Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2024 från Runner's World

MY NANA’S TWO-STORY half-double sat at the edge of town. In the spring, rhododendron flowers bloomed below the front porch and tulips popped up alongside the walkway leading to the back; a tall oak tree stood beside the house. Out back was a small brick church whose bells chimed on Sundays. The bedroom I stayed in was at the front of the house, where I fell asleep listening to cars go by at night, something I wasn’t used to on the wooded cul-de-sac where I lived. A small heart-shaped prism hung in the kitchen window and ref lected small rainbows around the room during the day. Down the road, a mile or so from the house, were the dairy and chicken farms, and the cemetery where her son is buried.…

Our first race together was a 5K Color Run. I’m not sure why we signed up, because neither of us was a runner, but in May 2016, my boyfriend of three years, Jonathan, and I showed up to run around the parking lot at Citi Field. It was fun, but I didn’t think it would amount to anything. Later that year, when Jonathan became my fiancé, we decided to run a 5K every month until our wedding: 12 months, 12 races. We ran everything from New York Road Runner races to events with less than 100 people. Around that time, running became a big part of my life. I went from struggling to run a mile to signing up for my first half marathon, which led to my first marathon.…

Here’s how they set a blistering pace and cemented their place in history. VANESSA FRASER STOOD alone on the starting line at San Francisco State’s Cox Stadium. Wearing her red-and-black Bowerman Track Club colors and her long, blond hair in a low ponytail, she gazed out at the eucalyptus grove flanking the first turn of the outdoor track. On her bib was the number 701. Several racers milled about nearby—but they weren’t her usual elite competitors. One had white hair and wore a vintage red-and-blue tracksuit. Another had braces on her teeth and was there with her mother. Small children toddled beside some of the other women. Usually dormant on early Sunday mornings, the stadium buzzed with energy for San Francisco’s fourth attempt at a world record in the women’s…

DURING THE 2023 New York City Marathon, Runner’s World set up shop in an empty storefront on West 57th Street with Adidas and hosted three days of inspiring talks, shakeout runs, and shoe demos. Because of a last-minute cancellation by one guest speaker, I was called in to talk about nutrition. This was bound to be interesting. See, around the office, I’m known for doing things in unconventional or even questionable ways. I’ll go on long runs without any water or gels. At lunch, I’m more likely to grab McDonald’s or a gas station hoagie than a salad. Sometimes it works—sometimes it doesn’t. But I know the sage advice this magazine dispenses, even if I don’t heed it in my daily running life. For the duration of the nutrition panel,…

At the beginning of 2024, my training for the Tokyo Marathon was interrupted by a sharp pain in my heel. An initial x-ray didn’t show any bone damage, but I was given a walking boot and crutches as a precautionary measure. An MRI was scheduled for the following week. Until then, I was advised to rest. However, as you’ll soon find out, I wasn’t the most obedient patient. Had my case been a stress fracture, I could have risked exacerbating my injury and been forced to stop running for months. I must emphasize not to take my lead. Always follow your doctor’s orders and consider rest as a part of your training plan. January 5 Dear Walking Boot, I need to apologize for our first meeting. I know the look…

Later this summer, some of the world’s best athletes will chase gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Through months of testing, the shoes on these pages are the models that we deemed gold medal–worthy. We considered nearly 100 models across 34 brands. Those that earned recognition here performed at the top of the pack in on-foot assessments from our team of 300 wear-testers and staff, and also scored highly in mechanical analysis in our shoe lab. After we put at least 100 miles on each pair and dug through the data on specific qualities like cushioning, stability, flexibility, and ride, we picked these 25 shoes as the very best. One of them is sure to work for you, whether you’re lacing up for your first run or your first Olympics.…

MERRELL MORPHLITE PRICE: $100 | WEIGHT: 8.5 oz (M), 6.6 oz (W) | DROP: 6.5 mm | LUGS: 2–3 mm MOST OF US WON’T—and probably shouldn’t—pick the Morphlite to race a road marathon. But this past St. Patrick’s Day, 10,000-meter Olympian Alexi Pappas crushed the 2024 Los Angeles Marathon in this budget road-to-trail shoe. And it wasn’t just luck. At the Boston Marathon, she wore the shoe again to guide Lisa Thompson (also wearing the Morphlite) to a first-place finish in the T13 division. Where the shoe really shines, though, is for runners who want high versatility and low price point. Test yourself over a variety of terrain and events in the Morphlite, and invest in a designated shoe once you decide where you’ll spend most of your training miles.…

I VAGUELY REMEMBER my first race. At a local park in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where I grew up (not far from Runner’s World HQ), I ran a lap of pavement with a bunch of other tweens I didn’t know. I don’t remember the distance, but what I do remember? The positive feelings. I loved the rush of nerves I got standing at the start, the self-esteem boost I felt from the cheers of my parents watching, and how empowering it felt to cross the finish line—even if I wasn’t anywhere near the leaders. I have participated in countless races since then, from many 5Ks to a few marathons. And while I find purpose in competing against my past self, setting goals, and checking off a training plan to snag a PR…

I AM KNOWN as the guy who runs absurd distances that many people don’t even like to drive, so you’d think that I must have training dialed in. It’s actually the opposite. As a goal run or race approaches, of course, my running frequency ramps up, but I’ve always kind of hated structured training. The two jokes I tend to pull out when someone brings up my being an ultrarunner are: “I love ultrarunning because it doesn’t involve as much running” and “I never learn my lesson.” Before I ever started running, I did just about every other sport—like hockey and lacrosse—and was super competitive. Back then, training meant doing tons of drills, listening to coaches, executing, repeating, whatever it took to get stronger, faster, more skilled. As I got…

Artificial Intelligence continues to rapidly creep into seemingly every facet of our daily lives. While no amount of computer learning will ever be able to do the actual running for you, there are aspects, like coaching, where AI could have a meaningful impact. ¶ In every debate about AI, the conversation almost always includes this question: Is it better than what humans can accomplish? In the case of running, would Coach AI be better than, say, Ed Eyestone, a two-time Olympian and coach of Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, the top two men at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February? ¶ We may be many years away from knowing that answer, as there is so much more that goes into the development and performance of the country’s and world’s…