Version 2 of Alexis Ohanian’s Athlos track and field series brought a louder crowd, bigger production, and major star power to New York City. ThoughtsLeader gives his impressions and wonders about the big test in 2026.

This week we talk about HS phenoms Claudia Hollingsworth, Jaylen Slade, & Hobbs Kessler as well as college phenoms Travis Laird and Tara Davis, take a deeper look at the Notre Dame men's depth, compare the state of British marathoning in 1980 and 2021 and rave about Linden Hall and Gavin Sherry, who crawled across the line to break 9:00 in the two-mile.

This week Raevyn Rogers tells us it's okay to wear makeup when going to war, we marvel about a bunch of high school girls that did something more difficult than a 4-minute mile, praise a LetsRun poster for winning Comrades, hand out free coaching advice from David Rudisha and snap photos of a 75-year-old great grandmother.