While Tropical John’s voice can be heard announcing finishers at the Western States finish line in Auburn, he also maintains a prominent voice in the magazine. We spoke with John about his ultrarunning career, the history of the magazine, as well as his piece, “Four Decades of Ultrarunning” in the 40th anniversary special issue coming out in February.
Jeff Stern recently set the FKT on the Backbone Trail in Southern California. After most of his races were canceled this year, he completed extensive research and proper scouting on the the trail in order to go for the FKT. In this episode, we talked about his background as an athlete, what it takes to prepare, and what he learned from his first FKT attempt. Jeff is an elite ultrarunner, columnist for UR, a coach and an all-around wonderful person. Read his latest feature on Big’s Backyard in the December 2020/January 2021 issue of UltraRunning.
UR columnist Gary Cantrell (Lazarus Lake) took on an unexpected and exciting new race format this summer that ended up being one of the biggest of his career. This podcast episode began as a column and turned into a conversation about the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee (GVRAT), Big’s Backyard and more.
Tracy Beth Høeg, MD, PhD is a sports doctor who happens to specialize in ultrarunning injuries. She is an accomplished ultrarunner herself, and continues to pursue a balance of being a working mom, wife and ultrarunner. We discuss how she found ultrarunning and became interested in studying the sport, her medical research at Western States, and how the current pandemic is affecting athletes. Dr. Høeg writes the column “Ultra Doc” for UR.
John Trent has become a fixture in the ultrarunning community on the West Coast and is one of the best storytellers in the sport. Not only has he been on the Western States board since 2004, he’s also a race director and 10-time finisher of Western States. We discuss John’s big plans for 2020 prior to COVID-19 and his incredible ability to tell people’s stories in his column, Voice of the Sport.
In our very first episode, we talk with Erika Hoagland – an amazingly talented ultrarunner and author of the column, I Am an Ultrarunner in URM. We sit down to chat about her race plans (pre-COVID), training for 100-milers while being a mom, the experience of fastpacking around Lake Tahoe on her honeymoon, and what (and where) she hopes to run in the future.