This weekend, 55,000 brave souls will line up in Grant Park for the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, one of the original Abbott World Marathon Majors.… Read more “A DIFFICULT RACE IN A DIFFICULT TIME: CHICAGO 2025”
Category: Commentary
Stop Calling Championship Wins “Upsets”
Every time a favorite loses at Worlds or the Olympics, the headlines scream “shocking upset.” Enough already. These aren’t upsets. This is what racing looks like. Geordie… Read more “Stop Calling Championship Wins “Upsets””
Lessons from the Long Run: Susanna Sullivan and the Spirit of Civic Endurance
In the opening days of the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, American marathoner Susanna Sullivan reminded us what quiet perseverance looks like. A sixth-grade math teacher… Read more “Lessons from the Long Run: Susanna Sullivan and the Spirit of Civic Endurance”
High School Prodigy Cooper Lutkenhaus Stuns in 800m Final, Echoes Jim Ryun’s Legend
As 16-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus rounded the last turn heading into the straight in Sunday’s USATF 800-meter final in Eugene, Oregon, the broad-shouldered junior-to-be at Northwest High School… Read more “High School Prodigy Cooper Lutkenhaus Stuns in 800m Final, Echoes Jim Ryun’s Legend”
Mic’d Up and Moving Forward: A New Way to Feel Track and Field
Both sports—track and baseball—have long been tethered to their pasts, defined by records, nostalgia, and a reverence for tradition. Yet, each has also faced a rupture: These… Read more “Mic’d Up and Moving Forward: A New Way to Feel Track and Field”
YOU CAN’T HURRY LOVE – OR, A 4-MINUTE MILE
There is no doubt we are in a grand era of women’s ascendancy in many fields. Their goals are lofty. Their dreams have been long denied, and… Read more “YOU CAN’T HURRY LOVE – OR, A 4-MINUTE MILE”
BOSTON: A SIREN’S SONG OF SPEED
The Boston Marathon sings a sweet song of speed within its test of endurance, its melody beginning with the marching drum-and-fife call to the line in Hopkinton… Read more “BOSTON: A SIREN’S SONG OF SPEED”
SYNERGY SOWS SPEED
Racing is urgency distilled—whether along the sharp edge of competition itself or in the relentless refinement of that edge leading to the moment when the starter raises… Read more “SYNERGY SOWS SPEED”
Remembering Tommy Leonard: The Patron Saint of Running
R.I.P. TOMMY LEONARD (1933 – 2019) The great Tommy Leonard passed quietly from our midst six years ago today (17 Jan. 2019) at JML Care Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts at… Read more “Remembering Tommy Leonard: The Patron Saint of Running”
STILL FIGHTING TO BELIEVE IN 2024
It has been quite an emotional 2024 in the marathon world. We lost one world record holder early in the year, then discovered another one late. It… Read more “STILL FIGHTING TO BELIEVE IN 2024”