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As soon as I write “Picture Main Street” here, I’ll hasten to say this is not an opinion piece about whether or not widening sidewalks, reducing the number of automobile lanes in downtown Northampton from four and a half to three, and adding more bike lanes is a good idea. I appreciate concerns from downtown businesses about losing sales because getting around town may be difficult during the remodeling. I also think narrowing Main Street ultimately won’t make the traffic more congested, and the result may look as nice as the pedestrian-friendly centers of Boulder, Colorado, and Burlington, Vermont.

When I was in high school in Tennessee, I came north to visit Amherst College. Among the campus buildings that caught my attention was the Coolidge Cage. I had never seen such a thing before: a square floor plan, four-sided pyramidal roof, and space not only for basketball but for sports I associated with the outdoors, including tennis, baseball and especially track.

An eccentric teacher who was the inspiration for the Robin Williams character in the movie “Dead Poets’ Society,” Sam Pickering writes essays that are as edgy as Williams’ acting. Long before the era of NIL and transfer portals, Sam wrote that the...

Attention, shoppers! Are you thinking of gifting someone on your list a pair of running shoes?Don’t.I’ll qualify that instruction. Give someone running shoes if you (A) are giving them the exact same brand, model and size as the shoes they already use...

The cusp between colorful early autumn and chilly later autumn footraces is loaded with activity. This Sunday, for Valley runners who aren’t in New York for the marathon, the local running calendar offers four different races in the space of three...

Historically, American sprinters have been one of the biggest stories at the Olympics, and this summer’s excellent Games in Paris hardly altered that pattern. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the world record for the 400-meter hurdles for the sixth...

The marathon was not part of the ancient Olympics but was introduced as a special event in the 1896 games. Seventeen participants from five nations started the race but only nine finished. One American entered but did not finish. The original race was...

Running in the kind of hot weather we’re having these days can be fun. It can also be uncomfortable, exhausting, depleting. In extreme cases it’s even dangerous. Seriously, how do you exercise in the heat?Part of the answer is obvious. Dress lightly....

In 1972, UMass graduate Charlotte Lettis, then 22 years old and living in Amherst, became the first women’s winner of the Mt. Washington Road Race. A pioneer in the evolution of women’s long-distance running from fitness jogging to hardcore...

You can probably beat me in the Bridge of Flowers Road Race on Aug. 10. Here’s why:I like running up hills. Somehow my gait and posture seem well adapted to uphill running. In many cases if someone is the same speed as I am on flat ground, I can run...

By THOMAS JOHNSTON

It wasn’t easy for road races to recover following the pandemic. But when you have local support like the WMass Mother's Day Half Marathon in Whately, things can get right back to pre-COVID levels.The 14th running of the Mother’s Day Half Marathon...

The average sports-page reader knows that the fastest runners in a major marathon are likely to be Kenyan or Ethiopian. But another part of the Boston and London marathons is dominated by northern Europeans, plus Americans, Japanese, Australians and...

By JOHN STIFLER

BOSTON — On a clear day, a bit warm but with no headwind to impede any runner’s efforts, Brad Mish of Hadley and Elianna Shwayder of Northampton led three dozen Valley runners from Hopkinton to Copley Square in Monday’s 128th running of the Boston...

By BRIDGET MACDONALD

NORTHAMPTON — A little after the turn of the new year, Sue and Don Grant were starting to lose hope. The local couple that in 1987 launched the Northampton Cross-Country Race Series — a weekly Tuesday evening 5K that starts in April each year and goes...

The running world barely had time to marvel at how 24-year-old Kelvin Kiptum came within sight of breaking the two-hour barrier in the marathon before what promised to be a thrilling career came to a sudden end last month in a car crash that took...

Recreational running has been part of mainstream American culture for fifty years. Nowadays anyone wanting to run a 5-kilometer road race can find one somewhere nearby. Marathons have grown so popular they have waiting lists.Track meets are different....

Another talented class of runners will be inducted into the Western Mass Runners’ Hall of Fame in March.The WMRHOF’s Board of Directors announced the inductees for the third class to enter the hall this week, with induction set for March 8 at the...

By HANNAH BEVIS

When Teddy King-Pollet first started running, he didn’t even know how long a 5K race was. It took just four years for him to become one of the fastest runners in western Mass., and it was thanks in part to his Bat Mitzvah tutor, former Harvard cross...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

Florence’s Gabby Thomas now has a chance at two Olympic medals. After qualifying to run the 200-meter dash individually, the Harvard graduate was named to the USA’s 4x100-meter team Tuesday according to a release by USA Track and Field.She was listed...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

Tim Jacques, Simon LeClair, Tobias L’Esperance and Ben Howe huddled around a table at the McDonald’s on King Street in Northampton.They heard on Wednesday that New Balance Indoor Nationals was canceled and met Thursday to formulate a plan. The...