Heya and welcome back to Five Things Running!

This last week I was basically just exhausted. I think my body realized that during summer vacation I get more sleep than usual and just decided to demand even more sleep. We’re having a cold August right now that feels a bit like early fall, which I think is ideal for running, so hopefully I get back on track (or rather trails) soon.

I did go swimming last Friday and had the whole pool for myself as apparently most people don’t enjoy going to the outdoor pool when it is 15° celsius and raining.

But my back is so much better now. Yeah for swimming, which is utterly boring.

This week I picked a nice selection of articles for you and here’s a short synopsis of what awaits you if you read on: Strava thinks dark mode is groundbreaking while its “Athlete Intelligence” still sucks, marathoners might be running their way into colon cancer, UTMB runners are torching €4,000 for the privilege of Alpine running, Sabrina Little got very deep about how running shapes your soul and a high school cross country team outdid everyone by pulling an all-nighter to pace their coach at Western States.

Here’s this week’s Five Things Running!

Strava’s CEO Has a New Way to Improve Your Workouts

The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2009 by Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey, longtime best friends and former Harvard rowing teammates. For its first 10 years, Strava enjoyed dedicated but niche popularity among serious athletes. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, people replaced indoor gyms with running, and 23 million new users downloaded Strava in 2020, according to SensorTower, a market-intelligence firm. That amounted to 120% user growth in a single year.

Over that time, though, Strava’s subscriber base grew increasingly frustrated by the app’s issues and lack of new features.

According to this article, dark mode was a huge step forward. I have never used it and I don’t get the excitement for that feature. I think it would be a great step forward if I could just disable the completely useless “Athlete Intelligence”. AI could be a really great enhancement for Strava, but not like this.

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Are Marathons and Extreme Running Linked to Colon Cancer?

So Dr. Cannon, an oncologist with Inova Schar Cancer in Fairfax, Va., launched a study, recruiting 100 marathon and ultramarathon runners aged 35 to 50 to undergo a colonoscopy.

The results were staggering. Almost half the participants had polyps, and 15 percent had advanced adenomas likely to become cancerous.

The rate of advanced adenomas was much higher than that seen among adults in their late 40s in the general population, which ranges from 4.5 percent to 6 percent, according to recent studies

This is interesting and scary at the same time.

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I'm In, But At What Cost?

If you’ve been counting, we’re now at €2,570 just to get through the races and the lottery, without counting each gel in training or your TrainingPeaks subscription.

Now you just need to hope you’re still liquid enough to pay the €530 UTMB entry fee and let’s assume another €1,000 for your hotel, race-day gear, and 7 gels.

So, as you stand on the start line waiting for Conquest of Paradise to end, you can look left and right knowing your fellow runners have each likely spent at least €4,000 just to be there.

Yikes, that’s one heck of an expensive summer vacation in the alps.

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You Are What You Love: Running Edition

Love leaves signs. In running, some of these signs are obvious — GPS watches, horrific tan lines, sneakers with the tread worn down, race event t-shirts, and bumper stickers that say 26.2. Runners are often cloaked in ways that signal an affection for the craft. Some of these signs are verbal. We talk about the things we love, sometimes to the chagrin of others. This is not unique to running. People talk about the things and people they love.

Some of these signs are internal. Again, our loves form us. Running shapes us physically and morally. This reshaping provides a testimony, or evidence, of our love.

I love how Sabrina Little puts everything into perspective.

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It Takes a Team to Run 100 Miles—Sometimes, a High School Cross Country Team

There, around 4 a.m., the Running Devils awaited. The band of high school boys were members of the cross country team at Page High School in Arizona. It’s a team the 28-year-old Navajo runner has coached since 2019.

After a few hours of sleep at the AirBnB, the boys awoke when their coach was spotted at Pointed Rocks, mile 94.3. When he finally arrived at the late hour, they cheered and prepared to run the final mile with him.

As sleep-deprived teenagers, they also had some unfiltered thoughts.

This is a wonderful manifestation of the whole running is a team-sport idea.

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Thanks to COROS for supporting this publication!

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Five Things Running: Issue #127 Aug 18 Read full story

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️