Derek Schultz joins the Bear Right! Trail Pod for a jaunt down memory lane! Derek drank the coolaid early and has been the trail pusher for many an east coast, wet behind the ears kid with dreams of crushing some singletrack. He shares stories of getting into trail running, taking it way too far and the evolution of his own running outlook.

We talk about east coast trail running culture, favorite events and of course his amazing race out at Western States this year.

There were a few audio struggles with this one so my apologies for that. Not everyone has the same connection speed all the time...

It's what everyone has been waiting for! The East Coast perspective on Western States!

But first! The burliest 50ish mile race in the country just happened in the Catskills. Manitou's Revenge! We talk a little about this race, that we hope to give you more of later. Congrats to everyone who attempted the race this year!

Then we dive into Western! We talk about many of the people with East Coast Street Cred and how they might perform as well as the little known fact that "Walmsley Watch" is still on!

And finally we make our winner's circle picks as well DNF Predictions! It's fun, it's mean and we are pretty sure none of this will reach the ears of the athletes so hopefully, no harm no foul..

What was originally planned as a Western States Pre-Race Interview became more of an exploration into other things. Will talks with us about how he has grown as an athlete after his impressive Black Canyon performance and about the events that led to his withdrawal from this year's race.

We talk about the fears in this sport and Will's use of self-talk as a mental strategy and how this has been an important part of his ultra-running success.

With Will now a spectator for the 2025 WSER, we get into picks and East Coast favorites!

I mean really! It's just in one state!

Well, we don't get into that but we do get into the news and story lines evolving out of the lead up to American trail running's biggest day of the year! This takes center stage in today's episode. Afterward we talk about big races that happened across the east coast over the past several weeks and finish up with a super fun "Would you rather?" trail runner edition!

Ferdinand and Sam catch up after Ferdinand's incredible win at the Canyons 100 miler in a record performance.

We learn what a day is like in the life of a runner treating it as their profession.

Then we get a deep dive into the race that was Canyons. Ferdinand talks about not feeling like it was going to be his day early but remaining patient, dressing for the day and how he is the one person without devastating poison oak. We discuss respecting your competition by truly racing hard. He celebrates having a 5-Star pacer taking him through the final miles and the energy of closing hard in race that plays out amazingly like the 2015 WSER!

Always fun catching up with Ferd! He's a person who brings so much joy to everything he does and it's great to be a part of it.

Sorry about the gap between the intro music and our podcast start... Use those few seconds to stretch!

In episode 17 Chris and Sam bring some current topics to the table including a recent prompt from another trail running podcast!

We discuss why more attention should be given to east coast trail running, what race Sam should do next, doing what we want vs what we know will help and delve into the depths of Chris's injury despair.

What a great catch up with this year's Hyner Champs!

We get to know Noah, Alicia and Andrew and learn about their journeys in the sport. This became "the family" episode by surprise! It makes sense though when Hyner truly does feel like a family event!

Thanks to everyone and hope you all enjoy!

Did you want a breakdown of the competitive field?

Did you want race predictions?

Cours Record watch? Storylines and hot takes?

Well sorry, this ain't that kinda preview. We dive into kaleidoscopic web of Matt Lipsey's mind to discover tidbits of geologic history, find out why fish were born to run and hints on how to locate fresh water on course. Could it be by befriending a deaf squirrel?

Whether this is useful to anyone is to be debated but it's certainly way more fun than your typical preview!

Well the 2025 HAT 50K is in the books and we recap the awesome team competition with Men's Champ Pat Blair and Team Champ Member/Top Banana Chris Lewars.

Then we delve into the History of HAT 50K and find out how Tim got hoodwinked into RDing for nearly 20 years now.

We talk about how truly special this race is, the course, the swag, the check-in process from heaven, the awards and of course THE VOLUNTEERS. So many races claim to have the best but they obviously haven't been to HAT then. Yeah, so for the most part we just gush about how special this event is!

Enjoy and Happy Trails!

In episode 15 Sam and Chris welcome Pat Blair, Adam Driscoll, Simon Arendt, Jeremy Splitter and Niko Teller to the podcast to hash out the team competition set to take place at this year's HAT 50K. We sort of figure out the race structure at some point, try to figure out who is actually fit and take a few questionable tangents.

have fun!