AidStation Podcast 020 – The Inside Game- Resilience, Strategies, and Ch-ch-ch-changes.
Kia ora e te whānau! In this episode of the AidStation Eugene and Matt are both huge Steve Magness fans, and are super excited about his new book Win The Inside Game, so naturally a talk through tips, tricks, and strategies that they both use when the going gets rough on the trails was on the cards. The big news of the episode is that Eugene has announced his departure from DCR after 6 years and 300 episodes, you’ll read more about this in his announcement. Enjoy! Dirt Church Radio - Best Enjoyed Running.
An Announcement!
— Eugene
We’re coming up to our 300th show at the end of the month, after six years of the DCR duo! And it’s with a heavy heart that I’m announcing that this milestone will also mark my last show as co-host of DCR.
This year has been a mind-f**k, if I’m honest, not being able to run, and with a few other things I’ve been juggling, and I had to make some decisions about how many balls I’m keeping in the air.
After some soul-searching a few weeks ago, I made the decision that I was going to step away from DCR, and, I tell you, letting Matt know was one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had. DCR is our baby, and it’s grown into such a wonderful and much-loved part of the trail running community – as proud parents we’re allowed to say that, right?
The great news is that Matt and a cast of others are going to keep going, so DCR will still be there for you, just as you’ve come to know and love.
It’s just that I’ll be moving away from the mic to being DCR’s number-one fan.
Who knows, I could even be back for the occasional guest appearance some day, if Matt will have me.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of the DCR community and therefore part of my life for the past six years. It’s been a privilege and a source of so much joy.
Please come along to the live show on October 29, which will be extra special because it will be my last time on stage with me old mate.
Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou katoa. Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa.
Merch Alert!
Rep your 3rd favourite trail and ultra marathon podcast whilst keeping cool and breezy in this technical trucker hat. Pleasing woodland vista, and one size fits most. Out now!
$NZ59.99 plus postage and packaging with a discount for DCR AidStation paid subscribers (who can scroll down for the code).
Available from the DCR website
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.
Missed out on episodes of the Dirt Church Radio podcast? Listen on your favourite app. There are more than 290 episodes.
And check us out on YouTube!
Where we’re headed:
29 October: DCR Live Show and Q&A ft Inia Raumati talking all about his quest to run 8 Races on 8 Continents this year, Small Goods Taproom, Mt Eden, or live-streamed on YouTube (thanks to Runners with Beards). Kick off 7 pm. All proceeds go to Kia Mau, Kia Ora. Tickets here.
December: Matt’s heading back to the mighty Kepler Challenge in Te Anau. Entries open July 6. Don’t miss out!
A Weighty Issue
– Eugene
In the mid-2000s, fueled by grief and a love of running, I ran a lot.
Actually, let me say that again – a LOT.
My weekly total was regularly over 100 miles, often over 180 km, and once I hit 200 km.
As a result, I got faster.
A couple of other things happened, too.
I became more injury-prone.
I lost a bunch of weight.
To me, the weight thing was not why I ran. During my lifetime of running, it never has been.
But in those two years, it became something everyone else seemed fixated on.
I once wrote a story about training under an Arthur Lydiard program to run a marathon, managing to go under three hours, and losing my dad (that was the grief thing I mentioned at the top).
In the middle of the story, I wrote one sentence about the fact I’d lost weight.
Afterward, so many people said to me, “Oh, I saw the story about how much weight you lost.”
Huh?
At other times when I’ve run more – training for big events, for instance – and shed a few kilograms, that’s the thing people will hone in on.
It happened after a big block of training for an upcoming ultra a year or so ago. A neighbour stopped me while I was running just to say that they’d noticed my face was skinnier. Ummmm … thanks? I just didn’t know what to say …
I thought of the relationship between running and weight again a few months ago when Anthony Kerr-Taylor mentioned his weight loss over the past four years during our DCR conversation with him.
Scotty Stevenson talked about it, too, way back in 2020 when we interviewed him on DCR (our most popular episode ever, by the way). People were absolutely obsessed with his weight and would ask him all the time.
WTAF??!!
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