Life Around the Miles

Is ultrarunning getting too popular?

The sport is growing fast, and that's both exciting and frustrating.

In this episode of Life Around the Miles, I'm talking about the growing popularity of ultrarunning, the Western States 100 lottery, qualifying requirements, and how difficult it can be to get into some of the sport's most iconic races.

I love seeing more people discover ultrarunning and challenge themselves. But I also wonder what happens when the races that inspire people to get into the sport become increasingly difficult to experience.

I want the hardest part of running 100 miles to be running 100 miles—not spending 10 years trying to get to the starting line.

What do you think? Is this simply part of ultrarunning growing, or are we making dream races too difficult to enter?

🎙️ Life Around the Miles — real conversations about running and everything beyond the miles.

What actually counts as running an ultramarathon?

In Episode 3 of Life Around the Miles, Jordan and I catch up on our current training, upcoming races, and a debate that's bound to get some runners talking.

If you enter an ultramarathon event but don't complete an ultra distance, can you say you ran an ultra? Or did you participate in an ultra event? We share our opinions on where that line should be drawn.

Then things take a ridiculous turn when we talk about the Taco Bell Ultra — a 31-mile challenge involving stops at 9 Taco Bell locations along the route. Because apparently running 31 miles wasn't difficult enough.

Running, training, questionable food choices, and everything in between.

Welcome to Life Around the Miles.

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Running didn’t start out as some huge part of our lives. Somewhere along the way, that changed.

In Episode 2 of Life Around the Miles, my wife and I talk about what gave us the running bug, the races that made us want to keep going, and some of the things we had absolutely no idea about when we first started.

We look back at our early races, what we’d do differently now, and how running slowly became something that became part of our life together.

This isn’t a how-to guide. We’re just looking back at how we got here—and why we keep coming back.

Running is the thread. Life is the story.

I’m chasing some pretty big running goals—50Ks, 100Ks, and eventually 100 miles. But the farther I want to run, the bigger the question becomes: how do I chase those goals without missing the life happening around me?

In the first episode of Life Around the Miles, I talk about being a husband and dad while training for longer distances, what my first ultra taught me, and trying to find the balance between ambition, family, and the time these goals require.

I don’t have all the answers. I’m figuring it out as I go.

Because running is just the vehicle. Family, ambition, sacrifice, failure, getting older, and trying to balance it all—that’s the life that happens around the miles.