James Lauriello is back and takes us into his 2023 season. We talk progress and achievements at renowned races. Feel the excitement as we recount his exhilarating experiences at the Iron Face Challenge, where he battled not only a grueling course, but also issues with hydration and fierce competition.
As the conversation deepens, we share the intimate details of his FKT season, exploring the hybrid approach to his training. Hear how he conquered the Colorado challenge and utilized 13ers to perfect his FKT skills. We'll also get a glimpse into James' personal life as he shares his heartwarming engagement story.
Exciting news awaits as we unveil James's upcoming venture, the Steep Stuff podcast. With topics ranging from interviews with professional athletes to insightful conversations with young trailblazers, it's set to be a thrilling addition to the podcast scene. We also discuss James's social media strategy, his plans to venture into mountain biking during the off-season, and potential sponsorship opportunities. Join us for this ride through James' journey so far and his plans for the future!
James Lauriello
The Steep Stuff Podcast
http://www.jameslauriello.substack.com
Instagram: @jameslauriello
https://instagram.com/jameslauriello?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Shoutout to:
James Lauriello
Soon-to-be Mrs. Lauriello
Ultimate Direction
Scott Sowle
Bo Shelby
Injinji
James Lauriello is back and takes us into his 2023 season. We talk progress and achievements at renowned races. Feel the excitement as we recount his exhilarating experiences at the Iron Face Challenge, where he battled not only a grueling course, but also issues with hydration and fierce competition.
As the conversation deepens, we share the intimate details of his FKT season, exploring the hybrid approach to his training. Hear how he conquered the Colorado challenge and utilized 13ers to perfect his FKT skills. We'll also get a glimpse into James' personal life as he shares his heartwarming engagement story.
Exciting news awaits as we unveil James's upcoming venture, the Steep Stuff podcast. With topics ranging from interviews with professional athletes to insightful conversations with young trailblazers, it's set to be a thrilling addition to the podcast scene. We also discuss James's social media strategy, his plans to venture into mountain biking during the off-season, and potential sponsorship opportunities. Join us for this ride through James' journey so far and his plans for the future!
James Lauriello
The Steep Stuff Podcast
http://www.jameslauriello.substack.com
Instagram: @jameslauriello
https://instagram.com/jameslauriello?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Shoutout to:
James Lauriello
Soon-to-be Mrs. Lauriello
Ultimate Direction
Scott Sowle
Bo Shelby
Injinji
three. James Loriello, how are you man? Nick, I'm doing good. Thanks for having me back. Well, you know, a lot of things have changed, you know, with the podcast, with you. With the podcast I mean literally just published 200.
Speaker 2:It's an incredible thing. That's amazing. When I was on, what was it? What did you say? Episode 135?, 135. Wow this is the alpha we've come Wow 135.
Speaker 1:And that's when I was transitioning, just to be myself, just by myself. I had a couple with Dwayne, I had a couple with you know the other one, and I was just like man, it's worth staying, you know, on the podcast, it's worth sticking it out. And yet, what? 30, 35? I'm no mathematician. But what 65?, 65, yeah, 65 episodes later and you're back.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, yeah and, like I said, it's a pleasure to be on. Yeah, a lot of things have changed. It's been a crazy, crazy season. It's been a, you know, really fun season nonetheless Lots of FKTs, lots of, lots of races and now starting to kind of put the planning in for what's going to happen in 2024 and beyond.
Speaker 1:So yeah, is that a full time job? I've asked some runners that you know preparing for the season ahead or next season, is it a full time job?
Speaker 2:Not yet. Well, it's a good, solid part time job. It's not a full time job yet. That's the plan, so hopefully at some point in time get it that way, no just preparing, like where are you going to go?
Speaker 1:How are you going to do it?
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, it's a lot of logistics, everything you know, and you know what I have. To be honest with you. I found myself changing the plan so many times this year. I thought, you know, when I went ultimate direction and I kind of like solidified my racing calendar for you know, at the beginning of the year, you know, I may have had like six or seven additional races on there that I thought I was going to do and you know, still even doing the six races that I did this season, that was still the most I've ever put on my body in one season. So yeah, you kind of live and you learn. You kind of learn what you know, what your body can take and what it can't take. And you know, this year I kind of learned some limits a little bit more than I had anticipated I thought I would.
Speaker 1:You knocked it out of the park, though, Like, believe it or not, I know it's not number one. You know not, you can't always get number one. If that's the case, everybody will be running correct.
Speaker 2:Correct, correct. No, you're absolutely right and I do appreciate it. There was, there was, some good glimmers of of what I would call progress that, like I said, I would hope to build on for next year, and there was a lot of solid takeaways Like so, for instance, like my big race. One of my big races this year was at Broken Arrow. I raced, yeah, the iron face challenge. I'll let you take it away, but yeah, that was, that was a doozy of a race. That was a fun one. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now there are well known runners not saying you were not, you're a well known runner, I mean you're. You're sponsored by one of the biggest companies in the country, you know that kind of thing, and and still getting more sponsors. Congrats, by the way, congrats.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but broken arrow skyrace. The more I interview people right, the more I notice man.
Speaker 2:So a lot of big name runners hit yeah, yeah, guys show up, or guys and gals, I mean people, show up for that. So the big thing was was iron face was this year, I mean, I don't know if you're a PNW guys. So Alex King, he showed up, he was there, he put a, he put a weapon on me, so that was kind of fun.
Speaker 1:He puts a weapon on anybody and he's a master man. He's, he's masters league dude. It's like gosh guys is incredible athlete man.
Speaker 2:Phenomenal, phenomenal athlete yeah, I mean it was. It was here's the thing. So I kind of looked at last year was more regional, this year was more national, next year I'm looking, you know, as far as trying to get the most competition I possibly can and with an idea of, you know, trying to qualify for 2025 Worlds. So this year I wanted to kind of dip my toes and to see like, okay, first of all, what are you capable of? And second of all, you know what is it like racing these people? You know there's it's like a. A lot of professionals will say you know there's levels to this game and that's. There's no doubt about that. There's levels to this game. You kind of see the fitness levels on different people. Now, iron face was a kind of a tough one for me. I definitely made some hydration mistakes. There was, there was some mistakes made and it was a 12 o'clock start and I'm not making you know totally understand.
Speaker 1:It's Tahoe. I mean you can't mess around. You can't mess around, yeah, no you can't, you can't make mistakes.
Speaker 2:It was such a good learning opportunity to kind of see you know different racing strategies and it's it's kind of a hybrid race where you're not just running, we're not just racing up a mountain, we're transitioning into a climbing format on a Via Ferrata, we're scaling this wall, transitioning back to running uphill and then, you know, trying to, you know, retransition back into a downhill and with snow nonetheless, so yeah yeah, and how many?
Speaker 1:how many runners, or climbers, as I might say.
Speaker 2:I think there was a few hundred at this one this year. This was the newest race that Broken Arrow implemented and it was I. So what did I think I? Yeah, I finished in seventh place, which I was like I said I was pretty happy with. I definitely I'm not going to lie. I went in with the aspirations at Max King's course record is what it because he had won it the previous year.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Max was there this year so it was kind of neat to get to talk to him, get to learn from him. It was funny on the first climb actually, max was actually running up with us with his little GoPro, because it was on the live stream, so it was kind of neat. That was the first race I've ever been into, where it was just this like large festival with thousands of people. It was just very different.
Speaker 1:So yeah. So out of the few hundred you got, seventh yeah, yeah. It was you got to be happy with the results.
Speaker 2:I was happy, but I it was bitter, bitter sweet. I mean I walked away super stoked. It was. It was an amazing experience, but I'm not going to lie, it definitely fuels the fire for for what's next. It's definitely got me thinking and input.
Speaker 2:So in the lead up to this race, I actually wrote a really cool article that landed on ultimate directions blog about like my preparation and like I almost feel like I might have overprepared in a lot of ways too.
Speaker 2:Like I got so scientific about it where, like I had processes for everything, like I had my own harnesses, my own via ferrata, my own helmet and I like practice transition times on, like I would. I would do like 3000 vertical feet on the treadmill and I would jump off that time myself. How fast I could take the harness on off, helmet on off and just making sure I could, you know, adequately do all these things and transition and then transition back into running. So I almost feel like I might have put like I'm sure you've heard runners talk about this where you almost put like two blood chest emphasis on something and I think I was victim of that. I put way too many eggs in one basket that I was like this is the race, this is, this is the be all end. All this is going to put me on the map. If I can, you know, snag the CR and and take the dub. But it didn't happen that way, so it was good learning experience.
Speaker 1:Seventh out of a few hundred, I mean God, that's something to be proud of, man. And I don't know. I don't think you overprepared, I think you were well prepared and that's what you focused on.
Speaker 2:So oh, thank you. Thank you, yeah, it was a great race. Broken Arrow is cool. Like I said, I recommended to anybody that you know is interested in the sky racing format with these high vertical game races.
Speaker 1:So oh yeah, All right. And then you did. You got third in Quest for the Crest. 25k out of I'm going to ask you out of how many people? I don't even know.
Speaker 2:I couldn't even tell you it wasn't. It wasn't as much as broken arrow is less, less runners this year. So Quest for the Crest is a unique race. It's out in Burnsville, north Carolina it's. It's you kind of. You run up what's called, what's a mountain, mitchell, and that's the highest point east of the Mississippi. It's like maybe 7000 feet, something like that, and traditionally they're touted for having the hardest 50K in the country and they also have a VK option. This was the first year they added the 25K, so I thought it would kind of be fun to go out there. Still, it's a unique race. You're running up Mount Mitchell and down it's.
Speaker 2:How did it is an incredibly difficult course, man. That one was one that got away from me too. I was a little upset about that. I was in the lead for most of the entire race and it was before broken arrow. Still some issues where I just had not put my nutrition and my fueling and my hydration properly together and it kind of caught up to me. You know, caught. I was at the first person to the top of the summit. I probably had five minutes on the next guy and I had quad cramps like I had never had in my entire life, yeah, and just could not put it together on the descent. So it was still a great race, but at the end of the day, lessons there was lessons taken from that.
Speaker 1:So you got second in Creed Mountain Run Yep.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, it was last month. Creed Mountain Run was a great race. Out in Creed, colorado, they do this Creed festival every Labor Day, you know. People descend on the town and they've been running this race since like the 70s, which is kind of neat. I thought it was a little bit of history there. Yeah, it was fun. That was a good one too. Yeah, second place I was happy with you know, chased down first and it's pretty close.
Speaker 1:Okay, you're not going to dog yourself? No, oh, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:All right, don't dog yourself.
Speaker 1:You got fourth in Ram Party 24K. I mean, dude, that's, that was a nice little tune up to.
Speaker 2:That was right before that was actually the week before quest, so that was just to get the legs tuned and you know see where things were.
Speaker 1:So All right, I'm going to bring it up. I'll probably I don't know how to say it, but you got first and the course record in Sangra D Chris go trail festival 14 days.
Speaker 2:Sangra to Christo yeah, so I think this is a really special race for me. Um, I've been coming back to the Sangra yeah. So, the Sangra to Christo trail festival it used to be called the Sangra Christo Ultras Um, it's actually my first 50 K I ever ran. Was the Sangra to Christo 50 K? Same part of the same trail festival. I ran it back in 2020. Um, another rough day for me, but that was really special for me because it was my first time really visiting this particular mountain range in Colorado back in 2020. Uh, we'd come out and was one of the few races that they put on during COVID. So, finally, competitive 50 K when I came out to run it and I just came back every year. Uh, I came back the following year.
Speaker 2:My first actual like race win was at the 27 K in 2021, which was really special for me. Um, and then last year they started implementing these like short course options for the 14 K, which was a little bit more, I wouldn't say sky racing format, but it's a shorter distance race with lots of vert. You're basically running up this pass, um on this like really technical road, um, up and down, and it kind of sits my my strong suit. So I came back. You know, I showed up last year for the first year of it and, uh, you know, had a great race, obviously, took first place in this year, um, cause it was the second racing of it. I won again. And then, you know, I guess you could call it now officially the course records. Uh, that's what I have for it.
Speaker 1:So pretty excited. You didn't have anything mess up, you were, that was a perfect race.
Speaker 2:No, not even close. No actually it was, uh, no, it was. Um, I mean, it was a great race, like I I obviously, you know, took home the dub and was really happy with my result. But I mean, if I was like highly scrutinized it, um, it just showed signs that I was seeing signs of myself that, um, you know, it's been a long season and it's time to probably shut things down and start, you know, planning for next year and kind of just give the body a rest. Um, yeah, the body's getting tired.
Speaker 1:Well, congrats, man, congrats. I see your resume and it's quite astounding. So keep it up. And, um, don't, don't dog yourself. And I forgot to mention man in broken arrow. You did get engaged. Oh yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:That? That, yeah, broken arrow was not the highlight of broken arrow weekend, believe it or not?
Speaker 1:No, no, it was the engagement Correct.
Speaker 2:It was kind of a crazy story with that too, or funny story. Um, yeah, we did get engaged, man, I had so many I, so I had like all these like you know plans where like where we were getting engaged and what we were going to do.
Speaker 2:And you know how I was going to pull this off, because I had been carrying the ring with me I've had it with me obviously the flight and we flew over and I kind of carried it with me. The next day, next morning, right after the race, actually, we went paddle boarding in Lake Tahoe and the plan was was after we got done paddle boarding, we're going to do a hike. Thank you, um. And I reached out to a friend and she had given me some, you know, ideas and where to hike in the local area. Um, cause I, you had told me, on the last pod, you're like, check out Mount Rose or Mount Tau, like, and those were ideas as well, but it was a heavy snow year so they're just kind of tough to hike those Anyway. So we finished our our paddle board in the morning at Kings Beach and we were going to go on a hike. And she's like, I don't really want to hike, I'm in sandals, I didn't really think about it. And, um, the whole plan was to get engaged on the hike. I was going to carry the ring with me and ask her on the hike, um, and I had to kind of Shanghai those plans and come up with something new.
Speaker 2:Um, so I, fortunately that early morning we had done a tiny tiny hike around the grounds. Um, I can the Alpen Meadows area and not Alpen Meadows, I'm sorry, more of the Palisades area. Um, so I found this beautiful little spot which was um, kind of back, not too far from the resort. We were staying, uh, kind of on the way to, like the grant chief owner is, and, um, at that point I was like, hey, you know, let's, let's go for a little hike. I don't really want to sit around, let's go do something. So at that point I had grabbed the ring and I asked her on the hike to that. Um, after the fact, so kind of put it together at the end, yeah, it was just made the weekend extremely special. It was a. Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 1:If you didn't question it. She just said yes, was she balling? I mean, come on.
Speaker 2:She was crying, but she kind of I, I, I kind of made it obvious, Like I was like I think you should go on this hike. You know, I didn't, I didn't, I was like cause she was trying to talk me out of this. And then I'm like, no, I think, I think cause I had already made dinner reservations, you know, to kind of celebrate after. So we only had so much time and I'm, you know, I was like I have to make this happen. At some point in time I got to do something here. Um, so yeah, I just okay.
Speaker 1:With the engagement, with the phenomenal race year. I mean, god, it's so short, but, man, you killed it. You also managed to do another or a few FKTs. I did, I did, you kept them quiet, though you kept them quiet last minute because, like I said, be careful the moment you state you're going to do an FKT, somebody already has you know, it, dialed in and ready to conquer right after you. And that's what happens after mosquito go gulch Right. This is true.
Speaker 2:Actually, that's what happened after London, after London. Mountain someone scooped that up, like before it was even uh, before it was even uh. You know they set it as an FKT, like literally within the week, told you so yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I messaged you, I was like, oh, this is mine. Yeah, so this was the FKT season for me did not go the way I had planned. So a lot of this season was a you know so many great learning opportunities and I'd say one of the biggest ones was trying to figure out this like hybrid approach, where I want to still be really active on the FKT scene, but for me this year I was getting a little bit more out of the race scene. I really wanted to be very active racing, so I was trying to manage all these races while also trying to manage these FKTs. And a lot of the way I've used it which is something I kind of adjusted my plans for now was that like I was going to use these FKTs as really hard efforts in the mountains to prepare me for these races and, living in Colorado, that is not the case.
Speaker 2:It is really difficult to do that because there's just so much competition on the FKT scene that you're putting in a race level effort to be able to snag one of these FKTs which is kind of tired yeah, not getting you ready for the. Maybe you're leaving your race at that FKT as opposed to using it as a tune up, so I captured a few smaller routes this year that I was pretty happy with, both on the unsupported and unsupported side, which we could talk about a little bit more. But yeah, yeah, I was pretty happy in all in the 13er range. So I've been really trying to hone in on getting as many 13er records as possible. I think that 14ers might be a little overrated, so then I've been unlimited amounts of 13ers in Colorado, so okay.
Speaker 1:So with your FKTs, were you there? There are some people who have it dialed in. You know the FKTs dialed in. They will spend a week, a month and do that trail until they feel is ready, correct, just like free solo. He did what he did and he kept doing it and he's like, look, I'm going to do it. So Did you do that kind of training when you did these FKTs, or did you just go on a whim and say I'm going to do it and you did it?
Speaker 2:So a little bit both and, like I said, I don't really I mean maybe a higher caliber of athlete better than myself could pull us off and make it happen, but for me I struggled a little bit. So what I was doing was that I would have a short buildup where I had my normal training blocks throughout the week, where we'd have our normal you know, normal training. We have a couple workouts and we have our normal easy runs, things like that, and then basically what I was doing. So I live on the front range at about 7,000 feet. So what I was doing then, especially for these more higher altitude, to prepare me for more higher altitude races, I was doing higher altitude FKTs where I had the route plans but I didn't recce it or anything like that.
Speaker 2:I was showing up, trying to throw down a fast time and seeing where we landed and sometimes that worked more than often it didn't. Like I had a couple, like I had a failed attempt on not Victoria this year. I had a few failed attempts on a couple of different, you know peaks that I was after. But, like I said, I think for the future what I would specifically do is spend significantly more time wrecking the route, whether it be a long route, short route, whatever, and make sure there's and take, pick less. You know. This year I picked a lot, I think because it was my first year as, like a truly professional runner, I had all these. I, you know kind of, your eyes are big, you're like a kid in the candy store.
Speaker 1:You have the Jason.
Speaker 2:Hardrath drive. You want to do all of these different things and you because you want to make your sponsors app and you want to make your you know you want to validate yourself, that you're this, you know you're this person, you think you are or maybe that other people think you might be, and you know you want to validate it through doing these efforts and getting these efforts. And that's a lot harder than that, yeah, you know. So, yeah, I definitely recommend not doing. My approach, I think next year, and as we might have talked about before and as I've kind of already alluded and talked to, ultimate direction is that next year will be significantly less FKTs and I'm going to be putting my eggs in more of a racing basket, but I definitely have my eye on a few things that I'll be going after.
Speaker 1:So so is a sponsor or someone who is sponsored, races pay more than FKTs, or what? How does that? How does that look for you?
Speaker 2:Well, it's not. It's not nothing. You know, like I can't like put it from a compensation perspective, but like if you show up to a race, obviously races have prize purses. There's, you know, there's nothing from a compensation perspective that's going to say one thing is better versus the other. But you know, if you show up to I don't know, let's say, broken era, if I go win the 23k, for example, golden Trail Series race, or like Pike's Peak Ascent, you'll win a race like that. There's a price, obviously a significant prize purse, and then prize purses, for course, records and things like that, whereas FKTs, yeah, yeah, unless someone is privately putting that up.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what. Man, if a company is paying me to race, you best believe I'm going to take those races because, hey, it is paying the bill. So that's where I get it. That's all I got. I got you. No, no, no. I got you, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:And you know what, like I said, it is one of the cool things about races in the United States now especially, as you know, our spark continues to grow and mountain running, especially short distance mountain running like these Cirque Series Golden.
Speaker 1:Trail Series races.
Speaker 2:Well, as they catch on, there's price purses for these races. I still am not at the point where I have gained any money from a price purse perspective, because most of the races, especially that, I've done. You know the prize purses, but, you know, hopefully next year, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the FKT I've had a lot of FKT guys in here and they I've asked, or they mentioned unsupported, supported. I've always mentioned it, hoping that they caught on on just discussing unsupported and supported. I think one went into very little detail on just the difference and it can be the most miniscule thing. So when you tackled Mosquito, golch, london Mountain, blodget Peak Loop, that was all unsupported. Your supported was this year was East Spanish Peak. What was the difference? Yeah, unsupported and supported.
Speaker 2:So unsupported is basically no help. No person can assist you with like photography, with water, with aid you are carrying.
Speaker 1:Travel.
Speaker 2:No, nothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, travel and food yes. They can't help you at okay?
Speaker 2:Yes, so like I look at it, so I'll give you it's easier for me to put it in context of like a. I don't like to put it in context of a longer route because I'm a short distance athlete. So, like, when I think about it, I think about like East Spanish Peak. Great example that's a. If I remember correctly, I think it's an 11 mile route up down high, significant vertical gain.
Speaker 2:The reason mindless supported was because I this is a funny story I had some bad pizza the day before and was having some significant stomach problems. So the guy I was with who ran the unsupported time, we actually started out together. I ran the supported time because I had to bum aid off of him. So bumming aid off of him, you know, yes, you, you know it's not. How do I say this? It's not ethical If you were to say you know you guys were, you know you got to be able to mention that you were together and say something like that. So we were together and I accepted aid off of him. So from an ethical perspective, it's supported and that's just the way it is. So any type of support that you take, another example that's I don't know if a lot of people read under this on, like the website FKT. If you have a photographer up there, it's technically considered supported. There is a degree of support. Any person that could potentially be aiding you be with you, giving lending.
Speaker 2:Now there's also self supported, which you're from, I'm sure you're familiar with as well. If you stash water, stash food, whatever you know for those longer routes, that definitely would be constituted as self supported, unsupported. You're carrying your water, you're carrying your food, you're carrying all of your stuff with you and it's as pure as it gets. There's no, no outside world interference would be the right word, and supported is just one degree a little bit closer. Where there's, you know, you could have crew with you and that crew is, you know, could be giving you some support, or it could be something to degree. Where could be something as stupid as what I had, where I was gunning for an unsupported time, was popping in the bushes every five minutes and needed some extra water and electrolytes?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah I got you, I got you yeah. What FKTs are you doing on the next year? Okay, wait, got it, Sorry. 10 mile traverse.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I have some interests. Some of the interest next year is gonna be very interested in the 10 mile traverse. That's gonna require a lot of wrecking. You know understanding that range a little bit better. Jackson Cole just put down an incredibly stout time this past summer which is gonna be pretty hard to break. If that's something I'm interested in, obviously the Mount Yale 360. That was on my list this year and I didn't get a chance to take a crack at that either. And then getting out of the 13ers getting into the 14ers. I'd also like to take out the Crack-A-Pallonka Peak this year. It's a peak that I've had some serious interest in.
Speaker 1:So and you're sticking to those three.
Speaker 2:Those three are gonna be ones that I'm after. We'll see could be two, could be one, could be none. A lot of it for me is gonna depend on what happened with the race season. The race season is gonna be, you know, it's gonna be all in next year. As far as how well we can do with that and put the large emphasis on that, the 10 mile traverse is probably gonna be something that I take a look at in August, depending on how that goes. Mount Yale 360, obviously, depending on how the snow goes in that year, it's gonna be something a little bit later, maybe a September, october kind of thing, depending on how the season goes. And then Blanca will probably be earlier season, depending on where the snow is at.
Speaker 1:You got to totally understand. You gotta pay attention to that snow, that snowpack man. Out of the races that you are choosing to do in 2024, which one are you the most excited for, man?
Speaker 2:That's a tough one, very excited, yeah. So one of the bigger girls of next year is I'm gonna do something I haven't done before, where I'll be racing the Cirque series. I picked three, four races. I think three is of right now. Official Four will be, depending on where we are in the ranking. So one of the things I'm gonna chase is the pro podium and the Cirque series, and the first one I'll be at is gonna be Brighton. So it'll be Cirque series Brighton. Really cool course, short distance. It gets like six or seven miles but you're getting about 3000 feet of vertical gain. You're running around this beautiful Cirque. That's about 10, 11,000 feet. It's gnarly technical. There's boulder fields. It's tough. It's gonna be a tough race, so I'm probably looking the most forward for that. I was really excited to find out that that got moved to June 29th because originally that was supposed to be the weekend of my wedding.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I was gonna ask Okay, so you're getting married next year.
Speaker 2:In July yeah, actually, yeah in July in not too far from Silverton Colorado. So like the week before hard rock too, so it'll be fun to be out there and be playing in the same ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. I thought you would say the rut. You're most excited for the rut man. That's an exciting race man. It's huge, it is huge.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to see where we stack up. Mutual friend Michelino Sincere, who's a mountain runner for the North Face, keeps touting how great of he took the dub in the 50K this year. Just keeps talking about how great of a race this is. So it's definitely turned me on to it and it's something I definitely wanna do.
Speaker 1:Well, I know where you're gonna be Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was that or the. You know, it's tough because it's always the same weekend as the Pikes Peak marathon and that's something I have been very hesitant to take a crack at, especially because I live right on the road from Pikes Peak. It's a tough race to figure out Pikes Peak. So I think this year is gonna be the upcoming year, is gonna be the rut and then, depending on where we're at, in 2025, is either gonna be the center of the marathon.
Speaker 1:So okay, well, you're still young, so you can manage that man I mean look at Max King dude the guy's my age or older or anything.
Speaker 2:Age is wonder.
Speaker 1:He's the man, he's the man. So, wedding man, congrats, dude. I'm just gonna say congrats to the Mrs as well.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Man. I'm gonna say this man, when you said you wanted to be back on man, I was like, of course you're gonna be back on man. You've been the biggest supporter, you've been the biggest help, you've been the biggest guide to give me the. I mean, you give me so much feedback, man, on whoever I have on. When I was telling my wife, when I feel episode sucks, I always go to you and I'm like dude, how did you like it? And you're like man, it's good, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then sometimes, when I just feel episode sucks, but, dude, when I listened to it before because I edit, I'm like it wasn't bad after all. So I get.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Hey, james, man, james, hey, hey, hey, hey, hook me up. And then you tell me I was like it's not bad after all. Okay, so I just start to feed my spirits a little more. I'm like I got this, I got this. So, yes, that episode 200, I still doubt myself. So, with that said, I gotta thank you, man, for your input, your help, your support, the love, and now that you're on dude, you're starting your podcast.
Speaker 2:I am, I am. So, yeah, the cat is out of the bag. I've spoken to I haven't spoken to too many people about this, I've just kind of like very close friends. I've kind of bounced ideas off of. But, yeah, coming in this winter I'm gonna be launching these called the Steep Stuff podcast. It's gonna be specifically based on short distance mountain running. That's what we're gonna highlight and we're gonna. It's gonna be three different types of series. So we're gonna have, obviously, our interviews with professional athletes in the mountain running scene. We're also gonna have coverage of any types of short distance mountain racing. So we're gonna look at, like, the Golden Trail series. We'll cover the Cirque series. We'll cover big things happening, you know, for instance, something as small in our world as, like the Kendall Mountain Run. We're gonna talk about a lot of different fundraising and then the third series. We're gonna talk about that.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited. Probably the most excited about is I think there's this movement in mountain running now, short distance stuff, where the older guys are really trying to help the younger guys come up. So what I really wanna do is probably once a month, maybe twice a month, we're gonna do interviews with these young trailblazers that are starting to kind of find and make their name on the scene. They might have some great results, but nobody's heard their name and they might be in the market and looking for sponsors and things like that. So we're gonna be able to give these people a voice to tell their story and why they loved to run and why yeah, and this, that and the other. So I'm excited. It's gonna be, like I said, launching probably January, february. So keep on the lookout for that and we're gonna.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're gonna put that out there soon. I look forward to that and I can't wait. Man, I can't wait, and you know what? I'm always down to here and just be there for people who are willing to pay it forward. I mean, it almost sounds like what I do to these Western boys, man. But, hey, it's pretty cool man. It's awesome, and with you being in Colorado, I'm pretty sure you have more mountain runners than we do here in Washington, you know.
Speaker 2:So I mean, you guys have a good contingency. There's a lot of, like I said, alex King beat me up there earlier this year, right, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of really good athletes there.
Speaker 1:But they're in Oregon. You know, we finally got a Sky Series and, speaking of the Sky Series, their final festival, their final showing of the year is next to this coming up weekend. And, dude, I'm emceeing it, man. So that's a lot of things. A lot of things have been happening. Yes, I'm busy, but, dude, a lot of positive things. It's like oh my god, are you serious? Do you really want me to emcee? All right, it's just, it's an honor man. Yeah, yeah, it's got soul man. I had him on and he was like hey, just thought of you. I was like hell, yeah, I'll do it. So I'm going to do that this weekend.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's exciting Congrats, congrats, yeah yeah, so the podcast man, how long have you been thinking about it? How long have you, I mean, do you know the commitment?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah. So this has been. I've been, I've been ruminating over this for like two years and even so there is a similar. I mean just to give a shout out for what, besides you and your encouragement? The sub hub popped up.
Speaker 2:And that's part of the free trial network and it's an incredible podcast that MK Sullivan and Danny Marino put on. So it would be something similar to that, a little bit similar, but there's going to be a lot of differences as well. I just think that there's a lot of space, there's a lot of room in the space for unique personalities and people to be commentating on these races. Plus, there's so many races, I think the Cirque series, which is something I'm really excited to get involved in this year. From a racing perspective, that's something that needs to be talked about. I mean, these courses are awesome. They get top tier professional talent that comes out to race these. Obviously, the Golden Trail series, which is something you're dear to my heart. We have one that takes place in our backyard in the Pikes Peak region, and I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Will you be having the interviews there on site, or will they be coming to like T-Cups, if you?
Speaker 2:were in town. A lot of it's going to be in person format. Obviously, there's going to be quite a few one-offs where that's not possible, but for instance, for Pikes Peak weekend that's going to be difficult because I will be at the rut, but for instance at like Pikes Peak and races like that, I'd like to do as many in person as possible. I think it's just an easier discussion format. I think it's easier to be one-on-one, get to know. A lot of my formatting, too, is going to be less about the racing and more about the athlete, like what is your training philosophy and who are you? What do you do? Yeah, so stuff like that. We're going to be a little more learning about who this person is as a holistic character, as opposed to who they are on the race day.
Speaker 1:So is it going to be audio and visual, or what this is going to?
Speaker 2:be audio. It's going to be audio for now and then, as we go, we'll see. We'll put some more investment into it, and I'd like to. At least for now, it's going to be audio. Obviously, it'll be distributed on Spotify. I want to set up a YouTube channel and things like that and with the idea that as we go it'll be video, In which case I can distribute that on YouTube and grow as well.
Speaker 1:That's awesome man. So how are you going to be different than some big dogs that we have to compete against?
Speaker 2:How are you?
Speaker 1:going to be different man.
Speaker 2:Well, I think the first thing is starting with personality. I think my personality is different. It's unique. I've met and I know a lot of people in this space, whereas I think a lot of now it's different. Coming from an athlete to athlete perspective, I think the conversation is going to be a little bit different, whereas you'll see for instance, I think the best one you can look at is the free trial podcast with Dylan Bowman he isn't a professional athlete, so, athlete to athlete, the conversation is going to be a little bit different. A lot of these guys know each other, which is where a lot of the people I'll be discussing and talking with in the beginning are going to be people that I specifically know and hopefully, as my network continues to grow, I can get these interviews. That's why I like one-on-one face-to-face, whereas I feel like when it's over the phone it's going to be a little bit. There's still that veil. It's a little bit harder. And I think the other thing is that where I plan to be different as well is in my formatting. I think the format is going to be different. We're not just going to be just the one-on-one interview kind of thing we're going to be doing.
Speaker 2:Not a lot of podcasts do race previews and I don't want to just do an in-depth race preview where I'm just talking about it. There's going to be surprise and I say surprise guest hosts, co-hosts, where people will come on. Other professional athletes will come on and be able to talk, most likely people that have been or have done these races before at the professional level, so they'll be coming on to talk. And then, last but not least, I think what will really catch on? I think people are very hungry and interested to learn more of these up-and-coming athletes. I think that's the big thing. We want to give them the spotlight and give them an opportunity. These rookie of the year candidates and these people there's a lot of them that come out of college and just come under the scene, and there's a guy, christian Allen, who's one of them. There's just like I can't sing his praises enough. He's an interesting character who just pops onto the scene, wins Speed Goat and nobody heard of him three years ago and now he's crushing it. Yeah, I got you.
Speaker 1:I got you. So, all right, I hear that man, and you're going to know, the more popular they are, the less listens you get People who start out that are hungry to make it up there, the more listens you'll get. Dude, trust me, you're going to be falling in love with them and you're going to be like, oh my god, I need more, I need more, I need more. And then the locals too. Make sure you put those locals on blast, because they have the biggest following, and once you get one local, you get the other, you get the other, and then you can just, you know, tear up that scene.
Speaker 1:One guy you need to put on I've had him on and I'm going to have him on around November is Bo Shelby. Dude, you need to check that kid out. That kid is one heck of an athlete. No one's heard of him. I try to get Mike McKnight, try to get Ben Light on him. I mean, I've been trying to get this guy on and he's, you know, just up there and, dude, he's just tearing up the scene independently and taking names man, so Bo.
Speaker 2:Shelby shout out to Bo Shelby.
Speaker 1:Man, that kid is good. I met him at the Tartarus backyard ultra here. No one's heard of him. He had one hell of a crew his parents and man, he three digit you know heat, I think. Three days, three days in the heat. Man, he just tore it up, dude. Yeah, he tore it up and was like who's this guy? Who's this guy? So in November, his last race of the year, I'm having him on and we're going to talk. He said he wants to talk to me. So you get a lot of those too.
Speaker 2:I love it. Yeah, so I think the terminology we call it now is random baller, these random ballers. Yeah, that's the, that's the dark horse, the dark horse, the random ballers. These are the people that you know that, like I said, they need the spotlight shown on them and you know, these people work extreme, like I get it, man, like we work extremely hard for this, and you know it's it's difficult for everybody to have their praises sung. I mean, I can literally sit here and name 20 people off, just off the top of my head, that are just in my area. You know, that are just, you know, great guys and gals. You know they're just incredible athletes. So, yeah, it's going to be an interesting format. It's going to be a little bit different.
Speaker 1:Awesome man. Yeah, I'm proud of you, man, I'm happy you're going to the dark side You're going to be itching for some listens You're going to be like oh God, it's so much work, it's so much work, and then how is this not paying off? I mean, but then hopefully you love it, I know you will and hopefully you keep with it. They say, and I've witnessed myself. They say podcast don't last seven episodes, man, and you'll see that.
Speaker 2:Hey look at you, 200.
Speaker 1:You're crushed it. Hey, man, it's a lot of sweat and tears and blood, obviously some blood. But yeah, man, dude, that's awesome. No-transcript Presence on social media, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Is that.
Speaker 1:I notice you've been working on it, but I think your wife has or soon to be wife has more and better skill than you and I put together.
Speaker 2:Dude, I, I struggle, you know, and it's something interesting. I've actually been thinking about putting just like doing a post on this because I struggle with it more than anything. You know, like I, so much of it. So Instagram for me, as you can know, I'm a picture guy, you know. I like my photos. I think my photo tells a story and now everybody looks real and it's supposed to be this real thing.
Speaker 2:I have to be honest. You, the more I continue on it's like, the more this just isn't me. And yeah, you know I try to like create this and I'm just like this is not going anywhere and it's like I'm like looking for topics to talk about and this, that and the other, whereas, like, it's just not Authentically me telling a story. Whereas, like, I think the easier thing, one of the things I love actually on to Instagram is like I'll give you a good example my teammate, joe Gray, has this as this hashtag that uses like the journey of Joe GZ, and I'm like, yes, this is it's about a journey. Like that's that, that's, that's the whole thought of this, this is that's the plan you know. Whereas, like, you're supposed to be following along someone's story, where, with me Trying to do these reels, I'm like this isn't telling any story. This isn't. This is me. This isn't helping anything.
Speaker 2:So I have struggled without a lot lately and I think it's like and it was also in my opinion, for me at least and I'm not judging anybody I think if you're good at it and it's your thing, then by all means go crazy.
Speaker 2:I'm just talking about in my specific example, I find that I waste way more time on social media Trying to put this together and it's like this constant thing where the Instagram algorithm obviously like rewards, you know, the more you're on there, and for me, I think it's easier just to do one post, a bomb, one post every few weeks.
Speaker 2:That, you know, shows the progress and the other thing, too, that I find interesting and like for me specifically, as well as like the less I post, you could tell like things are going well and the reason I say this, because that means I'm training. I'm obviously not thinking about outside forces, I'm locked in and I'm doing the things I need to be doing and I'm not thinking about social media Whereas, like I find my eye will be wandering, I'm on social media. That's obviously distraction, it's not helping me get where I need to be. So, yeah, yeah, it's a really delicate balance because you know and like sponsors, they you know they they're, they're very present on there and it's well, it's not a requirement but, like you should be present on there to grow your personal brand, you know. So it's a lot of it's.
Speaker 2:Uh, while I told you earlier the fkt and the racing thing was was balanced, that I was trying to figure out for myself this year, balance and social media is a big one too. That I'm I'm born in as we go, especially right now especially if you're gonna get in the podcast world.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes it's gonna.
Speaker 2:I think at that point I'm just gonna pawn the social media off to the, to the fiance, soon be wife and, and I just have her be the social media manager.
Speaker 1:So I don't have to, if it were say not gonna knock if it works, man, you know it did, dude, she has an act for it. I was like, oh, why did you have to put that song on there? Because so you could put my you know, dan the man and Ben back in. You know they they talk about how they spend so much time on this reel and get one view a day, maybe you know, but then they Don't spend so much time on their reel but they have a great song or one of those muck it, bob Muck it. You know that it's like a thousand views a day and they're like I don't get it. I was like, dude, it's all about what's hot right now, and if you put a song that's hot, that you I don't know why, you would do that.
Speaker 1:Why you would do that? You know it can be wop. It's gonna gain more than you know. John Denver, you know, or, or some Brooks and Don, or something. Dude, right, Right, right.
Speaker 2:And then, like you find the meat, like, for instance, like if I'm, if I'm putting together, like even even a photo I'm putting on there, if I'm putting music to it, that's the soundtrack. Yeah, I've been listening to the one that's in my head, that I listen to what I'm training or when I'm, what I'm planning for, and you know that's that's authentically me. I was like you're just, you're just picking a song that's like popular and yeah, that's not me.
Speaker 2:Yeah and watch. It gets like 20,000 views and I'm like man, yeah, I, yeah. Instagram, for me is is definitely struggle I and I find myself on it way more than I need to be. So, like I said when I'm like lately, I haven't been very active on it in the past couple weeks and that mean you know Like.
Speaker 2:I said I think that is as a personal indicator that like, yeah, you know You're starting to get serious again and you're starting plan for for the future and next year. So, yeah, no, it's tough and, like I said, it's you know. Or like you said, when it comes to podcasting, you know a large amount of that is marketing, so it's gonna be able to.
Speaker 2:Grinding, grinding on the marketing side. So not only you know do I have a personal brand, that I'm trying to grow as an athlete, but it also, you know, looking at this from a branding you know, podcast branding perspective. So yeah, it's it's, it's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 1:It's tough man. Well, if you need anything, you know you can always reach out, you know.
Speaker 2:I'll be asking. I'll be asking a lot of questions.
Speaker 1:I'll never steer you in the wrong direction.
Speaker 2:So I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:What? How's your off season now your off season or you started this week?
Speaker 2:I am so pumped I man I already was I was talking to my coaches, you know, this past week and you know, just trying to figure out, like one of the things that I'm gonna start taking up is, like mountain biking, I'm really stoked on.
Speaker 2:So a lot of this year has been trying to figure out like, okay, you know, you're right down the things that work, but you also really put an asterisk next to the things that don't work. And, like I said, I kind of alluded to earlier that, like towards the end of the season, like man I was, I was cooked, there was a few races that I was supposed to go to and I just couldn't, couldn't show up too because I would. You know, it was just I was Way more tired than I should be and so, like I said, this upcoming month, probably for the next few months, like I'm gonna probably take a significant break from running, lower my mileage and just really get on the bike and just, you know, the bike in a lot of ways is a great opportunity to build strength. So I'll be doing a lot of the biking and, you know, get to see a lot, of, a lot of trails and hit the weight room pretty hard, so happy to hit, hit the. You know hit the iron again soon.
Speaker 1:So when are you gonna know about your sponsor?
Speaker 2:Hopefully soon, working on that right now, hoping to you know, fingers crossed, everything goes well. It'd be nice to you know Hopefully be coming back with ultimate direction next year. I Will be thank you, thank you, I'll be working and you know I'll be working with in Genji through May as well. It's my sock sponsor and and for the next year as well leader. It's super food and Ascent protein.
Speaker 2:So yes, Got some other got some other things in the in the pipeline as well for like supplements and stuff like that. But yeah, it's pretty. It's definitely looking looking good for next year. So I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Last but not least, question man what is, what's your mic? That you're using the mic for the podcast?
Speaker 2:Oh man, hold on, it's on my. It's literally in my Amazon inbox or my Amazon purchasing right now. Um, here we go. Is this it? Nope, that's the universal. Uh, here we go. Pod mic. I am using the pod mic dynamic broadcast. Oh sorry, this is terrible. I should do this all the time, man, pod mic, pod mic. Dynamic broadcasting microphone is the one that I had. I'll send you a screenshot of it. Okay, so get a few of those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man Well dude, this podcast world is going to blow your mind, man. Your circle is so big right now it's going to get even bigger and have people, you know, like surprise, I have people like you in my circle, you know, and other people you know. You just hit them up and be like, hey, can I put you on the podcast? And they're like yeah, sure, I'm like Dang, for real, it's that easy, all right, you know. So, yeah, it's going to blow your mind, man, it's. It's definitely a different world, but it's fun. It's fun. And if you're not having fun, like I tell people you're doing it wrong. Man, and you know, just like I tell these kids who come to cross country, they don't practice but they want to, they expect to have good results or great results in the race. I'm like you don't come to practice, hey, it's showing, but hey, I don't know anything, I'm just a coach, you know, like I told, them if you're not having fun, then you're doing it wrong, man and hopefully you take this.
Speaker 1:You take this and, man, you just make it. You know your own and have a blast doing it.
Speaker 2:So I appreciate the advice and that you know what. You're absolutely right, like. This has been something I've been cooking up in my mind, for I've had the name for it for, like I said, probably solid two years now, and I've had the idea for probably solid two years. And you're absolutely right, if it's not something like it's 100% a passion project, it's not. Obviously this is not a plan to make money or anything like that. This is just, you know, how can I network and meet as many interesting people in the sport and give them an opportunity to tell their story? You know, and that's the exciting thing. So it's going to be. I'm excited, you know, and this is such a cool, especially, you know, getting this started in 2024, building up to 2025, which is when we'll have worlds again, which is something, like I said, I plan and the goal is to try and qualify for. Yeah, it's going to be some amazing things to talk about and hopefully there'll be a lot of amazing conversations at. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, man, I appreciate your love and support, man, believe it or not, and you know, just the feedback alone. And you know, when I am feeling, feeling a little doubt, you know like, let's set up James, let's let me see what he thinks. Because, dude, you're on it, man, you actually listen and I'm all okay, how was it? And you tell me, I'm like, really, so I look at your perspective and I'm like, oh, I see that, okay, I got that, I got it from it. So, yeah, dude, you're killing it.
Speaker 2:You're killing it. I just re-listened. Today I was listening to the Jack Kensen podcast and I that's a personal favorite of mine yeah, that guy is an inspiration. I mean, they're all great. I listened the other day. I listened to the Chris Fisher one. I listened to them all. So yeah, it's, I'm big. I guess I'm as much a fan of it as I am. You know anything else. So I know, I appreciate, appreciate your feedback.
Speaker 1:So Well, you guys, if you guys are listening and everything else, and you guys need another podcast to listen, outside of mine and probably Rogan and others, but hit up James podcast. Yes, the steep stuff podcast. I can't wait, man, thank you. You better have me on speed dial when you put that out. Hey, I did it, so I can. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I want you to be listening to me. Well, there's going to be a lot of tests, testing to coming out, because I'm going to have to figure this out as we go. So December through December through January is going to be a lot of figuring things out.
Speaker 1:I have time, so don't, don't hesitate. But, man, until then, dude, please, james, keep in touch, keep being you and have fun on the off season. Man, please, I will.
Speaker 2:Thank you, man. Thank you so much for having me Instagram. Check me out at James Lorelo and, yeah, steep stuff. Podcast will be dropping, probably February. Thank you, yeah.