David Ayala on Hardrock, Flow State, and the Art of Dismissing Fear (Sunday Conversation)

David Ayala is a Professor of Mathematics at Montana State University and an amateur ultrarunner who most recently finished 3rd at the 2026 Hardrock 100. Until recently he'd never owned a watch. He has no social media. What he does have is a faculty webpage full of trip reports, written in LaTeX, for unsupported FKTs on the Wind River High Route, Sierra High Route, and Teton Center Punch, documented with a remarkable level of transparency. In this Sunday Conversation, we talk about trai...