We're starting something new in the Pain Cave this week. We love delving into the science of sport, but sometimes we just want to kick back with a couple of beers and be geeky ultra fans. We're going to try to dedicate an episode each month to the stories and athletes making headlines in our sport, recapping the big races, examining the storylines that are intriguing us, and looking forward to upcoming races we're excited about. For this project I've recruited my good friend, training partner, and beer aficionado Phil Vondra.
As this is the first one of these, we've got a lot of ground to cover. We start by recapping the Golden Ticket season, including Lake Sonoma (4:30), some under-the-radar stories from the GT series (12:30), and the performances that surprised us the most (16:00). After that, we discuss many of the biggest stories from the first few months of the season, including US runners dominating Tarawera (26:30), a disappointing Barkley Marathons (37:30), the "Kenyafornia" project (44:15), Camille Herron's early season (46:45), and some ultrarunners tackling a tough Boston Marathon (52:00), before we quickly preview some of the upcoming races we're excited about in the next month (54:45).
Links: The beer we drank during this episode
Phil's guest post on my blog last year
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale