Discussed in this episode:

– Faith Jenkins, winner: Eric's sister Faith won the Margarita 5K in New Hampshire this weekend. A win is a win. Big weekend for the Faiths — Faith Kipyegon and Faith Jenkins, both coming away with 5K victories.

– Aisha's screen detox: Deleted Instagram from Saturday through Thursday. Twitter stayed because she needs her track gossip and Giro updates.

– Rail Riders come through on the Giro: After last week's public request for HBO logins, multiple listeners sent actual username and password credentials.

– Giro update: Jonas Vingegaard won a stage this week, completing the set — he's now won a stage at all three grand tours.

– One-year anniversary incoming: Probably early June. Eric floats the idea of baking cupcakes.

– Hantavirus update: Contained. Ten total cases, one false positive. We are not entering another pandemic.

– Drake's three-album drop: Aisha cannot get through the Iceman tracklist.

– Kit rankings — the Met Gala of track and field: Every brand drops their new racing uniform at the first Diamond League of the season, and women's training groups will discuss nothing else on long runs for weeks. Aisha gives her full rankings.

– Mark English wins the men's 800: 1:43.8 in Shanghai.

– The most redheads discussion

– Molly Huddle and Emily Infeld sidebar: Two premature celebrations in the first Diamond League prompts a detour to Beijing 2015 and the bronze medal that got away.

– Men's 3K: Fourteen athletes under 7:30 in a field of nineteen. Five national records.

– Women's 1500: Birke Haylom wins. Tsige Duguma takes second in only her second-ever 1500. Top eleven under four minutes.

– Jessica Schilder throws 21.09: The Dutch shot putter breaks the Diamond League record, sets a world lead, and becomes the first woman to break the 21-meter barrier since 2012.

– Women's steeple: Peruth Chemutai celebrates early, barely holds on by one hundredth of a second.

– Looking ahead: Track Fest at UCLA on May 23rd — Emma Coburn's first steeple in two years (since her ankle injury in the 2024 Shanghai water jump), Parker Valby, Gabbi Jennings, Josh Kerr, Donovan Brazier, Bryce Hoppel, and a stacked women's 800 all racing.

– Kirkland Signature sweatsuit interlude: Aisha is wearing a full Costco fit. She is a fourteen-year Costco stan and would quit her job to become a Costco influencer if given the chance.

Voicemails: A mom of a ten-month-old asks: What would your grift be? A caller from Portland, Maine, wants Portsmouth restaurant recommendations after a string of bad experiences. A listener asks whether the culture of the sport has meaningfully changed post-Alberto — Aisha and Eric give a thoughtful yes-and-no. A listener named Rachel has been Clorox-wiping her stationary bike three times and Googling whether mouse poop five feet below her deck could give her hantavirus. A caller asks for three book recommendations.

📞 Call in to (856) 279-0080‬ to leave us a voicemail with any question you may have, whether it’s running-related or not.

📲 Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or follow the show on Spotify to stay up-to-date with all the latest episodes.

🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@OffTheRailsWithEricandAisha

Follow your hosts on Instagram:

🗣️ Follow Eric Jenkins: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@_ericjenkins⁠⁠⁠⁠

🗣️ Follow Aisha Praught-Leer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@aishapraughtleer

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⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

Listening to “Off The Rails with Eric and Aisha” while running may result in uncontrollable laughter, side stitches, funny looks from strangers, and the occasional trip hazard due to snort-laughing mid-stride. Proceed with caution—and maybe stretch your abs beforehand. Use caution when wearing earbuds in public places—people will wonder if you’re okay. You are. You’re just having a really good time.

No prepared notes this week, which means full chaos.

Discussed in this episode:

– Eric's sub-five mile controversy: Someone DM'd Aisha the Strava elevation profile

– Aisha is now up to three miles straight at 9,000 feet in Crested Butte; a barre class that cost $25, which was $8 above her personal tipping point.

– Giro d'Italia access rage: HBO Max has put live sports behind an additional paywall. Aisha's cutoff is $17/month.

– Hantavirus on a Dutch cruise ship: Three deaths, eight total cases, a very long incubation period, and the Canary Islands said absolutely not, you are staying at sea. Aisha spent the majority of her non-working, non-painting hours this week on hantavirus memes and UFO memes

– Pentagon UFO files: Released with minimal fanfare. Eric is not buying it as anything other than a distraction from the Epstein files.

– Spencer Pratt is running for mayor of LA: Won 89% of a debate poll. Reality TV people are built for these moments.

– Met Gala recap: Mondo Duplantis and fiancée Desiré Inglander attended. Desiré has been described by a mutual friend of Aisha as the hottest female elf from Lord of the Rings that could ever exist in the world.

– Cocodona 250: Rachel Entrekin becomes the first female winner in race history with a time of 56:09:48.

– Denver airport Frontier plane incident: A person breached the tarmac fence and was sucked into a plane engine, causing it to burst into flames.

– Track roundup: Simeon Birnbaum runs a dominant 1:44 800m, including working past two Oregon teammates in the final stretch. Marco Langon runs 3:32. Quincy Wilson debuts in the 300m hurdles and wins in 38.77 — nobody saw hurdles in his future.

– Shanghai Diamond League preview: May 16th — six days away. The meet features five Americans in the women's steeple. The women's 1500 field is stacked: Tsige Duguma, Dorcas Ewoi, Gabija Galvydytė, Jess Hull, Emily MacKay (who apparently ran a 1:59 800 at altitude recently), Gracie Morris, Claudia Hollingsworth and more.

– Aisha's Monaco/Tour de France vacation: World Athletics meeting in Monaco at the end of June, followed by the first two days of the Tour de France in Barcelona.

– The Wout van Aert DM: When Aisha was training in Leuven, she noticed on Strava that Wout van Aert was doing afternoon jogs at around the same pace as her. She DMed him on Instagram to see if he wanted to run.

– Sarah Hall's audiobook: Aisha is halfway through For the Love of Running on Audible. Sarah Hall narrates it herself. Beautifully written, very open about relationships, spirituality, family, and her internal world.

– Voicemails: A fan notes that Mac and Chris could not have anticipated inviting Aisha and Eric onto their team and watching them dog group runs; travel recommendations for the Northeast and Boulder; a listener calls to give Centro's wife Lindsay her flowers — she's the PT for an all-women's running team in Chicago; and a dad reports that his two-year-old now says "love you, bye" as his farewell phrase, which he learned from this podcast.

📞 Call in to (856) 279-0080‬ to leave us a voicemail with any question you may have, whether it’s running-related or not.

📲 Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or follow the show on Spotify to stay up-to-date with all the latest episodes.

🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@OffTheRailsWithEricandAisha

Follow your hosts on Instagram:

🗣️ Follow Eric Jenkins: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@_ericjenkins⁠⁠⁠⁠

🗣️ Follow Aisha Praught-Leer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@aishapraughtleer

----

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

Listening to “Off The Rails with Eric and Aisha” while running may result in uncontrollable laughter, side stitches, funny looks from strangers, and the occasional trip hazard due to snort-laughing mid-stride. Proceed with caution—and maybe stretch your abs beforehand. Use caution when wearing earbuds in public places—people will wonder if you’re okay. You are. You’re just having a really good time.