Weathering The Run – Details, episodes & analysis

Doing a special bonus episode drop with Tara Dower again. She just completed the Fastest Known Time on the Appalachian Trail(2,189 miles). This was a stout record that other elite athletes have attempted. She completed the AT in 40 hours, 18 hours, and 6 minutes, which comes out to about 54 miles each day. It required her to wake up at 3AM each day to log miles before the sun came up and keep running until after the sun went down. I helped out by providing weather forecasts for her and her team. Her new record beats all other times, male/female, northbouth/southbound, for the new overall record. She is inspiring in so many ways and she was also doing this to help raise money for Girls on The Run.

Check out Tara's Instagram or the Instagram account set up for the AT FKT called ChumpChangeFKT.

Buckle up because Blackbeard has some revenge to reckon. Patrick Lloyd joined us to chat about his experience running Blackbeard's Revenge 100 miler this year in torrential rain and whipping winds. He also hosts a podcast called Carolina Ultra Runners Podcast. You can check him out on Strava. He also has a Facebook page for his podcast, of you can find it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Anytime I visit Northeast Ohio to visit family I always love running with a group called Trail Enthusiasts for Burning River. They have a Facebook group and post weekend trail runs so I leading up to my visit I can see where the Saturday and Sunday trail runs will be to see what fits into my schedule while visiting family. Bob Smaltz is 62 and always a pleasure to chat with while running on the trails and has a wealth of knowledge to share on the sport. Hope you enjoy this episdode!

Brian Papay ran 5125 miles in 2023, but didn't get serious into running until 2020 when COVID shut down the gyms. He pushes hard with minimal attention or gear. You will often see him running a hundred mile race in shoes, shorts, and a handheld water bottle. He has big goals on the horizon to push himself more.

Excited to chat with Jonathan Levitt, the host of For The Long Run podcast. We talk about his experiences growing up in the Boston area and how the weather is so much different than what he experiences living in Boulder, Colorado now. He also travels a lot with his work, so he gives us some other areas to put on a bucket list for amazing runs.

You can find him on social media at: @jwlevitt.

It is hard to find someone that is as positive and smiles as much as Justin Boggs. He is a very active running in the Columbus community, but just a few years ago he weighed 420 pounds. With diet and lifestyle changes he weighs less than 180 now. Crazy weather seems to follow the races he signs up to run, but he continues to persevere.

Connect with Justin on Instagram: jj_boggs

You may have heard about the “CHIPOTLE SEGMENT CHALLENGE SERIES” contest that just occurred in January. The two companies teamed up and made Strava segments a little less than a quarter of a mile long that ended at Chipotle restaurants in LA, NYC, DC, Chicago, Denver, and Columbus. Each city had their own unique story of how the competition went to see who could run those segments the most during the month of January. I sat down to talk about it all with the winner of the Columbus segments. A modest runner that goes by the name of "Fern". Fern doesn't want a lot of spotlight, but he ran the 0.2 mile segment 1,000 times over the month of January to win a year of free Chipotle (52 free entrees). Columbus had some rollercoaster winter weather and the segment also was unique since it runs along the edge of Ohio State's main campus. Great chat for someone willing to lay down some serious miles just to get bragging rights along with some free burritos. Really enjoyed this chat. For more on the rules: https://www.chipotle.com/strava-segment-challenge

Aneta co-founded Empower Ultra with Jennifer Russo, who was a guest on Episode 4 of Weathering The Run. Aneta and Jennifer set up their races with generous cut-offs and other parameters to ensure a high finishing rate. Two of my 100+ mile races occurred at their races.

Aneta signs up to run some very difficult races and has an extensive list of race finishes over the last decade, including Badwater 135. She was also featured in a recent documentary running Western States, called "Nettie From Ohio". Aneta is also very active on Instagram and Strava, if you would like to follow her journey.

Most of the world has 24 hours in a day, but Scott Kummer somehow seems to get 36 hours of work done 1 day. You may know him from his podcast Ten Junk Miles or from one of the races that he race directs with Ten Junk Miles Racing. His podcasts have helped me get through some long solo runs. He dives deeper than most podcasts with questions that his guests typically do not get asked. Scotty is a lawyer for a living and he said that helps with thinking of questions to dive below the surface with some of the guests. Sometimes they don't even get around to talking about running or their latest accomplishments. It was a pleasure getting the chance to pick his brain about his career in running. He has run some of the toughest winter endurance races around. He also is a big volunteer helping others in their quests to challenge themselves. He shared some expert tips on running in extreme cold weather and I tested out some of his methods just this last week and man was it a game changer! Hope you enjoy this episode!

Elizabeth Long says in the episode that her sister, Bridgett Shoemaker, is the runner. But Elizabeth is running every race across the state of Ohio with her sister. It is a way for them to see all of Ohio and meet some awesome people. They always try to find a local hidden restaurant to eat at, after the race. So far they have completed 77 of the 88 counties. The rules they made: minimum distance is a 5k (3.1 miles) and it must be a sanctioned event. Some counties only have a race or two every year, so they have to lace up and run the event. It was great hearing about their favorite races and most memorable locations. Great bonding for the two of them and it inspires me to do more memorable things with my family.