Meet the Minotaur Race Preview | The Steep Stuff Race Companion

Get ready for an adrenaline-packed episode of the Steep Stuff Podcast as we take you behind the scenes of the Meet the Minotaur Sky Race, the eighth exhilarating stop on the World Skyrunner Series! Join James Lauriello and Nick Tusa as they break down this grueling 33.5-kilometer course in Crow's Nest Pass, Alberta, featuring a staggering 2,900 meters of climbing. Discover what it takes to conquer the skies with insights on reigning champion Jackson Cole's comeback and the fierce competition from athletes like Johnny Luna Lima and Martin Kern. On the women’s front, we highlight powerhouses such as Bailey Kowalczyk and Elise Ponchette, and commend the Skyrunner Series for its enhanced media coverage that brings the thrill of the race to life.

Our episode doesn't stop there; we delve into mountain race strategies and the technical skills that differentiate elite runners. Learn how athletes like Elise Ponchette excel on challenging downhill segments while others focus on uphill endurance. We spotlight emerging talents like Robin Lesh, Karina Anderson, and Tatiana Kennedy, and discuss the unique training advantages offered by Boulder, Colorado. Tune in for a comprehensive analysis of these athletes' performances and the factors that could influence their race outcomes, including a call for more recognition of Canadian trail runners.

Finally, we offer our bold predictions for the trail race podium, starting with Jackson Cole's potential dominance and strong contenders like Johnny Luna Lima and Martin Curran. We also speculate on the top-five finishers, including Morgan Elliott and David Hedges, and introduce other dark horses who could shake things up. Plus, don't miss our preview of the Pemi Loop Race, where we break down its challenging dynamics and key competitors, emphasizing Morgan's impressive track record and potential surprises from other seasoned runners. Whether you're a seasoned trail runner or a passionate fan, this episode is packed with expert analysis and exciting previews that you won't want to miss!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the steep stuff podcast. I'm your host, james Lauriello, and today we've got a fun one for you guys. The race preview for the meet the minotaur sky race. I am joined by my cohost, mr Nick Tusa.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Hey, excited to talk about our first sky race.

Speaker 1: 0:16

Oh hell yeah dude, I can't believe it. Like we're we got through the broken arrow previews and now we're onto my personal favorite preview of the meet, the Minotaur. I dude, I don't know what it is Like I'm like really onto the sky racing series this year. Like I think it's like I don't know, like not to throw a shade at like golden trail. I think it's an amazing race series but like I don't know, I just think the sky racing series kind of like gels more with like my interest as an athlete.

Speaker 2: 0:37

Sure, yeah, no year they're doing maybe, maybe a better job than last year, just like promoting things yes, and putting out videos instantly and like their recap, videos are absolutely incredible it's like they put together that with those drones and it's unbelievable. They're doing a great job.

Speaker 1: 0:53

They are there and you know, I think a lot of it has to do like they got a big title sponsor this year in merrill, uh, and I'm really happy because they brought a lot of like their merrill athletes to like do a lot of these, like, um, you're you're seeing, like Mercedes Siegel Gaither, you're seeing, like Morgan Elliott, you're seeing a lot of the more Merrill athletes kind of pop onto the scene, um and doing these races, which is great. And then on top of that, like yes, the exposure is just phenomenal, like their videography is great they're you know, their Instagram and social media game is like really stepped up. Um, yeah, I think I think it competes. I do think it competes with the Golden Trail series, which is great to see. Like they're having another racing series, you know, kind of out there. So, yeah, guys, meet the Minotaur. I'm so excited for this is going to be the eighth stop on the World Skyrunner series. It takes place in Crow's Nest Pass, alberta, alberta, canada. It's going to be taking place Saturday, june 22nd 2024.

Speaker 1: 1:45

In case you're curious, the meet the Minotaur sky race is a 33.5k race, that's about 20.81 miles um, and with a 2900 meters of climbing, it's about 9512 feet um. The reigning champion on the men's side is jackson cole. Uh, we've got on the podcast if you want to not to do a shameless plug, but if you want to pan on over to episode four, episode five I think it's episode five of the podcast uh, shout out to jackson cole. Uh, big fan of his um, listen, listen to his story. Um, we talk a lot about me, the minotaur. Um, lots of storylines here, dude. Lots of storylines you want to jump into some of, maybe some of the storylines on?

Speaker 2: 2:23

yeah, um, you, um, you have I mean returning champion Jackson Cole coming back to defend his title. Always fun to uh to see those guys come back. Uh, local guy Johnny Luna Lima, really excited to see what he can do, coming off a big podium for him at uh at sky challenge Mexico and taking first last year at the rut. Like this is, this is something that's perfect for him and really excited I believe he raced last year but dropped.

Speaker 1: 2:50

I'm not entirely sure you might be right, yeah, I couldn't find it on him. I think he dropped from illness. Like I couldn't find it on his ultra sign up or anything like that, but I do believe he was there last year, so he's ran on the course.

Speaker 2: 2:59

Definitely, yeah, yeah yeah, um big arterics names one international martin, definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, big Arterix names One international Martin Kern. Excited, he just took second at Madeira, which is cool.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:09

Well that he's here. Women's side Bailey Kowalczyk, you know, third at Sky Race Day, mathesine, first at the rut last year.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Yeah, she's ready, almost, almost. Could have won Zagama Like.

Speaker 2: 3:26

So she's, she's almost almost could have won zagama, like so close, like, yeah, her and danny just could have happened. Man, oh, you love it. Uh, elise, elise, ponchette on set. Uh, arcteryx just picked her up this year so fun to see her at uh at a title sponsor race like this uh and, yeah, shout out to arcteryx as well.

Speaker 1: 3:38

I mean, they're, uh, they're the, but kind of the key sponsor for this race. Um, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 3:43

I think like, if you're a mountain athlete and you're looking for an absolute badass race, to run the meet the mentor sky race kind of fits all that I think this is the one yeah one of the things I thought was interesting for me um, not to get too nitty-gritty into like the the course itself, but like one of the things jackson said is that like the course itself was like made for the race, which is interesting, so it was like designed specifically for this type of race, which is so cool.

Speaker 2: 4:04

Yeah, like you don't get too many things like that, and like not in the united states they must have more freedom to do that, maybe in the national forest in canada, or yeah, or whatever interesting, pretty cool, right, yeah, so some of the really cool storylines.

Speaker 1: 4:18

I think the first thing you kind of hit on, jackson cole, the reigning champion, returns. Um, yeah, and I think he's unfortunately had a really tough race at sky challenge mexico. You know, he's kind of bouncing back from. You know, an illness like a stomach bug absolutely sucks. But you know what, dude, I'm so excited to have him back. Um, I think he's gonna be hungrier than ever.

Speaker 2: 4:36

Oh, 100, I am just so excited.

Speaker 1: 4:38

Like this is like his kind of race. Like I don't know if you guys, if you haven't followed him, give give him a follow on Instagram. You know, like he, I'm one of his biggest fans. Dude, he's like in the sound grays this weekend, like just just hanging out in like third, fourth class terrain, just like, like, like comfortably, like going up this like bad-ass Koliar. So Jackson, I think, is he's a true mountain athlete, you know, just like one of the one of the one of the true ones. Um, johnny luna lima is back. Um, this is going to be his second race of the series so far and he's returning after a third place finish at sky challenge mexico, uh, which was great. Um, another storyline that I've got is could this be kyle richardson's first sky race of 2024? We do not know. There's been some discussion, we've kind of poked around, we've asked people. He never got back to me. I don't know.

Speaker 2: 5:25

Like we don't know. We don't know, we don't know, I know is that if he's there, he's, he's going to look out for well, here's the deal.

Speaker 1: 5:31

He was on the sky. He was on the start list for sky race. Do math c didn't show he was on the sky race for. He was on the start list for I think it was believe, sky challenge mexico didn't, didn't show so I don't know, I don't know like. I was fortunate enough to speak to some of the people that meet the minotaur and they were. They were really kind and like, helped, helped us out with a lot of information yeah, shout out to them, for you know helping with that.

Speaker 1: 5:53

One of the names that did come up was kyle retcherson, so we'll say it. Um, another storyline I have is this is david hedges. Uh, first sky race of 2024. If you guys are unfamiliar with David Hedges another person jump on your Instagram right now. Type in David Hedges and give him a follow. The guy is a mountain athlete through and through. I did have some great conversations with him leading up to this race. If you guys are unfamiliar with who David is, he's very popular in the FKT scene and he's a phenomenal, world-class athlete On the FKT scene. He's the the current. I think it's unsupported. Yeah, he's the unsupported.

Speaker 2: 6:27

Nolan's 14 support no, he was supported, he was supported, supported, but he beat the unsupported.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Thank you, so he's got the overall yeah, overall fastest known time on nolan's 14 in colorado.

Speaker 2: 6:36

So young kid too, mid-20s. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's lived the mountain lifestyle like he lived in in the um, uh, right next to nolan's. Yeah, I mean he was in the sun. Yeah, he was living, though, like the what did he call it?

Speaker 1: 6:52

like a dirt bag or something like that lifestyle um.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Another thing I've got is this is lease uh, elise ponchette's first sky race of 2024. Um, so I'm excited to have her on this. I know elise is a kind of a I would say like a household name from the golden trail world series, so it's kind of of kind of fun. This is a kind of, like you said, her debut season with Arc'teryx, so kind of fun to get her over um in North America for a race. Um, it's also going to be Ruby Lindquist's uh second race. She got fourth at Mexico sky challenge. Um. Another another thing I Campbell's return. Um, adam Campbell is an Arcteryx athlete. He's been around the game for a long time Another household name. And then, last but not least, like we're going to talk about this when we get into our picks is like this, this like Jackson Culver's David Hedges matchup that I'm I'm eagerly anticipating. I'm I'm curious to see where we go from here.

Speaker 2: 7:43

Um, so yeah, yeah, let's dive into your picks, man. What do we got? Yeah, let's start with the women. I have Bailey Kowalczyk taking first. You know she's already, you know raced. This is her third or fourth, I think fourth race of the season.

Speaker 1: 7:59

Fourth yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:00

So you know she's in full race form right now and she's ready to go. Definitely fit, for sure, Yep absolutely, and her training with Johnny too, and Boulder here they're set up perfect to be successful here, yeah. Second, I have Elise Ponchette. She was just recently fifth, I think, just a couple of days ago here at the Euro Championships. She was seventh overall at the Golden Trail Series last year, so she's going to come ready.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Her and Bailey are definitely going to go at it. So it's interesting because, like she's a phenomenal downhiller and one of the things I and I should have reached out to jackson, I was kind of curious and I didn't ask him this question, but I I wanted to see more, like is this a climber's race or is this a downhiller's race, because the downhill is quite technical on this.

Speaker 2: 8:43

So I was actually I was, uh, dming johnny yesterday just about we were chatting about the rut. But same kind of principle here with with mountain races is majority of the time in a mountain race is going to be spent going uphill right, for the most part, I mean. So it's definitely going to probably be an uphill focus, but if you are a competent technical downhill runner like you can make up some time Absolutely Like if you see someone in front of you like tiptoeing and you can send it. That's. That's where you make your move, right there, that's right yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:12

So yeah, I'm excited to have her keep going.

Speaker 2: 9:15

Uh, third, I have Emma Clark. She was second last year. Another uh long time. Arterics athletes um from around the area up there. Uh she'll be right at home. Uh, expect her on the podium.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Definitely a home, home race for her, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 9:29

Uh, another name that I wasn't too familiar with, uh, but I went in and did a little research uh, robin Lesh. She's uh, 30 years old, from Washington. She's a Vibram athlete. Okay, uh, she was third at uh Tara where a 50 K this year, which is pretty stout, very, and I would say that they that race in this race have a similar time. So I think that, um, yeah, I think she could fare well. She was also six that the Canyon's 50 K uh this year as well. Um, and she's ran OCC before third at speed. Go Like she's got some. She's got some pretty solid uh solid races under her belt.

Speaker 2: 10:04

Yeah, so she shouldn't be. Uh, no one to play with. Uh, and then another name that you, that you mentioned earlier, rudy lindquist yeah uh, california girl uh. Second at the rut 28k in 2022.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Fifth at breakneck uh 42k, I think, this year um she's got fourth at the mexico sky challenge, fourth at mexico, yeah, last week. Okay, there you go, she's solid um yeah, broken arrow 23k.

Speaker 2: 10:27

She stuck 12th before rut vk fifth like so she's. She's done races like this before. This is this is not new territory for her not for sure. So that's, yeah, that's my top five, and then a couple uh little sleeper picks, uh, me doing a little home cooking here, but uh, but we got a lot of a lot of boulder, a lot of boulder showing up which is awesome um, boulder is a incredible spot to train and it's it's perfect for for a race like this.

Speaker 2: 10:57

Uh, one of the names I saw was Karina Anderson. She's 20 years old only and she took 10th last year at the broken arrow VK and was 15th at the 23 K. So, to be doing that at 19 years old last year like are you kidding me?

Speaker 2: 11:06

Like I don't know if she's, if she's going to school right now or what, but uh, but yeah, definitely look out for her. Um, another one, meg cook. Uh, she's got a lot of local FKTs uh around the Colorado area. She's also runs with the trail team quite a bit. Uh, her and Andy Wacker, I think, are pretty close, uh, so yeah, we'll be excited to see her. I think she might be a Dean of fit athletes.

Speaker 1: 11:28

Oh, really, I think something, something, something like that. Oh, I know I know you're talking about. Yeah, I have her, like, I wrote her name down, like circled it, but I didn't do the research. Okay, yeah, that's cool yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:37

I think this is this is gonna be Tati Tatiana uh Kennedy. She is a young gun on the youth sky running. She was in the youth sky running championships last year Uh, where she took 21st. Very respectable Uh she's. I believe she's only 20, 21, early twenties, uh, but you'll see her uh in the flat irons in Boulder she's, she's very, very good on technical terrain. I've ran with her a couple of times and uh, she, she can hold her own. So it'll be fun to see like we see these young kids break out.

Speaker 2: 12:14

You never know with a race like this and yeah, these guys got a lot of young energy and uh yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:19

Lots of names, lots of names to be made. Yeah yeah, A lot of names to be made. I'm glad you like throwing it out there with some Boulderites. That's going to be good.

Speaker 2: 12:28

But also, I guess, before we keep going here, I don't know a ton of Canadian athletes and I dug as deep as I could, so if we're looking over any Canadian crushers, please reach out, let us know. Love to know for next year. If we do this, we will be. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 12:46

No, dude, I love it, I love it and I, you know, I've got a very similar. Um, no, dude, I love it, I love it and I, you know what. I've got a very similar, some similar breakdown for at least my top four, top five. Um, I'm gonna go with first place, at least ponchette, I'm gonna say, let's see what. The downhill technical dude I don't know why, I just haven't been able to bet against euros lately and I just think they're, they're very solid.

Speaker 1: 13:03

Yeah, um, I think, like I said, at least for at least his first year on the arcteryx team, she came from team Cetus matrix, which is kind of like the European equivalent of like the trail team in a lot of ways, whereas this feeder team, you know, it's like a development kind of thing where we're developing athletes into. You know, some of these like world-class stars you might know, like Anthony Felber, like Simone Glosselin, there's quite a few people that came from there, quite a few people that came from there. That's in first place. I think Elise can get it done. I really do. I think she's very solid, like you said, fifth this week, like today or yesterday at the World European.

Speaker 2: 13:36

Uphill. Was it just the uphill, or I think, yeah, that was for the uphill. I think that was for the uphill.

Speaker 1: 13:42

In second place, I'm going to go with Ruby Lindquist. Yeah, I'm going to Challenge Mexico. I think she's a very solid athlete. It's hard for me to bet against her, I think, like I said, I think that Mexico Sky Challenge is really hard, dude. They were finishing in like seven hours, like that's such a long race. I think it's a much cooler terrain. I think it's a more hard technical terrain, but I think you can get it done significantly less time in my opinion. I think you can get it. I think you can get it done significantly less time in my opinion. So I think Ruby would be a great selection for second place. And I also have Emma Clark in third. I think it's the home trails for her. Just like you select her for third. That's third at Sky Challenge Mexico.

Speaker 1: 14:22

Yeah, emma's pretty solid. Her Strava is a little bit of a black box. I've said this before on like previews, like her struggles, like mine. She'll post like three random things and make you, make you wonder um, so yeah, I don't really know. I mean, obviously she's fit. She got a third mexico sky challenge, so it's absolutely a joke.

Speaker 1: 14:38

And in fourth place, with contention for the podium, is bailey. Um, I think bailey's got the ability to get it done. I think bailey's, like bailey's, really improved on the climbing. Um, as you can see, according to Ben Towns Benjamin Townsend she was the first person at the top at Sky Race, daymath Sea, on the first climb. So my thought is that Bailey's just really improved in the climbing department. We'll see how she can do it. This is a very hard and technical race. It's going to be interesting to see what she can do there. And the other part of it too is is she tired? It's three big races or four big races in a row with only a few weeks in between, like and not to mention coming back from europe readapting to the time change and then going to canada to re-readapt. I don't know what is it western time? I think it is. So it's an hour difference from what we are at mountain center I think no, they might.

Speaker 2: 15:26

Might be specific time, is it?

Speaker 1: 15:28

okay, I would make, but either one, yeah, interesting. So we're gonna, we're gonna say so I and I do. You know, and I will preface this, I think bailey can, can, without a doubt, like, compete for, you know, the first place, if anything. Um, so some name, a name that you didn't, we didn't have on there was mercedes sigel gaither oh, yeah, who I just like happened to realize, like I just happen to be talking to her yesterday and she's going so. I'm going to keep her somebody to reach out for that.

Speaker 2: 15:53

She wasn't on our start list, okay.

Speaker 1: 15:55

Yeah, she wasn't on the start list, so that's that's why you know so she was seven, yeah, seven, yep, yep.

Speaker 2: 16:01

So she'll be up there.

Speaker 1: 16:02

Yeah, so she'll. She'll definitely be competing. I got Megan cook as well.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Um, I think that's a great selection, and that's basically all I have on the woman's side of the field. But I dude, I, I think this is gonna be a great race. I think there's gonna be a lot of you know, let's get a lot of action. Yeah, I think there's gonna be a lot of new names, a lot of action. I wouldn't be surprised if one or two of those, those you know, boulder athletes or canadian athletes, kind of turns up into the top five, and you know, and my thought with a lot of my picks and, like I said, maybe I'm doing a little home cooking here in the U?

Speaker 2: 16:31

S, but uh, but you know, if you're traveling that far and you're going to another country like you're taking this sport seriously. I can tell that all these, all these people that are, all these women that are from the U? S are taking this very seriously.

Speaker 1: 16:43

Well, the thing, too, is like it's. It's, you know, like a lot of us. We're all Coloradans. A good majority of us, even a lot of listeners on this podcast, are Coloradans or people in the Mountain West, and it's an amazing opportunity to go to a race like this in a lot of ways, because you're getting a world-class international field and it is technically an international race, even though it's in North America. It's just not that far away. So I don't know, I think that there's going to be. I think this race is just a beautiful opportunity on an amazing course for a lot of people. So, yeah, let's talk into the men, let's talk, let's talk about who's turning up yeah, um, like we mentioned before, jackson cole defending, defending his title.

Speaker 2: 17:22

Uh, he's hungry, he's gonna come ready to go. Can't see him losing this one I don't think so either I think that that honestly I'm calling it now I think there's going to be a pretty heavy gap.

Speaker 1: 17:33

You think so. You think he's going to fucking lay the hammer.

Speaker 2: 17:35

Yeah, I think it's going to be 10, 20 minutes.

Speaker 1: 17:38

Really, Dude, I love it. Safe money don't make money baby.

Speaker 2: 17:44

And then in second I have Johnny Luna Lima from Boulder, Like I said. Third, at Sky Challenge Mexico, he's going to come ready to go. The dude's been putting in some really solid training and this is his bread and butter. I think he's going to come ready to go. Third, I have Martin Curran, who's actually someone I haven't heard of before. I did some research.

Speaker 2: 18:15

I said second at Madeira, 115k. I think he does a lot of longer stuff, so this is definitely going to be going down in distance for him, but I think he's kind of like a pros pro, Like this guy takes the sport really serious, he should be right up there on a podium, for sure. Um, fourth, I have Morgan Elliott. Uh, he was fourth at sky challenge Mexico. He's one that's gonna. If he has a good day, he's going to be on the podium, he's going to be up there, uh. And then fifth, I have David Hedges, and the reason I have David down there a little bit is because I think he's better at longer stuff, though this is a long race, a longer race time wise. Uh, yeah, we'll see. I I'm really interested to see what he can do he's now. Has he ran any sky races before? Do you know?

Speaker 1: 18:58

he. I don't think he's running any sky races, but he's damn nasty at the short stuff like I. He came onto the scene for me like a long time ago okay um, he raced this uh this people probably never heard of this called the, uh, sangria cristo 50k. That's how it was. It was actually the first race I ever did. I didn't race him, he did it in a prior year, but I remember I found out about him looking at his splits and looking at his name, yeah and just seeing him absolutely fucking demolish this course for a long time.

Speaker 1: 19:26

Yeah, he's a young guy yeah, I believe I don't know if he still is, but I know he was coached by alex nichols there for a little while and he might very well still be interesting. Um, and he's kind of like. He reminds me of alex nichols, like kind of a quietish dude, but like you know, I don't know just like interesting character, yeah, yeah and then just a couple notable names.

Speaker 2: 19:44

Uh, that'll also be there adam loomis he yeah, he's a park city guy big ski mountaineer.

Speaker 2: 19:49

He just won the gorge 100k yep so, uh, he's gonna be coming ready to go. Uh, adam campbell, as we mentioned, you know longtime arterix athlete legend. Fun to see him throw down with the young guns. Uh, one little local or local guy here, um, I believe his name on the start list was cameron yaman, but I think I, I know, I'm pretty sure it's the same, he's a springs guy. Yeah, yeah, uh, he was fifth at. Uh, um, I believe his name on the start list was Cameron Yemen, but I think I, I know, on Strava.

Speaker 1: 20:10

I'm pretty sure it's the same person, springs guy. Yeah, yeah, cody Yemen.

Speaker 2: 20:13

Uh, he was fifth at um at black Canyon, 60 K. Uh, so yeah, just another name. He could definitely do something. He's local here, colorado. He runs in the mountains a lot, so we'll see rich, rich Lockwood. Another one, rich lockwood, another one. Uh, first at run rabbit run 2022 longer.

Speaker 2: 20:33

Uh, definitely a guy that focuses on like hundreds more. Um, definitely a name. Um, then he could show up and who knows who knows? Uh, one fun one that I saw in there um, an fkt, uh more focused guy, nate bender. Uh, he's got a ton of like technical fkts out west. He had the montana 12ers, him and jason hardrath. I think are pretty good friends oh, no, no shit.

Speaker 2: 20:50

But yeah, very, very competent on technical terrain. So who knows, if he can throw down on the super technical stuff, maybe he can get in the mix.

Speaker 1: 20:57

I don't know, oh, dude, that's a good take, that's interesting. Nate Bender, all right, watch out for him. Yeah, dude, is is interesting this year. I, I don't know. I I think jackson. I think jackson might be in a class of his own. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to spray too hard, but I think I think jackson gets it done. I do have him.

Speaker 2: 21:16

We have almost like the same podium I think it's just an experience thing with him like he's there's not many people in the us that have ran a lot of sky races. It's just not yeah it's becoming more popular now and he's one of the leaders of this class.

Speaker 1: 21:30

Yeah, so I think. So. I don't know if you're familiar with this. Like two weeks ago, maybe it was three weeks ago so David Hedges and Morgan Elliott raced each other.

Speaker 2: 21:40

I did see that.

Speaker 1: 21:41

Yeah, for the mountain and I've been on this, so it's nice because I've actually been on this trail. I actually ran down it. I didn't up it, uh, when I ran quest for the grass.

Speaker 2: 21:48

Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, so um.

Speaker 1: 21:51

So they raced each other for the mount mitchell ascent fkt and morgan got the better of david by maybe a couple minutes. It wasn't by very much and morgan just snuck under mason uh copies yeah record, which is and morgan actually wound up becoming the supported record.

Speaker 1: 22:06

So, uh, mason actually holds, retains his record. So the interesting thing for me I think david is really fit. Um, one of the things about morgan I think morgan's an incredible athlete. I think morgan is a better vk runner than he is maybe a sky racer. In a lot of ways, I think morgan get it done. There's reasons why I don't go into reasons why I think morgan can get it done. Um, I just wonder how morgan can do in these like like long, like 30, like 33k is a long race, yeah, you know, for someone like morgan, so it's much for.

Speaker 1: 22:35

So my first, my first pick, is going to be jackson cole. I think jackson gets it done. I think he's probably um, you know, I think he comes back from sky challenge mexico hungrier than ever. Um, he's looking probably to prove himself and this is his home court in a lot of ways, because he's won this race. This is his race, you know, always to lose. So I think he, I think he takes it up. Um, second place, I I'm going to go Johnny Luna Lima. I think Johnny's on a heater. I think Johnny's improved. Um, you know, now he's running for the North face. Um, congrats and kudos to him. But I think he's just like leveled up in the last few years. Like took the dub at the road 28 K, which is like an absolutely destructively hard course. You know, even you've even seen people on like Eli has even said like Johnny is an incredible technical downhill runner in his YouTube video. So, yeah, I'm very. I think if I'm buying stock, I'm buying Johnny little Lima stock right now. So yeah, I would definitely I'm going to put him second place and possibly challenge for the win.

Speaker 1: 23:35

The interesting thing for me, though, is the battle early on in the beginning climbs with David and Jackson. I think David Hedges is really good. I honestly think slept on. So I talked to David this morning, and one of the things because I asked him like how are you feeling? What are you doing? Give me a quote, what do you got for me? And this is this, is this is what David Hedges had written to me.

Speaker 1: 23:56

I haven't been doing super specific training, but I have covered the mountain running poles, so to speak, here in the buildup. I wrapped up my training block in the relatively mellow Blue Ridge mountains around Asheville with some solid round trip efforts on the most notable climbs there, meaning he went for the FKT on Mount Mitchell and some of the other peaks, and then he went and loaded up volume here in the relatively extremely ridiculous White Mountains, since Minotaur's difficulty is somewhere in between those two poles pretty fast but also very gnarly. Since I'm very confident in my alpine running ability and since the race will be a good four hours, I think I've got a good chance to do well. First, however, I'm going to be taking a crack at the Pemi Loop FKT and then we'll embark on the 40-hour Trans-Canada Drive to Alberta, which I'm both excited for and apprehensive of. But I'll take my time. Just hope my car makes it anyways. It's very cool and an internationally competitive field will be assembled in the northern rockies at minotaur. I'm looking forward to experiencing all the sky racing energy in those wild environments, but mostly are really. I really like the excuse to go run north of the border before and after.

Speaker 1: 25:01

So this guy, I, I, if I'm buying stock, I'm buying david hedge's stock as well I, I, really I like him as a person. I like him as as an athlete as well too. Um, you know, he kind of just dances the beat of his own drum and he's like his. This guy doesn't pander for anybody, like he's doing, like he's doing his own thing and I just I like it. Um, one of the things interestingly enough, he's going for the pemi loop fkt, which is also known as the pemi glosset, which is a 28.7 mile, 9,100 foot vertical gain in New Hampshire. The current record is held by Jake Aceto in five hours and 32 minutes, formerly held by Jack Kensel.

Speaker 2: 25:40

Oh okay, when was that broke? I think it was like 2022 or 23, so semi-recently yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:47

Yeah, and I think that's a great training run and it's a little bit lower. I don't know how high the altitude is at this race. I don't think it's super high because it's Northern Canadian Rockies, so I think you're the highest you're getting.

Speaker 2: 26:00

No, I think it's less than that Really. Yeah, I think like seven, cause they're right around sea level, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Okay, so, yeah, yeah, I think that plays a role in it and I think the technicality kind of makes sense. And if you Google some of these pictures of this Pemi loop, it's like mad technical, it's wild. So I'm really interested to see this battle between Johnny David and Jackson, as well as Morgan. I've got Morgan in fourth place. Morgan could surprise the shit out of us and win this race. I would not be surprised, and the reason I say that is because, like all right, so I'll give you one example from morgan. Morgan still holds the four pass loop fkt record in 417 50 that he took off the stage in 2017, which was the height of sage's powers, arguably yeah, yeah so I, yeah, I think morgan, I think morgan's more.

Speaker 1: 26:45

I, I, I I'm always buying stock in mor. And in fifth place I've got Adam Loomis. He's just coming off his win at the Gorge 100K which was back in March or early April Park City guy. So he's a Utah guy, so he's used to these altitudes. Yeah, I think he's going to be solid. Fifth, I really do. I think he gets himself into the top 10. Some other notable people Adam Campbell who's just like a living legend.

Speaker 1: 27:13

You know we're just excited to have him back in the community. Um, rich lockwood as well. I, you know rich is a hundred mile specialist. Um, you know, he's kind of hot and cold, uh like he didn't really have a great broken arrow last year. You know, and I think he would agree with that. Um, I think he's he's, he's more of the a hundred mile guy. So we'll see, we'll see where we get with that. Um, my dog's uh jumping on, jumping on Nick. Um, yeah, what was the information? You know you're tight with Leonard Leonard starred right, so there's a possibility he might not be coming out. I know we're kind of like put him on.

Speaker 2: 27:44

Yeah, yeah, um. So yeah, lenensrand, jackson, brill, and then I heard rumors of Tate Knight as well. These are all Boulder local guys that were supposed to be coming out together, but it sounds like it might not be happening. Okay, as well as Kyle Richardson. So we'll see. We'll see.

Speaker 1: 28:10

But honestly out of those four if they do show up like top five.

Speaker 2: 28:11

All of them are capable of taking top fives. They've all ran sky races before or this type of terrain before they all train on this. Um, yeah, I I was really excited to see jackson burrell. I'm I'm sad that, um, he might not be showing up because he's another wild boy.

Speaker 1: 28:23

He's a wild boy. Uh yeah, I'm a big fan of him. I'm a big fan of all of them. So, yeah, it's going to be interesting, especially like tate. I don't know if uh tate's um. You know race, uh kendall, tell your ride mountain run like he's. He's a you know pretty well-known colorado runner, so it'd be cool to see him kind of break onto the international scene. If he, if he shows up, uh he's got. I'd sit pretty close to world-class talent like he could do very well.

Speaker 2: 28:47

Yeah, I've talked to. I talked to him in a group run before and he has aspirations of uh on being on tbsa on the mountain running team.

Speaker 1: 28:54

I could see that yeah and if you guys don't know, uh, or aware of him, he's the fkt guy also. Yep, yep, yep, um, trying to think who else if ben robinson is another one not to be slept on.

Speaker 2: 29:04

He's a former hoker runner um he's.

Speaker 1: 29:07

He's raced in some of the biggest stages in the world. I mean, he's right ccc. Um, he's done most of the high-end ultras in america. Um, as far as, like the sub ultra scene he's, he's actually pretty solid. Um, like he's got some top finishes at like breakneck and stuff like that. Okay, and that could translate over it's very technical courses. It's lower, obviously, it's like significantly lower in altitude, um, but I could see him doing well in technical terrain, or at least pretty pretty good. Um, yeah, I'd say that covers it for when it comes to, uh, you know who else I have coming up Rich Lockwood, leonard um and then get, did we finally?

Speaker 2: 29:53

finally get kyle richardson, who the fuck knows. Yeah, well, if we do he's, he's right up there. Yeah, I mean, this guy's got he's. He still holds the record, uh, since 2020 on long's peak hour and 55 minutes. I don't think anyone's ever going to touch that it's. He has a special gift on technical terrain and I think if he does show up he's oh dude, he could easily compete for the win.

Speaker 1: 30:09

Absolutely. He's not much of a racer. I'm hoping so. I know we all hope I really. I gotta be honest with you. The person I'm probably the most excited about, like I do, I think Johnny is on a heater a little bit and I'd love to see that kind of continue to roll and as well as I'm excited to see, you know, maybe bailey moves up, maybe bailey gets the dub and finally gets. You know, I guess it's sky race day, math c, and like racing in europe is hard, man, you know, and like zakama is like the biggest race, one of the biggest races in the world, you know, in the sub ultra scene, so it might be a little quieter to come back and race here. You know, even even though it's a world sky running race, it's like no big it's, it's a big deal, but like might not be as much pressure right now do you know is she?

Speaker 2: 30:52

is she focused on on the sky race series?

Speaker 1: 30:56

I don't know entire series.

Speaker 2: 30:57

I wonder, because she's? I mean, this is going to be her third, so you'd think yeah, I mean a win here would would put her up in um in the rankings for sure.

Speaker 1: 31:04

Oh, she could I I'd say yeah, she'd probably get invited to the final. I would imagine I, you know, I don't know her personally, she's someone I've been like, I really love to have on the podcast. So you know, see somebody, and I know a lot of people know her, so we'll have to put that together. See, if we could put that together. Um, dude, is there any other storylines that we want to talk about for this race? I mean, I just, I think one of the big things that to like, just express and talk about it. I was like this is a true mountain alpine race you know yeah, so yeah yeah, I don't think I have much else.

Speaker 2: 31:36

Um, yeah, I think we covered. Yeah, I think we covered it all. Um, do we want to talk more about about the course itself at all? I don't know if you had any other thing about it. I know this time of year I guess, with it being uh, lower altitude, I don't think they should have to deal with any snow. I don't believe, I don't think so.

Speaker 1: 31:56

I didn't really check the weather because we're still.

Speaker 2: 31:57

We're still a few weeks out.

Speaker 1: 31:58

You know, um, you know, I dude, I mean the, just the elevation gain 9512 feet. That's a solid climb, or it's a solid grouping of climbs. One of the more technical, gnarly aspects of it lots of talus. I mean, if you guys google, uh, or if you're on instagram, hop on instagram, give them a follow, you know, give them a shout out and you know, if you want to learn more about the race, there's a lot of really good photos on there of like it's, it's just like you're running around talus slopes, that's basically it. You know and just you know. Praying for survival. At that point I was hoping ryan phoebus would. That's somebody I was going to bring up.

Speaker 1: 32:30

I was hoping ryan phoebus would turn back up on that I, I do know, I I don't know if I should say this out loud, but, like jackson did tell me he is going to be at uh, because he's the reigning champion of um pepe's face off he will be back at pepe's, so that's fun. Yeah, I was gonna. I was gonna pull you aside to do like a pepe or do like a full gopro games like preview. But I don't have the start list yet. I just have random names that people have been reaching out and sending to me.

Speaker 2: 32:54

So but yeah, every single one of those races will be stacked.

Speaker 1: 32:57

So oh yeah, oh, big time, big time. So, yeah, the eighth stop in the sky runner world series meet the minotaur. Guys, tune into this, follow along. This is going to be saturday, june 22nd. So while you're tuning into broken arrow, also tune in to meet the Minotaur. This is, it's a wild race, uh, and it's put on by good people. Like everybody I've interacted with on this race, um, you know, they're all really kind people. They've been super helpful with getting us, like start lists and providing us information and just like giving us everything, all the tools we need to be able to like make this happen from an episode perspective. Um, so, yeah, this is definitely a race you want to support and yeah, listen, if Gary Robbins people like Gary Robbins are putting their stamp of approval on it, like he raced it last year, it's a good race.

Speaker 2: 33:36

Oh yeah, I know I'm looking to get out there next year, dude, I think we got to get a stronger American contingent up there to throw down.

Speaker 1: 33:43

So well, until next time, guys, the Steep Stuff podcast. I hope you enjoyed this one. No-transcript.