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  • Guest Host Sierra Morris - The Run, Shattered Podcast!

    Guest Host Sierra Morris - The Run, Shattered Podcast!
    2026/08/31
    This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, Kyle is off in Sydney, Australia chasing another World Marathon Major, so we are turning the microphone over to guest host Sierra Morris from The Run, Shattered Podcast. Sierra, also known as ShatteredRunner, brings her focus on mental skills, resilience, and the psychological side of running to a topic every runner needs: confidence. This episode dives into how confidence is built, why it matters in training, and how runners can strengthen their mindset before they ever reach the start line. Sierra explores the mental tools marathoners and ultramarathoners use to stay steady when races get hard, including visualization, breath work, mantras, preparation, and learning how to trust the work already done. Whether you are chasing a PR, attempting a new distance, coming back from a rough race, or just trying to believe you belong out there, this conversation is built for you. Confidence is not about pretending everything will go perfectly, it is about knowing you can handle the messy middle when things get uncomfortable. With Kyle halfway around the world and the Back of the Pack community watching the Sydney adventure unfold, this guest episode is the perfect reminder that running is never just about legs and lungs. Sometimes the biggest race-day breakthrough starts with what is happening between your ears.
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    34 分
  • The Final Stretch: Ready or Not. Sydney

    The Final Stretch: Ready or Not. Sydney
    2026/08/28
    With race weekend finally here, The Final Stretch comes to a close from Sydney, Australia, just two days before the TCS Sydney Marathon. At this point, there is no more fitness to build, no more missed workouts to chase, and no more cramming left to do, which means readiness has officially stopped being a question and become a decision. We talk about the last things we can still control, from hydration, nutrition, rest, and race-week logistics to making sure a Saturday 5K does not become an accidental dress rehearsal for disaster. We also tackle jet lag, unpredictable weather, race-day nerves, and why nothing new belongs anywhere near our shoes, fuel, clothing, or strategy this late in the game. With A, B, and C goals still in play, we look at why solving the mile we are actually in matters far more than worrying about mile 22 before the gun even fires. There is also a bigger reminder woven through this finale: whether we are standing at a World Marathon Major or a neighborhood 5K, getting to a start line is something worth appreciating rather than taking for granted. Sydney was never part of the original plan, but one unexpected lottery acceptance turned it into another chapter in a journey that has already stretched through Chicago, New York, Boston, Berlin, and Tokyo. The work is finished, the bags are packed, and now there is only one thing left to do: trust what we built, enjoy where we are, and go run the race.
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    23 分
  • The Sydney Marathon Preview!

    The Sydney Marathon Preview!
    2026/08/24
    This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we are recording the final episode from the United States before the podcast heads across the world for Sydney Marathon Week. Before the passport panic takes over, Kyle recaps the Head for the Cure 5K in Overland Park, a massive Kansas City-area event supporting brain cancer awareness, research, and families impacted by the disease. From there, we turn the spotlight to the TCS Sydney Marathon presented by ASICS, breaking down the race, the history, the course, the logistics, and why this new World Marathon Major matters. We talk about Sydney’s Olympic roots, its growth into the seventh Abbott World Marathon Major, and how the race has quickly become a major destination for runners chasing stars around the globe. The episode walks listeners through the Harbour Bridge start, the Sydney Opera House finish, the seven-hour cutoff, the time difference for everyone following along back home, and the reality that there are still 26.2 miles of consequences between those postcard moments. Kyle also digs into the race expo at Sydney Olympic Park, race-day transportation, tracking, volunteers, safety, weather concerns, and the now-famous 2026 medal mistake that accidentally gave the finisher medal a quick layover in Munich. Of course, this preview comes with plenty of back-of-the-pack honesty about jet lag, travel stress, extra walking, pacing, hills, rain, and the main goal of simply surviving the race and earning that Sydney star. With Sydney as Kyle’s sixth World Marathon Major and London waiting in 2027, this episode is part race preview, part travel sendoff, and part invitation for the whole Back of the Pack community to follow along as the next big adventure begins.
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    52 分
  • The Final Stretch: Trust What You Built

    The Final Stretch: Trust What You Built
    2026/08/21
    With the TCS Sydney Marathon now just nine days away, **The Final Stretch** reaches the point where the heavy training is finished and the challenge becomes learning to **Trust What You Built**. At this stage, there is very little we can do physically to dramatically change race-day fitness, but there is still plenty our brains can do to completely sabotage it. We dig into taper brain, the strange urge to question everything we have done, and why one ugly workout or bad race somehow gets more attention than weeks of solid work. Instead of replaying the blooper reel, we look at the evidence already in the bank, from miles and races completed to heat training, fueling practice, experience, and the ability to keep moving when things get difficult. We also ask the uncomfortable but important question: **what did this training cycle actually build**, whether that is PR fitness, goal-time fitness, survival fitness, or simply enough to fight our way to the finish? From there, we break down A, B, and C race goals and why changing the plan when conditions change does not mean abandoning the mission. Whether this is marathon number one or marathon number seventeen, the goal now is to stop borrowing somebody else’s confidence crisis, prepare for the bad miles, and trust that we have enough tools to solve the problems race day throws at us. The work does not have to be perfect to be valuable, and with Sydney almost here, it is time to stop negotiating with the past and give race day the chance to show us what we built.
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    44 分
  • Rexy, Ronald, and Run Club Energy

    Rexy, Ronald, and Run Club Energy
    2026/08/17
    This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we are recapping a packed mid-August weekend with two charity races, one major run club push, and Sydney now less than two weeks away. We start with a quick heads-up that the 2027 Tokyo Marathon lottery is open, along with a reminder that Tokyo is incredible, but not exactly built for back-of-the-pack comfort. From there, we head to Lawrence, Kansas for the Rexy Run 5K & 10K, where the podcast community showed up strong for Baby Jay’s Legacy of Hope and the new 10K course brought hills, wetlands, heat, volunteers, and one very fun spinning dinosaur medal. We also talk about what it means when a charity race grows so much that it may eventually need a bigger home. Then it is back to Parkville for the first-ever Hearts for Ronald McDonald House Charity Half Marathon, where the humidity was rude, the course was familiar, and the final stretch brought just enough confusion to make things spicy. Even on a rough race day, this one marked Kyle’s 95th half marathon, which means the countdown to number 100 is officially getting real. We also make one more big push for this Thursday’s Chasing Rabbits Run Club, where the KC Sports Commission will be filming, Garmin Kansas City Marathon will be there, and we need the whole running family to bring the energy. It is a race-review episode full of big causes, hot miles, community pride, course chaos, and that very familiar feeling that the next adventure is already breathing down our necks.
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    43 分
  • The Final Stretch: You Can't Cram for a Marathon

    The Final Stretch: You Can't Cram for a Marathon
    2026/08/14
    With the TCS Sydney Marathon now just two weeks away, The Final Stretch continues with a question every nervous marathoner eventually asks: can we make up for lost training at the last minute? This week, we tackle the urge to cram for a marathon, from missed long runs and shortened workouts to those summer races that suddenly start looking like evidence that everything has gone wrong. We dig into why panic training can create more problems than it solves, especially when the body should be shifting toward recovery instead of punishment. But this is not quite a black-and-white conversation, because sometimes there may be a difference between cramming for a PR and doing just enough to prepare ourselves to survive the distance. We look at what can still be sharpened this close to race day, what simply cannot be rebuilt anymore, and why protecting confidence may be just as important as protecting our legs. Heat, social-media comparison, training guilt, and the temptation to chase numbers on the watch all make appearances as we try to keep perspective heading into the taper. We also talk about why one bad summer race does not get to predict what happens when race day arrives in cooler conditions. At this stage, the goal is no longer to become a completely different runner in fourteen days, but to arrive at the starting line healthy enough, rested enough, and mentally ready to use what we already have. The time for proving fitness is almost over, and the time for preserving it has arrived.
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    51 分
  • 300 Episodes at the Back of the Pack

    300 Episodes at the Back of the Pack
    2026/08/10
    This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we are celebrating a major milestone: 300 episodes of race reviews, community stories, road trips, charity conversations, bad decisions, emotional moments, and back-of-the-pack chaos. Technically, this is Episode 299, but with Episode 300 dropping Friday, we are taking this Monday episode to pause, look around, and talk about what this podcast has become since it started as a simple “I make the mistakes so you don’t have to” running show. We look back at the race reviews that became the bread and butter of the show, the community organizations and race directors who gave us a chance, and the local running family that turned this podcast into something much bigger than one guy talking into an old microphone. From Rexy Run and Fighting Fentanyl to Run Liberty, Garmin Kansas City Marathon, Chasing Rabbits Run Club, Second Wind, and the growing cast of podcast mascots, this episode is a reminder that the stories around the miles often matter just as much as the miles themselves. We also dig into the numbers, including 201 race entries, more than 1,500 race miles, nearly 319 hours on course, 87 5Ks, 38 10Ks, 54 half marathons, 8 full marathons, and one wonderfully ridiculous Death by 5K. Along the way, we talk about the World Marathon Majors completed during the life of the podcast, the repeat races that have become recurring characters, the fastest times on the spreadsheet, the longest gaps between races, and why consistency matters in both podcasting and running. More than anything, this episode is a thank-you to the listeners, Patreon supporters, race directors, guests, volunteers, running friends, run club members, and everyone who has shared, watched, downloaded, commented, or told someone else about the show. Episode 300 is not the finish line, it is an aid station, and after we take inventory, refill the bottle, and eat something questionable, we are getting right back on the road toward Sydney, Rexy Run, race number 400, fall marathon season, and whatever comes next.
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    47 分
  • The Final Stretch: What Does “Ready” Actually Mean?

    The Final Stretch: What Does “Ready” Actually Mean?
    2026/08/07
    With the TCS Sydney Marathon just three weeks away, we are officially entering The Final Stretch and asking one deceptively simple question: what does being “ready” actually mean? Most runners expect readiness to feel like confidence, control, and unstoppable momentum, but marathon preparation usually arrives wearing fatigue, uncertainty, random aches, and a suspiciously bad attitude. In this episode, we look beyond one missed workout, one rough long run, or one ugly summer pace to examine the full body of work behind race-day preparation. We discuss why nervousness is not proof that we are unprepared and why experience often makes us more aware of everything that can go sideways. We also explore the difference between an imperfect training cycle and a truly incomplete one, especially for runners balancing heat, recovery, injuries, responsibilities, and real life. Destination races add another layer, because being ready involves far more than running fitness, from travel logistics and medications to gear, fueling, and conserving energy before race morning. As Sydney approaches, we take an honest look at the evidence, the warning signs, and the adjustments that may need to happen before stepping onto the starting line. Being prepared to finish and being prepared to chase a specific time are not always the same thing, and recognizing that difference may be one of the smartest race decisions we make. We may never feel fearless, but we can still be ready enough to take the next step.
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    41 分