Singletrack

Logan Williams is a professional runner for Salomon and Satisfy Running based in the Lake Tahoe area. 

We met on the Salt Lake City trail scene a couple of years back and have been good friends ever since. I've always enjoyed his takes on our sport, so when I started this pod I was determined to get one of our conversations on the record. We finally did it. 

At its core, this is an episode about the importance of discovering and going all in on your identity from a trail runners point of view. Whether this episode finds you lounging, mid-long run, in commute, or on a long road trip - I hope you can relax and enjoy the message. 

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Additional episodes you might enjoy:

#40 - Lee Sackett
#25 - Kyle Richardson
#18 - Moe Lauchert

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In this episode, we catch up with pro runner, business owner, environmental advocate, and Salt Lake City local - Grayson Murphy. 

We cover:

• Her experience at the 2021 olympic trials in the steeplechase event
• Her unique ability to transition between and excel on the track, road, and trails 
• Handling life as a public figure in the running community
• How she plans her racing schedule and thinks about her career in the long term 
• Her entrepreneurial experience
• What’s interesting her in the ultra world 

Thanks to Grayson for coming on the pod. I have avidly followed her career over the past 2-3 years. She’s obviously tearing it up in every realm of running. I selfishly want to see her on the ultra scene as soon as possible. That said, I think we can expect to see her do many more special things on the road, track, and at the sub ultra distance on trails until then.

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Maybe you’ve been thinking about being a creator and/or building a business of some sort in the running world. If that’s the case, this video is the first in a series of "behind the scenes" looks at how the Singletrack Podcast is built. You will get a totally transparent view into what we are working on, where are succeeding, where we are failing, what we are planning, and more. By listening in on these conversations, we hope to give you ideas on how to start and succeed with your own venture. 

In this first episode of what we are calling "State of The Singletrack", Finn Melanson and Mike Tamayo talk about their new partnership. Mike is the Founder-CEO of Tamayo Creative and will be coming on board as Creative Director in charge of all social media, design, and overall branding for the Singletrack operation. In this first episode, they also cover:

- How Mike and Finn first met
- The influence of the Salt Lake City running community 
- Mike's running background
- How Singletrack got started
- What the future looks like for Singletrack 

In future episodes, you can expect us to get more tactical and strategic about exactly what's going on behind the scenes - like insights into how we are building podcasts, recruiting guests, preparing for interviews, designing content, trying to make money, and more. 

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This episode focuses on how to build a running-related internet business. If that’s your jam right now, this is a fantastic episode. 

To show the audience how it’s done, we have Jason Fitzgerald on the pod. Jason is the founder of strengthrunning.com, which has been around for over 12 years. The site hosts a great blog and podcast, and in general it’s a great resource for runners aiming to get stronger, stay healthy, and race faster. 

 For those just getting started on their business journey, we cover how to create awareness, identify your target customers, think about content creation, and determine the best marketing channels to invest in for scalability - all in the context of our running world. 

Jason is a great speaker and drops a ton of knowledge bombs. Again, If you’ve ever wanted to be some sort of entrepreneur in our sport, and leverage the power of the internet to do it, give this one a listen.

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Jack Kuenzle is a New England-based Mountain Runner. 

He came on my radar after setting the FKT on the Hut Traverse in the White Mountains of New Hampshire - one of the most prestigious FKTs in the US - and for some of the social media he puts out there around the sport - his commentary demonstrates original thinking on a lot of issues and that’s why I wanted to have him on the pod.

In this conversation we talk about how technology has given us the ability to race when we are ready and in a disaggregated fashion, criticisms of the athlete sponsorship landscape and the status quo for repping products on social media, the northern New England mountain running scene, why athletes will need to specialize as the sport gets more mature and competitive, and why Americans should start to embrace FKT culture even more. 

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In this episode, we talk with Matt Taylor, the Founder of Tracksmith. For those not familiar, Tracksmith is a running brand based out of Boston, MA that serves the "dedicated amateur runner", a phrase that caught my attention and a persona that we talk a lot about in this episode. 

We go deep on that subject. We also talk about differentiation, community building, athlete sponsorship models, lessons of entrepreneurship, and running trends he’s noticing.

Matt is a great entrepreneur, a great brand marketer, and as I learn in this conversation - a great commentator on our sport as well. I think you will really enjoy this one. 

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In this episode we talk with well-respected coach and Founder of the Morning Shakeout podcast and newsletter, Mario Fraioli. 

We cover a range of topics - including the future of trail running, the making of the Morning Shakeout Newsletter, and advice he has for newcomers aiming to break into the coaching profession. 

If you enjoy banter about our sport, have ever thought about putting running related content out into the world, or considered getting into coaching - this is a great episode. Mario is a great conversationalist and one of those rare individuals who is an equally talented runner, coach, and media person in our sport. 

Enjoy. 

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In this episode we check in with Eric Schranz. As most of you know, Eric is the co-founder of one of the most popular media sources in our sport, ultrarunnerpodcast.com.  

We talk about the state of his podcast and newsletter, what make a good interview, his favorite conversations over the past decade, the good, the bad, and the ugly of how our sport is changing, and we get his thoughts on the scene at the Broken Arrow Sky Race series earlier this month.

The conversation jumped all over the place, but in a way that felt authentic. If you are someone who enjoys pure banter about our sport, you will like this episode.

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Most conversations on this show take place at the intersection of business, culture, and performance within the sport of mountain ultra trail running. 

This episode captures that spirit perfectly.  On today’s show, we have the co-Founder of Strava and current Chairman, Mark Gainey.

Strava is a fitness tracking and social media app designed primarily for endurance athletes. And it’s had a considerable impact on the culture of our sport in particular. 

As Mark will explain, Strava was born out of desire to recreate the community element of team sports typically strongest in high school and collegiate settings, and to leverage the power of the internet to reinstate this phenomenal social support system for athletes at every stage of their lives.

Mark’s thesis was that amazing things happen in this teammate environment - you might push a little harder, stay more motivated, be held more accountable, exercise more - even when its being replicated digitally 

And we get into all that. Specifically, Mark and I go in depth about - 

• His entrepreneurial philosophy of going an inch wide and a mile deep, how it applies to the creation of Strava, and the importance of separating go to market strategy from overall vision 
• The debate about building a social media platform versus a training platform, and whether Strava can invest in both and still delight customers
• The ways Strava is thinking about and investing in community building on the platform and increasing the serendipity of athlete connections
• The pros and cons of increasingly bridging the physical world and virtual world when it comes to exercise and sport
• What the future of sport looks like for amateur athletes and how Strava is taking that into consideration 
• How Strava can help content creators and business owners active in the endurance community

And more! Give it a listen.

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I’m calling this Strava week because, yes, we have another representative from the platform here today.

Larissa Rivers is the North American Marketing Lead at Strava leading all brand efforts in the US and Canada through community building and nationally engaging programs. She joined Strava back in 2012 when it was still only relatively known amongst a cult following of cyclists with a view towards growing the brand amongst runners. The year after that, she and  her husband, Brett opened up San Francisco Running Company to serve the trail runners in the Bay Area. They sold the company in 2019 and now live with mountain views in Louisville, CO with their three young and very active girls. 

In this conversation, we go in depth about - 

• Her experience establishing the iconic San Francisco Running company with Brett, and her advice for getting a trail running store off the ground
• What it was like in the early days of building the run community on the Strava app 
• How Strava works with athlete influencers, her favorite  stories to tell as a marketer, and how even hardcore athlete can be relatable to the rest of the community 
• The  ways to make all athletes comfortable being their raw authentic selves on the platform 
• Ways to improve representation in our sport

Tune in now!

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Amy Clark is an ultra runner based in Bend, Oregon. She is also the Editor of Ultrarunning Magazine, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The monthly magazine has recurring columns on nutrition, training and strategy, running culture and philosophy, and race reports.

In this episode, Amy and I cover some recurring themes of the show in a new light - we talk how and why the sports growing, how and why female participation in particular is growing, whether the US can handle big, festival-like ultra running events comparable to what we are seeing in Europe, whether the FKT and personal project style of trail running that gained popularity during COVID is here to stay, some thoughts on how to put on a good race, and more. Enjoy!

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On today’s show, we have Eric Senseman. Eric is a professional trail runner for Hoka One One, Rabbit, and Gu Energy.  Alongside Jim Walmsley, Tim Freriks, Stephen Kirsch, Jared Hazen, and Cody Reed,  Eric is also a member of the Coconino Cowboys, the famous training group based in the American endurance sports Mecca of Flagstaff, AZ. Like previous guests of the pod, one of the things I appreciate about Eric is how willing and excited he is to comment on some of the biggest issues, opportunities, and questions around our sport.  

We discuss: the factors required to create the Coconino Cowboys, the similarities and differences of their setup to counterparts like Hoka NAZ Elite in the track and field space, as well the conditions needed to build similar training groups elsewhere in the US. Eric reflects on his strategy of surrounding himself with better runners in order to fast track his ascent in the sport. We talk about the makings of a good trail town, and we cover how media coverage is evolving in our sport and what innovation will look like in the near and long terms. 

Enjoy!

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On todays show we have Karl Meltzer.  Karl is one of the first runners in our sport to truly go pro, specializing early on in his career in the 100 mile event. Since the late 1990s, he's won over 40 races, including at least 1 every year for for the last 19 years - both are records that may never be broken.  He’s also the Race Director for the Speedgoat 50k and perhaps most importantly, he’s just a guy you’d wanna have a beer with. He brings so much awesome perspective to the sport. 

In this episode, we do some analysis on the American contingent at this year's UTMB, we talk about race directing, we speculate on a potential new 100 mile race in the central Wasatch range, and we reflect on what it takes to make a career out of this sport. 

I won’t spoil anything for you, but this was one of my favorite conversations to date. Enjoy!

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Jimmy Daly joins the podcast to talk about how pro trail runners currently handle social media obligations, what can be improved, how they can measure their ROI to brands they work with, and how those brands can better support athlete content creation efforts. We riff on a constant theme in this show - how to grow the sport of Mountain Ultra Trail Running. And finally, we have a ton of fun going back and forth on some business ideas we'd like to see take shape in our sport. 

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Chase Parnell joins the podcast to talk about whether this generation of elite ultra runners are as compelling as previous ones, Anton Krupicka's return to the Leadville 100 this month and whether it's the start of a greater comeback tour for one of the legends, the tools at his disposal and his process for providing pre, post, and in-race coverage, the price of being a full time creator in this sport and what's required to make it, and more!

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Dylan Bowman joins the podcast to talk abut his decision to go "all-in" on Pyllars, his broadcasting opportunities at Western States and UTMB, the rigors of being a professional athlete, the future of Mountain Ultra Trail Running, and the challenges of being a creator and visionary in our community. 

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Welcome to the Singletrack, a podcast covering the growth of the mountain ultra trail running scene. 

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