Lucja Leonard is a Dutch-born Aussie-Brit currently residing in the USA. Wife to Dion Leonard, and Fur-mama to Gobi and Lara, check out 'Finding Gobi' the NY Times bestselling book for more details on that side of her life.
Lucja is an ultra-runner but has not always been one! After becoming overweight in her early 20's Lucja took up running to become a healthier, fitter version of herself and after running her first road marathon, Amsterdam in 2010, she discovered a love of going long and went on to run the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon; a 6 stage, 7-day self-sufficient multistage ultra-marathon through the Kalahari desert in northern South Africa where she fell in love with ultra-running.
Lucja has since gone on to run a multitude of multistage and single stage ultras with the likes of Marathon Des Sables, Leadville 100, Ultra Trail Mont Blanc, Mohican 100 and even 200+miles non-stop with Bigfoot200 and Moab 240. Most recently she tackled the TransRockies Race, a multistage ultra in Colorado with her friend, Amanda, running as a pair with 120miles and 20,000ft over 6 days as 'Team Granny Pants' where they duo came third open female team.
Lucja is also a running and health coach and can be found traveling all over the USA, exploring the most amazing places while working alongside her husband Dion, and his book 'Finding Gobi' with inspirational talks at corporate events, schools, libraries and running stores.
Amanda Asher is a single mother of 3 teenagers (son 17 and twin daughters 15) and 2nd grade elementary school teacher who started ultra-running in 2016 when she tackled her first 50k in Huntsville, Tx – Rocky 50. Since that time, she has taken on dozens of races across Texas, ranging anywhere from 13 milers to 100k’s. Shortly after completing her first 50k, Amanda ran her first mountain race in 2016 when she took on the Pikes Peak Ascent, followed by the Leadville Trail marathon in 2017. Most recently Amanda competed in her first team relay alongside her daughters as they raced the clock during a 12-hour relay at Spider Mountain in Texas. The 3 of them along with one additional teammate – placed 1st female team. Amanda used this race in May as a training run for her most recent endeavor that took place in Colorado – the Transrockies Stage Race – Amanda, alongside her teammate Lucja Leonard, managed to take the podium 4 out of the 6 days. Placing 3rd overall for the week. When Amanda is not busy raising her 3 teenagers or working on lesson plans for her second graders, she can be found solo backpacking all over the U.S., completing various sections of the CDT, John Muir Trail, AT, and hundreds of miles of loop trails, within Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado.
It is always a fun time when Lucja is involved. We loved this conversation with Lucja and her adventure buddy, Amanda. These ladies tell us all about tackling the Transrockies stage race together and how they came up with their team’s name, Granny Panties, it is a great story! Amanda talks about finding balance with adventuring, raising three kids and work. When you hear her talk about it you will think it is possible for you too. Lucja shares her latest adventures and what she has coming up. These ladies are big supporters of each other and other women. I hope you enjoy this one as much as we did!