Citius Mag Podcast

Ryan Sterner and Stephen Kersh join me for this bonus episode of The CITIUS MAG Podcast to discuss their documentary "A Time And A Place" – which follows Northern Arizona Elite's road to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. As I wrote in the CITIUS MAG Newsletter: "Many of us know how the story ends and if you don’t then major spoiler: Aliphine Tuliamuk ends up making the U.S. team for the Tokyo Olympics. But what you don’t know is what the road to get to Atlanta looked like. Over the past 12 months, maybe you’ve caught interviews with the athletes about the preparation and some of the workouts but this film packages it all together and really helps paint the picture of what this pursuit ultimately means for each of the athletes. I highly recommend you check out the film." World-renowned film critic Paul Snyder wrote a glowing review of the movie. There are very few tickets remaining for the film's virtual world premiere on Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. ET. Get your tickets today.

"One of the things I feel that I’m pretty good at is the competition side of things. When I do get put up against people like that, the true competitor side comes out in me. It’s like I’m almost pushing my body beyond what it can do just because I don’t want to lose." Bryce Hoppel is one of Team USA’s stars to watch in the Olympic year since he’s the second-fastest American 800 meter runner indoors and the seventh-fastest American outdoors for the same distance. He’s run 1:43.23 and finished fourth at the World Championships. At the University of Kansas, he was a two-time NCAA champion and a five-time All-American. In this episode, you’ll get to know him a little bit better before he takes a swing at David Torrence’s 2:16.76 American record in the indoor 1,000 meters and then you’ll be able to see him in action at the Trials of Miles Texas Qualifier men’s 800 on Feb. 27.

Matthew Luke Meyer and I catch up to discuss some of the best performances of January 2021. It's a weird time in the sport where there's indoor and outdoor track going on at the same time as cross country and select road races. In this episode, we unpack: – Matt won the men’s division of his first-ever ultramarathon in Moab, Utah (second overall to Sarah Cummings) so he shares what it was like racing for the first time in a while. – We share our new year's resolutions. – A rundown of recent sponsorship changes with athletes including major moves by Puma and cuts by Nike – Some of the biggest performances of the month including: Jim Walmsley's near-miss at the 100K world record attempt, the American Track League's world record showing by Ryan Crouser, Oregon's NCAA record-setting DMR and much more.   PLUS...More details on theTrials of Miles Texas Qualifier!

“If I come back next year, we’re going to target all the D2 records.” If you’re not familiar with Christian Noble's name yet that’s OK because he’s letting some of his performances do the talking for him. In the past two weeks, he set two Division II indoor track records at 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. He ran 13:37.39 on Jan. 24 in Birmingham, Alabama and then came back a few days later to run 7:51.46 for 3,000 meters. Initially, LetsRun.com reported that the NCAA wouldn’t count the 5K record because the meet used pacing lights on the inside of the track. However, they later walked back that decision and said the mark would count. Christian is the Division II leader in the mile, 3K and 5K. Get to know a little bit more about him. Follow Christian on Instagram: @little_nobes

"I'm more comfortable with betting on myself now than I have been in the past, and I think it comes from just accumulating achievements that I look back on and think, 'Yeah, I'm good enough to do this.'" My guest for today’s episode is the Roots Running breakout star of 2020 not named Noah Droddy. Frank Lara was the US Champion in the 15K despite finishing second after the winner tested positive for EPO. We hear his thoughts on that. He ran 27:44.65 for the 10,000 meters and 61:50 for the half marathon last year. We recorded this episode a few weeks ago so we touch on his hopes for the new year and he makes his pitch to a potential sponsor. Frank will be among the athletes competing at the Trials of Miles Texas Qualifier next month.

“In 1996, Derrick Adkins came back to his elementary school on Long Island and showed everyone the gold medal he had won. I was in the crowd. I got to see it. I got to talk to him and touch the medal. I was immediately enthralled by the sport that I went home and talked to my mom about signing up for track. That left a really lasting impression on me because I know that he may not have wanted to go back to his elementary school a month after winning the Atlanta Olympics but he did it out of an obligation to his community. Whenever I’ve been invited to speak at camps or schools or any event, I always try to think of the fact that there’s a little kid there who may be sent on a different path just because he had the opportunity to hear my story.” My guest for today’s show is Kyle Merber and this is his exit interview. He spent the past seven years running for the New Jersey-New York Track Club and just a few weeks ago took to Instagram to announce that he's not done running but done getting paid for it. He fini

“I’m a big believer that you should really judge people at their worst and not at their best. When people are at their best and everything is comfortable and good or everything is going their way, it’s not really a fair assessment of their character. I think it’s a lot more insightful how someone acts when they’re down and facing adversity. That’s exactly what I was dealing with at that moment. I remember being like, ‘I’m just going to show just how tough I am here and how this isn’t going to shake me at all.’” NAZ Elite has added the 1500m and 5000m specialist to their roster in 2021. Ryan Hill has spent the last seven years training under Jerry Schumacher. He joined the group shortly after he made his first U.S. national team in 2013 and then competed at the world championships in Moscow. With Bowerman, he won three U.S. titles and made four world championship teams. He won a silver medal in the 3,000 meters at the 2016 World Indoor Championships that were held in Portland, Ore. We touch on those moments in

“There was consistency. There was never the breakthrough that I thought could happen. You can only control what you do. I think for the most part I did everything that I wanted to." Andrew Bumbalough is one of the OGs of the Bowerman Track Club and has been training with them since 2010. In this episode, he announces he is retiring and no longer running professionally and no longer a Nike athlete. He’s shifting his priorities and getting into coaching. On Jan. 1, he launched Highgear Running, which offers personalized coaching for runners of all levels from the mile to the marathon. You’ll hear him discuss where the name came from and what he’s hoping to accomplish there.  We’ll also take a deep dive into his career from his days starting off as a soccer player in Tennessee through his consistency as one of America’s best 5K runners of the past decade. He’ll share the workout where he dropped Chris Solinsky and other fun stories like his 5th place finish at the Boston Marathon. He finishes his career wit

“Yes, you might have talent or something gifted to you but it doesn’t come without hard work. All those people that you see at the top level and you say, ‘Oh those people are so lucky!’ They work hard for it. We have to know what they came through and what they have done in their lives. For me, yes I was talented in running maybe but I put all the work I wanted to do into running. I might not be perfect for some days but I try my best....” Weini Kelati is a two-time NCAA Division I champion and 13-time All American out of New Mexico who recently decided to forego the rest of her NCAA eligibility to turn professional and sign with Under Armour and train under the Dark Sky Distance team in Flagstaff, Arizona. Weini has an incredible story that really takes off after she competed for her Eritrea at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Eugene, Ore. She decided not to get on the plane back home and started a new life in America. You’ll hear the story of how that all came together, how she settled into life in Vi

“You have a lot of failures but that’s the point of running and learning from these failures, gaining a lot of insight from them and growing from them. Then, they don’t turn into failures anymore. They turn into life lessons and something to be gained from. Everything is something to learn from. Every race is that. Every workout is that. This year has been obviously very strange. Sometimes just getting out the door has been something that you have to feel accomplished for keeping motivated, chipping away at your goals and dreams.” Emma Bates just ran 2:25:40 to just miss her personal best of 2:25:27 with her fourth-place finish at The Marathon Project. In this episode, she’ll give us her assessment of the performance given some of the challenges that she’s faced this year, how she’s been able to pull through some of the tough times brought on by the pandemic and some of her plans and ideas for 2021. Track? Trails? All of the above? Come of The Marathon Project and Olympic Trials insights but stay for her impr

"After Chicago, I said, ‘I’ve arrived in the arena of my marathon potential but I still feel like I’m sitting in the nosebleeds.’ Right? I’m not there yet. So now, I’m like, ‘Well fuck...I’m there now. I think.’ If I can do that again or even get a little better then that’s pretty good. I like to think I’ve proven myself as a competitor beyond just being like the puke guy or the beer-drinking hero guy.” Noah Droddy finished second in 2:09:09 behind recent guest Marty Hehir at the Marathon Project. It was major because it was his first race in 14 months. He had to scratch from the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials due to injury and then he withdrew from the Michigan Pro Half Marathon in the fall due to a COVID scare that might have been a false positive. Droddy came into the race with a personal best of 2:11:42 so it was an improvement by two minutes and 32 seconds. In this episode, we take it all the way back to Droddy’s division 3 days, his choice to take a risk on himself and running post collegiately, crashing

"It comes back to what I want to make sure I'm doing: Serving others. It's not to say that I could go out to Flagstaff, crank it hard and make it to the Olympics and inspire a whole bunch of people. When I see opportunities in front of me to be able to coach and directly impact kids, that's what I'm going to gravitate more toward. I could say, 'You know what...I have to use this talent while I have it to generate more money or guarantee I can make it to the Olympics or have a much better shot.' But I don't want to go out and do that feeling like I left an opportunity to truly help people behind or truly impact people who might need me." Nathan Martin is a two-time U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier who finished 23rd at the trials in Los Angeles and the 69th on the super tough course and the windy conditions of Atlanta earlier this year. His personal best coming into Sunday’s race at The Marathon Project was 2:14:34. He knocked that out of the park by running 2:11:05 to finish ninth overall. After the race

“I feel like I’ve been trying to prove I’m one of the best runners in the country for a very long time yet I’m consistently one of the best. It’s just I haven’t had that breakout performance or won that championship that really mattered. That’s why I feel like this race was finally a validation of my whole running career. I’m finally among in a place where I feel like I belong.” David Melly and I reunite for another crossover episode of The CITIUS MAG Podcast and the Run Your Mouth Podcast. In this episode, we welcome Marty Hehir after his 2:08:59 win at The Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona. The race was spectacularly fast with seven Americans breaking 2:10. One of the major stories after Sunday was that Marty finally got his big win. It's been a long time coming. I first crossed paths with him in 2012 when similarly took many by surprise to win the Big East Cross Country championship. After the race, I asked him "Who are you?" and he later shared an Instagram post in Jan. 2019 where he wrote: “I’ve been

"It sucked at the time and it sucked for a long time afterward. But, that was a pretty useful feeling. Being disappointed is a pretty big motivator. I'm not going to cop out of the fact that I really wanted to go to the Olympics." CITIUS MAG Podcast regular Scott Fauble returns to the show and opens up about how he processed the disappointment of his 12th place finish at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and rekindled his enthusiasm for the sport. We discuss when he started feeling more like himself again, his training and preparation for Sunday's Marathon Project, what's going to prevent this from being a "waste" of a year and much more including listener/live viewer questions. Catch the latest episode of the podcast on iTunes so subscribe and leave a five-star review. We are also on Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify! Support us by picking up some CITIUS MAG merch! Sponsorships for the CITIUS MAG Podcast remain open just in time for 2021. If you’re interested in supporting this s

“There’s no bigger high for me than watching your work get screened in front of people. Good or bad. I’ve had screenings where we’ve packed out a 250-person room with 400 people but I’ve also had screenings, where it’s a 50-person room and only six people, show up and it’s your parents and your friend that you begged to come along. For good or bad, those are the scenarios. It humbles you. It boosts your ego." We recorded this back in August when RJ McNichols and I were in Boulder, Colorado together. He’s one of the first friends I made while covering the sport from my days with Flotrack. He is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles and he’s produced some really cool projects including 16 2 1 and Beyond"; "Running Away to Flagstaff"; "Year of the Bison"; "Fear and "Loathing from Pier to Strip" and "The 41st Day". They’re excellent and make for a great complimentary watch to this podcast. Plus, with all this extra time at home before the holidays, it’s the perfect time to catch up on some running films you maybe were

“When I saw that positive pregnancy test, it was basically the highlight of my year. Looking at the place I am emotionally and mentally, I am very happy. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.” – Aliphine Tuliamuk This is a short and special episode of the podcast regarding the big news that U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials champion Aliphine Tuliamuk is pregnant with her first child. A baby girl is expected in late January. She made her announcement on Sunday afternoon in an Instagram post. I published a story for Sports Illustrated about how she came to this decision but also dives into her family history since she is one of 32 siblings. Now, she’s starting her own. The story includes some insight from Northern Arizona Elite head coach Ben Rosario on her possible road back + HOKA One One’s sports marketing manager Mike McManus on how Aliphine won’t face any reductions or have to rush back to action. Aliphine just re-signed with HOKA One One for the next four years. She is going to have plenty of time to get ready

“I get it from people all the time who say, ‘You’re fairly unconventional for a pro runner.’ I’m like...Thank you? I guess i do appreciate that just because I do approach things in pro running a little bit differently than the ‘normal runner.’ I’m never going to be a Shalane Flanagan. I don’t think it’s healthy for me to be hyper-focused like a one-track mind. Everyone asks me, ‘Oh are you going to join Bowerman now?’ I personally don’t think I would do well on a team like that. I think that kind of structure works really well for people. I personally thrive off a little bit more loosey-goosey and being able to have another life outside of pro running, which is why I love being in Boston. I love living with my sister out here. I love having friends that aren’t pro runners. I love having Jon as my coach because he gives me so much independence to do that. Maybe I’ll do that...Molly the Unconventional Pro.” EPISODE NO. 200! When I was thinking about who would be a good person to get on for this one, it occurred

We're starting to get more news to discuss at the end of every month! Although COVID-19 cases continue to be on the rise in America, a vaccine appears to be on the way and there's optimism about 2021's possible plans. Recurring co-host Matt Meyer joins for episode No. 199. In this episode we discuss: – Track and football's beef involving people claiming Tyreek Hill is faster than Grant Holloway – Best performances of the month: Molly Huddle's one-hour American record, Tierney Wolfgram's American junior marathon record, CJ Albertson's insane 50K on a track or his 2:09 marathon, Keira D'Amato's 10-mile American record) – Upcoming competitions: Sound Running's Track Meet, Valencia Half Marathon & Marathon, The Fukuoka Marathon and The Marathon Project – Is indoor track going to happen? + Everyone's favorite Dopers Gonna Dope segment SUBSCRIBE TO THE CITIUS MAG NEWSLETTER ▶ Follow us: twitter.com/CitiusMag | instagram.com/citiusmag | facebook.com/citiusmag ✩ Connect with Chris via Email: chris@citiusmag.com |

Earlier this month, Clemson’s athletic department announced the decision to cut the men’s track and field and cross country programs after the 2020-21 academic year. Athletic director Dan Radakovich said it came as a measure that will save $2 million per year and would help other Olympic sports on campus survive. The men’s track and field/cross-country team features 51 athletes and has produced 22 Olympians and 16 NCAA titles since it was first offered up in 1953. One of the most outspoken athletes in the fight to save the team has been high jumper Anthony Hamilton Jr. He might have the biggest following with more than 81K Instagram followers and 112.9K TikTok followers thanks to his insanely cool basketball dunks that have been featured on ESPN, House of Highlights, World Star Hip Hop and other mainstream sports social channels. We spoke on Monday to discuss his reaction to the program getting cut, what conversations have taken place with members of the athletic department and more. We posted a video of his

“I knew what it felt like to be an elite runner and then being a spectator trying to get into shape. That’s really tough to do: creating a routine and breaking through those barriers at first before it becomes routine. I just gained a whole different perspective about running. I think where I’m at now I just feel so much gratitude and appreciation because I’ve seen every spectrum of running in my life and I’m appreciative and thankful for where it is now.” We might be a little late to the game in getting Keira D'Amato on the podcast because she's been on a tear in 2020. She finished 15th at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2:34:24. In June, she lowered her 5,000m personal best to 15:04 with a time trial on the track. In July, she won the MVMT Race Series in Boston with a 32:33.44 for the 10,000 meters. Most recently, she won the Michigan Pro Ekiden Half Marathon and the Sugar Run 5K over some fields with strong competition. So how she is doing this at 36? She is also a mother and a full-time realtor.