Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 101, December 2017 | Page 4

EDITOR’S LETTER Meet our team DIVISIONAL HEAD Richard Laskey [email protected] CONTENT MANAGER Roxanne Martin [email protected] EDITORIAL TEAM EDITOR Sean Falconer [email protected] DIGITAL EDITOR Keith Kennedy [email protected] DESIGNER Caroline Collings [email protected] Recharging My Batteries ADVERTISING SALES Richard Laskey 083 342 8200 / [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONS & DISTRIBUTION [email protected] Sitting here thinking about the last few days, and this whole year, for that matter, I simply cannot believe we are in December. Seriously, where did this year go? I feel like I just ran a PB… with my eyes closed! So no surprise that I am really looking forward to the office closing in mid-December, for the phone to ring less and my inbox to stop filling up so quickly… but not for the reasons you may think. GETTING MY FIX You see, this is the time of year that new running shoes are sent out for review ahead of the early year shoe guides being published, so I am going to be ‘playing’ with boxloads of new shoes and heading out for a multitude of runs to wear-test them all. To put it in simple terms, I can’t wait! Instead of looking forward to taking time off in December, doing as little as possible and lounging about with sundowners, I am actually looking forward to doing more work. OK, I will happily consume a few sundowners along the way, but there is something about new running shoes that recharges both my running and journalistic batteries. It is really fun working out the new tech and designs, then testing to see how it works and affects the ride of the shoes – and the smell of new running shoes is simply marvellous. (Yes, yes, I know, I am a bit special…) IN THE MEANTIME… While I am gearing up for shoe-testing bliss ahead of a future edition, I hope you will enjoy this December/holiday edition. There’s a reason we put blind triathlete Helen Webb on the front cover, and it’s not just because she is a member of the Modern Athlete Dare To Tri team, but because she epitomises the courage and tenacity of the endurance sport community that we all belong to. Her story of overcoming obstacles and never letting a disability stop her from chasing her goal of finishing the Kona Ironman in Hawaii is guaranteed to inspire you, as will many of the other stories we feature here. Happy reading, hope you are able to take a well-deserved holiday, and hope you get plenty of running in this month – especially if you are currently upping your training mileage for a goal race early in 2018, or that important qualifier for the big ultras. Lace ‘em up and enjoy every step. Sean Falconer Follow me on Twitter: @sean_falconer | Follow the mag a