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- 🗽 It’s NYC Marathon Race Week! (Plus Our Weekly Endurance Update)
🗽 It’s NYC Marathon Race Week! (Plus Our Weekly Endurance Update)
The Rundown
October 26th, 2026
🏃 Welcome to Your Weekly Endurance Briefing
Welcome to your weekly endurance briefing, courtesy of Marathon Journal. Each Monday, we bring you the latest news, stories, race reviews, and gear insights from the world of running and endurance sports.
The energy in New York City is electric as thousands of runners, crews, and supporters descend on the five boroughs for the biggest running spectacle on earth! From packed pop-ups in SoHo to over 70 shakeout runs, panels, and pre-race cheer zones popping up across Manhattan and Brooklyn, race week is officially in full swing.
🚨 TOP BREAKING STORIES
The elite women’s field received a massive double blow just weeks out from race day. Both reigning Olympic gold medalist Sifan Hassan (illness-disrupted training block) and top American star Fiona O’Keeffe (recovering from hamstring tendon surgery) have formally withdrawn. While the early dynamics at the front shift, defending champion Hellen Obiri leads an international lineup stacked with firepower, while Jessica McClain and debutante Weini Kelati anchor a deep domestic field.
Olympic and world marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit following an adverse analytical finding for EPO from an out-of-competition sample collected in Kenya prior to her recent Sydney Marathon win. No final sanction has been imposed while the disciplinary case plays out.
🎙️ YOUR STORY, YOUR WHY
In this week's inspiring Your Story, Your Why episode, computer scientist and 46-time marathoner Jennifer Herring shares her journey living with optic atrophy—a visual impairment leaving her vision between 20/200 and 20/400. She explains how she navigates road races and crowds through a perpetual blur, reflecting on qualifying for Boston on her debut attempt and setting fast personal bests of 3:22 in NY and 3:26 in Boston.
🧠 COACHING & MENTAL PERFORMANCE
Whether it’s Strava segment chasing, public training logs, or past PRs lingering in your head, the social comparison game is a battle no runner ever truly wins. Host Letty Lundquist sits down with Charlotte-based running coach Lisa Landrum (Around the Crown 10K) to break down the psychological mechanics of social comparison. They dive into why middle and high school female athletes are dropping out of sports at twice the rate of boys—and how coaching internal metrics over external validation holds the key to reversing that trend. Plus, Coach Lisa shares her 3-step mental reset to conquer imposter syndrome, update your underlying "Why," and reclaim genuine joy on the road.
👟 SHOE & GEAR REVIEWS
Pairing a protective 36mm heel stack with supercritical Primo Foam and sticky GEKKO GRIP traction, this $150 workhorse delivers cloud-like shock absorption at just 9.9 oz. We put it through real-world road testing to see how its smooth ride handles easy recovery miles and high-volume training blocks.
Built for long trail miles, the Mount to Coast M1 pairs a JETCELL supercritical midsole with a full coverage Vibram Megagrip outsole and TUNEDFIT Dual Lacing System. Weighing 9.7 oz with a 4mm drop ($195), we tested it on wet, muddy local trails.
Keep running. Keep exploring. Keep reading Marathon Journal.
Letty Lundquist,
"The only bad run is the one that didn't happen."