Gary Robbins. What can you say about this fine gentleman?

Well, we're only 10, maybe 11 episodes into this little project here, and we've already got two Canadians.

Of course, Ellie Greenwood joining us a few episodes ago.

And today I'm pleased to present my conversation with Gary Robbins, a man who should need no introduction.

Gary, of course, is a Canadian ultra runner, somebody who's been around the scene for many years and who is a fan favorite and somebody who's extraordinarily easy to root for and get along with.

And Gary, I was surprised to learn, has been avoiding podcast interviews for three years.

Of course, three years ago was about the time that he had his heartbreaking episode of

narrowly missing the finish line at the Barclay Marathons after 60 hours of hard-fought

battle there in Frozenhead State Park.

And Gary, of course, has told that story many, many times.

And so I did my best to sort of let sleeping dogs lie, as they say, and kind of pick up his story from that moment onwards.

We talked a lot about the injuries he's dealt with since that 2017 Barclay debacle, how those challenges impacted him as a person

and as an athlete, what he learned from him. We also, of course, talked about this coronavirus

and how that has, of course, canceled this year's Barclley Marathon and thus made Gary's quest for a finish

ever elusive for another 12 months at least. In addition to Barclay being canceled, of course,

Gary is also a world-renowned race director, has a number of really well done, well put on,

exceptionally constructed and designed ultra races, mostly there on the west coast of British Columbia.

And given the situation with the coronavirus, of course, many race directors are now in a

serious pinch.

And I really wanted to understand that from Gary's perspective.

They wrote a really interesting blog that I'll link to in the show notes on his website for his race directing company that

really did a good job of spelling out the challenges of being a race director in a way that I really

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