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The Steep Stuff Podcast
Cam Smith- Post Sunapee Scramble Interview
The mountains call and Cam Smith answers. Having just secured his spot on Team USA in the Mountain Classic discipline with a stellar fourth-place finish at the Sunapee Scramble, Cam joins us to unpack his tactical brilliance and focused mindset that led to this achievement.
What stands out immediately in our conversation is Cam's strategic approach to racing. Despite minimal specific downhill training—"I did maybe about 20 minutes of fast downhill running total this year"—he leveraged his climbing prowess while developing a nuanced plan for the technical terrain. Drawing from his extensive ski mountaineering background, Cam explains how he identifies sections where power can be applied versus technical segments that serve as equalizers regardless of fitness level.
"When we're running straight through puddles and trying not to slip off hunks of granite, it doesn't matter whether you feel good or not," Cam shares, revealing how this understanding allowed him to push strategically on climbs and hold back where necessary. This calculated approach proved crucial as he navigated the competitive field, battling with elite runners including David Norris, who made an impressive late-race surge.
Despite achieving his Mountain Classic qualification, Cam maintains laser focus on the upcoming Broken Arrow Vertical Kilometer. "I'm not letting off the gas yet," he emphasizes, highlighting his opportunity to potentially secure spots on both USA teams—a rare achievement in mountain running circles. His perspective on pressure is particularly refreshing: rather than avoiding it, he embraces the challenge, noting "I want the pressure, I want it to be a need to go fight for that team."
Looking ahead to the World Championships in Spain, Cam thoughtfully weighs the benefits of competing in both disciplines, considering how each complements his primary ski mountaineering season. His balanced approach to multi-sport excellence offers valuable insights for athletes navigating similar paths.
Listen now to this candid conversation with one of America's most versatile mountain athletes as he continues his quest for dual-team qualification and international success!
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What's up, fam? Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. I'm your host, james Lauriello, bringing you an episode today with none other than Mr Cam Smith, caught up with Cam about a week removed from his fourth place finish at the Sunapee Scramble just last week, where Cam secured himself a spot on Team USA in the Mountain Classic discipline. Yeah, super fun, catching up with Cam. We talked all things Broken Arrow. We talked all things about his race at sunupy.
Speaker 1:Um, cam is just a consummate professional, you know, being able to secure himself a spot on the team usa as well as keep an eye fixed on the broken arrow vk, which is or I should say, the ascent now, which is happening just about a week out. So, super fun to catch up with cam, talk about the race, um, and talk about his plans for the rest of the summer. So, without further ado, this is a great one. Always appreciate him for coming on and being willing to chat and talk shop. Here we go, cam Smith. Cam Smith, welcome back to the steep stuff podcast. How's it going, man? What's up, james? Good to see you.
Speaker 2:I'm curious how you're doing.
Speaker 1:I'm hanging in there, man. I'm getting back to running this week, which I guess it's uh, I guess it's as good as I could hope for, and slowly but surely I'm gonna figure out if I might be able to race at the end of the month.
Speaker 2:That'd be kind of nice, cool, yeah you got to start somewhere, so would you race killington?
Speaker 1:I would be yeah, I'd go to killington, which I'm really, you know, man, I was really excited about that course, really excited about a northeast race, because I haven't done one like yet. So, or actually I did do one a while back but haven't done one like properly yet, so that would have been fun. Hopefully I can pull it.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's like one of those weird things where if I'm not like where I want to be like, maybe I'll just do it, just to do it for fun. But it's also like that crushingness of if you're not where you want to be like, do you?
Speaker 2:mentally it's like weird, so I don't know I'm gonna figure that out, yeah, yeah, I mean, as long as you go in with the right expectations, like you surprise yourself and it goes well, or it doesn't, and you're like, well, of course it doesn't it wasn't supposed to. So, yeah, just got to go in with the right headspace.
Speaker 1:Fair enough, fair enough. Well, cam, I'm so excited to talk to you again. Buddy, like dude, it was so fun, like congratulations, like uh, you know, you got yourself a spot in the mountain classic. You had an amazing race at Sunapee which we'll get into and talk about. How does it feel, man? I know, going in you kind of had some question marks. You're like I don't really know how this one's going to go, but you did it. What's the excitement level?
Speaker 2:Thanks, man. I thought that of course, the Ascent was my better shot and I was like, well, I, I should at least go for the up down, just in case something awesome happens. And then, like all uh kind of winter and spring, I was really doubting it, like, oh, do I want to take the time off and travel all the way there and am I just gonna go like roll an ankle in some northeast root rock puddle and get like, yeah, 10th place and like go home licking my wounds, or should I just like focus on broken arrow? Um, and yeah, I just was excited to take the shot in case I was able to make both teams. I'm like it.
Speaker 2:I thought it would be so cool to race out there and just like gain the experience of like, yeah, hammering with those guys and racing in a new area and Tom Hooper and Paul Kirsch are awesome, and it's like all right, I got to go for it. Um, yeah, I mean it worked out. It was uh, yeah, like objectively, it was kind of surprising with like how my training was going ahead of time. Like I did maybe about 20 minutes of like fast downhill running total this year and I was like, all right, I gotta, gotta get my just like couple small workouts in at the sun of being, um, yeah, like the.
Speaker 2:The technical component was pretty like a different flavor for me and, um, yeah, I was just stoked that it worked out. But I'm uh, I'm not like totally letting off the gas yet because I want to stay really focused through Broken Arrow to try to make that Ascent team and then when the dust settles there, whether I'm on the Ascent or not, then I'll be able to kind of be stoked about it. So we'll know some of the other teammates and stuff too and we can start to get psyched as a team. So I guess the short answer is super stoked, but trying to stay locked in for another week and a half.
Speaker 1:Dude, I love that mindset. I feel like it helps you too, because with the amount and the level of racing that you do on the Schemo side, because there's so many races, it's easy to forget one and go to the next one, whereas if you have a really, really good race, I would imagine it's probably easy for you to, okay, put that one on the shelf next next, you know, locked into broken arrow, and you're able to move on to that, whereas I wonder if a lot of people have a hard time with that, like, if you're riding a high from, like son of p, if you will, to be able to go to the next one and like have that level of like enthusiasm that you had for the previous one, it's going to be difficult yeah, yeah, I mean, maybe there's an element of it there of like kind of practicing flushing races and moving on and not getting too high or too low.
Speaker 2:And then there's an element too that, like I was on my run this morning kind of thinking about broken arrow and thinking about, like, how I'm going to handle next week, and the thought occurred to me like, yeah, this is one of the biggest races of the year. Um, and I was like, oh, I didn't really think about that because I've had like 12 biggest races of the year. Um, and I was like, oh, I didn't really think about that because I've had like 12 biggest races of the year so far. So, yeah, kind of living in that pressure cooker this winter, um, I thought it was fun. Like I, I like that, uh, that Teddy and pressure and um, yeah, it's happening every week and multiple times a week. And uh, yeah, it's just a, it's a place I like to be. So, uh, yeah, I'm happy to be in between these big races right now.
Speaker 1:To text you to. To quote one of your text messages, you said you're like it's what we do.
Speaker 2:And I was like yes, I love that.
Speaker 1:It is what we do, man. I love to hear that. I got to ask you let's go, let's go into the race. I gotta ask you about this. Like you were very you were open. You're like the card I gotta play is my climbing and your climbing was spot on, dude, like it was really impressive to see you in the race, in the mix from the very beginning on the climbs. Like it didn't really look like you faded back at all. Um, you stayed locked in. Did you hit any low points? I mean, it seemed like from what I could see, like commentating it on the live stream, like you were in the mix the entire time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, not really. I mean, like I that really steep bit at the beginning of the first climb I thought was going to suit me so well, cause it was so much like steeper and harder, um, and I was having a hard, hard moving into that like top, top few positions. And so there's a couple of minutes there like man, if I can't get towards the front now, like when am I? Um, but I was just patient a little bit and I kind of felt the pace lag once we, uh, once we hit the road and then I was able to start pushing it from there. And really what that kind of came from is like in a, in a schema race, for example, like if we have a like the 90 minute individual format and say that parts of it are on a south facing slope, like a sunny slope, and it's really like hard frozen snow, and then parts of it like then you dip over a ridge and say you're on like a cold, high north, northeast facing slope and the snow is really soft and the track's really deep and, um, yeah, there like hasn't been as much traffic on it. Then you, you sort of strategize around trying to push really hard where you're able to put the power down. And then when you get to that like softer, slower moving, maybe it's flat, maybe it's really technical, maybe there are tons and tons of switchbacks, and so we're like breaking our momentum every every 10 or 12 strides. Um, it doesn't matter how good you feel on that right, like whether you have energy or not, it's just how good technically you are at moving through that terrain, because if you have the power to push, there's nowhere to put it, because you have to, yeah, change directions every few steps and the snow's soft and whatever. And so I sort of thought about it like that.
Speaker 2:I was like that last half of the second climb is pretty nasty. It was full of puddles you guys saw it on the live stream a bit. It was steep, rooty, rocky, and so on those steeper uphills you could push a little bit if you had it. But we're just running straight through puddles and trying not to slip off the hunk of granite that we're on. It doesn't matter whether you feel good or not, and so that's why I sort of felt confident, like pushing it earlier than I would have normally. And then the same thing, like coming off the top of the descent, like it was so slick through those glades and then you could really push it once you got onto the ski run and onto the road.
Speaker 2:But I like I didn't want to, like I was okay with kind of going for broke, knowing that like those technical bits would be a bit of an equalizer, um, and then I was just gonna push hard on on those climbs, then push hard on the road bit of the descent and, um, I think that helped me a lot. And as far as like low points not really like I I sort of got myself into the race and then it was just competing from there. Like the first downhill, um, I was holding back a little bit just because I I knew what we were about to face, like heading up the beginning of the second loop, um, and so I lost some positions there but I felt super in control and then it kind of all came back together like just as I was hoping and, um, I didn't have much wiggle room to play with Andy was was breathing down my neck.
Speaker 1:It's not like I was just on autopilot and it was all easy uh, like it was, yeah, super hard race and competitive and super close, but uh, yeah, that's how it played out from my perspective did you have any close battles with anyone, like were you battling with andy or battling with remy or any of them and kind of like? Or I guess Dan kind of fell back to six, so was he kind of in the mix with you like further back there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was, and um and a few others. So like I was kind of testing everyone on that climb, and then I, tyler and Mason, um, wouldn't drop off and like I, everyone of course still had it's not like any of us were, we're racing all out and then um, let's see. So Andy passed me on that descent, taylor and um and Dan all did, and then um, I got Andy back before we got to the trail. And then Dan, as we were, um getting onto the trail uphill on the second climb, taylor and Mason I didn't catch again, but I could see them both in the trees, and if you could see them in the trees, that means like we're five seconds apart. That's close.
Speaker 2:For a while it was so dense in there and so I was like, okay, like if I can keep hustling, I was in third at that point, Like I'd love to be in second or love to be in first, just to have the wiggle room. Um, and I could like see him, I'd lose him, I'd see him, I could lose them. And then all of a sudden David came by and like who, what, what just happened? Um, and then he, yeah, he was moving at a different pace. So, yeah, then Andy was was closing in on me and then I couldn't quite see those front three. So yeah, there was some good back and forth for sure.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. Did David surprise it? I, David, was not a surprise to, I think, anybody in the know, like, but I think to a lot of the people on the outside I don't. I think David surprised a lot of people and I was like that's David Norris, Like that's not a surprise right by any for sure. Yeah, yeah, were you surprised by anybody or anything like anything took you like was anything surprising to you or did you feel like pretty like nothing was different?
Speaker 2:no, I mean, um, like there's not a lot of guys in that mix that I like count out right. Like I think you're kind of a good example of like anytime a name comes up, or like anytime you have a guest on, you're just like hyping up the strengths that they have and, um, and I kind of feel that way, like you can't really like assume, like, oh well, like let's pick on David. Like, oh well, david's more of a Nordic skier and he doesn't do that many of these races. So I totally got him. Like well, obviously not. Like he can show up on his day and do what he did, and like you can't sit there and say like, oh well, mason's a sub 30 minute 10k, so maybe I got him on the technical bits. Like no, obviously not. Like he was, he was crushing those two. So like you can't, can't go around doubting people like that's uh, that's not good for you, that's not good for them. Like, um, yeah, I wasn't really surprised by anyone. Um, that threw down those awesome performances, yeah.
Speaker 1:It was amazing. I have to be honest with you, cam, like it was so special to get that, shared that moment with you guys at the end, like when we did some of those interviews and just like chatting with you like the elatement, just the excitement, like the level.
Speaker 1:Like I gotta be honest, I was just telling Danny Marino this cause we were chatting and I was like it made me fall back in love with the sport all over again. Because it's just like that pure excitement level to to watch you guys just accomplish something so cool and then to talk about it after, like within minutes of finishing. Um, it was special, it was very cool to share that moment with you guys. So awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm glad you felt that way is. Uh, it's a fun place to be and, um, yeah, I'm looking forward to the guys that were on the wrong side of the bubble giving it their best at a broken arrow or going for 40 Ks or whatever. So, yeah, it was a big celebration for some of us and then I think it's going to be a big fire for a lot of others, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it all shakes out next week, for sure.
Speaker 1:On the topic of broken arrow before we let you go. You have a rare and unique opportunity here, dude. What's the? You have a rare and unique opportunity here, dude. I think the I mean this is just my perspective of analyzing and understanding you and understanding the sport. The VK is your jam. That's not something you do bad at.
Speaker 1:I would have guessed that you would have had a higher probability of making the VK team than the Mountain Classic team. You go out and you make the Mountain Classic team Obviously you're level, you're on a crazy level right now like to go make that team Like you. How do you? What would that mean to you? I already asked you this question kind of but has that changed at all to be able to go make both teams and like go get this rare air, cause not too many people have this opportunity or in that type of rarefied area to make both teams?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean there's a, there's a lot to it, right, like I think I think I can be a really good VK runner and, of course, everyone like hot, cold a little bit. They had bad days, like broken arrow last year, I think I was ninth, but yeah, just like with missing so much time, like I, my highest level is still high. But yeah, just like with missing so much time, like I, my highest level is still high. And then my, my peaks or my valleys are a little bit lower than they used to be. Just with all the like training that I missed. And um, like, yeah, pike speak ascent, for example, I've never put it together at, but then I've had some somewhere. I like totally have have popped off good ones, like broken arrow a few years before that, or like the rut last year. Um, like I think what I'm getting at is like when I'm running hot in the vk, I think that's what I can really like do something in at the world level. Like I for sure am motivated to help the team as much as possible in the up down and I think like we can chase the medal and chase a resolve as a group, but like I'm not going to be on the podium. I don't think, um, like the ascent. Like I, I wouldn't really like limit myself and what I can dream of on the best day, right. So, like that's part of the motivation is I want to do the events and like be prepared. However, I can just like help the team once we actually get to Spain. The most no-transcript like yeah, sure, it's nice that like from one person you're playing with house money and oh, you've already made it. So just like, go for broke, like people won't really be marking you whatever. But like I, that's not what usually sets me up the race the best. Like I want, I want the pressure, like I want the um, yeah, the like, I want it to be a need to like go fight for that team and then we'll. We'll see how the dust settles after that. Um and uh, yeah, I mean I think it's a really good situation to be able to raise both to like with the in Spain, the VKs on a Thursday and it's just uphill, of course and then the classics on a Sunday. So I think that's actually a perfect setup to be able to raise both really well.
Speaker 2:Like in the past, some like coaches and managers on the team of like wanting people to just focus on one event, which makes a ton of sense. I think this is a great chance to to race both, just with the way the schedule shakes out, and that doesn't necessarily mean I for sure will like again, we'll see. Like, depending on what happens, maybe the team looks stronger one way or the other. Or like, for example, like training to race downhill fast doesn't translate to schemo much, and late september is getting pretty close to like our key world cups, um, but running flat does like being fast on a track and running uphill does, of course.
Speaker 2:So, like I tend to, I would, yeah, want to just be focused on the ascents that I'm set up better for, like December World Cups, but, on the other hand, like racing both and getting the experience of both, and like more that, like speed components uh, really good for my development too. So, um, I'm rambling a bit, but, like I, I'm trying to focus on it as if it's the only thing. And, um, I really want to be there Cause I think there's a chance I could have a really good race in Spain. So I got to qualify first If I'm going to chase.
Speaker 1:That I like it, man. I like it. Well, dude, I don't want to take up all your afternoon. I am wishing you the absolute best of luck next week at broken arrow. It is going to be so fun to follow your race. Uh, cheering for you every step of the way, cam your big, one of your biggest fans, dude. So I hope you have a wonderful race and safe travels out there, and we'll be in touch, man.
Speaker 2:Cool. Thanks, James. You're the man and, whatever happens, I think we're going to be good for the team. It's going to be amazing to follow. Appreciate it, Cam.
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