The Steep Stuff Podcast
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The Steep Stuff Podcast
#132 - Adrian Macdonald
A week after tackling a steep Canadian classic, two-time Leadville champion Adrian Macdonald joins us to chart a season that nearly went off the rails—and how he brought it back. After Western States left him drained and “half-sick,” bloodwork confirmed anemia. Adrian pressed pause on workouts, added iron, and rebuilt with patience. That decision reshaped his plans: fewer hero efforts, more deliberate steps. Now he’s heading to Ultra‑Trail Cape Town’s 100 miler to practice night pacing, big vert management, and problem‑solving—key skills he wants dialed before returning to UTMB.
We trace Adrian’s path from Massachusetts soccer and college track to Boston road marathons and, finally, Colorado trails. Winning Leadville unlocked travel, sponsorship, and a renewed sense of racing—not just time‑trials—but it also brought pressure and a few humbling lessons. He learned race specificity the hard way: the same engine that crushes runnable high altitude doesn’t guarantee success on technical, hour‑long burners. His solution is pragmatic and refreshing. Choose one major ultra a year, sometimes two. Add short, sub‑ultra mountain races as tune‑ups to sharpen nerves, descents, and pacing without the deep fatigue of an ultra. Mix in East Coast staples like Mount Washington for nostalgia and family time, and lean on a supportive Fort Collins crew—mentors like Nick Clark and training partners who keep the work honest.
We also go inside the On Running ecosystem, where rapid gear innovation and a cross‑discipline team culture keep Adrian inspired. From plated trail shoes to polished kits, he’s part of a brand sprinting forward while still celebrating the messy, human side of ultras. If you’ve wondered how to rebuild after a rough race, plan a smarter season, or pick courses that actually fit your strengths, this is your blueprint. Enjoy the story, steal the strategies, and tell us what big race you’re targeting next. If this conversation resonates, follow the show, leave a quick review, and share it with a friend who loves big climbs and bigger comebacks.
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Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. I'm your host, James L'Oriello. And today I'm so excited to welcome Adrian McDonald to the podcast. That's right, the two-time Leadville champion is on the pod. Caught up with Adrian just about a week and a half removed from Defy Decalore up, uh which was the Canadian Mountain Running Championship, where Adrian had a top 10 finish racing in the mountain classic distance. Lots of fun catching up with Adrian. We talked a lot about his backstory and his whys. We got into his sponsorship with On and talked a lot about that and where Adrian had just actually came back from a team camper, not too far removed from it. On top of that, we talked about his training. We got into Adrian's calendar and the type of races that he likes to do. For those of you who are unaware, Adrian likes to usually do like one big like hundred or a hundred K or 100 mile race per year. Lately, it's been Leadville or Western States or UTMB. And then Peppered In is a bunch of sub Ultra races. So it provided a lot of really interesting and fun commentary to talk a lot about the Stark series races he's done, as well as uh Northeast races like the Mount Washington Road race and many others. Um yeah, I think this is a really good one. Super fun episode. Want to thank Adrian for coming on the pod. Always a fun conversation uh getting to talk training and uh talk chop with him. So without further ado, Adrian McDonald. Adrian MacDonald, welcome to the Steep Stuff Podcast. How's it going, man?
SPEAKER_01:Good. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm excited to finally have a conversation with you. Uh I know you're just a what a week or two removed from what is how do you pronounce that race? Is it DeFi decalore? I feel like I have so many friends that went and did this race, and I feel like they would kill me because my friend's pronunciation is so poor.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't really know how to spell it. And then I was like, yeah, there are all kinds of words, but yeah, Defi de Calor. And then they called it the MSA Mount St. Anne classic up and down. Um and was fun when they would like they would say up and down in English, and so I'm like, oh, that's my race.
SPEAKER_02:How was uh how was that experience? Um I feel like this year specifically, I mean, every year they've done such a great job at fielding uh just a fantastic field, but I feel like this year the vibe was a little bit different. It seemed like just a world-class group of competition for both the vertical and the updown.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was really fun. Um I had never been to that that area before. I'd been to Montreal, and this was like 40 minutes out of Quebec City. Um yeah, and it was it was steep. Um like I think, yeah, there are two climbs. You climb like 2,000 feet and about two miles, then you drop down about a thousand feet in a mile, and then turned around and went back up uh another thousand feet and one mile, and then descend to the finish. Um and there was yeah, it was it was on like ski slopes. There was kind of like a trail cut into it, so it was you could go pretty fast. So it was fun.
SPEAKER_02:So it was uh kind of like a circ series race, more or less, then it's what it kind of gave similar vibes to. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah, I was like sort of looking back because I've done a few circ series and um it was sort of like Cirque series without the ridge running at the top.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha, gotcha.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we'll get a little bit more into it in a little bit, but yeah, it's all good stuff there. And I'm I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I'm I'm it's I'm excited to see what you know how they continue to put that race together. I will probably go out next year for the ver uh for the up down, probably not the vertical, because that's not my jam, but the up down, the mountain classic distance seems to be uh a lot of fun. Um let's talk about you. How uh how have things been since Western States? How has been how's recovery been? Uh how's the body been feeling? How uh how have plans kind of shifted for uh back end of 2025 going into 2026?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so uh Western States obviously didn't go well for me. I did finish, which I was proud of. Um and then so that was the end of June, and I sort of did my normal downtime. Like I take a week completely off, and then I just run easy for a few weeks. And uh the plan all along was to run Ultra Trail Cape Town, which I'm I'm doing in three and a half weeks now. And I was gonna start my build-up in mid-August, and I did that and was sort of feeling off, and I attributed it to just being hot. Um and then after two weeks, I went up to Leadville for uh Labor Day weekend, and I did a workout on Friday, and then Saturday morning I did um I think it was Oxford and Belford with my fiance Quinn, and then I ran Hope Pass, and it was the slowest Hope Pass that I've ever done by like 10 minutes. This is the backside, and that includes it doing it 55 miles into a race. Um and so then I was I kind of knew something was was definitely off, and I always I sort of felt like I was had a flu coming on, but it never really got past like the chills and the weird temperature fluctuations. Um I went in and got the blood work done and I found out I was anemic, um, which had never I've been running for over 20 years now, and I've um never had to deal with that um and I think there was other also some other sickness going on. And I this like weird sort of half sickness had come up. I did the Wild West relay for fun back in early uh July, and it was the same thing where like I felt like I'm gonna get sick, and then I just sort of stay in that state for a little bit. Um so yeah, I was gonna run Pike's Peak Marathon, but I I cut that out unfortunately, and then I started supplementing iron and took pretty much all of September. I was just doing mileage and a little bit of vert and cut out the workouts. Um, and then by the end of September I was like feeling back to normal, and so I sort of decided that I could go ahead and run the um the Fide Calor.
SPEAKER_02:You got it, you got it better than me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And um, yeah, I leave for Cape Town in 10 days.
SPEAKER_02:Nice, nice. Let's let's backtrack a little bit. I mean, if you don't mind like me asking, like, do you think it was more diet related? Because I find this interesting. I I've seen it pop up in especially athletes that live at altitude, it seems to be obviously more of a an issue where it comes uh like hemocrit and iron levels like kind of get screwed up. Um, like are you do you live are are you more vegan or vegetarian? Like, do you think that that's what it is, or like where do you think that popped up from?
SPEAKER_01:No, I'm I don't have any sort of dietary restrictions and um yeah, one of the sort of ironic things was that I started working with a nutritionist at the end of last year. I think I so I think I've like up my nutrition game in the past year. So to have something like this happen was like extra frustrating. I sort of think um when I started Western Saints, I was a little sick. Like I got a sore throat that came on a week before, and it sort of got worse and worse until the Wednesday, the day before the race. And then it sort of petered out, but then I got pink eye um that I was sort of dealing with like the day before the race. Um, so I think maybe running a hundred miles in those conditions already sort of under the weather, um, it may have just buried myself more than I thought it would.
SPEAKER_02:Sounds like it. I mean, yeah, that's crazy. If you don't mind me asking, like feeling kind of gr crummy before the start of a race like that, is there like pressure for you obviously to start? Because it's like, damn, if I don't do this, I gotta go requalify all over again. Yeah, do the whole thing all over again. Um, that must have been like a lot of pressure on you to kind of go in and do it knowing you were a little bit compromised.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and well, we all we sort of gaslight ourselves into thinking that we're not actually sick. Um so I was I was like checking my heart rate a lot. Like my heart rate seems fine, like my running seems fine. But when people like after the race, like I had an Airbnb in Olympic Valley, and people would come, and I think they're all like talking behind my back, going like, oh Adrian sounds really awful. Um yeah, I didn't want to like make it a big deal in front of the race, but I never uh I never thought about not starting or even not finishing.
SPEAKER_02:Do you want to go back? Is that the plan? Or like what do you think's next?
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah, someday. Yeah, I kind of I don't have any real plans beyond Cape Town right now.
SPEAKER_02:Let's let's get into that. Are you running are you running the 100k? 100 miles. 100 mile. Okay, okay. It's supposed to be amazing. Have you ever been out there before? I I have not.
SPEAKER_01:I've I went to South Africa for the 2010 uh FIFA World Cup.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um, but we didn't go to Cape Town, we sort of went everywhere else. Um, so I've been I've been like wanting to get back and check out Cape Town, especially now that I'm like I wasn't I was like a track runner back then, so now I'm like this looks so cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean it'll be cool to see too for in case you want to try and qualify for Worlds for 2027, you'll get to see a lot of whatever that course would look like anyway. Yeah. Um, you know, for for you know, depending on what style you go for, whether it's short trail, long trail, or mountain classic, I feel like there's there's uh very good trails. There's a lot of interesting stuff over there too. There's like cobras and stuff. It's like it's kind of weird.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was just looking up like what animals all have to be on the look for. Yeah, yeah, and I do have cobras and um there's some cat, the big cat, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Leopard, I think there's leopards and stuff, yeah. Like yeah, that's pretty wild. Yeah, you wanna don't want to run into one of those. Um all right, let's let's kind of pivot a little bit. I know you had mentioned soccer, and I do want to talk about that, but first off, like I do want to dive a little bit into your origin story. Like I know you're you're from Massachusetts. I know you grew up running cross-country and track. Did you did you play soccer as well?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I played soccer in high school and I didn't switch to cross country until college.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. What position did you play for soccer?
SPEAKER_01:I was um I was a midfielder outside mid, so I was just bitter than everyone else, and I was the only one that would run over the summer. So um that's sort of how I found my got my spot on the team. Um I always think like like I know how much I improved in running when I went full-time in college. Like I always wondered like how good at soccer could I have gotten if I had played it year-round for four more years. But um I was just sort of average on an average team, but I loved it.
SPEAKER_02:Did you I mean, uh was there ideas at any point in time to want to play in college or try to, like in the beginning, or was it more so like you just realized you were fit and you know, let's continue cross-country track kind of background?
SPEAKER_01:No, I had never really thought about playing soccer in college. My brother, he did the whole club soccer and he looked into it, and he was better than I was, so um yeah, I guess I just sort of figured if he can't do it, I probably can't do it either.
SPEAKER_02:It's a fun sport, man. I uh I grew up in South Florida and that was my first sport. I played soccer all through high school. Uh I was a left back. Um, and yeah, it's such a fun sport, and it's the culture. I don't know what the culture is like in Massachusetts, but in South Florida, you know, it's so multinational. A lot of South American athletes uh and um Caribbean island athletes like come up. Um so it's like this melting pot of just phenomenal athletes. Oh, cool. Yeah, so you learn it from a very young age, like it's it's kind of embedded in the culture there, which is kind of it's different. It's like unlike any other spot in the United States. Um, what was it like for you playing high school sports and then going to college? I knew you uh you went to Gettysburg College. Um did you were you recruited out of college to uh to run uh track?
SPEAKER_01:I wasn't really recruited, so I started track my sophomore year and I did it, I did okay, but it was like 216 in the 800 or something, and that was my event. And then junior year I was actually injured the whole year, so there was no real I didn't really have anything to send to coaches. Um so I sort of applied to colleges without thinking about doing sports in college, and then my senior year I started getting faster and faster. And I had these schools that I had gotten into, and I reached out to all the coaches there to see if they'd have me on their team. Um in Gettysburg was the only it was the only D3 school I applied to, and um they didn't make cuts or anything, and so they let me walk on the team. I got down to like 440 in the mile my senior year. Um so it was nothing special, but yeah, I had fallen in love with running at that point, and that was one of the big reasons I went to Gettysburg.
SPEAKER_02:After college, how how did you find the trails? Like what got you stoked on trail running? Like, was it I know it's some people see a video of Anton running shirtless in the mountains in Leadville and other people? I mean, now there's people that I get inspired to run in the sport because of you, dude, for the things that you've done at Leadville. Like, what what was it that got you excited about trail running?
SPEAKER_01:Um so yeah, after college, I moved um I moved back to the Boston area and I ran with the Greater Boston track club, and I did a couple years. I wanted to break 410 in the mile because I ran 412 in college and I was always injured, and so I eventually decided that I would run the marathon, and so that's what I was doing with Greater Boston was road marathon, and then I moved to Colorado 2016, still doing like I wanted to run in the mountains, but I still wanted to do road marathons, and it was really um COVID that that got me to make the switch. Um I was training for the Boston Marathon in 2020 and that got canceled. It was probably like three or four weeks before Boston, so I was pretty fit, and I wanted to use that fitness for something, so I went after the Towers Road uh time trial FKT in Fort Collins, and that's when I sort of fell in love with trail running and training for that. But it was really after I moved to Fort Collins, I was like meeting all these people that had done hundred-mile races, and it was I knew one guy in Boston who did ultra races and it wasn't something anyone really thought of, and then you got here and everyone did it, so it made it seem much more attainable. Interesting.
SPEAKER_02:I I want to pivot to um to Leadville, yeah. After I mean, I feel like the story of you running that race multiple times has been told so many times. I'm just so curious of like how much did change your life after winning that race? Like automatically thousands of followers on Instagram. I'm sure everybody wants to run with you, get to know you, meet you. Uh obviously contracts come your way. Like, how much was that life changing after you won that race?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it really was um life-changing because um I mean I always loved running, and now I get I get to do it, and there's um sort of more purpose behind it, I think now. And one thing I talk about is when I was doing road marathons, usually you're doing these big marathons, and you're just trying to run as fast as you can, and there's not really much racing. Um and so being like near the top of the sport brought back the competitive part of running that um I didn't really have since college when you were like trying to win a conference title or something like that. And yeah, like you said, like people want to go on runs with me, and um I get to travel the world, which is amazing, and meet people all over the world, and um I was also just thinking about we had our AN summit in Portland a few weeks ago, and what's cool about AN is we do it with all the track athletes and roadrunners. So like Andy Weeding is the manager for the OAC in Boulder, and like he was someone that I looked up to when I was running the 800 in college, and like there he is. Um so yeah, it's just sort of been this like wild ride that I had never even like dreamed of. Um and that's yeah, that's all came from like winning that first blood fill.
SPEAKER_02:Was it weird after the fact, like people will come up and introduce themselves to you and say hello and stuff like that? Like, did that ever was that a little strange? Because I I feel like that's that's gotta be the hardest adjustment. Like, I have quite a few people that I've met on the podcast or just adjacently in the sport, and I don't want to say they're famous because that's weird because it's not a giant sport, but still like you get recognized, and that's weird. Like, how how have you tussled with that?
SPEAKER_01:Um yeah, like it's not like a massive theme. I say it's like moderate fame. The weirdest one I was back um visiting my brother who lives outside of Boston and he's in a country club, and we went to dinner in at his country club restaurant, and as I was getting up, someone came over and said, like, hey, you're Adrian McDonald, right? And that was like the last place in the whole world. Like I sort of expected if I'm at a race or like in in town here, but at a country club in Walpole, Massachusetts, was um yeah, it was pretty strange.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I bet, I bet. On the flip side of that coin, though, I gotta ask you this as well. You had success so early on in the sport for yourself. Like your first, really your first hundred miler, you you went and knocked one out of the park. Um, you know, most of the races you run, you do fairly well at, but specifically with Ludville winning such a very high profile race very early on, was there pressure after that? Like to have to repeat? Like, I found it very interesting because like the probability of winning that race twice, I feel like goes down with the amount of pressure that people put on themselves after the fact. So, how did you deal with the pressure kind of after that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the um yeah, so I ran it the next year, and at this point I had the on sponsorship, and I had a film crew filming me, and I um I remember like telling people before the race, like, I don't think the sponsorships and this film crew adds any pressure. Like, I already put a lot of pressure on myself, and then I won the race again, and like I had this huge sense of relief, and I'm like, maybe there was a lot of a lot of pressure on me. Um and I just hadn't hadn't really noticed. Um I think another thing that came with winning Leadville like so soon into my like ultrarunning career is I was so like naive to the whole world of ultrarunning. Um that like getting back to like a race like Cirque Series, like the next summer I went to Cirque Series and I figured like, oh, I won Leadville, I should be able to go win this like little Cirque Series race, no easy, uh no problem. And I get I get crushed. Um so just sort of like learning that they're all different types of like races, and some people are good at some of them and not good at others. And like luckily for me, I picked one right from the start that I'm like really good at, which is like a runnable high altitude race.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. What do you think it is about the altitude for you? Like, especially you're you're kind of an anomaly in a way that like you're not from altitude, like you grew up in Massachusetts. Most people that tend to be really, really good at altitude for some reason have that gene from like living in altitude at a young age uh for yourself, you know, and also you live in Fort Collins, which is only what 5,000 feet, so it's not like it's the tallest point in the state by any means. So what is that physiologically? Like I guess were you just born lucky just to be able to adapt really well?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I have I have no idea. Um because yeah, I mean, I do when I'm training for Leadville, I try and get up high at like 10,000 feet every weekend and sleep up there. But uh yeah, I don't know, it's sort of a a mystery, and that those types of mysteries are what make the sport fun right now. I'm sure at some point there'll be all this science that comes in and we'll be able to identify who's good at what types of races, but right now there's still some of that mystery. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's cool too. I mean, in I think we're still at this point in the sport where you know the course really matters. You know, some people, like for instance, like I'm a big mountain classic and vertical guy, like I really follow those subsets of races. And it was just so interesting to me seeing athletes go and race at worlds, and that was such a fast course. And athletes that you know might not be as you know, that are faster generally tended to do better as opposed to athletes that were just better on technical terrain, and it just really separated. Um, whereas had it been a super technical course, it would have been a completely different type of race. So it's still we're still in that point of the sport where like course specificity really does matter, which is interesting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I did have one like hint that I'd be good at it, and that's one of the reasons I picked Ludville for my first hundred miler, was I had in 2019 I ran the Mount Evans ascent um and won it. Like I sort of surprised myself. I was like two or three weeks out from running Grandma's Marathon, and it was a short neat. They they cut the course short that year, but that's when I sort of realized like I might be really good at high altitude.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. I mean, dude, that's one of the reasons why I was so excited to see you line up or potentially line up for pikes this year. Because I think that um, you know, and this is no disparagement against uh like John Aziz's competition, but like no one was there to really challenge John. He was kind of alone on himself, and I feel like had you been there, it actually would have been a bit more of a race significantly. Like you guys would have pushed each other. Um, so yeah, I I really would love to see you do that race, whether it's the ascent or the marathon at some point in time, because I think you have uh definitely an opportunity to become champion there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. No, I yeah, I was really bummed to miss it. And it's like tough where it stands in the calendar because it's this was the one year where I wasn't running like Ludville or UTMB at the end of the summer, so I could actually do it. Um but it'll be there.
SPEAKER_02:We'll get you there. We'll make it happen. Um, I want to pivot a little bit and talk about your training and the types of races that you do. And because this is something one of the reasons like I really wanted to have you on the podcast, because you strike me as just an interesting calendar creator. Like you do the stuff, uh like it seems like you'll pick one or two long efforts per year, and then you pepper in a lot of subulture races, which I think is really cool because you you mix it up on both scenes, which not a lot of longer distance athletes do anymore. Um, like a whole slew of Stark series races dating back to like 2022. You've done Mount Washington, what, three or four times? You've done Kendall Canyon's 25k this past year. Um, like what is the thought process behind that? I love you seeing you doing it. Is it because you're excited to do these races, or is it more of a fitness test for you? Like, what what about these intrigue you?
SPEAKER_01:Um well, one thing is that I like race, like racing's fun, and I think it's a skill that you need to practice. Um like just getting nervous is like uh something that you need to like learn to live with. And if I think I if I go into a big race without having gone through that in like a tune-up race, um I think I just get way too nervous and anxious. Um but also the more I've done ultras, the more I sort of realize that I don't need to do like a huge long effort in preparation for an ultra. So these shorter races provide that opportunity to still race and not sort of take as much out of my body as like a ultra, like doing a 50k would do, or um like some even longer. Um yeah, and I always come away like I do pretty good at it, but I always come away wishing that I could do better. Um it's just like amazing to see like like I run up and down mountains a lot, and someone like Remy LaRue can run nine minutes faster than me in that an hour race. Um yeah, it's um so it's like it's really fun, especially when you finish on a downhill, but it's also uh humbling.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think it's a great answer. Do you guys build it like I we can get into coaching and talk about that as well, but do you guys build that into the calendar to have these stimulus in there? Do you do them as workouts as well? Or is it like kind of in a block? Like, how do you guys structure that?
SPEAKER_01:Um usually I'll pick out the main target race, which is usually an ultra, and then I'll just try and find other races that get me excited, or like I did Canyons, so I could go out and get on the Western States course. Um yeah, like the um the race in Quebec was the race direct on it sponsored the race, and so the race director wanted someone from on to do it, and he reached out to me last year and it didn't work, and it just looked like a fun race, and my parents could come, so um October is a tough time to find mountain races in Colorado, so um. Yeah, just I just find whatever gets me excited. And that's why I've um I've gone back to Mount Washington a few times because growing up in in Boston, like that's the the like mountain race in New England. Um I know like now it's not the most competitive one, but it's still like the most iconic one.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I mean this year it was still I mean you still get Joe at Joe pretty much every year. Alex Ricard shows up, David Sinclair. I mean it was a pretty deep men's field, I could say. I mean the women's field was a little bit less, but I mean shout out to Rena for winning this year. But yeah, it was uh it's always a cool race. Like I I wish it got more more love. I feel like it's uh kind of just been quieter in the last few years, which is kind of a bummer.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think it's tough that it's at about the same time as Broken Arrow. Um that's probably why there are so many good Canadians and not many Americans there this year.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. What about the Northeast that intrigues you? Is it more so just the because uh this is something I mean, I always bring up Tom Hooper, I always talk about 603, and you know, now we have East Coast Cirque series races, and I don't know. I'm I'm just a giant fan of racing in the East Coast. I think it's a lot of fun. Uh it's just a different type of style from like what we're used to in Colorado, if you will. Um, like what it what about the East Coast intrigues you? Is it more so homecoming for you? Is it is it just a challenge for something different? Like what what about it excites you?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a lot of it is just the um the nostalgia of New England, and that's that's where I first experienced mountains and hiking and really being in the outdoors. I went to summer camp in New Hampshire. Um and then the first ever little backpacking trip I did was I think we just did half of the presidential traverse, and I thought it was so cool all the walk through the mountains carrying everything I needed on my back. Um and so that's yeah, and that just being able to see family when I go and and race out there. Yeah, sort of kill two birds with one stone.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, listen, I think I mean if for from a short trail perspective, I don't know. I think I feel like I'm something like a broken record when I say this. There's more, like way more races out there than in Colorado from a short trail perspective. And I don't know why that is, it's kind of weird. Like we we in the mountain west for some reason like favor ultras a lot more. Like there's not as many like short ski like aerial mountain races, which is weird because we have a ton of mountain or we have a ton of ski resorts. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like in that like sort of classic realm, like we just have the A-Basin cirque series, and then there's some like half marathons, but they're not um I think half marathons are sort of weird on trails because you don't really need to define the yeah, yeah, it's just like run up and down the mountain. Um there are some cool ones that I've done in in Wyoming, like Pilot Hill and Gell Mountain.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, how is Gell Mountain? I've never done that. I've been look actually had that race on the list a few times.
SPEAKER_01:Um you should definitely do it. It's just you just it's about 10 miles, it's on most, it's pretty much a dirt road. You just run to the top, like run around a cone and come back down, snow frills. But um yeah, I think it's I think races like that are cool where it's like, all right, there's a mountain here, there's a road that goes up the mountain. Let's it's racing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Now it's it's on that topic, like uh now that you do all these high profile races, but you still, you know, there's still room for some smaller stuff as well. Like, what do you like to do better now? Like, do you do you like to find a mixture of doing both? And and what do you think of the sport as it continues to evolve and professionalize?
SPEAKER_01:Um yeah, like I I like doing the the shorter races, but what really drives me is the the ultra races, and like that's what I'm I'm like really good at, and um that's what gets me excited to train. Um and yeah, and like I think that's sort of like what I tell like younger runners is like like most people go through college and like you have to run cross-country and then you have to do this. And I've always like told them, like, yeah, like once you're out of that, like you just do the run, the races that get you excited, and those are probably the ones you're gonna do best at. Um so that's that's sort of how I've treated my running since I left college, and that's how I I treat ultra running. Like even like when I did the Taraware 100k, I was sort of like wishing the whole time that I was doing the 100 miles, but I knew that the golden ticket would get me to the Western States start line. So that's what that's what sort of drove me. Um yeah, and as far as the whole um like the the sport is um like I this year was because I was training with Taylor in the spring, Taylor Stack, and like watching the sort of short trail like season and his like amazing season, it um it sort of like had me thinking more about how um like the golden trail, like I never really paid it much attention to that before, but since he was doing so well in it, I was sort of following that a bit.
SPEAKER_02:Um is there a chance we could get you at a at a golden trail series race one of these years?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'd like to do it. Um yeah. Um I mean I would like love to do something like Sierras and all, or but I don't know if I could like build a whole season around it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's a tough race. I mean, that's a hard thing to nail, too. Uh what has it been like? Because I know Taylor for uh had lived in Fort Collins for a bit. Um, and I know uh Tyler uh McKinless is probably not far from you as well, also in Fort Collins. Have you I know you've got out with the train with Tyler or with uh Taylor. Have you gotten out the train with Tyler as well?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um yeah, Tyler he he moved to Fort Collins, I think it was 20 2021. So just when I was getting into the trail running, and he sort of was too. So um he like has such a crazy life that it sort of if uh my running can fit into his schedule, then that's when we meet up. And then Taylor, Taylor's girlfriend, Sydney, um ran on the track team at CSU with my fiance, Quinn. So he sort of connected us, and he had a more flexible schedule. So we were running a lot, especially this past spring, and I'm I'm kind of bummed that he's left town.
SPEAKER_02:I know, I know. He's back in Salida doing his thing. I he, you know, I gotta say, man, if there's anybody I gotta give kudos to, Taylor has had a crazy good season. Like it's been it's been wild to see how much he's like developed in just one year.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it is. Um and I so we ran last December, we went and ran Club Cross Country, and it was me and Taylor and um Nick Costello, Thomas Dean, and Forrest Barton, and we did terribly. Um like we were none of us were very fit, and it was it was kind of cool to see like just a few months later, I got a golden ticket, and then Taylor had this amazing season, and Forrest set the course record at the power of four. Um, and then Thomas just won a marathon in um Steamtown Marathon in Pennsylvania. Um but it was yeah, it was um, yeah, especially Taylor. It was he reached a whole new level. It was cool to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah, let's uh let's talk about Fort Cotlands and just like the running scene there. I mean, obviously, like Nick Clark, I know, has been a big cornerstone of that community for a minute. But uh but what is the scene like in general there?
SPEAKER_01:Um I think it's a very it's sort of a very sported or I guess one of the cool things about Fort Collins, especially coming from like a big city like Boston, like when I was in Boston, in the greater Boston Shot Club, I would do all my running with people that had a marathon PR within like two or three minutes of me. And then I come to Fort Collins and just the way that the running community is set up, I'll go on runs with um I mean Nick was a great runner, but by the time I got here he was a little bit past it, and like I'll train with someone like like him, and then uh like Gerald Mock is in town and he's a 210 marathoner, and I'll train with him. Um so it's sort of like a a very I guess like inclusive running community, um which um I think makes it feel like very supportive as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean it's a good mix. You've got a few elites in there, uh or quite a few elites actually, and you know, young guns continuing to come up, and it's kind of a growing cool town, you know. I don't know. It's not Boulder, which I kind of like because I feel like Boulder's just so saturated with with I listen, I got a lot of listeners in this podcast that live in Boulder, so there's no shade to that. I love them all, but I feel like there's just a lot of people and a lot of athletes in that area that it's it's it's easy to get FOMO and and you know, following around what other people are doing. Whereas I almost feel like it might be more in conducive to do better in a small, at least for me in a smaller town. Like that's why I love Colorado Springs. It's like there's a lot of us floating around, but at the same time, it's like you know, people are doing their own thing, and it's just not as much pressure as like a place like Boulder, which is a little bit different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um yeah, it almost seems like like in Boulder, there's like groups that are like competing with each other to be like the best in Boulder and in four columns that's like, all right, let's all get really fit and go beat beat all these people from Boulder. That's true. That's true.
SPEAKER_02:On the topic of Nick Clark, uh, can you talk a little bit about like is he's you know like he's been around, he's a legend in Ultra Intrail Running, uh, been around the scene for a long time. I I think I watched, I can't remember what documentary it was with you uh he was in it. Um talk a little bit about that relationship. Has he been a more of a mentor figure for you as you've kind of exploded onto the scene?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I got to know Nick through um I'm on the board of the Fort Collins Running Club, and the running club owns the Horse Tooth Half Marathon, and he's the race director for that, so he would come to most of our meetings and be like a pretty involved with the club. And he helps put on some other races for the club too. And then um he was the one that I in the summer of 2020, I was on a run with Nick, and I'm like, I want to run Leadville next summer, uh, 2021. And his first response was, Why would you want to do that? And he's run probably a dozen hundred milers. Um so yeah, he was um like a mentor, especially in those like first my first few years, and he's great because he would I was sort of scared to like ask him to come pace me at my first Leadville. Um, and then I did, and he said yes. And I felt like that was a like sign that he thought I could do well. Um and like I always know like if Nick thinks like he'll tell me, like, when I went into UTMB, he's like, I don't think you can get like top five, top ten in your first go there.
SPEAKER_02:Um I mean I I appreciate the him being real. I mean, I think that's that from one runner to another, I mean, that's a hard race to nail. And yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Um so like when I know he says, like, I think you can do this at this race, then um like I know that it that it means something. Um yeah, then unfortunately he's had some injuries the past uh couple years, so we haven't been able to run much together. But I had a son Alistair pacing me at Western States this year, and we did a lot of training together. He's off in college now, so I'm missing him too. Um yeah, and then the I don't know if you've been to one of his races.
SPEAKER_02:Uh no, I actually I've I've wanted to do Quad Rock. The 2025 miles is a little far from me, but yeah, yeah, Quad Rock has definitely been one on the list for a long time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he the events that he and his partner Brad put on are probably some of the best best out there. And I've heard never summers um that's another great race.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we've got to convince him to add a smaller distance for force.
SPEAKER_01:He has talked about doing a VK up there.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, dude, he does a VK, I'll promote it for him. Yeah. Speak that into existence.
SPEAKER_01:I think the the park, the state parks people are worried about people being stranded up on the top of the mountain when they finish. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's always the logistics, man. It's the problem with VKs in the state. Uh yeah, we need more. That's uh something you know I've been talking about on the pod for a while. We need more VKs. Um yeah, no, I'm I'm I I don't know. I really appreciate like I find it very interesting, uh, like that dynamic and relationship like Nick Clark, like I said, just a you know, probably a hall of famer when it comes to the ultra-running scene, been around, run everything. Um, so it's kind of cool to see, you know, the older crowd mentoring, you know, the younger guys coming up uh as they kind of make their way into the scene. Um one thing he had mentioned about UTMB, is that something you'd ever go back to? Is that something you'd wanna you'd want to go and take another crack at?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, definitely. Um, and like one of the reasons I'm doing Cape Town is it's I think I jumped into UTMB too quickly the first time I did it. Um and so Cape Town has a similar to UTMB, it starts at 5 p.m. on a Friday, and so you start out through the night, and it's got like 23,000, 24,000 feet of gain and loss, which isn't quite what UTMB has, but more than Leadville um and the other races that I've done really well at. So um yeah, I definitely want to sort of work towards going back to UTMB.
SPEAKER_02:It's an interesting thing to figure out. Any of those like lesser distances intrigue you, like a OCC or CCC? Because I feel like you would Americans for some reason tend to do so much better at CCC for some reason.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um yeah, like I do think I could I think I could do well at both OCC and CCC, but uh UTMB is the big one.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's scary. It's scary how how how long and distant that is. Um really quick, I want to shift gears and talk about on. I know you said you had just got back from um a team summit. Talk about that. Like what was that like? Um, you know, obviously there's some stuff you probably can't talk about as far as product goes, but like, you know, and stuff for the future, but um, yeah, what's it like getting together with your teammates and and talking about you know race plans and and future of the brand and all that stuff?
SPEAKER_01:Um yeah, it's really exciting to be a part of on because it's growing so quickly, and this is my fourth year, and just seeing how much it's progressed in the last um few years is amazing and inspiring. Um yeah, and like I was talking about before, it's cool to be with the OEC track team and the other um like amazing track and road runners that they have. Um yeah, and then our group of trail runners is really cool. Like David Kilgore is our manager, and he's so fun to be around. Um Yeah, like there's I don't know, I'm always telling people like if you haven't tried an on shoe in like the last five years, like you need to like go and try it out again because they're just rapidly improving. And I've only we have our new Picot Ultra Pro. Um, and I haven't run in any other Trail Super Shoe, but everyone that tries it says they love it and that it's the best one out there. Um and so it's like cool to be a part of the whole development process of that and see how that works. Um yeah, and it's like a cool, it's a cool brand. Um yeah. Um not all like running brands are cool. Like Nike has always been cool, and I think on has like worked its way into being a cool running brand.
SPEAKER_02:I gotta say one thing, your kits are sick. Like the kits this year are the best I've ever I think one of the best in trail running, in my opinion. Like the uh, I don't know, with that like yellow with green kind of, and then with the white, uh like the singlets are and the shirts are dope. Uh oh, yeah, the I think it's the yellow and black singlets that I've seen Patrick and Philemon wear. And I was like, yeah, yo, those are dope. Um some of the singlets are really cool. And shoe technology, I've heard amazing things from. It's cool to see them now. They finally developed a pack. Um, and you know, it seems like they have a belt product out there as well. So it's kind of neat that you guys have like kind of the full kit, which has come a long way, which is cool.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, and one of the um's adding they've sort of soft launched it, but they have sprinters now. And so we had these sprinters um at the on summit, and they had no idea that there was such a thing as a hundred-mile races, and they were sort of blown away, blown away by it. And um, yeah, it was kind of I didn't know this at the time when I was like chatting with them at dinner, and then I went home and looked them, looked them up, and one of them was his name's Max, and he ran at USC and was second in the MCAA um in the 100 meters, like 992. I'm like, wow, this like first it's cool, but I've never talked to a sub-10 second 100-meter runner before, and that he thinks what I do is so like crazy, is um it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's legit. How do you moving on from on? How how do you view like yourself in the sport? Like, do you view this as a career? Is this something you want to do like long term? Or I know you also have a day job as well. Um, but how do you view it? Are you is it a legacy thing for you? Like you want to go win more races, add to the legacy, and have this like amazing career, or do you view it like one year at a time? How do you kind of like break it up in your brain?
SPEAKER_01:I do think I sort of look at it one year or one training block at a time, and it's um it's something that I that I want to do for as long as I'm able. Um I've had someone ask me, like, hey Adrian, are you gonna still run when you retire? And I'm like, what is what do you mean retire? Like I've always run, so I I just think it's something that I'm that I'm always gonna do if I'm able to. Interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a cool sport. Talk about your YouTube channel, what it takes. Um, I was like in the prep for this episode, I started doing digging into your uh Western States videos, which I thought were excellently done, man. Like your YouTube channel is amazing. Um, do you plan to build on that at all?
SPEAKER_01:Or um so that was uh Jacob Matchmere, who's um he's a he lives in Fort Collins, he and his wife have uh like a media business. They mostly work with uh like businesses and they'll like film a corporate event that's going on, and that's how they make their money. And but they also they have like a cabin in Winfield, which is the turnaround at Leadville, so they go out there every year and he like discovered that I lived in Fort Collins, and so after I got the golden ticket at Tarowera for Western states, he reached out and was like, hey, we need to do something. Um and we were I think like the biggest inspiration was uh Clayton Young's YouTube series. Um and so we wanted to do something like that that would sort of build excitement for the race. Um yeah, and he did an an amazing job, and um it was yeah, he just sort of like embedded himself with my my training and racing for the whole Western States build. Um I'd love to do do something like that again, but it's a lot of work for him. Um and just like finding the resources to to pay him for it um would was a little difficult. So um we might do something before I take off for Cape Town and um but yeah, I'd love to to do something like that again with him because yeah, it was he did such a good job. Oh, an amazing job.
SPEAKER_02:I I like and I'll I'll link it in the show notes so folks can run over to the uh to your YouTube channel and uh subscribe and watch because yeah, they're fantastically done. And I love how it wasn't just like one big film, it was broken up individually into episodes. Um there was you know, it just really captured like your Western States one of you. I forget what aid station you were at, but you were you were suffering, dude. And I was like, oh my god, this poor guy, this poor guy. But he really did a great job at capturing like the the emotion of it and and just kind of where you were mentally and and you know how you were kind of getting through it. And yeah, it was it was like I said, I I don't want to give too much away, but the audience should definitely check it out. And did you keep it like I said, in whatever way you can keep something like that going. I think it's kind of cool. Yeah. See if you can get some videos of like workouts or something like that with like I don't know, get Tyler out or someone and get more pros together to uh because I think that that's the next like iteration of of like the professionalism in the sport is doing more because like I think the road group does the like the the roadies do such a better job of uh like getting content and being able to film that stuff and putting it out there for the world to see. And like I feel like we can continue to make trail uh more just bigger and more fun with that, you know, with stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01:So like all the cool places we um we like get to run. It's like it looks cool. Yeah, like I think the one of the interesting things about Clayton's like you always have this cool like mountain back backdrop in Provo, but then he's like running around an industrial park and there's traffic everywhere. It's chaos, yeah. Yeah, um, yeah, I'm gonna try and get more out there. Yeah, because I like really um one of the things that's really cool about Ultra Running is like the community and the like people, like it's an individual sport, but you have like your crew and all these other characters that are involved. And I liked um I liked how people got to like meet Quinn and um like Taylor was in there a little bit and Alistair and um like my mom. Um it was it was like so special to have that period, even though the race didn't turn out well to have that period of my life captured like that.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah. I mean, dude, no matter how old you are, at any point in time in your life, you could that's something you can always go back to and watch and like be like, man, I did that. And the people, you know, people that really cared about me were with me supporting me through this. So yeah, it is. It's very special. It's uh it's one of those cool, like one of the coolest aspects of the sport for sure. Um but yeah, man. Well, listen, we're at about an hour. Uh Adrian, I want to thank you so much for coming on the pod, man. This was a great conversation. Uh, definitely want to continue to have these. Um, we'll talk more as far as 2026 season goes, but I I'm trying to get into all I'm gonna try to get into Mount Wash. So hopefully I see you up there if you go out there and race this year. If not, uh I'll see if I can I'll make my way up to Fort Collins to get out for a run. Something like that. Yeah, dude. Yeah, man. Well, dude, thanks for coming on. I really appreciate it, and uh, we'll be in touch. All right.
SPEAKER_01:Talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks. Guys, what'd you think? Uh, want to thank Adrian so much for coming on the pod. As always, uh super appreciative of his time and uh his storytelling. It's great to get to catch up with him and uh get to learn more about him. So the best way you can support him is uh click on over to the show notes. You're gonna see Adrian McDonald, follow him on Instagram, um, give him a follow, let him know what you guys thought about the episode, send him a DM. I'm sure we'd love from here to hear from all of you. Um yeah. Also, if you enjoyed the pod and you are enjoying our episodes, uh best way you can support us is to give us a five-star rating and review as well as a follow on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you consume your podcast. Some cool new stuff dropping down the pike. I really love and I hope you guys are loving the video episodes that we've been rolling out on Spotify and YouTube. It's kind of a new thing. Still kind of new to video editing here, uh, so bear with me. It's a been a bumpy ride. Um, but yeah, we're getting there. And uh very last but not least, the best way you can support us as well is to support our brand partner, that's Ultimate Direction. Head on over to ultimatedirection.com and use code SteepstuffPod. That's right, one word, Steep Stuff Pod, and get yourself 25% off your car. Guys, it's that time of the year, especially in the front range of Colorado. It's starting to get really chilly. I think today was in the 40s. Um, you're gonna need a jacket. Hop on over to Ultimate Direction. Check out the ultra jacket. The thing is dope, nice and insulated. And if you get 25% off, it's just gonna make you feel so much better, especially if you buy it for like a loved one for a holiday. There you go. Now you're talking stocking stuffers. Um, on top of that, check out the vest. New race vest six liter and an ultra vest 12 liter just dropped uh a few months back. Definitely check those out in some beautiful colorways, as well as the belt. I'm a big fan of the comfort belt. Comfort belt is dope. It's actually comfortable. Um, check that out as well. And like I said, use code Steep StuffPod for 25% off. Uh, guys, thanks so much for tuning in. Appreciate y'all and uh new stuff uh coming down the plate this week.
