Ep. 176 ~ John Schilling, AZT Race Director
Bikes or Death
Patrick Farnsworth
4.8 • 563 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2024
⏱️ 116 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today's episode John Schilling, AZT Race Director, is here to talk all things AZT. He became the race director in 2019 when Scott Morris passed the torch after 14 years of creating and overseeing the race. John is no stranger to the AZT. He first attempted it in 2012 and completed it in 2013. He's a local to the Pheniox area and is well known for his hard work developing routes, leading rides, and for his great work on the AZT.
Quickly after becoming the AZT race director he made changes to both the 300 and 800 routes. In fact, the long version used to be 750, but thanks to John there are an extra 50 miles of AZT goodness for you to enjoy. On today's episode we are going to be learning more about those changes and what prompted them.
We're also going to be getting to know John a little better and learning about his personal history with the AZT. Among other things we touch on the history of the AZT for bikepacking, the Arizona Trail Association, and discuss tips and insights to help prepare you to take on either of these epic routes.
The AZT is one of the jewels that make up the Bikepacking Triple Crown and has been an important part in the history of our sport. It was a true pleasure to take a deeper dive into this iconic trail and get to know the man currently at the helm a little better.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Bikes for Death podcast. |
| 0:03.4 | As always, my name is Patrick, and I'm your host. |
| 0:06.5 | And on today's episode, I'm catching up with John Schilling, who is the current Arizona Trail Race Race Race Director. |
| 0:13.7 | And we are going to be talking about all things Arizona Trail. |
| 0:18.5 | First off, we're going to get to know John a little bit. |
| 0:21.0 | He took over as the race director in 2019, and he made some almost immediate changes to the |
| 0:30.0 | race routes. |
| 0:31.4 | So we're going to be learning about those. |
| 0:33.2 | We're going to be learning about the history of the Arizona Trail as well as some tips, guidelines, |
| 0:40.9 | and insights from John himself on how to approach the Arizona Trail race. So if you've ever |
| 0:48.7 | been interested in riding the Arizona Trail, or if you're just interested in learning more about John and this |
| 0:56.6 | amazing trail that makes up one of the routes in the bikepacking Triple Crown, this |
| 1:02.6 | episode is for you. And it's also for me because on April 11th, I'm signing up to do a, what I'm loosely describing as an ITT. |
| 1:14.6 | Some people call that an individual timed trial. |
| 1:18.1 | For me, it's more like an individual time tour. |
| 1:21.2 | But after many years of dreaming of taking on the Arizona Trail 300. |
| 1:27.7 | I'm finally ready to give it a go. |
| 1:30.3 | And I'm inviting you to join me. |
| 1:34.8 | So if you haven't heard, I am hosting an unofficial group |
| 1:38.3 | start of either the AZT 300 or 800. |
| 1:43.3 | This is in no way a sanction or organized event. It's much like the Arizona |
| 1:48.2 | Trail Race itself. I'm going to be showing up and riding it, and I would love to have other |
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