Welcome back or welcome to the single track podcast.

I'm your host Finn Melanson and this is another episode of our UTMB pre-race interview series.

We are chatting with Caitlin Gerben, a professional trail runner for North Face based in Issaquah,

Washington, ahead of her race at UTMB later this month.

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All right, Caitlin Gervyn, welcome to the single track podcast.

Yeah, thanks so much for having me on.

So you are the first interview in our UTMB pre-race interview series, and I'm glad

you're the first because I've been looking forward to this conversation ever since we had the chance to connect. If I understand correctly, you were planning to run this race last

year in 2021. And if I remember correctly, you received the tough news that an injury was going to take

you out. And so I'm curious from like a psychological standpoint, what it feels

like to have this big goal in sight, like the centerpiece race in our sport, and to have to

push that out and still care about it like a year later. Like how have you approached that process

from like a mental standpoint? I'm curious. Yeah. I mean, unfortunately, that's just the reality of life that things come up

and you have big goals and then they get sidelined.

And so, you know, that was definitely disappointing when I knew I had to clear my whole schedule

...