When you chase the horizon across rugged peaks, every stride tells a story of grit and ambition. That's the tale Nick Tusa, an inspiring mountain runner, brings to our latest episode. Nick takes us from the greens of competitive golf to the trails of Colorado, sharing his transformation into a trailblazing athlete. His pursuit of community and self-discovery through mountain running is nothing short of contagious. Together, we uncover the thrills of his racing season, including podium finishes that mark the milestones of his burgeoning career. Nick's narrative is a rich tapestry of personal evolution, where every hill climbed is a metaphor for life's many challenges.
Strap on your running shoes and prepare for an emotional sprint as we recount the strategies and successes that define high-level competition. Nick opens up about the mental toughness required when toeing the start line, the strategy behind consecutive race weekends, and the joy of celebrating achievements with fellow trail runners. Our conversation takes a turn towards the intense focus and presence needed in the throes of shorter, high-intensity races, as well as the unique trials of running at high altitudes. It's a tale of physical and psychological tenacity, where the highs of a first-place finish and the lows of pushing through oxygen-deprived climbs intertwine.
Beyond the trails, we explore the pulsing heart of mountain running culture, from the quest for FKTs to the dream of donning the USA jersey at international competitions. Nick's experiences with setting astonishing FKTs and the role models who fuel his fire reveal an athlete laser-focused on his long-term goals. We also celebrate the community that has shaped him, highlighting the promise of emerging talents and the women who are redefining the sport. Closing out, we shine a spotlight on Nick's social media escapades, where his passion for the peaks and his quest for brand partnerships come to life. Join us for a journey that not only maps the contours of a runner's heart but also charts a course through the inspiring landscape of mountain running.
Nick can be contacted via Instagram - @nick.tusa
When you chase the horizon across rugged peaks, every stride tells a story of grit and ambition. That's the tale Nick Tusa, an inspiring mountain runner, brings to our latest episode. Nick takes us from the greens of competitive golf to the trails of Colorado, sharing his transformation into a trailblazing athlete. His pursuit of community and self-discovery through mountain running is nothing short of contagious. Together, we uncover the thrills of his racing season, including podium finishes that mark the milestones of his burgeoning career. Nick's narrative is a rich tapestry of personal evolution, where every hill climbed is a metaphor for life's many challenges.
Strap on your running shoes and prepare for an emotional sprint as we recount the strategies and successes that define high-level competition. Nick opens up about the mental toughness required when toeing the start line, the strategy behind consecutive race weekends, and the joy of celebrating achievements with fellow trail runners. Our conversation takes a turn towards the intense focus and presence needed in the throes of shorter, high-intensity races, as well as the unique trials of running at high altitudes. It's a tale of physical and psychological tenacity, where the highs of a first-place finish and the lows of pushing through oxygen-deprived climbs intertwine.
Beyond the trails, we explore the pulsing heart of mountain running culture, from the quest for FKTs to the dream of donning the USA jersey at international competitions. Nick's experiences with setting astonishing FKTs and the role models who fuel his fire reveal an athlete laser-focused on his long-term goals. We also celebrate the community that has shaped him, highlighting the promise of emerging talents and the women who are redefining the sport. Closing out, we shine a spotlight on Nick's social media escapades, where his passion for the peaks and his quest for brand partnerships come to life. Join us for a journey that not only maps the contours of a runner's heart but also charts a course through the inspiring landscape of mountain running.
Nick can be contacted via Instagram - @nick.tusa
Hey guys, welcome back to the steep stuff podcast. I'm your host, james Laurie yellow, and today we have a very special episode when we interview our first rising star, my friend Nick Tusa. Nick is on the ascent in the subulter mountain scene. In his breakout 2023 season alone, he notched himself a third place overall, so on the podium of the entire expert category of the Cirque series, he's destroyed races such as Brighton. He's gotten up there in the top 10 and Alta Nick is on the ascent. I am so excited for this kids future and it was an amazing opportunity to sit down and talk with them. We're in a little bit more about who he is as a person and who he is as a competitor, so let's dive in. I hope you guys enjoy this one. Love to hear your feedback. My friend Nick Tusa. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, we are About today's run days run Went to.
Speaker 2:Went to golden just 15 minutes from home. Wanted something a little bit more runnable. Everything's kind of iced over right now and just trying to keep the turnover gone this time here. A lot of slush, a little bit of ice. I was chasing some triathletes up the up the mountain and they're on their bikes and yeah, I don't know what? Well, 30 minute push in there, so that's all that you're a little Strava getting jealous of that.
Speaker 1:What's so you're? Where are you based out, like where you live it?
Speaker 2:So I live in Lakewood.
Speaker 1:That's my address.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's just so much around there.
Speaker 1:I mean it's.
Speaker 2:It's, it's perfect. Yeah, we're looking at houses right now. We're thinking like more sin area, so maybe a little bit more south, but closer to the mountains. That's the goal as close as possible. My goal when I moved here was like I want to Continue to move west.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice to be. I mean, I'm like, I feel like I'm like monument is perfect. Sure, get kind of everything. We've got Santa Fe trial, which is nice and flat, you know, and then I, it's so nice every morning to look out and see, like Mount Herman from oh so, so, when I was driving down in here, just like seeing pikes, every single time I'm just like man. Next, time we record when it's all good. Next time we get together like I gotta have you. Well, you would like Herman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, herman's a cool. Yeah, sweet dude, we're live, by the way, yeah, awesome Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1:Welcome, nick Tusa. Nick is a mountain runner. He is very much on the scene and in the process of breaking into the scene. Nick is a, you know, very special friend of mine. He is well, you could talk about yourself. Tell me who is Nick Tusa.
Speaker 2:Who am I? Wow, big question. Oh, where do I start? Um, I Guess I would say I'm a. I don't know, I don't want to like Title myself as, like a mountain runner, like that's like my only thing, like I feel like there's always more to a person than that, but that's, you know, been my main focus the past four years. I've been an athlete my entire life, as long as I can remember.
Speaker 1:Okay, tell me about that too, like, so give me a little bit of your background, yeah, and where did you? How did you find Mount? Give me the story on how you found mountain running. Oh cool right on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so mountain running came into my life in Technically not till I moved here, but it got on my radar for the first time in 2020. I Was kind of lost. I was kind of at a point where I was craving to compete again, to get back into sport, but I didn't know. I didn't know what I wanted to do and you know, the pandemic happened in March of 2020. Jim's closed, kind of was lost and tossed on some running shoes, just started running around on the pass on the lake are on the river paths right by my place I was living in St Paul at times, in Paul, minnesota, and and end up finding all trails and Kind of found some trails around the area, started whipping around, found Strava that really Strava really opened my mind to like Everything and like what people are doing and like, wow, I want to do that.
Speaker 2:Another big thing was Billy Yang. You know you're sitting in your apartment and by yourself and you don't got much to do, so I was surfing YouTube and I found these incredible, incredible documentaries on these, on these mountain athletes, and it just like it was incredible. I was just, I was so amazed at what humans could do and pushing themselves. I'm like I was like this is, this is what I want to do. Like that, I want to push myself outside in nature and in the mountains and I pretty much exhausted the trail system in Minnesota that year. Going up north, there's the porcupine mountains up in the UP, yeah, and I did the high point in Minnesota, eagle Mountain, and Then I was just like, yeah, what's, what's next from here? I don't, I don't really have a community here. I was kind of doing everything solo dolo and I Just, yeah, I needed, I needed that community.
Speaker 2:And to go back to my past a little bit, I had a really strong community growing up, playing sports. I played golf competitively, and we had this group of guys in where I grew up, in Hastings, minnesota, and we just wanted to. We just competed against each other. We would go on the golf course, we played team holes every single day and we would just go at it with each other and it was. It was incredible and I I came to the realization that I'm missing that. I'm I'm missing that community. I need that. So so I moved out here and Instantly I guess not instantly, I would say it was with them about five or six months I ran into two characters on top of Evans and we exchanged Stravas and they told me about our Mar Rocky Mountain runners show.
Speaker 1:Rocky Mountain runners, so it's dark.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, based in Boulder. There they had me. They said, hey, let's meet up for a run on Monday night. We run up Green Mountain and and yeah, that's when the the mountain running addiction started. For sure, I mean day one it was. It was incredible being there. I was with some just incredible athletes learning about like Just these incredible races that they're doing. I'm hearing, you know, I've heard of Western states, but I didn't know a ton about it. And like I'm hearing them, I'm doing Western states this summer, I'm doing a hard rock this summer and all these just like just I'm like, wow, like I'm in it, like I'm in it right now. I'm, I'm, I'm in this community of these Like-minded athletes and they just want to not necessarily compete against each other. A lot of it's like friendly stuff, but just like if someone's gonna bomb down the mountain, like I'm gonna follow them. You know it's that. Yeah, yeah, that was dude.
Speaker 1:I love that answer. It's ladies and gentlemen, let me practice this. Nick is one of the most talented young runners that I have ever come across. I think his coaches would agree. So Nick and I share the same coaches, and Eli and Tabor Heming, and we just we're all. Like Nick's biggest fan, like I, am just so excited for what this kid's gonna do this year. So do tell me, we started the sport actually very similar times really I got in probably 2019, okay, probably 20, okay, little bit different.
Speaker 1:I was on the road running scene okay and kind of crossed that over to trails, whereas one of the things I noticed about you and maybe you can kind of dive deeper into this is you just have so much your excitement about the mountains, your stoke is so high for, for the man Like I see you on these two verses, and I'll preface this you are hands down one of the most talented Runners on technical terrain.
Speaker 2:I appreciate ever come across.
Speaker 1:Like you really blew me away on blodget peak, to the fact that where I was like, oh shit, I need it up my game, I was like goddamn dude. So yeah, tell me, talk to me a little bit more about like. So you, you came out here, you moved out here. I'm most in during the pandemic 2020. Yeah, you started running up green. You met all these people in Rocky Mountain runners and you found this amazing community. But where did this like drive and stoke come from?
Speaker 2:I Really think I have to give a lot of credit to two of my good friends, keith Hayes and Laura Kaplan. They're based out of Boulder and when I met them they just opened my eyes to what's possible they were. Their obsession with vert is incredible. Like their goal is to have their runs be like the ratio between mileage divert. They want the vert to be the highest as it can possibly be. And like we had so much fun doing that, like scrambling in the flat irons and going up and down like the steepest, steepest routes that we could find in in Boulder. And and, yeah, just like seeing them do it. It's really what it's about.
Speaker 2:At least for me was like seeing it in person, seeing these people get out and do it every single day, looking at their Stravas. It just it was just pure motivation for me to get out there and I want to do it. I want to do the same and we definitely had. We were definitely like minded in the fact that we wanted to do technical link ups, find the most technical class for terrain, move fast over it, move slower over it if you want. First learn the routes. That's, that's one thing I definitely learned.
Speaker 2:But but yeah, and it was just the repetition, the repetition of going up and down green just really trying to Perfect it on that technical terrain, like I said, chasing people down, and it's just that I just just getting incrementally better every single time. I mean, growing up when I was playing golf, I was playing at like the same course all the time and it was just like the obsession with like Hitting the perfect pot or hitting the perfect shot, and that's like kind of the same thing in trail running and I don't think I've really never heard anybody make that connection before. That's interesting.
Speaker 1:But you, you've made that connection with me before, yeah, and one of the questions I was gonna ask you is, yeah, talking to me about like so different sports that inspire, right, so like I get a lot of my inspiration from all different kinds of sports. My background I you know high school football, this I did a bunch of different sports in high school soccer majorly, and that that's where I guess you could say like I was never a traditional cross-country runner, where you see most of the mountain community, anyone that's really on the rise, good in in a very you know, anyone that's a great runner, you would think track and field for the most part, you think cross-country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's where a lot of talent, yeah, but then you get these outliers that do other sports. Why time soccer? But you're the first one that has ever come to me and talked to me about golf and I just, yeah, one of the things that Interests me is there's there's so much technicality, there's patience, there's you know. Can you explain to me, like, where that crossover is and like, and talk to me about your golf background?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I guess, yeah, I could start. I started playing. I picked up a club probably when I was like five, six years old.
Speaker 2:My dad was a superintendent at a golf course, so it was in my life at a very, very young age and I just quickly became Obsessed with, like I said, just wanting to get better, wanting to hit that perfect shot, and and so the thing with golf is it takes an incredible amount of patience, and I think running takes Just the same amount of patience.
Speaker 2:It's such a long game. It's something that you just have to stick with and you have to do like repeatedly, and the mental side of the game is incredibly difficult. I mean I was an eighth grader on varsity Teen it up with these kids that were twice my size. You know, I was this little five-foot kid and the pressure was insane, especially at that age. Like you think that this is like this is everything, like sports was everything when I was a kid, and just like being up on that first tee, having everybody watch you, it just puts that, and then, once you hit that shot and you hit it right down the middle or you make that putt in front of everybody, it's the best feeling in the world and Helps you under pressure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does, it does yeah yeah, and so I was under pressure, definitely a lot. So, yeah, I ended up playing varsity golf from eighth grade to my senior year, ended up going to the state tournament as a sophomore and then with my team, my junior and senior year. So just being at that level, playing with other people at that level, it just it gets you better. It the pressure just continues to rise and you keep, and every single time that you're able to perform under that pressure, your confidence builds and it just continues to build and build and build. And that's the same thing in running too. For me. That's what I found is I put myself in these situations. You know, racing Zerg series last summer, racing against these people.
Speaker 2:That you know, I never thought I would, and just performing under that pressure and just gaining that confidence.
Speaker 1:Dude, I was amazed You're seeing. I think you had like such a phenomenal season. So, ladies and gentlemen, one of the things that one of the things I'm gonna be doing in this podcast is having, we'll have interviews with professional athletes. We'll have interviews with voices of the community.
Speaker 1:But one of the things I find near and dear to my heart, that I'm so excited to have on are I like to look at myself as a little bit of a talent scout. You know, I wanna find those that are about to pop off, or people that are in, you know, in the mix, haven't necessarily made a name for themselves yet, but are in the process of doing so, and I wanna give them the platform to be able to mark themselves and give them an opportunity to tell their story about where they're coming from, so we can follow their journey. So when they do make it, and then they're in the process of making it, we'll be able to reflect back and say, damn, like we saw that and you're one of those ones that I like I said you're since we started following each other and got to know each other.
Speaker 1:I mean, you have just been on this upward trajectory, not to you know, not to, not to I do wanna get the hype going because I'm so excited for your 2024 season, but do you wanna talk a little bit about your 2023 season and what you were able to accomplish?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, yeah. So 2023 started for me around March. I was coming off of a little bit of a niggle in my hamstring that I finally was able to work through and I was coming to a point where I was self-trained for, or self-coached for, really forever, Never had a coach before and I thought it was time. My girlfriend ended up convincing me. She's like I think you need to take this leap and reach out to some people, see what they say. So I started being coached by like you said, you know, I and Tabor Heming. So the season kind of started around March. We had a slow little buildup until I did a Mad Moose event out in.
Speaker 1:Moab, that was the Amasa right.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, it was the Amasa 15K up and I ended up throwing down. A pretty good time. There Felt pretty good. It was a good early season.
Speaker 1:Good early season race. It was a light race. You raced Timmy Parr there. Yeah, I raced Timmy Parr.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've actually raced him one other time too, at the Ure, and then I met him at Leadville 2021 at May Queen Aid Station, and I did no idea who this guy was. And someone ends up whispering to me like, hey, that guy won Leadville in like two. I think it was like 2009 or something like that.
Speaker 2:I'm like no way Guy is a legend, absolutely legend and I'm like this is incredible, like oh gosh, but yeah, really fun, taking it out fast with him and then with around like the three mile mark. He just dusted me. I mean he's got so much time in this sport and I have so much respect for him. But yeah, that ended up going well. I took third there. It was a good kickoff to the season, something a little flatter. Top told me that I need to start working on my downhill technical running and it's just because of the deserts just so different than here in on the front range. I mean you're running on like slabs and stuff like that. So yeah, that race ended up going well. From there we continue to train up until what was that? The GoPro games. That was super fun, great atmosphere. Highly recommend that race Any of those races.
Speaker 1:There was a hill climb.
Speaker 2:Yep, I did the. What's that one called the Pepe's, Pepe's face off, I'm in it this year.
Speaker 1:I'm doing it. Yeah, I'm excited, dude.
Speaker 2:Oh, dude, it's a blast.
Speaker 2:Man the energy at that race was like no race I've ever done before. It's so cool because it's a loop, so you do this climb and then you come back down on this downhill and every time you come down you're coming down to this like massive group of people that are just cheering you on and the stoke is so high and it's just like early mountain running season, so good. But yeah, I ended up placing, I believe, top 10 there, racing with some pretty big names, and it was super, super fun. Man, I mean looking to my left scene, like Danny Moreno, and seeing one of the legends and Boulder, in my opinion, ryan Fevers.
Speaker 1:I think his name yeah absolute kid monster he's a legend.
Speaker 2:Seeing him go up is just like and that's again back to that same thing just like seeing those people pull this off.
Speaker 2:It's like it's possible you know it's just, and they're just people, you know, and I had a conversation with them after. I was like nicest guy ever. It's yeah, great event. Highly recommend that one. And then the turnaround was pretty quick. I ended up heading into the Vale Hill Climb that was July 1st Nice fun one, just to really push it uphill at altitude. I think I ended up taking 11th there. Just yeah, getting used to run up high again something a little bit faster. A lot of it was on service roads, which is a big, not a big chunk, but a good portion of Zerk Series. So I thought that that was a good little pre-Zerk Series race until that part of the season started, and that started mid July. Did it break? Yup?
Speaker 1:yup.
Speaker 2:Float to Utah. Lucky enough to have one of my really good childhood friends lives out there and he's super supportive of what I'd done. He actually was. I stayed at his place. He lived up in Northern Midlands, up in Northern Minnesota, when I did my first ever trail race, which is super fun to have that come full circle again. So, yeah, stayed with him out in Utah. He drove me out to the race, did my first, or actually my second, zerk Series. I did my first Zerk Series in 2022 at Abason, but yeah, did Brighton and Dude. That's such a hard course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm studying it, was preparing right now and doing all these little things. On Boulder Yup, like Boulder's, there's a lot of technicality to that race.
Speaker 2:Do you wanna?
Speaker 1:talk a little bit more about that technicality, or yeah, yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:If anyone remembers too, during that time it was a really hot one. Hard Rock was going on during that time too, but we had a late winter so it was pretty heavily snow covered, so it was a mix of snow, I mean wet rock. I mean you were going over pretty much everything. But yeah, it's the first climb. I can't recall what the first mountain was, but the first climb is a pretty nasty Boulder field that you gotta move on. If you wanna place up there with the big boys, you gotta be able to move on that kind of stuff. And once you're up there, it's not over with it's. You're traversing three other peaks and just riding those ridge lines, the constant up and down. The one thing that I really like is the straight up and the straight down.
Speaker 1:That I can handle.
Speaker 2:That was something that I just didn't think to practice, didn't think to do, and it really puts a toll on your legs. I was absolutely gassed. I felt like I definitely couldn't give it my all on the final descent. So if I were to give the tips to anyone, it's like Save yourself a little bit for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's really in all Zerch-series races. I mean, I really think you win the races. I know they normally say how's this saying normally yo, you win the races on the uphill, you lose the races on the downhill. I think, that's what they say and yeah, I was able to pass a good chunk of people on the downhill. In future races I was able to, once. I learned at Brighton that I needed to focus on that a little bit more.
Speaker 1:And I would even argue outside of Aliaska. That's probably the hardest course. Yeah, yeah, I would yeah.
Speaker 2:I haven't done them all, but yeah, that was definitely the hardest one for me, definitely the slowest for everybody. That's a good hour, 30 minute race.
Speaker 1:It was yeah yeah, something like that. So I'm excited for that one and you did I mean, did you had a great, amazing performance there.
Speaker 2:I thought I felt like I I don't know. I guess I'm maybe a little hard on myself, but but yeah, I don't know. That was the first Zerch-series of the year, so I had to.
Speaker 1:Takes a little good news to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly yeah. Getting back into the because, like the other previous races, like I was racing good people, but like when you're jogging around and you see Grayson Murphy it's just like, really like okay, but you know, world champion here, I think this was like right after she won, like Worlds. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely ridiculous. So after Brighton, is that Alta right after that?
Speaker 2:After Brighton, yep a month later would have been Alta, yep. Alta, I would say, was your best race of the season, probably my quote unquote like breakout performance. I knew something was coming. I could feel it with my training. I think Yulya and Tabor could sense it too and I went in that one super stoked. I had some friends that I knew there Chris Fisher was there, aranton was there, funds being on the start line with those guys. And Chris kind of hyped me up right away.
Speaker 2:He's like you're in the Pro Division, right, big dog, I'm like I'm I'm. He's like I'm like new. I'm like I'm still an expert. He's just like, oh, you're going to play, stop three. I'm like you, really. I'm like I don't think. He's like you're going to play, stop, play, stop three. And I'm like OK. And I was like huh, I was like well, he's got that confidence in me. Maybe I should have that confidence in myself, I don't know. So took it out really well.
Speaker 2:That's a really, really fun course with a lot of kind of everything. It had that service road leading up and then you hit this technical section. That's probably like a maybe 300 to 400 feet of gain to kind of finish it out and top out and once you top out, it's all downhill from there. It's steep, technical, until you get back on to the road, the service road and I felt so confident at the top of there, like being able to to run those technical sections up to a peak is very confidence building.
Speaker 2:When you're seeing everyone else hiking, you're the one that's running, you're like, ok, I think I'm in a good spot right now, like I think I got this and ended up cruising the descent past Brett Hornig, which was pretty cool. I was like just seeing a pro run out there and passing them. It's always that's always a good time. But yeah, I zoomed on there and and I think I set my. I think I set my five K PR on the downhill, which was super funny. I never, I never, I've never done a five K. I've never done anything on road or anything like the flats or anything like that. But that was fun to just show, like that's how fast it is Out here. Like you're going to say, I think Chris said his mile PR.
Speaker 1:I think he went like sub five, five minutes, I was like geez.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I ended up crossing the finish line there and I don't think I've ever been. I didn't know what position I was in, but I knew I was in a good spot and I remember crossing that finish line. My friends got a video of me and I was just fist pumping so happy, like so much stoke, just because, like I knew you know, you sometimes know like when you run a good race, when you run a balanced race, you don't go out too hard and with these races, especially at altitude, like you can really dig yourself a whole quick, like really quick, and that's what E-line Tabor told me like you want to start out hard with the lead pack but like then you kind of dial it back a little bit. Play to your strengths, like if you're a better climber, push the climb, if you're a better downhill, or push the downhill. But yeah, and then ended up going.
Speaker 2:So at Zerk series, it's fun, you can just like type in your number at the little timing booth and it will spit out, it'll print out your positioning and it said first expert and I was like whoa, I was like dang and ninth overall and I was like wow, like top 10 at a race with arguably the biggest. I mean the Zerk series were the biggest races that I've ever done. I mean they're they have usually around six to 700 people, so much. And so, yeah, that was man. I remember I walked to the car and I called my mom and I started tearing up a little bit because I love it. Dude, it was man.
Speaker 2:It's just like so much, so much goes into it man and I so much work and motion, so much so much and like I really I've tried my best and especially going into this season this was going to this past season my big thing was like not to focus on the result as much and to just be to just have fun out there and know that when I'm done, you know, I have a girlfriend that loves me, a family that loves me. I have just just look at the positive things in your life and doing that, I think, changed my relationship with, like competing and with racing, and it just allowed me to just feel free.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what is your relationship like? Are you so like, when I step on to a start line, I'm a bald nerves?
Speaker 1:I'm terribly nervous and you know a lot of it too, is you? You have an idea of you did X amount of work. Sure, If you did X amount of work leading up to the race barring a few different intangibles that you can't control, but the things you can control you have a good idea of what result you're going to get, more or less. But, like when I walk on, I'm still a nervous wreck. I want to make sure I'm going to get the most out of myself. I'm going to turn myself inside out. What's it like for you when you step on the start line?
Speaker 2:You know, for me I've I've failed a lot in in my sporting past and that just allowed me to to just not be as nervous. Like, of course I still get those nerves, like I'm human. But at the end of the day, and especially when it comes to running, running, especially golf, is a completely different story. But if you put in the work you're going to get out, you're going to get out. That reward Like that's if you trained for to hit this time, you're more or less going to be right around that time. I remember like telling my friends that were there they're like when can we expect you? And I would give them a time. And I pretty much hit that time like spot on every single time.
Speaker 2:But yeah, when I'm on the starting line, man, it's, it's fun, I love it. I think I live for that. I just love looking around and the nerves, the energy. I try to. I try to have those nerves be like happy nerves, like not like this is gonna be bad. In my past with a golf it'd be like if you think that you're gonna put the ball in the water or you're gonna miss the green. You're gonna miss the green, point blank period, like it's such a mind game we're running to I. I honestly think it's the same thing like if you believe you're going to do it on that starting line, you're gonna do it.
Speaker 1:It's you know what fucked me up. So Broken arrow this year had a, had a live stream, and that was the biggest race I probably did in 2023. I Was so nervous because I was like I'm so nervous because the spotlight is not only it's on you, it's on your competitors, it's just the people are watching. Yeah whereas like I feel like. But other races, people, at the end of the day, who fucking?
Speaker 2:cares? Oh, exactly, yeah, people are gonna forget about it. They are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly so and that's that's what you have to tell yourself, and that's that's something I have to tell myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think racing puts enough pressure on people, as it is like lay off yourself a little bit, like don't, don't put that added pressure on yourself. Like pressure is good, pressure makes diamonds, you know right.
Speaker 1:It's good saying Yep, it's a favorite of my. It's All right so Alta, amazing result. Pop off race. Best thing possible and and now we're in Grand Target.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep. Week later Made the drive up to the T-tons for the first time. Let me tell you, if anyone hasn't had a chance to go up there, highly, highly recommended. I think it's the closest thing to the Alps that you can get. Just driving in a jackson and just seeing that tower, it was just so inspiring. It was like that's what I needed before the race. Just see something like that and just it inspires me, it motivates me. It's like I just want to get out there and just crush it and that race. Another hot one, a little bit lower altitude, strong field. That Brooks runner.
Speaker 1:Can't understand it. Yeah, yeah, kid. Kid was insane, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah and Didn't, didn't try to keep up with them. That one I recall really trying to run my own race. You know this is a if Alta and Grand Target were back-to-back weekends this is my first time ever racing back-to-back. Didn't know what to expect out of my body, put kind of all my trust into my coaches that they would get me to the starting line healthy and not too overcooked, and I think they did that. I think we did that, and I felt I felt strong there and ended up being a top 15. I think top six expert wasn't exactly the Wasn't exactly what I was expecting coming off of Alta.
Speaker 2:I thought I was on. I thought I was gonna be on this like hot streak, but that's just not how running is. It can't always be your day. It was my birthday, though, which was super cool. It was super fun. I was like I get to do the thing I love on my birthday. This is incredible, uh, so it was just super good positive vibes. That race is a Downhillers like dream. It's such a long downhill. I think I might have set my. I think I might have broke my 5k PR there again, but it's a long, windy, single track. Flowers everywhere, beautiful, gorgeous.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, I'm excited for it. That's another one. I'm still. I'm a little nervous about that back-to-back weekend, like I, yeah, and if you could want to get more into that, or how much you remember from that back-to-back weekend just the layover and and how the legs responded, and you know, I know Eli and Tabor doing an amazing job of having us prepared. But I almost feel like it's it's not necessarily just the the physical preparedness, but it's the mental, like okay, I just traveled to Utah and now I got to go travel up to one evening. You know it's. I Just meant a little bit more too, right.
Speaker 2:I think it just it. It didn't turn off like I had this, like At Ulta after that race, just like that competitive spirit, like it turned on and it didn't stop for like a week and like I'm like I got a roll right back into this next one. Like you can't, you don't even have time to breathe, like you just have to Stay in that mindset and I would say it's definitely, it definitely wears on you. I remember being very exhausted after that weekend, especially after the drive-up and down. But yeah, it's just, you gotta, you just got to lock in yeah, really do.
Speaker 1:And that's such a cool thing about these races is Normally I mean, if you're doing a 27k or something like that, anything sub ultra I feel like, yes, you have to be locked in. But my favorite thing about these sub like really short distance, almost mountain classic races or a vk or something like that we're you are for an hour or an hour and a half ever longer out there you are, you have to be zoned in. The only way to do well is you have to be super, like you, 100% Present. I think that's the word 100% present, because if you're not, you'll trip on a rock, you'll catch yourself doing something you shouldn't be doing 100% and if you're in, just being zoned in, I think is the absolute key, and I think that's something hard. You know. I know for myself because I Last podcast I was just talking about this is I run a lot with music and I probably shouldn't because I don't race with music Right and it's almost like one of those things where you want to be situationally prepared hundred percent.
Speaker 1:You know hearing your body hyperventilating, essentially on an uphill, and yeah. You know to listen to yourself on the downhill and paying paying attention to certain indicators in your body. That's, it's interesting thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we moved from Grand Target still had a great, great race, and then is the next one, arapah basin, yep.
Speaker 2:So yep, final race this year, or I guess I can't say the final race. The final race isn't Switzerland, but the final race in the US circuit was at a basin. I was heading into that, so I guess first my goal of the season was to take top three an expert. That was the overall goal. I told the E-line Tabor that they were like awesome, let's make it happen. So I was heading into a basin with a pretty Pretty good lead, sitting in third, and I felt like I just needed to go there and show up, run my race and I was gonna get the result that I wanted. A Basin was definitely the most competitive. Colorado is another level of mountain runners here. I mean, if you're looking for a race To race with some of the best locally around here, a basin is, is it? It's? It's also the highest in elevation on the circuit. It's you top out at. I want to say 13 five.
Speaker 2:I want to say maybe like a little, maybe 13 one, but you're, you're topping on it 13,000 feet and this is by far the most runnable, the least technical, it's single track, it's flowy, it's fast, it's fun. And what also made my experience super fun is being on the starting line with my coaches and Getting to meet them for the first time. That was, that was a blast.
Speaker 1:I was gonna ask you. So yeah, did you feel? Were you nervous to race E-line Tabor?
Speaker 2:No, no, not really. I just know that I wasn't worried about Eli at all I knew Eli was, I was like if there were, if there was sports betting for this, I'm putting Eliza all my money on Eli. I got he wanted with flying colors. It wasn't even fair, but no, having him there it was. It was um. I was motivated. I definitely wasn't nervous from it at all. It was just. They're just. You know, people like you and I and that's right, but it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was super fun chasing Tabor, chasing Tabor at the mountain, that was. That was a lot of fun. But, I could definitely tell the body was definitely starting to get fatigued from the summer. This, like I said, this is the most I've ever raced and the altitude got to me a little bit, but yeah, ended up finishing the race and that's such a good and tough course in the sense I mean not that is technical, another that's yeah dude, racing of that altitude, yeah it is so much hard.
Speaker 1:I don't know that people realize now like at least for me, I Hit 10, 5, 10, 7 and I'm a little funky until maybe around 11, 5 thousand foot threshold. For I just know from have you, have you ever run up our trail?
Speaker 2:The bottom part.
Speaker 1:But not like once you hit bar camp, you start to bar camp you get these Interesting switchbacks that basically take you to the thing called a frame and then you go above tree line, yep, and there are these switchbacks that are super runnable Don't get me wrong like they're runnable grade, but you hit this, like at least I do. I think it's my physiology. I just hit this threshold at 10 5 to 11 5 where I'm just in the cave. Dude, I am in in the cave, dying, yeah, and I feel like once I break out, run around 12, totally fine, but that race itself to me I'm worried about. Personally, when I get there I'm gonna have to practice and get ready, but there's just being in that threshold, that, because that's where a base is that from an altitude perspective, exactly the entire time.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, and that's something that it's hard to train. I mean, there's not much like this is the one thing that E-line Tabor told me after the races. They were like there's not much that's runnable, that you can like, practice this on. Like most stuff above 13,000 feet is just like loose rock and Super technical. Like there's not much like the only yeah. The only way you could do that is like go to a ski resort and down on their trails.
Speaker 1:I mean I've got a bunch of Strava routes ready to go play on a base in summer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they do a great job out there. Shout out to Julian Carr and the holes are exceeding. I gotta get him on it's, yeah, he's, he's got something special going and it's growing very quick and it's getting on a lot of people's radar and I even have friends that aren't runners that are seen, are seeing me racing like I want to go do that you know like it's the people you see out there. You see people of all shapes and size, whatever it. Everybody's Doing something. That's hard and that's really difficult.
Speaker 1:I think what attracts me the most is a few things. I love the approachability of it for for entry level people, that one get into it. I think that's cool. I love the fact that we were getting top tier talent. But you're getting your Joe Gray's in the world, your Eli Hemings the world that are still showing up so, and not even just top tier talent. It's that we're getting dude, you're getting Olympians.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's. There's a lot of like free ski and ski mountaineering You're getting, I believe not at Nordic ski. Olympian show up to that, especially in the Alaska race, and the Utah race usually gets quite a few snowbird, so that's something that's really interesting to me and you want to. I don't know. I'm always interested to see. Okay, I know how, like how I stack up against certain trail runners, but how do I stack up against the Nordic skiers of the world, you know, or how do I start? Or who not really run? They just run for fun and practice to get better at Nordic skiing.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, yeah. And then they show up and kick your ass.
Speaker 1:What the hell. So, yeah, I'm interested to see, like that has me excited and I just think it's I don't know. I think it's just different from our world of trail running where, especially in the sub ultra scene and that's why I'm so excited that snow, like the snowbird course this year is gonna be the US mountain running champs massive, so exciting. And I think that, like that, and I think one of Joe Gray's Instagram posts he talked about, like the Cirque series preserves what the mountain classic should be and I love that.
Speaker 2:That to me, makes so much so these are short distance races.
Speaker 1:You know You're not. You're going balls the wall for an hour, hour and a half and then it's over. And you could do a lot of them.
Speaker 2:You don't have to do so many.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not like a hundred miler, where you're running a hundred miles and you're dead for the next two weeks. Yeah you know. So there's so many things about it and, like I said, I think it's a little removed where it's it's in our sport, but it's it's like a almost like a subcategory of our sport. Right, you know? Right, yeah, so what's your do talk about your 2024 season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's do it. So 2024 I've left it. I've left it a little blank. Last season I felt like I I'm not gonna say I overrace, because that was my goal. I wanted to get better at racing.
Speaker 2:I didn't run cross-country, I didn't run track, I didn't run again, I haven't ran against these, these, these good runners. So I wanted to race as much as I can, whereas this year I'm putting my focus into a few things and then leaving the canvas to paint it, hopefully paint an incredible season. So, yeah, it's starting out. We're kind of just building a base right now and up until I do Great divide here.
Speaker 1:I'll divide Colorado.
Speaker 2:I haven't I haven't signed up yet, but I'm going to. It's something that peaked my interest. It was it's a runnable course at over 8,000 feet and it just looked like fun. And you know, I love supporting local races. I love like low-key, like I want to. Sometimes I want to cross the finish line and there'd be like one person just clapping like I just I love that. So, yeah, I'm hoping to do that early June and then Potentially, potentially, I might do Pepe's face off again.
Speaker 2:I'm not 100% sure, but it's kind of based around right now and this is kind of what I'm basing most of my season around is being up in the mountains as much as possible If there, if the snow does melt and I'm able to get a pie, I will be a pie training that weekend over racing for sure, because that is where I find the most fulfillment for me is just being up high in the mountains working hard. So yeah, and then moving into there, let's see July.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I want still yep, going, still going to the San Juan's. Yep, my girlfriend and I are taking a trip for her birthday out there for about a week. There's some FKT's on the table out there, I won't say too much but, but yeah, we'll see might do.
Speaker 2:I'm just excited to get out there. I love the San Juan's but I was potentially going to race Kendall Mountain but I decided against it. I decided to do race out an aspen. The power for it looked like it was, it looked like it really suited me and Because it starts out with this big climb and it's half marathon right around like the two-hour mark, fast at altitude, aspen during that time of year is absolutely gorgeous and I just want to get a chance to race in like every different place I can in Colorado because I just I love racing here more than anything. But yeah, so we're hoping to go there and then so so I haven't signed up for any of these yet, but, planning on to, I'm the type of person where, like you know, there's some people like they get into January or something, the cold, dark months, and they just sign up for everything. They're like I'm so stoked, I got that. I'm stoked, but like you know it has to, I have to be feeling it like kind of around that time.
Speaker 2:So I'm a very like last-minute kind of sign-up person, same, and yeah, that's just how I am. But August is gonna roll around hoping to, hoping to do some FKT's, like I said, this summer, some big ones to train for the A race of the year and that's one that I've been looking to do for for quite some time, arguably probably one of the best sub ultra races in the country, the rut 28k. I had a lot of friends in Boulder really, really talk it up. They actually said it's far, far better than the 50k. They say the 50k kind of adds on a lot of like unnecessary things. Whereas, yeah, whereas the 28k is your riding ridges, you're hitting peaks, you're going down these super, super technical, loose rock descents and and as soon as I threw that out to E-line and Tabor that I wanted to do that, they were like that's like the only one they commented on. They were like, yep, this is the one. Like, like they're like this suits you very well and I think you can do good there.
Speaker 1:I forgot they went there a couple years. Yeah, yep, they've done it. They've done it, yep, yep.
Speaker 2:Yep, but it's gonna be nice not to have the the returning champion there, john and. Johnny Luna Lee Yep yeah, boulder guy, yep, he, I think he's done it the last three years and he finally got the dub this year. So it just goes to show you that that race I, I think you're gonna have to like return to because it's it's complex, it's technical serious question Are you gonna get the tattoo? Oh, I don't have any tattoos.
Speaker 2:I think I might still get the tattoo, but you know what, If the stoke is high and maybe I get the dub or something I might? Have to I don't know.
Speaker 1:I heard they give out like haircuts and stuff too, you might have to shave the head, I don't know. Mohawk tattoo oh dude, I love it. I love it. It's about culture right now.
Speaker 2:Oh man, Great race. But I heard I think I heard this on the Boulder Boys podcast. I heard Jessica Beal is going to be there.
Speaker 1:Justin Timberlake Dude, I'm persistent, yeah apparently so.
Speaker 2:They have a place in Montana and right outside of what's the ski resort up there A big sky, a lone peak, yeah, yeah yeah, outside of Big Sky. And yeah, I guess she signed up for the 50K.
Speaker 1:I've heard that Justin Timberlake was there last year. I thought it was a joke. Zach Miller put something on Instagram about it and I looked it up and I could, unless they signed up. So sometimes people sign up under different aliases. Sure, that could have been it. That definitely could have been it. I can imagine, because who was it? Molly Seidel ran Speed Go. I think it was the 28K last year the year before.
Speaker 1:It's under an alias. Nobody had no idea Really. Yes, wow, yeah, sometimes people do that. I wonder why people do that. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I mean for Jessica Beal's sake. I understand.
Speaker 1:I mean she doesn't want to pop her out, see there, or anything like that, I mean. I would look like, oh, I'd be. Like, oh yeah, you see, Justin Timberlake, Hopefully we're across the finish line Like what. I hope Rose does not listen to this, because once she hears that we're like, I mean I'm going to run, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I told my girlfriend that and she's just like oh, now I'm definitely going to like I love Montana as it is, but shit she's going to be there, oh wow. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know if she spreads the word about it too much. I mean, the rut is pretty well known, but like I feel like she could, you know, bring a lot of people into the sport. Like that'd be cool, Like someone like her doing it Like it's yeah, it's so interesting.
Speaker 1:the trajectory of the sport is on especially. You know this is a subulter podcast, so I try to do this not just from the ultra running perspective but from the subultra, and I just feel like the subultra is just so much more approachable. You know, like I said earlier, you're going to get more and more people in with these creed. You know they're going to see these mountain ridges. They're going to see things in the short distances that you know some people have to run 100 miles to get to. In these 100 mile races.
Speaker 1:So their approachability is much different.
Speaker 2:And then if you see like their favorite pop star doing it oh man, oh yeah 100% and yeah, I think I think people's view on the subultra space has changed a lot, like you said, in the past couple of years. Like it's it's it's growing significantly. I remember telling people about subultra races that I was doing when I first moved a boulder and I kind of got like kind of a look like oh, like you're doing that, like why would you want to run really, really hard for an hour? That?
Speaker 1:sounds horrible and I'm like that sounds awesome. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2:They're like have fun with that, we're going to go run our. We're going to go hike our 100 milers.
Speaker 1:And not to show on the ultra.
Speaker 2:No, I have so much respect.
Speaker 1:Same, same, it's just, it's just so different. Like so, most of my friends in, I'd say most of my friends that I've met since I moved here, are ultra people. They love and you know I get drug along on these long days with lots of hiking and there and I'm just like what are we doing? Like can't we do something really difficult for a short period of time, right, I feel the same way.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to go.
Speaker 1:One of my buddies is he'll listen to this. He's a hundred mile specialist and he knows he always gets the better of me on these like long three and a half hour things where, like I just I don't know.
Speaker 2:I kind of tap out.
Speaker 1:You know it's like are we done yet?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get that. No, I get that. I think there's a time and a place for stuff like that. Sometimes I think it's good for you to get out there and find yourself in a super, super long day in 2022, I did like a 17 hour push and it was just. I was just like okay, now I know how it feels. I'm like I guess I get it but, I kind of don't get it.
Speaker 1:One of my best friends. He did I. I paced him at every major race he's done Cool. He's a hundred mile specialist and he did. We were at Ure last year. So the first time I've ever paced this kid, I paced him at Ludville last 17 miles. It was great, it was fun. All good, right, 17 miles, not out of my wheels, not a big deal.
Speaker 1:Anything that's under a marathon. I'm like, all right, I'm in for it. Dude, I do two sections, right, and it's, it's Ure. If anybody knows, ure is a fucking oven in, in, in, in. In July, especially the end of July, it's horrible. So, and no in mind you, no streams, very little streams If you've, unless, like you, go to the Uncapagia River which is at the very bottom.
Speaker 1:We're at the top and so, dude, I paced this kid a bunch of times. So we, we didn't have, he didn't have a pacer for the last section, right, he's. He's trying to go I forget what time he was trying to finish in he's top 10. So he's competitive and they tried to goat me into doing the section. That would have been like eight o'clock at night to like midnight. I'm like guys, I only race at eight am and I'll be done by 10. Okay, that's the only way this works for me. I don't do, I don't do this night shit. I don't know what you would think, but look at me, because we had another buddy there. There was a another pacer and he he wound up taking him up and finishing the race and it turned. I'm. I'm so upset though had I gone with them Listen to this.
Speaker 1:So somebody caught him at like they were at the crest. So there's this final climb at the Ure 100, called the bridge of heaven. I'm sure you, if I showed it to you in a photo, you know exactly where it's at. You climb out of Ure, you get on this beautiful ridge line and it's just gorgeous all along. So they're on this ridge and someone catches him I do, nobody was around and he gets caught and so and it turns into this amazing foot race at the very end of the race, like totally cathartic, like high heart rate, like six, seven minute mile at the end of a hundred mile race, and I'm like, how did I miss this? This is the most, like the most action we're getting in, the whole fucking thing, and I miss it, yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so sometimes it's you know.
Speaker 1:I don't know where I went on this tangent, but you know, a hundred mile races can have, can have fun. And Patrick, if you're listening to this, yeah, I'm sorry I wasn't with you. So, yeah, man. So all right. So we're at the rut, rut, rut, rut a eagle. I know I don't really want to get into much of the FKTs because I know sure, just some proprietary stuff there. I would like to talk about some of your older FKTs, though, like James Peake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Because James Peake, and you've done a couple others.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you had a big one this year. I'll let you talk, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess I'll start with my first one, so kind of, I guess, a little backstory of like how this all started in April of 2022. Jason Hardrath came to town and to show his film Journey to a Hundred and we were shooting the shit in the DMs and he wanted me to take him out and show him the trails, show him some scrambles around Boulder. And we did that and really hit it off and he saw something in me that, like I didn't see, I knew what FKTs were. Did I think that I was capable of getting one? Probably not, but he seemed to think I could. And after watching his film, I was just had all this stoked.
Speaker 1:And I was like yeah, Jason's a nice guy.
Speaker 2:And so, like I remember that night that I met him, I was up till like two in the morning like researching all these different FKTs and like trying to find what's my route, what can I do, what can I throw down a good time on what suits my strengths. And so the one I ended up picking was Lone Eagle Peak, and that's a pretty obscure peak in the Indian Peak Wilderness right outside of Boulder there, and if you saw a picture of it, you, you would be like, okay, I've seen that before, but a lot of people don't associate the picture with the peak. But that's a you know, out of my wheelhouse definitely. I mean it was, it was close to 18. I want to say it was like 18 miles with like 4,500 feet of gain, with like like a thousand feet of like class four, like really tough scrambling. And I ended up going out there and doing um, doing a run with my friend Laura. We scouted it and then I decided I'm going to go back next week and give her a rip. And uh, one thing that's great about FKTs and a lot of people say, is like you can pick when you know, when you're feeling good, like you're not dictated by a race schedule or anything like that, and that's one thing I do love about them.
Speaker 2:But I remember that day not panning out how I thought it was going to be. You know, I got dumped on with rain, it was. I ended up, um, there was a, there's a really, really steep gully and I missed the turn for it, and then that maybe costed me maybe like a couple-ish minutes, um, but yeah, I remember ended up getting to the top of the peak, thinking I had the ascent, and I just like screamed I was so happy and turns out I ended up getting to the bottom and I missed the ascent by like 30 seconds and I was like, okay, if I would have made the turn then I would have had it, but ended up getting the round trip, which was super cool Even with those brutal, brutal conditions. Will I go back to that one? Probably not.
Speaker 2:That one was uh yeah, little little outside of my wheelhouse, but that's kind of something I wanted to do. Um, something that was tough like that and that um that really, after that one that really just motivated me, like knowing that I could do that, um, I was like, all right, what's next? Um, so James Pete came on my radar as one that, for some strange reason, like it's the James peak wilderness, it's the peak like, and nobody's thrown down to time on it, and I like couldn't believe that. And so I'm like, well, I guess I'll be the first to do that. And um ended up being just to after work during the weekday. That's what's so cool about Colorado.
Speaker 2:It was like a Wednesday in August and just went on after work and I knew it would take me I don't know right around 90 minutes and uh ripped up and down that thing and I remember coming down it there was a group of people skiing. If you guys know, uh, st Mary's Glacier uh stays glaciated for ever. I mean it's, it's, it's still. I don't know if it's technically a glacier anymore, but snow stays around their year round and there's a bunch of skiers out there and I remember blasting down the downhill and everyone's like yep and they're just screaming and cheering me on and it was so, so fun. That's amazing. Um, that, that was incredible. But that was so fun to just be able to to establish an FKT on a pretty well known route just mid week, just going out and just doing it, you know um a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I mean, dude, by the I. I work a crazy work schedule, so like by the time three or four o'clock in the afternoon comes around.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna.
Speaker 1:I'm an old man, dude, I'm in my 30s. So this old guy's got to. Uh, you know we're done by four PM, but yeah, yeah, and then uh, and then 2023,.
Speaker 2:Um, since I was racing so much, I didn't have a lot of time to look into routes or look for stuff that inspired me. But there was one, another one that popped up that I saw again, didn't really have a like a round trip time on it, like I found it. It was a pretty good time, but nobody, it was not established FKT. I mean, this is a mountain that everybody and their mom sees when they're driving on 70 to the mountains to go ski. It's some Buffalo Buffalo mountain right outside of Silverthorne.
Speaker 2:There Um ended up doing that is actually a gear to gear up for for Ulta and it was just kind of a test piece the week before and I definitely passed the test. It went, it went really well and that's when I kind of knew that I was onto something. And then then Ulta came and I again wasn't surprised there because of what I did on Buffalo. Um, yeah, it was a strong climb I was feeling really really good at at altitude up there. It's a quick one again and right around the 90 minute mark, similar to uh, to Zerk series, but like stuff like this, like you can really do this, like if you wanted to go for a 90 minute FKT every week, you probably could.
Speaker 2:Like it's yeah, that's what's so fun about the sub ultra stuff is you can do so much of it.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think that's one of the ones too. I mean it's great, like right next to Buffalo peak. Have you been over to like Mount Victoria and like peak one?
Speaker 2:I haven't done that, yet I need to do the perfect VK peak one almost Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like 33, 3600 somewhere in that range it's. I saw I've done Victoria before trying to get the FKT this past summer, Didn't? Get it, but that area is just gorgeous. Yeah 10 mile range is pretty neat.
Speaker 2:I know I have to do the 10 mile traverse. That's on the uh, that's on the bucket list, but but yeah, I'll have to check that out because that's only it's like a hour from my place and that's something I could probably do after work. So yeah, I'll have to throw that one on the on the list. A never ending list, never. Yeah, it's so funny.
Speaker 1:I feel the same way. Like I I tend to. Races are a little bit different. I'm finally learning to scale back and just pick some, pick a handful of quality races that I want to do, that I'm going to show up to super fit and it doesn't really matter anymore.
Speaker 2:The other things you know. It's like the regional races are great, but they have to serve their purpose, but you don't.
Speaker 1:You know, there's other stuff.
Speaker 2:Now to do you know?
Speaker 1:I'm the same with the FKTs. I'm like I'm going to do this one, I'm going to do that one, I'm going to do this one, I'm going to do that one. And I'm like, no, why don't we just pick one or two? Learn the route extremely well.
Speaker 2:Exactly If it's incredibly competitive and just go hammer the shit out of it.
Speaker 1:You know yeah, yeah, I'm excited, for the season 2024 is going to be a big year, especially for you. I hope so. So we talked about, we really went deep into who Nick is as the runner.
Speaker 2:Who's Nick?
Speaker 1:as the person I know what you do for a living You're a cloud engineer.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep Cloud engineer.
Speaker 1:What is a? What is a cloud engineer?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I might put, I might put everybody that's listening to sleep, but no, it's just, I don't know. I'm lucky enough to work full time, remote. That's a really a big thing for me, but it's just something that allows me to problem solve on a daily basis, something that I enjoy doing, helping customers with their technical needs. I guess I won't get into the nitty gritty of like exactly what it is, but but, yeah, it serves its purpose in my life.
Speaker 2:It gives me fulfillment and it gives me time to do the things that I love to do and I was able to move out here, like this company allowed me to move out here. And you know, chase a dream and that's. I can't ask for anything more and I've stuck it out with this company now for coming up on six years.
Speaker 1:I want to say dude, I see so much similarity between me and you, I would promote to very technical job. Yeah, loves the mountain. It's very interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know, I don't really have similar things like that. That's what I found.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the big problem solving thing is. Yeah, it's interesting. You meet a lot of engineers. And now, what did you study in undergrad?
Speaker 2:I started I studied information systems, which is in the school of business, so it's like a mix of business and technology and like kind of binding them together. So it was really, really fun. That's dope dude.
Speaker 1:That's better than geology. I would rock for a while.
Speaker 2:I gotta find what you love. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:So all right, so let's start getting into some questions. So one of the things you hit into a lot of it in the beginning is the theory of competition.
Speaker 2:And I've run with you now.
Speaker 1:you know we've run together and I've got a chance to spend a lot of time around you, and did you seem like you have that dog in you? You know there is that switch that you flick. Tell me about your theory on competition.
Speaker 2:I think it's. I think it's something that you're I don't, maybe it's something you're born with, maybe it's something like you can develop that just wanting to be competitive. I found like I was actually thinking about this on my run today, thinking about these questions for the pod, and I was just like thinking back to like when did that start? And I think it was like when I was like six playing.
Speaker 2:My parents put me in every sport in the book and I remember I was playing soccer and I remember I mean there's a lot of running in soccer, right and I remember just getting like the worst sideic of my life because I was just sprinting back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and I just had this like competitive, like fire in me and it just wanted to be let out and I just like and it wasn't like it had I don't think it had anything to do with like winning or beating the people next to me, it was just, it was something that I wanted to do for myself, it was yeah, and so, yeah, competition in my life, it just it serves as an outlet for me to just get out, get out my energy, because with my job, you know, sitting at a desk.
Speaker 2:You know it's just, you know it boils up in you and you need to let it out. But yeah, competition is just, it's something that's like it's been in my life, my whole life. I can't even remember a time where I wasn't competing Is golf crazy competitive Because it's such a.
Speaker 1:I always looked at it as an individual sport.
Speaker 2:No it is an individual sport and it was in high school. It was just you're shooting the shit with the guys and you're just kind of doing your thing. I think I would always. I'm a. I used to be a big talker. I've toned it down a little bit, but like I would just talk people's ear off and I would piss them off so bad, talking shit, not talking shit literally just like shooting shit, like is this kid?
Speaker 2:like stop talking. They're like like I'm trying to focus and like be competitive here and I'm just like I'm just out here to freaking, have a good time and like shoot a good score and hopefully it's a good day. Um, but yeah, it's competition, man, do we need some?
Speaker 1:shit. Talking in self ultra. I think it's a hot take, like Sabrina Stanley, who I know you also raised oh yeah, like. Yeah, I don't know People get so turned off by. I don't know like I get it we're all sportsmen here, you know but like to call your shots a little bit. Yeah, I love that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I do that internally for sure, Like I don't know, I'll stoke myself up in the car before and I'll be like talking shit in my head, but like I won't actually say Like, I'm not gonna like yeah, and I don't know. I think maybe that's just the thing with the sport Everyone's just so damn nice and everyone's like, like it's like I feel like if I were to talk shit to somebody or yell at them for whatever reason, they would be like okay have a good day and like I'm like oh, I'm like.
Speaker 2:Well, that didn't get me anywhere. I was trying to, you know, psych them out.
Speaker 1:But it's funny, dude, it's funny, uh all right, I feel the same way A competition, like I said, I think the word that comes to me and I look for in people, because some people are a little more tacit, they're just not about it, you know, but like in those competitors that I look up to and competitors that I see in adjacent sports, or even ones that I've raced or friends with or met, whatever, it's that dog dude and I love that.
Speaker 2:That's something that really matters to me.
Speaker 1:You know, and as I don't know, people might, might hate that, but I look for you know for that in people, so tell me about who inspires you.
Speaker 2:Who inspires me? Oh, everything and anything, man. I look for inspiration everywhere, because that that's what fuels me, like that is my fuel. Um, it can be landscapes, it can be groups of people, it can be individuals, um, any one person.
Speaker 1:I would say one person.
Speaker 2:It's so tough because I don't want to like call someone out necessarily by name, but like just because I there's been like just different chapters in in my mountain running that like I've you know, looked up to other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, hmm, I would say for me I would say it's the Boulder community as a whole, um, just because I don't want to single anyone directly out. But man, like the community up there is something else. Everybody's getting after it every single day. Um, I'm someone that I love, strava. Um, looking at what other people do, um, and just just getting just inspired by, like these lines, by this different stuff that people do.
Speaker 1:Um, I agree, and you see, people like just an example, is like Kyle Richardson that kid going up there Dude every day he does like an eight mile 3000 foot runup green every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this gets like, and he does it pretty early, so I'll see it on my Strava before I get on my run and it just gives me I can agree with that because it gives me a little bit of an extra drive. Or even my local guys that go run up Herman every day. You know they do the same route. It's not sexy, you know, but they're getting it done and, yeah, I agree, that helps me get my foot out the door.
Speaker 2:But I guess I could say Kyle Richardson yeah, he, I could say he definitely played a role. I started following him when I still lived in Minnesota and he was, I would definitely say, like. Him and Anton were some of the reasons why I wanted to get out to Boulder and run these peaks and see what the hype's about, see what the fun's about, and he's definitely the reason I got into scrambling for sure and just like mixing it up on green and doing the different routes. He inspired me. He's like one of the there's a handful of people in Boulder that love to count their summits of green. It's like a big thing in the community. And, yeah, he inspired me to do that in 2022.
Speaker 2:I was just running with Rocky Mountain runners every single Monday, heading up and down Green Mountain 530 sharp and it came to like August and one of my friends, eli, made a comment saying hey, you going for 100? And I was like that wasn't even like on my radar because I knew Kyle would do like one to 200 a year. I'm like that's just insane to me and I was like, well, let's, let's see what happens. And that was definitely a big thing in 2022, hitting that, hitting those hundred summits of green, was was a big thing for me.
Speaker 1:Do you think that was like so one of the things that interested that really blew me away. You are an incredible climber. It really. I was very like shocked, like watching you climb. I was like, wow, it's really good. Do you think that played a massive role between the flat irons, between green? You think that just provided the ample training? Yeah, green.
Speaker 2:The repetition of green. Green is just it's, it's steep, it's rocky, it's so fun and it's it gets you fit quick. I so there's a group of people on Boulder, if people don't know, a group of scramblers called Satan's minions never heard, and yeah yeah, and these are, these are arguably the craziest people on earth, in my opinion.
Speaker 2:Like the stuff these guys do and how fast they do it, it's absolutely incredible. And I remember talking with one of them and I'm like, how do you guys get in shape to like do this type of stuff? And they're like intervals up green, up and down green, as much as you can. And I'm like, ok, so I took that and I ran with it and yeah, it's just, it's, it's doing it, it's I mean time on feet.
Speaker 1:It's, it's yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah it. I mean. That year ended up being close to 600,000 feet of vert and it's just you got to do it, you got to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what? What sports Now? We talked about golf. Yeah, we talked about. Obviously we talk about running.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's people and running that inspire us, but what? What other sports do you adjacently just draw inspiration from?
Speaker 2:So, growing up as well, I played hockey. Being from Minnesota, that's a way of life, it's religion, it's everything. I played a year round till I was 17. So that was another massive, massive part of my life and the people that inspired me in that sport mainly were. So when I was nine, I went to see Miracle in theaters with my parents and I learned about the, the Miracle team, and that it was a group of rag tag kids from, you know, minnesota and the East Coast and my, my mom and dad actually went to high school with some of these guys and like just seeing that connection and then seeing her Brooks as a coach and seeing what they did, that inspired me.
Speaker 1:Her Brooks is like one of my biggest US team, usa Right, yep, that was team.
Speaker 2:USA 1980 Olympics Yep, yep. He's one of my biggest inspirations. He, the way that he approached the game, the way that he dreamed, the way that he just instilled just this confidence into this group of kids, was just incredible for me to see. And even at like age nine. I remember like leaving the theater, like what just happened, and I remember my like hockey game going to a next level after that and it was then again and this is just back to the whole like seeing it happen and like knowing it happened and knowing that other people are capable of doing it like you are just as capable.
Speaker 1:You're just as capable. We're all people.
Speaker 2:We are all people, and especially these people, going up against that. I think they said arguably one of the greatest teams put together, which was, at the time, russia or the Soviet Union at the time. And yeah, these are just a bunch of college kids, not not pro athletes in any stretch of the imagination. And they went out and they beat a bunch of pro athletes. So what? What's telling you that you know, this amateur kid that lives in the mountains in Colorado, can't, you know, go out and throw down with a bunch of pros?
Speaker 1:Hell, yeah, yeah, man, now on that topic, because you're Either just getting into your prime or are in your prime now. You're so young like it does. Trying to make team USA on for mountain running ever crossed your mind? Is it something you'd want to chase?
Speaker 2:That's something that, yeah, that's definitely crossed my mind, I mean, as a kid. Forever. I wanted to represent team USA somehow and I didn't know if it was ever gonna be possible for me. But now that I found this sport, it, it, I think it's possible. Yeah, I mean I'm playing the long game here. That's one thing that I think separates me from other people is a lot of people I see they're just you're going a little bit too hard, too fast, like stretch this thing out. This is, this is such a long game, this is a sport that I know you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah this is a sport that involves consistency and being healthy, and In it's yeah, but yeah, team USA, man, that would be. That would be something else.
Speaker 1:You think you would do like the classic? Do you think you would do the VK, like is there?
Speaker 2:you know you are.
Speaker 1:You haven't done a VK yet? Yeah, but I don't realize how good I think you would be in the VK.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's something that I definitely want to throw my hat in, the VK for sure. But you know, as as I progress in this sport, I am hoping to to get longer and to have longer time on feet and some of these races, maybe racing up to the 50k and maybe the 50 miler, I don't know. So, yeah, I can't tell you where my head's gonna be at in the next like five years. But yeah, as for like hitting my peak too, like I got a ways to go.
Speaker 1:I think I have a long ways to go.
Speaker 2:I really do. I think I've treated my body really well this past decade and laid the foundation where I Can girl in the sport for a really long period of time. I want to be setting masters records, you know. I want to be. I want to be that old guy on the starting line that, like everyone looks at, they're like what is this guy doing here?
Speaker 1:and they'd be like with the be, yeah, yeah they're like.
Speaker 2:They're like. He's been out here for you know Multiple decades, like I, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you got a bunch of guys in the spring or in the Boulder like yeah.
Speaker 1:We've got a guy, a couple guys in the spring that, like Mark Tatum, is one great example. Like that guy shows up and fucking Throws down dude and he's I don't, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to tell. I don't really know his age, I believe he's in the 60s, but he's Disclustingly good for his age group. It's so amazing. It's to me, it's very inspiring, because me, at 33 years old, there are some mornings I wake up I'm like, oh, this hurts, that hurt, and I think this guy's double my age getting after it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, it's no excuse, it's the best. Yeah, there is a handful of guys in Boulder. There's one guy, Jeff Falari, and he has, like I think, like 1600 like recorded a sense of Green Mountain, which is absolutely incredible. I think he was probably doing it well before Strava was a thing. So this guy's probably has maybe 2000 in his pocket and he's like in his 50s, you know, like out of family, like just a regular dude, and he just goes out there and he's crushing it every day. It's so it's so fun to see it's funny.
Speaker 1:A little bit ago previous podcast I had my buddy, sean Rimmer, on. We were chatting about like Matt, you Matt Carpenter is. Yeah, yeah, she had about. Yeah, you just tell me he sees carpenter like because he's a man and two guy. Yeah, he's carpet on the trails all the time. Really, he'll just get off to the side and be like, oh you go, like this guy doesn't give a fuck anymore, like he's just.
Speaker 1:He's tapped out, he's out there he knows what he is and you know, you know, could you like I don't think I'll ever be like that Satisfy, like I think he's probably just gotten the most out of himself and sure knows it. Yeah, I think that's where that's my goal is Not necessarily the competition, it's not this, it's not that, it's it's knowing that you got the most out of yourself.
Speaker 1:And and you left it all out there and that's it. Yep, I mean that's why he's. He's, yeah, one of the goats. Yeah, he is on that question. Yeah, who is your goat? Who's your mountain sub ultra, mountain running goat sub ultra? Oh, you can kill Kelly in there. That's what everybody says.
Speaker 2:But you know, I yeah, I was thinking about that I'm like do I want to be like everybody else and say Kelly, and like did I start like watching his videos, getting inspired by him, like absolutely. But you know, this sport is so new, especially here in the States. I mean they've been doing in Europe now for for quite some time. So I'm not like I definitely do my research in sport and like I love Looking into the history of it, but I haven't dug into the European side a ton. So I can't like say like this, like obscure guy, like I'm sure there's some guy in Italy, that's just absolutely insane. But my goat, my sub ultra goat Right now I mean right, like right in this moment, right now we're like past time. You could say whoever just better. I mean right now I, I want to say my coach.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, yeah, I mean it's just because, maybe because I haven't I haven't seen a bunch of people like in-person race, but just seeing what he can do is is pretty incredible and seeing his ceiling is, like dude, absolutely Big.
Speaker 1:Alta. So, and I've said this one, I said this on the last podcast and I don't want to be too repetitive, but I'm gonna say it again I In my, in my, just in my opinion, big all the 50k, not a crazy competitive field, but competitive, feel deep feel competitive enough yeah.
Speaker 1:Matt Daniels. You got Darren Thomas, you've got dudes. Show it up. Yeah, I'm gonna say right now I I know I'll die on this sword probably Best 50k performance, not just a year, but possibly by the pet in the last five years. The reason I'll say that is because to beat Darren Thomas, who is a god, okay, I'm gonna put that out there guy is a freak by 20 something minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I, I'm sorry. I mean different fitness levels, different, I get it. You can. You can argue different things, but I'm still gonna say it's one of the best 50k performances I've ever seen it was the most dominant.
Speaker 2:I would say dominant. He's a word to yeah, yeah, yeah, people are gonna be Be hearing his name. I'll tell you that off, for sure, yeah, but I guess I could say shout out to all the women in this sport too.
Speaker 1:Yes, I want to.
Speaker 2:I want to. I want to call them out.
Speaker 1:I mean Sophia, locally Um definitely I would put her up there, oh yeah, she really inspires me to her work ethic is Incredible in skiing and running both the way.
Speaker 2:She just came onto the scene and just destroyed and I was super inspired. I found out about Zerk series through her because she was.
Speaker 1:She kind of got her footing in the sport there and then now she's making her way to the Golden Trail and dominating and it's amazing fun to see, so many dude, I think, yes, the men are exciting to watch, but and I just read a girl, I think it was a trail runner article that came out recently and I'm gonna agree with it I think the ladies are Setting it on fire, absolutely like that group of women. I mean, you got Tabor, you've got Danny, you've got a MK like there are. So there's so much you know, so much talent out there.
Speaker 1:So, much and these ladies are just and they're throwing down fast times and it's competitive and there's a lot of camaraderie. To me it's. It's really exciting to follow. So fun yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to get my sister into it. I'm like I think you would crush it in this like I want. Yeah, it's, the women are killing it. Do you love it?
Speaker 1:My sister ran cross country for flyer state and I told her tell her every time I see her, Please run a trip. She lives in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm like please run a trail race Just check it out, just try it, see what it's all about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean she's 28. And I'm always like dude, like you're just, you're not even in your prime yet, like come on, nothing, nothing. So yeah, if she listens to this, daniela run a trail race, sub ultra please. But now I, you know, I think Eli. So one of the best example I can give a V like, because I do follow, I pull inspiration from other sports. Yeah yeah, I love football, baseball, basketball and I really like fighting. I don't know why.
Speaker 2:Oh, I see for me, you have C300 tonight he reminds me of like, he's like the bow.
Speaker 1:I will say this he is the bow. Nickel, yeah, like, if you're in the know, yeah, and you know, like the, he's just just the most exciting prospect that has jumped on the scene I Think we may have ever seen, and I'm just so excited for what he's gonna do and I'm excited for who else Follows. You know who else are gonna get on the scene. That's gonna just dominate. You know that that comes from a. You know A crossover sport like triathlon, yeah, or even gravel race. There's a million different things, you, that these people could do. You know and you see, um, oh, you raced him. Who is the guy? He's a really, really, he's a Cirque series kid. He does a lot of the Cirque series races. David Norris David Norris is a freak too. Same Hendry, oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're a crossover from Nordic skiing Yep absolute dominator.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got to meet him in Ulta really really good, good sure.
Speaker 1:I'm sure so there's just. You know, there's so much talent crossing over from other other sports that I'm just you know so much speaking of other sports and speaking of just sports in general. Yeah, I mean, one of the things we have talked about and we're gonna be doing a bunch of, you know, we're gonna be doing a bunch of talking about these different races. I think we talked about US mountain running champs. We're gonna be talking about a bunch of the Golden cert trail series races will preview.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to have you on as a co-host for that. Yeah, I'm excited for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. It's something that I pay super close attention to, I think. I think there's a lot of people in the sport that they just do the sport. They're not really like Invested into it or following it too much. Where it's like I don't know for me, like when I get into something I'm all in, like I'm sub-tub, I have all my Alerts on for a golden trail series, like I want the next you know episode to come out so I can watch and gain some inspiration from it.
Speaker 2:It's, it's they kill it and I can't believe like the views that these are getting. I'm just like they should be getting so much More attention. It's so entertaining, like the way that they're showing their story outside of racing, and just it's inspiring. It's great stuff.
Speaker 1:I love this sport. I'm so excited to watch it grow. It's yeah, yeah you know, and it's exciting for it's exciting for you to submit your place in it pretty soon, so I can't wait to see where that goes We'll see, we'll see, yeah, so yeah man, do you have anything else to talk about? Anything you want to end on?
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know. I mean we, can we talk about some other sports? I'm always on talk about sports, but you watch it, ufc 299. Tonight I'm watching Yep, yep, absolutely, sean O'Malley, oh.
Speaker 1:Sean, I'm excited for that. I'm excited for Dustin Poirier. Yeah, dude. Dp yeah, he's the diamond bro against that. Ben was on Dene guy. Yeah, oh my god, he calls himself the God of War Fuck like that guy's.
Speaker 2:that's scary. Oh my gosh, yeah I'm excited for that.
Speaker 1:You're a big football fan too, aren't you big?
Speaker 2:football fan, yep, minnesota Vikings fan, big fan of Justin Jefferson. I mean, who isn't he's? He's arguably the goat of that position, or soon to be. Yeah, I love that. Love following the Timberwolves right now, super excited about Anthony Edwards Young kid with a ton of charisma and just like someone. That's, he's younger than me, but it's like I even look up to someone like that. It's. There's just so many people in so many different sports that are doing so many amazing things that you can pull inspiration from and, yeah, it's just the world's your oyster man.
Speaker 1:I agree, you can do anything. Well, dude, I'm that. Yeah, you want to talk? You want to plug your, plug your social media, sure, so if you could find you, yeah it's just followers.
Speaker 2:a follow me on Instagram, just Nick Tusa Strava. Nick Tusa as well to USA, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, guys, look him up on Instagram. We got to get this guy some followers. Take a look. Keep a look out for Nick Tusa on the 2024 season. So what'd you guys think I told you? Nick is on the ascent, on the rise, and I am so excited for his future in his 2024 season. We definitely want to wish him the absolute best of luck as he takes on races like the rut 20 a k. I have a feeling that's gonna be another breakout performance of his in this upcoming season.
Speaker 1:So another just wanted to go ahead and plug Nick. Have an opportunity to plug his social media. His Instagram is Nick and Ick to say to USA guys, go ahead and reach out to him, give him a follow, follow along. I mean, he's got some crazy images of him on there On some technical ridgelines as well as some other discussion on some of the races that he does. So go ahead and give him a follow.
Speaker 1:Brands any of you brands out there listening go ahead and look this kid up, give him a follow, send him an email, send him a DM. He would love to hear from you. Let's go ahead and get Nick out of free agency this year. Once again, thank you guys so much for giving this a listen. I genuinely appreciate your support. Yeah, go ahead and check us out on our Instagram, at the steep stuff pod on Instagram, and, and stay tuned for some up and coming episodes that are gonna drop with some familiar faces that you guys might recognize, so you'll get to follow along the stories of friends, new and old. Thanks again, guys, and until next time, oh you.