Dave Stevens, hailing from Nelson, BC, is an accomplished Elite Ultra Runner, Coach, and Father. By day, Dave serves as a Spatial Analyst for the province while blending a sustainable training regimen into his busy lifestyle. With an impressive track record spanning more than a decade, Dave has secured victories at the Run Rabbit Run 100 miler twice, UTMB Mexico 100 miler, and has made the podium at the flatter Javelina 100. He has consistently placed in the top 10 at major races ranging from 50 to 100 kilometers. Dave proudly represented Canada at the mountain running world championships and ..read more

Today we are catching up with 42 year old Canadian marathon record holder Natasha Wodak. Natasha was last on our show in February 2023 and we spent a big portion of that conversation talking about one of the many highlights of her illustrious career where she ran the Canadian marathon record of 2:23:12 in Berlin back in September of 2022. Since then she has done four marathon buildups and three marathons trying to hit the Olympic standard of 2:26:50 and she was unable to get it done for reasons she talks about in this interview. With the 18-month qualifying window now officially closed (Nov 20 ..read more

Gina Tranquada is a 38 year old occupational therapist, runner, wife and mother-of-two from Winnipeg, MB, who has been tearing it up on the track, road, and trails since we last spoke two years ago. Under the guidance of Olympic marathoner Krista Duchene – who currently holds the Canadian 50km record – Gina has begun making national teams. In Sept 2023, she proudly represented Canada at the Beaver Flat 50 in Swift Current, SK, which served as the first ever NACAC (North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association) 50km Mountain & Trail championships. She also qualified fo ..read more

Jessica Drakul is a 45-year old adult-onset runner who ran the 2024 Boston Marathon, set a personal best time of 3:40:11, AND re-qualified for next year’s race. Despite it being a warm day that proved challenging for many runners, Jessica maintains that it was only the second hardest thing she’s ever done. The hardest thing? Getting sober 18 years ago.  After a 7-year struggle with alcohol addiction from the ages of 19-26, Jessica had her first day of sobriety on January 11th, 2006 – about 5 weeks before her 27th birthday. In this episode she recounts the ways in which alcohol impacted he ..read more

Adam Neiles is a 27-year-old Strength & Conditioning Specialist at Testify Performance in Winnipeg. Over the past 7 years, he has trained everyday athletes, pro athletes, and everybody in between to reach their performance potential in their chosen sport(s) while reducing injuries along the way. A graduate of Kinesiology at the University of Manitoba where he was also a linebacker on the football team, Adam is currently working his way through a Masters in Exercise Science while training for his first marathon. Adam’s foray into long distance running began less than a year ago when he deci ..read more

Stuart Chutter is the first trail ultrarunner we’ve had on the show who is also a regenerative farmer from Melville, Saskatchewan.  We were super curious about how a person finds the time for both farming and ultrarunning, activities that each require significant commitment, time and energy for success.  So we invited Stuart to come on the show to talk about both his passions. In this episode, Stuart tells us about how he started running and ended up in Melville as a farmer.  We discuss the “Five Principles of Soil Health” and the “Bag of C’s” that he mentally carries on a run ..read more

Omena Babalola is an accomplished 55-year old masters sprinter from Winnipeg MB and an absolute force to be reckoned with. Born in Nigeria to two high achieving parents, Omena came to Canada in her early 20s and spent time on Prince Edward Island before completing her MBA at St. Mary’s University in Halifax and following her man to Winnipeg. Omena currently works as a Professional Auditor at Manitoba Hydro and is the Vice President of Athletics Manitoba. As for her start in athletics, Omena describes what it was like to “be so slow when her mom was so fast.” Despite coming dead last in her fir ..read more

Nick Kershaw is a man with a mission.  A runner with a background in finance and a passion for international development, Nick joins us from the UK to tell us all about how the Impact Marathon Series came to be and why it is so special.  The Impact Marathon Series was born in 2015 from a dream that we could use the simple power of running to uplift communities and empower runners all over the world. Throughout the Impact process, from the organizations they choose to support, to the way they engage and interact with the projects and the communities, their goal is to take the impalpab ..read more

Jen Shapka is a woman with a mission who seemingly can’t say no…and there are many runners who are grateful she says yes most of the time! Jen has moved a lot in her adult life, and it was the frequent moving that made this now 45-year old force herself to find a community wherever she landed. With two small kids at home, a husband away for work, and no family around, it was tough to get to the gym or join a team (both of which she’d have promptly quit anyway). One day 9 years ago she put on her shoes and went for a run. Or rather, mostly walking with a little bit of running. That eventually l ..read more

Rory Linkletter is a professional Canadian athlete who lives and trains in Flagstaff, Arizona, is sponsored by Puma, and is coached by US half marathon record holder, Ryan Hall. He is also now the 2nd fastest Canadian marathoner in history! We first had Rory on the show six months ago (Ep 153) after finishing 19th at the World Championships marathon in Budapest. Since then he’s been training up a storm with one goal in mind…making the Paris Olympic team this summer. Ideally that meant running the Olympic Standard of 2:08:10, which was no small feat considering he’d have to shave over 2-minutes ..read more