Western States 2026 is over. The course records have been set, the winners crowned, and the internet has already moved on. This isn't another race recap. It's a cultural breakdown of what Western States revealed about trail running, its media, and where the sport is headed next.

From Dylan Bowman becoming the voice of trail running, to Hans Troyer's fearless pacing, to why Thomas Cardin exposed a storytelling gap, Josh shares the ten ideas he couldn't stop thinking about after the biggest weekend in trail running. Along the way, he asks whether Western States has outgrown its broadcast and why the next frontier isn't better cameras, but better context.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

• 01:05 Dylan Bowman is the Voice of Trail Running/Racing
• 04:10 The Broadcast Knows Where Everyone Is
• 09:05 We Don't Care About Places, We Care About Stories
• 11:38 We Interviewed the Wrong People
• 16:14 Whose Job is it to Find Tomorrow's Stories?
• 20:21 Hans is the Rabbit I Was Asking For
• 21:53 American Men Ran it Like Old Days at UTMB
• 22:46 The Race has Outgrown the Broadcast
• 26:23 The Next Frontier

1. 8 Bit Trail Running
2. Borderlands.cc
3. Subwhatever

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Western States and UTMB are often framed as opposite visions for the future of trail running. One protects through limits. The other protects through growth. But after publishing an episode on that tension, I received an unexpected response from Bob Crowley, former President of the International Trail Running Association (ITRA).

Bob argues that both sides may be focused on the wrong thing. What follows is a conversation about culture, stewardship, local races, and whether the values that built trail running can survive success. Somewhere along the way, the debate stops being about Western States and UTMB and becomes something much bigger.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

1. Western States Wants to Protect, UTMB Wants to Grow
2. Bob's Full Op-ed
3. Borderlands.cc
4. La French Trail

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Western States and UTMB have become the two most influential institutions in trail running, but beneath the debate over lotteries, race series, and growth is a deeper question: when something becomes successful, how do you protect it?

Josh explores why UTMB believes trail running is important enough to scale globally while Western States believes it's important enough not to. Along the way, he examines scarcity, culture, the hidden cost of success, and whether the thing worth protecting was ever the race itself.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

• 01:33 Two Philosophies of Trail Running
• 03:19 Is Growth in Trail Running Corruption?
• 06:13 The Scale Problem in Trail Running
• 11:06 What Cultre are We Protecting in Trail Running?
• 15:50 The Supply Chain of Trail Running Culture

1. 8 Bit Trail Running
2. Josh Rosenthal on IG
3. Borderlands.cc
4. La French Trail

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Wasatch 100 and Bear 100 are two of the hardest races in ultra running. Michael Whiteside ran both just three weeks apart, and what stayed with me from this conversation wasn't the accomplishment. It was the way he talked about suffering, expectations, and the moment he realized he wasn't going to feel better.

What follows is less a race report and more a conversation about endurance. Crew guilt, self-doubt, late-race bargaining, and the strange acceptance that sometimes arrives when the problem in front of you can no longer be solved. Somewhere in the middle, Michael offers one of the best descriptions of ultra running I've heard: it wasn't hard, it just hurt.

Please give us a follow, rate the podcast, and give a review.

If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

1. Borderlands.cc
2. La French Trail

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Modern trail running shoes are better than they've ever been. So why do so many runners still find themselves drawn to older designs like the Nike ACG LDV?

Josh and Inky use one nostalgic shoe to explore a bigger question: what happens when an industry spends years optimizing toward the same answer? Somewhere between old Nike catalogs, modern trail shoes, and a sea of increasingly similar products, they uncover why certain designs still stop us in our tracks.

Shout out to Marty from Global Sales Guys who talks about the Sea of Sameness in outdoor retail.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

1. The Mountain That Made ACG
2. Inky's Article about theROCKER

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running
2. I Was Wrong About Kiprun

Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Western States 100 occupies a different place in trail running than almost any other race. Months before the starting gun, runners and fans are already studying the field, imagining the canyons, debating contenders, and wondering what story will emerge from Auburn.

This episode explores why Western States feels bigger than a race. From Jim Walmsley and Kilian Jornet to Wendell Robie, Rucky Chucky, and the old buckle holders still working aid stations, Josh makes the case that Western States belongs in the same conversation as The Masters and the Kentucky Derby.

Not because of the sport, but because of what happens when greatness, history, place, and uncertainty all meet in the same event.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

• 01:54 Elite Runners vs 'Participation Runners'
• 08:05 The Course as Character
• 11:14 The Importance of The Course
• 13:54 The Importance of Rucky Chucky
• 16:12 The Dual Nature of the Race
• 19:58 The Spirit of American Trail Running
• 22:09 The Unfolding Drama of Race Day

1. 2026 WSER Entrants List
2. Live on Course - LoC by Borderlands
3. Borderlands.cc
4. La French Trail

1. Trail Running Loves Winners, Does it Love Competitors?
2. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Trail running culture loves winners. That's obvious. The sport builds documentaries about them, fills Instagram feeds with them, and spends months debating who will win Western States. But the more Josh thinks about it, the more he wonders whether trail running is actually comfortable with the competitive mindset that creates those winners in the first place.

As Western States season begins, this conversation explores the difference between the participation version of trail running and the elite version, why those two worlds often get conflated, and what we miss when we use the values of one to understand the athletes competing in the other.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

• 00:00 Two Sports Sharing One Start Line
• 02:51 The Values That Make Champions
• 05:49 Elite, Professional, and Why It Matters
• 08:38 What Trail Running Rewards
• 11:26 Telling an Inward Story About an Outward Competition
• 14:22 Do We Actually Want Competitors?

1. Borderlands.cc
2. Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
3. Josh Rosenthal on IG

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack

Professional running can quietly turn into pressure, performance, sponsorship obligations, and constant visibility. This episode with Jacob Puzey is for runners who have felt burnout creeping into the thing they once loved and want to rediscover simplicity, rhythm, and freedom in running again.

After twenty years as a professional runner, coach, race director, and sponsored athlete, Jacob reflects on what happened when the pressure finally disappeared. What starts as a conversation about road running slowly becomes something much deeper about identity, aging, social media, routine, and why signing up for hard things still matters even after competition stops mattering.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

00:43 Rediscovering the Joy of Running

07:41 The Journey Back to Running

11:39 The Transition from Competition to Personal Growth

14:50 The Journey to Scholarship and Running

19:20 The Importance of Commitment in Running

2. Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races
3. Josh Rosenthal on IG
4. Borderlands.cc
5. La French Trail
6. High Tones
7. Subwhatever

1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running

Presented by Kiprun.

----

Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

Watch on YouTube

Read on Substack