Alyssa Farrell took a spare entry a week after pacing a marathon and turned it into a win. At The Hennepin Hundred 50K on October 3, 2026, in her first ultra, she ran 3:33:16: first female and second overall out of 118 finishers. The next woman finished 55 minutes later. Alyssa tells John how the free entry happened, why running is the one time her ADHD brain "shuts the heck up," and how she sped up to 6:34 miles after dark because going faster felt better. Full episode next week.

Alyssa Farrell #WhyNotYou #UltraRunning #Hennepin50K #FirstUltra #TrailRunning

Alyssa Farrell took a spare entry a week after pacing a marathon and turned it into a win. At The Hennepin Hundred 50K on October 3, 2026, in her first ultra, she ran 3:33:16: first female and second overall out of 118 finishers. The next woman finished 55 minutes later. Alyssa tells John how the free entry happened, why running is the one time her ADHD brain "shuts the heck up," and how she sped up to 6:34 miles after dark because going faster felt better.

What's next for Alyssa?

• a 50-miler
• a trail race
• a backyard ultra
• a sub 3:00 Marathon@alyssafarrelll

#WhyNotYou #UltraRunning #Hennepin50K #FirstUltra #TrailRunning

***2026 World Champion 100K - TEAM USA WINS!!!

Davenport, Iowa ultrarunner Phil Young sits down with John OBrien to talk about what it takes to win 100 milers. He talks about why he's happy to build his season around "flat, fast, not sexy" races, and about the "what if" that keeps pulling him toward the front.

Phil's record on Ultra Signup: 33 finishes and 19 wins. He has won the Tunnel Hill 100 three times: 2021 (12:44:08), 2022 (13:32:49, the snow year) and 2025 (12:03:27). He finished second there in 2023 (12:27:36) and 2024 (12:48:45). He's a five-time Hennepin 50 Mile champion and won the Kettle Moraine 100K in 2022 and 2023. He also holds course records at the Runner's Flat 50K and the Lost Roads 28 Miler.

We recorded this before Tunnel Hill 2025. In it, Phil talks about wanting to break 12 hours. He went on to win the race in 12:03:27.

#Ultrarunning #TunnelHill100 #100Miler #TrailRunning #WhyNotYou

“What’s up, it’s me, and I am fully solo today. No co-host, no guests, just me, a microphone, and a foot that has been personally victimizing me for months.

First order of business: plantar fasciitis update. Yeah, it’s still a problem. I finally got the MRI. And because I know half of you have no idea what actually happens inside that giant metal tube, I’m going to break it down. Magnets. Radio waves. Your body basically getting scanned like it’s a suspicious package at the airport. Science is cool. My heel is not.

Then we’re talking race format. I’ve decided. Backyard Ultras are the move from here on out. One 4.167-mile loop. You start every hour on the hour. If you’re still standing, you go again. Spectators can actually sit in one spot and watch the whole damn thing. Crews don’t have to drive across three counties just to hand you a gel. It’s simple, it’s brutal, and you get a clear ‘still in / already dead’ update every 60 minutes. I’m done with the chaos. Loops only.

And then… the part some of you are going to hate. I talked about politics. Not candidates. Not parties. Not who you should vote for. I talked about the ads. The endless, soul-crushing, mailbox-stuffing, every-single-screen political ads that show up like a biblical plague the second an election gets close. How is this legal? How are we not all collectively losing our minds? I’m ranting. You’ve been warned.

That’s the episode. Injury science, backyard loop supremacy, and a full meltdown about political junk mail. Let’s get into it.”

He didn't finish Leadville the first time. His son made sure he remembered.

Curt Johnston went from a 225-pound 25-year-old to a Leadville finisher, but not without heartbreak along the way. In this episode, Curt shares:

- The linebacker friend's marathon that got him started, and why you should tell everyone your goal

- A fall at mile 8, a busted knee, and a DNF at Hope Pass

- Coming home to Pita Pit, and what his son Nick said at bedtime

-"If you go dark, you're done": sideways rain at 2 a.m., "give it 10 minutes," and a fellow runner's "Finish for me"

-The one secret he swears by: train really freaking hard

If Curt can go back and finish, why not you?

Hashtags: #leadville #ultrarunninglife #trailrunning #bixrun #whynotyou

Pat Miletich says he created the world champion he became, and he also created the alcoholic. Now 20 months sober, the Quad Cities fight legend gets brutally honest about the power of your own mind, for better and for worse.

In this conversation from April of 2025, Pat shares:

• The farm-tough mom who raised him alone, and the day he told her "You won the war in 1986"
• Training at 2 a.m. so his body was ready to fight in Japan
• The three voices in your head, and why you have to trust your intuition
• Hot sauce parenting, and the daughter who looked him in the eye and said "bring it"
• Why he thinks the future is healing the soil: 300 acres, not 3,000

I also share what it's like to run a backyard ultra, where there's no finish line, and what I saw when John Deere decided to become a tech company.

Raw, funny, and real, this one will make you rethink what you tell yourself every day. Why not you?

#PatMiletich #MMA #Sobriety #Mindset #WhyNotYou

Hear Mark talk about his win at the Wausau Limitless Backyard Ultra - his strategy to "break" the last runner. He's always been super competitive and when you have that competitive mind set combined with a plan, a strategy and his consistency, it's going to work! He is a prime example of putting in the work and getting the results but with laser focus. He just "WON" the Bigs Backyard Ultra World Championships for TEAM USA with 107 yards = 445 miles...basically ran for 4.5 days straight.

If you want to get a good idea of what this full episode is and don't have a lot of time, here are the best sound bites from it.

1 Her ultimatum got me running again 6:08 55s

2 What if a race fee stopped them? 8:17 35s

3 I never deployed. It still hurt. 22:18 42s

4 Go to the VA. Let them tell it. 23:02 29s

5 1,500 applications. One car wash job. 36:52 29s

6 Rule #1: Don't quit in the dark 54:50 44s

7 One bad night doesn't define you 1:15:24 54s

8 A high five got her to the finish 1:24:20 38s