Hello! Welcome back to Footprint.
🌸 I’m headed to DC for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler this weekend. Best of luck to everyone running – and everyone tapering down for bigger spring races on the horizon.
1⃣ 0⃣ days until the 130th Boston Marathon 🦄
1⃣ 6⃣ days until the 2026 London Marathon 🇬🇧
EDITION #41
💭 REFLECTIONS
Making the dream work
British ultra athlete Imogen Boddy won The Speed Project endurance race – and set a new solo women’s record.
Running from LA to Las Vegas, she covered more than 300 miles in 77 hours, 54 minutes last week. It was her first time running in the US.
Since finishing, Boddy, 26, has talked about grappling with sleep deprivation – sleeping once for 90 minutes, and again for 60 minutes, with “a few” cat naps along the way – and using ice lollies to beat the heat.
While setting a new solo course record is an extraordinary feat, last weekend she also paid tribute to the team that accompanied her.
“Crewing is a sport in itself,” Boddy wrote on Instagram: “staying calm under pressure, keeping the energy high, problem solving on the fly, running on little sleep, and always knowing exactly what’s needed in the moment.”
😮💨 TRAINING
Boston countdown continues…
Boston Athletic Association
Recovery is hard. Several elite athletes have withdrawn from the Boston Marathon in recent weeks, including Gabi Rooker, who has been working her way back from surgery in December.
“My mindset has been to stay curious and concentrate on making improvements everyday,” Rooker wrote on social media. “For the most part, I was able to stick to that focus. But when I got back to racing last weekend, I realized I just need more time for my body to be ready for 26.2.”
US men’s record holder Conner Mantz also withdrew. His training partner Clayton Young, who is due to race in Boston later this month, has grappled with his own injury struggles.
“Sometimes fitness doesn’t matter,” Young, 32, said in a video posted last month. “It just matters how gritty you are, and like, how well you can mentally navigate all of the variables that come with racing.
“So while I might not be in the fittest shape of my career, I might be the most prepared mentally, because I've just been through so much from an injury standpoint.”
📚 READING LIST
Three pieces that are worth your time:
❤️ Marathon Spectating Was His Passion for 5 Majors. Now She’s Running the Sixth in His Memory | This beautiful Runners World story by Sarah Lorge Butler stopped me in my tracks. Omaris Valencia is running Boston this month for her late husband Joe Markisz, and on the cusp of raising $39,000 ($1,000 for each year of his life) for Project Purple, an organization trying to raise awareness and funds for critical pancreatic cancer research.
⏰ Do What You Can Do | Each of our lives, and schedules, are unique, Terrell Johnson writes, so our running will be, too.
🏙️ How to Run in a New City, And Why You Should | Mike Hahn wrote this lovely dispatch after some recent runs around New Orleans, with some great tips. It made me want to get out and explore.
🏁 RACING
Richardson rockets ahead
US sprint star Sha’Carri Richardson, one of the fastest women of all time, headed to Australia for this week’s 144th edition of the annual 120m Stawell Gift grass race.
She was understandably given the largest handicap in the field, starting a full 10 meters behind the leader. It didn’t matter.
Richardson, 26, overcame the disadvantage to win the race in a record 13.08 seconds, Harry Poole reports for BBC Sport.
🌟 AND…
We’re not all Olympic track sensations. How would you even know where to start? It’s in the stars, apparently.
Outside magazine consulted Jalisa Danielle, an astrologer and personal trainer, on which sun sign aligns with different track events.
I’m off to go and practice my hurdling.