Brian Rock 
The Valencia Marathon has a reputation for being fast. Still, I was a surprised when I saw a headline that there were over 5,000 runners finishing sub-3:00 at this year’s race. Just how fast was this year’s Valencia Marathon? Most of my data analysis has focused on American marathons, plus the Abbott World Majors. Although … Read more
This year, there were a record number of qualifiers who applied to run the Boston Marathon. That led to a steep cutoff time of 6:51 for the 2025 race and new qualifying times for the 2026 race and beyond. A lot of people, myself included, hoped that would bring the cutoff time for future races … Read more
This week will bring my fall racing season to a close and, after a down week, I’ll be transitioning to training for the Fred Lebow Half Marathon in January. I first ran the Rutgers Big Chill back in 2014. That was the year I ran my first half marathon – in October – but my … Read more
Gels (and carbs) are all the rage these days. And for good reason. Taking fuel during a marathon is helpful. There’s plenty of scholarly and anecdotal evidence for that. But sometimes – maybe often – I find that people are hyper focused on fueling strategies and gels, and as a result when they diagnose problems … Read more
Last month, I wrote up a short analysis of both the number of women and the number of men finishing at specific fast times at the New York City Marathon. The gist of it was this: There was a huge surge in the number of women finishing under 3:00 and men finishing under 2:40. At … Read more
Today was the final race on my calendar for this year – the Rutgers Big Chill 5k. I try to run this race every year. I went to college (undergrad and grad) at Rutgers, so it’s great to be back on campus. And the timing of the race – early December – usually works out … Read more
Feature image by nakashi on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0 The World Marathon Majors certainly have one thing in common — they’re all very popular. This year saw a record number of applicants at many of the world’s largest races. Whether it’s New York City, Chicago, Boston, London, Tokyo, or Berlin — or now, Sydney — … Read more
Last week was the Ashenfelter 8k, and going into the race I was feeling a little beat up. Although I had shown some signs of life, I also had some real slow recovery days in there. Frankly, I was starting to think maybe I came back from the Chicago Marathon too quickly. Ashenfelter itself wasn’t … Read more
If you take a look at Garmin’s line of running watches, it’s easy to get confused. There are a lot of different series. By my count, there are at least 18 different series of Garmin watches currently available on their website. Some of these – like the Garmin Approach or the Garmin Descent – appeal … Read more
When the world shut down at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it sent shockwaves through the running community – is it did through the world. Although running is an activity that can be pursued alone, much of the enthusiasm and popularity around the sport is driven by large in person events. In particular, people … Read more