Are you trying to destroy the whole podcast? Absolutely with that one. I think we'll be canceled. I think we just rated our, we just upped our rating on the episode from my heated sad. I didn't say anything bad. Welcome to the trailhead of trail Nation. We go on virtual trail runs every week with guests that are going to help us educate us. Make us smarter. Make us better runners. Make us healthier athletes and maybe better human beings. And today we're running with a group and we're playing the old dictionary game. If you haven't heard that before It's time to join in turning any word into something that relates to the trail. It's a lot of fun Hey trail runner nation ready for some of the best sunglasses you can use on the trail Today we're talking about Tafosi Optics trail collection It's a lineup of sports sunglasses engineered for the trail. They're light, they're durable, and built with adventure in mind. Many styles feature the adaptive photo-tech lenses that adjust the tint as the light changes as you're out on the trail. That means you get clarity whether you're busting through for a shade or charging up a sunny, outpined climb without switching shades mid-run, and they offer tons of options from polarized protection to photo-chromatic lenses designed for trail use. Plus, Tafosi backs every pair with a lifetime warranty, free 30-day returns, and fast free shipping on orders over $25. So there's zero risk to try them out. So head over to to foceyoptics.com and because you're a part of trail of international use code TRN20 for 20% off your order. Welcome to another edition of trail of international. My name is Don Freeman. I'm Andy Jones Wilkins and I'm Katie Asmet and I'm Scott War and we've been laughing so hard before we pushed record because this is one of those episodes that you're not going to get a whole lot of of data or a whole lot of science out of this is an episode. It's just kind of fun. It's the end of the year or beginning

of January and we thought we'd start off with just a little bit of fun. This is something we called the dictionary game and Donald will explain that in a minute. But Andy has joined, well first Katie, this is her second time on Trail Runners Nation. She joined us back when we did our annual Western states 100 prognostication. We thought who better to come back and share her wisdom on the dictionary game than Katie. Katie is one of those runners who makes you stop and smile because she's always smiling. If you don't know Katie, stop the recording, go to YouTube and watch the simulcast on YouTube because you'll just smile when you see your face. She's a mother of two. She's a full-time nurse and a lead ultra runner who somehow balances those long, shifts, family life and some of the toughest racers in the sport with calm, grit, gratitude and joy. Recently in October, she won the Havaleen 100, 100 Cape and after placing fourth the previous year, she's also been on the boat, well, close to the podium at Western States, she placed fifth in 2021 and she has an additional two other finishes in the top 10.

You can check her out on her own podcast, The Trail Network Podcast, and The Women's Trail Running Fund will include the link in the show notes. Andy Jones Wilkins, he's here. That's about all we're going to say. Hey, hey, Scott, thanks for such a kind intro. If you don't know Andy by now, you know, go back and listen to some of the really poorly rated episodes of trail run and Asian, he's there. Anyway, Andy's always on. We're always grateful for him, beyond his claim to fame as a Western states finish. What was it? Number two in what year? That was in 2005. It was like back in the Pleistocene era. That was before there were hills on the course, right? Before the earth undulated and created the canyons. All right, so Dawn, tell us about the dictionary game for someone who has not heard the dictionary game before. We've done it a few times over the years. Tell us about the dictionary game. Well, you know, before I didn't tell you the rules and I don't know why I always get nominated to tell the rules. I think they enjoy me trying to work my way through these things more than they enjoy even being here on the program. It's December 30th and I waited all year for this. I started lobbying for this early January last year and finally we get to do it. So here are the rules. And I want you to know that 10 minutes before this podcast, I listened to last years to get the rules fresh in my head. So these are legit. But then I realized I listened to my own version of the rules, so I didn't even know if these are any good. Here's what we're doing. Everything has a trail running slant in our lives. You know, we see long trails, we look out the window, how many miles to the next exit, we kind of think of that as a run. Everything's run related, whether it's nutrition or sleep, we kind of have this in our mind. Like AJW might say I need a belt today and he'll look for one of his western states, Finnish or buckle, probably from 2005, the year that he came in second. So we're, you want me to come up with a rule, Scott, or just ramble, just ramble. I mean, you're doing fine. I'm stalling. We do have a game to play. Okay. So here, here's the game. We going to come up with a word. Scott purchased a dictionary off of eBay or somewhere, dated. What's the date of that book? It's a 1931 edition of the Miriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary. So it's legitimate. It's been used. You can see that I paid good money for this. I think it cost me $5. That included the shipping. And this thing weighs probably about seven pounds. So you know that there was a lot of value that the previous owner had in this book. So we're gonna come up with the word. It's gonna be randomized. We're gonna use Ryan to help us with that, our producer. And he's gonna come up with a page number, a column, and then we're gonna flip that dictionary open and put our finger on that word. Scott's going to announce the word because he has a dictionary. Then we need to toss it around the room here. Each of us come up with a definition that would fit trail running. And it might be persistence might be the word. And then we come up with something that reminds us or defines persistence and trail running. So this is a wild car. We have no idea what's going to happen. What words are going to happen? But we know we're going to have fun. It's not going to be as easy as persistence. I guarantee you that. It's not going to be as easy as this explanation either. So, oh, and then there's vote, there's voting, Don, explain

the voting. Okay. So at the end of the round, we each vote on who gave the best definition. Like, you know what, Andy, you know, he's a little dial back, but you know, that was, he got lucky on that was a good, I'm going to give that one to Andy. So we all vote on which person we thought had the best definition. You can even vote for yourself if you'd like. Sure. If there's a tie, that's where Ryan comes in,

and he's going to play the tough position of,

well, he's going to make the decision. He is the deciding vote. So thank you for that, Ryan, in advance. All right, let's get it on the roll. Go ahead, Ryan. He has a randomizer. I think there's an app for that. Of course, that's where Ryan's coming from.

So we need a page number.

This dictionary has 1,110 pages.

All right. And we're rolling. Page 908. 908. Scott is literally scanning through the pages. Yeah, I don't know if we can trust Scott. If it comes up with persistence between it's between seven and nine nine hundred and eight the top two words and the first column is

Slung and the second column the the top word is

smeary

What's smeary is you want that one Katie? I mean smeary

my

The first thing I think about is all the fluids that come with trail running. Is that where we need to start? And we can't. You're in here. Across our trails that we sow, I was so much heart, take care of our trails and we put so much effort into making our trails pristine and all the trail maintenance that goes on and the countless thousands and thousands of hours of volunteer work and then to just smeary them with everything coming out of your body whether it's out of your mouth or out of your tush or out of being cut and blood coming out or sweat. We have all the fluids coming out of you and we smeary them all on the trail and that unites all of us. You know, literally our DNA is on that trail and it connects us all. So we smeary ourselves on the trail and then by the end of the The day our DNA is all connected. We're all we're all one. How's that? Yeah, you know, I I think that's pretty close I do want to read the definition Should we just all do our definitions and then hear the real definition cuz I think a.j.w Has one at the ready okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Remember he was a headmaster at a. So he knows the dictionary. Yeah, I don't know what smearing means. It just, I think smearing. Clearly. I'm dying to go on this one. I mean, I think this is a perfect first word. We live in an era not only in trail and ultra running, but in society in general, where because we can hide, because people, not we, but people can hide behind their keyboards or social media, it's very easy for them to just like smear other people, to just rip on them. And I know this is, in fact, I know this is a huge topic for Katie and many of Katie's friends and many of my friends. Like I think this is a perfect word because I think we need to stop doing this. I think we need to stop just being like, oh, well I saw this guy do this on social media. So I'm just going to rip on him in my other world where he doesn't notice or she doesn't notice and I'm gonna just smear him and make him feel like crap and all that stuff. Like I think being smeary, yes it's good, you can put Vaseline on your junk and all that stuff. But like the real part of smearing, like smearing someone or going on a smear campaign as you might do in politics. I think it's dangerous for the overall community of trail and ultra running. And so I think this is a perfect first word, you guys, because it's like, no, let's stop smearing one another and let's start whatever the opposite of smearing one another is. It's connecting DNA if you want to know the real definition. I love that we've had two very different definitions so far. Pressures on you, Don. I'm like, not knowing what it means. Just making it up. I think the first two definitions have been over complicating it. It's something very simple. It's a taping technique that's used to help support the Achilles tendon. And it's putting a piece of stretching tape underneath the heel, bringing it up towards the calf, and then smearing other pieces of tape to help support it. It's a simple, true tested technique of taping that's been known for many, many, many years. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Mine is a little more physical, probably closer to Katie's definition, and it happened to me this morning as I was running part of the Western State's trail. It's been quite wet out on the course. We've been getting a lot of rain. And I was a little smeary as I came off of one of the flats onto the downhill and it was very muddy and my lugs on my shoes were not good enough. Slipped and I smeared my botoc down the muddy slope. And so I had a little smeary mud, not only on my shorts, but I also left a little smeary DNA on the trail. And really quite a nice smooth smear, I must say. We scot, can I comment on that one? Because I smear. And you're smeared.

I was, we recently had to cut snow tires on our car,

because we're heading back to mammoth

where it's massive blizzard.

And we were landed from our holiday travel in Reno.

So I went for a run while this was happening

and lo and behold, all I had with me

were my road running shoes.

So I put on some road running shoes

...