Hey, fam, welcome to the free trail podcast. Of course, I'm your host, Dylan Bowman, here today with Riley Brady,

the breakout superstar of the last six months or so of trail running. Riley has been around

the scene for a long time going back to their teenage years, actually, but Riley has truly

burst at the upper echelon of the sport in recent months last October. I got to personally

witness Riley execute a flawless golden ticket victory at the Havolito 100. And then just a couple

weeks ago, of course, Riley melted faces with another win and 30 minute course record at the

Black Canyon 100K, one of the most competitive races in North America

and an early candidate for performance of the year. Riley will be among the favorites to

secure the cougar at the Western States 100 in June, not to get too far ahead of ourselves.

And this was their first appearance on the podcast. Some topics we discussed.

Riley's moved to Boulder and the benefits of the community and training environment present there.

We talked about being at peace and the benefits that has to performance. We talk about Riley's

background growing up on the East Coast and discovering the sport at an early age.

We discussed the value of not taking the safe route in life and setting big goals for yourself.

We discuss Riley's progression as an athlete and training under coach David Roche.

We talk about Riley's win at Havillina, a performance that they were surprisingly not totally satisfied with.

You'll hear why.

We talk about the massive 30-minute course record of Black Canyon, training towards Western States, and a lot more.

And at the end of the show, we discuss one of the major stories that emerged after Black Canyon, that being Riley's status as an unsponsored

athlete. But I have it on good authority that there is a letter of intent in place and that

is about to change. Eyeball emojis. Well deserved. Congrats to Riley. I think we're all going to

hear more soon. Before we get to it, a big thank you to our sponsors who make this show possible. Speedland, never second, Osprey, and and we were just talking about how I was overly ambitious and trying to schedule this while I was in New Zealand.

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