Borderlands Trail and Ultra Running

Trail running is professionalizing fast. The athletes are getting faster, the performances more extraordinary, and the gap between elite and everyday runners keeps widening. But while we're building a professional sport, are we building a culture of fans?

At the first ANALOG Live in Salt Lake City, Josh Rosenthal makes the case for celebrating trail runners like the rock stars they are. From showing up two hours early to an empty Western States starting line in 2019 to discovering an unlikely connection to founder Wendell Robie, Josh tells the story of how a simple idea became a live show built around the people who entertain us more than actors or musicians.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Resources / Links

• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Borderlands.cc

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Trail running is growing, but who gets to feel like they belong? Vivek Gowri, owner of San Francisco Running Company, believes the future of the sport depends on more people being able to see themselves in it. And he's using a running store to do something about it.

Presented by Kiprun.

Vivek works at NVIDIA and owns one of the Bay Area's most beloved running stores. We talk about why he bought a business he already loved, what Ben Dhiman's historic UTMB victory meant to him as an Indian runner, and how a women's trail race with a $25,000 prize purse reflects his ambitions for the sport. Underneath it all is a question about what we're responsible for when we love something enough to want to change it.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 00:00 Why representation matters
• 01:39 Buying San Francisco Running Company
• 09:29 Who belongs in trail running?
• 20:02 Building a business around community
• 22:03 Rethinking women's trail racing
• 28:26 What trail running needs to change
• 33:45 What must never change

Resources / Links

• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Borderlands.cc

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Dylan Bowman has spent much of his life in trail running, first as a professional athlete and now as the founder of Freetrail, one of the sport's most influential media platforms. But what happens when the thing you love becomes the thing you're responsible for building? And how do you know whether the sacrifices have been worth it?

[Long Live the Local Ultra | Nov 1 | Salt Lake City]

Presented by Kiprun.

Josh sits down with Dylan at San Francisco Running Company for a conversation about ambition, identity, and the complicated relationship between running and the business of running. They get into the personal and financial cost of building Freetrail, the pressure of becoming a prominent voice in the sport, the strange world of trail running memes, and where professional trail running might be headed. Somewhere in all of it is a guy who's accomplished a lot and is still figuring out what success looks like.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

Thumbnail photo: Ryan Thrower

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 00:00 — Cold Open: Was It Worth It?
• 02:20 — Dylan's Complicated Relationship With Running
• 10:23 — The Personal and Financial Cost of Freetrail
• 15:42 — Ambition, Competition, and the Inner Critic
• 23:41 — Building Freetrail Into an Institution
• 29:56 — Influence, Responsibility, and the Future of Trail Running
• 40:48 — The Future of Professional Trail Running
• 46:35 — Backyard Ultras, Barkley, and What Defines the Sport

Resources / Links

• Freetrail
• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Josh Rosenthal on IG
• Borderlands.cc

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Ultrarunning gives ordinary people a rare place to feel strong, capable and tested. You don’t have to be elite, or even particularly good at it, to experience that. I know because I’ve DNF’d plenty of 100 milers, and when I finally finished Zion 100, I was the last guy across the line.

Watching The Rookie with my son made me realize why that feeling matters so much. As adults, most of us lose the arenas where we get to find out what we’re made of. Maybe ultrarunning is one of the last ones we have left.

Presented by Kiprun.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 00:00 You Don’t Have to Be Good at Ultrarunning
• 01:03 What The Rookie Made Me Realize
• 03:46 Adults Lose the Arena
• 06:16 Stepping Back Into the Arena
• 12:26 Finishing the Zion 100
• 16:31 The Dignity of Ultrarunning
• 20:17 Long Live the Local Ultra

Resources / Links

• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Borderlands.cc

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Anton Krupicka has spent two decades becoming something harder to define than a trail runner. This conversation is about how that happened, why he stopped caring about fitting the sport’s mold, and what it looks like to keep evolving without chasing relevance.

We talk about the injury that changed his relationship with running, the move toward scrambling and climbing, his influence on trail culture, the Leadville comeback, and why La Sportiva still makes sense for the athlete he is now. More than anything, it’s Anton on identity, aging, design, and trying to stay the peak version of yourself without pretending you’re still who you were ten years ago.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 00:00 Anton Krupicka on why trends don't matter
• 01:30 From trail runner to mountain man
• 03:52 When the whole landscape opened up
• 08:24 Identity, trends, and trail running culture
• 16:45 The Leadville 100 comeback
• 21:12 The peak version of yourself

Resources / Links

• Unbreakable | Western States Film
• Anton's 2021 Leadville Race
• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Borderlands.cc

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

• Watch on YouTube
• Read on Substack

Trail running is growing fast, but what happens to the races that don’t scale cleanly? After spending one night volunteering at the Wasatch 100 and the next day at a brand-new UTMB race, I came away wondering whether the messy, human parts of ultra running are exactly the parts we can’t afford to lose.

Pacers, old-timers, exhausted volunteers, DNFs, polished finish lines, UTMB, and the strange ways a race becomes more than a race. This isn’t an argument for grassroots over corporate. It’s about why trail running needs both, what each is uniquely good at, and what disappears when every race starts looking the same.

Presented by Kiprun.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 2:22 Races like Wasatch fill the human spirit.
• 6:09 I love ultrarunning pacer culture.
• 10:29 Someone else’s problem becomes mine.
• 14:55 The back of the pack is where I come alive.
• 16:52 Wasatch rewards staying.
• 22:04 You can’t manufacture heritage.
• 26:21 The fragile one is not the one I thought.

Resources / Links

• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Borderlands.cc

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Ultrarunning rewards people who can keep going. Biel makes you wonder what happens when stopping no longer feels like an option, and where ambition ends and compulsion begins.

Biel is a Brazilian ultrarunner, Speed Project athlete, tattoo artist and printmaker living in Berlin. He has represented Brazil at the 24-Hour World Championships and set records from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Chamonix to Marseille. But the more interesting story is the force connecting his face tattoos, his art and the extreme experiences he says he needs to stay alive.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:27 Face Tattoos, Identity + Freedom
• 05:17 Why Ultrarunning Keeps Biel Alive
• 07:19 TSP | Chamonix-to-Marseille Record
• 10:59 24-Hour Racing x The Speed Project
• 13:07 A Perfect Fit for Biel
• 18:40 From Nightclub Cleaner to Pro Runner
• 22:48 Art + Life Beyond Running
• 27:39 Beyond Records + Limits

Resources / Links

• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Borderlands.cc
• Additional photo courtesty of Tycjan Trzpioloa

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

UTMB is the center of trail running for one week every year, and somehow the people most frustrated by it keep showing up. After a week in Chamonix, I came home thinking the problem with hating UTMB is that the race keeps complicating the argument against it.

The fan experience is better than the criticism suggests, TDS might be the hardest race of the week, the women are racing with ego, and some of the most interesting parts of UTMB have almost nothing to do with racing. Ten observations from inside the chaos, including what brands keep getting wrong, what Chamonix reveals about status in trail running, and why everyone should be reading Raz Rauf.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

Presented by Kiprun.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:36 The Critics Are at UTMB
• 08:12 UTMB Doesn’t Have a Fan Problem
• 12:24 TDS Might Be the Hardest Race at UTMB
• 16:26 The DNSs Aren’t About Professionalization
• 20:38 The Women Are Racing With Ego
• 24:57 UTMB Isn’t Just About Running
• 28:20 The Ultimate UTMB Flex Is Not Needing Chamonix
• 30:34 Brands: Embrace the Chaos
• 32:21 Read Raz Rauf. Read Running Sucks.
• 35:45 Limiting Brand Activations Made UTMB Better - The Chamonix Mayor was Right

Resources / Links

• Like the Wind | Run Culture Live
• Running Sucks - Raz Rauf
• Borderlands.cc

Related Episodes

• Cocodona Has a Fan Problem

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

UTMB is the biggest trail race in the world, but why did it happen in France? The easy answer is Mont Blanc. The better answer has more to do with culture, timing, and the kind of endurance tradition that was already there long before UTMB existed.

Josh talks with Doug Mayer, founder of Run the Alps and author of The Race That Changed Running, about the deeper conditions that made UTMB possible, from old mountain races and ski mountaineering to the Pellettis’ execution and the way places like Vallorcine turned the race into something people gather around, not just run.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Resources / Links

• Run the Alps
• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Josh Rosenthal on IG
• Borderlands.cc
• Subwhatever

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Ultra running rewards obsession, but Tara Dower seems wired for something beyond results. She wants to solve hard problems, chase the best competition, run faster, and keep finding out what she’s capable of.

Tara joins me to talk Western States, her planned Pacific Coast Trail attempt, why she hasn’t raced UTMB, learning from Karl Meltzer, and her evolution with Altra from the Lone Peak to the new Vanish Carbon 3. Underneath it all is a bigger question: as Tara becomes one of the defining athletes of modern ultra running, what parts of herself does she want to keep?

For ultra runners interested in the people shaping where the sport goes next.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

This episode is in partnership with Altra for the release of its new super road shoe the Vanish Carbon 3 - a light, responsive, and efficient race day shoe made for PRs.

Topics / Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:54 Tara Dower Has Always Been Stubborn
• 07:07 The Problem Solving Mind of Tara Dower
• 09:06 Results vs. A Life of Interesting Running
• 13:38 Why Tara Dower Hasn't Raced UTMB
• 17:54 The Problem with Pro Trail Running
• 20:07 Why Ultrarunners Want to Run Fast | Altra Vanish Carbon 3
• 30:31 What Speedgoat Taught Tara
• 36:40 What Tara Dower Wants Her Legacy to Be

Resources / Links

• Altra Vanish Carbon 3
• Tara Dower Lives Between Two Worlds by Bryce Carlson
• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Borderlands.cc
• Thumbnail Photo by Pete Schreiner

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Trail running has exploded into a global business, and Karl Meltzer somehow ended up at the center of it. HOKA turned his Speedgoat nickname into one of trail running’s defining shoes, Red Bull paid him to chase the Appalachian Trail record, and UTMB eventually bought the race he created.

Karl came up when ultrarunning was tiny and has watched the money, brands, athletes, and races transform around him. Josh and Karl talk about the strange experience of becoming valuable to an industry that barely existed when he started, selling Speedgoat to UTMB, his relationship with HOKA, and what someone who has lived through the entire boom thinks about where trail running goes from here.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Resources / Links

• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Borderlands.cc
• La French Trail

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Ultrarunning eventually becomes a mental problem. The body hurts, the race stops going to plan, and the question becomes what the best ultrarunners understand about continuing when quitting makes sense.

Harvey Lewis has spent 30 years figuring that out. In part two of our conversation in Ohio, we get into the mental strategies behind Backyard Ultra, why different races require different mindsets, the failures that changed how Harvey competes, and what decades of Badwater, journey runs, and 200-milers have taught him about going farther than he thought possible.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Thumbnail photo by Romain Mayambi

Topics / Timestamps

• 00:00 Harvey Lewis Intro
• 01:15 The Mental Game of Ultrarunning
• 10:47 Learning How Not to Quit
• 14:06 Different Mindsets for Different Races
• 16:55 Pilgrimages and Journey Runs
• 23:31 What Failure Taught Harvey Lewis
• 30:33 What the Best Ultrarunners Understand

Resources / Links

•
• Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
• Borderlands.cc
• High Tones

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Harvey Lewis is one of ultrarunning’s most accomplished endurance athletes, but the more interesting question might be how a high school civics teacher from Ohio became capable of doing any of this. Badwater, Backyard Ultras, Barkley, 250-mile runs. Harvey has built an extraordinary career without making running his entire life.

I spent a morning with Harvey at his home in Ohio, days before his 16th consecutive Badwater, trying to understand what makes Harvey Harvey. We talk about the dreamer and engineer he inherited from his parents, the teachers who changed his life, how running and teaching grew together, and why the hardest races have become something closer to pilgrimages.

The conversation ends somewhere more personal, with Harvey remembering the person he still imagines waiting for him when things get hard.

Thumbnail photo by Romain Mayambi

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 2:17 Harvey Lewis' Origins
• 6:33 Harvey Lewis' Parents: The Dreamer and the Engineer
• 18:39 Running and Teaching
• 30:59 Running as Pilgrimage

Resources / Links

• TINAR Race Series | Register
• Borderlands.cc
• La French Trail
• Subwhatever

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Ciele helped change what running looked like, but the more interesting story is what sat underneath the aesthetic. This episode is for runners curious about how a hat brand became part of running culture without losing the product discipline that made it credible in the first place.

What began as a film about Ciele turned into a deeper look at the rise of running as lifestyle, the influence of skate and snow culture, and the unreleased Miles hat that existed before Ciele had its name. Along the way, a portrait emerges of a brand whose visual identity was copied everywhere, while the craft, function, and ethos behind it were much harder to replicate.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Resources / Links

• Watch the Ciele doc on YouTube
• Josh Rosenthal on IG
• Borderlands.cc
• La French Trail
• Subwhatever

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

The Satisfy x Adidas collaboration became one of the loudest moments in running, but almost none of the conversation was about the shoe. It became a fight over price, fashion, authenticity, and what running culture is supposed to protect.

Josh and Inky Steve look at what the collaboration actually did, why Adidas seemed to gain all the upside while Satisfy absorbed the backlash, and what the circle pit revealed about how tribal running has become.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Resources / Links

• Borderlands.cc
• La French Trail
• Subwhatever

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Trail running in the Midwest looks different. No mountain towns. No towering peaks. Just a different kind of commitment. On the drive to Harvey Lewis's house, Josh and Sam Hartman explore what it means to build a trail running culture in flat country, and why some of the sport's deepest communities exist far from the places most runners imagine.

Sam Hartman, founder of TINAR Races in Columbus, Ohio, argues that community matters more than scenery, why Midwest trail runners develop a different relationship with the sport, and how trail running becomes part of your identity when getting to the trails takes intention. It's a conversation about place, belonging, and a side of trail running that deserves far more attention.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Resources / Links

• TINAR - Alley Trail Classic
• Borderlands.cc

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Hardrock 100 gave aging trail runners something many of us didn't realize we needed: hope. Ludovic Pommeret broke the course record at 50. Courtney Dauwalter won again and still walked away chasing something more. If you've ever wondered whether your best running is behind you, this conversation is for that part of you.

Josh reads Bryce Carlson's essay Hardrock 100 in real time, stopping throughout to explore why Hardrock rewards wisdom as much as fitness, why experience compounds in endurance sports, and why the stories we tell ourselves about getting older might be our biggest limitation.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 00:00 The Unexpected Gifts of Hard Rock
• 02:29 The Significance of Ludovic Pommeret's Wisdom as Performance
• 06:21 Stripping Away Excuses and Embracing Aging in Running
• 08:20 Ludovic Pomerret’s Record at 50
• 09:39 Courtney Dauwalter’s Continued Excellence
• 15:00 The Field Size and Competition Dynamics
• 17:48 Remarkable Feats: Tara Dower’s Double
• 22:37 Age as an Accumulation of Wisdom

Resources / Links

• Bryce's article
• Borderlands.cc
• La French Trail
• Subwhatever

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

HOKA has become one of the few running brands to cross into culture without losing credibility with runners. If you're building a brand, launching new products, or wondering how companies grow without abandoning what made them special, this conversation is for you.

Thomas Cykana and Travis Wiseman pull back the curtain on HOKA's collaboration strategy, why they refuse to make "toy shoes," and how fashion found HOKA before HOKA ever chased fashion. It's a conversation about culture, product, trust, and the surprisingly human decisions behind one of running's fastest-growing brands.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

00:00

Resources / Links

• Borderlands.cc
• La French Trail
• Subwhatever

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running
• John Ruben, founder of Unna

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

For the first time in months, I'm stepping away from interviews and monologues for a Borderlands Trail Running founder update.

By the time this episode goes live, my family and I will be somewhere over the Atlantic, leaving Paris after two years and moving back to Salt Lake City. I came to France thinking I was building one thing and left building another. I'm leaving with a much bigger vision for what Borderlands can become.

In this monologue, I share what changed during our time in Paris, the mission that continues to guide Borderlands, where I want the company to be over the next month, year, and decade, and how everything we're building fits together.

In this episode

• Why Paris changed the way I think about media, culture, and Borderlands
• The mission behind Borderlands: The Heart of Trail Running
• One-month, one-year, and ten-year visions for the company
• Why Borderlands is expanding beyond podcasts
• The role of the website, newsletter, documentaries, YouTube, live events, Arcade, and Live on Course
• The contributors helping shape Borderlands, including Bryce Carlson, Inky Steve, Stan Van Kimmel, Christian Brecheis, and others
• A look at where Borderlands is headed next

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Resources / Links

• 8 Bit Trail Running | Arcade
• Live on Course [LoC]
• Borderlands.cc
• La French Trail
• Subwhatever

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Western States 2026 is over. The course records have been set, the winners crowned, and the internet has already moved on. This isn't another race recap. It's a cultural breakdown of what Western States revealed about trail running, its media, and where the sport is headed next.

From Dylan Bowman becoming the voice of trail running, to Hans Troyer's fearless pacing, to why Thomas Cardin exposed a storytelling gap, Josh shares the ten ideas he couldn't stop thinking about after the biggest weekend in trail running. Along the way, he asks whether Western States has outgrown its broadcast and why the next frontier isn't better cameras, but better context.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

• 01:05 Dylan Bowman is the Voice of Trail Running/Racing
• 04:10 The Broadcast Knows Where Everyone Is
• 09:05 We Don't Care About Places, We Care About Stories
• 11:38 We Interviewed the Wrong People
• 16:14 Whose Job is it to Find Tomorrow's Stories?
• 20:21 Hans is the Rabbit I Was Asking For
• 21:53 American Men Ran it Like Old Days at UTMB
• 22:46 The Race has Outgrown the Broadcast
• 26:23 The Next Frontier

Resources / Links

• 8 Bit Trail Running
• Borderlands.cc
• Subwhatever

Related Episodes

• Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack