April Has Arrived ⏱️
Lap 266: Sponsored by Atlanta Track Club
Sponsored by Atlanta Track Club
A New Era Starts at the Peachtree
For the first time in more than 50 years, the Peachtree has a new title partner. This July 4, the Northside Hospital Peachtree Road Race marks the beginning of a new era for the world’s largest 10K.
It’s one of the most iconic days in running when 60,000 runners take over Atlanta. If you’ve ever thought about running Peachtree, this is the one! Celebrate America’s 250th Birthday with people from all over the country!
Enter the lottery now until April 21, or skip the lottery and become an Atlanta Track Club member to guarantee your spot.
👉 Be part of the next chapter.
Compiled by David Melly, Paul Snyder, & Kyle Merber
EXCLUSIVE: Grand Slam Track Returns And Expands For 2026 Season 🚨
Presented by CITIUS MAG and a small army of lawyers.
After months of uncertainty following its inaugural 2025 season, the Lap Count has learned exclusively that Grand Slam Track intends to return for the 2026 season in a new, expanded format.
Grand Slam Track, a pro track and field league founded by prolific film actor Michael Johnson, held three meets in spring of 2025 before financial challenges forced the cancellation of a fourth Slam and the League’s filing for bankruptcy. The ambitious endeavor touted the largest prize purses of any track and field meet in the world, but its future was uncertain after racing director Kyle Merber left the league with a rumored eight-figure buyout.
Despite fears that GST would ultimately be a well-intentioned but unsuccessful one-off effort, the League is returning in 2026 in what sources are calling a “doubling down, but also complete reinvention” of the League’s model.
In an effort to respond to frequent criticisms of the Grand Slam format, the League will be making several changes to its offerings in an effort to please fans and investors alike:
– Field events: After only featuring a limited number of track events during the 2025 season, Grand Slam Track will now include all jumping, throwing, and multi events among its offerings. “It’s a win-win for athletes, fans, and meet organizers alike,” said one anonymous insider, “because, frankly, those guys are used to not getting paid.”
– Meet locations: European track fans were critical of the first GST season’s decision to only feature meets in the Western Hemisphere, scheduling three of four planned meets in the U.S., complaining that the lack of geographical diversity limited the reach of the league. In an effort to make the second season of GST less America-centric, the first Slam will take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
– Prize money: The payment and timing of the league’s extravagant prize purses was a particular point of criticism, with athletes reporting long delays in payouts or money not coming through at all. In an order to make this year’s prize money prompter and more accessible, athletes can opt to receive their payment in the form of Kalshi futures bets, gift cards to Best Buy, or GST stock options.
The livestream broadcast will also evolve to bring in new eyes and increase fan interest in 2026. In an effort to build bridges with other major players in the professional track and field event space, Grand Slam Track’s 2026 season will be broadcast exclusively on Reddit. Viewers will also need a Joymo account to log in and view the meets, however. And after the runaway success of the “ManningCast” alternative broadcasts for NFL games, GST is excited to offer a number of exclusive alternative broadcasts, including popular offerings like “Ato Boldon and Trey Hardee Call All The Distance Races,” “Des And Kara Refuse To Mention The Nike Athletes,” and “Matt Choi Runs In Lane 1 With A Selfie Stick.”
While many changes are in store for the league, Grand Slam nevertheless remains committed to the original model that made it successful in the first place. Once again, CITIUS MAG is excited to be the official media partner of GST, in an historic and hopefully iron-clad agreement that will pay the website dozens of dollars in exchange for its services. Off The Rails hosts Eric Jenkins and Aisha Praught Leer will also co-host a new GST-exclusive podcast series entitled Please For The Love Of God Stay On The Rails This Time.
GST races will stay focused on head-to-head competition over time trial-style racing, with no pace assistance in races—except for the women’s 800m, where Keely Hodgkinson will be accompanied by Wavelights at all times at the explicit request of UK Athletics. And in a first-of-its-kind head-to-head-tohead matchup, this year’s league will feature a Battle of The Sleepy Bois, pitting five-time global medalist Josh Kerr and Olympic champion Cole Hocker up against middle-distance debutant and 12-time NBA All-Star Steph Curry in a 1500m.
With no traditional World or Olympic championship on the track and field schedule this year, Grand Slam organizers are excited by the prospect of fans caring slightly more about season 2 of GST than the Commonwealth Games or the World Treadmill Championship. The hotly-anticipated first Slam of the season is scheduled for…
…
…April 1st. Happy April Fool’s Day, readers, and enjoy the rest of the week’s real news and analysis below.
A Look Ahead To Track And Field’s Q2 🔜
As — *adjusts tie and unmutes on Zoom* — Q1 wraps up, there are finally metrics and data points around which we can make predictions for the outdoor season. In the sport of athletics, recency matters. We constantly ask “what have you done for us lately” because if you’re not throwing down a world class performance at least once a month, then how are we supposed to know you still got it?
That’s great news for us. Because the start to the year really rewrote the history books, with somewhere between 7-10 world records being broken… depending on your interpretation of various arcane World Athletics criteria.
Josh Hoey, 600m (1:12.84)*
Josh Hoey, 800m (1:42.50)
Khaleb McRae, 400m (44.52)**
Mondo Duplantis, Pole Vault (6.31m)
Simon Ehammer, Heptathlon (6670 pts)
Atlanta Track Club, 4x800m (7:10.29)
Keely Hodgkinson, 800m (1:54.87)
Hobbs Kessler, 2000m (4:48.79)
Jacob Kiplimo, Half Marathon (57:20)***
Toshikazu Yamanishi, Half Marathon Walk (1:20:34)
*Run in December 2025
**Christopher Morales-Williams ran faster in 2024
***He has gone faster, but there was a car in the way
This all should set us up for a great outdoor season, which, although there are no Olympics or World Championships, will still feature plenty of good action across Diamond Leagues, Europeans, Commonwealth Games, and World Ultimate Championships. Taking the information that we do have, let’s overreact set up some of the main storylines and trends that we’ll be paying attention to heading into the spring.
Slow races are (hopefully) back, baby!
Maybe we are just controversially wishing this one into existence, but the U.S. and World Indoor Championships were headlined by tactical races that felt like a blast from the past. Mariano Garcia’s 1500m win from the front in 3:39 could be a preview of what the world may look like if Jakob Ingebrigtsen doesn’t return to full health soon, and the women’s 3000m saw Nadia Battocletti break the tape by dipping a few seconds beneath nine minutes. Just like the bagginess of your jeans, the fashions of racing is cyclical!
When will everyone race each other?
It’s normal indoors to see athletes choose to focus on races that are close by. Whether you pick to run in Millrose or Lieven likely depends on whether chocolate croissants are considered a light snack or a balanced breakfast in your hometown. In athlete interviews throughout the season, there has been no alignment on what matters most, with a variety of different races being mentioned as what stars are peaking for. It’s likely that many of the top matchups that we hope to see simply won’t happen, with stars missing each other like two planes on trans-Atlantic flights. We are labeling the hierarchy of importance an athlete assigns to different meets their individual “Title Pyramid.” What’s worth more: Europeans or Commonwealth? A World Ultimate Championship or a world record attempt?
(HORNS PLAYING) THE CHANGING OF THE GUARDS!
If there has been one constant the last decade it has been Noah Lyles. He may not have run faster than Usain Bolt, but the showman accomplished something that no one else ever has: nine straight years of sub-20 second 200m races. And although he is “only” 28 years old, there is a new kid on the block in his own training group who is hungry, unafraid, and now has a 60m World Championship under his belt. But this isn’t just about Noah or Jordan Anthony. It’s about the generation of Grant Holloway, Karsten Warholm, Kenny Bednarek, Shericka Jackson, Marileidy Paulino, etc., and other stalwarts who have consistently been on the podium. Before we know it, the 21-year-olds are going to be in their prime and others will be nicknamed “Unc”.
The roads are calling—who will pick up the phone?
Without a World or Olympic standard to hit, the fields at the TEN were not quite as deep this year. And for long distance haulers who enjoy grinding out endless miles, the 2026 season presents the opportunity of moving more permanently to the roads. We saw Grant Fisher test things out at the NYC Half Marathon and we know he’ll come back. But will Yomif Kejelcha ever return to the track after his debut in London? Is the Selemon Barega, Joshua Cheptegei, Jacob Kiplimo era officially over? Ejgayehu Taye got a taste in Chicago and even Faith Kipyegon stepped onto the roads to debut a 10K! Imagine the enticing prize money next year in London if 100,000 people are paying £225 to enter…
Anti-American sentiment could set a broader tone
Are we the baddies? Team USA is coming off the high of 26 medals at the 2025 World Championships and the low of a failed attempt at creating a disruptive domestic circuit. While Europeans throw parades for their heroes, most Americans couldn’t name a single track athlete that hasn’t been prominently featured in a reality show. The decision by USATF to snub the global community of a full roster at World Relays wasn’t well received, and now we are getting extra entries into the World Road Running Championships after cancelling the edition that was supposed to be ours. Meanwhile, American athletes will continue complaining about having to fly overseas all summer but also grouse about taking a connecting flight into Eugene. And don’t get the rest of the world started on what we’ve done to gas prices… If Duke’s catastrophic collapse in the Elite Eight last weekend taught us anything, it’s that rooting for the downfall of a heavy favorite is still very fun.
So buckle up, track fans, and get ready for a season of outdoor racing set by indoor expectations. Should be fun!
The Best Miler At Project 222 Could Be… Not Josh Kerr 🦹
Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1999 mile world record—3:43.13—is one of the oldest still on the track and field books, and the oldest men’s record for a regularly contested distance on the track.
That time was the result of a perfect confluence of factors: An all-time great athlete operating at the height of his powers… near-perfect conditions and a raucous Rome Diamond League crowd… and the race being very much a race. Second-place finisher Noah Ngeny finished in 3:43.40, also under the previous world record.
While it’s likely been on dozens of world-class milers’ to-do lists since being established, nobody has come within half a second of El Guerrouj’s PB. (Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s 3:43.73 from Pre in 2023 has come the closest.) So when Josh Kerr announced over the weekend that his sole objective this outdoor season is running a mile in three minutes and forty-two seconds at the London Diamond League, it was hard to process it as anything other than audacious.
And that’s awesome.
Our sport is no stranger to one-off exhibition style “record” attempts that are not record eligible, technically speaking. Yes, a man has run a marathon in under two hours… but like… if you want to get pedantic…has he?
Kerr’s choice to limit himself to the technological and logistical constraints of existing World Athletics rules makes Project 222 in a lot of ways more interesting than the other promotional time trial events that we’ve all enjoyed since the supershoe arms races kicked into high gear. (That’s not to say there won’t be all sorts of bizarre speed-suit-y bells and whistles and potentially spikes so personalized that they look like the car Homer Simpson designed.)
Pushing the limits of human ability is cooler the fewer caveats there are—whatever the clock says Kerr runs, that’s what he runs, no need to extrapolate, justify, or hem and haw. He’s attempting something borderline impossible, controlling what he and his team are able to, and letting the chips fall how they may on race day.
By choosing to set his time trial at an established Diamond League meet, he’s also opening the door to his own downfall. Kerr has said that he welcomes all challengers at his attempt, and that he anticipates a crew of Nike-sponsored and American-based athletes may even try to beat him to the punch at the Prefontaine Classic two weeks before he takes his shot.
The chances of the record going down in any one race, no matter how perfectly set up it is, are slim. But those odds improve the more athletes you sprinkle into the mix who are willing to put themselves on the rail and stick with the pace. While we recognize that there are contractual obligations that shape athlete racing schedules, there’s no major reason Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse (and Jakob Ingebrigtsen if he miraculously rounds back into peak fighting shape by mid-summer) can’t give sub-3:43 a crack in both Eugene and London, leaning heavily into playing the heel in front of the Kerr-loving, largely UK-based crowd.
To even have a chance to spoil the party, one of these guys—or any number of the ascendant European or East African athletes who might already plan on being in the field—has to show up ready for battle. Because Kerr has made his focus and his race plan clear: “I’m just going to be peaking at that point in the season… as long as no one else can touch the pace lights or mess with the pacers, I’m good to go.”
Kerr has done everyone else in the world a favor by putting an enormous target on his own back three months in advance. If you think you’ve got even a fighting shot at giving Guerrouj’s record a scare, why would you not get your ass to London? Kerr will have a handful of dedicated pacers and Wavelights. You can race with an even bigger advantage: all of that, plus Kerr himself! Make Kerr the Noah Ngeny of his own world record attempt!
You will literally never have a setup more conducive to running that fast again at any point in your career—at least until the invention of an even more disgusting goo that makes bi-carb look like applesauce. The London Diamond League mile has the potential to be the very rare race that could be the fastest ever run, and also the most hotly contested.
An Ode To The Three-Weeks-Out Long Run 💝
With the Boston Marathon now just 20 days away, 30,000 or so runners all over the world are finishing up the last hard efforts of their training block. Some of them are the fastest pros in the country. Others are just hoping to get to the finish line for the first time. All of them are looking at the same Monday in April, circled on the calendar, with a mix of excitement and anxiety.
Gallons of ink have been spilled over the years about the marathon taper—the ups and downs of those last two weeks of training leading up to a big race, where your legs freshen up but you start to go a little crazy as you obsessively refresh every weather app on the Internet in search of a favorable forecast. Less time and attention is dedicated to that three-weeks-out feeling: those last few still-hard efforts, where your feet are aching, your trainers are wearing thin, and your head hits the pillow every night craving 12 hours of rest, minimum. That “I can do anything” feeling that comes around six weeks out, when you’ve just conquered your longest, fastest workout yet feeling like a superhero, starts to fade away and you start to feel like a bored kid on a long road trip: are we there yet?
If you’re running Boston and you happen to live and train in Boston, there’s a particular beauty to this liminal period that you shouldn’t take for granted. It becomes most obvious in a very specific time and place: the rolling hills of Newton, Massachusetts, on a weekend morning in late March.
After weeks, if not months, of lonely Saturday long runs where it feels like you and (if you’re lucky) your few loyal training buddies are the only masochistic souls setting out to layer up, slip around on ice, and dodge cars to get the miles in, something miraculous happens. Right as the daffodils start to poke their buds out of the soil, so do all the hibernating marathoners. Have they been curled up in bed this whole time? Banging out miles on the treadmill? Who knows, but they’re here now.
The sun is shining. The temperatures mercifully creep into the 40s or even 50s. The first water tables start to pop up on sidewalks and in driveways. Charity programs organize their first course previews. The fire department opens its doors to passersby in need of a Gatorade or a toilet. All of a sudden, the efforts start to feel a little less Sisyphean and a little more communal. You’re reminded why you signed up for this godforsaken race in the first place.
Race day will always be uniquely exciting, but it’s also confined to a tight schedule and a careful structure. Rolling dozens of buses full of nervous runners from Back Bay to Hopkinton to ensure that every wave kicks off on time is a monumental undertaking. Every inch of the course is covered in volunteers, EMTs, screaming fans, and crucially, college students that have been drinking since 7am. Marathon Monday is driven by a persistent manic energy that, under the best of circumstances, gets you from start to finish in personal-record time, but it can also feel like chugging five shots of espresso and licking a battery, all while having to pee 12 or 13 times in one morning.
Those long runs along the Commonwealth Avenue carriage lane have the same boisterous enthusiasm as race day, but with none of the pressure. Everyone’s starting on their own schedule and running their own pace. There are no waves; 2:12 pros and five-hour first-timers are all mixed up together in a beautiful organic melting pot. The leadup to a race constantly dogged with allegations of elitism or corporatism is remarkably egalitarian and community-oriented. All are welcome (as long as you don’t block anyone’s driveway and don’t litter your gel wrappers).
Boston has a reputation for at once being gruffly hard-nosed and icily patrician—and either way, unfriendly to outsiders. But you’d never know it if you found yourself in Auburndale on the morning of March 29th. Runners are waving and smiling to one another, cheerfully chirping “Good morning!” at dog walkers and stroller-pushers. There’s at least one volunteer wearing an inflatable dinosaur costume, handing out paper cups of water to folks raising thousands of dollars for Dana Farber, the Jimmy Fund, or some other equally worthy charity. Even the cars crossing the course seem less hurried, more deferential at each intersection; the dozens of pedestrians at each corner have successfully claimed unspoken authority over the roads that day.
Most Boston runners will think of the race as the reward and the training as a necessary evil. The last few weeks of a marathon cycle before a taper are a bit like Heartbreak Hill itself: the toughest stretch of training at the toughest part of the block, with the best part just over the horizon but still a long ways to go. It’s not the fun part, at least in any obvious way, but it’s special nevertheless. The eternal wisdom of Miley Cyrus, however cliche, rings true: It ain’t about how fast you get there; it ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side. It’s the climb.
More News From The Track And Field World 📰
– Just to clarify, none of these stories are April Fools pranks, either, several are just legitimate bummers, like Conner Mantz withdrawing from the Boston Marathon after not rounding in to shape quickly enough.
– Albert Korir, the 2021 winner of the New York City Marathon and a mainstay in World Major top-10s since 2019 has been popped for doping and issued a five-year ban.
– World Athletics and USATF have made it right after last month’s rerouting snafu at the U.S. Half Marathon Championship, but it wouldn’t be a decision reached by track and field governing bodies if it weren’t at least a little confusing and require a bunch of text to explain: Seven American women will compete in the half in Copenhagen this summer: the presumptive top three before the misdirection (Jess McClain, Emma Grace Hurley, and Ednah Kurgat), the actual top three finishers (Molly Born, Carrie Ellwood, and Annie Rodenfels), plus whoever is the highest ranked American not already on the team based on World Rankings as of May 5th. Team USA will designate four of the seven women on the half roster as scorers, but all seven will be eligible to earn further World Ranking points.
– Evidently we might be looking at a two-day London Marathon in 2027? Here’s hoping they at least attempt to go through with this plan. That’s like… four newsletters’ worth of content right there.
– The McKirdy MicOTQ lived up to its name—in that there were lots of OTQs, thanks in part to organizer James McKirdy. Though both the men’s and women’s races were won by Canadians, (Thomas Nobbs in 2:09:55 and Dayna Pidhoresky in 2:31:24), 14 American men and 11 American women dipped under the OTQ standards.
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My name is William Theriault and I grew up in Billerica Massachusetts and I ran the Boston Marathon on April 15 1974. I finished 330 2 hours 50 .16 Will Cloney signed my certificate. I am also in the Billerica Athletic Hall of fame. I earned 12 Varsity Letters in 4 sports. 2 cross country 2 FOOTBALL BASKETBALL and 5 inTrack