Hey, guys, hope all is well. Welcome back to the program. Of course, I am your host, Dylan Bowman. So happy to have you here for another awesome

episode. Today we've got a great conversation with another interesting person and awesome athlete. Today, my guest

is Ryan Montgomery. Ryan is an ultra runner living in Park City, Utah. He is only 27 years old,

but at this point, I think he could be considered a seasoned, grizzled veteran of the sport,

having started at a very young age, fresh out of college. But at this point, he has amassed

many incredibly solid performances across all

different distances and terrains. He is a super versatile and consistent athlete. And like many of

our recent guests, I feel like Ryan has a ton of potential as he continues to develop in his

career.

Ryan's most recent accomplishment was a very strong second place performance at the Havillian 100 in Arizona just a few weeks ago where he was successful in punching his

golden ticket to the legendary Western States 100 where he will be competing for the first time next June

2022. Here he comes Ryan Montgomery to Western States. Can't wait to see it. We talk, of course,

all about the race at Havillina. We talk about Ryan's goals for Western states and for the longer

term future. but we also

spend a bunch of our time in today's episode talking about Ryan's personal life and the causes

that are important for him, things that he's doing a lot of work to advocate for in our

community and beyond. As you'll hear, Ryan identifies as a gay queer runner, and we talk

a lot about what that actually means practically, how it's influenced the person that he is, and what

our sport can do to be more inclusive and welcoming to the LGBTQ community and other underrepresented groups.

This was an awesome and deep conversation.

It was really fun to record.

Ryan and I had never met before sitting down for this conversation.

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