Dirt Church Radio

26/07/2024

Buckle Up: what happens when you finally get to run the race you’ve dreamed of- AidStation 14. Kia ora e te whānau! We’ve had the pleasure of some salubrious recording locales with Mr Andrew McDowall and this time is no different. Fresh off a DCMF he’s hit the Forestry Road Subaru Studios with Eugene and Matt for a full rundown of his Western States experience. We even got to stroke the buckle. *Spoiler Alert* That’s a pretty flash buckle, alright. 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

16/07/2024

The 2024 WUU2K Special – Leaving it all out on the trail. Dirt Church Radio 285.
In its nine-year history the WUU2K has kicked many a runner in the ass. This year it kicked Matt in the head. Antecedently to the unfolding malarky, Eugene and Matt caught up with NZ trail legend Jenny Hirst, WUU2K race director and founder Gareth Thomas, and long-time collaborator Brent Robinson. You’ll get all the action from the start line, and Matt out on course, alongside Eugene’s interviews with Tailwind NZ’s Mark Drew, Carly Webber from Runners NZ and many more. Best Enjoyed Running. 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲 📸

12/07/2024

Kia ora e te whānau! Ep On this episode Eugene and Matt are joined by the brains trust of SQUADRUN Ali Pottinger and Kerry Suter for a play-along-at-home adventure around the start of planning for a big adventure or event, in this case, Matt’s build up to the Tarawera Ultra Trail. As usual with these conversations, Kerry and Ali are wise beyond years, and a font of incredible knowledge. Not to be missed.
Dan Jones also checks in after his remarkable fourth-place run at Western States last weekend, and we debate the merits of standing in the way of Ruth Croft at UTMB (spoiler alert: Don’t). Squadrun

12/07/2024

Kia ora e te whānau! Ep 283 out now! On this episode Eugene and Matt are joined by the brains trust of SQUADRUN Ali Pottinger and Kerry Suter for a play-along-at-home adventure around the start of planning for a big adventure or event, in this case, Matt’s build up to the Tarawera Ultra Trail. As usual with these conversations, Kerry and Ali are wise beyond years, and a font of incredible knowledge. Not to be missed.
Dan Jones also checks in after his remarkable fourth-place run at Western States last weekend, and we debate the merits of standing in the way of Ruth Croft at UTMB (spoiler alert: Don’t).

02/07/2024

GREATEST RUN EVER X SQUADRUN

DCR’s most beloved segment is now brought to you by SQUADRUN! We’ve got a treat for you all, check out the special four week trial training program that Kerry and Ali have cooked up for you lucky people. LINK IN NEWSLETTER/WEBSITE

02/07/2024

Bradley Houghton – Trail Running NZ and the 2024 WUU2K Preview. Dirt Church Radio 283.

“At least I don’t have to listen to my own voice”. So goes the bio of Bradley Houghton, the maestro behind Trail Running NZ, the newsletter that has taken the scene by storm. Breaking his own rule, Bradley sits down with Eugene and Matt to discuss his own history with trail running, and the motivation to start Trail Running NZ. Bradley, like most of us who start something creative, juggles a full time job, family, and a love of running to bring you a weekly dose of trail running goodness. Whilst we had such a wealth of knowledge on the line we took a deep dive into the WUU2K (the Wellington Urban Ultra) a standout race in the Aotearoa running calendar since 2016, running through the courses, the history of the race and the stacked fields in this year’s event. Best Enjoyed Running.🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲 📸

26/06/2024

Rep your 3rd favourite trail and ultra marathon podcast whilst keeping cool and breezy in this technical trucker hat. Pleasing woodland vista, and one size fits most. Out now!

$NZ59.99 plus postage and packaging with a 15% discount for DCR AidStation paid subscribers (code in this week’s newsletter).

Link in Bio!!!

24/06/2024

What's your Greatest Run Ever? ❤🥹😁
Here's how Bogdan State's epic submission begins. What's yours? Send it in to us! [email protected]
"It was 1 am and I couldn’t sleep. Three alarms were set on my phone, the earliest at 3:45 am. I was in a small stuffy room at my hostel in Te Anau. I needed to be up that early to have a shot at running the Kepler Track — I only had a very short window of opportunity between two cold fronts coming in. For a few hours, the weather on the tops would be runnable — outside those few hours, the first blizzards of the season.
"If I can’t sleep I might as well get a move on. But why was I even doing this to myself? Why get out in the cold night to do something unhinged? Wasn’t it going to be dangerous? Besides, could I even do this at all?"

https://www.dirtchurchradio.com/greatest-run-ever

18/06/2024

Anthony Kerr-Taylor. Down the Rabbit Hole – Backyards, Milers, and a Hell of A Four Years. Dirt Church Radio 281.

Kia ora e te whānau! Anthony Kerr-Taylor – Ant K-T – couldn’t tell you what got him out onto the Riverhead trails during the country’s first Covid lockdown, but that first run four years ago has lead to a string of incredible results including an 8th place at this year’s Tarawera Ultra Trail 100 mile and a couple weeks ago Ant ran 348kms (or 52 laps) at Kings Backyard to take the record for the farthest run at a backyard on New Zealand soil. Ant talks us through “going down the rabbit hole” in this amazing conversation. Honest, inspiring, and assured, Ant K-T is one to watch. Best Enjoyed Running. 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲📸

14/06/2024

Kia ora e te whānau.
We speak to the returning champion and guest on DCR episode 102 Coach Maree Leith of GoRunGirls. We talk to Maree about her efforts in writing and publishing her first book, Finding Her Stride, a compilation of 19 New Zealand woman runners and their stories. We also discuss our top tips for hitting the streets in the midst of winter, nerd out about headlamps (well, Matt does). We announce our new competition with The Spectacle, Aotearoa’s newest running festival, taking place December 13th-15th in Whakatū/Nelson. DCR AidStation- Best Enjoyed Running.

13/06/2024

What's it like to turn and see Courtney Dauwalter charging up the hill behind you?

What is it like to turn and see Courtney Dauwalter charging up the hill behind you? Caitlin Fielder on DCR ep 279 out now.

04/06/2024

Caitlin Fielder - Rotorua’s Finest and Golden Trail Series Hotshot. Dirt Church Radio 279.

Kia ora e te whānau! This week Eugene and Matt have the distinct pleasure of speaking to the incredible Caitlin Fielder. In her third year as a professional athlete for Salomon, Caitlin continues to go from strength-to-strength on the European trail circuit. With many strings to her bow, Caitlin discusses mindset, training, her fine art business, what it’s like to room with Courtney Dauwalter and are the Salomon camps as cool as they look on Instagram? Spoiler- Yes. Yes they are. Best Enjoyed Running. 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲
📸 .adventure.bakery

02/06/2024

When you’re doing DCR things in the Riverhead Forest carpark and you bump into a huge run crew … Carpark links got a little noisy this morning! Awesome to see so many mana wāhine about to get out on the trails!

27/05/2024

What should you be carrying in your pack every time you head out into the hills or the back of beyond, the essentials that will help get you out of trouble or at least keep safe until help can arrive if the s**t hits the fan? We asked Rocky from Further Faster what he'd recommend. What about you? What are your must-haves for safety?

What are the safety essentials you should always have in your pack? The Dirt Church Radio crew is joined by Rocky from Further Faster who gives us some great...

21/05/2024

2024 Ultra Trail Australia by UTMB Special + Live Show. Dirt Church Radio 278.

Kia ora e te whānau! This episode of the pod finds Matt returning to The Blue Mountains for the UTA running festival. With 7000 athletes over 4 days this is a one-of-a-kind spectacle in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Down to one wing, the ever dependable Ali Pottinger of SQUADRUN fame jumped into the fray, along with Ben Berriman and Dave Stewart to recap each day’s event. Ali and Matt also handled the elite Q&A, with Lucy Bartholomew, Charlie Hamilton, and Michael Dimunates. Matt and Ali discussed the Women in Trail Panel and the topic of equality and equity in the elite field. Best Enjoyed Running.

14/05/2024

Did you know you can subscribe to the DCR AidStation podcast on Apple and Spotify to sign up for weekly bonus content? Just search for DCR AidStation on Spotify, Apple or your favourite podcast platform and you'll get all the bonus content (plus the regular DCR episodes) all in the one place. Easy!
https://apple.co/3WDXof5
https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPf3SdKMHZ8THGMJksgGw?si=fa82d70ab1414fcd

07/05/2024

Ali Pottinger and Kerry Suter: 2024 Ultra Trail Australia Preview Show. Dirt Church Radio 277.

Kia ora e te whānau! This week, Eugene and Matt have got the band back together! We have the distinct pleasure of being joined by the brains behind SQUADRUN, Ali Pottinger and Kerry Suter to preview the 2024 edition of Ultra Trail Australia. Ali and Kerry are two people who know this race intimately, they share their favourite parts of the course and memories with us before giving us an incredible run down of the elite list across the 100km and 50 km distances for what is sure to be some very tasty racing. Best Enjoyed Running.🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

30/04/2024

AidStation 008 - The Inaugural 2024 Further Faster Live Show Special and the Skedaddle Weekend.

Kia ora e te whānau! This week we’ve got something different for you. Eugene and Matt take a trip to Ōtautahi/Christchurch for our first ever live show at Further Faster. We were joined by the epic Jess Campbell and Michael Mitchell as we ran through some stories from the past six years. We rounded the evening off by challenging the audience to a rousing round of Rock, Paper, Scissors for a Crater Rim entry and finally found the answer to the oft-asked question, “What is worse, being bitten by a shark or doing The Revenant?”. Then, our heroes travelled to Island Hills in North Canterbury for the Skedaddle Trail Race, which is bound to become a litmus test in terms of toughness over the marathon distance, and Matt certainly found that out in spades. 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

25/04/2024

Jeff and Jenny Vierling: Tailwind Tales - Taste-Testing and Airport Antics DCR Ep 275
Kia ora e te whānau! This episode we catch up with Jenny and Jeff Vierling, the founders of Tailwind. They were in Aotearoa for the Faultline Ultra on the weekend, and right about now they’ll be riding the Old Ghost Road. They live in the mountain town of Durango, Colorado, where they have made a deliberate decision to grow and keep their business. We talk about life in a small town and why it’s important to them to be part of the community, the origins of Tailwind, which is a bit of a famous story about Jeff having a bad time at the Leadville Trail 100 MTB race. We also talk about the science of race nutrition, the best and worst flavours, and that time Jeff almost had the whole of Chicago Airport shut down because of the bunch of white powder he was carrying. They were delightful and sweet – not too sweet, just right, like a chocolate-flavoured Tailwind Recovery. Best enjoyed running!
🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

25/04/2024

Weeeeeeee made it

23/04/2024

Collab with Newsroom! Greig Hamilton shares the story of how he finally cracked the Barkley Marathons nut. This interview was five years in the asking, and it was worth the wait.

Ultrarunner Greig Hamilton took three attempts to achieve something he first imagined doing 20 years ago, and became the first Kiwi to finish the infamous Barkley Marathons.

23/04/2024

Greig Hamilton - Worsley Warrior and Barkley Marathons Finisher. Dirt Church Radio 274.

Kia ora e te whānau! This week, Eugene and Matt have the distinct pleasure to speak to Greig Hamilton and let us tell you this has been a long time coming! In case you don’t know, Greig Hamilton became the first Kiwi finisher of the Barkley Marathons. It was his third crack, having knocked off fun runs in 2019 and 2022. This year there were five finishers, including the first female finisher, Jasmine Paris. Barkley is a five-loop course in the Frozen Head National Park in Tennessee. Greig is from Christchurch, he’s a two-time world champion in the Rogaine, and, by all accounts, one of the most self-effacing human beings around. However with the help of our sources we managed to crack the nut for a wonderful conversation – five years after we first asked him. We talk about Greig’s beginnings in sport, how he was “abysmal” at running (then got better), adventure racing, the burden of an endeavour like Barkley on loved ones, the difference between suffering and enjoyment, and some details about the race itself. This one was worth the wait. - Best Enjoyed Running.🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲 📸

19/04/2024

EPISODE 273: OUR QUADS ARE SHAKING ALREADY - TAKING ON THE FURBER STEPS IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
Kia ora e te whānau! The Furber Steps are an iconic part of the UTA course in the Blue Mountains, more than 900 stairs that make up the only path to the finish line. This year, NSW Firefighters are going to climb it for 24 hours raising money for Motor Neuron Disease. And everyone is invited along, so Matt and Eugene and going to be there. We speak with the brainchild of this quad-shredding challenge, Gavin Clifton, about the event, the special nature of the steps, and how he came up with the idea. We also catch up with him about how the UTA course is holding up after recent torrential rain.
Best enjoyed running!🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

09/04/2024

THE ORIGINS OF TRAIL RUNNING AND OTHER GREAT YARNS WITH ROGER ROBINSON
: Dirt Church Radio 272.

Kia ora e te whānau! This week on the podcast Eugene speaks to returning champion and one of the most impressive human beings we’ve had the pleasure of speaking with, the one and only Roger Robinson.
Roger is an age group world champion runner, an emeritus professor at Victoria University where he was in the English Department, he is a world-leading writer on running, a delightful, engaging teller of stories and commentator, and shares his time between Wellington and New York, with his wife, the celebrated women’s running pioneer, Kathrine Switzer.
He has a new book out titled “Running Throughout Time: The Greatest Running Stories Ever Told”. The book is full of fascinating research and discoveries, from chapters about Atlanta, the heroic woman runner of ancient Greece, to Allison Roe, the New Zealander who won the New York Marathon.
In his research, Roger arguably discovered the true roots of trail running in a ditch, and most definitely busts some myths about some of our sport’s most famous stories. Roger was a guest on DCR episode 37 which you should have a listen to if you missed it, with Kathrine on DCR episode 45.
Also on the show, we celebrate Riverhead Rampage’s 10th year, catch up with Dr Inia Raumati about his quest to run 8 ultras on 8 continents, and bring you a Kiwi for Greatest Run Ever – as in, an actual Kiwi, Best Enjoyed Running.🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

30/03/2024

Gareth Morris steps in as our special correspondent from Northburn 100 and does a great job catching up with Jean The Northburn Queen Beaumont, Glenn Sutton, and the one and only DCR Ep 271 out now, or check out the newsletter. 🏃🏽‍♂️

29/03/2024

Northburn100 BONUS POD with Gareth Morris!!! - Dirt Church Radio 271.

Kia ora e te whānau! Enjoy this cheeky little bijou podcastette from this year’s Northburn 100. Llaingholm’s favourite son, Episode 33 alumni, and Commonwealth Games Medallist Gareth Morris went to Northburn to document the action (okay, so he was supposed to be running, but he was injured so we asked him for a favour …). Acting as our intrepid Mainland Correspondent Gareth captured conversations with Race Director Terry Davis, six-time winner Jean Beaumont, and 11 time finisher and ultrarunning legend Glenn Sutton. Don’t forget to click the link below to get a ticket to our live show in Christchurch on April 25th!!! Best Enjoyed Running.

🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

26/03/2024

Kia ora e te whānau! WOOOOO some weekends in the calendar just stack up don’t they? This weekend certainly didn’t disappoint with the fourth running of Aotearoa’s original Backyard Ultramarathon, the Riverhead Backyard ReLaps Ultra, the Northburn 100 mile, one of the most challenging 100 mile events in the country, and the Barkley Marathons, the Monster of Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee. This week, Eugene and Matt do their best to pinball between all three places, with Matt enjoying the delights of the ReLaps and fifth Beatle Andrew McDowall taking on the Northburn 100, we’ve looped in a gaggle of guests for your listening pleasure, with Shaun Collins, Madeleine Collins, Chris Macdonald from Runners With Beards, Lola Rayment, Andrew McDowall, and some field recording of one half of a podcasting duo being put through a wringer. The post-race weekend blues are going to be epic. Best Enjoyed Running.🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

22/03/2024

Bonus DCR ep out now! Suzanne McFadden: How Sandy Barwick set a record which took 34 years - and Camille Herron - to break.
Kiwi Sandy Barwick ran 549 miles in six days back in 1990, establishing a world record that stood for 34 years, until Camille Herron broke it, running 560 miles last week. How did Sandy do it, and what does she think of Camille’s run? Lockerroom founding editor interviewed Sandy to find out. We caught up with Suzanne in this chat first released in our DCR AidStation podcast for paid subscribers released on Wednesday. If you want to hear the rest of the episode, or our other episodes, sign up !
And go to to read Suzanne's excellent story.
📸Sri Chimnoy Marathon Team

15/03/2024

Another animal-related Greatest Run Ever from Eve Southan! Last time it was a dolphin, this time ... well, have a listen. Got a GRE - animal-related or not? Send it in to us [email protected] DCR Ep 268 out now!

Another animal-related Greatest Run Ever from Eve Southan! Got a GRE - animal-related or not? Send it in to us. And listen to this one on DCR ep 268 out now!

12/03/2024

Ali Pottinger- The future of Trail Running for Women in Australasia- Dirt Church Radio 268.

Kia ora e te whānau! Our friend, Fellow MC, and DCR away game co-host Ali Pottinger sent us a message waiting to talk about the what the trail running community could do better (and is doing better) to support women in trail running. When Ali talks, we listen. So please enjoy this thought provoking and engaging discussion with Ali Pottinger around the good, the bad, and the way forward for our trail running sisters, from one of our trail running sisters. Best Enjoyed Running.🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲