Western States 2026 Analysis | 10 Things I Couldn't Stop Thinking About
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 Stat...
29 Jun 28min
Trail Running Culture Doesn't Scale | Bob Crowley's Response
Western States and UTMB are often framed as opposite visions for the future of trail running. One protects through limits. The other protects through growth. But after publishing an episode on that te...
22 Jun 22min
Western States Wants to Protect, UTMB Wants to Grow
Western States and UTMB have become the two most influential institutions in trail running, but beneath the debate over lotteries, race series, and growth is a deeper question: when something becomes ...
19 Jun 17min
Wasatch 100 & Bear 100: When Ultra Running Just Hurts
Wasatch 100 and Bear 100 are two of the hardest races in ultra running. Michael Whiteside ran both just three weeks apart, and what stayed with me from this conversation wasn't the accomplishment. It ...
16 Jun 14min
The Trail Running Sea of Sameness | Nike ACG, Nostalgia, and the Cost of Optimization
Modern trail running shoes are better than they've ever been. So why do so many runners still find themselves drawn to older designs like the Nike ACG LDV?Josh and Inky use one nostalgic shoe to explo...
12 Jun 28min
Why Western States is America's Most Important Race | More than a Run
Western States 100 occupies a different place in trail running than almost any other race. Months before the starting gun, runners and fans are already studying the field, imagining the canyons, debat...
9 Jun 23min
Why Trail Running Hides Competition
Trail running culture loves winners. That's obvious. The sport builds documentaries about them, fills Instagram feeds with them, and spends months debating who will win Western States. But the more Jo...
4 Jun 17min
