"It's Not About Finishing. It's About Lining Up" w/ Jen Novobilski

<p>Learn about our Patreon Offers!: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/DistancetoEmptyPod ">⁠https://www.patreon.com/DistancetoEmptyPod ⁠</a></p><p><br></p><p>Get some free DTE Swag by supporting out sponsors!</p><p><a href="https://janji.com/pages/distance-to-empty">⁠⁠⁠⁠https://janji.com/pages/distance-to-empty⁠⁠⁠⁠</a>⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and be sure to select &#39;podcast&#39; &gt; &#39;Distance to Empty&#39; on the post purchase &quot;How did you hear about Janji&quot; page. Thank you!</p><p>Check out Mount to Coast here: <a href="https://mounttocoast.com/discount/Distance">⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mounttocoast.com/discount/Distance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠</a></p><p><br></p><p>In this special edition of Distance to Empty, Kevin and Peter sit down with Jen Novobilski, one of the runners featured in <em>The Cutoff</em>, the new film from Dylan Harris and Aravaipa Running.</p><p>Jen&#39;s path to a 250-mile buckle started on a rainy day in Alaska in 2007, when she and a friend bailed on a hike and signed up for a half marathon instead — one minute running, one minute walking. Marathons turned into a 50-states goal, the pandemic turned that into her first 50-miler, and the company she kept did the rest.</p><p>She talks about finding out mid-race that she&#39;d be in a film (filmmaker Bradford caught her hugging her crew at the start and tracked her down at Crown King), and about only learning <em>last week</em> — from our episode with Jamil and Dylan — that the movie was really about the cutoff all along. Her first reaction was ego. Her second was admiration for how the crew handled it.</p><p>We get into her 2025 Cocodona 250: roughly five hours of sleep across the whole race, no real dirt nap until past mile 200, hallucinations, a full head-to-toe clothing change in the downpour before Fain Ranch, and snow on Mingus that felt like home. (She did not bring rain pants. Who brings rain pants to the desert?)</p><p>Jen also breaks down the Skydive Ultra — where the skydive itself counts against your cutoff — and previews her next big swing: the Iditarod Trail Invitational 150, starting days after this recording, with a kid&#39;s sled her nieces and nephew decorated and her grandmother sewed the zipper into.</p><p>At 51, with a regular job and a regular life, her message is simple: if she can do it, so can a lot of other people.</p><p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p><ul><li>Accidental ultrarunner: from mountaineering to a rainy-day half marathon</li><li>Alaska running, sled pulling, and the Susitna 100</li><li>The Skydive Ultra 100 — bacon, hallucinations, and losing two hours to the jump</li><li>Getting recruited into <em>The Cutoff</em> at mile 37</li><li>The &quot;observer effect&quot; of running with a camera on you</li><li>Sleep deprivation, weather, and why the 2025 Cocodona was the hardest year yet</li><li>Why crew and pacers made the finish possible</li><li>Escalation, &quot;normalizing Norman&quot; friends, and what&#39;s actually being chased</li><li>What Jen hopes people take away from the film about the back of the pack</li></ul>