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As you know, when I’m not running in the Leadville Trail 100, I work at the Winfield aid station at mile 50.  That’s where I had a very brief encounter with plant-based endurance runner Robbie Balenger, who was completing his summer-long Colorado Crush.  Robbie had previously run the Leadville Marathon as well as the Silver Rush 50-mile.  I’ve had runners who don’t run ultras gasp, wow, he did all that?  Which kind of cracks me up because lots of people have done that, including me.  However, between the marathon and the Silver Rush 50, Robbie also ran the entire 587-mile Colorado Trail in 11 days.  And in-between the Silver Rush and the LT100, Robbie climbed all of the Fourteeners, the 58 14,000 peaks in the Colorado Rockies.  Now that’s worth gasping over!  Rather than put his feet up and light up a cigar, Robbie then headed over to England to help friend William Goodge complete 48 marathons, one in each county in England, in 30 days.

What struck me about Robbie at Winfield was that despite the fact he had to have been massively tired, and like most race competitors, needed to get out of the aid station as quickly as possible, he graciously posed for selfies with aid station volunteers.  Robbie lives right here in Denver, so I’m very grateful he stopped by the Hive to chat.  His generosity and good nature comes through in this episode.  He was driving his very cool wrapped van that he used on his earlier cross-country run.  In addition to that feat, Robbie this March set the FKT for running the looped road in New York’s Central Park during its open hours from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m., 16 laps and almost 100 miles in total.  I’m personally just amazed that he spent that much time in Central Park without getting mugged at least three times!  Maybe muggers don’t like to touch vegans.  Yes, he does all of this as a plant-based athlete, so listen along if this intrigues you.

Robbie Balenger
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Bill Stahl
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