Aaron Lutze is a creator and sports marketing savant. He's also a dear friend and mentor who has had an enormous impact on my career as an athlete and content creator. Aaron recruited me to Red Bull and acted as my manager for many years. He's recognized as one of the best sports marketers in the industry. Now, Aaron and I co-host another podcast called Second Nature where we talk about the Outdoor Industry, endeavoring to help people build brands, businesses, and careers in the space.
In this conversation, we talk about the past and present of athlete partnerships, the reasons brands sponsor athletes, the value of creating longform content, audience vs. community, the future of athlete partnerships, and a lot more!
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Courtney Olsen is a pro runner for HOKA living in Bellingham, WA. She is also the brand new World Record holder for the 50-mile distance, something she was able to achieve last weekend at Tunnel Hill in Southern Illinois. Finishing in a time of 5:31:56, Courtney managed to lower the existing record held by Ann Trason for 33 years by nine minutes. This is her first appearance on the podcast.
Topics we discuss:
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Sponsors:
Freetrail Links: Website | Freetrail Pro | Patreon | Instagram | YouTube | Freetrail Experts
Kilian Jornet is one of the greatest athletes of all-time across all sports. His athletic accomplishments are staggering across trail running, alpinism, and ski mountaineering. This season he won Zegama for the 11th time, Sierre Zinal for the 10th time, and then completed a 1200km traverse of the Alps -- a personal project he called "Alpine Connections."
Some topics we discuss:
Sponsors:
Freetrail Links: Website | Freetrail Pro | Patreon | Instagram | YouTube | Freetrail Experts
Max Jolliffe is a pro runner for Satisfy living in Southern California. Max has only been in the sport for a couple years, accumulating experience and discovering his talent. Last week, Max had his biggest athletic breakthrough, winning and setting a new CR at the Moab 240. Max has a powerful personal story and it was great to get to know him in this conversation.
Topics discussed:
The Beach Kid -- Film about Max's race at TDS
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Sponsors:
Freetrail Links: Website | Freetrail Pro | Patreon | Instagram | YouTube | Freetrail Experts
Dylan Links: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn | Strava
If you enjoy listening to the Freetrail Podcast, please consider leaving us a 5 star review in Apple Podcasts (or wherever to are consuming this) to help other like-minded listeners find our show. If we like your review, we'll consider sharing it so make sure you're following us @runfreetrail on Instagram.
Tim Tollefson is a pro runner for Craft Sportswear, living in Mammoth Lakes, CA. He is also the Founder and Race Director of Mammoth Trail Fest. Tim is just eclipsing his tenth year as a trail runner where he's been one of the best athletes in the world. Approaching his 40th birthday, Tim is in a bit of a transition, still motivated to compete at the top while building the foundation for his next chapter. Tim is a longtime friend and our careers are unfolding in similar ways, making this a really fun conversation.
Topics discussed:
Craft's film about Tim's 2024 UTMB
Sponsors:
Freetrail Links: Website | Freetrail Pro | Patreon | Instagram | YouTube | Freetrail Experts
Caleb Olson is a professional trail runner for Nike living in Salt Lake City, UT. In the last couple years, Caleb has had a remarkable streak of high performance, including qualifying for the World Championships, winning a Golden Ticket, and running 14:40 at Western States -- the fastest debut in the race's history. This is his first appearance on the podcast.
Topics discussed:
Sponsors:
Freetrail Links: Website | Freetrail Pro | Patreon | Instagram | YouTube | Freetrail Experts
Tara Dower is a trail runner and thru-hiker from Virginia. Last week, Tara Dower managed to lower the overall Fastest Known Time on the Appalachian Trail (AT), previously held by the legend Karel Sabbe, by 13hrs. This is her first appearance on the podcast.
Topics discussed:
- Tara’s background
- Her failed attempt to thru hike the AT in 2017 and her struggles with anxiety
- Her relationships with former record holders like Karl Meltzer & Jenn Pharr-Davis
- Her decision to go southbound instead of northbound
- Doing Hardrock only three weeks before the attempt
- Her slow start and need to make up a lot of time
- We talk about her crew known as chump change and her crew chief Rascal
- The saying that “the trail provides” and what that means practically
- Compare and contrast her strategy with Karrel Sabbe’s
- The character of the trail itself, what makes the AT different
- We talk about the practical tactics of sleep and self care
- A lot more!
Sponsors:
Freetrail Links: Website | Freetrail Pro | Patreon | Instagram | YouTube | Freetrail Experts
Jean-Marc Djian is the brand new VP of Footwear for SATISFY and one of the OG shoe dogs of trail running. Jean-Marc worked at Salomon for almost 20 years, pioneering trail running footwear during an important moment for the sport. After Salomon, Jean-Marc went to The North Face where he was able to significantly improve the brand's footwear offering. We talk about his career and learnings from both brands and look ahead to the goals for SATISFY.
Topics discussed:
Sponsors:
Freetrail Links: Website | Freetrail Pro | Patreon | Instagram | YouTube | Freetrail Experts
Freetrail’s first time at a Cirque Series event, the A-Basin event is the final of the 2024 series and has drawn an incredibly competitive field. Dylan talks to the race champions including Jane Maus, Patrick Kipnengo, and the breakout star from today: the men’s second place finisher, less than 45 seconds behind Patrick, Johen DeLeon. Johen is one of our favorite guests we’ve ever hosted and we are absolutely blown away by his race today. He is a master storyteller and we expect him to be the next big thing in trail running.
Thanks to On for sponsoring Freetrail’s coverage this weekend!
Want to learn more about Freetrail? Check out Freetrail.com to learn more and consider joining our membership community, Freetrail Pro, to be part of the best global online community of passionate trail runners. Best sport in the world!
Freetrail’s first time at a Cirque Series event, the A-Basin event is the final of the 2024 series and has drawn an incredibly competitive field. Dylan talks to some of the top athletes racing tomorrow, including Patrick Kipngeno, Philemon Kiriago & Adrian Macdonald. We also chat with Cirque Series founder and race director, and big mountain ski legend, Julian Carr. Note: due to travel schedules, we’ll be talking to some of the top women racers after the race in our post-race show tomorrow.
Our coverage this weekend is brought to you by On.
Want to learn more about Freetrail? Check out Freetrail.com to learn more and consider joining our membership community, Freetrail Pro, to be part of the best global online community of passionate trail runners. Best sport in the world!
Freetrail Links:
Website | https://freetrail.com/
Fantasy | https://fantasy.freetrail.com/
Freetrail Pro | https://freetrail.com/pro/
Patreon | / dylanbowman
Instagram | / runfreetrail
YouTube | / freetrail
Freetrail Experts | https://freetrail.com/experts/
Dylan Links:
Instagram | / dylanbo
Twitter | / dylanbo
LinkedIn | / dylan-bowman-06174380
Strava | / strava
Today we are joined by the 2024 UTMB champion, Katie Schide, the champ is here to recount the glory of her course record breaking day, running 22:09 in tough conditions, it was truly a historic performance and I’m honored she’d come on and share all about it.
We talk about the goal setting around the WS/UTMB double, the recovery and training in between the two world class races, we talk about how Katie cultivates focus and preserves energy during UTMB week, we talk about her sub-22hr goal, the rationale behind it and the strategy to attempt to achieve the mark, we talk about her fearless racing strategy, her composure, her improvement over time at the race the conditions of the day and the strange attrition in the fields, we talk about Katie’s incredible season, and a lot more.
Thanks to Katie for being willing to come on, hope you enjoy the episode.
Sponsors:
Freetrail Links: Website | Freetrail Pro | Patreon | Instagram | YouTube | Freetrail Experts
Dylan Links: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn | Strava
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Other Freetrail podcast episodes you might enjoy:
Courtney Dauwalter | Hardrock 100 Post-Race Interview
Jasmin Paris | Barkley Marathon Finisher
Jim Walmsley | UTMB Post-Race Interview
Also, please check out our other podcast, Second Nature: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/second-nature/id1737242598
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