“I know that van, that’s the silly man’s van,” my five-year-old daughter said as we pulled in the driveway. It’d normally sound scary, but she was talking about Michael Aish, the silly man, and his Sprinter van. I’ve been seeing Aish a lot lately. He lives 10 minutes up the road in Conifer, Colorado and we partnered on an 80-year-old whole-house remodel. Thankfully for me, Aish charges a carpentry project like he does the Leadville Trail 100 Mile, and he gets to the finish line too.
A two-time Olympian for his native New Zealand, Aish turned to ultrarunning late in his running career. He was third at the Leadville Trail 100 Mile in 2013 and second in 2014. He last competed there in 2016 as part of a Leadman race series campaign, finishing 19th. “Well, I ended up walking for about eight hours,” he said when I pressed on the finish. “I pushed a little hard on the 100-mile bike race the week before, and the 10-kilometer race the day after that.” I ask about the mountain-bike race, and Aish answers, “8:19, that’s actually pretty respectable. The bike is just so intense compared to the run. It’s hardcore, the gun goes off and you’re going 50 miles an hour in a pack of 1,000 people.”
After 2016 though, he stepped back from competitive running. “It was just becoming a job. I love running, but,” he pauses, “running changed a lot. Being a pro runner is about results. I was a pro runner for 15 years, but when I finished it was all about social media, and I’m very bad at it. I was just ready to move on, start a family, be normal.” He’s talking fast and I take notes as quick as I can.
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