"Trails with Zach" joins us for a conversation about mountain running, his 2024 goal of 1 million feet of vertical gain, and some other miscellaneous thoughts about running and being in the mountains. He is great at building community and has some great insights on the sport and what it means to him.
Below is the podcast transcribed with AI. We apologize for any errors and encourage you to visit us on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts to watch or listen to the full episode.
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[Music] hi Zach welcome to the eighth Lane
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podcast hi Abby thanks for having me on so do you want to just give our listeners a brief introduction of who
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you are kind of what you do you're kind of new to this like Instagram Running
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Scene but I actually really like the way you like style your content and stuff so
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yeah give us an introduction of who you are yeah I'm Zach I was born and raised in izona um way too hot for me so I
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moved out here to Utah for college and then I'm staying here because of the
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mountains I just as soon as I moved here I knew I was obsessed with the mountains
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and uh three years later I still feel like I can't get enough time in the mountains even though I'm up there for
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three four hours every day but um I had no plans of making Instagram content
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I've never really had an Instagram or social media before uh last fall but then my mom kept on
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hounding me she was like you got to start an Instagram and film your stuff and I was like but how can you like
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enjoy the moment and be be present if I'm trying to film stuff but she just
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would not she's a very uh stubborn mama so um I was like yeah I was like all
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right I'll start filming so just started making videos like i' never edited a
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video before la like this fall nine months ago m and uh so that was a big
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learning curve I remember like my second G video getting so angry because I couldn't figure out the trim tool on
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Instagram so FR I hate the Instagram editor yeah that's what I'm still using
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but um luckily my wife helped out she edited a couple of my early videos she's like super artsy and she has her own
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Instagram where she does wedding cakes and florals and stuff oh cool so those early videos like uh I would post the
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same run from my edit it would get like 200 VI and hers would get like 2,000 but
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um okay can you do this yeah so I was like asking her to edit but then very quickly I was like that's not the like
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Direction I want to go of super artsy and pretty and so I was like I just got to bite the bullet and learn how to do
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this so some very like ghetto janky videos early on but I mean that's how
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life works is you learn and you grow and then um just been working on that and
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then early this year like uh mid January I'd been thinking about wanting to hit a million feet this goal this this year I
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saw that Zack Garner got 1.6 million feet of vert last year and so I was like
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if he can get 1.6 million then I bet I could get a million so I was thinking about it I was thinking about just not
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telling that to people just having that as my own goal partly because I like it's just my own personal goal and
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partly because I didn't want to feel like I was doing it for anyone other than myself but um I think it was late
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January I finally just was like you know what I'm going to commit to this goal I'm going to like say it out loud and
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really really go for it so I'd Fallen up behind a little bit but um now uh to
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today we're finally catching up it harded with the snow yeah so you said you're so you're doing a million feet of
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vert in one calendar year MH um I think that's a really cool go goal I've heard a lot of mountain athletes kind of make
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that goal but they like mesh skiing and running so to do it just running is
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really hard yeah it it is a lot I mean the win the thing with the winter time though is there's a lot of running up
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and then sliding down instead of skiing down so that's nice I mean I definitely want to learn how to ski eventually I
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I've been to Resort like 10 times on skis I I was planning on becoming a ski touring guy but then I realized very
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quickly that I'm not just going to learn in one season how to be a safe skier so that's and then I also have just been
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falling more and more in love with trail running and winter TR running even so I'm kind of like I don't know I know
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eventually I'll get there but for now I'm just loving trail running mhm so
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definition of success for this goal do you have any other stipulations or how are you defining I I just think uh like
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in my definition of of what I think a goal should be is um I think it be it
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should be a process I love process goals and um I think I had a big realization
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last year where I was training for the DC Peaks 50 mile that's that's a beautiful race beautiful course but
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honestly there was all that like hype and I was like I'm working so hard towards this goal and then I ran the
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race and there was no I didn't really feel like there was any satisfaction payout I just kind of finished the race
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and felt almost kind of empty compared to where I felt on a lot of Big Adventures with my friends that I'd done
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in the leadup to training and that's where it kind of clicked for me that I don't want to be running for this big
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end result of like placing well at a race or any of that stuff because I've I've done that before and I've tried
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that before and I haven't found the most joy in it so the reason why I have the million feet goal it's not about
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reaching the number at the end of the year it's about all the experiences I have every day and uh it's been amazing
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so far having so many fun experiences that I would not have had because there's been days where I've been like
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oh I just got 7K vert yesterday and 6K vert two days ago and now today someone's asking me to go another 6K
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vert and like before I'd be like no I'm just going to take a chill today on Bonville Shoreline but now I'm like no
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that's another day I can be racking up the BT and and sure up it's just lots of fun adventures and honestly my body
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feels great doing Bert because it's a lot of hiking and then I mean coming down is tough on the body but I feel
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like you get used to it so did you start trail running in kind of the ultra scene
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or where did trail running start for you yeah so I moved here and I didn't even know that TR running was a thing
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honestly like I did you run in high school yeah I ran all through high school I loved running I watched the
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Barkley marathons documentary when I was so you post about 16 yeah and I just I
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loved it I I was very obsessed with the idea of running Ultra distances or or
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just Ultra athletes in general but I never I never ran more than 13 miles in high school and because Arizona so hot
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it's all just flat desert where where I lived it wasn't like a it wasn't
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something I thought was possible at the time and then as soon as I moved here I saw the mountains and I was like oh man
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this is going to be awesome and then very quickly I realized oh no one wants to do this with me so it was it was a
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bit of a slow start where I was like all my time in the mountains is going to be alone because my friends in Provo who
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went to BYU I like that was that was the weirdest thing to me I expected to come here and everyone to be like granola and
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and outdoorsy and to realize that that's not the majority who who live here I
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mean a lot of people say they like being outdoors but it's like you get your one one being outdoors or do you like like a
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million feet of ver yeah exactly I was just like who else wants to be outside
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in the mountains all day every day with me and people were like uh no not that
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and so I honestly just would go and do the trails and probo run from my apartment in Provo and just do Rock
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Canyon y mountain and slate Canyon and I loved it I just fell in love with being
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up there and at the time when I first moved here I was actually a big and
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obsessed with spike ball so that would take all my free time I would play for like four or five hours a day I'm very
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much obsessive obsessive uh personality but um I started to realize after a year
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and a half of being like that with spike ball that like I was obsessed but not
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really um fulfilled through spikeball and so that's when I
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realized like I've been trail running once or twice a week I don't even know what trail running is I'm going to look into it looked on Facebook and that's
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where I found Bill and Craig on uh some random Facebook group so I messaged Bill
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and he was like yeah come to come to dry candy to run big baly with us and I didn't have a car so I was like trying
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to figure out how to ride my bike like 20 miles out to dry Canyon just kidding
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it's not it's not 20 miles but eventually I met up with Bill and Craig
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and and that's where like they they introduced me to everyone explained like no you don't just run up everything and
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and like 80% of your training should be easy you shouldn't just be because before it' be like my two days a week I
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would hammer as hard as I could and then not run at all the rest of the week you're just dead yeah so um it it was
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amazing meeting them and then being introduced to the community and and getting into everything through that
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yeah I was actually really similar when I was in college like I also went to BYU and I didn't have a car so I'd like bike
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to the trail heads and like biking to big baly trail head was like it made it
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like kind of a day event so I'd have to wait till Saturday to like bike over there and then hike up I guess with a
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backpack and like jostle run down yeah so yeah what do you feel like you get
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out of all this time in the mountains like before you said
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you didn't really feel fulfilled with DC Peaks because you were kind of comparing it to all those experiences you had with
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friends mhm is it the experiences with friends that are enriching or are the
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alone experiences Al enriching for you maybe explain that a little bit yeah I I would definitely say I I think overall
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it's just the feeling of being able to like enjoy the mountain take my time
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like go as fast as I want and then like there there's a thing where in a race you're going as fast as you want but I
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don't really feel like I can well you're going as fast as you can but I don't feel like I can enjoy the moment because
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I'm just trying to get to the next but when I'm trying to run fast on a trail or not I feel like no matter how fast
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I'm going I can always still stop at any moment and just like today when I was trying to get an fkt on the big baly
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loop I got tired so I just sat down on the rock at the top and just sat there for like 10 minutes and there's no rush
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I could sit up there as long as I want I mean I got to get home and do the dishes and mow the lawn but different from a
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race where I feel like I I know that people have figured that out how to race with that mindset of like I'm out here
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to have fun and do a fast time but I haven't I haven't really ever figured that out I'm hoping with the the bare
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100 this fall that I can feel that feeling of like I'm going for a fast time but I'm also enjoying the beautiful
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course so you're doing 100 this fall yeah I'm 95 on the weight list right now
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so oh you'll get in for sure yeah is this your first 100 yeah cool mhm what
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are so I saw didn't you do the Bonville backyard Ultra and then you did DC Peaks
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have you done any others like officially um I ran the not your Grandma's Marathon two years ago what even is that I don't
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even know what that is it's um it's a really small race put on by um radical races there's some guys here in Provo
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they're cool they're they're interesting they like put on Races but they're not really part of the running Community
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okay they just like do hard they do like their own hard things okay kind of like funny David goggin type dudes okay but
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um the race is just from Rock Canyon to the Cascade saddle down to Big Springs
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and then back up and down cool so it's 26 miles and almost 9k vert so that that
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was a big turning point for me because that was when I had never really done much real training I went to that race
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and and climbing back up to the Cascade saddle Lori casetto do you do you know her she she's an absolute Beast she's
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gotten like fifth place overall at loota jaw oh wow she she's a cycling just
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Savage but she's also she also Trent runs and she caught me going back up to the saddle and uh we talked a little bit
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and she was just like what are you what are your goals what are you up to and I was like I want to become an ultra Runner but I don't know like if if I
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have that in me and she just was very confident in me and was like if you're crushing this race then you'll be great
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at a 50 or 100 mile or whatever you want to do and so that that always really stuck with me and and I like I don't I I
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love that just how the community is so supportive and and people just are going to lift everyone up around them and and
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how at the top she was like I know you'll catch me on this downhill and from from the Cascade saddle to Rock
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Canyon finish she pulled ahead about like 15 minutes on me this Hills do you feel like you're
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more of like an uphill guy or a downhill guy um I would say I'm more of a climber
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but just recently I've been working on really like cranking downhills I just
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hate spraining my ankles I used to when I first started trail running I would I would have a bad sprain like nonstop and
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um I'm finally getting good enough where I'm not always having a sprained ankle so I have that mental confidence to push
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the limit a little bit so I I'm getting better at down downhills for sure cool
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mhm um I think I interrupted you but so she kind of beat you on the downhill but she kind of gave you the inspiration to
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run Ultra marathons yeah okay yeah so going forward where do you see yourself
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in this sport do you feel like you're an fkt guy do you feel like you want to
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take on your own personal challenges or do you see yourself I mean you have the bear so
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maybe after the bear you could speak more to this but yeah where do you see yourself like at least right now um back
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to what I was talking about with with goals and success is my goal this year to hit a million feet is is leading
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towards my definition of success which is becoming who I want to be and who I
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want to be is just someone who is in the mountains someone who was confident in the mountains I I think of like just
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kind of older dudes that I see around here dudes dudes in Rock Canyon who are like 70 years old 80 years old who
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everyone knows they've seen big Avalanches they've seen Rivers change and they they know like every
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nook and cranny of the mountains and and that that's where I see myself I don't really I mean who knows maybe after bare
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100 I'll be I'll be uh hooked on 100s but I just want to set the precedent in
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my life that I make time for nature and for the mountains and for I I just love
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exploring I love seeing things that I've never seen before and I also love
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watching the seasons change I love seeing during I'm obsessed with spring because I just love watching the grass
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start dead and every day being out there and like if I miss a day out there I'm like frak the grass is growing without
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me watching it or like there's new flowers popping up without me seeing them La last summer early summer we were
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gone in in um Mexico for a week and a half and it was so much fun in Cancun just for our honeymoon me and my wife
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hyon I loved it but I got home and I was just like oh I Miss so much like the
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mountains have been growing I know like that's kind of the cool thing about trail running and ultra running is that
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it feels like like I also like vacations I like leaving with my husband
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but I'm just as excited to stay here to like be able to do stuff here cuz we do
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live in like kind of a playground in this little Valley yeah we we really do and and I just love that the people that
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I'm with that I surround myself with like Craig and Bill that they're they're the type of people where like that's
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what they want to do is they want to be in the mountains like they're they're training for races but like I don't
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really think any of us see it as training that much and that's that's the
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mindset that I want to have is I'm not getting up into the mountains to train like I I love seeing progress is super
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exciting and and satisfying but what's way more lasting than that for me is
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like knowing that Earth that we land that we live on and and just like
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understanding the way things work in the mountains because it's CRA it's crazy to me that people don't know a lot of these
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things that that um I don't know Southern facing slopes of canyons are
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normally hotter and drier and and Northern facing slopes are wetter like
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stuff like that that's so cool where I moved here and I had no idea and I was like why is that side of the canyon deserty and that side all pine trees and
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and forest and and it's like oh shade exists oh shade and like stuff like that it's just
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17:12
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code stoer at checkout that will get you 10% off so how do you feel like cuz you
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kind of are getting into the Instagram scene now so how do you feel like you
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protect yourself from comparison because on Instagram I feel like it's like I'm
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trading for this I'm trading for this I'm trading for this how can you stay true to your definition of success while
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being inundated with all of these things yeah I I think I definitely try to take
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the like a zoom out for sure and think like what's what's really important and
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um like because I think about myself in high school I wanted so badly to be good enough to running college but at the end
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of the day I just wasn't good enough and I was so like sad and bummed out that I
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just wasn't that good and it seemed like other people were doing the same thing as me and got good enough and could run
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in college but then now that I'm in college I realized my friends who are Collegiate athletes they don't get to
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spend that much time in the mountains that I do and they have to work about getting injured and and all these things
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and so I think just kind of focusing on my own journey and focusing on like like
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even though it would be fun to have broken four in the mile or have gotten
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sub4 in the 5K or to be doing 2 million feet of Earth this year that like that's
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not me and that's not my journey and and something I think about a lot I I haven't really been talking about this
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to anyone is just how like no matter how good you get someone will always be better than you like I can when I first
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started my Instagram and I was like maybe I should go The Artsy route and show cool views but it's like someone's
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always your husband is always going to have way better shots than me and like someone's always going to be way faster
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way stronger and like I think it's important to work on those things but the only thing that I have is just like
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who I am and so that that's been the huge realization to me that
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really like none of us are really that special other than the fact that we can be ourselves that's really cool that's
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really cool do you feel like I mean you recently started that run Club mhm you'd
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said before that you didn't know how to get into trail running so you reached out to Billy and Craig is or that bill
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and Craig Bill and Craig okay and they kind of showed you how to trail run yeah
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is that kind of why you started this run club with like a no drop Pace okay
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that's very much how I started it because I felt just like I enjoyed my time in the mountains but I didn't know
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how trail running worked and so I feel a lot of gratitude to Bill and Craig for
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teaching me and and like taking the time to communicate with me and and have me
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out there and now that I'm running more I do realize like I have my own goals I have my
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own time crunches for things and so yeah it's not always the most um
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simple or easy thing to organize a group but I just think if I can be the reason that one of those people or not that it
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has to be me but just like if I can organize something where people can come and learn because I mean I've just been
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in the in the very back so it's been like Bill and Craig are at the front of the group explaining how things work to
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everyone and inspiring someone like last week we had a guy come out who had never been on a trail before that's cool and
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like it's just super cool cuz we get I get so many DMs of people saying like I wish I could come but I can't run uphill
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and I'm like you don't have to run uphill we actually very much discourage any running uphill at my at our run
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group because because like I I just kind of think of it as I hope people can come to run group understand that you don't
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have to be killing yourself to be a trail Runner or to enjoy the mountains you can just come up and walk up and
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then you can walk or run down you really all that matters is that you're enjoying time in nature and so to hear people and
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be like oh wow I came to run group and now I realized I can just go do this and I mean there's the whole safety concerns
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but in in my mind like if someone can come out and realize I can go do this on my own as much as I want that's that's
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super valuable to me and and that's very fulfilling yeah we had uh the founder of
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women of the wasach on a couple weeks ago and she talked specifically too about how important the no drw runs were
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to just in feedback from the Run groups of like those mean the most to people
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just because that's how you like birth Runners Trail Runners so that's it's
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really cool how do you feel like what do you feel like you have gotten out of the Run club building it cuz you are doing
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it to give back but do you feel like you've been able to get anything out of it definitely I mean meeting really cool
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people meeting people who I admire there was a there's a guy who came who did PCT last summer and so it's it's
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crazy to me that like those are that I've been watching so many PCT
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documentaries and it's very much another like a future Obsession that eventually
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I want to do it and so will you run it or do you are you going to thr hikee it I'll just through hikee it okay but um
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I'm like whoa yeah no no way that would that would be rough but um and like
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because that's also something that interests me is becoming family with strangers on the PCT and so yeah I
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wouldn't want to run it because I feel like I would skip a lot of that totally but like so that that's what's cool for
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me for the group run is to gather all these people that I was always trying to find but I could never really I mean I
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found like Bill and Craig who are like 50 and 60 but I was like where are all
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the people our age like people in their 20s because I know other people are out there but it's it's hard to find them
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and so to me that the Instagram alith just gathered all these really cool people
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and now I'm like dang I get to I get to meet all these people who I've I've been looking for so that that's been um I
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would say the most satisfying yeah that's really cool and and I like cooking for people so it's nice to make
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everyone the casadas after that's so cool that's hilarious so are you like do
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you cook often do you consider yourself like a chef I I wouldn't consider my
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Chef myself a chef but I am very passionate about cooking I love cooking me and my brother started a taco Tuesday
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night oh cool um two years ago in Provo and we just were kind of like let's
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gather people and let's see how big we can get this and over the course of four months we grew it all the way up to 350
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people that's great how did you even fund that it was it was insane I mean at first we just tried having people not
24:53
pay and then we had people pay three bucks and then we were still like losing money cuz it was it was unlimited food
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like unlimited tacos he would make orchata I would make the um chicken and
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the beans and buy everything and then my friend would make the rice and um crazy
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yeah that that last week we had I cooked uh 55 lbs of chicken oh my go and 20 20
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lbs of beans and in like a dorm room stove in a dorm room stove on it took it
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took me like 133 hours oh my gosh that's a long yeah so that that was kind of like the big bang that kind of was the
25:31
beginning of the end for it because it was it was stressful and it was a lot of work and we didn't make any money don't have an industrial kitchen yeah we we
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actually got sponsored by uh by a um just one of the sales companies around
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here did you really hilarious so they paid us an extra 750 bucks on top of what people vend mode oh that's cool
25:50
that one night we made like 1,500 bucks but then we were just like I want to feel see what it feels like to give away
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a bunch of money so we gave away all the we gave away a th000 bucks and then it was 500 bucks to cover costs so we made
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nothing for that one night but it was an epic night to have a random apartment and probo giving away money to people
26:09
who came to get tacos and party yeah and as a college student you're like yes yeah it was it it was a very fun time in
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life but I I don't want Taco um group runs to get that complicated that's why
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I'm just keeping it to bean and cheese case illas so it sounds like you put a huge
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emphasis on like community and the people around you do you have any favorite like personal projects that
26:34
you've done with friends maybe leading up to DC Peaks last year or any that
26:39
you've already done this year that you're like oh like this was meaningful to me yeah um I really haven't done that
26:47
many big roots with people but but a super memorable day is last spring when
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me and my friends uh Josh and um Josh and Jordan went and did Provo
27:02
Peak and it was still super snowy and we were all up at the top and realized the
27:08
snow was still pretty rock hard and none of us had brought pants and we were we
27:13
were playing on gading down and so all of us just got our butts torn up on the ice coming down so there's like blood
27:20
Trails yeah pretty much and it it hurt but it was days like that are so
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memorable and we still talk about that all the time of of how much fun because then when we did
27:32
get lower down below 9,000 feet the snow was softer and then we did some awesome gading and that that was probably when I
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first got obsessed with gading was that day and I another day that really sticks
27:46
out to me is um I convinced my brother to go out with me he's not a trail Runner he was training for the Utah
27:52
Valley Marathon okay and um we were hiking up the Y and we saw this kid coming up behind us and it was Owen and
28:02
I just started talking to him found out he was 16 and but uh homeschooled so he
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was like on his lunch recess break or whatever PE break I guess and uh got
28:14
talking to him and turned out that he lives here in Provo but he's super knowledgeable of all the mountains had
28:20
all these routes planned he he's much more knowledgeable on routes and stuff than me I mean at this point he's he's
28:26
18 now but it that's what's another thing that's been so valuable to me is meeting people out in the mountains and
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then building relationships and becoming good friends with them he's he's who I went with last week to do the temp high
28:41
route up on the temp Ridge and and it's nice to be with someone like I mean even
28:46
though he's pretty young he know he knows what he's doing and he's very professional about it and so so that's
28:53
sick to be surrounded with those types of people so how are you choosing your
28:58
routes that you run like for those of you who haven't seen Zach's Instagram
29:04
it's like we do a lot of like the fat map videos I don't know what thing you
29:10
use but there's like it show it's this little dot that shows you going up the mountain coming down the mountain doing
29:16
your route how do you choose your routes do you build them do people give them to you yeah I I do very little route
29:24
building honestly I I try to do more more but um I guess I guess I did a
29:32
couple this winter where I just was like I'm thinking about this so looked at it at fat map looked at the gradients and
29:39
was like that'll work out but mostly I just get inspired from what other people are doing like the super sick Provo Peak
29:46
route that we did two weeks ago the my by far most viewed video Zack Garner and
29:51
Sam Collins had done it and so I was like I want to go try that out and really had no idea what it was going to
29:57
look like yeah but um was like they did it so we can try I didn't see what it was where where did you start where did
30:03
you end up we started at the Y went up to probo Peak and then went a little
30:08
North on the Ridge and then dropped into the bowl over there oh okay yeah and um
30:16
and then went a little bit farther north and then bushwacked down into Rock Canyon and then popped out on a squad
30:22
Peak Road and then went down Rock Canyon and umun it it was an epic route I've
30:28
never been backed by that bulll M cuz I I didn't even real really realize that it existed and it was huge so so much
30:36
yeah so much open space something I've really been wanting to try but I think it's too late in the year is to go up to
30:42
Provo Peak and then just where everyone skis down on East Provo Peak we just
30:47
Glade down that snow conditions looked great that day I we we decided on a on a
30:53
whim to do that route like last second when we were at the top of Provo Peak yeah so was kind of like we should drop
30:59
down east right now and then go hitchhike out of Hobble Creek but my friend who I was with was like let's try
31:05
following Sam and Zach's Footprints so they're just like yeah we were like let's do it that's awesome yeah um do
31:13
you have any routes planned for this summer there's a lot of stuff I want to do I want to go do neibo never done
31:21
neibo cool n's so pretty yeah and I mean everyone's been doing Olympus so I want
31:26
to do Olympus too but I hear it's really exposed so got to get out there early yeah um I've actually never done Cascade
31:34
Like official Peak oh really yeah so that's one I want you were up there two weeks ago I guess really how how was
31:40
that I said you were up there oh two weeks ago is close yeah yeah and then I
31:47
I'm defin I just love temp so I want to do Everest Ridge a lot I did it like
31:53
three times last year I've done it twice this year but I I want to put down a hard last time on ever rid because I've
31:59
never really pushed that hard and then um probably my biggest goal right now is to go sub 230 on the taniki route round
32:07
trip for oh cool yeah that's impressive well I haven't done it yet do you have a
32:14
current PR yeah 239 oh okay yeah you're so close yeah you're so close are you
32:19
trying to cut time off the down or the up um probably mostly off the climb okay
32:25
I I did um it was one 37 for the up and then 102 down I don't I don't really
32:31
think I could take much off the 102 down it was like storming that day and and
32:36
pouring rain and there was there was probably two minutes I was putting on a jacket on the climb okay so I think a
32:42
nice cool clear day this summer I I definitely think it's possible early morning yeah
32:48
yeah yeah that's awesome that is so cool that that definitely really excites me
32:53
because feel like temp is such a classic mountain and and that straa segment for the round trip has 3K or
33:02
4K efforts so I think to I think just getting on the top 10 would be sick 10
33:07
is 236 so I would say that's like the oh you're right there yeah I for sure want to at least get sub 236 no way I'm ever
33:14
getting Jason D's 216 though yeah that's insane that's so
33:20
insane I yeah so how do you feel like you balanced because before you'd mentioned to me that you like try to
33:26
stay away from numbers so how do you feel like you balance like setting these
33:32
time goals that are super fun but also staying away from numbers yeah
33:37
where's the balance there for you I think for me I've realized in terms of like segment efforts compared to race
33:45
efforts where if you go for a segment and you miss it then it's just kind of like it was a fun day in the mountains
33:52
and and like we'll try again later and I'm not it's not like a
33:58
like I need to hit that time if I never if I never go sub 230 on temp then then oh oh well like I just know it
34:06
would be really fun to go sub 2:30 and I know I would be stoked out of my mind but it's not that same type of thing in
34:13
high school where I felt like I wanted so badly to go sub6 in the 5K and every
34:18
race that I wasn't getting sub6 I was just like ah like I should have tried harder I should have done this and this
34:24
and this but like on a day on a day like today there is no like oh I wish I had fueled better or I
34:30
had been more hydrated or done it early morning it was just like I went on a whim and I didn't get it and like it was
34:37
just another day in the mountains and so I I think that's what's so important for me with numbers is like yeah they can be
34:44
fun but not not letting it be anything more than that to me is is just fun and
34:49
if I am that attached to it then I should probably just let go of it yeah so it sounds like you're pretty sure of
34:56
like everything you're kind of talking about comes back to your goal of like
35:01
ultimately you want to be good in the mountains you want to spend time in the mountains and know the mountains how do
35:08
you feel like you were able for our listeners who are like feeling conflicted with all different types of
35:14
goals and training or Instagram or whatever like how what was your process
35:21
for finding oh I just want to be someone that does well in the mountains MH how
35:26
could they maybe replicate that to find their goal yeah I think for me it was
35:32
definitely being out there and meeting people and meeting lots of different
35:39
different personality types and different like just meeting different
35:45
people I realized wow that is who I want to be and that not so much is who I want
35:51
to be and so after meeting a lot of those people I just kind of had that Epiphany that you know what what that
35:58
someone even if I did break four minutes in the mile next week who would I be the
36:04
week after and who would I be a year later and and that's that's the kind of thing is like those are the people who
36:10
make an impact on me who are people who have found their thing and have been
36:16
committed to it and have learned to love people along the way and and not be so
36:22
focused on like I need to do this so that I can be cool or so that people can
36:28
validate me like I don't I don't want any of my goals ever to be based on some
36:33
sort of EX external validation I want I want to be there so that I can be the
36:39
best version of me and the the version of me that can lift up other people and help them realize that all this noise
36:46
around us of the getting likes and comments or getting a certain time and
36:52
and having people be like wow you're the best none none of that really matters in at the end of the day
36:59
yeah and that's something I appreciate so much about Endurance Sports and kind of the
37:04
community at least that I've come across in this world is that like I think maybe
37:09
it's because we do have a lot of time alone to be introspective and to think
37:16
about like who we are and what we're doing in the world so maybe that kind of
37:23
lends lends itself to being a really kind
37:29
open Community rather than like I don't feel like the ultra running world or the
37:35
trail running world is focused on competition as much as it is community
37:40
at least in my experience yeah 100% that that's why I feel like I've found such a place in it and and why I love being a
37:48
part of the TR running Community is because very few people are like I mean
37:54
Jose or chpe before uh squa PE 50 this this weekend did he get like
38:01
7:19 or something like that um I think he got 8:30 oh he got 8:30 okay but it's
38:07
it's crazy good and he he won the race but I just love how beforehand I was talking to him and like like who do you
38:13
think's like you think you're going to win it and just like his whole Aura and and like mentality you can tell that
38:20
he's thought about it a lot and that winning is not like the most important
38:26
thing thing to him at all and that if someone else was going to have a great day and win it then he
38:31
would be so stoked for them and but like I mean he wins like everything right now so it's like great for him but it's like
38:39
not really anyone else who I would rather have winning stuff that I'm a part of the community because oh yeah
38:45
like the other day I commented on his thing and I was like yeah I'll never be as fast as you and he's like no I bet
38:50
you will like and he like genuinely means it yeah yeah and I just think like
38:57
I don't know know what other communities like that where the people at the top are very much like reaching down to
39:03
people below them and are like you can totally be where I'm at yeah yeah I also
39:09
love that aspect one thing I also would like to touch on is kind of I mean
39:16
you're out here every day do you run every day right yeah six days a week days take off you take Sundays off so
39:23
you're out here six days a week putting in a lot of vert are there days you don't want to do it where you feel like
39:29
you have to kind of pull discipline in or because you're just focused on like
39:34
having fun in the mountains does it always feel pretty easy for you that was
39:40
that was actually something I was thinking about yesterday where like I don't feel like I'm a very disciplined
39:45
person yeah I'm coming up on three months of running six days a week and um
39:51
so I would say it's very rare that I feel like I have to push myself out it's
39:57
it's main just sleep like based if I'm really sleepy kind of just like oh I
40:02
want to take a nap instead of go out then as soon as I get out then I'm feeling great so yeah there are there
40:08
are definitely some days where I have to drag myself out but it's like I kind of
40:15
I have the ability right now to kind of Center my whole life around going out on
40:20
a run every day so I definitely have the luxury of it not being such a hassle as
40:27
I know it is compared to someone who worked the normal 9 to-5 five days a week that like I'm sure if I was doing
40:34
that I would need a lot more discipline I I just think I'm in a very lucky situation right now where it it does
40:41
stay mostly fun I will I will say where the discipline comes in is like with the
40:46
vert goal some days doing a couple extra Laps on the y or a a couple extra laps
40:53
up to the G or whatever where I definitely would not be doing that if I unless I was having the million feet
40:59
goal at the end of the year yeah cuz the Y Trail is not necessarily like in the
41:04
mountains it's kind of just like I'll get my vert here I was training for uray a couple years ago and had to resort to
41:11
the Y Trail quite often but it's good to get like some good verls in and
41:17
everything yeah and and even the Y has its own benefits where like I love just
41:22
seeing like the Y regulars and seeing yeah like I had it on my video
41:28
on Saturday that 79y old dude who he's done it 55 times this year so crazy I
41:35
swear he's always up there every time I'm there because he does one thatp but I I'm sure it takes him like maybe three
41:42
hours uh two and a half hours I don't know how long it takes but feels like anytime I'm there he's always there so
41:49
seeing all the little stories like that I love people watching and so going out
41:54
there and and meeting random people and I mean recently like having people be like hey TRS with saag that's that's
42:00
like crazy to me but it's fun to just be like hey that's another another person that I get to meet without really having
42:06
to try yeah and I think too your content makes these Trails seem more accessible
42:13
just because like I've met a lot of people especially girls who feel intimidated about getting
42:20
onto the Trails um alone so like to see someone cranking out laps at big baly or
42:28
cranking out Laps on the y or whatever really regularly I think makes it seem
42:33
more doable for people yeah it's definitely but it is hard like breaking
42:39
out all those laps vert is hard yeah yeah it definitely and it's just so time
42:45
consuming yeah it is very time Tak a lot of time yeah six miles with 3,000 ft of
42:51
Earth is much different than six miles with like 500 feet of Earth yeah yeah
42:56
that's that's something for me where like I've gotten so used to that where I
43:02
like you don't really talk about Pace that much with people Trail Runners that's not something like yeah Pace what
43:08
and so that's something I have to remember when people are dming me they're like what pace do you run at I
43:13
run at a seven minute pace or I run at a 9 minute pace to just kind of be like
43:20
okay yeah it does it really does not matter whatever whatever Pace you do you just walk up at whatever ever you feel
43:27
like you can do and then run down to whatever you feel like you can do yeah that that's something that I just am so
43:33
attracted to about trail running is that me too that that that's a big thing that I mean by getting away from numbers is
43:40
like yeah there's the general time but and as you're tril running longer you
43:45
can get more into numbers but if you want to you can just kind of do what's fun and feels good and and it's sick to
43:52
meet those oldtimers out there who have been in the mountains for years and years and have never gotten a Strava never gotten watch just like I go to
43:58
that Peak for lunch and then like I'm down by down by 3:00 or whatever and and
44:05
that's their day in the mountains yeah and my husband and I have talked about this of like we don't necessarily want
44:12
or need people on the podcast who are running like crazy Fast Times who are
44:18
winning races we like want people on the podcast who are exceptionally passionate
44:24
about what they do and so yeah I think trail running is totally the sport for
44:30
that because yeah there are millions of people here in Utah especially who just
44:35
like love it and that's just what they do and they're pretty quick maybe but
44:41
maybe they're not so yeah it's cool that that's honestly I feel like that's a
44:47
double-sided sword for me is that I am around these people who are so passionate and who who would do whatever
44:54
it takes to get out in the mountains every day or or or just like I love people who are just passionate about
44:59
things in in general and so when I do meet people who are like I'm like what do you do and they're like I go to work
45:07
and come home and and watch Netflix and it like I can't understand it's like so
45:13
hard for me to relate to that mentality because I'm like where where's the
45:20
passionate passionate out because when I look back on my life ever since I was four years old I like I know year by
45:27
year what I was obsessed with and what I was super passionate about and through all those Trends running has always been
45:34
in the background ever ever since that's been something crazy to me to think about that even though I didn't start
45:40
like running until I was I was 7th grade I think even when I was in like
45:47
kindergarten when we were playing tag out at recess I remember the feeling of having the raspy throat and have being
45:53
so sweaty and yeah the tasting the blood and just and loving that and always
45:59
wanting to be the fastest like even even though I don't have that that natural speed but um it's always been there and
46:07
and so that that's for me why I feel confident in saying that's where I want to be when I'm 80 years
46:13
old like as someone who is always running or always just in the mountains is because I can look back at my last 20
46:20
years and see that that's that's always been there even if I haven't noticed it
46:25
yeah and and I'm not saying that the only way you can be one of those long-term Mountain athletes is if it's
46:30
already always been there cuz it's sick to me when people are like I've always hated running or whatever and they they
46:36
get into it but I just think like there's also people out there who just have always loved it and in a sense I
46:43
think too why like so many of us find like this community in ultra running like it like weird people definitely
46:51
gravitate toward ultra running like there are weird people out on the trails but I love it because
46:57
like yeah you have to be a little bit weird to want to be up there for six
47:03
hours and not hate it if that makes sense or even hate it and then want to come back down and go back up you know
47:09
yeah yeah I I definitely think um like it's so weird to me that I can
47:17
go out and when I did the South temp Ridge two weeks ago I was planning on
47:22
going with Bobby and Owen but then both of them backed out last second so I was just at the parking lot and I didn't
47:28
really know the route too well and I also was just like do I really want to just do this big day by myself and I was
47:34
like you know what yeah I do and so then I was out there for seven hours and just
47:40
thinking and to think that like I could be out there for 7 hours by myself I saw people for maybe 10 minutes total of
47:47
that whole seven hours but to finish the day and feel so fulfilled feel so like
47:52
there was never a second of that that I was bored or that I felt like I wished I was somewhere else it's crazy to me that
47:59
like that space exists in my life and I feel like that's what I feel so grateful for is where like I don't know where
48:05
else I could find that type of thing where there's no stimulus other than just real life and to be so just like
48:14
enthralled that I'm there and just in my thoughts so what piece of advice would
48:22
you give to people listening to the podcast who feel like they admire you or
48:27
admire what you're doing or even just admire your passion for the sport and how much you're putting into it what
48:34
actionable advice would you give to
48:42
them um I I would say that you don't need people supporting you to start
48:49
doing what you're passionate about that if you do it then you'll find other people who will support you and be there
48:55
with you I I think the most important thing is just getting out there and being where you're passionate being
49:02
where you're passionate and and doing it whether people think it's weird or not and that you'll find the people once
49:08
you're doing it it's pretty hard to find them if you're not doing it yeah because all those people are going to be doing
49:14
are doing it yeah you're going to be doing it yeah that's that's actually really good advice and for people
49:21
listening you said you were 22 right yeah yeah Zach is 22 he like you
49:26
definitely have had a lot of time to think and like form really articulate opinions so yeah I think it helps that
49:34
I'm a very a dramatic thinker and something I like to write poems actually
49:39
really yeah that's cool uhuh do you write them like while you run um I think about them while IUN I'm I'm definitely
49:45
like I like thinking for like a month about a poem or an idea and then I'll write it in like five minutes you should
49:52
post them I I've been thinking about it I I posted one last full oh cool and I
49:58
just it just didn't feel right but I don't know like that's so that's the
50:04
hard thing about social media is I'm like I love writing poems but then I posted it and it it felt cringey and
50:10
like no one really like seemed like they liked it but then now I do have an audience that I'm pretty sure my
50:15
audience would understand what you're yeah would like would like the poems but I'm like I hate that just because I have
50:22
support now I feel comfortable to do it when I didn't really want to do it when
50:28
I didn't have support I I feel like that's honestly a big reason why I don't want to start doing it now because I'm like because I'm like I have all these
50:35
PE nice people now and like so it's it's easy when you have the support like making a video every day is sick because
50:41
I'm like I can say whatever I want and I got thousands of people are going to be
50:47
like this is sick like I love this when before it was like wow I got 200 people
who gave me six likes on this so I I think that's a weird place I'm in right
50:58
now where I'm like I need to remember my roots you know and not like yeah remember that life is easy
51:06
when you have all like so much support yeah even going back to your own advice though like do what you want to do and
51:15
you'll find the people that support you so exactly I think more people supporting like when people support me I
51:22
am inclined to support them and vice versa too like when I support people I
51:27
feel them supporting me too so it's never like a negative thing yeah exactly
51:33
and and that that's so much fun like being out on the race course on Saturday I was hyping everyone up and there were
51:40
so many racers who'd be like dude I love your videos and I'm like no I'm I'm here cheering you on I'm I'm the one hyping
51:46
you up and so like it's crazy to be around people who are so positive and loving yeah that's what I think it just
51:53
draws me to Craig so much have have you ever met Craig I haven't met I for some reason I feel like he's the
51:59
guy with the runner's Corner Jersey on your okay why do corner Jers I have no idea he's like straw a famous okay maybe
52:07
then that's what I know him from I have no idea yeah that's cool though uhuh do you run with him a lot yeah I I try to
52:12
run with him as as much as possible as long as his wife lets him like just he's he's always He he'll
52:20
be okay with me saying this cuz his wife doesn't see anything on social media but one really funny day we were we were
52:26
about to start our run and he was on the phone with his wife still he's like sorry babe I'm stuck down south at work
52:32
I like I'm just my wife's like I swear if you ever do that to me you're dead
52:38
but U like weird my location is showing I'm on top of Tim but like I'm actually
52:44
grocery shopping he's legit had calls with his wife on the top of big Baldi and' be like so many patients today but
52:51
but it's just so funny cuz like he's 60 and he's just out here enjoying life
52:56
being in the mountains and and just such a positive guy always when we see people like there was this crazy lady that I
53:03
met one day on the mountain who was telling me all about the end of the world and stuff and I told Craig about
53:09
her and she he was like wow she's she's wild and then one day I was like that's the crazy lady he ran up to her gave her
53:15
a huge hug and was like so great to meet you and she was she was she started crying she was like this is so nice like
53:22
that's so cute yeah and just like totally random every like that are like
53:28
that's that's a big part of why I want to be out there is cuz you create memories like that all the time that's
53:35
very cool well how can our listeners follow you what's your Instagram handle
53:41
do you do any other social platforms yeah I'm trails with Zach on Instagram
53:47
and don't do anything else any other in uh I tried doing Tik Tok for a little bit but I I don't understand Tik Tok I
53:55
don't like Tik Tok maybe I'll try with Tik Tok again but yeah Instagram trails with Zach cool
54:01
we'll link that in the description do you post on Strava yeah I I guess I do post on straa okay I'll also link your
54:07
Strava in the description as well yeah it's just Zachary frish cool yeah that's
54:12
where I track all the vert is just straa awesome thanks Zach thank you Abby
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