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Michael Wardian: Giant Steps, Adventure Across the Seas and to the Moon. Dirt Church Radio 303.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit dirtchurchradio.substack.com
Kia ora e te whanāu.This week on Dirt Church Radio Ali and Matt speak to a colossus of our sport, Mike Wardian. Regarding Mike’s running achievements, it’s probably easier to go back and look at what he hasn’t done. He is known for his phenomenal endurance, ability to recover from huge efforts (sometimes backed up the next day), and an all-consuming love for adventure. In this episode, we talk about completing his first marathon with his son, his trip down to attempt Tour Te Waipunamu and the curiosity that drives Wardian to consider feats of adventure that truly boggle the mind. Dirt Church Radio - Best Enjoyed Running
Enjoy!
Music by Andrew McDowall, Digicake
Listen to this week’s episode on your favourite app, or via the player above.
We’ve put this DCR episode into the AidStation podcast feed for free because the original DCR podcast you know and love will always be free. Paid subscribers get the AidStation podcast too.
Paid subscribers can read the rest of the newsletter, including Matt issuing a challenge, a book that tells a surprising story, and a tonne of stokety stokeness in The Stoke. If you haven’t already signed up for a monthly or annual subscription, we’d love to see you in the AidStation crew!
Merch alert!
Rep your 3rd favourite trail and ultra marathon podcast whilst keeping cool and breezy in this technical trucker hat. Pleasing woodland vista, and one size fits most. Out now!
$NZ59.99 plus postage and packaging with a discount for DCR AidStation paid subscribers (who can scroll down for the code).
Available from the DCR website
Our mates at Squadrun have come up with a special four-week training trial for listeners of DCR. Now as you’ll know from listening to DCR over the years, Squadrun is the baby of Kerry Suter and Ali Pottinger, and they have coached thousands of runners to success at a bunch of events we love and cherish and if you’ve been to any trail races on either side of the Tasman you’ll have seen the squadrun colours being represented strongly. So, if you want to give it a crack, here’s the link.
Missed out on episodes of the Dirt Church Radio podcast? Listen on your favourite app. There are more than 285 episodes.
And check us out on YouTube!
Dirt Church In The Wild :
Wednesday 20th November -Ali and Andrew will be crewing and running (respectively) at the mighty Coast To Kosci ultramarathon a 240km beast that runs from Eden to Mt. Kosciuszko
Saturday 23rd November - Matt is lining up at the Rage Against Riverhead 8-hour race.
Thursday 27th to Sunday 30th November- Ali and Matt will be commentating at Ultra Trail Kosciuszko by UTMB. Hi-fives and chats are most welcome.
Essay
The Four Elements of Trail Culture- It has to be about more than running.
I’ve been going back and forth on an idea all week, and I’m painfully aware that a middle-aged white dude putting this idea forth is possibly the most middle-aged and whitest thing ever, but hey, hell is empty and all the devils are here, right?
It’s all training training training at the moment. It’s enjoyable and it’s same-y. Running (ha!) 100 miles is going to be pretty same-y in places too and that’s fine. And it’s a grind. Referring to this over and over again is also a grind, and I guess this is the bare minimum statement, So I’ll stop saying it.
One of the things that has got me thinking about possibly the whitest and most middle-aged link ever was reading Jeremiah Johnson’s recent substack On Consumption vs Production where he argues convincingly that you need a bias towards action, that making or doing things rather than consuming things leads to a greater sense of self-worth and that the internet makes all of this easier, and at the same time, much harder.
The concept of “doing stuff’ vs “not doing stuff” is also relative. Outwardly it may appear that I do a lot of stuff, I work, do my best to raise competent, fallible, and loving young adults, and maintain a relationship that is edging up to a quarter of a century in duration. I do a podcast about running, I do running, I write about doing a podcast about running, sometimes, I might also do the lawns. I think about painting my house, then I don’t. I think about strength work, and I do it sometimes.
This list of things is more than some and a whole lot less than others. And as the saying that seems to be everywhere says “Comparison is the thief of joy”, and it’s hard not to compare ourselves to others, both in real life and on the internet. It’s particularly worrying that (for a guy who didn’t own his first cell phone until he was 23) these two realms appear to be merging.
I also worry that training and trying to keep up with the latest trends in the trail and ultra world is very inward-looking and in the case of the latter consuming other people’s content does nothing for your own sense of productivity.
View all episodes
By DCR AidStationThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit dirtchurchradio.substack.com
Kia ora e te whanāu.This week on Dirt Church Radio Ali and Matt speak to a colossus of our sport, Mike Wardian. Regarding Mike’s running achievements, it’s probably easier to go back and look at what he hasn’t done. He is known for his phenomenal endurance, ability to recover from huge efforts (sometimes backed up the next day), and an all-consuming love for adventure. In this episode, we talk about completing his first marathon with his son, his trip down to attempt Tour Te Waipunamu and the curiosity that drives Wardian to consider feats of adventure that truly boggle the mind. Dirt Church Radio - Best Enjoyed Running
Enjoy!
Music by Andrew McDowall, Digicake
Listen to this week’s episode on your favourite app, or via the player above.
We’ve put this DCR episode into the AidStation podcast feed for free because the original DCR podcast you know and love will always be free. Paid subscribers get the AidStation podcast too.
Paid subscribers can read the rest of the newsletter, including Matt issuing a challenge, a book that tells a surprising story, and a tonne of stokety stokeness in The Stoke. If you haven’t already signed up for a monthly or annual subscription, we’d love to see you in the AidStation crew!
Merch alert!
Rep your 3rd favourite trail and ultra marathon podcast whilst keeping cool and breezy in this technical trucker hat. Pleasing woodland vista, and one size fits most. Out now!
$NZ59.99 plus postage and packaging with a discount for DCR AidStation paid subscribers (who can scroll down for the code).
Available from the DCR website
Our mates at Squadrun have come up with a special four-week training trial for listeners of DCR. Now as you’ll know from listening to DCR over the years, Squadrun is the baby of Kerry Suter and Ali Pottinger, and they have coached thousands of runners to success at a bunch of events we love and cherish and if you’ve been to any trail races on either side of the Tasman you’ll have seen the squadrun colours being represented strongly. So, if you want to give it a crack, here’s the link.
Missed out on episodes of the Dirt Church Radio podcast? Listen on your favourite app. There are more than 285 episodes.
And check us out on YouTube!
Dirt Church In The Wild :
Wednesday 20th November -Ali and Andrew will be crewing and running (respectively) at the mighty Coast To Kosci ultramarathon a 240km beast that runs from Eden to Mt. Kosciuszko
Saturday 23rd November - Matt is lining up at the Rage Against Riverhead 8-hour race.
Thursday 27th to Sunday 30th November- Ali and Matt will be commentating at Ultra Trail Kosciuszko by UTMB. Hi-fives and chats are most welcome.
Essay
The Four Elements of Trail Culture- It has to be about more than running.
I’ve been going back and forth on an idea all week, and I’m painfully aware that a middle-aged white dude putting this idea forth is possibly the most middle-aged and whitest thing ever, but hey, hell is empty and all the devils are here, right?
It’s all training training training at the moment. It’s enjoyable and it’s same-y. Running (ha!) 100 miles is going to be pretty same-y in places too and that’s fine. And it’s a grind. Referring to this over and over again is also a grind, and I guess this is the bare minimum statement, So I’ll stop saying it.
One of the things that has got me thinking about possibly the whitest and most middle-aged link ever was reading Jeremiah Johnson’s recent substack On Consumption vs Production where he argues convincingly that you need a bias towards action, that making or doing things rather than consuming things leads to a greater sense of self-worth and that the internet makes all of this easier, and at the same time, much harder.
The concept of “doing stuff’ vs “not doing stuff” is also relative. Outwardly it may appear that I do a lot of stuff, I work, do my best to raise competent, fallible, and loving young adults, and maintain a relationship that is edging up to a quarter of a century in duration. I do a podcast about running, I do running, I write about doing a podcast about running, sometimes, I might also do the lawns. I think about painting my house, then I don’t. I think about strength work, and I do it sometimes.
This list of things is more than some and a whole lot less than others. And as the saying that seems to be everywhere says “Comparison is the thief of joy”, and it’s hard not to compare ourselves to others, both in real life and on the internet. It’s particularly worrying that (for a guy who didn’t own his first cell phone until he was 23) these two realms appear to be merging.
I also worry that training and trying to keep up with the latest trends in the trail and ultra world is very inward-looking and in the case of the latter consuming other people’s content does nothing for your own sense of productivity.