Remember where you came from, but don’t forget where you’re going. It’s a lesson many of us learn when running long distances—we’re different after each race finish but we must toe the start line to get there. The same can be said about the history of UltraRunning Magazine.
In 1981, Fred Pilon, Stan Wagon and Peter Gagarin started a black and white magazine to connect ultrarunners across North America. Peter’s first column in the May 1981 issue of UltraRunning began as follows:
“I guess you could say UltraRunning was born in January at Fred Pilon’s 35th birthday party. Fred asked Stan Wagon and me if we’d be interested in starting a magazine about ultramarathons. At the time, it seemed like a somewhat crazy idea, but also rather intriguing, which, now that I think about it, is much the same reaction I’d had a couple months earlier when Fred had suggested we run a 50-miler that was to take place a few days later. A somewhat crazy idea but also rather intriguing.”
Back then, there was a need for printed results, event calendars and information about a sport that rarely broke the news, much less the headlines, in a pre-digital world.
Fast-forward 43 years, and here we are under new ownership with a new publisher. As of July 2024, UltraRunning was purchased by Steep Life Media with Jamil Coury stepping into the role as publisher. While this may come as a surprise to some of our subscribers, let me reassure you, we are very excited about all that’s to come.
Back in 2017, before I became editor, Jamil put out a feeler on Twitter for a few remaining issues he was missing from his (almost) complete collection of UltraRunning Magazine. I happened to have those issues and sent them his way. Little did I know that just seven years later, he’d be the proud owner of this publication. It was this previous interaction that cemented my belief that we’d be in good hands when our previous publisher, Karl Hoagland, broke the news about the sale.
Sometimes it’s hard to remind yourself that change is good. Karl’s vision for the magazine was to leave it better than he found it, and he’s done that and so much more. He created a team of incredible individuals and fostered a mission to help grow the sport while preserving its unique culture, all while operating an independent publication.
Karl passed the baton to Jamil knowing he could also take it to the next level while staying true to our mission. We look forward to a new adventure but will never lose sight of where we came from.
As Peter Gagarin said at the end of his column, “We plan to have UltraRunning going for a long time. We hope you’ll be with us.”
