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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

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Get some free DTE Swag by supporting out sponsors!

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Bigfoot 200 — 2026 Course Preview

Bigfoot is back. After two years of fire reroutes and closures, the 2026 course returns to its classic form — Klickitat is back in the rotation, and Forest Route 25 has finally reopened, cutting the drive from Randle to the start line from nearly four hours to under two.

Jameson joins Kevin and Peter fresh off course marking to break down all 200.1 miles, section by section: where the water actually is this year (there's less of it), which climbs hurt more than the profile suggests, and what the blowdowns look like on the back half.

In this episode:

• The 2026 changes — Coldwater Lake crew logistics, Twin Sisters losing crew access, and the Owens Creek aid station moving 1.5 miles down the road
• Why the silty water off Mount St. Helens will end your filter's race
• Quartz Creek: 7,000 feet of gain, 17 miles, and the loneliest place on the course
• Klickitat to Twin Sisters, fresh windfall, and the phenomenon known as "Klick-a-face"
• Crewing with one vehicle pass, no cell service, and a lot of driving
• River crossings, waist lamps, huckleberries, and why Bigfoot is the best place to dirt nap

Race starts Friday, August 14 at noon. Good luck out there — and remember to check official race comms, since things can still change.

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Kevin and Peter sit down with Selene Mallone, a Canadian firefighter who jumped from 100-milers to the 200+ mile distance and hasn't lost since. In under a year, she won the Divide 200 in her first attempt at the distance, took the Arizona Monster 300 in brutal desert heat, and then won the Ribbon 200 outright on Ontario's Bruce Trail. Selene shares how she balances training around 24-hour fire shifts, her DIY heat prep for the Monster (sauna suit on the StairMaster, a sauna sleeping bag, "practicing dirt naps"), why two-to-five minute trail naps beat fighting sleep deprivation, and running out of water alongside Sam Carroll in a 22-mile exposed desert section. Plus: the growing Canadian 200-mile scene, the Sioux 200 coming in September, and why Selene thinks the only way to know if you can do the distance is to try.