Borderlands Trail and Ultra Running22 Dec 2025

The Speed Project: The Underground Race Changing Running

The Speed Project is one of the most unusual events in running—an unsanctioned, no-rules relay that sends teams roughly 340 miles from Los Angeles to Las Vegas (and now across Europe from Chamonix to Marseille). Josh sits down with founder Nils Arend on a rugby field in Albi, France at midnight to talk about how TSP began and why it has become something far bigger than a race.

What started as an extreme endurance challenge through desert heat, sleepless nights, and relentless miles has evolved into a powerful community. The conversation explores the origin story of The Speed Project, the transformations it sparks in participants, and how this underground event created a culture and identity that exists outside the traditional ultrarunning world.

For runners fascinated by the stories, people, and ideas pushing the edges of endurance.

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

Topics / Timestamps

00:00 The Birth of The Speed Project
06:04 Creating Moments Through Running
12:04 The Role of a Curator in Running
19:02 No Rules: A New Approach to Running
25:05 Building a Community Around The Speed Project
32:38 The Evolution of The Speed Project
37:39 Navigating Challenges and Responsibilities
43:57 Nils Would Have Ended TSP without Scotty Crowe
45:57 The Influence of Daniel Dart from Time Again
56:05 Runner's World and TSP

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Find us at Borderlands.cc and sign up for the newsletter.

Want to run in the Salt Lake area? Check out the Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races happening May 30, 2026.

And if you haven't checked out Wylder yet, it's worth a look. iOS or Android

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(326)

Ultrarunning: You Don’t Have to Be Good to Feel Strong

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...

29 Sep 23min

Anton Krupicka | Trail Running, Identity, and Ignoring Trends

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 wh...

22 Sep 24min

The Trail Races We Can’t Afford to Lose

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 w...

15 Sep 28min

"I Need Running to Stay Alive" | Inside the Compulsive Mind of Biel

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 ultra...

8 Sep 29min

UTMB Doesn’t Have a Fan Problem

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 i...

1 Sep 35min

Why the World’s Biggest Trail Race Happened in France

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 ...

22 Aug 39min

With Tara Dower | Built Different

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 capa...

20 Aug 40min

Karl Meltzer | Speedgoat, UTMB, and Trail Running’s Boom

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 h...

17 Aug 1h 2min