The Steep Stuff Podcast
Broken Arrow VK Race Preview | The Steep Stuff Race Companion
Broken Arrow VK Race Preview | The Steep Stuff Race Companion , With Guest Nick Tusa
Oh man. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the steep stuff podcast. I'm your host, james Lariello, and we are joined today by a very special guest to preview the broken arrow sky race, vk 23 K and 46 K. Mr Nick Tusa, you want?
Speaker 2:to interview. Yeah, excited to be here, excited to uh chat about some upcoming races that we're both, I know, really excited about.
Speaker 1:Dude, thanks for coming, man, I'm so excited that we finally we've been I feel like we've been spitballing about this for a long time. We kind of finally here to put this together. Um yeah, I'm just so excited to uh. This is like one of the biggest weekends in trail running, if not the biggest two weeks in trail running between broken arrow and then Western States, and there's a little bit of something for everybody. So I'm ready to uh, ready to get this kicked off, ready to get rolling.
Speaker 2:How you been, dude I've been well, man, yeah, training a ton and uh, yeah, putting the miles in race this weekend. Yeah, finally, finally, kick off the racing season. Yeah, were you racing it? I'm racing the great divide 25k in Colorado up at uh, mueller State Park, I believe it's called yeah so, yeah, get up to 9,500 feet and throw down. See how it goes. Let's go. Baby, I'm stoked man. I can't wait to cheer you on tomorrow. It's going to be it's going to be fun race.
Speaker 1:All right, ladies and gentlemen. So we are here to talk about Broken Arrow. This is a specific Broken Arrow episode. We're going to kind of break these down into different episodes, so the first one we're going to talk about today is the vertical kilometer race. It's going to be taken place on June 21st 2024.
Speaker 1:This year is a little bit different, so it's a little bit earlier for start time. This year it's going to be a 9.30 start. Usually these races are sometimes 10. Previous years has been 11. So this year is kind of early. For those of you who are unaware. With the vertical kilometer, this race is about 4.8 K, which is about three miles um, with about 914 meters of climbing. You do the math on that. It's about 3000 feet of vertical gain in just three miles Um. This is also going to be a world mountain running vertical uphill race, um. And it does top out on Washtenaw peak, which is going to be overlooking the beautiful Lake Tahoe. So lots of storylines to talk about. Nick, let's get into this. What kind of storylines are you thinking? Who's going to be there this year?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the big names that I got excited about seeing was Patrick Kipping-Yago. I mean, he won the first two Golden Trail events of the season so far and he is a back-to-back uphill world champion, so it's uh, he's gonna be a tough one to beat for sure, yeah, I mean he, he's got the background, he has the pedigree um yeah, he's a.
Speaker 1:He's a phenom dude. He's only 30 years old dude. You know he's a 102 half marathoner. 102 dude is fast as shit. Um, he's also go. This is mind-blowing to me just because, like I like, I think the 10k is like probably my favorite uh distance um 29 minute 10k time.
Speaker 2:So so fast I feel like you got to be sub 30 to win these vks oh, for sure it's yeah, gotta have that flat speed yeah so who else do you think is gonna um? Yeah, and I think, like the reason that he is showing up is because of the the competition here, and I mean seeing some of the names like Jim Walmsley, eli Hemming, christian Allen, david Sinclair I mean these are just world beaters and these are people that I know he wants to throw down with for sure.
Speaker 1:Straight killers, dude Killers. On the ladies' side, who's coming in?
Speaker 2:Ladies' side. Ladies' side. I got Grayson Murphy uh, anna Gibson uh, second last year at the VK.
Speaker 1:Jade Bellsburg, uh, tabor Hemming. And another one I saw over there was Claire Rhodes. Yeah, very, very solid. Did you raise her last year? She's Alaskan runner, right.
Speaker 2:I think you might've. I think I remember seeing her name on a Zerk series.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think you might have. I think I remember seeing her name on a zerk series. Okay, nice, yeah, she's a killer dude. Her, um, her partner, I believe, is racing as well, but it might be the 46k. Okay, I'm trying to remember. Um, is it tracen knopp? If I remember correctly, he's gonna be out there. Yeah, he's another stud alaskan runner. So the alaskans are coming out to uh, get on this. Um, yeah, man, there's so many good storylines here, I've got got a few as well. Like, this is going to be jim walmsley's first race. Uh, in the united states, with the exception of a rate, the stampede we won't count that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's actually technically got dq'd. Yeah, yeah, it shows on ultra sign up as like unofficial yeah, something like that which I'm I think that's hilarious. This is 2021.
Speaker 1:So that's wild. David Sinclair is back. I'm really excited to have him back on the start list since 2022. He actually did race this year. He did throw down against Darren Thomas, the silver state 50 K. So, yeah, you got second place, so it seems like he's knocking off the rust guy Looks he's looking good man.
Speaker 2:So and another thing to add about him he actually just recently broke Jack Kenzel's uh Mount Shasta um ascent and descent on skis. Um, that's like 10 miles, 7,200 feet of gain. He did that in two hours, 16 minutes just absolutely insane.
Speaker 1:That's a killer man, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, like the uphill fitness, the it's there, it's there, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I yeah there's and dude and he's a. He's another one Like I feel like he went through this year. It was interesting Cause I know he's most notably known um in the skiing like in the skiing world, as a like a skate skier, Nordic skier, and I feel like this year he's been really making a name for himself on the schema side and I don't know how that works. I probably should have done some research before this episode to learn a little bit more about how, because I know schema is an Olympic sport and we've got the individual, we've got the uphill things like that, and I don't know how that selection process works. So it's very possible that maybe he's trying to get in for that. So that's definitely a storyline for this year.
Speaker 1:A few storyline for this year um, a few other storylines I've got is, like you said, patrick kip and yago returns the united states after a little bit of a layoff I think last year he was here for what pikes ascent and the mammoth trail fest. Um, cam smith is back. Um so excited to see him on the start list as well and coming back from injury I didn't realize how young he was either.
Speaker 1:He's 28, I believe he's my age, which I was like I thought he was like in his third.
Speaker 2:Like I feel like he's my age, which I was like wow, I thought he was like in his third. Like I feel like he's been like a coach for a long time and someone that, like, a lot of people have looked up to for a while.
Speaker 1:Dude, I look up to him. He's a killer.
Speaker 2:He. I got him at six. I think he's. He's definitely going to put him in. He's won it in 2022.
Speaker 1:Um, dude, he put Eli on the ropes in the VK of eli. Yeah, yeah was watching that vk and um watching the live stream and they were just duking it out, going back and forth, you know, like eli would make a move and cam would cover, and it was just, it was amazing to follow along. So, um, yes. And then on this topic of eli and tabor, I'm almost 100 sure they will be racing the vk, so I'm pretty sure that will. I know they're definitely racing the 23k, pretty sure they're going to be doing the vk as well. You know, I would imagine, just based off and we'll talk about this in a little bit when we get to our picks based off of eli's recent fkt on bear peak that was an ascent I would imagine he's probably gearing up for a vk oh, he's ready to go.
Speaker 2:That would make this.
Speaker 1:That would make sense, yep yep, um and yeah, gray Grayson Murphy's back. I don't know if I said that already excited to see her race. Um, she had, you know, kind of an interesting and really fun debut of the season. Um, she didn't race in Kobe, but she did wind up racing in the Chinese race. Um, and dude what, what a high altitude, gnarly race that was. So.
Speaker 2:I listened to her podcast about it and she said it was it was a battle up there. I mean, this early in the year, being at that high altitude is, oh my god, brutal yeah, you know what's funny, I had, uh, I had andy on yesterday.
Speaker 1:Um, andy wacker and we were chatting and he, um, dude, he, he just seemed like so chill and nonchalant about the, about the. He was like, yeah you know, I ran up pike's peak a bunch and yeah, that's who didn't really bother me. I was like dude, you're just an animal. I was like I love this. He was totally relaxed about it, whereas, like to me, that would be like the first thing I'd be worrying about. Like, oh man, I gotta run above 10 000 feet. How am I adapted? Uh, some people are just that fit man, you know he's been.
Speaker 2:He's been here his whole life. Right, he's colorado born and bred. I'm pretty sure no, he's from north carolina. Okay, but he went to see you.
Speaker 1:He went to see you went to see you two-time all-american. Uh, this is all fresh in my head because I talked to him yesterday, yeah um, yeah, two-time all-american. Um, and then dude. First trail race. He's been he's. I called him the godfather of sub ultra. I started thinking about this a little bit. He's like dude he's been racing sub ultra since 2013.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's wild like the longevity, yeah, like the beginnings of nike trail kind of yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I told him I was like, dude, the first time I learned about you was I'll never forget like when I first entered the sport was following along like those golden trail series races in europe and watching some fast dude in a nike kit, just like taking it out at sub five minute mile and just running past everybody and you know, just like taking it out super hot, and I was like I love that guy like that.
Speaker 1:He was one of the few americans that were there like, yeah, early on, yeah, yeah, he kind of paid the way now he, um, you know, now he's running for solomon and this past year he got to go to the um uh make the solomon international camp, which was pretty dope. So that's gonna be a fun episode you guys are gonna like that one it's gonna be cool to talk about, all right, so let's get into it.
Speaker 1:We can can talk about the ladies' side as well. I know I kind of already talked about Grayson and Tabor. Anna Gibson, who's last year's champion from the VK, is actually coming back as well. We've got Ellie Mack returning, who's a past VK champion, and then another top 10 to watch out for is going to be Anna Mae Flynn. I just talked to her last week. She is fit, she's ready to go. Last year she had an amazing performance, took fifth um, and she's coming second before, so she's been on the podium of this race in 2017. Um, yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna talk about her a little bit. I'm excited to uh, I'm excited for where her season, her season's gonna go. Um, yeah, man, maybe we could jump into, we could jump in the storylines, we could jump into pics.
Speaker 2:Now, let's get it, let's do it sure, yeah, let's get into pics. We could. Let's start with the ladies. Okay, um, so I. So I got Grayson Murphy winning it.
Speaker 2:Uh, I think her and um on a Gibson are gonna, are gonna go at it, um, but I just feel like Grayson, you know, when she shows up to a race, healthy and fit, like I don't know who can beat her, honestly, okay, she's yeah. And then, uh, jade, third, since she was second last year, I think that she's going to be able to um, to put something in pretty good effort. Uh, tabor and fourth, and then wrapping up, wrapping up the top five. I have claire rhodes and fifth, smart, and then just a few kind of like outside top 10 or not outside the top 10, outside of the top five, um, I, I with a vk. I think this can be anyone's race. I mean, this is like we said, this is a deep field. I also have Anna Mae Flynn, ally McLaughlin, I think. Even if she is not fully healthy, I still think that she is one of the best in the world and that she can show up and place top 10.
Speaker 2:Hell yeah, Lindsay McDonald and Rachel. I don't know how to pronounce her last name that well, but I think it's like Tom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tom, tom, tom, tom, tom Jack, I believe that's how it is. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Yep, and I know that she's. I've seen her with a USA kid a lot and she throws down some.
Speaker 1:Merrill runner yeah, she's amazing.
Speaker 2:So Laura Hamilton who won the Kendall Mountain last year, won the Kendall Mountain race. So I think that she's got a good uphill and, yeah, she'll be pretty good.
Speaker 1:Dude, I love it. There's lots to get into here, so I as well. I have Grayson in first, I think if Grayson can show up healthy. So have you checked her Strava? I have not, so her Strava is kind of interesting. I don't know if we're getting a full picture on, like what's, what's kind of going on there. Um, a couple back to back 40 mile weeks, followed by like three. Two weeks ago she had a 75 mile week. Um, I'm not really like I said, I don't know if she's posting everything. Um, the runs look clean, runs look strong. I it's very difficult Cause I know, if you're like me, like I'm a black box on.
Speaker 2:Strava.
Speaker 1:So it's very hard to read. Am I healthy? What am I doing? What am I doing with this? So I know not all athletes post everything, so I'm kind of interested to see like, what the storyline is there with. You know what's going on.
Speaker 1:If she's healthy, which I believe she is, she's going to be very hard to beat on that start line. I mean Gray animal, I mean she's two times or she's 2023 world mountain running champ in the up down, in the vertical, okay, she's, oh wait, no, in the up. I think it's up down and I think she is she, the vertical champion. She was third in the vertical, yeah, but she was podium, and then she was the two-time um mountain running champ in 2021, 2023 um for the usatf. So, um, she's only 28 years old and the crazy thing is is like she's 28 years old and like I was talking to Andy yesterday and like he's already got her as one of his goats, if not like could could very well be one of the best female sub ultra runners, if not the of all time, and already 28 years old. So there's a lot of storylines to talk about there. I mean like she's already had a storied career. I know she's dealt with I wouldn't say injury, but she's dealt with some health stuff.
Speaker 1:At the end of last year, especially like following Cirque series, brighton, after she absolutely dominated that race. I know she she, you know had some stuff that she was pretty she talked about on Instagram and she was pretty open with it. So it's amazing that she's kind of ready to be back on a start line. We've seen a race already this year and she's kind of calling her way back and, you know, and ready it's, it's it's really fun. I mean, I feel like she's, you know, this amazing prototypical runner where she, this girl, comes out of college. She's an amazing NCAA athlete, she's on the track and she's on the trail and now all of these people coming up in the sport want to be just like her. Um, yeah, she's amazing. I'm so excited to see what she can do.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's gonna be cool to see her back on start line yeah, I feel like a start line without her is not like a true start line. I agree it's exciting 100 especially broken arrow.
Speaker 1:I know last year she was like out there um, but just didn't, didn't want to brace him and now I think this is her first broken this is her first broken arrow, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:So there's so much to be stoked about, and it's not, you know, like this is not just an, your normal vk, like this is a much um for those of you that have actually been out there, on course, and I can't wait for you to go out and finally experience this in the next year or two dude um, last year I was out there and the the courses, especially this year there's going to be so much snow, so it's going to be a similar probably a similar go to last year um, so they cut out those steps, cut out the steps, so there's going to be
Speaker 1:snow on the course. It's going to be gnarly, um, I would imagine. So I did do a pretty deep dive into the course and it seems, it appears that they haven't really changed much from last year. If not might be actually be the same exact course that they used. And if that is, then the way it works is it's a mass start. I don't know if you've watched the. Yeah, when you watch the live streams, like we are, we're all going out at once. Um, and not only is it a mass start, but it's basically straight up the hill like you're going up to, you're hitting a 20 to 40 percent grade almost immediately within the first like fifth of a mile. So, yeah, it's, it's gonna, it's going to be, it's going to be interesting, nice and steep. There's a lot to go on there. Um, all right, so I'll kind of get into my picks as well. We can talk about a few of the other things. Um, so I do have Grayson at first. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm slinging, slinging with my second place. I'm, I'm going, I'm going.
Speaker 2:Tabor Hemming second uh, and I think there's a lot to unpack with that.
Speaker 1:I think tabor, um well, we know tabor's healthy. Um, we know tabor's been racing amazingly. Um, I think tabor's extremely fit. There there's a lot of a. You know, they kind of allude a lot both in their social media and when they do post stuff on strava, and just from conversations, like you know that they're doing steep stuff.
Speaker 1:Um, pun intended there with the steep stuff podcast um, you know like, uh, you see them on the flat irons. They're coming out to boulder. You see eli running, you know, for the f for the bear peak fkt. I didn't ask, but I would imagine taber would have run bear peak too so she uh, I watched their their youtube video yeah, and uh, she just didn't effort up.
Speaker 1:An effort up green wait was it the same one he cut his head at. Cut his head on um not the exact same trail. No, second same video. It would have been the newest video. Okay, I must have missed it just came out all right, I missed, sorry, guys, but yeah, they.
Speaker 2:They were chatting about their um, their volume as well, and they've been both putting in consistent um 100 plus mile weeks. So they are, they're fit, and I think I made these picks the other day. So, honestly, I kind of want to agree with you and maybe bump Tabor up, and the reason for that is because she's raced a bunch this year already. I mean, anna Gibson has you know. I mean she's been on the track. It's just. How is that going to translate? It seemed to translate well last year. Will it translate again?
Speaker 1:We'll see, I don don't know it's a good storyline for me, I think, and you gotta remember too is like taber's not new to the vk she ran. She was third in the vk at broken arrow in 2022. She ran 51 minutes, fucking solid time. Um, she's also the 20. I don't know if people know this. She's the 2022 us mountain running national champ as well um that, like that was her first like kind of like breakout season where everybody started learning like out east who they were yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it was at whiteface I think it was at whiteface so yeah, some amazing stuff there.
Speaker 1:Um, so I do have tabor is my second place pick. Um, no-transcript, the women's field. Other than, like Grayson, the women's field doesn't look a heck of a lot different this year versus last year. Um, well, grayson and Tabor. Tabor was on the list last year but didn't race. But, in my opinion, I think anime's got all the tools to win all right. Well, she, she could possibly win this race, but if not, all the tools to definitely make it on the podium, I don't see why she shouldn't be able to do that. Um, some of the things about anime as well. Like I said, fifth in 2023, second in 2017 dude, she's also got a second place.
Speaker 1:The pikes ascent in 2017 oh, wow um, like I said, she's she's got all the fast twitch. She's an uphill killer. I you know, like I said, she's an amazing human too. Like it's a little home cooking bias, but like just spending time with her and like realize, like just understand, like what an amazing person she is and like just how inspiring she is, I can't help but not put her on my podium. Um and fourth, I am going to go with Anna Gibson, um champion in 2023. Um, another killer, absolute killer. She's coming off of like an absolutely astounding track season. Um, I you know, I don't know, I think it's it's different for different people. I know, if it were me coming off a track season going onto the trails, I would struggle, but I'm not Anna Gibson. Anna Gibson is far superior of an athlete than I'll ever be.
Speaker 2:So she could who knows, she could shock the hell out of us and just go win the damn race. I think there was some strategy with her just picking the vk and not racing the 23k. Yeah, I think that's like coming off the track. I would imagine the pounding on like the downhill would be very tough to handle and you're not used to that at all. So I think the vk was kind of just like a safe bet for her, just like I'm just going to use my pure fitness attack this mountain.
Speaker 2:We'll see. And also her not running the 23K. See, I've never ran a back-to-back VK in a race, so I don't know if people hold back a little bit, knowing that they have to race the following day, or is it the following second.
Speaker 1:Well, so if you're in the 23K, 23 case, Sunday Sunday and 46 case Saturday and the VK is. Friday Friday Friday nine, 30.
Speaker 2:But knowing that she's just running the VKs, it's just going to be an all out, Just go like yeah, we'll see. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I, I'm excited, I can't wait to follow along. And then in fifth place I've got Allie's biggest fan, like I. Just you know she's a local Colorado Springs girl. Um, absolute killer she's been. She's won this race before. Uh can absolutely win it again.
Speaker 1:I know she's kind of struggling and this isn't you know, she. She was pretty open and her quote that she gave it to us. She's been struggling a little bit with some injury. Um hasn't run too. Anna Kobe, which she also would, almost with the exception of she, fell back a little bit. She almost damn well won that race as well. But that said, I think she could do it. You know, like I said, she struggled with some injury. She doesn't know which race she's going to specifically do, but she has signed up she will be out there. So if she does race it, I will never count out Allie Mack. She's, like I said, fifth place pick. So there's some other athletes that are coming out. I love that you threw out the name of Lindsay McDonald. I think Lindsay is a little slept on. I think she's a little underrated and she's an absolutely stellar athlete. All right, one person you didn't mention that.
Speaker 1:I think is a sleeper for. She's a sleeper top 10. I think she gets her way into the top 10 is jessica breyo oh, actually I did have her I just I didn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she, I was taking a look at her ultra sign up that she doesn't like. Not, she doesn't miss podiums very often doesn't miss podiums. Very often she's jim's partner, his wife I mean all that training in france, all that good vertical dude, lots of skiing she was doing lots of vertical.
Speaker 1:You know, I didn't know this either, but she's listed on and I don't know if people even know this, but, like she's listed on Hoka's website as a Hoka athlete, which I wasn't aware, I did not know that she was on the Hoka team Dude, and she very well backs it up. She's like an extremely solid, solid runner. I like that Trying to find where I like wrote down some of some things about her. Um, canyons 25k in 2022, she took. Second speed goat 25k in 2021 she took. She won it second at the nice 50k in 2023.
Speaker 1:Like you said, she doesn't really miss much and she's been doing it like when they're in france, you know they're. You know jim was doing a ton of uphill ski races, which means I would have imagined jess would have too. Um, I just don't know. You know they weren't very a ton of uphill ski races, which means I would have imagined Jess would have too. Um, I just don't know. You know they weren't very public with what they did and a lot of that stuff is hard to get ahold of if you're looking for information. So I'm going to put her anywhere from five to 10. I think she definitely sneaks into the top 10 without a doubt.
Speaker 2:You know, uh, I think I think her and Jim are going to have like just so much stoke being back in the States, being back like around their people and stuff like that, like not saying France, like I'm sure they had their their group in France with France full on all that stuff, but but coming back like home in a sense, like I think that's going to give them a little extra.
Speaker 1:Dude, I agree, I agree. Yeah, field looks looks insane. I we have some, just some incredible talent coming out, so all right. So let's go over to the men's picks. I'll let you take it away with who you got in your top five for men and we'll go from there awesome.
Speaker 2:Um, I have patrick kip and yago taking it, uh, followed by eli hemming, third, jim walmsley, fourth, christian allen and fifth, dav Sinclair. Okay, left out a few very notable names. I mean you're going to with a field this deep? I mean I could go on and on here. I mean Cam Smith has a chance at it. You know he was first in 2022. Darren Thomas won in 21.
Speaker 1:Yep Second place last year Second place last year.
Speaker 2:I also didn't realize how young he was, too he's 30, only I don't know if he's that 29 maybe. I think something like that I, I don't know, I don't know why another colorado springs guy? I see his name on like segments throughout colorado, like throughout all of colorado he's got the second.
Speaker 1:No, he's got the third, because second would be joe. Now, uh, third on the incline, I'm pretty sure he's third.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's wild, yeah, crusher and I mean chad hall can't leave him out. Um mckell. He was ninth uh ninth of the vk in 2022, I believe. I think last year he just the 23k. Yep um joseph demore, I gotta throw up there. Yep um local out of um fort collins. I don't think he's raced a lot of these races before, but I've seen him at gopro games a bunch, and this is tyler mccandles yeah, shout out to him fast guy fast, fast road guy, so have you?
Speaker 1:did you get to race him yet, or have you?
Speaker 2:um, I don't, I know. I know he does like those gopro races he did.
Speaker 1:He did it out with joe last year for um. What was that race that you? I think you're doing it this year the um? Oh my god, what is it?
Speaker 2:it's the uphill that's in jackson rendezvous, yes, rendezvous, hill climb, dude him and joe duked it out and they both went under the course record last year.
Speaker 1:I did see that. Yeah, I see that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, he, I mean, he could very well be right up there. Uh, sam hendry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, garrett corcoran um there's like 30, 30 fucking people that could win this race it's crazy.
Speaker 2:And then I just listened to your podcast with um kieran yesterday and that was amazing and I think he's gonna come ready to go. Um andy wacker even though if he's been, I sounds like he's maybe dealing with a little something right now, but the dude's been here before.
Speaker 2:This is nothing new to him he can throw down, uh, but just like a couple notes on on the top five there. Um, david sinclair he was second in 2021, uh, first at the rut vk in 22 and then again I just mentioned he just broke jack kenzel's record up and down shasta.
Speaker 1:So dude sinclair is.
Speaker 2:Sinclair is an animal dude, yeah, so stacked man um, yeah, all right, so to speak, on that.
Speaker 1:There's just like a lot of storylines here that we can go into. Like the first things first is like kip and yego's here, and I think the fact that, like he's like a world champion, like we're finally at this level now with broken arrow, where this vertical kilometer race is getting like world champions on both the men's and women's side, is like wild, and especially in american soil. Um, we've also got jim walmsley here. Um, one of you know, one of the best to ever do it at this point, especially, you know, on the men's side, for, uh, the ultra running scene. I think jim has slept on when it comes to these short races. I did, I mean, I did a a literal fucking analysis on this to like, to like to break this down. Um, I even went like deep and dark into strava and these strava segments. Um, did you know? So? Jim was third as series and all in 2019, behind killian um, and I believe it was petra mamu. So he's got wheels, dude, we all know he's got wheels. I mean, that's like, but he ran a 231, 53, okay, which is bizarre.
Speaker 1:Why I think Jim Wamsley wins this race is the Strava segment I sent you called the KMV official course, which, if you guys are unaware of what this is, it's a full vertical kilometer in Fulay, switzerland. That's 1.24 miles and 3,254 feet. To do the math on that, it's a 49% grade. All right. Wamsley ran it. He's eighth overall in the Strava segment. All right, he went. So basically eighth overall in the 3141,. He's like a couple minutes. He's like a minute behind, a little less than a minute behind Killian who has 2951.
Speaker 1:Okay, on this VK. And Remy's got the world record in 28.49. All right. So Jim is just a couple minutes off, less than that, off the vertical kilometer world record. He was supposed to run race Joe and Patrick last year and a bunch of other killers in Innsbruck at the VK race, which a lot of people are unaware that he was supposed to be at the VK race. And he was also supposed to be at um at the do the long course in Innsbruck. Um, I think he's just bizarrely slept on. I think he's he's overlooked because he's, you know, known as this long trail, utmb guy. Um, and then the other thing was that people don't know know like it was.
Speaker 1:Maybe like somewhat publicly noted is dude, he almost went for in in chamonix they have a vk course like right there in town. He almost went for that record the week of utmb to go see if he could break that and then go win utmb and get the utmb record. He didn't do it but it was considered yeah. So I don't know, dude, I this is in my honest to God opinion. I think this is power moves. I think Jim comes out. I think he smashes his fucking waist and absolutely makes Patrick and everybody else look absolutely silly. I really do. I think I've got Wamsley for first. I'm going to go with Christian Allen, who we're going to get into too. For second, I've got Kip and Yago.
Speaker 1:Third, I've got Kip and Yago third, I've got Eli fourth, which is wild because that would probably be the lowest Eli has ever finished in a race.
Speaker 2:Literally.
Speaker 1:Like I don't even know if it's possible. And then Chad I got Chad Hall in fifth and I think Chad Hall is an absolute animal. We'll unpack this a little bit. So I talked about Walmsley. Hyped up Walmsley, I really do. I think Jim wins this race. I and I think, dude, I think he goes and wins western states. I think. Do you think he breaks?
Speaker 1:the course record I don't think he breaks the course record. Maybe I don't know, I don't know how much snow is up there, but I can. I can tell you this and it's hard to say, like talk about like course records when it comes to vk races, especially because now, like this, this course has changed a bunch of times and I don't even know what the broken arrow vk course record is now, just because it's a different, different course, like last year's. I think it's like the same course as last year. But, um, that said, I do think, jim, I think once you reach and I don't, I don't know, I just see this in other athletes that once you in adjacent sports, once you get to that level like look at courtney, for example, she's probably the best version, best I um, you know, version is, once you get to that level, you don't really fall off that level. Courtney hasn't, like you know, hasn't like fallen off at all and and there's no like signs that's gonna happen.
Speaker 1:Katie shud's another great example last year got second at western states. She's won utmb. You know, dude, ever since she won utmb, like she's been on like a rocket ship to the moon, you know, and like she's kind of like at this another level that you kind of unlock, and I wonder if, like, once you do get to that top level of the sport, it's very easy to hold onto, or you're just fighting so hard to keep that? Um yeah, I don't know. It's like the old saying with these UFC fighters Once you become champ, you automatically get 40% better, and it's because people fear you. Whether they're fighting you or whether you're on the start line, people fear you. So I don't know. It's interesting to see. I have talked to quite a few people that are on the start line, that are going to be out there, and I think a lot of people are very excited to race Jim and potentially beat him. I. I think a lot of people are very excited to race Jim and potentially beat him.
Speaker 2:So I think he's this. I won't. I'm not going to say he's going to win, but I think he's the scariest person on that start line, just cause he's terrified of him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wouldn't want to race him Um, or I would, and I it's the last I'd see him is on the start line, and that's it. Um, yeah, pick christian allen, who you had, I believe in fourth uh, yes okay, I think that's.
Speaker 1:These are these. Yeah, christian allen's an absolute like. I think he's um. In my opinion, that's he's the future of trail running. I mean, he's young, he's 25 years old. Um, he's a byu grad, just finished up college. This past year um ran 215 low at cim and that was after blowing up, and still ran 215 low. That was and that was his olympic trials qualifier. Um, there's strava's looking super fresh. Uh, he just like absolutely demolished a segment on grandeur peak. Um did. He ran a 42, 33 um up. So the grand, the peak itself, or the peak itself grandeur is very well known in the area Ran a 42.33. The next closest time was 48.09. Okay, yeah, and this is a 3,345 foot 25% grade Strava segment. It's about 2.542 miles. So it models it's similar elevation profile. Broken Arrow is a little higher up, but the altitude is not going to bother Christian, I don't. I mean he's, he lives in Salt Lake or lives in the greater Salt Lake area. So I have him. Dude, he could win, he could win the race Now.
Speaker 2:Has he done a VK before? Yes, oh yeah, that's something I didn't even mention, okay, Okay, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean, you've raced him at, uh, probably a couple of the cirque series races. Yeah, yeah, alta, exactly, um, he's the fastest mullet in the wasatch dude, this kid's kid's an animal, uh. So, yeah, I, I am very, very excited to watch him. Uh, against the best in our sport. I mean, I even was talking to andy about him yesterday and was like like I'm just this kid's biggest fan and he's a nice dude. Like I've talked to him on instagram, we're going to have him on the podcast, yeah, just to really like what I want the future of trail running to be. Yeah, and he's like another one of these hybrid athletes. This guy's on the trail and he's on the track, so I'm just excited for what he's able to do. And then in third place, yes, patrick Kipanjago. I think Patrick comes out. I think Patrick has a great race. I think he does very well. I guess I see him anywhere from third place to first. I don't think he slips anything below that. He is also going to be running in 23K, or at least he's on the start list for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, dude, I think there's this thing too, that when people you got to remember when you come to america from another country. I know he. He is kind of back and forth between austria and kenya, so I don't really know where he's at. Like I said, he's not, he doesn't have a strava, so it's. And if he does, I haven't been able to find it. So you don't, you don't really know like these people come over from the other countries, just like we go over to other countries to race. Your diet changes, your sleep changes, like all these different. So it depends on, like, how early you come out, how well you can adapt.
Speaker 2:I mean, I know this is a full-time job, so I imagine that they're coming out probably at least a week before I would imagine Now. Do you know if is he coming out with anyone else?
Speaker 1:I know he usually has some of his buddies show up or no really Phil Monson on the start list, at least I don't know if any of their other teammates are on there, but not that I was aware of.
Speaker 2:Cause I know that they always like what I. What I love about him and his team is like they always race together, like they're. They're very much like team oriented, like you always see, like the first two go at hot and like sometimes they'll drop each other, but like that's like part of like the team aspect of it and I really like that and you know you're so many good things to talk about there.
Speaker 1:People race VKs too, like. One of the things I loved is that, like um anime kind of opened up a little bit. I got to get her podcast out earlier, maybe I can get it out before. Um this, this like preview drops just because, like she went into a lot of inside baseball and how to race a VK and like there's a lot of strategy to it. You know, like, are you just going fully anaerobic from the start and just gassing out and hold on for dear life, or are you starting a little more, you know conservative and just kind of picking people off as you go? And you know it's there's a lot of different strategies that you can employ. I mean I, yes, it's a three mile race and people think you're going balls to the wall from the start and kind of, yes, you are, but there's still some strategy involved, especially, like you know, at the front of the race, if you're making moves and trying to cover moves. Like moves are being made and you need to be aware of that. So, yeah, I think there's a lot to it. Um, there's a lot of like, just like I said, so many good storylines here.
Speaker 1:Then in fourth I can't believe I'm putting him in fourth place is eli. He wins. I want to put him as the one for everything. Um, I think eli is. He's the only reason I put him behind christian allen, which is wild to me. If there's a longer race, I would put eli to win, I think christian and jim, and I just think like eli's been racing a lot longer stuff now he did get the bear peak fkt. He took off stage very recently. That was what he ran at 32, something like that.
Speaker 1:Yep right 33, I think it was 33, something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um and I mean that's a uh, it's right under. The final climb up to bear is 1700 feet in a little less than a mile. So like he's, yeah, it's. That's similar to a good chunk of the course.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I don't know it's. It's a very tough. Is there tough picks, man and I?
Speaker 2:know, with this, with this course, I mean, how much hiking do you think that there's going to be? Are these guys running the entire?
Speaker 1:I think you're running. I think you're running probably.
Speaker 2:With the snow, with the cutout steps, you're still able to.
Speaker 1:I would say all right, so not everybody. But I'll tell you Jim is going to go out there with his wizard sticks and fucking eliminate people and he'll run. I guarantee he'll run with the wizard sticks Patrick's no wizard sticks, but he'll run. I think Eli runs it, I think Christian runs it. I've got Chad Hall in fifth. I think your top. The crazy thing is there's like 30 dudes that could win this race. I say the top 15%, maybe 10% are going to be running the entire course.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a good pack up front.
Speaker 1:That's going to be course, you know it's gonna be a good pack up front. That's gonna be for sure, for sure. Yeah, it's gonna be, and I wonder, like how the move is made, like because you are like in this race in particular, like there is a slight downhill section, a small flat to downhill section on it as well, on the profile and then you start climbing again, um you know, to the summit, which is wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited so I've got like my what I would consider my top 10 back half. The first person on that list is going to be Karen Ney, hands down. Just met with Karen. We had him on the podcast. This guy is fit, he's ready to rock and roll. He gave me some good quotes about how comfortable he feels and excited he is. I'll even I'll even kind of break down this quote right now he goes I'm feeling really, really good about broken arrow. This is my fourth time back and I'm excited to see where I stack up. It's always been a good bellwether for the upcoming season. So kieran is fit, he's ready to rock and roll. Um, there's no reason why he shouldn't be in the top 10 of this race, dude, he's so fucking tall. He's like like now, granted, I'm not a very tall person myself, I'm like five, six on a good day. But like Kieran is jack, like I was like whoa, like six like six four.
Speaker 1:He's really tall. So I was like, all right, this makes sense to me as like, like his one stride is like probably five of mine. Um, yeah, I've never ran with him before, but yeah, anyway, let I'd put them pretty similar. I don't know how much Darren Thomas has improved. It's kind of difficult to say. Eli smoked that field at Big Alta and I think he beat Darren Thomas by like was it like 10 to 15? It might have been more than that, which is wild for that caliber of race.
Speaker 1:So I would imagine Darren, he had been coming back from an injury. So I would imagine, you know he he just beat David, uh Sinclair, um at silver state 50k. I think Darren is ready to rock and roll. Um, he got second last year. Dude, he's a really good vertical runner. Like I said he's, he's top five on the um on the incline. So I know I'm kind of rambling here, but like I, I it's hard to keep out Darren.
Speaker 1:I've also got Cam Smith as well, um, another top 10 incliner Um. So you know he's going to be one of the best climbers in the world. And his last injury, it's funny. So he did have a knee injury but he's been back from that for a while. His last injury was like a like I think it was like a shoulder or something that he so it's not like his legs are not where they need to be. So I would imagine Cam to show up pretty damn fit. I've got Andy Wacker in there as well. I think, andy, you can never bet against Andy. I've got Joe Damore and then a sleeper, simone Gosselin, interesting One of Jim's training partners from Beaufort in France.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:That's a pull I didn't see that one. Simone Gosselin, who's also running Western States, so him and Jim went 1-2 at the Nice 100K last September October.
Speaker 1:Yep, september, yeah, so yeah, I've got Simone in there. So he just joined the ON team. I know he came over from the development team which was Cetus Matrix, so it's like a development team. But, dude, you gotta remember he's a ski mountaineer and he's euro and, like those european, like those european runners just know how to wax us when it comes to uphill stuff. Um, even at altitude, I mean, you gotta remember, like beaufort in france, I think, sits at like three or four thousand feet, like broken air was not that high. The highest point is like eight thousand feet or something like that, which is like we're sitting here at 75, so like yeah, or 7 000, so I don't know, I I think I don't think the altitude's a problem. I think the dude's got an opportunity to absolutely show up in the top 10 of that race. Um, and yeah, that's all I got cool yeah, cool, wow, broken over uk everybody.
Speaker 1:I think we, uh, yeah, all right. Uh, yeah, all right. Well, uh, we're going to end this one. We're going to move on to the 23 K guys. I hope you enjoyed this one Steep stuff podcast VK. Thank you.