Gooooood Morning! 🏃🏻♂️
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.
‘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!
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.
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.
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…
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.
If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:
Now, go running!
— Nico
🏃🏻♂️