Are we live?

Sweet. Okay. All right. We are grateful. We're blessed to be here this morning, this afternoon, I should say, with the 2025 UTNB Women's Champion, Ruth Croft. Before we get started, though, quick, thanks to our partners, NAC, Norte, Gawarwe, and Reid for making this entire two weeks of coverage and content possible in Chamonie, France.

Go check them all out in the show notes.

Yeah, Ruth, we've had you on the pod before, but I think it's been, I want to say it's been two years,

and it was a really brief sort of like pre-Western States, 2023 interview.

I think it's pre-UT&B or pre-UT&B.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I think one thing that I'm curious about is, you know, at a race like this, the media spectacle around it, you finish it. I want to know what the morning after looks at, because you were telling me offline, the work doesn't end. You've had a pretty busy day already. Yeah, there's just been a few interviews, which I didn't do many before the race. And so I'm happy to do interviews after the race for sure. But at least I'm feeling better now than I did after the race yesterday.

Yeah. Speaking of pre-race, do you feel like you achieved a goal of keeping the social battery

pretty fully charged? Like you were kind of like ready to go pre-race? Yeah, I think so. Like I think

because I DNS in 2023, I've just been a lot more aware around trying not to be around too many

people before the race. And then also, yeah, I think you can easily

drain your battery in that week just because you come to Chamonie and there's just so much

going on. And I think normally there's a lot of requests from the brands that you partner

with as well. So it's just making sure you kind of protect that week as best you can.

Yeah.

I know you've talked about your background on numerous podcasts before, but again, if this is the type of moment where people are meeting you for the first time, I think it could be important.

You grew up in New Zealand and not just that, but like one of the remote parts of the country,

36,000 people, right?

Yeah, it's like it's the most remote region in New Zealand.

So if you drive from north to south, I think it's over 600 kilometers.

There's 36,000 people that live there.

What's the lifestyle like there?

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