We Are Superman

I’m talking today with three truly remarkable men, all veterans, all of whom have not let the loss of their eyesight and sometimes more affect their willingness to help others in monumental ways. They have started foundations and programs so others are not glued to their couches but instead get active and find meaning in their lives. They have found ways to adapt to the world to produce podcasts a...

As many of you are planning your 2026 race schedule, you might be considering traveling out of town. Of course, that’s very different than waking up in your own bed, throwing your gear and some nutrition into the back of your car, stopping at a coffee shop along the way for some caffeine, and making a leisurely drive to a local race when few others are on the road. For answers about what and how t...

Jerzy Gregorek and his wife Aniela survived a perilous journey living behind the Iron Curtain in Poland while it was subservient to brutal Soviet Union domination. He describes the darkness of living there in the 1970s and 80s, and how it led to him becoming an alcoholic at age 15. He had a mentor who pretty much dragged him into weightlifting at the time of the rise of Solidarity, the movement th...

You can’t beat the trail running community for positivity, and during so many of my races I have randomly met the most interesting and often inspiring people, many of whom have become lifelong friends. During the descending miles of this year’s Leadville Heavy Half, I started chatting with a fellow runner and before long discovering Scott Tish’s inspiring story that included his experiences as an...

I really didn’t have to write much of an intro because I could simply copy the fascinating story in Dave Munson’s bio. It resonates with me because it reminds me about how David Clark found so much more happiness, not by making and spending huge amounts of money from his mattress and furniture businesses, but by serving others. I also love how Dave Munson manufactures products that are unique and...

Most people don’t imagine octogenarians throwing shotputs, discuses, and the hammer at track meets. I have officiated enough track meets that I have seen bunches of them doing so. One is Terry Ten Eyck of Golden CO, who back in 1963 set the state shotput mark of 59’-10¾”, breaking the previous record by four feet, while throwing for Wheat Ridge H.S. He went on to briefly compete in track and footb...

Brian Watson was in New York City in 2018 and noticed hundreds of thousands of people crowding the streets and asked what was going on. A friend told him it was the NYC Marathon, a foreign concept to a guy living in a 300-pound body. He calmly told those around him that he would run it the next year. While that might sound daffy to some, those that knew Brian knew to take him at his word. Before y...

In previous episodes, we’ve chatted with some young runners who have taken on ultramarathons like the Leadville Trail 100, something that was unheard of in the ancient days when I began in the sport. While it’s become less rare to see this, it’s now been taken up a notch. Meet the Chisholm family of Salem, NH. Brothers Ben, Brody, Elliott, and Asher all play hockey, with the three eldest at one ti...

At a high school track meet I was working as an official this spring, a young man came up to me and commented about my ever-present Yankees cap and mentioned that his uncle had once played for the Bronx Bombers. I figured it would be some nobody, but it turned out to be Hall of Famer and Yankees legend Goose Gossage. As Avi Rahmani of Ralston Valley H.S. in Arvada, Colo., and I got to know each ot...

Tyler Andrews is a good friend with whom I’ve done trips with to Peru, Ecuador, and most recently, the Atacama Desert of Chile where we climbed up to almost 20,000 feet. Ty was a self-described high school nerd musician who went on to be an average D3 cross country runner. After battling depression, Ty dedicated himself to becoming a pro mountain runner, which has seen him set numerous FKTs on som...

One of the most badass racers I know is Kat Edwards Anderson. She has been on the WASP twice before, most recently on episode #327 in January, chatting about her runs at the Sedona Canyons 125 and the Moab 240. I first met her in Chile in March, 2024, where she impressively conquered many new challenges for her in the high Atacama Desert. She built on these experiences by overcoming blisters on he...

This is a classic WASP comeback story in a different kind of direction. Alex Neist is a former college and pro quarterback who seemingly had it all post-football – a thriving business career and great family – and then had it all fall apart because of his snoring. It’s true, snoring. Alex found an unlikely answer with mouth taping, which he had to find on his own because he realized our healthcare...

Colorado has always been known as a distance running hotbed, and some amazing runners have come out of our high school ranks. This episode’s guests are no exception – with an added twist. Bobby Kiesewetter, from Golden View Academy, a Class 2A school in Golden understandably was very concerned when his airway would shut down while he was running, making it impossible to breathe. Perplexed doctors...

This is the type of adventure story you don’t get to hear about very often. You very likely know something about Alaska’s Iditarod Trail dog-sledding race, a grueling, multiday wilderness endurance test from Anchorage to Nome. Did you know that there is also a race where humans bike, ski, and run on the course? Leadville’s own Mitch Dulleck trained for months in the high Rockies and then attended...

Listing 285-pound defensive lineman or being the fifth-ranked high schooler in the nation in the discus on your resume aren’t typical prerequisites for running across America. But former big guy Mason Wright, who at 17 years old could bench press 450 pounds and squat 685 pounds will be doing exactly that, and not that “short” way, either. He won’t just run from one coast to the other, but from cor...

I first met Max Madorsky when the kids on my cross country team at Littleton H.S. invited me to join them at an all-you-can-eat sushi joint in the southern suburbs of Denver. They had invited along this guy who had this amazing capacity to shovel in food. This restaurant couldn’t have been too pleased seeing Max down eight plates of sushi all by himself. I happen to have a remarkable ability to co...

It’s always great to jumpstart a new year talking again with Dan Herman of Dan Herman Performance. We are past the so-called quit day after which many people’s resolutions have gone down the drain, so Dan and I talk about both setting goals as well as how to keep them going. The great thing about Dan is he how he can present ideas in relatable ways that are not just pulled out of a textbook, and p...

We are heading back Down Under for this episode to speak with a super-inspirational Aussie named Paul Jamieson, who at the age of 32 suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in a freak wakeboarding accident. He spent the following half a year in a hospital before being released to a rehab facility that for years basically had no hope for him and did little more than feed him puréed foods. Remarkab...

Let’s start off 2025 with someone who had a breakout 2024, and like the final episode of last year with Mary Denholm, in which there is a lot of great information from which to learn. I met the impressive Kat Edwards while on a mountain-climbing adventure with Tyler Andrews’ Chaski Endurance Collective in Chile’s Atacama Desert. This was the now-25-year-old’s first trip outside of the U.S., and in...

I thought it would be good to end the year with someone who had a mind-blowing 2024. Mary Denholm finished it off at the JFK 50-miler, where she was the second female with a time of 6:04:15, which was faster than the previous course record. Her summer in Leadville really stood out. She won the very difficult marathon under four hours. Due to the schedule shift this year, the Silver Rush 50-Mile wa...

It’s time for our annual tradition started by David of Sober F*cking Christmas.  As you may know, in his book Out There, David describes how on one Christmas Eve, on one of his usual stumbling drunk days before he got sober, he was attempting to wrap his kids’ Christmas gifts, but was so hammered that all he could do was crumple newspaper around them and bind it up with duct tape before passing ou...

Meghan Hunter was an eight-time state track champion in Utah at Provo High School, including 2018 when she swept titles in the 100, 200, 400, and 800 meters, an almost-unheard-of spread of talent. Her impressive times included a blazing state record of 52.59 seconds in the 400. She earned herself a berth on the U.S. Youth Olympics team and got to compete in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her natural pro...

I have one more great guest with an awesome story who ran the American Heroes Run this year. James Gaa completed 36 laps, or about 37 miles, of the 9 hour and 11 minute run. Pretty darn good for a guy who only began running a little more than a year prior. James had been primarily spending his time in the weight room before deciding to start to run in 2023, and has done so every day since. It’s la...

Just in time for Thanksgiving and the holidays, I am very excited to bring you this chat with Leah Garcés, the CEO of Mercy for Animals, which is promoting a campaign to Pardon a Turkey. The idea is to celebrate the holidays in a kinder way by sparing the life of a beautiful, intelligent animal, and instead substituting other delicious and healthy dishes. Tens of millions of turkeys are artificial...

Despite the beginning of more focus now on mental health, especially after the well-publicized battles that were brought forward by gymnast Simone Biles and tennis player Naomi Osaka, there is still a stigma for men to seek assistance, unless you count the omnipresent TV commercials by the affable, mustachioed Dr. Rich Mahogany for mantherapy.org Soleiman Bolour has tapped into his own journey to...