Peter Bromka, a 2:19 marathoner who also writes about running, joins me on the show this week to talk all things 2021 Boston Marathon. We spent the entirety of this episode talking about Boston, how we’re feeling in the final couple weeks of training leading up to the race, what we’re most looking forward to—and anxious about—at this year’s event, the return of major marathons in general, Boston being held in the fall for the first time, and a lot more.
Sanjay Rawal is a New York City-based runner and filmmaker. At the time of this conversation in 2018 he had just released a film called 3100: Run and Become, which takes an intimate look at one of the most unique foot races on the planet, The Sri Chinmoy 3100-Mile Self-Transcendence Race. In this episode, we talked about the 3100 film, of course, but also about the idea of running as a spiritual practice throughout history, the connection between competition and spirituality, running as a cultural connector, and a lot more. Whether you’re a competitive athlete or recreational runner, a miler or an ultramarathoner, this conversation will change the way you look at running and the role it plays in your life.
Jon Green is the 26-year-old coach of Olympic marathon bronze medalist Molly Seidel. He is also the head coach of Atalanta NYC, a New York City-based nonprofit that employs and supports professional female runners that are training to achieve their goals while also serving as core mentors for its youth mentoring program. As an athlete, Jon was an All-American at Georgetown University and ran professionally for a brief period of time before turning his attention to coaching. In this conversation, we go deep into Jon’s background as an athlete, we talk about our shared Central Massachusetts roots, and then turn our attention to coaching, where we discuss working with Molly Seidel, of course, but also who has influenced his philosophy, how he views his role as a coach, where he has the most room to grow, and a lot more.
Sabrina Little is an amazing human being. She’s a wife a new mom, she’s a full-time professor of Philosophy and the Humanities at Morehead State University in Kentucky, she writes my favorite column for iRunFar called The Examined Run, and she’s also a heck of an ultrrunner in her own right.
This conversation centers around Brad Stulberg’s new book, The Practice of Groundedness, and we dive into topics that I think are relevant to many of us: the pursuit of high achievement that seems pervasive in our society today, the fallacy of “arriving” in life and how that gets the best of so many of us, what Brad calls heroic individualism or an ongoing game of one-upmanship against ourselves and others, the differences between real vulnerability and performative vulnerability, and a lot more.
Mario Mendoza is a five-time national champion on the trails, a four-time USATF trail runner of the year, he’s won races all over the globe, finished top-10 twice at world championships, set world records on the treadmill, and accomplished all kinds of things on the competitive side of the sport. Beyond that, however, he’s one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met, we really connected over this conversation, and have kept in close touch ever since.
Trying something a little different this week: I’m sharing a special crossover episode of the Grounded Podcast with Dinée Dorame featuring me as her guest. Dinée asked me questions no one has ever asked me in an interview before. We talked about my obsession with basketball, the early days of my journalism and coaching careers, diversity and inclusion in the running industry, and a lot more. I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope that you will too.
This week on the podcast I’m answering listener questions in the second Ask Mario Anything episode of 2021. On the other side of the mic for this one—once again—is sponsorship director, Chris Douglas. We got some good questions about about me running Boston in the fall, the importance of taking breaks in training, the controversy around Timothy Olson’s recent FKT on the PCT, channeling my own passion for running into a creative pursuit, what information you should include in your running log, and a lot more.
Noah Droddy is one of my favorite people in the sport and it was a treat to have him back on the podcast. Our last conversation was almost exactly 3 years ago on Episode 23 so be sure to give that one a listen if you haven’t already. Noah is a blue-collar as they come and that’s part of what I love about him. The Division 3 alum from Depauw University in Indiana ran 2:09:09 at The Marathon Project last December, making him the ninth-fastest American marathoner of all-time. He lives and trains in Boulder, Colorado with the Roots Running Project, which, as we talked about in this episode, has done more with less than any other elite level training group in the U.S.
This is Fred Huxham’s first podcast and I am super excited to introduce him to you. Fred, who is 25 years old, just placed second at the Peachtree Road Race on July 4 in 28:45. That race was the 10K national championships and he finished just two seconds behind Sam Chelanga and a few places ahead of Galen Rupp, Jake Riley, and Abdi Abdirahman, the three men who will represent the United States at the Olympic Marathon in Tokyo.
