Katie Schide | 2023 Western States 100 Pre-Race Interview

Welcome back, or welcome to. Welcome back, or welcome to the single track podcast. I'm your host, finn Milansen, and in this episode we're joined by Katie Shied ahead of the 2023 Western States 100. Before we get started, though, this episode is brought to you by Hoka Morton Rabbit and features head to the show notes page of this episode for discount codes and new product releases from each of these four sponsors. With that, let's get started. Katie Shied, it's a pleasure to have you back on the single track podcast.

Yeah, it's good to see you guys.

So, going back a little bit in time year ago maybe a little bit less nine months you won UTMB and In that moment you earn a golden ticket for Western States. How long did you have to think about that opportunity before Saying yes to Western States this coming Saturday?

Well, i think my big number kind of gives it away, because I'm the first non S4M number, so I'm number 11. So it was not that long.

Has Western States been a race that had been on your radar, that you wanted to compete in, for a long time?

Yeah, i definitely had been like eyeing it but had sort of been something kind of on the to-do list like, yeah, maybe sometime in the future, what? yeah, what complicated it was, just that it it is complicated to get a spot Like a spot you can count on outside of the lottery. So What makes it hard, what made it hard before, was that There weren't any, as far as I understood, there weren't any like golden ticket races other than UTMB that weren't like in the American desert in the early spring. And, yeah, i wasn't really ready to just like totally put an X through skiing and then try to go for a golden ticket and then Not be sure to get it. And, yeah, it just seemed like an enormous commitment of the entire year to try to get it to the next year to try to get a ticket. So, yeah, i would just kind of put it on the back burner. And then, when you TMB started giving golden tickets, yeah, my partner, jamal, actually got offered a golden ticket in 2021. So I saw, i like saw in real time that could be a possibility and That, yeah, definitely simplified it because, you know, the beginning of September last year, i knew that I had a spot.

We talk a lot on this show about the benefits of being a full-time runner. In your case, you had the opportunity to do a two-month or was it seven weeks training camp in flagstaff and even Parts of it on the Western States course this spring and early summer to prepare In retrospect, now that we're so close to race day. I'd love to hear you talk about the pros and the cons of that decision.

Yeah, i think it's like 90% pros, at least from the angle that I'm approaching the race at this point in my career. I really want to stand on every start line and feel like I did everything I could Clipper, form the best I could on that day, like give myself the best opportunity. And I realize I'm in a really unique position to be able to do that right now And I just want to take advantage of that while I can, while it's possible. So, yeah, coming to the US and running it by staff and then, yeah, being on the course, that definitely is way more, i Think, way more useful to my training and build up for this race than if I'd stayed at home. But of course there's like the drawback of General not being able to come because of his own racing goals. Like you know not, it's hard to say I'm not comfortable because, like, obviously it's easier for me to come to the US than like a French person, maybe for two months, just because I obviously have like the American culture and like language baked in me, but it is like a change from being at home. So those are definitely Maybe drawbacks, but I think the benefits outweigh those.

Have you enjoyed, i guess, the training and the preparation leading up for Western states?

Yeah, I have, And it's in a kind of a. It's difficult to explain easily because it's a little bit. It's a little bit different than like enjoying the build up to UT and VR race like that. For me, It's more like enjoying seeing my improvement and seeing that like I don't need to write myself off on being like fast, on faster terrain or yeah, just finding more confidence in that. And I think what makes the build up to like more mountainous races really fun for me is that like it's just what I love to do. So much is just like be in the mountains and be hiking and, yeah, just that kind of running and this. I have like learned to like this kind of running more, but it's been more like a learning to like it process as opposed to like, yay, I get to go spend the whole day in the mountains from the house. It's a little bit different. I hope it doesn't come across as me not liking it, because I did really enjoy these like two months of being like really focused on this one thing. But I think what I enjoyed about it was that it was kind of like pushing myself outside of what just my normal interest would be.

It's really interesting through this show, to explore just the levels of involvement that athletes have in the sport, not just in their own running, but like when it comes to the logistics for the race, any other one or 2% type elements of the race. In your case, i'm curious how much of the preparation for Western States outside of you actually running the miles and the workouts do you outsource to your coach, jason Coop and other personnel, versus getting into the weeds yourself? like studying the history of the race, reading race reports from other athletes, looking at you know what someone like Courtney DeWalter did four years ago, five years ago at this race, and studying her splits like what type of runner are you when it comes to that?

I would say I do more of that than people might think. Yeah, i do watch like a lot of interviews and I don't try to get too much into splits, honestly, because I think that can be so dependent on the conditions and just who else is like in the race. Yeah, like I have general ideas about how long it takes people to get different places, but I don't like have that memorized like a minute. But yeah, i think it's more useful just to like listen to interviews with people after the race from past years and like kind of hear what their reaction was right after. And then, yeah, i've watched all the like YouTube content you can find. I was just watching Unbreakable the other night.

One of my favorite movies. Not even as outspoken from running just favorite movies of all time.

I think off of that. I'd love to go into the details of your training. I saw on Strava, for example, that you blitzed the Western States course. I think it was like 100 miles or close to it in three days, back in mid to late May. What has been your overall strategy and talk more about some of the tactics and training to get ready for this race, to the extent that you can make them public.

Yeah, i mean I try to be pretty like public about most of the things I do. I don't like I'm not like intentionally hiding anything. I guess I don't like to listen to the sauna on Strava, but yeah, i've been using the sauna for heat training. That's like mostly under the direction of Coop, and you can find all his information online. Actually some of them that is like pop secret. In addition to like yeah, that I did like make a conscious decision to get out on the course by myself, like the week before the Memorial Day camp, and I would like to go to the Memorial Day camp in the future. But I know that when I'm with groups of people that I like just don't even look at the trail or what I'm doing because I get like caught up in talking to people. So I made sure to go out by myself So I would be just alone, having to kind of figure it out on my own and just like take note of where I was and try to look at the trail a little bit more than if I was in a group. But yeah, coop's been like a really big part of this buildup, especially just because you know so much more about the race than I do, and he had a lot of experience with athletes and like a lot of really successful athletes at this race. So yeah, i've been like leaning on him quite a bit and just I think for, yeah, for West New York State, i'm a little bit. I'm definitely more like open to just like asking people lots of questions because I don't know anything about it, whereas like at UT and V, i feel pretty. It's kind of like my sphere, like I feel pretty confident. I've done the race a bunch of times, i know the area. So, yeah, just trying to be open. But also everybody has their own little theories about everything, so you kind of have to like filter what you think is actually going to work for you.

Yeah, you don't want to believe everything that gets told to you about Western states.

Which parts of the course do you feel best suited for, Just given your general skill set in the sport? I mean, maybe you've been working on this stuff to this training block, but are there specific parts of the course you can point to and say like this is where I feel best suited, against the competition and just for my best day at the end of the day?

I'm not sure, because I feel like there's actually like a pretty good range in the women's field of like people who are comfortable on different things. Obviously, courtney is like extremely strong on everything, so that's, like you know, worth thinking too much about it. But yeah, i think for sure, like in theory, the met like the beginning part should suit me better, but I honestly haven't been running on anything like that in so long that I'm hoping that that's still like in my legs, and I started to get worried about that the other day.

So I was like you know, I haven't really done any like technical running in a while.

But yeah, hopefully that's just like in me and comes out. So, yeah, probably the beginning of the course. But yeah, honestly, like when I got the golden tape or when I confirmed the golden ticket, like in September, ever since then I've had it in my head that I'm going to do this race. So I've been focused on like running on Yeah, like more Western states style terrain since then. Like faster stuff has been like on roads more than normal. So I'm not sure if there's like one part in particular, but yeah, i guess probably the beginning.

Have you felt that, generally speaking, all of the skill set, the talent that you've built up in the mountains, has translated to a place that you feel pretty confident about heading into, western states?

Yeah, i think so I do have. I'm not like coming off of zero running in my past either, like I ran track in middle school and we're in indoor track in high school. So like I have history of like running. I don't want to like come across as like I have no history running whatsoever. And yeah, i think, like my experience in the sport in general is obviously I think just having experience in ultras is probably the most useful thing. You could come to any race live despite the like terrain. So I do feel more and more confident with that every year. Like I have those past experiences under my belt And, yeah, i felt a lot more confident on this kind of terrain and this style of running, especially just in the last two months. And yeah, running at altitude, running in the sun, in the heat, like I think all those things I've improved on and that's I mean that's already like a pretty big win for me.

Yeah, absolutely So. last year at UTMB, you know you were in the front relatively early on in the race. Do you and your coach have discussions about placing, like being in an ideal place at various points of the race, or is placing irrelevant and the strategy comes from a different avenue?

No, i mean, like Kup and I hadn't discussed anything strategically before UTMB at all. I think maybe he just saw that I had done it enough. I like I had an idea of what I needed to do. And that would like never part of my plan either. That just turned out like that. Yeah, so we haven't really talked about that. Maybe I'll talk to him more this week, but Again, i just feel like everyone I talk to has their own theories about what you should and shouldn't do and when you should go fast. and the race starts at Forest Hill and the race starts at the river and the race starts at the beginning, and then we'll see what happens.

It was just so interesting to build off that It was interesting to me that at UTimby last year you took the lead. you were in the lead for quite a while, you lost it briefly but then you regained it and won the race. Does that have any influence on you for a race like Western States, where it's not quite as big as UTimby but it is the biggest race here in the States? Does it in any way, shape or form, give you confidence to do something similar here on Saturday?

In some ways yes and in some ways no. I think at UTimby there was all this stuff that had been going on the day before the race and on the start line. I was honestly just so happy to have made it to the start line and was just so done with dealing with all this external stuff. I think I just like, yeah, maybe I was running, i don't know. Everyone was saying I was running too fast, which, who knows. I gave me the confidence to lead off the front. But then I saw how badly I could implode in the middle of the race and somehow I got lucky and like we were back together afterwards and like I obviously benefited a little bit off the fact that Maryam had like kind of a severe injury in the middle of the race. So it wasn't like we were like battling it out, it was like I exploded then she exploded. So yeah, I think it showed me that I can lead off the front, but it also showed me kind of the consequences of what can happen if I do that too hard.

Awesome. Any final questions from you?

That checked all my boxes, you know. I'm just excited for the race to start and be able to follow, you know, yours and everyone else's journey over the course of Saturday.

Yeah, katie, i did want to say like we're so grateful for you in so many ways. You know your post-race interview with us last September. After you, tim B gave us a big lift and you introduced us to Doug Mayer, who we had on the pod recently, and you're helping us with really cool European based content via EuroTrack and I know this is a busy media week for you. So we appreciate you carving out time for us and we're just excited that you're here racing in America at the biggest race in our country and you just add so much to the storyline. So thank you so much and we're wishing you the best.

Yeah, and that episode with Doug, by the way, is just fantastic, i think he was able to say all the things I have trouble like putting into sentences. So that was really refreshing to hear and I hope it gave people kind of a different angle on that whole topic. So good episode to go back and listen to.

Right on. Well, thanks again and yeah, until next time.

Yeah, thanks, guys, we'll see you soon.