Robin Vieira Brower | Gorge Waterfalls 30K Pre Race Interview

A fast 30K can be more intimidating than a steep ultra, especially when the trail begs you to push from the opening minute. James sits down with Robin Vieira Brower ahead of the Gorge Waterfalls 30K to talk about what makes the Columbia River Gorge such a special place to race: lush, sea-level air, deceptively technical singletrack, and that mix of speed and flow that punishes overreaching early.

We get into the nuts and bolts of trail running training from Bend, Oregon, where Robin balances dirt-road speed work with mountain days on terrain like Mount Bachelor and South Sister. The conversation also tackles the bigger question many runners are asking this year: how does a low snowpack winter change fitness, durability, and even race outcomes across the West? More runnable days can mean stronger legs in spring, but it can also bring new risk if recovery falls behind.

Robin also breaks down why she treats tune-up races as mental training: practicing strategy, managing nerves, dialing nutrition, and learning when to push versus when to protect the bigger skyrunning goals ahead. Finally, we talk about juggling it all with her work as Marketing Director at Wazelle, travel around major events like the Boston Marathon, and the real-life chaos that can derail “perfect” training weeks. If you’re building toward a spring trail race or a summer skyrace, you’ll leave with practical cues for pacing, preparation, and staying steady when plans break.

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. I'm your host, James Loriello, and today we have a Gorge Waterfall 30K interview this time with Robin Viera Brower. Hope you guys enjoy. All right, Robin Vieira Brouwer. Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. How's it going?

SPEAKER_01 0:17

It's going well. Yeah. Good to see you again.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

I know, I know. These are fun little catch-up chats. I'm uh excited to uh talk all things gorge waterfalls. It's kind of like a backyard race for you-ish.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yeah, yeah. I would consider, I mean, especially traveling, you know, far away for sky races, like this is lovely and convenient. And I love Hud River and the Gorge. It's just beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yeah, it is a fun place to run. Those trails are like sneaky technical in some sections, and they're but they're also really fast. Like it's uh, I don't know, the whole thing is like a vibe. Like the, and then there's like uh it's just very PW. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

I'm like a PW.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

You have like the river right there, and Oregon's obviously coastal, and so you feel I mean, you're pretty much at sea level. It's green, it's lush. It should be, I think it's supposed to be like perfect weather. Well, for me, I think it's like six sixty-ish and maybe some rain, but not too much.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, it's hard to beat. I was out there, we went out 2022 or 23, and my wife ran the 50k, and it just rained the entire time.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Sounds about right.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, yeah. I was like, this is this is this is rough. Uh but the trails are beautiful. And like the uh I I ran a I actually went over when I was out there, went across the river and ran, I forget what peak in Washington was like kind of right off the river. Uh there's like Dog Mountain there, and there's like a few others. And I was like blown away. Like, I was like, you can get like three, three or four thousand feet of vert, like just right off the river here, which is which is cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Yeah, I know. Living in Bend when you have the opportunity to just be on one trail and pretty much go straight up. I'm like, it's such a treat.

Training In Bend For Speed

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yeah, yeah. How do you like training in Bend? I know I've asked you this question before, but I feel like now we're like a whole nother season kind of through uh training block-wise for you. And how's that shift? I know there's a lot of like dirt roads and stuff like that out there. So what is it?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

It's good. I fluctuate throughout the year with how much I love it or don't love it. Um I've lived here for 10 years, and so I feel like I'm very versed in exactly where I need to go to get the type of like training run-in that I need. I mean, in the winter you can go ski tour Mount Bachelor and get some vert that way, um, or just go out to the backcountry. You have to skin out quite a ways or like sled in to get to go up first. But um, I mean, compared, you know, Bend is not a quintessential mountain town, in my opinion. A lot of people call it a mountain town, but it's it's got some like everything, it's got a little bit of everything. I train a lot on dirt roads for speed because that's like my biggest growing area at the moment. So when I get to run on technical terrain or like go up to the mountains to run, you know, like South Sister or Bachelor, it's it's kind of a treat. Um, although I do have to sometimes like do repeats of of those to like get the vert goal in, which can be a little bit mind-numbing, but I'm super lucky because I mean my dog, I've got a six-year-old dog pointer, German short hair pointer, and he pretty much comes on like most, if not all, of my training runs right now with me. So it's good. And it's great. It's like such a comfortable place to live, and you're a little bit above sea level, which is helpful.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah, heck yeah. Do you can you get like into the high country like earlier? I don't know. I think of like the Pacific Northwest, and I know obviously the the snow kind of shifts and sometimes like you you get a lot of snow in years and other times not. But like here, it's like hard to access the high country in in winter, obviously. But for you, like can you run up there like this time of the year, especially like with drought and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Uh yeah. With drought, I'll be running Matt Bachelor soon, probably, which is scary to say. Mostly I have to wait until like late May sometimes, but mostly June, because the snow does like people ski on Matt Bachelor, like long patches in June sometimes, depending on the snow pack and the snow year, but it he's usually runnable in the high country, which for us is like 5,000 feet and higher. Um nice. Yeah. Uh probably like for sure July through early November.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Okay. That's not bad. Yeah. Dude, I I got up to 12,000 feet last Saturday and was like, whoa, this is bananas. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy how like we just have like no snowpack. It's it's pretty atrocious in the front range, but it's great for mountain running. It's terrible for fires, but wonderful for mountain running.

Low Snowpack And What It Changes

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm like, gosh, I've been able to run on trail pretty much every day this year, which is not a typical year. Usually there's snow in town and you kind of slosh around, but I've I have a theory on this.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Like I'm so curious to see like, will there be more injuries? Will people be fitter? Like, how is it gonna work? Because like Colorado and most of the West has had like a really like obviously terrible snowpack all year. So it's like, are people gonna are people gonna blow up sooner because uh, you know, obviously everybody's fitter? It's gonna, you know, will this even impact like race results? Will be everything be faster this year because you know less skiing? Who knows?

SPEAKER_01 5:25

That is such a good point. I mean, we haven't had a this like West, Rockies and West hasn't had a winter like this, it feels like, in a in a long time. And so it will be interesting. I mean, I I've definitely been like, gosh, I'm having some higher mileage weeks than I typically would this time of year. Is this good? Is this bad? I don't know. We'll see. Um, it's kind of uncharted territory.

Gorge Waterfalls As A Tune-Up

SPEAKER_00 5:48

I mean, fitness is fun. Can't I can't can't knock it. Can't knock it. All right, so this weekend we've got Gorge Waterfalls. I think this is a really cool race. It's gonna be obviously uh, you know, whole festival weekend. Um, super fun. Everybody who has everybody is gonna be there. What's the what's the vibes going on? Are you super excited for this?

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Or yeah, I'm stoked. I wanted to run this last year and I can't remember why I didn't. Um I'm running the 30k. It'll be a fun like tune-up trail race for me. I was mentioning this to you earlier, but I my coach last weekend when I ran that road race was like, you know, run a 630. And I was like, yeah, for sure, I'll run a 630. And then I started running and I ended up running basically a six. And it's just it's easy for me in these tune-up races to, as long as my body's feeling good, um, to try and push my pace. So not to say, you know, I'm in a this race is such a this is actually, I mean, it's a really, I'm really excited for this race because of the vibes and the community, and it's PW and it's close to home. And I love the races that these guys put on. Um, but it's also probably one of the most important um, like tune-up races for Sky Running and some of the other stuff I'm getting into this year. So I really appreciate like all the community and just the fact that they have this race when they do. I feel like it's such a good time of year um and competitive and like like you were saying earlier, super fun terrain.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah. Yeah, talk talk about this a little bit. I guess we can unpack it. Like your these tune up races. I I know a lot of athletes do this. I need to start doing it because I've been a slacker, but like how how much how much has that benefited you, do you think? Like, because you've had some, you know, some success in some of these races that you've been doing. Do you feel more confident now going into races? Do you have your nutrition down? Are you like being able to just check all the boxes kind of in a more uh I guess um I don't know, just like a more formatted way, if you will?

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Yeah, I think that tune-up races are really for me personally, they're more mental than anything. Um, I mean, it's great to get the legs moving and like the amount of the effort that you put forward in a race is for me at least, it's it's hard to just get that in a training race, even if you're running with friends. Um so the boxes that I'm checking or looking to check are mostly mental preparation and recovery. Um when I say mental preparation, I also mean like mental state of mind and how I'm strategizing and processing what's happening during the race. I'm one of the like, I mean, I think we're all kind of like this to a certain extent, but I totally get in my head before races and um like try to stay off Instagram before race weekend for like a few days or a week leading up to race day. Um, but just yeah, it's such a it's like such a process. The weeks leading up to a tune up race are really important too because I start to, you know, I don't like totally taper, but I gotta be really mindful of how the body's feeling and just practice carving out time in my day, like extra time for recovery and foam rolling and all that stuff. So it's really it's really about like shaking off whatever happened in the winter and just getting back to like, okay, now it's we're and go time. Like now's the time we're here, we're committed, we've done the work, we're ready. Um and now it's time to just like have fun. Um and yeah, it's it's uh so it's all of that mental stuff plus dialing and nutrition and um just kind of remembering what it feels like to toe the line, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Has it ha has like the repetition helped like because I I suffer from this as well. I don't want to say suffer, but like I I deal I deal with this as well where I get in my own head, dude. Like I get especially like I haven't raced since September. It's been a long time. I gotta rip the band-aid off soon. I'm like, dude, I gotta find something interesting to do. Yeah, um, but doing these and then like with repetition, because you've done a few now, has it helped take the nerves off, kind of going into like a and this is because this is probably what the biggest race, I would argue probably the biggest race you've done this year, right? Something like that. Um does it kind of help take the nerves off of it a little bit, having already, you know, kind of ripped the band-aid off a few times already?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

For sure. Yeah, it's it's so funny. Like I I used to think that tuna races, you know, might be not as helpful because you're putting out a hardish, like a hard effort, right? And um and then I realized how much better I felt after doing one of these races, especially one like this that's competitive and like tune-up races for everybody are so different, right? So for this this race, this maybe in a different world, like this would be like an A-level race, you know? Um, and I'm it is it is that way for other people too, and everyone just has different priorities. So being strategic in what you call a tune-up race and knowing how much effort you want to put into that tune-up race um is critical, I think, um, both during the race, but also also like before and after. We all know how um, you know, it takes effort to get to these things, even though this one is two and a half hours away from me. It's still, you know, it's on a Friday, the 30k is so you take time at work or whatever, and you it's just it's all the little repetitions that kick in and make your contribute, I think, to success down the road and whatever your A-level race is.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

I love that. Well, I want to shift gears a little bit, and I know like this is gonna be tune-up race, but still like vibes kick in when the r when the gun goes off. People are gonna be racing either way, like start, you know. For you, this is this is an interesting race because it's like we've got a bunch of ultra athletes in it, especially on the 30k. Um, a lot of ultra athletes coming down in distance, and we've got a lot of short trail athletes kind of moving up into this, like, you know, into more of this like uh 30k distance. Obviously, everybody goes off the line aggressively. Are you just focusing on racing your own pace and just kind of doing your own thing? Or do you maybe sit back a little bit, see how the race unfolds, and then start to make moves from there? Like, how do you plan to kind of approach this on race day? Because it's all fine and dandy to say, like, you know, oh, I'm gonna be chill, but then when the gun goes off, obviously things things kind of change a little bit, you know?

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah. I mean, when I say, Oh yeah, I'm gonna be chill, like I'm not gonna be chill. I don't really know what that means during a race. So I so my coach is is reminding me of that. But I think, you know, we hmm in certain races we decide to push ourselves more than others, I think, especially if like a niggle creeps in or you start to feel something in your body. There's moments where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna push through this. And then there's moments where I'm like, yeah, I should listen to this. And depending on what's coming down the road and the race pipeline, maybe ease off a little bit. But my plan is to use this race simply to like re-immerse in the community and culture, be there for that, celebrate that, um, and race my race. So for me, that kind of again, right now, my plan is to um start off and like vibe check within the first like few minutes, honestly. Um see what it see what I mean. You can tell a lot, a lot about a race by those first couple minutes, even how people I always like giggle a little bit when I'm in the start starting lineup, like looking at where people kind of position themselves and um how how just that whole um how people do that is funny to me and interesting. And so yeah, I'll start off um probably like toward the front-ish and see how that goes and see how my body feels and kind of get to know the terrain a little bit. Um, because I've been working on speed, you know, I feel I'm excited for the distance. The 30k distance is kind of like my at the moment, my sweet spot, I would say, but it will be challenging for me because I'm used to 30k with quite a bit more vert, like triple the vert of this race, um, which means this will be speedy for me. So it's kind of uh uh exciting challenge because you know I've I've been doing some of these tune-up races that are shorter in distance at a fast pace. Um, and this will be the first one that I'm doing that'll be fast at a for a longer distance, um, with some more like technical undulating terrain. So um I'm I'm excited about that challenge. It's gonna be like a demanding fast race, I think, and we'll see how the body holds up.

Leading Marketing At Wazelle

SPEAKER_00 14:52

I like it. I'm gonna shift gears entirely. I just this is a question I had for you. We talked about this a little bit last time, and and how how has the role been progressing for you at Wazel, like being the marketing director? Like, is it is it more stressful because you have a lot of things to manage? And how are you balancing that with training right now?

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Um, yeah, I mean, thanks for asking that. It's uh it has it is constantly shifting every day for you know, it's stressful at times for sure. Um, it's a ton of fun. I was just in the office last week, and um they we're picking up pace quickly. We're starting to um put some major pieces into play for spring 27 product lineup. All that product is gonna look vastly, vastly different from um a lot of the things that are available today uh that you can buy from Wazelle. So I've been doing a lot of product work with the team there and just recrafting kind of what the brand is gonna look like from a um, you know, like visual tonality creative perspective come next year. So that's where a lot of the work is being done. We've also, I think we talked about this last time, been um investing time and resources and a lot of thought into, you know, what does it look like to show up for women um not who are like segmented by the surface that they run on. So trail versus mountain versus track versus road, cross country, etc. But more so just showing up for her, no matter what surface she's running on, but being there for all those different transitional moments and she goes through. So that's been fun. Um and I've just been so stoked with how like the overwhelming support in being director of marketing and ramping into season. I was a little stressed like a few weeks ago, just like, oh my gosh, everything is like I've got four back-to-back bender weeks right now of racing, and then I'm going to Boston next week to be there on the ground for the Boston Marathon, not running it, but just to be there with Wazell. Um, so things are ramping up and getting busy, but it's um exciting. And I I honestly feel like the momentum that is kind of going on inside Wazell for 2027 and the rest of 2026 is directly feeding into the energy that I'm um like getting and recycling and using for running professionally too. So I'm feeling the tension and the I'm a little stressed, but I'm also like super stoked and excited.

The Messy Reality Of Balance

SPEAKER_00 17:27

I love that. I'm gonna have to ask you for pointers because I'm about to experience something with the pod, like very similar traveling a lot with the podcast, but also being an athlete, trying to race and live that life as well. And I just don't know how people do it, man. Like it's it's a it's a lot. Like I gotta be on one, like uh like one week I'll be in Broken Arrow. Actually, one week I'll be in New Hampshire, the next week I'll be in Broken Arrow. It's just like coast to coast. So I feel your pain when it comes to that. And that's like very I mean, at least to me that's stressful. Because as an athlete, I'm a very um I'm about my habits, you know, like I am all very structured, if you will. And you get out of your structure and you at least I panic. I'm like, oh God.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Like Yeah, I mean, that's a real emotion too. And there's just the reality is that people don't see. I mean, I'll I'll share a really quick example. Like yesterday, we I just got back from Seattle because I was racing that race and doing Easter with the family and snuck in like a little mountain run in Seattle. Um, got back. Tyler, my husband got super sick. The dog rolled in a large amount of poop that he found somewhere out on a trail, brought it into the house. I had PT that I was supposed to go to, which is like for me like sacred time, like that's recovery time. I have some like diaphragm things I'm dealing with right now that I'm like, I gotta get to PT. And it was just like with work, with all those other things going on, needing to clean the dog off. There's like knowing I'm trying to like prep, you know, stay healthy for this weekend and prep the body, and also traveling cross-country next week. It was just like I didn't make it to PT. I did half my training run. It was just one of those days, and it's just like sometimes that happens, and that's just the reality of it.

Wrap Up And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah, no, seriously. And you just gotta get through it. Like, that's the thing. Like, it's not gonna be pretty. Some days are are amazing, but a lot of days are not. So that's uh it's interesting. Yeah, it's dude, it's life. Like it's uh it's an interesting, it's an interesting game. I don't think people under like, I don't know. I see more I understand it more now of people that are like super busy because people ask me all the time, like, dude, how do you find the time to do anything? I'm like, I I don't like I I just you know, usually pass that on the couch by nine o'clock because I can't uh can't get through the day. Uh but yeah. So well, Robin, I think this is a good place to like you know to put a pin on it until the next one. Um super excited for you. I hope you have a wonderful race. Enjoy the weekend, have fun, immerse yourself in the community, have a great race, and uh yeah, we'll be in touch.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Yeah, sounds good. Will you be there there?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Or no? Okay, I didn't think so. Not for this one. Um yeah, I gotta I'm still figuring out the schedule. I don't know where I'll be yet until August. I know where I'll be in August and September, but outside of that, I don't know where we're gonna be yet. Um yeah, actually offline I do have to talk to you about skyrunning stuff, so we'll be there.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Yeah, and I have some updates there too that we can dig into. But yeah, look forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Awesome. Thank you, Robin. Take care.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Yeah, thanks. Bye.

unknown 20:31

Bye.