Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / Robyn Lesh | 2024 Speedgoat 28K Champion

Transcript

Robyn Lesh | 2024 Speedgoat 28K Champion · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up guys?
• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lauriello, and today we've got a really fun one we're going to dive right into.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Robin Lesh joins us on the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: So excited to have had a chance to have finally gotten to talk to Robin.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: She joined us just before her fourth place finish at the JFK 50 mile a few weeks back.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Robin has been on a heater in 2024.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: She took first place at the Speedgoat 28k back in July.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: She took a fourth place finish at the world-renowned Meet the Minotaur Sky Race, definitely on a heater, as well as a top 10 finish at the Canyons 50k as well, which is a super flat, fast course.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: We talk about all kinds of really fun stuff.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: We talk about her 2024 season, with plans for 2025, with the world's qualifiers coming up, which she is registered to go compete at the Gorge Waterfall 100K, which is going to be the long course.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: We also dive deep into what it's like being an athlete for Vibram or Vibram I don't know, I probably butchered that word.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: One of those words is the correct pronunciation of Vibram.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: We talk about what it's like to be a vibram athlete.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Um, we don't have too many vibram athletes floating around out there.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So it was kind of cool to get to learn more about the brand and what they represent and and kind of their uh, how they build their um, their athlete team and things like that for the future.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: So really fun conversation.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I want to wish robin the best of luck as she gears up and starts to prepare um for next race coming up in April at the Gorge Waterfall race.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: And yeah, what a great conversation.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Hope you guys enjoy this one.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: It's time.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: We are live All right.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Robin Lesh.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Steep Stuff podcast.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: How's it going?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Thanks, yeah, I'm doing well.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good Monday.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: This is where it's all perfect.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I um it's funny, I've done so many race previews uh, particularly like speed.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Go and meet the minotaur, where, uh, myself and co-hosts uh Nick Tusa, robin Lesh, would pop up on our start list um about and our previews and athletes we were, we were doing previews on, and you and I had not had a chance to meet or talk before this.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: So it was kind of awesome that Mercedes introduced us.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: So I want to give a big shout out to Mercedes Sigel-Gaither so that worked out yeah for sure.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Heck, yeah, she knows everyone.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: She does.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: She's well-connected.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: We're very well-connected.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: If there's anybody I need to talk to in the space Usually it's Mercedes can usually get me in touch, so that works out perfect.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and just a great friend too, so all around.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Good person, all around a good person, so let's introduce you.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Who is Robin Lesh?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Thanks.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I am a trail and mountain runner.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I live in Durango, colorado.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I've been running professionally for about three years.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Before that, like lots of people, I ran for fun.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: While I was living down in New Zealand in 2020, I discovered trail running and was like, oh heck, wait, you can race on trails.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: This is amazing and pretty promptly got hooked, and when I get hooked on something, I go pretty all in.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: So I've been all in since then.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Nice, very nice.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Where did you?
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Grow up by that.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Are you from New Zealand originally?
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: No, I'm not.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I'm from Washington State, Pacific Northwest, oh wow.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Wow, and you didn't.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: So let's start out with this how did your running journey begin?
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Did you run cross country or anything like that?
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Or were you a soccer player?
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Usually, people come from one of five different sports.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll add a six because I'm probably not in the one of five.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Um, my background I grew up like hiking and like mountain exploring since I was two, so lots of time outdoors on my feet and just running around as a kid, um, but no organized running.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Uh, in my childhood I came from sailing, so as a sailor through high school and college, um, and grew up just like that little kid that ran around on boats and swung around on the shrouds and just completely outdoorsy all the time.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: I grew up on 28 acres in the Pacific Northwest with shoes on half the year, I would say.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: So just a super duper active childhood, but no organized running.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: I actually, weirdly, didn't think I could run, for a couple of reasons.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Oh well, my mom was a runner, so I did a few like little 5Ks and things as a child.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: But when I was high school aged, I had a friend who would steal my shoes and run away with them and I't able to catch him if I was running full out.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: He was slightly faster, so I was like, oh, I'm slow.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: And then, a few years after that, my mom gave me, uh, like a couch to 5k program and I was like, you know, I sail, I'm active, I do things I can probably do week three, and I tried and it was so hard I found out later I was probably sprinting all the odd intervals because I didn't know how to run slow.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: But so if you do a couch to 5k running fast it's really difficult.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: I would recommend going slow.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: So then I was like I can't even do third week of a couch to 5k, I just can't run.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: So thanks to some friends a few years later who took me on a begrudgingly on a three or four mile run, I finally discovered that oh, that is something I can do.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: And then through college I just ran as cross trading for sailing for my own personal sanity.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, that's so crazy.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Do you want to tell the?
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: audience like you're probably.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I think you're the first person on the podcast I've had on that went to MIT, so I want to hear about your college experience because it's like I don't know, I don't meet too many people that have gone to.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: MIT.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: It's pretty wild.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it'd be a funny path.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: So when I was high school age, I took classes at the community college and tons and tons of math in the local university and then, when I was college age 18, I headed over to MIT in Boston, was there for four years getting my undergraduate degree.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: You learn a couple of things at MIT.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: One is how much you can freaking do in a day because you have to.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: And the second thing you learn is how much you can't do in a day, so you go way beyond what you think is possible.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: And then you hit your limit and you say, oh okay, that's where it is, but it's way, way higher than you ever would have expected had you not been pushed to that point.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: It's full on.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my first semester I was like I love math, I'm going to take the hardest math class I can find.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: And I found out that's not something to do at MIT.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there are no numbers in that class at all.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: It's just words, just letters, that's it.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you just learn to do things in the amount of time that you have and do them as well as you can with what you got.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: What was that like balancing sailing with you, said you.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Well, you didn't say this on the pod, but I found it in my research year of mechanical engineering degree.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: What was that like balancing mechie with sailing?
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: It must've been pretty difficult.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: It was challenging.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I learned, probably my sophomore or junior year, uh, the importance of like fully committing to what was in front of me at the moment.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: So what that meant was I used to try.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: So, okay, the sailing schedule is practiced four days a week.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: For the sailing schedule is practice four days a week for four to seven.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Three hours every afternoon, so three times four, 12 hours during the week, and then two full days of regattas.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Each weekend is regatta and it's a full day.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: There's no two days.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: It's not like a track meet where you run for an hour or you're competing for an hour or two and then the rest is off.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: You're sailing the whole time.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: And so I used to try to do homework on Saturday night and I learned no, you can't try to fit in homework because it detracts from trying to sail at your highest capacity, and then you're doing both halfway.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: And so I said there's no homework on Saturday night, it's a rest night, it's a full focus on sailing night.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: I'll deal with the consequences on Sunday.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: So just prioritizing what you need to do for what you care about at the moment.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy, it's just wild.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I talked to a lot of people that most of the folks in the podcast have either been in some degree or some capacity collegiate athletes with very rarely do very, very rarely do I meet people who don't have like high achieving degrees that in some like hard science or engineering.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: So it's very interesting to me that listening how people balance things and yeah, just doing things good enough as well.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: So let me ask you this so, graduated with a mechanical engineering degree, what do you do for, like outside of running, then for like a job, like for work?
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, a few different things and it has been, uh, it's been an evolution Um, so, uh, I came.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: How far back we want to go?
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Uh, after college, I okay, I'll start back at college.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Uh, after college I?
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Um sailing was a really big part of my life and so I graduated from college and I had the next two months planned out.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Most people have actually one month of internships, jobs etc.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: And participate.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Actually it's a week week and then a flexible, flexible time, um participate in this sailing uh clinic, and so I helpful myself into a job there at this olympic sailing center.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: So I was working there managing their fleet of foiling boats and training as an athlete and coaching assistant coaching uh got hired from there, which was full-on sailing.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: I've been sailing for seven years, pretty much six days a week into uh designing for the america's cup.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: So the america's cup is a?
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Uh, pretty much the top of tech in in sailing.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: It's um foiling 70 foot monohulls, if you you know boats, but 70-foot boats that lift out of the air on a wing span, sort of like an underwater airplane wing that's about nine feet across in length.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: So this huge boat pretty much just levitating, based on the technology that is created and designed for the boat.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: So I worked on the design team there for, uh, about three years.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: A lot less sailing, pretty much none, uh.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: So that was a big transition and that's where running sort of became my like me time um, running and gym.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Um, that took us down to new zealand in 2020.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Uh and uh, full-on work like 60 hour plus week type things um, so we're pretty much MIT in the real world, uh.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: So you know, you fit in time with your partner and you fit in exercise and you fit in work and sleep and that's about it.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Um, which is another reason why we went so full in on running because you can see so much and you can explore so much and it's just a wonderful way to get around.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: So after that, I said I need a bit of a break, so I went um full-on in running after the america's cup um, and I've that's still my priority uh, still become my number one and I'm formulating the rest of my work around running um, things that I've added in as I've gotten my life coaching certification.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: So I'm really passionate about not only the mental side of running and performance, but also how your personal dynamic within your world affects how happy you are at work, how your work.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Teams are just sort of our day-to-day, which is everyone's experience with the world.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Um, and helping people navigate those situations is really fun and really interesting, and I think um, in the right applications, helps people a lot um to enjoy their, their work and their day-to-day interactions more.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: And another part is doing, uh, things that you don't think is possible, which is something I discovered through running Um I I'll give a shout out to Martin Ghaffari, cause he uh was really helpful early on when I was trying to figure out how to go into pro running and how to sort of make that transition.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: He said, um, and also in my working towards life coaching, because he has some life coaching experience and he said, asked me a really profound question, which was it sounds like you really want to do these big races, why aren't you?
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: And so that was really eye-opening in what one simple phrase can point out and can help people move in the directions they want to move but don't think they can.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: So life coaching and then a little bit of engineering more recently, but primarily running.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: I love the life coaching aspect too, because it's like I don't know, said people I think people mentally a lot of times, depending on where they are in life, will build like mental walls and stuff like that.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: And it's so amazing to see.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I used to think like, ah, life coaching, I don't know if I would need something like that.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: But you know what?
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: It's crazy how just having someone's outside perspective and just having that conversation can show you.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: You know well, you know breaking down those walls, if you will, and helping.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or even just noticing them and saying it looks like this is a wall, right, right, right.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: You say oh shoot.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is so true.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: How do you, how do you like the professional athlete life?
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: It's good.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: I like the, so one of the reasons I switched from sailing to running is the people like the people in this world are amazing and that's wonderful.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: So one of the things I really really like about it is connecting with people all over the world.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: I do some talks at some events about how to help people who are newer to the sport feel more confident and comfortable and tips and things like that, and I love connecting with people.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Um and I'm not an expert.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: I don't think anyone's an expert.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: I think we're all always learning, but sharing the things that I have learned thus far is is I just love and talking to people and meeting people.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: It's not an easy life.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: There are no days off.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: You go home for holidays at Christmas and you trade every day yeah, exactly, still have a workout Christmas Eve.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: So those are some of the things that are like less apparent when people are like, oh, I wish I was a pro athlete or I wish I blah, blah, blah and travel.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Travel is wonderful, but it's also freaking exhausting yeah, I, I mean I hate to.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I don't like to highlight the negative things.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I love it, I run for sportiva and ultimate direction and it's a great life.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Like I, I have zero complaints.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: But I love asking other athletes, especially those ones I don't know.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Um, you know how they perceive that life and how they enjoy it and you know what the experience is like for them.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: How do you like being on team?
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Vibram, like vibram's rad, like you guys make it's so, like, and I don't think I know anybody, I guess Meredith, but I don't really know Meredith very well, if at all.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Um, but I'm aware of her, obviously, but I don't know too many people on that team other than, like, scotty Hawker, new Zealand and people like that.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: But yeah, like, how do you like that team?
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: What's that all about?
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's cool.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Um, a good group of people and I think the what's cool about it is it's sort of the core is the technology, is the, is the rubber and it has this incredible history from, like hiking boots and people who are connected to that period, just have this customers well, customers of customers, because Beaverim customers are customers, are shoe companies, but customers of customers just have this like passionate love connection with the product and so it's not like it's just very lovely to represent because, um, it sells itself.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Like if you have run in a pair of v-br shoes Vibram sold shoes in tough conditions You're like oh yeah, these are great, it's and and sort of the whole Vibram family, the whole Vibram team, the whole where are they based?
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: They're in the Northeast right, the base yeah.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: They're based in what Massachusetts correct or Boston.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's an office in Massachusetts and that's where the factory that produces soles that need to be manufactured in the US are made literally by hand.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: It's incredible Like there's these people that have been working there for 30 years that are.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Maybe I haven't met a heap of factory workers, but these are the most cheerful factory workers I could imagine and they're just cutting the edges off of rubber soles and it's incredible, machines in that space.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's an office there.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: There's an office in Boulder and the one in Portland and the main hub is in Italy that is so crazy.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: How does it work with the shoes?
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Can you like wear any pair of shoes with a Vibram sole you want?
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, I can, that is so dope, I like that, I like that.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, however, it's like it's wonderful, but then you're also like a little bit of choice.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Paralysis, yes, yes, like anything that's back and forth, but it is great.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so cool.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: How big is the team in the us?
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Who?
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: How like how many members you guys have?
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: um, there's a few different portions of team because there's also like a climbing contingent, because people are also make climbing shoe rubber, um, there's a little bit ofa crossover with schema, I think.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, um, and then I think there's four or five, five of us meredith is kind of on both sides Four or five Somewhere in there so cool, so cool.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry, this is out of pure curiosity, just because I don't know, I'm just interested.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: So very cool, yeah, yeah, no.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: So how did you end up in Durango?
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: How did Durango come into the mix?
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good question, let's see.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: So we're living in New Zealand and we were trying to figure out if we wanted to live in New Zealand and visit the US or live in the US and visit New Zealand.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: So we decided to come back and visit family because it had been all through COVID and we'd never lived in a place we being me and my partner that wasn't associated with a workplace, so we'd always followed my work pretty much with the America's Cup all over the place.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: So we didn't really have a place, a home, a base.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: We had our parents, but they're very different states and our siblings are kind of spread around, spread around, um.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: So we decided to find a place with cool people, cool mountains, good running community, uh, and did a big road trip from washington down through oregon and then crossed to colorado and people in colorado kept saying, you know, you might really like durango.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: We said, well, isn't it kind of a desert down there?
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: And they're like, yeah, it is.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: So we kind of pretty much entirely cross it off the list, uh, and then we kind of been like, well, maybe crested butte.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: So a month later my sister and I did another road trip down through the state down to albuquerque and stopped in drango for 24 hours and visited a friend and we're like wait a second.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: This is not a desert.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: There's trees everywhere deserts don't have trees, uh, I went to some runs in town and went to the lapladas, which is this amazing valley just west of town, uh, with lots of trails, and there's pretty much a trail in each quadrant of town, um, and people said, uh, the community was great, and it seemed great.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: And so I said, petty, let's move to durango.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: And he said I haven't been there, I know, but I think it's cool.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: So we decided to try it out and we're yeah, we're still here it's such a fun town.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: I just got, we just well.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: We got married in silverton, technically just outside of silverton, on the pass yeah uh, this past summer.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: So I'm I'm in the spring, so we go out there a lot um yeah, well, let me know next time yeah, yeah, I almost moved to durango.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: We were.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: It was pretty close, like we just literally settled in the house, like no joke, like this week, and durango was in the final running for it was either going to be durango or settling in the springs, and we ultimately decided on colorado springs.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Um, but yeah, durango special, it's so much fun, what a great place.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: And I don't know.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: There's just a.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: I could sit here and brag about it, but I don't like to talk about it too much on the podcast, cause you probably don't want too many people moving there.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Come visit and then go home.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly, do you, do you?
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: do a lot of training in the San Juans at all, or are you more?
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Durango yeah Boy, that's a.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: That's one of the tough things about being a uh execute at your maximum athlete um depends on the race I'm training for.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: So, uh, training for minotaur was so much fun because I got to just go play in the platters where it's like super chunky and like trails and quote marks.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Um, because minotaur was uh, just that, really chunky ridge lines and lots of rocks.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Um, when I'm training for something like terra vera, which is a very runnable 50k, that's like super flat yeah yeah, super fast, super flat, uh, or jfk, um this weekend.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Uh, I, I can't go.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Well, I shouldn't go into the mountains as much, um.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: So it's a balance between adventures with the friends and missions and stuff and training for the next goal race, which is maybe a reason to go longer because I could just spend more time playing around in the mountains.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Fair it's fair long missions, but a mixture of balance?
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: The reason I ask is I feel like I would struggle so much with that balance.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: I'm a mountain runner through and through, as it seems like you are.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, we'll talk about JFK later, we'll see if we can bring you back to the mountains, but anyway, the balance would just be so difficult for someone like me, just because I feel like, oh my gosh, you just have this enormous playground with unlimited three to 5,000 foot climbs everywhere.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: It's like oh my gosh it's candy land.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Merch is no problem, that's for sure.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a balance Choosing.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: When it's a trade-off that you is not even worth it is like, valuable to your personal happiness, and when it's a trade-off for performance and just understanding the balances and making the decision as you want it to be.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Do you work with a coach at all?
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: You seem very analytical with the way you express your training, like you know.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Specificity for this, specificity for that Like who do you work with?
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Uh, Robbie Burton, he is uh from the UK.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Uh, but he yeah yeah, exactly, Hayden Um also Dan Jones, uh, this year, and um Caitlin Fielder from New Zealand, everyone's congregating.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, he's, I mean arguably one of the best coaches in the world.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: That's amazing.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, great, great time.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: No, he's really fun to work with.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: I just had a call with him this morning.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Um, he's living in northern italy.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: There's a cool training center there.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Uh, great spot to visit.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I'm really having a good time working with him.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: It's I think we're going on year three or something like that, so super cool in the flow what is?
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: uh?
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: How's your build going for jfk?
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: And that's the the big one coming this weekend yeah, yeah, this weekend first 50 mile wow step it up um also wacky course so fast, oh my gosh
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: yeah, in the in the last two-thirds.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, just a lot of variety.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Build is going well.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Um, it's a little bit hard to know.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Like I haven't, I haven't done much like flat marathons.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: I think my marathon pb is something like some trail race.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: It was probably like terroira, like the marathon within terroira or something like that, or canyons.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: So I haven't run like fast flat racing and there is a sneaky, fat, fast flat marathon within JFK.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: So we'll see, it'll be lots of learning.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: It'll be lots of eating.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: There'll be lots of not wanting to eat but eating anyway.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be run for a few hours through um.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Maryland.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: As long as it goes well, it should be over quick, I mean relative to 50 miles.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Right, exactly, incentive to run.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: No, I think the belt's going well.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: There's been a few like.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, most of the time there's always various hiccups, but yeah, yeah, the way it is, nothing serious.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: What strategy are you once you get off the AT, are you going to switch to like road shoes?
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Is that kind of the plan, or?
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Good question, we'll see.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Um um.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: I have a pair of road super shoes um, but I got them on friday oh, okay, okay three days ago, um, so that's the risky choice.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Um, I have a pair of v from r&d shoes that I have raced.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Well, when I first got these shoes I was like maximum 20k.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Uh, through this year I have raced terawara, chianti, which is a 42 um speed go 28k, which was a sketchy choice in those but they was.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: It turned out great, um and occ.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: So, uh, my 50 I mean my, my 20K estimate was completely off.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: It turns out they can go a lot further.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: So I'll probably run a chunk in those because I'm really confident in those and they're really light and really fast, and then maybe switch to road shoes halfway or something We'll see.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Super cool.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: How's the fueling strategy going?
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Just can train in that stomach and just getting ready for.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Freaking Eden.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a balance.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: I don't like eating race nutrition much too much, because I like my teeth and I don't want them to rot.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, freaking keeps.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: But yeah, eating is eating as much as as I can like, eating a lot on certain runs, um, and trying to like bump up capacity every once in a while.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: I knock on wood, I'll jinx myself.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: I don't usually have any gut issues, but that's robbie pointed out way early on in our training.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: I was like I never had any trouble with my stomach and he's like, yeah, that makes sense, it's because you don't eat anything.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: I was like, ah, yeah, fair point.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: I was back in the days of one gel an hour type thing.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, have the little alarm go off, stay on the time, eat it when you should.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Wow, get the numbers up.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah Well, I'm excited for you.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: This is, this is gonna be fun.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to follow along.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be, oh my gosh, the women's and men's race is just gonna be just I don't know, badass.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, on the men's side, my coach, eli hemming, is gonna be there.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Oh sweet, yeah, david sinclair, like, oh my gosh, like both sides, it's gonna be fun to follow, so I can't wait to.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: It's going to be fun to follow, so I can't wait to.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a fun Saturday.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: So are you?
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: When do you head out?
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Thursday on the later end, but yeah.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Nice Super chill, stay at home for a bit.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Go down last minute.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Don't blame you at all In and out.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Um, one of the things I wanted to get into is, like I said in the beginning of the episode, was just like, like your name came up so much on, like the Speedgo preview, the Minotaur preview, like you're a very like legit mountain runner, like super, like, yeah, like very impressive results, especially like fourth at Minotaur, and like a very stacked women's field in that Sky Race.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: So I think we should start off let's chat.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Let's chat Minotaur, because that course, course is amazing.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: That race is just incredible like let's talk about that that was such a cool.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: So so for stats, tell me if this is wrong.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: It's 33k with 3 000 meters something like that yeah 33.5 and yeah, yeah, I think that's about that amount of climbing yeah crazy it is crazy.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: The extra crazy thing is there's five kilometers of flat at the end for three kilometers, four kilometers and like some.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Like at the end, but some smooth ish, not steep running, which means all that vert is packed into really the first 26 28k, so it's super fruity.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, really fun.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Uh, anything specific about it?
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: yeah, sorry, sorry, up down up down up down.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of exposure too.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Is it like a very because I haven't, I haven't been on in that course on crow's nest?
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Is it?
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Is there like a significant amount of exposure on there, like what's?
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: um, I would say, like the way the course runs on the ridge, like if you go off course you could probably drop a distance.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: That's like exposure, yeah worthy.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Um you don't like if you trip you're gonna get eaten up yeah because everything's sharp, but it's, um, it's not like you're on a little ledge and if you go left it's a big problem.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Um, there are some like chunky bits there's.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: There's one like shoot, that's really fun.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: That's like this little red shoot.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: That's just like super steep dusty scree, uh, and you go like 15 feet down and then take a sharp right onto this little through this little notch, um, so it's a really fun, like ridgeline stuff like that, uh.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: And then also some really fast I was really paying attention to my feet because there were some photographers around and it was this really chunky part that's like some some steep, like down drops and sort of down scramble parts.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Um, I wouldn't say like honesty, like true exposure, like you're gonna die if you slip at all.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Um, you'll get some bangs up.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: But yeah yeah, tell me about the good I'm interested with the women's race because like it was such a stacked women's field, like how did that play out between?
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: What was it?
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Um, was karina there, if I remember correctly?
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: May cook, obviously, mercedes, emma cook, clark you?
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, and elise ruby?
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: yeah, yep, just in the third place the lady from mexico whose name I don't remember.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I think it was karina, karina, that's karina yeah, yeah, yeah, yep.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I had no idea how that was gonna go because it was my first uh sky race and I'd been running, except for like that training block, which was maybe a month and a half, maybe two, I've been doing a lot more flatter stuff.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: So I was like, we'll just see, I'm pretty good on technical, so I'm gonna like use that skill.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I had no idea how I would stack up.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Um, this is my first sky race, uh, and I'd been running a bunch of flat races um this year uh.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: So besides that like month, half, two month training block, I was where I did a lot of deep up and down.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Uh, it was more flat and fast stuff.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Um, so I was just kind of like we'll see, I'm pretty good on technical, so use that skill and other than that, like race smart, do the little things right and see how it goes.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: So, uh, fairly conservative, up the first climb, just chipping um, and then at the top of that was doing fairly well relative to the people around me.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: So I decided to, you know, use my downhill a bit and uh, pick it up some.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: And that's when I started to see a few women I recognized and just kept racing my race.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: Uh, a lot of ups and downs, but also a lot of like fun, ridgeline stuff, which is pretty much just like focus on the ridge and keep eating and have fun.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: Um, I, I got my first cramp while racing.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: It was exciting.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Now I know that they are real not not to be messed around with, um, but that passed pretty quickly and only one leg at a time, so they, that was.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: That was nice.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Uh, calf cramps or quads.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: Like quads oh really.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: Bottom of the last climb after the, after the shoe shredder descent, yeah I feel like you had to really destroy yourself up down in order to get that like.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: I think I've only ever had that in one race like a true nasty quad cramps.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: It's not fun, yeah yeah, they were.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can try to push through, but it's just I mean you do, but it's not really.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: I just mind over matter.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: It's like the matter is pretty strong in this case, um, uh, and then I think at the top, towards the top of it was really interesting race because it's so steep.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: I think you can be minutes away from people, but they feel really close.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's not as scary, so much as it just feels like you're always running with people, which is cool, because that doesn't always happen in a lot of trail races.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: Top of the last climb I saw Ruby, which I was really surprised because I don't know, I didn't know I was already that far forward.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: I thought I was probably maybe top 10.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Back like ninth or something.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Saw Ruby, ran with her at the top a little bit and then just had fun on the last descent and sent it and then held on on the flat stuff because I knew I still had speed there.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: What was that like when you hit the flats?
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: It was gaining.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: It was good.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: You feel like concrete.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: When you hit the flats, your legs feel like you're in concrete.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: That's always the worst.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: No, they felt slick, yeah, no, it felt really nice, especially after the, because there's a lot of.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Actually the descents are really nice because they're pretty much in the woods so they're pretty soft.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: So coming down the last descent it's like a bunch on this ridge, rocky, rocky ridge, and then you're into the woods and the beautiful soft trees and then it's just like really fast downhill, running like super fast downhill, and then that just kind of like spits you out onto the river path and then you have three or five k I don't remember of uphill slightly, just just kind of like spits you out onto the river path and then you have three or five K I don't remember of uphill slightly just to sort of like open up the legs.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is so cool.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: No, it's just such a beautiful course and you know, I didn't know this, but like I've heard a couple of people tell me, I think it was Jackson that said, or Jackson Cole that, like the course was basically created for this race, more or less, which is nuts.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I that, like the course was basically created for this race, more or less, which is yeah, nuts, yeah, I don't think there was much of a trail there before that race started running.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: So cool, yeah.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: What are you?
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Do you plan on going back at all for like another, for another go, because you've had such success there yeah, yeah, I've spent the last three years trying to figure out what my strengths are.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: I still haven't figured it out.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Um, I do know I'm like quite fast running down technical, but that's kind of the only thing I know We'll see.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: The sky running is really attractive and it would be fun to do the circuit.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: There's logistical sides that are more like.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: There's logistical sides that are more like how, how is the?
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: How does the elite side of skyrunner going to be organized?
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: next year and stuff like that, yeah, which makes it hard to figure it out this early, and this is when, like, I need to know, next season.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's super, duper tempting, though it is.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: It's cool.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: It's cool, do you?
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Um?
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: I was gonna wait to get into the 2025 season, because I do want to talk about your speed go performance as well, because I thought it was absolutely lights out.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: But for 2025, like what, um?
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Are you thinking?
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Like maybe going after a world's qualifier?
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Like what do you like?
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Because it feels like that's what everybody's gonna do, like we're all gonna be out there doing yeah, we're like every two years gotta do something there.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think yeah, I think so yeah.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, at least take a stab at it.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Do you, uh, do you, have an idea of what race you want to go after Like, or what specific distance, or?
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: At world.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, four worlds yeah.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Good question.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Um, I'll know a lot more after, uh, jfk Okay race, I've raised kepler new zone, which is 60k, with a lot of up and down, yeah, uh, and then a bunch of flat, so that'll be maybe similar ish.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: But uh, yeah, I'm currently thinking either one, but I will either come away from jfk saying yeah or nah that's fair.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: That's fair.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of uh, there was a lot of mixed emotions and I did get the inside scoop on why this race was selected.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: But there was a lot of mixed emotions for, like the um was the gorge 100k being, yeah, long trail selection race and a lot of it was just yeah, my coach was curious about the reasoning yeah, not well, it was time of the year, I think it was.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: It was permitting time of the year.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Permitting was like the big deal because apparently in order to fit the bill, you have to have a permit, which is hard in the United States, like a permit for everybody, so you can't, like there's no limitations on how many people can sign up, which is hard to find apparently.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: Oh for it to be a world qualifier.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah for it to be a qualifier and then just the lack there of people that applied or lack there of races during that time for people to apply, Because I think it needed to be before July.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: So that was the other criteria.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: Cowdens Doesn't Broken Arrow, have a cap though.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't think so.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: I think they allow because I think there's like multiple thousands of people that are able to do that.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: So I don't know, that's a good question.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know, tom Hooper, I don't know what you think.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I got to go after Tom Hooper for that comment, you know.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: He also gave me some information, though, because, like, one of the things that he said is it can't be at altitude like for the big selector, but like Broken Arrow is kind of at altitude.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: And so it was like this year and running championships at Cirque series and that was obviously 11,000.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be interesting, Like if it does work out and I ended up doing like the qualifiers and worlds, like with some UTMB events thrown in there for kicks.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: It's going to be like fast and flat early in the season and then like mountain technical late in the season, which would be fun.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: I think it's fun.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: I don't know how it'll go for athletes that are more specialized on one side or the other, um, but we'll see I think it's complimentary, though I mean you obviously.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: You build an enormous engine.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: You'll have great running economy.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: All those things translate super well to the mountains yeah, or less, if you will yeah, yeah, if you feel comfortable, like, if you have the like, I can run on rocks.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Right, right, right, yeah.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: It's that technical ability to yeah, Plus you can train anywhere.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: I mean especially during that time of the year, like I feel, like for OCC it must've been dope getting ready for that, Just being in the San Juans and being that like.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: I was actually over in France were oh wow, yeah, tell me about this.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, let's hear this.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, last couple years we spent um sort of the beginning, well, end of july, early august in a little mountain town in france wow um, at elevation partly, but also just like a group of our friends from new zealand.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: People would be like, oh, did you hang out with americans?
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: We're like actually no, we, uh, we got with all our kiwis.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: We didn't see any American friends.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: But yeah, little mountain town in the Alps just living and training and working on repeat no-transcript race.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it does for sure, and I think it is.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: It's probably more on the mental side than the physical side, except for maybe sleep.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: But, like, if you're running I don't know UTMB, you shouldn't be on a normal sleep schedule anyway, so it't matter as much, um.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: But uh, I think, just like feeling calm and collected in at home, um, which can be done in other ways.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: Like, I think, if you um get there a little bit in advance and you have a chalet that's not in downtown chamonix, that's been out of town, you can settle in for a bit, um, at least having like a few days to just chill and rest.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: The luxury version is a month or something like that, but there's multiple ways to get close, I think.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, did you stay far away from Chamonix throughout the process Just because I feel like the energy there is just kind of crazy.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was about three hours away and part of me was like, oh, I really want to run a little bit of the course.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: And then I was like you know, I did it last year and I can watch.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: I watched the whole live stream from the year before and I was like that's, I've gotten enough of the course by watching the live streams.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: I think they'll be fine.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: Like it's better to not spend two days traveling over there and trying to run a piece of it.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just to settle in and relax it's a brutal course.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: What did you think of that, of that course?
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: yeah it was.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: I was really pleasantly surprised how different my experience of the course was last year to this year.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Um, last year I was a bit scared of it.
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: Uh, like, make sure I have like I'm still fresh at three and halfway and like I have lots of energy left for the second half, because there's 3000 meters and it's a long 50K and all this stuff.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: And I think a few of my races this year, like canyons for example, I had some family stuff going on and when I started the race I was like, ooh, I'm kind of tired.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: This happens at the beginning, I'm not warmed up yet, and then, like a half hour later, I'm like, oh, still quite tired.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: Well, it's just gonna be a tired day.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: So, running a fast 50k, starting off feeling quite exhausted and still being able to pull down to like pretty good time.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: It was like 416 or something.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: Um, I was like, oh, okay, I don't have to be fresh part way through a 50k, like I, I can, that's fine, I think.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: If I'm tired of champ, perfect.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: That's the point.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: Uh, so I was able to push a bit more and just sort of like be more confident in what I can do, and that helped a lot, so there is a lot of up and down.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: But my takeaway from the first year also was there's a lot of running 3000 meters, but there's so much running in it so like run a lot and, uh, just get strong at running uphill yeah runnable grades yeah, is it.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Is it so much steeper there, like because I've never run in europe before?
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: Actually I plan to probably next year, but like actually possibly in 2025, we'll see but like, is it just so much steeper harder, like I Like I don't know?
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: It's interesting to me to see some Americans come over, especially ones that like live in the mountains, and everybody says to me it's just so much steeper, like it's a different beast in a lot of ways.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there are some trails where you're like, yeah, this just goes up, I think.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: I think like I don't know why, but some year I was running this uphill trail and I was like, yeah, this is not forest road grade, this is way steeper, and so that's.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: Maybe a lot of our trails might be based on like old forestry road grades and that's not a thing.
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: They just go up.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: That being said, they also like I think all the hills do this like they get really steep at the top and they're runnable at the bottom.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: So it also doesn't mean the first year I spent way too much time on way too steep, because I was like it's super steep, it has 3 000 meters in it, like just go up and down a really steep trail, um, so it's a cool mixture really, like find the steepest trail in your area and spend some time on that, but not all your time yeah, yeah.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: Now I love how dialed it seems like you are with your training too.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: Like you I don't know I've really gotten into training theory in the last like maybe year, year and a half, and like dialing that in as what is too specific, what you know, trying to stay less specific, further out things like that.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: Do you?
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Do you spend a lot of time in the gym?
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Do you lift it all for extra like strength and stuff like that?
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: I do a little bit.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: I'm going to try to get more this winter it's.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: I need to find some correct balance between training and strength.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: I have a strength coach who's based in New Zealand, who's wonderful.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: Her name is Valbert um.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: It's really hard to combo it with a really stiff running schedule.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, specifically racing like stopping strength two weeks before, racing, starting it up a week after well, if your vases are every month or so, that means you have one week of strength, but then you're sore.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: So should you actually do that week?
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: How should you sprinkle it around?
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: So, um, I'm still figuring out how to like slot the two together in a in a way that's sustainable.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: Um, I think the trick is ramping up strength, not just going full on yeah, starting with small bites um or small things, more spread out.
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: it is super important and I think it's something that often slips.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: It often slips for me because it is secondary.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: More, more in the future.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: Especially if I'm going to do mountain stuff Like.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: Emma's a great example.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: She's just super duper strong and she runs up mountains really strong.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: There may be a Emma's a great example.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: She's just super duper strong and she runs up mountains really strong.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: There may be a correlation there, just saying it's true.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: It's true, it's hard.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, I had Cam Smith on the podcast a few weeks ago and he's, he's in the gym like four or five times a day or a week.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, four or five times a week.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: It was like dude, like I don't have the time for that, you know.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: And it's like, well, if you want to be an Olympic ski mountaineer, that's how you do it, you know?
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Or?
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: one of the best mountain runners in the world and I think I just need to make some modifications.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: Like, I don't like driving to the gym because it's only like a half hour run or a 15 minute bike, but if I want to fit into the day, I really just should drive.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but it's hard to.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: Listen, I'm with you there.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: I struggle sometimes myself, especially like it's that, it's that where you'll get ramped up.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: You'll get into a season and it's like do I taper this down?
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Do I just completely stop two weeks out?
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: And it's like, yeah, and then you got to start it back up again and then you're sore, you're like you said, it is something I really wanted to get into as well like 28k dub this year.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Tough course, tough as nails course.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Like do you really enjoy speed go?
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: I know you've.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: I think you've run it a couple times, right?
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Or yeah, I've run it twice.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: I ran it my first year um running professionally and first year back in the us.
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: Uh, and then this year, um, I got third, first year behind.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Uh, oh, dear yellow runner, what's your actual?
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: sally, sally, mccray I think so does she run?
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: no, no, no, no, no, no, no no.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: I should know this.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember myself.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: Was it Hillary?
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I mean Hillary Allen.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: Hillary Allen?
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: Was it Hillary?
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think so.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know who got first too.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: Anyway, a bit behind them, and I was very excited about happy with myself.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: So it was really cool to come back because it had been, you know, three years on or two years on and so much more learning.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: And I looked back at how much I ate the first year and it was, it was abysmal.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: It was like I don't know 30 grams an hour or something.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: It was how did I get over that mountain and back?
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know what, uh, so improving in areas like that, uh, but I think it's a really cool profile because the 28k goes up the mountain, down the back side, a bit back up to the top, and then fast to the finish, and it's it's like you have to be careful, going down the back side at the right speed and the right effort, because you have a lot more of the race to go, with a bunch of up and a bunch of fast down, if you can.
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: Um, so it's kind of like a fun little little puzzle, um, so it's fun this year to execute that puzzle, I guess.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Um, you put it together.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, even though I I I left the top so you can get your crew to crew you at the top both times through.
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: And the first time I left I was like, oh shoot, I meant to take like the bigger gels, but when I'm racing my subconscious is like you don't like food.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: I took the smallest gel and I'm like gosh, there's 30 grams left, whatever.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: And then when I left the second time through the top, I took no food.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: So I was heading down the mountain with don't know eight miles to go and I was like I have no nutrition.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: Well, we'll just see how this goes.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: Um, but then somebody had dropped a, a full package of cliff blocks.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: Score too much, right, exactly, uh, 2k down.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: I was like, well, the world smiles on me, that's good.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, it's just fun because you have that last eight kilometers from the top and you just 10 now because it's longer, it's 28k, but it's actually 31k.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: Um, just send it, like have fun and send it.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: And so I did the whole race, running with it myself, like I usually do, and then was like, well, you know, send it and see what happens.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: And I caught first, probably 2K from the end, maybe.
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow, something like that.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, and then apparently gapped her by a bunch.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I was just running Proper race, that Having fun, yeah.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, no, I like it Are you competitive.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: No, I wrote an.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: I like it.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: Are you competitive?
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: Oh no, I wrote an essay in high school which the teacher was like I think you're really competitive with yourself.
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: And I was like huh, that's interesting.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: I think she was pretty adept.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: I'm not like I want to beat that person, I don't want to get them.
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: That doesn't resonate Usually when I'm racing.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: At the end of races I'm like all right, so if you can finish 10 seconds faster, that might be like one or two points.
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: Like you I trip points, or you team b points, or like this time or whatever.
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: Um, I I guess I'm more analytical than I like beating myself.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: Like that's why I determined to occ.
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: I was like beat past you robin.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: Um, I like that.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, self-competitive, I guess yeah, yeah, listen, everybody's different.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: It's just interesting.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: It's very interesting to hear different.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know different answers because I've had, and I'm probably an abnormality no, it's like interesting, because like I'll have people sit across from me and they're like I can't't even let, because I'm very much that way.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: If I'm even on a nice relaxing hike with my wife, I can't let someone pass me.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: It just doesn't happen.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: I do do that In training.
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: I do that.
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: I think I've reined it in significantly in racing because I'm like if they're going too fast, you'll see them later.
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair, that's fair, that's fair, do me, but I I do realize that I do do me also at the end and I could probably do me less I could.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: I could try to catch people, for example, uh, but side note, because you're from the pnw.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Do you ever go back and race up there?
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: The reason I ask is because I I'm supposed to have julian carr on the podcast tomorrow and they just put up a new cirque series race in washington um, which looks pretty dope and crystal.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know I'm trying to remember because it's september 20th.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: I gotta look at see if that like conflicts with worlds, or is it the week before so?
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: I think, or something, something like that, a little confliction there.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're back there, you should.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: You should put that on the calendar, because I want to yeah as many killers as possible.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: That'd be super fun.
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: People are.
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: People are like oh, you're from the Pacific Northwest, you've raced these races, and I'm like no, actually I didn't really run when I was living there.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: I've done.
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: I did the race in Whistler before the.
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: Before the whole shebang was UTB and stuff.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, is it Whistler, alpine meadows or whatever?
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: yeah well, whistler alpine meadows, so that's the closest I've got into racing in the pacific northwest, except for gorge waterfall.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: So, uh, it'll be fun.
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, that's not true.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: I did a cat 10k with my sister this spring, but that doesn't really count that's fair.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: That's fair.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: I've only I've been out there to run but never raced.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited to finally go out there, and probably in september, and go do that race and which one oh the cirque series.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: I'll probably do the cirque series race if, yeah, if world does not, which it probably won't be, we'll see.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: The problem with the this, like the up down, is like these races are so competitive, same with broken arrow, the vk, like any races that I would love to do not happening for yeah, yeah it's gonna yeah, you have to do like the triple crown or something yeah, yeah, something like that.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: We'll see your podium on that.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, exactly, yeah.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: It's crazy how competitive our sport is now.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: It is absolutely bananas, uh yeah seeing how much it's progressed and it's gotten yeah, so so wild.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's cool because it also seems like it's a bit like one person shows people what is possible and then everyone is like, oh yeah, that's possible and that's just moving so quickly right now.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: It's really cool.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: Everyone's sort of breaking down each other's barriers in an interesting way.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: It's true.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: It's true, it's amazing and I can't wait to see what happens in the next five to 10 years.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, like we've seen so many incredible records go down and I think they're just going to keep going down.
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, part of me is like the like logical, I don't know who is like, that can only happen for so long.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: It's not infinite, which is true.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: But on another part it's like well, it's from this progression.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: It does, it does and it's crazy.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: This actually leads to a good conversation.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: What do you think about the sport?
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Do you think it's going to be more like triathlon or road racing in a lot of ways, where it's just this mass participation event for everything?
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: Or do you think it still stays like a soul sport, if you will, and it's more?
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: conceptual On point question with the last few years of dynamics between different race organizations, um, I personally think that this all, like the commercialization portion of it, I'm glad it is happening now and not earlier, and the reason for that is I think the sport is big enough now that these entities can coexist, so like small, local little races that are grassroots and don't have any course markings besides Bert and Bob and Sam, um, saying, go that way, there are people that are keen to run at pretty much every type because it's big enough now, um, which I think is really lucky, because I think I would be really saddened if it turned entirely commercial because, um, because the sport was really little.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: So, um, I think one of the differences to triathlon is it's a lot, uh, lower entry cost, like you need a lot of kit for triathlon.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: It's so expensive, Even like doing Ironman.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: It's crazy yeah exactly.
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: So I think that helps there be more small, grassroots events and participants to flesh out those events.
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: I think, from what I've seen, I think that co-existion can happen and also because traveling is really expensive and takes a heap of time and if we had like teleportation and I don't know uh, in the U S, eight weekends, weeks off, like long weekends a month, that you could travel whatever you wanted for your job, yeah, I'd be a little bit more concerned that maybe people would just travel to the big events.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: But with how little amount of time off we get and how expensive and time consuming and effortful travel is, I think those event, the proud, like the destination events, will get some traffic like enough for sure, uh, but I don't think they'll take over yeah, I agree, I think it can still exist.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: I think you're right.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: I hope it does.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: I hope it like options for everybody.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: Hopefully everybody gets along.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: Does the whole?
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: I'm very like very peace, love and joy with that whole stuff too.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: I don't know, yeah, and I was very much more like anti-big organizations earlier, like in sort of as this was starting to happen, and I really like things like the whistler situation.
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: I'm like guys, yeah, yeah big time, big time.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: What are we doing here?
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: yeah, yeah but I done, done respectfully, I'm done with cooperation and not cooperation necessarily communication um I think.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: I think it can coexist yeah, no, I think I don't know like it's interesting because, like sub ultra, ultra is two completely different.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: I think I don't know Like it's interesting because, like sub-Ultra to Ultra is two completely different things.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Like sub-Ultra, I don't know.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: I think Ultra is so limited on the amount, like permit-wise, depending on where you're at in the United States, like you can only have what two 300 people in a 100-miler.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: So it's like it's a completely different ballgame.
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: No-transcript.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: It does change the game a little bit.
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: So it's interesting, yeah, it does, and if it grows the pools and that makes it all the records faster.
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: I think it also is cool that it the commercial, like the plus side of the commercialization side is it means there is more money in the sport so that people can actually do it for a living.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: Getting there, not there, yet getting there so long as it doesn't stomp out everything else, I think all paths can move forward.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I agree, and it is interesting on that end too.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: That's one thing I do get excited about is that there is more money coming into the sport.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: That means better things for the professionals.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: You know, you're starting to see I mean obviously at the top end of the sport you're seeing six-figure contracts for like your, your date, like I don't know.
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: David roche is very popular republic about it on his um, on his podcast about, uh, like what adidas is willing to pay for, like a Leadville course record and stuff like that.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: So it's nice to see like brands are willing to pay and and are shelling out money too, so people can actually like live their lives and not be at the poverty line to be a professional.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: And the amount of time like if you try to train and work full time like you there isn't enough pick two of these, and one of them sleep, eating like work and running Like it doesn't all fit within 24 hours recovery.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Not at all.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Now I tell this to people all the time because I do get this question a lot Like how do you do the podcast?
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: How do you run and train full time?
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: How do you work full time 40 plus hours a week?
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: I'm like dude, I'm a zombie, I don't sleep very often, and that's the other thing too is then you have to be present in your relationships, you have to be a friend, a partner.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: It's not exactly an easy thing.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, I can only hope and pray that we get more and the sport's grown so obviously more money, and that's the other thing too.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: This is a for another day, but like just the budgets these brands have that athletes don't even have.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: I know it now because of the podcast side, where you get to like see more and understand more.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: But you see the budgets these brands have and it's like Whoa, oh, my gosh.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: So yeah, and I like to marketing people and they're pretty much working full time for their sport.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, I agree.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: Well listen, we're just about over an hour.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: I think we're about an hour now a little bit more.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get into some fun questions.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: I'm curious to see who inspires you.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: Who inspires me?
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, I have a new one, this 73-year-old in Durango who I met on a recent flight.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: She's just a goer and a doer.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: She is a chiropractor and she used to live in California and she spent the last two years redoing her certification so she can now practice in Durango.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: She's been doing it for 40 years and she loves it and she's going to keep doing it Like shout out to her.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: It'll be that cool when we're in our early mid-70s like, yeah, just a crazy inspiration.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: It's just like I'm not a chiropractor and I will never can be one, but it's just like that energy to apply to whatever you're passionate about, uh, and go after to do it yeah, no, I no.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: Do you think when because obviously running is a finite thing it will change in our lives all the time.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: You know our relationship with it now will not be the relationship we have in our fifties and stuff like that Do you think you'd go back?
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: You will go back to engineering, or do you think life coaching, like what do you think?
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: Like cause I?
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: The way I view life, is like yes, I have my job now, but my next act in life, if you will, it's going to be something completely different.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: Like what do you think about?
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: Like when you're for your next act in life?
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I like those acts.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: I remember when I was in college I was stressed a heap about like, choosing my career, and then I heard a stat which I don't know if it's correct or not, but I got a lot of value from it which was people, on average, change their careers six times, and I was like, oh okay, I'm good with that, I can just pick the first one and then I'll pick the next one later.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: I don't think necessarily life coaching and engineering are separate.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: I think, for example, working within an engineering firm or like management or just like team dynamics a team dynamic coach would be really cool.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, public speaking is really fun and that's something I'm trying to work more into my running.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, you got options.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: I'm really interested in people, which isn't separate from engineering.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: People are like are you analytical or something or something.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: I'm like they're not distinct there.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: People are engineers or people, non-engineers, people, and we're all like function with these quirks and blocks and all sorts of quirky things.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: You could be good at math and still be extroverted.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: Interesting Pardon.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: I said you could be good at math and still be extroverted.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: For example, I was homeschooled.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: People were like wait, really, but you can talk to people.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: I'm like yeah, I can, all right.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to get into a silly question, because you are from the Pacific Northwest what's your take on Bigfoot?
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: Oh, I thought you were going to say the Seahawks Bigfoot.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: I guess that was a few years ago.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: Close.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know enough to comment.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: Is he the big white one or?
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: the brown one.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: I'd say he, he's the brown, I'd say he's more the brown.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, there's like all right.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: So in a serious notion here, like across so many cultures, there's this like nine foot tall hairy dude from like thousands of years ago.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: Right, so it's like maybe I don't know, like something's there I don't know, or was there I don't know, like something, something's there.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know Was there, I don't know, you know.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: So I ask, I ask everybody the Bigfoot question Nice.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: It just reminds me of the Tintin comic Well, not comic book really, but maybe comic book that had the big white creature.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: But I think that's a different one.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: That's a Yeti, that's the Yeti.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: They're like crossed in my brain.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's basically the same thing.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: Winter edition.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, exactly.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: One's prepared for Everest and one's just prepared for what is that?
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: You could say Mount Hood or what's the one?
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: Rainier, yeah.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: I need to learn a lot more about running in the woods with predators involved, because I didn't pay attention to that in New Zealand and I've kind of just haven't ever returned to knowing about it.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: So I think learning more about Bigfoot would be in that category too.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: That's true.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in New Zealand you guys just have like stags, like you just have elks, right, that's basically your elk, that's basically it right.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: I don't think there's even elks.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow, Well it depends, oh wow, well what?
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: depends.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: Like what part?
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: Were you in the tropical part or were you in the mountains?
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: both.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: We started on the north island, then we went south, okay yeah, I mean one side effect of spending time in new zealand is every time I see a uh deer here, my brain bars thinking that that's the correct sound, because there's so many sheep in new zealand, I'm like animal bye that's actually really funny it's just it's happened in the last two years.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: That's not correct yeah, the, the that's.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: That is a weird like I do you run with I don't know unlike solo runs, do you run with music in?
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: I do that a lot I because I just get bored so I'll put in music all the time.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: And like I don't recommend that because, like I have literally run into a bear before, like, yeah, like the bear had his back turned and like I literally came up on the tree.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: I came up on this ridge and like literally, like he was like three feet from like I pretty much bumped into him.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: He looked at me and I looked at him and he just ran away.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: But, um, yeah, I was like, oh, I don't really recommend that to people.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: Don't, don't run with music in by yourself in the woods.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: Good call, yeah, Point taken.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: That's my first piece of learning about um predators.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: There you go, thank you.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: Well, it's a good thing we don't have grizzlies.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: It could be.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: It could be worse.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: So that's true, yeah.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were the little ones.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, thanks so much for coming on.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: I want to wish you the absolute best of luck at JFK this weekend and I hope yeah, I'll probably run into you at a race this year, so I hope we get to meet face to face.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be super.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: Let me know when you come to Durango and I'll see you soon.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely Well.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: What'd you guys think?
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: What a fun episode.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: Robin is just like a seriously like super human, incredible human, like very few things she can't do.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: Her background is just so crazy.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: I mean MIT, we talked all about.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: I mean we don't know a lot of really interesting things.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: So it's very interesting to meet humans like this that are just become excellent in everything they do.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: So very interesting Guys.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: Like I said, we want to wish Robin the absolute best of luck as she prepares for her next race at the Gorge Waterfall 100K, which is going to be the world's long course qualifier for the United States team.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: Last but not least, hop on Instagram.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: Let's get her some followers.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: Her handle is Trails4Smiles.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: That's T-R-A-I-L-S-4.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: It's the number four smiles you guys can smell, smile, spell smiles.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: Give her a follow, send her a dm, um and let her know what you thought about the episode.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: Send her some words of encouragement and uh, yeah, I'm sure she'd love to hear from you guys.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, that's all I got for you guys.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: We've got another, another great episode with the queen of Pike's Peak coming out on Friday with none other than Miss Kim Dobson, one of the greatest female uphill runners to ever do it, if arguably the greatest.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: So yeah, lots of strong, amazing women on the podcast this week and I'm so excited to bring you guys these episodes Without further ado.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: One last thing Before you guys get going, hop on Instagram or Spotify or Apple.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: Give us a five-star rating and review and if you love this episode, give it a share on Instagram.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: We'd really appreciate that.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: The intention and the goal is to get this out to the world, so the more people can hear Robin's amazing story, as well as some of the amazing stories of all the others that we found on the podcast, the more we can get this out to the world and continue to cover our great sport.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: So, guys, have a great rest of your week.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: Thanks, so much, thank you.