Update Sept 2016:
This post was first published in May 2015 and started out as a personal list of my favourite podcasts about ultramarathons and ultrarunning. Like everything in life podcasts don’t stand still and a number in my original list are no longer in production for a number of reasons. Sadly, the host of one of the podcasts has died but the beauty of podcasting is that past shows can easily be preserved online for a long time and a legacy of content for most of the podcasts remains available to listeners.
I continue to list the original seven podcasts but have added a number of suggestions from the readers of the Ultrarunnerpodcast blog amongst others. This is not designed to be a definitive list of podcasts on this topic but I am happy to add additional ones to the list – just leave your suggestions in the comments please.
What Is An Ultra Marathon?
Ultra marathons are running events that are longer than the traditional marathon distance of 26.2 miles (42.195km). The most common distances are 50km, 50 miles, 100km and 100 miles but there are races of all distances, some taking place over several days. Ultra marathons can be run on roads, trails and even running tracks with each type of terrain bringing its own challenge.
My Favourite Ultra Marathon Podcasts
The sport of ultrarunning is becoming more and more popular and new podcasts are springing up all the time while others sometimes fall by the wayside as the hosts move on. What follows is a list of my current favourites among podcasts that are either dedicated to, or talk frequently about, the sport of ultrarunning and ultra marathons.
Podcasts accompany me on every training run and my iPhone will often be loaded with one of the ultra marathon podcasts listed below:
UltraRunnerPodcast
Another interview format podcast, the Ultra Runner Podcast focuses more on athletes likely to be close to the front of races. The hosts often discuss nutrition and race strategy and they are clearly knowledgeable about the sport and are very good at bringing out the best of their interviewees.
Ultrarunnerpodcast also have a thriving daily newsletter and a very engaged community.
Ten Junk Miles
Ten Junk Miles is hosted by a group of runners from Chicago and describes itself as a podcast that consists of humorous conversations by trail, road, and ultra runners about their lives as runners and the issues that are interesting or important to them and guests of the show.
Trail Talk by Rock Creek Runner
Published in seasons around an individual theme, Trail Talk provides advice on training for trail and ultra running.
Connect Run Club Podcast
This podcast covers all distances from 5lm upwards but regularly discusses ultramarathon running and has interviewed runners such as Jack Daniels and Jeff Galloway.
Sage Running Podcast
Brand new in August 2016, Sage Running aims to cover training tips, nutrition, diet and race strategy using a combination of the two hosts discussing the topics and interviews with guests.
Ginger Runner Live Podcast
A very cool video podcast! Discusses, gear, racing and more.
Trail Runner Nation
Covers a wide range of topics including race reports and everything trail racing.
Podcasts No Longer Being Published (Or On Hiatus)
DFL Ultrarunning
Update Sept 2016: Sadly, the main host Eric Sherman passed away in July 2015 and the podcast is not being continued. The archives remain available and are well worth a listen.
The hosts interview ultra runners and those involved in organising ultra marathons. Episodes are released every couple of weeks and this a longer podcast than many others. There is lots of interesting discussion of the bigger US races including race reports from competitors. One useful feature is the interviewing of runners both before and after races to understand their preparation and training before discovering how the race went.
DFL Ultrarunning has a great tagline: “Ultrarunning from the Back of the Pack”.
Discover Ultra
Update Sept 2016: Unfortunately no episodes of this podcasts have been published since August 2015 and the website is currently offline. The archives can be found by searching for “discover ultra podcast” ysing your favourite search engine.
This is one of the newer podcasts and follows an interview format, talking with ultra runners and often delving into the background of athletes with the aim of better understanding their motivation and goals.
Runner Academy
Update Sept 2016: Unfortunately, the website is currently offline and the podcast episodes appear to have been taken down,
Runner Academy is a highly rated podcast with interviews on each episode with elite athletes, more mainstream runners and coaches. This is not exclusively an ultrarunning podcast but rather covers all distances from 5km upwards.
A number of recent episodes have focused on ultra marathons with discussions on the mind-set needed to be successful and how to set goals.
iRunFar
Update Sept 2016: I didn’t realise it at the time of writing this post but it seems this podcast actually stopped production in 2014, however, the archive contains some fantastic interviews.
This podcast consists of short episodes and discusses ultra marathons and trail races as well as reviews of ultrarunning gear and short interviews.
iRunFar has an extensive website where they discuss and sell one of the most popular books on ultramarathons, Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons
I highly recommend this book to all aspiring ultra marathoners as it contains some great advice and a number of very useful training plans for races of different distances from 50k to 100 miles.
Ultrafinishers
Update Sept 2016: The host of UltraFinishers, Scott Johnson, has stopped his show after 88 episodes. The podcasts are not being maintained online but if you visit the website you can purchase a disk containing all of the past episodes.
Ultrafinishers is a refreshing different podcast which interviews “regular, everyday people who have completed an ultramarathon”. The host, Scott Johnson, is very enthusiastic and actively seeks to interview runners and bring out their inspiring stories of training for and taking part in ultra marathons.
The British Trail Running Podcast
Update Sept 2016: The most recent episode was posted in February 2016. I still hold out hopes this show will come back before too much longer.
Quality British podcasts about ultrarunning are few and far between but this is one of the best. A somewhat erratic publishing schedule is the only thing that lets this podcast down as the hosts do a great job of discussing the latest news about trail running in the UK, along with expert interviews.
