Dirt Church Radio Trail Running

Kia ora e te whānau. Katie Wright has done a lot of cool stuff, probably the coolest thing we think she’s done is being on DCR the most out of anyone. Ok, she’s done cooler stuff, but not much. You could fit this year’s trip to the infamous Barkley Marathons as being in the more-cooler-than-DCR column, same with being the current Tarawera 100 mile champ, oh, and in the final four at Big’s Backyard...

Kia ora e te whānau. Exactly 160 episodes ago, when Anna Frost (or Frosty as she is known) came on our show, we gushed in the bio. Oh, how we GUSHED. And why not?  Anna is, like, 100% one of the most successful trail and ultra running exports from Aotearoa. She burst onto the scene in what was the first wave of the professional ultra athlete, running for the mighty Salomon team. Going from spendin...

Kia ora e te whānau. How do you do something that many have considered impossible? And does your thinking change over time from just what is impossible to possible? For Michael Stuart it was the competitiveness between siblings that ignited his passion for running. Squaring off in a half marathon against his older sister, Michael probably never considered that one day he would be completing an und...

Kia ora e te whānau. Last week Eugene found himself on a call with Ali Pottinger and Kerry Suter discussing the long, slow, and painful road out of the hell that they had found themselves in after the MTB crash which left Kerry paralyzed. Honest, raw, painful, this conversation is likely to get many of you in the feels. Accepting the whole experience, and as is typical with Kerry, the conversation...

Charles Amoamo (Whakatōhea) finished his first ultra in November, a 50 km – 11 hours and 22 minutes at the Valley Ultra. And, yeah, it was tough - rain, cold, some decent hills. But you know what, he’s tougher than all of that put together. At one point, Charles was 182 kg, experienced anxiety and had four toes amputated after a work accident, so, yeah, he’s been on a journey. Why did he do it? We...

Kia ora e te whānau. Sam Harvey stood toe-to-toe with Chris Bisley in the coral at the 2021 Riverhead ReLaps knowing he was running for true love and therefore he could not be beaten. He was running with the knowledge that the golden ticket was *literally* his golden ticket back to his fiance in Nashville. Having entered the race three weeks before, Sam had enjoyed the comradeship of the wider gro...

Kia ora e te whānau. As a young man Rob Hutchings found joy in the suffering of triathlon. A manner to escape an increasingly unhappy and violent upbringing. Choosing his own suffering, on his terms, relishing the pain that it caused him, and reveling in the savagery of competition. Years later, Rob had an epiphany after a spectacular feat of self destruction during an ultramarathon. His love of s...

Kia ora e te whānau. For those who may be unfamiliar, Wild Things is the popular and successful trail community started by Malcolm and Sally Law in 2016. The group grew (and grew) to now number in the tens of thousands, the initial interest no doubt spurred by Malcolm’s huge following. In September of 2021 there was the shock news that Malcolm and Sally were stepping away from Wild Things and Rob...

Kia Ora e te whānau. This week Matt has the pleasure of another conversation with returning guest Lucy Bartholomew. We last spoke with Lucy in 2018, after she’d placed third at Western States. Lucy was full of passion for running, the outdoors, and eating plant-based food. It feels weird to be calling someone “an old head” at 25, but Lucy has been running endurance events since she was 15 and has...

Kia Ora e te whānau. When you need wisdom, you don’t always find it in a yurt on the shores of Lake Hawea. But sometimes you do, and in this episode Eugene and Matt certainly did. Aerobic Edge head honcho Adam Keen interrupts a much-needed holiday to drop wisdom about coaching Brooke Thomas and Emma Timmis, managing yourself in the summer heat, the appropriate mindset for training, and life. Adam...

This Week On The Podcast we talk with Emma Timmis about just what it takes to come back from an injury that lasts years and run the length of New Zealand in a record time - Interesting Conversations with Interesting Runners.

Kia Ora e te whānau. It’s hot, eh? This week we’ve got another greatest hit for you. In fact, not that we really pay attention to the numbers, but we have our most popular episode on DCR ever, Number 83 with the legendary Scotty Stevenson. It was hot the night that we recorded the podcast. Scotty walked into Eugene’s lounge dressed up to the nines in full TV makeup (having just left the tele to co...

So we were out on a run on the weekend thinking about how best to kick off 2022. We’ve both got a bit on for the next couple of weeks, with some cool adventures and family holidays planned. We were going back over the catalog and remembered that we’ve had some cool guests over the years that a bunch of you might not have heard. So for the next two weeks we are going to be replaying three of those...

Matt, Eugene and Andrew McDowall sit in Andrew’s super fancy studio and run down the year that was. The highs and the lows, the struggles and triumph and all the amazing races and performances that happened in the 100 Year War that was 2021. We speak to the returning champion and actual champion Ruth Croft, all the way from the Best Coast about her massive year, and how whilst some things changed,...

This week on the podcast Eugene and Matt speak to triathlete, ultra runner, podcast host, and nutritionist Dr Mikki Williden. This is Mikki’s second go ‘round on the old DCR and this time we really wanted to get into the weeds about some specific nutrition topics around the silly season, including how do we enjoy ourselves and not go off the rails (too much)? What’s the latest thinking around race...

This week on the podcast Eugene and Matt speak to New Zealand representative orienteer, teacher, race director, and all-round legend Madeleine Collins. Madeleine is one half of Lactic Turkey events and tells us of the ongoing challenges of running an events company in the midst of a global pandemic. We also discuss her five year recovery from a traumatic brain injury, the adventures that the Colli...

This week on the podcast Eugene is again ganged up on with he and Matt speaking to the incredible Matt Fenn. Matt is an athlete who focuses on running as a means to spark conversation, unite, and inspire. In March 2021 Matt ran 654km, one kilometre for every Kiwi who lost their life to suicide in the last year, breaking the New Zealand distance running record in the process. Not content with this,...

Matt and Eugene speak to the legendary Tattoo Runner, Mat Grills. This conversation is a wee rip-snorter: From uber-jacked frontman in a Christian Hardcore band  to running his first marathon with his dad, to brain surgery, to the police, to ultramarathons, approximately 10000 tattoos to now being the proud co-owner of two cafes and having just come off the back of 50 days of consecutive marathons...

Keeping up with the theme of returning legends on DCR this week Eugene and Matt are joined by Katie Wright. For those of you perhaps unfamiliar, Katie was the first woman in the world to win a Last Person Standing event at the inaugural Riverhead Relaps in 2019. From there Katie found herself at Big’s Backyard where she was one of the final four, romping to a massive 50 yards, or 332.8km. Last yea...

This week Matt and Eugene are reunited with returning guest, ultrarunning legend and all-round legend Camille Herron!! This really does warrant two exclamation marks as Camille lays down the challenges that she has overcome in the last while in the lead up to her course record performance at the Javelina Jundred two weeks ago. Holding several world records (I mean, she’s honestly lost count) Camil...

This week we catch up with the remarkable Harita Davies, fresh from her national record-breaking performance at the famous Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race in New York (50 days, 13 hours, 23 minutes and 14 seconds). We learn the surprising things about recovering from such a long run, what you eat and drink when you’re in the middle of such an assault on the body (watch out for baking...

This week, the amazing Hazel Harrison. From an 800m-running army nurse to Marathon des Sables completing ultra runner (5th in her age group!), Hazel’s journey has been incredible. Navigating Covid, surviving cancer, and then actually getting to the race itself are just the beginnings of this epic tale. Hazel had to endure extreme conditions, the death of a fellow competitor, and major insults to h...

Matt and Eugene are joined by a true legend of our sport, Andy Jones-Wilkins. AJW (as he is known) began running ultramarathons in 1996 as a way to maintain fitness in between transcontinental cycling trips with his wife, Shelly. AJW was a stalwart top-ten finisher at Western States in the early 2000’s, finishing in the top ten seven consecutive times with a career-best second place to the mighty...

Eugene and Matt have the distinct pleasure of welcoming Robbie Britton back to Dirt Church Radio. Robbie first guested on episode 99 when we talked about representing Great Britain at the world 24 hour champs, being a coach, his master’s degree in science, and his absolute love of adventure. Robbie has now added the title “author” to his repertoire, with the imminent release of his book 1001 Runni...

Pat Davies served in the Gulf Wars and conflict zones such as Afghanistan and the Falklands during his military career. Starting off as a 17-year-old in the RAF, he eventually ended up moving with his family to New Zealand and joining the RNZAF, and now works for Defence. Along the way, it’s fair to say, he’s seen some things people shouldn’t have to. And those experiences take their toll. In this...