Good moooooorning!
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! 🏃🏻♂️
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.
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…
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.
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!
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.
If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:
Now, go running!
— Nico
🏃🏻♂️
Yehaw! & thanks.