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In what (hopefully) has become an annual UTMB week tradition, Max Jolliffe joins us in our Chamonix studio for another long-form conversation.

We discuss insights from his course-record win at Badwater, why he might skip Cocodona next year for a backyard ultra, his continued fascination with the Barkley Marathons, and closes with some reflections on religion and spirituality.

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Leah Yingling returns to UTMB three years after an impressive 8th place debut finish back in 2023.

In this conversation we discuss her history of racing in Chamonix, adapting to a rapidly professionalizing sport, why success here equates to rejecting complacency, hiring Jack Kuenzle, balancing peak training with parenthood, and some of her predictions for the deepest women’s field ever.

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Brett Hornig joins me in our Chamonix studio to preview the men's and women's fields at the 2026 OCC, part of the UTMB World Series Finals.

In both fields, we cover top storylines and what to watch for, we answer some listener mail about the race, provide analysis of top contenders, categorize who we see as candidates for the win, for the podium, and the top 10, and we make bold predictions across a number of other fun categories.

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Brett Hornig joins me in our Chamonix studio to preview the men's and women's fields at the 2026 CCC, part of the UTMB World Series Finals.

In both fields, we cover top storylines and what to watch for, we answer some listener mail about the race, provide analysis of top contenders, categorize who we see as candidates for the win, for the podium, and the top 10, and we make bold predictions across a number of other fun categories.

At the end of the preview, we transition to a pre-race interview with Toni McCann - a past...

Caleb Olson joins us in our Chamonix studio a little over a week out from his debut at UTMB.

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Note: Kilian Jornet and Jim Walmsley are, unfortunately, out of UTMB this year. This information became public shortly after the recording of this podcast.

Brett Hornig joins me in our Chamonix studio to preview the men's and women's fields at the 2026 Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc (UTMB).

In both fields, we cover top storylines and what to watch for, we answer some listener mail about the race, provide analysis of top contenders, categorize who we see as candidates for the win, for the podium, and the top 10, and we make bold predictions across...

Lauren Gregory joins us in our Chamonix studio a week ahead of her debut at OCC.

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Rachel Entrekin joins us in our Chamonix studio a little over a week away from her first start at Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc.

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Hans joins us in our Chamonix studio a little over a week out from the start of CCC.

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Jack Kuenzle returns to the show, this time wearing the coaching hat. Among other topics, we cover the opportunities and limitations of using large language models in training, self-coaching vs. hiring a coach for elite athletes, the pacing plan behind Max Jolliffe's Badwater course record, Western States vs. UTMB build differences, and the case for training levers beyond running.

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Disclaimer: We recorded this episode a few days before the news broke that Courtney Dauwalter is racing UTMB.

Brett Hornig joins the show for a preview-before-the-preview of UTMB 2026. We each bring our top 5 storylines heading into the biggest week in trail running, put out our current power rankings for the men's and women's fields, and play a round of Buy or Sell on the boldest claims for each of the championship races (UTMB, CCC, OCC).

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David Ayala is a Professor of Mathematics at Montana State University and an amateur ultrarunner who most recently finished 3rd at the 2026 Hardrock 100.

Until recently he'd never owned a watch. He has no social media. What he does have is a faculty webpage full of trip reports, written in LaTeX, for unsupported FKTs on the Wind River High Route, Sierra High Route, and Teton Center Punch, documented with a remarkable level of transparency. 

In this Sunday Conversation, we talk about training for flow state, why he calls competition "oblique collaboration," the huckleberry analogy, and whether h...

Sophie Woods just ran the length of the Alps faster than anyone in recorded history. Starting in Trieste, Italy on July 4 and finishing in Monaco on August 1, she covered the Via Alpina, 2,018 kilometers and 117,614 meters of climbing across eight countries, in 28 days, 17 hours, and 59 minutes, beating the previous overall record by more than seven days.

In this conversation, Sophie takes us inside the effort: the highs and lows, what she ate, how she paced certain sections, her sleep strategy, and how she handled setbacks like wildfires, bugs, and course reroutes.  

We also discuss her background a...

Three weeks after Jennifer Lichter set a new course record at Western States, her coach John Fitzgerald joins the Singletrack Podcast to break down how it happened. Fitzgerald coaches an elite squad out of Missoula for Carmichael Training Systems, and this year he guided Jen to the win along with Jeff Mogavero and Adam Peterman into the men's top ten.

We get into the philosophy underneath the results: why consistency is a trainable skill, why willpower is a resource you can spend too early, and what he means when he says success is rented. Fitzgerald explains the...

Wright Thompson is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine who has profiled some of the greatest athletes and coaches of all time, including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Steve Kerr, Pat Riley, Caitlin Clark, and Dan Gable. He's also the author of 3 books: "The Cost of These Dreams", "The Barn", and "Pappyland". 

In this conversation, we discuss optimization versus beauty in sports, sports as vehicles for self-understanding, why fame freezes people at the emotional age they got it, and where the tortured artist myth comes from before ending on mortality and legacy.

N...

Brett Hornig co-hosts for another classic edition of the Long Run Archives. We share our biggest takeaways from this year's Hardrock, reflect on the biggest moments from the first half of 2026, and feature the latest ultra-focused products that have caught our attention. Finally, we close with a brief interview of Ryder Jay, who won the U-18 NTN Eagle race at Broken Arrow last month.

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Tom Evans is back on the show! We last chatted after UTMB last year, so there was a lot of ground to cover: recapping the first half of 2026, his most recent treadmill workout, which garnered a lot of commentary on Instagram, the "why now" for Hardrock, his analysis of the competitive field here, and his reflections on how he's prepared for the opportunity. Thanks as always for tuning in.

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Two course records, a rookie champion, and a men's podium almost nobody predicted. Brett Hornig and Leah Yingling join me in Auburn to recap the 2026 Western States 100: Vincent Bouillard clawing back from ten minutes down at Forest Hill, Jennifer Lichter winning in her first 100-miler, the deepest women's top 10 in race history, plus buy-or-sell and our biggest questions for next year.

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Jennifer Lichter joins us in our Auburn, CA studio shortly after her course record victory at the 2026 Western State 100. 

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David Roche returns to the show a few days ahead of the 2026 Western States 100.

Across 2024 and 2025, he put on one of the most memorable shows in our sport's history. He took us behind the scenes of his buildup to Javelina, Leadville, and Western States, fighting for wins and course records while running training experiments on himself.

This year he's back at Western States, on the ground as a coach for athletes like Hans Troyer, Ellaney Matarese, and Justin Grunewald.

We were lucky to get him in the studio for a long-form conversation, where...

Finn Melanson, Brett Hornig, Jeff Colt, and Rod Farvard provide in-depth analysis, commentary, and predictions for the competition in this year’s men's field at the Western States 100. 

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Zach Miller is one of the greatest, most entertaining, and most thoughtful runners of his generation. It's a treat to have him in the studio ahead of Western States, a race he has patiently waited to run for over a decade.

Miller is coming off a memorable 2nd place golden ticket performance at the Canyons 100K, a race where he reunited with Hayden Hawks for yet another classic duel in their storied rivalry, which dates back to the 2016 TNF 50 in San Francisco.

We also catch up with Zach on other topics, including his regular IRunFar...

One of the most exciting and versatile athletes in our sport, Tara Dower joins us in the studio to reflect on this year’s mission to race the vaunted Western States-Hardrock double. 

There’s a bit of a “revenge” narrative at play here as illness forced her to DNF at last year’s Western States and she was the very first person on the wait list at last year’s Hardrock, even suiting up for the start line the morning of the race in hopes that magic would happen. Ultimately, the stars didn’t align. But now it’s here. 

Jennifer Lichter is the newest star in ultra-trail running. She's been winning important races since her breakout at The Rut 50K in 2021, but it was only about 18 months ago that the wider world caught on and she became a household name. 

Since the start of 2025 she's beaten top fields to win the Transgrancanaria Marathon, Broken Arrow 46K, Speedgoat 50K, Black Canyon 100K, and Gorge Waterfalls 50K. Western States is her first time toeing the line for 100 miles, yet many already make her a favorite to win. Can she pull it off? 

In this conversation we tr...

Finn Melanson, Brett Hornig, and Leah Yingling provide in-depth analysis, commentary, and predictions for the competition in this year’s women's field at the Western States 100. 

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Kilian Jornet is the greatest trail and mountain runner of all time. He joins the show coming off a 3rd place finish at last year’s event, certainly questing for a victory in this year’s edition. He is the 2011 champion of Western States and debuted here in 2010 - the famous “Unbreakable” edition where he dueled with Geoff Roes and Anton Krupicka all day before landing on the podium in 3rd. Suffice it to say, Kilian has a storied history at this race. It’s not that often we get the privilege to speak with Kilian, so we also used this...

Scott Jurek is one of the greatest ultramarathoners of all time. His career ushered in an era of professionalism that enabled many that came after him to pursue this sport as a full-fledged career. 

Since 2024, we have had Scott in the studio for long-form conversations during Western States week. At this point, it’s become one of our favorite traditions. Sometimes we talk about the state of the sport, sometimes we reflect on key moments in his racing career, and other times we just shoot the breeze. 

In this one, we talk about Scott’s experi...

In this episode we share our final "power rankings" for both the men's and women's races. Stay tuned for additional, in-depth previews of both elite fields later this week.

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Simply put, Lotti Brinks is one of the best ultrarunners in the sport right now.

Over the last 2 years, she’s secured multiple top 10s at CCC, wins at Way Too Cool and Desert Rats, and a course record at the Gorge Waterfalls 100K this past spring that heralded her arrival into the upper echelon of the sport.

This is her second time at Western States. She was here in 2024, placing 14th in 18:53. But many expect her to be a podium contender in 2026.

Since this is our first ever interview with Lotti on Si...

These are the times! Hans Troyer joins us in the studio for his first-ever (longer form) appearance on the Singletrack Podcast. 

Hans has had an exciting recent build to Western States, including a win at the Twisted Fork 30K and a training camp in Flagstaff with the Hoka team. Beyond that, on the biggest stages of the sport, he is on a roll demonstrating his greatness with a course record victory at the Black Canyon 100K back in February and an impressive win at JFK late last year. 

Hans took 8th place at his debut he...

Francesco Puppi is a professional trail runner for Hoka based outside of Lake Como, Italy. For many fans of the sport, his debut at the 100-mile distance and Western States has been long-anticipated. It's finally here and we cover the usual topics around preparation, mentality, and racing strategy for the current moment, but I also take the opportunity to ask him about current anti-doping efforts in the sport, European vs American trail media, and lessons learned from other superstars in our sport. 

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Brett Hornig and Jeff Colt join the show to unpack Tom Evans' wild treadmill workout, our Western States sleeper picks, the ski brands entering the trail market, Broken Arrow hype, and whether the athlete-media landscape is changing.

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We discuss Gerda Steyn's "comfortable" Comrades record (and George Kusche's not-so-comfortable victory finish), Aaron Kubala's Tahoe 200 course record, Rod Farvard and Martina Valmassoi's dominant UTMB Andorra wins, Western States withdrawals from Keely Henninger and Seth Ruling, our Broken Arrow storylines to watch, Terignota's wild financials, athletes on the move (Canyon Woodward to Patagonia), Tudor's luxury trail play, and our favorite content of the week.

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We discuss athletes on the move (including, possibly, Michael Versteeg?!), Kilian Jornet's injury status, the Cocodona 250 lottery results, Tyler Andrews' Everest record, results from the Sunapee Scramble, Scout Mountain 100, and Twisted Fork Trail Festival, UTMB's latest event announcement in Vietnam, and our favorite content of the week.

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It was a heavy week in trail running, to say the least. Katie Schide officially withdraws from Hardrock as her foot injury rehab continues, and Kilian Korth faces season-ending surgery on a peroneus longus tendon tear that took place during this year's Cocodona 250.

Then the Cam Hanes situation. After Hanes admitted to using banned peptide BPC 157 in an Instagram thread following his 2:39 Eugene Marathon, Sage Canaday filed a USADA tip. We break down the ethics of doping enforcement below the pro tier and what Cam's outsized influence on the sport means for any resolution.

Plus...

Carl Morris, author of "Dirtbag Dreams: A History of Mountain, Ultra and Trail Running," joins the show to discuss the past, present, and future of our community.

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The trail running world never sleeps! We cover race results from Zegama, Snowdonia, Ultra-Trail Australia, and Rothrock, the return of the original, single-loop course for the Tahoe 200, Caleb Olson's foray into full-time ultrarunning, and the latest from Satisfy's marketing playbook.

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Rachel Entrekin returns to the show to recap her overall course record victory at the 2026 Cocodona 250.

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Kilian Korth returns to the show to recap his men's race course record victory at the 2026 Cocodona 250.

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Alyssa Clark is back in the co-host seat for this week's edition of Singletrack News. It's a bit of a non-traditional episode as we go longer and spend the first half trading thoughts on this year's Cocodona 250. After that, we go through a brief recap of Transvulcania, a preview of Zegama and other local and international races this coming weekend + our content and gear picks of the week.

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