Eric Lagerstrom followed in the footsteps of his friend and former PRO triathlete turned trail runner, Heather Jackson, as he made an immediate impact in his big trail running debut at the weekend.
The American is a three-time IRONMAN 70.3 winner, most recently at Santa Cruz in September 2022 when he pipped former Kona runner-up Tim O’Donnell.
But he’s been dipping his toes in the off-road sphere recently and in eye-catching style – making his mark in XTERRA events, mountain bike and gravel races.
Of course he is also half of the ‘That Triathlon Life’ project with his wife and fellow pro triathlete Paula Findlay and takes the lead on the much admired content creation side. Starting with YouTube video, and now expanding out into a podcast and app, the TTL project has seen the pair develop a loyal community of age-group fans and even facilitated the launch of their ‘TTL Devo’ squad, supporting up and coming pro triathletes.
‘What a scene’
Lagerstrom, right, is a man of many talents [Photo credit: XTERRA]
And it was at the iconic Western States 100-mile race earlier this year where trail running took a big step forward in his thought process.
He was there to shoot video for one of Jackson’s sponsors and potentially pace the final miles with the multiple IRONMAN winner, who is now a trail running and gravel biking star.
And it clearly made a big impression as he said afterwards on Instagram: “By my calculations, I did about 15 miles of running, chasing @hjacksonracing with 2 cameras, gimbal, and 2 lenses at Western States.
“I can’t say “I caught the western bug” but I definitely want to get myself to the start of something long-ish on trail this year 😉 what a scene.”
Instant impact
And true to his word, he’s spent at least the last couple of months training for the Run The Rock 50k in Smith Rock State Park near Bend, Oregon.
And fair to say it proved quite a debut.
For not only did he take the win but he also bagged a new course record, covering the testing 50k in three hours and 38 minutes.
Writing on Instagram he said: “If you watched my prep video on YouTube, you’ll know that I certainly didn’t think I had this in the bag, and I thought the course record was a HUGE longshot, albeit a fun thing to fantasize about and analyze on strava.
“I felt like my energy was great throughout, fueling presented no issues, pace felt aggressive, but not suicidal at any point, and I’m now extremely sore and hobbling around the house. But, not quite as sore as I thought, so I feel like that means I did a pretty good job with prepping the last couple of months.
“I want to give a big shoutout to… @hjacksonracing for answering all my questions in the last video, @taylorherson for being my logistics coach, @paula_findlay for putting up with this whole endeavor, and @rebis09 for being my primary training partner/adventure buddy on all the longer sessions lately.
“Not picured: @eliselagerstrom for being the inspiration to give this a shot and for dropping some last-minute patience knowledge the night before.”
Elise Lagerstrom is his sister and was a former pro triathlete who is now a leading trail runner.
And is that the route Eric is now about to take? If so he won’t be the first top triathlete to translate his skills to ultrarunning – Jackson’s an obvious example but earlier this year we also saw Britain’s Lucy Gossage finish an incredible third on her debut in the brutal 268-mile Winter Spine Race.
Eric added: “This probably won’t be the end of this, but I think it probably is the end of competition for me for 2024. The wheels are turning HARD with all the objectives and stories I want to get to in 2025! Time to start building a schedule.”
The video below documents his build-up to Run The Rock, with the promise of a post-race one to follow.
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