Final Surge: https://www.finalsurge.com (RUNNINGEFFECT20)

Tim Surface’s path runs straight through the heart of the sport of running.

Tim is a University of Tulsa Academic All-American who kept competing after college, carving out a 2:24:39 marathon at Chicago and logging PRs of 1:09:12 for the half and 30:35 for 10,000m, before channeling that discipline into coaching and product building.

Today, from Raleigh, he wears two hats: that of a high-school coach at North Raleigh Christian Academy and co-founder/CEO of Final Surge, where he’s bringing an athlete’s empathy and a coach’s realism to endurance tech.

His north star is simple: save coaches time so they can spend it with athletes. That philosophy shows up in practical tools like attendance and roster features for teams, deep device integrations, and a mobile Structured Workout Builder that letscoaches create, edit, and sync sessions on the fly.

Tim is here to help guide coaches on how to communicate clearly and keep the human side of coaching front and center.

Tim has a great perspective on what high-school athletes truly need in 2025, how to cut noise from data, and where endurance technology is headed next.

This is a story of mileage becoming momentum—of a runner who never stopped building—and a playbook for coaches and athletes who want their tools to work as hard as they do.

Tap into the Tim Surface Special.

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If you smash together courtroom precision with marathon coaching, you get Jeff Cunningham.

Jeff is a licensed Texas attorney turned creator of Austin’s Bat City Track Club, and he is here to open up the playbook behind one of America’s most quietly effective pro-development groups.

From Haftu Knight’s 2:09:38 breakthrough to Lindsey Bradley’s Indy Monumental course record, Bat City’s 2024–25 results are proof that Jeff’s gritty, repeatable systems scale from first-timers to elites.

Jeff is a man who can talk about the weeks that lead to a 2:09 marathon, the indicators that signal a breakthrough, and how to keep joy and accountability in balance. He’s also coached entrepreneur and hybrid athlete Nick Bare, proving that Bat City’s principles work just as well for high-performing professionals as they do for pros chasing the Olympic Trials.

In this episode, Jeff explains his unorthodox “one big workout a week” approach tailored to busy working athletes, why monotony beats flash, and how Bat City grew from two athletes in 2018 to a deep roster—all while he still practices law and coaches before dawn.

Mentored by legends and intent on paying it forward, he frames marathon prep as patient, evidence-based work and reminds athletes their ceiling is far higher than they think.

Whether you're a first-time marathoner or an aspiring Trials qualifier, this episode is a masterclass in translating big goals into durable training—and results.

Tap into the Jeff Cunningham Special.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.

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S H O W N O T E S

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-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Most runners think their biggest limiter is training volume, paces, or genetics.

Cortney Berling says it’s something much simpler: you’re not eating enough.

Fresh off a 2:52:49 finish at the 2025 Eugene Marathon and armed with her credentials as a Registered Dietitian (MPH, RD, CDE), Cortney sits down to unpack RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport): what it is, why it matters, and how to fix it before it derails your running and your health.

Cortney’s perspective is unique because she’s lived it on every stage: from a 3,000m steeplechase PR of 11:05.95 at the University of Cincinnati, to a 1:22 half marathon in Portland (2024), to road wins like the Old Port Half in Maine (2017), to her current life as a sub-3 marathoner in Oregon.

Along the way she’s been a board member and elite athlete coordinator with WMDP, coached high school runners, and led community seminars with OHSU Sports Medicine.

She knows firsthand how under-fueling can lead to injuries, stalled progress, and experienced fertility challenges linked to under-fueling in her own journey — and how the right fueling strategy can flip the script.

If you’ve ever bonked, felt flat despite training hard, or struggled to balance nutrition with performance, this episode is your wake-up call.

Tap into the Cortney Berling Special.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.

Comment the word “PODCAST” below and I’ll DM you a link to listen.

If this episode blesses you, please share it with a friend!

S H O W N O T E S

-The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs

-BUY MERCH BEFORE IT’S GONE: https://shop.therunningeffect.run

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run

-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz