This week’s Run Your Mouth is a little different – To celebrate 3 years and 50 episodes, we have a special bonus “Inside the Podcast” edition. The “guest” is host David Melly, and frequent co-hosts Dana Giordano and Ben Bosworth interview David about the story behind the podcast, from its origins to its most controversial moments to its best and worst episodes.
David shares the inside scoop on his favorite guests, what it felt like to become a target of Internet harassment, and how he reacted when Meb Keflezighi crashed his birthday Zoom. Enjoy this episode with a lot of never-before-shared tidbits, or celebrate RYM’s third birthday with a journey through the back catalogue.
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This week’s guest is pro triathlete and elite runner Morgan Pearson. Morgan is a graduate of the University of Colorado and one of the founding members of Tinman Elite who now has his sights set on representing the U.S. at the 2021 Olympics in the triathlon. We talked a bunch about the unique quirks of triathlon training, how it feels when he does come back to running and beat a bunch of pros, his hot takes on social media, and of course, the origin of the nickname “heartthrob.”
On training mostly solo: “I kinda had this breakthrough after college when I was training more by myself… it wasn’t like I was a better runner or more fit, but I think I was doing the workouts more properly for me, but I also think there’s that mental aspect. Training by yourself – that’s hard. Doing an 18-mile long run by yourself… there’s no way around it. That’s hard. You’re going to be ready to race as a result.”
On balancing commitment with levity: “I can be serious about training 5 hours a day, but I can also laugh at myself. I’m killing myself to do this, but it’s really not that important in the grand scheme of things. It’s great to be able to motivate and inspire people, but I don’t need to be so serious about the time. I can still have fun and laugh and poke fun at myself and poke fun at other people.”
On social media’s role in running: “If it gets people into running or excited about the sport, that’s great, I’m all for it. But let’s not make the goal ‘have followers on social media.’ Let’s make the goal ‘break 4 in the mile,’ or ‘qualify for Olympic Trials,’ or whatever you’re trying to do. Let’s never forget the best parts of running.”
This week’s guest is Heather MacLean of New Balance Boston. Heather is a Massachusetts native and graduate of UMass Amherst who’s burst onto the scene in her first few years as a pro, running 4:05 in the 1500 and 2:00 in the 800 this year despite limited racing opportunities.
We talked about the importance of shaping your own narrative, what makes pro running in Boston special, and much more (Dunkin’! Tiktok! Relationship tips!) in a fun and wide-ranging episode. Heather has a fascinating and unique perspective and you’re sure to enjoy this episode.
On the benefits of training in Boston:
“We have a unique opportunity where our coaches don’t mind working together, so a lot of the time the coaches of the running groups in Boston are working together [….] these are the people we’re going to be racing on the elite level, so by learning from each other and working together we become better athletes. It makes our teams really unique in the sense that we’re able to recognize the value in working with other groups and it makes us all stronger.”
On balancing the personal and professional in social media:
“I definitely struggle with that a lot. In this day and age, especially in our sport, it’s great to build a brand for yourself, but it’s a give and take. You have to sell a little bit of yourself in order to build that brand. It take a lot of effort, a lot of energy, and you have to just make sure it’s not taking aware from your work and mental health day to day.”
On storytelling within running:
“I think it’s great to recognize the different stories within our community, and sometimes that’s not done enough. Athlete’s in this sport don’t necessarily have a narrow path to what they’re doing now, and we should let more people tell their full story.”
This week’s guest is another Marathon Project alum, Emma Bates! In another crossover episode with the Citius Mag podcast, we sat down (virtually) with Emma to talk about her race, the lessons she’s learned in 2020, her goals for 2021, and a few more silly topics like her favorite album of the year and why she prefers tacos to burritos.
Emma is a 2:25 marathoner who runs for ASICS and the Idaho Distance Project. She’s also an NCAA champ in the 10k and an accomplished runner on all surfaces, including cross-country and the roads. This episode was candid, funny, serious at times, and a lot of fun! I definitely think you’ll enjoy it.
Our second Marathon Project guest this week is Mick Iacofano, an Ohio native and graduate of the University of Kentucky who competes with the Idaho Distance Project out of Boise and this weekend made a big splash by finishing 7th at the Marathon Project in a four-minute personal best of 2:09:55.
Mick spoke candidly about his long and bumpy journey with the marathon, beginning with a frustrating end to his college career and full of significant setbacks despite his promise at longer distances. We also talked about the surprise of running an “accidental” sub-2:10 and how Mick managed to exceed even his own highest expectations.
Alongside co-hosts and Kentucky alumi Gabe Harm and Zack Beavin, we also covered beer miles, bartending, and making mistakes in college alongside all the standard Run Your Mouth content. This revealing and, frankly, inspirational episode is full of great moments and we hope you enjoy this before your holiday!
This week we have another great crossover episode with the Citius Mag podcast, and our guest is Martin Hehir of the Reebok Boston Track Club. Marty was a guest on the pod way back in 2018 and he returns after his big victory at this weekend’s Marathon Project, where he ran a new personal best of 2:08:59 to become the 7th-fastest American of all time.
We asked Marty about his race this weekend, his preparation coming off the Olympic marathon trials, and how he balances training with medical school and taking care of two young daughters. A lot of great insight into a really impressive guy!
This week’s guest is Danielle Shanahan of HOKA Northern Arizona Elite. Dani is a California native and graduate of Loyola Marymount University who joined NAZ Elite in 2018 and has a personal best of 15:26 in the 5000. Last weekend, she had a huge breakthrough race at the Sound Running Track Meet, setting a personal best of over a minute to run 31:22 in the 10,000 and get the Olympic Standard.
We talked about that wild race in depth in this episode, as well as what it felt like to join a big pro group coming out of a small college experience and how chasing her teammates got her to that next level. We also talked about the new season of The Mandalorian, our Christmas lists, and way more.
On her expectations going into last week’s race: “I knew it was there, and I had trained for it, and I did go into it feeling like I was in shape to run what I ran, but I knew I would have to have an A++ day to run the standard.”
On the bar being set high by her NAZ teammates: “The bar is here, and it is very high. It was a big switch this fall; I was like ‘I know what I need to do. I need to start believing in myself that I belong here’ – not only on this team but as a competitor in the professional running world.”
On the best albums of 2020: “I listened to Phoebe Bridgers’s Punisher on repeat when I was injured and sad during this summer… It’s just a mood. It’s a ‘gray and misty outside, and I just want to sit in my feels’ kind of album.”
This week’s guest is Zack Beavin, a marathoner and blossoming ultra runner from Lexington, Kentucky who last weekend set the U.S. #4 all-time mark at 50 miles at the Tunnel Hill 50 miler in Illinois, running 5:03:06 to shatter the course record and run the fastest off-road 50 miler on North American soil.
Zack is an accomplished runner at all distances having run 2:18 in the marathon and competed at the 2020 Olympic Trials as well as running collegiately for the University of Kentucky. He came on the podcast with cohost and crew member Sam Day to talk about his race, how he found ultras, and more. He also happens to be dating host David Melly, so they talked a bit about that toward the end of the episode as well.
On the toughest part of the Tunnel Hill 50:
“Fun fact: things get a lot harder after 30ish miles. I was insanely confident at 30, but once I was going up the hill [at mile 33] I started going about 20 seconds a mile slower. I had 4 more miles uphill to the next aid station and all I had was the little water bottle with 1 gel with me and I was like, ‘this is scary.’ At the aid station at 37 I was losing vision… but it got better from there.”
On being drawn to long distances:
“Coming out of college, I was just so excited to have the yoke of college training thrown off. I felt like a free man. That summer, my family was out in Eugene to watch the Trials and we took a trip to Crater Lake and I realized it was 31 miles around and I just decided to run it. I did it, and I super-duper hurt myself doing it… but I had such a fun time doing it and it was honestly like a borderline spiritual experience, being out there for 3 hours, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is awesome. This is what I want to do.’”
On moving permanently to ultras – or not:
“Even if I do continue full-on into the ultra stuff, part of my training cycle for this was training the least specific physiology for the event first, which for me was VO2 Max stuff [….] I think that just kick-started my confidence leading into the 50-mile training – if I was almost in mile PR shape and just rolled into 50-mile shape, it made 5:40s and 6:00 pace feel like a walk. So I don’t anticipate leaving that stuff behind any time soon, especially while I’m still young enough to have it.”
This week we’re joined by three members of District Track Club, the professional group based in Washington D.C. and northern Virginia. Willy Fink is a 13:17 5k runner and graduate of Eastern Michigan University and Jacob Dumford is a 3:59 miler and graduate of Notre Dame, and they brought along their coach, Tom Brumlik, as well. The idea for this podcast came about when Willy recently pointed out on social media that there is an impressive crop of elite milers from the state of Ohio, with 10 active runners who’ve run under 4 minutes in the mile. All three of these guys have deep Ohio roots and strong Ohio pride, so of course we got right into discussing why Ohio may or may not be “the Mile State.”
After a healthy debate on the state’s mile prowess, we also covered which Midwest stereotypes are right and which are wrong and a whole list of other things including training during COVID, the ups and downs of steeplechase, and Jacob running 4:00.00. We recorded this episode remotely from four different locations, so the audio is a little fuzzy at parts, but overall it turned out fine. Hope you enjoy the episode and please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!
This week’s guest is Jonathan Green, a Massachusetts native, Georgetown alum, former Saucony runner, and current coach of 2021 Olympian Molly Seidel, who is one of the few Americans toeing the line at the London Marathon this weekend. Jon is an accomplished runner in his own right, a two-time cross-country All-American with a 13:48 5000m personal best.
Recorded 2 days before the London Marathon with cohost Jeff Seelaus, we shared our London hot takes, walked through Molly’s buildup, compared our favorite cross-country courses, and added to the age-old debate of “is candy corn good?” Hope you enjoy this lively episode and this weekend’s racing.
