Elite ultra marathon runner and trail racer Devon Yanko joins me on the podcast this week to talk all about Western States, running ultra marathons, and why she loves (and excels at) those long distances.
We start with Devon telling me more about her background, and how she got into running and eventually towards ultras. She tells me about her first ultra, and how the community drew her in to the sport. She shares with me some of the lessons she learned, then talks about the first ultra she won.
I ask Devon why she prefers running long distances, which leads us to talk about how the ability to endure suffering is a key element to ultra running.
We talk about her lowest race moment (that happened to be captured on camera for the Billy Yang film Life In A Day), and how she got through it.
That leads us to talking all about The Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, and her performance in 2016 where she placed third for women. She talks about what helped secure that podium spot, and goes in depth about various parts of the course.
She tells me about her injury after that race, and how she ran seven more races on a broken foot.
We then talk about her first OCR in Utah last summer and what she thought about it, and I ask Devon if she'll try any endurance OCR's coming up, and we talk about the possibility of her running World's Toughest Mudder next year.
Lastly, I ask Devon why she loves running, and we talk about all the great things about these sports.