Tough Girl Podcast Margaret Schlachter- The first professional female obstacle course racer & founder of Dirt in Your Skirt!
Margaret Schlachter found obstacle racing in 2010 with the very first Spartan Race outside of Burlington, Vermont. From that day on she was hooked. This former collegiate athlete found a new spark for fitness in obstacle course racing.
She founded Dirt in Your Skirt in early 2011 as a personal blog tracking her progress to the first World’s Toughest Mudder. Quickly the blog turned into a full website with race reviews, gear reviews, industry insight and more.
In 2012, she became the first professional female obstacle racer and was ranked 5th in the world at the time. She has taken on some of the sport’s toughest events competing in the Death Race, 5x World’s Toughest Mudder, and Survival Run in Nicaragua.
Today she spends her time as a full-time author, writer, industry expert, and coach. When not writing or taking on the next obstacle race or mud run she can be found working on her Urban Farm in Salt Lake City.
Show notes
- Her childhood growing up, attending boarding school and having a passion for the outdoors.
- Training like a professional athlete at 13 years old
- Transitioning from school to college
- Graduating from college and going on to do her Masters part time
- Her journey to obstacle racing
- The Original Obstacle Course Race which was started in the UK - Original Tough Guy
- Hating running but how having obstacles makes it fun!
- The very first Spartan Race
- Why you should not wear cotton!
- The spear throw and how its evolved over time
- The rivalry between Sparta & Tough Mudder!
- Going from 5k to 10 miles
- Qualifying for Worlds Toughest Mudder - a 24 hours obstacle course race, which had never been done before!
- Why accountability is so important
- Starting her blog - “Dirt in Your Skirt” and how it has evolved over time
- Getting her first podium in 2011 and how it led to her getting sponsorship
- 2012 & getting her first paid full time sponsorship
- Training for Worlds Toughest Mudder and making use of the mountains on her doorstep and the free running resources on line.
- Using rock climbing as a tool for general fitness - “Climb Fit”
- Dealing with the cold and why wetsuits are a must for any event like this
- Running her first ultra marathon in training
- Having to break ice to get through the obstacles
- Dealing with hallucinations and the stresses on her mind and body
- Not finishing the race, getting to 7 am, which was 3 hours short of competition
- How OCR has evolved for women
- The 3 races that stand out for her
- Stopping, quitting and not wanting to race
- Learning from failure
- Why we both collaborate & support other women
Get in contact with Margaret - via her Blog or on twitter @DirtinYourSkirt
You can listen to my episode with Margaret - HERE!
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