You Said 100 Miles?

Live from Austin, TX, Bob debriefs Bandera with Jada Freer, Chris Prairie, and Darrick Hartman. They cover sotol cuts, the rocky Texas Hill Country sunset, a "hamburger feet" stranger pulled out of a dark place by conversation, and Chris's homemade Homer-bucket drop bag system. Plus practical tips on consistency, pace cards, and respecting the rules race directors fight to keep.

Bob and Sass reunite for what was always meant to be the end of the line — and it opens with an unhinged bit about future universities awarding Bob and Sass Studies PhDs. Bob recaps bonking hard at the Door County Fall 50, talks Bandera prep and an ill-fated salt strategy, while Sass plots her revenge on lap swimming for an upcoming snorkeling trip. A proper sign-off with the door cracked for what...

Kevin Jordan — Western States finisher, three-time Badger podium guy, and self-described ultra-running cryptid — stops by to talk about the races that didn't go to plan. Eastern States, the Swami Shuffle 220, and a recent Devil Dog DNF after ten straight 100-mile finishes. It's an honest look at how busted hamstrings, FOMO signups, and the body saying "no more" hit even the most experienced runner...

The first guest episode finally lands. Bob and Sass sit down with Shae Merritt — Vol State 500K finisher, two-time Badger 100 vet, and Painted Horse Urban Ultra race director — to swap stories from working the Orangeville aid station: bra-quesadillas, Malort shots, midnight margaritas, and gruesome blister triage. Plus a rant on UTMB at Whistler and a plug for showing up for independent race direc...

He did it. Bob recaps every gnarly, glorious mile of the Badger 100 — the blisters that bloomed at mile 10 and never quit, a seven-minute dirt nap in the grass, sleep-running while Paul held his hand, hallucinations of giant spiders, Roman aqueducts, and a friendly Pickle Man on the side of the trail. Thirty-plus hours later he crossed the line, collected an "Over 30 Hours" buckle that means more...

Three days out from the Badger 100. Bob walks through the whole plan: the binder he built for his crew (brother Mikey, pacer Paul, and Lindsay), the sweat tests that pegged him at 1.5 liters an hour, the three-bottle hydration scheme, the heel-and-big-toe taping job, and the mantra he's chosen — don't be a dummy in the first half, don't be a wimp in the second. Plus a long, honest riff on the mark...

Three weeks out from Badger, Bob recaps crewing and pacing his buddy Kevin Jordan at Western States — the giraffe-themed crew shirts, the Olympic-village pageantry, the 30-hour cutoff drama — then comes home to a tweaky ankle that wipes out his peak training week. Sass falls hard for vinyl records (blame Ten Junk Miles), and the two of them land somewhere unexpected: maybe running doesn't have to...

Heads up: this one goes deep. Bob covers the lighter stuff first — volunteering at Sugar Badger in a hot dog costume, pacing his buddy Paul at Kettle Moraine 100 — and then opens up about the trauma underneath the training: his daughter Izzy's NICU stay, an ADHD diagnosis that should have come decades earlier, and losing his mom to addiction. It's the "why" episode. Content warning for addiction,...

Bob unpacks the Ice Age 50K — a hilly Wisconsin trail race where he PR'd in 7:17 despite blowing his nutrition plan, walking three miles after a hard crash, and getting carried home by Bad Romance blasting at the start-finish. Then things get real: post-race nausea, a 10-minute wave of loneliness sitting alone on the ground, and a pretty honest conversation with Sass about weight, heat, and findin...

Sass got sick (again) and missed the 5K, so Bob bumped up to a half — and finally cracked the sub-two-hour barrier in teen-degree cold on a course that turned out to be a tenth long. Then he flew to Washington for a stupid-pretty rainforest 50K put on by a friend, took the ferry across Puget Sound, and rediscovered why timed races are just more fun. Plus: super shoes, BOAs, and why podiatrists evi...

A quieter month between races, but plenty to chew on: Bob lays out the build to Badger 100 — Ice Age 50K, a 5K with Sass, and the Wonderland Trail bucket-list daydream — while Sass figures out whether her back will let her line up at all. Then they hatch an extremely unserious psychological-warfare plan to beat a Coloradan named Gio at Badger, complete with hiding behind trees and shouting about h...

Bob's first winter ultra ended in a DNF — but for very different reasons than Tunnel Hill. He walks Sass through the required gear list (bivy, zero-degree bag, 3,000 untouched emergency calories), the warm-then-mushy snow that turned every step into a slog, and the moment around mile 11 when he asked himself why he was out there and didn't love the answer. Plus: pull-tire training, donut races, an...

Bob came to Tunnel Hill knocked down by flu, missing his bib, missing his tent stakes, missing a winter jacket — and missing sleep. He recaps how a brutal week, a forgotten salt-pill stash, and a hip and knee that quit at mile 43 turned a 100-mile goal into a DNF at mile 50. It's an honest postmortem on the dropped race, the decision he doesn't regret, and the badger-shaped target already on next...

Sixteen days from Tunnel Hill, Bob recaps a 40-minutes-faster Chicago Marathon, an unplanned 50 miles at Last Dot Standing, an overnight aid-station shift fueled by a half-cup of Malort and a Wisconsin fish fry, and the lonely last lap where he sang Hamilton to himself to stay sane. Sass has questions, foam-rolling confessions, and a healthy fear of the icy weeks ahead.

Two weeks out from the Chicago Marathon, Bob's body has been screaming for weeks and he finally finds out why: a routine physical, an unexpected anti-TPO blood test, and a fresh subclinical hypothyroidism diagnosis with hormone replacement starting today. He and Sass talk through what it means for Tunnel Hill, why a tired Adderall-fueled summer might've masked it, Sass's plantar fasciitis revenge...

Bob and Sass reconvene after the Christmas in July sufferfest to unpack a 21-hour, 100K death march through 86-degree heat and a dew point that refused to drop. Burger King at midnight, a near heat-stroke timeout, a lightning-chased final lap, and three big lessons about shoes, legs, and pacing. Plus: a full survey of the world's stupidest winter ultras, ending in talk of running across the frozen...

Sass is out, so Bob flies solo for a quick technical breakdown of Christmas in July: blisters by mile 30, a shoe-walk mismatch nobody warned him about, mid-90s heat with a dew point that wouldn't quit, and a final lap chased by lightning to clinch the 100K. A short, nerdy field report on what worked, what failed, and what's coming back to Tunnel Hill.

A 24-hour race called Christmas in July is three days out, the forecast is a brutal 90 degrees with possible rain, and Bob is packing four pairs of shoes and a copy of Fixing Your Feet. He and Sass dig into loop-course logistics, real-food fueling, the unexpectedly chill ultra crowd, and the bigger question pushing him to a hundred miles: how do you find the line between actually failing and just...

Bob signed up for the Tunnel Hill 100 in November and somehow has to train for it without losing his mind. He and Sass kick off the series by tracing how a guy who couldn't run two minutes in 2020 ended up registered for a hundred-mile race, the Brooks-to-Hoka shoe pipeline, why the ultra community is unreasonably nice to strangers, and the Relentless Forward Progress training plan that's about to...