Gotta Run Podcast

We are off to Slovenia soon to race the Ultra Trail Vipava Valley UTVV for short on April 27. It will be our first time there and it came on our radar after our chat with Canadian Galen Reynolds in Episode 81 who lives and trains near the capital, Ljubljana.

Since we know very little about this part of the world or these trails we figured why not ask someone who has run the course, so we reached out to runner Anze Sobocan who not o...

Returning to the podcast is Ihor Verys.  Based in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Ihor is the first Ukranian-Canadian finisher and ultimate winner of the 2024 The Barkley Marathons!

Ihor has been very busy since we last spoke to him after his Fat Dog 120 win in 2022 including runner up at Big’s Backyard World Championship running over 715k last year and a win at Hurt 100 this year.

We touch on a few key elements from those two races ...

The Sulphur Springs Trail Race is a 20K loop course, in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area just outside of Hamilton, Ontario that has been running for more than 30 years, making it the oldest running Ultra Marathon in Canada!  Distances offered include 10k up to 100 miles. 

This year, the race seeks to become Ontario’s first Western States 100 qualifier - which would be a huge accomplishment - so we reached out to the trio of Race...

Jonathan Albon is a 34 year old multi-discipline athlete originally from the UK, now living in Norway.

Jon has left his mark on many sports including Obstacle Course Racing where he recently took home the largest prize in OCR history by crossing the line first in Saudi Arabia; completing 100 kilometres in 8 hours with 20 obstacles per 10K lap! 

He has some equally impressive results in trail and ultra running including top spots at...

On this episode, we feature 53 year old Jeff Bond, an ultra runner from Manitoba.  He has competed in several ultras including the Canadian Death Race, Epic East Gate in Riding Mountain National Park and the Dead Horse Ultra.

He just completed 100 miles on foot at the Yukon Arctic Ultra; a race not for the faint of heart! You can choose your mode of discipline at this event either by foot, cross country skis or mountain bike.  

Jef...

Lauren Puretz is a 40 year old practicing gynecologist in Colorado Springs, CO.  She has been running ultras for a few years now and has always been in the mix of things - 5th at Bandera 2021, 7th at Black Canyon 2022, and 4th at last year's Javelina Jundred. 

She is a member of the Colorado Aravaipa running team. Fun fact - she won the Sawatch Ascent 50K in Colorado outright last year and the only other woman to do that was Court...

Rachel Drake, 32, resides in Portland, Oregon. She is a new Mom to Lewis, partner to ultrarunner Tyler Green, and has her PhD in medical sciences. 

She was the first woman across the line in this years Black Canyon 100K, where she earned ultrarunning's most sought after Golden Ticket to Western States. 

Rachel started 2024 off with a win at the Hong Kong 33K, the first World Trail Majors race of the year.  And now with her win at B...

Hot off the Arizona trails is Becca Windell, celebrating not only her podium finish at Black Canyon 100k but capturing one of the elusive golden tickets to Western States 100K.

Her passion for wildlife led her down the path to her career as a biologist, studying diseases threatening the fauna in the American west.

We also chat about her experience at The Bear 100 in 2021; her only 100 miler to date and what she learned at The Cany...

Tania shares a fascinating chronicle of her journey into ultra running, from her initial days of being a non-runner to resolutely training and completing ultra-marathons, over 20 to date. 

She details her latest adventure, to race across five deserts (Namibia, Gobi, Jordan, Antarctica, Chile) in 12 months with the aim of raising funds for Indigenous children in Mexico. 

Find out why she chose this challenge in particular and what r...

Jakob Herrmann is a Swiss living in California, and an experienced runner who has completed an incredible number of races including seventy-nine marathons, over fifty 50K’s, and twenty-five 100 milers. His first ultra was back in 2005 at the JFK 50 - go big or go home!   

Some of his more notable races include Javelina 100, Rio Del Largo 100, and Man vs Horse. 

Jakob is also the race director of the Swiss Alps 100 which is a quali...

Marcus Kjellberg is an ultra runner with diabetes and content creator from Sweden.  We came across one of his YouTube videos that he created about the Val D’Aran race in Spain last year - it’s an event put on by UTMB and some say the 100 miler is equal to or harder than the UTMB’s 100 miler.

During his Val D'Aran experience it turned into a lightning show and the race was stopped,  what happened next? 

We also chat with Marcus abo...

Wow Wow Wow !!

What a year 2023 has been, we hit 100 episodes and chatted with amazing ultra athletes.

The 4 events in our Gotta Run Racing series were a success and we have added more content on our YouTube Channel with new virtual runs, our running adventures and Podcast chats.  Head on over to our Youtube channel and subscribe to not miss any uploaded videos.

If you enjoy our show, please leave a rating and review.  We would rea...

Holly Grahn is an ultra runner, certified registered Hypnotherapist and Life Coach living in British Columbia. She has conquered some of Canada's epic ultra races finishing the Canadian Death Race 4xs as well as Fat Dog 120 and Squamish 50 just to name a few,  through her coaching, she specializes in helping runners change their mindset, reduce stress, improve focus and visualize success! 

In our chat with Holly we will discuss he...

On this episode, we, have Dr. Claire Heslop, an emergency physician in our home city of Toronto.

We became aware of Claire after her amazing performance at Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc as the top Canadian in 2021.

She has competed in some pretty amazing races including the Ultra Mirage in Tunisia, MIUT Madeira, Bigfoot 200, Moab 240 and The Track in Australia - 520KM stage race in 2017.

2023 has been a big year for her, racing at Tran...

Based out of San Francisco, California, 30 year old Anna Kacius is an endurance athlete with an impressive resume, including qualifying for the Olympic marathon Trials in 2020 and competing for Team USA at the 100K World Championships in Berlin 2022.

Anna placed 4th at Black Canyon 100K this year, and recently won the Javelina Jundred 100K breaking the course record by 25 mins with a time of 8:13! She was 2nd overall.

We chat with ...

Jon Rea, fresh off his Javelina Jundred record breaking win with a time of 12:43, earned his third golden ticket to Western States.

We chat about his very first ultra - the Golden Gate Dirty 30 50K back in 2015 and Desert Rats 100k (50k) which earned him a spot at CCC this past summer. 

He also shares his thoughts on the UTMB/WAM controversy and going back to WSER in 2024.

All this and more! Here is Jonathan...

You can follow Jo...

Blake Slattengren of Seattle, Washington had a great performance in his debut 100 miler at Javelina Jundred this year, coming in second and snagging his first Golden Ticket to Western States 100.

We chat with Blake about how he started in the ultra scene with his first race in New Zealand the Old Ghost Ultra - 85K in 2021 then went on to win the next 5 out of his 7 ultras.

We chat about the ultra scene in and around Seattle and hi...

Ragna Debats of the Netherlands (living in Spain) put in a stellar performance at the 2023 Javelina 100, placing 2nd and punching her golden ticket for the 2024 Western States Endurance Run.

Ragna will be returning to Auburn next June to try and better her current masters record of 17:41 where she places 3rd in 2021.

She has won some pretty incredible races around the world including Istria 100, Transgrancanaria and Marathon Des Sa...

While pretty fresh on the ultra trail scene, Ethan Peters has achieved quite the string of impression wins.

He started running ultras in 2018 by completing his first ever ultra the Haliburton 100 in his home province of Ontario.

After that he finished first at the Canadian Death Race and Black Spur, both Sinister Sports events.

He was the fastest Canadian at this years Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc with a time of just over 25 hours.

Et...