This IS the Running Mecca, No?

It's Global Running day! Of course I would write about running today and better yet, I'm going to write about the Running Mecca of  the USA (umm, or maybe just the East Coast?)  Sometimes when things are so close to home, you don't realize how big of a deal it really is!  But I'm thinking maybe this IS a big deal, IDK? 

Since summer time is essentially the season for Re-Runs,  I thought I would perhaps re-run a post I wrote a few years ago about the Runner's World Headquarters.  I visited on Nation Run at Work day and Yes, I did get to run with the editors of Runner's World. 

This visit was not associate with the Runner's World Festival I attended later that year. This was something I got invited to do on my own. 

                                                                   Enjoy!

Last Friday we had the opportunity to tour the Runner's World headquarters in Emmaus, PA.  As soon as we walked in the building we were in AAAW! The inside of the building is so bright and inviting and the staff was so friendly. In order to keep this post a reasonable length, I'm going to just touch on some fun/interesting facts from the visit!

Rodale Press is the publisher of Runner's World Magazine. Rodale also publishes other "healthy living" magazines such as Woman's Health, Men's Health, Prevention, Running Times, Bicycling, Organic Gardening, and various hardbound books on similar topics.  I was in Aaaw just seeing all the new books and magazines displayed in the lobby!

Since we were there to visit Runner's World, we were taken to their floor in the building.   One of our stops was ( as you saw earlier) Bart Yasso's office!

And a peek of the inside.

Next we were taken to the wall of International Runner's World Issues. It is interesting how the content remains the same for the international issues, but many of the pictures are different.  Some pictures need to be changed because the clothes that we see the runner's wearing in our issues of Runner's World may not be appropriate for another country's culture. Also the international issues tend to include models from their own culture. Yes, Runner's World does use models for their photos.  We were told they are Fitness models and they DO run!

The Runner's World photo studio is located down the street from the headquarters. Also there is another building in NYC which also shoots cover photos.

Our wonderful hostess and Runner's World writer, Megan shows me how content is selected for the magazine, which articles she has worked on, and how the photos were shot. My first bachelor's degree is in journalism and I love to write, so I am totally interested in what she is telling me! You may remember Megan from the article she wrote about her experience at the Boston Marathon this year. I remembered reading the online version of her story just days after the marathon. I was so happy to have met her! 

Next, we were introduced to Mark Remy from Remy's World.

We were invited to do a run with him and the other editors later in the day!

 Here is a sneak peek of the next issue of Runner's World that is going to be published.  It's all laid out page by page. Seeing this reminded me of working on our high school yearbook many years ago!

How would you like this job? This is the office of the gear tester.  He definitely takes his job seriously. When he reviews a pair of shoes and says that he cut them apart, he literally cut them apart!

Amongst all the fun and touring, we did get to talk about the upcoming Runner's World Festival and it got us very excited. I'm looking forward to all the interesting seminars on running, and there will even be one on running with your dog! I was told that there will be a special guest here running among us in October. Do you want to know who? It's Summer Sanders.  Lacey got to meet Summer when she ran the Boston Marathon this year.

Soon it was time for us to go prepare for our run. It was run at work day and we were going to run with some of the editors. Who are we kidding, It's Runner's World, EVERYDAY is run at work day here!  We made our way down to the woman's locker room and changed into our running clothes.

Need a bike to test out? Next to the locker rooms is the bike room.

There is a great jogging path a little ways past the Rodale building that we ran on.  I didn't want to be a total geek and take pictures of our run, but I did manage to get this one of one of the editors who was leading the pack! It was a great run, but I'm pretty sure that they took it easy on us!  I couldn't tell you what our pace was because right before the run my Garmin decided to freeze up!

Since this post is getting a little lengthy, I will stop here. I will continue with part 2 in another post.

Click HERE to read part 2 of our Runner's World visit.

Did you learn anything interesting about Runner's World so far?

Thanks for reading. ~M