Animals are awesome. Not only are they cute and furry, but interacting with four-legged creatures has major health benefits. Just petting a dog can reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Interactions between people and animals can boost levels of oxytocin, the same feel good hormone that’s present in mothers bonding with their babies.

Not all of us can take care of a pet 24/7, but we still long for interaction with them. That’s why these resorts and sanctuaries that help save animals are so magical—they want you to come hang out with them.

These are my five favorites where you can interact with different species, from alpacas to kittens, in serene settings, helping to further the cause of animal rescue while boosting your own spirits.

1. Ojo Santa Fe

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Puppy Patch might be the happiest two words in the English language, and you can visit this wonderful place at , a full-service spa and resort on 77 acres, located 15 miles southwest of downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico. In addition to early-morning yoga and thermal-pool soaks, Ojo partners with Espanola Humane, a local animal shelter, to foster rescue puppies, and you can frolic with them in the resort’s grassy Puppy Patch (open daily from 9:30-11 A.M. and 5-6 P.M.). All of the puppies are up for adoption.

Ojo is also home to a flock of silkie chickens, a breed of hen that is known to be particularly soft and playful. The resort hosts a daily Chicken Chat in the outdoor coop, where you can learn about the birds and feed them fresh greens and veggies. Rumor has it that the chickens actually purr like cats when you pet them.

The 77-acre property also offers some solid high-desert hiking, with two miles of trails traversing arroyos and rock outcroppings while delivering views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (overnight start at $298).

2. Red Robin Song Sanctuary and Guest House

New Lebanon, New York

You don’t know charisma until a 700-pound pig sidles up to snort hello. That’s what happens at , a rescue outfit for domestic and farm animals on 85 acres bordering the Berkshire Mountains of upstate New York. Red Robin Song’s impressive array of “guests ” also includes yaks, rabbits, goats, a donkey, and a mini horse.

“Most people have never seen animals like these in person before,” says Red Robin’s founder, Lisa Robinson. “We rehabilitated orphan beavers for a while. So many animals need to be rescued and need a forever home.”

Currently, Red Robin houses almost 50 different animals. Guests to the farm get a full tour that includes education about the drawbacks of a meat-based diet and commercial animal farming, while also spending time with many of the friends on site.

“You get a chance to meet the animals you might normally eat,” Robinson says. “And we respect the animals and the kind of interaction they want.”

For instance, some rabbits are skittish and only want to be admired from afar, and a few Tibetan yaks that were rescued from a meat farm aren’t quite ready to mingle with guests. But the goats are super social and many of the dogs are psyched to hike with you on the sanctuary’s 85-acre property.

Visitors can come for the day or stay overnight at the , a three-room vegan bed and breakfast (from $162 a night), where proceeds directly support the rescue endeavor. In addition to the property’s immediate 85 acres of ponds, pastures, and woods, the adjacent 447-acre offers more than two miles of hiking trails.

3. Atlanta Alpaca Treehouse

Atlanta, Georgia

The packs a mighty punch in a small space. The property, which sits in East Atlanta in the midst of the South’s largest city, is only 3.5 acres, but it’s loaded with four alpacas, four llamas, and two guanacos. (A guanaco is a South American camelid similar to a llama, but typically only found in the wild.) All of the animals were rescued and on hand to interact with guests at the property’s treehouse, made from reclaimed wood and tucked into a lush bamboo forest.

“We started with chickens, and they were the gateway livestock to these other animals,” says Kara O’Brien, owner of the Alpaca Treehouse. “Llamas and alpacas are so smart. They’re just under dolphin intelligence. They communicate clearly with me and each other. They’re like big, teenaged smart cats. They’re hilarious. Each has radically different personalities.”

Stay at the treehouse and you can watch the herd of llamas and alpacas from your window, feed them baby carrots out of your hand, or take a yoga class with them. “One of our llamas, Figgy, actually goes into the yoga room and does yoga. She’s obsessed with it,” O’Brien says.

All of the proceeds from the one-bed Treehouse (from $385 per night) go to rescue more llamas, which O’Brien then works to place in permanent homes.

4. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

Kanab, Utah

in Kanab, Utah, is the largest no-kill sanctuary in the country, housing more than 1,600 animals, ranging from cats to parrots to pigs, on a 3,000-acre property in Utah’s canyon country 45 minutes south of Zion National Park. Visitors can take the free daily Grand Sanctuary tour to learn about the ins and outs of caring for and rehabilitating the animals, or download the to go on a self-guided tour. You can also volunteer to work in one of the care centers, hanging out with cats, picking up after bunnies, or tending to pigs.

If you feel a connection with a particular dog, you can even schedule a hike together on the sanctuary’s three miles of trails, which traverse red rock canyons and creeks, where you’ll find overlooks, Pueblo ruins, and a cave filled with water on adjacent BLM land. A stream runs through the property, making for a fun and splashy adventure.

The sanctuary has a welcome center, cafe, and store, and a variety of overnight lodging if you want to spend more than an afternoon. is a 40-room hotel in downtown Kanab with a fenced-in dog park, splash zone, and slide-out pet beds (rooms from $133), and the sanctuary just updated its 18 on-property (from $61 a night).

If you score a room or RV site, you can even host a sleepover, giving a dog or cat a night away from communal living and you an opportunity to see if you’re compatible for full-time adoption. Proceeds from lodging help support the rescue mission.

5. Animal Place

Grass Valley, California

This 600-acre sanctuary in Grass Valley, California, which focuses mostly on farm animals, has rescued or re-homed almost 30,000 hens alone, not to mention numerous roosters, goats, turkeys, pigs, dogs, and even pigeons. Currently, more than 300 farm animals live at , which sits in the Sierra Nevada foothills in an area that’s most famous for its gold-mining history.

Guests can take a guided 1.5-hour tour of the facility ($20 donation, in advance) to learn more about the animals and the rescue process, while also spending time with some of the more social residents, like goats, sheep, bunnies, and pigs. Drop-in visitors can embark on a self-guided tour of the sanctuary on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. (but that does not allow contact with the animals). Keep an eye out for special events, like a Paint ’n’ Sip, where you drink bubbly and paint one of the cute farm animals.

Animal Place runs a with enough bedrooms to host six to 10 people for stays up to a week. It’s a single-family home with three bedrooms and a central kitchen and living room. You can rent it by the bedroom (from $75 a night) or the entire house ($750 a night). Each stay comes with a free 30-minute tour where you’ll meet up to two species of animals. The guest house is currently being renovated, but is expected to be open for bookings in October.

6. Golden Dog Farm

Jeffersonville, Vermont

is not an animal rescue, and has no overnight option, but if you like hanging out with adorable dogs in a beautiful setting, put this small farm on your list. The place is a family-owned maple-syrup facility (also producing honey and fruits) in Vermont’s Green Mountains 10 miles from Stowe Mountain Resort.

If you book a visit in advance at Golden Dog Farm, you can interact with the dogs. Yes, the dogs are popular and you need a reservation. There are two options; sign up for the Golden Retriever Experience ($80), which is essentially a playdate with at least 10 doggy cuties in a pasture on the farm where you can play ball, frolic, or just snuggle (while getting your share of social-media images).

Or book a slot for the Friday and Saturday night Wines and Wags, where a Master Sommelier discusses grape growing in Vermont while guests sample local wines—and then you get to play with the dogs. Yes!

Graham Averill is şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř magazine’s national-parks columnist. The best part of his day is walking his own rescue dog every morning.

For more by Graham Averill, see:

The 10 Best Bike Towns in America, Ranked

8 Surf Towns Where You Can Learn the Sport and the Culture

The Best Ways to Get şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř in West Virginia

The 10 Best National Parks in Canada

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Twenty minutes from downtown Atlanta sits the South River Forest, known as one of the city’s “four lungs.” Like similar green spaces in and around the neighborhoods of Buckhead, Cascade Heights, and Druid Hills, its vast tree canopy inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen. For most of the 20th century, 300 acres of this land was a prison farm. Before that it was a slave plantation, and before that a home to the Muscogee people, who were violently forced out of what they call the Weelaunee Forest in the early 1800s. Since the 1990s, the abandoned woods and surrounding waterways have been treated as a dumping ground by local businesses and residents, leaving nearby, predominantly Black and lower-income neighborhoods to deal with the literal downstream effects. Yet its trees go on filtering rainwater, purifying the air, and counteracting the urban heat-island effect—in which paved surfaces trap solar energy and drive up ambient temperatures—breathing life into the metropolitan area by simply existing.

It was here that Manuel Paez Terán (who went by the name Tortuguita) took their last breath after law enforcement shot them at least 57 times during a multiagency raid on January 18. The 26-year-old was one of dozens of activists protesting the construction of a sprawling, $90 million training center for police and firefighters on 85 acres of the South River Forest. The project was spearheaded by the Atlanta Police Foundation. Approved by the Atlanta City Council in 2021, the campus—which opponents call Cop City—would include a shooting range, a driving course for practicing high-speed chases, and a mock village to rehearse raids. With Atlanta still reeling from the police killing of Rayshard Brooks in 2020, activists saw Cop City as a repudiation of protesters’ calls for racial justice and police accountability.

Questions linger about the circumstances of Terán’s death. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says that officers fired in self-defense after Terán shot a state trooper, who was seriously wounded. Authorities also allege that a handgun recovered from the scene belonged to Terán. But activists believe that the officer may have been struck by friendly fire. The state claims that there is no body-camera footage of the shooting itself, but in a video captured just after the incident, an Atlanta police officer is heard saying, “You fucked your own officer up.” He later approaches two other officers and asks, “They shoot their own man?” An autopsy by the DeKalb County medical examiner did not find gunshot residue on Terán’s hands, but further testing by state investigators revealed more than five “particles characteristic of gunshot primer residue.” The report also stated, “It is possible for victims of gunshot wounds, both self-inflicted and non-self-inflicted, to have [gunshot residue] present on their hands.”

In a statement, attorneys for Terán’s family referred to the test results as “inconclusive.” An earlier autopsy commissioned by the attorneys concluded that at the time Terán was shot, they were sitting cross-legged, with their hands in the air.

“There has always been a risk of violence in environmental activism,” says Keith Woodhouse, a history professor at Northwestern University. “But this is the first time ever, in the history of the United States, that there has been an environmental activist killed by law enforcement.”

The public may never know the truth about what happened to Terán. What’s clear is that they were an advocate for passive resistance. In an interview with reporter David Peisner last December, Terán said, “We’re not going to beat them at violence. They’re very, very good at violence. We’re not. We win through nonviolence.” After graduating magna cum laude from Florida State University, Terán became active in the organization Food Not Bombs, helping feed homeless people in Tallahassee. They were growing their hair long to donate to children with cancer, their brother Daniel Esteban Paez told the Associated Press. According to the DeKalb County medical examiner’s report, Terán’s black curls, pulled back in a ponytail, measured 12 inches in length.

The decentralized “Stop Cop City” movement has not been entirely peaceful. Demonstrators have thrown Molotov cocktails at police and torched construction vehicles. Georgia has charged dozens with domestic terrorism, a move that human rights groups have criticized as excessive and politically motivated. In a statement in March, the American Civil Liberties Union speculated that the state had leveled such extreme accusations because the protest “challenges the increasing militarization of the police.”

In October, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations announced the officers who shot Terán will not be charged.

Terán died rejecting the idea that training neighborhood cops to fight protesters like insurgents would increase public safety. Their spirit lives on , “¡Viva, viva Tortuguita! ¡Viva, viva Tortuguita!”

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If you’ve been to a yoga festival, you know the hum that takes place. Everywhere you look, there’s activity. Attendees are unrolling their mats on the grass, lecturers are offering insights, vendors are sharing artisanal wares, and food trucks are dishing out their creations. As the sun goes down, the live music becomes louder and the learning shifts to dancing. It’s an unparalleled experience.

In recent years, yoga festivals have evolved to appeal to those of all experience levels and interests. Some focus on traditional practices while others are more new age-y and “glittery.” Whether you’re just starting yoga or are years into your practice, there is a festival that will vibe with you.

Although each yoga festival has its own distinct personality, they all share the common threads of connection, presence, and celebration. The following list explores 11 annual yoga festivals along with some of the history and highlights of each.

11 Yoga Festivals You Need to Know About

1. Bend Yoga Festival

Bend, Oregon | June 8-11, 2023

Explore the majesty of the Cascade Mountains at . Situated in the beautiful mountain town of Bend, Oregon, this festival features a focused mix of world-class presenters, wellness sessions, and outdoor adventures.

This year, the Bend Yoga Festival moves to Riverbend Park, offering direct access to the flowing Deschutes River, stunning mountain views, and more than 15,000 square feet of lawn. During the festival, attendees can explore nearby natural attractions, such as the lava caves and . Join a guided hike to the top of Smith Rock, followed by a yoga practice and local brew tasting, or take to the river in an open paddle class.

Throughout the weekend, you can join international and locally loved presenters including and for afternoon yoga sessions at participating local yoga studios, all within walking distance of the main venue. You can also schedule your own yoga photo shoot with acclaimed photographer . Lodging isn’t included, so you’ll want to find a stay at a local Airbnb, campsite, or hotel.

2. Telluride Yoga Fest

Telluride, Colorado | June 22-25, 2023

For a fully immersive yoga experience, the is not to be missed. The four-day event offers more than 100 classes, including yoga, meditation, music, hiking, wellness talks, and social gatherings. The event takes place amid the intimate setting of a small village nestled at the base of the Telluride Mountains, surrounded by rugged peaks, mountain air, and crisp blue skies.

Start your day with a mountain-top meditation, hike the fan-favorite Jud Wiebe memorial trail, practice standup paddleboard (SUP) yoga on Elk Lake, or simply sleep-in. With its new campus in Mountain Village,  connected to the historic Town of Telluride via a free gondola, the festival provides a unique gathering that’s entirely removed from the hubbub of everyday life. The festival has hosted some of the most well-seasoned yoga teachers, including , , , , and .

Telluride offers a selection of hotels, condos, and private residences that cater to every budget.

3. LoveShinePlay

Asheville, North Carolina | July 20-23, 2023

The , formerly known as the Asheville Yoga Festival, is a four-day event held in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. The festival offers an expansive schedule that includes more than 70 styles of offerings, including Bhakti and anatomy, Kundalini and Yin, and everything in between.

Asheville is considered the wellness capital of the South, and the festival takes advantage of its surroundings, allowing attendees to expand their knowledge and practice in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Throughout the weekend, attendees can experience lectures on practical astrology, Ayurvedic yoga classes, “yin yoga and story time,” plus classes and concerts from and .

Classes are dispersed around Asheville in hotels, community centers, and outdoor stages, all walkable from the marketplace. The central hub for the festival, the marketplace features 60-plus hand-selected vendors offering high-quality wellness products. You’ll also find food trucks, free community events, and outdoor spaces to rest.

LoveShinePlay started in 2016 as the Asheville Yoga Festival and has since grown to include partnerships with Lululemon and Yoloha. In 2024, the festival will expand and offer a similar incarnation in Charleston.

4. OM Festival

Manchester, Vermont | July 26-30, 2023

Dance, flow, and play your way to wellness at the annual , a summerfest held on 150-plus mountainside acres overlooking the Battenkill River. Also known as the Vermont Yoga Festival, it offers five days of yoga, meditation, dance, and flow arts classes where festival-goers can flow, play, and groove.

The OM Festival combines natural beauty and historic charm. Classes take place in a 200-year-old barn on the expansive private grounds and in the perfectly coiffed meditation garden. At night, the festival comes alive with music and embodiment celebrations, including kirtan, bhakti yoga, and ecstatic dance DJs.

Most guests stay on-site, either at , the hub of the festival, or camp in a private field or alongside the river (river camp sites are limited and sell out quickly). Those staying at the inn can expect romantic, antique-y rooms, mountain views, and farm-fresh dining.

5. Soul Circus

Elmore, UK | August 17-20, 2023

somehow manages to be both healthy and hedonistic. And somehow it works. Spearheaded by the charismatic founders, Roman and Ella Wroath, Soul Circus is a holistic yoga, arts, and music festival set in the rural countryside of Cotswold, United Kingdom. The combination of yoga asana, wellness workshops, and live music is undeniably more glittery wellness rave than traditional yoga festival. With its world-renowned DJs and afterparties that last until 2 am, Soul Circus wants to help you tune in and let loose.

By day, stretch out in yoga tents dotted along the countryside or join sought-after yoga instructors and wellness practitioners in any of the 300-plus wellness sessions, including cacao ceremonies, astral projection, lucid dreaming, and ecstatic dance. It’s a chance to indulge your woo-woo side.

As the light fades, the festival takes on an entirely different vibe. DJs set the skies alight with exhilarating music and dance. Those who need a reset after a marathon dance session can settle into a wood-fired hot tub or sauna at the on-site Soul Spa, which also offers daytime holistic therapy sessions.

Soul Circus is an undoubtedly energetic and unique yoga experience.

6. Dirty South Yoga Festival

Atlanta, Georgia | August 25-27, 2023

The , held at the end of August, is a homegrown celebration that’s all about promoting community and mindfulness in a way that embraces the “rough around the edges” energy of the South.

Founded in 2013 by a group of Atlanta-based yoga teachers, Dirty South Yoga arose from a need for authentic connection in the wellness community. The group cites the Zen Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh and his famous saying “No mud, no lotus” as a foundational inspiration and will be the first to admit they’re not prim and proper. They regularly practice falling and try to show up to themselves, their practice, and each other as best they can.

The festival takes place at The Loudermilk Conference Center in downtown Atlanta, where participants can revel in an entire weekend of workshops, classes, and activities. Founder has said she knows what it’s like to long for connection in the yoga world, and with Dirty South Yoga, she hopes to provide a place of support, guidance, and friendship. It’s yoga, real and raw.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CoYRp9NPMgR/

7. Mammoth Yoga Festival

Mammoth Lakes, California | September 14-17, 2023

is a getaway for those seeking adventure, growth, and connection in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. Every September, it offers “yoga and meditation for every body, every age, and every ability,” making it accessible to all who wish to make the pilgrimage.

Whether you’re a curious beginner or a yoga teacher seeking to expand your understanding of how to share the practice, Mammoth Festival shares an array of classes to help you develop your practice. Anyone can attend early morning sessions on creative yoga sequencing, the power of cueing, and decolonizing yoga. And every night, the Vendor Village Market lights up with performances from mystically-minded musicians, which included , , and in recent years.

Weekend asana and meditation classes from teachers such as and will help you settle a restless spirit and immerse yourself in the present. Also, presentations from yoga and health institutions such as Mammoth Hospital and the work trade and job opportunity website, , allow instructors to diversify their teaching tools beyond advanced asana. The festival is recognized as an approved Continuing Education Provider by the National Academy of Sports Medicine, making it an excellent opportunity for yoga and fitness professionals to gain needed continuing education credits.

8. Lamu Yoga Festival

Lamu Island, Kenya | October 25-29, 2023

From sunrise yoga sessions on pristine beaches to moonlit meditations beneath the stars, emphasizes total, undisturbed bliss. This celebration of yoga, culture, and tranquility happens in the coastal region of Kenya and immerses in a world of serenity, culture, and mindful exploration.

Yoga, breathwork, and meditation are taught at a dozen unique venues and studios. Discover the allure of Lamu Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its charming architecture and captivating history. With no cars in sight and donkeys and boats instead dotting the landscape, the scene creates a true escape from the everyday. Experience the local culture and traditions through an awe-inspiring opening ceremony on the beach, a traditional Kenyan dinner, a scenic sailing trip, and a mesmerizing bonfire to close your journey.

9. International Yoga Festival

Banks of Ganges River, India | March 2024

A week-long celebration of yoga and meditation, the in Rishikesh, India, attracts thousands of people from around the world to the birthplace of yoga. Nestled among the Himalayas on the banks of the holy River Ganga, the festival takes place at Parmarth Niketan Ashram, one of the largest interfaith yoga institutions in India. It’s a tranquil environment where participants can connect with themselves and their spiritual practice.

The aim of the International Yoga Festival is to “expand global consciousness and bring healing back to the planet, one person at a time.” In support of that, it hosts some of the greatest teachers from both eastern and western lineages of yoga, making it an ideal pilgrimage for dedicated students looking to connect with the origins of the practice.

The extensive schedule includes a mind-boggling array of activities, from early morning kundalini sadhana to evening kirtan and everything in between, including asana classes and talks. It regularly draws more than 2000 participants from 80 countries, offering a unique opportunity to come together and share in the transformative power of yoga. The festival’s emphasis on the origins of the practice is a testament to yoga’s enduring spirit, influence, and ability to unite people in the pursuit of growth and well-being.

10. Sedona Yoga Festival

Sedona, Arizona | April 2024

Many believe that certain locations on the planet experience a higher vibrational energy than others. With its seven vortices, or energy centers, Sedona is one of those places. The , now in its tenth year, draws on this enigmatic energy to foster community and spiritual growth.

Billed as a “consciousness evolution conference,” the festival boasts an impressive roster of speakers and rich coursework and continues to be a pioneer of large-scale mindful events in the United States. Workshops and immersions take place amid Sedona’s mystical landscape and world-class performing arts facilities and offer opportunities to explore all eight limbs of yoga.

Attendees can gather in the mornings for a communal ceremony before dispersing into lectures or desert excursions. There are more than 100 sessions to choose from, including yoga practices amid the red rocks. Evenings feature keynote addresses from top-tier spiritual minds, lectures, sacred chanting sessions, and live entertainment.

11. BaliSpirit

Ubud, Bali | May 2024

If practicing yoga in Bali is your dream, the in Ubud may be the ultimate destination. Held annually at the , this three-day “spirit festival” encompasses yoga, dance, martial arts, breathwork, personal development, and more, making it a catalyst for transformation.

A magnet for conscious travelers and spiritual seekers, BaliSpirit has grown considerably since it was founded in 2008, bringing economic growth and evolution to the town of Ubud. Held in a traditional Balinese open-air venue surrounded by wildlife and flanked by a sacred river, the fest offers a unique opportunity for attendees to connect with themselves, others, and the surroundings.

The holistic approach of the festival is reflected in its more than 150 workshops representing different styles of yoga (including Hatha, Yin, Anusara, and Ashtanga) as well as other types of movement (Capoeira, Qi Gong, Silat, Poi, Laughter, and hula hooping). Each night ends with a musical lineup of global performers, creating an intimate concert experience leading to deeper connections and sacred celebration.

About Our Contributor

Sierra is a writer, yogi, and music lover living in the Pacific Northwest. She’s been practicing yoga for nearly a decade & got certified to teach in 2018. She writes and teaches all about connection: connection to the body, to nature, and to the universal love that holds us together. She’s also the author of , a moon magic journal and witchy workbook.

For free yoga and witchy wisdom, find Sierra at , on Instagram , and on .

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The graffiti on the bridge in front of us is colorful but not exactly the cultural experience I was hoping to give my kids. We’ve been cruising the streets on the edge of Macon, Georgia, looking for a collection of Native American mounds, but so far all we’ve found is liquor stores and some randy messages spray-painted on an overpass. We are lost.

It’s an odd feeling and an increasingly uncommon one; given the GPS devices in our pockets, it’s pretty damn hard to make a wrong turn. Unless, that is, you decide to ditch the GPS entirely and let your two 12-year-olds choose the route for the family road trip using an old-school atlas.

A week before we arrived in Macon, I bought a Rand McNally and told my kids they would navigate our spring-break journey. We’d be traveling from our home in ´ˇłŮ±ô˛ą˛ÔłŮ˛ąĚýto , a barrier island six hours and 300 miles southeast on the coast of South Carolina, where we’d spend a few days camping and paddleboarding. I set the atlas in front of them on the kitchen table and explained what it was. Then I circled our starting point and destination on the map and asked them to plot our course. I may as well have given them an abacus and asked them to do algebra. It didn’t help that they can barely agree on the color of the sky.

Call this an experiment in GPS detox. I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to relying too heavily on my devices to tell me where to go. I subscribe to and OnXĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ use my phone to find Chinese food when I’m hungry; I always know where I am in the woods and the location of the nearest egg roll. But I don’t really know how to get anywhere on my own anymore. I just drift through the landscape on autopilot, turning wherever the nice lady in my phone tells me to turn. As a result, I’ve lost my sense of place, and I’m oblivious to the landscape around me. “You can feel completely disconnected and lost in space using GPS,” says Dave Imus, a cartographer that focus on the ridges, valleys, and rivers that define a region instead of its town names and interstate exits.

If it’s gotten this bad for me, I’m even more worried about my kids, Cooper and Addisson, who could grow up without ever using a paper map—which feels like bad parenting on my part. Hence the spring-break road-trip experiment. “Please don’t turn our beach vacation into a lesson,” my daughter pleaded. She might be sassy, but she’s not wrong. The beach trip is totally going to be a lesson.

First we have to get out of Atlanta, which on the map looks like a snake’s nest of highways. The blue circle of an interstate wraps around the whole city, so in theory, you could take a wrong turn and do laps until you run out of gas. But my son figures out that I-75 cuts through Atlanta, so if we keep heading south, we’ll eventually get past the mayhem.

The kids pore over the atlas in the back seat, getting a kick out of finding town names that are dangerously close to being dirty words, like Bullocks and Blichton. They also think it’s cool that the border of Georgia and South Carolina is defined by the Savannah River, not just some arbitrary line drawn in the sand, and that the coast of both states is painted with a lot of green because of an abundance of wildlife refuges there.

Middle Georgia is mostly flat, hot, and full of pecan trees. But I’m determined to give the kids a sense of the landscape we’re traveling through, so I ask them to look for cool detours, like patches of green or blue on the map indicating parks or rivers and lakes. They trace I-75 through the state and contemplate different places we could check out—Oconee National Forest, High Falls State Park—but settle on , a collection of Native American earth mounds just outside Macon.

Navigating the surface roads to the park doesn’t go smoothly. I lose count of the number of U-turns I make, and we end up sitting in the parking lot of a sketchy liquor store while the kids argue. But I refuse to pull out my phone. If we drive into a river, it’s going to be at the hands of my children. Eventually, they guide us to the park, which is worth the trouble. We walk to the top of the , a ceremonial 55-foot-tall clay hump that archeologists estimate took ten million baskets of dirt to create. It’s the highlight of the road trip.

A couple of hours later (call it two and a half, due to some confusion around which direction we should go off the exit), we make it to the coast. There’s not enough detail on the atlas for the kids to comprehend the sheer volume of islands that litter the edge of South Carolina, so we use one of those cartoonish tourist maps of the area to navigate our way across a string of inlets and islets to Hunting Island State Park. Once we arrive at our campsite, the kids take advantage of their newfound navigational power and use the map to direct us to ice cream shops and a waterfront park with big oaks covered in Spanish moss.

I’m not gonna lie and say we took the most efficient route. We didn’t. But my kids got us to the beach. I thought we’d fumble around a series of back roads until we ran out of gas or I started crying, but instead we actually all had fun.

A good lesson never ends, so now that we’re back home, I keep quizzing them on directions. I’ll pull over into a random parking lot and ask them how to get to our house. I’ll bring out the atlas and have them look for cool parks we should explore. I ask them where a certain river eventually leads to and which direction we should walk to reach a ridge of mountains on the horizon. They get annoyed with me, because they’re 12, but they’re learning their way around their corner of the world.

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If you haven’t discovered at least a dozen hidden gems in your backyard and hometown since the start of the pandemic, you’ve been doing it all wrong. But don’t worry, there’s still time to build that list. For those of us living in cities, there are plenty of weekend-long detours that will make you feel as if you’ve escaped the grind, without having to had to travel very far at all.

If You’re in Seattle or Portland 

Go to Sisters, Oregon. The  (from $125), three hours from Portland or five from Seattle, has everything you want in a quick summer getaway: a lake with kayaks, canoes, and SUPs on loan, a bar serving up lakefront cocktails, mountain bike trails nearby in , and musicians playing music around the campfire most nights. Stay in one of 11 newly restored lodge rooms or 16 rustic cabins on Suttle Lake.

If You’re in San Francisco or Los Angeles 

Go to Mammoth Lakes, California.ĚýIt’s a six-hour drive from San Francisco, or five hours from Los Angeles.  is staying open for skiing through Memorial Day; then the resort offers lift-accessed mountain biking, hiking trails, and scenic gondola rides. Need a camping rig?  has rental campervans you can pick up in L.A. or San Francisco. Or check in to the  (from $169), which has independent chalets.

If You’re in Boston or New York 

Go to North Adams, Massachusetts. A three-hour drive west of Boston and a 3.5-hour haul from New York City, the northern Berkshires in the spring is a good place to be: the summer crowds haven’t arrived yet and hiking on a stretch of the Appalachian Trail is good to go. For birdwatchers, you’ll find plenty of action at the Audubon Society’s in Lenox, which has seven miles of hiking trails. Stay at , 1.5 miles from downtown North Adams, which has 100 lakeside and wooded sites for RVs, campers, and tents (from $25). Pick up barbecue and a growler of craft beer at in town.

If You’re in ´ˇłŮ±ô˛ą˛ÔłŮ˛ąĚý

Go to Ellijay, Georgia. Less than two hours from Atlanta, this is a mountain biker’s dream spot, but there’s plenty to do here—from hiking to fly-fishing through —if you don’t ride bikes. Stay in a cabin or park your van or RV at  (from $70 per person) and you’ll have miles of singletrack and gravel riding from your door.

If You’re in Chicago

Go to , Illinois.ĚýIts waterfalls and wildflowers come alive in the springtime, and the park’s campground and lodge see relatively fewer crowds. Hike into the sandstone canyons or scenic bluffs via 13 miles of marked trails or fish for white bass and walleye in the Illinois River. Less than two hours by car from Chicago, the park has a sprawling (from $25) and a (from $120), built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

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According to KOA’s , more people are pitching tents closer to home. And that’s even more true now as we navigate state-by-state reopenings from coronavirus shutdowns. Luckily, there are more urban places to camp than you’d think, like these sites—all within 100 miles of big cities.

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park

A smattering of 34 islands and peninsulas just off the coast, this park has no shortage of activities, including swimming. We recommend , one of four that offer camping, for its hiking and views of the harbor. Seven primitive sites (from $8) are tucked into the woods and walkable from the beach. While most visitors take the ferry from Boston, those looking for a challenge can kayak an hour to reach the island. Note: the park is currently closed. Check for updates.

Phoenix, Arizona

Lost Dutchman State Park

Lost Dutchman has the same dramatic landscape as the region’s Joshua Tree and Saguaro National Parks—think classic Sonoran Desert full of majestic cactus—but without the crowds. Forty miles east of downtown Phoenix, the 320-acre park serves as a well-appointed trailhead for Tonto National Forest. At the RV-friendly campground, to get a site with views of the Superstition Mountains (from $25).

Atlanta, Georgia

Panola Mountain State Park

Atlanta is famous for suburban sprawl, but tucked amid all the chaos is Panola Mountain State Park, a 1,635-acre swath of wilderness 15 minutes east of downtown. You’ll have to hike half a mile to reach (from $22), which sit next to a pond filled with bream. There are 36 miles of hiking trails and a tree-climbing program that will have you reaching the tops of 100-foot red oaks. Time it right and you can sleep in the canopy during one of the park’s overnight climbs.

Chicago, Illinois

The Vaudeville Urban Farm

Sometimes you don’t even need to leave the city to pitch a tent. A 9,000-square-foot farm tucked into Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood, this has five campsites (from $48). Gather eggs, feed the goats, and use the prime location to explore the city. Run or pedal the 606, an abandoned rail line that’s been converted into a 2.7-mile-long park; kayak along the Chicago River; or take the train to Lake Michigan and run or bike the Lakefront Trail.Ěý

San Francisco, California

Angel Island State Park

The best view of San Francisco’s skyline is from a tent in the middle of the bay. The 740-acre has 12 campsites (from $30). Catch a ferry to reach the island, or kayak to one of two sites accessible from shore. Rent a bike from the Angel Island CompanyĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ ride nine miles of car-free roads, or hike the Sunset Trail to the top of 788-foot Mount Livermore for 360-degree views of downtown San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz.

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I’ve heard many strange things from Uber drivers. But this was a new one.Ěý

“Are you sure?” she asked, questioning my destination as I hopped into her car at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport one night last fall. “I’ve been driving Uber to and from the airport for five years now, and I’ve only taken someone south twice.” North is the city proper and Atlanta’s endless suburban expanse. South is deep country. The crickets get louder and the sidewalks vanish.

Tucked into Georgia’s remote Chattahoochee Hills, a mere 30 miles from one of America’s biggest urban centers, is (pronounced “saren-be”), a 750-resident, 1,400-acre “agrihood” founded in the early 2000s. Billed as a premium-living paradise—in its own literature and in Ěý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ , among others—it allows residents to connect with nature while surrounded by award-winning architecture. When I arrived, an employee handed me the keys to my lodging and an electric golf cart to use for the duration of my five-day stay. But after a pause she reconsidered. “Maybe I should drive you,” she said, skeptical of my ability to navigate to my temporary home in the dark. We drove by a rustic-chic farmhouse restaurant and down a winding country road, past a stylized rusted-metal signpost displaying the quote “All beauty is an outward expression of inward good.” I found the language pretentious, self-satisfied, and utterly irresistible. Still, I felt a vague sense of panic rising within as we drove through the darkened woods: Where was the award-winning architecture?

Just as my concerns began to peak, we reached Serenbe’s residential area, a fully formed, cleverly constructed community like something out of a Narnian fantasy. Currently divided into three large “,” the development is a whimsical hodgepodge of more than 300 minimalist-modern homes, townhouses, cottages, and farmhouses. We passed a general store, a florist, a high-end bike-repair shop, a school, and a playhouse before reaching my two-bedroom townhome in the hamlet of Grange. The 1,500-square-foot lodging was nearly three times the size of my New York apartment and had the ambiance of a premium Airbnb, with elegant decor, a library of self-help books, and Serenbe-branded glass water bottles. I stepped out onto the back deck overlooking a wooded expanse and was met with silence; even Serenbe’s dense neighborhoods are free from the sounds of traffic and commerce. Many residents have electric vehicles, and Serenbe rents out golf carts like mine to visitors in an effort to reduce noise pollution. Even during the busy day and evening hours, you can hear a pin drop.Ěý

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Last month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Japanese government announced that the 2020 Tokyo Games would be postponed until July 23, 2021, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It’s clearly the right call. But maybe you, like me, are still in shock, confronting the loss of an event we’ve been looking forward to for years.

Four recent books, however, remind us of other times when the Olympics overcame global crises and persevered through dark periods during its 124-year history. There were the World Wars, of course, which resulted in the cancellation of three Games. But it carried on through the Great Depression, terrorist attacks, and, most recently, a rogue regime threatening the use of a nuclear bomb. So while you’re sheltering in place without sports for the foreseeable future, try one of these reads to put this moment in historical perspective.

The Time an Olympic Hockey Team Helped De-Escalate a Nuclear Threat

The Olympics are often as much about politics as they are about sports. That was certainly true for the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, which helped ease tensions between South Korea and North Korea, even though organizers feared the latter might test a nuclear weapon during competition. In the middle of this geopolitical chess match was Korea’s first-ever unified women’s ice-hockey team. South Korea originally proposed the idea as a symbolic gesture to mitigate the tension on the Korean peninsula. Kim Jong Un eventually bought in, and a squad of 23 South Koreans and 12 North Koreans was created. In , Seth Berkman, a sports contributor at The New York Times, unspools the fascinating backstory. “Everyone on the team has a story worth sharing,” he told şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

The ups and downs that led to the unified team are especially engrossing. In 2013, South Korean officials sent mysterious emails to recruit Canadian and American collegiate players who looked Korean in their yearbooks. As a result, five North Americans of Korean descent joined the roster, which at that point was comprised solely of South Koreans. And the players didn’t just hail from different countries but all walks of life—they were college students, actresses, convenience-store workers. They became close as they prepared for the Olympics but then, four weeks before their first game in Pyeongchang, found out that 12 North Koreans would be joining the squad. In the end, everyone developed a special connection through training sessions, K-pop songs, Big Macs, and ice cream.

While the group didn’t win a single match, it wasn’t all a loss. Their teamwork overcame cultural, societal, and political challenges to make history. And the Olympics helped get Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table, which, at least for a while, provided hope for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

The Time an Ex-Cop Saved Thousands from a Bomb at the Olympics

The Atlanta bombing at the 1996 Summer Games was the worst Olympic terrorist attack since the Munich Massacre of 1972. Still, until , at least, most people forgot about Richard Jewell, the heroic security guard who spotted the bomb and prevented greater calamity. In , Kent Alexander, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Georgia at the time of the 1996 Olympics, and Kevin Salwen, a seasoned journalist, bring us back to the eighth night of those Atlanta Games.

At Centennial Park, Jewell, a hapless former cop turned hypervigilant guard, spotted a discarded bag near thousands of spectators watching a concert. It turned out to be a bomb. He helped evacuate the crowd, but it was too late to save everyone. It exploded. Two people died, and 111 were injured. In the following days, newspapers and TV networks from all over the world hailed Jewell as a hero. Everything went south, though, once an FBI agent leaked to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Jewell was a suspect in the attack. Law enforcement finally cleared him after three months of investigations, but during that time, TV crews in vans and helicopters shadowed Jewell and his family, speculating that he was the bomber. In 2003, the actual perpetrator, an American named Eric Rudolph, was captured and confessed not only to the Olympic bombing but three other antiabortion and antigay terrorist attacks in the South as well. Yet even today, some people continue to think Jewell is guilty.

Alexander and Salwen conducted 187 interviews and sifted through 90,000 pages of documents over five years while researching the story. They concluded that the Jewell episode was, as they write in The Suspect, “convenient for law enforcement that got its suspect. Convenient for the media that got its story. Convenient for Olympics organizers who could move the Games forward with fans and athletes believing the bomber had been safely cornered.” It was convenient for everyone but Richard Jewell himself. False information spread widely, shaped public opinion, and dragged law enforcement in the wrong direction. After that it was hard for the suspect to recover his lifeĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ his reputation. In an interview with , Salwen says the tale is “a social-media story from a time when social media didn’t exist.”

The Time the Olympics Arrived in America During the Great Depression

Los Angeles has Billy Garland to thank for putting it on the map: the real estate tycoon brought the Olympic Games to that city in 1932, helping establish it as the global cultural capital it is today. Yet most people in Southern California have probably never heard of him. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Barry Siegel revives his incredible story in .

At the turn of the century, automobiles were a rare sight in the underdeveloped city, and fig orchards covered what would become the Hollywood Hills. The movie industry only started to take root the following decade, and by 1920, three-quarters of the world’s films were shot around Los Angeles. But when the IOC’s European establishment began searching for the host of the 1932 Games, Los Angeles was still not on its radar. Garland decided to change that. Dreamers and Schemers uses extensive archival material, including letters exchanged between GarlandĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, to recount Garland’s improbable effort to bring the world’s largest sporting event to the City of Angels.

Some document-heavy sections move slowly, but the book conveys the amazing amount of ambition and confidence it required to convince both European representatives in the IOC and Californians themselves that the Olympics should come to Los Angeles. Garland pushed the state government to issue a million-dollar bondĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ then corralled Hollywood and local newspapers to drum up morale for hosting, even as the Great Depression rocked the country. He endured police corruption and political scandals to produce a successful Olympics, introducing Los Angeles to the world. “The story of Billy Garland is the story of Los Angeles,” Siegel writes. And that’s not an exaggeration.

The Time a Group of African American Athletes Defied Racism and Fascism to Compete in the Olympics

Typically, the world only remembers one black athlete from the notorious 1936 Berlin Olympics—Jesse Owens. But in , based on , director Deborah Riley Draper and author Travis Thrasher tell the story of the other 17 African American athletes who competed in those Games.

Their presence and victories in Berlin were a blow to racial prejudice on both sides of the Atlantic, and the book, though sometimes scattered, explores their fascinating backstories. The athletes pushed through unfair and rigorous trials to represent a country that considered them second-class citizens at an Olympics hosted by a fascist country. In some ways, Nazi Germany actually treated them better than the Jim Crow South. Owens and his fellow African American athletes were welcomed with applause and respect from competitors and spectators, and they all stayed in an integrated Olympic Village. Then they defied the Nazi regime’s ideas of Aryan superiority by scooping up 14 medals, including seven golds, in track and field and boxing.

“It wasn’t just Jesse. It was other African-American athletes in the middle of Nazi Germany under the gaze of Adolf Hitler that put a lie to notions of racial superiority,” write Draper and Thrasher. The athletic excellence demonstrated by the group foreshadowed Hitler’s defeat in GermanyĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ, back home, was a precursor to the civil rights movement.

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Say what you will about —the French aristocrat who founded the modern Olympics—but the guy had a talent for branding. He came up with those five interlocking rings back in 1913, creating one of the more ubiquitous logos of the 20th century. De Coubertin is also credited with the aspirational “” which reminds us that: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”

Of course, the taking-part-is-everything ethos extends beyond the Olympics itself. Just ask any of the hundreds of amateur athletes who are competing in this Saturday’s  in the marathon, which are being held in Atlanta. These men and women represent the cream of their local running communities, but have no realistic shot at contending for one of the six spots—three for men, three for women—on the Olympic team. While they may be grateful just to be in Atlanta, they are unlikely to treat the race as a 26.2-mile victory lap. Because to do so would be at odds with whatever it was that got them there in the first place.Ěý

How will these runners define success on the big day? I spoke to a few of them to find out.

Matt Rand 

Age: 28
Residence: Portland, Maine
Job: Research Manager at US News & World Report
Qualifying Time: 2:18:36

“This race definitely is different for me, in that I feel accomplished just making it to the start line. Making it there has been a goal for about four years; I’m one of many people who are just happy to be there. That’s not to say that I don’t have a goal for the race, but I’m defining success a lot more loosely than I would be for a marathon where I have a specific time goal in mind. That’s how I’ve been racing marathons for the last four years or so—I was deliberately picking fast, flat courses to try to run a PR and success was really defined by that finishing time. For this one, the time just doesn’t matter at all. Normally, leading up to a race, I can be a little bit anxious, uptight, and maybe not so pleasant to be around for the people close to me. It’s like you have a big weight on your shoulders. In this race, that’s not going to be the case—the weight’s already been lifted off. So I will be a little more relaxed and able to enjoy it. But, once the gun goes off, it’s still a 26.2-mile race where, if you’re not suffering, you’re not doing it right.”

Katie Casto Hynes

Age: 37
Residence: San Francisco, California 
Job: Diabetes Educator at the Pediatric Diabetes Clinic at UCSF
Qualifying Time: 2:41:37

“I think that because I’ve lived in a lot of cities—New York, Louisville, Portland, and now San Francisco—I know a lot of the women who are going to be racing. That’s exciting and going to make it more fun, but also I’ll know, with a lot of the women, that I should be near them in the race. I run for Ěý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ we have nine women from our team going to the Trials. Having these fast women to train with, the depth and strength of having eight other fast women training for the same thing has really elevated my training overall. So I do think that part of defining success will be about how I am doing compared with women I know that have run similar times to me. I think a little bit of a personal fear is that I feel like I’m in really good shape and if it was a different type of course I think I would probably have more of a time goal. I think that that’s been a little difficult; I’m in the best shape of my life, but I can’t necessarily go out at the pace that I’ve trained at. It’s going to be a big mental race. I’m hoping, mostly, to not go out and die.”

Patrick Reaves

Age: 34
Residence: Portland, Oregon
Job: SCI and Purpose Strategic Planning Director at Nike
Qualifying Time: 2:17:45

“When you’re a person like me—an amateur runner who works—once you qualify for the Trials, it would be easy to treat it like a victory lap of sorts. I’ve got some numbers in my head. I know where I’m seeded, relative to the field, and I’m pretty close to the middle. For me, top 100 would be a good day. Top 50 would be a great day! I have a chance to beat some people who are faster than me—so that will be really cool, too. The number of people I can pass during the race will be a good performance indicator—that’s the quantitative way of looking at it. The qualitative way of looking at it is how strong am I going to be feeling on that last leg. Am I fading? Can I accelerate to the finish? I’ll have spent a lot more of my life thinking about this race than I will actually running it. So I want to be able to look back on it and be able to say, I had my best day at the highest level of the sport. Not only did I have a great day, but I left it all out there. I don’t want to have any regrets, so I’m planning to race my ass off.”

Rena Elmer

Age: 37
Residence: Flower Mound, Texas
Job: Mother of nine children
Qualifying time: 2:40:21Ěý

“The only thing I really can base success on is a PR. My qualifying marathon was the first marathon I’ve ever run. I ran 2:40 on a flat course in Indiana and my last eight miles were really fast; I think I averaged a 5:51 mile. This one is going to be completely different because you’re either going uphill or downhill the entire time, at least from what I’ve heard. I mean, just going and knowing I did the best I could do—that’s success, but I would like to PR. I’m just going to try to replay exactly what I did in Indianapolis—looking at my splits in the first half and just try to stay on pace, and then the second half just race and not look at my watch. In Indiana that was a huge blessing because I ran way faster than I thought I could. I have to realize that there are 500 women running. I might be top 100, I might not be. I think I’m ranked 137th. So if all goes well, I have a possibility of being in the top 100. It’s hard to call though, because if you see 100 people running ahead of you, you have no idea if it’s 110 or 90. It’s going to be so awesome.”

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On Sunday, Lindsay Crouse, the producer and editor who broke last year’s news about against Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar, published in the New York Times titled: “I’m 35 and Running Faster Than I Ever Thought Possible.” Crouse, who is an accomplished amateur runner, describes how she just ran her best marathon at 35—an age where she “didn’t think it was still possible to improve significantly in anything.” This athletic achievement, Crouse goes on to note, was mirrored by successes in her professional life; in addition to the Cain/Salazar story, she was the driving force behind a viral Times story of former Nike runners taking the company to task for for contracted athletes. “I realized I could do a lot of other impossible things,” Crouse writes. “I could be a reporter like the journalists I’d always admired.” 

Marathon training can be very time-consuming, and there’s something seductive about the idea that the benefits of this ostensibly useless hobby might not be limited to eventually being able to run 26.2 miles slightly faster than before. Based on the experience of another runner I know (let’s call him Spartan Ritz), it’s tempting to convince yourself that achieving an ambitious time goal will help you unlock your potential in other areas.Ěý

For Crouse, that time goal was two hours and 45 minutes—the women’s Olympic Trials standard for the 2020 race, which is taking place in Atlanta on February 29. A record 511 women have qualified for this year’s event—up from 198 in 2016. (On the men’s side, the standard is 2:19, and 260 managed to qualify.) Although she ended up falling eight minutes short, Crouse suggests that for her and hundreds of women like her, the pursuit itself was transformative.Ěý

Two hours and 45 minutes is a daunting yet attainable target for hundreds of the best amateur female marathoners in this country, but that standard is expected to get harder for the 2024 cycle. In the past, USA Track and Field has based trials times on the official Olympic standards—the logic being that it shouldn’t be harder to qualify for U.S. Olympic team trials than for the actual Olympics. However, when the IAAF (which has since renamed itself World Athletics) released the qualifying standards for the 2020 Olympics last March, they had become much more difficult in several events—most conspicuously in the marathon, where the men’s and women’s standards went from 2:19 to 2:11:30 and 2:45:00 to 2:29:30, respectively. USATF will likely follow suit by making its own standards harder, albeit not quite to the same extent as World Athletics. (Only 11 American men and 18 American women have achieved the current Olympic marathon time standard.)  

Whether or not this is a good idea is a popular debate topic among those who care about the American sub-elite distance running scene. The marathon trials are unique in that they can accommodate much larger field sizes than the Olympic Trials on the track, where are generally much less feasible for talented amateurs. (In the 5,000-meters, for instance, the standard is 13:25 for men and 15:20 for women. If you can hit those times, chances are you’re a professional runner, or at least you should be.) 

The big tent nature of the event, so the argument goes, generates collective enthusiasm for the domestic marathon scene, as dedicated amateurs with regular jobs qualify for the race from all across the country. Even if an elementary school teacher from San Francisco has no realistic shot at taking down Galen Rupp, it’s still exciting to see them competing on the same stage. Culling race fields through tougher standards would result in fewer of these stories. Perhaps it might also reduce the likelihood of aspirational, running-themed op-eds in the New York Times.Ěý

On the other hand, when it comes to the Olympic Trials, hyper-exclusivity is sort of the point. The fact that over 300 more women qualified for the trials in 2020 than in 2016 changes the nature of the event, both in terms of athletic significance and race-day logistics; another subject of fevered speculation among running nerds is how race organizers will supply all trials participants with a personalized bottle every four miles without the whole thing devolving into a congested nightmare. If this proves to be an issue in Atlanta, USATF will be all the more incentivized to dramatically reduce the number of runners who take part.

But even if prospective new standards wind up being substantially harder, there’s a sense in which it might not matter to those for whom 2:45 already represented an audacious goal. What’s a few more minutes when you’re already shooting for the moon? One of the tantalizing aspects of this sport is how the limits of what might be possible are constantly evolving. (Especially in our current moment, when advances in shoe technology are ushering in a brave new era that will either allow runners to flourish like never before, or .)

Crouse points out to me that roughly a quarter of the women who qualified for the 2020 trials finished within a minute of the standard. This, she suggests, speaks to how much what transpired during this “unicorn” of an Olympic cycle was as much mental as anything else. 2:45 is the magical threshold—until it isn’t.Ěý

“You don’t have to be an Olympian to know the difference between 90 percent effort and 100 percent feels the same—you make up the difference with your mind,” Crouse says.Ěý“And of course the women’s standard right now is relatively easier than the men’s standard.” ( has the women’s equivalent of 2:19 at roughly 2:38.) “Now that women have shown we can get there, it’s probably time to make the two standards consistent. For me, it’s all the same: Impossible. So I’m sure a lot of us will get there next time, too.” 

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