Shad Mika has been running ultras for over twenty years. He went from two hundred and forty pounds and a divorce to a duathlon, to Leadville, to Hardrock — and he's still going. He DNF'd his first two hundred mile attempts before he finally figured out it was supposed to hurt that bad. He's paced friends through Cocodona, volunteered at Hardrock for twelve years before he ever got in, and left his dog's ashes on top of Handies Peak. He blogs about it all at a site he's kept going since 2006 and has no plans to stop.

This conversation was recorded the week before Hardrock with wildfires burning near Ouray and real uncertainty around whether the race would happen. He showed up anyway.

Topics covered:

• How running found Shad after a divorce and two hundred and forty pounds

• His first trail run on the Mesa Trail in REI shoes and why he never looked back

• Sleeping under the bleachers at Leadville watching people finish all night and deciding he had to do it

• DNFing his first two Leadville attempts and what it taught him about suffering

• Why he's still scared at every single start line after twenty plus years

• The memories he makes with friends out there and why pacers matter to him

• Twelve hours running through the jungles of Hawaii in silence after a volunteer dumped water on his hearing aid

• The yin and yang of trail running's growth — old school culture versus the UTMB era

• Hardrock and why fewer people have finished it than have climbed Everest

• East Coast versus West Coast trail running and why they're basically different languages

• How to pick races that actually inspire you

• What doing hard things has taught him about everything passing

• His first two hundred mile attempt at Tahoe next year and why his fiancée is on board with it

• Guidance for road runners who are trail curious

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