TC Interviews: Aliza Lapierre
Aliza Lapierre was challenged to see how far she could run on maple syrup. After 30 miles, she had a new nutrition sponsor and a whole new love for the sweet sap flowing from the trees in her beloved homestate Vermont. In addition to being supported by Untapped, she also is sponsored by Salomon and Sunto, two of the biggest brands in ultrarunning. Now, anything shorter than 50 miles feels “fast”.
Aliza is very familiar with trails in Ithaca winning Finger Lakes 50s and placing 3rd at Cayuga…after running the Vermont City marathon a week earlier. She calls this period her mid-life crisis, which you’ll have to listen to hear about. Even the elites deal with separating themselves from other’s expectation and what is actually on their training plan.
In this episode Aliza goes in depth explaining her relationship with her sponsors and what it means to be on those teams. She goes way back and recounts her start in ultrarunning, back in 2004 at the Vermont 50, continuing to go back year after year as her benchmark and test of yearly fitness. She’s run Western State 6 times including giving up her spot in 2010 and 2014 when she won golden tickets because she wasn’t ready that year.
Ellie and Aliza talk sponsorships and what it means to be elite now versus 20 years ago. They talk about what drives the best runners in the sport when it’s not money. They talk entering a race to train versus entering a race expected to perform. Aliza explains why she’d enter a race when she knows she probably shouldn’t be running.
Finally, Aliza recaps her second attempt at the Long Trail FKT, which was an incredible story recapped on her blog here: https://alizalapierre.wixsite.com/alizalapierre
All this and more from a veteran and supremely talented runner Aliza Lapierre!
