Back in early January, The Final Sprint began a series of podcasts featuring in-depth interviews with various high-profile runners, coaches, and companies. During the last 8 weeks they have released 24 podcast interviews (and growing!), that range in duration from 20 to 40 minutes.

And these are not little wimpy interviews with “nobodies” either. We’re talking running superstars such as Jack Daniels, Alan Culpepper, Todd Williams, Ryan Hall, Jim Ryun, Deena Kastor, Gail Devers, Dean Karnazes, Alan Webb, Jeff Galloway, and more.

This is a refreshing breath of fresh air for our sport, which is often reduced to 10-second sound bytes and fragmented TV coverage of two laps of the Olympic 5K, or bits and pieces of the marathon. In this case, a specialty internet site has stepped in where mainstream media has failed, and TFS has done a great job promoting the sport of running and its professional athletes. The sports of track and field, cross country, ultra running, and road running can only stand to benefit from thorough media coverage in general. Hopefully other running sites will follow suit.

I’ve been listening to these podcasts consistently over the last two months, and they have served me well by:

1. Inspiring the pursuit of greatness. It’s amazing hearing about how these people seek after their dreams with relentless zeal. The interview with Ryan Hall was truly something else.
2. Creating an interest in the key figures of U.S. running. Too often I only think about my own racing. There is a revival going on in U.S. distance running, and these interviews have raised my awareness of it. I’m a true fan now. Hopefully the overall fanbase of professional running will grow too.
3. Creating an awareness of how people are living their dreams, not just through professional running, but also through other marketable avenues within the sport. Interviews with Dean Karnazes, Todd Williams, Perry Romanowski, Don Kern, and others were all about people living out their passions (running), and finding ways to make a living doing it! Whether it be motivational speaking, coaching, fundraising, or creating a really cool product to sell to runners, these people aren’t satisfied working 9-to-5 at some “ho-hum” job their entire lives. They are running “entrepreneurs” and innovators who are doing what it takes to live their dreams. As an entrepreneur selling a running product myself, I found this extremely encouraging and motivating.

So if you haven’t checked out these podcasts already, do so now. The Final Sprint is pumping out about 2-3 interviews each week, so stay tuned for more as well!