Podcast here. Podcast there. Interview. Race preview. Race recap. Training plan. State of the sport. Follow and review. “Thank you to the brand X for supporting us and don’t forget to use the code XYZ to get a discount at checkout. And now let’s get back to our interview”
Well…here we are, together with any other media of the world.
Podcasts were the primary medium that got us into trail running providing hours of content about the history and the state of the sport. Who is who? What races should we follow? Who are the voices of the sport?
When we started Outdoor Wall, a podcast was out of the conversation. We needed to figure out where to start building a small media, recording a podcast was miles away. 12 months later the the podcast entered the chat. We wanted to test ourselves on something new, after the videos, photography, market research, and articles. Ok but what should we talk about? There is so much out there. What’s the value of another podcast talking about races that already happened or are about to? What’s the value of the two of us talking about training? What’s the value of interviewing athletes about their seasons?
After long brainstorming sessions during our runs, we decided that our podcast would have been different. Instead of talking about everything related to running and dedicating 10 minutes to each topic, we wanted to go deep. Unbeaten Trails - the name was the easiest part - will start from the topics, and not from the race calendar, the athletes, or us. The topics will dictate the publishing calendar. Periodically, we will choose a topic of interest and feature interviews or stories to dissect it. Whose interest? Ours, yours, of the sport.
For this first series, we focused on trail running diversity among elite athletes. The idea for this topic came from our interview with Ruth Croft when she talked about her journey to become a pro athlete coming from New Zealand. For a sport that champions itself as diverse and inclusive, the geographical diversity among elite athletes is low. Europeans and North Americans dominate the elite fields and the media space, but what about all the other athletes?
After many unsuccessful DMs and emails, we were able to secure 6 interviews with some of the best athletes in the world. Some of them have never been interviewed before by English media. Some turned their lives upside down to pursue their dream. Some you already knew, some you probably never heard of even after their top 15 UTMB finish or a 4th place at CCC. Here is a sneak peek of the full list of athletes, just for you.
We kept every episode short and sweet. We went straight to the point. So, either listen to each of them individually on your 5k PB attempt or save them all for your long run.
We know quality is not the best in class. Many of the interviewees (us included) were not native English speakers and for some, it was the first time giving an interview not in their native language. All of this will eventually get better, but we believe content >>> form. Let us know what you think, how we can improve it, and any suggestions on the next topic.
Episode 1
Athlete: Hau Ha
Country: Vietnam
Team: Mude Running Team
Achievements:
4th place CCC 2023
1st place Amazean Jungle Thailand by UTMB 100k 2024
1st place Doi Inthanon by UYMB 100km 2023
Episode 2
Athlete: Gabriel Santos Rueda
Country: Argentina
Team: Columbia
Achievements:
13th place UTMB 2023
1st place Valholl Argentina by UTMB - EPIC 125k 2024
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