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.
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.
Nathan Martin ran 2:11:05 at The Marathon Project back in December to finish ninth overall. It was a personal best by over three minutes and also the fastest marathon ever run by a Black man born in the United States. Nathan broke Herm Atkins’ mark of 2:11:52, which had stood since 1979.
Dinée Dorame is a runner and podcast host from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dinée, who is a citizen of the Navajo nation, grew up in a running-crazy family.
Craig Curley was one of most up and coming distance runners in the U.S., from about 2010-2016, clocking a 63-minute half marathon, 2:15 marathon, and some top-10 finishes at national championship races.
Frank Lara is a professional runner for the Roots Running Project out of Boulder, Colorado. He also works part-time for Strava as a community management representative. Most recently, Frank paced 20 miles of The Marathon Project at sub-2:09 pace, just a couple weeks after running a massive personal best of 27:44 in the 10,000m.
Alexi Pappas is a professional athlete who holds the Greek national record in the 10,000-meters and competed for Greece at the 2016 Olympic Games. She’s also an award-winning writer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Runner’s World, The Atlantic, Outside magazine, and other publications.
In this episode you’ll hear from six women and six men whose stories, experiences, wisdom, and insight really stood out to me. They are, in order of episode release date: Fernando Cabada, Laura Schmitt, Nate Jenkins, Mike Smith, Mary Cain, Karen Boen, Faith E. Briggs, Mike Rouse, Brenda Martinez, Kilian Jornet, Diljeet Taylor, and Knox Robinson.
Alex Hutchinson is the author of the New York Times best-seller Endure, which is one of my favorite books of the past few years, he’s a contributing editor at Outside magazine, where he writes the Sweat Science column, and his byline has also appeared in numerous other publications.
Knox Robinson is a returning guest to the show. He first appeared back on Episode 12, which was recorded Boston Marathon weekend in 2018. He was also the first person I interviewed for the morning shakeout’s Going Long series almost four years ago.
