The Better of iRunFar in 2024 – iRunFar

It’s virtually 2025! As path working, mountain working, and ultrarunning develop and evolve, we at iRunFar evolve alongside and regularly discover new methods to serve you, our readers. As we shut out 2024, we take a second to replicate on this yr for iRunFar.

This yr, we have been honored to step into the position of media accomplice with the World Mountain Working Affiliation. We used the chance to delve extra deeply into mountain working by information tales, in-person race protection, and athlete profiles.

The yr 2024 was one other huge yr for our ever-evolving staff. After stepping again as Editor-in-Chief simply final yr, our Founding Editor Bryon Powell stepped again as much as the plate, alongside editor and author Eszter Horanyi, to cowl the Managing Editor position throughout my maternity depart from March by July. Bryon continues to guide our staff of substances reviewers, making certain we keep on high of all the most recent improvements within the sport. Meghan Hicks, now in her second yr as Editor-in-Chief, has steered our ship all through this busy yr.

Underneath the management of Nathan Allen, who has turn out to be an important staff member since his appointment final yr, our purchaser’s information division has continued to develop and be your go-to for any gear questions.

Lance Hartzler additionally grew as our social media and advertising and marketing coordinator and has finished a terrific job making certain that every one we publish on iRunFar reaches your screens irrespective of the time of day — or night time.

As at all times, we thanks, our readers, for being with us by one other yr; with out you, there could be no iRunFar.

And thanks a lot to the people and corporations who assist iRunFar financially. Supporting iRunFar helps us increase our protection of the game we love.

Learn on for just a few highlights from iRunFar in 2024, and tell us within the feedback part what your standout iRunFar picks are for the yr.

P.S.: When you’d prefer to look again, listed below are our best-of articles from 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

iRunFar in 2024, by Numbers

Right here’s what our yr seems to be like in numbers:

• This yr, iRunFar was a 57-person staff.
• In 2024, we produced 512 articles and 61 movies to tell and entertain you.
• We did in-person protection at 4 occasions this yr — the Western States 100, Hardrock 100, UTMB, and Mountain Working World Cup Finals.

Training

Training is on the coronary heart of iRunFar. We consider an outfitted runner will benefit from the sport extra, and we endeavor to create articles that can assist you prepare, plan on your subsequent race, get better that niggle, and extra.

• This yr, our Working the Numbers column noticed some modifications with the appointment of Zander Chase as co-columnist alongside Mallory Richard. The 2 have labored collectively very cohesively, and it’s been nice to have two contrasting voices within the column. This yr, readers loved Zander’s article Quick, Sooner, Quickest: Decoding the Information Behind Appalachian Path FKTs, and Mallory’s A Information-Pushed Environmental Scan of the Path and Extremely Teaching Business.
• A standalone article from our common contributor Eryn Barber, Three Plyometric Workouts for Endurance Runners, proved standard with our readers.
• This yr, we completed republishing the perfect of Ian Torrence’s teaching articles. His article, Working Periodization: It Isn’t Rocket Science, was significantly effectively acquired.
• Coach and professional runner Gabe Joyes joined the iRunFar staff this yr, bringing his information and wit to the Ask Gabe column. You all actually loved his article about power coaching, working meals, and extra.
• Joe Uhan’s Keep the Course column continues to be a useful useful resource for damage prevention and administration. This yr, lots of you appreciated how he addressed a typical downside in Tight Hamstrings? Strive This Three-Dimensional Thigh Mobilization!
• Adrian Stott continues to be our go-to for highway and observe ultrarunning experience. Just lately, lots of you loved his article A Transient Historical past of the IAU 100k World Championships, which we revealed days earlier than the 2024 championships.
• Justin Mock begins the week proper along with his common This Week in Working column, which is part of lots of our readers’ Monday morning rituals. Justin brings us an excellent mixture of outcomes from the most important extremely, path, and mountain races, some smaller grassroots occasions, and the odd standout consequence by path runners on the highway and observe.
• We have been honored to work with scientists and writers Johanna Ohm and Brady Burgess on their article Investigation: Lab Assessments Verify Spring Vitality Misrepresents Carbs and Energy, 7 Different Manufacturers Have Correct Labels, which added information to the group dialog of holding the corporate Spring Vitality accountable to its misrepresentation of the dietary content material of a few of their merchandise.
• Exterior our onsite race protection, we commonly publish outcomes articles from the game’s best races, like our articles from Sierre-Zinal, the Comrades Marathon, Transgrancanaria, and the Black Canyon 100k.

Inspiration

Inspiration is massively vital in working. It may well inspire us to maintain going when issues get robust and assist us discover our why. This yr, as at all times, we revealed a variety of inspirational content material on iRunFar. Listed here are a few of the greatest bits.

• Sabrina Little’s considerate column The Examined Run gives a unique perspective on running-related issues. Her article A Case Towards Supershoes generated a variety of curiosity and debate, with robust opinions in favor of and towards her argument that supershoes have been detrimental to working.
• This yr, our long-standing author Hannah Inexperienced started a brand new column, The Artwork of Working, the place she interviews varied artists and runners. Thus far, she has profiled artists of many alternative genres, and readers significantly loved her interview with photographer Mike Thurk.

• Bryon Powell has continued his month-to-month column the place he retains us updated with what’s taking place in his working and life. His article, In Reward of (Ultrarunning) Expertise, resonated with many, and celebrated the advantages of a few years of expertise, which may counteract the results of getting old.
• AJW’s Taproom continues into its thirteenth yr, and thru his sequence of articles on working and getting old, lifelong runner Andy Jones-Wilkins gives his perspective and recommendation on issues affecting older runners. Many discovered his article The Artwork of Strolling helpful.
• Via his month-to-month column, runner Zach Miller gives us pearls of knowledge gained by his years of expertise on the high finish of the game, by all its highs and lows. One vital message he had for us this yr was delivered by his article Digging Holes and Stopping Trains: The Want For Common Restoration Throughout Coaching.
• Whereas highway and mountain runner Rebecca Cheptegei’s passing was an pointless tragedy, we’re so grateful to have the ability to publish a shifting poem in her honor, penned by Angie Funtanilla.

Interviews and Profiles

• Late this yr, Morgan Tilton handed on the authorship of the WeRunFar column to Eszter Horanyi. We’re grateful to Morgan for her glorious writing by the years, and for shining the highlight on individuals within the sport who maybe don’t get all the popularity they deserve. Your favourite WeRunFar articles this yr have been ‘Girls Are Not Small Males:’ Dr. Stacy Sims and the Girls’s Endurance Sports activities Revolution and a profile of William Barkan, the primary legally blind runner to cowl the Western States 100 course, which he did in 2024.
• I’ve continued my column The Lengthy Sport, which profiles runners on the high of the game, which Bryon Powell and Eszter Horanyi co-authored throughout my maternity depart. This yr, we aimed to increase our protection of mountain working, and as a part of that, I interviewed Kenyan mountain runner Philemon Kiriago and gained an interesting perception into his coaching and mentality. Bryon Powell and Eszter Horanyi’s profile of Spanish path runner Manuel Merillas was additionally a terrific learn.
• Bryon Powell’s post-race interview with Ludovic Pommeret after his course-record-setting win on the 2024 Hardrock 100, simply days earlier than his forty ninth birthday, impressed many.
• Katie Schide had a stellar yr in 2024, profitable each the Western States 100 and UTMB — setting a course file on the latter — and Meghan Hicks was there to interview her post-race for each.
• One of many standout ultrarunning outcomes of 2024 needs to be Courtney Olsen’s 50-mile world file. I had the privilege of interviewing her within the days after, and located that she is as humorous as she is quick!
• This yr on the Western States 100, iRunFar had a shock visitor interviewer, within the type of former ladies’s course file holder Ellie Greenwood. A revered title in Western States 100 historical past, Ellie’s presence behind the mic definitely added some nuance to the interviews, and even left 2023 and 2024 third-place lady Eszter Csillag just a little star-struck!

Images

Significantly with so lots of the races we cowl happening in breathtaking places, you possibly can’t inform the story with phrases alone! Showcasing glorious images can also be an enormous a part of what we do. Listed here are a few of the photograph highlights of 2024.

Reminiscences

Lastly, our staff shares a few of their favourite recollections of 2024.

Justin Mock

A number of years in the past, I by no means might’ve guessed that my canine would go to Kosovo. However in July, I took a three-week, nine-country highway journey from Central Europe by the Balkans with my two senior pups. Albania stands out as a spotlight, particular lifetime recollections!

Eszter Horanyi

Whereas this was a yr the place I obtained to play many roles for iRunFar, starting from gear editor to freelance author to photographer, the spotlight was attending to pose as part-time interim Managing Editor whereas Sarah Brady went on maternity depart for 5 months. I’d go as far as to name it a profession spotlight, after effectively over a decade of taking part in with phrases for a residing. Working with such an incredible group of authors and iRunFar staff members was nothing wanting an incredible privilege, and I really feel like my information of all issues writing, enhancing, and working elevated 10-fold. And if there’s one factor that’s sure, I’ll by no means misspell Kilian or Salomon once more!

Bryon Powell

My post-Hardrock 100 interviews have been my straight work-related spotlight of the yr. I loved all of them, however significantly chatting with Ludovic Pommeret and Jason Schlarb about getting old and working, as they’re barely older than and the identical age as me, respectively. Even a decade in the past, I’d seen ladies like Meghan Canfield and others working on the high of their sport of their late 40s and early 50s, but it surely’s been inspiring to see just a few males in the identical age vary excel extra not too long ago. It helps me maintain my very own getting old course of — and what it’d appear to be — in perspective.

Now, from an iRunFar as an enabler perspective, there’s no method I might have been in a position to run the Extremely Gobi 250 Mile however for being at iRunFar. That set me up for an exquisite summer time of impressed coaching adventures forward of the race after which the run of my life on the race.

Meghan Hicks

I’ve a few core recollections from iRunFar this previous yr. The primary was turning into a media accomplice to the World Mountain Working Affiliation, which governs mountain working and is a part of World Athletics, working’s world federation. iRunFar believes strongly within the significance of federation-level sports activities administration as a prong of a sport’s strategic growth. We consider in utilizing iRunFar to assist advance the storytelling of federation-administered facets of the game, which is why I’m excited that our publication entered into this partnership.

My second core reminiscence from 2024 is that, for a second time, the iRunFar staff volunteered to assist placed on the Snowman Race in Bhutan. The Snowman Race takes place in Bhutan, one of many globe’s few carbon-negative international locations, and travels by the excessive Himalayas, a mountain vary whose landscapes and peoples are among the many most impacted by local weather change. As well as, the game of working is nascent in Bhutan, a rustic most definitely crammed with potential world-class athletes. The targets of the Snowman Race are multi-fold: to share the story of a carbon-negative nation, to clarify how local weather change unfairly impacts the nation’s landscapes and other people, and to attach Bhutan with the working world itself. iRunFar believes that working must be used to assist progress different important facets of humanity. For over a decade, the iRunFar staff has volunteered its platform, staff, and assets to raise individuals, locations, and tales much less represented within the working group. I’m so happy that one in all iRunFar’s volunteerism focal factors this yr was this one.

Sarah Brady

For worry he’ll discover and skim this text in years to return, I can’t level to something aside from the start of my son, Max, as my spotlight of 2024.

However to carry it again to iRunFar, I relished the journey that Meghan Hicks and I took to Italy to cowl the Mountain Working World Cup Finals. After just a few years now of masking the world’s high ultramarathons and getting immersed within the media frenzy that exists round races like UTMB, the Western States 100, and the Path World Championships, there was a refreshing grassroots really feel to this World Mountain Working Affiliation occasion. We had the chance and privilege to fulfill and interview a unique set of athletes, excelling in a unique nook of the game. We obtained to grips with some logistical challenges to offering protection of such fast-paced races — a vertical kilometer someday and a 23-kilometer path race the subsequent. Better of all, we had the chance to run each inch of the programs ourselves at a extra leisurely tempo — one thing that doesn’t occur throughout a busy week of masking a 100-mile occasion.

In my working this yr, I needed a purpose to get me shifting once more postpartum, however I knew it will be laborious to search out the time to drive out to the mountains, so I signed up for the Dublin Marathon on the finish of October. Highway working is much from my consolation zone, however immersing myself in a unique type of problem was sensible, and I even got here away with a brand new private greatest!

Name for Feedback

• What was your favourite iRunFar content material this yr?
• What was the spotlight of your 2024?