Truly believe there's no quick fix to anything.

One of my addages, in fact, I have it on the side of my house in here by small and simple

things will great things come to pass.

And I think it's the little things we do on a daily basis that give us the longevity

that we need.

I think the decisions that we make when we're younger will affect our longevity when we're

older.

And that's what's important, and it's really hard for people to remember that.

Welcome to the Trailhead of Trail Runner Nation where we go on virtual trail runs every

single week with guests that are going to help us become more passionate about our sport,

better, fitter, more healthy athletes, and maybe that turns into being better human beings. This is another one of our episodes on aging as an athlete. And today we speak to Bryce Thatcher and we learn what keeps him on the trail and maybe even you. Real tips from Real Runners. This is Clarity on the Trail presented by Tufosi Optics. We're helping you see the path ahead more clearly with listener submitted gold and Tufosi's world-class lens technology. And the tip for today is from Christy Youngblood. Christy, we're gonna reach out to you and get your shipping address

because you're gonna get a pair

of the Saint-Em SL sunglasses from Toposiotics. This is what Christy said and it's brilliant. Be alive. Don't just chase miles. Take in moments and enjoy the views. Slow down and notice your breath and appreciate your effort. Let the trail remind you of your why and feel it all be alive. I think I got goosebumps on that Freeman. I think you did too. And you can get yourself a set of sanctum SL from Tophosi Optics by submitting your Golden Nugget. On Instagram tag Tophosi Optics, tag trail runner nation and put the hashtag clarity on the trail. And if you can't wait or you don't wanna take the chance of winning a free pair, go to to focioptics.com or go to our deals page at trailrunnernation.com and use the code to get 10% off. Welcome to another edition of trail runner nation. My name is Don Freeman. And I'm Chrissy Male. And I'm Scott War. And yes, Chrissy is back on the podcast, which means it's another episode of our mini series called Aging as an Athlete. If you haven't listened to any of those episodes yet, go back. There's a lot of really good golden nuggets in those episodes. It's not a mini series for old people. It's a mini series where we talk about how we age. And that means going from 19 to 21 years old or from your late 20s to 30s, or maybe it's further down the line. And today we are joined by Bryce Thatcher. He is with ultra-spire. He's actually worked for a lot of different companies and finally has his own company. He was on almost three years ago, back in 2023, where we talked about his entry into running and then how he got into making hydration solutions for the running community. And today we're gonna talk about his experience in ultra running. And Chrissy, you invited him on. Tell us why you thought he would be a great solution for this episode series. Right on. Bryce, to me, Bryce is one of the humans that understands the sport from a lot of different angles. And he joined it. He got into the room just exploring through his own body. The mountains, he has incredible stories of adventures from his early 20s. And that seems to be a driver of his personality. And I love that that is carried on through all of the decades. And alongside that, he's got the innovation piece through the brands that he's worked, he started, founded, first guy to put a strap on a water bottle and carry it up a mountain too, where we are now with multiple hydration back companies in the industry. Going through decades in both of those realms through innovation of personal self and exploration and watching what his body's done through the decades and then also with business and how the brands have. So, Don, you have a question to get us started. That's why I invited Bryce on. And he's just a real good friend over many decades. We met in 2006 if I remember right. So we're looking at 20 years. Yeah, it's been a while. So I'm glad to be here. I'm gonna stick my toe in front of Don's question here, and I hope we get to talk about this, and that's the reason why I'm gonna stick my toe in here, is how Bryce has turned his early teen passion into not only a hobby, but also a business and a lifelong pursuit. I just think that's, I wish I could have been able to do that. So Don, what's your question? Well, I'm gonna stick with the themes got. You said toe and that's exactly where I'm gonna go. You know, Bryce, some runners, they dipped their toe in the ultra trail running world. There are others that submerge completely, that really, really get involved in it. And there are some, some that even want to test how deep that water is. So all levels of participants, in your years of experience of running and then developing this the equipment and gear, what common trait do you find in the runners that join us and stay with us for decades? Yeah, I think that, thank you for that question. And I'm kind of excited because it's my 40th anniversary this year where I've been making packs for runners for 40 years now. And so that's kind of a big deal to me. And I was actually talking to one of our great international distributors a few months ago. And I was kind of thinking about my history. And I was kind of saying, well, what have I contributed to this world? You know, have I made the world a better place? You know, and I think that's a common thing that we all think about as we get older. It's like, what have I done to contribute? And he just says, you know what? You think about all those athletes that have worn your products now for 40 years and the help that it has given them on all of their adventures. And so that's kind of what I think, and your question was, what is the common thread? The common thread that I like to see is an absolute love for two things, being outside and to being able to do human-powered sports. And if they will develop a love, a pure love for that, then that theme of those two simple things will transcend all their transitions in life and their new chapters in life where they transition from one age to the next age. I mean, do we just have an early Eureka moment? Let's go and just go and nugget right off with that. Don't get me started. I'm trying to discourage this Eureka thing and you're not helping

the Christians.

But right off the bat, I mean, did you just describe longevity?

Right?

Love brings us back. Love of the outdoors and personal drive to stay giving to like, what do we need to do to keep

being able to be able to be out there?

I have a quick comment and then a question for you, Bryce. The comment is, what have you brought to the world to make it better? And I would say, go to any trailhead on a Saturday and see how ubiquitous running packs are now. Everyone has a running pack on. When I started running and I started a little bit after Chrissy and Don You know there were handheld water bottles, right and maybe a fanny pack But you go out there now and I would say maybe 99% of the runners there was a race just local here in California called the formidable 50k and every single one of those runners had a

hydration pack on every single one of them. So that's what you've brought to the community. I want to ask you where did your passion for the outdoors and human driven propulsion start? Yeah, it honestly it started when I was a teenager and I just loved being outside. I was a boy scout and I was always the first one to the top of every mountain. And I loved the feeling of just going out and pushing yourself and just for the pure joy of pushing yourself and being able to see, you know, I'm gonna date myself a little bit, but you know, as pre-no trial running shoes were in existence, they didn't have technical fibers. I wore cotton t-shirts, I wore Brooks Vantage running shoes, and I had a time X watch that it was a digital, but I actually wore it around my neck on a leash because I was rock climbing a lot, and I would scratch my watch and I was worried about scratching my watch. But my drive was always just being what is the human body capable of doing? And I always timed myself and it was just for me and I timed myself just to see what I could do to be stronger and better at what I was doing. It was always in the outdoors and always on trails. For me, a lot of it was in big mountains, the teetons, all over Colorado. I traveled all over the world in Europe and stuff like that. It was always big mountains based and I would run to get to the basin and climb them out climb them out and then I'd run out again But it was just a passion for being able to be alone dig deep Go after it time myself Recorded in my little log and then next time I went out try to do it a little bit better Hmm. I love that answer and as you were listing off those things I started to think with all these large language models out there. If we put a list of, I wore a TimeX watch, I had the, my water bottle was this, my shoes were these. What year did I start running? And I think that would be amazing because you can define who you are or what you're you started just by what you use. Yeah, absolutely correct. Yeah. That gives me a picture back to the first check in at 50k running in a fleece vest. That's what I had for a layer against the rain, not a rain jacket because they didn't breathe. How could you run in the rain in a waterproof jacket? As you listed all those things, Bryce, you know, what with the image that came to my mind was that there's something very personal about getting out there and running. It's time that you do spend on your own, where you don't have interference of the world of different things of text or phone calls or people knocking on your door. It is a moment that belongs to you and nature. I think that's cool. Right, exactly. Exactly, and that's, you know, I want, and I think honestly, coming back to longevity, I think that is one of the keys to longevity. Finding your true reason why you're doing what you're doing. And I think that the world in general is, you know, and I've got kids and I've got grandkids and I see it happening, but I think the world in general has some people, not all people, but some people have lost focus on why they get into trial running, why they get into ultra running. They're kind of doing it because they want to do a really cool little social post that, hey, I just ran this race, da, da, da, da, da, da, you know,

and but they've lost focus, well, why are you doing it? And I think those are the people I call them fly by night runners where they get into it and they get out fast. They're in and they're out. They get into it to do their social post and then they can label themselves an alter runner and then two years later they're off doing something else.

And I've seen that happen over and over and over again.

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