Run Your Story Podcast · Allison Gaillard

Kilian Korth - "Success and failure are not opposites of each other"

·49 min·3 clips

Kilian ties running to a glacier rescue, a crevasse, and weeping on a tiny beach in Alaska.

1. Run Your Story Podcast centers this episode on Kilian Korth and his path into ultrarunning. 2. Allison Gillyard hosts Kilian Korth, who is described as the first-place male Moab 240 champion and Triple Crown winner, and he matters because she frames him as both a runner and a coach. 3. The episode asks how Kilian went from swimming and road marathons to 200-mile races and what he learned from failure. 4. Kilian says his mother used to tell a story about him swimming for two hours at age three or four to earn a 1500-meter patch. 5. He recalls a bike trip from Fort Collins, Colorado to Seattle, Washington when he was seven, which he presents as part of a childhood built around long efforts. 6. After swimming competitively through college, he says a marathon in 2017 went badly because he did not train for it. 7. Kilian then trained for a 2018 Virginia road marathon with 7,500 feet of climbing, ran Leadville 50 in July 2018, and signed up for his first 100 miler before the 50 even started. 8. He calls that progression from marathon to 100 miles in six months "not super intelligent" and says he was not being coached. 9. Kilian says his first 100 miler was brutal, including seven lost toenails and a fuel plan built on Cliff Bars and bananas. 10. He explains that 2024 brought two DNFs, at Cocodona and Tahoe within a month, which left him shaken about self-worth and self-belief. 11. His main lesson is that "success and failure are not opposites of each other," and he connects that idea to ultra running, business, and art. 12. He also says everybody has a version of a DNF and that failures become "a stepping stone" toward success. 13. Kilian uses Chumbawamba’s line "I get knocked down. I get back up again" to summarize his response to setbacks. 14. He argues that the mountains keep runners humble because unpredictable conditions limit how much anyone can control. 15. He says the sport teaches people to control only "this tiny sliver" of an experience, then apply that lesson to life. 16. Kilian describes race mornings as highly routine-driven, with two cups of coffee, reading, meditation, and a breakfast of rice and ground beef. 17. He says post-race recovery centers on protein, the sauna, and short slow walks rather than immediate running. 18. The conversation has a practical interview style, with Allison asking about race choice, shoes, socks, fueling, and mantras while Kilian answers directly. 19. Listeners who like ultrarunning, endurance routines, and mental frameworks for setbacks will probably appreciate this episode. 20. Listeners looking for a quick celebrity-style chat without training detail will probably skip it.

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