Athletics Ontario Running Podcast · John Shep

EP 209: Jazmine Lowther, Pro Trail Runner - Science, Soul and Sustainability

·36 min·2 clips

Lowther says her 2022 Canyons 100K win came from “a lot of fitness beneath me,” not luck.

1. Athletics Ontario Running Podcast EP 209 centers on Jazmine Lowther and her trail-running path from Nelson, British Columbia, to international ultra racing. 2. Host John Shep introduces Lowther as a professional trail runner and writer, and her experience matters because she has raced, coached, and lived through injury and RED-S. 3. The episode asks how Lowther keeps science, soul, and sustainability together in a career that includes Canyons 100K, UTMB, and Western States. 4. Lowther says she started with cross country as a child, preferred running “as far as possible,” and did not connect with track. 5. She describes switching to soccer, dance, and rock climbing before returning to running during COVID. 6. Her first major trail race was Tackle the Toad in Nelson, where she signed up for a 50K with poor preparation and still finished third overall. 7. She says that race made her curious about what the human body can do and pushed her to get a coach and learn more. 8. Lowther says Tackle the Toad is still important to Nelson because mom-and-pop races give runners a first trail-running entry point. 9. She notes that Nelson’s run club grew from three or four people on Wednesday nights to about 50 people at a Santa Claus run-club night. 10. Her 2022 Canyons 100K win came after a heavy training block that included ski touring, running, and a coach named Davis Stevens. 11. She says the win was a surprise but also the result of substantial fitness already in place before race day. 12. After Canyons, she describes foot pain, a missed Western States start, and a later diagnosis of RED-S with multiple bone stress injuries in the same foot. 13. Lowther says the warning signs included GI issues, sleep problems, menstrual disruption, and symptoms that looked unrelated until viewed together. 14. She says medical professionals often examine one body system at a time, which can make RED-S harder to identify early. 15. Her current training is healthier because she keeps volume lower, works closely with a coach, and reacts quickly to niggles. 16. She says a holistic check includes mental fog, mood, outside life stress, fuel choices, and recovery days protected every three to four weeks. 17. Lowther’s tone is practical and candid, and she speaks like someone connecting race results to physiology rather than abstract theory. 18. The conversation stays interview-based, with John Shep asking follow-up questions on training, fueling, women in sport, and race planning. 19. Runners interested in trail racing, RED-S, and sustainable training will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting a pure race recap without physiology or fueling detail may skip it.

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