Running News Daily

USATF 2022 Championships finals results through June 25

There has already been a lot of a action during the 2022 USATF Championships in Eugene Oregon.  Sydney McLaughlin set a new world record in the 400m hurdles (Second photo).  Michael Norman won the 400m (first photo) and Fred Kerley won the 100m (third photo). Photos  by Jivko

Women’s 100m

1. Melissa Jefferson — 10.69 2. Aleia Hobbs — 10.72 3. Twanisha Terry — 10.744. Tamari Davis — 10.785. Tamara Clark — 10.826. Celera Barnes — 10.86

Women’s 400m 

1. Talitha Diggs — 50.22 2. Kendall Ellis — 50.35 3. Lynna Irby — 50.674. Wadeline Jonathas — 50.845. Kennedy Simon — 50.906. Allyson Felix — 51.307. Jaide Stepter — 51.308. Kaylin Whitney — 51.31

Women’s 1500m 

1. Sinclaire Johnson — 4:03.29 2. Cory McGee — 4:04.52 3. Elle St. Pierre — 4:05.144. Karissa Schweizer — 4:05.405. Heather MacLean — 4:06.40

Women’s 10,000m (from May 27)

1. Karissa Schweizer — 30:49.56 2. Alicia Monson — 30:51.09 3. Natosha Rogers — 31:29.804. Emily Infeld — 31:30.045. Weini Kelati — 31:39.90

Women’s 100m Hurdles 

1. Keni Harrison — 12.34 2. Alaysha Johnson — 12.35 3. Alia Armstrong — 12.474. Tonea Marshall — 12.555. Tia Jones — 12.59DNS. Nia Ali (has bye onto world team)

Women’s 400m Hurdles 

1. Sydney McLaughlin — 51.41 WR 2. Britton Wilson — 53.08 3. Shamier Little — 53.924. Anna Cockrell — 53.985. Shannon Meisberger — 55.39

Men’s 100m 

1. Fred Kerley — 9.77 2. Marvin Bracy-Williams — 9.85 3. Trayvon Bromell — 9.884. Micah Williams — 9.905. Elijah Hall-Thompson — 9.906. Kyree King — 9.96DNS. Christian Coleman (has bye onto world team)

Men’s 400m 

1. Michael Norman — 43.56 2. Champion Allison — 43.70 3. Randolph Ross — 44.174. Elija Godwin — 44.345. Vernon Norwood — 44.356. Bryce Deadmon — 44.547. Noah Williams — 45.048. Ismail Turner — 45.56

Men’s 1500m

1. Cooper Teare — 3:45.86 2. Jonathan Davis — 3:46.01 (doesn’t have standard)3. Josh Thompson — 3:46.07 (doesn’t have standard)4. Eric Holt — 3:46.15 (doesn’t have standard)5. Reed Brown — 3:46.28 (doesn’t have standard)6. Johnny Gregorek — 3:46.36 (has standard)11. Yared Nuguse — 3:47.46 (has standard)

Men’s 10,000m (from May 27)

1. Joe Klecker — 28:28.71 2. Grant Fisher — 28:28.81 3. Sean McGorty — 28:29.574. Dillon Maggard — 28:30.755. Shadrack Kipchirchir — 28:30.79

Men’s 3000m Steeplechase 

1. Hillary Bor — 8:15.76 2. Evan Jager — 8:17.29 3. Benard Keter — 8:19.164. Duncan Hamilton — 8:20.235. Anthony Rotich — 8:23.15

Demystifying Carbon Fiber, A Key Super Shoe Ingredient

The plate is just one part of a midsole’s secret sauce.

Four years ago, Nike launched the Vaporfly 4%, enthralling us with the promise its name implied: a 4-percent boost in running economy. Before the shoe’s release, Eliud Kipchoge wore the Vaporfly while attempting to run a marathon in less than two hours in 2017’s Breaking2 Project. He eventually succeeded two years later in the Alphafly Next%, the Vaporfly’s beefed-up, controversial descendant.

It takes a superhuman like Kipchoge to break what was once thought an impossible barrier, but stats show the average runner can also benefit from running in super shoes. In 2019, Strava data showed runners ran 4 to 5 percent faster in the Vaporfly or Next% compared to runners wearing an average trainer.

Trailing Nike, other brands dove in, releasing their own rendition of super shoes, and adding a smidge of original flavor (e.g., Saucony’s Speedroll tech; the decoupled midsole on the Puma Fast-R). But there are two common denominators these models share: a responsive midsole foam and a carbon-fiber plate. The midsole foam is usually made from a polyether block amide thermoplastic (also known as Peba, or the Arkema-trademarked Pebax). Examples include Nike’s ZoomX, Puma’s Nitro Elite, and Saucony’s PwrrunPB. Compared with standard foam (EVA), Peba is lighter, more compliant, and more resilient.

“Typically, foams act as a cushioning ingredient and plates act as a stiffening ingredient,” said Rebekah Broe, director of product and performance footwear at Hoka, on a video call. The plate limits flexibility, acting as a propulsion agent in the gait cycle. It works in harmony with the responsive foam sandwiching it, thus delivering even higher energy return as you run.

Elliot Heath, Nike product line manager, referred to the carbon-fiber plate as an “enabler.” In constructing the Vaporfly and subsequent models, the Nike running footwear team focused on stiffness and propulsion. The placement of the plate as well as its shape—it has curves like a spoon—enhances your stride’s toe-off. 

The plate in Hoka’s road racing models, for example, is fork-shaped and sits closer to the heel. It curves higher in the rear of the shoe and swoops down closer to the ground in the forefoot. “Its offset helps reduce energy loss at the ankle joint and increases stiffness to reduce energy loss at the big toe,” said Broe. “It gives you this balanced ride because you have really soft compliant foam under the foot.”

Hoka released a carbon-fiber trail shoe, the Tecton X, earlier this year. We dissected its midsole in “The Cut Up” last issue, revealing two parallel plates to allow dexterity over obstacles while still providing that propulsive stiffness. The ski-like plates are markedly different from the wishbone-shaped single plate in Hoka’s road racing shoes. Broe said Hoka worked with carbon-fiber vendors to finesse and mold the plates to meet the shoes’ specific needs.

Broe was evasive about which carbon-fiber vendors Hoka uses, withholding that specific information. As predicted, Nike also dodged the question, with Heath stating, “We’re not really in a position to talk exactly about our manufacturers, but all of the initial research and building is done here at Nike campus.”

At The Running Event in Austin, Texas, last November, I met with the carbon-fiber manufacturer Carbitex. Founded in 2010, the company shifted its focus to footwear about five years ago. Shoe brands, including Adidas, Altra, and Scott, are listed on Carbitex’s site.

Carbon fiber is valued not only for its stiffness to encourage propulsion but also because shoe manufacturers can control flexibility. The human foot, Carbitex founder Junus Khan explained on a video call, is asymmetrical; its tendons and ligaments change in stiffness based on need. The malleability of Carbitex’s plates allows the foot to bend in its natural way while providing stability and the prized propulsion PR chasers crave. “When it comes to sporting equipment, how do you create technology that helps augment people’s natural performance?” asked Khan. “The traditional carbon-fiber plates in shoes kind of tell you how to run because it’s a fixed rigid plate.”

Carbon fiber, according to Khan, has been around for only about 50 years. It’s still the new kid on the block in terms of usage. It’s implemented in a host of sectors, from military aerospace to backpacks. Khan describes Carbitex’s role working with shoe brands as “the best supporting actor,” not the main event. The relationship is built on independent research, data, and athlete testing.

Carbitex’s Three Plate Technologies

Khan’s team is currently working on a plant-based carbon-fiber material. The next phase for carbon-fiber-plated footwear is making it more accessible, Khan said, pointing to Vibram, Gore-Tex, and Boa as examples. “They’re still premium but have found their way into products that are able to benefit a wider population,” he said. “That’s not necessarily what people think about when they think of technology development, but to enable new technology to come down in price requires a whole different type of engineering.”

It’s still too early to know the long-term effects of running in shoes with carbon-fiber plates, but there’s some concern that overuse could weaken a runner’s foot muscles. Conversely, a study at the University of Calgary found that stiffness improved foot biomechanics, potentially staving off MTP (metatarsophalangeal) joint injury, turf toe, and other ailments. Still, another study conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology found that there was no improvement in running economy when carbon-fiber plates were added to shoe soles. 

Only time will tell which party is correct. It should be noted, however, that the plate is only one part of the equation; everything must work in concert for the ultimate running experience. “You can have a great shoe that has one bad feature that throws everything else off versus having a bad shoe with one awesome feature that is not going to fix it,” said Khan. “People ask, ‘What is the secret?’ And the secret is the sum. The sum is greater than the parts.” 

How To Run Slow

The key to running fast is learning to run slow. I have said that so often that it's practically my version of a coaching campaign slogan. Make Aerobic Development Great Again!

But what does it mean, and how do you do it? Of all the questions I get, these are probably the most common. People struggle to define how fast their everyday, non-workout runs should be.

And these questions are the most important ones you will ask in your running career. There are countless stories of athletes who learned to slow down, which kept them healthy, which allowed them to run more, which made them faster.

For example, every runner in Boulder has seen the Japanese Olympic team doing their training camps on the surrounding trails. Most of the time, they are running at a pace similar to a sedated sloth. But sometimes, they are running like antelopes on amphetamines. This polarization of training is necessary for higher volume, which is necessary for training and racing breakthroughs.

The easiest way to pinpoint your everyday pace is through a heart-rate monitor. The classic formula for less experienced runners is 180 minus age as a cap on your heart rate during most runs.

However, that formula is crude and controversial. (It'll be too fast for elites and experienced runners, and sometimes too slow for people just getting started). Most of us use perceived exertion to determine our running speeds anyway.

So for most of us, running easy and slowly enough is a mystery. Here are five tips to make sure you run slow enough on your easy days.

1. Run conversationally with friends

If you can hold a conversation about your latest Netflix obsession without gasping for air, then you are probably running easy enough. My rule is three complete sentences at a time.

2. Run conversationally with your dog

Dog jogs are a great way to control speed. Also, the biggest advantage of all-dogs can't talk about human politics!

3. Do the breath test

If you don't have a friend or a dog, you would make a good main character in a sad country song. But there is still a way to see if your breathing is controlled.

I am a solo runner, and I use the breath test. If I can hold my breath for five steps mid-run without changing my pace, then I know my heart rate is controlled enough.

4. Make photography your workout

As runners, we get a unique perspective on the world that most people never even think about. Use that perspective to take photos!

Try to take one photo each run and post it on your social media. Looking for that perfect photo opportunity will have you relaxed and exploring new places. Stopping to take the photo will ensure you aren't chasing your fastest time or a Strava segment. And posting the photo will help dilute all of the political posts on Facebook. Wins all around!

5. Wear your slow shoes

We all have that one pair of shoes that are rock solid but with limited upside, sitting neglected in the corner. If you put those on, you won't have the urge to hammer an easy run.

Putting it all together, keep most of your runs easy. In general, less experienced runners should only run hard one to two days per week, and more experienced runners can run hard one to three days per week. The rest of the time, try to practice slow running as much as possible.

More Carbs Correlates With Less GI Distress in Runners

Race nutrition is a popular subject of discussion and a frequent source of anxiety for runners. Specifically, anxiety about getting nutrition in and keeping it down. This is because gastrointestinal (GI) distress is a common complaint among endurance athletes, and something that can undo even the best thought out plans and undo months of training.

A recent publication may provide some guidance for those who suffer this common affliction in events. The paper was a collaboration between researchers in the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States and looked at ultramarathon runners participating in a 60K race.

The researchers were interested in determining how frequently athletes complained of GI distress during the event and whether or not the type and amount of nutrition being taken in had any impact on the frequency and severity of those symptoms. In addition, the scientists hypothesized a specific biological premise that leads to GI distress in athletes-and they set out to find evidence to prove or disprove that theory.

This is important because to date there have been many reasons postulated as to why endurance athletes develop GI symptoms but none have ever been shown definitively to be at the root of the issue.

These authors believed that during exercise blood flow is diverted away from the organs of the GI tract and this would result in inflammation and injury that in turn would cause all those symptoms that stop you from being able to take on additional nutrition. They set out to prove this by measuring markers of inflammation taken from the blood of the runners obtained before and after the event, looking for generic markers of inflammation that can be present anywhere in the body and for levels of a marker very specific to the GI tract.

Intestinal fatty acid binding protein or I-FABP is a marker in the blood that shows up in very specific conditions of inflammation and of damage to the organs and tissues of the GI tract. By looking for this specific marker, the authors hoped to show that GI tract injury was occurring and that this was the cause of GI symptoms.

So what did they find?

There were 33 athletes in this study, 28 of whom were male, and nearly three-quarters of them reported experiencing some symptoms of GI distress. This could have been anything from nausea to abdominal pain to diarrhea. While so many experienced symptoms, very few of the athletes reported these as being particularly severe. In fact on a 10-point scale of severity, with 10 being the worst, the average score was only 1.9-so not exactly anywhere near debilitating.

As to the markers of inflammation, blood samples taken before and after the event did show that the non-specific markers of inflammation did rise, but this was true whether or not an athlete suffered GI distress of any kind (this is consistent with previously reported research on inflammatory markers in exercise). I-FABP levels, though, did not increase even in those athletes with the worst GI symptoms. So gut specific injury and inflammation did not appear to be the mechanism that caused these symptoms. 

The one thing that was associated with symptoms was the amount of nutrition taken during the event. There was an inverse relationship in this regard. That is to say, those athletes that took the most nutrition, and especially when that nutrition was in the form of carbohydrates, experienced the fewest and least severe symptoms.

The reason for this appeared to be that when carbohydrates were being ingested, this improved blood flow to the gut through various mechanisms and prevented many of the symptoms often associated with low blood flow states.

This study definitely has to be interpreted with a certain degree of caution because it was small and included very few women. Still, the findings are consistent with previously published research-though the specific results related to increased carbohydrate consumption being associated with fewer symptoms is new and of interest.

Despite these limitations, the idea that athletes who take in more nutrition in the form of carbohydrates tend to do better with respect to GI symptoms is an important one. This suggests that athletes who have had issues in the past should consider a race nutrition plan that has them taking in a higher amount of fuel earlier in their event and doing this with carbohydrates as the preferred fuel. 

While this study did not confirm the cause of GI symptoms being inflammatory in nature, it did rule it out, and so the search for specific causes of these problem will continue.

Western States 100 Time Predictions Based On Historical Data

The Western States 100 is the Super Bowl of US trail running, just with fewer cryptocurrency commercials. Every year, the race gathers some of the best athletes in the world to test themselves on the world-famous course. The competition, along with comprehensive data gathering by the race organizers, provides a massive statistical opportunity.

Marshall Burke, associate professor of Earth System Science at Stanford University, seized that opportunity with some wonderfully cool data analyses heading into the 2022 race. The research question he sought to answer: how are race times progressing as the sport grows, and how are those times affected by temperature changes?

Marshall is a wonderful athlete himself, with an April 2022 Fastest Known Time on the Buffalo River Trail in Arkansas, so he's used to moving fast. In his spare time, between research and Zoom calls, he compiled the data on finishing times and temperatures, controlling for years when there was snow on the course or when the course was altered. 

"I may never run Western States," Marshall says. "But I can run statistics on it!"

He's doing world-changing work on climate change at Stanford University, and that made his quest have both a personal and academic interest. "This combines my research focus on the impacts of climate with my hobby of running slowly through the mountains," he says. Since this was a quick analysis for fun (and to help me with coaching; helps to have really, really smart friends), Marshall wants to be clear that the numbers could change. And I want to be clear that any errors are the fault of the field of Statistics for being the worst.

Let's all run fast through some of the fascinating data he gathered!Finding #1: Times of top finishers have progressed rapidly.

Since 2000, a linear model of top times for men and women shows bonkers improvement. Bonkers is a scientific term; you'd know it if you, like me, took an Intro To Stats class in 2004. The male winner is about 2 hours faster on average, with the same general improvement for the average of places 2 through 5. The female winners are around 1 hour faster, with places 2 through 5 improving more than 2 hours.When not accounting for temperature, times would be expected to drop considerably each year-around 4 minutes per year for men since the 1980s, and about 4:45 per year for women. Interestingly, the women's top 5 times are coming down faster than the winning time, showing a tighter race at the front.

I asked Marshall to run the men's times with Jim Walmsley being removed. Want to see a cool chart of just how much of an outlier he is? Taking out Jim's winning times moved the linear regression substantially, with the new red line predicting substantially slower times overall. And if he didn't get lost in 2016, the effect would be even more pronounced! You know you're a good runner when you mess up the statistics.  

Finding #2: For all finishers, men are improving gradually, while women are improving rapidly.

Since 2000, the average women's finish time has improved by 5 minutes and 15 seconds per year! Meanwhile, the average finisher independent of gender has only improved around 2 minutes per year. So women are driving the sport forward in an emphatic way! Bosses!

Finding #3: Heat has a massive performance impact.

Let's start with a simple scatterplot of heat versus winning time.There is clearly a ton of variation in the scatter. Heat is not destiny. But there is some clear relationship, so maybe it's destiny's child. If you go too hard on a hot day, the body has to pay the bills bills bills later.

Marshall ran multiple regression analyses to combine the effects of overall time improvements with heat increases to give us a more sophisticated analysis, again also controlling for whether there was snow on the course. He is so damn sophisticated! Using times since 2000, the general rule is that for every 1 degree F increase in temperature in Auburn, California on race day, there is a 2:48 increase in winning time for men and a 2:52 increase for women. Removing Jim's times (Mr. Mess-Up-Your-Stats), there is a 3:26 increase for men for every degree increase.

For the average finisher using the same regression analysis, 1 degree F increases correspond with 2:34 increases in finishing times. DNFs go up about 0.5% for every 1 degree F increase as well. The ratio of times for men and women is not significantly impacted by temperature, so even though the hot year in 2021 saw women absolutely rock the list of top finishers, that may not be explained by heat in the way that everyone assumed.Finding #4: Predictions for 2022

The forecast from Weather Underground is currently 97 degrees F on race day in Auburn, relative to an average of 89. Combining the heat data with the overall improvement in times as the sport progresses, here are the predictions from Marshall's model, again based on data from the last 20 years.

For the male winner, it depends heavily on whether we remove Jim from the data. Assuming Jim is a true outlier, we can expect a winning time around 15 hours. For women, it's 17.5 hours. For the average racer, times should be around a half hour slower than normal, but that is affected by a higher DNF rate, so I'd suggest athletes build in much more buffer.

The trend in the 10th place times is most instructive to me, as a coach that is trying to help support athletes getting an invitation to next year's race. Those 10th place times have come down by massive margins over time, 9:22 for men and 12:50 for women. But the times are also more affected by the heat relative to the top 5 finishers. Put it all together, and the model predicts that 20 hours will place in the top-10 for women, and around 17 hours for men.

My personal prediction will be for fast winning times, but a greater spread after that, with the 10th place man and woman being around 30 minutes slower than predicted. The faster times as the sport progresses will not follow a linear model eventually, and my guess is that we are starting to approach an asymptote. To paraphrase Mark Twain, there are lies, damn lies, Statistics, and a running coach pulling wild guesses out of his butt.

Three Big Conclusions

Respect the heat, but don't respect it too much.  

It's good to have brilliant friends like Marshall when you're looking for a possible coaching advantage. 

Finally, Jim Walmsley breaks statistics.

50 Years After Title IX: The landmark legislation has had a profound impact on gender equality but it hasn’t fixed everything

It’s been a year of celebration for women in sports, but particularly for women in running. We honored the first women to officially enter the Boston Marathon 50 years ago. We marked the 50th anniversary of the Mini 10K in Central Park this summer— “the world’s original all-women’s road race.” It’s also been 50 years since the “six who sat” protested at the starting line of the New York City Marathon, fighting for the right to compete in the same race as the men.

But perhaps the biggest anniversary of all is 50 years of Title IX, the bill that in 37 succinct words changed everything:

“No person in the United State shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to other discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

A half century ago, on June 23, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed the civil rights legislation into law, and the effects have rippled ever since. It altered education significantly across the country, barring sex discrimination in schools, creating opportunities in sports, and, ultimately, allowing women to enter careers that were once completely dominated by men.

It seems unfathomable to today’s youth that, not long ago, these were not guaranteed rights. At the same time, Title IX has been far from perfect in its execution and its results. It continues to leave people of color and those of lower socio-economic status behind. The inclusion of transgender rights under the law is still under review as a dozen states seek to ban transgender women and girls from participating in women and girls’ sports. Today, 75 percent of high school boys participate in sports compared to 60 percent of girls. Women make up 44 percent of all NCAA athletes (compared to 13 percent before 1972), but still have 60,000 fewer athletic opportunities than men, according to the NCAA.

“The biggest lasting legacy of Title IX has been the understanding that it’s a civil right to be able to participate in school sports, because there’s education in getting to use your body to achieve various goals, working as a team, pushing yourself, testing your limits,” says Victoria Jackson, a sports historian and assistant professor at Arizona State University and the 2006 NCAA 10,000-meter champion. “That is pretty radical and has resulted in all sorts of consequences beyond the world of school sports, for individuals and for society. That’s really important.”

Title IX is a story of many chapters—continually revised politically, judicially, and culturally. In order to strengthen and sustain it, the law will always need guardians and defenders. In the middle of this year-long commemoration, for example, the Supreme Court is poised to overturn another 50-year-old ruling, Roe v. Wade, a decision that will strip women of their reproductive rights and ban abortions in several states—a devastating blow to the progress women have made in attaining education and achieving career advancement as a result of the ability to choose when and if they become pregnant.

“We want to celebrate the wins, as we are doing with Title IX, but we also want to be aware that the fight is not over,” said Nicole LaVoi, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, during the espnW Power Summit in May. “A lot of gains have been made. And there’s a lot of work still left to do.”

It’s impossible to adequately capture the scope and reach of 50 years of Title IX in a single swoop (we’ve got a comprehensive timeline here), but the milestone deserves reflection. Female runners and track and field athletes have always been on the forefront of pushing change. Whether they realized it or not, during the decades leading to the law, the simple act of showing up and running when their presence wasn’t welcomed or recommended was an act of advocacy that pushed the movement forward. Here are four reflections on Title IX honoring its past, present, and future.

Nike will fully shut down operations in Russia, joining other international companies that have withdrawn from the country after its brutal invasion of Ukraine

Nike Inc. suspended operations three months ago at all of its company-owned and operated stores in Russia but like other major corporations, has attempted to avoid exposing employees to hardship during a complete withdrawal.

The Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported last month that Nike had ended its relationship with Inventive Retail Group, its largest franchisee in the country.

"Our priority is to ensure we are fully supporting our employees while we responsibly scale down our operations over the coming months,” the sports apparel maker said Thursday.

(Second photo: one of many images of the war Russia has waged against Ukraine.) 

Nike, like many recognizable Western brands, was swift to repudiate Russia over the war in Ukraine. However, it was among a small minority of companies—including Burger King, the Marriott hotel group and British supermarket Marks and Spencer—that struggled to completely extricate themselves from the Russian market due to complex franchise agreements.

Three months since Moscow launched the invasion, more companies are transitioning from suspending their Russian operations to leaving the country entirely, including two iconic American brands, McDonald’s and Starbucks, and French carmaker Renault.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to fight back against companies suspending operations or leaving the country and said he will nationalize their assets. Renault marks the first major nationalization of a Western company’s assets after handing its factory over to the city of Moscow, reportedly for a nominal sum of one ruble.

South African runner takes on three triathlons in three countries in six days – all to help feed hungry children in Africa

South African runner, Rehan Greeff, will take on the biggest sporting challenge of his life from 27 June as he attempts to complete three full triathlons in three countries in just six days and all for a worthy cause – to feed hungry children in Africa.

Greeff, a chartered accountant now living in the United Kingdom, is the biggest individual fundraiser for the non-governmental organisation ForAfrika (previously known as JAM). For the past few years, he has set himself personal quests under the title of "Run Forest Run" – a nod to his childhood nickname, which he was given because he had to wear metal leg braces just like the film character Forrest Gump.

After what he can only call "miraculous healing" of his knee injuries during a church service in 2017, he decided to give thanks by taking on these quests in support of vulnerable children. In 2021, he raised a whopping £50,000 (almost R1 000 000) on his mission to run the equivalent of seven marathons in one go; the furthest he had ever run.

He completed his 300km run around Greater London in aid of the organisation's #zerohunger campaign in 49 hours and 17 minutes and set a new record for the route in the process.

He challenged (and trained) about 60 others to join him in running the furthest they had ever run too, be that 10km, 100km or anything in between.

"That was inspirational! That brings hope ... when people pull together with a vision to impact thousands. That takes commitment, sacrifice and intentionality," Greeff said.

This year, he is taking it all a huge step further – his "Tri-Challenge" with a total distance of 678km in one week in South Africa, Uganda and the UK. He chose these countries because he was born in South Africa where malnutrition rates are on the rise; Uganda because ForAfrika is working with refugees there whose lives have been devastated by war and climate change; and England, because it's his new home.

A full triathlon is made up of a 3.8km swim, a 180km cycle and a 42.2km run. Greeff will complete three bespoke routes in Cape Town (South Africa) on 27 June, Kisoro (Uganda) on 29 June and London (UK) on 2 July 2022.

"The swimming and cycling will be new for me," he says, before calling on people all over the world to join him and help raise funds for hungry children in Africa.

His target this year is also bigger than last year's at £100,000. 

It costs just £5 a month to feed a child. So, if Rehan reaches his goal he will be able to ensure that 1,667 children receive a highly nutritious meal each school day during the year. 

Do you want to help? Are you ready to #RunForAfrika? Head on over to runforafrika.funraise.org or runforestrun.run for more information.

The 2023 Tokyo Marathon will be run at full capacity of 37,500 runners

In March 2022, we came together to hold the first in-person Tokyo Marathon in two years, with the slogan "The Day We Unite." Now, runners, volunteers, spectators and supporters all have their eyes set on the event's next theme, "ONE STEP AHEAD."This design symbolizes how each and every person enthusiastically advances step by step, in their own unique way.

The Tokyo Marathon is also steadily moving forward to provide people with the joy of running and what lies beyond it. 

As they move forward, organizers of the Tokyo Marathon said today that the 2023 edition would be held Sunday, 5 March, at full capacity of 37,500 runners.  Here is the official information as posted on their website. 

Cut-off Times & Start Times

Marathon: 7 hours (9:10 a.m. - 4:10 p.m.) *The time limit will be based on the starting gun of the first wave.

Wheelchair: 2 hours and 10 minutes (9:05 a.m)

Marathon start time: 9:10 a.m. (Wave Start) Runners who fail to pass through the checkpoint before the cut-off time will be removed from the race.　Furthermore, runners who lag excessively behind the cut-off time pace may be stopped to leave the course at anytime.

Eligibility

Those who fulfill the following conditions, and whose participation is approved by the organizer (including those who deferred their entry to the 2023 event):

1) Marathon: Must be at least 19 years of age on the race day.

1-1) General 

- Runners who are capable of completing the race within 6 hours and 30 minutes.

1-2) Semi-Elite Athletes

- Athletes who satisfy the requirements set forth by the "RUN as ONE - Tokyo Marathon 2023".

1-3) Elite Athletes 

- Athletes, registered with the JAAF in fiscal 2021 who satisfy the special requirements set forth by the JAAF.

- Invited Athletes: National and international runners nominated by the organizer and/or the JAAF.

Event Fee

1) Marathon: Japan residents - 23,300 JPY (from overseas - 25,300 JPY)

2) 10.7km Race: Japan residents - 12,400 JPY (from overseas - 13,500 JPY)

* Entry, Covid testing, event fee refund insurance, handling and tax included.

* As part of the COVID-19 countermeasures, pre-race testing is planned to be conducted. However, if the testing doesn't take place due to any changes in countermeasures planned in accordance with the laws on infectious diseases, the event fee will be partially refunded.

How to Enter: Register online

Entry Period: Registration will open on August 1, 2022 (Mon)

* The registration period may differ depending on the eligibility group. 

* Selection will be made by random drawing if the entry exceeds the field size.

* Donation and Charity Runner applications open from July 11 (Mon).

Dalilah Muhammad among Olympic gold medalists to miss USATF Outdoor Champs

Rio Olympic 400m hurdles champion Dalilah Muhammad will miss this week’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships due to a hamstring injury.

She received a waiver from USATF to accept her bye into July’s world championships as a defending world champion. Usually, reigning world and Diamond League season champions with byes into worlds still have to compete in at least one round of nationals.

Muhammad, who took silver to Sydney McLaughlin in Tokyo in the second-fastest time in history, last raced May 21 and withdrew before a planned race June 12. She and McLaughlin last went head-to-head in Tokyo.

McLaughlin is entered at USATF Outdoors, where a top-three finish will clinch a spot at worlds. At the last worlds in 2019, McLaughlin took silver behind Muhammad.

ESPN and WCVB has signed a deal with the Boston Athletics Association to provide exclusive year-round coverage for all their events including the Marathon

The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) announced today that ESPN and WCVB Channel 5 will serve as the exclusive national and local broadcast partners, respectively, for the Boston Marathon beginning in 2023. WCVB will also provide exclusive year-round coverage for all B.A.A. events including the B.A.A. 5K, B.A.A. 10K, and B.A.A. Half Marathon.

“We’re honored to partner with ESPN and WCVB Channel 5, respected market leaders who bring a spirit of innovation and thoughtful storytelling that will propel the mission of the B.A.A. and legacy of the world’s oldest annual marathon forward,” said Jack Fleming, acting Chief Executive Officer of the B.A.A. “Both have established a tradition of broadcasting world-class athletic events, and we are excited to build on this tradition together into the future.”

“The Boston Marathon is one of the world’s most recognizable and best-known sporting events and we’re proud to be able to bring it to ESPN viewers for years to come,” said Burke Magnus, President, Programming and Original Content, for ESPN. “We look forward to working with the B.A.A. and WCVB to present the stories and athletic achievements of this classic race.”

“The B.A.A. and the Boston Marathon are esteemed around the world and beloved by our community, and to be launching this exclusive partnership as WCVB marks 50 years in broadcasting and service to the community is especially fitting,” said Kyle I. Grimes, WCVB Channel 5 President and General Manager. “WCVB has a proud history of covering the market’s marquee events, and the Boston Marathon is the perfect addition to Channel 5’s signature, local programming. We also look forward to working with the B.A.A. year-round to highlight their many other athletic events as well as the great work they do in the community.”

ESPN will broadcast the 127th Boston Marathon, scheduled to take place on Monday, April 17, 2023, on its flagship channel from 8:30 a.m. ET until 1:00 p.m. ET. In addition, ESPN will also have coverage of the race within SportsCenter before the live coverage and later in the day, as well as coverage appearing on other ESPN shows and platforms.

Live coverage of the Boston Marathon will air on WCVB beginning at 4:00 a.m. ET through 8:00 p.m. ET. The race will be exclusively simulcast regionally on WCVB Channel 5’s Hearst Television owned sister-stations WMUR (Manchester, NH), WMTW (Portland/Auburn, ME), and WPTZ (Burlington, VT/Plattsburgh, NY). WCVB and all of its television partners will provide coverage of the marathon on their digital platforms and mobile apps. The Boston Marathon will also be live streamed on Very Local Boston, and the streaming platform will host year-round content featuring the B.A.A. WCVB will also serve as the first-ever exclusive broadcast partner for the B.A.A.’s Distance Medley races and will provide year-round coverage of the B.A.A. and its races, with a focus on the Boston Marathon.

The partnership marks the return of the Boston Marathon to both ESPN and WCVB, with ESPN having aired the world’s most prestigious road race in the early 1980’s and then from 1997-2004. WCVB provided wire-to-wire coverage of the marathon from 1982 through 2006, including the largest Boston Marathon in history—the centennial Boston Marathon in 1996 featured 35,868 finishers.

Sinclaire Johnson confident heading into USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships

As Sinclaire Johnson made her way to the starting line for the women’s 1,500 meters at the Prefontaine Classic last month in Eugene, she took a moment to take in her competitors.

Eight of them ran in the 1,500 final at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo last year. Now, she had the opportunity to show she belongs among them.

 No thoughts about Johnson’s final time crossed her mind throughout the race. They never do. She’s too focused on her pace and beating those around her, and she rode that mindset to a fourth-place finish, beating six of those Tokyo Olympians.

“I felt like I had finally stepped into that pool of competing on that world-class level,” Johnson said this week.

Running a sub four-minute race was always Johnson’s goal heading into the meet. When she had the time to think about her official time, she saw it read 3 minutes, 58.85 seconds, a new personal record. It’s a far cry from where she was nine months ago, when she could train only in pools or the gym while dreaming of getting back to running.

Johnson joined Bowerman Track Club following her college career at Oklahoma State University, where she won a national title in the 1,500 as a junior in 2019. She made the switch to coach Pete Julian’s Portland-based Union Athletics Club last August.

That’s when the pain started.

It began as persistent pain in her hip following a workout early in the week. She couldn’t walk by Saturday, and an ensuing MRI showed a small tear in her labrum. Such tears typically can be corrected only through surgery, but this tear was small enough to not require an operation.

Johnson resumed training with caution, but she was still in pain that wasn’t getting better. Another MRI a month later showed something new: a stress fracture. So Johnson’s time with Union Athletics Club began in earnest while she was in recovery.

Running wasn’t an option, so Johnson instead spent time in the gym strengthening the muscles surrounding her hip and pool exercises to reduce the stress on her body. The process of getting Johnson back into competitive shape was slow and cautious, Julian said, but she was finally able to start running again in November.

“Every week just kept getting better and better,” Johnson said. “I just kept shocking myself with what I could do.”

Julian and Dave McHenry, Union Athletics Club’s strength coach, were with her every step of the way, Johnson said. This included daily check-ins on Johnson’s physical and mental health, scheduling appointments with doctors and breaking down how to get her back to training.

“She’s been able to just continue to progress honestly, just with more training load,” Julian said.

When it wasn’t her coaches reaching out with support, it was her new teammates. Jessica Hull, a former track athlete at the University of Oregon, met Johnson as a competitor when the two were running in college.

Hull was right behind Johnson when the latter won the NCAA title in 2019. It was a flip of the preliminary round earlier that day, when Hull took first and Johnson claimed second.

“We both knew at that point, we couldn’t have done it without each other, pushing each other,” Hull said.

Not only has Hull been training alongside Johnson at Union Athletics Club, she was also one of the eight Olympians running with her at the Prefontaine Classic. The two aren’t competitive with each other now that they’re on a team, Hull said.

Heading into the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships this week, Hull said she’s looking forward to seeing Johnson’s training pay off.

“Watching her race at USA is gonna feel like my heart is out there with her,” said Hull, who competes for Australia.

Messages from coaches and teammates were important, but Johnson’s ultimate confidence boost came from herself. Slowly, but surely, she worked through the outdoor season to go from hanging on in races to competing to win.

That top-four finish in the Prefontaine Classic against some of the same competition she’ll see in the 1,500 this week proved to Johnson that she can earn a spot on Team USA for the World Athletics Championships next month.

“Not only do I want to make a team,” Johnson said, “I believe that I can make a team.”

The integrity of women’s sport is really important here, and we can not have a generation of young girls thinking there is not a future for them in the sport says Sebastian Coe

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has stated that the global athletics governing body will look at their rules concerning the inclusion of transgender athletes in female events at a Council meeting toward the end of this year.

This statement comes days after the International Swimming Federation (FINA), swimming’s governing body, voted to stop trans female athletes from competing in women’s elite races if they have gone through any part of the gender transformation process after puberty or age 12. FINA also stated that they will establish an open category in some events for swimmers whose gender identity is different than their birth sex.

(Photo - Caster Semenya is a woman and a man. The South African champ has no womb or ovaries and her testosterone levels are more than three times higher than those of a normal female, according to reports.)

Transgender rights have become a major talking point in sports in an effort to balance inclusivity with ensuring they do not have an unfair advantage arising from the residual effects of puberty.

The debate intensified this year after University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender NCAA champion in history, winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle.

In an interview with BBC Sport, Coe, a two-time Olympic 800m champion, outlined his support for the recent measures taken by FINA.

“The integrity of women’s sport is really, really important here, and we can’t have a generation of young girls thinking there is not a future for them in the sport. So we have a responsibility…maintaining the primacy and the integrity of female competition is absolutely vital, and that’s why we were at the forefront of tabling those regulations that allow as close as you can get to a level playing field,” says Coe.

Coe on FINA’s ruling:

“This is as it should be. We have always believed that biology trumps gender and we will continue to review our regulations in line with this. We will follow the science.”

FINA’s new guideline means that Thomas, who has expressed a desire to compete for Team U.S.A. at the Paris Olympics, is now blocked from participating in the women’s category at the Games. There have been talks to establish an “open” category at world championships for athletes whose gender identity is different than their assigned gender at birth.

The current World Athletics guideline from 2018 states that transgender women can compete in the women’s category if they reduce their testosterone levels to below five nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months before competing.

“We continue to study, research and contribute to the growing body of evidence that testosterone is a key determinant in performance, and have scheduled a discussion on our regulations with our council at the end of the year,” says Coe.

International sports federations may set their own policies but will be subject to World Athletics and IOC rules when it comes to sending athletes to the World Championships and Olympic Games.

Hungary’s government has allocated more than €550m (582US) towards the construction of the Budapest stadium that will host the 2023 World Athletics Championships.

Documents published by the government show that HUF 204bn (€556.5bn) of public funds have been made available for the National Athletics Centre – which will have an initial capacity of 40,000 for the 2023 championships before being reduced to 15,000 – and its surrounding infrastructure.

That makes the facility some €40m more expensive than the much larger 67,000-capacity Puskás Aréna national football stadium that was recently opened in Budapest. It is also considerably more than initial estimates of €310m for the build. 

The government has budgeted for the development of the National Athletics Centre on what is currently a brown field site by the Danube River. The cost includes the stadium, adjacent buildings, landscaping, and flood protective infrastructure, in addition to a pedestrian and cycling bridge.

The government calculates that the organisation of the 2023 World Athletics Championships will amount to €81.8m, but expects income from the event to far surpass this sum with 166,000 visitors and 416,000 ticket sales predicted.

Following the event, the stadium would be reduced in size and become a training hub for Hungarian athletics and a competition venue.

Once the temporary upper tier is removed, the stadium would be left with a circular plateau, expected to be filled with publicly available leisure areas, including a running track.

The development of the stadium is seen as important for Hungary’s long-term goal of hosting the Olympic Games. Budapest was involved in the bidding process for the 2024 Games, but is believed to be looking as far ahead as 2040 for its chance.

Budapest was awarded the 2023 championships in 2018 after a decision in Monaco. Central and local authorities agreed to support the construction of the stadium last year.

Organisers said in 2018: “The 15,000-seat facility will give a major boost not only to competitive sports, but also to recreational and youth sports. Budapest residents and students will find training tracks, running tracks, street workouts and many other opportunities for sports and recreation.”

Competition decisions on qualification for future championship events

The World Athletics Council has approved the following decisions on future qualification systems for championship events and for the future rotation of the World Athletics Relays.

Entry standards and world rankings

The Council has approved the continuation of the current qualification system structure for World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games.

Therefore, the target 50/50 split of athletes qualified through entry standards and the world rankings, which was used for the Olympic Games in Tokyo and is in use for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, will remain in use for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The Council plans to review the world rankings system later this year, and subsequently approve the scoring system for 2023.

Marathon qualification system for Paris

To enable early selection, as well as national trials, for the Olympic Games marathon in Paris, the Council has approved a two-step procedure for the Olympic marathon qualification system.

On 6 February 2024, any athlete

1. having achieved the entry standard (to be confirmed at a later Council session) or 

2. ranked higher than the 65th athlete on the filtered (three athletes per national Olympic committee) ‘Road to Paris’ list

will be considered qualified and eligible for immediate selection.

In addition, the Council also approved a quota reallocation option in the marathon only. Any national Olympic committee may choose to reallocate a quota place to an unqualified athlete, provided the athlete has achieved at least a 2:11:30 (men) or 2:29:30 (women) eligibility performance within the qualification window.

The entry standards for the marathon will be approved by the Council at a later meeting.

Future rotation of World Athletics Relays

Since 2015, the World Athletics Relays has been a biennial event, taking place in odd years to serve as a World Athletics Championships qualifying event in the championship disciplines as well as offering race opportunities in the less traditional events such as the shuttle hurdles relays and the 2x2x400m mixed team relay.

Having evaluated recent editions, the Council has decided to change the future scheduling of this event to an even-year rotation, starting in 2024. The event will serve as the trials in Olympic years, with the Council to approve a detailed format of the event at the next Council meeting in July. 

Inclusion of 5km/10km in 5000m/10,000m qualification systems for Budapest and Paris

Acknowledging the popularity and performance level of the 5km and 10km road events, the Council has decided that both disciplines will be included in the qualification system for the 5000m and 10,000m respectively at future championships.

Therefore, it will be possible to qualify for the 5000m and the 10,000m at eligible road events, and results achieved in the road events will count towards the world rankings in the 5000m and 10,000m.

Inclusion of cross country rankings in qualification systems for Budapest and Paris

Following the launch of the World Athletics Cross Country Tour as well as the cross country rankings, the Council has decided to modify the cross country qualification pathway for the 10,000m at future championships.

The top 15 men and women in the World Cross Country Championships 2019 were automatically qualified in the 10,000m for the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha. Following the latest decision made by the Council, this will be replaced by a new pathway.

Starting with the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, the top eight men and top eight women in the cross country rankings, who are not already qualified via entry standard or world 10,000m ranking, will be automatically qualified.

Entry standards in the 10,000m for Budapest will be approved by the Council in July this year.

Woody Kincaid eyes redemption at USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships

Woody Kincaid’s last visit to Hayward Field didn’t go as planned.

So, Kincaid has something extra riding on the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships, which begin a four-day run at Hayward Field in Eugene on Thursday.

The USATF 10,000-meter final took place at Hayward last month in conjunction with the Prefontaine Classic. Kincaid, the Olympian who trains with the Portland-based Bowerman Track Club, was defending his USATF title.

It was a slow pace and headed toward a kicker’s finish -- Kincaid’s kind race -- when a sharp pain in his side almost doubled him over 6,600 meters in.

Buchanan, who would finish ninth, trains with the California-based Mammoth Track Club. The two UP grads weren’t working together. It just … happened.

(First photo): Woody Kincaid and Grant Fisher react after finishing first and second place in the men's 10,000 meters during Day 1 of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials at Hayward Field on June 18, 2021, in Eugene, Oregon.

Kincaid remembers thinking, “‘Damn. That’s Reid Buchanan. And this is the Olympic trials.’ It was pretty surreal.”

In the final lap, it became outrageous. Kincaid covered the final 400 in 53.47 seconds, the final 200 in 25.51.

“A lot of people can’t do that,” says UP coach Rob Conner, who nurtured Kincaid through five up-and-down, injury-troubled years on The Bluff.

Staggered, Kincaid couldn’t go on. He was on the sideline when Joe Klecker, Grant Fisher and Sean McGorty went 1-2-3 to claim the spots on Team USA for the World Outdoor Track & Field Championships next month in Eugene.

“It wasn’t a hard effort,” Kincaid says, trying to make sense of what caused the stitch. “It was a slow pack, 4:52 mile pace. So, it wasn’t like I was hanging on or anything. It’s never happened before.”

Kincaid says it’s been diagnosed as a diaphragm cramp. He has been checked out. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong medically.

“One of those things,” he says.

And ready to be discarded like yesterday’s news. Kincaid is entered in Sunday’s 5,000 in the main portion of the USATF Outdoor Championships. He will be running to win.

Kincaid was third in the 5,000 at last year’s Olympic trials. He went on to represent the U.S. in both events in Tokyo, placing 14th in the 5,000 and 15th in the 10,000.

“I was glad I made the team in the ‘5,’” Kincaid says of last year’s Olympic trials. “But there still is a little bit of ‘Damn, I should have gotten the ‘5′ too.’ I still want a national title in the ‘5.’”

Last year’s Olympic trials was a breakthrough for the former University of Portland star who seemed to spend his first four years as a professional either hurt or trying to come back from injury.

It all clicked last summer on the first day of the trials at Hayward Field when Kincaid positioned himself perfectly in the 10,000 with two laps to go.

He wasn’t quite ready to make his move when former UP teammate Reid Buchanan obliged by going to the front.

It was a Hollywood finish in more ways than one. As Kincaid took his victory lap, his father, Mike, met him at along the rail. Mike was in a fight with mesothelioma that he would lose five months later.

Father and son both knew the score, which made for a poignant moment.

“We were both like in shock, like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that just happened,’” Kincaid says. “My dad couldn’t speak. We were super close. I don’t think he had anything to say.”

Kincaid’s BTC teammates took a photo of the scene and blew it up to poster size.

“Best race I’ve ever run,” Kincaid says. “That was special.”

Shocking as it might have been to fans, it wasn’t totally unexpected by those close to him.

BTC coach Jerry Schumacher believes Kincaid actually arrived at the 2019 USATF Outdoor Championships, when he survived a wicked pace set by Olympic silver medalist Paul Chelimo in the 5,000, stayed at the front and finished third.

“That got me excited,” Schumacher says.

That September, Kincaid and teammates Lopez Lomong and Matthew Centrowitz ran a 5,000-meter time trial on the Nike campus.

Kincaid bolted past Lomong in the race’s final 120 to finish first in 12:58.10. Even Kincaid did a double take at the sub-13 time.

COVID scrubbed most of the 2020 outdoor season, leaving Kincaid something of a question mark heading into last summer’s Olympic trials.

“People kind of missed on him,” Schumacher says. “We got to see him at practice. We got to see how he trained and worked out. He was determined. He had everything you would want to see in an athlete going into the Olympic trials.

“For us, it wasn’t a huge surprise. He’d basically been at that level for two full years, and 2021 was the first time he got to showcase it.”

He is a known commodity now, and an acknowledged threat in the USATF 5,000 final. A totally focused and injury-free Kincaid will be tough to beat, particularly if the race comes down to a kick.

“He’ll get the job done,” Conner says. “I’m 100 percent confident of that.”

Amanda Nelson has only been running ultras since 2020, but has had incredible results

In her first race outside of Ontario, Woodstock native Amanda Nelson managed to secure new female 100-mile and 12-hour records (pending ACU verification) at Survivorfest in mid-June. Survivorfest is the official six-hour and 24-hour Canadian national championship, held annually in Edmonton, Alta. Nelson also won the entire race and set new course records.

Nelson has a remarkable running resume for someone who has only been participating in the sport since 2020. In September, she secured the Canadian soil 24 hour record from previous owner Viktoria Brown with 227.33K at That Dam Hill Race in London, Ont., setting a course record and winning the race as well.

Heading into Survivorfest, Nelson, 33, had hopes of going after the 100-mile and 24-hour national records. Nelson and her crew, including husband Danny Nelson, flew in to Edmonton to prepare a few days in advance.

Three days out from the event, Nelson noticed her legs were very sore. “I noticed that evening that my quads were really hurting. I don’t know if it was from the flight or not but it definitely worried me. I went for a couple small runs in the days leading up to the race, and that made me feel even more worried because they weren’t feeling much better,” Nelson says. After doing some pre-race work on her legs with an ultrasound machine, Nelson started the race feeling slightly better.

“The heat was brutal!” Nelson reported in her post on Instagram. She kept her post-reward treat of seeing the Rocky Mountains for the first time in her life in mind, a dream she had had since childhood.

Nelson is a busy mom and works on a dairy farm. She says she has a lot of support to allow her to flexibly schedule in long runs. Her record-setting 12-hour distance was 134.025 km, with a 100-mile record of 14:45:51.

Brown congratulated Nelson on her new records. She added, “When I went after the 100-mile record last December, I had a strong feeling that it would be a question of “who gets there first” and I was very happy that I did. But I am also fully aware that both Amanda and Stephanie Simpson, who tried to break this record last year, are much faster runners than I am, and, in my opinion, they both can run a faster 100 miler than I can when the stars align–which they did for Amanda this time. Of course, I’m a bit sad that my record is broken, but that’s what records are for–they are meant to be broken.”

Nelson and Brown will compete with one another at Persistence Backyard Ultra in London, Ont. at the end of July. Brown says she looks forward to it: “I’m just extremely happy that the Canadian women’s ultrarunning field seems to be so strong, and I hope we can inspire and push each other to better and greater performances together. I will specifically need Amanda at the backyard race at the end of July to show a strong performance so we can both go further than ever before!”

With one record-setting performance after another, both Nelson and Brown are athletes to watch on the Canadian ultrarunning scene.

Seiko again designated as official timer for World Athletics Championships Oregon22

Seiko Holdings Corporation has been designated as the official timer for the 18th World Athletics Championships to be held at Hayward Field in Oregon, USA, from 15-24 July 2022.

Since entering into a sponsorship contract with World Athletics in 1985, Seiko has served continuously as the official timer for 17 consecutive World Athletics Championships. At the next edition, Seiko will implement new equipment including the jump management system, which is designed to further facilitate the accurate judgment of jumping events. Seiko will also hold an event called ‘Time to Shine’, which aims to support the next generation of athletes.

True to the company’s group slogan — Moving ahead. Touching hearts. — Seiko aims to inspire sports fans around the world by using state-of-the-art equipment to provide accurate timing and measurement, and through continuing to support the next generation of athletes.

Time to Shine

The ‘Time to Shine’ event is designed to promote track and field, and to foster the next generation of athletes. Young athletes aged between 12 and 18 will have an opportunity to race at the same venues and use the same equipment as athletes participating at the World Athletics Championships. Seiko is doing its small part to inspire the next generation by giving them a chance to compete on the same stage as the world's top athletes.

- Date: Wednesday 20 July, 12:00-13:30- Venue: Hayward Field (Eugene, Oregon)- Target audience: Young athletes aged between 12 and 18

USATF 2022 Outdoor Championships schedule

The Nation’s best will leave it all on the track June 23-26 as they compete for a spot on the world’s best track and field team.

The meet will be held at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. This will be the tenth time that the U.S. championship meet will be staged in TrackTown USA. The meet will also serve as the qualifying event for the 2022 World Athletics Championships Oregon22, set for July 15–24.

USATF 2022 Outdoor Championships schedule (times are PDT)

Day 1: Thursday 23 June

4:00 p.m. 800m Men First Round

4:25 p.m. 800m Women First Round

4:50 p.m. 400m Hurdles Women First Round

5:00 p.m. Hammer Throw Women Final

5:15 p.m. Long Jump Women Final

5:15 p.m. 100m Women First Round

5:40 p.m. 100m Men First Round

5:45 p.m. Discus Throw Men Final

6:05 p.m. 3000m Steeplechase Men First Round

6:35 p.m. 1500m Men First Round

6:53 p.m. 1500m Women First Round

7:11 p.m. 400m Women First Round

7:36 p.m. 400m Men First Round

Day 2: Friday 24 June

5:10 p.m. 100m Hurdles Women First Round

5:35 p.m. 100m Women Semi-Final

5:45 p.m. Long Jump Men Final

5:50 p.m. 100m Men Semi-Final

5:55 p.m. Pole Vault Women Final

6:05 p.m. 3000m Steeplechase Women First Round

6:15 p.m. High Jump Women Final

6:35 p.m. 400m Hurdles Men First Round

6:42 p.m. Shot Put Men Final

6:45 p.m. Discus Throw Women Final

7:04 p.m. 400m Hurdles Women Semi-Final

7:21 p.m. 100m Women Final

7:30 p.m. 100m Men Final

7:46 p.m. 800m Men Semi-Final

8:02 p.m. 800m Women Semi-Final

8:25 p.m. 400m Women Semi-Final

8:46 p.m. 400m Men Semi-Final

Day 3: Saturday 25 June

11:30 a.m. Javelin Throw Women Final

11:45 a.m. 200m Men First Round

12:00 p.m. Pole Vault Men Final

12:10 p.m. 200m Women First Round

12:15 p.m. Hammer Throw Men Final

12:30 p.m. Triple Jump Women Final

12:35 p.m. 110m Hurdles Men First Round

1:04 p.m. 100m Hurdles Women Semi-Final

1:22 p.m. 400m Hurdles Men Semi-Final

1:40 p.m. 1500m Women Final

1:52 p.m. 1500m Men Final

2:04 p.m. 3000m Steeplechase Men Final

2:21 p.m. 400m Women Final

2:31 p.m. 400m Men Final

2:41 p.m. 100m Hurdles Women Final

2:51 p.m. 400m Hurdles Women Final

Day 4: Sunday 26 June

12:15 p.m. Triple Jump Men Final

12:25 p.m. High Jump Men Final

12:30 p.m. 200m Men Semi-Final

12:35 p.m. Javelin Throw Men Final

12:46 p.m. 200m Women Semi-Final

1:00 p.m. Shot Put Women Final

1:04 p.m. 110m Hurdles Men Semi-Final

1:18 p.m. 5000m Women Final

1:40 p.m. 400m Hurdles Men Final

1:48 p.m. 800m Men Final

1:54 p.m. 800m Women Final

2:03 p.m. 5000m Men Final

2:23 p.m. 3000m Steeplechase Women Final

2:38 p.m. 200m Men Final

2:46 p.m. 200m Women Final

2:54 p.m. 110m Hurdles Men Final

Five high school boys have combined to break the four-minute barrier seven times in 2022 and no one has enjoyed it more than Jim Ryun

Jim Ryun was the first high school boy to break the four-minute barrier in the mile as a Kansas 17-year-old in 1964 and went on to a legendary track and field career that included three Olympic appearances in the 1,500m, a silver medal in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and numerous American and world records. 

Ryun’s name always surfaces when a high schooler dips under 4 minutes in the mile. And in 2022, his name has been coming up a lot. 

Ryun’s career was also in the spotlight earlier this month when he was one of 30 former college track and field athletes inducted into the inaugural class of the USTFCCCA’s Athlete Hall of Fame in conjunction with the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore. 

The original 4-minute high school barrier breaker celebrates the resurgence of American high school distance running and says for too long runners were held back in fear of what would happen if they ran under 4 minutes for the mile. 

“I think they realize it’s not a barrier that can’t be broken, it’s more of a matter that if you break it,” Ryun said, “will you go on from there, which you can because we’re seeing more and more of them that are doing that.  

“It’s not the barrier that it once was, should never have been there. For a long time, there were three of us. Myself, Marty Liquori and Tim Danielson. We were the only (sub) 4-minute milers from high school for years and I think it was the result of people being afraid of that, and coaches saying if you run too fast, too soon you’ll never make it very far.” 

Growing up, Ryun often wondered if he would ever be successful in an athletic endeavor. He tried basketball and football and was cut from his church baseball team. At a high school assembly, Bob Timmons, the school’s track and field and cross country coach, encouraged students to run on his cross country team in the fall. 

Ryun had never run more than one lap around a track before joining the cross country team, but in one season at Wichita East High School, he went from the last runner on the third-string team to a sixth-place finish at the Kansas state meet. 

“Running was so new to me, I didn’t know who the heroes were,” Ryun recalled. “In fact, my first thought was I wanted to be a baseball, football, basketball player. Running, what’s that? So, it took a while. The first book Coach Timmons gave to me was about Emil Zatopek, the great Olympian, so I read that, and it began helping me understand about the sport.” 

Ryun said Timmons was convinced he could be the first high school runner to break 4 minutes in the mile. That came true on June 5, 1964, when Ryun ran 3 minutes, 59.0 seconds to finish eighth at the Compton Invitational in Los Angeles. 

“The goal originally was my coach’s because I was the kid that got cut from the church baseball team, didn’t have great talent and when I started running, I was looking for direction,” Ryun said. "And he began basically teaching me about goals, how to reach goals, and gave me workouts to get there. The night that I ran 4 minutes, 3:59.0, I didn’t sleep that night (before) because I realized that it was his goal. 

“But my thought was, what happens if I take ownership, ownership being there’s certain things you as an athlete know you could do like maybe a little extra weightlifting, better eating. It was a transformational moment, because I mean when you finish eighth in a race and become the first kid to run under 4 minutes, that has to change your life – and it did.” 

Ryun’s running career took off from there. He made the 1964 U.S. Olympic team in the 1,500m that went to Tokyo and was the last U.S. high school men’s track and field athlete to make the U.S. Olympic team until teenager Erriyon Knighton qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 200m and finished fourth there. 

As a high school senior, Ryun broke 4 minutes four more times. His time of 3:58.3 at the 1965 Kansas state meet was the first time 4 minutes was broken in a high school-only meet. On June 4, 1965, Ryun returned to the Compton Relays, the site of his first sub-4-minute mile and ran 3:56.8. A little over three weeks later, he ran 3:55.3 at the U.S. AAU Championships in San Diego and beat New Zealand’s Peter Snell, the 1964 Olympic champion in the 800m and 1,500m. 

Ryun, who would stay close to home and attend Kansas University after graduating from high school in 1965, roomed with a former Jayhawks great, Billy Mills, during U.S. training camps leading up to the 1964 Olympics. In Tokyo, Mills stunned the world by becoming the only U.S. athlete to ever win the Olympic 10,000m. 

In 1966, Tim Danielson became the second American high schooler to break 4 minutes when he ran 3:59.4. A year later, Marty Liquori ran 3:59.8 to become the third high schooler under 4 minutes. 

Ryun and Liquori had illustrious careers after high school, particularly Ryun. At age 19 in 1966, Ryun set two world records, first in the 800m (1:44.9), and then the mile (3:51.3). He was the NCAA indoor mile champion for Kansas in 1967, 1968 and 1969, and the 1967 outdoor NCAA mile champion. In 1967, he set a 1,500m world record of 3:33.1 that stood for seven years.

That same year, he lowered his mile world record to 3:51.1., a mark that stood for almost eight years. Ryun was the last American man to hold the mile world record. He still holds American junior records for the mile (3:51.3) and 2-mile (8:25.1), and his 800m American junior record of 1:44.9 stood for exactly 50 years. 

In 2003, ESPN.com ranked Ryun as the greatest U.S. high school athlete of the 20th century, ahead of Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Wilt Chamberlain, Marion Jones, and others.

After Ryun, Danielson, and Liquori, the 4-minute mile wasn’t broken by a prep athlete again for more than 32 years until Alan Webb ran 3:59.86 at the New Balance Games in New York on Jan. 20, 2001. Sensing something special in Webb, the promoters of the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., invited him to run in the Bowerman Mile, the signature event of the meet that has since become a Diamond League event, on May 27, 2001. 

Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj, still the world record-holder in the 1,500m and mile, won the event in 3:49.92, followed by Kevin Sullivan of Canada and Bernard Lagat, then of Kenya, who later ran for the U.S. They helped pull Webb to a fifth-place finish in 3:53.43, breaking Ryun’s 36-year-old high school record. 

“I thought he would. I just didn’t know how much he would break it by," Ryun said. “It was one of those moments in time where he had run well, but he needed somebody to help him get over that finish line, just as I did running under 4 minutes for the first time. You need someone to help set the pace. You can relax a little bit, and he was able to take advantage of that.  

“So, there was no real surprise to me. The biggest surprise was that there weren’t more high school boys running under 4 minutes.” 

It would be another 10 years before a high schooler would break 4 minutes in the mile. In 2015, Matthew Maton and Grant Fisher, now the U.S. record-holder in the men’s 10,000m, both ran 3:59.38 about one month apart. In 2016, two runners broke 4 minutes, including Drew Hunter, who did it twice in a 15-day span in February indoors, both times in New York. 

The 4-minute barrier was broken by high schoolers once in 2017 and again in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Hobbs Kessler ran the fastest high school mile since Webb when he ran 3:57.66 indoors. Kessler later that year broke Ryun’s 1,500m American junior record of 3:36.1 that stood for almost 55 years. 

The lack of American high school runners breaking 4 minutes in the mile for decades might be a big reason why U.S. men haven’t enjoyed much Olympic or international success until recently. When Matthew Centrowitz won the men’s 1,500m at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, he was the first American man to do so since 1908. At the same Olympics, Clayton Murphy won the bronze medal in the 800m, the first American man to medal in the event since 1992. 

And when the World Athletics Championships are hosted on U.S. soil for the first time next month in Eugene, Ore., the defending 800m men’s champion is American Donavan Brazier. 

“If you look back in history, you’d see there was a dominance maybe by a country for a time like Great Britain had all those great runners. America at one time was dominant in that area as well,” Ryun said. “So, I think it’s a matter of floating from place to place, and I think it comes down to motivation. How motivated are you?  

“Over time you start realizing that motivation has to come down to you be willing to get up, run in all kinds of weather, race all over the world and let those talents be developed that God’s given you. So, it takes time. I think America can come back with dominance, but it also comes down to how motivated you are. I see the Kenyans as very motivated, and America can be just as motivated as you see with these new young runners that are developing quickly.” 

That has proven to be the case this season. Seventeen high school runners have broken the 4-minute barrier, and 2022 has been the banner season for it so far with five runners breaking the mark seven times. 

“I think a lot of coaches are seeing, too, that kids are just developing a lot faster doesn’t mean you’re going to burn out,” Ryun said. “It means you’ve got great opportunities. Will you decide to keep it going and, in my case, will you take ownership? The coach can only take you so far, but then you have to establish ownership.” 

The owner of the fastest prep mile this year is Colin Sahlman, who ran 3:58.81 indoors in February, and, like Webb, was invited to the Bowerman Mile at the Prefontaine Classic. In a field that included 2020 Tokyo Olympic 1,500m gold medalist Jackob Ingebrigtsen, defending World Athletics Championships 1,500m gold medalist Timothy Cheruiyot, and defending 1,500m NCAA outdoor champion Cole Hocker, Sahlman finished 13th in 3:56.24. Of the 14 men who finished the race, seven set personal bests and seven set season bests, including Ingebrigtsen, whose time of 3:49.76 is the fastest in the world this year. 

Sahlman’s time moved him to third on the all-time prep list behind Webb and Ryun. Sahlman, who is headed to Northern Arizona University for college, was part of a high school powerhouse at Newbury Park High in Southern California. In 2021, Newbury Park became the first high school team to have four runners break 4:10 for the mile in the same season. 

“That mindset has really evolved and developed over these last three to four years,” Sahlman said in a March article in the Los Angeles Times. “It’s just like it’s transformed into something that we never thought was possible. Now we think anything’s possible.” 

Gary Martin has also broken 4 minutes twice this year, running 3:57.98 on May 14 and 3:57.89 on June 2 in the Festival of Miles in St. Louis. At the Festival of Miles, Connor Burns ran 3:58.83 to become the first high school junior since Ryun to break 4 minutes. It was also the first time two prep runners broke 4 minutes in the same race.

Those two performances gave the Festival of Miles four prep runners who have broken 4 minutes. That’s where Fisher did in 2015, a feat repeated by Reed Brown a year later. 

And one day after Martin and Burns broke 4 minutes, Rheinhardt Harrison ran 3:59.33 in Florida on June 3. On June 15, Simeon Birnbaum added to the list of sub-4 minute runners when he became the second high school junior this season to break the mark with a time of 3:59.51.

Will this high school running resurgence lead to greater U.S. success against international competition and major global championships? Only time will tell.  

Branna MacDougall joins Silvia Ruegger as the only Canadian woman to run under 2:29:00 before the age of 25

On the shores of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minn., Canada’s rising marathon star, Branna MacDougall, ran a five-minute personal best of 2:28:36 to place fifth at the 2022 Grandma’s Marathon. Her time is one minute under the world marathon standard of 2:29:30 and the seventh-fastest ever among Canadian women.

(First photo) Branna MacDougall of Kingston, Ont., approaches the finish line at the Muskoka Half-Marathon in 2020. 

Although MacDougall had only tackled the marathon distance once before, she ran the race like a seasoned veteran. She negative split the second half of the race in 1:14:13, moving up to fifth from seventh place. Her first marathon, last fall, was in Muskoka, Ont., where she ran a solo 2:33:40.

MacDougall, 23, had a prolific cross-country career at Iowa State University and Queen’s University, winning the U Sports team title in 2019. Since then, she has continued her training in Kingston under former Queen’s coach Steve Boyd and Physi-Kult.

U.S. marathoner Dakota Lindwurm become the first Minnesotan to successfully defend her title, winning in a personal best time of 2:25:01, which is four minutes faster than her previous winning time of 2:29:04. 

Sarah Sellers, who finished second at the Boston Marathon in 2018, and school teacher Susanna Sullivan of the U.S., rounded out the top three in 2:25:43 and 2:26:56, respectively.

MacDougall’s time is the second-fastest time by a Canadian woman this year, only behind Malindi Elmore’s 2:27:56 at the 2022 Boston Marathon. Although MacDougall’s time is under the 2022 world championship standard, the qualification period closed on May 29 and Canada’s team has already been named.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games qualification window closed on June 19, therefore, there’s a chance MacDougall could be selected to represent Canada in Birmingham, U.K., or considered for the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.

Tokyo Olympian Tachlowini Gabriyesos will lead a six-member Athlete Refugee Team (ART) to next month's World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

Tachlowini Gabriyesos, 24, made waves one year ago when he finished 16th in the Olympic marathon in Sapporo, beating some of the world's best marathoners.

“It makes me so proud to once again wear the Athlete Refugee Team vest at the World Championships,” said Gabriyesos, a native of Eritrea who made his Athlete Refugee Team debut at the 2019 World Championships in Doha where he competed in the 5000m.

“I don’t represent a country, but millions of people without one. I want to be a role model for refugee youth around the world and wish to show the world once again that refugees can be strong, that we are hungry for success and that we deserve equal opportunities.”

Gabriyesos fled conflict and bloodshed in Eritrea at age 12 and journeyed through Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt before crossing the Sinai desert on foot to Israel where he's been living since 2010. He began running soon after and eventually found that he was best suited for athletics' longest running event.

At the Hahula Galilee Marathon in Israel in March 2021, Gabriyesos clocked 2:10:55 to become the first refugee athlete to meet an Olympic qualifying standard. He later served as the co-flag bearer for the Olympic Refugee Team at Tokyo’s Opening Ceremonies. After his solid performance in Sapporo's hot and muggy conditions, Gabriyesos improved to 2:10:09 at the Seville Marathon in February.

After its involvement with the inaugural Refugee Olympic Team that competed at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, World Athletics established the Athlete Refugee Team in 2017 to provide refugees with high level training and competitive opportunities.

It is the world’s only year-round team composed solely of refugee athletes. The team has been represented at almost every World Championship event since, in addition to a growing number of continental and regional events, most recently the European 10,000m Cup in May and the African Championships earlier this month.

"On this World Refugee Day, our Athlete Refugee Team brings a powerful and inspirational message of hope and solidarity to the world, at a time when it's truly needed," said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. "They're also showing, through their rapid development and world class performances, that they do belong among the world's best athletes."

Representing a community of 89 million

When the refugee team was introduced at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, that squad of 10 – six competing in athletics – represented 65 million people around the world who had been forcibly displaced from their homes.

That figure soared to more than 82 million by 2020 and, propelled by conflict, the climate crisis and skyrocketing inequality, has grown to 89.3 million at the end of 2021. The six athletes who are set to compete in Eugene next month will represent a community that collectively would be the 17th most populous country on the planet.

Similarly, the number of athletes involved in the World Athletics Athlete Refugee Team project continues to grow. More than 40 athletes are now involved in the programme, training at their respective bases in Kenya, Israel, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Canada and Portugal.

Gabriyesos will be joined by Jamal Abdalmajid Eisa-Mohammed, a native of Sudan, who will make his second consecutive World Championships appearance in the 5000m. The 28-year-old improved his lifetime best over the distance to 13:42.98 at the Olympic Games last year.

Dorian Keletela, 23, will be making his third ART appearance after outings at the 2021 European Indoor Championships and last summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo. In the Japanese capital, he clocked 10.33 to win his 100m heat in the preliminary round, smashing his previous career best by 0.13. He improved to 10.27 last year and at the moment has a 10.47 season's best.

Fouad Idbafdil, a refugee from Morocco who is based in France, rounds out the men's squad. The 34-year-old steeplechase specialist improved his lifetime best to 8:37.94 nine days ago. He too competed on the ART squad in Doha in 2019.

The women’s team is led by Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, who will bring plenty of experience to the start line of the 1500m. The 27-year-old native of South Sudan, who is based at the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation training camp in Ngong, Kenya, will be making her second World Championships appearance after her debut in 2017.

Nadai is a two-time Olympian and most recently competed at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March and the African Championships in Mauritius 11 days ago. She set her 4:31.65 lifetime best in Tokyo last year.

She'll be joined by Atalena Napule Gaspore, another South Sudanese athlete from the Loroupe camp, who will be making her Athlete Refugee Team debut competing in the 800m.

Athlete refugee team for WCH Oregon22

Women 800m: Atalena Napule Gaspore 1500m: Anjelina Nadai Lohalith

Men 100m: Dorian Keletela 5000m: Jamal Abdalmajid Eisa-Mohammed marathon: Tachlowini Gabriyesos 3000m steeplechase: Fouad Idbafdil

Remembering Kusocinski's athletics feats and heroic struggle

It was 90 years ago today that Janusz Kusocinski ran his way into the world record book.

Already a prolific national champion in his homeland, at distances ranging from 800m to 10,000m, the 25-year-old Pole made a name for himself at a global level when he crossed the line in an international 3000m race in Antwerp, Belgium, ahead of John Fellowes of the USA in 8:18.8.

“Kusy,” as the popular Warsaw gardener was known to friends and the wider public in Poland, eclipsed one of the enduring global marks set by the finest of all the formidable Flying Finns.

The world record for 3000m had belonged to the peerless Paavo Nurmi for six years. The nine-time Olympic gold medallist had clocked 8:20.4 in Stockholm in 1926.

To prove it had been no fluke, 10 days later – on 29 June 1932 – Kusocinski claimed another of Nurmi’s world records. On that occasion, he smashed it by 13 seconds, his 19:02.6 for 4 miles obliterating Nurmi’s 1924 figures of 19:15.6.

First non-Finnish winner

A month later, Kusocinski enjoyed his finest half an hour in track and field.

Running for his country in the Los Angeles Coliseum on 31 July, he fought a nip and tuck battle with Finn Volmari Iso-Hollo for 24 laps of the 1932 Olympic 10,000m final.

Iso-Hollo led by a metre going into the final lap but then Kusocinski sprinted clear before slowing to a jog and still winning by 1.1 seconds. His time, 30:11.4, shattered the Olympic record Nurmi had established in Amsterdam four years previously: 30:18.8.

In succeeding Nurmi, Kusocinski became the first non-Finnish winner of the Olympic 10,000m crown. He was the only non-Finn to win the coveted Blue Riband of distance running until Emil Zatopek in London in 1948.

For Iso-Hollo, compensation came seven days later in the form of the 3000m steeplechase gold medal. The Finnish typesetter would have claimed the world best too had the stand-in trackside lap-counter not been distracted by the decathlon pole vault, allowing the field to complete an extra circuit of the track.

Iso-Hollo went on to win another steeplechase gold, plus a 10,000m bronze medal, in front of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Resistance hero

Kusocinski proceeded to etch his name into national folklore as a fearless fighter against the Nazi occupation of his homeland.

When Hitler’s troops invaded Poland in September 1939, Kusocinski volunteered for the Polish Army and was drafted into the machine gun company as a corporal in the Second Battalion of the 360 Infantry Regiment. In the fight to defend Warsaw, he was wounded twice and was awarded the Cross of Valour.

After the country fell to Nazi Germany, he worked ostensibly as a waiter at the Red Rooster Bar in Warsaw while secretly operating as a member of the underground resistance movement known as the Wolves, using the pseudonym Prawdzic.

Kusocinski was arrested by Gestapo officers at the gate of his house in Warsaw on 28 March, 1940. He was interrogated and tortured at Gestapo headquarters but refused to reveal the names of fellow resistance members.

On the night of 20-21 June, he was transported to Palmiry on the outskirts of Warsaw and executed in Kampinos Forest as part of what the Nazis called Operation AB, an attempt to exterminate all Polish intelligence operatives.

Nine decades on, the name of Janusz Kusocinski, world record-breaker, Olympic champion and national hero lives proudly on in Poland.

Scores of streets and primary schools throughout the country carry his name. So does the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meeting, which celebrated its 68th edition in Chrozow on 5 June this year and is part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series.

Vladimir Kuts took part in the inaugural event in 1954 and meeting records dating back to the 1970s are held by greats such as Alberto Juantorena (1:43.66 for 800m), Irena Szewinska (49.75 for 400m) and Bronislaw Malinowski (8:21.2 for the 3000m steeplechase).

An athlete by chance

Kusocinski was born in Warsaw in 1907, the son of a railway clerk. Armed conflict took its toll on his family when he was a child. His eldest brother, Zygmunt, was killed in France in World War I. Another brother, Tedeusz, was a casualty of the Polish-Bolshevik War in 1920.

In his youth, Janusz’s first sporting love was football. He played as a dashing forward for various clubs in Warsaw.

He became an athlete by accident. In 1925, his sports club RKS Sarmata was a relay runner short for a workers’ holiday meeting. Kusocinski agreed to stand in and helped the Sarmata team to victory.

The following year he started competing as an 800m and 1500m runner and came under the wing of the club’s celebrated track and field coach: one Aleksander Klumberg.

Klumberg became Poland’s national athletics coach between 1927 and 1932. Back in 1922, the native Estonian had become the first official holder of the decathlon world record after posting 7485.61 points in Helsinki. In 1924 he had taken the decathlon bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, behind Harold Osborn and Emerson Norton of the USA.

The young Kusocinski thrived under Klumberg’s regime of intense interval training, winning the Polish 5000m and cross country titles in 1928. His running career was interrupted by a year of national service in the Polish Army but he was stronger upon his return, capturing national titles at 800m, 1500m, 5000m and cross country leading up to his annus mirabilis in 1932.

He represented Poland at the inaugural European Championships in Turin in 1934, placing fifth in the 1500m and taking silver in the 5000m behind Roger Richard of France.

Kusocinski hung up his racing spikes after returning from Italy but dusted them off to win the Polish 10,000m title in 1939.

By that time, he had moved on from gardening to become a PE teacher, coach and then a successful journalist, rising to editor-in-chief of Kurier Sportowy.

Then came the Nazi invasion, and the heroic struggle and tragedy that followed.

In 2009, Kusocinski was posthumously awarded the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta - “for outstanding contribution to the independence of the Polish Republic, and for sporting achievements in the field of athletics.”

Whittaker repeats as mile champion in Seattle by edging Engelhardt and elevates to No. 7 all-time outdoor performer with 4:36.23 effort in first girls high school race with seven athletes running under 4:40

Julia Flynn called it. 

“I knew it. I knew today was going to be a crazy race,” said Flynn, a recent graduate of Traverse City Central High in Michigan.

That it was. On a cloudy Wednesday afternoon at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium in Seattle, Flynn was part of the fastest Brooks PR Invitational mile in meet history.

Defending champion Juliette Whittaker of Mount de Sales in Maryland led the charge with a final surge down the straightaway to win in 4 minutes, 36.23 seconds, lowering her own meet record of 4:38.65 from last year.

Six girls quickly followed, all crossing the finish line under 4:40 to make it the deepest girls mile race in U.S. prep history. The boys mile also didn’t disappoint to cap the meet by having junior Simeon Birnbaum of Rapid City Stevens High in South Dakota eclipse the 4-minute barrier and five athletes run sub-4:02 for the first time in a single high school race.

“I predicted Juliette was going to win, but I was like, ‘You know what? Regardless of the winner, we’re all going to get really big PRs,’” Flynn said. “That’s why it’s Brooks PR, it lives up to the name.”

With the girls and boys miles scheduled annually as the last races of the meet, fans at Husky Stadium lined the outskirts of the track down the straightaway, creating an intimate and electric environment for the 12 female runners all capable of winning the event.

“I knew it was going to be a fast race and I knew it was going to be competitive,” Whittaker said. “Just the fact that we came around with a lap to go and all of us were still in the race, was insane, it was really just a kick to the finish.”

With a slight separation from the pack, Whittaker and freshman Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura High in California – who set an age 15 world mile record April 9 by running 4:35.16 at the Arcadia Invitational – came sprinting down the last 100 meters.

Similar to how the New Balance Indoor National mile championship race played out March 13 between the two athletes, Whittaker had a little more left in her to pull ahead of Engelhardt for the victory. Whittaker prevailed by a 4:37.23 to 4:37.40 margin at The Armory in New York.

Engelhardt finished runner-up Wednesday in 4:36.50, while Flynn ran 4:37.73 to set a Michigan state record by eclipsing the 2013 standard of 4:40.48 produced by Hannah Meier of Grosse Pointe South.

Riley Stewart of Cherry Creek High was fourth in 4:38.21, lowering her own Colorado state record of 4:40.66 from last year, when she placed second behind Whittaker.

“I’m feeling amazing,” Stewart said. “I’ve been 4:40 three times now, so to finally get it (under 4:40) and to run with all these amazing girls, I have to say that was probably one of the best miles we’ve ever seen come through here, so just to be part of it is just amazing.”

Samantha McDonnell of Newbury Park High in California placed fifth in 4:38.44, Isabel Conde de Frankenberg of Cedar Park High was sixth in a Texas state record 4:38.55, and Mia Cochran from Moon Area in Pennsylvania secured seventh in 4:39.23. Conde de Frankenberg eclipsed the 2009 standard of 4:40.24 established by Chelsey Sveinsson of Greenhill High.

Every performance achieved from Engelhardt to Cochran was the fastest all-time mark by place in any high school girls mile competition.

Just missing going under 4:40 was Taylor Rohatinsky of Lone Peak High in Utah, clocking 4:41.83 to also produce the fastest eighth-place performance in any outdoor prep mile race.

Whittaker’s winning effort made her the No. 7 outdoor competitor in U.S. prep history, with three of the marks achieved this year, the other two coming from Dalia Frias of Mira Costa High in California (4:35.06) – who also ran the national high school outdoor 2-mile record 9:50.70 to open Wednesday’s meet – and Engelhardt’s victory at Arcadia.

Whittaker, along with Flynn, Stewart, 10th-place finisher Ava Parekh (4:52.09) of Latin School in Chicago and Roisin Willis from Stevens Point in Wisconsin – second place Wednesday in the 400 in 53.23 – are all part of Stanford’s 2022 recruiting class.

Despite having an unusual high school career due to the pandemic, Whittaker said the surge of quicker times and a more competitive environment may be due to the circumstances the pandemic created with more time for training.

“I feel like ever since COVID, honestly we have just surpassed any goals that we used to always set,” Whittaker said. “(Running) 4:40 used to be a barrier that like many people wanted to break, if so, maybe one, but the fact that seven girls (did) in the same race. I’m excited for years to come to keep watching. Sadie, obviously only being a freshman, and like other girls, I’m excited to see what times they are going to run.”

Here is the list of high school girls who have broken 4:40 before this race:

High School Girls Who Have Run Sub-4:40 Miles

Mary Cain — 4:28.25i (2013)

Alexa Efraimson — 4:32.15i (2014)

Katelyn Tuohy — 4:33.87 (2018)

Dalia Frias — 4:35.06 (2022)

Sadie Engelhardt — 4:35.16 (2022)

Polly Plumer — 4:35.24 (1982)

Katie Rainsberger — 4:36.61i (2016)

Kim Gallagher — 4:36.94 (1982)

Sarah Bowman — 4:36.95 (2005)

Arianna Lambie — 4:37.23 (2003)

Juliette Whittaker — 4:37.23i (2022)

Marlee Starliper — 4:37.76i (2020)

Christina Aragon —4:37.91 (2015)

Addy Wiley — 4:38.14 (2021)

Victoria Starcher — 4:38.19 (2020)

Caitlin Collier — 4:38.48 (2018)

Debbie Heald — 4:38.5i (1972)

Ryen Frazier — 4:38.59 (2015)

Taryn Parks — 4:39.05i (2019)

Wesley Frazier — 4:39.17 (2013)

Sarah Feeny — 4:39.23 (2014)

Danielle Toro — 4:39.25 (2007)

Mia Barnett — 4:39.41 (2021)

Katelynne Hart — 4:39.57 (2020)

Cami Chapus — 4:39.64 (2012)

Brie Felnagle — 4:39.71 (2005)

Dani Jones — 4:39.88 (2015)

Angel Piccirillo — 4:39.94 (2012)

Allison Cash — 4:39.98 (2013)

Run Commutes Aren’t Just for Getting to Work

If you’re looking for ways to stay motivated during your Streak, try using the daily jog as transport. 

The second half of the Run Streak is when most of us start to crave a rest day or feel a slump in motivation. It’s also the time that I dip into what has been a streak-saving secret: run commuting.

After all, running was transport way before it was sport, and the idea of bookending your work day with runs to and from the office isn’t a new one—especially during the summer Streak when we’ve got more daylight and try to avoid the hottest hours of the day. (Even if you work from home, you can still jog a “fake” commute like ultrarunner Mike Wardian does each morning when he’s trying to get in extra mileage.) 

Personally, the majority of my run commuting isn’t from home to office and back again. Rather, it’s for heading to other destinations that I would have otherwise hopped in a car. I can’t help but mention that at a time when gas prices have soared over 5 bucks (6 in some areas!) per gallon. It may not save you a significant amount at the tank, but I feel like it counts double when the mileage that would have been going on your car is going in your training log instead. 

If you’re dragging a bit and need something new in your Streak, or just need to squeeze in a quick mile with a task you’ve already got on your schedule, I’ve got a few suggestions. I’ve done them all myself, and each has either added a little convenience or excitement to my Streak. My challenge to you is to try one of these during the final days of yours: 

Run to a local coffee shop for your morning coffee.

Jog to meet a friend you haven’t seen in a while.

Get an errand out of the way. (I run to get my groceries and count carrying them home as my weight training.)

Experiment with a run commute to work

End a hot run with ice cream for the walk home. 

Save the delivery fee on something small you’ve Uber Eats’d (These apps offer more than just food orders now.)

Pick up birthday or holiday cards for friends and family. 

A Few Tips

If you have a watch that offers built-in payment methods, get it set up before you head out so you can leave your wallet at home.

Remember that you don’t have to run the whole way. Maybe you’ll ask a friend for a lift home, carpool with a coworker, or use public transport for a portion of your trip.

Plan your route ahead of time. Use turn-by-turn GPS navigation on your phone’s app or watch as back up. 

If you’re commuting during busy hours, incorporate parks into your route to avoid busier roads and sidewalks.

Use hear-through mode on your headphones, or just leave them at home. 

Seal your cash or cards in a Ziplock baggy to keep them from getting sweaty.

Short, easy jogs during cooler hours won’t leave you stinky or drenched.

Always give yourself about 10 more minutes than you think you’ll need. 

How much will running in poor air quality compromise your health? It depends on which markers of health you consider

Here’s a bold prediction for the upcoming dog days of summer 2022: it’s going to be hot, smoggy and smoky. Whether you’re in a big metropolis sucking in diesel fumes or on a remote mountain trail coughing up smoke particles from a distant forest fire, there’s a good chance you’re going to encounter some less-than-pristine air over the next few months.

Is that a problem? On the surface, the answer is obvious. Inhaling polluted air triggers a cascade of inflammation and oxidative stress that raises your risk of both immediate and long-term health problems. The rise and fall of air quality readings, for example, is mirrored by the rise and fall of hospital admissions for conditions such as heart disease. And the harder you breathe, the more pollution you inhale, which is why public health authorities typically warn you to avoid outdoor exercise on days with poor air quality.

But there’s an alternate perspective. Pollution is definitely bad for your health—but so is skipping your workout. If you’re weighing the lesser of two evils, it may be that running in dirty air is better than not running at all. That’s the perspective that Michael Koehle, an environmental physiologist who is one of the world’s leading experts on exercise and air pollution, offered when I visited his lab at the University of British Columbia a decade ago: “Exercise is such a big hammer that it crushes everything else,” he told me.

At the time, few studies had addressed the balance between exercise’s benefits and pollution’s harms. Since then, Koehle and others have been grappling with this question, with new findings still appearing on a regular basis. Here’s where the research currently stands.

The good news

Last summer, researchers in Taiwan published a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that analyzed the medical records of nearly 400,000 adults who had undergone medical screening starting in 1994. Their exercise habits were assessed with a questionnaire, and their pollution exposure was estimated based on their home address. More exercise was associated with greater longevity, while more pollution was associated with worse longevity, as you’d expect. But it was the interaction—or rather, the lack of interaction—between these two factors that was most interesting. Exposure to high levels of pollution didn’t dampen or reverse the health benefits of high levels of exercise.

A few earlier studies have produced similar findings. For example, a Danish analysis of 52,000 people found that higher levels of exercise protected against premature death, heart disease and diabetes, regardless of how much pollution the subjects were exposed to based on a detailed street-by-street air quality database. An explanation for these results might be found in a series of studies by Brazilian scientists, who directly measured inflammation and oxidative damage in the lungs of mice breathing diesel exhaust. Regular running, it turned out, blocked this inflammation and oxidative damage; exercise was a big enough hammer to cancel out the diesel.

The bad news

Longevity is a pretty good marker of health, but it’s not the only one. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Arizona published a pair of studies that looked at the effects of exercise and air pollution on brain health. It’s well known that people who exercise regularly tend to have brains with more grey matter (where the neurons are) and healthier white matter (which connects and supports the neurons). They are also less likely to develop degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s: data from the long-running National Runners’ Health Study estimates the risk to be 40 per cent lower in those who run about 25 kilometres a week.

The first Arizona study used brain scans to assess the size and health of white and grey matter in 8,600 British adults; the second one used health records to look for dementia diagnoses in about 35,000 people. They used activity trackers to assess exercise habits and home addresses to estimate pollution exposure. For people in low-pollution areas, the results were as expected: more exercise predicted healthier brains and fewer dementia diagnoses. But for people in moderate- and high-pollution areas, the brain benefits of exercise disappeared.

It’s worth emphasizing that exercising in the polluted areas didn’t make people less healthy, nor did it cancel out the many other benefits of exercise, for example, on heart health. But we all want healthier brains, and the news that even moderate pollution blocks some of those benefits is concerning.

What to do about it

The devil is in the details. There are undoubtedly some situations—the apocalyptic aftermath of a big forest fire, say—when it makes sense to skip a run entirely. And people with respiratory or heart conditions should be especially careful to avoid poor air quality.

More often, though, it may be possible to choose a lesser evil. Mornings generally have significantly cleaner air, thanks to traffic patterns and the interaction of sunlight with certain pollutants, so set that alarm clock. Location, too, plays a big role. Trails and paths that are away from busy roads are your best bet, but even small distances and barriers can help. Vancouver’s bike lanes, for example, are often separated from traffic by a lane of parked cars because that gives cyclists measurably better air quality, according to Koehle.

Contrary to what you might expect, Koehle’s research has found that more intense exercise isn’t necessarily worse than easy exercise. Panting hard may change the way particulates of pollution settle (or don’t settle) in the lungs. As a result, he suggests favouring shorter, harder workouts rather than longer, easier ones when the air quality is worse than usual. Moving indoors is also an option—but unless your facility has state-of-the-art air filtration, don’t assume that the air inside is any better than the air outside. It all comes from the same place, after all.

In the long term, rather than tweaking when and where you run, the best solution would be to make sure that we all have consistent access to clean air. That’s a big hill to climb—but by sticking to your running plans rather than, say, driving to the gym, you’re taking a small step in the right direction.

After Suffering from Years of Drug Addiction, Running Helped This Dad Get Clean

Now he’s finishing triathlons and conquering ultramarathons.As a teenager, I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and found myself in trouble constantly. I started smoking cigarettes and marijuana, and stealing alcohol at a very young age. And by the time I was 15, I had already started using cocaine, LSD, and ecstasy frequently. 

Prescription pills took hold of me at a young age and led me into an opiate addiction. At the climax of my addiction, I was homeless and living on the street. I was the guy you would see at a highway exit holding a sign begging people for money. I tried to get off the opiates by going to a methadone clinic and taking methadone (a FDA-approved drug in the opioid family, used to treat opioid use disorder), and wound up more addicted to that drug. 

In the clinic, I also met tons of heroin addicts that introduced me to that drug. Being an addict took me to prison and almost took my life several times, and all the relationships in my life were broken as a result. I tried to commit suicide and found myself in psychiatric units, treatment centers, halfway houses, and rehabs frequently.

The worst of my overdoses was the week of February 4th, 2015, where I had a total of three heroin overdoses in one week. I was found unresponsive with a needle in my arm. During one of those overdoses, I had locked myself in a bathroom with my back to the door and feet against the vanity so nobody would be able to open the door. My father, who had been trying to intervene, actually got into my apartment and broke the door to get me out. He gave me CPR and called 911. 

The paramedics gave me several doses of Narcan to try and save my life, and I was put on a ventilator in the ICU due to the fluid in my lungs and pneumonia. After a very scary nine days in the ICU, by the grace of God, I woke up. 

At this point, I had a decision to make: either run away like a coward or run toward my failures and take responsibility for my life. At this time, my wife was six months pregnant with our first child, so I made the decision to find help at a men’s faith-based recovery center called Lifeline-connect in Urbana, Illinois, that completely changed my life. 

Lifeline-connect is a one-year residential program, so I knew I was going to be there for a while. One of my mentors in the program, RJ Eaton, was into fitness and challenged me to get into shape spirituality, mentally, and physically. Up to that point, my lungs were in bad condition. I smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for over a decade. 

I had been running off and on since the first time I went to Lifeline-connect in 2009. And after my relapse in 2015, I started running again this time, and at first could barely run a tenth of a mile without stopping because my lungs hurt. 

One day while running, someone saw me running in a really old pair of beat up shoes that were falling apart and blessed me with a brand new pair of Saucony shoes, which really encouraged me. A tenth of a mile turned into two and then a half-mile, and with consistency day by day, it wasn’t long until I was running several miles every day. 

By the end of my time at Lifeline-connect, I was running five miles a day, five days a week. As I continued on through my recovery, I kept running and fell in love with it. 

In 2019, I competed in the Illinois half marathon and remember thinking at the time about how difficult it was to run a half marathon. But following that race, I realized that running was helping me forge mental toughness to stay strong in other areas of my life. Running helped me to have the same mental fortitude to not quit on longer runs, which is the same mental toughness that has helped me not give into temptation in rough times.

Since then, I’ve run three full marathons, one a personal 26.2-mile run, then a 35-mile ultra that wasn’t a sanctioned event. I also set a PR at the Illinois half marathon this past spring, finishing in 1:42, and have also come to love mountain and road cycling. 

To keep pushing the bar, I signed up for and completed the Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga this year and finished with a time that I was pleased with accomplishing. I have a goal to summit all 58 14-ers (mountains above 14,000 feet elevation) in Colorado. 

Currently, my running schedule is between 25 and 35 miles a week. Every once in a while, I sign up for a 5K, 10K, marathon, or triathlon to keep me motivated because I really enjoy the community of runners/cyclists/triathletes. I’ve actually connected with a number of local athletes who are now friends of mine and I get to meet up with them for runs or rides.

Next on my running goals list is to do a 50-mile ultramarathon, then a 100K run. 

Overall, running makes me feel alive and accomplished. It’s one of my personal devotional times where I express my gratitude to my God for keeping me alive. Because of running, today I now have a beautiful life with my three beautiful children: Eden, Amaeya, and Summit. My wife, Maegan, is my biggest cheerleader. She’s my rock who stuck by my side, always encouraging and believing in me. I am so grateful that I get to tuck my three beautiful children in to sleep at night and be their dad. The only thing running didn't prepare me for was raising these three kiddos ages 2, 4, and 6—talk about an endurance event! 

A special shout-out to my 2-year-old Siberian husky, Slushy, who has been my running partner over the years. I train with him regularly because he holds me accountable when running. He’s ready to go every day at 5:30 a.m. rain or shine, and he has helped me to be better. We all need a husky in our lives: personally, spirituality, and professionally. 

For anyone reading this, I want them to know that no matter what struggle they are going through, there is an opportunity to come out of the fire stronger than before. Sometimes it takes a fire in our lives to clear and burn away all the impurities that were holding us down. Now is the time to get up, lace your shoes, and march forth. If I can do it, anyone can. 

These three trips have made my running journey a success:

1. Smile when you run

It helps me to remind myself why I love this. 

2. Practice gratitude

When running gets tough, I try to remind myself of how lucky I am to be able to run. I am blessed to have found this path, when others close to me have lost their lives. 

3. Run everywhere you travel.

I run everywhere, even on vacation or staying at a friend or family’s house out of state to keep the spirit of adventure alive! 

Olympic Champion Dame Kelly Holmes has announced she is gay, and says she has hidden it for 34 years.

Speaking during Pride month, the two-time gold medallist said she realised she was gay at the age of 17 after kissing a fellow female soldier, and that her family and friends have known since 1997.

The Olympic champion told the Sunday Mirror: "I needed to do this now, for me. It was my decision. I'm nervous about saying it. I feel like I'm going to explode with excitement.

"Sometimes I cry with relief. The moment this comes out, I'm essentially getting rid of that fear."

The 52-year-old also revealed she struggled with her mental health because of having to hide her sexuality, and that she had to keep several same-sex relationships she had during her time in the Women's Royal Army Corps secret, for fear of being courts marshalled.

Until 2000, it was illegal for gay, lesbian and bisexual people to serve in the British Army, Royal Navy and RAF - and Dame Kelly feared she would still face repercussions for breaking that law during her time in the forces.

She contacted a military LGBTQ+ leader in 2020 to find out if she could be sanctioned for breaking army rules and was told she would not be.

She said: "I felt like I could breathe again, one little call could have saved 28 years of heartache."

(Second photo) Crossing the finish line to win the gold medal in the women's 800m at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. She also won the 1500m. 

Dame Kelly took part in her final major championship in 2004, with a double gold medal-winning performance at the Athens Olympics.

In 2005 - the year she retired from athletics - she was made a Dame by the Queen.

She has since been made an honorary colonel with the Royal Armoured Corps Training Regiment.

Dame Kelly set up a charity in 2008, created to support retired athletes to transition out of their sport, and to create mentoring programmes to inspire young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into sports.

Social media has been flooded with support for the Olympic champion.

She has also started to make a documentary about her experiences called Being Me, where she talks to LGBTQ+ soldiers about their lives in the military now.

Sebastian Coe runs first few steps at Budapest’s new National Athletics Centre

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe ran the first metres on the track at the new National Athletics Centre of Hungary, which will be the venue for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 in just over a year.

Coe, who is in Budapest for the FINA World Championships, met with key members of the local organising committee for the 2023 World Athletics Championships, including CEO Péter Deutsch and Hungarian Athletics Association President Miklós Gyulai. During his time in the Hungarian capital, Coe was shown around the National Athletics Centre by 2017 world 110m hurdles bronze medallist Balázs Baji.

Coe also joined 10 participants from the Hungarian Kids’ Athletics Programme and ran with them on the field of play in the new stadium, which is still under construction. The Hungarian Kids’ Athletics Programme aims to inspire more and more children to choose athletics as their first sport, given it is the foundation of all sports. As a result of the programme, the number of young athletes aged six to 12 has already increased by 30% in Hungary in 2021. The programme is part of World Athletics’ Kids’ Athletics initiative.

“I am impressed with the organisation,” said Coe. “Of course there is still a lot to do, but everything is going to plan. I saw a very focused team and I’m sure we’ll see a fantastic World Championships here in Budapest in 2023. Even with the ongoing construction, the stadium already looks impressive. It was great to meet some of the budding young talent from the Hungarian Kids’ Athletics Programme, and it was a pleasure to join them in their debut at the stadium. I hope they all get an opportunity to compete here in the years to come.”

Deutsch added: “Just over a year from now, in August 2023, the World Athletics Championships – the biggest sporting event in Hungary's history – will begin. Our goal with the World Championships is to strengthen and promote the Hungarian athletics and to get as many children as possible to choose this fantastic sport.”

How to Run (When You Hate Running)

If you slog through the same boring miles week after week, can’t even imagine slogging through miles every week, or if your high school coach used laps as punishment... of course you’re gonna hate running. Here’s how you won’t.

If you’re not a fan of running, you’re definitely not alone. Forty-six percent of the 1,800 people who answered our MH poll said they hate it too. But here’s the thing: Running’s not about banging it out anymore. It’s still an incredibly efficient cardio workout that you don’t get with weights alone.

Now, however, running itself isn’t really the point. It’s just what happens to be going on in the morning, with friends. Or at night, when the city’s yours and you may or may not be breaking some rules. It’s a game you play with yourself, a way to test yourself, a way to find yourself, a way to forget. You don’t really hate running. You hate the way you’ve been running. And we’ve got six cures for that.

CURE 1:

Add a new level of exploration—or competition—by lacing up after dark.

There’s a version of running in which you don’t wake up early, you don’t pay hundreds in race fees, and the finish line, at least sometimes, is a bar. It doesn’t quite have a name, or at least it hasn’t been branded yet. It’s punk rock. It’s returning running to the people from the hands of corporate sponsors and type A, predawn joyless slogs. Call it night running if you want, since that’s when it happens.

Many groups start weekly workouts around 8:00 P.M.—not too late for us normies but late enough for the pack to be defined by the flecks of light bouncing off hidden reflective patches on clothes, shoes, caps. But there’s another kind of night running that really sets you free.

It’s not as much about a time of day as it is about a mind-set. These are unsanctioned adventures—underground races with mostly word-of-mouth buzz in which a small group of people (maybe ten friends, maybe 100 entrants) chase a win by running between checkpoints by themselves, picking whatever route they want. There are no closed roads, no signs, no aid stations or port-a-johns. Some races are pretty hardcore—strategic, competitive, and ruled by local studs.

Others, like one I did from a bar in Brooklyn to one in Manhattan, are less aggressive, and your finish time includes drinking a can of beer. That type of gritty night running is the closest you can get to the pure spirit of racing—of grinding your body into the pavement until you’re doubled over. The streets have quieted down, and you’re out in them on your own. Along with every other runner who shares this passion. —MATT ALLYN

CURE 2:

Don’t run, glide. Bound. And sometimes walk.

As the editorial director of a group that includes Runner’s World, I spend more days than not surrounded by real runners, so what I am saying to you is not opinion but lived and learned fact: Real runners rarely seem to be running. They glide. They bound. They kiss the earth with their tippy-toes as a courtesy to gravity rather than a necessity of physics.

I, however, run as if I got into a brawl with a much bigger opponent and am paying for it. Yet: I run. It’s more efficient than cycling (my sport of choice), and it’s easier to manage when you’re traveling. I highly recommend getting the shit kicked out of you by a run. But you can’t be afraid to walk. If you only run for as long as you can actually run, you’re not going to be out there long enough to do yourself much good.

At first, the only way I could do a 30-minute “run” was to run for a few minutes, walk a few, then run some more. Walking is not only okay but pretty much mandatory. Real runners know this and won’t shame you for not running while you run. Anyone else can go suck it, because they’re not even in the damn fight. —BILL STRICKLAND

CURE 3

Sprint and Get It Over With

Forget 30 minutes. Crash through just six all-out 100-meter sprints with two minutes’ rest between each (you’ll need it) and you’ll be done with all your running in less than 15 minutes. Here’s how. —EBENEZER SAMUEL, C.S.C.S.

1. A Tight Core

A rock-solid core keeps you exploding straight ahead. Train this with mountain climbers. Do 3 sets, working for 30 seconds, resting for 30. Avoid the common flaw: Don’t let your butt rise!

2. Explosive Arms

Pump your arms to generate speed. Struggling? Sit on the ground, legs extended, then pump your arms as aggressively as possible, as if running. Focus on moving from the shoulders. Do three 30-second sets, resting 30 seconds after each.

3. Back Strength

Don’t just throw your arms forward when you run; build back strength to drive your elbows high. Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 dumbbell rows per side at least twice a week.

4. Strong Feet

Toe and foot strength is key for sprinters. Build it with single-foot jump-rope hops. Jump for 45 seconds, then rest 15 seconds. Do 3 sets.

5. High Knees

Drive your knees powerfully on every stride. Practice this by doing high knees in place for 15 seconds, then resting 15 seconds. Do 3 sets. Focus on driving your knees higher than your hips.

CURE 4

Run with Friends

About two years ago, after I’d put on about ten pounds, I sent a text to two friends at 8:00 on a Sunday morning, saying, “I’m going running at 9:00. Would either or both of you like to join?” Although we’d never discussed running together, I got a “Yup” from one and a “Sure” from the other. Then I got an “I don’t understand what’s going on” from the “Yup,” but—too late!—we had a plan. An hour later, we met up and ran five miles at the slowest pace I’ve ever run, and we’ve run virtually every weekend since then.

Now it’s a ritual. We’re a lot faster, but that isn’t the point. We keep it up because we also don’t want to fail at the opportunity we’ve created. When else do three fathers— three people—get an hour of uninterrupted weekly conversation? That the conversation has the added benefit of regulating our breathing, keeping us at a sensible pace, means we never go too hard—and going too hard is probably one of the reasons I used to stop running.

CURE 5

Try the (New, Gamified) Treadmill

The treadmill’s no longer a cataclysmic-weather default. Tech has brought competition and camaraderie to what used to be just running on a belt in your basement. These three options are changing everything.

Top the Leaderboard: PELOTON

On-demand streaming puts the workout you want right in front of you, along with everyone’s stats on a leader board so you can outpace that 18-year-old in L. A. (or your dad). Buy the treadmill (with a special belt for softer landings, starting at $4,295) or get the workouts, but not the stats, on your own treadmill via an app for $19.50 a month. OnePeloton.com

Run with Far-flung Friends: ZWIFT RUNNING

Run with a friend—even if you’re in St. Louis and they’re in Toronto—via this app. Set it up on a tablet or computer by your treadmill, pick an avatar, and have your friend do it too. You’ll both show up on the same virtual course. The app is free, but you’ll need a foot pod (as little as $30)—a device that clips to your shoe and sends your pace and distance to the app. Zwift.com —M. M.

THE MILE IS THE NEW MARATHON

Train for this everything-you-got sprint to get a fitness bump and bragging rights. 

For the past few years, Ironpeople and cardiovores have tried to one-up one another with epic training efforts, competing on the number of miles they run, the number of Ironmans they do, and the number of ultra-early-morning sessions they knock out. Yet one of the most effective ways to train—and one of the most beneficial for your physical and mental health—has always been the shortest and the simplest: mastering the mile.

“The mile is an amazing blend of speed and endurance, and a good indicator of your overall cardiovascular health,” says Danny Mackey, head coach of the Brooks Beasts, an elite pro track team. “You can hammer it, and because it doesn’t take long to recover, you can run it again soon to see how much you’ve improved.

You can’t say that about a marathon, where most people are just trying to finish.” Even better, Mackey says you’ll notice yourself getting faster in three weeks. While a typical in-shape guy can run a mile in ten minutes, running one in 6:30—under the 6:47 average time for a man in the 5th Avenue Mile, the largest one-mile race in the country—can win you bragging rights. (The fastest finishing time in that race last year was 3:52.) Here’s exactly how to get after it.

Here’s What Happens to Your Body (and Mind) When You Run Every Day

From your muscles to your mental state, you gain a plethora of benefits from daily runs.

Are you in the midst of a streak and feeling like a different person than when you started? That’s because you are. Running every day triggers a variety of mental and physical benefits, all of which can help improve your athletic performance and make you a healthier human.

“If running or exercise were a pill, it would be the most widely prescribed drug in the world for all of the benefits for your health that it has,” Todd Buckingham, Ph.D., chief exercise physiologist at The Bucking Fit Life, a wellness coaching company and community, tells Runner’s World. “Exercise really is medicine, and running is medicine,” he says. 

If you’re wondering about the effects of your daily dose, here are a list of all the benefits of running every day. Let it fuel you with motivation to keep running toward your run streak goal.

Your Heart Gets Stronger and More Efficient

As a new runner, those first couple of runs can be brutal. Your breathing is labored, and your heart feels like it’s pounding against your chest. Meanwhile, your legs are barely moving. But, a couple of weeks into your training, breathing becomes easier, and that heart-pounding sensation lessens as your feet pick up the pace. 

If you’re wearing a fitness tracker, you may even notice a dip in your heart rate while you hit the same paces. “The heart is a muscle, just like every other muscle in the body. The more that you train it, the stronger it’s going to get,” Buckingham says. 

He explains that running every day strengthens cardiac muscle tissue and causes the heart’s left ventricle, the chamber that forces oxygenated blood into the aorta (the artery that carries blood from the heart to the body), to increase in size. “There’s more space in that left ventricle to fill up with blood,” he says. “So not only is there more blood to be pumped out, but the heart is also stronger, so it can pump more blood out with each beat.”

As a result, your heart doesn’t have to work as hard to deliver oxygenated blood to your muscles. This is a boon for your daily runs and your overall heart health. 

You Gain Muscle Mass and Strength

When you pound the pavement, treadmill, or trail day after day, your muscles—specifically, the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, soleus, and gastrocnemius (those last two are your calf muscles)—respond to the stimulus being imposed upon them. 

“The muscle is damaged, and that means that the body has to repair the damaged muscles so that the same run doesn’t have the same effect that it did last time,” Buckingham says. Essentially, the muscles are re-built bigger and stronger. “It’s a lot like lifting weights,” he says. 

But, unless your workouts consist of sprint intervals paired with resistance training, don’t expect to bulk up. Running long distances (even just a mile or more) at a sustainable pace primarily engages type I muscle fibers, which are good at resisting fatigue but are small in size. (Type II fibers, which are quick to fatigue but generate more force and power, are generally responsible for visible muscle growth.) 

“You might see a little bit of increase in [muscle] size with distance running, but it’s not going to be as pronounced. Type I muscle fibers can get bigger, but not to the same extent as those type II fibers,” Buckingham explains. 

Your Connective Tissue (Slowly) Adapts

Your body’s connective tissue, namely the tendons and ligaments, will also adapt to withstand the daily stress of running—just not as quickly as your muscle tissue. “The reason for this is because tendons and ligaments don’t have the same amount of blood flow that the muscles do, so it takes them longer to adapt,” Buckingham says. 

While your muscles may begin to change a couple of weeks into a running streak, it could take three to four months for your tendons and ligaments to catch up, he says. 

To prevent overuse injuries, it’s best to begin a streak with a conservative goal (a mile a day is a good place to start, says Buckingham) and gradually build upon that foundation. The general rule of thumb is to increase your mileage by no more than 10% each week, but Buckingham notes that this can vary depending on the athlete, their experience, and their mileage. 

Avoiding long breaks is helpful for your connective tissues, says Alison Staples, coach at &Running in Howard County, Maryland. “Tendons need to be loaded consistently to learn how to accept the impact of running,” she says. “Running sporadically often leads to injury because we haven’t practiced loading our tendons enough before tacking on mileage.” 

Your Nervous System Becomes Fine-Tuned

Buckingham compares the nervous system to a maze. “The first time you do it, you’re going to take a lot of wrong turns and end up doing extra work,” he says. But, over time, you learn the most direct path from point A to point B. 

Similarly, the first few times you go out for a run, your neuromuscular connections will fire inefficiently, as one nerve fiber connects to multiple muscle fibers. Muscle fibers that don’t need to contract will be stimulated, resulting in wasted energy. However, with consistent running, your nervous system eventually adapts and learns the optimal route so everything works more efficiently.

Research backs this up, too, saying that consistent running trains your central nervous system to adjust to and get more efficient at the commands of running. 

“The more you run, the more efficient you’re going to become [at running] because you're teaching the body which muscle fibers should be firing and which shouldn’t,” Buckingham says. 

You Feel Mentally Sharper

Running boosts circulation, increasing blood flow to the brain and delivering the nutrients you need to think and function. But exercise has also been shown to promote the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein important to brain function and memory. 

“BDNF actually increases the brain’s ability to form new synapses, or connections, in the brain,” Buckingham says. “This helps with learning and memory. It makes it easier to absorb information and form long-term memories. The more BDNF that somebody has, the more the memory improves in function and capacity.” 

According to Buckingham, the effects of increased BDNF are cumulative, but you may feel mentally sharper and more alert after just a few days of running. 

Your Mood and Motivation Improve

BDNF can also help mitigate stress. “It doesn’t decrease stress hormones, but it does decrease the number of stress receptors,” Buckingham says. “And this could minimize the effect of those stress hormones in the brain.” 

Add that to an exercise-induced endorphin release, and you have a recipe for an improved mood. In fact, research shows just 10 minutes of running can enhance your happiness. 

“I am currently running the #RWRunStreak myself, and based on my own experience, running a mile every day has been a huge boost in my mood and motivation,” Staples says. “My one mile a day is my own form of non-negotiable self-care… And by doing this run streak, I’m certainly more relaxed and motivated to get my run in every day.”

Trail-running podcast host creates job board for runners

If you’ve always longed to find a career that aligns with your love of running (especially trail running), Finn Melanson may have some options for you. Melanson, ultrarunner and host of the Singletrack podcast, has created a website for people seeking jobs in the running industry.

Melanson calls the job board a work in progress, and explains that “every aspect of our sport improves as more talented people decide to invest their life’s work here.” Passionate runners or trail enthusiasts with useful skill sets may still find it challenging to find opportunities in today’s rapidly changing job market, and Melanson hopes to eliminate some of the struggle.

“There’s been a lot of recent discussion in the ultrarunning world about what it’s going to take to improve the sport, grow the sport and generally get it to a place where it’s more relevant in a 21st century world. I’m attracted to that kind of big picture, forward-thinking and I wanted to lend a hand,” says Melanson. He adds: “Maybe by the mid 21st century, the running industry (and the outdoor industry in general) becomes THE place where people want to invest their intellectual and physical energies. I bet that will generate a lot of laughs, but why not?”

The job board is updated daily, and currently has a variety of openings posted by well-known industry names like Strava, Tracksmith, Training Peaks, and AllTrails.

While the postings are currently largely U.S. based, many have remote options. Melanson asks for employers from locations worldwide to reach out to him and help grow the site. He adds: “A jobs board plays a small role by creating awareness and routing these people to the opportunities available in our community.”

Melanson has plans for expansion: “I envision a day in the near future, to give one example, where an applicant not only sees a job posting for a company like Strava, but also a Youtube link to an interview with a recruiter discussing what they look for in an application, why someone should be interested in working there, and more” he says.

Melanson has experience in marketing from his day job as a low-code technology platform called OutSystems. Both the job board and the Singletrack podcast are passion projects he works on in his free time.

Runners in Flagstaff, Ariz. evacuated due to wildfires

Residents of Flagstaff, Ariz. have been placed on high alert as the Pipeline fire rages near their communities. Hundreds of people have been forced to leave their homes, with thousands more told to prepare to evacuate. The area is a popular place to live and train for elite athletes due to the high elevation (around 2,133m or 7000 feet).

The Pipeline fire was preceded this year by several other blazes, including the Tunnel fire, which also caused evacuations and resulted in over 19,000 acres burning.Many Canadian athletes live or spend time at training camps in the Flagstaff area, and we spoke to Canadian half-marathon record holder Rory Linkletter. Linkletter and his family have been evacuated, and he explained: “Flames were about 1km from our home. Water trucks were parked in our neighbourhood ready to fight fire from our street and protect structures.” Linkletter added that it was the second fire in the last few months within a mile of his home.

The Pipeline fire was reported on Sunday, and as of Monday afternoon, over 5,000 acres of brush and forest had burned. The Cococino National Forest reported that two additional fires, the Haywire and Double fires, are now being fought within the same area.

Firefighters have been working diligently to suppress the fires and keep them from entering the nearby communities, and temporary shelters have been designated for both people and animals.Strong winds and warm weather have made containing the fires particularly challenging. Linkletter said that fires this year had been worse than anticipated. His family includes pets and his 10-month-old son, Jason, which add challenges to being evacuated.

Linkletter added, “Last fire people were evacuated for just under a week, and we would love to get home as soon as possible. I just hope our home and everyone else’s is safe and we can come home to some normalcy. It’s obviously stressful to have the uncertainty and feel so hopeless.”Matthew Riser, 57, was arrested on Sunday in connection to the fires. Riser admitted to burning toilet paper and placing it under a rock, saying he hadn’t seen the “no campfire” signs. The Pipeline fire is named after a popular hiking trail and Riser had been camping in the area.

Linkletter expressed some optimism about the weather in the next few days. “The wind is supposed to die down tomorrow, and rain is possible on Saturday,” he said.

Olympian Jenny Simpson narrowly missed losing her house in Boulder, Co. last year in another wildfire. Boulder is another very popular city for runners to live or train, and the Marshall fire destroyed over 1, 000 homes and 6,000 acres.

Complete schedule of events for the 2022 World Athletics Championships

The 2022 World Athletics Championships are headed to Hayward Field in Eugene Oregon USA for a 10-day run from July 15-24. Dubbed Oregon22, the event will mark the first time that track & field’s world championships will be held in the United States.

Eugene will be the host for 2,000 athletes from more than 200 countries.

Track events range from the 100 meters to the 10,000 meters (6.2 miles). Field events include throws (hammer, javelin, discus and shot put) and jumps (high jump, long jump, triple jump and pole vault). There also are road events, from the marathon (26.2 miles) to race walks of 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) and 35 kilometers (21.7 miles).

Here’s a day-by-day look at the Oregon22 event schedule (PDT):

DAY 1, FRIDAY, JULY 15

Morning session

9:05 a.m.: Men’s hammer, qualifying, group A

10:10 a.m.: Men’s high jump, qualifying

10:30 a.m.: Men’s hammer, qualifying, group B

11:45 a.m.: Mixed 4x400 relay, heats

12:05 p.m.: Women’s hammer, qualifying, group A

12:30 p.m.: Men’s 100 meters, preliminaries

1:10 p.m.: Women’s 20k race walk, final

1:30 p.m.: Women’s hammer, qualifying, group A

3:10 p.m.: Men’s 20k race walk, final

Afternoon session

5:05 p.m.: Women’s shot put, qualifying

5:15 p.m.: Men’s 3,000 steeplechase, heats

5:20 p.m.: Women’s pole vault, qualifying

6:00 p.m.: Men’s long jump, qualifying

6:10 p.m.: Women’s 1,500 meters, heats

6:50 p.m.: Men’s 100 meters, heats

6:55 p.m.: Men’s shot put, qualifying

7:50 p.m.: Mixed 4x400 relay, final

DAY 2: SATURDAY, JULY 16

Morning session

10:30 a.m.: Women’s triple jump, qualifying

10:35 a.m.: Women’s 3,000 steeplechase, heats

11:10 a.m.: Women’s high jump, qualifying

11:25 a.m.: Men’s 110 hurdles, heats

12:00 p.m.: Men’s hammer, final

12:20 p.m.: Women’s 10,000 meters, final

1:20 p.m.: Men’s 400 hurdles, heats

Afternoon session

5:10 p.m.: Women’s 100 meters, heats

6:00 p.m.: Men’s 100 meters, semifinals

6:20 p.m.: Men’s long jump, final

6:25 p.m.: Women’s shot put, final

6:30 p.m.: Men’s 1,500 meters, heats

7:05 p.m.: Women’s 1,500 meters, semifinals

7:50 p.m.: Men’s 100 meters, final

DAY 3: SUNDAY, JULY 17

Morning session

6:15 a.m.: Men’s marathon, final

10:35 a.m.: Women’s 100 hurdles, heptathlon

11:05 a.m.: Men’s 400 meters, heats

11:35 a.m.: Women’s high jump, heptathlon

11:35 a.m.: Women’s hammer, final

12:00 p.m.: Women’s 400 meters, heats

1:00 p.m.: Men’s 10,000 meters, final

1:45 p.m.: Women’s shot put, heptathlon

Afternoon session

5:05 p.m.: Men’s 110 hurdles, semifinals

5:05 p.m.: Men’s discus, qualifying, group A

5:25 p.m.: Women’s pole vault, final

5:33 p.m.: Women’s 100 meters, semifinals

6:03 p.m.: Men’s 400 hurdles, semifinals

6:27 p.m.: Men’s shot put, final

6:30 p.m.: Men’s discus, qualifying, group B

6:38 p.m.: Women’s 200 meters, heptathlon

7:00 p.m.: Men’s 1,500 meters, semifinals

7:30 p.m.: Men’s 110 hurdles, final

7:50 p.m.: Women’s 100 meters, final

DAY 4: MONDAY, JULY 18

Morning session

6:15 a.m.: Women’s marathon, final

9:35 a.m.: Women’s long jump, heptathlon

10:55 a.m.: Women’s javelin, heptathlon, group A

12:05 p.m.: Women’s javelin, heptathlon, group B

Afternoon session

5:05 p.m.: Men’s 200 meters, heats

5:10 p.m.: Women’s discus, qualifying, group A

5:45 p.m.: Men’s high jump, final

6:00 p.m.: Women’s 200 meters, heats

6:20 p.m.: Women’s triple jump, final

6:35 p.m.: Women’s discus, qualifying, group B

6:55 p.m.: Women’s 800 meters, heptathlon

7:20 p.m.: Men’s 3,000 steeplechase, final

7:50 p.m.: Women’s 1,500 meters, final

DAY 5, TUESDAY, JULY 19

Afternoon session

5:15 p.m.: Women’s 400 hurdles, heats

5:40 p.m.: Women’s high jump, final

6:05 p.m.: Women’s 200 meters, semifinals

6:33 p.m.: Men’s discus, final

6:50 p.m.: Men’s 200 meters, semifinals

7:30 p.m.: Men’s 1,500 meters, final

7:50 p.m.: Men’s 400 hurdles, final

DAY 6, WEDNESDAY, JULY 20

Afternoon session

3:20 p.m.: Women’s javelin, qualifying, group A

4:25 p.m.: Women’s 5,000 meters, heats

4:50 p.m.: Women’s javelin, qualifying, group B

5:20 p.m.: Men’s 800 meters, heats

6:15 p.m.: Women’s 400 hurdles, semifinals

6:30 p.m.: Women’s discus, final

6:45 p.m.: Women’s 400 meters, semifinals

7:15 p.m.: Men’s 400 meters, semifinals

7:45 p.m.: Women’s 3,000 steeplechase, final

DAY 7: THURSDAY, JULY 21

Afternoon session

5:05 p.m.: Men’s javelin, qualifying, group A

5:10 p.m.: Women’s 800 meters, heats

6:10 p.m.: Men’s 5,000 meters, heats

6:20 p.m.: Men’s triple jump, qualifying

6:35 p.m.: Men’s javelin, qualifying, group B

7:00 p.m.: Men’s 800 meters, semifinals

7:35 p.m.: Women’s 200 meters, final

7:50 p.m.: Men’s 200 meters, final

DAY 8: FRIDAY, JULY 22

Morning session

6:15 a.m.: Women’s 35k race walk, final

Afternoon session

5:05 p.m.: Men’s pole vault, qualifying

5:40 p.m.: Women’s 4x100 relay, heats

6:05 p.m.: Men’s 4x100 relay, heats

6:20 p.m.: Women’s javelin, final

6:35 p.m.: Women’s 800 meters, semifinals

7:15 p.m.: Women’s 400 meters, final

7:35 p.m.: Men’s 400 meters, final

7:50 p.m.: Women’s 400 hurdles, final

DAY 9: SATURDAY, JULY 23

Morning session

9:50 a.m.: Men’s 100 meters, decathlon

10:40 a.m.: Men’s long jump, decathlon

11:20 a.m.: Women’s 100 hurdles, heats

12:00 p.m.: Women’s long jump, qualifying

12:10 p.m.: Men’s shot put, decathlon

Afternoon session

4:10 p.m.: Men’s high jump, decathlon

5:10 p.m.: Women’s 4x400 relay, heats

5:40 p.m.: Men’s 4x400 relay, heats

6:00 p.m.: Men’s triple jump, final

6:10 p.m.: Men’s 800 meters, final

6:25 p.m.: Women’s 5,000 meters, final

6:35 p.m.: Men’s javelin, final

6:55 p.m.: Men’s 400 meters, decathlon

7:30 p.m.: Women’s 4x100 relay, final

7:50 p.m.: Men’s 4x100 relay, final

DAY 10: SUNDAY, JULY 24

Morning session

6:15 a.m.: Men’s 35k race walk, final

9:35 a.m.: Men’s 110 hurdles, decathlon

10:30 a.m.: Men’s discus, decathlon, group A

11:40 a.m.: Men’s discus, decathlon, group B

12:15 p.m.: Men’s pole vault, decathlon, group A

1:15 p.m.: Men’s pole vault, decathlon, group B

Afternoon session

5:05 p.m.: Women’s 100 hurdles, semifinals

5:05 p.m.: Men’s javelin, decathlon, group A

5:25 p.m.: Men’s pole vault, final

5:50 p.m.: Women’s long jump, final

6:05 p.m.: Men’s 5,000 meters, final

6:10 p.m.: Men’s javelin, decathlon, group B

6:35 p.m.: Women’s 800 meters, final

7:00 p.m.: Women’s 100 hurdles, final

7:20 p.m.: Men’s 1,500 meters, decathlon

7:35 p.m.: Men’s 4x400 relay, final

7:50 p.m.: Women’s 4x400 relay, final

Next up is the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday June 18

At 35, Jamaica’s two-time Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has done it all. But she still hasn’t finished, and her appearance at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday (18) will represent another significant step in her campaign to defend her world 100m title in Oregon next month.

Fraser-Pryce established her name early on this season’s world list when she ran in the rarified air of Nairobi and won in 10.67 - only seven-hundredths off the personal best she ran last year to put herself third on the all-time list.

Her Jamaican compatriot and twice successor as Olympic 100m champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah, has since made a good start to her pursuit of a first individual world title with a best of 10.79 on the Eugene track that will stage the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

But now Fraser-Pryce is back to make another impression in top-level competition at the Meeting de Paris on the ultra-fast blue track at Stade Charlety, which was renovated in 2019.

She will be taking on some talented sprinters including Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji, the surprise – and surprised – winner of the world indoor 60m title in Belgrade earlier this year in a personal best of 6.96. Kambundji, who turns 30 on the day before the race, will be targeting her personal best of 10.94. 

Also in the mix will be Michelle-Lee Ahye of Trinidad and Tobago, who has run 10.94 this season and has a personal best of 10.82, and Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast, who missed a 100m medal by one place in Tokyo as she ran 10.91.

Two-time Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who has raced well but not exceptionally at 200m this season, will get down to serious business at her specialist event.

The 28-year-old Bahamian, who lowered her own continental record to 48.36 in Tokyo last summer, is third in this year’s top list with her time of 49.91, but that was set in April and the Olympic champion will want to check in on her current form having run over 200m recently.

She faces a strong Polish trio of Natalia Kaczmarek, who ran a huge personal best of 50.16 in Ostrava and stands sixth in this year’s world list, European champion Justyna Swiety-Ersetic and Anna Kielbasinska.

The Bahamas will be providing both Olympic 400m champions in Paris, with Steven Gardiner hoping to further fine-tune his world title defence in Oregon with a rare Diamond League appearance.

The leggy 26-year-old, who is 1.93m tall and has run 43.48, making him the sixth best performer of all time, did not compete in any Diamond League race last year and only raced once in Europe, at Szekesfehervar in Hungary.

His last appearance on the sport’s top circuit was at Monaco in 2019, when he won. Gardiner is already in good shape, having run 44.22 at Baton Rouge in Louisiana on 23 April - the fastest time recorded so far this year.

Meanwhile, European champion Matthew Hudson-Smith, who recently took one hundredth of a second off the British record of 43.36, set by Iwan Thomas in 1997, could be in position to better a record of even longer standing, this time the European one of 44.33 set by East Germany’s Thomas Schoenlebe in 1987. 

Devon Allen of the United States, whose 12.84 clocking in last Saturday’s New York Grand Prix – the third-fastest ever run – earned him a handsome victory ahead of world champion and compatriot Grant Holloway, maintained winning momentum over 110m hurdles in Oslo, although this victory was earned in 13.22 into a headwind of -1.2 m/s.

Allen, who will take up a professional American football career at the end of this season as a wide receiver with National Football League side Philadelphia Eagles, is due to run in Paris against a field that includes home hurdler Wilhem Belocian.

Canada’s Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse has been running 100m recently to sharpen up, but after clocking 10.24 at the Birmingham Diamond League on 21 May he dropped out of the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games on 5 June. On Thursday in Oslo, however, he returned to form in the 100m – in which he won Rio 2016 bronze – as he earned victory in 10.05 from Britain’s Reece Prescod, who clocked 10.06.

On Saturday, like Miller-Uibo, he will get down to business in his main event against a field that includes Prescod, who produced a big personal best over 100m of 9.93 in blustery conditions at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting on 31 May. Meanwhile, Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic will be seeking to build on what has been a good start to the season, in which he has run 20.07.

Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega, who won the Ethiopian World Championships trials race in Hengelo and then finished fourth in the 5000m in Rome, is expected to race over the shorter distance in Paris.

Ingebrigtsen and others in record breaking form in Oslo despite the rain

A Wanda Diamond League record from Jakob Ingebrigtsen (first photo) in the mile, along with meeting records from Mondo Duplantis in the pole vault and Femke Bol in the 400m hurdles brightened a rainy evening at the Bislett Games in Oslo on Thursday (16).

Ingebrigtsen has won almost all there is to win in middle-distance events, but a senior Dream Mile victory in Oslo was one thing missing from the 21-year-old’s resume. In fact, before today no Norwegian man had ever won the prestigious discipline at the Bislett Games.

But, racing in the final individual track event of the night, Ingebrigtsen ensured the 15,000 fans at the Bislett Stadion went home happy as he won the mile in a Norwegian record of 3:46.46, breaking the Wanda Diamond League record in the process.

Paced through the first two laps in 56.01 and 1:53.30, Ingebrigtsen was tracked closely by Australia’s Oliver Hoare and Britain’s Jake Wightman for most of the race. The Olympic 1500m champion never appeared to be under too much strain, though – even when Hoare was attempting to close in on the leader with half a lap left.

Ingebrigtsen – roared on by the home crowd, many of whom were on their feet – kicked down the home straight and crossed the line in 3:46.46, taking almost a second off his own Norwegian record and moving up to sixth on the world all-time list, just 0.14 shy of Steve Cram’s European record.

Hoare finished second in 3:47.48 to break the Oceanian record and move to 13th on the world all-time list. Wightman was third in a PB of 3:50.30 from fellow Brit Neil Gourley (3:52.91). There was also a national record for Charles Grethen of Luxembourg in fifth (3:53.20).

“I was ready to run fast and was happy to do that and to win,” said the world indoor silver medallist. “Some work needs to be done before the World Championships, but I will work hard to be in better shape there.

“Last year I was sick and couldn't race here, so it was even more special here tonight, as being the first Norwegian to win the Dream Mile. Doing things nobody else has done before is really great.”

Seyaum and Bekele lead Ethiopian 5000m sweeps

Dawit Seyaum may be new to the 5000m, but the former 1500m specialist looked anything but inexperienced as she outkicked her fellow Ethiopians to win a high-quality race.

The opening pace was steady, the first 1000m covered in 2:53.83 and 2000m reached in 5:52.33. Versatile Norwegian runner Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal then took up the pace in the second half and passed through 3000m in 8:48.65, leading a large lead pack. Grovdal held on to that lead for another 1500 metres, but then Seyaum and compatriots Letesenbet Gidey, Gudaf Tsegay and Almaz Ayana started battling for the lead with one lap to go.

Ayana’s challenge soon faded, leaving Seyaum, Tsegay and Gidey out in front. Seyaum’s kick down the home straight was enough to break free from Tsegay and she won in 14:25.84. Tsegay, the Olympic bronze medallist at this distance, was second in 14:26.69 while world record-holder Gidey was third in 14:26.92. Grovdal held on to fourth place in a Norwegian record of 14:31.07 and USA’s Alicia Monson was fifth in a big PB of 14:31.11.

(Second photo)Dawit Seyaum celebrates her 5000m win at the Wanda Diamond League in Oslo 

For just the second time in history, seven women finished inside 14:35 and eight women finished inside 14:40.

There was another Ethiopian 1-2-3 in the men’s 5000m, though this time the 1500m standout was beaten by the 5000m specialist.

The pace was steady though never blazing quick, meaning most of the field was still in contention at the business end of the race. Two-time world indoor champion Samuel Tefera led at 3000m, passing in 7:54.39, but then sat back in the pack to save his legs for a potential fast finish.

He made his way back to the front of the pack in the closing stages, but could not get on level terms with Bekele, who kicked ahead and won in 13:03.51. Tefera held on for second in 13:04.35, just ahead of compatriot Getnet Wale (13:04.48).

Keely Hodgkinson won the battle of the Brits over 800m, getting the better of fellow Olympic silver medallist Laura Muir.

The 20-year-old ran a controlled and assured race and kept her cool in the closing stages to win comfortably in 1:57.71. Muir was second in 1:58.09, ahead of France’s Renelle Lamote (1:58.50) and world champion Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda (1:58.68).

How Many Days To Take Off After A Half Marathon

Running a half marathon can be very taxing. Recovering from running 13.1 miles takes time for your body to repair the damage, build back stronger, and prevent any running injuries. A lot of runners wonder how many days to take off after a half marathon. The answer depends on a lot of different factors. 

Many runners make the mistake of jumping right back into training after running a half marathon. This is problematic because these runners overlook the many weeks of training it took to get to the start line and the microtears and stress on the musculoskeletal system done during the race. 

Healthy and smart runners prioritize and optimize recovery after a half-marathon, so they can build upon the fitness yielded from the training cycle and return to running faster. 

In general, runners should take two to four days off running after racing a half-marathon. Note that I said racing—not running. 

There is a big difference between running a half marathon at an easy pace versus running one at a hard effort. 

If your half-marathon was your goal race, you should take at least two to four days of rest.

It’s possible to run two days after a half marathon if your half marathon was treated as a long training run done at a comfortable pace or your half marathon time was less than 90 minutes. 

If your time was longer than 2 hours, it’s recommended to take up to a week off of running.

What Factors Determine How Many Days To Take Off After A Half Marathon?

There are many factors that determine how many days to take off after a half-marathon. The recovery time for your friend will likely not be the same as yours, so throw out comparisons and look hard at the following variables.

Six Factors That Determine Half Marathon Recovery Time

#1 - Race Effort

How hard you ran will determine how many days to take off after a half marathon.

If you ran your half marathon as a goal race or at a hard effort, you’ll need more time off from running (at least 2 to four days). 

If you ran the race as a training run at an easy pace, you may not need to take any time off at all. It’s possible to do a light recovery jog the day after, keeping your heart rate low and distance short.

#2 - Race Result

How the race went will also determine how much time you may need to take off running after your half marathon. 

If your race went poorly and you are feeling upset, it’s prudent to take several days to mentally recover and refocus. 

If the race went poorly and, as a result, didn’t overly tax the body, you can resume running as long as you aren’t mentally shaken. 

If the race went according to plan or better, resume training as normal after 1-4 days off.

If the race went well, but you are feeling fatigued, rest at least 2-4 days.

#3 - Race Experience

Whether running 13.1 miles is routine or a first for you determines how many days to take off after a half marathon. Many novice runners will not cover 13.1 miles until race day, while experienced runners will cover that distance at least one day per week. 

If you haven’t covered the half marathon distance before race day, take 5-7 days rest, or more, as needed. 

If you have covered the race length in training, resume easy running after 1-4 days of recovery if you are feeling up to it.

#4 - Race Time

The longer it takes you to complete 13.1 miles, the longer amount of recovery time you will need. 

If it took you less than 90 minutes to run a half-marathon, you may need only 2-4 days of rest. 

If it took you longer than 2 hours to run a half marathon, your body may need up to a week off of running.

#5 - Injury History

If you were recovering from an injury or staving one off during your half marathon training cycle, it’s smart to take more time off running. A week off running may help your body repair damaged tissue.

#6 - How You Feel

All these tips are guidelines and should not overrule how you feel. If you ran a half marathon in 90 minutes, it went great, but if you still feel drained after four days off running—then take more time to recover. 

Nothing should override how you feel. And only YOU know how you feel. So, listen to your body over advice from your coach, your friends, or even this article. In general, all runners benefit from taking at least 1-2 days completely off during half marathon recovery.   However, be sure to get in some walking during this time.   Get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of water.  

What Are therapeutic use exemptions and Why Are They Controversial?

Athletes such as Molly Seidel, who was recently diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Adderall, must receive exemptions from doping agencies in order to use medications that are banned.

Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel announced on Instagram on June 8 that she’d be missing the New York Mini 10K last weekend.  The reason? She’d been diagnosed with ADHD early in 2022, and after the Boston Marathon, she started taking the prescription drug Adderall.

Adderall is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for use in competition, because it can be used as a performance enhancer. But Seidel has a legitimate medical need for the drug, so she can apply for a therapeutic use exemption, commonly known as a TUE. 

Seidel wrote on Instagram that she applied for a TUE about six weeks ago, and she won’t have an answer on her application until the end of June at the earliest.

Since she started taking Adderall, she had been feeling much better. “I felt like I was able to get the quiet, functioning brain in my day-to-day life that I could previously only achieve with intense physical activity,” she wrote. “It also gave me remission of many eating disorders behaviors that I’ve dealt with consistently since my teens.” 

She was disappointed to pull out of the New York Mini 10K.   Seidel wrote, especially after she has had a tough few months. (She dropped out of the Boston Marathon in April with a hip impingement at about the 16-mile mark.) 

“However, I’m committed to a clean sport and respecting my own mental health needs, so that means following the appropriate procedures of this TUE process,” she wrote. “Mental health takes work, and I want to be transparent about the fact that medication is sometimes a very necessary part of that work.”

Seidel is due to run the World Championships marathon in Eugene on July 18.

Her case illustrates a years-long debate among athletes, coaches, and officials about TUEs. At issue: How can the sport allow its athletes to legally obtain treatment for diagnosed medical conditions while preventing others from abusing the system?

Below, we answer a few common questions about TUEs.

What is a therapeutic use exemption (TUE)?

When an athlete is sick or has a condition that requires treatment with medicine that is listed on WADA’s prohibited substance list, he or she can be granted a TUE to take the drug, according to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Some drugs are prohibited when an athlete is competing. Other drugs are also banned for out-of-competition use. If a TUE is approved, it usually has a starting and ending date during which the athlete may take the medication. If the athlete is drug tested during that period and tests positive for an illegal substance for which they are granted an exemption, he or she will not face disciplinary measures.

In an emergency situation, if somebody is treated with a prohibited substance, he or she is allowed to file an emergency TUE afterward, as soon as possible. For example, when Shalane Flanagan received an IV for severe dehydration in February after the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials, which is otherwise a banned practice, she was granted an exemption because she was in medical need.

“I resisted getting an IV but a lot of the doctors there were insisting that I needed it,” Flanagan said, weeks after the race. “It would have taken a really long time to get those fluids in orally. So the IV really speeded up my recovery. It actually made me realize probably why they are illegal [in competition] under most circumstances—my core temperature immediately went down. If I hadn’t had that, I would have had a much longer process.”

How does an athlete get a TUE?

U.S. athletes apply for a TUE through USADA, though if somebody is also competing at an international event, it may require that person to obtain another exemption through World Athletics, the governing body for track and field.

“The TUE application process is thorough and designed to balance the need to provide athletes access to critical medication while protecting the rights of clean athletes to compete on a level playing field,” according to USADA.

If a pro runner is in need of a TUE, he or she downloads the application and completes it with a doctor. A medical file must accompany the application.

Who decides if the athlete gets a TUE?

The Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee reviews the application, the medical details, the patient history, test results, how the condition has been managed over time, and attempts to treat it with non-prohibited medications and methods. Galen Rupp, for example, has been granted exemptions to take prednisone to treat asthma.

The committee includes doctors and medical experts, according to USADA. They review and either approve or deny the application without knowing the athlete’s name by following WADA’s standards, outlined in an annual 30-page document.

WADA policy states that athlete must prove that the prohibited substance is needed to treat an acute or chronic medical condition, “such that the athlete would experience a significant impairment to health” if it is withheld; that the medication is highly unlikely to produce any enhancement of performance beyond what would be considered “anticipated” by a return to the individual’s normal health; and that there is no reasonable alternative to treat the condition.

What is on the WADA prohibited substance list?

The prohibited list includes more than 300 substances and methods of taking substances (for example, orally, by injection, intravenously). It also includes those that are always prohibited and those that are only prohibited during a competition. The lists are updated by WADA each year, and it’s up to the athletes to be aware of changes of the rules.

Some examples of prohibited substances include steroids, human growth hormone, certain stimulants, diuretics, and masking agents that can interfere with drug tests. 

How could an athlete use TUE system or prescription drugs to cheat?

Athletes at the highest level are constantly searching for fractions of percentages in performance gain. Some, of course, seek such gains illegally. Should that athlete have a support team of coaches and doctors who also engage in unethical practices, they can collectively seek exemptions for medications that are not medically needed but could produce a competitive advantage.

In July 2015, Rupp and his coach Alberto Salazar were accused by former members of the Oregon Project of manipulating the TUE system for performance gain and faking symptoms in an effort to be prescribed legal thyroid medications. Those medications could help with a runner’s energy levels, allowing an athlete to train with more intensity and volume. Rupp and Salazar have strongly denied those accusations. Salazar has since received a four-year ban for trafficking performance-enhancing drugs to his athletes and in a separate matter, he has been banned permanently from track by SafeSport. 

Simeon Birnbaum becomes 17th high schooler ever to run sub 4-minute mile

Rapid City Stevens distance runner Simeon Birnbaum became just the 17th United States high-schooler ever to run a sub 4-minute mile.

While competing in the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle on Wednesday, Birnbaum finished the mile race in 3:59.51, winning the event in a historic way.

Birnbaum, who set several records at the South Dakota state track and field meet in late May, told the Argus Leader in April he had his sights set on the feat for his senior season. By hitting the mark in the summer of his junior year, he is the third high-school junior to ever run a sub 4-minute mile. Southern Boone (Missouri) High School junior distance runner Connor Burns also broke sub 4-minutes this year.

Birnbaum had already set the South Dakota high school mile record at the Arcadia Invitational in California with a time of 4:07.88. Wednesday, he ran more than eight seconds faster.

"There's some really great youngsters out there, and I think they can come up and get these records now, so I'm really going to try to lower them for them," Birnbaum told the Argus Leader after setting the state meet record in the 800-meter run at the state track and field meet.

Birnbaum is one of five runners to break the milestone this year, along with Burns, Nease (Florida) High School runner Rheinhardt Harrison, Archbishop Wood (Pennsylvania) runner Gary Martin and Newbury Park (California) High School runner Colin Sahlman. Sahlman and Martin each have broken it twice this year.

One month to go - Road to Oregon22

One month from yesterday,  the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 – the first to be held in the United States – will get under way at the all-new Hayward Field in Eugene.

One week from today, that same venue will stage the fearsome, first-three-home drama of the USATF Championships, where home athletes will seek to earn the right to return to the re-built arena once the global event starts on 15 July.

The perennial jeopardy of that event means that some of the most likely home medallists cannot yet be inked in for the World Championships. But wild card entries for defending champions mean that US athletes such as 200m gold medallist Noah Lyles, who has demonstrated convincing form in recent weeks and days, will count on toeing the line.

Prospective challengers for medals in Eugene, notably from Europe and Africa, have been laying down their markers in earnest over the last fortnight, however, as the meetings have come thick and fast. The level of excitement and anticipation is rising rapidly on the Road to Oregon. 

Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson has her sights firmly set on world 800m gold in Oregon. As does her fellow 20-year-old Athing Mu of the US, who beat her to Olympic gold in Tokyo last year. Something has to give.

Hodgkinson eschewed an almost certain 800m medal at the World Indoor Championships in March as a precaution after feeling a muscle twinge in warm-up for the final – it had to be gold or nothing for her, and she didn’t want to risk what promises to be a richly busy outdoor season.

After an impressive victory in Birmingham she travelled to the Eugene Diamond League keyed up for a pre-World Championships battle with her rival, only to find that Mu was a no-show following the after-effects of having Covid-19.

The Briton did all she could to lay down a big marker on the track where the world golds will be disputed, piling in to win in 1:57.72, the fastest time of the year.

The glove was down. And less than a fortnight later at the Rome Diamond League meeting it was firmly grasped by Mu as she answered the challenge by romping home to win in 1:57.01.

Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the phenomenal 17-year-old who won the world U20 men’s 800m title on his home track of Nairobi last year, has maintained impressive momentum this season, winning in 1:44.15 in Ostrava and coolly outrunning Botswana’s 2012 Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos at the Rabat Diamond League meeting to win in 1:45.47.

In the Moroccan capital, local hero Soufiane El Bakkali, whose Tokyo victory in the men’s 3000m steeplechase provided his country with its only medal from the Games, once again defeated his great Ethiopian rival Lamecha Girma in a race that nearly blew the roof off the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium.

Injured or in a running rut? Try volunteering, a day spent volunteering at a race just might be the best thing you do all summer

While it’s temping to pack the warmer months with training and racing, taking a weekend off to volunteer at an event may be more rewarding than you’d expect. Last summer, an injury sidelined me right before an 80km race I had entered. Disappointed, and with a weekend at the race locale already booked, I offered to take on some volunteer shifts, dragging my race crew (hey, they’d already planned to help me that weekend) along with me. It was the best choice I had made all year. Here’s why you should sign up to volunteer this season:

The running community is incredible, and you’ll be reminded of that over and over

When my crew and I showed up at the aid station we were set to handle, we had no idea what was ahead of us. It was neat to see the incredibly fast first runners go through, but it was the midpack and back of the pack runners that won our hearts. Always thankful, some runners came in needing a quick electrolyte-mix refill and headed back out, while others needed to rest for a bit, or asked for ice (or a bucket to throw up in). Despite clearly feeling the full gamut of race-day emotion, they expressed gratitude and enthusiasm and cheered one another on.

You get an opportunity to give back

If you’ve raced before, you know how essential the volunteers are. They’ll give you directions, a pep talk, or find a first-aid kit for you, all with a smile. From a 5 km local fun-run to a 100-mile ultra, volunteers are often the backbone of the event. Being on the other side of the table is an act of service to your running family and your community at large.

You’ll learn valuable lessons for your next race

After noticing many runners asking for Coke at our aid station (which, to our dismay, we didn’t have), I decided to try one the next time I was able to go on a long training run, and I discovered how satisfying it was. I noticed how contagious positivity was, and made a mental note to be more thankful of the volunteers the next time I competed. It was also a great reminder of how fun races can be, something that can get lost when chasing personal bests.

It’s good for you 

Studies show volunteering boosts mental health. Not only do volunteers feel connected to their community, but they meet new people and experience health benefits. We all know volunteering in general is helpful to others, but you’ll also be benefiting while you hand out medals or refill water bottles.

It’s as much fun as running (and maybe even more)

Our day at the aid station was so enjoyable that we picked up an additional night shift, and found it exhilarating to see runners of all speeds finish the event. I was surprised to discover that the enhanced sense of community and well-being I basked in after running in a race carried over to volunteering. For weeks, my husband and I reminisced about the people we met and the interesting things we witnessed, and we immediately signed up to volunteer regularly at a local event.

In order to win his first Dipsea Race 28-year-old Eddie Owens had to study it first.

Two years ago when he moved to San Francisco, Eddie Owens knew nothing about the Dipsea – the country’s oldest trail race – other than what he heard from area runners. It prompted him to visit Marin County to meet Dipsea historian and author Barry Spitz, who has written the quintessential book about historic race, “Dipsea: The Greatest Race.” Owens bought a book from Spitz and said he was curious about the fastest times on record in the race.

Apparently, Owens not only read about them, but he appears hell bent on eclipsing them.

With a time of 48:35 on Sunday – more than a minute faster than anyone else in the field – Owens easily won the 111th Dipsea with a race for the ages. He became the first runner in his 20s to win the historic 7.5-mile foot race from downtown Mill Valley to Stinson Beach since 25-year-old Carl Jensen was the last person to win the event from scratch in 1966.

That feat followed Owens’ astonishing Dipsea debut effort last November when he denied Alex Varner of a 10th Best Time Award by finishing fourth overall with an actual running time of 47:47, the fastest in 26 years.

Owens, who grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. and attended Princeton University, obviously is a fast learner when it comes to the Dipsea.

“I’ve run races all over the country and all over the world, but there is nothing like the Dipsea,” said Owens, who was a member of Team USA at the 2021 World Mountain and Trailrunning Championships. “I look forward to coming back for many years and decades to come.”

Owens was given a one-minute head start on Sunday in the Dipsea, a unique race in which each of the 1,500 runners are assigned head starts based on age and gender. With a two-minute head start Paddy O'Leary, a 34-year-old cancer researcher from San Francisco, finished second one minute and 17 seconds behind Owens and Clara Peterson, a 38-year-old mother of four from Corte Madera who was a two-time All-American cross country runner at Duke University, was third. She started seven minutes in front of Owens’ starting group and posted the fastest time (58:45) by a female in the race, finishing one spot ahead of Stephanie Howe of San Rafael, another two-time NCAA All-American in college (Northern Michigan University) who was making her Dipsea debut. Fiona Lyon and two-time Dipsea winner Chris Lundy finished right behind, the first time since 1992 that four females have finished in the Top Six of the Dipsea.

Mark Tatum, the defending Dipsea champion from Colorado Springs, CO, placed eighth overall.

Peterson and Howe -- along with two-time Dipsea champion Diana Fitzpatrick of Larkspur, 25-time Black Shirt winner Brad Byron of Penngrove, and Tanya Fredericks of San Anselmo – pushed the Tamalpa Runners into a remarkable first-ever tie with rival Pelican Inn Club for the Dipsea’s Team Trophy. Alex Varner, Cliff Lentz, Don Stewart, Jeffrey Stern, and John Gardiner were the top runners for Pelican Inn which won the team trophy last year.

The mother-and-son team Elena Shemyakina of Geneva, IL and Mikhail Shemyakin of Mill Valley won the Alan Beardall Family Trophy for the third time and Berkeley High School student Oliver Nickelsen claimed the First High School Boys Finisher for the second year in a row and won another Dipsea Black Shirt. He was joined in that select group by seven first-time Dipsea Black Shirt winners (Carolyn Latham, Benjamin Koss, Anthony Fagundes, Taylor Fortnam, Lacee Phillips, Patrick Wachter, and Ibet Allen.)

Emma Dunmire of Tamalpais High School was the First High School Girls Finisher, and Patrick Green of Long Beach was the first finisher in the race from the Dipsea Runner’s Section.

Diana Fitzpatrick, who won her record-tying 19th Dipsea Black Shirt to match Dipsea Hall of Famer Jamie Rivers, was named the recipient of the Norman Bright Award for “Extraordinary Effort in the Dipsea Race” in a post-race awards ceremony staged in person for first time at Stinson Beach Park since June 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Robert Alexander, who made his Dipsea Debut in 1984 at the age of 32 when he placed 13th overall, was named the recipient of the Dipsea Demon Award for “dedication, perseverance and performance over time” to honor ” the late Jack Kirk, who completed a record 67 consecutive Dipseas, the last at the age of 95. Alexander, 66, competed in his 38th consecutive Dipsea on Sunday. Longtime Dipsea volunteer Mari Allen, who led the charge in organizing a centennial celebration of the Women’s Dipsea Hike in April, was named recipient of Red Tail Hawk Award for “Leadership, Dedication and Sportsmanship” named in honor of the late Jerry Hauke, the Dipsea Race director for 37 years.

This year’s Dipsea race featured runners from a total of 30 states plus the District of Columbia were entered in the 111th Dipsea from as far away as Maine and Italy.

The oldest runner entered was 84-year-old Norman Pease of Orinda and the oldest female entered was 80-year-old Emma Ulvestad of Mill Valley. The youngest girl entered was 8-year-old Caleesi Beck of Mill Valley and the youngest boy entered was 5-year-old Christopher Ciaschini of Mill Valley.

127th 2023 Boston Marathon Field Size Established as 30,000 Participants and Registration to be held September 12–16, 2022

The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) announced today that the field size for the 127th Boston Marathon, scheduled to take place on Monday, April 17, 2023, has been established as 30,000 participants. Registration will take place over five days, September 12–16, 2022.

“The 127th Boston Marathon will be another significant moment in B.A.A. history, as we recognize and honor the tenth anniversary of 2013,” said Jack Fleming, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the B.A.A. “On the third Monday in April 2023, athletes from around the world will gather with the resilience and spirit that has distinguished the Boston Marathon as the premiere event in road racing.”

Registration will open on Monday, September 12 at 10:00 a.m. ET and will close on Friday, September 16, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. ET. The B.A.A. will use the same registration process for qualified runners as it used for the 2021 and 2022 races, allowing any athlete who has achieved a currently valid Boston Marathon qualifying time to submit a registration application between September 12–16, 2022 through the B.A.A.’s online platform, Athletes' Village.

Registration is not on a first-come, first-served basis and applications will be accepted until 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday, September 16. The 2023 Boston Marathon qualifying window began on September 1, 2021 and will close at 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday, September 16.

Qualifying standards for the 127th Boston Marathon can be found here. Qualifiers may submit an application at any point during the registration window. Achieving one’s qualifying standard does not guarantee acceptance into the Boston Marathon. Those who are fastest among the pool of applicants in their age and gender group will be accepted.

Entry fees and information on health and safety guidelines, including any COVID-19 policies, will be announced in the coming weeks. For the third straight year, participants will have the opportunity to purchase registration insurance at the point of registration.

The qualifying window for the 128th Boston Marathon, scheduled to take place on April 15, 2024, will begin on September 1, 2022. Registration details for that race will be announced following the 2023 Boston Marathon.

The next B.A.A. event is the B.A.A. 10K presented by Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Sunday, June 26. 

New personal best set at the KATA 10k Time Trial

The tenth edition of Kenya Athletics Training Academy 10kilometres monthly time-trial took place on Wednesday in Thika Kenya with Peter Wanyoike running a new personal best and winning again.  

Sibling rivalry marked the event with upcoming Erick Mutuku and consistent Zakaria Kirika fighting for the runner-up position during the run that brought together 16 participants.

Wanyoike, winning the trial for the 4th time in a row, clocked 29:53.19 to beat his previous 29:53.68 registered during the 8th edition in April.

Kirika was dislodged from his second position by Erick Mutuku who timed 30:03.18. Kirika managed 30:14.86 in third place.

The monthly trial has become a yard stick forgauging individual speed with young and upcoming athletes reaping maximum benefits.

Levis Kuria, Erick Mutuku, Boniface Mungai, Nicholas Kitundu and Raphael Gacheru, all in their early 20s, attained their individual records with significant margins.

Kuria clocked 31:32.75, improving his previous 33:03.46 while Mutuku and Mungai timed 30:03.18 and 31:25.79 from 30:14.67 and 32:30.42 respectively.

The next KATA 10K Time-Trial will take place on 13th of July at the same place.

RESULTS

NAME                      BIB         TIME            Age

1.Peter Wanyoike  79          29:53.2        26

2. Erick Mutuku     67          30:03.2         20  

3. Zakaria Kirika     78          30:14.9         21

4. Nichola Kitundu 72          31:13.3        22

5. Fredrick Kiprotich 76       31:21.9        23

6. Raphael Gacheru  70       31:25.5        22

7. Boniface Mungai   77      31:25.8         23

8. Robinson Mwaura  85    31:31.4         29

9. Levis Kuria        66            31:32.8        21

10. Geoffrey Mwangi 82    34:24.4         40

11. Erick Mugo       73         34:45.8         29

12. Paul Ng’ang’a   71        34:48.1          42

13. Charles Ndirangu  80  37:03.5          62

14: Peter Mukundi     81   37:36.1          25

15. Wisely Kipkirui     84   38:38.9          24

16. Ann Wangu          83    46:47.2         30

Red Bull 400 is the Steepest Race in the world!

Founded by Red Bull in 2011, the Red Bull 400 is the most intense and steepest 400-meter uphill sprint in the world. Ski jumping and ski flying hills have a total distance of 400 meters (1312 feet) and a maximum incline slope of 37 degrees, which competitors from around the world attempt to beat. When it comes to running, there's no better challenge than the Red Bull 400, an almost vertical dash that will put your speed, endurance, and general fitness to the test. Regardless of how difficult the race may be, the view from the top is quite breathtaking. The bettor will take bets on your achievable time for the athletes.

Things to know about the steepest race in the world

    • It's hard to imagine a race being more demanding than the Red Bull 400. In order to achieve the fastest possible lung-busting dash up a ski jumping ramp, participants must complete it. The winner is the first to reach the pinnacle. There are 600 to 800 steps involved, and the farther you go up, the steeper it gets.

    • Anyone who is physically healthy enough to run a 400-meter uphill sprint may participate in the Red Bull 400. Training for the calves and quads, in particular, is recommended before participating. Running up a ski jump, on the other hand, can only genuinely prepare you for the experience.

    • In terms of the Red Bull 400, the numbers speak for themselves. A 40-story building's worth of elevation rise is required to complete the 400-meter course. In order to keep going, you'll need to get down on your hands and knees and work your way up to a 37-degree gradient. As a result, your heart rate can soar as high as 200 bpm, and your lactic acid buildup is 20 times more than normal.

    • It takes more than just energy to climb a hill; it also takes time. Changes in gravitational potential energy can occur over a short period of time or over an extended period. You'll see a different pace of energy change depending on the time period. Power is the rate at which energy changes.

    • Whatever activity you participate in, it's imperative that you dress appropriately, but this is unlike any other race you've done before and necessitates a unique set of running clothes. Switch out your regular running shoes for trail shoes or even light hiking boots to get the most out of your workout. Gloves are also a good idea.

Athlete experience

After the ascent began, it was difficult to figure out the most efficient route to ascend the steep, grassy hill. In the beginning, I ran up the hill on my hands and feet, but soon after, I began crawling up the slope on my hands and knees as well. I found this to be far more efficient than relying just on my feet to get where I needed to go. Starting out too hard results in an early accident, and the track only gets steeper and more difficult as the race progresses.

Conclusion

The star of the Red Bull 400 has been identified. As the first male world champion, Ahmet Arslan has won 20 out of 23 Red Bull 400 races. During the Red Bull 400 event, there are steeper slopes than treadmills in the gym. You can complete it if you persevere through the pain in your quads and lungs. It is very difficult, but not unachievable on foot.

Estimate your mile time with this short speed workout

Have you ever wondered how fast you could run a mile? Many runners tend to bump up to longer distances before working on their speed, but training speed over shorter distances can translate well to longer distances, so it’s a great idea to test yourself on the track from time to time as well.

Knowing your mile time is essential for speed training, as it challenges your aerobic system. It also puts more stress on your mechanical system, since you’re running at a much faster pace than you would in a 5K or longer. This allows you to build the strength you need to maintain your form over longer distances.

Here is a workout to find your mile pace for speedwork and racing.

Workout:

Two reps of 800m with 30 seconds rest/400m with 30 seconds’ rest/400m, with 10 minutes’ rest between sets

Each rep should be done at a threshold pace, but not at all-out. If you are unsure what your threshold pace is, aim for 20 to 30 seconds per kilometre faster than your 5K pace.

For example: If you run a 25-minute 5K, the 800m rep should be done in 3:36 to 3:40, and the 400s should be done in 1:45 to 1:48.

You will find the 30 seconds’ rest will go by quickly. To keep yourself diligent, get ready to start the next rep after finishing the previous one. If you are doing the workout at a track, drop water at the 400m mark, so you’re able to get fluids into your body between reps.

Between sets, grab your water and walk a lap or two around the track to keep your heart rate up.

Keep track of your splits for each rep, and do the same for the second set. Add up all the times, then divide by two, which should give you an estimate of what you could run for a mile (give or take a few seconds).

Example: 3:36 + 1:45 + 1:45 = 426 seconds (a 7:06 mile)

The short rest will make this workout not the most pleasant, but one you can look back on with confidence and as a future reference.

World Athletics launches Personal Best, a lifestyle channel for all runners

World Athletics has just launched Personal Best, an Instagram-based platform geared towards all runners, regardless of ability or passion.

The simple aim of Personal Best is to connect the global running community, getting more people to run more often.

Personal Best is dedicated to every runner, regardless of ability or passion. It will represent and connect runners from all over the world with the aim of building a diverse and relatable community and a supportive environment for everyone, for runners new and old.

Whether it’s a teammate, friend, family member or stranger, running brings people together. Personal Best will encourage and help everybody within the global running community to achieve their goals, however big or small.

The channel will share runner experiences from all walks of life, all over the world: the adventures, the challenges, the struggles, the communities and above all, the sheer joy of running.

Three tips for more relaxed running, these simple tips will have you running with ease

We’ve all watched runners who seem to stride effortlessly even at top speeds, like Eliud Kipchoge, the GOAT of marathoning. Intentional practices, like the ones he uses, are not just for the pros. Try these simple tips to relax during your next run.

Mentally check your form

Make a practice of doing a body scan regularly during your training runs, checking your body for tension. Our form tends to start to fall apart when we tense up as we try to hit interval splits or get fatigued. Checking in both gives you a mental break from worrying about pace and can help you loosen up any tight spots. Starting with your head, run through key tension spots like your jaw, shoulders, and arms, and note where you feel any tightness or awkwardness. Check that your arms are swinging loosely. After a bit of practice, this will become a habit and you’ll find yourself naturally adjusting your runs for ease.

Relax your face (try smiling!)

Kipchoge is famous for smiling throughout his races. Research suggests that runners who smile while exercising improve their running economy, use less oxygen, and have a lower rate of perceived exertion. You may feel silly at first, but you’ll run more smoothly and maybe even manage to pull off that elusive great race photo. Try smiling at other people out exercising as you pass by.

Take a deep breath, shake it out, and reset

Whenever you note that you’ve accidentally tensed up, take a deep breath, release your shoulders, and give your arms a shake. Focus on your breath for a few moments, trying to breathe consistently rather than in short bursts, and from your belly. If you’re still finding that you’re consistently feeling tight and uncomfortable during runs, try incorporating a short (two minutes is enough) breathing practice before or after workouts, or just before bed, making your breaths full and long. Bonus: you’ll sleep better, which in turn will help you run with less effort.

The world's fastest man is once again putting on his football boots for a good cause

Usain Bolt is back to captain the Rest of the World XI against England in Soccer Aid.

The former Olympic sprinter is once again involved as skipper, having played in the past few matches. Fittingly, the match is taking place at London's Olympic Stadium - a football venue in its own right as the home of West Ham, but also the place where Bolt set the Olympic record on the way to defending his 100m crown in 2012.

London 2012 was a highlight in a storied career that saw Bolt establish himself as the fastest man in the world and set records that have yet to be beat. The 9.63 seconds it took him to win gold in 2012 remains an Olympic record - beating the one he'd set in 2008 - but the overall world record was set by himself a few years before that.

Bolt set the current 100m world record at the 2009 IAAF World Championships, clocking an incredible 9.58 seconds for the feat. His average ground speed was 37.58km/h (23.351 miles per hour), whilst reaching a top speed of 44.72km/h (27.788 miles per hour) in the 60-80m stretch – numbers fitting for the world’s fastest man.

He first held the 100m world record in 2008 at the Reebok Grand Prix in the Icahn Stadium in New York, clocking 9.72 seconds to beat fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell’s record of 9.74 seconds set at the IAAF Grand Prix in Rieti, Italy, a year before. He brought the record down further to 9.69 seconds at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, before hitting his peak in 2009.

9.58 seconds remains the world record for the 100 metres and Bolt has commemorated that in past Soccer Aids by wearing the number - complete with decimal point - on the back of his shirt. For added measure, Bolt also holds the record for the 200 metres - running 19.19 seconds at the 2009 World Championships.

The Rome Diamond League did not disappoint, with several meet records shattered

The Rome Diamond League did not disappoint on Thursday afternoon. Several meet records were smashed, including Eliud Kipchoge’s 5,000m meet record of 12:46.53–by his compatriot, Nicholas Kimeli,who clocked a world-leading time of 12:46.33.

Kimeli’s time was the seventh-fastest ever over 5,000m, and only six seconds behind the Kenyan national record held by Daniel Komen  at 12:39.74.

The 23-year-old Kenyan came into the race in great form, winning the TCS World 10K in Bengaluru, India, in mid-May in course record time and setting a Kenyan national record over 5K on the roads in April (12:55).

The men’s 5,000m was speedy from the start, with the pace set for 2:35/km at the front. Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia led the race until one lap to go, when Kimeli and his Kenyan compatriot, Jacob Krop, took over the race with 300m to go. Krop and Kimeli battled over the final 200m until Kimeli put a gap on Krop with less than 100m to go, setting a new personal best, meet record and world lead over 5,000m. Krop finished second in a personal best time of 12:46.79, while Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed (second photo) ran a season’s best time of 12:55.88 to finish fifth.

In the women’s 800m, Athing Mu made a statement, winning the race in a world-leading time of 1:57.01. Mu sat on the heels of the pacer for the first 400m, coming around in 56-high. Once the pacer fell off, the 20-year-old American phenom took over, winning the race by almost two seconds.