Set the Pace

New York Road Runners’ Gordon Bakoulis joins Set the Pace this week to talk with Rob about her legendary career as both an elite athlete and NYRR’s editorial director. Gordon qualified for the Olympic marathon trials in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 and was a finalist in the 1992 U.S. Olympic 10,000m trials. As she looks ahead to retirement after nearly 24 years at New York Road Run...

Join Ali Feller from Ali on the Run and Aisha Praught Leer from Citius Mag as Set the Pace, Presented by Peloton Reruns the MastercardNew York  Mini 10k. Whether you ran the race or have FOMO for not being there, this episode is for you! Tune in for post-race interviews with the Mastercard New York City Mini 10K champions, to hear what it took to break the tape at this iconic race. Following...

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and throughout the month we’ve been sharing stories about running and mental well-being. We also celebrated Mother’s Day, and for many members of our community, running, mental health, and motherhood are deeply intertwined. In this week’s episode, Rob and Becs speak with Peloton instructor Selena Samuela, who opens up about raising identical...

This week, Rob turns the mic on Becs to talk about her next adventure. Becs opens up about the highs and lows she’s experienced with running since completing the Great World Race over a year ago. She shares how she stepped away from road racing, rediscovered her love of the sport through trail and ultra running, and embraced a less pressure-filled approach to training and competition. After...

Joining Rob live from the RBC Brooklyn Half After-Party at Maimonides Park is special guest Camila Ramón, a Peloton instructor and recording artist who was one of the thousands of runners crossing the finish line on Coney Island. Born in Buenos Aires, Camila moved to Miami when she was seven. She teaches cycling, treadmill, and strength training in English and Spanish as Peloton's first bil...

Winning a major marathon goes way beyond the podium for a Kenyan athlete—it reaches their families, their communities, and entire towns. But for the women, success can also put them in danger. Check out this week’s episode as Rob joins a roundtable discussion led by NYRR's Head of Content Matthew Singer along with Chief Diversity Officer Erica Edwards-O'Neal and Director of Professiona...

Watch this episode on YouTube Joining Rob and Becs this week is NYRR Chief Event Production Officer and Race Director Ted Metellus, breaking down everything you need to know about the RBC Brooklyn Half, from the new expo location at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park to essential race-day logistics such as getting to your corral with plenty of time to spare for a stress-free arrival. T...

More than 600 runners from over 24 teams descended on The TRACK at New Balance to cover 26.2 miles — but instead of slogging through city streets, this one was 211 laps on a banked 200m indoor track. And Rob and Meb were in the center of it all, interviewing runners right off the track including Ali Feller, Olympians Kim Conley and Aisha Praught Leer, Endorphins Running founder Tyler Swartz,...

This episode of Set the Pace marks an exciting new chapter for the show as Rob and Becs explain how the podcast is evolving to focus more deeply on what matters most: the transformative power of running. Guided by the mission to build healthier lives and stronger communities, this shift brings more intentional, story-driven content. While episodes will no longer be released weekly, listeners can e...

Mary Wittenberg, former New York Road Runners President and CEO, joins Set the Pace this week as part of our celebration of Women’s History Month. After becoming a partner at a law firm in New York City, she pivoted to pursue her passion for sports, joining New York Road Runners in 1998. A dedicated runner, she won the 1987 Marine Corps Marathon and competed in the 1988 U.S. Olympic Marathon...

Former NFL center Justin Britt, who spent most of his career with the Seattle Seahawks, joins Rob and Becs on Set the Pace this week. Justin ran the United Airlines NYC Half in 1:31:11, coached by professional distance runner Emily Venters, who finished the race in 1:09:46, placing 10th in the women’s field. For Justin, running has helped him navigate a rocky transition to life after the NFL...

In this special race-day episode of Set the Pace, hosts Olympian Carrie Tollefson and CITIUS MAG's Kyle Merber interview the 2026 United Airlines NYC Half champions—Eden Rainbow-Cooper, Daniel Romanchuk, Hellen Obiri, Adriaan Wildschutt, and Daniel Mata—who led more than 30,000 athletes from the start in Prospect Park, across the Brooklyn Bridge, through Manhattan, and to the finish in...

Joining Rob and Becs this week are Liz Cho and Mike Marza, anchors for ABC7 Eyewitness News. Together, they report on the events that shape daily life across the five boroughs. There will be more than 30,000 stories at this weekend’s United Airlines NYC Half—the kind of stories today’s guests usually spend their days telling. But this weekend, instead of covering the stories, the...

New York Road Runners’ Chief Event Production Officer and Race Director, Ted Metellus, joins  Becs to talk all things United Airlines NYC Half. This year’s race is set for Sunday, March 15, and Ted has all the answers to questions about race week and race day. Learn the deets about bib pickup at the Expo (in a new location at the Javits Center!), getting to the start, navigating t...

This episode discusses sexual violence, which may be triggering or distressing for some listeners. In this episode, New York Road Runners leaders Christine Burke and Erica Edwards-O’Neal explore runner safety—particularly for women—through global and local lenses. Reflecting on a recent trip to Kenya, they share their experience meeting with Tirop’s Angels, an organization...

In this special episode of Set the Pace Rob sits down with Sharon Lokedi, TCS New York City Marathon champion, at her mother’s home in Eldoret, Kenya. Lokedi reflects on her journey from training on Kenya’s red clay roads to winning major marathons, and what it means to inspire other Kenyan runners. She shares how Kenya’s deep-rooted running culture fuels her motivation as she pr...

This week, Rob and Becs are joined by Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) who has treated thousands of runners. A runner himself, Dr. Metzl has completed dozens of marathons and multiple Ironman triathlons. His new book, “Push: Unlock the Science of Fitness Motivation to Embrace Health and Longevity,” draws on research, p...

Two-time Olympian Grant Fisher joins Set the Pace this week in a live interview with Rob, recorded on January 30 at the TCS New York City Marathon Partner Forum in NYC. Grant was in town preparing for the Millrose Games, where he was set to race the Wanamaker Mile, but after our interview, he scratched due to illness. In the conversation, Grant shares what excites him about making his road racing...

This week, Rob is joined by New York Road Runners Chief Marketing and Digital Officer Juliette Morris for a special Town Hall edition of Set the Pace where they talk about what’s happening across the entire organization. Rob addresses some of the most common questions and concerns raised by the running community, from race access and registration demand to new processing fees and the growing...

Check out this special episode of Set the Pace taped live at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square. Hosts Rob and Becs sit down with Olympian and Peloton instructor Alex Karwoski, who represented the U.S. in the men’s eight at the Rio Games and later served as an alternate for Tokyo. Since his last appearance on the show in August 2024, Alex has completed the TCS New York City Marathon t...

Jeremie Kasmarcak, head of Team for Kids (TFK) at New York Road Runners, joins Set the Pace to share a behind-the-scenes perspective on TFK, a charity program that’s become a training ground for runners of all ages, paces, and experience levels. Jeremie has led Team for Kids for nearly a decade, guiding it into one of the most impactful and in-demand charity running programs in the world. Si...

Joining the show this week is Vanessa Peralta-Mitchell, the founder of Game Changers, a program that aims to encourage and support more women of color to become certified run coaches. Launched in 2020, the program was born out of Vanessa’s realization that very few running coaches and experts in the industry looked like her—and her desire to change that.  Since then, the program h...

For our first episode of the year, Rob speaks with ABC sports anchor Sam Ryan, who has helped tell the stories of NYRR races and the running community. A runner herself, Sam has lived those stories too—completing 13 marathons, including four New York City Marathons, and serving as an NYRR Team for Kids ambassador. The last time Sam was on the show, it was just two days before the Boston Mara...

Your winter gift from Set the Pace. Head out for a run as Rob and Becs revisit some of the most powerful words shared on Set the Pace this year. These are the moments our guests return to when things get hard. The phrases they repeat when they need to keep going. The mantras that carry them FORWARD. You’ll hear from teachers and Olympians, Peloton instructors and physical therapists, CEOs, r...

Red Sox manager Alex Cora joins Rob and Becs for this week’s Set the Pace. One of the most recognizable figures in sports, Alex is a World Series–winning manager, a regular presence in Boston headlines, and someone whose every decision is analyzed by millions of Red Sox fans. Recently, Alex has also become a runner—starting with short races then progressing to a half marathon and...