Singletrack With Mathias Eichler

Marcel Höche is back on the show and he’s calling in from Japan with an update on his never ending racing season. We talk what races he’s ran in between finishing is masters degree and he gives us an behind the scenes look at his exciting new business venture: Sunn Nutrition, a brand new high carb drink mix.

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This weekend is a massive weekend of trail racing with several high profile events all over the world. The Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB is happening in Auburn, California, and unlike last year, there’s no livestream. I sit down with Jeff Pelletier, king of trail storytelling to discuss the history and the challenges for current version of livestreams and we talk about some ideas on how to move forward. If you’re missing sitting the livestream this week, put this conversation in your ears and head out on run.

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Michael Eaton, Brooks Trailhead store manager and host of the Trail Running Film Festival in Seattle joins me to share his person running journey from cross country in his youth back in Kentucky to this year’s training block for OCC in Chamonix. We chat about the challenges of life, the highs and lows that come with that, and the peace that can be found in the dedication to a daily training regiment.
Michael also shares some details about the Seattle show of the Trail Running Film Festival. Get your tickets!

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Exciting announcement incoming! Rock Candy Running’s Beast of Big Creek joins the Vert Running Series for the 2025 season. Scott Sowle is on the show to share the news and give us the details. Let the racing season in the PNW kick off!

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Friend of the show Alex Bond is back and we’re chatting about the fate of Outside. The company formerly known as America’s best outdoor magazine and now just a shell of itself with lots and lots of tech under the hood. The news about the latest rounds of layoffs paired with the news they are buying another technology provider puzzles us and Alex and I are here to chat about it. This is a requiem of sort.

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This special episode was made possible through the amazing support from Tailwind Nutrition.
Maggie Guterl is back as Singletrack co-host on this second episode of a two-part series dedicated to the wonderful, crazy, and often endlessly long world of Backyard Ultras. This week we chat with Sam Harvey and Harvey Lewis. We take a deeper look at the motivations, strategies and principles that can bring you success at this race format that’s growing in popularity all over the world.
Talking to these champions of the sport I find myself in awe of what humans are able to...

This special episode was made possible through the amazing support from Tailwind Nutrition.
Maggie Guterl joins Singletrack as co-host on this first episode of a very special two-part series dedicated to the wonderful, crazy, and often endlessly long world of Backyard Ultras. We bring two champions of the sport, Courtney Dauwalter and Fiona Hayvice to the mic to share insights, strategies, and laughter on how to approach these events, how to master them, and most of all how to have fun at them. Backyard Ultras are popping up everywhere, maybe even nearby where you live, or dare I...

It’s the first episode of 2025 and Francesco Puppi, who needs no introduction, joins me for a candid conversation about the state of the trail running media and it’s influence on our sport. We also talk about the message behind Nike’s ad for the Olympic Games and how a new generation of athletes are redefining what participating and winning in a sport really means. People like Francesco are why our sport is so incredible special. What a way to kick off the new year!

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Tim Tollefson wears many hats and came to Singletrack with important business. Tim is newly on the board of directors for Runners for Public Lands. The environmental organization just recently shared the uncomfortable news that our trails and trail races may be significantly impacted this coming year and beyond by the U.S. Forest Service budget and staffing shortfalls. Luckily for us, Tim is a man with a plan and offers hands on experience, and with that solutions and ideas on how we can get involved. It's high time for trail runners to take action.

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Thomas Reiss is back on Singletrack and back from Bhutan where he supported the runners and race organization of the famous and grueling Snowman Race. We chat about the event, the mission that inspired its founding, and mostly the people and how connecting with other cultures makes us better human beings. Climate change affects us all and we really one have that one rock floating in space we
call home.

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On September 2, 2024 Michelino Sunseri set a new speed record on Grand Teton in 2h 50m 50s. It was supposed to be a new FKT, beating an old record that has stood for over 12 years. What ensued afterwards turned an epic run into a much talked about news story, a social media fire storm, and an eventual lawsuit. Friend of Michelino, Alex Rienzie was out on the trails that day and shares his observations and some background info on all of it. Alex joined Singletrack on his own initiative and any views expressed are his alone.

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Canadian multi-sport athlete Jessie McAuley, repping Arc’teryx, joins the show to talk about his journey from competitive mountain bike racing in his youth to finding skimo racing for his winter adventures and trail racing for the summer. As if that’s not enough Jessie still finds time to bike and climb and goes on long adventure runs in the coastal mountains in British Columbia. This seems to works for the Squamish resident who came in 3rd at this year’s Mount Marathon in Seward Alaska and who’s getting ready for another busy season of skimo races here in North...

After a year plagued by accidents and injury Katharina finds herself at the starting line of her dream race: the massive, and mighty Tor des Géants in the Aosta Valley of the Alps. Over the following days Katharina goes through the usual challenges any trail runners faces in a massive ultra distance event but always stays in the leading position and in the process crushing the women’s course record and arriving in seventh overall, almost 5 hours ahead of the second woman. This episode is not a race recap but a conversation about what motivates us, what drives us...

Rosanna follows up her incredible performance at Lavaredo earlier in the Summer with a stunning 3rd place finish at CCC in Chamonix at the UTMB World Series Finals. Here on Signletrack we chat about her race, misplaced chocolate, the surprise Western States Golden Ticket reception, and her upcoming trip to the Snowman Race in Bhutan.

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Julie and I ran OCC. And while we both ran the same race we had very different days out there on the trails around Mont Blanc. Here we share our stories, our challenges, and our celebrations. And here’s to more gelato in town cheering on runners and connecting in person.

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Finally I got Scott Michie on Singletrack. It’s only taken 315 episodes. And all it took was Scott heading back to Chamonix for another dance around that big white mountain. Over the last few years Scott and I have trained together, run many trails, and climbed many mountains. And in a couple of weeks we’ll both be in Chamonix together. He will run UTMB, for the second time while I put on a bib for OCC. In this episode we’ll chat about Scott’s experience at UTMB a couple years ago and how he’s approaching training and prepar...

Julie Urbanski, cofounder of Team RunRun will be racing OCC in just a couple of weeks. No stranger to the UTMB madness Julie has been with her family many times in Chamonix, crewing and spectating, but this year it is her turn to run the race. I also ask her about some of her favorite places and things to do in the Chamonix valley, including what gondolas to ride! I cannot wait to touch down in the Alps and take it all in.

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German superstar Katharina Hartmuth, running for Hoka, is back on Singletrack. She just ran the Hardrock 100 and had an incredible time in the San Juans above Silverton. We chat about her race, her time in the Wild West of America and the logistical challenges getting to Colorado and her dealing with recovering from a late injury.

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David Norris is the current record holder and 5 times winner, including 2024! of Mount Marathon in Seward, Alaska. He runs for ON, often competes at Cirque Series events and in the winter switches to nordic skis. David is currently training to beat me racing OCC by UTMB in Chamonix in just a few weeks.

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Scott Sowle is the owner of ‘Mountain Running Races’ offering several awesome events east of Seattle in Washington State. On this episode we talk about his visit to the Broken Arrow Skyrace, one of America’s biggest trail events, where Scott volunteered and took in the atmosphere. We ponder on what the team is building down there at Lake Tahoe in the days between Broken Arrow and Western States, including the new Trail Conference.

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Michael Marchand, from Olympia Washington is running Hardrock in just a couple of days. He got his entry in the lottery and has been training his heart out at a local city park pounding the miles and vert just mere feet from his house. We talk about his training leading up to the race and his motivation to take on audacious challenges like this.
Follow his tracker through the San Juan mountains and cheer him to a finish back to Silverton.

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Dale Garland has been part of the Hardrock family since the first moments. He’s the run director and part of an incredible team of locals from the Silverton, Colorado area who deeply care about these mountains and love to share them with the runners, support crews and spectators who come every year to this tiny, remote and very special place. We talk about Camp Hardrock and many of the behind the scenes elements that make this event one of the top trail races in the world.

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Hannes Namberger, German Dynafit athlete and now triple winner of the Lavaredo Ultra Trail is back on Singletrack. We’re chatting about the race and his conversation with Tom Evans in the last few kilometers of the race leading to Hannes charging ahead and taking first place. We’re also touching on the topics of the longevity of an athlete’s career, what it takes to win at highly competitive races, and most importantly the famous Hannes Namberger Pizza at Ristorante 5 Torri in Cortina. See you in Chamonix later this summer.

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The German Dynafit athlete Rosanna Buchauer is the new queen of Lavaredo. Last weekend she ran an incredible race leading from start to finish at the highly competitive Lavaredo Ultra Trail 120K in Cortina, the heart of the Dolomites in Northern Italy. Rosanna is coming back from a rough winter battling injury and self doubt, raced her heart out and gained back her confidence with this stellar performance. Now, as she’s recovering and slowly restarting her next training block she has her eyes set on CCC late August at the UTMB Finals in Chamonix.

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Buzz Burrell needs no introduction. A giant in our trail running world, Buzz joins Singletrack to talk about the differences and similarities of trail running in Europe and North America. We touch on tourism, permitting, environmentalism and the way the media has influenced the past, present and future of our sport.

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Ben Mead is a finisher of Cocodona 250 2024. After months of training, he almost didn’t make it to the starting line, and then just after a few miles his race seemed over before even the first nightfall. But, with his team by his side Ben rallied, adjusted, and gritted his teeth all the way to Flagstaff. The stories of humanity these ‘multi-day mega trail races’ like Cocodona generate are truly something special, and this is Ben's story.

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Adam Lee, Mr. Community Trail Running, from beautiful Vancouver, BC is back on the show to chat about the importance of keeping ‘community’ in trail running and challenges of the ever-changing media landscape. We opine about the possibility of taking our little sport of trail running to the Olympics and I check in with Adam about his screening of the Trail Running Film Festival at the Rio in his hometown. Catch Adam and the Trail Running Film Festival in early June in several more locations all over Western Canada.

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Swiss Alps 100 race director Jakob Herrmann stops by to chat about the origins of the event, what motivated him to get it off the ground, what keeps him going and what his dreams are for the near and far future. The event has grown offering lots of different race distances, including a Hike and Fly event and now for the first time a Backyard Ultra. Hosted in one of the most beautiful corners of the world a race at the Swiss Alps needs to be part of everyone’s bucket list.

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Nick Triolo, writer, activist, and trail runner is back on Singletrack to share an update on his recent professional move and the giant leap of faith he just took. Nick and I chat about what motivates him to run, to share with others, and why he believes in beauty within our broken world. We also talk about running for a cause and the importance of story-telling in our overcrowded life full of churned out content.

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Gretchen Walla, race director for Walla Trails and now for the Cougar Mountain Trail Series just outside Seattle is back on the show to chat about the amazing events she’s putting on and what makes them so special. We share stories about the challenges of race directing, and I cheer her on taking on a personal challenge of training for Teanaway Country 100 while directing almost a dozen events.

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Madlen Kappeler just returned from the SkySnow Skyrunning World Championship in Tarvisio, Italy with 4 silver medals two her name. The Bavarian triathlete went to Florida Atlantic University on a scholarship and is now competing in sky running events for the German National Team.

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Matt Urbanski from Team RunRun returns to Singletrack to chat about Rock Candy Running’s LBA races in Olympia, Washington. We chat about the ins and outs of race directing and why I love being a race director.

The 12hr event was held for the first time and here are your legends of LBA:

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Chrissi Faber is from Germany, lives in New Zealand and just very cool came in 3rd at the Tarawera Ultra Trail Miler. We chat about her race day experience, the event and its origins and the evolution under UTMB ownership.

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Marcel is back! After a tumultuous winter Adidas athlete Marcel Höche joins Singletrack for a very personal conversation about the challenges of the athlete fan relationship. We take a deep dive into building a new and better running shoe, including the much hyped soon-to-be-released Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra. Of course we touch on the UTMB situation, chat about sky running and make plans to meet for a beer in Chamonix.

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Dan Patitucci, is the owner of AlpsInsight and his professional outdoor photography has been in magazines and advertisements all over the world. He’s a legend in the mountains and has captured the achievements and stories of some of the greatest mountaineers of our time. As a trail runner and climber he shares his time between Switzerland and California. We talk about the changing and enduring landscape of the outdoors, discuss the differences between mountain towns in the Swiss Alps and the Eastern Sierras and debate the challenges of capturing the true emotions of trail running on camera. Super ho...

Kathleen Baker, managing director for Runners for Public Lands joins me this week to announce the new partnership with RPL and the Trail Running Film Festival to bring the Global Tour 2024 to your city this Spring.

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Federico Hernandez joins me on Singletrack this week all the way from Sweden. We discuss the European perspective on recent UTMB happenings and Federico shares his running journey from the Göteborgsvarvet Half to completing Snowdonia, mozart100 and Kullemannan this year and now getting ready for the UTMB lottery results.

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First up in the new year and fresh back from the 2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships in Taipei, Taiwan Chad Lasater joins Singletrack to share a glimpse into his illustrious running career. While keeping a full-time job Chad has run some of the most important races around the world and wore the jersey for Team USA for the World Championships. After having run around a track for hours on end Chad now sets his sight on a very different adventure taking on Cocodona 250 this coming May.

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For the last episode of 2023 I sat down with friend of the show Alex Bond to chat about this year in trail running. We covering the latest outdoor industry report and chat about the distinguishing aspects of what makes trail running so unique compared to other sports. We consider the economic impact of trail races in host towns and wonder about the value of live streaming and who might actually benefit from this investment in infrastructure and gear. Of course we touch on UTMB’s much talked about expansion and enduring, or not attraction and wonder if these races ar...