Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / Lara Hamilton | A Journey Through Sport and Music, from Olympic Skimo Hopeful to Mountain Runner

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Lara Hamilton | A Journey Through Sport and Music, from Olympic Skimo Hopeful to Mountain Runner · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What is up, my people?
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lauriello, and we're going to hop into another exciting episode.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: None other than Laura Hamilton joins the podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: The ski mountaineer and mountain runner by way of Sydney, australia joins the pod.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: We chat all about the 2026 Olympics for Schemo that Laura is in the process now of trying to make the team for Australia.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I know it's a long and lengthy process and she's kind of beginning the process now, although she's been training for it for many years, like many athletes have been.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: We also dive deep in her 2024 and plans for her 2025 mountain running season.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: We talk about her life as well as a DJ, the sacrifices that she has to make and that most of these athletes have to make in order to try to make the Olympic teams.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Um, but talk about so much.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Talk about the golden trail series.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: The golden trail series final Um, it's a fun one.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: This is one of uh, one of the one of the really exciting episodes that I'm excited to hop into, uh to start the year.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, I'm going to stop mumbling, I'm going to get into it.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Laura Hamilton is on the Steep Stuff podcast.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: It's time, ladies and gentlemen, we are live Laura Hamilton.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Steep Stuff.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: How's it going?
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: It's going awesome.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me on the podcast.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so excited we were finally able to do this, like I feel like we've been, we've like talked on and off for like months now and obviously you, we, you know where you live.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: You're in the gunny valley and that general area and I was just like I'm in colorado springs, do you?
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Have any yeah, do you ever want to come out to the front range?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: and you're like, well, not really only rarely at this point, you know, especially in ski season, I'll be leaving behind the powder.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Well, hey, I'm so glad we were able to finally do this, especially on the cusp of some big plans that you've got coming up for 2025.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: So I couldn't think of a better time to sit down and finally have a conversation.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: If you wouldn't mind introduce yourself for the audience and maybe give us a little background.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah Well, hi guys, I'm Lara, that's obvious.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: We talked about that.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I am originally from Sydney, australia, which is a big city, and I moved to the US for NCAA collegiate running in what was it?
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: 2019, and was on that program for three years doing my master's and once I graduated I went back to Australia and decided, hey, I really want to pursue mountain sports.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: It's going to be better for me to try and be in the US for that.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: So I did everything I could to try and find a job in the US and was successful with that and moved my life over here in late 2021.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: First to Boise and then to Colorado in early 22.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: And I have been in the Gunnison Valley ever since and I love it.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, welcome.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Well, it's.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Well, I couldn't think of a more beautiful place to live.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: It's so funny.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I think I've like literally emptied out the gun, like the Gunny Valley of like just athletes that have been on my podcast.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Now, like literally everybody's either gone to Western, has some affiliation with Western or lives in the area.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: It's kind of funny.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a great place to train.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: The altitude can be tough, though, like for full recovery, but I think you can make it work and use it to your advantage.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's so true.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Well, let's, let's rewind this and take it back a little bit.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Like being from Sydney, australia, like I think people think of Sydney as either like especially Americans, because Americans are funny that way Like we either think of like finding Nemo, or we think of like kangaroos and giant spiders at least, maybe that's just me but like what was it like growing up in such a different place than where you are now?
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what I loved it, and as I've grown older and learned more lessons and been lucky enough to see a lot of the world and the way people live, I realized more and more how thankful I am for the way that I grew up.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: So, um, a lot of time outside.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: That's probably a family thing as well.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Um, I grew up surfing and skiing before I knew that I had learned to do that.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: So you know, when you learn new skill as an adult, it's you're really conscious about it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Um, you go through um the emotions a little more heavily with when you're a kid, and then you just grew up knowing how to do it.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: That's a gift, and you're not as aware, um, so, yeah, you can ski in australia.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: It's awesome.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: We would spend our winters um going to school and then getting time off school to go compete for the school in skiing, which is awesome.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Um, surfing up and down the coast on road trips.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Uh, you do wear uniforms at school and I actually loved it.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: I hate having to choose what to wear every day, and that's that really surprises people here.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: For high school, I went to an all-girls school and that's also abnormal, but in Australia it's actually more common because our school system isn't quite the same.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: I think I do prefer what you guys do over here with that, but I had a really awesome upbringing and I'm so thankful to my parents because I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now, at a high level, if it wasn't for them.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: That's so cool.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So in some of the research I did about you, I think I read somewhere parents skied right.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Is that true as well?
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of the upbringing skiing, and we can kind of fold that into schemo and nordic skiing and stuff like that for what you do now.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Um, that's so interesting.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: So you were nordic skiing then in your formative years well, I started as a downhill alpine racer through the gates, okay quickly realized that I am never going to be a muscly like super powerful um build to take that to a high level like I took it to a high level within the school system.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Um, but I was also competing at Nordic the same time, so the school would send me to compete in alpine skiing and Nordic skiing, um, and then I just was better at the endurance side of things.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Um, still kept downhill skiing for fun.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: I was very lucky.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Um, my parents like to ski overseas so we would save up and then we would come to the US and ski.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: And I took Nordic further after school but then found a love for running quite late and took that, you know, pretty far in the track and cross-country world and kind of put Nordic to sleep for a little while, just with the ncaa.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Um, I still got out to ski.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: They did give me permission to do that, given that I already knew how, um, that's like an anomaly when it comes to ncaa normally they don't let you ski um.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: And then when I moved to gunnison, I needed another way to stay fit.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: It's super, it's so snowy, you know, it's uh, it's so snowy, you know, it's, uh, I think, the coldest in the lower 48 too.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: So I picked up ski mountaineering.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: You know, I just put the uphealing of the classic style of Nordic, combined with my downhill skills, and then you know I'm now really trying to perfect those transitions and boom, you've got ski mountaineering, kind of.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Kind of no, I got it.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I got it.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, resort ski mountaineering.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about SkiMo.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I don't want to bury the lead too much, especially going into the 2025 and then 2026 season.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: It seems like a lot of, not just people in the Ghani Valley, but just across the country and across the world, are getting ready for SkiMo and the Olympics, and you're definitely one of them.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Can you maybe talk about the planning, the preparation?
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: the process, the goals and just like what your plans are for that.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, planning an itinerary for this has been tricky.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: You could see it as fun, but you're bopping around from World Cup to World Cup in all these tiny ski resorts in different countries, like my first stop is Andorra, never before super excited, um, but you know trains, planes and automobiles.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Um, this is a first for me.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Two months of that.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a great experience.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, before I go to europe, I'm going to compete at the us nationals.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: As someone who's foreign, I'm not allowed past a lot of the qualifying rounds.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: So, really, this race, these races for me next week are to brush up my skill set in a race environment with a bit more pressure.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Um, come back home, train hard for a couple of weeks and then you know um go to the big dance and do as best I can Um preparation for this.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: I.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: It's funny, cause I was running the other day.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I was really thinking about this.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: It hasn't just been this year, it's been before.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I even knew what ski mountaineering was, because I think since I was 15 I've had coaches um for endurance sports that are on skis.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Um, I've been in the gym, mountain biking, running just always consistent since that age and competing in different sports.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: So when I think about it, you know it's been since then and I wanted to go to the Olympics for surfing when I was 15.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: And I remember my parents saying hey, like we live 20 minutes from the beach, like the kids that you're competing against live on the beach.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: It was really hard.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I tried it and it kind of took the love out of surfing for me.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, I just prefer to keep that a hobby.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Then it was for Nordic skiing.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Um, then it was for track and who you know?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: I found schema and then the opportunity opened up and I was like I gotta go for it.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: So it's been more specific.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: But this has been a really long process, um, psychologically, emotionally, the training, um, and we're putting it all together now that's so exciting.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: You must be like ecstatic, like so stoked, especially because, like the big dance and like just getting I don't know.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I feel like I had cam on and cam explained a lot of stuff to me from from so more so like the American side, on how, how, like to get in and stuff like that.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: And it's dude, what a long process just to like get a qualification spot and then to go and then to compete.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: It's like I don't know.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: To me it felt like this is emotionally, mentally and physically exhausting, so like I don't know it's going to be exciting.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Uh, you know, I have I've now met through the podcast so many people that are trying to get in through schema, so like I'm really hoping that like one of you get it, like somebody gets in, so I'd be like, oh my God, I know an Olympian.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about from the cause?
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I know we briefly touched on this before the podcast.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Can you maybe talk a little bit about the process, on how, from the australian side, how that gets in, because it's it's through oceania.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Is that correct?
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Do you have to?
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: It's battling it out through the oceanic countries?
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: but look, um, australia is like the domineering force, and take everything I say with a slight grain of salt, because sometimes it's even a little confusing to me.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, you get sent this big pdf document with all these bullet points and all these percentages and like a qualifying standard b, qualifying standard c, and then a little extra one that says discretionary, and you're like what?
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: So then my brain goes well, just do as best you can, um, which is all you can do.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: But, but essentially, to qualify for the Australian team, you needed to have shown that you're competent and able to be competitive in the Olympic disciplines, which is sprint and mixed relay.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: And for me, I competed at the World Cup last year, which helps you potentially get onto the world championships team this year.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: And you should try and be on the world championships team, um, which is just a set of races in switzerland in march, because that is part of our olympic qualifying process.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: But that's only two women and two men.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Then there's three other world cups world cups four, five and six, which are part of our qualification process, so you can qualify without going to world champs.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: But it would really help to go to world champs, and world champ selection is based off all your other results.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of tiered in a way that to get on the australian team then you have to do well in other races.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Then you come to Olympic trials, um, but your races beforehand do count, um, to help with your Olympic trials.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: So everything I wouldn't.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's a domino effect or something, but like you have to hit a bunch of points to kind of get to the final destination, um, and then you know it's up to the federation to pick who they think is going to be the best representative at the end of all of that.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow, that's so crazy.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Um, are you stress excitement, like like what's what's the emotions?
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Like is it's a lot of ups and downs between now and then you think, or like how does that work?
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Um, I have to say, and I've done some pretty high level competition, you know um.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: I used to be good on the track, but it's not my focus anymore.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Um, I've never been so concentrated and focused on anything in my life.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Um, it does change who you are a little bit, I've noticed.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: I am trying to, you know, ease into that side of me.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: But there is so many sacrifices, like I'm moving house to somewhere cheaper still within the Valley to cut costs.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: I didn't get to go see my family for Christmas, which was the plan, because the costs are going to Schemo.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Um, I got a new job and the job is flexible, but I just make ends meet so I can keep training.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Um, I bought on a strength coach.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: There's been so many um, just big changes.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: And knowing about to live out a suitcase, basically starting next week, um, for two months, is a big know, a big thing.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: And when I'm out training by myself I'm lucky to have a lot of training partners Sometimes I get emotional.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not happy, I'm not sad, I'm not frustrated, I'm not angry, I'm not anxious, I'm just like whoa.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: I am so ready to go and do this because this has just been a culmination of so many years.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: You know, whether I get a spot or I don't, or I, you know, do really well in one race and another.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: That's like kind of out of my control at this point.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: I've done everything I can, yeah, but we're at a culmination of physical, emotional, mental.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: You know, I I need to.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: I need to go and do this at some point because I will say it's not sustainable to keep up this much training for a long time.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what a ride, man.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I don't ski, I'm more so on the mountain running side, and I just get so hyped and so excited for the season ahead.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: And then, when the season's over, you almost go through a little bit of a depression.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: You're like, oh it's over, damn, I don't know.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I just feel like the ride for over, like you almost go through like a little bit of a depression.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: You're like, oh, this it's over, damn, you know, I don't know.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I just feel like the ride for something like that, especially for an olympic build, is just insane and just, I don't know, pretty admirable, very cool.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: So, wow, uh, and what is the training like?
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Are you doing?
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Like, what does it look like for this?
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Are you uphill in crested butte all the time, or like, what are you?
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: What are you doing?
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: um well, I'll say we're only at the 3rd of January and I'm probably almost on 60 days on skis at this point wow um, my goal was like 100 for the season, but I'm easily going to do that.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Um yeah, because I've never like gone all in on skiing.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Normally I'm running a too, and I am still running a lot, but not as much as last year.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: So, training-wise, I'm training for a three to four-minute event in the sprint, and then I haven't actually done a mixed relay.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do one next week.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: But I've studied it a lot and I understand what's required of it and that is probably closer to.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: You know what my engine's made for.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: So like a 10-minute, two times 10-minute effort.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, basically for training, I am in the gym a lot, not necessarily lifting really heavy weights, but that was a massive game changer to me because I wasn't accessing my full power.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: So all the good uphill results you've seen from me lately are because I changed up a bunch of things in the way that I train, especially having ankylosing spondylitis.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: So I am born extremely stiff.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: I have never been able to touch my toes.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: You can't train it into me, I just can't.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: But using the strengths I do have.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I've become, I think, a powerhouse on the uphills now and I'm pretty stoked about it.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: I have didn't even realize I had this talent and I am just building off it since October.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Um, I practice my downhill skiing a lot.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: There's gates.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: You need to be able to turn sharp corners on these tiny skinny skis.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: I also run five to six hours a week, a long run and a couple of runs that are over an hour.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: And yeah, then there's also the emotional piece.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: I speak to a sports psychologist.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely everything is optimized right now because it has to be.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: That's going on.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, can we talk a little bit.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Let's talk weights and like spending time in the weight room.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Cause I think I literally feel like I say this in every podcast, Cause I was just so blown away by cam telling me he was in the gym like four to five hours a week.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: I was like damn dude, and that that rubbed off on me like from a mountain running perspective, because now I feel like I spend way more time in the gym than I ever used to and it does.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: It makes such a difference for uphill running.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I don't think people I don't think people get it.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Um, but from a power perspective, like what are you, what are you doing?
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Like, uh, in the gym yeah.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: So most people probably think, when they hear the word power, that I'm in there doing like super heavy squats, you know, going down slow and, um, rising up really fast.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: I'm not.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: I am learning to use my muscles correctly to access their full power, full range of motion, because I haven't done that for 25 years, um, and only now am I, um, so there's a bunch of mobility that's blended in with strength, so it's like a strength mobility exercise.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: We're working with my current limitations to be, you know, superpowers, like I raise my heels when I do a lot of my stuff because my mobility isn't great in that respect, but it allows me to access my muscles with that blockage that I have and you know it's really working right now.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm not in the gym like an hour every day, but like 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes, then maybe an hour session, just a bit by bit, uh, tapping away at everything, like we do scapula control.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Um, we have glute focus sessions rather than like a whole body session two times a week, which is more of a running thing, but I still do this, uh, for running now too.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it makes a difference even for running too.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Like just there's little, I mean from the like a plyometric perspective and, like you said, just being able to use your muscles in the right way, Like you don't have to be like doing anything fancy, but like, even if you're playing with the box, like doing box jumps in the right way, or like single leg stuff, like all those little things make such a difference for power and like being able to uh, just I don't know just not hurt yourself.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I mean injury prevention too.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, it's interesting.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: So one of the things you touched on is um, did you say you spit spondylitis?
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Is that what you had?
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: said or something like that with your it's it's a bit of a mouthful.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Um, it's ankylosing spondylitis.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: So ankylosing spondylitis is a inflammatory, rheumatological autoimmune disease.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: You're born with it.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Um, as you get older it gets worse.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: It kind of only presents in your early to mid twenties.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: But it takes a lot of doctor's appointments to figure out because to end up at a rheumatologist you had to have gone through other doctors.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: But you know, you find out through a series of MRIs and the MRIs progressively get worse inflammatory markers in the blood and then a bunch of testing and also trials of the medication.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: And if you don't have it the medication won't work, and if you do you'll feel almost normal again, which I am lucky to have right now.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: But this medication is ridiculously expensive and I'm on scholarship for it because I would have no money if it wasn't for that.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, and how did you so?
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: How do you train with it?
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Like does it?
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: You're on the medicine and it completely just like like you're able to feel okay, and completely knocks it off.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah um, look, I notice when I get to the end of the 30 days of the dosage, because I'm taking an injection once a month now.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Um, I used to take it twice a month, but your body will start to recognize it and then it won't work anymore.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: And I'm trying to extend the lifetime of the medication because at some point I'm going to run out of medications and then I don't know what to do.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: So I'm really I'm on my second medication I think they've made four or five, and that's maybe how much time I have left to do this at a high level.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, by the end of that course, you start to feel a little bad, um, and then you're like, okay, wait for the 31st or the 30th to come around so I can feel good again.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Then you take the injection and you kind of feel sick.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: For a couple days, like yesterday, I didn't feel well because your immune system gets all suppressed.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: And then give it a day or two and boom, you're back.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Um, but this has taken three, four years to dial in.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Um, what works for me when you first get diagnosed?
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Um, it sucks.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: You have to go through a series of tablets that don't really work, but they make you do it.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: It's so dumb.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: And then you have to go through a really long process to get the injections approved and you have to trial the injections.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: They take about 12 weeks to kick in and then finally you might see some relief.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: But then you have to combine that with strength and mobility every single day, a diet that's not inflammatory, and if I don't get good sleep it's horrible.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: And this is the first year 2024, and coming into 25, where I've actually felt like a normal human.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, otherwise it used to affect my mood so much, so I'm pretty grateful right now.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: That's crazy, it's interesting to me, so I'm pretty grateful right now.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: That's crazy, it's interesting to me and the reason I brought it up is because in the research that I did for our podcast there's an American Trail Running article where I guess it was Tate Pullman that had written a little bit about your experience with this and gone through it and I'll link that in the show notes for the listeners.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: But can you talk a little bit about that?
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I think it was the experience the Golden golden trail final where you were at the final and had to go.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: You had to go, but back to australia to get an mri because you weren't sure what was wrong with you.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Is that correct?
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, the the story isn't like exactly like that, but it's very similar.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: So this was 2023.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Um, I was so lucky.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I achieved my dream of, uh, getting to the Golden Trail finals through getting a US Canada national spot, so the golden ticket and I had this huge flare up.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: I remember I was so ready, I was so fit.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: I went to do a track workout with my housemate one night and I warmed up and I was like this is going to be killer because I was set to fly out that weekend.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: It was a Tuesday, um, and I did one stride and I was like awesome.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: And then I stopped and boom, like electric shocks down both my legs and I just thought, oh no, like something's happened.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: I tried not to panic but, um, you know, the tears came and I got a couple of emergency appointments in with like the people around here, but no one could really explain what was going on because I was like, have I torn something?
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: No, I haven't torn anything.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: My disease had just really got the best of me.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I was pushing training really hard.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: I didn't have all the knowledge I had now back then and maybe it could have been prevented.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I tried to rest, rest, rest and up until the last moment I was allowed to, I was like I am not going to be able to come and that broke my heart because I remembered in 2020, when they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, I was sitting on the couch at home in Australia with my dad in lockdown and I put on that video on YouTube with like more Matisse and all of them in the Azores it's such a cool video Running the golden trail, like highlights and I said one day I'm going to be there and everyone in my family kind of looked at me weird because I hadn't run in eight months.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I, you know, wasn't super athletic anymore.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: No one knew what was wrong and I had finally done it.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: I was like I'm here Three years later, I'm going, and then I couldn't go and I did spend a little bit of time in probably like contextual depression, but I swam, I biked, I yogured my way out of that um and came back better and just started again and made it this year, but I didn't make it off qualifying Cause I wasn't able to do again another flare up, savage my series and now um.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: But I was like I'm going to pay my way there and I'm going to show that I belong in that overall top 30.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: And I did that, and sometimes that's how it rolls.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing Not to pivot too hard to the Golden Trail series and just plans for 2025.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: But I did see you signed up for some of the stuff with Broken Arrow.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: What do you got planned for 2025?
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Especially in conjunction with getting out, because you'll be getting off the ski season, I guess, going into running season.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: So are you going to do a lighter running season this year?
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Like, what do you got planned?
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: It is hard to say because, dependent on what happens with schema, and then you know, I've got the grand traverse when I get back here, which is a super cool race from Crested Butte to Aspen.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: That will close out.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: I have one more race in early April.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: That'll close out my Schemo season, um.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: But then I have the GoPro Mountain Games in Vale, because Mountain Games and Vale Valley Foundation um sponsored me this season and through till June, and I feel super appreciative of that and and so I'm going to go there and compete in some of the running events and hopefully play a gig, some DJing.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: So combine my two favorite things.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about that.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I will go to Broken Arrow and then probably onto the Mexico Golden Trail series.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: We just are planning that side of things with Golden Trail.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Now I'm still deciding about my time in Europe.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: I am trialling for the Australian team in world mountain running.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: I would love to go for the vertical and classic, like I did in 23,.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: But we'll see what happens there and that's that.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: I'll be pretty happy if I can do broken arrow mountain games and, you know, world champs and maybe one other golden trail.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: You know it doesn't need to be perfect yeah, yeah, what is that like?
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: what's the qualification like on from the australian side for, like when they pick their world's team?
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Because, like, we have our qualifiers.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: If you will do, you guys have like a similar thing, or yep, so there's qualifying races but, um, the selection period has started in april last year and runs through to the end of march this year for like races that would count.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: But then they actually have a trial and I think there's four women, four men for each discipline.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: So a couple spots are racing man, couple of spots are off the trials.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: So you know I'll be putting forward my performances.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: That I've done recently in my application.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah because I'm going to get a ton of running races in between now and when it shuts Right right and I feel like just off your, what was it back in?
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: was it october when you placed sixth um at the at that vk can you talk a little bit about, because that was a lights out performance phenomenal.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you, this is wild actually.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Um, now that I think about it because I was gonna use it as a tune-up for the golden trail that next weekend and I caught a plane.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: The travel took forever and I'm in this car going from Milan to Chiavenna around Lake Como, and this drive takes forever because if you ever drive around Lake Como it's full of tourists and traffic and so what should take a short amount of time takes forever.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: And I just remember feeling nauseous, delirious and waiting for this van that got me from the airport, from the world mountain running, to pick up other people.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: But then I quickly realized we're not picking anyone else up so I thought well, you race in less than 24 hours.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: You know 24 hours off the plane you better like lie down as much as possible if you want to try and do anything good in this race.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: So I'm like lying in this van trying to sleep.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I did fall asleep and then woke up in Kiervena, shoved a bunch of food down, didn't do any shakeout, jog, just lay down, lay down, lay down.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Did some mobility, woke up, still kind of like where am I?
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Jogged over to the start line.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: I was like you know, I feel all right and sea level and and just told myself get to the top as fast as possible, because then you know, not that it'll be over, but like the pain, um, and I I'm really good at racing myself um, and it felt a lot like what I used to train on at home in australia, with a lot of stairs and a lot of just really steep stuff, um.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I don't know, I just, I just did it.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: I think I just didn't overthink it, I just got up and ran up a hill as fast as I could, yeah yeah, oh my god.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: And like it looked like such a tormentingly terrible court, like not like not to talk anything bad about the race because it looked fun, but the course with the steps, like I train on the incline a lot because I live in manitou and I'm on the incline like three or four times a week but I still hate stairs, like it's, it's the worst.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: So being able to run fast upstairs I don't know especially you're kind of tall.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty short, so like I don't know, for short people it's not not as fun.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I feel like for taller people it's a little bit easier for stairs, I don't know.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Look I don't know.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: But, um, I always think about it as like changing gears.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: So you have like big stride, fast running, where you extend out.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: You have like the little tippy toe running and then you know power hiking.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: You can power hike with your arms swinging, you can power hike by, you know pushing down on each leg.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: So all these different gears and I just tried to do whatever was most efficient for the grade um or the train ahead and make that decision, because I tested out on treadmills all the time.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I realized I'm actually sometimes faster power hiking If I pretend to have poles in my hands can't explain to you why rather than pushing on my knee like the typical style there's probably a name for it.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: But yeah, when I figured that out I was like, oh okay, only bring that out the arms when you feel so, so tired, um, and I visualize the poles in my hands and I just go, yeah interesting the way I guess, like with weight distribution, and that makes a lot of sense.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I might try that tomorrow on the incline.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I'll let you know.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think it changes your body position.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and since I grew up skiing, it's a lot familiar, more familiar to me to do that that makes sense.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: How was it?
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Is that the first race you ever did, where it was like no, I wouldn't say wave starts, but it was like one person goes and then wait a couple minutes and or however many seconds and then the next person goes.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Like it wasn't like a full-on start with like a mass start.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Um, what did you think of that like?
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Was that a little weird to like have to race yourself on a time trial?
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: um, so I feel like I do really well when I'm being chased yeah I'm chasing.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: I I love it.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Um, it feels more like cross-country and track days.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, 30 second waves.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Um, I just told myself do not let the people behind me get me, um, at all costs.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: I didn't give myself a choice and I didn't, and then I realized, oh, you should actually start hunting down people up the front.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: So that became my next goal is like I'd see one person.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: I need to go pick them off.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: I just loved it and, growing up in nordic skiing, a lot of the races are time trials, because you just can't send that many people off in such a narrow track right um, and this is a real vk, um, it's one of the most like, accurate in the world for the distance and the elevation and it's so narrow you couldn't have a mass start because there's nowhere for it to funnel, like you know, to have the people go.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Single file yeah, I noticed a lot of people like I noticed christian allen was wearing like road shoes, like he was wearing like nike alpha flies or something like that.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Like, did you wear road shoes?
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Like what did you?
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: What'd you go with?
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: no, um, that's impressive.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: It had rained a lot, it was pretty slippery um, and I just didn't want to fall face.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: First I wore salomon s slab ultra three.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: They're my favorite.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: There's probably no cushion um, I do not like cushion, I just like to feel the ground, but love good grip um and some stiffness through the midsole, and that's what I picked interesting.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, I gotta find out what's I?
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: I know I kind of asked joe what he wore.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I know, like a lot of people, it was very weird to see guys in like in like road shoes and vks, like I don't know.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: It's always strange to me.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Are you, uh?
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Are you are you pumped for uh, the broken arrow?
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Vk this year.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I feel like this one out of uh.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I mean I thought last year was stacked, but iK this year.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I feel like this one.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I mean I thought last year was stacked but I think this year might even be more bananas, because now that it's a selection race for the US for Worlds, it's kind of crazy.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be awesome because the field's going to be so good and the field in 24 was so good, so it's going to level up again probably, which is amazing, the course is it's changed.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Right, it's a little bit different.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's not a lot of the races in the US are true?
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Vk, I don't think it has 1,000 meters, which would probably be 3,000 feet of vertical gain, but you know, it simulates it, I think, it being more runnable.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: I just picked the wrong strategy last year.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Um, I took poles and that is not a poles one.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: Um, now I know that and yeah, we'll see.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Course wise, I know what I need to practice to do well at that, but I much prefer, like super steep 1000 meter short distance vks oh wow.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Have you ever come out here and ran the incline before?
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: um, oh, I've done it, but I didn't time trial it, I just you gotta come out and do a time trial.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I always.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: It's always fun to see like different athletes come out and just throw down times on it.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: It's, it's pretty wild, so it's a springtime, a springtime incline would be great yeah, there you go.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be interesting.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Are you doing the 23k or the 46k this year?
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: The 23k and the vk okay so 23 oh wow so that's going to be the golden trail series race.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: So that'll be dope yeah, so exciting to have it so close to home.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, finally finally, finally, finally.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Are you so I mean I would imagine you'll probably go to Worlds I would say, like that's probably like a probable thing for you Like?
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Are you like, have you thought at all about like that Pyrenees course and like what that looks like?
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Or, you know, are you just taking things one step at a time?
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm pretty lucky to be going to the Pyrenees for a very significant amount of time.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: here soon I am going to live in Font-Rameau at the athlete center there which is in the French Pyrenees, and I'm going to get myself a car and I'm going to drive over to the area and just have a look yes, it'll probably be wintry, but probably not as wintry as Colorado gets.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: And just have a look.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, it'll probably be wintry, but probably not as wintry as Colorado gets.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: I then, if selected, will plan on living around the course for a little while and practicing on it and training on it because, I did pretty well at Innsbruck, but I know I can do better.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: Just how much I've improved the last few years and having an idea of the course and how to go about it strategically would be awesome.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: So, that's my plan, if that happens.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I love that all-in approach that's so dope you have to.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Oh for sure it takes so much time and money and stuff because our team isn't funded at all.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: I feel like you may as well just go all-in.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, for sure, for sure.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Pivoting back to Schemo, one of the questions I thought was interesting because you did say it was the Grand Traverse Are you more motivated Schemo-wise, more from a performance perspective or the adventure, because I was going to pivot that into a question about Pira Menta and some of those longer races.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Does that interest you at all?
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, right now, at my age, with the capacity I have to work at a really high heart rate for a certain amount of time, I really want to capitalize on that because I know that you know hard rock, 100, all of those types of races for running Piero, menta, pdg I want to do that stuff, but I have time to do that stuff.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: You know, I still want to run a faster 5k on the track at some point, but that doesn't last forever.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Um, and I would love to perfect my ice climbing skills.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, do some more rock climbing, but right now, with my goals, it's not conducive to that.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Um, and I would like to take my time with that and really enjoy the process.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: So I adventuring, um, you know there's red lady here which you can do before work, and it's super cool because you go the glades.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: If the avi danger is high, you can drop into the bowl which is powdery.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Um, but yeah, nothing too wild right now, because it's just not what I'm training for yeah, yeah, no, I just love the focus you're just just all in on on that one goal.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: That's pretty dope.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's cool.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Um, so it's your like long-term plan, like, do you want to like, would you or will you ever go back to Australia, or do you want to plan to stay in America as long as you can?
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so I don't plan like that because my life's not like.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, I, you know, came to the US for a job Exactly Like that's.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: I like my career and I like what I do and I do my best I can at it, and it does help me stay here.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: But you know, I have two jobs.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: I am an athlete and I actually have three musician and marketing and so whether I achieve these goals will help determine that.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: But also, I'm the type of person that if I don't achieve the goal, I'll just move to the next one or find a new one.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: And whether that goal's here in Australia, I don't know, it's hard to tell.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: I just kind of go where the wind takes me right now, oriented by my goals.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: Um, I don't, you know, own a house, I don't own a pet, um, so I've set up my life that I can, you know, chase those things with a full heart whilst I'm young.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, that's so dope.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: All right, let's finally talk about being a dj.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: I've been wanting to ask you about this for the longest time.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: So, like, how did this come about?
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: And like like I, I hope you are the first like professional athlete, slash dj that we get, like in trail running, slash schemo.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: It's pretty dope.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: So how, where did this come from?
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: yeah, and do you mind if I tell a cool story at the end?
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: yeah, please it's one of those stories you would share over like a drink at a bar with all your mates and it would be funny.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: So I actually have, um, a master's of music performance in opera singing.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: So I'm professionally trained opera singer.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, I can still sing like that.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I just practice in my room but there's no gigs and all the gigs that you could get are like weddings and stuff like that that they book ages in advance and they always clash with my race schedules and I would rather be in the mountains than dressed up to sing for 10 minutes at someone's wedding.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: But I was like, hey, music is such a big part of my life and it was growing up and I don't do enough of it, and if I don't have music I don't feel safe, almost because sport is such a high, high, low, low thing.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Um, and music's kind of always there for me.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: Like when I put on music and do a track workout, I just can run faster.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: So I figured out, hey, like, what is something I can do here that still brings me the same joy?
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: Um, that's in demand.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: Um, and I got a DJ coach.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: He was actually a coworker at the Nordic center, he is and, uh, yeah, he helped teach me the fundamentals.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: And then I use the school of YouTube and a lot of questions to people who know what they're doing, and then I use my tax return money to buy all the gear because it's ridiculously expensive.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: So I was like, okay, I'm going to practice myself.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: Then I started DJing friends parties.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: And then one day I'm picking up a speaker at this dude's house here on the mountain to add to my collection of gear and he's like you're a DJ, you know I should talk to this person, this person, we'll get you playing here.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: So I asked him for the email.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: And what do you know?
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: Like I'm booking gigs at Jose's Patio, which is on the base of Mount Crested Butte.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: You like play on the patio and then there's a whole mountain and it's apres ski.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: I just play once a month because with training it is kind of hard to stand for two and a half hours in the cold playing and I really hope to be able to do more gigs, but this season it's just almost impossible.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: I've had to say no to a lot of stuff.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it just fills my cup up being able to dance and like create my own mashups of songs.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: Hope to put my own songs on there one day.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: Uh, it's just not the right time oh my god, that is so cool, do you like?
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: Are you more like deep house trans, like what's your, what's your stuff?
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: it's a bit of everything, but I'm really into new disco.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: I can't tell you why, okay, but like they're all around a similar bpm.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: So like when you're djing jump, you can't jump from 90 to 140.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: You can, you can do certain things like loop to get there, but um, I do memorize bpms of all these songs.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm lucky to have that kind of memory and figure out sets and what works.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: But you also have to read the room or read the audience and what time of year it is and if you're around any certain holidays and you cater to that.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: Everyone loves moonlight like free bird.
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: But he has a lot of other good music that you can use and that's really popular right now.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is so crazy.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna have a pod party one of these days, maybe at the end of the summer, and I'm gonna get me, I'm gonna get you out to dj it, and it's gonna be wild should I tell.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: That's the story about what happened at the golden trail final.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: That's what I want to hear yeah.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: So maybe two months in advance, I uhing at the Mammoth Golden Trail, which was also an on-the-day organisational thing, and I had to find someone in that area who had a deck, because we had the venue and we had the people that wanted to party.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: So I like in a matter of three hours, pulled together a deck and DJed this with another local DJ, um, who happened to be running mammoth, and that went awesome and I thought, okay, like, do they need someone for the grand final?
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: So I emailed no, no, we're all set, we're all good.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: So it gets to.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: You know, the the last day of the golden trail finals in switzerland and I get this whatsapp message that was like um, we need a dj for tonight.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: And I'm thinking I actively made the decision.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: It was in my car when I got to the airport not to bring the deck.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: I was like, nah, they said it's all sorted.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Um, this is too much extra luggage.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: I'm bopping from place to place, I'm not bringing it.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: Should have bought it.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: Um, because I did end up DJing.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: I was like, what the hell, I'll just do it.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: It's really good to like put yourself on the spot.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: Um, but the deck was half broken so I sat in a casino on Sunday the only place in the town in Switzerland we were in that had Wi-Fi and that was open on a Sunday downloaded a DJ software on my laptop because my deck is so cool, it has the software in it, it's touchscreen, it's basically a computer.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: I don't need a laptop when I'm DJing, but now I do, and so I downloaded this, built a set in like two hours on my laptop, plugged it into this half working deck and just winged it.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: But it went off without a hitch and no one noticed any of the mistakes I made and I was like well, there you go, um, and I think I felt more success from doing something like that than like an organized gig where I'd really planned it that is so crazy.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: I'm sure everybody loved it too.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, it must have been, must have been wild the police came to shut us down actually we were in a huge marquee, uh, in the middle of, like the town square, because all these euro cities have that cobblestone town square and they shut us down.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: That's amazing how was the mammoth trail fest one?
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: I know they get kind of wild, like to do like a what is it like a beer mile, and then they just like throw a giant party.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: I I haven't actually not been to Mammoth yet.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I got to go put that on my list one year, but that one's a wild one too right.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, where else do you see Elisine and Remy dancing to Rasputin doing Cossack dancing?
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, how has that not surfaced on the internet yet?
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think anyone filmed it, but being able to provide the music for that and you know watching everyone forming dance circles and clapping and just come together like outside of a race environment where you know you're not in athlete brain mode uh was awesome.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: You just can't help but smile.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, it's so crazy to like actually, this is something I meant to ask you now that, like you made the top 30 for next year.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: How does that work?
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Like they, there's like different tiers of sponsorship.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: they provide correct based off of, like where your placement is on the final series yeah, um, I do get a free choice of bibs, like where I want to go and what I want to attend, um, so we're planning that at present.
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: And yeah, top 20 get more financials.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: Everyone gets bibs in the top 30 to whatever race they choose.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: Top 10 get financial support, but there are discretionary decisions that are made, depending on if you have sponsorship or not, because they want the top 30 to be at that next one to make it as competitive as possible.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: So we kind of wait to hear about that Interesting.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Now, from a sponsorship perspective, are you?
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Is that something you're actively in the process of pursuing over the next few years?
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: Like looking for a brand sponsor to work with?
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know I'm trying and it isn't easy at all.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: This year has been particularly hard for a lot of athletes like really hard.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, 100%.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: It's always a question of is there enough money?
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: For some reason, this year it seems like there's even less.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: I'm sure people know more about that than I do, but yeah, it wouldn't help because I can't keep self-funding this and working all these different jobs and trading, marketing for gear, things like that, starting fundraisers.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: It's interesting because sometimes I really feel like what is enough this year and I know it's not about this, but it is important for people to hear this what is enough?
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: What are the criteria?
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: What do you have to do?
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: I know it's not about this, but it is important for people to hear this Like, what is enough?
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what are the criteria?
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: What do you have to do?
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's just important to be a good member of the community, be a good role model, do as best you can, but at the end of the day, none of this is sponsorship driven.
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: I would do this no matter what.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: It's just me, it's my life right now and if someone wants to join my team and I like them and I like what they do and what they're about and their gear cool, but otherwise I'm just going to keep being running, skiing music, lara, and that's that.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now, this year was a particularly devastatingly hard year for a lot of athletes.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: I know a lot of athletes got either dropped or have nobody's like signing.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: It's been, it's been crazy, like just on the inside.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: It's been interesting to kind of follow that and kind of see where it's been going.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: So hopefully next year brands will have more funds and be able to open it up for more, because there's oh my God, there's so many good athletes that like are unsponsored this year.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: It's like what the hell?
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's frustrating.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: It's very frustrating to see like as as a member of the community, it's not not that great.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: So yeah, well, thanks to people like andy.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Um, there is like other ways to get support um you know the trail team.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was pretty awesome this past year.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, can you talk about that actually?
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: a little bit like the, just the experience that you had with them.
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the number one thing is you get teammates and you get to meet a bunch of people and then you see them all over the world and all over the U?
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: S and you know, I even got to go to the U?
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: S trail running conference.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: I was Shay and we became really close there and that's the most important part and the best part about it is like you guys can all live in different places, but there's camps and there's share houses at races and you go and you know you're going to see people that you're friends with and familiar with and have training partners and people to warm up with and people to cook meals with and then, if you want, alone time, everyone's cool because you know you respect each other.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: Um, and that's awesome.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't really have asked for much more, especially in a way of opportunities to go to these highly competitive races.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, andy really helped pave the way with the trail team, otherwise none of this would have been possible, like I couldn't have gone everywhere that I went last year yeah, he's amazing everything that he's done to create this and like continue to just pave the way.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, if anything, I just hope and I'll actually that's something I'll think I'll link in the show notes as well.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: If people are interested in, like donating to the trail team, um, that listen to this, yeah, because it's, it's definitely it's.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: So I don't think people realize, like how impactful it is, uh, for athletes and and how much it helps you guys to be able to get from place to place, you know, and help you guys from races to pretty much everything.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: So it's it's amazing to hear so yeah yeah, so what did we miss?
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: I gotta actually I've got some austral for you.
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, sure, yeah.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Dude, I keep seeing all these videos on Instagram of the giant huntsman spiders.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: I don't do spiders.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: I grew up in the other land down under Florida and we have giant spiders, but your guys' spiders are on a whole nother level.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: What's the deal there?
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Are you a spider person?
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the spiders huh, the huntsman spiders come inside when it's about to rain or storm.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: They're seeking shelter.
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: They're those big brown ones that have a little bit of fluff.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I never killed them because I felt bad.
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: They actually eat the mosquitoes.
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: I don't want it to stay in my room, but, like, if you don't have any mosquitoes, you're also not getting bit my mosquitoes.
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: So that's great.
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: It's a double edged sword.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: You got to choose whether you want the huntsman in the room or not.
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: But typically me and my sister would be like dad, there's a spider in our room, can you come help us get it out?
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: And he would come up the stairs with a newspaper and a glass and he'd put the glass over the spider and then slide the newspaper underneath and then take the spider downstairs and throw it outside and everything was fixed.
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: Um, so that was my experience with spiders.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: We get taught at school don't put your hand down dark holes.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, lift up rocks and you know, do all of that stuff, because there'll be, uh, red, red, black spiders I can't even remember what they're called, but the ones that kill you trapped in our spiders.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I, I'm terrified of them.
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, not, not good, not good.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: I don't do spiders.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: It's like, oh yeah, colorado.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: For some reason I didn't think we'd have big spiders here, but we do um I've seen spiders up here.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: I thought that they weren't here, but you know clearly they are yeah, yeah.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: And snake, I feel like everything wants to kill you in australia.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: You guys have crocodiles, snakes and then surfing with the great white sharks, like I know, especially on the sydney side, like I mean, actually that's probably that's not too far north, like you guys get great whites on that side.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: No, yeah Well, they like colder waters, but typically they hang down in South Australia and Western Australia and you know I don't get down that way a lot.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: My dad loves surfing and does, and one time he went surfing a place called Shark's Restaurant and I'm over here and my mom texted me that and I was like why it's like, oh, the waves are really good.
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: Let's call that for a reason you know.
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: Um, but you'd have to be so unlucky, honestly, uh, there's just rules of thumb.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: You don't surf super early in the morning, when it's dark or, you know, when the sun's setting.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: You can, but I would stick with the back of people, or you just take the risk, because sometimes the surf's so good, what the hell?
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: Like you're probably going to get hit by a car more than you're going to get hit by a shark.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: True, it's crazy.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Like we so I grew up in in florida did a lot of diving and you'd see bull sharks all over the place and like bull sharks are really mean and really nasty and just not not the best.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Um so, but like I don't know, I feel like at least diving, I'm in the water and I can like see the shark, but like I feel like if you're sitting on top of the water at like surfing, it's like so much harder because you can't really see what's below you.
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: It's a little harder but crazy interesting yeah, there's a lot of things you can do.
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: You can stick like a face on the bottom of your surfboard and wear shark bands and just follow the rules and you can reduce your risk.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like anything.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: I guess I'd be more scared of doing my ACL training and skiing than being bit by a shark.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true?
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Or like riding a motorcycle, like things happen all the time.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy, it's crazy.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Well, hey, I don't want to take up all your time.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: I feel like we hit most of it, so I definitely want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: This was a great conversation, hopefully the first of many.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: I want to obviously wish you the best of luck in your season as it comes up, and I can't wait to follow along over the next few months.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: It's going to be fun yeah, thank you so much, I appreciate it yeah, yeah, no, I appreciate it and uh, I'll probably get to, I'll see you.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: Probably a broken arrow, we'll see yeah, yeah, all right, I'm gonna stop the recording now.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks, no worries what'd you guys think.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: What a fun episode.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: I really want to thank laura so much for coming on.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: Uh, it was really exciting and insightful getting to just follow her journey and learn all kinds of different things.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Talk about all the crazy shit went down at the Golden Trail World Series final, some of the DJ stuff, as well as her upbringing and her plans and goals.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: So I really want to wish her the best of luck as she begins her Olympic journey now and as she makes her plans for her 2025 mountain running season.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: Um, before we get going, guys, hop on Instagram.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: Let's get her some followers.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: Um, if you guys type in Laura L a R, a underscore Hamilton, h a, m, I, l T O N, give her a follow.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: Let her know what you think about the podcast.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: Um, and send her some words of encouragement.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: She's got a lot of big skew schema races coming up, so I'm sure she would love to hear from you guys, um, some amazing words of encouragement, as you wish her luck, uh, for all these uh incredible races she's going to undertake.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, so give her, give her a follow.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: Uh, last but not least, if you guys enjoyed this episode, uh, do me a favor give us a five-star rating and review on Spotify, apple or YouTube.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: That would mean the absolute world to me, so we can continue to share these episodes and cover the great sport of sub ultra that we'd love so much.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: Um, and yeah, last but not least as well, um, share it on Instagram.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: That would be dope.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: Um, guys, have an amazing rest of your week.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: I've got a really dope episode with none other than Arcteryx athlete, connor cook, uh, coming out on Friday.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: That is a wild boy.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: I am so excited to share that one with you guys.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: And, yeah, have a great rest of your week.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you, you.