Running News Digest for Jan 4, 2010

Sneakers 'worse for joints than barefoot running'

The average running shoe used by millions of jogging enthusiasts does more damage to the joints than tottering along in a pair of high heels, researchers have found.


The Boy Who Can’t Stop Running

Budhia Singh is no ordinary four-year-old boy. From the age of three, he’s been running at least twenty miles a day. At the age of four, he ran his first marathon. He’s hoping to become the youngest endurance runner in the world. But is this the tale of an extraordinary talent, or a darker one of child exploitation…of Budhia doing his body damage as runs into the record books? This film tells Budhia’s remarkable story that catapulted him to international fame.


Runner braves Antarctica for unique race

A one-time Penn State University tennis player, he took up recreational jogging years later as a way to lose weight. In early 2000, he decided to join his daughter Toni in a marathon at Disney World and finished with the very respectable time of 3 hours 58 minutes. "I got hooked on them," said Lombardo, who has since run the famed Boston Marathon several times. But Antarctica was a very different challenge, one that just 20 people a year have done since the marathon began in 2004. He was the oldest participant ever, and the first from Florida.


Not so much a sport as a way of life

One of the most anticipated years in South African history has finally arrived. Like its predecessors, it will confront us with many challenges and joys. One man who is no stranger to challenges and profound joys is Cape Town athlete Ryan Sandes. Runner's World magazine has named him one of the five heroes of running, placing him in the company of Oscar Pistorius, Haile Gebrselassie, Riel Hugo and Usain Bolt.