Personal Growth / Body / Running

Running


It's raining and you can't motivate yourself to leave the house for your scheduled run. So you stay inside and dash through the Internet searching for beautiful, useful Web pages about your sport. You'll find a wealth of sites maintained by and for runners that are, frankly, low on visual pizzazz but that provide tons of information to make you a better and healthier runner and to keep you informed about organized events.

The Best

The Running Page has one thing going for it: balance. It's not pretty to look at and doesn't have as many links to other running resources as some other sites. If you poke around, though, it reveals a wealth of information. The Running Page has links to more than 20 sites, a fair-to-middling number. It features extensive lists of running clubs throughout the world and local, regional, and national running publications. Each listing includes a phone number and contact name so you can learn more about the running scene in your area or find running companions when you travel. It also lists upcoming races throughout the nation and results of recent races. This is a strength, but it's also a weakness: Site organizer Dennis Rears depends on users to submit information, and if they don't, the content decreases markedly. The Running Page is generally well organized. For example, the list of running groups is organized hierarchically by country and then by region and state. While this page won't win any beauty contests, it does provide enough information to make it invaluable to most runners.

Running and pain go together like shoes and socks. That's why serious runners should sprint to Dr. Pribut's Running Injuries Page. This new page, maintained by Washington, D.C. podiatrist Stephen Pribut, is a remarkably thorough compendium of information about running-related health and injury issues, including extensive descriptions of common injuries and how to treat them. Dr. Pribut sometimes lapses into technical jargon ("the tibialis posterior originates from the posterior medial aspect of the tibia..."), but most of the explanations can be easily understood by the rest of us. Laudably, he enumerates lots of ways to prevent injuries. Other topics include running in the heat and cold and selecting the correct running shoe.

The Rest

England's Sean Bolton's goal is to turn his new Spiridon Running Webazine into a comprehensive, international, electronic magazine about running with an emphasis on racing. Although Bolton is looking for, but hasn't yet found, corporate sponsors and is still working on Spiridon's content, yet this site is already quite promising. It's easily the most organized and prettiest running site, and its international race results, schedule of events, and track and field rankings are comprehensive. It has about a dozen links to other running pages. Keep an eye on Spiridon Running Webazine. It's not ready for prime time, but if all goes well, this could be a premiere site for runners. Promised pages include a worldwide list of training runs and profiles of leading runners.

Running On The Web is the most thorough set of links for runners: 64 at last glance. Links are organized into logical groupings, which makes this a great place to start looking for running information although it has no content of its own.

The WebRunner Home Page focuses on the running scene in the Southeastern United States, but contains links to more than 30 other sites. It is also a page with a conscience: Its Good Causes section recently featured a project for donating old running shoes to the poor in Mexico and a walk across America to raise money for a leukemia victim.

Speaking of good causes, Al Waquie United Indian Runners describes a club devoted to helping Native Americans develop sound health and fitness habits. The club is named after (and still receives leadership from) a legendary Indian runner.

The Dead Runners Society is the headquarters of a mailing list for people who like to talk about running. The page provides access to an archive of information about running issues such as training and injuries.

A link-packed page from Finland for track and field aficionados is the aptly named Track and Field Related WWW Pages. This page only has links to other sites related to organized track and field events.

The perfect site for settling bets is The Athletics Home Page. This site's sole purpose is to list national and international track and field records.

The Hash House Harriers is perhaps the most unique running organization we've ever seen. Members of this worldwide club are serious about running, but also get wild before, during, and after their exercise. This page is short on running substance, but it captures the spirit of this group.

The Yahoo Entertainment: Sports: Running Page has less than 20 links to other running sites. Still, the selection of links is good, making it a decent starting point for runners.

by David Haskin

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Internet Life Vol.1 No.1 Winter 1995