Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / Dreama Walton | A Tale of Resilience, Running, and Dream-Chasing

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Dreama Walton | A Tale of Resilience, Running, and Dream-Chasing · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lariello, and today we have a really special one, so special that this is not a normal Friday drop, this is a Monday drop, so I wanted to bring this one to you early.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Today.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: We have the great and powerful Dreama Walton on the podcast.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Those of you in the trail and mountain running community definitely know who Dreama is.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: She has a very special story and she's a very special person.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: To start off with, she's a mom, she's a trail and ultra runner, not just as an athlete, she also works in it.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Um, she's a veteran and she she does so much for our community.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Um, it was really special to have her on for a conversation and I genuinely appreciated it.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: A couple of things that we got into on this podcast we talked about the trail running camp for youth that she runs in tandem with Brandon and Melissa Stepanowich, as well as Joseph Gray coming up this summer.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: They did it last summer as well.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: We also got into her new podcast, the Beyond the Trail podcast, that just recently launched.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: We talked about her nonprofit, the Dream a Team Way and, last but not least, we talked about her latest documentary that she just dropped, called the Dream, a Team which came out about a year ago, and if you haven't seen that yet, definitely go check it out.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: It's supposed to be on streaming services pretty soon.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Something we talked about on the podcast we really get into that story.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: So, guys, I hope you enjoyed this one.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: This is one of the most special podcasts I've ever recorded.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: That's why you guys are getting it early.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I definitely think you guys are going to love this one.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, here we go.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: It's time.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: We are live.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: So you just got back from Gorge?
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: How was Gorge?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Gorge was awesome.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: It's a fun race, right?
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, yeah, have you done it?
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: So I have not done it.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Rose ran the 50K, I think, two years ago.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Okay so we went out there and stayed for like a long weekend and just kind of explored the area.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: The course, is great.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the course is beautiful.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I love the Pacific Northwest.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: And is beautiful um.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I love the pacific northwest and yeah the it was really rocky yeah, oh yeah it's like sneaky technical, really technical.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: It will catch up on you, yeah, yeah I mean I twisted both of my ankles at different times.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I thought one of them which I never twist my ankles like I I'm pretty like solid there, or if I do it just I bounce right back yeah, um, but one time I twisted my left foot and I was like, oh, this might be like a sprain, but then I like walked it off for a few moments and was able to get back to running and then it was fine.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Um, but lots of people fell.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I mean I'm I don't know if anyone didn't fall a little bit.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I ever yeah, I see, I mean like, even so, it was really fun to follow along and they're kind of like relaxed rules a little bit, with like crewing and stuff like that so like I got to follow rose around the entire race like I was like kind of paying attention to everything and like just driving from point to point and, like you know, cheering around and stuff, um.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I would be remiss if I didn't see like so many people with like really cut up knees and stuff and it was pretty, pretty nasty.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I totally.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I ran on the other side in stevenson, um there's I forget the name of the peak that was over there, but there's a there's a cool peak that's like nice and rocky and technical it's just different, it's so you know, I think we kind of I don't know, I think um ace and I were talking about this in a previous episode that we kind of get caught up in, um you know, having just like really relaxed trails here you know, yeah, like kind of buttery, yeah.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know it was a a little bit unexpected.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, um, the course had almost 11 000 feet of gain, which I was like how are we going to get that?
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: but it's still runnable.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Like I feel like there's still a lot of like there's no point where you can hike which, exactly which?
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Is not my favorite kind of race, yeah I actually loved it.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Um, I felt like I was running fast or well, but the girls are just so fast.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh yeah.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I mean it's a little discouraging because I'm like I'm running, yeah, but just not as fast as them.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I mean you still had a great finish.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you, yeah, a great finish, solid time yeah, I mean I'm a great hit, like thank you yeah, I mean finish solid time yeah, I could.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm gonna be honest with you, like I I don't know if it's more so that I couldn't do it or more so that I don't want to do it run 100, 100k, it's like so far, okay, have you no the furthest I've ever raced is 50 50k okay, I've done 250ks one um, obviously I had a great finish, that it was a cool race.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Second one, I dnf'd and then after that it was like I'm going sub ultra.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know, like I know, I I kind of think I need to maybe stick with the 50 miler, 50k distance because, um, it really takes a lot of like effort and a lot out of you and you kind of get into that mental um hole where you, you know, it's not quite as beautiful or brutal as like 100 miles right.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: But you, when you, when you're finished, you still feel like, wow, I, I accomplished something.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Pretty rad, it's pretty amazing, yeah, yeah.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: But like definitely not 100 mile miler where that is that, yeah, the last 40 miles of 100 miles so far.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: By the way we are live.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, we are, I should probably I should introduce you.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay, guys, we have Dreama Walton on the podcast.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Um, I'm so excited to have you on.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I've been really like planning this one for a while, so super excited we were able to put this together.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, so if you want to introduce yourself, I'm sure most of the followers of Colorado Springs people, so everybody probably knows who you are.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Cool.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm Dreama Walton.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I'm a mother.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I am a trail and ultra runner.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I've lived here in Colorado Springs since 2017.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Prior to that, I was in Germany.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a new podcast.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: I am a subject of a documentary and I run a kids trail running camp here in the springs heck yeah, a little bit of everything we're gonna.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I really like I want to dive into each thing so we're gonna kind of dissect it and break it apart, no worries.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Um, the first thing is, um, trying to think of, like, where I want to go from here.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I I'd like to probably let's first start talking about the new podcast.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: I think that's something.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Uh, that's kind of your latest thing and super exciting.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Um, like I was telling you, I listened to the Manitou uh incline episode today.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I absolutely loved it.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you, um, yeah, so let's let's dive into that a little bit.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I don't know.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I kind of felt drawn to try something new, maybe more on the creative side of life, and I had this idea of like, when we're out on the trails with your friends or with anyone, you're more like open to conversation, the conversation flows, I feel like more freely, and a lot of times you're more vulnerable and like you just feel like you're in a safe place to kind of talk about stuff.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: And um, so I thought, and um, so I thought let's do a podcast, but a little bit different.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I um I kind of like interview people or talk, just like so stoked on.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I don't think people understand, I mean, unless you're going like super easy, how hard it is to hold a conversation and and and like talk and like be able to like keep that flowing.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I mean it's hard enough being able to sit here face to face and be able to have the conversation, but like to be able to do that and keep the conversation flowing and have an interesting, I mean you're, you're amazing.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: I absolutely love it.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, I mean I really appreciate that because I really don't know if I'm good at it or not.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: I'm just having fun, um and yeah, so thank you, I appreciate that.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Um, it is challenging, like to hold the camera and make sure that it you, that it has both people in sight.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: As well as showing the scenery around us Because that is a component of it, I wanted to show the trails, kind of take people on the journey with us.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's pretty fun, but yeah, it has its challenges.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Of the audio, sometimes I've I've had a few episodes where maybe their mic wasn't on but mine was and I had to.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Like I thought it was really solid.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I mean for like what we're doing, like yeah.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I thought it was was very solid, like audio quality is like outstanding awesome, thank you yeah and you learn like little things, like I had no idea like red rocks open space was, like it was like a city landfill right I was like all these little facts and like little facts on the incline.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I really took a look like if you're a colorado springs person or anybody just interested in the area or the outdoors, like it's, it Hands down Like really cool.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you, yeah, and another part of that is I'm doing the editing and everything on my own.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Super fun, I mean I shouldn't say on my own.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: I learned from one of the filmmakers of my documentary.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: He kind of showed me the ropes and now I'm like doing it kind of mostly on my own.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Would you say you pulled more, having like the technical background, like from, from an it perspective, or was it more than them just showing you like what do you?
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Do Like I use like garage band and stuff like that, like what do you cut in?
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, um, I'm using premier pro and he just showed it.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he showed me how to use it and, um, I just yeah.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: I learned pretty quickly, I think to me.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm still assounded at my at myself sometimes, cause.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I'm like I knew nothing about this six months ago and I'm sitting here trying to figure stuff out.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I'm like oh, like you know, it's, it's, yeah, it's interesting.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: It's fun to learn as you go.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: I love it, I love it.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: And then um, yeah, just try like maybe thinking about things a little bit differently to make it more kind of um, to make it, like I don't know, more visually appealing.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Cool.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: So, guys, check out the beyond the trail podcast.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: It's on Spotify, it's on Apple and we'll drop a plug to it after that, thank you.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, of course Of course, um, all right.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: So one of the things I want to dive into.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: So I've got like my little list here.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I've got, I've got dream a team, I've got the dream a team way let's talk about, let's talk about the camp.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: I think that's one of the cool things.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: That was something I had spoken about, even like last year at the ultimate direction summit, like that was something Joe had talked about and that's all I found about it, and then, um, you know, doing some research, and then Joe, joe and I chatted semi recently and, um, he sent me a link and was, like you know, check this out.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Let me know if you're interested in volunteering and that's why Very cool.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, let's get that introduced.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: And uh, especially cause we will have a lot of Colorado Springs listeners.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, um, joe and I have been friends since I moved here.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Um, I love both.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: You know he and Christie and their kids Addie, and you know the kids are like cousins, um, and so we spend a lot of time together, like just dinners and whatever hanging out, and we had talked about like what could we do to, you know, kind of make an impact, like what are some ways we could, um, make some positive changes?
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: And I think both he and I were really interested in like working with children.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Um, and so I don't know, we like kind of had the idea, but it wasn't really coming to fruition until, I mean, last year.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just like hey, I'm starting a nonprofit, let's do it.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: And so we collaborated.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: I started the nonprofit to kind of like get the funding so that we could support the camp, okay, and we used his project Inspire Diversity to bring some children in, because one of our goals of the camp is to make it accessible to everyone.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: We don't want it to just be children of families who already go out and hike.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Maybe some kids that live closer in the city and like don't have the access to the trails that like maybe people on the west side of town have.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, we started the camp.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: We had 16 kids last year.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: That's a good number yeah it was fun.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: And also Brandon and Melissa Stepanovich.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: They are part of our core coach um staff.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: So there's four of us and we're kind of like starting it together.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Cool, this will be our second year and we're hoping to have 32 kids.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Nice, we have some amazing sponsors.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Hoka came on board last year and donated shoes to every kid.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Um Um.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: They donated shirts to everyone.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: That's amazing.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really wonderful.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Ultimate direction as well came out.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Showed the kids how to use the hydration vest and pack um.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Taught the kids you know, like how to take care of our trails while we're on them and, like all you know, all open spaces and pretty much all of our planet like we want to take care of it, and so we um had like a trash pickup challenge.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, trash free trails.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah and so it was really cool.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Uh, whoever picked up the most trash, you know, won the challenge and they got like a free shirt or whatever.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Super cool, Um, yeah, it was.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: It was only two days last year and this year we'll do it for three days.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: So, um, we have like a kid's race at the end, like, so the last day we like put on a trail race.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: That's amazing, it's so fun, and they go hard I'm sure they do it's amazing.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just fun and it feels really good to be able to like pass down some of our knowledge to children in this age group.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Because I don't know about you, but I didn't learn about trails until cross country when I was in high school.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Um, but we're actually focusing on kids from second grade to eighth grade that's perfect, and so they're really young, like you know, and um just teaching them that, like, trails are fun like this doesn't have to be super serious, or yeah, yeah, no, we're having fun like in.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, addy was there with with us last year and she even loved it.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: And you know she's not.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: She doesn't consider herself a runner yet yet so, yeah, I I'm super excited to like make an impact that's amazing this way now, are you guys?
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: uh, I remember it was last year.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Was palmer park right?
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Are you guys right?
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: And we're gonna do the same cool.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: I like that area for one.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: There's a, a pavilion that we can use for shade, because it is in the summer and it gets hot.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Um, also, we like had one rainy day last year, so if it rains, we're you know, we have the protection of the pavilion.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: There's also a bathroom nearby, which is very important and, yeah, it's easy.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Also, it's central, right Like it's sort of in the city, so like it's accessible.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Much more accessible.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you don't have to, like you know, get out to Manitou or something like that.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, much more accessible.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't have to, like you know, get out to Manitou or something like that, yeah, right.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Which could be harder if you live Significantly.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's really cool.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I'm excited, like I said, I came to volunteer.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: I'm happy that you're joining us, thank you.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining, yeah, yeah, no, thank you to uh.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Uh, now registrations already open, correct?
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: It is Okay.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Registration is open.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Our website is um co trail runcom and um dream a team way is my nonprofit organization and that's where people could go and maybe donate if they wanted to donate to the camp.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: But I started a new site specifically for the camp just to make it a little bit more clear for parents and for people who are going out to look for our camp, because um, we it's colorado springs trail running camp for kids, which they wouldn't really like.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Uh, correlate dream a team way with that.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: So I just wanted to kind of separate the two for the simplicity of like finding our camp.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: But dream a team way is still funding Um super cool.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Now we kind of hit on that too.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Um, that was one of the questions that I had the dream of team way kind of get into your nonprofit there.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, let's, let's dive a little bit more into that and like what you do specifically with the nonprofit and like kind of like the reason why you started it and all that.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I started the nonprofit um, two for twofold.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: We had um.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: We had some individuals who wanted to donate to the dream a team film and that was a way for them to do so.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: So I kind of have two initiatives One is more for media and maybe impact on community, and the other is the trail running camp.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: So not a lot of people are donating to the film these days, which is fine, but all of the funds that we have received have gone to our trail running camp.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: That's amazing.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's been great Sometimes when I've had to do Q&As for the film they've wanted to donate to our nonprofit and so all of those funds go to Dream a Team Way and then we can use them for the camp.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, so.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: So I guess the big elephant in the room is dream a team.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's the that's the.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: You know that's your film.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Um wouldn't.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I don't want to.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I don't want to tell the full story because I think people need to see the film if they haven't seen it yet.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Um, seen it.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: I have not, actually I have not opportunity.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: I mean I did significant research into it okay um, yeah, I wanted to.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I, I couldn't find it online I was gonna message you, but I was like kind of embarrassed.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: I was like I think we may try, I don't know.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Uh, we may try to do another screening here.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: If we do it, I mean 100 I'll promote it and I'll be there, yeah, thank you, um.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I want to dive a little bit more into, let's dive into the film, let's talk about it a little bit, um, how it came up, um, in the sense of where the idea came from and what, because it seems like kind of a whirlwind.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: You ran western states, what in 21?
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: yeah okay, and then we're now in 24, so it's been a few years now since and I feel like you know you got into the breck film festival, which is an amazing accomplishment, and you know you, I saw you in durango as well, doing you know, so I just feel like there's like um, okay, this is always a loaded question, but let's let's get into that a little bit, um, talk about the film and we can kind of go from I'll just ask questions from there yeah so, um, the film, and we can kind of go from.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: I'll just ask questions from there.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, um, the film came about because I had, or have, a sponsor, uh, sans meal bar, um, and one of the co-founders of that meal bar.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: His name's Corey.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: He lived in Denver at the time and he had attended like a networking event in Denver and met these two filmmakers, chad and Steve, and they started talking and I think Chad and Steve kind of mentioned to Corey that they were interested in doing something in the outdoor space, some type of passion project, maybe something around the 10 to 12 minute, you know timeframe or like that's how long the film would be like a short film.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: And Corey said, well, oh, I have an athlete in the springs that I think has a pretty interesting story.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Maybe you guys should like talk.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: And so we did a Zoom call.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: You know, corey asked me he's like hey, would you be interested in like talking to these filmmakers?
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: And this is before.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt you.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: This is before you got into Western.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, okay.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I knew I was in Western, okay, right.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Like but because I think our first meeting may have been March.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, okay, and that was a Zoom call, yeah, so we had a Zoom call and I think they just heard me out kind of like my life story and they thought, yeah, we could follow her at Western States.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Actually, I don't even think they intended on coming to Western States at first, but once they realized how big of a deal it was for me to be running that race because they knew nothing about ultras- prior to this oh wow, so go in there.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: So once they started learning more about like what is ultra running and they realized like, oh, western States is a pretty big deal, then they wanted to, you know, kind of come and follow along on that journey.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: So they did.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: They had like an Indiegogo campaign to raise money to in order to, you know, so that they could come and film me while I raced.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: And they did some filming at my house and kind of filmed me mothering and um, working out and, you know, training.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: And then they came out to Cheyenne mountain.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: And this was all prior to Western States.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: So Western States was the like final filming that they did with me.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, it's kind of like the third act in a lot of ways.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it was only supposed to be a 10 to 12-minute short film and I think about six months after Stapes I reached out to them and I was like, hey, when's the film going to be done?
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: You know, I'd like to see it.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: And Steve was like hey, I know, we told you it was going to be 10 to 12 minutes, but what would you say if I told you it was going to be longer and you'd have to wait like a year and a half before you could see it?
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Wow?
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, okay, I mean cool, I guess.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Wow, I didn't realize post-production would be that long, I know.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Well, it was a passion project.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: There was no gotcha so they were doing this in between other projects that they were getting paid to do gotcha so, um, yeah, it was.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: It's a labor of love.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, uh, they really put their heart and soul into it and you can see that when you watch it.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just I did go.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I mean I peeled through the trailer beautifully done and then everything else I could find I like dug, dug pretty deep and and your story as well, and I mean even the trailer itself was just like.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: It was really incredibly done.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: When I saw the trailer I was like whoa this is amazing, did you have like?
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: imposter syndrome at any point.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Like, were you like whoa, like this is, this is like I get it, like this is me, but that's kind of crazy.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Like, when you see yourself on camera and stuff like that.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in the beginning it was very like exciting and I was a little bit nervous, but now it kind of just.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: I think the newness of it has faded a little.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Has it like so since then?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: It's almost, almost, it seems like um, has it been like a whirlwind, I mean of all, like the media that you've had to do?
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I mean like, I guess if you google your name, I mean there's, there's a lot of articles and it's.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: It's really incredible yeah um yeah, um, I guess.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: So, like I never expected that we would be going to film fest, which I think we're done now but you know, the last past year we've been going to Film Fest and I never thought that that would be in, you know, in the cards when I agreed to do the film.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's sort of.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: I feel like it is kind of amazing the way that it has all you know um, come about, because I feel like it's really pure um, I didn't pay them to tell a story about me.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: They wanted to do this and you can tell that like it was something they were very passionate about because of the way that it, you know well, you have such a, we can get into this a little bit more.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I was a little unsure about asking you to go into the backstory because it is.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: It's a heavy backstory and I even I like cried my eyes out when I was reading a part of it.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh like you know, and it's just so interesting and impactful, you know, I guess, just following along and seeing you battling through this race and then, you know, I guess, reliving a lot of this past trauma.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Do you want to dive a little bit into that?
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, what would you like to know?
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: You can keep it as surface level as you want.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: What would you like to know?
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: You can keep it as surface level as you want.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, you know, I guess I've experienced a lot of struggle throughout my life, especially as a child, and I think there are multiple ways somebody could let that affect you and I feel like I have chosen to use it as my strength and kind of help fuel me throughout life.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, like I had a younger sister who was born with spina bifida when I was four years old and from a very, very early age I was helping take care of her.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, I catheterized her when I was like six and seven years old.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: I fed her.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: She had to be fed through a G-tube.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: At one point my family had moved to St Croix, the US Virgin Islands, and while we were there she almost died and had to be medevaced to Puerto Rico.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: And while we were in Puerto Rico my mother met somebody and decided to leave my father and leave us.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: So when I was 11, my mom left and I actually had to kind of take care of my little sister, kind of take on that motherly role, and so, yeah, it was lots of challenges, but I don't know, it kind of has made me who I am today.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: So incredible athlete, incredible mother.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Such a good role model for her.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I just like I said, the story was just.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: It blew me away and it's just um so incredible for you to come out of the other end and have this, you know, create what you've created.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my little sister she passed.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: You know her illness was.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: It was there were a lot of complications.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, she had scoliosis, she had to have a trach at.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: When she was in Puerto Rico they put a trach in so she had to be on a respirator cause she couldn't breathe on her own.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: And so when my mom left, it was just she was only seven.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: So I kind of had to like really just make sure she was, I don't know, loved, and I had already kind of, as the older sister, felt that responsibility from a really early age anyway.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, Wow, Thank you for sharing yeah, no problem oh no, it's okay.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: This is um no, I just it's a, it's just, it's a tough story.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: So yeah no, and I like I appreciate it, really appreciate you sharing that um yeah, so I guess we can, we can get more into, um you know, kind of the post with the film and kind of from there, so you tell this amazing story through the film as you're kind of going through the race in western states.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Um, you know, when you saw the finished product of it, like what did you?
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: What did you think?
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: like the up-and-coming film itself the first time, for the first time I thought that the filmmakers knew me really like well to be able to kind of piece it together, because there is a lot.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: I mean they had.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: They had to actually leave a lot out.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Um, I, you know, I also, when I was a teenager, you know, my dad remarried and she was not a nice person, was very abusive.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: They left a lot of that.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: And for, you know, I mean they, they left some things in, but there was a lot they, you know, uh, excluded, which was, you know, totally fine.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: But, um, yeah, I also joined the military.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: They kind of didn't really talk about that, but they showed like military photos throughout the film and so I felt like they told the story really authentically, but also there's a theatrical component to it.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, interesting.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: So it was both artistic and authentic at the same time, if that makes sense yeah, and so I was just very impressed.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I was like wow, like this is beautiful, I mean yeah they did an amazing job I could absolutely kick myself for not going to see it.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: We were so we were at broken arrow last year oh, yeah, yeah and there was a film, there was a showing of it.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: I know and we could see our first showing.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: It was the first showing damn it.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: I was in.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: I'm excuse my language I?
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I was just I.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: I can't remember was it.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: It was after iron face.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: I was really not happy about my performance in that.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, so I was like I don't want to go see any.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: That was actually the weekend we got engaged.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, so.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: I was like kind of like moved my brain and focus onto that, but yeah, Cool congrats, Thank you.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I guess I can kick myself, but I will say it.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: I promise you yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: But the future I think you asked about the future of it.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: The filmmakers have, I guess, made a deal.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: They have a contract with streaming platforms.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: That's amazing so it'll be on Apple, on Google, on Amazon, Hulu.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Dude, you're going to be famous.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: We'll't know.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know, We'll see.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm kind of I don't know if I want to be famous, do you?
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Get stopped in the grocery store at all.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Yet there have been a few occasions where somebody that I don't know has said, oh yeah.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: That is so cool.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: I'm a little afraid of.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: It's a world that I have no experience in.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's different, it's definitely unique.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, I couldn't imagine being.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I've always wanted to ask Joe this.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I'll have to ask him the next time Because he's kind of he's pretty famous.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like he probably couldn't.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, maybe somebody's stopping him at the grocery store to say hey, because he?
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Probably couldn't.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, maybe somebody's stopping him at the grocery store to say, hey, you know to say because I have another friend that's like close with Sage Canada.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: And he's like every time we go to the bar someone comes up, or multiple people come up to like shake his hand or say hi.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's like superstardom there.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll ask Joe.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Tonight he's coming over.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, is he.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a coach's meeting oh, cool, we've got.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: We've got addy on the podcast awesome, um, yeah, so okay, I feel like we got through the film.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: We talked about that, um so you were in the air force.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: I want to dive into thank you first of all.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: Thank you for your service.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Incredible, how long were you in for?
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: I was in for five years.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Okay, I joined kind of right out of high school.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, I spent one year trying to figure out what I could do with my life.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: I wanted to go to college.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: That was something that I knew I wanted to do.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: After I saw all my friends doing it, I mean I wasn't prepared at all.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: My family did not even discuss what to do after high school.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: So once I saw all my friends getting accepted to places and them talking about going to university, I was like I want to do that too.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: And I'm so fortunate that some of my friend's parents kind of mentored me and like literally sat me down at their kitchen table and said what are you going to do with your life?
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: And they said you should go to college.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: And, and you know, it just seemed like an impossible task because I didn't have money like we were poor, um, and they didn't prepare me.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: So it was like I didn't, you know, and I didn't prepare myself.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: I just wasn't ready for university, uh, to be able to pay for it, especially so I, uh.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: But it planted a seed, like them talking to me and telling me you can be more, you can, you can get out of, you know your environment, you don't have to stay there.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: Um, they planted that seed and I started looking at options, and military was the next best option for me.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, so I joined.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: I enlisted in the air force.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Um, I chose a job that I thought would keep me from having to go to war, because that wasn't why I wanted to go into the air force.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: It wasn't to, I don't think, many people to go into the.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: Air Force.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: It wasn't to.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: I don't think many people do join Virgo, yeah, well, yeah, some people do, some people do.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: But that wasn't something that I wanted to do.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: But, honestly, I got to my first duty station after attending all my training and everything, and three or four months later I to baghdad, iraq, and I was there in august of 2003 and the war kicked off in march of 2003, so I was in the green zone.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: I worked at the um republican palace, so saddam's Republican palace, and it had like four of his bust, his head, like huge bust on the on the palace Um and, yeah, I lived and worked in the palace and the green zone and I got to work on women's issues and human rights issues.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, and so it was really amazing.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: I got to work on women's issues and human rights issues.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow and so it was really amazing I got to.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, I got to sit in meetings with Nancy Pelosi and take notes and Hillary Clinton.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: That's really cool yeah.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: I met Paul Wolfowitz, I met Colin Powell, wow, and so I was enjoying it, like the first few weeks of being there definitely took an adjustment because, you know, we got rocketed and bombed quite often.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: And you know we'd get an alarm, we have to take cover, and so we'd all go down into the basement of the palace and just wait it out.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: And that took an adjustment because I had never been in an environment where I was getting bombed, and so I do remember the first few weeks feeling quite like scared and I would cry, you know, in my room.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: I would too, but after it's so interesting we humans are, we're very resilient yeah, we adapt quickly.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: We adapt quickly, and so it was only after a few weeks that the rockets and bombs didn't feel that.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like, eh, we're getting attacked again, yeah, and I left the green zone quite frequently.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: I kind of was the military assistance to the director of governance.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: So I went out and I went to Halabja, I went to Sulaymaniyah, we went to Babylon, all kinds of places.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: We did town hall meetings and tried to kind of bring in the community and like, yeah, make friends and show them that we were there to help and how?
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: how was like were they as receptive or because that was a very tough time?
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: It was a very tough time there was money.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, involved, I'm sure there was.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: I was one of the things I was going to ask you is like, when I think of Saddam, I think of like.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Did he have like Lambos and like Rolls Royce?
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: I have photos of me sitting in Uday his Porsches.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was sitting in his Porsches.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: That's crazy Like his.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Porsches.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: I inventoried his personal belongings, wow.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: And so when we bombed his home, um, we come like we took out everything that was salvageable and put it into the palace basement, and I and two other people are the only people to have inventoried all of his personal belongings oh my gosh, yeah, like that's crazy, it's crazy.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: I have pictures with his, his pipes, all kinds of stuff, wow, yeah, and broken chandeliers, yeah.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Interesting, Wow.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: One question I have on deployment when you found out you were being deployed, how did that feel?
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, that must have been nerve-wracking.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: I did not.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: I was so scared, scared, I did not want to go.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I cried when they told me um.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: I cried for a few weeks.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I put it too yeah, I was, uh yeah, but again, like I got there and I was only supposed to do four months because I was air force and I was actually enjoying the work and everything so much that I extended for two more, so I stayed for six months and then came back home and I was stationed like my permanent duty station was Montgomery, alabama, okay.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: And so I went back to Alabama, worked for the wing commander and I mean that job was interesting, but I didn't really like the location and so I volunteered to go to Korea and then I went to Korea for two years.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Wow, I hear South Korea is amazing.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, it is, I love it.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good food, yeah yeah, really a wonderful place to travel to Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: So I did all of that Thailand, hong Kong, malaysia.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: So you've been everywhere.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: I've been to.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty cool.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: I think I'm at 34 countries.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's amazing.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: And all of this because of the military, I mean and I also got my degree.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: so I was able to get my degree in it and I'm so grateful for the military lived in germany for a little while, and when you were in germany, that's when you started taking up ultra running and trail running correct, correct yeah, and it was really interesting to me because I had I'd done my homework and I saw that like your first hundred miler was like utmb, like that's insane, like that's amazing um yeah what was so?
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: I mean you said when you ran cross, that's how you kind of found out about the trails.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: So when you were in Germany that was just an opportunity to just reconnect.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean Germany has great trails and pretty much all of my running was on the trail and I mean my first like long or endurance race, I guess you could say was a marathon.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: And I did the Athens 2500th anniversary and I did that at 29.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: And so I kind of wanted to do it before I was 30.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: I wanted to do a marathon and so I signed up for that.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: I trained for it by like ripping out a page out of Runner's World and like just following a plan.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: Like it wasn't so crazy.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like not legit, yeah.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: So I ripped the page out of Runner's World and just followed that and ran my first marathon and ran my first marathon and I literally went like back to the hotel room that night in Athens and signed up for the Davos Swiss Alpine 78K.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: And that was my first ultra.
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: And it was six months from that Athens race, from the marathon, so I had six more months to kind of prepare for it.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, that's amazing.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: And the Swiss Alpine was my for it.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, wow, that's amazing.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: And that the, the Swiss Alpine, was my first ultra, wow yeah.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: So it's so interesting to me because you know most Americans get into trail running through American trail running.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Right A little more grassroots.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: It's a little more dialed back, but European trail running is like where it's at.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: You know is like where it's at.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: I know it's wild, I know when you started running.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Well, so you started running trail races in Europe and then you come over back to America and you run trail races.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Was it a little bit of a letdown for you?
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: It was different.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: Our culture is just so different it is very different, like, for instance, you don't have pacers in Europe and so all of the long distance running that I had done I mean I did trans grand Canaria one 28 K you know you don't have a pacer.
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: Uh, I feel like if you were to do that same race here, you would definitely be allowed to have pacers.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: Which, by the way you got, seven place at right yeah, pretty freaking awesome.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Which, by the way you got, seventh place at right.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Pretty freaking awesome.
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: No, not the first year.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: First year you DNFed right.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, I DNFed TDS.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: That's what it was the first year, yeah.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: And that was because I was not prepared.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: I didn't know, like.
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was brand new to trail running for the most or ultra running, I should say and I just didn't pack my clothing in a dry bag.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: I thought my pack would keep everything dry and it would rain like all day.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: I got up high and I just got like hypothermic.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so I had to like drop.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: I hear that's a much better course than actual actually UTMB.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: I love TDS.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: It is rugged, yeah, and it goes near like the Beauforton Valley right.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, somewhere through there.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that is so cool.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: I haven't been over there yet.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: That's like the plan to next summer to go Awesome, do it, do it.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, I guess the difference between European and American racing or running trails and ultra is there's a lot more like I don't know, maybe excitement around a race over there they make a big deal about it.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: The towns come out and cheer you on.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: I mean Trans-Gran Canaria, like I remember running in the middle of the night it was like 3 am and there were like townspeople out cheering with their cowbells.
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: And.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: I was like, wow, and they're like animal, animal, and I had no idea what that meant.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: I was like.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: I thought they were calling me an animal.
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I am an animal.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it just means go, go, go or something like that.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: What is it, ali, ali, ali, ali.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: I think Jeff Colt was the first person that said Ali to me like in an.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: We were talking about something and I was like what does that mean?
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: I had to Google it.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: That's funny.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: I'd love to get into some of your performances.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, like a top 10 at TDS is insane as well, like that's.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: I'm really bad at remembering, no it's fine, let's talk about, like what has been cause.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: I knew like just scrolling through your ultra signup, like you've done so many races and been to so many incredible events, like what's your favorite.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: That's a good question, like overseas or just in general.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, western States is very special.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: You know, it is the first ultra.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: Does it have that like aura around it?
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: It does.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: Utmb is amazing.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: All of the utmb races are pretty do you think you'll go back at some point, or maybe?
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: I um, I'm a little disappointed in some of the stuff that is going on current situation.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, um, but doesn't take away from what it is, it's kind of interesting how it's like.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: It's like the world championship now yeah, it's like the right the race yeah um, yeah, I agree with you, it's.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: It's weird how it's um kind of.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: I just actually had a conversation about this two podcasts ago and we kind of dissected it Like I, I haven't like really, how do I say this?
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: I haven't really like um put together like hard feelings on it yet but I just feel really strongly that I don't want our sport to lose and whether this be sub ultra or whether this be ultra, I just don't want our sport to lose this like really special thing about it.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: I agree, you know, I agree and I worry when you have big corporations coming in and kind of having a say in health.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does make it does take away from the special um, from the ethos, I think, of our, our sport.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: I can't remember his name.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Somebody wrote a book on it recently, man, I got to jog my memory there.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: But he said that our sport is a passion sport.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: It's never going to be triathlon, it's never going to be road racing.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: I don't want it to be that.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, I think once it does change, the other thing is like we can never go back to.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: I read a interesting thing I keep seeing on instagram like people getting really excited to try and like start jockeying for trail running to be in the olympics and uh in the next olympic cycle and at first I'm like, oh, this is really cool.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Like as an elite in the sport, I'm like I think this would really.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: At first you get that idea that like, oh, that would be cool because that changes the platform, it changes everything, changes the sponsorship, changes the money, changes the entire game.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: But then when you think about it it's like why do I do this?
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: I do this because I love spending time in the mountains.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: Right, I don't.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: People you know that are making a living off of it.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm sure they may have a different perspective.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but the majority of us are doing it because we love to push ourselves and test our own personal limits and to be out in the mountains.
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I, I agree, I I'm a little bit um, I don't have all of the information and knowledge on it, but I definitely don't want our sport to change in that way.
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: Like I, I want for um, the purity of it to remain.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Like I'd love to have both the dichotomy where, like I love like the right and broken arrow where there's these huge events with all of these people.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: But I also like going and just like showing up to a race where nobody knows who I am, I don't know who they are, and I'm finishing the race, whether it be on the podium or whether it be last place, and there's like one dude clapping yeah you know and like that's, I'm fine with that like, um, what was the one I did?
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Oh God, it's a 50 miler and they have a hundred.
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: Um, and like the San Juan.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, San Juan Sosa's.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Oh tell you ride, mountain run, I can name.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: I can name a wall.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: I should know, but I don't know.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know steps very well.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: See, that's like my, it's my it's my jam.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: No, you're good, it was in the San Juans.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: Um, you're a.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're right, I you're a 50 okay, so I paced 100 mile last year.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, such a cool race, yeah well, very low key you know like there's no time line was two cones that's a cool race.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, did you win?
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: I think you won.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: No, no, I got second.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: You got second.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that was your.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: You raced.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: Um, oh my gosh, I'm terrible with names today, uh, but anyway, yeah, you had a great performance there, like I I thank you kind of followed around that one um, yeah, and I raced the 100 miler last year, and that is a particularly difficult race because like it's, not like it's point to point right.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: No, no, it's.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: It's up a climb down to the middle exactly, and it's very easy to quit.
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, you have to like yeah, it's a mental game, for sure, because it got it definitely.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: Uh, got really tiring yeah, yeah, very fun.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let me ask you a question.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: So you've got a hard rock shirt on?
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: oh yeah is that.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: Is that a dream race?
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: it is.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, I did high lonesome um last year so that I could qualify for hard rock.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: Nice um, but this was given to me by um.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: I paced both um john sharp, who gave me this shirt when I paced them, uh, and then I paced annie last year.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: Um, did you get to meet jackson jackson cole?
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: I just had him on a few pods ago.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: I think so.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: He runs for Spritiva.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Maybe I'm not sure he paced her as well, oh okay, oh yeah.
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Very cool.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: All right, so you put in for the lottery last year.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Are you going to try to run another?
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: I think it's good for two years or like 18 months maybe.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, I hope yeah, I don't know.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: I'm sub ultra world, so we don't.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: We don't have lotteries, I don't know I, yes, I want to do hard rock and I will try to put in every year, yeah, that I can that's amazing in western states too.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: I put in the lottery again.
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah cool, cool um, they're both definitely on my list again I'm sure I feel like I I could do better at states I feel like you ran what'd you run 26 hours?
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: yeah, it's a pretty solid time I hurt myself like I sprained my ankle or my foot.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: Um, with like 18 miles to go and it, it just slowed it down a lot and I feel like I could do better I mean I I've seen a lot of the course very fast.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah seems like just the fact that like jim can run that in eight something pace it's just absolutely, you know, eight or whatever.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: It's insane yeah, um, yeah, what, uh, I don't know, and I just think, like all the interesting stuff around it, just like hard rock as well just like the community, I think is what makes it so much fun.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I've been around.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: I don't have any intentions of ever running 100 miles, but like just being around that community every year, like we're actually we're getting married like the day of hard rock, believe it or not?
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: oh cool on molas pass.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: So hopefully oh like silverton's, not gonna be too busy.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't say uh, we're already booked, everything's already done, but like it's gonna be um wedding crashers, yeah right right, it's gonna be uh cool it's funny when we I don't know why we picked that weekend I feel like it was not my choice.
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: Really, that is so funny yeah so yeah, um, really quick.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: I just want to dive into, like your, your current season, that you have um, like we talked about gorge a little bit at the beginning.
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: You were at the big alta, I mean what?
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: what did you think of that?
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, I loved it.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: Uh, just to be able to run on like trails that you know, dylan Harmony, really love and are kind of close to their heart because they're their home trails.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: There was something special about that, and then I don't know.
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: I feel like any race that Dylan is a part of is one that I kind of want to be at.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: That guy is like the perpetuator of stoke.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: He's amazing, really is um he puts his heart and soul into it and you can tell, I mean, he really does care about, about, um, yeah, just the experience everybody has yeah, and for a first year, I feel like I mean, just like the coverage they have, everything is just so well done and I mean that was a hard 50k.
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: It had 7 000 plus feet of gain yeah uh, and it was really beautiful.
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: It reminded me a lot of germany at times interesting because even though, like san francisco, you can see it like off in the distance, um, and where we were wasn't like right in the Marin headlands, um, it was a little bit further back and there were like cow pastures that we kind of went through or yeah, and so it kind of reminded me of Germany, that is so cool.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: I've been thinking about putting like the 28 K on my on my list for next year, but we'll, we'll see.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Um, no, that that's cool.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you enjoyed it.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: I was just very curious because my coaches, eli and, had gone out and they they obviously must have had a great time because they oh yeah, they both won, but yeah, um, yeah, I know, I was just uh curious to see how that went um, and you also raced one of the race too.
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: Um, oh, I, I did Behind the Rops Cool.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: That's a classic.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just jumped in that one kind of last minute.
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: I literally decided on Tuesday that I was going to run it on Saturday.
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: Okay, because I realized that I needed one more like really hard effort before the hundred K Um, and I felt like I wasn't going to get that here because we had snow on the trails and they were a bit muddy and so it was a rough trail year in Colorado Springs.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I, I had a.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: I had a tough time trying to run this season.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so I, yeah, I drove to Moab and ran that and that was super fun and I felt, felt like I did well okay, and what did you?
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: uh, just curious like what's on your?
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: What do you got planned for the rest of the year?
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: I.
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: That's a good question.
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: I think I want to show up to san juan solstice, okay, and try to run that.
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: If they'll let me in, if they'll let me in, let me in Um, and potentially run trans Rockies.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, a stage race.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Very cool, yeah, awesome, all right.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: Well, we've been doing this for an hour now.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start winding down with some, some interesting questions.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: Addie will be happy.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, addie, a couple more questions.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: You'll like these ones.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: What's your take on the aliens?
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: On what.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: On the aliens.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: On aliens, oh, I feel like it would be hard to believe that they don't exist, okay, and that they're not out there.
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, I'm sure there's some other life form out there.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Probably is.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: I feel, like I always like kind of I get some iteration of these dumb questions.
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I got a serious one for you, okay.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Who's your goat?
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Who's your male and female mountain running goat?
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: Could be ultra, could be sub-ultra, it doesn't matter.
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: Mountain running goat oh, could be ultra, could be sub ultra, okay, it doesn't matter.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: Um, I'd have to say killian has always been one of my favorites.
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: Um, when I started getting into ultras he was hitting the scene kind of early.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: You know, he was like the new kid on the block yeah and I just loved what he was doing with his project the Seven Summits, and I just yeah, I've always admired him and for female, you probably get this one a lot, but I mean, I think Courtney is pretty much the female goat.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's negotiable at this point.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: There's no argument and you know what I really loved is, um, after I was done pasting annie, uh, I went to the finish line to watch courtney finish and you know she had just like crushed that race and instead of like going back to her room and kind of hibernating or like disappearing, she went inside the um uh gymnasium and she chatted with people.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: And I know she wasn't feeling great because, like I started talking to her and I was telling her how our day went and like I was like you're you know, I was telling her how amazing she was and just um, just kind of chatting about everything.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: She asked how Annie was amazing she was and just um, just kind of chatting about everything.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: She asked how Annie was doing and as we were talking, like I think her stomach started to turn and she was like, oh, she like puked in the garbage but like to to be so tough, to like run the race and then hang out after and chat with people.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: I thought was really um gracious of her and just pretty amazing she looked rough at ure and then, like came back from the, dead at like on camper, I know I remember yes, I remember her at ure.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I almost thought she would probably drop and then pass the I can't remember her name the French female, I think.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was a French female.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: I know who you're talking about.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: Past her?
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: I can't remember her name but like, and then like, but not just past her, like dominating.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, courtney's amazing.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: She's amazing, yeah, so I have all the respect for Courtney.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, that's a good selection.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: That's undebatable, Right and of course.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: I was curious just because I know how close you are with Joe.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you were going to.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, I mean.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: That's no shade of Joe.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: No, I love Joe, you know, but I can't Because.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: Joe is my goat, oh, okay yeah, I say that up there and definitely, uh, one of my goods.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, cool, cool all right.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Well, I think this is a good one.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Is there anything you want to end on?
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: I can.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna put all the plugs at the end.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: My outro, okay so we'll plug the camp.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: We're gonna plug uh the film we'll plug your non-profit and then plug your instagram and the podcast as well.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: Cool, thank you, of course.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: Is there anything you want to end on?
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: Um, no, I don't think so.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, I feel like we covered a lot.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I think that's it.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for being on.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate it.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having us.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: What'd you guys think?
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: I told you you were going to like it Um what an episode and just what a story.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: Uh, I just want to say again thank you so much to dream of her coming on to tell her story and to talk about everything that she has going on in, uh, just in our community.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: Um, just really impactful and just an amazing story that you know, I hope you all really enjoyed.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: So before we get going, I've got a bunch of plugs for dreamer.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: Uh, the first one is we're going to plug her Instagram.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: You guys should go ahead and give her a follow, uh, send her a DM, let her know what you guys thought of the episode and definitely hit her up about her.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: I must said movie.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: You could say movie could say also say documentary, hit her up a better documentary, dream, a team.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: So you're going to find her on Instagram.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: That's going to be a dreamer.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: D R E A M A Walton Pretty easy to spell, pretty straightforward to find.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: It's just her first and last name.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: Second thing is Dreamateam.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: That has an Instagram as well for her documentary.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: You can find that at Dreamateam.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: It's also tagged in her Instagram bio.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: The next thing we're going to plug is her trail running camp that she puts on along with Joseph Gray and Brandon and Melissa Stepanowich in Colorado Springs.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: So if you have a young one out there and are thinking about trying to find some cool activities for your child to get into this summer, definitely think about it.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: Registration is open.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: It's called Colorado Springs TRCK, so COS underscore TRCK.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: That's on Instagram and you can find it as well online at wwwcotrailruncom.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: So that's C-O-T-R-A-I-L runcom and I think, like I said, dreamer had mentioned that registration is still open.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: So if you guys are interested, go ahead and find that and if you have any questions, send Dreamer a DM as well, and then the last plug we have is dream is latest project.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: Um, really fun, really enjoyed this.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: In fact, I can't wait to be a guest on it as well.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: Um, it is called the beyond the trail podcast.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: Um, and you guys can go ahead and find that on Spotify and Apple as well as YouTube.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: Um, I think the YouTube version is kind of the best because it has the video.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: It's pretty frigging dope.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: Really enjoyed it.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: And if you are a local to the Colorado Springs area, you're really going to enjoy it because there's lots of little tidbits and little pieces of historical information on there and you get to see a lot of familiar faces local to the area as well.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I just really enjoyed it.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: So that's going to be called again beyond the trail podcast, and you could find that on spotify, apple as well as youtube and probably most places.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: Uh, that podcasts are found.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: Um and again, go ahead and shoot a dm to dream.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: I'll let her know what you guys thought of this episode.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: I hope you all enjoyed this.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: Until the next time, I'm your host, james lariello, and this is the Steep Stuff Pod.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you.