We have a first on this week’s Dirt Church Radio. We’ve never spoken to an actual (literal) shepherd before. Let alone a shepherd who goes after it as hard as Ryan Carr does. Rocketing onto the trail running scene in 2017, Ryan has enjoyed a string of victories and podiums at Aotearoa/New Zealand’s hardest races including the Luxmore Grunt, The Tongariro Goat, and Mt Difficulty half. Eugene and Matt were able to put this together after Ryan got snowed in on the West Coast of the South Island after his win at the Resilience Ultra 62 km. We hear about Ryan’s love of being in the outdoors, and his many adventures in Europe, cycling between Sky Races in the European circuit and an impromptu S-K Main Range attempt which saw him miss the solo FKT by 30 seconds after CYCLING from Amberlea where he lives, to Tongariro to race the Goat and come second. We talk all this, fell running (including how long it takes to break in a pair of Walsh’s, the famous Northern fell shoe), bumbags, midnight dips in Lake Te Anau and just how full-on a Spanish ultra crowd can be. Enjoy.