The Hobby Jogger Podcast

E27 | Jeremy Pope and Steven Kapes on Saddles 50 Mile Ultra

• Hosted by: WeeViews & Branch Sauce • Season 1 • Episode 27

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This week on the Hobby Jogger, friends of the show Jeremy Pope and Steven Kapes bring their unique perspectives to the table. Feel the adrenaline as we relive the challenges of the Saddles 50 mile ultra-marathon in Arizona. We swap stories about the race experiences of Steven and Jeremy, each propelled by the Jim Walmsley Tecton X3 shoes. Whether you're a seasoned runner or just a fan of endurance stories, this episode is your ticket to the trail running world and the camaraderie that defines it.

Casey Koza:

Welcome to this episode of Hobby Jogger and Friends. I am joined once again by my co-host, Mr Rob Myers. Rob, how are you doing this evening?

Rob Myers:

I'm doing well. I always enjoy a good Friends episode.

Casey Koza:

Hey, friends are what makes the world go round, so I'm very excited to have two friends on. Well, one, a friend of a friend that I'm meeting for the first time, but a frequent contributor to the show. Mr Jeremy Pope is joining us with his friend, stephen Capes. Gentlemen, how are you Doing well?

Steven Kapes:

Excellent, absolutely great.

Casey Koza:

Thanks for joining us. We appreciate that. I don't know if you caught the last episode, but we did have the race. The newer race directors I don't believe they were running the race when you ran it, jeremy of the Laurel Highlands Ultra and now an October race that they put together called the Fall Classic, where they run the 50K course in reverse Pretty tough course. So got to talk a little bit about them. Jeremy, I know you've run the race. You had a heck of a time running through a small town in Pennsylvania, right.

Jeremy Pope:

Yeah, I mean it was basically super easy, really. No, it was definitely before them and it was just kind of real low-key. We still sent in our registration through mail so you didn't know if you were in unless your check cashed. So it was still kind of a cool old school feel.

Casey Koza:

Yeah, that was one of the things we talked about was with them was the modernization of the race going to ultra sign up, which makes things a little bit easier because people like me wouldn't have a check to send them so it'd be tough for me to enter and just be like I'll go run this other race where I can just use my credit card. So did modernize it a little bit, so that was pretty cool to talk to them about. But the first thing I want to ask you and Stephen about, because I know both of you are fairly familiar with shipping shoes, both working for Fleet Feet I'm sure you've both seen them Mount to Coast shoes, since they spent a billion dollars on Instagram, correct? Have you seen them, jeremy?

Jeremy Pope:

So many sponsored ads.

Casey Koza:

Steven, are you familiar with the?

Steven Kapes:

brand.

Casey Koza:

I get an ad multiple times a day, so yes, so I was a little bit like, okay, new shoe brand, I'd like to try them out. I was a little bit off-put by the fact that there's no real face to it, Like, hey, this is Joe Smith, he started a shoe company and we have with the normal, with Killian. Other brands have like a familiar face that they would have and just a million ads. But they did send shoes out to some previous guests of ours. Elizabeth Clore, the author who was on here, wrote a pretty cool book Boston Bound, dr Bonnie, who was just on the show, and I believe there was one more that I saw that they sent shoes to. So I was like, well, let me try these shoes out, I'll give them a go. This is where I need your opinion to see if I was being petty, tom Petty, or if I overreacted. So I order them on Monday and you get the little thing from the US Postal Service hey, we're waiting for your shoes. We get to. I'll go through the whole thing here. I get to Wednesday. They're still not shipped out yet. I need a pair of shoes to run the Canal Porter race in.

Casey Koza:

I text Jeremy on Wednesday. Hey, I want to order a pair of Boston 12s from you, you know, can you send them out? Okay, no problem, jeremy gets the order. They're here on Friday. Mountico still has not sent the shoes out on Friday.

Casey Koza:

So I'm like, is this like one of those and I have no idea like one of those scammy internet companies that you kind of hear about? I go onto my credit card portal, whatever, and I just dispute the charge, like, hey, I don't think they're sending me these shoes, didn't mail them out. I asked them to cancel the order when I ordered with you, jeremy, on Wednesday, and they said, oh, we can't, they're already shipped out. And I'm looking at it like these shoes are not shipped out, so I canceled it. Monday comes they send me the shoes. They finally send me the shoes, even though I tried to cancel the order. They also tell me I need to cancel the dispute because they had already mailed the shoes and they made it seem like I ordered them on Monday. They got them to me this Wednesday, completely ignoring the entire previous week, of which they sat at the warehouse.

Rob Myers:

Now, stephen Hold on one second before you guys answer. Were you being cheap again? Did you do a Google search for the shoes and just pick the cheapest vendor?

Casey Koza:

No, I went straight from the their website.

Rob Myers:

OK.

Casey Koza:

Yeah, straight from there.

Rob Myers:

I know how you are. You're a little on the frugal side, which is good most of the time.

Casey Koza:

Yeah, I'd get a running warehouse discount, for sure I would, but I ordered straight from the website. And what do you think you two, jeremy Stephen, you guys ship shoes out. What do you think? Do you think I was wrong to do that? And it's okay if you think I was.

Jeremy Pope:

I kind of knew about it a little bit because just through texting- I'll let Steven go.

Steven Kapes:

Personally, since we do like essentially warehouse and ship shoes on the back end from an e-commerce website. We don't let anything sit for that long. And if it does sit for that long, usually there's some protocol in place where the order will automatically cancel if it's not fulfilled within X amount of days or there's something wrong with the order. I think it's really weird that they couldn't contact you and they didn't have a customer service line that you could reach them immediately, because everyone we work with on a brand side is like there is someone to call and reach almost at all times of the day or you can get an email back within 48 hours. Maybe it's the woes of starting a new brand. If you're pouring that much money into ad revenue to get people to buy them, you better be able to ship them A hundred percent agree with what you said, jeremy, your opinion yeah, I would say the same thing.

Jeremy Pope:

I'll play devil's advocate here, though, if you're saying the label was created yes we've had scenarios like that where maybe something gets mixed up, the label is created, but it doesn't actually ship. It's maybe somewhere sitting, I don't know, but they should have contacted you back.

Casey Koza:

Here's what kind of pissed me off and really why I canceled it. Because I was like I'm not going to be able to wear them, because I wanted to at least wear them Saturday once to run in and I was like, well, if I can't do that, I don't want the shoes anymore. I actually messaged them, emailed them, however, like through the little portal, to hey, cancel this order, and sir the customer service person's like we can't, we already sent them and I'm looking at it on the shipping manifest, like it has not yet left new jersey. That's where I got a little bit upset with them, like oh, do you have the shoes?

Casey Koza:

yeah, but they're in a box and they got to return them because I I disputed the charge.

Rob Myers:

Yeah, that sounds like there was a problem with the tracking. Maybe the tracking wasn't accurate and they did ship them.

Jeremy Pope:

Did you try the shoes?

Casey Koza:

on. No, I never took them out of the box. Well, you should have checked them out at least. Oh, I want to build my money back legitimately. But, rob, I will say that when they did ship them, it immediately uploaded and it was like, hey, your shoes are in New Jersey, but we've picked them up, and then they were here like the next day. I feel bad because if it is a startup company, well, it is a startup company. I feel bad in that sense. But, like Stephen said, should not take that long to ship shoes from New Jersey and at least be honest with the customer, especially starting out, and people will be okay with it Like, hey, we're really busy. We just put in a million dollars worth of ad revenue or ads to Instagram. We have all these people ordering the shoes. Sorry, it took so long. I'd have been okay with it. Yeah, I also told them I'd be discussing it on my podcast and they did not respond to that either. Maybe they will now.

Rob Myers:

We'll tag them.

Casey Koza:

Definitely tag them, and if they would have given me a response, I would have read it verbatim on here. But I digress Anyway on to the show Saddles 50 miler. Good day and bad day. Well, not bad day, but learning day. I guess We'll start with you.

Steven Kapes:

Steven, this is your first go at an ultra distance. Correct, correct. Ran my first and only marathon back in May.

Casey Koza:

Definitely my first run over the marathon distance and you picked it out in the desert. I'm sure that was Jeremy's doing, because Jeremy always wants to go to Arizona anytime he's down.

Jeremy Pope:

I'll agree with you there. However, this one wasn't on me Really, this was.

Casey Koza:

Stephen Nice. So what made you pick the Saddles? 50 miler Stephen.

Steven Kapes:

So the race in and of itself, obviously being in Prescott, arizona, desert mountains, and everything seemed very interesting to me. Obviously, big thing is the race is sponsored by my favorite brand and that is Satisfye Running, super cool, super niche, whole lot different. And I felt like there was going to be a lot of people that looked and ran like me out there, so we went ahead and signed up.

Casey Koza:

Sweet. We always like it when people take chances like that. Huh, Rob yeah.

Rob Myers:

I mean, if I could go back in time, I'd love for my first ultra to be in Arizona.

Casey Koza:

Oh yeah.

Rob Myers:

It's beautiful.

Casey Koza:

How old are you, steven, 27. 27. So still, as far as the ultra game goes, very young.

Jeremy Pope:

A baby.

Casey Koza:

Yeah, new born. You do have someone very experienced, very savvy veteran to learn from, so that's good. Did you learn something out there at the saddles?

Steven Kapes:

I learned quite a bit. Actually, I learned what to do, what not to do, how not to fall, how to fall.

Casey Koza:

Well, there's no good way to fall. I've tried every which way, so take us through what happened.

Steven Kapes:

Well, starting from the beginning, our race started at 5 am.

Steven Kapes:

Our Airbnb was about a block away from the start line so we got to just walk on down to the start of the race, which was really cool.

Steven Kapes:

Jeremy and I started the race at the gate towards the front, basically at the front on the road section, for the first two or three miles and I would say it was a completely pedestrian pace compared to at least what jeremy's done for other ultras where the front little section is runnable. No one really seemed to go with us and they let us set the pace and we're onto the trail in the dark from there. So the two of us moved really well together through about I don't know the first half of the race, essentially almost 25 miles. We were basically side-by-side and podium contention within the top three to five runners or so Took a nasty fall at around mile 10. And I think, right between 10 and 20 miles when Jeremy and I started to get a little bit separated. That's when the adrenaline really wore off and my race started to head from good to bad to worse, so eventually declined till I hit mile 40 and called it a day there.

Rob Myers:

All right, talk us through the fall Like what did you? What did you trip on? How did it feel you realized that rocks are not made of nerf right?

Steven Kapes:

Yeah, I would say trails out in the mountains are a lot different than what we see here in ohio, like less mud, less roots, less leaves and just a lot of sharp, hard objects.

Steven Kapes:

So I let the first place runner I guess I gave up first place contention around mile nine when we left the first aid station and after that just wanted to reconnect from Jeremy after we got separated at the first aid and I just let myself chase the first runner a little bit too much instead of running my own race and caught myself adjusting my vest and adjusting my bottles after we left the aid station and not really sure what I caught my foot on, but I hit the ground hard. Once you hit granite it doesn't really move when you hit the ground. So it scraped me up pretty good, definitely shook me up. Jeremy rounded the corner and found me lying there cursing up a storm and gave me some advice to just kind of walk it off, shake it off and just like collect myself before I started running again, or I probably would have continued to fall and be angry and anxious.

Casey Koza:

Nice. Hopefully things get better for you the next time out. Do you have any plans to race another one?

Steven Kapes:

Hopefully I'm going to run the fuzzy 50K, but we hope to be back at saddles again next year. I definitely felt like there's some unfinished business on the course. I would have loved to finish the 50 miles so I could just do a 50 again and get a belt buckle next year, but it looks like I'll have to run the full 100 to do that Great attitude to have.

Casey Koza:

Hey, you know, those are the breaks. It's a tough game out there. Rob certainly knows he's battled some injuries, battled some tough things happening, and same with jeremy right jeremy yes, sir, I've seen it all.

Jeremy Pope:

Yeah, yeah, you have.

Casey Koza:

And uh, you had a great finish out there. You finished second, yeah, and seems like I haven't really got a chance to talk to you about it. You said you were pretty hurting, pretty bad. Afterwards, hot day day, I imagine, arizona, yeah, definitely the heat for sure. So finish second. You go by, steve, after he falls. That sucks. You see your buddy down there, your travel partner, and take us through it from the beginning. How about?

Jeremy Pope:

Just picking back off of what Steve said, we started out, I thought, very conservative. Steven actually led the first climb. We had about a 1,500-foot climb in the first seven miles Fairly substantial, and we were moving well. Like you said, we did a ton of training together and stuff. So we were very comfortable together and there was about five of us together as well in the pack with us. Yeah, just came around the corner I saw Steve kind of like scraping himself up a little bit. I'm like well, shoot, but I feel like one of my, one of my strengths in in running and in races particularly, are just like staying very even keeled. So yeah, just kind of like told steven ride the ebbs and flows and yeah, we rolled well through 20 miles. Honestly, I didn't know how beat up steven was from the fall or anything. So we um stayed together and I I don't know I just started to kind of separate there I don't even know when it was and then we disconnected from there. Things heated up quickly and like it got hot.

Rob Myers:

It got very, very hot I was like you stopped to check on your friend and you still finished. Second, yeah, we that's amazing, right there we made quick work of it, though.

Jeremy Pope:

I mean, steven was back up and a little walk and then just back to rolling.

Casey Koza:

So dusted himself off and got back up again and, yeah, the sun out there is much different than it is here. Like I know, jeremy rob, when we were out of black canyons, you know, as soon as the sun came up and was I don't know how many degrees, but decently high in the sky and you could start, you could really start to feel it. And then I don't know if he ran through any canyons, but when the heat was just blasting off the canyon walls at you, it was got to be pretty warm in there. So, yeah, arizona, steven, I commend you for going out there to run your first ultra. That's awesome.

Casey Koza:

You didn't just you know, take it easy here in the backyard. You know Mohican 50 or burning river 50, you and you went straight out to the big league.

Steven Kapes:

So a lot of respect to you for that. Yeah, I definitely appreciate it. I know probably close to 5,000 feet of climbing by the time I dropped out anyway, so definitely a lot different than some of the races that I grew up around and there's a lot of guys out there and women that can really go and go hard out there.

Casey Koza:

Jeremy knows like there could local guys you've never heard of, seen or do anything. They just show up on race day and they're ready to go blasting. So yeah, yeah, hats off to you, steven, for picking that, as you're going out of your way to run that as your first ultra.

Jeremy Pope:

That's, that's, that's awesome I feel like that's well put too, like it's that is a first, that is not comfortable at all no, it's, it's not ohio.

Casey Koza:

It's not a cool fall day out there. It's 90 some degrees beating sun, not a cloud in the sky. There's no shade, it's just.

Rob Myers:

It's the opposite of what 99 of runners do. You know, most runners when they do a first, they kind of look around where they live, try to find something close.

Casey Koza:

So that's pretty cool yeah, yeah, I mean, hey, we just talked to a ethan koza who just jumped into straight into a hundred mile race and then went out to into arizona to to send it in some big time races out in the desert as well. So it seems to be a little theme we're running with here with Steven and and Ethan, of guys who are just hey, it's the new generation, rob, you know they're not scared.

Rob Myers:

And the listeners don't have to wait. That'll be the next episode after this one. That is correct.

Casey Koza:

Yeah. Now Steven is that maybe a different generation than me? Starting out in ultra running Like went from okay, I'll run a trail half, then a 50K, then 100K, then 100 miles Is maybe there's something different in this generation.

Steven Kapes:

I think part of it's the opportunity and then part of it is definitely just the people around paving the way. I know, when I was in college I always knew who Jeremy was, grew up shopping around the Fleet Feet stores in Second Soul in Cleveland and whatnot, and Connie Gardner was always a household name. A couple of my high school coaches were US champions at burning river of the year. They were champions.

Steven Kapes:

So just always people around me kind of pushing me towards that side of the sport and it's always interested me, I feel like especially with how easy it is to consume media for our generation. It's like right in front of your face, you. You go on YouTube and like there's not a documentary about Galen Rupp, there's documentaries about Jim Walmsley. It's much more like easy to consume and like right around you and it definitely like motivates and consumes you. I remember countless nights sitting there nothing to watch in my dorm room and like watching stuff about the Barkley and it's just like why am I watching this and not some Olympic track final? I don't know, but that's where I'm at.

Casey Koza:

That's awesome. That's very well said, stephen, very smart Cause. I don't think I could have come up with that answer. But I'm not part of that generation, so that, but it does make a lot of sense. Yeah, you're watching, you know, watching the Barkley marathons and and yeah, you're exposed to it more, so that that certainly makes makes perfect sense to me. We're Rob. We didn't have that right.

Rob Myers:

No, no, we didn't have that. I mean, it's a hundred percent true. I mean iron sharpens iron yeah, you meet somebody like Jeremy as fast, as Jeremy is ton of experience. I mean you can learn a lot from him, and then he's going to push you when you're out there running together. So I think that's the number one thing and you can get that from social media, you get that from youtube documentary. But it's it's so true.

Casey Koza:

You know, iron sharpens iron, if you're around greatness, you rise to the top shout out to connie gardner, coach constance, as will walmsley and I call her uh, she has been helping us out for with some track workouts more so, will than me, but I've been copying some of his and I know he's been doing some track workouts with her leading up to his Columbus marathon race where he's trying to qualify for Boston. So we will definitely have him on for an episode after that, hopefully, if he's not busy. I know he's very busy with his Morton Salt contract, jeremy.

Jeremy Pope:

He's fine. I honestly can't wait to see how well does it go on his honestly, that's going to be a good time.

Casey Koza:

Yeah, yeah, he's been crushing some track workouts and some longer stuff.

Jeremy Pope:

He's put the work in and I think it seems like he's had a good plan. I think he knows some people that'll maybe hook him up with some advice. Yeah, I wonder what kind of shoes I'll wear.

Casey Koza:

We'll have to. We'll have to ask him. I don't know, probably adidas guy, I think nike 100 yeah yeah, hopefully he does, I'd like it.

Jeremy Pope:

That's a bad word, in case he's.

Casey Koza:

Yeah. I would just like if he were a different brand, not necessarily the Nike word. Got that to look forward to, Jeremy what do you got next?

Jeremy Pope:

I honestly haven't decided. I really haven't. I wanted to run 100 before the end of the year. I'm not sure if it's feasible with family travel in the next month and a half and that puts us into december, so I don't know. Steven's talking about running this 50k and you're saying iron sharpens iron and I just freaking love chasing this dude around, so I don't know let's do it.

Casey Koza:

I hey fuzzy fandango. That's, that's a local, it's at where is it? Mohegan? Not so I thought so, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure. Jeremy does sound like we might be going back to black canyon. If will's friend decides what he's doing, maybe we'll go back to black canyon yeah, I think you got two people right here yeah, we're hoping to be out there nice, steven you're, you're gonna go right back into it.

Casey Koza:

I like it didn't didn't get too much of the desert, but it sounds like we're going to go. So, rob, david, of course you guys are invited. I know it is Super Bowl weekend. David has to play cards. He's got a card party that he hosts every year, and, rob, I forget what your excuse was.

Rob Myers:

Yeah peer pressure does work, I mean especially for races, but I think that will put us up to like six races next year, maybe seven.

Jeremy Pope:

yeah, I'm the one overseas so we, we actually drove right past this black canyon start line to get to prescott. Oh sweet, what was it steven another 40 minutes or so to prescott. Maybe I'm off on that. But yeah, it was just Another 40 minutes or so to Prescott, maybe.

Steven Kapes:

I'm off on that, but yeah, it was just 30 to 40 minutes past the high school that you started at for Black Canyon.

Casey Koza:

Well, hopefully we can all make it work, as we can rent the compound that we rented last year. That was awesome, which was, which was pretty sweet. So, yeah, I hope to be able to get out to the Black Canyon. Our next guest, ethan, is signed up for it. We will see if he runs it. I would need to sign up for the 100K soon because I get to go on the wait list, probably with Steven and Jeremy's ultra sign up. You guys don't go to the wait list, you just get right in right.

Steven Kapes:

Well, we'll see what happens for me. I know one win and one DNnf. I don't know how that impacts the score.

Casey Koza:

They seem to know talent out there. I have full faith in jameel curry to put together the best field that he possibly can yeah, I think we have a few new connections, so I think we'll get in yeah, yeah, jeremy. Jeremy holds a lot of weight out there and in the az casey, speaking of peer pressure, and now that we have jeremy's attention, we do have another race.

Rob Myers:

Yeah, yeah, jeremy holds a lot of weight out there in the AZ Casey speaking of peer pressure, and now that we have Jeremy's attention, we do have another race no-transcript yeah, yeah, we are going to canyons is it april

Jeremy Pope:

april I know it. It like it's in the middle of lacrosse season too, but I I've I've looked at canyons a lot on race. I'll have western states lottery in december, so I need to see if, like that's a yes or a no yeah, that that is one thing, rob.

Casey Koza:

We do have lotteries that we're waiting on come December. I think they're all in December. Yeah, they're all in December. Utmb CCC is December. So yeah, then that makes it a little bit easier to plan of what distances we're going to do. Steve, what's your cat's name?

Steven Kapes:

This is Corbin, and Corbin is he's talking.

Casey Koza:

That's his second appearance here so I had to ask. You know it'd be rude not to, but yeah, so we got a lot on the plate for next year the hobby joggers, hopefully going international, and that would be insane. It'd be fun. It'd be a lot of fun. So we got a lot. If you're out at Western States, someone's going to have to drive up that back Canyon road, and that was, yeah, that's three hour ride is necessary for sure.

Casey Koza:

A three hour ride to go as the crow flies. I think I figured out it was like 30 miles, so that was crazy. Yeah, it was cool. It was cool, cool experience. Rob will be out there next year with us once jeremy gets in.

Rob Myers:

Right, rob, yeah I pretty much have to. You're missing it this last year. Yeah, you get to drive. Is that the penalty? That is the penalty. Yes, because it's okay yeah, I was.

Casey Koza:

At one point I made I made david pull over because I was getting car sick, so it's a tough drive.

Jeremy Pope:

Casey's very sensitive. In that way it wasn't. I didn't think it was that bad, but it was pretty bad. It was pretty bad. Yeah, I thought so.

Casey Koza:

But yeah, so hopefully we get out travel a bit, see some different things, I know. But Black Canyon is one that I definitely want to go back to. I'm glad to hear that Steven's going that. But Black Canyon is one that I definitely want to go back to. I'm glad to hear that Steven's going That'll be cool. Some Ohio guys going out.

Jeremy Pope:

Arizona 2.0.

Casey Koza:

Arizona 2.0. We're going to look out for that rock. And I guess, while we're talking about tripping on rocks, steven, what kind of shoes were you wearing?

Steven Kapes:

The Jim Walmsley Tecton X3.

Casey Koza:

Ah, nice.

Steven Kapes:

The Air Walmsleys the ah nice, the air walmsley's the maui. James jeremy, same shoe, same shoe could not. I can't put that thing down.

Casey Koza:

Same color, same everything, almost the same size. I was hoping to do a review of the shoe episode hobby jogger and friends but just hasn't. We haven't had the chance to to one yet. But that shoe is the first truly super shoe for trails. And the difference in my legs because I use the shoe for grindstone the difference in my legs my legs have never felt that good after a 50K before. Could be me getting now back like after a few years of running into better shape, doing things maybe kind of the correct way? Yeah, my legs have never felt anything like that after jeremy. Did you notice that after the race?

Jeremy Pope:

yeah, I would say there's definitely some difference biomechanically. It doesn't change you. But yeah, there's definitely a little.

Casey Koza:

Uh help for sure, yeah, it's something I I don't quite know what it is. I don't know enough about things and biomechanics of that nature.

Jeremy Pope:

They don't drink water. For you, though, you must drink water.

Casey Koza:

Yeah, you still got to consume water.

Steven Kapes:

I need a shoe they can eat for me.

Casey Koza:

That'll be the Walmsley 4.0s. Maybe We'll have him work on that. Rob, you got to try them out too.

Rob Myers:

I did. Yeah, I really liked them, which was scary because of the price tag. So maybe Jeremy has a discount code to help a brother out. We'll get you a pair.

Casey Koza:

We used to have a code. Yeah, we used the code, so that's no longer a code. But yeah, I mean mean awesome shoe it. It definitely felt like a road shoe because grind you remember jammy grindson you got to run some road miles but yeah, it really felt we had a lot of gravel sections gravel kind of like uh service road stuff at saddles as well.

Jeremy Pope:

Two mile road section steven missed that.

Steven Kapes:

That was dandy I missed the easiest part of the course but the hardest because it was it was also 100 degrees full sun and I could not drink or eat, so I'm glad I made that call yes, definitely, definitely helps to be able to eat and drink when it's 100 degrees out, that's for sure, sure.

Casey Koza:

But yeah, the shoes I don't know. There's definitely something to be said for the foam of the shoes. I know it's the new thing or whatever, but like I said my legs have never felt that good immediately after running a 50K, especially with as much downhill as that one had. There's a lot of long downhills in there and so I don't know. I was pretty impressed with it. I thought it was good. Would I spend $275 on the show?

Rob Myers:

Maybe, but for $100K.

Casey Koza:

I think I would. I think necessarily for $50K, though I don't Pretty hefty price tag. How many miles? Do you two have in yours.

Steven Kapes:

Somewhere in between 40 and 100 miles. At least 40. At least miles. At least 40,. At least 40, at least 40.

Jeremy Pope:

I think I have somewhere around 150. At least they're getting broken down. Are they shot yet?

Steven Kapes:

No, no, but probably no longer long race worthy.

Jeremy Pope:

Yeah, huh, yeah.

Casey Koza:

Maybe a 50 K, and you two are shoe savvy, so you know. Uh, is that common with super shoes? They don't.

Steven Kapes:

Maybe don't last as long because the foam is softer and easily destroyed yeah, that's definitely a struggle with like, where is how light and how fast can we make this while also making it durable? So there is some sacrifice to make it more durable for the consumer. I know most people want their shoe to last a long time. I think if it were up for like the pros that just get a new pair for every race, then it's just like have it be dead at the exact distance that the finish is at, so it could be as light and as fast as possible. There's always a trade-off.

Rob Myers:

Yeah, makes sense. I would think for hobby joggers that listen to this show, they want to get more than 150 miles after they spend $275.

Steven Kapes:

Yeah, just get a speed goat then.

Rob Myers:

Yeah, that's a good answer. It's the right answer. That is the right answer yeah it's.

Casey Koza:

It's definitely a fast, fun shoe, definitely, definitely cool legs did feel a lot better, whether it was a shoe or me actually training kind of properly and, you know, doing strength things like you're supposed to, could have also been that, I don't know it looks cool too, so that that holds some value right.

Steven Kapes:

The Gator is nice. The built-in Gator, I do have to say, is like if I would have had to stop for rocks in my shoe, I didn't need one more reason to stop, and if I had to have one more reason to stop, I don't know if I would have made it as far as 40.

Casey Koza:

I always take. I'm the one who well, I was. We went Will and I went over to UTMB and I was talking to one of the shoe engineers and I pretty much told him I was like dude, why don't you put a gator on every shoe trail shoe you make the Adidas Predator is what I compared it to Like turf shoes or soccer, all have the collar to keep the little black pellets out. And so I take full credit for Hoka putting the collar now on on this and all too, because I don't think this is all. I did see this and all's over there. This is all twos. They did not yet have the collar. The collar was added later. So I I take full credit for hoka adding the collar to the shoe. Do you think that's accurate, jeremy?

Jeremy Pope:

for sure. I mean the check, probably in the mail, right?

Casey Koza:

I would say it's definitely not accurate. It's on its way.

Jeremy Pope:

Casey's telling Jean-Marc what to do.

Casey Koza:

No, it wasn't him.

Steven Kapes:

It was just one of the. It was probably the guy who won UTMB. He probably finished the race and Casey was right there like, hey, you ought to put gators on those things, Ben Tom yeah in case he was right there like, hey, you ought to put gators on those things.

Casey Koza:

Yeah, uh, no, it was not him. I did meet him. There was like a hoka after party or something and he brought his dog into the bar like a boss. I thought that was pretty cool. His dog was like chilling on the bar stool and it's like, I don't know, they love, you know, dogs in here and someone's like, ah, he's, he's the founder of hoka, he can do whatever he wants. Yeah, that was like yeah, that makes sense, he sure can. Yeah, did get to meet him, but no, it was one of the shoe engineers that was. I forget what they were working on. Hey, you should put a gator on every shoe because we run where it's rocky and it sucks to have to stop Pick rocks out of your shoes. But the prototypes, they were running it. Well, jim was running and then did have a gator. It was. It did predate me telling the engineer that. So I can't take full credit, but I'm going to take partial credit.

Jeremy Pope:

What Jim would say.

Casey Koza:

He would roll his eyes at me. It was exactly probably what he would do, just like Will does Every time I tell the story. Very similar twin brothers mannerisms.

Jeremy Pope:

Casey, we can't go, we cannot go without talking about canal corridor.

Casey Koza:

Yeah, I'm going to run a hundred miles. Well, I'm going to move a hundred miles this weekend. Uh, supposed to rain. Which rain is my arch nemesis. I don't like cold rain, so I've got a poncho ready to go. I've got the winter jacket out when I hit the moonwalk that I can just bundle up, I'll walk it in. I don't care, grab a six-pack Iron City, we'll get it done one way or the other.

Rob Myers:

You got it.

Casey Koza:

Jeremy, you're coming up to pace Matt Taylor, correct?

Jeremy Pope:

Matt Parker.

Casey Koza:

Matt Parker man, I was close, matt was. I actually went into. I was close and Matt was I actually went into second sole during the saddles 50 mile and Matt was definitely rooting for both Jeremy and Stephen but was not following the race because he didn't have the live tracker. But yeah, he was definitely aware, was definitely following you guys and cheering you on, as was on, as was aiming our friend down there at second soul.

Jeremy Pope:

So yep, it's going to be cool to be out there, casey.

Casey Koza:

You better be waiting at you, and we'll better be waiting at the finish line. I don't care if it's noon the next day. There's no excuse, rob. You have an excuse because you're in Tennessee.

Rob Myers:

Well, someone could at least FaceTime me when he crosses the finish line, so I can see it in real time.

Jeremy Pope:

Sounds good.

Casey Koza:

I will be there. I'm sure Will will be there, and I look forward to seeing you.

Steven Kapes:

Steven, you coming up for the canal corridor. I will be there.

Casey Koza:

You'll be there as well. Are you pacing someone? I might tag along with Matt and Jeremy, hopefully bring him into the finish I'm still trying to get the pacer band, so I will not be using a pacer. That is not something I do.

Jeremy Pope:

I case, he's the anti-pacer, steven, just a little side, no raw dogs 100 miles.

Steven Kapes:

Yeah, no music, no gels, no water there's.

Casey Koza:

There's gonna be plenty of all of that, even possibly some beer on the course. So, yeah, grant and I are running it. Uh, our good friend, fellow former rugby player that played with will and I, uh, grant johnson, is also running it. So there's a chance. After 60 miles, we're just cracking beers and walking down the tow path at night in the rain, so we'll get it done one way or the other. It'll be fun, we'll have a good time.

Jeremy Pope:

You'll have a buckle.

Casey Koza:

Yep, I will get a hopefully get a buckle Is there? Is there a gold buckle for under 24 hours? I don't know that. Maybe I'll find out tomorrow when I pick up the packet Is it too late to sign up? No, you want in.

Steven Kapes:

We'll see. I don't think I can get off work.

Casey Koza:

I'd get on a relay. It is a cool race in the fact that it does not do a relay 50 mile or marathon. So the hundred only. Yep, it is on a wait list. However, they did sell out this year, so that's really cool. Good for the folks that canal quarter 100, which will have the hobby jogger there, won't have Rob there, unfortunately, but he will be FaceTimed in to at least the finish line. Look forward to it. Look forward to seeing Jeremy at some point oh, maybe.

Jeremy Pope:

I won't. What miles are you?

Casey Koza:

pacing 85 on. I won't see you.

Jeremy Pope:

No.

Casey Koza:

Yeah, yeah, I'll be, there may be an intersection or something we turn at mile 60. Yeah, I don't think I'll see you guys. Well, I'll see you when I finish around 7 am. Is Holly coming up with the kids?

Jeremy Pope:

She'll be there at some point, yeah.

Casey Koza:

Well, she'll see, annie. Annie, I'm sure, will have white claws on hand for everyone.

Jeremy Pope:

He stays locked and loaded.

Casey Koza:

He does stay locked and loaded. So that's awesome, yep, but we certainly appreciate your time. That is all for this episode of hobby jogger and friends. Special Thank you to Jeremy Pope and Steven capes for coming on the show and thank you, rob, appreciate it as always. Thank you to our producer, mr David Moore. Thank you from the hobby jogger.