Running Research Studies
My name is Brian McFarlin and I am a Professor and Researcher at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. I am the Co-Director of the Applied Physiology Laboratory (appliedphysiologylab.unt.edu) and our core research focuses on improving the health and overall experience of runners. Being physically active has been very important to me throughout my life. I did a lot of running to stay active in my early 20’s and then fell out of it for a number of years as “Life Happened”. Two years ago, my wife (Meredith McFarlin) challenged me to train and run the 2018 Cowtown Half Marathon with her. Not only did we train and run the race we went on to run 12 other Half Marathons in 2018. Meredith helped remind me how much I LOVE running. In 2019, she challenged me to run two marathons with her. In February we ran Cowtown and in December we are running the Dallas BMW Marathon. We have also run several Half Marathons this year. In addition to my own running, my research team has been conducting research studies to support the running community. I think it is important that we practice what we study, so my whole research team (Melody Gary, Asheal Davis, Liz Tanner, Meredith McFarlin, and Rich Gary) are runners. Our previous studies have focused on strategies to improve run training and tracking, running footwear, post-exercise recovery using dietary supplements, performance enhancing clothing, and others.
We are proud and honored to be a research partner for the 2019 Colony Half Marathon. At this year’s race we will be conducting two studies. The first study focuses on using a dietary polyphenol supplement to improve training efficiency and race recovery in seasoned runners. The second study involves non-runners who have been training since June to run their first half marathon. These runners have been using custom UnderArmour shoes with embedded MapMyRun technology to create adaptive, responsive training plans. As a thanks for participating and supporting our research, our subjects get free race entries, coveted APL Research Running Team Swag (from Orange Mud, Bondi Band, BibBoards, etc.), free nutrition support, and financial compensation. Even if you are not one of our subjects, with your race entry this year, you will be getting a limited edition, brushed metal APL Running Team 13.1 sticker. We hope that you will proudly display our sticker on your car, yeti mug, coffee cup, etc. If you are interested in participating in any of our studies or would like more information, please fill out the information request on our website (https://appliedphysiologylab.unt.edu/current-research-studies) and we will get in touch with you.
