viding road maps to help you get to new running territory. M&B will also provide a forum for your ideas, insights, questions, experiences, and concerns.

From where did M&B originate? Actually, like the marathon itself, M&B evolved rather than originated whole. In 1978, while working as executive editor of Runner’s World magazine and while caught up in the marathon and ultramarathon frenzy, I formulated a plan to spin off RW’s annual February marathon issue into a high-end quarterly called The Marathoner. By the second issue, The Marathoner boasted 10,000 enthusiastic subscribers.

Unfortunately, The Marathoner’s existence was fatally wedded to On The Run, a fortnightly tabloid that never caught fire and that in the process dragged both magazines to early graves.

But occasionally a good idea dies hard. A mere 18 years later, with the enthusiastic support of Rainer Martens and his Human Kinetics staff,

Marathon & Beyond rises like the phoenix from the ashes of The Marathoner. Obviously, another example of delayed gratification.

Like The Marathoner before it, and like RW for its entire existence, M&B is written by, for, and about you, the practicing, questing, self-testing, get-out-the-door-and-do-it distance runner.

To borrow and update an editorial Joe Henderson wrote in RW in 1970: We’ drather see 20,000 runners breaking four hours in the marathon while nobody watches than see 20,000 spectators watch one man break 2:08.

In short, then, M&B will celebrate marathoning’s second century, while attempting to place the unique sport of ultrarunning into a context of human curiosity and exploration that spans millennia.

If that sounds like a rather large chunk of territory to bite off, you’re right. But then, aren’t you used to biting off more than others say you can chew?

Who’s got the chalk?

—Rich Benyo

Here are just some of the features you can expect in the March issue of Marathon & Beyond:

° The Art of Peaking ° Top 13 Ways to Ruin Your Marathon Debut

¢ Race Profile: San Francisco Marathon

e Johnny Kelley’s Most Unforgettable Marathon ¢ Liquid Versus Solid Carbohydrates

* Special Section: The Real 100th Boston