Welcome back or welcome to the Single Track podcast. I'm your host Finn Milanson and in this episode

we are talking with Eric Lapuma, a professional trail runner based outside of Burlington, Vermont,

getting ready for the canyons 100K later this month. We talk about the intersection of running and

design, what quote unquote making it looks like in our sport, the rising popularity of the trail running world championships, and other sports we can get inspiration from to make our community even greater.

This episode of the single track podcast is brought to you by Rabbit, makers of the best trail running apparel.

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off your next order. With that, let's get started. All right, Eric Lapuma, welcome back to the

single track podcast. Thank you, Finn. A lot to discuss. Maybe the first thing is you quit your job recently

and you are focused on running and I have a lot of questions off this, but I guess the first one is,

does it feel right? Do you feel like you have the feng shui? You're feeling good about it.

I mean, it feels right from the feeling good about it standpoint.

Where it feels wrong is that I'm not like somebody who can just not have a job, like just for financial reasons.

So I'm not in a situation where I'm going to be like homeless or anything, but it's nice to have a job for financial security.

So, I mean, I'm going to have to get one within the next month or two, probably.

I mean, I am actively applying for jobs.

So that's where it feels wrong and that like I kind of just need to have one.

But it's been great to kind of just take a break for a little bit and just focus on the things that I actually enjoy doing.

Do you feel, and this is sort of an age-old debate and it seems unique to our sport, but in a perfect world where finances weren't an issue, Do you feel like you would benefit from the focus

of a totally runner's lifestyle? Yeah, I do. I feel like everybody answers this question and says

that they like working, but I love being able to just run. And I'm somebody who instead of working

could adjust, could like adopt some hobby, like,

um, playing like magic cards or, or like Warhammer 40K or something, like some kind of like

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