Category: The Aid Station

Holiday gift guides are inescapable, insufferable, and mostly useless. So instead of hawking stuff you don't need, here are eight immaterial gifts every runner should put on their wish list this season.

Building a race season is like pacing an ultra: if you go out too hard, you’ll blow up before the finish. Start conservatively. Trust the process. Give your body the recovery it needs to adapt.

After crossing the finish line of my big 100-mile race this summer, I expected pure joy. Instead, I found myself in that quiet, disorienting space that comes after a big goal—the moment when purpose fades and rest feels strange.

So if you’re stuck, plateauing, or overwhelmed, pause and ask: What was your mile one? Your mile ten? What did it take to get there? And what would it feel like to carry that same raw belief, or disbelief, into the next big thing?

One mile. Forty-eight minutes and sixteen seconds. A personal worst, possibly. A dark PR. What was I doing with my life?

Being ability agnostic means giving yourself the kind of care you’d give a Real Athlete™, because, plot twist, you are one.

When you stray from the map—geographically or otherwise—you give yourself permission to change. Sometimes the best way to move forward is to lose track of where, exactly, you are.

Every runner moves through seasons. Our columnist shares how desert running helps her refocus, stay present, and embrace the ultimate seasonal reset.

Running has been my longest, most committed relationship—outlasting flings, fizzled situationships, and even the occasional existential crisis. Is it healthy? Questionable.

What if we measured our year not in miles, medals, or virtual kudos, but in the intangible treasures of the trail?