The Awake Athlete Podcast is a short form exploration of life perspectives from a 10,000-foot view. An all-encompassing offering of time-tested knowledge, techniques, and practices that allow for more ease along the path of athletic performance while creating a beneficial effect on the entirety of this life experience. Through the knowledge that she has gained from years of study and training, Jess Gumkowski, endurance athlete, and mindset coach shares commonsensical ancient wisdom that leads to a mental fitness level that can change the world. This podcast is for athletes who are ready to open their minds and welcome in their greatness. It is for coaches who are curious about expanded viewpoints from which to guide their athletes to their highest performance level. Awake Athlete is more than a podcast; it is a way of living that is by its nature, as easeful as it is powerful. This seasonal offering will support athletes and coaches who, like Jess, view mastery as the only option in this life.
There are two kinds of fear: the kind that keeps you alive — and the kind that keeps you from living.
In this final episode of Awake Athlete: The Road to El Cruce, I share what it was like to stand on the starting line in Argentina after 27 weeks of becoming — confident, grounded, and deeply ready. Not because nothing could go wrong, but because I trusted what I would do with whatever came up.
We talk about the intelligence of life itself — and the willingness to feel all feelings and experience all experiences as the true gateway to transformation. I reflect on the electric energy of Argentinian culture, the unexpected gift of the language barrier, and why being unable to understand the words around me created a rare clarity and inner stillness.
I walk through my strategy for each stage, the mantras that carried me, and the failsafe mindset I return to again and again — in racing and in life — as an antidote to overwhelm and fear.
We explore what fueled a fluid, responsive mind on the trail, and why readiness is not about certainty, but about trust.
This episode isn’t about what happened to me out there. It’s about how I met it. And why that way of meeting life is available to all of us.
21 Nov 2025
On the Edge — The Final Stretch to El Cruce
On this narrowing road to El Cruce, I’m living in the unfiltered experience of me—the place where clarity breathes louder than chaos.
In this episode, I explore the moments that can’t be measured, tracked, or posted… only felt. I open up about my greatest fear—not the unknown, but the soul-level terror of staying the same—and how this season has called me again and again into deeper alignment, deeper truth, and deeper self-trust.
As the countdown to Patagonia speeds up, I reflect on the year, the training, the warrior mind skills being sharpened daily, and answer listener questions that keep calling me forward: Why do I continue walking toward the edge? What draws me to these unknowns? And what shifts when I choose me over the need to belong? I share stats on the race and how my mental prep is evolving, along with the integration of practices that allow me to show up steady, sovereign, and ready.
I close this episode in the place I keep finding myself lately—the quiet center where I remember who I am and what I’m here to do.
27 Oct 2025
No Hero Workouts — The Path of Aligned Action
Coming back from altitude rocked me in unexpected ways.
This episode explores what it means to move forward without forcing — to release the need for hero workouts and align with the deeper rhythm of training, trust, and truth. I share the honest reality of returning from altitude, what I’m trusting now, and how the plan evolves from here as El Cruce draws near.
I dive into the truth of “should,” the science and expansion of visualization, and the only time in life we truly have free will. This is about training the mind as intentionally as the body and living from a place of aligned action in all things.
I hope you enjoy the show.
Who has been a guest on Awake Athlete Podcast
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Melissa Adams
Paula Findlay
Kristin Mayer
Matti Weitz
Kyle Powers
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
26 ratings
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