From Turkey Trot to Black Canyon: The Madison Liechty Story

Madison Liechty joins the Free Outside Podcast and we keep the promise of no hard questions for about five seconds. We talk about her very normal Montana childhood (no horses to school, sorry), how one turkey trot convinced her friend Makena Morley to start coaching her toward big marathon goals, and why the trail world, where you can eat bacon mid-race, ended up being a better fit.

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Then it gets unexpectedly real. Madison explains living her whole life unable to burp, how that made long trail races brutal from a fueling standpoint, and how getting treated for R-CPD flipped everything. Suddenly, she can actually eat deep into efforts, trail running gets fun, and she wins her first 100 miler. Now she’s heading into Black Canyon with her dad pacing the last miles, plus bigger dreams on the horizon like Hardrock and UTMB.

We also get into Bozeman training culture, 5 a.m. long runs, pacing her dad at a stack of hundred milers, a grizzly encounter in the Beartooths, and her long-term vision: keep building as a trail runner, and someday open the post-adventure bakery truck Bozeman needs.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

06:06 Early Running Journey

11:14 Transition to Trail Running

16:05 Overcoming Challenges in Trail Running

21:03 The Impact of Medical Issues on Performance

26:00 Baking Dreams and Future Aspirations

30:50 The Bakery Dream

32:00 Afternoon Running Revelation

33:11 Pacing and Family Bonds

36:21 Black Canyon Race Reflections

41:32 Future Goals in Trail Running

48:19 Balancing Engineering and Running

50:06 Wildlife Encounters in the Wild West

52:55 Training with Fast Friends

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