Eric Jenkins calls in from a Cleveland Airbnb a few hours before the Guardian Mile, mic clipped to a Celsius can, surrounded by friends. Aisha is home in Boulder. It's a Saturday edition.

In this episode:

– Guardian Mile tonight: Colby is running the stroller mile with his son. Colby is not quite at race weight and is racing on a course that goes uphill for the first 800 and downhill on the back half.

– Community road miles: There should be more of them everywhere. One mile is the perfect community race distance — not intimidating, done in 30 minutes, everyone has a frame of reference.

– Presidential Fitness Test: Created 1956 under Eisenhower. Obama softened it into a non-competitive program in 2013. RFK is now restoring it.

– Sir Walter Mile results

– Host family philosophy debate: Eric's one bad experience: divorced man, post-dinner guitar serenading, Beach to Beacon 10K, never again. Aisha has had uniformly excellent host family experiences and is still friends with most of them.

– Tour de France Femmes — bra-maxing/aero-fairing scandal: Riders allegedly stuffing sports bras to create a larger chest profile in the aero tuck position, which is aerodynamically advantageous (called aero-fairing).

– Will Geoghegan = Handsome Will: Women in Eugene and around the track circuit have been calling him this for years. The canon grows. His Beach to Beacon course record attempt build-up — posting workouts, weekly Instagram updates — was one of the best pieces of athlete content of the summer.

– European Championships — August 10-16, Birmingham UK: Watch on Eurovision Sport (free globally) or BBC for UK listeners. Jakob Ingebrigtsen races the 5K on day one. Women's 800 final Friday August 14th at 9:46 PM UK time. Full field breakdown covered.

– Jake Heyward’s comeback story: 20 months off — nearly two years without racing. Double Haglund's surgery. Was on the shortlist of top British milers until the injury. This is one of the great comeback stories of the year and is flying under the radar.

Voicemails: – Air quality and running: Owen from Bozeman is calling from his work treadmill because the AQI outside is 165; Alan from Raleigh asks about the best post-race after-parties on the circuit; Vanessa from Boston with daughters Melanie and Aubrey make a group call — first-time callers who've been listening to Jimothy clips as a family, asking which animal each host would domesticate; James from San Francisco, Survivor alum, reports on Canicross and the alleged 11:56 5K world record run with a dog named Kazuma, and offers to be a Survivor audition coach

📞 Call in to (856) 279-0080‬ to leave us a voicemail with any question you may have, whether it’s running-related or not.

📲 Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or follow the show on Spotify to stay up-to-date with all the latest episodes.

🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@OffTheRailsWithEricandAisha

Follow your hosts on Instagram:

🗣️ Follow Eric Jenkins: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@_ericjenkins⁠⁠⁠⁠

🗣️ Follow Aisha Praught-Leer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@aishapraughtleer

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⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

Listening to “Off The Rails with Eric and Aisha” while running may result in uncontrollable laughter, side stitches, funny looks from strangers, and the occasional trip hazard due to snort-laughing mid-stride. Proceed with caution—and maybe stretch your abs beforehand. Use caution when wearing earbuds in public places—people will wonder if you’re okay. You are. You’re just having a really good time.

Discussed in this episode:

– Standing desk philosophical debate: Aisha is 50/50 sitting and standing. Eric has his at the lowest setting and sits.

– Women's Professional Baseball League launches: Boston Hunters, New York Heights, Los Angeles Queens, San Francisco Fireballs — all playing in Springfield, Illinois.

– The national anthem at the WPBL opening game: Potentially the worst national anthem performance ever captured on video.

– Shoutout to Kari Cotone-Chavez, whose a cappella group (The High Notes) sang the national anthem at USAs.

– Usher concert, Gabrielle Cheyenne, and the Facebook clap back: Usher's team pre-screens fans to bring on stage. Gabrielle was selected, froze completely when the lights came on, Usher visibly realized and had her removed, the video went everywhere.

– Nicolas Cage WWII film stolen from Netflix: An unencrypted master copy of a film called Fortitude — seven years to make, $45 million to produce — was stolen from the Hollywood studio.

– The Odyssey: Eric saw it, not in IMAX (technically only saw one third of the film), the AC was broken, he was fully dehydrated and fidgeting while the stranger next to him complained.

– Jimothy update: Eric is warming up. Not fully on board, but open to the journey.

– Commonwealth Games recap

– The Josh Kerr weight discourse: Hobbes Kessler raised it at USAs. Aisha addresses it carefully

– The return of Jakob Ingebrigtsen at European Championships

Voicemails include: Jimmy's Eric Jenkins redemption arc; rules for pacers contracted for races; live from a port-a-potty caller; MLB hat survey from a recent Europe trip by a Rail Rider; Amy's cross country team cemetery laps.

Coming up: European Championships. Eric is racing the Guardian Mile. Shoutout to the Alexander family.

📞 Call in to (856) 279-0080‬ to leave us a voicemail with any question you may have, whether it’s running-related or not.

📲 Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or follow the show on Spotify to stay up-to-date with all the latest episodes.

🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@OffTheRailsWithEricandAisha

Follow your hosts on Instagram:

🗣️ Follow Eric Jenkins: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@_ericjenkins⁠⁠⁠⁠

🗣️ Follow Aisha Praught-Leer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@aishapraughtleer

----

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

Listening to “Off The Rails with Eric and Aisha” while running may result in uncontrollable laughter, side stitches, funny looks from strangers, and the occasional trip hazard due to snort-laughing mid-stride. Proceed with caution—and maybe stretch your abs beforehand. Use caution when wearing earbuds in public places—people will wonder if you’re okay. You are. You’re just having a really good time.