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May 7, 2016
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M&B News
Finish Line for M&B
As you all know by now, the November/December 2015 issue of M&B is the last one we will publish. We have been completely overwhelmed by calls, letters, emails, and Facebook posts from you guys telling us how sad you are about this news. We are sad, too. Many have written to say they feel like a "friend has died." It's clear you all feel like you belong to the M&B "family."
If only we could bottle up the passion you've expressed in these notes and multiply it by 1,000, we'd have enough subscribers for eternity.
Here are answers to some common questions we've received:
- Is the website shutting down? NO, the website will be up and running so come visit it often.
- Can I still buy back issues? Yes, and there's a SALE on currently, so shop away. Back issues orders have been coming in at a crazy pace the past few weeks.
- Will the M&B office in Champaign close? Yes, but you can always reach Jan at 217/369-8553 for help with any M&B issue after the end of this year. We will shut off the regular M&B phone by the end of December.
- Will the digital issue archives remain up? Yes, for the time being. If you have a digital subscription, you might want to log on to our digital site and download PDFs of each of the 29 digital issues we've published since March of 2011. Contact us if you have trouble figuring out how to do this.
- What's next for Jan and Rich? Read about that in this newsletter!
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Between the Lines: My Most Unforgettable Marathon--The Self Transcendence Marathon
In the Nov/Dec issue of M&B, Mike Brooks recounts his experience at the 10-day Sri-Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 10-Day Ultra in our column "My Most Unforgettable Marathon." Below you will find an M&B reader's account of the Self-Transcendence Marathon, also held in New York and inspired by Sri Chinmoy. Pick up a copy of this month's M&B to read Mike's article and visit the Sri Chimnoy Race Website for more info about the races.
August 25, 2015. Two weeks ago the weather channel predicted 88 degrees with high humidity for this marathon day. Every single day I kept on checking it to see if there was a pleasant surprise in store for us--there was no such luck. In fact, the temperature went up to 92 degrees and we felt out of breath from the beginning of the nine three-mile loops around Rockland Lake. Why did we do it? Some of the almost 300 participants whom I interviewed simply said "for the experience."
The Self Transcendence Marathon is put together by the Sri Chinmoy followers. Sri Chinmoy was a religious leader who believed that the body and the mind can reach greatest accomplishments if we push ourselves beyond our limits. The first part of this quest started on my way to the start at Rockland Lake.
Shortly after 3:00 a.m. a severe thunderstorm woke me up. I had an early breakfast, said my morning Buddhist prayers and headed out with an umbrella in my hands. We live in Warwick, New York, and for the first 30 minutes I had to go over steep mountains on a winding, narrow road. Thunder and dense fog reduced my visibility to a few meters and affected the driving conditions. Luckily, it was 4:30 a.m. and my destination was only 50 minutes away, so I had plenty of time to be there before the 7:00 a.m. start. While the wipers cleared the window, and the radio diffused my tension, I kept on checking the temperature and noticed that it was almost 80 degrees. However, I was surprised to see that it had not rained in Rockland County, which at least meant I would not have to pick up my bib number in the middle of a storm. Thick clouds covered the sky. Several buses arrived, and one by one the international runners inundated the parking lot and started walking towards the tents. I followed them and began to prepare myself mentally to run.
The setting was serene--the red sun appeared behind the forest, a flock of white ducks swam over the lake and I couldn't stop watching them. There was no "Star Spangled Banner" on the speakers, no "Rocky," no "Born to Run," no "New York, New York," no "Chariots of Fire." The MC gave the final instructions and invited runners to pray freely if we wished, and the race began. The morning walkers and cyclists moved to the sides to greet us. Runners seemed festive despite the forecast. At times, we ran under the shade, and at times we had the option to run on dirt or stay on the bike path. It did not take long before we got to the first water station. When we completed the first lap, we knew the supporting team was well organized, and the well-coordinated race was moving along smoothly. Several volunteers were running in the opposite direction to encourage us with their kind words and smiles. We encountered several women chanting motivational verses while playing accordions and guitars. We were told that someone with an official T-shirt would escort us to the finish line in case we lost track of our laps. However, we knew the finish line was still far away, even though we saw it every time we looped around the Lake.
We saw the crowd, consisting of men, women, and children coming from over 30 countries. They sat on benches and cheered and clapped every time they saw us passing by. More than once, I wished it was the end, but my watch indicated otherwise--I still had a long way to go. The heat continued rising and my speed dramatically decreased to periodic walks. At one point I noticed there was a short Hispanic Marathon Maniac pushing herself. When I walked, she passed me; when I ran, I passed her. We probably saw each other 50 times. She never walked. She always ran consistently at her own pace and I admired her strength to beat the heat. Of course, the leading groups were lapping us, running past effortlessly. The MC had told us earlier to hurry up, as they had a limited amount of food and it would be served on a first-come, first-serve basis. We laughed.
Later on, a vehicle arrived with trays of food and by 10:00 am
we could see the first finishers happily resting and eating their vegetarian meals under the trees. I still had three laps to go. Most of us were taking walking breaks. If there was a video of the race on YouTube, you would think the Marathon Maniac and I were competing. We were struggling, and I just wanted to finish. I was running the Self Transcendence Marathon as a training run for my next race, the Chicago Marathon.
It was a joy to finish, replenish my body with food, and hydrate. A chorus sang while standing on the grass, and the organizers and volunteers met all of our needs. I always like to stay for the award ceremony and congratulate the age group winners. They all looked so strong, and some amazingly young. Many runners travel to the United States every summer to run in this race, and I could hear expressions of excitement in different languages. I do not exaggerate when I say that we felt as if we were in Babel, and all of us, Sri Chinmoy followers or not, pushed ourselves beyond our limits, and we were glad we did.
Ricardo Enrique Murillo, a writer, is a veteran of 25 marathons, including Boston, and a 50 kilometer race when he turned 50.
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Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon
April 28-30, 2016
Champaign, IL 
M&B publisher Jan Seeley is the co-director of the eight-year-old Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon. She extends a personal invitation to each of you to join her the last weekend in April: "Join me in Champaign-Urbana for the 2016 Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon, April 28-30. Let us show you Midwest hospitality like you've never experienced before. Our flat, fast course offers a beautiful, scenic tour of revitalized downtown streets, tree-lined residential neighborhoods, an awesome prairie park, and the University of Illinois campus--with a spectacular finish at the 50-yard line of historic Memorial Stadium. Named by Runner's World as one of the top 10 new marathons, our event offers first-class race shirts, medals, post-race food, and fanfare. Enormous commemorative fleece blanket to all marathon finishers. Six events to choose from, plus three I-Challenge events (Friday night 5K followed by either the marathon, half, or 10K on Saturday). You'll love the thousands of friendly, fun fans and volunteers who exemplify our motto 'Making runners happy, one mile at a time.' Register today at www.illinoismarathon.com/registration.php."
SPECIAL OFFER to M&B SUBSCRIBERS: $10 off Full I-Challenge, Marathon, Half Marathon, or Half I-Challenge entry for the first 300 people. Discount code: mandb2016
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2016 Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon
March 6, 2016
Napa, CA
From M&B Editor and Napa Valley Race Director Rich Benyo:
The marathon is in its 38th year and is again the RRCA National Marathon Championship, where the winning male and female receive their weight in premium Napa Valley wine; we have a huge scale where, at the awards ceremony, we sit the race winner in a chair at one end of the scale and begin piling cases of wine on the other end until it balances out. We've been known to put a thumb on the runner's chair in order to add another case or two, which is only fair, because marathoners who win races are typically fairly lightweight.
We also have a Marathon College that takes place in conjunction with the race expo on Saturday at the host Marriott Hotel. For the past several years one of the highlights of the Marathon College has been the 90-minute themed panel. For 2016 the theme is Historians and Journalists Reflect on the Marathon. The panel consists of Frank Shorter (who has a new book coming out), Jacqueline Hansen (women's running book author), Amby Burfoot (who, after retiring from Runner's World, is working on a book on women's running), Toni Reavis (a pioneer in covering road racing on radio and TV), Jon Dunham (producer of the Spirit of the Marathon documentaries), and Jan Seeley (publisher of some little publication called Marathon & Beyond). As in years past, the panel will be moderated by our friend Joe Henderson, RW editor (1970-77) and author of two dozen books on running. We are spoiled with one of the most beautiful marathon courses in the world. In early March the wine grape vines have been pruned, golden mustard blankets the green vineyards, and the weather is perfect for running. The race runs from Calistoga in the northern end of the famed Napa Valley, along the historic Silverado Trail (along which quicksilver used to be transported in the 1800s), and ends at Vintage High School in the northern suburbs of the city of Napa; the race is limited to 3000 runners. For more info, visit: www.napavalleymarathon.org.
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Subscriber of the Month: Rich Benyo, M&B Editor
Tell us what M&B has meant to you throughout the years.
Marathon & Beyond has provided a vehicle for presenting and preserving the sport and lifestyle of long- and extremely-long-distance running. In a world dominated by sound-bytes and instant gratification and texting, M&B has provided the longer, deeper version of life in the running lane. Demographically, long-distance runners are well-educated and thoughtful people--except, perhaps, when they enter the tapering period of their marathon-training program and forget that the new feeling of awesomeness is supposed to be saved for race day. They have tremendous stories to tell--often stories of life-changing experiences that are related to their running. The magazine has also allowed us to do what other running magazines would typically not dare to do--like presenting long short stories and running poetry, opinionated essays, and not infrequently articles that reach toward 10,000 words. Editing the magazine has offered an opportunity to connect with the special community of readers the magazine formed: a community of like-minded souls/soles that was not defined by how fast a person ran, but more by the fact that running was such an integral part of their lives.
Share a favorite M&B memory.
One of the most memorable moments associated with the magazine was when Rhonda and I were manning and womanning the M&B booth at the Big Sur International Marathon about a decade ago. Bob Anderson and his son Michael were in town to run the marathon, and they dropped by the booth. Bob is the founder of Runner's World (originally Distance Running News); we worked together on the magazine from 1977-84. Tow-headed Michael used to sit on my lap at parties at Bob and Rita's house and tell me stories he made up and used to eat raw hotdogs, which tended to gross out some of the more health-conscious folks on the RW staff. Bob paged through the current issue of M&B and commented: "So this is...like...a cult magazine. For cults. You know, running cults. Like the cults every walking around person said we were involved with in the late '70s." Yeah, I had to admit, M&B is...like...a cult magazine. It's just unfortunate the cult wasn't a little bit larger. What's in store for you next?  You mean besides helping put on the annual Napa Valley Marathon and sit on the board of our local water and sewer district? After writing numerous running and fitness books, over the past several years, I've begun writing in other areas. I've done two memoirs, one a childhood memoir ( Jim Thorpe Never Slept Here) and one about high school ( Jim Thorpe Made Us All Olympians). I've also written three novels for young people ( The South Street Gang Vs. the Coalcracker Cyclops, etc.), the third of which will be published within the next few months. They really aren't for young people at all, but are for baby boomers, as the novels reflect the life they led around 1956, something today's kids probably can't relate to--now that they aren't encouraged to be gone all day long on adventures, often involving hijinks that would have appalled our parents, until the moment they realized they'd done similar things when they were kids. The covers are painted by M&B's favorite artist, Andy Yelenak. I've also written two adult novels, one a murder mystery in an alternate 1968 Mauch Chunk, Penna., where Jim Thorpe hasn't died so they haven't changed the name of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk to Jim Thorpe, PA (titled, appropriately enough, Mauch Chunk). The other book involves a Silicon Valley/government project where they accidently bring Mark Twain from 1864 to 1986, and then want to get rid of him. That book is called Roughing It, Too. Naturally, there are more of the same in the pipeline. Although I greatly lament the passing of M&B, I don't anticipate I'll retire any time soon. I guess I'm still too immature to retire.
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Subscriber of the Month: Jan Seeley, M&B Publisher
Tell us what M&B has meant to you throughout the years.
Working on the magazine has mostly been a blast--a lot of work but truly fulfilling. I am really proud of my work with Rich on M&B these 19 years. That's a long time! It's rare in life when your job and what you like to do with your spare time are in the same area. That's been a blessing. And I got to wear running clothes to work for 19 years. You can't beat that. We've published definitive articles about so many different aspects of long-distance running. We can look back on 114 issues and truly say that we were the "bible" of the sport.
How have our subscribers inspired you?
We have the nicest subscribers in the world. I've always thought this. The heart-felt letters and calls we've received over the past several weeks prove this even more. Since I work at the production-end of our company, I have had the privilege of speaking to thousands of you over the years on the phone and meeting many others at marathon expos all over the country. I treasure the personal relationship I have with many of you. You weren't just names on our subscriber list. Many have become life-long friends. You are fellow runners, and I never tired of hearing your stories! I will truly miss this.
Share a favorite M&B memory.
One day in late June 1998, when Rich and I worked for Human Kinetics, who initially owned M&B, I learned that HK was going to discontinue the magazine at the end of 1998. I was crushed. I was leaving that same day to travel with my family to AZ to do a run in the Grand Canyon with my husband, Joe. I couldn't reach Rich to tell him the sad news because he had already left for the Western States 100, where he and his wife, Rhonda, worked the Red Star aid station each year (this was in the days before cell phones). Our run was going to be from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon down to the bottom and then back up. The night before our run, as I enjoyed an awe-inspiring view from the observation deck, I fell into conversation with a runner named Carl Jess, who was in the middle of a Rim-to-Rim run. He had run from the South Rim to the North Rim that day, was spending the night at the North Rim, and then running back to the South Rim the next day. I said something like, "wow, that's amazing. What resources do you use to help you with your ultrarunning." Carl said, "I get a lot of different magazines, but I get this new magazine called Marathon & Beyond. It's simply fantastic. Do you know it?" I told Carl that I had never heard of the publication but that I'd be sure to check it out. In reality, my heart skipped a beat. I took this chance meeting with Carl as a "sign" that Rich and I could NOT let M&B come to an early death. I spent hours on my Grand Canyon run the next day with Joe scheming how Rich and I could buy the magazine from Human Kinetics and keep it going. And that's what we did, purchasing M&B from them later that summer. The first issue under our ownership was January/February 1999 and it's been a wonderful 17 years since. Carl remained a subscriber for many years but isn't any more. If you know him, share this story because Carl has no idea how impactful my meeting with him was.
What's in store for you next? 
Some of you already know--and the rest of you just learned--that I have been wearing two hats for the past several years, as both the publisher of M&B and the co-director of the Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon here in Champaign-Urbana. Our six-event race weekend--with 20,000 runners, 2,500 volunteers, and a race committee of 65--will more than keep me busy. Once M&B winds down, I'll enjoy having only one full-time job! I also plan to get more sleep, run more races, and do more travel. I hope to bump into some of you at marathons throughout the country, or here in Champaign-Urbana!
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