Episódios
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As I mentioned in my American Heroes Run episode, there were numerous impressive performances and I’m going to bring you chats with some of these while I’m traveling. First is Lisa Kabat, who not only improved her distance in the 9 hour & 11 minute race from 48 miles in 2023 to 62 miles this year, but also smashed the race record… the men’s record, too. Given the unusual time length, perhaps that’s a world record? Lisa lives near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, but she prefers to run loops around her neighborhood, to the tune of 25 miles every day. Yes, that’s right. Thus, the loop format of the American Heroes Run suits her very well. What was cool was that Lisa generally had a big smile as she completed every lap. This might distract you from gawking at her unusual running form. She runs on her toes with a short, machine-like stride, with arms wildly swinging. I coached high school basketball for many years, and my first instinct would be to fix bad shooting form. But if the player was making his shots, you just shrugged and let it go. The same thing applies to Lisa – it seems to work for her. It’s funny but just last week some people I was with talked about this woman with the funky form who they would see over and over and over running past their house near where Lisa lives. I’ve got a strong hunch I know who they were talking about! Lisa’s next goal is Tunnel Hill, which, while it’s out-and-back, is relatively flat. As she says, with her style it’s likely she should stay off of rocky trails. But in our fun chat, you’ll be impressed hearing how she fits huge miles into her schedule, and her enthusiasm for cranking out repetitive miles.
Lisa Kabat
Facebook Lisa Kabat
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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In addition to the We Are Superman Podcast, it is my humble privilege to honor David Clark's legacy to direct the American Heroes Run that he began in 2010. This year, we had the largest number of runners since I began hosting it, and quite a few had outstanding performances. We will be highlighting some of these stories in episodes over the new few weeks, but here is a recap of the entire two days of racing from 5K to 100 miles, from 15 to 85 years old, in Longmont, Colorado.
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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Adam Popp was one of the most impressive previous WASP guests, appearing on episode #209 in May, 2022. Adam, a 12-year combat veteran, had his right leg blown off by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in December, 2007 while serving in the Air Force as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team leader. After a long, arduous rehabilitation process, Adam found his purpose again in advocacy work and sports, where he has always gone big and crammed a lot into a short amount of time. He won the 2021 and 2022 Americas Triathlon Championships, and completed a full Ironman in 11:03:06 in 2023. He became the first above-the-knee amputee to complete a 100-mile running race in less than 30 hours, and this year set the 100-mile world record of 16:13:43. He won the 2024 Boston Marathon Para Elite division (T61/63) and set a T63 world best of 3:08:52 at the London Marathon just six days later. For good measure, he ran another marathon in New Zealand a couple of weeks after that. Adam, who already holds seven Guinness World Records, is on a current quest to set 17 records this year to mark 17 years since losing his leg. His next major attempt will be to run 24 hours straight on a treadmill, which he’ll do on Oct. 15 inside the Hoka flagship store in NYC. He aims to support the many organizations that aided him and other wounded soldiers. He is also doing a trial run on Wednesday morning, Sept. 25 in Arvada, Colo., so please reach out to him if you are a local listener who’d like to help witness it for him. His Instagram to contact him is @eodpopp He’s a super humble guy who valiantly served his country on the battlefield, so please support him if you can either in Arvada or in New York.
Adam Popp
adampopp.com
Instagram @eodpopp
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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Some wise person said that necessity is the mother of invention. It’s also sometimes the mother of entrepreneurship. Meet Rice University runner Tyler Strothman. When he experienced years of frustrating foot pain, he tried many different brands of shoes, but nothing seemed to help solve his issues. So boldly, Tyler decided to start his own shoe brand, Veloci. The first models should arrive in January, but many runners who have tried his demo models have raved about them. The differentiators include a toebox that conforms to the natural shape of the foot AND they have a typical running shoe heel drop. Unlike some other brands on the market that have wider toeboxes, Velocis truly match the foot’s shape and they are not zero-drop shoes. In a crowded field, Tyler has been using his youthful enthusiasm and energy to crack into running shoe stores with his innovative brand. In this chat, it is interesting to hear the approach used by a 21-year-old to introduce Velocis to the running community, as well as learning how he has taken his shoes and the company from the drawing board, through financing and relationship-building, to actual production. After my bunion surgery last year, my foot still feels pretty beat up after runs, so I’m looking forward to receiving the pair of Velocis I’ve ordered myself.
Tyler Strothman
velocirunning.com
Instagram @velocirunning and @tylerstrothman
LinkedIn and TikTok Veloci Running
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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As I mentioned in my American Heroes Run episode, there were numerous impressive performances and I’m going to bring you chats with some of these while I’m traveling. First is Lisa Kabat, who not only improved her distance in the 9 hour & 11 minute race from 48 miles in 2023 to 62 miles this year, but also smashed the race record… the men’s record, too. Given the unusual time length, perhaps that’s a world record? Lisa lives near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, but she prefers to run loops around her neighborhood, to the tune of 25 miles every day. Yes, that’s right. Thus, the loop format of the American Heroes Run suits her very well. What was cool was that Lisa generally had a big smile as she completed every lap. This might distract you from gawking at her unusual running form. She runs on her toes with a short, machine-like stride, with arms wildly swinging. I coached high school basketball for many years, and my first instinct would be to fix bad shooting form. But if the player was making his shots, you just shrugged and let it go. The same thing applies to Lisa – it seems to work for her. It’s funny but just last week some people I was with talked about this woman with the funky form who they would see over and over and over running past their house near where Lisa lives. I’ve got a strong hunch I know who they were talking about! Lisa’s next goal is Tunnel Hill, which, while it’s out-and-back, is relatively flat. As she says, with her style it’s likely she should stay off of rocky trails. But in our fun chat, you’ll be impressed hearing how she fits huge miles into her schedule, and her enthusiasm for cranking out repetitive miles.
Lisa Kabat
Facebook Lisa Kabat
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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It’s a shame that two of the nicest people you can meet at the Leadville Trail 100 also happen to be the ones you want the least to meet. You see, Sandy and Mike Monahan are the race’s cutoff queen and king. If you are pushing the time cutoffs at each aid station, they will do their best to move you through and on to the next one. But if you are too late getting there, they will kindly and gently deliver the news that your raceday has ended. You couldn’t ask for better people to handle this difficult job, and that is what makes them an integral part of the Leadville Family. I’ve been there several times on both sides of the cutoff ledger, which may be why in the years I have volunteered, Sandy has sometimes recruited me to assist her. I got to know them particularly well in 2015, when I was the so-called Last Ass Up the Pass, the DFL, or dead f*@king last finisher. Due to coming back from surgery for a ruptured quad that prior fall and some other unique circumstances, from the time I arrived at Twin Lakes inbound, I was within four minutes of the cutoff at every aid station the rest of the way. A very stressful position to be in, but the Monahans kept me moving along so that I did make it to the finish with only two minutes to spare, in 29:58! Once again this year, at Outward Bound and Half Pipe, there were Mike and Sandy pushing me along as I teetered ahead of those cutoffs. But the couple has meant a lot more to the race, going all the way back to the early days when Mike was a racer, and Sandy helped race co-founder Merilee computerize the records from the old handwritten ones prior to then. Cole Chlouber devoted an entire chapter to them in his new book, Grit, Guts, and Determination. Mike and Sandy share some great stories that I am sure you will enjoy in this episode, recorded on the eve of this year’s race, which they generously agreed to do, get this, on their 50th wedding anniversary!
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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I recap the Leadville Trail 100, including my experiences, training, fueling, the race itself, the Leadville people and the race's highly-charged atmosphere, and what my takeaways from it are. The chief one of those is to continue to think big and take chances on epic challenges. In fact, I'm asking all of you listeners to suggest other ones I can undertake. I'm ready. Please contact me and let me know your ideas for me!
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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With the Olympics having just ended, I’m presenting a chat I had with someone who might be a good bet to run in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Parker Wolfe had a terrific high school career at Cherry Creek H.S. in suburban Denver, where in his senior year he was the Gatorade Player of the Year after having an undefeated cross country season, and ran 4:06.17 in the 1600 to set the Colorado state record, which hadn’t been broken in 41 years. He also set the still-standing state record in the 3200, 8:55.94. From there, he has had a stellar career at the Univ. of North Carolina. He won the ACC cross country title this year, but things really began to accelerate after he was runner-up this winter at the NCAA indoor championships in both the 3000 and 5000 meters. The highlights of his spring track season included winning ACC titles in the 5K and 10K, and then winning the NCAA 5000-meter crown. Three weeks later, at only 20 years old, Parker ran in the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. In an incredibly gutsy race, Parker crossed the line in 13:10.75 in third-place. Despite the top-three finish, Parker had not run the Olympic qualifying standard, and after computation of complex world rankings formulas, Parker was unfortunately the first guy out. It was a bit of a tough pill to swallow, but as you’ll hear, Parker has mentally moved on and is focused on his upcoming season at North Carolina. He’s a great example of resilience, overcoming setbacks, and continuing to follow the process. This conversation will also be enlightening if you are a high school or college runner as you hear about how he progressed through the stages of his recruitment, training, and competing.
Parker Wolfe
Instagram and Threads @parkerw19
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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We often feature comebacks on the WASP. This is a comeback by one old guy, me. I'll be toeing the starting line at the Leadville Trail 100 this weekend for the 10th time, hoping to become the first runner to finish the race in four different 10-year age groups. Leadville has been a special place to me since I first ran there in 1992. I have had many memorable races there, including finishing as the Last Ass Up the Pass in 2015. Between finishes, I have had almost too many surgeries to count. My latest one a year ago kept me out of action most of 2023. However, I have made training for it this year almost a full-time job and have pulled out all the stops to get to the finish. Thank you for following along with my journey, and definitely reach out if you happen to be in Leadville this weekend!
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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Anthony Lee is a young, rising star in the ultrarunning world who has a backstory that is as atypical you will hear for someone who has won very challenging major races like the Ouray 100 and Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountain Wild and Scenic 100. If you see him at a starting line, you’ll notice his long, brightly-dyed hair, tattoos, painted fingernails, and that he’s Asian, all telling you that he has a story. What a story it is. It includes being a difficult teenager who got into trouble with the law. After he moved to Colorado, he spent a couple of years couch surfing or living under a bridge, and working in the restaurant industry, obviously none of which is very conducive to ultramarathon training. On many days, he would stash his belongings under some bushes in the pre-dawn dark, go for a run, then shower at the rec center and show up for work. This is where Anthony learned a lot about self-reliance, toughness, and perseverance and began his rise in ultrarunning. Despite those hardships, he is one of the most positive and affable athletes in the sport. What’s super cool is Anthony wants to be an advocate for people to try to discover trail and ultrarunning who may look differently than the stereotypical old, white, male. You’ve heard athletes who were former addicts like David, Gary Stotler, and others who have been on the WASP who perhaps gained their amazing wisdom and worldly perspectives due to their struggles. You’ll quickly hear with Anthony the immense gratitude and generosity he radiates that perhaps were gleaned from his hardscabble times. I mean he is just one friendly, giving, upbeat guy and I hope you really enjoy our lively chat.
Anthony Lee
Instagram @anthonyclee
Strava and Facebook Anthony Lee
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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We’ve featured a lot of people who have taken on epic challenges, but this guest, Ray Zahab of Quebec, Canada, has done dozens and dozens of them. When we recorded this, Ray had just completed a couple of weeks before a crossing of Death Valley from north to south. I’m very familiar with the Badwater 135, which just completed, but that is run on roads. I didn’t even know it was a thing there to run the shortest route between two points, completely off-road. The terrain is seriously rugged, and it’s pretty hot, and Ray ran it with limited re-supplies in 53:35:21. In case you’re wondering, he drank 75 liters of water. He’s also run across the widest park of Death Valley west to east, crossing two mountain ranges, in 35 hours. He’s run 7500 km across the Sahara Desert in 111 days, 1850 km across the Namib Desert in Africa, 1200 km across the Atacama Desert in Chile, and 2000 km across the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. That’s the hot, dry stuff. He’s crossed Baffin Island in northern Canada nine times in winter and trekked from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole on snowshoes pulling his supply sled. And I’m just scratching the surface. Here’s the WASP comeback story angle: Ray did this last Death Valley project a little more than a year after completing six months of debilitating chemotherapy for a rare form of lymphoma. What’s very cool about Ray is how he shares his projects with schoolchildren with live links, and he has been running his foundation, impossible2Possible, to introduce kids to the kind of adventuring he does and reach beyond their perceived limits. The foundation takes kids to wild places so they can challenge themselves, and it doesn’t even charge them to be there! Yes, they’re free! Ray and his wife have been raising two daughters who get to experience the outdoors unlike the way Ray was when he was younger and was an out-of-shape, pack-a-day smoker. So there’s another comeback. His brother inspired him to get outdoors and Ray now encourages everyone to also do so, including with his expedition company, KapiK1, which leads trips to remote and beautiful places like Baffin Island, the Atacama Desert, and the Gobi Desert. Even though we had a fairly short conversation, you might still find yourself listening in amazement to all that Ray does and get pumped up by his incredible level of energy and excitement.
Ray Zahab
rayzahab.com
impossible2possible.com
kapik1.com
[email protected]
Facebook and LinkedIn Ray Zahab
Instagram and X @rayzahab
YouTube @rayzahab1944
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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During my recent long hours on trails training for the Leadville Trail 100, as well as in the Chase the Moon ultramarathon I just ran, I have been listening to several podcasts, and one I recently discovered and really enjoy is Buckle Up with Brian Passenti and Simon Guérard. Fellow New York area guy and Yankees fan Brian grew up running but had some significant detours along the way due to drinking and addiction. He basically missed high school after his mom recognized his issues and sent him to various institutions in what is actually known as the Troubled Teen Industry. His path led him to enlist in the Marines where he served almost his full hitch but got discharged for getting caught smoking weed. Following his return to civilian life, Brian continued to run pretty decently, although probably diminished because many of his runs were done in the morning to work off his hangover so he could show up at his job appearing to be sober. He finished Leadville in 2010 in less than 24 hours and was fourth-place in the challenging Silver Rush 50 while juggling running and drinking. A drunken bike wreck in December, 2016 that resulted in significant bodily injury led him to get sober. His running and his life have taken off since then. He has finished Leadville eight times, Leadman, the Moab 240 in 82 hours, and this year the Cocodona 250 in less than 105 hours. Brian, who has a wife and kids, now has the Buckle Up podcast and a thriving full-time coaching business called Altitude Endurance Coaching, and his clients include many training for Leadville and other ultramarathons. I hope you enjoy this lively chat between two ultrarunning, storytelling East Coast guys.
Brian Passenti
altitudeendurancecoaching.com
Facebook Brian Passenti and Altitude Endurance Coaching
Instagram @passentiontherun
LinkedIn Brian Passenti
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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In January, 2022, episode #187, we brought to you the story of Holocaust survivor Lili Berliner. It is to this day, our episode with the highest number of downloads. We recently lost Lili at the age of 97, and I thought, in a first for the WASP, that we should replay this episode both for those of you who heard it earlier, as well as for those who have joined us more recently. It seems needed in this troubled time in the world that has seen a growing tide of antisemitism and hate. Lili’s story of survival is incredible. Her family was yanked from their home in Transylvania when she was a teenager and shoved into a ghetto that was merely a converted warehouse, along with thousands of others. The Nazis then shipped all of them in a suffocatingly cramped train car to Auschwitz, where her father was immediately killed. Lili, all five feet-nothing of her and her mother against all odds somehow survived the hell of Auschwitz, only to be forced into a death march - barely clothed in frigid winter weather - on which three-quarters of the prisoners perished. They arrived at a labor camp where they craftily survived. Lili was already fluent in seven languages as a teenager, and she used this as a survival skill. When liberated from the infamous Bergen-Belsen by British troops, her mother weighed all of 60 pounds. The Allies used Lili’s language expertise to extract confessions from German guards to use at their war trials.
But this is a story of hope. Lili met her husband Walter, one of the Ritchie Boys, who were German-speaking Austrians who joined the U.S. Army and provided the bulk of intelligence to the Allies during the war. They were married in the first Jewish ceremony in Germany following the war. The couple moved to the U.S. and settled in Queens, New York, and raised a family, including my college roommate at the University of Pennsylvania, Steve. Because the Nazis had interrupted her education, Lili went back and got her high school diploma at age 55, and three years later received a nursing degree. She gave back to others in the medical field until she finally retired at age 85. Along the way, I can attest that she was the warmest, kindest person you would ever meet and a loving mother and grandmother, so amazing for someone who’d seen such horrors. To quote her, “Living well is the greatest revenge.” After listening to this, I encourage you to read her riveting memoir, “And the Month was May,” which you can find on Amazon. Please listen along and be amazed by this incredible survival story.
Steve Berliner
Facebook Steve Berliner
Instagram @berlinersteve
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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Trevor Farnes founded MTN OPS, a self-described outdoor performance supplements company. You may ask why you would listen to a chat about another company in this crowded space, but you will quickly find out that MTN OPS is a very different kind of company. For one, their customers are not anonymous buyers but part of a community that shares experiences and triumphs. Interestingly, MTN OPS focuses on the hunting community, but their products are also extremely well-suited for any endurance athletes. It makes sense when you think about it, because hunters spend long hours and days in the field and require proper fueling. Trevor has also created a unique MTN OPS corporate culture that is based on 12 principles that begin with recognizing God, empowering their employees from what he calls the Four Quadrants of Life, and community service. This latter principle led him to create Operation Conquer Hunger, an organization that has provided six million meals to families in the United States and the African country of Malawi. This project was spurred by Trevor’s own life in which his prior business ventures failed and his ability to put food on his family’s table was in question. It’s an impressive operation that brings people together to assemble meal kits in various communities. What’s very cool is that MTN OPS donates a meal for every sale they make. I also like that they are very serious about testing and delivering on their formulations, especially in the wake of recent reports about a prominent company in this field that was not delivering what was promised on its packaging. This is a very interesting story about the birth of this company, which evolved from when Trevor created a concoction that helped prolong his father’s life, to locating in a historic building in a small Utah town where they are literally the only business, to developing this unique culture and community. I hope you enjoy hearing from this engaging, faith-based force in the performance supplements world.
Trevor Farnes
mtnops.com
Facebook and YouTube MTN OPS
Instagram and Threads @mtnops and @trevorfarnes
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
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What a difference a year makes. After a bunion that broke through the skin and eventually resulted in surgery wiped out pretty much all of my running and other activities in 2023, this year has seen me excitedly get back into doing big things - whether it was an amazing mountaineering trip in Chile, tearing out the turf in part of my yard and replacing it with a waterwise garden with native plants, editing Cole Chlouber's memoir, "Grit, Guts & Determination," about the birth and growth of the Leadville Race Series, and now completing the Leadville Heavy Half. The latter was with Team Leadville and that included the challenge of raising funds for Warriors' Ascent. The race went very well and the group collected more than $125,000 to fund programs that help prevent veteran and first responder suicide, SAVING 62 lives! Everything is building up to the Leadville Trail 100 in August where I'll be attempting to become the first runner to ever finish it in four different 10-year age groups. Do you have it in you to do something big? Train for a big event? Write that book? Take an epic adventure? I hope I can inspire you to take the leap to give it your best shot to challenge yourself to do something big!
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
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After Nick Jonsson, a Swedish-born, Southeast Asian businessman, found the mounting stresses of his job and climbing the corporate ladder untenable, he began drinking heavily, abandoned his fitness regimen, and put on a ton of weight, leading to him losing his job, as well as his wife and son. After getting help to control his alcoholism, Nick, who has now been sober for six years, recognized that one of the primary reasons business leaders were failing was having no one available to open up to about these stresses. Instead, they blew off steam in the bars and in other unhealthy outlets. He realized that businessmen, in particular, could benefit from having support to cope, just as he had to regain his sobriety. The well-traveled Nick now leads the Executive’s Global Network in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia to bring business leaders together to discuss issues they face both in and out of the office. He encourages leaders all over the globe to seek out similar groups before work stresses cause them to slip down the slopes that he did. His book, “Executive Loneliness – The 5 Pathways to Overcoming Isolation, Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in the Modern Business World” is an Amazon worldwide bestseller, and provides a very logical framework with which to put anyone, not just business leaders, onto the path of a more fulfilling career and overall life. In the meantime, Nick has hammered himself back into prime shape and is one of the top-ranked competitors in the Ironman 70.3 Triathlon World Championship in New Zealand this December. I hope you will enjoy this chat with a very insightful business leader and accomplished triathlete.
To donate to Team Leadville and Warriors' Ascent, which saves lives by providing holistic programs helping veterans and first responders dealing with PTS symptoms, go to:
https://give.classy.org/We-Are-Superman
Thank you!
Nick Jonsson
www.nickjonsson.com
LinkedIn Nick Jonsson
“Executive Loneliness – The 5 Pathways to Overcoming Isolation, Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in the Modern Business World” is available on Amazon and his web site
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
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On a bike ride on an open road in New Jersey in 2011, Ron Gold was struck head-on by an SUV whose driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel even though it was the middle of the day. He barely survived, suffering critical injuries, and was left a paraplegic. It was bad enough the driver was totally unapologetic about causing this tragic event. Ron spent many months in rehab, not to mention wrestling with feelings of despair and hopelessness. After he finally got back home, one thing he learned, which you would likely never find out otherwise, is how challenging it is to find a reliable home health care provider. Ron and I are fellow alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, and leveraging the business acumen he had gleaned both there and in his Wall Street jobs, Ron and his wife Betsy, who had encouraged him to find purpose in his life despite his situation, founded and run LeanOnWe. This organization serves to help pair people in the New York Tri-State area who need home healthcare with screened providers, as well as enable those providers to receive a livable wage, which is often a barrier to many remaining in the profession. LeanOnWe innovatively addresses both of these shortcomings, and has now matched more than 1900 individuals with providers. In the meantime, Ron has charged back in to the athletic world, in both para-rowing, in which he has competed in the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, and as a marathoner using a handcycle, where he is roughly horizontal to the ground and “pedals” with his arms. He completed the Hartford Marathon in 2:56, and then improved to 2:42 at the New York City Marathon. Along the way, he has helped the fundraising efforts of Eric LeGrand, the Rutgers football player who was paralyzed in 2010 and is now an inspiring entrepreneur himself. Ron’s efforts have helped raise more than $36,000 for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to aid paralysis research and treatment. Ron’s story will inspire you how he pushed back against very dark times in his life, found a purpose, and had he not done that, the impacts on others that never would have been possible.
Ron Gold
LeanOnWe.com
[email protected]
www.RonGold.live
substack.com/@rongold
Instagram and Threads @the_ronnieg
Facebook and LinkedIn Ron Gold
YouTube RonGold.live
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
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The We Are Superman Podcast has hit 300 episodes... we think. But thanks to David's impetus, inspirational WASP guests have touched millions of listeners around the world. Or at least thousands. After a quick historical recap, I'm honored to bring you my recounting of my truly amazing trip to Chile and climbing peaks in the Andes as high as almost 20,000 feet in the driest and one of the most remote spots on Earth, the Atacama Desert. Our trip included many impressive elite athletes, surprising sights, spectacular scenery, jaw-dropping starry night skies, and consuming so many wraps that I still haven't eaten one since. The climbs were some of the toughest challenges I've ever undertaken, but the rewards of exploring my limits - as well as seeing the others doing so - were well worth it. I hope you enjoy following along with this awesome adventure (which you can do as well, see below).
If you'd like to take the same amazing trip, contact Tyler Andrews at:
Instagram @TylerCAndrews
chaski.run/contact
To donate to Team Leadville and Warriors' Ascent, go to:
https://give.classy.org/We-Are-Superman
Thank you!
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast -
Imagine you are an 18-year-old and you have worked your entire life and gotten to the cusp of achieving your dream of playing hockey on the Division 1 collegiate level and then the NHL, and suddenly you are told that your dream is now kaput due to a health issue. That was the reality faced by David Carle, a star defenseman from Anchorage, Alaska following a physical he received at the NHL combine for top prospects just prior to the 2008 draft. Instead of hearing his name picked in the early rounds by a team that would be eager to add him to their roster after a few years of playing college hockey, he now faced an uncertain future due to a drastic diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the myocardium heart muscle. However, George Gwozdecky, the head coach at the University of Denver, where David had decided to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Matt, a winner of the Hobey Baker Award as the best player in college hockey, honored the scholarship offer he had made, and added David to the staff as a student coach. Few freshmen athletes arrive at college thinking they would be stepping into a coaching career, but he embraced this new opportunity to stay in the game he loved. Following his college graduation and a couple of seasons with Green Bay in the USHL, David returned to DU as an assistant coach and helped the Pioneers win the national title in 2017. When head coach Jim Montgomery left for an NHL job in 2018, David at age 28 was elevated to head coach, the youngest in NCAA Division 1 hockey. He guided the Pioneers to the NCAA Frozen Four in his first season, and they took the national championship in 2022, with a tense overtime win in Boston over Michigan in the semifinals, and then a thrilling come-from-behind victory over Minnesota State. Earlier this year, he coached Team USA at the prestigious World Junior Hockey Championships, with the team capturing the gold medal over host Sweden. This season, the Pioneers had a record of 32-9-3, the first time in program history with three consecutive 30-win seasons, and won the NCHC league playoff title. It all culminated in St. Paul, Minn. with DU winning the national championship for the 10th time, the first NCAA program to hit double-digits in titles. The Pioneers beat Boston University, 2-1 in overtime, and then shutout the leading offense in the country, top-ranked Boston College, 2-0 in the final, games that have made sensational goalie Matt Davis a DU folk hero for years to come. David was later named USCHO Coach of the Year. His career coaching record stands at 148-62-16, a winning percentage of .690. All this and he’s still in his early 30s and with a heart they said shouldn’t let him play hockey but is withstanding a lot of high-tension moments. As many listeners know, I am a huge DU fan, have been a season ticketholder since the 1980s, and have attended all of those Frozen Fours mentioned, including those three championship games. So I was very honored to chat with Coach Carle and am excited to bring this to you. I do want to deeply thank Ron Knabenhauer of the DU athletic staff for helping me to arrange it.
David Carle
Instagram @du_hockey
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast -
This past late winter I met a truly impressive group of athletes on a trip to the rugged and beautiful, high-elevation Atacama Desert of Chile. One of these is Kat Edwards of Richmond, Va. A relative newcomer to ultrarunning at 24 years old, and having never experienced performing at altitude, Kat crushed climbing peaks of 16,000 and 18,000 feet before tackling her first FKT attempt, on nearly 20,000-foot Nevado San Francisco on the border between Chile and Argentina. This same insanely difficult climb with 4400 feet in elevation gain over just 4.67 miles took me more than nine hours to the summit and back. Coached by Tyler Andrews, who led our trip, Kat quite impressively set the female FKT by reaching the peak in 3:37 and completing the roundtrip in 5:40. Kat has followed that up by taking on more scary challenges that have been more opportunities for growth. She raced for the first time on foreign soil in the Petzl Trail Plus 80K in Ecuador on a dastardly beast of a course that led to a DNF, but she also gleaned a ton of knowledge to apply to the future as she discusses here. She bounced back in a huge way in early May as the first woman finisher by nearly four hours – and fourth-place overall – in the Sedona Canyons 125 on the Cocodona course in Arizona. Kat comes from a varied athletic background in which she has also biked, rock climbed, and enthusiastically hit weight training. She may be young, but she is on the fast-track of seeking new ways to challenge herself, and she has now joined Tyler as a coach with the Chaski Endurance Collective, and she will take on the Moab 240 this fall. She also recently got engaged. One thing you’ll notice is how meticulously Kat approaches her training and racing, which belies her easy-going personality. I certainly enjoyed getting to know and admire Kat while we were in Chile along with all of the incredible people on the trip.
Kat Edwards
katedwardspt.com
Instagram @kat.elizabeth_
For coaching inquiries: www.chaski.run
Bill Stahl
[email protected]
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
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