Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / Talon Hull - Pre Broken Arrow 23K Interview

Transcript

Talon Hull - Pre Broken Arrow 23K Interview · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What is up, fam?
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lariello, bringing you an episode today.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I've got a good one.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I was joined by none other than Mr Talon Hull.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Talon joined me just ahead of his race that's going to be taking place this upcoming Sunday at the Broken Arrow 23K.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: This is a Broken Arrow 23K pre-race episode, but we also got a little bit into Talon's backstory.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Big fan of Talon, he was kind enough to join me on the pod literally just like within a couple of days about a week removed from his top 10 finish at the US Mountain Running Championship out in Sunapee a couple of weekends ago Got to chat a little bit about that race, kind of how the race kind of went down for him, how he was able to move up in the field and had himself a great day there.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: We talked about a lot of stuff.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: We talked about kind of the stoke and except you know how excited he is to go be back to broken arrow talons had some really great finishes at this race.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Um, some amazing results.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Uh, he seems to be kind of uh in that sweet spot.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: And you know, the sub ultra 23k kind of down the cirque series kind of range, uh, for races.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Um.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it was a super fun conversation and wish and tell him the absolute best of luck.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: It's going to be fun to kind of follow his race day.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Didn't talk to too many of the 23k guys ahead of the race, so this was a good one to kind of get some eyeballs on the 23k.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: It's kind of wild that a Golden Trail Series race might be overshadowed by what might be the most competitive 50k 46k ever assembled on American soil for our selection races.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: So what a weekend at Broken Arrow.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: It's going to be crazy.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, none other than Mr Talon Hall.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Talon Hall, welcome to the Steep Stuff podcast.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: How are you doing, my friend?
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I'm good, Good man.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Good to finally have you on the pod.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I don't think we talked last year.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I think we raced a couple of the same races.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I think you were at cirque grand targhee and cirque alta, I think that's where I recognized you from.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I'm glad to finally have you on the pod and uh, get, get a conversation going.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Dude, you just got back from sunipi.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Um, obviously it's about a week removed.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Congratulations on the top 10 finish there.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I think that was a pretty solid result, given the uh like, given just how deep that field was.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Maybe talk about your race a little bit and like kind of how you are, how things are going, like post race yeah, yeah, like you said, it was super deep, um kind of thought that was how I was gonna go.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Just going into the race, uh, just like looking at the entry list, um, and like racing a lot of my own teammates I know how good they are um, yeah, so I was, I was excited and uh, I didn't really have like a lot of expectations, um, because it was like it was my season opener.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: So, uh, yeah, I just kind of went, went into the race with like an open mind and was really excited for, like the, the bad conditions and uh, just like the nature of the course, the steep climbs and the the really muddy, steep descents.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I feel like I feel pretty good about it.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Um, eighth place in that field is like I think it's pretty solid.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Like they're talking to just like a lot of my teammates about the race beforehand and after and, um, yeah, at least on the men's side, we didn't feel like there was really a like a definitive top four that would make the team.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, like I knew Taylor was really good and Taylor was really fit, just talking to him and like seeing his training and his last couple of races have been really good.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Um and and uh, I genuinely thought, thought Dan, like I didn't think he could lose on that course, but uh, yeah there were just like a lot of people that, uh, I thought were like really, really good shape.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Uh, I didn't feel like I was in in fantastic shape by any means going into the race.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: But shape by any means going into the race.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: But, um, yeah, I'm, I'm pretty excited about it.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, not not great, not bad, but like a good season over.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I'm happy with it.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Was very solid how you feel about broken arrow yeah, coming up um it's.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I'm actually, I'm actually racing um twisted fork.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Are you gonna come out for?
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: it nice at the end of the week, so I'm not really thinking about Broken Arrow much right now.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I'm not super invested in Twisted Fork, but I think it'll be a fun race and Finn invited me to come out there and go do it and I'm from Utah originally, so it gives me a good excuse to go back home Nice.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: So that's where my mind is right now, but the nerves broken arrow haven't haven't started quite yet and it's definitely like in the back of my my mind and workouts and like specific sessions that I'm doing right now.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: I'm like is this, is this for twisted fork, or is this like a tune-up for broken arrow, or is twisted fork a tune-up for?
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Broken Arrow?
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Or is Twisted Fork a tune-up for Broken Arrow?
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what is it you tell me?
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people are I don't want to say looking past it, because it's obviously that you know it's an important race and it's like first year for the Finns got it.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: But like I don't know, I got to figure that like a lot of folks are not looking past it but using that as a tune up to see where they are for broken arrow.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's probably the general sentiment.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: It's like just, it's kind of a hard weekend to to hold a race If you want to get a lot of like really elite people out obviously, cause it's the week before.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, and it's just like how I was originally.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I was originally in the 30 K and then last week, uh, and then last week uh, I texted finn and I was like I don't think I'll recover in time if I do the 30k, uh for broken arrow.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: So he dropped me down to the 15k, which is still like super competitive.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Uh, because it's just like, uh, pretty much everyone good in utah is going, um, so like I don't know how hard I'm gonna run it or if it's gonna be be like like a hard training runner.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: If it's going to be like a race effort, I'll see like day of.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: But I think, like regardless, it'll just be really fun.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: And that's kind of where my mind is at for with Broken Arrow too, it's just like.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I just think it'll be fun regardless.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: I want to double back a little bit to Suna P.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I got to ask you some questions more specifically, just about the course, and did you race it like in any specific way?
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Like, did you maybe hold back in the first, maybe the first lap, because I feel like the race obviously started?
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: They always start out stupid fast, right, but it's like obviously the person usually leading the first loop is not necessarily the person winning the race, as we saw unfold in this race.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Did you hold back a little bit in the first?
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Did you use any tactics or how did you approach it?
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: I feel like I did hold back a little bit.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: I wish I could have said I was sandbagging more, but honestly I want to say I was probably in 10th place or 8th to 10th place.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: No, I think I was in 10th place in the first loop.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Um, honestly, I just like wasn't climbing well if.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: If I was climbing really well that day, I definitely I I like always like to put myself up in the front if I'm feeling good um, but kind of how my race unfolded was um like decent first lap and then got a bit of a second wind.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: On the second lap um ran like pretty well through those the the second climb, which is like really technical, it was just like mud pits um, and descended pretty well too.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: And then I think I got like two people I passed um, tyler, mccandles or mccandless, and uh and Remy on the on the on that section up there.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: So I felt pretty good about my second lap, but I was just like too far gone from uh like the top top six.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like I don't know, it was just the tactics and seeing how everything played out.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: It's interesting to kind of follow along.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Um, all right, I mean, dude, like I said, I want to double back and say congratulations, like what a good race, solid, all right.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: So part of the reason why I wanted to have this conversation was like kind of a pre-Broken Arrow discussion, just to kind of doing these Broken Arrow race preview episodes.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: So I'm just trying to get some of the favorites for the 23K, the VK and the 46K and ask them just more specific stuff about the race and kind of preparation, how that's going.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Obviously you're a little bit different because you already popped off the season at Sunapee.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: It's a super competitive race.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Broken Arrow is going to be crazy too.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, the 23K is a Golden Trail Series race, so it's going tooke level of broken arrow.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Is that an a race?
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Is that more of a B race?
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Like kind of, how are you approaching that race specifically this year as far as the calendar goes?
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm broken arrow is always one of my a races.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: I raced it the last three years, um, and that's usually, uh, just a race I always put on my calendar and try to do really well at all.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: My training is kind of geared towards that for the last like two months or so, so yeah, that's that's always a race I want to do really well.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: It's the most competitive race in the country, um, and it has been since I started running it, so, yeah, definitely stoke is high, I guess.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, and I'm just excited.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: It's like, uh, kind of I I don't really know where my fitness is at right now.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Um, like sun and p was like it doesn't really tell me a lot, honestly, because it's not super similar to broken arrow as far as the courses, um, and obviously like broken arrows at altitude and not muddy and there's very different, so it's hard to compare and like different people race well in different courses.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: So it's like I don't really know where my fitness is at right now.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Um, I feel pretty decent but, like, regardless, just always excited to go out and I'm I'm just always excited to race that.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on it?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: That's a golden trail series race this year.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Like obviously the depth is going to be like stupid deep.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Everybody's going to be there.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I mean my only real experience with Golden Trail.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: I don't, I don't really do their series, but, um, I did, I did Mammoth last year, um, and yeah, I got, I got rocked by the field, like it's.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: It's funny, you're just, I am so used to like racing all these these us guys, and like that's hard enough as it is, and then you could throw all these like European and African and like and like even um, south american people in the race and it's just, oh, and like asia I mean literally everyone from all around the world is just coming to this little, this little ski town, um, and yeah, it's just, the depth is insane.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Um, and I, I always thought like the depth, the american men's depth in that race was always crazy.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Like two years ago we swept, and then last year it was just like taken over by the Kenyans.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: They just kind of took off and then, um, yeah, this year I'm I'm sure it's going to be like crazy fast again.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: It's been like historically, like the loop has been done, like if you run into two hours, like probably going to do pretty well.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: That's just, that's just not the case anymore.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: It's crazy, dude.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Our sport has gotten so like the.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: The amount of folks I mean I.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I guess we could talk about the American side, but just the international side too.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: It's bananas.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: How, how fast the sport is now Like.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: It's changed and transformed, like in the last few years, and it's only getting faster.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: It's just nuts.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: It has.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so two years ago I was fourth at Broken Arrow in the snow and that was a great race for me.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: But it's interesting, that field had a good amount of really talented European athletes and a European athlete won the BK and then a lot of them doubled back to do the 23K.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: But the American men just like really shined in that race.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: We went one through four and then there was like an Italian guy and then Garrett Corcoran was six and it was just like a really good showing for American men.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: And I've always thought like the course is the course and like the altitude has always like favored Americans, just because a lot of us train up at altitude in like Colorado and Utah and like a lot of other high places, and I think a lot of like European athletes tend to struggle a little bit more at altitude races and american athletes seem to shine a bit more.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: So I'm hoping that'll be the case for me, but it wasn't last year, um, and I'm kind of one of those people who's like a bit hit or miss um at altitude races, so like I'm still figuring it out yeah now, dude, where do you train out of, are you?
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I know, did you say you were in boulder, is that where?
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: you're at?
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm in Boulder now.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: So I moved to Boulder about a year and a half ago and then I lived in Seattle for six years before that.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Nice, yeah, I thought you were Pacific Northwest, but I wasn't sure.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: It's funny, dude, I was talking to Dan about this, semi-recently about that.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: You and him were on that video that went super, super viral on instagram.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Was that you who almost fell?
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: yeah, that was me.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: I was um taking him on on a tour of mount sai, which is like, uh, just this beautiful mountain outside of seattle and it's a, it's a mountain.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: I've done like a couple hundred times and I'm like really comfortable on that kind of terrain and that mountain specifically.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: But it's like he just like caught me at a really bad time and yeah, that video it's like it has like probably 20 million views or something on like all platforms.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: It's kind of wild.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, dude, you guys are like famous from that.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: That's wild, All right.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: So both at Centipede it seems like a broken arrow, like Brooks Brooks shows up man like maybe talk about you know, I don't know.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: It's a very exciting time to be on the Brooks team right now, especially their investment in the SubUltra, both European-wise and North America, has been crazy.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: It's probably one of the best, if not the best, subultra teams on the planet right now.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Maybe talk about what it's been like being on that team, especially now this year with, like I said, they rolled up at Sunapee, guys had like a team house and it seems like they're doing stuff at broken arrow as well.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Maybe talk about that yeah, I agree that um brooks has really shown out the last year or so for sure.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Um especially investing more into like american athletes, um, and north american athletes, um, like some canadians as well.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Um, two years ago that wasn't really the case, so, or three years ago.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Three years ago, I I signed with Brooks right out of college.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Um, like finished up my track season and then went straight to the trails.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Um, and I was the I was like 23 at the time and I was the only.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: I was like one of the only sub ultra athletes.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Um, kimber Maddox was like dabbling in sub ultra, but she's more of like a 50k runner, but she, she drops down a distance.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: So it's like me and her, uh, and I think I was like the only person on the team who was under 30.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Uh, and I was 23 at the time.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Um, so, yeah, it's very different now and it's really exciting.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: So it went me and then they signed mika, and then they signed Anna, and then we signed Dan, and then we signed Taylor, and then we signed Sydney and then we signed Remy as far as all of our like civil troop people.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: So it was this like very niche, small little group and now it's just getting really big and it's it's really really exciting and it feels like like a family, you know.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: That's so cool, man.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I love seeing it grow and develop.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Dude, maybe tell your story a little bit, cause you haven't been on the podcast.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: My plan was to get you back on after, maybe after broken arrow or maybe later in the season, to do like a like, a like a long form, like one or two hour chat.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: But I'm just so curious, like how did you, how did you know about the trails?
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Like coming out of college and like going to sign with Brooks, like obviously you came from the track.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Maybe tell your story a little bit.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I'm just very curious about this now.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so my my first ever trail race, um was actually the world junior mountain running championships.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Uh, and not a lot not a lot of people know this about me, but I got.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: I got third at the world championships as a junior um, just like coming out of high school, um, and then I so I was pretty good in high school.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: I was like I was like a top five kid in the country, um, and then I went to school at the university of Washington.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Um was there for five years and had like pretty decent career, a lot of like really good cross country results and ran like pretty fast on the track at least what was fast at the time.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: And then um, yeah, basically, um, just I was kind of always while I was living in Seattle I was always like venturing out into the surrounding mountains, um, and I would just rip up some of the mountains outside of Seattle, like this mountain called Mount Sai that's the viral video that Dan got of me, that mountain.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: And then some like really historic routes, like the enchantments.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: So in 2021, or I believe there was the Golden Trail series did a, did their like uh, fkt contest on strava, um, and the enchantments was one of those, one of those routes that they did um, and if you got the fkt you get an entry into the golden trail series final um.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: So I went and ripped that with high hopes and I got the fkt by like I don't know I I crushed the, the previous fkt.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Then I had it for like five days or something and then, uh, max king went, ripped it and beat me by like six or eight minutes or something.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: But that kind of like put me on the map in like the Pacific Northwest area, and Mario Mendoza took note of that and then he was already with Brooks and we had not we didn't really have any sort of like sub-ultra people, um, and he reached out to our athlete manager, um, jordan, and Jordan is also like a local Seattle guy and he had kind of taken note of just like some of the achievements I've done around, like the mountains of Seattle.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Um yeah, and then we just kind of talked for a while and I and yeah, and then we just kind of talked for a while and I finished up college and then I signed right out of college and then signed immediately before Broken Arrow my first year and then ran the Broken Arrow VK like a couple days later and then got rocked dude, what a story man.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Holy crap that's.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: It's just interesting to me because usually I don't know like we don't get too many folks coming straight out of college and going like now like it's obviously an option, but a few years ago it like really wasn't on a lot of people's radar.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: So that's really cool.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: That, yeah, shout out to Mario man, obviously consummate professional.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I think this is his last year or something.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: He's like kind of yeah, he's retiring in retirement, which is cool.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to have him on soon.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: I got to reach out to him but yeah, man, what a consummate professional and so cool to see him take note of that.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: And I mean it kind of changes your life right, like if he hadn't taken note of that, who would have thought like maybe Brooks might have not been a thing.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: And it's always amazing to have those people kind of help you develop and, you know, help you get to where you're trying to go.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: so that's amazing yeah, it's really interesting and a lot of like just running professionally is just kind of like being in the right place at the right time and and knowing some people and obviously just like trying to perform really well.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: So I was.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I was pretty lucky I gotta ask you this man one of the things that's interesting is like dan.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Dan has really sung your praises a lot.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I've had dan on the podcast a couple times now.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: He's someone I really admire and look up to in the sport.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Dan's an interesting character.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: What a mind, what an interesting guy.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Obviously, what is your guys' relationship like, because it seems like you guys are kind of close.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I know he dabbled with some time in Boulder as well.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: How's that been happening to him as a teammate?
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've known Dan since, I want to say, 2018, 2019.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: So, um, while I was at the university of Washington, um, dan's close friend, this guy named Andrew Jordan.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: He transferred from Iowa state and did his his last two years at the university of Washington.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Um, and uh, dan was done with college and he just like came out with Andrew um and came to Seattle and started being coached by Andy Powell at the time the university of Washington coach.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, so Dan had a little bit.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: He had a little group out there called the Ravenna track club.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Um, it consisted of this guy, Fred Huxham, who was his Northwoods teammate with Ben True, and then Ben True wasn't there, but it was Fred Huxham.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: This guy, mick Stanisbek, who runs for Puma now, will Gohegan, who was a Oregon alum, and then Sam Prekel, who runs for Adidas currently.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: So they had this really talented little group out in seattle that was, um, just kind of like an add-on to the university of washington team and andy was coaching all of them on the side.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Um, so it ended that for like a year and I got to know him kind of well through that um, and I was obviously like really into trails uh at the time and Dan was like also just like just getting into that kind of thing.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Um, we were both um like really interested in trails but like still trying to pursue like our track and cross-country careers.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Um, and yeah, he was like one of the few people who we shared uh like a similar interest in the trails.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Um, and like I can't say like many of my other teammates it's not super common for a lot of like people who come from a like a track background are like very interested, like I'd offer a lot of the time, and people just like would say that sounds crazy, like I don't want to get injured, stuff like that.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Uh, but dan is like always up for any kind of adventure and we honestly didn't run together too much in seattle but we were always like in close proximity to each other and for whatever reason, we've just like clicked really well.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Um, and then, yeah, a couple years later I was, um, I graduated and I signed with brooks and I noticed dan was running really well and just kind of like told the athlete manager for Brooks I was like, hey, you should really sign this guy Like he's a great guy, really talented.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: I think he had just won Actually I don't know, but he was.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know what he went, but he was running really well, yeah, so we've known each other for a really long time and, yeah, I'd say we're, we're really good friends and yeah, he was.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: He was out in Boulder for a little while and we got some rents in and we've just stayed close throughout the years.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's amazing man.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I it's.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: It's interesting.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: I like I said Dan's somebody I just like really admire in the sport, you know, and I live in colorado springs.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: But like how do you like training more altitude and like not in seattle?
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Like is it transformed your running at all?
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Like you feel like you've had improvements, like what do you think so far about the town?
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: um, well, as far as boulder, I really love boulder, like, um, I feel it's one of the few places where, um the the trail access is just better in town than outside of town, like you don't have to commute anywhere.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: That's a that's a big plus, especially coming from Seattle, where I'd have to.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: I live like in in urban Seattle, um, by the university for many years and I'd always be commuting like like 40 minutes each way, uh, to get to one of my favorite trails, um, so it was just a lot of driving and sitting in traffic and obviously there's all the aspects of a big city that can just make life a little bit harder.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and living in Boulder is just for me, it's just a lot more relaxing and I just find that training is a lot more enjoyable and the weather's a lot better.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Um that's for sure yeah, as far as altitude, it's like I don't know if I've really I've never been someone who's like adapted well to altitude, even even like living in utah, um, like growing up in utah in high school, um, but yeah, I it's definitely helped.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Um, especially racing like all these altitude races.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Like I kind of felt like I needed to move to altitude, just because so many races are are held at really high elevations in the U S at least.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and obviously just like all the aspects of living and training and altitude that make you a better runner.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Um, and I, when I was living in Seattle, I was basically just like doing these altitude camps, um, before these races and then racing and going back to Seattle and I was like there's no reason, like I really need to live here anymore, um, so I just wanted to venture out and try something new and it's been.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: It's been really great.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: I, it's been really great.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: I have no complaints about living in Boulder.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: It's super pleasant.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Dude, I had no idea you lived there.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I feel like just the depth is so deep.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Literally everybody lives in Colorado.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Now, it's true, 90% of our sport.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Have you been down to Rip the Incline yet at the Springs?
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I've never actually ran in Colorado Springs.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: I've been to Colorado a handful of times before I moved out here, but I've never like ventured out really oh, did you got to come down and do the incline one of these days, man, you love it, it's uh, I mean it's not really obviously stupid specific, but like it's it's so, it's fun.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: It's just a fun thing to do yeah, that looks sweet like that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: if if we had something like that in boulder, there's obviously like really steep trails, but nothing quite to that level Like I would probably run up that every single day.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: That's so fun, it's cool.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: That's cool.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: It's like our version of green, something like that.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely harder than green.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: There's some like pretty steep ways up green, but the the whole steps aspect just like lifting your leg at the high it be really tough.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's interesting I don't know it's fun.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I gotta be honest with you.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, hands down what else you got on the schedule this year?
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: What are you doing besides Broken Arrow?
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Um yeah, so I just had Cinepeed, I have Twisted Fork and then Broken Arrow, and I always usually take a bit of a break after Broken Arrow and just kind of like reevaluate my season.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: So I usually would have had like a couple more races under my belt this far in the year, but I just had like a little bit of an injury at the start of the year.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: So I'm just like kind of getting back into the swing of training.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Um, so yeah, it's like a pretty blank slate after broken arrow and then I'll probably just um like take four to six weeks and just train and then like reevaluate Um and then potentially have some like races on the calendar.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: In the fall, like potentially kodiak, I'm gonna run a 50k um hopefully qualify for occ and then um hopefully be out in europe for utnb, do the uh, the short etc.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Race they do there oh, that'd be sweet man.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Am I gonna see you in any circ series races possibly?
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: definitely circ series.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Um, depending on, like, just what works out with the calendar.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: I haven't really sat down to think about it much, but, um, I really want to go out to crystal mountain, that's the one outside of matt rainier yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm signed up that seems really fun and uh, I really enjoyed grand targhee last year.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: That was was really fun.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: All of the races they do in Utah are really excellent.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: You ever ran up by Crystal?
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: How are those trails?
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: I've never actually ran at the resort but I've ran on Mount Rainier a ton of times.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Really pretty.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: It's so scenic.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Being that close to the mountain it just looks huge.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Um, so like pictures and videos don't really do it justice it's.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: It's so much bigger and prettier up close and like all of the the trails um in the national park and in the surrounding area are just like pretty well maintained and just uh, it's just pnw, pnw, magic it's.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: It's that kind of trail, it's just green and it's got that like nice, nice pine needle feel underfoot.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of soft, uh like technical enough that it's.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: It's like fun for running.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: But it's national parks that I do like a good job of like upkeeping the trail so it's like it's really fun to run around that area.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: It's obviously really pretty I'm gonna have to pick your brain, man, I gotta.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna stay out there like a couple more days after circ to see, like just to go play out there and see like I probably won't do rainier, but like go in the national park and do some.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know I could do some running around there.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: It'd be sick, yeah that'd be sweet.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: You can get like up on rainier you can.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: You don't have to summit it.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: You could get really close for like camp mirror.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Camp mirror is, um, one of the really cool trails that you can.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: You can like run up to it.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: It's like I want to say it's like halfway up the mountain, uh, but safe enough that you're not really like doing a lot of glacier travel, but there's like so many options over there and it's it's really pretty.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: You actually need, um, you need permits now.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of it's kind of crazy.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: It's just gotten so busy it's good to know.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, man, I appreciate your time.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: We're at about the 30-minute mark now, Dude.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Great conversation.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Really appreciate it.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Wishing you the best of luck at Broken Arrow and the rest of your season.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: And yeah, man, I'm thinking maybe mid-summer we do a long-form one where we can sit and chat, like a long form one where we could sit and chat, do more, dive back into your, your background and track and things like that.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: And you know, talk about a post broken arrow and stuff like that.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good talking to you?
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Awesome man, I appreciate it.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what's up, guys?
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: It's summer and you know what that means.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: You're going to need a new pack, hydration solution, bottle belt, you name it.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Guess what Ultimate directions got you covered, guys.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've been perusing on the Ultimate Direction site lately, but we've got two new vests that have just dropped.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: That's going to be the UltraVest 12 liter and the RaceVest 6 liter in two beautiful colorways.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: And you know what?
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Guess what?
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: We also dropped a quiver.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Finally, the quiver is here.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: The quiver is there.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Get it on the website right now.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Use code SteepStuffpod for 25% off.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: All of these things are already extremely affordably priced.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: I think Ultimate Direction does an amazing job at their pricing to make it affordable for athletes of all economic abilities.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: And guess what?
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: You're going to get yourself an additional 25% off by using code steepstuffpod.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Like I said, it's summer, it's broken arrow week.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: It's crazy.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: The vibes are high, the stoke is high.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: You're going to need a new vest.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: You're going to need a hydration solution.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Like I said, go to ultimate direction.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: They've got you covered 25% off with the code steep stuff pod and you are all set out the door.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: So, guys, enjoy your week.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: It's broken arrow week.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Go crazy, go wild.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Guess what?
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Next week is trail con, and then we are in western states.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: It's.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: This is the best few weeks, uh, of our sport.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: So it's wild, thank you.