I was broken by the algorithm. The hybrid gym bros, the influencers with short shorts and ribbons in their hair, the 200 crowd online with their PEDS, life hacks and lack of training. It was everywhere and still is.

I started to resent the people coming into our sport and it was effecting my race experience. I was perpetually annoyed and angry at them, especially at races when they would be in large, loud groups, playing boom boxes on the trail, being roudy at aid stations and effecting other runners experience.

What used to be as simple as turning off the live chat, the toxicity is now in every corner of the sport.

It’s become hard to enjoy trail running content and it’s stopped me wanting to make it.

But this newsletter has always been about sharing. Sharing the stories that make our sport special.

You won’t find any influencer or 200 content here. It doesn’t need to be shared, encouraged or endorsed. This is not the space for that.

I feel the need to defend the regular runner making content. I think there is a distinct difference between people sharing their mid and back of the pack adventures in a genuine way for the love of the sport and content that isn’t about promoting their “coaching” business or proving to the world they have a penis.

This sort of content and the people who make it is what makes the sport special.

There are few sports where you can stand on the same start line as your heroes on the exact same day and travel the exact same route.

But I think we have taken “doing it for the gram” a bit too far.

If that’s your sort of content and it inspires and motivates you, then great, I’m not here to yuck your yum, but it’s not for me.

So I’m going to share the fun things I actually have saved over the past few weeks, just in case your algorithm also missed it and ahead of the influx of UTMB content that will no doubt flood your feeds.

Reads

Not A Conversational Pace

The Rise Of Performative Running Culture

The term “grifter” has been increasingly thrown around in online communities, and I never actually knew what it meant until recently. I feel that now is the perfect time to educate myself on this term, why it’s relevant in run culture, and provide some commentary on what I’m seeing. This topic has been brewing in my mind for quite some time, and I was i…

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3 months ago · 745 likes · 124 comments · Allison

Not A Conversational Pace

The Broification Of Running

Why Does Running Feel More Bro-ey These Days…

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a month ago · 77 likes · 31 comments · Allison

Liam

My Favourite Western States Endurance Run Films

With the 2026 Western States Endurance Run only a few days away, I thought it would be fun to share my favourite (both well known, and a few lesser known/watched) films related to the race. Consider watching some of these to get in the mood for this weekend! Let me know what others you’ve enjoyed in the comments…

Read more

2 months ago · 27 likes · Liam

Instagram

Pods

This one is full of hot takes.

You know I’ll collect a bunch during UTMB week. With the feeds being flooded, it will be interesting to see what rises to the top and what is just more of the same shit.

Nah, pretty sure it’s on brand!

Just go watch Puppi’s latest vlog, then post your step count, Jim says.

Finally we are branching out from the pros showing us their race recaps or following them for a workout and we are about to see some diversity in the content game.

Newly unsponsored Sally McCrae jumped on her socials to say she was a free agent and would be testing a whole bunch of gear in the lead up to Cocodona 250. Of course every trail brand on the planet sent Sally a bunch of product which she is now inadvertently reviewing.

I’ve always complained about the lack of female gear reviewers so I’m stoked to see Sally do this even if she says it wasn’t exactly in her plan for 2026.

Patagonia dropped a fun little video about Clare Gallagher and her pregnancy. Folks new to the sport might not know of Clare but she is a badass and this video was a really fun behind the scenes.

Trail running reality TV? Yes please! They were quick to say it’s not reality TV but a documentary (🤔), but Trail House aims to follow four up and coming athletes, living Big Brother style in the same house. Can’t wait to see the content from this!

Where is The Cut Off? Surely I’m not the only one impatiently waiting for this film. Following the very back of the pack, instead of the front, is a really novel approach from film maker Dylan Harris (yes the same Dylan Harris that made Lucy’s Dad) and I can’t wait to see how it comes out.

They are doing a film tour at the moment but fingers crossed it comes to YouTube soon.

Matt Trappe over at A Matter of Brand published a really interesting Substack on the way trail athletes are using YouTube and how brands can be better invoked. It has links to some great YouTube channels, most already mentioned on Trail Snacks at some point but a good reference to why these channels are resonating and setting themselves apart.

A Matter of Brand

New YouTube Strategies for Athletes and Brands

YouTube is the most streamed video app in the world. Despite that accolade I think it’s still underutilized by brands and athletes in our sport. Collectively we are constantly experimenting with the ways it can be most effective…

Read more

5 months ago · 17 likes · Matt Trappe

If you missed Tara Dowers post race interview after Black Canyon, you need to break up with your algorithm!

Now that you’ve seen that, head over to Tara’s YouTube channel for the full Black Canyon recap video.

Tara’s channel has always been a bit part of her story and a great watch. She would film and edit everything herself and document her adventures way before she became a house hold name in the trail space. I can only assume the extra investment from Altra after her AT FKT is what has boosted the quality of each video she puts out, giving her the resources to outsource editing and filming.

Hope you enjoy these snacks for your next rest day.

Best enjoyed on the couch, with sore legs and a full belly.

I’m currently tapering for another crack at the Tarawera 100 mile, so I’ve been happily chilling and consuming more content than I have in a while.

I’m not hear to opine about “the state of the sport” 🙄, the influencers of the 200 milers, or who is fake beefing with who, I’m sure you can go down the rabbit hole of all that on your own, should you feel the need for a little extra torture in your already pain ridden life as an ultra runner. But I digress….

Before we all get blasted with the same overhyped shit as we enter Golden Ticket season, here are some of the top YouTube videos and films that popped up in the last few weeks.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock this holiday period, you would have seen the media in the sport is besotted with non trail runners coming entering trail running. It’s like the longest tease in history.

But that being said, I actually really enjoyed the Molly Seidel movie put out by Aravaipa this week.

I think what set it apart is it didn’t follow the usual formula of most trail running films, which for better or worse follow the script of “runner trains for a race, runner runs race, runner debriefs race”. It’s more of an intro piece to Molly, stroking on her motivations, her career thus far and her relationship with running in general.

One that was a surprise on the day, but less so 6 months later (spoiler alert) was Will Murray’s victory and course record at Javelina Jundred this past October.

This one follows the formula you would expect, especially if you know the ending; but Will is an engaging athlete and the music and editing is great.

Most film makers do a pre interview and a post interview with an athlete for a film, but it seems for FreeTrail’s piece on Zach Millers HardRock experience this year, they only spoke to him after the race, giving the entire film the vibe of a visual race recap.

It’s hard to tell if it’s pre written or if Zach was provided the video and told to commentate over it, but it feels like Zach is reading the audio book of his running blog. I don’t hate it, it’s a different approach to the standard race recap format and frankly who doesn’t love Zach content!

The return of the Vlogs

2025 saw the return of Vlogs and Blogs (oh sorry newsletters) in a big way.

Continuing to impress into 2026, is the content coming out of Team Puppi.

From his Instagram, to his YouTube and Substack, Fran doesn’t shy away from sharing his thoughts on everything from pizza to politics.

You’ll need the English subtitles for his YouTube, but he is clearly committed to sharing and I’m here for it.

Another successful OCC athlete, Jeshrun Small also has been putting out quality YouTube content. Boosted recently by a Boulder Boys shout out, Jesh’s page has only continued to improve in the past year.

If you like training and workout videos, Jenn Litcher is continuing to document her big workouts over on YouTube.

I hate workouts (doing them and watching them) so I don’t love this style, but I do like the behind the scenes and Jenn is a fun person to follow.

Hans the kid continues to ride the fine line of influencer and professional athlete. It’s fun and his videos are hilarious. The kid has talents and he’s a great fun follow!

I’m sure I’ve missed some, but my Fantasy Free Trail needs tweaking and my suitcase is still spread out over five piles in three different rooms.

What are your never miss YouTube videos?

Tag below so I can jump on board too!

Is it going to be hot? Probably not, could it be, yeah, so I’m taking all precautions and milking the advantage heat gives you just in case.

This for me, unfortunately, means dragging my sweaty post run arse to the public swim centre every damn day to sit in the sauna.

And let me tell you, it’s an experience.

I want to reward myself every day for surviving the 20-30 minutes and it was absolutely nothing to do with the physical torture that is the heat and humidity.

It’s the people.

Look, full disclaimer, I’m an introvert who dislikes people at the best of times, never mind being stuck in a 5x5 box with them for 30 minutes at a time, but some people have absolutely no concept of how to behave around other people.

Now the sauna I frequent already has rules, like all good saunas do.

But I really don’t think they go far enough.

Let’s start with the basics

1. No talking

I don’t need to hear about your new garden fence, the plight of the local football team or the last time you got laid (or claim to).

2. Actually, no sounds at all.

No grunting, not huffing, no groaning. It’s hard for everyone, if you are going to die please do it quietly.

3. No calisthenics, push ups, planks, pacing or exercise of any kind.

I probably already think you’re a tool, doing pushups is only confirming my bias.

3. No picking, popping or scratching any and all body parts.

This should seriously be quite obvious

5. Social distancing is not an option it’s a requirement.

Don’t sit next to me when there is no one else in this damn hot box, keep your sweat to yourself. This is not a run on the treadmill next to the only person in the gym and “secretly” race them situation.

6. Speaking of sweat, that should he be only bodily fluid exiting your body. Don’t spit, sniff, snot rocket or anything else!

7. Keep the door shut.

   Don’t stand in the door and yell out to your wife to remind you about anything. Don’t come in and out at 5 minute intervals because you are doing “contrast training”. Don’t dordle. You are letting the heat out!

8. Don’t lie down when it’s full.

Let me guess, you also need a seat for your bag on the train?

9. Have some basic decency for other people.

   Hey bro, it’s not all about you!

Turns out turning up the heat, is also turning up my annoyance at everyone, anywhere, all the time.

Pray for me, and the next person who asks me “how long are you in for?” in the sauna.

UTMB was a lot, World Championships was a lot.

So much content, mostly just advertising.

I found myself burnt out on it, of all of it.

I also realize that when every single algorithmic feed is serving me the same thing, it’s me, I’m the problem, it’s me, maybe I need to diversify my interests a little rather than directing all my anger and frustration at the folks trying to make the sport a “real sport” according to them with highlight reels and commentary and half time shows.

I will say though, the live broadcast of both UTMB and Worlds was some of the best they have ever been and I’m sure they will only improve.

Now that the race recap pods and posts have faded, here are some of my favourite pods of the past few months

There has been some great podcasts and videos pop up in the last month or so, so here’s my podcast round up (I’ll leave the vids for another day).

My new favourite running podcast, Hemming and Hawing, a pod by married professional runners Eli and Tabor Hemming. They are three episodes deep and talking like no one is listening! It’s bloody great. It’s spicy, opinionated and funny.

You all know I’m a massive Jim fan. It’s not even a secret at this point. I’m not always the biggest fan of DBo, as someone who has a fair bit of experience interviewing people (and has a journalism degree) my biggest criticism of the FreeTrail pod is often that he misses the follow up question and changes topics or interrupts the guest. Well not this time, he lets Jim rant and it’s bloody glorious.

Toni McCann on Running Long.

Francesco Puppi is one of my favourite athletes in the sport. His Instagram and YouTube are fantastic and he launched a Substack this year as well. Boy is focal about the things he cares about both in and outside of the sport.

Toni is a breath of fresh air in sport and I love hearing her point of view. This one is a must listen.

Koop AI and the death of the KoopCast.

I don’t generally give additional air time to the coaching pods. You choose your cult, I’m not here to judge, but I do listen to all of them and see what I can improve on, unless the audio is shit then I’m out!

I’ll share my favourite new vids next week, if I don’t throw my toys out of the cot again!

I’ve been feeling a little meh about this space lately but I’m back with some fun nuggets to share.

I have to admit I felt super validated by the recent recap and break down over on Trail Mix regarding the results of the recent trail runner survey.

I’m a middle aged (41), professional, Aussie white woman with no kids who loves to nerd out on the elite end of the sport as well as trying to improve my own performance in the 100k-100 mile distance. I feel like a bit of a unicorn. Send me links of where I can find my people!

Trailmix

✳️The State of Trail: What Runners Want and What They’re Worried About

Hey pals 👋…

Read more

a year ago · 25 likes · 2 comments · Matt Walsh

But before I get started, I have to give a massive shout out of Francesco Puppi whose instagram is one of the best in our sport. It’s fun behind the scenes clips, paired with introspection, training diaries and the ups and downs of being a professional athlete including the business of it all, makes Puppi a must follow.

Let’s start with this banger from UltraSign Up! I almost spat my morning coffee into the lavender haze of this interview with Jim and Killian pre Western States.

I’ve felt the trail running podcasts being a little stale of late, lacking in any spark of enthusiasm or spirit.

But I couldn’t help but smile the entire way through the most recent Free Trail pod with Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie. It was refreshingly real and a nice break from hearing elites waffle about their nutrition plans and sauna training.

Now has anyone jumped on board the Bargain Boys podcast? Not to be confused with the Boulder Boys although I suspect there is some hope you may listen by accident, this pod is the east coast carbon copy of the original BB show, only with crappier audio and less chemistry.

I’m sorry, I tried, I’ll go back and see if I can get into it.

Katie freakin Schide.

There are few people who speak publicly about the sport the way Katie does.

And her versatility and grit is so inspiring.

Speak of, Now this is a little random, but I want to shine a light on this bloke who is documenting his couch to Cocodona over on Instagram.

Got cool content, send it over, I need the vibes!

Subscribe now

Trail ultra running in Rolling Stone magazine!!

Well I never! It’s just a little news snippet but it’s still cool. My favourite thing about this piece is it doesn’t do what most mainstream media does and make the sport out like it’s some kind of extreme, outrageous thing that crazy people do.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/ben-gibbard-ultra-marathon-100-miles-1235375481/

Ken over at the (who is on the Running Long pod this week! I’ll put the link at the bottom) posted about this cool initiative with Western States and the Man Against Horse folks.

As I said last week, I find it super interesting to see where sponsors and partners choose to put their tickets. Maybe just my unsolicited opinion but I don’t think it’s acceptable anymore for sponsors to give their entry to another elite athlete who can race their way in in a variety of ways, not as people, including elites, are waiting 7-10 years to get in via the lottery. These entries are precious and I think it’s time they are treated that way.

This was embodied no more so than by Adam Peterman this year, who decided to walk it in when his wheels fell off rather than dropping out.

The reality for the majority of the field is that we’ll walk it in, at some point the wheels will fall off. Us normies don’t finish 100 miles the way Kilian did!

And as the Boulder Boys aptly pointed out on their race recap pod, a lot of people talk the talk about respecting the race and the bib and the rest of the participants, but not many actually walk the walk as Adam did.

I’m not here to debate whether or not elites should DNF, just appreciating the respect Adam chose to show to the bib.

But the quote of the episode is Moi’s review of the livestream, “the energy and the expert”. I’m adding Corrine corrects Dylan to next years Western States Livestream drinking game.

I’m pretty sure Seth’s dreams came true this week, and I’m not talking about M6 at Western States. He appeared on the Coffee Club podcast. If you know the Boulder Boys pod, you know Seth is a massive Coffee Club fan boi.

I started watching this on YouTube and most women would pay to have a bloke look at them the way Seth was looking at those boys. 😍

This is not a Boulder Boys themed edition (but maybe it should be), but I can’t speak highly enough of the bloke they have putting together the video series on YouTube Dillan Forsey. He had outdone himself with his Western States episode. You may be cutting onions with this one, you’ve been warned.

New podcast alert: Amanda Basham and Careth Arnold have started their own podcast about returning post babies. I haven’t started listening yet, so not a rec or review, just a newsflash in case your algorithm hates you!

I’ve read and listened to quite a few race recaps and they vary from the “recaps are boring I’m not doing one, mind your own business” style to the oversharing of David Roche to the racing insights of .

Overall I really like recaps and as a runner I find doing a postmortem on my own race extremely beneficial from an educational and learning perspective. I’m a millennial, of course I have a blog.

I’m sure the silent athletes are dissecting the unpleasantries in private. But as a runner who would like to run states one day, I don’t hate the over sharing if I can learn something from it!

Anyway folks, Happy Hard Rock week, may the content be great and your Fantasy Free Trail go better than last week!

Other links:

I get why some of the athletes wouldn’t want to be a part of some of the shenanigans but it’s always fun to see the brand activations around the race.

Here are my personal pre race highlights!

Jim on SingleTrack, a slight sneak behind the curtain of the master.

He’s funny, he’s weird, he’s whip smart, there’s a reason he’s the best. If you are a fan of the sport or a fan of Jim, do not miss this one.

Chris Myers and Scott Jurek, this is pre states content I expect!

The legends panel over on FreeTrail was so fun. It felt like a weird AI glitch to see Jim and Scott sitting next to each other (I’m sure half the viewers are still convinced they are the same person) and make sure you stay tuned to hear Scott put Jim on blast for stealing his look!

The content coming out of Boulder Boys HQ is so good, the vibe, the style, the coffee, the whole thing.

I added rim to rim to my running bucket list!

And a few cool stories and regular folks to follow:

Dr Chris Severson, an ER doc hoping to finish under 24 hours

Adam Popp, aiming to be the first above the knee amputee to finish.

And if you make it through the weekend without getting the Jim undercut, you may have more strength than me!

Happy statesmas folks!

I’ll leave you with Lucy’s recent love letter to states.

If you are new to ultra trail running or Western States and you have unlimited time on your hands, check out my previous posts of my favourite Western States content or if you have just tuned in and you don’t understand why everything got cancelled when Jim dropped off the start list, well there is a huge collection of Jim v Western States content on YouTube which you can find a list of at the bottom of the WALMSLEY review post, and you too can cry over the fact that the King has other, undisclosed plans for 2025.

Trail Snacks by Mel Mac Runs

Trail Snacks- Issue #21, 2024

It has been brewing for weeks now and the excitement is starting to boil over…

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2 years ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Mel MACFARLANE

Trail Snacks by Mel Mac Runs

Trails Snacks- Issue 16, 2024

Trail snacks- The “Walmsley” edition…

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2 years ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Mel MACFARLANE

But otherwise, friends, pals and poets, welcome to Western States 2025.

There’s been a lot of hype this year about the pointy end of the race, mostly on the men’s side but the women’s field is also absolutely fire.

Almost everyone who is anyone is on the women’s list this year. You could compile a list of the top 20 female 100k to 100 mile athletes and probably 18 of the 20 would be on the start list this year. It’s bonkers.

My first recommendation is to start your Western States warm up with this two part series over at Women of Distance. I’m so excited to see some of my favourite runners take on this massive race.

The prediction shows will no doubt dominate everyone’s podcast and YouTube feeds over the next few weeks, so before that happens maybe take a look at the rest of the field.

Which you can find here!

https://www.wser.org/2025-entrants/

You can filter my age, location, entry pathway and more. I’m always cheering for the folks with 512 tickets (9 years worth of entries!)

Notable entrants outside of the Golden tickets and returning Top 10 players include Jeff Browning with a sponsors spot and Jamil Coury (Aravipa head honcho) who managed to get drawn out of the lottery for Western States and Hard Rock in the same year.

But we all know states is just as much about the rest of the field and how long they have been trying to get in as it is about the front of the field.

This year, there are six men over the age of 70 in the race, including Jim Howard (see below) and Michel Polletti (the head honcho at UTMB, not “by UTMB” the actual UTMB).

These blokes have been running 100 mile races, some running Western States for 40 years! Nick Bassett is 80 years old and has 14 western states finishers to his name.

AJW did a great podcast series highlighting these fellas if you are keen to add them to your list of stories to follow this year!

As cool as this is, my first gut response was “oh great, we are highlighting old white men this year”. How different 🙄 but I’m still rooting for them all. It gives me hope that if I don’t get in until I’m 65, I might still get that shiney buckle!

Each year over on the Western States Instagram page, quite a few of the runners are featured so make sure you check them out too.

We haven’t heard much from the sponsor spots yet, with 17 or so entries going to sponsors as part of their sponsorship package. Sometimes sponsors decide to highlight really cool folks in community and other times they go the cash grab with someone who could have raced their way in or are more of an influencer personality in the sport.

FreeTrail posted this little video highlighting Rini Sugianto who was awarded a Hoka sponsor spot and will no doubt be the first Indonesian woman to finish Western States in a few weeks.

Faith Akioyamen is running in a Gu sponsor spot in a few weeks.

I love when sponsors choose to highlight different folks and really showcase what this sport is about.

Less than 10% of trail ultra runners are elite, yet 99% of the attention is on that 10%.

But if you are a celebrity spotter, keep an eye out for Boston marathon champ Des Linden who is pacing Brooks team mate Joe “String bean” McConaughey and Death Cab for Cutie front man Ben Gibbons who got in off the waitlist (icon) only a few weeks ago.

I’ll keep posting as more content comes out to keep everyone in the loop because I fear for all our feeds!

Also in non Western States news, this stunning piece by Zoe Rom popped up last week just as I was experiencing my own post race pity party. Thanks to Zoe for reminding me that it’s cool to care. This one is bookmarked for many a future reminder.

Happy doom scrolling, see ya at States!

Subscribe now

This one is a contender for movie of the year, SuperNova: The 100 Mile dog! She just makes my heart sing!

I resisted this at first when it came up in my feed. I was worried that it would make folks think that running this far with their dog was a good idea, the way that folks think David Goggins is Jesus.

But that isn’t the vibe of this at all, I won’t give it away but it’s definitely worth a watch.

Did anyone catch the first ever Ultra Trail Australia live stream?

Tarawera has had a few goes at media and live content but the limitations of the available internet service has made it difficult. I thought UTA would have similar issues but they did really well navigating the lows and light limitations towards the end.

I was disappointed to see that Free Trail didn’t have a fantasy round for the race given it was a regional Major but there was also no mention from them of Snowdonia either, the biggest race is the UK.

And then this photo of Stephanie Case went hella viral!

Well as viral as a woman accomplishing something amazing can. I was surprised to not see it more. I expected similar coverage as Jasmin Paris finishing Barkley or Camille Herron at Further but there was nothing.

Abel Recknold, who works at Craft, a company that isn’t Stephanie’s sponsor, highlighted the inequality perfectly in his Substack.

Abel Recknold

The Stories They Don’t Tell

Some feats speak for themselves. Or at least, they should…

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a year ago · 15 likes · 1 comment · Abel Recknold

YouTube

Finally a movie about a woman doing something hard. Kudos to film maker Tay Ross and Altra Running for putting together this film about Jacky Hunt-Broersma running the Speed Project.

Since I’ve finally worked out the subtitles situation of YouTube, I’ve been able to catch up on some of the non English trail movies.

The one at the top of the “when I work out subtitles” list was Francesco Puppi’s channel. Puppi is one of my favourite Instagram follows and his podcast is great, but his YouTube is in his native tongue of Italian.

Considering I really had to concentrate (and not play on my phone at the same time) while watching this, I was surprised to be so captivated and invested in something I knew the outcome of. It was fun to see that even the pro’s pro gets confused by the math required to plan for a 100km race and just how insanely fast Puppi ran! There was not sitting in a rock pity party for Puppi!

As Matt Walsh over at Trail Mix said so eloquently this week, it is the era of athlete driven content and I’m here for it.

Trailmix

The Athlete-Authored Era

Hey pals…

Read more

a year ago · 9 likes · 3 comments · Matt Walsh

The more that comes out, the more I’ll to share. I’m aiming to put together a bit of a directory of blogs, newsletters and channels so you can find your favourite as well as get the newsletter of the cool stuff that comes out.

Until next time, happy recovery.

May you find some entertainment for your recovery and rest day here!

Subscribe now

Quote of the week: Seth Ruling “I’m on my Katie Schide program”

Reads

I’ve been slack in the reading department. Now that I have stopped using X, sometimes the other algorithms don’t serve up articles or blog posts from publications, brands or athletes.

I’ve also stalled a little on Substack, I’m not finding myself excited open the app. If you find something new and exciting please send it over.

Zoe Rom can always be relied upon for linking current political moments with running. Her latest offering explores the impact of the Trump tarrifs on the sport. Ultrarunning is a sport that isn’t at all cheap, so this will only push taking part further from those who are on the financial cusp.

However it may also encourage folks to keep their gear longer, repair it or buy used which can only be a good thing for the environment.

https://www.irunfar.com/how-tariffs-could-reshape-the-cost-and-culture-of-running

Podcasts

We hear a lot about Jim Walmsley.

Those who have been in the sport for the last decade have seen a few different versions of the champion and as much as the “community” probably doesn’t want to admit it, we have matured too. If Jim of 2016 was here today, I doubt he would cop as much flack for his flash as he did back then.

Calling your shot is the in thing in 2025 and as with many things, Jim was ahead of his time.

But this isn’t about Jim, it’s about his better half, Jess Brazeau. It was great to hear her two cents of 2016 Jim!

Here the host dives into the story behind how Jess got into the sport, how she chooses races and how she really felt about that infamous move to France.

Remember when Michelle Obama said she wasn’t exactly on board with her husband running for President, well this is the trail running equivalent! And as we are with Michelle, Jess we are all grateful for your commitment and sacrifice.

Jess is a great athlete in her own right and it’s great to finally see her getting the attention she deserves.

Hannah throws down

I really enjoyed this conversation with Adidas Terrex athlete Hannah Allgood.

She details her entry into the sport and her steady and super impressive improvements over the past 5 years or so.

I’m not always a big fan of the Choose Strong podcast, I skip more episodes than I listen to, but this one with Andy Glaze is pure gold. As someone who also has a shift worker, emergency services job, and often plays time management Tetris to fit everything in, I appreciated his honesty and commitment to his running. Without pushing a “no excuses” or “stay hard” approach, he explains why his running is important to his mental and physical health and why he documents his “mid pack” adventures.

YouTube

If you managed to watch anything on YouTube lately that wasn’t race related, I salute you! But there was a few content bombs that dropped in the past few weeks.

That Craft Ad! You watch it, you tell me what you think!

Scotty Hawker is documenting his comeback from injury. He dropped his first video in the series about two weeks ago. It’s raw and honest and as much as I hate to say it, brave. I think we have all flicked through photos looking for the most flattering photos of ourselves to post on social media, where we feel like we look the fittest or the strongest. Most of us wouldn’t have the guts to post something if we didn’t feel like we looked or felt our best. So yeah it’s Brave.

And then there are the “road to Western States” video series that are all popping off. It’s cool to see athletes letting fans of the sport behind the scenes a little bit and start to create their own stories rather than have brands tell them for them. But I have questions, where are the ladies? Whilst I’m here for the year of the Boulder Boys, this isn’t the year of only male driven content!

The best so far is The Year of the Boy.

The Boulder Boys content has been popping off and this video is so good. The music is fire, the editing is engaging and even though I knew the result, I kept on watching.

Adrian McDonald has also launched his own series which I’m keen to follow as he is an athlete that doesn’t get much attention since he focuses on Leadville for so long.

And of course there is the Roche content. It’s not my jam, but you guys make up your own minds about it.

Always looking for fresh, interesting new content, send it my way and I’ll share it too! Let’s help encourage those making things and giving it a go.

I’m not a backyard person, an FKT person, a Barkley person or a 200+ mile person. I’m not here to yuck your yum, it’s just not really my jam.

But I loved “The Chase”, a Dylan Harris film that captured the 2024 Cocodona 250, a 250 mile foot race through Arizona.

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Cocodona has been a race that in a few short years has captured the attention of the ultra running community. I would follow it lightly, checking in once a day if there was a story happening but I was certainly not taking the day off work to watch the live stream.

Filmmaker Dylan Harris had my heart with “Lucy’s Dad” but I still clicked play with a hint of skepticism. I just didn’t get the hype.

I had heard of the characters from their 100 mile achievements and I knew some of the course from other races like Black Canyon but I was generally going into this pretty cold.

To be honest I was surprised at how quickly I was invested in the story and the players.

What “The Chase” does so well is capture the essence of trail ultra running, which is that everyone from every walk of life can and does do it.

From the dirt bag with the Satisfy pack (work that out!) and half pipe in his backyard, to the dialled professional, the Mennonite from Ohio with the bedroom full of taxidermy animals and the long trail guy with the cool running dog, the film captures the uniqueness of the folk who participate in this sport and to think they only focused on the top handful of male runners. I’m sure the quirk only gets more quirky the further back from the front you go.

It’s hard to not catch yourself smiling at this rag tag bunch of blokes running across the desert, who you couldn’t imagine together in any other setting but this. And their crews and families are just as colourful.

An hour in I found myself getting up for snacks and wondering how far into the race they were at. I would loved a bit of a dot watching type map to know where everyone was as we went on.

Then just when I was about to loose interest because I didn’t know how the race was unfolding, they go and introduce another guy, who spoiler alert, goes on to win the bloody thing.

For an Ultrarunning movie, it was actually a really easy watch. I didn’t find myself looking at my watch or switching videos after 5 minutes, but I don’t think that had anything to do with the race. Yes it was Cocodona but it could have been any race and any distance, the story was the human tale of triumph over suffering and the filmmaker pieced it together in such a way that you stayed engaged in a race that in reality took almost three days.

With the exception of a few dry heaves, some heavy breathing and a twinge of delirium, the runners made it look easy. There were no real pity parties, tears or blisters that looked so bad you wouldn’t wish them on that work colleague that you would rather run 250 miles than spend 5 minutes in the car with, at least not that was depicted in the film.

I have a soft spot for movies like this, akin to Unbreakable and Life in a Day, where you learn the stories of the folks behind the performances and the people that helped them get there. It’s a nice reminder that the folks in our sport are human too, even if their performances suggest otherwise.

If you are new here, welcome, hopefully this newsletter is a spot you can find some of the coolest content in ultra trail running when you are recovering, injured, CBF training or simply can’t find anything to watch on all the streaming services you pay for.

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It’s been a big few weeks with some great long form YouTube films, racing returning to the northern hemisphere and team camps popping off left right and centre.

Let’s start with YouTube.

I feel like I need to put a big disclaimer out there in that my vibe is 50k-100 mile trail races. Ultra trail running includes a whole bunch of sub categories and weird events under its umbrella but I’m not a fan of the Barkley, backyard ultras and FKT’s and 200 plus mile races. It’s just not my vibe. I’m not here to yuck your yum, it’s just not my thing.

That being said, these two films are bloody fantastic.

The guys at SingleTrack did a fantastic job capturing the importance, the perseverance and the spirit of Jasmin Paris’s Barkley finish. It’s not too long, not too short and doesn’t have the oddity of the race take centre stage like I’ve found other Barkley films do, this is all about Jasmin and the folks that are drawn to events such as Barkley.

The King of Moab, I hate title but I loved the film.

The satisfy vibe usually gives me an elitist ick, but if you didn’t know the brand and its moth tech, you wouldn’t know Max was a Satisfy athlete at all. I don’t even think it’s mentioned.

The inclusion of his crew and pacers really made for a complete story and the cinematography especially at the beginning is stunning.

(Bit of a warning on my end: his crew chief offered him ibuprofen at one stage, don’t ever take ibuprofen in an endurance event! Just don’t and don’t @ me about it either.)

While I’m on YouTube, The Green/Drake household launched their YouTube channel last week.

And Hillary Yang, re-launched hers, documenting her training to Hard Rock in July.

It’s cool that female athletes are stepping into YouTube. Last year when I first starting playing around on YouTube that the male ultra runners were “athletes” and the females were “influencers”, this gave me a massive ick, not only because they were both doing both and the ladies were being unfairly labeled but also because I felt like it incorrectly pidgeonholed the sport. That’s why I started my own channel, if the normie men can document their running then I figured a normie woman could as well.

Neither Rachel or Hillary are “normies” by any stretch, so it will be fun to follow along with their training and lives over on YouTube.

Instagram

Surely it’s not just me and everyone wants to be on team Terrex?

The Terrex marketing team do such a good job creating that team/brand vibe, like they are the cool kids having the best time and I’m not going to lie, it makes me want to buy the product, to be part of the team.

The content I saw was mostly on the stories of individual athletes, Caitlin Fielder, Dani Moreno, Toni McCann or Hannah Allgood rather than on the official Terrex account and it gave me all the FOMO and feels.

I’ve also saved a bunch of stuff to my shopping wish list incase Terrex ever decides to distribute in Australia.

The Salomon team camp just kicked off in Annecy so it will be interesting to see how the content compares.

Podcasts

Lots of big talk but will be big results follow. That is the question I think a lot of fans of the sport are asking in the lead up to Western States.

I’ve stepped away from The Roaches and the SWAP podcast recently as I’ve felt it’s less about the science and training that they used to talk about and more about how good they think David is. If you used the word “Leadville” as a drinking game, even a seasoned alcoholic would be drunk after most episodes.

There are under tones and slights over on other podcasts and YouTube videos, as elite athletes respond or don’t respond to the chatter.

I would love to hear the behind the scenes comments after the Big Alta 50k as Western States 2025 shapes up to be the most competitive men’s race they have ever seen.

And then there was Jim, cementing his status (incase you ever questioned it) as he crossed the line at Chianti.

Speaking of, the content captured by Marz van de Merwe of Jess and Jim is some of my favourite on the internet. It’s generally posted on either Jess or Jim’s page but give her a follow, she’s incredibly talented and the moments she captures are what makes this sport so great.

https://www.instagram.com/marz_merwe?igsh=MWJnYXppNjAxZnczMw==

I think it’s time Substack had its own category here so be sharing a lot more of the blogs and newsletters in future editions.

Should I move my website blog over to Substack?

Anyway until next time folks, as always, if you find something great that deserves to be shared, comment below or shoot me a DM.

With Black Canyon and Tarawera there were the usual pre race musings. It was great to see international media (outside of iRunFar) cover Tarawera and to some extent capture the spirit of the event.

The race doesn’t need more participants (it’s already massive) but having new folks discover racing in Australia and New Zealand and giving some of our local talent the attention they deserve would be fantastic for the sport down here.

I ran the 100 mile at Tarawera. (Here’s my recap)

I’m used to people asking me if it’s my first miler, my first time at Tarawera etc. that’s pretty normal mid race conversation between runners. I’d never been asked before if this was “my first UTMB”. My less than polite response of “this isn’t UTMB” confused more than one runner. Did I miss something? Are we calling “by UTMB” races UTMB now? Surely not.

Anyhow, I digress, whilst panic shopping for my drop bags and quietly trying to manage the taper tantrums, I did get a chance to see some of the content over the past few weeks.

The Boulder Boys steal the show

Seth Ruling’s mate Dillan Forsey put together two absolute bangers of videos following the Boulder Boys adventures around Black Canyon weekend. It’s hard to fault these, just long enough, just enough inspo, just enough heart, stunning.

Make sure you check out the sister podcast that goes with it, for a bit more detail into Seth’s interesting training approach, Adam’s return and Moi’s trial by fire in the US scene.

A trip down memory lane

Confession: I’m a massive shoe slut.

It’s a relatively new era for me. I used to be a loyal, boring monogamous type, only buying from the one brand, until it stopped working for me, and we had to part ways. It was not amicable. It was not me, it was them.

So I loved this trip down memory lane on Conversational Pace with Jamil on his favourite shoes over the past 20 years. Maybe it’s because nostalgia is cool again, and the 2006-2008 fashions are back (can I wear the same look if I wore it the first time it was trendy, asking for a friend?) or maybe it’s because I was also a Mizuno loyalist, the Sayonara for me, but I really enjoyed this and would love to see more athletes go through their shoe collections. A new CP series?

Perfect is boring

We are all chasing that perfect unicorn race, tweaking, adjusting, risking it all for something special. I really appreciate athletes who share those less than perfect moments rather than saying “wasn’t my day”, pulling the pin and moving on.

Enter Heather Jackson, who is putting out the most compelling content in the trail and ultra space at the moment. Her Black Canyon video was raw, honest and compelling and I’m going to lie, watching her continuously stub her toes might be the most relatable content I’ve seen in a while.

And I can’t move on without giving a shoutout to the stunning cactus shot at the 7 minute mark!

Speaking of sharing the real stories of ultra running, Ultrarunning IT girl, Tara Dower and her mate Arlee Hiskey launched the DNF diaries podcast. Ive only listened to the first episode but I’m super keen to see where this concept goes.

I love that it’s a different format and I hope it continues. Tara is a natural and it’s no surprise, her YouTube is an absolute banger. Also if I had known the 2007 spray tan would make me run faster, I totally could have got one for Tarawera instead of rocking the runners tan lines!

Then there is Dani Moreno. Posted today over on Instagram, she shares her personal reflections on her recent rehab for a foot injury.

It’s ok to push, it’s ok to care, it’s ok when you fuck it up trying to achieve a goal.

And Tim Tollefson who continues to push, to try keep up and refuse to give up on being at the front.

Going long..,

I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but 91,000 people have! The National Geographic documentary capturing Timothy Olson’s FKT on the Pacific Crest Trail appeared on YouTube this week. I’m not much of an FKT person, but I love that the sport is getting big funding and big support from a company like Nat Geo.

I still have another week post Tarawera before we start training proper again, so send me over your fave videos, posts and pods over the last few weeks.

Unless it’s David Roche, I’m taking a break from that! 🙊

Podcasts

FreeTrail welcomes news!

I’ve been waiting for someone to do this, often by the time a podcast comes out the news has already blown up and fizzled out, hopefully the new Free Trail news style podcast will stick and only get spicier.

Speaking of spicy, the Boulder Boys welcoming guests has got them all sorts of rogue and I’m here for it.

But they should probably actually read and/or listen to things before they just give an opinion, but what’s the fun in that?!

Otherwise they will continue to be called out, like over on the Trail Society Pod.

Substack

I am the only one flooded with email newsletters every morning.

There are some killer new newsletters and blogs this year, giving a new voice and perspective from the elite athletes in our sport.

Matt Daniels newsletter is old school thoughts from a long run style and the writing is stunning.

Caleb Olsen rejuvenated his blog and moved it over to Substack in November and he’s really found some consistency over the new year.

Chasing Trail

Riding the Line

I want to be as prepared as possible to efficiently cover the distance from start to finish when I line up for a big race…

Read more

2 years ago · 9 likes · Caleb Olson

And another new (ish) follow is the infamous Liam. Aka Aid Station Fireball. With x hopefully dying, here’s to Liam bringing his stats and hot takes to Substack.

YouTube

Not going to lie, YouTube is also popping off this year, but I’m stuck in a loop of Chipotle segments at the moment with my feed filled with nothing but Jamil’s daily attempts at a years worth of burritos.

What do we thinking about the feed bombing strategy? Posting a whole bunch of videos or daily videos so you are the only thing in peoples feeds? Personally I find it kind of annoying, lots of podcasts do it as well with “mini” clips of the main podcast interview. It actually makes me not want to open any of them and has a similar viseral response to me to the thunder clap style launch where every single athlete posts about the same product on the same day. I want to unfollow them all and the brand in some sort of misguided protest.

I also find this kind of content drop means I tend to miss a lot of great content. Either because I’m protesting or because someone else does it the next day and everything gets pushed down the list.

The Chasing Gold series over at Mountain Outpost for Black Canyon kicked off the week which was a nice break from the insufferable energy of David Roche.

I’m usually a David Roche fan and I pay for their Patreon but since Leadville it’s been all about him, he can’t help himself but inject his training and accomplishments into every topic of conversation. It’s driving me kind of crazy so I’m taking a bit of a Roche break for a bit.

Oh I almost forgot, welcome Scott Traer and Callie Vinson to YouTube. I’m excited for their content to come and more Cloudy features please!

If you made it this far, here’s my content of the week, a behind the scenes reel from the making of the WALMSLEY movie earlier this year.

I’m off to New Zealand this week for Tarawera (t-12 days until race day).

So I’ll either be online a heap because I’m tapering, or not at all because I’m being a tourist, so if you find something cool, make sure you send it my way.

Of course, I’m most excited to see who toes the line at Tarawera, as I’ll also be there having a go at the miler, I just might finish quite a few hours behind them.

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I wanted to share a few things I’m a little obsessed with at the moment, logging in each day to see the update. Is it too early to compare to #waitwatchers of 2024?

Finn v Mike

What started as Strava heckling has popped off on YouTube with both taking their sledging to a larger platform in video format.

Follow them both on Instagram and Strava to see the daily punches.

Jamil v Chipotle

If you follow Jamil on Strava you would have seen the oddity of running one segment hundreds of times in the one day, and no it’s not a peak or a summit, it’s a random street that passes by a Chipotle in Tempe, Arizona.

But why? Well the person who is the local legend at the end of January wins a years worth of Chipotle.

It’s odd for sure, but I’m in and here for it. He explained a little about it over on SingleTrack this week.

Free Trade Period

Puppi heads to Hoka and Fielder joins Terrex.

Does Terrex have a headquarters in New Zealand that I’m not aware of? It’s kind of ironic that they sponsor all the best trail runners in New Zealand but it’s pretty much impossible to get their gear in Australia and New Zealand?

But congrats to both athletes, it definitely feels like a step up for each of them and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Post lottery season and the holiday season, things got a little predictable and a little slow, but there were still some bangers put out that you should all check out.

Podcasts

The Boulder Boys x Single Track collab

This one got a little spicy, from the dichotomy of wanting athletes to be more vocal about their goals and rivalries to sponsorship talks and race goals, this one covered a whole range of laughs with some quick history lessons and calls outs as well.

FreeTrail featuring Corrine Malcolm

The free trade discussions here is worth tuning into, Malcolm announced the day after this episode dropped that she too is leaving Adidas Terrex. Is there something in the water at Salomon and Terrex? Someone spill the tea!

The Trail Network featuring Allie Ostrander

Allie is not always my cup of tea but I loved this relatable chat about sponsorships, partnerships and social media.

YouTube

Single track- Road to Transgrandcanaria

These vlogs centred about Finn’s training are so good. Just enough running, just enough life.

Do yourself a favour and follow both Finn and Mike McMonagle (aka Shit in the woods) on Strava to get the full shit talking experience? Mike is fire

David Roche- road to Western States episode one

If you can tolerate any more of David talking about himself, this one is for you.

Now you know how I feel about workout videos (🙄), and I really wanted to find something I liked about this video.

It’s very Roche, so if you love them, you’ll probably love this. I don’t believe the progressive strip off is part of the workout and I really wanted to quit half way through. This video is quite long at 19 minutes.

Obviously Conversational Pace for the shoe awards of 2024.

Instagram

Puppi goes off script!

Usually when an athlete leaves a brand we see the same post, like it was mass produced, a copy and paste, ‘all good things come to an end, I’d like to thank “insert brand here” for their support over the past .. years and helping me chase my dreams. Excited for new things to come”

Blah blah blah

Not Puppi. Puppi sounds off on Nike in a way not seen in a while and reminiscent of Jared Hazen sounding off on Hoka when he left them back post pandemic.

He seemed a little pissed off that no one was talking about him leaving when it was first announced, posting to his Substack a bit of a rant.

I was a bit taken aback by it, but not about Puppi, why would media report on it? No one usually says anything. It’s all PG13, I love them, thank you, I’m moving on. It’s not news worthy, but if you actually come out and say why, then it suddenly is, and that’s exactly what he did.

This is the type of content I’m looking for in 2025. It’s bold, it’s brave and it’s very 2025!

Basham gets real

And me, well I had a stellar running year in 2024,even if the rest of my life wasn’t exactly award winning.

I’m excited for 2025 and heading into my last month of training for another go at Tarawera 100 mile, which is shaping up to be an epic event with athletes from all over the world coming to get their UTMB stones or race for a Golden Ticket.

I’m doing a vlog series over on YouTube if you’re so inclined.

Tarawera Miler Training Vlog- 5 weeks to go

I’m hoping to be a bit more consistent with Trail Snacks this year; but it’s content driven and I don’t want to share shit, so fingers crossed this is The year of some amazing content.

But then we all log in to argue on the UTMB live stream, spend too much money on the latest pair of trail super shoes and bicker over who has compromised the integrity or the spirit of the sport this week.

I’m not pointing fingers, I’ve been guilty of this myself. As a teenager it was the group of high pitched super fans who followed around the latest boy band, as a young adult it was the unique anti hero uniform of the black skinny jeans, converse sneakers and over applied eye liner and now as a fully fledged adult trail ultra runner, I’d be lying if I didn’t get sucked into the cult of Team Adidas Terrex.

Terrex released the first in a series of mini movies called Perspectives, centered about the crews of their elite runners at this years UTMB.

I loved this and love seeing more films highlighting the other aspects of our sport, not just the highlight reel of the elites.

I also loved that since it was UTMB and each runner is only allowed one crew person, it didn’t give me the inferiority complex that I often get when I see the crowd of folks supporting runners at Western States. I don’t even know that many people, never mind be able to have them drop everything to fly around the world to help me run all day.

When we talk about accessibility and inclusiveness in this sport how about the privilege of being able to have crew at all?

The team, the crew, the tribe, have been big focuses of the big brands this year, whether that be the Terrex orange splash at certain races, the Hoka cowboy hates at States or the North Face blue paint kit situation at UTMB.

I was all in, until Abby Levene made a comment right at the end of her guest spot on the SingleTrack podcast discussing Tara Dowers insane new contract.

“All the teams have your ubiquitous marketing campaigns where they have this big athlete team and they all wear the same thing and they all have one unified message and it’s almost taking the athlete and stripping them of who they are and plastering the brands campaign onto them and I thought it was so cool that Altra is doing the exact opposite with Tara and they’re saying “how can leverage who Tara is” to build up our brand and to build her up in the process”.

Have we gone from trail unicorns to trail lemmings?

I had a mixed weekend last weekend, on one day I ran a PR at the only non negotiable race of the year, the AfterGlow trail run where everyone dresses up in fluro and sparkles and runs through the bush at sunset. It’s epic, this year I went as an alien.

I was so stoked with it.

Then I woke up the next day to find out that my two hard fought tickets weren’t enough to get me drawn for Western States.

I’ve been having a hard time with my own running lately, unfocused and generally feeling like I’m going through the motions. This highly predictable result, didn’t help.

So I put on my headphones, hit replay on Taylor’s “I can do it with a broken heart” and headed out for my long run.

I passed two people with matching outfits going up a hill. It looked like they walked into a running store and said, “I’ll have the latest trail running outfit please”, from the hat to the poles, it looked like a halloween costume.

“Lemmings”, I thought.

Then today, I realized that maybe that was also me.

Surely I’m not the only one nervously planning my 2025 race schedule (and associated annual leave and budget!) with that single asterisk indicating the most stressful time of a trail ultra runners year, lottery season.

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Next years Western States is starting to shape up to be an absolute doozy and us normies are along for the ride. When I last checked the lottery stats, there were 9402 applicants. Last year when all entries were verified there were 9388 official entrants.

There’s still 8 days to go to get your qualifier in so this may end up being the biggest Western States lottery ever. Not good for my odds or the bloke with 8 years worth of tickets.

I found this piece in Ultrarunning Magazine really interesting and particularly relevant as the race gets more popular and it takes longer to get into. Entrants are only going to get older and making that cut off actively disadvantages older women.

With races starting to adjust their cut off or award times to account for the difference between men and women (7% at Western States according to their own numbers), is it time Western States did the same?

YouTube

Since starting my own YouTube channel I’ve been deep in the YouTube and working out what content I like and what I don’t. The back end analytics of it are really interesting and I’m sure I would have different responses to videos depending on if I was watching them as opposed to listening to them.

I’m sure I would get further into Helen Mino Faulkner’s Running Rants if I too was running or driving as opposed to sitting on my couch.

I’m also looking a lot into the different types on content on YouTube, the short form, the longer form, the educational, the inspirational, I’ve gone down quite the rabbit hole and I like I need multiple accounts to keep my algorithms in check.

So it was interesting to see Finn Malanson of SingleTrack has turned the camera onto himself and branch out into the old vee log space.

Look out other fast media guys, Finn’s got a new coach, new Mojo and a veelogging series in the works. I actually really enjoyed this and I usually hate the “watch my workout” style videos. I had to keep opening up the pace converter though and damn Finn was holding his own.

The SingleTrack crew (I’m assuming it’s just Finn) branch out into lots of different things and stick their fingers in lots of different pies. This looks like a pie I’m going to enjoy.

Also over on YouTube was another offering from OG Billy Yang. Billy used to be THE guy for the trail running films following other athletes but in more recent times he’s been producing more of the vlog style BTS videos of his adventures around the world. They are fantastic and always give me massive FOMO. The latest focuses on the Love Trail Festival in Wales is no different. I’m never sure if these are low key advertisements or not but it works!

Speaking of trail running movies, an actual movie dropped this week, Dreama Team, focused on Dreama Walton’s 2024 Western States. This is the content I’ve been waiting for!

But unfortunately it’s only for people in the US at the moment. There are multiple links to view it but definitely not from Australia. I might have a VPN play and see how I go.

Podcasts

• Killian on FreeTrail, I mean surely I’m not the only one who squealed a little (or a lot) when he kinda confirmed an attempted return to Western States.

• Hannah Allgood on Trail Society. I loved this conversation. It felt like a chat over coffee and cookies with besties and I’m not sure how but every time I hear another little tid bit about Javelina I want to do it more.

• Molly Seidel on For the Long Run. I’m a bit late to this one but Molly’s perspective and honestly is always refreshing from an athlete of her calibre.

I also really enjoyed Lauren Puretz on the Trail Network Podcast. It’s nice to hear how normal people, with normal jobs and normal lives, manage their training and racing. I also got a giggle out of banning her husband from crewing. I’m pretty sure I should do the same.

As an update on the last edition of Trail Snacks, I thought I would share the content that I actually pay for.

I subscribe to Like the Wind magazine, I’m a patreon subscriber to SWAP, a FreeTrail Pro member and I am also a paid subscriber of Dirt Church Radio.

It’s an interesting situation for creators. To be honest, I’m not sure I get a whole lot of value out of most of the things I pay for. They either post the paid stuff to the free feed anyway or it’s barely worth paying for, so I mostly pay to encourage and support the creators I want to see do well, as opposed to actually getting something out of it.

Are people other than friends and family subscribing to elite athletes substack etc?

I would pay to watch movies though. It’s more the subscription type service that I’m not quite sold on just yet.

Sound off below, and send in your nominations for the best trail and ultra running content you’ve seen this year.

You know the inaugural awards are coming up.