Dirt Church Radio Trail Running

This week is a tribute to togetherness that running can bring us. Ali, Andrew, and Matt celebrate the experience of heading out for a run with your mates, be it a marathon relay, a Denny’s Marathon, or a Coast to Coast to Coast. We explore (literally) some of the cool places you can get to in a city on foot. We salute and welcome Freden, Auckland’s new maunga-based running activity, and reveal our fondness for the ephemera collected post-race, and the memories they hold. We get sub-niche, lea...

Kia ora e te whānau. Ian Sharman is a straight-up Legend in the sport of ultramarathon running. A Coach and Athlete hailing from the Golden Age, before 4K cameras in everyone’s pockets and when fans had to pass around a pirated copy of Unbreakable, Sharman and his kin were like trail gods, foreshadowing and inspiring the current crop of legends and doing things us regular people could only imagine, and we had to, because it was before the great trailrunning media bubble formed. Starting DCR 8...

This week, Ali, Matt, and Andrew get philosophical: if an influencer were to influence the woods and no one were around, would anyone GRWM? We take a shot at amateur doping (and why this sucks), and share our undying admiration for the NZ 24-hour championship team. We address some of the curliest issues afflicting trail running in the 21st century. While we are at it, why is Andrew so calm? It worries us when he goes all Zen. Should you date runners, even if you are one? Is this a...

Kia ora e te whānau. We ran away and joined the circus. And it was cool as hell. No, not that dork-fest in the desert, but a true example of community and fellowship at the 2026 Hoka Ultra Trail Australia by UTMB. These are incredible four days in the majesty of the Blue Mountains. Ali and Matt were privileged to lead a brilliant conversation with some of the biggest talents in Trail and Ultra Running on Friday, after the first of our live shows was rained off. We speak with Beth McKenzie, Ru...

We’ve had some big weeks in the running world. With some incredible performances and a new normal being established across the board, from 42.2 to 250 miles. Ali, Andrew, and Matt are here for it, and we have some questions as well. Is our sport, and the big tent that it has become, lost some of its sparkle, its unpredictability, its wonder? Now, every elite performance must surely hinge on the 1%ers. When is too much too much? Have accomplishment and performance been superseded by atte...