Episode 27: Ian Sharman on Racing Massive Downhills (and in costumes)

The Strength Running Podcast

Jason Fitzgerald

Health & Fitness, 10k, Beginnerrunning, Marathontraining, Fitness, Injuryprevention, Marathon, Halfmarathon, Running, Sports

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2017

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I met Ian in August, 2016 one day before the Leadville Trail 100. We got coffee with a friend of ours and then watched a Beer Mile (it took place on the road behind us in the above picture).

Ian officiated – starting the race and cheering on runners as they raced and chugged beers.

Two days later, Ian crossed the finish line of the Leadville Trail 100 in first place – his third victory.

He’s no slouch in the world of ultra running. In fact, he’s one of the best ultramarathoners in the world:

3 x winner (and course record holder) of the Rocky Raccoon 100
3 x winner of the Leadville Trail 100
Completed about 200 ultras and 100+ marathons (!)
Record Holder – Grand Slam of Ultrarunning
7 x silver medalist at the Comrades Marathon

And over the last year, I’ve been fortunate to work with Ian on a few different projects:

He contributed a training case study that highlighted his toughest workouts before Leadville.
And he shared his best injury advice in the Little Black Book of Prevention & Recovery.

Now he’s back to talk about running an 11+ minute personal best at the Mt. Charleston Marathon.

But it’s not all training geekery. Did you know Ian has run dozens of marathons in costumes?

In fact, he’s run a 2:40 marathon as Spider Man!

This is going to be fun 🙂

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ready, set go.
0:04.0	This is episode 27 of the Strength Running Podcast with three times Rocky Racco Coon 100 Mile Champion
0:11.0	and course record holder, seven times Western States 100-mile
0:14.8	top 10 finisher, three-time winner of the Leadville 100-Miler, and the official
0:20.3	officiator of the unofficial Leadville Beer Mile, Ian Sharman. Last year a friend of mine invited me up to Leadville, Colorado. It was the day before the start of the infamous Leadville 100 mile trail race, arguably one of the most difficult trail races in the world, none of the race is under 9,000 feet altitude.
0:53.4	It's brutal.
0:54.4	And so we were there to meet a runner and that my friend was working with on a project,
0:59.4	but I had no idea who this runner was.
1:01.6	Well, he turned out to be none other than Ian Sharman.
1:04.2	Ian won Leadville in 2013 and 2014 and a day later after I met him would become the
1:10.7	2016 champion. So we talked for a little while at this coffee shop
1:15.0	and then we did something that I haven't done since college.
1:19.0	We attended a beer mile.
1:20.0	This was on a stretch of this mountain dirt road up in Leadville where runners ran
1:25.6	200 meters down and 200 meters back, pounded a beer, and then they did that four more times.
1:30.8	And Ian was the official. It was at that point that I really started to like Ian. He's fun. He doesn't take himself too seriously.
1:38.0	I mean, come on, the guys run a 240 marathon in a Spider-Man costume.
1:42.0	And on top of that, he's a hell of a runner. He's here today to talk
1:46.2	about his training, his recent calf injury, and his recent PR in the marathon, which was on
1:51.6	this crazy downhill course with more than 5,100 feet of elevation
1:56.5	loss.
1:57.5	This is a different conversation about how one of the best ultra-runners in the world approaches their training and how they have fun with
	...

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