Martin Dugard — NYT Bestselling Author Behind 12 Million Books Sold on the 50-Year Revolution That Built the Sport You Run and Why Running Is the Fastest-Growing Sport Nobody's Talking About
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Dominic Schlueter
4.9 • 822 Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
JOIN MY TEAM & SUPPORT A GREAT CAUSE: https://www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com/en/teams/5Nrld5?join=1
Martin Dugard has spent his whole life at the intersection of running and history, and The Long Run is where they finally collide.
Dugard is a #1 New York Times bestselling author with over 12 million copies sold, a three-time Raid Gauloises adventure racer, a co-holder of the global circumnavigation speed record, and a cross country coach who has built California state championship programs from scratch over two decades.
And he's earned every word of this book.
In the 1970s, running was a fringe sport. What happened in between is one of the greatest untold stories in sports history, and Dugard just wrote the book on it. The Long Run drops April 14, and he joins the show to break down exactly how Frank Shorter's 1972 Olympic gold, Steve Prefontaine's counterculture fire, Joan Benoit Samuelson's 1984 Olympic breakthrough, and Grete Waitz's nine New York City Marathon victories turned a niche obsession into a global movement.
But this isn't just a history lesson. He gets into the coaching philosophy behind the 1970s greats, what today's running boom has in common with the first one, and why the athletes who built this sport still don't get the credit they deserve.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Real quick note for you guys before we get into today's episode of the podcast. |
| 0:03.8 | I want you guys running with me on May 10th next month. |
| 0:06.9 | I'm captaining Team TRE for the Wings for Life World Run, and this is the only race on the planet with this format. |
| 0:12.9 | No finish line. |
| 0:14.0 | Over 300,000 people in 191 countries all start at the exact same second, 7 a.m. Eastern, and 30 minutes in, a virtual catcher car |
| 0:22.0 | starts chasing you down. It speeds up every half hour until everyone's caught. Could be a 5K, |
| 0:26.9 | could be 50 miles, run, walk, wheelchair. Everyone's in. Everyone's welcome to participate in this |
| 0:32.0 | challenge. Here's why this race matters. 100% of your entry free, every single dollar goes directly to spinal cord injury research. Not a cut, not most of it, all of it. The motto of the Wings for Life World Run is run for those who can't, and that's exactly the point. You're lacing up so someone in a wheelchair has a real shot at walking again. It's the rare race where the miles actually means something beyond you. So next steps for you guys, I've left a link in the show notes to download the Wings for Life |
| 0:57.2 | World Run app where you will join Team TRE. I would love you to be a part of my team and help |
| 1:02.6 | support such great cause. Again, Lincoln is in the show notes, join Team TRE and enjoy today's |
| 1:08.1 | episode of the podcast. I will be running with you. May 10th, come join me, |
| 1:11.8 | support a great cause. Appreciate you all. |
| 1:15.3 | 1.1 million people applied for a bib at the London Marathon this year. 60,000 people just ran |
| 1:20.8 | the New York City Marathon, and Apple just became the title sponsor of London right alongside |
| 1:25.5 | TCS. Running isn't a niche sport anymore. It's a global |
| 1:29.0 | phenomenon. And almost nobody has written seriously about how it got there. My guest today has |
| 1:34.2 | sold 12 million books, many of which I read actually growing up. So it's a full circle moment |
| 1:38.4 | getting to talk to him. He's written about war, empire exploration, subjects that shape the world. |
| 1:43.1 | And after 20 years coaching high school |
| 1:44.8 | cross country, he finally turned his lens on running. What he found is that the sport you wake up |
| 1:49.6 | and do every single day has been quietly changing the world for 50 years, and most runners have no |
| 1:54.5 | idea. His new book, The Long Run is an excellent read. It comes out April 14th. I've loved it. |
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