Home//Runner's World/Spring 2024/In This Issue
Runner's World|Spring 2024THANKS, SPECTATORS!IN THE EARLY MORNING hours of Marathon Sunday, the nerves hit me even before I donned the shirt I made for the race, with “ALY” across my chest in hot-pink glittery letters. I’ve toed the lines at over 100 races, but nothing makes me as nervous as the New York City Marathon.It’s not a race for the faint of heart. The first mile-plus of the course is an uphill on the Verrazzano Bridge, spanning from Staten Island to Brooklyn. The entry points into Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan? Those are bridges, too. This course doesn’t let up until you cross the finish line in Central Park.Every marathon is hard in its own way, of course, but even while NYC can be at its most brutal, there is an electricity to…3 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024HOW TO START A RUN WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE ITI’VE ALWAYS FELT validation when reading a story about writers and their love of procrastination. I thought it was just me who gets more work done around the house with a deadline looming and who finds every excuse not to write until the time feels exactly right—or the time has run out.Well, a while ago I realized how I do this with running, too, especially long runs on the weekends. I stare at my closet trying to determine the perfect outfit for the weather. I go back and forth on what to eat and how much coffee to drink. Should I have half a cup? Down a full one (or two) then wait until after I go to the bathroom to head out? I stop for a quick foam-rolling session…4 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024TEAM BONDING AND AMATEUR FILMMAKINGI WENT TO my first high-school cross-country practice freshman year in jean shorts, mostly walking as I heaved and huffed. I wasn’t good at running. During races, I fantasized about running into a tree, tumbling down a hill into a creek, getting attacked by a bear—any misfortune that would stop me from racing. Every XC meet played out like a scary movie in my head.Almost every year, our team traveled from Long Island, New York, to Providence, Rhode Island, to participate in the Brown Invitational 5K. I carted a camcorder with me on the bus ride and ferry our first year with one intention: to film a horror movie.The plot was simple: XC teammates fall prey to a mysterious killer at a hotel the night before their big race.A spontaneous…5 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024A RACE SO GRUELING EVER. ONLY 17 PEOPLE HAVE FINISHED.LATE ON LOOP 4 OF THE BARKLEY MARATHONS, after more than 40 sleepless hours threading and thrashing through the untracked hollows and highlands of Frozen Head State Park in the Cumberland Mountains of east Tennessee, John Kelly finally runs alone.At the top of Little Hell rise in the black predawn, he looked back and Damian was gone. Kelly’s friend and one of the United Kingdom’s premier ultrarunners, Damian Hall was a first-timer at the event; in Barkley parlance, a virgin. Nearly two days earlier, at 10:46 a.m. on March 14, Barkley’s architect and organizer, Gary Cantrell, a.k.a. Lazarus Lake or Laz, lit an unfiltered Camel, signifying the start of the 2023 race. Kelly, a native to the area and five-time previous Barkley contestant, guided Hall and a gaggle of other…26 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024HOW TO BE A RUNNERwith Omer Abdulrahman, a.k.a. “Peace Man,” who is a 25-time marathoner and a fixture on the Raleigh, North Carolina, running scene.THIS ←OR→ THATLET ME EXPLAIN (1) Summer is my favorite season, even though it’s hot. I grew up in Sudan, where it’s often 110 degrees and there are only two seasons: the rainy season and summer. (2) I only wear flats. Spikes hurt my lower back for some reason, so I never race in them. (3) Only when it’s raining. (4) I prefer to run outside. I once did four hours (30 miles) on the treadmill for charity. I lived in Connecticut and all winter long I ran inside, so that got me to not like the treadmill very much. (5) The half marathon is my favorite distance, but I’ve…1 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024THE CASE FOR NOT RUNNINGI HAVE TO let you in on a little secret: I haven’t been running much these last few months, and it’s the best decision I’ve made.It all starts with race recovery. By the time I cross the finish line of my last race for the year, I feel exhausted. Not just from the effort of that day, but from months of training and racing leading up to that moment. I know that each event requires its recovery, but by the time November and December roll around, that last one feels different. I need a reset.Many sports—football, soccer, hockey—have an offseason built in, but we often don’t think about that in regard to running. After all, running is simple: Just lace up and head out the door. But for those who…3 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024I NEED A DRINK RUNTO KEEP THE cold at bay one December night in 2022, my friend Justine and I got together for some mulled wine, a hot drink as delicious as it is sentimental to me, reminding me of holiday gatherings and Christmas markets back home in the Czech Republic. As the familiar sweet smell of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, and lemon filled my apartment, I declared out loud (more to myself than to Justine) that I had a 10-mile run on my training plan the next day, so I needed to take the night easy.I was training for a 30K run on my 30th birthday, my longest distance to date, so I wanted to be rested and hydrated. Three cups of mulled wine later, I woke up from a short doze at…5 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024STOP LISTENING TO MUSIC WHILE YOU RUN! (TRY AUDIO-BOOKS INSTEAD)I’VE RUN MORE than 30 marathons over the past 20 years, but I recently found one hack that has made my last two training cycles the most fun I’ve ever had logging a ton of miles: audiobooks.Let me jump back a few decades, though. I got my start in running, like many of you, on the grade-school track and cross-country teams. Back then, the iconic yellow Sony Walkman Sport was the coolest tech you could tote around. I never ran with one, partly because it was an anchor but also because the flopping wire was terribly annoying. (Yes, I know in the past I’ve instructed readers to run the wire up inside their shirt. Still annoying.)Later came the Sony Discman, but nobody ran with it because your music would constantly…3 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024LONG-OVERDUE PRAISE FOR THE RUNNING SINGLETIn the last decade, the running singlet—once reserved for amateur competitors and professional athletes—has gone mainstream not only on race day but also on everyday runs. Apparel brands like Tracksmith, Rabbit, and Bandit have established themselves as purveyors of the competitive runner’s uniform. Tracksmith in particular has adapted “amateur” as a keyword embedded into its brand, underscoring the word’s Latin roots—amator means lover—and that we’re all lovers of our sport.To celebrate the seemingly simple garment, we spoke with these brands about the singlet’s timelessness, its purpose, and why it’s more than a glorified tank top.RACE DAY IS SACRED“THERE IS A huge psychological component to race day and the things that we wear,” said Tracksmith founder and CEO Matt Taylor on a video call with Runner’s World. “There are some performance…12 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024IN DEFENSE OF THE WORD “JOGGER”IF YOU WANT to get under a runner’s skin, a pretty good bet is that you could do so by calling them a “jogger.” To many, the word stings like a wasp. The thinking is that being labeled a jogger is condescending, that it implies you are a slower, less-serious version of a runner. Real runners run. Joggers are the people who aren’t consistent or don’t truly understand the sport.I think we should be using the word more. To me, a jogger is not a slow runner, it’s someone who is running slowly. And slow, of course, is relative. As professional marathoner Noah Droddy put it, “Jog vs. Run is an effort distinction, not a speed distinction. I ran yesterday, so I jogged today.”According to the New York Times, there…4 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024PARENTING THROUGH RUNNINGI GRAB MY headlamp and run down the driveway, heading out for the quiet streets an hour before sunrise. For a few moments, I’m running underneath the moonlight—and then finally, as I make my way back home, in the first soft light of the sun rising. Maybe it’s this feeling of being between two worlds that allows me to feel closer to those I’ve loved who are no longer physically in this world. Because there are no sounds or movement yet on these roads other than my footsteps, I can sometimes hear the voices of my beloved ancestors who have departed. I often find myself instinctively running down the middle of the road, because for a time the world is all mine to savor and take delight in. It’s where…4 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024THE SECRET TO SPEED IS IN YOUR BLOODIN THE PILOT episode of the 2016 reality docuseries Team Ingebrigtsen—Norway’s answer to Keeping Up With the Kardashians, except, of course, that no one can keep up with the family of runners—Gjert Ingebrigtsen has his teenage sons perform a set of 1,000-meter repeats in the dark of night. They pause after each to prick their fingers for blood samples.Since the series aired, Jakob, now 23, has shot to stardom, becoming a two-time world champion, winning Olympic gold in the 1500 at the Tokyo games, and breaking the 2-mile world record in June of 2023. His older brothers, Henrik and Filip, both had successful track careers, too. The credit isn’t purely genetic—it’s also the result of an unconventional training regimen implemented by their father. (As of 2022, Gjert Ingebrigtsen no longer…11 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024HOW FAR CAN RUNNING TAKE YOU AFTER A DECADE OF ADDICTION?A LONG TIME AGO—BEFORE HE’D FREEBASED OPIOIDS or robbed his best friend or checked himself into rehab for the sixth time—Mitch Ammons had dreams of a future involving running.Ammons can only shrug when asked to pinpoint the lowest point in a life filled with them. He spent a decade careening along the rock bottom, mired in what he now calls “the worst possible self-hate.”Mitch Ammons knows his story could have ended like the stories of so many buddies from his darkest years—with an obituary. Instead, the longtime addict changed course in a manner that is, without hyperbole, beyond belief.It’s tough to fully grasp the scale of this turnaround until you see Ammons run—to see him metronomically cruise 4:50 miles for more than an hour or to watch him push himself…26 min
Runner's World|Spring 2024RISE OF THE “ILLEGAL” RUNNING SHOESBanned shoes emerged courtside long before they found their way onto a marathon course. Legend has it that nearly 40 years ago, Michael Jordan laced up a pair of redand-black high-tops in violation of the NBA’s approved uniform colors. In 2010, the league cracked down again—this time, for reasons besides aesthetics—on a pair of basketball shoes that were shown to increase a player’s vertical-jump height. Today, Nike’s Air Jordan brand is a household name and multibillion-dollar business, and shoemaker Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL) has since released additional banned styles (Superfuture and Concept X) of its performance-boosting kicks.Though some speculate these bans were mostly crafty marketing, the same can’t be said about the wave of “illegal” shoes that is flooding the roadways on the feet of runners. Super shoes have proven…11 min
