Dirt Church Radio Trail Running

Guyon Espiner is a legend of New Zealand journalism. From his time in the Press Gallery, to his work as TVNZ’s political editor, to the host of Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report, to his current work as an investigative reporter producing impactful podcasts such as The Service and Red Line. What you might not know about Guyon is that he has completed over 20 marathons, several ultramarathons and m...

It’s uncertain times, right? And certainly at the moment it feels like we are all faced with multiple challenges. Climate change and extreme weather events seem to be playing a major part in that uncertainty. What can we, as trail runners who engage with the outdoors so regularly, do about this? Eugene and Matt speak to Maz Krogh, runner, physiotherapist, ski instructor, and lead advocate for Prot...

Returning champions Kerry Suter and Ali Pottinger from Squadrun are back at it to drop the knowledge bombs and provide the necessary lockdown inspiration for the people! With Eugene and Matt’s live show with the dynamic duo scuppered because, well…reasons, we thought that it was no better time to tap into the huge knowledge base that the two founding coaches of Squadrun bring to the table. An almo...

Barefoot Ted McDonald is a shaman. In 2009 he became a central character in Christopher McDougall’s best selling book about natural  running and movement, Born To Run. Ted was initially portrayed (perhaps unfairly) as the quintessential ugly American, a brash, larger than life counterpoint to the retiring Tarahumara, the legendary distance runners whom McDougall’s party had ventured to the Copper...

This week Eugene and Matt come charging out of Level Four (well, figuratively) for an excellent conversation with Scotty Hawker.  If you’d asked Scotty if he would have been in Europe 8 months ago, lining up for the 100km CCC, you probably would have gotten laughed at. In the last kilometre of his last run of 2020, Scotty sustained a potentially career-ending ankle injury. Further to this, and mor...

This week Eugene and Matt have the privilege and pleasure to speak with Aotearoa/New Zealand Para swimmer Mary Fisher! Prior to her retirement from the structure, rigor, and scrutiny of high performance sport in 2018, Mary won Gold at the London and Rio Paralympics in world-record times. After that, Mary chose to do something relaxing, like run the Tarawera 87 km. Eugene and Matt speak to Mary aft...

We have a first on this week’s Dirt Church Radio. We’ve never spoken to an actual (literal) shepherd before. Let alone a shepherd who goes after it as hard as Ryan Carr does. Rocketing onto the trail running scene in 2017, Ryan has enjoyed a string of victories and podiums at Aotearoa/New Zealand’s hardest races including the Luxmore Grunt, The Tongariro Goat, and Mt Difficulty half. Eugene and Ma...

This week Eugene and Matt head back to the Mountain Time Zone for an amazing conversation with iRunFar editor-in-chief Bryon Powell. We talk recovery from Hardrock, how good it is to be back at it racing post COVID, and how 2020, whilst very challenging, did allow a chance for a reset. Matt has a legitimate fanboy moment and shows Bryon his dog-eared copy of Relentless Forward Progress that Powell...

Seven years ago on a trip to Brazil Chloe Wickman noticed the overwhelming explosion of body positivity and vibrancy which saw all shapes and sizes embrace colour and celebration. Wanting to capture the joy and confidence of the mulit-coloured clothing she had experienced Chloe started Zeenya Clothing. If you’ve stood on the start line of any trail run or major ultramarathon in the last few years...

Kia Ora Whānau. Some would say that Gareth Thomas has enjoyed a magic run of weather in the four years that WUU2K (Wellington Urban Ultramarathon) has been run. We all hoped that 2021 would be an extension of that great weather however it was sadly not to be. Faced with difficult choices everywhere he turned, Gareth ultimately had the choice made for him by the Meteorological Service. So the whole...

Stephen Redfern decided to run a half marathon in 2014. It went well. He then ran 100km a few months later. FIVE WEEKS after that Stephen completed his first 100 mile race. From there … well. World 24 hour champs, Western States, UTMB … Stephen is the secretary of the Australian Ultra Running Association, and race director of the Unreasonable East 200 mile and Sydney 24 hour. Gosh. That’s a lot, r...

Kia Ora Whānau. 150 episodes!!! That’s like three years of Dirt Church Radio! Everything comes up gold with this one, as Matt and Eugene speak with Western States runner-up and all round LEDGUND Ruth Croft. This is an incredible conversation with an amazing human being. Ruth takes us on a deep dive into the preparation, performance, and atmosphere of Western States and talks us through her (very w...

Kia Ora Whānau. This week Eugene speaks to Caitlin Fielder about her long road back from serious injury to her course record at Tarawera 50km, her burgeoning shoe painting business, the insanity of European race courses, cheering Ruth Croft on from afar, and how cycling really is a beneficial form of cross training. We cover the big dance (Hallertau Riverhead Rampage), the OTHER big dance (Western...

Kia Ora Whānau. This week Eugene and Matt have the distinct pleasure of speaking with Martin “Rocky” Walker of Further Faster. Rocky has been a force to be reckoned with in the outdoors scene for the last 30-plus years, making his way to Aotearoa, and setting up his outdoors store Further Faster. We have a great chat with him about his love of the outdoors, dogs, gear, racing, snow, doom metal, an...

Kia Ora Whānau. Fall down twice, get up three times... That's how it goes isn’t it? This week on the pod Eugene talks to former professional Ironman and Ultraman champion Carl Read about his road to redemption and the fundamental  changes he’s made to his training in the hope that he will be successful in his third attempt at the Tarawera 100 mile race. And the importance of being yourself. E...

Kia Ora Whānau. “For our first episode of Dirt Church Radio we are privileged to sit down with Paul Charteris, the founder of Tarawera Ultramarathon …” That was three years and 145 episodes ago. Things have changed a bit in the intervening years, but having Paul Charteris back on the podcast was even more rewarding, interesting, and engaging than the first time. We speak of life post Tarawera, the...

Kia Ora Whānau. Lots of people say that they have run all their lives but by the time Te Anau’s Mark Green was 12 years old he had run 20 half marathons. Mark really HAS been running for nearly his whole life. After training as a physiotherapist, Mark went on to spend several years in London and Sydney working with runners to make them stronger and faster. Wanting to give their children the outdoo...

Kia Ora Whānau. There is trail running and then there is getting after it in the wild places. The places where no matter what, your pack will be kinda heavy, you will have a beacon with you and there will be parts of that place which could be considered “mildly terrifying” (Wright, 2021). This is where Elly Arnst thrives. From a road running background, Elly then turned to tramping in the ranges a...

Kia Ora Whānau. Runners love routine, right? The overriding wisdom for most of us is consistency consistency consistency. Habit is an absolute strength, however habits can become just that, habit. Kay (pronounced “Kai”)  Bretz moved from what he described as hobby running to the marathon relatively quickly, and stayed there for the next 15 years, always chasing his PB, consistency, control, and ha...

Kia Ora Whānau. This week we have a chock full podcast for you. We run through the plethora of running events around the country, we run (ha!) through the UTMB-IRONMAN announcement, have a repeat GRE offender and for the main event have an amazing conversation with the wonderful Jaime Stevenson. Jaime is a self-confessed roadie who is dipping her toe into the trail scene. Jaime won the 2019 Alps 2...

Kia Ora Whānau. This week on the podcast Eugene and Matt bring you our DCR X Sportslab live show. We had the pleasure of speaking with Loren Abel, Vaughan Craddock, and Luke McCallum from Sportslab at Hallertau Tap Haus about all things preventative. This is a wide ranging discussion touching on injury prevention, the importance of recovery, and how small habits factored into our active lives can...

Kia Ora Whānau. This week on the podcast Eugene and Matt have a conversation with the indefatigable Fran McEwen. Where to start with Fran? She’s someone who gets things done. She’s an ultramarathon runner, but if you’d said that to her teenage self, she’d have laughed at you. After a self-described idyllic kiwi childhood in Lower Hutt,  she experienced what many teenagers did, drifted away from sc...

Kia Ora Whānau. This week on the podcast Eugene and Matt pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off after the love-in/mud pit /festival that was the 2021 Riverhead Backyard Relaps Ultramarathon and Relay. This episode has the record for most people interviewed in one show, with Shaun Collins, Brooke Thomas, Adam Keen, Mike White, Andrew McDowell, and Chris Bisley. We also have additional bonus audio...

Kia Ora Whānau. This week on the podcast Eugene and Matt jump in for a sweet little chat with running legend Dawn Tuffery. We talk about her stellar 2021 of racing, including 3rd place at the Tarawera 100 miles, the IAU 6 hour solidarity run, and 3rd at the Coastal Ultra just last weekend.  We romp through the bumper crop of results from the weekend’s racing,go through the details of our upcoming...

Kia Ora Whānau. This week on the podcast we have our first Father-Son double header! Eugene speaks to Ben and Yonni Kepes. Ben and Yonni are an ultra trail running father and son from Canterbury. They are both volunteer firefighters, both involved in the family business which Ben co-founded, Cactus Outdoors, and both involved with the organisation Speed Freaks. Ben has also been recognised for his...