Headlines we never thought we’d write

Over the past month, we’ve written some headlines that would have looked very strange this time last year, and all because of the coronavirus outbreak and ensuing lockdowns and quarantines. We decided to compile some of the funniest, oddest and most surprising headlines we’ve written, not just during this pandemic, but in the last 12 months. There’s been a lot of crazy news, so enjoy some of our wildest headlines.

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Your daily dose of COVID-19 news

Every day, there are countless articles written about the coronavirus and how it’s affecting people around the world. It’s had an impact on the running news cycle, too, as more people have been forced to stay inside to log their training miles. Headlines like “Chinese man runs 50K–in his apartment” and “Quarantined French man runs marathon on apartment balcony” both would have been inconceivable a year ago. It’s still pretty crazy to run a marathon in such a confined place, but people have come to accept it as a normal part of life.

RELATED: Man completes marathon in his backyard

Miscellaneous

A recent story, “5 reasons to love Eliud Kipchoge’s GQ fashion spread,” certainly seems like a joke. Nothing against Kipchoge–he rocked his photoshoot, but a marathon runner is one of the last people we’d expect to see in GQ.

Training in Kenya with the man who broke the 2-hour marathon barrier https://t.co/vStEb0CwTT pic.twitter.com/qul5URtQsj

— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) March 30, 2020

“Meet the world’s fastest banana” is another headline that doesn’t make sense without context, and we couldn’t have imagined it would be an article we’d end up writing. Back in October, Melvin Nyairo ran a 1:15:35 at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon while wearing a banana suit, so of course we wrote that story.

RELATED: Nick Symmonds runs fastest 400m in Crocs

Jaw-dropping results

Finally, there are some headlines for stories we’ve written on unbelievable results that no one could have predicted, like “Britney Spears demolishes Usain Bolt’s 100m world record.” This was, of course, a joke, but Spears really did post on Instagram that she ran a 5.97 100m dash, so it had to be covered.

The REAL reason they shelved the Olympics. Scared of true greatness. https://t.co/zkTExG7E59

— The Pickle (@sportspickle) March 26, 2020

“Eliud Kipchoge runs the fastest marathon in history, 1:59:40” is most definitely not a joke, but if someone had read this headline just a few years ago, they wouldn’t have believed it, seeing as most people considered a sub-two-hour marathon impossible.

And we can’t leave out “Japanese half-marathon sees a shocking 400 finishers under 1:10.” That’s right, 400 runners ran sub-1:10 in a half marathon in Japan last November, 179 of whom ran sub-66 minutes. For a comparison, in last October’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon (the one with the fast banana), only 11 runners dipped under the 70-minute mark, and only the top two went sub-66.