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10 RAVE RUN14 EDITOR’S LETTER14 CONTRIBUTORS16 RUNNING COMMENTARY

21 HUMAN RACE A Kenyan researcher launches a race to save local lions. PLUS: The Intersection (22) Ask Miles (24) Back Story (24) What It Takes To... (26)

PERSONAL BEST29 THE WARMUP Eight things worth

repeating again (and again).

31 TRAINING Run twice a day?! Here’s why “doubles” aren’t just for elites.

40 FUEL Need a fast, healthy, power-packed meal? Open a can of seafood.

47 MIND + BODY Social or solo? The pros and cons of running in a pack.

PLUS: Trail-running prep work. (52)

COLUMNS54 THE NEWBIE CHRONICLES How do

you get your spouse and kids to run a relay with you? Just ask them to. By Marc Parent

58 ROAD SCHOLAR Help wanted: runners to pace pent-up pooches and earn extra cash (plus lots more). By Peter Sagal

107 GEAR Run blissfully blister-free with our wear-testers’ favorite socks.

113 RACES + PLACES This St. Paddy’s race (surprise!) is a 13.1-mile party.

126 I’M A RUNNER 100 A look back at nine or so years’ worth of profiles.

ON OUR COVER

The top American at last year’s Iron- man World Champ- ionship, ANDY POTTS, 36, owns the world record for 13.1 miles within a half Ironman

(1:07:15). The Colorado Springs resident and Olympic triathlete says his key work- out is a negative-split run: “I’ll run out in 32 minutes and aim to be back in 28,” he says. “It adapts to any timeframe.” PHOTOGRAPHED exclusively for RUNNER’S WORLD by GUIDO VITTI at Root Brooklyn in New York City21

52 107

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RW0313_TOC_layout [P].indd 6 1/10/13 12:18 PM��������������

21RUNNERSWORLD.COMPhotograph by JONATHAN TORGOVNIK

The Lion Queen

ON RACE MORNING last June, Shivani Bhalla wasn’t worried about lions on the course. The sun was about to rise over the African savannah, and the nighttime predators had retired. The race director was more concerned about elephants. “You don’t want to come running around a blind corner and surprise a bull ele-phant,” she says. “He’ll charge.”

Bhalla would know. Born and raised in Nairobi, the 34-year-old Ph.D. student has spent the last 10 years stationed in Sam-buru, Kenya, with five of those at West

AFRICAN PRIDEBhalla with Samburu warriors and lion scouts, who provide security to locals.

A Kenyan researcher launches a race to raise local awareness for big-cat conservationBY JAYME MOYE

Gate Community Conservancy, where she founded Ewaso Lions (a research project dedicated to lion conservation) and created a race, Running for Lions, as a way to bring together the local Sam-buru people in support of her cause.

Lions, or the lack thereof, are a concern in Africa, where numbers have declined nearly 70 percent since 1960. The Kenya Wildlife Service predicts that lions could disappear from the country within two decades. The reduction is largely due to habitat loss and conflict with humans.

found no place else, including the reticu-lated gira!e, the beisa oryx, the Somali ostrich, and the endangered Grevy’s zebra.

Although locals aren’t runners like their famed countrymen from the Rift Valley, interest in the race grew when word spread that Bhalla doesn’t charge an entry fee and o!ers a unique prize purse: first prize is a pregnant goat, second a fe-male goat, and third a billy goat. Winners either keep the goats for food and milk or sell them for a good price in the market. “I thought I was too old to run, but I beat all the younger women in 2011,” says Pasitin Leadismo, 24, a Samburu mother. “I was so happy to win that goat.”

Warriors embraced both the event and the cause. “I like how the community came together to run for the lions; it’s a great way to educate people,” says Jeneria Lekilele, a 24-year-old Samburu warrior who placed seventh in 2011, his first race.

And it’s helped Bhalla develop stronger ties with the warriors, who are important allies to her mission. “These young men spend more time than anyone in wildlife areas, yet they were rarely involved in decision-making regarding conservation,” she says. “We are changing that.”

Bhalla expects an even bigger turnout at the 2013 event. She has changed the course to be less hilly, per request, and has moved it to an area called the Grevy’s Zebra Plains. “You’ll see hundreds of the endangered Grevy’s zebra,” she says, “and thankfully, no elephants.”

The Samburu people are pastoralists who depend on their livestock for sur-vival. So when lions hunt their cattle, sheep, and goats, the warriors (young men charged with protecting their tribe’s herds) sometimes kill the large carni-vores in retaliation.

Bhalla strives to teach the locals about wildlife ecology, the value of lions, and how to reduce livestock loss in the first place, with training sessions on building secure animal enclosures, for example. But such programs usually serve a small audience, like the warriors, and Bhalla wanted to make sure her message spread

through the entire community—includ-ing future generations.

And so the idea of a race was born. “That’s why we started it—to bring the women, warriors, elders, and kids all to-gether for the cause,” says Bhalla, who ran cross-country in secondary school and recreationally at Lancaster University in the U.K. At the inaugural event in 2010, only about 30 competitors showed. But participation doubled in 2011, and last year, 64 men raced in the 21-K and about 20 women and children did the 7-K. “People are now excited by it, talk about it, and wear their race shirts year-round,” Bhalla says.

The Samburu National Reserve, one of Kenya’s famous game parks, is better known for its wildlife than its runners. The region is home to all three big cats—lions, cheetahs, and leopards—as well as elephants and rhinos, and some species

BRING ON BOLT NFL rushing champ

Adrian Peterson wants to qualify for (and race

Usain Bolt at) the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

FREEDOM FIGHTER Paralympian Tatyana McFadden,

a Russian adoptee, delivers a petition to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., protesting

the ban on U.S. adoptions.

FAST FASHION Jamaican sprint star

Asafa Powell expands his “clothing line” to include

baby onesies and women’s underwear.

RUNNING ON “E” Following costar Hugh

Jackman’s advice, Anne Hathaway runs 45 minutes every

day on an empty stomach for her role in Les Misérables.

GOLDEN TOUCH Angelina Jolie plans to direct a film about

American Olympic distance runner and World War II POW Louie Zamperini.

40 LIONS CURRENTLY LIVE WITHIN THE EWASO NYIRO ECOSYSTEM. TO HELP PROTECT THEM, GO TO EWASOLIONS.ORG/DONATE.

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DEDICATED EFFORTRunners wear o!cial race T-shirts (and sandals); Bhalla collects data (le").

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