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The European Championships are in full swing in Birmingham, with records falling and comebacks landing on the track. On the other side of the world, a Chinese runner just finished a marathon a day for more than a year and took a world record for it. All of that is waiting below, along with two new articles:
Can running slower really make you faster, and when easy miles actually pay off
What running does to your sex drive, and what the research actually says
Let’s get into it.
It sounds backwards: slow down to speed up.
This week we look at whether it actually holds up, what easy miles really do, and why they only work when paired with the right hard days. Read it before your next run.
Plenty of people believe running drains their sex drive. For nearly everyone, the opposite is closer to the truth.
Here is what the research actually shows.
Li Shuangyong broke the world record, then said he plans to keep going to 520.
He ran a marathon every single day for 372 days in a row, and on August 9 Guinness made it official in his home province of Shandong.
The 41-year-old beat the previous men’s record of 366 days, set by Brazil’s Hugo Farias in 2023. Along the way he passed through more than 300 Chinese cities, crossed all 34 of the country’s provincial regions, and logged over 15,000 kilometers, roughly 9,300 miles.
The Irishman ran 1:43.49 in Birmingham to erase a European Championship mark that had stood since 1978.
On Wednesday at the European Championships in Birmingham, Mark English won his 800m semifinal in 1:43.49, breaking Olaf Beyer’s championship record of 1:43.84 from 1978. The 33-year-old from Donegal sat third at the bell, passed in 51.36, then ran the field down on the home straight. All he needed was a top-three finish to reach the final, and the record came with it.
English has five European medals across more than a decade, but never a gold. He went into the final as the fastest European this season, with a best of 1:42.97 from London earlier this summer. This time he was chasing the medal, not the clock.
He came back from Achilles surgery after 11 months out. She had been sidelined by anaemia. Neither looked like they had been away.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen had not raced in 11 months. Achilles surgery early this year was supposed to cost him the season, and the last time out he finished tenth at the Worlds, a shadow of himself. None of it showed in Birmingham on Monday. He sat at the back of the 5000m final, found the gap with 100 meters left, and won in 13:15.29 with a 54.8-second last lap. It was his fourth straight European title in the event, part of 15 consecutive European golds across every age group and surface.
The next evening Nadia Battocletti answered her own doubts. The Italian had struggled all summer after winning world indoor gold in February, even pulling out of a Diamond League with fatigue from anaemia. In a slow, tactical race she kicked away with 250 meters to go and won in 15:37.84, her sixth European title on track, road, or cross country. She races the 10,000m next, chasing a second straight European double at the distance.
Our top picks this week:
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