The Pain Cave

There was a reading assignment for this show…naturally, Phil couldn’t be bothered to do any actual work, so I had the great pleasure of speaking with Doug Mayer about his new book, The Race That Changed Running: The Inside Story of UTMB, out TODAY! An American expat living full-time in Chamonix, Doug works as a journalist and runs his own tour guide company, Run the Alps. The n

Rich Lockwood has been a mainstay on the PNW trail-running scene for several years, but he grabbed the national spotlight in 2022 with a string of world-class performances, capped by a win at the uber-competitive Run Rabbit Run 100 and a podium spot an the Doi Inthanon 100K (by UTMB, blah blah blah) in his first international event. We caught up with Rich after last month’s retur

Many of you may not know about Chad Lasater, but you should. He’s the current champion of the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning (having finished the GS in both 2021 and 2022) and after a breakthrough performance at Desert Solstice (his first real 24-hour race) he is currently in position for a spot on the US team for the World Championships this fall. We recorded this in late 2022, shor

Happy New Year! Sneaking in our traditional year-end pod under the wire, my favorite episode every year, debating the Ultrarunners of the Year with recurring guest Jason Mintz, who battled through COVID and came to PLAY! Tons of consensus this year but also some pretty good debate. Phil and I both completely fucked up and somehow both left Matthieu Blanchard out of our top 10, whic

It took us way too long to have Beastcoast star Riley Brady on the pod. For some reason we waited until they’re getting ready to move to Boulder (like everyone else!) to invite them on. Fresh off a Golden Ticket-winning performance at the Javelina Jundred, Riley joined the show to talk about competition in the sport, The King, karaoke, and much more. Links:Follow Riley on IG Beer

It’s always a little scary to double the amount of Brits on the show, but it couldn’t have been easier with Pete Mortimer, one of the most accomplished and prolific athletes in our sport today. We talked about some of Pete’s most recent exploits at HURT, Run Rabbit, and Barkley, before tackling all-important questions about hashing, Metallica, and (of course) Marmite. Links:P

Despite being only 36, Sabrina Little has been running ultras for over fifteen years. She won the famed Old Dominion 100 mile at only 23 years old; by the time she was 26, she held American records for 24 hours and 200K, and led the US women to a team gold medal with her runner-up finish at the 24-hour world championships. Now with a PhD in philosophy, Sabrina is one of the leading

Oh, dear listener, did we have a podcast for you. Recorded in beautiful Dolby surround sound, it was full of ultra musings, information, insights, wit, beer, witbeer, and other hilarity. We talked about UTMB, Leadville, various other goings on. Yes, it had been a while since we podded, but no matter! It was like riding a proverbial bicycle. Truly, a podcast for the ages. That was o

The Legend returns to the Pain Cave to recap Western States with “Heat Training,” breaking down the juiciest storylines and biggest takeaways from this past weekend in Auburn. Then, we review our men’s and women’s picks and see who was the best prognosticator this year. Finally, we get Phil’s report from his PR at Manitou’s Revenge and touch on the rest of the results f

One more episode to drop into the pre-Western States hype maelstrom: we sit down with former podium finisher Brittany Peterson, one of the world’s best trail runners and one the pre-race favorites this weekend at the Big Dance, for our world-famous 20 Questions. Links:Brittany’s websiteBrittany on IG and Strava “Beer” for this episode: Synergy Raw Kombucha Unity Intro music