remainder of his career.

Speaking to Gordon Mack on the Flotrack podcast, the GOAT marathoner said because he has already run Berlin, London, and Chicago, the remaining major marathons on his “bucket list” were Boston, New York, and Tokyo.

He said because he plans to focus firstly on the Tokyo Olympics this summer, before a busy autumn of marathons, he would “close” his bucket list before “jumping in” again on January 1 2022.

Kipchoge also suggested he might be interested in dabbling in ultrarunning for a fresh challenge.

“I would love to try 80km, 60km. I need to go to California and hike for six hours," he said. He added that he was looking forward to the next phase of his running after his professional career is over: “I’m really excited to approach life in another dimension,” he said, “to go up the mountains with different people, with different lifestyles.”

He said, “I’m really excited to instil inspiration in the youth of the whole world. To travel along the big cities, in every country if possible, to send positive vibes.”

Kipchoge was speaking to Flotrack ahead of taking part in NN Running’s MA RA TH ON virtual marathon relay this weekend. Like others taking part in the virtual race, he will run a 10.5km relay on May 22-23 which will be added to the efforts of three teammates to make up the full marathon distance.

(05/23/2021) Views: 901 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World
Share
TCS London Marathon

TCS London Marathon

The London Marathon was first run on March 29, 1981 and has been held in the spring of every year since 2010. It is sponsored by Virgin Money and was founded by the former Olympic champion and journalist Chris Brasher and Welsh athlete John Disley. It is organized by Hugh Brasher (son of Chris) as Race Director and Nick Bitel...

more...
Share

Ultra-Marathoners Share Their Top Tips for Every Kind of Runner

Here are their tips to help you achieve your running goals.

Schedule time to run

It might sound silly, but practically every athlete recommended setting time aside in your schedule. “The less I have to decide, the easier it is to get out,” explains Bradley. “I stick to a similar run plan week to week and month to month, so I don’t have to even think about getting out the door, I just do it.”

Sharman, the Leadville 100 Trail Champion in 2017, agrees: “Create a routine and stick to it unless you have genuine reasons not to. After a couple of weeks, the routine will become the norm and will be much more self-reinforcing.”

Even when you’re traveling, carve out some time for yourself to run

“For me that involves morning runs/activity to get me out the door and to kickstart my day,” Allen says. “When I travel and don’t know where I’m going, it can seem overwhelming, but if I’m committed to [it], I can have a general plan to explore and it usually works out in the end.”

Sign up for a race

“Find an event to sign up for that is just a little bit outside of your comfort zone,” suggests Boulet. “It will help motivate you to get out and train if you’ve paid your entry fee and declared to your friends and family (some of whom will hopefully join you!) that you will do this event.”

It helps if the race is in a beautiful place or somewhere you’ve had on your bucket list for ages, adds Bradley. “It makes it a lot easier to stick with it when everything starts to fall apart when you are in love with the project, race or goal.”

Hire a coach

While a few of these athletes are paid to run (and do it full time), many juggle full-time jobs with their passion for running. One commonality is the insight a coach can provide. “Not only does it take a lot of the strategic guesswork off my plate, but it also gives me another person to be accountable to,” Bowman says.

If a coach is out of the question, look for support in running groups

Coaches can be expensive, and that might be out of the question for you. There are other options to hold yourself accountable. When Boulet doesn’t feel like running, she reaches out to her network. “I have an extra cup of coffee and call a friend to schedule a running date,” she says. “Making a commitment to meet someone always works for me.”

Get out the door

Mental toughness is something that these athletes have in spades. They head out on practice runs that dwarf my measly 20- to 30-mile weeks. But if you don’t feel you have it, don’t fret. “Toughness is not something you’re born with, it’s a skill you can gain with practice,” Boulet says. “Practice being tough in regular training or it won’t be there on race day,” Sharman adds.

If you don’t feel an urge to get up and run every single day, that’s okay. “I like to get out the door even if I’m feeling tired,” Allen says. “I tell myself to see how I feel for the first ten minutes and I go from there.”

No matter what your training day looks like, remember to listen to your body

Sometimes you’ll jump up out of bed and hit the road. Other days, you might feel lazy and not want to go. Do it for your mental health, or bargain with yourself. “I remind myself how much better I feel after running than I did before,” Boulet says.

But remember to take rest days, too. “A common mistake for newer ultra and trail runners isn’t that they aren’t training hard enough, it’s that they aren’t training smart enough and respecting rest and recovery,” says Krar. “Remember that a single run or single race does not define you. There will be bumps along the way and they’re to be expected. Most importantly, run with a purpose. Show up and do your best.”

A little mental prep goes a long way

Everyone needs a little help to get through a long-distance race. The monotony of one foot in front of the other can use a spike. “I’ve used mediation apps like Headspace and Calm,” says Bowman. “These apps cultivate mental and emotional poise, so when adversity inevitably arises, I’m less likely to be overwhelmed by it.”

Running is a journey (literally), so “don’t aim for the stars, aim for the trees,” Bosio says. “Make resolutions that are reasonably attainable. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t stick with it 100 percent. Tomorrow is always another day!”

 

 

(05/20/2021) Views: 973 ⚡AMP
by Meg Lappe
Share
Share

Pro Runner Rebecca Mehra Dances Her Way to $5,000 on Ellen DeGeneres’s Game Show

On March 28, Mehra, 26, who runs for Oiselle’s Littlewings Athletics, appeared on Ellen DeGeneres’s gameshow, called Ellen’s Game of Games. On the show, contestants participate in four different preliminary games; the four winners then advance to a semifinal and final round for a chance to win $100,000. The middle-distance runner, who based in Bend, Oregon, filmed the episode in August and September.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show reached out to Mehra after she tweeted about helping an elderly couple get groceries at the start of the pandemic, and her experience went viral. Celebrities, including DeGeneres, retweeted Mehra’s tweet. Because of pandemic-induced uncertainty, Mehra didn’t go on DeGeneres’s talk show, but she was instead recommended for the game show.

“I actually grew up watching game shows,” Mehra told Runner’s World. “Game Show Network was on all the time at my house. I don’t want to call this a bucket list iteme because I didn’t know it was on my bucket list. When would I get a chance to meet Ellen, compete on a gameshow, and get into my pro athlete mindset in musical chairs again?”

After a few practice games via Zoom and a quarantine at a Los Angeles hotel, Mehra was whisked away when it was her time to compete. Masked up until the moment before they started filming, Mehra walked in and awaited her fate in front of an empty studio audience.

“Watching it live on Sunday, they did a good job making it feel like people were there,” Mehra said. “It was so quiet when it was going on and on TV it seems like a big party.”

This was noticeable in Mehra’s first challenge: Blindfolded Musical Chairs. Music really did play, but it was actually silent as she crawled, rolled, and boogied her way into a spot in the next round.

“You have to commit and go with it,” Mehra said about her blindfolded dance moves. “Do the dance, crawl on the floor. It looks sillier if you don’t. I went with it, and I got to give Ellen a hug, so it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

In the semifinals, she and three competitors had to answer a question correctly, or endure what looked like a pretty terrifying fall through a trap door.

Winning on the question, “Where were gummy bears invented” (spoiler alert: Germany), Mehra advanced to the finals. (You can watch this round below.)

“In the show, they cut out two to three questions,” Mehra said. “It was a smart group of people, and we went several rounds before people dropped. I got lucky knowing the answers I did, and within 10 minutes, we were filming the last round.”

Mehra’s final challenge was a speed-question round; each correct answer would increase her winnings. While she struggled to get into a rhythm, she was able to walk away with $5,000. On the show, she stated she hoped to donate a portion of her winnings to Littlewings Athletics, which is giving more opportunities to up-and-coming women in the sport. She plans to follow through on that promise.

Also, Mehra presented DeGeneres with a Oiselle goodie bag.

If you are interested in checking out the full episode, and to see Mehra’s dance moves, you can find it (with commercials) here.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen pros on our regularly scheduled TV programs. Back in February 2020, Tatyana McFadden and Scout Bassett appeared on an episode of Project Runway. 


(04/10/2021) Views: 1,021 ⚡AMP
by Runner's World
Share
Share

Pikes Peak Marathon legend Arlene Pieper Stine, the first woman to run a sanctioned marathon, has died

Eight years before Kathrine Switzer shocked the world by running the Boston Marathon, Arlene Pieper Stine did her 26 miles in the Pikes Peak Marathon, with a 9-year-old daughter in tow

Arlene Pieper Stine got into the Pikes Peak Marathon in 1959 as a stunt to market her Colorado Springs health club. When she finished, the 29-year-old mother of three was in the record books as the first woman to finish a sanctioned marathon. Unlike the Boston Marathon, the Pikes Peak race never had a prohibition on women participating.

One of Colorado mountain running’s most beloved heroes used to climb up the ladder next to the sign draped across the town of Manitou Springs’s main drag — “Welcome, Pikes Peak Runners” — so that she could send off the hundreds of runners who had packed the narrow street to head off for the summit of the 14,115-foot mountain more than 13 miles and 7,800 of vertical gain in the distance. Then they would turn around for the return trip.

“Runners, ready,” she said into the microphone in the absolute still morning of sun, rain, or even snow of late August. “Go!” said Arlene Pieper Stine.  

Pieper Stine became the race’s folk hero in 2009 when race officials went looking for the former Colorado Springs resident and health club owner so that they could bring her back to her hometown with some news: Not only had she been the first woman to complete the Pikes Peak Marathon — the punishing switchbacks, rocky single-track, and finally, the last few miles above timberline at over 12,000 feet — but she was the first woman to complete any sanctioned marathon, eight years before Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon in 1967. 

Fifty years after she finished the full “out and back,” as Peak marathon veterans refer to the course, with a time of 9 hours and 16 minutes, Pieper Stine was once again at the start line.  

Pieper Stine died Feb. 11, 2021, a month shy of her 91st birthday, as she was trying to build up her strength after battling COVID-19, her daughter Kathy Pieper said.

“She got cards and letters from runners and it meant so much to her,” Pieper said. “And I was able to go into her assisted living facility — all covered up — to see her. She ran such a good race.”

She became a role model and inspiration for women runners who looked to her for her boldness and independent spirit — a wife, mother, business owner, and runner who hiked and ran on Pikes Peak with her family in the 1950s, dressed for the race in white sleeveless blouse, white shorts, white headwrap, and tennis shoes from Woolworths.

“We didn’t carry water or have aid stations in those days,” she said in a 2014 interview. “I still remember it like it was yesterday. You can be a wonderful wife and mother, but it showed me that if there’s something you really want to do, you should go for it.”

Year after year, Pieper Stine was as much a part of the race as the unpredictable weather, the friendliness and camaraderie of the runners whether elite or there for a bucket list challenge, or because life wouldn’t be the same without that weekend in late August that turned Manitou Springs into an excited, nervous, and glad-to-be alive running party.

“If I can do it, so can you,” she told the runners who thronged around her in Memorial Park at the Race Expo, at the pre-race spaghetti dinners, or on the streets of town. 

From the first time that she and Pieper returned to Manitou Springs in 2009 for the 50th anniversary celebration of the race that they had run together — Arlene at age 29 and Kathy at age 9 — Pieper Stine became living reminders of the beauty and challenge of running the Peak. 

 “‘It’s a beautiful day for a race,’ I remember her saying as we passed runners that day,” Pieper said of the race she did with her mother in 1959. “And she kept that same attitude every year. She never could believe that runners would come up to her and say ‘Can you just touch my hand for luck?’ or ‘It’s so good to see you again.’ She remembered everyone and had wanted to say something to them all. She could barely walk 10 paces down the sidewalk and people would say, ‘Can I get your picture? Can I get your autograph?’ It was just the thrill of her life when [race organizers] found her.”

In 2019, to mark the 60th anniversary of Pieper Stine’s marathon step for woman runners everywhere, a group of women runners dressed in white sleeveless blouses, white shorts, and headscarves and hats gathered to run up Pikes Peak to mark the occasion. And like the rock star of the trail running world she was for women, Pieper Stine showed up for the celebration.

Four years earlier, in 2015, I had the opportunity to celebrate Pieper Stine myself. The night before the marathon, I joined the Peak Busters gathering at the Manitou Springs City Hall and was reassured by Arlene, as I had come to know her. I had come back from falls and injuries like everyone else on the peak, since my first marathon on the mountain, in 2004.

At that time, Arlene was using a wheelchair after hip surgery. It was my second out and back and I was eager but nervous. “Good luck,” she said. “You’ll have a great time!” I bent down and she took her hand in mine. “OK,” I said, feeling tears about to come, feeling a part of history of this mountain that had both tested me and rewarding my training — or had spit me out during a few memorable Ascents and my first marathon. But I could always count on feeling inspired by the women who had come before me, especially Arlene.

The next morning, she was at the start, shaking hands, giving hugs, and talking to racers through the speakers, to get ready and GO!

“Without pioneering efforts like Arlene’s, we would have no history nor legacy in our sport,” said Nancy Hobbs, executive director of the American Trail Running Association. “Many women — young and old — have been inspired by her.

That includes Pieper, who is planning to train for the Ascent along with one of Pieper Stine’s grandsons, Kyle, 29, who wants to train and qualify for the marathon. She also is survived by daughters Karen, 67, and Linda, 57, and her son, Karl, 66; three other grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

“Mom wanted to sprinkle some of her ashes on Pikes Peak,” Pieper said. “And I thought, ‘I’d like to go back 60 years later and see if I can do the Ascent.’ Maybe I can finish it, maybe not even do it as a race. And then maybe I could keep her legacy going.”

(04/09/2021) Views: 1,276 ⚡AMP
by Jill Rothenberg
Share
Pike's Peak Marathon

Pike's Peak Marathon

A Journey to the Top and Perhaps Back The Pikes Peak Ascent® and Pikes Peak Marathon® will redefine what you call running. Sure, they start out like a lot of races on Any Street, USA. But your first left turn will have you turning in the direction of up! During the next 10 miles, as you gain almost 6,000...

more...
Share

Des Linden will be looking to break the 50K world record next month

Boston Marathon champ Des Linden is officially entering the world of ultramarathoning, as she has announced that she will attempt to break the 50K world record next month.

In mid-April at an undisclosed location (details are intentionally vague because of pandemic concerns), she will take a crack at U.K. runner Aly Dixon‘s record of 3:07:20, which she set in 2019.

In October, Linden invited runners to participate in a challenge she called Run Destober, in which each day, participants ran the number of kilometers (or miles) that corresponded to the date. For example, on October 1 participants ran one kilometer, and on October 31 they ran 31. In total, the challenge worked out to be either 496K or 496 miles.

While this was a great way to engage the running community, it was also an effective way for Linden to slowly ramp up her weekly mileage and see how her body responded to the increased volume.

Back in August, Linden also expressed interest in ultramarathoning when she said in an interview that the Comrades Marathon and UTMB were on her bucket list. It is unclear whether this run will take place on the road or the trails, but either way, her result next month will be a good indicator of how she’ll fare when she finally decides to tackle the trails.

The headphone company Jaybird is supporting Linden during her record-breaking attempt, and the official announcement was made on their Instagram page on Tuesday. In order to beat Dixon’s time, Linden will need to maintain a pace of 3:44 per kilometer.

Given that she ran approximately 3:22 per kilometer for her marathon personal best of 2:22:38, this pace doesn’t seem unattainable, but of course, in a 50K race, it’s hard to say what could happen in the last 8K. We will be waiting for her result in April, and if she accomplishes her goal we expect to see Linden attempt more ultras in the future.

(03/10/2021) Views: 913 ⚡AMP
by Brittany Hambleton
Share
Share

Running With an Upset Stomach Is the Worst. Here Are 6 Ways Ginger Can Help

Do you suffer from stomach troubles on the run? This flowering plant might help relieve some discomfort.

Ginger is a bold, aromatic spice that once might’ve been only associated with the holiday season (think gingerbread) but has since made its way into mainstream health trends (such as drinking ginger tea or ginger water to aid digestion). And, it easily elevates baked goods, savory dishes, and drinks.

“Ginger is actually a plant, and the ginger spice that we use in cooking comes from the root of the plant,” says Amber Pankonin, M.S., RD, owner of Stirlist.

Not only is it delicious, it also has some awesome health benefits.

“Ginger has been traditionally known as a carminative or a substance that soothes the intestinal tract,” says Sonya Angelone, M.S., RDN, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “More recently, ginger has been found to have anti-inflammatory effects.”

It’s also a good source of phytonutrients (compounds produced naturally in plants).

“Ginger itself is not a great source of any one particular nutrient, but it does contain phytochemicals, which are found in both fresh and dried versions,” says Pankonin.

Benefits of Ginger


→ Ginger may help with wear and tear on knees. 
In one study done on people with osteoarthritis, it was found that fresh ginger may help to lower pain and disability from arthritis.

“Since this is a condition of wear and tear, runners may find that ginger can help knee pain, and it is safer than taking non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory medications,” Angelone.

→ It might help improve digestion in general. 
Runners can deal with a gamut of gut issues, from diarrhea to constipation, which can impact your training.

Ginger has been shown to help to improve gastric motility, which basically means it can help with the movement of food from your mouth to the large intestine, says Pankonin. This one is important for runners because a healthy digestive system can help improve performance.

→ It may help treat migraines.

Ginger was shown to help reduce migraine pain as much as prescription medicine in this study published in Phytotherapy Research in 2014. Headaches are a pain for everyone, especially if they get in your way of training.

“A small amount of powdered ginger may do the trick and get them back on the road,” says Angelone.

→ Ginger can help reduce nausea.
Ginger has antiemetic properties that can increase gastric emptying (food emptying from the stomach to the small intestine). Basically, ginger works to improve the general health of your digestive tract, which could help alleviate nausea, says Pankonin.

→ It could help with menstrual cramps.

If cramps prevent you from logging your miles, ginger may help.

There has been some research that shows ginger may be effective in decreasing pain during the first three to four days of a menstrual cycle, says Pankonin.

→ Ginger may reduce inflammation.


Anti-inflammatory compounds found in ginger—gingerols and shogaols— may be helpful in aiding recovery after long runs when inflammatory chemicals settle in, says Angelone.

How Much Ginger Should I Eat?

To get the full benefits of ginger, you don’t need very much.

In general, the average recommendation is about 1 gram of real ginger per day to help relieve nausea, and this doesn’t count anything that comes from cookies or sodas, says Pankonin. There are ginger capsules available, but before adding any kind of ginger supplement, you should consult with your physician, as it might interfere with certain medications.
​

When it comes to cooking, different forms of ginger may be best for certain dishes, according to Angelone.

Crystalized ginger, chopped: In tea (or in hot water to make a hot beverage), oatmeal, cookie recipes, apple/pear crisps, banana bread, pancakes, infused into maple syrup.

Ginger powder: It can be used most anywhere, especially when you want it blended.

Fresh ginger, grated: Hot water, tea, vegetables, stir fry, poached fish especially salmon, steamed rice (cook together).

And the type of ginger you use may also impact how much you use in recipes.

“Whenever you convert from a fresh spice to dried spice, the ratio 3:1. So, if your recipe called for 3 teaspoons of fresh ginger, you would only need 1 teaspoon of dried ginger,” says Pankonin.

The Best Ginger Recipes For Runners

Here are seven delicious ginger-filled recipes to help fuel you for your runs.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Pancakes

If you need the perfect holiday treat, try these whole wheat chocolate chip gingerbread pancakes. They are made with Greek yogurt for extra protein, making them the perfect recovery meal after a run, says Sarah Schlichter, MPH, RDN, and owner of Bucket List Tummy.

Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Chutney

This pork tenderloin with cherry chutney contains both lean protein and a good source of healthy carbohydrates from the cherry chutney—which also contains fresh ginger.

“The combination of carbs and lean protein provides a nutritious energy source for runners,” says Pankonin.

Prerun Sweet Potato Ginger Energy Bites

These sweet potato ginger energy bites are a filled with antioxidants. They make a great anti-inflammatory snack for before, during, or after a run, says Schlichter. The ginger can help alleviate any exercise-related nausea, and the sweet potatoes are a great carbohydrate option that’s easy on the stomach.

Easy Weeknight Quinoa Stir Fry

This quinoa stir fry will be a crowd favorite and chances are you might already have these ingredients in your pantry and fridge, says Pankonin. Plus, the addition of vegetables from the stir fry might even help reduce oxidative stress after long workouts.

Gingerbread Crockpot Oatmeal

This gingerbread crockpot oatmeal is a great make-ahead meal for a morning run, full of holiday flavors and carbohydrates for quick energy!” says Schlichter.

Sweet Potato Orange Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing


If you’re in need of a good energy source to fuel up before a race without upsetting your stomach, try this sweet potato orange salad with honey mustard dressing recipe. It’s made with sweet potatoes (which contain vitamin A, and help support immune health) and ginger, which makes it a great meal, says Pankonin.

Easy Egg Noodle Stir-Fry with Veggies and Chicken

Looking for a quick 30-minute meal? This egg noodle stir-fry with veggies and chickenmakes weeknight dinners easy, says Schlichter. The best part: it’s ready in one pan, and has the perfect blend of protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables for optimal recovery and balanced macronutrients.

(01/03/2021) Views: 1,471 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World
Share
Share

Cinnamon Is a Hero of Holiday Spices. Here Are Some Unexpected Health Benefits

Here’s why you you should definitely add this spice to your fueling regimen.

“Cinnamon is an aromatic spice that comes from the dried bark of the cinnamomum tree,” says Robin Foroutan, M.S., RDN, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “There are two main kinds of cinnamon: ceylon cinnamon, aka true cinnamon, and cassia cinnamon (less expensive and commonly used in processed food).”

Not only is this spice delicious, but cinnamon is also loaded with some unexpected health benefits of which runners can, and should, take advantage.

5 Health Benefits of Cinnamon for Runners

→ It may help balance your blood sugar.

Polyphenol antioxidants, found in cinnamon, may act like insulin, which means they assist glucose in moving out of the bloodstream and into cells. “This is important for runners because the faster sugar gets into muscles, the faster it can be burned for fuel,” says Foroutan.

→ It may help lower your cholesterol.

Animal studies have shown that cinnamon may play a role in lowering cholesterol concentrations in the body. In a study, mice that were fed a diet that included cinnamon extract had significantly higher HDL (good) cholesterol. Results showed it could also help lower total and LDL (bad) cholesterol, says Ginger Hultin, Seattle-based RDN, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and owner of ChampagneNutrition.

“This seems especially true for those with high cholesterol and diabetes,” says Hultin.

A human study showed that out of people in the study using 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon for 40 days, all three of the groups (but not the placebo) had lower triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, and total cholesterol, as well.

→ It may help blood vessel function.

Cinnamon has been shown to improve blood vessel dilation, which is the ability for your blood vessels to expand to allow better blood flow, in animal studies, says Foroutan. “Cinnamon is one of many natural foods that contain phytonutrients that help improve blood vessel dilation.”

This is important to runners, because blood flow is important for peak muscle and cardiovascular performance, however more research is needed to confirm the effect in humans.

→ It may help lower inflammation.

Previous small studies have shown that people who drank cinnamon tea had a higher antioxidant status than those who drank tea without cinnamon or hot water. This is likely because antioxidant flavonoids in cinnamon and the essential oils it contains, such as cinnamaldehyde, could act as free-radical scavengers (substances that protect cells from damage) and play a role in lowering inflammation, says Hultin.

Because exercise creates free radicals (unstable molecules created during normal cell metabolism) that can trigger inflammation, athletes need to go above and beyond to include plenty of foods that help the body balance inflammation. Foods that are high in antioxidants, such as cinnamon and other spices, help stabilize free radicals so they can’t inflame our cells and tissues, Foroutan says.

→ It can help reduce added sugar intake.

If you sprinkle some cinnamon on your food, the sweet taste of cinnamon can trick your tongue into thinking that a food is sweeter than it actually is. This can help people reduce the amount of added sugar they consume, says Foroutan.

Consuming too much added sugar is problematic for everyone’s health—even athletes, says Foroutan. Relying on slow burning complex carbs and natural sugars from fruit instead of reaching for candy can give you that burst of energy and keep you fueled for longer.

How much cinnamon should you eat?

To get the full benefits, you may need to eat a lot of cinnamon. But you can still benefit from adding even a bit of the spice to your diet. According to some studies, it’s safest to consume in moderation—about 1 teaspoon per day.

“It’s important to know that in studies, trials are often using amounts that are much higher than a person would typically eat in their diets; often 1 to 6 grams for up to three months. A teaspoon of cinnamon is less than 3 grams for reference,” says Hultin.

But, eating too much cinnamon could have some side effects of its own. One teaspoon of cinnamon contains between 7 and 18 milligrams of coumarin, so it’s important you don’t start loading up every dish with it.

“Cinnamon has a compound called ‘coumarin’ which has been shown to potentially have some negative effects at high levels,” says Hultin. “There is a chance of irritation to the liver and could irritate the mucosal membranes in your mouth and digestive tract.”

The Best Cinnamon Recipes for Runners

Here are 11 delicious cinnamon-filled recipes to help fuel you for your runs.

Banana Ginger Oats

If you’re looking for ways to add cinnamon to your breakfast, try these banana ginger oats.

“Naturally sweetened with nutrient-packed bananas (and nothing else!), these whole grain oats are perfect on a long-run day. Add extra cinnamon to taste for more flavor and potentially anti-inflammatory benefits,” says Hultin.

Salted Cinnamon Peanut Butter

Keep this salted cinnamon peanut butter on hand to put on top of everything from toast and oatmeal to yogurt. “Peanut butter offers a fantastic combination of fat and protein for satiety and pairs perfectly with so many carbohydrates to fuel running,” says Sarah Schlichter, MPH, RDN, registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Bucket List Tummy.

Peanut Butter Sweet Potato Bread

This peanut butter sweet potato bread is great for eating any time to fuel your runs.

“I love the combination of ingredients and flavors in this recipe,” says Amber Pankonin MS, RD, LMNT, registered dietitian and owner of Stirlist. “The cinnamon combined with sweet potatoes and peanut butter provide a nutritious energy source for runners. Cinnamon has also been known to help decrease appetite, so the combination of these ingredients can help with fullness and satiety.”

Ginger Pumpkin Breakfast Smoothie

If you’re a smoothie fan, try this ginger pumpkin breakfast smoothie.

“One of the most important parts of a pumpkin-spice mixture is the cinnamon; it’s the spice you’ll use in the greatest amount. That’s perfect for flavoring smoothies that can power your run,” says Hultin.

“Use canned pumpkin any time of year in this recipe for added vitamin A and other nutrients and don’t hold back on the cinnamon which adds intensity of flavor and some potential health benefits, too.”

Maple Cinnamon Granola

Keep this maple cinnamon granola on hand for easy snacking. “An easy make ahead snack for pre- or post-run to help provide instant energy and/or replenish glycogen levels,” says Schlichter.

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

You probably already have all the ingredients needed to whip up this apple cinnamon baked oatmeal. “Cinnamon combined with fiber sources like apples and oatmeal could be beneficial for digestive health,” says Pankonin.

Banana Chia Pudding

Try this banana chia pudding in the morning. “The perfect carbohydrate rich breakfast for before or after a run. Loaded with whole grain oats and a banana, this flavorful overnight oats can be made ahead of time [for you early risers] and is full of electrolytes,” says Schlichter.

Hawaiian Pork and Peas

For a protein-packed lunch or dinner, try this Hawaiian pork and peas recipe. “Combining lean protein with complex carbohydrates from vegetable sources is a great recovery meal for runners,” says Pankonin. “Some research has suggested that cinnamon has anti-inflammatory properties, which might also help with recovery.”

Healthier Spiced Apple Crisp

Try this tasty and healthier version of spiced apple crisp. “Meal prep this healthy crisp and use it as a breakfast or snack pre- or post-run all week long,” says Hultin. “Having a healthy, whole grain, carbohydrate-rich meal can give your body what it needs to perform. Cinnamon takes center stage in this apple and oat-based recipe. By boosting up spices like cinnamon, you can often cut back on the amount of added sugar you use.”

Apple Cinnamon Potato Bread

Looking for your new go-to snack? Find it in this apple cinnamon potato bread. “This quickbread makes for a quick, easy and convenient snack between exercise sessions, or a fast way to get quick acting carbohydrates before a run. Top it with peanut butter for more staying power,” says Schlichter.

Cinnamon Poached Chicken and Rice

If you’re a fan of savory foods, add this cinnamon poached chicken and rice dish to your meal-prep rotation.

“This savory dish combines lean protein with rice and seasoned with cinnamon. Cinnamon contains antioxidants, which might improve heart health making it a great spice for runners to include in their diets,” says Pankonin.

(01/02/2021) Views: 1,164 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World
Share
Share

New 30 for 30 Film Reveals Truths About the Tarahumara

If you're new to running and have been inundated with information about new, fancy shoes with thick, bouncy soles, it will come as somewhat of a surprise that just 11 years ago, many American runners were part of a minimalist running movement, spurred by the book Born to Run. Back then, it was all the rage to wear as little on our feet as possible.

The book by Christopher McDougall was about the Tarahumara people living in Mexico's Copper Canyon, who run hundreds of miles at a time, either barefoot or wearing sandals with old, recycled tires serving as tread. They rarely get injured and they can run forever, or so it seems. The premise of the book was that their durability was due to the biomechanics they honed by not wearing running shoes. And as the book gained in popularity, the industry pounced on the opportunity to sell something new.

But during a pivotal moment in a new ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, The Infinite Race, which debuts at 8 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, December 15, Silvino Cubesare, a Tarahumara ultrarunner and farmer, watches footage of McDougall running barefoot in Central Park. Cubesare shakes his head and says, "I don't know what they are thinking. Why do they want to run barefoot? I think they are crazy."

If runners can afford shoes, why wouldn't they use them?

The Infinite Race seeks to expose another side of the story, beginning with the fact that the Tarahumara name came from the Conquistadors. The Indigenous people call themselves the Raramuri. The audience is introduced to Irma Chavez, a Raramuri activist who adds context to the reasons why running is part of their culture-a tradition that, unsurprisingly, does not stem from lack of running shoes or organized ultramarathons like the local Ultra Maraton Caballo Blanco (more on that later), but is in fact rooted in survival and spirituality.

In the documentary, Chavez explains the "races" that the Raramuri historically participate in. The men run rarajipari, kicking a ball and chasing it together over long distances. The women pass a hoop with sticks that they carry on the run; this version is called ariweta. What the minimalist running shoe craze mostly missed in 2009 was that the Tarahumara were also running from organized crime groups that were taking over land to plant marijuana and poppy. The Raramuri people have been recruited by cartels to run the drugs across the U.S. border.

"Many families were forced out of their communities because of violence," Chavez says. "Unfortunately, you have to run away before they kill you."

The film intertwines the story behind the Ultra Maraton Caballo Blanco, a local race that was founded in 2003 by American ultrarunner Micah True, who played a central role in the Born to Run book, too. His intention was to help the Tarahumara people preserve their running heritage while also aiding a region experiencing hunger and a lack of clear water. True, who died of a heart attack in 2012, gave away cash prizes as well as corn, and the race started attracting more Americans to the area. But in 2015, gang violence threatened the safety of the event, and the American organizers called off the official race just hours before it was set to begin.

The local runners, however, raced anyway-they needed the corn vouchers to feed their families. The film covers how the events of that year unfolded from the perspective of Cecilia Villalobo, who was the director of tourism in Urique (where the race is held) at that time, and from the viewpoint of Josue Stephens, the former U.S. race director. Unsurprisingly, they viewed the circumstances-and the way they were handled-differently.

"The Infinite Race is about how outsiders, many well-intentioned, impact a community in unexpected ways," says Bernardo Ruiz, who directed the documentary. "It is also about the starkly different ways people can view events based on the economic, political, and cultural realities they inhabit."

The Infinite Race is an important story, especially for those who bought into the Born to Run frenzy and added the Caballo Blanco race to their bucket lists. It's through the voice of Chavez that we see why running has always been so critical to the Indigenous people there-a critical perspective for runners in understanding the impact they can have on the communities and cultures where they race and the narratives they choose to hear about them.

"What interests me is that space where white American athletes and Raramuri athletes negotiate power," Ruiz says. "And I am most interested in the perspective of people like Irma Chavez, who views an ultramarathon like a short spring, when you consider the long arc of history."

(01/02/2021) Views: 859 ⚡AMP
by Trail Runner Magazine
Share
Share

celebrities who love running

We runners love to find people in our gang. Whether it's swapping training plan advice or stalking Strava stats, our running pals are some of our best. But sometimes, we find inspiration in unlikely places - the celebs we follow on Instagram to start.

We've already rounded up these celebrities you didn't know were marathon runners, but of course, you don't need to run a marathon to be a runner, so we've found this list of celebs who have spoken about their love of putting one foot in front of another.

Meghan Markle Speaking to Shape years before becoming a royal, Meghan explained that she gets a lot more from running than just the fitness side of it. 'I love running but i think you have to find a work out routine that really speaks to you beyond trying to get goals for your body. For me, running, I need it as much for my head and to clear my head as I d for keeping in shape.'

Ellie Goulding The 'Starry Eyes' singer has often spoken about her love of running in interviews, recently sharing her 'run for heroes' 5K time of 23 minutes! Goulding completed the Royal Parks Half Marathon in 2014, finishing with a time of 1 hour 41 minutes.

Bear Grylls-The Man vs. Wild host had to run as part of his military training, and after taking a short break after he got out, he started up again to get in shape for TV.

'Now I really enjoy running,' he told Runner’s World. 'We live in a pretty hilly area in North Wales, and I run three times a week for about 40 minutes as part of my training.'

Jennifer Aniston The Friend's star is known to mix up her workouts to stay in shape. Aniston has been spotted out running over the years, but her trainer told Women's Health she also loves spin classes and boxing for cardio.

Jennifer Lawrence Jennifer Lawrence is said to incorporate running into her Hunger Games training, however in an interview in 2012, she admitted she was worried about people critiquing her running style. 'I’m most nervous about everybody making fun of the way I run' Lawrence said, 'I do, like, karate hands. Instead of running with my hands closed together like a normal person. It’s like I’m trying to be aerodynamic or something, so my hands are straight like razors'.

Mark Zuckerberg In 2016, the Facebook founder did a 'year of running challenge', where he attempted to run 365 miles in a year to encourage other Facebook members to get moving. Zuckerberg finished the challenge five months early.

Kate Middleton The Duchess of Cambridge is said to be a runner. In a 2018 interview with Bryony Gordon, the Duchess revealed she would never be allowed to take part in a large event like the London Marathon due to the security risk.

Gordon Ramsay The celebrity chef is a well-known runner, with an impressive marathon PB of 3:30:37.

Eva Longoria In an interview with Health the Desperate Housewives star said, 'I'm a runner, first of all. I run a lot. But I also do SoulCycle, Pilates, yoga. I usually mix it up.

Victoria Beckham Victoria Beckham's workout regime is said to include a daily 5K. Speaking to Vogue Australia, Posh Spice herself said, 'I go for a three mile run every morning and I work out for an hour with a PT, which gives me just enough time to get to the kitchen to puree Romeo's avocados'.

Reese Witherspoon The Big Little Lies star is often spotted on daily jogs with friends and her husband around LA.

Boris Johnson The Prime Minister himself recently spoke about his running regime, saying he has 'lost nearly a stone' running with his dog. The PM is running to lose weight after admitting he was 'too fat' when he caught coronavirus earlier this year.

Chris Evans Radio presenter Chris Evans has completed the London Marathon a total of five times, with a PB of 4:41:06 was in the 2017 race.

Eminem After Eminem got sober, he turned to running, regularly logging 17 miles on the treadmill. 'It gave me a natural endorphin high, but it also helped me sleep, so it was perfect. It’s easy to understand how people replace addiction with exercise,' he told Men’s Journal.

Will Smith On November 18, Will Smith knocked something else off his bucket list: he finished the Havana Half Marathon, also known as the Marabana.

According to the official race results, the actor completed the race—which went through the streets of Cuba’s capital—with a net time of 2:29:04.

Richard Branson Sir Richard Branson ran the London Marathon in 5:02:24 in 2010 and loved it so much he signed up to be lead sponsor the following year.

(08/30/2020) Views: 2,262 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World
Share
Share

Des Linden is considering a move to the trails

Linden says UTMB and Comrades are bucket-list races

The 2018 Boston Marathon champion and one of America’s most beloved distance runners is eyeing up some of the world’s most competitive trail races. While it’s far from a done deal, as she’s still got some unfinished business on the road, Des Linden wants to conquer both UTMB and the Comrades Marathon before her running days are over.

Linden told slowtwitch.com that ultra racing, specifically Comrades and UTMB are bucket list items for her. “I don’t spend too much time on the trails, to be honest, I think that’s why there’s so much intrigue. Exploring Chamonix and the Mont-Blanc region on foot and in a race atmosphere just looks pretty incredible.”

UTMB and the Comrades Marathon are two of the most competitive ultra races in the world. UTMB lasts several days and covers 171K, Comrades is a little shorter running either 87 and 90K depending on the year. Trail running is gaining popularity and as it does, more road runners will move from the marathon to even longer distances. (Side note: American distance legend Shalane Flanagan has also been seen doing some trail runs lately). It’ll be interesting to see, as more elite roadies make the move, if they can catch the best in the trail running business.

Jim Walmsley is a great example of a runner who has been successful at every running discipline – but his dominance lies on the trails. Walmsley made his road marathon debut at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trails. His run there was hyped as one of the most exciting storylines, with some going so far as to claim he had an outside shot at the Olympic team. Walmsley ran extremely well (a 2:15 on the insanely hilly Atlanta course is no small feat) to finish 22nd – a far cry from an Olympic berth, but an impressive debut nonetheless.

While Linden is looking to one day attempt a reverse-Walmsley, and it’ll be interested to watch her trajectory. She could help runners answer the age-old question of: do road results translate to the trails?

(08/16/2020) Views: 960 ⚡AMP
by Running Magazine
Share
Share

The Boston Marathon has been canceled for the first time in its 124-year history.

The 2020 Boston Marathon has been canceled. 

BAA organizers said Thursday that they instead will have a “virtual event” in which participants who verify that they ran 26.2 miles on their own will receive their finisher’s medal. The race had originally been scheduled for April 20 before being postponed for five months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“While we cannot bring the world to Boston in September, we plan to bring Boston to the world for a historic 124th Boston Marathon,” said Tom Grilk, the CEO of the Boston Athletic Association.

The BAA has announced that the 124th Boston Marathon will be held as a virtual event, following Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s cancellation of the marathon as a mass participation road running event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. pic.twitter.com/tlIdvsU9sq

The B.A.A. will offer a series of virtual events & activities throughout September’s Marathon Week to bring the Boston Marathon experience to the world. This will include exclusive panel discussions, champions interviews, and a downloadable toolkit with signature race elements.

Although the title of Boston Marathon champion is contested by a few dozen elite athletes, the field includes more than 30,000 recreational and charity runners, with as many as 1 million people lined up along the course trek from Hopkinton to Boston’s Back Bay. That presented organizers with a social distancing problem that won’t be solved by the fall.

The cancellation is the first ever for the race, which began in 1897 when 15 men drew a starting line in the dirt in Ashland and headed for the city to commemorate the first modern Olympic Games the previous year. In 1918, the format was modified to a relay due to World War I; the 2013 race was stopped when two bombs exploded at the finish line, several hours after the winners had finished but while many recreational runners were still on the course.

For each of those years, the race was held in April on the state holiday to commemorate the battles in Lexington and Concord that marked the start of the Revolutionary War. Traditionally, the Red Sox have scheduled their first pitch for the morning so baseball fans could wander over to Kenmore Square after the game to see the runners pass by with one mile to go.

In March, when the race was postponed to Sept. 14, Mayor Marty Walsh cited the desire to salvage the estimated $211 million pumped into the city’s economy each year. The Boston Athletic Association and marathon runners also raise about $40 million for charity.

Walsh said at the time that there was no thought of excluding the tens of thousands of amateur runners who consider running Boston a bucket list achievement. The Tokyo Marathon went on as scheduled in March with just over 200 elite runners but not the 38,000 recreational runners who had signed up; spectators at the Los Angeles Marathon were advised to practice social distancing.

“That’s not the Boston Marathon. We’re an inclusive marathon,” Walsh said. “The Boston Marathon is for everyone.”

The 2021 Boston Marathon is scheduled for April 19 and the 125th anniversary edition is scheduled for April 18, 2022.

(05/28/2020) Views: 1,492 ⚡AMP
Share
Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon

Among the nation’s oldest athletic clubs, the B.A.A. was established in 1887, and, in 1896, more than half of the U.S. Olympic Team at the first modern games was composed of B.A.A. club members. The Olympic Games provided the inspiration for the first Boston Marathon, which culminated the B.A.A. Games on April 19, 1897. John J. McDermott emerged from a...

more...
Share

Kevin Webber runs his version of Marathon des Sables at home

AFC Wimbledon fan Kevin Webber was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer five years ago and given only two years to live, he tells Sky Sports News reporter Jeremy Langdon.

That diagnosis changed Kevin's perspective on life and, when it came to making up a bucket list, the Marathon des Sables (MdS) was top.

The brutal Saharan ultra-marathon is notorious. Normally around 250 kilometers long, it means six days of suffering in desert heat with a pack on your back.

Kevin warmed up with two conventional marathons - against medical advice - while undergoing chemotherapy before running the MdS in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

This year would have been the fifth - and also would have made him the only person to run the event that many times with stage 4 cancer - but coronavirus forced the race in Morocco to be postponed early this month.

So Kevin decided to run it instead in his back garden and round his house in Epsom, Surrey.

He said: "I thought I'm not going to allow cancer to stop me doing things so equally I'm not going to allow coronavirus stopping me doing things either".

Kevin ran the 2019 race distance of 232km - around 140 miles - and fittingly made it a truly home event with the United Kingdom placed in lockdown.

"It would have been very easy for me to have gone out on the road and run a marathon in a day but that wouldn't have proved the point. About the solitude. About getting on when you're on your own. I wanted to prove to people in lockdown that even if you self-isolate you can do things," he added.

It meant an astonishing 2,700 laps round his house with each lap consisting of only 80 meters. It was not the easiest circuit either. Thirty metres through the garden. Ten metres down the side of the house - twice - together with another 20 meters at the front of the house round his two cars.

(04/21/2020) Views: 1,502 ⚡AMP
by Jeremy Langdon
Share
Marathon Des Sables

Marathon Des Sables

The Marathon des Sables is ranked by the Discovery Channel as the toughest footrace on earth. Seven days 250k Known simply as the MdS, the race is a gruelling multi-stage adventure through a formidable landscape in one of the world’s most inhospitable climates - the Sahara desert. The rules require you to be self-sufficient, to carry with you on your...

more...
Share

With South Africa entering its last week of official lockdown, Comrades Marathon unlikely to take place on June 14

With South Africa entering its last week of official lockdown, the 2020 Comrades Marathon Association has admitted that the iconic race is ‘unlikely to go ahead’ on 14 June. But organisers have not yet officially communicated their decision on the race’s future due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It takes an extraordinary amount of resilience to run the Comrades Marathon, the 90km race between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. It takes an equal amount of motivation and organisation to host the race, with thousands of moving parts all needing to come together on one day to make the experience for the approximately 27,500 runners a bucket list dream-come-true. 

Of course, it also takes money and support to make it happen, which means sponsors, and broadcast rights. A cancelled marathon would result in a massive loss of revenue, which is why it is no surprise that the race has yet to be called off, or postponed because of Covid-19. 

The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) appears to be taking every available minute to make a call. It is almost certainly a vain undertaking because the Covid-19 virus is going nowhere quickly – all the data leads to that conclusion. 

Despite the national lockdown that started on 27 March 2020, the CMA maintained its position that the race was still scheduled for 14 June 2020 even though participants would not easily be able to continue training under the strict State of National Disaster conditions. CMA quickly changed that stance after a backlash on social media. 

“We are living through unprecedented, unpredictable and unimaginably challenging times,” CMA chairperson Cheryl Winn wrote to participants recently. 

“On behalf of the Comrades Marathon Association, I thank you for your patience and apologise for the extent to which uncertainty as to the status of the 2020 Comrades Marathon may have added to your burden of anxiety, over matters far graver than any road race, over the past month. A reminder that we have promised to put an end to the uncertainty by 17 April. 

“Considering the ramifications of the 21-day national lockdown, and as Covid-19 numbers in South Africa and around the world continue to escalate, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that the 2020 Comrades Marathon will be staged on 14 June. 

“CMA’s main considerations at this stage are to encourage runners to abide by and respect all aspects and directives of Government in relation to the National Lockdown, in particular to stay at home and do not run outside of one’s own property, as well as regard for the eventual safety, welfare and potential un-preparedness of runners after having experienced a three-week interruption in training, during the critical build-up to such a gruelling endurance race. 

“With regard to possible postponement, which would require Athletics South Africa (ASA) sanction, the CMA Board is of the view that the race cannot be staged later than 4 October 2020 owing to climatic conditions.  Failing which the 2020 Comrades Marathon will have to be cancelled for the first and only time since World War 2 in the 99 year history of the race. 

We trust that runners will appreciate that within an extremely congested athletics calendar that is largely constructed around the Comrades Marathon, it is no easy task to identify an alternative date.

(04/11/2020) Views: 1,353 ⚡AMP
by Craig Ray
Share
Comrades Marathon

Comrades Marathon

Arguably the greatest ultra marathon in the world where athletes come from all over the world to combine muscle and mental strength to conquer the approx 90kilometers between the cities of Pietermaritzburg and Durban, the event owes its beginnings to the vision of one man, World War I veteran Vic Clapham. A soldier, a dreamer, who had campaigned in East...

more...
72 Tagged with #Bucket list, Page: 1 · 2


Running News Headlines


Copyright 2024 MyBestRuns.com 23,151