Marathon Handbook Podcast

It's the May Mailbag — and Michael, Alex and Katelyn are getting personal. With their spouses conveniently out of the house, the three of them dig into what it's actually like to be in a relationship with a runner: pace mismatches, "morning person" catfishes, who gets the long-run slot on Sunday, and what happens when your non-running partner slowly, accidentally becomes a runner.
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Alex also previews his new podcast with his fiancée Alexis — tentatively called "For Better or For Worse" — which follows the two of them training for very different goals (Alex chasing a fast Valencia half; Alexis chasing her first-ever 10K) on the way to their wedding day. Katelyn shares her first non-running vacation in years (Hawaii — and yes, she still snuck in a three-hour long run), and Michael confesses to running shifts with Kelly.
Then into the mailbag:
— Tibo (36, started running in 2023) asks if there's any science on how much room a late-starter has to keep improving. Spoiler: a lot.— Adam is taking on Endure 24, a 24-hour trail race in the UK, and wants to know what to eat for an entire day of running. Katelyn breaks down her ultra fueling playbook (grilled cheese, quesadillas, Coke and broth all make appearances).— A listener pushes back on a previous comment about London Marathon qualifying times — the team clarifies what they actually meant and pitches a two-day London Marathon format.— Gavin wants a sub-2:50 marathon plan. The crew talks volume, threshold work, periodization and how to graduate from the sub-3 plan.
Plus: a teaser of Jessy Carveth's new interview with Jakob Ingebrigtsen, dropping later this week.
Got a question or comment? Email [email protected] — or send a voice memo for the upcoming summer voicemail mailbag.
Timestamps
(02:06) Katelyn's first non-running vacation in years(06:25) Buying super shoes from a Hawaiian beach(09:55) Alex's new podcast with Alexis: "For Better or For Worse"(13:15) Dating a runner vs. dating a non-runner(25:30) Life in a two-runner household(31:30) Whose running takes priority?(35:00) Type A vs Type B runners(40:00) The wedding 5K and the sub-15 curse(46:50) Mailbag: Late-start marathon progression(1:01:00) Mailbag: Fueling for a 24-hour race(1:14:30) Listener feedback on the London Marathon lottery debate(1:24:30) Mailbag: Building a sub-2:50 marathon plan(1:29:00) Jakob Ingebrigtsen interview teaser

Michael and Jessy run through the five most intriguing stories in running this week.
Rachel Entrekin became the first woman to win Cocodona 250 outright, demolishing the overall course record and finishing nearly 10 miles ahead of the next runner. We dig into the body-composition science behind why women keep closing — and surpassing — men at extreme ultra distances, and acknowledge the tragic death reported on course.
Then to Cincinnati: 22-year-old Sophia Dick says she missed a turnoff at the Flying Pig half marathon and accidentally ran her first full in 3:30 alongside Harvey Lewis on his 100th marathon. Locals say the course is impossible to miss. We weigh the heartwarming version against the conspiracy version.
The 2027 London Marathon ballot closed with over 1.3 million entries, nearly 2% of the entire UK population, making a two-day London Marathon feel increasingly inevitable.
French star Jimmy Gressier is going after Mo Farah's One Hour Track World Record on September 4th at the Brussels Diamond League final. We talk pace (67-second laps for an hour), venue, and the strange charm of attrition racing.
And finally: the IOC has reportedly declined to add cross country running to the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.
Chapters:00:00 Intro: this week's top 5 stories01:26 Rachel Entrekin makes history at Cocodona 25005:40 Sophia Dick "accidentally" runs her first marathon11:18 London Marathon 2027: 1.3 million ballot entries15:10 Jimmy Gressier targets Mo Farah's One Hour Track World Record19:56 Cross country DENIED at the 2030 Winter Olympics23:00 Preview of Next Week

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Michael Doyle and Alex Cyr (Katelyn is on a well-earned vacation) reset the Marathon Handbook Super Shoe Power Rankings for Spring 2026. We cover the full overall Top 10, including prototypes, then run a second Top 10 of the most accessible super shoes — the ones you can actually buy.

Previous Power Rankings — Winter 2025 (December)1. Adidas Adios Pro Evo 22. Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite 33. ASICS Metaspeed Tokyo Sky / Edge4. Nike Alphafly 35. Saucony Endorphin Elite 26. Adidas Adios Pro 47. ASICS Metaspeed Ray8. On Cloudboom Strike LS9. Adidas Adios Pro Evo 110. New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Elite 52. Current Power Rankings — Spring 20261. Adidas Adios Pro Evo 32. Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite 33. ASICS Development Shoe (ME5 Type One / Type P)4. Adidas Adios Pro Evo 25. ASICS Metaspeed Tokyo Sky / Edge6. Nike Alphafly 47. Adidas Adios Pro Evo 18. ASICS Metaspeed Ray9. On Cloudboom Dev 5 (LS)10. Brooks Hyperion Elite 63. Accessible Top 10 — Spring 2026 (shoes you can actually buy)1. Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite 32. ASICS Metaspeed Sky / Edge3. Nike Alphafly 34. Adidas Adios Pro 45. Saucony Endorphin Elite 26. Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 47. Hoka Cielo X1 v3.08. New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Elite 59. Brooks Hyperion Elite 510. On Cloudboom Strike

Michael and Jessy are back after covering Boston and London, and this week's five stories cover everything from a polarizing youth running debate to one of the most shocking marathon debuts in American history.
In this episode:
An 11-year-old from Indiana, Ben Dick, ran 1:20:14 at the IU Health 500 Festival mini marathon — reportedly the fastest half ever run by a boy his age. He dropped his dad at mile seven. The internet is split. We dig into what happens to these kid phenoms long-term, and why pediatricians (and Jessy's kinesiology background) say the half marathon distance is too much for a developing 11-year-old body.
Sprinter Abby Steiner is suing Puma and Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix, claiming the carbon-plated shoes and spikes she wore caused the foot and Achilles injuries that have kept her off the track since the 2024 Olympic Trials. We unpack the questions this raises about athlete responsibility, sponsor accountability, and how you even quantify a derailed sprinting career.
While the running world was glued to Sebastian Sawe's near-sub-two London Marathon, 25-year-old Vinny Mauri quietly ran 2:05:54 at the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio — the fastest U.S. marathon debut on record. Before the race he joked that if he didn't break 2:16 he wasn't a real marathoner. He broke the course record by more than 13 minutes. Nobody had heard of him. His Twitter feed is mostly Bitcoin memes. Expect a major brand to scoop him up fast.
Cocodona 250 has kicked off in Arizona — 253 miles from Black Canyon to Flagstaff with 40,000 feet of climbing and a 125-hour cutoff. Courtney Dauwalter is the clear women's favorite (and looking for redemption after dropping out last year), but the field is deep with Rachel Entrekin, Heather Jackson, and surprise headliner Randy Zuckerberg. The men's race is wide open with Jeff Browning, Joe McConaughy, Ryan Clifford, and Adam Kimble all in the mix.
And finally — the running brand quietly dominating the industry isn't Nike, Adidas, or Asics. It's Brooks. Their best quarter ever: 23% global growth, North America up 20%, EMEA up 30%, China up 136%. Eleven straight quarters as the #1 specialty performance running brand in the U.S. Michael shares early thoughts on the unreleased Hyperion Elite 6 (out August), which Jess McClain and Clayton Young raced in Boston.
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SUPPORT OUR SPONSOR:Lagoon pillows help us sleep better, so we run better. Want to try? You can save 15% with code MARATHON. Go to https://LagoonSleep.com/marathonhandbook and take the 2-minute sleep quiz to find your match.
The two-hour marathon barrier is gone. At the 2026 London Marathon, Sebastian Sawe became the first person ever to run under two hours on a record-eligible course — and Yomif Kejelcha did it too, in his marathon debut.
Outside columnist and Endure author Alex Hutchinson joins Michael Doyle, Alex Cyr and Katelyn Tocci to make sense of it.
We get into:
Why Hutchinson thinks the shoes (the Adidas Adios Pro Evo 3) are still the biggest single factor — and why Nike has lost its grip on the super-shoe race
Sawe's astonishing negative split: 60:29 out, 59:01 back, with a final 5K that put him on 1:52 marathon pace
Whether the marathon is even the same race anymore — and whether "marathon pace" as a training concept is dying
Norwegian-style threshold blocks vs. classic long marathon-pace work
Resilience and durability — what they are and how (or whether) you train them
Bicarb / sodium bicarbonate: the science of why it works, and whether marathoners should bother
Why drafting "like a zombie" might be the most underrated tactic in distance running
What's actually possible from here: 1:57? 1:56? Are we further from our potential than we think?
The recreational-runner takeaways: shoes, fuel, sleep, and what to skip
A wide-ranging, occasionally contrarian conversation about an inflection point that may reshape the sport for the next decade.
📚 Books by Alex Hutchinson:Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human PerformanceThe Explorer's Gene
📰 Sweat Science Substack: alexhutchinson.net