Becoming Legendary with Liz Thomas

This week we are thrilled to have Liz “Snorkel” Thomas joining us for a conversation about, well, all the things - manifesting your dreams, accomplishing huge goals, failure, teamwork, knowing your weaknesses, finding joy in the wilderness - this chat really does have something to inspire anyone and everyone.

I supposed at the end of the day, this is a chat with a legendary human about her legendary hiking career, and all the traits that helps one become legendary.

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Liz Thomas is a professional hiker, speaker, and outdoor writer who held the women’s self-supported speed record on the 2,181-mile long Appalachian Trail from 2011-2015. Called a "thru-hiking legend" by Outside Magazine, Liz has hiked 20+ other long distance trails including the Triple Crown of Hiking (Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail) and first known traverses of the Wasatch Range and Chinook Trail.

Her innovative urban thru-hikes of 14 cities led The Guardian to call her “The Queen of Urban Hiking.” Liz is a former staff writer for the New York Times/Wirecutter and current Editor-in- Chief for the outdoor webmagazine Treeline Review as well as Backpacker Magazine contributing editor and columnist of “Ask a Thru-hiker.” She's the author of Long Trails: Mastering the Art of the Thru-hike, which received the National Outdoor Book Award for Best Instructional book with judges calling it destined to become the “Bible of the Sport.”

Liz has talked hiking and gear on Good Morning America (TV), in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, The Washington Post, Men’s Journal, Women’s Health, Gizmodo, and Outside Magazine. She represented the sport of hiking at President Obama’s Great American Outdoors Initiative. Liz’s keynote speaking engagements have included colleges and universities including Yale and MIT, the Trust for Public Land National Leaders Conference, American Hiking Society, and on Capitol Hill.

Learn more at www.eathomas.com or @lizthomashiking or Treeline Review.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• We reconnect with Liz, who we originally connected with in 2020 during an episode of the Virtual Campfire podcast

• Did Liz plan to be this epic or did this just happen? (Spoiler alert, she’s a goal-setter and a go-getter!)

• The art of letting go, knowing your weaknesses, and asking for help

• The magic of the trail - like losing a bite valve on a thru-hike and finding a new one on the side of the trail 10 miles later

• Bringing those backcountry lessons to your front-country life

• What is failure and how do we move through it?

• Finding joy in the wilderness

• AND SO MUCH MORE