Dirt Church Radio Trail Running

Kia ora e te whānau. What a way to kick off 2026 with this awesome conversation with Goat Tongariro winner Jackson Cole. Jackson spoke with Matt from his base in Missoula, Montana. We touched on the usual topics like training and racing. Still, the conversation primarily centered on Jackson’s history and ethos—from Wellington to Colorado and beyond —rooted in adventure, the joy of experience, and a love for wild mountain terrain. He spoke about valuing the simplicity of running over gadget obsession, preferring to listen to his body and embrace what the day brings, and his love of a well-earned off-season, something foreign to many Southern Hemisphere runners.
We all stand on the shoulders of giants, and, interestingly, for a relatively younger athlete, Jackson takes a postmodern approach to running media, rejecting the absolute truth of the ultrasphere and social media whilst being a professional athlete. Jackson’s love of classic New Zealand books on running—he referenced Rod Dixon and Dick Quax during our conversation, and the former’s famous quote of wanting to drink beer and train like an animal—alongside the more recent (but still relatively old by today’s standards) of Anton Krupicka and Kilian Jornet running up the Grand Teton, was a refreshing and inspiring viewpoint. We dare you to listen to this and not be stoked. Dirt Church Radio—Best Enjoyed Running.

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Episode Links 

Jackson Cole Strava
Jackson Cole Instagram
La Sportiva
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Further Faster New Zealand
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Music by Andrew McDowall, Digicake

On this week’s AidStation, we bring you an excellent chat Ali P had with Michael Sutton at The Goat Tongariro. Michael, if you will remember, has represented New Zealand multiple times at the World Mountain Running Championships, and has recently launched The Kea Mountain Running Series to bring the shorter, harder, vertier stuff to the people. You may also be familiar with Michael from his excellent conversation on episode 349 with Matt. Ali also catches up with 261 Fearless’ Kate Southern on the start line for her first Goat adventure.  In excellent news, we celebrate Andrew McDowall’s selection for the 2026 24-hour IAU Asia Oceania Championships, and pose the question, “How can we help these athletes with the high financial burden of representing their country?” All this, Panic Math, and more on the AidStation .  Excellent Stuff.

Dirt Church Radio – Best Enjoyed Running.
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Episode Links 
The Kea Mountain Series
Michael Sutton on DCR episode 349
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Dirt Church Radio on Instagram
Dirt Church Radio on Facebook
Further Faster New Zealand
Enjoy!
Music by Andrew McDowall, Digicake

Kia ora e te whānau. We’re back again for the third annual DCR Tarawera Ultra Trail by UTMB special. Joining Ali and Matt at the helm is a special guest, two-time Tarawera champion, and running coach extraordinaire, Mr Kerry Suter. What a treat you have in store for yourselves this episode, as we dive deep into the history of the event and its impact on the global running scene. We also talk about our own histories with the event and how something as elementally simple as a run through the woods has changed our lives in meaningful ways. The benefit of having Ali and Kerry on the pod together is that you get both coaches going off on what to expect, your final weeks of preparation, the conditions you’ll face, and the best and worst ideas you can have on the day. We then get our pundit hats on and take a dive into the elite fields from the 100-mile to the 50km to give you our predictions for all the inbound racing stoke.  We can’t wait to see you all down there in a couple of weeks, and we hope you are as excited as we are! Dirt Church Radio- Best Enjoyed Running.

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Episode Links 

Tarawera Ultra Trail by UTMB
Sign up for the DCR AidStation newsletter.
The Squadrun 4-Week Training Trial for DCR Listeners!
Dirt Church Radio on Instagram
Dirt Church Radio on Facebook
Further Faster New Zealand
Enjoy!
Music by Andrew McDowall, Digicake

Maybe we were all a bit too hopeful that 2025’s madness would not continue into 2026. Maybe these first two weeks are a post-credit scene, or maybe, just maybe, this is 2026 saying “hold my beer” in response to last year’s antics. Anyway you cut it, it’s probably best to get yourself out for a run. It’ll probably help. 
The WTF?! quality of early ‘26 hasn’t stopped at the door of the ultrasphere, so for our first AidStation of the year, Ali and Matt run down (see what we did there) all the hot takes, from green screens and the Satisfyification of running advertsing, to carbon taxes and how a local showdown in Tempe Arizona over Burritos turned into a 700 mile odyssey and spawned a fledgling global movement. We got it all, plus our 2026 checklists, a dive into how positive thinking can increase performance, and a look ahead to the hottest racing on the New Zealand Calendar.  Excellent Stuff.

Dirt Church Radio – Best Enjoyed Running.
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Episode Links 

Sign up for the DCR AidStation newsletter.
The Squadrun 4-Week Training Trial for DCR Listeners!
Dirt Church Radio on Instagram
Dirt Church Radio on Facebook
Further Faster New Zealand
Enjoy!
Music by Andrew McDowall, Digicake

Kia ora e te whānau. Welcome to the second of our DCR Summer Series episodes, where we’ll be bringing you our most popular conversations from 2025. This week, we’ve got a double header, throwing it back to July when Sam Harvey made his DCR three-peat and spoke to Andrew McDowall about (literally) running himself to a standstill as the assist in the world-record-breaking 118-hour/790 km knock at Dead Cow Gully. Then, we bring you Andrew’s conversation with Stephen Redfern. Stephen is notable for several reasons, including his ongoing feud with Andrew (Which is odd, as they are great mates) and his standing as an incredible endurance athlete. Andrew caught up with Stephen about his journey into the mind of one Lazarus Lake, following his podium finish at The Last Annual Heart of the South road race, a 400-mile self-propelled adventure through six Southern states of the USA.  We’ll see you next week on Jan 14th for our first AidStation of the year. Dirt Church Radio- Best Enjoyed Running. Dirt Church Radio - Best Enjoyed Running

Sam Harvey Instagram 
Stephen Redfern Instagram 
Sam Harvey DCR 181
Sam Harvey DCR 245
Stephen Redfern DCR 151
Sign up for the DCR AidStation newsletter.
The Squadrun 4-Week Training Trial for DCR Listeners!
Dirt Church Radio on Instagram
Dirt Church Radio on Facebook
Further Faster New Zealand
Enjoy!
Music by Andrew McDowall, Digicake