3.15. The Tracklandia Episode
Nobody Asked Us with Des & Kara
Chris McClung
5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2025
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"It's free. After you pay for it, it's free. Just a one-time fee, that you pay annually." - Portlandia cell phone episode + most track streaming services, probably, but NOT Portland Track Fest (which is truly free to stream!)
In this episode, Portland Track president Jeff Merrill joins the show! Jeff is a former 800m runner himself who spent time at Nike before getting involved with the Portland Track Festival and starting tracklnd.com and Tracklandia. His meet is THIS weekend in Portland, so see the notes below on how to support, attend, or watch (FREE!) from afar.
Jeff helped Des and Kara with ideation around the Save the 10,000, and here he shares really interesting perspectives on storytelling in track and field and how to make it interesting for the fan/viewer. You'll get all of the behind-the-scenes intel on the 17-year history of the meet, plus the storylines for this year including Donovan Brazier continuing his comeback.
You will love Jeff's thoughtfulness and Des and Kara's thoughtful questions until a top 5 with an epic twist from Kara that will have you rushing to the YouTube version. Check this out and then mark your calendars for Saturday and Sunday to watch the PTF!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What's up, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Nobody Asked us with Des and Kara, presented by Brooks Running. |
| 0:17.5 | That felt so good. This feels like it's going to be a good episode. Welcome, Kara, and special guest, |
| 0:24.6 | Jeff Merrill of Portland Track Fest and Tracklandia and many other track and track and field accolades, |
| 0:35.3 | just an enthusiast and promoter of the sport. Thanks for joining us today. |
| 0:40.4 | Hey, thanks for having me. And that was very smooth. |
| 0:44.9 | Like butter. Do you want to try it? |
| 0:47.5 | That was good. No, no, I can't. I don't want to try it after that. I can't follow that. |
| 0:52.4 | I'll just say that. But it's actually a big |
| 0:56.3 | honor to be on this with you guys. I'm an avid listener. I will, in all honesty, this is my |
| 1:04.0 | favorite running podcast. So it is quite an honor to be here. |
| 1:09.8 | Stop it now. We're done. We're excited to have you, but I think you should be a little where. You said it quite an honor to be here. Stop it now. We're done. |
| 1:11.4 | We're excited to have you, but I think you should be a little weird. |
| 1:14.0 | You said it's an honor. |
| 1:15.2 | And I'm like, oh, God, Jeff, you don't know us that well. |
| 1:17.1 | It's not that. |
| 1:18.7 | Well, no, I think that's what everybody thinks on the inside of some great, great organization. |
| 1:24.2 | Like, you guys are a huge machine that's moving along now. And inside, |
| 1:30.1 | nobody knows the inner workings of it. Right. Well, yeah, I mean, the prep call that we had before |
| 1:34.7 | this was intimidating. Obviously, the interview questions we sent over for you to look at |
| 1:39.6 | and vet, like, wow, this is a big ask. So we appreciate you sticking with us and deciding to show up anyways because I know, I know the production part of it is tough to manage and get through. |
| 1:50.7 | But you're still on board. |
| 1:52.1 | You're still here. |
... |
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