Runner's World January 2014

LOCATION Ketchum, Idaho PHOTOGRAPH BY Jordan Siemens RUNNER Cari Siemens THE EXPERIENCE As part of the Wood River Trail System, this bridge on the Warm Springs Pathway connects runners with more than 20 miles of paved (and often snow-covered) routes through this energetic central Idaho ski town. “The cold weather doesn’t keep people—runners, cross-country skiers, and snowshoers—from getting out and enjoying the day,” Cari says. FOR DIRECTIONS, RESOURCE INFORMATION, AND DOWNLOADABLE WALLPAPER IMAGES, VISIT RUNNERSWORLD.COM/RAVERUN.…

WHY DO I DO THIS, AGAIN? That question came to me as I started walking for the third time in the final miles of the Marine Corps Marathon in October. It wasn’t rhetorical. I wasn’t being sly. I really meant it. Every muscle group in my lower body was either locking up or in serious pain (or both). It was mathematically impossible for me to hit the 3:24 I’d been training to run for four months. A 3:24 would qualify me for Boston, a goal I’ve been chasing for a decade. That also happens to be my PR, which I’d set nearly seven years earlier. To run a new PR at age 46, well, I knew everything would need to be close to perfect. As Tolstoy warned, “If you look…

GLOBE TROTTERS “Running the World: Budapest” (November) is easily my favorite article I’ve read in Runner’s World! I’ve always loved to travel, and after college I hope to get a journalism job that requires it. Over the past few years, running has become equally important to me, and that article has challenged me to add running to my future traveling plans. Maybe one day I’ll be able to write about how I ran the world! —ASHLEY PANCOAST, Florida On a trip this summer, I was pleased to find an outstanding running trail at Margaret Island in Budapest and that I could run safely along the Danube River in Vienna. There is an awesome bike trail all the way along the Danube, then the Main River, then the Rhine River all the…

NICK WELDON In “Mavericks” (page 66), Weldon, RW’s associate editor, reports on a low-budget, smallcollege team that puts the spendthrift ways of big-time NCAA sports to shame. As Weldon, a 2010 graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, says: “College sports have a far grander purpose than to try to make money.” REED YOUNG Young, who specializes in environmental portraiture, shot Olympian Nick Symmonds for “Heroes” (page 58) in Mexico. “I enjoy photographing people where they’re most comfortable,” Young says. “Every winter Nick spends a few months there to train. I wanted it to feature the beautiful terrain that’s part of his life.”…

THE SUN IS JUST STARTING to turn the Colorado foothills pink as they arrive—the mom hoping to turn around a family history of poor health, the recently naturalized American citizen who wants to show her daughters what determination looks like, the empty-nester seeking reinvention—for the start of their sixmile run. “Are we ready to do this?” asks Andrew Johnston, displaying startling cheerfulness for a chilly Saturday morning. “Just think of it as out three miles and then back to your car.” This mismatched crew of 11 is not your typical marathon-training group: They are classmates earning college credit in business via Change Through Challenge, a program now in its third semester at Red Rocks Community College outside Denver. For 21 weeks, students, many of whom have never run before, meet…

Where running and culture collide #26.2HURTS After running a 5:41 at the NYC Marathon, Pamela Anderson tweets a pic of herself lying in a bed with her bib number over her face, bags of ice on her legs, and the caption, “Ouch!” SUPER NOVA In a segment of NOVA’s series Making Stuff: Faster, host David Pogue (below left) pulls up Runner’s World on his smartphone, presumably for advice, before racing a competitive sprinter. WIZ TO WHIZ Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is cast to play Sebastian Coe (above left) in a film about the British Olympic gold medalist’s rivalry with distance runner Steve Ovett. HOME RUN During their celebratory parade, Boston Red Sox players place their World Series trophy on the finish line of the Boston Marathon and drape it…