Five Hours to Noon

In 2024, the Divide 200 broke him. A wrong turn in the dark at kilometer 64 sent him back over the ridges he'd just climbed — humiliation, search and rescue, race over. He didn't go home. He pivoted, paced Scott Jenkins through a biblical night of cold rain and Alberta clay, and started taking notes. This is what came of those notes. Five Hours to Noon is the story of the 2025 Divide 200 — 320 kilometers across the Southern Canadian Rockies from Castle Mountain Resort, over La Coulotte Ridge, Whistler Mountain, Willoughby Ridge, the high rock range, and the continental divide at North Kootenay Pass, where every runner has to retrieve a small coin from a box on a rock and carry it to the finish. Five days. No exceptions. Hard cutoff at noon Tuesday. This isn't the movie version of revenge. No swelling strings. Just better batteries, cleaner systems, tighter crew calls, and the humility to stop and reorient when the data and the gut disagree. It's a story about failing headlamps and 19 trail naps. About grizzly reroutes and beaver-made lakes that swallow the trail. About a son named Christopher who crewed, drove, charged gear, and then ran more than 100 kilometers beside his father. About Ana Robbins, whose race ended in search and rescue, handing over her trekking poles so the race could keep going for someone else. About a coin pressed into a finisher's plaque — a literal piece of the course locked inside the award. We arrive at the start line with two pairs of shoes, one shiny and new and one old and falling apart. The old ones carry the hardest miles. Chapters: 00:00 Cold Open — Every Light Lies to You 00:07 The 2024 Wrong Turn 01:08 The 2025 Thesis 01:38 Act One — Getting to the Start Line 08:09 Act Two — Step Forward 14:37 Act Three — The Warm Day Begins 22:15 Act Four — Three Headlamps, Old Shoes On 31:01 Act Five — Rerouted by Nature 39:18 Act Six — Nothing But Rain 46:24 Act Seven — The Coin 53:32 Act Eight — Five Hours to Noon 01:00:35 Epilogue — Looking Back From the Finish Line 01:08:23 Closing Monologue — The Coin in the Plaque Crew & Pacers: Christopher Johnson — Crew Chief & Pacer Rebecca Walker — Crew support Andrea Moore & Kimber Snow — Trail company and crew support Ana Robbins — Trekking poles and trail magic Volunteers, Calgary Search and Rescue, and Brian Gallant & Kirsty Dolson for putting on a race that earns its coin ▶️ Subscribe: @iampauljamesjohnson Today is the best day of your life. Now go get some. #Divide200 #Ultrarunning #200MileRace #CanadianRockies #THEWORK #GetSomePodcast