The CITIUS MAG Podcast | A Running + Track and Field Show

Matthew Luke Meyer and I catch up to discuss some of the best performances of January 2021. It's a weird time in the sport where there's indoor and outdoor track going on at the same time as cross country and select road races. In this episode, we unpack: – Matt won the men’s division of his first-ever ultramarathon in Moab, Utah (second overall to Sarah Cummings) so he shares what it was like rac...

“If I come back next year, we’re going to target all the D2 records.” If you’re not familiar with Christian Noble's name yet that’s OK because he’s letting some of his performances do the talking for him. In the past two weeks, he set two Division II indoor track records at 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. He ran 13:37.39 on Jan. 24 in Birmingham, Alabama and then came back a few days later to run 7...

"I'm more comfortable with betting on myself now than I have been in the past, and I think it comes from just accumulating achievements that I look back on and think, 'Yeah, I'm good enough to do this.'" My guest for today’s episode is the Roots Running breakout star of 2020 not named Noah Droddy. Frank Lara was the US Champion in the 15K despite finishing second after the winner tested positive f...

“In 1996, Derrick Adkins came back to his elementary school on Long Island and showed everyone the gold medal he had won. I was in the crowd. I got to see it. I got to talk to him and touch the medal. I was immediately enthralled by the sport that I went home and talked to my mom about signing up for track. That left a really lasting impression on me because I know that he may not have wanted to g...

“I’m a big believer that you should really judge people at their worst and not at their best. When people are at their best and everything is comfortable and good or everything is going their way, it’s not really a fair assessment of their character. I think it’s a lot more insightful how someone acts when they’re down and facing adversity. That’s exactly what I was dealing with at that moment. I...

“There was consistency. There was never the breakthrough that I thought could happen. You can only control what you do. I think for the most part I did everything that I wanted to." Andrew Bumbalough is one of the OGs of the Bowerman Track Club and has been training with them since 2010. In this episode, he announces he is retiring and no longer running professionally and no longer a Nike athlete....

“Yes, you might have talent or something gifted to you but it doesn’t come without hard work. All those people that you see at the top level and you say, ‘Oh those people are so lucky!’ They work hard for it. We have to know what they came through and what they have done in their lives. For me, yes I was talented in running maybe but I put all the work I wanted to do into running. I might not be p...

“You have a lot of failures but that’s the point of running and learning from these failures, gaining a lot of insight from them and growing from them. Then, they don’t turn into failures anymore. They turn into life lessons and something to be gained from. Everything is something to learn from. Every race is that. Every workout is that. This year has been obviously very strange. Sometimes just ge...

"After Chicago, I said, ‘I’ve arrived in the arena of my marathon potential but I still feel like I’m sitting in the nosebleeds.’ Right? I’m not there yet. So now, I’m like, ‘Well fuck...I’m there now. I think.’ If I can do that again or even get a little better then that’s pretty good. I like to think I’ve proven myself as a competitor beyond just being like the puke guy or the beer-drinking hero...

"It comes back to what I want to make sure I'm doing: Serving others. It's not to say that I could go out to Flagstaff, crank it hard and make it to the Olympics and inspire a whole bunch of people. When I see opportunities in front of me to be able to coach and directly impact kids, that's what I'm going to gravitate more toward. I could say, 'You know what...I have to use this talent while I hav...

“I feel like I’ve been trying to prove I’m one of the best runners in the country for a very long time yet I’m consistently one of the best. It’s just I haven’t had that breakout performance or won that championship that really mattered. That’s why I feel like this race was finally a validation of my whole running career. I’m finally among in a place where I feel like I belong.” David Melly and I...

"It sucked at the time and it sucked for a long time afterward. But, that was a pretty useful feeling. Being disappointed is a pretty big motivator. I'm not going to cop out of the fact that I really wanted to go to the Olympics." CITIUS MAG Podcast regular Scott Fauble returns to the show and opens up about how he processed the disappointment of his 12th place finish at the U.S. Olympic Marathon...

“There’s no bigger high for me than watching your work get screened in front of people. Good or bad. I’ve had screenings where we’ve packed out a 250-person room with 400 people but I’ve also had screenings, where it’s a 50-person room and only six people, show up and it’s your parents and your friend that you begged to come along. For good or bad, those are the scenarios. It humbles you. It boost...

“When I saw that positive pregnancy test, it was basically the highlight of my year. Looking at the place I am emotionally and mentally, I am very happy. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.” – Aliphine Tuliamuk This is a short and special episode of the podcast regarding the big news that U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials champion Aliphine Tuliamuk is pregnant with her first child. A baby girl is exp...

“I get it from people all the time who say, ‘You’re fairly unconventional for a pro runner.’ I’m like...Thank you? I guess i do appreciate that just because I do approach things in pro running a little bit differently than the ‘normal runner.’ I’m never going to be a Shalane Flanagan. I don’t think it’s healthy for me to be hyper-focused like a one-track mind. Everyone asks me, ‘Oh are you going t...

We're starting to get more news to discuss at the end of every month! Although COVID-19 cases continue to be on the rise in America, a vaccine appears to be on the way and there's optimism about 2021's possible plans. Recurring co-host Matt Meyer joins for episode No. 199. In this episode we discuss: – Track and football's beef involving people claiming Tyreek Hill is faster than Grant Holloway –...

Earlier this month, Clemson’s athletic department announced the decision to cut the men’s track and field and cross country programs after the 2020-21 academic year. Athletic director Dan Radakovich said it came as a measure that will save $2 million per year and would help other Olympic sports on campus survive. The men’s track and field/cross-country team features 51 athletes and has produced 22...

“I knew what it felt like to be an elite runner and then being a spectator trying to get into shape. That’s really tough to do: creating a routine and breaking through those barriers at first before it becomes routine. I just gained a whole different perspective about running. I think where I’m at now I just feel so much gratitude and appreciation because I’ve seen every spectrum of running in my...

“I think people need to remember that the presidency doesn’t solve all of our problems. If you want to continue to be engaged in the political process, find your local city council member and figure out if you’re not happy with what they’re doing, elect someone else or you can run yourself. I’m now at the point where I’ve got several friends who are in elected offices in California, which is very...

“I think a big reason why I went for a good beer mile time was because of that first Flotrack championship. I remember streaming it live and thinking ‘They’re running a 5-flat beer mile. This is fast.’ But, at the same time thinking, ‘These guys don’t have as good of a PR as me in the mile so why can’t I run that sort of time? I can do that.’" Chris Robertson is the second-fastest beer miler in hi...

"We wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to get better. I don’t have the pressure to get into a marathon build-up or if the Olympics were happening. I wanted to come out of this better. A big part of that for me was maybe taking it a little easier with the mileage and intensity and focusing back to strengthening up my leg. I lost a lot of muscle – not just in my ankle and those tendons but...

"I was a competitive snowboarder but seeing what I'm doing in running right now is above and beyond what I thought I was doing in that sport. Finding a sport this late in life and seeing that constant progression, which is what I lost in snowboarding, I hit this point where I don't want to hit jumps anymore. I just want to have fun on the mountains. You stop seeing yourself become better at a poin...

“It was a really fun experiment because I don’t think anyone thought that I could have done it...In the beginning, I couldn’t maintain under 5:20 pace for four miles so I’m so far away from this thing. But, the training became reckless in a sort of fun way. When you have a goal that’s unrealistic, you sort of just have to throw yourself at it. There’s no time to think or build up slowly. One of my...

"This is a pretty huge East African community. A lot of these Africans don’t play basketball or football so this is their way of getting that opportunity at that highest level...I feel like one of the reasons they were able to bring back outdoor track was that they knew the amount of damage this would cause. But still, we need indoors as well because we want to be equal.” Obsa Ali is the 2018 NCAA...

Tyler Day joins the podcast to share what went into the decision to turn professional and sign with the Hoka One One Northern Arizona Elite team after a successful career at Northern Arizona University. Tyler is a six-time All-American and was part of three NCAA championship-winning cross country squads for the Lumberjacks. Most recently, the end of his collegiate career was cut short due to the c...