72- Alone Together: Birthdays, Backyards & Becca’s Tight Box

72- (video) Alone Together: Birthdays, Backyards & Becca’s Tight Box

We’re getting unusually honest this week, which is dangerous because we normally protect ourselves with Fresca, profanity, and deeply unnecessary arguments about driving distances. After Jon’s birthday escape to Chattanooga, we talk about what it feels like to build a community while still feeling outside of it, how race directing can leave us alone together, and why finding time for each other sometimes feels harder than running all night. We also build Becca a caving squeeze box, survive an aggressively confusing hospital parking garage, and wade directly into the backyard ultra controversy involving disqualifications, integrity, and rules people apparently believed were decorative. It’s funny, vulnerable, and probably our most honest conversation yet. A must-listen for runners, race directors, couples, and anyone who has ever created something beautiful only to wonder where they fit inside it.

72- Alone Together: Birthdays, Backyards & Becca’s Tight Box

We’re getting unusually honest this week, which is dangerous because we normally protect ourselves with Fresca, profanity, and deeply unnecessary arguments about driving distances. After Jon’s birthday escape to Chattanooga, we talk about what it feels like to build a community while still feeling outside of it, how race directing can leave us alone together, and why finding time for each other sometimes feels harder than running all night. We also build Becca a caving squeeze box, survive an aggressively confusing hospital parking garage, and wade directly into the backyard ultra controversy involving disqualifications, integrity, and rules people apparently believed were decorative. It’s funny, vulnerable, and probably our most honest conversation yet. A must-listen for runners, race directors, couples, and anyone who has ever created something beautiful only to wonder where they fit inside it.

71 - Post-Race Blues & Stock Tank Pools (Jon's Birthday Week)

We’re officially post-race, which means we’re pretending to relax while still surrounded by unfinished cleanup, schoolwork, farm chores, and whatever new project Becca has emotionally bonded with this week. This time, it’s a stock tank pool—because nothing says “recovery” like turning a giant farm bucket into a luxury outdoor lounge while Jon questions every life choice that led here. We talk post-Mid State Mile blues, finding our rhythm again, ultra running identity, recovery, reflection, birthday miles, cave adventures, cold plunges, and why explaining a 100-mile race to normal people is basically conversational CrossFit. It’s part race decompression, part life update, and part reminder that sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is sit outside in water and call it personal growth.

71 - Post-Race Blues & Stock Tank Pools (Jon's Birthday Week)

We’re officially post-race, which means we’re pretending to relax while still surrounded by unfinished cleanup, schoolwork, farm chores, and whatever new project Becca has emotionally bonded with this week. This time, it’s a stock tank pool—because nothing says “recovery” like turning a giant farm bucket into a luxury redneck outdoor lounge while Jon questions every life choice that led here. We talk post-Mid State Mile blues, finding our rhythm again, ultra running identity, recovery, reflection, birthday miles, cave adventures, cold plunges, and why explaining a 100-mile race to normal people is basically conversational CrossFit. It’s part race decompression, part life update, and part reminder that sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is sit outside in water and call it personal growth.

70 - (video) It’s Just a Mile, Until It Isn’t

* video We are back in Murder Mile Studios for the official Mid-State Mile debrief, which means we are tired, grateful, mildly unwell, and once again pretending this is a professional operation. This episode is part race recap, part thank-you note, part therapy session, and part warning label for anyone who thinks “it’s just a mile” sounds easy. We talk about what made the 2026 Mid-State Mile such a huge year, from the livestream reach and social media numbers to the runners, crews, sponsors, volunteers, and friends who helped turn a backyard race in Tennessee into something people all over the world were watching. We get into the heart of what Mid-State really is. Yes, it is a one-mile loop on a twenty-minute clock. Yes, it is hot, hard, dramatic, and slightly ridiculous. But it is also a pressure cooker that shows people who they are, how they handle adversity, and whether they can keep saying yes when the only relief is stopping. We answer listener questions about the future of the race, whether the 50-hour mark will fall, what crews need to know, who surprised us, who impressed us, how much Fresca is too much Fresca, and why everyone thinks they are hiding their suffering better than they actually are. Spoiler: you are not. We can see your face. At the end of the day, this episode is about Mid-State, but it is also about community, humility, leadership, vulnerability, and learning how to carry each other through hard things. It’s just a mile.