Today, we are thrilled to welcome professional ultra trail runner and Ironman triathlete Lucy Bartholomew to the show. Lucy has talked so openly about the high highs and the low lows of doing what she is called to in this life, and yet she continually persists to, as she says, uplevel to a new devil.

At age 27, Lucy is already a trail running veteran with course records, podium finishes, and many lessons along the way. Lucy has crossed the finish line at the most significant events in the sport, like the Tarawera Ultramarathon, Western States, and, most recently, Ultra Trail Du'Mont Blanc, where she placed 10th.

She has also embarked on solo adventures that have taken her to the limit, like the 231 K trek along the Larapinta Trail in Australia's Northern Territory. Salomon Running created a fantastic film, Running Out, which documents this incredible feat. But the piece that caught our attention was last year when Lucy crossed the finish line at Ironman Western Australia and qualified for the Ironman World Championship, which takes place in Kona, Hawaii, in just a few weeks.

Trail and triathlon, they said it couldn't happen, and now it is all the time. We love the crossover, we love what we've seen in following Lucy's story, and we're so grateful to have this beam of sunshine with us today. We hope you enjoy the show.

Thank you for listening. Be sure to check out NEW PATREON tiers to support this, and the Awake Athlete podcasts; let's keep both commercial-free!

In this episode, we discuss:

- Finding flow again at Tarawara

- UTMB and Ironman World Championship

- Pinnacles of the sport side by side

- Endurance sports is problem-solving with a little exercise in between

- Happening "to" you or "for" you

- Process and privilege of getting gritty

- The honor of knocking on the pain cave door and being let

- Calm, confident, curious

- Outrun the love of running

- When you think you know it, you don’t

- All gear, no idea

- Biggest learning from Ironman Western Australia

- Nutrition changes from ultrarunning to triathlon

- Lucy’s dad's experience at Western States 100 Endurance Run

- Trusting intuition to fuel the body with plants

- Favorite dish from her cookbook - Dahl - zero waste recipe

- Resonating with professional athlete Heather Jackson

- Favorite moment of UTMB

Namaste-

Jess