“I tangoed way too much in the first half and didn’t have enough left to do it again when it counted. The marathoner who dances smart wins. I danced too early.”

My guest for today’s episode is Rory Linkletter: a Canadian Olympian, co-host of the Out and Back Podcast, and one of the most analytically sharp pro voices in the sport right now. At the 2026 Boston Marathon, he ran 2:06:04 for 14th place overall and the second-fastest marathon in Canadian history. He came in with the best build of his career — two sub-60-minute halves, workouts that never said no — and went out with the lead pack convinced that anything was possible. Then the bill came due.

In this conversation, Rory walks us through the moment the race turned, the internal negotiation of the final nine miles, the hamstring that seized on Boylston, and what he took from watching Clayton Young and Ryan Ford fly past him on Commonwealth Avenue.

But we also get Rory in full pundit mode: how to actually read the Boston results in the context of 2028, why he thinks Zouhair Talbi was operating on a different level than everyone around him, his declaration that John Korir is the best in the world right now, his take on the Scott Fauble super shoe debate, the Emma Bates sponsorship controversy, and why he thinks the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials will be the craziest in modern history.

He also previews Ottawa in five weeks, where he goes in with a simple mandate: run less with the heart, more with the head.

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Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez

Guest: Rory Linkletter | @rory_linkletter

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr

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