On a weekly basis, host Mario Fraioli gleans unique insights and inspiration from a wide range of athletes, coaches, and personalities in the sport of running through compelling longform conversations you won’t hear anywhere else.
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.
Jenna Wrieden is the assistant coach at HOKA Northern Arizona Elite, where she’s been on staff since January. Prior to moving to Flagstaff to work alongside Ben Rosario and crew, she coached in the collegiate ranks since 2006, most recently as an assistant at Louisville, where over the course of 4-1/2 years she worked with several All-Americans. As an athlete, Jenna ran at Arizona State, where she was teammates with Des Linden and Amy Cragg, and—fun fact—in 2014 she set a world record for the fastest half marathon ever run on a treadmill.
Keith Kelly won the NCAA cross-country title in 2001. He was a 5x All American at Providence, he finished 24th in the senior men’s race at the 2001 World Cross Country championships, and he won the Irish national cross country title in 2009. When his competitive running career got cut short due to injury, he got into cycling and rose through the ranks to race as a Cat 1 within a year of putting himself in the saddle. Now 43 years old, Keith works as a Global Run Marketing manager at New Balance.
Colin Bennie is the sub-2:10 American marathoner that no one seems to be talking much about. The 25-year-old finished third at The Marathon Project in Arizona last December, running 2:09:38 in just his second marathon. He made his marathon debut at last year’s Olympic Trials, finishing an impressive ninth in 2:12:14.
Rajpaul Pannu recently finished second at the Hoka One One Project Carbon X 2 100K in 6:28:31—it was his debut at the distance and the third fastest time ever run by an American. The 29-year-old is also a 2:17 marathoner and math teacher who is currently splitting his time between Denver, Colorado and the Bay Area.
