“Endurance comes a little easier to me now. Whereas, it was a lot worse back when I was younger. When I did my first long runs, I would just get roasted if I ran over eight or nine miles. It was the worst thing. I’d say that I made such a bad decision. Speed came a little bit easier to me at the beginning. When I see something that I’m bad at or it’s more challenging, that’s fun to me. When I was being dropped on 10-mile long runs or when I felt like I was going to throw up al the time in the Florida heat, I felt like that was something I focused on and it helped me improve a bit and grow.”

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David Kilgore joins the podcast. He is one of the most talented distance runners in New York City. He runs for the New York Athletic Club and On Running. He was a high school standout in Florida before a series of events in his life led to stops at the University of Colorado (where he was an alternate on the 2013 NCAA Cross Country Championship winning team), Florida and Oklahoma State for college. He found marathons and trail running shortly thereafter while living out of a van and making more stops in Utah, Arizona and eventually New York City. Most recently, Kilgore just finished 82nd at the 2019 Trail Running World Championships in Portugal. We discuss all of that and more on this episode.

This is Runners of NYC. A biweekly podcast from CITIUS MAG. Hosts Leigh Anne Sharek and Chris Chavez look to bring you many of the untold stories behind luminaries and legends that make up New York City’s running culture. You can catch the latest episode of the podcast on iTunes so subscribe and leave a five-star review. We are also on Spotify!

Support for this episode comes from NYRR: Be a part of a monumental celebration as the world marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and a half-century of LGBTQIA+ liberation. Sign up for the FREE NYRR Virtual Pride Run 5K Powered by Strava and run it any time between June 22nd and June 30th. Run the virtual race and part of the movement, even if you don’t live in New York City. Register for the NYRR Virtual Pride Run 5K now at nyrr.org/VirtualRacing/RunnersNYC