How Jeffrey Stern Became an Elite Ultrarunner After Skipping Running Entirely as a Kid—And Why He's Still Getting Faster at 39
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Dominic Schlueter
4.9 • 822 Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jeffrey Stern is an elite ultrarunner, a coach obsessed with keeping athletes happy, and a storyteller inside the sport who understands what it really takes to stay in it for decades, not just seasons.
Jeffrey has completed the oldest trail race in America, the Dipsea Race, an astounding 16 consecutive times–and even recorded a personal best in his most recent foray.
He’s also set several Fastest Known Times (FKTs), including the Backbone Trail (a 68-mile traverse in the Santa Monica Mountains), and the Los Padres Traverse (42 mile route).
These FKTs didn’t appear overnight: he has a history of crushing long-distance races of all kinds. His overall PRs in running include 15:55 for the 5000m, 1:12 for the half marathon, 2:36 for the marathon, 3:22 for the 50k, 6:07 for the 50 mile, 8:29 for the 100k, and 15:35 for the 100 mile.
In the summer of 2024, he undertook a challenge to run two mountainous 100-mile races (Cascade Crest 100 and Angeles Crest 100) just two weeks apart.
Jeff impacts the sport in many ways beyond just setting impressive long distance times. He serves as an assistant editor and columnist for Ultra Running Magazine, where he writes event recaps and athlete profiles.
As a coach he provides customized training plans for endurance athletes. And he is the race director for the Tamalpa Headlands 50K, the same race that originally drew him into ultrarunning. His day job also includes being the Head of Sports Marketing for Suunto.
If you care about running well, running long, and running for the right reasons, you don’t want to miss this one.
Tap into the Jeffrey Stern Special.
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.
Comment the word “PODCAST” below and I’ll DM you a link to listen.
If this episode blesses you, please share it with a friend!
S H O W N O T E S
-The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs
-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run
-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ
-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en
-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I was talking about this with someone the other day, like really lean into your intuition. |
| 0:04.6 | I feel like I didn't start doing that until I was in my 30s and I know it's a lot easier |
| 0:11.4 | when you have more life experiences, be it in sport or career or relationships or family. |
| 0:17.6 | But I've never really felt like my gut or my intuition has led me astray. And I really |
| 0:23.5 | wish that someone would have maybe told me that when I was younger because I think there's a lot |
| 0:29.3 | of doubts when you're new in the world, you're a new adult, you're out of high school, you're out |
| 0:33.6 | of college, and you don't know the right answers. And, you know, you have mentors or people you can talk to. But ultimately, like, the answer needs to come from where you're out of college and you don't know the right answers and you know you have mentors or people |
| 0:38.5 | you can talk to but ultimately like the answer needs to come from within and I think the sooner |
| 0:43.2 | that you can really listen to those voices of reason within yourself the sooner you'll be more |
| 0:50.7 | satisfied in pursuing all the things that you want to do in life. |
| 0:57.3 | And it'll feel a lot more rewarding too because you're, |
| 1:00.5 | you're doing it for yourself and you know that and you're not doing it for anyone else. |
| 1:11.0 | Ladies and gentlemen, that was Jeffrey Stern today on the Running Effect podcast. Jeffrey is one of those guys who wears multiple hats from, quite frankly, an elite trail |
| 1:15.6 | athlete who's done all sorts of different trail races, as well as being fast on shorter |
| 1:20.4 | distances as well, running 1555 in the 5K 112 for the half and 236 for the marathon. |
| 1:27.3 | But his bread and butter is the longer distances. |
| 1:30.3 | He's gone 8 hours, 29 minutes for the 100k and 15 hours and 35 minutes for the 100 mile distance. |
| 1:36.8 | He also currently is the head of sports marketing at Sounto, one of the biggest running watch |
| 1:40.0 | companies in the world that I'm sure many of you have heard of and has a long history of |
| 1:43.7 | working with a bunch of top running companies in this space. I love this conversation because |
| 1:48.4 | we dive into business insights, but also training insights and racing insights and the world of |
| 1:53.4 | trail running as well as how he manages all these things as a head of sports marketing at a massive |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dominic Schlueter, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dominic Schlueter and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.