The CITIUS MAG Podcast | A Running + Track and Field Show

"There’s something inherently interesting about people going out to seek out what their limits are. The format is interesting too because you don’t really know if the race is going to end in one day, two days or six days. It ends when the last person either can’t go forward or isn’t allowed to go forward. That’s something I hope people would find interesting and maybe it brings more eyeballs on what we’re doing or inspires them to do it on their own."

Mike Wardian joins the podcast less than 12 hours after winning the Quarantine Backyard Ultra Marathon. The race featured more than 2,000 runners from more than 50 countries competing over Zoom. How’d it work? Each competitor had to complete a 4.167-mile loop every hour - starting exactly on the hour and it goes on until there’s just one person remaining.

The race started on Saturday morning and on Monday, Radek Brunner of the Czech Republic and Mike Wardian of Arlington, Virginia were locked in a duel. 

There were two different approaches on display. Mike was running loops around his block. Brunner was running on a treadmill in his home.

At 11 p.m. on Monday night, Lap 63 begins. Wardian takes off for his loop. Brunner stands by the treadmill but doesn’t move for about 90 seconds. It looked like he was doing something on his iPad.

According to the rules, you have to be in your starting corral (so for Brunner that was his treadmill) and you have to start on the hour (and it appears that he did not). Race organizers from Personal Peak made the decision to disqualify him and then Wardian kicked it in for a 31:05 final lap - his fastest of the whole race. The decision was not without controversy and uproar on social media.

"Radek Brunner failed to leave the corral when the bell rang," Personal Peak said in a Facebook post. "This is what makes the backyard format so heart-wrenching. The bell doesn't care. The bell just rings. It is we who care. It is we who do not wish it to end. But it never ends well. It may only end gracefully."

I caught up with Mike on Tuesday morning to get his side of things, hear more about his strategy and how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted his own plans for 2020.

Read my brief recap and a transcript of the interview on Sports Illustrated: https://www.si.com/edge/2020/04/07/quarantine-backyard-ultra-marathon-winner-mike-wardian-radek-brunner-disqualified

More information on the race and its origins by Sports Illustrated's Jessica Smetana: https://www.si.com/more-sports/2020/04/03/quarantine-backyard-ultra-marathon-virtual-race-coronavirus-pandemic

Follow Mike on Strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/1108954

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Sat down with Keith and Kevin Hanson while in Atlanta to discuss the history of the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project as it celebrates 20 years of advancing U.S. distance running.

We start by going back to the brothers’ roots in Michigan and the state of the sport in America before helping improve it. The Hansons made an emphasis on group training, which stood out to them from studying Ethiopians, Kenyans and Japanese. It started off as a $250,000 investment in a team that helped provide housing, health insurance, travel and equipment for a few runners but later blossomed with a partnership with Brooks.

In 2008, they put Brian Sell on the U.S. Olympic Marathon team. They also helped develop and guide Des Linden into a two-time Olympian and Boston Marathon champion. In this episode, they’ll share some of the behind-the-scenes stories of those breakout moments in their history.

Also, what’s it like for them to take on the challenge of rebuilding the likes of Dathan Ritzenhein or bringing Natosha Rogers into an Olympic team contender for 2021.

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It's taken me too long to release this episode but about a month ago, I hosted a live panel at the Atlanta Track Club's marathon weekend experience that lined up with the 2020 U.S. Olympic marathon Trials. I sat down and talked with Matt McDonald, Alyssa Bloomquist, Ann Mazur and Duriel Hardy about how they manage to balance their full workload and sometimes classes with training at a high level. The COVID-19 pandemic definitely has lots of us working from home and thrown us out of our routine but I hope that this episode brings you a little bit of inspiration into understanding the importance of balance in work, life and running for when things do go back to normal and that no dream is too big to chase.

Hailey Middlebrook of Runners World did a fantastic job profiling each of these guests in the leadup to Atlanta. You can find all of her stories below and their result:

Matt McDonald, Ph.D. student in chemical engineering at Georgia Tech (2:12:19 for 10th place) – https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a29578084/matt-mcdonald-olympic-trials-qualifier/

Duriel Hardy, Pediatric Neurology Fellow/MD at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (2:26:41 for 119th place) – https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a30286103/duriel-hardy-olympic-marathon-trials-qualifier/

Alyssa Bloomquist, Speech-Language Pathologist at Greenville County Schools - Stone Academy (2:45:20 for 129th place) - https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a29814117/alyssa-bloomquist-olympic-marathon-trials-qualifier/

Ann Mazur, Founder/owner of Runners Love Yoga &  teaches Running for Fitness and Yoga at the University of Virginia (2:51:53 for 260th place) - https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a30459353/ann-mazur-2020-olympic-trials-qualifier/

This episode was brought to you by the newest podcast in the CITIUS MAG family - Track and Field History with Jesse Squire. Get all the information about the show here: http://citiusmag.com/track-and-field-history-podcast-introduction/

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/track-and-field-history-with-jesse-squire

Chris Chavez and Matt Meyer get together over Skype to recap the biggest news of March. As races are canceled or postponed, the Olympics were the last major domino to fall. On March 24, the decision was officially made by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to move the Summer Games to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

We react to the news, explain why it was the best decision and break down what it means for the sport of track and field ahead. Plus, we share what's the biggest thing that we were looking forward to in the lost 2020 outdoor track and field campaign. 

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Chris Chavez and Ryan Welsh sit down (maybe six-feet apart) to discuss the impact coronavirus has taken on the world, sports and running. 

Topics discussed include: Running in uncertain times, listening and heeding the advice of experts, Boston and London Marathon postponed, should the Olympics and trials get cancelled or postponed and more.

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The sports world has stopped but the world could use the positivity of Aliphine Tuliamuk. At the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, Tuliamuk made her first U.S. Olympic team by winning in 2:27:23. 

On this show, we'll discuss how the race was the culmination of her American dream and why she is very appreciative of the opportunity to represent the United States – a place that has given her so many opportunities in her life. We talk about how she developed the self-belief that she could win the race and much more.

Support for this episode comes from Stryd. They’re helping ensure that you nail the perfect pacing strategy so you can keep a consistent effort in challenging conditions - all in real-time. I’m digging all the data that it’s collecting and you’ll see a bunch of people wearing them on their shoes at the US Olympic Marathon Trials. Learn more by visiting STRYD.COM/CITIUS

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Jacob Riley joins the CITIUS MAG Podcast to share how he managed to make his first Olympic team after a 2:10:02 personal best to finish second at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

Jake wrote on Twitter, "Been saving end of segment things so I can savor this feeling longer. Yesterday was watching the race coverage, today was finishing my log. Final entry isn’t twitter appropriate, but I got to write “I’m an Olympian”. The way I felt writing that I’ll remember forever." What's the not-Twitter appropriate version and what's the training log say? Jake put us in his shoes for the race and recounts what we likely missed from the broadcast since he had to work his way to catch the leaders. 

More in this episode on: 

- Snatching the American flag with 600 meters remaining in the race and instant regret

- Getting in the right mindset for the race and how it compared to Chicago

- Looking back at his approach to racing as an All-American at Stanford

- What he learned from his five years with the Hansons-Brooks team

- Needing a change in scenery as life gets tough and going through a divorce

- Undergoing surgery on his Achilles and then finding the hope in recovery

- The return to racing and what led to the Chicago breakthrough

- Turning down a shoe contract to be able to run in the Chonky Bois (Nike AlphaFly Next%)

- Why we were dumb to overlook him before the trials?

- A quick explanation of his neckbeard in college

Support for this episode comes from Stryd. They’re helping ensure that you nail the perfect pacing strategy so you can keep a consistent effort in challenging conditions - all in real-time. I’m digging all the data that it’s collecting and you’ll see a bunch of people wearing them on their shoes at the US Olympic Marathon Trials. Learn more by visiting STRYD.COM/CITIUS

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Team Boulder's Lee Troop joins the show to share how Jake Riley went from an Achilles injury that nearly ended his career to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials runner-up and headed to the Olympics. Riley ran 2:13 for his first marathon in 2014 and then finished 15th at the 2016 trials. He also went on to finish 12th at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore. but then his career got rocky.

He went through a divorce, moved from Michigan to Colorado to pursue his mechanical engineering masters and then joined Troop's training. An Achilles injury was later diagnosed as Haglund's syndrome and he had to undergo surgery. Troop shares the process of how they worked back to the starting line and then what ultimately led to his major breakout of a 2:10:36 in Chicago last fall. 

Among the key pieces of insight shared by Troop are the pre-race talks that he shared with Riley and race plans in both Chicago and Atlanta.

We also share how Riley developed the "No more next times" mantra, the decision to wear the AlphaFly shoes and much more.

Support for this episode comes from Stryd. They’re helping ensure that you nail the perfect pacing strategy so you can keep a consistent effort in challenging conditions - all in real-time. I’m digging all the data that it’s collecting and you’ll see a bunch of people wearing them on their shoes at the US Olympic Marathon Trials. Learn more by visiting STRYD.COM/CITIUS

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Chris Chavez and Matthew Luke Meyer unpack all of the madness from the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta.

Galen Rupp took the win on the men's side by pulling away after 21 miles to win his second consecutive U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials title in 2:09:20. Jacob Riley ran the race of his life and pulled one of the ballsiest moves by snatching a tiny American flag with less than half a mile to go. Abdi Abdirahman hung on for the third spot and qualified for his fifth Olympic team at the age of 43.

Aliphine Tuliamuk won the women's race after surging ahead at Mile 20 to win in 2:27:23 and head to her first Olympics. Molly Seidel, who had not run a marathon in her career but was an accomplished cross country and 10,000m star at Notre Dame, was the runner-up in 2:27:31. She will also head to her first Summer Games. Sally Kipyego returns to the Olympics as a mother for the first time. In 2012, she won an Olympic silver medal in the 10,000m while representing Kenya. 

We recap the races, break down the biggest surprises, why we overlooked the people who ended up on the team and where we go from here. Also, the Chonky Bois were out in full force. 

Support for this episode comes from Stryd. They’re helping ensure that you nail the perfect pacing strategy so you can keep a consistent effort in challenging conditions - all in real-time. I’m digging all the data that it’s collecting and you’ll see a bunch of people wearing them on their shoes at the US Olympic Marathon Trials. Learn more by visiting STRYD.COM/CITIUS

▶ Follow us: twitter.com/CitiusMag | instagram.com/citiusmag | facebook.com/citiusmag

✩ Connect with Chris via Email: [email protected] | twitter.com/ChrisChavez | instagram.com/chris_j_chavez

Chris Chavez and Ryan Welsh post up at the Brooks Hyperion House at Switchyards in downtown Atlanta to test out a new podcast concept –  talking to strangers to get to know their running story. For this first episode, we sat down and got to meet some of Brooks' Hometown Heroes. They're sub-elite runners who hold full-time jobs and still manage to find the time to run fast. You'll be surprised at who we meet. We knew nothing about these people beforehand. It was blind speed dating of sorts.

Garrett Heath of the Brooks Beasts (27-minute mark) happened to be working at the lounge and so we got his thoughts on being in town for the trials, what it's like to compete for an Olympic team spot and some of his own predictions for the race.

Teresa McWalters (41-minute mark) is a four-time U.S. Olympic trials qualifier with a newfound perspective on running after an injury in this buildup. 

Kelly Calway (51-minute mark) is a U.S. Army officer who ran at NC State. She is a combat veteran with two deployments under her belt. Because of her work and service for this country, running has taken place in a wide variety of places. 

Elizabeth Gregory and Holly Clarke (1 hour, 8-minute mark) share their experience as teammates on the Impala Racing Team, who qualified together. 

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