Marathon & Beyond editor Rich Benyo was the executive editor of Runner’s World magazine from 1977 to 1984, during the height of the running boom. The author of 17 books in the areas of fitness, health, and sports, Rich is a serious long-distance runner who over the past 20 years has competed in practically every distance and type of running event imaginable—from 400 meters to ultramarathons. Besides running more than 35 marathons, Rich, along with Tom Crawford, became the first person to run from Death Valley to the peak of Mount Whitney and back—a distance of 300 miles. You can read about Rich’s Death Valley adventures in his book, The Death Valley 300.
Rich is currently co-race director and board president of the Napa Valley Marathon. A member of the Road Runner’s Club of America, he lives in Forestville, CA, with his wife Rhonda Provost, who in 1995 became the first woman and the eighth runner overall to do the Death Valley-to-Mt. Whitney double-crossing successfully. Rich’s latest book—written with Joe Henderson—is Running Enclyclopedia and was published in 2001. Rich is on the staff of the Dick Beardsley Marathon Running Camp.
Marathon & Beyond publisher Jan Colarusso Seeley has been lacing up her running shoes since 1974. Jan worked at the U.S. headquarters of Human Kinetics Publisher in Champaign, Illinois, for over seven years, serving as editor of nearly 50 books before moving to HK’s journal division in the fall of 1996 to manage M&B. From 1991 to 1997, Jan, along with her husband Joe, was also the editor of FootNotes, the quarterly publication of the Road Runner’s Club of America.
A 1982 Yale graduate and former world-class field hockey player and four-year member of the U.S. National Field Hockey Team, Jan turned in her stick and cleats in the early '80s and became an avid long-distance runner and race director. She has been running for 33 years. Jan has a Masters degree in English from the University of Illinois, and has written articles for such publications as FootNotes, The Boston Globe, and the Yale Alumni Magazine.
Jan also works as the manager for long-distance running legends Helen Klein and Patti Catalano Dillon; and nationally renowned coaches Bill Wenmark and GP Pearlberg, promoting them as speakers at races, schools, corporations, and non-profits throughout the running world. Jan is also the director of the Dick Beardsley’s Marathon Running Camp and his high school running camps.