I finally managed to get something like a long run in, after weeks of just running shorter distances. It feels awesome to be able to run 16 km again, especially since I only have a few weeks left until my favorite race of the year. Now I just need to figure out how to get to 26 km.

One thing I realized today is how wonderful it is to run for longer than one hour - the mind starts wandering off and starts to relax, while the body get nicely exhausted. Now I am hoping for a nice regeneration phase and then I’ll do intervals to get a bit faster again.

It feels so good to be back into running. So much better than last week.

Running’s Price Tag

Running used to be fairly straightforward. You bought a pair of shoes, went outside and ran. If you enjoyed it, you might sign up for a race. If you enjoyed that too, things often get out of hand rather quickly. I speak from experience.

Today, there is a whole economy built around every conceivable aspect of being a runner. The industry has become extremely good at convincing us that our existing gear is outdated and that our running experience would improve significantly if we purchased whatever has just been released.

Of course, there’s some innovation in there. Modern running shoes are better than many of their predecessors. GPS watches can be super useful. Nutrition research has changed endurance sports for good. I wouldn’t want to go back to running 100 miles with a stopwatch and a packet of biscuits.

That’s why we have so many Runfluencers, they are just trying to afford the basic outfit.

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Running is dead

You need to understand that anything on earth has a cycle, like a wave: you get hype, then early adopters, then mass market, then the wave gets into the shorebreak, hits the sand, and you are dry and corny before becoming cool again, and the wave comes back to the lineup. This is running - running is just the norm now, nothing cool about it, it’s just a go-to - and since it also became a Tinder social community thing, and pretty much everyone dates everyone in the same city, they need to change sports in order to meet new people. Strava found that almost one Gen Z in five had dated someone met through exercise. And this is where Hyrox, globally, is so important, or pickleball in Vietnam, doing the same kind of bridge-the-gap work.

I don’t think running is dead. It is evolving. It’s not as much hype as Hyrox, which was founded here in Hamburg, btw. And while I acknowledge that there are hype cycles, I do not see that running is slowing down.

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I Was Stuck in a Running Rut. Taking on a Trail Race Helped Rewire My Brain.

I truly let go of my temptation to chase numbers on that ascent. And as I began to eye my competitors, I couldn’t help but think about the old adage that you can’t run someone else’s race. I realized as I was fighting to make my way up those first hills that on the trail, it goes a step further: You can only run the race the trail gives you. If you try to push beyond, there are too many factors that will humble you, quick. You can come prepared and equipped as best you can, but once the gun goes off, you’re going against the terrain, the weather, your stomach—the list goes on.

The best thing about a race is the training for it. If you can focus on the training, everything else will follow.

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I tried the brutal running craze that’s totally addictive – here’s what it’s really like to do a backyard ultra

The concept is simple but brutal. A loop of 4.167 miles – otherwise known as a “yard” – is mapped out, and participants must complete it within an hour. At the start of the next hour, they go again. They continue completing one yard per hour for as long as they can until they can go no more and decline to start the next lap, or finish the circuit after the 60-minute time limit has elapsed. The very precise distance of the route is no accident; those who manage to keep going for 24 hours, completing 24 yards, will have covered 100 miles exactly.

There is no minimum or maximum distance for a backyard ultra; there is no official “finish line”. The winner is the last man – or woman – standing, and the race automatically ends when the penultimate contender (known as “the assist”) drops out, leaving one person remaining. That person is also the only runner to officially “finish” the race; everyone else is recorded as DNF (Did Not Finish).

A backyard ultra is so easy to understand and such a compact format, it can easily be televised and shows plenty of emotions and suffering. So I assume that we will see this format more often in the next few years.

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Can Running Influencers Be Trusted?

Raz was at UTMB as a guest of HOKA, the race’s title sponsor. HOKA gave him access to athletes, senior employees and the race, and gets coverage in return. He still decides what the content is. He interviewed a few HOKA athletes who didn’t start or didn’t finish, and he asked the brand whether it really wanted him highlighting that. Some of those athletes had great stories, and he’s still posting them. Compare that with the content from the same trip that amounted to “loving the HOKA Tecton X4.”

Raz doesn’t write about product at all. He told me he buys his own shoes, which was the craziest thing he said all day.

Awesome to see two of my favorite people in the running creator space hanging out together. Unfortunately there are too many people out there who do not have any standards when it comes to working with brands.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

This year I did not run much and right now I am trying to build up mileage again to look semi-decent when running my favorite race around the Great Lake Ratzeburg on the first Advent Sunday. I didn’t get to run at all last week, so I do hope I get some runs in this week.

How do you get back into the flow again?

I am really curious about this. Somehow, running is not what it was for me. I still like, but I do run less and I obsess, eh, talk about it a lot less.

The Ultra-Endurance Race Designed to Find Your Breaking Point

This is a backyard ultra, a rapidly growing endurance event where the only reasons to stop are a runners’ own physical or mental boundaries. Athletes have to complete a 4.167-mile (6.7-kilometer) lap within an hour, at any pace they want. That seems simple enough. What’s harder is what gives the event its special flavor: repeating that lap on the hour, every hour. The race ends when just one competitor remains.

As Bloomberg picks up Backyard Ultras, how will that change the event format?

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Saving Us From Ourselves: Why the Moab 240 Disaster Was 100% Avoidable

Like many races, the Moab 240 has struggled to recruit enough volunteers to support the massive undertaking of a 240-mile point-to-point ultramarathon, even at a basic level. Some of that difficulty stems from the race’s own past misconduct and poor treatment of volunteers at previous events.

A good risk manager sets ego and emotion aside and focuses on the facts. Two facts are clear: they didn’t have enough volunteers to respond effectively to an emergency, and the forecast in the days leading up to the race was enough to make anyone with a shred of risk awareness pucker their asshole. Yet they took no preemptive steps to manage the risks.

Aside from the fact that I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to run 240 miles, just imagine you’re in the middle of nowhere and then the weather turns from bad to worse. Yikes.

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Sorry About the Biblical Flood!

We understand that to some, the water was frightening. But imagine trying to explain its power, speed, and scale to someone who wasn’t there? You can’t! And that’s exactly what your registration pays for. That, and enough Hammer Nutrition to euthanize a draft horse.

We’re also sorry about the plague of frogs. We know that watching the mile 184 aid station disappear beneath a heaving carpet of wet, writhing amphibian bodies was not what most of you pictured when we promised abundant wildlife.

Another way of looking at this, I guess.

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The Curious Dichotomy of Running and Technology

It’s becoming increasingly common to see people talking about ‘bricking’ their phones (maybe with a device that you can buy for 10% off with their code…) so they can complete tasks without looking at their devices.

But more recently, I’ve noticed more and more people in the running world ditching their running watches. It seemed less and less like a silly over-reaction with every smartwatch put out to pasture, but it’s still… just a watch.

Maybe we have just overdone it “a bit” and now the pendulum swings back?

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Tracksmith has changed. A lot.

So Tracksmith has swapped its founder, its product chief and its marketing lead in two years, and it now says footwear, women’s running and run-specialty retail are the future. If the next season looks and feels like Tracksmith, the handover story wins. If Tracksmith starts to look like every other brand, the rescue story does. Either way, the Tracksmith of the 2010s is over, time to see what Carver creates.

This sucks. Tracksmith is one of my favorite brands and I love my merino longsleeve shirt, which I bought a long time ago. I do think they tried too much and should have tried to stay as close to the classic style the brand had from the beginning.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

A few days ago I talked to my best friend about running as we age. He ran more marathons than I have and we both enjoy running races every once in a while. But we both notice that we are getting older, that injuries take longer to heal and that recovery after a long run takes longer. There is one thing about running that we really cherish: being able to move while out in nature. And we think that other people who are not running, are really missing out. It doesn’t matter if you run 3km or 30km - once you hit the trail, you can leave everything behind.

And that’s so awesome.

Our new era of corporate running

With less than a month to go until the race, the marketing strategies have been in place, and the budget has already been spent by all those other brands. I would have expected a scramble from in their offices and Slack channels (not an official sponsor), but I was surprised that so many normal, everyday, outwardly non-corporate Runners On The Internet were also outraged.

Because in my mind, cheer zones are about people cheering for people. It’s human connection at its finest and most altruistic. For me, cheer zones are for run clubs, family, friends, a stranger handing you a popsicle on a 100-degree day. For me, a multi-national corporation doesn’t come into it.

This morning, I received an email from a big publicity agency about McDonald’s having five (5!) cheer zones on the Chicago Marathon course, launching their latest nose-to-tail culinary offering: Pickle Boost.

While I think that brands should get involved in running, I do think we need to recalibrate how large events deal with the commercialization of our sport.

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Everybody’s Trail Running Now. Use These Expert Tips to Get Wild.

You’re going to run at least a minute or two slower on trails than the road. “It really bugged me how much slower my paces were [on the trail],” says trail running pro Caleb Olson, who just finished 3rd at UTMB. To take the stress out of pace, change your watch’s main data screen to show heart rate on interval days. For long run days, Olson just does “a sanity check” to be sure his heart rate data coincides with how the run felt.

If you do check pace, let go of old numbers. “I think the biggest waste of training time is trying to maintain the same speed on trails as you do on the roads, and pushing on trails in parts of the trail that are just not as fast,” says ultradistance pro Michael Wardian, who talked to us from a two-month adventure run on the Pacific Crest Trail. A lot of great trail running is actually walking. When the gradient is steep, it’s actually more efficient to walk. Embrace that.

My 5 cent: just run.

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You’re overpaying for fitness you already have

The best analogy I can think of is getting a rocket into orbit. Most of a rocket’s fuel is spent getting into orbit. Staying there takes small, occasional burns.

Training works the same way. It takes far more effort to build a physiological characteristic than to maintain it. Understanding that has big consequences for how to structure training.

Getting up there is the easy part, staying there is hard.

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Could A Greener Route Make The Same Run Feel Better?

If motivation and consistency are your limiting factors, route selection may be a free training tool. A park, trail, waterfront, or tree-lined loop that you genuinely enjoy can make it easier to accumulate work without adding another metric or gadget.

Do not read this as proof that forest running creates superior fitness adaptations. The performance difference was modest, and one short experiment cannot establish adherence. The better takeaway is that the environment that makes you want to run may be the environment that best supports your training.

I change my routes all the time, I don’t think too much routine is helpful.

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Running Supply #97: World Marathon Majors Are In Business, Who Will Capitalize?

We’re in full swing of the Fall majors, and every brand big and small are going all out in the attention economy. Berlin was last weekend, Chicago is coming up this weekend, and NYC will be here before anyone is ready. NYRR is already making an effort to crack down on non-sponsor brand activations. We’re reaching a fever pitch here, and it’s harder than ever to stand out, and there’s very little sign of things slowing down. If brands are seeking to operate outside of the official expo and sponsorships, what could reace organizers or the expo do to actually make things…more fun? The best race expo I’ve been to for a major was Chicago. Easy to get to, spread out, and some fun brand popups inside. Less like Boston which is very constrained to title sponsors.

We came full swing, from a critique on the commercialization of running to its celebration. Running is so diverse. Run in style!

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

It’s the first Five Things Running of October!

The leaves are falling, the mornings are crisp - and I am back to running again. I do not want to jinx it, but I am back to running my typical 10km runs. I am still a lot slower than before, but I am running and it’s pain-free. It feels sooooo good!

Read on, my dear. And then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

“Running is a Paradox.” Two Cardiologists on What You Need to Know About Cardiac Events in Runners

As trail runners, many of us assume that our fitness protects us from heart disease, which makes the news about Browning so soon after Simpson’s own cardiac event understandably confusing and alarming. To get to the bottom of the relationship between running and our hearts, we spoke with Simpson’s cardiac electrophysiologist, Albert Sun, MD, Director of the Ventricular Arrhythmias Program and the Inherited Arrhythmias Program at Duke University Medical Center, and Bradley Lander, MD, Director of the Sports Cardiology Center and the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center, University Hospitals Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute.

“Trail runners and endurance athletes need to understand that your sport does not make you immune to these heart conditions or cardiac events,” Lander tells Trail Runner.

I honestly had no idea that this could be an issue for endurance athletes.

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‘My Body’s Used to It’: This Full-Time Lawyer Ran an Ultramarathon Every Single Day for 1,000 Days

Shannon-Leigh Litt occasionally listened to legal papers while running more than 31 miles before work. Because when your morning run takes six hours and your day job involves criminal law, some multitasking is understandably unavoidable.

Kicking off on January 1, 2024, Litt decided to run an ultra every single day. Yes, you read that correctly. She even deliberately went an extra kilometer beyond Guinness’s 50K minimum just to give herself some wiggle room. By day 1,000, the 47-year-old New Zealander had logged roughly 52,000 kilometers (32,311 miles) and secured the women’s record for the most consecutive days running an ultramarathon distance.

I find these kind of stories so amazing and impressive. I wouldn’t be able to fit the time to run 50km every day into my schedule to begin with, and then there is the part about getting enough rest and sleep and so on. Oh, and then there is obviously the fitness aspect to be able to leasurely running that distance…

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27-year-old started a run club to meet new people—now his NYC side hustle brings in $640K a year

Akhibi, 27, originally founded Peak and Pace as a run club in 2024 while working in algorithmic trading sales for investment bank J.P. Morgan. Running with Peak and Pace is always free, and its larger-scale parties typically require a $15 to $25 ticket, he says. Almost entirely through those parties, the company brought in over $640,000 in 2025 revenue, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Not every party is profitable, but the company operates overall at a 15% profit margin, says Akhibi, who currently works full-time as the head of partnerships at San Francisco-based AI robotics lab Grounded Superintelligence. He invests the profits back into the side hustle instead of taking a second salary, he says.

I guess this will spark a new wave of run clubs, even more commercially focused than before.

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The Beer Mile race, a U.S. Olympian and a historic doping scandal: ‘It felt a bit disrespectful’

Eight women with a cold beer in one hand and a bottle opener in the other are crouching at the start line of an athletics track.

This is the Beer Mile World Classic, a race where competitors have to drink a bottle of beer every 400m. If you vomit, you are penalized.

It is the 12th edition of the event, which is meant to be a fun celebration of athletic and beer-chugging prowess. But on the day the women’s field assembles in eastern Cologne in September, a cloud is hanging over proceedings.

Interesting idea. Then again, they probably served Kölsch in Cologne and that is just not even close to beer.

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Meet Run.Ai. Finally, You Don’t Have to Be There.

For too long, runners have had to bear the indignity of participating in their own lives. Getting dressed. Going outside. Feeling the first cold air of autumn enter their lungs and experiencing the peculiar ache of loving a season whose beauty comes from things dying. Finishing your run and uploading it to Strava. Run.Ai streamlines that cumbersome process into a single click. Sure, running might make you “feel alive,” but should you really be performing that task manually?

Using our proprietary experience model, trained exclusively on David Goggins and a bunch of antique books that we uploaded, destroyed, and then decided weren’t actually that helpful, Run.AI improves the run user experience by eliminating the onerous “experience” bit. Beta versions incorporated poetry, but were removed due to bugs and the agent gaining sentience and questioning the business model in iambic pentameter. Run.AI can complete your run, appreciate the morning light, and quantify a fleeting sense of belonging in an indifferent universe, all while you remain available on Microsoft Teams.

Haha, nicely done.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

This week I put together a bunch of articles about taking baking soda before a run, running backyard ultras until you cannot run anymore, running the Pennine Way in under three day, how running changes when you age, and why I from now on can justify eating blueberries all the time, even when I am not running.

Every Sunday when I sit down to write this newsletter I get reminded again and again how amazing running is, in all its aspects.

Read on, my dear. And then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

Why All the Runners Are Eating Baking Soda Now

Bicarb is just a fancy new term for what most of us know as baking soda (a.k.a. the orange box you leave in the back of your fridge to keep it from smelling). But the white powder is more versatile than you might realize: As an antacid, it can relieve heartburn, and in hospital settings, it’s used to buffer anesthetics and reduce pain. Perhaps most surprising of all is its effect on exercise performance. Studies on consuming bicarb for its athletic benefits date back to the 1930s. Its use has been investigated in running, cycling, martial arts, soccer, rugby, hockey, basketball, rowing, and swimming —mostly showing gains in events ranging from 45 seconds to 10 minutes. Research indicates that it can improve performance during short-term high-intensity exercise and delay the onset of exhaustion. In 2021, the International Society of Sports Nutrition went so far as to make a statement based on a “comprehensive review of the literature” that bicarb “improves performance in single- and multiple-bout exercise” for both men and women.

Bicarb is getting mainstream, but would you use it? I cannot stand most gels and I assume bicarb must taste revolting at best.

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In Backyard Ultramarathons, the Race Goes On Until Everyone Gives Up

Most runners employ a version of the run-walk method, combining jogging with walk breaks, but the exact pace is a personal preference. Some competitors aim to expend as little energy as possible and use almost the full hour on the course. Others will move a little faster in exchange for more time in their chair or a few minutes of sleep.

Between “yards,” as each 4.167-mile loop is known, competitors fight to keep their bodies functioning. They drink the latest high-carbohydrate sports drinks and eat comfort food like instant mashed potatoes and ramen. (Mr. Dailey’s 12-year-old daughter, Kaelynn, who covered 41.6 miles, fueled herself in part with Nerds Gummy Clusters.) They stretch and massage themselves, and try to discern if that sharp ankle pain is simply a blister or something more concerning.

A friend told me a few days ago that apparently Backyard Triathlons are now a thing. I am not really good at endless repetition, but I still think a Backyard Ultra would be fun to run.

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Endurance running makes you become like an animal, it is so raw

And pushing herself so hard means handling extreme conditions and emotions.

“The tough parts are super tough,” Gossage said. “There’s a voice message that I left on the WhatsApp group on the final day when I was desperate for water and I was just crying and crying and I was in a hole.

“But those lows are part of what draws you in because you always find a way to get through them and then you get the high afterwards.

“You’ve got to be really excited by it and doing it because you really want to not because of some arbitrary record or other.”

Running the Pennine Way in less than 3 days is an amazing accomplishment. And I know that without ever having come close to running 422 kilometers.

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My Adolescent Stride

My personal peak occurred in 7th grade. Curling at full speed off the curve of a 200-meter race, I never felt more powerful and free. Sure, I got faster, and yes, I placed higher. But that 2nd-place finish in the boys’ 200-meter race was as an intensely satisfying moment of flight as I have ever experienced. Eyes closed, I can picture the blurry expression of my peers looking on, mouths agape as my arms pumped, knees drove, and I shot to the finish with force.

The relative enjoyment of all my other running successes has revealed a surprising truth: it never got better than that spring day in 7th grade. Yes, the satisfaction of victories, personal bests, and marathons run expanded in complexity and sacrifice, but each at its peak was only equal to that 200-meter sprint.

That’s the cool thing about running. It changes. And it changes you. I still remember some runs I did 40 years ago and I love to see it when my kids go running together.

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Research Suggests That Eating Blueberries Can Make You Faster. Here’s What I Learned From a Week of “Berry-Doping”

The study involved nine trail runners, two time trials, a battery of pre- and post-race physiological tests, and quite a few blueberries. And the results were pretty clear: Participants saw overall improvements in their running performance and several physiological measures—including resting heart rate and perceived tiredness—when they followed a blueberry-loading protocol in the week immediately before a race.

As a blueberry-loving runner, I eagerly accepted these findings—but not without a little skepticism. Could simply eating blueberries really make you faster? And even if it could, it would have to be a truckload of them, right? I decided to test the research myself.

For more than a week, I tried berry-doping on my own to see if I’d experience similar results. To match the study’s methods exactly, I’d have to down a lot of fruit … but it’d be worth it for a berry-fueled PR.

I love blueberries and I am just putting this article in here to justify eating more blueberries because of science.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

It’s getting chilly in the morning, the rain gets a bit colder and it feels a bit like fall already.

I love fall running.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I also love summer running, and spring running, and winter running, for that matter. But fall running is special, I think. I can’t even say why, but I love it when it starts to get a bit cooler and when it drizzles through the whole run. The forest just hits different during this weather.

Read on, my dear. And then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

In the Chilean Rainforest, Pushing My Limits at a Trail Running Retreat

Trail running is increasingly evolving from a niche, counter-culture sport that ultra runners do to punish themselves into a mainstream driver for travel. The UTMB Torrencial in Valdivia, Chile started 10 years ago with 300 local runners, and this year welcomed 3,000 people from almost 30 countries; it’s now the biggest trail running event in Latin America. “Valdivia in winter is a good place to learn to love the rain,” head organizer Marcela Escalona promises me the evening before, showing me around the bustling race hub full of warm showers, massage tables, and tasty meals of asado (smoky, grilled meat) for the finishers. “In the quiet of the off-peak season, runners here can enjoy the freedom of the rainforest.”

Ok, wow, I have a new item on my bucket-list, I guess.

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Trail Running in Wine Country Brought the Joy Back to My Routine

As I ran through rolling hills straight out of a Willa Cather novel, I was reminded how rote my runs had become. How I find myself taking breaks at the same spots, not because I’m tired but because I always check my email at this one stoplight. But out here, I realize traveling isn’t just about mixing up the terrain, it’s about the joy of surprises—like finding those sweet cherry trees.

Or, maybe I should do some running in wine country to get back into my running habit.

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Runningman Festival 2026: 6 Things We’re Most Excited About

The biggest question we get from friends when we tell them we’re going to Runningman is, “Oh, you have to tell me about the vibe.” Every. single. time. It’s always some version of, “I’m interested … but I don’t know.”

So we can’t wait to get on the ground and talk to anyone and everyone — from the tattoos of Runningman to the casuals to the hardcore folks running 50K on Saturday. What makes them tick. Why they’re really there. There’s something about standing shoulder to shoulder with a group of like-minded people that resets your perspective on how good this life actually is.

Is this something I would get excited about? I am not sure. But I do like the idea of a Runningman Festival.

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We’re Not Like Other Running Brands. We’re a Cool Running Brand.

We founded VOID® because we believe running is more than a sport.

It is an aesthetic. A social hierarchy. A customer-acquisition channel. A way to express individuality by purchasing the same distressed black shirt as 4,000 other creative directors who also went to RISD.

Most importantly, it is a journey inward.

And what you find there may be frightening.

Need. Longing. Alienation. The persistent feeling that some essential part of you is missing and might be available in a limited drop.

VOID® does not promise to fill that emptiness. Filling it would be spiritually dishonest and catastrophic to our customer-retention model.

Hehe. I love it.

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Research Shows Runners Have Stronger Brain Connectivity. But Does It Mean That Running Makes You Smarter—or That Smart People Run?

Running itself has “relatively low cost of entry”—all you need is a pair of shoes and motivation, says Eric Martin, PhD, a professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology at Boise State University. But socioeconomic factors like neighborhood safety and social support also play a role, he adds, and are influenced by income. In addition, running is costly in terms of time; you have to find time to run but also to recover and rest. Many physical and psychological benefits can be observed “after just a 20- to 30-minute moderate-intensity session,” Martin says. But if you run to have mental clarity to solve some bigger problems by working them out in the background when running, you may need more than a quick run, Pritchard adds.

I think runners are smart to begin with and then get even smarter when running. It must be like that.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

During my summer vacation in Norway I reconnected with Matt, whose startup I invested in a few years back. Matt participated in the last Winter Olympics as a cross-country skier for South Africa and in true creator-style, he let everyone see how his training went in the two years prior to the event. When this was done, he looked for a new adventure: to place among the top 100 runners at the Oslo Marathon. He got a bunch of companies to sponsor him and then started his training cycle.

This weekend was the big event and all the training paid off for him. I am curious to see what his next adventure will look like.

Read on, my dear. And then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

The Running Flywheel

The forces that drive a wheel are personal. Competition might energize one runner and drain another. Solitude, community, routine, novelty, nature, cities, mastery, discovery: all of these can create momentum. They can also become friction (more on that in a moment).

Your sources of energy could change over time or day to day. A new runner might be fueled by rapid growth. A longtime practitioner might be more content where they are. What propels you during a marathon build may be different than what keeps you running ten years later.

This is an interesting observation. I am using the flywheel analogy a lot during my work, but I never applied it to running.

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The state of the online running space

The online running space today is very different to when I started writing about running on a blog back in 2008. I was in my late 20s, going to PR events after work, enjoying the community and writing about running in London. There was less visibility then (which I’m actually thankful for), because running was a lot less popular and there was a lot less money in it.

As someone who observes the online running space a bit, I can relate to ’s sentiment. I do think there are a lot of people out there who write about running because they love running and I try to neglect those who are just in it for the money. I’m always happy for people who can combine the love of running and writing about it with actually making a living off of it.

(…continue reading.)

Trail running hits its stride

Google searches for “trail running shoes” hit an all-time high in June, according to Google Trends, which has tracked searches since 2004. Trail running participation grew to 17.2 million in 2025, up 6.6% year over year and 57% from 2019, according to the Outdoor Industry Association’s 2026 Running Report.

At REI, “trail run is the fastest-growing category within footwear year-to-date,” Emily Frugé, divisional merchandise manager, told Retail Brew. Sales are up about 12% to 19% year to date, depending on gender and merchandise type, she said.

I think that’s fantastic as I think running in nature beats running in the streets always. Having said that, I do think that most trails around cities are runnable without special trail running or gravel or whatever fancy new label shoe. I ran through the forests in the 80s and I probably didn’t even have proper running shoes back then.

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I Connected Strava to Claude AI and Handed Over Eight Years of Running. Then We Played.

So this week I wanted to remember that data can be a toy, not just a courtroom. I wanted to mess about.

The excuse arrived at the perfect moment. On June 1st, Strava quietly shipped something called an MCP connector — and I’ve spent the last few evenings doing the most gloriously irresponsible thing a running nerd can do: I plugged my entire training history into an AI and started poking it to see what fell out.

This is the story of the five things we made. None of them will make you faster. All of them made me grin like an idiot. Let’s go.

My inner geek approves of this.

(…continue reading.)

UTMB 2026. Turning the Mirror on Ourselves.

That being said, it feels like UTMB (the sport at large?) is creeping away from a celebration of that culture to a commercial event that’s lost the plot. There is a ton of commerce that takes place at UTMB. Sanglard, the homebase retailer for Norda, had their biggest day EVER on Wednesday. That was the day Norda dropped their Black Diamond collab. Rabbit sold out of their event merch tees very early in the week. People come to Chamonix and SPEND MONEY. There are 3 models for that to take place - 1) the official expo village which is basically the wooden Christmas Market booths occupied by running brands, 2) a retail shop in town which can either be the actual brand storefront or a partner retailer like Sanglard, or 2) a chalet near town that is rented out by the brand - ie the Satisfy chalet, ACG chalet, etc. One of those three options pull people out of town, the other two keep people in town. Is spreading it out better? Should UTMB encourage one over the other?

When the circus comes to town. I have never been to Chamonix, but it sure feels overwhelming just to be there during UTMB.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Here we go again - five articles about running that you should read.

As always, it’s a wild mixture and it features great people who achieve great things while running.

The really fantastic thing about running is that it comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. And while it is still running, it can be as individualistic as it gets.

I do have to say that the endurance side of running fascinates me most, and you can probably tell by the stories I picked.

Read on, my dear. And then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

After Surviving a Mid-Race Heart Attack, Ultrarunner Jeff Browning Says ‘There Is a Path Forward’ to Getting Back on the Trails

The 55-year-old resident of Flagstaff, Arizona, is a Hardrock 100 champion, six-time finisher of the Western States 100, a Keen-sponsored runner, and a longtime fixture at the top of the ultrarunning world. He made his first social media post on Thursday, thanking family, friends, and the trail running community for the overwhelming support. He said he would be released from Grenoble Alpes University Hospital in France and spend another week in recovery in a nearby apartment before heading home to Flagstaff, Arizona.

This is really good news. I’m glad he’s recovering so quickly. Still a DNF, though…

(…continue reading.)

Ultramarathon runners train for months, sometimes years. But what happens when they don’t finish a race?

DNF stands for “did not finish” and it’s the acronym no ultrarunner wants assigned next to their race result. For amateur runners, it’s so loaded with emotion, it is rarely spoken about. Failure, disappointment, regret, shame and guilt all jostle for position in the mind of a broken runner in the days after a DNF.

But a DNF is extremely common. Sometimes it’s the result of a single factor, like a race-ending injury, but more commonly it’s a convergence of elements, physical and psychological. DNF rates vary wildly from race to race, but it’s not unusual for an ultramarathon to have an attrition rate between 15% and 40%, depending on conditions. The 2026 Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, which took place on 28-30 August, had a DNF rate of 30%, while in 2025 when the weather included driving rain, strong winds and biting cold, the rate was 35.8%.

Every DNF sucks, but I cannot imagine what it must feel like to DNF after runnings hundreds of kilometers monthly for a long period of time and then boom. No finish.

(…continue reading.)

Rachel Entrekin Is Ready to Take What’s Hers

At 1:09 p.m. on May 6, 2026, the 5-foot-3 runner sprinted down the finishing chute with a vigor that seemed superhuman after 253 miles. (The race’s second-place finisher, Kilian Korth, would eke out just a shuffle here an hour and 19 minutes later.) She seized the finish-line tape and pumped her fist in the air. She had won the Cocodona 250 ultramarathon outright in 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 48 seconds, beating every other male and female racer and breaking the overall course record by more than 2.5 hours.

In the days that followed, national news relayed her feat: WOMAN MAKES HISTORY WINNING BRUTAL 253-MILE ULTRAMARATHON. People loved this part of the story: that Entrekin, already a two-time women’s race winner at Cocodona, had taken the lead early at 61 miles and momentarily wondered if she was making a mistake. But then she had said to herself, “Someone has to lead this race. Why not me?”

Badass.

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Release the Beast

First out of the aid station, I passed through the crowds and into the quiet night. I checked over my shoulder. No one.

Well, run your 4:00 kilometres. Expect to see them soon. But by Notre-Dame de la Gorge I was still alone, clipping up the canal of hooligans and red smoke and noise big enough to burst the ears. It felt easy.

Then into the red-light section, where we were required to change headlamp settings to avoid disturbing the marmots. Still alone. I’d hoped for company through the night.

Reading this makes UTMB sound doable, maybe except for the little fact that running 4:00 kilometers is crazy, especially when done across mountains and for 160 km.

(…continue reading.)

Unfortunately, Life Got Better When I Started Running

Truthfully, the process was composed of equal parts of loving and loathing. I couldn’t stand waking up in the pitch dark to run multiple miles in sub-20 degrees. I was ecstatic to mention how much I felt I’d already accomplished that day while gliding through the office to my desk. I was less than thrilled when the weather got so frigid I had to relegate long runs to the treadmill. At one point, five miles into a seven-miler on the machine, I gave myself accidental motion sickness watching the swinging ponytail of the treadmill runner in front of me while listening to “4 Raws” by EsDeeKid bounce back and forth between my AirPods. (After this embarrassing incident, I quickly switched to audiobooks.) But most importantly I relished the fast-paced feeling of control that the routine—one I had to either complete or quit—gave me while working a job as social and variable as fashion. My own goals came into sharper focus; in fact, I got the HR call that I had received this very job at Vogue while on a run

Running is awesome. Really.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Did you all watch the UTMB races? I tried, really. But it turned out that I had other things to do in the 19 hours it took the leader to finish. I love the sport, but watching it on Youtube is really not such a great experience. Mostly you see people with cowbells and then somebody running along, then nothing, then somebody else. Runners running into an aid station are also not that spectacular a view and I do not get all giddy about the way somebody refilled his water bottle. Trailrunning is such a fantastic sport and I am glad more and more people are picking it up, but it is not really made for TV. The exception are documentations. I love watching those, but obviously that means compacting a whole race into 30 mins, including the days and weeks of training before and the aftermath of the race. That’s always fun to watch. But watching a 100er mile live? I’m not tough and resilient enough to endure that.

Read on, my dear. And then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

Fundraiser launched for Jeff Browning after heart attack at UTMB

On Wednesday, American ultrarunner Jeff Browning suffered a heart attack during the TDS race at UTMB in Chamonix, France. According to TrailRunner, the 55-year-old was 129 kilometres into the 145-km (90-mile) race when he needed medical attention, before being taken to the hospital by helicopter. On Thursday, friends of the Browning family launched a GoFundMe campaign with the family’s blessing. The fundraiser reported that Browning had regained consciousness and was alert, and said the funds will help cover the initial costs of his rehabilitation and recovery. Browning won Hardrock 100 in 2018 and finished second at Cocodona 250 in 2024, and heading into UTMB, indicated on Instagram that he had always wanted to run TDS.

Jeff Browning is about my age and his performances over the years were really impressive and inspiring. I hope he fully recovers from this. I am glad that so many people support him with the GoFundMe campaign, but I really think universal health insurance would be a much better option in such a situation.

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‘It Was Magic’: American Ben Dhiman Dominates UTMB to Become the First Runner in History to Break 19 Hours

After failing to finish the race in 2023 and 2024, Dhiman was on his game last year when he finished runner-up to British runner Tom Evans. Following the same aggressive style of running that he and Evans engaged in last year, Dhiman built a lead through the middle of the night in Italy and never let it go, outrunning a deep field of international runners while covering 33,000 feet of vertical gain and loss in 18 hours, 16 minutes, and 29 seconds to claim the biggest title in trail running.

While it’s technically not an official course record—a section of the traditional course in Italy was removed the past two years because of weather concerns—he still surpassed Evans’s winning time from a year ago (19:18:58) by an hour while covering the course more than 90 minutes faster than he did last year (19:51:37).

This is crazy fast for a race that is not exactly short and flat. Impressive. How fast will runners be able to run the UTMB race in the next few years, how will runners optimize even more?

(…continue reading.)

Exercising Patience And Adjusting My Relationship with Running

It was the first time I showed up at a race wondering if I belonged out there. I’ve never felt that way at a race before. Usually, if I’m not in shape I simply don’t race. I hate having bad times on my rap sheet.

I’m used to being on the starting line, legs shaking nervously, in 1” split shorts, singlet, and BreathRite strip, stomach cramping from 6 trips to the porta potty and 200mg of caffeine. This time, I “lined up” at the very back of the 3:30 pace group, near the broom wagon, who kindly told me I could step off at any point. It was funny being nervous for a different reason—would I make the cutoff? Instead of placing or hitting a PR, my “A” goal was to beat the broom wagon. I didn’t feel like a veteran of 20 years. I felt like was surrounded by other people who were more prepared than me, even though it was their first time racing a half!

That’s the cool thing about running. We all do it for different reasons and we all get something out of it, we can be an individual even in a mass event organized by a brand.

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The Cost of Fashion.

There are a ton of new, niche running brands emerging because so many people have taken up the sport + it means something different to everyone; if there wasn’t a brand that resonated, someone decided to create their own. I love that UNNA doesn’t take itself seriously; their motto is ‘finish in a good place’ because you don’t have to have a podium finish to feel better physically + mentally from a run. The brand is an expression of it’s founder, and when I buy a piece of their apparel, I am buying into what the brand stands for. OYSHO on the other hand, is merely an expression of whatever trend someone determines important that season in a hopes at driving sales.

It must be crazy hard to be an innovative running apparel brand - so many opportunities as the market is growing, yet it is so easy to get copied by the competition that can then outsell a small brand. I’m rooting for the little guys, always.

(…continue reading.)

Keep Marching

Death marching downhill into the aid station made me think of a time when I had run this section fast, or at least faster or at least, had run it at all.

That was a different day, and a different version of myself.

Amazing runners, some almost twice my age, rushed past. Dust diffused through the windy morning air, and I thought of the front pack that must be on a tear on this peculiarly cold race day. The energy in the aid station below was palpable from a half-mile above. I could hear music, cheers and cowbells. The excited noise made others increase their pace. Somehow, it slowed mine. I smiled, but it wasn’t ironic. It was simply hard to believe how much Western States had grown since my first time running it. The circus is fun, but it’s still the circus, and my back hadn’t come to play.

The circus might be fun, but it is also an extremely tough circus. Still, I’d love to get a chance to run there. It must be amazing, even if you do not finish.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Are oofos still a thing? Were they ever? I just found my oofos OOaah (who would ever walk in a store and ask someone for a pair of “oofos ooah”?) in the closet and even though they look like slides from the 1-dollar-shoppe they are actually quite comfy. I didn’t know I still had my pair. And since I still have that weird pain in my forefoot I decided to wear these slides a bit. I didn’t look the list bit stylish, but my aim was not to do an look-maxxing, but to be comfortable. I succeeded. Next week I’ll buy an EZchair and look forward to retirement.

Needless to say that I miss running.

Am I the only one who won’t be in Chamonix these days? Can there be overactivation? Will running creators suffer acute FOMO?

Read on, my dear. And then go running!

Rise of the Elite Movement Class

A spectre is haunting the western world—the spectre of movement.

All the powers of the old economy have entered into holy alliance with this spectre: luxury brands, multinational sports companies, grocery distributors, a constellation of apparel start-ups, supplementeers, and pharmaceutical companies.

Where is the area of social life where movement has not been feted by these powers? Every brand has a run club. Pilates is a household word. White House Cabinet members film themselves doing pull-ups.

Leggings are work attire. Injecting peptides is mainstream. AOC is doing deadlifts. Everyone is proteinmaxxing.

To paraphrase Gramsci, an old world is dying, and the new world of movement struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.

✊🏻

(…continue reading.)

Four wheelchair athletes to take on UTMB route in new HOPE project

The project, called HOPE, is a new collaboration between UTMB Group and Marathon des Sables (MDS). It involves four teams that will use all-terrain wheelchairs on most of the UTMB route, with changes only where sections where the chairs can’t safely cross.

Switzerland’s Delia Guggenheim, France’s Aubin Barillon and Caroline Fruchaud and Italy’s Federico Rossi will each travel with a rotating crew of six to eight people, who will push, pull and assist on the route. A nurse or doctor will also be part of every team.

This is so impressive. And also a bit insane. Or maybe a lot. I think it is wonderful that these athletes get the support they need to take on this challenge. I am in awe.

(…continue reading.)

The Best Training Mix For Masters Trail Runners

A new 12-week study on runners aged 35 to 55 tested three different training approaches — and the results offer a clear roadmap for masters athletes who want to run trails faster and stronger.

Trail runners need a unique combination of abilities: aerobic power for the climbs, economy across changing grades, strength for force production, and enough neuromuscular control to handle uneven ground.

Just what I needed for when I am back to running. And I still fit into the demographic, at least for another year…

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Camille Herron: Ultra’s Tallest Poppy

2024 was one heck of a year for one of the greatest ultrarunners in history. I’m talking about Camille Herron.

In March 2024, Camille broke a dozen world records¹ by running 560 miles over 6 days in California’s Coachella Valley as part of the Lululemon Further spectacle. Later that year, Lululemon dropped her as an athlete² following a bizarre Wikipedia-editing controversy, and she was later diagnosed with ADHD and autism³.

Now, essentially retired from the sport that gave her so much, Camille Herron is in a state of flux. With multiple lawsuits in progress as she attempts to clear her name, she’s also navigating a new stage of life as a neurodiverse athlete.

What a story.

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3 minutes of sprinting does something 90 minutes of exercise does not

Researchers at Rockefeller University compared how the body responds to exercise performed at different intensities. They found that six 30-second, all-out sprints changed nearly one-quarter of the proteins measured in the blood immediately after exercise. By comparison, 90 minutes of continuous moderate cycling altered less than one-quarter of one percent. Moderate treadmill running affected more proteins than cycling, but still far fewer than the brief sprint session.

Dude, I will so be metabolism-maxxing soonish. On a more serious note: isn’t it fascinating that science still finds so many new aspects of our body when it comes to physical exercise?

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

This week’s Five Things running is all about perseverance. Also about doing the right kind of training sessions and then pushing through and holding onto for dear life.

This is what I like so much about running: the endurance. You have to stick to your training plan, rinse and repeat, and then you’ll notice how your running form changes and you get to accomplish more.

Running is awesome.

How is your running going?

🏃🏻‍♂️

European Championship records broken in women’s and men’s marathon

This win is significant for Petros, 31, who lost a sprint finish for gold at the 2025 World Championships to Tazmania’s Alphonce Simbu.

“I chose one of the best tactics,” Petros said in the mixed zone of his decision to pull away between 25 and 30km. “I made the right decision to move. The road was very hard and was one of the biggest challenges today. It was not easy.”

He is the German national record holder for the marathon, and explained that he trained at altitude in Kenya for this event, running 200km per week. Petros came 15th at this year’s London Marathon.

Amanal Petros is such a fantastic athlete, full of amazing positive energy. I am very happy for him that he finally got a big title. What a race!

(…continue reading.)

‘So much more respect for myself’: NZ ultrarunner Sophie Woods on smashing a 2,000km alpine run record

In the face of extreme conditions, the 42-year-old New Zealander remained a cautious runner and kept focus – sometimes for 20 hours a day. One ankle sprain, or fall, could have scuppered her goal. Each day she consumed about 7,000 calories, and was supported by her husband, George Woods, and photographer Zoe Salt, who fed her, cooled her down and arranged rests and accommodation along the route.

By week three, she felt stronger than ever.

Can you imagine to run 2000 km? Up and down across the mountains? I think this is incredible and I love reading about these kinds of accomplishments.

(…continue reading.)

The Secret to Max Jolliffe’s Badwater Course Record: The Treadmill, 50 Frozen Bottles, and Starting Stupid Slow

“I went so deep to the well during this race that I almost couldn’t even feel anything at the end emotionally,” Jolliffe says. “I was so happy to be done.”

After 20 hours, 53 minutes, and 41 seconds, Jolliffe crossed the line nearly 40 minutes faster than the course record set by Japan’s Yoshihiko Ishikawa in 2019. Just 12 minutes after him, Perez crossed the line as the first woman, and in second place overall, to set a new women’s course record by nearly 40 minutes.

Over 135 miles, Jolliffe averaged 9:18-minute mile pace with a 138 average heart rate. His discipline and consistency, both in his training and his racing, paid off.

Ok, this is also an insanely great performance. Am I the only one who thinks about all the sun screen that is necessary apart from all the extreme endurance?

(…continue reading.)

Gravel Running Shoes: Do You Actually Need Them?

So what actually makes a shoe a “gravel shoe”? Think of it as a trail shoe that got tired of being slow.

Lug depth typically sits in the 2-4mm range instead of the 4-6mm+ you’d see on a technical trail shoe. It’s enough to grip gravel, hardpack, and doubletrack without turning every road mile into a slog. The midsoles usually borrow more from road race foam than trail cushioning as they chase rebound and speed over max protection.

And the outsole compounds are tuned for rolling, mixed-surface traction rather than digging into mud or scrambling over rock. It’s a shoe designed for the runner who might start on pavement, drift onto a gravel road, and be back on pavement before the run is over. Something that can happen naturally over the course of a run.

While I admire smart product managers who come up with clever ideas to sell more product, I do think that you can just run on gravel with a normal running shoe or a trail shoe. We tend to overthink stuff and forget how easy running should be, without investing thousands of €€€ into gear.

(…continue reading.)

Coming Back to Running After 50? These Training Changes Can Mean Better Workouts and Fewer Injuries

Rediscovering running after spending years or even decades away can feel really exciting… or intimidating, or both all at once. It might also feel difficult to truly enjoy your sport again and set goals you’re stoked about. But fear not: You can run faster than you did before your time away. […]

Thankfully, run coaches hold a ton of insight about how to change your approach to running to meet your current season of life. If you’re just getting back into running, or you’re thinking of making a return, take these pieces of advice with you.

Maybe, when I get older and wiser, I will actually act according to helpful tips.

Haha, that will never happen, I will always do it my way, get injured, sit out, try it again the painful way.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

I back to running! Well, sort of. I run three days in a row last week, everything was smooth, just 6km around the city park. Then I had some knee pain, then some pain in the forefoot, then I jumped down some stairs to catch a subway and tweaked my ankle, then I didn’t run the rest of the week. Diclophenac is my friend, again. And adding insult to injury, I asked Gemini about the knee pain, which was a new sort of pain, and I told Gemini how it happened and Gemini replied something along the lines of “well, we both know that running on three consecutive days is not something you should do”, which was both condescending and probably right.

Well, I will sit out another day and then run again. Also, I like Claude much more than smart-ass Gemini, just for the record.

How is your running going?

🏃🏻‍♂️

Welcome to Running

Sometimes running can reinforce a presentist mindset — where all that matters is this race now, regardless of the damages incurred. My caution is to resist this mindset. Have a long view of your life, including life in the years beyond sport. I often recommend that new runners find mentors both inside and outside of the sport who can provide contrasting visions of how to spend their time and honor their bodies. Eat well. Rest. Cultivate an array of hobbies. Take care of yourself.

I love reading everything written by Sabrina Little, she brings the right perspective to running.

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The Price of Admission

Because here’s what the industry would prefer you believe you need to walk out the door and go for a run:

Shoes. Socks. Shorts or tights. A sports bra. A technical top. A windbreaker. A hat. Sunglasses. A GPS watch with a heart rate monitor. A hydration vest. A waist belt for your phone and keys. A handheld water bottle.

At conservative prices—one of each, nothing fancy—that shopping list costs about $1,165. And that’s if you live somewhere with mild weather. Start layering in cold-weather gear and it climbs from there.

Eleven hundred dollars to go running. The cheapest sport in the world, the one you were told just requires putting one foot in front of the other, and the price of admission reads like a down payment.

I have a drawer full of stuff and yet I mostly run in the same rotation of t-shirts and shorts that I like most. I keep the other stuff around, for emergencies or whatever. But I haven’t really bought any new apparel in the last 12 months or so. And I still look awesome on the trail!

(…continue reading.)

I Spent 24 Straight Hours at an Ultramarathon. Here’s Why Runners Go Long.

There is perhaps no race that embodies the rise of ultra trail running more than Western States. “It’s our freaking Super Bowl, man,” Luke Longo, a New Jersey runner, told me. It’s also one of the hardest races to enter. Many runners I spoke to had waited years to get a chance to compete, pinning their hopes on the event’s lottery system. Some athletes I spoke to had never gotten a chance to run. Others who had gotten lucky enough to obtain an entry knew they might not have another chance.

This race is still on my bucket-list and I am sure I will never get to run it, but hopefully get to watch it some day. It sounds so wonderful, brutal, crazy, beautiful and larger than life.

(…continue reading.)

What’s Gained & Lost When Trail Running Goes Mainstream?

In recent years, small races like Lake Sonoma as well as heavy hitters like Western States are inching closer and closer to full-on festival weekends. Complete with brand activations, athlete panels, shakeout runs, DJs, recovery zones, food, and merch drops. Brands have poured money into trail running as the sport has grown, helping race organizers build experiences that they often didn’t have the resources to create themselves. The injection of people, interest, and cash has made trail races bigger, more exciting, and more celebratory than ever, but it risks homogenization in the process.

I am sure that we will see more and more rather absurd cash grabs and at the same time we will see a growing community pushing back the just too obvious attempts to monetize trail running. The good thing is: if we want to, we can still just run, we don’t need to wait for the circus to come to town.

(…continue reading.)

I Feel Mentally and Physically My Best When I Run in Nature: 10 Tips I’d Give Any Woman Keen to Try Trail Running

You don’t need any great technical skill, but it is wise to be armed with some basic information before heading out for your first trail adventure. Which is why we’ve spoken to Flora Beverley, an ultramarathoner and trail runner, for her top tips. Beverley’s 123,000 followers know her as a trail running fanatic, sustainability activist and advocate for those living with chronic illness, after her own Epstein-Barr diagnosis in 2023 led her to post openly about her battle with chronic fatigue.

Now, she’s targeting a 200km, 5-day race across the Dolomites at the end of September. Having only started running in 2019, she’s proof that whoever you are and whatever your circumstances, it’s never too late to fall in love with running and the great outdoors.

Marie Claire, of all places, now talks about Trail Running. Yes, there are signs this sport is going mainstream. And at the same time, running in nature really just is getting back to basics. I want more publications like Marie Claire writing about this, for sure.

(…continue reading.)

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Oh well, I am still trying to get back into shape. It really is worse as I am getting older, but I’ve kind of lost my running mojo right now.

I will get it back, it just takes time.

How is your running going? Summer is such an interesting running season - I like running in shorts and t-shirt, but I sure as hell don’t like it when it is too warm. I think I am more of a drizzling rain kind of guy. Also, then I don’t get any sunscreen into my eyes. Still, summer runs are awesome, don’t you think?

Anyhow, enjoy these Five Things Running!

🏃🏻‍♂️

The Hardest Part About A Running Comeback

The time you spent not running is behind you, and there’s not a lot you can do about it now. Maybe you cross-trained to stay fit, and maybe you had a completely different life. It doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that you found running again.

Instead of trying to play catch-up on all the training you didn’t do, focus on setting good goals that incorporate your entire well-being.

You aren’t going to make up for missed time, so the next best thing you can do is be grateful for running.

I hate running comebacks, at least until they are done and I have succeeded.

(…continue reading.)

The Science Behind Key Differences in Men’s and Women’s Long-Distance Run Performance—and What It Means for Training

Women having better durability in longer distances could free up more room for improvement in other aspects of training. “If your durability is good, meaning you don’t have a drift in your physiology or significant drift in your performance as you go along with the race, then you can probably work on your fresh physiology a bit more,” suggests Michele Zanini, PhD, a lecturer in applied sport and exercise science at the Open University in England and study author on the durability research mentioned above.

Focusing more on “fresh” physiology might look like trying shorter races in your build or incorporating speedwork and strength training. Zanini points to a study he worked on that was published last year, which found strength training improves durability and running economy in distance runners.

Do you know what’s the best part about the science behind key differences in men’s and women’s long-distance run performance? Finally, women are not looked at and studied as small men, but as women, whose bodies are different from men’s bodies.
We need more of this.

(…continue reading.)

Trail Running

On top of a dreadful 10 mile climb, it was incredibly hot and humid. We were walking through more burn zones, so more blowdowns. Going over a couple of trees, I swung my leg over a little too hard and met my match with a couple of sharp branches. It was the perfect storm and I was not the happiest hiker. But I got it done!

Trail running can be so much fun! Honestly, haven’t we all experienced this in one way or another?

(…continue reading.)

‘Pain is a great teacher.’ How Courtney Dauwalter became one of the great ultrarunners with no training plan

Dauwalter is well-known for smiling and cracking wise during races where she has also ended up bleeding, hallucinating, cramping, vomiting, crying, curling up in a fetal position, and otherwise suffering in ways most people can barely imagine. Before the 2024 Olympic gold medal game, US women’s footballcoach Emma Hayes played the team a video of Dauwalter talking about difficulty and perseverance. People admire her grit, as well as what has been called her “relaxed approach” to nutrition. (She likes nachos. She is also a big fan of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, particularly for snacking.) People also praise the long baggy shorts she wears while racing, a refreshing tonic in an era of body worship if not overt sexualization of athletes. (One of her main sponsors, Salomon, has created a line of such shorts called “Shortneys.”)

Ok, I admit it, I am a sucker for articles about Courtney Dauwalter. I find her fascinating. So much positive energy, she is so amazing. What a role model!

(…continue reading.)

Why I Run with a Camera in New York

Looking back, I don’t think running has simply made me a better photographer. It’s made me a better observer. It has taught me that the most memorable photographs rarely come from following a map or ticking off famous locations. They come from curiosity, from allowing yourself the freedom to wander, and from slowing your mind down enough to notice what everyone else rushes past.

While I don’t run with a real camera, I do run with my smartphone and take tons of photos all the time. I like capturing some small moments that seemed important to me while I was running. And it is true, you see your environment with different eyes when you run.

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If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

I spent the last week up in Norway at the Oslofjord and did some running along the coast. It was just beautiful. I am still not back in the shape I was at the beginning of the year, because when I am injured and can’t run, I am frustrated and eat too much candy and that makes my running form go downhill, which makes me frustrated and… you get where I am going. Anyhow, I am trying to get out of this mess and try to run more. Maybe not as much as I need to compete in a 200 miler anytime soon, but I think I am slowly getting back into shape. Speaking of great shape, how many times did you watch the video of Josh Kerr running his personal best in the mile? What an achievement! Not that I want to compare myself to him.

Here are my five picks for you to read!

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Elite Young Runners Are Becoming Freakishly Fast. Welcome to ‘Trackflation’

The track world, I discovered, has coined a name for this much-discussed phenomenon of kids getting ultra-fast: trackflation. In June 2025 at the New Balance Nationals, an annual championship that draws around 6,000 top youth athletes, more than 100 kids beat previous meet records. “There might now be a hundred kids that run under 4:10 in the full mile,” says Will Rodgers, who ran track at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in the early 2010s and now co-owns RunningLane, a coaching and events business. “Back when we were competing in high school, it might’ve been like 20 at max.”

I had to know why kids today are essentially breaking track. And that meant trying to understand the dramatic shift happening at the sport’s roots.

The kids are alright! And fast, too.

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Aiming for My Fastest Marathon, I Turned to Distance Running’s Mecca

On my first morning in Iten, I stood along the main road as packs of runners bounded past along the red dirt paths, like flocks of birds gliding in formation, their strides smooth, their posture straight. They moved with an envious efficiency. Almost every runner looked exceptionally fit.

This is a village where few people run recreationally. Most are hoping to win prize money in major competitions or, like the team I trained with, are trying to win scholarships to run college track in the United States.

Running there with all these very talented runners must be a really amazing experience. This is something I would very much like to do for a runcation. No destractions, just running.

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How to Juggle Life & Work to Train for a 200-Miler

The 200-mile distance is no longer a niche anomaly—it’s on a meteoric rise. In 2025, Aravaipa’s Cocodona 250 livestream captured a level of engagement that even rivaled the iconic Western States 100. Whether it’s a feat of promotional excellence or a collective desire to push past the once unthinkable, the ultrarunning world is moving the finish line another 100 miles out (and beyond.)

Watching the Cocodona 250 livestream this past year, it was easy to feel a spark of inspiration, thinking, I want to do that, followed immediately by a wave of, there’s no way I can. You might assume these runnersare all elite professionals with endless time to train, but the reality is much more encouraging: the 200-mile finish line is far more attainable for the everyday athlete than it appears from behind the screen.

I read through all three profiles and honestly, I don’t think training for a 200 miler is the right thing for me. I just don’t have the time…

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Is Josh Kerr Running’s Greatest Storyteller?

The great thing about this whole story is how Josh is telling his own story. He’s got a newspaper column in The Telegraph and he’s releasing video documentation via his own YouTube channel, gaining tens of thousands of views for each clip. This is the notable part because usually it’s the brand sponsoring the athlete that tries to own the storytelling, but Brooks started releasing their own content much later in the process.

Brooks are more central to the question of where those 3.34 seconds are going to come from. When Josh Kerr stands in front of a British crowd on Saturday, hiding behind those famous Oakley lenses, he’ll be confident in the ground-breaking technology that’s been created for him.

Brilliantly executed by Josh Kerr. I’ve seen the race video everywhere on social media and watched it many times. What an accomplishment!

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For 24 Years, Horses Dominated the Man vs. Horse Marathon. Now, Humans Are Starting to Win

For the first 24 years of the Man vs. Horse Marathon, the outcome was never in doubt. The mounted side of the race crossed the line first at Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales, every single time, from the inaugural race in 1980 through 2003. The debate that started it all had played out at the Neuadd Arms Hotel, where landlord Gordon Green bet a group of local huntsmen that a man could outlast a horse over rough, uneven ground. The huntsmen took the other side, and Green turned the disagreement into an annual fixture. Pour enough pints into a pub argument, and eventually someone proposes settling it outside.

Then, something shifted. Since 2004, five different runners have crossed the finish line ahead of every horse in the field: Huw Lobb, who beat 565 runners and 47 horses to end the 24-year streak, followed by Florien Holtinger in 2007, Ricky Lightfoot in 2022, Daniel Connolly in 2023, and Dewi Griffiths in 2025. When three of those five wins came within a single four-year stretch, observers started to wonder whether the balance of nature had finally tipped in man’s favor.

Why would anyone start racing with horses in the first place? And now humans are outracing horses? Let’s wait until the trackflation kids run longer distances!

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If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

This last week I ran in Sweden and in Norway - just short runs, but great scenery on the coasts of the Baltic Sea. I love it do run in new places where I really don’t know where the next steps might lead me and it is a great way to explore a city. Also, when you sit in a car all day long, a morning run is just wonderful.

Hopefully I’ll get a few nice runs in along in the Oslofjord, it is just beautiful here.

I also did some reading about running last week, so please dig in and read the five articles I picked out for you!

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The Norwegian Training Method Promises Faster Long-Distance Running and Better Recovery—Here’s How

In short, the idea is to do as much volume at sub-threshold pace (done at 80 to 87 percent of max heart rate) as possible without working so hard that you break your body down, upping the risk for injury and burnout, according to Bakken, who is now a physician in Norway.

A former elite runner himself, Bakken first started employing this method in the late 1990s. “Splitting the work into two sub-threshold sessions on the same day, morning and evening, dropped recovery from days to hours and let me roughly double the threshold volume I could repeat,” he says.

Since he started employing the method himself, Bakken competed in two Olympics as well as two World Championship finals, and set Norwegian records at 2,000, 3,000, and 5,000 meters.

I’m currently in Norway and I will try this out as it probably works better when applied on Norwegian soil. Or maybe it is the weather here…

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How Everyone Became Obsessed With Running

Gen Z might be getting into running, but we are still bored, lonely, and anxious. Perhaps it is no accident that we neurotics are drawn to running, a uniquely trackable sport, where every minor improvement incrementally increases your predicted race times on Strava. Every element of your diet, sleep schedule, and social life can be adapted to it. “Healthy is beautiful” is repeated ad nauseam and we become walking public health campaigns. We are slowly outsourcing intuition to optimizable metrics. Every unforeseen life event or ingested substance can throw off the regimen; complete lack of resilience to any outside stimulus is reframed as health. “Holistic” just means adapting everything to fit your workout routine.

Whatever the motives, I think it is good people are finding running as an outlet.

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Tapping out of running at 28 weeks

I didn’t know what to expect from pregnancy. I’d heard lots of horror stories: months of sickness, constant discomfort, fatigue that never stopped, sofa-bound for weeks on end, insomnia, night sweats, swollen ankles… the list went on. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, people on my Instagram feed were winning parkrun the day they went into labour.

I’ve landed somewhere inbetween. For the most part I’ve had an extremely straightforward ride and feel basically fine. Or, I would think that if I was somebody whose hobbies didn’t usually involve going for 20+ mile runs on a Saturday and fastpacking off a long-distance trail for a relaxing week’s holiday. As it is, my social life and free time look pretty different to how they did this time a year ago, and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t found that hard.

It must be a total challenge to figure how long into a pregnancy running still makes sense.

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The Best Running Shoes You Can’t Get Your Hands On

As someone whose lifetime mileage to date tops 130,000 and who writes about running, I had personal and professional reasons to look into this phenomenon, and I’m a convert too. I paid $90, shipping and tariff included, for the Li-Ning Red Hare 9 Pro. It’s the equivalent of the Puma Deviate Nitro 4 ($170) and Saucony Endorphin Speed 5 ($175). The BMAI Jingtan 3.0 Turbo cost me $161, again including shipping and tariff. The shoe is akin—but superior—to racing shoes such as the Brooks Hyperion Elite 5 ($275). I’ve run in hundreds of models from dozens of brands over the past 47 years, and the BMAI model and a few other Chinese shoes are among my all-time favorites because of their combination of ride (the feel underfoot), versatility, durability, and price.

Actually, I don’t really care about Chinese running shoes. I’d rather pay more for a shoe manufactured in Europe.

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To Get More From Your Run, Try This Training Strategy

Modern running watches and fitness trackers can be wonderful tools, making it easy to analyze metrics like pace, distance, heart rate and more. But all that data can lead some runners to fixate on their stats, which can be counterproductive.

“It can easily become paralysis by analysis,” said Mario Fraioli, a running coach in the Bay Area who works with athletes of all levels. “There’s an overwhelming amount of data, and people don’t know how to make sense of it or have a healthy relationship with it.”

I think it is refreshing to not look at the watch when I am on a run, but I guess this is one of the topics where there really is no right or wrong, it’s up to you.

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If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Summer vacation is approaching rapidly and I am still not in any shape to do longer runs. I do hope to get some nice runs in along the Oslofjord.
Did you catch any coverage of Hardrock 100? That’s a race I’d love to attend, either as a runner, a pace or a spectator. Just like Western States, which I also want to see live. It’s just that the logistics are a bit insane from over here in Germany, and also I’d need to get some serious running in before and I do not find the time for that currently.

What’s the most expensive piece you are wearing on a run? Your shoes, your watch or your shirt? If it is the shirt, then I do think you have a spending problem, but if it makes you happy, then just run along in your moth-tech shirt!

Enjoy these Five Things Running!

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2026 Hardrock 100 Results: Ludo Pommeret and Courtney Dauwalter Set Records

It was with this seemingly carefree attitude that Pommeret, who turns 51 in less than two weeks, toed the line of the race he’s come to dominate in recent years. But don’t let his lighthearted approach fool you. As he did in previous years, Pommeret spent a month in Colorado preparing specifically for this race and its unique demands, completing two-and-a-half full loops of the course across multi-day trips known as “Softrocks.”

He is just a tad younger than I am. Now I feel old. Thanks, Ludo. What an impressive undertaking, yet again! And Courtney Dauwalter is the GOAT.

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Inside Western States: How the Oldest 100-Mile Trail Race on Earth Became the Most Sought-After Ticket in Endurance Sports

Over 50 years on from Ainsleigh’s pioneering effort, the Western States Endurance Run (or WSER, for short) is one of the most sought-after races in global trail running. With only around 370 bibs doled out each year, runners must enter a lottery to secure a spot on the start line, with some runners waiting for a decade or more before they are finally selected to race. Not only do prospective runners have to enter the lottery every single year, but they must also run one of WSER’s qualifying races, usually 100K or longer, just for the privilege of entering the lottery. In 2026, over 11,000 people entered the lottery. The race is a lifelong goal for many amateur trail runners, but for the pros, WSER is one of the biggest races, if not the biggest race, on the calendar.

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I Love Running Alone. That Doesn’t Make Me a Red Flag.

So when I hear the occasional implication that running alone is somehow a red flag, I have to laugh.

A red flag? For what, exactly? Enjoying my own company? Wanting 45 minutes where no one asks me where I’m going? If anything, solo running is one of the healthiest relationships in my life. It’s me, my music, my weird little route choices, and whatever emotional support anthem is carrying me through those miles.

Indeed. Run as you like.

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The Gym Brofication Of Running

Running feels different lately. Not everywhere, not all the time, but clearly enough wherever the sport becomes visible to a broad audience: filmed, sponsored, clipped, reposted and turned into identity.

For a long time, runners, ultrarunners in particular, had a different aura. Lauchs¹, basically. Thin arms, wild tan lines, awkward posture, quiet energy, salt stains everywhere, ten hours of suffering described later as “a good day out.” I say this with love. There was something disarming about a sport where the strongest people often looked like they had never won a fight in their life.

Of course this picture is romantic. The old running world was never innocent. It had plenty of sexism, gatekeeping, male self-importance and a habit of turning experience into ownership. I do not plan to beautify a golden age here.

Still, the vibe felt different, and so did the tone.

Methinks this is part of the growing pains a sport has to endure when it suddenly gains popularity. Still, I liked the old vibe better.

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As Seen On Dates, Never On Runs

If I look at a company like Satisfy, spending $200 on running shorts will, hopefully, always feel insane to me. Even as someone who runs five or six days a week and would probably get the full cost-per-wear. Same with another pair of sunglasses. Practical. Useful. Justifiable, technically.

But the jacket feels different.

Because at some point, running clothes stopped being just for running. And once athletic wear becomes clothing — real clothing, outfit clothing, be-seen-in-public clothing — the spending becomes much easier to rationalize.

Running brands are no longer only selling performance. They are selling proximity to performance. The idea that you are the kind of person who runs, or could run, or at minimum has excellent taste in clothing designed for people who run.

I’m happy for every runner who feels that whatever they are wearing is just the right thing for the moment. For me personally, I don’t think I need to overspend on anything else but the shoes. In fact, I am hoping for a revival of tennis socks and a white cotton t-shirt. We have overdone it in the last few years and we do not need the latest and most expensive hot shit to run 10 km around the local pond, unless of course it makes you feel better.

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If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Trail running is the most selfish thing I do. Even if I don’t get around to doing it as often as I wish. It is also, somehow, the most communal.

You go out alone into something hard, for reasons nobody else can fully access, and then the moment you finish the whole thing belongs to everyone who has ever done it. That contradiction is the engine of the sport, and it is also the reason the sport is so hard to write about, sell, or scale without losing the plot. The five articles below circle it from different directions: culture and class, one runner’s absurd origin story, an elite training block, and the open question of who gets to tell these stories at all.

Enjoy these Five Things Running!

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The Trail was Always the Teacher

Trail running is simultaneously the most selfish and most selfless pursuit I know. You go alone into something hard. Profoundly alone, at 3 a.m., in the cold, with a headlamp and a list of things your body would prefer you not do. That’s selfish in the most elemental sense — a private reckoning. But here is what the elders taught me: the moment you finish — or don’t — that story belongs to the community. It becomes part of the shared library. The veteran at the aid station who looks you in the eye and says I’ve been here. I know what this is — that is culture operating exactly as designed.

This is why no FKT, no podium finish, no race series acquisition can touch the center of this thing. The center is a conversation between a person and a trail and, eventually, between that person and everyone else who has had the same conversation. That exchange is ancient. It is not going anywhere.

On point.

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C is for Community. C is for Culture.

There were repeated comparisons to skateboarding, and I reject them wholeheartedly based on the simple fact that skateboarders are cool. Skating is an anti-establishment subculture. Skaters challenge societal norms simply by using the built environment (parking lots, stairs, railings) for a secondary, often-destructive recreational activity.

Trail running on the other hand is just running through public lands with thousands of dollars of equipment, occasionally adding another hefty bill (entry, flights, hotel, crew) to run a race. The time and money required dictates that trail runners come from a different socio-economic class than those who take a board to a parking lot to grind curbs.

I am glad we have people like who continue to point out what we need to improve to make our sport more inclusive.

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I Ran A Marathon. Here’s Why I’m Dumb Enough To Do It Again.

It was Mick Jagger who got me into running. This sounds comical, not least because of all the hobbies one might plausibly inherit from the Rolling Stones frontman — from the music to his signature struts, to cocaine addiction — the one I picked up was much worse: long-distance running. But there he was, in an interview, explaining how he manages to stay in such preposterous shape well into his 70s while continuing to prance across stadium stages like a possessed aerobics instructor. His secret, apparently, is running.

What a great way to start an article about running a marathon. It got me hooked right away.

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How Vincent Bouillard Trained for Western States

As the coach of such an incredible athlete, my main job is just not to screw him up. Like many of us, Vincent enjoys smashing himself in training. Part of the reason he wanted to work together in the first place was to make sure he was doing that productively so that he could bounce back and do it again a few days later. The other part was that in addition to working part time on the innovation team at Hoka, he was going to be a dad soon and wanted to make the most of his training time so that he could still be a good employee, partner, and parent. Our relationship is very much a collaboration. I wrote out the training two weeks at a time, and his input and feedback were essential to making it work.

I honestly don’t know how people do this: running, job, family - I don’t have the discipline for that, let alone the urge to have the discipline for that. It’s impressive.

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The Return of Trail Running Journalism?

In all seriousness, the more interesting question sits above all of that: in a landscape where trail news is no longer chased by journalists but fed straight to hungry Instagram aggregation accounts by PR teams, and where the sharpest independent analysis lives on Substack but is narrow (one athlete’s training log, one gear obsessive’s spreadsheet, more opinions on the story of the sport as a whole than are necessary) what’s the actual lane TrailRunner is claiming? Its own framing pushes toward the terrain the aggregators and Substackers already occupy: personality, lifestyle, vibe, speed - but with more resourcing and bigger pockets.

Methinks that the trailrunning space is still too small for more independent and objective journalism that moves beyond tales by runners and sponsored shoe reviews.

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If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

I had the brilliant idea to go running during the most extreme heat wave we ever had in Northern Germany. I tried to go running early in the morning, but then life happened and I finally left the house around 11 and it was already getting hot outside. The heat and my general lack of fitness was not the best combination for a run, but I had a good time nonetheless, even though it felt as if I could drink buckets of water afterwards. Unfortunately I hadn’t read the really interesting article about hydration before my run, but you will be prepared if you read that article - and the other four.

I am still trying to get into the running flow again, but the late night soccer live broadcasts are not really helping with getting up early…

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2026 Western States 100 Results: Jenn Lichter and Vincent Bouillard Set Course Records in Cool Weather

It was safe to say that expectations were high for a new record or two this year as runners set out on the 100.2-mile journey across the Sierra Nevada over a course that challenges with its 18,000 feet of climbing and 22,000 feet of descent.

In a testament to the ideal race temperatures, and the exceptionally strong field, the second to fourth runners – Francesco Puppi of Italy, Ryan Montgomery, and Thomas Cardin of France, were also all under the previous men’s course record, with Zach Miller’s fifth-place time still the 10th fastest time in men’s race history.

I spent some time watching this and while I do not believe that these kind of races will ever become mainstream spectator events, the performances each year are nothing but extraordinary.

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‘Without Fear:’ Trail Running Is More Than a Sport for These Run Clubs

Between President Trump’s immigration crackdown and a rise of racially motivated hate crimes in recent years, it hasn’t been easy for people of color to feel safe, according to the runners interviewed for this story. But now trail running groups like Sin Miedo are popping up around the country, giving more Americans a chance to get outside.

“ICE was coming in May of last year and taking people away from their families,” Marrero said. “We made a conscious decision to say, ‘We’re going to show up.’ These things happening around us are awful and destroying our community, but we’re going to help people escape for an hour or two. And so many people have shown up in the group, providing help to those who need it. Places to stay, food, whatever… The trail running has been the catalyst for us to continue showing up for each other.”

It’s sad that this is necessary, but it is wonderful how run clubs can create community and make people feel better.

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Running Is Free Until You Become a Runner

The assumed cost of running is always physical. The repeated impact, the stress on your joints, multiplied across every stride. The average 5-mile run is 10,000 steps. Do the math on your own mileage and the strain we put ourselves through becomes hard to ignore. We keep going anyway, until we eventually need new knees - at least according to every non-runner with one podcast mic and zero medical credentials.

But lately I’ve been wondering about the other cost…

The financial one.

Running is supposed to be the simple sport. Basically free. A pair of shoes, a road, maybe a watch if you’re trying to flex online. But after five years of diving headfirst into the economy of running, I can say with confidence: this sport is not free.

I made a deliberate decision about a year ago to ignore all those in the runnings space who only talk about the latest products and want us to buy more and more. Turns out that I can run in last season’s shoes and in shorts I bought years ago.

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Is Hydration Just as Important as Your Carb Intake?

Hydration is not secondary to carbohydrates. They are equal partners in performance. Understanding your sweat rate and sweat sodium concentration gives you the tools to create a personalized hydration strategy that supports your training, keeps you safe, and helps you perform at your best.

Taking time to get hydration right pays off on every long run and every race.

Drink up!

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Unofficial Rules of the Trail

There are no official “Rules of the Trail.” No one hands you a rulebook when you take your first step onto the dirt, and there’s no pre-race briefing where someone explains that you should always pack an extra snack or jacket, that the best climbs are for hiking and soul-searching or that small clothing problems will, without exception, become very big clothing problems. These are things you learn the way most trail runners learn everything: slowly, stupidly and usually the hard way.

Spend enough time on trails – long runs, wrong turns, thunderstorms, the emotional rollercoaster of running for 10 or 20 or 30 hours – and you start to develop a set of rules. Not rules you have to follow, but rules that, if ignored, will eventually teach you why they exist.

Experience can be really helpful when you’re on the trail, so learn from others and havea look at these rules.

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If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Sunday morning I saw a run club running by and I was appalled. They all ran around in the same white t-shirt with a sponsor logo on it. The person at the front was holding a flag with the same logo, a cosmetics company.

Seriously, this is what run clubs have turned into? Just some weird advertising campaign to reach a specific target audience? I don’t mind companies supporting and sponsoring run clubs, but I this takes it too far and I hope it will backfire. Running is such an individualistic sport, why would anyone try to make it all corporate?

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Midlife is the perfect time to start trail running – here’s how to get into it

Trail running takes place on dirt trails as opposed to paved roads or measured flat tracks. Races longer than marathon distance (26.2 miles) are called ultramarathons, or “ultras” for short. While some ultras are held on tracks or paved surfaces, most follow trail routes. Hence, “ultrarunning” typically refers to extra-long-distance trail running.

Trail running, especially at ultra distances, differs significantly in practice and culture from traditional road-and-track running. Trail races tend to be smaller and more intimate than metropolitan road races.

I actually think any time is a good time to start trail running and if you think about it, it is really not that strange an idea to run outside in nature.

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Running at Night

If you’ve ever struggled with finding the confidence and knowledge to embrace the nocturnal world, guided by nothing but the glow of your headlamp (and, hopefully, a well-planned GPS route), keep reading. A disproportionate number of women fears running on trails, let alone running on trails at night. The main threat to female runners in any environment is harassment from men, and that is a very valid fear. Although this threat is exponentially higher in a more populated area, it exists on roads and trails alike.

While various threats exist on the trail (including our fellow humans), most Colorado runners keep a nervous eye out for mountain lions. We share the woods with black bears too, though they tend to be more skittish than lions; in my experience, bears make plenty of noise crashing through the brush just to stay clear of us. Of course, a mama bear with cubs is always a concern, but just because you haven’t seen a cougar doesn’t mean it hasn’t seen you. To put these fears into perspective, let’s look at the stats.

I am not a big fun of running in the dark, but then again where I run, there are no mountain lions, which really puts it into a different perspective.

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Sweat, tears and camaraderie as 20,000 runners take on world’s largest ultramarathon

That first year, 34 runners, all white men, lined up for the race, conceived by the first world war veteran Vic Clapham as a way of honouring his fallen comrades. Sixteen of them finished. More than a century later, on 14 June, more than 20,000 people stood outside Durban city hall, hoping to make it to Pietermaritzburg before the 12-hour cutoff.

What started as an all-white, all-male test of physical endurance has become part of the fabric of South African life, something so ordinary that you would be hard-pressed to find someone here who does not know a Comrades finisher.

Running clubs bus in from all over the country. Security guards and shop workers line up alongside bankers and celebrities. And, for one day, every June, South Africa’s searing racial inequality seems to melt away.

What an event. Every year I read about it and every year I am amazed how big this race is and what the runners endure to finish it.

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What I learnt from running 100 miles

The mind is a very odd thing. Generally speaking I have a lot of mental resilience and have never wanted to give up in a race. My mind is usually far stronger than my body. So it was a very weird feeling when self-doubt arrived very early on.

The first 10 miles to be precise. I started the race feeling really tired as I’d been up since 4 am and hadn’t slept well the week before. Plus I had only just got over jetlag from my recent Easter Island trip.

I love these write-ups about amazing achievements as a runner.
Running 100 miles is truly a big deal and I am sure it changes a lot in a person’s life.

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O is for Offline

The easy solution to being constantly connected to an ecosystem of running apparel pyramid schemes is to do more things that are offline. You have a very distinct number of hours in your day. If you use them for something purposeful that makes you feel good, you simply won’t have time to be on your phone or computer.

It’s like if you eat a lot of vegetables and whole foods, you don’t have space in your belly to overeat highly-processed foods. Start with a positive act and you will organically live better. Leave a little space for a chicken nugget, of course.

Yes. Don’t buy so much apparel you don’t need, you’re just going to sweat in it anyhow and I remember when cotton t-shirts where all we had for sports and it didn’t kill us… also, buy This is Running - it is such a great book!

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If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Running looks like a solo sport. This week makes the case that it never really was. One million parkrun events. A champion who chose to crew another champion instead of racing. A 32-mile loop around an entire island, run for no medal and no prize. The five stories below have almost nothing to do with personal bests and everything to do with the people who show up: the ones who hand you a gel at mile 62, the tribe that turns a Saturday morning into a reason to drive across town, and the women rewriting whose race counts in the first place.

Read on, and then send this to the friend who keeps telling you they want to start.

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‘A huge spectrum of people coming together’: how parkrun made it to its millionth event

Initially a single timed run, the event now operates at 2,800 locations worldwide, with more than 12 million people registered to take part.

Every Saturday morning, tens of thousands of runners and walkers turn up to jog, push prams or simply complete the course at their own pace.

These events, which are entirely volunteer-run at a local level, have seen bridal showers in matching headdresses, milestone birthday parties, and even engagements at the finish line.

I have never attended one of these runs, but I think the whole concept is marvelous! People run for different reasons and if you like to run with a whole lot of people every Sunday, this is probably your tribe!

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The Best Race is the One You Don’t Run

I was admittedly a little nervous about screwing something up, especially considering Devon’s résumé. She’s one of the most accomplished athletes in our sport, and while I knew how it felt to be the one racing, I wasn’t nearly as confident in my ability to support someone else through their race.

Still, I had a few things going for me. I’d spent enough time in the sport to understand what runners need when things get hard, and I’d been fortunate to have some excellent crews of my own over the years (mostly at multi-days). I knew what had worked for me: the right encouragement at the right moment, practical help before it was requested, and the ability to read the difference between a runner who needed snacks, opinions, a kick in the pants, or simply a quiet presence.

The rest, I figured, I could learn as I went.

I think the aspect of crewing is still being overlooked when comparing trail and ultra running with other running events. Here we have one of the top athletes in the field supporting another top athlete, which I find really cool.

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Running and Feminism: What Does It Mean to Support Women?

The feminism of trail running—assuming that’s what we can even call it—consists of women using the playbook they inherited from (mostly white) men, but inserting (mostly white) women.

This same ole same ole playbook heavily prioritizes elite athletes. The focus is results, popularity, and profitability—over values. It focuses on the most famous events over championing the events that are best for women. It champions likes and followers and downloads over people and community. It doesn’t criticize or hold anyone accountable (like, say, a race director who features a confederate flag at their very famous race). And it leaves behind women of color—as well as women who don’t fit within the narrow swath of those who are competitive in the competitions it deems most important. Being fast and popular is worth more than—anything else.

It also means that that’s why Entrekin’s win is as much or more about her beating men as it is about an incredible athletic performance—this was a playbook written by men, for men, and men are the default standard bearers. Everything ultimately is compared to them.

I think this is a gradual change that is going on and unfortunately we need patience to witness the necessary change. I wish things would change faster.

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Their Idea of a Fun Run? A 32-Mile Loop Around Manhattan.

Running the perimeter is an old tradition: It was a regular route for Ted Corbitt, the Olympic marathoner and founding president of New York Road Runners. Sometimes, when he was training for an ultramarathon, he’d run the perimeter twice in a row, said his son, Gary Corbitt, who is 75 and lives in Jacksonville, Fla.

But in recent years, the perimeter run has become more popular, particularly among runners in the city seeking a fresh — and free — challenge. According to data collected by Strava, the fitness tracking app, the number of runs uploaded to the app with a map matching the perimeter of Manhattan increased in 2025 by 30 percent compared with 2024.

To me this sounds like the ultimate sightseeing run. While I don’t like running in the city as much as running through the woods, I enjoy exploring a city by taking runs into areas I haven’t been to. That’ what I do on my business trips, but I probably won’t do 32 miles casually in the morning before meetings…

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Running Cool at Western States

The canyons at Western States don’t care how fit you are or how much time you spend in the sauna. By the time you hit Foresthill at mile 62, your core temperature has been climbing for hours, the air is still hot and the trail offers no shade.

Heat acclimation prepares your physiology for heat stress. Cooling strategies manage it in real time. Both matter of these matter, and they’re not interchangeable. This piece is about the third part of that equation.

While I continue to think I could run 100 miles with enough training, I am not so sure about getting through the sun and the heat. I’d be in dehydrated lobster-looking mode real quick and it amazes me how runner battle the sun and the heat while running fast on a really long distance up and down the mountains.

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If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️