Bugs Cancel a Race, Cocodona 250 Lottery System + Emma Bates Dropped While Pregnant? (Singletrack News)

This week on Singletrack News, Finn Melanson and Alyssa Clark cover one of the wildest race cancellations in recent memory, a brewing sponsorship controversy, a landmark change at one of ultra running's most iconic events, and a full roundup of results from Crown King, Buffalo Stampede, and the Arizona Monster 300.

Timestamps:

• 02:54 Antelope Island Buffalo Run Cancellation
• 05:51 Trailhouse Announces New Head Coach
• 08:59 Emma Bates Controversy
• 11:40 Cocodona 250 Lottery System
• 14:46 Trail Super Shoe Power Rankings
• 17:43 Crown King, Buffalo Stampede Race Results
• 20:42 London Marathon Two-Day Format
• 23:40 UTMB Parenthood Policy
• 26:21 Content Finds of the Week
  
  

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This episode of the Single Track Podcast is brought to you by Precision Fuel and Hydration, the official nutrition partner of the show. So here's the situation. I am nine weeks out from the Scout Mountain, 100 miler up in Pocatello, Idaho. And over the next few weeks, I am introducing longer runs into my rotation. We're talking four, five, six-hour outings. One of my go-to products in the field will be Precision's 300 gram flow gel pouches. That's 10 of their standard PF30 gels in a single resealable pouch. It makes carrying a lot of nutrition really simple. Oh, other thing, it is the same gel, but it's re-engineered to flow more easily without even adding water. So sometimes I'll bring their flow bottles too, and I'll put about 120 grams in each. It makes hourly consumption easy to track too. Anyways, of all else, go to Precision's website, check out their fuel and hydration planner. I have a link for that in our show notes. That's going to get you squared away planning wise for your next big race, too. And if you end up getting some product, use code SINGLETTRACK for a nice discount at checkout. This episode is also brought to you by Norda, the official footwear partner of the show. By chance, did you see that they released new colorways for the 005? That is right. Laser and Comet Colored both look sick. They make the lightest, fastest, most stable super shoes, even more cooler and fun to run in. Go check them out at NordaRun.com. This is the Monday, March 30th edition of Single Track News, joined as always by Alyssa Clark. Alyssa, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

I'm doing well. I uh hopped in a 10K yesterday that was kind of cross-country style, and I am sore from that and the hill repeats today. So just uh ready to laze around this Sunday afternoon. How are you doing, Finn?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Okay, we got to keep it 100 here. I'm not doing amazing. It's been a tough weekend for us. I'll actually roll us into our first headline here. This is a crazy one. The Antelope Island Buffalo run canceled due to bugs. We've talked about races that have been canceled due to civil unrest recently, extreme weather events, now we've got bugs. Um, you were actually signed up for our 50k. You received a lot of our email communication. I can sort of summarize the the timeline of events and why we reached the decision that we reached, but any initial thoughts here?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

I think unfortunately, I mean, I'm really bummed for you guys. I know it's gonna be an incredible event. I know it's the first time that you had taken over that run. So was excited to see the inaugural gear for you all, but we'll have to wait for next year, unfortunately. I think it's just the reality of more and more of these what were seemingly freak events are no longer freak events. And I think it's just the reality of racing and climate change, and we're just here and it's not fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

For context on our side, there's basically a weather window out on Antelope Island where there's pre-mode trail running to be had, and it's October to March. It's basically late fall into very early spring. This event has been going on out there for 20 plus years. It's known as Salt Lake City's spring trailrunning season opener, very local event, uh, a ton of history. We take it over this year, really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, we had one of the craziest weather, one of the craziest winter seasons you can imagine. Very low snowpack, unseasonably warm. Uh, but sort of the final hatch, it was in this in the back half of March. We've we've had a crazy heat wave, uh, soared temps out there, multiple days over 80 degrees. And basically it moved mid to late spring up a month. So out on the island, these biting gnats hatch typically in mid to late April because of this winter and because of the heat wave. They ended up hatching about four days before our event. These are bugs that are bug spray resistant. If you are out there when they're out and about, you basically have to have full coverage. You're wearing a special head net, gloves, you're tucking in your socks over pants, heavy clothing. The State Park officials that work out there, they only go outside if they have if they have to. Um, I can't say it was a safety issue, uh, but it certainly was an experience issue. And we basically had to decide: do we want to subject runners, partners, volunteers, anyone on the ground to those conditions for 16 plus hours? And the answer for us was no. I think it's a very debatable question. There are some race directors, maybe many race directors, that would have preceded and still held the event, but we felt like it wasn't going to be a great situation for everyone involved. Because it was subjective, uh, we ended up offering full refunds and or deferrals to everyone who was involved in the race. I felt that was the best move to make. Again, that's a debatable position, too. But yeah, just a crazy situation. Uh we make our livelihood off of these events. So canceling is sort of uh an option of last resort. So I hope by communicating that background that this is literally our job. It's our livelihood. We are professional race directors, that um it had to be pretty bad for us to make that call. And we felt it was. So yeah, really, really sorry for the runners, really sorry for the community. But uh we'll be back March 13th, 2027, next year, about two weeks earlier than normal. And I I guess on our end personally, you know, we do these things year-round. And our next one is Twisted Fork on May 30th, about nine weeks from now. So it's full steam ahead for us there. But I'd I'd be lying to you if I said we weren't devastated that it hasn't been a tough week, or really two weeks, because we found out that it could be a possibility last week. We kind of started our advisory emails to runners and volunteers last Wednesday, and we were just kind of like fingers crossed that things would hold, but found out that they hatched on Tuesday, and that's when you start, you know, putting out this crisis plan and canceling things and having to make all the tough phone calls to partners and stuff. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

I mean, I think it was the right decision. I think we all like to complain a bit about bugs, and this would have been another level. So gosh, yeah, I it's such a tough position to be in. I think you made the right call. Also, the fact that you're offering deferrals, refunds, etc., there are a lot of races that there is a very firm stance on that not being possible, and I know that it's a big hit for the races to allow that to happen. So I think it just speaks to the character of you two and what you're building. So from the athlete perspective, I think you've done everything right. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

We tried, and again, maybe it's a longer conversation for uh, you know, a long run archives episode because I I do think all of our positions can absolutely be debated, and I don't fault race directors out there for having different plans in place. But um anyways, that's uh we we got to keep it 100 here on the podcast, and that's that's news that I think if uh that we that we have to cover. So Buffalo Run cancel, we'll see you next year. Next up here, and this is a continuation on what we were discussing last week with Trailhouse, but Trailhouse announces Matt Daniels as their head coach. The Trailhouse, if you listened last week, multi-brand athlete development initiative that we mentioned on last week's episode. Uh, they make another big step towards their summer 2026 launch. They announced Boulder, Colorado Local and Pro Trailrunner Matt Daniels as the team's head coach. Your thoughts here.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Well, it was a very odd coincidence that I actually happened to have a podcast scheduled with Jeremy and Emery the day after we released the podcast last week. And so I was able to chat with them about kind of a lot of the questions that we were talking about and thoughts that we had of what's their end goal, what are what's considered a success. And if you want to hear more on that, that's on the Everyday Ultra podcast that we go into discussion. And I think it's I'm excited. I think it's a really interesting idea. They're very thoughtful about the the intentions of it and what they're hoping to achieve by it. So I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

I texted Matt about this just to get some additional perspective for today's episode. He noted it's it's not your typical pro team formation. He sort of sees it as an incubator for young athletes to understand how to train properly, pick races strategically, you know, put themselves in the best positions to break through to the highish echelons of the sport, um, basically to become a pro early on in the most sustainable way possible. So I think he sees himself there to, you know, to be sort of a partner, a mentor, instill good habits and wisdom early. Um and then I think, you know, a couple of other interesting things. He says on the recruitment and application front, there has been no shortage of top young talent that's been wanted to come into this thing. So that's exciting. And then I also asked him, you know, what are the what are the comparisons here to Andy Wacker's trail team? I think that they see this trailhouse as just being like a more intense, immersive uh complement to what the trail team is doing, with the trail team maybe being slightly more broad, far reaching. Um, there's ways to be involved there where you don't necessarily be, you know, co-located in Boulder. So I think it's really cool that there's basically, you know, two complementary opportunities out there on the market right now for people that are in college thinking about trail or like, you know, immediately postgraduate and wondering, you know, what what is my ramp into uh into professionalism here?

SPEAKER_01 10:00

I love it. I mean, I think they complement each other in so many ways. And it's also I mean, if I were a college athlete trying to get into trail running, I would have no idea other than oh, I like to run in the mountains and eat snacks. It's like, how do you choose a race schedule? What are brands looking for, how to navigate, you know, partnerships, et cetera. And I realize probably college athletes are a lot more in tune with this than I was at the time because of NLA deals, all of that. Uh, so I do think they're a lot more savvy, but it is exciting to see that there is some guidance coming in when I think athletes need it the most.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Next up, Emma Bates controversially dropped. So earlier this past week, professional runner Emma Bates, who I would say in recent years has been known for her excellence in the road marathoning scene, put out an IG reel indicating that she was dropped by her previous nutrition sponsor, UCAN, after letting them know she was pregnant. In response, UCAN said Emma's contract expired in December of 25 and was being restructured beforehand. Apparently, they made a lower rate offer in November. This was before they learned of her pregnancy. That was rejected by Emma's team. It remained on the table but unchanged in January. Uh basically, UCAN maintains that the pregnancy did not influence negotiations. And also apparently they they paid her a pro-rated January compensation in good faith. It appears to be sort of Emma what Emma said versus what the brand said. And maybe you have additional facts here to bring in, but uh, who are we to believe?

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yeah, I mean, I don't. It's been really interesting to see it unfold because I'm saying I don't have more information than than what you presented, not that I don't believe Emma at all. It is really tricky because contracts do take a long time to like there is a lot of gray area, and especially there's often like a non-compete at the end that can get really iffy too. Of you're like, well, I've I've signed with someone else, but you can't announce for three months or change. And so I I feel like that the timing is just so unfortunate. If Emma felt and like that was how it was perceived by her team, et cetera, that she was dropped because she was pregnant, that's not okay. Like, are we not past this? That's I think that that's even the most important point is that this is even still a point of conversation that she could have been dropped for that reason. And I think that's where people are frustrated. I think that it's probably a little bit more nuanced, it sounds like, than just we found out you were pregnant, we will drop you. And again, I don't know more about this, but the fact that it's even a part of the conversation is like it's 2026. Let's move past that.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Next up, Cocodona 250 moves to lottery, starting with the 2027 edition, and due to the overwhelming popularity of the race, the Cocodona 250 is moving to a lottery system, opens May 1st, closes May 18th, results announced June 1st. Couple of interesting features. Previous finishes give you additional tickets up to three, and the lottery adjusts gender odds to boost women's selection adds up to approximately 7% to female share when underrepresented. And I guess that decreases as parody approaches and it's fully random once applicants reach 50% female. Your thoughts here?

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Well, one of the parts I was fascinated by is that there is going to there are going to be separate wait lists for male and female. So that yeah, I yeah, which is the first time I've heard of that for HERT. There are different categories. So there's veterans, there's first time in the lottery, then there's previous, like there's kind of four or five different categories that they'll separate for the wait list. But this, and I think hard rock also has separate wait lists. This is the first time I've ever heard it for male and female.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Did not know that. That's very cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Yeah, I really appreciated that.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

You know, one thought here from me. I recall last year's experience trying to sign up for Coca-Dona, and I I believe it signed up, it it sold out in maybe a day. It could have even been faster than that, maybe very likely faster than that.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

And I just think of like broke the website.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Broke the website. And you think of all the people that just need time to, especially for race like that, to think about it, get resources together. It it, you know, who is on that start list? It shouldn't be a function of how fast you can get to ultra sign up during the live stream and clicking the register button. So I I do like the fact that given how popular it is, you know, people basically have two, two and a half weeks to think about it and and throw their their hat in the ring. And maybe that does help create, in some ways, maybe even a more prepared field. You know, I don't know if the most impulsive people are always the people that are the most ready to do something like Okadona. So I think it could be good on multiple levels.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Oh, that is that is a very funny sentiment of the most impulse. I mean, I feel like all of us are a little bit impulsive to a certain extent, but yeah. Yeah, we're like, should I do that? Yeah. Yes. And you're like, that's how I end up running 300 miles across something or you know, being 250 race. Like, yeah, I thought it was a great idea on a you know Monday afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

John G., they are the official apparel partner of Singletrack and with warm temps in Salt Lake, basically here to stay. I re-upped the other day on late spring and summer apparel, specifically their mist colored run all day tee, their five-inch carbon colored AFO middle shorts, and another pair of their best in-class trail half tights. That's probably gonna get me set up for race day at Scout Mountain in June. I have to decide between the tights and the shorts. Honestly, probably go in tights. Anyways, go check it all out at jongy.com forward slash pages, forward slash single track. Using that link specifically helps us a ton. So does mentioning us in their post-purchase survey. Single track is also brought to you by Raid Research, the official equipment partner of the show. I have talked a lot about their LF2L belt in episodes past, but maybe not enough about some of the specs that make it my favorite belt on the market. Here are a few. First, the water maximization for belt size. I like that they innovated with a 650 milliliter flask instead of the standard 500mm. It's also got this special locking cap so it doesn't leak when pressure is applied to the nozzle. And it is compatible with a lot of the filter tops on the market, like the Caterdyne and Hydropack 2. Second, the belts pole carry setup. This is critical, especially now that we're in mountain running season. This 2.5 millimeter elastic cord that comes with it creates fantastic security and adjustability when I need it. Go check it out, raidresearch.com. That is spelled r-a-i-derech.com. Next up, Trailwaves reflects on Q1 Trail Super Shoe Power Rankings. Seth LaRue, we've mentioned him on the show before, author of the Trail Running Business Substack Trailwaves. He has been working on a system for trail super shoe power rankings over the past few months. To summarize broadly how it works, he ranks shoe brands by how often their athletes finish on podiums at major races. He weights the bigger, deeper events more. Notably, it is a subjective power ranking of performance visibility, not you know, sales or market share. Um, anyways, his Q1 rankings are live on his substack. He goes 12 deep. I've got the podium here: Terex, Hoka, ACG. Any any takeaways or surprises for you?

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Yeah, so I did look at this when it came out. I would say that where I find it interesting of Q1 is that a lot of European athletes are still doing schemo racing. And perhaps there's some bias of like Europeans haven't really gotten started as much. That being said, there was already been Chianti, there's been Transgrand Canaria, but I did think that was interesting. And also, like for me example, I often race later into the year and then kind of have a little bit of a reset before I'll race further. And I know like Katie Sha isn't raced this year, Jim Walmsley hasn't raced this year. There's a number of athletes that perhaps needed a bit more downtime after the following year and haven't jumped in. So it's just interesting to kind of see these preliminary results, and I'm very curious how that will change and update throughout the year. Also, I was interested to see the race choices. There's a few I would have probably added or maybe weighted a little bit differently. But yeah, I I think it's exciting. It's a fun, it's kind of like the uh free trails team rankings. I think it's exciting to see that there's more emphasis put on these, you know, ACG as a team, on as a team versus just individuals.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

This is something that Seth pointed out in his analysis, and I find it equally fascinating. He writes uh as one of the takeaways, brand success at sponsored races. So one of the consistent themes is that if a brand is sponsoring a particular event, for whatever reason, their athletes are more or less dominating as of late. So Terex dominated Tarawera, TNF showed out at Transgrand Canaria, a lot of these Hoka athletes crushed at Black Canyon. He mentions that they're also, you know, Hoka's the title sponsor for Western E Timby, so maybe we see that extended later the rest of the year. But that is interesting. That um, and I don't know necessarily what it is, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Oh, I can tell you. It's bonus structure. So they're waiting those races for athletes to be there because they're the title sponsor. Also, there's probably going to be more support for them of like, hey, here's a team house, here's your accomplish, here's your flights, etc. We're gonna have X amount of people on ground. So they are waiting these events so that athletes are more supported, more compensated to be there.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Next up, uh a bunch of results to go through. Maybe we start with the Air Have you have you followed the Arizona Monster this weekend at all?

SPEAKER_01 20:42

I oh my gosh, it looks like they're going through a war zone. It is rough.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Rough. Rough. Yeah. So we've got at the time of this recording, uh, men's leaders Mike McKnight and Ryan Snickles are about 180 miles in on the women's side. Celine Malone and Tisdell about 160 miles in. Yeah, extreme heat. A few notable a lot, yeah. Some of these folks more so from the influencer crowd, but like I was following Andy Glaze's stories, Eli Webb's stories. Eli had to drop quite early due to his body failing him. I guess he was worried about Rhabdo.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

But um Catrick Corbett also dropped quite early with some scary health um concerns. Yeah, it just looks brutal. So hats off to everyone.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Uh another another rough year at the monster. Uh okay, uh, worldwide here, Buffalo Stampede put on by Single Track Events, Australia based event company. They also put on the GPT 100, that's part of the World Trail Majors. Uh, this Buffalo Stampede, it's one of the bigger events on the Aussie Trail and Ultra Scene, just northeast of the Melbourne area. George Knight and Fuzia Zhang took wins at the 100K, which I believe is the premier distance of that event. George notably dueled uh for the first 50k with Caleb Olsen last year at GPT. Check him out, super interesting guy. Fuzhao, I think, has a new spot. Is she Arcterics now? I think she has a new, a new partnership there. I think she did she leave Hoka.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

I don't know, actually. That's a good question.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

I thought there was movement there. And I again, someone needs to fact check me, but I I think this might be her first race with a new partner. Um stateside here, Crown King 50K. This is a pure uphill mountain 50k finishes in the Bradshaw Mountains in the town of Crown King, which also doubles as mile 37 on the Cocodona course. Ailsa McDonald took the win on the women's side 440. Kevin Tedonio won it on the men's side in 413. And then lastly, and again, I kind of I got to put the bat signal out here for some info, but Vontou Trail over in France happened this weekend. The 2026 edition also hosts championship races as part of uh Championat de France. And I am wondering if this is, and this is for the audience, I am wondering if this year's event are the selection races for the French teams that are going to be represented at the World Trail Championships uh next year in 2027. And I, if I remember correctly, they they got their teams together quite early, like over a year in advance for 2025. Um, that edition of the World Trail Championship. So uh I need some help. Anyone listening in France, Europe, or just knows this scene, let us know. But um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

I just did a quick Instagram search. We'll see if this is actually accurate. Hujao does not have Hoka listed in her bio anymore, and she does have other sponsors, but does not have another sponsor listed, and it did not look like there was a we'll say cohesive branding on her finished photo, which can often mean that athletes are maybe in transit or like maybe in the middle of something. So yeah, I hope I wish her the best. I hope that uh there's maybe an announcement soon, but it does appear there might be a change.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Okay. This is another follow-up on last week's edition, but uh Tenerife, and this is coming from the Trail Mix newsletter. Apparently, UTMB has no plans to replace the Tenerife live stream that was canceled uh and porting it to another event later this year. Uh Trail Mix also was able to find the price tag for this year's broadcast, 82,000 euros. So, again, just for for folks that are wondering of like about like behind-the-scenes costs and what it takes to produce these live streams at UTMB events and others around the world, 82,000 euros for for this one. And um I don't fault them at all for you know not being able, you know, in real time to port that thing over to Chianti. But uh I was, you know, it was an open question for me if they were gonna, you know, move those resources to another event later this year. I guess the answer is no. Okay. Uh next up, two-day London marathon question mark. According to The Guardian, the London Marathon organizers are in advance talks to stage a two-day marathon next year with 50,000 runners taking part on each day. Also interesting. The elite men's and women's races would occur on separate days, April 24th and 25th, 2027, respectively. Your thoughts here.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

It's such an interesting question because on a much smaller scale, it kind of reminds me of the discussion of should Western states be split into a day one and a day two. That was immediately what came to my mind. Where I do love is that I was afraid it would be like one day is elites, one day is not. And I think it's really interesting to give limelight to both elite fields and also to see how the racing tactics change, especially for the woman. That's a big difference. So I think it could be really interesting. I I think one of the comments was, oh wow, we've already opened up the opportunity for ultras with this, of how people will try to run both, and yeah, just kind of try to make it more of the the London marathon or London ultra marathon now, which I thought was pretty funny. But I think it's interesting. It's a it's a good, it's good that they're thinking about solutions rather than just how do we keep cramming or you know changing things that or not changing things rather. So I I'm open to it. I'm curious. Yeah, what about you?

SPEAKER_00 26:43

You know, I'm not the the closest follower to the road scene. So it was actually, and again, I'm gonna come across here as very ignorant, but it was news to me that London has a hundred thousand runners on the start line in any given year. Or that they would be expanding to that with this two-day thing.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Yes. It's I think it I mean it's massive. I also think it's one of the races that gets the most Guinness world record for like fancy dress or like costumes running or like carrying a like a washing machine. So it sounds like a party. I mean two days spreads it out, spreads out the fun.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

So we'll see. Maybe you know, maybe we'll get a lot of ideas and or answers for um whether something like this could make sense in trail at some point. Okay, next up, UTMB announces new parenthood policy. Basically, these are updates over their old, uh, I think it's 2023 pregnancy-only policy here. Some of the new things, it now covers all paths to parenthood. So IVF, fertility treatments, adoption, surrogacy extends to all parents now, um, including partners. And uh, I think this is interesting. New elite protection measures. So your UTMB index ranking can be frozen for up to five years. Pretty cool. Your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Yeah, I mean, I know this has been a lot of work, and shout out to the the PTRA, especially Esther Chilog has done a ton of work behind this. And I love that this is happening as someone who at some point wants to have a family. It sounds it's incredible to know that the hard work I've put in is not going to just disappear. I I know Stephanie Case famously last year was put into the second corral because she had lost her index and then ends up winning the whole thing. So it's exciting to see the collaboration and cooperation that's happening.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Let's finish here with content finds of the week. What's yours?

SPEAKER_01 28:55

So this is not a new one, but it's one of my favorite uh podcast series is um oh my gosh, now Flagstaff Bound. That's what it is. Distance to empty distance to empty, yes. I love the Flagstaff Bound series. Also, I really enjoy their podcast. I've told them if I ever run Coke Donut that I will only listen to their podcast the whole time and because they have a lot of episodes. But Flagstaff Bound just it's so much fun. I love hearing the different stories. I think it's a great format, and it's starting, they're starting to roll them out for Cocodona, getting the hype going. So if you're looking for a fun 20-minute conversation, then definitely Flagstaff Bound.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Echoed, yeah. Same thing. I I tune into all of them. I just listened to the Rachel Entricken one yesterday. Yeah, fantastic. So uh shout out to those guys for spreading the Kokodona gospel and getting the hype started uh five, six weeks uh pre-event. It's awesome. Okay, I I went overboard here. I have three for you. I'm gonna rattle through them. First, there is a new documentary about Dean Potter that is coming to HBO Max, which I am very excited about. Dean, for those that don't know, I think is one of the most interesting outdoor mountain athletes and personalities of the last 25 to 50 years. You know, he's a climber. Um, he is like a wingsuit jumper. Basically, like by the end of his career, he was known as this person who was just like the ultimate daredevil and like needed to put himself into situations where death was right there on the edge to feel alive and sort of like get his fill. Um yeah, really interesting. And also, he had some interesting connections to Ultra 22. I think he was very good friends with uh Scott Jurik and Jenny Durik. And I think like shortly after Scott was like concluding his ultra career and before he was getting into the AT, like they were hanging out a bunch. And so, anyways, I'm really looking forward to that documentary. That's uh one that we will link to in the show notes. This other one, I'm and again, I'm not sure if there's precedent for this. Maybe there is, but um, this is from one of our listeners. You know, the the normal athlete camp was in Mallorca this past week, and it was concluded by all of the athletes, Dakota, El Housine, Killian, et cetera. They all participated in this local race. Um, and I'm blanking on the name. I gotta pull this up here.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Give me one second, we'll just do the uh well, I can just add in that Dean Potter is famously known for free soloing, and then he would free solo with a wingsuit on and then jump off at some point. But free souling, most known for Alex Honnold. But I I would say that the way that Dean approached free souling is very different from the way that Alex Honnold has approached free soloing. Uh, and so yes, that but that's he was one of the the fathers of that movement.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Yeah, and um, I mean, again, then we could have a whole podcast on Dean, but there was that cli he was sponsored by Patagonia for the longest time, and I think this was like 2006, 2007, he climbed Delicate Arch in Arch's National Park. And um, you know, in his opinion, there was no like moral reason not to climb it. He didn't feel like he hurt the structure, but you know, there's a sacred aspect to it, and obviously like didn't do right by a lot of different stakeholders in the scenario. So loses his sponsor and in some ways becomes sort of an outcast. Uh so just like again, I'm I'm so excited to see what this documentary covers. But okay, the normal race, Cursatomir, on the island of Mallorca. They they ended their camp by all participating in this local race called Cursatomir. And I don't, I again, this is just a cool, I think this is a really interesting way to end a team camp by to have everyone racing and showing off the product and stuff. And I'm sure other brands have done this at some point, and I'm just blanking, but I also know there's plenty of camps where athletes just go, they do their thing kind of, you know, in solitude, and then they come back to whatever race they're training for. So I thought I found it interesting.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

I would also just love, I'm trying to think of the equivalent of like, you know, a really great local race, and all of a sudden A Killian Journey is there. And you're like, what is going on?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

I know. I know I love it. And then lastly, so this is my third, Jamil Curry is at it again. I don't know exactly when this was established. I'm guessing in the last few months because all this is happening so quickly, but he has a new project. It's called Dead Reckoning Labs, deadreckoninglabs.com. And if you go to it, um, basically he has all of these Ari Vipa is has been putting on a masterclass and vertically integrating their business for years. You know, not only do they put on events, but they like they make the merch, they make the artwork and awards for their events in-house. They timing they do everything, so much of it in-house that other events like ours are outsourcing services for. Um, and it looks like he's basically doing that now for AI. So there's a Mountain Now post-project in the works, this thing called Aera Vipa Works Engine, which is for their branded apparel and custom merch. He has this new tool that I've been using called Obsession.run, which is uh like a uh a new digital runners log, and I've got a run streak going. Race purse is on here. And so uh the burrito league rewards is on here. And so I my takeaway here is just that in this new AI era, it's it's it's just yet another level of permissionlessness. Like you no longer have to necessarily be the most technically minded developer brain to get a lot of these complex software ambitions off the ground. Like it's just so cool. And Jamil is like the ultimate tinkerer and he's always on the bleeding edge and looking for what's cutting edge. But I just found that so inspiring. And as we're in the throes of our Buffalo run crisis and we're wondering how we keep the lights on in our own business and stay afloat, it's like, like, yeah, like with all this new technology out there, in a lot of ways we can um cut costs in productive ways and keep keep the keep everything afloat if we just think at how powerful and um and relatively easy to use for non-technical people some of these these apps are. So go check this out and hopefully it inspires people in our audience to go on their own tech journey and build something cool and AI native for our sport.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

I think what basically you're saying is Jamil Corey for president. He really should be. Yeah. I mean, the uh I don't think that dude sleeps. He is constantly innovating. He's con it's just yeah. I think that's the conclusion we need.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

And so people go to go check it out. Um, it's cool to see him building in public as well. Uh, anyways, Alyssa, great, great conversation this week again for everyone that is tuning in. If if you have any ideas for next week's episode, any news items, either DM Alyssa or myself. And until next week, this has been Single Track News.