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This week on The Trailhead, Zoë and Brendan sit down with writer, runner, and trail storyteller Sarah Lavender Smith. Sarah has been chronicling the culture of trail and ultrarunning for more than 15 years, from writing for early trail mags to her popular Substack newsletter Mountain Running and Living. She joins us to talk about how she went from journalism to the trails, and how running became not just a sport but a second career.

Sarah opens up about what it means to write honestly about midlife and aging, how she’s rethinking her relationship with alcohol, and why acceptance is sometimes the hardest training block of all. She also shares the story of finishing Hardrock at 56 and why stage racing like the Grand to Grand Ultra has become her true test of endurance. Along the way, we get into parenting at aid stations, practicing maximum enthusiasm, and how she’s turning all of this into her next big project: a memoir. 

It’s a conversation about resilience, storytelling, and the strange joy of chasing meaning in the mountains, sometimes through suffering, sometimes through laughter, but always through a love of the trail.

Thanks to Running Warehouse for sponsoring The Trailhead!

This week's featured race, Go Wild! Marin Challenge.