Everyone craves a big plate of pasta and tall glass of wine while running an ultra, right?! Sarah Lavender Smith of Colorado Mountain Running and Living chats about one of the most memorable aid stations she’s ever encountered, as well as shares her experience volunteering at mile 58 of the Hardrock 100 and how she used that experience to strategize for her own 100 miler, the High Lonesome 100. Even though Sarah has run countless ultra events, she still experienced a first at the High Lonesome 100!

“I took up ultras in the early 2000s after a decade of road running. I've done like 100 ultras. I've never puked. It's like losing your virginity, puking in an ultra. It's the thing everyone does at some point. And I finally, like the full on uncontrollable yawn. Just horrible.”

We paint lovely pictures on the podcast! ;-) Sarah is a great guest and follow, both on Substack and social media (IG and Twitter). She’s also written a book “The Trail Runner's Companion: A Step-by-Step Guide to Trail Running and Racing, from 5Ks to Ultras.” I reached out after she wrote “Anatomy of an Aid Station” and knew I had to chat with her about it!

“I would pinpoint one runner and latch onto him or her and say, “Hey, I'm your helper. Let me know what you need.“ I would stick with that person and do everything I could to help that person, whether it was helping them get their shoes off and change their socks and deal with their gross feet or getting them food or wrapping. Those were just some of the things that made it special.”

Check it out and let me know some aid station stories of your own in the comment section! Thank you to those that submitted your questions for Sarah, it’s always appreciated. We didn’t quite answer them all, but the best aid station memory that Sarah shared made up for it…

Next week the podcast is back! We’re getting ready for Squamish 50 and we’ve got the first multi-guest show coming to preview the weekend. This podcast will take place of the written piece that would usually come. Guests have been awesome and generous, so we’re gonna roll with it!

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Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

Don’t forget to recommend your recent favourite races!

If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Galiano Island is a singletrack paradise. The ease with which you can get onto the trails and run is unparalleled, and the vistas offered up are second to none. The island is the perfect spot for a trail-running weekend. With great food, accommodations, and other entertainment available, a weekend on Galiano is a weekend you won’t regret. The island has something for everyone!

The Galiano Trails Society is a huge reason for the amazing trail running network. They help build and maintain the network of trails up and down the island. On the podcast, I speak to two board members of the Society about what the Society does and how the network of island trails continues to grow. Those board members are Vilupti Corlis and Jesse Keefer and they also shared a few other things they love about the island. I’ve already covered some of this in a written piece that went up last week:

You can get the podcast anywhere you listen:

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I also had a couple of close running friends, Jeff Radomsky and Chris Shier, join me for a running weekend on the island. I included some of their feelings about what it was like to run on the island. It was a ton of fun to put this series together, as Galiano is a special place and I love being able to share it with anyone on any level. Listen to this podcast, read the written piece, and book your trip to Galiano. You won’t be disappointed!

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Addie Bracy is a Mental Performance Consultant, and so much more. She’s a professional runner, she’s a cofounder for OUTrun which connects and supports LGBTQ+ individuals, she is a Runners Alliance ambassador, which highlights harassment on the trails, and she’s the author of “Mental training for ultra running”.

She was kind enough to join me on the podcast and talk about how she got to where she is today and we even got to a listener's question from Twitter. It was a great chat and I think you will enjoy everything she had to say! She is really excited about getting to share what she has learned and make it accessible.

“My main goal was to make that information very accessible. The book was mainly the first project I did after school. I want this to be distributed as much as it can be. So that's been kind of the motive the last few years.”

“I think sometimes people just want to not have those negative thoughts and they think that if they do, then, okay, well, I'm having this negative thought about this situation and it kind of spirals from there. Obviously, it's hard to come back from that, but in reality that's normal.”

Here you can follow Addie’s Instagram and Twitter pages.

Her personal practice is Strive Mental Performance and her run coaching is Sharman Ultra Coaching.

Her insight into mental performance is really fun to listen to. She’s been featured on many other podcasts and you may end up going down the rabbit hole to find more!

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Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

31 trail runners from 7 different countries sent me their trail running tips and I shared them all last week in the written newsletter. This week is the podcast version!

The reaction to the post has been fantastic as other runners have reached out and told me how much they enjoyed it, and some have even commented on their own tips!

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This episode goes over some favourite tips and I add some personal anecdotes. I had so much fun reading every single submission and it was a treat to put them all together and share them!

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Hello and welcome to the Community Trail Running Newsletter!

Sorry for the mass of emails the last couple of days, everything should be back to normal after this. Things are going to look slightly different around here with a new logo and name, but everything else is business as usual.

“Community Trail Running” is more straight-forward than “Ultrapostie thoughts in my head”. Simple as that. I’d like to grow the community here and a simple name that gets straight to the point is a more direct path.

Mission Statement

Inform, entertain, and inclusively serve as an online extension of the trail running community.

This is what the newsletter will continue to be all about.

Posts will still come out on the same days. Mondays for podcasts and Wednesdays for written pieces, with the occasional extra thrown in. I’m absolutely loving getting the opportunity to share with all of you!

A huge thank you to SK Designs for the new logo. I love it and the few variations I have. I will cycle through all of them I’m sure!

If you enjoy my newsletter, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running newsletter it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails.

Hello and welcome to the Community Trail Running Podcast! An extension of the trail running community and always 15 minutes or less. We’ll feature useful and entertaining guests and the show will be inclusive, adventurous, and fun. Subscribe today, join the community and let’s grow this together.

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Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Scott Snell ran 254.167 miles (409.04 km) in just under 62 hours (finishing 62 yards) to capture the Capital Backyard Ultra title on May 28, 2022. An absolutely incredible feat that he accomplished without a crew!

Scott faced some highs and lows but managed to outlast a talented and deep field. His lows were tough and although he didn’t have any crew on hand, he explained there is always one person he knows that will tell him what he needs to hear.

“I called my wife and I was like, look, I think I'm going to quit. I'm done. I'm tired of this. And she reminded me that the reason I was there, what I said I was going to do was keep going until either I’m the last one or until I time out, whichever comes first.”

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Scott spoke glowingly of his wife’s support and about what Lazarus Lake has meant to ultra running. Laz was helping Scott get a few winks of sleep since he didn’t have a crew on hand. The famous race director also wrote a really awesome race update going into the 59th yard that you should read for yourself. It’s so cool how inspired Laz was seemingly feeling from Scott’s run. Scott is an easy guy to cheer for! Follow along and cheer him on as well here on his IG page.

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

You are going to share a lot of personal information with your running coach if you want to benefit the most from the relationship and tutelage. Sharing all of this with someone is a huge act of trust and so it’s crucial that you and your coach have a great relationship. Personal Peak coach Chantelle Erickson preached the importance of a connection with her athletes during our interview.

“I mean, that's how we help you. And where I coach, I rejig programs all the time. It's pretty much every week I'm rejigging something. And it's those kinds of flexible things. Being able to communicate and just listen to your athletes.

I'm here to coach a person's goals and dreams. I'm here for them and to keep them on track with their goals.”

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Chantelle is living in Lethbridge, AB these days, and was a great guest who is clearly passionate about helping others. She was a terrific interview! The interview went so well and so fast that I didn’t get to the submitted questions, and for that, I apologize!

Perhaps you can reach out on her IG page and ask her a question!

Chantelle’s Instagram

Chantelle’s Personal Peak coaching page

A reminder I still want your best two trail running tips! I’m accepting entries until the end of May and the article will be published on the first day of summer. Thank you to all of you that have submitted so far, it could be a record as far as participation and that’s amazing!

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Mathias Eichler is involved in trail running in all kinds of ways, as he runs and hosts a podcast (Singletrack), so directing a race doesn’t seem like much of a stretch for the man now calling Olympia, Washington, home. We had a chance to chat about his Rock Candy Running races which run from July to December in and around Olympia.

“It’s something very new and I’m super excited about it and I’m putting everything I have into it. "

Mathias is a super creative guy and the opportunity to create a race from scratch is something he loves. It was so fun to hear the passion he has for these races and I’m sure it’s going to be a complete blast to take part in any of them. It’s clear he’s invested himself in these races in a big way.

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Rock Candy Running Schedule:

July 23 - Beast of Big Creek (Half marathon and 7m)

August 6 - Little Backyard Adventure (6 hour challenge)

September 17 - Rock Candy Mountain Run (12 hour challenge)

December 17 - Saturnalia (10km)

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Nutritionist Kristen Yarker shared great information about how to eat while training. She tells us how to ensure our body is recovering and getting enough out of what we eat to help us make forward progress!

“Aiming for a good 6 servings of vegetables or fruit a day is an important one. And the next one is just getting enough food (or calories) in general. The third one is hydration. If you’ve arrived at your training already dehydrated, you can’t make up for that.”

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Kristen runs a team of registered dieticians, she’s written a cookbook, she is well versed in all things nutrition, and in this chat, she shared a wide range of sports nutrition information. She is a wealth of knowledge and also, a really easy person to chat with! I hope you enjoy the chat and the information as much as I did.

Click here to read Kristen’s nutrition website

Click here to read her Instagram

I was also once again able to take some questions from Twitter!

I absolutely love being able to share your questions as I love to be able to provide the information you are thinking about :) So watch out and follow me on the various channels, so you can get your questions in there in the future as well!

Where do you think trail running is going? I talked about this in the intro of the podcast, but I recently posted some thoughts on this in a newsletter post. Mostly though, I wanted to hear from you! Where do you think it’s going?

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)