Currently Unsatisfied

Hello from Sydney! Welcome back to Footprint.

🇯🇵 Happy Friday – and happy Tokyo Marathon weekend. Best of luck to everyone running on Sunday.

Jeff Galloway died this week, aged 80. He was, some argue, the most important person in the history of US distance running.

Competing at the Olympics in 1972 and setting a US national record over 10 miles, Galloway was an impressive runner in his own right. But it was his work to bring the sport to the masses which left the biggest mark.

Galloway developed dozens of speciality running stores, helped build big events like Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race, and inspired thousands to take up running via the run/walk/run method, which came to be known as “Jeffing,” or “Gallowalking.”

“He was the proselytizer or evangelist for everyday people who had no idea they could be runners,” Galloway’s former college teammate Amby Burfoot, the 1968 Boston Marathon winner and former editor of Runner’s World, told The New York Times.

A profile in the same newspaper, published last month, estimated that Galloway had run 236 marathons over the course of his life.

He had hoped to run one more. But thanks to Galloway, all across the world, many will continue to be inspired to lace up their shoes and do it themselves.

How fast should you run a marathon? Every person on a start line has their own answer to this question. A new predictive model from health data research firm Terra API is designed to help runners figure it out.

While the model is far from accurate, its developers say it underlines some key lessons for training – including how easy miles can accelerate gains, and high-intensity workouts are beneficial only in moderation.

“At a simple level, I saw my athletic ability as composed of two elements,” double Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee, a researcher at Terra API, explained. “Firstly, my ‘baseline ability’ as made up of my genetic propensity to do that activity. Secondly, my ability to adapt to a training stimulus. Think of this as the increase in fitness you get for every minute of training.

“My anecdotal experience was that I was quite poor, relatively speaking, on the first element, but seemed to relatively excel at the second.”

Molly Seidel’s first 100K went remarkably well – and she spent a fair bit of time thinking about dirt on her shoes.

Shifting from roads to trail, the Olympic marathon medalist finished the Black Canyon 100K in 8:25:13 and secured a coveted golden ticket for the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run in June.

Seidel, who remains mostly unsponsored, published an enjoyably honest review of the gear she used for the race earlier this week. Mud from the early stages of the course became “absolutely glued” to the outsole of her Nike ACG Ultraflys.

“While it was certainly annoying to feel like I was clomping around for about five miles, the internal griping distracted me for about 40 minutes which was actually lovely,” she wrote. “Hot professional tip; finding things to bitch and moan about will make your ultra pass by much quicker.”

The founder of SATISFY accused the founder of rival brand Currently Running of “ripping off” its products – and then sparked a social media frenzy by publishing their private messages.

SATISFY’s Brice Partouch attacked Currently Running, which has been selling some similar products at cheaper prices. He is not the first industry leader to make such complaints on social media.

It prompted days of online discussion about the state of running apparel, pricing, imitation and inspiration. Cole Townsend, of Running Supply, noted: “If your brand is built on a fabric anyone can buy at a factory, you have a shallow moat.”

“Every pioneer brand eventually faces the same challenge,” Seth LaReau wrote in Trail Waves. “How do you stay original when the market you created is full of brands drawing from the same inspiration?”

Brands “with the clearest value propositions will survive,” he added. “SATISFY is no exception.”

Katherine Douglas, a former design director who now runs the speciality running store Running Wylder in San Francisco, observed in this thoughtful piece how fashion trends both trickle up from the streets and down from the runways – but truly get created by momentum.

“It’s not a coincidence you suddenly see earthy neutrals across a variety of sportswear brands. One might have brought it to market sooner, but the momentum behind the moment was already building,” she wrote. “It’s unfair to accuse one brand of knocking off another when there are many, many others in the wings doing the same exact thing.”

Douglas added: “How fragile the male ego is.”

Keira D’Amato hit a speed bump. The former American record holder in the marathon and half-marathon had been due to race Boston in April, but recently had hip surgery.

“Unfortunately, spring racing is paused. Rehab season is officially in session,” D’Amato wrote on social media. “The good news? I love a build. I love the process. I love earning fitness the right way.

“And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that taking care of your body isn’t weakness, it’s longevity.”