Eat Clean, Run Dirty Podcast

Christen McFarland can be found at Northeast Ohio's favorite specialty run shop, Vertical Runner. There, Christen offers much more than personalized service and gait analysis. Christen really listens to the needs and goals of runners both seasoned and new and serves as a wonderful ambassador of our sport. Christen herself is an accomplished trail runner having competed in many races including Mohican 50 mile and The Burning River 100. In today's show, I chat with Christen about all the wonderful things a specialty run shop has to offer, both inside and outside their brick and mortar locations. This is a great show to share with folks just getting into running as well as a valuable reminder of all the amazing things our run shops do for our community.

This past May a new ultra race was born in the desert of central Arizona. They call it the Cocodona 250, a combination of the names Coconino and Sedona. The Cocodona takes runners on an epic point-to-point course from Black Canyon City to downtown Flagstaff leading runners through desert, canyons, pine forests, up and over mountain ranges, down Whiskey Row, and through historical mining towns. 42,313 ft of elevation gain across 255.8 miles with a 125-hour cutoff, Aravaipa Running is calling this a life-altering ultramarathon and we think they are spot on. In its inaugural year, Ryan Birkemeyer decided to run the thing. Being fairly new to ultra distances, having only done a single one hundred miler himself, and the epic scope of the challenge, Ryan asked friends Sketch Ditty and John Banister to support his racing through crewing and pacing. They eagerly accepted the opportunity. I was fortunate to meet all three gentlemen at the aid station I volunteered at around mile 127 in Jerome, again at an after-race breakfast in Flag, and now, here, on today's podcast. Ryan, John, and Sketch discuss what it took to cross that finish line in Flagstaff and collect the buckle of Arizona copper to join the ranks of the few brave souls who have tackled the 200-mile + division of trail and ultra running. 

Kristopher Cargile is a man of many talents. Kris works as an EMT, a trail running guide for Top Out Adventures,  a course ambassador for Trans Rockies, and volunteers and works at trail and adventure races across the United States, and so much more. I first connected with Kris for Eat Clean Run Dirty Magazine for the photos he took at H9. Kris is truly building something special with Group Run Finder and I am proud to be able to share it with you. I take the opportunity in this podcast to discuss what Group Run Finder is and more so what the running community has meant to Kris and me. Since the day I was first introduced to Kris I have found him to be both inspired and inspiring. Kris is a generous human with so very many skills and a big heart. We were fast friends. I hope you enjoy what I hope is the first of many conversations with Kris on the Eat Clean Run Dirty Podcast. His Group Run Finder project is incredible and adds to our sport and community in a big way. Take a moment and visit www.grouprunfinder.com and add your run or share it in your favorite run groups and clubs. Tell your friends. Share it on your socials. This is going to be huge.

Jeremy Peterson wrote an article for Eat Clean Run Dirty Magazine about the Holiday Lake 50k titled Horton’s Holiday. The Holiday Lake 50k is a loop course circling Holiday Lake itself as well as using country roads and trails in that area. The weather can be from nice and pleasant to running in a foot of snow. Jeremy tells the story of how the legendary Race Director, David Horton, started the race and how it has grown over the past 25 years. 2020 was a very special year in that Horton handed over the duties of Race Director to brothers Brenton and Jamie Swyers. The native Lynchburg Race Director duo are both ultramarathon runners and former Liberty University students where David Horton serves as Professor. Horton’s Holiday is paired with the photography of the very talented Jay Proffitt who aside from taking fantastic photos of the race is also the Producer of this very podcast. I hope you enjoy this audible article episode featuring Jay Proffitt, Jeremy Peterson, and David Horton, himself. My name is Jess Vandenbush and you are listening to the Eat Clean Run Dirty Podcast.

Sabrina Stanley is a trail and ultra runner who lives and trains in Silverton, CO. Sabrina’s resume includes a win at HURT 100, Grand Raid La Reunion, and Hardrock as well as an F3 finish at Western States. While Sabrina’s wins are impressive what really makes her glow is her drive, determination, and focus. Sabrina sets big goals and does the work to make them a reality. In Volume 1 of Eat Clean, Run Dirty Magazine Sabrina writes an article titled How to Coach Yourself. When I first approached Sabrina about writing an article I asked her about tips on choosing a coach and finding a good fit. Sabrina herself has coached many runners alongside her partner Avery Collins through their Power Couples Coaching. It was so refreshing to have Sabrina say that folks do not need a coach at all, With a little planning anyone can map out a successful training plan for their next big race. In a beautiful and comprehensive feature article in Eat Clean, Run Dirty Magazine, she shows us all how to do just that. To accompany this fantastic article we’ve recruiting Colorado’s Jordan Chapell and his photo series from one of my personal bucket list races, The High Lonesome 100. Jordan captures the rugged and sweeping landscapes in a way that the viewer can feel the grandeur of the course and the incredible difficulty in navigating it. The images are captivating and inspired. In today’s podcast, I sit down to chat with Jordan and Sabrina to do a deep dive on the How To Coach Yourself article. I am your host, Jessica Vandenbush, and this is the Eat Clean Run Dirty Podcast.

In the summer 2020 issue of Eat Clean, Run Dirty Magazine we take a deep dive into the 200-mile genera with an incredible article by David Infante titled A Journey Into The Self. I personally have not run or been present at any 200-mile race. I do have wild respect for the folks that do them and I notice they rarely stop at just one. It is something that lives in a runner’s blood and calls their name. Bring on the Bigfoot 200. The Bigfoot 200 traverses the Cascade Mountain Range with 42,000 feet of elevation gain in a 206.5-mile point to point course that begins at Mount St. Helens and finishing in Randle, WA traversing the Cascade Mountain Range. To better equip myself for this conversation, I invited a very special co-host, Ryan Chukuske. Ryan is a trail and ultra runner from Minnesota who not only is a Founding Member of Eat Clean Run Dirty Magazine but is the author of a book called Bigfoot 200, Because You Know, Why the #@&% Not? Together the three of us discuss what the human body and spirit goes through over the course of 200 miles in rugged country and why one can’t wait to go back. I got goosebumps when I first raid David’s race report. It’s vulnerable and gorgeous. You can learn more about the Bigfoot 200 by visiting Destinationtrailrun.com . You can follow David on Instagram at @dinfante64 and Ryan on Instagram at @chukuske . Please consider purchasing Ryan’s book on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Bigfoot-200-Because-You-Know/dp/1633936872. In a separate note, I’d like to take a moment to make a special announcement. The Eat Clean Run Dirty Podcast officially has a Producer. Jay Profitt is serving as our Production Intern. Jay lives in beautiful Lynchburg, Virgina and, among many other things, works as a race photographer, creates promotional videos, and does production for another great podcast called Math Before Breakfast. You can connect with Jay and check out his excellent work by visiting www.jayproffitt.com.

In the Summer issue of Eat Clean, Run Dirty Magazine Ryan Mulcahy is the subject of an article titled With Purpose. The article is a part of a regular installment to gain an understanding of other folks that share our wild spaces. The outdoors brings together different people around a common love of fresh air and inspiring landscapes. Ryan was an athlete from a very young age. As a boy growing up in rugged eastern Pennsylvania, he excelled at wrestling, cross country, and BMX. By excelled I mean that his childhood bedroom houses dozens and dozens of medals, trophies, and newspaper clippings. When I ask Ryan about his accomplishments he is humble and starts telling me about his older brother Sean. The Mulcahy boys were naturally talented and willing to do the hard work. Paul, their father, was their greatest coach. Ryan ran cross country in high school, college, and went after a career in coaching and developing runners. This brought him to Flagstaff Arizona and Waco Texas where he coached and trained but also started running bird dogs. He was waking up wild early to work his dogs and then coaching at Baylor University during the day. Ryan has vision and sets everything he does towards that goal. Today Ryan is still very much a coach. He is mentor and coach to a group in Boise Idaho but his dogs are his star athletes. The Q and A article in the magazine and this interview give us a glimpse into bird dogs and the upland bird hunting community. You can learn more about Ryan on Instagram by following @Borntorunkennels or by visiting Borntorunkennels.com If you’ve got a bird dog in your kennel please consider sending them to one of Ryan’s training camps. Spring is in Idaho, Summer in Montana, and winter on the Mariposa Ranch in South Texas.

Maggie Olson wrote a wildly helpful article for Eat Clean Run Dirty Magazine on how to fund your running habit. Those big goal races are completely attainable, you just need the right training plan for your finances. This is an expanded audio version of the favorite article from ECRD Issue 1. Subscribe to the print …

Cody Reed is a badass trail runner. He runs to compete at both popular American trail races and big gnarly international ultras. He lives and trains in Flagstaff, AZ, is one of the Coconino Cowboys, has incredible hair, and is a pretty rad human. Jess talks about all these things and more in this podcast …

Alie Columbus of Boise, Idaho is set her sights on becoming an ultra runner. She picked out a pretty cool local trail race to be her first 50k experience, The Wilson Creek Frozen 50k. Alie talked with Jess right before the race about what most exciting to her and what her biggest worries were. Then …

Sabrina Stanley is the sweetest lady beast in the land. In this episode of the podcast Jess asks Sabrina about her experiences being the first American to ever win at the super rugged and beautiful Diagonale des Fous and what her goals are for 2020. Jess get a little “fan girl” about the whole thing …

Sean Blanton is race director and owner of Run Bum Tours, he’s a road and trail runner as well as having competed in hundreds of ultras, and he is a pretty rad guy with a passion for adventure. Sean is spending some time along the Florida Trail preparing for his new race The Wild Florida …

Eamonn Powers discusses Last Horse Runners, Wayne Watch Podcast, Ultra Running Memes, and the beauty of the tribe that is the ultra running community. Sit back, throw some Pizza Rolls in that toaster oven, and enjoy this show. Check out The Herd at the https://www.lasthorserunners.com/ Listen to Wayne Watch HERE. Get the latest episodes of …

Idaho is home to a wild and rugged 100 mile mountain race called IMTUF, or the Idaho Mountain Ultra Trail Festival. This September 2019 I traveled across the country with friends to complete this amazing event. As with most formidable challenges we are battling much more than conditions and the course and the take away …

In this episode Jess discusses depression, post race blues, and owning your shit. Are you having a personal crisis? Maybe it’s because you’ve completely abandoned yourself. Here’s a few thoughts and steps that may help. Get the latest episodes of the Sugarstride Podcast directly on your mobile device. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and …

This is the race report of my 2019 attempt of the Bighorn 100. I made it to mile 78 in about 28.5 hours. It’s a hard thing to digest, a DNF at a hard mountain race. I definitely have 100 mile wreckage with my body, I trained my ass off, I climbed mountains, overcame many …

As runners we ask our bodies to do all sorts of things for us. Long runs, strength training, intervals, pub runs, trail miles, lunges, yoga, and even pulling a car tire around. You get the picture. Our bodies are being punished pretty much daily. What we fuel our bodies with is always important but critical …

Jason Green is a super cool guy. He always has a positive attitude and a big warm smile on his face. Jason genuinely wants everyone to feel like they belong and give them the opportunity to realize just what kinds of amazing things they can accomplish. Jason does so many things in support of the …

Shannon Howell just wants to be faster than the boys. Shannon Howell is a Beast Coast power house. She runs up gnarly , rocky mountains on the east coast like its no big deal. Shannon also happens to be super caring and wildly considerate. She is often leading the field in the toughest races east …

The Georgia Death Race is one of my very favorite trail running events anywhere. The East Coast trail community shows up in a big way to run or support this amazing event. The coarse is absolutely ridiculous and at points hard just for the sake of being hard. There is liquor at about every aid …

This was supposed to be a podcast about finishing a race. This was going to be a glorious tale of comebacks. A sweet story of race revenge. Instead it’s about a race that never even started. It’s about opportunity. Seizing the day. It’s about not just raining on your day but it storm of the …

The Grindstone 100 was beautiful, adverse, well organized, and surrounded by an amazing community in Virginia. This is an account of one lady’s trek to a buckle and a Hardrock Qualifier and all the Keystone Light, rocks, and chaffing that go into an epic finish. Find out more about the Grindstone 100 HERE.   Get …

If you’re a trail and ultra runner you do not need a race bib to have an epic running tour of a beautiful trail. Travis Lloyd is a special guest this week and discusses how to plan a running adventure and why it really can be even better than any big name race with a …

The inaugural UTE 100 mile trail race was rugged, remote, and beautiful. It was an excellent representation of the East Coast flavor of ultra running set in those gorgeous valley and peaks of the west. This is the story of Jessica Croisant’s 82 mile jog in the mountains. She was well beyond her comfort zone …

Western States is many trail and ultra runner’s dream race and big running goal. The qualifiers, lotteries, beautiful California trails and deep history all add to the allure of this storied 100 mile race. When good friend Lauren Pearch got her ticket drawn last December she had the opportunity to realize her dream from Squaw …

I lined up at the starting line of the 2018 Mohican 100 Trail Race. Things ended early for me around mile 88 but not before I recorded some interesting things out on the trail. If you put yourself out there enough and actually seek the limits of adversity you will discover what you are made …

Sabrina Stanley is strong, determined, stubborn, bold, and beautiful. She’s also got her mind set on winning Hardrock.Sabrina hasn’t been on the ultra scene for long but she didn’t waste time making her mark. Sabrina’s first ultra was the legendary Leadville 100 which she DNF’d but that only made her more determined to see just …

The Western States Endurance Run is many ultra runner’s pinnacle race. It’s the big show. The history, tradition, and community surrounding the 100 mile race is unlike any other. The people, places, and things surrounding the WS100 all play a huge roll in a runner’s overall experience at an event they very well may have …

Women are outnumbered by men in trail and ultra running. In a big way. When the distance in the race increases the number of women signing up for the racing goes way down. In 2016, of all people who started a 100 mile race only 21% of them were female. Those numbers are on the …

What are your big crazy goals? Many of us have that big goal race or big goal distance we want to achieve some day. Well some day just isn’t a plan. If you put a little strategy into how you spend your miles and what races you do sign up for you can make that …

Are you ready for 100 miles? If you have been wrestling with the idea of registering for your first one hundred mile race but just can’t seem to pull the trigger or just don’t know where to start then this episode is for you. Should you even be considering it? How do you pick your …

Ralph Protano is the Trail Development Manager for the Cleveland Metroparks. Ralph is the guy with the vision and the knowledge behind the amazing trails in the best park system in Ohio and beyond. Ralph’s “tread lightly” approach is intuitive to the environment he calls his canvas and his experience working with national historic trails …

One of my favorite things about running ultra marathons is the community and culture that surrounds these epic events, particularly the one hundred mile distance. There is something about the prolonged suffering and overcoming adversity that a runner faces in the course of the many hours it takes to complete an ultra that has a …

The dreaded DNF, or Did Not Finish, is a whole lot more than a blemish on your Ultrasignup score. It is a scar to be proudly shown. It means you attempted something epic. You went big. It also means it just wasn’t your day. All the great ultra runners have some kind of DNF story. …

  How do you balance family, work, and running? The secret is you don’t. If you are training for marathons or ultras then some part of that trifecta is going to fall apart. The trick is, just like running down steep hills, it’s controlled chaos. Something has got to give but you can choose what …

It’s been way too long since the last episode of the Sugarstride Podcast. We are back! The Sugarstride Podcast is all about trail and ultra marathon running! We are back after a few months off and ready to rumble if you will. Today we discuss just where the hell I was and what is coming …

Just what can you do in preparation to make sure race day is perfect? While running an ultra marathon there are bound to be all sorts of issues that will come up over the course of a 50k to 100 miles or more. This is no surprise. Anticipating these setbacks or obstacles and being prepared …

This is an extra special episode of the Sugarstride Podcast. Sugarstride has a running club called Eat Clean, Run Dirty and we meet up for some miles and a free beer on Monday nights in Cleveland for roads or Akron for trails. In this podcast we set up a portable recorder at the Craft Beer …

Warren and Erica Pole are ultra runners and triathletes that were sick of all of the poor choices endurance athletes had to fuel their performance. It didn’t make much sense to them that they ate whole, healthy, plant based foods everyday but when they competed in races they had no good choices at all. The …

Electrolytes can be a tricky proposition. How much salt do you need? Not enough will make you feel zapped early on in your ultra. Too much could leave you looking for a tree to throw up or squat behind. The point is, your body requires three things: water, calories, and electrolytes. If you’re not replacing …

Avery Collins and Sabrina Stanley join the podcast to talk about Western States, golden tickets, grit, and their favorite failures. Avery Collins is tearing up the ultra scene, setting course records and breaking paradigms. Avery earned his entry to the historic Western States Endurance Run after winning the Georgia Death Race and capturing a golden …

The Mohican 100 is one of the oldest and longest ran one hundred mile ultra marathons in the United States. The trails of Mohican in central Ohio offer a buffet of everything you could encounter on a great ultra: waterfalls, huge hills, luscious forests, technical single track, and the best damn aid stations in the …

The Cayuga Trail races are just as beautiful as they are brutal. Miles of single track leads runners through luscious northern New York forests on a tour of waterfalls. Beauty always comes at a cost and this fifty mile was no exception. Hundreds of stone steps and winding pathways conspired to add just over 9,000 …

Quest for a DNF A very unusual Quest for the Crest 50k race report. Certainly the most difficult 50k in the United States, Quest takes runner’s on an epic journey through North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Featuring breathtaking views, luscious forest, tunnels of mountain laurel, and nearly 12,000 feet of elevation gain this ultra marathon …

Nate Warner likes to run….fast. In this episode we ask Nate how the hell an average, mid-packer type, can get fast too. Nate lays it out easy enough for any trail newbie to understand but in a way that gives even old timers confidence to go run with the speedsters on speed night. Nate Warner …

Here are a few tips on fitting your marathon or ultra-marathon training into your hectic life. The trick is to make every moment count and to have a clear plan. It’s easy to fall into the mindset that you are too busy to run. Training for a marathon takes a lot of time. Training for …

Northeast Ohio’s own David Ryland made the trek to California this past December to run his very first 50 mile trail race. This wasn’t just any race though, it was The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championship race, one of the most competitive trail races in the world. David didn’t just run the beautiful …

In today’s episode we reflect back on an outstanding 2016. Jessica reviews the top 5 downloaded Sugarstride Podcast episodes of the year. She also discusses the Burning River Film Festival and Eat Clean, Run Dirty. New for 2017 is the announcement of Trailsunite.com, a site with content submitted by the trail and ultra running community …

Dr. Matt Pisanelli is a Chiropractor that treats athletes at every level, from the couch to 5k runner to elite endurance athletes and Olympians. Dr. Matt is passionate about treating his patients so they can maintain health and improve their performance. In this episode Dr. Matt and I discuss who should go see a chiropractor, …

Special edition Laurel Highlands race report with Jon Crays.This is a special rebroadcast of Sugarstride Podcast episode 32 in honor of Jon getting selected in the Western States Endurance Run lottery this past weekend. Ohio has a large and dynamic trail and ultra community with a total of 105 people that were in the WSER …

  The Western States ® 100-Mile Endurance Run is the world’s oldest 100-mile trail race. In this episode of the Sugarstride podcast learn all things WSER from qualifier races, the golden ticket, lottery, and the most coveted buckle in ultra running. There are many WSER qualifying races. To view the entire list go to http://www.wser.org/qualifying-races/ …