THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Alan Webb still has the record. Twenty-four years later, nobody's touched it. 

The American high school mile record (3:53.43, set at the 2001 Prefontaine Classic) has outlasted every shoe revolution, every bicarb protocol, and every perfectly concocted running shoe PR storm. In this conversation, Webb sits down with Dominic to talk about why that mark still stands, what it actually felt like to run it, and what the sport's fastest generation of teenagers is still missing.

Webb is disarmingly honest about his own race. 

Going into Pre that day, he wasn't chasing Ryun's record—he was chasing a decimal-second PR over 3:59. He was, in his words, playing with house money. The result was a 55-flat last lap with gas still in the tank, a closing kick he nearly stumbled into because he didn't realize how far ahead of his goal he was. That psychological accident, he argues, is exactly what most high school milers can't replicate on command.

The conversation moves from race mechanics to coaching philosophy to the weight room sins of his own career—including a period where Webb, by his own admission, went full Arnold Schwarzenegger while training for the mile. He's candid about what he got wrong, what Coach Raczko got right, and how much of that South Lakes framework he's carried directly into his program at Ave Maria University.

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, Webb lands on the thing that seems to have kept him in the sport long after the records and the contracts and the Nike deals: running, he says, teaches virtue. 
That's not nothing.

Tap into the Alan Webb Special.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! 

S H O W  N O T E S  

-The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run  

-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Instagram: @alanwebb1

He ran 63 miles on a broken stomach, launched a product the same week, and called it a good weekend.

Zach Pogrob is back—and this time, the conversation goes deeper than any race result. 

A month before the BPN G1M Ultra, he posted a photo at 220 pounds and admitted he had no business toeing the line. He showed up anyway, ran until his GI system shut down at mile 50, kept going on fumes, and walked away with a finish that looked like a DNF: but felt, to him, like proof. 

That's the through-line of this entire episode: what it means to show up when the conditions aren't right, whether you'reentering a backyard ultra or building a startup with three people and no marketing budget.

Zach breaks down the obsession economy behind ShareAura, a running app already hitting all-time weekly users with zero paid acquisition, and he demos the new Aura Run Cam live: a camera-first tracker designed to make sharing your run as easy as taking a photo. 

He also gets into what running 10 miles before sunrise every morning can do to a life that's lost its direction, what it actually takes to compete with Strava, why the running industry suffers from fixed-mindset thinking, and why the best companies (like the best athletes) are almost always built by outsiders.

Zach Pogrob is here and he’s not holding back.

Tap into the Zach Pogrob Special.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it. If this episode blesses you, please share it with a friend!

If this episode blesses you, please share it with a friend!

S H O W   N O T E S  

-The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run  

-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz

INSTAGRAM: @zachpogrob 

X: @zachpogrob 

Website: zach.blog 

Youtube: @zach_pogrob

She threw up before every race. Now she's the fourth-fastest high school miler in American history.

Ellery Lincoln is a Nike Elite junior from Lincoln High School in Portland, and her 4:30.00 at the 2026 Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays didn't arrive as a surprise so much as an inevitability—the product of two years’ worth of illness, setback, and a mantra she and her mom built together: consistency over perfection.

In this episode, she and Dominic go deep on the story behind the fast times: the whooping cough that derailed her cross country season; the pneumonia that hit the day she landed in New York for Nike Indoor Nationals; and what it actually looks like to rebuild not just fitness but trust in a body that keeps letting you down. 

She also talks about committing to the University of Oregon (where Shalane Flannagan coaches and where her connection to Jerry Schumacher runs deeper than almost anyone's) and why she chose Eugene even though staying in-state wasn'talways the plan. 

She breaks down the pre-race anxiety that once had her vomiting before every race and how she worked through it; what it means to sit #4 all-time as a junior; and why her sightline is already past the high school record book and onto a professional career.

The HOKA Festival of Miles is June 4th in St. Louis. She'll be there. So will Braelyn Combe, her best friend and the closest thing the high school mile has to a genuine rival right now. She's predicting sub-4:30 for the winner. For herself, she said 4:27.4.

Tap into the Ellery Lincoln Special.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! 

S H O W  N O T E S  

-The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run  

-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz

Instagram: @ellerylincoln

Trevor Painter doesn't coach world record holders by accident—he builds them, one hard session at a time.

Painter is the architect behind Keely Hodgkinson's indoor world record and Georgia Hunter Bell's World Indoor 1500m gold, and in this conversation, he pulls back the curtain on exactly how M11 Track Club operates. 

He opens with what makes Keely truly special: not just her talent, but her composure, her work rate, and the almost unsettling ease with which she handles pressure. From there, the conversation moves into the unlikely origin story of one of the sport’s most successful coaching partnerships: how a semi-pro rugby league player turned 400m runner ended up building the most decorated middle-distance group in the world alongside his wife, Jenny Meadows.

Painter gets specific on the training philosophy that separates M11 from the rest: high intensity, low mileage, and lactate numbers that have left their own physiologist scratching her head. He explains why cross-training is baked into the system for nearly every athlete in the group; why Sunday is a sacred rest day even for the best in the world; and why he believes practice should always be harder than the race. 

He also addresses the outdoor world record directly—what he thinks it will take, when he thinks it can happen, and why he called 1:53.28 untouchable when he first signed with Nike.

This one is for every athlete who thinks shortcuts are an option. 

They aren't.

Tap into the Trevor Painter Special.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.

S H O W  N O T E S   

-The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run  

-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz

Instagram: @faster_feet 
X.com: @Faster_feet

Jonny Davies ran 119 miles on a Texas ranch, vomited up half a bottle of water, and still had to be talked out of going back for one more lap.

Fresh off his second BPN Go One More Last Man Standing Ultra (and 17 more miles than the year before), Jonny sits down with Dominic to unpack what really happens when the race strips everything away.

He gets into the brutal physics of surviving Texas heat at 105°F as a 6'4", 220 pound guy from the UK, the moment his crew drew the red line and pulled him from the race, and the stat that stopped him cold before his first G1M: 80% of people who quit a backyard ultra quit in the chair, not on the course. 

He wasn't going to be one of them.

But this conversation moves well beyond race day. 

Jonny traces the philosophy that carried him through a devastating breakup right after Run the Capitals—his 596 mile, 11-day run through every UK and Ireland capital—and explains how the same stubbornness that kept him moving on broken feet is the thing he now leans on in ordinary life. 

His dad's voice from the rugby pitch cuts through every dark moment: you can't play rugby on the floor. His work with CALM, the UK suicide prevention charity, gives everything else its weight. And when Dominic asks who he's trying to become, Jonny's answer is disarmingly simple: 

just better than yesterday, every day, no destination required.
Tap into the Jonny Davies Special.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.

S H O W  N O T E S   

-The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run  

-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz

INSTAGRAM: @jonnyrdavies 
TikTok: @jdrunsfar