Scott Sowle is the owner of ‘Mountain Running Races’ offering several awesome events east of Seattle in Washington State. On this episode we talk about his visit to the Broken Arrow Skyrace, one of America’s biggest trail events, where Scott volunteered and took in the atmosphere. We ponder on what the team is building down there at Lake Tahoe in the days between Broken Arrow and Western States, including the new Trail Conference.

Michael Marchand, from Olympia Washington is running Hardrock in just a couple of days. He got his entry in the lottery and has been training his heart out at a local city park pounding the miles and vert just mere feet from his house. We talk about his training leading up to the race and his motivation to take on audacious challenges like this.
Follow his tracker through the San Juan mountains and cheer him to a finish back to Silverton.

Dale Garland has been part of the Hardrock family since the first moments. He’s the run director and part of an incredible team of locals from the Silverton, Colorado area who deeply care about these mountains and love to share them with the runners, support crews and spectators who come every year to this tiny, remote and very special place. We talk about Camp Hardrock and many of the behind the scenes elements that make this event one of the top trail races in the world.

Hannes Namberger, German Dynafit athlete and now triple winner of the Lavaredo Ultra Trail is back on Singletrack. We’re chatting about the race and his conversation with Tom Evans in the last few kilometers of the race leading to Hannes charging ahead and taking first place. We’re also touching on the topics of the longevity of an athlete’s career, what it takes to win at highly competitive races, and most importantly the famous Hannes Namberger Pizza at Ristorante 5 Torri in Cortina. See you in Chamonix later this summer.

The German Dynafit athlete Rosanna Buchauer is the new queen of Lavaredo. Last weekend she ran an incredible race leading from start to finish at the highly competitive Lavaredo Ultra Trail 120K in Cortina, the heart of the Dolomites in Northern Italy. Rosanna is coming back from a rough winter battling injury and self doubt, raced her heart out and gained back her confidence with this stellar performance. Now, as she’s recovering and slowly restarting her next training block she has her eyes set on CCC late August at the UTMB Finals in Chamonix.

Buzz Burrell needs no introduction. A giant in our trail running world, Buzz joins Singletrack to talk about the differences and similarities of trail running in Europe and North America. We touch on tourism, permitting, environmentalism and the way the media has influenced the past, present and future of our sport.

Ben Mead is a finisher of Cocodona250 2024. After months of training, he almost didn’t make it to the starting line, and then just after a few miles his race seemed over before even the first nightfall. But, with his team by his side Ben rallied, adjusted, and gritted his teeth all the way to Flagstaff. The stories of humanity these ‘multi-day mega trail races’ like Cocodona generate are truly something special, and this is Ben’s story.

Adam Lee, Mr. Community Trail Running, from beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is back on the show to chat about the importance of keeping ‘community’ in trail running and challenges of the ever-changing media landscape. We opine about the possibility of taking our little sport of trail running to the Olympics and I check in with Adam about his screening of the Trail Running Film Festival at the Rio in his hometown. Catch Adam and the Trail Running Film Festival in early June in several more locations all over Western Canada.

Swiss Alps 100 race director Jakob Herrmann stops by to chat about the origins of the event, what motivated him to get it off the ground, what keeps him going, and what his dreams are for the near future. The event has grown, offering a variety of different race distances, including a Hike and Fly event and now for the first time a Backyard Ultra. Hosted in one of the most beautiful corners of the world a race at the Swiss Alps 100 should to be on everyone’s bucket list.

Nick Triolo, writer, activist, and trail runner is back on Singletrack to share an update on his recent professional move and the giant leap of faith he just took. Nick and I chat about what motivates him to run, to share with others, and why he believes in beauty within our broken world. We also talk about running for a cause and the importance of story-telling in our overcrowded life full of churned out content.

Gretchen Walla, race director for Walla Trails and now for the Cougar Mountain Trail Series just outside Seattle is back on the show to chat about the amazing events she’s putting on and what makes them so special. We share stories about the challenges of race directing, and I cheer her on taking on a personal challenge of training for Teanaway Country 100 while directing almost a dozen events.

Madlen Kappeler just returned from the SkySnow Skyrunning World Championship in Tarvisio, Italy with 4 silver medals two her name. The Bavarian triathlete went to Florida Atlantic University on a scholarship and is now competing in sky running events for the German National Team.

Matt Urbanski from Team RunRun returns to Singletrack to chat about Rock Candy Running’s LBA races in Olympia, Washington. We discuss about the ins and outs of race directing and why I love being a race director.

Chrissi Faber is from Germany, lives in New Zealand and just very cool came in 3rd at the Tarawera Ultra Trail Miler. We chat about her race day experience, the event and its origins and the evolution under UTMB ownership.

Marcel is back! After a tumultuous winter Adidas athlete Marcel Höche joins Singletrack for a very personal conversation about the challenges of the athlete fan relationship. We take a deep dive into building a new and better running shoe, including the much hyped soon-to-be-released Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra. Of course, we touch on the UTMB situation, chat about sky running and make plans to meet for a beer in Chamonix.