The Steep Stuff Podcast
Your Source for all Things Trail, Mountain & Skyrunning
The Steep Stuff Podcast
Oakley Olson - Pre Sunapee Scramble (U.S. Mountain Running Championship) Interview
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Mud, pressure, and a two-loop course that punishes impatience. We sit down with Oakley Olson as she heads into Sunapee for the US Mountain Running Championships, fresh off finishing her time at Florida State and moving back to Utah where altitude and technical trails feel like home again.
Oakley walks us through what NCAA training in the ACC gives her heading into trail running season, then breaks down Twisted Fork in Park City: a great venue, a stacked vibe, and weather that turned the day into a cold, sliding mess. That experience tees up the questions every trail runner asks before a rainy championship: Which shoes actually hold in mud, how many pairs do you pack, and how do you stay composed when footing is gone and time no longer matters?
The conversation goes deeper when Oakley explains what a Team USA spot means to her, shaped by growing up a military kid and living overseas. We also dig into the skills that make her dangerous on a course like Sunapee: fearless descending rooted in steeplechase, patient tactics for loop two, and the mindset shift from imposter syndrome to believing you belong on the start line. She closes with a clear theme for race day: be the hunter, not the hunted.
If you care about mountain running, trail racing strategy, and the mental side of competing when the field is deep, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend chasing big goals, and leave a review with your best tip for racing in the mud.
Follow Oakley on IG - @oakleyolson
Use code SteepStuff for 20% your cart on Sidas.us
Follow James on IG - @jameslauriello
Follow the Steep Stuff Podcast on IG - @steepstuff_pod
Follow Sidas USA on IG - @sidas_usa
Cold Open
SPEAKER_01This is
Seta Socks Sponsor Break
SPEAKER_01the game. Interrupting this episode to talk to you guys about Seta Socks, the official partner of the Steep Stuff Podcast. How much do you guys love your feet? I mean, I do. I love my feet. I really care about my feet. But I also care about your feet. But not in that way. Get your mind out of the gutter. Set us socks, keeping your feet stable, protected, and in control since 1975. Bringing you guys an anatomical fit and superior hybrid composition materials. Cetus incorporates odor control, ankle support, and anti-slip grip strips into some of my favorite models. Check out the Run Anatomic Comfort and the Run Anatomic, two of my favorites, online at CDUS.us. Cedus is the official footcare partner of UTMB in Western States. Cetus, your foot company. Alright,
Back To Utah And Trail Season
SPEAKER_01Oakley Olsen, welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. How's it going?
SPEAKER_00Hi, yeah. Thanks for having me. It's going great back in Utah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, stoked to catch back up. Looks like you've got a uh great background now being being back in Utah. Uh feel pretty good being back at altitude.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it does. This is definitely where I'm supposed to be.
SPEAKER_01Fair enough, fair enough. Well, I can't believe it's already Sunnepe Week. It's crazy that we're having these convos already. Uh you already got in a race this year, uh, quite a few races. You finished up your under your uh your um degree at Florida State. Uh talk about what it was like finishing up time at Florida State and then now transitioning back into uh being back in Utah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, Florida State was an amazing opportunity. I loved running for Coach Halls and being a part of that women's team. It was really special, and I think that's exactly what I needed going into this trail season. There's nothing quite like the NCAA, and especially when you get thrown into like the ACC conference, you know, it's the most competitive distance conference. So it was awesome to have that like final year of training to get me prepared for what we have this summer. And um yeah, I'm excited to get back to running on you know more trails. We got to run trails out in Florida, but they're a little more flat, as you can imagine, compared to Utah and Colorado. So I'm kind of just going full straight into trails. We finished up at um ACC's back in like mid-May, and I've just kept my training going. And yeah, I already had the opportunity to run at Twisted Fork in Park City, which is super excited, exciting to have that in
Twisted Fork In A Downpour
SPEAKER_00my hometown. And then yeah, now we got Sunnepe this week that I'm super stoked for.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's uh it's crazy that it's the U.S. Mountain Running Championship already. It's crazy that like it's the season opener, right? Like you would think this would be like the late season thing, but yeah, it is kind of wild that we we open up with it. Um, how how are you feeling so far? Like, I know you just raced uh Twisted Fork last week. Talk about that course, talk about that race. What did what do you think?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the course is phenomenal. I really like the venue. We had a DJ going, the whole setup was awesome. There were so many different like pro athletes there too to get the vibe right and to take the race out hot, which is super fun to be around. The weather was a little unfortunate. It dropped down to like 40 degrees and like torrential downpour. I feel really bad for like the 30 and the 68k because they're running quite a bit longer than the 15k.
SPEAKER_01We were talking about twisted fork. Weather changed, it was pretty, pretty nasty, pretty gnarly. What did you uh think of the day though? Good atmosphere, nice little trail, trail situation, trail fest.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, phenomenal. Like I'll definitely be going back next year. It was awesome. I honestly had no idea what to expect because I hadn't been there before, and I entered the race pretty late in the game. I didn't know where I'd be at with like East Regionals or if I'd be able to compete at Twisted Fork. So I entered when I knew I was gonna be home during that time, and it was awesome. I definitely want to go back. I'm excited to rip it when it's like dry trails instead of like a foot of mud. Now I understand what they were saying. Like we were getting on the line, and some of the girls were whispering about like the 68K or saying there was like a foot of mud, and I was like, oh, I doubt it. And then we're running up the hills and just sliding back down and then running up and then sliding back down. So yeah, it was a great gorgeous, just unfortunate weather, but we still made the best of it. Had some good, like muddy pictures after.
SPEAKER_01Nice. I mean, hey, it's great practice for Sonopee because it's gonna be rainy and muddy this weekend. So that's a good uh good little good little opportunity to get used to being uncomfortable and in that particular situation. It's funny because like athletes from the West, I feel like go out there. Uh, because I know Christian said something. Christian's like, if it's raining, I'm I'm not going. People hate hate that muddy, like literally hate that muddy course. So uh, which is really funny. What are
Shoe Picks For Muddy Trails
SPEAKER_01you what are you rocking shoe-wise? What are you gonna wear shoes, uh shoe-wise for this race?
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's such a good question because I was literally thinking about that this morning on my run. What would be the best shoe? Since it's gonna be a little rainy and muddy, I do like my Solomon Slabs. They're like almost like a sock on my foot, and so I know they're gonna stay on. But I have a pair of like the on um trail pros, and I really, really love that shoe. Like it's my go-to for anything. So I I want to wear my ons, but I'm a little bit scared with the mud if they're gonna like slip around, and the Solomons are pretty much like a sock. So I'm gonna have to bring like three pairs and a training pair and see what the day has, and then decide from there. I think it's gonna be my like whole carry-on, it's gonna be trail shoes.
SPEAKER_01Dude, that's what mine is. It's hilarious. I I especially going east, I never know how the conditions are gonna be. So I always bring like three or four pairs of shoes with me. Uh oh yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's kind of hilarious.
SPEAKER_00No, that'll be me. They'll be like laced onto my backpack, whatever I have to do to get them out there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. All
What Team USA Would Mean
SPEAKER_01right, we'll get into the serious questions now. I feel like you have all the talent in the world and all the ability in the world to get on this team. I mean, you've already represented Team USA before. Um, you had a a great finish of the 2024 U.S. Mountain Running Championship at Snowbird. Um, what would it mean to you to be able to get yourself on this team uh this time around? Or or even become a U.S. Mountain Running Champion.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it would mean a lot, especially with how many competitive women are coming to this race. Like, I don't have any sort of like, I guess, expectation to win it right now because we have such a deep field, but that would definitely be a dream come true, and I'm gonna do everything I can to have that kind of a finish this weekend. To get back on the team, I think it would just mean a lot. Representing Teen USA as a junior was a dream come true. I talked a lot as a junior about having my dad serve in the US military for 20 years. I've been a military kid my whole life, and so I've just seen what our flag means overseas, having lived in Moscow, Russia, and not having the same privileges as it is to be an American here on our American soil. So I could, yeah, I could almost bring tears to my eyes talking about what it would mean to represent, you know, the United States on a world stage again. But I think this time around, too, I think it'd be a really big push for me to be able to reach into the younger generation. It makes me sad to see so many like young U18 and U20 athletes compete at such a high level and then kind of fall off because I don't know, maybe they don't know exactly like what the right setup is to keep training and to keep getting into these races as like an as a senior. Sometimes I think there's an SCAA pipeline to senior, but maybe not for like people that just want to do trails as a junior. So I think it'd be really cool to come back and show that like you can make it as a junior, you can make it as a senior and kind of have a stronger advocacy for those younger athletes to keep moving on.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love that. Great. So this is the best answer I've gotten all day. Appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um it's so cool. And I think it would be so fitting. Uh yeah, I think it's really cool because this is an interesting year. Like Anna Gibson, Ali Mack, uh, you know, Lauren Gregory, there's a lot of girls that are not gonna be there. And so it's gonna create a lot of opportunities for athletes like yourself to, you know, to make a name for themselves or to for yourself, to get on the team, uh, and to, you know, just I guess get noticed as well for sponsors and things like that. So it's I feel like this is the year opportunities all around, you know, for for you guys uh kind of coming out of the collegiate scene uh to start to make your name in the sport, which is really fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm really excited for it. There's nothing like competing in the instable A to get you ready, right? There's it's such a deep field. So I'm excited to see what this weekend has after such a a good but hard season at Florida State.
SPEAKER_01Very true. Very true. I gotta ask you this, because I've never I've never been on a start line with you, and I don't know as much about your racing style. So
Descending Fear And Steeple Skills
SPEAKER_01are you a better descender or climber? Like what do you what do you prefer? It's always weird because steeplers are always kind of funny.
SPEAKER_00You guys are good at everything, so um, I would say I'm a better descender. I feel like, you know, I I did have a couple falls. I think it was uh s at Snowbird a couple years ago, but I haven't really fallen that much on the trails. And being, you know, so I guess accustomed to steeple chase, I'm used to just having to shut off my mind for fear. That's like the biggest thing we train, isn't necessarily, you know, obviously being fit enough to run the race, but I think it's the fear factor that we train the most at practice is being able to tell yourself, you know, no doubt, run straight into it. And so when we're doing those descents, it is so fast. And I I kind of love it. I love how you're jumping from like log to log or rock to rock. And as you're stepping on those rocks, they're shifting. That that brings me back to Broken Arrow last year. It was like just such a full send on the decline, and things were shifting as I'm jumping on them, and you have to be so quick on and off. It reminds me a lot of jumping onto the barrier when it comes to the track. So I would say um I love the uphill grind, especially the longer the better, because I feel like when I can just get into that zone of the pain, I can just go for a long time. But the descend is my favorite. Yeah, I love it. It's like a roller coaster.
SPEAKER_01No, I love that because this is, I mean, there's a lot of opportunities in this race to uh take advantage of just some descending where maybe other athletes might be a little more uh conservative or or even uh have trepidation about trying to go full send uh on the descent because it's technical or because it's muddy and stuff like
Two-Loop Strategy At Sunapee
SPEAKER_01that. Um this is a this is a weird course, it's two loops. Do you have like a strategy for something like this? Like, how do you kind of like are you gonna take it out super hard? Do you plan on maybe kind of like seeing how the first lap goes and then trying to make moves on the second? Like, have you kind of conceptualized how you want to maybe race this race?
SPEAKER_00You know, I haven't conceptualized it too much yet. I'm gonna do that on my plan right over. Um, but I did talk to my teammate Zach on the trail team, and he raced Sunpee last year, and he said that the second loop, especially like I guess two miles into the second loop, it's easy to like go to sleep and to kind of get lost and to kind of forget where you're at or like, you know, settle in a little bit. So I think for this race, just because there are so many talented women, I want to go out with them, but not necessarily be leading it, not take it out too hard and really focus on that second lap. Like you said, this is a race that's not about the time, it's about the finish. And so having a little more of a strategy to it towards the end and be having a little bit more gas in the tank to be able to come away with a championship, I think is the better strategy that I'll be looking for. It's kind of like steeple in like the championship season. Like, you know, you're racing for time during most of the year, you're trying to hit the splits, but when it comes to championship season, it's all about who crosses the line first, right?
SPEAKER_01So I like that. I like that. It's no, it's super cool. That's the best way to approach it. Uh, especially like, I don't know, this is gonna be a weird year too, with uh, I guess a ton of mud and and just being slippery and wet. That like time goes out the window. It's really just gonna be a matter of seeing who's where and and trying to make moves where you can, and you know, and not I feel like it's also a matter of like not blowing up on that first loop because the first loop has a ton of road in it, like uh like steep cat track road. So it's gonna be interesting to see who goes out too hard on that and pays the price in the second lap and uh how you can how people survive on the second. So yeah, it's uh yeah, the tactics are gonna be very important. I can't wait. I'm gonna be on the commentary team. So I get to call the race again and uh yeah, I get to shout everybody out.
Summer Race Calendar And Goals
SPEAKER_01Um where are where are we gonna see you this summer? Where are you racing?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, so I've got obviously Senepee and then Broken Arrow, and then I've got the Rut at Big Sky. I'm gonna go to Mammoth again in September, and then not a race, but obviously I'll be at the tr uh the trail team camp in uh Grand Lake, Colorado. And then um I think it's November. I want to race the USA half marathon champs on the trails in Moab. I'm thinking about maybe a Des News half marathon um come the end of July, but I'm kind of just focusing on the trails, so I'm debating if I should still throw a road race in there or just yeah, stick it to the trails. But those are some of the races I have so far.
SPEAKER_01Very, very cool. All right, so it's gonna be super fun to follow. What are you uh doing a broken error? Are you doing the 23K and the Ascent or just one or the other?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I decided to just do the 23K. Last year I did both, and I feel like they were both two great experiences, but I do love that descent. So I talked to Andy about it, and he thought it would be best if we just go all in on the 23k this year.
SPEAKER_01Super cool. Anything you learned from that race last year, because broken arrow is just I guess that's probably the I would say it's probably the most competitive trail race we've got, somewhere in that range, probably probably the 23K. Anything you learned from that that you think you can, you know, especially from that and then Snowbird, and you can kind of take those two experiences and maybe apply toward a race like this where you know you have a real opportunity to get yourself up front and and get on that team.
Imposter Syndrome And Hunter Mindset
SPEAKER_00Yeah, two big things I think that I've learned from it. The first one I would say is um learning to like deal with imposter syndrome, or I guess like kind of having that freshman mindset. I really had no idea broken arrow or like USAs back in 2024. Um, I guess who the professionals were, if I could hang with them, I just loved the sport. And I just got out there and I ran that, pushed myself as hard as I could because I loved it. And I think sometimes, you know, coming out of the NCAA, we know who all the girls we are competing against. And you kind of have like this mindset going into the race of where you belong. Whereas in trails, anybody has this awesome opportunity to just compete on the day and to just see where you're at. And obviously there are gonna be talented professional athletes that are sponsored, but it's kind of fun to go into it with more of just like a anybody belongs in this championship race and it's who's gonna give it all on the day. So I think that was one big thing I learned from Broken Arrow and USA's before is just like compete on the day. Like I was running next to some amazing talented women, and then I was like, Yeah, I belong to be here. Like I deserve to be in this race, so I'm gonna keep that same mindset going into it. And then I would say another thing I learned um that I'm gonna be carrying into this race, especially with the mud and being on the east coast with more of like the trees and the foliage, is it's better to be the hunter than to be the hunted. So it's that's kind of like the fun mindset I think I learned from Twisted Fork is I took out Twisted Fork really hot. I went out with like the men on the road, and it was fun, but then it was like I started to get hunted a little bit, and I I like being the hunter in the trail situation. I like feeling like it's the hunger games and yeah, having people to pick off. I think that makes it a little bit more fun. So those are two things that I think I'll be carrying with me into this weekend.
SPEAKER_01Dude, the that's the code of the day. Hunter versus the hunted. I like that. I'm I'm definitely clicking.
SPEAKER_00I feel like that's the vibe. I saw the photos last year.
SPEAKER_01With two loops, yeah, man. People pay. I'm telling you, like it was it was really interesting last year to get to see up close, like people going out way too hot on that first loop and then dying on the second. You know, I'm glad you had someone like Zach to talk to because Zach, for me, is someone that I do really think has all the ability in the world to make that USA team, if not win the race this year. Um his journey has been super fun to follow. So that's a great person to have asked questions off of and learned a little bit about the course from. Um, yeah, I'm excited for him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he was super stoked when I was talking to him about it. So it was good to get some advice from somebody who's done it before. And he I saw the men's times, and he's he's right up in there. I think he's got a great opportunity.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. He put something on Strava. It was like January 1st, like USA Mountain Team or Bust. And I was like, this guy, this guy. I was like, this guy's really like he's stoked on it. So yeah, I love that. I love that attitude and enthusiasm. So um cool. Well, Oakley, safe travels out there, wishing you all the best of luck. Cannot wait to call your race. Actually,
New Kit Reveal And Farewell
SPEAKER_01uh, one last question. Um, yeah, I'm asking all the athletes this so the folks and fans can identify you guys on the live stream. What kit are you gonna be wearing uh or color kit so people can kind of spot you um in the crowd, especially because those bibs will get muddy. And so how can we identify you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, we're unveiling a new trail team kit. I'm really excited. It's an on kit, so it's gonna be black and white with I think some dots and whatnot. I haven't seen it yet. It's getting sent out with an athlete. We're gonna see it at the venue. So it's gonna be a surprise for me too. I'll get to see it the day before, but that should be the kit that I'll be wearing.
SPEAKER_01Super cool. Okay, cool. Very nice. Um, well, wishing you the best of luck. Obviously, we will chat again probably post-race, if not a broken arrow. Um wonderful travel out. And uh yeah, wishing you the best of luck.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Ugly. Take care.
