The Steep Stuff Podcast
The Sub Stuff Ep 2 | This Week in Sub-Ultra with Benjamin Townsend - Skyrace Des Mathys Recap, Zegama Breakdown, Mexico Sky Challenge Discussion & Hochkonig Skyrace Preview
Join us as we chat with Benjamin Townsend to recap his race at the Skyrace Des Mathys, as well as a results breakdown of Zegama & the Mexico Sky Challenge. Last but not least we preview the Hochkonig Skyrace taking place this upcoming weekend in Maria Alm, Austria.
Join us as we chat with Benjamin Townsend to recap his race at the Skyrace Des Mathys, as well as a results breakdown of Zegama & the Mexico Sky Challenge. Last but not least we preview the Hochkonig Skyrace taking place this upcoming weekend in Maria Alm, Austria.
doesn't matter nah, headphones are just like. You know, I don't know, you can't hear another thing yeah guys, what's going on? Welcome back to the steep stuff podcast. I'm your host, james lariello. Um, this is the sub stuff episode two, and we got special guests in here. Um, I'll let you introduce yourself again uh, benjamin townsend, he's back, I'm back.
Speaker 1:The, the nerd runner, is back, oh hell yeah, dude, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 2:Man, I'm excited, uh, I'm excited to uh have a little guest for these episodes. Uh, last time it was just uh, just a lot of me talking yeah, yeah, happy to be here and talk running with you just throw on. Uh, throw it, dude. I had like five people text me and they're like yo, dude, you're, your pics are wild, you're a wild boy I'm like you know, I think one of the things I responded to was like what is it? Safe money? Don't make money, that's right Right.
Speaker 2:Let's fucking go. So All right. Well, dude, welcome back. Dude, how was Sky Race de Mathesie that I pronounced incorrectly?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've always pronounced it incorrectly as well. When arrived in france, I heard the french people call it sky race de mathison, so I guess mathison, mathison yeah, you gotta get your french into it. Um, it went well. Yeah, it was a huge learning experience. Um, I learned that you need to bring a race kit in your backpack oh yeah, what so?
Speaker 2:all right, so let's so.
Speaker 1:Your race kit got lost, right yes, so I had everything in my suitcase and my suitcase never made it to france in time for the race and so I was there in my birkenstocks, dickies, pants and like a sweatshirt and that was all I had, or a Melanzana, and so, thankfully, everybody in the Skyrunner series was so kind and sort of I had a little piece of everybody with me, because there was a lot of required gear as well as just getting stuff to race in the series hooked me up with a kit. Meryl got me some shoes to run in. I was running in somebody's jacket, somebody else's socks, somebody else's gels, somebody else's belt, and so it was just, it was a team effort to get me there. I had a lot of unofficial sponsors at the race and it was really awesome to sort of see the trail community come together and help your boy out.
Speaker 2:What the hell that's. Well, dude, who'd you fly?
Speaker 1:with luftonza. Yeah, so they're. Uh, they're like the german united kind of oh man yeah, fly boeing, all right um all right, well, dude, congratulations on your finish, by the way. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, awesome yeah let's, let's unpack it a little bit. I know we could talk, I mean, a little bit later we can kind of get into the front of the race, Um, but I think for the listeners, I think they would take extract a lot of value in. I guess just you don't have to give a race report, but like, let's unpack that a little bit yeah, one of the biggest things is in europe you're allowed to cut the course okay, so you can totally cut switchbacks so switchbacks don't matter, it's kind of a tactical thing.
Speaker 1:And the day before so I spent a lot of time with antonio martinez um ikram I don't know how to pronounce her last name, uh and then miguel benitez they're all spaniards and we kind of drove up together. We spent a lot of time together and so I was kind of picking their brains on how to race the course and all that kind of thing, and they were like you need to cut as much as possible. Wow, and it came down to Antonio ran an entire mile less than I did and I cut the course. What? Yeah, so it's crazy because I think if I run that race again next weekend, I'm probably already 20 minutes faster just by understanding the level of cutting you need to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll preface this like in America if you cut, if you cut anything, you're disqualified. Yeah, you're DQ, yeah.
Speaker 1:So that was definitely a big change. Um, you just go straight up and straight down yeah uh, very, very technical. On top there was a very sketchy rope section which was basically belaying without being clipped in, like you were just you had to work. Yeah, yeah, thankfully I had yeah. Thankfully I had somebody else's gloves to wear, but yeah, it was. It's as technical as it gets and so steep and so much fun and it's just a true adventure out there.
Speaker 2:What was it like standing on the start line with, like Manuel Morales and like deer and all these just fucking killers, dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's. Um, it's pretty impressive. Yeah it's. They were out so lightning fast too, like they were gone before it even started, I it. It was pretty impressive to see, and I go into every race thinking I'm gonna win, and it's hard to think you're gonna win against a crowd like that in a place you've never been.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's entirely different ball game right, and it's just so much more, so much less to do with fitness, because I feel like in america the fittest man generally wins, yeah, or woman, and there it was. There's so much course beta you need to know and so much all kinds of things you can learn, and so it's a lot more fun to me because there's so much more to unpack and so much more to learn rather than just hammer your body into the best fitness it can be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Wow, dude, so cool. Lots to take away from this and this course. What is it? 25 K about 8,000 feet climbing.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, somewhere around there it was. It was pretty much straight up and then straight down it was, which was kind of nice actually, cause you just get to the top and then you go downhill the rest of the way and the downhill was super fast and runnable, yeah, and so that was a lot of fun to just fly.
Speaker 2:Did you feel like adequately prepared with the training you've been doing?
Speaker 1:I think so. Okay, I think I definitely have a few things I need to work on. Um, what's funny is I find myself my confidence is in the runnable climbs, and that's where I lost all the time yeah, yeah, like were you running and people hiking and like how and it was interesting like people were just running faster than I was.
Speaker 1:Okay, on the runnable climbs and on the super steep hiking kind of section I was actually just as fast as guys who were in the top 10 and so yeah it was interesting because I really focused on steep, steep to prepare, because I didn't have a lot of confidence in that, and it actually translated so well to where I kind of forgot about my runnable climbing. I just think there's a level of fitness that I have right now and I don't really know how to use it yet because I've never been this fit before.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of it's like a super bad. I got to learn how hard I can push. What do I do with this?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Well, dude, congrats again and I thank you for that. Some of that perspective, I think the audience would get a lot, you know, take a lot away from that. So at the front of the race we had, what was it? Nadir pulled off the dub Daniel Antolini.
Speaker 1:Was that his name?
Speaker 2:Antonioli, antonioli, I believe, manu Morales and then Antonio Martinez.
Speaker 1:Perez, who you said you got to hang out with a little bit. Yeah, I actually spent pretty much the whole trip with him.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool. He's amazing. Does he have better English, or do you have better Spanish?
Speaker 1:He has better English than my Spanish, okay, but in our group I actually, by the end of the trip I was only thinking in Spanish, because it was me and three Spaniards that we all rented a car together.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so we kind of ended up spending all the time together and it was really nice to have people to hang out with going into it, like I went completely alone.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Didn't really expect to know anybody, and so it was nice to have that.
Speaker 2:That's cool, yeah, yeah, he's like really, I mean I don't know. I, when I did some of the race previews and I was talking about um, oh man, I think I was doing a recap for the race, a little like last week I talked about it a little bit and some of the guys up front and stuff or it was. No, it wasn't that one, it was um before skype challenge mexico. So I think it was like the third iteration, yeah, um. But I was talking about him and like how dude he's like. You know, asics has really invested a lot in him.
Speaker 1:He's like yeah, he's like one of the dudes.
Speaker 2:Now he, uh, he's not working oh, he is a pro trail runner.
Speaker 1:Good for him, which is just awesome to see, because I asked him what do you do and he's like this is what I do yeah I'm like that's where I want to be man oh yeah it's just amazing to see that's awesome.
Speaker 2:And then on what was it? So it was fourth and then fifth place. We had Roberto De Lorenzi um, who's another household name. It's Brooks Runner, and he's a freak.
Speaker 1:If you look at what he was doing the three weeks before that, he raced every weekend uh, I think four or five weeks in a row while still getting 80 90 mile weeks. Dude, he's nasty every single week. I know like I pulled off it.
Speaker 2:He was like really big with the vk. I mean, I think last year he was like I don't know he did something I forgot what it was but yeah, he's like super big in the vk and yeah, he, he's a monster.
Speaker 1:He has just been racing his ass off this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what a recap. What a recap. All right, so on the female side we've got Anastasia Rubstova. Yep, is that right? I?
Speaker 1:was running with her jacket in my bag. Speaking of all the random people who helped me out.
Speaker 2:Alice Barasan. Yes, and then we have American favorite Bailey kwalczyk. Shout out to bailey uh, who took third place in that race. Lead a aguerre and then obviously hillary gerardi yeah hillary is just an absolute legend. Yeah, you know mont blanc fkt holder um this past year and just has done so much for the sport and I'm happy that she's really active in the sky racing series like yeah, I don't know she's.
Speaker 2:That's pretty much what she does, I think, yeah yeah, it was just she was doing some longer stuff. I don't know, she kind of mixes it up, but yeah, no, she's. I mean, man, I gotta say like I don't know, I've had a couple people come in here and tell me like she was their female sub, ultra goat. So it's pretty interesting. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:I was happy to see Bailey in there too, as somebody who doesn't really do a lot of the technical stuff and still, just she was first up to the top.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So at halfway she was first and then when we got to that technical section she lost some places and then she was in about sixth, with four or five miles to go, and in that runnable tech was just so fast, yeah, and she moved up to third dude I honestly.
Speaker 2:I mean this is, this is public now. I mean my the last race preview I did for zagama like she was my first place pick. Yeah, and she could have very well won that damn race of course her and danny were out there. I mean, I think in second and third for like the first 20k of that fucking race, right, bummer man marathon's a long way.
Speaker 1:That's a long really tough.
Speaker 2:But now congrats to that. Both of them and you know and just uh, you know so many great athletes and stuff like that. How did the race play out? So when you went out from the gun, I mean, like were you, like were nadir and the boys, like were they just completely gone yeah, I think it was fred.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who, uh, frederick? Uh he like just booked it off the line, him, and roberto de lorenzi just went insane and I was like not about, because you gain about 300 feet in that first mile okay so it's still, you're climbing pretty well and I was out in like a 630 I think, and that was you weren't blowing yourself.
Speaker 2:I mean that's pretty fast, for I mean for sea level for 300 feet how high up were you?
Speaker 1:two thousand three thousand feet, yeah, that's pretty solid, yeah yeah, so like I felt like I kind of pushed, like I was moving pretty well and I was back in gap 30th 40th, and so they were proud they probably went in the 550s in that first mile, which is just disgusting yeah, it's disgusting I mean that's like almost that's probably four minute grade adjusted pace right there, right range, yeah antonio hung back in the beginning.
Speaker 1:I was actually right with him, okay, the first couple miles. So he sort of hung back and let them go, and obviously it caught up to frederick towards the end of the race as he kind of fell off and nadir moved up, but yeah, shout out to la sportiva athlete, nadir dude, he's a I don't know.
Speaker 2:He's like somebody I really look up to like, yeah, like he's one of those people. I don't follow a ton of people, but he's one of those athletes that I I just I don't know, I really like he's, I really admire him because he's not just a runner, he does a lot of other shit right, you know I don't know if you followed his like record that he tried to attempt to try. He tried to take killian's record off the matterhorn last year.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, yeah, he's a really interesting athlete. Like he's just quiet too, like you don't really hear a lot of him, and then he puts out a performance like that. Big time, big time.
Speaker 2:And then there's Manu as well, and then you know, he just we'll talk about him in a little bit, especially with Zagama and stuff like that. I know he was the returning winner of Zagama Of course. So yeah, dude, thanks for explaining, thanks for breaking that down. I Dude, your commentary is pretty solid.
Speaker 1:Oh, thanks, You've got a future in this. I'm definitely a nerd of the sport man, I love it.
Speaker 2:All right, so let's get into. Next thing was Mexico Sky Challenge. That just happened, no-transcript. So we had abraham hernandez, which was a mexican runner yeah, um, shout out to him, I didn't even have him or mcgwell. So first and second were abraham hernandez and then mcgwell. Um perez alvar alvarado alvarado yeah something like that um.
Speaker 2:So they went first and second. Then we had johnny luna lima, um. Obviously he's representing brazil, but he lives in boulder, uh. And fourth, and then in fifth we had, um, or, excuse me, that was third. Third and then morgan elliott was in fourth, um, shout out to morgan. And on the female side, um karina carciolo, um, whose last name I just butchered um I really should have had her in my preview man she was. Uh, I kind of slept on that um top 10 overall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she took 10th in the overall race against the men.
Speaker 2:Really good, I actually wrote a little thing about her. I think she's kind of like my athlete of the week I want to give yeah, like kudos to, because she just she smashed it crush and then kelly wolf, emma clark, and then ruby lundquist, and fourth, um shout out to the american ruby lundquist.
Speaker 1:So yeah, deep field. Um, it was really interesting to see. Abraham hernandez is one of those people who nobody really knows, but he does really well yeah he was top 10 at broken arrow. Oh, was he really?
Speaker 2:uh, last year in the 23k oh, I knew, so I knew, dude, he's like a 104 half marathoner, yeah yeah, so yeah, I didn't know he was at broken arrow last year. I tried looking up some of his results and I couldn't find too much yeah, he was.
Speaker 1:He's really good. Morgan elliott, obviously yeah, shout to morgan merrill.
Speaker 2:Runner you know the thing with morgan. I think I had morgan in second, so the only pick I got right on the men's side was johnny on third place and I figured he was going to do really solid. He's a brazilian runner. I know he spends a lot of time down there, um or in. I know he's raced before in brazil and like I don't know. Dude, those trails are different.
Speaker 2:It's much hotter, it's a different environment yeah and I just figured and you know what, and I've even had a couple people tell me shout out to Nick. Tuesday he even reached out to me because he's a boulder boy. He reached out to me and was just like Johnny is just nasty, good he's so good on technical terrain. I've never raced him. I don't really know the guy, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:I was just kind of going off of what, so it was fun to sort of. It's fun to learn. I feel like Skyrunner highlights a very different set of people with very different set of skills. Yeah, a little bit more of the mountaineers and more mountain people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's kind of fun to learn all these new names where it's not golden trail series, where it's the same people over and over again every day. Yeah, the thing.
Speaker 2:I thought was interesting. I think jackson and I'll give a special shout out to jackson cole as well I know he didn't have the race he wanted. He had like a.
Speaker 2:He got sick or something picked up a bug which sucks man, yeah, but he'll be back. He'll be back stronger than ever and we'll I'm looking forward to, uh, to connecting with him when he gets back to the states. But, yeah, so it's interesting, man, like he put into perspective the golden trail series versus like the sky running series. So well, it's just like. He's like the, the fast marathoners, the really good marathon runners are going to be very good and translate to those golden trail series races right, and he's like the sky runner series is just so different, it's so specific, there's so much technicality to it that it's it's really too. It's it obviously is two very different things, but it's almost as entirely different sport in a lot of ways that people say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just like I said earlier. It's not about your fitness. There's so much technical amount to it and so much just course beta, Like if I run an entire mile less than you, that's 10 minutes at least. At least you know that's 10 minutes I've already put on you just by running a better route, so crazy it's pretty nuts, don't you, not to go back to sky race day, but like did they?
Speaker 2:do you like anybody pre? Like did you get to preview the route at all?
Speaker 1:I ran the first or so. We ran 5k of the course. Um, it's about like the first real big climb we all did the day before solid. Yeah, it was like a thousand over a thousand feet and a mile and a half. So it's a day before a race and then go back down, that's europe.
Speaker 2:It's crazy because, like it's like two, two, uh. You get so much different perspectives. Like that race was alps europe, it's snow, then you know, you come over two weeks later and we're at Mexico Sky Challenge and it's 80 something degrees. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Super hot.
Speaker 2:Disgusting, I mean, like I even like made the notes of, like some of the things that I wrote down was hot, technical, nasty altitude, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those were my takeaways. Yeah, because Orizaba is an 18,000 foot peak.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, were my takeaways? Yeah, because orizaba is an 18 000 foot peak. Yeah, well, in the background. Yeah, yeah, which? But?
Speaker 1:the high point was 10k, which is pretty solid. Yeah, yeah, that's legit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's no joke at all, you know, on the women's side I do 10 000 feet of gain I think they started at 4 000 feet, so just that's one of the things I thought was interesting. Um, I have loose understanding of spanish. My spanish is terrible, but I was following the. Um, the youtube, because they have it online yeah we're talking about like loose dogs on the course and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Like you, have to avoid it's just like this is bananas dude right, you're right, that is a wow so now we do want to give a special shout out to kelly wolf, um, for second place thought that was awesome, also because I picked her for second place, was pretty happy with my selection as well as emma clark in third. So I was happy with those picks, um, and then ruby lundquist and fourth. So shot for. So we two, two americans in the top top four. Emma clark is a canadian and, uh, karina is from mexico and if for those of you who don't know much about Karina, like black diamond athlete, she also runs for Buff and Coros. She resides in Mexico and she's just a super solid athlete. I don't know how I overlooked her for the podium Third at Meet the Minotaur last year, third at the Dole my Sky Race last year, third at Ultrax Extreme last year. She's a killer, absolute killer. So absolute big shout out to her, um, I hope to get her on the podcast one day yeah, it was pretty tight.
Speaker 2:Two in the top three, and especially two and three were only 30 seconds apart yeah kelly wolf and emma clark, and wild karina carsoleo was only seven minutes ahead of them, so yeah, the big question mark that I had even though though I put Emma's third was her Strava is kind of a black box. She doesn't really put a lot of stuff out there.
Speaker 1:It was like random rise.
Speaker 2:She's like me on Strava like random shit out there and makes you guess. Um yeah. So that was uh, I kind of fun to see the fitness deciphering yeah. Let me put my thinking cap on there. Um yeah, this is not not much else to talk about for that one. I mean, unless you have anything else to add on there.
Speaker 1:Big thing. Karina Carzolio was 10th overall. Wow Over men and women. That's incredible, which is pretty impressive. Also, I thought what was really interesting is the top 10 women had just under an hour spread.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a tight field. Dude, like that's crazy for top 10. It's it's pretty crazy how you can get different fields and how they can spread out, and in the men's the top 10 was cause I think as well an hour, which is crazy, cause Mercedes ran what Seven, oh four or something like that I was looking at, cause I was like dude crazy because mercedes ran what 704 or something like that I was looking at because I was like dude, I was looking at some of the times and I was like god damn, it is a long race, like seven hours for 35k.
Speaker 2:Dude, that is it brutal. Like I was. Like I don't think I've ever run like a 50k in seven hours.
Speaker 1:Like that's a long day out, man 20 something miles with 10 000 feet again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it just goes to show you because like that's an athlete coming from altitude, going to altitude in the heat, and like just goes to show you how hard that course was yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's a, it's a sky challenge, just like they call it.
Speaker 2:Yeah no doubt, no doubt, shout out to them um dude, this race I want to do next year. Like I gotta be honest with you, gonna put this on the list yeah, right, yeah, it looks like fun I was.
Speaker 1:I was hoping to do it this year but couldn't make it so oh, man, well you're, you're doing the peru one right yes oh, that's dope.
Speaker 2:When's the date on? That july 5th or 6th oh wow, yeah, so celebrating uh independence day in peru.
Speaker 1:okay, probably on the plane. That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 2:That'll be fun, all right. So we had another big race this weekend.
Speaker 1:It's the biggest race oh yeah, probably the biggest.
Speaker 2:Was this the third stop or fourth stop? I think this is the third stop now.
Speaker 1:I think so, yeah, in the Golden.
Speaker 2:Trail Series. Yeah, dude, the return of the king Killian in his back, and faster than ever. He didn't get the course record, but god damn did he run well.
Speaker 1:I think he won in 3.38.07, which is insane Just two minutes back of his record 11th win. And I think his 12th time running it. Wow, that's insane. His first time he ran it. I found this was back in 2007. So it just goes to show his long lasting reign.
Speaker 2:Dude, I got almost 20 years of winning zagama it's wild too, because, like we've got, I mean, some of the best athletes, quite a handful, if not more, of some, like you're talking about robbie simpson, who's a killer yeah, didn't even get the poor guy didn't even nail himself five like what a what.
Speaker 2:And then we also, on the women's side too, man, we've got a new, new champion. Um, pretty crazy, sylvia nordskar, who I had to do a little digging. I didn't, did you know? She went to college in colorado, did she really? Yeah, she, she was on the 2016-17 university of denver ski roster wow, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Is she american or no, she's a norwegian okay, so and interesting she was.
Speaker 2:That I mean, and this is like I'd say, this is her, probably her breakout race. She runs for hoka um, but yeah, definitely her breakout race she's fast, damn, she's 35 minute 10k so it's not too bad.
Speaker 1:She played it smart too. She sort of waited until the sort of the back half, like when bailey and danny were kind of blowing up is when she really moved up and made the took the lead wild.
Speaker 2:It's smart it's the way that race played out, man. I so I had the guy danny in third for my pick, I had um, the winner from last year, in second and I had bailey in first and I just, I don't know like I like I had some people reach out to me regarding that pick, like and just saying, like man, like that's, that's a really strong home, american home cooking. Right there I was like, yeah, definitely so.
Speaker 1:But you know, I don't know kind of I mean that's a good pick, though bailey blew up and still came away with 11 dude, I really thought she was gonna win that day like she was. She was still just outside the top 10, with what sounded like pretty much everything went out the window the back half, and Danny had a rough day too, which sucked.
Speaker 2:So you know what Shout out to all of them. So we had what? Sylvia Nortskar in first, she ran 4.29. Malin in second, who went 4.35.
Speaker 1:Who is 20 years old?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 20 years old, yeah 20 years old sylvia got her by about six minutes. It's pretty solid. Um marta martinez I think a lot of sportive athlete as well ran 435, 39. So the spread between, like the the back four of the top five was super tight. It was was four 35, 19, four 35, 39, four 36, 16, and then four 37, 20. So that's that's a minute and a half. Super tight man, it is nuts. And then on the men's side, killian just absolutely dismantled the field Five minutes in was all by himself.
Speaker 1:Once they hit the trail, he was gone, I mean.
Speaker 2:I was seeing an animal, but like, but like, dude, killian got him. I mean, killian ran what? 338, 07, and al-hussein ran 430, or 336 16, 346, 16, correct?
Speaker 1:so that's, that's a lot of time, dude yeah, yeah, and it was from the gun pretty much once 20 minutes in there's nobody else in sight, it's completely by himself um, yeah, shout out to al-hussein bart.
Speaker 2:I mean him and bart ran a tight race. I mean the Once 20 minutes in there's nobody else in sight. He's completely by himself. Yeah, shout out to Al-Hussein Bart. I mean him and Bart ran a tight race. I mean the same thing. The same thing played out between the back half of the top four was Al-Hussein ran a 3.46.16. Bart Sorry, my dog just threw up, so anyway, bart ran a 346 45 um luca de pepo ran a 347 25 and manu uh, the reigning champion ran a 347 42. So pretty, pretty solid right there yeah, that's a.
Speaker 1:That's a badass, top five yeah yeah, not bad.
Speaker 2:Lots of things to talk about. I mean the reigning champion, manu tough day out for him. I mean still amazing to run in the top five.
Speaker 1:I think these conditions were not probably his most ideal for him yeah, he he's even said he's the kind of person who waits till it rains to train, yeah, and then goes out and then hangs out when it's sunny. So so I I think it was, uh last year with the crazy rainy, muddy conditions it just suited him a lot better and I think if it's gnarlier and more hard, he's probably gonna win I agree.
Speaker 2:so one of the things I was looking for that was really interesting to me, um was kind of a battle almost between Manu and Bart, and I know Bart's a very strong downhiller but I always kind of looked at Manu as like the best. I mean, he's kind of revered as like the best downhiller in the world in a lot of ways, so it was interesting to see Bart um, just to have a great day there.
Speaker 2:get, Bart's been pretty vocal about wanting to win this race. I don't know if that's going to happen as long as Killian's around.
Speaker 1:He's been pretty vocal about being scared of altitude as well, yeah, that's true, he can keep losing until he comes up here, that poor guy.
Speaker 2:That poor guy's had some rough days out on the pikes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he sure has.
Speaker 2:That's the shit on Bart buddy, poor Bart. No, listen man. And I'm glad that, like the golden trail series, added more races that were like not at altitude, so kind of give make it a little fair for people that are can't run to 14. Yeah, do you have anything I had as a gamma as far?
Speaker 1:as the recap there. Another race that was sort of. We talked about Jackson Cole getting sick, earlier we had Sarah Alonzo not be able to race because she was sick. We also had, uh, chris and alicia vargo, who were both sick, and I think alicia could have been pretty high up there, dude she had. She been healthy yeah and so it was uh, another race, unfortunately affected by some health issues. But that's.
Speaker 2:That's a bummer man. I saw her on one of the like the preview things. I mean she's she had a really good result of man, or yeah, it was a mammoth mammoth and pikes peak yeah so it would have been really fun to see her.
Speaker 1:Everybody's got to get sick man, what the hell I know it's.
Speaker 2:It's a long way to go to get sick so let me ask you a quick question and this is one of the things I hit on on my last, uh, the last episode that I did was just the transition from an American to come over and the race and these other countries Like. One of the things I talked about was, like readjust. You have to almost like semi adjust your diet. You've got to adjust your sleep Like did any of those factors like play in for you?
Speaker 1:Of course I um, I have a pretty good job at getting used to jet lag, thankfully, thankfully, like I just forced my stay myself to stay awake that whole next day that I arrived, that's smart, and so I was able to sleep pretty normally, so that part wasn't super effective. The food thing is massive because they supplied dinner for us, but otherwise we had to sort of figure it out, and the one reason I could never move to France is they don't have peanut butter there at least in their markets, because there was not.
Speaker 1:there's a ton of Nutella, no peanut butter, so I uh, we went to the market and it was just nothing really good. So it was kind of hard to figure out pre-race meals and all that kind of thing. Thankfully we found a small shop that had some good pastas going. But yeah, it's definitely a very big adjustment and just a lot of sort of added stress underlying the whole time, like it was sort of overshadowed by how excited I was to be there. I even during the race I'm normally pretty locked in.
Speaker 1:I just took a few moments just to be stoked to be out there, like I get to go to France just cause I run around in the mountains.
Speaker 2:So what time did that restart? Was it late?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it started at 9am, I think oh it's not too bad Okay. So, uh, one or one or two in the morning here, okay, but it started late, it was nice. Okay, but it started late, it was nice. I got to sleep in kind of chill out. I always do better when it's a little bit later.
Speaker 2:I really don't like the 7 am start time. No, no, I, I totally agree with you, and so so you slept in. How many days were you there before you started? Um?
Speaker 1:so I arrived on friday, was there all day saturday and then race sunday okay, cool, so a few days to adjust yeah, yeah. And saturday was really chill. We just went and trained and then slept all day, pretty much so okay, no, nice dude, nice I that.
Speaker 2:so that was kind of my big thing that I was talking about with why I kind of I was very high on bailey to do very well in that race was because I feel like she had been in there already. Of course she was already out racing, she raced, you got you braced her um at sky race day, math C, Um and then kind of I think when you have that time as an American to stay out there and adjust to it, I think that just is an extra superpower and will help and you get your full potential.
Speaker 1:Of course.
Speaker 2:But, like you know, for somebody like Danny I don't know how long Danny was out there, but I think maybe it was something similar where it was more quick to come over. Like I said, those things kind of play, you know, can play into your race a lot Of course, yeah, just travel is stressful.
Speaker 1:In general, too, it's hard to travel, so yeah, sorry, my dog just uh burped again.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so it was a gamma. What a race, what a fun, uh, what a fun, uh fun undertaking. I'm dude. I can't believe we have another month layoff until the next race, mont blanc marathon yeah, and that's six thirty very fun to watch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, shout out. I'm gonna have to find out, because I had christina on the podcast um masquerinas. I'm gonna find out. If she's kind of alluded that she was gonna go over, so oh nice, I gotta see if she got in. It'd be fun to cheer her on and that should be a good. Uh, that should be a good kind of a good.
Speaker 1:You know, hopefully we get a decent american I think that's a really good course for americans yeah it's kind of fast in the beginning and it's just never too like different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like so well, you know, dude, I was always under the interpretation that it was like extremely technical, but she told me it's not, it's not that bad.
Speaker 1:The first, I think five miles is pretty much road, is it?
Speaker 2:yeah, like dirt road, or is it like uh I?
Speaker 1:think it a mix. I think you start on pavement and move into dirt road, but it's really fast in the beginning. Yeah, like too fast.
Speaker 2:So it pulls you out? Yeah, um, do you have anything else to add on Zagama?
Speaker 1:Um, I don't think so. It's always fun to watch Killian when he calls out a shot that he's going to break a record. Unfortunately, he didn't this year, but he did explode the field right away.
Speaker 2:I wonder if there was any pressure on Al Husein, because that was his first race with Killian.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they were together, they were kind of doing dinner and just kind of hanging out a bunch. You know how normal is, kind of normal one too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love when the companies sort of call that out, because I feel like the more company uh fighting the the better for the athletes yeah, no, I agree with that.
Speaker 2:You know, like more because you know this is golden trail is put on by solomon so it is interesting that you know we see other athletes get on the podiums and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 2:I do agree it was awesome. Um, yeah now, overall, great race. I'm excited for the next round. Uh, I wonder if Killian will do any more of these. I don't think he was too public about any of his other. Uh, about doing anything else.
Speaker 1:I think he was doing UTMB this year. Is it and a personal project? I'm not exactly sure, but I know what that personal project might be. Actually, I can't say it on the podcast. It's a secret personal project.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I don't know if she said it. I know what it is. I don't remember if it got leaked on the podcast or not, so I'll tell you after this.
Speaker 1:Okay, people are going to be wondering, like, what the fuck is killing?
Speaker 2:It's his personal. Um yeah, so next up this upcoming weekend is the hochi kong.
Speaker 1:How would?
Speaker 2:you pronounce this. Uh, okay, all right, sky, that's gonna be in austria. You know, outside of salzburg it's maria arm, austria. Um, yeah, in greater salzburg area it's a 31k race with about 10 000 feet of climbing. Um, yeah, the interesting thing about this is that I know they've had like really bad rain, really bad weather on the course, so they're switching now to their b course. Um, last year they ran. The men ran it in about 339, was the winner, female ran in about 423, and it should be probably around similar finish times because it's the b course as well. Um, yeah, I don't know. You got the start list in front of you, so what do you? What do you think as far as the list goes?
Speaker 1:yeah, so I have a top three men and top three women. It wasn't. It's not quite as stacked as sky race de moth is on, but it is. You got a lot of heavy hitters still, like I.
Speaker 1:Basically just kind of compared a couple of the sky races finishes and then who was also doing this race, and so my first pick for men is antonio martinez. As I said earlier, I became good friends with him and I'm rooting for him, and he took fourth at sky race de matizan. And then dan Daniel Antonioli I'm calling for second. He was second at Sky Race de Matizan. And then Adrienne Michaud, who was ninth at Sky Race de Matizan, is my third male. And then on the female side, anastasia Rupsova, who was first at Sky Race de Matizan. She was kind enough to let me use her jacket in the race because we were required of a jacket. So she was always very nice to me and she's really fast, and she won that race in pretty dominating fashion. So I'm going to take her for the win. And then Hilary Girardi, who was fifth at Sky Race de Mathezine. I got her at second. And then Ingrid Mutter, who was 10th at skyris demothez and I got for third.
Speaker 2:So do you have? Iris is on the start list as well. She went last year.
Speaker 1:I didn't notice her. Okay, I can double check here. Do you know her, as pesci is her last name, something like that. Yeah, I have the start.
Speaker 2:I don't think she's on there I just like kind of glance it over and it's a pretty small women's field, like it looks like maybe 50 or 60 girls, yeah, so yeah, it's hillary gerardi, we do have iris pesci on there.
Speaker 1:She is gonna be on there, okay, I think she was dealing with some injury in this winter she's a runner for scott still, I believe scott yeah anything on the american contingent any other than hillary gerardi, who's kind of like a expat living in france hillary gerardi. Obviously on the male side we have kyle richardson. Is he on the? List who's on the list?
Speaker 2:I wonder if he's racing um see like he dude. He was also on the list for sky race day at the sea as well and didn't and didn't race so I I don't know what the situation is, but I, yeah, I'm surprised to see him on.
Speaker 1:That is the only american male signed up.
Speaker 2:Holy shit which is pretty crazy, this be kyle richardson's first race like of the year, oh my gosh, we have michelle merlis on the women's side yeah, I'm checking kyle richardson strava now. I don't know how I missed that.
Speaker 1:See if he's in in europe hillary gerardi is flying the french flag on her uh account, so oh yeah, she's out who knows if we? Who knows, maybe she's taking fourth instead of second no, kyle richardson just ran.
Speaker 2:He did a uh, he biked up gold hill. So unless he's planning on leaving, like in the next day or two and he just did 10 miles up Green Mountain.
Speaker 1:today he's just signing up for stuff. I don't think he's going, so no American men, unfortunately. There's a couple of Canadians, it looks like.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, good to know. So, another news. Is there anything else you wanted to preview on that? Are you pretty good?
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:Solid picks. No, thank you for throwing them out there. So we've got some like local America. Well, we've got a few. I'll stick with the European one first. The maxi race is going to be this weekend as well, in Annecy.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And they have a 15k and a 26k. I didn't preview or get the start list for it. Usually the marathon's a little more competitive, but they're. It's more of an ultra race, if you will. Oh cool, so I'm sure there'll be tons of people turning out for that. I think it'll be a great race. Um, on the american contingent, we've got some. We've got some fun little races popping up this weekend because now it's the, we're getting into june. So, historically and keeping with history, we've got the leadville turquoise lake 20k this weekend, as well as the fish hatchery 5k up in leadville awesome some racing at 10 000 feet.
Speaker 2:I won't be there, but I do want to give a shout out to those races because they're pretty iconic, been around for a long time. Um, I know june 8th as well. Um, shout out to scarper runner, american scarper runner, um Gabe Joyce. His race is sinks Canyon trail runs and he's got a 6k and 18 K and a 50 K. It's kind of a grassroots race that he puts on. So I want to shout that out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, and then we've got also this upcoming weekend. Um, is the soon a piece, scramble up down.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2:I mean, the field is a little bit different this year because it's not a, not a um, any qualifying race or anything right, but still it's a great race up in new hampshire still the national championships or I don't know. No, I don't think so. For this year now it's gonna be loon dude. Actually, in new, it's got some news to talk about as well yeah, a little news in here, because this is um, so first thing I'm going to talk about is so the stellina challenge is canceled.
Speaker 1:It sucks. Yeah, did you read the press release? I did not. I just saw the headline and was like dang.
Speaker 2:So I read the press release and if someone's listening to this, that can. If you guys want to reach out to me. I was very sorry. I was very confused by the press release. It seemed as though that the race itself was the reason they put it on, or one of, like, the founding core beliefs and parts of the race was over peace.
Speaker 2:They wanted to celebrate peace oh and I think one of the reasons they canceled it from what I understood from the press conference or from the the press release, was that because of so much war going on in the world. That that's the reason. But I'm not. I it's interesting yeah I'm not sure I didn't really take a lot away from it. I was kind of confused by the press release because it was translated from Italian.
Speaker 2:Oh right American trail running association put it out. So if anyone wants to reach out with better information, um cause, I'm kind of curious to see why we're not putting it on now. Loon the Loon mountain race would have been the qualifier race for that, and that was because Salina is a vertical race Right. So I'm curious to see, now that there's not going to be a selection, how that's going to change plans.
Speaker 1:I think it'll change the competition. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:I think for sure too, because I think you're going to have less guys and gals showing up than D'Loon and I wonder if people are going to change their mind and start showing up because that is for a Cirque series, a basin which is going to be the mountain running champs, or or sorry, not a basin um Cirque series snowbird snowbird, yeah, long work day.
Speaker 1:No worries, I got a long run this morning, so I'm feeling the same way, oh man, Um yeah.
Speaker 2:So I wonder how that's going to change. Change the game a little bit If people are going to start I yeah, so I wonder how that's going to change. Change the game a little bit if people are going to start.
Speaker 1:I gotta have to reach out and see what people are thinking. I think that snowboard race is gonna be insane, yeah because it already brings such an amazing field.
Speaker 2:But now that it just has that title to it, I think we'll see a lot of fun names on there I'm pumped, I'm really bummed, I'm not gonna be there, and the thing that sucks is like I mean, granted, yes, I'm excited, I'm getting married, yay awesome like the competitor in me wants to like either commentate it or you know, or or be there to you know.
Speaker 2:Race in it of course, of course but you know, shout out to so many incredible athletes that are going to it, so it's going to be. It's going to be fun to follow along and you know we'll see what happens, uh but yeah, I'm just interested to see how that changes plans like, for instance, like I'll throw one runner out there.
Speaker 2:I I don't know if he was going to be showing um showing up to loon. I would have guessed he would have been, but I haven't talked to him as joe joe gray yeah, and I wonder if maybe this changes some plans because he did challenge to lean on like every single year. Yeah, I agree, and that. So that kind of throws things up. I wonder what people like like Christian Allen are thinking. Now I don't know. I got to reach out to a bunch of people to see like what the plans are.
Speaker 1:It's hard to get us out East as well. Yeah, you know. And so I think if there's not a whole lot into it, I think you'll see a couple of names. Just cause it is a big title, I think we'll see a lot of unsponsored people go out there just to get the national championship title.
Speaker 2:Are you talking about Loon Loon? Yeah, I agree, I definitely agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah we'll see.
Speaker 2:We'll see In other news. Dude, are you following this spring energy debacle that's going on right now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're lying about their carbs, right, and calories, or just carbs?
Speaker 2:I don't have the faintest idea. I think it's both. I don't know faintest idea. It is, I think it's both. I don't know um they're not tested correctly yeah, so basically there's just a discrepancy in like the nutritional content and it's like from a I don't know. I just listened to david roche's podcast. They put one out today for swap and like one of the things that was like in discussion was like a possible like lawsuit from the fda because the nutritional effects were like incorrect, which is wild.
Speaker 1:And I hope something happens, because that will cause everybody else to do it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, the thing to me, I think the only thing that makes me super frustrated is like, dude, those gels are like five bucks a pop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're so expensive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good point and you find out you're getting like 50%, 60% of the nutritional content, that you're getting like 50, the 60 of the nutritional content that you're, like you're supposed to be getting right. Um, yeah, that's a bummer. So I though I'm sure there'll be dude, there could be a class action lawsuit, who the fuck knows like it's gonna be very interesting. I just think, uh, you know, and it was interesting because, like, jason coop threw out a uh kind of a polarizing like reel. I don't know if you saw that.
Speaker 1:I literally watched it before you got here, like 20 minutes ago.
Speaker 2:Um yeah, jason coop was throwing, throwing elbows, dude towards spring, towards spring, wow, yeah it was. It was some some hot hot stuff hot stuff and you know, rightfully so. I think where he comes from is a place where he wants to. He's, you know, he's arguably the best, if not the best, coach out there, you know, and he's kind of like the the guy in a lot of ways, so he wants to protect his athletes of course, I think rightfully so, yeah um, so yeah, and I don't disagree.
Speaker 2:I think that I did. You see their the email they sent out on sunday I did not. Yes, they sent out an email like I think it was either sunday or monday, so like holiday weekend, and it was like sent out late in the day and it was a very it's I don't know, coming from a very corporate background, it's it's very apparent that, like a lawyer wrote that and it was like it was like one of those ones were like we'll see what happened, like I don't know it wasn't a problem.
Speaker 2:Let's put it this way it wasn't like the to me at least, it didn't seem like the owner and the ceo or however the corporate structure works. It doesn't seem to me like it was very genuine. It seemed like this was very clearly written by an attorney and the.
Speaker 1:You know they're just trying to trace things for right now for what could be a pending lawsuit right, who knows, dude, I mean that's a big deal. Yeah, if you're getting x, if you're wanting to get x amount of calories and you're not, that's, that's a race, crazy shit.
Speaker 2:You know well you know what that was interesting and that's the reason I brought up um jason coop's post originally, because, if you like read through some of the comments, like I know, quite a few of high profile athletes like went in there and like commented, like I want my race back yeah like that saved me a few dnfs, or this, that and the other, and it's just kind of it's just a bummer. You know, like we don't need that shit in our, you know, in our sport we need right people you know doing the right thing.
Speaker 2:So and I don't want to say there was negligence on any behalf, but like, if there was, then you know, let's hope that's like rooted out and just you know that doesn't have a place in our sport I mean, imagine if shoes were lying about stack height. Yeah, you know like people would lose it. Dude. I wonder how like people are gonna like get into that now like are people gonna be measuring stack height? Are they gonna be measuring the nutritional content of everything?
Speaker 2:I wonder if I mean, at the end of the day, like our sport is a business in a lot of ways, right so, and I feel like if, given that the sport is a business, there's there's money involved, money is made and there's a lot of money that's made, more than people think yeah, and it's just not dispersed to the people exactly yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:But the thing is is like, because it's a business, um, you know, intentions change and I think that that's. That has a lot to do with it as well, you know, and I hope it's not that, but if it is it's, you know, it's kind of grimy, but right.
Speaker 1:Do you know anything about spring's background? Are they just know they're?
Speaker 2:based in san francisco. They've got a lot of great athletes, a lot of of amazing, you know, actually. So this was what I was going to say, one of the things that made me think about it and you know, for other athletes listening to this, I don't know it just it made me start to get the gears turning in my head about like, okay, as an athlete, like what kind of products? I have certain sponsorships, yes, and I think about like okay, now, now, as an athlete, I am a sponsored athlete for X company and it makes me think about, like, okay, the product that I am, I'm endorsing myself behind Cause. I gotta be honest with you Like I the products I use, like La Sportiva and ultimate direction, like I really use them all the time.
Speaker 2:I love the products, I love the shoes, this, that and the other, right, but like, let's say, I had a nutritional company. Like it makes me think, like dude, if you're an athlete like Sage, you know, who puts reels up on regular, you know. Or if you're Jason or somebody like that, like you know, you really throw a lot of your weight behind this. Like there's backlash now you know, and people like named Sage and named things.
Speaker 2:So it's very interesting to me Like you got to really think it through when you put your name behind a product, you know. Right and I never, I guess it's. Maybe I just put two and two together today because it made me think I was like, oh shit, Like that is substantial backlash, you know it is interesting it's a lot of people look at an athlete to a sponsor, as consumer to producer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's not that way. That way, no, it's really business to business did you see um?
Speaker 2:you saw the video of whitfield finishing winning the uh ramparty 33k yes did you see the his shirt he was wearing yep, he had. Like he had the tape on it that was a classy fucking move I, I was I honestly didn't reach out to him and say that, but like, if he's listening to this, I hope he is.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah that was cool, brian. Yeah, don't, don't rep. Anybody's not going to help you Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I just I think that's, that's the way to go, um, but yeah it, company like what you know, kind of what goes into that, of course, a lot of thought, um, darren. So, dude, we're almost at an hour, really quick. Um, I don't want to keep you all night, um anything. You want to end on and talk about the rest of you? I know you said you kind of expanded your season a little bit, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:So I added um, gopro mountain games 20k this next weekend, which I'm really excited because that race has always been on the list that I've wanted to do but I've never been able to fit it in because I don't think I've been at a fitness to be able to recover fast enough for the following races I want to do and so stoked to be there. It's a big payout race. If you do well, it's 2,500 for first, I think 250 for fifth. Yeah, so lots of money in it and I just I think all athletes should just swarm around money races and just support them as much as you can, because I think it's just a massive deal. And then, after that broken arrow sky race two weeks from there, um, again, that dude is just amazing, brendan Manigan. He does not make a dime.
Speaker 2:We just became friends on LinkedIn. Did you Nice?
Speaker 1:The guy doesn't make a dime on his race. He pays all of it back into the race, which is just amazing.
Speaker 2:He's an interesting character. I didn't know much about his background until, like I said, we became friends on LinkedIn. I was like oh, alpenglow, that's dope Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he owns that cool store and they put everything out during the race. So if you buy something at Broken Arrow Sky Race, you're helping out his company. It's a great race man. So you got to buy stuff from Alpenglow After that, two weeks from there. So it's two weeks GoPropro, two weeks sky race uh, or, yeah, broken arrow and then two weeks cordillera blanca sky race in peru, which I'm really looking forward to. Obviously, it's really really high. You start at 10 800 and the highest point is 14 800. So I so it's just it'll be interesting to see how that sort of affects me. I've been someone to come alive and altitude, so I think I should do well, but it'll be really interesting to see how that goes, cause they're they're high, isn't cold Like our high.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's like it's still hot up there. Oh man.
Speaker 1:And it's really exposed there, oh man, and it's really exposed. It's not, obviously, because the entire race is above treeline, oh dude.
Speaker 2:That's like full sun protection. Yeah, sunglasses and shit.
Speaker 1:So that's pretty wild. And then I have three weeks. I think from there until Bar Trail Mountain Race.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're doing BTMR, I am, oh shit Cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I added that one on the schedule. Dean Abel reached out and said I should support the community Somebody said Not exactly. He just said hey, I'm trying to get a big elite field this year and would you be willing to come? Oh is he the. He's helping them out.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I don't think he officially works for them, I'm not sure. Oh cool, but I'll be there and then I'm gonna do a little training camp in steamboat and then I think from there it's pretty much just grind towards pike's peak and then hopefully the sky running. Sky runner world series u23 final okay, in spain now will the final be the same?
Speaker 2:is it the same final as the like the older people final? It not.
Speaker 1:So that'll be kind of fun It'll be. I'll be able to see who I'm racing. Okay, so it's. The final for the older people is 42 K for you 23. I think it's 23 K. Okay, Fair so which is a lovely distance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that a lot better. Plus, it's like more fun to see like how you stack up against like your age group and in that time of the, you know of course you're at.
Speaker 1:of course yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's not fair if you're racing these, like you know, 30 something year old dudes, like you know Nadir and all these.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just hard to get noticed that way, exactly.
Speaker 2:So, but no, to make the final and be doing as well.
Speaker 1:So congrats dude, thank you. Thank you, I appreciate that, dude. Thanks for coming on, of course, happy to talk. Running man Always All right man.
Speaker 2:Well, until the next one, steep stuff pod, Thank you.