Back of the Pack Podcast

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, our July series Why Are We Like This? continues with a look at the endurance decisions that sound terrible on paper but somehow end up on our calendars anyway. With the Argo Half Marathon and its 2,900 feet of elevation waiting on Saturday, followed by the Lizard Under the Skillet 31-mile bike race and an Evanescence concert on Sunday, this e...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we recap a busy Fourth of July weekend full of fireworks, frantic huskies, Patreon gratitude, race reviews, and questionable scheduling decisions. Kyle starts by thanking new Patreon supporters and talking honestly about how listener support, social media interaction, and community engagement help keep the podcast moving forward. From there, we head to Cl...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, we kick off our July series, Why Are We Like This?, by asking why runners insist on turning holiday weekends into race weekends. With the Fourth of July upon us, we look at the wonderfully weird tradition of waking up early, dressing in red, white, and blue, charging the Garmin, checking the weather, and voluntarily sweating through a shirt b...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we are catching up on a very busy June with a stack of race reviews, a heat warning, and one massive personal announcement. We start with the big news: Kyle is officially heading to the 2027 London Marathon, which will complete his original World Marathon Majors journey after Chicago, New York, Boston, Berlin, Tokyo, Sydney, and finally London. From there...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, we wrap up our June Running MythBusters series by taking on the gear, gadgets, gimmicks, and shiny little running trinkets we all love to buy, wear, track, trust, and occasionally blame when the wheels fall off. We talk about the myth that the “right” shoe, watch, supplement, sock, vest, belt, or gadget is what magically makes us better runne...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we take you with us to the Outpacing Melanoma 5K, where the podcast set up on-site for a morning of racing, conversations, interviews, and community connection. After previously having the race team on the show to talk about the mission behind the event, we had the chance to be there in person, meet the people behind the cause, and hear directly from thos...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, our Running MythBusters series continues with a look at race day rules that may need to be retired, or at least loosened up a little. We talk about the classic “nothing new on race day” advice and why it is good guidance, but not a federal law carved into a Garmin screen. From new shoes at Little Rock to mystery fuel at mile 8, gas station bu...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we were supposed to be reviewing the Clinton Historic Half Marathon, but severe storms, lightning, heavy rain, and flooding had other plans. After the half marathon was cancelled on race morning, we turned a missing race review into a much-needed conversation about runners, weather, and knowing when toughness crosses the line into bad decision-making. We...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, our Running MythBusters series continues as we take on the training lies runners keep believing. With summer training heating up and fall marathon cycles getting underway, we break down the idea that more suffering automatically means better training. This episode tackles myths like “more miles always means better,” “rest days are weakness,”...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we head south to learn all about the Rocket City Marathon Weekend coming up this December in Huntsville, Alabama. We are joined by Eric Fritz and Rhonda Hayden from the Rocket City Marathon team to talk about the history of the race, the growth of Huntsville, and why this 50th running is shaping up to be something special. We dig into what makes Rocket Ci...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, we kick off our June series, Running MythBusters, by taking on one of the oldest and most ridiculous myths in the sport: the idea that there is a magical checklist we have to complete before we can call ourselves “real runners.” We break down the nonsense that says real runners have to be fast, never walk, look a certain way, run long distanc...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we kick things off with a quick review of the KC Run for the Cup 5K, a World Cup-themed race in Martin City that brought soccer energy, steady rain, soggy shoes, and a reversed version of a familiar Kansas City Running Company course. With Kansas City hosting World Cup action and the summer heat starting to settle in, this race gave us a wet but welcome r...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, we wrap up our May Run Your Race series by asking the question that ties everything together: how do we define success for ourselves? After a month of talking about runfluencers, comparison traps, goals that actually fit us, and what happens when the plan falls apart, this finale brings it all home with one simple truth: success is not one-si...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we celebrate Memorial Day with two race reviews from a hot, humid, hilly Kansas City weekend. First up is the Hometown Half Marathon in the Northland, where what looked like a friendly park course quickly turned into a roller coaster of hills, humidity, bike paths, confusing signage, and one very large license-plate-sized finisher medal. We talk about the...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, our Run Your Race series continues with a topic every runner eventually faces: what happens when the plan falls apart. We talk about missed training runs, bad workouts, illness, family chaos, work conflicts, weather, fatigue, injuries, stomach issues, and those mysterious “why do my legs feel like wet cement?” days that show up out of nowhere...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we head to Waterloo, Iowa for an event that sounds simple until the clock starts laughing at you: Death by 5k. The concept is one 5k every two and a half hours for 24 hours, totaling ten separate races and 31 miles through George Wyth State Park. What started with pancakes, cool morning air, and a smart conservative pace slowly turned into a battle agains...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, our accidental-but-apparently-working Run Your Race series continues with a simple question: do our running goals actually fit us? After talking about runfluencers and the comparison traps that come from friends, watches, race results, and old PRs, we shift into rebuilding something better: goals based on our real lives. We look at the many p...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we head back to Bucyrus, Kansas for the 2026 Running with the Cows Half Marathon. After a few years away from this race, we return to see how this beloved local event is holding up, and whether we could finally make peace with a course that has not always been kind to us. The morning started nearly perfect, with cool temperatures, a strong crowd, smooth r...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, our Run Your Race series continues with a look at one of the sneakiest traps in running: comparison. Last week, we talked about the loud pressure of runfluencer culture, but this week we dig into the quieter ways comparison creeps into our minds through faster friends, local race results, Strava posts, Garmin data, and even old versions of ou...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we finally get back to race reviews after several weeks of tackling some of the running world’s heavier topics. Kyle recaps the always-popular CCVI Trolley Run in Kansas City, a fast and fun four-mile race supporting children with visual impairments, complete with beautiful spring weather, packed streets, and one pacing mistake that somehow still ended in...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, we kick off May by asking a big question: are running influencers helping the sport, or quietly making it harder for everyday runners to feel like they belong? We dive into the growing world of “runfluencer” culture, where marathon training can look effortless, high mileage looks normal, rest days get treated like weakness, and every run beco...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we dig into the Nike controversy that lit up Boston Marathon week after a storefront sign declared, “Runners welcome. Walkers tolerated.” What might have looked to some like a careless joke felt to many runners like a flashing neon sign for a much deeper problem in the sport: elitism. We break down why that message landed so badly, especially in a city li...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, we wrap up our Back of the Pack Survival Guide series by flipping the script on what it really means to run at the back of the pack. This episode is for all of us — the everyday runners, the grinders, the comeback stories, and the ones who refuse to quit. We explore how perspective changes everything, from actually experiencing the race cours...

With no race review on deck this week, we take a different route and dive into a topic that matters deeply to so many everyday runners: which races truly welcome the back of the pack. Fresh off a weekend in Las Vegas, we use this episode to spotlight marathons, half marathons, and shorter races that make room for runners and walkers who need extra time, extra grace, and a finish line that still fe...

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, our Back of the Pack Survival Guide continues with a deep dive into one of the toughest parts of running — when the miles feel slow and the progress feels invisible. We break down the mental battle that so many runners face, from the comparison trap to that frustrating feeling of “I should be better by now.” But this time, we’re not just talk...