Links Discussed in Podcast:

UTMB Course Description per their website:

Zach Miller Youtube Documentary by Billy Yang.

Doug Mayer Book about the history and founding of UTMB.

Links Discussed in Podcast:

CCC course description per UTMB website.

Strava file for Martyna M. 2025 CCC win.

Strava file for Francesco Puppi 2025 CCC win.

Links Discussed in Podcast:

OCC course description.

Doug Mayer Trail Runner Mag article.

Doug Mayer Run the Alps article for 50th anniversary of race talking to race legends both male and female.

IRunFar 2026 Sierre Zinal Men’s Preview and Women’s Preview.

Freetrail Instagram Sierre Zinal stats corner post thanks to Travis Loncar.

Run the Alps article on first American and 1977 Sierre Zinal winner Chuck Smead.

The past week was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, there was a lot to be grateful for and excited about. I got to run a bunch with friends this week, watch my favorite trail race in the world (Zegama Marathon in Basque country Spain), and Kaitlin is in Austria scouting out our wedding venue with her mom. All that was great.

Subscribe now

On the other hand, a friend from back home asked me how I was doing the other day. I responded that I was working hard to waste his taxes, increase gas prices, and inflate the national debt. While it was tongue in cheek to be sure, it also sadly isn’t wrong. I’m not much for complaining, but it is tough to feel excited about doing your job when doing your job feels like it is leading to those results. I don’t know where I’m going with that, but it is how I’ve felt the past few months since being thrust into my current situation.

On a more positive note, here are some things I’ve enjoyed lately:

NPR tiny desk concerts is hands down my favorite way to discover new music. If you’re anything like me, then you lament how teenage you used to spend hours scouring the depths of Limewire searching for new tunes but adult you barely discovers new musicians ever. NPR Tiny Desk is your solution to that problem. They host a range of artists from ALL across the world and spectrum of music. They are a gateway drug into discovering your new favorite musicians.

Tiny Desk has been on a Spanish speaking artist kick these past few months which has produced some absolutely incredible guests. Despite my Spanish comprehension being four years of high school Spanish 10+ years ago, the lyrics they translate for the songs go above and beyond the usual Youtube level translations. You can tell Tiny Desk translates the lyrics with the intent to do each song justice.

One performance that has been stuck in my head the past two weeks came from an Argentinian performer named Milo J. It is my understanding that he started off as a trap artist and pivoted on his most recent album to dive deep into the roots of his home country and its history. His transformation sounds similar to Bad Bunny’s from how I understand it. Watch the video with English lyrics first to appreciate it’s meaning, even though you really don’t need to understand Spanish to resonate with the spirit of the performance.

Other honorable mentions include Amaia, a creative force from Pamplona who plays a chair-turned-flute (chlute???) and Guitariccadelafuente, a charismatic performer from Barcelona. Relax, listen, enjoy, and let me know what you think.

"You didn’t start your day thinking you would watch a documentary about birdwatching. None of us did. It’s that good."

-Top Youtube comment on the Listers documentary from Joshhenges

I just finished watching the documentary Listers the other day. The film follows two brothers who get high one day at their parent’s house only to find a bird guidebook laying around. After discovering the guide, they decide to go on a year long birdwatching adventure living out of their 2010 Kia Sedona, despite knowing absolutely nothing about birds or birdwatching at all.

After hearing lots of praise for the documentary, I finally gave in and decided to watch it. It is well worth it. The comedic dialogue of the brothers is golden. Owen spends most of his time behind the camera, while Quentin is a natural showman in front of it, telling the story of their year and lessons learned along the way. The filming swaps back and forth between low-quality home video camcorder shots of the brothers and their discoveries to Nat Geo level quality footage of the birds they add to their birding checklist.

The brothers live like dirtbags, spending most of their nights in the parking lots of Cracker Barrels or wherever will let them overnight park for free. They go on to meet a curious cast of characters and befriend them on their adventure to document their “big year” of bird spotting.

Once deep in the throws of the big year, they start to question why they are pursuing this goal in the first place. They pull out the classic archetype of the hero’s journey to discuss where they are currently at in their own journey. For supposed stoner dirtbags they prove to be impressively self-aware and reflective.

As they arrive at realizations throughout their adventure, it is easy to recognize pieces of yourself in the film. Although the main topic for the documentary, the birdwatching isn’t what is most important or central by any means. You could insert any activity, hobby, goal, or career in place of birdwatching and find yourself reaching the same questions that the Reiser brothers did in their film. Why am I pursuing this goal? Is this important? What is the point of all this anyways?

The beauty of Listers isn’t its ability to teach us about different species of birds or to make us appreciate birdwatching (although it does a great job of both). The beauty of the documentary is that it invites you to flip the lens and place an angled scope onto your own life and delicately examine your relationship to the things you put on a pedestal. Is that relationship still serving you? Is it bringing you joy? Are you doing it because you feel like you have to or because you genuinely want to and are enjoying it?

I never thought a film about birdwatching would push me towards critical self reflection on my own life, but that is exactly the beauty of the Listers documentary.

Links Discussed in Show:

2025 Zegama IRunFar recap by Deki Fourcin.

Subhub Headlines Article with Zegama top 10 times.

IRunFar Article on how to win the Zegama Marathon by Mallory Richard.

Golden Trail World Series Youtube Recap from 2025 Race.

List of past winners at Zegama.

Zegama Weather Forecast.

Links Discussed:

Play Fantasy Freetrail here

2025 IRunFar recap by Deki Fourcin:

https://www.irunfar.com/2025-transvulcania-ultramarathon-results

2026 IRunFar Preview by Justin Mock:

https://www.irunfar.com/2026-transvulcania-ultramarathon-preview

Peter Frano Strava File:

https://www.strava.com/activities/14437004064/overview

46 miles, 14,000 feet of vert on Spanish Canary island of La Palma off the northwest of Morocco.

Course Records:

Men’s: Luis Alberto Hernando 6:52:39 in 2015

Women’s: Ruth Croft 8:02:49 in 2024

More crazy professional marathon results, miles spent running with new friends, and calls catching up with people back home. Things are looking up.

In one month of being deployed, I’ve already run more with friends than I did on my entire three month deployment last year. I can’t emphasize enough how nice it is to have other people to run with, especially when some of them are faster than me. This week has been my biggest mileage week of the year to date (86 miles) and it didn’t hurt that there was no shortage of amazing marathon results to motivate me.

For the first time in history, not one but TWO human beings ran a marathon in under 2 hours on a legal course. At the London Marathon last weekend both Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha ran a marathon in under two hours. Sawe won the race in 1:59:30 and Kejelcha finished second in 1:59:41. Kejelcha had never run a marathon before in his life. That is insane to think of but also not unfathomable, considering Kejelcha has held world records in everything from the mile to half marathon in his prolific running career.

For my non runner friends a 1:59:30 marathon equates to 4:33.4 minutes per mile or 2:49.9 minutes per km for 26.2 miles. Just chew on that for a second. They came through halfway at around 60:29 (4:36.9 min/mile) and appeared to be on pace to break the course record but not the world record. But then the second half happened at breakneck pace which saw Sawe run a 59:01 (4:30 min/mile) second half and Kejelcha run a 59:11. The third place runner, Jacob Kiplimo, also ran under the previous world record only to finish in 3rd place. Bananas.

While those times are amazing and inspiring, I don’t even think they were the most inspiring performances for me personally this week. Kiplimo, Kejelcha, and Sawe are all world class runners at the top of the sport right now. It was expected that either Sawe or Kiplimo would make a serious push for a sub 2 hour marathon and Kejelcha might be the most versatile runner in the world across any distance. The sub 2 hour marathon was bound to go down sooner or later and it makes sense that it did in a race where all three were lined up and the conditions were pristine for running fast.

The performance that inspired me the most this week came from a 25 year old runner from Youngstown, Ohio, named Vincent Mauri. At last weekend’s Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Mauri went from a name that nobody knew anything about to running his debut marathon in 2:05:53, the fastest US debut EVER and the 4th fastest marathon ever by an American. It is also the second fastest time from a runner born in the US only behind US record holder Conner Mantz. It was his first time running the marathon and there was no pacers or competition (he won by 15 minutes). He was just out there on a mf’ing spirit quest clicking off miles at a 4:47 min/mile average. His watch only showed pace and average pace. He misread the clock at the finish line thinking it showed 2:09 only to realize it actually said 2:05 when he got closer.

To emphasize how improbable yet impressive this is let’s talk about his background and his training. He ran collegiately at Arizona State and finished his eligibility at Notre Dame. His highest finish in XC was in the 60s at nationals one year. He was never an all American. He doesn’t even have a half marathon time to his name (to be fair he ran one in his build up but it was so low key that the course was short).

Training-wise, he works at a shoe store in Ohio and had to bear the brutal winter weather this year which meant doing over a 80% of his runs on treadmills in Planet Fitness while staring at the wall. He runs 110 miles a week which is pretty typical for marathon training. What is atypical is that he accomplishes those miles most weeks in around 10 hours of running, meaning he averages around a 5:45 min/mile pace. That is nuts.

The coolest part (to me) about his accomplishment is that he went into the race with no expectations, no publicity, and no hype. He just wanted to test himself and find his limits. Many runners spend their whole lives chasing races where everything just feels right. Bliss. Flow. Runner’s high. Choose your favorite phrase, but there’s something to be said when you’re just locked into an effort and know you left every last ounce of your being out there on a race. Vincent did that last weekend. In TOLEDO freaking Ohio of all places. Well done Vinny, and thanks for inspiring regular people like myself to continue pushing towards finding the best they have to give. So inspiring.

I promise these updates won’t always be about running but the past two weeks has just been historic and exhilarating as a fan of the sport. It’s a crazy time in running.

Unrelated to running, this week I watched both the Moriah Wilson documentary on Netflix and the Skyking documentary on Hulu. Both were tragic. Both were beautiful. Both made me cry. Two souls that touched so many people and met unfortunate endings yet inspired so much goodness in their wake. I highly recommend both, just be ready to shed some tears and potentially be angry at the world for a bit.

Play Fantasy Freetrail here.

Links Discussed in Episode:

2024 Race Recap Video on the Traditional Race route.

2022 Mens Course Record Strava File from Sylvain Cachard.

La Pointe Pessey Youtube Documentary.

Davide Magnini Presanella Salomon TV Documentary.

The first was a hometown race in Boise called Race to Robie Creek. Anyone who has lived in Boise for any amount of time has invariably heard of “Robie” as it is affectionately called by locals. Dubbed the “hardest half marathon in the northwest” Robie is an institution in the Boise community that takes place every third weekend of April. The race is a point to point adventure that includes 2,100 of climbing up a dirt road 8 miles to Aldape Peak and then 5 miles of bombing downhill to Robie Creek. It has taken place every year since 1975 and fireball shots are available at the top of Aldape for any runners who wish to imbibe.

In my three years of living in Boise I never had the opportunity to run it. The race ranks high on my list of races I want to do for sentimental reasons. It’s uniquely Boise and the community engagement for the race is insane. Multiple of my friends raced this year, many to personal bests. It made my day to check in on friends who ran it and cheer from thousands of miles away. I childishly hoped I might get stuck in Boise long enough to be able to partake, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Subscribe now

The second event that lifted my spirits also came in the form of a race, this one the oldest continuous marathon in the world and probably the best known amongst non-runners: the Boston Marathon. The third Monday of each April marks Patriot’s day in New England which means two things: a daytime Sox game at Fenway Park, and tens of thousands of runners flooding the streets trying to make the pilgrimage from Hopkinton to Boston in the shortest time possible. Marathons provide a beautiful example of the doggedness of the human spirit: so many humans trying their absolute hardest to accomplish a goal. Some making it, some falling short, all pushing themselves as far as they can physically and mentally over a few hours.

Marathons are especially fickle creatures designed to expose any weaknesses a runner may possess over 26.2 miles. Boston is an especially insidious course, taunting you to come out too fast in the first half of the race with plenty of downhill running fooling you into thinking you’re having the race of your life only for the many hills in the back half of the race to force you to realize you’ve gone out much too fast and can’t possibly keep up for 13 more miles.

The Boston marathon weather gods came through for the 2026 edition of the race however, with temps in the low 40s to start the day and an ever so slight breeze to push runners towards their dreams of reaching Boylston Street. Every time I watch a marathon it restores my faith in humans and my belief that we are all put on this Earth to be of service to each other and get the best out of one another. There were countless examples of this in this years Boston Marathon on both the professional and amateur levels.

On the professional side, both men’s and women’s races were spectacular battles that saw ample PBs (personal bests) among a host of the US’s most elite distance runners and international runners alike. On the men’s side, the lead pack was tight through halfway and moves started to be made around mile 16.

The winner John Korir cemented his name as one of the best of all time, winning his second straight Boston and running the fastest time in Boston history: in 2:01:52 and running a second half marathon of 60 minutes 2 seconds. To translate into slightly more relatable terms: he ran 26.2 miles at a 4:39 min/mile overall pace, with the second half of the race being run at 4:34 min/mile pace. Take five minutes to go out and try to run one mile at 4:39 and get back to me on how it went. Previous to 2026, only 11 runners had gone under 2:06 finish times at Boston, this year’s field saw 13 runners finish sub 2:06. Perfect weather indeed.

For me the most exciting storyline of the race came in the form of the fastest American Zouhair Talbi. I first became familiar with Zouhair in 2024 after he won the Houston Marathon for the first time. Upon looking at the photos more closely of the race’s winner I realized I recognized him from somewhere. A few weeks later I was running out of my apartment complex when I put realized where I recognized him from. The guy that always had nice hair, sporty glasses, and new super shoes was not indeed a tech bro but instead my neighbor, the elite runner Zouhair Talbi. He, his wife (also a badass runner), and newborn baby all lived in the same apartment as me. Crazy. From that day on I’ve been a fan. I had him as my pick for top American in the race this year (not to brag). Zouhair went on to have a hell of a day, finishing the race in 2:03:45 for the American Course Record and American fastest marathon ever (but not technically American record because Boston is not a record eligible course since it only goes one direction and can benefit from tailwinds like we saw this year).

The women’s side of the race was equally if not more exciting. The lead pack of 10 or so stayed largely intact through 18 miles. At that point the reigning champion Sharon Lokedi decided to make her move. And MY GAWD did she make a move.

Lokedi said to hell with the 5:25 min/mile pace they’d been cruising at and began to accelerate to heinous speeds to drop the field. She ran the next 5k at 5:12 min/mile pace and proceeded to squeeze down the pace to 4:45 min/mile over the next 3 miles. She ran a 4:36 mile at MILE 24 of the race. As a woman. That is insane! She went on to win Boston for the second straight year and also cemented herself as one of the best marathoners of her generation.

The US women also had historically fast races out at Boston this year. Their were 4 US women in the top 10 and 8 in the top 15. Jess Mcclain finished as the top American, good enough for 5th overall, while also lowering the Boston course record for any Americans to 2:20:49. This was a huge accomplishment for someone who isn’t solely a professional runner and prefers to juggle a full time job on top of her elite racing. It was a long overdue day for Jess, who always seems to finish one spot off from her major goals in recent years and had an unfortunate event where she was lead off course at the USATF half marathon championships earlier this year while she was leading. This is her second year in a row of being the top American female and a huge PB for the talented runner out of Arizona.

But perhaps my favorite thing out of the entire weekend came in the form of this video. I think it speaks for itself.

If that doesn’t make you feel some type of way then I don’t know what to say.

Boston looks amazing and it’s one of my (many) running dreams to race it one day, hopefully in the next two years if things go to plan. As stated last post, nothing has really gone to plan this year, but I’m optimistic that it won’t stay that way forever.

Play Fantasy Freetrail here.

Links Discussed in Podcast:

2025 MIUT IRunFar Race Recap.

Freetrail Interview with Rod Farvard.

Youtube video of Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz.

Philipp Ausserhofer instagram profile.

Vincent Esmiol Échappée Belle Strava File.

Trail Talk Podcast Interview with Rebecca Horman.

I’ve been in a bit of a rut for the past three months. 2026 started off promising and filled with the excitement of a year of adventures ahead for me and Kaitlin. A wedding to plan, a few stunning races to run, and lots of events to look forward to that I couldn’t participate in last year due to being deployed from April-July.

I even got offered an interview with the #1 airline that I hoped to get on with. Things were going well and I could feel the momentum building. It was like there was a tailwind pushing me towards my goals and everything was shaping up just how I had planned it to.

Subscribe now

Pretty quickly all the excitement for the future felt like it was pulled right out from under me. On January 22nd I got a call from my Air National Guard unit, “You’ve been activated, pack your bags as if you might be gone for six months and get on the first flight you can to Boise”. Wow. That sucks.

The shock set in from the getgo. A mix of emotions swirled around for the next 36 hours until I flew out from Colorado. Anger. Disbelief. Disappointment. Apathy. I spent the last day enjoying time with my Fiancé Kaitlin and Australian shepherd doggo Barkley and trying not to think about it.

I ended up staying in Boise for over 60 days waiting to get shipped off to a war that nobody voted for on or even asked for quite frankly. Sometimes I worked, sometimes I didn’t. Despite having multiple three and four day weekends in those two months, I wasn’t allowed to fly home. Kaitlin came up to visit me twice which was pleasant, and the final weekend before we left I was allowed a pass to go home. I got 48 hours with Kait and Barks and then drove back up to Idaho to have my car to use.

It wasn’t all bad. My time in Idaho was an exercise in gratitude thanks to an amazing network of friends who go above and beyond to look after me whenever I am in town. Cars I can borrow? Check. Friends to run with? Tons. An extra room to stay in? Multiple. Homecooked meals? All the time. My people in Boise are the best and every time I come back I am reminded about how awesome the community is in my previous city.

I didn’t leave Idaho until about two weeks ago. I kept thinking that maybe, just maybe, they wouldn’t need to send us after waiting for 60+ days to get deployed. I was wrong.

I was really excited to run some cool races and enjoy the trail running community that I know and love this spring/summer. I was supposed to race Big Alta in March-that didn’t happen. I was hoping to achieve a Boston Marathon qualifying result at Illinois Marathon on April 27th but that is also not happening. The next races I’m signed up for are San Juan Solstice 50 miler on June 20th and Never Summer 100k on July 25th. I’m hopeful I’ll get to do at least one of the two races, but who knows. As long as I can get home safely in time for Kaitlin and I’s wedding August 8th I’ll consider it a win.

Logically, I know there’s a lot to be grateful for and I try my best to show that. I have amazing family and friends-an enormous support system that I don’t know I deserve. They send me letters, goodies, and words of support day in and day out. And I appreciate the hell out of it. Emotionally, I’m just disappointed. I know that will change, but for now I just want to be disappointed because this whole situation kinda sucks, and there’s basically nothing I can do to change it.

Links Discussed in Podcast:

Play Fantasy Freetrail Here.

Luca Del Pero 2025 Calamorro Course Record Race

Sara Alonso 2025 Calamorro Course Record Race

Zaid Malek BBC Article

IRunFar Chianti Race Recap from 2025.

Kilian Jornet strava file from 2025 Chianti 120k race.

Roberto Delorenzi strava file from 2025 Tenerife 47k race.

Play Fantasy Freetrail here.