Kia ora e te whānau. We’ve discussed on Dirt Church Radio in the past that the pros walk amongst us, however witnessing their drive, discipline, and ability to seemingly dance away on the most challenging of terrain is a sight to behold. And, look, not to put too fine a point on it, but Amanda Basham rules. A professional trail runner and endurance coach, who has raced at the highest heights of the sport, including winning the USATF trail championships as her first race as a professional. Amanda was kind enough to speak to Ali and Andrew about her extraordinary career in the sport, her love of Aotearoa, and an incredible, in-depth, and honest discussion about what goes into being a professional runner and a parent. From post-partum to the joys and travails of traveling to races with young children, and the parenting juggle, to the business aspect of sponsorship, longevity, and perspective, Basham took us to school. This is an incredible conversation with an amazing human being. Thanks, Amanda!! Dirt Church Radio - Best Enjoyed Running
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Music by Andrew McDowall, Digicake
DCR IN THE WILD
February 13th-15th: We’ll be racing, pacing, and MC’ing the Tarawera Ultra Trail by UTMB in Rotorua. Come slap fives, and maybe buy Matt a beer afterward….
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Our mates at Squadrun have come up with a special four week training trial for listeners of DCR. Now as you’ll know from listening to DCR over the years, Squadrun is the baby of Kerry Suter and Ali Pottinger, and they have coached thousands of runners to success at a bunch of events we love and cherish and if you’ve been to any trail races on either side of the Tasman you’ll have seen the squadrun colours being represented strongly. So, if you want to give it a crack, here’s the link.
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ESSAY
Raising The Bar
Competitiveness has an evolutionary niche. The strong survive and the fastest, cleverest, and wiliest have the share of mates, food, and shelter. If you are Maslovian in your worldview (did these people even know they were alive before Maslow?) means that you can attend to other things i.e. thinking on matters concerning love and belonging, esteem, and finally, self-actualisation. Although I’m sure that esteem, love, belonging, and actualisation came from forging social bonds, creating a mechanism for conveying history, and developing the putative concepts of faith, and not..I dunno, doing an adventure race.
And of course, our primeval ancestors' life was, arguably, an adventure race, except they hadn’t heard of a pack-raft and the prize at the end was dying before 30.
In the ODC universe, you’ll often hear the case made for the softening of society leading to the lack of people undertaking hard things, like adventure races. But you could also argue that precisely because you don’t have to subdue your one meal a day before you eat it, and that most of us won’t die before 30 from dental infection, means that turning your mind to something that gives the illusion of existential concern like adventure racing, or even (if you are soft) ultramarathon running might be something that scratches an atavistic itch.
When I was a kid I was made to run around the domain doing orienteering. And I hated it. I mean, what little leg speed I had kept me out of the clutches of the Marist Brother who taught us (look it up) but looking back it actually taught me nothing. Except that I’m terrible at reading a map, I sweat in a Para rubber brand raincoat, and I could, even then, spot a beast a mile off.
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