603Podcast with Dan Egan
603podcast explores the people, places and things that create the culture of New Hampshire. From the Great North Woods to the peaks and valleys of White Mountains, in and around the Lakes, on and off the Seacoast, throughout the Merrimack the Monadnock Regions, to the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee area. This podcast educates, motivates and discovers the stories that shape the "Granite State" and its impact on the country and the world.
Hosted by extreme sports pioneer Dan Egan, you’ll hear inspiring in-depth stories, from our featured guests that are the heartbeat of the Granite State through conversationally discussions with New Hampshire’s most notable, need to know folks and characters make New Hampshire truly special place.
603Podcast with Dan Egan
SIX03 Endurance: Trail Running in New Hampshire
Join Dan Egan on the 603podcast as he interviews Founder of SIX03 Endurance, Tom Hooper. Hooper takes us through the remarkable evolution of a New Hampshire statewide running group with hundreds of members, nine major events, and pub runs in cities throughout the Granite State.
"Nobody likes doing things alone," Hooper explains, revealing how the social connections formed through SIX03 extend far beyond the trail. These tight-knit "pods" of runners transform from workout partners into lifelong friends.
The episode dives deep into the psychological aspects of ultramarathon running, where Hooper shares insights from his experience in 100-mile races: "You go through every emotion, every feeling, everything," he says, describing the mental strategies needed to push through "when your sugar gets low and you go into some really dark spots." His approach to breaking down seemingly impossible distances—"10 miles 10 times, not a problem"—offers valuable perspective for anyone facing daunting challenges.
The technical, unforgiving terrain of New Hampshire's White Mountains creates a distinctive running culture that differs dramatically from the "dusty, buttery horse trails" out west. This challenging landscape has forged local athletes who compete at national and world championships, with Hooper himself working as staff for USA Track and Field at international competitions.
Whether you're an experienced ultrarunner or just "trail curious," this conversation illuminates how community transforms individual efforts into something more meaningful. SIX03 Endurance continues to evolve, with plans for live streaming events and the prestigious 2025 US National Championship coming to Mount Sunapee. Join us for an inspiring look at how shared challenges create unbreakable bonds on and off the trail.
Registration is open for all SIX03 trail races this season.
For more information about the 603podcast visit 603podcast.com
Welcome back to Season 2 of the 603 Podcast, where we cover all things New Hampshire, from true crime and covered bridges to epic mountain marathons. We're excited to share another season of unique perspectives from across the Granite State with you. I'm your host, dan Egan, and this is the 603 Podcast. The 603 Podcast is sponsored by Mad River Coffee celebrating 20 years of roasting coffee, legendary egg sandwiches, meals to go and live music right off of Exit 28 on Highway 93 in Camden, new Hampshire. It's also sponsored by Alpine Adventures, new England's premier thrill destination. Alpine Adventure has it all. Visit alpineziplinecom and let the adventure begin. Looking for summer fun? Whalestale Waterpark New England's favorite splash spot is your place, whalestale Waterpark, where the fun never ends. Visit whalestalewaterparknet today.
Dan Egan :On this episode of the 603, we're joined by Tom Hopper, founder of the 603 Endurance Group, and the 603 Endurance Group is the running group of New Hampshire. It's a mix of pub runs, big events, from 5Ks, 10ks on up to 50Ks and more. The 603 Endurance Race is right here on the 603. Tom, how are you doing? Tom? How you doing good, doing great? Yeah, just talk to me about the company and and the events you run, specifically the events yeah, uh, so 603 started in in 2010.
Tom Hooper:Um, it was just a couple of us uh finishing races and wanted more of a social aspect and that kind of grew into us doing more races and more races. And then one year we were like we can do this, we can put on our own race. And now we put on nine events throughout the state of New Hampshire. We have a race called Dixon's Revenge in Rollinsford, new Hampshire. We have the Sunapee Scramble, which is at Sunapee Ski Resort. It's June 1st 2025. It will be the US national classic up and down championship which is going to bring all the elites from all over the all over the country. It's a team USA selection race, so they'll have take the top four men and four women and they'll go to worlds in Spain.
Tom Hooper:Uh, I put on the loon mountain race in July. Um, we have a race called the ragged 75. So it's a three day stage race. They do 23 miles the first day, 25 miles the second day and then 33 miles through the woods on the third day. We put on a 50K. The same day we have another race called Kismet Cliff Run, which is up in North Conway. It has a half marathon and a five-miler. We do Vulcan's Fury, which is a half marathon, and a five miler we'd do vulcan's fury, which is a half marathon and a five miler, patuck away state park, and then um, and then we have an end of the season race, um, called the great pumpkin trail relay, which is uh, yeah, it's more of a more of a end of the season party love that and uh, you know we're not talking about short 5K races here.
Dan Egan :We're talking about 50K and more. Talk to me about the endurance craze, what you've seen happen here in this space.
Tom Hooper:I feel you know the late 2000s it was, you know, half marathons, marathons, and then I think it just got. People wanted to see how far they could push their bodies, they wanted to see what's next, you know's next. And then, okay, 50k there's a lot of good 50Ks in New England and I think people just started dabbling in those and then it was just go big, 100k, 100 miler stage races, everything. People were just trying to push the limit and then they started doing destination races going out west.
Dan Egan :Yeah, it's a good time there's a lot of athletes here in the state. Mount Washington, of course, is on everybody's list and you run that race. How?
Tom Hooper:many times have you run that race? I think I'm on year 12. 12?
Dan Egan :Yeah, that's amazing. And time's gone up, gone down. What's going on there?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, I think I've plateaued. I think think if I have a good day, it's the same, if, or one or two minutes off from a bad day, it's just a. That race is just so brutal. It's just a different kind of pain. There's no, there's no off the gas, you know it's just so steep. You know there's no flat spot, so you never get that reprieve from the lactic acid. It's just, it's just go. How long is that race?
Dan Egan :7.6 miles, 7.6 miles, yeah. And what's the vertical? What's it? Go up 4,200 feet, something like that. Wow crazy, yeah. And what time of day does it start?
Tom Hooper:7 or 8 in the morning. Wow, yeah, In waves or what. No, maybe during COVID it was waves. I think it's basically just a gun start now. I think it's basically just a gun start now. But yeah, I mean, you never know what you're going to get for weather. Every once in a while they'll have to cancel all the way to the top. You can only run to half and back down. That mountain gets the craziest weather. So you never know what you're going to get. So if it's, you know, windy or hailing or snow, they'll make that call.
Dan Egan :Well, you've run it 12 times, what's some of the craziest weather you've had.
Tom Hooper:this year was freezing. I mean it was. You know it's, it's. It's the opposite. You know it's. You're down at the bottom and it's. You know, at the. At a start of a race, usually you're cold. That doesn't happen here. You know you're warm at the at the start and by the time you're at the top it's it's 30 degrees more or less.
Dan Egan :So you know this year was super windy. Uh, yeah, it was. It was chilly and you know you talk about it just being straight up. I mean, it is a mad race. After 12 years, what's the mental?
Tom Hooper:side for you. Uh, gotten easier, getting harder. You have trigger points on the way up. Yeah, Mentally it's easier now because, just cause you know what you're you're getting yourself into. Um, you know, and you pick and choose the spots where you want to run and when you can't run. So, yeah, mentally it's easier. The more times you've done it, you do forget about the pain pretty quick, and then so next year you're like man, this really does hurt, I remember this now Right, so you know that's a seven-plus-mile race.
Dan Egan :Yeah, Compare that to a 50K. Similar sort of mental space, or no comparison?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, a completely different beast. You know with a 50K you're going to have up down flat. You get a little bit of everything. You know. Whatever you're on, you know the muscles you use are changing. Whatever you know elevation you're going up or down With Washington it's just a burn the entire time. It is just an hour and a half of suck just a burn the entire time.
Dan Egan :It is just an hour and a half of of suck and, uh, you know the 603 endurance. Uh, it's a little bit of a club.
Tom Hooper:It is. Yeah. So that's how it started. Um, you know, we were running, you know, local five Ks and stuff like that, and there just wasn't much of a social aspect back then. Um, you, basically, if you won, you took your money, you went home and there was nobody hanging out having coffee and lobster rolls and stuff like that at that point. So we decided, you know, a bunch of us were just like there's got to be something better than this. So we decided to start a more social aspect to it. We thought we were going to have about 10 of us drinking beers out of the back of a pickup truck that exploded really quickly. Drinking beers out of the back of a pickup truck. That exploded really quickly.
Tom Hooper:We had 60 members the first year and that winter we got a phone call from Smutty Nose at that time and we're like whatever you're doing to bring 60 people wearing the same shirts, we're in, what do you need? I'm like what do you mean? What do we need? They're like do you need money? Do you need a tent? Do you need beer? I'm like, yeah, we were dabbling with triathlons at the same time and that winter Trek Bicycles gave us a call and said what can we do to help.
Tom Hooper:So that took off on that section. Yeah, it was interesting. It wasn't a planned business, that wasn't the goal. But next thing, you know, we had, you know, at the height before COVID we had, you know, 600 people on the team. So we do pub runs in a lot of the states, sorry, a lot of the cities in the state. So you know, dover, portsmouth, manchester, concord, barrington, hampton, you name it, we have a pub run there. So you know, we'll meet at a bar, we'll do a three or five mile loop and then we go back and we, you know, have a few adult beverages and some food and hang out.
Dan Egan :Yeah, I mean you're going. Coffee, lobster roll, beer, I mean what's not to be?
Tom Hooper:had here.
Dan Egan :You know, this is interesting how popular, how quickly it went. There's a lot of pent-up energy, I think running, of course, is a little bit. It's an isolating sport, right? So socializing there must have been a lot of pent-up demand for it.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, and I think if you're becoming, if you're new to the sport, it's nice to have people. So when we do our pub runs it's just free to show up. You kind of get stuck with the people at your same pace right. So now you know these pub runs have 60 people, 20 people are in the fast, 20 people in the middle, 20 people at the end. You kind of know who you can run with. It makes for a better time.
Tom Hooper:Where you're now like hey, are you doing a race this weekend? Oh, do you want to run it with me? You kind of get your own little herd and that's, I think, where it becomes a little. It's better than if you just show up to a race alone. Nobody likes doing that. That takes the fun away. You know everybody's nervous. You don't want to just be standing there. So it's nice when you go to a race with a bunch of people that you already know and it's yeah. And then afterwards you know if you want to go have a beer, it makes it even better, you started that whole conversation with a nice humble brag.
Dan Egan :You collect a check. Were you collecting a check for winning these races back in the day. Back in the day I did all right. I held my own.
Tom Hooper:And what did that look like?
Dan Egan :It was a plastic trophy and, I think, a gift card. And at what length were you going up?
Tom Hooper:5Ks, 10ks 5Ks and 10Ks. Yeah, nice, yeah. And now I mean now I'm old, so it's different.
Dan Egan :But yeah, it's and your best time on a 5 or 10K 18-something.
Tom Hooper:Atta boy, yeah nothing crazy.
Dan Egan :But getting it done. Getting it done you. Nothing crazy, but getting it done, getting it done. You got the gift card yeah. Were you surprised about the running culture in the Granite State and how vibrant it was? Yeah, and.
Tom Hooper:I think that there's two very different ones. When it comes to running, there's definitely road has more of a triathlon feel. Very I'm going to use the word particular, but I'm not sure that's right Very particular people like everything has to be perfect, and then you have dirtbag trail runners that are showing up in dirty shorts and a ripped T-shirt. So there's two very separate clans when it comes to these race groups.
Dan Egan :I see a lot of races that are benefiting causes. Are you participating in that with your long list of events? Is there a cause per event or how do you handle all that?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, so most of our races will donate to a charity. Afterwards Our pumpkin relay, we will have something called Stupidity for a Cause. Not every town likes you to call it a beer mile, so we'll do a Stupidity for a Cause where you drink four beers and run a mile. It's a $20 buy-in and then we donate all that to an SPCA. Love that.
Dan Egan :That's cool. Okay, don't miss that next Halloween.
Tom Hooper:Right.
Dan Egan :Is that always on Halloween weekend? Yeah, it is. Yeah, love that. People in costumes, absolutely. Oh, there you go. So it's getting zany right off the start. It really is. You did mention to me before we went on air that you worked for USA Track and Field.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, so I am a staff member for Worlds, so it's basically we do more of the logistics to get the elites to the start line and then home. So we were in Thailand in 2022. We were in Austria in 2023, and we'll be in Spain in 2025.
Dan Egan :Wow, so you're working with the hot best athletes? Yeah, you're bringing them in. You kind of know where they're at, you're greeting them. All that sort of thing yeah.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, there was Cranmore Mountain back. I want to say like 2010 or so was a national championship, so it was cool to run against these guys. You know the best of the best and you know here, maybe a bigger fish in a smaller pond when it comes to mountain running. But you know, when these guys come in, you know you think you're somebody and then they just blow you away. So now you know there's a between Max King and I. You know I I was thinking I was going to do, you know, race him, and now I'm carrying his bags.
Dan Egan :You've got a. You've got a national event happening at Mount Sunapee, so tell us more about that.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, so Mount Sunapee, june 1st 2025, it will be the classic national championship. So they're going to take the four best men and four best women, and that's who makes team USA when we go to Spain. Yeah, so, so far, I mean, I mean the elite list is huge. This is going to be a really stacked field. It's going to be really cool to see.
Dan Egan :And where's the best place to watch something like that? Up on the mountain.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, I mean, it's a two-lap. So in Spain their course is a two-lap race, so we tried to emulate that as much as possible. So to emulate that as much as possible. So this year Sunapee will be two laps. So even if you're standing at the lodge, we're going to have the finish line and the first loop that goes through go right by the lodge so you can do it there or you can take a run up or hike up to the summit, watch it there. It runs on the Newberry Trail, it runs down the glades. There's some really good spots to watch it.
Dan Egan :That's crazy Now, as a competitor, putting yourself out there for 50 plus and I think you've done 100 too where do you go mentally? Where do you drift off to? Do you get to the flow state? Where do you go?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, hundreds, 100k, even 50 milers. It's ebb and flow. Um, when your, your fuel gets low, when your sugar gets low, you, you go into some really dark spots. Um, but you need. If you know that's coming, you can usually dig yourself out. You know, you feel all the phantom pains that aren't really there. You, you know you're like this is it? I'm done, I'm not going any further. You have a goo, you have a gel and next thing you know you're on top of the world. And then your brain's. I'm going to PR this. It's interesting what your body goes through in that time that you're out there. You know, if you're out there for 24 hours, for a hundred mile race, you go through every, every emotion, every feeling, every, everything. Yeah, so you go into some weird places in the with the mind.
Dan Egan :And how have you translated that into your own life?
Tom Hooper:I guess just how far can I push everything? I mean that's that's the goal right. How far can I push everything? I mean that's the goal right. How far can I push myself before I break? How far can we push? You know, we were talking about the live stream for Sunipi how far can we push this business? How can we trans? How can I leave this sport better than when it started? I think that's my main goal. That's what I'm looking to do. So I think, with what's next, I think live streaming is what's next. I was just at the US Trail Running Conference and I spoke there for three days. That's basically what we were pushing and talking about is what's coming up next. How do we take the sport of trail running to the next level? And I think that with live streaming running ads, stuff like that is where it's going to pop.
Dan Egan :And there's a lot of people that look at this and go God. I struggle at 5K, I struggle at 10K. I'm interested how do I start?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, that's a great question. A lot of these trail races, the sub-ultra trail races, are super friendly. They're they're only six miles, like Loon Mountain Race. Six miles, totally obtainable when it's a national championship. It's basically the only sport that you get to run with the people you see in magazines, which is crazy. You can still do it, you will still finish. It'll be the hardest thing you've ever done, but it's it's. It's totally obtainable for for the average person. That that is, that's a runner, that's that's training for it. I mean, you still have to train for it, but it's six miles, it's nothing. It's nothing crazy. Yeah, Nothing crazy. Yeah, I mean it's going to hurt, it is. It's super steep. You're going to be sore the next day, but that means it was worth it. Talk about feet.
Dan Egan :Talk about your feet, talk about your shoes. Yeah, talk about the type of running shoe you want to be in your ankle, that sort of thing. I mean that seems important, it's important.
Tom Hooper:I think that's a personal preference. I think I mean, you know, a trail shoe is just like a road shoe. You know, some people like wide toe boxes, some, like you know, super cushions, some like carbon fiber plates. That's a personal preference? I don't think that there's. You can tell a person what shoe to wear. I think that they need to go out there and dabble and try it and see what they like. Does that all have to do with density as well? Yeah, I mean, the super foams that they have now are crazy. Yeah, it's the shoe technology in the last two or three years. Is it's crazy?
Dan Egan :It's it's through the roof. You don't change shoes in the middle of a race, or anything.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, when you do a hundred milers, if there's river crossings and stuff like that, yeah, you absolutely do. Yeah, leadville, leadville, you, you cross the river twice. So you cross the river, you go up and over hopes pass, and then you cross the river again. So around mile 60, I usually change shoes. Mile 60? Yeah, yeah, good spot.
Dan Egan :You're carrying that pair.
Tom Hooper:It's out there already, no usually you have a crew, so when you have longer distance you'll have a crew and pacers. So when you come into mile 60, they're waiting for you with food and change of shoes and maybe some poles or whatever you're looking for. You're running through the night, so they'll probably give you a jacket and headlamp and stuff like that.
Dan Egan :Running through the night with Tom Hooper of 603 Endurance. What's?
Tom Hooper:that like running through the night. Have you ever been on a long drive and you do that long, slow, blink. It's like that for six hours.
Dan Egan :Amazing that for six hours, amazing, amazing. And what's some of the characteristics here in the Granite State that make endurance running?
Tom Hooper:special. Yeah, so we have such technical terrain. You know, out west it's all dusty, buttery horse trail, which is great. It's just different when the west coasters come out here and they see what we have to offer with the White thing, he said. I mean he lives in Utah. He's like everything is so green here. We don't, we don't have anything like this here. So it's uh, yeah, it's. It's interesting to see how different every region of the of the country is for for trail running, where the the whites are just so. They just beat you up so much. You know that the the whites are no joke.
Dan Egan :How do we rank nationally? You got some yourself or others that are up there pushing the limits on Recently some of the guys have moved back.
Tom Hooper:You have, like David Sinclair and Eric Lapuma and yeah, they're East Coasters and they're just crushing. Yeah, they're great. You know they're good speed, but they're also really good with technical. Dan Kirch is another guy. He's from Lebanon. He's super fast. I think he was second on the Worlds team. So, yeah, we hold our own in the Northeast.
Dan Egan :Love that. What's a training regimen for something like this? What's the build-up and the cool-down and getting ready for it? What's that look like?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, I think it depends on what you're doing for a race, right? Mean, worlds has multiple things. I mean, every race is different, right? So if you're looking for long, you're going on for long, slow, long runs, you know you. If you're, if you're a speed demon and you're looking to do just a vertical race, then you're, you know you're, you're going fast, uh, you're doing track workouts, stuff like that. So I think it depends on what you're training for. Um, if you're trying training to be just like a swiss army knife, knife of runners, I think that maybe is the best, the best way to go about it. But it's, you know, you're dabbling in everything you know strength training, track, road trail, just kind of give it everything. And how do you mix it up with other sports? Yeah, cross training, uh, there's a lot, of a lot of crossover from the triathlon world. Um, new hampshire's's Heather Jackson, a great triathlete, jumped over. Now she's a trail runner Killing it. So there's definitely something to say about cross-training, yeah no doubt.
Dan Egan :So what do you think next? You got any locations you're looking at for a new race.
Tom Hooper:Kingman Farm in Madbury is a race that was going on and the race director, Chris Dunn, no longer wanted to put it on, so we're going to take that over. That's one for 2025.
Dan Egan :Nice, yeah, and you'd mentioned Cannon. Is Cannon on there yet, or it's still in work?
Tom Hooper:Cannon is a thing. It'll probably be put out there. I don't know when this will air, but it probably won't be until January 1st. So once that comes out then, yeah, then check out Cannon.
Dan Egan :Mountain To be announced breaking news here. Right, and that's cool, and you know. Just going back to the idea that 603 Endurance is a club, it's a community, how do they find you and do you have a blog? What's going on there? Yeah?
Tom Hooper:I mean 603 Endurance, you know. Website Instagram every race has an Instagram page. Facebook groups every pub run has a Facebook group where they you know pub run has a picture every time we do it. So, yeah, it'd be hard not to find it. And what's that community mean to you? It's about the friendships. You know what I mean. To travel, you know, when we do destination races, where we throw something out and say, hey, we're going to go do the Key West marathon, who's in? And 22 people say, yeah, we're in. Um, that kind of thing, I mean that's. That's a memory forever. Like I mean, we've done Key West. We went out to Montana where Tom Brady's house, ellen's house, the mansion that we were able to rent because we had 30 people, was crazy. It was awesome. It was an experience of a lifetime.
Dan Egan :So yeah, it was great. Now, when you arrive places, are people expecting to see the 603 crew or what's happening? I hope so.
Tom Hooper:They know it's a force or what. Yeah, I mean I think so. I mean I don't want to. I guess that's to ask somebody else that question. But yeah, I mean I don't want to, that's I guess that's the ask somebody else that question. But yeah, but I mean it's, it's pretty big, it's, it's, it's great to see.
Dan Egan :And what are some of the companies that are supporting you now here in the state?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, sam Adams, sam Adams stepped up. They. They saw what we were doing and were like, yeah, let's, let's, let's make this happen. So they've been fantastic. Tom Raffio from Northeast Delta Dental has been unbelievable. He's such a proponent of our sport in general running, road, trail, everything he's got to be the number one guy in New Hampshire for supporting us unconditionally. He just loves the sport so much so we can't thank him enough.
Dan Egan :Yeah, that's huge. I've heard him talk about that, his commitment, and he's not shy to say it's benefits, its company.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's funny when you talk to people out West, you know out West, and they'll be like what's your uh, what's your dental guy that sponsors you? And so I mean, so they, they know, they, they his message is getting out, which is great.
Dan Egan :Yeah, and what's your message to people who haven't seen it, don't know what it is? What's your message to them?
Tom Hooper:That's great. I mean, I would just say, if you're looking for a community like if you, if you want that, that bond, even if it's it's I mean it's running but these people will like you call them and be like, hey, I'm moving. They'll be the first ones to show up with their truck to help you move your couch. It's that tight of a bond. So I would say, if you're looking for a really tight community, to check it out.
Dan Egan :That's good, and it's statewide too. That's the thing that really struck me is it's not just located at the seacoast. You really do an effort to get around the state.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, there's little pods and they're so tight. It's great to see Our Sunapee crew is. They're all best friends. They're traveling, skiing in Canada. They're doing everything together. It's really cool to see some of these groups that are so tight.
Dan Egan :Are you born and bred in the 603? I am New Boston, new Boston.
Tom Hooper:Georgetown High. Love that you ran for them. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't pick up running until I was in my 30s.
Dan Egan :Oh, wow, yeah, Wow, but it came natural.
Tom Hooper:It did. I didn't know, I was good at running, but apparently that's a thing.
Dan Egan :I love that. And for you, what's your training? What's your go-to training routine?
Tom Hooper:I'm a big believer in strength training, so you know functional fitness, hiit workouts, stuff like that. I'm in the gym five days a week for that. I think that you can get rid of some of the junk miles that people run with strength training. It makes you more unbreakable. Injury is, I think, if you can't make the starting line, that's a problem. You'll have some coaches that are just running you and running you and running you. For me, that doesn't work. I need to be in the gym getting bigger, stronger, faster. I think that gym workouts are just as important as the mileage.
Dan Egan :What are you doing on the stretching side?
Tom Hooper:That's like talking to your dentist and saying you floss. I'm not going to turn this into a house of lies right now.
Dan Egan :I stretch here and there I always say it's active stretching. What I like about swimming is the passive stretching of swimming. That's why I swim. Do you take that approach to your stretching?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, I mean the swimming thing is super valuable. I mean I find I'm a better runner when I swim. I think it's more maybe that your bronchioles, your lungs are so huge just because of holding your breath and stuff like that. But I would say that probably the stretching is in there as well.
Dan Egan :Yeah, so I was swimming the other day and a guy approached me. He invited me into his class and I was like, oh, okay, and he was an Olympian, right, and I've been swimming a long time, no coaching, but I'm a swimmer, and so of course he tore it apart, right and a nice, he was polite about it. But I was making so many mistakes and I was so proud of my swimming until I started talking to him, right, and then, like, I started doing it his way and wow, I could feel it, but the muscles were different and all this sort of thing, and it just really made me see the benefit of like, don't go too far down the road without some advice, and that's where coaches come in.
Tom Hooper:Some of them are really good, some of them are really bad. I think some people just like being called coach.
Dan Egan :So I think that you need to try multiple coaches until you find one that really fits what you need and what you feel is valuable. But that goes to sort of what you said about dynamic movement, dynamic training, right and efficiency. And what I love about endurance sports is if you can maintain the mechanics, you don't have to be defeated by the mind.
Tom Hooper:That's true and that's an interesting cross-section of endurance racing right, right, at what point is like you just try to get that cross-section furthest down the road? Yeah, like before the mind kicks in. How far can you get? Yeah, that's an interesting thought.
Dan Egan :Right. Repetitive motion, yeah Right. Mainly sport breaks down to repetitive motion under duress, right. And whoever does that better does better.
Tom Hooper:Right. You know, Now do you break down your, your races? So if you're going to do well, let's do it. Let's use it as 100 mile, but, like, I break it down as 10 miles 10 times and I try to do every single thing exactly the same, in 10 miles, every everything. So if I eat this, I eat this. I eat this 10 miles 10 times, because 20 miles five times is impossible. That's, that's ridiculous. But 10 miles 10 times, not a problem.
Dan Egan :I do the same, but I'll break it all the way down to three minutes, okay. So how many? How many three minutes sets do I have to do over that time? How many 10 times do I have? And that way I can play within the 10 group, right? I'm like, oh, and that way I can play within the 10 group, right? I'm like, oh, I did three, threes, I'm almost at 10, right, but that does help me mentally get to that stage, right. To compartmentalize. That to me has always been sort of the key to doing that. Yeah, I like that, yeah, it's a fun thing to do, right. And I always say to athletes don't let the mind beat the body.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, right, I mean that's, that's kind of where the battle is, yeah I, I think the the mind, that, like I said, I think there's a cross-section where the body is so fatigued that the mind is the mind, the mind's like all right, maybe we should stop. But yeah, there's definitely. I think there's a cross-section where the, the, the mind interferes and you can push that away and then your body can keep going. I think the mind kicks in too soon where you have to push that out.
Dan Egan :Yeah, and then where do you go with music? Where are you at with distraction?
Tom Hooper:I call it distraction, but where are you at with that? Yeah, I don't listen to music, not during a race like that, because Most of the time they don't allow it. Wow, yeah, they want you to be well aware of your surroundings, people passing you. Sometimes you're crossing live roads. You just need to be well aware of your surroundings.
Dan Egan :You know, Tom, I love what you're doing. I love how you're firing up community. A lot of people they talk community. It seems like it's really in your core, it's in your culture for everything you're doing.
Tom Hooper:Yeah, it makes everything better. Nobody likes doing things alone, yeah, no doubt. Yeah, people like to gather, right? Yeah, it's interesting to see the ebb and flow of age groups that show up too. I think that after COVID, a lot of people weren't coming out to run anymore. Running may have gotten a little hard because they weren't doing it, and now we're. We have a new generation coming up behind that's that are remote workers and they're. They're there every week, 52 weeks out of the year, and, you know, in the nasty weather, and they're there because that's their time to get out of their house.
Dan Egan :And that's a younger demo, you think?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, wow, yeah. I would say that's, and that's a younger demo you think? Yeah, wow, yeah. I would say that's probably 24 to 32 kind of age, young professional yeah.
Dan Egan :Yeah, I love that. Yeah, and for somebody who wants to go trail running but doesn't really know the trail, is there a sort of a place to go to learn about trail running and what trails are good to run on and which are bolder fields, that sort of thing?
Tom Hooper:Yeah, I mean that's there's not. That's kind of a that's a great question. There's not. There's not a lot of trail 101. I put on two races that are trail 101, where it's a 5k trail race.
Tom Hooper:We're always trying. So what's happening is right is people are always pushing their limits, so they're always trying. So what's happening is right is people are always pushing their limits, so they're always graduating to the next level. We always need to keep the farm league coming up. We need to get new people into the sport, um, so that's why we keep the 5k, five mile trail race to have people that are, you know, trail, curious. They want to, they want to dabble, um, so no, just going off into the woods doesn't really work. Um, but if you know a local section, this is where it would be great to go with friends. This is where the community comes. You come to the you know the road pub run. You talk to some friends. They're running a trail, go with them. You know that's. That's probably your best way to learn trail. Your, your, your local trails, um, you know, I'm sure they're everywhere, in every town. You just need your, your friends to show you, to show you where the good ones are you should have a blog site trail curiosity right.
Dan Egan :That might be a good blog for the future. I love it a lot of fun. So the website is 603. That's s-i-X-O-3, endurancecom. The man behind it is Tom Hooper. Getting it done. Tom, thanks so much for joining us right here on the 603. Thanks for having me.
