Episode 30 — Henry Howard | My Coach, My DNFs, and What Comes Next

Episode 33 - Keith Allison | First Try. Cocodona 250 Record. 61 Years Old.

In this episode of Run Long After 60, I sit down with Keith Allison — a 61-year-old runner from British Columbia who had never run a 200-mile race before this year. His first attempt was the Cocodona 250. He finished in 99 hours, 29 minutes, and 57 seconds. That time made him the first person in the 60–69 age group in the six-year history of Cocodona to break the 100-hour mark — out of 34 finishers across all six years who ever attempted it in that age group. He did it on his first try. But the finish time alone doesn't tell the story. Keith paced runners at Cocodona in 2022 and 2024. He attended training camp on the course. He drove up in a camper weeks before the race to acclimate to altitude and heat. He ran segments of the course in training until they were no longer surprises. And the runners he paced in those earlier years came back and ran him across the finish line in Flagstaff. This was years in the making. And he always knew it would be a one-time thing. We talk about: * Hating running as a kid — and not starting until his 40s * Qualifying for Boston on his second marathon ever * Running UTMB in 2022 and IMTUF 100 before setting his sights on 250 miles * Why he paced others at Cocodona first — and what he was really learning * Moving up in a camper to acclimate before the race even started * The dust that got into his lungs at mile one and never fully cleared * Three trail-side massages — a first for him — and why the crew insisted * The solo loop: 14 miles, no pacer, middle of the night * The lean that showed up in the final miles and what he did about it * Running the last stretch into Flagstaff with his entire crew beside him * Why he won't be returning to 200-mile racing — and what comes next Keith wasn't the only one making history that day. Pam Reed — one of the most decorated ultrarunners in the sport's history — finished second in the age group at 69 years old, in 100:28:57. She and Keith now hold the two fastest times ever recorded in the 60–69 age group at Cocodona. Both set in the same race. Same year. Paul James Johnson finished fifth all-time in the age group — and it was his fifth Cocodona finish. No one in this age group has done it more. This episode is 2.5 hours long. Keith was on that course for 99.5 hours, and not a single segment deserved to be left out. Run Long After 60 is a video-first podcast focused on running after 60, ultrarunning, longevity, and staying active later in life. If you'd like to watch the full conversation — including chapter markers for every segment of the course — you can find the video version on the Run Long After 60 YouTube channel. 🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, or Amazon Music to follow the journey. 📍 Hosted by Mark Vega

Episode 32 - Dave Perry | @fitandrunning60: Longevity, Plants, and 45 Years on the Road

He's been running since he was 15. He's never had a major injury. At 60, he just went out and ran 30 miles for the first time — and felt fine. Dave Perry found his audience six months ago when his daughters told him to start posting his runs on TikTok. No ring light. No script. No production team. Just a 60-year-old man in Northern California going out and running — and his videos have crossed 10,000 views. Multiple times. What makes Dave so relatable isn't that he's an elite. It's that he isn't. He's a middle-of-the-pack guy who married his high school sweetheart, served in the U.S. Army, raised two daughters, has four grandchildren, and has been quietly building one of the cleanest longevity lifestyles you'll hear described on this show. Plant-based for over a decade. Sober for over 35 years. Fasting daily in a 2-to-4 p.m. window. Asleep by 9:00 p.m. and up at 4:30 a.m. In this conversation: the Atkins-to-fish-to-plant-based journey that dropped his cholesterol from 240 to 152; why he stopped racing at 50 and never looked back; how making TikTok videos actually made him a better runner; surviving long runs without taste or smell after Covid; and why he's only ever run one marathon and one Ironman — on purpose. This episode also opens with a long and deeply personal running intro from Mark — his full reflection on crewing and pacing Paul James Johnson at the Cocodona 250, what it meant to witness a multi-day event for the first time, and why that experience changed everything. Dave Perry is the guy who makes you think: maybe I'll go out and run today. That's the whole point. 🎥 Watch the full video episode on YouTube — search Run Long After 60. 📲 Follow Dave Perry on TikTok: @fitandrunning60 New episodes every Sunday. Audio at 5:00 AM. Video at 12:00 PM Pacific.

Episode 31 – Chris & Michael Nicolaides | Brothers With a 10-Year Run Streak

Run Streaker Series – Episode 2 In this episode of Run Long After 60, I sit down with two brothers — Chris Nicolaides (66) and Michael Nicolaides (63) — who have each run at least one mile every single day for over ten years. Chris started his streak on Thanksgiving Day 2015. Michael started his 33 days later. Neither one has stopped. But the streak numbers alone don't tell the story. These brothers have run 97 miles together at Umstead 100, stayed in Damascus, Virginia, to help rebuild after Hurricane Helene instead of racing, and once ran the Appalachian Trail together during Covid just to see each other. Running every single day is not just what they do. It's who they are. This episode is the second installment of the Run Streaker Series. The series began with Episode 24, when Kevin Brunson — an 18-year run streaker who appeared on Episode 12 of the podcast — reached out to Tim Hardy, another 18-year streaker, and brought him on the show. Kevin and Tim had followed each other's running for years but had never actually spoken. Their first real conversation happened on that episode. At the end of that conversation, I challenged Kevin and Tim to find the next guests for the series. Tim Hardy knew exactly who to call. He had met Chris and Michael years earlier at a marathon dinner — and unknowingly planted the seed that led them both to start streaking. Tim is happy to take full credit. And full responsibility. Both Kevin and Tim join this episode as co-hosts, anchoring the Run Streaker Series alongside the brothers. We talk about: * The New Year's Eve dare around a fire in Richmond that started everything * Running before a hernia surgery — and again the night after * The midnight split: how to get two streak days out of one late-night run * Running Heathrow Terminal 5 back and forth, four times, to hit two miles * 97 miles side by side at Umstead 100 — and what happened at mile 97 * Hurricane Helene, a canceled race, and staying to help rebuild a community * Raven — the Miami Beach runner who has gone every single day since January 1st, 1975 * What all four would tell someone thinking about starting a streak The Nicolaides brothers exist in rarefied air inside the running world. They are believed to be one of the only brother pairs on earth holding an active run streak of this length. And when you hear the four of them in the same conversation — two brothers at ten years, two friends at eighteen — you understand immediately what that kind of commitment means, and what it gives back. This is Run Streaker Series Episode 2. If you know a run streaker — or a sibling pair still going — I'd love to hear from you. Kevin Brunson and Tim Hardy return as anchors of the Run Streaker Series and will help bring future guests into these conversations. If you know a run streaker whose story should be told, send them this episode. Run Long After 60 is produced as a video-first podcast. If you'd like to watch the full conversation, you can find the video version — including chapter markers — on the Run Long After 60 YouTube channel. 🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, or Amazon to follow the journey. 📍 Hosted by Mark Vega

Episode 30 — Henry Howard | My Coach, My DNFs, and What Comes Next

This one is personal.   For the first half of this episode, I'm sitting down with my running coach, Henry Howard — deputy media director of the American Legion, RRCA-certified coach, the creator of RunSpirited, and a five-time 100-mile finisher. Henry has believed in me for years, sometimes when the data probably said he shouldn't. We talk about how he balances running a major media operation at the American Legion with competing in and coaching ultras, the Burning River 100 that taught him the most about the distance, and what most amateur runners misunderstand about having a coach. He also reveals what he thinks is waiting for him on the other side of 60 — including some breaking news about a recent pickleball injury.   For the second half, the mic turns around. I'm coming off my first 100-mile start line at the Leona Divide — a DNF at mile 28, nine hours in, swept from the course. It was my third DNF in five months (Red Rock Canyon 100K in November, Sean O'Brien 100K in January, Leona Divide 100 Mile in April). That record deserves honest analysis, and Henry is the right person to give it.   We talk about who actually picked these races (I did — not Henry), whether the stroke history I carry from two ischemic strokes in my early fifties ever changed how Henry coached me, and the framework I've been building called Data Not Failure — the idea that every DNF contains information a finish doesn't, and that information is the foundation of whatever comes next.   We walk through all three DNFs, look at the pattern honestly, and face the question of whether Bigfoot 200 in August is the right next race. Henry doesn't give me a simple yes or no — which is exactly the right answer.   This episode closes with Henry's message for every runner over 60 who wonders whether the window might be closing. It's the right note to end on.   FIND HENRY HOWARD: Website and Monday Motivation Newsletter: runspirited.com [http://runspirited.com] Coaching inquiries: runspirited.com [http://runspirited.com] Instagram: @henryhoward   Run Long After 60 is a podcast built on the conviction that age is not a barrier to doing hard things. Subscribe wherever you listen.

Episode 29 - Taylor Nichols | Bianchi in Aspen. Built Safer Streets in West Hollywood. Still Riding.

In this episode of Run Long After 60, I sit down with Taylor Nichols — a West Hollywood, Los Angeles actor and bicycle advocate who has been fighting for safer streets for over 15 years, and who hasn't stopped riding since he bought a Bianchi off a drug dealer in Aspen, Colorado in the mid-80s.   Taylor rode bikes as a kid in Michigan, put the bike away at 16 when he got his license, and didn't get back on one until he moved to Aspen for a theater job. He rode up to the Maroon Bells at 11,000 feet, got stoned at the top, flew 17 miles downhill, and said: I'm a cyclist for life.   The advocacy came later — when his kids were old enough to bike to school but the streets of West Hollywood were too wide, too fast, and too car-dominated to feel safe. So Taylor got appointed to the West Hollywood Bicycle Task Force, spent six months going deep into urban planning and street design, and helped transform Santa Monica Boulevard into something the whole community could use. That work eventually led him to Bike Talk — a weekly radio show on KPFK 90.7 FM now airing in 16 markets — where he co-hosts conversations with the politicians, authors, and urban planners reshaping how American cities work.   This is a different kind of episode for Run Long After 60. We talk about:   • The Bianchi, the Maroon Bells, and 40 years of never stopping • The West Hollywood Bicycle Task Force and what it actually changed • 45,000 Americans killed in traffic violence every year — and why it's not an accident • "Car crash" not "car accident" — and the book behind that shift • Bike Talk: from underground Kill Radio to 16 markets on KPFK • E-bikes: why research shows older riders get more exercise on them, not less • How protected bike lanes make roads safer for runners and drivers too • What it actually takes to get someone over 60 back on two wheels   Taylor closes with a line that's going to stay with me. It's not his — he credits a writer named Tom Flood — but it's the whole argument in ten words: "Bicycles offer the freedom that auto ads promise."   He's right. And after this conversation, I believe it.   Run Long After 60 is a video-first podcast focused on running after 60, ultrarunning, longevity, and staying active later in life. If you'd like to watch the full conversation, you can find the video version on the Run Long After 60 YouTube channel.   🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, or Amazon Music to follow the journey.   📍 Hosted by Mark Vega