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 criticism suggests, TDS might be the hardest race of the week, the women are racing with ego, and some of the most interesting parts of UTMB have almost nothing to do with racing. Ten observations from inside the chaos, including what brands keep getting wrong, what Chamonix reveals about status in trail running, and why everyone should be reading Raz Rauf.

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Presented by Kiprun.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:36 The Critics Are at UTMB
• 08:12 UTMB Doesn’t Have a Fan Problem
• 12:24 TDS Might Be the Hardest Race at UTMB
• 16:26 The DNSs Aren’t About Professionalization
• 20:38 The Women Are Racing With Ego
• 24:57 UTMB Isn’t Just About Running
• 28:20 The Ultimate UTMB Flex Is Not Needing Chamonix
• 30:34 Brands: Embrace the Chaos
• 32:21 Read Raz Rauf. Read Running Sucks.
• 35:45 Limiting Brand Activations Made UTMB Better - The Chamonix Mayor was Right

1. Like the Wind | Run Culture Live
2. Running Sucks - Raz Rauf
3. Borderlands.cc

1. Cocodona Has a Fan Problem

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

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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 Alps and author of The Race That Changed Running, about the deeper conditions that made UTMB possible, from old mountain races and ski mountaineering to the Pellettis’ execution and the way places like Vallorcine turned the race into something people gather around, not just run.

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1. Run the Alps
2. Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
3. Josh Rosenthal on IG
4. Borderlands.cc
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1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

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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 hasn’t raced UTMB, learning from Karl Meltzer, and her evolution with Altra from the Lone Peak to the new Vanish Carbon 3. Underneath it all is a bigger question: as Tara becomes one of the defining athletes of modern ultra running, what parts of herself does she want to keep?

For ultra runners interested in the people shaping where the sport goes next.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

This episode is in partnership with Altra for the release of its new super road shoe the Vanish Carbon 3 - a light, responsive, and efficient race day shoe made for PRs.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:54 Tara Dower Has Always Been Stubborn
• 07:07 The Problem Solving Mind of Tara Dower
• 09:06 Results vs. A Life of Interesting Running
• 13:38 Why Tara Dower Hasn't Raced UTMB
• 17:54 The Problem with Pro Trail Running
• 20:07 Why Ultrarunners Want to Run Fast | Altra Vanish Carbon 3
• 30:31 What Speedgoat Taught Tara
• 36:40 What Tara Dower Wants Her Legacy to Be

1. Altra Vanish Carbon 3
2. Tara Dower Lives Between Two Worlds by Bryce Carlson
3. Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
4. Borderlands.cc
5. Thumbnail Photo by Pete Schreiner

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

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 came up when ultrarunning was tiny and has watched the money, brands, athletes, and races transform around him. Josh and Karl talk about the strange experience of becoming valuable to an industry that barely existed when he started, selling Speedgoat to UTMB, his relationship with HOKA, and what someone who has lived through the entire boom thinks about where trail running goes from here.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

1. Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
2. Borderlands.cc
3. La French Trail

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

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 get into the mental strategies behind Backyard Ultra, why different races require different mindsets, the failures that changed how Harvey competes, and what decades of Badwater, journey runs, and 200-milers have taught him about going farther than he thought possible.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Thumbnail photo by Romain Mayambi

• 00:00 Harvey Lewis Intro
• 01:15 The Mental Game of Ultrarunning
• 10:47 Learning How Not to Quit
• 14:06 Different Mindsets for Different Races
• 16:55 Pilgrimages and Journey Runs
• 23:31 What Failure Taught Harvey Lewis
• 30:33 What the Best Ultrarunners Understand

2. Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
3. Borderlands.cc
4. High Tones

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

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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 without making running his entire life.

I spent a morning with Harvey at his home in Ohio, days before his 16th consecutive Badwater, trying to understand what makes Harvey Harvey. We talk about the dreamer and engineer he inherited from his parents, the teachers who changed his life, how running and teaching grew together, and why the hardest races have become something closer to pilgrimages.

The conversation ends somewhere more personal, with Harvey remembering the person he still imagines waiting for him when things get hard.

Thumbnail photo by Romain Mayambi

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

• 2:17 Harvey Lewis' Origins
• 6:33 Harvey Lewis' Parents: The Dreamer and the Engineer
• 18:39 Running and Teaching
• 30:59 Running as Pilgrimage

1. TINAR Race Series | Register
2. Borderlands.cc
3. La French Trail
4. Subwhatever

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

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 a film about Ciele turned into a deeper look at the rise of running as lifestyle, the influence of skate and snow culture, and the unreleased Miles hat that existed before Ciele had its name. Along the way, a portrait emerges of a brand whose visual identity was copied everywhere, while the craft, function, and ethos behind it were much harder to replicate.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

1. Watch the Ciele doc on YouTube
2. Josh Rosenthal on IG
3. Borderlands.cc
4. La French Trail
5. Subwhatever

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

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 actually did, why Adidas seemed to gain all the upside while Satisfy absorbed the backlash, and what the circle pit revealed about how tribal running has become.

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

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

1. Borderlands.cc
2. La French Trail
3. Subwhatever

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack