​Lauren Jones recently spent 4 1/2 days trying to run the 350 mile Pinhoti trail faster than anyone ever had. She came up short, but the story she tells about the experience is not a story of loss. In fact, it's quite the opposite. 

When I recently ran the Georgia Jewel 35-miler (37ish miles in this COVID altered addition), I had no idea I was sharing the trail with a former Georgia Bulldog offensive lineman. Only Watts Dantzler was tackling a much longer race that day than I was.

15 years ago, Whitney Richman watched a friend finish the Chicago Marathon. She thought to herself, hey, I can do that. 

The next year she did. And the running accomplishments have piled up ever since. 

I love this conversation with Whitney. We talk about her recent fastest know time finishes on Richmond's Capital trail - both the 52 miles one way and then a couple of months later the 104 mile both ways run. 

Whitney decided to tackle the capital trail records after training for races that were eventually cancelled because of COVID safety measures. Whitney said: 

“When you invest so much training and time into achieving a goal, time that you spent away from your kids and family, you need to feel like it was worth it.”

In this conversation we talk about Whitney's love for the ultra community, how they have an "it takes a village" mentality about them. 

Whitney gives us some advice on how to manage the self talk that is always trying to talk us out of becoming our best selves. Whitney shares how running can actually become our best form of therapy. 

We talk about how running impacts our ability to make quick and confident decisions. She jokes that her husband is still picking out paint colors while she's moved on to the next project. We all have different decision making processes. We question whether the ultra runners decision making style works for or against us in the long run. 

Whitney previews her upcoming Rim to River 100 mile Ultra on November 7 - I'm fired up to follow her on this journey. You can read more about that race here: Rim to River 100

Read more about Whitney's Capital Trail record runs here: Record Setting Run on the Capital Trail

You can download this episode of the Running4Soles podcast at Podbean, iTunes or listen to it on Spotify.

​Shortly after I completed my 37 mile Georgia Jewel ultramarathon, I read a post Meg Landymore shared on the race Facebook page and I knew I wanted to interview her. Meg actually won the female division of the 50-mile race.

​She wrote this:

I wasn't far into my recent Georgia Jewel race when I heard footsteps coming up from behind me. Then I heard a voice, "are you Mr. Keith?"

Hearing myself referred to as "Mr. Keith" made me instantly feel like an old man. When I turned and saw how young the man was from where those words came, I felt like I should probably be spending the day in a nursing home and not out on the trails of the Georgia Jewel.
​
The young man was David Kauffman. It turns out he and his wife Mary Ann were running their first ultramarathon. David told me that in preparing for their race he had listened to my podcast conversations about the Jewel. He specifically pointed out how inspired he was by the one I recorded about my Georgia Jewel failure.

​​As one of the precautionary measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, all running events have been cancelled. This is the story of a young lady, who in partnership with her 7 year old son, created her own races.

​Together they ran and they taught and they learned and they inspired. They did this 100 miles at a time, in their back yard and in their house and going up and down the stairs in that house - thousands of times. 

​Back in November of 2018, I interviewed Soles4Souls CEO, Buddy Teaster. In many ways, it's the most influential interview I've ever had on this podcast. You can listen to that first episode here: 

An Interview With Ultra Runner And Soles4Souls CEO, Buddy Teaster.

In the aftermath of talking to Buddy, I did become more interested in ultra running. We talked extensively about him running his first mile in the little town of Ashland, Virginia, where I live, and how that blossomed into 100 mile races all over the country. 

More importantly, though, I became committed to supporting the organization he leads. ​

​In this interview, Greg Armstrong says,

Several years ago, I came across a story about a local woman who was running 100 miles to raise money for college scholarships for the high school students she was teaching. When I sat down to talk with Kate Fletcher about that run, I had no idea how much her words and her life and her friendship would come to impact me. 

When I interviewed Harvey Lewis, Greg Armstrong and Gene Dykes prior to the Quaratine Backyard Ultra, I had no idea how big this event would turn out to be. 

I underestimated just how many ultra runners out there were missing races cancelled in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Over 2000 runners eventually registered for the event. Many more thousands followed it online.