Most Pleasant Exhaustion

This week, the Most Pleasant Exhaustion crew got together to talk about how 2024 went--including the information from their Spotify Wrapped and Strava Year in Review!--and what exciting things we have planned for 2025.

What's it like to race 240 miles? (No, not a typo.) That's what Thomas Odom did in October, and he came on the podcast to tell us all about it. The gear, the crew, the challenges, and the fueling . . . he shared it all.

This week, Allison was back to tell us all about her experience at the 100K World Championship race in Bengaluru, India! We heard about the course, the team dynamics, the crew setup, and the race itself. Allison was able to finish 3rd on Team USA by taking 12th overall and 3rd master. She won her age group to boot!) That was good enough to help the American women finish as the third team.

This week, George shared his experience with the Valencia Marathon! We talked about his shoes, his nutrition, and his trip overall, and we learned about the difficulties he faced along the way.

Looking for the perfect gift for the endurance athlete in your life? We have suggestions! This week, Erik, George, and Michelle offered their suggestions for holiday gift-giving for 2024. We spent the entire year eyeing new releases and trying various things, and we offer our unfiltered thoughts on the budget items, reasonable items, and reach items that would put a smile on any endurance athlete'...

This week, Allison Mercer--a part of the extended MPE family!--came on the podcast to talk about her upcoming race at the 100K World Championship on December 7! George also has a race coming up--the Valencia Marathon on December 1--so we talked a bit about that, too! Travel plans, goals, preparation, nerves . . . we considered it all.

Our aim was to preview the New York City Marathon this weekend, but we ended up talking about a variety of things including the food sensitivity test that George recently took.

Ruth Chepngetich broke the women's marathon world record by nearly two minutes at the Chicago Marathon. In this installment of the podcast, we talked all about how she did it, where she came from, and what it's like to be a distance running fan when such mind-blowing performances seem to be happening more and more often. We also spent a small amount of time talking about George's run at the Flagst...

This week, after hearing a bit about Erik's experience at the Doggettville 12-Hour, we discussed the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene on the Blue Ridge Relay course in western North Carolina.

We turned our attention to three big stories this week: Tara Dower's new FKT on the Appalachian Trail, the controversy over Camille Herron's Wikipedia edits, and the two press releases from the Boston Athletic Association regarding entry into the Boston Marathon. We had a lot to say about each of them, including hearing Michelle's first-hand account from the finish line of Tara's run!

This weekend, friend of the podcast Tara Dower (from Episode 293) is going to be finishing the Appalachian Trail in what is likely to be a Fastest Known Time! Michelle will be there to watch the end of Tara's run, but before we sent her off, we talked a bit about where we are, what our fall plans look like, and how we're doing on our resolutions some of our resolutions . . . from 2023.

The weekend after Labor Day means it's time for our favorite race: the Blue Ridge Relay! Last weekend, Erik, George, and four other guys took on the Blue Ridge Relay for the seventh time. Hear about how it went, what we wore, and the challenges we faced along the way.

Have you ever wanted to run fifteen miles on trails at altitude with a donkey? Well, we haven't either, but this week, we talked to two people who did just that! Megan Ressler and Amy Krupka joined us to tell us about their experience with Millie and Charleston--their donkeys--at the Leadville Boom Days Pack Burro Race. We talked about managing the animal and the challenges they faced. And of cour...

This week, we looked back at Sifan Hassan's historic TRIPLE at the Olympics, climaxing with the Olympic Record in the marathon. We also talked about the men's marathon, and we considered how the Americans performed. We wrapped up the podcast with a quick review of the record-setting day at the Leadville 100.

Two years ago, in Episode 227, we interviewed Ken Sevensky, the race director for the Blue Ridge Relay. This week, we brought Ken back to hear about his preparations for the 2024 race. Ken told us about how the race has overcome obstacles over the years and grown into the event that it is today, and he gave us a glimpse of all that goes into pulling off a 200-mile relay across two states with 187...

The three of us have been consumed by the Olympics over the last two weeks, so we took a few minutes together to talk about them today. Even though the Games aren't yet over, we had fun talking about the things we have seen and what we've been thinking over the last little while.

For the second week in a row, we talked to a 2024 Race Across America finisher! This week, it was Katie Aguilar, who raced as part of Four the Record, a four-woman team. Her husband, Carlos, was on the crew, and he also joined us. Katie and Carlos told us about what it was like to take on such an ambitious goal, the changes that Katie had to make to her training (with Carlos's support!), and the v...

This week, we talked to a couple of folks who just successfully finished Race Across America: Brian Hetherington and Alyssa Godesky! Brian raced as part of a four-person team called Team One Life, and they raised money for a charity called Special Love. Alyssa, herself an accomplished professional triathlete and ultrarunner, coached Brian and served as the crew chief during the race. We talked abo...

There is so much going on in the world of endurance sports right now! We spent a lot of time this week talking about our experiences in the 2024 Peachtree Road Race, plus the first week of the Tour de France, the Olympic Track Trials, and an incredibly fast day at the Western States Endurance Run.

This week, we previewed the 2024 Men's Tour de France with our crack analysts Justin Dugan and Justin Schmidt! As they have done the last few years, Justin and Justin joined us to talk about the course, discuss the contenders, and of course, make a few predictions.

On June 9th, George got to run the one race he's always wanted to run: the Comrades Marathon in South Africa! He trained with this race specifically in mind for nearly a year, including a lot of strength and mobility work, but he ran into some training issues with only a month to go. Nonetheless, he was able to finish the race with a silver medal, and he told us all about the experience this week.

This week, we talked about the controversy that is brewing around Spring Energy's gel, Awesome Sauce. We also recapped the Bowerman Mile, and we talked about George's final preparations before he heads off to South Africa for the Comrades Marathon next Monday!

Episode 294--Comrades Training Update and the Upcoming Olympic Marathon Showdown! by Most Pleasant Exhaustion

In April, Tara Dower won the overall title at the Umstead 100, and this week, she came on the podcast to tell us about it! Even though Tara is fairly new to ultrarunning, she has found a great deal of success, and she tells us what she has learned in her short career, what it's like to be sponsored by Altra, how the Umstead race unfolded, and what's next!

This week, we talked all about our experience at the Tobacco Road Relay over the weekend. TRR is an event that Erik and George helped win in 2022 in its inaugural year, and this year, they were back to give it another go on a three-person team with their friend Lee. The course had changed a great deal, though, and the race director--Ken Sevensky, the race director of the Blue Ridge Relay--put toge...