Running--State of the Sport

This week’s podcast features an interview with Great Britain’s Paula Radcliffe, one of the best-known names in running for the past 30+ years. Radcliffe first gained international prominence when she won the World Jr. Cross-Country race (on a snowy day in Boston, MA) in 1992. She had a great track career, and then moved up to the marathon, where she enjoyed unparalleled success. Among her biggest...

In this week's episode of "Running: State of the Sport," Jared Ward becomes our first two-time guest on the podcast. We can't think of anyone better. Ward placed 6th in the 2016 Rio Olympic Marathon without the super shoes worn by the podium finishers. Neither he nor anyone outside Nike even knew about super shoes at the time. He soon began working with Saucony on that company&#3...

Oz Pearlman is a well-known mentalist-entertainer and a less-well-known marathon and ultramarathon runner. However, his record on the roads and trails is just about as impressive as his mindreading tricks. Pearlman, 43, has run a 2:23 marathon, a 2:25 at Boston, and finished the Western States 100, the Badwater 135, and the Spartathlon in Greece.  Recently, he was the planned entertainer at the Wh...

Amby and George go it alone to review the recent Boston and Lo ndon Marathons. And, wow, is there a lot to review: A sub-2:00 hour world record by Sebastian Sawe at London, a new course record by John Korir at Boston, and a new women-only world record at London for Tigst Assefa. And plenty of hot action beside these three brilliant performances. We get into all the details--the latest Adidas shoes...

Marty Dugard began writing for Runner's World in the late 1980s, gained more notice as the best-selling coauthor of Bill O'Reilly's "Killing" series of books--Lincoln, Kennedy, Jesus, etc--and now has returned to running with  The Long Run. It's a epic, fast-moving history of running (and especially marathon running) from roughly 1970 to Joan Benoit's victory in the 1...

In this episode of the podcast “Running: State of the Sport,” we interview American superstar Grant Fisher. Fisher is one of the greatest American distance track runners ever. He has run the fastest American times ever in the 3000, 5000, and 10,000 meters, and he won bronze medals in both the 10,000 and 5000 at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Most recently, Fisher completed his first serious road race in...

Jack Fultz is the only runner to have finished first in the Boston Marathon, and also last. In this new podcast, Fultz talks about both memorable experiences. In April, Fultz celebrates the 50th anniversary of his epic victory in the 1976 "Run For The Hoses"--the hottest race in Boston's 129 year history. He didn't run particularly fast that day, 2:20:19, but who runs fast in 90-...

Jeff Galloway, who died recently may have been the world's most influential and beloved running ambassador. In this podcast, we speak primarily with his wife, Barbara, and also with his son, Westin, and his co-coach, Chris Twiggs. Galloway was an Olympian in his competitive days, and also winner of the first Atlanta Marathon (1963) and the first Peachtree Road Race (1970). In those early days,...

In the past four years, few if any American runners have posted results better than Graham Blanks. In his last two fall seasons at Harvard, Blanks won the NCAA Div. 1 Cross-Country Championships. After graduation, he qualified for the Paris Olympics, the 2025 Tokyo World Championships, and the 2026 World XC Championships in Tallahassee. After Tallahassee, Blanks ran two strong indoor races in the...

Born in Canada and educated mostly in the United States, Brett Larner has lived and run in Japan for the last 30 years. There, he began  JapanRunningNews.blogspot.com  to help the English speaking world understand more about the whys and hows of Japanese running. There's a lot to learn. After the East African countries, Japan has long led the rest of the globe in marathon success.  For a time,...

After two wins and a second-place finish at Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN, Dakotah Popehn, then Lindwurm, burst onto the national scene with her third-place finish in the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, she finished first among USA runners with a strong 12th place. Since Paris, Popehn has gotten married and improved her marathon PR to 2:24:20. She was hoping f...

Who won? In global marathons 2025, several of the biggest races ended in near photo finishes. Here Benson Kipruto edges out Alexander Mutiso in the NYC Marathon. Kipruto became the first male marathoner to have won Boston, Chicago, and New York in his career. (Ingrid Kristiansen has achieved the Triple for females.) Other male marathon highlights: Sebastian Sawe won his second and third big marath...

Early in his career, Jeff Galloway won the first marathon he entered in 1963, won the first Peachtree Classic 10K on July 4, 1970, made the 1972 U.S. Olympic team at 10,000 meters, and ran the Houston Marathon in 2:16+. Later in his life, Galloway made much bigger contributions. For the last 40 years he has focused his attention on teaching beginning and intermediate (and injured) runners how they...

Dathan Ritzenhein has been a headliner in American distance running for more than 25 years now, ever since his sensational high school career in Rockford, Michigan. He finished 8th-1st-1st in three successive Footlocker appearances, including an epic race in 2000 against Alan Webb and Ryan Hall.  After high school, Ritzehein starred at the University of  Colorado and as a professional runner for N...

In the running  world, Nick Thompson is known for accomplishments like his 2:29:13 in the 2019 Chicago Marathon at age 44, and his outright win in last April's Lake Waramaug 50-mile in Connecticut at age 49.  In the business world, he is more known as the past editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, and the current CEO of The Atlantic, founded in 1857. He is almost certainly the fastest marathon ru...

This week we chat with Ali Feller, podcaster extraordinaire as host of the "Ali On The Run" podcast show.  Ali doesn't just talk with elite marathon and track stars. She also, somehow, hunts down running guests like Chelsea Clinton and Ellie Kemper of "The Office" TV show. Did Harry Styles just run the Berlin Marathon in under 3 hours? Yes, and Ali has already published a p...

Our latest podcast features an interview with 94-year old Dr. Ken Cooper, the father of Aerobics. In our view, he has done as much, or more, than any other individual to promote the benefits of running and other consistent exercise.  A star high-school miler in Oklahoma, Cooper ran two Boston Marathons (1962 and 1963) while a student at the Harvard School of Public Health. He improved from 3:54 in...

George and I discuss the biggest wins and most unexpected surprises of the first half of the Tokyo World Championships, then turn our attention to Jeannie Rice. By several measures, she is the world's best marathon runner. Rice is the first person known to have won her age group in all 7 World Marathon Majors. In six of those, she beat the first male in the age group. Her scores in the respect...

Ben Rosario has done a bit of everything in running, often with an entrepreneurial spirit. As a professional runner for a decade leading up to 2010, Rosario achieved a marathon PR of 2:18:55. For several years, he trained with the highly respected Hansons Brooks team in Detroit.  After that, he opened a retail running store in St. Louis, where he had grown up, and then jumped into his biggest proj...

The recent USATF National Championship Meet in Eugene was outright spectacular in all ways. It even had action off the track, as well as sensational races on the Hayward Stadium oval. More than anything else, everyone's talking about one middle-distance event already being called the "greatest of all time" by many observers. Amby and George dissect that race, from start to finish. Th...

This week at “Running: State of the Sport,” George and I decided to skip the usual interview guest so we could spend more time on some really big and important recent news. We start, of course, with the just revealed doping offense of 2:09:56 Chicago Marathon (2024) winner Ruth Chepngetich. We also discuss and analyze: Faith Kipyegon’s “Breaking4” effort; Beatrice Chebet’s new world record for 500...

In our new podcast, Rich Kenah, CEO of the Atlanta Track Club, discusses the upcoming Peachtree 10K, the Grand Slam Track series, and the trials and tribulations of hosting a U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, as Atlanta did so sensationally in 2020.  Kenah is a past Olympian at 800 meters, and a former athlete agent, who once worked with Michael Jordan, the basketball star when he wasn't organizin...

Thomas Panek is blind, a frequent marathoner, and President and CEO of Lighthouse Guild, a national nonprofit providing services to the visually impaired. Panek is the first person with vision loss to lead Lighthouse Guild. In addition to running marathons tethered to human guide runners, he has finished the New York City Half Marathon with a team of guide dogs. He is also working with Google engi...

David Roche is producer of one of the world’s most popular podcasts, “Some Work, All Play,” with his cohost and wife, Megan. He’s also a contender to win the Western States 100 Miler at the end of June. That’s a rare combination. His back story is even more amazing. A little more than a year ago, Roche was seriously injured when struck by a car while bicycling a favorite road near Boulder, CO. At...

In this episode, we chat with Alistair Cragg, coach of the highly successful Puma Elite Running team based in the Research Triangle of North Carolina. Cragg was a 3-time Irish Olympian with a lifetime best of 13:03 for 5000 meters. His wife and co-coach, Amy Hastings Cragg, represented the U.S. in the 2016 Olympic Marathon after winning the Olympic Marathon Trials that year.  In February, 2024, Pu...