26.2

A few weeks before this issue went to press, I completed my first marathon. Now, I don’t state this to boast (my snail’s-pace time was nothing to brag about), but because training for and running a marathon teaches you a lot about what it takes to do something beyond the ordinary. Like, say, publishing a magazine on Russia.

Publishing Russian Life over the past 10 years has had plenty of hills and glides, and plenty of very steep learning curves. And, while publishing and running are very solitary activities when you are “doing the work,” both are punctuated with moments of exhilaration when the work goes public.

About mile 15 of the marathon, as we were readying to climb the most brutal hill on the course (named Battery Hill, since it is where the shore battlements were placed to fire on passing British ships), I noticed that a fellow running just in front of me was getting tons of encouragement from the crowds: “Way to go, Chuck!”... “You’re looking awesome, Chuck!”