Hey, fam, welcome to the free trail podcast. I am your host, Dylan Bowman. Always grateful to have you here. Today, our guest is Martina Val

Valmissoy, the Italian ski mountaineer and trail runner who also happens to be one of the best

photographers and creatives in Mountain Sport. I've wanted to have Martina on the podcast for a long time.

We've known each other loosely for a few years,

but I have followed her on Instagram for a while now, and I have always really admired

how she's carved out a great living for herself in the sport as an athlete, as a content

creator, as a brand builder, an entrepreneur herself. So it's great to finally have her on the

program. This summer, Martina won TDS, the 145K sister race to UTMB. She also exhibited her

creativity and athletic versatility by riding the entirety of the Giro-Ditalia route in her home country of

Italy and what was a multi-week personal project. Super, super cool to follow along. It's great to

chat about that. We also talk about her background, her experience being involved in Hillary Allen's

harrowing rescue after her fall

at the Tromsos Sky Race in 2017. We talk about Martina's introduction to photography,

her small business, her brand insane inside, the cool trail running hats you've probably

seen at races or on social media.

And then at the end, we get around to talking about the little prize money controversy that

ensued after her TDS victory last summer that Martina courageously spoke up about online,

encouraging a really healthy conversation in the community back in

August and early September. We recorded this episode probably six or eight weeks ago at this

point and we're finally getting around to releasing it now. I think you all will really love

getting to know Martina. And if you don't already,

you must go follow her on Instagram. She's one of the best accounts, one of my favorite accounts on

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