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2026 USATF Mountain Running Championship - Sunapee Scramble Live Stream Audio
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2026 USATF Mountain Running Championship - Sunapee Scramble Live Stream Audio
Hosts
James Lauriello - @jameslauriello
Remi Leroux - @remi_leroux
Corinne Shalvoy - @corinne_shalvoyage
Rachel Tomajczyk - @rachrunsworld
All Rights - Six03Endurance & Marathon Sports
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Welcome To Sunapee Scramble
SPEAKER_13All right, Steve Taylor. Good morning. How are you?
SPEAKER_00Good morning.
SPEAKER_13How's it going?
SPEAKER_00Great. I hope you guys are ready to roll up there.
SPEAKER_13Absolutely. Welcome. Welcome to the live stream. Welcome to anyone tuning in. This is the 2026 Sun of Peace Gramble, the U.S. Mountain Running Championship. This morning I'm joined by Steve Taylor, the founder of the Collegiate Running Association. Steve, if you wouldn't mind, I kind of already introduced you, but if you would like to introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your background and the Collegiate Running Association.
Collegiate Running Association Origin Story
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh, we founded the Collegiate Running Association back in 2013 uh to provide opportunities for college students in road, mountain, and trail running. Uh, something that really wasn't being done. The NCA, of course, everybody knows they cover cross-country indoor, outdoor track. Uh, you know, my wife and I are coaches at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. And uh, but we've we saw this void for particularly trail running, mountain running, which are really probably the fastest growing segments of our sport right now. Um, so again, we uh some NCA legislation changed that uh made it permissible for college students to accept prize money in their sport uh for sport-related expenses. And of course, all of that has changed here recently with NIL monies and all. But uh but ultimately we wanted to provide opportunities for these college students and open open opportunities to them for, again, specifically the mountain running and trail running because it really wasn't happening. And we were finding a lot of a lot of college students after graduating or finishing NCA eligibility, um, you know, were shutting down their running for a while and then coming back to it uh for health reasons, you know, later in their lives when really we want to keep them uh healthy. We want to keep them active uh even after they finish their NCA eligibility or these days uh club eligibility even. Um so that's kind of how we got started. Uh my background again, I've been in uh NCA coaching for uh over 30 years. My wife and I, again, are at the University of Richmond and and uh in addition to that do quite a bit of work with USA track and field at the national level with the um uh again uh just various parts of USA track and field.
SPEAKER_13That's amazing. I think thank you so much for your contribution. Uh, can you can you tell me, tell us a little bit about the championships that you guys have?
National Team Pathways Through CRA
SPEAKER_00Yeah, again, Road, Mountain, and Trail, we again uh the mountain championships has been one of our uh most exciting events, I think, over the years. Uh potentially because we mirror and follow USA track and field championships uh with this event. And what that means is as is happening there today at Sunnepe, the um athletes are there to qualify for the for the U.S. mountain running team to represent the United States. Uh, in addition to that, there's a of course a U.S. championship on the line, a college championship on the line, and prize money in both. So uh there's a lot of things uh I with this event that are really, really exciting. Uh a lot of races within races, and and looking at that part of it, I mean, obviously our top collegians uh have been very successful there in the past and qualified for national teams as well. I think uh since we founded in 2013, our first championship was in 2014. Uh, we've had over a hundred college students that have earned their way onto a national team, not just in mountain running, but we're talking track and field and and others as well, um, which I think is exciting for us at the Collegiate Running Association, because that's again a uh part of the fallout of why we found it. And I say fallout in a very positive way. Um, we're putting athletes in positions where um, again, they have their horizons open to what is out there. It's not just road running or track running or or um uh cross country running. There's the trail running, the mountain running. And we look back over the years, and you know, some of the greats that have gone and competed at this event, like Joe Gray and Andrew Benford, uh Morgan Aratola, uh Bethany Sackleben, all of those, Addie Bracie come to mind, all of them, and most recently uh Christian Allen and uh and Oakley Olsen, who's competing there today. Um, you know, they've had incredible careers um on the track in college, but in addition to that, then after graduating, um they've had went on to have great careers on the mountains and on the trails.
SPEAKER_13I
Collegiate Prize Money And Eligibility Rules
SPEAKER_13love that. It's it's it's such an interesting perspective because we uh we're almost in this this arms race now of prize money. This is where I want to go with this conversation. Tell me a little bit about the prize money uh that you guys have that you guys offer for the collegiate side.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we we uh again, we're a nonprofit organization, you know, a 501c3. So uh, you know, we can take donations from anyone that wants it as a as a tax exemption. We raise money through events as well. Uh again, since we founded, we've awarded over $600,000 or right at $600,000 in prize money and awards to college students. And uh through through our partnerships with events like uh the Sun is Peace Scramble and and uh again, uh one of our big ones is the Eucrops Monument Avenue 10K, one of the larger 10Ks in the nation. It happens to be uh right here in Richmond, Virginia. And uh they've partnered with us since the since our founding and uh have hosted our 10K Road Champs. And um again, it just it's a again, it's not a ton of money when you look at it. We're offering $3,000 in prize money today, but but it's prize money and it it helps every little bit helps. And uh when you're obviously folks look back when they're when they're college students, um you know uh uh $1,000 or $750 really can go a long way to helping just pay some bills or uh help you get some new equipment that you might need.
SPEAKER_13Absolutely. No, I mean it goes such a long way. Um can you can you talk about the eligibility for for the prize money? I know we've had um like do you have to be in in enrolled in university right now? Do you have to be just out? How did how does it work with the eligibility?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that's one of the fun things uh that we we look at. We we really um we really cherish life learners, and I say that uh folks that uh continue their education. So um many of our athletes are grad students and undergraduate students, you know, that traditional student that you would think of that again goes and gets an undergraduate degree. Um our rules are simple though. Let me start there. Um we only require that at the day of the event, the championship, whatever the championship might be, whether it be a road championship, a mountain championship, trail championship, that the ad that the uh that the student is enrolled or the person is enrolled in at least one college course, or they have completed a college course uh between January 1st of that year and the event date. So today is June 7th. If they've taken a course and completed a college course between January 1 and uh and June 7th, then they're eligible, or if they are currently, as of today, enrolled in a college course. So unlike the NCAA um or you know, some of those others, um, NERCA or uh the National Interconnect uh Collegiate Run Club, we just require that a student or a person is enrolled in a college course. So we'll find sometimes you know, you'll look in our results and and folks will see a 48-year-old female uh in the results and they're scratching their head. Well, that may be somebody, they may be a a teacher that is required to go back and get a a uh you know a class credit for some something. And uh again, we have uh medical school students, law students uh in our organization, and we're very proud of that. And the idea is that uh this came about from really back many, many decades ago when I was actually racing, that there really was when you graduate, if you were going on and running professionally, you know, there's a there's an end uh at at it all. There's gonna be an end to your running career, uh your athletics career. And having a master's degree or a postgraduate degree is very valuable in the age that we live in. And uh many people, including me, were really not focused on that. We were just focused on running, running, running, train, train, train. And then you finish your gang career and you go, okay, now I if I want to be uh a coach, or I want to do some of these other uh other things, I need to have a graduate degree. Uh, what we're trying to do is encourage those college students, like again, uh Oakley Olsen's a great example. She's yeah uh now at Florida State University as a grad student. So we love that. That's that's again, she's finishing her NCA eligibility, but she's also um continuing to pursue that master's degree and get that degree. So she'll be set up uh once her running career comes to a close, she'll be ready for the workforce and and uh be very successful.
SPEAKER_13So well said. Well, Steve, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on. Uh, thank you for your contribution and uh yeah, thank you for everything you do.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate it. Thank you. Good luck up there today. It's gonna be a great one.
SPEAKER_13Oh, thank you so much. Cheers.
Defi Des Couloirs And WMRA Finals
SPEAKER_13All right, we're gonna welcome our next guest, Mr. Julian Lacasse.
unknownHello.
SPEAKER_13Julian, it's good to it's good to finally uh talk to you face to face. I feel like you and I chat in DMs probably every other day. How are you?
SPEAKER_10I feel I feel the same. Uh doing uh doing great. How uh can you not uh be doing great when it's uh US mountain running nationals that even though it's in the US, uh we as Canadians uh are expecting one of the most uh spectacular day of the year for uh trail and mountain running. So uh really excited for it.
SPEAKER_13Absolutely. Well, Julian, do me a favor, go ahead and introduce yourself to the audience and what you do uh and why this race matters so much for the end of the summer for you.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, um well, people might know me as uh Free Trail Fantasy uh world most uh knowledgeable trail fan, but uh I have uh many many other hats. Uh well, mainly uh my biggest one would be uh being a teacher at high school, but uh I'm also uh uh will be co-directing the défi descouloir, which will be uh this fall on uh Canadian uh Thanksgiving weekend, the Canadian mountain running uh uh championships for the third straight year, and uh end with a big uh end in big letters, the World Mountain Running Association uh World Cup Finals this uh on the same events, on the same races.
SPEAKER_13Amazing, dude. You're you're a busy guy, busy, busy guy. Um I I want to ask you about DPD Koular. I will um and try to understand a little bit better. This year it is the WMRA final. How were you able to get the race on the WMRA circuit?
SPEAKER_10Well, we we gotta say that uh DPD Couloir has been uh a staple event in uh Canada for the past 14 years. We'll be uh hosting our 13th edition, and now we've become the largest uh trail running event in North America with more than 6,000 participants, so uh it's quite a big deal. Uh we have a special community here in uh Quebec. We have uh uh French connections, so uh there's a special vibe here, there's uh special terrain, uh the atmosphere is uh unique, and uh I think uh that uh Jonathan Wyatt and the WMRA they saw uh the potential in a race and uh they wanted to expand the their show. Um the WMRA has been around for more than like 40 years. They've been hosting uh the World Cup Finals for 27 years, I think now, and all of these years have been uh in Europe. So this fall will be the first ever year that they will be hosting a final outside of Europe. So that's pretty a big uh deal and a great uh mark of uh confidence for we we are really excited for that.
SPEAKER_13Amazing, amazing. Can you I know you and I have talked a little bit about this before, but can you talk a little bit about the prize money that's gonna be at DVD Clore?
Big Prize Purse And Bold Predictions
SPEAKER_10Yeah, yeah. For this year we'll be uh we'll be having a $30,000 uh in total price purse spread between our two races, which will be the uphill and the classic updown. Um we also have uh separate price purse that's included in that the global purse reserved for uh Canadian athletes because we also uh the official Canadian selection for the well unlike you guys that uh have uh your selection on the same years as well, we do have our selection the year before. So uh we'll have the the actually the best uh Canadian runners also on this year's competing for the selection for the 2027 Worlds in uh Cape Town.
SPEAKER_13Amazing, amazing. All right, so I any any bold predictions, any predictions that you have for the race today? What what what type of uh obviously you and I are both super excited for this. Um and I know you're a free trail fantasy magician. So any any any predictions, any anything that you have uh wisdom-wise for us on today?
SPEAKER_10Well, um uh it's always tough for me because I'm tied to the sport and I have a lot a lot of friends and uh a lot of Canadian friends that are will be competing today. So uh there's no way I cannot cheer for uh uh my Quebec buddies, uh Elisa Morin and uh Alexandre Ricardo, which are really great athletes, but uh you you gotta look at uh uh people in the women's side like uh Courtney Coffinger's she looked really really ready to uh have a big moment today. So uh I'm expecting to see uh two Brooks athletes uh at the front on the women's side today. Um well there are a lot of other fast women, so uh I don't want to extend too much, but uh I believe that the two Brooks runners uh will uh put on quite a show this morning. And in the men's side, uh I'm really excited to see uh Dan Kirch uh running because uh this guy uh is uh an absolute animal and uh he he can descend like uh no one else in the game. Uh I remember uh his uh famous descent in the Canadian Championships at Disney Coulard in 2024 when he uh clinched a uh uh 805 two-mile descent. So that's something insane. Uh our courses are not exactly like uh the courses at Sunepe where uh uh there's more uh technicality at Sunepi while in Mont Saint the we're basically uh going up and down uh ski slopes, so it's it might be easier to uh to achieve these beats. Uh but uh I challenge uh anybody to try to uh keep up that pace uh like Dan Thurds is able to do. So I'm really excited to see Dan and obviously uh Mason, uh Mason Copy, and uh and obviously the Mr. Mullett uh Mr. Mullett uh Slim that uh should be doing uh great stuff today. So I'm really excited uh excited for today.
SPEAKER_13Absolutely. Well thank you so much uh for um you know thank you so much for for the coming on for the predictions and uh look forward to chatting you chatting with you in the coming days. Thank you, Julian.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, thank you. Uh I gotta say uh uh also that uh Big Clone is also a uh uh wide uh event for uh open athletes that are not only willing to compete uh for the Canadian Championships or the World Cup Finals. We also host uh 12 other uh 10 other races that range from five kilometers to 40 kilometers. Uh some are technical, some are not, some are like some go go steep, some are really uh flat. So there's there's room, there's uh options for anybody. So I welcome anyone, Canadian, Americans, to come and enjoy your race uh during this fall.
SPEAKER_13Awesome. Well, thank you, Julian. Much appreciated.
SPEAKER_10Thank you very much, Jeff James. Have a great show today. You too.
SPEAKER_13Thank you. All right, next guest is gonna be Ben Cook, the president of Marathon Sports. We are just gonna should be on any minute now, and we are gonna be welcoming him. Alright, Ben Cook. How are you? Looks like you're muted. Let me unmute you. You're good, you're good. Do I not? I do not have this power. Ben, if you could just signal to uh about now. There we go. You are yeah, you are unmuted. I have the power. You have the power. Ben, welcome. Uh welcome to the live stream. So excited to finally get to chat with you. If you wouldn't mind, introduce yourself and maybe talk a little bit about your role at uh Marathon Sports.
Marathon Sports Trail Initiatives In New England
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so I'm Ben Cook. Um, I'm the president of Marathon Sports. Uh yeah, so that that's my role. I kind of I'm kind of the also the person that's kind of pushing us a little bit forward as we uh as we move along.
SPEAKER_13Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being here. Um first off, I I think I think the the big conversation that I wanted to get in with you is uh tell us a little bit about the initiatives, the trail initiatives at Marathon Sports that you're trying to spearhead.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so uh, you know, my background is I ran on the track, I ran on the roads, you know, that that I ran many a mile on trails in in preparation for kind of that kind of competing, but I had not really understood the trail culture. And so I've been to world championships, I've been to the Olympics, not as an athlete, but as a spectator. Last fall, I had the opportunity to go to Shamani, and I was kind of like, well, I was I was going to Tokyo for the world championships and tracks. I was like, I don't know if I could do both these trips, but I guess I'll go. I went there and was just absolutely blown away. Uh the energy, it was just incredible. I mean, we I just saw people at 10 o'clock at night in pouring downpours on a mountain, like family cheering and in in the face of all these runners. And I was just like, man, I had no idea that this kind of energy existed or happened. And so honestly, that was the moment. I remember just talking to somebody um from Hoka that I was with, and I was just like, I need to do whatever I possibly can to bring some of this energy back. You know, part of it was that New England has a pretty high population density. We have a pretty tight concentration of retail running stores. Um, we have two stores, one in Northampton and and one in Concord, which do really great trail business. And so I was just like, you know, all right, we we've got it's our responsibility actually to kind of come back and start to do something. And so I kind of came back and was trying to figure out how to do it myself. And from you know, dot to dot to dot, I got connected to Tom. Um and that kind of started this whole thing. And so I mean, you know, one, I was really just looking to kind of get a partner that could help me build something, and he already had a uh whole quiver of races, and so I was just like, well, hey, it makes more sense probably just to kind of acquire the races so that we have this like stable of races, like, and then you know employ you, Tom, to kind of like help us like bring this to life. And so one of the advantages I thought we had was one, we you know, we have retail stores, we have we have deep relationships with all a lot of different vendors and footwear and and otherwise. Um, and I thought we could bring some of that energy um together and um and connect all those things where maybe those races had a harder time attracting kind of the sponsorships, the support. And so it's just you know, I so there's a there's a whole network of things. So it's just the the race, the races, which is now seven. Um, but we were like, hey, that's that's not enough. Um those are just like these races, some of them are are pretty difficult, are like serving showrunners. Um but we also need to figure We need to like build the sport. And so even we've started this concept called field trips where we actually bust people from downtown Boston because a lot of downtown Boston folks don't have cars. They're urban. Um, they you know they don't know where to go. And so we've started these things called field trips where we're actually bringing new runners into the sport. So we're busting them out to the whites or to the Berkshires or things like that. Um, that's one of the initiatives that's like supporting these races. Then we've started this other initiative, which is uh called Dirt Camp. And that has um, you know, it's in partnership with Kraft, but there's elite athletes that are attending that camp. It's a it's out in the Berkshires, um, and it's like kind of a three-day experience where you can kind of just hear talks, you can mingle, go on runs, and just totally like uh live uh a three-day experience. And so we're just kind of trying to marry up runs that are weekly, field trips, dirt camps, the races, and then you know, Tom also brought us a group of incredible, you know, New England women who are like you know, looking for some support. And you know, that's the thing that I always read about is that like in trail running women are represented, and so it made perfect sense for us to say, all right, we're gonna start with a women's team and support that. And so, you know, we have like we've gotten trail running is certainly hot, but it it actually was totally coincidental. Had I not gone to Chamani last fall, I I probably would still be wistfully ignorant about uh about kind of the energy and what's going on here. And so just sometimes like the universe aligns and you know what happened with me personally also dovetails with like real energy from footwear companies and you know what ACG and other folks are doing. And so I think I I just love that marathon sports can kind of like insert ourselves and try and add value and and and create something fresh and new and just and just just dial up the volume on everything. You know, I think that's what we're trying to do is just make this and I know like a lot of times trail can be you know, people really love the fact that it can be small and gritty and kind of not very commercial. And I totally respect that. But I think like really like creating other entrants into this and and and introducing other people into this part of running, the sport of running, but betrayal specifically, I think you need some some energy, you need some um some really excitement, you need and and then you know, again, as an elite athlete, uh back in the day, I mean, I yeah, I I wasn't that great, but I was solid. Um it was just hard. You know, I remember like showing up at road races in Tim Buck too, and there'd be like a van of six Kenyans rolling up, like for five, right? So it's like holy crap. And then so you got trail athletes who have to move out of New England and go to the Rockies or go elsewhere. I mean, there's altitude out there, so there's that reason, but they just can't, there isn't enough for them to make a living and and kind of do their sport properly. And so there's there's like 20 reasons, right? That why this makes sense for marathon sports and why I think we need to be like central in all of that. But it's um, but it I think it comes from a really good, authentic place. Like right now, I mean, it's not this is not commercial, like, well, we're selling tons of trail shoes. We've got to build like the the arc or something before now. Yeah, and it's gonna, we're gonna have to put in a lot of work and and frankly convince people that we're serious about the sport and and and kind of learning it and getting into it in a big way.
SPEAKER_13I mean, I to me personally, I think it's a it's a beautiful synergistic partnership. And I think for for one reason is that the infrastructure's always been in place in the northeast, um, on the trail scene. I mean, especially on the short trail scene. I mean, you've got so many historical races that you can that you can you know build a season out of. And then when you marry the two with what Tom already has infrastructure-wise, with what you guys have, it just makes it it's a it makes so much sense. And and hopefully, I mean, my thought is that it it turns the northeast. If it isn't already, it becomes one of the mechas for trail running in North America.
SPEAKER_09I think that would be outstanding. I think it I think it's deserved and appropriate. I mean, there's tons of people here. The terrain is hard, it's it's humid, it's rooty, it's rocky, it's like it's muddy. Um, it's just a different style of trail running. The other thing that Tom's really educated me on is, you know, there's so much heat on the ultra stuff. And a lot of these races are subultras, which is kind of like very consumable. You know, you can watch it, it's not gonna take you uh two days of continuous watching to um to really take in the experience. I mean, you you you can you can really kind of sit down and consume a beautiful, amazing athletic experience um in a relatively short amount of time. And so I think this is a this is a really nice you know, conduit or bridge to kind of get people appreciating, you know, this sport and kind of what's going on. You know, it's also like it's it's more gritty, it's more there's a lot more things that could happen than maybe a track race, you know, where I mean there's definitely moves on a track, but you know, you're not gonna there's train, there's uh there's water, there's mud, all kinds of things. I mean, that there's this there's a lot here that you know, I wish I saw I I came to it earlier.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, it's uh it is, it's certainly marketable, it's it's just non-stop action. It is a different thing, especially the the hour to an hour and a half race. Um, you know, in in the northeast as well, you know, obviously different different geographical locations uh offer different backdrops, but the northeast just has a special degree of technicality and rigor that that is different than any other place in in the geographic United States, and and I think that is it's much more musty TV, like what we'll get to see today.
SPEAKER_09So yeah, I think there's just again stumbled into this, admittedly. But the fact that it's the New England you know high school championships. I actually uh Steve Taylor was the coach at Virginia Tech when I and I grew up like in Virginia, so he actually recruited me way back in the day, like we're talking decades. But um, you know, what he's trying to do is pretty cool too. It's like totally kind of different than the NCAA. It's a you know, it's it's it's almost like a new running sport that he's kind of creating. And I, you know, so all of that is happening here, and that also makes it really special. I mean, there's this it's not a huge field for high school, you know, and because it's not really a competed sport, really, at that age. It could be. And then, you know, ultimately offering up um trail runners, mountain runners are a little bit different than maybe track and field. And so I I love that Sunnepe here has this kind of weaving together of these really kind of special moments that are kind of really unique. So there's like lots of unique things all all colliding.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, it is pretty pretty crazy. Um, how how can athletes um who are interested in these field trips and dirt camps, things like that, they can find out about it on marathonsports.com? Is it what's the best way to learn about?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, I mean, so so dirt camp, um, you can find it on marathonsports.com. It's also dirtcamp.run, or www.run. Um the field trips uh happen once a month, and um you can find those on uh our socials or or on uh the marathonsports.com. Um yeah, I mean they're they're gonna be fun. We've only done one of the field trips. There's another one coming up in uh here this month. Um and then we you know so they're one to two a month up through maybe October. Um so that'll be a lot of fun too.
SPEAKER_13Very cool. Very cool. Any anything anything you don't think we hit or we didn't cover?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, nothing just jumps to mind. I mean, it's just that I I I just I think there's a tremendous amount of opportunity of what we can build and kind of what's next. I think the um I think is there's a combination and there's gotta be media to cover these things to kind of show it like this. I think this is really critical total to the whole formula. Um you know, the prize money I think is great because it adds like uh an element of the best of the best, you know, like you're watching the you know, NBA championships. I mean, that's that's what's happening here. I mean, these are these are like duking it out for for real prize money and some of the best athletes in the world. Oh and then, you know, this is a mountain championship, so you're gonna get some qualifiers and things like that. So yeah, there's real bragging rights beyond the prize money. So yeah, I mean, just I think we covered it. I mean, I'm just glad to be um do our part at Marathon Sports to kind of help build the sport, particularly in New England, which is where we are regionally. Um, yeah, we're just happy to be here, happy to to do our part and and and really kind of help with the momentum.
SPEAKER_13Well, I want to say thank you so much for coming on for a chat. Um, and thank you for your contribution and everything you do. Like I and I I the Northeast, I grew up in the Northeast, it's very near and dear to my heart. It is very important for
Course Breakdown And Race Strategy
SPEAKER_13me to see the Northeast realize as one of the meccas of trail running in North America and uh what you're doing is driving that forward. So genuinely appreciated.
SPEAKER_09Awesome. Thanks for the time. I can't I'm gonna get back out there and watch them racing.
SPEAKER_13Awesome, Ben. Appreciate you. Thank you so much. All right, take care. Take care. Guys, we are joined by frequent co-host Rachel Tomaichak. Uh Rachel is on the live stream. Rachel, how are you?
SPEAKER_04Hey, I'm doing well. I'm so excited for this.
SPEAKER_13I know, I know. Same, same. It's uh just about 29 minutes to the start of the uh of the men's race. We are getting close. We should be joined by another co-host, Corinne Shalvoy, very soon as well. Um, yeah, so so much excitement leading into this. Lots of good conversations so far with Steve Taylor from the Collegiate Mountain Running Association, uh, with um Joanne Lacas from D Fe Declour and uh Ben Cook, um, the president of Marathon Sports. And I think we're on with Corinne.
SPEAKER_02Morning.
SPEAKER_13Good morning. How are you?
SPEAKER_02I'm great. How are you guys?
SPEAKER_13Good, good, good. Lots of excitement for today. It's gonna be uh a solid hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes of my serious action. So it should be should be a good one.
SPEAKER_02Can't wait. It's uh it's a super exciting field.
SPEAKER_13Yes, yes. Uh I feel like we're all in, yeah, we're all all three of us are mountain mountain west. We're all in Colorado. How's everybody's mornings going so far? Everybody got the coffee rolling?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, definitely got the coffee.
SPEAKER_13Not the coffee.
SPEAKER_04A little early here, but um, yeah, really, really excited to see this race.
SPEAKER_13Big time, big time. Well, we'll be right back.
SPEAKER_02It's early that we can uh we can get our runs in after we're done.
SPEAKER_13Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02True, true. Well, Rachel's not running, but she has a very good, very good reason.
SPEAKER_13It's true. Yeah, Rachel, I was so impressed with your hike yesterday. I was like, dude, that's a little, that's a legit hike for uh I was like, that's that's like some time and dedication.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, I'm trying to get in some hikes. I think um since I can't run right now, um, hiking has been great and it's fun to be out there and explore and everything like that. So I'm trying to practice my power hiking skills. So that's the goal right now.
SPEAKER_13I love it. I love it.
SPEAKER_02That's a good skill set to have. For those who are not aware, Rachel is um pregnant and growing a child, which is the hardest job in the entire world. So um, yeah, I told her the other day that I did not run after 20 weeks um with my first child. So, you know, everybody's different, things happen, you got to take care of the baby, and she's gonna be right back at it. But but climbing and doing some hiking is uh that's gonna serve you well.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the climbs are definitely hard right now. I'm maybe 15 pounds up or something like that. So no, no, weight has not needed a weight vest. Yeah, exactly. Not yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's awesome. How are you doing, James?
SPEAKER_13Um I'm good, I'm well. Just uh waking up, getting ready to start, had a few conversations and yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was listening to those. That's that was some great stuff for those who haven't joined. Yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of facets to this race and to this event. You want to maybe recap a little bit?
SPEAKER_13Yeah, I mean, so first and foremost, we had on uh Steve Taylor, who came on first. He's the founder of the Collegiate Running Association. He talked a little bit about his role, who is eligible, because we do have the collegiate, it's kind of the sub-race within this race today. Um, who's eligible and how that eligibility works, as well as the $3,000 prize purse that's going to be up for the collegiate athletes. Um, on top of that, we had Julian Lacaste, who is the race director of the De Fi Decour, uh, which is the selection, well, the race we're selecting the team for today will go compete uh for Team USA over there. And with Julian, we talked a little bit about how it falls in the WMRA circuit, what it was like getting that race on the WMRA circuit as the final, as well as the prize money for that race. And then finally, we had on Ben Cook, who is the president of Marathon Sports. And he recently teamed up with Tom Hooper and 603 Endurance for this beautiful synergy that we have today of uh really trying to create this community of turning the Northeast into a Mecca, uh one of the North American meccas of Terrell running through things like uh different initiatives, like his dirt camps, field trips, and then races and live streams like we see today. So yeah, pretty cool little lineup of interviews there. Uh excited because it got me talking a little bit, so I've a little warmed up for today. So there we are.
SPEAKER_02That was awesome. And I think a couple of things to note, like it is there are multiple prize purses, right, in the race this year. So thanks to Brooks uh running, there's a $30,000 prize purse for the elite field, $10,000 to the first male and female on each side, which is big. That's huge. That's a big payday. Um, and then if you are also enrolled in one class, you can also double dip into the collegiate purse if you're one of those people in on the podium there. So um multiple ways to make money out there today, which is really, really cool and really exciting for these athletes. So I also understand that even though you must be a US citizen to make the WMRA worlds team or the World Cup final, you do not have to be to earn the prize money. So there could be Canadians who take that prize money home. And that's a little bit of a different, right? We're not just gonna have people running for that uh for those spots. We're gonna have people running for that prize purse. And and if uh if we have a Canadian winner today, they're gonna take home $10,000.
SPEAKER_13Yes. Yeah, and there's some there's some possibility and potential for that.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, and this is a unique race too, because of that collegiate field and international field also being in the US Mountain Championship. So I think it's interesting when you have different fields within a national championship. That's something that a lot of sports don't have. And um, yeah, I think it brings a lot of eyes to the sport. So yeah. Absolutely. Hey Remy.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, today we're joined by one of the one of those Canadians. Uh Mr. Remy Larue, welcome. Uh welcome to the uh to the live chat or live stream.
SPEAKER_14Thanks for having me, guys. I'm a bit disappointing not to be racing, but really excited to see both of the races coming up pretty soon now.
SPEAKER_13Yeah. Well, we're super excited to have you in our uh in the live stream. I absolutely is uh one of the best athletes that was in this field, as well as you know, we'd love to hear you know some of your expert analysis on this when we kind of get into it. So very excited to have you.
SPEAKER_14Nice, excited to be here.
SPEAKER_02Remy, sorry you're not not out there racing. Tell us why you decided not not to start.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, I got sick like earlier this week on Tuesday. Actually, like funny enough, like right after my interview with James. It's just deep enough. Yeah, that really just destroyed me. And this was a couple hours later, I decided to go on a jog, and that just like really just like put the nail into it and just like was completely got like I think a throat infection. Um, it's like going much better. I'm on antibiotics, so like uh every day is going much better. It's a bit frustrating because like I feel like only another day or two and I'd be totally fine to race, but um, yeah, I just didn't want to head down there, contaminate the others on the Brooks team. Um so but I think it's a right call because today I would not feel close to ready enough to race those guys. So I think it's a it's a good thing that I'm not there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, probably smart. I feel like this field is not a field where you can be sick and do okay because it's so stacked. So um yeah, bummed that you're not out there, but smart to be able to just recover and get ready for the next one.
SPEAKER_13Yeah. Well, Rami, we're so so excited to have you. Um, all right, guys, we're gonna move forward for the audience with a nice little slideshow deck similar to the one we did last year. It's gonna be a breakdown of the course, uh, talking a little bit about specifics on the course, talking about some of the prize money, which we already kind of got into a little bit, some of the sponsors, and then finally we'll be able to give a little uh breakdown of the field. And then it looks like the uh Paula's in the background. Uh let me see if I can add this to the stage. You guys could see the there we go. All right. So we're gonna dive into the problem changed.
SPEAKER_12I realized that's the 2023 five deck. So I'm gonna fight.
SPEAKER_13I thought that was for uh four laps. I was like, all right, we're gonna roll with it. All right, so we should have a new slideshow deck kind of put in there. Any any moment now while we wait. Uh Corinne, what are you racing? Any any any races anytime soon?
SPEAKER_02Uh this tiny race called UTMB.
SPEAKER_13Nice. That's a lot of it's a lot of vertical.
SPEAKER_02Small one, small one out in uh in Trumani. Yeah, that's that's coming up. It's uh sneaking up, but I can't believe it's already June. It's like all of a sudden it's yeah, it's just it's here. The season is here. Um yeah, so that's that's exciting. Gonna do some training down in the San Juan. So I grew up down there and it's a good place to train so this summer. So speaking of the climbing piece, Rachel, I'm I'm right there with you. Lots of lots of hikes hiking and and getting the poles out, which is different than this race. No polls, no headphones allowed in this in in the event today. Um I will be using be using polls.
SPEAKER_16For sure. All right.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you definitely need to get good at hiking for for that race.
SPEAKER_15Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh, we have the appropriate back.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, we are we are nice.
SPEAKER_15Here we go.
SPEAKER_13All right, guys. I'll let you uh whoever wants to take it away can talk a little bit about the course. Uh right, Rachel, you and Remy both raced it last year. So perhaps you guys can can dive into it and give us a little uh a little more color to what the course is about, other than kind of the profile and things like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Rachel, why don't you do lap one and then Remy, you want to talk about lap two?
unknownCool.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I think this race kind of has a little bit of everything. As you'll see, it has a lot of fast sections, it has some tacky sections. So yeah, we'll get into it. Lap one, you kind of start off on this ski slope and it's not super technical, but it is pretty steep for a start. And then you get onto the spy road, also not technical. It's a pretty fast climb. I would say lap one is very, very, very runnable, very fast. And since there are two laps in the second lap, as Rumi will explain, is a little bit more technical. The first lap is very, very fast. So it's easy to go out too fast on this course. Um, so we'll see if that happens this year and people go out super, super quick. And then who has um kind of some more in the tank for lap two? But yeah, so you start off on that ski slope, keep climbing on the fire road, and then you have a descent on ski trails, which some are really nice and open, non-technical. You can get ripping on those, and then there's a glade section that's probably about 400 meters or so that is a little bit more rocky and rooted. Um, so yeah, very good technical runner. You can get some athletes on that section. But other than that, that descent is pretty quick. Um, we'll see. I have heard that there's been a lot of rain out there. So um it does get slick and muddy on the descent, um, especially on some of the turns. So yeah, lap one though is very, very fast. Remy, go ahead for lap two.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, lap two is I think where a lot of the races are gonna be played. Especially like on that climb, and in terms of like duration, lap two is just like so much longer than lap one since it's just like much more technical. Um, so the kind of trail that you're gonna have on that second climb, um, it's just like super rocky, super rooty. It's very like proper to like the New England area. Like a lot of people like in different places in the world call things technical, but I think the the technical aspect of like New England is just like so unique. So I think a lot of people like runners from like maybe the West Coast or um yeah, are who are not used to those kind of trails can definitely like lose a lot of time there. Um so all that climb is is you know very single track, you're in the woods, you're in the backcountry, uh, you know, on those pretty technical trails, and then once you enter the last descent, it's the it's the same downhill than the first one. So you start with that kind of like glade section, uh not super technical, so pretty fast, I'd say, descent. Um, but I think definitely that's where a lot of the race can can play out. If you look at like the men's race last year, like David Norris after that first lap was like way back, but because of that second climb, he was able to gain like so much time on everyone else and get the get the win. So I wouldn't be surprised for for us to see like some runner being super good on that first lap, but then on that second lap, it's more of their weakness, so they lose a lot of times compared to others. So I think it's gonna be a very exciting race because of it, because there's just so many different sections that are gonna like advantage certain runners and disadvantage others. So I think we're gonna see a lot of like changes of positions throughout.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the same thing happened in the women's race last year, right? Allie McLaughlin, Ali Avatar, I love her new name, her new last name, uh, was leading the first lap and uh and then was was overtaken in that second lap. So uh you're exactly right.
SPEAKER_16I think that's it's like gotta have that that long, longer, you know, the the durability and the and the endurance. And it's hard to know if people are holding back or kind of what you know where they're at effort-wise uh during that first loop.
SPEAKER_13So it's significant. I believe Anna made that move in a similar spot to where David did actually. So I'm curious to see. Yeah, this is uh this is the fun part about a two-looped course is who's patient and doesn't destroy themselves in the first loop to to make that move on that second climb. Um we'll see because Dan, yeah, I had a great conversation with Dan Kurtz in the lead up to this as well, training partner and good friend of Remy's. Uh, and we had a very similar conversation. Who will be the one to maybe keep in contact with that front, very front two or three, maybe four gentlemen, uh, to make that to make that final move and win the race on the descent. If we wish the that is very true.
SPEAKER_04I also think on this course you really have to play to your strengths because it is so so different in different parts. So there may be a runner who just knows that they aren't as good on the technical stuff and they go out really hard and just try to gap the field and then see if they can hang on for that second lap. So um, yeah, there's a lot of different strategies and ways to handle this race for sure.
SPEAKER_13Rachel and Remy, this is a good question for you guys. Like on the downhill sections of the glades and some of those descents, do you think more decisive moves will be made on the descents, or do you think more decisive moves could be made on the climbs?
SPEAKER_14Uh I would say, especially on the I would say more on the climbs. I I think the downhills are just like not long enough um for it to really matter that much. And I think everyone is just like so good at descending that are in the field. So I think even if someone is like really, really good at descending, you might gain like I don't know, 30 seconds on that whole descent, but like 30 seconds going uphill is just like very easier to be made, I'd say. Um that second climb.
SPEAKER_02That was my question, is kind of talk about like the techniques that you guys saw being in the race on that technical, the technical climbing section, because we'll see it on the live stream. But to your point, it's super rocky, it's super rooty, and it's like big step ups. So, you know, did you did you see on both sides, you know, are you going into a full-blown power hike? Is it more efficient to try to like jog and jump step? You know, what what was your strategy on that on that technical climbing section?
SPEAKER_04I think at least with the women on the techie climb section, it is a lot of power hiking. Um, I don't know, maybe the men can kind of power up it a little bit better, but there are some pretty big step-ups. Um, I would say at the top of that climb, though, it kind of flattens out and you're still climbing a little bit, but there are some ups and downs. And probably for about a mile or so, you're on flatter terrain. Um, still climbing a little bit net, but it's still flat. And I think that's when Anna made her move last year, was on that flatter, more technical section. So I do think um to answer the original question, there's a lot more time in the race that you're spending climbing than you are descending. So um maybe the descent is only 20 minutes of the whole race, but the climb is the other 40, if it were an hour-long race. So um, I think the climbs do matter a little bit more than the descents on this one. It's a great point.
SPEAKER_13Cool. All right, guys, we're gonna, for the sake of time, we're gonna kind of transition over to why this race is so important for the selection. Uh, the aspect is gonna be for, and Remy, you can correct me if I if I get my French wrong, diffide de couloir somewhere in there.
SPEAKER_04Say it for us, Remy.
SPEAKER_14Diffie de couloir.
SPEAKER_04Okay, diffide couloir.
SPEAKER_15Diffie de couloir.
SPEAKER_13Get in there, get in there.
SPEAKER_15Good thing we have Remy on with us. Yeah, thanks, Remy.
SPEAKER_13I know my French is embarrassing. Uh, all right, so this is the selection race. Obviously, the top four men, top four women uh on the US side will be selected to go race the updown um in October. Very exciting. Um, any anything you guys can add to it or would like to add as far as why this is so important?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, I think any time that you're able to represent the US is great. And uh just experience being on a team is great too. This year is an off-year for worlds for the trails, meaning that there's no worlds this year. Uh, it's every other year. So I think that these years are important just to be able to get in that US kit and uh represent Team USA on a bigger stage before hopefully doing it the next year on a bigger stage at Worlds. Um, and then also I think uh maybe this year isn't quite as competitive uh as some of the other years. And so I think it gives some of those younger runners maybe coming up in the sport a chance to maybe compete on team USA as well. Um, you know, Anna Gibson, Lauren Gregory, uh, some of the bigger names aren't at this race this year. So I do think it gives, at least on the women's side, so I think it gives some younger runners some opportunity to get in a USA kit.
SPEAKER_06Big time.
SPEAKER_02I think something else that you mentioned earlier in your in your interviews, James, just to quickly make another point is that because the the Deffy decle, I can't say it.
SPEAKER_13It's better than me.
SPEAKER_02Better than the qualifier for the Canadian championships, you're gonna be racing the people that are going for Team Canada, and therefore you're you're gonna have a chance to kind of like race against the people who you may then see you will then you know potentially see at worlds, and so you you know, as an American, you get a dress rehearsal against the the top Canadians. That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, 100%. It's I mean, I've done the race uh two years in a row now. This will be my third year this year, and it's a fantastic event. And I think it's it's a really good like race to prepare yourself also for worlds because it's like you have the vertical race and then you have the up and down race, but especially this year, this year it'll be the World Cup finals, which is like this is huge. So, like a lot of Kenyans are are gonna be there, a lot of Europeans are gonna come make the trip. So I think yeah, it's gonna be you know a super competitive event. So, you know, for for runners who are gonna qualify here today, I think it's gonna be a huge opportunity to get like to experience more. I feel like the people that are gonna qualify today are probably already like used to international competition, but it's gonna be like a race in addition to like their resume to like just like gain experience, hopefully for them also to qualify for worlds the next year.
SPEAKER_13Um Remy on the on the back of that, something and I know we we're kind of limited on time here, but I just from the Canadian side, you must you guys must have an immense sense of pride in the fact that you are so you have a WMRA final and a golden trail series race on very similar courses this year, um, to have both of those on display in your home country, that must mean a ton.
SPEAKER_14I mean, it's huge, it's huge for for Canada, it's huge for Quebec. I mean, honestly, uh we've never had like I think most of our races in Quebec have always been like very local. Um, and for us Quebec runners, if we wanted to like professionalize ourselves or do like intern like race international competition, we've always had to like go overseas, go uh you know to the US or go to Europe, but now it's so cool to have like those races at home. So I think that's great. I think people are gonna really enjoy seeing like people from all over the place getting to getting to compete with them. So and yeah, I'm looking forward to you know people from other places getting to see how cool Quebec is also. I love that.
SPEAKER_13All right, guys, as we continue on, one uh big important thing on the slide we want to call out is the sponsors of this race. First and foremost, Brooks running, $30,000 prize purse, absolutely bananas, uh Delta Dental, Marathon Sports, of course, and Martin. Uh and then um, yeah, this is it's just crazy how uh yeah, sponsors and the prize money for this year. I want to move us over.
SPEAKER_02Dragonfly Aerials for our drug coverage.
SPEAKER_13Sorry, I missed that because it was hidden by Dragonfly Aerials, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_13Uh all right, Mount Cinepee Resort. Okay, so it doesn't look like it looks like they kind of the last slide was cut for who's gonna be there, who's not. Um, I wanted to make sure we included enough time for a little analysis on our end of the men's and women's court or the men's and women's fields and uh some discussion around that. Um, Rachel, Corinne, I'll let you guys take it away on some of the thoughts on the women's field, and then Remy and I can take it away on the men's field.
SPEAKER_04Nice. Yeah, I think that there are some really strong women in this race, and I'm excited to see. I think um I'll name a couple of the top women, and then uh Corinne, you can name a couple more. I think um We should do it the other way around, Rachel, because you know more of these women than I do.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04I'll send this off. Um, Courtney Coppinger, I would say, is one of the best in the field today, one of the favorites. She was a steepler at Kansas and was a two-time All-American there. And this year already, she has raced in a World Cup race in China in the vertical and the classic distance, and uh was third in the vertical and second in the classic, which is huge. She uh beat Maude Matisse, uh, who's uh Matisse, who's a really, really amazing trail runner. Um, and so she's just having a great season already so far. So I'm excited to see her at this race kind of opening up the um season here in the US. And then I would also say that Taylor Peavy is having an amazing season as well. Um, she won Big Ulta, got the course record there on a pretty hot day, um, and then ran Gorge Waterfalls as well and was second to Lauren Gregory there. Um, so she's already having an amazing season as well. And she's done a couple longer uh races this season. So I'm excited to see her on a mountain classic course like this one. Um so yeah, Corinne, do you want to name a couple more women? For sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's a there's a lot of women in the field that I think, you know, could contend. And the beauty about a race like this, like there was less than two minutes separating the first through fourth on the women's side last year and and less than like 50 seconds on the men's side. So, you know, this is it's it's just really exciting how tight, you know, the fields are gonna end up being. Um, you know, I wanted to bring up, of course, um uh someone who's in the master's uh division, but is a definitely a contender in Casey Enman. Um, you know, amazing first in the USATF uh Northeastern Mountain series in 2024 and 2025, uh one Sun A P in 2024, you know, super exciting to see women, you know, in their 40s still competing out there at the short distances. Um Amy Kohler, who is uh, you know, she she has she's a race director, um, the running kind and uh a good friend. I had um I worked with her in the US Trail uh running conference last couple years and um just excited to see her out there. Um Megan Lacey, I give her a shout out. Oh, we mentioned a number of trail team athletes like Oakley Olson is out there. Maya Rail, is it Rail?
SPEAKER_08Rail, Rail Railway, okay.
SPEAKER_02Um and then Rena Schwartz. I think that people, women and men um who have been on this course before, in my opinion, you know, have a huge advantage. They know exactly what you're gonna feel like in certain sections and where you can improve and where you can take advantage of things. So um to me, the returners to the field um who have raced Senepe in the past, I think um are gonna definitely have a bit of a advantage out there. And those are some other names that I'm uh kind of paying attention to.
SPEAKER_13Amazing. It's gonna be, I mean, I am really looking forward to Courtney Coppinger and Taylor PB. That that is going to be a very interesting front of the race. Uh, can Rena Schwartz play upset and get the get the win? That's possible. I think there's a lot of really interesting uh through lines on the women's race. And the men's race is extremely interesting as well. And this is a I think this is a very rare uh kind of front of the men's race in the sense where we might not see something as competitive outside of Broken Arrow for the rest of the year uh in US soil. Christian Allen, Dan Kurtz, uh Mason Copey, Zachary Erickson, Aries Redding. There's gonna be a very interesting front of that race. Um first and foremost, we have two former mountain running champions, uh Dan Kurtz in 2023 looking for another mountain running championship, and Christian Allen from 2024 looking for his second as well. Um, we have Mason Copey, who was second on the course last year, uh, ran a blazingly fast time of 110. Um, both of all these athletes are extremely complete, um, amazing climbers. We know Dan's one of the best descenders on planet Earth. It's gonna be very interesting to see uh how that plays out in the front. Remy, do you have anything to add to that?
SPEAKER_14Yeah, I mean, I think I I my top prediction is Christian Allen is gonna start super fast on the first climb. I think he has everything to gain to do that, and he's also like it's always his race strategy. So I think that's something we're gonna see pretty soon. Then I think it's gonna be really interesting to see who's gonna follow. I think my opinion is Mason is gonna try to follow, Alex Ricard is gonna try to follow as well. Um, and then I think everyone's gonna kind of like have to take some decisions afterwards because of that. Oh, here we go. We got some images at the start. Um, I also want to give a little shout-out on the women's side. I think Irisa Marin from Quebec, I think she's definitely gonna be someone who's gonna turn some heads. She was here last year, got I think six last year, but since then she's had like so many good results, got top ten at worlds on the up and down race. Um, so I think yeah, she's she's coming back from injury, but I think if I think she's fit, so I think she's definitely gonna be someone to look out for.
SPEAKER_13Guys, one thing to add, this is it's not raining.
SPEAKER_16It's not raining.
SPEAKER_13One thing to add, this is kind of breaking news. We are seeing Mason Copey in a kit. Yeah. Uh Mason Copey has joined the Vibram team. Uh he is he is in a uh Vibram kit right now. Very exciting. Uh, very excited that we could kind of break that news. You can kind of see Alex Ricard there in the front. Uh Zachary Erickson off to the left. I'm not going to make that mistake twice. Last year he was red shirt guy. Now he has white shirt with on on guy. So that is definitely uh, we're gonna get that one correct. And then Dan Kurtz right in the front in the Brooks kit. So this is a uh very exciting little lineup here.
SPEAKER_02So cool. And then the the men's race will start at right at the top of the hour, and then 15 minutes later, the the women's race will go off, correct?
SPEAKER_13That is correct. 915 the women's race starts. There's Christian. Uh, I have to say say, like, I definitely second what Remy's gonna say. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if Christian bricks the KOM on the the opening climb. He races quite aggressive coming off the gate, so it's gonna be uh yeah, Christian Christian taking it right out.
SPEAKER_04So and he's quick too. He has run uh sub-210, I think, in the marathon, or maybe right at 210.
SPEAKER_1420950 something.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, 209. So he does have the wheels to be able to run that climb pretty quick, um, and then hope that he can hang on for the rest.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, four from the vertical at worlds last year, just such a such an amazing climber.
SPEAKER_14Uh the way he ran that vertical too was just like so impressive because he was just like he started like broken arrow last year. The US championships was like a shortened course, so it was only like a 20 to 25 minute race. Such a competitive field, but regardless, he was able to like get a gap on everyone within the first few minutes. So to be able to do that, you really need to have like some top end speed at the very start of races and to be able to hold that for an entire race, which is like super impressive.
SPEAKER_08So I think that's a lot of my live stream.
SPEAKER_14Yeah,
Men’s Race Start And Early Moves
SPEAKER_14okay. Oh, here we go.
SPEAKER_02All right, audio. The start of the 2026 US Mountain Running Championships at Cene P Scramble. This is the men's elite field.
SPEAKER_05All right, we are off.
SPEAKER_04All right, let's go.
SPEAKER_12Roger, I'm on your live stream.
SPEAKER_13Mason, Mason going out and you at the ground.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so they're headed in right now. You kind of have a short flat section before you get into that steep.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, I see that it's of the ground.
SPEAKER_02Bear with us getting a little background audio here. So yeah, um Rachel and Remy, talk about this first, you know, couple miles. We're gonna get, we're gonna get, I think, video, you know, about two and a half miles up. Oh, here we go. This is great.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, this is that steep ski hill. And I remember last year when it was muddy, it was very, very slick and lots of sections with mud too. So um who knows by the time the women race and all the men's field has gone up it twice. We'll see how much slipping and sliding there is on this. But you can tell it's already kind of starting to get muddy in some sections.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, I found this section like really tricky because it's very steep, but it's like zero technical. So you're kind of always telling yourself, like, oh, I should be running pretty fast because it's only grass. But like it's so easy to just like go overboard a bit and just like push too hard, especially at the beginning of a race like this. So yeah, I think it's uh it's a pretty pretty tricky section right there.
SPEAKER_02For viewers at home, what do you guys think the the grade is there? It's always deceiving on it.
SPEAKER_13It's gotta be over over 20, somewhere in that range, right? 20 to 30.
SPEAKER_14I would I would guess around there, yeah.
SPEAKER_13Like yeah, yeah, that's what you guys think exceedingly so steep.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, it's not a super long section. You kind of get to the fire road pretty quickly, but you can definitely wreck yourself if you go out too fast on this.
SPEAKER_02Sure. But you also want to establish position, you know, kind of behind people that are a little slower than you.
SPEAKER_12Roger, I just see your camera at the base on your life.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, awesome. Yeah, that is very true. You definitely want to establish position, however, I will say on this first lap, especially, you're not getting into any single track trails really. So you have a lot of room to move around people. Um, so definitely you want to establish position, but also I think uh you don't need to worry about not being able to make moves later on in that lap.
SPEAKER_14I think this is an image of the top of that little steep climb section. So I think maybe for the men we're gonna talk about like I think they should arrive pretty soon if this is where I think it is.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think you're right, Remy. They should be here pretty soon. And I'm guessing Christian is in the lead, or uh maybe with Mason close. Like Mason was trying to get out quick off the line.
SPEAKER_14Yeah. I think another one on the climbs that's gonna be interesting is uh Alex Ricard, Alexandre coming from Canada as well. He's super strong on the climbs, and I think he's definitely one of the runners that has like a bit of a gap between like his uphill and downhill strength. So I think he has everything to gain to just like push really hard on the uphill and just try to not uh lose too much time on the downhill afterwards. So I I wouldn't be surprised to see him also stick to the leaders here.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, Billy Ballocks, 2023, he was the runner up right behind Dan uh in the mountain classic uh down here. Extremely strong climber, won the vertical the day before, one of the few people to beat Joseph Gray, like just uh insane climber.
SPEAKER_14Okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_13Christian, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yep the orange Nike kid. And then is that Mason right behind him?
SPEAKER_13This is great video cover. This is awesome. Yeah.
SPEAKER_14Do we know who is filming this? Do not.
SPEAKER_02Right? I don't know either, but there's a lot of things.
SPEAKER_04Okay, yeah, there's Christian coming up off the top of that climb. It kind of flattens out here for a little bit. You get on a really quick fire road section. I think there's actually a downhill in it, uh short downhill, but you can kind of get your turnover back if you've been going a little bit slower on that skee, and then you're able to climb again.
SPEAKER_02You know the race is fast when an ATV has to be going full on toward B tracking these. Very true. Just looking at their looking at their splits from last year, it's nuts. I mean, we're talking about these guys at the end of this race running sub-four minute pace down this thing.
SPEAKER_13Yeah.
SPEAKER_02At the very end. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_13I would say, I mean, last year David Norris took the win in 109.55-ish, somewhere in that range, somewhere around 110. So we should see, I would imagine, the race with last year's at least second place in there, and someone like Richard, and then Dan next. It's very possible we see a similar time.
SPEAKER_09So Steve's gonna jump out.
SPEAKER_08I agree. I was talking to that.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I was just going to say they're already kind of gapping the field too, um, these top two guys. So that's interesting. And uh we'll see if we can or if they can hold that lead. Uh go for it, Remy.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, no, I was gonna say I was talking to Dan on the phone yesterday, and he was saying that he was definitely thinking that the times were gonna be much faster this year, uh, especially because of the conditions. Uh like last year, the day before, it just like poured and poured and poured the entire day. So especially like the trails on like that second climb and like on both this ends were just like super sloppy, super muddy. Whereas this year, I think it still rained yesterday and a bit this morning too, but it seems like it affected less the trails. So just because of that, just because of the conditions, I think we're gonna see faster times.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it looks like the sun's out, so it could be drying some of that up a little bit.
SPEAKER_14Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And just for those uh just joining, thanks for being here. We've got the the men's race off started six minutes ago, uh nine minutes ago, six minutes ago. Six minutes. Um and uh and we've got the women starting here at 15 minutes after, so we will have cameras on on the women's start as well.
SPEAKER_13Remy, did Dan give away a little bit of his uh his game plan at all, or did uh did he kind of keep that closer to the vest?
SPEAKER_14I think he was he was definitely aware of what's going on right now. Like I think he was definitely expecting, you know, people like Christian or Mason, you know, going out pretty hard. And I think he was definitely prepared mentally to just like let that go. Um, I think he was really counting on that second climb to make a lot of time on the other runners. And I think he was definitely inspired what by what uh with what David Norris did last year. Um, I think we're approaching a section here where this is the difference between the first lap and the second lap. So on the first lap, you'd go left there into the woods, and there you'd enter like the technical climb. Whereas for this first lap, you're going more on this like ski slope, more like uh you know, four by four kind of little road here. So definitely less technical on the first lap. So really can take advantage of this session.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. So Christian Allen, your your leader right now with Mason Copi. Is it Copy or Copy, guys?
SPEAKER_13Kopey.
SPEAKER_02Mason Copi, right behind him, and they seem to be forming a bit of a gap. I'm gonna try to say all the last names as well for those joining who don't know these individuals by first name. But yeah, that's uh we have a few returners. I mean, Remy, we're gonna be one of them, but there's a few returners on the men's side. That the two women returners, uh, I believe Courtney Copinder and Rena Schwartz, um, maybe fewer on the women's side returning this year from last year.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I would say just uh looking at it when they were coming around that corner, it looked like Christian has about maybe a five or 10 second lead on Mason. So he's definitely crushing this climb.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Christian Allen, but he just raced Twisted Fork, correct? A week ago.
SPEAKER_14I believe so. And he also raced the 50k by UTMB race in front in France. Yeah, the middle allies or something like that. Uh Alzas, yeah. Alsace. But that was like, you know, some of the UTMB races sometimes are like less competitive than others, but that one was like super competitive, and he ran like I think like three hours 12 for like a 50k. That's incredible. So he's definitely really fit right now.
SPEAKER_02That is smoking. I think he's just recovering on the planes in between the travels. So this is like we need to get tips from him on the recovery strategy. Like, do you just absolutely demolish yourself and then just like limp into the plane seat and fall asleep for whatever till your next race?
SPEAKER_12Hey Roger, I'm not seeing much, just kind of super high up. Uh great footage, great footage road near the summit. I don't know if you can go to the summit or not.
SPEAKER_02Again, Christian Allen leaving Mason Kobe behind. And then it looks like there's uh uh maybe one or two other men not too far behind them.
SPEAKER_14Yeah. It seems to me like the gap is getting closer a little bit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's what I would think too. I don't know if it's uh getting closer or they're just climbing and we can see more, but I kind of think that it is getting that they are closing in with it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think so too. But that's what's exciting about these races, they're racing each other.
SPEAKER_13Anything can happen, yeah.
SPEAKER_04True, very true.
SPEAKER_16Shout out to the ATV fellow cams. This uh footage is improved from last year, getting better every year. I feel like it's awesome.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, this is great. This section, too. I think uh it's about a 700 foot in a mile kind of climb. So definitely runnable, but also uh pretty steep as well. So um, yeah, that's a hard grade to just be running at, especially at the very, very start of the race. Um, so yeah, that's why you can get in some trouble when you are climbing on this super fast at the beginning. But um, yeah, we'll see how these guys do when they get to the descent coming up.
SPEAKER_13It does look like we have a third runner that it's closed the gap behind Mason. Very hard to identify once we get a little bit closer, we'll be able to tell.
SPEAKER_02But and again, yeah, I mean, looking at some splits from last year, Mason Copi ran that second mile, which according to Strava has about 800 feet of climbing. You're you're exactly right, Rachel, right in that range, in a 912, which is a 451 gap pace on Strava. That is so fast. A 912 for 800 feet of climbing. I mean, what the heck?
SPEAKER_04That is wild. I do think the other reason why this race is so quick is because it is at sea level, and a lot of these athletes are um coming down from altitude. I know Christian Allen is in the Salt Lake area, Mason's in the base. They're kind of going down from altitude to race in these races, and uh yeah, you can just roll on some of these trails.
SPEAKER_13I I have a guess that that third runner might be Alex Ricard. It's hard to tell because he was in a red jersey.
SPEAKER_14It's very difficult to see, but that's I was guessing more. Uh I think I'm not gonna pronounce his name right, but Ariz Reading. Aries Reading. It could be Ariading, very well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's orange kind of kit.
SPEAKER_12Roger, I'm just seeing the base, like your landing pad. I don't know if you're gonna be able to do it. That would be something else.
SPEAKER_04If it is Aries, that would make a lot of sense. I know that he is kind of a little bit newer to the trail scene, but he's had an outstanding year already and run really fast, especially in some of the really fast races like Big Ulta, um, that aren't really technical. So, this is one of the first races I think that I've seen him in where there's a little bit more technicality to the course. So I'm excited to see how he handles it. But it looks like he's going out with a lot of content uh and getting into this field and competing with some of the best up there with Nixon and Christian right now.
SPEAKER_14It's interesting to see how big of a gap they have on the rest of the pack already. So that really proves that they're moving fast because we got some really strong runners behind. Um, I just pulled out Aries' Instagram and at Big Alta, he was wearing the same kit he has now, which I believe is like right now. I see the live stream.
SPEAKER_15Heck yeah. Yeah, good detective work, Remy. There you go. Good detective work.
SPEAKER_12Found the kit, found a picture of the kit.
SPEAKER_04Also, really exciting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, go ahead, Rachel.
SPEAKER_04Oh, all I was just going to say, also, really exciting. Women's start isn't it so we're getting ready to send it to the street.
SPEAKER_12If I have a good solid camera for the women's, I'd be better at the same time. We're gonna get the women's start here in just a minute if you get it.
SPEAKER_02Uh as you can kind of hear a little background field noise going. But they're uh yeah, we will be we will be moving over to the women's start here as soon as we can. If you're in the chat and you're excited to see some of these women race, give them a shout out. There they are. There they are. Nice.
SPEAKER_05There we go.
SPEAKER_02All right, let's try to identify kids, people. Let's go. This is quick, fast, and fury.
SPEAKER_13I can see Amy Kohler standing there in the she's uh running kind in the in the uh running kind shirt in the uh orange directly in front of us.
SPEAKER_04Okay, yeah, yeah. Taylor TV is on your right, two from the right, Courtney's there. Courtney's on your right, or I guess Brooks kit. Uh now not the first, but yeah, Courtney's in that uh bright Brooks kit, and then uh right to the left of her. Uh, if you're looking at the screen, is Taylor.
SPEAKER_13Um Elisa as well to the right of Courtney.
SPEAKER_02Elisa is the other Brooks athlete with the long leather tank.
SPEAKER_13And just some notes on Elisa, because I don't think we covered her too much in the beginning. Like top 10 at OCC last year, I believe top 10 at worlds as well in the classic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she's an amazing runner for sure. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_14She's and she has experience on the course as well, which I think, especially for a race like this, it's just like super important. So um, and like we were saying earlier, maybe the women, there's less women that have already raced this before. So I think that's going to be really useful.
SPEAKER_02Uh Nancy Hobbes mentioning that the trail team's got that on kit, the black crop top with the little on logo. Here we go. There we go. Let's
Women’s Race Start And Early Leaders
SPEAKER_02go, ladies.
SPEAKER_13Arena, Kyla Christopher Moody as well, kind of just off to the left of the women that we expected, right?
SPEAKER_16Right there. They are off. There they go, that's exciting.
SPEAKER_02Shout out again to Brooks putting up the $30,000 prize purse today, the winner on the men's and women's side, each taking home ten thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_04Nice therm of that ski hill already. Let's see who's on the front. Uh I think that is Maya.
SPEAKER_13That might be Maya on the left. Yeah, Maya rail.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, I think Rena is in third, I think, with a blue kit. And then yeah, yeah. Or Anza now in third, Rena in fourth. Yeah. Courtney running.
SPEAKER_04Courtney, Taylor, Taylor. It didn't look like uh kind of opposite of the men's. It didn't look like there was one person that was really trying to take it out super hard and push. Um, maybe they're all pushing, but uh they're all kind of staying a little bit more together um than the men did at the start.
SPEAKER_02Here we are back to the men, men's leaders.
SPEAKER_13Still Christian and Mason with Aries.
SPEAKER_04Christian Allen, Mason Copey.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04And Mason's definitely closed that gap on Christian uh from what he had at the start of that fire road climb.
SPEAKER_14I I think this is pretty telling. I I I would believe that Christian would have definitely liked to be alone at this point. Uh but the fact that Mason is be is able to like hang on to him and Aries is like right behind, I think that's just like a really sign that you know we got some really fit people over here. Yes.
SPEAKER_13Yes, Christian Allen definitely has the ability to lead the race wire to wire. The question is, is how uncomfortable will Mason make him? And same with Ares Redding uh being right in the mix uh in in kind of those sections, uh, and what will it look like going in transitioning into that second climb.
SPEAKER_08Nice.
SPEAKER_04I love the split screen where we can see perfect the women as well. Um that's really nice. That's great. Yeah, we should be able to see the women uh coming up the top of this ski hill pretty soon while the men reach their climb. I really appreciate and like this course too because it is that two-loop course, and the second loop is a lot different from the first loop, but uh the men and women aren't running into each other, the men aren't lapping the women, the women uh started after the men, so the men aren't catching up to the women. So um yeah, they do a really great job of making sure that both fields are able to really race well and race the women are racing the women, the men are racing the men. And I think that that's really important in a national championship like this.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02So Remy and uh and Rachel, just in your experience, I guess, how like do you feel like it is it is kind of beneficial to be working like we see Christian and Mason, you know, in a in a bit of a of a grouping here or a pack? Like, is that helpful in this kind of a race for you guys to not just get separated and be out there on your own?
SPEAKER_04I think it depends on the mindset and what you were hoping was going on. I think, like Remy said, I think Christian may have been wanting to be alone at this point. So he may be getting nervous that there's somebody out there with him. And for Mason, it might be a confidence booster, knowing that he could keep up with Christian on that climb when Christian was trying to gap him. So uh it goes both ways, I think, depending on what your mindset is and what your race plan was going into the race.
SPEAKER_14Now we can see the guys just finished the climb. So now they're starting the descent. So yeah, this is Aries reading in third. Okay. Uh beginning of the descent is not super technical, but within like a couple minutes, they're gonna enter like the glade section, which is like the most technical, at least the downhill technical part of the course. Um, within a couple minutes here. But um, okay, so we got the first three runners. Seems like a pretty good gap on the side. They were already at 10 seconds. This is pretty interesting.
SPEAKER_02That is so is the glade section where we saw a number of uh people fall last year on that first three.
SPEAKER_14Okay, let's go back. There's a standard for it. So that's about a 20-second gap. That's not a lot. He I think he can make that up on the downhill very easily. Yeah, he is.
SPEAKER_04Oh, go for it, Remy.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, uh, let's just see. I think this is is that Zachary? Zachary was in a I'm not sure who that was. Another one. Okay, this is Eddie Owens. Eddie Owens, yeah, that's a dark horse that dark horse pick. He could do really well.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we hadn't mentioned him before, but he has raced uh this horse before. Um, and he is a great trail runner as well. Um, he so yeah, he could be in this race, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's in that top five, or if he's been pacing himself well, um, and other people have been going out a little too hard. We could see him moving up even more.
SPEAKER_13A little shaky, hard to identify that that first runner.
SPEAKER_14I can see I'm I believe in second there. Uh first runner I'm not sure who that is. I believe that's the trail team game. Is that correct? It is the trail team kit. It could be Maya Rail.
SPEAKER_13Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah. I know it's Maya.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, background on Maya second place at the Rut 28K in 2025. Uh top five finished as well at the Circ Series Grant Target race last year in 2025. This past year, I believe she was top five as well at the Gorge Waterfalls uh 30k. Is Nick thank you, Nick Cornell. Shout out to Nick Cornell in our chat. Uh that is indeed Maya.
SPEAKER_08Sweet. Already a pretty good gap on uh the rest of it if you don't get that is true, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I guess we're kind of seeing uh similar to the men's race with Christian Allen and Mason a gap forming. Um so yeah, we'll see on this fire road section if it's kind of like the men's, and there's some other women that uh come up to close the gap on them.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, I think Aza is gonna be really hungry for a good race here. She's been injured for a lot of the spring, a lot of the winter, but she's been like super consistent with just spiking a lot, trying to be as fit as possible, just like continuing with cross-training. So I think just like yeah, just like when you miss a lot of those experiences, it just makes you so much hungrier when you're back to racing. So I think she must be super happy to be racing out here today and really hungry to race well.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's great. I love hearing those stories from athletes and just uh, you know, you see a lot of the wins and athletes on podiums, but I think everyone, the reality of the sport is that everybody has had setbacks and everyone goes through injuries, everyone goes through times when training maybe isn't clicking. And so it's really, really cool to see uh how athletes handle that and come back even stronger a lot of the times.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Sometimes that's the most exciting race is the race back, the first race back when you're like, my body works and everything's going, and I'm so excited and I'm so excited to be racing. Yeah, sometimes that's yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, and Maya is is hammering, absolute hammering. I mean, in it training, I I believe she trains as well with Jennifer Lichner and uh McKenna Morley, both absolute insane athletes. Um, so would not be surprised to see Maya have an amazing day today.
SPEAKER_02Shout out to Liam Aceation Fireball in the chat too.
SPEAKER_15Great to see you, Liam.
SPEAKER_04Do we know um anything happening in the men's race? I'm wondering. I think um, or do we have eyes on that? I think that they're probably getting close to the end of that downhill section.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, transitioning off to that second loop. As far as the start-finish camera on this on that should be you guys be on your guys' lower right, you should be able to see it. And there's doesn't look like there's any action right now.
SPEAKER_02Only seeing myself.
SPEAKER_13Oh, shout out eight station fireball. Maya noted run so the runner's edge treadmill challenge. If you guys are not familiar with this, uh she's a uh finalist in that. Absolute test right there.
SPEAKER_04Which um is great to know. Uh the treadmill is definitely really fast. So it makes sense that she is crushing this climb that is not tactical and very, very quick. Um, that definitely suits a runner like her.
SPEAKER_13All right, and the feedback we're getting is the camera is off on the downhill. So we're just waiting for that to either come back online.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, I was pretty, pretty excited to see my boy Dan pretty close behind in fourth place. He told me yesterday on the phone he was like, I think if I can have a gap less than three minutes on the first at the end of the first lap, he was kind of saying that he would be confident to like make up so much time on that second climb. So I'm pretty I'm pretty excited to see what's going to happen on that second lap. I think so much can change.
SPEAKER_13Remy, can you talk a little bit about his um so Dan recently transitioned coaches to start working with Jack Kenzel and a large emphasis of his offseason? Uh, a lot of it was to work on different aspects of his climbing game. And I feel like When we see that, that will probably become come through in the second lap.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, I think for sure. And I think he was a bit worried before the race just because like there's been a lot of like unorthodox training, I would say, with like uh you know, with his new coach Jack. And I think it's the kind of training where it's really difficult to like gauge where your fitness is at. If you do like traditional training, like you know, some some thresholds, like some uphill threshold or some mile repeats like on the track or whatever, like you have a pretty good idea of like where your fitness is at. But since Dan has done like so much, like you know, he's done like some some some weighted training, he's done like a ton of like stairmaster workouts, stuff like that. Those workouts are like really difficult to like make you realize where your fitness is at. So I think he was a bit nervous coming into this race because he was kind of telling himself, like, I don't really know how fit I am, to be honest. Um so but yeah, I I think you know, seeing him not so far back at the end of that first climb, I think is really telling and definitely like a really good sign for the rest of the race. Um and you know, like I've run a ton with Dan, and he's he's by far the best technical runner I've ever run with. Like, I I I went to he's kind of like up there in in the main these days, where he trains like on Mount Mount Desert Island, is just like the most technical trails I've ever seen in my life. Like I've had to walk like every single downhill, and he's just like he's flying down them like sub-eight-minute mile pace with like no problem. Um, so yeah, I think especially like that second climb, even though it's a climb, just because of like his technical abilities, if then can enter that climb with like a fresh mind and like relatively fresh legs, I think he can really make a ton of time there. So I'm really looking forward to that. I think his his biggest kind of uh mindset was just like to be really positive with himself. So I think I think he was pretty disappointed last year, kind of like gave up on that second climb mentally. Um, but I think this year he just like really wants to focus on being positive, staying in it mentally until both like throughout the entire race.
SPEAKER_13So I think leading right now. Uh he just cr he just passed Christian and uh Mason. Oh my god, I don't know if I'm trying to move this to I think I can move yeah, you can see so yeah, Dan just came through Dan Kurtz in first place, just past Mason and Christian
Midrace Tactics On Technical Climb
SPEAKER_13uh with Aries in fourth. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So then it's gonna be so interesting as they start to climb again. Is it gonna go back, you know, because obviously Dan's strength is the downhill.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, I mean, I I I really am very curious to see where he's at on that climb because it it's it like to Remy's point. Um, that is was a huge emphasis of what he worked on uh this past year.
SPEAKER_14I think I know. Let me check.
SPEAKER_13Can anyone tell that bib number is a 2434? It's hard to say.
SPEAKER_14Um I think this is Darius Parker. Darius Parker. I'm fairly certain this is him. He actually he went, he did uh the Mount Mansfield VK FKT. He beat my FK FKT by like five minutes of last week.
SPEAKER_04Ooh, out of Vermont.
SPEAKER_14Okay, this is Eddie Owens.
SPEAKER_04And then this is Eddie, yeah, coming up.
SPEAKER_02Gotta say, Darius looked pretty controlled.
SPEAKER_13Very, very, very calm.
SPEAKER_14Okay, this is Alice Ricard. I think we're in seventh now, if I'm not mistaken.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think you're right, Remy.
SPEAKER_14And then Zachary Ericsson, I believe, in the black.
SPEAKER_02And again, this is the end of the first loop. They're gonna start in the second loop, which is about a mile longer. Right after this.
SPEAKER_04It's longer mileage-wise, and it's going to take a little bit longer just because it is a more technical climb. And uh, so yeah, you just spend a lot more time climbing on this one and technical trails at the top too when it kind of flattens out for a little bit. So definitely a longer loop on this next loop, both time-wise and mileage-wise, too.
SPEAKER_08This is not Zachary Erikson. No.
SPEAKER_04Lars Hose and Nines, okay.
SPEAKER_05Nice. Nice great images.
SPEAKER_14Okay, this is I think this is Dylan. Uh yeah. Yeah, Dylan Flowing. Flewling. Finish.
SPEAKER_13And then Danny Cosgrove in 10th, I believe. That was Bib 50 58. Yes, 58.
SPEAKER_02All right, we're back.
SPEAKER_04Are we back on the women in this climb? Yeah, back on the women. Um, Maya is so cruising up.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02We can see the chase pack uh not too far behind her. There is there is a gap, but I see two looks like two women, unless those are oh those are guys, but man, Maya is making a statement.
SPEAKER_13Maya is hammering.
SPEAKER_14I believe we can see Isa in the background with the white cap. It seems like a fairly decent gap, but she's still relative, like she's still in contact.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think you're right. Those uh Brooks kids are really easy to spot. Um, they're so bright, and I I think that that was her. Yeah, and I think that's um one more woman behind her kind of closing the gap. I think that's Elisa.
SPEAKER_13Trying to see if we have any more cameras for other sections of that technical climb in the men's race. So people could see that. I don't think we do.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think a lot of moves could be made on that section. And I think that section's interesting too because you don't know how far behind somebody you are. So kind of like Remy was saying, mentally um, you need to stay in it on that section. I think that's so important because you don't know if you're really, really close to somebody. And if you just push a little bit more, you could catch them or um you're farther behind. But I think just being able to have a strong mindset on that section is so, so important in this race because someone could be just five seconds ahead of you and you're not able to see because there's so many trees in the way and twists and turns up in that section.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, and it's really easy to like feel super slow on those sections because you're walking a lot, like you don't feel fast compared to like this section here, like you kind of feel efficient going uphill, but on that technical trail, you're just like, yeah, you just don't feel efficient at all. You just feel pretty slow. So I think, yeah, you're right. The mindset, positive mindset is just like super important there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's just uh such a drastic shift in pace from the first lap. So you can really convince yourself that you're not doing well anymore, even if you are climbing pretty well in that section.
SPEAKER_14Yeah. Okay, I think we should be approaching the top of the climb for the woman here. Weather is looking so nice. Yeah, it's a beautiful day.
SPEAKER_04This is uh the best weather that I've seen for Son of P run. I was gonna say snow and rain and mud. So yeah.
SPEAKER_13I was hoping for Carnage. I was hoping it was gonna be a muddy, disgusting, kind of just fun northeast day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Quick shout out again to the trail team and Andy Wacker, who also threw down himself in the race last year. But you know, they have a big contingent showing up this year for this race, and right now they're they're looking strong.
SPEAKER_13Maya still in the commanding. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Last year's winner, Anna Gibson. I mean, previous trail team athlete. It's it's pretty incredible. The the athletes that have come out of that team.
SPEAKER_13Just more notes on Maya Rail, who is in the lead right now that you guys are looking at. Uh D1 athlete ran for Harvard and also ran for Wisconsin. Uh, absolutely killing it right now. Just gonna see some of these sections. What's going on in that climb? We gotta know.
SPEAKER_14It's interesting because like this uphill looks so looks almost flat on the camera. It's not fair. The whole first climb on average is 13% great. That's like, you know, for people who have run like let's say Mount Washington Road race, like this is steeper than that. Um so yeah, like this is this, this is definitely uh it's not doing it justice on the camera. Yeah, exactly. But they're running so well up it. Um and you know, we you got some pitches in there, like it looks like pretty stable, like pretty much like uh you know, smooth the entire time, but there's definitely like a bit of you know, some little pitches that are steeper, sometimes less steep, and that sometimes can be like a bit harder on you because you like always have to like switch momentum a bit. Um but yeah, this is I think okay, so here we go. I think Maya is approaching the final kind of like steeper part of that climb.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and you'll see some of the women that are really, really efficient power hikers may start hiking up those steep pitches, and sometimes they're hiking faster than runners that uh kind of stay in that running motion. So it's interesting to see who is really, really efficient on the uphills. And just because you're running still doesn't necessarily mean that you're going faster than somebody is power hiking if they have really good skills with the power hikes.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, exactly. If you're really good at making those transitions, like sometimes like even if you can just walk for 10 steps, like it's worth it, and then you retransition to running afterwards. Sometimes that transition is what people struggle with. But if you're used to it in practice, then it's like I think yeah, it should totally take advantage of take advantage of that.
SPEAKER_02Whatever is the most efficient at the at the moment for that grade and conserving the energy, right?
SPEAKER_04True. Yeah, I think this marks the top of that climb. So Maya's over the top, I think, and about to start on that descent.
SPEAKER_02This is gonna be so fascinating to see if anyone bridges any of that gap on the descent. Because she is created again.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, she definitely has. Okay, let's see.
SPEAKER_14Uh in a second.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_14That's not a big gap. That's maybe like 10 seconds or something. Oh, stopping for a bit of refreshment.
SPEAKER_04Grabbing some water.
SPEAKER_14Nice.
SPEAKER_02I wonder if that means that it's warm, that it feels warm. We've seen a couple people stopping to grab some water.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I was saying last year um there were some women that decided to bring along water with them or uh nutrition, because this is kind of one of those races that's right in between where uh maybe some nutrition could help you out on a race like this, uh, and just get some more few. That's Taylor. Yeah, that was Taylor.
SPEAKER_08Sweet. So that was so we have Maya Rail.
SPEAKER_02Who is second?
SPEAKER_14Uh it is Elisa second.
SPEAKER_02Elisa what?
SPEAKER_14Uh Morin Morin. M-O-R-I-N. And then Taylor in third. And then Taylor Turtle PV. I think this is Courtney.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, there's Courtney.
SPEAKER_14Okay, Courtney.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Rena.
SPEAKER_14Followed by Rena. Yep.
SPEAKER_02Courtney, Rena. They're all right there together.
SPEAKER_14This is good. Oh, let's go. Nice clip of the descent from Elisa right there.
SPEAKER_02Is there anyone you guys think has an advantage in this downhill? From you know so much about these athletes. Who who is a bomber downhiller?
SPEAKER_13Courtney has it. Courtney is a very fascinating.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Courtney's amazing at the downhills. And just from talking with her, I know that she kind of wanted to hold back on that first climb and just be really, really careful and not go out too hard, really run within herself. So I think uh she's an athlete who has a lot of experience racing um on the world stage and racing in some pretty competitive fields. And so I think that she kind of is able to read herself and know uh what she needs to do on climbs and uh kind of how to approach a course like this.
SPEAKER_13For sure. Very strong mindset. And that's the thing, you don't beat mod Mathies uh not being very complete on both ends of your ascending and descending game. So strong.
SPEAKER_02I mean, 14th in the world, right in the classic.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, and like that classic course was also a two-lap up down, so up down, up down, which is pretty similar to here. So she knows how to like pace herself on a first downhill, knowing that you have like a second climb coming up.
SPEAKER_02And I heard her talking about that in the pod with you, James, about just you know, really, really specific working with Coach Matt Daniels on really specific training of going back and forth between climb descent, climb descent, hard, hard. Like the the training hopefully is is also there to to play out in a big way on that second.
SPEAKER_13There's there's Oakley Olsen just rounding the top.
SPEAKER_02All right.
SPEAKER_13And followed by Jamie Brusa, who just followed her. Nothing's like another trail team kit. That could have been Abby Stone. It's hard to say. Could have been Kyla Christopher Moody as well.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, right behind Courtney too. I wanted to mention Rena is right there, and she finished right behind Courtney last year in Cenepie. So she's pretty familiar with racing with Courtney and kind of Court's racing tactics. And so I think that she's also probably running a really smart race, just sticking right on Courtney's heel, following her line down the mountain and uh pacing yourself probably pretty well.
SPEAKER_02That's such a great point. I mean, I think that it there's something to be said for knowing like how you stack up against a certain individual and like you know they're gonna race smart. And so why not kind of just bolt onto them and work together? And like, I think that's a that's a really good, interesting and smart point there um on Courtney and Rena.
SPEAKER_13And Rena made it a point to talk about how this race for her was a lot about learning, learning more how to race and improving at that. Rina, you gotta remember too, last year's uh Mount Washington road race champion. Um I believe, I think she won sort of was very close to the front at Circ Series A Basin. So she's very good at the classic as well. Incredible climber. So Rina has all the tools. She got fifth here last year, also.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_13Yes, yes, knows the course.
SPEAKER_02Both these ladies know the course, Courtney and Rena. Did they train together at all? Do you guys know? Because they're both in Boulder.
SPEAKER_04They are in Boulder. Um, I know uh they're friends, they know each other. Um, I want I don't know if they do many workouts together. Um, Rina is also uh in school as well, so I think that she switches a little from being in Boulder to being out on the East Coast, and I think that she's out on the East Coast right now.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, that is correct, correct. Yeah, she just relocated back to uh Massachusetts.
SPEAKER_02Well, there you go with the specificity, right?
SPEAKER_04She's been on Beast Coast Trails. True. Training. I also want to mention uh Casey Inman was in fifth at the top of that climb, not that far behind Courtney and Rena. Um, she's an amazing, amazing runner. Uh, she's 46 right now, um, but she has won worlds before. Uh, she's she was a world champion in 2011 and 2017. So um she's still sticking with some of those top women, and it is amazing to see. Um I know that she's somebody who's really, really brought up the sport, and she's somebody that a lot of the women in this field look up to as well.
SPEAKER_02Talk about the longevity too. I mean, staying healthy for that long is amazing. Who knows? Yeah, hiccups, but just to be continuing to race, that's so awesome.
SPEAKER_13One more stat on Arena as well. Uh, as someone just dropped in the chat is Arena has won uh the Loon Mountain race, and she won it at age 19. So Arena, yeah, Arena's a boss.
SPEAKER_02Jumped right into those trails.
SPEAKER_14Okay, I think we're this camera is at the end of the downhill.
SPEAKER_02Okay, coming off the coming up. There, okay, exciting. Thank you for the visuals. Who's it gonna be, guys? Who's it gonna be?
SPEAKER_14Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see if Maya is gonna be able to keep her lead. I'm interested to see like that, you know, that pack of three of like Courtney, Rena, and Casey working together, if they're gonna be able to like catch up some time on the first two one. Um, I think like working together on the descent can definitely help, especially for like that technical section of like if someone knows like the correct line to take, um, I think that might help them out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there's not exactly a super defined trail. She had such a big lead. So if they're closing in on her at all, uh, I think that the second lap uh people definitely have a chance to really close it even more and maybe get ahead of her as well.
SPEAKER_14Yeah.
SPEAKER_02As soon as we get info on the men's race, we will try to update you all. We're trying to get some potential camera shots and and updates on what's going on on that side, also.
SPEAKER_13Shout out, shout out to David Roche in our chat. He's got he's got the stats here. Arena top three on Green Mountain in Boulder last week. Crazy.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's a really popular uh climb in Boulder that a lot of people do. A lot of people will just do Green Mountain loops where they're looping Green Mountain, and that's kind of the training ground. So uh really, really impressive with as big of an elite running community that there is in Boulder that she's able to crack the top three on that climb.
SPEAKER_05Insane.
SPEAKER_02There's just been a few amazing people who have run green in Boulder.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, just a couple of those just a few, just a few.
SPEAKER_04Uh David, in the chat, do you know the top two women on that climb in Boulder?
SPEAKER_13Oh, Eric La Puma.
SPEAKER_08Shout out to Eric Lapuma in the chat as well.
SPEAKER_02So we've got eyes on the this is still the bottom of the descent, right? Yes, waiting for our lead ladies coming down. How far is it from the end bottom of this descent back to the start-finish?
SPEAKER_04Not too far. Uh you don't really have that many flat sections in this race. So uh yeah, once we see them, it should be pretty quick to loop to that start. Okay. 200 winners.
SPEAKER_13Guys, what do you think? Do you think the women like do you think the women will finish somewhere around 125?
SPEAKER_02Somewhere one we got a point pointed finger. Somebody's coming.
SPEAKER_13Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So winning time last year.
SPEAKER_13122 30 was honest now. Followed very close by Lauren Gregory.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I think that you gotta you gotta think it could be at risk considering the conditions being bit a bit better this year.
SPEAKER_05It's very true.
SPEAKER_02It might just come down to whether or not there's a a race in the very front. You know, does somebody okay?
SPEAKER_14Here we go. So this is uh Maya still in Maya still in the lead right now. Oh, this is a great camera angle. Yeah, it's really gonna be. Interesting to see how that second climb is gonna be because we know now that she's really good at like that not super technical stuff, but it's gonna be like really interesting to see how it's gonna pan out, like in the really technical uphill.
SPEAKER_16Yeah, she and I think I see a Lisa, yeah.
SPEAKER_14It is in the background with the white cap. Not a big gap, maybe I I'd say like 10 seconds, which is nothing really.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I would say she definitely closed a little bit on her.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So Maya was carrying hydration, she just tucked it back in her in her waistbelt, so she's got a bottle on her.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, she's looking really strong coming through the start-finish area. In about 34 minutes, I think. Somewhere around there.
SPEAKER_13Alright, so Lisa and followed by Taylor, you could see another two or three seconds back, very close.
SPEAKER_04And I see Courtney in that uh bright Brooks kit right after Taylor as well. What a race.
SPEAKER_02Looks like about even kind of gapping, like you know, five to ten seconds between these top four women. That's really interesting. They're not running together.
SPEAKER_13And there's there's Rena, like with an eyeshot as well. Yeah, so Rena made the pass on Courtney on that descent then.
SPEAKER_04She did, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Interesting. Okay. This is so cool. So is Courtney just saving, saving some gas for that second loop?
SPEAKER_08Oh, and that would be Casey right behind her.
SPEAKER_04Yep, there's Casey.
SPEAKER_13Wow, Casey, 46 years old to be in the mix here. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_04That is amazing. Yeah. She's such a strong runner. I've raced her a couple times at Sunape. And um, back to what you were talking about, if runners help each other out on uh the races, I do think that we helped each other out. I kind of followed her up some of the ascents and she followed me down some of the descents. And uh we both made the US team that year. So yeah, she's someone that's really fun to race with, and it was so fun to work together with her in that group. But um yeah, always, always cheering for her.
SPEAKER_02That's such a like beautiful part of the sport that you can like, you're like, you're bet you know, you know, you're better at this at this climbing. So I'm gonna just I'm just gonna bolt on and then and then like I'll have you chase me on the descent. If it, you know, just using each other's strengths, it's it's really, I think it's important.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. And we were, I think we were three and four in that race, and uh the top four made the US team. So it's kind of like, okay, come on, stick with you.
SPEAKER_02Let's secure those last two spots. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, it was a really cool race. Okay, so how far is it before it be gets into that technical on the second loop?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it really starts off on that same climb on that ski hill, and then um part of the fire road as well. Basically, uh after that downhill, that short downhill section on the fire road, you would get into the techie climb. So um you can run a little mile. It's about a mile, they're safe. Yeah, probably.
SPEAKER_14Oh, we've got some clips here. There we go. I think this is in the technical section.
SPEAKER_02This is the solitude trail.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I wonder if this is the end of that section when the men will um get out back onto the fire road at the very end. I'm not sure. It's either that or the very beginning section of it.
SPEAKER_14If it is, it should be relatively soon for the top men. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_04I'm hoping that this is the top of it so we can see what uh you're getting confirmation. It's correct.
SPEAKER_13Rage is this is we'll have about 20 minutes before the men's race is decided somewhere in that range.
SPEAKER_12Hey guys, we're at the end of the technical section at the top.
SPEAKER_02So waiting for the technical section, waiting for the men back to the men, seeing who's gonna pop out here in the lead. We don't think we don't know what's been going on on that second climb. I don't know. Who's got predictions? I I think Mason's in the front.
SPEAKER_04I was yeah, I think Mason as well. I think he was doing so well on that first climb. Uh, and I think he does a really good job in races of pacing himself. So um, yeah, I'm I'm guessing him, but I'm gonna go.
SPEAKER_14I'm gonna put my money on Dan. I think the way he was talking, he was like really expecting not to be leading after your first lap. He was really like planning to be conservative. Um, so to see him leading is just for me a sign that he's feeling great. So, and especially like this climb, these technical trials, like that's that's his thing. So I I I I would put my money on Dan here.
SPEAKER_02Okay, or I do think this is Allen could be Aries ready reading.
SPEAKER_13We yeah, it's gonna be such a close race either way.
SPEAKER_02I mean, you guys, last year, second and third, Mason and who was third last year at Taylor. Taylor stack Taylor were three seconds apart at the across the line.
SPEAKER_13And Taylor was in lead of that race at one point in time, and Mason put a move on him on that climb. Uh, and then David Norris just ran through the rest of the field. So the race, the race was decided kind of right there, which is crazy.
SPEAKER_14It was it was I remember Taylor afterwards was kind of frustrated a bit. Like, obviously, he had like run a super good race and qualified for worlds because of it, but he was a bit disappointed because in that last downhill, he started having like foggy eyes and like couldn't see well. So, because of that, like he couldn't really run as fast as he would have wanted to. Um, so hopefully none of the runners uh none of that happens to any of the runners out there today. But um, yeah, I think especially like when you're so focused on like technical trails, sometimes that's a kind of thing that can happen. Um but yeah.
SPEAKER_02Or if it's super windy, I think it was really windy last year, and it's like, you know, I don't know, eyewear is is kind of it's crazy because sometimes you don't want to wear it because you can't see the shadows, but then like super important for the protective aspect, you know. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, and sometimes just like the sweat, like when the sweat goes into your eyes, that's definitely something that that can affect that as well. Um, and maybe just the fatigue, also, just like the fatigue of just like always having your eyes like so super focused on the trail in front of you.
SPEAKER_13It's definitely something because Tyler McCannless actually had the same issue at the same race. So I it's uh last year and and talked about the same thing. So yeah, I don't it's very interesting that um that has brought been brought up multiple times.
SPEAKER_02I think a lot of things can contribute, right? Have you had LASIKs eye? You know, surgery is like just how sensitive your eyes are, like do they dry out? It's just yeah, but important that you can see what you're looking at. Okay, someone's at the White Cliff Overlook. I think hopefully we'll try to have two yeah, two cameras maybe at some point because we do um, team radio, try want to show as much as we can of both races. So I think if we if we have visuals on that climb on the technical, we'll certainly bring it to you guys.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think the tough part of having cameras on this technical section, we've kind of seen some ATVs or um vehicles going uphill with the athletes on that fire road. On technical sections, the cameramen have to be just as fit or more fit going up and down those trails and so and carrying heavy equipment too. So you really have to have some fit cameramen to be in technical sections uh with runners.
SPEAKER_02So basically, if you're in New Hampshire, volunteer to be a runner follow cam for next year, so that people are just too fast.
SPEAKER_13Haley Heinrich is in the chat saying the first male is there. Haley, were you able to identify this first runner? What kit, what color could you do? I have a feeling Haley knows what Dan looks like. Um, it's hard to say.
SPEAKER_02And and that they had a good lead. Oh, suspense is killing me. Haley, we didn't get visuals. Who was it? Who was it?
SPEAKER_15Everyone wants to know.
SPEAKER_13Pressure's on Haley Heiner.
SPEAKER_15Oh, we're trying to give clues. I don't know his name.
SPEAKER_04White or black shirt. Oh, if you know the kit, she's been brown hair. Okay, maybe Hayley.
SPEAKER_15Did they have a mullet?
SPEAKER_04Mason.
SPEAKER_15Were they wearing a hat?
SPEAKER_04I'm I'm gonna guess Mason's uh brown hair.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, Jam was looking strong at fourth, keeping the inside of the oh, that was through the glades. That was through the glades.
SPEAKER_02Okay, okay, Ram is third, Haley. We're thinking maybe Mason, guys.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, I would guess that's Mason. Well, and that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02Christian was it a black? Because Mason's in a vibram kit. So was it a black with a like a oh mullet in second? There we go. Christian Allen in second.
SPEAKER_04I'm guessing Mason, Christian, and then Dan. And Dan definitely the names of people's dogs gap on that first downhill. So Dan is third. He was in striking distance, he could close it again.
SPEAKER_02Mason, Kobe, Mason, Mullet, Dan, Christian, yep, and then Dan, Christian, Christian Allen, and then Dan Kurtz. Okay, but from our intel on the ground, right? Mason has a bit of a gap, a decent side. I don't know what decent is. Decent lead. Um, and then Orange Tank. That that was Aries, right? Yeah, it was Aries. Okay, perfect. So shakeups have occurred. Mason Copy, Christian Allen, Dan Kurtz, Aries Redding. Now the you're doing great, Haley. You're doing fantastic.
SPEAKER_13No, she's yeah, she's doing amazing. Thank you, Haley.
SPEAKER_02Haley is a queen.
SPEAKER_13Our our on course correspondent there.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_14It is interesting though, because we we saw like on the first downhill, Dan being able to like rejoin all the first like two runners that were or three runners that were in front of him, uh, within that pretty short descent. So this isn't the end of the race. This is not the end of the race. I think I agree with Eric in the chat here that's saying like if Dan is anywhere close on the top, he's winning. I think if we expect something similar to that first descent, I think that's something we might be seeing again.
SPEAKER_13I mean, Dan was talking about um, you know, I had him on the on the show, we were doing the pre-race interview, and after the fact, we were talking about some of his training, and he and he was talking about this area called Wildcat, which is a ski resort uh across from um Mount Washington. And if you know that ski road, it's like boulders. It's it's it's so hard to run fast down. And Dan's clipping like 430 miles down it. So he is arguably one of the best downhill runners on planet Earth. So 100%. If if he's even close to keeping in contact with them, he has a great shot at being able to take the win.
SPEAKER_14He he ran the Defi de Coulard uh two years ago in 2024, and on that downhill, he ran two miles at four minutes per mile pace. So fast. He's not missing around that.
SPEAKER_13No, I think last year at Star Series Killington. Oh, yeah, I think he went sub-14 in the 5k there.
SPEAKER_14Oh no, that like like sub three, like low.
SPEAKER_13Might have been sub 13.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, it was no not sub-13. Here we go, here we go. Oh, here we go. Mason. Yeah, it's Mason. Oh nice.
SPEAKER_04Yep, there's Mason.
SPEAKER_14Oh, he's looking strong.
SPEAKER_02He is looking really strong. Oh, we got him on the left. Uh, you got him got him on the other camera now, too.
SPEAKER_14So now he has like a pretty steep, like he's back on like the fire road from like the the first climb. Um, and now he has a bit of a climb before starting the descent. He's wearing the Cascadia Elites. Let's go.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and that is a pretty steep pitch that you're running up once you get out of that trail, and you're kind of transitioning from this flatter, more technical section up to another steep pitch right before you hit that downhill. So um important to have a good transition out of the single track.
unknownYeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_13Mason just can't be shared either, in the sense where like the mentally, yeah.
SPEAKER_14Oh, second place. Oh, yeah, there's a 40-second gap.
SPEAKER_04Christian Allen. And I will say too, Mason uh does not have bad downhills. So I think if someone's gonna crush him on the downhill, they need to get here quickly because he does have good downhills.
SPEAKER_14So 10 seconds. Yeah, Mason 40 seconds on Christian and then 15 seconds behind Dan. Okay, so all within a minute. So nothing, nothing is played here.
SPEAKER_02How much more climbing does Mason have here before he starts? Not much.
SPEAKER_04That marks kind of the top of the climb. Okay, okay. Yeah, so that's it. That's it. Here we go.
SPEAKER_16Here we go.
SPEAKER_14Oh, this is exciting. Yeah, I can the green ball okay. 10k on the line for first place here. This is huge for these athletes. Absolutely. That's enough. Second and third place, yeah. Second and third place, still get uh you know a good chunk of money still, like you know, I think it's 3k for second place, two and a half.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, three and two K.
SPEAKER_14But there's definitely a big gap between like first place and second place, so there's a lot to on the line, just like get the get the W here.
SPEAKER_13Remy, how far how long is title? Here comes Aries Redding. Remy, how far is that descent to the finish? Around course record-wise?
SPEAKER_14I I think we're talking about like, if I remember well, the descent in total is like eight or like seven or eight minutes. Let me check that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, maybe a mile and a half-ish, something like that.
SPEAKER_02I think they were, I think it's like, yeah, less than it's gonna be definitely like less than less than 10 minutes. So it's 8.02 right now, so we got eight minutes to last year's winning time.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, the CR of that descent is from Morgan Elliott in 2023. Uh 725. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah. 725. They have dropped.
SPEAKER_04So the top four men have uh gotten out of that single chat so far.
SPEAKER_02I like uh Abby's uh comment hat coming off. That's when you know we're hucking it. Yeah. Take the hat off.
SPEAKER_13Dog on course. Wow, that's Christian.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_02So dang, he uh he I wonder where he pulled ahead. That's I mean it's it had to be on the maybe on that technical climb.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, probably that techie section.
SPEAKER_02Um got someone in sim 600 meters from the finish.
SPEAKER_14Oh wow. Yeah, that's they're running fast then because last year's winning time was 109. 109 high.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be very close. We're definitely on potential course record watch.
SPEAKER_02The prize versus uh what's the first one? Dan.
SPEAKER_13All right, Dan's close.
SPEAKER_02They get a national title, they get 10,000 to the winner, 3,000 to second, second, 2,000 to 3rd, and then if they are a collegiate, if they're enrolled in a one class, they are considered collegiate as well, which is awesome. And they can tap into the collegiate purse, which is 3k total.
SPEAKER_05Correct.
SPEAKER_04Yes, and the top four Americans also make a US team, so uh that's pretty special as well.
SPEAKER_13So either way, we're sending great teams.
SPEAKER_02So holy yeah, yeah, to race in uh in Quebec in October at the pronounce it again, Remy Deffy.
SPEAKER_14Diffie des coulard Diffie des Coulard.
SPEAKER_02Diffie des coulards. Speak Spanish, not French, but I'll have it down by the end of the summer.
SPEAKER_14I think we should be expecting Mason to like any minute now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think so. Uh this will be I think kind of when they're getting out of the glades.
SPEAKER_02I think safe to say the conditions are are better. We didn't see I didn't see one person fall.
SPEAKER_05Is that Mason?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're uh nope. We're waiting for the waiting for lead man coming through here.
SPEAKER_14I think it's it seems like Mason had a pretty good gap on the two others. What I'm really interested to see is the battle for second place between Christian and Dan. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_04I think you know Dan has such good downhills, and he wasn't that uh far behind Christian that I wouldn't be surprised if he uh takes second. I think it would be a little hard for him to catch Mason right now with the gap that Mason had, but uh his his downhills are incredible, so uh yeah, we'll see.
SPEAKER_14But what what like Mason is so freaking fit right now, it's incredible. Juan Gordon's oh, we see Eddie Owens also coming through in the woods here. Um nice. But yeah, Mason has been on a tear, like I'm just so glad.
SPEAKER_02Similar to Courtney Carpenter 14th at Worlds last year.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, this is Spence is killing me here.
SPEAKER_02And again, yeah, second last year at Centipede, back here trying to secure the victory this year.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, this would be great for Mason's resume.
SPEAKER_02That means people are sending it. Waiting for your race leader.
SPEAKER_07We got audio? All right.
SPEAKER_02For a second we had audio. Someone was bumping there. Nice. Yeah, it looks like a really good way.
SPEAKER_13I'd love to see if we can get some eyes on Kristen and Dan and see what happens.
SPEAKER_14Okay, nice. We've got a great visual of the finish line here. Yeah, that's awesome. Perfect. I'm really expecting them to be here any minute now. Last year's course record was 1095. And now we're out of two minutes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I do think this course uh lends itself to some past times this year. This was um how and what it was last year. I think that people were a little bit more on the course this year.
SPEAKER_02Last year Mason ran ninth mile and 440 and closed the last 0.14 and 457. I mean, doing a 440 mile with 900 feet of extending is um insane.
SPEAKER_14Okay, we got a finger together.
SPEAKER_02Oh, we got a finger. Yes.
SPEAKER_07Alright, yeah, it's amazing. Looking at his watch.
SPEAKER_05Very close to the course record.
SPEAKER_02Dang. Look at this one. Oh, hat back on. Very good for the grabbing.
SPEAKER_14Awesome race by Mason. Yeah, I'm basically absolutely.
Men’s Finish And Team USA Spots
SPEAKER_15All outside. Sorry, let's go. Oh, perfect.
SPEAKER_13Uh I'm seeing I'm seeing Dan and second very close to that. Oh, basic copy. 2026, not 2050. Let's go, mate. Wow. What the maybe the course record? It's very hard to tell.
SPEAKER_02Again, tab four will go to recommend. The MRA World Cup final in October.
SPEAKER_13$10,000 prize. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_06Alright, looks like we've got excellent.
SPEAKER_14Oh, let's go. Damn, there we go. You know, that has a like the rough winter's coming back from a pretty big surgery to the next.
SPEAKER_02He's had a lot of stuff back this year, but also a huge huge improvement from one uh place last year. Yeah, it's an in for strong second place here.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, amazing.
SPEAKER_05Let's go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I foul, guys.
SPEAKER_14Amazing race by Christian. Christian wasn't able to finish the race last year. But you know, he held his own. Like I'm really impressed by how we're able to run that second last year on the technical trials, which are not his kind of trials, but yeah, I was gonna say this is kind of not his course.
SPEAKER_13Like had this been more mountain blasts, I wonder it would be maybe a different story. So yeah, hats off to Christian.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, you're right. Coming back from a 50k only a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_06Traveling internationally. Yeah, we I agree, Rochelle.
SPEAKER_02We're just watching that. Yeah, you can tell. Aries is still in force. Hanging on their nice. Great, great. That could be our four men repping USA team USA.
SPEAKER_14I believe Darius Parker was also pretty close to Aries in uh fifth place, I believe. So that might be interesting to see who's gonna get that fourth spot on that US team.
SPEAKER_02We're still racing for something here.
SPEAKER_13Oh, there's Tom Hooper on the camp. I think that's tough.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Setting up at Brooks, shout out to Brooks for providing the massive price first day. Lots of Brooks athletes in the race. Shout out to Morton. Delta Dentro.
SPEAKER_04Uh in the chat. I don't think uh Mika lined up as well.
SPEAKER_05Mika did not start.
SPEAKER_06Very strong rate from Mary.
SPEAKER_13Very very tolerated for Mary. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02He knows he made the team.
SPEAKER_14He's had a great season, you know, winning big outfits in the AK earlier.
SPEAKER_07That's a future.
SPEAKER_14Really big as outfits.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, really fun at the end of this season.
SPEAKER_13There's our men's team. Amazing.
SPEAKER_15Mason Kobe Dan Christian Allen and Aries Redding. That is a strong team. Remy, who are you most afraid to raise Deathie out of those four?
SPEAKER_14I think I mean I mean Mason. Mason is just like so good at everything. Oh yeah. Really great results for him as well. If I'm not mistaken. Darius. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Darius V, he works full-time on a farm in Vermont.
SPEAKER_02Amazing race.
SPEAKER_07Darius marker.
SPEAKER_04Oh, also from the chat, Darius is in college.
SPEAKER_15So too maybe our winner. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02Is that is that six place?
SPEAKER_14Darius was six place.
SPEAKER_02Is it just cross or is that a hyperbole? Is that hyperbole rate happen?
SPEAKER_13190 uh bit 190 would have been Benjamin Otis.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah, Benjamin Otis. 119 and 7.
SPEAKER_04Lars Owen, I think, in seventh place.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Now for the women.
SPEAKER_13Alright, so. Never mind.
SPEAKER_02Go ahead, Remy. Sorry.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, to answer your question from earlier, who am I most afraid of of racing? Um, honestly, it seems like all four of those guys, because like to be able to race well on a course like this, like you really have to be good at everything.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, I mean I should have said it's how uh who are you the most excited to race because it's exciting.
SPEAKER_14I really love racing Dan. Yeah, me and Dan are pretty good friends, and it's really it's really fun to race them because we have very different strengths. Like I'm I feel like I'm better on the uphill, and he's definitely much stronger than me on the downhills. It always makes like interesting races where usually I I catch up to him on the uphill and then he passes me back and down back and forth like that.
SPEAKER_07Yep, that's fine.
SPEAKER_14And we race each other like that in 234. We eventually got better from him passing like in the last mile of that last time.
SPEAKER_02Sure. Yep, here we go. Yeah, the Owen's coming up. Everybody's laying it out on the line in the very end here.
SPEAKER_13I think we're gonna be able to have an interview with our mountain running champion pretty soon.
SPEAKER_14Oh, this is coming up. Dylan, the local from New England, got third at second at 50k this year. Second at Vermont Overland last year, also. Great runner, young running, so I think it's only like 23, I believe, or 22.
SPEAKER_02So what is this? What is the what is the roll down situation here? Can decline a a spot? Is that yeah? Can somebody inform us a little bit, James? Do you know about how that works? Yeah, decline. That's correct.
SPEAKER_13If it decline a spot, it we will roll down to fifth place. Um yeah, and we do know one of one of the athletes potentially might be declining. And um, okay, we're gonna roll down. Yes, yeah, we won't we won't put that out there.
SPEAKER_02Do they have to make the is it like golden tickets where you got to make the decision on the spot right there, or do you have time?
SPEAKER_13I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_02You have some time, yeah.
SPEAKER_12Hey guys, it's uh Paul. You actually you actually do have to make the decision here. I believe it's within two hours of the finish.
SPEAKER_16Oh wow, okay. All right, thank you, Paul. Paul is this is New England.
SPEAKER_12We don't want to wait around. Oh my goodness, New Englanders must they're waiting around. But but no, that's my understanding. Yeah, it's two hours and they'll confirm with me for sure.
SPEAKER_02Amazing. Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_12Thank you, Paul.
SPEAKER_04That is good, it gives you time to train and kind of know what your season's going to look like. So um, yeah, I think that's really smart.
SPEAKER_13Another Tom Hooper signing.
SPEAKER_02Keeping the ship afloat.
SPEAKER_13That's right.
SPEAKER_02All right, so a lucky way. Top four first to be offered the spots on Team USA. If any decline, it will roll down to fifth. We're getting eyes back here to hopefully see our first women coming out of the technical section here.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, really looking forward, really excited to see how this is gonna pan out. I got some intel by my boy Julien Lacosse, who tells me that at the um at the top of the first climb, Maya had a 20-second lead on Elisa, and at the bottom of the climb, the gap was down to 25 seconds. So it's like it feels like their ability on climb or descent is like very similar. Um so yeah, I think it's gonna be interesting to see how it's gonna pan out on this second climb, which is definitely more technical.
SPEAKER_02For sure. Cannot wait to see we had Maya Rail leading.
SPEAKER_04And she's been leading from the gun from the very, very earliest race. Yeah, so um, yeah, just leading start to finish uh would be incredible in a race like this. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02And then Alicia Morin was in second, Taylor title PV was in, I don't know, did she go by PV or title? No.
SPEAKER_08PV.
SPEAKER_02Taylor PV. Taylor PV in third. Courtney Carpenter and Rena Schwartz and Casey I'm gonna.
SPEAKER_04I think Raina came through first and then Courtney.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yep. Thank you. Great. But to be determined if any of that has been shaken up here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we haven't seen the women for really any of the climb. So uh this climb is a huge section of the race because it's the longest climb, and uh it takes the longest to do out of this whole race, too, because it's so technical.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's where we where we saw last year that you know um Anna Gibson, you know, took the lead. Oh, we're here with Mason Koke.
SPEAKER_13All right, Mason Co. And just one more thing to add. Uh we were are within about a minute, minute and a half of Anna Gibson's course record from last year. So it does not look like this CR is gonna fall for the women this year.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, I know. And that start finish cam setup so that we can Yeah, get a little interview with our with our champion. I'm really interested to hear kind of how it uh played out in terms of conditions from last year to this year, because Mason ran both races. That was a factor.
SPEAKER_14I think we have to remember also the women started 15 minutes later.
SPEAKER_13Oh yes, my apologies.
SPEAKER_14We're still only one hour and five minutes. So I think if they would run the course record, they'd still have um I think like 15 minutes from now. Good catch. Thank you, Remy.
SPEAKER_02Yep, that is not easy to figure out timing when eraser is 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_04Oh, Haley, back at it. First woman, it just came through. Okay, no, Haley, what was the case wearing, Haley?
SPEAKER_16Second is number 171. Oh, first and second are super close apparent according to Haley.
SPEAKER_02That's exciting. So bib 171 was second. 171 is Elisa. Okay, so still we're thinking potentially they're close.
SPEAKER_04But she's saying they're so close. So Elisa closed the gap. Woo! And we probably last time Haley was updating us, we only had a few minutes before the women came through uh this section that you can see in the top left-hand corner. So it should be in a few minutes where they're coming out and finishing this time.
SPEAKER_13First was red black shirts. That's the I would have guessed that's the only kit. And second was Alicia.
SPEAKER_02Maya and Alicia, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so not much so far changed on the uh the places for the top women, but the gap has been closed, it sounds like.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. We are we still believe it's Maya Rail and Alicia Morin one too, but apparently very close to one another.
SPEAKER_08Man.
SPEAKER_14Do you think it's gonna help the woman to have men to chase on that second climb?
SPEAKER_02It could, for sure. Yeah. It could be a little bit, but then you have to go around and navigate them.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I will say on this section, I think it is a little bit harder. Sometimes it is nice to get some confidence passing some guys, but you're also running on pretty technical sections that are really hard to pass on to. So personally, I would rather just have an open um trail where I can make moves if I need to.
SPEAKER_02Um, but that's that's like announcing themselves, then the the men in front of them will just take a quick step to the side and let them let them pass. So yeah. You know, calling out that you're coming up up on folks. True.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and sometimes you know you're just in that race zone and you don't hear guys, uh, or you don't hear a woman if you're a guy calling out or something like that. So um yeah, it it's it's hard passing on sections like this. Third 57 got some more intel.
SPEAKER_0257 is oh, I just I was just there. Horsemith, New Hampshire. Who is that?
SPEAKER_13No, no, okay. Sorry. 57 is Courtney Coppinger.
SPEAKER_02All right, Courtney moving. Okay, nice Courtney.
SPEAKER_04And then 253 and fourth.
SPEAKER_13And Rena fell back to fifth, it looks like.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, so our change of positions between Courtney and Rena, it seems like and well, Rena and Courtney move in potentially into Corta.
SPEAKER_04Taylor, Taylor right after Courtney. Okay, so there's our top four. Um it's okay. Maya, Elisa, and then Ayurrell, Elisa Murray, Courtney Coppinger, Taylor, Taylor Petey and Renault. I'm gonna get the lady. Alright. Thank you, Haley.
SPEAKER_16Apparently, Haley won a race yesterday too.
SPEAKER_08Shout out to Haley. Shout out to Haley Heiner.
SPEAKER_13Rachel, do you think Courtney has the closing speed to be able to like on it on the descent to be able to maybe catch Elisa, or do you think I think it depends on how big the gap is.
SPEAKER_04I think that Courtney does have really, really good downhills, but um, if there's a really big gap there, it may kind of be what we saw in the race with uh Mason, where you know the lead real estate is too much of a loop. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_13What a performance by Maya. This is this is amazing so far.
SPEAKER_02Dominant. Very Maya Real. Making a very strong statement here.
SPEAKER_14Oh, I think this is Eliza coming up. I think we got women's
Women’s Finish And Late Drama
SPEAKER_14lead here. Oh wow, all right.
SPEAKER_04Oh, so at least let me uh made the women's lead and made the pass.
SPEAKER_02Whoa. Question is this are we sure it's the lead?
SPEAKER_13Oh, and right there is exciting. We have ourselves a race. Shakeups.
SPEAKER_04Oh goodness, green seconds. There's an eight-second gap right there, and then we'll see how big this next gap is.
SPEAKER_02I think it's safe to say Elisa was was saving some, or else you you know, it's hard to know. Was it you know, did Maya have a little bit of a bonk or cramping or something?
SPEAKER_14But yeah, let's remember on that first climb, it seems like Maya was five seconds on that first descent. I mean Maya was five seconds quicker than Elisa. So, you know, yeah, it's gonna be interesting because that because that second descent is that same is the same thing as the first downhill. So it's gonna be interesting to see how that's gonna play out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and on a on a downhill like this, right after you've done that technical section, if your legs are gone uh or trashed from racing downhill really hard in the first lap and then climbing a ton on that technical section, uh, this second downhill can be really, really brutal. So uh you definitely have to save up a little bit in your legs for this second descent.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, we can see them kind of both. Elisa seems to be part of hiking here, whereas maybe seem to be more in the running motion.
SPEAKER_02Um back into running.
SPEAKER_14That's good. That's true.
SPEAKER_04I do think though, if she if she was able to uh build a gap in path on that uphill, she probably has some pretty good hiking skills because a lot of that section is pretty technical hiking. So even if she is hiking, uh she's moving well. Yeah, yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_13So before we pan screens, we there's possible we missed Courtney. Uh before we even pan screens, it was at least a 30-second gap between Maya and maybe even 40 seconds. And here's the top, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Elisa Morin cresting the top, little swig of water, send it. Holy moly, this is pretty awesome. So, you know, it's so hard to know, right? You know, did Maya just go just a tad too hard on that first loop? Just that it's like this fine, fine line. But um, Elisa showing that she is running a very, very smart calculated race here.
SPEAKER_14This this would be third and fourth coming out of the woods. Yeah, this would mean a lot to Lisa. She was supposed to go race. Okay, here we go. Oh, there's Taylor and third and Courtney right there in Fort.
SPEAKER_04Taylor and Courtney, fourth and fifth. I think about a two and a half minute gap for uh them between them and uh the leaders. So that's that would be hard to close on that downhill since it is a short downhill, but um, we could see a switch between third and fourth or stay the same depending on who has the legs for the downhill.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, still a race for that top those top four for for team USA, you know.
SPEAKER_04Well, shout out to and with Elisa being Canadian, uh there's Rena. So she's in two through five. Yeah, yeah, she's in position right now, Arena is to make that US team. Canadian might take the money.
SPEAKER_07Let's go.
SPEAKER_04Oh, Remy, it's your Remy.
SPEAKER_14No, I'm just I think it would mean a lot to Lisa to win. She she was pretty bummed because she had to miss out on racing Zagama and Ledro, both golden trail races, uh in the month of May, uh, due to injury, but she's just like really yeah, stay focused with cross training.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, oh here we go.
SPEAKER_14There's Casey.
SPEAKER_04There's Casey Enman.
SPEAKER_12Wow, so kind of cool note about Casey. That was her husband, like two in front of her. Oh from the men's race.
SPEAKER_15Oh, from the men's race, she's about to catch her husband.
SPEAKER_12Goblast, yes, that's often her goal in these races.
SPEAKER_02Oh, nice. Nice Casey chasing down her husband. Love it, love it, love it, love it. That's so interesting to hear, and you know, kind of back to the point of like sometimes coming off injury, just like having the appreciation for being able to race and race hard and your body working. It's like I feel like yeah, that might be coming into play for Lisa here. This is her Zagama.
SPEAKER_14Definitely, yeah. Yeah, she's been like really good at like continuing with her cross-training, running, you know, as dil digit as diligently as she can uh without overdoing it. Um it's great to see her back in like full fitness here.
SPEAKER_02A station fireball saying that with the conversion right now, you could put a down payment on a house in Canada.
SPEAKER_15So she's making even more than 10. Yeah, Aliza's gonna buy herself a house after this.
SPEAKER_04That's right. Or a million bags of ketchup chips. I don't know what those are. Is that a Canadian ketchup flavor chips?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, wait on the other.
SPEAKER_15They do at Trader Joe's, they have ketchup flavors. They do, okay. Not like as a mainstream with the ketchup.
SPEAKER_02Not like a I don't think there's like a lay's version.
SPEAKER_04Oh, here we go.
SPEAKER_15Okay, Courtney made the pass and he's making Courtney and Taylor essentially. Oh, this is the race for third. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_14Well, Courtney's having a great time, as always.
SPEAKER_02Corney Coffinger, Taylor Tuttle, sorry, Taylor Peavy. Right now third and fourth on the women's side. We've got Maya Rail sorry, Alicia Morin winning the race with Maya Rail in second.
SPEAKER_13This is gonna be a great race for third. If they uh Taylor is not letting her go at all. That's what I'm saying. Taylor is not giving up. So this is this is amazing.
SPEAKER_02Dang, making almost an extra 4K with the converter.
SPEAKER_04This is that glade section.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, so they're entering it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I could see Courtney maybe making a gap here a little bit because she is really good at techie stuff, but Taylor may have been practicing some of that as well. So uh yeah, she oh little.
SPEAKER_02So here's the thing like Courtney is very tall. I'm pretty tall as well. And like sometimes when it's more technical, it's like dang, it's not a great thing to have super long legs. So I don't think Taylor is good when you go when you can open up, but they are right there.
SPEAKER_13This is a battle. I love this. This is great.
SPEAKER_02We will get eyes on the finish line for sure. We will not miss that. But right now, third and fourth, Courtney Carpenter and Taylor PV racing hard down this technical descent.
SPEAKER_14It's crazy how it doesn't look technical, but it it really is. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh, look at those roots. You can see some of the roots. Yeah, this is great. Thank you for the follow, Cam. This is great, great footage. But I yeah, to your point, Remy, it's probably way more technical than we can tell.
SPEAKER_14And it's also super steep, so it looks like makes it feel even more technical, I'd say.
SPEAKER_13It's about what an 800-foot loss in this last mile.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 855 according to Strava day. And 850 uh descent of 850 feet, 50 feet in a mile.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Courtney did make up some time and uh gap Taylor a little bit in that section, but both Taylor and Courtney are both uh really great track runners and have that closing speed too. So um, yeah, we'll see who has the wheels to close in that last section.
SPEAKER_13And it looks like Courtney is starting to open up a little bit of a gap.
SPEAKER_02Pulled up a little, yeah, a little bit of a gap.
SPEAKER_13Maybe a few extra seconds, but still close.
SPEAKER_14According to the course record of last year, uh Anna Gibson last year would have arrived in the next three minutes. Okay. Um I I don't think any of the women here is really like looking too much into like course record and stuff, but more about the win. Yeah, exactly. But just to give a reference of maybe when the first woman is gonna arrive, should be relatively soon, I think.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, definitely Courtney got a good gap in that glade section. Well, and now this is where it starts to open up again. And if Taylor does have the closing speed here and is really able to open up, then she could get Courtney. But Courtney also has really good close closing speed as well. So uh it's definitely a battle between the both of them.
SPEAKER_08Shout out to that follow cam.
SPEAKER_02That was awesome footage. Oh, we're back on it, man. Somebody's getting a good one.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, this is awesome. Yeah, Sam.
SPEAKER_14Oh, we can see the conditions are pretty good because I know some of some years that section is just like so muddy. Uh but it didn't seem too bad out there according to that footage. So maybe not as slippery as the past years.
SPEAKER_02This is where they're gonna pop out.
SPEAKER_14Yeah. Who do you guys think? Naya or Edizel? Eliza.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, I think I think Elisa is holding on to it.
SPEAKER_14You never know. It was five seconds, I or five or eight seconds when we saw them.
SPEAKER_13Uh they said eight, but I felt like it was a little bit closer.
SPEAKER_08I mean, it's hard to say. And shout out to Elisa.
SPEAKER_13She said on the uh on our previous interview, she's like, Yeah, it's gonna be more of a training run. I really don't know where things are at. And amazing.
SPEAKER_02Sandbagger.
SPEAKER_13Amazing performance. You can never tell. It's always hard.
SPEAKER_14It's it's interesting.
SPEAKER_02But also it sounds like not putting pressure, not putting it in. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_14Sometimes it's that mentality is like what makes you race the best.
SPEAKER_02Totally. Just have fun, go out there, give it your all.
SPEAKER_04I do notice uh that's a common thing for uh non-Americans, I think, to say in interviews, uh and kind of maybe holding their cards closer to their chests, not really uh saying that they're going for the win or anything like that. Um and sometimes yeah, I notice that in international fields.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think sometimes you also just don't quite know until you're like you know, you start and you're feeling great and you're like, heck yeah, I'm up here in the front. I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna roll with this, I'm having a day, right? So it could be honestly like didn't know exactly how she was gonna feel, but once she got going, she was like, This is this is happening, and I'm oh yeah, working fully into it.
SPEAKER_14So I mean, someone night again, Lisa, ninth at OCC, like yeah, what a performance, and then and even more so, uh, I think she was ninth at like top ten at worlds or ninth and tenth in the mountain world um she's like at least five times mountain and or trail running champion, like on the vertical up down, 50k distance. Um so yeah, she's got a range. Oh, here it's really interesting to see Taylor and oh wow, and Rita back together.
SPEAKER_15Whoa, Rena's back, Rena Taylor, and Courtney all the time.
SPEAKER_14So this is battle for third place, and we got Elisa coming up. There she is, Elisa.
SPEAKER_02Oh, there she is, looking flying, absolutely flying. Wow, Elise Moran getting ready to secure the win again, Canadians. So um, does that mean that the the national title also will go to whoever's second?
SPEAKER_05Yes, right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the US national title will go to whoever's second, but Elisa will take home that 10k prize first.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, both races won in the Cascadia Elites.
SPEAKER_13Oh, which for a dry for a dry day, I guess it makes sense. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, beaver mouse hole. We have a beaver sponsoring Mason Kobe.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, we got Maya like really close behind.
SPEAKER_02Oh, Maya's charging hard.
SPEAKER_14She's charging, yeah. She's not giving up here, dude.
SPEAKER_02She is that is not insignificant.
SPEAKER_13That is yeah, she is three three to five seconds.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I think Maya's moving faster than Elisa right here.
SPEAKER_13I think yeah, it's over. Oh, she got it.
SPEAKER_02She got it. That's it. Wow.
SPEAKER_14Incredible.
SPEAKER_02Wow, and congrats. Amazing race by both of them. Maya Rail, your American, your first American, national champion.
SPEAKER_08And Rena Schwartz passing Courtney Carpinger.
SPEAKER_04Wow. Dang. This is the race for third. So Rena made the pass. Courtney's in second right now.
SPEAKER_02I want to know if Rena Schwartz popped a caffeinated gel.
SPEAKER_13Remy, did you see that comment? Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02Remy earning it's a great effort.
SPEAKER_14Yep.
SPEAKER_13Hey, it's a great show. Gotta gotta say.
SPEAKER_02Dang, this is awesome. Rena Schwartz.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, what a race for third place.
SPEAKER_02This is this last year. She's gonna potentially improve that by a couple spots this year. What a strong finish. Seriously, like the most impressed, maybe the most impressive finish here. I mean Elite uh Elisa too.
SPEAKER_13And Rena's been injured, which is crazy too.
SPEAKER_02So she does not look injured today.
SPEAKER_13No.
SPEAKER_02No. Sam, congrats on being four out of five on fantasy free trail for men's race at Sunopee. That's good stuff. All right. Man. So impressive.
SPEAKER_13I'd be curious if she how much of a gap she opened on Courtney in those final seconds.
SPEAKER_14Oh, Canadian. So the next three women here are gonna make the US team.
SPEAKER_02Wow, okay. Two Canadians in the team. Amazing race.
SPEAKER_14No, I meant that Eliza Huan is Canadian. So we already got May Maya on the team. So now the next three women here.
SPEAKER_04Two through five.
SPEAKER_14Right.
SPEAKER_04Which I'm guessing, yeah, Courtney and uh Taylor. I haven't seen anyone right behind them. So yeah. Rena Zar US team. Oh look at battle bit.
SPEAKER_05Oh, my gosh, Taylor just oh my god.
SPEAKER_15Taylor went down. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's heartbreaking. Oh jeez, just they were neck and neck. What a finish, you guys. Renault Hortz.
SPEAKER_14Great race by Rena, great race by Courtney Carpenter. What are working together? Like even on that first lap, a lot of them were working together. It's been great to see that.
SPEAKER_02Oh, but Taylor Peavy holding on to it with oh skin and tape falling off of rain. Yeah, green race fires.
SPEAKER_14Wow, what a race. Amazing. Making the team final. So there's our US team.
SPEAKER_15US team.
SPEAKER_02My Taylor? Courtney Carpenter and Taylor Pv. That was intense.
SPEAKER_14Okay, we got some intel that Courtney is probably going to be declining the spot.
SPEAKER_13Yes, and she did confirm that uh yeah, that's the news now.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so we're looking for the next American female to cross the line here.
SPEAKER_13Which I I could have been Casey.
SPEAKER_04It could be Casey. That was Casey after talking about it. It looks like her. I think she is Casey. Let's go. Casey. Casey Enman making probably her 20th American team. Oh my god. I don't have an amazing on, but she's on with the US team.
SPEAKER_02Taylor with the US team, Sam, and this is Casey Enman also potentially securing a spot if Courtney Coffinger does decline.
SPEAKER_13You want to talk about a resume. That's crazy. Wow. Giant congratulations to Casey. Holy crap.
SPEAKER_02You think she knows? Probably not. She probably doesn't think right now that she had made the team.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, she may not know.
SPEAKER_02She probably doesn't, she probably doesn't think she did, but she's gonna get a very exciting and update.
SPEAKER_04Um someone in the chat is asking. I would say this race uh is a World Cup race, meaning uh you can race not attached to a country. And so uh she may just be she may enter the race and not race for Team USA, but uh you don't have to be on a USA team to race in that race.
SPEAKER_13Correct. And Sam, yes, Taylor uh did make the US team.
SPEAKER_02And also like it's gotta line up with like your season that you're trying to put together, right? If you potentially go do a golden trail series final or something like that, you know, you have to kind of prioritize where you want to be. And there are some tight, you know, races that are close to one another at the end of the year there.
SPEAKER_13And we might we might have the men one of the men's roll down to fifth. We will see as far as that goes.
SPEAKER_08I don't that's not fully confirmed yet.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, I believe the golden trail finals are I believe one or two weeks after the Canadian Championships. Are in South Korea this year, so that's quite a lot of travel.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that is a lot of travel. Uh also you can't wear your sponsor's logo um if you're racing on a USA team. So uh athletes may decline a spot if they're able to still race at that race because they're able to wear their uh kit of their sponsor.
SPEAKER_12So um I have Maya here for an interview.
Winner Interviews And Training Takeaways
SPEAKER_02Oh Maya.
SPEAKER_12Um and Elisa's also gonna be here. Unfortunately, my computer is hooked up to the finish, so you won't see her, but you'll be able to talk with her.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so we're gonna hear, we can hear pass it over to her.
SPEAKER_12It's Maya first, and then I will grab uh Elisa next. Perfect.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Paul. Who's running this interview? Maya, can you hear us?
SPEAKER_12Everybody you'll hear. Oh, don't worry. I'm that's gonna be funny. That's okay. That's okay.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. Can you guys is that worse? Maya, okay.
SPEAKER_13Can you can you hear us?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, hey James, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_13Good, how are you? Congratulations.
SPEAKER_03Oh, thank you so much. That was so hard. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_13Maya, that was an incredible performance. How sweet does it feel to be the 2026 U.S. Mountain Running Champion?
SPEAKER_03I mean, it's awesome. Yeah, I Alisa also did super well. She like really, really pushed me, and so did the entire field was amazing, like really fantastic group of runners. So awesome. It was awesome. Yeah, it feels great.
SPEAKER_13Amazing. All right. Well, we're gonna have a round table of some questions for you. I think Corinne had current uh Corinne had one. Um, and I think the rest of the group had some as well.
SPEAKER_02Hey Maya, uh, this is Corinne Shellboy. Just wanted to say congratulations. That was a really inspiring race. You were out hot from the gun. Did you just go with how you were feeling? Or kind of like was it the plan to just go hard, you know, off the off the cuff and really, you know, just try to hold on as as as well as you could.
SPEAKER_03I think I might have raced a little bit stupid. Um, but I I just felt good on that first lap. And I guess like in my mind, thinking about the course, I was thinking of it as like almost a vitay, and then you get a little bit of like recovery, but it's also gonna hurt downhill. And then it's this like punch and then little trail section that I just needed to like get to and then like focus through. I guess um, yeah, I guess that was my mentality going in. And um, I didn't panic when I was in the lead. I just kind of I you know expected people would try to be chasing me, but just like stays like within control for the line.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Who else has a question for Maya?
SPEAKER_14Um yeah, I have a question for you, Maya. This is Remy, by the way. Congratulations on your race. Was wondering on that second climb how you found it. Well, because I feel like the the technicality of it is something that's definitely unique about the course here. How yeah, how did you manage that?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I um I was actually really looking forward to that section. It was definitely hard and I found myself walking a few times, but I think the nice thing about technical trail is it like forces your mind to focus really well. And then one thing I do as well is I I'm from Montana and I do a lot of training, like slow running in the Bitteroot Mountains and the Mission Mountains. And so I think that practice is really helpful for technical trails like that.
SPEAKER_14Did you get the work with Isa a bit on that climb, or were you guys kind of like always a bit like separated?
SPEAKER_03Um, she ended up, we were together for like the top ridge section of it um for a little ways, and I could see her back like catching me slowly on the some of the climbing. Like I would like see her out of the corner of my eye. Um and then yeah, we did run together for some of that ridge. Um, she had a little bit more in her on some of that climb. Um, but we were like, I was like, we were within eyesight of each other for uh like at least the second half of it.
SPEAKER_05Nice.
SPEAKER_04That's awesome. Um, congrats. This is uh Rachel to my check. Um yeah, I would love to hear what winning a national title uh means to you and how you're feeling about making a US team.
SPEAKER_03It's super exciting. Um yeah, I I think I wasn't thinking about it too much going into the race. I was just like, this is such an awesome course, and I'm like really excited to like uh push myself on it. Um and the I ended up with that outcome. Is uh I'm just really excited. It's awesome. Uh yeah, really stoked.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you had a great race today, so congrats.
SPEAKER_08Thank you so much, Rachel. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02Anybody else have questions for Maya? Maya, did you uh did you fuel it all? Did you I think you were carrying a bottle maybe? Did you have calories or just electrolytes, or what was the strategy there?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I um I had uh uh Martin, it was the Coca-Cola like addition one, which is like kind of a nice flavor, but also a little bit sweet, and I'm like still learning how to do fueling during racing. So I have that in my bottle. I think I finished it. I'm checking right now. I think I did finish it. Great job. I had like half of a chill as well. Okay, awesome.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, nice.
SPEAKER_02Was was there like a section he had a low like a low patch? Like where were you?
SPEAKER_03What was the hardest part for you? Definitely hurting on like the second half of the second line. Um like part of I think I I found I was like, yeah, that part was really hard. I feel like I was just uh feeling pretty lactic at that point, like my legs were quite shot.
SPEAKER_02So, what do you tell yourself in that moment, you know, trying to just work through that? And you know, it's you know, temporary, but it's it's hurting. Like, do you have any mental strategies you go to to just push through that? Because obviously you did really well getting through that section.
SPEAKER_03Thanks. Yeah, I I think I definitely like um I was focusing on like just continuing to push it and like imagining somebody ahead of me, like, oh, I need to chase someone. Um, but also knowing like I was pretty sure that Elise is gonna um catch me at that point, but I was like, even if she catches me, like she's just there to pace me. Like, let me just like work with her.
SPEAKER_13Very cool. Maya, can you can you talk a little bit about your training leading into this race? I know you had uh done a I I we we heard in the in the chat about the treadmill challenge, uh, and as well as like some of your training with like Jen Lickner and McKenna Morley, and how maybe some of that training might have given you just you know continued to roll your confidence going into this race.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I um I think this is the fittest I've ever been, which is like a really, really exciting place to be. I've been uh running like a little bit more, like gradually increasing my volume over the past uh five or six months, which has been like pretty exciting. Um I think I'm like kind of still figuring out my different training strategies and all that, but it is like so cool to get to like train with uh Jen Lichter, McKenna Morley, uh, you know, like have that whole Missoula group, Adam, Aaron, uh Jackson, you know, and like Jeff and everything. Like everybody is like super supportive and it's um it's a really cool group. It's like it's I mean, you know, we're not like a training team per se, but it's like a bunch of people that are all rooting for each other. Like I yeah, so I think that's like really, really fun, and it's great to have their wisdom and like they all know way more than I do. So that's uh really awesome to have.
SPEAKER_05Amazing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's a really strong group of women to train with for sure. Um, I would love to know did you like the uphills or downhills better in this race, or uh did you feel pretty confident and good on all kinds of training?
SPEAKER_03I think I liked all of it. I this was like honestly such a cool course. Like, shout out Synophy for like just like putting on such an awesome race. Um I I liked how steep certain sections were. I like it. It was cool to have these like rocky, roody trail sections. Um, and then the downhill was just so fun, like just needy grass and like mud and just steep terrain. So I that was super fun too. I I I think all around. I there wasn't a part of the course that I was like, oh, this is boring. Like all of it was very teaching. Okay.
SPEAKER_02How were the conditions? Were did you slip at all? Was it was it at all like precarious due to the moisture, or was it pretty good footing?
SPEAKER_03I found it fine. Um I mean, I definitely had the focus the entire time. I think it was like I'm if you look at the back of my legs, they're like very, very muddy right now. Yeah, I mean, I think the footing's just already tight. It's um I heard last year it was just like a foot of rain saturation just like in the trail. We definitely didn't have that. It was a definitely a much faster course this year. Nice.
SPEAKER_14We will see you at uh definitely in October.
SPEAKER_03Cool, awesome. Well, thank you guys so much. Really appreciate it. Congratulations, Maya. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Congrats, Maya.
SPEAKER_08Thank you.
SPEAKER_02I think that's maybe a yes, right?
SPEAKER_13That's definitely yes.
SPEAKER_02Awesome.
SPEAKER_15Yes.
SPEAKER_02I'm here.
SPEAKER_13Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I know. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. This is Corinne Shalvoy. We have a few questions from our commentators here for you. But uh first of all, uh tell us, did the did the race play out? You know, as you obviously you took the win, uh finished you know first in a pretty commanding fashion at the end there. How how did it go for you overall? Um and talk a little bit about kind of just making the pass toward the end. Like how how did that how did that all go down?
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, it was yeah, really uh I'm really happy of this race. I was really feeling great in the up in the hearthill section and the on-heel way better than than last year. But yeah, we started to together, like we we reached the top. I think she was like maybe 10 seconds uh in front of me. Uh I just stopped for drink water, it was really, really humid out there. And so I lose a little bit of time and I didn't saw her at the first hip, so I was like, okay, uh, I'm just staying here, second place. I continue to focus on my race. Start of the second loop, I still don't I still don't see her, so I just continue. We are going in the technical part, and at one point I just saw a girl, I didn't figure out it was like uh I think a girl, uh woman just take a wrong turn on the between the first and the and the second and and the second loop, and in fact it was her, and more and more we moved in this technical part, but I was getting clearing on her. I touched her on the flat part of the of this uh section just before to end back in the service road, and I decided to take the lead. I was I was not sure of that, because like okay, I can just stay there, but in fact, I just take the lead and we uh arrive in the yeah, in the service world, and I just like continue, don't watch uh on my back, I just continue and start with the descent, and I was like, just don't think too much, you just need to go out out as hard as you can. And for sure on this last descent, I just watched my back and I was like, okay, in fact, she's pretty close. I cannot just be just have a uh chill uh don't eat, so I just dig deep in and uh and yes, I I just watch I'm like really really happy.
SPEAKER_14Hello Elisa, this is Himi. Congratulations, incredible race. Uh really happy for you. Uh I have a question for you. I know you had a lot of setbacks this year. You know, it's been pretty hard with injury. You missed a couple races because of it. How does it mean? What does it mean to you to be able to come back from all of that and be able to have great results today?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's really me. I mean, I remember really glad to to hear your voice, even if you are not with us uh today. But uh no, um it's really like means that I'm back in my not my best shape, but really uh I came from far away like eight months without without uh uh racing. It's uh it's quite a lot. I miss like my three or four first race of the seasons or like to have a season opener in June. It's like quite late in the in the season, but it's just like yeah, I'm I'm back and I and I'm fair. I'm not feeling like 100% of my base shape, but at least let's say 80%. So it means a lot. It means like I'm I'm back in the game.
SPEAKER_14Awesome. Yeah, Lisa, this is your best shape. I think your best shape is gonna be very impressive. Big time.
SPEAKER_04Very true, very true. Also, this is Rachel. Congrats on the win. Uh, I'd love to know what your uh training was like while you were injured. Were you doing any type of cross-training or hitting the bike hard or anything like that while you were off?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I did a lot of of uh on-trainer on Swift, really a lot of this, uh, some it training too. So yeah, bike it training, and after starting to run a I start to like really maybe three weeks ago to have some interval in my training, but always up interval, and um and just yeah, cycle uh cycle a lot, strength training, but I'm still in coming back uh in proper training. I mean like I don't have to taper for this race because it's been like almost no running for me currently. So I just say that I'm training currently to be back at my best. I'm not I didn't train especially for this race, so it's quite good to see that uh the little training that I have, it's uh give me this uh this type of uh of shapes of yes, if that lot, yeah, a lot of uh cycling, but I love that. So it's okay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I love seeing that when athletes come back really strong from injury, so yeah, congrats.
SPEAKER_13Alisa, this is James. Giant congratulations. Uh I just gotta ask you, does this give you substantial confidence going into broken arrow over the next few weeks?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for the yeah, yeah, I think yes, for the uh 23k at least for the SNL because really uh it was really hard in the in the appeal section, but for the 23k, yes.
SPEAKER_06Amazing.
SPEAKER_13Anybody else have any?
SPEAKER_02Um, do you want to shout out anyone, your sponsors or anyone?
SPEAKER_01Uh yes, I mean yeah, for sure. Thanks to to Brooks to have us here. We have uh an amazing uh house with uh with Dan and uh and Kourney and to sponsor this uh this such great uh event. And I hope uh next year uh Remy will be uh will be with us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Amazing. Well, congratulations again. Uh that was it was really exciting to watch, and uh we hope you recover well and so excited to to see what you're gonna be lining up at next at Broken Arrow. Have a good day bye. Thank you.
SPEAKER_13Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Congrats.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, it's I I wonder if uh if Paul can hear me. Oh, is this Mason? All right, we got Mason.
SPEAKER_11Oh, hold on, hold on.
SPEAKER_13What's up?
SPEAKER_02Mason Mason, congrats. Hey Mason, we're right and high.
SPEAKER_132026 mountain running champion. Mason, how sweet does this feel to add to add that to your resume?
SPEAKER_11It's insane. Like, oh my god, that was like the whole time, like that that like second lap. I just I couldn't believe it. And like even now, I'm just like, oh my gosh, I did that. That's sick.
SPEAKER_13Mason, uh, talk about talk about the logo on your shirt because this is brand new.
SPEAKER_11Um, yeah, uh, so there'll be uh an official announcement of it of it later, but like just signed with uh Vibram. Um super stoked with that. Um, to be starting a partnership with with them. Um yeah, just like literally, literally signed the paperwork this week. But again, there'll be a big announcement of it uh later. I don't know how much I'll allow to like talk about it, but I am running for Vibram now.
SPEAKER_13So exciting. Mason uh one more question for you before I before I pass it off. There was a there was a part there when you guys came off the first loop. It looked like Dan had made a pass on you and Christian going into the second climb. How did you how did that kind of we didn't get to see that obviously? Um, how things started playing out in the second climb. When were you able to retake the lead and how were you able to retake the lead?
SPEAKER_11Yeah, so that that was um, I mean, Dan's such a good descender. And so if if Dan comes up on you on a descent, you you kind of just gotta let him do it and just like hope you can uh catch back up on the climb. Um like and just hope hope for that. Um so yeah, he he passed me on the descent, and I was just like, okay, well, that that's that. Um and then um kind of coming into that second climb, like Dan, Dan had a good lean on uh uh Christian and I. Christian had also kind of caught up to me on that climb. And um, yeah, like Christian and I just kind of started like running up that running up that climb. Um Christian's such a good uh climber that I just kind of sat myself behind him. And um yeah, we were we were kind of gaining on um on Dan. Um like slowly but slowly but surely. And then I think I just noticed that that Christian might have been hurting more than I than I've seen him hurt in the past. And uh I thought, okay, well, maybe maybe this is my time, maybe this is my move. I I really don't know. Like it's always kind of terrifying to pass Christian out because it feels like you're making a mistake. Um but yeah, I I kind of got around him and thought that okay, I need to connect with Dan because I really don't want to be behind Dan when we get to the top, uh, because I'll have to descend with him. Um so pass past Christian there, like past Dan there pretty shortly after. Um, and at that point it was like, okay, I have a lead. Uh I don't know if that was the right decision or not. I guess we'll find out in a couple of miles. Um, like when when we're nearing the top. And so from from that point on, it was kind of by myself. I could kind of hear them behind me. I've I had really no idea how close they were. Um, but at that point, you really can't you can't worry about that. You you just have to kind of like stick your head down and just like go based off of your own effort and and hope that it all works out.
SPEAKER_13Well, congratulations, Mason.
SPEAKER_11Thank you.
SPEAKER_04Nice, Mason. This is Rachel to my check. Uh yeah, I have a couple of questions for you. I've known you since the college days, and uh you're just one of the most positive people ever, I think. And I think one part of being an amazing athlete is having a positive mentality, but we all know that negative thoughts come in. So, was there any point during the race when negative thoughts were coming in? What point was that? And how did you walk yourself out of that?
SPEAKER_11Yeah, I mean, honestly, like the negative thoughts are always there, right? Like they're always in my head. Like I wouldn't say there's a point where I'm not kind of like fighting them off, like and they're small, right? Like they're little small bits, and then they could balloon out if if you've let them. Um right from the start, like there's questions in my head. Like sitting on the starting line, there's so many negative thoughts in my head. Like there's a lot of pressure, you know. Like I've kind of transitioned from this point of like kind of being the underdog. Um, and that was a position I was I was really comfortable in, right? Like uh for for years, like I I identified as like that that underdog. And like I at this point, I wouldn't say like I was like uh a big favorite, but like I know, like now people know me, right? So like I feel like I have some expectations. So there's there's negative thoughts right on the starting line, being like, am I going to live up to those expectations? And then gun goes out, and like I I go up in the front and I'm trying to hang on to like Christian and like negative thoughts there, like, am I going to blow up? I I really don't know. Like, is this the right decision? And then on on that descent, like uh Christian um Aries and I actually made a wrong turn pretty early on. Um, like we entered into the woods a little too early, and it's like, okay, is that my whole race? Is that gone? Like, is it gone now? So then like try to like push to like catch up. And I I I kind of hammered through through the glades there to try to catch up, found out that there wasn't actually anyone ahead of us at that point. So I'm like, oh, well, now I've blown up my legs. That's another negative thought. Um, as soon as I like try, like, and so now I'm like, okay, I got I gotta dial it back. Um, I get caught by by Dan and by Christian, but now my legs are feeling like jello. Um, I try passing them, like, oh, am I making the right decision? Again, I I had just talked about that, but like that's another negative thought right there. And like all throughout that that climb, there's just so much unknowns that you're kind of entering into. Like, am I making the right decision right now? As I'm deciding, am I making the right? Like, they're constantly coming up, and it's constantly me, like you constantly have to say, okay, like we don't know that. Like the negative thoughts are as accurate as the positive thoughts. You don't actually know which one is is true. It's like, maybe I can't do this, but maybe I can't. Like both of those are equal possibilities. Um, so you constantly kind of have to kind of have to fight those, fight those on.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's awesome. And uh, I think that it's amazing that you're able to do that. And this was a race where you just had to stay engaged the entire time mentally, it sounds like so, really incredible that you can do that. And speaking of having to be on for the entire time in a race, I would love to know you did so well at Gorge Waterfalls this year and the 30K. Then you raced Boston Marathon, ran a 215. That was incredible. So you've been doing some longer races that are kind of in that two to three hour range. What was it like to go into this race after racing some longer races? Did you feel confident switching over to a shorter race again, which has kind of been your uh main races uh until more recently? But yeah, what was that transition like?
SPEAKER_11Yeah, it's kind of weird. It's kind of like I I felt more confident in some ways and and less confident in others. Um so, like a big goal for me this year is just to improve my mechanical endurance and my muscular endurance, because that's kind of been uh what I would consider a weak point for me in in the past. And so that's something that I've really tried to be uh working on um in in my training. So that was kind of the idea behind Gorge and uh behind Boston and some of the other races I'll be doing later on in this year. So to a certain extent, like this course really does award muscular endurance because it's that two-lap system. So you need to have um like really good endurance to um go up that second climb, right? And to like then smash that downhill again. So I had some um I had some confidence there, and like my legs are a little bit more muscular strong than they were in the past, and like it can take a beating a little bit better, but it it's always scary, like you know, like anytime like you're trying to to go to a different event than you've been practicing, right? Like the one hour efforts sting so much more than the two hour efforts. Like, that's like just a different burn. Like it's it's like when in college, like or like in track, like dropping down from the the 10K down to the 5k or down to the like I remember like towards the end of my like college career, like I was focusing much more on like 5k, 10k, and when I would do a mile, it feel like an all-out sprint the entire time, and that hurt so bad. And so, like there was a little bit of fear of like, okay, do I have that that edge in me anymore to really like go to the well and really burn like that? And so, like, again, that it's another like walking into a little bit of unknown, like uh, and again, like I'm sitting here and like in the past, I've I've really excelled in these style of races, and you can think, like, oh Mason, why can't you just like fall back on your history? You've done this before, like, what just do it again? And it's just so hard, like you know, like it's it's hard to look back in the past and like draw confidence from it. You can to a certain extent, but like this is something that I feel a lot of athletes struggle with. Like, I struggle with it. Uh I'm a coach, so I see a lot of my other athletes, like uh the athletes that I coach struggle with this. Um it's just kind of hard to like kind of mentally switch gears. Like, I feel like as athletes, you have like a certain amount of amnesia, which like is beneficial in some ways. Like, if you have a bad race, you can kind of shake it off. But like also if you have a good race, you usually shake it off. And like one of the things I see so much as a coach is like I almost think you have more good amnesia, like you shake off the good races faster than you shake off the bad races. Um, so it's hard to like keep that good confidence, like it's so much easier to kind of like beat yourself up and hold on to like that kind of like fear. Um, so yeah, it it's always a little bit tricky with with these events for that. Mason, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, you definitely have that edge to switch between the short and the long stuff. So congrats.
SPEAKER_13Uh Mason, do you know if you got the course record? I know it was very, very close. It was within like a few seconds.
SPEAKER_11I don't know. I think it's it's pretty tight. Like I'm I either got it by like half a second or didn't get it by half a second. Like we're gonna have to like go back into the the archives here to to find it. But I I mean I wasn't even thinking about that. It's like it's so it's so painful that it's just like I'm just like hanging on for dear life. I can't even like I can't even spare the time to really look down at my watch, like I'm gonna like fall on my face. So that isn't like really something that was that was in the mind. Uh maybe, maybe. I I I'm really not sure.
SPEAKER_02Mason, this is uh cringe cowboy. Congratulations. That was a huge, huge performance. Um, just wanted to say awesome to watch, awesome to follow. What are you gonna do with your $30,000 prize purse?
SPEAKER_15Is it a whole I just tripled it? I'm gonna leave 30k because if you have a sorry, 10 10,000.
SPEAKER_11Oh my gosh. Uh that's a good question. I mean, I really hadn't been going into this race like expecting that. Um that that money, like, uh I don't know. Like my wife and I were saving up for a house. So that that's going into the house fund. Like, there you go. Until until like uh until like we're we're do like getting getting something like that. I feel like I'm I'm I'm pretty frugal with my money, to be honest.
SPEAKER_13So no Porsches.
SPEAKER_11No, no fancy bike, no van yet. Um I don't know. Uh like like going into the house funds, saving up for that, saving up for the future and uh and all that sort of thing. Might be able to use that for a little bit more uh travel money um in the future. Um, so definitely, definitely excited for that. I wish I had a more exciting, fun answer.
SPEAKER_02No, that's the that's the mature, like that that's a good answer. That's that's some that's some smart asset building there.
SPEAKER_11I'll probably go out for ice cream tonight, and that'll probably be a key. Like, I'll probably get like it's my uh friend uh Abby's birthday today. So uh shout out Abby.
SPEAKER_08Oh, he's frozen.
SPEAKER_11So uh I'll probably do that because nice.
SPEAKER_13Well, part of me was hoping you were gonna say down payment on a Porsche, but still cool.
SPEAKER_11Oh, I what are you talking about? I got a Honda Element, I got the best car in the world already. Like you can sleep in that thing before races. Sweet. Um Honda Element gang. You know, if you know, you know. Well, congratulations. That was awesome. Thank you, thank you so much. Sweet, sweet.
SPEAKER_13Mason, are you you are you're accepting your your ticket, correct?
SPEAKER_11To go race uh that that is my plan. I'm I'm excited to to represent uh team USA again and to to go to the WMRA um World Cup. Um again, any any time that I get to like represent Team USA and like kind of help um yeah, represent like the team on like the national scale. I want to be there. And so I'm um I'm really excited for that one. Yeah, get to get to prep for for uh worlds also for for next year, 2027. So yeah, super, super stoked for all that stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_14Uh hey Mason, this is Remy, by the way. Really looking forward to see you in Quebec in October. And congratulations today. I'm so happy uh to see you win. Incredible season already. So Far. Wanted to know what's next for you. Like what's coming up?
SPEAKER_11Yeah, yeah. So uh next I'm I'm focusing on broken arrow. I'm just targeting the the 23k there. The vertical is a little too spicy for me. Um, I don't get enough of a payoff. My wife loves doing vertical races. Um, so it works out perfectly. I get to watch her do the vertical and then just like have fun um uh watching that. And then um yeah, I'll just be I'll be focusing on the the 23k there. Um so super excited for that. And then really fun schedule this year. Um, targeting the lost surf series races. Um, I kind of alluded it to it earlier, but I'm gonna try my hand, uh longer distance race. I'm gonna be doing the Speed Goat 50k.
SPEAKER_08Nice.
SPEAKER_11Um we'll we'll see if that's a good idea or not. Um but again, I'm trying to uh build up that that muscular endurance, um, build up kind of um yeah, build up kind of like my my range, right? Um and then uh yeah, WMRAs, um, and then also targeting um CIM in the in the winter, so trying to lower that that marathon time.
SPEAKER_14That's great. I I think one last question before we let you go. I'm really curious because like you've been running, you've been trail running for a while, like for a lot of years, but it really seems like in the last like one or two years, you've really had like this big breakthrough. What do you think uh caused that? Do you think it's just like the accumulation of training throughout the years? You think it's a mental switch? Do you think it's just like something you've really changed in training? Um, I'm sure it's a difficult thing, like it's not one single thing that makes a difference, but what would you what what do you think it would be?
SPEAKER_11Yeah, I I think it was an accumulation of of so many things, right? Like there there's and especially as a coach, like I'm always thinking of factors and I'm constantly experimenting on myself so I can pass it on to my athletes, right? So there's so many things I'm messing with at a time. I think to boil it down, like the the things that really helped me is I think I specified like the type of training that I was doing, like each session really well. So um I think I on one hand, um I was I started doing a lot more track work and I started doing a lot more merit-specific work. So I kind of got away from that, like my early part of my my trail running career. Like I just needed a brain frontal track after the NCAA, to be honest. Um, but now I've kind of come back to that. So I'm doing much more specific uh speed work, I'm doing much more controlled speed work. Um I started using like heart rate monitor and and stuff like that, really dialing in my threshold zones. Um, other things that I've done, I really slowed down my easy runs. So those are super controlled. Um, so I'm getting a lot more easy aerobic volume in. I'm not really hammering myself into the ground every time I run. I don't care what my easy pace is. Um, so I really slowed that down. Um, and then I really made a concentrated effort to work on my downhill ability. Um, so I did that in a couple of ways. So one way that I did that is by doing uh starting to stack more verts. So that was kind of that muscular endurance piece um to kind of like beat up my legs and and really um build that up. But I guess sorry, I'm gonna hop around here, but like that easy running also helps with muscular endurance. Um, so that's a really beneficial thing for for building up muscular endurance um and stuff like that. So um those two things helped um build up my my endurance, slow twitch muscles, all that sort of stuff, all that uh great uh things there. Um and then I started doing uh some more technical work. I think you've been posting it on your story, so similar stuff to what you've been doing, um, but just like practicing technical trails. And what I did in specific is I would do the same technical trails over and over and over again, um, and really work on that footwork. Um and and really, really practice that. Um, but the the benefit of doing that repetition is like uh there weren't things that were surprising me. So I really got to own my skill at just like the footwork and the the mechanism uh of that. And then I started okay, now I'm comfortable on this trail. Start mixing up with with other trails and and and all that sort of stuff. So I think that really uh helped me uh as well. Another interesting thing that I think that I do um and a lot more athletes are doing, I started adding in a lot more easy volume through cross-training. So I bike quite a bit. Um, so all my doubles I I do as as bikes. Uh one of my training days out of the week is just a really long bike ride. So um like once a week, I'm getting like uh a two to three hour long bike ride. And um, I'm living out in Colorado now, so I'm like doing it up in the mountains like that. So I get this really big, like functionally, like an extra long run per week. Um, but it doesn't beat up my legs quite as much. So doing less miles than I have in the past, but I'm getting longer, longer uh aerobics.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_11So I I've really upped my hours but reduced my mileage. So that has the effect of uh getting me much more aerobic volume and uh building up my base, but also I feel fresher now. Like I don't feel as beat up as like when I was trying to get like 90 miles a week. Now I'm like closer to like 70 or like sometimes hitting 80 if I'm I'm doing a big block. Um and like that that's just so much easier on my legs, I'm recovering better. Um and and all that. So I think those are probably and then I guess like this is another caveat that I feel like is worth mentioning is I did to uh Colorado. So there is that elevation um element to things, and I I I don't think that's the the biggest deference. Um, but as as a coach who loves throwing caveats into things, I I would it would pain me not to mention that um I started like I'm I'm living at at altitude um now. And then um yeah, so I I'd say those were the biggest things that I've kind of like changed in in my training. So it's a lot of things, um, and it's hard to say which one has has made the biggest difference, or if like any of them is like making an individual difference, or it's an accumulation of differences, and that's kind of like the tricky thing about training theory, right? And that's that's just like the tricky thing about all sorts of like training stuff. So um, but that's that's basically what I've what I've tried.
SPEAKER_14No, that's that that's great. I think anyone can at least like use one of the things you've said and and use it for themselves. And it's you know, it's it's never anything super crazy, but um that's the that's
Final Thanks And Sign Off
SPEAKER_14the beauty of running. It's it's it's a pretty simple sport. Um I think this is about it for our questions. So I think we'll let you get your ice cream. Congrats again for that, Mason.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, congrats. Yeah, thank you so much for broadcasting all of this and like all the work that you've put in. Like, again, that that really like helps uplift the sport and really appreciate all the work that you're doing here.
SPEAKER_08Thank you, man. Congrats, Mason. Thank you.
SPEAKER_05He's not limping. Good for him.
SPEAKER_04Okay, we'll see if there's anyone else coming up here.
SPEAKER_13It would be great if we could get like Courtney or Rena. Somebody, yeah. Uh or Aries or or Dan. Yeah, one other uh other mail.
SPEAKER_08Oh, it's Paul. Mr.
SPEAKER_12Paul.
SPEAKER_04Paul. How'd you feel during the race today? No, just kidding.
SPEAKER_12Um, I'll feel better in a couple hours. So I just wanted to uh say thank you so much to all four of our hosts. Um, this is uh a little bit of a DIY operation, and it just could not be done without all of all of your assistance and everything. Um, I know you guys all prepared for this. Remy, it's it's very much appreciated that you could join, even though you couldn't race, you added so much to it. So thanks for everyone who was helping out with it, all of our camera people out there, and thank you to the whole audience for uh joining in this time.
SPEAKER_02Thanks to you, Paul. It seems to be better every year. Thanks for having us. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_12Sure, and hopefully we'll see you at another 603 race in the future, everyone. So thanks again, and that's concludes our live stream.
SPEAKER_15Thanks all. Take care. Thank you guys.
