46: Artful Running with Rickey Gates

“The people that you share the experience with and the land that you are traversing are really the two most important things and how they make you feel.”

Welcome everyone to the It Matters To Me Podcast, a show that seeks out the passions in all of our lives and the motivations behind why we pursue them.

Today, my guest is Rickey Gates, professional runner and writer whose most recent book, Cross Country, is a first-hand account of his 2017 journey across the United States on foot.

Rickey’s career has always stood out to me not just because of his physical accomplishments but more due to his ability to bring a different, experiential side to running.

His relationship with the sport has evolved over the years and with that has come a sincere wish to help others experience running that doesn’t involve setting course records or finish line medals.

For years now, Rickey has put together guided running trips that include, Hut-Run-Hut, which is a six-day, one-hundred-mile, Aspen-to-Vail mountain running adventure with a priority of fun over fast.

If you’ve heard any of the other episodes with professional runners, you know I try to stay away from any sort of dialogue around training regiments or race-day nutrition because I believe that running can be so much more than a competition against a clock.

And true to form, this was a conversation focused more on the personal growth a runner goes through over their career and less about the stats behind their name.

Additional Links:

Rickey Gates (Website):

http://www.rickeygates.com/

Rickey Gates (Instragram):

https://www.instagram.com/rickeygates/?hl=en

It Matters To Me (Instagram):

https://www.instagram.com/adamcasey/

It Matters To Me (Website):

https://itmatterstomepodcast.com/

Bus Run Bus:

http://busrunbus.com/

Santa Fe Fastpack:

http://www.rickeygates.com/santa-fe-fastpack

Hut Run Hut:

http://hutrunhut.com/

A Walk Across America:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122781.A_Walk_Across_America