The obesity-related death of his mother was a wakeup call to young, overweight Jeffrey James Binney. He could continue down the same path, or he could change his fate. And so he started running. And running. And running. All the way to the grueling Leadville 100 ultramarathon.
Jeffrey’s film Once is Enough chronicles his journey from couch potato to ultramarathoner. Fueled by grief and the desire to write jokes, his film is part documentary, part standup, and definitely unique!
Jeffrey and Coach Claire tackle such interesting subjects as why on earth he set his non-athletic sights on doing a 100-mile ultramarathon, how he trained, his plant-based lifestyle, and the scourge of blisters and chafing. If you like your motivation served with a side of laughs, this episode’s for you!
Jeffrey is a Salt Lake City based actor, singer, comedian, and "athlete." He grew up on a farm in Laredo, MO before moving to Brooklyn, NY and later Los Angeles after receiving his B.F.A. in Musical Theatre Performance from Missouri State University. Jeffrey has been seen on Late Night With David Letterman, in the 1st National Tour and Chicago Company of the Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and at comedy clubs and festivals across the country.
Questions Jeffrey is asked:
5:22 The reason I wanted to have you on the show is because I saw your film Once Is Enough on Amazon Prime this summer with my family. I subject my kids to a lot of documentaries and this is one that they actually liked! Can you tell us a little bit about the movie and why you wanted to make it?
6:42 While sitting in the hospital waiting room, you happened to pick up a copy of Trail Runner Magazine. What happened next?
7:54 Most people don’t go running a 100-miler basically off the couch, let alone the Leadville 100. What were you thinking?!?! :)
9:51 What was it like running the race under-trained and overweight? That must have been a huge challenge physically for you.
11:20 Don’t you have to qualify for Leadville? How did you get into Leadville?
12:26 What was your typical training week like or how did it progress over your 14 months of training?
13:51 How did you change physically through training?
15:23 Speaking of nutrition, you and I have a couple of things in common besides our gorgeous red hair. You and I are both plant-based! How did that fit into your training, your nutrition? What kind of things were you eating?
18:26 Most people think, “Oh, you’re on a plant-based diet. That means that you’re only eating twigs and potatoes and you’re going to be super thin, and clearly that’s not always the case for everybody, right?
19:17 Without giving away too much from the film, what kind of lessons did you learn? Just going through it and the whole filming and making a beautiful movie? What kind of lessons?
20:26 Do you think anybody can do this?
21:03 I would like to talk about the ultra running community. It’s kind of a special group of some very strange and wonderful people. Would you agree?
23:20 The aid stations are much better for ultrarunning, right?
23:40 I would love to talk about gear, like what kind of gear that you were using.
24:19 Do you still wear a bro?
24:49 Every ultrarunner, every runner, has to deal with chafing obviously. How do you deal with that?
26:58 There’s a point in the movie where you talk about your blisters that you had, and how did you deal with that? You look like you were in some serious pain there.
28:10 You manage your blisters better nowadays when you get them?
29:10 What kind of misconceptions have you come across in your running journey? When you started this, you had so much optimism about what this was going to turn out to be. What changed throughout your journey? What things were you surprised about?
31:21 What’s next for you? Are you still running? Obviously, COVID, there’s not a lot of races on the horizon, but what are you doing?
32:36 Some of the smaller trail races are still going on in person, so maybe there’s something you can sign up for that you could actually do in real life.
33:07 You’re still being coached by Ian Sharman, or are you on your own?
34:09 Questions I ask everyone:
36:08 Any new films on the horizon or was once enough?
“I just went on a hike a few years ago with some friends to one of the taller peaks here in Utah. I was getting to the top and I was really beating myself up because I just could not keep up with them. And I finally got to the top and I was like, ‘Why are you beating yourself up? You have 100 lbs on all of these people. You don’t come from a lifetime of fitness other than five years.’ And you’d think after this whole journey that I’ve been on that I would be able to keep that in better perspective, but there’s still time like that when I still have to check myself.”
“I never considered myself particularly outdoorsy. I certainly didn’t consider myself tough. And it turns out I was wrong. It turns out I am way, way stronger and tougher than I realized.”
“Most of the time I was running 20-plus hours per week on top of a full-time job. It’s literally a part-time job.”
Take a Listen on Your Next Run
Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel
Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community
Follow Jeffrey on:
We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top.
The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use.
The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!