Free Republic

The heartbreaking mystery of Jerika Binks, the Utah runner who disappeared over a year ago while on a trail run near her home in American Fork, may finally find some closure. On Monday afternoon, local authorities announced they had found the skeletal remains of a body in the general area that Binks was last known to have been, and with multiple personal items known to belong to Binks, according to a press release issued by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. The remains showed evidence of an injury, though nothing at this point suggests foul play. Sergeant Spencer Cannon of the...

Heavy drinking can lead to a number of serious health problems, including increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and dementia, but consuming even moderate levels of alcohol could be dangerous, as well, new research suggests. The study, published in The BMJ, finds that moderate drinkers were three times more likely to experience a decline in mental skills than people who drank no alcohol at all. For the study, researchers analyzed data on weekly alcohol intake in 550 healthy British men and women over a period of 30 years. The participants had an average age of 43 at the start of...

Melissa Kitcher ended up six to seven miles off course — with no phoneMelissa Kitcher had full intentions of completing her first half-marathon Sunday, but it's safe to say she pictured it ending a little bit differently. Kitcher went missing for nearly 12 hours after running off the trail during the Trail Hog Half-Marathon at the Carlton Reserve near Venice in Sarasota County, Florida. "I kept thinking to myself, 'Wow, how do people run these trails? I can't even walk them,'" she said. "When I hit the power lines I said, 'Yes I'm definitely way off course. I'm lost.'" But...

It is something of a cliché among runners, how the activity never fails to clear your head. Does some creative block have you feeling stuck? Go for a run. Are you deliberating between one of two potentially life-altering decisions? Go for a run. Are you feeling mildly mad, sad, or even just vaguely meh? Go for a run, go for a run, go for a run. The author Joyce Carol Oates once wrote in a column for the New York Times that “in running the mind flees with the body … in rhythm with our feet and the swinging of...

MIAMI — A group of screaming runners makes its way through the streets of South Beach. Restaurant patrons look up from their meals with startled expressions. One runner blows on a conch shell. Others chant, "On, On!" At the halfway mark in the five-mile run they stop at a bar called Lost Weekends to hydrate themselves — with beer.