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Trail running talk and banter, delving deep to gain insight and inspiration from interesting runners in New Zealand, Australia and the world. Learn more: dirtchurchradio.com
358 Episodes
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Kia ora e te whānau. It’s the last Aid Station of 2025, and we're in a reflective mood. Matt wishes he could run faster, Ali wishes she could move house automatically, and Andrew wishes he had feelings like a real boy. Apart from these aspirational goals, our heroes run down the year that was, listing what they’ve loved, learnt, and what they wish to take forward into 2026. Never free from the hottest of takes, we explore the qualitative vs. quantitative divide in this most terminally o...
Kia ora e te whānau. In this week's second episode, join Andrew McDowall for the 2025 Dirt Church Radio Kepler live show. Andrew took up the baton from Matt and Eugene, journeyed down to Te Anau to host a vibrant live show, and then tackled the 60km Kepler Challenge the following day—which, in typical AMCD style, he knocked out of the park. Settle into your long run this weekend, and enjoy Andrew’s conversation with Men’s and Women’s 60km champions Dan Jones and Frances Redmond, Kepler Challe...
Kia ora e te whānau. If, as a winsome youth, you’d had your heart broken at a Swedish wedding in Nelson, what would it take to shift the unconscious response when the town was mentioned from “yeah, nah” to “Hell Yes”? Turns out, a weekend packed with as much awesomeness as you could shake a stick at. Happily, we can report that this circumstance eventuated for Matt at the 2025 edition of The Spectacle. In this episode of DCR, join Ali P and Matt as they bring you their conversations with retu...
Kia ora e te whānau. Join us for the first of three live specials as Ali heads off to the Snowy Mountains for the fourth edition of Ultra Trail Kosciuszko by UTMB. Featuring interviews with Running Mums Australia founder Nic Bunyon, The Honey Buzzard himself, Martin Gaffuri, DCR Fan and Kosci frother, Bel, and the incredible Lucy Bartholomew. Excellent Stuff. Dirt Church Radio – Best Enjoyed Running. --- --- --- Episode Links Ultra Trail Kosciuszko by UTMB Lucy Bartholom...
Kia ora e te whānau. It turns out, the Wai2k is hard mahi. I mean, we always thought that, but to have our suspicions confirmed by AMCD as he valiantly sent it in the weekend’s 100km was oddly satisfying. Gareth Thomas builds hard races, as those who have had the pleasure of attempting the WUU2K will attest. To hear that compared the the WAI, the WUU is “a kid’s run” apparently. AMCD’s pain is indeed our gain. This week, the gang debriefs Andrew’s most epic weekend, we’ve got a sw...
Kia ora e te whānau. We want to invite all who can be upstanding to welcome one R. Croft of Greymouth back for her Tenth appearance on Dirt Church Radio. We are Ruth fans. If there was a RAT for it (Ruth Antigen Test), we’d be positive. Or is that CAT? (Croft Antigen Test?). ANYWAYS. It’s been a minute since we’ve talked to old mate, and after an abortive attempt post UTMB (Thanks, French Internet, you dork), Ali P gets together for a long overdue catch-up with Ruth about the year she’s...
Kia ora e te whānau. Things we learned on this week’s episode. We suck collectively at Maths, there is such a thing called a Wet Globe Bulb Temperature (WHAT?!?!?), We are all pro-Kipchoge winning Western States. Despite their relative masses, Andrew and Matt cope conversely in the heat (at least psychologically) and are aligned in our distaste of the UTMB kilometre effort industrial complex. The gang is back together for the literal and figurative heat of the Grapian’s P...
Kia ora e te whānau. We’re baaaaack and beyond excited to bring to you Matt’s conversation with the most excellent Michael Sutton. The words “mountain,” “trail” and “ultramarathon” are somewhat interchangeable in the lexicon of the outdoors-themed pursuit. Michael Sutton, however, is the real deal. A 6 x NZ representing, 4:28 Mile running, Steeple chasing, sub three minute per km Mountain Machine. Matt goes to school with Michael and gets all the lore and in-and-outs about what sets th...
Kia ora e te whānau. Best laid plans and all that…We had a bumper episode lined up for you this week, with a lot of stuff to talk about, and an amazing GRE, that was even before we got to Andrew’s conversation with the mighty Helene Barron. Annoying story short, our entire episode got zoinked by the AWS outage. Perfect. So please enjoy this distilled episode of DCR, with the one and only Helene Barron, elite trail athlete, high-performance physiotherapist, coach, mother, wife, si...
Kia ora e te whānau. Even by our standards, this episode of the DCR AidStation is a lot. Future Andrew makes a record number of appearances to preface, foreshadow, recommend, and otherwise act as a lexographical zamboni for Ali and Matt (we all know it is mainly Matt). From last week’s epic Taupō Ultramarathon and some interviews Ali conducted whilst running, crewing, and slapping fives, to a lively debate about what is worse for you, port-a-loo stained grabbers sliding into nasty communal ch...
Kia ora e te whānau. Did we compare Tanya Carroll to The Lorax in the title? Maybe. Is Tanya Carroll worthy of such an accolade? Yep. Tanya is for the trails. Having run over 100 trail events and over 45 ultra marathons, including 10 Ultra Trail Australia 100s and a couple of UTMBs (not to mention a stack of other amazing results). Tanya is currently the Oceania Operations Manager for Ironman Trail events, bringing her years of passion and expertise as a participant to the biggest...
Kia ora e te whānau. We had a particularly nice time on this week’s AidStation podcast, celebrating one year of Ali and Andrew jumping on board. Matt had the opportunity to ask them a mix of longer-form and quick-fire style questions about the last 12 months, and what they were looking forward to in the next 12 months and beyond. If you are after an under-the-hood look at what makes the two “new” co-hosts of Dirt Church Radio tick, then dive in. Plus, Andrew from the future grabs interviews w...
Kia ora e te whānau. James Inwood is no stranger to challenge. The Greytown runner has completed numerous ultramarathons, including the infamous Coast to Kosci; however, nothing could have prepared him for the challenge of Badwater 135. 217 kilometers of road from Death Valley Basin, finishing on the road to Mount Whitney, the race starts at the lowest point in the contiguous USA and ends on the road to the highest. Brutal temperatures, tight cut-offs, massive crew requirements, and a finishi...
Kia ora e te whānau. Mistakes were made. The first of many in this week’s episode of the AidStation was Andrew McDowall describing Matt as having a “water off a duck’s back” mentality. This is not true. Especially when the water is the wider response to the Joyline Chepgnego doping saga.That water really sank in. The duck was soaked. . Ali, Andrew, and Matt discuss this thorny issue and where responsibility for supporting athletes accused of doping sits, and is the response from sponsors and ...
Kia ora e te whānau. This week, Ali Pottinger speaks with elite ultra runner and physician Justin Grunewald. Fresh off a second-place finish at the Leadville 100, Justin talks to Ali about managing his life as a parent and doctor when his wife, Amanda Basham (DCR 311) is also an elite runner. Justin’s story is intertwined with the loss of his first wife, Gabe Grunewald, to a rare form of cancer in 2019. Ali and Justin talk about living with grief, the Brave Like Gabe foundation...
Kia ora e te whānau. We make no bones about it. Dirt Church Radio is, was, and always will be Ruth Croft Positive. Over the (at least) 7 times Croft has appeared on DCR, there has always been one constant- a focus on moving forward. Ruth is on par with the best to take the gig, a wonderful human being, and an asset to our sport. The only criminal element? You aren’t going to hear about her on the news back in little old NZ, which is probably how she likes it. So if you aren’t in t...
Kia ora e te whānau. This week, Ali Pottinger and Matt Rayment speak to Sean Conway, the Zimbabwe-born, UK-based endurance adventurer whose life has been one long refusal to do things by halves. Sean’s palmarès reads like a dare whispered at closing time: cycling around the world, swimming the length of Great Britain, running across it, and then becoming the first person to complete a length-of-Britain triathlon. He’s broken the world record for the most Ironman triathlons completed on cons...
Kia ora e te whānau. It’s that time of year when we start to see the end of winter and the earliest glimpses of spring. Thoughts turn to the new year, big events, and the lead-up to those events. Does one size fit all when it comes to peak months and loading during the macrocycle? This doesn’t even begin to touch on the double-edged sword of Strava and the world of socials. Luckily, Andrew and Matt get to hang out each week with one of the best coaches in the business, our own Ali P. L...
Kia ora e te whānau. This week, Ali Pottinger and Andrew McDowall sit down with the one and only Phil Gore. You’ll know Phil from his two epic showdowns with our very own Sam Harvey at Dead Cow Gully — both times pushing themselves to the ragged edges of what we thought humanly possible. This time, they didn’t just flirt with the record — they obliterated it. Both sailed past the previous world mark, with Phil taking the win (and the record) in a staggering 119 yards. Before the race, t...
Kia ora e te whānau. I mean, the co-hosts of your third favourite trail and ultrarunning podcast haven’t gotten together for a chinwag for a while, and, if the universe has had a say in 2/3rds of our days, things are bound to get chaotic. Ultras at the Olympics, The legacy of Backyard Ultras, Overtraining and being Over Training, Plus Andrew’s bad ankle, Ali’s tumultuous toddler, and the dead dolphin under Matt’s house (really). Like a young lord patronised by a rich family we cover some grou...
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