Like a Bigfoot

This week we are welcoming back Jennifer Mabus to hear some stories from her adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail!! While hiking from Mexico to Canada, Jennifer experienced what truly can be described as an epic adventure. In this episode she shares stories from the trail, how she felt to reach the last mile of her journey, how the PCT community supported each other along the way, and what it is l...

This week we are welcoming back my cousin Matt Rackers from one of our earliest episodes!! Back then Matt had just finished his very first half marathon. This time, he is fresh off completing his self made trifecta where he finished an obstacle course race one weekend, a half marathon the next, and his first trail 25k on the third weekend. In this episode we talk all about these experiences, what...

"That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run." - Forrest Gump I'm extremely excited to welcome Rob Pope, the real life Forrest Gump, to this week's show! Over the last few years, Rob has taken on the EPIC challenge of recreating Forrest Gump's famous run. Over 15,000 miles across the United States 5 times, he tested the limits of his own endurance and experienced the U.S....

This week I'm honored to share a conversation with Josh Sprague, adventure racer, ultra endurance athlete, and founder of adventure gear company Orange Mud. We chat all about his recent attempt at Leadman, the series where competitors take on every single Leadville, CO endurance event over the summer. Josh also shares stories from his time as an adventure racer and discusses what led him down the...

This week we are talking with Jay Lund, an athlete who has taken on many impressive adventures and has stepped up to some intense challenges in his life. In this episode we talk about a bunch of different topics; everything from his recent race at the Yeti 100 in Virginia to the joys of east coast trail running to dodging alligators in Florida trail races. We also spend a bit of time talking about...

This week we are talking with Alfredo Garcia Huerta, an incredible athlete from Virginia, about the ups and downs he experienced taking on his very first Ironman triathlon. An Ironman is something most endurance athletes have on their bucket list with a training that seems incredibly time consuming and intense. It's something I've always wanted to dig deeper into for this podcast! In this episode...

This week we are reconnecting with Thad Burkamper to talk about his recent Spartan Race Trifecta, what it was like training and running a race with his wife Rachel, his concept of FOCUS- the things that stop us from reaching our goals, and the lessons he learned from his longest run to date! Hope you guys enjoy this one!! I absolutely loved chatting with Thad and hearing about his adventures! MORE...

This week we welcome back Ryan Esdohr to the show to talk about his recent 48 hour GoRuck Challenge....we end up mostly talking about why we take on these extreme ultra endurance events- all the positives and all the negatives. What follows is one of my absolute favorite conversations I've had in my two years of doing this podcast. Check it out! MORE FROM RYAN: Superhuman Lab: https://www.mysuperh...

This week I'm very excited to welcome Jay Lee back to the show! Jay is an ultra runner and one of the best crew leaders around. Over 54 and a half days in 2017, he crewed Sandra Villines through her world record setting transcontinental run in which she ran from San Francisco to New York City. Through all of her 3,127 miles Jay spent his days driving a little ways up the road, running back to her...

This week's show features an amazing photographer and awesome ultra runner Zandy Mangold! Zandy started ultrarunning after being hired as the photographer for the Racing the Planet series. Since then he has been all around the world and has participated in a wide variety of races- everything from week long stage races in Chile to the Badwater 135 to the Georgia Death Race and so much more!! In thi...

On this week's Like a Bigfoot Podcast, former Indianapolis Colts Linebacker Pat Angerer shares lessons he learned from his journey to the NFL. Pat talks about the unexpected path his football career took him down, the moment he went "all in" to become the middle linebacker for the Iowa Hawkeyes, his experiences as a rookie in the big league, and how his mindset evolved through each phase of his ca...

On this week's episode of the show, I sat down and had a wonderful talking to one of the most influential people in my life, my dad Randy Ward. We chat about a wide variety of topics but mostly focus on how his experiences growing up in a small southern Iowan town influenced his love for nature and the outdoors. We also share stories from our father/son trip to Vanuatu, a small chain of islands in...

This week’s Like a Bigfoot Podcast features our last Desert RATS episode. These folks are absolutely amazing athletes and incredible human beings with stories that are intense, motivating, and will hopefully inspire you to step up to your own challenges. In this episode we start by focusing on some veteran Desert RATS Sue Heineman and Jeff Knackal who were returning for more punishment after a bru...

This week I get the opportunity to talk with sports writer, runner, and even more awesome human being Amy Donaldson Brass! I met Amy during the Desert RATS stage race and although we intended to record a brief 20 minute recap for episode #101 (which was an episode you guys should totally check it out!), she was so open, honest, and raw about her mindset and self-discoveries through the event that...

This week we are chatting with Kompas Design's Ana Popovic, John Pelkey and Ali Watson! All three of them recently took on a 30 day challenge that was meant to better their health, their art, and their knowledge. Along the way they became closer, more successful communicators and discovered the key to creating new healthy habits- CONSISTENCY. In this episode we have a great conversation about how...

I am incredibly excited to bring you this week's episode with Colorado mountain athlete Justin Simoni. Last summer, Justin created a challenge he dubbed the "Tour De Highest Hundred" which was a self powered journey to and up the 100 tallest mountains in Colorado. Over 60 days he did something no one else has even attempted as he biked to trailheads, summited the mountains, ate an astonishing amou...

This week I'm super pumped to chat with Catra Corbett, one of the most accomplished ultrarunners I've had the pleasure of sharing a few miles with. Catra is a wonderful human being and an amazing athlete. When you meet her you instantly know that she absolutely loves running and expresses her joy for the sport by taking on gigantic challenges. Just to give you an idea here's some of her summer sch...

This week we are chatting with the incredible Hoka One One athlete Pete Kostelnick. In 2016 Pete ran from San Francisco to New York City in 42 days, 6 hours and 30 minutes, shattering the previous record set in 1980. That's an average of 72 miles each day! He also holds the fastest time for Badwater 135 which is commonly known as one of the hardest endurance races in the world as it traverses Deat...

This week's Like a Bigfoot Podcast features stories from some of my fellow racers from the Desert RATS stage race. These folks are absolutely amazing athletes and incredible human beings with stories that are intense, motivating, and will hopefully inspire you to step up to your own challenges. It was great to reconnect because, after our experience traversing the desert, we bonded into a tight kn...

This week’s episode is my race report from Gemini Adventures Desert RATS stage race. Desert RATS is a 6 day stage race on the Kokopelli Trail from Fruita, Colorado to Moab, Utah. This was one of my absolute favorite adventures I have ever experienced and I am extremely excited to share this race report for the special episode 100 of the podcast!! Throughout this episode, I recap the event to my bu...

This week we welcome TJ Anderson back to the show! TJ is the author of "The Art of Health Hacking" and this week we chat about a wide variety of topics including how to empower people to better health, the best way to communicate, TJ's methods on recovering from an injury, and why we should all seek to ask more questions of ourselves. I hope you guys enjoy the show and be sure to check out TJ's bo...

We are one week out from the Desert RATS Kokopelli Stage Race- a 6 day run through the desert- and this week I'm chatting with fellow racer and all around AWESOME guy Phil Pinti. When it comes to stage races, neither Phil or I have any experience which means one week out we cannot be any more excited and nervous! When you break the race down into the most simplistic terms, it seems fairly straight...

This week we are continuing our chat with Travis Steffen about his experiences in a wide variety of athletic endeavors. In this episode we dig into his late teens/ early twenties when he was fighting MMA, a time I've never really heard him speak in depth about. Every time Travis is on the show I always learn something new and fascinating about him and this week is no different! When he was 17 he u...

On this week's episode of the podcast I got to sit down in my back yard and enjoy a conversation with one of my best buddies Brandon Swett. Brandon was previously on episode 9 of the show discussing his experience at a 10 day silent meditation retreat (I highly suggest you check out that one!) This week we chat about a wide variety of topics: Heroism, Swimming, Canoeing in Maine, and why I can't w...

This week I was lucky enough to sit down and pick the brain of sports psychologist, author, speaker and athlete Scott Welle! We chat about a wide variety of topics all based around achieving peak performance. Scott shares tips and tricks for forming a healthy mindset and explains how to push through difficult times, both in training and in competition. We also chat about his experiences as an Iron...