Runner’s Life Newsletter
Highlights and stories from June 23—July 6, 2024
Welcome to the Runner’s Life newsletter!
If you’ve missed previous Runner’s Life newsletters, you can find the archive here.
Below is the most recent edition of Amby Burfoot’s weekly newsletter titled Run Long, Run Healthy, where he publishes short summaries and links to the Internet’s most recent and scientific reviews of running information so you can learn how to be better at running.
4-Minute Magic — The BEST Interval Workout; New Super-Shoe Secrets; Get Stronger In Less Time
Previous editions of Run Long, Run Healthy newsletters can be found here.
Featured Story
Why Trail Running Isn’t As Welcoming As You Believe It Is by Cherie Louise Turner
Early this year, Western States Endurance Race (WSER) sponsor GU Energy Labs posted on Instagram that they were giving away two entries to “runners from historically excluded and underrepresented communities” for the 2024 WSER. Unsurprisingly, there was backlash.
This is just one in a long list of examples of how the trail running scene isn’t welcoming to all.
The reality is that trail running has an exclusivity problem, which really isn’t news at all. The Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC) made that clear in a recent study, which Emilia Benton wrote about last year in a piece for trailrunner.
In the article, Benton highlighted that many BIPOC runners described the trail and ultra community “as being one of the least welcoming corners of the running space.” The article goes on to recognize how the running industry and community have moved away from discussions about racism since 2020, and how “key players in the trail scene have been hesitant to address issues of systemic racism to begin with.”
Trail running is and continues to be the whitest and most male niche of the running world. If you want to verify that, simply go to a trail race. Putting some numbers to this, roughly 25% of ultra participants are women, and that percentage goes down the longer the event gets (WSER was recently celebrated by the Pro Trail Running Association for making “amazing progress” because women’s participation is up to 27%; it’s sad that this is considered progress). Most of these women are white, which is also true of the more than 75% of participants who are men. In 2023, WSER had its highest number of Black finishers to date, which was a mere two runners (.005% of the field).
Read more here.
Stories
Sunday, June 23
Monday, June 24
How a Running Group Reignited My Passion For Running by Drew Morrison
Wednesday, June 26
Fast Times Are Rocket Fuel for a Runner’s Motivation by Stephen Hands
Thursday, June 27
4-Minute Magic — The BEST Interval Workout; New Super-Shoe Secrets; Get Stronger In Less Time by Amby Burfoot
How Voicing Your Expectations Can Harm an Athlete’s Performance by Denis Gorbunov
5 Kettlebell Exercises for Runners Ranked From Easiest to Hardest by David Liira, Kin.
To Become a Runner, Start with Your Head Not Your Legs by Normi Coto, PhD
I Survived Running Through the Heat Dome, and So Can You by David Liira, Kin.
Saturday, June 29
Better Running With Less Running by Andy B. Hahn
Wild Sage on the Solstice: Reaching an Auspicious 888km near China’s Great Wall by Harriet Gaywood
Three New Calf Exercises You Need To Try This Summer by David Liira, Kin.
Race Day Ready | A Checklist to Help Calm Pre-Race Jitters by Adam Dipinto
How Will the New Chicago Marathon Qualifying Times Change Your Odds of Running the Race? by Brian Rock
Tuesday, July 2
Wednesday, July 3
How One Runner Is Bringing a New Awareness to Autism by Normi Coto, PhD
Saturday, July 6
Are More Runners Qualifying for the Chicago Marathon Than In the Past? by Brian Rock
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