Hey, everybody, what is happening? I hope your life is good. I hope you're healthy and

training is going well. The seasons

are changing and it feels so nice. Welcome to the Pillars podcast. Of course, I am Dylan Bowman.

Always appreciate you for being here and today we've got another awesome chat with a rising star

in the sport of ultra running. Today we welcome Taggart Van Enten to the show,

the absolute savage from central Illinois.

Like Drew Holman, who we talked to a couple weeks ago,

Taggart is a young athlete who has an incredibly bright future ahead of him.

He originally landed on my radar back in November of 2019 when he ran a

ridiculous 12-hour and 19-minute 100-mile debut at the Tunnel Hill 100. This is the fastest 100-mile

debut in history. In a short time later, Taggart further made his presence in the sport known when he ran a

stupefying 11 hours and 32 minutes for the 100 mile treadmill world record, breaking Zach Bitter's

established mark by nearly 40 minutes.

So Taggart has a lot of talent. He had one of the most successful starts to an ultra career than I can remember.

But since then, he's had a couple bits of adversity, a couple hiccups, a couple of DNFs that he has learned from,

and he does a great job of sharing his learnings in this

conversation. And for those who follow Taggart, you know that this kid is just an absolute

beast. He trains harder than anyone that I've ever seen. And I just love his attitude and his all or nothing approach to the sport.

While I wouldn't do it, while I wouldn't necessarily recommend what he does to others,

I love that Taggart is willing to acknowledge the potential consequences of his training

and still have the courage to try any way.

He has a no excuses, no stone unturned type athlete, which I really respect.

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