i'm sitting here on a sunny sunday putting together video for my montrail presentation with sean meissner. the presentation is wed may 13th at the mountain hardwear store in seattle. here are some of the good video clips i've dug up over the last three or so years of my life in the ultra scene. i'll be sure to publish the whole thing at some point, but i thought i'd share the good clips.
i am overwhelmed with video and reformatting it to be able to edit it. ugh. this is the last one i'll post.
in august 2008 i joined karl meltzer during his appalachian assault. he made a valiant effort to break the 47 day appalachian trail record (2,174 miles). i joined him from the start on mount katahdin through maine and into new hampshire, where we are both from. the maine section is considered the roughest section of the appalachian trail. we also had the misfortune of having monsoon weather, which caused higher rivers than anyone had seen in 40+ years. at least it made for good video!
so far i've given two presentations on ultrarunning for montrail at their mountain hardwear stores. it's always good fun to show some pics and video and geek out talking about running.
this time around it will be even better.. because sean meissner and i are doing it together! here is the montrail press (.pdf w/more info on it).
for me this is simply about putting my passion on display in hopes you will catch the bug. my goal is to simply inspire you to run trail... period.
Portland v2.0 - The Mountain Hardwear Presentation
sunday ended up being a great day. it started with a run right from the hotel to forest park where the montrail marketing manager paul curran i ran the run like a girl 10k course. it was pretty sweet and had a nice bit of climbing.
later that day i had my presentation at the grand opening of the mountain hardwear/montrail store ~ it went amazingly well. what a great time. my topic = ultrarunning. the prior days presentation had about 3 people and 4 employees listening. so my hopes weren't high for turn out. plus most portland area ultrarunners would most likely be at sean meissner's race, the peterson ridge rumble 60km. i had a handful of runners say they wouldn't make it because of the race. so i was blown away! i'd guess there were 30-40 people packed into the store. with the raffle, the forest park conservancy and introductions the whole event was supposed to be about 40min total. i ended up talking for just over an hour. people were interested and engaged =) i covered the basics of ultrarunning; what it is, prominent races, gear (montrail, teko, nathan), nutrition (amazing grass), hydration (nuun), training and mental toughness... of course interjecting personal experiences using some video i took on adventure runs;
this one from a run in snoqualmie
and a longer version of this one from the rim to rim to rim double crossing of the grand canyon
paul even had to cut the questions short since we were out of time. the portland running community is awesome. they were very warm and welcoming and i met a lot of great people. thanks paul, phyllis and mountain hardwear for inviting me.
it means a lot to me that today my inbox was full of "thank you" messages from folks that attended. "Super inspiring talk about ultra running, makes me want to get out and start training lots!!" that kind of response makes the effort all worth while.
here is the slide show of photos i used. if you've run something cool with me you probably made the cut!
***** on a similar note.. last week i recieved word that i'm being invited back to speak to the next round of team in training runners about nutrition and hydration. that will be fun.
Speaking At The New Montrail/Mountain Hardwear Store
recently the decision was made to move montrail directly under hardcore gear company mountain hardwear. i think this is great news. keep the core products together, and far far away from anything called bugaboo. that means montrail is moving from portland down to the bay area where the mountain hardwear offices are located. they are also opening a montrail/mountain hardwear store in portland, oregon. the grand opening is this weekend, sunday 4.13.08 and they have asked me to speak about ultrarunning. come check it out.. if nothing else there will be some cool photos to look at! =)
below is the press release they created. i had nothing to do with writing this!.. and it's hard to post because it makes me sound cooler than i probably am...
Elite ultrarunner and endurance coach Matt Hart is giving a 40 minute presentation on Sunday, April 13th at 2 p.m. Matt’s joining us from his hometown of Seattle where he’s an endurance coach and ultrarunning ambassador for Montrail and nuun active hydration. The ultrarunning presentation will be held at the new Montrail/Mountain Hardwear Store, 722 SW Taylor in Portland. Matt will present his experiences at events such as the Grand Teton 100 Miler and the HURT 100K in Hawaii. You’ll learn what it takes to finish your first ultra (50K) and advice for racing fast 50Ks to 100 milers. Matt says, “Don’t rush into high mileage weeks because you read that is what all the top ultrarunners are doing. It takes years to build the body to be able to handle that kind of load. Build gradually and intelligently.” Matt will discuss race nutrition, training recommendations, and apparel/footwear needs. Following Matt’s talk, Stephen Hatfield and Jeff Hough from the Forest Park Conservancy (formerly known as the Friend’s Of Forest Park) will share their favorite trail running routes and discuss volunteer opportunities and the importance of stewardship. Montrail will provide a stylish beanie to all attendees, plus we’ll have a raffle for additional prizes – including two pairs of free shoes! Raffle tickets are $5 each or 5 tickets for $20. Your raffle donation will be given to the Forest Park Conservancy. Limited seating, please arrive in advance. Learn more about Matt at http://coachingendurance.com/
I'm an ultra distance athlete who incessantly seeks out backcountry adventure. I'm an UltraRunner by trade, but I'm a multisport athlete at heart. Ski mountaineering in the winter, trail running and cycling in the summer. After 10 years in Seattle I moved to Salt Lake City because the Wasatch Mtns are simply amazing. I'm from New Hampshire originally, where I learned to "Live Free or Die". In December of 2005 I decided my desk job at Microsoft was in fact death... so i quit. I've been gettin' after it in the backcountry full time ever since.In December of 2005 Matt left his job at Microsoft to pursue his dream and race full time.