57riut

RACE DAY THE RIGHT WAY FUEL UP NAILYOUR PACE FINISH STRONG CELEBRATE!* A REINVENTED

KARA GOUCHER ON PURSUING PASSION, INSPIRING OTHERS, AND PROVING HERSELF IN NYC

4

HEALTHY, DELICIOUS, AND FAST ONE-POT POWER MEALS KILLER SANDWICHES

RUNNING THE DATA

EASY EXERCISES TO INJURY-PROOF YOUR BODY p56

ROCK

YOUR RUN!

>GO LONGER, FEEL STRONGER >SET A NEW GOAL >NEVER CRAMP AGAIN >HAVE MORE FUN!

*For the perfect post-marathon bottle of wine, see page 23

THE

2-HOUR MARATHON

HOW, WHEN & WHERE (POLAND?) IT WILL HAPPEN

RETRO SHOES WITH MODERN COMFORT OUR FAVORITES, p58

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNERSWORLD.COM

A grocery bag full of free-range chicken, because it’s natural.

*Available feature.

Another bag full of organic fruit, because it’s healthy.

A bag full of farm-to-table vegetables, because it’s responsible.

A bag full of antibiotic-free milk, because it’s pure.

And a can of aerosol cheese, because America the beautiful.

When your arms are full, your foot can lend a hand.

2015 ESCAPE with foot-activated liftgate.*

UNSHAKABLE AT HIGH SPEEDS. NIKE AIR ZOOM STRUCTURE 18

HIGHLY RESPONSIVE NIKE ZOOM AIR CUSHIONING IN FOREFOOT DELIVERS A CRISP, QUICK TOE-OFF.

TRIPLE-DENSITY DYNAMIC SUPPORT SYSTEM DRAMATICALLY INCREASES STABILITY.

_ GALEN RUPP 10,000M SILVER MEDALIST

Long before he was a member of Nike’s Oregon Project—even before he needed to shave— Galen Rupp realized that the key to reeling in records and medals wasn’t some killer workout, but the ability to string thousands of those workouts together over the span of several years.

So instead of chasing every shortcut to victory, he stuck with what worked—from mileage to workouts to his beloved Air Zoom Structures.

And what has this ability to steadily build URGGF IQVVGP JKO! # FWHĆƒ G DCI HWNN QH PCVKQPCN EJCORKQPUJKRU CPF TGEQTFU CPF VJG Ć‚ TUV OGFCN at 10,000m for an American man in 48 years.

Similarly, the Nike Air Zoom Structure has spent the last two-plus decades debunking the notion

that stable meant slow—constantly pushing to make itself lighter, smoother and more TGURQPUKXG YKVJQWV UCETKƂ EKPI CP[ QH KVU UVCDKNKV[ So it makes sense that Rupp, a world-class overpronator, would gravitate to the Air Zoom Structure from the very beginning, running nearly all of his 120 miles a week in a shoe as focused on gaining speed over long distances as he is. This latest version answered Galen’s call to make it more stable by adding a third, high-density foam to the existing Dynamic Support system. But even as we beefed up the stability we kept the shoe light and lean, with a streamlined mesh upper and lightweight Flywire cables that add support while still letting the foot move. Which is good, because the forefoot

Zoom Air cushioning provides responsive snap that gets you moving in a hurry.

Between now and 2016, Rupp will basically live in the Air Zoom Structure, burning through thousands of miles in and around Nike WHQ in his quest to step up to the top of the podium.

With this much riding on it, thank goodness the shoe’s as good as he is at going so fast for so long.

WARMUP CONTENTS

NOVEMBER 2014

THE LOOP

RAVE RUN

EDITOR’S LETTER

6

10

12

82

FOOD STYLING BY CHRIS LANIER

ON THE COVER Fuel Up .......................... 48 Nail Your Race ............... 36 Finish Strong ................. 40 Celebrate ...................... 23 Kara Goucher ................ 64 4 Exercises .................... 56 Go Longer ..................... 42 Set A New Goal............. 34 Never Cramp................. 52 Have More Fun.............. 38 One-Pot Meals .............. 46 Sandwiches ................... 82 2-Hour Marathon ...........91 Retro Shoes ................... 59

PHOTOGRAPH BY TRAVIS RATHBONE

64 NYC MARATHON SPECIAL

71 RUNNING THE DATA

90 RW TESTED: TREADMILLS

YOUR FRIEND, KARA! (INC.)

WHO WILL RUN A 2-HOUR MARATHON?

RISE OF THE MACHINES

With a new outlook on life, Kara Goucher is racing again and ready to share her reborn passion—and some wine—with the world.

Nine factors must converge for this mythic barrier to be broken. Hint: He’ll be 5'6", and it’ll be cold, possibly in Poland.

With plummeting temps on the horizon, we review eight of the sweetest indoor rides that’ll keep you fit— and get you fast.

BY TISH HAMILTON

BY ALEX HUTCHINSON

BY JEFF DENGATE

THE RAVENOUS RUNNER SANDWICHES Who doesn’t love piling deliciousness between sliced carbs?

Eight recipes take this favorite dish up a notch with the most nutritious breads, savory fillings, and tangy condiments for any running appetite.

BY MATTHEW KADEY, M.S., R.D.

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 3

CONTENTS

15

58

WE’RE ALWAYS RUNNING AT RUNNERSWORLD.COM

NEW WOMEN’S SITE

HUMAN RACE 15

PERSONAL BEST

Back Story Michael Wardian, prolific oddball-record holder.

20

The Newbie Chronicles Need another reason to run? It’s good for the gray matter.

BY MARC PARENT

23

Run It By Me Vintner Michael Evans pairs wine with iconic 26.2s.

24

War and Peace A weekend of trail running helps vets bond.

26

Go You! Real, inspiring stories

26

Runner by the Numbers She’s run the NYC Marathon 35 times.

28

Life & Times Let’s give spectators a little love. BY CHERYL LOCK

28

Ask Miles Your etiquette expert

30

Intersection Culture on the run

30

Band It A pace band reveals truth

RACES+PLACES 97

Philadelphia Turkey Trot Kick off T-day with this five-miler.

98

Ask a Race Director Why ban headphones?

99

Cool Course Three words: Panoramic ocean views.

I’M

I’M A RUNNER Kirk Acevedo, actor

4 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

How did Evans celebrate after running the New York City Marathon last year? “We opened a bottle of Recuerdo, the Spanish word for memories. That first marathon is something I will never forget.”

34

Golden Opportunity After your big fall race, set new goals based on how it went.

36

Race Prep Channel race-day nerves into these six simple, but crucial, tasks.

38

The Starting Line You don’t have to log major miles to enjoy the thrill of a big race.

40

The Fast Lane Even elites can screw up the marathon. Learn from their mistakes.

42

Ask the Experts Why counterclockwise on a track?

44

The Runner’s Pantry The one potato that can make any meal.

46

Fridge Wisdom Chili—a one-dish meal that packs a delicious, nutritious punch.

48

Eat to Win Avoid these fueling missteps to race your best.

TRAINING VIDEO Plyometrics are dynamic moves that build explosive power. Learn more on page 56, then check out the routine at runners world.com/jumptoit. Do those exercises at least once a week and every run will feel easier.

FUEL

A little trivia: The phrase “Charley horse” first appeared in the Boston Globe in 1886 to describe a baseball player who tried to run with a calf cramp.

It was said his stride reminded a ball club member of his family’s horse, named Charley, who walked stiffly from years of pulling heavy loads.

MIND+BODY 52

Oh, Cramp! Muscle cramps can stop you dead—use a little science to fix ’em fast.

56

The Body Shop Four explosive moves will make you stronger, faster, and less injury-prone.

58

Kickin’ Back Street sneaks with a retro look and a modern feel.

60

Hoodies in His and Hers Six picks that can pull double duty—on the run or around town.

GEAR

ASK ME ANYTHING The tireless Michael Wardian (above, and on page 18) will take time out of his crazy schedule to host an “Ask Me Anything” session during the month of October. For more details, go to runnersworld.com/ askmeanything.

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y (C LO C KW I S E F R O M TO P L E F T ) : R O D E R I C K A I C H I N G E R ; T H O M A S M AC D O N A L D ; J E F F E L K I N S ; A L A M Y

18

112

TRAINING

Social Movement Sikhs cultivate body and soul in New York.

Zelle, our new site for women runners, debuts this fall. You’ll find content that goes beyond the training plan, tapping into the (many) reasons why women run. Plus trends, chatter, and daily hits of great-looking gear. Come to connect, stick around for the fun. Follow @RWZelle on Twitter and Instagram, and visit Facebook for more details.

© 2014 POM Wonderful LLC. All Rights Reserved. POM, POM WONDERFUL, the accompanying logos and the Bubble Bottle Design are registered trademarks of POM Wonderful LLC. PJ11652

FULL OF FIERCELY FOCUSED, FREE RADICAL-ANNIHILATING ANTIOXIDANTS. There’s a warrior in every bottle of P∂M Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice. And he’s ready to defend your health with one swift sip. It’s loaded with super-powerful antioxidants from the original super fruit—pomegranates. P∂M Wonderful. CRAZY HEALTHY.

THE LOOP

THE GALLERY

THE INBOX

THE LATEST

ROLE MODEL Thank you for your piece on James Bonnett (“The Comeback Kid,” September). Like James, I’ve been through tough times, and I appreciate the way your story conveyed how, through hardships, we obtain wisdom, and, through loss, we find a clearer picture of who we are and what we want out of our lives.

DIVIDING LINE

THE DEEP TWEET @jesstweedhope, Highlands, British Columbia

“This photo shows me 3.19 km from my front door.

The sign reads: This road leads to area “A” under the Palestinian authority. The entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden, dangerous to your lives and is against the Israeli law.”

NOA CHORITZ, EFR AT, ISR AEL

“Running the World: The West Bank” reminded me of how fortunate I am to live in a place where I am free to run as far as I want.

The article sheds a welcome light on the conditions in which the Palestinian people live and showed that they are not so different from the rest of us.

MICHELE K AROUB-HAYES, OHIO

RUNNER’S WORLD reserves the right to edit readers’

submissions. All readers’ submissions become the sole property of RUNNER’S WORLD and may be published in any medium and for any use worldwide.

6 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

We asked readers to share shots of their running crews. It’s clear from these pics that runs are better with buddies.

Two months after we wrapped up reporting on ultrarunner James Bonnett, he and his wife, Erin, had their first baby, Zane. In July, Bonnet tweeted: “I’m a dad! This is the proudest day of my life.

Next runner?”

STEPHEN JAY YOUNG, NE W YORK CIT Y

I’m an Israeli West Bank runner, and I was shocked by “Running the World: The West Bank” (September). The Palestine Marathon that author Jacky Alarja says, “draw[s] attention to the Palestinians’ lack of freedom,” was forbidden to me as an Israeli, but Palestinians are welcome to run in our races. She also states she can’t run more than a couple kilometers in any direction. Untrue. She can run out of Bethlehem’s borders and on the routes I use. Yes, entering my town would require her to be admitted by a resident—much like in gated communities in America.

But as an Israeli, I am forbidden to enter any Palestinian city. I feel it’s a serious shame that Runner’s World has chosen to enter the political fray. But I invite Jacky to join my running group for a trail run. This is a genuine offer—we are neighbors, after all.

#RWGROUPRUN

Stormy weather nearly canceled the cover shoot with Goucher at Coot Lake in Boulder, Colorado.

But the clouds parted just long enough for photographer Guido Vitti to snap the perfect shot.

“CHURCH OF THE LONG RUN, WHO ART ON THE TRAILS, HALLOWED BE THY NAME; THY MILES DONE; BEFORE THE SUN, AND NOW I’LL NAP ALL DAY. AMEN” @mtchkstff @RUNNERSWORLD FOLLOWER

THE COVER

When we heard that Kara Goucher was hosting a women’s running retreat in Napa, California, we knew we had to be there. Executive Editor Tish Hamilton—who wrote about the Olympian and her best frenemy, Shalane Flanagan, for our May 2013 issue—was immediately dispatched.

“Food, wine, running with Kara Goucher in Napa?” says Hamilton.

“I had to remind myself to be a reporter taking notes and not just a runner living the lush life.” Her profile of the 2:24 marathoner starts on page 64.

@capecodrunner, Mashpee, Massachusetts

@miz262, Chicago

Next month, post a photo of who (or what) inspires your running. Use the hashtag #RWWhyIRun to add yours to the mix!

THE STATS

4:34

P H OTO G R A P H C O U R T E S Y O F M A R AT H O N F OTO (G L A DW E L L )

Pace per mile required to run a two-hour marathon

65%

of readers think it is possible. Learn what science writer and former physicist Alex Hutchinson thinks on page 71.

For the ’mill review on page 90, RW Gear Guy Jeff Dengate (who calls treadmills... “treadmills”) relied heavily on testers who agreed to swap sunny lunch runs for indoor machine miles.

It wasn’t easy. “I bribed them with gear giveaways— shoes, a GPS watch, a foam roller...heck, I even gave away a set of Asics-logoed wine glasses.”

Over the course of six months, Hutchinson combed through nearly 100,000 data points spanning two dozen variables to estimate the likelihood of a twohour marathon.

“The hardest part was finding the data,” Hutchinson says. “Pre-2000 data, on any topic, is a rare and valuable thing on the Internet.”

THE QUESTION

WHAT’S YOUR TREADMILL TERM OF ENDEARMENT?

“Satan’s conveyor belt.” –Shuntae Royster McKelvin

“The Incredimill!”

–Mike Donohue

“That thing.”

–Weng Sheng Thong

“Mine is named Bruce, after Bruce Springsteen.”

–Angela Marini

“Man of my dreams.”

–Jenni Singer

“Better than nothing.”

–Vickie Budroni

“Cruella Da-mill.”

–Marcie Johnson Kress

“Weapon of Ass Reduction.”

–Amy Pitcher

THE FOLLOW-UP

At September’s Fifth Avenue Mile in New York City, author Malcolm Gladwell (“Running Conversation,” September 2013) ran 4:54, besting his 2013 time by nine seconds. He was fifth in the men’s 50–54 age group. “I was delighted!” Gladwell, 51, said when we checked back in with him. “Although I had a chance early in the race to run with the lead group, and I chickened out.

I’m kicking myself for it; I think I could have broken 4:50 if I had. I can’t wait to race more, maybe because I don’t obsess about races as much as I did in my teens. This year, for the first time ever, I started to do some long, slow distance— nine miles or more.

I’m stunned at what a difference that makes.”

Editor-in-Chief DAVID WILLEY

What’s your fall running goal?

• “Run a 50-miler.

Which is nuts.”

• “Finally earn my BQ at the Wineglass Marathon.”

• “A sub-4:00 at the Chicago Marathon—did I just jinx myself?!”

• “Recover from my foot stress fracture and get back out there!”

• “To fall back in love with running.”

• “Crunch more leaves!”

• “An adventure race with some orienteering. I’m just hoping not to get lost.”

• “Find new routes in my new city, San Diego.”

• “Finish my first half iron-distance triathlon.”

Editor JOHN ATWOOD Executive Editor TISH HAMILTON Editors at Large AMBY BURFOOT, MARK REMY Managing Editor SUZANNE PERREAULT Articles Editors CHRISTINE FENNESSY, KATRIN MCDONALD NEITZ Senior Editors JOANNA SAYAGO GOLUB, MEGHAN G. LOFTUS, NICK WELDON Assistant Managing Editor LINDSAY BENDER Editorial Projects Coordinator LORI ADAMS Reporter MEGAN HETZEL Executive Assistant KIRA WRIGHT

ART + PHOTOGRAPHY Design Director BENJAMEN PURVIS Photo Director MICHELE ERVIN Art Director TAYLOR LE Associate Photo Editor RENEE KEITH Assistant Art Director TARA MAIDA Assistant Photo Editor ANNA SCHULTE

DIGITAL Deputy Editor CHRIS KRAFT User Experience Architect KEVIN KNABE Executive Producer ROBERT JAMES REESE Editor/Women ELIZABETH COMEAU Associate Multimedia Editor HANNAH MCGOLDRICK Designer DANIEL FUEHRER Senior Multimedia Producer DAVID E. GRAF Junior Video Producer DEREK CALL Senior Content Editor SCOTT DOUGLAS Tablet Production Supervisor JENNIFER GIANDOMENICO

BRAND DEVELOPMENT Brand Editor WARREN GREENE WRITERS AT LARGE JOHN BRANT, CHARLES BUTLER, BENJAMIN H. CHEEVER, SARA CORBETT, STEVE FRIEDMAN, CYNTHIA GORNEY, MICHAEL HEALD, KENNY MOORE, MARC PARENT, STEPHEN RODRICK, PETER SAGAL, ROBERT SULLIVAN

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS LIZ APPLEGATE, KRISTIN ARMSTRONG, CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN, TODD BALF, ADAM BUCKLEY COHEN, BOB COOPER, CALEB DANILOFF, LAUREN FLESHMAN, JEFF GALLOWAY, PETER GAMBACCINI, MICHELLE HAMILTON, JOHN HANC, HAL HIGDON, ALEX HUTCHINSON, LISA JHUNG, CINDY KUZMA, YISHANE LEE, DIMITY MCDOWELL, JANICE MCLEOD (Research), SARAH BOWEN SHEA, MARTYN SHORTEN (Shoe Lab), CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON, BARBARA WEBB (Copy)

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RODALE INTERNATIONAL Executive Director of Business Development & Global Licensing KEVIN LABONGE Editorial Director JOHN VILLE Director of Business Development & Global Licensing ANGELA KIM Deputy Editorial Director VERONIKA RUFF TAYLOR Senior Content Manager KARL ROZEMEYER Assistant Editor SAMANTHA QUISGARD

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The Clifton. Only 7.7. oz., and 50% more cushioning material than standard running shoes. Ultra light. Smooth, stable ride. Learn more at hokaoneone.com.

RAVE RUN

ROXBOROUGH, COLORADO RUNNER D.J. Nechrony THE EXPERIENCE Hugging the foothills of the Rocky Mountains just southwest of Denver, Roxborough State Park’s 3,329 acres are punctuated by jagged sandstone outcrops known as the Fountain Formation.

“There’s a run here for everyone,” says Nechrony. “There are short, flat routes and there is steep singletrack, some of which hooks up with the 400-mile Colorado Trail.”

At right: the three-mile South Rim Trail.

FAST FACTS Some 315 million years ago, rivers deposited iron-rich sands that gave the rocks their rusty hue.

About 250 million years later, oceanic plates collided with the west side of the continent to build the Rockies, tilting the rocks skyward. Subsequent erosion by rivers exposed the sandstone.

TRAVEL TIP The park lies at a breathtaking 5,900 to 7,280 feet in elevation. Runners unaccustomed to altitude should adjust their pace.

WHILE YOU’RE THERE Postrun, hit the Waterton Tavern by the park entry for a Borough Wrap— chicken, spinach, and tomato—and a brew from Odell’s, says Nechrony.

PHOTOGRAPH BY Celin Serbo

FOR DIRECTIONS, RESOURCE INFORMATION, AND DOWNLOADABLE WALLPAPER IMAGES, VISIT RUNNERSWORLD.COM/ RAVERUN.

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 11

EDITOR’S LETTER

A MILE AND CHANGE

EARLIER THIS YEAR ,

12 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

Cool Van Cortlandt racing kit from Bostonbased start-up Tracksmith. Sadly, it didn’t help.

Good for eighth in the media heat.

Jordan McNamara (3:51) and Jenny Simpson (4:19) took the pro races.

Twenty years later, I’ll be working on the ESPN2 broadcast of the NYC Marathon on November 2, interviewing runners on the course. (That’s Pamela Anderson, last year.) Tweet me story ideas!

It’s also the 50th anniversary of Jim Ryun’s first subfour high-school mile (above), and the 60th of the first women’s subfive mile (Diane Leather, Great Britain, 4:59.6).

A more current and disheartening milestone: In July, Maine teenager Zach Miller ran a Guinness-record 5:48 mile wearing swim fins.

Coach Coates (above left) and student. Far left: Trying to hold it together on Fifth Avenue.

and you’re doomed, even more so than in distance running.

In September, I took to the road at the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York City. This time, my first quarter was...74. Doomed again, I finished in 5:37. But I learned a bit more: Running at the edge of your ability in a marathon feels like you will run out of gas; in the mile, it feels like you’ll combust. The pain is a bungee-jump, frightening but short-lived. When it’s over, you want to try again.

Four days later I went back to the track—with a new rabbit. He was spot on: an 81 first quarter and 2:45 at the half. But my wheels wobbled on the third lap. On the fourth, I repeated my new mantra (“turnover, turnover, it’s almost over”) but couldn’t kick enough to close the gap. A 5:40. I lay on my back on the infield trying to breathe and thinking, Really? I hurt that much and ran slower? But that sense of futility turned into something like optimism, because I had learned a bit more: The first quarter is crucial, but the third quarter is the key, and the hardest part of it all. You have to practice holding on before you can bring it home.

A colleague has pointed out that the age-graded equivalent of my 5:36 would be a 5:03. This is satisfying, I guess, but I’m still reaching, still learning. My mile is a work in progress, and even though I’ll shift back to long distances this fall, I will come back to it. Running at the edge of your ability has its own rewards, and you won’t always find them on your watch.

DAVID WILLEY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

@DWilleyRW

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y V I C TO R S A I L E R / P H OTO R U N ( F I F T H AV E N U E M I L E ) ; A P ( R Y U N )

I came out of my winter running hiatus thinking about a new goal. Feeling a bit burned out by half- and full marathon training, I recalled a terrific piece we’d published last year, “The Mulligan Mile.” Amid a disintegrating marriage, the author, Louis Cinquino, set out to run a five-minute mile at age 50, a mark he very nearly hit as a high-schooler. Huh. The mile.

The fastest one I ever ran was a 5:31, when I was 26 and doing group speed workouts to prepare for the New York City Marathon.

We ran mile repeats around the Great Lawn in Central Park on Thursday nights, hard against the glowing midtown skyline. When I think about that 5:31, I can almost taste a metallic tang in my mouth— it was the closest I’ve ever come to vomiting because of exercise. So two decades later, at 46, I decided to see if I could run a hair faster. A 5:30. It would be a reach, but this year—the 60th anniversary of Roger Bannister’s first sub-four mile— seemed like the right time to try.

Plus, the mile is making a comeback. Since 1999 the number of one-mile road races in America has more than doubled to 700, according to Bring Back the Mile, which has staged 20 of them in the past two years. This is great news, because running just one mile may do the most good for the greatest number of people. New research shows that short, intense exercise may offer better health benefits than higher mileage provides. And the mile is a gateway. “Most people can’t or won’t do a 5-K, let alone a marathon,” says Ryan Lamppa, founder of BBTM. “But most people can do four laps on a track.”

I coaxed several colleagues into training with me, and Budd Coates, RW’s in-house coach, put us on a training plan. We began in May, and every Wednesday at noon we threw ourselves into 100s, quarters, halfs, and three-quarter-mile repeats, often on the local highschool track. It was like moving from a cabin in the woods to the middle of Manhattan. Everything was different. I even needed a new mantra, as my go-to, “Run the mile you’re in,” was useless.

In our first time trial in June, my splits were all over the place, but I managed a 5:55. Not bad, but I learned that a 5:30 would require me to run at the very edge of my fitness and ability—and that this could be fun, even addictive.

As my cadence, metabolism, and body changed, I felt stronger than ever. In fact, all the speedwork saw me through our Heartbreak Hill Hat Trick (a 5-K, 10-K, and half-marathon) in June, as well as my best-ever summer triathlon.

I recruited a rabbit for our next attempt, but he didn’t so much pace me as race me. A 5:30 calls for 82- or 83-second quarters; he went out in 78. I followed, crashed, and clocked a 5:36. But I learned a bit more: The first quarter is crucial. Start too fast

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CAN YOU RACE WITH HEADPHONES? p28

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SOCIAL T N MOVEME

SIKHS IN THE CITY Cultivating body and soul in the streets of New York

NYC Marathoners Simran Jeet Singh (left) and Avtar Singh Tinna (right) in Manhattan.

All Sikh men use Singh as a middle name or surname.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY RODERICK AICHINGER

Amid all the color and spectacle of New York City and its marathon are the Sikhs—a religious group whose adherents are identifiable by their beards and turbans (men) and steel wristbands (worn by both men and women).

An estimated 35 Sikhs—male and female—are expected to make the 26.2-mile

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 15

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TURBAN STUDIES Turbans were once reserved for heads of state, literally: Only those of high stature were allowed to wear them. But the founders of Sikhism were opposed to class distinctions and decreed that all Sikhs should wear turbans.

Which most men do to this day, even when they run. (Some women wear turbans, but it’s more common for them to wear a kara, a steel wristband.)

Simran Jeet Singh generally wears a cotton turban that is about five yards

long and a yard wide. When running, however, he wears one half that size so it’s lighter. “It has never come loose,” he says.

Sikh turbans tend to be colorful: Avtar Singh Tinna will wear his signature orange headpiece for the NYC Marathon (above, right). But Simran prefers conservative black and gray (above, left). And while Sikhs are rooted in tradition, they are open to new ideas. “I look forward to someone developing a wicking turban!” Simran says. —J.H.

Simran, in fact, created a running club in the centenarian’s honor in Manhattan in 2013. The Surat Fauj Running Club now has 10 chapters in various locations, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit, San Antonio, and San Francisco. The NYC-based club boasts 85 runners; the others average 20 members each.

While these clubs tend to attract a younger generation of Sikh runners, the community has its seasoned veterans. The elder in the New York City area

16 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

Fauja Singh, a.k.a. the Turban Tornado, ran an 8:25 marathon at the age of 100. He holds several other unofficial records in several events, from 100 meters to 5000 meters. Because he does not have a birth certificate, those records are not recognized by Guinness World Records. Fauja, who is currently 102, retired from running last year. —J.H.

Simran’s running club (above, in Manhattan) now has 10 chapters nationwide. Tinna’s group (below) on the Brooklyn Bridge.

is Avtar Singh Tinna, a 64-year-old dentist from Queens, who does Sunday long runs with a group of Sikh running pals. Tinna will run the NYC Marathon for the 23rd time this year, wearing his trademark orange racing shirt, with “Proud to Be Sikh” printed on the back. When he first ran the race in 1992, a spectator shouted at him and asked if he was Ayatollah Khomeini, the infamous Iranian leader—who was a Muslim, not a Sikh. “I guess he thought all guys with beards and turbans were Ayatollah Khomeini,” Tinna says.

There are still misconceptions and even acts of violence against

Sikhs: In September 2013, a Columbia University professor, who was also a member of the Fauj Running Club, was assaulted in an attack that was classified as a hate crime.

Fortunately, such bigotry doesn’t extend into the sport, where the Sikhs say they feel welcome. “In our religion a lot of attention is placed on building a community of like-minded people,” Simran says. “That’s one of the beautiful things about running.

Runners have created this larger community of people with a shared passion and purpose, and it’s exciting that we’re now part of it.”

—JOHN HANC

P H OTO G R A P H B Y CA M E R A P R E S S / B OA Z T E I T E L BAU M / R E D U X ( FAU JA S I N G H )

trek to Central Park from the VerrazanoNarrows Bridge on November 2.

Running and Sikhism, it seems, are a natural fit. At the heart of the religion, which stems from the Punjab region of northern India and Pakistan, is the idea of sant-sipahi (“warriorsaint”), a person who strikes a balance in life in which the soul is cultivated and the body is kept strong. “Sports and fitness are a centerpiece of our tradition,” says Simran Jeet Singh, 30, a doctoral student in Columbia University’s department of religion, who will be running his third NYC Marathon.

“Sikhism also puts great emphasis on community service and philanthropy. Fund-raising is a part of the running culture, so our values align very nicely.” This year, Simran is running for the National Stroke Association and will also serve as a New York Road Runners social media reporter (he’ll Tweet @SimranColumbia during the race).

Fauja Singh, a London-based Sikh who became the oldest marathon finisher in history when he completed the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2011 at age 100, is credited for the boom. Think of him as Frank Shorter in a turban: Just as Shorter’s victory in the 1972 Olympic Marathon prompted a generation of Americans to hit the roads, many Sikhs have followed in Fauja’s footsteps.

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BACK STORY

ET CETERA

MICHAEL WARDIAN 40, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

The prolific runner will tackle the Twin Cities and Marine Corps marathons in October and the 50-K and 100-K world championships in Qatar in November. —MICHELE MOSES

EYES ON THE PRIZE Qualifying for worlds is a big deal to me. I’m also running the masters marathon nationals at Twin Cities. I want to go sub-2:18 to qualify for my fourth Olympic Trials.

After that, I’m running Marine Corps.

NO DAYS OFF I race 40 to 50 times a year. I had a stretch this year where I won a 140-mile race in Costa Rica, won the North Pole Marathon, ran Boston [2:23], and won Big Sur [2:27]. I’m lucky my wife, Jennifer, and boys, Pierce [8] and Grant [5], support my passion.

WEEKDAY GRIND I’m a shipbroker by day, so I get up early to fit in a workout, bike to work, run at lunch, bike home.

At home, I’m a straightup dad, fighting to get kids to brush their teeth, reading them books about knights and stuff.

BE LIKE RYAN At a trade event, I ran on a treadmill as long as I could at Ryan Hall’s record marathon pace: 4:46 per mile. I lasted 25:14 [5.3 miles] and set PRs for my 5-K and 8-K. PROVE ’EM WRONG Turning 40, everybody’s like, “You’re going to slow down,” so it was rad to set those PRs. NUTS FOR I’m vegetarian. Almond butter is one of my favorite things in the world.

RACE MANTRA “Why Not Today?” There are many reasons to give in, but why not make today the day you push through?

PRO TIP Even though you have a job, a family, responsibilities, even though you get older, you can still follow your dreams.

’MILLING AROUND The treadmill allows me to be at home and be close if someone needs a channel changed or their sippy cup filled up.

Records he’s held: marathon as superhero (Spiderman, 2:34); marathon with stroller (2:42); 13.1 and 26.2 on treadmill (1:08 and 2:23).

Wardian’s typical recovery fuel? A homemade strawberry-banana smoothie. “I am spoiled after getting a Vitamix.

I don’t think I could go back to a regular blender. The thing is absolutely incredible.”

A shipbroker, Wardian booked some of the cargo aboard the Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked near Somalia, an incident depicted in the 2013 Tom Hanks film Captain Phillips.

ORIGIN STORY I ran my first Boston in 1997 in 2:53. Everyone screamed for me, only me—or it felt that way.

And I wanted to have that feeling again.

18

MICHAEL WARDIAN IS RUNNING THE MARINE CORPS MARATHON WITH THE RUNNER’S WORLD CHALLENGE. LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PROGRAM AT RUNNERSWORLD.COM/CHALLENGE.

Wardian’s viszla puppy, Rosie, joins him for early morning runs on the Potomac Heritage Trail (left), which he says “just makes my heart pitter-patter.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF ELKINS

P H OTO G R A P H B Y J E F F E L K I N S ( D O G )

VERY SUPERSTITIOUS My prerace rituals: I lay out my kit the night before, and I wear a hat that I turn backward—that’s when I know it’s on.

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The Newbie Chronicles

BY MARC PARENT

WHEELS KEEP ON TURNING Need another reason to run? It makes your brain hum.

A

fter everything is said and done, the nicest thing a person can do for another person is to make him a sandwich. If you want to go overboard, you can put chips on the side, but really the sandwich is enough. And it’s no problem if you don’t know the person’s preference. If you personally like the sandwich, so will the person you give it to. (And if you need more sandwich inspiration, see page 82.) ¶ In a similar way, the nicest thing you can do for another runner is to motivate him to run.

Like good sandwiches, good motivators are universal. We all want to live longer, healthier, and happier, in a smaller pants size. But if you want all of those plus a realistic chance that you won’t one day find Dr. Seuss books difficult reading—in other words, if you want to build a better brain or just hold on to what you’ve got—new evidence suggests that running isn’t just a key to making that happen, it’s the key. ¶ If you’re just sitting there like I was an hour ago, contemplating whether or not you should get out there, allow me to offer you a pesto and fresh mozzarella with yellow heirloom tomatoes on a crusty ciabatta. While trolling 20 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

the Internet in search of a new reason to run, I found exactly what I was looking for in a report on a study that recently took place at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois.

First, the bad news: Your brain is probably shrinking. According to the report, on average, most people in their late 20s begin to lose about one percent annually of the volume of their hippocampus—a part of the brain integral to learning and memory. Conventional wisdom has always held that a stimulating environment is the best defense against that and all other forms of mental decline—that it’s possible to sit in a chair and “exercise” your brain by processing difficult thoughts and thereby thwart any shrinkage and resulting loss of intellectual bad-assery. I had always hoped that as long as I tried to understand the works of Shakespeare and Jack White and Alan Guth, I wouldn’t wake up one day and shake my head and hear the rattle of a single bean in an empty barrel. But it’s possible that all I’ve really needed to prevent that was to lace up my running shoes.

In an attempt to isolate and examine the specific effects of running on the brain, the team of researchers put four groups of mice into four different cages. The first one, something they called an “enrichment” cage, was a kind of mouse heaven offering a wide variety of mousy delights—trays of various cheeses, and fruits, and nuts occasionally sprinkled with cinnamon, and an assortment of flavored waters to wash it all down. The main living area was a carnival fun house of neon-colored balls and tunnels, mirrors and seesaws, and small igloos for sleeping in—a virtual nirvana of neural stimuli, lacking only the satin-stained bamboo tables littered with secondlanguage CDs and Times crosswords.

Cage 2 had the identical enrichments of cage 1 with the addition of a running wheel. Cage 3 was empty, and the mice were fed plain kibble and water.

Cage 4 was the same as cage 3 with the ILLUSTRATION BY NIGEL BUCHANAN

Is this a bulging hippocampus between my ears or am I just happy to see you? addition of a running wheel. So what to the streets, one imaginary glass did all these mice and all this enrichwall at a time. ment disparity reveal? Essentially that The farther I ran, the more my the determining variable from a brainhippocampus swelled, and the deephealth perspective was whether or not er my release from the tyranny of so the mice were running. many things: Sudoku, for example. I Prior to the several-month stay in only realized then that I had resigned their respective cages, the animals myself to eventual stupidity because completed a series of cognitive tests I refused to tap away at Sudoku apps. and were injected with a substance I have friends who gaze up smugly that would reveal changes to the from their meaningless columns of structures of their brains. At the connumbers with a look on their faces clusion of their cage that says, Don’tcha wantime, they were given the na stay sharp, man?! But same battery of tests and my perceived risk was altheir brain tissues were ways two-fold, because I What’s the best examined. Mice that had don’t like crossword puzidea you’ve stayed busy as they scurzles either. Now, instead gotten on a run? ried from one stimulating of laboriously filling a Join the conversation activity to the next in the grid with nearly obsolete on Twitter using #RWIdea enrichment cages had not words, I could go out for and by following improved their brains any a long, guilt-free run and @Newbiechronicle more than the mice that on my return, assure my had languished in dull crossword-loving friends cages. “Only one thing mattered,” said that while my mind was idle, my brain the study’s lead researcher, Justin S. was healthy and my legs were sore, Rhodes, “and that’s whether they had just as a body should be. a running wheel.” Animals from both Instead of rereading the chapters the exciting and the dull cages that ran of books I don’t like or understand, I on their wheels “had healthier brains could do intervals. If someone talking and performed significantly better on to me used more than three words cognitive tests” than the mice from the I didn’t know, I could literally run cirtwo cages that did not run. cles around them. Instead of consuming quinoa and coconut water or any I dashed out the door and began my other “brain-food” (because doesn’t run thinking about the ramifications all food go to the brain?), I could eat of these findings. In my case, the impeanut butter and jelly and log the plications were staggering. For exmiles. A PB&J, after all, is a sandwich ample, I used to wear white Capezio almost everyone can appreciate. dance shoes in the 80s, not because When I finished my run and I might start singing in the rain at stepped into the house, my wife, any moment but because I thought Susan, looked up from her work on they were cool. The phase didn’t the table. I smiled and wiped my arm last long, but disasters that transpire across my face and said, “Is this a bulgover short periods are no less devasing hippocampus between my ears or tating. Had I not fortified my brain am I just happy to see you?” She stared with running, by this time I might back blankly. I could have tried to exbe walking around in white gloves plain myself, but some things were not and black-and-white striped leotard meant to be repeated. And she probtops. I might have spent weekends ably wouldn’t have understood me perfecting the invisible rope-pull, the anyway. She hadn’t gotten a run in. robot walk, the transparent shrinking box. I might have started a movement You can find more of the Newbie’s exploits and musings on runnersworld.com/newbie. to single-handedly bring mime back

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H

R MARINE CORPS “EL GRAN ENEMIGO 2008 [$90] contains big contrasting cabernet franc, malbec, and petit verdot grapes that fight it out in the bottle—a good fit for a race that celebrates the military. But it’s also an elegant and beautiful wine.

That’s fitting; to me there’s nothing more beautiful than running on the National Mall, seeing the monuments, and reflecting upon what they represent.”

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NEW YORK CITY

RUN IT BY ME

FINISH WINES

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y M I TC H M A N D E L ( W I N E S )

Vintner and marathoner Michael Evans matches his favorite varietals to iconic fall races.

The cofounder and CEO of The Vines of Mendoza, a winery and spa in Argentina, started running two years ago with a dream to run 26.2, which he did at the 2013 New York City Marathon (5:33).

He’s lost 35 pounds in those two years, which hints at his other reason for lacing up: “The more I run, the more I can enjoy.”

Owning a winery means that Evans, 49, entertains six days a week—that’s a lot of wine. The D.C. native will run Marine Corps this fall, so we asked him to play host and suggest a thematic wine pairing for that race and the season’s other big marathons.

(His choices are all, naturally, from Argentina.) —NANCY AVERETT

“The race is intense and complex, and its runners and crowds represent a melting pot of people and cultures. So I’d pair it with our RECUERDO GRAN CORTE 2011 [$75], a big blend of a lot of grapes—malbec, cabernet franc, merlot, and petit verdot. In addition, all good wines strike a balance between the fruit, alcohol, and tannins. New York has a similar balance: Part of the race is concrete jungle, but you also have the oasis of Central Park.”

CHICAGO “It’s fast and fun, which reminds me of my favorite rosé, CAELUM ROSADO 2011 [$21], a blend of malbec and cabernet sauvignon. Rosés are brought to market quicker than reds. Unlike with reds, you remove the grape skins, and instead of 20 to 30 days in the tanks, you leave them in for up to three days, giving you that pinkish color. It’s crisp with a nice acidity—perfect for after a five-mile tune-up along the lakefront.”

PHILADELPHIA “The course follows a historic, twisted route, winding along the river, through old streets and ethnic neighborhoods.

One block’s Korean, then Jewish, the next African-American. So I chose ACHAVAL FERRAR QUIMERA 2011 [$56], a red from upstart winery Achaval Ferrar. They mix five grapes together. Like Philly, the result is special.”

PORTLAND

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“This race is all fun, with street performers, bands, cheerleaders. When I think fun, I think spicy wine. It makes you smile. It dances in your mouth. One of my favorite spicy wines is GIMENEZ RIILI GRAN FAMILIA SYRAH 2011 [$59]. It’s serious but playful. Portland will be intense like any marathon, but you’re going to play along the way.”

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TRWB camp volunteer Dominic Grossman leapt into the Human Race logo.

WAR AND PEACE Trail running, with its difficult terrain and obstacles, requires stamina and grit—something service members know a thing or two about. In November, in honor of Veterans Day, Team Red, White & Blue (TRWB), an organization that helps military members transition back into 24 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

Liza Howard (left, center) is expecting 110 participants at the 2014 camp, where vets and civilians will run, strength-train, and tackle an obstacle course (above, left).

P H OTO G R A P H S CO U R T E SY O F D O N H AU K

A trail-running weekend forges bonds between military veterans and civilians.

civilian life, will host its third-annual Trail Running Camp in Rocksprings, Texas. The three-day experience, led by ultrarunning elites, gives vets the opportunity to exercise their muscles and exorcise their demons while bonding with fellow runners (and bunkmates) over daytime hills and nighttime bonfires.

The camp is the brainchild of ultrarunner and self-described “Army brat” Liza Howard, a mother of two who won the Leadville Trail 100 Run in 2010 and the Rocky Raccoon 100-miler in 2011. “I was starting to do well in races and was looking to do something useful with the attention I received,” says the 42-year-old National Outdoor Leadership School instructor who lives in San Antonio. She heard an interview with Mike Erwin, founder of TRWB, who uses the sport to help veterans recover and reassimilate. “Building a running community is the perfect way to help vets,” says Erwin, an Army major who has a masters degree in psychology. “There is something very symbolic about running—putting one foot in front of the other—that can be carried over to life.”

Howard contacted Erwin, became part of the advisory board of TRWB (which has 110 chapters and almost 50,000 members nationwide), and started planning the camp. Why the focus on trails? “For a lot of these veterans who have been deployed, being in the wilderness has not been safe,” she says. “We try to make the wilderness a healing place; a place to find peace rather than a place to find fear.” All

BE MORE TRAIL-READY.

Campers practice water crossings and first aid (demonstrated by Nikki Kimball, above) and socialize over evening bonfires.

abilities and paces are welcome, and shared how running has helped her distances covered can range from five battle depression. The ultrarunner’s to 18 miles. The camp debuted in 2012, candor made an impression on Air with an even match-up of 50 service Force vet Kara Welte, who attended members and 50 civilians. “A one-tocamp with her service dog, Tank, a one veteran/civilian ratio is key; we German shorthaired pointer who want to integrate the groups and help helps Welte cope with PTSD. “She put them build a connection that might not a tear in my eye,” says the 28-year-old otherwise be there,” says Howard, who who took up running while serving in is hosting 110 participants this year.

Afghanistan, but struggled to find the Some of those civilians have been motivation to lace up once returning star ultrarunners, including Nikki stateside. “Hearing her story made me Kimball, Darcy Africa, Max King, and feel like I could open up more.”

Sage Canaday, who have participated It also fueled her running. After in group runs and led seminars on topreturning home to Washington, D.C., ics like injury prevention, Welte, a nursing student, hydration, trail etiquette, set a goal she’s closing and first aid. But there’s in on: to run 2,301 miles PATH FINDERS more to the experience in 2014—one mile for TEAM RED, WHITE & BLUE TRAIL than just the nuts and every service member RUNNING CAMP bolts of training. Converkilled during Operasations out on the trails tion Enduring Freedom Where Camp Eagle, might initially center through December 31, Rocksprings, Texas around stride or form, but 2013. “Running and Tank When Saturday, November 15 to Monafter a few miles of shared saved my life,” she says. day, November 17 sweat and fatigue, the “I wouldn’t have joined Cost None for TRWB talks often evolve.

Team Red, White & Blue vets. $290 for civilIndeed, last year, Kimor have gone to the camp ians covers meals, ball, three-time winner of without him. Now, I feel lodging, activities the Western States 100like I have my life back.”

For More trailrunningcamp.org —LISA JHUNG Mile Endurance Run,

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RUNNER BY THE NUMBERS

started walking, then running one block at a time. He finished that marathon in 5:19. He ran it again in 2008 and 2009, but he had gained more weight, and at around 300 pounds, his times stretched to 6:12 and 7:06. “My pace was slow and my recovery time was long,” he says. “I knew it was because of my weight.”

So he started strength training and overhauled his diet. “No more six-packs Friday and Saturday nights,” says the science teacher and father of four from Elizabeth, New Jersey. Now a trim 155 pounds, LaMorte, 43, is hoping to finish the NYC Marathon in under five hours. “Once I started losing weight, I saw a difference in my running almost right away,” he says. “I’ve never felt better.” —GAIL KISLEVITZ

SHAUN BRENNAN Rocking out to the finish line

G O YO U !

Runners who inspire us BILL REILLY Pushing forward by rolling backward

There will be no mistaking the 62-year-old Queens resident during the New York City Marathon, his 29th (and 38th marathon overall): He’ll be the guy racing in a wheelchair—in reverse. “Backwards Bill,” as he’s known, was born with cerebral palsy, which severely limits his speech and muscle control, particularly of his arms.

Reilly, who grew up unable to participate in sports, discovered an outlet in swimming in 1978 and wheelchair racing in 1986.

He raced then in a conventional wheelchair that was hard to 26 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

maneuver and easily tipped over. Now, he has a customized racing chair that allows him to face backward and use his feet to propel himself. Reilly, who usually finishes in around seven hours, races with guides from Achilles International. His ultimate goal, according to one of his guides, Louis Pelino, is to “ bring a larger portion of the disabled community into organized sports.” —MCKENZIE MAXSON

MICHAEL LAMORTE Fitter, faster, happier

When LaMorte decided in 2005 that he wanted to run the New York City Marathon after watching it on TV, he wasn’t much of a runner, and he carried 265 pounds on his 6'4" frame. He

Since 2009, Brennan and his band, Kung Fury, have been entertaining New York City Marathon runners from the sidelines at 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. Inspired by the enthusiasm of the runners—“I would get teary-eyed at times, moved by their passion”—Brennan, 43, of Manhattan, decided he wanted to run a marathon. And quit smoking. He had tried to ditch his 24-year-long two-packs-aday cigarette habit before, but it wasn’t until he started running that he was successful. He ran his first 26.2-miler in 2012, and then started training for the 2013 NYC Marathon. But a broken femur derailed those plans. He’s excited to finally run his hometown event this year. “When I pass the band that’s playing on my band’s usual corner, I’m sure I’ll feel nostalgic,” he says. “But this year, I’ll run to the rhythm of New York City. I may break out into a dance!” —G.K. PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSHUA SIMPSON

CONNIE LYKEBROWN 70, SARASOTA, FLORIDA

With 35 finishes in a row, Lyke-Brown owns the longest active NYC Marathon streak. Below, snippets of her epic career. —MCKENZIE MAXSON

1,512,000 Approximate total steps taken during NYCMs.

1

Running injury in her life.

A broken fibula healed in time for her to train for 2014’s race.

110

Career marathon finishes, with a PR of 3:37 set in 1982.

1/3

“They say the New York City Marathon is one-third runners, one-third spectators, onethird volunteers,” she says.

“Each segment wouldn’t be anything without the others.”

603

Women who had ever completed the NYCM before her first finish in 1978.

265,124

Women who have completed it since. “We used to say, if you want to meet a man, go run a marathon,” she says.

“I like that there are more women running today.”

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A VOICE IN THE CROWD Let us pause a moment while a spectator has her say.

BY CHERYL LOCK As I stood at the 24-mile

28 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

parking (bad sense of direction), gone into debt on travel expenses (who needs savings when you can have London?), and screamed “You can do it, Connor!” (Chris’s last name) so loud I went hoarse.

Frequent thoughts cross my mind as I race from A to B to C, the course map with Chris’s time-specific checkpoints clutched in my hand: If he doesn’t see me, is it my fault if he runs badly?

That high-five added seconds to his time!

And if he’s not where he’s supposed to be, I assume he’s passed out. In a ditch.

All my worrying is worth it when a spectator turns to me, as someone always does, and says, “You know someone who runs that fast?” I smile cockily, as if Chris’s athleticism (and his, ahem, 2:49 PR) has anything to do with me, and say, “Yeah, that’s my guy.”

When I walk away, there’s a swagger in my step—and then I’m motoring to the next spot.

Yes, as a dedicated nonrunner, I’ve perfected the art of spectating, having walked, run, driven, and taken the subway from point to point to point in five of the six World Marathon Majors.

I’m proud of him, sure, but I’m proud of myself, too—the unsung hero who has been loyally sprinting by his side for five years, racing as fast as my short (untoned) legs will take me.

Cheryl Lock will cheer on her husband at the last of the Majors in 2016—in Tokyo.

The Pulse NECESSARY ACCESSORIES According to Running USA’s 2013 National Runner Survey, nearly 96 percent of runners wear something beyond the staples (shirt, shorts, shoes).

Here, the five items runners tote the most:

AUDIO PLAYER

52% GPS DEVICE

50%

He’s been around the block a few times—and he’s got answers.

Is it okay to race with headphones? I don’t want to look out of place at my first 5-K. —Guille H., North Bergen, NJ I’ll assume the race permits them.

(If not, there you go.) So: Will you look out of place? Will other runners point and laugh? Will you want to dig a shame hole and hide in it? No, no, and no. Half of the field will probably also be wearing headphones. So go ahead. Just keep the volume low so you can be aware of others. Rock on.

SUNGLASSES

47% HAT/VISOR

44% SPORTSWATCH

43% Runnerspeak PARASHORTS

Running shorts so cartoonishly long and baggy that they more closely resemble a parachute than functional athletic apparel.

I hate running with my husband.

His footstrikes are loud, and he doesn’t like to talk. What should I do when he asks me to run?

—Jess C., Great Falls, MT Have you considered headphones? I’m serious: Your husband gets company, you get entertainment, and you both get a workout.

If he’s offended, explain that he never wants to chat. That may be what it takes to get him talking.

Topic one: Loud footstrikes.

Can I run in bike lanes? I encountered an angry ninja biker today.

—@Jason_elia In the interest of furthering cyclist/runner harmony, I vote “no.”

Have a question for Miles? E-mail him at askmiles@runnersworld.com and follow @askmiles on Twitter.

I L LU S T R AT I O N S B Y A N DY R E M E N T E R ( M I L E S ); K I R S T E N U LV E ( PA R AS H O R T S )

marker, the third and final point from where I would be watching my then-fiancé run in the Berlin Marathon, it struck me: I’m a damn good marathon spectator.

I’d gotten up at 6 a.m., despite jet lag that begged me to do otherwise. I’d stood for hours in the cold, gotten lost on streets that all sounded the same, and taken the U-Bahn in the wrong direction—twice. It was now 11:40, and as I watched runners pass before me, I held my breath.

Thirty seconds passed before I saw him. He looked tired.

“Keep going, Connor!” I started worrying—Am I loud enough?—until he gave a weary nod. And then he was gone.

I glanced down at the course map in my hand. If I was going to see him cross the finish —a crucial viewing point—I’d have to run fast. Damn.

You see, runners aren’t the only ones at races participating in a fast-paced, anxiety-inducing activity.

The spectators—at least those of us assigned designated points of contact for optimal energy-boosting effectiveness—are equally stressed. Maybe more.

In New York City, I braced against onlookers grumbling they were “here first!” In Boston, I broke speed limits to make vantage points. In Chicago, I sprinted in 80-degree heat to make the finish line.

I’ve pushed kids out of my way (not proud of that), spent $100 for last-minute garage

ASK MILES

H

R

BAND IT

THE INTERSECTION MOMENTOUS

Oregon runner Alexi Pappas writes/directs/ stars in the film Tracktown. Andy Buckley (The Office) and Rachel Dratch (SNL) play her parents.

A Golf Channel broadcast of a tournament in Massachusetts titles a TV graphic about long-driving golfers “Boston Bombers.”

A Denmark school creates special running lanes in the hallways, allowing students to pick up the pace without fearing a reprimand.

Lauren Fleshman again walks the runway for Oiselle at NYC’s Fashion Week (joined by Kara Goucher, see page 64).

RaceKids, official day-camp partner for the Rock ’n’ Roll series, will watch your tots while you race.

GO!

STOP!

Former NBA star Jalen Rose admits on his podcast that while running high school crosscountry, he’d occasionally knock over the “real runners.”

A 103-year-old Japanese sprinter challenges Usain Bolt. Miyazaki Hidekichi’s 100plus record in the 100 meters: 29.83. Bolt’s world record: 9.58.

Half-Marathon Pace Band

In Sandra Brown’s Mean Streak, the protagonist, Emory Charbonneau, is a marathoner who runs into trouble on a weekend running retreat.

Participants of Washington, D.C.’s Skate of the Union cover 26.2 and 13.1 miles—on in-line skates. The “marathon” winner finished in 1:20.

In a campaign ad, Florida Rep. Patrick Murphy rattles off his qualifications while running.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan tweets: “BREAKING: Scientists discover those ugly running shoes with toes that look like human feet are the cause of Ebola.”

Two-time track Olympian Lolo Jones is the first celeb to get voted off Dancing with the Stars.

A 17-year-old with a fractured foot sets a new record for a 5-K on crutches: 46:47.8.

FRIVOLOUS

30 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

Haile Gebrselassie says in an interview that if he could dine with three famous people, he’d invite: Mr. Bean, Barack Obama, and Bob Geldof.

Jiff becomes the world’s fastest dog on two legs when the Pomeranian runs 10 meters on his hind legs in 6.56 seconds and five meters on his front paws in 7.76 seconds.

MILE

1

Go go go go go go.

Why won’t everyone up there just GO?

2

Run faster.

Not forward—sideways.

Weave around people!

3

Commence sprinting to get back on track.

4

Whoa! Slow down.

5

Not that much.

Speed up a bit. Build a cushion for later.

6

Good pace.

Cushion growing.

7

You’ve earned a little break. Slow down.

8

Not that much.

Speed back up. A little.

9

No? Cushion shrinking…

10

Do this: Run 8 seconds per mile faster. That’s nothing! You can do it!

11

Fine. Don’t do that.

Whatever pace is just above walking, do that.

12

Cushion gone. Who cares anymore? Run, jog, shuffle. Whatever.

13

Flail arms, grit teeth, BEAT PERSON IN FRONT OF YOU!

T H E I N T E R S E C T I O N : J O E M U R P H Y/C O N T R I B U T E R ( R O S E ) ; B O S T I N N O V I A T W I T T E R ( T V G R A P H I C ) ; TO R U YA M A N A K A /S TA F F ( H I D E K I C H I ); W W M T-T V N E W S C H A N N E L 3 ( R U N N I N G K I D S ); S A B R I N A CAY N E ( PA P PAS ); C H I N A F OTO P R E S S /

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A pace wristband can help you achieve a time goal by indicating mile splits to target. It’s helpful and reassuring—if your race is going well. If it isn’t, it can become laughably unrealistic. This band reflects a less-than-idealistic (but often true) journey to a halfmarathon finish. —MARK REMY

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GREEN MACHINE Move over kale—the avocado is having a moment. Whether you smash it on toast (a breakfast trend among chefs and celebs) or eat it by the spoonful (as Olympian Shalane Flanagan does), the fruit—yes, it’s a fruit—is a nutrient powerhouse. Slice one open and you’ll see vibrant shades of green; the darkest (near the surface) is a concentrated source of carotenoids that may decrease heart disease and cancer risk. The creamy, buttery flesh is also rich in cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fat (which is why it tastes so good!). For a perfect postrun meal, see page 46.

PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS MACDONALD

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 33

TRAINING GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY

Congrats! Now’s the time to set a new goal based on what you just achieved.

By Cindy Kuzma

SO YOUR BIG fall running goal is in the rearview mirror, and the days are growing shorter. How will you maintain motivation through the upcoming dark months?

Step one is acknowledging that it’s okay if you don’t run as much, says Carl Leivers, a running coach in Atlanta. But make a plan, or risk seeing your fitness melt away by spring. “If you say ‘I’ll run when I feel like it,’ that’s a recipe for not a lot of running,” he says.

Here’s how to structure your training for the months ahead based on what you’ve recently accomplished.

YOU JUST Ran your first race NOW Pick another

Sure, spend some time recovering, reveling in your accomplishment, and posting your finish-line shots on social media. But before the postrace glow dims, register for a race at least a month away if you ran a 5-K or 10-K, eight to 10 weeks away if you ran a half-marathon, or 10 to 12 weeks away if you ran

a full. “That way, you don’t lose sight of the initial experience,” says Megan Lizotte, a two-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier and coach at hgrunning.com. “You’ll also stay involved in the running community.” For maximum enjoyment, try something different—plan a destination race, aim for the next distance up (a 10-K if you ran a 5-K, for example), or step

Running long and slow through fall and winter can build strength for a speedy spring.

P H OTO G R A P H B Y S T E P H E N M AT E R A

34 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

down in distance and target a faster pace.

YOU JUST Nailed a time goal NOW Look back, then ahead

You’ve been working hard.

Now take a break. If you ran a fast marathon or halfmarathon, you need at least a month to recover, says Matt Thull, who coaches at ThunderDome Running and Alverno College in Milwaukee. Reduce your mileage by 20 to 30 percent (see the table below for more specific instructions) and spend time reviewing what went right—and wrong— during your buildup. Look over your log to find runs that went well or fell flat, and you’ll determine what you need to work on during the next round of training, Lizotte says. (Don’t keep a log? That’s the first thing to change, Leivers says.)

Once you’ve regrouped, ponder a new goal. Consider a different distance—a strong marathon can roll into a speedy 5-K or 10-K six to eight weeks later if you spend a few weeks after

recovery doing some faster running, Thull says. Or take the pressure off and do a turkey trot, jingle bell run, or New Year’s event (see the Races + Places section, pages 97 to 99, for ideas).

YOU JUST Did a string of 5-K and 10-K races NOW Keep it up—or go long and slow instead Choose your next step based on what motivates you. If you race for fun, continue signing up for one or two a month to stay consistent, Leivers says. But if you train and race for time goals, winter offers a chance to slow your pace and add distance, which can translate into faster performances next spring. Add weekly mileage at a rate that doesn’t exceed the number of days you run (for instance, add no more than four miles if you run four days a week, Leivers says), distributed in a way that keeps one weekly run longer than the others. Every third or fourth week, take a 25-percent step back to recharge, Thull says. Those slower miles

will feel easy after months of intervals and tempo runs, and they’ll build strength and endurance so you can do it all again next year, he says.

YOU JUST Ran consistently through summer and fall NOW Make a plan for winter Don’t let your running routine die when conditions aren’t ideal. Instead, set a mileage target either for each month or for the whole season (say, running 100 miles a month, or 800 total from November through March), Leivers says. To avoid cramming, aim to never miss more than two consecutive days of running, Thull says. In some regions, cold months pose logistical challenges, so plan ahead: Scout a one-mile loop in your neighborhood that’s always plowed, or investigate indoor tracks and treadmills (see “Rise of the Machines,” page 90). And develop a strength-training circuit you can do at home. That way, you’ll never feel off-track because wintry weather forced you to miss a day of exercise, Thull says.

Coach Matt Thull explains how to ease back into training postrace.

P H OTO G R A P H B Y A N D R E W M CC L A N A H A N / P H OTO R U N

After the Race

What to Do

Week 1

Rest. (See “Ask the Experts,” page 42, if you’d like to cross-train.)

Week 2

Run easy recovery miles every other day, with a weekly total of about 20 to 30 percent of your prerace peak mileage.

Week 3

Run up to half your previous mileage. Keep the pace easy.

Week 4

You may run 90 percent or even all of your previous miles, but keep them easy and take at least one rest day, even if you ran every day during training.

Week 5 +

Slowly start to incorporate intervals or tempo runs, especially if you’re planning to race a shorter distance soon.

FOLLOW THE LEADER Advice from the world’s best runners KELLYN TAYLOR, 28, of Flagstaff, Arizona, won the Go! St. Louis Half-Marathon in a course-record 1:11:51 and the USA 25-K Championships in 1:25:26 last spring.

CRAZY DRILLS “My drills before speedwork emphasize single-leg work: bounding, zigzag hops, and power skips off one leg at a time.

For running, it only makes sense to work each leg separately.”

CRAZY FAST “During hill workouts, I run some of the downhills hard, too.

That teaches my body to go faster than it can on flats and prepares me for descents in races. It’s harder to go slow on downhills anyway.”

THE WORKOUT “I do eight-milers with the first two miles at 30 seconds slower than half-marathon pace, the next two at 20 seconds off, the next two at 10 seconds off, and the last two at half-marathon pace or faster. This challenges my anaerobic threshold.”

—BOB COOPER OCTOBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 35

TRAINING

RACE PREP

READY, SET...

LONG RUNS? Check. Speedwork and pace sessions?

Last things to do the week before your goal race to ensure success

By Adam Buckley Cohen

(OVER) PACK YOUR BAG

Make a list of everything you could possibly need on race day—and then be sure you have it with you. That means shoes and socks, racing apparel for all weather conditions, lube, sunscreen, Imodium, sunglasses, hat, gloves, and whatever else you might dream up. “If in doubt,” says Oklahoma City–based online running coach Mark Bravo, “throw it in there.”

SET YOUR AUTOPILOT When exercise researchers studied different approaches to training immediately before a race, they found that runners who cut back their volume but maintained some intensity performed best.

“In the week leading up to a race, I’m ramping back the total distances of the workouts, but I’m going to keep some intervals in there at race pace, no faster,” says Janet Hamilton, an Atlanta-based coach and exercise physiologist.

That way, when the gun goes off and everyone else shifts into overdrive, you’ll lock into the correct pace.

36 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

Done and done. At this point, you’ve wrapped up your main training, but that doesn’t mean you can check out mentally during the final week before the race. Those last seven days represent a chance to put a bow on your months of preparation and ensure that you show up at the starting line primed for a strong run. Kill off prerace jitters by channeling your nervous energy into these tasks.

MIND THE MAP

Knowing the course could prove to be the key to avoiding a late-race bonk.

Hamilton encourages her athletes to study the race map or, if possible, to drive the route. Save a few seconds by figuring out which way the course turns first (so you know whether to line up on the left or right at the start). Identify challenging terrain like hills, and search out flat stretches where you might mount a late surge. “The more clearly you can visualize the course,” says Hamilton, “the more effective you can be at executing your race plan.”

STOCK THE PANTRY

“When it comes to prerace fueling, control variables by having what you need with you,” says Bravo, especially if you’ve chosen a destination race. He suggests toting a food-loaded backpack. “Go with what’s tried-and-true for you, whether it’s sandwiches, peanut-butter crackers, or energy bars. And keep fluids with you at all times to avoid dehydration.”

LAY IT OUT

SWEAT A LITTLE “I like my runners to stay fresh the day before the race,” says Bravo. On the morning prior, he recommends a short run (20 to 30 minutes) to shake out the jitters and build confidence, especially if you’re in an unfamiliar city.

But control the pace, he says. “This should be like a good shower; when you’re done, you should feel refreshed, not tired.”

The night before the race, lay out your clothes and gear beside your bed, pin your number onto your top, and attach your chip to your shoe. “Chances are, you won’t sleep well,” says Hamilton, and you’re more likely to forget things when you’re groggy and nervous.

What Not to Do Race Week Coaches recommend avoiding these common missteps.

NEW FOODS Two days before a marathon is not the time to give kimchi a try. Your body and digestive system will be dealing with enough stress; don’t introduce any new variables.

CROSS-TRAINING Skip the boot camp, hot yoga, and CrossFit this week to ensure that you don’t show up at the starting line drained—or with a freshly strained muscle.

OVER EXPO-SURE At the prerace expo, pick up number and packet, check that your chip works, and then get off your feet. Better to stay well rested than to drain your battery checking out compression socks, massage sticks, and organic energy bars.

SIGHTSEEING Yes, you may have chosen a destination race in a cosmopolitan city, but save the leg-wearying museum visits and walking tours until after you’ve crossed the finish line.

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TRAINING

THE STARTING LINE TIPS FOR BEGINNERS FROM AN EASYGOING COACH

BY JEFF GALLOWAY

My friend told me that her race offers “runner tracking.” What does that mean?

You can get updates on her progress in real time.

The timing chip in her bib number or shoe tag will signal that she has passed checkpoints. If you sign up to track her, those updates will come to you via e-mail or text message. Find details on the race’s Web site—the service may not be free.

Is there anything a spectator shouldn’t do?

GET IN ON THE FUN

Enjoy the thrill of a big race without all the mileage.

You may have noticed lots of runners on the roads and trails this season, many of them preparing for half and full marathons. These events often boast a partylike atmosphere, with running-related prerace activities such as speakers, seminars, and an expo. You don’t have to miss out on the fun just because you’re a new runner. Here are a few ways to get in on the action.

RUN THE PARTNER EVENT Many races offer a distance in the 5-K to 10-K range the day before the main event, often on part of the headliner’s course. To prepare, run/walk a longer distance every week—adding on a half-mile to a mile each time—until you’ve built up to the race distance two weeks before it takes place.

38

OR GET SOME PARTNERS Some half and full marathons allow relay teams of two to five runners to enter. Before you commit, figure out how far your segment would be and the logistics (where the exchange zone is, when you’d need to be there, and so on).

On race day, avoid cutting off other runners when you start, and stay to the right.

JOIN OUR ONLINE TRAINING PROGRAM FOR BEGINNERS AT RUNNERSWORLD.COM/THESTARTINGLINE.

SPECTATE Runners perform better and feel happier with encouragement. While they’ll appreciate cheers, it’s fun to take the extra step of ringing a cowbell or making a sign.

Hoping to spot a friend? Tell them where you’ll be and what you’ll be wearing.

VOLUNTEER Big races require lots of helping hands. Head to your event’s Web site to learn how to become a volunteer. Common roles include course marshal (directing runners at intersections or turns), aid-station helper (pouring and/or passing out water, sports drink, or energy gels), and finish-line helper (passing out medals, heat sheets, or recovery fuel).

Don’t walk out onto the course, forcing runners to go around you. Stay on the curb, and if you must cross the street, wait until there’s a gap in runner traffic. And please, don’t say, “You’re almost there!” unless you’re standing within sight of the finish line.

Fact or Fiction I can’t go to the expo unless I’m registered for the race.

FICTION Expos are open to the public, and they’re a great place to score deals on running products and to learn about other races. Feel free to bring friends, too—many nonrunners start running after experiencing the excitement of an expo.

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TRAINING

THE FAST LANE TRAINING ADVICE FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE

BY ALEX HUTCHINSON

THE BAD

Three of the greatest 5-K and 10-K runners in history ran their first marathons within a week of each other in April. With 21 Olympic and World Championship gold medals among them, Great Britain’s Mo Farah (top) and Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba (center) and Kenenisa Bekele (bottom) generated a tidal wave of speculation about how they would fare over 26.2 miles. The results? All over the map. Stepping up to the marathon is a challenge for any runner, but there are specific pitfalls for speedsters who have spent years notching fast times at shorter distances. Here’s what we can learn from Farah, Dibaba, and Bekele’s debuts.

40

FOR MORE FROM ALEX, VISIT RUNNERSWORLD.COM/SWEATSCIENCE.

Dibaba’s thirdplace finish in London in 2:20:35, behind the formidable Kenyan duo of Edna Kiplagat and Florence Kiplagat, was an encouraging start—but it left observers wondering what might have been. At the 30-K aid station, the three leaders were closely bunched when Dibaba dropped her water bottle. She went back to pick it up, and that’s when the two Kiplagats surged to open up a gap Dibaba was never able to close, though she looked strong at the end.

TAKEAWAY Most firsttime marathoners are happy to slow down and walk at aid stations. But if you’re chasing an ambitious goal time, you need to practice fueling at race pace: grabbing cups, opening gels, and getting fuel down your throat without losing a step. You should practice this throughout your buildup, but use the last two weeks to get in extra dress rehearsals, particularly during runs where you’ll be hitting race pace.

THE GOOD

Plug Bekele’s 26:17 world-record 10,000-meter time into race prediction calculators, and you get marathon times between 2:01 and 2:03—a tall order, given that the world record is 2:03:23. (See my story on page 71 on what it will take to see a sub-two.)

In reality, Bekele won the Marathon de Paris with a course record of 2:05:04—almost exactly the time he’d aimed for. In setting a modest time goal, Bekele avoided the trap that fast runners at shorter distances fall into: believing that the marathon is just another race.

TAKEAWAY Fast 10-K times mean you’re good at the 10-K. You likely won’t be equivalently good at the marathon on your first try.

Bekele ran about 2.5 percent slower than prediction calculators said, even though he trained well. Adjust your goal pace by 2.5 percent to start.

Slow it more if you haven’t upped mileage by at least 20 percent compared with your training for shorter races.

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y A L E X I H O B B S ( H U TC H I N S O N ) ; F R O M TO P, L E F T TO R I G H T: TO M D U L AT/S T R I N G E R ( FA R A H , 2 ) ; JA N K R U G E R /S T R I N G E R, KA R UA I TA N G /S T R I N G E R ( D I BA BA ); G O N Z A LO F U E N T E S / R E U T E R S /CO R B I S , M I C H E L E U L E R /A P/CO R B I S ( B E K E L E )

MARATHONS AIN’T EASY

Learn from three decidedly mixed elite 26.2 debuts.

It’s a little harsh to call Farah’s eighthplace finish at the London Marathon “bad,” but his time of 2:08:21 was well behind expectations. Much of the damage was done in the first half: He fell behind the leaders, accelerated to close the gap, then slowed again. That approach—surging and letting up in response to his competitors—is fine for 5-K and 10-K competition, where running out of fuel isn’t an issue. But in a marathon, early running above goal pace burns carbohydrates that you’ll need later. Sure enough, the uneven pacing left Farah heavy-legged in the second half.

TAKEAWAY The clock, not other runners, is your adversary in a marathon.

Commit your goal splits to memory or write them on your arm, and don’t get ahead of them. If you fall behind goal pace early in the race (as Farah did), don’t try to make up for lost time—just resume and maintain the correct pace until you’re past the 20mile mark.

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TRAINING

It’s okay to dive in a few days postmarathon— swimming is gentle on tired legs.

Can I split up runs— like doing five miles in both the morning and evening instead of one 10-miler?

I’m so tired at the end of long runs that I end up shuffling.

Should I go shorter?

ASK THE EXPERTS

I just finished a marathon. While recovering, can I cross-train?

Yes, but first treat your body to a two-day break from exercise.

On days three and four you can do half-hour swims, which are easy on the legs. To finish out the first week, half-hour bouts of no-impact cardio (like on the bike or the elliptical) are okay.

On days eight to 10, choose between cross-training sessions of 30 to 60 minutes or half-hour easy runs. Then, until 14 days after the race, you can increase the run distance and back off on the cross-training. After these two easy weeks to allow your muscles and joints to fully recover (while mixing in rest days as desired), you can safely return to your normal running routine and begin to consider racing again.

—Joy Murphy is a certified running and triathlon coach in Jacksonville, Florida (enjoyfitnessjacksonville.com).

42 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

To avoid collisions. Well, that’s the practical reason, although counterclockwise isn’t always the rule: Many indoor tracks change directions on alternate days; track ultra races periodically switch to help athletes prevent stress injuries on one side; and in Australia, they mostly run clockwise.

As for why the rest of the world prefers counterclockwise, there are only theories. Because most of us are right-handed, with stronger right legs better able to push off harder and cover more distance on track curves? Because the Romans raced chariots counterclockwise—and centuries later, horses, speed skaters, and track runners followed suit? Because most things move counterclockwise (fans, revolving doors, carousels, planets)? Or to sync with the earth’s rotation? Take your pick—and feel free to run in either direction if no one else is on the track.

P H OTO G R A P H B Y G A L L E R Y S TO C K

The Explainer Why do we run counterclockwise around the track?

Better idea: Try starting off those runs easier. An early pace that’s too fast for your fitness level is probably the culprit. Try for a slow, even pace, which can be monitored with a GPS watch or by checking your split times if you’re on a road or path with mile markers. If it’s a hilly route, slow down enough on the climbs that you can still talk in complete sentences. Err on the conservative side because it will feel great to finish faster than your starting pace. A second strategy is to take walk breaks—one minute for every six to eight minutes of running—on your longest runs. If you do that, lengthen the time between breaks as you get fitter so you don’t rely on them too heavily.

—Rudy Acevedo, who has finished 57 marathons, is a coach in San Antonio (training210.com).

Sure. Two shorter runs will reduce your injury risk because you’ll cut the repetitive joint stresses per run in half, with time for recovery between them. Splitting runs also allows greater variety in your training scheme. For example, you can do an easy run in the morning and a tempo run or intervals in the afternoon or evening. Or do a flat road run in the morning and hilly trails in the p.m. Or you can run two sixes instead of a 10-miler to boost your weekly mileage. If you’re training for a half-marathon or marathon, however, don’t split your long runs in half more often than every other week—and don’t split the last, longest run—so that you can practice your fueling strategy and be well prepared for the distance on uninterrupted long runs.

—Mark Kotarski is an online and local running coach in West Chester, Pennsylvania (ketfitness .com).

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FUEL THE RUNNER’S PANTRY

ORANGE CRUSH

Store in a cool, dark place—like a pantry!— not the fridge, which will affect texture and flavor.

Contributing food writer and marathoner Mark Bittman shares his favorite ways to use sweet potatoes.

THESE ORANGE BEAUTIES get their glowing hue from the

antioxidant beta-carotene, which your body converts to vitamin A. Both beta-carotene and vitamin A are responsible for maintaining eye health, protecting against sun damage, and boosting immunity. Bittman, author of the recently published How to Cook Everything Fast, serves sweet potatoes at any meal, and also likes them simply baked. “With its velvety skin and tender flesh, no other food gives you the same combination of textures,” he says. —YISHANE LEE FAST BREAKFAST “The flavors will remind you of Thanksgiving.”

1 sweet potato 1⁄4 cup chopped walnuts 1 Tbsp. maple syrup Pinch of salt Pierce potato all over with fork. Microwave on high, turning twice, for 15 minutes, or until soft. In a saucepan, cook walnuts, syrup, and salt on medium-low until nuts are coated and fragrant. Slice potato lengthwise. Mash nuts into top. Serves 1.

FALL SALAD “You get a punch in this dish from chili powder.”

3⁄4 cup salted, shelled pumpkin seeds 1 tsp. chili powder 1 Tbsp. plus 1⁄4 cup olive oil, divided 2 or 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and grated 2 Tbsp. red-wine vinegar 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard 2 tsp. honey 1⁄4 cup raisins Coat seeds with nonstick spray. Sprinkle with chili powder. Roast in the oven at 375ºF for 5 minutes, or

44

FOR COMPLETE RECIPE NUTRITION DATA AND BITTMAN’S RECIPE FOR SWEET POTATOES WITH PROSCIUTTO, GO TO RUNNERSWORLD.COM/SWEETPOTATOES.

HEARTY SOUP “Vegetables add more dimension to rich miso.”

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed 1 small Napa cabbage, roughly chopped 1⁄3 cup white miso paste 1 (15-oz) can white beans, rinsed Sliced scallions Sesame oil In a large pot, boil 6 cups water. Reduce heat to medium-high. Add potatoes. Cook 10 minutes, or until tender. Add cabbage.

Cook 1 minute. In a bowl, whisk miso with 1 cup cooking water. Return to pot. Add beans. Cook until heated. Ladle into bowls.

Garnish with scallions and sesame oil. Serves 4.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BEN ALSOP

P H OTO G R A P H B Y F R E D R CO N R A D/ N EW YO R K T I M E S ( B I T T M A N )

One tuber packs more potassium—a key electrolyte—than a banana does.

until lightly browned. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add sweet potatoes. Lightly cook for 7 minutes. In a bowl, whisk vinegar, mustard, honey, and a dash of chili powder. Whisk in remaining 1⁄4 cup oil.

Add potatoes, seeds, and raisins. Toss well. Serves 6 (as a side).

There’s a coach in every watch.

Meet the GPS running watches with coaching features so dialed-in, they might know your abilities better than you do. 220 gives you essential running data like distance, pace and heart rate. The 620 adds a touchscreen, VO2 max estimating and a recovery advisor. And when you pair 620 with HRM-Run you have access to advanced running form coaching data like cadence, vertical oscillation and ground contact time. Both 220 and 620 are compatible with free training plans from Garmin Connect™, which you can send to your watch, for real-time coaching.

To learn more, visit Garmin.com/ForerunnerCoach

Forerunner 220 | 620 ®

©2013 Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries

SPICY VEGGIE CHILI You can add whatever vegetables you have on hand. tablespoons olive oil red onion, diced carrot, diced red bell pepper, diced jalapeño, seeded and diced cans (15 ounces each) Mexican-style diced tomatoes 1 tablespoon chili powder Salt and pepper to taste 2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, drained

Top It Off Extra flavor, with benefits

2 1 1 1 1 2

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, bell pepper, and jalapeño.

Cook 4 minutes, or until beginning to soften. Add tomatoes (with their juices). Stir in chili powder and salt and pepper to taste. Gently stir in beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serves 4.

This one’s for heatlovers. Leave out the jalapeño if you prefer less spice.

Per serving: 256 cals, 40 g carbs, 11 g fiber, 10 g protein, 7 g fat

One tablespoon of chopped fresh cilantro or parsley packs an antioxidant punch.

A dollop of plain Greek yogurt offers cooling contrast to the spicy chili and adds extra protein.

BEEF AND BEER CHILI Pair with a pint of whatever dark beer you add to the chili.

This classic combo is both meaty and satisfying.

1 pound extra-lean ground beef 1 yellow onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced ½ red bell pepper, diced ½ cup dark beer 1 can (15 ounces) diced fire-roasted tomatoes 2 tablespoons chili powder ½ teaspoon cumin Salt and pepper to taste 1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans, drained Heat a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add beef and cook until just barely pink, breaking meat into crumbles while cooking. Add onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Cook 2 minutes, or until beginning to soften. Add beer and scrape to release any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add tomatoes (with their juices). Stir in chili powder, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste. Gently stir in beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serves 4.

Per serving: 267 cals, 27 g carbs, 5 g fiber, 27 g protein, 5 g fat

Fresh salsa and diced tomatoes are high in vitamin C and lycopene.

These nutrients boost absorption of iron from the meat and beans.

A tablespoon of shredded part-skim mozzarella adds melted goodness and calcium for just 20 calories.

Diced avocado provides heart-healthy fat, fiber, and vitamin E, needed for muscle recovery.

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 47

FUEL

EAT TO WIN

Sidestep common race-day mistakes and be ready to run your best.

By Amanda MacMillan WHETHER YOU’RE RUNNING a 5-K or a marathon, the food you eat and

the fluids you drink on race day can make or break your performance. Runners know this, of course. But maybe because of the hectic mornings, the rush of endorphins, or the confusing calorie math, mistakes happen.

Race-day fueling is a tricky subject, says Lauren Antonucci, R.D.N., C.S.S.D., owner of Nutrition Energy in New York City and nutrition consultant for the New York Road Runners: On one hand, anything new or different is bad; on the other, you can’t just eat like usual. “What’s healthiest on a normal day probably won’t earn you your best race,” says Antonucci. “You have to suspend some of your normal health rules, which is hard to do.”

Since every race scenario is different, having experience doesn’t necessarily mean you’re immune to questionable foodand-drink decisions. The best way to foolproof your day-of strategy? Watch out for these six diet mistakes that afflict even the most well-intentioned runners.

NOT SCHEDULING THE TIME FOR BREAKFAST “Eating too close to the race can cause cramping, heartburn, and bathroom pit stops,” says Kate Sweeney, M.S., R.D., senior clinical dietitian at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a top age-group triathlete, “and will cause your body to use its energy digesting rather than racing.” Skipping breakfast is not an option either: Low

blood sugar can cause fatigue and dizziness on the course.

FIX IT Eat at least two to three hours before your race starts, says Sweeney. For shorter events, like a 5-K, that meal should provide 150 to 200 calories; longer races, like marathons, require much more (500 calories and up).

Runners going 10 miles or longer may also need a fistsize snack (like a banana or an energy bar) about 60

Staff Picks

The folks at RW know what works for them (even when it’s a bit…odd)

GU Energy Gel “Espresso Love has caffeine, tastes good, and it’s fun to ask in a British accent, ‘Fancy some Espresso, Love?’”

Scott Douglas Senior Content Editor

48 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

Hammer Gel “The packaging is quick to open, the raspberry flavor plays nice in my belly, and I’m pretty sure it can double as rocket fuel.”

Daniel Fuehrer Digital Designer

Hershey’s Miniature Milk Chocolate Bar “I eat it all at once or put it between my lips and teeth and pull sweetness off of it for miles.”

Warren Green Brand Editor

Hot cocoa, chips “Cocoa heats me up in ultras, and the sweetness reminds me I am human and not a sluggish drone.

Chips satisfy that salt craving.”

Laura Beachy Publicist

PowerGels “They’re liquidy and go down fast without guzzling cups of water. The Strawberry Banana flavor tastes like fruit snacks!”

Meghan Loftus Senior Editor

ILLUSTRATION BY ZOHAR LAZAR

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y T H O M AS M AC D O N A L D

Clif Shot Bloks (Margarita) “I like that you can eat them one at a time. I have a sensitive stomach and never had an issue with these, ever.”

Katie Neitz Articles Editor

DUANE SOLOMON | US Olympian – 800 m | Team Saucony Athlete

FUEL Pasta-Dinner No-No’s Avoid doing any of these things the night before your race.

minutes before the start to keep blood-sugar levels up. If you need more sleep, “wake up early, eat, and then snooze a bit longer,” says Sweeney.

OVERDOSING ON PROTEIN, FAT, OR FIBER An egg-and-cheese omelet isn’t the smartest prerun choice: Its protein and fat take too long to empty from the stomach and convert to usable energy, and can delay the absorption of the carbs you eat. “Even if you can normally tolerate it before a morning jog, you’re likely to be going harder and faster on race day,” says Antonucci.

Also watch out for high-fiber breakfasts, like whole-grain cereals, which can cause cramping and GI distress.

FIX IT Eat an easy-to-digest, carb-based morning meal, like a plain bagel with a little peanut butter and a banana, or toast with jam. Oatmeal is a little higher in fiber, but if it has worked for you in training, stick with it. Or try a lower-fiber option like Cream of Wheat.

50 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

Guzzling iced tea If you don’t normally drink iced tea or soda at dinner, the caffeine may keep you up.

urine as a guide: It should be light yellow, but not totally clear.

SKIPPING AID STATIONS You’re several miles in and feeling great—why waste time walking through a water station or wrestling with a GU? Because by the time you no longer feel great, it may be too late. “During races, we don’t get normal hunger signals,” says Sweeney. “We often find out by cramping, slowing, or getting dizzy that we didn’t fuel or drink properly.”

FIX IT You don’t need to chug a full cup at every aid station.

But make sure you steal at least a couple of sips every two to three miles, and take in at least 30 to 60 grams of carbs (120 to 240 calories) every hour after your first 60 minutes of running. Practicing your fueling during long training runs will help you perfect your race-day plan.

TRYING A NEW GEL It’s hard to predict how your stomach (and your gag reflex) will react to something new in a strenuous environment like a race. No matter how enticing that mocha caramel cinnamon streusel gel sounds at mile 20, today is not the day to sample it for the first

time. Best-case scenario, it powers you through until the end; worst case, it powers you straight to the bathroom.

FIX IT Find out ahead of time what will be served on the course (if the race’s Web site doesn’t specifically say it, the list of race sponsors may give you a clue). Sample those brands and flavors ahead of time. Or travel with your own trusted nutrition in a pocket or waist belt.

BEELINING FOR THE BEER TENT Congrats, you’re done! By all means, you deserve a cold one—but not without refueling with some real food (and plenty of water) first. “Alcohol has a diuretic effect, so the more you drink, the more fluids you actually lose,” says Sweeney. Although beer is full of carbs, they’re not the best carbs for replenishing glycogen stores and aiding muscle repair.

FIX IT “You’ll recover faster and have a better day, week, and season if you get in some solid nutrition first,” says Antonucci. Those postrace bagel and banana freebies will work in a pinch, she says, but a sandwich, yogurt, or protein bar (with a big bottle of water) 30 to 60 minutes postrun is even better.

Stuffing yourself “It’s better to be hungry again two hours later and eat a small snack before bed than to be uncomfortably stuffed and unable to sleep,” says Antonucci.

Ordering extra-spicy, creamy, or fried foods These foods can cause heartburn, nausea, or worse. For flavor, sprinkle extra salt on your meal. “Your body will appreciate the sodium tomorrow,” says Antonucci.

Eating something you’ve never tried Who knows how your stomach might react?

“You may not have much of a choice where you eat,” says Antonucci, “but you can always stick with familiar flavors, like spaghetti and red sauce or chicken and rice.”

P H OTO G R A P H B Y B R OW N , S I M O N / T H E F O O D PA S S I O N AT E S /C O R B I S

DRINKING ALL MORNING Dehydration can wreck your race, but so can having to break for the porta potty at mile two (and mile six and mile 12) with a sloshing stomach and full bladder. Drinking too much water without also taking in electrolytes can put endurance runners at risk for hyponatremia, a dangerous loss of sodium.

FIX IT “Get most of your fluids (about 16 to 24 ounces) at least 90 minutes before the start,” says Antonucci, “and then chill out. Take a final six to eight ounces before the race starts.” (On very hot and humid days, she adds, plan to slightly increase your fluid intake.) Use the color of your

Overloading on veggies It’s okay to start with a small salad, but “you should be eating less fiber today than you’re eating on most other days,” says Lauren Antonucci, R.D.N., C.S.S.D.

MOLLY HUDDLE | American Record Holder – 5000 m | Team Saucony Athlete

MIND+BODY OH, CRAMP!

A muscle cramp can stop you in your tracks—but with science on your side, you can fix it fast.

By A.C. Shilton YOUR FACEBOOK POST about a midrace muscle cramp now has 32 unsolicited comments: Eat bananas!

Salt tablets! Mustard! While the peanut gallery means well, the advice they’re dishing out may just be nuts. In fact, even experts can’t say with certainty what causes exercised-induced muscle cramps. “Scientists have theories, but it’s hard to do research on cramps because they’re unpredictable and spontaneous,” says Kevin C. Miller, Ph.D., an associate professor of athletic training at Central Michigan University and devoted cramp researcher. In fact, one of Miller’s early career tasks was to devise a humane way to induce cramps. (The process he came up with involves electro currents and students’ big toes. He swears it’s not too painful.) But even in a lab, multiple variables can be at play when a cramp occurs. “When I exercise, I lose sodium, I become dehydrated, and I become fatigued,” Miller says. “The problem is all those things are happening at the same time, which makes it difficult to say definitively what’s responsible.”

What experts do know is that many common treatments have been proven ineffective. Which means it’s time to rethink your treatment regimen.

Turn the page for an evidence-based cheat sheet on what doesn’t work—and what actually does.

Thirty-nine percent of distance runners may experience a cramp in their calves, hamstrings, or quadriceps before they finish a race.

What Happened?

A muscle cramp may occur when spindles (small neurosensory receptors in a muscle) become fatigued and start misfiring, telling your nerves to contract that muscle against your wishes.

52 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

PHOTOGRAPH BY REED YOUNG

BEN TRUE | 5x US Road Race Champion | Team Saucony Athlete

MIND+BODY

STOP IT!

A cramp strikes. Now what? Separate fact from fiction to ease the pain.

Cramp Culprits Experts weigh in on two common theories.

MUSCLE FATIGUE Dehydration, however, could expedite muscle fatigue, and that is what Miller believes is a likely cause of cramps. In that ultramarathoner study, 100 percent of the runners who cramped did so in either the last half of or right after the race. Anecdotally, this theory holds up: Most people who cramp seem to be covering longer distances; cramps seem more common at mile 20 of a marathon than, say, mile two of a 5-K. Additionally, speedier runners seem to be at higher risk. Two 2011 studies found that fastpaced ultramarathoners and triathletes had more cramps than their slower counterparts.

54 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

WHAT DOESN’T

Pickle Juice Bizarre as it may

Bananas and Salt Tablets

sound, this could be a legit remedy. Miller served a double shot of pickle juice, water, or nothing at all to cramping subjects.

“Pickle juice relieved the cramps in an average of 85 seconds,” he says. “Something in the pickle juice, besides potassium or sodium, is telling your muscles to relax and stop firing.”

Science doesn’t support the practice, but athletes still gobble these down in the hope of relieving cramps. “Even if potassium and sodium were effective, it takes probably 60 minutes for them to work their way into your system,” Miller says. “You’ll get faster relief stretching out the cramp.”

Stretching Experts say immediately stretching a cramping muscle is the best fix. Miller and Dr. Noakes also believe daily stretching of a cramp-prone muscle, like the calf, could be protective.

Relieve a Calf Cramp CURB STRETCH Take the leg that’s

cramping and slowly lower your heel off of a curb. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds.

RUN LONG Guarding against muscle fatigue is key, so don’t take any shortcuts in training. “Train more, do longer distances,” says Dr. Noakes, a former ultramarathoner.

“You have to adapt to the distance you want to race.”

STRENGTH TRAIN Miller recommends plyometrics (see “Jump to It,” page 56)—explosive exercises that may improve the endurance of the receptors that are thought to misfire and cause cramps.

PACE PROPERLY If you trained logging 10-minute miles and you start racing 8:45-minute miles, your muscles won’t be prepared for that effort, and you’ll risk cramping, Miller says.

Mustard Some athletic trainers actually keep packets of the condiment on the sidelines.

Miller put it to the test, giving athletes as much as threequarters of a cup (about 35 packets) of the yellow stuff—to no avail. “We found there’s no change,” he says. “Give a guy one or two packets, you can expect even less to happen.”

KEEP TRACK Miller thinks cramps are often caused by the perfect confluence of factors. “If you tend to cramp up at 20 miles, write that down,” he says. “Then write down the conditions: Was it hot? Was it humid?

How much did you drink?

What was your nutrition like the night before? Were you acclimated to the heat?” Track patterns over time, and you may be able to figure out exactly what makes you cramp.

After Hours

Prevent a Calf Cramp DOWNWARD DOG Start in a

downward-dog position—on your hands and toes with your hands under your shoulders, knees slightly bent and hips pushing back and up toward the sky. “Walk” a bit by slowly letting one heel drop at a time.

Hold for 20 to 30 seconds.

Quinine For more than a century, quinine was used as a treatment for nocturnal leg-muscle cramps. However, in 1994, the FDA stopped approving the sale of overthe-counter quinine tablets and warned doctors against prescribing them due to the risk of serious side effects.

Nocturnal muscle cramps are different from exercise-induced cramps.

They may be age-related: Over time, it’s likely that neurons break down and can send faulty signals.

Medications and medical conditions can also contribute. Stretching before bed may help.

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y R E E D YO U N G ( E X E R C I S E S , 2 ) ; T H O M A S M AC D O N A L D ( P I C K L E S , BA N A N A , M U S TA R D) ; YOAV L E V Y/ N E W S C O M ( P I L L S )

DEHYDRATION AND ELECTROLYTE LOSS The best-known theory is also the one with the least amount of scientific support. Timothy Noakes, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., a renowned exercise scientist from the University of Cape Town, calls the studies that link cramps to sodium loss and dehydration “bogus science.” In 2004, he studied the electrolyte levels of 43 ultramarathoners. Blood tests after a race showed no significant differences in blood sodium or magnesium concentrations between those who had and hadn’t cramped. There were also no differences in body weight, plasma volume, or blood volume between the two groups, showing that dehydration had no real effect. Miller agrees: If dehydration alone could cause a muscle cramp, he theorizes that you could seize up in saunas or hot tubs, or even just walking around on hot days.

WHAT WORKS

Preventive Steps The best strategies for avoiding spasms

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THE BODY SHOP

JUMP TO IT

Plyo Perks

Explosive exercises will make you stronger, faster, and less injury-prone.

PLYOMETRICS—dynamic, high-velocity exercises that build explosive

power—force your muscles to lengthen and contract over and over again at top speeds (just like running does!), which makes them the most functional strength training a runner can do, says New York City sports-medicine physician and Ironman competitor Jordan D. Metzl, M.D. Add plyometrics to your routine at least once a week, says Dr. Metzl, and your runs will feel easier, you’ll be more resistant to injury, and you’ll even get faster. For the exercises below, do four sets of 15 reps of each move, and work up to seven sets. —K. ALEISHA FETTERS

PLYOMETRIC LUNGES Work your entire lower body with an exaggerated running motion TO DO Lunge forward with your right foot, lowering down until your left knee almost touches the ground, and swinging your left arm forward. Explosively push up off the ground and switch legs midair, landing with your left leg forward. Repeat on the opposite side. That’s one rep.

PLYOMETRIC SINGLE-LEG TOE-TOUCHES Improve your balance; work your glutes and hamstrings TO DO Stand on your right foot with your left leg extended out and arms out to your sides.

Bend your right knee and reach forward to touch your right foot with your left hand. Straighten back up and jump up. Do all reps on one side, then switch.

b

a

56

BURPEES Strengthen your whole body and boost your cardiac capacity TO DO Stand with your feet hipwidth apart. Squat down and place your hands on the floor (a), and jump your feet back so that you’re in a plank. Do one push-up (b). Jump your feet back to your hands, and from this crouched position, jump up as high as you can (c).

FOR A VIDEO DEMONSTRATION OF THIS ROUTINE, VISIT RUNNERSWORLD.COM/JUMPTOIT. AND FOR EVEN MORE STRENGTH TRAINING FROM DR. METZL, SEE RUNNERSWORLD.COM/IRONSTRENGTH.

PREVENT INJURY By building up the muscles’ ability to absorb impact, plyometrics take pressure off connecting tendons, Dr. Metzl says.

Plus, research in the Journal of Athletic Training shows that plyo exercises help stabilize and align the knee joints upon impact, likely reducing kneeinjury risk.

IMPROVE SPEED A Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research study reports that runners who completed just six weeks of plyometrics improved their 2400-meter race times by 3.9 percent. Plyos boost lower-body power, helping you maintain speed throughout your runs—and kick it in the final stretch.

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y M I TC H M A N D E L

JUMP SQUATS Strengthen your glutes to power through runs and reduce strain on your knees and hips TO DO With your feet turned out slightly and your arms extended out, lower down into a squat position until your butt is just lower than your knees. Jump up quickly, landing as softly as possible without letting your knees fall in toward each other.

c

BUILD EFFICIENCY “Explosive exercises enable the legs to function as a stiffer spring when the foot makes contact with the ground. As a result, it takes less energy to run,” says Dr. Metzl. In fact, in a University of Montreal study, runners who did eight weeks of plyometrics improved their running economy more than those who lifted weights.

GEAR 1

KICKIN’ BACK

Sneaks that combine modern comfort with old-school cool

By Katherine Dempsey 2 1 / SAUCONY BULLET At 5.6 ounces, the Bullet has just enough cushioning to prop you up without weighing you down. Inspired by the 1985 Bullet track spike, this low-profile shoe has retained the silhouette of its fast forebear while stepping up the aesthetic with a nylon and suede upper. $55 (also available in men’s), saucony.com 2 / PUMA STEPPER CLASSIC The Classic is a greener variation of the Clyde, a favorite among the old-school skater set. It retains the same cool vibe with its suede upper while incorporating “EcoOrthLite,” a comfy, breathable, antimicrobial liner made from a bio-oil substitute that replaces 20 percent of the petroleum typically required by foam liners. $75 (available in men’s only), puma.com

3

3 / NIKE INTERNATIONALIST Sporting one of the most iconic designs in running, the Internationalist is a nod to the late Bill Bowerman, University of Oregon coach and cofounder of Nike.

The shoe’s waffle outsole mimics the 1974 Nike Waffle Trainer, and a blend of suede, leather, and mesh over generous midsole cushioning gives you that hit-the-town look and feel. $85 (also available in women’s), store.nike.com

4

4 / SKECHERS EQUALIZER— VIVID DREAM When your feet hit the memory foam in the insole, you may feel like you’re dreaming. Both the insole and the stretch woven upper conform to your foot for maximum support, and the light-but-durable outsole can take a beating. $65, skechers.com 5 / BROOKS CHARIOT Kick it retrostyle with this comfy, more breathable revise of the überpopular 1982 model.

Part of the Brooks Heritage Collection recognizing the brand’s centennial year, the Chariot retains the vintage look while incorporating updates like a blown-rubber outsole for supreme cruise-ability and a mesh upper for better wearability. $90 (also available in women’s), brooksrunning.com

58 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

5

PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS MACDONALD

GEAR

HOODIE FOR YOU

Six picks that can pull double duty—on the run or around town

By Katherine Dempsey

WOMEN’S

MEN’S

1 / SAUCONY BREEZE VEST The 3.8-ounce Breeze repels rain and packs into its own pocket. A drop tail protects your backside from splatter, while the ventilated upper back panel keeps you dry. $75, saucony.com

1 / NIKE X GYAKUSOU The stand collar, Storm-FIT seamsealed body, and laser-perforated underarm vents keep you dry, and the oversize, reflective logo ensures you’re a bright spot on any road. $160, nike.com

2 / MOVING COMFORT CHIC HOODIE Made of ultrasoft, poly-spandex fabric, the bottom stays put while the arms swing free. The high neck hangs like a scarf that you can cinch when cold, and thumb loops block wind from whipping up your arms. $85, moving comfort.com

2 / THE NORTH FACE STORMY TRAIL JACKET Activate its venting system by unzipping the two front vents and pulling the internal drawstrings to cinch the waist; as you run, air will move in through the front vents and exit through three rear vents. $165, thenorth face.com 3 / STIO CFS JACKET The CFS is an 11-ounce featherweight that packs a punch. Its blend of 89 percent polyester and 11 percent spandex is breathable, blocks wind, and repels rain, and a UPF 50 coating protects against the cancer rays. $139, stio.com

3 / PEARL IZUMI FLASH HOODY Look chic, feel cozy.

Internal fist mitts and a kangaroo pouch warm chilly hands, and a high front collar protects against the elements.

There’s even a hole in the hood for your ponytail. $75, pearl izumi.com

Re-Run Your Trail Run! Capture the best shots with these tips from the GoPro pros.

SHOOT LOW A chest harness provides a solid base for steadier footage (Chesty; $40; shop .gopro.com). Filming from your head?

Increase the frame rate: Shooting more frames per second reduces the bounce.

60 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

GO WIDE The wider the field of view, the smoother the shot.

On the White or Silver editions ($200; $300) set the field-of-view to “wide.” The 1080 SuperView mode on the Black Edition ($400) is superwide.

SWAP HOUSING Want every bird chirp and hocked loogie?

Replace housing with “The Frame,” which better exposes the audio ports. It weighs less, too, but it’s not waterproof or bang-proof like the housing. ($40).

Choose Wisely

Typical battery life is two hours. Stretch that period out by using time-lapse mode, which shoots still images at intervals from a half-second up to 60 seconds.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOMAS MACDONALD

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PHOTOGRAPH BY GUIDO VITTI

w Where’s the coffee? It’s a Sunday morn-

ing in a Westin hotel in Napa, and runners emerge from the elevator bank in search of bagels to nibble on, Nuun with which to fill up their water bottles, and most important, a little caffeine to perk them up after last night’s dinner and wine-tasting.

They ask each other, “How far are you going?” Four, six, eight, more? There’s a shuttle leaving at 8:00 for Alston Park, where a web of packed-dirt trails and a few steep hills offer countless route possibilities. But because the park is only four or so miles away and this is a group of resourceful runners, many of them decide it makes more sense to extend the distance by running to the park. In fact, several of them already left earlier to log a longer effort. “What pace?” the runners ask each other. “I’m doing 8s.” “I’m doing 9s.” “Just let me get some more coffee.”

All the runners milling around the lobby are women, save one. Chris Heuisler, who has the enviable title of “RunWestin concierge,” has two jobs today: One is to help this mix of recreational and serious athletes get to and from the park for a one-plus-hour run. The other is to assist in any way he can the star of this show, the host of this weekend running retreat.

And here she comes, bounding into the lobby, with her brown hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing a pink Oiselle top, light blue Zensah compression leg sleeves, and pink, blue, and yellow Skechers. It is possible Kara Goucher has dark circles underneath her eyes, and it is possible she had a glass (or maybe even more) of cabernet last night, even though the whole time she was sipping and eating and chatting with her friends and fans, the thought of her upcoming long run hung like a dark cloud over her head. Around 10:30, she had looked around and asked, “Who wants to run 17 miles tomorrow

66 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

morning? At 6:20 pace?” Sally Bergesen, founder of Oiselle, bravely offered to accompany her—on a bike. “But I don’t have a bike.” How could they get a bike?

“Chris!” Kara slapped the table. “Chris could make it happen!” So Chris had gone to the local Walmart at 11:00 p.m. dressed in his Saturday-night finery and paid $85 for a mountain bike. “No one blinked an eye,” he tells Kara and Sally this morning, and they all laugh with glee.

“I totally sold you on it,” Kara says. She does a little dance, hopping from foot to foot. “Chris, can you get us a bike?” she says, low-circling her fists, re-creating the previous night’s pitch. Her ponytail swishes from side to side. “C’mon, you know you wanna do it!”

Food, friends, fans, family: Who could resist? It’s precisely Pilates pal Tracey this combination of winsome (upper right), charm and champion’s confihusband, Adam (below), with dence that has drawn this group vegan Lottie. of 50 to Kara Goucher’s very first weekend running retreat for women.

There are first-time half-marathoners and 2:50 marathoners; the ages range from 19 to 63; people have traveled from South Carolina, Maine, Alberta. Several came with running buddies: Allison L’Hotta, 26, a pediatric occupational therapist in Los Angeles, and Kerry Devitt, 26, a librarian in Chicago, are former college track and cross-country teammates. “We came here for a weekend together,” they say.

So did Andrea Wong, 39, a pediatrician, and Jen Heffner, 36, a Pilates instructor, and both moms of elementary-age kids, who live across the street from each other on a cul-de-sac nearby in Napa. Others booked double rooms with acquaintances: Two women from Utah “met” each other before the retreat on their local running club’s Facebook page. Many traveled solo. Registration opened in July and sold out in two days. “It would’ve gone faster,” says Goucher’s husband and coconspirator, Adam. “But we had issues with PayPal.” Ask any woman here why she came and she may say running, wine, hanging out with like-minded people, but all will say, “Well, it’s Kara.”

“I met Kara at the Boston Marathon in 2009 and was impressed by how approachable and inviting she was,” says Jess Russo, 32, a musician and mom from Lafayette, Louisiana. “When I saw that she was hosting a running retreat, I e-mailed my husband the link and he called me right away, and said, ‘You have to go! Can I book it for you?’ I was on cloud nine!”

But on this Sunday morning, Kara has to set aside the fun with fans to attend to her day job, reestablishing herself as one of the country’s top runners, which injuPHOTOGRAPHS BY AARON FARLEY

ries have hindered for nearly 15 months.

She’s got a 17-miler to nail, no matter how few hours of sleep she got. While she’s doing that, Kerry and Andrea and Jess and all the other retreat attendees will run or ride the bus to the park, do their own workouts in self-selected groups, and meet her there afterward for chats and selfies. And so Kara heads out the lobby doors, past the tinkling ornamental waterfalls, down the hotel steps into the gray and cool morning, and starts into a fluid, easy-seeming stride, with Sally pedaling alongside on the Walmart bike.

“This has been a year of self-discovery for

me,” Kara Goucher says. “I’ve been following my heart and gut all year.”

The event that arguably precipitated such intense reflection and change was in June 2013, when she placed a frustrating fifth in the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the 10,000 meters, failing to make the U.S. team for the World Outdoor Championships in Moscow. Goucher, 36, owns an enviable résumé: She nabbed a bronze medal in the 10,000 meters in the 2007 World Outdoor Championships, competed in the 5000 and 10,000 meters in the 2008 Olympics, and took third in her debut marathon in New York City that same year. After taking time off in 2010 to give birth to a son, Colt, she returned to set a PR of 2:24:52 in the 2011 Boston Marathon, represent the U.S. in the 2012 Olympic Marathon, and take another shot at Boston in 2013.

Still, by that summer, she was tired of the grind, feeling burned out. “I was running to meet requirements, and I was stressed out,” she says. “I didn’t love my running. It was an obligation in my life. It was a way to support my family. And I wasn’t enjoying it anymore.”

Luckily she lives with a man who is literally an agent of change. Adam Goucher, himself a 2000 Olympian, gives motivational speeches with a partner, Tim Catalano, about how to get more out of running—and life. “Adam said, ‘Kara, you can keep going the way you’re going, and you’re good enough that you’ll win a lot of prize money, but you’re never going to be great,’” she says. “ ‘Is this what you want?’

And I was like, ‘Noooooo.’ ” And so began a year of big changes.

In a shocking move, she left billiondollar behemoth Nike, with all it confers (and demands), and signed in March with upstart free-spirited women’sathletic apparel company Oiselle (wah-ZELL), with less than $10 million in revenue. She subsequently signed with Skechers (which notably NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 67

“I don’t feel like myself unless I run.

It’s like therapy.”

also sponsors 2014 Boston champ Meb Keflezighi), and Nuun hydration. She left her Nike coach Jerry Schumacher and the training group that included her friend and rival Shalane Flanagan, and reunited with her college coaches, Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs. She moved from a “huge” house she and Adam had built in Portland, Oregon, back to Boulder, Colorado, close to where Adam had grown up and Kara had attended college.

But the path to a new life wasn’t exactly straight and smooth. In March, she finished a workout of 500-meter repeats and felt a twinge in her lower back, which 68 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

turned out to be a sacral stress fracture, scotching her training plans for three months and any racing for at least five. If her new employers were bummed, they didn’t let on. “These companies signed me when I was down,” she says. “They were like, ‘We think you’re great, and we think you have a good story, and we think people relate to you.’ They’re not paying me to run fast, they’re paying me to be me, and that’s a totally different way than I’ve ever been treated before.”

While Goucher waited out her injury, her coaches, Wetmore and Burroughs, wouldn’t “let” her cross-train for more

than 75 minutes a day. (She rode a Spin bike, aqua-jogged, and later ran on an Alter-G treadmill.) Which left her with more time to play with her son, Colt (who would turn 4 in September), and talk with Adam about what else she really wanted to do. And top of the list was a womenonly weekend running retreat. “This has been a dream of mine for years,” Kara says.

The timing was auspicious: The lifestyle companies she’d recently signed with put a premium on social connectedness with fans. “For the first time in my life, people were asking me, ‘What do you want to do?

How do you want to inspire?’ ” When you are an effusive and personable Olympian, you have a lot of similarly wired friends to call upon. Kara assembled a roster of presenters for her inaugural weekend retreat, including Oiselle CEO Bergesen as a keynote speaker; clean-eating blogger Lottie Bildirici for a vegan food-prep demo (beet smoothies, berry maca muffins, and raw espressodate truffles—yum!); Tracey Katona for a Pilates workout (ouch); clinical social worker Anna Paffel, a pal from high school, to lead a group discussion on managing life’s expectations (sniff!); and Adam and Tim for their motivational speech about rejecting complacency.

(Adam, Tim, and concierge Chris were the only men present at the retreat, and they were quick to excuse themselves when the talk got emotional, like during the social worker’s therapy session.)

Oiselle, Skechers, Soleus, and Nuun provided goodies for the participants’ swag bags. Before the retreat, representatives from Westin hotels had suggested three possible locations, but for Kara the decision was a no-brainer. “I was like, ‘Napa, Napa, Napa. We’re going to Napa.’”

The weekend would start with a wine reception on Friday evening, include two morning group runs, and conclude with a postrun brunch on Sunday morning. Kara and Adam posted notice of the retreat on her Facebook fan page and through Oiselle’s Twitter feed, and not surprisingly runners snapped up the opportunity to get close to Kara, even at a cost of $1,250 per person (not including airfare). And save for PHOTOGRAPH BY GUIDO VITTI

her solo 17-miler Sunday morning, Kara would be present for the entire weekend— and present in the most mindful sense of the word—chatting with everyone, listening to stories, posing for numerous selfies.

Talk about all-access pass.

“Kara is very much herself,” says Oiselle’s Bergesen, explaining her appeal.

“Wherever she is, she shares that with others. At the same time, she’s achieved these incredible athletic feats. She could be standoffish. Some people can get like that, especially when they reach that level and get some form of celebrity, but she has not. She’s very genuine. She speaks from the heart, she makes people feel like they’re part of her inner circle.”

Indeed, that’s exactly how the retreat attendees felt—like Kara’s BRFs (best running friends). “It was such a gift to feel like we were just running with another one of our buddies, and to not be intimidated by the fact that we were with a total Olympic rock star,” says Mimi Hahn, 49, of Salinas, California, and vice-president of marketing for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. “I can’t say enough about how Kara inspires me to be not just a better runner but a better person,” says Paula Cassidy, 38, a personal trainer and coach in Houston.

But what was in it for Kara? Can you imagine this kind of thing happening in any other sport? Serena Williams volleying balls and sipping daiquiris with ladies in tennis skirts? (No.) Maybe this kind of gathering is possible because running exists in a less commodified realm than mega-bucks spectator sports, but even within running, there are not a lot of athletes who could pull off this combination of world-class performance and intimate fan connection. Or one who would even want to. So why does Kara?

“It feeds my soul,” she says. “Every time I get to hang out with fellow runners, I feel really inspired. We all run for different reasons, but it bonds us all. This is about the purity of the sport, the friendships that are built around running, and all the positive things that it brings into your life. It’s like a common passion and a little bit of geek club. I love it, and I want to share it.”

“Sharing” is the operative word when you

spend a weekend with Kara Goucher— an athlete notorious for her emotional vulnerability—and a group of women runners. From workouts to wine-tasting, every moment turns into a ripe opportunity to gush and bond.

“I’m going to cry already,” Kara says on Saturday morning, getting choked up as she introduces her friend Tracey, who PHOTOGRAPHS BY AARON FARLEY

It was Kara’s first weekend without her husband and son since Colt had been born. “I took classes, and learned about nutrition, and had the best time,” she says.

“While I was there, I was like ‘I want to do this for other female runners!’ ” Tracey has the regal and slightly intimidating bearing of the former ballerina that she is. “Pilates brings your mind to your body, and your body to your mind,” she tells the participants. “It strengthens your weaknesses.” She then leads the women through Kara’s 50-minute routine that includes such Pilates exercises as the One Hundred (because you are supposed to do 100 of these crunch-like exercises), the Roll-Up, the Double-Leg Straight. “Tuck your chin in,” says the taskmaster, stepping carefully around the towels. “Knit your ribs.” The women groan, and grunt, and peek at Kara executing the moves at the front of the room. “Lift your leg! Lift your arms! Scoop, scoop, scoop!”

So it is something of a relief to burst out of the overheated conference room onto the chilly streets of Selfies, girlfriend! fog-bound Napa for an unTracey, Kara, complicated five-mile run.

Anna, Lottie (top); Jess Russo (center Kara leads the group over of center); and the First Street Bridge across Brenda Alvarez the Silverado Trail to the (bottom). bottom of a steep and winding hill, atop which they will pose for photos, to the astonishment of a local homeowner whose front porch overlooks the bluff. “Usually we get teenagers coming up here to drink!” The group expands along the straightaways and bunches together again at stoplights, everyone trying to stay as close to Kara as possible. (It is her second run of the morning, but an “easy” pace for her is a tempo run for some.) Many of the runwill conduct the Pilates session. The reners wear gray or pink Oiselle tops, as if treat participants sit lined up three rows in homage to Kara. In fact, a 29-year-old deep, arms-length apart, on white towels real-estate broker from San Diego has in a conference room. They wear capris on the same chevron-print sports bra and tank tops, and their hair is pulled back Kara wears on the cover of this issue. “It in ponytails or tucked behind a Sweatyjust became available online!” Kimberly band. “I’m getting so emotional hanging Chanelle Clark-Aguilar says excitedly. out with my girlfriends.”

“I bought it for the retreat!” It’s like an Kara hugs Tracey, whom she met at athletic flash mob. Passengers in the few Nike, and says, “This workout changed my passing cars gape. life.” A few years ago, Kara’s then-coach By the time the runners return, the sun had scolded her about her posture, she exbreaks through the morning clouds, and plains, and prescribed workouts with the the day begins to warm. They gather on resident and merciless Pilates instructor. a courtyard patio for postrun blueberTheir friendship blossomed beyond the ry muffins, fresh fruit, and lemon-lime gym, and indeed it was Tracey who played Nuun. Kara fields whatever question anya key role in the genesis of this retreat. one wants to ask for nearly an hour. She After the 2012 Olympic Marathon in Lonspeaks about expectations: “You can’t do don, where Kara placed 11th, Tracey took in a race what you haven’t prepared for.” her discouraged friend to Canyon Ranch.

And about coming (Continued on page 102) NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 69

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What Will It Take to Run RUNNING THE INFOGRAPHICS

BY THOMAS POROSTOCKY

When Ronaldo da Costa broke the finish-line tape at the 1998 Berlin Marathon, he began dancing a samba. He deserved to party: The marathon world record had been stuck at 2:06:50 since 1988, after creeping down an average of just five seconds a year since the late ’60s. The wafer-thin Brazilian had shattered the mark by 45 seconds. And that was just the beginning: Including da Costa’s run, the record has been broken nine times, by a total of three minutes, 53 seconds, leaving us just two minutes, 57 seconds away from the twohour marathon. The current world record of 2:02:57, set by Kenyan Dennis Kimetto this year in Berlin, works out to 4:41.5 per mile; a sub-two would require less than 4:35 per mile. Will a human ever run that fast? To answer that question, we assembled a database of more than 10,000 top marathon performances going back half a century, using rankings compiled by the Association of Road Racing Statisticians. We crunched the numbers and plotted the trends to identify the factors that helped race times improve so dramatically since da Costa’s 1998 performance. Why? Because it’s those nine factors that will determine the likelihood of a sub-two-hour race—and they’ll all have to align to create the perfect race for the perfect runner.

data

SPECIAL REPORT

BY ALEX HUTCHINSON

A 2-HOUR Marathon?

Since 1998, the marathon world record has been dropping almost four times faster than in the preceding decades, raising the prospect of a sub-two-hour marathon before 2030.

Marathon World Record 2:10:00

2:08:00 In 2014, Kenyan Dennis Kimetto set the current world record of 2:02:57 in Berlin.

2:06:00

2:04:00

2:02:00

2:00:00 1970

1980

S O U R C E : I N T E R N AT I O N A L AS S O C I AT I O N O F AT H L E T I C S F E D E R AT I O N S

1990

2000

2010

2020

2030

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 71

THE PERFECT RACE

Is it something in the sauerkraut? The last six men’s marathon world records were set in Berlin, and the fastest non-Berlin time came in Frankfurt in 2011. In fact, just six courses around the world—Berlin, Dubai, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Chicago, and London—have recorded all 37 sub2:05:00 times. The map on page 76 shows how the location of fast races has changed over time: These courses share certain characteristics, and getting to sub-2:00 will require optimizing them all in a single venue.

1 > IT WILL BE A COLD DAY IN MARCH (OR NOVEMBER).

Elites used to run fast any time of year. But according to our analysis of yearly top-200 performances going back to 1950, runners began targeting spring and fall races in the 1970s for their cooler weather. Since 2000, more than half of yearly top-200 times have been run in April or Octo-

ber (the exception is Dubai, where the coolest month for a marathon is January).

But since elite marathoners generate far more heat than regular runners, they might benefit from even colder conditions—a recent review by the French National Institute of Sport of nearly 2 million marathon

finishers found that the optimal temperature for male pros was below 40ºF. That raises an intriguing possibility: Focusing major marathons in April and October has whittled times to just under 2:03—perhaps to reach 2:00, those races should be held in March or November.

Optimal Temperature for Marathoners When French researchers analyzed the finishing times of 1.8 million marathoners over a 10-year period, they found that a race-day temp of 43.2°F produced the quickest times overall. But faster runners, who generate more heat, benefited from cooler temps, with the top one percent (green line below) peaking at 38.9°F. Midpackers (red line) do best in the mid-40s.

38.9°

42.8° 43.2° 45.4°

0 OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE

LOST SECONDSSECONDS LOST

-20 -40 -60 -80 -100 35

40

45

50

RACE-DAYRACE TEMPERATURE (DEGREES(DEGREES FAHRENHEIT) DAY TEMPERATURE F) Average ofofallall finishers 1% 25% Average finishers Top 1% Top Top

50%–75% Top 25%

50-75%

The body is a furnace, converting food energy into motion and heat. The higher your VO2 max (a measure of aerobic fitness), the hotter it burns.

At max effort, elites generate more than twice as much heat as the average runner; that’s why pros run better in colder temps than midpackers.

2 >THE COURSE WILL BE MINDNUMBINGLY BORING (PERHAPS IN POLAND).

Runners used to set world records at the New York City Marathon. Since 1998, however, NYC winners have landed in the fastest 20 performances of the year only three times. Blame the hills—runners must ascend more than 800 feet in total— and the 26 sharp turns that stall precious momentum.

Today, world records require pancake-flat courses like Chicago, with a difference of less than 30 feet between its lowest and highest points, or Dubai, with its ultrastraight, four-turn course. In fact, the Association of Road Race Statisticians has calculated a “time bias” ranking, showing how much of a boost (or drag) elite marathoners get at marathons around the world. On average, elite runners in the flat, relatively straight Berlin Marathon finish 81 seconds faster than they do at other races, while runners in New York City finish 83 seconds slower (in Chicago and Dubai, they finish 14 and 68 seconds faster, respectively). One unheralded race is in the tiny Polish town of Debno, where, since 2000, elite runners have finished 79.2 seconds faster on average than they do on other courses. Who knows what might happen if top racers showed up for a subtwo attempt in Debno, whose course follows straight country roads, and which comes in early April, when the average temp is just 42ºF?

S O U R C E : F R E N C H N AT I O N A L I N S T I T U T E O F S P O R T, E X P E R T I S E , A N D P E R F O R M A N C E

RUNNING THE

data

Comparing Courses Elevation profiles highlight the differences between historic courses like Boston and New York City and the flat courses where today’s top times are run. (Boston is a point-to-point downhill course, so it’s ineligible for records as it can yield ultrafast times, like in 2011 when there was a tailwind.)

F O R A N I N T E R AC T I V E V E R S I O N O F T H I S S TO R Y, G E T T H I S MONTH’S ENHANCED EDITION F R O M A P P L E O R A M A ZO N .

S O U R C E S: M A P M Y R U N ; G O O G L E E A R T H ; F R E N C H N AT I O N A L I N S T I T U T E O F S P O R T, E X P E R T I S E , A N D P E R F O R M A N C E

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 73

3 > THE PACEMAKERS WILL FORM A HUMAN WALL, SETTING THE STAGE FOR A TIME TRIAL. Records are now run in rabbited time trials, not in strategic head-to-head races. The reason: Even on a still day, elites are moving so fast that air resistance slows them down. Wind tunnel studies have shown that tucking behind a runner at twohour pace allows an elite to run roughly 100 seconds faster over 26 miles, which is why races like Berlin use up to six pacemakers

to shepherd leaders around the course. Pacemakers also ensure an even pace by reducing the energy wasted by tactical strategies like surges. But very few pacemakers make it past the 20-mile mark, leaving the leaders alone when the going gets really tough.

To attack the two-hour mark, top runners will need to work together, drafting off each other, almost to the finish.

4 > THE PAYDAY WILL BE MIND-BLOWING, BUT NOT TETHERED TO A SPECIFIC RACE. One reason marathoners are running faster is that road racing is more lucrative. When the Sheikh of Dubai put up $1 million in prize money plus a $1 million world-record bonus in 2008, the Dubai Marathon instantly became one of the world’s fastest, despite its desert temps (average high in January, when the race is held, is 75ºF). In fact, prize money for road races more than doubled since 1998, while track racing purses have gotten smaller (see below). As a result, runners are increasingly heading straight to the marathon. But big

money can also draw the fastest runners away from the fastest courses, and the standard winner-takes-most prize structure favors cat-and-mouse tactics as runners race each other instead of the clock. When the Amsterdam Marathon switched to time-based prizing in 1999, four different runners immediately smashed the course record by 90 seconds. The sub-two-hour solution? A big pot of money that runners can win no matter where they race, and that is shared equally among all who break 2:00 in that event.

ROAD RACING PRIZE MONEY

TRACK PRIZE MONEY

$25,000,000

$2,500,000

$20,000,000

$2,000,000

$15,000,000

$1,500,000

$10,000,000

$1,000,000

$5,000,000

$500,000 1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

S O U R C E : A S S O C I AT I O N O F R OA D R AC I N G S TAT I S T I C I A N S

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

THE PERFECT RUNNER

As the map on page 77 shows, Kenyans and Ethiopians have dominated the marathon since 1999; in fact, of the 100 fastest marathoners in history, 59 are from Kenya and 31 are from neighboring Ethiopia. Is it genes or environment—nature or nurture—that is responsible for this overwhelming domination?

The answer doesn’t actually matter when it comes to who will run the first sub-two marathon. The success of East African runners reveals key traits that the eventual record-setter will possess, wherever he happens to be born.

1 > HE’LL HAVE PAULA RADCLIFFE’S EFFICIENCY (AND VERTICAL LEAP).

The most astounding marathon outlier of all time is Paula Radcliffe. Her 2003 world record of 2:15:25 is nearly three minutes faster than any other woman in history. Lucky for us, physiologist Andrew Jones began studying her when she was a teenager—his data yields clues into her VO2 max and running economy, and the prospect for a sub-two marathon.

VO2 max is a measure of how much oxygen you’re able to deliver to your muscles during exercise. Oxygen helps convert chemical energy from food into motion, so the higher your VO2 max, the longer and faster you can run. While training can raise your VO2 max, elite marathoners already have such high values that it’s difficult to push them any higher. Doping with EPO or blood transfusions is one way of boosting an already-high VO2 max—and it’s possible that cheating may have contributed to the drop in the marathon record, and could even be the “secret” that allows runners to approach sub-two in the

AMSTERDAM 2/31 EDINBURGH 1

MOSCOW 1

ROTTERDAM 25/33

EINDHOVEN 2

HAMBURG 2/10

BERLIN 24/32

LONDON 48/41

FRANKFURT 12 REIMS 5

PRAGUE 1

LINZ 1

PARIS 3/ 17

VIENNA 2/ 1

UZHHOROD 1

MILAN 1 TURIN 1/3

VENICE 1 CARPI 1 ROME 1/4

SAN SEBASTIAN 6

DUBAI 18 Location and Frequency of Top Results 1984–1998 (•) vs. 1999–2013 (•) We examined top-20 marathon times worldwide for each of the 15 years before and after 1998 (600 performances total) to see where fast races were run. Before 1998, 44 cities cracked the top 20; after 1998, just 25 did. Los Angeles (below) made the list six times between 1984 and 1998, and zero since, while Amsterdam (above) went from two fast results to 31.

MARRAKECH 2/ 1

Europe/Northern Africa

TORONTO 1 MONTREAL 1

CHICAGO 27/42 MINNEAPOLIS 2

BRISBANE 1 SACRAMENTO 1 SAN FRANCISCO 1

NYC 11/3

AUCKLAND 3

BOSTON 33/6

LOS ANGELES 6 HOUSTON 1

North America

Australia/ New Zealand

BEIJING 2/3

SWAKOPMUND 1

GWANGU 10

SEOUL 3/ 7

DURBAN 2 PORT ELIZABETH 5

CHUNCHEON 3

HIROSHIMA 5

LAKE BIWA 3/10

FUKUOKA 18/12

STELLENBOSCH 2

Southern Africa

76 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

TOKYO 24/8

Asia

OITA 8/ 1

S O U R C E : A S S O C I AT I O N O F R OA D R AC I N G S TAT I S T I C I A N S

RUNNING THE NORWAY 1

data

RUSSIA 3

SCOTLAND 3 DENMARK 1

ENGLAND 13

NETHERLANDS 1

IRELAND 2 WALES 5

BELGIUM 4

POLAND 8 UKRAINE 2

GERMANY 11

FRANCE 1/4

SWITZERLAND 1

SPAIN 16/13

ITALY 11/5

PORTUGAL 19/1

TURKEY 1

MOROCCO 5/15 QATAR 1

Europe/Northern Africa/Middle East

Origin and Number of Top Runners 1984–1998 (•) vs. 1999–2013 (•)

USA 7/6

Prior to 1998, runners from 32 countries hit the top 20. Post-1998, the fleetest hailed from just 16 countries. Ethiopia and Kenya (below) account for three-quarters of the top results set between 1999 and 2013, while Mexico (right) went from 17 runners in the top tier to none. Running world-class times now requires courses and runners to be nearly perfect.

MEXICO 17 ECUADOR 1

ERITREA 1

ETHIOPIA 23/53

BRAZIL 9/1

DJIBOUTI 7 ARGENTINA 1

KENYA

North and South America

40/175 TANZANIA 16

S.KOREA 13/3

NAMIBIA 3

JAPAN 27/14

AUSTRALIA 13

S. AFRICA 17/5

Africa

Asia/Pacific

NEW ZEALAND 1

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 77

2 > HE’LL BE 5'6" AND A BUCK-TWENTY SOAKING WET. Between 1990 (the first year in which data was available) and 2011, the average male marathoner ranked in the top 100 that year shrank by 1.3 inches and 7.5 pounds. Smaller runners have less weight to haul around, yes.

But they’re also better at heat dissipation; thanks to greater skin surface area relative to their weight, they can sustain higher speeds (and thus, greater internal heat production) without overheating and having to slow down. Despite our sub-two runner’s short frame, he’ll also have disproportionately long legs that help him cover ground and unusually slender calves that require less energy to swing than heavier limbs (see “He’ll Have Paula Radcliffe’s Efficiency,” page 74).

Shrinking Assets Runners shed heat through their skin, so bigger runners should have an advantage, right? Indeed, a 6'3" marathoner can dissipate 32 percent more heat than a 5'3" athlete with the same BMI. But heat generation rises faster in bigger runners because mass increases quicker than skin area. So at the same effort, the 6'3" guy ends up producing 42 percent more heat than his shorter peer—and overheating sooner.

78 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

3 > HE’LL HAVE TOWERING SELF-CONFIDENCE AND VERY FAST FRIENDS. Physiologists have shown that what you perceive as your physical limits depends on what you believe is possible—change your beliefs and you can push your limits. Unlike horses, for example, human racers can compare themselves to everyone who has come before them and convince themselves that it’s possible to go a little farther or faster. Such a (potentially) record-breaking state of mind requires athletes to enter what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a “flow state” of deep focus and full immersion in a task mediated by brain chemicals like dopamine and endorphins. And as Steven Kotler points out in The Rise of Superman, among the most powerful ways of triggering these

brain chemicals is with group flow, when people are united in the pursuit of a difficult goal, like they are at the training camps in East Africa that have produced today’s top marathoners. Some observers believe the biggest difference between Kenyan and American runners right now is that every Kenyan runner truly believes, “One day will be my day.” It’s easier for a young runner to nurture that belief when he can train with, learn from, and share in the success of world-beaters. Whoever finally runs a sub-two-hour marathon will have to start with the belief that it’s possible, that he’s the one to do it, and that he won’t get there alone.

Between 1990 and 2011, there was a 1.3-inch reduction in the average elite male marathoner’s height.

5 > HE’LL BE IN HIS EARLY TWENTIE S—AND FEARLESS.

RUNNING THE

When 21-year-old Sammy Wanjiru surged to an early lead in the sweltering heat of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Marathon, the RW live blog noted: “Crazy pace. If someone can maintain this, it’s a miracle.” He won by 44 seconds, clocking a 2:06:32—a time observers had thought impossible in temperatures that topped 84ºF. That performance changed perceptions of the marathon. Before 2008, it was considered an older runner’s event, one attempted by those in their late 20s or early 30s after honing their skills on the track, and the distance was treated with respect, even fear.

After the 2008 Games, however, younger runners began skipping the track in favor of 26.2 (this priority shift also corresponded to changes in prize money; see “The Payday Will Be Mind-Blowing,” page 74) and—call it the Wanjiru Effect—they ran hard from the gun. Wanjiru died in 2011, at age 24, in a drunken fall from a balcony. We’ll never know how fast he could have become, but we will have a chance to watch the progression of those he inspired, like 18-year-old Ethiopian Tsegaye Mekonnen, who ran 2:04:32 earlier this year in his marathon debut, after ripping through the first half in just 1:01:39. Remember that name.

THE DREAM The road is so flat and straight, you can see them coming from a mile away. Six runners flow in arrowhead formation around the Canadian city of Saskatoon. The early November air is still and dry, the sky overcast, and the temperature hovers a bit above freezing, just as predicted.

All in their early 20s, they’ve been training together for this moment for years; only in the last month did their coach select which three will go for the record. The remaining three form the front of the arrowhead, blocking the wind and enduring the mental effort of controlling the pace. Should one of them cross the finish line in two hours—or faster—all six will share equally in the $50 million jackpot promised by the heirs to the Hoka One One fortune. The pot of money is up for grabs, for any runner, anywhere in the world. The chase is on.

So, will they make it? And what year is this?

We’ve cut the distance to the sub-two marathon in half since 1998, but it will get progressively harder to trim the remaining seconds. Still, the physiologists tell us that it’s not impossible, meaning it is possible. I’m saying the year is...2075—and they make it.

Getting Younger—and Faster Since Sammy Wanjiru’s remarkable run in the 2008 Olympics, the average age of the top 100 marathoners has dropped more than a year. Runners are more aggressive, too: Halfway splits by winners of the Chicago, London, and Berlin marathons have sped up by more than a minute over the same period, resulting in faster finishing times. Wanjiru may have sparked a revolution.

AVERAGE HALFWAY SPLIT OF WINNERS

AVERAGE AGE ‘00 ’00

29.22

‘01 ’01 ‘02 ’02

1:03:18

28.9

‘05 ’05

1:02:59 1:03:27

29.0 30.1

‘07 ’07

1:03:11

28.8

‘08 ’08

1:04:00

28.9 27.9

’09

‘13 ’13

1:02:59

28.7

‘06 ’06

‘12 ’12

1:03:50

29.0

‘04 ’04

‘11 ’11

1:03:41

28.9

‘03 ’03

‘10 ’10

data

27.3

1:02:15 Post–Sammy Wanjiru Era

1:01:47 1:02:47

27.9

1:02:27

27.7 28.0

80 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

1:02:26 Of top 100 marathoners for that year Of Chicago, London, and Berlin marathons

1:01:41

S O U R C E : AS S O C I AT I O N O F R OA D R AC I N G S TAT I S T I C I A N S

can run I , r e n n u Like any r e. into troubl oad ID. R r a e w I y That’s wh Dean Karnazes Ultramarathoner

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www.RoadID.com Toll Free 1-800-345-6336

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Collard Turkey Wrap, recipe on page 89

the ravenous runner

SANDWICHES SmokedSalmon Grilled Cheese, recipe on page 89

Stack up the right bread, condiments, and fillings, and this lunchtime staple becomes a nutrient-dense, delicious meal for hungry runners.

Here’s how to construct a great one, from the plate up.

BY MATTHEW KADEY, M.S., R.D. PHOTOGRAPHS BY TRAVIS RATHBONE

the foundation Just as a solid mileage base helps your running, the right bread is the bedrock of every great sandwich. “A good bread choice can supply runners with the whole grains, B vitamins, and fiber needed for better performance,” says Cara A. Marrs, R.D., a sports dietitian and runner. Here’s how to bag the best loaf.

Whole Grain Breads, wraps, and pitas labeled “whole grain” include the germ and bran of the grain used to make the bread, which are the components that provide the most nutrients and fiber. Look for “100% whole wheat” on the package, or for whole-grain flour atop the list of ingredients. « Bread Winner Nature’s Own 100% Whole Grain High Fiber These loaves are stacked with a fiber surplus from ingredients like bran, flax, and inulin.

By helping to shave down cholesterol numbers and keep stomach pudge at bay, a high-fiber diet has been shown to slash heart-disease risk. Just be sure the fiber-rich add-ins enhance already high-fiber whole-grain bread. « Bread Winner Arnold Double Fiber

Sprouted Instead of grinding the grains used to make these loaves into flour, producers sprout them, which results in higher levels of protein. « Bread Winner Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Whole Grain Bread Gluten-Free “Look for an ingredient list with whole grains like quinoa, millet, or sorghum,” Marrs says. « Bread Winner Manna Organics Gluten Free Ancient Grains

Sourdough A Canadian study showed that sourdough bread causes less of a blood-sugar spike than white or whole-wheat bread. “This can give you more sustained energy levels and lower the risk for diabetes,” says Marrs.

Typically, bakers use white flour to make sourdough bread, but some shops sell loaves made with wholewheat, spelt, or rye flour. « Bread Winner Berlin Natural Bakery Sourdough Spelt

Organic Marrs suggests splurging on breads baked with certified organic whole grains, particularly organic whole wheat, as a way to limit possible pesticide exposure. « Bread Winner Rudi’s Organic Bakery 100% Whole Wheat Rye Compounds created when rye’s fiber ferments in your digestive tract may help with satiety. But watch out for impostors: “You want the first ingredient to be whole rye flour or rye meal,” says Marrs. « Bread Winner Mestemacher Natural Whole Rye Bread

Great White Most days, it’s best to avoid white bread: Its processed carbs spike your blood sugar, and it won’t keep you feeling sated for as long as a more fibrous bread would. But if you’re yearning for a crusty white roll, have it—just save it for after a long run, when your body can use the fast-working carbs to help with muscle recovery. After all, isn’t the chance to occasionally indulge part of why you run?

Easy-Bake Sandwich Bread This recipe from Chef Ryan Scott, host of The Live Well Network’s Food Rush and owner of Mason and Market & Rye in San Francisco, proves that baking a loaf without a bread machine doesn’t need to be an all-day ordeal. Once you get the hang of this recipe, experiment with using a higher proportion of wholewheat flour, or try other wholegrain flours like spelt or Kamut.

INGREDIENTS 13⁄4 cups warm whole milk 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast 2¼ cups whole-wheat flour 2¼ cups all-purpose flour ½ cup wheat bran, wheat flakes, or rye flakes 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled 1 Tbsp. honey 1 Tbsp. molasses 1 Tbsp. salt Directions In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl, whisk together the milk and yeast until frothy. Set aside for 5 minutes.

In a separate bowl, combine the whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, and wheat bran.

Add the butter, honey, molasses, and salt to the yeast mixture and, with the paddle attachment or by hand, mix just until combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix for 12 minutes on low, stopping once to scrape down the bowl, until a rough ball forms. If mixing by hand, knead on a floured work surface for 15 minutes.

Lightly grease a large bowl. Add the dough, and turn the dough ball to coat. Let the dough rest, covered, at room temperature until doubled in size, approximately 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease and flour a 9" x 5" loaf pan.

Add some wheat bran or flakes to coat the pan, if desired.

Place dough on a floured work surface, roll into an oblong ball, and place in the loaf pan. Let rest, covered, for 10 minutes.

Bake on a lower rack for 20 minutes. Rotate and bake another 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

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the fillings

Deli Cut To make tastier sandwiches and sidestep preservatives, swap grocery store cold cuts for slices of home-cooked meats like roasted chicken thighs, whole turkey breasts, or marinated and grilled steaks. Or go upscale with higher-quality cured meats such as prosciutto or soppressata—both have such intense flavor that you’ll only need a small amount to make a sandwich pop.

Rotisserie Chicken It may not be cut and packaged, but the only work on your end is to pull the juicy, seasoned meat off the bones. To slash calories, toss the skin.

Roast Beef This deli cut boasts energy-boosting iron and only about a gram of fat per ounce.

Smoked Salmon This velvety fish is a good source of protein and omega-3 fats, which may help tame muscle soreness after working out. It tastes great on rye bread.

Turkey Breast Nearly fat-free, slices of turkey breast are almost pure protein.

Vegetarian You don’t need meat to make a hearty sandwich. For a stomach-filling vegetarian meal, load your bread with one of these standouts.

Halloumi Made from sheep’s and goat’s milk, this lower-fat cheese from Cyprus is firm and a bit salty. Because it doesn’t melt when grilled or pan-fried, it’s a great meat replacement.

Meats Sandwiches enjoy such popularity partially because they’re quick and easy to assemble, especially when using packaged, precooked meat. While deli meat has a bad reputation—thanks, bologna!—some health-conscious choices to fill out your sandwiches do exist behind the meat counter. These options are a cut above the rest.

Black Forest Ham With a stellar protein-to-fat ratio of 10:1, this cold cut often contains less sodium and sugar than smoked or honey hams.

Canadian Bacon This lean cut of pork contains only a third of the calories and less than a sixth of the fat of traditional bacon.

84 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

Smoked Tofu In addition to the smoky flavor, this has a meatier texture than regular tofu. It’s also rich in protein.

Tempeh Gleaned from fermented soybeans, tempeh likely provides beneficial bacteria for improved digestive health. You can find the firm, chewy product in various flavors. Heat the flat, rectangular pieces in a skillet or on a grill.

Egg, tuna, and chicken salad sandwiches tend to be loaded with fatty mayonnaise and, thus, delicious. However, you can prepare these fillings in a lighter, healthier way without sacrificing flavor. Here’s how.

Start with: 1⁄2 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt 1⁄4 cup chopped parsley 1 sliced celery stalk 2 sliced scallions Juice of 1⁄2 lemon 1⁄2 tsp. curry powder Salt and pepper to taste Then mix in one of these: 6 chopped hard-boiled eggs 1⁄2 pound chopped rotisserie chicken 2 (6-ounce) cans white tuna 2 (6-ounce) cans sockeye or pink salmon 1 (14-ounce) can navy beans, lightly mashed Then add some flavor and texture boosters:

« With Beans Anchovy paste Chopped sun-dried tomatoes

« With Chicken Chopped grapes Dried cranberries Sunflower seeds

« With Eggs Smoked paprika Sriracha or Korean red pepper paste Chopped dill pickle

« With Tuna or Salmon Diced avocado Prepared horseradish

FOOD STYLING BY CHRIS LANIER

Chemical Warfare Processed deli meats typically contain nitrites and nitrates (chemicals added to improve flavor and shelf life), but high intake of these has been linked to cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Look for brands that eschew added nitrites or nitrates (like Applegate or Hormel Natural Choice), or ask for fresh-roasted or organic options at the meat counter.

Portobello Mushrooms These steaks of the vegetable world add meaty bite to sandwiches.

Snap off the stems, then roast or grill the caps until tender. A mere 42 calories for each sliced cap will help keep you at your racing weight.

Salads

Toppings

Cheeses

For a more dynamic sandwich, think beyond lettuce and tomato. Pile on some of these fruits and veggies for new flavors, textures, and nutritional windfalls.

Yes, cheese adds calories to sandwiches, but it also pumps up the taste—and it has some nutritional benefits.

“Think of cheese as a way to add some bone-building calcium and muscle-friendly protein to your sandwiches,” says Emily Edison, M.S., R.D., owner of Momentum Nutrition and Fitness in Seattle.

She says the key is portion control (typically, no more than an ounce per sandwich) and choosing wisely. Here, some options, listed from best to worst:

Baby Kale It tastes less bitter than regular kale, and the leaves can be eaten whole.

Fruit Pineapple rings, sliced mango, orange segments, grated apple, and sliced figs add sweetness along with must-have nutrients like vitamin C. Grated Celery Root Also called celeriac, this root vegetable tastes like a mix of parsley and celery. It boasts bone-building vitamin K. Kimchi This Korean hot-and-sour fermented veggie mix provides plenty of gut-friendly probiotic bacteria.

Microgreens The flavor-packed baby versions of vegetables like peas, radishes, cabbage, and broccoli are actually richer in antioxidants and key nutrients like vitamin C and vitamin E than their grown-up brethren. Look for them at specialty stores or farmers’ markets.

Pickled Veggies These give sandwiches a vinegary snap.

Simmer 1 cup water, 1 cup distilled white vinegar, 1⁄3 cup sugar, and 2 teaspoons salt in a saucepan until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Place thinly sliced radishes, carrots, cabbage, red onion, or cucumber in a jar and top with vinegar mixture. Cover and refrigerate at least two hours, preferably overnight.

Ocean Breeze For a hit of umami—a Japanese term for savory goodness—ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes sometimes swaps out bread for rolled sheets of nori (the edible seaweed used in sushi) as a transport vehicle for his salmon salads. He prefers Wild Planet fish products for the company’s attention to sustainability, great taste, and more nutrient-rich catches.

Goat Cheese Look for a brand made with grass-fed goat’s milk for a cheese that’s rich in hearthealthy omega-3 fats. And “softer cheeses like goat, herb chevre, and fresh mozzarella tend to have fewer calories because of their additional water,” Edison says.

Funky Cheese A love for stinky cheese could be one reason why the hearts of the French beat strong. The ripening process involved in making cheeses like Roquefort, blue, or Camembert elevates levels of cholesterollowering and anti-inflammatory compounds that could help guard against heart disease.

“Their strong flavors also mean you’ll likely be satisfied with less,” Edison says.

Provolone or Swiss Slices of these supermarket stalwarts taste great, and the fat they contain can help make your sandwich seem more filling.

Aged Cheddar This cheese intensifies over time, so use cheddar that has been aged at least four years for the sharpest flavor.

Feta Even full-fat versions of this salty cheese have reasonable fat numbers. Eat it after a sweaty run to replenish your sodium.

American Cheese Slices This heavily processed cheese lacks naturally occurring nutrients and contains more chemicals than other cheeses.

Mascarpone Edison advises against cream-based cheeses like mascarpone or Saint-André due to their heavy caloric toll. Save it for splurges.

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 85

the spreads Ditch the squeeze bottle: A swipe of these homemade spreads can elevate any sandwich from meh to memorable. And by crafting your own condiments, you’ll sidestep some of the sketchier ingredients (like corn syrup and preservatives) that you’ll often find in store-bought options.

Creamy avocado offers artery-friendly monounsaturated fat.

Mustard seeds are a source of the antioxidant selenium.

Naturally occurring nitrates in beets may boost exercise performance.

Beet Horseradish Sauce 1 medium beet (about 4 ounces) 1⁄3 cup peeled and grated horseradish root (wear gloves to grate) 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. cider vinegar 1⁄2 Tbsp. sugar 1⁄4 tsp. salt Directions Preheat oven to 425ºF. Wrap the beet in foil.

Bake until very tender (about one hour). Remove beet from oven, let cool slightly, and then peel by rubbing with a paper towel.

Cut into quarters and transfer to a food processor along with horseradish, vinegar, sugar, salt, and 1 tablespoon water. Blend until just slightly chunky. Chill for up to two weeks.

86 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

Carrots are jam-packed with carotenoids, antioxidants that may improve your mood.

Carrot Apricot Spread 3⁄4 cup carrot juice 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped 1⁄2 cup unsalted cashews 1⁄3 cup dried apricots 1 tsp. curry powder 1⁄4 tsp. salt Directions Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until almost smooth.

Chill and use within five days.

Chipotle Avocado Sauce 1 medium avocado 1⁄4 cup plain low-fat yogurt 1⁄2 to 1 chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce Juice of 1⁄2 lime 1⁄4 tsp. salt Directions Blend together the ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth. Refrigerate and use within three days.

Beer Mustard 1⁄2 1⁄3 1⁄4 3 3 1 1⁄2 1⁄2 1⁄4

cup dark beer cup balsamic vinegar cup yellow mustard seeds Tbsp. black mustard seeds Tbsp. yellow mustard powder Tbsp. honey tsp. ground allspice tsp. sea salt tsp. black pepper

Directions Combine ingredients in a glass jar, secure lid, and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. Use a food processor or blender to process into a coarse mixture. Store chilled for up to one month.

Secrets of a Sandwich Pro

Sulfur compounds in garlic have been shown to help shave down cholesterol numbers.

There’s more to making a great sandwich than just slapping meat, cheese, and mayo between two slices of bread. Michael Ferraro, executive chef and partner at Delicatessen in New York City, supplies his cheat sheet for the winning formula.

SHOP AROUND A great sandwich must have great bread. “If bread is delicious on its own, it’ll make a killer sandwich,” says Ferraro. He suggests thinking beyond the supermarket bread aisle and sourcing artisan options like airy ciabatta rolls or sourdough loaves from local bakers or farmers’ markets.

CHOOSE WISELY Sandwiches made with sturdy ingredients like deli meats can handle crusty breads like baguettes, but use softer breads for saucier sandwiches like egg or tuna salad—the fillings can squish out the sides if the bread is too crunchy.

Among nuts, peanuts are a leading source of protein.

Tool of the Trade

Roasted-Garlic Tomato Mayo 1 head garlic 1 cup olive-oil mayonnaise 1⁄3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes Directions Preheat oven to 400ºF. Slice off 1⁄4 inch from the top of garlic bulb so that most of the cloves are exposed. Place garlic on a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil and drizzle with 1⁄2 teaspoon olive oil. Wrap tightly and bake for 30 minutes. When cool enough to handle, squeeze garlic pulp into a food processor or blender and blend with mayonnaise and sun-dried tomatoes until smooth.

Chill and use within one week.

Sweet-and-Sour Peanut Sauce 1 cup unsalted roasted peanuts 1⁄2 cup light coconut milk 1 Tbsp. less-sodium soy sauce 1 Tbsp. honey 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar 1 Tbsp. Asian chile sauce, such as sriracha 1 tsp. finely chopped fresh ginger Directions In a food processor, blend ingredients together into a slightly chunky mixture. Chill and use within five days.

No offense to the blender, but no kitchen gadget is better at making homemade sandwich spreads than a food processor. We like the Cuisinart Prep 9 9-Cup Food Processor ($149; cuisinart.com) for its powerful motor and versatility.

You can also use it to shred vegetables and mix bread dough.

TOAST IT Toasting bread adds depth of flavor and acts as a moisture barrier to help prevent soggy sandwiches. For sliced bread, use your toaster; items like ciabatta rolls or baguettes can be toasted using your oven’s broiler.

STACK IT UP Slather condiments or sauces on both the top and bottom slices for a more even distribution of flavor. From the bottom up, start with the most durable items like proteins, then add cheese, then your fruits and/or veggies.

MIX AND MATCH No sandwich should be one-dimensional. The best creations will hit different flavor points (salty, sweet, sour, spicy) and deliver textural contrasts, like crunchy slaw with soft slices of roasted chicken and saucy mayo.

SLICE RIGHT To keep a well-made sandwich together when slicing, use bamboo skewers to hold the sides in place and employ a sharp serrated knife to cut it down the middle.

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 87

the recipes Roasted-Veggie Sandwich 1 small zucchini, cut lengthwise into 4 slices 2 portobello mushrooms, stems removed 1 small yellow bell pepper, quartered 1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. olive oil Salt and pepper 1 cup baby kale or baby spinach 1 tsp. lemon juice 1â „4 cup Chipotle Avocado Sauce 4 slices firm whole-grain bread

Directions Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss zucchini, mushrooms, and pepper with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Arrange vegetables on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast 10 minutes, turn vegetables over, and roast until tender and brown in spots, about 15 minutes more, removing

vegetables as they finish. Toss kale or spinach with olive oil, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Spread avocado sauce on four slices of bread and top two of the slices with roasted vegetables, greens, and remaining bread, avocado-sauce side down. Serves 2.

Smoked-Salmon Grilled Cheese 4 slices rye bread 1 Tbsp. Beer Mustard or other grainy mustard 4 ounces smoked salmon 1⁄3 cup Pickled Radish or other pickled vegetable 1 cup arugula 11⁄2 ounces soft goat cheese or cream cheese, softened 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature Directions Heat a skillet over medium heat. Spread an equal amount of mustard on two slices of bread.

Top with equal amounts of salmon, pickled radish, and arugula. Spread an equal amount of goat or cream cheese on remaining bread and place on top of the salmon, cheese side down; squish slightly.

Melt butter in the pan and place sandwiches in the skillet. Cook until toasted, about 2 minutes per side.

Serves 2.

Grilled Chocolate Banana Sandwich 2 Tbsp. almond butter 4 slices whole-grain bread 1 ounce dark chocolate, chopped 1 small banana, sliced Pinch of coarse salt 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter Directions Spread almond butter on two slices of bread and top with equal amounts of chocolate, banana, and a sprinkle of coarse salt. Top with remaining bread slices and press down to compress.

Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat. Place sandwiches in pan and heat until bread is golden brown and chocolate has melted, about 2 minutes per side. Serves 2.

Orange Beef Sandwich

Hawaiian Pizza Sandwich

1⁄4 cup Beet Horseradish Sauce 4 slices firm wholegrain bread 4 ounces sliced roast beef 2 ounces blue, gorgonzola, or Roquefort cheese 1 small orange, peeled and cut into segments 1 cup baby kale or baby spinach 1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar Pinch of salt

1⁄4 cup Roasted-Garlic Tomato Mayo 4 slices whole-grain bread 4 ounces prosciutto 2 slices part-skim mozzarella, Swiss cheese, or provolone 1 8-ounce can sliced pineapple rings, drained, or 4 thinly sliced fresh pineapple rings 1 cup arugula 1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil 1 tsp. red-wine vinegar Pinch of salt

Directions Spread 1 tablespoon beet horseradish sauce on one side of each of the bread slices and top two of them with an equal amount of roast beef, cheese, and orange segments. Toss baby kale or spinach with oil, vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Top the orange segments with greens and the remaining bread, beet sauce down.

Serves 2.

Directions Spread 1 tablespoon tomato mayo sauce on one side of each of the bread slices and top two of them with equal amounts of prosciutto, 1 slice cheese, and 1 pineapple ring. Toss arugula with oil, vinegar, and a pinch of salt.

Top pineapple rings with arugula and remaining bread slices, mayo side down. Serves 2.

Thai Chicken Sandwich 1 cup chopped cucumber 1 small carrot, grated 1 scallion, thinly sliced 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint Juice of 1⁄2 lime 1 tsp. sesame oil Pinch of salt 1⁄2 cup Sweet-and-Sour Peanut Sauce 4 whole-wheat pitas 2 cups shredded cooked chicken Directions Toss together cucumber, carrot, scallion, mint, lime juice, sesame oil, and a pinch of salt. Spread peanut sauce inside the pitas and fill them with an equal amount of the chicken and the cucumber mixture.

Serves 4.

Hungry for more? Visit runnersworld.com/ sandwiches for nutrition information, more recipes, and more sandwich-building tips.

Collard Turkey Wrap 4 large collard leaves 1⁄3 cup Carrot Apricot Spread 4 ounces turkey deli meat 1⁄2 cup sliced roasted red pepper 1 cup microgreens or sprouts Directions Cut off the firm white stalks from the collards and then use a sharp knife to fillet off the thickest parts of the remaining stalks that run down the leaves. Place two collards head to foot (stalks at opposite ends) and partially overlap the leaves. Spread half the carrot sauce near the bottom third of the leaves, then top with half of each of the turkey, roasted pepper, and microgreens. Tightly roll the leaves beginning from the bottom, tucking in the sides as you go. Cut in half on a bias to serve.

Repeat with remaining ingredients. Serves 2.

(Tri)ed & True Fried Egg Sandwich Rebeccah Wassner, three-time winner of the New York City Triathlon, turns to these savory open-faced sandwiches after multi-hour morning training sessions. Vary it to your tastes: Replace spinach with peppery arugula. Use burrata cheese for a luxurious touch. Or make it dinner-worthy by adding bacon.

INGREDIENTS 21⁄2 tsp. olive oil 5 ounces spinach Sea salt and black pepper 2 large eggs 1 medium tomato, sliced 2 ounces sliced fresh mozzarella cheese 2 slices whole-grain bread, toasted Hot sauce or spicy ketchup Directions Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat for 1 minute.

Add 1⁄2 teaspoon olive oil, spinach, and a pinch of sea salt. Cover and cook until the spinach wilts, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a papertowel lined plate. Discard liquid from the pan. Heat remaining oil in pan. Crack eggs into pan, sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and a grind of fresh black pepper. Cook for 1 minute, then cover the pan and cook until the whites are set, 1 to 3 minutes. Layer half of each of the spinach, tomato, and mozzarella, plus one fried egg on each piece of toast. Drizzle with hot sauce or spicy ketchup. Serves 1.

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 89

rise of the

Punch up the incline on the Landice Executive L8—it tracks your vertical feet and compares it to trips up monuments like the Empire State Building.

BY JEFF DENGATE PHOTOGRAPHS BY REED YOUNG

90 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

machines

ii

Sometimes, the best runs go nowhere at all. Treadmills can save the day (and your sanity) when the weather is bad, the sitter (or spouse) is out, or you gotta nail a superspecific workout in a tight time frame. They don’t come cheap—you’ll drop at least $1,000 for a reliable machine (learn why on page 93)—but the current crop of ’mills is loaded with entertainment options and programs that make it well worth the investment. We tested 20 of the newest models; the eight that rose to the top will suit just about any training goal or lifestyle demand.

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 91

You’re training to race up Mt. Washington.

LANDICE EXECUTIVE L8

$5,895

THE GOOD With this machine, you’ll be challenged to dial up your game—for real.

Its “landmark” mode tracks the number of vertical feet you run, and converts it into the number of trips up famous monuments like the Empire State Building (1,472 feet equals one trip), the Eiffel Tower in Paris (1,063 feet), and Seattle’s Space Needle (605 feet).

Tester Derek Call, RW’s junior video producer, adds: “I love

that you can change workouts in the middle of a run without completely starting over—it kept my time and mileage when I changed programs.”

THE GRIPE No matter what speed they ran, testers reported that the console shook (which was really more annoying than disruptive).

SIZE: 35" W x 83" L x 61" H MAXIMUM SPEED: 12 mph MAXIMUM INCLINE: 15% PROGRAMS: 10 BUY: landice.com

You hop off for pit stops… or random kid requests.

LIFE FITNESS T5 TRACK+

$4,399

DIY Momentum

SIZE: 32" W x 80" L x 60" H MAXIMUM SPEED: 12 mph MAXIMUM INCLINE: 15% PROGRAMS: 16 BUY: shop.lifefitness.com

92 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

These three human-powered machines have their pros and cons.

Samsara Fitness True Form Runner $5,995 The shape of the deck—a shallow arc—requires your glutes, hams, and calves to drive the belt. Good form is a must: Overstride and you’ll exert too much energy trying to pull the belt back.

It took testers a while to consistently hit the right spot on the arc to maintain a steady pace. samsarafitness.com

Woodway Curve $5,950 The arc on this deck is steeper than the TrueForm Runner’s. A more pronounced arc allows for quicker acceleration, which makes the Curve great for intervals, but increases the challenge of maintaining a steady, aerobic pace. Again, form is key—if you lean too far forward or overstride, the belt will speed up. woodway.com

Octane Fitness Zero Runner $3,299 The Zero Runner is part elliptical, part treadmill. Designed to eliminate impact shock, the “legs” allow for greater freedom of movement in the hips and knees than you get on a traditional elliptical.

“It feels like you’re operating a robot,” says Caitlin Giddings of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, “but it’s very smooth.” zerorunner.com

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y T H O M AS M AC D O N A L D ( T R E A D M I L L S T I L L S )

THE GOOD The T5 remembers your preferred settings for a quick start at any time. With just the push of a button, you’ll be back at the speed and incline you were at before the kids’ demand for chocolate milk came in. When you do make adjustments, the panel reacts quickly to the touch. “It was a great ride,” says David Graf, RW’s senior multimedia producer.

“Cushioned without feeling mushy, the

machine has a stable, supportive surface.”

THE GRIPE Some runners also reported that they often hit the heart-rate handles that extend down from the console.

“The handles took up your running space,” says Graf. “I like to run with my arms low, and I frequently hit them with my hands.”

If you like tracking your healthy habits, the LifeSpan TR7000i counts one more variable for you: your strides.

You’re looking to blow your bonus (or you own your own gym).

WOODWAY 4FRONT

$11,135

THE GOOD The 4Front is a tank—its belt even resembles a caterpillar track found on heavy-duty vehicles.

Testers say its surface is the best of any machine; it feels like you’re out on the road.

“I didn’t realize how weird and unnatural other treadmills felt until I used this one,” says Mark Remy, RW’s editor at large. “It isn’t

The Trouble with (Cheap) Treadmills If you want a quality indoor ride, be prepared to shell out the big bucks. “When you spend less than $500, or even $1,000, you’re really just buying a disposable treadmill,” says Jon Stevenson, the co-owner of Treadmill Doctor, who has spent 30 years installing and repairing ’mills for individuals, gyms, and hotels worldwide. “If you use it consistently, you’ll be lucky to get a year out of it.” Shop in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, he says, and you get quality or features; drop more than $2K, and you get both. Here’s why the budget models aren’t worth your Benjamins.

Weak motors Underpowered motors in cheap ’mills ($500 or less) must work at max capacity, which means they end up burning off insulation on internal wiring (the resulting smell signals imminent machine death). Models in the $1000 to $2000 range use larger motors that rarely fail.

a treadmill—it’s an indoor road-running simulator.”

THE GRIPE It costs a small fortune. But if your neighborhood health club owns one, it’s worth the cost of membership.

SIZE: 35" W x 72" L x 64" H MAXIMUM SPEED: 12 mph MAXIMUM INCLINE: 15% PROGRAMS: 10 BUY: woodway.com

You’re Fitbit-obsessed.

LIFESPAN TR7000i

$3,499

Poor wiring Wear and tear over time forces the motor to work harder, and cheaper electrical components including the wiring can’t handle the increased load.

Again with the death smell.

Plastic parts Incline motors on budget models use smaller, plastic gears, which wear out—if you enjoy simulating hills, expect a cheap buy to last a year or two.

Conversely, the steel gears in spendier treadmills almost never fail, and their larger size produces faster incline adjustments.

Bad timing Quality processors sense the resistance you put on the belt and compensate quickly for it, creating a smooth ride. Lower-end processors are sluggish—there’s a lag before the belt adapts—so you feel more jerks and surges.

Stiff pieces Higher-priced machines use rollers with steel bearing cups on the ends that resist wear. Their lesser cousins tend to use plastic cups that degrade from all the spinning, or simply seize up. —Kelly Bastone

THE GOOD By registering each step based on strain on the motor, this model counts strides. Testers praised the deck and belt for its solid feel—not too hard, not too bouncy. They also gave props to the safety feature that stops the treadmill if it senses you’re no longer on the belt.

Pair the console with an iPad for additional displays like profile or track views, plus metrics like elevation change and average heart rate. Just download the Train & Trac App, which syncs with the Bluetooth console

and the LifeSpan Club, which lets you set goals and track your progress.

THE GRIPE There’s no changing the display fields—what you see is what you get (unless you pair the console with an iPad).

Plus, distance is displayed only to a tenth of a mile, rather than to the hundredth, not so great when you’re trying to bang out those quarter-mile repeats.

SIZE: 37" W x 80" L x 61" H MAXIMUM SPEED: 12 mph MAXIMUM INCLINE: 15% PROGRAMS: 34 BUY: lifespanfitness.com

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 93

You don’t do speed (not the superfast kind, anyway).

TRUE FITNESS PS800

$3,999

THE GOOD “A simple machine that gets you started fast—it doesn’t ask a lot of questions initially,” says tester Brian Dalek of Emmaus, Pennsylvania. The slim, space-saving PS800 sports an advanced feature called “heartrate cruise control” that helps runners stay within a target effort level. Once you set your goal heart rate, the machine adjusts the speed and incline to keep you running in that zone.

THE GRIPE Options are buried deep within menus, so navigation using the buttons was complex and confusing. Additionally, the max speed for the quick keys is 8 mph, so our fastest runners didn’t like this machine for doing intervals.

SIZE: 32" W x 79" L x 54" H MAXIMUM SPEED: 12 mph MAXIMUM INCLINE: 15% PROGRAMS: 22 BUY: shop.truefitness.com

You like to settle in and stay on pace.

PRECOR TRM 445

$5,999

THE GOOD “Sleek” is the word we heard most about this machine’s console. The button labels change logically according to menu options, so there’s limited “button clutter” and plenty of eye-catching empty space that serves to make the machine approachable to novices. Our testers also liked the machine’s downhill capability, which goes to –2 percent, and the selection of workout programs that

focused on specific body parts like glutes.

THE GRIPE The paddle controls made it easy to make incremental changes to speed and incline, but not for big jumps in either.

“It took a long time to adjust the speed, which wouldn’t be good for intervals,” says Jeff Dengate, RW Gear Guy. SIZE: 34" W x 79" L x 60" H MAXIMUM SPEED: 12 mph MAXIMUM INCLINE: 15% PROGRAMS: 23 BUY: precor.com

94 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

HOW DOES TREADMILL RUNNING AFFECT MY SHOES? “A treadmill is generally gentler on shoes” than the road is, says Runner’s World shoe guru Martyn R. Shorten, Ph.D. “The surface is less abrasive, so the outsole lasts longer, and the added cushioning reduces the compaction rate of the shoe’s cushioning. The only potential negative is that because steps are more consistent, wear may be more focused in particular areas. For treadmill running, I generally suggest people use shoes with flat or ‘low-profile’ outsoles—there’s no need for aggressive traction on a smooth, consistent surface.”

Sure, it’s pricey, but the Woodway 4Front gives you a true, road-like ride.

You dream of racing in (fill in the blank).

NORDICTRACK COMMERCIAL 1750

$2,499

THE GOOD Wish you were running in Paris?

Big Sur? Any location that’s been captured

by Google Street View is accessible on this seven-inch touchscreen display via the machine’s iFit technology. Just draw your route virtually anywhere in the world or select a predrawn route, and watch the scenery change with every step. Bonus: The 1750’s incline automatically adjusts to match that real-world terrain. Tester Caitlin Giddings of Emmaus adds: “The one-touch

speed and incline controls—where I can just hit the number that corresponds to how fast or how high I want to be—were convenient for getting started.”

THE GRIPE Adjustments to speed and incline were smooth, but testers found the + and – buttons to be “sticky,” requiring a few jabs to fine-tune their settings.

SIZE: 34" W x 72" L x 57" H MAXIMUM SPEED: 12 mph MAXIMUM INCLINE: 15% PROGRAMS: 38 BUY: nordictrack.com

You’re on a budget.

PRO-FORM PRO 2000

$1,299

Life on Deck Accessories that enhance ’mill time « Shorter than the original Buff and made with moisture-wicking Coolmax Extreme fabric, the UV Half Buff is this century’s answer to the 1970s sweatband. $13; buffusa.com « The BPA-free Contigo Shake & Go Tumbler with Grip (above) features a grippy exterior that prevents sweaty-palmed fumbling, and the straw eliminates neck-craning hydration—meaning you never have to unglue your eyes from your Kindle or TV screen. $10; gocontigo.com « Wet the Perfect Cooling Towel before your run and wrap it around your neck—the fabric becomes cooler than the air and stays that way (refreshingly) for hours. $10; perfectonline.com

« Bluetooth headphones like the Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 pick up signals from Bluetoothenabled smartphones and tablets, and let you rock out without getting tangled in wires and plugs. $100; plantronics.com « Some gyms provide clear acrylic clips that secure books and Kindles. Bring that convenience home with the Source One Treadmill Book Holder, available in various sizes. $17–$29; sourceone.org « Don’t like it when your reading material obscures your console stats? LEVO Floor Stands use an adjustable arm to hold your books and tablets at the ideal angle and height. $100–$230; levostore.com —Kelly Bastone

FOR VIDEO DEMONSTRATIONS OF SELECTED TREADMILLS, VISIT RUNNERSWORLD.COM/TREADMILLDEMO.

THE GOOD The entrylevel Pro 2000 delivers more than most similarly priced treadmills. Testers liked how quickly and smoothly it changed speed and incline— getting the machine whirring as fast as 12 mph takes just one finger tap. “Plus, it shows mileage to the thousandths place,” says RW senior editor Meghan Loftus. “So if you’re really anal, that’s pretty nice.”

THE GRIPE Quibbles were minor : The display is unnecessarily busy, and it shows only speed, not pace, which runners are more accustomed to seeing. Loftus liked that it had speakers, but says, “It was hard to hear podcasts over the fan and belt.”

SIZE: 36" W x 80" L x 63" H MAXIMUM SPEED: 12 mph MAXIMUM INCLINE: 15% PROGRAMS: 32 BUY: proform.com

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 95

May 17, 2015 Fredericksburg, VA Lowest registration fee available starting October 25 MarineMarathon.com

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RACES+PLACES

TIPS, TRENDS, and MUST-RUN EVENTS

Run up a calorie deficit with this dirt-road fivemiler in Philly’s Fairmount Park.

PHILADELPHIA TURKEY TROT

November 27, Philadelphia, facetofacegermantown.org/turkey-trot-2014

Before Americans indulge in their most calorie-laden meal of the year, they run, in CAFFEINATE Postrace, visit the Chestnut Hill Coffee Co. (yes, it’s open on Thanksgiving) for hot drinks.

Snag the upstairs window seat with the comfy cushions. chestnuthillcoffee.com

PHOTOGRAPHS BY RYAN COLLERD

record numbers. According to RunningUSA, more runners race on Thanksgiving Day than on any other holiday. (There were 858,000 finishers in 2012, up from 698,000 the previous year.) In Philadelphia, runners have been carrying on this tradition for more than two decades in Fairmount Park, where nearly 1,000 of them gather to take a five-mile jaunt through an 1,800-acre urban oasis. Winding along a creek and beneath a dense canopy of maple and birch trees, the course takes runners past the city’s only covered bridge and an inn built in 1850. Here’s what runners love about the experience.

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 97

RUNNERS REVIEW

PHILADELPHIA TURKEY TROT

Fall Foliage

Perfect Distance

“The Wissahickon Creek and its surrounding woods are beautiful yearround, but my favorite season there is the fall. By Thanksgiving, most of the red leaves are gone, but there are still plenty of yellows, oranges, and browns all around—hanging in the trees or crunching under your feet as you run along the trail. With all the natural beauty, it’s hard to believe you’re running through one of America’s largest cities.”

“A bunch of us with a wide range of experience levels and speeds met up to do this run together. At five miles, it was short enough to not be (too) intimidating to a less-seasoned runner like me, but long enough to feel like an accomplishment, even for our faster friends.

All of us enjoyed it! Plus, if it had only been a 5-K, I don’t think I could have justified that extra slice of pumpkin pie after dinner.”

—NURIT BLOOM, 37, PHILADELPHIA

—MARY SCHNEEBERGER, 42, OKLAHOMA CITY

Familiar Faces “My wife and I had our first date running on this path 15 years ago, and we love coming back each Thanksgiving to reconnect with old friends, especially those who have moved but return for the holidays. It’s also a perfect way to end the season, either as a recovery run after the Philadelphia Marathon [held four days earlier] or as a PR attempt before it gets really cold.”

—MATT MANION, 44, DEVON, PENNSYLVANIA

Local Flavor

“The out-and-back course gives you the chance to see every competitor during the event. The race is a microcosm of the Philly running scene: track stars, weekend warriors, parents pushing jogging strollers. Given the time of year, there will also be a few Santas and at least one person dressed as a turkey.”

“In the past, age-group prizes have been gift cards to Wawa, a weirdly named local convenience store [named after the town where its corporate headquarters are located]. When I’ve won them, I’ve overloaded on Philadelphia-centric treats, like Tastykakes and Herr’s potato chips, and then felt bloated and disgusting afterward. I like to stick around for the awards ceremony even if I don’t win, because Michael Nutter [Philadelphia’s mayor] usually comes. He’s really friendly and takes pictures with every sweaty runner who asks. Talk about the City of Brotherly Love!”

—CHRIS COULSTON, 46, ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA

—ADAM BUCKLEY COHEN, 46, NORMAN, OKLAHOMA

People-Watching

Ask a Race Director Dave McGillivray from the Boston Marathon answers some common race queries.

Why can’t I run with a friend’s bib?

Many reasons: Organizers could misidentify you if you have a medical emergency; you didn’t sign the waiver, which could create legal problems for the race; and given what happened in Boston in 2013, races need to know who is running. Plus, if you’re in a different age or gender group from your friend, you could disrupt the awards.

Why do races ban headphones?

Being unable to hear cars, other runners, and race officials is a safety issue. But lots of people want to wear headphones in races, so bans for the entire field are hard to enforce. You’ll often see messaging that says, “We highly discourage headphone use.”

My GPS watch said my last race was long. What gives?

If your race was certified—meaning, an official from USA Track & Field measured it—then the distance was calculated using the shortest possible route between turns. It’s nearly impossible to run that route exactly (other runners get in the way). That’s why GPS watches almost always say you ran longer. (If your race wasn’t certified, however, there’s no way to be sure of its exact distance.)

—McKENZIE MAXSON

Dave McGillivray directs 30-plus races each year and blogs at runnersworld.com/racedirector.

Plan Your Penance Treat seasonal overindulgence with one of these New Year’s Day races.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, polardash.org

98 RUNNER’S WORLD NOVEMBER 2014

HANGOVER RUN 3-K AND BEER MILE The noon start and short distance cater to those who overdid it the previous night. For those who’d prefer to continue the party, organizers offer a Beer Mile— four laps around a cross-countrystyle course with a 12-ounce beer to be consumed before each.

Salem, Oregon, runwildadventures.com

COMMITMENT DAY 5-K No matter where you ring in the new year, you’ll likely find one of these events nearby—they take place in 60 locations (including Chicago, San Antonio, and Baltimore). The fun run/walk attracts entrants of all ages and abilities, so invite your whole crew.

Various locations, commitmentday.com

P H OTO G R A P H B Y G U I D O V I T T I ( M CG I L L I V R AY )

POLAR DASH 14-MILE, 10-K, AND 5-K Brace yourself: Average temperatures at this race, which runs along the Mississippi and through the city’s historic districts, hover around zero degrees. But the swag—including stained-glass medals and full-zip fleece jackets—is worth suffering for.

TRENDING

Wit Gratitude Most Thanksgiving Day races are called Turkey Trots, but some boast more creative names.

Here, some of our favorites, all held on November 27.

HUFFIN’ FOR STUFFIN’ 5-K AND 10-K Both courses wind along the Red River of the North, which separates North Dakota from neighboring Minnesota.

Fargo, North Dakota, solemotionrace.com

BURN THE BIRD 5-K AND 10-K The registration form for these races along the Missouri River features a cartoon turkey holding a sign that says, “Eat Beef!!”

Great Falls, Montana, racemt.com

DRUMSTICK DASH Newbies to this odd-distance race—it’s 4.5 miles—can start Turkey Day with a PR. Indianapolis, tuxbro.com

GALLOP & GORGE 8-K Bring the family: Free races for children ages 2 through 9 follow the 8-K’s awards ceremony.

Carrboro, North Carolina, cardinaltrackclub.com

DRINK UP

Moonlight Bootlegger 5-K Series After these nighttime trail races—the next one is in Detroit on November 1— of-age runners can celebrate with free moonshine cocktails (above) as a live bluegrass band plays Prohibition-era music.

Award winners over the age of 21 receive bottles of moonshine, while younger folks get homemade pies.

Multiple dates, multiple locations, bootlegger5k.com

VIP PERKS

Charleston James Island Connector Run 5-K and 10-K THE HIGHLIGHT It’s your only chance to run this bridge

On race day, runners, walkers, and cyclists take over the 2.9-mile Robert B. Scarborough Bridge, which connects Charleston to James Island and is usually closed to pedestrians and cyclists. Participants cross the Ashley River and Wappoo Creek and enjoy views of the Charleston City Marina (above).

November 1, Charleston, South Carolina, jicrun.com

Three feats to cheer Ida Keeling, 99, of New York City, set a 100-meter age-group world record (59.80). At Zurich’s Weltklasse meet, Jenny Simpson beat fellow American Shannon Rowbury by .01 second to win the 1500 meters (3:59.92). Seattle’s Joe McConaughy ran the Pacific Crest Trail (2,660 miles) in 53 days, six hours, and 37 minutes, beating the record by six days.

THE PODIUM

COOL COURSE

Catalina Island Eco Marathon, Half, 10-K THE HIGHLIGHT The panoramic Pacific Ocean views

DON’T MISS IT

Registration for the 2015 Wineglass Marathon and Half opens December 1.

Both point-to-point races in upstate New York feature gradual elevation loss (about 300 feet for the marathon and 100 feet for the half), making them popular among runners chasing time goals.

Off the California coast near Los Angeles, 75-square-mile Catalina Island—known for its wild bison population— hosts tough but stunning races on dirt trails (left). Atop the 20-percent-grade hill at mile 19, runners enjoy the candy-, fruit-, and snackstocked aid station where they can take in calories— and the ocean view.

October 4, 2015, Corning, New York, wineglassmarathon.com

November 8, Catalina Island, California, catalinaecomarathon.com

NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 99

RACE SPOTLIGHT ADVERTISING SECTION

FOR A DVE RTI S I N G RATE S CO NTACT MICHAEL AUSTRY AT 214.674.8126

• CONTINUED FROM PAGE 69 back from injury: “It’s been frustrating, but instead of looking too far ahead at the 5:30s I need to run for the marathon, I look at the progress I’ve made. A few weeks ago I could do 10 miles at seven-minute pace. Now I’m going for 17 miles at 6:20. It’s a process.” She talks about having a theme word for a fall marathon: “Courage.” And about that fall marathon (which she would announce publicly, on September 8, as the New York City Marathon): “I won’t be fighting for the win. It’s really more about reestablishing myself as one of the top runners in the world, in that upper echelon, and reminding people I’m not gone.” About competition versus camaraderie: “It enhances your own enjoyment to be interested in someone else’s success, not just yours. When I get

Front row from left to right: Mindy Rickert, Scott Marcus, Melissa Jaeger, Tiffany Carreker, Seth Schwartz, and Stephanie Kline. Back row, from left to right: Carlvin Dorvilier, Chris Kraft, Monica Olivas, Laura Beachy, Robert James Reese, and Bart Yasso.

TEAMING UP FOR HOOD TO COAST RUNNER’S WORLD and belVita teamed up for the recent Hood to Coast Relay event, an iconic overnight relay that stretches 197 miles from Mount Hood to

to the starting line, I’m not your friend. I will hug you, wish you well, and mean it sincerely.

But when the gun goes off, I know where I can stick it to you, and I will if I can.” And about why she prefers to run every day: “I never take days off, because when I do, I feel like a slacker, and I don’t enjoy it. I don’t feel like myself unless I run. It’s how I deal with sadness and happiness. I need it. It’s like therapy.” The women laugh and nod. They get it, they get it.

Later that evening the runners will come back to the same courtyard patio dressed in a range of Saturday night attire, from T-shirts to spaghetti-strap dresses, Birkenstocks to Blahniks. Kara wears a print sundress, shawl-collared sweater, and cowboy boots.

Her friend Anna wears a crisp white shirtdress and heels. They load their plates with a well-earned buffet dinner of heirloom tomatoes, pesto bocconcini, Bay shrimp ziti, and free-range chicken. Waiters pour local sparkling wine, sauvignon blanc, or cabernet, and bring around must-eat-every-bite dark-chocolate-orange minicakes. Sally Bergesen talks about launching her dream company, some of her marital travails, and the enormous impact of having signed Kara. “There are different ways to measure success,” she says. “We got a sales bump when we announced we hired her. We got a big high-five from the women’s

the Oregon coast, making this race one of the longest and largest relays in the world.

More than 12,600 runners, in relay teams of 12, participated in this year’s relay held on August 22 and 23. As the official breakfast sponsor of the event, belVita Breakfast Biscuits were on hand at the start and finish lines to help energize runners with nutritious, prerun fuel for the long run, and to help jump-start their recovery. The RUNNER’S WORLD/ belVita relay team ran the 197-mile course in an impressive 27:32:04 over the course of two days and could be spotted in their own co-branded team vans.

Uniforms were provided by New Balance and Balega.

“Since belVita provides nutritious morning energy, teaming up with RUNNER’S WORLD for the Hood to Coast Relay was a natural fit,” said Scott Marcus, - belVita's parent company.

Marketing Director, Mondelez,

2014 ASME NOMINATION FOR GENERAL EXCELLENCE

running market. And we sent a powerful message to the sport, because Kara is a force athletically and in the industry.”

Force of personality may be hard to measure, but despite not scoring a big win in the past two years, Kara remains one of running’s most popular icons. In a 2014 Running USA survey of 14,000 women, she was the number one most “recognized” female runner. And women are powering the sport of running these days, making up a remarkable 61 percent of half-marathon finishers and spending an estimated $7 billion on activewear annually, according to the market research firm NPD Group. From the launching pad of the more lifestyle brands that she now represents, Kara can transcend the hard-core performanceoriented community and reach a wider range of people who aspire to the broader health and fitness perks of running. Not to mention setting the stage for her own postcompetition future, in a way no other runner has before.

But does that make Kara “great” the way Adam suggested? Perhaps it is about redefining great. Because here’s an important secret: She’s having fun. “I’m enjoying my running right now more than I have—honestly?—EVER.” On this Saturday night in Napa, there will be much chatter and laughter and clinking of glasses, and some (Continued on page 105)

“We’re thrilled that we could help fuel so many runners during such a great event!”

Team members included Mondelez employees (representing belVita) Associate Director Shopper Marketing Mindy Rickert, Marketing Director Scott Marcus, Product Developer Melissa Jaeger, Customer Business Manager Tiffany Carreker, Senior Brand Manager/Strategy Seth Schwartz; Founder of RunEatRepeat.com Monica Olivas; and RUNNER’S WORLD staffers Senior Project Manager Stephanie Kline, Sales Assistant Carlvin Dorvilier, Deputy Digital Editor Chris Kraft, Publicist Laura Beachy, Executive Producer Robert James Reese, and Chief Running Officer Bart Yasso.

To see more team photos, visit the RUNNER'S WORLD Instagram page at instagram.com/ runnersworldmag.

FOUR-TIME ADWEEK HOT LIST WINNER 14 BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING SELECTIONS PEOPLE’S CHOICE WEBBY WINNER AD AGE MEDIA VANGUARD WINNER

for more events + promotions runnersworld.com/insidetrack

RACING AHEAD

ADVERTISING SECTION SOUTH ATLANTIC

17th KEY WEST HALF MARATHON & 5K

OCT 4-5 - Crawlin’ Crab Half Marathon & 5K Hampton, VA Contact: J&A Racing, 3601 Shore Dr., Virginia Beach, VA 23455.

(757) 412-1056 info@crawlincrabhalf.com www.crawlincrabhalf.com

JANUARY 18, 2015 KEY WEST, FL

Contact: Barb Wright P.O. Box 1681, Key West, FL 33041 (305) 240-0727 bwpromo3@bellsouth.net www.keywesthalfmarathon.com

THE ORIGINAL PIG MARATHON

OCT 25 - Anthem Wicked 10K & One Mile Virginia Beach, VA Contact: J&A Racing, 3601 Shore Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23455.

(757) 412-1056 info@wicked10k.com www.wicked10k.com

NOV 7-9 - TowneBank Outer Banks Marathon & Southern Fried Half, 10K, 5K, Fun Run & Southern 6 Run Kitty Hawk to Manteo, NC Contact: Peggy Stovall, P.O. Box 265, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948.

(252) 255-6273 info@obxse.org www.outerbanksmarathon.com

Fayetteville, Arkansas

39th Annual Hogeye Marathon, Half Marathon & Relays MARCH 29, 2015 FAYETTEVILLE, AR

Contact: Tabby Holmes P.O. Box 8012, Fayetteville, AR 72703 rd@hogeyemarathon.com www.hogeyemarathon.com

NOV 15 - Hilton Head Island Bridge Run, 10K & 5K Hilton Head, SC Contact: Bear Foot Sports, 20 Towne Dr., PMB #200, Bluffton, SC 29910.

(843) 757-8520 bfs@hargray.com www.bearfootsports.com

NOV 15 - Anthem Richmond Marathon, Half Marathon & 8K Richmond, VA Contact: Race Director, 100 Avenue of Champions, Richmond, VA 23230.

(804) 285-9495 marathon@sportsbackers.org www.richmondmarathon.org

NORTH ATLANTIC

APR 11, 2015 - Garden Spot Village Marathon & Half Marathon New Holland, PA Contact: Kelly Sweigart, 433 S. Kinzer Ave., New Holland, PA 17557.

(717) 355-6000 marathon@gardenspotvillage.org www.gardenspotvillagemarathon.org

Run in beautiful Amish Country with horse & buggies and one room schoolhouses!

Running this race makes you eligible for the coveted “Road Apple Award”!

NOV 22-23 - Blue Moon Harbor Lights Half Marathon Norfolk, VA Contact: J&A Racing, 3601 Shore Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23455.

(757) 412-1056 info@jandaracing.com www.harborlightshalf.com

NOV 27 - 30A 10K & 1 Mile Fun Run Rosemary Beach, FL Contact: Karen Meadows, P.O. Box 613651, WaterSound, FL 32461.

(850) 325-0561 info@30a10k.com www.30a10k.com

RRCA Florida State Championship 10K Race in South Walton; ocean view, fast, flat, out-and-back course.

NOV 27 - TreesGreenville Turkey Day 8K Run, 2 Mile Walk & 1/4 Mile Tot Trot Greenville, SC Contact: Joelle Teachey, 231 Tanner Dr., Taylors, SC 29687.

(864) 313-0765 racedirector@treesgreenville.org www.turkeyday8k.com

DEC 7 - Divas® Half Marathon & 5K in St. Augustine Beach St. Augustine Beach, FL Contact: Continental Event & Sports Management, P.O. Box 56-1154, Miami, FL 33256-1154. info@runlikeadiva.com www.runlikeadiva.com

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DEC 20 - Surf-N-Santa 5 Miler Virginia Beach, VA Contact: J&A Racing, 3601 Shore Dr., Virginia Beach, VA 23455.

(757) 412-1056 info@surfnsanta5miler.com www.surfnsanta5miler.com

JAN 18, 2015 - Naples Daily News Half Marathon Naples, FL Contact: Perry Silverman (678) 777-5622 psilvrman@aol.com www.napleshalfmarathon.net

Host Hotel: Naples Bay Resort (866) 605-1199

FEB 7, 2015 - Hilton Head Island Marathon, Half Marathon & 5K Hilton Head, SC Contact: Bear Foot Sports, 20 Towne Dr., PMB #200, Bluffton, SC 29910.

(843) 757-8520 bfs@hargray.com www.bearfootsports.com

FEB 8, 2015 - Tallahassee Marathon & Half Marathon Tallahassee, FL Contact: Jay Silvanima (850) 264-0739 tallahasseemarathon@gmail.com www.tallahasseemarathon.com

Special Guest Speaker Hal Higdon. $11,000 Cash Purse, Full Marathon.

FEB 14, 2015 - Myrtlebeach.com Myrtle Beach Marathon, Half Marathon, Team Relay, 5K & Fun Run Myrtle Beach, SC Contact: Myrtle Beach Marathon, P.O. Box 8780, Myrtle Beach, SC 29578.

(843) 293-RACE (7223) mbmarathon@yahoo.com www.mbmarathon.com

C LO S I NG DAT E FO R T H E JA N UAR Y 2015 ISSUE IS OCTOBER 20, 2014

103

RACING AHEAD MAR 7, 2015 - Albany Marathon & Half Marathon Albany, GA Contact: Rashelle Beasley, 112 North Front St., Albany, GA 31701.

(229) 317-4760 rbeasley@albanyga.com www.albanymarathon.com

MAR 15, 2015 - Newport News One City Marathon, Marathon Relay, 8K & Nautica Mile Fun Run Newport News, VA Contact: Flat-Out Events, 11843-B Canon Blvd., Newport News, VA 23606.

(757) 880-8843 raceteam@flatoutevents.com www.onecitymarathon.com

MAR 21-22, 2015 - Yuengling Shamrock Marathon Weekend, Marathon, Half Marathon, 8K & 1M Virginia Beach, VA Contact: J&A Racing, 3601 Shore Dr., Virginia Beach, VA 23455.

(757) 412-1056 info@shamrockmarathon.com www.shamrockmarathon.com

MAR 25, 2015 - Publix Savannah Women’s Half & 5K Savannah, GA Contact: Jonathan Sykes, 101 East Bay St., Savannah, GA 31401.

(912) 644-6452 jsykes@visitsavannah.com www.savannahwomenshalf.com

MAR 29, 2015 - Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K & Relay Knoxville, TN Contact: Jason Altman, P.O. Box 53442, Knoxville, TN 37950.

(865) 684-4294 info@knoxvillemarathon.com www.knoxvillemarathon.com

APR 12, 2015 - Divas® Half Marathon & 5K in North Myrtle Beach North Myrtle Beach, SC Contact: Continental Event & Sports Management, P.O. Box 56-1154, Miami, FL 33256-1154. info@runlikeadiva.com www.runlikeadiva.com

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NORTH CENTRAL

ADVERTISING SECTION MAY 17, 2015 - Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K, 5K & Kids’ Run Cleveland, OH Contact: Ralph Staph, 29525 Chagrin Blvd., #215, Pepper Pike, OH 44122.

(800) 467-3826 info@clevelandmarathon.com www.clevelandmarathon.com

JUNE 13, 2015 - Summerfest Rock ‘n Sole Run, Half Marathon, Quarter Marathon & 5K Milwaukee, WI Contact: Sandra Chambers, 16851 Southpark Dr., Suite 100, Westfield, IN 46074.

(317) 354-7796 sandra@visioneventmanagement.com www.rocknsolerun.com

SOUTH CENTRAL

JAN 10, 2015 - Mississippi Blues Marathon, Half Marathon, 6.6 Mile Quarter Marathon & Relay Jackson, MS Contact: John Noblin, P.O. Box 321330, Flowood, MS 39232. info@msbluesmarathon.com www.msbluesmarathon.com

JAN 18, 2015 - The Louisiana Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K & Kids Marathon Baton Rouge, LA Contact: Craig Sweeney, 2041 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70808.

(888) 786-2001 craig@thelouisianamarathon.com www.thelouisianamarathon.com

JAN 25, 2015 - 3M Half Marathon Austin, TX Contact: Conley Sports Productions, P.O. Box 684587, Austin, TX 78768.

(512) 476-7223 3mhalfmarathon@conleysports.com www.3mhalfmarathon.com

APR 25, 2015 - Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon, Half Marathon, Relay, 10K, 5K & Youth Run Champaign/Urbana, IL Contact: Jan Seeley, P.O. Box 262, Champaign, IL 61824.

(217) 369-8553 jane@illinoismarathon.com

FEB 14, 2015 - Jail Break Run, Half Marathon & 5K Baytown, TX Contact: Mary Pinney, P.O. Box 893, Mt. Belvieu, TX 77580.

(832) 767-8535 mary@project-blue.org

www.illinoismarathon.com

www.jailbreakrun.org

104

FEB 14, 2015 - Mississippi River Marathon & Half Marathon Greenville, MS Contact: Suzette Matthews, 124 Poplar, Greenville, MS 38701.

(601) 937-1497 mississippirivermarathon@gmail.com www.msrivermarathon.com

FEB 15, 2015 - Austin Marathon & Half Marathon Austin, TX Contact: Stanley Conley, P.O. Box 684587, Austin, TX 78768.

(512) 476-7223 info@youraustinmarathon.com www.youraustinmarathon.com

MAR 7, 2015 - FRESH 15K, 5K & 1K Tyler, TX Contact: Ashleigh Endicott, 6991 Old Jacksonville Hwy, Tyler, TX 75703.

(903) 747-3503 fresh15@brookshires.com www.fresh15k.com

MAR 8, 2015 - Zydeco Marathon & Half Marathon Lafayette, IN Contact: Michael Howard, P.O. Box 81303, Lafayette, LA 70598.

(337) 501-5015 info@zydecomarathon.com www.zydecomarathon.com

MAR 29, 2015 - Austin 10/20 - The Live Music Race in the Live Music Capital of the World!, Ten Miles Austin, TX Contact: Turnkey Operations, 4018 Caven Rd., Austin, TX 78744.

(512) 299-9190 info@austin1020.com www.austin1020.com

Awesome 10 Mile Distance, 20 Course Bands Headliner Concert, Big Prize Money Purse, Fantastic Participant Perks!

APR 19, 2015 - Divas® Half Marathon & 5K in Galveston Galveston, TX Contact: Continental Event & Sports Management, P.O. Box 56-1154, Miami, FL 33256-1154. info@runlikeadiva.com www.runlikeadiva.com

Save $10 - Use RWTXNOV14 (Exp. 11/30/14)

FOR A DVERT I S I NG RAT ES C O NTACT JAC KIE COKER AT 801.668.6038 or ja c kiecoker @sb c glob a l.net

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NOV 8 - Select Staffing Santa Barbara Veterans Marathon, Half Marathon & Team Competition Santa Barbara, CA Contact: Rusty Snow (805) 563-4503 sbimarathon@cox.net www.sbimarathon.com

Save $10 w/Code: RWRUNSB

NOV 2 - US Half Marathon & Kids Run San Francisco, CA www.runsf.com

JAN 18, 2015 - Tri-City Medical Center Carlsbad Marathon & Half Marathon Carlsbad, CA Contact: In Motion, Inc., 6116 Innovation Way, Carlsbad, CA 92009.

(760) 692-2900 info@inmotionevents.com www.carlsbadmarathon.com

The BEST Winter Marathon/Half Marathon Destination! Long-sleeve Technical T-shirts, Coastal Course and More!

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JAN 18, 2015 - Maui OceanFront Marathon, Half Marathon, 15K, 10K & 5K Wailea to Lahaina, Maui, HI Contact: Les Wright, P.O. Box 20000, So. Lake Tahoe, CA 96151.

(530) 559-2261 runmaui@gmail.com www.runmaui.com

FEB 1, 2015 - Surf City Marathon & Half Marathon Huntington Beach, CA info@runsurfcity.com

MAR 21, 2015 - Valley To The Sea Marathon, Half Marathon,10K, 5K & Mile Wailuku, HI Contact: Rudy Huber, P.O. Box 1024, Wailuku, HI 96793.

(808) 280-5801 huber_rudy@yahoo.com www.runnersparadiseinc.com

Enjoy Paradise.

MAY 31, 2015 - Divas® Half Marathon & 5K in San Francisco Bay Burlingame, CA Contact: Continental Events & Sports Management, P.O. Box 56-1154, Miami, FL 33256-1154. info@runlikeadiva.com www.runlikeadiva.com

Save $10 - Use RWSFNOV14 (Exp. 11/30/14)

INTERNATIONAL

FEB 8, 2015 - Los Cabos Half Marathon, 21K, 5K & Kids 5K Los Cabos, MEXICO Contact: Roxana Silva, Plaza Mijares, Historical Downtown, San Jose.

011 +521-624-147-7518 contacto@runcabo.com www.loscaboshalfmarathon.com

MAR 19-24, 2015 - Rome Marathon, 26.2, 13.1* & 5K (Rated World’s Best City Marathon Historical Course!)

Rome, Italy Contact: Run Italy Tours, Run Italy, Ltd., Boulder/Denver, CO 80246.

(303) 993-8938 tourinfo@runitaly.com

www.runsurfcity.com

RUN ITALY with our Special Guest: JEFF GALLOWAY Join Us & Enjoy, We’ll Take Care Of The Rest!

VIP Event. *Sign Up NOW Only at: www.RunITALY.com

FEB 15, 2015 - California 10/20, 10 Miles, 20 Bands in North San Diego County, CA Del Mar, CA Contact: Turnkey Operations, 4018 Caven Rd., Austin, TX 78744.

(888) 981-9190 info@cal1020.com

MAY 24, 2015 - Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K, 5K, 2K & Kid’s Marathon Ottawa, ON, Canada Contact: John Halvorsen, 5450 Canotek Rd., Unit 45, Ottawa, ON K1J 9G2.

(866) RUNOTTA halvorsen@runottawa.ca

www.cal1020.com

Great Distance, More Music, Scenic Coastal Course, Awesome Participant Perks!

www.runottawa.com

Run With Over 48,000 Runners in Canada’s Capital!

C LOS I N G DAT E FO R T H E JANU ARY 2 0 1 5 I SS U E I S OCTOBER 20, 2014

• CONTINUED FROM PAGE 102 people will stay up past their bedtimes, long runs in the morning be damned.

“Honestly, my favorite part of this

whole weekend is the sharing,” Kara says on Sunday morning at the farewell breakfast after everyone has come back from the run, showered, and packed. “I love hearing everyone’s stories.”

As she stands on the patio with the sun shining down, Kara says she wants each of the runners to say two things out loud: one thing she is good at and one thing that she will do. The women pay attention to each others’ answers, which are—as the whole weekend has been— touching, funny, emotional, ambitious.

“I’m a good cheerleader for others. I will be a better cheerleader for myself.”

“I am good at getting things done. I will get someone new to run in 2015.”

“I am a good multitasker.”

“I’ll break three hours in a marathon.”

“I am a good grandmother.”

“I will be kind to myself.”

“I will give myself permission to not be perfect.”

“I will allow myself to dream.”

If proximity to Kara was the number one reason these superfans signed up for the retreat, many discovered they got nearly as much from hanging out with each other. “I came here to be with 49 other women like me,” says Tammara Francis, 31, an account executive, Spin instructor, and mom from Calgary. “This weekend has been a journey of selfdiscovery,” says Taralyn Summers, 32, a mental health therapist and mom from Salt Lake City, echoing a common theme of the weekend. “I’m so inspired by all the stories. Of course, you don’t have to pay for that, but Kara provided the avenue to meet all these people. I mean, of course, besides it being awesome epic to meet Kara.” Kristiana Almeida, 30, of Santa Barbara, California, who’s planning to open her own fitness facility, puts it more emphatically: “I am ready to rock life.”

“This is my favorite part of the retreat,” Kara tells the women in the courtyard. “This is so real.”

And Kara? What is she good at and what will she do? “I am very good at bringing people together.” To which all the women brought together by Kara nod in agreement. “And I will make the Olympic team for Rio,” she says, and squeals a little bit like a girl, and jumps back to her chair. And there she is again, that thoughtful, silly, relatable runner with big athletic dreams. (Continued on page 110) NOVEMBER 2014 RUNNER’S WORLD 105

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thesock.com 109

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I’M A RUNNER

Interview by Nancy Averett

KIRK ACEVEDO

ACTOR, 42, LOS ANGELES

I’VE WATCHED New York religiously every November since I was little, growing up in the Bronx. [Ninetime champ] Grete Waitz was my hero. To run the same streets that she did, in my hometown, means a lot to me.

WEIGHT IS HUGE if I want to PR. I could drop to 150, but it makes my face look unhealthy. That can hurt you in a meeting for an acting gig.

NOBODY I KNOW in L.A. runs. I have New York buddies who run, but here, everyone would rather drink!

“Running is a placebo for whatever’s going on in your life.”

IN 2009, I signed up for the 5-K and 10-K at the Pride Run in Hollywood.

I finished fifth in the 5-K with a side stitch and wanted to stop. I rested 18 minutes, then placed fourth in the 10-K—making me the winner based on combined times. What if I’d quit?

RUNNING DOESN’T always answer the big question, but it feels like it does. It may not solve the problem, but it feels like it does.

EVERYONE TALKS about how much they love the crowds in New York.

Listen, at mile 22, I’m in so much pain I’m like, “Please stop!”

PATIENCE IS BIG for acting and running. If I’d quit acting when I was struggling, it would’ve been like giving up on breaking three hours in New York, but this year will be my fourth attempt at getting that time.

AT THE 2010 New York City Marathon, I was 15 miles in and tore my posterior tibialis (lower-leg muscle) going over the 59th Street Bridge. I still finished with a 3:00 PR, but that led to two years of injuries.

I HIT 33 and said, I have to motivate

super-duper back in shape for New York this year. I’d be ecstatic to run 2:50. Sub-3:00 is a must.

myself to stop smoking, so I trained for a half-marathon. Running every day helped me quit. I got the bug.

112

I’M FEELING

GO TO RUNNERSWORLD.COM/IMARUNNER FOR A VIDEO INTERVIEW, PHOTOS, AND THE FULL Q&A.

MY CHARACTER in Planet of the Apes would definitely be outrun by the Simians, especially over a short distance. They’re like Usain Bolt.

Acevedo appeared in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (above) and will star in the Syfy series 12 Monkeys in January.

BUT MY WALKING DEAD character?

I don’t know how these zombies kill anyone. They’re slow and loud. You hear argh and you’re not going in that direction, you know?

PHOTOGRAPH BY RAMONA ROSALES

P H OTO G R A P H B Y DAV I D JA M E S ( M OV I E S T I L L )

I HAVE NO IDEA why they haven’t done an Abebe Bikila movie. He wins two Olympic Marathons—one barefoot—crashes a car, becomes a quadriplegic, and picks up archery.

If Don Cheadle were 10 years younger, he could totally play him.

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