Podcast: Episode 159 with Anthony Costales

Mario Fraioli | May 3, 2021

“Over the last years, the main thing to me when I get into a race, I think what kind of changed my trajectory at least in the road stuff, was that I don’t want to look at times anymore—that was the big thing in the roads: I don’t want to look at times, I just want to compete. People would ask, ‘What are you shooting for?’ I’m like, ‘I just want to compete.’ And that’s kind of been my answer for everyone in most races that I’ve done over the last many years. There’s been a couple times I’ve gone out to a race that the competition, you could tell, wasn’t going to be too stout and you go out for time or a course record on that by yourself, but when there’s big competition, it’s just strictly about competing to me.”

Anthony Costales recently won the Canyons 100K in Northern California in 9 hours, 11 minutes, and 40 seconds, defeating a stout field, which earned him a Golden Ticket to this year’s Western States Endurance Run. He’s only a few years into the trail and ultra game and is really starting to make a splash in the sport. A graduate of Chico State, Anthony has a 2:13 marathon personal best on the roads, he won the U.S. Trail Marathon Championship in 2018, and also represented the U.S. that year at the World Long Distance Mountain Championships in Poland, where he finished 10th overall. Anthony’s a native of Fairfield, California, he now lives and teaches middle school P.E. in Salt Lake City, Utah, and he’s a relatively new dad.

In this conversation, we talked about Anthony’s most recent win, of course, but also his progression in the sport, how he’s shifted his training in recent years, and the physiological and psychological differences of racing on the trails versus competing on the roads. Anthony told me why he calls himself a silent competitor, we discussed why shorter distance trail races don’t get nearly the respect and attention of ultra-distance events, and a lot more.

Anthony Costales: Website | Instagram | Strava

the morning shakeout: Instagram | Twitter

Mario Fraioli: Website | Strava

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Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford.