Author of the best-selling book, Born to Run, Christopher McDougall rejoins The Nation over 11 years since its publishing. Over 3 million copies have been sold. Find that bag of chia seeds, make some Iskiate and lace up your huarache sandals. Do you still have your Vibram five-fingers?

We talk with Chris about the impact of his book and where we have gone as a running community in the last decade. We talk a bit about two of his other books, Natural Born Heros and Running With Sherman

Author, Athlete, Coach, Nutritionist, Speaker and friend of TRN Matt Fitzgerald joins us to talk about his new book that is just now released, The Comeback Quotient - A Get-Real Guide to Building Mental Fitness in Sport and Life.

"Physical fitness enables an athlete to do hard things, mental fitness enables an athlete to deal with hard things, and no athlete realizes his or her full potential without both." We dive into Matt's research to find out what this mental fitness is and how we can develop more.

Video of Jacko Willink's, "Good"

You can find all 28 of his books, more about his coaching services and speaking HERE

In the winter of 1846-47 a group of pioneers were headed to California when they were trapped in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains. The snow was over 20 feet deep, they were running out of food, and the group wasn't working together. Three unsuccessful attempts were made to escape and get help from California.

On December 16, 1846 a small group began another attempt on homemade snowshoes with enough food for six days; hoping it would take around 10 days to make the 100 mile journey.

Tim Twietmeyer and Bob Crowley, have been trying to understand this story for over six years. This episode is an explanation of their findings and announcing their memorial trek 174 years later.

You can find out more about this heroic endurance feat and about the memorial event and how to track them at ForlornHope.org.

One of our favorite types of podcasts are to throw out a word and discuss it with smart people. That is why we invited Andy Jones-Wilkins back on to talk about "Patience". In fact, AJW has written about patience on iRunFar recently: "Patience in Trying Times". And back in 2013, "Ultrarunning Skill #3: Patience". Needless to say, he was WAY ahead of Don and Scott....not new.

Hire Andy as a coach!

Dr. Mark Cucuzzella has been running his entire life and has many marathons, six completions of the JFK 50 and two completions of the Comrades Marathon. But this fall he ticked of his first 100-miler! We talk to him about his great achievement and what he learned at the first inaugural Rim to River 100.

We also reminisce about his 20 episodes with us beginning in the 2012! Here is a link to the first episode we did with him.

Here is the finish line VIDEO of Dr. Mark

Here is his race report

The famous Western States 100 began from a horse race that started back in 1955. SIX years prior to this (1949), Pack Burro racing had been a prize-paying sport that started in the mountains of Colorado.

Here is a fun video produced by Salomon a couple years ago with Max King and Ryan Sandes trying the race.

Past guest and running shoe enthusiast, Brian Metzler, rejoins The Nation after we found out he has participated in many of these unusual events.

Make sure you read Brian's book, Kicksology: The Hype, Science, Culture & cool of Running Shoes

Listen to the episode on shoes we did with Brian.

Check out Christopher McDougall's book about his experience running with a donkey, Running with Sherman

Coaches Ian Sharman, David Roche and Krissy Moehl rejoin The Nation to answer questions you submitted via social media. Topics include:

• Taking time off after a big race
• How to be safe on the trails
• How to know you are ready for the next challenge
• Are back to back trainings necessary?
• How to incorporate stationary bike into training
• How to increase training duration and/or time

More about Krissy Moehl

• Krissy Coaching services
• Krissy’s book, “Running your First Ultra”

Ian's Stuff

• Sharman Ultras coaching services
• Ian’s new podcast, “PodiumRunner Endurance Podcast”

More about David Roche:

• David and Megan’s coaching at SWAPRunning (SWAP stands for Some Work, All Play).
• Their book, the Happy Runner
• David and Megan’s new podcast, “Some Work, All Play”

This is our first Simul-podcast. It only makes sense that we would do this with our favorite British corespondent, Warren Pole,  one of the founders of 33 Fuel. They recently started a podcast that is devoted to endurance fueling: 33Fuel Podcast

We reflect on the eight-year relationship with Warren and Erica, his wife.

Be sure to try out the many products at 33fuel.com and use the code TRN33 for 10% off your purchase.

We all have multiple identities - Mom, brother, friend, scientist, comedian, bowler, runner, writer, etc. Some of these identities come by choice, by chance or forced upon us. They may change over time too. We are the sum of these identities. They help us learn and grow. We should celebrate them in our own lives and within those around us. One of the best parts of trail running is to learn about the identities of others on a run.

In this episode we talk to Kim Strom. We learn about some of her identities:

• Running model (appearing on the cover of Trail Runner Magazine more than any other person)
• A Photographer
• A Writer
• A Trail Runner
• Her newest identity - cancer patient

Check out this collective: alpsinsight.com

Photo Swiss Alps and by PatitucciPhoto

We brought together running representatives from three continents

• Asia: Mark Agnew, Hong Kong
• Europe: Hillary Gerardi, France
• North America: Jamil Coury, USA

We asked them to talk about running topics that are current in their corner of the world.

Photo: Jubilee Paige Find out more about Jamil: Run Steep Get High Youtube Channel & Cocodona 250 Race Photo by by Martina Valmassoi Find out more about Hillary HERE. And check out this cool VIDEO   Mark Agnew climbs on the Annpurna 55km ultramarathon trail race. Photo: Flawsome Pictures Learn More about Mark HERE and the SCMP Page. You also might be interested in his team's ocean rowing HERE