Dirt Church Radio Trail Running

Kia Ora Whānau. This week on the podcast, Eugene and Matt have an engaging conversation with New Plymouth’s Matt Girvan. Matt lives in Edinburgh these days and managed to time the back half of his OE with spending nearly a year indoors. Frustrated by this and wanting to experience the wild spaces of Scotland, Matt put in place an FKT attempt on the Scottish National Trail - 864km and 20,000 metres...

Kia Ora Whānau. Jamie Hawker ran his first 100km at 18 years of age. He waited 40 years to do his second. This week, Eugene and Matt have their hearts lifted and their minds blown with this amazing conversation with Jamie Hawker. Jamie is a local legend. He’s turned to engagement in the community to supplement his running buzz. From his involvement in the Port Hills Athletic Club in Christchurch,...

Kia Ora Whanau. One of the most enjoyable things about spending such a long time on the mic with Squadrun founders Kerry Suter and Ali Pottinger at Tarawera ultramarathon was the off-mic talk about training, race craft, and physiology. They were dropping science like Galileo dropped the orange (Yauch Diamond & Horowitz 1989). We thought it would be an excellent idea to get the pair back onDirt...

Kia Ora Whanau. Charles Williams (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāpuhi) is a walking anti-stereotype machine. This conversation is incredible, covering his journey from a young man making street art “in the shadows” (as he describes it) to a 20-year partnership with his wife, Janine, making the most incredible urban art possible. Charles is a bird nerd, you’ll see why when you take so much as one...

Kia Ora Whanau. Lockdown Larries ride again!!! Back once again, just where you left us. Dismayed as we were that our holidays were interpreted by the squawking of our cell phones instructing us to take our toys and go home, and that we needed to re-jiggle things to fit this week’s lockdownapalooza we remain unbowed and ever-optimistic (sort of). This week, we discuss the raft of changes that the c...

Kia Ora Whanau. From atop a small wardrobe in Riverhead, and a campervan in Bannockburn, Matt and Eugene bring you Dirt Church Radio Episode 131. Matt Urbanski. That’s right folks, we are across the miles yet again this week, separated by the tyranny of holiday and NOT pandemic. Take that, COVID. We crack through the rundown of whatever else the rest of the country was doing whilst Auckland was in...

Kia Ora Whanau. We were somewhere around Ohinemutu on the edge of the lake  when the gels began to take hold. I remember saying something like ``I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should take a turn on the mic....'' And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge Pukeko, all swooping and screeching and diving around us. We felt like we...

Kia Ora Whanau. Andrew Robinson stood looking at the sign halfway between Mangatepōpō road and Soda Springs which encourages travellers to complete the Northern Circuit if the sky is blue and clear and to turn back if the path is shrouded in cloud. Knowing that he and his team had gambled with the weather on their first day Robinson stood contemplating whether to continue or not in his quest to be...

Kia Ora Whanau. Falling behind the schedule that she’d set for herself, suffering the effects of low iron, arguing with her support crew who were imploring her to stop and seek medical attention Brooke Thomas lost control during her Te Araroa attempt. Or rather, she gave up control, attended to what she could attend to, and focussed on enjoying the process and journey. In doing so, Brooke collecte...

Kia Ora Whanau. Ian Evans loves games, literally any type of game - Monopoly, Cluedo, football, croquet, The Revenant. One of these things is not like the others, right? Not the way Ian approaches it. This week Matt and Eugene have the distinct pleasure of speaking to Ian Evans about his love of the mountains, process, play and his refreshing approach to training. Ian, who has a background in outd...

Kia Ora Whanau. We’re close to bursting with excitement about the plethora of amazing late summer racing coming up, and we know you are too. There are tonnes of you who have done the mahi over the months, investing time, energy, thought, and resources into it. You’ve dialled your training, dialled your gear and now it’s time for the traditional three-week-out-taper-madness-will-it-won’t-it-0300-fe...

Kia Ora Whanau. We are BACK and we are RUSTY, and Sarah Douglas is awesome … so it all washes out. Sarah has been involved with DCR from the jump, designing our logo prior to our first episode. Sarah grew up in Christchurch, fell in love with the structure and competition of running and moved to the USA on a collegiate scholarship. Returning to Aotearoa with a Degree in Fine Arts and her love of t...

Kia Ora Whanau. For our last show of the year we can only say “Gosh, that escalated quickly”. For the first (and probably last) time we come to you live from the salubrious environs of Digicake studios with the wonderful Andrew McDowall. We bring you a live cross from iso-queen Ruth Croft, who talks about racing in Europe, her 0430 car park half marathons and why it’s defo better to boil an egg in...

Kia Ora Whanau. For our second-to-last show of the year Eugene and Matt have the pleasure of bringing you a conversation with Sarah Bouckoms. This episode is a first for a couple reasons: It’s the first time that we’ve ever recorded a podcast in a hotel lobby (Distinction Te Anau, no less), and it’s the first time that we’ve ever had an astro-physicist on the podcast. Do you know what an Ice Cube...

  Kia Ora Whanau. The 2020 Kepler Challenge may not have been the race we wanted - what with the alternative course being in play for a second year on the trot - but it was certainly the race we needed. 2020 has been a challenge in itself. Challenge, heck, that’s a bit anodyne.. 2020 has been a hot mess - full of dread, anxiety, anger, the global spectre of narcissism being the new black and the e...

Kia Ora Whanau. This week is powerful. Eugene has the distinct pleasure of speaking with Hanny Allston. Hanny is based in Tasmania and is a high performance coach, owner of Find Your Feet Outdoors, former junior and senior world champion orienteer - elite trail runner and now the author of Finding My Feet, a powerful memoir which delves into a lot of topics including body image, mental health, and...

Kia Ora Whanau. This week Matt sits down for a conversation with author and runner Markus Torgeby. Torgeby was 20 years old, a talented, and deeply unhappy runner when he decided to live in the the woods near the arctic circle, to hone down his life to what was important to him. Moving with the rhythm of seasons and his surroundings, Markus learnt to truly hear his body on his long daily runs. Mar...

Kia Ora Whanau. This week Eugene and Matt sit down with the one and only Kunal Kumar to talk about his love of photography and trail running. Kunal is well-known in New Zealand for his beautiful documentation of our landscapes and trail running events. An avid trail runner himself, Kunal explains how photography and running are intrinsically linked for him. We also press Kunal on just what makes t...

This week Eugene speaks to Zoë Rom. Zoë Rom is an Associate Editor of Trail Runner magazine in the US, and host of the DNF Podcast, a podcast about failure. Which is actually awesome. If you were going to cheat on us with another podcast, well... we’d still be upset, but we’d understand. In addition to being a journalist, Zoë is a trail runner, having set a couple of FKTs this summer, including on...

Kia Ora Whanau. This week Eugene and Matt are stoked to get to speak with Glenn Sutton. We tried last week, however Glenn was out supporting his mates on a 91km push from Geraldine to Tekapo and whilst up for a chat, the reception wasn’t. Golly, this is worth the wait. We talk about Big’s Backyard, and how the man who is the only New Zealander to finish Badwater 135 three times (!!!) considers him...

Kia Ora Whanau. One of the things that people say to us a lot is that they listen to DCR on their long run, because our shows are … long. This week we're bringing you an episode that you can listen to on a run around the block. Anything in the creative space involves thinking on your feet (pardon, the pun) we’d planned on catching up with someone who has engaged in some amazing adventures ove...

Kia Ora Whanau. This week...this week... gosh, it’s been a lot. It’s been a lot for many reasons, but concerning the casting of the pod, it’s mainly been about the Aotearoa/New Zealand iteration of Big Dog’s Backyard Ultramarathon, or Satan’s Zoom call ( if you will). Matt, Rebecca, and Rigby went on an overnight adventure to capture the start of Big’s and get some conversations with the participa...

HEY! THERE’S BEEN RACES ON THIS WEEK!!! WOOOOOOOO. Matt and Eugene get amongst it with all the action from the Taupo ultramarathon, Three Peaks Plus 1, The Abel Tasman Coastal Classic and the Wairarapa Country Marathon..There’s also an excellent Greatest Run Ever and don’t even get us started about Amy Sproston. Oh, go on then… Amy is an elite trail and ultra marathon athlete based in Jordan. Amon...

Kia Ora Whanau. This week Eugene and Matt speak to Meghan Hicks. Meghan is the managing editor of iRunFar, until very recently,( like, the Friday we spoke to her) the holder of a new woman’s supported FKT on the Nolan’s 14 line, a link-up of two trailheads and 14 mountains taller than 14,000 feet in Colorado’s Sawatch Range.94.5 miles long and had roughly 45,000 feet of climb in 50 hours and 32 mi...

Kia Ora Whanau. This week Eugene and Matt speak to Phil Rossiter,Old Ghost Ultramarathon Race Director and Chairman of the Mokihinui-Lyell Backcountry trust. In an often-heard tale of people who travel to the West Coast, in 2005 Phil pitched up to undertake a one-year contract as an environmental scientist. Fifteen years later, he’s still there, having fallen in love with the people and the landsc...