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For number 400, I’m excited to bring you another story of amazing triumph at the Leadville Trail 100.  On his fourth attempt, Brian Reynolds became the first double amputee to finish the iconic Race Across the Sky, in a time of 28:55:43.  Brian last appeared on episode #189 in February, 2022 before he had ever attempted an ultra, but had already accomplished a lot in shorter races, including running a 16:49 5K on blades and setting several world records. The 2:58 marathoner lost his legs at age 4 due to meningococcemia, a bacterial blood infection, but decided not to let that...

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Melissa Strong moved to Estes Park, Colorado outside of Rocky Mountain National Park and found herself drawn to the hospitality industry so common in a tourist town. Working in restaurants is notorious for working long, hard hours, and sometimes partying just as hard. After spending much of her 20s immersed in that fast-paced, yet sedentary, lifestyle, someone introduced her to the world of rock climbing, for which she had an abundance of opportunities right out her front door. Gaining proficiency and solving climbing problems immediately resonated with Melissa, and soon rock climbing became...

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There are always numerous huge triumphs at the Leadville Trail 100.  Watch the last two hours before the 30-hour cutoff and you will see the bulk of finishers, and every one of them has a story and has made considerable sacrifices to be there. Whether they are a rookie or 31-time finisher Eric Pence. Some are rebounding from addiction, obesity, or serious illnesses or injuries, or running to remember someone they lost. Over the next two weeks I’ll be highlighting two of my favorite stories. First up is the remarkable Adam Popp, who had...

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If you run or follow the ultramarathon world, you know who Harvey Lewis is. For the uninitiated, Harvey is a 15-time Badwater 135 finisher, including winning it in 2014 in 23:52:55 and in 2021 in 25:50:23, a time he almost matched this year at age 50. He is a backyard ultra recordholder by running 108 yards, which is 450 miles over 4½ days, at Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra.  He is a worldwide running traveler adventurer, activist, vegan champion, and schoolteacher in Cincinnati who notably run-commutes to work. OK, that is the short list. And he is well-known as one of the trul...

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Witness the birth of a new performance fuel called Raw Spark Energy. Through pure serendipity, I met Ryan Hanlon near the finish line of Boulderthon, where he was handing passing runners free samples of his Raw Spark Energy bar. Ryan is an entrepreneurial 21-year-old who has spent hours in the kitchen tinkering with ingredients to come up with an all-natural fuel made from actual whole food ingredients. It consists of honey, dates, oats, agave, chia seeds, lemon juice and zest, tapioca, and sea salt, and I can tell you that...

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Colorado is known as a hotbed for running talent, and here’s an emerging star who accomplished something pretty extraordinary this summer. With cross country season upon us – my team’s first meet is this weekend – I want to introduce you to Golden High School’s Jackson Ferguson. Jackson had a very, very solid year as a sophomore, including finishing fourth at the State 5A Cross Country Championships, notching a 5K PR of 14:49.33 while finishing 12th at the Nike Southwest Regional cross country meet, and lowering his time in the 3200 meters by 30 seconds from his f...

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I have at times brought up adventures and screw-ups that have occurred during some of my overseas travels. The usual things all of us have experienced like delayed and canceled  flights and lost luggage. But I’ve never heard anyone have a series of travesties quite like Tina Weiss had on what should have been a dream trip of a lifetime to Italy that she had carefully planned. This was a trip that was badly needed to heal herself following a drawn-out ordeal with her dad’s gravely declining health, COVID, and then a bot...

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I met Anastasia Rolek years ago in the most random way and we somehow discovered that we are each ultrarunners, although in Anastasia’s case, she is way more successful than I am. In addition, she is a lot more colorful, being well-known for running races dressed as Supergirl, Beast Mode Barbie, and as a unicorn. You might say that Anastasia is a flat land ultramarathon specialist, having placed second in the Prairie Spirit 100 in Kansas five times. But this year she got into Western States, the grandaddy of 100 mile races, which she fi...

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With the Badwater 135 having just started on Monday evening, I thought it would be great to bring Bob Becker onto the WASP. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Badwater 135 is nicknamed the World’s Toughest Footrace. It is, yes, 135 miles. In Death Valley. In the middle of the summer. All on roads. The temperature typically is in the 120s or more, and the pavement can get much, much hotter than that. It’s not flat by any means, either. Badwater begins at the lowest point in the U.S. - 282 feet belo...

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We’ve got something very special for you, the first We Are Superman Podcast live in front of an audience! The La Sportiva store in Boulder last week hosted a Q&A session with sponsored athlete Tyler Andrews, fresh off of his record-setting run, yes run, on Mt. Everest on May 28. This has been Tyler’s years-long quest, following his FKTs on dozens of routes, including ascending such very tall peaks as Aconcagua, Cotopaxi, Kilimanjaro, Manaslu, and Mt. Fuji. On his seventh Everest attempt he reached the summit from Everest Base Camp in 9:55, smas...

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I think most of us who run dream of running forever. I sure do. And of course with no achy knees, no sore back, just keep moving. But how about staying on top of the game for decades, still running past retirement age, and still excelling? That would be Doug Bell of Greeley, Colo. Doug, a 2013 Colorado Running Hall of Fame inductee won the Denver Marathon three times in the 1980s and placed first among 75-year-olds at this year’s Bolder Boulder 10K. How’s that for a spread of years? For decades, when...

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I’m very excited to bring you an extremely inspirational and energetic guest, who has been through a ton of challenges to get to where she is today. I was so honored to get to interview her in-person in the Hive and experience her energy. Athena Brownson is a former professional freestyle skier who has endured 27 surgeries, including nine on her knees. She believes that the resilience lessons she learned from being a pro athlete from the age of 15 and these injury experiences helped develop her character to face other life challenges, including a...

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I hope you enjoy hearing about my tales of running the Leadville Marathon and the vitally important work that Team Leadville is doing to support the Boulder Crest Foundation to help stop veteran suicide. If you are able, I hope you can support with a donation - link below. Donate, share, or just help spread the word to help end veteran suicide. Thank you very much!

https://weblink.donorperfect.com/BoulderCrestFoundation/2026TeamLeadville/BillStahl 

Bill Stahl
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We’ve featured a lot of people who have taken on epic challenges, but this guest, Ray Zahab of Quebec, Canada, has done dozens and dozens of them. When we recorded this two years ago, Ray had just completed a couple of weeks before a crossing of Death Valley from north to south. I’m very familiar with the Badwater 135, which just completed, but that is run on roads. I didn’t even know it was a thing there to run the shortest route between two points, completely off-road. The terrain is seriously rugged...

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This is part two of my entertaining chat with Mike Melton of MCM Timing, the absolute best in the business of timing very long races. As I mentioned last episode, I inherited Mike for the American Heroes Run after David unexpectedly passed away less than four months before the race and I suddenly took up the mantle of race director, and I got really lucky because Mike ensured that not only would the race not miss a beat in the transition, but I’ve had a partner ever since that has helped me ma...

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They say that a game is well-officiated when you don’t even notice the referees or umpires. I sure can’t say that about this NBA Finals, where the officiating has been atrocious. But if you’ve ever run an ultramarathon, especially a multiday race, and didn’t notice the timer, it might have been because that was Mike Melton of MCM Timing, the absolute best in the business. I inherited Mike for the American Heroes Run after David unexpectedly passed away less than four months before the race and I suddenly took up the m...

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One of the most common questions we coaches of long-distance runners get is, “How long should my long run be?”  Related to that is, “If I’m training for a marathon, how many times should I do 26-mile training runs?” I dive into these, training camps, and other related considerations in this Power Play episode that I hope helps you in your training for your next marathons and ultramarathons.

Bill Stahl
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Cody Poskin is an emerging star of ultramarathoning, and his meteoric rise continued earlier this month at the Cocodona 250 in Arizona, where he placed second among men in 58:13:44, impressively knocking 13 hours off of his time from a year earlier. He attributes his progress due to lessons he learned from last time about sleeping, how not to chafe, increasing his training load, and to mental ruggedness. Some of the latter was honed when he won the Ultra Gobi Desert 400K, which he discussed on WASP episode #364 last October. Cody chats with me about many...

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Today’s guest is one of the earliest members of David’s Leadville Ten Warriors group that all were overcoming their addictions and with David’s guidance gleaned from lessons he learned in his own life, battled back against those addictions and trained to run races like the Leadville Heavy Half and Marathon. Josh Lee completed the Heavy Half in 2019, but he had to hit rock bottom before making the definitive changes he needed to put his life on the right course. Josh was a high school wrestler, and as you may know, their...

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I’m talking today with three truly remarkable men, all veterans, all of whom have not let the loss of their eyesight and sometimes more affect their willingness to help others in monumental ways. They have started foundations and programs so others are not glued to their couches but instead get active and find meaning in their lives. They have found ways to adapt to the world to produce podcasts and music, and telling stories about overcoming steep odds. They have set and attained what would be unfathomable goals to most people that ar...

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As you know, the American Heroes Run honors among others our courageous first responders, so when the opportunity came up to chat with Tim Carney, a professional firefighter for 33 years, I jumped at it. Tim learned early on during one of his rescues how much fitness comes into play. From this, he earned his personal training certification. But he was surprised how much resistance he got from department heads after he developed a program to improve wellness for those he worked with. This evolved into him creating PrimeFITTlife, which is aimed to help...

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Coming back from a suicide attempt, tumors, and pain so bad that he was bedridden for six months and couldn’t even operate a TV remote, Greg desperately searched for answers, any answers. He came across one that showed promise – hydrogen. But being the skeptic that he is, he recognized that there are gazillions of scams both in traditional and alternative medicine. It took him four years researching hundreds of studies before he started to believe. Greg also learned about how pure water and blocking PFAS from entering our bodies are also major keys...

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David battled multiple addictions, including alcohol, drugs, and eating, but some other addictions don’t often receive the same attention. In this riveting episode, we hear the incredible story of convicted felon Jonathan Schwartz, who worked his way up in the finance world to the point where he was managing the money for numerous entertainment stars in Hollywood and beyond. However, underlying this glamorous life were insidious addictions to cocaine and gambling, the latter of which spawned from seemingly innocent sports wagering in college. I saw the devastating effects gambling had on someone on...

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While I was running a 12-hour, overnight trail race in Highlands Ranch, Colo. in 2024, I got a hamstring cramp that forced me to walk until I could get it to go away. In the middle of the night, when it was fairly cool. What the heck! I started to think afterwards about the number of times I’d been impaired by muscle cramps over the course of 35-plus years of races. At mile 30 of the Leadville Trail 100. At mile 22 of the Lost Dutchman Marathon in Arizona when I was on BQ pace. When my...

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What would possess someone to basically spend every waking moment for four weeks running back and forth along the same stretch of pavement only ¼ of a mile long… 5400 times. Is this some sort of Buddhist monk ritual? Or cruel punishment doled out by sadistic POW camp guards during WWII? Someone who should have been locked up a long time ago in a mental institution? Or someone competing for a year’s worth of Mexican food and some running shoes? Yep, it’s the latter and it’s the Burrito League. We chatted earlier with Diar...

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Awareness about barefoot running reached a crescendo with the publication of the book Born to Run about the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico who came to run the Leadville Trail 100 in 1992 and 1994. Steven Sashen and his wife Lena started a company that produced kits that allowed buyers to assemble their own huarache-style sandals that the Tarahumaras wore. This evolved into them designing shoes for running, court sports, and other training that has become the popular brand Xero Shoes that spurned a Shark Tank offer and had sales of $48 million in 2022. Their shoes are designed...

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I’m really excited to bring you this episode’s guest. When I began ultramarathoning several decades ago, the only way I could learn about races and people in that space was through a B&W magazine delivered to my mailbox called Ultrarunning. I  read about people who became my first idols in the sport like Marshall Ulrich and Roy Pirrung, who I’ve had the great honor to chat with both on this podcast and in-person. But one who absolutely left me in awe who I never got to meet was Ann Trason...

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Have you heard about the latest thing in running challenges, the Burrito League? A year ago, Jamil Coury, owner of the race directing company Aravaipa Running, ran back and forth in front of a Chipotle in Tempe, AZ expressly to get them to give him a year’s worth of burritos. Back and forth, back and forth. And he succeeded. That was the genesis this January of the Burrito League. Leagues have sprung up all over the country. The idea is to run as many segments on Strava that runners can during the mo...

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We’re going back Down Under for a really impressive comeback story. Olli Bryers was what we Americans would stereotype as a young, carefree, adventurous Australian who liked to surf, backpack, travel, and occasionally party. Usually, that youthful bliss only gets interrupted when the real world says that maybe you need to find a job to finance this lifestyle, or get serious about a long-term career path. But in Olli’s case, that jolt came in his early 20s from the discovery of a spinal tumor that necessitated a surgery that could rob his...

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Many of us have complicated relationships with our parents and then wonder how much of our inherited traits we are passing to our own children; it’s left up to us whether to nurture and grow those traits, or to discard them entirely. In his new book, “The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports,” Nick Thompson describes how his dad one day taking him to watch the New York City Marathon led him to a lifelong love of running. Nick, the CEO of the nationally renowned publication The Atlant...

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As many of you are planning your 2026 race schedule, you might be considering traveling out of town. Of course, that’s very different than waking up in your own bed, throwing your gear and some nutrition into the back of your car, stopping at a coffee shop along the way for some caffeine, and making a leisurely drive to a local race when few others are on the road. For answers about what and how to pack when the race is in another state, how to deal with not being able to bring bi...

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Jerzy Gregorek and his wife Aniela survived a perilous journey living behind the Iron Curtain in Poland while it was subservient to brutal Soviet Union domination. He describes the darkness of living there in the 1970s and 80s, and how it led to him becoming an alcoholic at age 15. He had a mentor who pretty much dragged him into weightlifting at the time of the rise of Solidarity, the movement that led to the fall of the repressive Communist regime and to the free Poland that exists today despite constant threats from Putin’s...

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This is an absolutely don't-miss episode listening to the incredible wisdom of two former fat guy alcoholics who became sober endurance beasts. I promise you will gain more insights from listening to this pair than you would from reading an armful of self-help books. And make sure you stay for the song at the end! Enjoy this very special blast from the past - David's last Christmas.

Bill Stahl
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Running on trails in the winter takes different sets of preparation and skills.  As a long-time trail runner in all seasons, I share some of my insights to help keep you comfortable, on your feet, and enjoying the benefits and special beauty of getting off of the roads and into challenging yet peaceful trails to enjoy the next few months.

Bill Stahl
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You can’t beat the trail running community for positivity, and during so many of my races I have randomly met the most interesting and often inspiring people, many of whom have become lifelong friends. During the descending miles of this year’s Leadville Heavy Half, I started chatting with a fellow runner and before long discovering Scott Tish’s inspiring story that included his experiences as an air ambulance helicopter pilot and as a five-time cancer survivor. Scott’s battles led him to some dark places, but he emerged on the other side wit...

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Dealing with my dad's serious illness has reinforced the value of one of my core philosophies: It Will All Work Out. Anytime I have faced adversity, just as all of you have numerous times, it's a great tool to keep in your arsenal.

Bill Stahl
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How did Cody Poskin, a guy who was told to “get lost” by the coach at his college, become one of the rising stars of ultrarunning and getting invited to run across the Gobi Desert in China? I dig into that with the help of another 23-year-old ultramarathon beast, TJ Harms-Synkiew. After Cody was spurned by the college coach, he decided to target the Boston Marathon, nailing a qualifying time in his first attempt. At age 21, he jumped up to ultras and won his first two races, including the Midstate Massive Ultra Trail 100-mil...

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In this coaching episode, I discuss 13 creative things you can do this winter to renew and reinvigorate your running so you can be fitter and stronger for 2026 racing.  Please feel free to contact me if you'd like me to expand on any of these topics for you!

Bill Stahl
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I was really intrigued when I heard about Matt Zemon and his advocacy for psychedelic therapy as an alternative when traditional psychotherapy hasn’t been successful. Colorado became the first state in the country to legalize therapy using psilocybin mushrooms, and I know someone who has done it and says it produced great results. Like many of you, I came from a place of complete ignorance on this topic, so I really appreciate Matt’s expert knowledge on it, and he enlightened me on information like about the hundreds of psychedelic churches and soci...

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Eric Pence is a guest I actually wanted to chat with a couple of years ago, but it is even better that it is occurring now because this summer he completed the Leadville Trail 100 for the 30th time, becoming just the second person to do so, after the legendary Bill Finkbeiner. Eric and I go back to the early 1990s days of the race, so we have lots of stories to share about that pioneering era, quite a few unique race memories, and the changes we have seen over the years. Eric discusses...