L’idée de La French Trail que j’avais pitchée à @joshrosenthal1 lors de notre première rencontre, c’était de proposer du contenu immersif, enregistré pendant qu’on court.
Je sors enfin ce premier épisode immersif, et pas n’importe lequel : celui du record d’ @oliviermaria.ultra de Dunkerque à Marseille.
Olivier m’a partagé chaque jour ses pensées, ses galères, ses joies, ses émotions et ses rencontres. Il m’a livré ce qu’il se passait réellement dans sa tête.
Un document exceptionnel. Que se passe-t-il lorsque l’on court 100 km par jour pendant 10 jours ?
Courez écouter l’épisode !
Pic by @jerome.habasque & @bry_bastard
Video by @jerome.habasque
Runners need local trail races. Local trail races need runners. UTMB needs local trail races to succeed. We all want it.
@sormlands100_trail_run and @billywhite43 are building a meaningful bucket-list race rooted in the Swedish forest south of Stockholm.
We talked about building in the shadow of deep pocket investment in the latest episode of the Borderlands Trail and Ultra Running Podcast.
What is Trail Running becoming?
Episode 298
Photos by @zauner__
What is trail running becoming?
Josh went to Stockholm to sit with @klattermusen CEO Gonz Ferrero and @sormlands100_trail_run race director Billy White to talk about building in trail running right now.
Who determines where trail running is going - runners or investors? What’s it like building in a world where large established businesses like Nike and UTMB are driving so much of the narrative?
@billywhite43
Josh went to Stockholm to talk with Klättermusen CEO Gonz Ferrero and Sörmlands 100 founder Billy White about what happens when trail running grows up and smaller independent brands find themselves competing against juggernauts like HOKA and UTMB that increasingly shape the culture itself.
Episode 298
Available where fine podcasts are streamed.
@billywhite43 + @klattermusen + @sormlands100_trail_run
Some collabs make a shoe louder, this one made the Speedgoat 2 calmer.
The storytelling wasn’t inflated. It felt more true to @unna ’s narrative style than Hoka’s.
@hoka let @unna.world speak. And that shows Hoka’s increasing awareness that for it to keep growing, its shoes have to go beyond running.
This collab felt less like gear and more like something you become friends with. Wear around town and for a run.
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Almanac is Borderlands’ considered look at gear through a non-performance lens.
I said trail running’s live coverage still asks too much from the audience and the comment section had a lot to say about it.
Some people agreed completely. Others thought I fundamentally misunderstood what makes this sport special in the first place.
And honestly, some of the counterarguments were very good.
Because underneath the livestream debate was a much bigger question: Should trail running become easier to consume at all? Or is some of the friction, weirdness, insider culture, and scavenger-hunt feeling actually part of why people love it?
That tension is way more interesting to me than “good coverage vs bad coverage.”
New follow-up essay live now.
Most ultra runners don’t fail because they didn’t take in enough fuel.
They fail because their body stopped accepting it.
We’re pushing carbs - 90. 100. 120 grams per hour.
And it works. Until it doesn’t.
At some point, the system pushes back.
Your stomach shuts down. Sweetness fatigue. Absorption drops. Everything unravels.
Not because you did it wrong. Because you simplified something that isn’t simple.
Performance isn’t just about what you put in. It’s about whether your body can actually use it.
That’s the gap this conversation explores with Chris Bellamy from Yanaa.
If you’ve ever blown up mid-race and didn’t fully understand why, this is for you.
Full episode in bio.
@c.w.bellamy | @youarenotanastronaut
Increasing carb consumption in ultramarathons has led to better performances across the board. But are we being short sited? Are we missing something?
Chris Bellamy from @youarenotanastronaut makes a case for looking at it differently and how we might be making a mistake being hyper focused on carb intake in ultramarathons.
Episode live now. Podcast link in bio.
I thought I was going to run the 2025 EcoTrail Paris 80k in the Norda 005s but last minute I decided not to because it was raining and as silly as it sounds, I didn’t want to my new 005s that dirty. So I went for the Zegama 1s that I got for 50% off on Etienne Marcel in Paris.
A great shoe and one that I wouldn’t mind getting irreparably dirty for the price I paid. My friend @taylorjbodin said I would love the ZoomX foam and that he thought the Zegamas were the perfect shoe for me at any race in the world except for, well, Zegama.
It was a muddy rainy awful day to run 80k - exactly what I wanted. After living in Paris and running mostly road at the time, I wanted a dirty brutal ultra in the forest where the air smelled like air instead of Paris.
14 months later the mud from that race is still on the shoe. I can’t bring myself to clean them because that mud is more than just mud. It’s a reminder that ultras are the solution to just about everything.
I hope the new Zegamas form @acg maintained the spirit of the Zegama 1. Haven’t tried them yet.
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The graphic is wrong. They’re not the 2s. They’re the Zegama 1s.
