April 18, 2025 • 50 mins
Step onto the trails with Oakley Olson, the collegiate steeplechase specialist turned mountain running phenom who's rapidly ascending to the top of the trail running world. Fresh from her selection to the 2025 Trail Team Elite, Oakley shares the remarkable journey that took her from soccer fields to mountain summits.
Oakley reveals how a two-mile time trial during soccer practice unexpectedly launched her running career, leading eventually to success at Utah Valley University as a steeplechaser. The conversation explores her breathtaking transition to trail running, where she stunned the community with an 8th place finish at the US Mountain Running Championships at Snowbird and set the FKT on Utah's imposing Mount Timpanogos with almost casual determination: "I just looked at Tim and thought, I want to go do that right now."
What makes steeplechase athletes like Oakley so dominant on technical trails? She offers fascinating insights into the mental fortitude required for both disciplines: "When you're trail running, you have to look at the mountain and believe you're going to get to the top. In steeplechase, you need to know you're going to clear every single hurdle." This fearless mindset translated perfectly to her mountain racing success alongside professional athletes.
Looking ahead to an exciting 2024 season, Oakley discusses balancing her collegiate track commitments with appearances at Soonapy Scramble, Cirque Series races, and potentially Broken Arrow. Her perspective on competition reveals a refreshing blend of fierce determination during races and genuine camaraderie afterward. "The sport is amazing because of the positive culture we create," she reflects, embodying the spirit that makes trail running special.
Whether you're fascinated by the crossover between track and trails, curious about breaking into mountain running, or simply inspired by athletic courage, Oakley's story demonstrates how belief in yourself can move mountains—or at least help you run up and down them very, very fast.
This episode is brought to you by Ultimate Direction ! Use code steepstuffpod for 25% off your next order on UltimateDirection.com ! Make sure to check out the newly released Ultra 12L and Race 6L vests !
Follow Oakley on IG - @oakley_olson
Follow James on IG - @jameslauriello
Follow the Steep Stuff on IG - @steepstuff_pod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, boys and girls, welcome back to the Steep
Stuff Podcast.
I'm your host, james Lariello,and guys, let's get into it.
I've got an awesome episode.
I'm so excited to bring youwith none other than Miss Oakley
Olsen, the trail running phenomin 2025.
Trail team elite selection ison the pod.
Oakley is best known for being astandout both on the track and
(00:21):
on the trails as well.
Last last year, she had a veryserious finish uh at the U S
mountain running champs atCirque snowbird, where she took
eighth overall female uh, aswell as the first collegiate
female in that race Absolutelycrushed it.
She also set the FKT on Mountuh.
Tim Pangonos, I don't know, I'mnot a Utah guy, but Mount Timp
(00:42):
um, that everybody calls itpretty, pretty rad.
Um, yeah, guys, I'm not a Utahguy, but Mount Timp that
everybody calls it pretty,pretty rad.
Yeah, guys, I'm so excited tobring this one to you.
Oakley is a rising star in thesport and someone who I'm really
excited to watch like hercareer just kind of explode over
the next couple of years.
She will be racing at Soonapyand I think she'll be a broken
arrow as well.
So excited to see where hercareer takes her and where, and
what she's able to do in 2025.
(01:03):
Hope you guys enjoy this one.
It's a favorite one of mine,none other than Oakley Olsen.
It's time, ladies and gentlemen, we are live.
(02:15):
Listen up, guys.
The Steep Stuff Podcast isbrought to you by Ultimate
Direction USA.
Guys, I am so excited UD justdropped their new RaceV six
liter and ultra vest 12 literinto beautiful aesthetic colors.
You guys got to check these newvests out.
They're dynamic in ways likethat you just have never seen
from an ultimate direction vestVery stretchy, lots of storage,
(02:39):
beautiful aesthetic colorwayscoming into, coming to you in a
new, like a white and blue andan onyx and green.
Just absolutely beautiful vests.
I think these ones are justlike some of the best products
we've ever dropped and I'm soexcited for you guys to try them
out.
Hop on ultimate directioncom anduse code steep stuff pod Again
that steep stuff pod for 25% offyour new vest.
(03:00):
I mean, they're alreadyaffordably priced, but 25% off
is just going to make it so muchmore affordable for folks in an
already increasingly expensivetrail running environment.
So hop on ultimatedirectioncom,get yourself a new vest, a pack
or any hydration solution andlet me know what you guys think.
Oakley Olson, welcome to theSteep Stuff Podcast.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Hi, thanks for having me.
I'm doing good.
How are you?
I'm doing good.
I Hi thanks for having me.
I'm doing good.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
It's a good day, got a goodworkout in, getting some work
done.
It's, you know, it's the middleof the week, it's almost Friday
, so not much more.
Not much to complain about,right no-transcript.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Exciting for our team and we won cross country as a
team so it's exciting going intooutdoor Coaches have some
pretty big goals to try anddefend that title.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Nice, nice, nice, all right.
So maybe we'll back this up alittle bit for the audience.
Maybe just introduce yourselfand give me the five-minute
elevator pitch on what you'redoing right now running
collegially.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, so my collegiate career started at
Boise State University.
I was running there for a yearand a half and then I
transferred to Utah ValleyUniversity.
My favorite event issteeplechase.
I qualified for regionals, lostoutdoor track in the
steeplechase, so this year I'mhoping to qualify for regionals
and then to go to second roundsat nationals in Eugene, oregon,
in June.
I've been part of the crosscountry indoor track and outdoor
(04:39):
track teams for all those yearsUVU women's team.
We went to nationals not thispast fall but the fall before
and we placed 23rd.
This year we were the firstteam out and we were really sad
about it.
But that's okay.
Being in the mountain region,you never know how it's gonna go
.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So it's been pretty exciting.
Nice, nice, what's your.
What's your story was runningLike how old were you when you
first got into it?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
yeah, um, I was a freshman in high school so I was
a soccer girl growing up.
I did swimming, soccer,softball and then I remember we
did like a two mile time trialon the outdoor track one day for
soccer practice and the crosscountry coach saw me running
with all the girls and they toldus if we got like below a 14
minute two mile, then like youcould maybe make varsity.
(05:24):
And I think I came in runninglike a 1330 and I was like the
first girl to cross and I feltpretty good.
I did not have the skills to bevarsity.
I was definitely a JV playerbut I was like, wow, I can, I
can run, like that's something Ican control.
And the cross country coach cameover and he was like, hey, you
need to join the cross countryteam.
And I was like no way, presscountry is terrible, that sucks.
And then I went to a practiceand all the kids were so nice
(05:48):
and it was way more fun thansoccer and I just immediately
dove into it for the rest ofhigh school.
So I guess I was around 14.
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
What position did you play on the soccer field?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I was outside back.
So the one where you just haveto chase people, take the ball
and then kick it way up.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
No dribbling you don't have to chase people, take
the ball and then kick it wayup.
No dribbling.
You don't have to have like anyactual skills, you just have to
be faster than the other person.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, I, I that I had zero skills at soccer I was.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That's why I think I liked running so much was
because soccer just requiredlike too much finesse and like
too much athleticism.
I don't know no, I was.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I was so funny growing up.
I was like cross country is solame, like I Like I would never
do that.
But then people would ask me,like what do you like about
soccer?
And I'm like, oh, just likerunning.
Like I like running the entirefield, like that's what I like.
I don't like the skills, Idon't like it being really tight
, I like to just run as fast asI can for a far distance.
They're like oh, like crosscountry.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
How did your high school years play out then?
Was it easy?
What was that like?
Getting, I guess you could saygoing to Boise State?
Getting recruited was the wordI was looking for.
Or did you go as a walk-on?
How did?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
that process work.
Yeah, so I was actually Forhigh school I was in Maryland
and I went to 2 different highschools in Maryland and then
COVID hit, my junior year.
I grew up as a military kid, somy background is a little bit
like literally all over the map.
Senior year was COVID, so myfamily decided to move out to
Utah and back my junior year andsophomore year I already knew I
(07:16):
kind of wanted to come out westbecause distance running is
just so popular, being ataltitude.
So I'd reached out to a coupleof different schools at altitude
and in the mountains aroundhere.
But then I was offered ascholarship to Utah State and
Boise State and a couple otherschools.
Those were like when it camedown to the wire too and I just
really liked the environment atBoise, with the girls on the
team and with Allie Ostranderbeing such a prominent trail
(07:38):
runner and steeplechaser and meknowing like that's what I
really really had a passion for.
I was like, okay, okay, thesecoaches know how to make
athletes that are tailored forthose events.
So that's kind of how my senioryear I got recruited from
Morgan High School in Utah to goto Boise and then after a year
and a half, I decided to come toUtah Valley nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
You mentioned Ali Ostrander there.
Uh, that's a huge name in oursport um, and both on the track
and the trails.
Was that someone, I guess froma collegiate perspective, you
really looked up to um andwanted, I guess, admired in a
lot of ways like how was likethat relationship?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
absolutely.
Um, yeah, not even just fromlike a collegiate perspective,
but now as a professional.
I think she's so authentic andshe's so organic and I love like
her personality and who she ison social media, but also like
the accolades she has.
Like not a lot of female cansay they were like a three-time
in a row steeplechase nationalchampion, like from freshman,
sophomore, junior and then goingprofessionally is just amazing.
(08:34):
So, um, talking to thosecoaches and hearing about how
they trained her and how shereally like had some amazing
accomplishments in thatenvironment, I it was a no-bra.
I was like, oh, I lovesteeplechase.
I've never done it, but theyhave such a history of it, like
why not go and see how far I cango in it?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I love that.
It's interesting to me, likejust from like looking at the
sport, like I don't understandit and maybe you can provide
some color to this Cause.
I did not run in a collegiatelevel, but like why are steeple
are so good at trail running,like Joe Gray, max King, like
Grayson Murphy, like so at alley, like there were so many solid
steeplers that come over to thetrails and just absolutely
(09:12):
dominate, Like is it the muscledexterity?
Like what is it that makes youguys so good at trail running?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You know it's interesting because through
college I've thought the samething and all of my like
steeplechase friends are nowgetting into trail running as
well, and I honestly think it'sless of the physical and more of
the mental aspects.
Like when you're trail runningand when you're mountain running
you have to be able to look atthe mountain in front of you and
believe that, like you're goingto get to the top and back and
be okay.
And in steeplechase there's, Ithink, 32 hurdles or 28,
(09:42):
somewhere between 28 and 32.
I never want to know the exactnumber because I'm like I'll
just go run it.
But you have to believe inyourself and have so much grit
to the extent of when there's 30other girls around you you need
to jump before you can see it.
You need to know that you'regoing to clear every single
hurdle and have the confidenceto do it, because if you slow
down going into it, you're onlygoing to hurt your performance
more, not into it.
You're only going to hurt yourperformance more, not even in
(10:03):
the aspect of like slowing downtime, but like maybe you're not
going to clear the jump becauseyou don't have enough momentum.
And I feel like in trail runningit's the same thing, like when
we're going downhills on thatlike decline if you don't have
the confidence and you don'thave the grit to push through,
like mile seven there's liketwigs and branches and rocks and
just have like that fast, likeinnate, like flight instinct,
(10:24):
and that grit and confidence toknow like, yeah, I'm going to do
this, I'm going to do it well,and like everybody's going to
watch me do it, I feel likethat's kind of where it
transforms.
You're not just like goingaround like a rabbit in a cage
or like a hamster in a wheel orlike, yeah, like a rabbit just
around the track.
You kind of have to have alittle bit more of.
I guess like dexterity is theword I would use.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I don't know and no fear too.
It's because, like I have to behonest with you, like I've
never steeple I've never jumpeda steeple before but like I
couldn't imagine jumping 20 ofthose things on a fort, like
running around the track, like Idon't know.
I just feel like you have tobecause if you do and you can
provide more color to this, likeif you eat one of those, like
that's gonna hurt pretty bad,like oh yeah you have to have
(11:05):
like no, no fear at all to justlike have to, like you know,
just jump over that damn thing,or that's.
That's interesting to me oh,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
And like when I'm straw running, I feel like it's
the same way, like I'm up attimpanogos and you hear stories
of mountain lions and moose andbears and stuff and you have to
have no fear.
Sometimes you're like I don'tknow what's out here, but I'm
going to do this anyways, I'mgoing to be safe about it.
But I feel like there's a bigmental aspect of fear that could
definitely leave people notgetting as many opportunities as
(11:35):
they could on the trails.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, no, I love it.
So you're an interestingcharacter in the sport.
You popped onto the scene lastyear.
I know you made like arelationship with the trail team
.
We'll talk about that, aboutyour selection to the trail team
elite.
But like you were thecollegiate national champion for
um at circ series, snowbird atthe usatf mountain running
champs, but did you finish likesixth place, which was insane,
(11:56):
or top 10?
Yeah, it was lights out.
And then you also took themount temp fkt uh, in, you know
I almost want to call it thefront range of Utah, but it's in
the Wasatch of Utah.
Yeah, so you've really explodedonto the scene.
I'm just curious what stokedyour interest into trails?
What got you excited about?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
it Honestly, I would just say the trail team and
their belief in me.
I guess it goes back tooriginally at Boise State.
We mentioned Allie Ostrander.
Another reason why I pickedBoise State was because they
really supported her in hertrail running while she was in
the collegiate world.
So she ran at World way back,maybe 2018.
(12:37):
And those coaches, a part of theUSA mountain running team,
reached out to me because theysaw I was at Boise State and
that I was from Utah.
So I had some experience beingin the mountains and my Boise
State coaches were supersupportive of me racing.
It was pretty crazy.
I had like a conference crosscountry championship and then
the next weekend I was inThailand racing junior, like
worlds, and then the nextweekend was like regionals and
(12:59):
they had had Allie doing thesame thing a couple of years ago
.
So they were very used to itand easy to work with.
But I think that sparked myoriginal love of trail running
is just seeing how supportivethe community was and how fun it
was to just be like out in themountains racing against other
girls all around the world.
But we all had the same thingin common.
And then, coming back last year, andy Wacker, the head of the
(13:22):
trail team.
He has just had likeunparalleled belief in me and I
think it's really inspired myconfidence.
And getting connect to connectwith other professional athletes
like Andy Cornish and GraysonMurphy, like as a part of the
trail team, has just built myown confidence.
Going into races and trainingand knowing that this sport is
(13:42):
like amazing and upcoming forfemales and it's where I belong.
So I think that's kind of likehow it happened last year is
honestly just other peoplebelieving in me, which is pretty
amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That was so cool and it's crazy to like have, you
know, pretty solid success, justlike, but like without even
having a full season, which isjust wild.
So I know it's going to changea little bit.
This year.
We're going to be racing likeprobably a full, more or less a
full, like summer season.
Um, I know on deck for you.
Like what, what do you haveplanned for the summer?
Like, what do you?
What are you going to be racing?
Um?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, so I'm going to go race the Senate Peace
Scramble on June 1st.
I also have my collegiateseason going into it, so
obviously you don't know how faryou're going to go with the
qualifying rounds.
But there's regionals andnationals for the steeplechase
that's like in between that raceand getting that on my race
(14:36):
calendar.
And then there's a couple otherones like Cirque series races
that I want to do again, um, andthen hopefully qualify for some
teams to get back on that worldpodium and go back to Spain or
to Slovenia.
I've been talking to the trailteam a lot about those
opportunities, so that's kind ofwhat I've been thinking so far.
Super cool.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Well, so you were just selected as one of the
trail team elite.
Congratulations, thank you.
That's a it's a huge deal,because what is there?
Only six, is it six membersthis year?
Five, I think it's six, or sixor seven.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, there's six, and then we have two on the
ultra team, I believe.
So they're still part of it,but it's slightly different.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Okay, cool, cool, cool.
Yeah, it's just like such anamazing honor considering how
many people applied and likewhat it's like to be on there
now, like it's.
I was just talking to Hawk theother day, um, cause he made the
team.
We just had an interview withhim and we'll interview the rest
of the team in the upcomingdays.
Um, but yeah, what does thatmean to you?
So far?
I mean, like that's, that'sobviously a huge deal.
Like, what do you?
What do you think about it?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, that was my biggest trail team and then last
year we had like Sadio on theelite team and we had a couple
other girls and I just looked upto them a lot and their
performances.
So I knew like, hey, maybe,maybe not next year, but like
the year after, I'm going tojust keep going for it and then
to actually have that goal cometo life this year just means
(15:52):
everything to get to give backand, I guess, be have even more
confidence going into thisseason representing the trail
team.
Going from like the club now tothe elite is really a boost
going into having a fullschedule this year because
honestly, last year I was justdoing normal summer training and
I just threw myself into someraces with no workouts over the
summer.
(16:13):
So now having Andy's supportand the rest of the elite team
to hopefully go to some camps,work out with, talk to, you know
, have support at the races,it's going to be a whole
different summer.
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So cool.
I didn't ask him about thisparticularly, but maybe you
could spill the beans on it, Didhe?
Um, did he tell you guys whereyou're going to be having camps
yet this year?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, so we're going to do our grand lake camp again
and last year that wasdefinitely, I think, a
transformative um place for allthe all the beginning club level
um team members, so we'reexcited to do that again.
And then there's going to be acamp in lake tahoe and then
hopefully there's going to be acamp in canada in august, so
that would be amazing.
And then there's a bigsupportive camp going on in
europe.
I don't think the exact, Iguess, um deadlines or time
(17:01):
frame is there yet, but he'splanning on one being in europe
again, because last year therewas a switzerland camp, so he's
doing something similar thisyear very cool, very cool.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
No, so you went to the grand lake one last year, is
that right?
Can you talk about thatexperience a little bit and just
like what that meant to you toget to like run with all these
incredible athletes and networkand just make friends out of
that Like?
What was that experience like?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I I'll just say like Iwould not have even known
snowboard was a U?
S and collegiate mountain Jesusrace unless I went to grand
Lake.
Like I didn't even know whatCirque series was.
I didn't know anything.
And being in that environmentaround so many positive people
like they were all talking aboutthe race calendars and I was
like, oh, what is a racecalendar and what races should I
(17:42):
learn about?
Like I didn't know Broken Arrowwas a race and how much
prestigious um this it holds.
I didn't know what, like GoldenTrail series was.
I learned all those things justthrough networking at the camp.
And then the workout.
We did a couple workouts.
So that was really awesome tosee, like how trail workouts are
different than track workoutsand how the team approaches them
differently.
(18:03):
To see how people use nutrition.
That's a big thing coming fromcollege to trail running is in
college.
We don't really use nutritionon any long runs.
We don't use them in any racesand then in trail it's so
important to know how to have avest, how to have water flasks,
how to you know when to takegels or goos and how much carbs,
(18:24):
cause we we've got some girlslike Shay.
She's amazing, she's doneamazing things this year.
She's like the nutrition queenand she has it all down to a
science.
So I was just like taking notesfrom her.
I was like wait, so I'msupposed to do this, and how
many miles or how many minutes.
So I feel like it was just theperfect environment for a new
runner to really understand howfar they could go in the sport
(18:44):
and how to structure theirtraining the right way to do so.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, I think you nailed it there.
And big shout out to ShaqAquilano.
Like she's yeah, what she'sbeen able to do in the last few
seasons.
Like, yeah, let me.
Let me ask you this.
So I'm just I just out of purecuriosity, like you see, like
kade's probably going to getpicked up by somebody, I would
imagine after the season I'msure hawk will as well.
Um yourself, like, should youchoose to go that route?
Like, does that something thatlike excites you?
(19:09):
Is to like, now that you knowthat there's opportunities on
the trails to go run profession,like professionally, is that
like a goal you would be excitedto chase after this?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Absolutely yeah.
Ever since I was a little girl,I always know I wanted to like
make sports and athletics mypassion.
I just didn't really know how,so I was soccer for a long time,
then it became running and then, through college, I've always
like daydreamed of becoming aprofessional athlete and ever
since I've been more involved inthe trail world and I've seen
how much of a platform femaletrail runners have and how much
(19:42):
of an impact they can have.
I think it's amazing and that'sexactly what I want to do.
So that's kind of why I couldhave a fifth year on the track
or I could go all in on thetrails after the summer, and
it's really tempting to just goall in on the trails, because
the opportunity to be aprofessional athlete and to be
able to give back to this sportand also compete at such a high
(20:02):
level is something that I thinkI've been training the past
eight years for and absolutelywant.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Super cool, I mean.
Hey, like on a Gibson, there'sa lot of like stout ladies that
run on the track and the trailstoo, and still compete so I feel
like there's that opportunitynow to do both, you know, which
is like really cool.
I I don't ever feel like thatwas a thing in our sport until
like grayson kind of came alongand like you know kind of paved
the way and made it like whereyou can you do both of those
(20:28):
things, so uh, yeah I just lovethat.
That's that.
That's an option, even um, Isee a lot.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, I'll just join.
Uh, I'll join grace in an alleyin the steeplechase and trails.
There's no in between, there'sjust people chasing trails there
you go, that's right.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
That's right.
Um, what is honor run?
I don't even know.
I just see a lot of thesebrooks athletes that kind of
double up on the trail, on thetrack.
It's just so interesting to melike I don't know.
I've been kind of blown away bythe brooks team like the past
couple years, like justinvesting so much in sub ultra.
Um, to that point with subultra, is that what interests
you more?
Like more of the shorterdistance, like maybe golden
trail series races and as youkind of get into the sport, like
(21:04):
the circ series and things likethat.
Is that more of the interest?
Or will you go like the sheaaqualana route and start running
like 100 mile races?
Like what are your thoughts onthat?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
um, I think the sub ultra route is more of my route
for right now.
Um, I do enjoy like this.
The snowboard cirque series waslike 100, my race.
I loved how it was a little bitlonger than college like it was
.
I think it was just over eightmiles, but I and kind of similar
like when I ran tippin.
I love it when it's like inthat range of long distance, so
(21:34):
it's like longer than a 5k butit's not quite 100 miles.
Yeah, yeah, um, but then it'slike longer than a 5k but it's
not quite a hundred miles.
Um, but then it's like reallysteep.
I love it, like when you go upand down and like when the hard
part is just like how fast canyou get from the top to the
bottom.
I think those types of racesare my favorite, so, maybe, so
we'll try for now, but Idefinitely wouldn't mind, um,
doing a couple more marathondistances under my belt, cause
(21:54):
I've never done that yet and Ithink that'd be cool.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, I'm excited for you to mix it up.
I mean, especially the Cirque.
Like that's my like.
My first love is the Cirqueseries.
Like I'll probably be racingall of them this year but the
trail series races are sick tooLike.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
I just think that we from a sub ultra perspective and
like, with the sport growingenormously right now, there's
just a lot of options whichmakes it kind of nice and, if
you like, for instance, like thesteeple is tend to be really
good at technical stuff for somereason.
So like there's technicaloptions but there's also really
fast stuff.
So I just feel like there'sthere's options in general.
Uh, you should see if they canget you into the broken arrow,
(22:28):
like ascent, like the VK race.
That would be sick, cause I'dbe curious to see how you could
do there, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
See how you could do there.
I think I applied for it, so myfingers are crossed and
hopefully I can get in, becauseI would definitely put that on
my my calendar if I get in yeah,we'll speak that one to
existence.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I'm sure, brandon, this will get that, get that
going.
Uh, let's talk mount.
Do you call it mount, tip andyogas?
I just called it temp becausethat's, that's like what the we
call it for short, like yeah,you set the unsupported uh fkt
on it last year.
You absolutely smoked, thatcourse.
Maybe talk about that.
What was that experience likefor you?
Because that's a pretty heftytechy mountain, isn't it, if I'm
(23:03):
not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, yeah, thank you .
I was pretty excited about it.
I'd run it once before with afriend, and so we just did it
for fun.
I'd always wanted to hike Timbecause I'd heard about it and a
lot of my friends were doing itlast summer and they were
telling me how gorgeous it wasand I was like, yeah, I want to
do that, but like I just want torun it because hiking it for
eight or nine hours is not mything, but if we can get this
(23:27):
done in like four, that'd beawesome.
So we went up and did it, um,for fun, and I kind of like
looked at the route a little bitbut didn't pay too much
attention to it.
And then a couple weeks laterwe just have like a long run as
a team assigned to us, but ourlong runs are on our own at Utah
Valley on Saturdays, and so Ijust was like I think it was
eight or nine in the morning.
This is going to sound sononchalant, but I just like
(23:49):
looked at Tim and I was like Iwant to go do that right now,
like that sounds kind of fun.
I Like that sounds kind of fun.
I literally like got in my KiaSoul, I got my vest.
I think I grabbed like two RiceKrispie treats and like some
Gator Light and put it in mylittle vest or whatever.
And then, yeah, I kind of hadknown, I knew what the route was
(24:10):
because I'd ran it before and Iknow with the FKTs you have to
send them like a GPX file.
So I was pretty like nervousabout making sure I was on like
the exact one, because there's acouple different ways you can
like spread out and go, butluckily the trail's pretty well
marked.
There's always like some hikerson it.
So, yeah, that day I justparked.
I didn't have any music, I justwas like I want to do this
(24:32):
today.
I want to like prove to myselfI can do something hard going
into like our cross countryseason I think it was like in
October ish, but it was amazing,it was really cool.
There were mountain goats, itwas.
There are so many amazing peopleon the trails in Utah County,
like the amount of hikers that Iran past and they were like you
go, girl, or like like what areyou doing right now?
They're like, yeah, they'relike how fast, like how like,
how long did it take you to getup here?
(24:53):
And I'd tell them like what mywatch had, and they were just
like you're crazy, like what?
Like this isn't real.
So it was.
I think, honestly, all of thedifferent people on the trails
made it happen that day becausethey were so supportive, like
everybody was just yelling andkind of came together and it was
cute.
Like I would pass people againon the way back down and they'd
be like, oh, you're the girlwith the red vest, like we
(25:16):
remember you, like you're back,and I was like, oh, that's so
awesome.
And then there've been a couplepeople like around town since
then that I recognize me, thatwere hiking that day and they're
like, oh, you're the girl withthe red vest on tip that like
was flying down the mountain.
I was like, wow, this communityis awesome, like it was really
that support that I think madeit so fun that day to do.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
That's so cool.
Yeah, I think what makes thoseefforts and those things so fun
is just the community in general, especially people on the trail
egging you on.
Sometimes it's kind of hardbecause you won't want to be an
ass, but you're like, oh, getout, just get away a little bit.
You don't want to run them over, but yeah, it's this funny
dichotomy of it's so true.
It's a great funny dichotomy of,like you know, it's so true,
(25:56):
it's great sport.
I do have a question.
I do want to double back toCirque Snowbird because I just
have so many competitionquestions for you, especially
coming from coming from thetrack and being obviously with
that fitness level,transitioning into the track and
still doing some stuff in thesummer.
What was that like kind ofgoing into Cause that was, I
mean from a female competitionperspective, that was probably
(26:17):
the most competitive female racelast year on american soil, if
I remember correctly.
I mean you got to race, you gotto see grace and you got to
race all the like laurel lawyerum rachel tomjiak, like the best
of the best in our sport on thesub ultra women's side.
What was that level ofcompetition like for you?
Like was, was that, was itweird, getting thrown into the
deep end right away, or did youfeel very ready for it?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Um, it's kind of interesting because it was like
my first and last race of theseason, like it was the only one
I did.
But in a way, I think, being onthe trail team and being able
to connect with those elitegirls before and having like a
good, positive mentorrelationship relationship, I
would say I expected to have alot more imposter syndrome than
I did.
Like I showed up and I was like, oh, these ladies are like the
(27:02):
best in in the world at thissport but they're also so nice
and so awesome and like waved atme on the warm-up so we're just
gonna go out here and see whathappens today.
Like I think it was because ofthat environment it gave me a
little more confidence on thestarting line and and then,
honestly, that race.
Andy Cornish, she is a Solomonathlete and I guess she ran for
Solomon last year and I met herat the trail team camp.
(27:23):
Honestly, we came into the raceand we did a pre race together
a couple days before and shereally built up my confidence, I
mean as a professional athletelike her, taking the time to,
you know, run with me somebodyshe had just met and like build
me up before the race and thenduring the race we worked
together so where she would belike 20 feet ahead of me and she
would yell at me.
She'd be like get your ass uphere, oakley.
(27:44):
And I'd be like okay, I'm likeokay.
And then I would like catch upto her.
And then, um, we had this jokeI don't know if you've seen ford
versus ferrari, but there'slike a poster and he's like it
says um, go like hell, like 7000 rpm.
And so we joked about it.
And I remember when you get tothe ski lift at like the top of
the mountain and you're about totake like a left turn and it
gets pretty steep, like on thedownhill part, right there, um,
(28:07):
I think I was like a little bitahead of her, she's a little bit
ahead of me.
I don't remember who it was butone of us yelled the other one
like go like hell.
And then we both just like thenext two miles, like we were
next to each other and we werejust like going through the race
together, like the highs, thelows.
We both fell, I think, a coupleof times and it was amazing
Like just having her to runbeside.
I think that's where I finished, where I did just because I was
(28:30):
like okay, I'm Andy's twin, I'mjust going to do whatever she
does Like, if she believes in me, I'm going to find a way.
So it was pretty awesome havingher be next to me last year.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
That is so cool.
That's also unique.
Like I've never heard someonetalk about like such a
competitive race and like goingthrough it with a friend.
Like that makes it so much.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Like I think it's hilarious.
Like we passed Andy Wacker andhe was on like the sidelines,
like cheering us on, and hesidelines like cheering us on
and he was like, oh my gosh,like we've got like some twins
right now, like they're justlike yelling at each other, like
while racing at the champs,like we're literally yelling at
each other to like keep up andlike to finish together.
It was super unique and it wasamazing so cool.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I want to finish like I said, like top 10 like smoked
a lot of really really solidwomen.
Does that give you confidencegoing to soon to be this year?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
yeah for sure, definitely, especially
considering like going into thatrace.
Like I kind of talked about, Ijust was relying completely on
my track fitness, whereas nowI've talked to Andy a little bit
about trying to get some trailworkouts in and learning exactly
how to train better for trails.
I think some of you could be alot more fun this year, a lot
more prepared, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
What is that?
What would that look like foryou?
Because, like centipede is whatJune 1.
So will you start hitting thetrails, I don't know a month or
two out to where, probably inthe next month or so, just doing
some workouts on there to makesure you're, like, ready for
technical stuff or certain likevertical, like what are your
(30:00):
thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah, so obviously I'll still be with my team doing
steeplechase and like 1500meter and 5k training.
So I think that'll play a reallygood help into like strength
and the distance of what therace is going to look like,
cause I'm still running about 60miles a week.
So that works great.
But I definitely am going tostart doing as long as my coach
is okay with it it some longruns on the trails to just get
some more hills under my legsand then, when it gets closer to
(30:21):
the week of the race or acouple weeks out, maybe three
weeks out, because I know we'vegot regionals the weekend before
.
So I'm going to be talking toAndy and my coach here I'll be
like, okay, how do I fit in alittle bit of trail throughout
the week, the week, but alsosteeple chase training without
completely burning myself outand getting injured?
So honestly, I'm gonna leave itup to my coaches.
Because it worked last year, um, just making a couple tweaks to
(30:45):
try, try and make team usaagain a couple years later dude,
you're gonna be so fit for thatrace.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Oh my gosh, like, I mean, like even who cares about
technicality?
Like you'll be, you know, youknow, especially with the
steeple season, you know,leading, especially in regionals
, like leading right up to that,like, oh my gosh, plus the fact
that it's at sea level too,that always helps, right Like.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I was thinking about that.
I'm like sea level is going todefinitely help me out.
It's going to be nice.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Super cool, yeah, all right yeah, um.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Are we just talking about like in general or like?
Speaker 1 (31:24):
directly in the sport could be whoever.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
In general, that's fine that's a really good
question.
Um, growing up, I would have tosay the biggest athlete that
probably inspired me was callingquickly.
I loved how she gave back somuch.
The sport was like the fastbraid friday um thing that she's
done throughout the years withlike young girls.
I definitely like braided myhair on on every Friday for
(31:47):
every race because of that, andthen even more so she had like a
mermaid Mondays challenge orwith like swimming and like
teaching girls.
It wasn't just about like herdoing a swim workout and telling
girls to post about it, but itwas like her giving the
technique and training on likehow did I do it?
And so I started swimming ascross training because of the
platform she used um to teachand I remember she did some
(32:08):
challenge and I like completedit and she like sent me a
Lululemon swimsuit and likereached out to me and was like
you're amazing, this is so cool.
So she's been a huge athlete inthis sport and I also love Emma
Coburn too, but I think overall,the biggest inspiration I have,
not just in the sport but alsoas like a person, is Ellie
Puryear, st Pierre.
What she's done, like to be amom, come back like, make you
(32:32):
know, get Olympic goals.
Come back to the sport afterhaving a kid and now I think
she's in her second pregnancy.
I just think her work-lifebalance and, like her
relationship with her family andalso being the most elite
female athlete she can be at herlevel is phenomenal.
Like I, I want to be ascomposed as her and also like
have I don't know so manydifferent goals and just be
(32:54):
achieving them all at the sametime.
It's such a great example forall females in athletics that's
a good answer.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Speaking of composure , do you?
Do you get nervous at startlines?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
um, I think it depends on the race.
Um, I've definitely learned howto control a little bit more
over the years.
I'm a little bit more of like afidgety, like I love to like
jump around a little bit in atrack race and kind of get those
nerves.
But I think over over time,coming with accomplishments and
being especially like a seniornow it's like year eight I guess
I've been running there's alittle more inner confidence I
(33:26):
didn't have when I was youngerbut definitely it's taken that
over the years very cool, verycool, do you?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
uh, what's your relationship with competition?
Because you seem like I don'twant to say light-hearted, but
like you seem like just likeyou're having fun right, which
is I meet so many people thatare so serious, but like I don't
, know't know, I feel like youhave to you know, I don't know.
I feel like remember this, likesport is fun, that's the whole
point of it.
But do you?
Are you a super competitivehuman, like when it comes to
that stuff?
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Yeah, um, that question sparks like two kind of
funny things that come to mind.
Um, have you ever heard of likethe?
There's like the goldenretriever, and then there's like
the black cat typepersonalities.
I feel like a lot of peoplethey look at me and they're like
, oh, she's a black cat, likeshe's like, she's like gonna I
don't know tear me to shreds ifI look at her the wrong way.
But if I like start opening mymouth, I'm like 100% a golden
(34:16):
retriever.
Like all of like the girls I runwith I want to be best friends
with, I want to like meet upwith them and go train with them
on the weekends.
Like, obviously, in the momentof a race, like I, I want
nothing more than like to winand to get it done and to like
kill myself trying, but thenit's like as soon as it ends.
The sport is amazing because ofhow positive and like the
culture that we create, and so Ithink it's awesome to be really
(34:39):
competitive in the moment butthen also have like that short
memory of like after a race.
It's all about the connectionsand the relationships we have
with those around us, and so I Iwant to lift other people up in
the sport and other girls andto create a community like that.
That's way more important thanlike the time I run that day.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So that's, that's kind of my that might be the
best answer I think I've evergotten for that question.
The reason I ask is because,like I don't know, I find that
like there's a certaincamaraderie you have with people
, like when you're absolutelysmashing yourselves to like
complete a goal, whether that'sto finish the podium or to
finish last place, whatever youknow, it's a certain camaraderie
(35:15):
that you get with yourcompetitor and like you're kind
of like bonded after that in alot of ways and that's how you
become friends.
I don't know, I think thatthat's the beauty of the sport,
right?
Like, yeah, so I don't know,it's such a this is the greatest
sport on earth.
I say this every podcast.
But yeah, okay, so you'regetting ready for a race.
Could be a hard effort, couldbe competition.
(35:36):
Are you a music girl?
Like, do you listen to musicbefore an effort?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Oh yeah, definitely.
Oh yeah, definitely not on likea warm-up with my teammates or
like, if I'm, you know, like atcirque series, andy cornish and
I warmed up so we didn't listento music, we were just kind of
like chit-chatting and take itin our surroundings, but maybe
like an hour out, so like beforethe warm-up, or like two hours
out, I'll, I'll have my littlelike pre-race uh warm-up music
that I like to listen to nice.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
What's what song?
What are you listening to like?
What's your favorite, favoritesong?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
um, oh my gosh.
There's a song by eminem Ialways play.
I'm like I knew this questionwas coming when we start talking
about music.
I'm like, what is the song?
It's just like famous rap songwhere he talks about it
phenomenal lose yourself.
That's when I was gonna juststart rapping it, but good thing
we're saving up, no, no I haveno rapper.
So, yeah, lose yourself byeminem or like spice girl.
(36:26):
I love to throw on that songsometimes because it talks about
being like an athletic girl.
So I'm like, okay, I'm a spicegirl, I'm gonna go spice it up.
Right now I don't know kendrickcoming out of the super bowl.
I've had some kendrick songslike before, like my indoor
track races, because you knowthose races are brutal, like
you're just like a hamster in acage, just like around and
around and around.
It's not a fun pretty trailmountain.
(36:48):
So I like really gotta get likelocked in.
So some kendrick here and theretoo I can get behind that.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
It's not bad, it's good.
Good choices all around, allright.
Last question's a dumb one.
I usually ask like bigfoot,aliens, ai, stuff like that,
because you're still in college.
I'm so curious to think likelike what do you guys like?
Do you guys like you use ai foreverything now, like for like
chat gpt, for stuff I was justat.
But like I was literally justplaying on my phone 10 minutes
ago and like or 20 before westarted this podcast and like
(37:16):
asking chat gpt like stupidquestions about I don't need to
say it on the podcast, but likefunny stuff do?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Let's unpack that.
What is what's Jack going toask?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
You can ask it anything.
I was asking it to draw me Like.
I was asking, like literallyask, can you draw me a picture
of Bigfoot?
And then I said, can you drawme a picture of Bigfoot on
psychedelics?
I shit you not.
And it gave me like the coolestphoto like ever.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Oh it's, it's kind of oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
That's like, oh, it's .
It's kind of, oh my gosh,that's hilarious, this is
amazing.
Like, like, what can't thisthing do?
Anyway?
Do you guys use like uh, do youguys use chat gpt for like
everything in college?
Now, like, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
yeah, that's a great question.
I think it's kind of crazybecause ai has come into like
the educational workforce Idon't know in the past year,
maybe two years.
So I think a lot of professorsare trying to restructure their
courses to really find how itcan benefit students without
like adhering to their education.
So it really depends on theclass, like my writing and
English classes and even likegrad school, like applications.
(38:18):
They're very against like anyuse of AI, like there's very
adherent rules to it.
But then it's reallyinteresting.
In my accounting classes andeven now working as an
accounting professional, we'reutilizing AI just to make our
processes faster, so like theautomatic processes, or to try
and understand.
Like I've been doing accountingI've not been doing any
(38:40):
software engineering or coding,but it's pretty awesome when I
can go to chat GBT now and say,hey, can you teach me how to
code SQL for this thing that I'mdoing in.
Like Microsoft Azure edit knowsexactly how to explain it to me
, whereas if I were to you know,try and read a textbook or talk
to somebody else about it Ithink it would take a lot longer
.
So I've used it in myaccounting software classes at
(39:03):
Utah Valley University.
I've had a professor that'skind of been the first one to
pave the way using AI inbusiness and universities, and
it was amazing because now I useit at work all the time.
But it's definitely onlyspecific things, not like actual
writing assignments, but ifyou're trying to teach yourself
how to code, how to do newsoftware, then it's been super
helpful.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
That's interesting.
Yeah, I work in corporate.
I was telling you this beforethis.
I work in corporate finance.
I use SQL for everything SQLand Python for a good amount of
I don't know SQL.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I need chat to help me.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
And I was like dude, I never use.
That's the one thing I neveruse we have.
I work for a big Fortune 500.
And we have an internal AI, ifyou will like our own, like
internal one, and like, everynow and then, like I'll pop it
in like a like a snowflakequestion, trying to like get it
to do something for me for likePython and snowflake, and it
can't get it.
It's like stupid, I'm like, butthey don't allow us to use like
actual chat, gpt so like, andother times I've gone in just to
(39:56):
like mess with it and see if Ican get stuff out of there.
I was like wow, like this isnifty, I could do my whole job
in two hours without evenactually having to work.
So this is kind of crazy.
It is amazing what it can do.
So I'm kind of curious to seehow that transforms in the
workplace in the coming years,especially for you for tax.
That's going to be super fun.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, it's definitely interesting.
Right now I feel like it canhelp speed up the process a lot.
It usually can't take over theentire role that I'm doing, but
it makes my role so much fasterthat I can go and do more higher
level, like qualitative workinstead of just like the
quantitative part.
So now you can do some more Idon't know tax planning and
(40:38):
looking forward to the futurethan just filing a K-1.
Like it can now read some of myK-1s and it does have mistakes
for the tax forms that I'mgiving it, but it's so helpful.
It makes the job so much lessmore monotonous when there's an
automatic process that AI canhelp you with.
So as long as you know how tomake AI your friend and how to
talk to it and use it for use itand be able to talk to it in
(41:00):
the ways you need, I think therewill always still be jobs.
But it is a little bit scarysometimes when it is really good
at what we know how to do aswell.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I talked about this.
I'm like a broken record aboutthis.
On the podcast I've debatedtons of PhD people that I've had
on that are like runners and wego back and forth and I'm just
like, are you sure it's notgoing to take everybody's job
Like this seems like very kindof intimidating, but who knows,
I don't know.
I try to be positive throughthe whole thing, but we'll see.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
I know it makes some good training plans meal
preparation, it does everything,Even some like low-key therapy.
Sometimes my roommates and Ijoke around We'll be like, hey,
I just had this dream.
Like interpret this.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
It.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
I ask it questions all the time, like I was just
asking it like, are you sentient?
And it's like no, I'm like howdo you know you're not sentient?
Like I'll just like play withit for like 20 minutes at a time
.
It's really interesting.
Yeah, I, it's kind of like AIabusive, think about it because,
like I ask really like mean andstupid questions I don't know.
Um, all right, so I got one.
One last question for you.
It's usually the dumbest one.
(42:01):
Um and the sill, do you believein aliens?
I think that's my question.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
A hundred percent.
No, I was hoping you were goingto ask me about Bigfoot or
aliens, because I'm kind of aconspiracy theory girl, like I
think there's so much out therethat we don't know about and I
think it's so fun to debate withpeople.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
All right, so you do believe in aliens.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Like, what's your take on this?
Speaker 1 (42:29):
like dude, especially because you're utah girl like
you guys have um, what's that?
What's that?
Skinwalker ranch, skinwalkerranch.
Yeah, yeah, every time I'vedriven to salt lake I've like
wanted to go, like take, like goout of my way to go to uh,
skinwalker ranch or like drivenear it.
But I'm like kind of oh yeah,kind of a wimp about it.
I don't know.
I don't want to bring back.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
No, honestly, it was super interesting.
I was doing an entrepreneurshipclass like where they bring in
a famous entrepreneur to UVUevery single week and you sit
down and they tell you theirstory.
And we had Brandon Fugel.
He's a huge real estatedeveloper all across Utah.
He's definitely a millionaire,potentially a billionaire at
this point, and he just boughtskinwalker ranch because he was
(43:06):
like obsessed with the fact thatlike he could prove that, like
what everybody is saying iswrong.
And he stood in front of ourclass of like 300 people and he
straight up was like my, I havenothing like to prove here.
Like I'm bringing on discoverychannel and all these different
things to like film what's goingon.
Like I can lose all mycredibility, all my business
relationships over saying this,but like there are aliens and
(43:29):
they're real and like what isgoing on at Skinwalker Ranch,
he's like I can't even describeit.
You'll have you know, you'llhave to like see the evidence
and how the scientists explainit.
But he talked about like seeingUFOs with his own eyes and
stuff.
And it's crazy when you havesuch like a professional come to
your university and talk aboutit.
I think it's insane.
I don't know if they're likeamong us every single day.
(43:50):
But I definitely think we'renot the only human life force
like in the universe.
I think there's other forms oflife and we just don't know
about it enough yet.
Just like how the ocean is onlylike 7% explored.
Like what else do we got in ourown ocean?
Why did nasa, like go fromstudying the ocean to all of a
sudden running to space tryingto figure out if we can move to
mars?
(44:10):
Like what's?
What's going on even in our ownocean?
Speaker 1 (44:12):
I don't even know oh my god, this opens up.
I could do a whole notherpodcast with you.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Oh my god yes, what is the one?
Speaker 1 (44:18):
what's the one conspiracy like you're, you're
the most interested in?
Like bigfoot aliens, jfk, likewhat's the dude?
There's so many good ones, somany.
There was some guy that went onrogan that like had me
convinced for like two monthsthat we didn't go to the moon.
I was straight up convinced.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
I was like there's no way we went to the moon, like
after thinking, I I've asked mylittle brothers about that one,
because they're obsessed withspace too, and so I've like
poked my little brother Lincoln.
I'm like do you really thinkwe're into the moon?
And he's like dead set on it.
But there's a couple of gooddocumentaries out there that
that could say otherwise.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
It's so funny.
My grandfather worked for NASAback in the day during the
sixties and he helped developthe lunar module like the
landing one that the astronautsused.
So I mess with him all the time.
I'm like pop, we didn't go tothe moon.
And he goes nuts Like he loseshis mind.
He gets so mad at me, like whenI say that he's like you're an
idiot, you're a conspiracytheorist, what are you talking
(45:11):
about?
Oh yeah, yeah, I just do it now, just to mess with him, because
he's 80 something years old,which is kind of funny.
I don't know of good ones outthere.
I think it's always importantto ask questions.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
It's what I tell people Definitely, definitely.
It always comes from somewhere.
Everybody thought the Krakenwas crazy until we figured out
the giant squid.
So all the different stories, Ithink the most interesting one
is probably Bigfoot.
Because I'm a Christian, so Ibelieve in the Bible.
I'm a member of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and it talks about Cainand Abel and the Bible a lot and
how he was cursed.
So I'm a member of the churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and it talks about Cainand Abel and the Bible a lot and
how he was cursed.
So I'm like low key, is BigfootCain from the Bible and were
(45:50):
there other people that couldhave been cursed too?
And there's lots of Bigfootsout there.
I don't know my dad also.
He's a UPS pilot, see, I couldgo on and on about conspiracy.
He's buddy and he owns this bigplot of land out in alaska.
Like he, he built this cabin onthis like remote lake and
they've been in a cockpit forlike 20 hours talking about this
(46:11):
story and I I need a wholenother podcast to tell you the
things my dad has heard from hisbuddy in the cockpit.
Like he definitely has a bunchof bigfoots like I don't know
doing what on his property andthis guy is dead set on like the
best fishing spot so he won'tgive it up.
But like his wife will not go,his kids will not go back.
Like every single guy he bringsout to help build his cabin
(46:31):
like run away, scared as a cat,and he is like ex-military, like
he's bringing navy seals outonto this cabin to try and build
it so he can go fishing upthere in the summers and he
can't bring anybody back.
So I think for sure there'sthere's something to all those
stories.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing, like, you see, like
it's always when you have like,the repeating, like people won't
go back Like, and it's not justone person, it's many, it's
like well, what is there?
Speaker 2 (46:54):
What?
Speaker 1 (46:54):
are you?
What are you running into inthe woods man, like, what is
that?
I love that stuff.
I ask people about the bigfootquestion all the time.
I I want to believe so bad,like I want to be around.
I don't think he's in colorado.
I don't think he's in utah,maybe not, maybe he is, I don't
know, but like he's somewherefor sure, like, maybe, uh, maybe
in the pacific northwest oralaska's a great place.
(47:15):
There's like 10 people inalaska oh, it's a great place.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
There's enough fit out there, like just blending
with all the grizzlies.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
That's correct territory maybe they wrestle and
like fight the grizzlies forfun.
Like, yeah, like let me justchoke this grizzly out and
establish dominance.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
I don't know I can see it.
I can see it well, greatconversation.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Thanks so much for coming on the podcast.
Obviously, this is the first ofmany conversations.
Um, this is just a highlightone, to announce your trail team
, because we're going to do likea whole, uh, like a solid week.
I'm going to book and like it'sjust going to be everybody
coming out at once, so all thewhole trail team will be
announced.
Um, so we'll definitely talk atsoon to pee and I'll have you
on before the soon to peeepisode as well.
Um, to talk about your pre-race.
(47:56):
So it should be fun.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Awesome Thanks, james .
I'm looking forward to soon topee and I'm looking forward to
getting to talk with the wholeelite team, with you as well.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Awesome.
Thanks so much, Oakley.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
What'd you guys think ?
Oh man, what a fun episode.
Want to thank Oakley so muchfor coming on the podcast.
Fun conversation and justreally excited for what she's
able to do in 2025.
Want to wish her the absolutebest of luck as she takes on the
US Mountain Running Champs inthe Classic coming up on June
1st, as well as as she finishesout her cross or track season,
(48:29):
her collegiate track season,which is awesome.
So, guys, before you get going,hop on Instagram, give Oakley a
follow.
You can find her at OakleyOlson on Instagram.
That's Oakley Olson onInstagram.
Give her a follow, send her amessage, let her know what you
guys thought about the episode.
I'm sure she'd love to hearfrom you.
Also, I can't remember if Iwished her luck and
congratulated her on the onmaking the trail team, which is
(48:52):
part of the emphasis for theconversation.
So, yeah, big things to comefrom the trail team elite team
in 2025.
So super exciting.
All right, guys, have a greatrest of your week.
I got a lot coming out.
Um, we just dropped the kobetrail race preview with myself
(49:13):
and nick tusa just came out.
Um, last night I'm recordingthis actually just came out five
minutes ago um, from when I'mrecording this, which is yeah,
but anyway, tune into that,don't miss it.
Um, as well as don't miss this.
We've got some great value inthere for your guys's free trial
fantasy picks.
Um, and, yeah, everything youwanted to know about the golden
trail series race at kobe, it isin there.
So have a great weekend, guys.
Thanks so much, thank you.
What's up, boys and girls, welcome back to the Steep
Stuff Podcast.
I'm your host, james Lariello,and guys, let's get into it.
I've got an awesome episode.
I'm so excited to bring youwith none other than Miss Oakley
Olsen, the trail running phenomin 2025.
Trail team elite selection ison the pod.
Oakley is best known for being astandout both on the track and
(00:21):
on the trails as well.
Last last year, she had a veryserious finish uh at the U S
mountain running champs atCirque snowbird, where she took
eighth overall female uh, aswell as the first collegiate
female in that race Absolutelycrushed it.
She also set the FKT on Mountuh.
Tim Pangonos, I don't know, I'mnot a Utah guy, but Mount Timp
(00:42):
um, that everybody calls itpretty, pretty rad.
Um, yeah, guys, I'm not a Utahguy, but Mount Timp that
everybody calls it pretty,pretty rad.
Yeah, guys, I'm so excited tobring this one to you.
Oakley is a rising star in thesport and someone who I'm really
excited to watch like hercareer just kind of explode over
the next couple of years.
She will be racing at Soonapyand I think she'll be a broken
arrow as well.
So excited to see where hercareer takes her and where, and
what she's able to do in 2025.
(01:03):
Hope you guys enjoy this one.
It's a favorite one of mine,none other than Oakley Olsen.
It's time, ladies and gentlemen, we are live.
(02:15):
Listen up, guys.
The Steep Stuff Podcast isbrought to you by Ultimate
Direction USA.
Guys, I am so excited UD justdropped their new RaceV six
liter and ultra vest 12 literinto beautiful aesthetic colors.
You guys got to check these newvests out.
They're dynamic in ways likethat you just have never seen
from an ultimate direction vestVery stretchy, lots of storage,
(02:39):
beautiful aesthetic colorwayscoming into, coming to you in a
new, like a white and blue andan onyx and green.
Just absolutely beautiful vests.
I think these ones are justlike some of the best products
we've ever dropped and I'm soexcited for you guys to try them
out.
Hop on ultimate directioncom anduse code steep stuff pod Again
that steep stuff pod for 25% offyour new vest.
(03:00):
I mean, they're alreadyaffordably priced, but 25% off
is just going to make it so muchmore affordable for folks in an
already increasingly expensivetrail running environment.
So hop on ultimatedirectioncom,get yourself a new vest, a pack
or any hydration solution andlet me know what you guys think.
Oakley Olson, welcome to theSteep Stuff Podcast.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Hi, thanks for having me.
I'm doing good.
How are you?
I'm doing good.
I Hi thanks for having me.
I'm doing good.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
It's a good day, got a goodworkout in, getting some work
done.
It's, you know, it's the middleof the week, it's almost Friday
, so not much more.
Not much to complain about,right no-transcript.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Exciting for our team and we won cross country as a
team so it's exciting going intooutdoor Coaches have some
pretty big goals to try anddefend that title.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Nice, nice, nice, all right.
So maybe we'll back this up alittle bit for the audience.
Maybe just introduce yourselfand give me the five-minute
elevator pitch on what you'redoing right now running
collegially.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, so my collegiate career started at
Boise State University.
I was running there for a yearand a half and then I
transferred to Utah ValleyUniversity.
My favorite event issteeplechase.
I qualified for regionals, lostoutdoor track in the
steeplechase, so this year I'mhoping to qualify for regionals
and then to go to second roundsat nationals in Eugene, oregon,
in June.
I've been part of the crosscountry indoor track and outdoor
(04:39):
track teams for all those yearsUVU women's team.
We went to nationals not thispast fall but the fall before
and we placed 23rd.
This year we were the firstteam out and we were really sad
about it.
But that's okay.
Being in the mountain region,you never know how it's gonna go
.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So it's been pretty exciting.
Nice, nice, what's your.
What's your story was runningLike how old were you when you
first got into it?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
yeah, um, I was a freshman in high school so I was
a soccer girl growing up.
I did swimming, soccer,softball and then I remember we
did like a two mile time trialon the outdoor track one day for
soccer practice and the crosscountry coach saw me running
with all the girls and they toldus if we got like below a 14
minute two mile, then like youcould maybe make varsity.
(05:24):
And I think I came in runninglike a 1330 and I was like the
first girl to cross and I feltpretty good.
I did not have the skills to bevarsity.
I was definitely a JV playerbut I was like, wow, I can, I
can run, like that's something Ican control.
And the cross country coach cameover and he was like, hey, you
need to join the cross countryteam.
And I was like no way, presscountry is terrible, that sucks.
And then I went to a practiceand all the kids were so nice
(05:48):
and it was way more fun thansoccer and I just immediately
dove into it for the rest ofhigh school.
So I guess I was around 14.
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
What position did you play on the soccer field?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I was outside back.
So the one where you just haveto chase people, take the ball
and then kick it way up.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
No dribbling you don't have to chase people, take
the ball and then kick it wayup.
No dribbling.
You don't have to have like anyactual skills, you just have to
be faster than the other person.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, I, I that I had zero skills at soccer I was.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That's why I think I liked running so much was
because soccer just requiredlike too much finesse and like
too much athleticism.
I don't know no, I was.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I was so funny growing up.
I was like cross country is solame, like I Like I would never
do that.
But then people would ask me,like what do you like about
soccer?
And I'm like, oh, just likerunning.
Like I like running the entirefield, like that's what I like.
I don't like the skills, Idon't like it being really tight
, I like to just run as fast asI can for a far distance.
They're like oh, like crosscountry.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
How did your high school years play out then?
Was it easy?
What was that like?
Getting, I guess you could saygoing to Boise State?
Getting recruited was the wordI was looking for.
Or did you go as a walk-on?
How did?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
that process work.
Yeah, so I was actually Forhigh school I was in Maryland
and I went to 2 different highschools in Maryland and then
COVID hit, my junior year.
I grew up as a military kid, somy background is a little bit
like literally all over the map.
Senior year was COVID, so myfamily decided to move out to
Utah and back my junior year andsophomore year I already knew I
(07:16):
kind of wanted to come out westbecause distance running is
just so popular, being ataltitude.
So I'd reached out to a coupleof different schools at altitude
and in the mountains aroundhere.
But then I was offered ascholarship to Utah State and
Boise State and a couple otherschools.
Those were like when it camedown to the wire too and I just
really liked the environment atBoise, with the girls on the
team and with Allie Ostranderbeing such a prominent trail
(07:38):
runner and steeplechaser and meknowing like that's what I
really really had a passion for.
I was like, okay, okay, thesecoaches know how to make
athletes that are tailored forthose events.
So that's kind of how my senioryear I got recruited from
Morgan High School in Utah to goto Boise and then after a year
and a half, I decided to come toUtah Valley nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
You mentioned Ali Ostrander there.
Uh, that's a huge name in oursport um, and both on the track
and the trails.
Was that someone, I guess froma collegiate perspective, you
really looked up to um andwanted, I guess, admired in a
lot of ways like how was likethat relationship?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
absolutely.
Um, yeah, not even just fromlike a collegiate perspective,
but now as a professional.
I think she's so authentic andshe's so organic and I love like
her personality and who she ison social media, but also like
the accolades she has.
Like not a lot of female cansay they were like a three-time
in a row steeplechase nationalchampion, like from freshman,
sophomore, junior and then goingprofessionally is just amazing.
(08:34):
So, um, talking to thosecoaches and hearing about how
they trained her and how shereally like had some amazing
accomplishments in thatenvironment, I it was a no-bra.
I was like, oh, I lovesteeplechase.
I've never done it, but theyhave such a history of it, like
why not go and see how far I cango in it?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I love that.
It's interesting to me, likejust from like looking at the
sport, like I don't understandit and maybe you can provide
some color to this Cause.
I did not run in a collegiatelevel, but like why are steeple
are so good at trail running,like Joe Gray, max King, like
Grayson Murphy, like so at alley, like there were so many solid
steeplers that come over to thetrails and just absolutely
(09:12):
dominate, Like is it the muscledexterity?
Like what is it that makes youguys so good at trail running?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You know it's interesting because through
college I've thought the samething and all of my like
steeplechase friends are nowgetting into trail running as
well, and I honestly think it'sless of the physical and more of
the mental aspects.
Like when you're trail runningand when you're mountain running
you have to be able to look atthe mountain in front of you and
believe that, like you're goingto get to the top and back and
be okay.
And in steeplechase there's, Ithink, 32 hurdles or 28,
(09:42):
somewhere between 28 and 32.
I never want to know the exactnumber because I'm like I'll
just go run it.
But you have to believe inyourself and have so much grit
to the extent of when there's 30other girls around you you need
to jump before you can see it.
You need to know that you'regoing to clear every single
hurdle and have the confidenceto do it, because if you slow
down going into it, you're onlygoing to hurt your performance
more, not into it.
You're only going to hurt yourperformance more, not even in
(10:03):
the aspect of like slowing downtime, but like maybe you're not
going to clear the jump becauseyou don't have enough momentum.
And I feel like in trail runningit's the same thing, like when
we're going downhills on thatlike decline if you don't have
the confidence and you don'thave the grit to push through,
like mile seven there's liketwigs and branches and rocks and
just have like that fast, likeinnate, like flight instinct,
(10:24):
and that grit and confidence toknow like, yeah, I'm going to do
this, I'm going to do it well,and like everybody's going to
watch me do it, I feel likethat's kind of where it
transforms.
You're not just like goingaround like a rabbit in a cage
or like a hamster in a wheel orlike, yeah, like a rabbit just
around the track.
You kind of have to have alittle bit more of.
I guess like dexterity is theword I would use.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I don't know and no fear too.
It's because, like I have to behonest with you, like I've
never steeple I've never jumpeda steeple before but like I
couldn't imagine jumping 20 ofthose things on a fort, like
running around the track, like Idon't know.
I just feel like you have tobecause if you do and you can
provide more color to this, likeif you eat one of those, like
that's gonna hurt pretty bad,like oh yeah you have to have
(11:05):
like no, no fear at all to justlike have to, like you know,
just jump over that damn thing,or that's.
That's interesting to me oh,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
And like when I'm straw running, I feel like it's
the same way, like I'm up attimpanogos and you hear stories
of mountain lions and moose andbears and stuff and you have to
have no fear.
Sometimes you're like I don'tknow what's out here, but I'm
going to do this anyways, I'mgoing to be safe about it.
But I feel like there's a bigmental aspect of fear that could
definitely leave people notgetting as many opportunities as
(11:35):
they could on the trails.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, no, I love it.
So you're an interestingcharacter in the sport.
You popped onto the scene lastyear.
I know you made like arelationship with the trail team
.
We'll talk about that, aboutyour selection to the trail team
elite.
But like you were thecollegiate national champion for
um at circ series, snowbird atthe usatf mountain running
champs, but did you finish likesixth place, which was insane,
(11:56):
or top 10?
Yeah, it was lights out.
And then you also took themount temp fkt uh, in, you know
I almost want to call it thefront range of Utah, but it's in
the Wasatch of Utah.
Yeah, so you've really explodedonto the scene.
I'm just curious what stokedyour interest into trails?
What got you excited about?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
it Honestly, I would just say the trail team and
their belief in me.
I guess it goes back tooriginally at Boise State.
We mentioned Allie Ostrander.
Another reason why I pickedBoise State was because they
really supported her in hertrail running while she was in
the collegiate world.
So she ran at World way back,maybe 2018.
(12:37):
And those coaches, a part of theUSA mountain running team,
reached out to me because theysaw I was at Boise State and
that I was from Utah.
So I had some experience beingin the mountains and my Boise
State coaches were supersupportive of me racing.
It was pretty crazy.
I had like a conference crosscountry championship and then
the next weekend I was inThailand racing junior, like
worlds, and then the nextweekend was like regionals and
(12:59):
they had had Allie doing thesame thing a couple of years ago
.
So they were very used to itand easy to work with.
But I think that sparked myoriginal love of trail running
is just seeing how supportivethe community was and how fun it
was to just be like out in themountains racing against other
girls all around the world.
But we all had the same thingin common.
And then, coming back last year, andy Wacker, the head of the
(13:22):
trail team.
He has just had likeunparalleled belief in me and I
think it's really inspired myconfidence.
And getting connect to connectwith other professional athletes
like Andy Cornish and GraysonMurphy, like as a part of the
trail team, has just built myown confidence.
Going into races and trainingand knowing that this sport is
(13:42):
like amazing and upcoming forfemales and it's where I belong.
So I think that's kind of likehow it happened last year is
honestly just other peoplebelieving in me, which is pretty
amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That was so cool and it's crazy to like have, you
know, pretty solid success, justlike, but like without even
having a full season, which isjust wild.
So I know it's going to changea little bit.
This year.
We're going to be racing likeprobably a full, more or less a
full, like summer season.
Um, I know on deck for you.
Like what, what do you haveplanned for the summer?
Like, what do you?
What are you going to be racing?
Um?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, so I'm going to go race the Senate Peace
Scramble on June 1st.
I also have my collegiateseason going into it, so
obviously you don't know how faryou're going to go with the
qualifying rounds.
But there's regionals andnationals for the steeplechase
that's like in between that raceand getting that on my race
(14:36):
calendar.
And then there's a couple otherones like Cirque series races
that I want to do again, um, andthen hopefully qualify for some
teams to get back on that worldpodium and go back to Spain or
to Slovenia.
I've been talking to the trailteam a lot about those
opportunities, so that's kind ofwhat I've been thinking so far.
Super cool.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Well, so you were just selected as one of the
trail team elite.
Congratulations, thank you.
That's a it's a huge deal,because what is there?
Only six, is it six membersthis year?
Five, I think it's six, or sixor seven.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, there's six, and then we have two on the
ultra team, I believe.
So they're still part of it,but it's slightly different.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Okay, cool, cool, cool.
Yeah, it's just like such anamazing honor considering how
many people applied and likewhat it's like to be on there
now, like it's.
I was just talking to Hawk theother day, um, cause he made the
team.
We just had an interview withhim and we'll interview the rest
of the team in the upcomingdays.
Um, but yeah, what does thatmean to you?
So far?
I mean, like that's, that'sobviously a huge deal.
Like, what do you?
What do you think about it?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, that was my biggest trail team and then last
year we had like Sadio on theelite team and we had a couple
other girls and I just looked upto them a lot and their
performances.
So I knew like, hey, maybe,maybe not next year, but like
the year after, I'm going tojust keep going for it and then
to actually have that goal cometo life this year just means
(15:52):
everything to get to give backand, I guess, be have even more
confidence going into thisseason representing the trail
team.
Going from like the club now tothe elite is really a boost
going into having a fullschedule this year because
honestly, last year I was justdoing normal summer training and
I just threw myself into someraces with no workouts over the
summer.
(16:13):
So now having Andy's supportand the rest of the elite team
to hopefully go to some camps,work out with, talk to, you know
, have support at the races,it's going to be a whole
different summer.
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So cool.
I didn't ask him about thisparticularly, but maybe you
could spill the beans on it, Didhe?
Um, did he tell you guys whereyou're going to be having camps
yet this year?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, so we're going to do our grand lake camp again
and last year that wasdefinitely, I think, a
transformative um place for allthe all the beginning club level
um team members, so we'reexcited to do that again.
And then there's going to be acamp in lake tahoe and then
hopefully there's going to be acamp in canada in august, so
that would be amazing.
And then there's a bigsupportive camp going on in
europe.
I don't think the exact, Iguess, um deadlines or time
(17:01):
frame is there yet, but he'splanning on one being in europe
again, because last year therewas a switzerland camp, so he's
doing something similar thisyear very cool, very cool.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
No, so you went to the grand lake one last year, is
that right?
Can you talk about thatexperience a little bit and just
like what that meant to you toget to like run with all these
incredible athletes and networkand just make friends out of
that Like?
What was that experience like?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I I'll just say like Iwould not have even known
snowboard was a U?
S and collegiate mountain Jesusrace unless I went to grand
Lake.
Like I didn't even know whatCirque series was.
I didn't know anything.
And being in that environmentaround so many positive people
like they were all talking aboutthe race calendars and I was
like, oh, what is a racecalendar and what races should I
(17:42):
learn about?
Like I didn't know Broken Arrowwas a race and how much
prestigious um this it holds.
I didn't know what, like GoldenTrail series was.
I learned all those things justthrough networking at the camp.
And then the workout.
We did a couple workouts.
So that was really awesome tosee, like how trail workouts are
different than track workoutsand how the team approaches them
differently.
(18:03):
To see how people use nutrition.
That's a big thing coming fromcollege to trail running is in
college.
We don't really use nutritionon any long runs.
We don't use them in any racesand then in trail it's so
important to know how to have avest, how to have water flasks,
how to you know when to takegels or goos and how much carbs,
(18:24):
cause we we've got some girlslike Shay.
She's amazing, she's doneamazing things this year.
She's like the nutrition queenand she has it all down to a
science.
So I was just like taking notesfrom her.
I was like wait, so I'msupposed to do this, and how
many miles or how many minutes.
So I feel like it was just theperfect environment for a new
runner to really understand howfar they could go in the sport
(18:44):
and how to structure theirtraining the right way to do so.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, I think you nailed it there.
And big shout out to ShaqAquilano.
Like she's yeah, what she'sbeen able to do in the last few
seasons.
Like, yeah, let me.
Let me ask you this.
So I'm just I just out of purecuriosity, like you see, like
kade's probably going to getpicked up by somebody, I would
imagine after the season I'msure hawk will as well.
Um yourself, like, should youchoose to go that route?
Like, does that something thatlike excites you?
(19:09):
Is to like, now that you knowthat there's opportunities on
the trails to go run profession,like professionally, is that
like a goal you would be excitedto chase after this?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Absolutely yeah.
Ever since I was a little girl,I always know I wanted to like
make sports and athletics mypassion.
I just didn't really know how,so I was soccer for a long time,
then it became running and then, through college, I've always
like daydreamed of becoming aprofessional athlete and ever
since I've been more involved inthe trail world and I've seen
how much of a platform femaletrail runners have and how much
(19:42):
of an impact they can have.
I think it's amazing and that'sexactly what I want to do.
So that's kind of why I couldhave a fifth year on the track
or I could go all in on thetrails after the summer, and
it's really tempting to just goall in on the trails, because
the opportunity to be aprofessional athlete and to be
able to give back to this sportand also compete at such a high
(20:02):
level is something that I thinkI've been training the past
eight years for and absolutelywant.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Super cool, I mean.
Hey, like on a Gibson, there'sa lot of like stout ladies that
run on the track and the trailstoo, and still compete so I feel
like there's that opportunitynow to do both, you know, which
is like really cool.
I I don't ever feel like thatwas a thing in our sport until
like grayson kind of came alongand like you know kind of paved
the way and made it like whereyou can you do both of those
(20:28):
things, so uh, yeah I just lovethat.
That's that.
That's an option, even um, Isee a lot.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, I'll just join.
Uh, I'll join grace in an alleyin the steeplechase and trails.
There's no in between, there'sjust people chasing trails there
you go, that's right.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
That's right.
Um, what is honor run?
I don't even know.
I just see a lot of thesebrooks athletes that kind of
double up on the trail, on thetrack.
It's just so interesting to melike I don't know.
I've been kind of blown away bythe brooks team like the past
couple years, like justinvesting so much in sub ultra.
Um, to that point with subultra, is that what interests
you more?
Like more of the shorterdistance, like maybe golden
trail series races and as youkind of get into the sport, like
(21:04):
the circ series and things likethat.
Is that more of the interest?
Or will you go like the sheaaqualana route and start running
like 100 mile races?
Like what are your thoughts onthat?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
um, I think the sub ultra route is more of my route
for right now.
Um, I do enjoy like this.
The snowboard cirque series waslike 100, my race.
I loved how it was a little bitlonger than college like it was
.
I think it was just over eightmiles, but I and kind of similar
like when I ran tippin.
I love it when it's like inthat range of long distance, so
(21:34):
it's like longer than a 5k butit's not quite 100 miles.
Yeah, yeah, um, but then it'slike longer than a 5k but it's
not quite a hundred miles.
Um, but then it's like reallysteep.
I love it, like when you go upand down and like when the hard
part is just like how fast canyou get from the top to the
bottom.
I think those types of racesare my favorite, so, maybe, so
we'll try for now, but Idefinitely wouldn't mind, um,
doing a couple more marathondistances under my belt, cause
(21:54):
I've never done that yet and Ithink that'd be cool.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, I'm excited for you to mix it up.
I mean, especially the Cirque.
Like that's my like.
My first love is the Cirqueseries.
Like I'll probably be racingall of them this year but the
trail series races are sick tooLike.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
I just think that we from a sub ultra perspective and
like, with the sport growingenormously right now, there's
just a lot of options whichmakes it kind of nice and, if
you like, for instance, like thesteeple is tend to be really
good at technical stuff for somereason.
So like there's technicaloptions but there's also really
fast stuff.
So I just feel like there'sthere's options in general.
Uh, you should see if they canget you into the broken arrow,
(22:28):
like ascent, like the VK race.
That would be sick, cause I'dbe curious to see how you could
do there, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
See how you could do there.
I think I applied for it, so myfingers are crossed and
hopefully I can get in, becauseI would definitely put that on
my my calendar if I get in yeah,we'll speak that one to
existence.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I'm sure, brandon, this will get that, get that
going.
Uh, let's talk mount.
Do you call it mount, tip andyogas?
I just called it temp becausethat's, that's like what the we
call it for short, like yeah,you set the unsupported uh fkt
on it last year.
You absolutely smoked, thatcourse.
Maybe talk about that.
What was that experience likefor you?
Because that's a pretty heftytechy mountain, isn't it, if I'm
(23:03):
not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, yeah, thank you .
I was pretty excited about it.
I'd run it once before with afriend, and so we just did it
for fun.
I'd always wanted to hike Timbecause I'd heard about it and a
lot of my friends were doing itlast summer and they were
telling me how gorgeous it wasand I was like, yeah, I want to
do that, but like I just want torun it because hiking it for
eight or nine hours is not mything, but if we can get this
(23:27):
done in like four, that'd beawesome.
So we went up and did it, um,for fun, and I kind of like
looked at the route a little bitbut didn't pay too much
attention to it.
And then a couple weeks laterwe just have like a long run as
a team assigned to us, but ourlong runs are on our own at Utah
Valley on Saturdays, and so Ijust was like I think it was
eight or nine in the morning.
This is going to sound sononchalant, but I just like
(23:49):
looked at Tim and I was like Iwant to go do that right now,
like that sounds kind of fun.
I Like that sounds kind of fun.
I literally like got in my KiaSoul, I got my vest.
I think I grabbed like two RiceKrispie treats and like some
Gator Light and put it in mylittle vest or whatever.
And then, yeah, I kind of hadknown, I knew what the route was
(24:10):
because I'd ran it before and Iknow with the FKTs you have to
send them like a GPX file.
So I was pretty like nervousabout making sure I was on like
the exact one, because there's acouple different ways you can
like spread out and go, butluckily the trail's pretty well
marked.
There's always like some hikerson it.
So, yeah, that day I justparked.
I didn't have any music, I justwas like I want to do this
(24:32):
today.
I want to like prove to myselfI can do something hard going
into like our cross countryseason I think it was like in
October ish, but it was amazing,it was really cool.
There were mountain goats, itwas.
There are so many amazing peopleon the trails in Utah County,
like the amount of hikers that Iran past and they were like you
go, girl, or like like what areyou doing right now?
They're like, yeah, they'relike how fast, like how like,
how long did it take you to getup here?
(24:53):
And I'd tell them like what mywatch had, and they were just
like you're crazy, like what?
Like this isn't real.
So it was.
I think, honestly, all of thedifferent people on the trails
made it happen that day becausethey were so supportive, like
everybody was just yelling andkind of came together and it was
cute.
Like I would pass people againon the way back down and they'd
be like, oh, you're the girlwith the red vest, like we
(25:16):
remember you, like you're back,and I was like, oh, that's so
awesome.
And then there've been a couplepeople like around town since
then that I recognize me, thatwere hiking that day and they're
like, oh, you're the girl withthe red vest on tip that like
was flying down the mountain.
I was like, wow, this communityis awesome, like it was really
that support that I think madeit so fun that day to do.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
That's so cool.
Yeah, I think what makes thoseefforts and those things so fun
is just the community in general, especially people on the trail
egging you on.
Sometimes it's kind of hardbecause you won't want to be an
ass, but you're like, oh, getout, just get away a little bit.
You don't want to run them over, but yeah, it's this funny
dichotomy of it's so true.
It's a great funny dichotomy of,like you know, it's so true,
(25:56):
it's great sport.
I do have a question.
I do want to double back toCirque Snowbird because I just
have so many competitionquestions for you, especially
coming from coming from thetrack and being obviously with
that fitness level,transitioning into the track and
still doing some stuff in thesummer.
What was that like kind ofgoing into Cause that was, I
mean from a female competitionperspective, that was probably
(26:17):
the most competitive female racelast year on american soil, if
I remember correctly.
I mean you got to race, you gotto see grace and you got to
race all the like laurel lawyerum rachel tomjiak, like the best
of the best in our sport on thesub ultra women's side.
What was that level ofcompetition like for you?
Like was, was that, was itweird, getting thrown into the
deep end right away, or did youfeel very ready for it?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Um, it's kind of interesting because it was like
my first and last race of theseason, like it was the only one
I did.
But in a way, I think, being onthe trail team and being able
to connect with those elitegirls before and having like a
good, positive mentorrelationship relationship, I
would say I expected to have alot more imposter syndrome than
I did.
Like I showed up and I was like, oh, these ladies are like the
(27:02):
best in in the world at thissport but they're also so nice
and so awesome and like waved atme on the warm-up so we're just
gonna go out here and see whathappens today.
Like I think it was because ofthat environment it gave me a
little more confidence on thestarting line and and then,
honestly, that race.
Andy Cornish, she is a Solomonathlete and I guess she ran for
Solomon last year and I met herat the trail team camp.
(27:23):
Honestly, we came into the raceand we did a pre race together
a couple days before and shereally built up my confidence, I
mean as a professional athletelike her, taking the time to,
you know, run with me somebodyshe had just met and like build
me up before the race and thenduring the race we worked
together so where she would belike 20 feet ahead of me and she
would yell at me.
She'd be like get your ass uphere, oakley.
(27:44):
And I'd be like okay, I'm likeokay.
And then I would like catch upto her.
And then, um, we had this jokeI don't know if you've seen ford
versus ferrari, but there'slike a poster and he's like it
says um, go like hell, like 7000 rpm.
And so we joked about it.
And I remember when you get tothe ski lift at like the top of
the mountain and you're about totake like a left turn and it
gets pretty steep, like on thedownhill part, right there, um,
(28:07):
I think I was like a little bitahead of her, she's a little bit
ahead of me.
I don't remember who it was butone of us yelled the other one
like go like hell.
And then we both just like thenext two miles, like we were
next to each other and we werejust like going through the race
together, like the highs, thelows.
We both fell, I think, a coupleof times and it was amazing
Like just having her to runbeside.
I think that's where I finished, where I did just because I was
(28:30):
like okay, I'm Andy's twin, I'mjust going to do whatever she
does Like, if she believes in me, I'm going to find a way.
So it was pretty awesome havingher be next to me last year.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
That is so cool.
That's also unique.
Like I've never heard someonetalk about like such a
competitive race and like goingthrough it with a friend.
Like that makes it so much.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Like I think it's hilarious.
Like we passed Andy Wacker andhe was on like the sidelines,
like cheering us on, and hesidelines like cheering us on
and he was like, oh my gosh,like we've got like some twins
right now, like they're justlike yelling at each other, like
while racing at the champs,like we're literally yelling at
each other to like keep up andlike to finish together.
It was super unique and it wasamazing so cool.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I want to finish like I said, like top 10 like smoked
a lot of really really solidwomen.
Does that give you confidencegoing to soon to be this year?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
yeah for sure, definitely, especially
considering like going into thatrace.
Like I kind of talked about, Ijust was relying completely on
my track fitness, whereas nowI've talked to Andy a little bit
about trying to get some trailworkouts in and learning exactly
how to train better for trails.
I think some of you could be alot more fun this year, a lot
more prepared, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
What is that?
What would that look like foryou?
Because, like centipede is whatJune 1.
So will you start hitting thetrails, I don't know a month or
two out to where, probably inthe next month or so, just doing
some workouts on there to makesure you're, like, ready for
technical stuff or certain likevertical, like what are your
(30:00):
thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah, so obviously I'll still be with my team doing
steeplechase and like 1500meter and 5k training.
So I think that'll play a reallygood help into like strength
and the distance of what therace is going to look like,
cause I'm still running about 60miles a week.
So that works great.
But I definitely am going tostart doing as long as my coach
is okay with it it some longruns on the trails to just get
some more hills under my legsand then, when it gets closer to
(30:21):
the week of the race or acouple weeks out, maybe three
weeks out, because I know we'vegot regionals the weekend before
.
So I'm going to be talking toAndy and my coach here I'll be
like, okay, how do I fit in alittle bit of trail throughout
the week, the week, but alsosteeple chase training without
completely burning myself outand getting injured?
So honestly, I'm gonna leave itup to my coaches.
Because it worked last year, um, just making a couple tweaks to
(30:45):
try, try and make team usaagain a couple years later dude,
you're gonna be so fit for thatrace.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Oh my gosh, like, I mean, like even who cares about
technicality?
Like you'll be, you know, youknow, especially with the
steeple season, you know,leading, especially in regionals
, like leading right up to that,like, oh my gosh, plus the fact
that it's at sea level too,that always helps, right Like.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I was thinking about that.
I'm like sea level is going todefinitely help me out.
It's going to be nice.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Super cool, yeah, all right yeah, um.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Are we just talking about like in general or like?
Speaker 1 (31:24):
directly in the sport could be whoever.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
In general, that's fine that's a really good
question.
Um, growing up, I would have tosay the biggest athlete that
probably inspired me was callingquickly.
I loved how she gave back somuch.
The sport was like the fastbraid friday um thing that she's
done throughout the years withlike young girls.
I definitely like braided myhair on on every Friday for
(31:47):
every race because of that, andthen even more so she had like a
mermaid Mondays challenge orwith like swimming and like
teaching girls.
It wasn't just about like herdoing a swim workout and telling
girls to post about it, but itwas like her giving the
technique and training on likehow did I do it?
And so I started swimming ascross training because of the
platform she used um to teachand I remember she did some
(32:08):
challenge and I like completedit and she like sent me a
Lululemon swimsuit and likereached out to me and was like
you're amazing, this is so cool.
So she's been a huge athlete inthis sport and I also love Emma
Coburn too, but I think overall,the biggest inspiration I have,
not just in the sport but alsoas like a person, is Ellie
Puryear, st Pierre.
What she's done, like to be amom, come back like, make you
(32:32):
know, get Olympic goals.
Come back to the sport afterhaving a kid and now I think
she's in her second pregnancy.
I just think her work-lifebalance and, like her
relationship with her family andalso being the most elite
female athlete she can be at herlevel is phenomenal.
Like I, I want to be ascomposed as her and also like
have I don't know so manydifferent goals and just be
(32:54):
achieving them all at the sametime.
It's such a great example forall females in athletics that's
a good answer.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Speaking of composure , do you?
Do you get nervous at startlines?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
um, I think it depends on the race.
Um, I've definitely learned howto control a little bit more
over the years.
I'm a little bit more of like afidgety, like I love to like
jump around a little bit in atrack race and kind of get those
nerves.
But I think over over time,coming with accomplishments and
being especially like a seniornow it's like year eight I guess
I've been running there's alittle more inner confidence I
(33:26):
didn't have when I was youngerbut definitely it's taken that
over the years very cool, verycool, do you?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
uh, what's your relationship with competition?
Because you seem like I don'twant to say light-hearted, but
like you seem like just likeyou're having fun right, which
is I meet so many people thatare so serious, but like I don't
, know't know, I feel like youhave to you know, I don't know.
I feel like remember this, likesport is fun, that's the whole
point of it.
But do you?
Are you a super competitivehuman, like when it comes to
that stuff?
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Yeah, um, that question sparks like two kind of
funny things that come to mind.
Um, have you ever heard of likethe?
There's like the goldenretriever, and then there's like
the black cat typepersonalities.
I feel like a lot of peoplethey look at me and they're like
, oh, she's a black cat, likeshe's like, she's like gonna I
don't know tear me to shreds ifI look at her the wrong way.
But if I like start opening mymouth, I'm like 100% a golden
(34:16):
retriever.
Like all of like the girls I runwith I want to be best friends
with, I want to like meet upwith them and go train with them
on the weekends.
Like, obviously, in the momentof a race, like I, I want
nothing more than like to winand to get it done and to like
kill myself trying, but thenit's like as soon as it ends.
The sport is amazing because ofhow positive and like the
culture that we create, and so Ithink it's awesome to be really
(34:39):
competitive in the moment butthen also have like that short
memory of like after a race.
It's all about the connectionsand the relationships we have
with those around us, and so I Iwant to lift other people up in
the sport and other girls andto create a community like that.
That's way more important thanlike the time I run that day.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So that's, that's kind of my that might be the
best answer I think I've evergotten for that question.
The reason I ask is because,like I don't know, I find that
like there's a certaincamaraderie you have with people
, like when you're absolutelysmashing yourselves to like
complete a goal, whether that'sto finish the podium or to
finish last place, whatever youknow, it's a certain camaraderie
(35:15):
that you get with yourcompetitor and like you're kind
of like bonded after that in alot of ways and that's how you
become friends.
I don't know, I think thatthat's the beauty of the sport,
right?
Like, yeah, so I don't know,it's such a this is the greatest
sport on earth.
I say this every podcast.
But yeah, okay, so you'regetting ready for a race.
Could be a hard effort, couldbe competition.
(35:36):
Are you a music girl?
Like, do you listen to musicbefore an effort?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Oh yeah, definitely.
Oh yeah, definitely not on likea warm-up with my teammates or
like, if I'm, you know, like atcirque series, andy cornish and
I warmed up so we didn't listento music, we were just kind of
like chit-chatting and take itin our surroundings, but maybe
like an hour out, so like beforethe warm-up, or like two hours
out, I'll, I'll have my littlelike pre-race uh warm-up music
that I like to listen to nice.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
What's what song?
What are you listening to like?
What's your favorite, favoritesong?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
um, oh my gosh.
There's a song by eminem Ialways play.
I'm like I knew this questionwas coming when we start talking
about music.
I'm like, what is the song?
It's just like famous rap songwhere he talks about it
phenomenal lose yourself.
That's when I was gonna juststart rapping it, but good thing
we're saving up, no, no I haveno rapper.
So, yeah, lose yourself byeminem or like spice girl.
(36:26):
I love to throw on that songsometimes because it talks about
being like an athletic girl.
So I'm like, okay, I'm a spicegirl, I'm gonna go spice it up.
Right now I don't know kendrickcoming out of the super bowl.
I've had some kendrick songslike before, like my indoor
track races, because you knowthose races are brutal, like
you're just like a hamster in acage, just like around and
around and around.
It's not a fun pretty trailmountain.
(36:48):
So I like really gotta get likelocked in.
So some kendrick here and theretoo I can get behind that.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
It's not bad, it's good.
Good choices all around, allright.
Last question's a dumb one.
I usually ask like bigfoot,aliens, ai, stuff like that,
because you're still in college.
I'm so curious to think likelike what do you guys like?
Do you guys like you use ai foreverything now, like for like
chat gpt, for stuff I was justat.
But like I was literally justplaying on my phone 10 minutes
ago and like or 20 before westarted this podcast and like
(37:16):
asking chat gpt like stupidquestions about I don't need to
say it on the podcast, but likefunny stuff do?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Let's unpack that.
What is what's Jack going toask?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
You can ask it anything.
I was asking it to draw me Like.
I was asking, like literallyask, can you draw me a picture
of Bigfoot?
And then I said, can you drawme a picture of Bigfoot on
psychedelics?
I shit you not.
And it gave me like the coolestphoto like ever.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Oh it's, it's kind of oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
That's like, oh, it's .
It's kind of, oh my gosh,that's hilarious, this is
amazing.
Like, like, what can't thisthing do?
Anyway?
Do you guys use like uh, do youguys use chat gpt for like
everything in college?
Now, like, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
yeah, that's a great question.
I think it's kind of crazybecause ai has come into like
the educational workforce Idon't know in the past year,
maybe two years.
So I think a lot of professorsare trying to restructure their
courses to really find how itcan benefit students without
like adhering to their education.
So it really depends on theclass, like my writing and
English classes and even likegrad school, like applications.
(38:18):
They're very against like anyuse of AI, like there's very
adherent rules to it.
But then it's reallyinteresting.
In my accounting classes andeven now working as an
accounting professional, we'reutilizing AI just to make our
processes faster, so like theautomatic processes, or to try
and understand.
Like I've been doing accountingI've not been doing any
(38:40):
software engineering or coding,but it's pretty awesome when I
can go to chat GBT now and say,hey, can you teach me how to
code SQL for this thing that I'mdoing in.
Like Microsoft Azure edit knowsexactly how to explain it to me
, whereas if I were to you know,try and read a textbook or talk
to somebody else about it Ithink it would take a lot longer
.
So I've used it in myaccounting software classes at
(39:03):
Utah Valley University.
I've had a professor that'skind of been the first one to
pave the way using AI inbusiness and universities, and
it was amazing because now I useit at work all the time.
But it's definitely onlyspecific things, not like actual
writing assignments, but ifyou're trying to teach yourself
how to code, how to do newsoftware, then it's been super
helpful.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
That's interesting.
Yeah, I work in corporate.
I was telling you this beforethis.
I work in corporate finance.
I use SQL for everything SQLand Python for a good amount of
I don't know SQL.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I need chat to help me.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
And I was like dude, I never use.
That's the one thing I neveruse we have.
I work for a big Fortune 500.
And we have an internal AI, ifyou will like our own, like
internal one, and like, everynow and then, like I'll pop it
in like a like a snowflakequestion, trying to like get it
to do something for me for likePython and snowflake, and it
can't get it.
It's like stupid, I'm like, butthey don't allow us to use like
actual chat, gpt so like, andother times I've gone in just to
(39:56):
like mess with it and see if Ican get stuff out of there.
I was like wow, like this isnifty, I could do my whole job
in two hours without evenactually having to work.
So this is kind of crazy.
It is amazing what it can do.
So I'm kind of curious to seehow that transforms in the
workplace in the coming years,especially for you for tax.
That's going to be super fun.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, it's definitely interesting.
Right now I feel like it canhelp speed up the process a lot.
It usually can't take over theentire role that I'm doing, but
it makes my role so much fasterthat I can go and do more higher
level, like qualitative workinstead of just like the
quantitative part.
So now you can do some more Idon't know tax planning and
(40:38):
looking forward to the futurethan just filing a K-1.
Like it can now read some of myK-1s and it does have mistakes
for the tax forms that I'mgiving it, but it's so helpful.
It makes the job so much lessmore monotonous when there's an
automatic process that AI canhelp you with.
So as long as you know how tomake AI your friend and how to
talk to it and use it for use itand be able to talk to it in
(41:00):
the ways you need, I think therewill always still be jobs.
But it is a little bit scarysometimes when it is really good
at what we know how to do aswell.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I talked about this.
I'm like a broken record aboutthis.
On the podcast I've debatedtons of PhD people that I've had
on that are like runners and wego back and forth and I'm just
like, are you sure it's notgoing to take everybody's job
Like this seems like very kindof intimidating, but who knows,
I don't know.
I try to be positive throughthe whole thing, but we'll see.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
I know it makes some good training plans meal
preparation, it does everything,Even some like low-key therapy.
Sometimes my roommates and Ijoke around We'll be like, hey,
I just had this dream.
Like interpret this.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
It.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
I ask it questions all the time, like I was just
asking it like, are you sentient?
And it's like no, I'm like howdo you know you're not sentient?
Like I'll just like play withit for like 20 minutes at a time
.
It's really interesting.
Yeah, I, it's kind of like AIabusive, think about it because,
like I ask really like mean andstupid questions I don't know.
Um, all right, so I got one.
One last question for you.
It's usually the dumbest one.
(42:01):
Um and the sill, do you believein aliens?
I think that's my question.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
A hundred percent.
No, I was hoping you were goingto ask me about Bigfoot or
aliens, because I'm kind of aconspiracy theory girl, like I
think there's so much out therethat we don't know about and I
think it's so fun to debate withpeople.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
All right, so you do believe in aliens.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Like, what's your take on this?
Speaker 1 (42:29):
like dude, especially because you're utah girl like
you guys have um, what's that?
What's that?
Skinwalker ranch, skinwalkerranch.
Yeah, yeah, every time I'vedriven to salt lake I've like
wanted to go, like take, like goout of my way to go to uh,
skinwalker ranch or like drivenear it.
But I'm like kind of oh yeah,kind of a wimp about it.
I don't know.
I don't want to bring back.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
No, honestly, it was super interesting.
I was doing an entrepreneurshipclass like where they bring in
a famous entrepreneur to UVUevery single week and you sit
down and they tell you theirstory.
And we had Brandon Fugel.
He's a huge real estatedeveloper all across Utah.
He's definitely a millionaire,potentially a billionaire at
this point, and he just boughtskinwalker ranch because he was
(43:06):
like obsessed with the fact thatlike he could prove that, like
what everybody is saying iswrong.
And he stood in front of ourclass of like 300 people and he
straight up was like my, I havenothing like to prove here.
Like I'm bringing on discoverychannel and all these different
things to like film what's goingon.
Like I can lose all mycredibility, all my business
relationships over saying this,but like there are aliens and
(43:29):
they're real and like what isgoing on at Skinwalker Ranch,
he's like I can't even describeit.
You'll have you know, you'llhave to like see the evidence
and how the scientists explainit.
But he talked about like seeingUFOs with his own eyes and
stuff.
And it's crazy when you havesuch like a professional come to
your university and talk aboutit.
I think it's insane.
I don't know if they're likeamong us every single day.
(43:50):
But I definitely think we'renot the only human life force
like in the universe.
I think there's other forms oflife and we just don't know
about it enough yet.
Just like how the ocean is onlylike 7% explored.
Like what else do we got in ourown ocean?
Why did nasa, like go fromstudying the ocean to all of a
sudden running to space tryingto figure out if we can move to
mars?
(44:10):
Like what's?
What's going on even in our ownocean?
Speaker 1 (44:12):
I don't even know oh my god, this opens up.
I could do a whole notherpodcast with you.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Oh my god yes, what is the one?
Speaker 1 (44:18):
what's the one conspiracy like you're, you're
the most interested in?
Like bigfoot aliens, jfk, likewhat's the dude?
There's so many good ones, somany.
There was some guy that went onrogan that like had me
convinced for like two monthsthat we didn't go to the moon.
I was straight up convinced.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
I was like there's no way we went to the moon, like
after thinking, I I've asked mylittle brothers about that one,
because they're obsessed withspace too, and so I've like
poked my little brother Lincoln.
I'm like do you really thinkwe're into the moon?
And he's like dead set on it.
But there's a couple of gooddocumentaries out there that
that could say otherwise.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
It's so funny.
My grandfather worked for NASAback in the day during the
sixties and he helped developthe lunar module like the
landing one that the astronautsused.
So I mess with him all the time.
I'm like pop, we didn't go tothe moon.
And he goes nuts Like he loseshis mind.
He gets so mad at me, like whenI say that he's like you're an
idiot, you're a conspiracytheorist, what are you talking
(45:11):
about?
Oh yeah, yeah, I just do it now, just to mess with him, because
he's 80 something years old,which is kind of funny.
I don't know of good ones outthere.
I think it's always importantto ask questions.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
It's what I tell people Definitely, definitely.
It always comes from somewhere.
Everybody thought the Krakenwas crazy until we figured out
the giant squid.
So all the different stories, Ithink the most interesting one
is probably Bigfoot.
Because I'm a Christian, so Ibelieve in the Bible.
I'm a member of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and it talks about Cainand Abel and the Bible a lot and
how he was cursed.
So I'm a member of the churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and it talks about Cainand Abel and the Bible a lot and
how he was cursed.
So I'm like low key, is BigfootCain from the Bible and were
(45:50):
there other people that couldhave been cursed too?
And there's lots of Bigfootsout there.
I don't know my dad also.
He's a UPS pilot, see, I couldgo on and on about conspiracy.
He's buddy and he owns this bigplot of land out in alaska.
Like he, he built this cabin onthis like remote lake and
they've been in a cockpit forlike 20 hours talking about this
(46:11):
story and I I need a wholenother podcast to tell you the
things my dad has heard from hisbuddy in the cockpit.
Like he definitely has a bunchof bigfoots like I don't know
doing what on his property andthis guy is dead set on like the
best fishing spot so he won'tgive it up.
But like his wife will not go,his kids will not go back.
Like every single guy he bringsout to help build his cabin
(46:31):
like run away, scared as a cat,and he is like ex-military, like
he's bringing navy seals outonto this cabin to try and build
it so he can go fishing upthere in the summers and he
can't bring anybody back.
So I think for sure there'sthere's something to all those
stories.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing, like, you see, like
it's always when you have like,the repeating, like people won't
go back Like, and it's not justone person, it's many, it's
like well, what is there?
Speaker 2 (46:54):
What?
Speaker 1 (46:54):
are you?
What are you running into inthe woods man, like, what is
that?
I love that stuff.
I ask people about the bigfootquestion all the time.
I I want to believe so bad,like I want to be around.
I don't think he's in colorado.
I don't think he's in utah,maybe not, maybe he is, I don't
know, but like he's somewherefor sure, like, maybe, uh, maybe
in the pacific northwest oralaska's a great place.
(47:15):
There's like 10 people inalaska oh, it's a great place.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
There's enough fit out there, like just blending
with all the grizzlies.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
That's correct territory maybe they wrestle and
like fight the grizzlies forfun.
Like, yeah, like let me justchoke this grizzly out and
establish dominance.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
I don't know I can see it.
I can see it well, greatconversation.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Thanks so much for coming on the podcast.
Obviously, this is the first ofmany conversations.
Um, this is just a highlightone, to announce your trail team
, because we're going to do likea whole, uh, like a solid week.
I'm going to book and like it'sjust going to be everybody
coming out at once, so all thewhole trail team will be
announced.
Um, so we'll definitely talk atsoon to pee and I'll have you
on before the soon to peeepisode as well.
Um, to talk about your pre-race.
(47:56):
So it should be fun.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Awesome Thanks, james .
I'm looking forward to soon topee and I'm looking forward to
getting to talk with the wholeelite team, with you as well.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Awesome.
Thanks so much, Oakley.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
What'd you guys think ?
Oh man, what a fun episode.
Want to thank Oakley so muchfor coming on the podcast.
Fun conversation and justreally excited for what she's
able to do in 2025.
Want to wish her the absolutebest of luck as she takes on the
US Mountain Running Champs inthe Classic coming up on June
1st, as well as as she finishesout her cross or track season,
(48:29):
her collegiate track season,which is awesome.
So, guys, before you get going,hop on Instagram, give Oakley a
follow.
You can find her at OakleyOlson on Instagram.
That's Oakley Olson onInstagram.
Give her a follow, send her amessage, let her know what you
guys thought about the episode.
I'm sure she'd love to hearfrom you.
Also, I can't remember if Iwished her luck and
congratulated her on the onmaking the trail team, which is
(48:52):
part of the emphasis for theconversation.
So, yeah, big things to comefrom the trail team elite team
in 2025.
So super exciting.
All right, guys, have a greatrest of your week.
I got a lot coming out.
Um, we just dropped the kobetrail race preview with myself
(49:13):
and nick tusa just came out.
Um, last night I'm recordingthis actually just came out five
minutes ago um, from when I'mrecording this, which is yeah,
but anyway, tune into that,don't miss it.
Um, as well as don't miss this.
We've got some great value inthere for your guys's free trial
fantasy picks.
Um, and, yeah, everything youwanted to know about the golden
trail series race at kobe, it isin there.
So have a great weekend, guys.
Thanks so much, thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!