Training for a race takes months of consistent commitment. Your focus is on race day, the goal you’re after, and what you need to do each week and each workout to get to the start line ready.
The anticipation builds. And then, suddenly, it’s over.
Experiencing post-race blues is completely normal. Your weekly schedule is suddenly less full. There’s no longer a big athletic goal in front of you to work toward. And especially if you trained with a running community, your social interaction may even decrease.
Your body needs rest, but sometimes the brain doesn’t want to listen, especially if it’s to ward off unwanted emotions. Below, three Team RunRun running coaches share their advice on working through post-race blues.
Process your emotions by taking time to reflect.
Post-race blues is a form of grieving. The finish line of a race is the end of your journey and can be sad. Allow yourself to process all of the emotions, and then figure out what is next. It can be something athletic or non-athletic. Use your recovery to do the things you put on hold and figure out something new to look forward to!
During your training, there are sacrifices, little wins, and a lot of fun moments. It is common to not realize how special your event-specific training is. When you are training, take time to appreciate the lessons and successes you have.
Journaling can help you become aware of everything that happens between the moments you choose and finish your goal. Journaling will also help you find another goal to work towards and help you start a new adventure.
Respect the recovery process, both physically and mentally.
First and foremost, I normalize my athletes’ feelings. It’s natural to experience a comedown after such a big physical and emotional investment in something.
I then encourage them to take time to recover physically and mentally. I don’t place a timeline on this period and encourage athletes to return to running when they feel ready, not because they feel pressured to do so.
Sometimes, we’ll also use this time to get back to the basics by focusing on things that often get overlooked during a big training block. This includes sleep, strength work, easy miles, or simply reconnecting with the joy of running. Shifting our attention to these pieces can not only help athletes feel more grounded, but it also supports a smoother transition when they’re ready to train with more structure again.
After we’ve had the chance to reflect on their race, we begin talking about ‘what’s next.’ What goals or races motivate them to begin their next training block? Finding the balance between respecting recovery while slowly exploring new goals can help athletes feel excited for what’s to come.
Elaina Raponi, National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) 4-6 years coaching experience Team RunRun Coaching Profile Fast and Free Performance Coaching @elainaraponi
Remember that there will be more start lines.
I always tell my athletes that post-race blues are just part of the process, not proof that anything’s wrong. When the noise dies down after a big goal, it’s normal to feel a bit lost. Racing gives us that high because it’s a pure expression of everything we love about running, but the real joy comes from the miles in between.
I remind them that unless a meteor is scheduled to hit next month, there are always more start lines ahead. Take a little time off, move for fun, reflect, and let the next goal find you when you’re ready.
You’ve crossed the finish line! Your race medal is around your neck, legs are wrecked, and emotions are everywhere. Relief, pride, disappointment, and sometimes even confusion — perhaps all of these emotions, all at once.
What you do in that moment defines what happens next. Some runners shut it all down. Others overanalyze every second of the race. The best approach? To reflect. Not with judgment, but with curiosity.
The final part of this article series, based on the IGNITE Method that I use when working with athletes, is about evaluating your performance so you can grow from every race, no matter what the clock says.
Why Reflection Matters
After a race, most runners fall into one of two traps:
They over-critique, replaying every mistake until the joy is gone.
They avoid, refusing to think about the race at all.
Both miss the point. The goal of reflection isn’t to punish yourself or ignore what happened. It’s to extract lessons that make you stronger for the next race.
Runners who consistently improve aren’t the ones who always crush it. They’re the ones who look honestly at what went right, what went wrong, and what’s worth doing differently.
How to Reflect After Your Race
Here’s a simple post-race process I use with my athletes:
Step 1: Cool down your emotions.
Don’t rush into analyzing your race performance right away. Let a few hours or even a day pass before you dig in. Emotions cloud objectivity.
Step 2: Ask yourself three questions.
What went well?
What could I have done better?
What’s one thing I’ll change for next time?
Write the answers down. Keep it short, honest, and specific.
Step 3: Turn reflection into action.
Take those insights and translate them into something practical. If pacing was an issue, consider adding more progression runs to your next training cycle. If nerves got the best of you, spend a few minutes each week on race visualization.
Reflection isn’t just thinking; it’s planning forward.
Why Reflection Leads to Progress
The best athletes I’ve coached treat every race like a collection of data. Whether it’s a personal best or a disaster, it all counts. They use reflection as fuel.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s progress. When you review with intention, every finish line becomes a starting line for the next phase of growth.
Wrapping up the Marathon Mindset article series: If you’ve been following along, you’ve walked through the full IGNITE Method with me. This is the method I incorporate into coaching my athletes to help them strengthen their mindset and mental focus before, during, and after race day.
Whenever your mindset falters, refer back to these steps to regain focus.
Each step is simple but powerful when practiced consistently. Together, they form the backbone of running free — not just physically, but mentally. Because running fast starts with running free.
Brant Stachel is a mental performance coach, registered psychotherapist, and former professional triathlete. He has coached more than 25 athletes to international teams, including six with Olympic Trials-qualifying times. He works with endurance athletes, from high schoolers to Olympians, helping them train the mental side of performance through his IGNITE Method. Brant is the author of Fast & Free. He coaches runners through TeamRunRun.com and is a mental performance coach through CEPmindset.com.
When marathoners talk training, they talk miles: long runs, tempos, intervals. Every week gets measured in numbers. But the truth is, your mental game needs the same consistency.
You wouldn’t expect to show up on race day fit if you only ran once a week. The same goes for your mindset. If you only think about it the night before the marathon, you’ll be caught off guard when the pressure hits.
The fifth step of the IGNITE Method, which I developed and use with my athletes, is simple: Treat mental training like mileage. Do it daily, keep it light, and let the reps add up.
Why Daily Mental Training Matters
Most runners wait until they’re under stress to use mental skills. That’s like waiting until race day to break in your shoes. It doesn’t work.
By training mental skills every day, you do two important things:
1. Make these skills automatic, so you don’t have to think about them in the heat of the race.
2. Build resilience. Your brain gets used to the pressure and recovers faster when things go wrong.
Over time, just like your aerobic base, your mental base grows.
Small Habits, Big Payoff
I worked with a marathoner named Jordan who had a strong physical engine but struggled whenever conditions weren’t perfect. Heat, wind, or a bad mile would send him into panic mode.
We built a simple plan that included five minutes of mental training every day. Jordan practiced short breathing drills before workouts, used a mantra during tough intervals, and wrote down one win from each session in a journal.
At first, he felt silly, and it seemed almost too small to matter. But when race day came, those “micro reps” paid off. At mile 20, when the wheels started to wobble, Jordan didn’t panic. He took one breath, said his mantra, and found his rhythm again. He finished with a negative split and a new PR.
His takeaway: “I realized my body was fine. It was my brain that used to blow up. Training it daily made all the difference.”
How to Train Your Mental Skills Daily
You don’t need hours. You need consistency. Here are a few options you can rotate into your week:
Visualization (2-3 minutes): Before a workout, picture yourself handling the tough part, whether that’s the last rep of an interval or mile 22 of the marathon. See yourself calm, steady, and in control.
Breathing Drills (1-2 minutes): Try a breathing drill called box breathing. Inhale for a count of four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Repeat. Do this before a key workout or anytime stress spikes.
Mantra Practice (during runs): Choose one phrase that anchors you. Examples: “Relax and drive.” “One step at a time.” “Calm and strong.” Use it in training so it’s second nature in racing.
Reflection (3-5 minutes post-run): Jot down one thing you did well and one thing to improve. This keeps your focus process-based, not outcome-based.
Start Small, Stay Consistent
The mistake most runners make is thinking they need a 30-minute meditation practice or a complicated mental program. You don’t.
All you need is 5-10 minutes a day. Stack it with something you already do, such as your warmup, cool down, or post-run stretching. Over weeks and months, these small reps build the same way mileage does.
Why This Matters for Your Marathon Mindset
The marathon is a test of patience, resilience, and presence. The runners who thrive aren’t the ones who never feel stress. They’re the ones who have trained to handle it.
By logging your “mental miles” now, you’re preparing your brain the same way you prepare your legs. And come race day, you’ll be ready for whatever the course throws at you.
Next up in the Marathon Mindset series: Win or Learn: What Comes After the Race. The final part of the series will look at race reflection and how to evaluate your performance without judgment. Learn how to use every marathon, good or bad, as fuel for the next.
Brant Stachel is a mental performance coach, registered psychotherapist, and former professional triathlete. He has coached more than 25 athletes to international teams, including six with Olympic Trials-qualifying times. He works with endurance athletes, from high schoolers to Olympians, helping them train the mental side of performance through his IGNITE Method. Brant is the author of Fast & Free. He coaches runners through TeamRunRun.com and is a mental performance coach through CEPmindset.com.
At some point in every marathon, something will go wrong. Maybe it’s a missed water station. Maybe the wind picks up. Maybe your legs feel heavier than they should.
The runners who still run well on those days aren’t luckier. They’re better at staying present when things go sideways. They know how to get back on track in the middle of the race instead of letting a bad moment become a bad day.
This part of the marathon mindset series is about exactly that: How to hold your focus when the race doesn’t go to plan. Below, I’ll share advice from my IGNITE Method, which guides how I coach my athletes.
Why Staying Present Wins
When something goes wrong, your brain wants to do one of three things:
Spiral by replaying the mistake over and over.
Future-proof by worrying about what’s still to come.
Catastrophize by deciding the whole race is ruined.
None of these helps you run better. The only place you can actually influence your race is right where you are in this mile, this step, this moment. The skill is getting back there quickly.
From Unraveling to Resetting
A strong half-Ironman athlete I worked with, named Casey, would dominate workouts. But in races, one mistake would take her out mentally. A missed turn on the bike? She’d stew over it for miles. A botched transition? She’d give up on the run before it started.
I worked with her on building a reset routine. When something would go wrong during a race, instead of spiraling, she would focus on this routine:
Her physical cue was to tap the handlebars or clench and release her fists.
She would breathe a slow inhale for four counts and a slow exhale for four counts.
She would come back to her mantra, which was, “Next stroke, next pedal, next step.”
The next time something went wrong, she used it immediately. Instead of spiraling, she centered and salvaged her race. Over time, that skill became one of her biggest advantages.
Build Your Own Reset Routine
Here’s a simple three-step framework you can test in your next workout:
Pause: Acknowledge what happened without judgment. (e.g., “Missed that aid station.”)
Breathe: Take one slow, deliberate breath, inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts, hold for four counts.
Refocus: Use a cue word or mantra to lock back into the task at hand. (e.g., “Smooth stride.” “Stay tall.” “Run my race.”)
Practice It Before Race Day
Like any skill, you need to do this in your training before you need it on race day. Try these three steps during:
Tempo runs when you feel off your goal pace
Long runs when you start to fatigue
Speed sessions if you blow an interval
The goal isn’t to eliminate frustration. It’s to shorten the time you spend in it.
Why This Matters for Your Marathon Mindset
In 26.2 miles, the odds of everything going perfectly are close to zero. But if you can respond instead of react, you protect your energy, your focus, and your pace. One rough mile won’t tank your race if you can mentally reset and move on.
Next up in the Marathon Mindset series: It’s one thing to know how to reset when the race goes sideways, but it’s another to make that response automatic. Just like you log miles to build fitness, you need to log “mental reps” to make these tools second nature.
In Part 5, we’ll look at how to train your mindset daily, so that when the marathon throws you a curveball, your brain already knows exactly what to do.
Brant Stachel is a mental performance coach, registered psychotherapist, and former professional triathlete. He has coached more than 25 athletes to international teams, including six with Olympic Trials-qualifying times. He works with endurance athletes, from high schoolers to Olympians, helping them train the mental side of performance through his IGNITE Method. Brant is the author of Fast & Free. He coaches runners through TeamRunRun.com and is a mental performance coach through CEPmindset.com.
You can be fitter than you’ve ever been, but if race morning starts in chaos, you’re already on the back foot. The runners who show up calm, focused, and ready? They’ve rehearsed their routine until it’s second nature.
I’ve seen it with pros, BQ chasers, and first-timers. The runners who own their morning tend to own their race.
This part of the marathon mindset series, based on my IGNITE Method for coaching, is all about building your pre-performance routine so you arrive at the start line already in your best headspace.
Why Race Routines Work
On race day, there are a thousand things you can’t control, such as the weather, the crowds at the start line, and the competition. But your pre-race routine? That’s yours.
A clear, repeatable routine helps you do three big things:
Reduce anxiety by taking the guesswork out of the morning.
Direct your focus to what matters most.
Without a pre-race routine, you’re rolling the dice on how you’ll feel when the gun goes off.
Chaos Versus Calm
One of the athletes I’ve worked with, named Emma, was a talented collegiate runner who crushed workouts, but she would unravel on race day. She’d forget gear, rush her warmup, and line up at the start line already frazzled.
We built a simple, consistent routine, which included the following:
The night before the race: She would lay out her uniform, pin her bib, pack her race bag, and write down her race plan.
On race morning: She would eat a pre-planned breakfast, do the same warmup as in training, sit for 10 minutes of visualization, and repeat her mantra of “calm, steady, strong.”
Race time cue to focus: She would adjust her watch before stepping to the line.
Emma’s next race wasn’t perfect, but she ran a personal best and felt in control from start to finish. That routine became her anchor every time she competed.
Build Your Race Routine
Think about your race morning as two parts: the night before and the morning of. The goal is to show up with as few decisions left to make as possible.
What to Do the Night Before:
Get your gear and nutrition ready (clothes, shoes, watch, gels).
Prepare your bib with safety pins.
Pack your race-day bag (extra socks, nutrition, water).
Write down your race plan (key splits, mantras, reminders).
Set your alarm.
What to Do the Morning of Your Race:
Have a familiar breakfast and hydration.
Do your warmup sequence (dynamic stretches, drills).
Spend some time visualizing. See yourself running strong at key points in the race.
Do an emotional check-in. Name what you’re feeling, then use a breath or mantra to settle.
Don’t Have a Race Routine? Try This…
If you don’t have a routine yet, experiment with building one during your training. Pick a tune-up race or a long run and treat it like race day:
Follow the exact breakfast and warmup you’ll do on the morning of your goal race.
Use your race-day mantra or cue in the workout.
Notice what feels smooth and what needs tweaking.
The idea isn’t perfection, it’s familiarity. By the time your marathon comes, your routine should feel as automatic as tying your shoes.
Why This Matters for Your Marathon Mindset
A solid pre-performance routine doesn’t just prepare your body, it primes your mind to run as the best version of yourself. When your morning is scripted, there’s no mental energy wasted on small decisions or unexpected hiccups. You start the race already in control.
Next up in the Marathon Mindset series: How to Stay Focused and Reset When the Race Doesn’t Go As Planned There are factors on race day you’ll be unable to control, but controlling what you can — your mindset — means the difference between unraveling and keeping your cool. We’ll go over the steps to reset mid-race and stay focused on your goal.
Brant Stachel is a mental performance coach, registered psychotherapist, and former professional triathlete. He has coached more than 25 athletes to international teams, including six with Olympic Trials-qualifying times. He works with endurance athletes, from high schoolers to Olympians, helping them train the mental side of performance through his IGNITE Method. Brant is the author of Fast & Free. He coaches runners through TeamRunRun.com and is a mental performance coach through CEPmindset.com.
Marathon success is just as much about your mental preparation as it is about your physical training. Throughout my career as a mental performance coach, I’ve developed what I call the IGNITE Method to help my athletes harness a healthy, competitive mindset.
In the first part of this article series, we discussed the importance of identifying your mental barriers and understanding how they show up in your training and racing. In this second piece, we’re looking at something that most runners skip: who you choose to be when you compete.
What Is a Competitive Identity?
A competitive identity is who you step into when it’s time to race. It’s the version of you that shows up when pressure hits and everything is on the line.
I find that most runners don’t think about this. They show up hoping it’ll be “a good day.” But when the nerves spike, or the plan falls apart, they don’t have an anchor. And that’s when races start to slip away — not because they aren’t fit, but because they’re mentally scattered.
When you define your competitive identity, you create a blueprint:
These are the traits I want to bring. This is how I respond to stress. This is who I am when I race.
It’s not fake confidence. It’s a decision.
Using Competitive Identity as an Anchor
An athlete I’ve worked with named Alex came to me chasing a Boston-qualifying time. Some days, they crushed workouts. Other days, the same paces felt impossible.
I remember Alex telling me, “I never know who’s going to show up.”
I helped them create a competitive identity based on these three traits: Calm. Focused. Adaptable.
That became Alex’s anchor. Their cue was a small one: tugging their shirt before every run. That act reminded Alex, “I’m not hoping for confidence. I’m choosing it.”
When race day came, things didn’t go perfectly. But Alex didn’t panic. They stayed calm and focused, and ran their best race yet. Alex’s Boston-qualifying time was achieved by showing up as their best self when it counted.
Define Your Competitive Identity
Start with this question: Who do I want to be when I race?
Forget the outcome for a second. Think about how you want to carry yourself when the race gets hard. Do you want to be calm? Aggressive? Steady? Relentless?
Pick several traits that feel honest and powerful for you. Then give them a name. Something you can recall when the pain kicks in. This becomes your competitive identity.
A Marathon Mindset Shift You Can Train
This isn’t magic. It’s not “fake it till you make it” either. It’s practice.
Once you’ve got your identity in mind, start practicing it before workouts, on long runs, anytime the mental side gets shaky. Use a mantra, a breath, or a physical action, such as adjusting your watch, to signal that shift.
When things go wrong mid-race — and they will — this identity gives you something to return to. It’s not about controlling every variable. It’s about deciding, “No matter what’s happening around me, this is who I am in this moment.”
To recap, here are the four steps to follow:
Pick three words that describe the version of you that races best. Examples: Focused. Brave. Composed.
Name that competitive identity with a label that sticks. “Steady Storm.” “Marathon Maverick.” “Fearless Finisher.”
Create a cue, such as a phrase, gesture, or breath, that you can use to activate your competitive identity.
Practice that activation in your next big session, not just on race day.
It might feel a bit odd at first. That’s normal. But with reps, it starts to feel automatic. Your mind gets the signal: “I know this space. I belong here.”
I dig into the full framework in my book Fast & Free, but this is the starting point. Don’t leave your race day identity to chance. Decide who you want to be, and practice becoming that person now.
Next up in the Marathon Mindset article series: Racing Starts the Night Before We’ll talk about your pre-race routine and why the mindset you bring to race morning is built long before your alarm goes off. A good routine doesn’t just warm up your body; it locks in your focus.
Brant Stachel is a mental performance coach, registered psychotherapist, and former professional triathlete. He has coached more than 25 athletes to international teams, including six with Olympic Trials-qualifying times. He works with endurance athletes, from high schoolers to Olympians, helping them train the mental side of performance through his IGNITE Method. Brant is the author of Fast & Free. He coaches runners through TeamRunRun.com and is a mental performance coach through CEPmindset.com.
You can follow your plan perfectly, hit every long run, nail your fueling, and even have your shoes broken in just right. But if your mind isn’t in the right spot on race day, all that training can unravel fast.
That’s because your performance is not just about fitness.
It’s about what shows up between your ears.
Based on more than 15 years of coaching endurance athletes, from first-time marathoners to Olympians, and my work as a registered psychotherapist, I’ve seen firsthand how the mental side of racing can make or break a performance. The runners who train their minds the same way they train their bodies are the ones who consistently show up when it counts.
So, let’s start this marathon mindset series by discussing why it’s important to get real with yourself before the race starting line gun even goes off. Because before you can run your best race, you’ve got to figure out what’s getting in your way.
5 Common Marathon Mindset Barriers
Most runners don’t lose races because they blow up physically. They lose them in their minds before the first step. The most common culprits? Doubt, nerves, perfectionism, fear of failure — or that voice in your head saying, “What if I blow this?”
None of this makes you weak. It makes you normal.
But if you don’t understand the thoughts you’re having, it’s hard to change them.
Here are the patterns I see over and over in athletes I work with, whether they’re at the Olympic Trials level or trying to finish their first race:
Performance Anxiety: You’ve trained well, but nerves hit hard. You overthink everything. You feel wired before you even warm up.
Self-Doubt: You’re wondering if you belong. Maybe one bad workout shook your confidence, or you’re caught comparing yourself to others.
Fear of Failure: You’ve told people your goal. You’ve put in the work. Now it feels as if you’ll let everyone down if you fall short.
Negative Self-Talk: You hit a rough patch and immediately spiral. “I knew I’d blow it,” or “I always fall apart.”
Perfectionism: You want every split dialed. One missed water station or slow mile, and you’re thrown off.
Ask Yourself These 4 Mindset Questions
It’s important to take the time to identify your mindset barrier. Sit in a quiet space and reflect on your past training and racing experiences. Consider the following questions:
What’s the thought that shows up when things get hard in training?
What’s the fear that creeps in the week before the race?
What do you replay from past races that still messes with your head?
If your biggest mental block had a name, what would it be?
You don’t need to solve your mental block yet, just name it. That’s your first job.
Notice Where Your Mindset Barrier Shows Up
Once you’ve named your barrier, the next step isn’t to fix it overnight. It’s to start noticing when and where it shows up.
For example, if your barrier is self-doubt, start tracking when it hits hardest. Is it during long runs, race week, taper time? If it’s perfectionism, watch how you respond when a session doesn’t go exactly as planned. This awareness is the first layer of change. Because once you can see the pattern, you can start to interrupt it.
Your key move is to shift from judgment to curiosity. Instead of thinking, “Why do I always choke?” try asking, “What am I actually afraid of here?” That small change in language opens the door to a totally different mindset. You stop reacting, and you start learning.
This is all part of my IGNITE Method for how I coach my athletes, and I go way deeper into how to build that shift in my upcoming book, Fast & Free. But for now, don’t worry about solving everything. Just get honest, stay curious, and keep showing up. That’s how you can start to shift your mindset.
Why Understanding Your Mindset Barrier Matters
You can’t outrun what you haven’t dealt with. If you’ve got a loud inner critic, a fear of failure, or nerves that spike the week before your race, that stuff’s going to show up on race day.
But when you know what you’re up against, you’ve got a shot at doing something about it. This isn’t about fixing yourself. It’s about knowing what’s likely to show up and having a plan to handle it when it does.
Mental performance coaching isn’t just for the professionals trying to squeeze out that last 2-3 seconds per mile. It’s for everyone, and the benefits extend far beyond your road, trail, or track endeavors.
Next up in the Marathon Mindset article series: Your Competitive Identity. We’ll build your competitive identity, which is the mindset you choose to race with. Why? Because if you don’t decide who’s showing up on race day, the nerves and pressure will decide for you.
Brant Stachel is a mental performance coach, registered psychotherapist, and former professional triathlete. He has coached more than 25 athletes to international teams, including six with Olympic Trials-qualifying times. He works with endurance athletes, from high schoolers to Olympians, helping them train the mental side of performance through his IGNITE Method. Brant is the author of Fast & Free. He coaches runners through TeamRunRun.com and is a mental performance coach through CEPmindset.com.
Tapering your training leading up to a race is what many runners look forward to. But when it arrives, it can feel unnerving. We’ve gotten into the rhythm of the long run routine, speed workouts, and strength training. Suddenly doing less may seem strange. And for some of us, it comes with increased race anxiety.
But tapering is necessary to perform our best on race day. And while reducing mileage is part of it, other critical factors include sleep, nutrition, and mindset. When we prioritize all aspects of a taper, we’re more likely to reach race day feeling strong, calm, and ready.
Below, seven Team RunRun running coaches share the aspects of a training taper that runners commonly overlook, and taper tips to incorporate before your next race.
Taper weeks are for both body and mind.
A commonly overlooked aspect of race tapering is the mindset shift that occurs when an athlete transitions from a structured training routine to a period of reduced activity. Preparing for a race requires a significant time commitment, and when training becomes part of an athlete’s daily routine, it’s not unusual for them to struggle mentally with the idea that tapering is not only necessary but beneficial for both body and mind. The taper period allows for healing of minor injuries, replenishment of glycogen stores, and recovery of the skeletal and muscular systems in preparation for race day.
As a coach, I create space for my athletes to openly share any fears or frustrations they may have during the taper. It’s important to help them focus on the positives tapering provides, both physically and mentally. When assigning workouts during this time, I aim to keep athletes moving, but at a lower intensity and reduced volume to avoid fatigue while still maintaining routine. I often remind them that tapering is also an opportunity to reconnect with parts of life that may have been put on hold during intense training, whether that’s spending more time with family, prioritizing rest, or simply enjoying the mental break before race day.
Nutrition is just as important during taper as it is in peak mileage.
You’re at the point in the training where you’re hungry from the peak weeks but running less. It’s important to get the proper nutrition for recovery and fueling in the final few weeks, and also set yourself up for a successful carb load. Having a plan going into not only the peak weeks but also taper is key to making sure your body is ready to perform on race day.
Work with your coach to develop a good plan. With the extra time you have available during taper, it’s a great chance to focus on nutrition and reduce some of the taper anxiety.
When it comes to tapering, one of the biggest issues I have seen in the athletes I have coached is proper rest. Increased anxiety before race day can cause restlessness and affect sleep quality.
Proper rest during tapering is highly important. Having a consistent, balanced sleep schedule two weeks before your race can help in glycogen storage, your hormonal balances, and really help reduce anxiety.
I can’t express how important sleep is. I have really suffered during a few races due to a lack of sleep. Sleep really can change your running performance before a race.
Noah Stockton, M.S. in Kinesiology/Sports Management 4-6 years coaching experience Team RunRun Coaching Profile | Stockton Running
Adjust race-intensity workouts based on your experience level.
A commonly overlooked part of tapering is how to handle race-intensity workouts. For my first-time marathoners, I often pull back both volume and intensity earlier, about four weeks out, so their bodies have more time to absorb the training. For my more experienced or podium-focused athletes, I keep race-specific efforts in the mix until four or five days before the race, while reducing only overall volume. This keeps their legs sharp and confidence high.
The practice is simple: Adjust the intensity of taper workouts to the athlete’s experience level so they feel prepared, not depleted, on the starting line.
Your body still needs fuel as it works to recover.
As your volume decreases, you may not feel as hungry, and it can become easy to naturally eat less. While it’s important to listen to hunger cues, it’s also so important to acknowledge the role protein, carbs, and fat all play in recovering after you’ve had a high chronic workload.
To help make the process easier and a bit less mentally taxing, I work with my athletes to pick three go-to easy snacks they can have during taper that don’t require much preparation or cooking. And I always have registered dietitian info handy to pass along for folks who want more help, since I’m not a professional myself in that field!
Incorporate a mental rehearsal to prepare for race day.
One of the most overlooked keys to a successful taper isn’t physical — it’s mental rehearsal. Runners focus on mileage and rest, but few taper their minds. I have athletes rehearse the exact routines and race scenarios they’ll face, visualizing the start line nerves, the grind of mile 18, and the final push.
Why? Because it’s not just fatigue that breaks athletes. It’s being unprepared for how it feels. When you’ve already practiced your response to those moments, nothing surprises you.
Before race day, I ask athletes to spend five minutes daily on ‘mental tapering.’ Run through your cues, your plan, your why. By race morning, your legs will be rested and your mind razor-sharp.
Brant Stachel, World Athletics Level 5, Athletics Canada High Performance Coach 10+ years coaching experience Team RunRun Coaching Profile | Fast and Free Coaching and Mental Performance @fastandfreecoaching
Training does not stop at the taper. Many believe tapering is simply a time to rest. And while rest is essential, that’s not the whole picture. A proper taper still includes a few key workouts in those final weeks to keep the body sharp and the mind engaged.
I am transparent with my athletes about what tapering really means. We go over what to expect and how we approach running in the final days and weeks leading up to a race. It’s not about shutting down, it’s about fine-tuning.
Joyful running can be easily taken for granted. The miles tick off, as the sun starts to lift above the horizon, and sweat starts to build on our backs. We run freely, and begin to think about the day ahead, or perhaps set plans for many days thereafter. Idyllic scenes like this are exactly that, idyllic. Often the act of running is more a labor of love, than a weightless foray in blissful escape. And the quickest way to suck all that bliss out of the daily running ritual is to battle stubbornly through injury.
Sometime in the summer of 2016 I developed a pain on the outside of my left foot while running. Being fairly new to the sport, I didn’t start running until late 2012 and ran my first ultra in late 2013, “injury” was a word that had little meaning to me. I was lucky to survive high school sports, college intramurals, and men’s league basketball with nary an Issue. I’ve since learned I have hyper mobility in my ankles, which sounds cool, but in actuality can cause major issues further up the kinetic chain.
I told one of my running mentors, who was 20+ years older than me, this might go away after a few months. He laughed and said, “try a few years”. Little did I know. In 2017 the first signs of calcium deposits and bone growth showed up on my left heel, with the accompanying pain. In 2021, the same bump developed on my right heel. Pain was ever-present, as were stories of our favorite ultra-runners going under the knife to scrape out the wicked Haglund’s Deformity calcium build-up which is what I later learned these pump-bumps were called.
Haglund’s well known to many high-profile, and not so high-profile, runners in our sport can affect upwards of 36% of the general population (3). The deformity was first discovered by Dr. Patrick Haglund in 1927. Wearing hard-heeled shoes, and repeated bouts of friction on the elongated heel bone created by the calcium deposits can contribute to the swollen tissue and pain when exercising. In many cases the situation gets so dire that the runner feels like surgical excision of the bone spur is the only viable course of action (5).
The cruelest aspect of Haglund’s is even once surgery has been deployed, the bumps will occasionally return (5). I have read that specific biomechanics also contribute to the affliction. There is some commentary that those with long levers, high arches, and elongated second toes might be more predisposed to Haglund’s – spoiler alert – I have all three! (1)
During Hardrock in 2022, I told my pacer I might have to quit running as the pain at times was too much and zapped all joy out of running. Despite brief interludes of relief, the swelling and accompanying pain would always come roaring back. Now, not being a quitter, there was no way I was going to stop running. Although to that point, I had tried everything under the sun to alleviate the pain: massage, acupuncture, eccentric calf raises, shoes with higher drop, cutting out the heels from my shoes, inserts and orthotics, and generally ignoring the pain. Not of these remedies had lasting effects (4).
It wasn’t until the winter of 2024 when my friend, physical therapy professional and ultra-runner Guy Love introduced me to the concept of isometric holds and heavy weight bearing exercises to “load” my heel and tendons, with the intention of re-introducing strength into my lower limbs and tendons. In short: my feet, ankles, achilles, and calves (primarily the soleus) had grown weak over time, and needed to be “turned on”. We would achieve this not by stretching the achilles, which is the commonly perceived antidote, but by loading it!
Guy’s gym protocol was very intimidating at first. We started with 2-3 sets of calf raises with 135 lbs on the barbell rack. And, would follow this up with 30-45 second calf raise holds. We would perform these with straight legs, and then with bent legs to isolate the soleus. Within a few months we progressed up to 185 lbs on the barbell, and confidence was starting to return to my running stride in the mountains, and pain was generally starting to disappear on my daily runs.
In addition to the weight activity on the platform racks, we would also add in the usual suspects of runner strength routines: single leg deadlifts, single leg squats, split squats and posture reinforcing upper body work. The results from this gym work were quite astonishing and looking for confirmation bias (as one does), I found a video from the famous Squat University on YouTube focusing on the same issues with the Haglund’s and prescribing almost the same rehab routine (3)! They focused on single leg calf raises, holds and an excellent variation of combining the weighted calf raise with a wall sit, by placing a dumbbell across the knees with heels raised of course. Coach Eric Orton, of Born to Run fame, also prescribes a similar protocol involving single leg calf raises and holds (6). Where my foundation had grown weak from years of “collapsed” running, I was now introducing real strength and stability back into my running gait!
Fast forward a couple of years, I still have bumps on my heels, it still hurts like holy hell to smack my heels into a chair leg, BUT I am running pain free. Occasional pains still pop up, but those are just a reminder to get back in the gym, or find a doorjamb nearby to perform some heel raised isometric presses into. With a big slate of races on the calendar this year: Quad Rock, San Juan Solstice, and High Lonesome, I am so happy and relieved to finally be moving past the brunt of this chronic injury. I am also hoping this chronicle of scientific and anecdotal evidence will bring you some strength and relief if you have been dealing with the same nagging injury. Joy is returning to the run again, and I couldn’t be more thankful.
High carb is all the rage these days, and with good reason! High profile athletes from the roads to the trails, and at seemingly all distances are benefiting from maxing the carbs per gut ratios to previously unheard levels. 80-90 to 120 grams of carbs per hour is totally the norm now, but is it worth it? For those pushing the limits of endurance, those lofty carb intake numbers might be, but for the more middle of the pack runner — do we really need all that gas?
In a VERY crowded hydration and nutrition space, enter HYPERLYTE. With a street, skate, surf aesthetic: Hyperlyte is focused on a few basic ingredients and building a brand based on storytelling. With elite athletes Matt Daniels and Hans Troyer on the roster, the young brand only a few years old already has veteran level street cred.
So, is Hyperlyte worth the purchase price, and enough of a difference maker to bring on your next trail adventure: read on to find out!
Now what you’ve come here for, the proper Hyperlyte Liquid Performancereview:
Taste – 9/10
I forgot to bring my water bottle on the run this morning, so I just had a sip. It’s good! Hyperlyte has a very mild sweetness to it. The sweetness is not overpowering and doesn’t make your mouth all sticky and yucky over the course of many hours. I used Hyperlyte at Hardrock and several other ultras last year, and never tired of the taste. If you’ve had the famous Japanese “sports” drink Pocari Sweat before, the flavor profile is similar.
Ingredients – 8.5/10
Not much. According to the website, we got Maltodextrin, Fructose, Sodium Citrate, Potassium Chloride, and Magnesium Malate. I am only giving 8.5 out of 10, because giving all 10s is lame, and I don’t know what Magnesium Malate is, but I do know our muscles and brains need magnesium, so it must be ok. Not sure about the MaltoD to Fructose ratios, but no sick tummy for me is a win. Simple is better and Hyperlyte keeps the formula simple and straightforward. Carbs and salt, nothing extra. I must say the full 2 scoops for 400 calories, 100g of carbs and 1000mg of sodium is a bit rich for me. In one 16oz soft flask, I’ll usually roll with 1 scoop, so 200 calories, 50g of carbs and 500mg of sodium. Since I’ll usually have some other “foods” to eat especially during a race setting, I feel like I get enough from my half serving. Another thing I REALLY like is the math is simple like the ingredients. I can’t think during a race, and with HL, I don’t have to (very much).
Viscosity – 10/10
I can give ’em a ten on this one. One scoop, 16oz of water, shake and done! Almost no residue is left behind, and cleaning your soft flasks after use is also quite easy. I will say though, like most hydration powders HL is tougher to mix in REALLY cold water, so beware of that. That’s the only time I’ve had any issues. But, not a deal breaker for me, at all.
Performance – 9/10
With these product ratios, I can easily supplement with tasty bites out of a ziplock or eat what looks good at the aid station tables. Without having had a sweat test done (I’ll keep my $250), I am betting that the ~500-1000mg of sodium are more than ample for my needs. In the old days I took one 250mg sodium pill an hour, and did just fine. With Hyperlyte, I’m feeling even better, and saltier.
TL:DR from Team RunRun: BUY HYPERLYTE!
HYPERLYTE is doing things different in a space that usually looks (and tastes) the same. Plus, it’s fun to support an indie upstart brand built on the love of the trails. In the high carb craze era, HYPERLYTE stands out as an easy product to understand, use, and fit into almost any race nutrition plan. I plan to keep training and racing with Hyperlyte in 2026 and beyond
Products tested for this review: HYPERLYTE H1 (V.2)
Test Duration: 1 year
Product Highlights
Keep it simple – Sodium, Carbs, and miles of dirt (from the HL website):
3 Bests – What aspects of the race did you like the most?
Sweeping views near Arches National Park
Great aid station volunteers
Comfortable cutoff time for 50K
Not so much – Aspects of the race that didn’t do it for you
Only two photographers, both in the first 8 miles of the race.
Finish line didn’t have much going on for later finishes like the 50k or 50 miler.
Weird factor – What’s the weirdest thing about this race?
You don’t actually run in Arches National Park. The website very clearly states this when you’re registering, but just something to be aware of. It is adjacent to Arches.
Highlights of your race – What did you do well and enjoy about your race in particular?
Felt comfortable and confident all the way through. The 50k course helps to break up the distance mentally since it’s essentially two different loops.
Lessons for others – Share your pro-tips on the race to help the next runner
While this is a trail race, there’s a lot of slick rock so training on some pavement to get used to the harder surface is helpful. Train with some elevation and some hills. There are several climbs on this route.
Lessons you learned that will help you next time around
Walking uphill always takes longer than you think. So do aid station refills, especially when it’s a cupless race.
Most important course specific knowledge to know about the race
Pay attention to course marker flags and paint stripes on rocks. Sometimes it’s easy to lose the course.
Aesthetics – Is it a pretty course?
If you like wide open views and red rock, this is a lovely course! Snow covered mountains in the background too 🙂
Difficulty – Is it a tough course?
I’d say it’s moderate. Lots of slick rock, several technical climbs. My watch clocked about 3000 feet of elevation gain vs the 2200 feet advertised.
Organized and well run – Did it feel like a well-oiled machine or were they flying by the seat of their pants?
It’s pretty organized. If you’re back of the pack, there’s not much fanfare at the finish line.
Competition – Is there a strong field?
There’s always a few really fast runners at the front of the longer distances. Decent variety of pace though.
Logistics – Does it require a special handshake, registration a year in advance, hotels all booked? Give us the low down on the nuts and bolts of making the race happen.
Registration is straightforward, although some races do sell out. You have options for a 9k, half marathon, 50k, and 50 miler. Make sure you get to the start line early to get decent parking.
Aid Stations – Standard fare or anything special to know about the aid stations in terms of what’s available or when?
There are a total of 5 aid stations on the 50k course. Two of them you go through twice with the course loops. Pretty standard race snacks. Make sure you have fillable cups/water bottles.
Weather and typical race conditions
The course can be windy in sections. Plan for low 30s at the start of the race. It was about 50 degrees by the afternoon so wear layers. Usually pretty sunny.
Gear – Did you need anything special or is there anything you’d recommend for the next runner?
Poles could be helpful but not necessary. I just had a hydration vest.
Spectators – Is this a friendly course for your friends?
Start/finish line is spectator friendly and the Bar M aid station is as well. It’s across the highway from the start/finish line.
How’s the Swag?
Registration includes a shirt, hat, and a finisher medal. This year it had dinosaurs!
The Overall Score – How many stars do you give this race and do you recommend that others run it?
4/5. This was my first ultra and one I would do again. I found it manageable and at no time did I absolutely hate myself for signing up for it. If you train, it’s completely attainable and I’d definitely recommend if you’re looking to get out to the Moab area. Most of it is flat-ish which makes it a beginner friendly 50k.
Shelby Fox is a coach with Team RunRun. To learn more about her or to work with her, check out her coach profile.
This is Team RunRun’s Shamrock Run Race Info, the place for you to learn and prepare with tips and insights to run your best at this classic Portland, OR race weekend!
1. Pre-Race Zoom Call
With the Shamrock Run weekend coming up soon, we’re bringing veterans and first-timers together to ask questions, share insights and build some excitement heading into race weekend!
Average high: 54°F to 57°F (12°C to 14°C) Average low: 33°F to 41°F (1°C to 5°C)
Half Marathon Course Tips:
Miles 1-4. It’s very flat.
Miles 4-7. Gradual uphill . Climb up Terwilleger from 49 Ft elev to 340 ft elevation. 7 miles will be right around the turn around point at the top before you come down
Mile 7-8- Toughest and slowest mile of the course! You will go down hill slightly for a quarter of a mile before making a sharp turn left and then making your way up SW Capitol High .3 of a mile before making the turn to go up terwilleger hill. The uphill lasts another ½ mile until you hit mile 8. You will climb 130 ft from 7.2 to 7.5, and then get up to 500 Ft elevation at the top of the hill, right before mile 8 marker. Climbing a total of 160 ft for that short steep segment. Make sure you run through the top of the crest of the hill! Very easy to get tempted to slow down, but your legs will work through that lactic as you continue going past the crest.
Miles 8-10. You are riding along the top of Terwilleger boulevard! With the exception of 8.6 to 9 miles, this part of the course is all downhill. The bottom of the downhill is at 10.2 miles , which is at 174 Ft elevation. This is the part of the race where you should begin pushing at your goal pace or a little quicker
Mile 10 to 11.3- this stretch is from the bottom of the terwilleger hill, and making your way back south on Terwilleger. This is the last bit of the course that has a slight uphill (ALbeit, it is very gradual. 175ft elevation to 249 elevation
11.3 to finish– You will make a u Turn to go north on Naito Parkway. You will go through a car tunnel underground for a short segment but make your way back to the finish line. This is ALL downhill with a slight raise up into downtown where you can see the finish line. The finish line will seem closer than it appears! You will come back to the atmosphere in downtown by the race festival and hear a bunch of music. At this point in the morning, you will see many more people making their way downtown for their races later in the day so will get a lot of their encouragement! Gauge your effort relative to the finish line, but let it rip, have some fun and enjoy the finishing sprint!
Shamrock Run Fest 8K
START TIME: 9:00 AM
Start: SW Naito Parkway & Pine Street
Finish: SW Naito Parkway & SW Harvey Milk St
Course type: Out and BackCourse Map and Elevation Map:
Average high: 54°F to 57°F (12°C to 14°C) Average low: 33°F to 41°F (1°C to 5°C)
8k Course Tips:
This is the race that will get the most elite/sub elite athletes for the event. The 8K course is pancake flat, out and back, and the grand prize for the top male and female is your weight in beer! Yes, your weight in beer! With that being said, the start will be super hectic! A lot of people will try to get out super hard at the start, and the past few years have caused some crashes.
Starting line chaos!
THE START IS Fast! You will want to gauge your pace here right at the start. I finished my race last year in 5:32 pace, but started my first mile under 5:10 and felt pretty effortless getting out. The reasoning behind it is that there are a lot of groups of runners running the same paces together, which makes the effort feel not as strenuous. I ended up getting tired and slowing down a bit the last 3K of the race.
The course goes out approx. 3.8K, and then you make a turnaround to run approx 4.2K back to downtown.
There will be spectators very frequently throughout the entire course! It is very accessible to the downtown race festival, and a short walk to some good viewing points.
Note that the Finish Line is a few blocks further south from the starting line. When you start the race, it is about 0.4 miles to the Steel Bridge. As you are gauging your kick, you will run underneath the Steel Bridge, which is 0.5 away from the finish when you come back. Make sure to note that as you time your finishing sprint
Average high: 54°F to 57°F (12°C to 14°C) Average low: 33°F to 41°F (1°C to 5°C)
5k Course Tips:
This year there is a course change! Instead of the course going south on Naito and hitting a slight uphill until the halfway point until turning around, it begins going the opposite direction north on Naito, into the industrial district. The change makes the course profile super flat and a big PR opportunity!
The course goes out approx. 1.2 Miles before you do a 180 degree turn to come back to the downtown area. You will pass by the starting area at 2.4 miles
You will run another 6 blocks (0.3 miles approx) until you hit SW Taylor St. You will make a right on Taylor St, Run west 2 City blocks until you hit 2nd street, Make a left on 2nd street. Then Make a left on Salmon until you get back to Naito Parkway (2 blocks east). You will then make a left on Naito. That corner on Salmon and Naito will be the 3 mile mark. From there , sprint the last 200ish meters to the finish!
4. Registration, Pre-Race and Post-Race
Registration
You get a free Long Sleeve shirt courtesy of the race (Until stock runs out)
If you want to join a team, here are some of the perks that come with joining a team! First, a $4 discount on entry! If you do want to join a team, make sure that you connect with a captain, or make your own team and invite people to join you on race day! Depending on how many people you have on the team, you can earn perks such as Race packet mailed to team captain, earn extra drink ticket at the post race festival, Placement in the team village and more! Shamrock Run does have certain deadlines to get the perks.
Note- 40 team members are required to gain access into the security guarded team village. This is an awesome perk (In my opinion) to be able to gather as a team pre and post race, have a spot to place your bags you may have vs. waiting in the gear check line, and just a great spot to hang out!
Handcycle/Wheelchair athletes are able to participate in the Shamrock Run
Registration (No Perks) Deadline: March 1 (registration only—no team perks included)
You can pick up your packet at the Expo for free, or pay $20 additional at checkout to be able to pick up the day of the race.
The expo is at the Oregon Convention Center. There is ample street parking and parking within the convention center, but rates can run $10-$20 an hour depending on how long you spend at the Expo.
Race Day
Before you go, make sure to study the best parking spots around the Portland Downtown area. Parking garages will fill up early (very little on street parking, and do not recommend based on other foot traffic in the area). If you have to park further away from downtown, make sure you have enough time to get to the starting area and gear check!
It is usually very cold in the morning. Make sure you have the warm clothing you need to stay warm prior to your race
If you are dropping items off at Gear Check, make sure that you use the bag provided when you pick your packet up, and ensure that you give yourself enough time before your race to drop it off at the booth. The lines can get super long, so just make sure to keep that in mind
Post Race
Post Race Finishing Chute: Lot’s of snacks and goodies provided! Anything from bananas, protein bars, gatorade and other items!
The big attraction is the Beer Hall , which is easily noticeable by the big white tent and alcohol signages. There will be security checking ID’s and giving you a wristband confirming you are of age. There are bands playing music until early afternoon, and a lot of food vendors around to help you with refueling post race! Take advantage of the great vibes, relax, and enjoy yourself after a hard earned run, hopefully with a PR, but at the very least great times had! Make sure you have your ID, card or cash, and you are ready to roll!
5. Shamrock Run Coaching Info
At Team RunRun, we have 100s of wonderful, experienced coaches ready to help you crush your goals, regardless of your ability, budget, or lifestyle. Specifically, for Shamrock race advice, here are some coaches to start with:
Team RunRun Coach Kelsey McGill shares her experience going all in on the Tempe Burrito League 2026!! What the heck is it? What did she learn? and what did she win?!
PC: Andy Bottiglieri. 2026 Tempe Burrito League Winners Troy Croxdale and Kelsey McGill
What the heck is Tempe Burrito League?
Jamil Coury, founder of Aravaipa Running, teamed up with Connor Dyer and created Burrito League in January 2026 as a result of Chipotle not announcing the continuation of the Chipotle Challenge which occurred in January 2024 and 2025. Burrito League is a challenge where anyone can complete a specific segment by walking or running, typically from 0.2 to 0.4 miles in length, as many times as they can for the duration of the event. The Burrito League in Tempe, Arizona, was 26 days long. This particular segment is recorded as a one-way segment, which is 0.2 miles. Participants can start and stop at any time that they choose, day or night. There is no aid station as runners are encouraged to supply all their own food, hydration, etc. On January 31 at 11:59pm, the top female and male with the most completed segments would be declared the winners.
The biggest personal challenges
Some of the challenges I faced during Burrito League were both expected and unexpected. I often felt like I was simultaneously playing the game whack-a-mole (to address physical/injury needs) and chess (for strategizing against competitors). Early on, there was a big adjustment period of running entirely on bricks and concrete. As a sole trail runner for the past 15 years, this was something I’ve steered so far from. I crave the intricacies of trail running, specifically more technical trails, because of how engaging it can be and the solitude. Not only was the flat, hard surface something I strongly avoided, but I also wasn’t used to running 30-45 miles every single day (aside from 1 rest day mid-way through). I have a thru-hiking background and 8 years of running ultras, but to stack big days of running back-to-back for 26 days in a row was uncharted territory for me. There’s a lot to be said for using a run–walk interval strategy on flat courses—it reduces impact and helps preserve the legs. It still amazes me how much mileage can be covered, even just by walking alone.
On day one, I made a silly, albeit stubborn, mistake by wearing trail shoes for a 30-mile day, which led to a bout of ankle tendinitis that lingered for the next 12 days. I had to quickly pivot and buy a pair of road shoes the 2nd day with far more cushioning. Along with getting road-specific shoes, I had to manage the pain from the tendinitis and alter my form.
Another issue arose on day 6 at the end of a 45-mile day. When I squatted to pee, I felt a small twinge in my quad, which turned out to be a strained quadriceps. As a result, I was forced to walk for the next three days. Even so, I was still able to cover between 38 to 45 miles per day. Oftentimes, I would find myself catastrophizing injuries meaning the thought of “is this a stress fracture?” or “did I rupture a tendon?” or “is my quad going to heal properly?” were all circuitous thoughts that would come and go throughout the month. My goal was to stay curious about the pain and do something about it to keep moving (i.e. apply Tiger Balm pain patches, heat/ice compresses, muscle scraping, strength/mobility work, etc.). The benefit of having your vehicle as an aid station .2 miles away meant there was something you could do in real-time to address issues that arose. The action itself was powerful to refocus attention and get back on track.
Another area that proved especially challenging was keeping up with simple, everyday chores. Most days, I woke up around 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. to work for a couple of hours—writing training plans and responding to emails—before getting on segment around 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. From there, I was on segment until about 8:00 p.m. while also taking coaching calls throughout the day when walking on the segment. I took short breaks throughout the day to raise my feet (to reduce swelling and aching) and get more calories in, but the demand of getting the most time on segment each day made basic tasks like grocery shopping, doing laundry, or any other life responsibilities incredibly difficult. Thankfully, Jamil rented a studio, which gave us access to a shower and a bathroom and they also rented porta potties. That support made a huge difference. I genuinely can’t imagine attempting something like this without consistent access to a bathroom. There was also a CVS right on the segment: the most perfect aid station you could ever imagine! And yes, they had ice cream which became a 5pm daily tradition for “ice cream laps”!
The mental load required to sustain this effort was also fascinating. Each day fell into the same rhythm: waking up, checking Strava to see how many segments others had completed, doing the math to calculate the mileage gaps between us, and then getting on with the day. I felt myself constantly oscillating between the urge to push harder and the need to hold back—aware that pushing too hard could jeopardize the rest of my year and the larger goals I had set for myself prior to this quirky event. Numerous times I thought I’d found my limit as a means to preserve myself from further injury, but after giving some further thought to modify and adapt, I was able to press on.
About halfway through the event, I woke up feeling run down with a cold, sore throat, and stuffy nose. On top of that, I realized I had completely maxed out the mileage on the shoes I’d purchased just 10 days earlier. Instead of buying a new pair, I borrowed shoes, which I’d never run in before and, unfortunately, they led to shin splints. I’d never dealt with shin splints in my 20 years of running, but I knew this was something that could become serious if I didn’t properly modify my approach.
I realized early on that the friends I came to Burrito League with weren’t people I could share strategy with, as they needed to remain unbiased in order to support all participants. Because of that, I became very guarded in my planning and intentional about not disclosing my strategy to anyone. This secrecy made building friendships difficult because people would bluff about their plans to each other, but I also understood that almost everyone there wanted the same thing I did: a Cocodona 250 entry. Knowing that, I kept silent about any plans I was forming. When I decided to take a rest day halfway through the event, I didn’t tell anyone—not when I was resting, and not when I planned to return. The reason for this is you don’t want your competitors to gain a huge gap on you knowing you won’t be there at all. Keeping people in the dark as much as I could was key. After taking a rest day and some dry needling from a local PT (shoutout to Dr. Matthew Brown in Scottsdale), I felt dramatically better and incredibly grateful that the shin splints, quad strain, and tendinitis had all cleared up. I felt like a million bucks. My sinuses never fully cleared up during the rest of Burrito League and I finished the last 2 weeks with a sinus infection, but physically I felt strong and durable, and I didn’t deal with any additional injuries after that mid-way point.
By the third week, it was obvious that people were beginning to adapt to the massive mileage we had accumulated over the first two weeks. We were going against everything traditional training theory teaches—throwing out the rules just to see what we were made of and stay on the leaderboard. These were very gritty people on the segment. At the same time, the fatigue was really starting to sink in. There was a shared sense of dread heading into the final week, as many of us anticipated that big moves were coming but we were already pouring in so much from the beginning.
The Tempe Burrito League is also unique in how performative it feels. You pass your competitors hundreds of times a day, and there was far more media attention than I ever expected. Because of that, you have to work hard to maintain your composure when things feel tough—to avoid letting your competitors, as the saying goes, “smell blood in the water.” The upside of this performative aspect is how much information you gain. You’re constantly observing body language—how durable someone looks after a big day or an overnight push, how smoothly they’re moving throughout the day—and you can roughly calculate what they’re doing in relation to your own effort. It’s very different from being out on a trail race for hours with no real sense of how your competitors are feeling other than when you’re passing or being passed. That constant visibility can be very taxing, especially on hard days, like early on when I strained my quad. In those moments, I chose to stay positive, knowing there was still a lot of time left. I focused on walking, trusting that my body would recover and adapt—and thankfully, after three days, it did.
Another notable challenge was navigating the political events and tragedies unfolding in Minneapolis during Burrito League. As the final week approached, I felt deeply conflicted about continuing to participate while so much pain and injustice were happening. I wrestled with the feeling that I should be doing more to help, even though I wasn’t sure what that should look like. In the end, I chose to wear a shirt with a political message as a form of protest and committed to wearing it for the remaining days on the segment. I knew it wasn’t a grand gesture or a solution, but if I could spend hours each day running back and forth on that segment while visibly expressing my outrage and solidarity, then that was something I could do.
Expectations going into Tempe Burrito League
If someone had told me ahead of time that staying at the top of the leaderboard would require maintaining 30 to 45 miles a day, I would have passed on the opportunity without a doubt. I never expected to run at that magnitude every single day for 26 days, aside from one rest day. Before Burrito League began, I was very clear with the friends I came with that I planned to run trails at least two days a week to preserve my sanity as well as squeeze in a weekend backpacking trip on the Arizona Trail—but that plan quickly fell to the wayside. I wasn’t prepared for how fierce the competition would be. From the very beginning, it was obvious that everyone was hungry for the Cocodona ticket—and I was no exception. I felt confident at the beginning saying 10-20 miles a day would give me a comfortable spot in 1st especially with the event being shared just hours before it started, and I was very wrong about how low the mileage would be to earn that Cocodona ticket.
Burrito League was not only a showcase of gritty, determined competitors, but also a ground-breaking space for rethinking training theory. There were countless times during Burrito League that I forgot there was a Cocodona entry at stake. There was something more than that that I was curious about – “How bad do I want to go to the depths of the unknown to see what I’m really made of?” Not every day (or month) do I get the chance to visit that space within myself and what a gift it is that I get to do this.
PC: Andy Bottiglieri. Burrito Relay on last day of Burrito League
Lessons learned
As I mentioned earlier, the first two weeks served as a heavy adaptation period on the segment. I logged 212 miles the first week and 207 miles the second—both personal record weeks, and notably back-to-back. The third week climbed to 291 miles, followed by 230 miles in the fourth. In total, I ran 941 miles over the course of 26 days, a volume I had never come close to before. Again, I would not have signed up to do this if I knew I would have to put in that mileage.
What’s most surprising is that I finished the Tempe Burrito League without any lingering injuries or aches. This experience forced me to reconsider aspects of traditional training theory. High volumes of low-impact running—whether through run–walk intervals or sustained recovery and conversational pace efforts—may be able to scale far beyond what is typically prescribed, provided the athlete has the time and durability to support it. Speed work still matters, but it needs to be integrated carefully; strides and VO₂ max workouts, in particular, are not well suited for periods of extreme volume like this.
Another big takeaway from Burrito League, which I think is the most profound piece for me, is that we can still move while experiencing any emotion. Anger, sadness, outrage, fear, etc. we can still put one foot in front of the other, because why not? Sometimes emotions can be big, the storylines can feel overpowering, but what if we just take another step forward? To me, that is quite liberating to be with emotion while also still moving.
We can learn a lot about ourselves when we put ourselves in an environment that we typically avoid. We find our grit, we dig deeper than we thought we could, and that’s why I run.
How does this impact/change my thinking on big challenges looking ahead?
Once the stage was set at Tempe Burrito League for sustained, high mileage, I began to reframe the challenge as preparation for an FKT I’m planning in 2027. It became an invaluable testing ground for managing the day-to-day physical and mental demands of continuous movement—learning how to address my body’s and mental needs, problem-solving in real time, and taking care of myself independently. Not only did this opportunity allow me to test the uncharted waters I didn’t think were within reach yet, but it is making me think I’m much more capable of completing this big project than I previously thought.
Prizes won
I’m over the moon that I’ll be heading to Cocodona 250 in May this year – huge thanks to Jamil for making this possible! I’ve also received 4 pairs of shoes from Mount To Coast, some apparel from East Peak, and free Chipotle for a year!
PC: Andy Bottiglieri. Burrito League finish 12am on February 1, 2026.
Welcome! Here we share all kinds of Tokyo Marathon Info to help you have your best race on race day, and to help you prepare for the big challenge ahead. We also provide events to provide you with some firsthand knowledge as well some TRR camaraderie! Let’s go!
With the Tokyo Marathon coming up soon, we’re bringing veterans and first-timers together to ask questions, share insights and build some excitement heading into race weekend!
Date: Monday, Feb. 16, 2026 Time: 7pm EST Call Recording
RunRunners Derek Siebert and Sean Celli always rockin’ the TRR swag together!
TemperatureAverage high: 56°F (13°C) Average low: 42° F (6°C)
Tips from Coaches
“My biggest tip is to enter yourself with a very reasonable goal time. I ran almost the exact same splits for the first two 5Ks because the crowd just swept me along and I didn’t have a choice! It can really mess with your race if you start in a corral that’s too fast or too slow and get stuck with whatever pace the pack is running for the first 10K. Luckily for me it was slightly faster than I planned but I found I could maintain it and I liked getting pulled along for that far without thinking too hard about it.” Coach Janelle Branch
“READ the race packet/information sent electronically completely. You may think you can skip this information if you have run many marathons, but the Tokyo marathon has very strict guidelines that are strictly enforced. Please READ the pre race materials completely!” – Coach Heather Gutekunst
“Recommended that you train with Pocari Sweat (you can purchase on Amazon) which is the on course electrolyte support as you will not be able to bring your own fluids.” – Coach Heather Gutekunst
”I recommend staying near the start line if you are at all anxious about getting to the start line on time. The train system is very reliable but VERY intimidating if you are not familiar with it. If it is going to cause extra stress on race morning, better to stay close by.” – Coach Heather Gutekunst
”Hotels in Tokyo rarely bend the rules on late checkout. If you plan to fly home after the marathon like I did, you may find yourself looking for a shower-they do offer day passes to local gyms/locker rooms and apparently there are showers at the airport as well, but I cannot speak to these.” – Coach Heather Gutekunst
”Please respect the no trash on the course policy-there are plenty of volunteers and bins along the route to throw gels and other garbage-do not litter.” – Coach Heather Gutekunst
”The restrooms on the course are not as easy to access as other major marathon events – they are out of view for privacy, plan accordingly, follow signs!” – Coach Heather Gutekunst
4. Race Reports
Want even more intel on the Tokyo Marathon? Read some of the race reports from Team RunRun coaches:
Coach Matt Levine pushing towards the finish line.
5. Tokyo Marathon Coaching Info
At Team RunRun, we have 100s of wonderful, experienced coaches ready to help you crush your goals, regardless of your ability, budget, or lifestyle. Specifically, for Tokyo Marathon race advice, here are some coaches to start with:
Team RunRun Coach Jenn Kozak speaks to the motivations and strategies that guide us for creating running goals when finish time goals no longer apply.
2026 has begun! For the endurance athlete, this likely means strategically building out a race schedule for the year. A traditional approach might look like selecting races that speak to you, then categorizing them as goal/priority races, training/support races, or races you’re participating in just for fun (typically labeled as A, B, or C races). Your A races, or your goal races, are the events where you’ll hope to perform well and maybe even snag that elusive personal record (PR). If this is motivating for you, that’s great! But as we know, not everyone fits the same mold.
As a running coach, I see plenty of athletes who are not motivated by time-based goals, that is to say chasing a target time or setting a new PR for a given distance. Often, time-based goals can create a sense of anxiety that bleeds into not only racing, but day-to-day training. This can sap the joy out of the process, making training stressful, and is ultimately something we want to avoid. Perhaps the athletes that feel the loss of time-based running goals most acutely are the aging athletes. If you are an athlete in your 60’s, 70’s, or beyond (and are not a complete beginner), it is likely that your fastest days are behind you. The question then arises: what should my goals be? What will motivate me to continue running?
Motivations are varied and individual. Many athletes are drawn towards achievement-based goals which can provide a sense of accomplishment. Other athletes trend towards exploration and adventure. The good news is that there are a seemingly endless number of goals that you can set for yourself that are not based on finish time.
Location/Geography Based Challenges
Run a Half Marathon in Every State (or Province – Canada, or Country – Europe):
Love to travel? If you have the time and resources, then this one is for you! With the half marathon being an extremely popular race distance, it isn’t hard to see why this is one of the more popular geography based challenges could become the basis for creating running goals. With the range of climates across the US, it is likely that you’d be able to find a race somewhere, every weekend of the year. Don’t love the half? Alter the challenge to the 10k, or the 5k! Can’t commit to that level of travel? Take part in all the local races near you. There are many ways to create your own challenge in this way.
Race in a Dream Location:
If you don’t want to commit to hitting every state in the US, pick a race in a dream location! There is no better way to sight see than running through the streets/trails of somewhere new. The bonus? In a race scenario you’ll have the support and safety of the race organization, versus running through an unknown location on your own.
Coach Scott Sayler in one of the most iconic marathon locations, Paris.
Stay Local:
Often, it is comforting to stick to the roads you know. One way to mix things up is to try to run every road in your hometown. If you prefer trails, then every safe trail system in your area. Or, get competitive in a different way and nab that Local Legend!
Race Series
There are so many race series out there that it would be impossible to list them all, but a great strategy for creating running goals could revolve around an epic challenge with various stages and steps to work through. The most renowned is likely the World Marathon Majors. Athletes who run all six of the original Majors (Boston, Chicago, London, New York, Tokyo, and Berlin) will receive the coveted Abbot Six Star finishers medal. If you already have one, they will likely be introducing two more races in addition to the Sydney Marathon, and having a nine-star finishers medal as the next milestone.
The Dopey Challenge is another extremely popular event, where athletes will run a 5k, a 10k, a half marathon, and a marathon over four consecutive days, all while enjoying the magic of Disney! This experiential race series is more often than not more about the vibes, and the challenge of completing each distance, rather than worrying about the clock. The Goofy Challenge is also popular, in which runners take part in both the half marathon, and the marathon. Team RunRun coach Dafne Valle has a Dopey Challenge Guide to help you navigate this goal.
Coach Dafne Valle know all about the RunDisney!
Both the World Majors and the Dopey Challenge race series are often unattainable for the average recreational athlete. The chance of getting into the majors via lottery is quite slim, and if you do get in, expect high costs for travel and lodging. The Dopey Challenge also sells out very quickly. This doesn’t mean that challenges of these types are off the table though! A grass roots example is the P.A.C.E. (Positive Attitude Changes Everything) Trail Running Series, Quadzilla held in British Columbia, Canada. If you run four of their races, you are entered into a draw for a solo entry to the Golden Ultra (BC) or the LOWA Trail Trophy (Austrian Alps).**
There are numerous race organizations that have race series. A little digging and you’ll likely be able to find one near you that will fit your budget and your travel capacity. Not only will you get to train for something with no time pressure, you’ll be supporting a local organization!
** Quadzilla to return in 2027.
Distance-Based Challenges
Completing a “new to you” distance
As coaches, we will often encourage athletes who are aiming for their first long event to have their main goal be successful completion of the race. When creating running goals, the same strategy can apply to any “new” distance that you decide to tackle. This could be a half marathon if you’ve only ever completed a 10k, or a marathon if you’ve completed half marathons in the past. It can also extend to trying your running legs on trails, where time matters less. Perhaps even your first ultra!
Fixed-time race
This style of endurance event typically takes place on a looped course. The goal is to go as far as you can within a given amount of time (often 6, 12, or 24 hours). These inclusive events are open to all fitness levels, and athletes often can set goals based on their personal fitness level. With a looped course format, over the course of the race you can build and experience a sense of community, as you’ll be seeing the other athletes multiple times over the course of the event. You can commiserate, encourage, and flex that mental fortitude muscle along with many new friends!
Backyard style ultra marathon
We’ve all heard of Big’s Backyard Ultra (if you haven’t you should check it out). Thanks to its popularity, there are now backyard style ultras all over the world. Typically, the backyard style event will be a 4.167 mile loop (called a yard) which must be completed in 1 hour. At the start of each new hour, runners MUST begin the loop again (if you finish in 45 minutes for example, you’ll have 15 minutes to rest, recover, fuel, etc before you’re to begin again). This style of race is another example of not worrying about the finish time. The most challenging part might be getting off the lawn chair to start the next loop!
Coach Emily Keddie on another loop at the Spike Camp 12 Hour race, put on by Coach Taylor Spike. Photo: Jake-Southard-Visuals-@jakesouthardvisuals
Personal distance challenges
Turning 50 and looking for a fun way to celebrate the milestone? Why not run 50k?! Of course, these fun challenges can be tailored in any way you see fit based on your level of fitness. If 50 miles or 50k is too much, break it up into a multisport day including biking to help tick off some of that distance. There are an infinite number of ways you could build a challenge that is difficult yet doable, and of course, rewarding.
Branch Out to Other Events
Triathlon
There are so many events that can be supported by continuing to run, or alternatively, support running, so when thinking of creating running goals, think beyond just running. One of the more common forays into the multisort world might be runners moving over to endurance events such as the triathlon (swim, run, bike events). Athletes can learn or develop other aerobic sports while maintaining a focus on run fitness.
Spartan Events
Spartan is most known for its obstacle racing courses. Athletes will choose their event (Sprint, Stadion, Beast, etc.) which includes a running distance and set number of obstacles that must be crossed. For example, a Sprint Spartan includes 5k of running, combined with 20 obstacles such as an atlas carry, box jumps, a barbed wire crawl, and a fire jump, to name only a few. Spartan is also the flagship company for the Tough Mudder races (with its own version of often muddy, challenging obstacles that will really test your mental grit) and Deka races (often indoor strength and running competitions). Spartan also puts on other endurance based races, including more traditional trail races.
HYROX
The currently trending HYROX is an indoor race where athletes run 1 km, followed by a functional workout station, which is then repeated 8 times. With the surge in popularity of HYROX, it is likely that there will be a race available near you!
While Spartan and HYORX still demand a need for good aerobic fitness as they incorporate running into their challenges, strength becomes more of a focus (not a bad thing for aging athletes)!
Off the Cuff Adventures
Hut-to-hut trips
With the rise in popularity of running, and trail running in particular, there have been many different tourism based companies popping up, inviting guests on their curated running adventures all over the globe. Rogue Expeditions is a company providing multi-day running tours in unique locations such as Patagonia, Morocco, and Italy (to name a few). Runners can find packages that are tailored to their own personal fitness level, making it accessible for most recreational runners.
Runners with the know how can also build their own adventures. One popular example is completing the famous Ultra-Trail Mont Blanc (UTMB) race course of 100 miles on their own, breaking it down into a 4, or 5 day trip.
Coach Dandelion Dilluvio-Scott often heads out for long weekends on the trails to test out new gear, get off the grid and get in good training. Photo: Damien Scott.
Hiking adventures
Did your friend just invite you on a last minute backpacking trip? Have you always wanted to visit Machu Picchu? Is the Camino de Santiago a bucket list adventure? Just because you aren’t running doesn’t mean that these feats are easy! Creating running goals based on big life adventures that benefit from run fitness is a great motivator to put in the miles!
Maintaining your base aerobic fitness will allow you to jump into any adventure at the drop of a hat!
Finally, just because you aren’t training to PR in your next race, doesn’t mean you should completely give up the sport altogether. Continuing to train consistently will help maintain cardiovascular fitness which can decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes while helping to improve longevity and the overall quality of life.
What is your goal for 2026 going to be?
Photo: Jonathan McLeod
Jenn Kozak is a running coach with Team RunRun. To learn more about her or to work with her, check out her coach profile.
If you are preparing for your next marathon (Or your first ever!!!!), it may be a little daunting to remember what items you need to have for race day. It (no joke) can literally be the difference between a successful race or a run to forget. To help you get ready for the race, Team RunRun coach Chris Poole has made his Marathon Pre-Race Checklist that he shares with all his runners. This is the checklist of essential items to have ready to go so that you can have a successful race, make it out with a smile on your face, and run a brand new PR! He even links a couple of his favorite key items he uses!
Marathon Pre-Race Checklist: Morning of the Race
✅ Running Shoes: These should be the shoes that you have been training in for the entire training block! Whether it is a trusty pair of trainers, or your favorite pair of carbon plated racers, make sure that you have those ready to go! Don’t wear a brand new pair of shoes for race day. Make sure at the very least, you have a few runs in them prior to race day. Wearing brand new shoes on race day can potentially lead you to injuries.
✅ Race Bib/Safety chips: I always prefer to get my race bib and safety pins out and affixed to my racing top the night before the big day. Unless you’re planning on securing the race bib to your skin (Like this guy!), make sure you pin your race bib to your race top the night before!
✅ Running Top: I highly recommend any dri fit/moisture wicking top that is breathable and will help with wicking sweat. I always run in a sleeveless singlet, but any sleeve length of a racing top will do! I do not recommend any cotton material, as they will get heavy and retain sweat.
✅ Running Bottom: Opt for tights, shorts, or running pants that you find comfortable. Moisture wicking/dri fit clothes will serve you best! Bike Shorts or half tights/full tights are best suited for minimizing chafing.
✅ Running socks: Nothing I love more than a fresh pair of running socks before a marathon! Proper socks will help prevent blisters and feet discomfort, which can be quite troublesome in the latter parts of the race. Personally, I always have a fresh pair of these Blister Resist socks from Balega ready to go with my racing gear.
✅ Hydration/Fuel/electrolytes/ gels: This is by far one of the most important things to have ready to go. Lay out your gels and any other fuel/electrolytes next to your race gear. Make sure you have had some practice with your gels and other fuel prior to race day. The last thing you will want is to have GI discomfort due to not taking the right fuel for you. Make sure you have your water bottles (if you carry a belt or hand held) ready with your hydration of choice. I take it a step even further to pre-sort them to specific groups.
Most races will have hydration/fuel stations every 2-3 miles, so make sure to study what they will have on the course. If they have items that you regularly use , feel free to not pack those items with you for the race and pick them up at the aid stations. Otherwise, make sure you have what you need beforehand!
✅ Running Belt/pack: If you run with one, I would put it right next to your fuel and hydration before going to bed! Make sure you do a couple test runs prior to the race with your gear to test for any bouncing or potential discomfort. Make sure that it has enough space for you to store what you may need and want to carry.
✅ Hairband: You will get sweaty, make sure your hair is out of your hair if you need the help!
✅ Nip guards: This applies mainly to the male runners, but 26.2 miles will cause a lot of friction between your top and chest. Things can get bloody! Band aids will be the easiest item to buy for nip protection, but there are lightweight guards made specifically for exercise that are pretty neat and handy! These ones that I use are barely noticeable when I run!
Don’t leave home without these!
✅ Vaseline: If you chafe in certain areas, make sure to lube up and get things ready to go to prevent the uncomfortable chafing!
✅ Smart watch/Phone (Make sure it is completely charged): I don’t run with a phone, but have a Garmin ForeRunner that I record all of my runs and races with and track my pace and distance on. I have forgotten to charge my watch before a few runs and have had the battery run out before I finish said runs. Luckily, I never have had it happen during a race, but I never put it to chance and make sure to put it on the charger the night before so that it is ready to go with a full charge!
Bonus points for a cute dog on your watch face 🙂
✅ Pre Race breakfast ready: Don’t wait until the morning to figure it out. Get everything prior to the race day! Don’t do anything different. Eat the foods you usually eat for breakfast before a run. Your body is used to routine, and will look to that before the race!
✅ Rain Poncho or trash bag: I would recommend that if it is going to rain prior to or during the race, buy a cheap poncho or trash bag to wear at the start. You can then remove it when you want to in the race.
✅ Running jacket: If it is chilly, it might be good to have a breathable running jacket to have while you run. I do tend to get warm very quickly when running , so I would recommend only if you prefer to have that added warmth throughout the race!
✅ Sunglasses: If it is sunny, wear a pair of sunglasses! This will help to prevent squinting and make sure you are able to focus on the path ahead and not the sunlight in your eyes.
✅ Hat/Visor/Headband: If it is super sunny with no tree cover outside, a simple hat or visor can help keep you cool by keeping your face covered, sweat out of your eyes, and the sun off of your face!
✅ Running gloves: If it is chilly or freezing, gloves are absolutely a must have! Your hands can get cold very quickly, and can make it hard to take your gels or grab hydration from aid stations. A simple $1 pair of gloves will suffice and help you in the long run!
Post Race
✅ Recovery slides: Most recovery slides feel like cushions and pillows, and help provide relief from your feet and pressure relief on your joints. You will thank yourself for packing a pair!
Coach Chris rocking the recovery slides post-race
✅ Change of clothes: Your clothes will stink! Changing clothes will not only help you smell better, feel refreshed, it also helps you decompress after the hard day!
✅ Wet wipes/Deodorant: If you don’t have access to a shower, wet wipes will do a great job of helping you feel refreshed and clean after you finish.
✅ Foam Roller: Even though you are done with quite possibly the hardest run ever, it is still important to take recovery measures if something feels off! If anything is bugging you like a strain or a sore muscle area, rolling out the affected area can help work those kinks out, and help aid in the recovery process.
✅ Money/card/drivers license: Time to party! If you haven’t picked up any race merch, now is the time! Make sure you have your license too, as often races will have beer/alcohol refreshments post race (If you are over 21). You just finished a marathon, now it is time to celebrate!
Photo: GCC Photography
Chris is a coach with Team RunRun. To learn more about him or to work with him, check out his coach profile.
Results: 12 Hours of Mt. Pisgah laps! (1100’/ 3 miles per lap)
3 Bests – What aspects of the race did you like the most?
The community: both the intersection of people from different backgrounds and experience in running, as well as the camaraderie as you pass back and forth and cheer each other on all day. It is a unique and uplifting experience watching people get PRs in distance and elevation all throughout the day, and learning the reasons people are there.
I got to not only participate myself but also alongside some of the runners I coach, and that was very special. Having helped them prepare for this event and also be there in real life to witness and support them was awesome.
A friend and former running client brought his son (11 years old) to the event to participate. His son continued even when his dad paused his laps, on his own. He was so proud to be out there crushing it on his own. That was inspiring to see and gave me so much hope to see a kiddo out there experiencing what we all hope to experience at races.
Not so much – Aspects of the race that didn’t do it for you
Not a thing. Beautiful day.
Weird factor – What’s the weirdest thing about this race?
Up and down the same hill over and over and over? It’s become more popular and normalized to do such a thing. It’s no longer weird. A cool thing though? After 10 laps (11,000′, 31 miles) you got a bolo tie with a buckle. That was new this year and very cool. It motivated a LOT of people!
Sporting the bolo tie!
Highlights of your race – What did you do well and enjoy about your race in particular?
My throat is so sore from cheering all day long- all the whoops and whewwws and YEAHs! Being overwhelmingly positive and supportive of my fellow racers made the day even better, and I received it right back. I went in this year less competitive than last year- not competitive in fact. My goals were to get a lot of vert, be aware of my hip (I injured it last year and have been rehabbing it), and enjoy doing laps with others. Success on all goals!
Lessons for others – Share your pro-tips on the race to help the next runner
Set multiple goals for the day, that are not only related to performance but also experience! Also, make sure you eat and hydrate consistently. Pace yourself. Don’t sit down for too long!
Lessons you learned that will help you next time around
I did not stay on top of hydration during the first couple of laps- it was cold, which it usually is to start, and I struggle to hydrate enough in the cold. I could have done better at this!
Most important course specific knowledge to know about the race
The course is mostly on a packed dirt/gravel road, with sections of looser gravel and dirt trail near the top. The downhill can be hard on your joints, so be aware of that. At the summit is a bin of ducks – you grab one to bring down to the bottom with you as proof of your lap! Also, the course starts/ends at the bottom of the hill where everyone parks- so you can have your car pretty close by to use as an aid station, so you don’t need to carry too much.
Gotta prove you did the lap!
Aesthetics – Is it a pretty course?
Though on repeat all day, the views from the top are beautiful! On a clear day, snow-capped peaks are visible, and sunrise is a total moment- people hang out on top to watch it.
Difficulty – Is it a tough course?
1100′ in 1.5 miles is stout both up and down!
Organized and well run – Did it feel like a well-oiled machine or were they flying by the seat of their pants?
Very well run the two years it has taken place. Everything was dialed.
Competition – Is there a strong field?
There are always some heavy hitters who go for huge numbers- 45+ miles, over 16,000′ of vert for the podium positions. There is no winning or losing in this event though – it is what you make of it, and every lap is meaningful.
Photo: Jake-Southard-Visuals-@jakesouthardvisuals
Logistics – Does it require a special handshake, registration a year in advance, hotels all booked? Give us the low down on the nuts and bolts of making the race happen.
Registration is in advance and capped to a limited amount, and it sold out this year! Keep an eye on the Recovery Strong social media handle for information on future events; they are the main sponsor of the event.
Aid Stations – Standard fare or anything special to know about the aid stations in terms of what’s available or when?
There is a limited aid station at the start/finish, but bringing your own fuel and hydration and operating out of your car makes it really easy for this event.
Photo: Jake-Southard-Visuals-@jakesouthardvisuals
Weather and typical race conditions
The weather is typically chilly to start (20’s and 30’s), warming up throughout the day into the 40’s.
Gear – Did you need anything special or is there anything you’d recommend for the next runner?
Although I never busted mine out, poles are helpful. Don’t forget a headlamp like I did for the first 90 minutes!
Spectators – Is this a friendly course for your friends?
It’s a great course for family or friends to come out and join for a lap or two, or they can hike the numerous other trails in the park.
How’s the Swag?
Amazing. T-shirts and stickers for participants, a bolo tie and buckle for 10 laps, and winner plaques.
The Overall Score – How many stars do you give this race and do you recommend that others run it?
5 stars.
Photo: Jake-Southard-Visuals-@jakesouthardvisuals
Emily Keddie is a coach at Team RunRun. To learn more about her or to work with her, check out her coach profile.
Team RunRun Coach Dandelion tested and now shares her Norda shoe comparison. Dandelion is a coach, an adventurer, a gear expert, and an all around outdoor enthusiast – Enjoy!
Best Use: What did you use this piece of gear of most? Roads, track, trails, long runs, post-run, workouts only, racing only?
Norda
001
002
005
Lugs
5mm
5mm
4mm
Stack
Heel 26mm Forefoot 21mm
Heel 19mm Forefoot 15mm
Heel 28.5mm Forefoot 21.5mm
Drop
5mm
4mm
7.0mm
Upper
Seamless Dyneema
Seamless Dyneema
Open weave Bio-Dyneema
Outsole
Vibram Litebase Megagrip Soleplate
Vibram Litebase Megagrip Soleplate
Vibram Megagrip Elite Soleplate
Weight (US 8W)
232g
219g
177g
Price
$285 USD
$295 USD
$325 USD
Intended Use
All-round ultra/trail running workhorse shoe
Ultra/trail Running shoe designed for especially technical, scrambly terrain
Ultra lite, race day, trail super shoe for ultra and sub-ultra distances
The Norda Shoe Comparison: 001, 002, 005
Norda 001: The 001 (recently replaced by the 001A) is the shoe I reach for when I will be traveling long distance on varied terrain. I have used this shoe in the desert many times and it performs well, but it really shines in alpine settings. The high cushion prevents fatigue over long distances in the mountains on both smooth and technical trails. If the adventure happens to take me off the beaten path and into the high country, I trust the soles to adhere to rocks of all kinds, edge on technical scrambles and secure me to low angle snow slopes if needed. Beyond being an all-round adventure shoe, the 001 is also an excellent race option. I wore two pairs of 001’s during Hardrock 100 in July 2025. Having a highly durable shoe that would hold up through the rugged terrain of the San Juans while remaining comfortable over the extended distance was my highest priority and the 001 checked every box.
Norda 002: The 001 performs well on scramble missions, but the 002 truly excels on rocky, technical terrain. With a lower stack height, the 002 provides better ground “feel” which allows the athlete to mauver with confidence through granite, limestone and sandstone even in slick conditions. I reach for the 002 when I am going on a short scramble adventure (less than 50K) or longer trips that are mostly off trail in rocky, alpine environments. It is important to note that the 002 is compatible with micro-spikes, but they will not work with traditional strap on crampons. A bit surprising for a shoe meant to tackle more remote environments.
Norda 005:
This shoe is incredibly light! When I first tried them on, I was blown away by the hardly-there feather weight. The lugs are not particularly aggressive, but the shoe somehow still performs well on techy, rock covered trails and butter-smooth single track alike. I have experienced no issues with construction or durability. However, the midsole foam has been noted to become compressed and a bit hard underfoot on outings exceeding 50 miles depending on the weight of the user. To stay on the safe side, I have not utilized the 005 for runs beyond the 50-mile distance because of this reported tendency. It is an outstanding trail “super shoe” option for races. I love using it during the back half of a 100 miler when I really appreciate something light on my tired feet.
Left to Right: 001, 002 and 005
Additional Sizing Comments:
The website suggests going a half size up from your typical running shoe and I agree with this recommendation. I typically wear size 8.5W and ordered size 9W. This was absolutely the right decision. The 9W fits like an 8.5W. Nordas are made accommodate a wide foot.
Comparison to Past Models:
The 002 and 005 Norda have not upgraded any of their models aside from the available colorways. Recently the 001 was promoted to the 001A which has an upgraded midsole.
Comparison to Other Brands:
Nordas fall into the high-end material & craftmanship running shoe category. In doing a Norda shoe comparison, the most comparable brand would be Speedland. Both shoes are highly durable and created with true artistry and attention to detail. Speedland’s main differences include a Michelin outsole, ripstop mesh upper, BOA fit system, cuttable lugs, water drain and a removeable outsole. I have put many miles on my Speedland GS shoes and love the ride especially on slickrock and desert terrain. However, I believe the Nordas are superior in highly technical and rocky mountain environments especially where edging is required. I also prefer simple laces while scrambling over rocks and alpine landscapes over the BOA system. Though the BOA is excellent in a race scenario I worry that off-trail I could bang the mechanism against a rock and damage it leaving me with a shoe that cannot be tightened. Finally, Dyneema seems to better shed mud than the ripstop mesh of the Speedlands.
Left to Right: 001, 002 and 005
Durability:
Overall, all the shoe models are extremely durable. I have put over 300 miles on each model and they are still in working order with plenty of life left. My two sets of my 001s showed minimal lug wear even after traveling over highly technical terrain featuring lots of scree, talus and boulders in Hardrock 100 and the Wind River Range. However, my 002 upper collar experienced wear and holes after about 150 miles (see picture) which I found disappointing as they are the scramble specific model. So far, my 002s have not been compromised by this blemish though.
Changes for the next model:
I’d like to see some more durability added to the shoe collar of the 002. This shoe is meant to be used in highly technical/rocky terrain and I expected a bit more abrasion resistance.
002 Upper Wear
The True Test If your friend were looking for a piece of gear in this category, would you recommend they buy it and/or would you give this as a gift to that friend because you like it so much? Would there be something else you recommend they get instead because this gear doesn’t fit their needs?
After doing this Norda shoe comparison, I think these are near perfect mountain running shoes and I highly recommend them for trail runners; especially folks who regularly take on gnarly alpine routes.
Dandelion Dilluvio-Scott is a coach with Team RunRun. To learn more about her or to work with her, check out her coach profile.
3 Bests – What aspects of the race did you like the most?
I absolutely love the small town vibes and the scenery of the race. The race is set out in farming country in Turner, OR, just south of Salem. Often times in January it is either raining, sunny, or at times even snowy. This year, it was 30 degrees and sunny at the start!
Each race is very flat. The course is a very simple out and back, and the lack of turns makes it very easy to maintain your pace without having to exert additional effort.
Competition! This race is usually very competitive for the faster runners, but still has runners competing of all abilities so that you are not alone during the event.
Not so much – Aspects of the race that didn’t do it for you
My one pain point- lack of porto potties on the course. They have 2 porto potties set up approximately 2 miles in, and then at the turn around point at 6.5 miles. You hit the porto potty again at 11 miles. I had an incident where nature called, and I had to hobble a couple miles until I reached the 11 mile porto potty. That was the only part of the race that did not do it for me!
Weird factor – What’s the weirdest thing about this race?
The “Weird” factor (But in a great way!)- They serve post race baked potatoes, chili, and tortilla chips! After spending a lot of time in the cold for the half marathon, it made for an enjoyable way to refuel.
Highlights of your race – What did you do well and enjoy about your race in particular?
My personal goal was to go under 1:16. My first 5K was in 17:53, and first 10K in 36:05 which had me on pace comfortably to be able to achieve my goal time. Even after I took my nature break after 11 miles , I was able to get back and run 5:51 miles for the last 2 miles as comfortably as I could. Although I didn’t hit my goal time due to those circumstances, I came out of the race knowing that I have the capabilities to dip under 1:16 in the half marathon this year. To be in this level of fitness in January , with goal races taking place later on this year I was very happy!
Lessons for others – Share your pro-tips on the race to help the next runner
Make sure to consciously back off the first mile effort wise. It is pancake flat, and very easy to get sucked into the race day atmosphere and go out harder than you intended!
If you tend to need the bathroom frequently, and sometimes nature calls during the race no matter what, keep in mind that their are only 3 locations (2 mile, 6.5 mile, and 11 mile) for porto’s. Do what you need to do before hand to prepare!
Lessons you learned that will help you next time around
I usually have a supplement I take before races to help with my nature movements. Will make sure I don’t forget that!
Most important course specific knowledge to know about the race
No ground breaking knowledge to have for the race. Just look at the map and take mental note of where you are at in the race when you make your turns.
That can help mentally break the race down into segments, and not feel like a certain stretch goes on for ages!
Aesthetics – Is it a pretty course?
It is a GORGEOUS course! Usually sunlight is out for the race, very cold temps make the farm fields glisten with frost in the morning which was such a welcome sight while taking part of the course.
Difficulty – Is it a tough course?
Not a tough course at all, very flat and runner friendly! Wide country roads and excellent traffic control
Organized and well run – Did it feel like a well-oiled machine or were they flying by the seat of their pants?
The race is very well run! The race director this year also runs the Salem 70.3 Ironman competition each summer, so is very well organized.This is one of the oldest Half Marathons in the state of Oregon, and have kept their modest race setup over the years. Makes for a very great participant experience.
Competition – Is there a strong field?
Strong field (Albeit a couple strong runners for faster people to run with). I ran with an ON pro trail runner in the half. There are usually local run clubs that bring their elite race teams to this event. There are also plenty of people at multiple paces which help the race feel not lonely and have people to run with.
Logistics – Does it require a special handshake, registration a year in advance, hotels all booked? Give us the low down on the nuts and bolts of making the race happen.
Very easy for me to get to the race. 50 minute drive down. The race had it’s largest turnout this year (550 total participants), so if you are coming from out of town, hotels are very easy to find and usually inexpensive for this time of year
Aid Stations – Standard fare or anything special to know about the aid stations in terms of what’s available or when?
Very basic aid stations. Water, gatorade, and bananas
Weather and typical race conditions
Usually between 25-32 degrees at the start, and warms up slightly to the end.
Gear – Did you need anything special or is there anything you’d recommend for the next runner?
I would just recommend gloves, and any cold weather gear you usually would run in! I run super hot, so just wear gloves for the race. Others were bundled in tights, long sleeves, arm sleeves, and beanies. To each their own!
Spectators – Is this a friendly course for your friends?
VERY SPECTATOR FRIENDLY for those who are willing to drive to certain points to cheer. Otherwise, the course is just out and back.
How’s the Swag?
A basic dry-fit long sleeve tee. However, the artwork on it is very cool, retro looking and plays into the low cost vibe of the race
The Overall Score – How many stars do you give this race and do you recommend that others run it?
I give this a 9/10! Docking 1 point only for the lack of porto potties. Highly recommend to anyone in the area who is interested!
Chris Poole is a coach with Team RunRun. To learn more about him or to work with him, check out his coach profile.
3 Bests – What aspects of the race did you like the most?
FOOD- free cheese or chicken quesadilla and these amazing, giant brownies after you finish! there’s also a lot of snacks & fresh fruit you can garb. You do not leave feeling hungry after the race!
Recovery Zone – There’s an area where you can use compression boots, get a 5min massage or chat with a physical therapist while you stretch & foam roll. they also have coconut water to sip while you recover. This is all free to race participants
Swag – this race does not that any cuts when it comes to swag. marathon and half marathon registration includes a free Rabbit shirt. the really & 5k can purchase one. Each distance has a custom medal only for the race. An artist designs the race bibs to coordinate with the medals. there are age groups awards, custom made top finisher awards, swag bags and lots of race goodies!
Not so much – Aspects of the race that didn’t do it for you
A section of the marathon and half marathon course goes along a highway. It’s noisy and not very pretty.
Weird factor – What’s the weirdest thing about this race?
You run over two different bridges; there’s several turns to get on/off them. There are not steep but can feel like a climb and the turns can slow down your time. There is also a very short out & back on an island around a lighthouse. The lighthouse is cool but the out & back seem pointless.
Highlights of your race – What did you do well and enjoy about your race in particular?
The vibe! from the start of the race, through the aid-stations and once you finish. A lot of energy and support.
Lessons for others – Share your pro-tips on the race to help the next runner
Plan ahead with time for parking. there are several parking lots in the park but several are a farther way(or consider this a warmup & cooldown)
Bib pickup can get backed up so lots of people picking up at the same time. use this time to do some more stretching 🙂
Lessons you learned that will help you next time around
Weather can be all over the place! cold, rain or warmup sunshine. stock the weather!! pack lots of options especially if you traveling from a distance
Most important course specific knowledge to know about the race
90% of the race is on a paved trail, there are a couple sections that are along the road (the should is wide or you have a bike path). There are several turns for the marathoners(bridges), this is where people can(and have) taken wrong turns. If you running the marathon be sure to really study the course. the relay follows the same route as the marathon with 3 transition spots. This can be more crowded for the participants running through.
The half marathon is an out & back course. There is only one turn to get up on a bike path along the highway.
The 5k course is an easy out & back
The marathon is USATF certified and a Boston qualifier
Aesthetics – Is it a pretty course?
Tes, 95% of the marathon & relay course you can view the river! you run through 3 different towns(kennewick, Richland & Pasco). The course also takes you turn several pretty parks(although the can be a tad crowed).
The half marathon course is part way along the river and part way along a highway. 50/50 on the beauty of that course
The 5k is along a riverfront park
Difficulty – Is it a tough course?
There are several turns in the marathon & relay course, that you need to pay attention for. The course is very well marked with signs, lots of cones, mileage markers and markings on the pavement. If you follow the signs and course markings you shouldn’t have any problem!
Organized and well run – Did it feel like a well-oiled machine or were they flying by the seat of their pants?
YES! This race got started with a group of runners from the Tri-Cities meeting for coffee. They area not a running club just a group of people who love to run. There goal is to put on a high quality event for everyone to enjoy. The event has a race committee with over a dozen members with a variety of experiences, including Boston marathon runners, 100 miler finishers, mountain climbers, trail & road runners. Together they bring years of experience & knowledge with running and racing that is then fed into putting on an event that offers everyone a great experience. The success of this event is 100% due to there being so many talented and passionate people working year around.
Competition – Is there a strong field?
There a few semi pro runners that some to run the marathon or half marathon. No elite runners yet! There is a strong competitive flied for local runners
Logistics – Does it require a special handshake, registration a year in advance, hotels all booked? Give usthe low down on the nuts and bolts of making the race happen.
Because of permits with the city, this race has sold out! so don’t wait until the last month to register. They offer discounts with a couple hotels close by the race start/finish.
Aid Stations – Standard fare or anything special to know about the aid stations in terms of what’s available or when?
Aid Stations will be spaced 1.5 – 2.5 miles apart. They have all have water, sports drink and energy gels. The liquids are offered in pre-filled cups and then pitchers will also be available to refill bottles or bladders. Stations will have a fun theme to inspired you along the way!
Restrooms or port-a-potties are spaced no more than 4 miles apart. If they are not at an aid station, a sign will be on the side of the course pointing to their location. At every port-a-potties there are female hygiene kits.
Weather and typical race conditions
Mid-April in Kennewick, WA, generally brings pleasant, warming weather with average highs in the low 60s to low 70sF. Lows in the high 30s – 40s (it can be chilly at the start). The day usually brings warm sunshine and minimal rain, though it can still be breezy. It has been now to rain or be windy! check the weather 🙂
Gear – Did you need anything special or is there anything you’d recommend for the next runner?
Nothing too special; a good pair of road running shoes. A light jacket to start but you will want to ditch it a couple miles in.
Spectators – Is this a friendly course for your friends?
Yep, lots of places for friends, family and the cheer squad to come out!! great places are that the aid-station locals. the course is easy to access by car on the road.
How’s the Swag?
You won’t find better swag for the price you pay! Rabbit T-shirts, cozy hoodies(for sell), custom medals & awards, cool race bibs to coordinate with the medals and swag bags and with goodies!
The Overall Score – How many stars do you give this race and do you recommend that others run it?
