Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / #66 Cole Campbell

Transcript

#66 Cole Campbell · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What is up, fam?
• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lauriello, and today I'm so excited to bring you guys another episode, this one with the man himself, mr Cole Campbell, the 2024 50K National Title Holder.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Cole is on a heater man.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: He's had a great 2023 and 2024 season and it sounds like he's locked and loaded and getting ready for 2025.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Cole's got an incredible story.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: The guy is incredibly mature and he's a dedicated, very consummate, professional, very blue collar and a very hardworking guy.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: He and I got along really well.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Like I said, he's definitely shaped into one of my favorite people in the sport.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: He's been fun to follow.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: He's a quiet guy that is just one of those people that puts his head down and works extremely hard and with that, I'm so excited to see where his future takes him.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: We talked a lot about his 2023 and 2024 season.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: We talked about plans for 2025.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: He'll actually be gearing up tomorrow to go race the Black Canyon 100K and he's got some plans for some sub-ultra stuff as well.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: We talked a lot about preparing for a race like Black Canyon as well as preparing for world's qualifying races like broken arrow, uh, and some things like that and some, you know, potential love and plans to try and make the world's team um.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: We also talked about his formative years.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: We talked about how he got into the sport, we talked about his time at western um, western colorado university, underneath the guidance of josh aberle, and we talked about his latest deal with Adidas Terrix, where he signed on to be a professional athlete with the Adidas Terrix team for 2025.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, lots to be excited on for Cole Campbell, really cool guy and just a very exciting character in the sport, someone we really need to watch out for.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: He could potentially have a gigantic day tomorrow at Black Canyon and he's really just getting started.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, I'm going to stop mumbling and get into the episode.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoy this one, cole Campbell, it's time.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: We are live People Earth.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Listen up.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: The Steep Stuff Podcast is brought to you by Ultimate Direction USA.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I am so excited to be partnering with Ultimate Direction in 2025 as the official hydration solutions partner for the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Lots of fun things coming down the pike for this year.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Ultimate Direction is going to be unveiling a brand new race and ultra vest that's going to be dropping in the next couple of months, so excited to bring that to you guys.
• 3:26
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• 3:36
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• 3:37
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• 3:44
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• 3:46
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• 3:47
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• 3:57
  Speaker 1: You guys are going to be start start to put together your race calendars and, uh yeah, ultimate direction is going to have you guys covered.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: So, so, whatever you need, they've got you outfitted from head almost to toe.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: They don't do shoes yet.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: So, guys, enjoy yourself.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Have a great rest of your week.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, and check out Ultimate Direction.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Cole Campbell.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: How are you, my friend?
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I'm doing well.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Thanks, James, I'm happy to be here.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I'm excited we finally got to chat and get you on the pod.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I know we've been talking about doing this for some months now and now that I've had some time and Zoom because I usually do everything in person.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: So we just moved and I've been doing more Zoom interviews than usual just because I'm trying to get the pod studio set up and all these things for the future, and I'm like you know what I can get more people on if I do Zoom.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: So I was like Cole Campbell let's do an episode.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Heck yeah, how's your day going?
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: It's going good.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just did a little run, shaking out the legs a little bit.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: I ran a low-key 50K uh, Wilson Creek frozen 50 K, Um.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: So yeah, just kind of shaking out the legs, getting recovered from that.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: And then, uh, yeah, yeah, All is good.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: How's the build going for black cannon, Are you?
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I saw you were on the start list for it, Are you you're planning on going yeah?
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Yep, yep, that 50 K is like the last big long run stimulus Get.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: The is like uh had about 6,000 feet of climbing in it, so hopefully temper the downhill legs a little bit for for black Canyon, um, but yeah, I'm really happy with it.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Uh, or in, I'm tough Uh last fall and haven't haven't done any racing since then.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: So just kind of slowly building up and, yeah, eyes on black canyon nice man, nice.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Well, let me, let me back it up.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I got way too ahead of myself because I I as soon as, as soon as I saw it on the star list, I was like, oh, I gotta talk to him about black canyon, but let's, uh, let's back it up.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Um, obviously we introduced you, cole campbell.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Maybe give a little, uh, give a little breakdown on background, how you got into running, where you're from, stuff like that.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure, I uh grew up in spring Creek, Nevada.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: It's uh just South of Elko if you've ever been on the 80, but uh, yeah, I grew up here.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Uh, in high school I ran, cross country, wrestled, uh, ran track.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: I started running I think I was in second grade but my mom was doing like a fun run, 5k.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I want to do that, that sounds awesome.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: So I ran like a couple miles before or like I ran a mile several times before the 5k and did the 5k.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: So that was like my first official race, you know, um, but it was, it was super cool and I thought it was.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: It was fun to run with my mom and just kind of do something that I wasn't.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I didn't think that I could, it was only a 5k, but it was like I don't know if I can do this, you know, but just having that satisfaction and completing something that you're not sure that you're able to, that was pretty cool.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: But then, yeah, I just started running in high school and it was pretty cool because it was just like a nice little sanctuary for me to find like-minded people and kind of fit in and it was really nice to find something that, uh, you could work really hard at and improve um.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: So I found a lot of satisfaction and just working really hard and kind of um improving year over, year after year.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: So that was pretty special.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Shout out to todd mulkey, who's my coach in high school and that guy was a huge influence in my running career, so props to him.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: That was really great.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: But yeah, and then went to College of Idaho for bachelor's degree.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Got to run cross country indoor and outdoor track for those guys, indoor and outdoor track for those guys and it was a really great experience.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: I got a bachelor's in exercise science, got minors in art history, business psychology.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: So it was a fun, not only for the athletics but just kind of of um, just experiencing different subjects in academia and just kind of exploring some of that.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: And that was pretty cool as well.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: But uh, but yeah, and then took a year off of school, did some wildland firefighting in between and then found myself at Western Colorado to get a in between and then found myself at Western Colorado to get a graduate degree in exercise science.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, that was kind of.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: That's kind of the, the rundown, the, the quick rundown of the last couple of years Um, but yeah, still running still enjoying it, dude, I love it.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I have so many questions.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: There's so many things I could pull from this.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Obviously we're going to get into the gunny question because you're like gunny adjacent, having gone to western, and I feel like literally I've had an entire class of people from gunnison or have gone to western at some point in time on my podcast.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Um, but first I want to ask you about the, the firefighting dude like what kind of experience was that?
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Like I mean, maybe, maybe talk a little bit about like what you were doing there and just like what that experience was all about.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really great.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I, uh, I always thought that I wanted to do something like that, um, and then, uh, how did it come about?
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I think my coach from college of Idaho, alton Bastard Chia, uh, he called me into the office one day and he had heard through the grapevine that I was putting in for some hand crews and hot shot crews in Nevada and I still had a year of eligibility afterwards.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: It was my junior year that he called me into the office.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: He said whoa, whoa, whoa, Like you don't know what you're getting yourself into, like I don't think you'll be able to train properly over the summer.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: He said let me give you a number and you can contact some of the Boise wildland fire crews and they have some engine modules running out of Boise.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: So he got me linked up with some good people over in Boise, put in my resume and application and everything, and it all worked out.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: So I ended up working for the Boise district for three seasons.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it was a super cool experience.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Man, it's really cool to be on a crew with like-minded individuals and that element of camaraderie is um hard to come by.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, I, I really enjoyed, um my time on the cruise um building relationships, working really hard, long hours.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Uh, it was a pretty special experience, yeah.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Dude.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, like you're.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: You're probably the only person I've ever talked to that has uh job like that.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Were you in any serious crazy fires where it's like this is pretty serious shit, or was it more tamed down?
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Can you talk about maybe some of those experiences?
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did a couple off-district rolls.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: So the way the Boise district works I won't get too much into the nitty-gritty, but you kind of have a rotation as the year goes on, other crews will go off-district and then once it's your time to come up, you'll be able to go off-district.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: And those off-district fires are generally bigger fires, a little bit more serious.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: But we got to go on to the Haldor fire in 2021.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: And that was probably the biggest.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: I think that was probably the biggest fire that I've been on and it was.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a big fire.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Lots of devastation, fire was going over.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: We just couldn't stop it.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: There was so many personnel on that fire, it was crazy.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: But yeah, sometimes when those fires get going, it's hard stopping them and there's obviously smaller fires on the district and got to detail out with some good crews over the years as well, so it wasn't always just on the engine.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's fun, high adrenaline Sometimes.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: It's high adrenaline.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you're just sitting around, but when it's time to go, it's time to go.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it was fun.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: I really enjoyed it.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Interesting time to go.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it was fun.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Interesting so that's kind of what I was kind of digging at is like so you meet your alley max of the world who like jump off of bridges and stuff like base jumping right, is it?
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: And that's very much like an adrenaline thing, is it?
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious, like, what interested you in that?
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Like was it a family member that did anything like that, or was it more like you met someone or was it?
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Is it the seeking the adrenaline?
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Just because it's a very interesting thing?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah for sure.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Um, I don't know necessarily what attracted me so much to it.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, growing up in Nevada you'd always hear about, uh, the wildland firefighters and uh, we have Ruby mountain hotsots just in our backyard.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I knew of some friends that had been on crews in the past and there was always some sort of intrigue.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: I didn't really know much about it and it interested me.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: I knew that you had to work really hard, you had to be on a crew, so you got to make really great relationships with your crewmates.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I just kind of wound up in that position, like, I mean, I wasn't even putting in when I put in for my applications in Nevada, I wasn't very serious about it, and then when Austin called me into his office I was like, ok, maybe this is something that I could kind of pursue.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I just kind of fell into my lap a little bit.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, long days, 16-hour shifts when you're on big fires, 14-day rolls, so you work for 14 days straight and you get it used to be two days off for R&R and then you kind of go back to your rotation or you go back out onto another role for another 14 days, just depending on how schedules line up and what the season's looking like.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: But yeah, you work that many hours, you're bound to make a little bit of money, so that's always a plus as well.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Dude, so cool, such a cool job, all right, so one of the things that interested me and why I think you and I are going to get along really well, is that you keep bringing up hard work long days and just grinding it out and you seem like one of those hard work kind of guys and I really appreciate that, because you don't meet a lot of people that want to do the hard work and seek that out.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: One of the things you also said to me that was really interesting is that you're a wrestler.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Is it like?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: And I know, in combat sports, especially at a young age, it teaches you a lot of hard work and you have to grind and if you want to get good.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Do you think some of that maybe is that word that like hard work mentality comes from is from like wrestling from back in the day, or um, I think that's definitely part of it.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Um, I think that the hard work element was probably instilled into me from a young age from my parents, because those guys are big on hard work.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Um, so all the credit in the world for those guys.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, wrestling was.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: It's a tough sport.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Uh, spin creek's a pretty small school, so it is encouraged to be like, contribute to the school and it's athletic and try to do as much as you can.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, we, we grew up wrestling.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: My brother and I, we grew up wrestling.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: I think I started in second grade, he started in kindergarten.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Um, but, yeah, my parents just wanted us to be as active as we could.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: So, uh, we would.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was crazy because we would go from piano lessons up in lamoille and we would haul ass down to Spring Creek to get to wrestling practice.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Um so we were just really busy as kids, um, and it was kind of cool to have that contrast.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Like you go to from piano practice and then go down the hill and you're, you're wrestling, um, but yeah, I think that the wrestling is a different, it's a different beast, because your, your competitor, is one person, you know it's one-on-one type of deal, um, and everybody's watching you.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: So I think that that sport is a little bit oh, I always found it to be more high pressure than running, and then running was fun.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: It was like during the winter we'd wrestle and then you always look forward to track because you just you're there and it feels a little bit more individual sport and you're always pushing yourself.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: But it was nice because you went from that high pressure atmosphere and then doing something a little bit more, a little bit more lax or what I found, a little bit more lax, um, and I think it definitely helped with the running because of that pressure and mindset and just kind of being mentally resilient, um, yeah, I think, I think it helped for sure.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: It's good character building, like anytime you're choking somebody out or somebody's choking you out.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: It's pretty fun, right yeah.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: You get humbled a lot and then you can do a lot of humbling, but you learn a lot about yourself and, like you said, it builds a hell of a lot of character at the same time.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: What was it like growing up with a sibling so close in age?
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Were you guys super competitive with one another?
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Did that help foster and breed competitiveness in both of you, or was it a different kind of relationship?
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I think to an extent it was funny because whenever we would get in a squall or like be ready to fight or anything, we'd just wrestle.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: So there's a good avenue to kind of direct that negative energy instead of throwing blows and fists, um, so that in that way it was probably pretty positive.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, it was really good.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Uh, we were teammates all through that ruby mountain wrestling when we were in elementary school, middle school, um, and that was cool to um kind of share that time with him.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And then in high school I was able to be on the same team with him for a year, which was pretty neat as well.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, it was, is nice, is was good to spend time with him.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was good Special man.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Let's talk Gunnison.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Let's talk Western.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I've had so many people that have recommended me have you on the podcast, specifically folks that went to Western in that time frame.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: If you will Now, when you were at Western, did you run?
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: track and field or were you on the trail team?
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Like, what were you doing there?
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: No, no, I uh, I was on the trail team.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: I is super last minute because I heard, um, I knew Emily Hogg had coached me my freshman year at College of Idaho and I knew that she had gone to Western for a master's degree in high altitude exercise physiology, so that's kind of what put it on the map for me.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: And then I took that gap year, fought fire and then after that fire season kind of ended up, I was like, ok, do I keep fighting fire?
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Do I go back to school?
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Kind of like, what do I want to do?
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Um, and last minute I put in my application for Western uh, got got in and then I still didn't know if I was going to do it or not.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: So I made a visit to Gunnison uh, met with the director of the Hap Lab and the exercise science programs, had a really great time, really really liked Gunnison Um.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: And while I was there I figured I'd make a meeting with uh, josh Eberle, eberle for running on the trail running team, with those guys and it was good, I had good vibes all around.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Really liked the program director for the extra science Really liked Josh.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: It just felt like a good decision.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that following fall I ended up going to Gunnison but I I had I didn't really have a whole lot of interest in running the cross country and track because I I had done my four years of cross country and track at CBI and I felt like it would just be weird to have be competing again on a new team.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Um, I, I, yeah, yeah, it just didn't feel right and I'd done a 50k the previous fall and then I had done the circ series leading up to that fall semester at western.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: So I was very much interested in trail running and getting more onto the trails, so that was definitely um yeah, that I felt like that would be a good decision for me.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Dude, that's crazy that you had Emily Hoggett as a coach.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Was she like at that point in time, was she already on the Tarex team and like running for them, like living out there?
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, she, she.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: So she graduated the year before my freshman year at College of Idaho and she was hanging out in Caldwell coaching and she started running trails and everything.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, it was.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: That was pretty cool.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: That was a cool experience.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Emily's the best, incredible coach.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Nothing but good things to say about her, but one of the the nicest human being that I've ever met in my entire life.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, it was great having her as a as a coach.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Um, she's super, super supportive.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, nothing but good things to say.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: That was pretty neat.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: But yeah, she was just getting into the trail scene.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: At that point.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: I think, um, and she's always doing long runs in the y?
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: He's and stuff like, oh, like, where'd you run this weekend in the y?
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: He's like, oh, yeah, I figured.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: But, um, yeah, that was, it was cool to kind of just look up to her and see what she was doing.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Um, and that was probably that was probably an influence as well to attract interest on the trail scene.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Because, um, I, I knew of the trails.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: My, my best friend ran boulders when he was in high school, so I knew of it and I saw more people doing it.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: I was like, okay, this is something I want to do, so, um, yeah, it's, it's been good.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: The trails are cool man it's the greatest sport on earth.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Dude, I love the sport.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, um, let me ask you this can you talk a little bit about I?
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I think so we've had some some trail athletes on that were like understudies of eberly's, but maybe you can talk a little bit more and paint the picture of like the kind of support that you get being on the trail team at Western, like what, what you get from it, like how he took you.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Know I'll let you take it away, but just kind of um, just explain that.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah for sure.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Um, like I said, I didn't know a whole lot of the program when I met with Josh.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Uh didn't know exactly what it looked like, uh didn't know that they're sponsored by Terex.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: I was going in blind.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: So I had the assumption that it was just kind of like a club sport thing that you just kind of go there and you just hang out and you run races, and I didn't realize how much the school supports that team and I didn't realize how much Tarek supports that team.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: So that was like I was blown away when I got there how much support that they received and how serious that they took it.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did core twice a week, lifts twice a week, workouts twice a week, long run on Saturday and we could take the vans to either Salida or Montrose and, um, it was, it was serious, but there was so much autonomy as as well.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Um, I really think that that program it breeds a lot of success because, um, it it doesn't feel like you're forced to do things.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: There's such a team element that you're able to.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Um, there's that element of camaraderie and you're hanging out with your friends and you're doing long runs and the Elks and up in Crested Butte and you're doing long runs in Salida over the winter and it was it just felt like fun.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, they're, they're doing some great things over there.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Super grateful for my time, um, super grateful for my relationship with Josh.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: He's a really great coach but, more importantly, he's a really great person.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, not, yeah, again, nothing but good things to say about that program and, um, the oversight that it gets.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: The oversight that it gets.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Maybe you can help paint this picture too and I guess this is out of genuine curiosity and we could talk about Tarek's later, because we'll get into that but like I'm just kind of want to understand better to the degree of, like the support that like Tarek's gives to that team, because it's almost like a feeder program.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Like there's so many athletes that have come out and they're now, you know, operating at a high level on the terex team maybe talk a little bit about that.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure it's pretty neat.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I look at a guy like jesher run.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: He went through the program for four years and now he's absolutely crushing it.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, I think it's pretty neat because the terex does give a lot of support.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: They give us gear, they give us shoes, they take care of um lodging.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: At times the school takes care of race entry.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Sometimes terex takes care of race entry.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: So it's really it covers a lot of bases, um, and you get a lot of support.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: And even that year that I was running trails before I got to western, it like man, like have to pay for race entries and shoes and um, it adds up.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: You know, and the travel and you buy hotels and and then I again like I walked in blind, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't know what kind of support Western got, um, but yeah, I was absolutely blown away.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: It's pretty cool.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, dude, that's awesome.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Thanks for painting that picture, because I was just genuinely curious, because there's nothing, at least to my knowledge, there is no thing like that in the country, uh, where an outside brand is specifically sponsoring like a specific team for, uh, you know to, to bring up a lot of these athletes and get them exposed to the sport.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: So it's, it's quite unique and, yeah, like I said, I think outside of like cedis matrix, which is like a development team, and like maybe like the trail team, which is a little bit different, um, you, know there's not that, not that many things floating around where it's like a more of a collegiate program.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: So super cool.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Um, dude, and like, since then you've been on a tear man 50k, national title holder last year.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Um, at what is it the temel pious 50k or something like that, or temp, temp tempeless 50k, I can't pronounce it.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: I just grew it up to malpa, to malpa, yeah um, obviously, some, some serious finishes at broken arrow.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: You've had um infinite trails you want to go race at.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Like dude, you've been on an absolute tear lately.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Um, let's talk.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I do want to dive a little bit into your 2023 and 2024 season, um, and just try to get a gauge on, like what you have planned for 2025, because I saw you signed up, obviously for black canyon and then as well for um like, uh, what is it?
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: The broken arrow 46k, which we'll look into?
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Um, before we get into the seasons, though, I kind of want to gauge interest.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: If Black Canyon goes the way you want it to go, is that like golden ticket, something you'd be pursuing?
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Is that like an option out there for you?
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: If I was on the podium at Black Canyon, I'll take that ticket for sure.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited for that race.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: I'm interested in a hundred mile distance.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: I debuted in my a hundred mile, uh, last year.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: I'm tough, uh, and those races are different beast Uh, they're pretty cool.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: You have to go to a place that, uh, sub ultra or even 50, even 50 Ks, they don't take you there.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you need to be super fit and you have to be really mentally ready for that and I like that challenge.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: I think it's pretty special and it's unique in that fact.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think that would be something that I would pursue.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: And you've had like so much success, kind of like everything you've touched man, I mean, like your broken arrow finishes have been stellar.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: So you've had like so much success, kind of like everything you've touched man, I mean like your broken arrow finishes have been stellar so you obviously can compete at that distance.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: You just went and smashed the 50k national title, you know.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: So like everything kind of lines up, I don't know for you know, obviously I'm tough.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: You had a great race as well on the podium, so it's like it kind of adds up.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I'd love to see you smash something like a Black Canyon and go on to do it, but obviously I'm a little partial to SubUltra, so we want to keep going.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Let's talk Broken Arrow man.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I know you've got some aspirations for Worlds, I would imagine.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Is that a major goal for 2025 as well?
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I would like to.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: I'm just taking it one step at a time.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: At this point I want to see how black Canyon goes Um and then kind of kind of go from there.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: I don't want to put the, the car in front of the horse too early, but um, but yeah, that would be a dream come true to represent the United States of America, the greatest country in the world.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that would be awesome.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: I see myself.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, we'll see.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: I would like to make the 80K team if that was a possibility.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I would be happy to make any team on the on that world stage.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, we'll see, just taking it one step at a time yeah, I mean dude.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, and like you've shown, I mean over the past couple years, like you've had absolute lights out performance what did you run?
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Fourth place and sixth place as well at the 46k.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: So like you can compete amongst the best with them.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: So like it's not, like that's going to be a problem.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: So you know the.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: The odds are good, looking good there.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: It's just going to be execution and that's going to be a fun race man.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I can't believe how many people and just like, like how competitive that weekend is going to be between the golden trail series and then the world's qualifiers like it's going to be bananas yeah, if that 46k is very stacked.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Um, there's some big names in that one and I love to compete.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be amazing.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: I think that race is probably the most competitive 50K that the United States has ever seen.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: I can't think of another race that has as many top tier names as it does.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's attracting a lot of great competition.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Broken Arrow does a bang-up job.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: They're an amazing race organization.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: They take care of their athletes, they give out good prize money.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: They're doing good things over there for sure.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great event, Absolutely stellar event.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Wait, are you in wait?
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Are you you're?
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Are you in nevada?
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Do you live now or do you live in idaho?
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: yeah, I spent the summer in idaho, that's right.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Last year I uh, yeah, I was living in the family cabin uh, just trained my butt off for the summer racing season.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, now I'm back in ne, in Nevada, doing some high school coaching this spring, um, doing the distance crew for spring Creek track and field.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: So I'm pretty excited for that.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Give back to the community a little bit.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I'm living here in Elko and, uh, yeah, just really enjoying my time back home where all of this really began.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: Um, it is pretty special.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Dude, there's something to be said about that too.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Man, I feel like when you're back home you're comfortable where you're at and doing what you're doing.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: It's easy to put your head down and focus on on the goals ahead.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: You know it's.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: It's easier to kind of like drown out outside noise and I don't know.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Just like you know, just focus without you know, without anything else going on, right?
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure it's cool too it's.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: I grew up in Spring Creek and I'm living in Elko and there's there's so many hidden gems back in there that I think I think pretty much everybody overlooks.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: But there's really cool country back there and even when I grew up in Spring Creek I didn't really think much of Elko and the trails over there and just finding hidden gems here and there.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: It's like oh man, this is, this is some some cool training grounds and you get a little bit of everything.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: It's high desert there's, there's mountains here and there.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: We're having a pretty mellow winter over here, so a lot of the trails are still open.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Utv trails are open.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: So it's been.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: It's been fun, fun training it's funny man.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: I follow darren thomas on instagram.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Um, he's an interesting cat, cool dude and um, his his like, uh, what is it his uh?
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Instagram.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: So he's putting up like videos and stuff like the high desert and it's it's pretty dope.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: So yeah, um, you're talking about darren yeah, dude, darren's always taking videos of these like mad remote places, uh all over, uh kind of all over, nevada and I'm like damn like this is crazy, like you're like like in the middle of nowhere.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: He's like taking videos of like these, uh, like dump locations and like these remote mountains, all kinds of stuff.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I was like, dude, dude, nevada is a really cool place.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you guys is it Nevada or Nevada?
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: It's Nevada.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: I grew up Nevada.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: I think the Nevada comes from because I don't know this for sure.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: This is speculation, but Nevada comes from the Spanish word Nevada, which means snow-capped.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: So I'm pretty sure the Spanish pronunciation of Nevada is Nevada.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: But yeah, we grew up saying Nevada and we'd make fun of anybody that said Nevada.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: But I don't know.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: I know it is Nevada, but I don't, I don't, I don't know, I don't know.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: I know it as Nevada, but I don't know if there's a correct pronunciation, especially if you look at the Spanish pronunciation.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Bro, it's a beautiful place.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: We, um, my wife and I she's my fiance at the time we went to Broken Arrow I think it was 2021 or 22.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I can't remember and, um, rather than fly from Reno, uh, to catch a, a connecting flight, because we had to fly out for a wedding, we decided to drive from Olympic Valley down to Vegas.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: It was like a 12-hour day, but we drove pretty much down through the whole state and I was amazed.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I was like, wow, this is a truly beautiful place.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: There's nothing out there.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: It is in the middle of nowhere.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: You drive through all the military bases and near Area 51 and all and all that shit and I was like, wow, this, this is pretty crazy.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it it's pretty neat and it's it doesn't get a lot of love.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Uh, darren does does cool stuff.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: He like his, his stuff in jarbidge that he did earlier this this fall or maybe his late summer, but that that stuff is really neat.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: It doesn't get doesn't get a lot of attention.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, he's, he's always doing cool stuff around here there's hidden gems everywhere he's got an interesting job.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: I think he's a geologist, so I guess they send him to like remote places to do like environmental testing and stuff like that, to make sure there's like no contamination, which is I don't know kind of cool stuff, you know.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure He'll be at black Canyon as well, so it'll be good seeing him there, oh yeah.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Dude, what's the?
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: What's the nerves like for the race?
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, it can't imagine if it were me, if I'd be more nervous than something like a Broken Arrow, Because obviously I'd put more emphasis on that.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: But what are the nerves like going in?
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did the 50K last weekend and I was like, oh, I'm not nervous, this is great, it's just fun.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: But yeah, just looking at a start list and um, it's, it's stacked black canyon's great race.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: It's attracting a lot of great pros, um, it's pretty exciting.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: The nerves are there.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: It's funny.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, it's like a little over a week out and yeah, the nerves are starting to bubble a little bit, but it's good, that means that you care about it.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm just excited and just kind of see where you're at for the season and compete.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: It'll be good, yeah, yeah, I'm nervous for this.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: It's a sick race man, I mean, either way, like it's, just like I feel like it's fun to mix it up with the best of the best.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: I mean you got eli going out, um, you know seth will be out there.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: There's some, some killers, dude, so it's gonna be, um, yeah, it'd be fun to follow along.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: I like I don't know, I'm like cautious because I'm a sub-ulter podcast and try to keep in that lane, like I don't like to do race previews for stuff.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: But I'm like you bet your ass I'm gonna be glued to the live stream the entire time like cheering my, cheering my friends on.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: It'll be good.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: Oh man, you got Eli, you got Seth.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: Anthony Costales beat Tom Evans a couple years ago at Black Canyon.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: He's no joke, he's a beast.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolute beast.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Hans, I think Hans is going to be a force to be reckoned with.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: I think he's a solid runner.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's so many guys out there.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: Darren's going to be out there, ryan Raff yeah, the list goes on.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: It's going to be exciting.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: It'll be fun.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: So I've been meaning to bring up Adidas Terrax.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: I gently danced on it before, but you signed a professional contract with Adidas Terrax this year.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: First of all, congratulations.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Second of all, all like dude, can you talk about that experience like it's kind of life-changing, like like what do you think so far?
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: yeah, it's good, it's, it's fun to have a, have a team um, that that's their, that's their focus is making a great trail team and having that kind of support among athletes and competitors and your teammates, and that's pretty special.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm just, I feel pretty grateful, pretty fortunate to be in the place.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: I am, yeah, yeah, it's just, it's another one of those things like nothing that I planned or expected, just kind of like fell into my lap and just, yeah, just really grateful.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: It's exciting.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just want to do the best I can and represent the brand the best I can and yeah, we'll see where it goes.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Obviously I don't want to give away too much inside baseball, but like the, maybe the process as well, cause, like definitely being at Western and kind of gives you a solid introduction.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Plus, like Eberly and stuff like that, was Josh like a really good, almost like a mentor in a lot of ways to be able to understand like you know?
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Like were you able to bounce questions off of him about, like you know, about contract stuff and all these different things Like was that a huge help for you?
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, josh is an open door.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: Um I I don't think that I would be where I am today without the relationships that I've established over the years either, like having Emily Hogood in my corner, um being a friend with her, having Josh, um being on the Western team.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: Like, if none of that happened, I don't think I'd be in the place that I am today.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: So I'm super grateful for those relationships and experiences.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, just just feel lucky, for sure.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, just uh, good people in the corner, like Josh.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: Josh is an amazing person, great coach, great mentor in all things training, racing His door is always open.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: And then having Emily, yeah, just feeling lucky.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Obviously, I know you're pretty new into the role in a lot of ways, but have you been able to interact much with the team?
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Like how does that team atmosphere feel like?
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: Because I feel like, out of any brands, I feel like adidas man, like if they're doing one thing right, it's like that fostering that like team atmosphere, the team relationship feeling, um, at least from the outside.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: so yeah, for sure, I I feel, like life said, a little bit new to the role.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: My first real glimpse, well, I was there at Western, so I got to see the team and kind of make some connections there and just meet people.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: That was a great experience.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: I think the first true glimpse into it was Infinite Trails this year and staying with the stand with the teammates and, uh, hanging out in gastine valley.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: Uh, it was pretty cool, it was great.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Like I showed up there, never traveled out of the country before, didn't know what to expect, obviously wanted to race and compete and just kind of give my best, but, uh, I didn't know what to expect otherwise and, yeah, just super welcoming people, friendly people, uh, down to earth, uh and it, I don't know, it just felt like everybody cared.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Um, it wasn't all about them and it wasn't some self-absorbed you know, everybody was there for you and supportive and that was pretty neat, um, so I got a glimpse into that and that was pretty special.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: So, man, I really want to be a part of this, um, but yeah, I, that was.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: That was a great experience and just making establishing some of those relationships and connections was was truly special dude.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: That's amazing and I feel like they do such a good job too at like bringing you guys along, like they don't kind of throw you to the sharks immediately, it's more so like I don't know.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: They just do a really good job of development.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Like watching what they did with jesron, like his development in the sport, has been absolutely amazing and I feel like they played a huge role in helping him kind of get to that place.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: And I feel like you're kind of 2.0 as well, where they're bringing you along and you know now you're competing at that really at the highest level on the American side and, I would imagine, pretty soon.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: This is kind of.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: The next question I was going to go with is like do you have plans, or do they have plans, to like bring you guys out to like chamonix for like occ and stuff like that, or is there any plans like for you to go race in europe again?
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: yeah, I think I'll go over there at some point this summer.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Um, I, I won't be going to occ, don't have a qualifier or anything, and there's other races that um are are pulling interest right now, uh, but yeah, they'll have all those guys set up to the t uh, they take care of, they take care of us really well.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I don't know, uh, thinking about austria again, infinite trails, uh, and then, yeah, if, if there's any possibility, maybe, uh, ultra town, cape town or ultra trail cape town.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: Um, excuse me, but yeah, yeah, I would like to see some new places and kind of experience other cultures and locations, but those at the Cape Town race.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: I think that would be really, really cool.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: What's your, what's your bucket list race?
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Like what's something that like you haven't done yet, maybe besides Cape Town, that like is like high on the list.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: Like for me, like dude, like I series and all I think is like my number one or something like that.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Or old tracks, extreme or something like that, but like I don't know, like what is something that like really pulls your soul, that, like you, you feel like I got to go do this at some point.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there, I mean there's a couple that really really get me excited.
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: Um, I think CCC at some point, that's a race that I want to do, I don't know when.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: I don't have a qualifier planned or anything this year, not yet.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Anyway, that race looks super cool.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: Transvulcania is another race that looks really, really neat.
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: Has some great history.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: The course looks amazing.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: Uh, the style of the race is is pretty special.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: I mean it's point to point across an island and big mountain, big vert.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: Uh, that would be cool.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, there there's a bunch, uh, westerns always been a dream.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: Utb, utmb at some point would be a dream.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's, there's a lot of races that pull a lot of interest, for sure let me ask you this what, uh, what problem did you do?
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: I'm tough, I'm just curious, because I was going to ask you if you put your name in the hat for hard rock this year with a qualifier or with a ticket or whatever yeah, no, I actually didn't put my my name into hard rock.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: Uh, I'm tough, was humbling for sure.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: I think that I need maybe a year or two to kind of, um, get some miles under the belt, build the legs, resilience up.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: Uh, I don't think I'm quite ready to compete at the level that I would want to compete at hard rock, but that's another race that is incredibly inspiring that I would love to do someday.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: Uh, but yeah, I'm, I'm tough.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to race a hundred miler man Like that's.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: I think that's the pinnacle to the ultra running, to trails.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: Um, and yeah, I, I didn't.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: I was thinking, was thinking about, well, I put in my name for the lottery at leadville, didn't get in, was thinking maybe I would do the leadville marathon to get a spot.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: But that kind of conflicted with, uh, broken arrow this year and I didn't really think.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: I think it's silver alpine or something like that, the 50 miler over there in leadville for a qualifier, silver rush, I didn't really think.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: I think it's silver Alpine or something like that, the 50 miler over there in Ludville for a while Silver rush.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: I didn't, I didn't, yeah, yeah, I didn't.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: I didn't know if I'd be recovered from broken arrows.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: So there's conflict there, um, so I, as I wanted to do a hundred miler, I was looking at run rabbit, um, but I'm toughs kind of in the backyard.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: Uh, we'd go up for vacation and cascade every summer, um, and I, I had been in those mountains but I hadn't explored all of them, and and my girlfriend got a job in mccall, okay, I think, I think that is going to be the race.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: So just yeah, all everything kind of lined up, stars aligned, and I decided to do that one.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I just wanted to run a hundred miler.
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: I think that's the coolest thing in the world.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a great choice, dude, I know, and it's exciting.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: It's exciting because, like, we haven't seen like a huge elite field go to I'm tough in a few years, like jason schlarb, I think, and jeff colt might have done it in the last like handful of years but not too many guys have like gone to compete at a high level there.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: So it's it excites me to see, like you know, more people doing like I don't want to call it a grassroots race because it's very much like in a really awesome course, like a very underratedly cool course, um, I, I personally have never been out there, but I know a lot about that race, um, so, yeah, no, I'm glad you, you did it.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: That's, that's a great choice.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I am too, man.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: It is awesome.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: It has that grassroots feel.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: The course is incredible.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: It has a little bit of everything.
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: There's um like 20 plus thousand feet of climbing in it.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: You get I mean, you get some easy trails, you get some really punchy, steep trails.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: Everything's between like 5,000 feet and 8,000 feet, so it's not super high altitude but you're kind of getting up there.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it just drew a lot of interest.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: I think that's a really neat race and I didn't want to do 100.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: That was just kind of.
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: I wanted something that grabbed my attention and inspired me, and that was definitely one of them.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to do like Pavalina, those looped course on Desert Flat.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: I wanted to do something that was exciting for me at the time and I'm Tough was definitely that.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this what's your motivation for racing?
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: What's your motivation for being in the mountains?
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: Is it more competition or is it like testing yourself, like you versus you, or is it more so just enjoying the landscape?
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think training and racing for me are polar opposites of the spectrum.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: Training, wise, I want to be in the mountains enjoying my life on this planet.
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: That is so much finite.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, mountains are special.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: Feel closer to God are special.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: Feel closer to God, um.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: Racing, on the other hand, is I want to get the most out of myself that I possibly can, um, and if the results are there, that's fine.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: But I find so much more validation out of pulling every ounce of energy that I can in that race, um, then then winning.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: You know, I want to get the most out of myself, um, and if you get the most out of yourself, the results will come.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: So that's kind of my motivation for the racing aspect of it, um, but I think that they it's fun because you kind of have the those two polar opposites.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: Like you can be in the mountains, um, there's that spiritual element.
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: You get to be outdoors in the sun enjoying your time, um, and then on the other side of the spectrum, you're just, you're just wringing yourself out, turning yourself inside out.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: So it's yeah, I like it, it's cool it's fun feeling right.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, nothing quite like destroying yourself.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: It's funny, dude.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: I laugh about this a lot because obviously most of the people I interact with, or a large number of the people I interact with, are runners or people that competed at high level in the sport.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: And then you talk to normal people or people at work, for instance, for me.
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: I work in finance and accounting and this is nothing against them.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: It's just like most of them will never have any idea what it feels like to absolutely get every last drop out of themselves, and sometimes it like bothers me because I feel like, oh man, you're doing yourself a disservice to to go chase something like that or like go for that like one time in your life, you know, and it's like we do it all the time.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: It's fun yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I think it's a disservice to kind of settle in and just be comfortable all the time.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: Uh, you don't get your best, best self out of that um.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: I think you always should push yourself um, and it doesn't have to be an athletic Avenue, I think it could be intellectual or academic, but I think that, uh, striving for excellence and striving for greatness, I think that that's what you get the best self.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: You get your best self out of that Um, and that's something that I would like to strive for.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: What are your?
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: What are your goals in the sport Like, do you have anything on your vision board or on your wall that, like you, you're working towards, or is it like any one specific goal?
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: uh, I don't think there's one specific goal.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I I don't know.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: I'm just kind of taking it one step at a time, um, seeing where, where this crazy journey takes me.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: Uh, like I said, I want to, first and foremost, I just want to get the most out of myself that I can, and if that road ends at 30, that's fine, if it ends later, that's okay too.
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, I just want to be present in the moment and try to get the most out of myself that I can Meet as many cool people as I can meet as many cool people as I can see as many cool places as I can.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: Um, uh, I think I think results and external validation are I mean, it just kind of comes with the sport, but that's nothing that I'm really striving for at this moment.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: Dude, I love that answer.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: You got a bright future.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: My friend, how old are you?
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: You're like mid-20s, right, 25.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: 25?
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: Oh man, you got a long way to go.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: That's exciting.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: You have so much runway in the sport.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: It's going to be cool to watch your career progress as you grow in the sport.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: Dude, what's your situation like with coaching?
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: Do you self-coach?
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: Do you work with a coach?
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: What do you do there?
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm self-coaching myself right now, and it's not that I don't think that.
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: I mean I've had great coaches in this.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: I mean Emily Todd Mulkey here in Spring, my high school coach Amazing people.
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: Mike Anderson at College of Idaho learned so much from him.
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: Josh, like, those guys are just wealths of knowledge and I, like I got the exercise science degree and I love playing with things.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: So I'm just doing self-coaching at the moment and um, with that being said, all of those coaches have influenced me in in various ways, so kind of just pulling my favorite parts from each of their philosophies and just kind of um, just kind of playing with things, tinkering with things and um, I, I think that's, I think it's been working pretty well for me and I enjoy having that autonomy of um, kind of deciding what I want to do or making a plan, that that sort of thing.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: It's pretty exciting.
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: I think writing the plan and having a vision for the preparation is just as fun as the actual preparation and the race.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: So I've really been enjoying that, that aspect of it.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's such a fun aspect of the process, like I don't know I I almost enjoy it, like there's a, there's a time to race and that's a really fun time as well.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: But like the process itself and I just started self-coaching myself like maybe two or three months ago, and I was a little intimidated at first and then I started putting it together and I was like, man, like this, it works better for my schedule, which is insanely busy.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: But being able to do that and being like almost like a mad scientist, like there's something to it, it definitely helps.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: And you get a lot out of it too, when you start nailing workouts and feeling really fit and it's like wow, seeing yourself progress, um, yeah, it makes a huge difference.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: It's fun stuff yeah, sure, yeah, I really enjoy it.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: It's yeah, you're always learning and you can make tweaks here and there and you just kind of adjust and pivot and go from there.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I found what works for me.
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: I don't think it works for everybody, but it's not at the end of the day.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: It's not at the end of the day.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: It's not rocket science, like if you want to be good at running, you just run more and um, don't overdo it, uh.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's fun, it's, it's really rewarding yeah yeah man.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get into some closing questions.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: I'm so curious to see who inspires you.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, um, a lot of people inspire me, and I was thinking about this the other day actually, um, I think there's certain characteristics that I have a certain affinity for, um, one of those being just work ethic and hard work People that encapsulate that.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: I'm super inspired by my dad's a hard worker, super inspired by his work ethic.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, some of the greatest athletes of all time.
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: They obviously have to have a great work ethic Insp.
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: Inspired by those individuals, for sure, um, people that have a vision for excellence and a strive for greatness, um, inspired by them as well.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: Um, and I think it's, it's not just running there's.
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm inspired by Michael Jordan, tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong and those guys that they achieved greatness and they kind of have that winner's mentality.
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: I like that.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: I think that's pretty special.
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of people inspire me.
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: Steve Prefontaine, on the running side oh my gosh, that guy's a legend and I really like I mean, he's a great runner and he did some really great things, but I think his philosophy behind the sport was, uh, was pretty cool.
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: Like, one of his quotes is something like uh, what is?
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: It's a?
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: A race can be.
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: A race is a work of art that any person can interpret.
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, it can be interpreted in as many ways as they're capable of understanding, and that really rings true to me.
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: I think he had a really interesting take on performance being an art form rather than a quantifiable VO2 max or lactate threshold, like he wanted to put on a performance, and he but he saw himself when he was running a race.
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: He saw it as a, as a piece of art, um, and that really resonates with me as well.
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, so many people, um, I I've gotten so much great support over the years my coaches in college and high school, and my parents, um, my girlfriend inspires me every day, uh, just to be a better person in general, um, but yeah, just the list goes on.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: I don't think there's any one individual Dude, that's a beautiful answer.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: Do you watch a lot of other like are you a sports guy?
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: Like do you uh follow any other sports, like any team sports or anything like that, or uh, no, not, not really.
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: Um, I mean, I'll, I'll sit down and watch a football game with my grandparents or my dad or whatever, but I don't, I don't have have a favorite team or anything.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: Um, I I love, I love sport, I love watching sports, but I'm I don't follow, follow strictly on on the basketball or the football or anything like that.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I like, I like sports.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's dude.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: That's why we're a part of the greatest sport on earth, man.
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: What's your walkout song, dude, before a race, what are you listening to?
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't.
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: You know, when I was running I'm tough, I didn't let myself listen to music until mile 55, and then I put on a Revivalist album.
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: I think it was what was the album called.
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: I can't remember, but that got me going.
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: That was pretty fun.
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think I have a specific walkout song.
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: You're Gonna Go Far, Kid.
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: That's a great song.
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: That's a good song.
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: Oh great song.
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: Uh, you're gonna go far, kid.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: That's a great song.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: 90s punk rock oh great that.
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: I think that used to be my walkout song for uh college of idaho track.
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: I'd listen to that before my races.
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: Uh, that's the the.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: When I started listening to that song that was.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: I listened to that song before I pr'd in my 5k, which is still my pr in my 5k, so that's a good one.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: Nice, are you, uh, are you bringing music with you to black Canyon, like, are you going to wait till like mile 55 to listen to music for the last seven miles, or like what are you?
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: What's your take on that?
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: I haven't decided yet.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I haven't decided yet.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: I think I will have headphones ready at table Mesa, um, if it's going to be a close race.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: Um, or I might just have them if I'm struggling.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: I haven't decided yet.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: Uh, I might.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: I might put in music earlier than that too, but yeah, nothing set in stone yet.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: Are you bringing pacers with you?
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: Are you doing?
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: Are you doing pacers or no?
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: No, no.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Hopefully I'm racing somebody, that's right.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: That's right, I like it, man.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: All right, dude, well, I'm trying to think.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: Do I miss any questions?
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: All right?
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, all right.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: Last one I usually switch them up between aliens, bigfoot and ai.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you about what was the last few I did ai, so let's do bigfoot.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: What's your take on bigfoot?
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: dude, I'm so happy you asked me the Bigfoot question.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know if he's real, but I think he could be real.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: I think that there's some.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's serious backwoodsmen that have Bigfoot stories.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of Indian stories around this neck of the woods that talk about Bigfoot and big hairy creatures the jar jarbage.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: There's a translation for jarbage as big hairy creature that lives in the canyons.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: No way, oh my God.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: There's two translations for it.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: One is one is something about evil canyons and the other one is big, big hairy creature that lives in the canyons, depending on the translation source.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I think, like Les Stroud, he's had some encounters.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: There's biblical references to Bigfoot.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: So, and I think I don't know man, like a lot of the sightings, you know I don't, they end up being around the Cascades Range, but that is, that's some remote area back in there, so remote, yeah, super super remote.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: There's not.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's trails.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: There's certainly trails back in there, but man, that that's only.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: I mean how much percentage of that area is accessible by trail versus how much area there actually is surrounding that, that cascade range?
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, so I guess, I guess what.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: I'll leave it as is.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: I don't think, I don't know if he's real, but I certainly could believe.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised if he was real.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: I'll leave it at that I like that man, I like that's a good answer.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: So I have two things to add to this.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: First one is yes, like I, I went and did.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: I just randomly was in the Pacific Northwest and did the Lewitt Trail and ran around Mount St Helens, but like just to get it is so back there, dude, it's like in the middle of nowhere.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: It's crazy.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm like, yeah, and there's only, and it's it's not like Colorado, where it's like very sparsely vegetated, no, that's like it's like dense forest, like you will get super lost.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: So I mean, I wouldn't be surprised, it would totally not blow my mind if they like, because it's just so like and there's just only so many forest roads that you'll put back there.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: So I could see that.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: The second thing I was going to add to it was I saw a random reel on jarbage and then I saw, obviously, darren post about jarbage um on his sub stack and instagram recently and I was like it's like the most remote area in the united states, I believe, or something like that.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: It's like out there?
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: yeah, it's out there.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we used to.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: We used to deer hunt right around charleston, which is right in that vicinity of jarvage, but it's beautiful country.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: Mary's river is right there.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: Mary's river wilderness um, super cool country.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, it has some cool history as well.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: Um, it's a special place.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: There's hidden gems, hidden gems everywhere around.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, man, it's it's a cool state man.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: Well, man, I don't want to take up all your evening.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited we finally got to do this.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: Dude.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: Best of luck at Black Canyon.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited for your future in the sport.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: It's going to be really fun over the next few years to see you grow and develop in the sport and see.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: Thank you, man, I appreciate you having me, but before we go I have to ask you what?
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: What's?
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: What's your schedule looking like this year?
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: What are you signed?
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: up for?
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, dude, I'll be doing a.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: So I resigned with sportiva this year, so I'm on a two year deal with them and there's a nice little incentive to do the Cirque series races, which I'm, coincidentally, super excited to do.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: So I will be.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I'll be at all the Cirque series races this year, probably most of them.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: So, um, definitely going to be and I'll be at soon.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: So I'll do soon.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: P Sir Canon Cirque what is that?
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: Killington?
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: Um, so both the Northeast races?
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: Um, probably notaska to do alaska, which I'm stoked on.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, um, go back to alta.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: I had a great race at alta last year.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: I really like that course.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: So I'll go do circ alta.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: Um, maybe do a basin, we'll see, and then definitely go to washington to do crystal, and then I'm gonna like pad everything in there, like figure out, like all right, I gotta throw in some like a 27k here and there, like some some longer races, um, still still all mixed on broken arrow, just because like, uh, it's there's just so much back and forth that it's like coast to coast and it's like man, I don't know if I'm going to be able to fit that in Um, so I'm still on the fence with that.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: If I was to go, that would be probably more of like a commentary slash, like media thing, um, rather than like racing.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: So I'm trying to like balance the two and figure out like all right, well, what's going to be good to go to from a media perspective so we can cover the sub ultra aspects of the sport, and then what's going to be fun to go race.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: That has me super excited.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: So, oh, and I'll be at the rut too.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: I forgot about that.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: You'll be at the rut oh nice, oh man, that's a good schedule.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: Man julian puts on some good races and he's a good dude.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, that's fun.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: I like alta's course as well.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: That's a great course yeah, you've had.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: You've had a good race there, dude yeah, I had a had a pretty fun battle with, uh, um, an ocr guy there, rylan.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, it was a sprint finish for third and he out sprinted but bastard, yeah, yeah, I know it was, I was.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that guy can run down.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: It was like there's oh man, he's a great downhill runner, um, but yeah, great course, um, super stoked for you.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: That sounds like a super epic schedule and yeah, congrats on the sportiva deal oh, thanks, dude.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's exciting, man, I like this.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: This off season.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: I've like really, um, you know I haven't really played on the trails as much as I would like to, it's more so.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: Just, I like this.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: This off season.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: I've like really, um, you know, haven't really played on the trails as much as I would have liked to, it's more so just been focusing on getting fitness, dude, like trying to get as fit and as strong as possible, and hopefully that translates Um, if it doesn't, I'm going to be pretty disappointed.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: So we'll see.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: It'll be, I think you'll be.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: You'll be golden.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it, dude.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, man, have a great rest of your evening.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on and yeah, what do you guys think?
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, man, what a fun episode.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: I really want to thank Cole so much for coming on the podcast.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: It was a great conversation and just, yeah, really excited for his future, I future.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: I think he's going to do massive things in the sport and, yeah, it's.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: You know, really want to wish him the absolute best of luck tomorrow at the Black Candy 100K, as well as the rest of his 2025 season, with some sights set on either getting that golden ticket or chasing the world's qualifier at Broken Arrow.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: So big things to come from Cole.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: Guys, before you get going, hop on Instagram and give Cole a follow.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: You can find him at C-C-A-M-P-B-E-L-L.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: That's going to be Ccampbell underscore 01.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: It's also going to be linked in the show notes so you could just click on that and give him a follow.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: Lots of cool stuff on his feed and, yeah, there's definitely going to be some exciting things to come.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: So, very, very last but not least, if you guys enjoyed this episode and you happen to be listening to this on Spotify, apple or YouTube please give us a five star rating and review and potentially share this.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: That would be awesome.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: The goal is to highlight the profiles of these amazing athletes and we can't do that or cover the scene without your support.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: So I really want to thank you guys.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: Very, very last but not least, I really want to thank Ultimate Direction as well for being the official hydration solution sponsor for this episode and for the podcast going forward in 2025.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: If you guys happen to be in the market for a new vest, a new belt, apparel or anything like that new water bottles, handhelds, you name it Ultimate Direction has you covered.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: If you use the code steepstuffpod again that's steepstuffpod on ultimatedirectioncom that's going to get you 25% off your cart.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: So, guys, have a great rest of your week, have a great long run, enjoy your weekend.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you'll be glued to the Black Canyon live stream, like I'll be when I get back from my workout on Saturday morning.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: So it's going to be a fun weekend for the sport.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: So enjoy, guys, take care.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you.