Let's Talk Trail Running – Details, episodes & analysis

Transvulcania Ultramarathon is a 74km (44.7 miles) race across the Canary Island of La Palma that has about 4,350M (14,000 feet) of elevation gain as runners cross the beautiful island’s varied terrain. It has heat, steep climbs, and endless descents. This year’s race features GOATs like Ruth Croft and Blandine L’hirondel on the womens side and Dakota Jones and Dmitry Mityaev on the men’s side. Join me as I discuss the runners racing and make my picks for Fantasy Freetrail/discuss who to consider for your picks. I’m currently in 3rd overall on the Fantasy Freetrail Leaderboard which is NUTs.

Zach Miller, Francesco Puppi, AND Rod Farvard?!?! Oh my this race is going to be exciting. Join me as I discuss the dynamics of the last Golden Ticket Race before Western States this year and dive into some of the backgrounds of each of the runners. I include my picks for top 5 for both races and also include some other racers who have a strong chance of making it top 5 as well. Feel free to comment and let me know who you have in your top 5 or anywhere you think I got it wrong. Enjoy!

Fun Fact: Basically every time I watch the Zach Miller documentary by Billy Yang on Youtube I end up in tears by the end.

Welcome to all the new listeners courtesy of Ken Seals publication The Ultra Minute and other listeners who were just looking for Black Canyon preview material. Join me on another episode of Let's Talk Trail Running for a post mortem on my Black Canyon 100k/50k picks as well as a discussion about the athletes racing Tarawera 100k in New Zealand this weekend and some storylines around them. Enjoy!

A podcast talking about runners to watch for the 2025 Black Canyon 100k and storylines around athletes one week out from the race. Use this podcast to help make your Fantasy Freetrail picks!

Fantasy Freetrail 2025 Season Has Kicked Off! Here's a discussion of the first Fantasy Trail Race of the Year: The Hong Kong 100km. I include my top 5 picks and some discussion about athletes racing and dynamics going into the race.

There are four opportunities to get Fantasy Freetrail Points at four different races this weekend. Four races means I’m doubling up episodes, the first preview of which will be a double whammy of Madeira Islanda Ultra Trail (MIUT) 115k and the GTWS Great Wall Race in Chengde, China. We’ve got the return of one of the GOATs to the racing scene in Katie Schide at MIUT 115k and the chance for some new Kenyan runners to make a big splash at the second GTWS race of the year. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Had some jets takeoff near where I was recording around the 18 minute mark. I stop talking for a bit but if you skip ahead about a minute I go back to talking.

Can Remi take back the crown? Will Patrick be able to finally win the overall title? Can Sophia Laukli return to the top of the running world? The first Golden Trail World Series race of the year is here and I couldn't be more freaking stoked! Here's a preview of the athletes racing the most competitive sub ultra trail event in the world.

Another trail race is here and this time it’s a US Trail Long Team qualifier for the Gorge 100k. The top 2 (I’m pretty sure) spots will automatically qualify for the long trail team for the US and will go on to race at the Trail World Championships in Spain later this year in September. I also included some short discussion on my picks for the Calamorro Skyrace which I wasn’t able to get a podcast out in time for unfortunately. Here is the link to my write up from my Big Alta 28k race weekend that I mentioned in the podcast. Enjoy!

Join me for a combined episode as I break down the Chianti 102k & Acantilados Del Notre race predictions, preview, and picks. We've got two of the all time GOATs of trailrunning (hopefully) lining up-Jim and Kilian. They will be joined by last year’s UTMB champion Vincent Bouillard and a host of other accomplished Ultrarunners for what should be an epic showdown. I also try to shine a light on the first race in one of my favorite series (with some of the most scenic courses in the world)-the skyrunning world series. For whatever reason (potentially diluted competition because of so many events) this series seems to get largely overlooked in the US. The Subhub does a good job of podcast previewing races but other than that the races don’t get much attention. Hopefully, I can help change that!