The Buzz

Sophie Woods is a five-time UTMB finisher, three-time Tor des Geants finisher, Marathon des Sables veteran, and coach who lives in Andorra. This summer she set the overall fastest known time on the Via Alpina, running the full length of the Alps through eight countries in 28 days and 18 hours. In this conversation, Sophie explains why she wanted a project that scared her after a difficult few years of failed IVF, what six to seven thousand calories a day actually looks like (spoiler alert: lots of burritos). She and Buzz get into what changed when Stephanie Case's post turned a quiet FKT into a story thousands of people were following, how her husband George ran the crew so she never had to make a decision, what happens when your van breaks down on a Sunday in Switzerland with no cell service, and why three to four hours of sleep a night works.... right up until it doesn't. Plus, what Sophie is lining up for next. This episode is brought to you in part by Arc'teryx, whose new Sylan 2 is built for trail runners who want to move fast. Find it at an Arc'teryx store or Arcteryx.com. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

Mario Fraioli has spent nearly thirty years in running and still describes himself as infinitely curious, which is how a guy who came up through cross country and track ended up coaching Western States champions, marathoners, and mid-packers alike. In this episode, Buzz talks with the host of the Morning Shakeout about what's actually changed in coaching over the last decade: why the conversation shifted from calories per hour to grams of carbohydrate, why super shoes and better fueling have quietly rewritten how fast athletes recover, and why he thinks a "triathlonification" of ultrarunning is underway, with the Ironman playbook showing up everywhere from UTMB's qualification system to the expo-week vibe at big trail races. They also hash out whether or not running 100 miles is actually healthy. From there the conversation goes to the Dipsea, the oldest annual trail race in the world and the one race Mario has zero interest in running, and then through the seven training fundamentals he laid out in Outside: good runners are athletes first, rest is training and not punishment, small deposits compound, consistency beats intensity, perceived exertion is the most reliable metric you've got, once you get fancy fancy gets broken, and find joy in the drudgery. Find Mario's weekly newsletter and occasional podcast at themorningshakeout.com. This episode is brought to you by the Wahoo KICKR RUN. Learn more at wahoofitness.com.

Trueheart Brown is the fire chief for the Coconino National Forest, a former hotshot, and the 2022 Black Canyon 100K champion who set a course record at the Sedona Canyons 125 this May. In this conversation, Buzz and True get into the golden ticket he won at Black Canyon and the Pipeline Fire that kept him from ever starting Western States, what a hotshot crew teaches you about suffering that no ultra can, why a Ponderosa pine forest that used to burn every two to fifteen years is now carrying 150 years of missed fire, the reason your local prescribed burn deserves your support instead of your complaint, what PM 2.5 actually does to a runner's lungs, and why the whole vocabulary of "fighting" fire might be the wrong frame entirely. This episode is brought to you in part by Arc'teryx and the new Sylan 2, built with a supercritical foam midsole and a forked carbon fiber plate for moving fast on technical terrain. Find it at an Arc'teryx store or at arcteryx.com.

Fred Abramowitz is a retired natural resources attorney, the author of Travels in Africa, a veteran of 75 ultras, and the co-founder and co-race director of Run Rabbit Run in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. In 2012 he did something nobody in American ultrarunning had done before: he put up a $100,000 prize purse, the largest of any trail ultra in the world, and absorbed several hundred internet comments about it. In this conversation, Fred and Buzz get into why paying ultrarunners was the right call and why the purists were furious about it, the tortoise-and-hare start that lets mid-packers watch the elites suffer in real time, the two-person team challenge that almost nobody finishes (three of twenty-one teams last year, and Fred has a theory about which half of each team is to blame), his case for a race directors' association, and the concern that keeps the lawyer in him up at night: that the entire sport runs on volunteer labor and is one disgruntled volunteer away from finding out what that's worth. They also talk wildfire smoke, air quality, and what happens to small American races if the center of gravity keeps drifting toward Europe. This episode is brought to you by the Wahoo Kickr Run, a high-end treadmill with automatic pace matching and grade control from a 3% decline to a 15% incline. Check it out at wahoofitness.com. Featured race: Run Rabbit Run, 50 and 100 miles, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, September 18 and 19, 2026. The 100 miler climbs roughly 21,000 feet through the Routt National Forest and carries the largest prize purse in the sport. Registration is full for 2026, but the waitlist is open at UltraSignup.com.

Dean Karnazes is the author of Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, a ten-time Badwater finisher, a ten-plus-time Western States finisher, and the guy who once ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. Buzz catches up with him in Athens, where Dean has spent the last three years living out his Greek roots, halfway between the city and the town of Marathon itself. They get into Pheidippides and the 153-mile run to Sparta that Herodotus documented as history's first race report (hallucination included), why Greece is the best trail running destination almost nobody visits, the night Dean fell asleep mid-stride 350 miles into a run, the pizza he famously ordered to a moving target, and how he trains and eats to keep racing ultras at 63. This episode is brought to you in part by Arc'teryx, whose new Sylan 2 trail shoe is available in Arc'teryx stores and at Arcteryx.com. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

Dan Patitucci is a professional mountain-sport photographer and athlete whose images for Patagonia, Black Diamond, and others helped shape the look of modern trail running, and who, with partners Janine Patitucci and Kim Strom, built ALPSinsight and designed the Via Valais, the Alps' first trail-running grand tour. In this conversation, Buzz and Dan compare the three mountain ranges Dan knows better than almost anyone: the Swiss Valais, where the gneiss weathers into silky-smooth singletrack; the Khumbu in Nepal, where the Three Passes route might be the best hard day of running on the planet; and the Eastern Sierra, all granite, taco trucks, and wilderness you can vanish into for 200 miles. They get into how the Via Valais came together one snowstorm at a time, why Dan shoots everything on a camera that fits in a vest pocket, what he learned chasing Ueli Steck up mountains, and his gleefully unpopular opinion about the running in Chamonix. This episode is brought to you by Wahoo and the Wahoo Kickr Run smart treadmill, and by VKTRY, makers of carbon-fiber insoles built to last over 1,000 miles and backed by a 90-day money-back guarantee (vktry.com). Find Dan's trail running guides, maps, and GPX tracks for the Alps, Nepal, and the Eastern Sierra at allmountaincollective.com . The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

At seven years old, Hunter Leininger talked his way into his first adventure race; by ten he was a national champion, and he's spent the eighteen years since turning a childhood obsession into a profession, holding the fastest unsupported traverse of Iceland (370 miles), the FKT for the 1,110-mile length of Florida, and a Guinness World Record for climbing all fifty state high points. In this conversation, Buzz and Hunter get into the strange education of growing up sleep-deprived (including the time his dad towed him by bungee cord while he sleepwalked through a 2 a.m. trek), the actual tactics of staying awake for days (pre-loading caffeine before the crash, fueling so you never fall behind, the ninety-second dirt nap )and how adventure racing builds the kind of toughness that's quietly producing today's best ultrarunners. Then the industry question Buzz can't resist: how a 25-year-old with no Western States win built a full-time career out of FKTs, TV shows, and content, and what the freelance-athlete model means for everyone trying to make a living in a sport with no teams and almost no prize money. This episode is brought to you in part by VKTRY: high-mileage carbon-plated insoles built to last over 1,000 miles, with a 90-day money-back guarantee. Find them at vktry.com. And, The Buzz is supported by Arc'teryx, and the new Sylan 2 a propulsive trail running shoe designed for speed and reduced fatigue. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

Nancy Hobbs founded the American Trail Running Association in 1996, helped establish USATF's Mountain Ultra Trail Council and chaired it for decades, and has served on the international boards governing trail and mountain running for some thirty years. Buzz and Nancy get into the underbelly of the sport: the governance. They cover how the USATF Mountain Ultra Trail Council grew from a $750 annual budget to six figures, what a membership fee actually buys you (secondary medical insurance and drug testing, not just a warm fuzzies), why the biggest races, UTMB, Hardrock, Western States, aren't the official championships and what that imbalance does to the sport, the women reshaping who shows up on the start line, and the question Buzz keeps poking at: does trail running belong in the Olympics, and would it survive the trip? Also: a throwdown, a postcard, and a hard-won case for permission to walk. The Buzz is brought to you by Wahoo treadmills, and VKTRY insoles. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

Danelle Ballengee is one of the most decorated endurance athletes in American history, a four-time Pikes Peak Marathon champion, two-time Adventure Racing World Champion, and six-time US Athlete of the Year across four different endurance sports. In December 2006, on a routine training run near her home in Moab, she slipped on black ice on the Amasa Back trail, fell roughly 60 feet, shattered her sacrum, broke her pelvis, and spent two sub-freezing nights alone in the desert before her dog Taz led search and rescue to her location. In this conversation, Buzz sits down with Danelle at the Moab Public Library to revisit the golden era of adventure racing under Mark Burnett's Eco-Challenge, coming back two decades later for Bear Grylls' rebooted World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji alongside Travis and Mark Macy, the fall that should have killed her, and what it feels like to live what she calls borrowed time. Danelle is the founder and race director of the Moab Trail Marathon and Half Marathon, held the first weekend in November. Check out VKTRY performance insoles that allow you to make any shoe a carbon shoe for a fraction of the cost. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

Matt Carpenter is the most decorated mountain runner in American history, 18-time Pikes Peak champion across twelve marathons and six ascents, holder of the Pikes Peak Marathon course record at 3:16:39 since 1993, and the man who took 90 minutes off the Leadville Trail 100 record in 2005 with a 15:42:59 that stood until 2024 when broken by David Roche. In this conversation, Matt walks Buzz through what 33 years on top of Pikes Peak actually requires: the obsessive training math behind the 3-2-1 workout above 12,000 feet, the consistency-quality-quantity-rest pyramid that shaped every season, why a 90.2 VO2 max isn't the whole story (running economy is, and his was poor until he trained it), and the moment Ricardo Mejía's 1992 win lit the fire that produced the record the following August. They get into Matt's Fila SkyRunners years racing flat marathons at 17,060 feet in Tibet, his unconventional Leadville fueling system, 50 calories every ten minutes, watch set to beep, why he carried bottles in his armpits before running vests existed, and what made him retire on his own terms at 47 after winning Pikes Peak six years running. Plus the custard shop, the Planet Fitness bench-press streak, and a clear-eyed take on whether his marathon record will ever fall. This episode is brought to you by the Wahoo Kickr Run, the smart treadmill with run-free mode and automatic grade control from -3% to 15%. Learn more at wahoofitness.com. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

Dave Mackey is a two-time USATF Ultrarunner of the Year, former rim-to-rim-to-rim Grand Canyon record holder, JFK 50 champion, and, after a freak fall off Bear Peak in May 2015, thirteen surgeries, and a voluntary below-the-knee amputation in November 2016, one of the more improbable comebacks in the sport. Buzz and Dave recorded the first part of this episode on the exact rock Dave fell off, on the summit of Bear Peak, in an actual snowstorm, wearing actual shorts. In this conversation, Dave walks through the accident itself and the friends who got him off the mountain alive, why he ultimately chose amputation over more reconstruction, what proprioception feels like on a carbon-fiber running blade, his pre-Western States taper (rock climbing in Tuolumne Meadows), being one of the first American athletes to lace up a pair of absurd-looking early Hokas, and why he thinks modern ultrarunners are faster, better rested, and, for the most part, smiling more than his generation did. He's signed up for the Leadville Challenge again this summer, and he's still, as Travis Macy puts it, a runner's runner. This episode is brought to you by the Wahoo Kickr Run — a high-end smart treadmill with Run-Free mode (the belt auto-adjusts to your pace) and automatic grade control from -3% to +15%. Check it out at wahoofitness.com. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

Jason Blevins is a veteran journalist at the Colorado Sun who has spent nearly three decades covering outdoor recreation, public lands, and the mountain communities of the Colorado high country. In this conversation, Buzz and Jason dig into the slow-motion crisis unfolding across the Rocky Mountain West, a snowpack at 61 percent of normal, a 103-year-old Colorado River Compact straining under the weight of 40 million people's water needs, and ski towns facing an identity reckoning that has been building for years. They talk about what it looks like when mountain communities diversify away from a sole reliance on chairlift riders, why the ideal town might be "just shitty enough," and how the housing crisis in places like Crested Butte and Aspen is a preview of pressures playing out across the country. The conversation opens up into something larger: outdoor recreation as a $1.3 trillion industry that has earned a seat at the policy table — and the responsibility that comes with it. This episode is brought to you by Wahoo KICKR Run. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

Buzz sits down with Karl "Speedgoat" Meltzer, 50-time 100-mile winner, previous Appalachian Trail FKT holder, and the man behind one of trail running's most iconic nicknames , for a conversation about a career that has never followed the obvious path. Karl is currently at 93 hundred-mile finishes, closing in on a goal he set four years ago: 100 finishes by the summer of 2027, with Hardrock 100 as his dream finale. They dig into the origin of the Speedgoat nickname (a jackrabbit, Highway 70, a Fila shoe called the Escape Goat), what it looks like to hold a perpetuity royalty deal with Hoka on one of the best-selling trail shoes in the world, and what Karl learned across three AT record attempts about the difference between being an elite hundred-miler and being ready for multi-day. Plus longevity, old-school zone-five-or-nothing training, speed golf at Bandon Dunes with Bernard Lagat and Nick Willis, and the homemade bobsled runs that once left Buzz's sacrum bruised for four days. Karl is 58, still running for Hoka through 2027, still operating on the same principle that drove him through his Snowbird bartending years: live first, die later. The record will stand for a while. The shirt is coming. This episode is brought to you by Wahoo Kickr Run: run-free mode, automatic grade control from -3% to 15% incline, and the closest thing to outside without going outside. Learn more at wahoofitness.com.

Sean O'Rourke holds a PhD in computational physics. He also lives in a Ford Transit Connect, bathes in hot springs, and has climbed roughly 2,000 peaks across the American West, South America, the Alps, and Central Asia, mostly alone, entirely self-funded, and almost completely off the radar. He goes by Dr. Dirtbag, a name he's been writing under since 2010. This conversation is about what happens when someone with serious credentials looks at the conventional post-graduate path and quietly walks the other direction. Sean teaches computer science and coaches Nordic skiing remotely, which frees him to spend most of his time on what actually interests him: bike mountaineering in Kyrgyzstan, tagging remote six-thousanders in the Puna de Atacama, and attempting the 82 Alpine summits over 4,000 meters entirely self-propelled, a project that ended with a loose rock, a broken toe, and a 143-euro emergency room bill in Aosta. His trip reports and route ideas live at drdirtbag.com. This episode is supported by Wahoo. Use code WAHOOULTRA to get a free heart rate monitor!

Ski mountaineering just made its Olympic debut at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games, the first new sport added to the Winter Olympics since 2002. Nikki LaRochelle, former U.S. Ski Mountaineering National Team member and color commentator for Olympic Broadcasting Services, joins the show live from Milan to break down everything that happened. The headline for trail and ultrarunners: mountain runners Cam Smith and Anna Gibson placed fourth in the mixed relay, finishing ahead of Italy, Austria, and Germany. Gibson picked up the sport less than a year ago and delivered a masterclass in pacing that stunned even seasoned observers. France took gold, Switzerland silver, and Spain bronze, capping a historic week for Oriol Cardona Coll, who won the first-ever Olympic gold in men's skimo, Spain's first Winter Olympic gold since 1972. Buzz and Nikki also discuss what Alysa Liu's joyful figure skating gold can teach endurance athletes about reframing pressure, how skimo landed with the broader public, and whether trail running could one day join the Games.

Check out all the shows on the Ultrasignup Podcast Network! The Buzz is supported by Wahoo. Max King might be the most versatile distance runner on the planet. A World Mountain Running champion, a 100K road world champion, a Mount Marathon winner, a top finisher at Comrades and Sierre-Zinal, the range is almost absurd. But when Buzz sits down with Max, the thread running through all of it isn't ambition or optimization. It's fun. After burning out post-college and stepping away from the sport for two years, Max made a pact with himself: keep running only as long as it stays enjoyable. Three decades later, that philosophy has carried him from obstacle courses to Welsh castles, from the track to the trails of southern China. In this conversation, Max and Buzz dig into what it actually looks like to maintain elite fitness across wildly different disciplines without specializing, how Max taught himself to climb like a European mountain runner after finishing 81st at his first Sierre-Zinal, and why the motivation to grind through big training blocks shifts as you age. Max talks honestly about what slowing down feels like at 46, the surprising role collagen and creatine have played in his recovery, and why he's now chasing bucket-list races like the Dipsea over podium finishes at marquee ultras. The two close with a reflection on the growth of trail running worldwide, from local hundred-person races with hand timing and burritos to 5,000-person events in China, and why Max believes the soul of the sport will survive the spectacle.

The 44th annual Ultrarunner of the Year Awards are in, and this year delivered one of the deepest fields of women's performances in the history of the award. Buzz Burrell talks with John "Tropical John" Medinger, who has administered the vote when he took over Ultrarunning Magazine (sold in 2024 to Jamil Coury), about the full results, the voting process, and what made 2025 such a standout year. Katie Schide won North American Female Ultrarunner of the Year after victories at Hard Rock (course record), the World Long Trail Championship, and Madeira. Jim Walmsley took the men's title with four wins, including Chianti Castles, where he beat Kilian Jornet. Meg Eckert's 603-mile six-day world record earned Performance of the Year for women, while Charlie Lawrence's 6:07:10 100K on the track (sub-six-minute pace) took the men's honors. John and Buzz discuss how the voting works, why Western States results carry so much weight, the new World Ultrarunner of the Year category, and the endless debate of comparing trail times to track performances. They also touch on Courtney Dauwalter's challenging year, the case for Ann Flower and Caleb Olson, and why some impressive performances still fall short of the top 10. TIMESTAMPS: :00 Intro 1:40 Meet John Medinger 3:08 How the Ultrarunner of the Year Award works 10:04 Top 3 Female Ultrarunners of 2025 14:23 Katie Schide's dominant year 17:00 Top 3 Male Ultrarunners of 2025 21:00 Jim Walmsley's undefeated season 27:42 Performance of the Year: Meg Eckert's 603 miles 33:07 Why track performances won this year 42:11 World Ultrarunner of the Year results 46:58 Controversies and debates 52:16 The future of the award

Ski mountaineering is about to have its moment, and if you're a trail runner, you should be paying attention. Skimo shares DNA with our sport: the relentless uphill effort, the technical descents, the mountain culture, and a surprising number of athletes who race both. After decades as a European-dominated discipline, skimo makes its Olympic debut at the 2026 Winter Games in Italy. Nikki LaRochelle joins Buzz to break down what skimo is and why trail runners should care. A longtime skimo racer and ultrarunner, with finishes at San Juan Solstice 50 and Canyon de Chelly, Nikki famously Photoshopped herself into a broadcast booth four years ago, manifesting a future she wasn't sure she'd ever reach. This February, she'll be the technical commentator for the Olympic Broadcasting System. She walks listeners through what makes skimo racing so tactically complex: the transitions, the boot packs, the skinning, and the descents that punish any lapse in focus. Then Cam Smith, one half of Team USA's mixed relay duo alongside Anna Gibson, shares what it's like to prepare for the biggest stage in sport. At the Solitude World Cup, Cam and Anna jumped from ranked 13th to first, proving they can compete with anyone on their best day. Cam talks about the mental game, the preparation heading into Italy, and chasing the first-ever Olympic medals in skimo history. Buzz floats the idea that they could be the first trail runners to compete in an Olympic Games. The sprint is February 19th, the mixed relay February 21st. This is your primer on a sport that shares more with trail running than you might think.

Buzz previews 2026 with Zoë Rom, coach Scott Johnston, Western States Race Director Craig Thornley, and Allison Mercer of FastestKnownTime.com. The panel digs into the Courtney DauWalter, Tara Dower, Katie Scheide showdown at Hardrock 100 and what the growing competitive depth in women's ultrarunning actually tells us (spoiler: progress is real, but parity isn't here yet). Scott Johnston makes the case for AI and data analysis in elite pacing—and explains why it all goes out the window by mile 80. Craig Thornley shares updates on Western States' multi-year Granite Chief Wilderness trail reroute and weighs in on whether rising prize purses at Broken Arrow and Gorge Waterfalls signal a real shift in how the sport operates. The conversation spans the backyard ultra phenomenon, crossover athletes moving between road and trail, and the grassroots running boom powering the whole thing from below. Zoë asks the pointed question: does ultrarunning have a pipeline for its next generation of stars, or are we five retirements away from a charisma crisis? And what would it take for athletes and media to stop producing what she calls "room temperature vanilla ice cream" content?

Can a sport built on dirtbag ethos survive the arrival of real money? In this end-of-year special, Buzz gathers Zoë Rom, coach Scott Johnston, Western States race director Craig Thornley, and FKT manager Allison Mercer to make sense of 2025. They dig into the paradox of professionalization, $275 super shoes, UTMB live broadcasts, Ironman private equity, while Zoë points to the data that says the grassroots still holds: only 1.7% of trail runners actually race, backyard ultras are booming, and FKTs remain just you and a GPS watch. Scott Johnston talks weighted vest training and speaks with rare compassion about the CCC doping scandal. Craig reveals Killian is returning to Western States in 2026 and announces the historic rule change allowing poles after 53 years, driven not by elite concerns but by accessibility for the back of the pack. Allison celebrates a year of dominant women's performances, while Zoë asks the uncomfortable questions about OnlyFans sponsorships: why is it easier for a platform associated with adult content to support female athletes than it is for endemic brands? And Buzz wonders, when did vomiting and hallucinating become something to brag about? Chapters: 00:00 – Intro 01:24 – Zoë Rom on the paradox of professionalization 11:17 – Scott Johnston on training Tom Evans and Ruth Croft 18:40 – Craig Thornley on Western States' historic men's race 27:12 – Allison Mercer on dominant women's performances 38:30 – Zoë on OnlyFans and sponsorship equity 49:18 – Scott on the CCC doping scandal 56:19 – Craig on poles, traction devices, and rule changes 1:00:23 – Chris Myers' scuba mask river crossing 1:04:02 – Buzz on glorifying suffering This episode is brought to you by Arc'teryx . The Norvan 4 Nivalis—full Gore-Tex cover, ankle gaiter, actually dry feet. Learn more at arcteryx.com. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network . Find all our shows at ultrasignup.com/podcasts.