This week Greg Nance who recently completed the World Marathon Challenge (7 Marathons in 7 days on 7 continents) and his biggest challenge yet, he's planning a 3,000 mile Run Across America in a Mission to explore the addiction epidemic and promote mental health.
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In Today's Show
Interview Sponsor: UCAN
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Interview with Greg Nance
Our guest this week is Greg Nance. He is passionate about using technology to boost college affordability, youth mental health, and addiction recovery. Greg was able to attend UChicago and Cambridge with the help of compassionate mentors and scholarships. He's on a mission to pay it forward. He co-founded and led Moneythink and Dyad Mentorship, organizations that have helped students earn over $27M in scholarships.
When he's not working, he's running (or eating TexMex). He has set 11 Fastest Known Time records and recently ran 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents. He lives in Seattle and a Seahawks fan!
Greg's Mission
Ultra Training (gregrunsfar.com)
Greg Nance | Fastest Known Time
@GregRunsFar to follow training + mission prep + the run across america.
https://www.brooksrunning.com/
https://vertavahealth.com/greg-nance/
https://eclipseglove.com/?ref=GregRunsFar
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Endurance News:
Updated team standings for The Collins Cup as the battle for automatic qualification continues. Athletes are ‘In The Hunt’ if they have not yet raced in 2021 but have a strong 2019/2020 points average and are in a position to potentially qualify once they have raced in 2021. This includes athletes who have been on maternity leave and to qualify for The Collins Cup would need to race at least once in 2021.
Team USA Highlights
Sam Long is the new Team USA #1 as a result of scoring 102.33 points at St George putting him over 1 point ahead of the next closest USA man - Rudy von Berg. Rookie Sophie Watts is Team USA #4 as a result of 85.96 and 85.81 points finishes at Texas and St George respectively.
Team Internationals Highlights
Jeanni Metzler moves to Team Internationals #3, pushing Sarah Crowley and Ellie Salthousedown to #4 and #5 respectively meaning Ellie loses her position as an automatic qualifier. Jackson Laundry’s 94.24 point result in St George rockets him up to #8 amongst a tightly pack of International men with just under 5 points separating #3 Sam Appleton down to #8 Jackson.
Team Europe Highlights
Emma Pallant-Browne moves to Team Europe #5 having scored 100.88 points in St George to give her an average of 93.00 points when combined with her 2019/2020 points. Magnus Ditlev moves to Team Europe #3 ahead of George Goodwin #4 with Alistair Brownlee 'In The Hunt' as he is yet to race in 2021.
The Collins Cup Explainer video explains how the qualification process works, how the teams are selected, the history behind The Collins Cup and builds excitement for the head-to-head battles we can expect to see in August. When writing about the PTO or The Collins Cup please include the following link for updates about The Collins Cup https://signup.thecollinscup.com/.
U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM QUALIFICATION ON THE LINE AT WORLD TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES YOKOHAMA
U.S. Olympic hopeful triathletes will have a chance to punch their tickets to Tokyo at this week’s World Triathlon Championship Series event in Yokohama, Japan, which serves as the second and final auto-qualifier for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Triathlon Team. In addition to the elite race, a World Paratriathlon Championship Series event is also scheduled.
All races are set for Saturday, May 15, in Japan, which is late Friday night, May 14, for most of the United States. All events will be broadcast live at TriathlonLIVE.tv; monthly and annual subscriptions are available for purchase. The races will also be streamed live on FloTrack with a subscription.
The World Paratriathlon Championship Series event kicks off the action at 5:50 p.m. ET on May 14/6:50 a.m. local time on May 15 (the paratriathlon race is not an auto-qualifier for the U.S. Paralympic Team). The elite women follow at 9:16 p.m. ET on May 14/10:16 a.m. local time on May 15, and the elite men are scheduled for 12:06 a.m. ET on May 15/1:06 p.m. local time on May 15.
In Yokohama, elite athletes will cover an Olympic-distance course featuring a 1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike and 1-kilometer run centered around Yamashita Park and the Port of Yokohama. Elite paratriathletes will race a sprint-distance course with a 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run.
Olympic Qualification
The U.S. will send a maximum of three women and three men to the Tokyo Olympic Games for triathlon. Summer Rappaport (Thornton, Colo.) is the only athlete currently qualified for the U.S. Olympic Triathlon Team, by way of her fifth-place finish at the Tokyo ITU Olympic Qualification Event in August 2019.
Because Rappaport is already qualified, only one woman can qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team in Yokohama. Since no men have qualified to date, up to two men can punch their ticket to Tokyo by way of a qualifying performance in Yokohama. After Yokohama, all remaining spots will be selected via discretion by the USA Triathlon Games Athlete Selection Committee.
In Yokohama, athletes can auto-qualify for the U.S. Olympic Triathlon Team in the following scenarios:
In the women’s race, the first U.S. athlete finishing on the podium, who has not already qualified for the team, will earn automatic selection. (E.g., only one U.S. woman can auto-qualify at this event, and she must be on the podium).
Because no U.S. men were auto-selected from the 2019 ITU World Olympic Qualification Event, the highest-placed U.S. man finishing within the top-eight overall will be selected to the team.
Two men may be selected to the team at Yokohama, in the event that both men finish on the podium.
In the days following Yokohama, the USA Triathlon Games Athlete Selection Committee may, but is not required to, issue a limited number of “early discretionary nominations” on or before May 20, 2021. Any remaining slots not filled at one of the two auto-selection events, and not named as “early discretionary nominations,” will be issued via final nomination to the team by the USA Triathlon Games Athletes Selection Committee after June 15, 2021.
Click here for a complete explanation of the qualification process for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Triathlon Teams.
U.S. Athletes to Watch
The U.S. women bring a strong contingent to Yokohama, led by the trio who swept the podium at the 2019 Yokohama race — Katie Zaferes (gold), Rappaport (silver) and Taylor Spivey (bronze).
Headlining the women’s start list is Zaferes (Cary, N.C.), the 2019 World Triathlon champion and 2016 U.S. Olympian. Zaferes had a breakout season in 2019, winning five of eight races in the World Triathlon Series and earning silver in a fifth. She crashed out of the 2019 Tokyo test event, missing her first chance at Olympic auto-qualification, but she went on to capture the world title in Lausanne, Switzerland, two weeks later. Zaferes also reached the overall World Triathlon Series podium in 2018 (silver) and 2017 (bronze).
Spivey (Redondo Beach, Calif.) holds the No. 2 spot on the start list. She was just off the overall World Triathlon Series podium in 2019, placing fourth in the season-long standings. Spivey led the U.S. women at the 2020 World Triathlon Championship in Hamburg, Germany, with a fourth-place finish.
Rappaport will compete in Yokohama at No. 3 on the start list, though her spot in Tokyo is already secure. The four-time World Triathlon Series medalist and eight-time World Triathlon Cup champion had a comeback season in 2019, placing a career-best fifth in the overall World Triathlon Series standings.
Also set to compete for the U.S. women are Taylor Knibb (Washington, D.C.) and Tamara Gorman (Rapid City, S.D.), two of only three women in World Triathlon history to have won individual world titles at both the Junior and Under-23 levels. Kirsten Kasper (North Andover, Mass.), a nine-time World Cup medalist who placed fourth overall in the 2018 World Triathlon Series, and Renée Tomlin (Ocean City, N.J.), a 10-time World Cup medalist, will also toe the line. Click here for the complete women’s start list.
On the men’s side, Morgan Pearson (Boulder, Colo.) and Matt McElroy (Huntington Beach, Calif.) are No. 19 and 20 on the start list, respectively. McElroy is a nine-time World Cup medalist who became the first U.S. man in a decade to podium in a World Triathlon Series race in 2019 when he took silver in Leeds, England. Pearson is relatively new to the sport, having made his elite debut in 2018. The two-time World Cup medalist led all U.S. men at the 2020 World Championships in Hamburg, placing eighth.
Chasing a second Olympic appearance is Ben Kanute (Geneva, Ill.), a 2016 U.S. Olympian and two-time World Cup medalist with a career-best World Triathlon Series finish of seventh. Also racing for the U.S. men are Eli Hemming (Kiowa, Colo.), a four-time World Cup medalist and eight-time Continental Cup medalist, and Kevin McDowell (Geneva, Ill.), the 2015 Pan American Games silver medalist and seven-time World Cup medalist. Click here for the complete men’s start list.
Elite Women
Scheduled for Friday, May 14, 2021 7:00 PM MDT
Elite Men
Scheduled for Friday, May 14, 2021 9:50 PM MDT
What's New in the 303:
The Freedom Of the Bike and Waterton Canyon–Inspired by Paraglider in CA
As I took a long walk on a beach near Santa Barbara, I saw a paraglider hugging the cliffs a couple a hundred feet above. I kept walking wondering how the pilot got there as I knew it was a remote area. As I meandered I saw an old set of stairs. So I climbed them and emerged on a hard packed single track trail hugging the cliff high above.
I walked, a little cautiously, and suddenly I saw a bike perched on the ledge and a man unpacking a paraglider. Turns out it was a motobecan e-bike and the man rides here with his paraglider, unpacks it, ditches the bike in the bushes and flies for hours above the ocean—depending on the winds. He told me he once climbed to 7,000 feet off the coast of Carpentria about 40 miles southeast of here.
But the point is, he rode his bike. Here surfers ride their bikes to find uncrowded surf and deserted beaches, often on e-bikes. So many people seem to bike here to do something else. It made me think of Colorado and some opportunities we have to bike and recreate.
Fishing and Waterton canyon came to mind. Waterton Canyon was built in the late 1870’s as a railroad (of course) that connected Denver to south park and beyond. Companies competed for mining freight and thus railroads carved out beds in most of the canyons we now ride or drive. Rail service stopped in 1937 and the tracks were ripped up in the 1940’s as scrap metal for the war. In 1983, Denver Water constructed the 200 foot Strontia Springs dam and what remained was a very smooth gravel access road closed to cars, but open to bikes and pedestrians.
A parking lot at the mouth of the canyon gives access to this 6.5 mile road that ends just passed the dam. Where the road ends, the Colorado Trail begins and ends 486 miles later in Durango (550 by bike). If you travel east from this parking lot you can access the beginning of the High Line Canal. Overall the road gains 650 feet in elevation making it a gentle grade.
Bill & Rich's Excellent [Endurance] Adventure
Video of the Week:
2021 Yokohama Qualification Event Promo Video
Closing:
Thanks again for listening in this week. Please be sure to follow us @303endurance and of course go to iTunes and give us a rating and a comment. We'd really appreciate it!
Stay tuned, train informed, and enjoy the endurance journey!