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Hi runners, Jessy here with newsletter #457! 🎉

Happy Monday! ​
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Here's what I have for you today:

• 🌲 For John Kelly, a two-time Barkley Marathons finisher and the 2017 outright winner, this year was different. Here's what he had to say after finishing a "Fun Run"​
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• 🏃‍♂️ What your heart rate isn’t telling you: Heart rate variability (HRV) is the next-level metric runners are using to fine-tune training, recovery, and performance.
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• 🚀 The runner's high. That euphoric feeling we're all chasing after. But is it indeed fact or fiction?
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• 👟 The Nike Pegasus Premium: The Most DIVISIVE Running Shoe of 2025?

Get ready to get faster!

Jessy Carveth
Senior News Editor

​🌲 John Kelly Reflects on Brutal 2025 Barkley ‘Fun Run’: “This One Hurt More Than My Full Finishes”​

The Barkley Marathons has never been kind, but this year? It was downright cruel.

John Kelly—one of only 20 people to have ever completed all five loops of the infamous Tennessee race—scraped through three loops in just under 40 hours to officially notch a “Fun Run” finish.

And yet, in his own words, it hurt more than either of his two most recent full five-loop completions.

🫀 What Is HRV and How to Use This Metric to Become a Better Runner​

What your heart rate isn’t telling you: Heart rate variability (HRV) is the next-level metric runners are using to fine-tune training, recovery, and performance. Learn how to track it—and why it might be the key to smarter running.

Plus, how to interpret your HRV data!​

​🚀 Is Runner’s High Real? What It Feels Like + How Long It Lasts​

If you are a runner, you may have experienced a runner’s high. That feeling of happiness, energy, or euphoria.

The intense euphoric state that occurs during a runner’s high can be difficult to explain and sometimes tough to achieve. But science is starting to give us answers.

Parkrun Organizers Rob 83-year-old Runner Of His Age Group Records

​👟 WATCH: The Nike Pegasus Premium l The Most DIVISIVE Running Shoe of 2025?​

Our shoe expert Alex Cyr was expecting to hate the newest Nike flagship shoe. At first blush, the Peg Premium seems needlessly over-engineered, and perhaps yet another case of style over substance from the swoosh. But then Alex took this super trainer to the Newton Hills on the Boston Marathon course for a tempo run. And what he experienced next blew his mind 🤯

QUICK SPRINTS

• ​How To Run Faster, Farther, Forever​
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• ​​Myths And Facts About Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
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• ​What Is The ‘Off-Season’ Really For?​