E46: Bruce Smith - 2025 Eliminator Champion & 3rd Place in Last Paddler Standing

In this episode, Chris Thomas sits down with Bruce Smith, former ultramarathon runner and ironman athlete and now elite ultramarathon stand up paddle boarder out of Northeast England. Bruce is coming off of a massive year winning the inaugural Eliminator race in the U.K. and completing 48 laps including 2 super laps in the 2025 Last Paddler Standing. We cover so much in this episode from a career ending ankle injury that led him to paddling, training based on what life brings rather than a structured format, the Eliminator race, Last Paddler Standing 2023 and 2025, Nathan Benderson Park versus Lake June in Winter, amazing crew support from his “harem” of women, sleep deprivation strategies, hallucinations, the Northern SUP Race Club, the N1SCO one design race series, and the book he’s been writing that comes out in May. There’s so much more to this episode, but I’ll let you hear it from Bruce himself on this 46th episode of the Dabbling in Paddleism Podcast…
Bruce’s book recommendations:
Feet in the Clouds, by Richard Askwith: https://a.co/d/0dOVhCf6
A Life Without Limits, by Chrissie Wellington: https://a.co/d/0hW8B5U1
Social contact:
-IG: @bruce_ironsmith