Singletrack

Brett Hornig returns to the show for another edition of the Long Run Archives. This time, we break down the stunning news of the week: Jim Walmsley is back on the Western States start list via a Hoka sponsor entry. After that, we share our 2026 power rankings for both the men's and women's races, which we will revisit during race week in Olympic Valley.

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel
• Kodiak Cakes - my favorite oatmeal and pancakes 

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Finn Melanson, Brett Hornig, and Leah Yingling provide in-depth analysis, commentary, and predictions for the competition at this year’s Cocodona 250.

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel
• Kodiak Cakes - my favorite oatmeal and pancakes 

Support the show

Brett Hornig returns to the Singletrack Podcast to recap race results from Canyons, Mt Fuji, Madeira Island Ultra Trail, among other trail-related news.

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel

Support the show

We discuss Sean Haworth's critique of ACG's Gorge Waterfalls activation, the four athlete development programs shaping the next generation of pro trail running, Scott Fauble's issue with supershoes in the marathon, and Climatic Health's new lung health product being marketed to endurance athletes.

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel
• Kodiak Cakes - my favorite oatmeal and pancakes 

Support the show

Max Jolliffe joins the podcast for his third appearance, two weeks out from his return to Cocodona 250. After dropping at mile 238 in 2025 with cellulitis, Max is back for redemption, and this time he's doing it as a full-time professional athlete after leaving Hurley in November following nearly 15 years at the company.

We get into his training block, gear and nutrition strategies, and an upcoming week of course recon out of Mike Versteeg's place in Prescott. Max also walks through his experience at the BPN Backyard Ultra in the Texas hill country and makes the case for why the backyard format deserves more attention from the sport's top names.

Other topics:

• How 15 years in graphic design and apparel at Hurley shapes the value he brings to brand partners beyond race results
• Why race merch across the sport is a missed opportunity and what needs to change
• His new travel show concept, Weekend Training Camp, and the Salt Lake City pilot he's editing now
• When he stopped idolizing effortless talent and started respecting visible work, and how that shift rewired what he looks for in athletes
• Why he doesn't actually love racing and what draws him to multi-day events and backyard ultras instead
• Time goal for Cocodona, day-one pacing philosophy, and why he's staying off the front early
• Prize money at 200s and why the math might need to change

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel
• Kodiak Cakes - my favorite oatmeal and pancakes 

Support the show

Alyssa Clark joins Finn to roll through a packed news week in ultra-trail. Headlines include Ashley Paulson's 12:47:10 treadmill world record set in front of a packed Boston Marathon Expo (a 90-minute improvement on the previous mark), Mathieu Blanchard leaving Salomon to sign with Kiprun as the French brand pushes into the North American market, and a stacked Madeira Ultra Trail start list featuring Jasmine Lowther, Helen Mino Faukner, Katharina Hartmuth, Ethan Peters, and a deep American contingent. 

Also on tap: weekend results from Penyagolosa, Puerto Vallarta, and Whiskey Basin, Mount Fuji hype, Ryan Becker's move to Kailas, Mammoth Trail Fest's new $6,000 para athlete prize purse, Sarah Hall's trail running plans, the death of UK runner David Parrish on the Cape Wrath Trail and the mountain competency conversation it sparks, plus Salomon's bet on gravel racing.

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel

Support the show

Finn Melanson, Brett Hornig, and Leah Yingling provide in-depth analysis, commentary, and predictions for the competition at the 2026 Canyons 100K.

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel
• Momentous - use code SINGLETRACK for up to 35% off your first order 
• Kodiak Cakes - my favorite oatmeal and pancakes 

Support the show

Courtney Dauwalter returns to the Singletrack Podcast ahead of her second attempt at Cocodona 250, the race she started last year and didn't finish, to talk through everything that has happened in between.

We open with the Tenerife cancellation and the scramble to pivot to Chianti, including the late surge that won the race and why she credits road marathon training for giving her a new gear she didn't know she had.

From there we get into her first real reset in her ultra career, what went wrong at mile 108 at last year's Cocodona, and the one problem she's most excited to solve across day two, night two, and day three of this year's race.

We close on her five year Salomon contract extension, what a post-racing chapter actually looks like to her, and what's on the bucket list beyond the three classics (Western States, Hardrock, and UTMB) she's built her career around.

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel
• Momentous - use code SINGLETRACK for up to 35% off your first order 
• Kodiak Cakes - my favorite oatmeal and pancakes 

Support the show

We're coming off one of the most action-packed single weekends of the trail running year. We recap Lake Sonoma, Gorge Waterfalls, Desert Rats by UTMB, Calamorro Skyrace, Marathon des Sables, and the BPN Backyard Ultra all in one episode with co-host Alyssa Clark.

Lotti Brinks ran fifth overall at Gorge Waterfalls 100K and shattered the women's course record. Dylan Bowman suggested it might be the trail performance of the year, and we ask whether she's now a legitimate podium threat at Western States. Jennifer Lichter won the 50K against Yao Miao, the back-to-back OCC champion, by nearly four minutes, coming off a 100K course record at Black Canyon this past February. She is the truth right now.

At the BPN Backyard Ultra, veteran Mike Egan used a wheelchair to complete 110 miles. When the mud got too thick to push through, he got out and dragged it. It might be the photo of the year in trail running, and we're only in April. The event pulled 19.6 million TikTok searches in its first edition, and we ask: who's building the Trail Team equivalent for backyard ultra?

At Marathon des Sables, Des Linden made the podium in her desert ultra debut. We call it her arrival in the trail scene. Heather Jackson won Desert Rats 100K three weeks out from Cocodona 250. She has a vlog series called "The Season That Might Break Me" and we break down what her win means for her race at the Cocodona 250 next month. In a field she wasn't even seeded in, Jane Maus went to Spain and took second at the Calamorro Skyrace in her first official sky race ever.

We also cover:

• Ryan Sullivan going wire-to-wire dominant at Lake Sonoma 100K (a Norda athlete from Grand Junction worth watching)
• Spencer Shellberg, another Grand Junction name, winning Desert Rats 100K by 40+ minutes
• Gerda Steyn seventh win at Two Oceans, one of the most dominant ultra runners of this generation
• Nicholas Thompson (editor-in-chief of The Atlantic) setting the 50+ American record at the Mad City 50K.
• Rendezvu, Faves and the case for athlete-led affiliate commerce in trail running
• Lucy Bartholomew running a 2:41 marathon in Paris to close out a 23-hour training week
• Given to Fly, the new Brian Morrison book on his 2006 Western States near-win

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel

Support the show

Christian Meier returns to the Singletrack Podcast to discuss one of the most ambitious talent development initiatives the sport has ever seen: Salomon's Next Gen program, which he leads as Head of Performance Programs.

The first section covers how this role came about, what it looks like day to day, and why trail running's elite development infrastructure has lagged so far behind other endurance sports for so long. Christian takes us inside the Annecy selection camp, the evaluation process that combined lab testing, field assessments, and individual interviews, and the hard decisions involved in selecting nine athletes from seventeen candidates.

The conversation then moves into the architecture of the program itself. What full-season integration with Salomon's performance structure means for a 20-year-old athlete on a Tuesday in March, what the financial picture looks like for the athletes, and how much autonomy they have over their own competitive calendars. We also compare Next Gen to Andy Wacker's Trail Team and what the spectrum of approaches to elite development tells us about what these athletes need.

From there, Christian draws on his cycling background to examine what the marginal gains framework imports into trail running and where it breaks down. We discuss injury philosophy, the risk of burnout in high-performance development environments, what mental progress looks like and how you measure it, and how Christian thinks about building identity resilience into athletes who are still figuring out who they are.

The final section pulls back to the questions that matter beyond this program. Whether deeper talent pipelines produce competitive parity at the top or just raise the floor, whether trail running ever develops the kind of specialized team roles that define professional cycling, and whether Christian is trying to build something Salomon owns or something the whole sport adopts.

Partners:

• Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
• Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
• Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains 
• Janji - premium trail running apparel
• Momentous - use code SINGLETRACK for up to 35% off your first order 
• Kodiak Cakes - my favorite oatmeal and pancakes 

Support the show