Elite ultra marathon runner and trail racer Devon Yanko joins me on the podcast this week to talk all about Western States, running ultra marathons, and why she loves (and excels at) those long distances.

We start with Devon telling me more about her background, and how she got into running and eventually towards ultras. She tells me about her first ultra, and how the community drew her in to the sport. She shares with me some of the lessons she learned, then talks about the first ultra she won.

I ask Devon why she prefers running long distances, which leads us to talk about how the ability to endure suffering is a key element to ultra running.

We talk about her lowest race moment (that happened to be captured on camera for the Billy Yang film Life In A Day), and how she got through it.

That leads us to talking all about The Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, and her performance in 2016 where she placed third for women. She talks about what helped secure that podium spot, and goes in depth about various parts of the course. 

She tells me about her injury after that race, and how she ran seven more races on a broken foot.

We then talk about her first OCR in Utah last summer and what she thought about it, and I ask Devon if she'll try any endurance OCR's coming up, and we talk about the possibility of her running World's Toughest Mudder next year.

Lastly, I ask Devon why she loves running, and we talk about all the great things about these sports.

This week, I brought Erin Rost on the show to talk all about her second place win for the women at World's Toughest Mudder last weekend, and all about that intense 24-hour event.

We start with Erin telling me about her background and how she got into OCR, and we talked about Toughest Mudder South (her first endurance OCR) and the lessons she learned in order to have a strong performance at WTM.

She tells me more about how she trained for WTM, and describes some of the long distance races she ran to prepare, including the North Face Endurance Challenge, her first 50-mile race.

Erin shares the worries she had going into World's, and she tells me all about her WTM experience, from the obstacles, to the routes she chose, to the lowest moment during her race (and she recites the epic poem that helped her through it).

We talk about the dramatic finish to the women's race, and the moment she realized that she took second place, and Erin tells me how it felt to cross the finish line.

We also talk about her experiences with the Tough Mudder community on the course, and she shares her OCR plans and goals for next year.

For our second episode this week, I brought elite OCR athlete Mikhail Gerylo on to talk all about this year's OCR World Championships in the UK.

Mik starts by telling me all about the 15k race where he placed in the top 15, and talks about the 100 obstacles in detail. He shares what made the course so difficult, and why the overall completion rate for many elite athletes was so low.

He tells me more about the unique obstacles there, and shares his strategy for recovering after falling off an obstacle. Mik also compares this year's course to last year's, and the challenges with each.

We then talk about the team race, and he tells me his role on the Maple Syrup Mamas team alongside Ryan Atkins and Lindsay Webster. Mik gives more detail about the team race format, and tells me more about the stiff competition.

We then talk about the race distance that he prefers to train for, and Mik shares more about his background and coaching. He tells me his plans for the off-season, and his big OCR goals for 2019.