PODCAST · sports
DFL Before DNF
by Borderlands Trail Running
Hosted by Josh Rosenthal, Borderlands Trail Running Welcome to Season 3 of DFL Before DNF. This season is a celebration of the great ultrarunning courses. In each episode, the course is the hero through the eyes of someone who is training for it or who has run it. Season 1 of this podcast propelled me to finish the Zion 100. This is evergreen content for anyone going after something big. Season 2 featured some great brands in trail running. Check out our new mobile app, Wylder. We want it to be the center of your run club.
Episodes
-
Dylan Bowman is Still Figuring it Out
Dylan Bowman has spent much of his life in trail running, first as a professional athlete and now as the founder of Freetrail, one of the sport's most influential media platforms. But what happens when the thing you love becomes the thing you're responsible for building? And how do you know…
more -
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 100 milers, and when I finally finished Zion 100, I was the last guy across the line. Watching…
more -
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 what it looks like to keep evolving without chasing relevance. We talk about the injury that…
more -
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 wondering whether the messy, human parts of ultra running are exactly the parts we can’t afford to...
-
"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 ultrarunner, Speed Project athlete, tattoo artist and printmaker living in Berlin. He has represented...
-
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 is that the race keeps complicating the argument against it. The fan experience is better than the...
-
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 that was already there long before UTMB existed. Josh talks with Doug Mayer, founder of Run the...
-
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 capable of. Tara joins me to talk Western States, her planned Pacific Coast Trail attempt, why she...
-
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 him to chase the Appalachian Trail record, and UTMB eventually bought the race he created. Karl…
more -
Harvey Lewis | The Mind Behind the Ultras
Ultrarunning eventually becomes a mental problem. The body hurts, the race stops going to plan, and the question becomes what the best ultrarunners understand about continuing when quitting makes sense. Harvey Lewis has spent 30 years figuring that out. In part two of our conversation in Ohio, we...
-
Harvey Lewis | The Man Behind the Ultras
Harvey Lewis is one of ultrarunning’s most accomplished endurance athletes, but the more interesting question might be how a high school civics teacher from Ohio became capable of doing any of this. Badwater, Backyard Ultras, Barkley, 250-mile runs. Harvey has built an extraordinary career…
more -
Ciele Athletics and the Rise of Running Culture
Ciele helped change what running looked like, but the more interesting story is what sat underneath the aesthetic. This episode is for runners curious about how a hat brand became part of running culture without losing the product discipline that made it credible in the first place. What began as…
more -
Satisfy x Adidas: Who Won the Circle Pit Backlash?
The Satisfy x Adidas collaboration became one of the loudest moments in running, but almost none of the conversation was about the shoe. It became a fight over price, fashion, authenticity, and what running culture is supposed to protect. Josh and Inky Steve look at what the collaboration…
more -
This is Trail Running Without Mountains.
Trail running in the Midwest looks different. No mountain towns. No towering peaks. Just a different kind of commitment. On the drive to Harvey Lewis's house, Josh and Sam Hartman explore what it means to build a trail running culture in flat country, and why some of the sport's deepest…
more -
What If Your Best Running Is Still Ahead?
Hardrock 100 gave aging trail runners something many of us didn't realize we needed: hope. Ludovic Pommeret broke the course record at 50. Courtney Dauwalter won again and still walked away chasing something more. If you've ever wondered whether your best running is behind you, this conversation…
more -
They Refuse to Make Toy Shoes. | Inside HOKA's Culture Strategy
HOKA has become one of the few running brands to cross into culture without losing credibility with runners. If you're building a brand, launching new products, or wondering how companies grow without abandoning what made them special, this conversation is for you. Thomas Cykana and Travis…
more -
What is Borderlands Actually Building?
For the first time in months, I'm stepping away from interviews and monologues for a Borderlands Trail Running founder update. By the time this episode goes live, my family and I will be somewhere over the Atlantic, leaving Paris after two years and moving back to Salt Lake City. I came to France...
-
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 States revealed about trail running, its media, and where the sport is headed next. From Dylan Bowman...
-
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 tension, I received an unexpected response from Bob Crowley, former President of the International...
-
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 successful, how do you protect it? Josh explores why UTMB believes trail running is important...
-
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 was the way he talked about suffering, expectations, and the moment he realized he wasn't going…
more -
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 explore a bigger question: what happens when an industry spends years optimizing toward the same...
-
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, debating contenders, and wondering what story will emerge from Auburn. This episode explores why…
more -
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 Josh thinks about it, the more he wonders whether trail running is actually comfortable with the...
-
What Happens When Running Becomes Your Job? | Jacob Puzey
Professional running can quietly turn into pressure, performance, sponsorship obligations, and constant visibility. This episode with Jacob Puzey is for runners who have felt burnout creeping into the thing they once loved and want to rediscover simplicity, rhythm, and freedom in running again....
-
The Race That Makes Trail Running Real
Trail running usually becomes real for people at a local ultra, not while watching UTMB or Western States online. The parking lot at 5am with 53 runners, one exhausted race director, and volunteers giving up their Saturday to help strangers keep moving is still the clearest entry point into the...
-
What SATISFY Reveals About Trail Running
Trail running culture melted down this weekend after a Satisfy x Adidas event triggered accusations of cringe, elitism, rich-kid cosplay, and the death of authenticity. But the backlash revealed something much deeper about where trail running is headed and why so many runners reacted emotionally…
more -
Can Trail Running Stay Human?
Trail running is getting bigger fast. Bigger races, bigger brands, bigger media, and more money entering the sport every year. What happens to trail running culture as all of that growth accelerates? And will the human side of trail running we all love survive? Recorded in Stockholm at…
more -
Can Trail Running Handle Growth?
Cocodona 250 exposed something trail running still doesn’t totally want to admit: the audience is already here, but the fan experience still hasn’t caught up. After spending more than 13 hours inside the livestream tracking viewer behavior in real time, Josh breaks down why thousands of people…
more -
Why Fueling Stops Working During Ultras
Ultra running nutrition is getting more extreme. More carbs, more precision, more pressure to “get it right.” But if you’ve ever had your stomach shut down mid-race, you know something isn’t adding up. This episode is for runners trying to fuel better without breaking their body in the process. I...
-
Why Ultrarunning Feels Necessary
Ultra running promises performance, progress, and control. But for a lot of people, it’s filling a gap that normal life doesn’t. This episode explores what ultra running actually gives people and why it becomes something they need, not just something they do. Joshua Landvatter and Kaden Coleman…
more -
Why Ultrarunners Keep Going When Their Body Says Stop | Matt Johnson
Why do some people keep going when everything says stop? If you’ve ever hit a breaking point in endurance sports and wondered what actually determines whether you quit or keep moving, this conversation is for you. This episode explores the real mechanics of the ultrarunning mindset, beyond…
more -
How People Become Ultrarunners (No Clear Path)
Nobody plans to become an ultra runner. There’s no clear path into the sport, no obvious starting point, and most people don’t grow up anywhere near it. So how do people actually find their way here? In this conversation, Josh sits down with Emory Atterberry, founder of Hyperlyte Liquid...
-
The Problem With Professional Trail and Ultra Running
Trail running is growing fast, but is it actually scaling? If you’ve ever felt like the sport looks bigger than it is, or struggled to follow it as a fan, this episode breaks down why. This is for runners and industry insiders trying to understand what’s really happening beneath the surface of...
-
Why Running Changes You (It’s Not Just Fitness) with Raz Rauf
Trail running and running culture go beyond training plans, races, and performance. Raziq Rauf explains why running isn’t just a sport, but a reflection of identity, place, community, and modern running culture. Raziq is the author of This Is Running and writes the newsletter Running Sucks. In…
more -
A Risk Most Running Brands Wouldn’t Take
Kiprun used to feel like an entry-level running brand, not one serious runners would put in the same conversation as the best trail running shoes in the sport. If you’re curious how a brand changes that perception and what it looks like when a running company genuinely reinvents itself this…
more -
Ultra Running Exposes Who You Really Are (wtih Mike Kratzer)
Ultra running reveals what happens when race plans fail, training falls apart, and things don’t go the way we want. Running helps strip away all the things we distract ourselves with and forces us to stand face to face with them. In this conversation with Mike Kratzer, a former DJ turned runner…
more -
Why People Run 100 Miles (with Billy Yang)
Why do people run 100 miles and keep coming back to ultra running even after it hurts, slows them down, and offers no obvious reward? If you’ve ever been curious about ultra running or felt the pull toward doing something hard without fully understanding why, this conversation is for you. In this...
-
Why Trail Running Feels Like Skateboarding but Isn't
Trail running culture is starting to look a lot like skateboarding—crews, aesthetics, a more raw identity. But if you’ve ever wondered whether that comparison actually holds up, this episode breaks it down. There’s a reason the connection feels right—and a deeper reason it might not be. This…
more -
How Do You Rebuild a Life? Tommie Runz on Sobriety, Loss, and Running
Many runners come to ultrarunning through performance, but what happens when running comes after everything else falls apart? This episode explores how sobriety, loss, and identity shape the path into ultrarunning and what it actually looks like to rebuild a life from the ground up. Josh sits…
more -
Is Ultrarunning Losing Its Charm?
Ultrarunning is evolving and growing fast and with that growth, ultra running feels different. Josh digs into how the sport is changing as it becomes more competitive, more visible, and more professional than ever before and asks whether something essential is being lost along the way. From...
-
Is Ultrarunning Changing? Dirtbag Culture vs Luxury Running Brands
If you've ever wondered why luxury running brands suddenly started appearing in ultrarunning—a sport built on dirtbag ethos, thrift-store gear, and anti-status culture—this episode explores the tension behind it. Josh unpacks where the idea of luxury collides with traditional ultrarunning…
more -
44 Running Shoes Tested Over 6,000 Miles | Honest Verdicts
If you've ever spent too much money on trail running shoes and wondered whether any of them are actually worth it, this episode is for you. I sit down with Inky Steve, a guy who has tracked 44 pairs of running shoes across 6,000 miles on Strava, to get his most honest verdicts on the shoes he'd...
-
10 Things I Love About Trail Running Right Now (Spring 2026)
Trail running doesn’t have journlists and no one’s holding the sport accountable. I think memes might be the closest thing we’ve got and that’s just one of the 10 things on my mind this week.. This week I pulled up a chair with a pile of gear and just talked: race season fandom, scrappy brands...
-
How Ciele Athletics Built a Running Movement
If you've ever wondered how running brands like Ciele Athletics reshaped the culture of modern running, this episode explores the moment performance gear started becoming identity. Jeremy Bresnen, cofounder of Ciele Athletics, walks through the brand’s origin story—from a hats-only startup in...
-
What It Takes to Break Records in Ultrarunning
If you've ever wondered what it takes, mentally, physically, and emotionally, to push the human body further than most people can imagine, this one's for you. I sit down with Camille Herron, one of the most decorated ultra runners alive, to talk about what keeps her going when everything falls...
-
Ultra Running Nutrition: An Elite Coach Reframes Fueling
If you've ever wondered how ultra running nutrition changes when races stretch beyond a single day, this episode reframes race day nutrition to better address multi-day endurance races. Jesse Rich, nutritionist to elite ultrarunners, explains why traditional fueling advice breaks down during...
-
Balancing Training, Work, and Ultrarunning at the Elite Level
If you've been following the recent surge in ultra running records, Anne Flower’s name has suddenly been everywhere from the Leadville 100 course record to a 50-mile world record and a dominant win at Javelina Jundred. But her rise isn’t sudden. Anne has been grinding for years while building a...
-
Francesco Puppi | Black Canyon and Running in America
If you’ve been following ultra trail running, Francesco Puppi has long been a name serious fans recognize—but his 2025 wins at CCC, The Canyons 100K, and Chianti 47K put him squarely on the radar of the broader American audience. Puppi brings a rare mix of mountain strength and marathon speed,...
-
Trail Running Culture: Alex Zono on Dirtbag Ultras and Design
If you’ve noticed the rise of running apparel that reflects the culture and spirit of the sport—not just performance metrics—designer and runner Alex Zono is part of that shift. Recorded at Paris Fashion Week, Alex joins Josh Rosenthal and Sam Lohse to talk about designing gear for runners who…
more
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Hosted by Josh Rosenthal, Borderlands Trail Running
Welcome to Season 3 of DFL Before DNF. This season is a celebration of the great ultrarunning courses. In each episode, the course is the hero through the eyes of someone who is training for it or who has run it.
Season 1 of this podcast propelled me to finish the Zion 100. This is evergreen content for anyone going after something big.
Season 2 featured some great brands in trail running.
Check out our new mobile app, Wylder. We want it to be the center of your run club.
HOSTED BY
Borderlands Trail Running
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does DFL Before DNF have?
DFL Before DNF currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is DFL Before DNF about?
Hosted by Josh Rosenthal, Borderlands Trail Running Welcome to Season 3 of DFL Before DNF. This season is a celebration of the great ultrarunning courses. In each episode, the course is the hero through the eyes of someone who is training for it or who has run it. Season 1 of this podcast propelled...
How often does DFL Before DNF release new episodes?
DFL Before DNF has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to DFL Before DNF?
You can listen to DFL Before DNF on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts DFL Before DNF?
DFL Before DNF is created and hosted by Borderlands Trail Running.
URL copied to clipboard!