The Hobby Jogger Podcast
Welcome to The Hobby Jogger Podcast, where elite athletes and ham-and-eggers lace up their stories. We explore the common ground that running creates from the world-class runner to the hobbyist hitting the pavement, trail or treadmill. Expect a blend of inspiration, laughter and the shared joy that makes every step count. Join us on this journey, where every run is a story worth sharing.
The Hobby Jogger Podcast
E47 | Recapping the Laurel Highlands Ultra with Nikki and Wil
The Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail Ultra stands as one of the East Coast's most formidable trail challenges, and in our latest episode, we get an unfiltered look at what makes this Pennsylvania race so legendary. Guests Nikki Niemeyer and William Walmsley take us through their recent battle with this 70-mile trail featuring 11,000 feet of elevation gain across relentlessly rocky terrain.
Both Nikki and Will arrived with solid training and race plans, only to face the perfect storm of 90% humidity and technical terrain that humbled them from the early miles. Will began cramping just five miles in despite conservative pacing, while Nikki found herself contemplating dropping at mile 19 before pushing through to finish. Their raw stories demonstrate what ultrarunning is truly about—adapting when things go sideways and finding strength when your body wants to quit.
Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of the Hobby Jogger. I am your co-host, Casey Koza. I am once again joined by my co-host, Mr Rob Myers. Rob, how are you holding up in the heat down there in Tennessee?
Rob Myers:I'm doing pretty well sitting in the AC, Excited to dig into this podcast talk about Laurel 2025.
Casey Koza:Yep, yep, One of my favorite races. We get to discuss Laurel Highlands 2025, the adventure, some misadventure, but we'll get into that with our guests here. First we have Nikki Niemeyer. Nikki, welcome back to the Hobby Jogger.
Nikki Niemeyer:Thank you, thanks for having me how you doing, doing great, enjoying this heat humidity.
Casey Koza:Yeah, 94,. Not much fun. Hey, trying to stay cool. Got to run in early this morning, that's good. We're also joined by my dear friend Mr William Walmsley Will. How are we doing today?
Wil Walmsley:Doing pretty good. It's a nice cool 95 degree day Nothing compared to 110, 115.
Casey Koza:Fantastic Eating dinner and enjoying the weather, yeah yeah, you are a uh, a phoenix boy raised out in the desert, so heat no stranger to you, although this is a wet heat, not the dry heat that you're used to big difference that still feels like it's hot. Yes, yeah, we have we were out there in the desert last year and it was yeah.
Nikki Niemeyer:Oh, as soon as you get above 95,.
Casey Koza:it doesn't matter what it is Hot or wet, cold or not, cold wet dry, whatever it's hot, hot is hot. So you both ran the Laurel Highlands hiking trail ultra, which was now two weeks ago, correct Last weekend.
Nikki Niemeyer:Was that last weekend?
Casey Koza:Yeah, a week ago had a long weekend. This weekend Crewing's hard Crewing was grueling for that race. It's not an easy race to crew.
Nikki Niemeyer:When you were out there a while.
Wil Walmsley:If only your runner was faster.
Casey Koza:Well, we'll get into that, Will. We'll start with you. You know, I kind of gave you a briefing of what I thought of at least the first 30 miles and I think I was pretty accurate about that. I gave it to both you and Nikki. Walk us through, I guess. Well, the first 11. That's the tough part of the course For anyone who's listening to this in the future, if you want to run Laurel Highlands, it's pretty rough. From miles one to eight.
Wil Walmsley:Laurel Highlands. It's a nice old school course. It's about an hour east of Pittsburgh. Runs point to to point. Starts in Ohio Pile. Where's the finish line? At Near Johnstown Okay.
Casey Koza:We didn't get there.
Wil Walmsley:No, I'm not aware of where it was. No, unfortunately. Yeah, the full course, I think 70 miles. If you complete all that, I think the total elevation gain is 11,000 feet, which is a good amount. But it's also just incredibly rocky the entire way. So you're downhills, you're hitting rocks, you're flat parts, you're dodging rocks. There's areas where it's overgrown grass and you have softball-sized rocks that you're trying not to step on too much. I mean, it's a pretty gnarly course, really unforgiving.
Wil Walmsley:Not a whole lot of runnable sections. The first 11 miles, even the first eight, that would be your infamous section where you know gate to eight, eight miles you've got about 2,500 feet of climbing One big climb, two smaller ones and then the biggest one to end it. You know, between like mile six, seven gets to the top and then a little bit slight elevation gain to mile eight and then kind of runnable from eight until mile 11. Mile 11 is the first aid station on the entire course, so that's just kind of the intro into it. And then from 11 on it's kind of just a little bit of climbing, here and there, rocky, whole bunch of scenery green, overgrown, beautiful white flowers, just absolutely everywhere, absolutely gorgeous scenery the entire course. It's kind of a little bit of breakdown on Laurel.
Rob Myers:Highlands and that first aid station. You looked pretty good. And then, when I ran my segment of the race, I'm like this, this is bad. This humidity is like nothing I've ever felt.
Wil Walmsley:Yeah, yeah, the race, uh, it didn't go off too bad. Like the initial goal was uh, because that section has the most climbing, you know, average elevation gain. It's definitely, hey, take it real easy, going it real easy. Don't go out too hard. Save something and use it as like an 11-mile warm-up, if you will, and then all right, now start running from 11 on. And that was the plan going in. But yeah, race morning I think starting temps were mid-70s, mid to low 70s, but well over 90% humidity. It was sticky out, thick like butter. Yeah, it didn't go great. It's kind of weird when it's my race didn't go great, kind of went out easy, but with the humidity it's hard to take anything easy. And yeah, less than five miles in and already start cramping up. And yeah, I may have been looking all right, the first aid station even hit my hey, want to be here at this time and felt like that was real conserved. Hit that almost within a minute. But no, I was cramping up like crazy already 11 miles in.
Casey Koza:I was a bit worried for you there, yeah, and another thing if people find this podcast that are looking at this race, it's it's a very rugged course and it's it never relents. The trail is. There's always boulders, there's always rocks, like you said. It's just you never get a break of just smooth, easy trail. Now, nikki, I gave you the rundown the same spiel I gave Will uh, the week before what was your first 11 miles, like because you were, you were.
Nikki Niemeyer:You've never been on the trail before, correct yeah, that was my first time ever on laurel highlands trail. Uh, and I, you guys, one of the group runs we did I think it was david was telling me it was a super rocky course and I was was like, okay, noted, um. And then I was talking to you, casey, like a week before the race, and you were saying, um, you're like the first 11 miles is a lot of climbing. And I remember you saying miles 11 through 19 are going to be a lot more runnable, and so that was in my head and, uh, on, I've been doing a lot of climbing for just training in general, because I signed up for a race in Switzerland in September. So I'm just trying to do all the climbing I can get hill repeats, all that. And uh, so, honestly, the first, the gate to eight, I was loving it. I was like, okay, I mean, I was getting my my ass kicked, but I was loving it. I was like, okay, this is great, like I could climb. I just felt like I could climb all day.
Nikki Niemeyer:I got to mile 11 and connie was crewing me and she was, she was helping crew, she was kind of helping you with will just a little bit. I think she bumped into you guys and uh, she was saying she said oh, she said mile mile 11 will looked. She's like, will looked great. She's like this next section. Now I saw him. She's like I saw, looked great. She's like this next section. Now I saw him. She's like. I saw him at 19. He didn't look so good. She said she's like, so take it easy. She said just just chill. And uh, at that point, at 11, I was feeling great too. I was like, okay, cool, like this is the runnable part, like this is gonna be great.
Casey Koza:And then it's more runnable.
Nikki Niemeyer:Nikkiable yes keyword and I think, honestly, right after that mile 11 aid station, like the humidity or something just started it. It was hitting me pretty hard and I was, like I just remember thinking, wow, my threshold pace is my hike right now, like like anytime I tried to run it was heart rate skyrocketing. So I think a lot of that was the humidity, yeah, even the parts that look more runnable, like will was saying with the rocks. It was almost like miles 11 through 19 where, uh, I feel like I wasn't even moving as well as when I was climbing because of all the rocks and they were kind of greasy because I was kind of raining. Maybe it wasn't, maybe it was just humidity, but everything was wet, rained overnight.
Nikki Niemeyer:Rained overnight so it was all slick, yeah, and then made it to mile 19. At that point I was like, oh, I'm done, like I'm good, like I'm going to call it a 19 mile run. Connie was my aid and she's like she wasn't letting you drop.
Nikki Niemeyer:No, she was. So my thing was was I knew she was kind of like playing skip on work a little bit that day and I was like, hey, connie, don't you need to get back to work? Like like we could go. I was like I'm gonna be out here all day. I was like, so, if you want to go, uh, she's like, she's like no, no, no, like you're good. And uh, I was ready to start like.
Nikki Niemeyer:I was at the aid station for like 20 minutes and I remember the aid station volunteer. He's like hey, have you ever done this course before? And I was like no, I was like I haven't. He said, well, just so you know. He said the next part is pretty runnable. He said, but what, what he said that actually worked on me was he's like oh, but he's like wait till you get to the section where you, you get out of the trail and it opens up to seven springs and it's a beautiful view and I'm a sucker for that and I was like, oh, shoot. So then I kept going and I was happy I kept going because the course is like will saying is beautiful and there's all the flowers were bloomed and you go through like these ledges, and I definitely want to do the full course now, just because I want to see it all yeah, and it is beautiful, it's, it's it's kind of the same course throughout.
Casey Koza:I, I think I mean I haven't ran much past mile 31, but you know, certainly it seems like it's the rocks never quit being rocky no no, no, rob what. What section did you run leg? Two okay, so you ran the more runnable section.
Wil Walmsley:I did. How do you go legs for the relay work?
Casey Koza:There's three people First aid station second aid station.
Wil Walmsley:It's mile 11, mile 19. Yeah, third person finishes out the last 12 miles.
Casey Koza:It's a little bit shorter, though, because it stops before your 31 aid station. It doesn't go across the road. It's a little bit shorter, though, because it stops before your 31 aid station. It doesn't go across the road, it's on the other side of Route 31. I didn't see the turnoff for that. Yeah, you probably wanted to make that turn right about then, huh.
Wil Walmsley:I mean, at that point I was still thinking, like you know, the race kind of sucked. I mean I had a goal going in and pivoted, yeah, I think my goal time by 11. I was already pivoting to. You know, I'm not running like I felt like I should have been and you know, maybe, maybe just finish and let's go the different time. And yeah, I was still going pretty good, moving at 31, 32 and I wasn't thinking about dropping too much. I wanted to 19,. But that's when I just decided to keep going.
Casey Koza:Well, I was. I was not going to let you drop at 26. Cause if I had a wind through all that neighborhood and back roads to get there, you were definitely going to go to mile 31.
Wil Walmsley:So oh, I think seeing you at seven Springs that was one you had talked about not even going, seeing you there, like I wasn't even close to dropping at 26. I don't think it was just chug a soda. Keep going.
Casey Koza:And yeah, the root beer brought you back in the Mexican Cola.
Wil Walmsley:Yeah, yeah, that's what I was trying to do to compensate was every aid station to have a bottle of liquid calories and then refill my own bottles and carry an extra handheld in addition to what I had in my vest. And all right, let's try to get rehydrated while doing it. And now it just kept spiraling out of control as I went. That's tough.
Casey Koza:Now, Nikki, you didn't have the best race that you could have. You struggled. You're on the bus a little bit. You're coming back. You said you want to do the full 70 next year.
Nikki Niemeyer:Yeah, so, yeah. So, honestly, after 19, that was probably my lowest point. And then things got better. It's funny because I started feeling a lot better but my pace never improved. But I'll take it. And so then you know, you finish the race and you're on that high of like that was great, even though you just died. So, uh, I'm still riding that high and I've never done a race, I've never done an ultra. That's been point to point. It's always like an out and back or loops, and so I really like the fact that you cover an entire trail and it's point to point.
Casey Koza:So I think that'd be really cool never seen the same thing twice that is a cool part of it, and their aid station volunteers are top-notch. There we were, will dropped 46, will, oh yeah yeah. The Trail Sisters run that aid station and they do a phenomenal job. Tried their best to get Will off the mat, but yeah, the aid stations were great yeah, 46 was one where it's marked out with aid station fireball fireball shots for everyone. Fireball shots for everyone.
Wil Walmsley:You wouldn't where I was at. It was disappointing, like I'm not continuing and I don't feel like I can have any alcohol right now.
Rob Myers:That would not be good I think we need to double down on the humidity, though, and bring it up multiple times throughout this podcast. It's unbelievable that you two made it as far as you did. You know Nikki finishing, because I ran, I think, what six, seven miles, and I thought I was going to die at the end, so I can just imagine what you guys were going through.
Nikki Niemeyer:On the way to the race I realized like we drove there the morning of, so Connie and I got up at I don't know 3 am or something.
Wil Walmsley:Drive from Ohio.
Nikki Niemeyer:From Ohio, from Akron. We drove there just because a lot of stuff for work came up the day before. We're five minutes from the race and I'm looking in my bags all my nutrition and I'm like I don't have my Enduro lights. I didn't have my salt. I'm thinking there's nothing I can do, we're going to have to roll with it. And I remember at mile 11, connie gave me my Gatorlite. I grabbed the Gatorlite and she poured a Pedialyte packet into my Gatorlite, which is another Pedialyte, and I remember thinking that's going to be a lot of salt, and I tasted it. I was like this is amazing.
Casey Koza:Like, oh, I'm in trouble. So around here I don't know how it was for you down in Tennessee, Rob, we didn't have much heat or humidity to run in Like it was. I was just talking to someone today. They went to work at the beginning of the June with the frost advisory. To have that big of a change in a couple of weeks is probably doesn't happen very often. You know, usually you get at least a couple of weeks of hot weather to kind of get used to the heat and humidity. But we, we didn't have much to train in here and the sauna doesn't really help with the jungle like humidity out there.
Wil Walmsley:I was looking at the forecast going into it and it was supposed to be 60, 70 percent rain the entire day and knowing like we had not been able to run in heat here, to me that was like the best news possible. Like, oh, we haven't been able to do any kind of running in the heat, so instead of it being 80 degrees and hot, well, it's going to be raining all day. We have had a lot of rain this spring, so that's where I was super pumped about it. And then on race day, I think there were two different spurts of 10-second sprinkles 100% of the humidity.
Casey Koza:Yep, not much, but it was for sure humid. It desperately needed to rain. It poured, dumped the night before, which certainly helped the humidity levels quite a bit.
Wil Walmsley:Kept the rocks slick. None of the cooling on it.
Casey Koza:It was like worst-case scenario given, like what the forecast was. So will you drop this year? Nikki's going back to run the the full pool next year? What what's on your mind for for laurel highlands? Are we going back? Are we ask, move on, find something else or pacing sounds really great.
Wil Walmsley:You can hunt with a pacer at mile 46. Just see the rest of the course. I missed. You know you could run it and see the rest of the course too. I know, I know. And that's the thing, the finishing that you get for the trophy instead of a medal they have. So every mile on Laurel Highlands Trail is this little stone with the number mile markers. So you pass mile one, there's a big little pillar stone with number one on it and you keep going. So don't need a GPS watch. The course will tell you how far along you are. But when you finish, having that trophy with a wooden stone pillar with 70 on it, I'm like that has got to be one of the coolest trophies you can get for a race. That'd be really cool to get. So you are doing it next year, is what you're saying.
Nikki Niemeyer:That's what I'm hearing.
Wil Walmsley:I'm not saying no.
Casey Koza:He's not saying no, he's non-committed. At this point it's still early, yet I thought maybe we'd get a hot take from him.
Wil Walmsley:It's one week out. If I'm being truly honest, I'd like a little bit of redemption because, yeah, the cramping like that early into it, like I had a great block going in, and the work week leading up to it whooped my ass. I was cramping well before the race even started, the night before and, yeah, I didn't feel like I actually got to try running it, which kind of sucks. And going into a hot, humid day already dehydrated is tough.
Casey Koza:Yeah, it is Not good, not the ideal situation, but I can guarantee you, because I've been there, what, rob, we've been there what the last three years, four years, four years. For me it's been hot and humid, I think every year, right, maybe the one year was cool and rainy.
Rob Myers:I think the first year it rained the whole time. I don't remember the second, third year, I think they're about the same.
Casey Koza:I know last year in the 50k I was pretty cooked towards. Towards the end I was pretty hot yeah last year yeah, but we had better weather to train in last year. It was just hotter. Here it was warmer, it wasn't 50s and rain every weekend we didn't have frost advisories two weeks before it. You know know out there in sweatshirts and stuff. So, nikki, you learned something from this. Obviously you had some takeaways and now you have some hindsight. What will you change in these longer trail races going forward? Do you think?
Nikki Niemeyer:Yeah, every trail race, every race you do, you learn something, and that's why I think you're better off doing more races and will should definitely do it next year. He's gonna keep learning and then he's gonna think about the race this year and he'll think, oh, it can't be as bad as last year, so it's good. It's like a toolkit, like you just pull stuff from that. But yeah, so I I learned that uncrossables are great. Uh, those like especially when you're in the trails and you're doing a lot of hiking like more food food than gels. I didn't use any gels, it was Uncrustables and bananas. I learned to not forget my Enduro lights. Oh, you know one thing I was hiking all those the steep inclines, like the first eight miles, I was like, okay, just power hiking Power, hiking, great reference, great reference, all those the steep inclines, like the first eight miles.
Wil Walmsley:I was like okay just power hiking.
Nikki Niemeyer:Great reference, great reference.
Wil Walmsley:We don't walk right rob. We don't walk on the trail, it's power hiking power hike.
Nikki Niemeyer:Uh, I think in my head I was like, oh, like this is, you know, you tell yourself things, so you're, you try to be better. I'm like, okay, my power hiking is my strong suit. So then on the hikes, I would like try to just out, hike people on them. And then I get to the top and I'm like, oh, I shouldn't have done that. I should like still try to stay chill when I'm hiking. You know, like I was like, so I think next year on the climbs, uh, just just stay, just stay relaxed, like it's the climbs aren't a race, and then maybe just train more on rocks, I don't know.
Casey Koza:Yeah, the rocks is tough, we don't. We don't have that around here where you're, you know, kind of slightly going downhill, but you're still having to step up over things, and it's just a it's just a different beast.
Nikki Niemeyer:But I was thinking, well, it'll make it. So a lot of other trail races are gonna seem a lot more runnable than if I hadn't done this yeah, yeah, we went out to canyons, I think a couple weeks after running gate to eight and it was.
Casey Koza:it was like running the tow path with elevation Like there was just very smooth, very non non-rocky.
Rob Myers:That California carpet, california carpet, heck yeah.
Wil Walmsley:I like it out there Will.
Casey Koza:how about you? What did you? What were your takeaways from this other than you know? Maybe a little bit less life stress the week before. That's something that, as non-pro runners, we can't Not a whole lot we can do about that?
Wil Walmsley:The whole week leading up to it, knowing my brother and all that topping him in races he talks about interviews and trying to avoid as much stress as he can. I know the week leading up to it I was more focused on oh, it works long today, just be apathetic towards it, trying to avoid as much stresses as he can. So I know the week leading up to I was more focused on like, oh, it works long today, just be apathetic towards it, Nothing's stressing me out. Oh, gotta take the kids to dance soccer, gotta make dinner. I was just trying to be as apathetic and checked out the whole week, just worried about keeping stress levels low. And now I need to do a better job on controlling hydrating that part. I'm just in hindsight. I'm like such an easy thing to do, like every sport you're like drink water start on Monday. Nah, let that one go For the actual race for Laurel Highlands, specifically having a better idea of how rocky it is after mile eight once you get into the more runnable sections.
Wil Walmsley:Yeah, I thought the shoe choice that I had would have been really good. It was a Tecton X threes but that being such a thick foam, I'd probably want something a little less cushiony. Um, I know I had to retie my shoes once and from that point it was pretty good, but even then I'd probably still like something that can feel the rocks a little bit better. Yeah For a little bit better. Yeah for out in California. I think the Tectonics 3s is a great shoe choice.
Casey Koza:You know, obviously everyone has a different preference and whatnot, but I've always just worn the lowest stack height shoe I can find out there.
Wil Walmsley:If we talk to Connie Gardner, I was taking a lot of sodium during the race. I had sodium citrate that I was adding 750 milligrams to each bottle I had and I was trying to down at least one bottle per hour.
Casey Koza:Well, I was adding those.
Wil Walmsley:You were adding them. You were adding a three quarter teaspoon of sodium citrate to each bottle, in addition to the liquid calories which those have 200 milligrams of sodium per scoop. So I was getting tons of it Heavy, salter, heavy, you know, high concentration, sweater. But Connie right away is oh, you're only taking sodium, you're not worried about the other electrolytes. What about potassium, magnesium, calcium chloride, everything? So one of the first things I did maybe even on my way home, sitting passenger while my wife was driving that was one thing hopped on Amazon, made sure to order the magnesium and potassium, be able to put that in bottles.
Casey Koza:That's a good idea, that is. Yeah, I was trying to open up the Snabber second box to see what their levels are in it, but they have quite a bit of sodium 100 milligrams, yeah, and for myself, like I mean, my concentration, I think, was around 13 or 1600 milligrams per liter. And also the group chat was strongly urging me to get you to caffeinate, I will say there was a. There was a big push for a Red Bull at mile 46 to get you off the canvas.
Wil Walmsley:I think, maybe you know I had a Red Bull right before the start. That may have been one of the worst things to have, because it's hot Well, not hot, but as humid as it was, with all that climbing. It's easy effort, but that was just getting heart rate to spike. Maybe that's a race where I avoid the caffeine and then, all right, let's power chug at 11, you know? Yeah.
Casey Koza:Nikki, are you a caffeine user in races?
Nikki Niemeyer:Yes, but mostly I have a cup of coffee beforehand for any race to avoid the headache, because I'm a caffeine addict. And then if I use gels, I'll get half of them with caffeine. But yeah, I didn't use any caffeine for Laurel. But if I have a bad spout, yeah, I'll like drink some energy drink or coffee, anything with caffeine, to get my brain back into it.
Casey Koza:What about you? You're a coffee guy, right?
Rob Myers:Oh yeah, yeah, two, three cups-ish, depending on how early I can wake up in the morning. You got to get through the whole morning routine. You know what I'm saying. So more coffee the better. I agree with that.
Casey Koza:But Will you had an interesting, I don't want to say theory or reason for the Red Bull versus the coffee Mm-hmm, which? Well, do you want to explain what?
Wil Walmsley:that was yeah. So I normally drink coffee. I don't like having energy drinks, but I've just heard with coffee, being acidic, can be upsetting the tummy later on in the race and start causing GI issues. So having something like Red Bull a little bit easier on the stomach is a different form of getting caffeine right off the rip and mitigating any chance you might have of any GI issues. Which man? Yeah, my, my stomach felt fine. I had no problem eating throughout the entire day. So maybe there is something to it.
Casey Koza:Yeah, I was saying your, your stomach was even with the heat community. That's usually what what turns it for me, but your stomach you were still eating. I mean, I don't think it was the calories in, that was the hydration issue, but it wasn't going to be a problem for you.
Wil Walmsley:Yeah, I mean, hey, I got to 46. Abu handed me some bacon and it was phenomenal.
Casey Koza:Some pierogies, couple pierogies, I'm getting hungry Nikki with the heat and humidity, because that's a big thing with this race. Obviously We've touched on that throughout the show here, but did you have any stomach issues?
Nikki Niemeyer:No, I'm usually pretty blessed in that area of racing. No, I was thinking about it, though I was like I didn't go to the bathroom once and I was chugging liquid and I never had to go to the bathroom but I had coffee beforehand. But I figure I drink coffee before I run every day, so hopefully it shouldn't lead to major issues but yeah, yeah, no, no, it's good.
Casey Koza:Yeah, I think my, my stomach's pretty proofed against the coffee, I feel, but I I certainly understand the thinking behind that. That makes sense of especially for longer races.
Wil Walmsley:You're saying you weren't like oh no, it didn't have to pee or anything. It was like, even as dehydrated as I was, like no, I still peed a few times and got scary. That's like one of the big reasons why DNF was just nope. This is getting worse. I've never seen straight dark brown yeah, that's that.
Wil Walmsley:That's a scary thing to have happen, yeah I mean, got to that point, couldn't walk at all without getting a cramp and start moving from the legs up into side stitches and lower back pain. I'm like I'm after 46. It's 11 miles till the next aid station. I don't want to walk 11 miles.
Casey Koza:When you look, down and the pee is matching the bark on the tree that you're going on. It's a little concerning.
Rob Myers:Got to keep your kidneys.
Casey Koza:Yeah, we need those. I have two of them. Yeah, we do have two kidneys, right. Yes, we do One liver.
Nikki Niemeyer:Good.
Rob Myers:That's hanging out in these seedy bars in Highland Square.
Casey Koza:Got to be careful. So Nikki's back in for the 70. Will's yet undecided.
Rob Myers:He's in.
Casey Koza:Now, Nikki, you mentioned you were running a race over in Switzerland later. Well, in the fall, correct?
Nikki Niemeyer:Yes.
Casey Koza:Sweet. What is that race?
Nikki Niemeyer:So it's Trail Day. Dense, dumeity. It's in a town in Switzerland that starts with a CH, like all of them, it might be like Charmé. It's a 57K, it's like 35 miles, it's 13,000 feet of elevation gain. So I'm just trying to do all the races that'll uh kick my ass.
Nikki Niemeyer:so I can be used to that for when it happens in switzerland, but it's going to be beautiful it is beautiful over there september 20th and I've never been to europe, so I figure this is the way to do it you do have your passport, right got the passport, renewed it in December, got the flight. I don't have places to stay yet.
Casey Koza:Gotta look into that that's not a hard thing to do over there, it's pretty reasonable car this race is, according to connie gardner, the oldest running trail race in europe.
Nikki Niemeyer:she raced this, uh, almost 20 years ago, um, and just had a blast and said the race director is amazing, no one there speaks english, so it's really and she's, there's no hoopla like's, just you're in the mountains, so yeah, awesome. With poles. I'm going to borrow Will's poles. I've never used them before.
Casey Koza:I recommend the poles. I like the poles.
Nikki Niemeyer:Yeah, you both have ran in Switzerland, right yeah?
Wil Walmsley:More France France.
Casey Koza:The Alps. Yep, rob and I are going over here in August, so we'll be not too far from where you're going. So we'll give you the course recon of the land there.
Rob Myers:Thank you, hey, speaking of Connie, how does she have the capability of being everywhere at the same time? Laurel, it seemed like I ran into her every 45 minutes and she had her two songs with her too.
Nikki Niemeyer:Yeah, she was everywhere at the same time. It Laurel. It seemed like I ran into her every 45 minutes Like what are you?
Rob Myers:doing here, and she had her two swans with her too. Yeah, she was everywhere all the time. It was Connie's spotting, I don't know. It was kind of freaky.
Nikki Niemeyer:She'd just appear out of nowhere. Hilarious, yeah, she's pulling up the aid stations, but she didn't have service, and so I really don't understand how she was finding them all Like she's. She's like I couldn't put them in my map, and then she'd tell me how well was doing at two different aid stations and I'm like wait, how did you? It was impressive, yeah.
Wil Walmsley:She didn't even. She was just running back and forth.
Casey Koza:She was because I was trying to explain to her the seven Springs. I just cause I grew up, know where the aid stations are and I was like, well, you go up and you go to the back of this neighborhood and then if you hear the shooting range, you're getting closer. But yeah, didn't really know how to explain it to her oh, the shooting range.
Wil Walmsley:One tripped me out like you're hearing that for at least a mile or two, before you even see a single sign that you're coming up on clay pigeon shooting range. I'm just hearing gunshots going off. I'm like it's getting closer. I'm like are there runners ahead of me getting shot right now? Like what is going on?
Rob Myers:motivation to run faster.
Nikki Niemeyer:That's what that is no motivation to run back at that point I was hoping it would hit me. I was like all right, where is it?
Casey Koza:rob, I forgot to leave I. I actually forgot to leave that out of my pre-race briefing for both of them. The shooting range got it. So what do you have? I know you're you're in boston in the spring yep, doing boston marathon next spring.
Wil Walmsley:did you register yet? It hasn't opened yet, oh, it's not open.
Casey Koza:Okay, you did not qualify on a downhill course. Yeah.
Nikki Niemeyer:Columbus.
Wil Walmsley:Flat and fast.
Casey Koza:You both qualified in Columbus, crazy Do you have any other trail races on the?
Wil Walmsley:horizon. I mean we've got Burning River Relay Race that we have to do at the end of next month, but nothing that I've like committed to. Yeah, I know the idea of doing grindstone 100k. That sounds fun. In september, maybe do a fall marathon I don't know.
Casey Koza:You can always go back to ohio pile for the fall classic ran in reverse on the uh, was it that one?
Wil Walmsley:or they're doing another one that's september 29th, where it's from mile 39 to the finish 31 to the finish.
Casey Koza:It's the fall they went last year.
Wil Walmsley:It's the fall classic, uh 50k no, they're doing that, I think, but then they're also doing from mile 39 to mile 70. Oh, I didn't, it's a separate 50-pound race, oh I didn't know that that's pretty cool.
Casey Koza:When is it?
Wil Walmsley:I sent that to you and Pope. I'm like hey, Pope, if Grindstone 100-miler doesn't work out, you can do this one, I think you sent me the Fall Classic that goes just backwards on the, I think I don't know.
Casey Koza:I'll look at it.
Wil Walmsley:You need to double check it.
Casey Koza:I'll double check it, but all right. So yeah, possible grindstone Looking forward to the Boston Marathon yeah.
Wil Walmsley:I just know I was not ready to pivot and sign up for another race, even though some people are like, hey, another two weeks, you got this race in New York. You want to do this instead? You're fit.
Wil Walmsley:That was me. I don't want to say it, but no, I finished this up and I'm ready for summer at this point. Relax a little bit, go with the kids to the pool. Clean up around the house. Wife's been asking me to do a couple of projects that I've been lacking on. I've used running as a cop out to avoid everything. Yeah, that happens?
Casey Koza:Yeah, not much. Can't run a whole lot right now it's 96 degrees or whatever, so, but yeah, that's what they made bikes for. Right, it's what they make bikes for. Yeah, go fast. What about you rob? You got anything coming up?
Rob Myers:uh, no, not too much. I mean burning river. I'm running the marathon and after that there's not a lot, not on the calendar. I have to start filling it up. Yeah, yeah, gotta fill it. Got nothing on the calendar. I think grindstone only has the 100k left is 100 miler full no they don't sell that.
Wil Walmsley:No, the 50k is the 50k full yeah, I think so really. Then they may have a 20k and I don't know. They only have 100k, 100 mile. They there open, all right.
Casey Koza:Real quick before we go, Will. You got to be brief on this because we don't have much time left. We'll start with Nikki. Hopefully you're prepared for this, Nikki.
Nikki Niemeyer:Oh boy.
Casey Koza:Western States picks. You got any.
Nikki Niemeyer:I don't even know who's racing.
Casey Koza:All right, nikki's out for that. Rob, who you got, will who you got.
Wil Walmsley:Will who you got Will who you got.
Wil Walmsley:For the women's race Fu Zhao, I think she'd be awesome. Esther Chislog, I think, will be really up there. And then Brady Riley, riley, brady. They've been having an awesome year, one black game. So those are the top three, I think, for the women. For the men, I'm going to be boring and not jump on a limb. It's really hard to bet against killing Jornay. But outside of him, Rod Farvard placed second last year. I think he's probably got the best chance to win, and then a lot of people sleeping on my boy, vincent Bouillard. I have one utility last year. So those would be my top three for the men. Not sure what order yet.
Casey Koza:Yeah, my top three for the women. And actually, as I look at it now, one of them is scratched so I got to come up with another third. Who's?
Wil Walmsley:that.
Casey Koza:Lin Chen.
Wil Walmsley:Oh, she's scratched.
Casey Koza:The woman whose foot was falling off last year. Yeah, yeah, hopefully her foot's okay, but, martina, I'm going to mess this up but I'll come, I think, fairly close. Mierczyk, polish and Fujau were previously my two picks, but yeah, I'm going with a. I believe Adam Peterman A lot of experience out there, so it's going to take him to win it, and I like the young man from Georgia to be in the top three as well Hans Troyer. So those are two of my top three picks. I forget who the third one is, because I wasn't even prepared for my own question.
Rob Myers:Daniel Jones.
Casey Koza:Daniel Jones that's it yeah that is it, so that is my top three.
Wil Walmsley:Are you going to put Emily Hoggett as your third one for the women, just for keeping a separate three from mine?
Casey Koza:Yeah, I don't want to have the same. Well, lynn Chen being a scratch here is unfortunate. That's unfortunate because she was having another good year, had a really strong race last year until they showed I saw a video of it, Didn't?
Rob Myers:look good.
Casey Koza:So I felt bad for her. But yeah, good to get for her. But yeah, good to get those Western States picks in Well. Thank you guys so much for joining Nikki. I certainly appreciate it. I look forward to rooting for you over in Switzerland from afar and definitely looking forward to seeing you do the full pool of the course next year.
Nikki Niemeyer:Thank you.
Casey Koza:Well, what a great wedding weekend. It was fun. We drank a lot of beer. Stay hydrated, my friend. I'll go drink some water. Thank you for joining this episode of the Hobby Jogger. We will see you next time.