Marathon Handbook

1 day ago | marathonhandbook.com | Jessy Carveth

At first glance, Brian Kipchumba’s runner-up finish at the 2025 Geneva Half Marathon seemed like a routine result in another Kenyan-dominated road race. But when he stepped onto the podium, onlookers noticed something unusual: he was wearing two different shoes, an ASICS on one foot, an Adidas on the other. Turns out, it wasn’t a bold fashion statement or a technical experiment. It was a simple matter of necessity. “I had to use them because I had no other option,” Kipchumba said after the race.

2 days ago | marathonhandbook.com | Jessy Carveth

Let’s be honest — most brand ambassador announcements are pretty predictable. You’ve got your elite athletes, your Instagram influencers, maybe a Hollywood star or two if a brand is feeling spicy. But ASICS? They just threw out the rulebook and signed a dog. Meet Felix the Samoyed: a fluffy, globe-trotting canine with a million Instagram followers and a serious love for long walks, snowy trails, and joy-inducing zoomies.

2 days ago | marathonhandbook.com | Jessy Carveth

Marathon finish times can stir up a lot of opinions, especially when people start throwing around blanket stats. So let’s start with one: 4:25:33 — that’s the median marathon finish time in the U.S. for 2024. But does that really tell us anything useful? Not really. To make sense of that number, you need to dig into who’s running those times: their age, their gender, and whether they’re racing hard or just hoping to finish. Luckily, running stats nerd Brian Rock did exactly that.

4 days ago | marathonhandbook.com | Jessy Carveth

When more than 25,000 runners flooded the streets for the 2025 BMO Vancouver Marathon, setting a new event record, the city buzzed with celebration. But the finish line didn’t mark the end of the race’s impact. Hours later, the Stanley Park Seawall, a 9.5-kilometre loop beloved by locals and designated as protected natural space, was strewn with energy gel packets, wrappers, and plastic bottles, some floating in the water, others stuck in the rocks.

4 days ago | marathonhandbook.com | Jessy Carveth

On Thursday, May 8, the Catholic Church elected its new pope: Leo XIV, formerly known as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost. He’s the first American pope in history, hailing from Chicago, and now leads 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide. Naturally, everyone started Googling his name to learn more. And that’s when things got weird — for a completely different Robert Prevost. Hat tip to Andrew Daniels at Runner’s World for finding and interviewing the real Robert Prevost.