Lauren Jones is not stranger to challenging races in ultrarunning. She has completed the Cocodona 250 along with tons of other challenging races, and often places or gets a podium spot. But she has also had some DNFs along the way, that helped shape her into the ultrarunner she is. Listen to her incredible mindset of diving into things that scare her, and how that helps her get back up to run again even when faced with incredible challenges.

Find her on Instagram:

@lauren.runs.for.grilled.cheese

Organizations to donate to for Hurricane Helene relief:

⁠https://www.ncvoad.org/volunteer/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYJCNEbnCIdUnfQo5ktJ6R5P4TWZ3EJh6mgU5pipnk_G6PL-lKNiEnuq00_aem_uXRFWUfecGGX8WRTh_6AJA⁠

⁠https://belovedasheville.com/⁠

⁠https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/press-release/2024/red-cross-responds-to-hurricane-helene.html⁠

⁠https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/⁠

⁠http://www.heartswithhands.org/⁠

Mary Namestnik is a seasoned ultrarunner, who often finds herself on the women's or overall podium. She's a running coach, a cross country coach, a mom of three, and an all around incredible person with a mindset that gets her through distances of up to 100 miles. Mary talks about her backyard ultra experiences, an influential DNF moment at the Bloodroot 50 miler, and how she approaches training, racing and life.

Find Mary on Instagram: @maryrunsultras

Albie Day is an experienced ultrarunner who has such an incredible mindset around running and the relationships and bonds formed through it. Although he does run ultramarathons himself, he has found his most profound and formative moments outside of racing, or in another's race as he paces someone. Albie shares his amazing perspectives with us and talks about his love of pacing at ultramarathons.

Find Albie on Instagram:

@snugglyviking

Emily Lyons is an experienced ultrarunner who has completed Badwater 135 twice, and is currently signed up for inaugural Arizona Monster 300. She keeps a full race calendar and has a constant sense of fun and playfulness. This mindset helps carry her through these tough races but also her DNFs. She also educates us on the Devil's Hole Pupfish- so be sure to tune in!!

Find her on Instagram:

@hungry_vegan_runner

Michelle recently experienced her first DNF. Listen to her recap her experience and how she came to the decision to stop and how she moved forward after the race.

Disclaimer: This podcast does not cause DNF's

Kaylee is a phenomenal ultrarunner, and a young one too being only 19 years old with a resume that many experienced runners would envy. She has run Badwater 135 twice, and this past year although she finished in a better time than the year before, dealt with a lot of disappointment and mental struggles as she didn't reach her own personal goals. She discusses with us overcoming those struggles, and also how she is using those lessons as she moves forward into even bigger and scarier goals.

Find her on Instagram:

@frederick.kaylee

Andrew Gaub is a rare book seller, father, husband, ultrarunner, and Heidi's brother! Andrew has run a handful of ultras and recently DNF'd World's End 100k, which is known as a particularly challenging race. Listen to him talk about his journey through sobriety, ultrarunning, and rare book selling and how all this parts of him complement each other and encourage him to keep seeing what he is capable of.

Follow him on Instagram:

@livresrares

Justin Andreas is an experienced ultrarunner, a coach, a podcast host, and a really fun follow on Instagram. He is all about making funny and relatable content to draw people into the sport. He talks about his coaching perspective on helping athletes through DNFs and hard races, talks through his own running adventures and difficult races, and shares some fun stories.

Find him on Instagram:

@running_in_stache

@golden_hour_adventures_podcast

Steve Epifano is an ultrarunning coach and a very accomplished ultrarunner himself. He discusses the races that have taught him to always respect the ultramarathon distance, no matter his experience level, and how it is always a challenge. Steve also discusses the coaching perspective on DNFs and how he helps his athletes process them.

@so_cal_runner

https://www.socalrunnercoaching.com/

Kayla Fitzgerald is an ultrarunner, a sports dietician, a mom, and now a race director too!

She talks with us about her DNF experiences at the Barkley Fall Classic, and how they changed her perspective on ultrarunning, goals, and life in general!

Find her on Instagram at @the.endurance.nutritionist and @palmetto.ultras

⁠https://www.palmettoultras.com/⁠

⁠https://www.endurance-nutritionist.com/