Anthony Costales recently won the Canyons 100K in Northern California in 9 hours, 11 minutes, and 40 seconds, defeating a stout field, which earned him a Golden Ticket to this year’s Western States Endurance Run. He’s only a few years into the trail and ultra game and is really starting to make a splash in the sport. A graduate of Chico State, Anthony has a 2:13 marathon personal best on the roads, he won the U.S. Trail Marathon Championship in 2018, and also represented the U.S. that year at the World Long Distance Mountain Championships in Poland, where he finished 10th overall. Anthony’s a native of Fairfield, California, he now lives and teaches middle school P.E. in Salt Lake City, Utah, and he’s a relatively new dad.
Hillary Allen is a professional athlete, coach, teacher, and author of the new book, Out and Back: A Runner’s Story of Survival Against All Odds. She’s a returning guest to the show—be sure to check out her first appearance back on Episode 49 if you haven’t already—and she’s just one of my favorite people to talk to in general.
Mario Fraioli answers listener questions in the first Ask Mario Anything episode of 2021. On the other side of the mic for this one is sponsorship director, Chris Douglas, who you’ll get to learn a little more about at the beginning of the show. We got some good questions about this summer’s Olympics, returning to running postpartum, balancing running and training with the rest of your life, how the podcast and newsletter get made, and more.
Steve Magness wears many hats in the worlds of running and performance. He’s been the head cross-country coach and assistant track coach at the University of Houston since 2012 and he’s also worked with numerous professional athletes at the Olympic and world championship level. He’s the coauthor of Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox, both of which he wrote with former podcast guest Brad Stulberg, and he’s also the author of The Science of Running. Steve also co-hosts two podcasts, On Coaching, which dives deep into the art and science of training and coaching for runners, and The Growth Equation, a weekly no-bullshit discussion on well-being and performance. As an athlete in the early 2000s, Steve was one of the top scholastic runners in the country, running 4:01 in the mile—which, at the time, was the 6th fastest high school mile in U.S. history.
Kyle Merber is a recently retired professional athlete. He spent his professional career training and racing with the New Jersey New York Track Club and Coach Frank Gagliano, where he put up personal bests of 3:34 in the 1500 and 3:52 in the mile. His new newsletter is called The Lap Count.
Andrew Bumbalough is a recently retired professional athlete who spent the entirety of his career training and racing with the Bowerman Track Club, where he put up personal bests ranging from 3:37 for 1500m to 2:10 for the marathon. Amongst his numerous accomplishments, he finished 5th at the 2018 Boston Marathon, represented the U.S. in the 5000m at the 2011 world championships on the track, and won a national 5K title on the roads in 2013.
Shalane Flanagan is one of the greatest American distance runners of all-time—a 4-time Olympian, an Olympic silver medalist in the 10,000m, world cross country bronze medalist, and the 2017 New York City Marathon champion. Over the course of her professional running career, Shalane won 16 national titles and held or still holds several American records. These days, she’s a mom to her son Jack, a coach with the Bowerman Track Club, and The New York Times best-selling author of Run Fast. Eat Slow.
Darcy Budworth is the co-founder and race director of Take The Bridge, which is an underground and unsanctioned series of races that was born in New York City in 2015 and has since spread to numerous other cities around the world.
Hawi Keflezighi is one of the top agents in all of endurance sports, and one of the nicest guys that I’ve ever known. He is the founder and president of Hawi Management and his agency represents some of the top athletes in track and field, road racing, trail running, and triathlon. His most notable client is his brother Meb, who he has been representing since 2005, and his roster also includes Aliphine Tuliamuk, Alexi Pappas, Katie Zafares, and Joe Gray, amongst others.
