We talk to Tom Joly about his thoughts on sponsorship and going professional in ultra running, as well as his racing and training. We discuss over training, coaching and what it's like being a professional runner. Check out the thought-provoking article he wrote on this subject.

https://www.athelysium.com/post/going-pro-in-trail-running-what-are-you-worth

This week we talk to Mike Jones from Apex Running and discuss the races he organises in Wales and Ireland. We chatted about how he started, his ambitions for Ultra Tour Snowdonia when he created the race, and his new role organising the UK Skyrunning series and the growth of this unique corner of the running world.

Find out more: 

https://www.skyrunninguk.com/

https://apexrunning.co/

Robin and Kate chat to Fiona Pascall , discussing her win at Chianti by UTMB and the Golden Ticket to Western States she got as a result. They also discuss Fiona's new business, Trail Retreats, offering trail running weekends away with like-minded people.

We then turned to the numbers of women on the start line, anxiety and the pressures of being a professional athlete, and how not to stretch, among many other topics! 

Rachel White is a nutritionist and has written articles for RunUltra in the past. Kate talks to Rachel about her support for Will Robinson when he ran across India in 8 days, followed shortly by completing the full Winter Spine and how she prepared his nutrition for both races.

They chat about the need to consider your nutrition right from the outset of training for a race, and discuss the importance of nutrition before, during and post race. They also touch on the different nutrition needs women face during the menopause. 

You can find more about Rachel via https://rachelwhitenutrition.com/

Winner of the Arc of Attrition by UTMB, Lewis Ryan ran the third fastest time, right on the heels of Storm Éowyn. We chat to Lewis about training, beer and more importantly, what his favourite children's programme is.

Kate and Robin chat to Laura Watts about her invitation to run Badwater 135 for the 4th time in a row, and her impressive ultra CV. We talk about the amazing races she's done, plus discuss nutrition, shoes and the in-depth preparation and heat training she does for running in extreme temperatures.

Laura has supported us and written many race reports for RunUltra, so it was a real pleasure to finally talk to her face to face, albeit on screen. Apologies for Robin's audio - it does improve!

We talk to Spine sensation Lucy Gossage after her spectacular win at this month's Winter Spine. We discuss her back story; being a champion Triathlete, the revelations around her ex partner at the Spine in 2024, fitting in training around being an Oncologist, her own charity Move Against Cancer and much more. 

We talk to the winner of the 2025 Montane Winter Spine, Kim Collison. We talk about his race, his strategies, how it felt winning after 3 previous DNFs.

We chat to Debbie about the Spine, WSER, Wildheart Runners, running at night and egg Robin on to sign up for more races!

We also discussed funding for the GB team - please do donate to the team GoFundMe which will be used to help any team members who struggle to fund themselves.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-gb-travel-get-to-the-iau-world-100km-championships

Kate and Robin chat to Matt Green, of Summit Media. They chat about this year's projects; a variety of films such as Talk to Frank (the dog talks in this one) to Renee McGregor's raw and emotive Unfiltered. Matt reveals how it all started with his wife Ellie, how they do what they do in the toughest of terrains, and what is on the cards for next year.

This is our last podcast of 2024 - and together Robin and Kate look forward to 2025, which kicks off with Debbie Martin-Cosani in mid-January.

Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for joining us on our podcasting journey.