Citius Mag Podcast

We’re off for the holidays but we didn’t want to leave your podcast feed empty this week so here’s a recent conversation that Kyle Merber and I had with PUMA Elite’s Patrick Tiernan and Fiona O’Keeffe while at The Running Event in Austin, Texas. They’re fantastic leaders on the up and coming team based in North Carolina that is coached by Alistair and Amy Cragg. Tiernan sat down with us just two months after running 2:11:02 in his marathon debut at the Chicago Marathon. Fiona has put together a strong year that was highlighted by a 67:42 half marathon in Houston and her first national title at the U.S. 10-Mile Championships in October. She was also the top PUMA woman in their win at Sound Running’s Cross Champs, which was the day after we recorded this. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS TRACKSMITH: Running in cold weather requires thoughtful layers and Tracksmith’s Fells Collection is a Citius favorite. During the month of December, visit tracksmith.com/citius and use code “CITIUSMAG” at checkout for free shipping and to

“All they threw at me was ‘impossible, impossible, impossible.’ I said, ‘OK. I accept but how are you going to do it?’ They said, ‘You don’t get it. It’s impossible.’ I said, ‘No, you don’t get it. How are you going to make it happen anyway?’ Probably from being a coach and an athlete, I can set that spark in people so that they trust me and if I really believed so much in this idea that they joined the team to make it happen.” Olivier Bernhard is one of the founders of On Running. He’s been a runner and athlete his entire life but in 2010, he was looking to pitch several major sportswear companies on selling runners and athletes a new experience and feel while running as opposed to just another product. When he was turned away several times, he took it upon himself to create a prototype and pursue the project independently. He showed off the first Frankenstein shoe to his friends David Allemann and Caspar Coppetti and they decided to partner on starting On. The brand has since partnered with tennis legend Ro

“Like any athlete or person, when you cross one task off your list you think, ‘I can do better.’ After CIM, I feel OK and I ran what I ran but you know what? I probably can run faster. I felt very controlled and ran a very smart, conservative race where I knew I would successfully complete this task and this mission that I’m on.” Maegan Krifchin is a professional marathoner for the Atlanta Track Club and I decided to have her on because I needed to know more about the wild past 30 days for her. It starts on Nov. 6 with the New York City Marathon where she ran 2:40:52 in hot conditions. Two weeks later, she ran 2:31:42 to take second in the cold conditions of the Philadelphia Marathon. She capped off her year with a 2:29:21 in perfect conditions to finish 7th in a personal best at the California International Marathon, which also served as the USATF Marathon Championships. This PR was a long time coming for Maegan so I needed to hear more about her decade-long journey to this marathon threepeat. SUPPORT THE SP

"Looking back, I should’ve taken more time to process what had happened after the Olympics. It was such an enormously positive experience that I think it made me forget how difficult it was going into it...I do think you have to be able to take that time to figure out why you’re in this sport and why you enjoy doing this and how you’re going to take everything forward from there. Please welcome back Molly Seidel to the CITIUS MAG Podcast. We just recorded this at The Running Event in Austin, Texas where we partnered with PUMA Running to host a group run, tape a live podcast and follow around the PUMA Elite women before they won Cross Champs. Stay tuned for more content coming from this trip. I really enjoyed this conversation with Molly as we caught up on a lot from the past year including how she handled some lows in her running due to injury and mental health struggles. She’s doing much better and I’m excited for what’s to come with her in 2023. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS TRACKSMITH: Running in cold weather requi

"It’s not chance. It’s not talent on the team. It’s what we talk about and how we train. That’s never going to change. Regardless of what athletes we have, we’re always going to be able to perform within some contained range – whether that’s winning or 5th place, it’s always going to be something that we’re proud of.” My guest for today’s episode is Nico Young. He is a star for Northern Arizona University’s track and cross country team. He just finished second individually in the NCAA Cross Country Championships but led the Lumberjacks to their sixth national title in the last seven years. Before even arriving in Flagstaff, he was the sparkplug that kicked off Newbury Park High School’s cross country and track dominance when he ran 9:05 for 3200 meters as a sophomore and then won a bunch of state and national titles as a junior and senior. It’s been a great progression for him. He’s lowered his personal best to 13:11 for the 5000m, which puts him at No. 3 on the all-time collegiate list. He was third at the N

"The hardest part of the process was the psychological aspect, which I didn't anticipate. I really struggled with postpartum anxiety and some postpartum depression. I think we're talking about it more but it can be quite debilitating, especially when we're expected to be so happy and joyful that we have this new beautiful baby but there is another darker piece that happens for a lot of women. It's definitely something I've struggled with and I'm not totally out of the woods with it. Motherhood has really changed me – mostly for the better but there are some mental health things I really need to stay on top of now." Chelsea Sodaro made history last month by winning the Ironman Kona World Championship women's race and becoming the first American to win in Kona since 2002 and the first American woman to win since 1996. One of the most impressive parts is that she accomplished the feat just 18 months after giving birth to her daughter Skylar. Chelsea was in 5th place going into the run before clocking a 2:51 spli

The 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships are in the books. The NAU dynasty continues on the men's side as they finished the day with 83 points tied with Oklahoma State but then won the head-to-head tiebreaker. It marked the first time that a tiebreaker determined the national champion. Stanford's Charles Hicks outkicked Nico Young in the final stretch to claim in the men's individual title. On the women's side N.C. State became the first school to go back-to-back since Villanova in 2009 and 2010. They were led by Katelyn Tuohy, who hunted down Florida's Parker Valby despite a 12-second gap and won the women's individual title. We unpack all of the action, the biggest surprises and give some way too early 2023 picks with Isaac Wood of The Wood Report and Kyle Merber. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS VELOUS is an active recovery footwear brand designed to help you restore, revive & re-energize before and after you train. Two years in development, this team has created the world’s most comfortable, supportive and light

The NCAA Cross Country Championships are upon us. 31 teams per gender. Two champions. Oklahoma State University will host the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday, November 19th. The women’s race will begin at 10:20 a.m. ET with the men’s race slated to follow at 11:10 a.m. You’ll be able to watch the races uninterrupted on ESPNU starting at 10 a.m. Kyle Merber will be on the broadcast and making his own ESPN debut. To preview all of the main storylines and share some predictions, I called up cross-country guru Isaac Wood of The Wood Report. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS VELOUS is an active recovery footwear brand designed to help you restore, revive & re-energize before and after you train. Two years in development, this team has created the world’s most comfortable, supportive and lightweight active recovery shoe in the world. Get 20% off using code CitiusMag20 GARMIN: Music. Training. Data. The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is my favorite running partner. You do the running. This GPS running smartwat

"I'm really, really proud of this one. I feel like I executed it better than I had a marathon before. I think it was my savviest marathon...I understand I did really well and I made all the right choices. All of the measures of success I met. I don't necessarily have the joy. It's more pride right now." Scott Fauble is back on the podcast for the 7th time, which might be a record for a recurring guest. It’s funny to go back and look at the archives because when he first came on this show in 2017, it was ahead of his marathon debut and now he’s one of the top U.S. marathoners. He just finished as the top American at the New York City Marathon in 2:13:35 to finish 9th overall. Earlier in the spring, he ran a personal best of 2:08:52 at the Boston Marathon and we did an episode after that performance. Let's unpack another top American performance. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS VELOUS is an active recovery footwear brand designed to help you restore, revive & re-energize before and after you train. Two years in develo

"We wanted to do this for a long time because we knew Orlando can really produce what is needed both by the course, the staging area and the support from our running community, but also our entire community to really put forth a world-class event." We finally have an answer on where and when the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials will be held as USATF and the USOPC announced we're headed to Orlando on Feb. 3, 2024. The trials are the event where the top three men's and women's finishers who meet the qualifying standards for the Olympics will secure their spots for the Summer Games in Paris. The race will be held in the street of downtown Orlando. I decided to give a call to Jon and Betsy Hughes of Track Shack to hear about some of the early plans since Track Shack is will be staging the event with help from the city of Orlando mayor, the Orange county mayor and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS FOR EVERY RUN FILM FESTIVAL: Pacers Running, in partnership with The Running Event (TRE), i

On Sunday, the New York City Marathon returned to full capacity for the first time since 2019 and although the warmer conditions made it tough for runners across the board, the city was alive to celebrate everyone from the 1st to the 50,000th finisher. Kenyans swept the men’s and women’s pro races for the fourth time this year on the World Marathon Majors stage. The women’s race saw a major surprise as Sharon Lokedi, the former NCAA champion out of Kansas, won in 2:23:23 in her debut marathon. 33-year-old Evans Chebet came away with the victory in a wild and unpredictable men’s race in 2:08:41 to complete his Boston-New York title double in 2022. Aliphine Tuliamuk and Scott Fauble were the top Americans on the day. We chat through the pro races + Kyle's experience running the race + my first time on a TV broadcast. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS TRACKSMITH: The Eliot Runner was developed to meet the rigorous demands of committed runners, providing the perfect balance of cushioning and responsiveness with classic Tracks

My guest for this episode is Jos Hermens. He is the founder of Global Sports Communication and the NN Running team. We recorded this episode back in April when I made a trip to Rotterdam to host the team’s 5th anniversary. When they started in 2017, they announced themselves as “the first professional running team” with stars like Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele as the faces of the team. They’ve also made major strides by bringing in other major sponsors to back the team. We dive into the business side of the team, how Jos transitioned from an Olympian to an agent, what he’d like to see changed within the sport, his obsession with breaking records, stories working with Kipchoge, Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie, plus much more. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS TRACKSMITH: The Eliot Runner was developed to meet the rigorous demands of committed runners, providing the perfect balance of cushioning and responsiveness with classic Tracksmith style. See the Eliot Runner in person at Tracksmith’s Pop-Ups at the London and Chic

"I think she has the talent to be the best in the world in the marathon – just like she's been the best in the world in track and cross-country as well." Last week, Mac Fleet and I traveled to Boulder, Colo. to spend some time with the On Athletics Club and coach Dathan Ritzenhein. We got a chance to sit down and chat about the highs and lows of OAC’s 2022 outdoor season + Hellen Obiri’s upcoming marathon debut in New York City on Nov. 6. Obiri’s move to Boulder has been in the works since she signed with the Swiss sportswear company in January with the intention of focusing on the roads. Ritzenhein worked closely with her agent and former coach Ricky Simms to make the transition as smooth as possible following her 67:05 victory at The Great North Run in September. We also spoke with Obiri about her fall plans a day before she won a silver medal in the 10,000m at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. You can watch this full interview with Ritzenhein uninterrupted on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel. SUPPOR

What you’re about to listen to is an episode of The Coffee Club Podcast hosted by Morgan McDonald, Geordie Beamish and Olli Hoare. I’m a big fan of the show since it started. I haven’t missed an episode. Here at CITRUS MAG, we’re all about athlete storytelling and I think they do a phenomenal job of chronicling what’s going on in their respective careers while also shedding a light on some of the other things happening in the sport on a weekly basis.  I was honored to be invited on as a guest while I was in Boulder last week on a quick content trip with Mac Fleet. Stay tuned for some of the videos and interviews that we have coming on the CITIUS MAG YouTube Channel. It’s an especially exciting time for the On Athletics Club since their teammate Hellen Obiri will be making her marathon debut in New York City on Nov. 6 and we’ll be on-site to cover the elite races. Some of you may have caught my personal announcement on Instagram and Twitter but I will be on the TV broadcast on ESPN2 on race day. More to c

"I don’t think we ever planned to be a running brand but it goes back to this idea that people are complex, diverse and interesting. Brand and business should reflect that. Most businesses don’t do it that way. They’re like, ‘We do this one thing. That’s all we do. If you’re into that, you’ll get it from us. The rest of your interests, we’re not interested. Go somewhere else for your other stuff.’ … We’re more interested in the New York attitude of like you really don’t know who you’re talking to and they’re probably far more interesting than you realize.” Brendon Babenzien is the founder of NOAH and the men’s creative director for J. Crew. A lot of you may have recently seen the collaboration between J. Crew and Tracksmith and Brendon had a lot to do with that because he’s a runner and loves the sport. But..don’t be quick to call NOAH a running brand. They make clothing for runners but with their own touch. In this one, we go into Brendon’s own running, how NOAH came to be, its place within the fashion indus

"As my idea of how those years would unfold so dramatically changed, I started to embrace this saying just for myself that it would always be a surprise ending. I was never going to be able to control exactly how I kept going. It was not the storybook ending to my track career that I imagined. But more recently, even after the whole surprise ending revelation, I decided I can make this a surprise middle. It doesn’t have to be the end...In the last few months, changing things up has been reinvigorating. It’s given me energy and it’s just a new scene." My guest for this episode is Jenny Simpson. This is her second time on the show. Her last appearance in November 2019 is one of my all-time favorite episodes. Now she’s back and she’s repping a new sponsor. Last week, she signed a new deal with PUMA and announced that she will be shifting much of her focus to the roads. She won three World Championship medals and an Olympic bronze medal in her track career. One of the most astonishing stats is that she broke four

"It’s been such a big goal for so long. I remember back in college, Ray (Treacy) said to me once, “You’re going to set the American record in the marathon someday.’ I was like, ‘Okay…’ But he said it as a fact like, ‘You’re going to do it.’ Just because someone has the potential doesn’t mean it necessarily will happen. There are so many factors and variables. But he was just like, ‘No. You will set it someday.’ It feels like part of a long journey." My guest for this episode is the new American record holder in the women’s marathon – Emily Sisson. She just ran 2:18:29 to take 43 seconds off the previous record of 2:19:12 set by Keira D’Amato at the Houston Marathon in January. The race was won by Ruth Chepngetich in 2:14:18 – which is the second-fastest time in history. Sisson now owns two American records She set the half marathon record in 67:11 back in May.  We go inside the making of this American record, how she trusted her coach and pacers to make it happen, the appetite to go faster and what’s bei

“What I love about being out here and doing this is that I didn’t think it was accessible. I didn’t think I was going to run sub-3. Why would I think that? That’s crazy. But what I’ve been able to do is inspire people, which I wasn’t trying to do but I feel good about that. I just want us to all feel – especially Black American women – that we can do that. I started because I wanted to train and get faster. There’s nothing stopping anyone from doing that.” My guest for this episode is Erica Stanley Dottin, who is a mother of two, a wife and runs with Black Roses NYC. She isa producer and also works as the Tracksmith New York City Community Manager. At 48 years old, she just ran 2:52:05 for a huge personal best at the Berlin Marathon. The time makes her the 25th Black American woman to break three hours in the marathon since 1973. It’s a list that started being tracked by Ted Corbitt and is now kept by his son, Gary. We discuss her running career from her sprinting days at Georgetown to what called her to the

“For the longest time, I thought sub-2:08 was 4:50/mile pace just because that’s what coach Eyestone said one day but he mistyped it in his text message. It’s 4:53 pace, which actually makes me feel a lot more confident in sub-2:08 because this whole time I’ve been thinking sub-4:50 per mile not even thinking that I should check his math out on my own. I think sub-2:08 is reasonable. I know my strengths are and I know where I’m good.” Two-time NCAA cross country champion Conner Mantz is getting ready to make his marathon debut this weekend at the Chicago Marathon. In the past 12 months, he earned national titles in the half marathon and 20K. He’s got a 1 :00:55 second personal best for the half marathon, which puts him at No. 9 on the all-time U.S. list so there’s plenty of excitement over his potential in the marathon. We talked all about that, his expectations for the race, how much he wants to focus on track or cross country in the future and much more. Plus, we get some NCAA cross country predictions from

People seem to enjoy when we talk NCAA cross country in the past so I’m bringing back Isaac Wood, our cross country guru and the founder of The Wood Report to break down for us what we should watch for this season. If you go to TheWoodReportXC.com, you will find all of his rankings and ratings for each team. He goes through every school and every roster to project who will be competing at this year’s big dance in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Nov. 17. We’ve got an interesting season ahead with NAU going for its sixth title in seven years and NC State looking to become the first women’s team to go back-to-back in over a decade. Isaac has some bold takes on those teams and much more. I’ve transcribed some of his big takeaways so you can find those and his rankings at CITIUSMAG.com. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS TRACKSMITH: Tracksmith is an independent running brand inspired by a deep love of the sport. Their new Fall Collection was just released and is now available. It features staples ready for all your training and racing