Bryon Powell Interviewed by Endurance Planet & Dirt Dawg
June 30, 2010 by Bryon Powell · 8 Comments
I thought I’d share two recent interviews with you. First off, I was interviewed for an Endurance Planet podcast about the 2010 Western States 100. You’ll find out how the race played out as well as how well I function (or don’t) on 3 hours of sleep.
I’ve also been meaning to let you know about a recent interview I did with Dirt Dawg podcasts. This interview focuses on how I came to be the Runner-in-Chief at iRunFar and my take on various aspects of the trail running and ultramarathon worlds.
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Filed under Bryon, Interviews and Profiles, Races ·
Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
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Bryon:
Great interview with Endurance Planet! I still have to check out the Dirt Dawg podcast. I hope you get healthy for good soon and get back to your regular training! Thanks for all the great work you do and keeping us up with the ultra and trail running worlds.
I’ve been running the XTERRA Ohio trail running series and have been having a blast! I’ve run two out of the first three events and the two I’ve run have been first class events all the way. I’ve had a great opportunity to run on a couple of challenging courses and meet some really nice people. The next one is July 10th at Mohican. The course is supposed to have the toughest hills from the Mohican ultra course. It features 1400 feet in elevation gain over the 11 mile course.
The next week after that I’ll be doing the Buckeye Trail 50K and it’ll be my first 50K trail race. Any words of wisdom for a rookie?
Thanks,
Tony Mollica
Thanks, Tony. I’m feeling healthy at the moment. I just need to slowly build back up so that I’m strong and firing on all cylinders later in the year.
As for some advice. Eat early and often and more than you think you need. Keep the foods simple. You don’t need “real” food during a race. Pace yourself early such that you think you could be running the same pace at equal distances from the start and finish.
Great interviews. Loved the Dirt Dawg story of how iRunFar got started (I can empathize rather well with the DC law world you were escaping) and, never having ever run a marathon, I loved the advice on how to get into ultras. Thanks
Rob
Thank you for the candid, honest, and inspiring story of your life’s calling on Dirt Dawg’s podcast.
I wish you continued success with iRunFar.com.
A humble suggestion: Can you please highlight the average ultrarunner in your articles?
It is great and even inspiring to hear and read about elite athletes, but every now and then it would be nice to hear what the average ultarunner has accomplished, sacrifice and overcome to compete as well.
Thank you for the knowledgeable advice given in the interview, and thank you for iRunFar.com
Fondly,
dnaistheway
DNA, I continually contemplate how to incorporate the “average ultrarunner” into articles or into iRunFar more generally. Most topics on the website are inclusive. I hope they provide insight for trail runners and ultrarunners across the spectrum.
Come race day, I focus almost entirely on elites… because these are races after all. Randomly interjecting a paragraph or two on a random John Smith or Jane Doe would just seem weird? If I were reading an article I’d wonder, “Is the author friends with this person?” Publishing an interview with, say, the final sub-24 hour finisher might not be very telling, as it could be a top runner suffering through a not so good day. Likewise, writing about an “inspiring” back-of-the-packer might not be informative if the person’s situation is very different from the average ultrarunners’. I focus on telling or informative, as that’s my goal with iRunFar. I’m not a writer by training, so writing a human interest story just for the sake of an interesting read has little interest for me either for a writing side… or as a reader, if I were on that side.
All that said, I do want to include informative mid-packer and back-of-the-pack content. I did publish a race report from a non-elite after Leadville last year. Soon, I may add a forum, from which I might see many more non-elite race reports or non-elite writers from whom I’d like to include occasional race reports. I’ve also considered following a training season for non-elite as he or she builds up to a big race. If you’ve got ideas, I’m all ears.
Thanks for raising this important topic.
Oh, and I’m glad you enjoyed my story as told on Dirt Dawg! :-)
Great podcasts – they kept me company on my long run yesterday. And it’s great to know a bit more about your background Bryon and how you got into all this. It’s hugely inspiring. Keep up the great work!
Paul, I’m happy to hear you found the podcasts enjoyable. I’ve yet to listen to them… for some reason, I feel really awkward listening to myself talk. I know I’m not alone on that one! :-)