HOW RUNNING A GRATITUDE MILE WILL CHANGE YOUR RACE
WHY THE PV IS THE NEW PR P.26
P.18
TIPS FROM RUNNER’S WORLD+ MEMBER PHIL CREWS P.30
John Fiore leaves it all behind on 11,166-foot Lone Peak in Big Sky, Montana.
S
ARE YOU
RUNNING
THIS YEAR?
YOUR 2020 VACATION, ADVENTURE & INSPIRATION GUIDE
DON’T LET RUNNING STO We’ve always believed that running is about more than just winning races. It’s about testing the limits of the human heart. But it’s tough to test the limits of the heart if you can’t keep runners on their feet. /HDUQ PRUH DW 1LNH FRP UXQQLQJ
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OP YOU FROM RUNNING. something about it. Maybe it’s time we started asking ourselves some outlandish new questions. What if every day off was a decision? What records could we break if we had record numbers chasing them? Or simply put, what
if everyone who trained for a race actually made it to the starting line? Introducing the Nike React Infinity Run. Designed to help reduce injury and keep you on the run.
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VOL . 55 NO. 1
HELPFUL TIPS, E X P E R T A DV I C E , S M A R T TA K E S , & PROFOUND ( I F S L I G H T LY OV E R - O B S E S S I V E ) RUNNING WISDOM
P.8 Joey Berriatua on the
best post-run naps. // P.10 Amanda Furrer hypes
some game-changing cushioned shoes. //
FE AT U R E S
32 38 44 50 58 68 We’ve curated a list of 10 unforgettable, unique runcations worth the training miles and travel miles alike. BY RW EDITORS
P.12 The uber-crunchy
snack that fuels John
An all-female relay across 400 miles of scorching California desert sounds like a death sentence. In practice, it was an affirmation of life.
Only a group called Satan’s Minions would be twisted enough to scramble Colorado’s imposing Flatirons first thing in the morning.
BY L AUREN
BY JENNY MCCOY
Inside the technical innovations and elite-running controversies behind Nike’s record-breaking ZoomX Vaporfly 4%. BY JOE LINDSE Y
These Boulderbased bros are called “the Beastie Boys of running,” and they’re determined to become one of the sport’s best pro teams. BY TR ACY ROSS
How 24-yearold Yao Miao went from the mire of the Chinese sports system to the top of the trailrunning world in only a few years time. B Y PAV E L TOROPOV
STEELE
Hamilton. // P.14 Jeff Dengate’s Bourdaininspired travel tips. // P.16 Lab-meat mythbusting, from Natalie Rizzo. // P.18 Matthew Meyer on
the gratitude mile. //
S HO E S 8 5 H O K A O N E O N E E V O S P E E D G O A T : Uber-durable and extra grippy.
P.22 Cindy Kuzma shares
8 6 P U M A S P E E D S U T A M I N A : Heavy look, but zippy in action.
Kipchoge’s sub two-hour
8 6 N E W T O N B O C O A T 4 : A little luggy, but comfortable on uneven terrain.
secrets. // P.24 The elite metric you can harness right now, by Molly Ritterbeck. P.26 // Coach Jess on breaking up with
8 7 A L T R A E S C A L A N T E 2 : Backs up the original’s sterling reputation. 8 7 M I Z U N O W A V E R I D E R W A V E K N I T 3 : A seamless upper makes it almost guaranteed blister-free. 8 8 M E R R E L L B A R E A C C E S S X T R S W E E P E R : Sustainable materials don’t sacrifice reliability.
PRs. // P.77 The Test Zone
8 8 A S I C S G L I D E R I D E : An unconventional trainer to try before you buy.
finds the best (and
8 8 N I K E Z O O M F L Y 3 : Trades in some spring for top-level cushioning.
safest) headbands. // P.96 Why Thi Minh Huyen
8 9 L A S P O R T I V A K A P T I V A G T X : Look no further for a warm, waterproof winter trail shoe.
Nguyen chooses the cold
8 9 S K E C H E R S G O R U N M A X R O A D 4 : A stiff, upturned heel is ideal for midfoot runners.
over the treadmill. O N T H E C O V E R:
JOHN FIORE AT THE RUT 50K IN MONTANA PHOTOGRAPHED BY MYKE HERMSMEYER.
RUNNER’S WORLD (ISSN 0897-1706) VOL. 55, NO. 1 IS PUBLISHED BIMONTHLY, 6 TIMES A YEAR, BY HEARST, 300 W. 57 TH ST., NY, NY 10019 USA. STEVEN R. SWARTZ, PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER; WILLIAM R. HEARST III, CHAIRMAN; FRANK A. BENNACK, JR., EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIRMAN. HEARST MAGAZINES, INC: TROY YOUNG, PRESIDENT; DEBI CHIRICHELL A, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER & TREASURER; JOHN A. ROHAN JR., SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE; CATHERINE A. BOSTRON, SECRETARY. COPYRIGHT 2019 BY HEARST MAGAZINES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. RUNNER’S WORLD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF HEARST MAGAZINES, INC. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT NEW YORK, NY, AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. IN CANADA: POSTAGE PAID AT GATEWAY, MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO; CANADA POST PUBLICATION MAIL AGREEMENT NUMBER 40012499. GST #R122988611. POSTMASTER: SEND ALL UA A TO CFS. (SEE DMM 507.1.5.2); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: SEND ADDRESS CORRECTIONS TO RUNNER’S WORLD CUSTOMER SERVICE, P.O. BOX 6000, HARL AN, IA 51593-1500. MAILING LISTS: FROM TIME TO TIME WE MAKE OUR SUBSCRIBER LIST AVAIL ABLE TO COMPANIES THAT SELL GOODS AND SERVICES BY MAIL THAT WE BELIEVE WOULD INTEREST OUR READERS. IF YOU WOULD RATHER NOT RECEIVE SUCH MAILINGS BY POSTAL MAIL, PLE ASE SEND YOUR CURRENT MAILING L ABEL OR E X ACT COPY TO: RUNNER’S WORLD, MAIL PREFERENCE CENTER, P.O. BOX 6000, HARL AN, IA 51593-1500. YOU CAN ALSO VISIT PREFERENCES.HE ARSTMAGS.COM TO MANAGE YOUR PREFERENCES AND OPT OUT OF RECEIVING MARKE TING OFFERS BY MAIL. CUSTOMER SERVICE: VISIT SERVICE. RUNNERSWORLD.COM OR WRITE TO RUNNER’S WORLD CUSTOMER SERVICE, P.O. BOX 6000, HARL AN, IA 51593-1500.
R U N N E R S WO R L D.C O M
3
Inside Knowledge WE BEGGED SOME OF THIS ISSUE’S COOLEST RUNNERS FOR THEIR BEST ADVICE
Phil Crews RW+ Member p.30 I recently had a really cool run! It was my first day back from an injury, and I met Des Linden while running along the Seattle waterfront. I watch videos of her win at Boston for motivation. She was super nice! ALSO: On my first day of chemo, I met a guy who has become a great friend. Jim has stage IV lung cancer, but not a week goes by that he doesn’t send me a note to encourage me. And my buddy Joe was only 32 when we lost him to esophageal cancer. He was kind and gracious and inspired me to be a better person. When I’m having a tough run, I think of these two amazing guys and do my best to live up to the standard they set.
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P H O T O G R A P H BY DAV I D JA E WO N O H
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Inside Knowledge WE BEGGED SOME OF THIS ISSUE’S COOLEST RUNNERS FOR THEIR BEST ADVICE
Carolyn Morse 400 Miles with Strangers p.38 A tip for recovery after long runs: Drain your legs! Sit by a wall and scoot your butt up as close as possible. Lie on your back and put your legs up the wall. Try to relax and hang out there for as long as you can. The blood will drain from your legs, allowing fresh blood to pump in once you’re right side up again. My legs consistently feel fresher, lighter, and more recovered the next day. It’s magic! ALSO: I can’t say for certain, but I’m confident I could outrun an angry goose—yes, a goose.
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R U N N E R S WO R L D.C O M
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDY COCHRANE
Inside Knowledge WE BEGGED SOME OF THIS ISSUE’S COOLEST RUNNERS FOR THEIR BEST ADVICE
Joey Berriatua Tinman p.58 I’m a big fan of the long run, especially up in the mountains of Colorado. There’s something about getting in a rhythm (we call it “flow state”) during the run that shows your fitness. For me, if I’m not fit, it’s a great gauge of where I’m at mentally and physically. Long runs also prove to have some of the best conversations with teammates. ALSO: Post-long-run naps are some of the best naps (regardless of location—bed, floor, etc.).
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R U N N E R S WO R L D.C O M
PHOTOGRAPH BY CORTNEY WHITE
My Running Life
Jeff Dengate RUNNER-IN-CHIEF Matt Allyn Features Director; Brian Dalek Director of Content Operations; Leah Flickinger Director of Content Creation; Lou Mazzante Test Director; Suzanne Perreault Senior Managing Editor; Jesse Southerland Creative Director
E X P E R T H AC K S , G E A R R E C S & RUN -T E S T E D W I S D O M F R O M O U R S TA F F
DESIGN + PHOTO Amy Wolff Photo Director; Colin McSherry Senior Art Director; Eleni Dimou Senior Designer; Kristen Parker Photo Editor; John Hamilton Associate
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AMANDA FURRER TEST EDI TO R YO U’R E N OT CHA S IN G ME, I’M RA CIN G YO U
WHY I RUN You know flying dreams? That’s what it feels like when I get a good surge. Soaring.
THE WORST RUN OF MY LIFE… Back when I was living in Boston, I was running one evening and a car backed into me. I wasn’t badly hurt, but the driver was a college student who had the worst reaction: full-fledged anger. I stupidly said I was OK and then sprinted into a liquor store. My wrist was sore for hours.
2 / Triggerpoint Massage Ball $12 I stashed this in my carry-on and a TSA agent asked if I play softball; I’m lucky if I score at beer pong.
3 / Brooks Transcend 6 $160 The first cushioned shoes that didn’t feel like I was slogging while running.
Currently Training for
BOSTON MARATHON
[#9!]
TEST TEAM Will Egensteiner, Jennifer Sherry Associate Test Directors; Jeff Dengate, Matt Phillips Senior Test Editors; Roy Berendsohn, Adrienne Donica, Brad Ford, Amanda Furrer, Bobby Lea, James Lynch, Riley Missel, Morgan Petruny, Dan Roe Test Editors; Jimmy Cavalieri Image Editor; Lakota Gambill, Trevor Raab Photographers; Joël Nankman
Logistician VIDEO Josh Wolff Director; Derek Call, Pat Heine Producers CONTRIBUTORS John Brant, Amby Burfoot, Sarah Lorge Butler, Scott Douglas, Selene Yeager EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Bill Strickland EDITORIAL OFFICE
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HOW TO REACH US
…THE GREATEST RUN OF MY LIFE
One Runner Who Inspires Me Des Linden. Her entire career is the definition of resilience.
My first NYC Marathon in 2018. I hit the wall and started walking by mile 20. I thought I was going to DNF for the first time, but everyone told me to keep going—runners, spectators. It was NYC at its best and loveliest. I PR’d that race.
Foolproof Race Hack Vaseline. I’m like that lady in Drop Dead Gorgeous, only instead of telling runners to smear it on their teeth, I recommend slathering it on chafe-sensitive areas.
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ON THE BUCKET LIST
The Great North Run in Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. When I was 19 and studying abroad, it was the first half marathon I ever saw. If you told me then that I would eventually race that distance or longer, I wouldn’t have believed you.
Contact Wyndell Hamilton at Wright’s Media, 281-419-5725 x152, hearst@wrightsmedia.com ISSUE 1, 2020
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1 / Tracksmith Van Cortlandt Shorts $60 They’re so light, comfy, and retro. I have four pairs of them.
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Paul Collins PUBLISHER / CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER SALES & MARKETING OFFICES
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1 / Topo Zephyr $130 Topo’s first “plated” shoe (and also my first). Soft foam with a springy plate that loves to go fast. 2 / Four Laps Bolt Short $68 A super-comfortable liner, great pockets, and lots of color options—what more could you want?
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J O H N H A M I LTO N A S S O C I AT E P H O T O E D I T O R RUNS AS AN EXCUSE TO LISTEN TO MORE PODCASTS
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The feeling of pushing through a run you want to cut short—a few minutes of minor misery pays off with feeling amazing for hours afterward.
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The Biggest Way Running Needs to Change… Better pedestrian infrastructure, and not just in big cities.
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In college, my roommates and I ran a highstakes 5k through campus. The prize was first pick of the five bedrooms in the house we were renting. (I came in second.)
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My $30 Aeropress coffee maker. It brews the best coffee you can easily make at home. I’d be a lot less motivated to run in the morning (or wake up in general) without it.
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ON THE BUCKET LIST The Pittsburgh Marathon. I loved photographing the marathon when I lived in Pittsburgh and have recently been into the idea of making it my first. It’s a great course through the diverse neighborhoods of the Steel City—an underrated marathon for an underrated city.
Who Inspires Me
Everyone featured in our Runners Alliance project who are making it safer for women to run in their communities.
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The Inside Lane had a few clear rules for his staff when they were in the field filming his television shows: You never eat on an airplane. You never eat at the hotel. You never order a salad. The chef and storyteller knew that nothing slows down production as quickly and completely as a stomach bug. Those same invisible parasites can thwart your own PR plans, too—or even just wreck an otherwise lovely tour-by-two-feet of a new city. So heed his guidelines when you take flight for your next running adventure. (See page 32 for our list of the best races worth burning vacation days on.) Whenever I travel, I also have a few hard and fast rules. They’re not food-related—after all, I ate a brisket sandwich the night before the Chicago Marathon in October (I have no self-control). But my rules let me take charge THE LATE ANTHONY BOURDAIN
you’ll be calm and relaxed. Another way to reduce the stress of air travel is to always carry on your running essentials. There’s no excuse for being without your racing shoes—even if your luggage ends up in Albuquerque when your race is in Atlanta. So stuff them in your duffel. The same goes for your shorts, prescription medications, and on-course fuel if you’re sensitive to certain sugary packets. And finally, learn to love earplugs. If you don’t have a pair, you’re guaranteed to get stuck in a hotel room near the elevators or share a wall with some teens on spring break. With earplugs, I sleep through all of that. I’ve also slept through my iPhone’s alarm, so I wear a Garmin watch that has a vibrating alarm. Follow these rules and you’ll arrive at the start line refreshed, without any excuses for
Our Dream Trip? You Tell Us. One of the perks of working at Runner’s World is that we actually get to run as part of our jobs—I have a recurring meeting scheduled with staff at noon everyday so we can run during lunch. But it’s time to get away from the office, so we’re handing editors Kit Fox and Amanda Furrer new
W H AT I ’ M TESTING
My favorite trails require a short stretch of pavement running to reach the trailhead. So lately I’m reaching for the Sense Ride 3, which handles smooth and technical surfaces equally well.
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L A KO TA G A M B I L L
Salomon Sense Ride 3
AUTHOR
N ATA L I E R I Z ZO, M.S., R.D.
FROM NEW YORK CI T Y
CREDENT IAL S M A S T E R S O F S C IENCE IN NUTRI T ION AND E XERCISE PHYSIOLOGY & REGISTERED DIETITIAN
HARDEST RUN EVER T H E N Y C M A R AT H O N (M Y F I R S T 2 6 . 2!) BEST RUN EVER THE NYC M A R AT H O N (I T WA S H A R D B U T I T WA S S O W O R T H I T)
F AV O R I T E P I E C E OF GEAR MY FL IP B E L T (N E V E R L E AV E H O M E W I T H O U T I T)
SOUL ROUTE FROM LONG ISL AND C I T Y, O V E R T H E Q U E E N S B O R O BRIDGE, TO CENTRAL PARK. I’ VE BEEN TO CP HUNDREDS OF T IMES, BUT I T ST ILL AMA ZES ME. RUNNING PHILOSOPHY I RUN BECAUSE I T MAKES ME FEEL STRONG, ACCOMPL ISHED, AND AN OVERALL HAPPIER PERSON.
Fake Meat Is Getting Scary Real—But Is It Actually Healthy? 16
RUNNERSWORLD.COM
Sage Canaday, a long-distance runner for Hoka One One and plantbased athlete, eats meat alternatives about once a week. He finds them more accessible on the road than other plant-based foods, like tofu or tempeh. “When I’m traveling and eat out at restaurants, or even fast food, these are always great options for me,” he says. New options, like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat, have made this easier for vegetarian runners. You can’t miss the Burger King commercials showing off how people can’t believe the “Impossible Whopper” isn’t made from meat. Even McDonald’s is testing a Beyond Meat burger in Canadian markets, and KFC experimented with vegan fried chicken, which sold out in less than five hours at one Atlanta location. While faux meats are easier than ever to find, it does leave you wondering: Are plants that are manipulated into fake burgers, chicken, and even shrimp even nutritious? That question is up for debate. What we do know is what’s in them and what they taste like. If you were to compare an Impossible Burger and a beef burger side by side, chances are you
wouldn’t be able to tell the difference just by looking at or even tasting them. The way producers make meat alternatives taste so similar to the real thing is different for each product: Impossible Foods, for example, uses soy leghemoglobin, a protein found in plants that carries heme (an iron-containing molecule) to give the burger a “meaty” taste and the ability to “bleed” like real meat. Beyond Meat utilizes a combination of heating, cooling, pressurizing, and layering in plant-based fats, binders, flavors, and colors to create the texture of meat. In terms of ingredients, the Impossible Burger’s list is long, but soy protein concentrate, sunflower oil, and coconut oil make up the majority of the patty. Soy leghemoglobin is the protein that adds the flavor, and fillers and binders include cultured dextrose and food starch. Beyond Burger is made with a mixture of pea, mung bean, and rice to deliver a complete protein with a meaty texture, and the company proudly boasts that no GMOs, soy, or gluten are used in its products. These complicated ingredients and processes are a far departure from traditional veggie burgers made with beans, grains,
L A KO TA G A M B I L L ( B U R G ER S) ; C O U R T ES Y N ATA L I E R I Z ZO ( H E A D S H O T )
G O -T O S H O E S NEW BAL ANCE 880
and veggies. Not to mention that those says this isn’t necessarily true. “The EPA burgers don’t look, taste, or bleed like beef. has noted that agriculture contributes nine But just because these new alternatives percent of our greenhouse gas emissions— are plant-based doesn’t mean they’re good with only one-third of that attributable for you. “The purpose of a plant-based diet to livestock—in the United States, while is to consume more plants, not faux meats transportation contributes almost 29 perthat are highly processed foods,” says cent,” says Sims. She also notes that while Angie Asche, M.S., R.D., C.S.S.D., owner of no quantifiable environmental data exists Eleat Sports Nutrition. Plus, research from on the development of these new products, the National Institutes of Health links it’s unlikely that they have zero environprocessed food consumption with weight mental footprint. In other words, eating gain and excess calorie intake. a plant-based meat alternative While plant-based foods are may help reduce only the three usually lower in calories and percent of greenhouse gases fats, the nutrition stats of alt attributable to meat production, meat don’t differ that much if even that much. from those of the real thing. The bottom line is that fake THE For example, 4-ounce servings meat products are made to look, PURPOSE OF of Impossible meat and Beyond feel, taste, and cook like meat A PLANTBurger have comparable calories in an attempt to persuade carBASED and saturated fats as a 4-ounce nivores, omnivores, and flexiDIET IS TO serving of lean beef, thanks to tarians to eat less animal-based CONSUME the alt meats’ coconut and sunfood. (In fact, some of our vegan testers were grossed out by the flower oils. Where they do differ MORE realism of the “bloodiness.”) is in sodium and cholesterol, PLANTS, containing much more salt but So while the jury is still out on NOT FAUX no harmful cholesterol. whether or not these products MEATS. Regardless, the real reason are better for the planet, they you find these alternatives on aren’t necessarily better for you. menus and in the meat section of the That said, if you’re curious, there’s no supermarket is not because they’re health harm in giving these products a try. But heroes, nor because they’re for vegetardo so (surprise, surprise!) in moderation. ians and vegans to enjoy more meatlike Not sold? You can always eat more good products. Rather, manufacturers hope to old-fashioned plants. Canaday attributes a entice meat eaters into eating more plants 20-year athletic career to his plant-based in an effort to protect the environment. lifestyle. “I’ve never had an overuse injury Both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat for more than two weeks, and I think that’s claim to have created their products to help from eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and solve environmental problems associated whole grains,” he says. “I get the essential with livestock. Research suggests that vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants my meat production contributes to harmful body needs to recover from high mileage and hard workouts.” environmental practices, such as methane emissions and the conversion of land to agriculture. Tamika Sims, Ph.D., director of food technology communications at the International Food Information Council Foundation, says, “All human activity, IMPOSSIBLE BURGER / $9 including agriculture, which includes meat HOW THESE PER 12 OZ PACKAGE production and crop development [edible BURGERS 4-ounce serving: crops and those used for animals, textiles, STACK UP 240 calories and energy], impacts climate change.” 8 g of saturated fat In theory, eating more plants and less 19 g of protein meat seems like a viable option to coun370 mg of sodium 0 mg of cholesterol teract these detrimental effects; yet Sims
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AUTHOR
M AT T H E W M E Y E R
FROM N E W Y O R K C I T Y. BIG APPLE, BABY!
CREDENT IAL S CER T IF IED PERSONAL T R A INER, RRC A RUNNING COACH, AND F UL L-T IME COACH AT MIL E HIGH RUN CL UB
HARDEST RUN EVER RUNNING ACROSS DE ATH VA L L E Y O N M U L T I P L E S T R E S S F R A C T U R E S . (D O N O T T R Y T H I S AT H O M E .) BEST RUN EVER 2 0 1 9 N Y C M A R AT H O N
G O -T O S H O E S HOK A CL IF TON
I think it’s safe to say no one ever embarks on a marathon intending to be negative about it. But as my friend Peter always says, “The marathon is too far and too fickle to be tamed by your intentions.” If you’ve already covered 26.2, then you’ve probably already confronted that moment when it feels like everything is crashing down around you and that voice in your head is saying, “I want to be done.” If you’re about to embark on your first marathon, then be prepared for that moment to come. I went to that dark place around mile 16 of the 2019 Boston Marathon. I’d played it smart during the first half, but after training through the winter
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in New York City, the weather wasn’t working for me. The heat and humidity were unexpected curveballs, and I was unprepared. It started with some tightness in my left hamstring; I could feel a cramp threatening to take hold. That triggered a tidal wave of thoughts: “Of course this is happening. Why did you think you could reach this goal? You’re going to let everyone who helped you get here down.” Once you let a little bit of this negativity in, the door seems to blow wide open. But here’s a little secret: This happens to everyone. The key is knowing that you don’t have to stay there. The ability to exit this dark place is what can make or break you on race day.
(ABOVE) MEYER AT MILE 20, BEFORE HEARTBREAK HILL: “IT LOOKS LIKE I’M HAVING A BL AST, BUT WHAT YOU DON’T SEE IS THAT I’M KNEEDEEP IN THE PAIN CAVE, THE WHEELS HAVE ALREADY COME OFF, AND EVERY STEP FEELS LIKE A MILE. I DEPENDED ON THAT SMILE TO CARRY ME UP AND OVER HEARTBREAK AND HOLD IT TOGETHER ALL THE WAY TO BOYLSTON.” Be like Eliud Kipchoge and make the hard moments feel easier with a smile. Research in Psychology of Sport and Exercise found that runners who smiled used less oxygen, ran more economically, and had a lower perceived rate of exertion than those who frowned and those in the control group.
SOUL ROUTE IN NEW YORK: C E N T R A L P A R K T O R O C K AWAY BEACH VIA EAST RIVER, M A N H AT TA N B R I D G E , P R O S P E C T P A R K , A N D F L A T B U S H AV E N U E . RUNNING PHILOSOPHY RUNNING BRIDGES T HE GAP BE T WEEN T HE PERSON I AM AND T HE PERSON I WAN T T O BE.—AARON DINZEO
One of my favorite runners and greatest inspirations of all time, Deena Kastor, is the champion of this. Steering your mind away from that endless loop of negativity and drawing from a well of positivity instead completely changed her as an athlete and allowed her to push her performances beyond what she thought possible. Before every big race, I reread the parts of her book that are especially poignant for me. That day in Boston, I told myself, “Find a thought that serves you better.” So that’s what I did at mile 16. As waves of fatigue and lactic acid rolled through my legs, I started whispering a Kastor-E
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LOSE THAT EXTRA WEIGHT BY SHAKING THINGS UP BY AMBER RIOS Being a health and nutrition correspondent means that companies frequently send me their products, and ask for my stamp of approval. Most of the time I dive into research, give the product a try, and send the company honest feedback about what they’ll need to change before I’ll recommend it. Plus my hectic job and my determination to stay fit means I’m always hunting for a quick and nutritious way to fill up on nutrients my body needs. So I can confidently say, “I’ve tried it all”. Last Tuesday work was especially hectic, but I’d booked with my $200 an hour personal trainer, Tony, a triathlon winning, organic-to-the-bone fitness guy with a ten mile long track record of whipping the “who’s who” into shape in record time, so I had to go. He noticed that my set count was down and playfully asked, “Feeling a little tired today?”, as he handed me a bottle from his gym bag. After one sip I figured that there was no way this could be healthy because the creamy chocolate flavor was just too delicious. Still, he’d never risk his reputation. With more than a healthy dose of scepticism I decided to investigate this shake he’d called INVIGOR8. Turns out, it’s a full meal replacement shake, which stunned me because virtually every
other shake I’d researched had tasted chalky, clumpy and packed with hidden “no-no’s” like cheap protein, tons of artificial ingredients, not to mention harmful synthetic dyes, additives, sugars, preservatives, and hormones. And even though INVIGOR8’s full meal replacement shake cost more than many of the shakes I’ve tried, it was about half the price of my favorite salad, and the nutrition profile looked second to none. Wanting to know more, I reached out to a few of the people who were talking about it on trustworthy fitness forums. By the next morning three people got back to me saying, “As a trainer I love Invigor8. It’s definitely helped me to have more all-day energy, plus build the kind of lean sculpted muscle that burns more fat.” “Yes, I’ll recommend it, it tastes great, and I really like how it keeps me feeling full for hours.” “I’m a marathon runner and a friend recommended it to me. Drinking it has become a part of my regular training routine, because my time has improved, my energy is up, and I’m thinking more clearly than ever before.” I decided to take my investigation one step further by researching the development of INVIGOR8. I was pleasantly surprised to find out
that the company went to great lengths to keep INVIGOR8 free of harmful ingredients. The makers of INVIGOR8 were determined to make the first natural, non-GMO nutritional shake & green superfood. The result is a meal replacement shake that contains 100% grass-fed whey that has a superior nutrient profile to the grain-fed whey found in most shakes, metabolism boosting raw coconut oil, hormone free colostrum to promote a healthy immune system, Omega 3, 6, 9-rich chia and flaxseeds, superfood greens like kale, spinach, broccoli, alfalfa, and chlorella, and clinically tested cognitive enhancers for improved mood and brain function. The company even went a step further by including a balance of pre and probiotics for optimal digestive health, uptake, and regularity and digestive enzymes so your body absorbs the high-caliber nutrition you get from INVIGOR8. As a whole-foods nutritionist with a thriving practice I understand the importance of filling my body with the best Mother Nature has to offer. I have always been reluctant to try new products because I was never sure of the impact they would have on my energy, and weight. INVIGOR8 is different, not only because it’s delicious, but because it helps me to maintain the energy I need to run my busy practice, while helping me to stay fit and toned. Considering all of the shakes I’ve tried, I can honestly say that the results I’ve experienced from INVIGOR8 are nothing short of amazing. A company spokesperson confirmed an exclusive offer for Runner’s World’s readers: if you order this month, you’ll receive $10 off your first order by using promo code “RUN10” at checkout. You can order INVIGOR8 today at www.Invigor8.com or by calling 1-800-958-3392
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GEAR THAT ENCOURAGES GRATITUDE
LET YOUR MIND RUN: A MEMOIR OF THINKING MY WAY TO VICTORY, BY DEENA KASTOR / $11 This book is a game changer, especially if you’ve reached some mental roadblocks in your running. Kastor’s writing will help.
MOLESKINE JOURNAL / $13 Coach Matt uses this daily journal to track his training and progress, and to note his feelings about a run or his day in general. He always includes one thing each day that he’s grateful for.
run. Someone cuts you off in traffic? Remember that this is a tiny blip in the grand scheme of things. You have a huge work presentation? Be grateful that someone cares about what you have to say. By actively cultivating this attitude in little moments, you’ll be able to better utilize it during a race or run. For me, every time I have the opportunity to ask more of myself, I choose positivity. Yes, whenever you’re taking on a challenge, things are going to get tough. Chances are, your mind will turn toward that dark place. But more than avoiding it,
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the ability to overcome it and keep moving forward is what matters. I ended up running 2:39:43 at Boston, earning a shiny new PR on a tough course. But it wasn’t the time I was most proud of. It was the way I raced. I had every opportunity to drown in negativity, but I gutted it out and steered that voice in my head back toward gratitude and positivity to serve me better. And the beauty is that no matter what level of runner you are, each and every one of us has the same opportunity to change the conversation, focus our mindset, and break through that finish line.
L A KO TA G A M B I L L
E inspired quote I hold onto when I’m in a rough patch: “optimism and gratitude, optimism and gratitude.” It sounds wild, but when I shifted from focusing on the pain to thinking about the people I cared about and the gift of this race, the cramps went away for a few moments. This strategy is nothing new. When we asked runners via Instagram for tips on getting through a tough long run, one of the most popular responses cited was the concept of the “gratitude mile.” Taking a mile to think about what you are thankful for helps you shift your mindset and get past a midrun slump. “It’s easy to focus too much on pace, times, and chasing the next PR. The Gratitude Mile helps you find yourself again and appreciate the fact that you are able to run at all,” says Melissa Emery, a @runnersworldmag follower. “I begin by simply taking notice and appreciating the simple things along my run.” Focusing on what you’re grateful for is more than just an anecdotal training hack. Science backs it up: A study in the journal Clinical Psychological Science found that people who engaged in positive self-talk felt more energized than those with a negative mindset. They also had a lower heart rate and sweat response (how much you sweat in response to distress), which triggered a feeling of relaxation. “Psychologists will tell you that positive thoughts lead to positive emotions, and that often leads to positive outcomes,” says running coach Janet Hamilton, C.S.C.S., owner of the Atlanta-based Running Strong. “I often tell my athletes to practice having a positive mantra during long runs.” Just like with your endurance, it’s something you have to practice. While running, you’re not only building your fitness but also sharpening your mental fortitude so that when you come to that hard spot on race day, you know what to do. Prepare something you can focus on before you even go out on the run, and use it when you get into those challenging spots. We get opportunities to practice positivity like this every day, not just on the
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Break Barriers Just Like Eliud Kipchoge
This past October, the running world held its collective breath as the world’s most dominant marathoner, Eliud Kipchoge, staged his second attempt at running 26.2 miles in under two hours. After coming so close the first time in 2017—falling just 26 seconds shy on a track in Monza, Italy—Kipchoge broke the elusive barrier by clocking a time of 1:59:40.2 through the Prater, a park in Vienna. While Kipchoge’s time doesn’t count as an official world record for a number
FROM CHICAGO
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CINDY KUZMA
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CREDENT IAL S 2 2 M A R AT H O N S , INCLUDING SEVEN B O S T O N M A R AT H O N S
HARDEST RUN EVER MAGNOL IA ROAD IN BOULDER, IN THE SNOW
BEST RUN EVER BOSTON M A R AT H O N 2014
G O -T O S H O E S BROOKS GHOST F AV O R I T E P I E C E O F G E A R W H I T E P AW S RUNMI T TS, WI TH H A N D WA R M E R S
Set Big Goals—and Believe Before Monza, the leap from his previous personal best of 2:03:05 felt large and intimidating, Kipchoge admitted later. In the days before Vienna, though, he expressed complete confidence. “Once we did Breaking2, he knew this was possible. He needed to knock off less than a second per mile, and he knew he could do that,” says Philip Skiba, D.O., Ph.D., a sports medicine physician and exercise physiologist who consulted on Nike’s Breaking2 Project. And then there was his purpose: “It’s like the first man to go to the moon,” Kipchoge had said beforehand. That drive to break new ground for humanity likely helped him keep pushing when it hurt during his run. To fuel your own self-belief, first reflect on your own “why.” Then review your past performances, suggests Adrienne Langelier, M.A., L.P.C., a sport psychology consultant based in Texas. If you’ve fallen short before, consider those races not as failures but as data points. Analyze what went well during your last few races—and what didn’t—to continue getting better for the future.
SOUL ROUTE CHICAGO L AKEFRONT TRAIL, WITH A PASS UP CRICKET HILL
R U N N I N G P H ILOSOPHY USE YOUR SE TBACKS A S O P P O R T U N IT IES TO BOUNCE BACK STRONGER
REUTERS/ LISI NIESNER (KIPCHOGE ); JAMES WIRTH/COURTESY CINDY KUZMA (KUZMA )
of reasons—like multiple sets of rotating pacers—his sub-2 accomplishment should serve as an inspiration to help you attain whatever goals you’ve set for yourself in the new decade. Even those marathoners who lack a team of sport scientists, the ability to log 140-mile training weeks, or access to heralded prototype shoes from Nike to blast past their own moonshots can still learn from his effort. Here’s how, with help from running experts—many involved in the INEOS 1:59 Challenge.
Find the Right Climate When the INEOS team sought out a spot for the attempt, they knew they had to stay within two time zones of Kipchoge— per his request—and close to sea level. From there, the most important consideration was the weather. Ideal conditions for Kipchoge’s physiology were between 45 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit with humidity below 80 percent, no rain, and little wind. If you’re aiming for a fast time, scout historical data to find an event with average temps around 40 to 50 degrees, a range where most runners perform best. If the day dawns warmer or more humid than you’d hoped, adjust your goal, says Robby Ketchell, a sports scientist who helped design the course and experimented with the aerodynamics of the run for INEOS. Slow your starting pace, drink cold fluids, step away from other runners to catch a sweat-evaporating breeze, and stay in the shade when possible.
L A KO TA G A M B I L L
Your Perfect Course Once they narrowed down potential cities, Ketchell and his team next had to find a venue. The Formula 1 racetrack in Monza boasted an ideal surface, but they wanted fewer curves and undulations. The Prater’s flat, tree-lined straightaway fit the bill. Another key factor? Local officials allowed them space and time to tinker. “They wanted us to be there,” he says. Ketchell spent 80 percent of his time in Vienna between June and October, remeasuring the course 15 times and fine-tuning each aspect. You don’t have to make course recon your part-time job, but a little research goes a long way. Topography matters—if you choose a hilly course, you’ll need to train for it—but it isn’t the only issue, Ketchell says. Less tangible factors, like familiarity with the local area and a well-organized operation (think plenty of well-stocked aid stations and clear on-course directions) are also worth considering.
Yes, You Can Draft At all times during Kipchoge’s run, five pacers ran in an open-V shape in front of him, with two behind—a configuration that proved superior after testing about 100 options in computer simulations and wind tunnels, Ketchell says. The less air resistance Kipchoge faced, the less energy it took to run every step at around 4:34 pace. Even at slower paces and on still days, drafting offers benefits, says Shalaya Kipp, an exercise physiology researcher and Olympic middle-distance runner. Find someone who has a greater surface area to block the wind for you—or better yet, suggests Ketchell, tuck yourself into a pack of runners traveling at your goal pace to get a boost from the runners behind you. Steady Your Nutrition Most marathoners gulp down their carbs in large chunks—a gel at this aid station, a cup of sports drink at the next—which can tax the gastrointestinal system. Kipchoge, meanwhile, employed what Skiba called an “incremental feeding strategy.” Cyclists handed him small bottles of Maurten energy drink, which he consumed for a steady release of energy. You can carry your fuel of choice in a belt and use aid stations as opportunities to top off, Skiba says. Aim for about 60 to 90 grams of carbs per hour and train your gut to practice taking it at goal pace—for instance, running a half marathon at marathon pace during your buildup, he suggests. Run Relaxed Maybe you weren’t gifted with Kipchoge’s fluid stride, but you can still work to stay smooth and calm, says Michael Joyner, M.D., an expert in human performance at the Mayo Clinic. One tip: Kipchoge famously smiles during hard efforts, a strategy with some research behind it. You can also try reducing tension in your hands and face, or repeating a mantra like “this is normal” to stay calm during moments of fatigue.
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M O L LY R I T T E R B E C K
Eliud Kipchoge’s VO2 max is estimated to be near 90; sub-threehour marathoners average 65.5; and three-plus-hour marathoners are around 58.7. The average untrained adult lands at about 40. These numbers represent the maximum amount of oxygen a runner can consume in milliliters per kilogram of body weight in one minute (mL/kg/min). Sounds complicated, but simply put, VO2 max is a measurement of how efficiently your body uses oxygen, a key marker of cardio fitness. If you don’t know your own VO2 max measurement, you’re not alone. Ahead of my max test at Custom Performance in New York City, I asked nearly every runner I encountered—elites to recreational—if they knew their VO2 max. Only a handful of the most competitive runners I know had been tested. Even so, they’d all forgotten their exact scores. What no one could forget, though, was how horrendous the test felt. During it, you have to push yourself to the absolute limit. Imagine the hardest effort you’ve ever put in, multiply that by two, add a claustrophobic, Bane-like mask, and then push for one minute longer than you think
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old, says Silvano Zanuso, Ph.D., director of the medical and scientific department at Technog ym. In this way, the G O -T O S H O E S test provides you with NIKE PEG TURBO the most accurate zones F AV O R I T E P I E C E and thresholds to plan O F G E A R A P P L E your training around, you can until you’re cross-eyed WAT C H S E R I E S 5 and gasping for air. he says. Why, then, would you, me, The results of my own or anyone at all subject themtest revealed a hole in SOUL ROUTE THE JACQUEL INE selves to such brutal punishmy training: the need KENNEDY ONASSIS RESERVOIR ment? Because when you know to build out the lower LOOP IN CENTRAL PARK: L APS what your VO2 max is, you can end of my ca rdio f itDE TERMINED BY MOOD ness (i.e. #sex y pace, use that number as a precise guide to improve it. And if you easy runs and recovery RUNNING PHILOSOPHY RUNcan raise it, you’ll run farther, efforts). Because I was N I N G I S N ’ T A N O B L I G AT I O N ; faster, and longer with less consistently training at I T ’ S A P R I V I L E G E . (B U T S E X Y effort and fatigue. a higher heart rate, my P A C E I S T H E B E S T P A C E .) Think of it like the efficiency watch was overestimatof your own internal engine: “A ing my HR zones. As a high VO2 max is like a car with result, the ranges were a bigger engine. A car with a slightly too high because smaller engine has to work that was my norm even harder to go as fast as the big engine,” if it wasn’t appropriate for me. So taking says Matthew Luke Meyer, certified run that extra step with the VO 2 max test coach for Mile High Run Club in New gave me more personalized results and York City. the ability to analyze them with the help While VO 2 max is a great marker to of a coach in order to identify areas of know—understanding and tracking your improvement. cardio fitness can help you set appropriNo matter what the specific numate goals and evaluate your training—no bers say, to actually move the needle plan or coach would ever suggest heading and improve your VO 2 max, study after out on a run at, say, 80 percent of your study shows that high-intensity interval VO2 max. Instead, your VO2 max is used training, or HIIT, is your best bet. This to identify more useful parameters: your is because HIIT forces you to reach or heart rate zones and anaerobic threshtemporarily surpass your anaerobic
C O U R T E SY
Boost Your VO2 Max in the Gym so Miles Feel Easier on the Road
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CREDENT IAL S CERT IF IED PERSONAL TRAINER, FI TNESS AND HE ALTH DIREC TOR F O R RUNNER’S WORLD
HOW TO ESTIMATE YOUR VO2 MAX
You can have your maximum capacity tested at performance labs, physical therapy facilities, and medical centers, but because it’s so uncomfortable and costly ($150 to $250), many opt for a sub-max test or a formula like the one here instead. Calculate yours with your age,
T R E V O R R A A B ( P O L A R , G A R M I N ) ; L A KO TA G A M B I L L ( A P P L E ) ; C O U R T E SY (C O R O S)
threshold before returning to a lower, aerobic, intensity. This type of overload causes your heart and lungs to adapt to the demands you’re imposing on them. On the road or track, you’ll have to push your limits with tempo runs and intervals at threshold, but since 70 to 80 percent of your run training should be done easy, you can get the most bang for your buck by incorporating high-intensity interval cross-training into your gym or home routine. “You want to do something that will force variation in your heart rate, so spike it straight up and drop it back down,” says Greg Laraia, a certified athletic trainer and performance specialist run coach at Custom Performance. This means total-body exercises such as sled pushes, ball tosses, plyometric jumping, ladder drills—“basically anything that’s going to exert more energy than a simple bench press,” he says. As far as reps and sets go, Laraia suggests starting with the basic 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps for bodyweight moves to keep your heart rate up and maintain proper
CARDIOBOOSTING HIIT CIRCUIT
Perform as many reps as possible of the moves listed at right in 30 seconds, resting for 10 seconds between each one. After you’ve completed all 5 exercises, rest for 1 minute
resting heart rate, and maximum heart rate: VO2 max = 15.3 x (MHR/RHR) You could also try one of these watches that includes a VO2 max estimation feature. The more you wear the watch, the more accurate your number will be. Generally, they tend
to underestimate because we very rarely hit the top end of our capacity while working out. That said, they all use your heart rate during certain workouts while also taking into account other factors, such as distance or altitude, to provide a fuller picture of your VO2 max.
form. Or you can try a time-based scheme like the one below with 30 seconds of work plus 10 seconds of rest between exercises and 1 minute of rest between rounds. If you’re doing a heavier, weightbased training cycle, Laraia says to stick to 4 to 5 sets of 6 reps per move. Of course, you don’t need to know your specific VO 2 max measurement to cross-train with intervals and reap the benefits of better cardio capacity. Still, “the one thing it teaches you is how to become a better athlete,” says Laraia. “If you want to take your performance to the next level, or if you’re stuck in a rut and trying to figure out what’s wrong, a VO 2 max test will teach you how to customize your training to break out of that rut area.” And while we’re all capable of improving our VO2 max with increased, specified training, there is a genetic ceiling to our potential. So unless you were born a Kipchoge, no amount of training in the world will push you to a VO 2 max of 90 mL/kg/min.
before repeating the entire circuit again. Complete 4 rounds total. Once you master this, add 10 seconds of work until you reach 60 seconds total to improve your VO2 max.
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• Jump Squat • Mountain Climber • High Knees • Burpee • Alternating Plyo Lunge
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This Year, I’m Not Chasing a PR. I’m Chasing a PV.
FROM NEW YORK CI T Y
AUTHOR
JESS MOVOLD
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CREDENT IAL S RUNNER’S WORLD+ COACH, STRENGTH COACH, OVERALL BADASS
Movold racing the Berlin Marathon.
HARDEST RUN EVER BOSTON 2012. OUCH
constructed with goal paces and target mileage. For months, I envisioned 2:59:59 on my stopwatch. Then race day came. I missed my goal. In fact, I didn’t even break my PR of 3:13:29. As a coach, I see the power and allure of the PR with runners of all abilities. It’s the main motivation for practically all my athletes. It’s the difference between a satisfying race and a soul-crushing one. That’s why I shocked myself at the finish line in Berlin. I didn’t feel sad or angry. I
BEST RUN EVER RUNNING IN D E A T H VA L L E Y FOR THE SPEED P R O J E C T (H O T B U T AW E S O M E)
G O -T O S H O E S N E W BAL ANCE 860V7 F AV O R I T E P I E C E O F G E A R A B A N D A N A— BECAUSE I T ADDS A L I T T L E S WA G G E R
walked away with a finishing time that was considerably off my original goal, but I still felt satisfied. Happy, even. Why? Because I decided to feel that way. I shifted my mindset. Upon reflecting on my running accomplishments in 2019, I realized I had built a damaging relationship with PRs. As the Runner’s World coach, I want to make sure my athletes are happy, healthy, and successful. That means I need to be the same. Which also means that I plan to rewire my brain now that it’s time to set running E
SOUL ROUTE A GR AVEL L OOP IN HERMANN, MO, WHERE M Y DAD TAUGH T ME T O L OVE RUNNING
RUNNING PHILOSOP H Y O N A G R E AT D AY, O N A T O U G H D AY—T H E M I L E S A L WAY S U N D E R S TA N D A N D M A K E U S STRONGER.
Spor tog raf (Berlin); Eric Ryan Anderson (Movold)
For the past decade, I’ve set a running goal at the start of each year, and each year the goal has been identical: to achieve a personal record (PR) in the marathon. The time I aim for has shifted as I’ve improved—from breaking 4 hours in 2009 to qualifying for Boston in 2010 to breaking 3:15 in 2018—but the sentiment behind the goal hasn’t. I’m a certified PR chaser. Which is why, at the start of 2019, whenever anyone asked me about my year’s running goal, it felt natural to say “breaking 3.” I planned to do it on September 29 at the Berlin Marathon. The training was mapped out for me. The numbers were there, as if it were a formula for success that required just a hard push of a button and a helmet for safety. Each workout was carefully
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E goals for 2020. I am not shooting for PRs this year. I am changing the definition. I am chasing PVs: Personal Victories. A Personal Victory broadens the definition of the running accomplishments you want to chase. Yes, it could be attached to a time. But it can also have nothing to do with time. Maybe you want to participate in your first race, or join a running group. Maybe you want to try trail running. My 2020 Personal Victory? I want to organize a run in my hometown, Hermann, Missouri, to honor my mom and raise money for families dealing with cancer. I want to challenge you to do the same—set your own 2020 PV. To do it, I want you to keep in mind five key essentials for a successful PV. Clarity Don’t rush to set your PV. You need both time and space to figure out what you really want to chase. One of my favorite things about running is that it is so insanely personal. The truth is, there will always be someone who is faster than you. There will always be someone who can run farther than you. But there is truly no one who knows the deep inner workings of your purpose. Only you can know that. So let your mind clear before you decide what you really want to accomplish this year. The best place to do this? On a run, of course. Flexibility In running, I like to remind myself that our problem solving skills and the ability to be flexible should be no different than how we approach obstacles in our everyday life. And yet, for some reason, we often throw all rational thinking out when things don’t go as planned in our running and training. To stay healthy with a sound mind and a sound body, we must be flexible. This does not create space for excuses; instead, it creates space for a higher level of understanding of our own capabilities and a new opportunity to
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define ourselves. Being flexible means not tying your success to a clock, but allowing for satisfaction in other ways.
Support When navigating your personal victories, remember you are not alone, and that it’s okay to be unsure sometimes. If you belong to a local running community or team, talk to them and share your PV! Create enthusiasm around your passions and build a network for support. Reflection In order to move forward, take a quick look back. As we take time to recognize past accomplishments, we continue to develop a sense of understanding and awareness of our potential. I learned a lot in that first race, and when I took a moment to recognize that, I realized the multitude of things I could do better the next time. I looked within myself and realized that I was not only capable of improving, I was hungry for it. These moments to think back and recognize how far we have come can be brief and should be often. Joy The things we go after and the goals we are passionate about should ultimately bring us joy. When things start to feel extra complicated, frustrating, and overwhelming, it is a strong indicator that the joy is gone. I know there are days in training when we feel doomed with doubt and bogged down with defeat. These dark days in our running should brighten just as quickly as they dim, and they should be few and far between. When the joy is gone, it’s time to pause, reflect, and reset. Even at the peak of our training when mileage builds and our bodies are experiencing heightened fatigue, we still should feel an underlying sense of satisfaction as we know the hard work we are putting in is a self-chosen and joyful attempt to reach our goal.
WHAT IS YOUR PV? Coach Jess (@runnersworldcoach) asked Instagram to share 2020 goals.
“My 2020 PV will be recovering fully and toeing the start of a race.” @ M E L I S S AT VA L E N T E
“This past Oct., I celebrated 1 year of sobriety and working toward many more. Oh, and I am still running. I can’t wait for my next half marathon this spring.” @A L LY B A R B E R
“Making it to the starting line of my first postpartum marathon strong and healthy!” @ K AT E M I C H E L L E 1 4
“My future #PV is to go on a run with my mom and dad. I know they run on a treadmill, but I am taking them OUTSIDE one day!” @RUNNINGXTINA
“My 2020 #PV: The NY Marathon and I both turn 50 next year, and I would love to run it again.” @PHILIPMUELLER
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How Cancer Changed the Reasons I Love Running I st a r ted r u n n i ng, l i ke m a ny people, to lose weight. I weighed 300 pounds in 2004, then shed 130 pounds and have kept it off since. Yes, the weight loss was life changing, but I didn’t expect that it isn’t even close to my favorite thing about running. That’s been the connections with people I’ve made during my journey. Not long after starting, I decided to run a marathon. I was nervous, but my main memory of the race was how supportive and encouraging the other runners were (especially the really fast ones!). Running led me to volunteer as a cross-country and track coach at a local school. I’ve watched students graduate, attend college, begin careers, marry, and start families. About three years ago I was diagnosed with incurable cancer. I’m fortunate to have a wife who is an oncologist and makes sure I receive fantastic care. Initially, I was so sick that running was just
about out of the question. One of the members of my care team is an accomplished runner and she immediately understood how disruptive it was to not be able to run. My treatment is going well and with the support of my team, I’m now training for a marathon. But if I look at running pictures on social media taken right after my diagnosis, I have a scowl and most of the time I’m flipping the bird. I was angry that my life had been upended by cancer and that my old life was gone. Since then, I’ve met lots of patients at the cancer center. I’m constantly amazed at their grace and uplifting attitudes. I’ve made deeper connections with family and friends and have come to appreciate how fortunate I am. Now if
NAME PHIL CREWS AGE 58 RUNNER’S WORLD+ MEMBER
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FROM SE AT TLE, WA S H I N G T O N
WHAT I RUN I H AV E T W O P I E C E S O F F AV O R I T E R U N N I N G G E A R : M Y BROOKS GHOST 12 SHOES AND M Y B R O O K S R U N H A P P Y H AT, WHICH REMINDS ME WHY I’M RUNNING AND HOW LUCK Y I AM.
“WHEN I STARTED RUNNING, I HOPED IT WOULD MAKE ME HEALTHIER. IT DID THAT. AND SO MUCH MORE.”
you look at my running pictures, I have a big smile, I’m flashing a peace sign and I tag posts with #RunHappy. My attitude changed because of the connections I have made with other runners. I have built a support group. I met professional runner Gabe Grunewald, and we shared stories as fellow cancer patients. When we lost her this year, I gave thanks for her inspiration. And I crossed paths and shook hands with Olympian Des Linden when out for a morning run in Seattle. These interactions, both big and small, are the most valuable part of my running journey. When I started running, I hoped it would make me healthier. It did that. And so much more.
WHY I RUN BECAUSE I T MAKES ME FEEL GOOD AND BECAUSE I’M THANKFUL I ST ILL CAN. CANCER C A U S E S M E T O H AV E J O I N T P A I N , BUT WHEN I’M RUNNING, I AM G L O R I O U S LY P A I N F R E E !
WHERE I RUN M Y F AV O R I T E L O O P G O E S FROM THE ENERGIZING HUSTLE O F T H E V E N D O R S AT P I K E P L A C E M A R K E T T O T H E WAT E R F R O N T A N D THEN TO THE SPACE NEEDLE FOR AN I C O N I C S E AT T L E F I N I S H .
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For more of our travel awards, including our picks for the best gear, runner-friendly hotels, and companies to organize your runcation, visit runnersworld.com
JAW-DROPPING,
BREATHTAKING, I’M-NEVERGOINGBACKTO-WORK
RUNNING TRIPS TO TAKE THIS YEAR
our sweaty minds, running is the ultimate vacation activity. Explore a new place on foot and you’ll experience sights, smells, and sounds that can’t be found in heavier-trafficked tourist spots. In fact, we’re betting that the time you carve out for a run often ends up being the best part of your trip. So why not take a runcation: a running-centered getaway where lacing up is the very reason you hop on a plane? There are runcations to fit every athlete, from city mile runs to African safaris. We researched hundreds of races in dozens of places—and our own staff’s running logs and bucket lists—to find events and destinations that are worth your hard-earned time off. Whether you’ve got a week to spare or just a few free days, pack your shoes and energy gels in your carry-on. These trips are worth training for.
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Scrambling to the summit of Lone Peak in Montana’s Madison Mountain Range.
M Y K E H ER M S M E Y ER
LY I N G O N T H E B E A C H H A S I T S M E R I T S , B U T I N
BEST ULTRA THE RUT 50K, BIG SKY, MT / September 4–6, 2020 S This mountain run is steep, technical—and exhilarating. Runners tackle singletrack trails and alpine ridgelines as they climb 10,500 feet toward the summit of Lone Peak. After the race, basecamp at Big Sky offers ziplining, lift rides, and a blessed, blessed spa. rw says: “Montana is known for having some of the most challenging terrain in the Lower 48, yet it flies under the radar as a quiet relaxation destination once the adventure is done for the day.” —Pat Heine, Video Producer
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The 5 a.m. race start in New York’s Times Square.
BEST URBAN ADVENTURE E Follow the best running routes through the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan for an intimate, open-course tour of New York City. The small field (just 130 runners) and the volunteers pulled from the heart of the city’s running community give the TGNY100 a tight-knit vibe that no marathon major can touch. rw says: “The dozens of neighborhoods and cultures certainly make it the most diverse urban run in the world. You experience the full 24-hour life cycle of the city (unless you’re really fast) and see corners of the city that its own residents—let alone tourists—would never venture through.” —Matt Allyn, Features Director
BEST 10K BEACH TO BEACON 10K, CAPE ELIZABETH, ME / August 1, 2020
Running along Front Street in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii.
S One of the most consistent endorsements from RW editors, this 10K traces the rugged Maine coastline before ending at Portland Head Light, the most photographed lighthouse in the country. Aside from the scenery, the small-town atmosphere (among the more than 800 local volunteers is a designated “watermelon cutter”—with her own tent!) makes this race feel like a getaway. rw says: “There’s a reason Maine is called Vacationland. Casco Bay is gorgeous, and the race, founded by Joan Benoit Samuelson, is iconic. After the run, the Portland area offers plenty of restaurants and craft breweries for refueling. (Go for the lobster roll at Saltwater Grille.)”—Kristen Parker, Photo Editor
Portland Head Light lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
BEST HALF MAUI HALF MARATHON, MAUI, HI / October 11, 2020 N This out-and-back route takes you along the Hawaiian coast to the sound of local guitarists, the smell of ocean salt, and maybe—just maybe—the sight of breaching whales at dawn. rw says: “Hawaii is a bucket-list paradise regardless of your reason for going there, but add a breathtaking half marathon, during which you can watch the sunrise above the beach, and you have a no-brainer trip worthy of your vacation days.”—Christa Sgobba, Deputy Editor
R I C H A R D C H U N G ( T G N Y 1 0 0) ; K E V I N M O R R I S ( B E A C H T O B E A C O N ) ; T H E AV O C A D O G R O U P/ C O U R T ES Y M A U I H A L F M A R AT H O N ( M A U I ) ; C H R I S C L E A R Y/ C O U R T ESY B I G S U R M A R AT H O N ( B I G S U R )
THE GREAT NEW YORK 100 MILE EXPOSITION, NEW YORK CITY / June 20, 2020
3 Ways to Prep for Your Running Vacation Ascending Hurricane Point in Big Sur, California.
Travel can throw your body off, but with the right legwork, you’ll toe the starting line rested, fueled, and ready to go.
RESET YO U R BODY CLOCK
Truly adapting to new time zones takes longer than most people think, says Michael Olzinski, C.S.C.S., a Precision Run coach at Equinox Market Street in San Francisco. For every zone you cross, give yourself one day to acclimate to the new time. Don’t have the time to spend multiple days in your new location before the race? Starting three or four days pre-trip, shift your sleep schedule by an hour each night—wake up an hour earlier and go to bed an hour earlier.
DIAL DOWN THE D E TA I L S
Figuring out logistics— where to pick up your bib, how to get to the start line—is crucial. Start with the race’s website. Ask friends who know the destination well—or even a Facebook friend who lives there—for intel on the best ways to get around.
FIND THE NEAREST G R O C E RY STORE
Pack your small, go-to training foods—almond butter, jams, protein powders, hydration mixes—and hit up a local grocery store (ideally the same one you go to at home) for the little things. If you’re used to cooking at home, switching to heavier, unfamiliar restaurant meals day after day can be disruptive to your diet and make GI distress the day of the race more likely, notes Jason Koop, head coach at CTS-Ultrarunning. —Cassie Shortsleeve
BEST MARATHON BIG SUR MARATHON, BIG SUR, CA / April 26, 2020 W From the course’s towering redwoods to the belly dancers at mile 25, Big Sur preaches one message: Your training was worth it. rw says: “If [former RW chief running officer] Bart Yasso says a race is a must-run, you find a way to run that race. After nearly a lifetime of FOMO, I’m running Big Sur this year. I’m ready to see if the hills are as epic as the views, and if the Bixby Bridge is as majestic as all those car ads make it out to be.”—Derek Call, Video Producer RUNNERSWORLD.COM
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BEST 5K S A race that’s been called “the toughest 5K on the planet”—there’s more than 3,000 feet of elevation gain in under a mile—might not feel like a vacation. What will: Watching the fireworks light up the sky over the glacier-draped mountains surrounding Resurrection Bay the night before the race. rw says: “Images of runners sliding down scree have long made me want to do this race. Scoring a bib via the lottery—only 700 runners are accepted every year—may be more challenging than the race itself.”—Jeff Dengate, Runner-in-Chief
Running through the streets of San Francisco.
MOST FUN BAY TO BREAKERS 12K, SAN FRANCISCO / May 31, 2020
Nearing the top at the Mount Marathon in Seward, Alaska.
N From the starting line’s tortilla toss (exactly what it sounds like) to the array of costumes to the (we’re not kidding) naked racers, Bay to Breakers is a party worth seeing in the flesh. Do it for the stories. rw says: “You could aim for a PR here, but that’s like bragging that you were first to leave a party. This is a race where negative splits are less important than mid-run shenanigans (though the race organizers do implore you to wear clothing—even if they don’t fully enforce that rule).”—Kit Fox, Special Projects Editor (who promises to run clothed)
Storgata Street in the arctic city of Tromsø, Norway.
BEST NIGHTTIME RACE POLAR NIGHT HALF MARATHON, TROMSØ, NORWAY / January 4, 2020 E This half starts midafternoon, but because of the lack of sunshine during Norway’s winter months, you’ll race the whole course in the dark. The upside: If you’re lucky, you’ll spot the aurora borealis. rw says: “This race is on my must-run list. A nighttime race always feels more relaxed, like a party, but pair that with international travel and the Northern Lights and you have the experience of a lifetime.”—Danielle Zickl, Associate Health & Fitness Editor 36
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J O E L K R A H N ( M O U N T M A R AT H O N ) ; C O U R T ES Y O F G A M E FA C E M E D I A / B AY T O B R E A K ER S ( B AY T O B R E A K ER S) ; T RU L S T I L L E R / C O U R T ES Y P O L A R N I G H T H A L F M A R AT H O N ( P O L A R N I G H T ) ; C O U R T ES Y A L B AT R O S A D V EN T U R E M A R AT H O N S ( B A G A N T EM P L E ) ; G AV I N D O R E M U S / C O U R T ES Y H O O D T O C O A S T ( H O O D T O C O A S T )
MOUNT MARATHON 5K, SEWARD, AK / July 4, 2020
A winding dirt road leads runners past Sulamani Temple in Myanmar.
Passing the baton in Sandy, Oregon.
BEST INTERNATIONAL THE BAGAN TEMPLE MARATHON, BAGAN, MYANMAR / November 28, 2020 N The route takes you past 1,000-year-old temples, ancient pagodas, and through pastoral Burmese farmland, where you’ll see oxen pulling carts of g rain and local farmers tending their peanut fields. It’s like time-traveling via endurance race. rw says: “Nothing is more transcendent than a 26.2-mile excursion through the largest archaeological site in the world. I think the best way to understand an ancient world’s devotion is by the cadence of faithful runners.” —Caroline Dorey-Stein, Assistant Special Projects Editor
BEST GROUP EXPERIENCE HOOD TO COAST RELAY, MT. HOOD, OR / August 28–29, 2020 W This 199-mile relay sees teams travel from Mt. Hood National Forest to Seaside, Oregon, on the Pacific via 36 different race legs. Have the entire team cross the finish line together in spirit of the event. rw says: “I’ve only done one other overnight relay, but it brought together my random team of acquaintances in a way that made Hood to Coast a must. We entered the lottery, and we’re in for 2020!”—Brian Dalek, Director of Content Operations RUNNERSWORLD.COM
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AND WE DIDN’T
As it turns out, an all-ladies weekend of running is actually really damn fun. BY L AUREN S TEELE P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y A N DY C O C H R A N E
KILL EACH OTHER RUNNERSWORLD.COM
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I’d already run a half marathon today through 106-degree heat. Instead of figuring out my punchline, I remained prone in the backseat of our support vehicle, pumping myself up for the next challenge: downing tonight’s rice and curry. The evening’s meal came while we were stopped in the recently abandoned Amboy, California, somewhere between the south entrance of Joshua Tree National Park (our start) and the northwestern edge of Death Valley (our goal). It’s a broad, ambiguous stretch of highways and back roads that we had run ourselves into—374 miles of not quite nothing—but it doesn’t take long for the Mojave Desert to stretch out and put you in your place. You, and your companions, and even Roy’s Motel Cafe, are just another tan speck in the middle of a vast nowhere. 40
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Two weeks earlier I had bought a plane ticket to California. It was an impulse. But when a friend, Andy, asked me if I’d like to run across the Mojave from California to Nevada with 10 women—nine of whom I’d never met—I thought it to be the best worst idea I’d heard in ages. He put it to me like this: “Hey, Lauren, I’ve been thinking about how I have so many badass, smart friends who just happen to be women who love to run. And none of them really know each other and I’m the common denominator, so I want to plan a trip for all my badass lady friends to meet each other and run together. Would you be down to take a weekend and run across the Mojave Desert with a bunch of awesome women?” That’s actually pretty sincere and cool. So I said yes, got a scorpion-proof sleeping bag, and queued up a Google Sheet so
Three Big Runs We Love 1 / HOOD TO COAST 199 MILES AUGUST 28–29 GOVERNMENT CAMP TO SEASIDE, OR
we could all exchange numbers and figure out how Left: All smiles And despite our bodies’ constant demand for sunscreen and woos at the many avocados we’d need to fuel this, well… and water, these were the moments when we lost our entrance to Joshua It wasn’t a race. I wouldn’t even call it “an objective.” Tree National Park. inhibitions and found the fun. Above: Fifty miles That’s much too serious for 11 gals running a selfWe practiced twerking on the side of the road (sorry, we were still imposed 374-mile relay across the desert. Regardless, in, Mom, I instigated that one), licked salt off the ground feeling fresh. when I walked into the Sprouts grocery in Riverside, Three days later of the Badwater Basin salt flats, laughed until we cried at the finish, we’d California, on Friday night to buy heaps of snacks (kettle at the lowest point of America (literally), and ate tofu still be smiling. chips and dried mango FTW) and meet the rest of the sofritas whipped up by Rebecca Murillo—who in just group, I was nervous, even more so than I would be at a few weeks would take second place at her first-ever an official race. What if I couldn’t handle my mileage 100-mile race, the San Diego 100. That’s an incredibly in the heat? What if I didn’t make the other women laugh—or badass achievement, but she will forever be known first and worse, made them dread spending three days stuck in the desert foremost by the superlative of “Best Camp Chef” in my heart. with me? Or, what if I found myself deep in the desert filled We named desert tortoises (Eustace was my favorite), and shared with dread that I was stuck with nine strangers for three days? stories while we set up our roadside dinner camps. But it was too late to worry about that now, so I grabbed an One woman in our group was getting ready to go back to school extra bag of salt-and-pepper chips for emotional support and for her graduate degree, one had just gone through a breakup told my inner Lauren to chill TF out. and was moving across the country, one had competed in the Onward we went in our three-car support caravan filled with Olympics and won the Western States 100, one had lived on a boat oatmeal, electrolytes, headlamps, tents, 37 avocados (sadly, not in the San Francisco Bay for a year with her boyfriend, one had helped see her partner through a cancer recovery, one had quit enough), a handle of emergency tequila, and about 150 shower wipes (also not enough). We found the entrance of Joshua Tree her office job to produce films and write stories, and one had an National Park and sent our first runner down the asphalt road Instagram-famous dog. Solidarity came fast and it came in handy. with a high-five tunnel and some classic woo-girl “wooooos.” On day two, we crossed into the Mojave National Preserve We broke the relay into 6-mile legs. One woman ran while the and the thermometer hit triple digits by 11 a.m. My second leg other 10 shuttled the SUVs to the next exchange and snacked/ of the day would start around 2 p.m., so I was thrilled when a yoga-ed/chugged water/power napped while waiting. After breeze started to pick up. But by the time I hit the road, that another tag and round of “wooooos,” we’d start the shuttle all breeze turned into an 18 mph headwind, akin to running toward over again until breaking for five-ish hours of shuteye at night. a full-body hair dryer for nearly an hour. It was the perfect
HARD-EARNED RELAY ADVICE FROM RUNNER’S WORLD+ COACH JESS MOVOLD
Eat Real Food, More Frequently Split your calories into mini-meals with a mix of simple road-trip-friendly foods, like PB&J, backed up by your favorite sports nutrition. A handful of Oreos can boost your spirits and blood sugar, but limit the sweets to prevent crashes and sour stomach.
When You’re Off Your Feet, Work on Your Legs After every section, start priming your body for the next set of miles. Pop on compression sleeves or socks and then grab a tennis or lacrosse ball to roll out your glutes, calves, and any tight muscles. And if you have the space and a power outlet, NormaTec boots are the ultimate relay luxury.
The original relay is now 12,600 runners strong.
2 / THE BOURBON CHASE 200 MILES OCTOBER 23-24 CLERMONT TO LEXINGTON, KY Starts at Jim Beam and stops at four more distilleries.
3 / RAGNAR REACH THE BEACH 200 MILES SEPTEMBER 18-19, BRETTON WOODS TO HAMPTON BEACH, NH Bucolic New England pastures leading to the Atlantic.
Pack Fresh Clothes for Every Segment Bring fresh sets of shorts and socks, a top, and (if applicable) a sports bra for every leg you’ll run. Pack each change of clothes in a gallon Ziploc bag and then repack—and isolate—the soiled gear after the run. RUNNERSWORLD.COM
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Our Favorite Relay Gear 1 / JANJI AFO ORBITAL SINGLET $47 This tank is incredibly lightweight, made of high-end moisture wicking material.
2 / NATHAN SPORTS VAPORHOWE 12L 2.0 WOMEN’S RACE VEST $200 Water-resistant 42
pockets keep your smartphone safe from sweat and an insulated bladder keeps liquid cool all day.
you’re on asphalt, gravel, dirt, or the brink of quitting.
caffeinated), and 12 terry wristbands.
5 / HELINOX CHAIR ONE $100
3 / HOKA ONE ONE TORRENT $120
4 / NUUN TEAM HYDRATION KIT $135 Everything your squad needs to sweat profusely for a few days: 12 water bottles, 12 tubes of Nuun (two flavors, one
Trail shoes with enough EVA midsole cush to keep your feet moving—whether
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Packs down smaller than a football and pops together quickly to give you a comfortable seat when your legs need a rest.
personification of this desert: When you The group, left to top then bottom: think you have some beautiful relief, it right, Anna Callaghan, becomes brutal. Magda Boulet, Dani I suffered through my six but didn’t Kruger, Alex Borsuk, Carolyn Morse, want to complain. I couldn’t. When you’re Cara Baskin, Lauren in a group of self-motivated, intuitive Steele, Shira Klane, women who are all tired, hot, and yo-yoing Rebecca Murillo, Kathryn Wicheta, between nausea and hanger in the exact and Hilary Matheson. same unforgiving environment and undergoing the exact same physical exertion, you can’t be the first one to gripe. We all knew that this was an arduous, somewhat stupid task we had put upon ourselves. And we all also knew when you’re doing something you voluntarily signed up to suffer through, griping doesn’t work. But Alex Borsuk, a sports nutritionist when she’s not running, had the remedy for our too-tired, too-hot, too-hungry bodies. She blasted Mika’s “Big Girl” and we DANCED. We shook, shimmied, jumped, twirled, and wiggled on the side of Highway 127 and waved at semis and watched the heat wave right back at us as it wafted off the asphalt. We danced (admittedly not well), and we created our own sense of relief instead of calling it quits and grabbing the tequila. This breakthrough led to another: When we weren’t dancing, we voluntarily doubled up and ran together for support. This wasn’t a race, we weren’t trying to set a record, and no one was making us finish this nearly 400-mile run. But we all knew we wanted to finish this thing. Together. So in the middle of our route, but for the first time in the relay, I wasn’t running alone into this hair dryer hell. I had Anna Callaghan, a writer and filmmaker, next to me, plodding along a sunbaked dirt road lined in sage and blooming cacti. It was beautiful when you didn’t hate it. And right now, with Anna beside me laughing about running farts and telling me stories about climbing in the Himalayas, I didn’t hate it at all. On one particularly beautiful sunset-stretch of road outside Death Valley, I ran with Magda Boulet, our Olympian. She told me stories of running next to men in traditional Japanese garb during the Marathon des Sables, we nearly fell over laughing during a roadside-squat pee break, and she gave me sound advice on loving someone. All of a sudden, I was actually having fun—not even the Type 2 sort. Having no other care in the world besides keeping my run partner company made the miles go by just a little quicker, and convinced our feet to keep moving. On Sunday, day three, we careened over the border of Nevada and back into California toward Death Valley National Park. With 50 miles in my legs, my adductors (those inner thigh muscles that keep us upright) felt like the fiery center of the sun from hours of running through sand, but I had the biggest shit-eating grin on my face. As soon as we made our way through Titus Canyon on the Nevada-California border, we would have done what we set out to do. Nights sleeping next to scorpions, pooping in catholes, buying ice at gas stations just to throw at each other—it would all culminate into three days and 374 miles of trusting (and having fun with) 10 other runners/women/ humans/new friends. We ran the last miles as one group of avocado- and potatochip-fueled hooligans—whooping, hollering, and cruising through Titus Canyon’s massive walls that squeezed to just 20 feet apart and shot straight up to the sky. It was easy to take my
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mind off my burning legs and reflect on our very arbitrary but very sweet accomplishment. We didn’t miss a single sunrise, saw every sunset, and caught each ray in between. Every morning started with oil-slick coffee made on the side of the road and the knowledge that the only way to get out of the middle of the desert was the same way we came in—with our feet. And then, just like that, we made it to the end of the road. It was far, it was sweaty, it was nearly 400 miles in America’s hottest desert. But it was also liberating, beautiful, fulfilling, and (get this) a good time. Like, hell yes, I’d do it again—just not too soon. There wasn’t a mile that went by without a communal laugh. There also wasn’t a mile that went by without some sort of pain thanks to the boiling heat and the aches and pains we accumulated. And that’s the beauty of it: We planned for it to be hard, but we couldn’t plan for it to be three days of gas station dance parties, roadside sofrita feasts, and endless belly laughs.
H I L A R Y M AT H E S O N
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAT T TRAPPE ||| BY JENNY MCCOY
THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS RUN CLUB SCALES MOUNTAINS BY 8 A.M.
Members of Satan’s Minions Scrambling Club in Boulder, Colorado.
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ON CERTAIN WEEKDAY MORNINGS, AROUND
5:30 or 6:00 a.m., a small group of athletes gathers at a trailhead in Boulder, Colorado. From there they run a mile or so along the dirt trails that snake up to the base of mountains, gaining elevation as they hop over rocks, roots, and whatever obstacles lie in their path. But when they near the Flatirons, the iconic slabs of rock that overlook town, the real adventure begins. Instead of reversing course as many runners do, the athletes forge ahead to the base of the rocks. Without breaking stride, they lean forward, place their hands on the rock, and continue their skyward journey, scrambling up the massive sheets of sandstone, typically without the safety or comfort of any climbing equipment—relying just on the grip of their own fingers and feet. Once they reach the top of a slab, they either climb down—again, without equipment—or, on steeper sections, fix a rope and rappel to the base, sometimes dropping 200 feet in less than a minute. Often, they repeat said scrambling routine on another slab of rock before booking it back down to the trailhead by around 8:00 a.m.—just in time for work. These aren’t professional ninjas or stunt people in training. They’re members of Satan’s Minions Scrambling Club. “In some respects, it’s crazy what we do,” says Bill Wright, 57, a father of two and software engineer who founded the Minions. And that inherent craziness is why, in a town teeming with Olympians, Ironman finishers, elite runners, and other extraordinary athletes, the Minions still manage to stand out.
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Bill Wright founded the group almost 20 years ago.
THE MINIONS FORMED NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO
after Wright broke his back on a local climbing route known as Death and Transfiguration. During his recovery, he read a Boulder climbing guidebook—Flatiron Classics: A Guide to Easy Climbs and Trails in Boulder’s Flatirons, by Gerry Roach—and became fixated on a challenge: tackling what Roach had designated the top 10 climbs in the Flatirons in under 15 hours, a time he’d heard another local climber had achieved. After he healed, he began preparing for the feat. He’d train while the rest of his family was still asleep—around 5:30 or 6:00 a.m.—to maximize his time with his two young sons.
“It wasn’t even so much the athletic challenge of it,” Wright explains, “it was the adventure to go to spectacular places that are gorgeous.” At the same time, he adds, “you’ve got to enjoy suffering and breathing hard a little bit.” Wright recruited a few friends to join, and together they met in the early dawn to speedclimb various Flatirons routes, typically without equipment. This involved running from their cars parked at the trailhead up to the base of the rocks.
“WE DON’T TEACH IT, WE DON’T GUIDE IT, AND
we don’t even recommend it,” Wright says of the scrambling the group tackles, which ranges in
difficulty of pitch up to about 5.6. That’s considered easy to intermediate-level rock climbing where using ropes is recommended. Sometimes there’s a fixed line for rappelling down, but most Minion climbs are done sans equipment. That said, Wright’s philosophy is to always do a new route with equipment first before scrambling it. As for the group’s name? That came from a friend of a friend, someone Wright has never met. He tells the story like this: Wright invited a coworker to join an upcoming run/climb, involving something like five miles of running, 3,000 feet of vertical gain, and 10 pitches of climbing up to 5.5 grade in difficulty, all before 7:45 a.m. That friend emailed this to another friend who responded: “Jesus Christ! This Bill Wright fellow sounds like one of Satan’s minions. My advice to you is to avoid him at all costs.” Wright embraced the moniker wholeheartedly. “It sounded like such a great name,” he explains.
“So we became Satan’s Minions Scrambling Club.” The group started with just four members and stayed in the single digits for four or five years. Over time, it grew through word of mouth and today the club supports a triple-digit membership. “It’s dangerous,” Wright says. “You could die doing this, but if you’re already doing it, then we’d love to have you.” There’s a specific process for admitting new members. Wright first vets interested applicants via email, asking them about their prior climbing experience and confirming that they can solo either the First or Third Flatiron (two common climbing routes in Boulder), from trailhead to trailhead, in under an hour. If they pass, they move on to an in-person “interview scramble,” in which Wright takes them out scrambling and assesses their skills and confidence on the rock. For this part, wannabe Minions must wear either running shoes resoled with sticky rubber or a
specific climbing approach shoe, both of which are safer for scrambling than regular running shoes, Wright says. His criteria: “If you make me nervous, you’re not in,” he says, “because we’re not daredevils.” Perhaps because of this strict policy, in the nearly two decades since the club formed, there’s only been one fall, which resulted in a broken ankle. The Minions don’t operate on any set schedule. Rather, any member of the group can email the list and organize a run-scramble. Wright estimates that happens about once a week, on average, with more meetups held in the warmer months and fewer during the winter. The weekday group scrambles are typically small (fewer than 10 people), and range in both time (1 to 2 hours) and intensity. “People think the Minions always go hard,” Wright says. “Frequently not. I like to go hard once or twice a week. Other than that, I mean,
Members meet up in the morning to complete their route before work.
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‘‘
W E DON ’ T T E AC H I T, W E DON ’ T GU I DE I T, A N D W E DON ’ T EV EN R ECOMMEND IT. The group heads up the Second Flatiron.
we move fast for normal people because we don’t generally stop, but we keep a nice conversational pace. It’s a real social thing.” Modern-day Minions span a range of ages— Wright’s son Derek, 21, is the youngest; Buzz Burrell, 68, is the oldest—and athletic résumés. Anton Krupicka, two-time Leadville 100 Champion and two-time 50-mile Trail National Champion, is a member, as are several other sponsored athletes in ultrarunning, climbing, and SkiMo racing, says Wright. But others are simply regular working professionals who also love exploring the Flatirons. The pinnacle event of the group’s last 15 years is the annual Tour de Flatirons, a five-stage trail running/speed-scrambling race that takes place over the course of five weeks. It’s held in the fall every year. The 2019 Tour drew 40 participants, says Wright. It’s pretty brutal: Some of the more challenging stages from recent years have included
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The group’s pinnacle event is the Tour de Flatirons, a five-stage trail running/speedscrambling race.
two to four miles of running, total vertical gain of 1,500 to 2,000 feet, and 10 to 14 pitches of climbing, ranging between 5.2 and 5.6 in difficulty.
“THE LIMITING FACTOR on the rock is not so much
the technical difficulty, but your fitness,” says Krupicka, 36, who’s participated in stages of the Tour every year since 2012. The fastest Minions, he says, don’t typically pause as they scramble, and thus don’t rest. “It’s really intense in a competitive anaerobic threshold kind of way.” The experience can be humbling, especially for newcomers. “When you first join, you think ‘Oh, I’m the best at this,’” says Cordis Hall, 25, a sponsored runner with Adidas Terrex and a Minion since 2015, recalling his first Tour. “And you really get embarrassed your first time there.” Hall won the Tour in 2017. For Sonia Buckley, 31, a physicist and Minion
since 2016, the Tour was her introduction to scrambling. Her friend invited her to come out, and it turns out “going scrambling” meant completing a stage of the Tour. “I just hadn’t realized [speed-soloing the Flatirons] was a thing, and I liked it,” Buckley says. Through the Minions, Buckley, a “climber that runs,” started running—an activity she previously considered “boring”—and learned that she actually enjoyed the sport. “I like the people and I like racing, and I like climbing, so this is a really fun combination of all those things,” she says. Angela Tomczik, 27, a statistical analyst, joined the group about four years ago. Training with the Minions, she says, has made her a stronger runner, “especially downhill because the end of every race you’re just running down the trail as fast as you can and none of it is smooth running,” she explains. “You’re kind of rock hopping and avoiding obstacles and everything is an adventure.”
The combination of running and scrambling is “pretty much my favorite thing to do,” says Krupicka. “It’s probably the activity that’s easiest for me to find that sort of elusive flow state because it requires so much concentration and focus.” Also: “The Flatirons are so special because it just seems so improbable,” Krupicka adds. “You’re just in these sort of heroic positions on these giant rock formations...It’s sort of the improbability that you could develop your skill level to the point where you feel really comfortable in this high-consequence terrain that affords you this heroic position on the landscape.” As the Minions’ founding father, Wright hopes the annual event will persist—and perhaps even evolve into a longer-distance venture—far into the future. “I want it to live on past my involvement,” he says. “So my job is to make sure it’s got enough energy behind it that it can continue without me.”
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THE FIGHT TO BUILD THE WORLD’S FASTEST SHOE BY
JOE LINDSEY
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NIKE DIDN’T TELL RODGER KRAM AND WOUTER
Hoogkamer much about the prototype shoe at first. “We knew it had a new foam, called Pebax, and they showed us the carbon [fiber] plate,” recalls Kram. The exercise physiologist and longtime director of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Locomotion Lab, and Hoogkamer, then a postdoctoral researcher there, were writing a journal paper, published in March 2017, detailing how an elite runner might break the mythical two-hour marathon barrier. One factor they detailed was shoe design, and the two had been given what would become the ZoomX Vaporfly 4% to test. Explaining how shoe design might help break two hours was tricky, says Kram, because while they had already completed testing on the new shoe, they couldn’t include their non-peerreviewed data in a peer-reviewed journal. So they focused on the weight of the foam midsole, which, based on previous studies, they estimated could improve an athlete’s running economy by around one percent. “The world record at that time [2:02:57 by Kenyan Dennis Kimetto in 2014] was in the Adidas Boost shoe,” says Hoogkamer, now a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. However, he adds, “we didn’t say you can make the foam better; we said, ‘Boost is pretty heavy, so maybe you can make it lighter.’” As for the Vaporfly testing itself, Kram and Hoogkamer approached it with one simple question: Was it faster? In May of the following year, Nike provided a teaser of an answer with Breaking2, where Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya came within 25 seconds of the two-hour mark on the Formula One Autodromo Nationale track in Monza, Italy. Even unsuccessful, it was a striking improvement over Kimetto’s record, and running fans debated what was responsible for the two percent time drop—the dead-flat track, the pacers, the massive car-mounted clock that also functioned as a draft vehicle, or the prototype shoe Kipchoge wore. Hoogkamer and Kram’s next study, published that fall with the innocuous title “A Comparison of the Energetic Cost of Running in Marathon Racing Shoes,” offered a more definitive assessment. The prototype shoe, compared with two top existing models—Nike’s Zoom Streak 6 and the Adidas Adizero Adios Boost 2 that Kimetto used in 2014—reduced the metabolic cost of running by four percent. That savings, Hoogkamer and Kram calculated, “should translate to ~3.4 percent improvement in running velocity at marathon world record pace (20.59 km/h).” What’s more, because they normalized shoe weight across all
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Pacers at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge all wore the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%.
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FOAM DECODER Shoe companies market their respective midsole technologies with proprietary names, but there are only a handful of underlying materials, which companies tweak to their desired specifications. What’s the tech behind the jargon, and what did RW testers think of it? Here’s a rundown of our favorites.
1. SAUCONY KINVARA 10 $110 FOAM: Everun / WHAT IT IS: TPU, as a topsole in
the Kinvara 10 with EVA midsole / WHAT WE SAID: “One of the lightest everyday trainers, the flexibility and light weight help runners chip away at their existing PRs in distances from 5K to the marathon.”
2. REEBOK FLOATRIDE RUN FAST $140 FOAM: Floatride Energy / WHAT IT IS: Pebax, with EVA rim / WHAT WE SAID: “A true go-fast tempo shoe, but without the harsh ride usually associated with a conventional racing flat.”
3. NIKE VAPORFLY NEXT% $250
4. ADIDAS ADIZERO BOSTON 7 $120
FOAM: ZoomX / WHAT
FOAM: Boost / WHAT
IT IS: Pebax, with a
IT IS: TPU / WHAT WE SAID: “Our testers were
carbon fiber midsole plate / WHAT WE SAID: “With a more forgiving ride and more comfortable upper (than the Vaporfly 4%), the new shoe is better—even if your bib doesn’t read ‘Eliud’ or Shalane.’”
split on whether there was enough cushioning, but several raved about overall comfort, saying it was great from the first run and wrapped the foot like a glove.”
three test samples, the benefit they found wasn’t from lighter weight. The study was instantly controversial. It was funded by Nike, for starters (Kram is also a paid consultant), and two Nike employees, Geng Luo and Emily Farina, were listed as coauthors. Subsequent studies not associated with Nike have validated the results, although sample sizes have all been small and the resulting effect varied. Immediately, people questioned the role of the carbon fiber plate. “Any device inserted into the shoe, and which purports to add to energy return…should be banned,” wrote exercise physiologist Ross Tucker on his Science of Sport blog. Tucker maintains that the plate is essentially a spring, pointing out that this is how Nike refers to a carbon plate in a previous patent.
Lost in the clamor over the benefit of the carbon plate was the role of the foam itself. In both their initial study and an early 2018 follow-up on the biomechanics involved, Hoogkamer and Kram pointed to one major contributor to the improvements in running economy: “For now, the elastic properties of the Nike Prototype shoes provide the best explanation for the metabolic energy savings.” In plain English: The new foam was noticeably springier, which made runners faster. This foam, which Nike branded ZoomX, helped usher in a new era in shoe design and materials, especially midsole foam. Although the race for a breakthrough foam started in earnest in 2013 with Adidas’s first Boost-equipped shoe, Nike’s bold performance claims around the Vaporfly 4% and Next%, right down to the names, have changed the conversation. “When we started doing our outsoles, our focus was reinventing cushioning,” says Olivier Bernhard, cofounder of On Running. “Everyone you talk to nowadays, it’s about durability and resilience, rebound.” As shoemakers continue to try to improve performance, and research accumulates showing a modest but undeniable benefit to next-generation materials, the foam wars have only gotten more heated.
RECREATIONAL RUNNER ANDY JACQUES- MAYNE IS
well aware of the shift in conversation. JacquesMayne is a former pro cyclist, a sport that prizes attention to technical detail and the marginal-gains ethos of seeking even the smallest improvements in efficiency. On paper, he’s a prototypical Vaporfly buyer, noting that “from a performance standpoint, buying shoes that supposedly offer free speed sounds great,” although that’s far from his only consideration. But for Jacques-Mayne, like a lot of runners, foam technology is an afterthought. For almost 50 years, the primary technology in running shoes, midsole foam, has hardly changed. From Bill Bowerman’s original Nike Cortez to most of today’s shoes, the material of choice is EVA, or ethylene vinyl acetate. Only recently has
that started to change. EVA makes an ideal midsole: in foam form it’s exceptionally light and provides great cushioning. Crucially, it’s also cheap, and it’s easy to make into a foam. And with decades of experience, shoe companies and the foam manufacturers who turn the raw EVA into sheets of midsole foam or compressed midsole blanks have learned little tweaks to the formula and manufacturing that offer a seemingly endless amount of variation to how a shoe feels in stride. But there are drawbacks: EVA’s performance is highly dependent on temperature; in hot weather it tends to feel like a marshmallow, while in cold temps the midsole hardens and loses its cushioning. It has a relatively high compression set, which means it packs out and permanently loses its cushioning quickly. And while it offers good cushioning, it isn’t great at energy return, where a sole is compressed and then rebounds, returning some of the force back to the runner. While foam suppliers can tweak EVA’s performance, they can’t fully overcome those basic limitations because they’re baked into its chemical composition. EVA is what’s called a random copolymer, says Polymer Solutions founder Jim Rancourt, Ph.D., a materials scientist with 40 years of experience in plastics, and a longtime runner. Ethylene is a hard plastic used in products like milk jugs. Vinyl acetate is basically Elmer’s glue. Combine them, and you can get a solidbut-spongy product tuned by the ratio of each monomer. But that’s about all you can control. “The analogy I use is Lego blocks,” Rancourt says. Say ethylene (the hard component) is blue blocks, and vinyl acetate (the soft component) is yellow. A shoemaker can ask a foam supplier to adjust the amount of each in the blend, but unlike other materials, EVA’s blue and yellow blocks will connect in a random pattern. That basic ratio is a crude way to control properties like softness. Another method is to vary the density of the foam by putting less or more into a mold, but less dense foams generally lose their rebound characteristics more quickly. The final option is to blend EVA with other materials, or just use something different altogether. Shoemakers have for years tried to find alternatives, all the way back to Nike’s original Air Tailwind and its air cavity in 1978. In the 1980s, says Spencer White, vice president of human performance for Saucony, that company experimented with a material from DuPont called Hytrel. “It was just as bouncy and lively as the foams we’re working with now, but we never figured out how to make it inexpensive enough RUNNERSWORLD.COM
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5. HOKA ONE ONE CARBON X $180 FOAM: Profly X / WHAT IT IS: dual-density EVA with a carbon midsole plate / WHAT WE SAID: “Cushioning is abundant and consistent throughout the length of the shoe. Midfoot strikers will like the rocker’s aggressive positioning.”
6. BROOKS GHOST 12 $130 FOAM: DNA Loft / WHAT IT IS: EVA / WHAT WE SAID: “ It’s the shoe we recommend to new runners because of its versatility. It has the right amount of bounce during pushoff, so hips and knees aren’t jounced with pain. Uber-soft cushioning willed us to run longer than we originally planned.”
to make a whole midsole out of it,” he says. By 2007, the German chemical company BASF had found a way to puff, or expand, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) into little spongy pellets that sprang back quickly when compressed. They called the product Infinergy but struggled to identify an application for it—that is, until they figured out how to fuse the pellets into a single layer of foam, and signed an exclusive footwear license to Adidas to use it as Boost, which debuted in 2013. But perhaps nothing has been as revolutionary as a plastic developed by the multinational chemical company Arkema, called Pebax.
LIKE A LOT OF PLASTICS, PEBAX HAS BEEN AROUND FOR
decades. In solid form, it adds flexibility to rigid ski boot shells, and it’s used in heart catheters. But the foam form wasn’t patented until 2004, and Nike and Reebok were the first to adapt it 54
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for running shoes. Pebax is a brand-name play on the generic name: polyether block amide (PEBA). Like TPU, it’s what’s called a block copolymer, a definition that’s essential to its advantages. To go back to Rancourt’s Lego analogy, Pebax is also made of blocks. But instead of being randomly arranged, Arkema can actually join chains of blocks of a single color, and vary the length of those chains, alternating hard and soft sections precisely to control the amount of cushioning and rebound. So as a product, Pebax isn’t one specific thing, says Kevin Hanrahan, chief marketing officer for Arkema’s technical polymers unit. “It’s a range from very rigid to very soft, and you can get the energy-return properties of a polyether without compromising softness.” That’s also technically the case for TPU or any other block copolymer, says Rancourt. But there are certain advantages to some over others. Weight, for instance: Arkema says Pebax is as much as 20 percent lighter than
TPU-based foams like Boost. TPU, in turn, has the advantage of long life, since it has a lower compression set than Pebax or EVA. And both TPU and Pebax offer consistent performance in a wide temperature range. But maybe the signature advantage among these foams is Pebax’s rebound, or energy return. “Energy return” is a bit of a misnomer; it’s more like “less energy lost.” Any foam midsole, when compressed under load, will store a certain amount of energy on a footstrike that rebounds back when the runner pushes off. Shoes with midsoles based on EVA foams have a range of energy return depending on how they’re formulated, but generally, they top out around 65 to 70 percent. TPUs like Boost are better, at 70 to 76 percent. But the two best shoes Runner’s World has ever tested in terms of energy return are the Vaporfly 4% and 4% Flyknit, which offer as much as 82 percent return in deflection and rebound testing. (Kram and Hoogkamer measure it even
higher, at 87 percent.) Why does energy return matter? Iain Hunter, Ph.D., a professor of exercise science at Brigham Young University, found a clue that he wrote about in a June 2019 study in the Journal of Sports Sciences, where he attempted to replicate Hoogkamer and Kram’s 2018 metabolic cost comparison study. Both studies found runners had a longer stride in the Vaporfly than other shoes, which makes sense from an increased efficiency perspective: The farther you travel per stride, the faster you’ll go at a given cadence. But Hunter also measured a few parameters that the CU study didn’t, like vertical oscillation—essentially how high the runner is bouncing with each stride. There, Hunter found that the Vaporfly led runners to bounce higher, which normally would correlate with lower running economy, “unless it’s not the body that’s generating the energy to make that happen,” Hunter says. His theory: The Vaporfly sole’s bounciness returns more of the energy to the runner than other foams, which produces a longer stride for a given amount of ground time. Hoogkamer also thinks that because Pebax is a softer-feeling material than the TPU-based Boost, there’s more compression to begin with, leading to an overall higher rebound. “The actual joules, or energy units, stored in the compression phase are a lot higher because it’s such a soft shoe,” he says. The CU study found slightly higher peak forces on impact for the Vaporfly (the opposite of the BYU study), but because the shoe is so soft, Hoogkamer theorizes that it actually feels less harsh to the runner, which enables the runner to take longer strides. That may matter over the course of a season as much as during a single race. At the July 2019 Footwear Biomechanics Conference, Nike research scientist Brett Kirby presented data showing that runners wearing the Vaporfly sustained less muscle damage than a control group wearing other shoes. Reduced muscle soreness suggests they could sustain higher training loads. Whatever the mechanism, it’s undeniably effective. In addition to the CU and BYU studies, Kyle Barnes, Ph.D., a professor of exercise science at Green Valley State, found similar running economy changes in a comparison with the Adizero Adios Boost 3. And in a messier but far larger sample size, the New York Times’s Upshot examined roughly half a million marathon times from public data like Strava and concluded that, on average, runners wearing the Vaporfly ran three to four percent faster than similar runners
in most other shoes, and one percent faster than the next fastest shoe, Nike’s Zoom Streak. (The authors noted that “the analysis suggests that, in a race between two marathoners of the same ability, a runner wearing Vaporflys would have a real advantage.”) As a result of all the data, and Nike’s aggressive marketing, shoe companies are racing to develop faster foams and smarter ways to use them. White says Saucony has tested dozens of foams over the years, and almost used Boost before Adidas snapped up the exclusive. On Running has its CloudTec system and new foam formulations like Helion. Reebok uses Pebax in its Floatride midsole. Under Armour uses a TPU foam called Infuse in its Hovr line. Skechers’s Hyper Burst foam is a CO 2 -infused EVA, and the DNA AMP midsole in the Brooks Levitate is another polyurethane foam from BASF called
Elastopan. Pebax isn’t even the only PEBA out there; a similar product, called Vestamid, is available from the German chemical company Evonik. And Adidas, which has been a little quiet on the foam front besides tweaked versions of its midsole tech like Boost HD, is rumored to be working on a new shoe that was supposedly tested at the Berlin Marathon, and which may be its answer to Pebax.
MOST RUNNERS WITHIN R ANGE OF THE HALLOWED
three-hour marathon mark, if offered a simple equipment choice to knock six minutes off their time, would probably take it in an instant. But two of the downsides of Pebax foam are its cost and its high compression set. The Vaporfly 4% and Next% shoes are $250—a lot of cash for a
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7. ASICS GT-2000 7 $120 FOAM: FlyteFoam Lyte / WHAT IT IS: EVA with gel in heel and forefoot / WHAT WE SAID: “Among the stiffest shoes you’ll find, the GT-2000 7 still appealed to a variety of testers; it’s heavy but doesn’t feel slow. The cushioning doesn’t feel that soft but is substantial, the kind you’d want for pounding out miles on the roads.”
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shoe that may only last a handful of races. That’s significantly more than most runners are willing to pay. “The bulk of the market has crept up a little but [the average price] is still at $120 to $130,” says Saucony’s White. “In the big races you’ll see a lot of high-end shoes at the front, but it falls off pretty quickly after that.” Beyond the cost issue, runners become loyal to shoes for many reasons, like a shape that properly fits their feet and the way the design supports their stride and biomechanics. A 2015 metareview of studies of running shoes and injuries, by University of Calgary exercise scientist Benno Nigg, Ph.D. suggested that runners “intuitively select a comfortable product using their own comfort filter that allows them to remain in the preferred movement path.” Foam, especially the new supersoft and bouncy stuff, seems to fit right into that ideal. But it’s an open question as to how much runners actually care about it, whether it’s called ZoomX or Boost or whatever. “I suspect most runners have no idea what we’re talking about,” says Saucony’s White. “The majority just want a good shoe that feels great.” There’s also the still-evolving discussion of what provides the performance benefit, including the exact foam formulation, which are often variations on the base material. Nike’s version of Pebax provides excellent energy return, for instance, but Reebok’s Pebax-based Floatride foam, used in several of its top shoes, returns values in the RW tests that you’d associate with a quality EVA shoe, but below Boost or ZoomX. And we don’t yet know how much of the improved running economy lies in other aspects of shoe design, like air pods or carbon fiber plates, and whether that’s because those elements act as propulsive springs, or if they merely stabilize soft foams to maximize energy return. In another presentation at the Footwear Biomechanics Conference, Emily Farina of Nike’s Sports Research Lab showed data suggesting that, depending on its shape, the carbon plate in the Vaporfly might be responsible for more of the running economy improvement than researchers had thought, although the exact mechanism wasn’t explained. If Nike, which has a division devoted to exploring questions like this, knows any more, it isn’t saying. The company declined multiple requests to make Farina and other Sports Research Lab staff available for interviews, but e-mailed back a one-line statement: “The magic of the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% and the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% is in the full system and how all the elements work together, not in 56
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with Vaporflys winning the Berlin, New York, any single ingredient.” That sounds like bland corporate jargon, but and Chicago marathons, while Kipchoge broke there may be more to it. Among Nike’s various the two-hour barrier with his latest prototype. patents around the Vaporfly is a pending appliBut ultimately, runners and not shoe companies cation from 2018 titled “Stacked Cushioning will decide the fate of shoe technology like the Arrangement for Sole Structure” which looks Vaporfly, and those considerations come down similar to Kipchoge’s shoes from the INEOS 1:59 not just to performance, but fit and even philoChallenge. The patent details a shoe design with sophical approach to the sport. several distinct layers of foam, as many as three Mindful of the importance of on-bike form to carbon fiber plates, and two pairs of fluid-filled his cycling career, Jacques-Mayne says he pays forefoot cushioning chambers sandwiched close attention to his biomechanics and stride between the plates. So it seems pretty clear that (midfoot, with a touch of heel). He’s run in Hoka the plate (or plates) matter. One One, Adidas, and Nike, among other brands, But foam absolutely matters as well, even if but trains in New Balance’s 880, for its neutral support and “just right” amount of padding. most runners don’t pay that much attention to it. (It doesn’t help that shoe companies insist on The Vaporfly wasn’t available when he got hype-y names like ZoomX or Boost or Helion and into running, so it wasn’t among the shoes he liberal use of marketing word salad to describe tried when searching for a fit. But even now, technologies they didn’t invent.) Perhaps the he adds, he’s more interested in gains from biggest reason foam matters is the trickle down. improved training and stride mechanics. “I was Pebax is expensive now, but costs may come a novice runner with a huge motor, so growing down as foam midsole suppliers learn more the mechanics and muscles to unlock speed was effective production techniques. And while a way more important,” he says. And he’s a little “halo product” like the Vaporfly is good marketwary of improvement that isn’t earned. While ing now, Nike may ultimately choose to spread its the idea of knocking four percent off his PR R&D costs across more models, at lower prices. sounds great, he says, he hasn’t felt the need to EVA, for all its drawbacks, isn’t going away: try Vaporflys. It’s still light, cheap, and easy to tweak. On Running’s new Helion foam is an EVA-based product, says Bernhard, who adds that in the beginning, the company 8. SKECHERS GORUN 9. MIZUNO WAVE SKY used a mix of EVA and polyurethane RAZOR 3 HYPER $135 WAVEKNIT 3 $160 foams but in testing, they found that FOAM: Hyper Burst / FOAM: Foam Wave EVA worked best with its sole structure. WHAT IT IS: CO 2 -infused (U4icX, U4ic, XPOP) On Running’s experience suggests EVA / WHAT WE SAID: / WHAT IT IS: a TPU penetrates the “CO sandwich (XPOP) inside 2 that future breakthroughs may come EVA and yields different two blends of EVA, as much from structural elements like shapes to the internal with Pebax used as a sole designs or plates as from new cells…making it lighter plate, not foam / WHAT foams, although Rancourt says other WE SAID: “A highly but still responsive and cushioned but firm surprisingly well-cushblock copolymers are out there that neutral daily trainer with ioned.” might provide similar performance impressive durability.” characteristics to Pebax. For all its promise, Pebax hasn’t taken over running yet. Absent broader availability of models like the Vaporfly, 10. NEW BALANCE FRESH 11. ON RUNNING or a breakthrough that provides sigFOAM BEACON V2 $120 CLOUDSWIFT $180 nificant price drops, it may not. Nike FOAM: Fresh Foam FOAM: Helion / WHAT itself seems to acknowledge this with IT IS: EVA blended with / WHAT IT IS: EVA / shoes like the race-oriented Zoom Fly WHAT WE SAID: “Soft, block copolymers / WHAT WE SAID: “Unlike light, fast; the Beacon 3, a near-clone of the Vaporfly down cushier trainers, the delivers all three. ” to the carbon plate, but made with its Cloudswift is designed React foam. That shoe costs $90 less. for a firm, responsive Despite its competitors’ efforts— ride.” and calls from non-Nike athletes for equipment regulations—Nike held its lead in the foam wars through 2019
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→ Drew Hunter after competing in the 5K at the 2019 USATF Championships.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CORTNEY WHITE
IT’S THE JUNE, and on the dirt paths around Boulder Reservoir, happiness wafts from the surface like heat rising from a Texas highway. But only in one place. The glee follows the wake of five young men, all rail-thin, shirtless, and laughing. They joke and josh throughout their two-mile warmup and subsequent five-mile run around the reservoir. During a set of hill sprints, 22-year-old Drew Hunter heckles Sam Parsons, 25, over his camel-like drinking habits. “What’s your hydration plan for the day?” he asks. “Eat a Nuun tablet?” Sam laughs and responds, “One Nuun tab a day, baby. That’s all you need.” Before their final sprint, a middle-aged man in a run vest and knee-high socks jogs up from the opposite direction. He’s built more like a CrossFitter than a runner. Compared to the younger men, he’s plodding. Sam shoots the slower athlete an ivory-toothed grin. I’m standing a few yards away, capturing the runners on my iPhone. Mid-lope, Sam yells over, “Don’t get him in the shot! He’ll make us look bad!” The man beams. Perhaps that’s because he knows he just got a shout-out from some of the fastest professional runners in the United States. The sweaty pack is part of Tinman Elite, a three-year-old team that’s currently 12 runners strong. The athletes, all men in their twenties, excel in distances from 800 meters to the marathon. Tinman has lofty goals— they want to be one of the top elite running teams, with members competing at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. But beyond the drive for accolades and medals, there’s a second, equally important ambition: to make elite running more transparent, relatable, and fun.
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Drew is Tinman’s unofficial captain. Nicknamed “the LeBron James of competitive running” by his teammates, he has a mild surfer vibe that belies his intense focus. As a high school sophomore in Purcellville, Virginia, he won the 2014 Penn Relays Carnival high school 3,000-meter race in 8:16.31. The following year he won the New Balance Nationals Indoor two-mile national title in 8:48.22; he also broke the high school boys’ national indoor 3K record with a 7:59.33, and became the eighth high school athlete ever to break four minutes in the mile—which he did twice before setting a new national high school indoor mile record, twice, with a best of 3:57.81. The big running colleges came calling. So did Adidas, who offered the then-18-year-old a lucrative 10-year contract, plus funds to attend the college of his choice. Drew signed before the ink on his diploma had dried, even though the deal came with a catch: Adidas lacked (and still lacks) a fully sponsored elite team. Drew took a year to explore various running towns before settling on Boulder. He fell in love with the outdoor-focused city in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It’s a college town that’s perfect for running, with superb weather (300 days of sunshine a year), the ideal altitude (5,328 feet, with access to 8,000-foot roads within a half-hour drive), culture (both laid-back and sports-obsessed), and endless, gorgeous dirt to run on. Drew enlisted Tom Schwartz—the coach who helped him achieve his high school records—to continue to train him remotely from Boise, Idaho. At first, Drew ran with Morgan Pearson, a Boulder-based athlete who was also training with Schwartz. Later
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that spring Drew and Morgan hooked up with Reed Fischer, an All-American in the 10,000 meters. Drew and Reed had met once before, briefly, at a high school race. “[Back in high school] I knew Drew because he was Drew,” says Reed. At the race, Reed introduced himself, and the two chatted for about two minutes. “That’s the only face-to-face interaction we had before I moved in with him two years later.” Before reconnecting with Drew, the lanky redhead checked out several other elite groups, including the Roots Running Project, a Boulder-based team coached by Richard Hansen. But the team’s philosophy and program didn’t gel with who Reed was as an athlete. “They are a great team with the success to prove it, but it wasn’t the right fit for me. They’d do hard workouts five times a week and their overall volume was…a lot.” They also focused on hitting paces and analytics (data-driven workouts focused on soft splits).
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“That’s just not how I prefer to train. I’m someone who likes to be well-rounded and not really sweat the small stuff.” In Schwartz, Reed found a coach who played to his strengths: consistency and slow and steady improvement. In Drew, he gained a like-minded running partner, one who wanted to win but who also ran for the sheer joy of running. By October 2017, three more runners, including Sam, had joined the group. They lived together, trained together, and started calling themselves Tinman Elite, after Schwartz’s self-ascribed nickname (a nod to his roots—he was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin, where the local triathlon was called the Tinman). That December they entered their first meet—the USATF Club Cross Country Championships. Morgan Sharpied “TINMAN” on XL white T-shirts, saying, “We need something to wear when we win.” They took the overall title. In the two years since, the running world has been scratching
its collective head over Tinman Elite’s identity and their growing successes (to name a few: club cross-country champions in 2017 and 2018; having all but one current Tinman qualify for USA Track and Field Nationals in 2019). “We’ve been called ragtag, a mob, the Beastie Boys of running. Some people don’t understand how we’ve done what we’ve done in such a short time span,” says Sam, raking his fingers through the shaggy blond hair he pulls back with a headband for races. But the Tinmen? They know exactly who they are and what they’re trying to do. Sam explains, “It’s about happiness. It’s about our coach. And it’s about us being raw and authentic, so people can connect to running.”
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n a steamy day in July 2019, Tom Schwartz slumps on a leather couch at the Des Moines Hilton. His head is flopped back, his eyes closed. Schwartz isn’t sleeping, he’s exhausted. He just moved from Boise to Boulder, he’s taking his final exams for a Ph.D. in health and human performance, and he’s here, at the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships, coaching the Tinmen. Schwartz trains the Tinman Elite team using a philosophy that grew from his own experience. As a high school and collegiate cross-country runner, he found his team's training philosophy— “hard, all the time”— left him physically and emotionally spent. But in the summers when he only took comfortable hourlong runs, some over hilly terrain, he could run faster during weekend races. “I started to realize that if workouts and races are appropriately spaced and sequenced, and you resist working too hard, you can have more success than when you’re working hard all the time,” says the now-52-year old Schwartz. Schwartz’s training focuses on what he calls critical velocity (CV), a hard but not-too-hard pace that improves the aerobic capacity of the fast-twitch muscle fibers responsible for endurance and sustainable intermediate speed. “Technically, CV is about 90 percent of VO2 max; but for the average runner, think of it as a few seconds per mile faster than your 10K race intensity,” says Schwartz, “or an effort that’s sustainable for 30 to 35 minutes.” His method blends CV workouts with long, slow runs, hill repetitions, threshold training, and small amounts of VO2 max training, all in an effort to keep his runners’ bodies and minds fresh. “You don’t get in shape as fast [as when you’re training hard all the time], but the key benefit is that you don’t beat yourself up physically and emotionally.” And that, he says, leads to better overall long-term performance. Joan Hunter, Drew’s mother and a former master’s racer with national titles in the 400 and 800, first read about CV training in posts Schwartz wrote on LetsRun.com more than 10 years ago. She adopted his methods, and later hired him to coach her. She felt stronger and faster, so she decided to try Schwartz’s training on the high school runners she and her husband Marc coached—including Drew. Mixing CV 1,000-meter repetitions, at 8K to 10K race pace,
along with long, slow, easy runs and short, fast repetitions, improved the athletes’ stamina, says Joan. Drew says it gave him more punch at the end of races. Before his senior year of high school, Joan and Marc decided that he should work directly with Schwartz, and that year he broke the four-minute mile indoors. Schwartz’s coaching “was the cherry on top of three great years of training and growth I had with my dad and mom,” says Drew. “He would say, ‘Try this. Push a little bit farther. Instead of running a 3:59 mile, let’s run a 3:57 and break the high school record. He knew the workouts I needed to do to run those times.” When the Tinmen joined Drew in Boulder, they joined Schwartz, too. Most of the guys came to the team with a chip on their shoulder, says Reed. They were broken down. Beat up. Or they’d been
← Reed Fischer and Brogan Austin lead a community run in Des Moines in July.
↓ Coach Tom Schwartz with Joey Berriatua at a gait analysis session.
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TRAIN LIKE A TINMAN Want to try CV training? Schwartz recommends this interval workout geared toward a recreational runner with a 22:00 5K time. (For a faster or slower pace, use the calculator on his website, runfastcoach. com.) Add it once a week to your regular training plan. 15–20 minute warmup at an easy pace 5 × 1km at Critical Velocity (CV = 4:30/km, which is 7:14.52/mile pace), jog 200m recoveries 5 × 200m cutdowns starting at 5K race effort and ending at 800m race effort (jog 100m recoveries) 10–20 minute slow cooldown running
overlooked in college. The majority wanted a second chance in running, and they found it in the tight-knit team, and with Schwartz’s training. “Coach Schwartz’s focus is different than other elite coaches, who are so hyper-focused on how to squeeze every little fraction of a second out of their athlete with maybe not enough regard for that athlete’s well-being,” says Reed. “He has a more macro approach—he wants us to have as good of a career as we can for as long as we can rather than having as good of a day as we can.” Tinman Elite training is different for each athlete, based on the distance he runs. But the overall approach is a mix of CV training, long runs, easy runs, hill work, and tempo runs. Under Schwartz’s coaching, every runner has experienced quantifiable success. Every single member (minus recruits too new to have raced yet) has PR’d. And every runner has found support, belonging, a family of like-minded runners, and a training method that makes him wake up in the morning with a sense of excitement, which fuels a belief about his future. “We’re getting there, we’re going to be on the world stage,” says Drew. “In four years, it’s not even going to be a question. We’re going to be one of the best groups in the world.”
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unning has never been like baseball, football, or basketball—outside of Prefontaine or Carl Lewis or maybe Meb, it’s hard to feel like you really know its heroes. (Blame reasons ranging from a lack of media to extreme secrecy on elite teams.) Most of the Tinman Elite runners remember what it was like to be a kid who loved running above all else but couldn’t always see a way forward. Take Reed, who grew up watching two-time Olympic medalist Galen Rupp. “He’s probably one of the greatest runners of all time, but I can’t tell you anything about him but his name and PRs,” because the top runners train in secret, come out only to race, and then retreat back to their hidden lairs, he says. “I should have idolized him, but he’s so sterile. I just didn’t really care.” That’s why the Tinmen prioritize connecting personally with their fans, most of whom are those high school or college-age kids. The team frequently hosts community runs for the so-called Tinmob in Boulder and while racing at locales across the country. At one recent run in Des Moines, 50 nervous-looking kids mooned over their running idols before one plucked up the courage to ask Reed, “If I changed my name to Reed Fischer and ran a 45-minute 5K, would you be mad?” he asks.
“I’m sure there are already other Reed Fischers out there doing it, so I’d just be, ‘more power to you,’” laughed the Tinman. Another kid shouts from the pack, “Talk us through your [most recent] 10K!” And hamming it up, Reed does. Then he hands it over to steeplechaser Joey Berriatua, who walks the kids through one of his races. Each of the five Tinmen at the event do this; the Q&A lasts a good 50 minutes. The connection is real, says a collegiate runner from Indianola, Iowa, who came to see them. “I was kind of wary of [these guys], because you see people on Instagram and they may not be like they portray in real life. But everything on Instagram is exactly what they’re like. I love their message of having fun with running.” “We want to show these kids that this sport can be fun, even at the professional level, that we’re the same as a 13- or 14-yearold at a conference meet in the middle-of-nowhere Minnesota or Virginia,” says Sam. And Instagram—and social media in general
(Tinman Elite has 100,000-plus followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube)—is where the team takes accessibility to the extreme. They post pictures and videos of every possible aspect of their lives, from racing to grocery shopping. They also sell merchandise on the website: hats, backpacks, shorts, and shirts bearing the back-to-back axes that form the Tinman Elite logo. On the surface, this hyper-focus on branding, social media, and “merch” can feel cringeworthy. But look deeper and it’s clear that their efforts are less about selling stuff than about connecting to and inspiring young runners. It’s important to the Tinmen that their fans know more about them than their PRs. They want them to see their struggles and challenges, not just their successes. One way they do this is through a series of relentlessly intimate online essays called “Tin Talks.” In one of Sam’s, he writes what it was like to come off a bunch of races where he’d PR’d only to finish nearly last at a 5K in Belgium.
↑ Team members not only train together but live together.
← An injured Drew, rolling through the grocery store; Joey Berriatua and Patrick Joseph play with a camera; Reed Fischer sporting Tinman gear.
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→ Tinman Elite taking the road on a training run.
↓ Sam Parsons wrapping up a meeting with Coach Schwartz.
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“After the race I was pretty deflated. I remember seeing Sean McGorty on my cooldown and giving him a bro-hug after he’d just run a huge PR of 13:18 (aka the &%$!* time I was supposed to run). I knew my season was over.” This emphasis on openness is backed by Schwartz: “Being a Tinman, in my view, is all about supporting other people. When we bring people onto our team, we want them to care about others. It means we have a positive voice on our team, and when someone is struggling, we pick them up. There are a lot of teams out there that don’t seem to emphasize this as much. But our philosophy is about more than just running. It’s about a way of thinking about life. A way of treating others. A way of overcoming obstacles.”
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t the Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, the Tinman Elite runners are nervous, and with good reason. This is the most important American meet of the year and the biggest competition of their running lives to date. It determines the qualifiers for the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, in September. Sam and another Tinman Elite runner, Jordan Gusman, run for Germany and Australia, respectively. Both have already qualified for the World Championships. The rest of the team are here to do the same, and so far results are mixed. Patrick Joseph misses qualifying for the 800 finals by just one place. Steeplechasers Kyle Medina and Joey Berriatua also don’t qualify, finishing 10th in their respective heats. Connor Winter finishes 6th in the 10K final, and Reed nabs 8th in the same race. But it’s the last night of finals that brings the biggest test for the team. Drew, Connor, and Jeff Thies are set to race the 5K final. Storm clouds build overhead as the 21 racers step to their waterfall-start positions on the track. Flanking Hunter are four heavy-hitter Nike runners, Lopez Lomong, Paul Chelimo, Woody Kincaid, and Hassan Mead. They blast out of the gate, and by the first corner, Chelimo, Kincaid, and Lomong have built a several-yard lead. They’re running incredibly strong; in the stands, Joan Hunter wonders what the hell they’re doing. “That’s too fast,” she says. Drew is getting squeezed into the pack behind them—which could result in disaster, because of the way qualifying for the World Championships works. Drew already met the World Championships qualifying time for the 5K at the Payton Jordan Invitational. But he has to finish this race in the top three among all qualifiers with the World standard, including those who might hit the time tonight, to get to Doha. Chelimo and Mead have also already run the qualifying time, but Lomong and Kincaid haven’t. Now, it looks like they could edge out Drew for the key spots. Drew hangs on, despite a handicap no one can see–a plantar injury he sustained in June. When the injury first happened, he dialed back, doing most of his training in the pool. But he’d raced so well at the Oslo Diamond League meet (running the fastest 3K by an American at the event) that, after the race and still with an injured foot, he started training “ridiculously hard,” he says, “like, 90 miles a week.” He was still in pain when he arrived in Des Moines. But he told himself: I can get this if I just stay present. “I was healthy enough to race but I had no idea how my foot would come out on the other end.” At 2,500 meters, the lead pack begins to slow. Drew begins to close the gap between himself and the four leaders. In the bleachers, the Tinmen watch nervously. Joan goes quiet. Then, at about 1,000 meters out, Drew guns it. He’s closed in on the lead pack. Top-three contention is within reach. But at 150 meters to go, his stride makes a sharp change. With one push off the ground, he hops. “I honestly could not push off my foot,” he says. With his plantar torn, he finishes fifth. Miraculously, since only Lomong and Kincaid hit the qualifying time, Drew still makes the team for Worlds.
At the end of the race he can barely walk. Jeff and Joan help him limp to the stands, where he hugs his teammates and poses for pictures with kids. Several minutes later, he exits the stadium, planning to heal up and go to Worlds. But that’s not what happens. In the weeks after Des Moines, the plantar tear, plus two metatarsal fractures, refuse to heal. After much heartache and deliberation, he realizes he can’t race in Doha. In hindsight, he knows where he went wrong. “I didn’t let my foot heal completely [after Oslo]. And I was way too attached to time on a clock and time in my workouts.” What Drew did in the lead-up to the USATF Championships isn’t unusual for an athlete of his caliber. “When you get on a roll with an injury, you have no choice but to train at a high level because you have this huge goal, and you choose not to back off like you otherwise would,” says Schwartz. But he agrees that he and Drew
made mistakes with training and race preparation (including not getting the necessary maintenance in the spring for tight back and hip muscles that increased shock to his feet). Chalk it up to the coach not insisting on more therapy, and inexperience on the athlete’s part, says Schwartz. Tinman is still young, and its members are still learning to read the signs of serious injury. “Drew needs more experience in terms of listening to his body and his coach, and staying on top of treatments for biomechanical issues, which are part of being a pro,” says Schwartz. They’re lessons that all the Tinman can learn and that they, in turn, can teach their fans as they train for the upcoming Olympic trials and beyond. As Drew tweeted to his 9,000-plus followers: “Heart wanted to run but the body wasn’t ready. Thank you everyone. I’ll get this right for 2020.”
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P H O T O G R A P H Y
B Y
K Y L E
O B E R M A N N
YAO MIAO HAD NO COACH, NO SPONSOR, AND NO HOPE OF BREAKING OUT
YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF
OF POVERTY IN RURAL CHINA. HER TENACITY CHANGED EVERYTHING.
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WAVING THE CHINESE NATIONAL FLAG ABOVE HER HEAD, FACE ECSTATIC, YAO MIAO SPRINTS THROUGH THICK, CHEERING CROWDS LINING
Despite a race infamous for its high-altitude passages and grueling weather, Yao Miao’s stride and posture betray no signs of fatigue; she runs full speed through the finish line, almost as if she wants to barge through the line of photographers and run right back into the Alps. As she slows to a stop, she gives a timid wave. The French crowd loves her. This virtually unknown Chinese runner has won in brutal style, taking the lead in the first seconds of the women’s race and ultimately beating the female Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix course record by nearly 20 minutes. She misses out on overall top 10 placement among men by a little more than five. Two months later, Yao Miao will top the Ultra Trail World Tour rankings, an amazing feat for a newcomer. But now, at starting lines, elites from around the world know and respect her. The Salomon International Team rushed to sign her to its pro team, luring her with a generous salary and racing opportunities worldwide. Only three years ago, traveling to and winning the world’s biggest trail races seemed like a fantasy for Yao Miao. She was broke, working as a trainee in her sister’s beauty parlor in eastern China. She had no coach, no sponsors, and no clear path to train for a local road race, much less a prestigious trail ultra. But the slight, shy Yao Miao knew one thing: She could run. What she hadn’t discovered yet was that she could dominate the sport.
THE STREETS OF CHAMONIX, FRANCE. IT’S AUGUST 31, 2018, AND THE 23-YEAR-OLD
RUNNER IS ABOUT TO WIN ONE OF THE WORLD’S
PREMIER MOUNTAIN ULTRAS—THE 62-MILE,
CCC DIVISION OF THE ULTRA-TRAIL DU MONTBLANC (UTMB). SHE CROSSES THE FINISH LINE
IN 11 HOURS, 57 MINUTES, AND 46 SECONDS.
THE SECOND-PLACE WOMAN, AMERICAN KATIE SCHIDE, IS MORE THAN 30 MINUTES BEHIND HER.
YA O M I A O WA S born in 1996 in a remote village in the mountains of Guizhou, one of China’s poorest provinces, the youngest of six. As a child, her after-school hours were spent helping the family work their small plot of land. Running was never on her radar, but when she was 16, all the student athletes in her class were taken to a compulsory four-mile running trial set up by the ti yu ti zhi, China’s state sports system. The Chinese ti yu ti zhi is a nationwide program that selects athletically talented children and breeds them into champions at sports boarding schools. The children do little but train and compete; classes and exams are a formality. The system exercises stifling control over its athletes—criticism or disagreement with coaches is unthinkable. Sixteen-year-old Yao Miao stood out in the trials. Despite an average finishing time, she had a lithe runner’s frame, and she was shipped off to a ti xiao, a sports boarding school, in the provincial capital of Guiyang. “I was not popular with other kids; there was nothing special about me,” says Yao Miao. As a kid, she says, she was introverted and quiet. She felt like she had 70
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no academic or sport successes, and no endearing personality traits or conventional beauty. She says the boarding school had one thing going for it: “It was still better than making a living as a peasant in a village.” At school, Yao Miao ran the 5,000 and 10,000 meters under orders from her ti xiao coaches, but says by their standards she was “very slow.” The best she could do was an 18-minute 5K and 38-minute 10K, so she was bumped up to the marathon. There she hit a 2:59 personal best—laudable, but far from the 2:40-ish benchmark she says she needed to progress to the next stage in the ti yu ti zhi hierarchy—zhuanye dui, the professional team. Making it to zhuanye dui is like being an athlete at a D1 college. “No zhuanye dui wanted me, and I did not have money to go to university,” Yao Miao remembers. “I had no future. I felt useless. I received no education, had no skills and no money, no way to earn a good living. I felt that I already failed, even though I was only 20.” In China, most young women in Yao Miao’s situation end up doing low-paid manual work in the cities, but one of Yao Miao’s sisters owned a beauty parlor in Shangrao, a town in Zhejiang province. She took her in so Yao Miao could learn the trade. Yao Miao had no interest in attaching fake eyelashes and polishing nails, though. Despite being told she was too slow for zhuanye dui, she was convinced that running was her best shot to make something of herself. Yao Miao was lucky. In 2016, the Chinese ultrarunning scene was exploding. The government organized state-sponsored races that lured runners with prize money equivalent to U.S. $6,000— more than a year’s income back in rural Guizhou. The new scene meant a lack of depth in the female division, and Yao Miao, with her ti xiao background, had the skill set to break into the sport. “I would wake up at 5 a.m. and run before work,” she says. “I had no coach. I just did the marathon training we did in ti xiao.”
For Yao Miao’s first ultra foray, she set her sights on a highaltitude 100-kilometer race in Zhangye, at the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The winner would take home nearly $3,800. Yao Miao spent her last bit of money on the cheapest train ticket to Zhangye, a 33-hour trip, but she didn’t allow for time to adjust to the region’s thinner air; the average altitude of the race course was well above 10,000 feet. Unacclimated, Yao Miao suffered from altitude sickness and diarrhea during the race and had to pull out. “I returned home and felt even more useless,” she says. But she kept running. “I just did not have any other choice. I was running to live, to make a living.” She took another gamble—an even harder ultra, the 2016 Gongga 100. Gongga is punishing. The course, with altitudes ranging between 5,000 and 13,000 feet, is often submerged in freezing fog. Snow covers the trail on the high passes. The combined elevation gain and loss over the 100 kilometers is 38,000 feet. Yao Miao felt her nerves kick in before the gun: “I was not sure if I could complete the distance; I had never run that far.” The race was an all-out battle, and again Yao Miao suffered altitude sickness in the thin air. She says completing the course felt like life and death, but she endured and won, taking home the $3,800. Filled with new confidence, Yao Miao began dominating Chinese ultras, racing as many as she could. “I won every race I entered in China after that, apart from one second place when I was sick—seven wins, I think, in less than a year.” Yao Miao left her sister’s beauty parlor and moved to Guiyang, the capital of her home province of Guizhou, to share an apartment with four other ti yu ti zhi–produced athletes. In late 2016, at a 25-mile race in her native Guizhou, she met another Chinese runner, Qi Min. The 26-year-old was a charismatic, handsome 2:16 marathoner, also from a small mountain
↑ Yao Miao
celebrates after winning the UTMB CCC race in 2018. ← Yao Miao
hadn’t been outside mainland China until January 2018. That same year, she competed in the UTMB CCC (pictured here at the race’s start).
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I HAD NO FUTURE. I FELT USELESS. I RECEIVED NO EDUCATION, HAD NO SKILLS, NO MONEY, AND NO WAY TO EARN A LIVING. I FELT THAT I HAD ALREADY FAILED, EVEN THOUGH I WAS ONLY 20. I WAS RUNNING TO LIVE. I DID NOT HAVE ANY OTHER CHOICE.
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↑ Yao Miao
and Qi Min in the Italian Dolomites. They say the rocky terrain was different than what they were used to in China. → Yao Miao
and Qi Min take a break while training in the Dolemites.
village. He had just escaped the state sports school system himself for the freedom of the trails. Like Yao Miao, he was blitzing his way through the Chinese ultrarunning scene, racking up wins and prize money. Qi Min quickly won Yao Miao over, becoming her boyfriend, training partner, and coach. When asked what drew her to him, Yao Miao blushes. “It’s not because he is a fast runner or good-looking,” she says. “He seemed like a good person.” In 2017 the pair moved to Dali, a small, ancient town in southwest China near the 13,000-foot Cangshan mountain range. With a base altitude above 6,000 feet, the local subtropical climate spares people both the excessive heat of summer and the cold of winter, creating a near-perfect training environment. Life became good, if not ideal, for the new first couple of Chinese trail running. They were flush with prize money, sponsored by Garmin and The North Face, training for foreign races paid for by sponsors. They saved all their winnings, aware that one injury could wipe out their sole source of income.
I N J A N U A RY 2 0 1 8 the couple competed in the Hong Kong 100, one of Asia’s most competitive mountain ultras. Yao Miao won, smashing the women’s course record by 40 minutes and finishing ninth overall. “Scary,” Qi Min says of her performance—she ran the first 30 miles faster than the course’s male record holder at the time, French superstar Francois D’haene. Yet instead of earning her recognition, Yao Miao’s win was met with skepticism from the ultra community. Trail running is 74
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extremely popular in mountainous Hong Kong, and many locals took to social media to accuse Yao Miao and Qi Min, who also won and set the course’s new male record, of doping. “China can go straight to hell and nobody should trust any records they break,” wrote one Facebook commenter. “[Chinese] are simply testing the latest doping technology in a non-Olympic sport to see what they can [get] away with,” wrote another. Yao Miao denies the charges and took the hostility in stride. “I got angry, but what could I do about it?” she says with a shrug. Aside from doping accusations, there was some criticism of Yao Miao’s win that seemed to hold a kernel of truth. “In my opinion, the Chinese want quick results,” Lithuanian ultrarunner Gediminas Grinius, who regularly races in China, told the South China Morning Post. “Their main problem is they lack experience and they don’t know how to prepare yet.” Grinius isn’t wrong. In June 2018, at the 75-mile Lavaredo Ultra Trail in Italy, Yao Miao broke into a commanding lead early, but problems arose fast. She hadn’t eaten anything along the course, hardly drank at the checkpoints and, crucially, wasn’t wearing sunglasses to protect her eyes from the harsh sun. “I started losing vision at the sixth checkpoint. I could not see the surface of the trail. I wanted to pull out, but I thought about how much the sponsors paid to send me to this race and I carried on,” she remembers. “On the final descent I was almost blind. A girl overtook me, but I was not even sure then if it was a guy or a girl.” Yao Miao finished second behind American Kelly Wolf. After running in the lead, Qi Min blew up at 80 kilometers and dropped out of the race. He didn’t eat at the checkpoints either.
4 MUSTHAVES FOR YOUR BEST TRAIL RUN
REPEL 100 BUG SPRAY / $5 Repels ticks, mosquitoes, etc., for up to 10 hours.
There was no denying the pair was fast. But the running community viewed Yao Miao and Qi Min as mass-produced road runners. Critics said they lacked pedigree and didn’t properly appreciate the mountains or the sport. “It’s true we did not understand a lot about trail running. We didn’t adapt,” says Yao Miao. “But you just run more and you learn.”
L a k o t a G a m b i l l ( P r o d u c t s)
A M O N T H B E F O R E September 2018’s CCC, Yao Miao and Qi Min went to Chamonix to fill in gaps in their trail running knowledge. They purchased hiking poles and practiced using them on descents and ascents. (In China, Yao Miao’s trademark was relying on a single wooden stick that she picked up along the trail.) The pair also worked to condition their palates to gels and energy bars. (This type of sugary fuel is still a struggle for their stomachs.) To cap it all, Yao Miao ran the entire CCC course three times in preparation. On the day of the race, both Yao Miao and Qi Min launched ferocious attacks from mile one. This time they didn’t blow up. Yao Miao crushed the women’s field and Qi Min finished second, overtaken only in the final miles. Afterward, the usually reserved Yao Miao allowed her emotion to break through in an email to her friend, the China-based photographer Kyle Obermann: “People didn’t believe that the Chinese could make it to the podium of top ultra-running races. When you improve, they think you have taken the shortcut. Me winning this race shut up everyone who thought that way.” Obermann, a runner himself, has been documenting Yao Miao’s career from the beginning. “She has gotten to where she is because she is mentally so tough,” he says. “She knows how to fight with everything she has. Her grit is incredible.” The dominant CCC win at UTMB in 2018 silenced the doubts about Yao Miao’s credentials. Salomon, the leader in European mountain sports, rushed to sign both Yao Miao and Qi Min to the brand’s international pro team. Soon, ti yu ti zhi, the Chinese sports system, came calling. Yao Miao, the runner who was once discarded for being too slow, was invited back. No conditions were attached—all she had to do was travel on China’s dime and race major Chinese marathons as an elite athlete. Yao Miao accepted and is now in contention for the Chinese national team. Last summer, Yao Miao stepped up to the 100mile distance for the first time at UTMB. She held an impressive lead for the first half, but was forced to drop out at mile 64 from vision trouble. Asked what her goals were before the race, she
AMPHIPOD HANDHELD / $22 The bottle has a self-sealing cap with 16 or 20 oz capacity.
BLACK DIAMOND SPOT325 HEADLAMP / $40 Packs 325 lumens of power into six different modes.
said simply that she “just wants to be able to finish a 100-miler.” False modesty is considered good etiquette in China. Qi Min wastes no time on etiquette: “Her goals are to win UTMB in a new course record, and then in the following years to set course records for all four UTMB distances. And be selected for the national team for the marathon.” Watching Yao Miao during a fast 10-miler in the mountains, it’s easy to see why she progressed so quickly. Qi Min is blisteringly quick, and every training run is a battle to keep up with him. Yao Miao and Qi Min always run together, and their weekly mileage stands at some 130 miles, including long runs in the mountains and on the road, plus intense speed work on the track, distributed between two or three daily workouts. Any time left over is spent on recovery, mainly sleep. Yao Miao is still a girl from a mountain village. She speaks loudly, as if shouting across terraced fields. Her regional accent is as strong as ever. Her answers to questions are clipped, her emotions veiled. She doesn’t understand all the fuss around her rise to the top of ultrarunning. Why would anyone, let alone a foreign running magazine, want to know how she felt about racing? For Yao Miao, running is a way out of a life she didn’t want to live. If you ask her if she loves the sport, confusion crosses her face. “Long-distance running is very hard, miserable,” she says. “It is my work. Everyone has to go to work.” But is it only work, a means to an end? Does she enjoy it all? Yao Miao thinks for a second, then smiles. “I do like it,” she says. “Running has given me a feeling of having accomplished something.”
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THE TEST ZONE N O T E S , O P INI O N S , U S E F UL T IP S , A ND T HE C O O L E S T S T UF F F R O M INS ID E T HE W O R L D ’ S M O S T R I G O R O U S S H O E A ND G E A R T E S T IN G L A B
^ Lululemon Pinnacle Warmth Ear Warmer / $36 TESTER» Scrum Master Kathryn Steinhauer “The fabric and shape made this extremely comfortable to wear for a long period of time. The stretchy part that goes over your forehead doesn’t cut into your skin.”
THREE COZY, COMFY HEADBANDS, TESTED There are some perks to the days getting shorter and temperatures dropping. For instance, the opportunity to slip on a cozy headband. We tested nearly a dozen to find the best, and some were comfortably snug, while others used techy fabrics to shield us on chilly runs. The one that best caught our eye, though, was Nathan’s Reflective Headband. Editorial Fellow Gabrielle Hondorp tested it
at twilight—in a traffic-free, dimly lit parking garage and back lot—so she could safely run with the headlights of a colleague’s car pointed at her. They found the reflective detail could be seen roughly 328 feet away. (Hondorp’s quibble: The Nathan fit just a little too tightly on her small head.) Here, our test crew offers some first-person impressions of how well three standout headbands suited their needs.
^ Gore Opti Headband / $25 TESTER » Associate News Editor Daisy Hernandez “The Opti provided the perfect level of comfortable pressure to stay in place and not cause headaches or any other kind of annoyance.”
> Nathan Reflective Headband / $20 TESTER » Editorial Fellow Gabrielle Hondorp “Often I find there’s too much fleece in a headband. Rather than feeling warm, I just get sweaty and uncomfortable. But this is warm without feeling stifling.”
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The Test Zone C A N S T R Y D ’ S N E W P O W E R M E T E R A C T U A L LY
THE
7:18 min/mile 327w
7:23 min/mile 339w
Turnaround Point
WIND?
AT TA C H E S V IA A CL ASP T H AT S LIDES UNDER YO U R SHOELA CES.
Stryd Footpod / $219 Since it debuted in 2015, the Stryd has offered runners estimates of their power via accelerometers and gyroscopes. But its drawback was it couldn’t factor in the breeze. Running into the wind slows you down, and running with it at your back speeds you up. If you were hampered by a headwind, the pod would note the slower speed and assume—and show—a lower power output. Say your easy pace is 300 watts and you tried to maintain that, you’d overexert yourself. But Stryd’s 2019 update includes a sensor that picks up the breeze to give you a more accurate reading. To test it, I ran two miles with an 8mph tailwind, turned around, and ran two miles back into the wind. For a five-minute section of flat ground (selected to factor out elevation gain), I ran a 7:18-minute-permile pace and generated 327 watts with the wind at my back. But facing the wind, I ran slower (7:23 minutes per mile) yet generated 339 watts—proof the sensor picked up the headwind. —Dan Roe
« A NEW TYPE OF TECH FROM THE
WATERPROOF ING KING The first time I ran wearing the Gore R7 Partial Infinium Hooded Jacket ($200) was during a light rain. I quickly found myself damp for the majority of the run. But that’s because waterproofing is not what the Infinium tech is meant for. The paper-thin material weighs almost nothing and boasts billions of microscopic
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pores that release clammy sweat vapor yet trap heat to keep you warm and comfortable in cold weather. As the temperature dropped toward freezing, the jacket proved reliably warm, and no pesky winter wind leaked in. I even had enough confidence to wear it for a snowy run in Wisconsin. —Andrew Dawson
COOLEST THING WE’RE TESTING Garmin Fenix 6X Pro / $750 The Fenix is a great watch, and I love the potential of its PacePro feature. It factors hills into pace and split-time calculations— something I used to rely on Excel for. But it’s not perfect. At the NYC Marathon, the system measured GPS at the water’s level, not at the Verrazano Bridge’s. And the split pace it recorded was 20 seconds behind the lap tracked on another data screen. With a few refinements, it could be a valuable tool.—Jeff Dengate
L A KO TA G A M B I L L ( H E A D B A N D S, G O R E, S T Y R D, R U N D E R W E A R ) ; T R E V O R R A A B (G A R M I N , F I T B I T, B L A C K D I A M O N D)
READ
FITNESS TRACKER SHOWDOWN
ONE P R O D U C T, TWO RUNNERS RUNNING BRA
Runderwear Support Running Bra / $70 A common problem with sports bras is that support isn’t always equal across different sizes. To try out this proclaimed “support” model from Runderwear, I wore it as I ran in the 10K during the RW Half Marathon & Festival. And I enlisted the help of another Runner’s World editor, Jennifer Leman, who was running in the 5K, to test whether the bra offered her the same in her size. In short, it did. I was nervous about trying the bra for the first time in a race—I’ve worn ones during marathons that make my boobs ache five miles in. But the Support Running Bra felt as comfortable as a pullover yet as supportive as an underwire, without the wire or compression. It was also surprisingly easy to clasp in the back and take off. But if you’re not careful when putting it on, the removable cups can fold over. I didn’t notice until after a run when I looked at a mirror and saw my left breast looked deformed. And Leman, who went up two sizes from her usual band measurement, said the bra still felt tight. Though overall, she’d recommend it. “It’s incredibly soft, so there’s no chafing here.” —Amanda Furrer
To test Fitbit’s new Versa 2 ($230) against an established smartwatch, Senior Editor Christa Sgobba geared up like He-Man with his armful of metal wristbands, strapping the new fitness tracker next to her go-to Ionic for a 10K. The Versa 2 has several noticeable legs up on its older cousin: better connectivity (the Ionic had to re-sync several times during workouts), six-plus days of battery life, a more streamlined design, and built-in Alexa, should you need to ask what the weather is like before a run. It’s not without a downside, however. You need to sync it to a phone to run its GPS reliably. Without connecting, “it would keep vibrating with pace notifications that were much slower than I knew I was running,” Sgobba said. Over her first mile, the Ionic recorded 7:41, while the Versa 2 clocked 8:53. But on a second test a few days later, this time with her phone in tow, the Versa 2 and Ionic’s running time and distance were similar, with only a .01- to .02-mile difference. —A.F.
PUTTING HEADLAMPS THROUGH THEIR OWN MARATHON
Black Diamond Sprint 225 / $45 The star of Black Diamond’s headlamp lineup may be the new Sprint, which has a nice mix of low weight and brightness. But we wanted to know how long that power would last. To find out, we turned it and seven other lights on full power and used a digital luxmeter to measure brightness every 15 minutes to see if the intensity decreased over time. The Sprint came on hot but dimmed considerably over the first five minutes. BD says this is an industrywide practice because you don’t need as much light once your eyes adjust to the dark. We didn’t find that drop nearly as rapid in most headlamps. But after it settled, the Sprint’s beam burned steadily for two hours, and was bright enough to light a trail. —J.D. RUNNERSWORLD.COM
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What to Wear WINTER RUNNING HATS
T
you lose half of your body heat through your head has been long debunked, but it’s true that you can lose up to 10 percent of your heat through a cold noggin. And when you’re headed out to earn miles in subfreezing temperatures, starting with a warm cranium can mean the difference between shivering and finishing toasty warm. Here’s how to shop for your next winter running hat. Choose your hat based on the conditions. You might want more than one if you’re in a northern zone, where brisk springs and autumns bookend frigid winters. A skullcap is a lightweight hat that stretches over your head for a tight fit. It’s packable, stashes into a coat pocket more easily than a f luffy beanie, and can be just as warm as a heavier cap depending on its construction. A beanie, by contrast, is looserfitting and more protective than a skullcap, and it can accommodate a lot more hair. Some beanies include openings for ponytails, and cuffs that can be rolled up when you don’t need as much coverage. HE MYTH THAT
BoCo Gear Pom Pom Beanie / $30 It’s tough to go wrong with a soft and stretchy beanie, but BoCo Gear, a brand based in Boulder, CO, provides more than just color options. With an acrylic construction and a long, adjustable-length hem, this beanie offers as much coverage as you need. It comes in a variety of designs, including the Colorado state flag.
Asics Thermopolis LT Ruched Beanie / $10 This double-layered beanie is cleverly reversible: Made of Thermopolis, a wicking poly blend with a touch of spandex for stretchability, it feels like your softest T-shirt and keeps you as warm as your favorite blanket. The subdued gray side has a reflective logo for low light; the bright orange helps you stand out in dark, wintry conditions.
Tough Headwear Skullcap / $22 This best-selling lightweight beanie is made from a poly-spandex blend that stretches over your head, sits close on your ears, and effectively wicks away sweat. Thin enough to fit under a ski or bike helmet, it kept warm-blooded testers toasty in temps as low as 10 degrees. If you overheat, it’s packable enough to stow in a pocket.
Arc’teryx Bird Head Toque / $35 Give your head some soft merino love with this lightweight winter cap— or “toque,” as Arc’teryx dubs it, by virtue of the brand’s Canadian-ness. A blend of wool and acrylic fabric with a fleecy interior keeps you cozy on cold runs without leaving your scalp itchy and overheated; the just-snugenough fit stops the cap from sliding.
Gore Wear Windstopper Beanie / $50 This soft beanie, with Gore Windstopper fabric across the forehead and on the extended ear flaps, effectively blocks icy blasts. The internal polyamide and elastane lining wicks sweat to keep you dry, and available neon yellow versions use reflective stripes to make you visible in snowy and low-light conditions.
The North Face Winter Warm Beanie / $32 If you need a low-profile head warmer that fits under a hood and doesn’t flap around in the wind, this beanie is a reliable, no-nonsense companion for blustery days. The brushed polyester-elastane blend feels soft against the skin and is designed to stretch as needed, and there’s just enough coverage to keep your ears toasty.
→ Every hat on this list has been evaluated and vetted by our team of test editors. We research the market, survey user reviews, speak with product managers and designers, and draw on our own experience wearing these caps in cold conditions to determine the best for your runs. We evaluated them on performance, price, comfort, technical features, warmth, and style to come up with this list of the best options to keep your ears and head cozy while you tackle the worst conditions.
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Craft Race Hat / $25 With 30 percent wool and a channel-stitched internal brim, this thick Swedish-brand cap holds heat like an old-fashioned ski hat. Despite its warmth, it also breathes well on the run, and it’s one of few hats that come in sizes (S/M and L/XL). There’s also a jaunty red version, if you feel like standing out in the crowd.
250 Beanie / $30 For the brave soul who goes out running in all conditions, including snow, sleet, and ice, this beanie can be a best friend. Smartwool’s 100 percent merino wool is double-locked for extra warmth. It’s also soft and breathable, wicks moisture, and resists the odors that some synthetic materials never seem to shake (even after many washes).
TRE VOR R A AB
HOW WE TESTED
Hat Materials The threads in your hat influence its performance on the run. Often, a hat will use a blend of fibers, meant to maximize performance by extracting the best qualities of each material. Separately, though, here’s what to expect from four widely used hat materials.
Wool is a natural fiber and a staple in winter WOOL apparel because it insulates well, thanks to tiny air pockets within the individual fibers. It also wicks moisture, and the crimps in the fibers—which form the air pockets—help it absorb water without feeling wet to the touch, keeping you warm on a cold, rainy run. Polyester is used to make fleece, so think POLYESTER of it as a synthetic wool. Instead of coming from sheep, polyester derives from petroleum, which is heated to a syrupy texture, hardened, and then spun into threads that form fleece. The soft material is lighter than wool and wicks moisture just as well, but won’t stay warm once it gets damp. Another petroleum-based material, NYLON nylon is stretchy, soft, and durable— although it’s not as warm as polyester-based fleeces. It’s commonly used to add strength in blended fabrics, such as Smartwool’s Core Spun Merino material. Nylon also has low water absorbency and blocks wind well, making it an ideal outer layer for all-weather hats. Also known as spandex and Lycra, this ELASTANE synthetic fabric puts the stretch in your clothing. It’s highly breathable and wicks moisture well, but isn’t particularly warm on its own. For thermal applications, it’s added to other fabrics to help them retain their shape after repeated use.
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Editors’ Choice AWA R D - W INNIN G G E A R A ND A P PA R E L E X H A U S T I V E LY V E T T E D B Y O UR T E S T Z O NE S TA F F
↘ FITTIN RACERBACK BRA / $14 This cheap sports bra from Amazon can’t be any good, can it? Despite its nearly 4,000 five-star reviews, we were skeptical. But believe the hype. It’s so freaking soft. And, while comfortably secure on the run, the fit isn’t suffocating. The straps leave plenty of clearance around the pits, so no chafing from swinging arms. One complaint: The pads are funky. They’re thick, weirdly round, and almost styrofoam-esque. But they’re removable, so go ahead and rip 'em out.
↓ TRACKSMITH NDO MITTENS /$48 A few years ago, Brooks made a two-in-one glove and mitten that was a godsend for runners foolish enough to venture outside in a polar vortex. It’s been discontinued, but Tracksmith has made the closest thing we’ve found since. The nylon-and-polyester outer mitten is wind and water resistant, and it’s backed with wool to keep your hands warmer than a thin glove alone can. For exceptionally cold days, we swap out the stretchy inner mitt made from a nylon-elastane blend for a Smartwool merino liner glove.
↓ OUTDOOR VOICES TECHSWEAT 7/8 LEGGINGS / $85 This “athleisure” company keeps impressing us. Test editor Amanda Furrer loves its Zip Bra and the Exercise Dress that went viral. So it’s little surprise that she also found the TechSweat 7/8 Leggings hitting the mark. The nylon-Lycra blend hugs your body and provides a flattering fit, though you might find the leggings a little too snug— especially around the midriff—for all-day wear. That same fit, however, is a blessing when running: You’ll never have to cinch up the waistband while moving, and the leggings stay up, which is a small miracle given that there’s no drawstring.
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P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y L A KO TA G A M B I L L