Latest / Let's Talk Trail Running / 2025 Freetrail TROY Results Retrospective and Discussion

Transcript

2025 Freetrail TROY Results Retrospective and Discussion · Let's Talk Trail Running

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome back to Let's Talk Trail Running.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is your host,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Robert Prosser,
• 0:06
  and this is the podcast where typically we are doing race
• 0:10
  previews for any races
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: that are upcoming on the Fantasy Free Trail website.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's fantasy.freetrail.com, which as the name would imply, it is
• 0:21
  uh fantasy trail running picks and the goal of this podcast is
• 0:25
  to build fandom
• 0:27
  within the trail running world both for sub-ultra and ultra
• 0:30
  distance races and just
• 0:31
  to make you more excited about the athletes that are racing the
• 0:34
  races that are
• 0:34
  taking place and to give you some insight into helping make
• 0:38
  your picks for fantasy
• 0:40
  free trail today we have a little bit of a different episode
• 0:43
  rather than previewing
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: a trail race i'm going to be talking about
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: the 2025 trail runner of the year results,
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: which anyone that listens to this podcast,
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 0:54
  presumably is a fan of fantasy free trail and therefore was
• 0:58
  invested in probably
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: voting for the 22,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: 25 trail runner of the year,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: which is an open source of vote for the top trail runners of the year,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: both sub ultra and ultra distance divided between male and female.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and essentially you picked a top 10 ballots and voted, uh,
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So my goal today is to kind of,
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I took two podcasts,
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: that pretty much anyone in this,
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: in this space that listens to me,
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: probably also listens to those two podcasts,
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: the single track podcast with Finn Melanson,
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: and then the free trail podcast with Dylan Bowman.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: I took their two podcasts,
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: single track did one with,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 1:35
  essentially reviewing the trail run of the year results and the
• 1:37
  ultra run of the
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: year results with,
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Finn, Mike McMonigle, and Brett Hornig.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then FreeTrail did a podcast as well with Tim Tolleson.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: They did it as one of their rest day podcasts.
• 1:48
  And I'm going to kind of take those two podcasts and I took
• 1:50
  notes on different
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: points that they made throughout the podcast.
• 1:53
  And I'm going to provide my feedback and thoughts on some of
• 1:56
  the points that were
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: made in each of those podcasts.
• 1:59
  Since I only have myself to talk to right now,
• 2:01
  but I still thought it'd be fun.
• 2:02
  And for somebody who spends so much time talking about trail
• 2:05
  runners and thinking
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: about this kind of stuff,
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really,
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: really excited for this year's 2025 trail runner of the year results.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to get a deep dive into that,
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: including how they weighted the voting thoughts from Debo,
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Dylan Bowman,
• 2:19
  who is essentially one of the creators of this trail runner of
• 2:22
  the year thoughts
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: from Femme Lanson,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: who's one of the top media voices.
• 2:25
  And then also top thoughts from top athletes like Tim Tollison
• 2:28
  and others.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that is, like I mentioned, the goal of today.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Some housekeeping items before you jump into that.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want to apologize to everyone that listens to this podcast.
• 2:37
  I know I told you that I would get out a Tarawera and or a
• 2:41
  Black Canyon 50k preview.
• 2:43
  I had the notes all written up on my Black Canyon 50k preview
• 2:47
  and Tara where I was
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: starting to take notes for.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then life just kind of came at me.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It happened really fast.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of things happened in a very short amount of time.
• 2:54
  I'm still in this weird limbo where I could be going out to
• 2:58
  military service any time.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: But right now I'm stateside and it's been a very, very hectic past week.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: A lot has happened in the past week.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And usually I'm not one to make excuses.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I try to do my best to get things.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: But obviously, you guys that listen, you know that life happens.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been it's been hectic.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I had an interview with the airlines and I thought it went really well.
• 3:16
  And I didn't get the answer I was looking for,
• 3:18
  so that was a little bit disappointing.
• 3:19
  But I also had some other really beautiful and amazing moments
• 3:23
  happen in the past
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: week that I'm very,
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: very excited about.
• 3:26
  So,
• 3:27
  unfortunately,
• 3:28
  Terrawera and Black Cannon,
• 3:30
  so Terrawera $102k and Black Cannon $50k.
• 3:33
  I didn't get out,
• 3:33
  but I did get that Black Cannon 100K podcast out in advance.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I don't know that you guys would have wanted to hear my picks.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think right now I set like 78th or 80th overall,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: and I didn't do particularly good on either of them.
• 3:45
  But you know that happens sometimes for you guys that have been
• 3:47
  listening to this,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: we're at a year plus.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: sometimes you kind of start off and don't do too hot,
• 3:53
  especially on those deep races like Black Cannon where 2,000 or
• 3:56
  3,000 people pick.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just the name of the game.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: In my opinion, if I'm setting the top 10%,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: uh, for each race, that's kind of the goal that I'm looking for.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously I want to be in the top 10 every time,
• 4:05
  but I think it's more important to be consistent than it is to
• 4:09
  be knocking it out
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: of the park every single time.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that is the housekeeping stuff right now.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still in Boise, Idaho.
• 4:16
  I've been here for over a month,
• 4:19
  just kind of waiting to get set somewhere else,
• 4:22
  essentially.
• 4:23
  But it's been really nice to be able to stay with friends and
• 4:25
  roam with friends.
• 4:26
  And the weather has been uncharacteristically spring-like and
• 4:30
  not very much of a winter.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been on the trails a lot,
• 4:32
  having a good time and just enjoying every day in the United
• 4:36
  States that I can.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Also with that being said,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: moving forward,
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: if I get sent somewhere,
• 4:42
  it's entirely possible that I will not have either internet
• 4:46
  reception or good cell
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: coverage.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So as best as I can, I will continue to record.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: but I might be out of commission for a certain amount of time,
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: maybe one to three months,
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: and I will do my best to continue,
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: maybe not podcasting,
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: but potentially switching to more of a written format with my top picks.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: I prefer podcasting.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I prefer talking.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think it makes more sense for me personally,
• 5:07
  and I do a better job of articulating my thoughts on runners in
• 5:10
  a more effective
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: way.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: But if I had to shift towards writing and doing written previews,
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: then I will try my best to do that as well.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So just keep that in mind, stay patient with me.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing what I can.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much uncertainty on my side of things right now,
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: but this is one thing that I still very much enjoy doing.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm happy to get another podcast out.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm grateful to you guys that listen.
• 5:31
  The Black Canyon 100K preview got over a thousand downloads as
• 5:35
  well and was up
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: there with Hong Kong as my most listened to podcast.
• 5:39
  So I might discuss a little bit of Black Canyon in the latter
• 5:44
  half of the episode.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: But for now,
• 5:45
  I want to get into this trail of the year stuff because that's
• 5:48
  my main focus for
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: this episode.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So without further ado, let's jump in.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to talk first and foremost about the free trail podcast,
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: the rest day episode with the trail run of the year recap.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was released about a month ago.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's February 20th today.
• 6:03
  I think it was released once all the Troy results came out
• 6:06
  about the third week of January.
• 6:07
  I put the link in the show notes to both the YouTube and the
• 6:13
  podcast,
• 6:14
  Apple podcast player.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys want to listen,
• 6:16
  I imagine most people that listen to this podcast have already
• 6:18
  listened to it.
• 6:19
  But if you want to see some of the things that I talk about,
• 6:21
  I have the links in there.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So like I said,
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: the free trail podcast,
• 6:25
  I took notes and I'm going to discuss some of the points that
• 6:28
  Devo and Tim Tolson
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: made in their podcast.
• 6:31
  So I think the first thing we want to talk about with these
• 6:33
  trail run of the year
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: results,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: when we did the trail run of the year voting,
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: we emphasized there's four parameters that they're picking based off.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to remind you guys those four printers,
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: because I think it's really,
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: important to,
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: circle back on that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the vision of trail run of the year,
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: like many global professional sports,
• 6:50
  trail running deserves a year end distinction for those
• 6:53
  athletes whose performances
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: stood out on the international racing circuit.
• 6:57
  Trail run of the year is an extension of free trails mission to
• 6:59
  elevate the profile
• 7:00
  of the professional athletes in our sport while helping casual
• 7:03
  observers in the
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: general public feel connected to their stories.
• 7:07
  hopefully creating diehard trail fans in the process,
• 7:10
  diehard fans in the process.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not too dissimilar to this podcast.
• 7:13
  The goal is to give great athletes their shine and let the
• 7:17
  world know how amazing
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: what they're doing is,
• 7:19
  but also be able to communicate it to people that aren't
• 7:22
  necessarily as diehard
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: trail nerds as anyone who listens to this podcast probably is.
• 7:28
  The parameters of the trail runner of the year selection,
• 7:31
  they have four key guiding parameters.
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  SPEAKER_00: They have the evaluation of the race performance,
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: scope to the calendar year, tro any specific distance agnostic.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not even really the values.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let me find really quick...
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so basically, what are the weight?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: What are they weight in the picks?
• 7:58
  So the depth of competition is one reward those athletes who
• 8:01
  perform best on the
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: biggest stages against the deepest field.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So depth of competition is one parameter.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Second parameter,
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: consistency of performance,
• 8:08
  consider the whole season in the context and reward those
• 8:10
  athletes who race well
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: consistently,
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: while weighing outstanding single performances accordingly.
• 8:15
  third criteria versatility of performance as mentioned troy uh
• 8:20
  troy one of the
• 8:20
  years distance agnostic as such consider and reward athletes
• 8:24
  who display ability to
• 8:25
  compete across distances and train variation and the last one
• 8:28
  is geographical bias
• 8:30
  free trail has an international audience but we are north
• 8:32
  america based english
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: speaking we hope the voters
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: have advanced level knowledge of the international dynamics of the sport,
• 8:37
  including which races are significant across a myriad
• 8:40
  international event series.
• 8:42
  It talks about WMRA,
• 8:43
  Golden Trail,
• 8:44
  UTMB World Series,
• 8:45
  Golden Ticket,
• 8:46
  Skyrunning,
• 8:47
  et cetera.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I wanted to enter with.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing that Tim and Debo discussed in the podcast,
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: they discussed the weighting of the voting.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And essentially,
• 8:56
  they modeled it from what Debo describes after the all-star
• 9:00
  voting for the MLB,
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: so the Major League Baseball all-star voting,
• 9:05
  where essentially there's a weighted vote and 80% of the voting
• 9:08
  power goes to a
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: mixture of pros in the space and
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: top fantasy trail predictors and media or trail industry,
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: and then 20% goes out to the general public.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So they want the general public to have a weight,
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: but they also want to reward people who are very,
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: very involved with the sport,
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: including pro athletes,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: including media people within the sport,
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: and then yours truly,
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: top fantasy predictors.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I was one of the people who had a weighted vote.
• 9:38
  I got an email about a weighted vote because I was number five
• 9:40
  overall in fantasy
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: free trail last year.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I was in the weighted vote the year before finishing 11th,
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: but with a weird caveat at the end of the year.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: So weighted vote,
• 9:52
  they try to reward people to have knowledge and also kind of
• 9:56
  give it a little bit
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: of a bump to people that are deep in the industry.
• 10:02
  The next thing that Tim and Debo talked about reasons for lack
• 10:05
  of 200 milers and
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: killing in course versus Rachel intricate outcomes.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to touch back on that one a little bit,
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: because I think that's going to come up a lot in this podcast.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I have some more notes,
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: but they said,
• 10:16
  obviously they got some feedback in the comments of their
• 10:19
  Instagram posts on
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: where's killing course.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Where's Rachel intricate.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Rachel ultimately was 12th overall.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: She was, she was in the top 20, but not the top 10.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Kellyanne did not register at all in the men's top 20.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll talk a little bit more about why that's the case.
• 10:32
  uh debo and tim tolfson broke down very diverse field in the
• 10:38
  top 10 one thing that
• 10:39
  i really really have to give credit to and i guess i haven't
• 10:42
  even said this at this
• 10:43
  point i think this year's troy results was the best of any of
• 10:46
  the four years that
• 10:47
  it's happened i think it was the most diverse both in both in
• 10:50
  terms of location
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: geographic location of the runners but also in terms of
• 10:55
  A really good mix of long and sub-ultra racers and just really
• 11:01
  well represented
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: from all around.
• 11:03
  So kudos to Free Trail,
• 11:04
  kudos to Travis Longcar,
• 11:06
  Debo,
• 11:07
  the whole team,
• 11:08
  Harmony.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think this was the best iteration of Trailrunner of the year.
• 11:12
  Doesn't mean we can't nitpick some things and there's some
• 11:14
  things that I didn't
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: disagree with,
• 11:16
  but hands down of all the four years that I voted for the
• 11:19
  Trailrunner of the year
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: results,
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: This one has been the most diverse,
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: the most international,
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: and also seemingly the fairest,
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: in my opinion,
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: as well.
• 11:27
  So Deebo and Tim Thompson,
• 11:29
  they talked about nine countries representing the women's top
• 11:32
  10.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So there's nine different countries in the women's top 10.
• 11:35
  The only country that appeared twice was Katie Scheid and Abby
• 11:39
  Hall for America.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: On the men's side, there are seven countries in the top 10.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: three Africans, four Europeans, and three Americans.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So a very good mix.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Those three Americans were...
• 11:52
  Jim Walmsley,
• 11:52
  Caleb Olson,
• 11:53
  and Ben Demon,
• 11:54
  who really is kind of half Frenchy at this point.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, really good diversity.
• 11:59
  I didn't include that for the women's top 10,
• 12:01
  but they were also very diverse.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: I know we had two,
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: coming from Asia and then a handful,
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: probably a good,
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: a kind of even split of North America and Europe.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to guess maybe four and four.
• 12:12
  So 14 total countries in the,
• 12:14
  uh,
• 12:15
  top 20 for both the men's and the women's,
• 12:17
  uh,
• 12:18
  Definitely agree with their point that North American bias
• 12:21
  feels like it's on the way out.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it does indeed feel like they did a really good job with that.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just looking at these,
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: top 25 on the just reading out the list,
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: women's side,
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: New Zealand,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Spain,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: US,
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Germany,
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: China,
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Romania,
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sweden,
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Switzerland,
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Nepal.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like it's a NATO meeting or something.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Men's side, Italy, US, Morocco, UK, Kenya, Switzerland, Kenya and France.
• 12:47
  So we had Kenya was the only other country in the men's side
• 12:51
  that was represented
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: more than once,
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: which is pretty exciting.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Only one Frenchie in the top 10.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely a really, really good mix of countries.
• 13:01
  And it feels like that North American bias is finally kind of
• 13:04
  on its way out.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we're seeing a really, really good mix.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing that I point out in their podcast,
• 13:10
  they said there's a good mix between short course and long
• 13:12
  course athletes.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I 100% agree.
• 13:15
  And I think we had a lot of floaters that were kind of in
• 13:16
  between those categories.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: But they were really well balanced.
• 13:20
  I think that if you're listening to the sub hub podcast or
• 13:23
  steep stuff podcast,
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: they're always going to say that short athletes are underrepresented.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're listening to more ultra oriented podcasts,
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: they're going to say that ultra athletes are underrepresented.
• 13:33
  But I thought this was a really fair and even balance of short
• 13:37
  and long trail athletes.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 13:39
  both of the winners were pretty solidly in the longer trail
• 13:43
  aspect of things,
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: although they both had really good results in short races.
• 13:46
  Katie Scheid with her second in Sierra's and all in gym with
• 13:49
  his win at OCC.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So one sub ultra and one sub.
• 13:53
  uh barely an ultra performance but then you know we had people
• 13:57
  that were very
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: firmly only in the sub-ultra space Nina Engelhard,
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Madalena Floria,
• 14:03
  Tove Alexanderson technically uh and Judith Weider I would say
• 14:07
  is kind of right on
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: that border uh I know the men's side Patrick Kipp and Jano,
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Fred Trenchard,
• 14:13
  Remy Benet and Philemon and Elozine actually for that matter
• 14:16
  and then kind of a mix
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: of people that were kind of
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Bridging the gap between the two,
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: like your Francesco Poopies,
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: your Sarah Alonzo,
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I would say even Judith to some extent,
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Ruth Croft kind of jumped around.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: So just a really good mix of sub ultra and ultra people.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's awesome.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I was doing the trail runner of the year preview,
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: which you guys can go back and watch.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I really,
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: really tried to compare,
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I guess you could say apples to oranges,
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: short trail results to long trail results.
• 14:46
  And there's nothing in free trial that says my personal
• 14:49
  criteria is taking the two
• 14:50
  best results of a sub ultra and an ultra athlete and trying to
• 14:54
  compare the two.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously it's never going to be perfect,
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: but that's kind of,
• 14:57
  I feel like the most fair and reasonable way to compare sub
• 15:00
  ultra athletes who
• 15:01
  might race 20 to 30 times a year and ultra athletes who might
• 15:04
  only race two to five
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: times a year,
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: try to take their two best results and see how deep those fields were.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: how they compared.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then also historically, what's the context for the race?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Was it a historical time?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: All that kind of stuff.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the way that I liked to go about it.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So another observation made every gold medalist.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so Super Bowl bound.
• 15:29
  So every gold medalist from world champs was in the top 10
• 15:33
  trail run of the year
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: results,
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: which was awesome to see.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we saw Jim for long trail gold.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: We saw Fred Tranchand for a short trail gold.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: We saw Philemon.
• 15:46
  for the uh classic distance and remy for the uphill on the
• 15:51
  women's side we got nina
• 15:52
  for both the uphill and the classic distance we have toby
• 15:55
  alexanderson for the
• 15:56
  short trail and katie scheid for the long we also had every
• 16:01
  single winner from the
• 16:02
  utmb finals minus martina malarnczyk who did i think end up in
• 16:07
  the top 20 i'm going
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: to double check that
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: She ended up 19th out of 20.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: So she did end up in the top 20,
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: but basically every winner of a UTMB final,
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: OCC,
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: CCC,
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: and UTMB was in the top 10 minus the women's CCC winner,
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Martina Malarnasik,
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: who honestly her CCC was deserving of,
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: but she didn't really have a second breakout result.
• 16:27
  If she stuck the landing at Western States,
• 16:29
  I very much think she,
• 16:30
  for sure.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: winning CCC and going top five at Western States,
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think that would have gotten her in the top 10.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 16:38
  But she did not stick the landing at Western and kind of blew
• 16:41
  up about halfway
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: through the race and had to withdraw.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a cool observation that shows, importantly, that
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Worlds is getting the credit that it deserves,
• 16:52
  but also it's getting the depth and the respect that something
• 16:55
  like a World Trail
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Championships name should entail.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: In the past,
• 16:59
  it's kind of either been poo-pooed or it's been before it was
• 17:06
  split with the
• 17:07
  Mountain Ultra Trail Championships and the Trail Running World
• 17:11
  Championships.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice that we've consolidated those.
• 17:14
  I'm blanking on the name,
• 17:15
  so I apologize,
• 17:15
  but it's nice that we've consolidated those and it's
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely this year was the ascendancy of worlds.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: We saw a really good 2023 worlds and an okay 2021 worlds,
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: but this was certifiably heavy hitters in every single field,
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: super dense.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone was super excited to represent.
• 17:32
  So now the only last straw will kind of be to get those nations
• 17:34
  like China and I
• 17:36
  can give them Morocco and a handful of others on board so that
• 17:38
  we can truly get as
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: much diversity as possible in those worlds fields.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: um,
• 17:48
  let's see another point that Debo made average fans submitted
• 17:51
  their ballot two and
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: a half times.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: I probably did more than that,
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: in by good fraction,
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: but that means that people were thinking about their vote.
• 17:59
  I personally submit my ballot every time I make a change just
• 18:02
  so it saves.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: But so I probably resubmitted it a handful of times.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: but at the end of the day,
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think after I did the podcast,
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't believe I changed it much at all.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: It ended up being very, very similar to, uh, what was on the podcast.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 18:15
  if I go back and look at my top 10 and I guess I should even
• 18:19
  just kind of say who
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: got top 10.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: who got top 10.
• 18:28
  I should have let off the podcast with this,
• 18:29
  but on the women's side,
• 18:31
  we'll even go top.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we'll go top 20.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: So on the men's side,
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: top 20,
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: first place,
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jim Walmsley,
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: second place,
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Francesco Pupi,
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: third place,
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Caleb Olson,
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: fourth,
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Elozine Elozawi from Morocco,
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: fifth,
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Tom Evans from the UK,
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: sixth,
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Philmon Kiriago from Kenya,
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: seventh,
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Remy Benet,
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Switzerland,
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: eighth,
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Ben Demon,
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: United States, ninth, Patrick Epangeno, and 10th, Fred Tranchon.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And my top 10,
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had Jim in first,
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Philemon in second,
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Caleb in third,
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Elozine in fourth,
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Francesco in fifth,
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Fred in sixth,
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Ben Diemen seventh,
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Manu Marius eighth,
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Luca Delpero ninth,
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: and Andrew Blanes in 10th.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: So my top seven were all in the top 10.
• 19:21
  And then my eight and nine were in the top 20,
• 19:25
  Manon Reyes and Luca Delpera.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Andru Blanes is the only one who is not in the top 20.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel pretty good about that.
• 19:32
  Not that I want everyone to line up because I don't think
• 19:34
  that's interesting.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pick who I truly think deserves to be there.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in order to do that,
• 19:38
  sometimes you have to kind of take a flyer and pick people that
• 19:41
  you know probably
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: won't get the vote to be there,
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: but still had really amazing years and deserve good recognition.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, my last three were kind of in that category, Manu Marias.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Luca Delpero and Andre Blanes.
• 19:53
  And like I mentioned,
• 19:55
  Luca was in 16th place overall and Manu was in 18th place
• 20:00
  overall.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that was for the men's 11th through 20.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: 11th place was Ludo Pomeray.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: 12th, Christiane Minogio.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think I ended up having him in my top 10,
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: and I might have subbed him out for one of the last three.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: 13th, Killian Jornay.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: 14th, Hans Troyer.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: 15th, David Sinclair.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: 16th, Luca Delpero.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: 17th, Jeff McAvro.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: 18th, Mando Marias.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: 19th, Christian Allen, and 20th, Chris Myers.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the men's top
• 20:33
  uh 20 uh compared to my top 10 on the women's top 10 we saw
• 20:37
  first place katie
• 20:38
  scheid from the u.s second place ruth croft new zealand third
• 20:42
  place sarah alonso
• 20:44
  from spain fourth place abby hall from the u.s fifth place nina
• 20:49
  engelhardt germany
• 20:51
  sixth place meow yao from china seventh place madalina floria
• 20:55
  from romania
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Eighth place, Tobe Alexandersen from Sweden.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Ninth place, Judith Wieter, Switzerland.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Tenth place, Sunmaya Buddha from Nepal.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: For my top 10 women, I had first place, Katie Scheid.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Second place, Sara Alonso.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Third place, Nina Engelhard.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth place, Meow Yao.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth place, Judith Weider.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth place, Sumaya Buddha.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Seventh place, Madalena Floria.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Eighth place, Ruth Croft.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Ninth, Maude Mathis.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And tenth, Naomi Lang.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: So eight of my top ten were in the top ten.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And my ninth and tenth, Maude Mathis and Naomi Lang.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, neither of them was in the top 20.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, that was for the women's results.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, big takeaways there.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think I,
• 21:52
  I not think I know I didn't have Toby Alexander's in my top 10
• 21:55
  because of her only
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: one result in worlds,
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: short trail,
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: which she absolutely dominated.
• 22:00
  But I thought the lack of a second result should make her
• 22:02
  candidate for trail
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: performance,
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: but not trail runner of the year.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Abby Hall,
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I thought,
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: had an amazing year winning Western,
• 22:11
  but I thought she also lacked a second fake result compared to
• 22:15
  people like Nina
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Engelhard or Yao Yao or even Judith Weider,
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: for that matter,
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: who had two really good results in two super deep fields.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Ruth Croft, kind of similarly.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think I should have had her higher than I had her in eighth place,
• 22:29
  but I think that UTMB was essentially the fifth or sixth most
• 22:32
  competitive race this
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: year.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was very impressive that she won and beat Courtney,
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: but her Tara Ware result was good,
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: but it wasn't on par with winning...
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: With UTMB final and Worlds, which we had multiple people do.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: On the men's side, same thing with Tom Evans.
• 22:50
  I thought that he deserved to have a trail performance of the
• 22:52
  year with his UTMB
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: win,
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: and I had him in my trail performances of the year.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And same thing with,
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: but he lacked a second big competitive result,
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: so that's why I didn't have him in my top 10.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then same thing with Remy Benet.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: He really didn't race very much this year.
• 23:07
  I thought his VK world record was amazing,
• 23:10
  but I don't really consider that a race.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then his world uphill championship was awesome,
• 23:15
  but I thought he lacked the second big result and didn't really
• 23:17
  race anything up
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: and down.
• 23:20
  If he had a double gold like Nina,
• 23:21
  I think he definitely would have deserved to be in there.
• 23:23
  And I think you could still make an argument that he does
• 23:25
  deserve to be in there,
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: but I just kind of was looking for that second big result.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that is top 10, top 20.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at some other notes.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: So they made the observation that Katie shied.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: excuse me,
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: next observation is Elozine won the Golden Trail World Series last year,
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: but instead of winning Troy this year,
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: he only got fourth.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: We see with our Golden Trail winners, Elozine Elozali won the series.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: He got fourth.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maddalena Floria won the series and got seventh.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: To be fair, Elozine was more dominant than Maddalena was this year.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: But with that being said,
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was comparing this year to last year,
• 24:04
  I think kind of two things stand out for me when it comes to
• 24:07
  the golden trail
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: world.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing is that the first thing is that, um,
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: The LZ was not as dominant this year as he was last year.
• 24:20
  So last year we saw him more or less undefeated with the
• 24:22
  exception of Sears and all
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: that was only race that he didn't lose last year on the circuit.
• 24:28
  And he had lots of really epic head to head battles with
• 24:30
  Patrick and Philemon and a
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: handful of others where he had sprint finishes at the end to win it.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then this year, he did win, but he wasn't quite as dominant.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Philemon did beat him in two of the five races that they raced.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: So Elozine still had the head-to-head.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the races that Elozine won,
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: and even that Madalena Florio won to some extent,
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: were kind of not the most densely competitive races.
• 24:55
  So now that the Golden Trail World Series is going away from
• 24:58
  the classics like
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Marathon de Mont Blanc or...
• 25:02
  just other staples that have been on the scene for in favor in
• 25:08
  favor of other
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: excuse me why is this happening
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so excuse me, I'm sorry, I'm having technical difficulties.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so anyways, back to...
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I got a call and it just totally messed up everything.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: But anyways, back to talking about Elozine.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Essentially,
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: so the Golden Trail World Series,
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Elozine won a good number of Golden Trail World Series,
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: but they weren't the most dense events.
• 26:12
  He won Tepic Trail,
• 26:13
  which was kind of one of the more cherry-picked races.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then he did get beat head-to-head against Philemon at Noli.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: His most impressive win, if you ask me, was Zagama.
• 26:22
  That was,
• 26:23
  you know,
• 26:23
  a historically competitive race,
• 26:25
  dense field,
• 26:26
  a really stacked field.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he did win in a very convincing fashion.
• 26:30
  So I think Elzin's two best results were Zagama and the Golden
• 26:33
  Trail World Series
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: final,
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: which were the two denses races that he won.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas Philomont's two best races were Sears and all,
• 26:40
  which he won in a historically fast time against an always
• 26:43
  stacked field that's
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: usually...
• 26:45
  probably the most densely competitive race in the world,
• 26:48
  both sub-Ultra and Ultra each year.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's tough to compare these things,
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: but almost definitely the most competitive,
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: or if not one of the most competitive races in the world,
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: which he won.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then he also won the World Classic Distance Trail,
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: which in my opinion,
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: those two wins alone were better than Elozine's two wins,
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: but Philemon had countless other really,
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: really good results on the year.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: So Elozine winning this year, Golden Trail World Series Final in 2021,
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Total plant standings, not as impressive or dominant as last year.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say the same thing with Madeline Floria.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the races that she won were kind of the cherry picked one.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't,
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think she went to that series at all,
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: if I'm not mistaken,
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: and just really didn't quite have the density when it comes to,
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: when it comes to doing that as well.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to racing at the Golden Trail World Series as well.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: She kind of was picking here and there.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: So let's see.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that is my thoughts.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry,
• 27:50
  I'm getting derailed from the spam caller on why potentially
• 27:55
  the Golden Trail World
• 27:57
  Series winners did not do as well this year as last year with
• 28:02
  Elzeen and Joyce and
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Jeru.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Not as dominant.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: More...
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: variety of golden trail races, not as densely competitive.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then also the ones that the overall series winner,
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: the races,
• 28:14
  the overall series winners won were not the most dense races on
• 28:18
  the circuit.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And some of that weren't even as dense as like Marathon of Montblanc,
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: which is no longer a golden trail race.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, uh, we talked about golden trails.
• 28:26
  So other observations,
• 28:27
  Katie Scheid wins pretty clearly for trail run of the year.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: based off points, and it was much closer for Jim and Francesco Poopy.
• 28:38
  So basically just saying that Katie was a runaway with the
• 28:44
  first place vote.
• 28:46
  Walmsley did not have as many first place votes,
• 28:48
  but still had the plurality.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: And, uh, Caleb and Francesco Pupi was extremely close.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think they both had the same number of first place boats,
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: but Caleb ended up edging him maybe based off the weighted boats.
• 29:01
  So a tight battle on the men's side,
• 29:03
  a woman's side,
• 29:03
  a little bit more of a runaway favorites.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Other observations made,
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jim Walmsley,
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Ruth Croft,
• 29:08
  and Katie Shad have been in the top 10 all four years of trail
• 29:10
  run of the year.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jim and Katie have won the overall trail run of the year twice each,
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: whereas Ruth has not won hers yet,
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: but she was second in this year's voting.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: So she's edging closer and closer to winning that.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if she wins another UTMB,
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: especially if this year were expected to be more dense,
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: that could finally get her that top spot.
• 29:29
  They discussed Trail Team of the Year,
• 29:31
  a new award that FreeTrail is doing.
• 29:33
  Hoka edged out on in A6,
• 29:37
  so it went Hoka in first place,
• 29:39
  on in second,
• 29:39
  A6 in third.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: My understanding is cross-country style scoring,
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: and I don't know if there's a minimum of three people you had to have,
• 29:46
  but basically they combined the top three from each team for
• 29:50
  the lowest points
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: total.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: All right,
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: so going back to thoughts on 200-mile specialists not being recognized,
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: specifically Killian Korth and Rachel Entrican.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Free Trail,
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: like I said,
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: got a lot of flack and feedback in the comments from people saying,
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: where is Killian Korth?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: He won the Triple Crown of 200s and smashed the record.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Where is Rachel Entrican?
• 30:13
  She smashed Cocodona and has been undefeated for 18th Street
• 30:16
  races or something like that.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: My thoughts on that, I didn't discuss Killian Korth, I guess, in the,
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 30:24
  in my discussion about showrunners of the year or Rachel
• 30:28
  Intrican for that matter,
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: and then Rachel Intrican ended up 12th overall on the women's side.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Killian didn't make an appearance in the top 20 on the men's side.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was pretty appropriately ranked.
• 30:37
  I think they both kind of fell where essentially they,
• 30:42
  I guess you could say deserved in a way.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think Rachel had, I think, I think they did race a little bit more.
• 30:48
  competitive races for sure than Killian she won High Lonesome
• 30:51
  against Carith Arnold
• 30:52
  and a handful of others and then her two big wins in Mammoth
• 30:56
  and Cocodona and
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Cocodona she beat she beat Courtney DeWalter
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: who didn't finish.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then in Mammoth, she beat Tara Dower, who also didn't finish.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think, which is a win is a win.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're battling somebody head to head, that's a win.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's tough.
• 31:11
  I think that Rachel would have fared much better if she had won
• 31:16
  and those two
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: racers had finished.
• 31:18
  Because I do agree she did beat Courtney DeWalter at Cocodona
• 31:22
  if Courtney had to
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: withdraw because of hypothermia or whatever.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: And she did beat Tara Dower at Mammoth.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I think she was leading when she beat her.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it's tough when you're racing races that are only two runners deep.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those two runners has a bad day.
• 31:35
  And that's why I really emphasize the depth of competition and
• 31:38
  why that part is so important.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think that Rachel is an extremely talented runner.
• 31:41
  I think she can throw down with some of these best 100 milers
• 31:44
  in the US and the world.
• 31:45
  but it's tough to say that you can if you don't go to races
• 31:48
  where you can prove it
• 31:49
  so but i thought 12th was a pretty fair like i think she did
• 31:52
  deserve to be in the
• 31:53
  top 20 and had a really diverse range of results which is
• 31:56
  something that voting
• 31:57
  like ultra run of the year uh rewards but it's not necessarily
• 32:01
  trail run of the
• 32:01
  year specific um as much as that depth of competition is so i
• 32:07
  thought rachel fell
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: right about where she deserved i thought 12th was a good choice
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think Killian won the Triple Crown of 200s.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: He did break the Triple Crown course record.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: With that being said,
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: the three individual races in the Triple Crown,
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: it's Moab 240,
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: it's Bigfoot 200,
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: and Tahoe 200.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: None of the races that he ran were course records.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: He almost got the course record at Bigfoot 200.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: He missed it by six minutes.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: But just quite frankly, none of the races were really competitive.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: He won by over 10 hours, I want to say, at Moab 240, 58-45.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Second place was...
• 32:48
  68 52 so you have over 10 hours he had a close race at bigfoot
• 32:52
  200 and won by 42
• 32:54
  minutes but to an 18 year old and then uh for the tahoe 200 he
• 32:59
  won by about four
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: three hours and 20 minutes
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, he did take around five ish hours.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say off the triple crown of 200s,
• 33:10
  but I just don't think that any of those individual races was
• 33:14
  particularly
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: competitive.
• 33:15
  Uh,
• 33:16
  nor do I think that,
• 33:18
  um,
• 33:19
  the like triple crown total time is particularly competitive.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: So what he did is very impressive.
• 33:23
  I think it's a little bit interesting to see because some
• 33:25
  people in the comments
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: will argue that 200s are underrepresented,
• 33:29
  but I think that they're probably overrepresented given the
• 33:32
  people that talk about
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: them specifically,
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: um,
• 33:34
  Cam Haynes and David Goggins,
• 33:35
  I think they're much more well-known about.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Moab 240 is much more heard of and known about.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: along with like Leadville than probably Western States, quite frankly.
• 33:47
  But that doesn't mean that it's the most competitive just
• 33:49
  because it's the most
• 33:49
  well-known because David Goggins sold tens of millions of books
• 33:54
  and Cam Haynes has
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: millions of listeners on his podcast.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of my thoughts on the 200-mile thing.
• 34:00
  200-mile space is still super young,
• 34:02
  so it's tough to tell where it ranks without context.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm curious to see how Killian...
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: does at Cocodona this year,
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: which I think he is racing,
• 34:11
  but he might've updated because he has allergies to desert
• 34:14
  plants or something like
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: that.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Last two thoughts on the podcast from Debo and Free Trail.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: They asked where the Boulder Voice slighted.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Seth and Drew apparently were both in the top 25.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Debo said that they were missing a second big result to be higher.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: I totally agree.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Drew had an amazing CCC with third place and he won Laboreto 80K,
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: but that's not the deepest field.
• 34:39
  um or where more of the competition is at and he didn't race a
• 34:42
  race later in the
• 34:43
  year because he got married which is obviously uh much more
• 34:46
  important than any race
• 34:47
  could be and then seth uh had his win at the canyons 50k which
• 34:53
  was a good field and
• 34:54
  he had his really good win at black canyon but that kind of
• 34:57
  wasn't as good as like
• 34:58
  and he has fifth place at western states really good debut sub
• 35:01
  15 hours 1459 and
• 35:04
  but it just wasn't quite enough compared to the other heavy
• 35:06
  hitters in the top 10
• 35:07
  that had wins at world-class races like Worlds or UTMB Finals
• 35:12
  plus other really
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: good second results.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: So just missing out on that.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Last thing that Diego and Tim Tolson touched on was that
• 35:20
  trail runner of the year is not trying to be ultra specific
• 35:24
  because that already
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: exists with ultra under the air.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you can say ultra in the years,
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: North American specific and North American biased,
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: and you would be a hundred percent correct,
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: but they're saying,
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: that already exists ultra under the air.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not the goal.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: They want to be able to compare short to long,
• 35:39
  trail uh races because that's what's fun about being a sports
• 35:43
  fan being able to
• 35:44
  compare short and long trail performances is rummings vk as
• 35:46
  impressive as killian
• 35:48
  course you know uh triple crown of 200s and that's where we get
• 35:53
  deep into the
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: nitty-gritty um yeah it's like comparing apples to oranges but like
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite people,
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Lil Dick,
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: he says in a video for Pillow Talking,
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: that phrase doesn't make any sense.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't fruit be compared?
• 36:06
  You know,
• 36:07
  he says a little bit more explicitly,
• 36:08
  but basically,
• 36:10
  why can't fruit be compared?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: apples and oranges absolutely can be compared,
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: just like short and ultra trails can be compared.
• 36:17
  And we can try to think about it analytically and try to take
• 36:19
  some metrics.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Tim Thompson promoting, not promoting, but...
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: proposing is what I'm looking for that,
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 36:28
  we kind of take maybe percentages of overall finish or
• 36:30
  something like that and
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: compare,
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 36:32
  basically the percentage difference between this course record
• 36:35
  in the second place
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: or the percentage difference between this male and this female.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a good way to look at things.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: So other thoughts.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 36:47
  we talked about a little bit where I could disagree with some
• 36:50
  of the true one of
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: the year results.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: I could argue against Remy, Binet and Tom Evans being in the top 10.
• 36:55
  I could argue against Abby Hall and Toby Alexander Zane being
• 36:57
  in the top 10,
• 36:58
  pretty much all on the premise that they had one really
• 37:00
  world-class result,
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: but not a comparable second result.
• 37:03
  And I could think of other people who had two world-class
• 37:06
  results in much deeper fields.
• 37:09
  Tom basically won UTMB,
• 37:11
  but in the least deep year that it's had in a long time.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't have a second strong result.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he won the other two races he did, but they were not remotely deep.
• 37:18
  Remy Benet was hurt for a lot of the year after getting hurt at
• 37:21
  the beginning of the season.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: He essentially won the world's uphill, which is amazing.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he set the world VK record.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: But those are two very similar races.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: The VK is not really entirely a race.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't have a good up-down result.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he basically just didn't race as much as some ultra people race.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of another detractor.
• 37:39
  Abby Hall and Toby Alexanderson on the woman's side,
• 37:41
  both for kind of the same reason.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Toby's one result was an absolute knocking out of the park.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: hands down the trail performance of the year.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: No doubt about it.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: Toe and Abby Hall's Western States was amazing,
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: but,
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: and she did compete in gold ticket races,
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: but got like fourth and fifth.
• 37:55
  And it wasn't as deep of a race as something like worlds or if
• 37:59
  she had finished
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: UTMB going top five there.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: last thing I think is that Abby being as high as she was in fourth place,
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: I thought her Western States was amazing.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was very hot.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was a historically fast time,
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: but I still thought there was a little bit of North American bias.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: That was her only big result on the year.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, her second result wasn't behind Western States.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Wasn't nearly as good as,
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 38:19
  Caleb's was on the men's side with his Western women's
• 38:21
  transferring an area course
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: record.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: or even,
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nina going double gold or Meow Yow for that matter,
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: win at OCC,
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: then sixth at Sears and all deepest field,
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: win at the European 50K Major Valorant,
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: fifth at Great Wall,
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: golden trail World Series final,
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: or gold trail World Series race.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of my tiny...
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: little nitpicky-ness with those things.
• 38:44
  So we've talked about the free trail episode and kind of some
• 38:49
  of their notes.
• 38:49
  Now I'm going to talk a little bit about single track and what
• 38:51
  they discussed on
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: trail run of the year.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: And some of it might be a little bit of rehash.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll try to skip if that's the case.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: So Mike McMonigle said,
• 39:00
  you shouldn't be eligible for ultra run of the year unless you
• 39:03
  have a result in one
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: of the big races is interesting.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a very interesting concept.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: To some extent, he's correct.
• 39:10
  But I also think that it's tough because then you can kind of
• 39:13
  get into that
• 39:14
  category of only certain races are popular because they're in
• 39:17
  that nuance,
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: they're in that qualification or in that criteria.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: But how do you kind of
• 39:25
  then you're essentially gatekeeping and not giving
• 39:27
  opportunities for other races to
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: become up and coming races to become more competitive.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh,
• 39:32
  especially when so many of these races like hard rock and
• 39:34
  Western States and
• 39:35
  whatever are limited by fields compared to like UTMB and other
• 39:39
  people that
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: essentially have unlimited fields,
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: um,
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: or even Black Canyon for that matter.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I like that idea.
• 39:44
  And I think that it should be,
• 39:46
  we,
• 39:47
  we kind of should already have that like metric or,
• 39:50
  uh,
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: rule of thumb in our head,
• 39:53
  but I think it's tough to explicitly put that in the ultra run
• 39:56
  of the year,
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: like,
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 39:59
  criteria for being able to be eligible because it's kind of
• 40:02
  really gatekeeping and
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: not very inclusive in a way.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: Brett said that you need at least two races,
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: a hundred percent agree,
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: and hence no Tom Evans in my top 10.
• 40:12
  So Brett said something along the lines of like,
• 40:14
  you need two big performances.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I've been harping on this whole time.
• 40:17
  If you guys listen to my show on a year podcast,
• 40:19
  that was like my biggest,
• 40:20
  uh,
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: comparison point for trying to compare sub ultra people to ultra people.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: What were your two best results?
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously some racers are gonna have well more than two best results,
• 40:29
  but it's a lot harder for ultra runners to race more than four
• 40:32
  or five times a year
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: and really hit the nail on the head.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna take your two best and then I'll kind of branch out.
• 40:38
  If I think your two best are approximately equal,
• 40:40
  then I'm gonna look beyond that.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's obvious that for one runner,
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: they podiumed at both Worlds and a UTMB final,
• 40:49
  whereas one person maybe won Western States but didn't podium
• 40:52
  at another big race,
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: then,
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: like,
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: I know who I'm going to choose.
• 40:56
  So I think they said Drew Holman getting slighted again for
• 41:02
  Ultra Run of the Year.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember the Ultra Run of the Year results,
• 41:05
  and I'm more interested in talking about Ultra Run of the Year
• 41:07
  because I'm more
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: interested in voting for it.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that Drew Holman, he won his second big race.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: His third at CCC was amazing.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Historically deep field, historically a good time.
• 41:17
  But his second big race winning Laboreto ADK was not the
• 41:21
  historically competitive
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: distance or historically dense field.
• 41:25
  So,
• 41:27
  they discussed people in the prime of their careers going to
• 41:29
  Cocodona.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but not most competitive runners or anywhere near CCC champ level.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't see that happening within the next five years.
• 41:39
  So,
• 41:40
  they asked,
• 41:40
  are people going to start going to Cocodona when they're still
• 41:43
  in their prime?
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I think we've seen that with Dan Green.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's probably in his running prime or coming up on it,
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: being around the same age as me at 30 years old.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't think we're seeing anywhere near,
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think Finn referred to like,
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: when do we see a CCC champion level athlete race coconut?
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't personally see that within five years.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think they might've mentioned two to three.
• 42:05
  Um,
• 42:05
  I just don't think it's,
• 42:07
  it's like not where the interest of that caliber athlete is at.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: I can see Dan green.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think he got 12 at CCC.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: If my memory serves me or like top 15 last year.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that Dan green very well could go five through 10 in CCC.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's kind of a ceiling, be an American runner.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: and CCC favoring kind of American runners and that type of terrain.
• 42:25
  But I don't know that I see somebody like Francesco Pupi
• 42:28
  running Coca-Dona anytime
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: soon,
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: or really like anyone in the top five for that matter of CCC last year.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't totally agree with that.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think Fenn gave it like a two to three year ramp.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see it happening within five years.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Fin and company should have read the criteria.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: One criticism.
• 42:45
  I thought that Fin and company should have read the criteria
• 42:47
  for both ultra run of
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: the year and trail run of the year before talking about it.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise it just kind of leaves a lot of things up to speculation.
• 42:54
  I think a lot of the shade that free trail got thrown could
• 42:58
  have been totally
• 42:59
  avoided if they just looked at the criteria for voting and
• 43:02
  actually considered it.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's a deficit on free trails part.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: They need to do a better job of reiterating and reposting like how,
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: what the criteria is for voting and also how the voting gets decided.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think they personally did a good job of advertising that.
• 43:17
  And so for people to just arbitrarily get upset and sensed and
• 43:20
  mad and say,
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Debo is crooked,
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: free trail is crooked.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is corrupt.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: He picked his favorite runners.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: there's no money in 200 or like he can't make money on 200.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: So he's not picking 200.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the case.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: like he didn't,
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: he didn't,
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: Debo didn't handpick these people and say,
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: I Debo announced this person to be,
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: top 10 children of the year.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was a voting process.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was an open, you know, democratic process.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to,
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: change the way things are,
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: then,
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: do good fantasy free trail or be,
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 43:50
  do something to put yourself in a position to have a more of a
• 43:53
  weighted vote and
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: show your knowledge off,
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: to prove that,
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 43:57
  who deserves to kind of like be in this top 10 because it's not
• 44:00
  free trail.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's picking the top 10 it's voted on.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: And, um, and yeah.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that important,
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: like to be important or to understand who you want to vote for,
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: you should understand what you're voting on.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the criteria is important.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it would have been more wise if they read the criteria.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know ultra runner of the years criteria,
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: quite frankly,
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: but I do know trail runner of the years.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: We just read it at the beginning of this podcast.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: once again,
• 44:29
  disagree with Fenn that Elozine and Caleb cannot be compared
• 44:33
  the apples to oranges
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: comment.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like why can't fruit be compared?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think Elzean and Caleb absolutely can be compared.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: I,
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: when I was making my picks,
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: was trying to pick Elzean's two best races versus Caleb's two best races.
• 44:45
  And in my opinion,
• 44:46
  Caleb had his two results at Western and Trans-Grancon area.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Western had nearly a course record on a record high.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: a historically hot day and a,
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 44:55
  win and course record in a dominant fashion at Trans-Canaria
• 44:59
  and a deep field were
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: better than Elozine's two best results.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Elozine's best result,
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: in my opinion,
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: was a Zagama win,
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: historically deep field,
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: historically competitive course with lots of historical context.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I think their Zagama and their Western were very similar.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then Elozine winning at,
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: at Golden Trail final,
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: in my opinion,
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: was not as impressive as,
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: Caleb winning at Trans-Canaria.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I don't know.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of just my opinion on the matter.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: I disagree that short and long course need to be separated.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: I discussed that in the podcast.
• 45:32
  I don't think that's the case because I also think you get into
• 45:36
  this issue where if
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: you separate short and long course,
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: then you're essentially splitting Francesco Pupi's season and a half.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: He raced like half trail marathons and half ultra distance stuff.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're also kind of getting in that weird
• 45:47
  place with the 50k because 50k is technically an ultra but we
• 45:50
  see lots of people
• 45:50
  that are golden trail series winners come over and race 50ks
• 45:55
  and do extremely well
• 45:56
  sarah alonzo being in mind meow yow being in mind uh even like
• 46:00
  joining chip and
• 46:01
  jano uh and people like that and so i don't think it's fair to
• 46:05
  split people season
• 46:05
  and a half i think you should take their entire body of work
• 46:07
  and i don't think that
• 46:08
  you need to separate short and long course i think they are
• 46:11
  easily comparable maybe
• 46:12
  not easily but if you just give it some thought i think it's
• 46:14
  very comparable so
• 46:16
  I also agree that ultra run of the year needs to be public or
• 46:20
  republish their
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: criteria every year because I consider myself a super fan of the sport.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said,
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: I got top five in trail run of the year voting last,
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: excuse me,
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: in the fantasy free trail last year.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't even know what ultra run of the year's criteria is.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I'm pretty well tuned to this stuff.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe I'm not doing enough searching and maybe I'm being lazy,
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: but I follow ultra run of the year.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea what their criteria is.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: I know they consider a full range of results,
• 46:45
  both like track ultra non-trail stuff and like six day events
• 46:49
  and all kinds of
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: stuff.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, but I think it's just a little bit too broad.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas trail one of the year,
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the four,
• 46:55
  the four criteria that they put out really help and guide you
• 46:59
  to make your
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: decision.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we already talked about 200 miles and results and thoughts.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about Remy versus Tom Evans.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: They said the two can't be compared.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely think the two can be compared.
• 47:09
  I would probably take,
• 47:10
  I don't know,
• 47:12
  I would have either of them in my top 10.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly,
• 47:14
  I thought they both had trail performance of the years with Tom
• 47:17
  Evans' UTB win and
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: Remy's VK world record,
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: maybe even his uphill goal.
• 47:22
  um but i think they can be compared and i think they should be
• 47:26
  compared they talked
• 47:27
  about not being able to compare sears and all versus the
• 47:29
  western states i actually
• 47:30
  think those are two of the the short distance like if you could
• 47:34
  compare a short
• 47:35
  distance race to a west uh to an ultra race i think those are
• 47:38
  two of the most
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: comparable races
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: Both of them have been around approximately for 50 years.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Both of them have a huge historical context to draw on.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: Both of them,
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: yeah,
• 47:47
  just like have a long history where we can very well kind of
• 47:51
  summarize like,
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sierra Zanol has been raised since 1972.
• 47:54
  I think you just have his 50th year and Western States more or
• 47:58
  less the same.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that those two races are very, very comparable.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think stairs and all,
• 48:03
  it's always going to be more densely competitive because they
• 48:05
  can tow a lot more
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: people on the start line.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: And because it's a more accessible distance that people like professional
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: marathoners or triathletes can come over and race and do very well.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: We saw that last year with a Swiss guy,
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: Adrian Griffith,
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: who got fourth,
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: but led a lot of the race.
• 48:19
  Um,
• 48:20
  so I think these races can absolutely be compared and should
• 48:23
  absolutely be compared.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:26
  And we can also take things like temperature data to kind of
• 48:30
  talk about if it was a
• 48:31
  historically hot year to kind of weigh the performance and see
• 48:34
  if it's even that
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: much more impressive.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sierra's and all doesn't start till like 11 a.m.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: for the week.
• 48:39
  So it's also can be historically hot at times because it's in
• 48:43
  the hottest part of
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: the day during the summer.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh,
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: Brett Hornig talks about track,
• 48:47
  having a very solid point system for different distances to be
• 48:49
  able to compare.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: and he talks about like that point criteria for a hundred meter,
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: 200 meter going all the way up to like marathon.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think we could absolutely do the same thing with trail.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is a good starting point or a good idea.
• 49:00
  I do totally agree that it's hard to compare course conditions
• 49:04
  on specific days.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's always going to kind of get lost in the sauce.
• 49:07
  But I think what the race likes here is in all the Western
• 49:09
  States,
• 49:09
  you got 50 years of data.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: You got thousands of entrants.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can absolutely see, uh,
• 49:13
  how much one result compares to the next and we can kind of use
• 49:17
  that course record
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: as like a comparison margin for what's possible historically,
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: especially when you have so much data.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: Mike McClonegal said there should be subcategories
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh,
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: once again,
• 49:30
  I don't agree with this because I think versatile athletes like
• 49:33
  Francesco Pupi,
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: like Jen,
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: like they're like Hans Troyer would kind of get shafted.
• 49:38
  Um,
• 49:38
  people that can win both 50 Ks and ultra,
• 49:41
  even somebody like Seth rolling as well.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think those people that kind of race on both sides,
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: Judith Weider,
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: now,
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: yeah,
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: anyone that can go up and down would just get,
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: kind of a short end of the stick.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: at the end of the podcast, they talked about, uh, AP top 25 rankings.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great idea.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think that's awesome.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like who they can talk about,
• 50:01
  they talk about good rank runners and then kind of move them up
• 50:05
  and down in the
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: ranks based off performances.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, Hans Troyer, just more black cannon.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he moves into the first spot this year,
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: um,
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: for winning the biggest race of the year so far.
• 50:14
  And people like,
• 50:15
  you know,
• 50:15
  Molly Seidel started off the year winning bandera.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe she was in the number one spot, but now,
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jim Lake there just won and smashed the course record at Black Canyon,
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: so she's in the number one spot.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: My question for that would be,
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: anyone college football fans,
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: who would be Notre Dame and get shafted?
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Would that be Drew Holman?
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because Notre Dame kind of got left out of the playoffs this year.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the AP Top 25 rankings is a great idea.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think that rankings give...
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: uh, college football fans, endless things to talk about.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that if we can give the sport more reasons to talk about it,
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: then we should be able to.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I absolutely think that's what I'm doing with this podcast.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 50:51
  I'm talking about two other podcast shows talking about drone
• 50:53
  in the air because I
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: don't have a cohost.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: So this gives me a way to talk about,
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: things that other people have thought of that I've also thought of,
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: but it gives me a more creative way to talk about,
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: um,
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: my thoughts of drone in the air.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: The last thing I want to talk about,
• 51:05
  they mentioned David winning last year trail performance of the
• 51:09
  year for Leadville
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: versus not being on the list this year.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: Cho's performance was impressive, but might have been overrated.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's absolutely the case in my opinion.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think that his performance of the year,
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think I had him in my top five,
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: but I think that at the time was a little bit soft.
• 51:23
  And I think that Leadville has not been very historically
• 51:26
  competitive in the past
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: 10 years when we've seen a lot of advancement made in the trail space,
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: both with technology and nutrition and knowledge and training.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: so I think that,
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: yeah,
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: it probably more so shows,
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: that it shouldn't have been the trail performance of the year last year.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't believe I had it voted as my trail performance of the year.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, rather than that, uh,
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and also just kind of like voter fatigue.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: If it gets broken twice in a row,
• 51:54
  then maybe it's not as impressive as you thought it was if it
• 51:57
  got broke twice in a
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: row.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas this year,
• 51:59
  Anne Flower got fourth in trail performance of the year and
• 52:03
  broke a long-standing
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: course record from Anne Trayson.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: But once again, just not a lot of depth in the field.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it is impressive.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime you break it and trace a record,
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: it is notable,
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: especially when it's your debut 100 miler.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: But just kind of some of that wet bill fatigue.
• 52:17
  Last things I want to talk about,
• 52:18
  I want to talk about trail performance of the year.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: So trail performance of the year.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was trying to see if I had the trail performance of the year criteria.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let me find it real quick.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_01: View nominees.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_01: Voting information.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_01: Trail performance of the year.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: Let me see if I can find the criteria.
• 53:25
  True performance the year like Troy is distance agnostic and
• 53:27
  tries to recognize
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: incredible race performances from VKs to ultra distance.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: The 2025 season was so steep and incredible performances.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, yeah, it doesn't really go into it totally.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I apologize for not having that run down,
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: but essentially the performances of the year,
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: it is trail specific,
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: but distance agnostic and FKTs are not on that list.
• 53:46
  So on the women's side of trail performance of the year,
• 53:51
  I think it was a no brainer.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this has probably got a ton of the vote.
• 53:56
  Uh,
• 53:56
  that was going to be Toby,
• 53:57
  Alex Anderson's short trail performance championship,
• 54:00
  uh,
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: win.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the actual results of the trail performance of the year.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_00: So
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: Second place was Katie Scheid's World Long Trail Championship,
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: leading from wire to wire again in the gold.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: Third place was Ruth Croft,
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: UTMB,
• 54:19
  surging late in the second half of the race to beat Courtney
• 54:22
  DeWalter and Cammie
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_00: Brewis.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth place was Ann Flower,
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_00: Leadville Trail 100,
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: Myler,
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: bested Ann Trayson's 31-year-old course record at Leadville,
• 54:31
  becoming the first woman to finish the race under the sky in
• 54:34
  under 18 hours and
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: finishing second overall.
• 54:38
  Fifth place,
• 54:38
  we saw Katie with two of the top five trail performances of the
• 54:41
  year.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: She got the win and course record at Hard Rock.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: First one to do it in under 26 hours in the counterclockwise direction.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then sixth place,
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_00: Abbey Hall,
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_00: Western States,
• 54:53
  coming back from injury to win Western States in the fourth
• 54:57
  fastest time in race
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: history.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: Seventh place, Tara Dallar, Javelina 100.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_00: Eighth place, Nina Engelhard, world champs gold medal.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: Ninth place, Rachel Intrican for her coconut 250.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: And 10th place, Nina Engelhard for her vertical uphill.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's safe to say that Nina Engelhard deserved a...
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_00: Placed in the top five,
• 55:18
  but it was tough to differentiate which one of her races was
• 55:21
  more impressive.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it kind of split the vote.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with Katie.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: Katie Scheid having,
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_00: well,
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: no,
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think her hard rock was going to be in there,
• 55:31
  but I think that Nina's Worlds was probably slightly more
• 55:34
  impressive than Katie's
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: hard rock.
• 55:36
  And I honestly think Abby Hall's Western States was more
• 55:38
  impressive than Katie's hard rock.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not that Katie's hard rock wasn't amazing,
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_00: but hard rock's just not a deep field and you don't get a ton of racers.
• 55:45
  And I think Katie's is very possible of going well under
• 55:48
  probably even 25,
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_00: if not 24 hours on a good day.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think she had a good day.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the results for the trail performance of the year.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_00: My trail performance of the year, top five.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had Tove at Worlds in first.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_00: Martina Malarczyk, CCC in a very tight battle.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: Deepest women's field of the year, I want to say, in second.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: Mina Engelhard, Worlds, Classic in third.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: Axel Molare world BK record in fourth and Katie's long trail in fifth.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, I ended up having three in the top, uh, no two in the top five.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: So a little bit different on that side.
• 56:25
  on the men's side triple forms the year top 10 first place was
• 56:28
  jim walmsley with
• 56:30
  the long trail gold medal uh it says he applied constant
• 56:33
  pressure to create a gap
• 56:34
  between him and the two frenchmen benjamin rubel and lewis and
• 56:37
  call fate earning
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: individual gold second place was remy benet with his vk world record uh
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_00: Third place was Caleb Olsen.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, Remy smashed the VK world record.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_00: He went 27 minutes and 21 seconds,
• 56:52
  was a full minute and a half faster than the previous best time
• 56:56
  by Italian Philip
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: Gotch.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty crazy.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: A minute 32 in a less than 30 minute race is crazy.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: Substantial.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_00: So third place,
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: Caleb,
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: Western States,
• 57:07
  one nearly broke the course record faster than all but one in
• 57:10
  history in a very hot
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_00: year as well.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was 1411.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth place, Tom Evans, Hokie UTMB.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth time is the charm for him after a third place in two DNFs.
• 57:20
  He overcame historically bad weather and stiff competition to
• 57:23
  win his first UTMB,
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_00: competing the big loop on a weather-modified course in 1918-58.
• 57:28
  So I think he probably would have got the course record even if
• 57:31
  it was the regular
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: loop,
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: but it's tough to say.
• 57:33
  Fifth place,
• 57:35
  Francesco Pupi CCC win,
• 57:37
  second fastest time ever on any version of the 100K course.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth place, we saw Jim Walmsley Chianti 120K.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: Seventh place, Francesco Pupi Canyons 100K.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_00: Eighth place, Remy Benet with his gold medal in the World Champs Uphill.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ninth, Ludo Pomeroy with his repeat victory at the Hard Rock 100.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_00: And 10th,
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jim Walmsley at OCC with a late pass over Christian Minogio in a very,
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: very deep field.
• 58:05
  My top five for trail performance on the men's side,
• 58:07
  I had first place,
• 58:08
  Jim World's Gold.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: Second place, Remy's VK.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: Third place, Caleb's Western.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth place...
• 58:17
  fred transhawn for the world short trail and fifth place uh tom
• 58:22
  evans ut and b win
• 58:24
  so i pretty much had uh i had four of the top five and i
• 58:29
  thought that fred's i
• 58:31
  really like francesco would be ccc so i think it's deserving
• 58:33
  but i thought fred's
• 58:34
  world short trail was probably i think it was the deepest men's
• 58:38
  field in the world
• 58:39
  this year maybe behind sierra's and all i think sierra's and
• 58:42
  all might have
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: slightly beat
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: So all good choices and just exciting stuff to talk about.
• 58:47
  You know,
• 58:48
  this is why it's fun to be able to talk about these types of
• 58:51
  things.
• 58:52
  So that is my 2025 trail run of the year retrospective
• 58:57
  thoughts,
• 58:58
  feedback,
• 58:58
  comments in general.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very, very happy with the results of this year.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was the best top 10 that we've had in trail run of the year.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited for next year's results.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_00: And moving forward,
• 59:10
  we're looking to do a Trans Grand Canaria preview here in a
• 59:14
  little bit once the
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_00: start list becomes public.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: Trans Grand Canaria, from my memory, has gotten moved back a little bit.
• 59:19
  I want to say it was the end of February last year,
• 59:21
  but this year it's the first week in March.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll be excited to see who is towing the start line.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: Trans Grand Canaria is one of those bucket list races.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's on the World Trail Majors Tour,
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_00: but it's just one of those iconic races like Trans Valkanya,
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_00: Madeira Island,
• 59:34
  where you kind of just do this sick route that goes across some
• 59:37
  really pretty
• 59:37
  island off the coast of either Europe or Africa and have a
• 59:41
  beautiful day out in the
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_00: wild.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_00: So looking forward to previewing Trans Grand Canaria.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in the meantime, let me know your thoughts on trail run of the year.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: Did free trail get it right?
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: Did single track get it right?
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where did I get it right?
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_00: Where did I get it wrong?
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 59:56
  And keep listening and always appreciate you guys supporting
• 59:59
  and listening to the podcast.
• 1:00:00
  I'm sorry if I seemed a little bit distracted from that phone
• 1:00:02
  call in the middle of it.
• 1:00:04
  But I appreciate you guys following along and look forward to
• 1:00:07
  the next one.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: Cheers.