Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / #63 - Jessie McAuley

Transcript

#63 - Jessie McAuley · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, fam?
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lauriello.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Today I'm so excited to bring you guys a conversation with Jesse McCauley.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Jesse McCauley is a ski mountaineer and mountain runner who runs for Arcteryx and he's based in Squamish British Columbia.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Jesse most recently had a top 10 finish at the Meet the Minotaur Sky Race, as well as a podium finish at the Mount Marathon race in Seward, which is part of the reason that spurred this great conversation.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I was just so blown away by his accomplishments over in the 2024 season that I felt like we had to link up for a conversation, not just from the competition side, but Jesse is just a really exciting guy that loves to be outside and just really does it because he loves being in the outdoors.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: He also has an affinity for mountain biking, which he used to compete at at a very high level, as well as climbing, which he does for fun.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Like I said, super interesting character.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: We talked all about what it's like to live at Squamish Columbia, squamish British Columbia, which is just, you know, high level place.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: It's like your Boulder, colorado for athletes and Canada.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: And, yeah, we talked a lot about all kinds of fun stuff.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: So I hope you guys enjoyed this conversation.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: It's a personal favorite of mine.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Jesse's a great dude, um, and I can't wait to see where his 2025 season and his future is going to take them in the sport.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, none other than Jesse McCauley.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: It's time.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: We are live.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Jesse McCauley.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: How are you, dude, all live the holidays there.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I think there was a whole bunch of different colds going around, so both my girlfriend and I ended up getting something for the last sort of 10 days here, but I'm starting to feel a lot better, especially the last couple of days.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: So nice man, Good to hear.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel the same thing, man, Like a lot.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: It was like last week or the week before.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I was like training's going perfect.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: I was like this is a great block.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden I get nailed with something.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I was like man, I feel like everybody's sick this week.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, it's, it's the same up here.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: I I feel like it's uh.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's just, you know, a couple weeks after the holidays there's lots of stuff going around and you know people are back to training and stuff.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Maybe the immune systems are a little taxed.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: So I I think it's like I could kind of see it coming.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: So I wasn't't surprised I got sick, but happy to be getting better.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Nice man, nice Well, hey, let's talk a little bit about your background.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I already introduced you by name.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: For those of the audience that maybe don't know who you are, maybe talk a little.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Just give the little brief synopsis about your background and then I'll kind of break it down from there.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sounds good.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my name is Jesse McCauley.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I'm 24 years old, from Squamish BC Originally.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I grew up in the northern Rocky Mountains in British Columbia and then moved to Squamish when I was quite young, spent most of my life moving through the mountains in one way or another, whether that's climbing or skiing with with my family, um, and my my.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: My background in competition is actually mostly in mountain bike racing up until around 2017, and then I slowly started finding this world of, you know, trail running and ski mountaineering and and that sort of thing.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: But, uh, yeah, I raced downhill mountain bikes for seven years, throughout all of high school, basically.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: So you jumped on the scene for me over the kind of over the last two years you had a podium finish at meet the Minotaur in 2023.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: And then you got third last year at Mount Marathon, correct, and that's where I was like, oh man, this kid, I got to get this guy on the podcast.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, that's what kind of like brought you onto the scene and kind of you know, I guess, introduced you to me in a lot of ways.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: But Adam, our mutual friend, adam Campbell from Mark Terex, had spoken so highly of you.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: It's one of the reasons why I wanted to chat as well.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: So I don't know where I was going with that.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I'd bring it up.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: We could talk about your race season going in a little bit.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: But I'm kind of curious man.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I have talked to so many people that live in Squamish.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: What is that experience like for you?
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like everybody is an elite athlete in one way shape or form.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Is that kind of the way it works?
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, living in Squamish is, I mean, it's it's wonderful for the most part.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Um, I mean, you have to be able to tolerate some rain, especially in the fall season.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Here, like it.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, it's very, very wet from like late September through to December, um, but if you can tolerate that, it's pretty awesome spot to be.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Um, there, yeah, there's a ton of athletes in town.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Um, probably mostly, like most of the most well-known athletes in Squamish are probably mountain bikers and climbers.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Uh, like, I would say Squamish is most well known for mountain biking and for climbing, just because we've got the chief right above town.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: So there's lots of excellent granite, like five minutes bike ride for most people's houses and definitely some pretty world-class mountain bike riding.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: But then the trickle down from there there's, you know, there's excellent trail running, just really good alpine climbing and ski touring.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: So it's it's kind of like this hub for outdoor sports which I think attracts a lot of people who are interested in those sports.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, you end up having a lot of sort of committed, driven athletes in town sort of committed, driven athletes in town.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Is it like?
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: So I think of, like, um, I'm in Colorado, I live in Colorado Springs.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Like we've got a, I guess, a healthy dose of elite athletes here and it's really nice to have people to train with, but it's not too much, whereas, like you, look at a place like Boulder where I'd say there's more elite athletes there than there are normal people, Is that maybe?
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Is it more of like a stressful thing, kind of living, living in a place where you feel like you have to get out and have to train and have to do these things Almost like that's societal pressure?
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it really depends.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: It just depends how you approach those things.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, I I I don't struggle personally with you know FOMO, fear of missing out too much, but I think if that's something that you do struggle with, then it can be.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: It can be tough living in a place like this just because there's like so many people doing interesting stuff pretty much all the time.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: So you know, for some reason you're you're injured or something, you're at a commission for a month or so.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: I think it could really feel like you're you're injured or something, and you're at a commission for a month or so.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: I think it could really feel like you know you're missing out on so much.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: But, um, for me I don't find it too stressful.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: I mean it's nice to have so many good training partners, um, and just being able to feed off other people, um.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: But I think Squamish is not quite at the level of, say, like boulder quite yet in terms of you know, boulder's got like such a wide variety of athletes, from, like pro triathletes to trail runners to climbers, like it really has the full gamut, like squamish is still a relatively small town, like there's 24 000 people here so okay, a not a huge city, by any means.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, I gotta go.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: It's on my list of uh of places.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I mean you're, you're welcome to crash here, I'm sure.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I'm sure Adam would offer you up a room too.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: So yeah, soak in everything that like, uh, that area has to offer man Um.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, come in the spring, or um like, yeah, spring, early summer is a is a wicked time to be in town here.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: What is it?
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: What is it like for you, cause you are a very traditional two sport athlete, I understand your background.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Obviously is mountain running, but also in ski mountaineering.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Is it easy access for you Like, do you just have great access to be able to do both?
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Pretty much, yeah, and it it does depend a little bit on the season, Like last winter, for example.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: We had a terrible winter so access was kind of difficult to have last winter but most winters I can drive five minutes from the house, hop on the local gondola and be on skis and then for running we have like a really good mix of sort of less technical flowy trails in the valley and then like steep, rugged trails on the on the valley walls and then really good alpine running and technical scrambling.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: So it's, the access is pretty good here.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: I think that's one of my favorite parts about Squamish is just ease of access.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Yes, so highly, highly touted man.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: So what a cool place to live.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Um, I don't want to bury the lead too much because I kind of just brought up skiing.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I know we're kind of in the midst now of of a pretty full-on schemo season.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Um, I know a lot of my american friends, um, specifically like the coloradans, and those are like, uh, quite a few guys are over in Indora now for like world cup and stuff like that.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Do you, what is, what is your schema life Like like what, what?
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: I guess you could say like what.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Um, what do you like to race more so and and maybe break it down for what you're into, for that.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I've been racing schema since, uh, early 2019.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Um, and then I guess there's like a you know kind of a full gap year in there with COVID in Canada.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: There was kind of like no racing going on.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: But I would say my main focus in Schemo is the individual and then I also enjoy the vertical.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: But really like the individual and the grand force racing is is my favorite aspect about the sport.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Um, I, I have loads of respect for, for sprinters and and um and the mixed relay, because very hard discipline, super difficult, but um, it's, it's just not really what inspires me about the sport.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: It's not what got me excited about it in the first place.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: So, um, yeah, going forward this year, I mean, ideally I probably would have been over in Andorra to race the individual there and and um, potentially ballet to all, a grand course race right after.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: But uh, life's expensive and funds are things.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to go for a longer trip in the second half of the season, probably for months.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, four to six weeks, uh, around world championships and do world championships Pyramenta and then some other world cups afterwards Nice.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Have you done Pyramenta yet?
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I raced there in 2023 with with um, my Canadian teammate, matt Ruda, but that was the first time in I think, 36 years that Pyramenta actually had to cancel a stage because the weather was so bad.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: So it was still an amazing experience, but I feel like I didn't quite get the full Pyramenta experience.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: So I'm pretty excited to go back this year.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Do you think you can like paint a picture of like what Pyramenta is for those who don't know much about schema?
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: yeah, I, I would compare pyramid to, I mean, really like any big sporting event in any other sport.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: So, but it's, I'm trying to think if there's like an example for running, like I mean it's it's almost kind of like the utmb of trail running, uh, but for ski mountaineering, um, just the atmosphere around it is really crazy.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: It's a four-day stage race and you're racing for two and a half to four hours every day, um, and thousands of people come out lining the course.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: So you're, you know, there's sections where you're boot packing up bridge lines and there's just hundreds of people on the side of the course yelling so loud that you can't hear yourself breathe.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: It's, it's really um, it's, it's quite a scene.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Um, it's very technical, um, it, it kind of it really embodies ski mountaineering and what the sport is all about.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow, um, what, and it's such a I don't know.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I feel like being in the beauforton valley and just that like iconic area, just just like adds to it too.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: And you see, all these, you're I don't know like.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: You see all these like heroes of the sport too, like francois dane running around and jim wamsley and people like that, which is it's kind of wild, like yeah francois dane lives like.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: He lives like 100 meters from the start line of the race.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: That's so crazy how, uh, how old were you when you got into more ski related stuff, maybe in ski mountaineering proper?
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: yeah, well, I so I've been.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've been backcountry skiing my whole life, essentially since I was very little, but I got into competitive ski mountaineering when I was I guess I was 18, almost almost 19.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Um so yeah, like six years or so now.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Now, when you obviously things have changed quickly in the sport.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Now it's progressed to where it's an Olympic sport and they've kind of I don't want to say they like I don't think it's fair to say they ruined it, but like the way there's, like certain like I think like it would be cool if we had a vertical, it would be cool if we had an individual and stuff like that.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Do you have any like Olympic aspirations for it?
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Because those two things aren't in there for more for like the sprint or the mixed relay or not really.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, To be completely honest, I think I'm not super driven for the Olympics.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, I I've been racing, you know, bikes and on foot and on skis for a long time and I think one thing I've learned from when I was younger is, if you're, if your head's not fully in it, like you just can't perform at your best and um, I'm realistically just not extremely motivated for sprinting and mixed relay and I think the Olympics are really cool.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: But if my head's not in it and I'm not inspired by the discipline, then I think I'm realistically it's just not going to be my um, I'm not going to be trying my best, probably.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: So I would like to just keep doing what I'm inspired by, which is, yeah, More focus on individual and and vertical disciplines.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I couldn't agree with you more, man, and like that's the thing, like you're only going to do the best at the stuff that really inspires you and gets you excited to go.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's it's funny Like I've only met maybe one person that was like stoked on the sprint, like not, I don't meet a ton of people that like love the sprint.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: You know, yeah, it's definitely like.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: You know, I, I think if you interviewed um a bunch of people from europe, you'd probably get different answers.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: But um, it's, yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely different.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Um, I, yeah, I'm not going to call it contrived, but but it's just a.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: It's just a.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: It's almost a different sport entirely in some ways.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, what is the Canadian scene like for schema Like?
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Is it like how we have like so, for instance, like we have like USA schema, where it's kind of like under this umbrella and I guess they partially fund or fully fund you to be able to go to the a lot of these races and compete from like a national team perspective?
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Is it?
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Is it like the same thing in Canada?
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, the Canadian scene is relatively small.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: It's been Schemo, has been um, it's been a thing in Canada for for a long time.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Um, like there's history of people racing Schemo from Canada going back probably 25 years now at least close to close to 2000 anyways, um, but it's always been a pretty core small group of people.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Um, so that the governing body in Canada is called the SMCC, so ski mountaineering competition Canada.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I think that's right Um, and then they host Canada cups, so there's usually like four to six per year um, and then we do have like a national team.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: So for world championships and world cups, you, you go to those races under the the um title of the national team.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: But in canada in general for ski mountaineering there's very little funding, if if any, so hopefully that, you know, I mean, maybe that's one benefit of it becoming an olympic sport is, maybe there will be funding for it in the future.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: But just in general, canada like sport.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Canada and canada as a whole does not pump nearly as much money into sports as as um as some other countries or neighboring countries like the U?
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: S, so I I would be a little bit skeptical um to think that Canada will get lots of funding ever for ski mountaineering.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: But you know, hopefully I'm wrong and and um, that does happen eventually.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: But for now, um, yeah, for now we're more or less on our own for funding Interesting yeah.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: It's funny, I like call me naive, but like I, for now we're more or less on our own for funding Interesting.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny, I like call me naive, but like I, I would have thought the exact opposite that there would be, especially because there's such a strong mountain culture in BC and areas like that, that there would be, um, I don't know, and just so many athletes in that space that they would get on and bigger.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's definitely some skepticism around the sport.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: I would say like yeah, and I think slowly people are becoming more curious of it than skeptical, which is which is good.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Like I, I tend to get more questions on the skin track track now as opposed to you know, maybe five years ago I got more judgment on the skin track when I was on skinny skis.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: But you know it's it's it's kind of a cultural thing.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Like historically people come to BC to ski really deep powder and, you know, shred pillows and I respect that because the skiing is really good out here.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: So schema is kind of like this this little like a niche in the corner of like free ride skiing and just general touring in BC Interesting.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Do you guys have any solid races out there?
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, yeah, there's a race that happens in golden every year called steep dreams, Um, and like, of course I'm a little biased saying this, but I would say it's probably one of the best courses in North America.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Um, I mean, with that I'd probably include, like I've never raced there, but the race that happens at big sky is supposed to be really cool and, um, also like powder keg, um, but yeah, but yeah, if if there's any american schema racers that haven't raced deep dreams, I would definitely recommend it.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: It's a properly technical course and the team's race is awesome absolutely man.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Well, hopefully anybody listening to this get comes out and checks it out.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I mean especially like if, if you're from montana, it's it's really not too far across the border, like from the border at Whitefish it's probably only like two hours to Golden, so it's not too too far.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: That's not bad.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: It's funny.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I don't think people realize, like how big that area of Canada is.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Like when I was talking to Adam, like I said I'm naive, I'm an idiot, but I was talking to Adam and I'm thinking to myself, oh Squamish, how far could that be from, like meet the Minotaur?
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: And then he said it's like something like 700 miles.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: I was like what.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's quite far for sure.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Like, for example, like 10 days ago I had a race near Crow's Nest Pass, where the Minotaur happens, near crow's nest pass, where the minotaur happens, um, and this year we opted to fly because, you know, it's like a 14 hour drive from squamish.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: You're just like, yeah, it's pretty far, so it's worth flying to calgary and renting a car and then, you know, still driving three hours to get there instead of driving from squamish.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: That is so crazy.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Is that like a I wouldn't say interesting, but is that like a um, like it must be a pain in the neck to get to Europe then from where you are?
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know it's, it's not as bad as you think because Vancouver is so close.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Um it like it's pretty easy, like, whenever I fly to Europe, I usually go like YVR Frankfurt, munich, and it's quite efficient, pretty much like a you know 10 hour direct flight.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Um, and it's quite efficient, pretty much like a you know 10 hour direct flight.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Um it's not bad yeah, it's still a long flight, but I feel like it's.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: It could be worse, it could have to make like a bunch of stopovers, and I mean it always depends how much you're willing to spend on a ticket, of course the cheaper tickets, or you know if you might fly to denver first and then to new york and then to barcelona and then your location.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: But I usually try and find a direct flight YVR to Munich or Frankfurt.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know, it just got me thinking because it is like I mean, yeah, vancouver is not that far, but like still, because when you're putting together like a race calendar, you have to be really smart.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: I guess about like it's not like you can jump into DIA and get anywhere in the mountain West.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: You need within a couple of hours, I think.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I think one of the only downsides of living out here as a schema racer is even just within North America, most of the races are quite far from us.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: So I mean, even the Canada cups like the closest Canada cup to us is like an eight hour drive.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Um, our most local race is actually this race called Bert Fest that happens down in Snoqualmie pass in Washington, which is like two hours.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Um, but there's nothing.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: There's no races like super close to Squamish, which is a bit of a bummer.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Hopefully that'll change in the future.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: But Whistler Blackcomb's pretty opposed to uphill skiing, so we'll see.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Are they really interesting?
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: yeah they do have an uphill route, but it's like one cat track and it's.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: You know, 5 am to 9 30 are the only hours they let you skid, interesting what's the?
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: what is it like the?
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: The situation like there, because, like, obviously on on my end there was um, or at least on the trail running end, there was obviously some back and forth with the utmb situation and then g Gary Robbins race that he was trying to put on or is trying to put on is, is it like pretty open to trail runners there, like, especially like on the like, more in Whistler, or is it more not so much?
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to understand.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I would say like the trail running scene in the sea of sky is huge and it's growing more and more every year.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Uh, like, trail running is just, I think, like everywhere, it's just becoming exponentially more popular.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Um, the issue for having races in the corridor here is in squamish we're, we're in this valley, that's in squamish whistler, pemberton, that, and basically like all the mountains on either side are provincial parks and bc parks does not like to host, like they don't want.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: They don't want events in the park.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: So that's a problem because that kind of you know axes out a huge amount of awesome terrain and then around whistler there's loads of permitting issues.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: I I'm not totally sure why, but um, it's like I think from day one for Gary, hosting Whistler or hosting races on Whistler, blackcomb was a bit of a headache just permitting wise utmd whistler.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: This past season they like they propose originally they proposed this like big, amazing course and then, like, over the course of a couple months they kept having to like shrink it and add more little loops and and this and that due to permitting issues.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: It really is a shame because in in whistler you could have a really you know, kick-ass hundred mile like single loop all the way around the valley that you know tags, a bunch of local sort of runners, summits and and that sort of thing.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: But, and you know, maybe that's coming one day.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: But for now the, the permits are a bit of a problem.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man, now you did.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I was in my research, I was on looking at some of your results and stuff like that.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: You had done some of the Whistler Alpine Meadows races back in the day, right, were they pretty rad, like I mean.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I just heard of legend that they were just like epic.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was always a really good course.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Like those were some of my first ultras, Um, and actually, when I'm in 2017 was my first ever trail running race.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, Gary puts on really good events, so I feel like there's a.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: He runs a.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Um, he runs a company called coast mountain trail series and those events are like crazy popular and for good reason.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: He puts, he puts a ton of energy into it and you know you, you really feel that when you're at his events.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I mean mean on the american side, like he's, he's like beloved here, like everybody loves this stuff.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: so yeah, yeah, gary's, yeah, yeah, super well, dude, in the beginning of the conversation I had mentioned that, like, you popped onto the scene for me in a couple different ways.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: One was meet the minotaur, and we could talk about minotaur later.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: But one of the things I got to talk about was like your, your lights out performance, performance at Mount marathon this past year, uh, where you got on the podium, can you, can you add a little commentary to that race and like, just like what that experience was like for you?
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: So I first raced Mount marathon in 2019.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Um, and, just you know, had an amazing experience and have wanted to go back and race there ever since.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: So I was, I was six overall in 2019.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Um, and then a bunch of years go by and I finally went back last year.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Um, and I mean, I, I think I was putting some expectations on on myself to to try and perform well and, uh, it was a bit tough because it was 10 days after meet the minotaur, so a tight turnaround, um, so I wasn't totally sure how that would work out.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Um, and I, I think, like a, I think I suffered a bit more than I would have liked on the climb, but I mean, everyone's suffering on the climb, so it's, you know, it's not really much of much of an excuse, but I had a really good descent which definitely, um, definitely saved the race for me, because I was at the top with like a group of four or five other people.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: I was in like maybe sixth or seventh and then had a really good fast descent time, um, which, at Mount marathon, really counts for a lot, like if you can run the descent smooth and fast and still have some legs left for the kilometer of pavement at the end it really makes a difference, um, but I mean, for anyone listening out there who is considering racing it, I really couldn't recommend it enough.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: It's by far one of the wildest events in trail running, especially in north america.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: It's, it's such a such an amazing scene it's bananas, man.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I have not raced it yet.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: It's planned for this year, if I can get in.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know how it's gonna work, we'll see.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I mean you have decent odds and if you apply in the lottery like I feel like it's pretty much 50, 50, um.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: But yeah, definitely recommended.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, get up, sure are you a roots or cliffs guy um, I have always went through the cliffs, um, but I feel like conditions, you know, could change that on on different years, um, but I, I do feel like the cliffs are kind of the most direct and and maybe the the least.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Um, you're actually, I think you're a bit less likely to like trip and and tumble there, and it kind of forces you to like slow down for a second, which I think is not a terrible thing, yeah, but but, and honestly, I don't think I don't think it makes a huge difference which way you go there.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Like people do like to obsess a lot about like, do you take the cliffs or the roots, but I think they're both pretty similar, to be honest the only person I've heard of like having massive success yeah, massive success at the roots was ally, who broke the record a few years ago, and she's the only one who was like, yeah, roots all the way the way, yeah, yeah, I mean, there you go Right, like, yeah, I, I.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: um, I'm sure if more people started taking the roots and more people would be psyched on the roots.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Do you think you'll go back again this year for 2025?
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's definitely the plan.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: I feel like going back while it's fresh in my memory is is good Um, memory is is good um.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: You just kind of remember the descent a little bit more and maybe I won't have to like scope the course quite as much before the race, um, and it's just such an awesome event.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty psyched on going back again what does that finish line?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: or just like?
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Is it just like the entire town basically comes out and it's just yelling in the streets like, like, yeah, pretty much I mean it's, you know it's on july 4.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: So there's lots going on in Seward and Seward's.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: Seward is like this cute little port town, um, but there's a lot of cruise ships that land in Seward so you have, like, the locals, you have the tourists off the cruise ships in town watching it's um, yeah, it's, it's really quite, really, quite crazy what was your maybe provide some commentary on, like your prep for something like mount marathon?
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: no, I know you were getting ready for uh, minotaur first, right, so obviously there's got to be some crossover between those two.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: But like, were you just on a ton of steep stuff or like what?
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: What was your fitness?
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Like going into a race like?
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: yeah, I mean this past season was was a bit funny.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: In all honesty.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: I think I peaked a little bit too early before Minotaur and then I was in really good shape just a couple weeks out from Minotaur and then Race Minotaur.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Didn't have the best day at Minotaur, but just kind of survived and pushed through to the finish.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: I didn't have the best day at Minotaur, but just kind of survived and pushed through to the finish.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: And then after Minotaur I got home and like hopped on the bike a bunch.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: I actually tried not to run that much.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: The 10 days in between those races, just like I probably took like four days off running right away or five days off running and just biked a bit and pretty much just did everything I could to try and be rested coming into it.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Um, but both those races, like I mean obviously much different intensities and much different distances, but they have a lot in common they're both really steep and really technical.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: So, um, I think the terrain you train on for both of them is somewhat similar.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fair, I mean, yeah, a fair bit of steep terrain.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: But you know you still need running legs for both those races, so you can't forget the runnable stuff for sure.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Now I understand you started working relatively recently right With David Norris, correct?
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: As your coach?
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, back in August.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I guess it's been like almost six months now.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Nice and what has that experience been like?
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: He's the man like.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I raced him at Cirque series Brighton and he whooped my ass this year.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: He's so good.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Pretty darn impressive.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: He's got a huge engine, that's for sure.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: It's been a great experience so far, Like I haven't had really any coaching since my cycling days, Um, and I mean, there's pros to being self-coached, for sure, but I think I definitely struggled with a lot of things like and especially like you know when to be in good shape for you know, X race coming up and peaking at the right time, and, um, I think not it's.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: I think having a coach has prevented me from doing too much.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Um, and just having a bit of structure has taken some stress off me too.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: You know, like I feel like before it was, you're always kind of asking yourself questions like is tomorrow the right day to do intervals, or should I give myself an extra day rest and do it the next day, Whereas now I kind of have that stress off my back and it's kind of like, okay, I really trust the training he's giving me and I'm like, okay, if he's saying I should do, you know, rest for two days and do intervals this day and volume the next day then that you know that sounds great.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: I, yeah, I think like I think in general with training, like I I do kind of have the philosophy that there's like no big secret to it.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: You know, it's like as I think, as long as you're training pretty well and for endurance sports, if you're doing enough hours, then it's, it's probably going to work out okay for you.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: But I think having a coach has really helped me, like pepper in the little, the little things here and there that count, you know, like doing more strides on my easy runs and and stuff like that.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: It's interesting too, and I think the biggest thing that I took away from being coached and having coaches is like I think for me it's a similar struggle.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: It's understanding like, all right, when is the right time to taper, how taper should I be doing right?
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: It's like, am I doing enough of my?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Not like you?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I second guess myself sometimes.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: So it's like one of those things to have an idea um plus, like I think for you too, it makes a lot of sense, especially with someone like david norris, because his ski background too, he can kind of kind of coach you with everything you know.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah exactly and I like over the past couple I've I've really started to think that there is a lot of crossover between Nordic and Schemo, especially with a lot of the workouts and just the amount of hours that Nordic skiers put in.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: It's um, I think.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of transfer and and in the past six months I've really seen that with a lot of the workouts I've been doing and and whatnot it's, it's all pretty similar.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: How much are you running on, Like when you get to schema season, like now?
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: are you just running a couple of times a week or yeah, I feel like I'm running like I mean, honestly I'm probably running like three days a week, but just like short runs and um keeping them more runnable this time of year, cause I'm I'm not lacking the vertical Um this time of year, cause I'm I'm not lacking the vertical Um, so I don't really need to go plot up the steep trails.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: But you know lots of like I do lots of days where I'll ski for a couple hours in the morning and then, you know, do schoolwork throughout the day and then go for a uh, you know, nice easy run in the evening with strides or something Nice, yeah.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Or do you spend a lot of time in the gym, like, do you do like a any gym work?
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: I do typically at least two quality sessions a week.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm lucky that we have a bit of a garage space so I can do them at home.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: Um, but I like I used to do a ton of gym work when I was mountain biking.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Especially for downhill mountain biking, it's like really important to be in the gym a lot more, like four days a week, but um, I I feel like I stopped.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: I was kind of sick of it at the end of my mountain bike career.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: So I kind of stopped doing stuff in the gym for probably like four or five years and just getting back into it this year I've actually started to appreciate it again.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: Um, and I feel like it.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: I feel like I have seen benefits from it.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: I think just in terms of like it.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: I feel like I have seen benefits from it.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: I think just in terms of.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: I actually think it allows me to handle more volume without getting injured Like I.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: It's kind of funny, but I like I think it's just.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: It just makes me a little bit more durable to put in more hours.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I've been really appreciating it actually.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: It's amazing, man, what it can do for you Like I.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: I similar space where I didn't.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I came from more of a team sports background.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Before I got into trail running and a lot of that team sports was a lot of time in the gym Didn't really like it, cause I didn't want to get big, I didn't want to have be like super muscular.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: I wanted to stay away from that.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: And then I started doing a lot more, you know, just lower body stuff and plyometrics, and it is amazing like how I think, from an injury prevention perspective too, like I, that kind of alleviates most of your stuff.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: You know it's amazing.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, I completely agree with you.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: And then, kind of in like more Nordic skier fashion, I've been doing my gym days usually on the same days as my intensity, which I've actually come to like quite a bit, because then my easy days are super easy and my hard days are quite hard.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: But I think it's yeah, it allows your body enough time to recover between sessions, which is nice.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's the way to do it, man.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: I never could understand that in the beginning, like blocking both of them, but as I've started to do them more after my speed work, it does make a lot of difference.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and it's kind of interesting.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Like I've definitely, like I've had a few days this winter where I've, you know, for some reason, had to do my strength session first in the morning and then intervals in the afternoon and like in my head I'm like, oh, this is going to ruin my interval session, but it's almost like does the opposite a little bit, like I've I found it like almost makes you a little bit springier in your, in your interval session after, even though you're still a bit tired.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's, it's interesting stuff for sure.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, dude, I was jumping on the.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I was doing box jumps the other day and I slammed my shin into the side of the box.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: You ever do one of those, dude.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I thought I had a golf ball on my leg.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: I thought I broke my tibia.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh my God.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Not not too long ago I had like the same thing happened in our garage and I think my girlfriend just heard a huge slam in the house and she ran into the garage Like, oh my God, are you, are you okay?
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: I'm like lying there on the ground holding my shin.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: So yeah, you gotta, you gotta pay attention for sure, oh yeah Do.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: We got one of those like ring cameras in the backyard and I got a video of myself doing it.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: I'm like one of these days I got to post this.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: It's so funny.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: No, I mean it happens, happens to all of us, you know for sure.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: So you had said you're, uh, you're doing school.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: What are you going to school for now?
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: Um, you're doing school.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: What are you going to school for now?
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually just started going to school, like two months ago.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: I'm just in an online program right now through a university in Kamloops, bc.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: I'm just working on a Bachelor of Arts.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: I graduated high school in 2018.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: High school in 2018.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: So I ended up taking, you know, five or six years off and my, my parents do have a RASP fund put away for me and I have 10 years to use that.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: So I really do want to use it.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: So I figured this is probably a good time and I'm going to do the first couple of years online and I think it works really well with being an athlete right now, cause you know I can, you know, study first thing in the morning and then go exercise for a few hours and then come home and plug away at it for the afternoon and do something else in the evening.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: So it's been, it's been a nice flow so far, for sure.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like it gives you good balance as an athlete to be able to do both.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: One of the things I thought that was amazing on your Instagram is your photography skills are awesome too.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Do you do a lot of photography?
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been shooting photos as long as I can remember, with my mom's little point and shoot.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: When I was quite young I would sell photo cards and then eventually I sold enough photo cards to buy a little Nikon DSLR and and then, yeah, it's kind of all evolved from there.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I've been shooting photos for quite a long time.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: It's definitely one of my passions.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: I've occasionally tried to do it for work, but, um, I think, um, especially in recent years, I've realized that I really do like having it as like kind of a hobby and not something I try and generate an income through, cause I find for me with photography, that kind of like took the joy out of it a little.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's really kind of my my for fun thing that I focus on on the side sometimes and I do enjoy it, it's, it's super cool man.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: I always love finding these hobbies where they keep you a little more grounded, where it's not about competition, it's not about this, it's not about that.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Like I've talked to others, some do photography.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I was just talking to a gentleman the other day that does fly fishing and it just, it just goes out into the back country fly fishes and it's it's just just his fun thing to do.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Where it's, it's it kind of just grounds you and you don't have to really worry about competition or the outside world or anything like that.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: It's interesting, yeah.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I really enjoy it and, like I mean, I was always one of those kids in school that excelled at the creative things and less at the more academic things.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: So I I've always really enjoyed things like writing and photography.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, really, I'd love to mix all those things together in a career at some point in the future.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: I think that would be the long-term goal for me.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Super cool man.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: So was it last year?
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Was it last year?
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was last year.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: You joined the Arc'teryx team, correct?
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, back in June, just before Meet the Minotaur last year.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, can you talk a bit?
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: That's going to be a life changing experience to be a member of that running team out to companies and get and get you know and sign contracts or get deals that are like actually quite helpful.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: Like I think often for Canadians, we, you know, we have to go through a local rep who then has to go through you know someone else, maybe in Boulder, and then there's like a lot of stepping stones and I think often it's quite hard.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: Um, but I got super lucky with arcteryx because they're local in north vancouver and because they're local, they, you know they have a lot of international athletes but they do try and seek out some local talent as well.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: Um, so I I think for me it's like the best company that I could be involved with, just because they're they're local and they understand the running scene around here.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: So, um, I mean that even helped me in ways that you know.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Like if I was to say, tell, you know sportiva about some, you know Sportiva about some, you know local FKT I did in the Sea to Sky here they'd be like, oh okay, I mean interesting, I've never heard of that.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: I'm sure it's cool, but you know, I've never heard of it before.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: Whereas if I tell that to Arcteryx, they're like, oh, that's cool, like they can grasp those things you know, because they're local and understand.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's been really helpful so far and having a little bit of funding from them for travel and and life is yeah, it goes a long ways, yeah.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, they make great stuff and it's amazing to see the new shoe technology that they're coming out with and it's, uh, yeah, definitely emerging as one of the premier brands if not the you, you know, the premier brand in the space for mountain running in a lot of ways now yeah, definitely.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, it works well for me too because, um, you know, I rock climb a lot and obviously like ski a lot in the winter, and you know it's nice that they make products for those things as well.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: So it, um, it's helpful for me, and more than just the run space.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: But it's also it's a good time for me to be involved with them, because they're starting to put more money into their run run seed.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think I think there'll be bringing on some new athletes kind of in the in the next couple of months here and growing that space more and more.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's an exciting time to be part of it.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: No, absolutely man, man.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: And what a team.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: I mean like already a great team of athletes, but some of the new one, some of the new folks that are coming on, pretty exciting as well.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, it's super cool yeah, what is it like, I guess, with like working with adam in a lot of ways does he be, especially because he's pretty local to you?
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Is he more of like a like, I guess, from a mentor perspective, him and nick ellison just kind of mentors for you, or?
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: yeah, I mean I've known adams for like six years now.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, adams just been a good friend the whole way and he's he's really mentored me a lot, especially in in this space with um, you know, with sponsorships, and you know more quote-unquote, um, or, whereas I might feel a little bit lost in that world otherwise, and he's, he's got such a deep knowledge about how all that stuff works.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: So it's, it's, uh, it's really nice to have him close by to bounce ideas off.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: You know like I can just call him up and ask you know, say, I want to go for a run.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: I've got a bunch of questions for you about, you know about, uh, you know, x thing in my contract that I don't understand, and he's able to break it down for me.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, he's been.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: He's been a yeah, good friend.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: You know, adventure partner, climbing partner, neighbor, good, good guy to have around for sure.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: I'm lucky he lives in squamish I couldn't think of like a cooler dude, like and a nicer human, you know, like just a good person.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: I got him on the pod.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: I really enjoyed that episode.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, I I'm like I keep nudging Adam cause I actually think he'd be a really good podcast host.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: I'm like he should get.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: He should get something going.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: I know you're tight for time, but I think you'd do a good job at it, so I'll keep bugging him.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, you should, man.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: I'd love to hear.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think that would be especially his unique perspective, and his life journey has been just an interesting one.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: So definitely, yeah, I'll shoot him a text after this and tell him to start a podcast.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: Maybe if more of us hassle him too, he might actually start one.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think I'm sure I'm tearing the recording studio at the office.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: So, oh, that'd be pretty cool.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: What is that?
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: What is that headquarters like?
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Is it?
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Is it like everything I imagine, like candy land for?
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: it is pretty crazy.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Like the design center is is a wild space.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: You just like walk upstairs into this building and there's, just, like you know, hundreds of hundreds and hundreds of feet of in these rolls of gore, techs and all sorts of crazy stuff and sewing machines and you know tons of busy people doing different things.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's pretty crazy space that's wild man.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I couldn't think of it.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: It's a cool brand, definitely cool to see what they have planned and I can't wait to see some of the new shoe technology coming out.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, yeah, they've been.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: Um, I do a lot of testing for them because I'm local so it's easy to get product over to me and, yeah, there's definitely some really interesting stuff in the works, especially, like you know, a year and a half, two years down the road there, I I think there's going to be some really cool um footwear for sure.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: For sure?
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk 2025.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: What do you?
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Uh, I we kind of talked a little bit about your, your skiing schedule and what you had planned for, kind of the late winter, spring, but what do you have planned for the racing season this year?
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I mean post chemo season, um, I, definitely I I'd like to do mount marathon again, and then I did actually just get an entry into the 28k at run the rut, nice, um, so I'd like to do that again.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: Um, the rest of the season, I'm not totally sure yet.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm on the fence about minotaur because I, I, I mean, I've raced minotaur, you know, five years in a row.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: It's by far one of my favorite races.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: But I know that if I want to perform my best amount marathon it's it would probably benefit me not to do it this year.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: So I'm considering that.
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: Um, and then part of me is considering staying in europe a bit longer after the skimo season to do sky race, de methasay in france, that's a race man, yeah, and it's quite early, um, and I think it's a good race to come into, like purely with schemo fitness.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, the downhill will be a bit crushing on the legs at that time of year, but I think having the schemo engine for that race could be quite helpful, um, so, yeah, if I can afford it, I'm thinking I'll stay a bit longer for that.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: Um, and then, other than that, I as much as I want to do more sky races and I do it's, it's, it's pretty hard to have, like I.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: I guess it's one thing hard about being north american and competing in both those sports is doing two race seasons in europe like a cost a ton, and then it's also quite uh, it's just tiring to travel that much, yeah.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: So I mean honestly, I, we have so many competitive races in north america, it's, it's uh, and I feel like there's more and more technical ones popping up here and there.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: So I'll probably try and race mostly with the North America this summer.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Um, just not exactly sure which races yet I know a break racing has has some pretty cool stuff going on down in Washington and, um, like some smaller events popping up here and there that are looking really cool, so there's lots of options.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: That Y East trail fest looks sick man.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I've had that on my schedule now like three years in a row and I just have never been able to pull it off just because we're at six in July, yeah, that one looks really good.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: And then the other one I'm quite excited to race is what's it called?
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: It's just across from Mount St Helens.
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: It's not across from Mount St Helens, it's not in the Volcanic 50, but it's put on by daybreak and it's in the mountains across from St Helens and it looks really good, it's like the back country, back country rise.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that does look cool.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think a good 20-mile route.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: You know, dude, I've had so many, like I said, so many over the years 've really wanted to do volcanic and just couldn't fit it into the schedule.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, there's a lot of really good races in the pnw that I I just feel like are slept on, like volcanic.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: It's like the only true circumnavigation race.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: That's like a 50k, it's perfect right around, like I've run the lewitt trail once and I was just astounded.
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful place yeah, yeah, I actually raced volcanic 50 in 2022, um, and yeah, I had a great experience.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: I'd totally recommend it.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: It's, um, yeah, prepare for heat.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: That is that's my best advice.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a hot, hot race, hot and exposed, because in the first half of the race you're like in the forest and it's cool and you're kind of going through drainages and crossing some creeks, but then the entire second half of the race, you're like crossing volcanic slopes in the alpine that are south facing, and if you're, if you're not prepared for that, it's a, it's a real beat down in the second half.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, man, the blast zone is like the desert man, it's crazy it's like another planet.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I remember like I had like a filter flask with me trying to like and I'm like filtering some of that water and it's just straight silt.
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: I definitely laid down in some of those creeks, Do you?
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: have.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: What about worlds man?
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: Do you have any anticipation to want to like race for the Canadian national team for work?
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I probably won't this coming year, just because I didn't do Squamish 50 last year, which was the that was kind of like the main qualifying race.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: Just wasn't at a great time of the year for me.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, probably not this year.
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: I would like to in the future.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: I actually raced that.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: I raced the short trail at Worlds in 2023.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: Actually had a pretty rough day and ended up having to DNF.
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: Just, I think was bit sick beforehand and then it started getting worse closer to the race.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: But still a great experience and, you know, maybe I think for the next world cycle, try and go probably.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah Well, dude, you're so young, you have so much time to figure out, like, exactly what you want.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's lots to do, for sure there's also.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: I was looking at this um I saw that sky running.
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: Um announced that they're doing a race in ireland.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: This, uh, wow or yeah, so I think that'll be in I want to say october at some point.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: I've always wanted to race in the in the uk, so I think that'd be a really cool one to do, maybe yeah, that would be awesome man.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's some really solid like proper, like some of the fell races and stuff out there like yeah, I think it was a ring of steel that used to be on the golden trail series race circuit.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: That's a nasty, cool race yeah, that one like glencoe skyline.
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: I think this is the last year it's happening, but but there's also tons of these smaller, you know local fell races that just seem awesome.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: I think it'd be a really cool, cool scene to experience.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a buddy of mine shout out to George Foster, he's a friend of the pod.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: He's been on the episode a couple of times, or just once, sorry.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Um, he lives in the UK and he's a more or less he's.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: He's an ultra runner, trail more or less he's.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: He's an ultra runner, trail runner, fell runner.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: But he hyped up the fell running scene.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: So much to me and just kind of it's so much more complex than you think like you have to have a con.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: It's like orienteering with trail running.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: It's completely unique yeah, yeah, it seems wild.
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of like the opposite of a lot of races right now.
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: It's like you still just want like basically the racing flats with gigantic lugs and a lot of a lot of confidence for the downhills.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, man.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: And the bogs like if you fall into a bog, like you could die, like it's crazy.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy stuff, for sure.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: It'd be great to experience.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, for sure, for sure, yeah, no, there's some, yeah, there's some proper solid though I mean I think a sky race day, math sin.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Uh, I had a couple buddies race it last year and just like the experience that they said was like it's, it's an epic race.
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: It sounds awesome.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, nick's raced it before and he had nothing but good things to say about it, and I know a few other people who have raced it and it seems like a good race for me because it's just one long climb and then some technical ridge running and then a, you know, a fast, gnarly descent.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: So you know, could be a good one, but we'll, we'll see what.
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: Uh, we'll see what I can afford at that point.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: For sure, for sure, dude, you should put on your schedule, if you're around, um cirque series is having a race at crystal this year.
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: Let's see out there for that.
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's, that's a nice part of a nice part of Washington.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: I've never been out there, so or never never been out to that like specific area.
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that's cool.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: I've only I've only been there in the winter, but I think in the summer it would be lovely.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: There's some good stuff to start winding down in questions.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: But I'm dude, I'm so curious about you.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: You're, you're very interesting to me, like I'm kind of curious like what your relationship with competition is and the reason I ask that, because it's kind of a loaded question.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: Like you race a lot of super competitive stuff and you're at the very top of the sport, but you also seem like the excitement and the soul of the sport is very important to you.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: Just from what I've kind of picked up in the conversation, would you you say that's accurate or yeah, yeah, I think so.
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: I mean I value the history of these sports and um.
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: I think for me competition is um, I mean I'm just naturally a competitive person and always have been, but I think I also value the community around it.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: Um, I value that competing kind of it makes me travel places that I I wouldn't normally travel to.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: You know, like if it wasn't for schema I who knows if I would have even traveled to Europe at this point.
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: But now I've been to a whole bunch of different countries in Europe.
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: So I feel really privileged to have to have done that and that's kind of all thanks to competition.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: Um, and it I think it does motivate me to train for sure.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: I mean I think if I wasn't competing I would probably still train quite a lot because I'm quite interested in FKTs and speed records and just moving through the mountains.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: But I think competition kind of gives you that extra edge to train a little, train a little bit more, um, and kind of gives you like a very linear goal to focus on.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: And I do think like I was chatting about this um with Nick and Adam while skiing yesterday like racing is, it's kind of like one of the purest forms of of, you know, pushing yourself and testing yourself, you're like able to take away, like most of the variables and it's just you know.
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: It's pretty simple in that sense.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: Um, whereas you know, sometimes in the mountains you just there's other variables that get involved and I do like that about racing there's, it's just like just you and other racers yeah, it's a good answer, man.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about a race day, right?
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: Um, you're getting ready for a race.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: What's?
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: What's the song you're listening to?
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, man yeah, that's.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: I feel like, um, it's kind of funny, I used to listen to like a ton of punk rock when I was a teenager, um, and then I like kind of got out of it for a couple years.
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: But but then recently, like in the last, the last two years here, I've started listening to a lot of punk rock again.
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: So you know probably some some punk rock of some sort of other.
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: That's like you know, I don't know green day or you know something from that era probably, cause that's kind of what I grew up listening to hell yeah, dude, that's a good choice against the machine.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: It sort of depends, but yeah okay, do you listen to music at all in like runs or like during like, if you're on like a long like uphill day for schemo you ever yeah it, it really depends on the day.
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: like I mean, realistically, you know, training is not always glorious and some days you do have to kind of drag your ass out of the door.
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: And yeah, music definitely helps me get through some long sessions if I'm feeling a bit unmotivated.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: I do listen to a lot of podcasts but, yeah, a lot of music.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: I've always dabbled with guitar.
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: I'm definitely not a great guitar player, but I do like to pick it up once in a while and learn new songs and whatnot.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Nice, curious to see who inspires you.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: Um, I mean, I I've always like Nick's, one of my, one of my best friends and long-term mentors, but it's I've always been very inspired by what he does in the mountains.
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: Um, there's, there's a number of of alpinists that inspire me, like I'm very inspired by the things Colin Haley does in the mountains.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean, killian's been one of my biggest inspirations since, since I was quite young, there's still some mountain bikers I really look up to.
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: Like, you know, completely removed from endurance sport, but I've always really looked up to Brandon Semenuk.
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: Um, I just think he's very smooth and I think being smooth is very applicable to any sport.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: Um, but no, I mean I look up to my coach, David.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, there's, there's a, there's a lot of folks out there I don't think I could really pin it down to just like this is one person that inspires me, but probably a mix of, you know, of alpinists, climbers, runners.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good answer as someone who, as an athlete on a global team, you kind of have your pick now of what mostly what races you want to do more or less.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: Is there anything like like what?
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: Is there a goal race or a pinnacle race that you haven't done yet, that you have something on the board you know as a goal?
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: yeah, I mean, I would really love to run the gamma at some point.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: Um, just like you know, it really does seem like one of the most classic races and trail running um, it's just so much history there, so the gamma is very high on the list.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm I'm not like desperate to race at utmb yet, but I I think um occ would definitely be a long-term goal of mine.
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: I'd love to race there in the future.
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: Um, and then, you know, just keep going back to races like mount marathon and minotaur, and I'm excited to see what the rut is like this year because I've heard they're you know they're quite similar a lot of, a lot of shale.
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: So I'm curious to see what I think about that course.
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I think highest on my list is probably Zagama at some point.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: Nice, that's a great choice.
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: It's always a little bit tough because it's pretty early.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: So I think maybe one of these years I'll try and end my Schemo season a bit earlier so I can really get myself into proper running shape early in the year.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we'll see earlier so I can really get myself into into proper running shape early in the year.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: But uh yeah, we'll see.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: It's a good choice Such an iconic race man, like one of the top in the world, you know.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would love to race it on a muddy year.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: Actually, I'm like I hope, I hope when I go it's like a really heinous stormy day, cause it always seems so epic when it's uh, you know, there's hundreds of people lining the course and there's, you know, people are sliding in the mud.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: It looks awesome what was it?
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: I think it was two years ago when manuel morales won it.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: It was the.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: It was the last like nasty storm a year and, like everybody, was falling and slipping all over the place yeah, probably the best possible conditions for him.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: He's so good in those adverse conditions.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that guy yeah that guy's a beast, one of the best in the world.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: Um, what was I gonna ask you?
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: I think I lost my train of thought oh man.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Um, I was gonna come to me oh, mount marathon, that's what I was gonna ask you.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: You've, now that you've been on the pair, like on.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: I know it's hard to peg these things because different fields come in different years.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: It's always a different game.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: But is your goal going into melt marathon this year like you, like your, is your goal and intention to try to win that race?
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: I mean I would love to try and win it, but I mean it always.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: I feel like it always depends if norris is going to show up or not because, right, I mean his the time he ran last year was like truly a world-class time.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: Like his ascent time was quite insane, um, but I think more for me, like it would be, I think, definitely a goal to try and win Mount marathon at some point, but more just chipping away at at personal records there, like I ran basically 44 flat this year.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: So I'd love to try and get it, you know, a bit closer to 43 flat this coming year if I could, like you know, mid 42, but, um, yeah, I think that's that's more.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: More of what I'm focused on.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: There is running a good PR, but that's also challenging because you know, it could be, it could be pouring rain and that could be kind of relevant.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, we'll see.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, conditions, conditions, fields, the whole thing.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: It's crazy.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: Well, jesse, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast man.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: This was an amazing conversation.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: I wish you the absolute best of luck this year and hope we have many more conversations down the line.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: I'll probably actually see you at Mount Marathon, so yeah, awesome, I hope so.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, um, yeah, if.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: If I were to give you any advice for that, um, it's to try and book your accommodation as early as possible, because Seward's super small and otherwise he'll end up sleeping somewhere very noisy.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we don't want that, definitely not.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, come up for a.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: Come up for a visit to Squamish at some point.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, please don't hesitate to reach out.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: For sure, man For sure.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: Oh man, what a fun episode.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much to Jesse for coming on.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: I thought you guys would like it.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Just really cool guy, very exciting and just has such a bright future.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: It's going to be exciting to see what he's going to be able to do both in the Schemo realm as well as the mountain running realm over the next few years.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: He has a very, very bright future.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Guys, before we get going, I've got some housekeeping stuff.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: Do me a favor and hop on Instagram.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: Let's get Jesse some followers.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: You can find him at jessiemcauley.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: That's M-C-A-U-L-E-Y as his Instagram handle.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: Give him a follow, send him a DM.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: Let him know what you guys thought about the episode.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: I'm sure he would really appreciate those words of encouragement.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: Um, and just some great feedback from the episode before you guys get going.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: Um, do me a favor If you're listening to this on Spotify or Apple or YouTube.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: Uh, please give this a thumbs up and give us a five-star rating and review.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: That would mean the absolute world to me, as, uh, I say this every week and I sound like a broken record.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: The goal of this great podcast is to be able to share this and cover our great sport and share the stories of these amazing athletes.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: We can't do that without your support.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: So thank you guys so much.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: And then, last but not least, I have something I'm so excited to announce.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: You guys probably saw this one coming.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: Get ready for some ads, but I am so excited that my sponsor of three years, ultimate Direction, is going to be sponsoring the podcast in 2025.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: Ultimate Direction if you guys are unfamiliar with the brand, you should absolutely familiarize yourself with them.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: I'm going to have some codes, some discount codes for you guys coming up so you can go and get stocked up on some new gear.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: Ultimate Direction is an amazing hydration solution company.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: Like I said, vests packs, anything from waist belts to anything hydration solutions based.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: Like I said, they make some great stuff as well as apparel, and we have some really exciting things that are going to be coming in the horizon towards the end of January, early February, so keep a lookout on that.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: I can't reveal too much because we're going to be doing a podcast on it, but there are some exciting new products that are going to be dropping within the next six weeks.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: That, I think, is going to transform the way you guys view the brand, so it's a very exciting time to be partnering with them and I'm so stoked to have their support going forward in 2025.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: So, guys, thanks so much for your support.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys have a great rest of your week, have a great long run this weekend, have a great workout, enjoy yourself, have fun and I'll be with you guys next week.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: Thank you, you.