Latest / GET ER DONE Podcast / EP10 - Running 100 Miles at The Arkansas Traveller

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EP10 - Running 100 Miles at The Arkansas Traveller · GET ER DONE Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: What's up?
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_03: What's up, everybody?
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: Get her done.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_03: Get her done podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back, guys.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we did our last episode of the Get Her Done podcast um last week, Wednesday last week.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_03: We're doing these every Wednesday, which I'm glad we're getting back to the Get Her Done podcast.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um Welcome back to another episode.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: The Get Her Done Podcast is really just a podcast about really just kind of trying to encourage people to get just get stuff done.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: Because getting stuff done makes your life better.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: And and this podcast mainly focuses on three areas fitness, like running campus specifically, um but just fitness in general, faith, uh Christian men and then business or entrepreneurship or finances, because uh I run the run a business.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so really this podcast is kind of like my three big areas of focus in my life.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: Uh fitness faith uh business.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: And then yeah, and we kind of share aspects of that throughout the podcast.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like some podcasts will be talking about the business, some about faith, some about uh whatever fitness challenge, and then sometimes all three.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, is what it is.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: So um yeah.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: Co-host Aaron.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, what's up, Aaron?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Exciting.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we got appreciated co-host Aaron on today.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's a fancy mug you got.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so this mug right here says Arc Install Traveler 100.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: And if you don't know, if you didn't listen to the last podcast, uh last podcast was my uh pre 100 mile podcast where I thought where I talked about my strategy, my thoughts going into it, my training.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Today's podcast is what happened at the 100 mile or show.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, don't don't spoil it early.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, I won't.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: Don't spoil it.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm not gonna share the ending, but we're gonna talk about the story of it, and then listening, the people listening will find the uh the answer in the story of what happened.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, um, yeah.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because that's just like a souvenir.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: I bought this.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, anybody can buy that.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: I bought this before the race, and I was thinking, man, since I bought this, I definitely I better uh I'm either gonna finish and just rep it, or I'm gonna DNF and not and not finish the hundred miler, and then I'm I'm gonna have this mug as a reminder that I didn't finish.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: It'll just be the regret.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's literally why I bought it.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: A relic of regret.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it would be.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: I bought it thinking, man, I better finish this.
• 2:42
  unknown: Yeah.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: But then I was like, if I don't finish and I quit, then this is just gonna be a permanent reminder.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, man.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh well, welcome in for another.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, dude.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, podcast.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: It just happens to be that my last name is Dunn.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just spelled differently.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Get her done.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Works out.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Dunn on the Get Or Done podcast.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's got a ring to it.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, how do you want to approach this?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I've got questions for you on how it went.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, and we've talked briefly about it, but I uh do you want to go through like like be like from the beginning, like a rest of the day?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'll I'll yeah, I'll talk about like just kind of like the story of everything.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'll just talk into the story.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, just talking about it alone, I got a full story for it.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but not to leave anybody a cliffhanger, but before we hit hop hop into that, you've been working here at Tech Solo Running for the last week and a half so far.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: How's that been going?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Great, yeah, yeah.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've really enjoyed it.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: Of course you're gonna say it.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the I'm like Yeah, not yeah, yeah.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Of course you'd say that in front of your boss.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but no, it's really it has been great.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's been uh it's been a uh a lot of learning, yeah, you know, uh just picking up on different stuff, but I'm getting into a certain certain groove on the merchant swagging and understanding the suppliers and what they need, understanding the metals, all the races that we're doing.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's there's a lot of bits and pieces, yeah.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm like I'm having fun.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having fun, like they're they're fun problems to solve and approach, and like uh just every single day kind of compounds on another day of just figuring out okay, what's the best, most efficient, most effective way to not only do this, you know, particular task, but also um improve it for the future, right?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: To where it it it only becomes more efficient as I continue.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's really exciting to think about it as we as as the business grows, like the needs are gonna grow.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm as you know, in the micro, in the day-to-day, I'm thinking about what needs to be done, but I'm also thinking in the macro of like, okay, well, this the way that the way we do it today might not be the best way to do it in a month or you know, six months or a year from now.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so do you have a name for that room back there, that back room that you've been spending a lot of time in?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh not like official yet.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: You should call it something.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's been back room right now.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but like it's gonna be it's gonna be like like receiving room, probably.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Something like that.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I didn't know if you had some fun name for it.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but like so, yeah.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: For contextual listeners, there's a room in the back of our office where we store all of our stuff.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: And Aaron's been working back there, and it's hot back there sometimes.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like if we keep the doors open, it gets hot or super cold back there.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you had a funny name for it.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like the uh I don't know what's the bottom chambers of a castle called?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: Dungeon?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: I guess yeah, dungeon.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's kind of dungeon-y.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's no windows in there.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: There might be like one window on the side, but yeah, yeah, it's uh I'm still growing in relationship with that room.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I think uh but I've gotten really close to it this this week, but we're we're we're getting it streamlined and and kind of getting it organized, and yeah, uh yeah.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the names will they will come in time for sure.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um well there's that on the on the business side too.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: I want to touch on this real quick before we hop into the story.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: But um on the business side, do you know who Alex Remozzi is?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm flying out next week to Las Vegas to see him to meet him.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, that's awesome.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna spend an entire day with him.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_03: No way, yeah, it'll be sweet.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, that's cool.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, yeah.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I know you've been out there before.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I've been in some of the workshops, but on Tuesday next week, that's the full day.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'll fly out Monday, come back Wednesday.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_03: But Tuesday, I'm gonna go to his headquarters and it's gonna be me and nine other people, and we get to spend eight hours with Alex Hermozzi.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, and then he's gonna look at our businesses, break them down, give us some stuff to fix.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: And then I've been getting emails that apparently they're gonna put me in an ad for their business.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna sit down in the film room and film an ad for them.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: Nice, so I'll get to learn how to do that, which is sick, yeah.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then apparently after the session with Alex Ramosy, after that, they take us um in a there's like a they have like a driver in a vehicle, okay, and they drive us to this like fancy restaurant where we eat with their investment team.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, sick.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, wow, the relationships that you're built to grow.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, that's legit.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm pumped for you.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's super excited.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: And basically, they're gonna look at like text all running, uh, outlast, they're gonna like look at that and and be like, here's some ways you can improve some stuff.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely, which would be cool.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, so I got that next week.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm super excited, man.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, take notes.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no joke.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Take a lot of notes, yeah.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Learn to write left-handed so you can do both hands at the same time.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: Let's just say we paid a lot of money to work with them like that.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, but it was an investment.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: It was like it was a thing where it's like, okay, I'm gonna pay this money, knowing that the what I'm gonna learn and implement will make more than what it costs.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: So that's kind of the thought process behind it.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's like, you know, you have you're one of nine.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like, obviously you can learn a lot from Alex, but as you go through the trenches with the other, you know, eight other nine people, other eight people, like those are valuable relationships that you can, you know, nurture and grow over time, potentially, you know, provided they're cool.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can there's no telling what that will give you for the you know course of your career and life.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's awesome.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_03: And uh the funny thing about all this, so the only few times I've seen Alex was I've been to two of their workshops because I do workshops for business owners, and uh anyone, well, not anyone can get into them.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_03: You got to qualify, but like most business owners can get into them.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: And um, you pay the ticket, you go out there, and they spend you spend two days, two full days with them presenting and kind of talking with their team for two days about like basically how to make your business bigger.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I did that, I did the scelling workshop, and then what I learned from there, I ended up doubling the business from what I learned there.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: So I doubled the business in like two months from what I learned at that workshop.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: Basically, what I learned was do more, just do more of what works, yeah.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: So, whatever's working, just do more of that.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: And then so I was like, Oh, Outlast is working, yeah.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: So then I was like, Oh, well, let's do that nationally, yeah.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: And then we did, and then it doubled our business.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so that was first workshop, and then that's the first time I also saw Alex in person.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: He walked out, and that day at the scaling workshop, I don't know if he was tired or what, he looked more pale than usual.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, like I guess on camera they make him look yeah, I don't know, his skin color looked a little white, yeah.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I don't know.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but he he looked he was like smaller, like like he was kind of like a little bit shorter and wider in skin tone than I expected because on camera he he looks like you know super jacked.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: He is a jack guy.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: I mean he is jacked, but like I don't know, it was just funny.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I saw him and he just looked like you know, if you watch him or follow him, he just works like 24-7 all day every day.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: And so like it makes sense why he looked so tired and why his he probably hadn't been out in sunlight too much.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so that I just like from seeing him on camera in person, I was like, oh, that was that was the two things I noticed.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh yeah.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I never got to talk to him or anything, but he like came out, answered some questions for like a 30 minutes, and then we all left.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: And then the second time I saw him was at the marketing workshop I went to like two months ago.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: And at that workshop, um, he had to come out.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: And this time though, um, he had actually spent like I guess he had nothing to do that afternoon, so he just like spent like an extra like hour answering random questions from people, uh, which is cool.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then I got invited to come back the next day to talk to their team about working one-on-one with them.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I was sitting in the lobby, and that's a funny story too.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I'll tell it another day.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: But we were sitting in the lobby, my wife and I waiting to talk to uh the sales rep.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: And we're sitting in the lobby at the bottom of acquisition.com, which is the company um that Alexander.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's the only company, yeah.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we're sitting at the bottom floor, and there's like an elevator next to us.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: We're sitting there just waiting, and then the elevator door opens, and Alex Ramosy walks out, and it's just me, my wife, and then Alex.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, What's up, man?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: And he was like, Hey, what's up?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then he kept going.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: So that was cool.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um man, that's exciting.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: And then this time, though, this time, like, whenever I go out there, I'm gonna like from what I've seen from other people, you take a picture with them.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_03: They let you take a picture before y'all go in the room.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: But once you go in the room, it's like, no, like it's not straight to work.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Private sugar business, yeah.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do you uh do you know, like, do you have a list of questions you know that you're yeah, ready to ask them?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to share that here or do you uh yeah?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I the big the biggest things I want to know.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_03: So it's actually funny.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_03: So the reason I signed up for it is because I didn't know outside of like our outlash, like scaling outlash nationally, I didn't know like the next steps for our business.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's why I signed up because I wanted to figure out what that was.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: But then after like two weeks after I signed up, like two weeks after I signed up, I was like, like I just had to let my brain like digest and process everything.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_03: And then like two weeks later, I was like, oh, I know how the next step to double the business.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was like, all right, uh I I know how to like how to get to where I want to go now.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: And the point of doing this was to figure that out, yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: So then I was like, oh well, I don't really need it.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: So I did get on a call with them or email, and I was like trying to see, like, hey, you know, could I maybe just because they kind of have two options where you can like work directly with their team or work directly, or it's both like you can work with their team or you can work with their team and Alex.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_03: And so the the team and Alex thing, the Alex thing was more so like, yeah, it's cool to meet Alex, but it's also a thing to where it's really figuring out like how to scale your business.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: So I signed up for that, but then I figured out how to do scale on my own.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: And then so I called back and I was like, hey, can I get a refund for the Alex thing and just do the team thing?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: And they were like, No, it's already past the you know, it's like it was like a whatever day period.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: And they were also said they were like, also, Alex is only doing two more of these, and you'll be the second to last one after that.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: He's not doing them anymore.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Oh, well, this is kind of my only chance to meet and talk with them.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I was like, there's nothing I can do about it.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, it was either like I just they keep my money and I don't go or I go.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, I'm going, obviously.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so there's that, and then their team, I get to work with their team for 12 months, which is like their portfolio team, which walks you through scaling, and their portfolio team, I go up there a few times next year and meet with them, and they just kind of help me break through any like barriers I hit.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like if I get stuck, they're like, Here, this is what to do.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so anyways, next week is the week.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: I got the uh hotels booked, the uh plane tickets booked, and I'll be out there.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just gonna go there and back.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um the funny thing, one of the funny things is each time I go to Vegas, I try to book a new hotel because like they got like a ton of them.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_03: So they sent a list of like Alex's favorite hotels.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so I picked one and I booked it, but then I looked at where it was, and it was like like the downtown, downtown section where like they got this the um, I forgot the name of the street, but it's it's it wasn't the strip that's like Caesars Palace and all that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's super nice.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: It was like the downtown, downtown area.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh, it's gonna suck Ubering out of that to acquisition and back.
• 15:41
  unknown: I was like, dang it.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I'll be staying like downtown, downtown.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: Apparently it has like an awesome pool, and like, which then I realized it's gonna be fall, so I'm not gonna really go to the pool unless it's heated.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: But no, I'm gonna get there like early Friday before my check-in.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna like drop my bags off, and then I'm probably gonna try to get like an Uber or rental and go out to like the Red Rocks and maybe do a trail run and then come back, check in, shower, go to sleep, wake up, go to acquisition, come back, sleep, wake up, fly home.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right on.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, dude, that's exciting.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's next week.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So man, that's awesome.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, so you're doing that next week, and so we'll be able to do a recap of that.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and and you know, give talk about that.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that'll be that'll be really interesting.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: So anyways, I guess hop into the hundred mile story now, huh?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Did I one question was do so you you're you're curious?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you gonna what are you gonna ask Alex?
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'm curious on like oh yeah, yeah, I never even answered that.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um I gotta talk to Alec.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I'm gonna I'm gonna ask him, I'm gonna tell him like, hey, here's my plan.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Is there anything I can do better?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_03: Is there anything I'm missing?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um are there any bigger lovers I can pull?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: And then like I'm also gonna ask him, like, once I do, because I like I already know like our next like five plays.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm like, it's like chess, right?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm already five plays ahead.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I'm already five plays ahead, and so I'm gonna tell them I plays, and then I'm gonna be like, all right, once I do those plays and I get to the end of it, what is my next thing?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and I know it can be you know multiple or a big variable of options of what that could be, depending on the current stature of where we are.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but um kind of like forecast, I'm gonna go like two years ahead and be like, all right, two years will be at this point, then what?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: What opportunities do you see for scale?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then ask him about that.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm really I'm really interested in what he has to say.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's interesting.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: And before we hop into the 100 miler, just to make sure everything's running smooth, yeah, yeah.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: And podcast, you know, we're we do we do this raw, we don't do any edits.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: I do want to make sure everything's running smooth on the recording end.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yep, looks good.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, all right, sweet.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: So now let's get to the meat of it, man.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so 100 mile.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I pull up Friday afternoon.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's up kind of it's Arkansas Travel 100.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's up near, it's like 30 minutes west of Little Rock, okay, in the middle of nowhere, Washtaw Mountains.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Lake Sylvia recreation area was where the start-finish area was.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: So drive up there, get up there Friday afternoon, and then um I brought on my camping gear, and they have like group camping, like a group campsite that they paid for where you can just like pull up, pitch a tent, and sleep.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so I drove over, pitched my tent.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I have this like 10 by 10 gazelle tent, and I don't know if you know about them, but they literally pop up in five seconds.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: And they're full-size tents, so there's no putting poles together and all that.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's super nice.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I put put popped my tent up in five seconds.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then I drove over to the start-finish line for like the early bid pickup.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_03: But when I got there, I was way early.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: But there's this guy there, um, his name's Mark, and he's over runner's church.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you've seen that, but basically he travels to all these big ultra and trail races and he does sermons before all the races.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: But he also runs the races.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: But uh, so I went over there and I knew Mark, um, talked to Mark for like an hour at his runners church tent.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: And then um after that, early packet pickup started started.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: So I went in there, signed my waiver, got my wristband, looked at the merch, saw this mug, and I'm a big fan of just like I drink coffee every day, and I'm a big fan of uh collecting mugs for experiences I have for sure.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, for example, like we collect all the national parks we go to, we collect all the mugs.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, so some good coffee today, man.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, but anyways, got this mug, and I was like, that's kind of risky to get the mug.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: But then I was kind of thinking, if I don't get it now, I don't know if they're gonna have stuff for sale after the race.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, ah, I'm gonna get it now.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I got the mug thinking, man, I'm either gonna look at this thinking I didn't finish or look at it knowing I finished.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um so got the mug and then I walked out and then I waited for some guys I knew that were running the race and uh waited for them.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: They pulled up.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_03: We uh talked, they left.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I went back to my campsite and finished setting up my stuff, like my air mattress and all that, and got all that set up, ready to go.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: And then for dinner, I drove over to like this diner that was like 10 minutes down the road.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_03: It might have been five minutes down the road, but it was this random hole in the wall diner.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I walk in there, and if you could picture in your mind like southern small town diner and the people that would be in there, yeah, that's what it was.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Favorite type of place.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was like it was like old man in the corner, a bunch of big old people, yeah.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like it was southern, dude.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like you could tell these you could tell these people spent some time in the air conditioner.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: They're not running the hundreds.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_03: You can tell, you can tell they went to the diner in the air conditioner, and that was about it.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like these are the type of guys that watch, you know, they got Fox News on the TV with the air conditioner in the trailer house, yeah.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like that kind of that kind of vibe.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, it's a small Town Arkansas, man.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: There ain't nothing there.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so I walk up in this diner, but the one thing I did know is I knew that food was about to be good, man.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I know that that catfish is probably real good.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: If you walk into any small town diner and they got a catfish, man, yeah.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: I bet you it's some pretty good catfish.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but yeah, I walk in there, man, which old, big old, old folks.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it's funny.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I sat down, you know, got my water, all that, and I was looking around the room, and there was a few people that brought their like kids or grandkids, and uh all the kids or grandkids, like they were all either like late teens or early 20s.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: They all look the same, dude.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, are y'all kin to each other or something?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, they're all they were they were all I don't know if it's just like Arkansas culture, I don't know if it's if they are all kin to each other in that town, right?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: But they all look like they could have been cousins, but they're all kind of like these like big, pale, overweight, late teens, early 20s guys that were in there.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: They all look the same, dude.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm not kidding.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: They everyone looked the same, man.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, dude, I can't tell if I'm in Mississippi or Louisiana or Arkansas, right?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but they uh I got the double cheeseburger.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I was kind of thinking too, I want to get as many calories as possible.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was curious if you went with the with the with the cat like fried catfish because fried is a choice.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't I didn't want to dip dip into catfish stuff, but uh but that's good.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: I was thinking calories.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_03: I was thinking just big old juicy cheeseburger, a lot of calories for sure.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I got a big old cheeseburger and some fries, man.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: Cleaned cleaned house right at the end of my meal.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: Mark from Runner's Church walked in.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: He walked in there, he looked like an alien in the room, dude.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: He's this real skinny small guy, yeah.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh older guy.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: He looked like an alien walking in there.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Hey Mark, come sit with me, man.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: We were thinking it would be packed with runners.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: There weren't no runners in there, man.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know where the 200 something runners of the Arkansas Traveler were.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know where they were eating.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: But anyways, we were in that diner, sat down with Mark, uh, talked for like 20 minutes, and then I left.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, went back to my campsite.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: It was kind of getting dark.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I had run into during that time too.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: I ran into these two guys, uh, Malachi and Andrew.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I don't know what that sound is, but we're gonna ignore it.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's the that's the local uh tornado alarm test.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: Oh local podcast once a month.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: They can't hear it.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: No, but I I ran into Malachi and Andrew, and the re the reason I bring them up now is because they're gonna play a role later in the story.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but met them, two good guys.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Andrew's over some like big Christian organization over in North Carolina or something, so Brother in Christ.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then uh Malachi from Oklahoma.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: Me and him knew some people.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: We had some similar people we knew.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: So cool, anyways, met them.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it's funny, but both of them they said, Yeah, we're gonna go do our uh shakeout run.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I was sitting there thinking, I was like, You're doing a shakeout run before 100 miles.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_03: I told them that, yeah.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Are y'all crazy?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Why are y'all running before y'all 100 miler?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like, yeah, we gotta do it, man.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, go for it, dude.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh, but me personally, I ran on Monday.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_03: This race was Saturday.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_03: I ran on Monday, like a few miles, and that was it.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I didn't run Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_03: And if you follow me on Strava, I put on Monday on my Strava post, I put I don't know how I don't know what you're supposed to do a week before 100 miler, but I'm not running because I'm thinking like your legs are gonna be so tired.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: I want them to be like yeah, like Uber fresh, you know.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so anyways, I didn't I didn't run all week, dude.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but anyways, get to the campsite, starts getting dark.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_03: I meet some of the guys that are at the group camp.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: There were like 20 people at the group camp.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so I I uh I hop in my tent, um, coddle up in my tent and um hit the hay, and then all night, man, you you could kind of hear people getting up, moving around, like it's just group camp stuff, dude.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_03: But um I I wasn't like like some people before races, and I used to be this way, they're like so like shaky and anxious about the race, yeah.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you mentioned that in the last episode too.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're you're like, man, I hope I'm not well.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna get into that.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so that's always been like morning of, but like night of whenever I I was a teenager, or even late 20s or early 20s, like I um before big races, I would get all like I I wouldn't be able to sleep that night.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: Now though, I don't know if it's because I've just put them on for a living, but now I I can knock out a sleep before a race, no problem.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like I don't get all jittery jittery the night before anymore, which is nice.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: But I lay down, man, and honestly, my sleeping pad, I mean, it's a good sleeping pad, but it's it's a sleeping pad.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's kind of like a a hike-in uh blow-up air mattress thing, but it's the size of this coffee mug when you pack it down and it's real lightweight, and then I had this little blow-up pillow, it was a nice pillow.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, I mean, it just it wasn't the most comfortable, but it wasn't the most uncomfortable.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: So that kind of kept me up uh throughout the night.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'd kind of wake up and like my my shoulder would be all tired, I had to roll over.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then like kind of throughout the night, you know, I'd hear people getting out of their tent, go pee, or you'd hear people moving around or whatever.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I set my alarm for 4 a.m.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: because the start of this thing, if you don't get there early, and I learned this from crewing it the year before, but if you don't get there early, parking-wise, you have to park like a mile or two down the road.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I did not want to finish my race and have to walk a mile to my truck for sure.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_03: So I made sure I was the first one there.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: So I set my alarm.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_03: The race started at 6.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_03: I set my alarm for 4 a.m.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_03: I woke up naturally like five minutes before my alarm.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: You know your body just sometimes does that, has like an internal clock.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I did that.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_03: I woke up, turned all my alarms off because I I was afraid that I was gonna, if the alarms went off, it'd wake up the whole campground.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I got up, turned all my alarms off, and I start uh I'm the like I'm listening, nobody else is up.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: So I start, I I I let out my air mattress.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: I, you know, once you start hearing zippers fly, yeah, everybody starts waking up.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: So unfortunately, I was the guy that woke everybody up, but I probably I probably packed everything up, like my tent, my all my camping gear, my I had a battery portal battery bank charge, my watch and my phone.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: I probably packed everything up in like three minutes, which is insanely fast for a campsite.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: But as soon as I opened up my air mattress, unzipped the door, I immediately heard like two or three other people start zipping and moving around.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and everybody was like, All right, it's time.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and you there's probably people laying awake all night, not being able to sleep, like being nervous about it, right?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_03: And they were probably like, as soon as they heard one person, they were like, dang it, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta go.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I uh I threw everything in my backpack, my hiking bag.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: I put that tent down in like five seconds, dude.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: That was the quickest tent.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like, it's called the gazelle tent.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome tent.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_03: Highly recommend it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: They purposely do like an oversized bag so you can just easily throw your tent into it.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_03: Nice, super nice, and that that night too, it had been raining on and off.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: So, like I had a rain fly, luckily, so I was good to go.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: But uh, once I started running the race, one of the guys had mentioned how he didn't have a rain fly for his tent.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_03: But that night before they went to bed, they went to the Dollar General and bought a tarp, and he's talked about how that tarp came in handy, yeah.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: So um, but yeah, packed everything down, threw it in the back of my truck.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_03: I was the first one out of the campground.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: I pull up, I'm the first one at the race.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: I I beat most of the volunteers there.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like I was I was early.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: I was the first one from the campground, parked right at the start finish.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_03: Perfect, because I knew if when I when I was done with the race, I could just walk, and then there I am.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I was the first one there.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um kind of like changed my stuff.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, walked in there, got my bib, and then kind of talked and waited around for the race.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody starts showing up.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, getting to the race start, they do this really cool tradition where they do the woo pig suey uh Arkansas Razorback thing, yeah, where you go woo pig suey, yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_03: You do it three times.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: So they did that, and it was like 200 people headlamps.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: I was at this point, I was jittery.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, all right, let's run.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: And to be honest, I was ready to run Friday when I got there.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was like, let's get this race going, dude.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_03: So, anyways, they do the woo pig suey thing, and then they're like, 3, 2, 1, go, and we all go, and I'm like, yeah, everybody's all hyped up.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we're running.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: And uh there's some guys, uh, and this is gonna come into play later, but there's some guys that we're running with, and uh, they're like, Hey, uh, they're like, Do y'all watch the three to seven project?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Yeah, like the three or seven project podcast with Chad Wright.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, they were like, uh, I think I saw Chili up there at the front.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: No way.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I was like, Really?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: He was like, Yeah, I think Chili's up there, and so everybody, everybody in this race, there's this rumor going around that Chili from the 307 project's running this race.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: So we're all like, Oh, we'll see him at the out and bag, like we'll see, you know.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so that was kind of cool.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, kind of thinking, like, oh, is he really here or not?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: It was like this ghost, like, is he really here?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but everybody said, I think that's him.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_03: So there's a big rumor going around amongst the runners that Chili from the 307 project was out there.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: That's funny.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so as we start running, dude, I pick up these two guys from Alabama.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_03: I called them Bama Boys, and then they called me Texas.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I was running with them for a few miles, about mile two, all that jittery and excitement finally hit.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I as I was trying to talk with these Bama boys, it hits me and I throw up.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, all right, here it is.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I throw up and I'm I'm like throwing up while running, and it's mile two.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_03: Oh and it's dark, and then I guarantee you, every person that passed me was thinking this guy's screwed.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Guarantee you guarantee.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, so I throw it all up, but I know it's just like I know me and I know my body, right?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I know it's anxiety and it's nerves.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I throw up and I'm like, all right, I'm good now, let's keep going.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I, you know, that morning too, I didn't eat anything and I didn't drink, I kind of sipped, but I didn't really drink anything, and that's on purpose because I know before a race, I'm either gonna throw up before or at the beginning, and I know that if I drink or eat something, it's gonna make it worse, right?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I purposely didn't eat or drink that morning, but I I ate and drank good like the week of, right?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I knew I had calories in me and I knew I was hydrated, yeah.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I wasn't worried about that.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: So, anyways, I throw up and then I I run back up to the Bama boys.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, all right, what's up, guys?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, and I explained to them like they were like, Yeah, we were a little worried about you.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I explained to them how it was just anxiety, and a lot of people think when you throw up, they think you're like sick or stomach issues.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: I don't get stomach issues or GI issues, or I don't get that stuff.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: Mine is just anxiety, yeah.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: That's the that's my battle.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I will confidently say this, but having and battling with anxiety and the feeling you have when you feel feel anxious is harder and worse than the feelings you have when you run a hundred-mile race.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_03: Interesting facts the feeling I have when I feel anxious is worse than the feeling I have when I'm mile subdiving to a hundred mile race.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'll stand on that.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: So anxiety is harder than a hundred mile race.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'll stand on that.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but anyways, so I got that out of the way, and I was like, all right, I was like, I'm good.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_03: And if you remember from like the pre-race episode, I was like, I'm going into it with no expectations.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's like I was going into it thinking, like, man, if I can get to uh, you know, if I can get to the 50k, I'll be happy.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like that's you know, that's an ultra 30 miles.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_03: So the whole time I'm thinking, all right, I'm just trying to get to the 50k, but I was lying to myself.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_03: I I knew I was gonna go farther than the 50k, but I kept telling myself, I'm just doing a 50k today.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was lying to myself, but I did that to calm myself down.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that's also why I don't pack a bunch of stuff.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I had no drop bags.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm actually glad I didn't have a crew because that would have made me a little anxious.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I had no drop bags, no crew.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: I had only the only thing I had on me were those was the vests, extra batteries, headlamp, and and two bottles.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so simplicity just made things chill and relaxed.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so I'm running with these bamboo boys, you know, we get to mile uh three, there's like an aid station or mile five, there's like an aid station there, and I eat some uh I try to like eat a take a little thing of pickles and try to eat that, and then I kind of like sip some water and Gatorade.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_03: And at this point, um, I packed my electrolytes that I trained with, they were on me just in case I needed them with stomach issues.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_03: But honestly, my plan was to rely on what they had at the aid stations, and so they had Gatorade and water, and so I started drinking the Gatorade and it was fine.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I'm just gonna drink this for the rest of the race.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of things people discount is they discount the calories in electrolytes.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because if if you say, Oh, I ran the whole race and didn't eat anything, well, you got calories from the Gatorade.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's calories in Gatorade, yeah.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_03: There's sugar in it, like so.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_03: I knew like if I couldn't eat anything, I knew if I could just drink, I'd be fine.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because I knew I'd get calories from the Gatorade, I knew I'd stay hydrated because of the Gatorade in the water.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_03: So, worst case scenario, if I couldn't eat, I could at least drink.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so uh mile probably like seven, I run into uh Andrew and Malachi from the day before I run into them again.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: Uh actually, I ended up uh running, yeah.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: I ended up running into them.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um at mile, like I think it's at like mile 10, you start the single track section.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's the only single track of the entire race, but it's only like maybe eight miles of single track.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_03: But we hit the aid station, and then we hit the single track, and it's like all uphill and super mountainous and technical.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_03: So we're running on the single track, and the sun's coming up, but it's just clouds and foggy.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so but the sun was coming up, that made me feel better.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, just kind of kind of relaxed me, like looking out in the woods, it just relaxed my mind.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so we're running, you know, we get to mile 15, my legs feel fresh.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the single track section I run into, I run back into Andrew Malachi.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_03: Me, me, Andrew Malachi, we run probably four miles together there, and we're talking, and we're talking about our whys, like, why are you running this race?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, I told I told Andrew and Malachi, I was like, I'm I'm just running this race because I'm just mowing the grass.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and the whole grass concept is like, and I explained it in our group chat, but the whole grass concept is like when you have to when the grass gets tall, you have to mow it even when you don't want to.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_03: And the metaphor there for the hundred miler is like the grass is getting tall in my life, and the hundred miler is me cutting it to trim it back down.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like basically I'm running this hundred miler to bring myself at a lower place so that way I can be stronger later.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like pruning.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, pruning.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: So basically, like I'm running this hundred miler prune myself.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um so that's we had a conversation about that.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_03: Andrew's Y was like, he was like, it's not because I'm battling like anything crazy inside, and he was like, um he had said something like a lot of people do this because they're battling or struggling with stuff, and this is kind of their way to deal with their pain in their life.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I and then I had responded, I was like, Yeah, the the sad thing is though, the only way they'll find true fulfillment is in Jesus.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Yeah.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so, like a lot of people will try to fill their this void in their life with these ultras, yeah.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: But truly, and I mean Andrew and I were talking about this, but like we had basically we were saying, like, the only way you're truly gonna fill that void is through Jesus Christ.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so that was cool.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um and then uh Andrew said there he's like there's three reasons people run 100 miles.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, I don't really fit into any of them.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_03: They fill a void in your life, or you're like you're dealing with stuff and you need to fill it.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, number two, he had something said something like, You got your competitive people who like are wanting to win or challenge themselves.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and he's like, number three, you got people who uh he said something along the lines of like you got you got some people who run 100 miles because they um something like because they want to challenge themselves and see what their bodies are capable of.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and he's like, I don't really fit in all three of those, but if I had to pick one, it'd probably be number three.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I told him, I was like, Yeah, I agree, man.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_03: He was like, I don't really fit into any of those either, but like I'm not doing this to see what I'm capable of.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not doing this because life is hard, I'm not doing this because I'm competing, like I'm just like doing it because I gotta mow the grass, you know.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so um, yeah, so that was an interesting conversation.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, and I think he's right too about those three boxes, yeah.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking of myself, like how like the hundred mile for me would probably be the number three box of just like yeah, I'm sure I'm capable of it, you know, and you find out you're I I guess you find out through training a lot, yeah.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Of of like that's what you're capable of.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's how I started running too, or like getting into longer distances.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, well, I did four miles.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the first four miles I ran.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, wow.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then you just start breaking through those walls, and so then you're like, oh wow, I can do half or marathon or whatever.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, but but it's also like I don't know, I think partly when I get to a hundred, it's gonna be I want to explore and be, I wanna be out, I wanna, I wanna explore like a beautiful trail.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like I wanna, I want to be out there for a long period of time, and then just discover what that's about um and see where my mind goes and all that kind of stuff.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, whenever um whenever I was whenever I was out there, I I guess the only way I could describe it is I just felt like I've always said I would do the and it's funny too, and I'll talk about this later at mile, at a certain mile, but I've always said I would do the Arkansas Traveler 100.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_03: Like that'd be my first hundred.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: I would I always said I would do it.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um so to me, it just felt like just like the the only analogy I can do is mowing your grass.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's like when your grass gets tall, you have to mow it, right?
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_03: Like, do you want to mow it?
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_03: Probably not, right?
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_03: But you have to, yeah.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_03: And then for me, it's like I don't necessarily want to run 100 miles, but I have to.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the have to comes from just wanting to almost humble yourself.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what it sounds like.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I don't know, dude.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_03: I really don't know because I'm not I'm not doing it to see how far I can push myself.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like I already know I can push myself far.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_03: Like I don't need to do 100 mile to prove right that.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I just knew I I had to do it.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just knew it needed to get done, dude.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_03: So um, anyways, so we get off the single track, and at like mile 18, you hit the Lake Sylvia aid station, and I don't even know where the aid stations are or what they're called.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I go into this thing oblivious.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like I signed up for this race and then I showed up, no drop bags, no crew, four things on me.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know what mile what aid station was, yeah.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I didn't want to know all of that, and I purposely don't know those things because when you when I think about those things, it makes me all anxious and like, oh, I got I gotta get to this aid station.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_03: Me going into it oblivious was great because I just guessed what mile I was at.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like whenever I got to like uh later in the race, when I would get to certain aid stations, I didn't know what mile they were, but I just told myself they were a certain mile, even though they weren't.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_03: I would tell myself they were a longer that I was farther along than I really was.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_03: It was just I was just tricking my brain.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I like the mow the grass mentality.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's uh I think it is a good uh through line because like that's you don't know how many miles you're mowing when you mow the grass, right?
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't know what, like you know, oh, is it is it a little more grown up around here or whatever, or like is there something left in the yard?
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like you find out through discovery, like you find out through action, you find out while you mow.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's the best way to approach challenges, I think, is just like don't know anything and just find out.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: Out as you go.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: Get her done.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_03: Get her done, man.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a great, yeah.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_03: Get her done, dude.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, literally the podcast, dude.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_03: The podcast we're doing is why I did it, bro.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: I just had to get it done, dude.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so yeah, man, I just I just rolled up, got done.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I show up to this aid station.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know what mile it was at, but I just showed up.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_03: I knew it was around like mile 18 to 20.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_03: I don't, I don't know, somewhere between 15 and 20.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_03: I show up, fill my bottles, so I was drinking, and I was happy about that.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_03: I go to the aid station, I do grab some bacon and some bananas, I eat the banana, and then I eat one piece of bacon.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_03: I tried to eat another, but it's kind of hard to.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't want to force myself.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_03: I did not want to throw up.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um I kind of hit my stuff and then I I keep going.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_03: And um it's me, Andrew, Malachi again.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_03: And we're we're going for a few miles.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_03: We go up this road, and then we hop onto kind of these wild jeep trails.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_03: And the remainder of this race is entirely like wild jeep trails or like just forest road, gravel roads that are like rolling and flat, but they're gravel.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so the the remainder of this race is just jeep roads and forest service road or so gravel, forest service roads.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_03: And before this race, I thought I wouldn't like it.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_03: I thought I wouldn't like doing an out and back and doing one especially that's forest service road, but I actually liked it.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's a great because I I honestly hated the single track.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_03: Because like when you're going downhill, your your toes are just crunched into the front of your shoes.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and like it's a lot more technical.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_03: You have to think more.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_03: I love the doing a hundred miler on a like forest service road or jeep roads because yeah, it's wide open.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_03: The and the jeep trails do feel like a single track, they're just wider.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then the roads, the forest service roads are just like they're like a run through a neighborhood, like you don't have to think.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I did like that.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_03: But, anyways, we hop on these Jeep Roads.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then I start running with another guy from Texas Arcana, can't think of his name right now, but he runs our races, our Texas Outlaw races.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I ran ran with him for a while and probably ran five to eight miles with him, hit another aid station, and then he took off.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like every aid station, people I would like to lose people, but then I would find someone else.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and at the this at the next aid station, I had gotten some some soup um with some noodles, and I was drinking the it was like broth.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_03: It was chicken broth with noodles, and that was great, dude.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_03: I could put that down.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like I drank it and then I ate all the noodles in it, and I was like, oh, I was like, I can do this for the whole race.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I knew I could count on the broth.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because it was easy to get down.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_03: Some of the stuff I I didn't know about getting it down.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_03: I got a PBJ down at the AH station, I got some bananas, I got some watermelon, I got some fruits.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like I knew I could do like the fruits and the broth.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_03: But like some of the other stuff, like the sausage and the or or like the meaty stuff.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I could imagine that's harder to yeah.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_03: I wasn't really down for that, but I could do like all the fruits I can do, and then the soups, the broth and the noodles I can do.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was confident going to the A stations like I know I can get a cup of that down, I know I can eat tons of fruit.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, I'm gonna kind of bang on that, plus some Gitter in water.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_03: That's gonna be my fuel for the rest of the race.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_03: So, um, anyways, so we go on, and at this point, I'm thinking, like, we're about 18, 20 miles in.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_03: I'm thinking, all right, like my goal is to get to 50k still, like I'm just running a 50k today.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I'm telling myself.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I ran with a guy, and what I noticed was whenever I wasn't running with someone, I would not intentionally slow myself down, like I would just kind of get in my own mind and not think, and then I wouldn't run as fast.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_03: And keep in mind, too, at this point, I was running all downhills and flats, hiking fast all the uphills.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_03: So I was doing a hike up the uphills, run flats and downhills, and the whole time I was thinking about the wise, old, wise guys that do these that always say, Don't start off too fast.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I was making sure I was not starting off too fast.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I would pick up some people, and whenever I'd pick up people and run with them for five to eight miles, the good thing about picking up these guys and running with them is they were almost like a pacer.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because if I wasn't running with them, I probably wouldn't have gone as fast as I did.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I kind of would run with these guys that were moving faster than me.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like they would run up next to me, and then I would latch on to them and kind of stick with them for an hour or two hours.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_03: So the next after that aid station with the broth and all that, that was like the pumpkin aid station.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, going going from like mile 20 to 30.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_03: I pick up a guy that I knew from Arkansas when I went to school in Magnolia.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I picked up Wilt Wilt Leak.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_03: Me and him ran together.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: I knew him.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_03: He's an eight-time finisher of the Arkansas Traveler.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, or he's done it eight times.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if he's finished eight times, but I pick him up, start running with him.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_03: He's moving a he moves a great pace.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_03: We're catching a lot of people.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_03: And uh me and Wilt are running together.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_03: He's in his 50s.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, he's a really cool guy.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm talking with him because he's a vet, like he's done this race eight times.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm asking him questions.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I asked him, I was like, what's the best weather you've ever seen for this race?
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, This year is the best weather I've ever seen.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_03: And this year it was the low was 60, the high was 74, uh, and it was just clouds and overcast and fog.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and he said, This is the best weather we've ever had.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so when he said that, I was like, Oh, I have to finish.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because he said the past two years have been hot, and he said, like two years ago, it was so hot, like tons of people dropped.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_03: And so I I know my body doesn't do well in heat.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I was kind of thinking in my head, man, if I'm gonna finish, this is the race, this is the year to do it because of the weather, yeah.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so, anyways, I run with him, and me and him probably ran 10 miles together.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_03: We get to that 50k aid station, he sits down with his crew captain and doing his thing.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_03: I've been like all the aid stations, I was very quick.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like I was in there for a minute or two and I left.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't sit down or nothing.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_03: When I got to mile 30, Wilt sat down and I was thinking, man, I want to stay ahead of him.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I I went over the aid station, uh, grabbed some watermelon, threw down a bunch of watermelon, grab some soup, some broth, grab some food.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I what I would do at these aid stations too is they would have bagged food, and I would take some of that bagged food and stuff it in my pocket so I can eat it while I run.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, just to save time.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I stuff some stuff in my pockets, refill, and I'm out of that aid station in a few minutes, and Wilt's sitting down, and I'm like, I'll see you, man.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_03: And so I I take off in a mile 30, and my legs are feeling good.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_03: And like every time I would talk to somebody, they would they'd be like, How's it going?
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I'd be like, Man, feels easy.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_03: Because it did, you know, it did feel easy.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I would tell them like cakewalk, yeah, and everyone kept saying this mile 30 to 50 section section was the hardest section.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's what everybody was saying.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so I told one of my guys at mile 30, one of my friends that that I saw out there, uh, he was asking me how I felt, and I said, dude, this is a cakewalk so far.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, All right, well, I'll see you at mile 50.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see how you feel at mile 50.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_03: Said, all right, we'll see.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_03: So we take off, and I knew mile 30 to 50.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_03: If you listen to my pre-race episode, that was my goal was to do my strategy was to get to mile 30, then get to mile 50, and 50 would be the longest distance I've ever ran.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_03: And if I could get to 50, I could get to 70.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_03: If I could get to 70, I could get to 100.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_03: That was my strategy, right?
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_03: So I got to mile 30.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_03: Check that off the list.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_03: Next aid station, mile 50.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, all right, we're gonna do this.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_03: I feel good.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna get to mile 50.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_03: So I take off, and that section of trail, I could see why people said it was the hardest.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_03: It was a little more technical, a lot more hilly.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there's a lot more climbing.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, mile 40, there's this one aid station out there.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's called Flamingo, Club Flamingo.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_03: Really cool aid station, but they they had pizzas out there, dude.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this dude was cooking pizzas, and I remember hearing about that last year about some dude cooking pizza out of the back of his Jeep.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_03: I went to I show up at mile 40 and they're cooking pizzas, bro.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_03: I and the pizzas are they're small, they're probably the size of a dinner plate, but I ate an entire pizza at that aid station because it was good.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I so I I was proud that I ate an entire pizza.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, great, it's great for calories and fuel.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um perfect time for it too.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and uh it started to at that point, it started to get to the hottest point of the day, which is around 74 degrees, but it started warming up.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and my body doesn't do well in heat.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_03: So um I eat that pizza, eat some watermelon, eat some bananas, some soup, and I fuel up.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_03: I don't sit down again.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_03: And again, like I'm very quick at these aid stations.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then I keep going.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I I leave that aid station, pick up a guy named Um, you always meet so many guys.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_03: I picked up a guy named Mike.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, me and Mike ran together for a little bit.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_03: And uh it's funny, at this point in the race, I'm kind of ping-ponging between the same guys, like it's like five to ten guys that I keep like I keep catching them, and then I'll get ahead of them, and then they'll catch me, and then get ahead of me, and we keep like um ping-ponging, and then I ran into this guy named Michael.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_03: Michael will come into play later.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_03: But Michael is this guy from Austin, he's a dad from Austin.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_03: And at first, when I saw him, I didn't think he was part of the race because he was running, but he had a short, shorts on, a singlet, and no vest.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, what is the guy doing?
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_03: But it turns out he had a little waistband that held some little water bottles, and that's what he was using.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I run into him and I'm talking to him, and it's the most casual looking runner.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like you you would look at this guy and think he's running a 5k.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but he's running 100 miles just with how he was dressed.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_03: Such a chill, awesome guy, cool guy.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_03: He's a dad from Austin.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_03: Me and him kind of pick up each other towards like mile 40 to 50.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_03: Me and him pick up each other, and we're just kind of running and talking.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then we start rolling into mile 50, and then I see the power line aid station, uh mile 50.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_03: And uh again, I don't know the exact distances of these aid stations, but turns out power line was actually mile 48.5 or something like that.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_03: But I just called it 50.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's basically 50.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, so I pull up to mile 50, and at that point, at mile 50, um I felt good.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: Surprisingly.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_00: What pace are you running?
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know?
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_03: At that point, so on the uphills, I was going about a 17 minute pace.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_03: On the downhills in the flats, I was going about a 12-minute pace.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, yeah, yeah.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I was I was um so you're you're you you're putting the effort in on the on the uphills for sure.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that you need to, but a hill's gonna slow you down.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a good, you know, easy, easy pace, quote unquote.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and and mile 50, I was at 22 hour, 100-mile pace, which is a really good time.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like I was eight hours ahead of cutoff, or maybe six hours, I was maybe six hours ahead of cutoff.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_03: I might have been at 24 hour pace, so I was six hours ahead ahead of cutoff at that point.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_03: So I I was I was making good time.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, at that point though, so one thing I forgot to do is whenever before the race started, I I had my entire like what I was gonna wear for the race, but I didn't fully change into all of it.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so I forgot to pack my or I forgot to put on my socks that go above my ankles, and I had uh socks on that went below my ankles, and so the backs of my heels were rubbing against my shoes, uh, and by mile 50 they were bleeding.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I stopped at the aid tent real quick, and I was like, dang it, I'm losing time by doing this.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_03: But I was like, I needed to get it done, but they uh cleaned up my wounds on the back of my heels um and then put like some band-aids on it to keep it from rubbing, and I told like I didn't know they were gonna be there, and so my plan was just to like throw water on it and put duct tape around it.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like I was just gonna duct tape my ankles and call it, yeah, because I had uh at that point, I did have my trekking poles as a drop bag.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_03: There was no bag, it was just trekking poles, but I had my trekking poles available at the aid station and I put duct tape around them to where if I ever needed duct tape, I had it.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like if I needed to tape up my toes or my ankles, I could.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's smart.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I'll pull up and I know I'm not gonna use my trekking poles for mile 50 to 70 because I didn't need my trekking poles mile zero to 50, and I didn't think I would need them for mile 50 to 70, so I didn't take them, but I had duct tape there, which is why I was thinking, oh, I'll just duct tape this.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but they spent like probably five or ten minutes taping up my or like fixing my ankles and cleaning it.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_03: I was kind of thinking, like, all right, like yeah, let's just do this real quick.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_01: Speed it up, yeah.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_03: So the cool thing is though, is while I was doing while I had like my ankles getting fixed up, the aid station workers were came over and they said, Hey, while you're waiting, let us refill your bottles.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_03: What do you want to eat?
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, which is super nice.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so they filled up my bottles while I was waiting, so I wasn't wasting time.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_03: And then I was eating while they were fixing my stuff right on.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that was super nice having that.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and another little side tangent to throw in here.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_03: So not only did I mess up on the socks and wear the wrong socks, I realized at mile 30 or maybe it was 20 that I had put on my uh cotton polyester underwear blend instead of my polyester underwear.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so I put on my freaking cotton underwear.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_03: When I saw that dude, I was like, oh, today's gonna be a rough day.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_03: Luckily, I had packed squirrels nut butter in my in my pack.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_03: And so while to save time on like the uphills that I was climbing, um, anytime I needed to eat or address something on my body, I would do it while hiking on the uphills.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_03: That's yeah, because I couldn't do it while I'm running, right?
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_03: But I could do it while I hiked.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so I pull my vest around while I'm hiking on these uphills, and I pull out my squirrel's nut butter, and I start putting it in my butt crack and between my legs, and I'm doing that while hiking.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_03: And so the guys behind me see me putting my hand in my pants, yeah, and I'm like spreading nut squirrel's nut butter in my butt crack, and I'm spread spreading squirrel's nut butter between my legs where I usually chafe.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and uh I'm doing that while hiking and just to save time, so I wasn't losing any time.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_03: And um, but I'll tell you what though, that worked surprisingly, yeah.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_03: I've never used it, did not chafe.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't chafe for the entire race.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_03: Man, that's awesome, surprisingly, yeah, even with cotton underwear, yeah, which was stupid on my end, dude.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_03: Squirrel's nut butter, yeah, squirrel's nut butter.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I used that and it worked fantastic, it was great.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so as I get to mile 50, they're taping up taping up my angles, ankles, and I think it's also good to note that right before mile 50, I thought I I thought my race was over because I was kind of just running a downhill, about to run it back up uh uphill, and the front of my left toe just pops in this excruciating pain.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, oh, like it's just it's like this sharp burning pain.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_03: It felt like a blister just like busted open.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_03: It's like ah, that hurts.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_03: And it hurt for like a mile.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, man, I might have to tape my toes up.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_03: But as I kept running on it, the pain went away.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_03: It kind of I guess it numbed up or something.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know what happened to it.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_03: But uh that pain ended up going away.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_03: But when it happened, it was like it hurt to run, like every step hurt.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, ah, this sucks.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I could finish with this, but this sucks.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_03: But no, it ended up going away, and then I had my ankle stuff going on.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_03: So, anyways, I get out of mile 50 and I'm walking out.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I'm not gonna use my trucking poles, and I see two guys there that I knew that were crewing somebody else, and they're like, How you feeling, man?
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, dude, cakewalk.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, feeling good.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_03: I really was like, I felt good, it felt like a cakewalk.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and they were they were like almost in shock.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_03: They were like, Really?
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, man, I feel great.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and their buddy who they were crewing, who was behind me, uh the guys he they were the guys that they came to crew, they were feeling rough and they were having a really bad time behind me.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so whenever they heard I was doing good, they were like, Oh, wow, okay.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then the guy that said, We'll see how you feel at mile 50, he was there, and I said, Dude, feel great.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, yes, you gotta make a point on that.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I was like, kick walk, man.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_03: So I leave mile 50 feeling great, man.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I at this point, this is where you kind of hit the turnaround of the course, and so you run from mile like 50 to 60, and then you run back to 70, and when you run back, you're basically running back to the finish.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_03: So mile 60 is the turnaround point for the entire course.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's like a big uh out and back.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, all right, my goal now is to get to 60, then the 70, right?
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of going back with the goal thing I had in mind.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm running mile, I'm at mile 52, 53, 54, and I take it, I'm taking a picture every 10 miles and mile 50 picture.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like smiling.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_03: I was feeling so good.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I start picking up the pace a little bit, like I'm not like running the uphills, but I'm I'm running the downhills and flat strong, like a good 11, 12 minute pace.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, maybe even a 10-minute pace, but I'm making sure like I don't want to blow up, right?
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I get to mile 52, 53, 54.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_03: I start seeing the front runners pass, and I'm thinking the whole time, where's chili?
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, so I get to mile like 54, maybe 53, 54.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_03: Sure enough, no way, freaking chili starts running towards me because I've watched their podcast for like five years, yeah.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I know who chili is, I know what he looks like, I know what he sounds like, yeah, yeah, freaking chili, bro.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_03: Chili 37 project was there, it was no longer a myth.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, Chili! I was like, What's up, man?
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_03: He gives me fist bump, and he's like, What's up, Briston?
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, What?
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_03: What uh and we're running, and he's in the he's in the top probably 15, 20.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like he's a kind of he's a fast runner, yeah.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so we're running, and so he we do a fist bump and he says, What's up, Briston?
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, What's up, chili?
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_03: I say, What's up, chili?
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_03: He says, What's up, Bristol?
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm thinking, and we run past each other, and then I look back and I said, Hey, how do you how do you know me?
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_03: And he and he said, 'Your text is outlaw running, right?' And I was like, Yeah.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I and then I was like, I said something like stupid, like, follow me back on Instagram or something.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, he said, I don't have Instagram.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_03: And we're yelling as we're running.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, all right, I'll see you, man.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, see ya.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's so funny.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then after after that, I look over at the two two guys that I was running with, uh, that were kind of near me.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, bro, Chili.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_03: And they didn't know, they didn't know who he was.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like, bro, I was trying to explain to them, like, I was like, Chad Wright.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the Pope.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_01: Pope Chili.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_03: I was trying, yeah, Pope Chili, dude.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_03: I was trying to explain to uh them.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Chad Wright was on the Joe Rogan podcast, you know, and I was like, Chili was his co-host.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I was trying to explain to these guys who chili was.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_03: I was so hyped.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_03: Think I was 50 miles in, I felt good, and then I met Chili.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, and he knows you he recognized you.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's insane.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I didn't know me, bro.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I Outlast Georgia coming up, I guess.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: Outlast Atlanta, I guess uh Rome.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_00: We need to just put it right in the backyard, dude.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_03: Outlast Rome, dude.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_03: Do the three of Rome run, yeah.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but anyways, so I'm hyped up for like two miles, bro.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, dude, that's so freaking awesome! I'm yelling at these guys beside me.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, dude, I'm at freaking chili, bro.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's insane.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_03: And one of these guys, I felt bad.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_03: One of these guys was like, Yeah, I'm probably at the lowest point of my race right now.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Please stop, please stop the enthusiasm.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I look over, I'm like, bro, you'll be all right.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, with every and I said something like with every low, there's a high.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, I haven't hit my low of the race yet.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so, anyways, so that's legit.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_03: We're gone, and then I get to mile like 56 or 7, kind of closer to the turnaround point, like almost a mile 60.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I do start feeling it like a little rough, like my legs start hurting more.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and this is a pretty hilly part of the course, but it's like all flat open gravel road, so it's super nice, but it's it is pretty fast, pretty hilly.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a random question.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're on.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_00: Are you doing road running shoes?
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's so crazy, too.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_03: So I was wearing um these really thick road running shoes.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't train in them either.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_03: They were a brand new model.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'd never ran in them before.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_03: You're crazy, but they that's what the uh running store all that's all they had.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_03: So, like I wear ultras, and they these were ultras, but it was a different type of ultra that I've never ran in before.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's all the running store had, they didn't have my usual.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_03: Usually I ran right run in the ultra torrents, they didn't have them, so I was running the ultra, whatever they were called, not paradigm, but they were like a more plushy road shoe, yeah.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, Oh, these are gonna be perfect because I'm gonna be on you know, rock, gravel, more plushy shoe.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_03: That's gonna be great.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it turns out it was.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, it might be you know, we've talked about that a little bit, but yeah.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_03: So the uh you don't necessarily need the shoes, worked out great.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_03: I love the shoes.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, that was that was the right move.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um anyway, sorry.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_03: So I get to mile at 57 feeling rough, and then I get to the turnaround aid station.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I just remember last year, you remember that Wilt, the guy that I was running with for like 10 miles that I knew from Magnolia, Arkansas.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um old guy.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, I was about 50.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I knew last year at that older, no offense.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh last year at that turnaround aid station, I had seen him when I was crewing my buddy.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_03: And last year, when I saw him at turnaround, he was like bent over feeling really rough.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so I knew when I got there that even though I was feeling a little rough, I wasn't hurting as much as he was last year.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I felt good about that, knowing, oh, this guy was hurt, this guy who's done this race seven times or eight times, I feel better than he did last year at this point.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and by the way, at that point, remember how I told you how at mile 30 he stopped and that my goal was to stay ahead of him?
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_03: At that point, I hadn't seen him, and I stayed ahead of him for 20 miles.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_03: Or at that point, 30 miles.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_03: So I get to mile 60, turn around aid station.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_03: That's literally what it's called.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I get there and I'm like, all right, soup, broth, get my stuff, get my stuff refilled, turn around, keep going.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_03: And at this point, this is the first time in the race, about mile 60, when I'm no longer running the downhills or flats as much.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's like the first time in the race where I'm like, all right, my legs are kind of feeling it.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna walk for 30 minutes to an hour.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I knew in my head at that point in the race, even if I just hiked the rest of the race, I could finish.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_03: In cutoff time, because cutoff was 30 hours.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_03: At that point, I was at a 24 hour pace, and I knew that if I could just if I even if I just if I chose to just walk for the rest of the race, I could finish in time.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so and at this point too, you're you you're you're setting PR.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_03: You've already set PR, but like it's the farthest distance I've ever ran.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_03: So at this point, I'm like, all right, I ran 100k.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_03: Sweet.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so mile 60, me and uh me and Michael are running together.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_03: The guy that was wearing the casual stuff from Austin, the dad.
• 1:08:15
  SPEAKER_03: Me and him pick up each other, and he's walking too.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm kind of thinking, ah, he's feeling it too.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_03: So we're walking together.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_03: And uh when I say walking, I mean we're fast hiking, right?
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we're not just casual.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_03: Power hiking.
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a power hike.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so we're going and I tell him and I look over to him, and at this point, it's it's dark, it's starting, or it had just gotten dark, so we're turning our headlamps on.
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I look over at him, I'm like, dude, it's like we're about 16 hours in.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, at this rate, if we were to finish at this pace, we would finish in about eight hours.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_03: And honestly, I kind of let that get in, or I was letting that get into my mind for the next six like mile 60 to 70.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_03: The whole time I was thinking, I don't know if I can do this for another eight hours.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like the pain I started feeling in my legs.
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I don't think I can do this for another eight hours realistically.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so I look over at Michael and I tell him, I'm at mile 64, probably 65.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_03: We get to this other aid station, and she's like, the work lady working the aid station looks at me and another guy, and she's like, Y'all are quiet.
• 1:09:25
  SPEAKER_03: And then we smile, and she's like, There it is, and she's like, What do you need?
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so we kind of get some stuff we need, we get some calories in us, and I'm kind of just hoping these calories kind of help me out a little bit, and they did, calories do definitely help.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but we keep going, and I'm going from mile 65 to 70 at this point, and so at this point, I look over at Michael and I'm like, I gotta be honest, man.
• 1:09:47
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I'm in a really rough, uh, rough time right now.
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm gonna, I'm gonna like I'm feeling really rough right now.
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_03: And he's like, All right, well, let's keep going.
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_03: I told him, I said, don't let me hold you back.
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like, if you want to keep running, keep going.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, No, no, no.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, I'll stick with you.
• 1:10:06
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Okay.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so we go, we hit mile 66, 67, 68, and I'm still feeling rough.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_03: And he's like, How you how you feeling?
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I'm still feeling rough, man.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_03: It felt like a battle to get from mile 65 to 70.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_03: Like every step was a battle just to get there.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just physical pain?
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 1:10:27
  SPEAKER_03: And my legs, yeah, my legs are destroyed.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_03: And so it it just it was a battle, like just to get to the aid station.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so I at the end, I tell him, I said, dude, I have to be honest with you.
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I think I'm done.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think I'm I think I'm gonna drop here.
• 1:10:44
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, this is the farthest I've ever ran, 70 miles.
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_03: That's an accomplishment.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I I didn't come to this race with any expectations.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm happy with 70 miles.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna beat myself up over a DNF.
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, a lot of people DNF.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I I'm I'm I'm gonna call it done.
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_03: There's a guy that I knew that was crewing that was at that aid station.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I'm gonna ask him to give me a ride back to the start-finish line, and I think I'm gonna call it.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_03: So, anyways, we get to the aid station finally.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't think I'd be able to get there, dude.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like it was a battle just to go a mile.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_03: I get to the aid station, I'm like, gosh, I'm like, finally.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_03: I find the guy who was crewing, uh, who I was gonna get a ride with.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_03: I said, hey man, I think I'm done.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_03: Can you give me a ride back?
• 1:11:29
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Yeah, you can ride with me.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_03: So I said, Okay.
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I get to the aid station, and in order to quit this race, the aid station captain has to cut your wristband.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I get to the aid station, and you know, the guys, I was the guy I was telling you who said, like, see you at mile 50, like see how you feel at mile 50.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he was there with his friends, and I walk up to him at mile 70, and I was like, dude, you're right.
• 1:11:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I'm feeling it now.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I told him, I said, I I'm I'm done, I'm gonna call it here.
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_03: And he looked at me, and his friends looked at me, and they were like, they all all at the same time.
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_03: As soon as I I finished saying I was I'm done, they were all like, no, no, they were like, go sit down, they were like, go sit, go sit in the chair, drink some soup, think about it.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_03: They're like, You're not done.
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_03: They were like, You're four hours ahead of cutoff.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like, or no, they said something like you're six hours, or no, four hours ahead of cutoff.
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_03: They were like, You got plenty of time.
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_03: They were like, You're you're only leaving this race if they pull you off the course because you're not making cutoff.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Whatever.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Yeah, whatever.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I go sit down.
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I know I'm gonna quit, but I'm just I'm taking their advice because these guys, I knew I knew that they had a lot of experience, and so I took their words um seriously.
• 1:12:44
  SPEAKER_03: But I there was no change in my mind at that point.
• 1:12:46
  SPEAKER_03: At that point, I was done.
• 1:12:48
  SPEAKER_03: I sit down, the aid station captain, Brad Taylor.
• 1:12:51
  SPEAKER_03: I know him from we have uh we we've known each other in the past, and I tell him, Yeah, man, I think I'm done, but I'm gonna sit here.
• 1:13:00
  SPEAKER_03: And he's like, Yeah, sit there.
• 1:13:01
  SPEAKER_03: And he was like, You better keep going, man.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_03: And uh he's like trying to encourage me.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then there's this volunteer working at the aid station.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, she's a uh lady working, a little bit of an older lady working at the aid station.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_03: She comes, sits next to me, and she's squatting down next to me as I'm sitting in this chair.
• 1:13:17
  SPEAKER_03: This is the first time I've sat all race.
• 1:13:20
  SPEAKER_03: And she's talking to me.
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, Yeah, you know, if you keep going, you'll be glad you did.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_03: And she's trying to encourage me, she's being all soft and nice.
• 1:13:30
  SPEAKER_03: And genuinely, I was thinking to her, but in my head, I was thinking, I'm not, yeah, like there's nothing you can say.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_03: I'm done.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, Don't like how bad do you want the bulk buckle?
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_03: And in my head, I was thinking, I don't want it that bad.
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go get it, I'll make one.
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was like, I'm not, I'm not concerned about getting a buckle.
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's worthy to note too that at mile 65 when I was feeling that rough, this is really important to note too.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_03: Mile 65 when I was feeling that rough, I remember having a conversation with God, and I said, God, I told him, I said, I can't finish this race without you.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_03: I said, I do ask that you take this let this pain out of my legs in the name of Jesus.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_03: But like, I was like, Lord, like I I can't finish this race without you, and unless you do a miracle, I cannot finish this.
• 1:14:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I had that conversation with God.
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_03: And so when I got to mile 70 and sat down, I had kind of forgotten about that conversation.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I I did have that conversation with God right before that aid station.
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like when I decided I was gonna quit at mile 65, I had that tough conversation with God.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_03: So, anyways, I'm sitting down at this camping chair and they hand me my trekking poles for the for the uh drop bag uh area.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I I I grab the trekking poles and I have them, I kind of fold them out because I'm gonna use them as like a crutch to kind of walk.
• 1:14:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and um, so I'm sitting down in this chair and I probably sit there for 30 minutes the whole time.
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm asking the aid station captain, where's Wilt?
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Where's Wilt?
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because I knew Wilt.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_03: I knew who I knew Wilt, me and him.
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_03: We've texted, we've met, we've known each other for years.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I was thinking, if Wilt's quitting, I'm quitting.
• 1:15:05
  SPEAKER_03: But I was like, if Wilt's gonna keep going, I'm gonna talk to him before I quit.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so that's what I was thinking in my head.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I want to talk to Wilt because if he's quitting, I'm quitting.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna get a ride back with him and his crew.
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was waiting for Wilt to come through.
• 1:15:19
  SPEAKER_03: So I was just sitting there waiting for Wilt, and then Brad, the aid station captain, he looked over at me.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_03: He said, dude, you're wearing your welcome out.
• 1:15:26
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, you need to go.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:15:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, whatever, dude.
• 1:15:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm done.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_03: Like whatever it is.
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_03: I'm quitting this race, so it doesn't even matter.
• 1:15:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and he was just trying to encourage me.
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_03: That lady sitting next to me was just trying to encourage me.
• 1:15:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I took my trekking poles, and I'm at this point, I'm gonna go back and look for Wilt because I'm ready to go.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I get up.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And also no sleep.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, no sleep at this point.
• 1:15:50
  SPEAKER_03: Well, at this point, it was probably 10 and 11 o'clock at night.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I sat there for 30 minutes.
• 1:15:57
  SPEAKER_03: So I sat at the aid station for 30 minutes.
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_03: So I get up with my trekking poles and I pick myself up with them and I push up and I walk over, and my legs are shaking, like my muscles are shaking.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_03: My legs are because they're so fatigued.
• 1:16:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I walk over, and there's this older guy I've never met, and he's like, How you feel?
• 1:16:16
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I'm done.
• 1:16:17
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, uh really?
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, You're done?
• 1:16:19
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Yeah, my legs are shaking.
• 1:16:21
  SPEAKER_03: He kind of he kind of just like looked disappointed at me, honestly.
• 1:16:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I walk over, I look down the uh road looking for wilt, and as I'm doing that, and I'm taking steps, the steps didn't feel like what they felt before.
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_03: Because before I had all this pain in my legs with every step, but this time I had my trekking poles, and when I would take a step, it didn't hurt anymore.
• 1:16:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, What?
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_03: So hold up, and I was thinking in my head, it would look way cooler to drop at mile 80 than 70.
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I was thinking in my head.
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, if I tell people I quit, I should, I might as well tell them I quit at like mile 80 instead of 70.
• 1:17:04
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm walking looking for will, but then I start noticing that my legs feel good.
• 1:17:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so I uh I turn around and I was like, the the crew that told me, hey, keep going, I try I looked at him, I said, Hey, I'm gonna keep going.
• 1:17:25
  SPEAKER_03: Because my legs had surprisingly just felt good.
• 1:17:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I walk up to the brad at the aid station, I said, Hey man, I'm gonna go back out.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_03: And he looked happy and proud.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_03: And then the lady that was trying to hype me up, she looked proud.
• 1:17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 1:17:40
  SPEAKER_03: And 20 minutes ago, I truly believed I was done.
• 1:17:43
  SPEAKER_03: But at that point, I was like, I can at least make it to mile 75.
• 1:17:48
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, let me just try to make it to mile 75.
• 1:17:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, if I can't finish there, I'll drop and quit.
• 1:17:53
  SPEAKER_03: So right before I leave, Malachi and Andrew roll in.
• 1:18:01
  SPEAKER_03: And Malachi's shoes had the seams had exploded off, and his shoes were separated from the soles of the shoes.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_03: So Malachi or Andrew walks in, he's like, Hey, my brother Malachi, his shoes are destroyed.
• 1:18:16
  SPEAKER_03: Do y'all have duct tape?
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I see Andrew, he's behind me, and as I start to leave, I say, All right, Andrew, I'm going back out.
• 1:18:25
  SPEAKER_03: I'll see you.
• 1:18:26
  SPEAKER_03: And he's like, All right, man, I'll see you.
• 1:18:27
  SPEAKER_03: And he's trying to deal with his brother's shoes and all that.
• 1:18:29
  SPEAKER_03: So I keep going.
• 1:18:30
  SPEAKER_03: And at that point, I'm like, I feel I feel like inspired, yeah, encouraged.
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, all right, we're doing this.
• 1:18:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going.
• 1:18:39
  SPEAKER_03: And then I start walking and I'm going like 22-minute pace, but I'm like, it doesn't matter.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going.
• 1:18:44
  SPEAKER_03: I got my headlamp on, it's foggy.
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I start going.
• 1:18:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, okay, we're doing this.
• 1:18:49
  SPEAKER_03: I get to uh mile two, mile three.
• 1:18:54
  SPEAKER_03: It starts getting ridiculously foggy.
• 1:18:58
  SPEAKER_03: And then my friend Wilt finally runs back up.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, what's up, Wilt?
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_03: No way.
• 1:19:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Wilt shows back up.
• 1:19:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, ah, he's I told him, I said, yeah, I was gonna quit, man.
• 1:19:06
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, you're not quitting today.
• 1:19:07
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, you're finishing.
• 1:19:09
  SPEAKER_03: I said, okay.
• 1:19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Me and me and Wilt ran together for a couple miles.
• 1:19:12
  SPEAKER_03: He encouraged me.
• 1:19:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, my mile 73, you know, about an hour out.
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_03: I started getting um uh disoriented with the fog, and then I started getting sleepy.
• 1:19:26
  SPEAKER_03: At that point, it might have been 11 o'clock at night, maybe midnight, somewhere around there.
• 1:19:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I was tired falling asleep, and uh, I couldn't walk straight.
• 1:19:36
  SPEAKER_03: The fog was so disorienting, and it was night, and all I could see was this little tunnel of light, and I was tired.
• 1:19:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I was wobbling on the trail, trying to like stay straight, falling asleep while being disoriented.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_03: It was terrible.
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and at that point, I was like, Yeah, I'm quitting.
• 1:19:51
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Yeah, I'm done.
• 1:19:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, mile 75, I'm done.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I lay down on the trail to try to take a nap for five minutes.
• 1:19:58
  SPEAKER_03: And uh this guy that I know um ran by and he said, Briston, he said, What are you doing?
• 1:20:05
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Dude, I'm tired.
• 1:20:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm taking a I'm taking a nap.
• 1:20:09
  SPEAKER_03: And he was like, Here, you want some caffeine pills?
• 1:20:12
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Yeah, that'd be great.
• 1:20:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, how you know how much milligrams per pill?
• 1:20:17
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, 100 milligrams per pill.
• 1:20:18
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, sweet.
• 1:20:19
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, here's three.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I'll take one.
• 1:20:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I took all three, but I'll I I took one of the tablets and I drank uh my water with the tablet of the caffeine, and then uh I got that down, and when I got it down, I was like, I'm gonna keep going and wait for this caffeine to hit.
• 1:20:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I start walking for 30 minutes, and then the caffeine starts to hit, and I'm not tired anymore.
• 1:20:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, thank God, dude.
• 1:20:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'll tell you what, dude, that caffeine it got me to that next aid station.
• 1:20:49
  SPEAKER_03: I got to that next aid station, and when I got there, Andrew was there.
• 1:20:54
  SPEAKER_03: Remember Andrew and his brother Malachi?
• 1:20:56
  SPEAKER_03: Andrew was there asleep in the chair, waiting for his brother to come in.
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_03: I came in, Malachi was behind me.
• 1:21:04
  SPEAKER_03: Malachi rolls in, he was done because his shoes had just been destroyed.
• 1:21:09
  SPEAKER_03: He hated walking in them, and he was gonna quit.
• 1:21:13
  SPEAKER_03: So I look over at Andrew, and I'm sitting there in the chair.
• 1:21:16
  SPEAKER_03: And this time I'm learning to sit down at every aid station and give my legs that reset.
• 1:21:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I sit in the chair next to Andrew and I said, Hey Andrew, your brother's quitting.
• 1:21:24
  SPEAKER_03: He said, Really?
• 1:21:25
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Yeah, his shoes, he's just quitting because of his shoes.
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, All right, so he walks over.
• 1:21:31
  SPEAKER_03: Turns out, mile 75 aid station, there's no way to uh get out of there, like to take a runner out of there.
• 1:21:38
  SPEAKER_03: And so, in order for Malachi to drop, he had to hike five miles back, basically hike five miles back to where he had just came from to get a shuttle back.
• 1:21:48
  SPEAKER_03: So he had to hike five miles back the way he had just come to get a ride back to the start-finish line.
• 1:21:54
  SPEAKER_03: So he did.
• 1:21:55
  SPEAKER_03: I look over at Andrew, and we're sitting in the chairs, and I was gonna quit at that point.
• 1:22:01
  SPEAKER_03: And but I had that caffeine pill and I put a little bit of food down, and I look over at Andrew, and he looks at me and I said, Hey man, I said, let's go to mile 80.
• 1:22:12
  SPEAKER_03: I said, and then I just said confidently, even though I wasn't I didn't know for sure, but I said confidently, we're finishing this thing.
• 1:22:21
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, let's go to mile 80, we're finishing this thing.
• 1:22:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I told him.
• 1:22:25
  SPEAKER_03: And he looked at me, he's like, All right, let's do it.
• 1:22:27
  SPEAKER_03: But inside I was like, I don't know actually.
• 1:22:30
  SPEAKER_03: But I knew in my head if I could get to mile 85, I could finish.
• 1:22:33
  SPEAKER_03: Because at that point, you're 85 miles in, you can finish.
• 1:22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:22:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I knew in my head that the hard part was almost done, and if I could just get to mile 85, I could finish.
• 1:22:43
  SPEAKER_03: You remember how I said I lied to myself during this race?
• 1:22:45
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:22:46
  SPEAKER_03: Mile 80 wasn't really mile 80.
• 1:22:49
  SPEAKER_03: Look, I thought it was mile 80.
• 1:22:51
  SPEAKER_03: It was really like mile 76 or 77.
• 1:22:54
  SPEAKER_03: But I didn't tell myself that.
• 1:22:55
  SPEAKER_03: I told myself the aid stations were five miles apart.
• 1:22:58
  SPEAKER_03: In reality, they were like three at that point, they were like three to six miles apart.
• 1:23:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so when I thought I was at mile 80, I was really at like mile 76, 77.
• 1:23:07
  SPEAKER_03: But I I believed I was at mile 80.
• 1:23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Might as well be round up, yeah.
• 1:23:13
  SPEAKER_03: So I pretended to my head that each aid station was five miles apart.
• 1:23:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, let's go to mile 85.
• 1:23:20
  SPEAKER_03: So me and Andrew start going and we pick each other up and we're running together.
• 1:23:24
  SPEAKER_03: Or we're not running, we're hiking together at that point.
• 1:23:26
  SPEAKER_03: We're both hurting pretty bad.
• 1:23:28
  SPEAKER_03: But we're like, we're getting to 85.
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I kept telling them that.
• 1:23:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's like we're gonna get to 85.
• 1:23:32
  SPEAKER_03: And we get halfway to the aid station, he's like, uh, hey man, you know, this next aid station is really mile 80.
• 1:23:40
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, no, no, no.
• 1:23:42
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, don't tell me that.
• 1:23:43
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I'm I'm lying to myself, it's mile 85.
• 1:23:46
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, okay, you know, and so we get to the next aid station, which I believed was mile 80, which in reality I think is mile 70, or I believe it was mile 80, but in reality it's mile 77 or 78.
• 1:24:00
  SPEAKER_03: So we get there, we sit down, we're eating food, and uh I look over at him, he looks over at me, and we're just like looking at each other, and we're like, Yeah, we're suffering, but we're finishing this thing.
• 1:24:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, like we knew we were gonna finish.
• 1:24:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, once you know you're gonna finish something, you're gonna finish it.
• 1:24:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:24:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so they had said next aid station is like six or seven miles away.
• 1:24:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, or I don't remember how far away it was, but anyways, I I knew um mile 85 was the goal.
• 1:24:32
  SPEAKER_03: So in my head, mile 85 was the next aid station, even though it was mile like 82.
• 1:24:36
  SPEAKER_03: So we keep going, and me and him are just working together, man.
• 1:24:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like he's he's moving faster than me, he's he's moving stronger than me, and so it was good using him and like trying to catch up to him because he would get ahead sometimes, and then I would catch up to him and we'd talk, and we were hanging out throughout the night hiking together, we shared a lot of miles together.
• 1:24:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we get to mile, what I thought was mile 85, is really 83.
• 1:25:01
  SPEAKER_03: Same thing.
• 1:25:02
  SPEAKER_03: The next aid station, once I got to 85, I was like, ah, we got this in the bag, dude.
• 1:25:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so in my head, I was telling myself the next aid station was mile 90.
• 1:25:11
  SPEAKER_03: Reality, the next aid station was mile 86.
• 1:25:14
  SPEAKER_03: But I told myself it was 90, and I was at 85, even though I was really at like 82.
• 1:25:19
  SPEAKER_03: And even the aid station workers would be like, Y'all are at mile 82.
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, No, no, no, no, you're at 85.
• 1:25:24
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Shh, we're at 85.
• 1:25:27
  SPEAKER_03: And they were like, Oh, okay, okay.
• 1:25:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um it was just optimism, I guess.
• 1:25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whatever you gotta say.
• 1:25:35
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, that's what got me through, bro.
• 1:25:37
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:25:37
  SPEAKER_03: Not knowing helped.
• 1:25:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like, if I knew what all miles all those aid stations were, I would have dropped probably.
• 1:25:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so, anyways, we get to at that point, I know we had it in the bag.
• 1:25:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, once we get to that, what I thought was mile 90, aid station really is mile 86.
• 1:25:53
  SPEAKER_03: I knew we were gonna finish.
• 1:25:54
  SPEAKER_03: We got to that aid station.
• 1:25:57
  SPEAKER_03: We sat at that one for a while, but that was like the last good aid station that I was gonna sit at because I knew I had about 12 miles left, but I knew it was just 12 miles, and I was like, all right, this is the last stretch, we're almost done.
• 1:26:08
  SPEAKER_03: So I sit down at the aid station for like five minutes um with Andrew, and I said, Hey, I'm gonna go ahead because he's he was faster than me.
• 1:26:17
  SPEAKER_03: He was a little bit of a stronger runner at that point than me.
• 1:26:20
  SPEAKER_03: And so I said, I'm gonna go ahead.
• 1:26:22
  SPEAKER_03: So I go ahead, he goes and uses the restroom for a few minutes.
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_03: And every aid station I'm sitting down at this point, uh, just giving my legs some rest, a little bit of a recharge.
• 1:26:32
  SPEAKER_03: So I get I get moving and mile 86.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_03: The next aid station is mile 92, so it's like seven miles away, so it's a pretty good stretch.
• 1:26:42
  SPEAKER_03: But so I start going at that point, it's like 4 a.m., 5 a.m.
• 1:26:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm going, and I'm just looking forward to the sun to come up at that point, right?
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_03: And then right at the end of that, uh like mile 90, um, right before the sun comes up, like an hour before the sun comes up, I'm just thinking my head, man, I can't wait for the sun to come up.
• 1:27:02
  SPEAKER_03: I start getting tired again.
• 1:27:04
  SPEAKER_03: The caffeine starts to wear off.
• 1:27:06
  SPEAKER_03: But at that point, I don't, since I'm so close to the finish, I don't want to screw myself.
• 1:27:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so I didn't want to take the caffeine pills because if I took the caffeine pills, it might make me anxious and I might throw up.
• 1:27:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was like, I'm not gonna mess with that.
• 1:27:19
  SPEAKER_03: So I I'm going and it gets to like 30 minutes before sunrise, and I'm like, I'm gonna take a five-minute nap.
• 1:27:26
  SPEAKER_03: So but I knew I was gonna finish though.
• 1:27:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I sit down because I I I was just like wobbling around the whole time.
• 1:27:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I sit down, I put my head and my arms into my lap, and I'm sitting down on the side of a trail, and I set my alarm on my phone.
• 1:27:40
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I set like 10 of them to make sure I wake up and I put my phone down on the ground and I'm sitting there, it's dark, turn my headlamp off, and these packs of people start walking past me.
• 1:27:54
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, like this pack of like five guys, they're like, Are you okay?
• 1:27:57
  SPEAKER_03: shining lights on me.
• 1:27:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, yeah, it's shining.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_03: Sleep, they're like, Oh, okay, sorry.
• 1:28:02
  SPEAKER_03: And then I sleep for a minute or two.
• 1:28:04
  SPEAKER_03: And like at that point, your body's so tired, you just instantly sleep.
• 1:28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:28:08
  SPEAKER_03: Same thing.
• 1:28:08
  SPEAKER_03: Another group of guys passed.
• 1:28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, are you okay?
• 1:28:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, everybody's gonna check on you every two minutes.
• 1:28:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, anyways, at like four minutes and 45 seconds, I wake up, the light's starting to crack in the sky, and I see that my alarms are about to go off, so I turn them all off, get my trucking pulls, stand up.
• 1:28:30
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not tired anymore.
• 1:28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Heck yeah.
• 1:28:33
  SPEAKER_03: Four little four-minute dirt nap worked.
• 1:28:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, and all those guys that passed me within like 20 minutes, I catched all of them.
• 1:28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow, and one of the guys, he was really tired.
• 1:28:45
  SPEAKER_03: He was like, Yeah, dude, I'm just trying to stay awake.
• 1:28:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, You should take a five-minute dirt nap.
• 1:28:50
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, That's what I just did.
• 1:28:51
  SPEAKER_03: It worked.
• 1:28:52
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Oh, okay, I'll try that.
• 1:28:55
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, so I start passing everybody.
• 1:28:58
  SPEAKER_03: And at this point, I was like, ah, we got it in the bag.
• 1:29:00
  SPEAKER_03: I get to mile 92 aid station, and me being all oh, I only got eight miles left for finishing this.
• 1:29:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I get to the aid station, I was like, and I set my my bib number and I said, All right, I'm in and out, and I just walk through the aid station, I don't stop.
• 1:29:17
  SPEAKER_03: No refill, no food, nothing, which was stupid.
• 1:29:20
  SPEAKER_03: I should have stopped.
• 1:29:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so the next aid station, and the reason I felt confident about not stopping is because I knew the next aid station was only two and a half miles away.
• 1:29:29
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, if I need anything, I'll just push through.
• 1:29:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but after about half a mile of walking away from the aid station, I was like, I should have stopped.
• 1:29:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:29:36
  SPEAKER_03: Could be a cracker or something.
• 1:29:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, something, dude.
• 1:29:39
  SPEAKER_03: So I I keep going, I get to mile 94 and a half, which is the second aid station.
• 1:29:44
  SPEAKER_03: When I see it, I literally say out loud, thank God.
• 1:29:47
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I've been waiting for this aid station.
• 1:29:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so I pull up to that aid station and I sit down in the chair and I I take my time because I know at the end of the at the end of the race, there's like two or three miles of road, and I want to run the whole thing.
• 1:30:02
  SPEAKER_03: I want to run it in.
• 1:30:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so I want to make sure I was fueled up to do that.
• 1:30:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I sat down in this chair.
• 1:30:07
  SPEAKER_03: I probably sat there for five, seven minutes.
• 1:30:10
  SPEAKER_03: They refilled my stuff.
• 1:30:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um, they gave me some uh this is the first time I started eating.
• 1:30:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um it was like a cheese, a bacon and cheese tortilla uh deal.
• 1:30:22
  SPEAKER_03: Or bacon and cheese quesadilla.
• 1:30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I start eating that.
• 1:30:26
  SPEAKER_03: They offer me banana pancakes.
• 1:30:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I tried it, I didn't really like it.
• 1:30:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I start slamming a bunch of food, a bunch of broth.
• 1:30:34
  SPEAKER_03: It was probably the most food I've ever eaten at an aid station, like during the race.
• 1:30:38
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I refuel, I get up.
• 1:30:42
  SPEAKER_03: All those guys have passed catch me at this point.
• 1:30:45
  SPEAKER_03: And she was like, Yeah, you got six miles left at that.
• 1:30:48
  SPEAKER_03: But I I told myself, I was like, I only got five miles.
• 1:30:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I told her, I said, No, no, no, no.
• 1:30:54
  SPEAKER_03: I said, I'm telling myself I got five miles left, not six.
• 1:30:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, she's like, Okay, and so I get up, and every time I after I sit down and I get up, it takes me like a mile or two to get back into my pace, right?
• 1:31:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so I get up, start off slow, start getting back into my pace.
• 1:31:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I tell you what, bro, mile freaking 94 to 98, the stretch before the road freaking sucks, dude.
• 1:31:20
  SPEAKER_03: I could not wait to get off that trail because the whole time the lady was like, It's downhill from here, you get three miles of flat road at the end.
• 1:31:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I was at the whole time I was sitting there thinking, all right, well, I'm ready for some road, right?
• 1:31:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I get going, I get three miles in, there's no freaking road, dude.
• 1:31:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm thinking, am I on the wrong trail?
• 1:31:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I start seeing the course markings, and I was like, No, I'm on the right trail, and I start getting pissed.
• 1:31:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm at that point, I get pissed off.
• 1:31:46
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, dude, where's this freaking road, man?
• 1:31:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm like ready just to get on some road, and I'm not running.
• 1:31:51
  SPEAKER_03: And the reason I don't want to run is because I can't pick my legs up very high at that point.
• 1:31:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I didn't want to trip over any rocks and like jack myself, jack myself up, and so I'm just waiting for some road.
• 1:32:02
  SPEAKER_03: I pass this lady with her pacer, and I'm like, have you do y'all know where this road is?
• 1:32:07
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, No, but we're ready for it.
• 1:32:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Meets freaking too, dude.
• 1:32:10
  SPEAKER_03: At this point, I'm just like in a bad mood, man.
• 1:32:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just like, where is this dang road?
• 1:32:15
  SPEAKER_03: Lo and behold, bro, mile like 98.
• 1:32:19
  SPEAKER_03: A road appears.
• 1:32:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, Thank freaking god, dude.
• 1:32:22
  SPEAKER_03: I roll through some old guys there, they're like, come back next year.
• 1:32:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I was thinking, I ain't coming back.
• 1:32:28
  SPEAKER_03: I was thinking, I ain't coming back next year.
• 1:32:30
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't seen you ever again.
• 1:32:31
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I was thinking, I ain't coming back next year, man.
• 1:32:34
  SPEAKER_03: I hop, I get on the road, it's all gravel, it's all downhill.
• 1:32:37
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, all right, I told myself the whole time I was gonna run this.
• 1:32:41
  SPEAKER_03: Now I have to run it, and I have it's hard to run with trekking poles, but I pick my trucking poles up, put them in one hand, and I start moving, and I'm going like 14-minute pace, then I'm going 13-minute pace, then 12, then 11, and then I start passing guys.
• 1:32:56
  SPEAKER_03: And then whenever I start running up on these guys, I'm thinking, oh, I should walk.
• 1:33:00
  SPEAKER_03: But then I was like, this is flat road section.
• 1:33:03
  SPEAKER_03: I need to run because if I if I walk, it would take 30 minutes longer to finish.
• 1:33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:33:07
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, I was thinking in my head, if I run, I can save 30 minutes.
• 1:33:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I was like, I want to save 30 minutes, yeah.
• 1:33:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I start running in the last two or three miles, and I start passing all these guys that had passed me earlier.
• 1:33:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like I passed a lot of people, and then I'm going 10-minute pace, and then the last mile you hit this paved road, the only paved part of the course, one of the only, um, the first two miles was paved, but the last mile is paved.
• 1:33:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I hit the paved, and I'm like, Yeah, we're done, bro.
• 1:33:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we got this thing in the bag, dude.
• 1:33:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm running, and uh, there's this hill, and I'm like, should I walk?
• 1:33:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, nah, I kept running.
• 1:33:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I ran up this hill, and then there's this other guy there that was running.
• 1:33:49
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh, I'm gonna catch him.
• 1:33:51
  SPEAKER_03: So I catch him for and then like probably like 400 meters from the finish line, I pick it up to like a nine-minute pace, eight-minute pace.
• 1:33:59
  SPEAKER_03: And at that point, too, I start crying, but there's no tears.
• 1:34:04
  SPEAKER_01: Whoa, that's crazy.
• 1:34:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't know.
• 1:34:07
  SPEAKER_03: Explain, I was just I just started crying.
• 1:34:09
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, dude, you freaking did this, dude.
• 1:34:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was like, I can't believe I did this.
• 1:34:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I I I get emotional, and I was thinking, man, I gotta straighten up before I cross the finish line.
• 1:34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:34:19
  SPEAKER_03: But I was like, man, I just start like I'm just kind of overwhelmed with emotion at that point.
• 1:34:25
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 1:34:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like crying, but with no tears.
• 1:34:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like it felt like crying, but there were no tears.
• 1:34:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then right as I'm running down the runway, everyone's like, good job, you know, and uh I just feel like on top of the world at that point.
• 1:34:40
  SPEAKER_03: Run down the little runway, and then I'm like right before the finish, I'm like trying to trying to look strong, you know.
• 1:34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:34:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I crossed the finish line, race structures there with the buckle, and then uh I forgot to mention, but like Andrew had left had dropped me like 10 miles back or like five to ten miles back.
• 1:34:59
  SPEAKER_03: So at the finish line, Andrew's there waiting, and Andrew was like, dude, great job, dude.
• 1:35:05
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, we shared some tough miles together.
• 1:35:07
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Yeah, man, we shared we did.
• 1:35:08
  SPEAKER_03: He Andrew was like, We should we shared some dark miles together, and so um gave Andrew a hug, got my buckle.
• 1:35:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then Greg, uh, or the guy that had said, like, we'll see how you see how you feel at mile 50.
• 1:35:24
  SPEAKER_03: You're the same guy that told me to keep going.
• 1:35:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:35:26
  SPEAKER_03: When I finished, I was like, dude, thank you, bro.
• 1:35:29
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I don't know if I could have done it without you.
• 1:35:31
  SPEAKER_03: Because like he was the only person, him and his crew were the only people that told me I should keep going.
• 1:35:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, everyone else that I told, they were like, Oh, okay.
• 1:35:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he his group was the only group that told me to keep going.
• 1:35:41
  SPEAKER_03: So when I finished, I thanked him.
• 1:35:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then I uh uh kind of like me and Andrew kind of celebrated.
• 1:35:52
  SPEAKER_03: Andrew had finished 30 minutes ahead of me, so he had definitely picked his pace up.
• 1:35:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um and they had mentioned something about sticking around till 12 for some award ceremony or something.
• 1:36:03
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I'm out of here, man.
• 1:36:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and then uh one of the guys who's experienced, he was like, Are you driving back after this?
• 1:36:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Yeah, he was like, Well, make sure you shower and sleep before you drive.
• 1:36:13
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Okay, so um I was like, I'm gonna take his advice because at that point I was like, I'm out of here, you know.
• 1:36:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh, so I get my buckle, kind of look around.
• 1:36:22
  SPEAKER_03: They said something about some showers, I didn't know where they were.
• 1:36:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I I go back to my truck, hop in my truck, drive to the camp showers, and I like at this point, like your body is so disabled, yeah.
• 1:36:35
  SPEAKER_03: It's like a battle to get in a truck.
• 1:36:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I just take a shower and then I uh let alone take clothes off.
• 1:36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, yeah, dude.
• 1:36:44
  SPEAKER_03: It took me five minutes to take my shorts off.
• 1:36:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like it took me five minutes to take my shorts off.
• 1:36:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but I I took a little shower, um, which that highly recommend taking showers after a hard race like that.
• 1:36:56
  SPEAKER_03: Took a shower at the camp campground, hopped in my truck.
• 1:37:00
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't hop in my truck, I crawled into my truck.
• 1:37:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah um and then I drove down to the gas station.
• 1:37:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was thinking I'm gonna get a Red Bull and go home.
• 1:37:08
  SPEAKER_03: But as I'm driving five minutes, it's like a three-minute drive to this gas station.
• 1:37:12
  SPEAKER_03: As I'm driving to the gas station, I'm looking at my buckle, I'm like, this is freaking sweet.
• 1:37:16
  SPEAKER_03: I did it, dude.
• 1:37:17
  SPEAKER_03: I can I can rep this mug now.
• 1:37:20
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I get to the gas station and I'm gonna get a 20-ounce Red Bull caffeine to keep me going.
• 1:37:26
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I pull into the back parking lot.
• 1:37:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and as I'm driving to this gas station, though, like a few minutes, um, I'm uh sitting there falling asleep, driving to the gas station.
• 1:37:36
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, dude, I'm gonna I'm gonna take a nap at this gas station for a few hours.
• 1:37:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I pull up to the gas station.
• 1:37:43
  SPEAKER_03: I kind of have on and off sleep uh for three hours.
• 1:37:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like your body doesn't just knock out, it's so amped and jacked up that it's like on and off.
• 1:37:51
  SPEAKER_03: So I have on and off sleep for three hours, and every hour I'd wake up thinking, like, what am I doing?
• 1:37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where am I?
• 1:37:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, where am I?
• 1:37:59
  SPEAKER_03: And then I would like at one point I was waking up and I'd look at my uh navigation uh and I'd start like messing with it because I had I kept thinking like, oh, I need to fix this.
• 1:38:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like my brain was just being stupid, bro.
• 1:38:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'd wake up thinking, what am I doing again?
• 1:38:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then I fall asleep for an hour, and uh I ended up sleeping for three hours.
• 1:38:19
  SPEAKER_03: I woke up at two and I was like, oh, I was like, my feet were so swollen.
• 1:38:26
  SPEAKER_03: I took my shoes off right there, and then I kind of loosened them.
• 1:38:29
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, and I knew I needed a Red Bull, so I was like, I opened the door, uh, kind of fixed my shoes, closed the door, drove over to the gas station.
• 1:38:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, which was I was in the parking lot of it, so I just drove closer to it, crawled out, walked in there, grabbed a 20-ounce Red Bull, walked out, took a video about how funny it was, how I looked.
• 1:38:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, and then uh used the restroom.
• 1:38:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and by the way, during that whole hundred mile race, I was peeing like every like 30 minutes.
• 1:39:00
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 1:39:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was extremely hydrated.
• 1:39:02
  SPEAKER_03: I was overly hydrated, yeah.
• 1:39:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, but yeah, used a restroom, cracked open the Red Bull, called my wife, drove 30, 30, or not 30, drove three hours home Sunday.
• 1:39:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um that Red Bull kept me kept me going.
• 1:39:20
  SPEAKER_03: It was good.
• 1:39:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh got home.
• 1:39:22
  SPEAKER_03: My wife had to help me sit down and do stuff, and I was like, you know, when uh we had our kids, she had a C-section, so she was I had to help her.
• 1:39:32
  SPEAKER_03: She was like, This is this is like whenever you had to help me.
• 1:39:35
  SPEAKER_03: She was helping me sit down, and she's get grabbing me food and water.
• 1:39:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's kind of nice, dude.
• 1:39:40
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Yeah, I should do this more, yeah.
• 1:39:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but uh yeah, sitting there, and then I was like, it got to seven o'clock, and I was like, Hey, I think I'm gonna go to bed.
• 1:39:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then at that point, I was experiencing like fever symptoms, so like I'd get hot and then cold, hot and cold.
• 1:39:55
  SPEAKER_03: And then so I just went laid in bed and I was kind of experiencing that fever symptom because your body's so jacked up.
• 1:40:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:40:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, next day I woke up feeling freaking stiffer than a dead horse, dude.
• 1:40:09
  SPEAKER_03: Met up with you, had lunch with you, um, went to work for some reason.
• 1:40:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I couldn't even think straight that day.
• 1:40:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I remember that day.
• 1:40:18
  SPEAKER_03: Anytime someone asked me a question, I'd be like, uh Yeah, don't know why I went to work that day.
• 1:40:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but yeah, that was the experience, man.
• 1:40:27
  SPEAKER_03: So that was it.
• 1:40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
• 1:40:30
  SPEAKER_00: Two hours later, there you go.
• 1:40:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, congratulations.
• 1:40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's documented.
• 1:40:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 1:40:35
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I think people can learn from a hundred mile, you know, that that kind of experience.
• 1:40:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a totally when I did my first ultra, like I got a a brief hint of what it's like.
• 1:40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, even when you said like I I cried without tears, yeah.
• 1:40:51
  SPEAKER_00: I remember finishing it, and it was it is like an emotional experience of just like you don't even really understand why.
• 1:40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I would just I remember on the way home, like I remember kind of like you know, you get when you're about to cry, you kind of like well up and like you have this like well up sensation, and then like it just kind of subsides.
• 1:41:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I I relate to that, like I remember that, but it's like you can only get there without but like through a lot of miles and pain and heartache and support, like all that stuff just kind of comes in waves of like wow, like that's awesome.
• 1:41:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 1:41:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I think is so powerful and cool about Ultra and and Endurance, like it's just this like whole thing that you you just can't really it's hard to put in words and you can't experience it unless you've done it.
• 1:41:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and then I I would imagine that you know, 30, 50, 80, 100, it's all the same, you know, to in just different degrees.
• 1:41:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's not the same, but it's just different levels of that over time.
• 1:41:57
  SPEAKER_03: The hardest the hardest part was definitely mile 65 to 80.
• 1:42:02
  SPEAKER_03: That was the hardest.
• 1:42:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:42:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for me.
• 1:42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:42:06
  SPEAKER_03: Some people, I mean that one guy, his hardest moment was mile 55.
• 1:42:10
  SPEAKER_03: I was looking by the way, that you know that aid station I wanted to drop at that aid station.
• 1:42:15
  SPEAKER_03: When I was looking at the results, that aid station had the most drops.
• 1:42:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like I I think uh 40, 30 to 40 percent of the people that started the race dropped.
• 1:42:24
  SPEAKER_03: Out of those 30 to 40 percent, half of those people dropped at that aid station.
• 1:42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 1:42:29
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the most popular aid station people drop at.
• 1:42:32
  SPEAKER_03: So, like right mile 50, mile 70.
• 1:42:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it had the highest uh drop rate right there.
• 1:42:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I thought that was interesting.
• 1:42:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the guy that I was sitting next to at the aid station, he had dropped.
• 1:42:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like when I sat down at mile 70 when I was like, I'm done.
• 1:42:44
  SPEAKER_03: The guy beside me, he had dropped.
• 1:42:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was like, Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 1:42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I get I guess people also kind of give permission to themselves, like, oh well, yeah, that guy dropped, she dropped, whatever.
• 1:42:56
  SPEAKER_00: So awesome, man.
• 1:42:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, great story.
• 1:42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations, you're a hundred miler now.
• 1:43:01
  SPEAKER_00: One done, bro.
• 1:43:02
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, I say that time for that 200.
• 1:43:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm happy with the um that that's just like a runner.
• 1:43:10
  SPEAKER_03: That was a runner bucket list item.
• 1:43:12
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I've always wanted to do 100 miles in a lifetime.
• 1:43:16
  SPEAKER_03: I was glad I didn't quit because if I did quit, I would have to do it again.
• 1:43:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I'm glad I can be like, I did it.
• 1:43:24
  SPEAKER_03: I got the buckle, I'm good.
• 1:43:26
  SPEAKER_00: Got the mug.
• 1:43:27
  SPEAKER_03: I can I can retire from running for at least a month, right?
• 1:43:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I think I got on my uh window in my bedroom or my bathroom my goal for next year.
• 1:43:38
  SPEAKER_03: I wrote down an Iron Man.
• 1:43:40
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 1:43:42
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see.
• 1:43:43
  SPEAKER_03: But I put down on there Iron Man, but we'll see.
• 1:43:46
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know what I'm gonna do.
• 1:43:48
  SPEAKER_03: But in my opinion, I've hit my pinnacle of what I wanted to do in running.
• 1:43:53
  SPEAKER_03: I've always wanted to do 100 miles.
• 1:43:55
  SPEAKER_03: I did it.
• 1:43:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's it is one of the bigger feats that you can do.
• 1:43:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:44:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm happy with it.
• 1:44:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so you know, everybody always says after 100, oh, it's my last one, or I'm done.
• 1:44:09
  SPEAKER_03: So who knows what I'm actually gonna end up doing.
• 1:44:11
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, and you're I mean, you're young in the game, man.
• 1:44:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's like yeah, like I when I'm like 40 or 50, I guarantee you, you know, I could realistically by then see myself, see myself um doing another big thing between now and then.
• 1:44:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, this was a qualifier for Western States if you just finished.
• 1:44:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 1:44:32
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, and since I finished, I can put in my little lottery ticket for Western States.
• 1:44:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, you should do it.
• 1:44:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna put it in.
• 1:44:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, so that's cool to know.
• 1:44:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I can't enter in for the lottery now, which is sweet.
• 1:44:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but uh no, I'm satisfied, dude.
• 1:44:51
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, I I hope, I hope you get in the lottery for Western States and you get it so you can just look forward to the fact like, oh crap.
• 1:44:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm gonna just throw it in.
• 1:45:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's one ticket, so we'll see what happens.
• 1:45:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:45:04
  SPEAKER_03: People uh have put in like 20 tickets and have been waiting 10 years and haven't gotten in.
• 1:45:09
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:45:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's not very likely.
• 1:45:11
  SPEAKER_03: So if I don't get in, I'm not stressed about it.
• 1:45:14
  SPEAKER_03: If I get in, I'm stressed about it.
• 1:45:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:45:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, yeah, so I'm just gonna um now, dude, it's fall, my favorite time of year.
• 1:45:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna spend a lot of time with my family.
• 1:45:25
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna do um, I'm still gonna run uh this week.
• 1:45:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna run once a week at least.
• 1:45:30
  SPEAKER_03: The reason is I was on on my Strava the other day, and it said that I have a run streak of like 400 weeks in a row or something.
• 1:45:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's legit.
• 1:45:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I was talking to my buddy Astra about it, and Astra was like, dude, you know that's like eight years, right?
• 1:45:46
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, really?
• 1:45:47
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Yeah, and apparently I've been running every at least once a week for eight years straight.
• 1:45:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like I have a streak apparently.
• 1:45:54
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, I didn't realize that.
• 1:45:56
  SPEAKER_03: Can't end that so now you know I noticed that after the race, and so this week I'm gonna get a run in.
• 1:46:02
  SPEAKER_03: So I'll probably go run like I don't know, sometime this week.
• 1:46:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'm gonna try to run at least once a week for the next month or for this month, um, to keep that streak.
• 1:46:12
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, whenever I saw that on Strava, I was like, oh, I didn't know I'd been running for oh at least once a week for eight years so far.
• 1:46:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 1:46:24
  SPEAKER_03: So the cool thing about doing that race too is is I only trained on 30 to 35 miles a week for leading up to it, right?
• 1:46:34
  SPEAKER_03: And it proved that you can train on 30, 35 miles a week and finish 100.
• 1:46:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you proved a lot, yeah.
• 1:46:39
  SPEAKER_00: You proved a lot for sure.
• 1:46:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it does get a point, like late in the hundreds, it gets in a point where you're just power hiking.
• 1:46:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like and I'm glad I took my trekking poles those last 30 miles because I was just like digging to the digging them into the ground and pushing with my arms, yeah, and I was using my arms for strength rather than my legs.
• 1:46:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, at a hundred man, you're just moving forward.
• 1:47:02
  SPEAKER_00: So constant forward motion.
• 1:47:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, awesome, dude.
• 1:47:05
  SPEAKER_00: Way to get it done, yeah.
• 1:47:06
  SPEAKER_03: You want to wrap it there?
• 1:47:07
  SPEAKER_03: Get her done, man.
• 1:47:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, get her done.
• 1:47:09
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 1:47:10
  SPEAKER_03: Well, let's go eat some lunch, man.
• 1:47:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:47:12
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta I'm hungry.
• 1:47:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, me too.
• 1:47:14
  SPEAKER_00: All this running talk made me hungry.
• 1:47:16
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thanks for tuning in, guys.
• 1:47:18
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see y'all Wednesday next week for another podcast.
• 1:47:21
  SPEAKER_03: I guess at that point we'll talk about um the uh Alex Thermozzi, how that goes, huh?
• 1:47:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:47:27
  SPEAKER_03: So wow.
• 1:47:29
  SPEAKER_03: We filmed for an hour and 45 minutes.
• 1:47:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, dude.
• 1:47:32
  SPEAKER_03: This was a long podcast.
• 1:47:33
  SPEAKER_03: Legendary pod for a legendary race.
• 1:47:36
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever, man, it'll work.
• 1:47:37
  SPEAKER_03: We'll do it.