10 Things I Love About Trail Running RIGHT NOW

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It’s easy to love trail running this time of year because in the northern hemisphere we’re leaving winter for spring and all the good feelings of hope that come with it.

Here are the 10 things that I Love About Trail Running Right Now.

ACTUAL Trail Running

01:23 | I know, this is novel.  So much of what I do is about running more than actual running.  And right now, while I am living in Paris, I’m so rarely on the trails – it’s almost entirely road – but I’m not sad.  Just the opposite.  

I’ve learned to love the rhythm and mindlessness of the road and the attention to mechanics and speed.  My A race for the year is coming up and it has me on the trails becuase my long runs are long enough to get me from the center of the peripherique to the forest.  

Ultratrail Race Season

10:48 | I grew up in West Texas where Texas Tech Football in the fall was the only season we really cared about life at all it seemed.  When I fell in love with trail running circa 2013, I brought that West Texas fandom with me to the sport and lose my mind during race season.  

 

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Mountain Outpost is a gift that keeps on giving and getting better.  I’m one of their metrics that tunes in ALL DAY until at least until M1 and F1 cross the finish line.

Running to “Overcome”

13:39 | During 2026 I’m working through something called the ‘4 Turns’ – running toppics that follow the movement of the sun through the solstices and equinoxes.  It started with the winter solstice where I talked to people who I think are bringing light to the world through running like Scott Jurek, Laz Lake, and Nils Arend to name a few.

Later in March, I will launch into the sping equipnox version where I look at people who OVERCOME [fill in the blank] with running.

Ciele Athletics

16:23 | Ciele was the first brand I saw after I started running that I really wanted to wear when I wasn’t running.  And to be honest, I wanted to wear it MORE when I wasn’t running than when I was running.  The style was cool, the performance unmatchec, and it really served my growing love for the sport as it signaled to everyone that I not enjoyed running but I am a runner.

Trail Shoe Design

18:39 | In the same way that Ciele changed headwear and made runners want to wear their stuff even when not running, the last few years have been incredible for shoe design fans.  As the industry advances, its been a treat to watch every single brand elevate its form and function.  I’m particularly in love with Kipsummit Max, Brooks Cascadia Elite, and Norda 001a. 

More

24:05 6. Scrappy Trail Running Brands
30:37 7. Meme Culture
35:08 8. Tommie Runz
36:21 9. Taylor Bodin (dirt division) + Josh Bouton (meta endurance)
38:27 10. Inky Steve, Stan Van Kemmel, Bryce Carlson, Sam Lohse

Presented by Kiprun https://bit.ly/kiprun_yt

Episode Transcript

Borderlands (00:00.654)
It’s the Borderlands Trail and Ultra Running podcast presented by Kip Run. My name is Josh Rosenthal, the host and the founder of Borderlands Trail Running. I’m going to be talking about Kip Run some in this episode rather organically. So you’re to hear more about that. But the shoes are coming to America on April 6th. They’re already rolling out in Europe and I think they’re stunning. But anyway, like I said, more to come. Okay. Today, 10 things that I love about trail running. I think I kind of could have said 10 things I love about running after that Laz episode when he kind of, I don’t know the best way to put it.

shit on the separation between trail and road. He wasn’t really touching on culture, he was more just talking about from a runner perspective, which I appreciate that, you know, that there is no real difference, you know, it’s just running, as he put in the episode. But, you know, at the same time, I love trail running culture, I love the people, I love everything that it represents, and I’ve just been more connected to it, even though I’m running a lot on the road right now. But these are 10 things right now that are like, like engaging me, keeping me

really excited about what’s happening in trail running and I would say running in general. And I thought I would share them with you. I got a bunch of stuff down here. Like if you’re on Spotify, you can watch this or if you’re on YouTube, a lot of visuals here, but also works just fine. If you’re just listening while you’re on a run, I’m to be going through a lot of different things, some gear related stuff, and then like some, you know, the gamut of everything that I love about trail running right now. And so I’m just going to jump right in.

Number one, this sounds crazy because so much of the trail running world, you don’t always get this, that it’s running. Like the thing I love about trail running right now is trail running is the act of actually doing it, which I know novel because we always talk about gear, which I’m going to, we always take it to different places and that’s fine. I’m here for it. I’m here for every bit of it. I’m driving some of that culture, but I am…

Absolutely in love with running right now and if and the long run and spring is coming in Paris right now Like it’s it’s emerging like you can feel it coming some some days in the high 60s and Fahrenheit Stunning and so it’s making me excited But I was running all through the winter getting ready for Paris Eco trail that is on the same day as Chianti Which is a bummer because I’d want to consume Chianti as a fan, but I will run gladly

Borderlands (02:25.145)
Paris Eco Trail instead. I’m doing 125k, 120k, yeah, 120k, 75 miles. And I’m getting my long runs in on Sundays and I just, the log runs are just filling my cup. I don’t know the best way to put it. I’m a great way to put it, but I’m just, I’m loving them. I live in the sixth aroundest mom in Paris. I run straight down to the river for those of you who know Paris, go right to the river. And then I just stay along the river.

For about six or seven miles and then finally I’m in the forest outside of Paris after that Not quite mood on like next to it. But if you know the area the the forest running outside of Paris is I don’t know the best way to put it other than like you talk about California carpet. That’s just smooth buttery wide Fast trails. So if you’re a super fast runner, it’s a place to do if you’re not like me, man It’s still just utter peace out there. And so I haven’t got to

actually run on trail much until I’ve been doing these Sunday long runs. I had a 22-mile or 25-mile or got a 50k training run coming up. I know, like I’m talking to Camille Herron a few weeks ago, breaking out that philosophy of your longest run being two hours. I think if you’re training to be an elite and you’ve got big race day and you’ve got big race day ambition, you want to optimize all that. For those of us who are out there just running and

it’s not what’s paying the bills and there’s no chance that it will. We don’t have the competitive spirit to go out and think that we’re gonna get a race. that this has given me the excuse to do a 22 mile, 25 mile, 50 K, know, a 13 mile or anything like that. I mean, I got a half marathon PR through the course of this training, which was a pleasant surprise. I’ve never optimized for that low of a distance. I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world. I…

I think if I were to really try and get competitive, I would really adopt that philosophy that Camille talked about that has worked for her. If it’s worked for her, I think it’s good, clearly, because of the results that she’s had. But getting to do those long runs, I’m so happy. And then to know that my A race for the year is coming, even though, yes, we’re moving back to Salt Lake City in July of this year, after being in Paris for two years, there might be some races that happen in the fall.

Borderlands (04:41.76)
love to be at Dead Horse. I would love to be at Palo Duro. Any of these desert runs, canyon runs would just be a dream. Maybe UTMB’s new race in the fall in Utah. But EcoTrail, my A race, it’s coming up in a few weeks. And I’m just beyond thankful that I’m out able to run right now and that everything’s working.

Had a little bit of plantar fasciitis and then that’s even now gone. I’m just I’m stoked So here’s let me just show you a quick look and I’ll talk through it as well that this is what I’m thinking right now for race day These soar shorts they do they kind of market them as trail shorts Dual run. I just absolutely love them as I hold them in my hand right now. It’s disgusting. They are sweaty from yesterday’s Sorry, this is I mean like literally I used to think my friend Jeremy Cox

Sometimes he’d roll up for just like a hangout, not a run, wearing some of his run clothes and not smell him. And this is precisely, this reminds me of my dude Jeremy Cox, miss that guy. Ciele has this really interesting go cap that’s lined. It’s quite warm, but this is what I plan to wear. If not, I’ll probably wear, do their, what do they call it? Their worldwide movement hat that says Paris on it. But man, this go cap that’s like lined, planned to wear.

that day because it can be over your ears or it can flip up so it keeps it kind of takes the place of a beanie or a hat but yeah it’ll get it’ll get super hot. Man this gear I’m super stoked on doesn’t translate well to video naked. Has this belt so my hydration plan my belt plan is going to be is this is their vest that is if you like their belt the vest is incredible and if you’re doing an ultra like a 75 miler like I’m doing

the system where you combine this vest with like the two liter or the one and a half liter belt, to me cannot be beat. It is just, there is no bounce. It’s so, man, I love it. So I’m gonna be wearing that. And then I just gotta get a shout out. Decathlon, Americans don’t know about Decathlon. Decathlon has tried, I think twice to open Decathlon brick and mortar stores in America. They have 1700 locations around the world. I don’t think they’ve, it just never worked in America. The price point,

Borderlands (06:58.1)
And the quality of the gear coming out of Decathlon is incredible. My headlamp, I’ve had the worst luck with headlamps. I have never had a headlamp that has worked out for me from, I don’t want to throw any brands under the bus, but they just never have. I did like the big massive Kogala light. I wore that for ultras overnight. It looked like a bus was coming. I needed that, scared of the dark. blame, you know, don’t judge me. Don’t want to run into a snake in the middle of the night. But this headlamp from Decathlon, it was like,

15 euros, 20 euros, comes with this rechargeable battery and this, and it’s pretty lightweight. The glories of Decathlon, which is the company that, the parent company of Kiprun. Yeah, again, a huge company. They have supply chain dialed. Their stuff, if you don’t want to like make a major investment into like say a name brand light to go get one of their in-house brands, that’s the value proposition of Decathlon is that it’s like stop number one.

don’t have a huge budget or you do have a big budget, but you don’t want to spend a lot of money on it. They have everything. It’s incredible. And I wish that it would work in America because it is like a weekly go-to for us and our kids for all the stuff that they do here around Paris. So shoes, I’m choosing between three, just to be perfectly honest. I’m really leaning hard toward the Kip, what is the Kip Summit Max by Kip Run. Beautiful shoe. You saw Cade Michael.

in Black Canyon 50k land on the podium in this shoe. He crushed it in this shoe. Talked with him a little bit afterwards because I was just curious his take on it. And I’ll tell you, no shade on the marketing department of Kip Run, but Cade described this shoe better than anything that I had heard. And I’ve got some videos coming out where I’m the voice of steering the marketing on this shoe, like explaining this shoe and Cade did a better job. Anyway, so thinking about that shoe, taking a real hard look.

at the new Brooks Cascadia Elite. This is not, I haven’t taken it for too hard of a spin, just kind of around on some concrete and stuff, do some big runs in this. I think it’s super comfortable. I’ve heard a lot of great stuff from all the reviewers that got this early. This shoe comes out any day now, any minute now, might already be out. I think around March 1st, I don’t know what day this episode’s gonna release, but close to that. Beautiful shoe.

Borderlands (09:17.614)
I once said that Brooks, the reason that I didn’t wear Brooks is not because they weren’t great shoes, but because when I look down at my feet, I have to love what I’m looking at. I did that on an episode with them and that their marketing department reached out and said, hey, we just want to let you know, we’re working on stuff. This was like a year and a half ago, two years ago. When I look down at my feet and these, I love them. I’m a fan of white shoes, especially with a splash of color, the way that they’ve done it on this. I just think it’s a beautiful shoe. Love that sole.

Considering that, it’s gonna take a lot to get me out of that Kip Summit Max or the Kip Summit Race shoe, but I need to give a shout out because man, this is a dream shoe. I think I’m gonna take the Norda 001A instead of EcoTrail. There’s a trail half marathon that I hope to run that’s called 2T2M. I ran it last year. I ran it in the Norda 001s. The 001A to me, that foam is amazing. I don’t know that I’m gonna end up in EcoTrail in this shoe.

But the thing is I wish I could wear all these shoes every time because they’re all just so damn good. But this Norda, beautiful, wear this around town a lot. Park runs in this because most of my runs are either along the river on cobblestones or at Luxembourg Garden. This shoe’s great. And then just got to get a shout out to last year’s shoe, Taylor Bodin from Believe in the Run. It rained a lot last year and I did the 50 miler and so I’ve kept all that mud on there because it’s sentimental to me.

This it was the Zagama 2 pre ACG. I’m indifferent toward ACG at this point, but I loved the shoe, loved this colorway, got it for 50 % off here in Paris. So how do you not love that? Yeah, so leading for the Kip Summit Max, but I think it’s great race. I’m super excited about number two of the 10 things that I love about trotting right now is race season. It’s race season and I come in. I talk about racing as a fan. I don’t talk about it as some authority.

I’m going to get some stuff wrong at times, not my intention, and I do not mind. In fact, I welcome being corrected if I mess up on stats or anything like that. I’m just a fan. I love it. I brought my West Texas fandom of college football, of high school football, of that intensity. I brought that with me when I got into trail 12, 15 years ago, whatever it was. And it has served up nicely to me. The competition is incredible. The Mountain Outpost.

Borderlands (11:44.214)
is getting better every single time. And to be honest for me, like I’ll watch Texas Tech basketball games on my phone, not actual footage of the game, but like the ESPN game tracker where I have to reload it every few minutes to see if the points went up or if the ball, you know, how the ball’s moving. It’s, just, I love it. And Mountain Outpost delivers and I’ve been so happy with that. Black Canyon was just a blast to watch. I got to watch almost all of the-

the 100K, didn’t get to watch a ton of the 50K, but I did definitely tune in. That 50K went by real fast. That podium was insanely fast. Seth Ruling crushed it, brought another record. That 100K, so much fun. Anne Flower, who had just been on the podcast, loved seeing her get second place. Like I just, I love it, I love it, I love it. I wish that Tara Wera and Black Canyon could talk to each other and get on different weekends because

I want to pay attention to Terra Vera as much as want to pay attention to Black Canyon, but if on the same weekend, I’m gonna lean Black Canyon. Of course, you as the American fan that I am, but I wish they could be on different days. Can Aravaipa and Terra Vera work that out? Can Western States say something about that? Because we don’t get that many golden ticket races. What do we get, six? Why do two of them have to be on the same day? I’d love to see that worked out.

Chianti is coming up. However, in the early manifesto of Borderlands, it says that any time given the option to watch running or to actually run, we will always choose to actually run. And my race, EcoTrail, that I just love so much is on the same day as Chianti. And I am bummed because I will not give a single moment of my thought power to Chianti that day because it’s the day that I’m running my race. However, when I get home, I’m going to consume as much as I can.

as I’m able to, but race season in general. So I’m excited to be at races this year, hopefully gonna be at Hard Rock, hopefully gonna be at Western States. There’s just so many question marks there, planning to be back at UTMB. It’s gonna be a great year and I’m stoked on race season. Okay, number three, these are gonna start moving a little bit faster now. Number three is this series I’m doing called The Four Turns. And so I did the winter series, the winter series.

Borderlands (14:07.406)
It’s going with the solstice. So the winter solstice is the day where light starts to overpower darkness. Every day has more light than the day before. And so I’ve talked to people that I thought were bringing light to the world through running. Nils Ehrend of TSP, if you are a Speed Project fan, I don’t even need to say any more than that. You know the light that’s coming to the world through the Speed Project.

And Nils and they’ve got so much cool stuff coming I never know what I what I can talk about what I can’t because there’s some stuff that’s underground some of it that’s meant to be known like there’s a culture there and I respect the hell out of it so all I know is a lalv seems to be the thing that is always happening and on the surface seems like Chamonix to Marseille but Nils is bringing light to the world. I had Scott Jurek Dean Karnazes Laz

Tommy Lewis, it was an incredible series. I did three weeks of Laz because we sat and talked for five hours and so I tried to logically break that up into three different discussions. But now we’re going into the equinox and so this is the second of the four turns and in the second turn I’m looking at people who have overcome something. I’m looking at topics where things are being overcome because in the spring equinox that’s the day that light overcomes darkness. And so if you’re tracking with me

We’re in this really nice spot where running to the bringing light to the world through running and then overcoming well the summer and winter those are gonna be pretty dark because that’s Darkness starts to overcome the light and then in the fall equinox the autumnal equinox That’s when darkness overcomes light and so there’s some there’s some stuff coming this year And we’ll see how dig how deep I dig on it Because it’s it’s some challenging stuff as we get into that but here we’re still in this like light

encouraging stuff that’s gonna make you wanna go run, stuff that’s gonna make you wanna consume whatever these people are that I’m gonna be highlighting that what they are bringing to the world. So all I’m saying for now is that there’s a lot of special guests. Again, the first one had Nils and Scott Juric and Dean Karnazes, Laz Lake, Tommy Lewis, it was a big one. This one, big names also, and that’ll start to roll out.

Borderlands (16:34.132)
On the 22nd ish. That’s you know ish we’ll say right around there on the Equinox. Okay. Next number four of the things I love about running. I just released a podcast with CLA the founder Jeremy Bresnan co-founder Mike Giles and Jeremy Bresnan co-founded CLA. I got to spend 90 minutes on a walk through Paris with Jeremy Bresnan and it just made me love running. It made me think back to when I first saw it. Like I was I was a runner no matter what. Like I was in

on the sport. It was, and even to this day, I’m still a race t-shirt kind of guy. really don’t, I love wearing a race t-shirt, the nostalgia, the connection to something I’ve done. But I remember walking into Salt Lake running, must’ve been circa 2015, maybe early 2016, but I think late 2015. And there was a CLA cap on the wall and I saw it and I was just drawn to it. The color blocking, the way that they did it. There was an early 90s vibe, like all the stuff that you heard about in the podcast. I love the brand CLA. I mean, it’s, to me, it’s one of the foundational

most important brands. And in that podcast, he talked about the other brands that emerged with him. There was just something happening at that time. And I’m sure there were a lot of brands that started that didn’t make it. So I’m not saying they all did, but John G, CLA, TrackSmith, you know, they were the early ones. And then right after that Satisfye comes into the market. They were all seeing this thing that was happening where people were not only running, but they were, their identity was runners, to be runners.

And they were all tapping into that, but CLA just masterfully and the most class in terms of their design, in terms of the brand that they built, like it’s just, it’s classic. I think it’s one for the ages. And so right now, one of the things I love about trail running is, you know, lacing up and throwing on my CLA hat or something like that. Like, it’s just, that interview was the same feelings I got interviewing Mike Herrera from MXPX, who, you know, I was a diehard fan of forever. was just like,

I loved it, I was so into it. So during that interview, I agonized over the edit. was trying to, because we went on a walk through Paris, so you got the Paris sirens going, you got all this sort of stuff that’s making sounds. And I just agonized over the edit, like trying to, as an engineer, pull the stuff out and chop it up in a way that best told the story and didn’t distract too much from the background sounds. I just love it, man, I loved it, so cool. Number four.

Borderlands (18:56.974)
I’m just gonna say shoes in general. I know this is a cliche. Maybe for me it feels cliche because I’m just in it, but all of you maybe aren’t in it as much as I am. I’ve always loved shoes, didn’t have much money growing up, so it didn’t matter. I didn’t have shoes. I mean, I had shoes, but not ever more than one pair. And that one pair, we got a new pair a year unless we outgrew them as kids, which is great. It’s fine. I try and do that with my kids as well.

However, it’s like torture to my six year old who loves shoes. Dad only buys him one pair when he outgrows him or once a year. And it just, happen to be getting shoes in the mail, you know, daily or weekly and it hurts him. But he’s, he’s learning to be happy for me. My 13, my almost 13 year old has the same size foot as me. So he gets to wear all of these shoes. But in general, what I love about trail running right now is just that there are the what’s happening in shoes.

As someone who loves design first, function second, it’s just, it’s hitting. So I grabbed a few here that I wanna, that I’m just excited about. This, the Adidas Agraviq Speed Ultra 2. This might’ve been like not maybe final production one, maybe it was. I got it at UTMB at the Audi house. Man, love it. I just love the thinking of this. I don’t know that, I haven’t seen that they’re selling one that looks like this, but.

Cool shoe, all the stuff that Adidas is doing, Adidas is doing right now, Colorways, everything is a clinic and I’m loving it. Okay, so many down here. This, not a trail shoe, but it’s a tempo, it’s the Kipstorm tempo. Again, from a design standpoint, stunning. I’m doing a couple tempo runs a week. I don’t have a coach.

I’m just running in a way that I just love. So there’s twice a week where I’m just trying to run real fast. And sometimes those runs are between seven and eight minutes and when they are, I’m just stoked and happy. I’m not on Strava. It goes to Coros and I look at it and it makes me happy. When I wear this shoe, I feel fast and that’s fun to me. Objectively, not fast. I feel fast and that’s great. And because it doesn’t go on Strava, I don’t have to feel fast and put it up there and feel like I need to apologize to everybody.

Borderlands (21:21.288)
pretend like it wasn’t a tempo run. It just, I’m running fast and I’m having fun in those shoes. You know, you can’t talk about shoes right now without talking about Mounticoast. This H1, it’s been real nice. Super lightweight. I like the circle cell technology down here. Colorways, great. Mounticoast is doing a great job. I I honestly think, and this is my dude Inky Steve’s observation is that

if Mount Decoast kind of had a, were heavily inspired aesthetically by Norta and kind of knocked on their door a little bit, but then came in at this price point, I think the people who will give them the run for their money will be Kip Run. So I think that Steve was right. I’m gonna have him on the podcast soon. We’ll maybe break that down a little bit more. Kip Run has an incredible portfolio and the price is better.

which is wild to me that we had nonstop price increases for a while. And then all of a sudden we have now we have some players coming in, especially someone like Kip Run, who has that level of acumen around supply chain and cost and to bring in a really great shoe at a really great price. mean, we’re yeah, I don’t know what exactly come in 150, 140 euros on some of their shoes, even less if they bring in, I don’t know what models.

if they’re going to bring in like entry level models on the the Kip Summit and all that. But here in Europe, Kip Summit’s like 89 bucks. The max is around what 149 in their race day shoes. A little bit a little bit pricier. But I don’t want to take away from Mount Deco’s has been doing great stuff. They’ve been making smart moves on athletes and, you know, seeing them at the 24 hour world world champs and all that sort of stuff like

This has been a fun shoe to run around in. What else?

Borderlands (23:27.278)
I know it’s not a, I’m not actually going to run in the shoe. don’t think any, does anybody run the shoe? I think it was one of the Clifton’s or something like that, but this was a collab with Haven, uh, out of Canada, uh, Canada really showing up strong here today. Talked about Norda. Now I’ve talked about Haven, um, talked about something else Canadian. What else? Oh, CLA of course. Um, and so there’s a heavy on Montreal, but I just, I have loved walking around, uh, daily in these shoes. Um,

Not totally my style. No one would have pegged me as like, know, avant-garde when it comes to fashion. And maybe they even laugh at me for saying that this is avant-garde, but I have really loved walking around in this shoe. I like the way I feel when I wear it. And it’s cool shoe. It’s a little bit stiffer than it looks. I would have thought it’d been a little bit more cushion, but it’s a great urban, like walking shoe. Okay, I’ve got more shoes, but they’re gonna enter in here on something else. Okay, number six.

What I love about trial running right now is the scrappy brands. I come from a background of scrappy entrepreneurship. Yeah, I raised capital and we took on debt and all that sort of stuff. in general, we never took on a lot of debt or a lot of capital. What we really tried to do was take on minimal amounts so that we could then go out and do the fun stuff. so in Salt Lake, I started 13 restaurants with partners.

Did a lot of did a long list a long list of other things ten albums as a musician all the stuff that I would bring in money for I would just try and be lean with it and so I when I see these other scrappy brands I Just I want to do everything I can to champion them because I see it. I know the struggle I love the struggle, but also when you’re in that struggle You want nothing more than to kind of be out of it and be a little bit more stable

And then you get out of it and you’re stable and you would give anything to be back in those days when it felt was unstable and you were scrappy. So a couple of those brands, Hyperlite, you know, don’t leave home without it. I, all these long runs I’m talking about, I’m maxed out on Hyperlite. I’m at full throttle on the dosage. Now it took me a while, you know, to, to ramp up to it, but when I got into my long runs, you know, using this is the H1C. They’ve got some cool stuff.

Borderlands (25:44.344)
coming in the pipeline. don’t know what they’re talking about yet, but had some fun conversations with them recently. But Hyperlite to me feels scrappy, they’re, and it’s fun. They’ve got a great team of athletes that they put together and you know, it’s owner operated. It’s just, it’s a fun brand and I really enjoy watching them. Okay, here’s another.

42, this is their Sayonara shoe. Every shoe is a little bit different in terms of how it looks, and I think that’s super cool. Love the colors, like this is a brand they’re out of, Harlem, which is in the Netherlands, not too far from Amsterdam. I think their founder, Jurian, is scrappy. He has a background with big brands, but the way that he’s building this thing to me,

is as an outsider, it’s fun. And it looks like he’s having fun doing it, even though probably day in and day out, it’s hard. can wrap my mind around this supply chain because I’ve built businesses that are similar to a Hyperlite supply chain. I’m not saying exactly, and I’m not saying I could do as good of a job. I’m saying can wrap my mind around how this works. To be a scrappy shoe brand is special.

And so if you want to check out a brand that you haven’t before, or you’ve kind of just been curious about, they’re kind of a no hype sort of brand and they’re really masters of community building. So check out 42, it’s the number four, the letter T, the number two, 42. Love it. And shout out to Jurian, who’s just crushing it over there. Fun brand and yeah, fits that scrappy vibe. Okay, here’s another.

Here’s the last scrappy brand that makes me love trow running right now. It’s funny to call them scrappy because I think they’re like 30 years old. But when I met them, so it was started by a family. So it’s called Mountain King. They’re they’re running poles. 100 % manufactured in the UK. I met them because one of the owners, the son Harry, reached out to me said, Hey, you’re to be at UTMB. I’d like to meet you. So it’s 30 year old brand. This dude was just walking around.

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with Poles in his backpack. And we walk past the Lucky booth. He’s like, hey, meet over by the Lucky booth. Not because he was trying to throw shade on them, just because practically I was coming from the Reco booth from a meeting. And he was like, OK, let’s just meet over there. And so here he is. And he pulls out his backpack. And he shows me the system for Poles. He’s like, we’re thinking about coming into America.

Kind of shared with me all the details I’ve shared with you, 100 % manufactured in the UK, very nimble, able to grow quickly. They’re a top running pole company in Korea, in Japan, considering America. And I was like, man, I I love it. And he was just super scrappy. Then I run into him at IRX in Amsterdam. He has a booth. He somehow finagles his way to have a booth at the entrance. You walk into the center and there’s Harry. And he was there alone. Nobody was there with him.

And he had lined up like, I don’t know, felt like a hundred meetings. Every time I go over there, he was with somebody and all day long, he was just pushing these polls. And as soon as it was over, I think he went to another convention somewhere in East Asia. So they’re scrappy, they’re hungry, and they’ve been around for 30 years. So like, there’s this cool piece of like stability that comes with them. And at the same time, because I think it was his parents who started the company and now he’s, he hasn’t quite taken over.

but he is actively involved, more actively it seems like than ever. And it’s fun. I just love watching that hunger, that scrappiness. It’s super inspiring to me. It makes me wanna go start a tactile brand. That’s why I loved being in food and beverage so much because I loved to have that cup of coffee in someone’s hand to be the one who’s bringing that joy to their day and all of that. I watched Harry peddling his poles.

across UTMB and Amsterdam. And I just thought, man, I just want, I just, just want to be a part of that. And so I’m stoked on these polls and I hope the best for them. I hope to see them on somebody at Hard Rock and whoever that is, see them dominate. Unless it’s another French person, because we had all three French guys on the podium last year. And this year I’d love to see an American with some Mountain Kings or something on top of that podium. My French friend, Stan,

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who hosts our French podcast, La French Trail. He tells me anytime we bring up Hard Rock that he says, this is our race now. Talking about France, he’s like, Hard Rock is a French race. Like, come on, let’s, I’ve never been super high on Hard Rock because of how small it is and how limited the field is. But can’t let Stan be right. It wouldn’t be right. So the Scrappy brands though, super inspiring to me. All this used gears throwing dirt all over my microphone. Okay.

Number seven, meme culture. This is what I love about troll running right now is meme culture. think Max Jalief, Unsolicited Memes is, he lives in the UK and I feel like he gets Americana culture really well. Better than most of you who are in America listening to this. I think he understands the nuance. And who am I to say that? Maybe I’m dead wrong. But here’s what I like about meme culture. It strips away what’s, you know,

Laughing about it. It’s like there’s something about meme culture that the reason I like to look at those not only just to get a chuckle out of it but I also think that what mean a good meme holds up a mirror to a culture and shows you It can show you any number of things what I see with like max relief unsolicited memes specifically is My takeaway sometimes with things like let’s say I get offended by something or I get annoyed by something. It’s like, you know a solid meme Smith as I would call

Can get under your skin and if you just let it get under your skin and that’s and it’s over Then it’s it hasn’t done its job if it gets under your skin the thing to do is to ask why and I think a lot of times the stuff that’s gonna get under your skin Maybe points to that you take it too seriously and if your response to that is like well, yes This is very important. It needs to do this and it needs to be this and easy, but well, that’s fine You can have your convictions about what it

needs to be. But the rest of us are laughing at you. Like if Max Jalief hits one on target, Unsolicited Meme, not Max Jalief himself. If Max Jalief, Unsolicited Meme hits one on target and you are offended by it and everyone else is laughing about it, well maybe the ideal takeaway would be like, hey, am I taking myself too seriously? And so I like to see who he hits hard and then do they get in the comments. I was actually shocked to see

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David Roach get in the comments after the one that he posted yesterday, but he did and he was able to laugh at himself. I’m not saying everybody has to laugh at himself. I’m not saying it doesn’t go too far sometimes, but none of that is the point. What I’m saying is what I love about the meme culture is that I think it’s actually very important to us as a growing culture that we have people legitimately out. Now, I think YaBoyScottJerk, never been a big YaBoyScottJerk guy, but he…

is kind of like pop music and yeah, he’s been going hard after Satisfy. So I don’t feel like there’s super consistency on what he goes after and what he makes fun of. I see something with Max Relief on Solisted Memes where what he’s doing is consistent. And there’s not, I have not found a moment where he has not gone after something that was out there to be gone after. He seems to go hard at things. Whereas your boy feels like he’s, you know,

K-pop, you know, wants to be on a bigger stage and nails it. you know, it’s kind of like, it’s bubblegum, you know, it’s pop music from the early eighties that was meant to hit a massive target. And in trial running, massive target isn’t huge. But at the same time, so I think they’re less offensive is my point. I think actually fun, solicited memes can really get under people’s skin. And I think the best thing to do with that is to ask yourself why. And oftentimes if we’re taking ourselves too seriously, especially in a sport that’s meant to be fun.

that it’s useful to use as a mirror. You could totally disagree with me, but I don’t think that memes are the same thing as comic strips. Comic strips intended to be fun and maybe have a different place. I think a good meme is important because we don’t have journalists in show running, even though podcasts are popping up with news. There’s no hard hitting journalist who’s holding anybody accountable. That doesn’t happen because there’s a little, I could do a podcast of 10 things that would happen.

differently in trail running. we had journalists holding it, holding the sport and its key players accountable, there’d be a lot that’s different. Memes are the closest thing that we have that are holding us accountable. And it’s doing it in a way that ideally pulls down our guard, allows us to laugh at ourselves. And I’m not saying, again, I’m not saying he doesn’t go too far sometimes, but who am I to say that? He goes too far for me, goes too far for you. Some of you doesn’t go far enough. And for him, I don’t think.

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that he holds back anytime he sees something worth going after. And I admire him for that. I think he has a conviction and that’s cool. All right, number eight, Tommy Runs. My friend Nils at the Speed Project introduced me. He’s like, hey, I gotta put this guy on your radar. I like, yeah, I had seen him in the periphery, but it hadn’t been connected and.

And I’m working my way through the documentaries about him because I’m to have him on the podcast soon. just I love what he’s about. I love the way he carries himself. And as a podcaster, I’ll just say this may be this is shallow, but some of the content that he’s putting out, like just from a technical standpoint, is so high quality. Like these gang shows that he’s doing with multiple people and, you know, high quality stuff. I love it. So just visually, I’m stoked. But what he talks about, who he is, what he’s about. If you don’t know Tommy runs.

I will, I’ll link him below, but I also have a podcast coming up with him. And I think he’s worth paying attention to. He’s got conviction, but he’s also lighthearted. He’s pointed, he’s deep, but he’s also fun. He’s a good follow on Instagram and to check out his documentaries. But again, I’ll load you up with all that coming up soon when I release that podcast after I record it. Okay. Number nine.

of the 10 things I love about trial running. Right now, I just gotta give a shout out to my guy, Taylor Bodine. And in this same one, Josh, forgive me, I’m gonna say his name wrong, Bhutan, Boutan, I’m just really sorry, Josh. He’s at Meta Endurance. So Taylor Bodine is at the Dirt Division of Believe in the Run. He’s been on 12 podcasts with me. And Josh,

I met him at a Norta event in Annecy on a trail run and him and this guy Julian, but that’s where I learned about meta endurance. And I think that just these two are some just really great contributors to trail content around shoes. Again, I love shoes, but also on a personal level, I know Taylor better than Josh. I barely know Josh, but I know him well enough to have some exchanges with him. I think Taylor, I’m just happy for him.

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He seems to be like in a zone of doing what he’s great at. He’s out running, but just the volume of content that he’s putting out, I’m just happy for him. When he first started on the podcast with Borderlands, recurring episodes we were doing, he was still a teacher getting ready to go full time with Dirt Division. And then last summer he went full time with Dirt Division and dudes just been busy. I just, you there’s not a lot of stuff on Instagram that I…

turn on and I just like, I like it. I’m just, anytime I see Taylor, I’m just happy. I’m just happy. And I think it’s personal. I’m happy for him. He seems to be, you know, the right, the right fish in the right pond there. And then with Josh, he’s a younger gentleman going to architecture school, but you know, maybe early twenties. I just think he puts out really solid content. I think it’s more Euro focused. So if you haven’t heard of Meta Endurance, I don’t think that they’re like,

focused on the US market. think they’re Europe only, could be wrong. But just, yeah, I just love to see people who go for it and who do a great job when they go for it. All right, number 10 is the team I got coming together at Borderlands. And I say team somewhat loosely because the model here that I have is what you see with Stan Van Kimmel at La French Trail.

is that I want him to build in such a way that La French Trail is Stan and Stan is La French Trail. So you think of me with Borderlands and Borderlands is me. Wasn’t always what I wanted, but that’s just the way it is right now. But I want La French Trail to be Stan’s thing. And if he ever chooses not to be a part of Borderlands, want him to thrive on this thing that we have concepted together. He’s done the heavy lifting, but I have distributed through my channels.

Bryce Carlson, we’re still working through that. think he’s a brilliant writer. He has something called Sub Whatever that I think is super cool. And I hope to see that come in the ecosystem and have that similar relationship where my distribution, the eyes and ears that I have brought will help him grow the thing that’s in his heart to grow that’s connected to trail running. Sam Losey with High Tones, same thing with him. Like we’ve been trying to figure out what it is. I love hanging out with him. I love the way he sees the world. He’s a good hang.

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And so what I want to do is take the eyes and ears that I’ve built and take this high tones thing where we’re mostly looking at the fashion brands in the running industry and highlighting them and partying with them and just being together with them and Doing some stuff behind the scenes with them You know we want to take That thing and I want Sam to be high tones and high tones to be Sam and then we use Borderlands as The you know the channel and the distribution for that

Inky, Steve and I, we’re still working it out. I I love the concept because we’re tying like iconic movies to shoe brands. It’s kind of high. It’s actually not high concept, but to really, how do you weave them together where you do justice to the movie and to the shoe? Well, we’ve got one coming up about Kip Run that’s Return of the Jedi meets Kip Run and Taylor Bodine is gonna join us for it. And I think it’s a brilliant connection. And it was Inky’s idea of why we bring in

Return of the Jedi for it. But I think it’s, you know, with Inky, that’s still taking shape. I just know I love to hang out with him. He came to Paris Fashion Week. We had a great time. I’ve been up to Manchester to hang out with him. Had a great time. We interact a lot, constantly sending each other shoe stuff. But, you know, I’m just really, yeah, in general, I’m just stoked on the team that’s coming together here at Borderlands. This year’s gonna be a big year. We’re gonna be…

You know back at TRE hoping to be back at IRX. That’s a question mark. It was a great time in Amsterdam though. Gonna be. Western states hopefully hard rock. Hopefully there’s question marks because it’s one of the roles and dolls exactly going to be moving back to Salt Lake City and that’s going to drive that like if we end up coming back. The first week of July is going to be harder for me to be at Western states. However, we have a really big concept coming together for Western states and I’ll know that here pretty soon as to whether or not will be there.

But we’re just going to be out in the mix. And when I get back to America, my goal is to run those desert races like I mentioned earlier. But it’s 2026 is an interesting year. It’s an interesting year because the way that it’s growing right now is extremely satisfying and humbling and exciting. And I don’t know exactly what the future holds. And so as we grow, I just want to continue to bring people into the ecosystem like I’ve talked about here with Bryce and Enki and

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Sam and Stan and take the the eyes and ears that I’ve built and leverage it into the cool content that they’re creating. So all that’s what’s sort of coalescing in 2026. And this year, to me, is about growing all that sort of stuff and bringing more people into the mission of Borderlands, which is to be the heart of trail running. And so today, these are just things that have been building up and building up and building up that I’ve just wanted to talk about. And I didn’t know where to do it. I thought

I loved 10 Things I Hate About You, right, in the 90s, and so here was 10 things that I love about trail running. I’m glad that you could join me. I hope that you get to have some of these long runs that I’ve been having lately, and I’ll talk to you next time.