When it come to amateur participation in endurance sports, most of us cannot imagine anything more ambitious or arduous than the 26.2 miles of a marathon. (And truthfully, most of us can't even imagine that.) But if you're our guest this week, you see the finish line of a marathon approaching and think, "halfway there." Literally.

Jacob Puzey is an ultramarathoner, performance coach, race director, and business owner.  In 2016, he set a world record by running 50 miles in 4:57:45 on a treadmill, beating the previous record by nearly an hour. He is a six-time national champion in cross-country, road and ultra championships, and has three national trail 50K championships to his credit. In 2017 he finished 37th overall at the Boston Marathon (out of a mere 30,000 runners) with a time of 2:26.52.

He hangs up the running shoes long enough this week to sit down with The Dream Job, and share how his childhood spent playing with pickaxes and rocks prepared him for the work he does today. We also talk about how he got the courage to walk away from two masters degrees and half of a PhD to go "all in" as a running coach, and about the inspiration he draws from his 70 year-old father's approach to his career. It's a wide-ranging and downright inspiring conversation that will make perfect background listening while you're wheezing through one of Jacob's warmup runs (aka: anything less than a half marathon). 

• Peak Run Performance
• Jacob on Instagram
• Jacob on Twitter