Hello again.

Welcome to the free trail podcast.

Of course, I'm your host Dylan Bowman.

Today, we are joined by Eric Sentsman, a friend and now a former free trail podcast. Of course, I'm your host Dylan Bowman. Today, we are joined by Eric

Senceman, a friend and now a former professional trail runner living in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Last week, Eric announced his retirement from the sport on his Instagram, a post that drew a lot of

supportive compliments of Eric and his character and a post that I will read here in just a second.

But upon hearing about Eric's retirement, I was immediately compelled to reach out and have him on the show to explore the decision,

the contemplation that went into it, the realities of being a pro trail runner and why now felt like the right time.

And of course, talk about what comes next personally and

professionally for Mr. Eric Sensman. As someone who's been struggling with similar thoughts and

a similar decision, this was a therapeutic conversation for me and hopefully something that you

all enjoy as well. To set the context for the episode, I'm going to go ahead and read

the caption of Eric's post here. He says, bring on retirement. I ran my last race as a

pro trail runner at the Ozark Trail 100 this past weekend. I didn't finish. The details are

long and uninteresting. The thing worth noting is that I poured everything I had into competing at ultramarathons for 12 years.

There were a few highs and a lot of lows.

I'm most proud of how I dealt with the lows over the years.

I would fail, pick myself up, and then work harder, and get better, and fail again.

And I kept showing up at the start lines and I always dreamed big.

In short, I wanted to find out how good I could be and I've ended my competitive running career

because I think I found out.

...