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

🏃🏻‍♂️

There is a strange new category of travel where suffering is the souvenir. Ultrarunning has a name for it, the darecation, and the growth is wild. UTMB went from 50,000 participants in 2022 to 170,000, most of them not elites, but amateurs who turn themselves into engineers of their own bodies just to spend 30 hours moving through the mountains - and bring their support crews along. This week pulls at that contradiction from a few angles: the months of prep that quietly become a darecation of their own, the uncomfortable fact that the self-styled environmental sport actually runs on air travel and shoes built to die in a few hundred miles, who is really betting money on trail running and who is just dabbling, and a reminder from Frozen Head State Park that even the cruelest race on earth can somehow turn out to be just lovely. You just have to train a lot for it, I guess…

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Inside the ‘darecation’: Why travellers are choosing holidays that hurt

At UTMB World Series, one of the world’s leading organisers of trail running and mountain races, business is booming. Since launching with a single race around the Mont Blanc Massif in 2003, it expanded to 25 ultramarathon events in 2022 and now hosts more than 60 races globally. Annual participation has risen from 50,000 in 2022 to 170,000, most of whom aren’t elite athletes but highly committed amateurs.

“People become engineers of themselves for these races,” said Florian Lamblin, executive director of UTMB International and an ultrarunner himself. “They are trying to achieve something complex and, at the end, deliver something extraordinary, which is running up to 30 hours in nature.”

While I envy people who can take those vacations, I also ask myself: “don’t they have kids? or partners who want sightseeing or the beach? how do they do this? do they do a vacation afterwards to get some relaxation as well?”

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Becoming BFFs with the WSER course

We certainly trained; I ran 167 miles in seven days and felt better as camp progressed (since I’m Strava dark, this is your teaser for how training is going:P). We pushed hard and asked a lot of our bodies. But we also fell over laughing, put on baseball gloves and played catch, and met the guy who runs the Greengate aid station (who is also a butterfly dealer?!). Critically, the hard work was done in a context of fun, friends, and discovery. But an easy-to-miss part of training was strengthening our relationship with this 100-mile thread of trail through the California hills. I feel like I befriended the course, learning more of its quirks and paying it respect that is impossible to do while racing.

Wow, that preparation sounds like a darecation of its own, but it is just the buildup before the race.

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Trail Running Isn’t an Environmental Sport

That’s the argument in a single frame. Trail and ultra running thinks of itself as the environmental sport, and its community as nature’s stewards. It keeps Edward Abbey on the nightstand. It talks about stewardship and leaving no trace, about the privilege of crossing wild country on its own two feet. Then it runs on air travel to far-off start lines, on shoes built to die inside a few hundred miles [1], on races that bolt new distances and whole continents onto the calendar every year. The self-image is preservation. The machine underneath, however, is unbridled consumption. For two decades the sport has been building a sincere, expensive, well-staffed apparatus whose real job is to keep anyone from noticing the difference.

True, and everyone is aware of this, but doesn’t really want to change it. Just look at all the new products trail runners are supposed to buy to make the runs better.

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Who’s Actually Betting on Trail Running?

The framework reveals a bet that’s easy to miss. Concentrated brands, those that are fully run-focused or that separately report running/outdoor segments, can’t pull back on trail investments without it showing up in consolidated results. Diversified parents like Nike and adidas can dial trail spending up or down without materially affecting their financials.

The high-conviction brands are the canaries in the coal mine. They signal whether trail running continues to grow and remain a profitable category. Watch closely if Nike starts disclosing more on ACG, or breaks it out as a separate segment. That would be a clear sign the relaunch is yielding real financial results.

I am still rooting for the niche players and I love it that there are so many new brands building on this sport.

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Why the notorious Barkley Marathons is ‘nicer than you think’, according to a man who’s run it three times

It’s the world’s toughest foot race. The statistics speak for themselves: 20 finishers in 39 years. The leg-slashing sawbriars. The Blair Witch woods. The freezing fog and mocking lack of assistance (‘No help is coming’). But after my third visit, I need to tell you all that Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee, home of the Barkley Marathons, is simply one of the loveliest and most welcoming places I’ve ever been.

So, it’s just a fun darecation after all?

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

I am a bit bummed. We had a referendum in Hamburg to apply to become a host city for the Olympic Games in 2040 or 2044. The overwhelming majority turned it down.
It would have been so cool and so great for the city. We just hosted the Iron Man triathlon right in the middle of the city and I think we would have been such a great host city with most venues nearby and also near the water. Not to mention the 6 billion € that would have been invested into infrastructure, housing and sports facilities.

Well, now some other city will benefit from this.

Hrmpf.

Anyhow, read these carefully selected articles about running now and then go running!

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Runners turned into Mean Girls: Satisfy x Adidas

Satisfy now has almost half a million followers on Instagram. It has also truly crossed over into fashion. Revenues were around €11 million in 2025—still a speck compared to Nike’s $50 billion—and it’s now sold at Mr Porter, End., SSENSE, etc. Its tees in particular are popular; they’re often worn with trousers and jeans. Satisfy might be rooted in trail running, but its customers are also firmly in the city.

When sports brands try to plug “lifestyle” collections and when luxury fashion brands try (and constantly fail) to launch fitness collections, no one can deny that this organic global acquisition of the fashion customer is impressive.

I love it. Satisfy x Adidas is the one collab everyone is talking about. Who will top this with a collab nobody thought about?

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The race I couldn’t miss

I remember it as if it were yesterday: listening to friends and teammates like Xavi Cadena, Anna Serra or Agusti Roc describe what it was like to run through the wall of sound at Sancti Spiritu. “It’s the Alpe d’Huez of trail running,” they said. “Nothing compares to it; you have to experience it.”That was 2007, my first year racing internationally in the Skyrunning World Series. At the time, Zegama was the series finale in September. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of spectators. Despite the rain and the bitter cold on the summits, thousands had hiked for hours just to stand there, cheer for every runner, and celebrate the sport.

Some runner from Spain is now also on Substack and writes about some race. So awesome to have him here!

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Are men or women more durable runners?

Women are traditionally better at pacing than men – data shows that women are 18.3% better at keeping an even pace than men – and men have a reputation for going out too quickly, then fading as the distance goes on. Instead, women can stick to a consistent pace for longer, leading to a consistent race where they end up overtaking many men who went off too quickly.

As the study explains, this is because women’s bodies can handle fatigue better than men’s. Despite both men and women seeing similar reductions in running economy, which refers to how efficiently your body uses oxygen to maintain a certain pace, women had better fatigue resistance, less force loss and a more stable metabolism. Perceived effort was also lower in women than in men, with men’s perceived effort levels rising more steeply than women’s.

I find this research really fascinating. Also, women are probably just tougher and can endure more pain than men…

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‘Maybe the suffering is the point’: what does it take to run 163km up and down a mountain?

“You start looking at the course map, and the elevation profile, and you start to have impostor syndrome.”

These thoughts can creep back in when you are so tired that putting one foot in front of the other becomes a herculean task. “You just think, no way – no way I can do this.”

The race begins before dawn on Friday at Scenic World in Katoomba. By 11am on Saturday, she has been running for 30 hours.

As her GPS watch buzzes, telling her she has just passed the 117km marker, the warm confines of an aid station – a checkpoint providing water and food – awaits.

As I am currently just in the slog around the park phase again, trying to recover and get back into shape, I read these kinds of articles with so much awe and really want to be able to run that long.

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My First Ultra: Where "Me" Became "We"

“Isn’t this incredible? Can you believe we get to do this?”

I did not share his enthusiasm, but his knee was shot and he couldn’t run either, and we fell in step together, talking about our reasons for being out there. Somehow the last few miles dissolved and the finish line appeared. We ran across it together, into a crowd of finishers who cheered like we’d won the whole thing, despite the fact that I’d missed the official cutoff by 30 minutes.

Here’s what I know now that I didn’t know at mile 20: I would have stopped there. The race would have ended quietly, a private failure nobody would have noticed but me, but Dean showed up. Then the volunteers. Then the man with the bad knee. Each of them carried a little of what I didn’t have. Each of them took me a little further than I could have gone alone. The version of me that crossed the finish line didn’t exist that morning.I did not finish this race – we did. It was a 50k, for cancer, together.

Yes, it is. It’ really something else. And it is incredible.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Running is simple. One foot in front of the other. And yet: we perform it, brand it, suit up for it, fuel it to the edge of human possibility, and break ourselves doing it. This week, five pieces that pull at the threads. I spent some time reading last week and less actually running, but this will be my week of

Satisfy and Adidas went digging in punk and hardcore for credibility, and whether that heist lands depends entirely on who you ask. Adidas also built a full-body suit that might actually make you faster, which will not stop people from buying it for reasons that have nothing to do with biomechanics. The science behind breaking the two-hour marathon barrier turns out to hinge less on heroics and more on aggressive carbohydrate strategy going back a hundred years. And when the body finally gives out, the worst thing you can do is stop entirely. Training through injury is a discipline of its own. Five things worth your time this week. Read them and then go running!

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The Rise Of Performative Running Culture

Performative running cares more about the perception of running vs. actually running. It’s when the image of being a runner becomes more important than the experience of running itself. It’s what models do when they’re asked by ALO to run around the Eiffel tower to sell a trail shoe. It lacks depth and understanding.

[…]

The opposite of being performative is to run with intention. That looks different for everyone, but it’s rooted in something meaningful. It’s not about how long you’ve been a runner, how much mileage you do, or how fast you are. I think it’s quite simple—you care about the sport and the people in it. You care about evolving and learning about yourself through the defiant act of putting one foot in front of the other.

Ah well, this is an interesting discussion to have, which clearly shows that the running sphere matures and people run for different reasons. Of course everyone involved thinks they are running for the right reasons.

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The Satisfy x Adidas Subculture Heist

Brice Partouche may have his own history with punk, hardcore, and Straight Edge. But Satisfy as a brand does not operate like a punk or hardcore project that somehow found running. It operates like a fashion brand that moved into performance running and repeatedly reaches into punk and hardcore for underground credibility.

And that difference matters.

Personal history does not automatically make every commercial use of that history accountable. Knowing the reference does not mean carrying the responsibility.

Because the issue is not biography. It is behavior.

It is what a brand does with the things it claims to understand. It is whether it contributes to the culture or only uses it as an archive of underground credibility. It is whether the people, bands, shirts, codes, and histories remain part of a living world, or get turned into expensive proof that a product has edge.

Actually, I beg to differ. Satisfy x Adidas certainly broke some rules and that’s why it is successful. And I say that with all my skatepunk knowledge from back when we started skating right after the war when we didn’t have anything and I had to take the bus to Hamburg to buy an outrageously priced copy of thrasher magazine and these days kids wear hoodies with a thrasher logo and they just like the style or whatever. We have enough boring collabs, this one is fun.

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This Suit Makes You Faster. But Will Runners Wear It?

About four years ago, Jessica G. Hunter, a manager of athlete performance at Adidas, started looking into the effect of “stiffening elements” in suits for endurance runners. There was skepticism within the company that clothing could make much of a difference in a marathon. “Leadership didn’t think we would be able to improve running economy with apparel,” Hunter said. “Because nobody had ever done it successfully before.”

Hunter found that the stabilizing elements made runners faster for longer. “What we were trying to do was exploit the connection between the muscles that stabilize the pelvis and trunk and the muscles that stabilize the hip, and how those muscles tend to work together from a pelvic and hip stability,” she said. “In order to do that, you have to have something that crosses the whole body. And the only way to do that is with a full, connected suit.”

While it seems to make sense to wear the absolutely latest tect apparel for elite athletes, I am sure that many people will buy this kit in the weird hope that it will matter in achieving a personal best. And if they can afford it and it makes them happy, by all means go for it! I am running in shoes with carbon and I am probably not finishing on a podium any time soon.

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Inside the Fueling of the First Sub 2 Hour Marathon

The sub-2-hour marathon is a remarkable convergence of factors from shoe technology to mindset shifts to training theory to fueling strategy. In this newsletter, I want to focus on the last one.

Aggressive carbohydrate feeding has been a quiet revolution building in the sports science world for over a century. It dates back to the 1923 Boston Marathon, when researchers drew blood from exhausted finishers and discovered that post-race collapse was linked to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). The idea that carbohydrate mattered was, at that point, a genuine revelation. London 2026 is where that revolution finally arrived and landed in the public spotlight.

It is fascinating to see how elite runners reach their absolute best performance levels. I rather opt for the a that doesn’t taste like old feet.

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Train With, Not Through

Healing from injury often comes with the connotation of doing nothing. While rest is essential, allowing the mind-body system to go stale is a non-starter. That’s both for me as a person and for general practice.

In my experience, pulling the rug out from under athletes’ routines, support systems, social networks, and basic physical fitness is a recipe for a mess. Re-injury, new injury, or just being a miserable son of a bitch all seem to be the consequences of poorly managed return to performance.

And I want none of that. Not for others and certainly not for myself.

So what to do then? Train, of course.

I should have read this advice earlier and I sure hope I remember some of it when the next injury happens.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

A crazy thing happened to me last week: I went running. Twice. And pain-free.

Amazing. I think I will do that again. And hopefully even longer than just a few kilometers.

Also, the second run took place in Copenhagen, which is such an awesome city to run through. I just love running along the harbor to the little mermaid early in the morning. Of course, fashion-conscious that I am, I ran in my Saysky shorts and totally felt like a local without fear of cultural appropriation. In the back of the photo you can see Copen Hill and there is some unfinished business: I wanted to run up Copen Hill on my trip to Copenhagen in December and it was closed, so I guess I have to get in shape and come back for it. Also for the hot dogs with rød pølse.

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Enjoy these Five Things Running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

Sawe’s secret sauce: inside the lab that fuelled historic sub-two hour marathon

When Sawe last month in London became the first person to run an official marathon in under two hours, much of the coverage focused on the Kenyan’s carbon-plated shoes. But here, on the west coast of Sweden, a team of scientists, nutritionists and technicians believe another factor was just as significant, if not more so.

“We don’t have the megaphone that the shoe industry has,” says Olof Sköld, co-founder and chief executive of the sports nutrition brand Maurten. “We are not that visible. But if you talk to the athletes and coaches, the elite world knows who we are.”

A glance at the feet on major marathon podiums reveals an array of brands from Adidas and Nike to Asics and On. Where shoe brands differ, there is only one constant among the very best runners: since 2018, every men’s and women’s marathon world record has been run by an athlete using Maurten nutrition products. Sawe’s extraordinary London Marathon time of 1hr 59min 30sec was the latest.

And I always thought people would use Maurten because of all the wonderful flavors it offers.

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‘It Just Wasn’t Fun Anymore’: Why Molly Seidel Stepped Away from Marathoning—and Is Thriving on the Trails

“It just wasn’t fun anymore,” she said. “It’s really hard to maintain that level in marathoning. It’s a steep peak that you have to remain on top of. I needed a change. I needed something different.”

With three strong ultra-distance races under her belt already in 2026, her foray into the competitive trail running scene has gone better than expected. She has already earned a place in the June 27 Western States 100—the most prominent trail race in the U.S.—where she humbly hopes to compete for a top-10 finish.

That is exactly why I am not running marathons anymore. All kidding aside, I can totally understand her reasoning.

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Western States is Not Just a Race

It might seem dry, but public filings are often where you can learn the most about what’s going on inside an organization that won’t necessarily make it into a press release. So what do the numbers tell us about what the WSER Foundation, and the race itself, have been up to or where they’re going?

Most people think of Western States as an iconic, point-to-point, 100-mile foot race from Lake Tahoe to Auburn, California. Many people also know the WSER Foundation as the organization that manages and puts on Western States. Which it is, but that’s not all it is.

This is a really interesting write-up of the budget behind the oldest 100-mile race in the world.

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Yes, You Can Run That Slow

So what’s really going on when runners complain of discomfort at paces slower than their normal easy pace? I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s an example of somatization, or “the unconscious process of converting mental, emotional, or psychological distress into physical symptoms, such as pain, fatigue, or nausea.” This doesn’t mean the resistance is entirely in runners’ heads. Research shows that runners are less efficient when they run slower (or faster) than their habitual speeds, and we can feel that. But the rest is psychological. The complainers simply don’t want to slow down and are not bought in to the idea that slowing down will benefit them, so they seize on the slightly unfamiliar sensations they experience at slower paces and turn them into a five-alarm fire.

Running slow really is weird. But so effective.

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Rachel Entrekin Wins the Cocodona 250 in $30 Shorts and a Party Shirt

One thing I find appealing about the trail and ultra scene is the way it rejects the standard performance “look” that’s so pervasive on the roads. Rachel ran most of Cocodona in a button-down “Party Shirt” for god’s sake! Trend-conscious amateur road-runners would NEVER. It’s become virtually unthinkable for runners to attempt a 3:00 marathon in anything other than bonded seams. Real talk: most of us don’t need gear built for running 4-minute miles. Shorts that can handle 3 days of running, though? That’s a serious testament to comfort, utility, and durability, even if you’re only logging 5-10 miles a day. Unsurprisingly, the Terignota Shorts are totally sold out.

And here is some fashion advice: you do not always need the latest and most expensive stuff to succeed.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Still no running for me, still foot pain, but I think, or hope, that it is getting better.

I am now officially in a slump and I compensate not running by eating more. The summer is coming and my bikini-figure really needs some work…

Who of you watched the whole Cocodona 250 race? I watched a few minutes. What a race. Unbelievable. How do you train for such a monster of a race?

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Enjoy these Five Things Running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

She Ran 250 Miles in an Astonishing 56 Hours—Beating All the Men at Cocodona and Making History

Rachel Entrekin made history on Wednesday, winning the Cocodona 250 Mile in a new course record of 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 48 seconds. Entrekin won the race outright—holding off Kilian Korth, who set a men’s course record of 57:28:36—and she became the first woman in the race’s history to win the event overall.

Entrekin, 34, defended her women’s title from 2025 and took over seven hours off her time from last year. She won the women’s race in 2024, too.

So awesome.

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125 Hours vs. Zero

I continue to be amazed by what Aravaipa and Mountain Outpost pull off: continuous coverage of a 250-mile race, gaps at night aside, with the ability to rewind to key moments whenever I had a free minute. Every time I checked, somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000 people were watching, with peaks above 40,000 during Rachel Entrekin’s record finish. We can debate how to make the coverage more compelling, but the demand for live trail running coverage is clearly at an all-time high.

Which is ironic, because what was probably the race of the year went down at the Canyons 100K the weekend of April 25th and none of us got to watch the drama unfold. One of the six Western States Golden Ticket races, and a UTMB umbrella event, didn’t have a livestream.

While I truly admire the runner who can run for 250 miles, I find it hard to pay attention to such a long race for longer than 5 minutes. It is just so very boring.

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Your bathtub might be the secret to surviving a hot race

Start by pairing the baths with easy runs, not hard workouts (but once you start feeling more comfortable with the process, heat training can follow a more intense, high-quality session). If you have a coach, they might tweak your plan according to your abilities and goals, but for most of us, it works to first, then sit in hot water soon afterward, while body temperature is still elevated. Water temperature is usually around 40 C, with runners submerged up to the chest if possible.

The sweet spot seems to be between 15 and 35 minutes. A lot of runners use heat sessions for about a week leading into a hot-weather race, then ease off a few days before race day. Since the adaptations do not disappear immediately, there is no real advantage to cramming it in at the last minute.

Our bodies are really interesting, aren’t they? Enjoy the hot bath!

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The Case For Public Tracks

Abundance doesn’t speak much about recreational infrastructure—its case studies focus on housing, transportation, and technology—however recreational infrastructure not only supports the health and well-being of Americans, they also afford communitarian thickness. Folks of all ages use tracks and pools, so people of different generations and socio-economic backgrounds tend to intermingle, building relationships and the foundations for healthier neighborhoods.

As much as I love run clubs, they self-select their members, usually catering to younger, urban, college-educated folks. What’s needed are spaces anyone can use, from small children to retirees. Tracks are accessible: they’re flat; they afford space free from cars; they complement multi-use playing fields and can be safely used with little oversight; they cater to differing abilities—from fast runners to children to folks in wheelchairs to anyone who wants a safe place to move.

totally has a point here. I live very close to a traditional track and field stadium, which is only open to those who belong to a sporting club. While these clubs perform a public service and cost just a few € a month, I still would prefer to be able to just use the track without joining a club.

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Speed is still a goddess

Jessie explains how even though they referred to themselves as “ungendered clothing,” it was female runners who connected most with their products. Lexy adds that through their “attention to detail, [Pruzan] resonated more heavily on the feminine side of the audience.” And they have since leaned into it.

“We are two women,” says Lexy. “Let’s lean into the fact that we have our perspective, and that it might not be everyone’s.”

The recent spring campaign had a tagline of ‘Speed Was a Goddess First,’ leaning on the story of mythical Greek figure Atalanta, celebrated as the fastest mortal. It’s something that Maggie Mertens wrote brilliantly about in her book Better, Faster, Farther, and women winning outright and overall is again in the headlines as Rachel Entrekin won Cocodona 250 with a course record, 79 minutes ahead of the fastest man.

I love it how so many new running brands are being created because there is so much demand for nice running apparel. I’m rooting for these upstart brands, always!

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Last week was very much dominated by the fact that a human ran faster than 2 hours for a marathon. I need twice as much time.
And yet, most people on earth are not capable of running 42 km at all.
It’s so weird.
What a phenomenal race!

And yes, I do feel even slower now, but I am in awe that Sabastian Sawe managed to run that fast a marathon.

Adidas also had a good week, I guess. Let’s see how this will play out for the next races - and how this will change the popularity of brands of the midpack racers.

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Enjoy these Five Things Running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

Is It the Shoes?

The feat was the culmination of a shift—or, perhaps more aptly, a total disruption—in marathoning over the past few years, in which the eventual breaking of the mythical two-hour mark went from an impossibility to a guarantee. When sports are young, they progress by leaps and bounds. The first marathon over the now-standard distance of 26 miles, 385 yards, contested at the 1908 London Olympics, was won in 2:55:19. Progress in the succeeding decades was rapid, but by 1991 the sport was mature, professionalized, and lucrative. When Joyner made his prediction, the world record was 2:06:50 andhad advanced by less than two minutes since the 1960s. Logic dictated that future decades would see even slower progress, as runners approached insurmountable limits in factors such as how much training they could handle and how much fuel their muscles could store.

What a race. And so many factor played a role and everything had to be perfect.

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The Super Shoe’s Step-by-Step Evolution

Shoes once relied on leather, wood or metal reinforcements that were heavy and stiff. The rise of the rubber sole added flexibility and waterproofing. Better durability and grip were bonuses.

People could also run or walk in rubber soles without being heard. That’s why they’re called sneakers.

What a week for this shoe company from Herzogenaurach. Isn’t shoe tech fascinating? Can I still run in my shoes from last season?

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Runners Got Bored With the Road. So They Moved to the Trail.

This casualization of trail running spurred sneaker companies to expand a once-niche footwear category: gravel or road-to-trail shoes, which are being specifically marketed to beginner trail runners. Brands such as Brooks, Nike, Salomon and Adidas are rolling out more models designed to feel familiar underfoot while offering enough grip, protection and durability for all conditions.

Trail running is so much nicer than running through the streets. Now even the Wall Street Journal has found out.

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The superathletes who want to speed-run Mount Everest

Karl Egloff and Tyler Andrews are a study in contrasts. Egloff, 45 and inclined to metaphysical meditation, is Ecuadorian-born resident of Switzerland. His father was a mountain guide; he began climbing Ecuador’s giant peaks in pre-school and later became a world-class mountain bike racer. Andrews, who’s 35, grew up in the suburbs of Boston. He was a high school band geek before becoming, in college, a talented distance runner. Now a 2:15 marathoner, he lives in Quito, Ecuador, training in the same cragged Andes that shaped Egloff. He only dedicated himself to big mountain running when the pandemic shut down road racing, but then he went big. In 2021, he emblazoned his chest with a huge tattoo of Rucu Pichincha, the Ecuadorian volcano on which he frequently trains.

Obviously, they won’t really be running up the mountain, but still, they want to move quicker than anyone else.

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The Evolution of Courtney Dauwalter

Courtney and her basketball shorts broke onto the ultrarunning scene in 2016, back when trail runners worshipped at the altar of vibes. Mileage? Run as much or as little as you want. Carbs? Probably overrated, but you do you. Heat training? Maybe sit in your hot car until you feel like you’re going to pass out. Grittiness and problem-solving were the name of the game, and it was a game Courtney nailed.

Meanwhile, the sport has jetted toward professionalization and optimization. High carb, bicarb, heat training, cross-training—the list of data-driven training modalities being adopted at the pointy end of the field are endless. For a runner who is so clearly driven by a genuine love of running, how, if at all, has she come to terms with this new era?

The road marathon stint provides a clue.

She’s the GOAT.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

This Saturday the 40th anniversary of the Hamburg Marathon was celebrated with a course record. Of course I missed Othmane El-Goumri flying by near our house, on his way to finishing in 2:04:24, but I got to cheer on plenty of slower runners right at the 22km mark.

It was just a gorgeous day for running. So I also tried it and the stupid pain in my forefoot came back after 500m, so I clocked some 1,4 km or so and called it day.
Running sucks. Especially when you cannot run.

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The 2 hour barrier has been smashed.

Sabastian Sawe just ran 1:59:30 with crazy negative splits, closing the last half in 59:01....faster than the American Record in the half marathon.

One of the most mind blowing performances we’ve seen maybe in the history of any sport. How did we get here?

Every breakthrough is a mixture of belief and progress. It takes folks daring to see what’s possible, surrounding themselves with a quality team and doing the work to give themselves a shot.

You’ve got to bet on yourself in a big way. Which is exactly what Sawe did in multiple ways. When asked whether he believed he could run a sub-2-hour marathon before the race, Sawe answered with one word: “Yes.”

Ok, wow. That’s insane. I am in awe.

(…continue reading.)

If On Shoes Are for Everyone, Are They Still Ons?

In gyms, in malls, in airports and on sidewalks around the world, the shoes — with a sole that looks from the side like a happy kindergartner’s gaptoothed smile — are hard to miss. Hellen Obiri won the most recent New York City Marathon wearing a pair of Ons — and expects to don a new prototype on Sunday for the London Marathon. Middle-aged dads, with more modest athletic aspirations, fill their closets with the sneakers as well.

But having made the leap from start-up to established name in performance footwear, the company finds itself at a critical juncture: How does it stay true to its roots as a brand for serious athletes while keeping up its breakneck growth, which it can do only by appealing to the mainstream?

While I think On can also make good shoes, for me they will forever be the brand worn by wanna-be rich people strolling on the boardwalk of some beach resort in Germany, not for serious runners.

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How do you train for 250 miles?

Training 15-22 hours per week, not including commuting to trails or time spent in the gym, takes significant mental and emotional energy. Then add in caring for a pregnant wife on top of shipping orders and working to grow a brand…your nervous system will be maxed out.

My experience of this was high stress before a run, the stress generally leaving as the run progressed, and then coming back as soon as I hopped back in the car. I observed myself gravitating more towards mindless scrolling and cheap dopamine hits when feeling tired at home too. Sometimes I’d pull up into our carport and sit in the car for 10 minutes before heading inside. Even typing all of this out I can feel anxiety starting to flood my system.

Unfortunately, my dog is getting older, so training with her is no longer possible and I guess that’s why I cannot train for 250 miles. No, in all seriousness, I am always in awe when I read about people training for such endeavors.

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The Hardest Part of Injury Isn’t Physical

If belief shapes perception, and perception shapes experience, then the beliefs you reinforce—intentionally or not—start to define how you move through both training and recovery. That’s where self-belief becomes more than confidence. It becomes a skill. It’s not something you either have or don’t have, but something you practice by deciding what you pay attention to and what meaning you assign to your experience.

For me, that’s looked like a shift away from asking “what am I losing?” and toward asking “what is still here?” The fitness I’ve built doesn’t disappear overnight. The discipline, the consistency, the ability to show up—those are still there. The body that adapted to years of training is still capable of adapting again. That distinction matters, because it gives you something stable to anchor to when everything else feels uncertain.

Oh, totally.

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The Strange Rise of Denim in Running Culture

A couple of years ago, people wondered why 3sixteen, a menswear brand that specializes in meticulously produced denim, was hosting monthly summer runs from its Manhattan store, but a little dig into their lookbook reveals a niche of equally thoughtful running apparel. 3sixteen founder Andrew Chen is a regular at World’s Fair Run Crew in Queens, and the running bug runs deep throughout the company and among the brand’s fans it has amassed over two decades of business.

The way that 3sixteen seamlessly brings together two parts of its identity in the Jorts Mile is a fascinating case study on the explosion of running into mainstream culture.

Yeah, no. Just because it is possible, we don’t have to do it. Running in denim is just stupid.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

I haven’t looked at my Strava in weeks, but I hope these days will be over soon. I was able to walk with less pain in the last few days and I’m hopeful that I can start running again this week.

We’ll see, but I sure miss running.

I kind of dread the moment I am getting out there again. It will be a long time until I reach the fitness level I like to have after not running for at least two months.

Well, I guess I’ll take it one step at a time, literally.

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Fast Women: More pro runners are having babies, but it’s not easy

Not long ago, many professional runners in the U.S. waited until the end of their careers to have children, if they had them at all. That has begun to change. In the past several years, an increasing number of high-level runners have announced pregnancies while still competing. Among the reasons for the shift? Stronger sponsor support, a better understanding of what training during pregnancy can look like, and a growing list of athletes showing what’s possible.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Raising young children is difficult to balance with any career. For professional runners, part of the challenge is that elite sport and pregnancy require the body to adapt in different, sometimes competing, ways. And every athlete’s path back to high-level running comes with its own set of obstacles.

I have so much admiration for mothers in the sport. I don’t know how they are getting this accomplished, but I am glad there are more and more female pro runners out there.

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Is Trail Running Actually Growing? Here’s What the Data Says.

This tells two things simultaneously. First, the sport is already vastly larger than its race scene. Millions of people run trails weekly without ever crossing a finish line. Second, the race ecosystem has enormous room to grow. If even a small percentage of that non-racing majority eventually finds its way to a start line, the race participation numbers look very different.

Read together, the floor and the ceiling are both expansion signals. The sport is bigger than we measure it, and the race scene hasn’t come close to capturing it.

Trailrunning is a fantastic sport, so it is only natural that it is growing.

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Ultrarunning Culture

Ultrarunning is a growing sport. It used to be a small group of oddballs who, for whatever reason, wanted to run far. Now it is a large group of oddballs who, for whatever reason, want to run far.

With the growth of ultrarunning has come significant changes. Training methods are more sophisticated. Media attention has increased, and there is more money in the sport. Events are bigger, except for the ones that remain the same size but now have lengthy waitlists. The variety of event distances, surfaces, and topography has increased, and there are more race opportunities than in the past. There are also more factions — dissenting groups with competing visions about what the sport is or might become.

It must be weird for runners who have been around in the sport for a while and then all the commercial stuff kicks in.

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Experience: I won the world’s deepest underground marathon

On the day of the marathon, I was nervous but excited. I’m not claustrophobic, but it was unnerving to know we were so far underground. I tried not to think about the 1,300 metres of solid rock over my head.

The mine was operational and I could hear the hum of machinery through the walls. As we were escorted to the starting point, I was fascinated to see vending machines and brightly lit offices. It was an entire underground world.

The tunnel was five metres wide and stretched for over a mile. To make up the distance of a full marathon, we would run to the end and back 11 times.

Would you want to participate in a race like that?

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We’re So Busy Making Running Cool, We Forgot Why We Love It

The through-line is that people are exhausted by optimization. Everything has been focus-grouped and content-strategized and given a brand identity, and at some point the rough edges start to look really good. At some point the thing that was just a thing (not a movement, not a platform, not an activation) starts to feel like what you actually miss.

Running used to be like that. Weird and lonely and slightly embarrassing in the best way, something you did because something in you needed to, not because it photographed well. I ran Ragnar back when it was chaotic and silly and you slept in a van and ate gas station food at two in the morning, and I loved it for exactly that scrappiness. Then it became a $2,000 entry fee with branded finish lines, so the Speed Project came along as a beautiful middle finger of a race, six people running LA to Vegas because why not. And then TSP did the exact same thing in about half the time. Even UTMB has a Hoka logo and a global points system. I still want to run it, and yes that makes me a hypocrite, but when I’m out on those trails in Chamonix one day I know I wont care.

Oh yes.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Yesterday when I walked through our city park with the dog, I noticed an unusual high number of people running around with running vests. They seem to be a thing now, aren’t they? I think it’s a great development, not just because runners should hydrate, but because I assume that more and more people are getting serious about running. Sure, people can run short distances and take running serious, but it is just two weeks until the Hamburg Marathon and so I assume that these runners are into their last stretches of Marathon training. I love it when I see the blue lines on the streets of Hamburg. Nope, I won’t run this year, I still have trouble walking. But I will cheer the runners on, that’s for sure!

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Why Is Japan so Much Better at Running Than Everyone Else?

Which brings us to Japan: There were more American women at every tier in the marathon, but among men, Japanese men were way ahead at every tier, beginning at sub-2:10—about 2:1 in many cases.

To put it another way: About one in six sub-2:35 performances by men worldwide were by a Japanese man. And though it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, the general population of Japanese men roughly accounts for only 1.5% men in the whole planet; meaning only one in every 65-70 men in the world are Japanese.

Which reminds me: I have to get back to that 10.000 page volume by Haruki Murakami which is waiting on my nightstand. Talking about endurance…

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Should you use AI for your training plan?

A generous reading of the literature is that chatbots (usually ChatGPT) might be a decent starting point for beginners who (i) don’t have access to professional services and (ii) don’t have underlying medical issues or complicated needs. In that narrow use case, AI would be better than taking a stab in the dark, as beginners are inclined to do. For everyone else, AI is, at best, an adjunct to professional services, but never a replacement for them.

That conclusion raises an obvious question: if we trust AI to optimize traffic flow, detect banking fraud and even drive our cars autonomously (an innovation about 15 years away, at most), why do they stumble on something relatively simple like writing a training plan? How can the same technology seem at once futuristic and strangely archaic? To understand why chatbots struggle in this space, let’s look under the hood at how they generate their responses.

I think this will change radically within the next 12 months. Right now, people are using a plain vanilla LLM and wonder why it is not as good they expected. Soonish, our personal running coach agent will know so much more about us than any human coach ever could. For better or worse.

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Yes, The Speed Project is Still a Beast

The Speed Project began, like many running feats do, with a couple of friends hyping up each other’s crazy ideas.

Nils Arend, the race’s charismatic, mohawked cofounder, had been considering what it might look like to run as fast as possible from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. With the help of coach Blue Benadum, the two brought together a team of six runners, rented an RV, and set off early in the morning on March 29, 2013.

The Speed Project is a really cool cultural and commercial phenomenon. Would you love to run from Los Angeles to Las Vegas?

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The Mountains Are Getting Crowded

It’s a bit like when that band you and your friends loved suddenly gets commercially successful. You’re happy for them, yes, honestly. They worked hard, got the talent, they deserve it. But the feeling shifts. What once felt like a shared secret now belongs to everyone. Something intimate becomes public domain.

Or think of what happened to skateboarding. Once a bunch of punks celebrating a counter-culture, then a youth movement, now a global industry with coaches, academies, Olympic medals, and million dollar brand partnerships. Nothing wrong with that. Growth is not betrayal. In fact, it’s the most natural process of all. But it changes the emotional geometry. When something expands, the space between its people rearranges too.

Trail and ultrarunning feel similar right now. The thing that used to feel a bit quirky and nerdy, misunderstood by many, loved by few, is suddenly everywhere. More visible, more accessible, more structured, more commercial, more crowded. Not worse. Not better. Just different. A niche discovering it isn’t a niche anymore.

Or to paraphrase Yogi Berra: The mountains are so crowded, nobody goes there anymore.

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The Authenticity Economy: Rendezvu and the Next Wave of Trail Running Sponsorships

The economics here are worth pausing on. Brand subscriptions create a revenue floor with compounding stickiness. The more a brand integrates its data and partnerships into the platform, the harder it becomes to leave, while the recurring revenue keeps stacking for Rendezvu. Transaction-based commissions create the ceiling. As sales volume through the platform grows, revenue grows with it for Rendezvu, for partner brands, and for hosts.

The deeper advantage is the flywheel. More brands attract more hosts. More hosts build more consumer trust. More consumer purchases generate better brand data. Better brand data attracts more brands. At scale, any athlete can recommend and earn from any partner brand. Any brand can efficiently reach the high-intent buyers in any sport. Any consumer can get trusted recommendations from the athletes they already follow. Each side makes the others more valuable, and that dynamic gets stronger, not weaker, as the platform grows.

Most readers probably do not know that I started blogging in 2003 and ran the first commercial blogger campaign in 2005, so I am always interested in new concepts to move influencer marketing forward. And as the trailrunning niche is growing, this makes so much sense now.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

While I am still not running, I noticed something. I am really not looking into the latest running shoe releases. That’s so healthy. Aside from the fact that my shoes last longer when I am not running, I think runners too often overemphasize on getting the latest stuff to run a second faster, but honestly: in most cases it won’t matter. Sure, I like buying and getting new stuff and it is exciting to try out new stuff, but I think runners do not need to buy new stuff all the time. Sure, if your shoes are worn out, then go ahead, but your shorts and t-shirt from last year are probably fine this year as well. And if you have found the ideal shorts, hang on to them for dear life as companies always phase out those shorts that you think are perfect.

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How to stay sane when you can’t run

If you’ve ever been injured, you’ve probably dealt with suggestions from others on how to cope. Friends or fellow runners might tell you to treat the time off as an opportunity to rest, or suggest that cross-training will fill the hole in your life left by not running. Those well-meaning ideas don’t address your late-night worries about losing fitness, or the sense that nothing quite replaces the calm you get from running.

Not being able to run sucks. Period.

(…continue reading.)

The Man Who Ran Out of This World

“3:56! Holy shit!” Spencer yelled in celebration and awe. The man we trekked three days to reach had just run a mile with almost 250 feet of vertical gain in under four minutes. Brendan trudged up the hill five minutes later and confirmed the start as legit. We looked at each other, unbelieving.

The fastest trail runner on the planet, perhaps even the greatest runner on earth, period, is a hermit in Northern Idaho.

We retraced the route and GPSed it again to confirm. One mile, 244 feet. One mile and 244 feet in under 4 minutes. Many elite athletes train their whole lives to break the 4 minute barrier on a track, and fewer than 2,000 have ever done it. Sandy did it uphill, at 8000 feet, on a trail.

He was laboring (and who wouldn’t be after a max effort) but quickly recovered his distant smile and springy posture.

Oh wow, what a story. Can you imagine that? Living in a hut somewhere in the mountains and just doing the simple life, including running? Reminds me of The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, just with running instead of bears…

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Raziq Rauf on what running culture means to him

These days we might run to combat the hours we're sitting at a desk, or for simple competition – against others or simply against ourselves. That means that running isn't as mundane an act as breathing or driving any more. Running is a choice. It's a leisure pursuit. It's a necessary act of physical exertion. It's a place where people are more free to experiment. Sometimes that's testing their bodies and/or minds, or sometimes it's experimenting with building a community. Other times, it's understanding enough about how we run so that we know how to look for great stories.

Raz is on a roll here with his new book. Go buy it and read it!

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The Ultimate Guide to Hut-to-Hut Trail Running

For those familiar with backpacking, thru-hiking or even fastpacking, hut-to-hut running trips will require a mental shift from the slow grind of a two-mile-per-hour pace to a much faster tempo. On a backpacking trip, your mind often wanders during the long, slow miles, but trail running demands more attention to the next few steps on the trail, forcing you to be in the present. That immediacy is a big reason I love it a hut-to-hut.

On top of that, hut-to-hut trail running provides a newfound freedom — you know for a fact that a warm meal and bed are waiting for you miles ahead, as opposed to a tent and a long night on your back. This freedom also translates to tangible physical lightness; you get to trade a 50-plus liter pack for a running vest that is 20 liters or less. Instead of fighting pain in your shoulders and hips, you’ll have to train your lungs and quads for the adventure.

this is so on my bucket-list.

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No, Your Race Isn’t a Failure If You Miss Your Goal Time

Here’s what I’ve learned from that, and so many other races over the years: missing your goal time is not the same thing as failing. Not even close, actually. Sometimes the win is that you trained through a messy year. Sometimes the win is that you showed up and finished on a day your legs just didn’t want to cooperate. Sometimes the win is that you ran at all when it would’ve been easier to stay horizontal and doomscroll.

I’m right there with you: Goal times are fun. And PRs? Even more electric. But the finish line still counts even when the clock doesn’t match the fantasy.

Run the race you have and celebrate the work you did. Yeah, maybe you missed the number, but so what? Don’t miss the point.

I think a race is a race and you yourself define how well it went. If you miss your goal and had fun nonetheless, I guess that works :)

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

I am still not running as I feel pain in my left forefoot when I am walking and somehow don’t think it is wise to go running then. But do you know what? When you are not running 5 times a week, you have so much more time to do other things! I just realized that after a few weeks of not running and.I think I will actually start doing these other things soon…

Anyhow, spring is around somewhere and here in Hamburg the temperatures fluctuate a lot from day to day, which means you have to carefully evaluate your running outfit. You might even want to try out a fancy button down running shirt and look like you just escaped from your office. Or you try running in totally weird spaces like your frontyard or in your bathtub, if it is too cold outside.

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What Trail Running Teaches Us About Creativity

Running became much more freeing for me when I realised that every run doesn’t have to be the best run I’ve ever done. Fitness is the sum of many parts, practiced over many days, which takes the pressure off any one specific run. This was soothing to my perfectionist soul. Now at work, I don’t freak out if my initial ideas aren’t amazing, or a client has more feedback than I expected. It’s not a final grade, it’s just feedback. In running and in work, I trust that if I keep aiming for excellence, I’ll get there — just by dedicating myself to the practice.

Trail running is amazing for the mind, so much better than running through the streets. My take, please challenge me.

(…continue reading.)

The Prerequisites for Consistency

The deeper kind of consistency is rarer and harder to see. It shows up not in the training log but in the results and relationship with the sport — a sustained ability to operate at an individual’s highest level across years, through different environments, different competitive eras, and different versions of yourself.

That kind of consistency doesn’t happen by accident. And it doesn’t happen simply by training harder or longer. It happens when a specific set of prerequisites are in place — prerequisites that most athletes never fully develop, and that most training plans never explicitly address.

I really would like to get back to consistency in my training. Obviously, my training is on a whole different level, but still I value consistency a lot.

(…continue reading.)

The Modern Running Boom Is Changing What a Race Even Is

If everything is selling out, then races are no longer competing against the idea of not racing at all. They are competing against other races that are also full, and that changes how decisions get made.

You’re not asking whether someone will sign up. You’re asking why they’ll choose your event instead of another one that also has a waitlist. Will that be weather? Time of year? Medal? Expo? Race perks and swag?

That leads to bigger weekends, more built-out finish areas, more emphasis on the expo, and more effort put into making the event feel like something you’d want to spend time at beyond the actual race.

It’s great that runs are sold out, I guess we need to create more to meet demand! If you travel to a race, you might as well attend an event and have more fun while away from home.

(…continue reading.)

Would You Run a 5K in a Van? On a Plane? In the Tub?

The latest trick is recording a run in an unlikely location, the more cramped the better: a 5K in a police van, a marathon in a bathtub. One man kicked off a wave of online backlash after recording a 5K inside an airplane bathroom, over the course of nearly an hour, during a flight from Cape Town to Munich.

Using the infographic that Strava automatically generates, which overlays a run’s distance, pace and route onto a photo or a video, these posts have the same slick look as a sincere race recap — except the GPS track is an absurd scribble.

I am sure that Andy Warhol had running influencers in mind when he said that “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”.

(…continue reading.)

Shacketology: A Runner’s Guide to Button Down Technical Shirts and Shackets

Similarly the “trail shirt” has long been a staple in trail ultra running and hiking. Before there were technical button ups, runners wore 100% cotton western shirts that kept them shaded from the sun and cool when soaked in ice cold mountain creeks. The snap buttons pop off if the shirt gets snagged. Ultra running fit god Cliff Young consistently wore cotton button downs.

They’re a significantly cooler looking than the UPF sun hoodies you can get for fishing (sunlight reflects off the water and you’re fully exposed out on a boat). So not only are they useful, but you can also just wear them out and about. If I can get extra mileage out of my running stuff, I’ll always opt for that option these days.

I think I’ll not take part in this trend. I’m not wearing a shirt to the office, why should I wear one to go running?

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Aaaaand we are back to the newsletter about running written by a guy who is currently not running. And he hates it.
Now I have some stupid inflamation in my left foot and I am limping more than walking, not to mention running.
To add insult to injury, I got moved from the waiting list to actually being able to sign up for a backyard ultra, but I don’t think I will be running a really stupid long run at the end of May.
Oh well.

Anyhow, it feels springy out there and I hope I am getting back on my feet and into a better mood while writing about running. 🤓

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The Digital Treadmill

The rise of the “influencer runner” has reshaped aspirations within the sport. For many new runners, the goal isn’t simply to improve. It’s to become sponsored, to receive free gear, to join ambassador programs.

This shift from internal to external motivation has profound implications. Training decisions become influenced by what will generate engagement rather than what will generate results. Runners chase trends over training wisdom. The fundamental question “what will make me better?” gets replaced by “what will make me more marketable?”

I often think about this. It would make me sick to my stomach to constantly produce text, photos and videos to endorse something and show off my running form. It probably started as a nice thing and then some free shoes and all of a sudden you’re sucked into the influencer spiral where you constantly have to produce content, no matter what.

(…continue reading.)

The Trail Running Investment Thesis

The room is skeptical. The investors see a niche outdoor sport, not a business opportunity. Trail running? Isn’t that just glorified hiking?

Your job is to change their mind.

What follows is my attempt to help you do just that. A thought experiment that doubles as a genuine investment thesis. The format is a creative device, but the data and arguments are real.

Trail running is exploding. And it’s here to stay.

I have been tinkering with some ideas about this myself, so it is refreshing to see what others think. And yes, there is great potential in trail running!

(…continue reading.)

Freshening

Where is there space for freshening up, for opening the window a bit and letting in new air, in the stoic practice? Where is the space for that in running practice? If your purpose is to increase your mental and physical fitness, which I imagine is most of the audience of this newsletter, how does that purpose have any variation beyond what is logical? How and when and to what extent do you break out of plans? Can you, even?

Well.

(…continue reading.)

Why Some Runs Feel Effortless

The same legs, the same trail, the same level of fitness, but suddenly the run feels light. Your stride feels rhythmic. There’s a bounce to it. Instead of forcing yourself forward, it almost feels as if the ground is helping you along.

Many runners assume the difference must be fitness.

But often it isn’t.

Very often the difference is elasticity.

I need to get there again.

(…continue reading.)

‘StravaLeaks’: France’s aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

Arthur had a profile on the Strava fitness app that anyone could view, because it was set to "public." As a result, the young officer almost instantly revealed the exact location of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Mediterranean Sea as it traveled northwest of Cyprus, together with its escort, about 100 kilometers off the coast of Turkey, Le Monde found.

While I am surprised that people still accidently reveal their locations through Strava and other apps when they shouldn’t, I am pretty sure that an aircraft carrier cannot sail across the oceans unnoticed…

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

No running for me last week. Just no time, but I have a great excuse: my American parents were in town and we had a wonderful time. I did do some reading about running and here is what I found: Harry Styles chats with Haruki Murakami about running as the ultimate reset, stripping away fame's gaze to just you, shoes, and the road, echoing Murakami's empty-minded flow that primes the creative vessel. Ciele Athletics' Jeremy Bresnen geeks out on soft-brim, breathable hats revolutionizing run kits beyond black basics, Nike dangles a dream paid ultra-training gig in Beaverton with full kit and science squad, Longrun Labs skewers carbon-plated shoe hype and daily supertrainer misuse fueling injuries, and smart tweaks like hill sprints shake ruts without overhauling plans, all tempting me to ditch the desk for trails before running topless season season hits.

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Enjoy these Five Things Running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

Harry Styles Is One of Us

HM: When I’m running, I’m just running. I don’t think much. I listen to music mostly.

When I come back to sit in front of the desk I begin thinking, but when I’m running, I’m kind of empty. Something comes into me, but I don’t notice it.

To be empty is my one of my purposes with running. I feel that training your body is the way to create the perfect vessel, building a foundation for the ideas to come into.

HS: For me, one of the things that can be complicated is that, as an artist, say if you’re a novelist or a musician or a filmmaker, you’re an observer—but when you become a known person, you become the observed. You know you’re still the same, but other people can begin to view you as something different.

So something I love so much about running is the simplicity of it. You are the observer once more, and you can go about your day in the most naked form. It’s just you, alone, moving through the world.

That’s what I love about it: You don’t need anything, just a pair of shoes.

This really is a fantastic conversation between Harry Styles and Haruki Murakami - and suddenly I remember that I have a really big book by Murakami waiting for me on my nightstand. I don’t even find the time to run, how am I going to tackle these 800 something pages? Also, I think I need some new shorts and maybe I should take up running shirtless?

(…continue reading.)

A Conversation with Jeremy Bresnen, Co-Founder of Ciele Athletics

We came into the market as a headwear brand and we had a product that visually obviously was different. It hit the right note in terms of silhouette. The five panel has been sort of meaningful on the skate side. In the 80s, it was pretty meaningful on the outdoor side. Color-wise, we came with something that was different, and that was purposeful. We knew that we weren’t going to get attention if we just came with a black hat. We had to come with something different, even though to this day, an all-black hat is our best-selling hat by miles and miles.

The flip side is that if you looked at everything on the market from a headwear standpoint, nobody was doing anything technical. Nobody was actually thinking through the design of the hat. 95% of the hats in the run space had a hard brim. Our soft brim is definitely more comfortable. It’s packable. And every hat on the market was a woven fabric throughout. Maybe they had a little mesh window to give you this idea that it was breathable, but they weren’t breathable.

Aside from shoes and shorts, I think a hat is the most important part of a running outfit. So I really appreciate this talk about Ciele and hats and all that.

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Nike Will Pay You To Move To Beaverton And Run Yourself Into The Ground

The Nike Sport Research Lab is accepting applications for a new research project focused on ultra-distance running. Selected runners will be relocated to Beaverton, Oregon, where they’ll spend roughly 15 weeks training full-time under Nike’s Applied Performance Scientists — with housing, financial compensation, and a full kit of footwear and apparel covered by the company.

The program, listed on Nike’s innovation platform, is described as a “brand-new, one-of-a-kind research project.” Nike says it’s looking for high-mileage runners who regularly log big weeks, because it wants to study how athletes adapt across a complete training cycle.

This sounds like a lot of fun! I’d do it in a heartbeat, but I currently have a self-imposed travelban to the USA as long as Agent Orange is in charge.

(…continue reading.)

Why the Running Industry Is Getting Injury Prevention Wrong

Almost no one in the market understands what a carbon plate actually does. That includes many of the people reviewing and selling the shoes.

When influencers demonstrate a carbon plate shoe by flexing it and watching it spring back, they are showing a shoe performing incorrectly. The carbon plate’s job is to make the shoe stiff. That stiffness creates a longer lever at takeoff, transferring energy more efficiently through the ankle and calf. A carbon plate shoe that bends easily is not working as designed.

Gelindo put it plainly: the wrong message is going out to consumers every week, and it is coming from people with large audiences who have not been told what they are actually looking at.

Beyond the mechanics, there is a training load problem. Recreational runners are wearing their fastest shoes every day and wondering why injury rates are climbing. The shoe that helps you run your fastest race cannot also be your daily trainer.

I know the guy is out there promoting shoes, but I found this insightful nonetheless.

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How to get out of your running rut

Mixing things up doesn’t mean reinventing your training plan every month. Sometimes it’s just a small shift in focus, and a runner who spends the winter logging steady miles might add hill workouts in the spring. Someone training for a longer race might gradually stretch their long run a little farther as the season goes on.

Those kinds of changes keep your body adapting, and they also keep training from feeling like you’re stuck on repeat. Over time, switching the emphasis of your workouts can help build strength and endurance while keeping running interesting.

I’ll keep reading and posting these kinds of stories until I am back into running for good.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Spring has sprung in Hamburg and I went running again in that beautiful nature reserve in the southeast of the city. This weird sand dune is really something.
This week I really questioned if I could still call myself a runner as I really rarely run these days. But I guess it is good to do things differently every once in a while and if I need to run less to figure out I miss running, then I guess it works for me.

I am also thinking about this newsletter a lot. I still love reading about running, but after doing this for more than three years there are some parts that are getting a bit repetitive. Maybe I advance to Six Things? I dunno. If you have ideas, please ping me.

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Trail Running Is Becoming the Outdoor Industry’s Default Sport

For much of its history, the outdoor sector revolved around hiking and mountaineering. Those pursuits might produce powerful imagery that give ardent outdoors types a semi when reading through their latest issue of Mountain Gazette, but they always had limited participation. A summit attempt might take place once a year. A multi-day trek might be a rare holiday. Trail running operates on a different rhythm - It is an outdoor activity practiced weekly, often several times a week, which makes it far more compatible with the product cycles and communities that modern brands depend on.

This helps explain why trail running has become attractive to companies that historically built their reputations elsewhere. KEEN, for example, spent decades selling rugged sandals and hiking footwear. Moving into trail running places the brand inside a culture defined by regular activity, race calendars and digital communities. The presence of athletes such as Browning and Moehl offers instant credibility while linking the company to a sport that has steadily expanded over the past decade.

I totally understand this. Trail Running is something that people can easily do, as long as they find the time to get out of the city and it is just a tad more active than hiking…

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‘I try not to think about lions’: Why the Grand Canyon’s ‘R2R2R’ endurance run is not for the faint-hearted

Rim to Rim to Rim (known in ultra circles as ‘R2R2R’ or simply ‘R3’) is an undertaking that is borderline barbaric even in benign conditions. The challenge has a childlike simplicity to it: ‘I wonder how long it would take to run to there and back.’ ‘There’ is the opposite rim of a canyon so vast that you could spend decades scouring its depths: 446km long, 29km across at its widest and plummeting a rusty-red, strata-laced vertical mile.

As I’m shortly to discover, you can be shivering in -13ºC on the rim in thick snow and, only a few hours later, dusty, sweat-encrusted and parched as you run across the canyon floor doing a nervous mental stocktake of your electrolyte supplies. The wildly fluctuating temperatures are just one of the challenges. The 68km length is another – laced with head-spinning ‘vert’. Make it back to your start point on whichever rim you begin and you’ll have clocked some 3,700m up and the same down.

I don’t really have a bucket-list, but if I had one, this would be on it at the very top. I did a stopover at the Grand Canyon some 30 years ago on my way from the Bay Area to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and it was just breathtaking.

(…continue reading.)

Round and Around and Around We Go

Of course, a factor that impacted my performance more than fear of injury and weather concerns was the race format itself. Indeed, there were a few things that made this event different from ultras I’d typically run. First, the looped format, which was a bit of a mind trick. Every 2.2 miles we’d return to the start/finish, which gave runners an opportunity to quit or overstay their welcome at headquarters, trading running for listening to the classic rock that was blasting from the speakers or marveling at one of the best hydration stations I’ve ever seen: a 6-foot table with 3x 5-gallon clearly labeled containers of water or 2 flavors of perfectly blended sports drink, sporting long and wide-bore tubes with nozzles at the end for rapid refills, plus a quart-size dispenser of pickle juice with 1oz taster cups … it’s an engineering masterpiece 🫡).

Second, with access to aid every 22-25 min, I didn’t have a lot of time to get in a rhythm or lock into a steady flow. In most ultras, there’ll be 5- to 10-mile gaps between aid (1-2 hours, depending on the terrain), which gives runners a sustained amount of time to navigate the section and be self-reliant.

I love these kinds of race reports. You can truly see how much loves to run and to race. And what an insane course that is!

(…continue reading.)

Running is Painful & Stupid

Her laughter stuck with me, however, even as I accelerate, briefly, to marathon pace across the bridge, where the faux grain swirls started to feel edgy and irritating underfoot. To runners comfortably shod in the latest maximalist shoes, barefoot running must indeed seem “painful and stupid,” but to non-runners, the entire sport of running is pointless and masochistic. Why subject yourself to any kind of pain unnecessarily, whether it’s in the bottom of your feet, leg muscles, knees or hips or any other part of the body? Why would you do this to yourself?

Maybe I should sign up for a really long race this year, sounds like fun.

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The intimacy of running

We experience intimacy in so many different ways throughout our lives, and even within a day. While the intimacy between lovers is often the first thing that comes to mind, consider the more pedestrian occurrence of feeding someone or of helping someone dress themselves. Think about the level of care and trust that requires. It’s what a parent does for their child. It’s what the closest of friends would do for you when you need it most.

For me, intimacy is sharing a vulnerable moment with someone else. For me, that intimacy is key to the beauty of running.

Runners often talk about the art of discovering more about themselves as we push our bodies and minds on a run. We find our limits, and we find our support structures through that. We find our people.

Indeed.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

My wife suggested I have what’s called ‘Frühjahrsmüdigkeit’ - springtime tiredness. I am in a slump right now and I want to run, but just don’t feel like it.
It will get better.

In the meantime, I am reading a lot about running fashion this past week, which I really enjoy as I think that we are finally moving past functional neon running apparel.

Also, spring is coming, so can we please move past the black tights now?

Enjoy these five articles and then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

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Running — And What We’ll Actually Remember

The smoothest performances are the ones which flow. Where surges were instinctive. Where positioning happened without overthinking. Where effort was guided internally rather than dictated externally.

Every glance at the watch adds friction. Every split introduces judgement. Every external cue pulls you slightly out of presence.

And presence is performance.

And this presence can be so graceful.

(…continue reading.)

How to Start Your Run (or Anything) When You Don’t Feel Like It

Remind yourself why you’re doing this. I reminded myself of the myriad benefits of a run like this, including: the increased fitness, the post-run glow of sweaty satisfaction (which I don’t feel as much outdoors in this dry, thin air that immediately evaporates sweat), and the good unplugged thinking that germinates mid-run. I realized I would not regret running, but I would regret not running. (I once ran behind someone in a race whose T-shirt’s quote stuck with me: “‘I really regretted that run.’ — said no one ever.”) I told myself that when I’m trying to run harder and faster in my upcoming races, I’ll be grateful for workouts like this one.

Sound advice, but it didn’t really work for me last week.

(…continue reading.)

Copycat Culture in Sportswear. Is Originality Dead?

Nike is known to rigorously defend its IP so copying Satisfy’s design and knowing due to the varying resources between the brands that they won’t be challenged, is in fact, very poor behaviour.

It’s funny that Satisfy’s first ever collection was designed by an ex-Nike designer, and now, we have the biggest sportswear brand in the world taking inspiration and design cues from them.

This story begs the bigger question at play here, is originality in sportswear dying?

I think this whole discussion centers around the old quote “good artists copy, great artists steal” - people get inspiration and then copy or build on it. Some brands borrow from Yvy League heritage, others from Yoga, others from 70s running, and so. The good thing is: we can buy whatever we like, if we can afford it.

(…continue reading.)

Fake Splits, Real Feelings

Impression management towards others and self-deception towards ourselves go hand in hand: we want to look good out there, and still see ourselves as fundamentally decent in here.

So no, I don’t think most race cheaters wake up in the morning planning to commit sports fraud. I think they wake up wanting to be the person they already told the world they are. And then they make a series of micro-decisions that move the story faster than the body.

Some people really need to just go running and take a break from it all.

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Neurotribe Voices: Camille Herron on Running on a Different Frequency

Running has been my special interest for 31 years. I run twice a day most days because it’s my routine, rhythm, and what I feel wired to do. I’m like the mouse that wants to stay on the wheel - maybe that mouse is neurodivergent too. I track my lifetime running mileage to six decimal places, which I didn’t realize was “weird” until someone pointed it out. Accuracy and precision matter to me. I travel with a scale to weigh my gear and nutrition. I travel with a separate suitcase with my favorite silverware, cups, coffee mug, bowl, snacks, and foods. I only like certain spoons.

I’ve always resonated with Forrest Gump - the regimented, hyperfocused, keep-going energy. I’m like the female Forrest Gump.

Camille Heron is quite an interesting person, I have been reading about her for quite a while now and find this conversation really worth reading.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

And just like that, the snow is gone. The temperatures rose from below freezing to 10 degrees Celsius and rain. I actually like running in the rain, even though I realized I need to reapply some DWR coating again.

I still need to run more and drink less coffee - every time I have too much work to do, I fall into this pattern instead of deliberately taking a break from everything to go running. I am sure I’d be more refreshed after a run than after the fifth cup of coffee. I’ll try it this week. The emphasis is on trying!

Enjoy these five articles and then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

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Thoughts While Running #36

In fashion, trends trickle up (from the streets, instagram influencers, cultural moments) or they trickle down (from the runways, luxury brands), but what makes a trend a trend is the momentum behind the moment. It’s not a coincidence you suddenly see earthy neutrals across a variety of sportswear brands. One might have brought it to market sooner, but the momentum behind the moment was already building. It’s unfair to accuse one brand of knocking off another when there are many, many others in the wings doing the same exact thing.

How fragile the male ego is.

Best comment on the Satisfy/Currently Running discourse that is happening on Insta and elsewhere.

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What Can Runners Learn From Alysa Liu?

The meaning had drained out of it.

That kind of self-awareness is rare in elite sport. Most athletes double down when things feel heavy. We add mileage. Add ‘sessions’. Add control. Sign up for the next race. Compare ourselves to our peers. We try to push through the tension.

Instead, Liu stepped away.

For runners, this is uncomfortable to hear. We are conditioned to believe that perseverance is always the answer. But sometimes clarity requires space. Sometimes growth requires pause.

I am not really into Figure Skating, but my wife made me watch this every evening. Alysa Liu was really outstanding.

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Fueling stats from the 2025 Black Canyon 100k

5 of the 17 athletes vomited at least once during the race. Top causes were likely dehydration, slow gastric emptying, hypoglycemia (low carbs) and over-caffeinating. Nausea and vomiting is by far the #1 fueling-related complaint that I see in ultra running, and many athletes pay good money to figure it out. Usually we can…sometimes we can’t.

Black Canyon is unique because it requires a super high level of intensity, and it can also feel hot - those two things together can spell disaster for digestion. What I’m telling my athletes is that if they can stay on top of hydration (but not overdoing it!) the rest will fall into place.

I have never run a 100km, but I was reading this article nonetheless, learning a lot about carbohydrate intake among elite runners. And barfing. Interesting stats!

(…continue reading.)

The Easier You Train The Faster You Finish

At its core, this analysis of 403 verified marathon finishers, drawn from real wearable data aggregated over six months, shows that marathon success is less about the big race-pace sessions or perfectly structured long runs and far more about patient, consistent building blocks. Consistency is a recurring theme in all of our blogs; this subject is no different.

After controlling for baseline pace (your starting fitness in the first 30 training days, which alone explains ~35% of finish-time variance), the strongest signals are clear: prioritise frequency and consistency (aim for 150+ active days and multiple (consistent) runs per week), flood your training with easy Zone 1 miles (slowest pace, low effort), and accumulate balanced volume in the 500–1,000 km range over the build-up period.

Excessive time at or faster than race pace (Zone 3) reliably predicts slower finishes, even when volume is held constant, reinforcing the classic polarised training principle: the vast majority of your training should feel easy and sustainable.

Easy does it. Just take it slow.

(…continue reading.)

An Invitation to the Pain of Running

No pain, no gain? Absolutely not.

A better slogan is this: Some instances of pain can be edifying if we respond to them suitably, but the pain in question should not be the product of our own imprudence. Also, communities can help us to endure discomfort well.

Unfortunately, this slogan does not fit as well on a t-shirt.

Difficulties can refine us. They can make us better athletes and humans if we respond in excellent ways to these difficulties. But there are many different forms of difficulty and strain, and not all forms are productive.

This is so true. But oftentimes I just want to have it easy on my runs…
(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

I need to run more. I really do. But this last week I was just not in the mood and too exhausted from work and watching the winter olympics in Italy too long into the evening. So even though I want to run more right now, I feel as if I need to slow down right now. Also, the weather is just yucky right now, it’s around 0 °C here with little sun and some rain or snow and honestly, I am not in the mood for that right now…

Isn’t there this thing about winners are being made in the winter? Well I guess I won’t win anything this summer then…

It could be worse, right?

Enjoy these five articles and then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

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How ex-con turned hobby into ‘biggest run club’

When Hermen Dange was an inmate at HMP Manchester, he used running as a way of getting extra time out of his prison cell.

He took part in the HMP Hindley Parkrun, which involved 11 laps of the prison football pitch.

But six years on he has turned the hobby into a successful brand, which has helped thousands of people.

I’m a sucker for these kinds of stories. Formed a run club, built a brand.

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On Running

The best runs silence my endless internal dialogue, my constant self-debate. The worst amplify it. The best runs are effortless, a body hurtling through time and space; they require no persuasion. The worst runs require a commitment to self-coercion: to talking myself into every step, every tenth of a mile, to believing that two miles is actually almost ten, if you think about it right. I never know whether a run will be the best kind or the worst until I’m at least a mile into it.

I recently read Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, and I agree with his sentiment that there are some things only runners understand. I think, if you run long distances, there are things I fundamentally know about you. We share something. But I don’t consider myself a serious runner; usually, I don’t even call myself a runner. I just go for runs. I don’t know why I care about the distinction. Being committed to something I’m not good at is uncomfortable, I guess. Mildly embarrassing for no reason.

I love the commitment to running and I totally accept the fact that I won’t ever be on a podium. It is still a wonderful thing to do.

(…continue reading.)

Unconventional Things I’ve Done to Improve as a Runner

Maybe it was just maturity and age that helped me to slowly change my ways. Maybe it was burnout. Or maybe it was the more laid-back culture of ultrarunning that I was drawn into when I began competing on the trails. Either way, I’m certainly not the same runner today as I was in high school or early in college. Don’t get me wrong—I train more, longer, and harder than I ever did back then; by most standards I’m far more “disciplined.” But it rarely feels that way.

It’s important to find your own approach to running and training - and this should always involve listening to your body.

(…continue reading.)

Why Your Favorite Cycling Brand Is Now a Running Brand, Too

Ignoring the market potential of expanding your sales to include both runners and cyclists would seem unwise, considering the Venn diagram overlap of runners who cycle and cyclists who run is pretty large, and potentially growing. This is something that upstart brands like Portal have been able to tap into without needing to go back to the drawing board. It’s in their DNA.

I assume they do it because running is just so much cooler. hehe.

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Dressed to Hurt

For a long time, running gear was basically fluorescent plastic: practical, reflective, anonymous. High-vis yellow, generic logos, fabrics that felt like they were designed by road safety engineers, not people who actually loved this sport. One of the reasons I started my running brand Willpower ten years ago was because I couldn’t stand that faceless neon polyester universe anymore. I wanted shirts that felt closer to 90s band merch than to emergency vests.

Fast-forward and running hasn’t just become “stylish”, it has become fashion. Real fashion.

Capsule collections. Collabs. Catwalk shows. Limited drops you have to “cop” in sixty seconds. Seamless base layers that look like they belong in a gallery. Silk scarves. Oakleys that make you look like an insect. Shorts with a backstory and a waitlist. Tights made for a runway instead of a hill repeat.

The pendulum didn’t just swing away from neon. It flew right through it and crashed into a different kind of costume.

While I am not a fan of the all-black attire Chris likes so much, I am very happy to see less and less neon. The world is a better place when people do not run in neon.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Funny how running has become both therapy and commodity. One writer celebrates the silence of being alone on the road, another points out how even that space gets filtered through influencer deals and glossy gear reviews. January’s grind reminds us that comparison kills joy, yet we scroll anyway. The finisher-shirt debate is peak modern absurdity - wear what you want; nobody earned their self-worth in polyester. And somewhere beneath all that noise, someone remembers when running was just running, before apps and sponsorships told us how it should feel. Maybe that’s where the real finish line still is.

Enjoy these five articles and then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

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Alone, by Design

There is the outer loneliness: the long stretch of road where there’s simply no one else around. In races, those have always been some of my most intense moments. Not the finish, not the start, but the rather unspectacular middle sections where the pack has thinned out, the tumult has faded, and you suddenly realize you are in a silent corridor between two parts of your life.

Then there is the inner loneliness: the way your own mind sounds when there is nothing else to reflect or react to. No conversation, no music, no scrolling, no “How are you doing?” to answer politely. Instead, there is the uncensored version of whatever is going on in there.

Oh yes. I run alone and I love it.

(…continue reading.)

The Things We Don’t Quite Talk About

Running media and influencers have professionalised. Brands fund shows, athletes overlap with product development, outlets take on consulting work, and creators build real businesses hawking gels and AI training plans. None of that is surprising, and none of it is inherently negative. The interesting bit is how the presence of money subtly shapes the edges of the conversation.

The content itself is rarely dishonest. Shoes are still tested. Races are still covered. Interviews are still engaging and often insightful. If anything, production quality has gone up across the board. The change is more about range than truth, a quiet narrowing of what tends to get explored deeply versus what gets skimmed or skipped.

It’s also interesting to see how brands appear everywhere online and get rave reviews, but then you never see them on any runners’ feet on your local route…

(…continue reading.)

Yes, It’s OK to Wear a Finisher’s Shirt for a Race You Didn’t Finish

Commemorative race merch is meaningful for a number of reasons. It represents all the hard work you put in, early mornings, 20 mile long runs, and days you didn’t want to but you did. The race is the culmination of months of training and potentially a previous year’s personal best.

The journey there is more important than what one does, or doesn’t do, on a single day. Your hard work doesn’t disappear because mile 1 or mile 19 didn’t happen. Training rarely goes as planned and an injury might occur leading up to the race, or worst case, you try to race hurt and have to drop out.

I have a ton of finisher shirts that I do not wear, because they feel like a cheap plastic bag. Aside from that: please wear whatever you want to wear, as long as it is not neon.

(…continue reading.)

January training is HARD

I managed to get in over 150km in running this month, and just under 2000m of elevation. It’s not “enough” if you look at the training plan, it definitely didn’t seem enough if I fell into the comparison trap, but it sure felt enough when the cold seeped into the bones, when the pavement felt like an ice rink for most of the month, when the sun only came out for one of thirty days.

January is one of those strange months where motivation can feel both at an all time high and low.

January is a beast. And this year I ignored it and just ran a bit every week. I admire people who power through the month!

(…continue reading.)

Before I Ever Called it Running

Sometimes I think the work now isn’t about changing how I run, but about protecting that feeling. Holding onto the part of me that runs for no other reason than because it feels right in the body and quiet in the mind.

Maybe the best running I’ve ever done happened back when I didn’t need a reason at all.

Oh yes. I still remember those runs I did as a teenager when I just felt like I wanted to go running.

(…continue reading.)

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️

Baby, it’s cold outside. But I did manage to go get my rhythm back and I ran four times last week, with some 15 deegrees celsius between a run at 9 degrees in Brussels, Belgium, and a run at -6 degrees in Hamburg the next day. I do not mind the cold at all, just the slipping and sliding across the ice is a bit annoying.

I still cannot get over the fact that the Polartec Alpha Fleece I’m wearing is classified as a baselayer at 66 North - how cold does it get there in Iceland? I am just wearing a light jacket over it as wind protection.

Enjoy these five articles and then go running! 🏃🏻‍♂️

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Run and a bun - the rise of social running groups

An alternative to traditional running clubs, several all-abilities groups have popped up, each establishing strong ties with businesses.

Ending weekly runs in neighbourhood bars or coffee shops, they operate as inclusive social hubs.

At the same time, there has been a rise in common interest running groups that focus on shared identities, social causes, and lifestyle preferences.

While I do not participate in a run club (tried it, liked it, just don’t want anything more on my calendar), I think it is awesome how people organize this just for the love of running and community.

(…continue reading.)

How Running’s Burrito League Went From Internet Oddity to Mainstream Movement

How far would you run for a year’s worth of free lunch?

This question has rattled around in thousands of runners’ brains throughout January, due to an eccentric athletic competition. The rules are simple: jog endless laps around an agreed-upon pizza joint or taqueria or bakery in your city. At the end of January, the person with the greatest distance wins the free food.

The challenge is called Burrito League.

If this were to work in Germany, we’d have to create the Döner League.

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Your Watch Isn’t Smarter Than You

Every time I looked at my watch, it reported that my training status was “Unproductive,” even though I ran five or six times during the week with a couple of runs stretching past 2.5 hours. Even though I did one interval workout that got my heart rate and effort high enough to make saying a full sentence out loud a struggle, and one run where I paused my watch midway to do plyometric exercises like jump squats and skipping. Even though I did a few strength training and yoga sessions, and groomed and rode my horses.

My watch kept saying I needed higher intensity, i.e. more stressful, workouts to be “Productive.”

Isn’t that great? We have so much data and so much access to AI, yet still our running companions tell us something that is totally misleading and potentially harmful for our health.

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Can On Outrun Its Finance Bro Reputation with More Tech?

Despite the impressive marketing campaigns, there’s still a disconnect between the brand's projected image and the people actually wearing the shoes. For now, it may simply be too early to see if On's efforts will pay off or if their yuppie reputation runs too deep for the creative crowd to cash in. But we’re still at the very beginning of the adoption curve, Miller says. And as revenue rises quarter after quarter, On is still raking in the cash, so even if they haven’t achieved adoption from the “cool” crowd, obviously something is working.

I find On fascinating. I have never run in their shoes, I see there stuff everywhere and I see many people wearing the shoes at meetings. They are obviously doing something right, otherwise they wouldn’t be seen everywhere, but they do not resonate with me at all.

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What Tracking Can’t Measure

We often think of tracking as something inward-facing: data for analysis, numbers for progress, metrics for accountability. But there’s another side to it that we rarely talk about. When we track and share our movement, we make ourselves visible. And visibility—especially in a new place—creates the possibility for connection.

From a sport psychology perspective, that connection matters more than we often realize. Social support consistently shows up as a buffer against stress and mental fatigue, both of which directly influence how hard effort feels. When you’re traveling, training alone, and carrying cognitive load from work or school, that fatigue can quietly accumulate. The body may be capable, but the mind feels heavier. Effort feels sharper.

Community changes that equation. Feeling seen and supported doesn’t make the work easy, but it makes it more sustainable. It lowers the perceived cost of effort. It reminds us that endurance has always been relational, even when it begins in solitude.

These are really insightful observations about running with others.

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

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️