Adventure Racer: Billy Mattison

March 2, 2005

EnduranceRadio.com

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Welcome back to www.EnduranceRadio.com.  Thanks for joining us for another interview today.  We’re going to be speaking with adventure racer Billy Mattison.  He is the team captain of GoLite Timberland Team, and he’s going to be talking about how the season went last year and what they’re looking forward to in 2005.

First thing, the Race of the Day today is the Smokey Mountain Adventure Races; it’s in Highlands, North Carolina, April 1^st through 3^rd, 2005.  You can find out more about that adventure race by clicking on the link below the link to this audio.

So we’re going to be right back to speak with Billy Mattison in about 30 seconds.

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<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Billy thanks very much for joining us today.  I appreciate you taking time out of your schedule.”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “It’s not problem Tim, how’s it going.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Going well thanks.  You’re talking to me from the ski resort.  What do you do there?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “I’m talking to you from the top of Vale Mountain.  I’m foreman on the Vale Ski Patrol here and its powder day.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “I guess it’s been pretty busy.  It’s raining like crazy out here; it’s probably been a good skiing season.”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “All that rain is cutting this way and we’ve had about a five drought here and this has been the best year in quite a while so everybody is pretty happy.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “So I guess it’s a little bit easier to keep in shape when you’re doing that in the off-season?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Yeah, definitely.  Skiing is a great thing you know.  We do a lot of back-country skiing and theres a lot of mountains right here in Vale so it’s really easy to stay in shape.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Well talk about last year for you, or this past season for Team GoLite.  How was your success and what kind of races did you participate in?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “You know we did the Primal Quest race.  We did one of the qualifiers for the Raid Gauloises in Bend, Oregon.  We did the World Championships in Newfoundland and we did the Southern Traverse in New Zealand.  Southern Traverse we had the best results, we got second place in that and we were real happy with that, and we did okay in the other races.  We were well into the top ten and top five area but certainly not on the podium and we want to change that this year.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Was it all the same team members for each race?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “No, you know in the World Championships in Newfoundland we had Roman Dial, he’s been a long time adventure racer, he came and helped us out there.  Aaron, our team mate from New Zealand just couldn’t get away for that one, but besides that it was the same team for the entire season.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “So does it change the dynamic a bit when you bring somebody else who is not part of the regular team?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Yeah it does.  I think it’s really important to race with the same team and get the same experience and get to know each other.  You’re just not quite sure what to expect and how people are going to react when they’re sleep deprived and half starved and that kind of thing.  I think it’s a big advantage for teams that can do four or five races over a season all as one team.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Do you get to train much at all together?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Occasionally,  Isaac my team mate, he lives in Park City and Anna Keeling; we’ve got a new woman on our team this year, Monique Merrill decided to freelance a bit and, like I just said, we want to have a team mate that’s consistent in all the races, so Anna Keeling, a kiwi that’s living in Salt Lake, and I live in Vale, so yeah we’re got some plans to meet down in the Moab area to ride and paddle and stuff, but I wish it could be more.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now you obviously put teams together based on everybody’s strengths, what would you say is the strength of Team GoLite and what would be a weakness?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Yeah we’re definitely an expedition like team.  I think we really understand the whole tactics involved in a big long expedition race and we’ve never been one to burst out of the starting gate.  We always seem to be picking up a little momentum come the middle end of the race.  We could be faster in the shorter sprint races, those are tougher I think in some ways and that would probably be our weakness, but with Anna coming on we’re working on it, so we’ll see what happens.  We’ve got a couple of short races and a few long ones coming up.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now how many races do you participate in that are just you go to the start line and you go until you finished, and how many are stage races where you’re stopping each night with all the other competitors?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Last year the only stage race we did was the Bend qualifier for the Raid.  All the others were the true expedition length race, do whatever you feel is right for the team, and you know what happened in Primal Quest, there were a couple of stoppages because of Nigel’s death but that was it.  This year we’re going to Sweden and that’ll be a stage race where we get on the airplane and fly to another destination and race again, so I’m actually looking forward to that.  We’re going to do the whole Raid series this year, we’re signed up for three of the Raid qualifiers and hopefully we’ll qualify for the championships and those are staged now.  You come across the finish line and you try to be as fast as you can and then just rest and wait for the next section to start.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now how do you find that balance on the ones that aren’t stage races that are just pure expedition which you seem to prefer?  How do you find the balance of how long you need to stop and rest and whether or not that detracts from trying to get you across that line as quickly as possible?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “It’s not easy, it’s tough.  I think it just comes from knowing each other, and what we personally do is we know pretty much if the race starts at eight o’clock in the morning, we’re going through the first night and we’re going to go all through the next day and we’re going to try to sleep in our transition area in warm sleeping bag where we get true, sound sleep and not out on the trail, and sleep for two to three hours.  If this is going to be a 300, 400 mile race, it doesn’t really matter, as long  as you’re moving quickly when you’re moving, bank the sleep and then just go for it at the end, that’s pretty much our attitude.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Is there any way you can kind of prepare for that by sleeping a little more?  Is it possible to bank sleep before the race?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “No that we’ve ever discovered.  I’ve tired, I can’t sleep; I don’t think there is.  You certainly try to rest coming into the race, be well rested when we come in, eat a lot of food and stretch and be ready to go, but a lot of times you’re still jet-lagged when the race starts and its tough, it’s really tough you know.  That sleep deprivation thing, I think it makes you paranoid and you forget your team mates’ names and navigation becomes more difficult and the whole thing snow balls on you if you let it get away from you.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “I want to ask you about some preparation that you do for the races, but we need to take a quick break.  We’ll be right back to speak with GoLite Team captain Billy Mattison.

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<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Billy, are you able to get in a few days earlier with your team?  You mentioned the jet lag, are you are able to get in a few days and kind of adapt?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Well we always try to arrive at least three days before the race, but sometimes it’s not always possible.  We all have jobs; Aaron lives in New Zealand and races with us here.  Sometimes if we can do it a week ahead of time but its tough, you’ve got to work at your job, you’ve got to bring money home to the family, and not getting paid well that far in advance well …”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “The sport the of adventure racing really seems to be kind of blossoming over this past couple of years.  What do you attribute that to?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Well, you know it’s cool.  Its true adventure.  A lot of people who have never done one; I don’t think the TV shows really even portray how adventurous they truly are.  The first time you do one, and you work together as a team and you have your goal set and you cross that finish line, it’s a really good feeling and you always want to step it up.  I always do the analogy of mountaineers, you know you go out and you climb a fourteener in a Colorado, and the next thing you know you want to go climb Reneer, and after you get to the top of Reneer, you want to go and do Denali, then you want to go to … you always want to keep stepping it up, and I think adventure racing is the same way.  It really, truly does become addictive, and the travels cool too, everybody wants to travel around the world to exotic places and try to get across a mountain range and down a river and out to the ocean.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Do you use sponsors to off-set some of your costs in participating in these things all over the world?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Oh god, yeah.  We couldn’t even do one race without GoLite and Timberland.  We’re incredibly lucky to have the sponsors we get.  They take good care of use and we’re got a budget that enables us to comfortably travel to all these races.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “What do you suggest for teams that are looking for sponsorship?  How did you go about securing those for your own team?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Well, you know, we just raced a lot.  We raced loads.  You’ve got to start at the beginning, you’ve got to start doing the little local; theres so many, I means theres thousands of just these grass-roots races popping up all over the country and you’ve got to get into it and train at it and get good at it at the lower levels and, you know what, people start hearing your name.  You’ve got a couple of good results at those races and the top team is looking, somebody is injured or an alternate, or whatever, that’s what we do, you know, we’re always looking out there to see who the up and coming people are.  Teams are always swapping around, then you’re able to have some good results at the entry level of the sport, and then you can start approaching sponsors and, you know, that’s hard.  I don’t like having to ask people for money but I’m good once I get a sponsor.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “What race are you looking forward to the most?  What one would you say would you say you want to see your team really do well at this year?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “You know theres three that we really want to do well at.  Of course we want to do well in Sweden; of the three I’d probably put that put that third.  The World championships in New Zealand and the Raid Championships, which are going are going to be in Europe, those two are really what we’re focusing on.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Which one do you think will be the most challenging?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “They’re both going to be tough.  The Raid Championships, they have dark zones and you’re going to sleep and so you don’t have the sleep deprivation that you do at the Jeff Hunt races in New Zealand and, you know, we did the Southern Traverse and the World Championship is only going to be 80 miles north on that west coast of New Zealand, and I’ll tell you what it is as tough a terrain as you can every dream of trying to get through; the brush, the weather, the rain, the snow, trying to cross rivers is truly, truly at the upper limits of the sport as far as I’m concerned.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Do you have a preference in terms of which races offer pretty regular support throughout the race as the ones you’ve got to bring in everything yourself and carry it the whole way?”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “You know, of course, we prefer to have a good support crew and that’s important also because your support crew can make or break you also.  Theres horror stories of support crews that have gotten lost trying to get to the next check point and the teams waiting for them and stuff like that.  But yeah it’s nice to have a hot meal waiting for you and all your dry clothes laid out and sandwiches in a bag for you to take out on the next trekking leg, that kind of thing, so yeah.  When you have to do it, you know, the old Eco Challenge; Burnet used to make us, you took away the support crews and that really did add another huge element to those races.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Excellent.  Well hopefully we can check in with you later this season and see how everything is going for you, but I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.”

<<Billy Mattison>>: “Hey, no problem Tim.”

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