Run Spesh Podcast by Frontrunner Colombo

Anna's back from Europe, Tom's lining up for Auckland and Queenstown, and Oska's out of retirement. We recap Race the Pro 5, run through the weekend's marathon results, give first impressions of the Mizuno Hyperwarp Pure 2, and preview Timaru Ten.
Full show notes
The Run Down is our weekly running specialty podcast from Frontrunner, taking you behind the scenes of our stores around New Zealand, the shoes we're testing, the training we're doing and the races coming up.
This week:
Anna's back from six weeks in Europe: Edinburgh, Spain and Rome, and how European crowds compare to NZ events
Tom's Auckland Half and Queenstown plans, and his pro triathlon licence paperwork
Oska's comeback from injury, and a possible Spectacle 5K
Race the Pro 5 recap: 120 runners, teams of five, 800m laps, chasing a team of the country's best
Kipchoge, Chicago and the weekend's big marathon results
Shoe talk, then Mizuno Hyperwarp Pure 2 first impressions
Kona's surprise winner and retirement
Test Run: book demo shoes online, keep them for two days, with a refundable deposit
Timaru Ten preview
Community competition: design a Christchurch run culture tee to be heat-pressed in store. Email your designs to us.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:30 Anna's back from Europe
05:00 European crowds vs NZ events
07:30 Auckland Half and Queenstown
12:00 Tom's pro licence and the ECG scare
17:00 Oska's comeback
21:00 Spectacle 5K and the hangar night race idea
23:00 Race the Pro 5 recap
27:30 Kipchoge, Chicago and Melbourne
35:30 Shoe talk
39:30 Mizuno Hyperwarp Pure 2
48:00 Run Club and Kona
53:30 Test Run demo shoes
55:30 Timaru Ten
59:30 Community heat-press competition

Off Track is back — a week late thanks to dogs and airport logistics, and with plenty to catch up on. Andy and Logan start with training: school-holiday survival mode and a busy race-season build for Andy, a post-Tekapo reset (plus a mountaineering course and a taped-up ankle), and Logan's return to running, where each new session type feels like unlocking a character in a video game, alongside big bike miles ahead of La Petite Brevet, a 300K mountain bike loop of Banks Peninsula.
We launch a new segment, Tales from the Trails, inspired by the stories that land in Training Peaks comments. The first comes from a friend's early-morning tempo run up Captain Thomas / Godley Head. Send us yours! We also read out a very good reply to last episode's chat about weeing on the run.
Then it's three weeks of Kiwi results: Annabel Bramwell and David Hammersmith (course record) at the Rakiura Challenge on Stewart Island, Clinton Manderson and Megan Craig at Marina to Marina, the dog-and-runner 4 Paws Marathon in Bottle Lake Forest (including a 39:55 10K), Dan Jones winning the masters at road relays, a record 1,300 entrants at Cave Kidnappers (a course record for Amber Morrison and a 3:02 from Calum McPherson in the 34K), and Simon Cochran's record 205K "Claw" at the Blue Lake 24-hour. A look at Masters records leads to the story of Jack Foster, who started running at 32, finished eighth at the Olympics, and still holds the NZ M40 marathon record of 2:11:18 from 1973.
Athlete to Watch is Chester Holt-Quick, who's building to the Spectacle 100K in Nelson and has an enormous 2027 calendar. Overseas, we cover Lucy Bartholomew's Melbourne Marathon PB, Salomon becoming Ironman's sponsor (and what that might mean for UTMB), Des Linden's road-to-Western-States plan, and Ruth Croft lining up at Diagonale des Fous.
Finally, a preview of Taupo Ultra and Crater Rim (Andy is racing the 22K), gear choices for the weekend, a No Free Ads shout-out, and a Coach's Corner on when to start carrying fuel and fluids and how best to carry them.
This episode covers:
Training catch-up and the new Tales from the Trails segment
Results: Rakiura Challenge, Marina to Marina, 4 Paws Marathon, road relays, Cave Kidnappers, Blue Lake 24-hour
Jack Foster and the NZ Masters records
Athlete to Watch: Chester Holt-Quick
Overseas: Lucy Bartholomew, Salomon x Ironman x UTMB, Des Linden, Ruth Croft
Preview: Taupo Ultra and Crater Rim
Gear: Norda 005 and the singlet
No Free Ads: hotel reception lollies
Coach's Corner: fuel and hydration
Got a trail story or a coaching question? Send it to Frontrunner Colombo or @andygood on Instagram, or comment on Spotify. Anonymous is fine.

Tom's back after more than seven weeks away — most of it spent training in Andorra with Hayden Wilde and Kyle ahead of the 70.3 Age Group World Championships in Nice, followed by a genuinely brutal travel saga getting home. He's joined this episode by Theo, who gets his own spotlight after a trip to Melbourne meeting the On Running crew and helping launch the Cloudsurfer 3 in New Zealand.
 
The centrepiece of this episode is Oska's full Berlin Marathon trip with adidas — sitting down with the AdiZero design team to understand every decision behind the new Adizero Adios Pro 5, visiting the House of Fast, getting a photo with Gebrselassie, and watching Tigist Assefa win the women's race while running the final two kilometres on a ruptured Achilles. We get a full technical breakdown of the Pro 5 itself, a listener question on finding a daily workhorse trainer, and the full rundown on **Race the Pro 5 After Dark**, the Sydenham Underpass event held on 8 October with a live DJ, smoke machine, laser lights and the works.
 
**This episode covers:**
- Tom's seven weeks training with Hayden Wilde and Kyle in Andorra
- 70.3 Age Group World Championships, Nice
- Tom's travel nightmare getting home, and whether he's going pro next year
- Theo's Melbourne trip and the On Cloudsurfer 3
- Oska's full Berlin Marathon trip with adidas
- Tigist Assefa's remarkable Berlin win
- Deep dive: the adidas Adizero Adios Pro 5
- Listener Q: finding a workhorse daily trainer
- Race the Pro 5 After Dark — Sydenham Underpass, 8 October
 
Got a question for the show? Drop it in our Instagram DMs or the Shopify chat.

Episode 3, and we've got our first-ever guest on the show — Sawyer, who contributed zero words but excellent company throughout.
The centrepiece of this episode is Andy's full, honest recap of the Tekapo 50K — a genuinely rough day that included stomach issues from early on, cramping from the 28K mark, and a mid-race can of Coke from his crew that may have single-handedly saved the result. We also cover Ruth Croft's return to racing at Diagonale des Fous on Reunion Island, a genuinely wild prize money announcement out of Colorado's Run Rabbit Run (now offering $100,000 USD to the winner — the largest single prize in trail running history), a full review of the Tekapo Trail Weekend as an event, and a proper Athlete to Watch spotlight on Frances Redmond, who ran a patient, calculated 50K to come from third to first.
From there it's a rapid-fire listener Q&A covering shoe choice, fibre intake before a race, hill training specificity for a climb like Mount John, and recovering from a DNF, plus gear notes on the Norda 005 and the On running vest. We close out with a couple of lighter segments — Shokz headphones and a genuinely excellent stout recommendation — before a candid, good-humoured conversation about one of ultra running's less-discussed realities. Fair warning is given before that section if it's not for you.
This episode covers:
Training updates and two new races on the calendar
Ruth Croft's return at Diagonale des Fous
Run Rabbit Run's $100,000 prize announcement
Tekapo Trail Weekend: full event review and results
Athlete to Watch: Frances Redmond
Andy's full Tekapo 50K race recap
Rapid-fire Q&A: shoes, fuelling, hill training, injury recovery
Gear notes: Norda 005, Mountain to Coast, the On vest
No Free Ads: Shokz headphones, a stout recommendation
Got a question for the show? Send it through on Spotify or to the Frontrunner Instagram.

The tables are turned this week. Last time, Oska interviewed Alex from Don Greig Racing Stables — this time, Alex has spent weeks sourcing anonymous questions from runners all over Christchurch, and Oska has no idea what's coming.
It makes for a genuinely honest hour. We cover childhood — including the four teachers who changed the direction of his life at a point when things weren't easy at home — his approach to brutal honesty (and where it actually comes from), and why having a coach, a psychologist, and a trusted small circle matters as much as any training plan. He's candid about where he's at right now: working through an injury, and for the first time in his life, genuinely not enjoying running. We also get into his half marathon record (eight national titles, undefeated in Christchurch), what's realistic for him in the marathon, and a properly interesting section on the business side of running shoes — how he ranks the major brands as a retailer, what he thinks about the wave of new Chinese running shoe brands, and the four-pillar framework (chemistry, geometry, aesthetics, accessibility) he wrote about for Tempo Journal on what actually makes a "perfect" shoe. We close with his real shoe rotation philosophy and a run of genuinely ridiculous rapid-fire questions.
This episode covers:
Hayden Wilde's 70.3 World Championship win
Childhood, and the four teachers who changed everything
Honesty, coaching, and mental health
Currently not enjoying running, and working through injury
Half marathon record, and marathon ambitions
Ranking shoe brands as a retailer
Chinese running shoe brands and the "perfect shoe" framework
Shoe rotation philosophy and barefoot running
Rapid-fire round