David Roche GOES HOME DEVASTATED from Western States

how is he not around his kids because of running? Neither he nor Megan work--they don't have jobs. Their only "job" is go to running and post on YouTube about it. Yeah he does go to races, but (1) he doesn't race very often--you can't if you're an ultra runner (2) he brings his kids with him.

David and Megan are around their kids more than 99% of parents (which, good for them tbh)

I think D and M feel they can get away with this sorta thing because honestly, Boulder is full of people like them lol. Outside the Bubble: different story.

Entitlement is like a form of legal tender 'round here.

No this was in reference to his “major health scare” he experienced when the race got hard aka he got out of podium contention. Apparently he doesn’t know the difference between pushing himself and spiraling into a coma or something…

This should probably be clarified. David and Megan have the *opportunity* to be around their kids more than 99% of parents. However, with their all day child care and family they don’t take advantage of that. Unless of course they need to make a new video or social post, then they are 100% with their children.

No kidding - sitting and eating for 5 minutes would have fixed it, but the thought of falling further behind podium contention was too much.

You know, in hindsight, I think David would have really struggled to even finish top 5 this year if he had run the whole thing. The field was spicy and I genuinely don't think he would have been able to hang with any of the guys in that cohort. I think he'd have had a shot at top 10 but looking back now, there's no way he breaks through the dudes in top 5.

the thing is, finishing top 5 or top 10 is much much for respectable than (1) saying you're going to win (2) lying about your training (3) dropping out (4) then doubling down on all the sh*t talk and histrionics

If you can't finish a race you are not really podium contention material. This guy tried to talk himself into winning Western States without doing the actual work.
Did he ever do long runs in the mountains near by?

Or just his stupid sprint work outs?

Happy to shut my yap if David can make good on his claim of being able to run a sub 4 minute mile,

at 10,000' of altitude,

at 37.

How many times can this guy yell "wolf"?

I like your assessment. But, David pronounces Killian's last name correctly. Most people mispronounce it. It is not "Jor-nay", it's "Jor-net". He's not French.

See Bryon's interview with Killian, he must know the correct pronunciation

Kilian Jornet Post-2025 Western States 100 Interview – iRunFar

tbf David doesn't do sprint workouts; that would be his satirical altar ego David Poach.
BUT David made a huge point in his videos to advertise when he was running sub 4 minute pace without saying how long he was actually running that pace for--probably for 100 meters or so.

ALSO, David made a huge of advertising treadmill workouts that he is not physically capable of. For example, that infamous 6 x 1 mile workout averaging like 4:30 pace. Not only is he not capable of running this workout, he went out of his way several times to brag about this fake workout on strava and in his YouTube for...god knows what reason

He can’t be so narcissistic to think that nobody else was feeling like crap and suffering that entire day, can he?

This guy is a clown

That 6 x 1 mile workout…yeah. He brags about it on Strava and YouTube, like you mentioned. Not that he just ran a good workout but those exact paces.

By the way if you dig into the data on essentially any of these treadmill workouts there’s no way to tell what paces he really ran. His treadmill has the capacity to track his workouts and upload them to his Strava, but for some reason, while on this specialized treadmill, David chose to use his watch to track the paces (not to mention the times he used his Strava app to track his OUTDOOR workouts)

After David is asked about the veracity of his treadmill workouts, he goes on his pod and says that he DID run that workout, BUT that his treadmill isn’t calibrated, AND it doesn’t matter because it’s all about effort!

JFC with this guy

Damn I thought entitlement as a tender was only here in Seattle

Bingo

"If you're forming your opinion of the Roches based on snippets from last week’s pod, I’d really encourage you to listen to this week’s episode, too. It’s not a redemption arc or a PR repair job—just a quiet, thoughtful conversation between two self-aware and reflective people trying to regroup. They talk about seeing a therapist, getting bloodwork, limiting phone use, and turning to things like board games and conversation cards as a way of reconnecting with life after failure.

What struck me most was the contrast between that conversation and the tone of this thread—including usernames like 'is David suicidal?' casually tossed off for effect. This week’s podcast feels like a deliberate act of refuge from that kind of discourse—an attempt to reinhabit the world with more attention and care.

It reminded me of something Tarkovsky once wrote: 'Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual.' You don’t have to think the Roches are artists to recognise that same longing here. They’re not always perfect. But they’re clearly trying—at some personal cost—to understand themselves, and to model what that process might look like in public.

You can still disagree with them. But writing them off as narcissists feels like the easiest possible read of something much more complex."

my god as I was and am sincerely worried about this safety

*his

I fully agree. I would have held him in much higher regard if he finished the bloody race, even if he had to walk in it, and then looked at the cameras and was like "damn, that thing just handed me my ass". Instead, he just quit when he knew he couldn't back up all the ridiculous claims he'd spent weeks making. I mean honestly... the audacity of thinking he was gonna come in and win the whole thing is just so ridiculously comical now. David never had the goods.