Karen Landers is a trail and ultra runner from Ontario, Canada. She has completed several marathons, 50 k race and this past summer a 50 miler. 
She is also an advocate for mental health and shares candidly her own story with depression and anxiety. This is an important conversation to have. 

If you need any resources for mental health in Canada 
https://cmha.ca
https://globalnews.ca/hamilton/program/health-and-wellness-show/?fbclid=IwAR1_Twfz7myuVCuQy-k1El1G4TSsuVEenNz6tkzCYHNzaCJOCu264A1MOSUhttps://www.facebook.com/karen.landers.75

Today's Sponser 

Biocell Life get 10$ 
https://www.modere.com/3733270 (US and international)
https://www.modere.ca/3733270 (Canada)Todays Sponser is Biocell 

Melissa Boufounos is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist and Precision Nutrition Level 2 Coach who helps competitive athletes simplify their fuelling plans so they can maximize their performance potential without counting calories, tracking macros or giving up their favourite foods. 

She was a competitive ice hockey player until 2015 and has been a competitive obstacle course race athlete since 2013. Melissa has competed in over 70 races, including the OCR World Championships.

Instagram 
https://www.instagram.com/melissaboufounos/
OCR nutrition course 
https://obstaclecourseracenutrition.com/ocr-performance-nutrition-course
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mbperformancenutrition

Episode Sponser 
Biocell Life get 10$ off for the month of February 
https://www.modere.com/3733270 (US and international)
https://www.modere.ca/3733270 (Canada)

Leslie Gerein https://www.instagram.com/lesliegerein/ from Banff, Alberta shares her love of mountains, adventure, bike packing and long distance hiking. Leslie has always loved the outdoors and mountains and grew up skiing, camping and spending time outdoors. She was an avid ultra runner for six years completing Trans Rockies and Western States among many other races. In 2012 she decided to 'take a long walk' and completed the 2600 mile Pacific Crest Trail solo in just 3.5 months, since then she has completed multiple long distance hikes including the 1000 km Bibbulmun Trail in Western Australia, The Arizona trail, the great divide trail and has hiked the Continental Divide trail. In recent years she has also done many bike packing adventures. We talk about the magic of just saying yes to adventure and not overthinking the planning part, the beauty of micro adventures, embracing solitude and prioritizing time over 'things'. 

Andrea Dowd of Precision Sports Therapy https://precisionst.ca joins us to share her expertise as an athletic therapist. She has worked with elite athletes including runners, NHL hockey players, cyclists and more. We also discuss her work with the Rwandan national cycling team and you check out more about the project here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_tp6O8WOR8
Andrea has her own You Tube channel, check it out as she post tons of great content and exercising specific to runners as well https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChYqpXfO83b9hL-mnxMC2BA

Gabriel Torres is a tour guide and adventurer located in Barichara, Colombia also known as the 'prettiest town' in Colombia. He shares with us his love of the mountains and ancient pathways in Colombia. He is currently working on an ambitious project to scout out and map these ancient trails connecting the coast of Colombia to the capital of Bogota These are indigenous trails and also known as royal roads from the Colonial times. It is a fascinating conversation about the history of these trails. Although traveling is limited at the moment I hope this conversation will spark some inspiration to consider visiting Colombia one day. It is a great destination for hiking, trekking, mountain biking and yes trail running! Check out the expeditions and services that Gabriel has to offer here https://buddytrekking.wixsite.com/buddytrekking
He also including his telephone number that you can reach him on using Whats app 311 889 4386and follow him on https://www.instagram.com/buddytrekking/ As one can imagine the tourism industry is suffering in Colombia and Gabriel is looking for help to find and purchase a 360 degree camera that would help him create some virtual tours he can offer during the pandemic and help him in his business. If you know of a cost effective solution or have access to this type of gear please consider helping Gabriel out and reach out to him on Instagram or WhatsApp.

Steve Hunter is from Orangeville, Ontario. He ran his first half-marathon in 2014 and his first ultra in 2015. He then went on to run the Ontario Ultra Series in 2016 placing third overall for the 50 k series and 1st for the ultra series for 40-49 age group. He completed his first 100 miler in 2016 and since then Steve has completed several 100 milers and helped many other athletes in the Ultra community through pacing and crewing at other 100 milers, 200 milers and FKTs. We discuss his transformation in his forties from losing weight and starting to run, Western States qualifying races as he pursues his goal to run Western States one day, pacing and what it takes to make a good pacer and much more.  Steve is a good friend of mine and this conversation was long overdue and if I ever sign up for another 100 miler I will definitely be asking Steve to pace me.

Renelle Briggs is a 19 year old varsity athlete at McMaster University, where she competes in both track and cross country events. While she does like track, she prefers the distance of cross country more. She has raced at multiple provincial championships for both, and has competed in 6 national cross country championships.
In this episode we discuss racing at a varsity level, body image, Renelle's work as an entrepreneur and we talk about Renelle's recent social media post with her Dad discussing  his experience growing up black in Canada. 
Renelle is such a vibrant inspiring and driven woman and it was a joy to get to know her better and have this conversation. 
Follow Renelle @renellebriggs on instagram 

George Brown is 67 and lives in Houston, Texas. He has been running since the 1970's and ran his first marathon in Japan when he was a US Marine. Since then he has completed over 50 marathons and completed the Trans Rockies a 120 mile six day stage race. We chat about maintaining longevity in the sport, embracing and enjoying running at the front, mid or back of the pack. Highly introverted, running allows George time for contemplation and reflection and racing allows him a time to connect with other like minded individuals and share the challenges, struggles and triumphs of the trail. I met George at the Transelkirks Stage Race in 2018 and he has become a dear friend, it was so great to reconnect with him and learn more about his story.

It was such an honour to speak with Lisa Felder. She has run hundreds of marathons and ultra marathons. She has been running over 40 years and coaching for over 20 years. She is in the running hall of fame! Now in her seventies Lisa continues to be passionate about running and coaching. We learn about her story, how she maintains her longevity and passion for the sport. 
Born out of long-time Coach 'Mama Lisa' Felder's personal experience with and passion for long-distance running, she has begun her own program, Ultra Fitness Beyond Imagination. Find out more at https://www.ultrafitnessbeyondimagination.com

Lisa has been running since the early 1980's, finishing nearly 300 marathons, a Duathlon, a Century Bike Ride, has hiked the Grand Canyon and completed 111 ultra-marathons. She started her coaching career in 1996, for the San Francisco Fit team, and over the next two years, helped implemented "Fit First" program in the Bay Area. From 1998-2009 she coached the East Bay run team for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program (TNT). In 2009, she launched the first ever TNT Ultra Team, the largest endurance program in the world. Lisa is an incredible athlete in her own right and has decided to expand her Ultra training program beyond TNT after successfully coaching ultra runners for the past four years.

Part of our 'Corona Catch up call' series. Juan Araque is from Quito, Ecuador and spent some time in Canada while going to school. He shares with us his experience with the pandemic and what is like now in Quito. We also talk about the running scene in Ecuador and learn about some trail and mountain races in Ecuador to think about racing when the travel restrictions are over.