The Human Potential Running Series Podcast · John Lacroix

HPRS Podcast - Episode 72: What We've Learned About and Through Advocacy. Major Changes Coming!

·1 hr 43 min·5 clips

Leadville 100 and Lifetime Fitness were the pivot point for Human Potential Running Series.

John LaCroix opens with a 2026 update for HPRS. He points listeners to the website, lays out a calendar of ten events across the year, names everything from a 5k to a 100-mile race, and notes that the Franklin Mountains Trail Runs in El Paso, Texas, return in January. The season sounds like another big one. He says the year is shaping up to be the biggest one yet and invites people to look at the races, the values behind them, and the community around them. Then the tone shifts. He frames the rest of the show as a different kind of episode, one centered on advocacy and on why some conversations in trail running need to happen even when they are uncomfortable. He does not soften the point. If someone has a perspective you do not like, he says it is okay to walk away, stop listening, stop following, and stop letting the disagreement become a permanent fight. He keeps going. He says people do not need to keep a grudge alive for years, especially when they have not been in contact, have not run together, and have not been face to face. For him, that kind of lingering anger turns into a personal problem that gets handed back to somebody else. He is blunt about that. Later, he says he will honor Charlie in part three, and he explains that this is not because he agrees with everything, but because Charlie represented civil discourse, debate, and advocacy in a way he thinks matters. The respect is real, even when the disagreement is not. He also says most of his advocacy happens behind the scenes. He talks about speeches and the need to advocate for the sport, and he knows some of what he says will upset people because those examples are part of the evidence for his position. The episode keeps circling back to that idea. Some people will not like the delivery, and he knows it. Still, he argues that the moment calls for honesty and a willingness to say what he believes the sport needs. The show closes with thanks and a production signoff.

As heard by us

A blunt trail-running case for boundaries, memory, and knowing when to let a fight end.

The episode stays focused on advocacy, with its strongest point coming from the idea that old conflicts can outlast the moment that sparked them.

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Why you'd press play

For a blunt trail-running conversation about advocacy, boundaries, and letting go.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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