The Frontrunner

This week on the podcast Beards and Dun have the privilege to sit down with the real life Walter Mitty, Bart Yasso. Bart personifies to a tee, the adventurist personality type. Working for Runners World starting in 1987, Bart developed the ground breaking Runner's World Race Sponsorship Program, which ultimately involved 7000 races and four MILLION runners per YEAR. From a Bun Run with a nudist colony, developing the the Yasso 800, and a "mile high" mix up, the stories Bart can tell could be an entire podcast series on their own.

This week on the podcast Beards and Dun got the pleasure of visiting with running legend Benji Durden. With modest high school and college credentials, Benji went on to become an Olympian and a Road Runners Club of America's Hall of Fame member. His running career includes being ranked in the top ten American marathoners for SIX consecutive years and being ranked 7th in the world in 1982.

This week on the podcast Beards and Dun get to know a new friend, Mike Beeman. Mike has run the Boston Marathon an impressive FOURTY SEVEN times consecutively! Starting out as a basketball player and later achieving a personal best time of 2:35:42 in the marathon, as well as twice running the length of New Hampshire (248 miles) for the Make A Wish Foundation, Mike has some amazing stories to share.

Beards and Dun get together this week alongside Beards' college coach John Fulkrod. Coach Fulkrod was the men’s and women’s cross country coach, men’s and women’s track coach, and tenured chemistry professor for 38 years between the University of Minnesota-Waseca and Duluth. They discuss Coach's career as well as reminisce with stories from his time as Beards' coach.

Despite some technical issues Beards And Dun manage to get a conversation going with former SDSU Coach Jay Dirksen. Jay coached for SDSU from 1969 to 1977 before coaching in Illinois, Missouri, and 28 seasons for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, retiring in 2011. Jay has won numerous marathons including the inaugural Paavo Nurmi Marathon, The Drake Relay, and the Twin Cities Marathon just to name a few.

Beards and Dun finally get a chance to get together to record a new episode. Beards gives an update on what's going on with his knee, Dun tells about his run in with a dog, his experience with Hurricane Helene, and they discuss highlights from the Twin Cities Marathon.

Beards and Dun are back together this week for a bit of an update episode. Beards gives an update on what's been going on with his knee [content warning, squeamish listeners beware], and Dun talks about his return to the running game as a volunteer coach for Mars Hill University along with some anecdotes about his and Beards' training and coaching at SDSU.

[We are sorry to say we experienced technical issues about 28 minutes into the episode, our apologies for the audio quality from that point on] Dun flies solo again this week as Beards continues to deal with medical issues, however Dun's college room-mate Randy Fischer is just the guy to fill Beards' shoes. Randy was a state champion track runner in high school, an All-American in college, running varsity all for years at SDSU and was on two national cross-country runner-up teams. Randy ran for the Nike shoe company and went on to run 54 marathons with two sub 2:20 and 30 sub 2:30 times. He has won 7 marathons and still holds the course record at the Brookings Marathon having ran it 5 times in total. Randy is a "shoe in" if South Dakota ever creates a Hall Of Fame for distance runners and coaches.

This week on the podcast Dun is joined by guest host Brad Cordts to discuss the Olympic Track & Field events while Beards takes a short break to address some health concerns. Brad Cordts is an SDSU alumni running track with Rod Dehaven, has 30 marathons under his belt including 19 consecutive Boston Marathons, and has attended 10 Olympic Trials, 3 Olympic Games, and 2 World Championships. Who better to discuss the 2024 Olympic Track & Field results with!?

Beards and Dun sit down this week with Scott Keenan, who for 37 years starting in 1977 was the race director for the Grandma's Marathon in Duluth Minnesota. Both Beards and Dun are past competitors of the marathon with Beards holding the course record for 33 years! They discuss the history of the race from its founding and how its evolved over the years, as well as sharing stories of their own experience with the race.