June 15, 2017
Stephen and Paul had a fantastic chat with Jim Walmsley – one of the best ultrarunners in the world. We invite you to listen to the entire podcast, but below are some highlights from the chat. We’ve also included some photos of our session at Dark Sky Brewing from photographer Sarah Cotton.
Check out the podcast on either SoundCloud or subscribe to our iTunes page!
12:00 – His time at Air Force Academy
18:00 – What his time spent in Montana taught him about running and perspective
20:00 – His first ultra experience
23:20 – “I’m reaching a level of fitness that I’ve never seen before, and I’m going to run a fast time regardless that will make people say ‘wow'”
24:30 – How he could fail again at Western States – “If I were to lose the race, it will be Jim breaking Jim”
26:15 – Approaching the impossible at Western States
28:00 – Comrades Marathon
29:50 – Jim speaks on his desire to run a fast marathon in the 2020 US Olympic Trials
“I definitely want to try and run something fast. If it’s my one and only, I want to try and run my best ever. I don’t know what type of audience this will reach, but – this might spoil my plans – more or less, my plan is to just time trial like a 2:09 or 2:10 marathon. I have no idea if I can do it and I won’t know until the finish line is in front of me.”
32:00 – Will we see more college kids jump to the trails over the roads or tracks?
35:54 – On being sponsored and how life has changed, plus handling stress
42:32 – Jim discusses a new documentary
Stephen Kersh
Former collegiate runner for University of Portland and Georgetown, currently a professional runner weighing sponsorship offers from no one. Enjoys using the internet to message Scott Olberding and Paul Snyder about bad story ideas. Does not assume he will work at Citius much longer due to the bad story ideas. He once gave a TED Talk titled "Twitter: How We Are All Just Shouting into a Vacuum" to his best friend and his girlfriend on the beaches of Connecticut.