Hey, fam, welcome to the free trail podcast. Of course, I am your host, Dylan Bowman.

Broadcasting from Annasi France at the moment,

the home country of our guest today, Mr. Matthew Blanchard, the Frenchman who lives in Montreal

and who has finished on the podium of the past two editions of the UTMB. Of course, this year,

Matt engaged in a fantastic battle with Killian Jorna as they pushed each other to two of the best 100-mile performances of all time.

By the time he arrived back in Chemin, Matthew secured an incredible second place, only four minutes behind Killian and under 20 hours, an absolutely amazing race that will go down in history.

Of course, we talk all about Matt's two podium finishes at UTMB,

including the full story of his back and forth battle with Killian.

We talk about his diverse athletic background and how it's helped him as a trail runner.

We talk about his experience with diving, which I found particularly interesting.

We talked about his unique approach to training, his 2022 season, and a lot more. Hope you all

enjoy this awesome conversation. Of course, the free trail podcast is presented by Speedland,

the boutique footwear brand, who I am so proud to represent. Don't look now,

but your boy is returning to the race course this weekend with the final prototype of the

forthcoming third model of the Speedland Footwear collection, my favorite shoe ever made,

and something that you'll be able to pre-order soon.

I'm not particularly fit at the moment, but I'm super excited to get back to racing, and I'm so

grateful to have the opportunity to work so closely with Dave and Kevin on this product.

It is simply something that I couldn't have done with any other brand. And it's been

massively fun and educational for now. Go get yourself one of the final pairs of the SL HSV

made for Speedland athlete Liz Canty and inspired by the trails of the southeast United States.

The slick black shoes are available now at run speedland.com.

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