Runner’s Life Newsletter

Highlights and stories from March 31 — April 13, 2024

Jeff Barton

Published in

Runner's Life

5 min readApr 14, 2024

Photo by Iwona Castiello d'Antonio on Unsplash

Welcome to the Runner’s Life newsletter!

If you’ve missed previous Runner’s Life newsletters, you can find the archive here.

Below are the most recent editions 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 Form Changes That Boost Running Economy; Is Intermittent Fasting Killing You? Best Running Mantras

Peak Right With The Perfect Taper; The Best Drink For Longevity; How To Decrease Harassment Of Women

Should You Run Or Walk Between Intervals? Loneliness Linked To Lifespan; Amazing — You Run As You Think

Previous editions of Run Long, Run Healthy newsletters can be found here.

Featured Writer

This newsletter’s featured writer is Brian Rock.

Brian was an athletic child, and he experimented with many sports. In high school, he ran a season of track and gave it up because it conflicted with the jazz band. Through his 20s, Brian ran on and off, racing the occasional local 5k. But he never took training all that seriously.

After college, he taught high school history for a little over a decade. For much of that time, he also worked as the high school’s yearbook advisor and photographer. This entailed spending a lot of time at sporting events — including track meets. This inspired him to take his running more seriously, and at the age of 30, he finished his first half marathon.

It went great. But a week later, he injured his knee. He battled with runner’s knee for the next five years, and he struggled to start running again consistently. Eventually, fed up with the constant knee pain and his growing belly, he went to a doctor. He did PT for his knee. He got healthy. This started in January 2020 — and when the pandemic shut everything down, he committed to running consistently.

By the end of 2020, he was in the best shape of his life. The running had initially helped him lose weight, but now he found true joy in running for its own sake. He loves exploring the trails near his house, and traveling now means a chance to explore new places to run. He ran his first marathon (Atlantic City) in October 2021 and caught the bug. He’s had a running streak going since November 30, 2021, and he always has another race on his calendar to look forward to.

His next race is today — April 14, 2024 — in Jersey City, where he hopes to qualify for Boston 2025. After that, he’s running the NYRR Brooklyn Half in May and the Chicago Marathon in October.

In the last few years, he transitioned from teaching to working for the teacher’s union. His current role involves data analysis and data visualization. In his free time, he enjoys applying those skills to running. In particular, he collects and analyzes data about marathons and then publishes it online to help runners better understand the sport. Much of that work can be found on Medium in Runner’s Life.

He also writes a blog, Running with Rock, where you can find tips for picking a marathon training plan and read about his training. And of course, you can follow him on Strava.

Brian’s Featured Stories

Finishers at American Marathoners are Getting Faster And Slower

The Quest to Qualify: 9 Lessons I Learned on the Road to Boston

How Do You Compare Race Results Between Age Groups?

You can follow Brian on Medium here.

Featured Story

How to Beat the Barkley 100 by How&Why

“If Jared Campbell was an egotistical type of guy, he could claim the title of Toughest Athlete of the 21st Century thus far.
He’s a 44-year-old mechanical engineer who lives in Utah with his wife and two daughters. He’s a mountain runner, climber, and cyclist who loves strenuous outdoor challenges.
And he’s the only person to have completed the most brutal event in the sporting universe no less than four times.

One hundred and thirty miles of pain

A horror of bush, mud, crags, rivers, and darkness. Rain, fog, snow. Briars, falls, cuts and blood. Sleep deprivation and hallucinations. Pain and tears. And no signposts.
That’s the Barkley 100, a savage ultramarathon through the Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee, a couple of hours east of Nashville. The race has been held in late March or early April since 1986.
Ultramarathons are footraces that are longer and harder than a standard 26.2-mile marathon. Some cover hundreds of miles. They are run in mountains, on ice, over deserts, and through bush. But the Barkley takes the ultramarathon idea to a crazy extreme.”