#74: Don't forget the reason for being
Presented by Precision Fuel & Hydration
issue #74: Feb. 14, 2024
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This past Monday we sent out the monthly(ish) roundup of gear & training news to all our paying subscribers. And a reminder to get reading for our next Book Club book: ‘What Made Maddy Run.’
I also added lovely elevator music to the audio version of this newsletter (for paying subscribers) so you can enjoy your weekly triathlon-ish news on your commute.
And it’s almost time to actually get down to race season. Hallelujah. (I, for one, have been spending way too much time running.) Who’s ready to stop talking and start racing now?
- Kelly
The whole point of the thing
Not that I don’t love the drama and gossip and in-the-weeds-ness of our sports (because I do!), but sometimes it’s useful to remember why all of this exists.
I’ve lived at the base of a large ridge-top open space on-and-off for over a decade. The trails are popular with mountain bikers and usually there are hikers (especially closer to the trailheads), but it’s never been a spot where many people would run. You never used to see anyone out running far on the ridgeline. Not until a new trail 50K launched in my neighborhood — it starts like 400m from my house — and everyone locally started signing up. Friends who aren’t even really runners, and definitely lots of runners who don’t consider themselves ultrarunners, started signing up. All of a sudden, there are now people with hydration packs running past my house every weekend.
Sure, some of that’s because trail running overall is booming. And, yep, there are so many small local races that it’s oversaturated the market and is driving down registration at the bigger races. (The neighborhood 50K is one of many reasons why the bigger regional Way Too Cool 50K & Lake Sonoma 50, which both used to need lotteries, no longer sell out.) It’s the exact same thing that happened with triathlon in the 2000s. And, ultimately, there’ll be a shaking out of the event business, only some of the races will survive, not everyone will keep trail running.
But, in the meantime, I can literally see it changing behavior. And isn’t that the whole point of these things. When you hear about how Ironman Wales changed the town of Tenby. When you see thousands of people trying their own marathons — and some of them turning out to be fast or even qualifying for the Trials — because they saw one go by their office. (True story of Kidan Kidane.) That’s the whole point.
Now, anyway, back the gossip.
Big thanks to Precision Fuel & Hydration for the support. And if you’re looking to stock up on fueling for the season, I’d heavily recommend the mint & lemon chews and the PF30 gels — it’s what I’ve been using for all my long runs. 15% discount applied here.
What the hell is going on in the UK?
Last week, there was a big to-do about an editor at Runner’s World UK faking race results and cutting the course. It was prompted by one of those “investigations” from MarathonInvestigations, which I always have mixed feelings about, especially since the public shaming can go so badly and everyone makes some mistakes in their life.
We talked all about it on the podcast last week.
But then this week, whew, the UK had a new to-do: For my American audience, Parkrun is an organization that puts on free local 5K events in the park every weekend—meaning anyone can show up to an event at their local park and run, walk, jog. There are no prizes or awards, but the 5Ks are timed and you can take them as seriously or not as you choose. They’re quite popular! There are over 2,000 in the world!
I’ve done a couple (even won one by my husband’s cousin’s house!) and they were always pretty chill. The goal always seemed like it was, primarily, to get people outside and active. Etc.
But, this weekend, Parkrun got in shit after it did away with all the records for each location/event, age groups, age-grading (ie. calculating how good you did for your age/gender)—and appeared to delete all the data on their website. Even though that’s not the point per se of these things, it has caused a *huge* uproar in the UK because many runners there feel it was done in response to an ongoing fight over whether trans women should be included in the records or not. However, I could only find evidence of three trans women in the whole UK known to hold any age-group records for their specific course at their local park — and the CEO is maintaining that the move was actually to get back to the focus of getting people active instead of focusing on how they stack up against each other. But oh my god. What the heck is going on over there. Aren’t the Brits supposed to be more stoic and stiff upper lip and less prone to hysterics than us?
My official American suggestion: Chill out.
The races & results
Challenge Wanaka: This upcoming weekend and we’re sending good vibes to Sid! (Full start list here.)
Ironman New Zealand: People starting to announce (start list here) for the first big Ironman of the year and it looks like Chelsea Sodaro will be aiming to get her Nice spot early (before the T100 series starts).
And the start lists are out (women & men) for the first big Olympic series race of the year: WTCS Abu Dhabi in two weeks. (While most countries are using Yokohama or Cagliari later in May for Olympic qualifying, it’s still good to get the big series started right and get one done in case it comes down to it. And also it’s a big deal in its own right.)
Other race news: Does anyone know who the wildcards are for T100 Miami yet? I can start speculating wildly if you’d like. (I’ve also heard people are not thrilled about the prices going up on London Triathlon/T100 London.) And I’m here to tell you permit notification signs are up in San Francisco for the “California” race. And and, we’ll talk soon about Super League and the Triathlon Majors or whatever they’re calling them next!
The -ish
The news you should know about from around our sports this week.
The biggest news of the week: Marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum died in a car accident, along with his coach. He was a young star, and it’s shaken the running world to lose such a force before he was able to really deliver on all he was capable of. (BBC)
The Millrose Games was also this weekend and there was a dumb amount of records broken, but probably our favorites were: Two-mile world record from Josh Kerr; Elle Purrier-St. Pierre broke her own American record 11 months post-partum “for the moms”; and all of Devynne Charlton’s competitors congratulated her after her 60m world record. (Youtube/Instagram)
And, OK, OK, I have read a LOT of Olympic qualification criteria in my life and the criteria for the U.S. men’s marathon is the most incomprehensible thing I’ve seen in awhile. It turns out World Athletics wrote some very vague wording about which criteria they’d actually favor for how world spots will be allocated — which is not normal (!), usually those things are very very specific. And the U.S. does actually have a guy in the top 80 rankings, which is a criteria listed. Which means the U.S. could/might/greater than 50% chance get a third spot! And and! The U.S. is also arguing over how they wrote their vague criteria to award the spots they get. Now it seems that Leonard Korir can run other races to improve his ranking to make sure the U.S. gets the third spot. In short: Korir will probably actually go to Paris! Whew. (Twitter)
In UTMB news: Camille Herron has since deleted the tweet, but she originally shared notes from the call the pro trail runners had with the race directors — and what she shared were notes where the organizers said they didn’t want to offer too much prize money or it might attract runners from Africa, who wouldn’t be there for the right reasons. (We talked about this some in the Q&A with the author of the UTMB book. There was some concern that in the past sketchy agents had taken the money and it created distorted incentives. But yep, it is also what you think it is.) (Twitter/Triathlonish)
Another thing that is what you think it is: The “doping” Olympics is back in the news because there’s finally an athlete willing to go for it. We’ve also got a Q&A with the founder of those Enhanced Games. (The Guardian/Triathlonish)
The trail running season kicked off with Black Canyons 100K this past weekend. (iRunFar)
Women’s wrestling is officially going to be the next NCAA sport — triathlon is still on the waiting list. (NCAA)
Katie Ledecky lost an 800m race for the first time in 13 years — which is both because there is an exciting up-and-coming Canadian swimmer and also because it is impossible to maintain that kind of streak forever. #GOAT (Instagram)
I had never heard of the Last Skier Standing race until a friend was there this weekend, but it is officially crazy. Athletes skinned up and skied down every hour on the hour until there was only one left standing. Who ultimately covered 76 hours and 213 miles with 85K feet of elevation. (FOX23)
Van Fletcher and Viktoria Brown won Ultraman Florida — and Tommy Zaferes has some cool photos of crewing. (Facebook/Instagram)
And Tim interviewed UCI time trial specialist Victor Campenaerts. (Precision Fuel & Hydration)
The Precision crew also answered all the most Googled nutrition and fueling questions, which always raises the question about what you all Google. (Youtube)
What it’s like to be Black in the fitness industry. (Men’s Health)
Everyone’s trying to figure out what is going on with the bike industry right now, too. Is it in trouble or not in trouble? How did it get there: a four-part podcast series. (Bicycling/Escape Collective)
And I told you durability was the key marker of training moving forward. This is why you should read my monthly-ish training & gear roundups. (Velo/Triathlonish)
One last thing
Tell me this isn’t adorbs. (Press play.)
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