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Helping and honoring our military veterans was deeply meaningful to David, and he helped support them with his American Heroes Run. As you may know, I now direct the event to continue his important legacy. Proceeds support Warriors’ Ascent, an organization that provides holistic programs to veterans and first responders experiencing post-traumatic stress. Treating veterans with this not-as-visible type of battlefield injury has often gotten overlooked by the Veteran’s Administration and organizations that support veterans. I became aware of Iraq War veteran Gene Bennett’s story and received a copy of his chilling book, “We Did Not Deserve the Crapper: The prison we entered but never fully left.” Gene served two tours in Iraq. At first, the Army used him as a truck tire mechanic, but as sometimes happens, they assigned him where needed, and with just a smattering of training, he ended up a prison guard. Gene, whose callsign was Spazmasterflex, termed this job “the worst babysitting job ever.” In 130o heat, often walking on metal grating during all-day or all-night shifts, he was tasked with guarding a violent population where Sunnis and Shia often clashed, and often meted out their own versions of justice, which could be death. Of course, they all wanted to kill the Americans. To make it worse, the prison comprised both adult and juvenile sections. At one point, an eight-year-old was detained and a riot broke out until this child was released. On his watch, an Iraqi teen was murdered, something which continues to haunt Gene. He also witnessed several incidents of horrible atrocities and jaw-dropping leadership ineptitude committed by U.S. military officers. His PTSD and depression no doubt were exacerbated by a difficult childhood in a dysfunctional family. Gene has been fighting back by working to get his fellow veterans improved treatment from the VA, as well as write a cookbook to help them take better care of themselves. He is also creating an innovative line of meat smokers. Gene and I had a very engaging conversation that I think will keep you on the edge of your seat. I’d highly recommend you read his book to get a bird’s eye look at one veteran’s deployment that will leave you shaking your head, but also rooting for this hero to emerge on the other side in a better place.

Gene Bennett
Book on Amazon: "We Did Not Deserve the Crapper: The prison we left but never fully left"
Instagram and X @mickeyseverson

Bill Stahl
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In a little bit of a twist, I’m chatting today with another podcaster, Joe Corcione, from the Everyday Ultra Podcast. Joe is a fellow New Yorker who also cheers for, and often suffers with, my same New York teams the Giants, Yankees, Rangers, and Knicks. The Everyday Ultra Podcast is laser-focused on the ultrarunning world with one of the best lineups of guests to keep ultra aficionados informed and entertained. Joe also presents episodes that provide excellent tips and guidance to your everyman and everywoman ultrarunner. What is incredibly impressive, though, is that Joe grew up as a self-described non-athlete who eventually developed a serious drinking problem. When Joe hit his breaking point, he moved west, eventually landing in Arizona, and he began running and jumped in with both feet, pun intended. Like most starting out, his journey began with baby steps, and Joe began to rise rapidly in his challenges to become an ultrarunner and is now training for the Cocodona 250. Not only that, but he has built a successful coaching business and Everyday Ultra is a top-ranked podcast, all of this occurring in a mere five years. As you’ll find out here, although Joe is relatively new to ultrarunning, he can also dispense some amazing insights and wisdom for a young guy. I’d definitely recommend you check out the Everyday Ultra Podcast where you will always feel Joe’s unbridled enthusiasm for the sport, and above all, his desire to make a difference to help every ultrarunner get better.

Joe Corcione
Everyday Ultra Podcast anywhere you find podcasts
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Instagram @joecorcione and @theeverydayultra

Bill Stahl
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If you’ve ever run an ultramarathon, you almost certainly know the name of Marshall Ulrich. His accomplishments are unparalleled, and if I tried to list them, I’d undoubtedly leave out many. I could naturally mention his 29 official Badwater finishes in Death Valley, a race most of us would not want to tackle even once. Or that he dwarfed those finishes by continuing on to the Mt. Whitney summit, or that he once ran around the entire 425-mile perimeter of Death Valley, which we have fun talking about here. He completed the Seven Summits on his first attempt, and he set the speed record for the transcontinental run across the U.S., recounted in his great book, "Running on Empty." I could add his Stray Dogs team completed all of the Eco-Challenges, televised as The World’s Toughest Race. You may have already heard about all of this, so instead let’s focus on his latest endeavors, like the Route 66 Ultrarun, a 140-mile, multi-day event along that historic route in Arizona, and his support for his good friend and fellow Stray Dogs teammate Mark Macy in his inspiring battle against Alzheimer’s. Marshall is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in the sport. He was an early mentor to an aspiring ultraendurance athlete named David Clark, and wrote the foreword to David’s first book, "Out There, a Story of Ultrarecovery." Marshall’s latest book, "Both Feet on the Ground," will inspire you to seek out your own adventures. Grab on tight, you’re in for a thrilling ride listening to Marshall!

Marshall Ulrich
marshallulrich.com
route66ultrarun.com
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Bill Stahl
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We are into the dog days of winter, and for a lot of folks the days are gray and cold and New Year’s resolutions are starting to fade into oblivion. That’s why I thought it would be great to bring back Dan Herman, whose upbeat approach to health, fitness, and setting goals would be a refreshing antidote to the winter blahs. Dan owns Dan Herman Performance in New Jersey, and I think he offers some of the most practical advice people can employ to knockout fitness and nutrition goals in sensible ways and not succumb to the hype of online hawkers of canned fitness programs and supplements that have not been scientifically studied. It’s not just that Dan had once been 375 pounds, lost weight, got fit, and now thinks he knows it all. Dan has earned numerous certifications, and knows great ways to help people develop solid plans to overcome obstacles that prevent them from following through on their stated goals. Plus, I always enjoy Dan’s positivity for a guy who lives in Jersey. I hope you take away a few nuggets from this dynamic chat!

Dan Herman
danhermanperformance.com
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Bill Stahl
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For 24 days beginning in mid-October, Jack Rubalcave and Bill (and Nigel Leonis for part of the trip), had an amazing time traveling through 7 countries in Asia. In part 1 of this trilogy, we described the incredible energy and culture shock we experienced in Japan, and the interesting Communist world of Vietnam. In this episode, we share with you our experiences in South Korea and Taiwan, two countries that have experienced their share of conflict. Seoul is a beautiful city with many cultural surprises, including crazy almond stores, wild street food, and an obsession with K-Pop. We also took a fascinating side trip to the DMZ, where we got to within 70 meters of the North Korean border. Taiwan is fiercely independent despite China wanting to seize it back. We had some unique experiences in Taipei, where we saw some beautiful Buddhist temples, as we did in Seoul. Jack and I hope that you enjoy hearing about these adventures and get inspired to explore new travel destinations yourselves. 

Bill Stahl
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Jack Rubalcave
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For 24 days beginning in mid-October, Jack Rubalcave and Bill (and Nigel Leonis for part of the trip), traveled through 7 countries in Asia. It was truly an amazing trip and we crammed an incredible amount of activities and saw so many sights in such a short span of time in each place. We each brought only a backpack. We took 13 flights in the 24 days, and get this, our total outlay for airfare was $204! We flew on airlines like Scoot, Peach, Air Asia, and VietJet using our miles and points, and had almost no issues. Our lodging was just over $500 for all of these nights!

Jack and I hope that you enjoy hearing about these adventures and get inspired to explore new travel destinations yourselves. We describe in this first of three parts our adventures for the first eight days of the trip in Japan, and in Vietnam, where we ended it. Japan stood out for its incredible energy, how nice and polite people were, its cleanliness, fantastic food, and its surprising customs. Like buying hot corn chowder from vending machines on the street - and it was actually good! Vietnam was unusual in how Communist it felt there and that pho is truly street food.

Bill Stahl
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Jack Rubalcave
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It's that time of year for resolutions and goal-setting. But how do you do this after last year was derailed and you're still struggling to take the first steps to even set goals for the new year? Using my own current experience battling back from August bunion surgery that still hasn't yielded good results, I discuss strategies to set your sights on goals you'd like to achieve in the coming year.

Bill Stahl
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It’s the New Year, and we all know what that means. Perhaps you are already on your way to working toward your 2024 goals. Others might be planning to start on Jan. 1. Or maybe later when the snow begins to melt. Some will go it alone, so to speak. But for a great many, coaching will improve the chances you can have success. After all, I have yet to see a football team take the field this bowl season without a coach. Even in individual sports like golf or tennis, the pros have coaches. Heck, Tiger Woods had a cadre of coaches – a swing coach, a mental skills coach, a strength coach, a nutrition coach, etc. What can a running coach do for you, and who might want to have one? I discuss this with UESCA-certified coach Miki McConaha and cover many aspects in which coaches can help you get more out of a sport in which you’re already investing a lot of your time and resources, so why not get the most bang for your buck, so to speak. Many runners enjoy the community aspect to being coached, but perhaps you live in a remote area, or you have a schedule that doesn’t allow you to make group runs. So Miki and I have begun the Be Positive Runners community. Miki and I will provide you customized, personal workouts on the TrainingPeaks app, and we will have group online calls where we can share experiences, tips, and provide encouragement to one another. Hopefully this will develop into group trips to goal races. We will initially limit the community to 10 motivated individuals who want to help themselves and others knock out their 2024 goals. If interested, shoot me a message at [email protected] or on Facebook or Instagram Messengers and we can talk to see if you would like to be a Be Positive Runner to achieve more in 2024, or mention it to a friend who you think could use this kind of positive community.

Miki McConaha
www.trainingthroughthetrees.com
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Bill Stahl
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Our annual tradition is back!  We began this with David Clark and have continued it since.  Gary, a former obese alcoholic who became an ultramarathoner and all-around extremely insightful human, and I share a chat which goes in any and all directions.  Always one of our most downloaded episodes, you're sure to gain some gold nuggets when listening to Gary's wisdom. Enjoy, and Merry Sober F*cking Christmas and Holidays to all WASP listeners!

Gary Stotler
garystotler.com
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Find his latest book, "Success is Spelled Action" on Amazon

Bill Stahl
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This year we have highlighted several runners who have logged incredible achievements in longer distance events at a young age. Remember Lauryn Wojcik, who had never raced longer than 6K and yet crushed the Leadville Trail 100? This next performance caught my eye, and the guy is right in my backyard. Boulder-based Charlie Lawrence last month broke the 50-mile world record previously held by veteran ultrarunner and current UTMB champion Jim Walmsley. Charlie is 28, self-coached, and his previous longest run had been 35 miles. He completed the distance in 4:48:21 at the Tunnel Hill 50 Mile in Illinois, averaging 5:46 per mile. I like that Charlie didn’t run it on a track or in an artificial environment, but in an actual race, on a mostly gravel surface with some hills. Charlie, a native of Foley, Minn., got the inspiration to challenge the record, which he was actually confident he would secure, from American two-time Olympian Des Linden after helping pace her to a 50K world record. After sitting out most of 2022 with a sacral stress fracture, Charlie left his running group and set out on his own, upped his volume into the 140 miles per week range, and added some beastly track workouts as well. Charlie, who will line up to run the Olympic Trials Marathon this February, feels that the speedwork he does for 26.2 miles definitely helps him at longer distances as well. It’s a fun story as Charlie rose from a decent high school runner who took two Minnesota state titles in the 3200 meters, to being a contributing all-Big Ten performer for the University of Minnesota, to being good enough to run in the Olympic Trials marathon in 2020 yet not threaten to make the team, to busting through with a world record at a totally new distance for him. We hit on everything here including his pacing strategy, his fueling, his extraordinary focus, his upcoming goals, and even the stories behind his tattoos. He’s a really nice and engaging guy, so I hope you enjoy this!

Charlie Lawrence
Instagram @lawrence_char

Bill Stahl
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