The Steep Stuff Podcast
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The Steep Stuff Podcast
Tatum Russo | From Musical Theater to Trail Running: Tatum's Inspiring Journey
What drives someone to transition from aspiring musical theater performer to a passionate downhill runner? Tatum Russo takes us on a riveting journey from her early years in Arizona to her life in Colorado Springs, detailing how her childhood fascination with running blossomed into a career. She moved to Colorado at the tender age of seven and has since become a prominent figure in the running community, all while navigating the intense demands of musical theater and balancing her creative pursuits.
Feel the anticipation build as we discuss the upcoming Broken Arrow race, with the thrilling possibility of seeing Jim Walmsley compete. We share personal anecdotes about overcoming winter injuries and the relentless challenge of peroneal tendinitis, which threatened Tatum's participation in the event. From close encounters with wildlife to the emotional roller coaster of injury and recovery, this episode captures the unpredictable essence of trail running and the resilience required to persevere.
But that's not all—Tatum's journey extends beyond the tracks. We explore her deep-rooted passion for musical theater, the psychological impact of portraying various characters, and the arduous path to mastering music theory. As we navigate topics ranging from inspiring musicians to the mysterious allure of Bigfoot, we also tackle the complex relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence. Join us for a compelling conversation that celebrates the spirit of pursuing excellence and the intricate dance between art, performance, and sport.
Hey, fam, welcome back to the Seep Stuff podcast. I'm your host, James Lauriello, and today we've got a really special episode. Miss Tatum Russo, the pride of Colorado Springs, Colorado, joins us on the podcast to chat. What a really exciting episode. Tatum is a super inspiring human, a badass downhill runner and, just like I said, an all around good human. I think you guys are going to really enjoy this one.
Speaker 1:Tatum is a very grounded person. She's very exciting to talk to Um and she's got a bright future in our sport. Um, we talk about all kinds of fun stuff. I believe this was recorded just before she went off to broken arrow, so we chatted a little bit about that. Um, we talked about just a whole bunch of stuff. You guys have probably learned a little bit more about her as well, Um, from listening to the bar trail mountain race um preview episode. That was the elite night where Tatum joined us to talk about her upcoming race at the bar trail mountain race. So really fun.
Speaker 1:I really want to thank Tatum so much for coming on and sharing her story. Um, it's definitely one of inspiration, um, and and grit and she, like I said, she's just such an exciting and interesting human. Um, and I'm just, you know, really appreciative to have had her on to share her story and tell us a little bit more about her journey. So, without further ado, I hope you guys enjoy this one Personal favorite of mine, Ms Tatum Russo. Without further ado, Steep Stuff Pod. Thank you, Ladies and gentlemen, we are live. Yeah, so is it Maisie? Is it Maze?
Speaker 2:Maisie.
Speaker 1:Maisie, okay, okay, and you're a Coloradan, right Like Arizona and then Colorado.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I came here when I was seven.
Speaker 1:Really yeah. What part of Arizona.
Speaker 2:I was born in Scottsdale and lived in Fountain Hills, but yeah, Super cool Moved here afterwards we're definitely live now, so we'll
Speaker 1:introduce you, tatum Mazey. Yeah, all right, I like it. We got it. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm so stoked. We had such a great conversation running a couple of weeks ago that I was like you're just a natural, like you're really good at like conversation and I think you have an absolutely incredible story to share and you're kind of like on this, you know you're working on this ascent in the sport and you know you're starting to meet all these people and kind of you know starting to feel it out and stuff like that. I was like what a better time to have you on the pod, especially before your summer season starts. And yeah, let's, let's get into it. So, yeah, you already introduced yourself, kind of said where you're from.
Speaker 2:So you've been in like the colorado, greater colorado springs area then, for since you were seven or yeah, I mean I I was in like glen eagle area like pretty much growing up through high school ended up in denver for college where'd you?
Speaker 2:go um. I went to metro state university okay, um, yeah, for musical theater performance and um, I didn't run in college but I could have. But I was like, oh, I want to give this theater thing a shot and through my college experience kind of learned like, well, you know, I actually really hate theater and I think I just love singing. So I did like a lot of music, like bands and um whatnot, in denver, um, and then had a side quest in boulder for like a little bit okay, all right and then came back here like when the pandemic hits yeah, yeah, okay, well, welcome, so excited to have you.
Speaker 1:Like you're, uh, you're a great fit for the Colorado Springs running scene, for sure. Oh, thanks, I like the uh. Like you're also very creative, which is interesting because, like you, ace is very creative, so it makes sense yeah, we're very we're creative.
Speaker 2:So you know, we work really well together and like creativity just really inspires me because it's such an important like it's. One of my biggest values is being creative, you know. So like just having that around me and my surroundings is just great. It's like fuel for more creativity.
Speaker 1:I love it. So let's talk running a little bit. How did you like, how'd you get into running?
Speaker 2:Um, I mean, when I was younger, my dad was a um, like a baseball coach. He did like little league and like competitive baseball and I really liked like running the bases and um, I always, like you know, his like 13 year old, like boys on the competitive baseball team could not outrun me running bases and that just like felt super cool Me being like I don't know five years old. Um, so, like you know, I kind of had that natural ability and then in middle school, doing track was like the cool thing, like if you wanted to be cool, you did track.
Speaker 2:Like everybody did track. And everybody did track because they wanted to do hurdles. And I'm like, yeah, I'm going to be so cool, I'm going to do hurdles, it's going to be amazing. And then I get to track and they're like, well, we don't really have anyone to run the miles, so like you're going to run the mile and I was like wait what you want me to run a mile.
Speaker 1:So far.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely not, I'm not going to run a mile. And then I I did, and I don't know, I think it was like a seven minute, 13 second mile as like a seventh grader, and I was like, okay, yeah, maybe it's not so bad, I don't know. I think I got like first or second it felt like wrong, like a mistake, but you know, I was like, all all right, I don't know, maybe this is something I could be good at um. And then did cross country in middle school and really started loving that and then just kind of continued on in high school with cross country. I ended up dropping track, though like after my sophomore year of high school I was like yeah, I'm done with that, that's fun yeah that's amazing.
Speaker 1:So what? So? You've always, like for a long time, you've known that you had this, like this natural ability and this gift, and you were just excited to do it yeah, I mean, you know, I don't want to say like natural ability, but like I, I've loved it you're above average.
Speaker 2:Definitely, yeah, like above average, you know, and it was something where I was like, yeah, I could really excel at this, like I can. You know, I feel motivated to like push myself, so I definitely have that drive with it.
Speaker 1:So let's kind of bridge that gap then. So we're like you've definitely raced, you know, like a good little amount, like pretty exciting, and you do these like you know, one of the things that that, you know, we had a great conversation about was just like the sub-ultra mountain scene and things like that. So what is it that like? How did you find your first like sub-ultra running race, like or mountain race, and like what did? Like you know where did you fall in love with this at?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's, um, that's so difficult. Um, because it it kind of like I feel like it was born out of the pandemic. Um, a little bit. Um, I I for a while thought I wanted to do ultras. You know, I just was like literally starting from scratch again after taking eight years off, um, so I was like I have nothing to compare myself to, so why don't I just do something that I've never done before? Um, I wanted to start running like half marathons and I had already been running half marathons for a little bit. And then, um, I actually knew a couple of people that, like, were mountain bikers and were constantly, like out in the mountains, on the trails, and I was kind of realizing that, oh yeah, I really like the mountains too. Like you know, maybe I should, maybe I should take this like running thing out there, and I really honestly didn't know that trail running really existed.
Speaker 1:Just a thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just copying, like someone that was doing it on a bike, and then I kind of found like the community afterwards I was like, oh my gosh, this is the thing, this is real, that's so cool I love it.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the community. You've already been here for a little bit, but yeah, yeah, so no, it's really exciting. I'm glad you, it's interesting. Everybody's kind of got like this strange and nuanced story about how they like came into the trails and like you know, like what is this? And you know this is a sport, like what the hell? People run, jog around the, around the hills every day. So no, that's really that's really inspiring and very cool. That's really that's really inspiring and very cool. So you've run a few races now. So what, what? What landscapes, what areas inspire you? Like? What are some of your favorite trails around here?
Speaker 2:Around here. Um, oh gosh, I really love like everywhere around here. I think Colorado Springs is just like the most diverse, um, and I've lived in Denver and I've lived in Boulder. Um, denver, you're way too far away. I'm like you got to drive an hour to get to, like you know, the mountains, um, and Boulder. I just feel like there's not, there's not enough diversity there. You've got like the flat irons and then you can go up to like netherland and like kind of like back behind the flat irons and whatnot, but you know, there's just not the diversity that colorado springs has. So I love that. There's like a little bit of everything in colorado springs. Um, you know, you can get the trees in the canyon, which is really awesome, and I love, uh, you can get like trees in the canyon, which is really awesome, and I love you can get, like you know, the red rocks and like Garden of the Gods there's so many inspiring landscapes.
Speaker 2:I know you can get like a little bit of a desert vibe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the garden is wild. You could be like in Moab, like it feels like you know, and then like it's funny april or something, like rose, rose and the dogs like went to go run. Um, I think it was either red rocks, no, I think it was uh like rampart. It was so like you know, and rampart.
Speaker 1:you know, for those of you that know, rampart range road is like on the side of garden of the gods and you know, like I was up running like in the mountains, like I, I there was, snow was very alpine and it's funny this like landscape contrast of like being in the mountains and then coming down and it's like 70 degrees or 60 degrees and nice and warm and I'm like, oh, I love this. You can kind of get this dichotomy of both things. You know, yeah, so cool yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was checking out your ultra sign up. You're on the deck for a few races this year. You're getting ready for quite a few. You want to talk about them a little bit yeah, um, my ultra sign up.
Speaker 2:I, I, I still struggle with it because I, I, I'm pride myself and like having good grades and my sign up grade is not great because of, like some, very like me, just coming back into the sport, literally starting from scratch and, you know, doing these races that now are on ultra run, sign of, just, you know, impacting my score.
Speaker 1:So I've been digging myself out, not that I have to, but you can always make like a second one or a burner one I have. I have a secret burner one that I've never used, but I have it just in case I should do that Um but yeah, I've, I've had a lot of fun with um trail racing over the past few years.
Speaker 2:I've done like a couple of um. There's a like a couple of things that I'm looking for when I sign up for races, that, and one in the biggest one is that like it's gotta be a trail race, and one in the biggest one is that like it's gotta be a trail race, um. And then it's gotta be like half marathon to like 30 K. That's the distance that I love to do and oddly enough, that is such it's so difficult to find like races that meet those um qualifications of mine. So I've gone to like a couple of different. You know, like I've done a race in Oregon, I've done like a couple in Arizona, or at least one in Arizona. It's just that distance is just a distance that I feel like it's just now starting to pick up that I feel like it's just now starting to pick up, which is awesome.
Speaker 2:I love it. And then, in addition, with that, I feel like that distance is not always that competitive and I'm not an elite athlete by like any stretch of the imagination, um, but I, I do love to compete and I do love to like show up and like challenge and push myself and um, and it's not to say that like, if a race isn't competitive, that it's like not a good race to do. I just want, you know, to be in an environment where it's really going to like push myself like to the limits and um, that's that has inspired me to kind of go after these really, really competitive races that you know it's kind of like wait what I don't really have any business doing broken arrow, but I like I want to, you know, um, because I just I love like competing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, are you excited? Like what's like, how's training been going? Like, what are your, what are your thoughts on it right now? I mean, cause that's like it's a you know, national golden trail, national golden trail race, which is amazing and it's, I think you're going to have so much fun. Like I love the atmosphere. It's a huge race. Like there's thousands of people, um, everybody's out there on the course cheering you on. Like it's just, it's just a really exciting atmosphere. Um, it was by far the biggest race I'd ever been to. So what's your, what's your excitement level?
Speaker 2:Like yeah, I'm really excited. I'm very nervous. Um, I can't tell if I'm, like you know, more nervous for the race or like more nervous that I'm going to be like potentially in super close proximity with Jim Walmsley, which is really exciting. Um, you know um I I really hope he shows up.
Speaker 1:That's true. Are you going to go out early? You're going to be out there for Friday and watch the VK.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be there for the VK, so I really hope he's there and shows up. It would be so cool.
Speaker 1:We recorded our race previews over this past weekend and there was some good. You would like it. You'll like it. There's some good storylines with Jim Walmsley in there, nice.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm very excited. I mean I signed up for Broken Arrow gosh, like you know, as soon as I possibly could I set an alarm for it and everything. I was like I'm just going to sign up, figure it out later. Um, and that was before my injury like really took me out for most of the winter. So there was a point in time in the winter where I was thinking like man, I don't know if I'm going to get out there I just don't know if it's going to make sense.
Speaker 2:I might have to like defer, I might have to just, like you know, eat the loss. Um, I, I just don't know what's happening with my ankle, um, but you know, just kind of like clockwork, that injury went away and I was able to start training, and then I was like because I feel like I met you right on the tail end of that right, yeah, but do you want to unpack the injury a little bit if you want to talk about that, or sure?
Speaker 2:um, so I, I don't know like I did a long run on the road in november, mid-november, um, and like my ankle, like the tendon underneath my ankle, just never felt the same afterwards, um, it was kind of like bothering me. Um, it never hurt when running, but it always like hurt afterwards, like walking, and um, for a while it was like manageable, like I would be able to like take time off and then the pain would go away completely, but then I'd start running again and it would come back, um, and it just felt like it lasted forever. Um, and you know, I'm I'm assuming some sort of like peroneal tendinitis.
Speaker 2:Um, I always get the weird injuries where you you Google them and they're like it's not uncommon or like it's not very common, you know, but like not, like impossible. And I'm I'm like, oh great, why do I have the one that's like uncommon? Um, yeah, and so I. I actually worked with um adam schwert from run mental yeah, yeah, shout out to adam.
Speaker 1:He's got an awesome practice.
Speaker 2:I've run with him once actually yeah, I don't want to say it's like magic, like you got to put in the work, but it really just felt like magic to me. Yeah, you know, like after three sessions it's like magic, like you got to put in the work, but it really just felt like magic to me. You know, like after three sessions it was like okay, well, this is gone. I mean, I know it was like much more than that, but I mean PTs are miracle workers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know big fan of PTs. I always get these like weird kind of weird things that pop up myself and I'm like I'm never running again. I'm done, my running career is over, what do I do? And I'm always like dramatic about it. And then I'll go to Sean and Sean's like dude, you got to relax. Like um fixes me but no.
Speaker 1:I'm really happy that you're kind of on. You're definitely on the mend, obviously. I ran with you a couple of weeks ago and and, uh, it was a great effort, great workout and um, yeah, I'm excited. I'm so excited for your mountain running season. Have you come back to run that course at all?
Speaker 2:Um, I did. I did once, um like I think a couple of weekends ago, and I started way too late in the day and it got like really hot and I was overheated and it just felt forever going on the down and I swear I heard like a giant critter rustling in the trees.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's bears everywhere up there.
Speaker 2:I like, that's what I was saying. But, like you know, I tell that story to some people and they're like it could have been a bird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm like.
Speaker 2:I don't think a bird would be able to like move and break the branches like the way I saw and they're like a large bird. I'm like what? Like a, like a pterodactyl, like what are like. I'm sure it was a bear, you know, like a bear running away because they were scared or something probably.
Speaker 1:Well, that's usually what it is and they'll usually like, especially like on that road, um, like there's a very steep drop off on the one side, and like they'll jump. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, there's mountain lions up there too. Like I do when it snows, like I see kitty tracks all the time, oh my god, yeah, like it's.
Speaker 2:I mean, you never see them like, yeah, they will never let you see them, unless they want you, unless they want to eat you, but you're pretty tall, so I think you, I feel like you're.
Speaker 1:You know, if it was like rose, rose is a little tiny, yeah, she might be, she might be praying, oh no, I don't know. But, um, yeah, I feel like I always laugh because, you know, you just got to be the faster than the slowest person and just be, I feel like you know, just be a little bit taller, bigger than the, than the smallest person to be able to get away. No, but that's funny. I'm glad you went back and uh and do the road that runs tough, like I, I do, like I said all the time for like cirque series and stuff like that, just because it's, uh, you know, very steep and very. I've been doing blodger a lot too, yeah love blodger.
Speaker 2:I know it's. It's fun out in blodger as well. Yeah, very difficult.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that was the north ridge is legit. Oh, I just discovered like I had a friend show me the north ridge where you kind of I don't want to go off on too much of a tangent, but like basically starting from the air force academy and then going up the north end.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty dope. Definitely I need to explore that too.
Speaker 1:I don't want to show it to ace yet because I haven't gotten the crown. I want to have the crown for like a day before he goes and gets it. But, uh, yeah, so super cool. Um, so, let's, let's pivot back to broken arrow. So you're going to go out a little bit early. Um, you've been doing a lot of training for it. You're excited, which is awesome, and, yeah, I'm excited. I'm so excited for you. It's fun race.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm, I'm really excited. Um, my, i'm'm, I'm flying out to san jose. My sister lives there. She and I are gonna be driving up, uh to go stay in palisades, tahoe um, have you ever been to that area before?
Speaker 1:I have.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's so pretty I know like at first, like my sister was like a little like reluctant and irritated. She's like she always hates it when I try to like rope her into plans because she, she's like a planner, she needs to be like well in advance and if she doesn't really know what for certain is going to be happening at a certain time, she just can't really commit. But I got her to commit to this and I was like I sent her like the Google search of like the area and she's like, oh my gosh, I I can't wait to just sit there and like draw because she's an artist, so she's so excited for all the source material that's amazing and draw.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's gonna be fun. Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I, it's in the like, oh my gosh, like um, when we were out there, we did um, like, uh, paddleboarding, like on king's beach. Definitely recommend that. Like right on lake tahoe, um, just the area is just so gorgeous it's. It's like just it's not very high up, like altitude wise, like it's like 6 000 feet max. I think it's very tall, but the um man, just the lake. I just remember just being so well and the day we were on the lake was the day I actually proposed to rose and like I was, I mean, I was nervous the whole time so I wasn't even like really paying attention to that. I was like paying attention more to like what our plans were for the day. Um, but yeah, I was, uh, I it's beautiful area, super cool, so definitely recommend it you'll enjoy it.
Speaker 1:I'm excited so also on your, uh, on your I noticed on the ultra sign up you were doing Kendall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you are definitely doing it this year I, I am I like kind of pulled together. I mean I had interest in that, um, because ace did it a couple years ago and that really piqued my interest. Um, it's kind of like an event to get out there because you know it's so far away, yeah, um. But I another thing that I look for in races is significant downhills, um, and because I love downhill running, so that was one where I was like, okay, this seems like a really fun downhill that could be. You know, with how steep it is, it could be like really challenging and I'm excited for that.
Speaker 2:Um. So I kind of pulled that together, like really last minute. Like I last minute signed up to volunteer at the Ram Party races like an entire weekend so I could have enough race credits to like just sign up for Kendall. I was telling them I'm like I'm trying to get there for the cost of basically gas money and like a hotel there for the cost of basically gas money in like a hotel which ultimately is more expensive than the race itself, but still, you know, having that taken out, helps.
Speaker 2:It definitely helps a little bit. So yeah, I pulled that together, found like the one last single hotel room available in Silverton for like one night. So so I'm going to have to figure out what I'm going to do the night before, because I'm going to be driving up two days in advance.
Speaker 1:Okay, super cool. Yeah Well, you'll have to let us know if you're out there, because we'll be there. That's right, we'll be there, we'll be there. I think we'll shoot on over that Sunday to cheer you on. We'll be getting married this fall, but like we'll be, uh, I think we'll we'll shoot on over that Sunday to cheer you on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be awesome. It'd be so cool to have people there that I know.
Speaker 1:I know I kind of like tentatively had it on the schedule to possibly run in. I was like I don't know, but like because we just have so much going on that like I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't figure circ series, get that out of the way in the in june and then kind of like just take july off and just kind of chill, like chill, yeah, so no, I'm just excited though. Uh, you're you, have you ever been in the san juans? Um, I think a little bit that like encompasses, like telluride, and uran yeah yeah, I've done um the imaging pass run.
Speaker 1:Oh, I should have said you have been sorry I missed that on your-. No, you're good, which is super cool race. Oh, it's so fun, it's so fun.
Speaker 2:I'd love to do that one again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've never run it, but I have run Imogene Pass in snow, not smart but anyway lots of fun.
Speaker 2:Super cool area yeah yeah, that downhill is like amazing. I just I smashed that downhill, Nobody passed me.
Speaker 1:You're going to. I think you're going to do really well on the Kendall downhill, like as a very fast. It's a core, I mean it's a fast course in general. It's all basically outside of the scramble, it's a you know it's basically all road, so it's not too bad.
Speaker 2:I'm excited, I'm really excited for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you're going to have an absolute blast. I'm glad you're going to be out there. Silverton's dope and super fun. So what else do you? So you also said you were probably going to go out to GoPro games this weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I am going to do the five K, like going out with the group, like ace then and his sister yeah yeah, we're all gonna be out there kind of doing our own activities. So I'll be doing the 5k. I'll kick it off with the 5k. Um, then on saturday, ace is gonna be doing one of the bike races super cool yeah, I'm so excited, um, and then I guess ben and his sister are running.
Speaker 2:I won't get to see them run because I'll have to be hightailing it back down to the springs to sing for the Garden of the Gods 10 miler on Sunday.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're going to be singing for it. Yeah, oh my gosh, congratulations. That's super cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this will be like my third year that I've sang for them and I've sang for like the Pikes Peak Ascent and the marathon a couple of times.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that. Yeah, let's get into that. Screw running. Let's talk about singing. So first of all, like that's an amazing talent to have. It's incredible. I know you kind of tapped on that when you were talking about theater in the beginning, but you know that's a hard talent to have. Like where did that come from? And like how did you find it? Like doubt that you were good at doing that and like can I?
Speaker 2:go from there. Um, I just kind of like I, you know, like in elementary school everybody was in choir, that was the thing to do and I think from there I just I really enjoyed singing and like this sounds like so wild, but, like you know, as like an elementary schooler, I really loved hearing myself sing. You know, like I loved it, you know, and I was like, yeah, I think I'm good at this, you know, like just like a little elementary kid, so I kind of been singing like on and off, um, and then I didn't really pick it back up seriously until, like high school I did, I took like a class voice lessons class, yeah, um, and it was not choir, um, it was just like individual. You did your own solos and there was like a little, you know, recital at the end where everybody did their own like solo songs and, um, the teacher who um taught it was the choral teacher there and she was like you've just got such an amazing voice, like I really want you to come out and audition for some of my choirs. Like, just please consider auditioning for the choirs.
Speaker 2:Um, I think the thing that scared me the most about the choir was that you had to audition, like you had to have this music theory knowledge and I didn't have any of that. Um, but yeah I, I ended up auditioning for the show choir and then, like oh gosh, my sophomore year to like my senior year, I was just like loaded on like choir classes and like show choir and all that stuff and just tons of singing.
Speaker 1:Super cool. Did you learn how to read music? Basically, yeah.
Speaker 2:I knew how to read music from from band. I was in band, I played like flute and was clarinet for like a hot second, but then, like all of the cool people, like switched over to flute and I'm like, okay, well, I want to be playing the flute too, you know Um. So I knew how to um read music from that Um, I didn't really know how to read rhythm. Well, like, I pretty much relied heavily on like hearing what things sounded like Um, and like, honestly, my music theory and all that stuff was not that great, didn't really solidify until I got to college. When I did those auditions they were like, yes, you need to know this music theory, you need to know how to, like, you know, count rhythm and like all that stuff. And I was like, oh my Lord, I don't know how to do that Um.
Speaker 2:So some people in my band class who knew all of this stuff like kind of like gave me like a crash course and like helped teach me like in a month, like everything I needed to know from like college like um theater and like music department auditions and, by some miracle of god, I nailed my auditions, nailed the theory tests and like placed into like at level classes instead of having to do remedial classes which would then did you major in music or was it um?
Speaker 1:musical theater performance that is such a hard major yeah.
Speaker 2:Theater and then like a music minor. You know, and most of the people that were musical theater students in that program had to do the remedial classes, which meant more time tacked on to their degree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, big time.
Speaker 2:So I was able to like test into, like you know, the level one, which was great. But then I get into my piano class and I'm asking the teacher where middle C is. She's like I'm sorry, like did you place into like these classes? And I was like, yeah, I did. I really crammed hard to nail my auditions.
Speaker 1:but, like you know, If you were asking me, I don't know where middle C is.
Speaker 2:I'm like, I just you know, if you were asking me, I don't know where middle C is you?
Speaker 1:know, don't know. So yeah, Wow. So what was the college experience like then, Like studying or doing all that, Like did you like I'm just kind of getting at like, what was your end goal Basically, did you want to achieve with that?
Speaker 2:You know, and I think maybe that is why I never really went off to do anything with it, is that I didn't really have a goal. You know, my parents came from this mindset of like you know, you're going to go to college, don't care what for, but you have to, you need that degree. So I was like, ok, I guess musical theater. Like you know, nobody told me how useless that would be.
Speaker 1:But it's still so interesting. It's such a hard. I don't think people realize like I had a lot of friends in college that studied music and it takes a long time. It's a shitload of work like it's no joke it's yeah, it's a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 2:I was, you know, um everybody that I went to school with, kind of had dreams of, like you know, being on broad being a paid actor and, like a couple of them, did make it to Broadway, which was super, super cool.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know, for me I was just the acting. Honestly, like I used to love acting, like when I was a kid I thought I wanted to be an actress and I don't know. I think when I got to college that was the part that I struggled the most with, like I just wasn't like a big personality and you kind of have to be like a really big personality to be successful in musical theater and that just wasn't me and I was not gonna like compromise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, change who you are, for that yeah, or, like you know, um, compromise the quality of like singing to get like a character point across. You know, because sometimes with musical theater I don't want to say like you know, it's bad singing, but like it's the character that needs to come across more than the singing. And to me the singing was the most important part and I was not gonna like, I was not gonna do that incorrectly, I was not gonna get up on stage and like sing off key. You know, I wanted to be hitting everything perfect, um, and I could not let that go that's interesting and like what was the how?
Speaker 1:you must have a damn good memory then, like to memorize all those lines and have it like a just like. Are you one of those people that can like just sit there and read a script and just like get it like that, or is it like is it a lot of like taking time?
Speaker 2:I, I had to. Like, you know, it was like a little bit of repetition, but like, eventually it's like it's a muscle that you know you can train and so at the time, you know, I was pretty good at doing that, because that's what I had to do regularly all the time, yeah I'd say. Now it's more difficult for me. Um, it's a little bit easier when it's like music and like singing and stuff. You know that's, that's easier to do, but you know full-on paragraphs and dialogue that's insane.
Speaker 2:I'm a little out of practice and you basically have to, like, make it feel authentic, which is the most difficult part. Um, actors are master manipulators and I think people should be afraid of them. Honestly, they're analyzing what are your wants, what are your needs. How are you? They're analyzing what are your wants, what are your needs, how are you going to get there? Like, what are your tactics? And I'm like, oh my gosh, tactics. We're talking about tactics here. Like you know, we're analyzing what we want and then we're talking about how we want to get what we want.
Speaker 1:Do you ever listen to like, have you ever listened to like any fame, like really famous people, like on podcasts and stuff like that? Dude, they're all out there, like bizarrely out there, and I'm just like, is that just a product of just being so good? Because like you listen like.
Speaker 1:All right, I'll just give an example, random example of like robert downey jr yeah interesting character, but the dude is a space cadet, like he is out there, out there. So it always made me wonder, like, are you just really really good at what you do, or are you just insanely rich and are just completely out of touch with what humanity is like and like what the world actually is?
Speaker 2:it makes me wonder, yeah it makes me wonder too, sometimes. I wonder where, like you know, there's something to be said about. You have to like change, kind of like who you are naturally to be all these different characters yeah that like it. I can imagine it must have like some psychological toll where you kind of might forget like well, who am I, you know.
Speaker 2:And you're maybe just like this blank palette and you don't really know how to be yourself. You only know how to be like other characters. So I almost kind of wonder if sometimes it's a situation where it's like I don't know how to be myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's wild, oh my gosh. Yeah, I never really thought about it like that. But yeah, I guess you are so many things that you don't really realize who you are in a lot of ways. Yeah, that's deep. That's deep so singing. So obviously you have this amazing gift and you went through it through college and then, after college, now you're doing all these incredible things Like how did like? Did you just continue to do it? Or like, did it pick up after a while?
Speaker 2:Well, when I was in college, I was singing and writing music with a folk band and I met a lot of cool people through that, a lot of lifetime friends that I still have. And, um, that disbanded and we started kind of like a different sort of like folk band out of that and we were looking for a guitarist and we did audition one and I really liked him. I thought he was great him. I thought he was great Um and um, like you know, like he and I vibed really well and and then, like the next day, um, we kind of like made this decision that like, oh, we're not really just, we're just gonna not continue on with this band. So I'm like, yeah, okay, kind of like whatever. It kind of felt like it was going that direction too. But the guitarist that we auditioned we were kind of all in a text thread together. He reached out to me directly and he was like hey, I hope this doesn't sound weird, but like, would you want to write music together? That's awesome.
Speaker 2:You know, like I've got a lot of cool ideas. I just don't, you know, I'm not a singer. I like I struggle with lyrics and stuff. I like let's just, you know, connect. And I was like, okay, yeah, cool. Um, I didn't really know what to expect from it, um, but I met up with him that like very first time and I was like, oh, this guy's like serious, like he's a really talented, like you know, multi-instrumentalist and um has a lot of sense, loves his sense. Um, all that stuff, loves his keyboard. Um, yeah, I I kind of didn't know what to expect from it, but he sent me some like demos and I was like this is amazing, I'm feeling really inspired. This is a really creative genius here. Um, so he and I got together and did our own like electro pop duo called prep rally.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was like kind of tail end of college up to like 2019 and still like a little bit now. Um, but he moved to Georgia in 2019 and then moved to Chicago and like 20, like 22 or something like that, and so we've been kind of writing music cross continentally for like the last four isish years or something like that you know, and I just really missed the performing, like we played shows all the time and, um, we had such a great time with it, um, I missed that.
Speaker 2:And you know I thought how can I like bring together my love of singing and running? You know, maybe I should just start reaching out to races and see, like, if they need people to like sing the national anthem or anything like that. You know, it would just be such a cool way to bring those two loves together.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of where that came from holy shit, that's incredible and like good, good story too, too. Do you um like, do you still have aspirations to like to, to, to record and build that up and see where you can get with that?
Speaker 2:Or yeah, I mean like I do, like, um, I wouldn't. It's not that it's not serious, Cause I do take music writing very seriously you can ask Ace all about it. It's one of the reasons why we we haven't really written songs together. You know, we just like different things about music, but I do take music very seriously. But you know, since we're in like different places, it's difficult, yeah, it's a little more difficult.
Speaker 2:The performing live part is such a huge part about like getting the traction, yeah, but that doesn't like deter me from like writing songs, getting my ideas out there and creating, like you know at the time, like something that's perfect to me. Um, so I, we've been writing a few things for a while now. We've got several ideas that are pretty much done, um, if not close to done, that we're hoping to release soon, that's exciting.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like, you know, we just got to get the collection of songs together and like figure out, okay, how do we want to represent this?
Speaker 1:Dude, I love creativity, stuff, Like just being creative, it's so I don't know like. I work a corporate job. It's a very corporate, white collar, structured thing and the favorite thing about my day, or my favorite part about my day besides running, is having the ability to do something creative. You know, like I don't know and I don't, I don't like to interrupt the creativity, I just like to like flow and it's just like I don't know.
Speaker 1:I always admire people, especially people that have like real talent, talent like someone like you that can sing and stuff like that. I gotta just I just talk. You know, like podcasts it's still creative, but it's it's different, you know. So I love when hearing people talk about you know, all these different these ideas that they have and what they want to do with it and just taking a places, it's, it's amazing, um, to piggyback off that you said you had sung at like pike's peak and stuff like that. How did like that's incredible like did you reach out to them? Did they reach out to you? Or how did that like become a thing?
Speaker 2:I, I did reach out to them. I reached out to them a couple of years ago, um, just you know, like it didn't even like dawn on me, um, until I ran the ascent where someone like you know performed for it and I was like you know what that would be really cool this is the national anthem right um. So the pikes, peak, ascent and marathon they do.
Speaker 2:America the beautiful okay, first makes sense um and then for the first year that I did the garden of the gods 10 mile. It was also america the beautiful. But this one guy like threw a gigantic fit about like how it wasn't the national anthem, and I don't think that's why they changed it to the national anthem, but like I was like right there after I sang. This dude is like shame on you. That should have been the national anthem.
Speaker 2:Shame on you pretty like to you, to you like I mean to like the race directors, like after I just sang and I was like do you want to get up here and sing the national anthem? Yeah, and he's like no, yeah, because sang. And I was like do you want to get up here and sing the national?
Speaker 1:anthem yeah, and he's like no, no, no, yeah, because he doesn't have the stones to do it. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Didn't think I would be asking him that, but yeah. So after that it's been the national anthem ever since.
Speaker 1:That's so cool, oh my gosh. But not sure that was like the driving factor, but yeah, that did happen. Do you get like nervous at all performing from all those people?
Speaker 2:Yeah, some like yeah, I do, I definitely do. Honestly, I was not anticipating the Garden of the Gods 10 mile race to be like as big as it was. I was thinking the ascent was going to be the largest crowd. Yeah, it's a lot of people the garden of the gods first and, um, I was like how many people are at this race? And they're like, oh, we had like we counted like 1300. And I was like, oh my Lord, Okay, this is the largest crowd that I've sang for.
Speaker 1:That is so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I still do get a little nervous and you know I'm not out singing in front of large crowds regularly, so you know it takes an immense amount of control to just be able to like at least get somewhat of a decent song out while I'm trying to like control all of these massive nerves. Um, and to the people that are there, it's the most beautiful thing they've ever heard, yeah, and to me it's not.
Speaker 1:It's dog shit. Are you really that hard on?
Speaker 2:yourself. I am very hard on myself. Oh, my God, that hard on yourself. I am very hard on myself. I'm like, just just come in, like you know, discreetly, listen outside of my house when I'm by myself, and you'll hear some quality singing.
Speaker 1:Promise. So yeah, oh, my gosh, that's incredible. I yeah, so I. The reason I ask is because I kind of draw this parallel between being on a start line. I get very nervous at races, or I used to get, I don't know. The last race I raced I wasn't very nervous, I don't know, it depends. It depends on the race, yeah, but I will get nervous sometimes. I'm like almost like make myself throw up for the race, like, do you get nervous with competition as well, or is that?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, I get very nervous and I think for me it's just, it's the anticipation of, like what's going to happen. Like honestly, I even get nervous doing my own training runs. Really for myself that I just get nervous and I can get really disappointed if I don't like fulfill my high expectations. But I think it's like to my benefit and my detriment. I know like a lot of people are like oh, you know, it's just like why do you have?
Speaker 2:to have that much pressure on yourself, yeah, and I like I agree, yes, but like I, having that much pressure on myself is what, like allows me to keep like growing, you know, because to me I uh, there's never gonna be an end. You know people are like why do you strive for forism? You'll never get there and I'm like that's the point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you'll always continue to improve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you know, you will always keep trying, you will always keep getting better. That's the point.
Speaker 1:No, I love that, I love it.
Speaker 1:No, I get it. And you know I get asked a lot Like why do you? I think I've only ever got this year. I'm trying to think back. Like I did get nervous before I went to go do my incline PR this year I went for that and I did that route and then on the back of the Flongs Ranch Road, yeah, because I wanted to like do like a full race simulation. Yeah, and Rose was like yo, like are you okay? You're a little nervous, like yeah. So I don't know. I could definitely relate to that a lot and I think there's something to be said about perfectionism. I don't think you, some people have that ability to just be good at things and like I am not one of them. Like I have to work incredibly hard to like get to whatever level that I want to get to Right, and like I think if you're difficult on yourself or hard on yourself, that generally produces the results like that you want to get. You know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know Like it can be, like I said, to my benefit and my detriment, because you know it, like it can create a lot of stress, being hard on yourself. But you know, at the same time, I love it because it it keeps me motivated, it keeps me growing.
Speaker 1:Like you know, I can always do better, and that's amazing. Yeah, Well, there's something to be said about being hungry, you know and I think that's a big thing is like you're hungry to achieve this, to get the best of yourself and to achieve that goal. I was thinking about this the other day. I was, um, I had a buddy stay the weekend with me, Nick Tusa. Uh, shout out to Nick, he just won the 25K at the Great Divide Ultra this past weekend.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was thinking of doing that, but I was like oh that's so close to broken air. I don't know, it was a little close.
Speaker 1:He fucking smoked the course. It was awesome, it was just fun to follow along Completely turned himself inside out. He beat the next guy by like eight minutes or ten minutes. Where was I going with this? No, I was thinking is like Nick is. Like, he just struck me as being very hungry. He wants to get to that level and I was laughing at myself and I was like Rose, am I getting soft in my old age? Like I don't feel the same way I used to with that anymore. I feel not content, but I feel still hungry. But like I don't know, I'm just, I'm a little bit different this year Maybe it wasn't before. So I'm a little bit different this year Maybe it wasn't before. So yeah, it's just interesting to see different people's perspectives on competition and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it can definitely change too, Like you know. I mean I'm striving for like the unattainable perfectionism now, but, like, who knows, in five years maybe it's going to look different.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I feel like one of the things that interested me about you, too is like in like this conversation is that you have all the tools to become a elite runner.
Speaker 2:I really genuinely believe that is that a goal of yours um, you know, I I don't want to say like I'm embarrassed to have like goals like that because of, you know, feeling inadequate. Um, but like those aren't like things that I necessarily like, I don't go like parading that around. I think I'm very much like I quietly put in the work and I like to see like what happens. But I really I love to dream big.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I will never leave something like that off the table. You know, by way of like consistently training, like I'm sort of like indicating that like you know I way of like consistently training, like I'm sort of like indicating that, like you know, I do have goals. You know like long-term goals and like the level at which I try to like compete like with like others and myself, you know indicates that you know I do strive for something like bigger and better, and you know I that you know I do strive for something like bigger and better, and you know I may never get there. I may be working for that for like a long time and never get there, but like I would not leave it off the table.
Speaker 1:Love that I mean you've had some amazing results so far. Like that's why I'm one of the reasons too, like I'm just very excited for your upcoming season. Like Bartrell mountain mountain right race just outside the top 10, just awesome uh, the mount. How was that mount hood like the mount hood race oh gosh, yeah.
Speaker 2:That that was like um, it's kind of a smaller operation race company, um out of oregon and I honestly didn't know, like, what to expect from, expect from it. I just saw like 25K in like the Mount Hood Wilderness area. It's a beautiful area.
Speaker 2:I know and my aunt lives out there Like I love going to Oregon. I've loved going there for a long time so I was thinking like, oh, that would be such a cool opportunity to do a race and visit my aunt. I actually did my first official road marathon in Oregon as well. I did the Eugene Marathon.
Speaker 1:Oh, I hear it's a great race too, it's fun.
Speaker 2:That was a great first road marathon. First and last road marathon. I don't think I'll ever do one again.
Speaker 1:It's fair Fair.
Speaker 2:So yeah, but it was such a pretty area out there, I think I got like six and like won my age group. Um, you know, I kind of like went in with like a, like an idea of like, oh, maybe I could just like win it, um, but yeah, there was some, like you know, real fast ladies out there that oh yeah, I think, just at the time I did the best I could, and you know and your, your specialty is, like, you really love the downhills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's funny, you say that like I ace. It's the same thing on the podcast. One of the things we're talking about was like doing I want to again I briefly mentioned this to you when we were chatting too I want to set up this like a downhill race off pike's peak and see if we can get like a male and female record out of it.
Speaker 2:Yes, which would be pretty dope. That would be so fun. Like I would love to just be dropped off at the top of Pike's Peak you know fresh legs and just run down. That's something that I want to do, like personally, um, that's something that I want to do like personally, um, and I feel like doing that.
Speaker 2:I might have to do that like a couple of times before I get it to like my high standards, you know, um, so it might take a couple of tries before I like knock something out that I'm really happy with. So I'll just have to see where I can fit that into my schedule.
Speaker 1:You should try one like this summer, would be pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 2:I think I do want to try and plan for that.
Speaker 1:Um.
Speaker 2:I don't know, maybe sometime in like oh gosh, I don't know August, maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or September, september, like early September would be nice too. What, um, uh, what else do you have on your schedule? Is this? You just go pro Kendall and and Broken Arrow.
Speaker 2:For now, those are the only solidified races I have an interest in doing the Shoot. Why am I blanking on the name of it, the Cirque series A-Basin? Yeah, oh, do it, do it I'll see you out there I think I really want to do that one. I'm excited to do that I haven't signed up for. It's like somewhere in Carbondale or whatnot Really pretty. You run by the Crystal Mill or something like that, and if I'm getting all of this wrong, no, I have no idea.
Speaker 1:I'm going out to Carbondale this weekend, so I'll look for it. Don't fact check me.
Speaker 2:I might have it wrong, but it is called the Lead King, like the Lead King Loop or the lead King um. Like the lead King loop or like the lead King like 27 K or something like that I like how you were going with this Cause, like it seems like you're.
Speaker 1:You're just fascination for some of these areas kind of leads you to some of the races as well.
Speaker 2:Um, that's another thing. Is that like I, because the 25 K distance is like kind of obscure still and not that popular it's in, like all of these obscure places? Like in the state. So I'm like that's awesome. I get to, like you know, travel to other places in Colorado and then, like, do a race at the same time.
Speaker 1:Have you checked out like the well, tell you, tell you my yeah, tell you, ride mountain run has an amazing 13 mile race. Um, that's really solid, and then so does. Have you ever looked at the ure mountain run?
Speaker 1:I've heard of it yo, that's a, that's not. I mean, I wouldn't say it's a downhillers course, I'd say it's more of a climbers course, but it's like four thousand something feet of vertical uh, for like 11 miles it's, and it's technical and it's gnarly. Um, yeah, it's definitely on my radar. It's like it's like a miniature sky race kind of that we have in the states that nobody even knows about oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 1:I would have to check that out and I think, like the I want to say like the uh, they do scholarships every year and I think, like their sign up don't quote me on this, but I think their sign up some of their money goes to like fun, like either local schools or teachers or something like there's. There's like a good thing to it, like there's like a little charity aspect to it. So yeah, that's awesome, I love that I love those little support in those little races.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I definitely do too, yeah, so all right all right so we'll go we'll start with some serious ones, and then we'll, we'll kind of we'll go wild okay, um, who inspires you um like in general, just in general, yeah, in general could be, anybody could be, multiple people could be, doesn't matter that's like that's such a fascinating question to me because I think it could be.
Speaker 2:You know different people like at once. I mean I like think musician wise. I want to say I want to say I don't know why I really love Lord Huron. They're my favorite band and the front man is an exceptionally creative person. If you listen to Lord Huron's music it's not that easily relatable, I don't think.
Speaker 1:I've ever listened to them. Yeah, I mean you're going to be my go person for like music is like you posted something the other day about like Foster the People and then I like listened to Foster the People for like six hours.
Speaker 2:I love Foster the. People. That was like my favorite band growing up in high school. I actually got to meet him a couple of times, did you really? Yeah, he's also an exceptionally creative individual, so I guess you could say he inspired me at some point in my life as well. Um, but I'm really drawn to like really creative people, and the front man of lord heron is so creative and just like not just the way he's writing songs, but he's like orchestrating like a universe dude out of all of his music.
Speaker 2:There's, like all of this lore behind it?
Speaker 1:what genre is it?
Speaker 2:I guess you could call it like I want to say, like the general term could be, like folk okay, okay, cool um, he explores a lot of different aspects of different kinds of folk from different like cultural backgrounds that you'll kind of notice in all of his albums. They're kind of different areas of folk. But yeah, he definitely has inspired me. I've gotten to meet him a couple of times. I actually gave him one of my EPs from Prep Rally and I was like you know, I just wanted to give this to you because I'm in an electro pop duo and you're like one of the most inspiring people to me and we don't write the same music.
Speaker 1:That's so cool.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to let you know like this is like you know how you've like inspired me as a musician, just wanted to see if you'd be interested in listening to that kind of thing. And he's like he took it from me and he said very seriously to me he's like we listen to everything everyone gives us oh my god, I love that dude.
Speaker 1:I. That's like what I want the musician to say, like when I hand them from him to my album, like that's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're, he's just such a stand. Um, I want to also say like taylor swift. I know it sounds really wild, but she is probably like the most prolific songwriter of like our time. Really, she's just very incredible with the way that she's writing music. Um lyrics I want to put I mean I emphasis on lyrics.
Speaker 1:Rose's office is next to mine. I've heard a lot of T Swift in the last like two months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's. She's just so creative and inspiring with her lyrics and I think she I have a very similar like songwriting style to her in that she's incredibly verbose, and I am too, because I love to talk, so yeah, and like running wise. And I am too because I love to talk, so yeah, and like running wise. I'm really inspired by, like Camille Heron.
Speaker 1:She's a badass. Yeah, she's so cool.
Speaker 2:She's amazing, like Grayson Murphy, everything she does is magic. She's just perfect.
Speaker 1:She's also really cool.
Speaker 2:You know, like some of like the track athletes like Emma Coburn, molly Seidel love them all. And then like Jim Walmsley, he's so inspiring to me. His work ethic is like yes, I understand it all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. What did you think of that Walmsley film?
Speaker 2:I loved it.
Speaker 1:I watched it twice, maybe three times.
Speaker 2:It's so good, like it was just so inspiring and cool to just like have like a little window into his life you know, because I'm just like he's like the best ultra runner right now and it's kind of like we're all so curious. Everyone's like what's your story?
Speaker 1:Like what's going on, you know, yeah, you get a little window into his life and, yeah, I think, the most interesting, I think, for me as a competitor, as an athlete I just really appreciated and loved the fact that, like he was just so open to change and like accepted that. Like, okay, I need, if I want to win this race, if I want to do this, I need to change a lot of aspects of who I am and my almost my identity as an athlete and adopt almost this like new identity. Yeah and uh, you know, kind of become this like different person. He and he did and he did it and like, what a, what an inspirational story that the dude pulled it off, because not, I mean usually, I mean, if it was two years ago, you know what did he get? Fourth or something like that. Like he had another disappointing year. Yeah, the fact that he was able to like do the Cinderella story and pull it off is just so inspiring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really loved that, Like I've always enjoyed like seeing him succeed and, like I think you know, it seems like he holds himself to very high standards as well.
Speaker 1:So you know, know he kind of like he's not afraid to get vulnerable yeah, it gets this whole like I want to get it right the fact, like I'll never forget, like one clip where like this was like um utmb from 2022, and I think it was like zach and tom were getting close to him and when he like cried to Jess, like he, I can't I don't know if I can hold them off.
Speaker 1:And I was like oh my God, I was like damn dude Like that's something, like I felt that as an athlete like that, that really really, really felt that and I was like I get that dude Like that gotta be terrifying like such a hard feeling to go through you just like you feel like you're letting people down, but you're really not no no, you're doing your best.
Speaker 1:You're the top 10 of utmb, yeah, but still like, yeah, the stakes and just like how much you put. You invest so much emotional energy into something and it's like you, you want this, you know this beautiful sculpture to come out the end and if it's a little flawed, you know that it's not. I don't know, it's tough, it's interesting, interesting game. It's so funny to me because, like I, we just previewed the broken arrow. Uh, vk and I'll come out next week and, um, so many people are sleeping on him for the vk.
Speaker 1:I don't think people realize like, how, how good of an athlete jim is people just think he runs around a mountain really slow, like I don't think so, dude.
Speaker 2:yeah, I, I, I, I agree, I'm I'm very excited to see how that goes down. I really hope he shows up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know he'll be there. He'll definitely, but from what, what sources say is that he'll be. He'll be there. Um, patrick, kip and Diego will be there. Who's the vertical champion, world champion, right? Um, uh, shout out to um christian allen, christian allen's, christian allen's gonna be there, and so will um eli hemming. So there's a lot of a lot of guys in the front that are gonna like, really throw that into grace, and murphy will be there I know I'm like, oh shoot, am I actually gonna meet her too?
Speaker 2:that would be perfect. She's, she's amazing like she just truly understands, like, the influence that she has like on her fans, and I think she takes it very seriously because she responds Anytime I've commented on something, anytime I've DM'd her she's responded to me every single time.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, that's so awesome. She's 106. I know because I just looked. She has like 106,000 followers on Instagram. So that's incredible that she'll get back to you and stuff000 followers on Instagram. So that's incredible, yeah, and she'll like get back to you and stuff.
Speaker 2:Wow Shout out to her man yeah, she's really cool. I mean, she seems really cool and awesome down to earth.
Speaker 1:Would you say, she's your mountain running goat Female.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for a female?
Speaker 1:yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:That's she is. Everything she does is magic. Yeah, that's true. Who'd you put up there on the men's side.
Speaker 1:Oh for, like sub ultra, sub ultra, the tough one yeah, that that's really tough.
Speaker 2:Um, um, I'm gonna throw like an maybe a little biased curveball, but I'm gonna say ace okay, oh, I love that.
Speaker 1:Okay, shout out to ace man like listen man, if anybody's got the tools and the ability, it could very well be ace at some point in time like 100, I would love to see that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he like he inspires me a lot and, um, you know, I think like nobody wants to see him succeed, like more than I do, you know.
Speaker 1:And you're like his biggest fan. I love how you always comment on stuff. You call him your squirrel or something. Yeah, I was like I love this, he's squirrel, yeah.
Speaker 2:I just like love putting him on this pedestal and like supporting him. I'm so excited for his future, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I think we are. Oh my God, he's think we are. Oh my god, he's so good, like really good, yeah, and like from his I think all his peers would agree, he's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's got the ability. Yeah, so yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:That's a great answer all right, let's get into the crazy stuff. What's your take on bigfoot?
Speaker 2:okay. So I don't know like that video that was circulating around, like about someone got footage of Bigfoot, I don't know, is it a new one? I don't know, it was like months ago and I think it was like people were saying oh, that's AI generated and stuff.
Speaker 1:I'm Googling this right now.
Speaker 2:I want to know, like the, Bigfoot video and I just could not, ever I don't know if it was proven that it was like fake or whatnot, but like someone had this footage of Bigfoot and like threw it up on the internet. So you know, I'd like to think that he's real and he exists. Apparently, his name is Daryl, according to like the progressive commercial what, yeah, she's like Flo would be like. Oh, like what do you think Bigfoot? Or something like that? And he's like flo would be like oh, like what do you think bigfoot? Or something like that. And he's like my name is daryl oh, this is so.
Speaker 1:I see I'm seeing this was a guy. Um, are you talking about the one in colorado? That folks? Yeah, okay, I'm seeing this now. Yeah, this was like people took it between durango and silverton off the off the. Uh, I mean I gotta dig into it, but it looks could be credible like was it fake?
Speaker 2:was it real?
Speaker 1:you know, I want to believe so bad, I want him to be out there.
Speaker 2:You know I mean, I think it's definitely possible. There was a um, a podcast that I, like was listening to. I can't remember what it was called um, but it was this gal who was just like dedicated, like, to doing research about bigfoot and the glover grover.
Speaker 1:Her uncle was grover. What's grover something?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, so good, right, and apparently there's like potential for it, like out there in like oregon and washington. Yeah, I think pnw.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm like, of course, I mean you've been up like near, like mount hood, like yeah, these trees are so thick and dense and it's so remote.
Speaker 2:It would be a perfect place for him to live. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Just hanging out there with all the woodland creatures. You know what Ace said. He's like I hope he believes in me Every time I'm asked a question. Now I'm like that was the best answer I've gotten from anybody. I.
Speaker 2:Like that was the best answer I've gotten from anybody I know. He's such a creative person. Very good.
Speaker 1:It was very good Grizzly bears in Colorado.
Speaker 2:What's your take on that? You know, like I know a lot of people have like talked about this.
Speaker 1:It's a thing, could be a thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like it could be. I'm thinking'm thinking. I mean I've kind of like lived in this bubble where I'm like I thought they only existed in yellowstone national park it could be coming down, they could be hanging out in the san juans. For all we know that would be very fascinating if they're finding their way here.
Speaker 1:I hope they don't come any closer to colorado springs, though I'm like more okay with wolves hanging out around here, but I hope they don't come any closer to colorado springs, though I'm like more okay with wolves hanging out around here, but I I really don't want to be like having to look over my shoulder for grizzly bears, like that means I can't run with music anymore. Like I have to like be careful when I run, like here, like black bears, I'm like yeah, no, they're all so like jolly and you know like they're so scared of people.
Speaker 1:I know, I know All right. What's your take on? Uh, what's your take on the AI situation? This is a new question. I haven't really asked too many people this.
Speaker 2:Um. You know what I think especially as a creative.
Speaker 1:Sorry to interrupt you, but no you're good.
Speaker 2:Um, I think I truly don't like it. Um it from a creative standpoint. You know, I think anything that's like AI created will never be as good as like human creativity. In my opinion, even though it's like driving a lot of, like you know, inspiration from human creativity To me, I and even there's like some sort of human creativity behind like the AI too I still think like creativity like straight up from people is the best. It's so difficult because it can be a useful tool. Um, it's so difficult because it can be a useful tool. Um, right now, I think a lot of people are just really fixated on it and it's a little creepy.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you, okay, thank you for saying that. I feel the same way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a little creepy, it's a little unsettling. Um, and I'm also an interior designer and in my line of work there's like all of these like posts and stuff like showing up that are like interiors that are like AI generated and, you know, people are like having a hard time discerning like what's real, what's not, you know, and like sometimes like interior designers are like, oh, is our job going to be like gone next? And I'm like no, no, ai will never be able to tell someone how to build something, what materials you know, like all of these like ai generated images of interiors like yeah, yeah, I'm so glad I asked you this question, because I was very curious I'm like yeah, I'm like well, is ai to tell you how to build that?
Speaker 1:Right, it's not going to do it for you. The robot, at least as of now, hopefully is not going to go build it for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like I can tell you how to build that and I can tell you it's not cheap. Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm pro-human, I'm very, very pro-human, and I've been struggling with this lately because I have listened to a lot of podcasts and I have a lot of friends that are software engineers or very in the know and are very educated on machine learning and it's got me, it's got me a little worried. It's not just has me worried, for, like, I'm not so worried about my job and like what, like I do, but, like I said, I'm pro human. Like I don't like anything that's going to take jobs away from humans. What the fuck are we doing here? If we're gonna? I don't get that, you know. Like I don't know why people get so excited and maybe this is controversial, but, like as a tool, it's great to help us do our jobs better. But like, at the end of the day and this is my corporate america spin on it but it's like, what do you want? Is this gonna be the ceo and the robot? Like, is that? Is that what is you know? Because if we get rid of all the people, what's the point in doing all?
Speaker 2:this. You know you'll have to start like tapping into things like basic universal income. Yeah, you're taking away jobs, exactly.
Speaker 1:And then that creates a whole nother conversation. It's just we're in a, we're in a, we're in a very strange place in reality now in this world, you know, and it's just, yeah, it has me concerned, I'm always worried. So every time I have an interesting guest on, especially creative, because I think creative people, I think, take it a little bit more seriously. Just because you are, as a creator like you, you're creating something so unique. It takes a lot of time, it's a lot of thought and it's, it's this beautiful thing Like the, I don't know. There's this book I love. What is it? The book I I love? Um, uh, what is it? The art of the? Um, not the war of art, yeah, and you're just waiting for the muse to give you this and it's, it's like comes out of this, I don't know. Whenever I think of something creative or something I'm thinking about something that's interesting, like you know, I almost feel like I pull it out of air, like it's, it's coming to me.
Speaker 2:you know, I don't know, you gotta like signal the muse there's another like really great book about creativity called um called, I think it's called big magic, by, like oh gosh um, elizabeth gilbert um I might. I might have that wrong. I think she also wrote eat, pray, love or something like that. Um, don't quote me on that, but the book big magic is all about like ideas and creativity and how, like there's tons of ideas and like when an idea comes to you, it came to you to sign a contract oh, I like you know and so like.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you sign the contract with the idea and you bring it to it's like fruition or like. Sometimes you don't jive with the idea and you bring it to it's like fruition or like. Sometimes you don't jive with the idea and it goes off and it becomes someone else's that it does jive off of.
Speaker 1:So it's like this idea that all ideas and creativity are just out there trying to find the person yeah, and you just have to be like open to it, you have to like get it to come to you. It's very similar to the, to the war of art, like that's. Yeah, I don't know, love that, yeah, and I'd love to think that, like that's the way, like it could work, or it does work where it just, you know, it's like this living, almost like this living thing in a lot of ways. I don't know yeah, like we've.
Speaker 2:You know we've seen the footage, but like there's a part of me that's like how is the technology like? Not there like back then, like we have like great technology now, like wasn't great back then like why haven't we gone back? Was it? Was it like, you know, was it as good as we thought? So I don't know. I yeah, that's a that's a difficult one to like. I'm gonna say I'm like on the fence, like probably, yes, okay, but like but maybe no. You know, but maybe I'm convinced we didn't.
Speaker 1:Now this is like after a lot of research.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could be open to the fact that, like, possibly no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, All right. Well, on that note, thanks for coming to the podcast. It's been an hour 20 minutes, oh fun.
Speaker 2:time Is hour 20 minutes, oh fun time.
Speaker 1:Is there anything you want to want to plug?
Speaker 2:um, oh, yeah, um, and can I talk about knack?
Speaker 1:yeah, oh, I didn't even ask you about that. Yeah, yeah. And what's?
Speaker 2:the glitter company too, oh, yeah, yeah, the good glitter yeah so, like I'm an ambassador for knack, I love their products super good.
Speaker 2:I highly recommend the ultra energy gels, specifically the maple ones that keep selling out okay I haven't tried those yet oh, they're so good like I literally wait for my long runs to have them because like it's, it's so good, it's like maple syrup goodness, okay. Um, I highly recommend knack for people out there trying to experiment with fueling. Um, and then I know that trail glitter and glitter on race day is like a big thing now, um, I have done research on to like biodegradable glitter and I'm an ambassador with the good glitter which um sells certified bio glitter products. So you, what that means is that, like, if it falls off and goes into the environment, it will break down like a leaf.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's so cool, yeah, so yeah, I know I love seeing the glitter around. I stress about how it's the microplastic glitter more than likely.
Speaker 1:I know right.
Speaker 2:So you know I'm on a mission to, like you know, change race day glitter to like biodegradable stuff. I love it. So do the good glitter and then you can use my promo code which is glitter all caps.
Speaker 1:That's a good one, that's a I would have never guessed that one Really quick, uh, to go back to knack. You know, like Ace actually was the one who turned me on to their products and I really like so far, like really enjoyed it, and especially now with, like, the Spring Energy debacle Hopefully Spring Energy doesn't sue me for this but definitely something to check into is definitely check out your nutrition and be pretty serious about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely I love Knack. It's done really well for me. Yeah, nice, do love Knack.
Speaker 1:It's done really well for me. Yeah, nice. Do you want to plug your Instagram or anything else?
Speaker 2:Sure yeah, my Instagram is just trailblazertae T-A-E.
Speaker 1:I like it, I like it, yeah, and that's it.
Speaker 2:And then Strava. I think is just tatamaze yeah.
Speaker 1:Cool, well, hey, thank you so much for coming on. Definitely want to talk again after Broken Arrow and all these things, so appreciate it. Thank you for telling your story.
Speaker 2:I love it. Thank you Thanks.
Speaker 1:What'd you guys think I told you this was a special episode. I really want to thank Tatum so much for coming on the podcast to share her story. Um, like I said, she is just such an inspiring human. She's gone through a lot in her journey and she just has so much grit and determination and because of that I just am so excited to see where she takes her running career. I did mention she was a badass downhill runner and, yes, she is a badass downhill runner, so very exciting.
Speaker 1:With that said, guys, jump on Instagram head on over to. You can type in, type in Tate of Maisie. You can find her. Her tag on Instagram is actually trail to your AIL Blazer, blazer Dot. Hey, she's got a really fun Instagram feed. Give her a follow.
Speaker 1:She shares all kinds of interesting, really fun stuff of her just, uh, just adventures in the mountains, as well as, uh, her and her really cute Corgi. Uh, I think the dog's name is Zoe Paisley. Um, shout out to Corgis. Yeah, so really fun. I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Um, until next week, have a great weekend everybody. Um, without further ado, the steep stuff podcasts, thank you. Oh, last but not least, sorry I got ahead of myself. If you guys enjoy this episode, please head on over to Spotify and Apple. Give us a rating and a review. That really helps. The goal of this podcast is to get this out to the world as many people as possible, and I can't do that unless you guys are sharing it, so that would be super appreciative of my behalf. So thank you, guys. Um, have a great rest of your week. Thank you.
