Episode 131 - Matt Urbanski

Kia Ora Whanau. From atop a small wardrobe in Riverhead, and a campervan in Bannockburn, Matt and Eugene bring you Dirt Church Radio Episode 131. Matt Urbanski. That’s right folks, we are across the miles yet again this week, separated by the tyranny of holiday and NOT pandemic. Take that, COVID. We crack through the rundown of whatever else the rest of the country was doing whilst Auckland was in level 2, including the Shotover Moonlight Marathon and the mighty Old Ghost Ultramarathon. For our conversation this week, Eugene had the distinct pleasure to speak to the 2021 Tarawera 100 mile winner, Matt Urbanski. Indeed when Eugene spoke to Matt he and his whanau had meant to have left the country but the pandemic intervened again. You’ll hear it in the telling, but Matt is a running coach from the USA, who has completed numerous events, including 15 100 mile races. Matt and his wife Julie and their kids have been on the road for a few years, and they headed down to Aotearoa to do Tarawera last year. As we said on the show last week, he ended up DNF’ing and thought he’d never get down to do the race again. The whanau were due to fly out to Japan, but … the lockdown arrived and they ended up having their flights cancelled and getting stuck in Aotearoa, so they ended up staying...yadda yadda yadda Matt is crowned the 100 mile champ. Eugene and Matt had a great chat about his travelling lifestyle, how he introduced some new stuff to his training to target Tarawera, how he approached race day, his nutrition, his coaching business, Team RunRun, and what his whanau plans are for the future. Enjoy.