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

Learn about our Patreon Offers!: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/DistancetoEmptyPod ⁠ Get some free DTE Swag by supporting out sponsors! ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://janji.com/pages/distance-to-empty⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and be sure to select 'podcast' > 'Distance to Empty' on the post purchase "How did you hear about Janji" page. Thank you! Check out Mount to Coast here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mounttocoast.com/discount/Distance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In this special edition of Distance to Empty, Kevin and Peter sit down with Jen Novobilski, one of the runners featured in The Cutoff, the new film from Dylan Harris and Aravaipa Running. Jen'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. She talks about finding out mid-race that she'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 last week — 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. 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?) 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's sled her nieces and nephew decorated and her grandmother sewed the zipper into. 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. In this episode: Accidental ultrarunner: from mountaineering to a rainy-day half marathon Alaska running, sled pulling, and the Susitna 100 The Skydive Ultra 100 — bacon, hallucinations, and losing two hours to the jump Getting recruited into The Cutoff at mile 37 The "observer effect" of running with a camera on you Sleep deprivation, weather, and why the 2025 Cocodona was the hardest year yet Why crew and pacers made the finish possible Escalation, "normalizing Norman" friends, and what's actually being chased What Jen hopes people take away from the film about the back of the pack