The Better of iRunFar in 2024 – iRunFar

It’s virtually 2025! As path working, mountain working, and ultrarunning develop and evolve, we at iRunFar evolve alongside and regularly discover new methods to serve you, our readers. As we shut out 2024, we take a second to mirror on this 12 months for iRunFar.

This 12 months, we had been honored to step into the position of media accomplice with the World Mountain Working Affiliation. We used the chance to delve extra deeply into mountain working by way of information tales, in-person race protection, and athlete profiles.

The 12 months 2024 was one other massive 12 months for our ever-evolving workforce. After stepping again as Editor-in-Chief simply final 12 months, our Founding Editor Bryon Powell stepped again as much as the plate, alongside editor and author Eszter Horanyi, to cowl the Managing Editor position throughout my maternity go away from March by way of July. Bryon continues to guide our workforce of drugs reviewers, making certain we keep on prime of all the newest improvements within the sport. Meghan Hicks, now in her second 12 months as Editor-in-Chief, has steered our ship all through this busy 12 months.

Below the management of Nathan Allen, who has turn out to be a significant workforce member since his appointment final 12 months, our purchaser’s information division has continued to develop and be your go-to for any gear questions.

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

As at all times, we thanks, our readers, for being with us by way of one other 12 months; with out you, there could be no iRunFar.

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

Learn on for a couple of highlights from iRunFar in 2024, and tell us within the feedback part what your standout iRunFar picks are for the 12 months.

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

iRunFar in 2024, by Numbers

Right here’s what our 12 months appears like in numbers:

• This 12 months, iRunFar was a 57-person workforce.
• In 2024, we produced 512 articles and 61 movies to tell and entertain you.
• We did in-person protection at 4 occasions this 12 months — the Western States 100, Hardrock 100, UTMB, and Mountain Working World Cup Finals.

Schooling

Schooling is on the coronary heart of iRunFar. We imagine an outfitted runner will benefit from the sport extra, and we endeavor to create articles that will help you prepare, plan in your subsequent race, get well that niggle, and extra.

• This 12 months, our Working the Numbers column noticed some modifications with the appointment of Zander Chase as co-columnist alongside Mallory Richard. The 2 have labored collectively very cohesively, and it’s been nice to have two contrasting voices within the column. This 12 months, readers loved Zander’s article Quick, Sooner, Quickest: Decoding the Information Behind Appalachian Path FKTs, and Mallory’s A Information-Pushed Environmental Scan of the Path and Extremely Teaching Trade.
• A standalone article from our common contributor Eryn Barber, Three Plyometric Workouts for Endurance Runners, proved in style with our readers.
• This 12 months, we completed republishing the perfect of Ian Torrence’s teaching articles. His article, Working Periodization: It Isn’t Rocket Science, was notably effectively acquired.
• Coach and professional runner Gabe Joyes joined the iRunFar workforce this 12 months, bringing his data and wit to the Ask Gabe column. You all actually loved his article about power coaching, working meals, and extra.
• Joe Uhan’s Keep the Course column continues to be a beneficial useful resource for damage prevention and administration. This 12 months, lots of you appreciated how he addressed a standard downside in Tight Hamstrings? Strive This Three-Dimensional Thigh Mobilization!
• Adrian Stott continues to be our go-to for street and monitor ultrarunning experience. Not too long ago, lots of you loved his article A Transient Historical past of the IAU 100k World Championships, which we revealed days earlier than the 2024 championships.
• Justin Mock begins the week proper together with his common This Week in Working column, which is part of lots of our readers’ Monday morning rituals. Justin brings us a superb mixture of outcomes from the largest extremely, path, and mountain races, some smaller grassroots occasions, and the odd standout outcome by path runners on the street and monitor.
• We had been honored to work with scientists and writers Johanna Ohm and Brady Burgess on their article Investigation: Lab Assessments Affirm Spring Power Misrepresents Carbs and Energy, 7 Different Manufacturers Have Correct Labels, which added knowledge to the group dialog of holding the corporate Spring Power accountable to its misrepresentation of the dietary content material of a few of their merchandise.
• Exterior our onsite race protection, we often publish outcomes articles from the game’s best races, like our articles from Sierre-Zinal, the Comrades Marathon, Transgrancanaria, and the Black Canyon 100k.

Inspiration

Inspiration is massively vital in working. It could actually inspire us to maintain going when issues get robust and assist us discover our why. This 12 months, as at all times, we revealed a number of inspirational content material on iRunFar. Listed here are a few of the greatest bits.

• Sabrina Little’s considerate column The Examined Run affords a unique perspective on running-related issues. Her article A Case Towards Supershoes generated a number of curiosity and debate, with sturdy opinions in favor of and in opposition to her argument that supershoes have been detrimental to working.
• This 12 months, our long-standing author Hannah Inexperienced started a brand new column, The Artwork of Working, the place she interviews varied artists and runners. To this point, she has profiled artists of many various genres, and readers notably loved her interview with photographer Mike Thurk.

• Bryon Powell has continued his month-to-month column the place he retains us updated with what’s occurring in his working and life. His article, In Reward of (Ultrarunning) Expertise, resonated with many, and celebrated the advantages of a few years of expertise, which may counteract the consequences of growing older.
• AJW’s Taproom continues into its thirteenth 12 months, and thru his collection of articles on working and growing older, lifelong runner Andy Jones-Wilkins affords his perspective and recommendation on issues affecting older runners. Many discovered his article The Artwork of Strolling helpful.
• By means of his month-to-month column, runner Zach Miller affords us pearls of knowledge gained by way of his years of expertise on the prime finish of the game, by way of all its highs and lows. One vital message he had for us this 12 months was delivered by way of his article Digging Holes and Stopping Trains: The Want For Common Restoration Throughout Coaching.
• Whereas street and mountain runner Rebecca Cheptegei’s passing was an pointless tragedy, we’re so grateful to have the ability to publish a shifting poem in her honor, penned by Angie Funtanilla.

Interviews and Profiles

• Late this 12 months, Morgan Tilton handed on the authorship of the WeRunFar column to Eszter Horanyi. We’re grateful to Morgan for her wonderful writing by way of the years, and for shining the highlight on folks within the sport who maybe don’t get all the popularity they deserve. Your favourite WeRunFar articles this 12 months had been ‘Ladies Are Not Small Males:’ Dr. Stacy Sims and the Ladies’s Endurance Sports activities Revolution and a profile of William Barkan, the primary legally blind runner to cowl the Western States 100 course, which he did in 2024.
• I’ve continued my column The Lengthy Sport, which profiles runners on the prime of the game, which Bryon Powell and Eszter Horanyi co-authored throughout my maternity go away. This 12 months, we aimed to broaden our protection of mountain working, and as a part of that, I interviewed Kenyan mountain runner Philemon Kiriago and gained an enchanting perception into his coaching and mentality. Bryon Powell and Eszter Horanyi’s profile of Spanish path runner Manuel Merillas was additionally a fantastic learn.
• Bryon Powell’s post-race interview with Ludovic Pommeret after his course-record-setting win on the 2024 Hardrock 100, simply days earlier than his forty ninth birthday, impressed many.
• Katie Schide had a stellar 12 months in 2024, profitable each the Western States 100 and UTMB — setting a course report on the latter — and Meghan Hicks was there to interview her post-race for each.
• One of many standout ultrarunning outcomes of 2024 needs to be Courtney Olsen’s 50-mile world report. I had the privilege of interviewing her within the days after, and located that she is as humorous as she is quick!
• This 12 months on the Western States 100, iRunFar had a shock visitor interviewer, within the type of former girls’s course report holder Ellie Greenwood. A revered identify in Western States 100 historical past, Ellie’s presence behind the mic actually added some nuance to the interviews, and even left 2023 and 2024 third-place lady Eszter Csillag a bit of star-struck!

Images

Significantly with so lots of the races we cowl going down in breathtaking places, you may’t inform the story with phrases alone! Showcasing wonderful pictures can be an enormous a part of what we do. Listed here are a few of the photograph highlights of 2024.

Reminiscences

Lastly, our workforce shares a few of their favourite reminiscences of 2024.

Justin Mock

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

Eszter Horanyi

Whereas this was a 12 months the place I acquired to play many roles for iRunFar, starting from gear editor to freelance author to photographer, the spotlight was attending to pose as part-time interim Managing Editor whereas Sarah Brady went on maternity go away for 5 months. I’d go as far as to name it a profession spotlight, after effectively over a decade of enjoying with phrases for a dwelling. Working with such an incredible group of authors and iRunFar workforce members was nothing wanting an incredible privilege, and I really feel like my data of all issues writing, modifying, and working elevated 10-fold. And if there’s one factor that’s sure, I’ll by no means misspell Kilian or Salomon once more!

Bryon Powell

My post-Hardrock 100 interviews had been my straight work-related spotlight of the 12 months. I loved all of them, however notably chatting with Ludovic Pommeret and Jason Schlarb about growing older and working, as they’re barely older than and the identical age as me, respectively. Even a decade in the past, I’d seen girls like Meghan Canfield and others working on the prime of their sport of their late 40s and early 50s, however it’s been inspiring to see a couple of males in the identical age vary excel extra not too long ago. It helps me preserve my very own growing older course of — and what it would appear like — in perspective.

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

Meghan Hicks

I’ve a few core reminiscences from iRunFar this previous 12 months. The primary was changing into a media accomplice to the World Mountain Working Affiliation, which governs mountain working and is a part of World Athletics, working’s international federation. iRunFar believes strongly within the significance of federation-level sports activities administration as a prong of a sport’s strategic improvement. We imagine in utilizing iRunFar to assist advance the storytelling of federation-administered elements of the game, which is why I’m excited that our publication entered into this partnership.

My second core reminiscence from 2024 is that, for a second time, the iRunFar workforce volunteered to assist placed on the Snowman Race in Bhutan. The Snowman Race takes place in Bhutan, one of many globe’s few carbon-negative nations, and travels by way of the excessive Himalayas, a mountain vary whose landscapes and peoples are among the many most impacted by local weather change. As well as, the game of working is nascent in Bhutan, a rustic most actually stuffed with potential world-class athletes. The objectives of the Snowman Race are multi-fold: to share the story of a carbon-negative nation, to elucidate how local weather change unfairly impacts the nation’s landscapes and folks, and to attach Bhutan with the working world itself. iRunFar believes that working must be used to assist progress different important elements of humanity. For over a decade, the iRunFar workforce has volunteered its platform, workforce, and assets to raise folks, locations, and tales much less represented within the working group. I’m so happy that one in all iRunFar’s volunteerism focal factors this 12 months was this one.

Sarah Brady

For concern he’ll discover and browse this text in years to come back, I can’t level to something apart from the delivery of my son, Max, as my spotlight of 2024.

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

In my working this 12 months, I wished a purpose to get me shifting once more postpartum, however I knew it will be arduous to seek out the time to drive out to the mountains, so I signed up for the Dublin Marathon on the finish of October. Street working is way from my consolation zone, however immersing myself in a unique form of problem was good, and I even got here away with a brand new private greatest!

Name for Feedback

• What was your favourite iRunFar content material this 12 months?
• What was the spotlight of your 2024?