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2024 Hellbender 100 Mile Story · Run Mountain Peaks

• 0:00
  All right, welcome back to another episode of Run Mountain
• 0:03
  Peaks. It is a balmy 50° right now,
• 0:09
  which is quite a pleasant surprise after the cold December
• 0:13
  that we've had. So no hat, no gloves today,
• 0:16
  which is beautiful. I can't, I cannot wait until
• 0:20
  it's summer and these podcasts are just going to be a lot more
• 0:24
  comfortable. But what do we have today?
• 0:28
  Today I'm going to go through my second hundred mile finish, the
• 0:33
  2024 Hellbender 100. I'm going to do the full recap,
• 0:38
  the full story. What happened this race,
• 0:42
  Honestly, for sure the most lessons learned in an ultra ever
• 0:48
  for me. I think it was the most pain
• 0:51
  I've ever had in an ultra for sure.
• 0:53
  And yeah, just the most like adversity in things that I, some
• 0:59
  things I didn't expect, maybe some things I did expect.
• 1:01
  So lots of learning lessons and I wouldn't, it didn't go as well
• 1:06
  as I wanted it to in the moment. But I think I took away a lot
• 1:09
  from this race and I think it still went fairly well.
• 1:13
  So we're going to go through all those talk about why I wanted to
• 1:16
  go down there. It's in north, it's takes place
• 1:18
  in Asheville, NC. So made the truck down there was
• 1:22
  the first kind of destination race that I've done.
• 1:25
  So we'll do that story today. And then the first New England
• 1:29
  Ultra Marathon of the year of 2026, the Tark Yeti Trail Trot
• 1:36
  50K. We're going to go through the
• 1:38
  results. That's formerly the gills, yeah,
• 1:44
  Fat ass 50K, Gills GAC, Yeah, Fat ass 50K that now Tark has
• 1:50
  taken over. So we'll go through some of
• 1:52
  those results and I think there's one other, yeah, one of
• 1:55
  the race that's kind of it's a virtual race that's ongoing.
• 1:59
  So I won't, you know, there's no results, but I'll talk about
• 2:01
  that at the end of the episode. Because ideally for this year,
• 2:06
  at the end of every episode for any race that we didn't talk
• 2:09
  about or like interview somebody from or something like that, I'm
• 2:14
  going to still go through all of the results from every New
• 2:16
  England ultra and most of the mountain shorter trail races.
• 2:23
  I think it, you know, obviously you can't do every sub ultra
• 2:26
  race just because there's so many like 5 KS, like local
• 2:29
  things that I probably just can't go by the radar.
• 2:32
  But I have a pretty good list of all the ultra marathons.
• 2:34
  So we're going to recap that at the end of all the episodes this
• 2:37
  year. So we'll go, we'll go through
• 2:39
  the Yeti trail trot, the first ultra of the year, boom, done.
• 2:45
  And then last last up, we're going to go through my top three
• 2:50
  favorite fruits. And I think this is a good time
• 2:55
  of the year to do this because I love eating fruit, eat a lot of
• 3:00
  fruits. That's like such a big part of
• 3:02
  my diet. And in the winter it is the,
• 3:05
  it's like it's the worst of the fruit season.
• 3:10
  It's really just scraping through.
• 3:12
  If you can get a fresh fruit from the grocery store, you're
• 3:14
  pumped. But a lot of the fruits aren't
• 3:17
  super fresh right now. So I think it's a good time to
• 3:20
  do your top three fruits. It's like, you know, you don't
• 3:24
  get me at my best if you don't like me at my worst, that kind
• 3:27
  of thing, right? And I, you know, because any
• 3:31
  sort of fresh fruit, local fruit that you pick in the summer can
• 3:34
  be super, super good. It's like in the dog days of the
• 3:37
  fruit season, who's still in the top three?
• 3:41
  So we're going to do that at the end and that's all we got today.
• 3:44
  So first up, jumping into the Hellbender 100, the Hellbender
• 3:51
  100, like I said, it's 100 mile race in Asheville, NC.
• 3:55
  I think there were the Black Mountains out there.
• 3:58
  It's not on the AT, but it's on it's it's in a good mix of
• 4:03
  trails. I think Asheville is a very
• 4:06
  trail runner community and it's a cool place out there.
• 4:12
  And the course itself, I think they after the storms from
• 4:16
  Asheville a couple years ago, I think they altered the course.
• 4:19
  So I'm pretty sure it's shorter now.
• 4:21
  It's a different route, but when I ran the the original route it
• 4:24
  was 104 miles and 24,000 feet of climbing that were the stats on
• 4:31
  it and the course director. When they kind of came up with
• 4:36
  this race, because they'd only been run a handful of times
• 4:39
  before I went and ran it, they wanted to kind of model it after
• 4:42
  a Hard Rock, big climbs up and down and that's pretty much what
• 4:46
  it was. It was like 5 big climbs and big
• 4:50
  descents. So it wasn't kind of undulating
• 4:53
  up and down a lot. It was really just big mountain
• 4:56
  climbs. You go up, you go down.
• 4:57
  But I think the difference is obviously with the elevation
• 5:01
  ratio to miles, the climbs were just a lot less steep than
• 5:05
  around here and a lot more runnable, less, less rocky, less
• 5:09
  technical. It was a lot of just kind of
• 5:12
  like nice smooth, single tracky, flowy, switchbacky trails.
• 5:18
  And so that was that was the race, the course and the reason
• 5:23
  why I wanted to go down and do it.
• 5:25
  I the year before I had finished the Jigger Johnson 100 mile so
• 5:29
  that the first buckle there, which is 100 mile race.
• 5:33
  But it's, it's in kind of like a different category.
• 5:36
  You do it's a lot of hiking, although all ultras are are a
• 5:40
  lot of hiking, power walking and stuff, but that one is a really
• 5:44
  a lot of hiking. It's really drawn out longer
• 5:47
  than a lot of them. And I feel like this isn't one
• 5:50
  of the reasons for it. But like after you, you do like
• 5:53
  a Jigger Johnson or some of these NE ultras and people ask
• 5:58
  you like just regular people, non runners.
• 6:01
  Oh, like how long did it take or how, how, how far did you go?
• 6:05
  It's like, all right, I went 112 miles or whatever it was, but
• 6:09
  it's you always got to say, but 30 whatever, 1000 feet of
• 6:13
  climbing are lots of verts, super technical trails.
• 6:16
  Because like when I finished the Jigger Johnson 100, it was
• 6:19
  almost 39 hours, which is is a good time on that course.
• 6:23
  But also, you know, I feel like on a regular 100, that's a very
• 6:28
  slower time. Like that is probably past a lot
• 6:31
  of cut offs. Like there's some 30 hour cut
• 6:33
  offs for these races. 303235 whatever.
• 6:36
  So it's like you don't really do it justice.
• 6:38
  So part of me was like I wanted to get a a more competitive time
• 6:42
  on 100 and the other part of me was I wanted to go to a little
• 6:48
  bit different of a race, like a more runnable, more competitive
• 6:53
  destination travel race to see how I did kind of traveling.
• 6:57
  Like I don't travel a lot in my regular life.
• 6:59
  So see how I liked it, see how I race.
• 7:01
  I liked racing in a new spot, so it was very much putting me out
• 7:05
  of my comfort zone and seeing what I could do.
• 7:08
  And it was a very competitive race.
• 7:12
  There's been some competitive times on that race for sure.
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  Some strong athletes have gone out and the year that I had
• 7:18
  signed up, I let's pull up here, there were a handful of really
• 7:22
  strong runners. So one of them, Kyle Curtin, I
• 7:24
  mean professional runner, Tour de Jance, American record
• 7:28
  holder, top ten Western states guy, he was going to run it.
• 7:34
  Marcus Welker, who is a was a local Asheville.
• 7:38
  I don't know how locally he was, but a North Carolina guy.
• 7:41
  He had had some really strong race times.
• 7:44
  I don't know if he had run hellbender before, but he had
• 7:46
  run and maybe beat like a Tim Nuni, who is another North
• 7:50
  Carolina guy who I'm pretty sure is like sponsored or or just an
• 7:54
  elite runner. Sean Pope, I'm pretty sure used
• 7:57
  to be a sponsor pro pro runner potentially or he did some of
• 8:01
  the back in the day. He was kind of like a, yeah,
• 8:05
  he's 35, but he when he was younger, he was doing a bunch of
• 8:08
  those big races. He's really fast.
• 8:09
  This guy Jake Moreau, he had won like 3 races going into this 300
• 8:15
  milers. Some other lots of other strong
• 8:19
  names. Meg Landy Moore, I don't have
• 8:22
  all her results right now, but she won for the women's and she
• 8:24
  is just a super strong athlete. There was this guy Sondre Steer,
• 8:28
  Thorn Bergsen, which we will talk about him more.
• 8:32
  He ended up winning the race. He was from I think like Norway.
• 8:35
  So you know sure super strong endurance guy.
• 8:39
  So there were lots of strong, strong runners and I just kind
• 8:42
  of wanted to test myself and I knew I had come from a big
• 8:47
  hiking background. So I know it was, I like the
• 8:49
  technical stuff like the hiking, but I wanted to kind of progress
• 8:53
  as a runner more and do more running miles and get better at
• 8:56
  runnable, you know, 8 to 10% grades.
• 8:59
  So that was the plan and that's kind of how I trained going into
• 9:02
  it. Like I want to not just be a
• 9:04
  strong hiker, I want to kind of become more of a runner.
• 9:10
  So that was the reasoning behind the race and that like build up
• 9:16
  to the race. I was actually, I was getting
• 9:19
  faster. I was doing more runnable stuff.
• 9:21
  Like I was doing a lot of low incline kind of workouts, hill
• 9:25
  work, but not super steep, no stair climber stuff and got fit
• 9:30
  was kind of increased my volume a little bit, but I felt really
• 9:33
  good. My my fitness is as good as I've
• 9:35
  ever been. My shorter distance fitness,
• 9:39
  like some of the workouts and stuff I was doing was the best
• 9:41
  it's ever been, like getting starting to get faster and
• 9:43
  faster. So I was feeling good going into
• 9:45
  it. I had a little bit of a
• 9:47
  hamstring. I remember going into it, which
• 9:51
  I think I was actually pretty concerned about It wasn't a pull
• 9:56
  or anything, but I was just having problems with my
• 9:59
  hamstring cramping up almost a good amount during some training
• 10:02
  runs and kind of hurting randomly.
• 10:04
  Like it kind of been bugging me. So I was like, I don't know how
• 10:07
  that's going to play out, but that was it.
• 10:10
  Besides that I was, I was, I was not injured.
• 10:14
  So things were going good. So and I was, I'd never been
• 10:18
  down there. I think I flew down like I had
• 10:21
  one day before the race. So I'd never seen the course.
• 10:24
  I didn't run on the course at all.
• 10:27
  I was really kind of on citing this race.
• 10:29
  So I ended up flying down there with my mother and it was just
• 10:34
  us 2. I didn't have any Pacers lined
• 10:37
  up. It was kind of just a let's
• 10:40
  let's see, you know, she was going to crew me and I'm just
• 10:42
  going to go out there on site this course and run it and see
• 10:44
  see what goes, see how it goes. So that was the plan.
• 10:47
  So we get down there travel day. This was kind of, you know,
• 10:51
  closer to the COVID thing that I wear a mask on the plane.
• 10:53
  I don't know if I wore a mask on the plane, but I was kind of
• 10:56
  concerned with getting sick, traveling a lot, but didn't get
• 10:59
  sick or anything like that. We had an Airbnb all good.
• 11:03
  Went for run the day before and I go to the pre race meeting
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  they hosted the night before because the race was a 4:30 AM
• 11:12
  start 4:30 maybe 5 but it was an early start.
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  So the race me was the night before.
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  So go there the night before. What I remember from the race
• 11:22
  meeting I remember a couple of things.
• 11:25
  I remember 1 seeing this guy, Jake Moreau, He was a Canadian
• 11:30
  guy. Like I said he had won a few 100
• 11:32
  mile races, like looked like a fast guy from Ultrasunup or
• 11:35
  whatever. And in person this guy was an
• 11:39
  animal. He was huge.
• 11:42
  I think he was wearing this big belt buckle maybe like a cowboy
• 11:45
  hat potentially. I might be making that up.
• 11:47
  But he and he was like not in a bad way, he was ripped, but he
• 11:51
  must have been 200 lbs at least. Like he was an absolute unit.
• 11:55
  And I was I remember thinking Oh my God, this guy can crank
• 11:58
  miles. And I maybe had a David Goggin
• 12:00
  shirt on too. So I was like, all right, I
• 12:03
  think I know this guy is is insane.
• 12:07
  Just probably next level tough. But I remember that being kind
• 12:10
  of blown away with that. And then the other thing I
• 12:12
  remember was I we were all, you know, in this, what is it called
• 12:16
  a pavilion, maybe like one of those open structures with just
• 12:20
  a roof over it and bunch of chairs out there.
• 12:23
  And I sit in the chair. I think it was just me and Kyle
• 12:25
  curtain comes and sits right next to me and I knew who Kyle,
• 12:28
  you know, I knew who he was. And so I was like, oh shit, OK,
• 12:32
  you got to play it cool, play it cool.
• 12:33
  Pretend like you've been here. I didn't talk.
• 12:35
  I don't think I said a word to him.
• 12:36
  So but that those are the two things I remember from the
• 12:40
  course. Oh, and then the other thing
• 12:42
  from the pre race meeting I remember was and I knew that
• 12:45
  there were poisonous snakes down there.
• 12:49
  And this is something like I haven't through hiked.
• 12:53
  I haven't done much, much trail running outside of New England
• 12:56
  and I I wouldn't say I have a snake phobia, but I don't, I
• 13:01
  don't mess with snakes. I don't know how they move
• 13:03
  around without legs. I I don't like how they look.
• 13:07
  They're creepy. When I was younger, actually, I
• 13:09
  had a snake book. I loved the Crocodile Hunter,
• 13:14
  Steve Irwin. He would always catch the snakes
• 13:16
  and I had a book. I knew all the snakes and I
• 13:18
  would go in my backyard and I would catch snakes.
• 13:20
  But but I got out of that phase clearly when I was younger and
• 13:24
  at some point in my frontal cortex development, I no longer
• 13:28
  like snakes. They freaked me out and I think
• 13:31
  one of my biggest fears in life is waking up with a snake in my
• 13:35
  bed. So like a snake crawls through a
• 13:40
  pipe or something. Scares me.
• 13:42
  So yeah, snake. Yeah.
• 13:44
  So anyhow, in the pre race meeting, I they said and oh,
• 13:51
  there's one place called a rattlesnake rock or something
• 13:55
  where there's always rattlesnakes.
• 13:57
  Be safe 'cause we, you know, 'cause whatever, you sign the
• 13:59
  waiver. And I remember thinking, Oh my
• 14:01
  gosh, they're saying something about this.
• 14:02
  Rocks. There's always snakes.
• 14:03
  They're like, oh, man, I don't know how I feel about this.
• 14:06
  I don't want to get lit up, which I know like rattlesnakes.
• 14:10
  They're the same as anything else, like like a bear, like a
• 14:13
  mood or like anything that's kind of scared that you would
• 14:16
  think would be scary. Like they just want to get away
• 14:18
  from you. They don't want anything to do
• 14:19
  with you. But you know, it's like it's
• 14:21
  you're always like, whoa, what if it's raining?
• 14:23
  What if it's quiet? They don't hear me and I step on
• 14:25
  it comes and that's it. I don't know, you know, So I was
• 14:30
  a little conscious of the snakes, but that was the other
• 14:33
  thing I remember from the meeting and that was pretty much
• 14:36
  it. So go back to go back to the
• 14:39
  Airbnb and I'm pretty sure this is the first race I did this
• 14:43
  yes, it was the first race. I always don't sleep a lot good
• 14:49
  before an ultra. I think you're very excited.
• 14:51
  You have to wake up early. You know your brain's going a
• 14:54
  lot can't you know, especially your first when you're getting
• 14:57
  into it. I don't even know if I can do
• 14:58
  this. And so this time I was going to,
• 15:03
  or I had what's that stuff? The sleeping, the sleeping
• 15:10
  stuff, melatonin. I had melatonin, a bottle of
• 15:13
  melatonin, which I was like, I looked into, you know, different
• 15:17
  sleep age. Should you take it?
• 15:18
  Should you not take it half life, whatever.
• 15:21
  And I decided that if I'm having trouble sleeping, let's just
• 15:24
  take melatonin and try to get a little bit of sleep.
• 15:27
  So, and I had taken it a few times in training runs and it
• 15:30
  had been fine. So I was like, all right, I
• 15:31
  think I can do it, but I that night I try to do everything
• 15:37
  normally, like normally that I do eat my thing, relax, chill
• 15:41
  out all day. I mean, the day before, I'm just
• 15:42
  lying on the couch most of the day just out of my like trying
• 15:45
  to get out there, but trying to relax and I go to bed and try to
• 15:49
  go to bed early. Try to get at least a few hours
• 15:51
  of sleep. Because for me, if you can get
• 15:53
  just one R.E.M. cycle 3 hours, you're probably good.
• 15:57
  You're good for like a 24 hour effort for sure.
• 15:59
  Like you just need to feel a little bit rested.
• 16:01
  Get like 1 if you can get 2, beautiful.
• 16:04
  If you're somebody who just sleeps 6-7 or eight hours before
• 16:07
  a big race that you've been training for for months, hats
• 16:09
  off to you. You're probably going to like
• 16:11
  run it better than poor sleep, but that was the plan going into
• 16:17
  it. And I remember I didn't take it
• 16:19
  at 1st and I couldn't fall asleep, couldn't fall asleep,
• 16:23
  couldn't fall asleep. It was hot in the Airbnb.
• 16:25
  I had the AC on. I wasn't feeling comfortable,
• 16:27
  couldn't fall asleep, couldn't fall asleep.
• 16:29
  So finally I'm like tossing and turning for a while I'm like, I
• 16:31
  just got to take it ended up taking it.
• 16:33
  I took it and I legitimately think I just stayed up for three
• 16:38
  hours straight waiting to fall asleep.
• 16:40
  Like it didn't work or but I remember the effects on me like
• 16:44
  I was super lethargic but I just couldn't get my brain to shut
• 16:47
  off. So I'm pretty sure I only ended
• 16:49
  up sleeping 1/2 hour 45 minutes and I woke up in the morning.
• 16:53
  Usually if you, if you, if you're nervous about something,
• 16:55
  you sleep for a little bit, you wake up, you're like, I actually
• 16:58
  feel kind of rested. I felt exhausted when I woke up
• 17:02
  from the 45 minutes of sleep or whatever.
• 17:04
  And I remember being like, oh crap, that is not a good sign.
• 17:09
  And I don't even think I remember telling my mom.
• 17:11
  I don't even think I told her. Like I didn't tell anyone that I
• 17:14
  didn't sleep good because I didn't want it to.
• 17:16
  I was just like, this is going to be my secret.
• 17:18
  I don't need sleep. I'm going to go out there and
• 17:19
  just whatever. So get up, get ready, feel OK
• 17:24
  and get all my things and, and go to the start line.
• 17:27
  And at the start line again, I remember I was obviously like
• 17:30
  nervous, excited, but I remember being tired and thinking like, I
• 17:34
  don't know how this is going to work out.
• 17:37
  But it's like so many people say that though, like it's really
• 17:43
  hard, especially if you're like tenting in a place if you don't
• 17:46
  sleep super well, if races are early, this is not abnormal.
• 17:50
  Like I don't know, getting 0 sleep or close to 0 sleep is
• 17:53
  probably a little bit abnormal, but some people do do it and you
• 17:57
  can tilt still totally run the race.
• 17:58
  Like my thought process and all of the races that I run the
• 18:02
  sleep you really don't. As for A1 for like 100 mile or I
• 18:07
  would say a 24 to 32 hour effort.
• 18:10
  Don't worry about sleep. Get some if you can, some is
• 18:12
  great, a good amount is awesome. And if you get none, you're
• 18:17
  you're still going to be OK. Like once you get going, your
• 18:20
  adrenaline kicks in, your running, your body snaps into
• 18:23
  it. It'll just be you'll get a
• 18:25
  little bit tired, a little bit more hazy, a little mentally
• 18:27
  more foggy towards the end that you're just going to have to
• 18:30
  like deal with. But that was a sleep thing.
• 18:33
  But we go to the start line and I remember that my my goal for
• 18:37
  the race was I wanted to go sub 24.
• 18:40
  If you went sub 24 hours at this race, because this is a very
• 18:43
  hard race, like you got some sort of like a little plaque or
• 18:47
  whatever and I don't know what the course record, the course
• 18:49
  record of the time was like at 2130.
• 18:52
  And I was like, oh, if I have an amazing day, I might, I could be
• 18:55
  close to like 20-2 ish hours. But the goal was 24.
• 18:58
  That was like the big goal. And, and take a step back to the
• 19:02
  other reason why I wanted to do this race was it is, I think,
• 19:06
  probably the second hardest 100 Miller on the East Coast at
• 19:11
  mountainous 100. I think I'd done a lot of
• 19:15
  research. Obviously there, there's lots of
• 19:17
  eastern staces up there, Mass and Nuttin.
• 19:21
  Like there are a lot of harder races.
• 19:23
  But this one with the vert with I think it had the longest
• 19:26
  course record time, like way longer than Grindstone.
• 19:30
  And I'm pretty sure Carl Meltzer had said this is out of all the
• 19:34
  races he's run, this is probably the hardest one.
• 19:37
  And he was actually in the race too.
• 19:39
  Yeah, he was actually in the race too, which is, which is
• 19:42
  kind of crazy. So anywho, I love speed goats.
• 19:49
  Anywho, yeah, so that was the other reason.
• 19:53
  Like I, I want, I think I like the hard mountain, steep climb,
• 19:57
  descent, that kind of thing. So that's the other reason why I
• 19:59
  want to do it. So it's a tougher race.
• 20:02
  So anyway, we get, we get to the start line and my plan was I
• 20:06
  wanted to want to run the first half smart or at least like 3
• 20:09
  mile 50, run it fairly conservative and in the
• 20:11
  second-half try to push the downhills 'cause I do.
• 20:14
  I was like, I think I'm a good downhill runner.
• 20:16
  I really want to push these downhills.
• 20:17
  So that was the plan going into it.
• 20:20
  And I remember this is kind of crazy, but I, I remember, you
• 20:25
  know, looking into, you know, some of the, the runners and
• 20:29
  stuff. And I knew that Kyle Curtain had
• 20:32
  was a very smart runner. You always paste things
• 20:34
  extremely smart. And I was like, he's going to
• 20:38
  get out very, very smart. So I'm just going to maybe hang
• 20:42
  around with him for a little while.
• 20:44
  And I, I'll just like admit this, which is kind of this is
• 20:47
  hilarious. This is so funny.
• 20:49
  But I do remember saying to one of my running friends, I was
• 20:52
  like, if I have a crazy good day out there, my plan, I'm going to
• 20:56
  try to hang with Kyle Curtin for the first half.
• 20:59
  And then on the the big decline after mile 50, big descent, I'm
• 21:03
  going to try to drop him. And it is so hilarious.
• 21:07
  I think back at that and I just crack up.
• 21:09
  Lava especially. I was left footed with my mom
• 21:11
  because she was there. That that was my mindset going
• 21:15
  in because I think I was through mile 50I was 30 minutes behind
• 21:20
  him and he ran the second-half five hours faster than I did.
• 21:24
  So like it was not even close. The total opposite of what?
• 21:30
  Yeah, I think it's totally insane that I even thought that
• 21:33
  in the 1st place. But hey, you got to have, you
• 21:35
  got to have confidence and he ran a crazy good race, which
• 21:38
  we'll talk about. But yeah, that's kind of my
• 21:40
  mindset going into it. Like I wanted to compete with
• 21:43
  some of the top guys and I didn't know.
• 21:44
  I was like, I think it could probably podium if I get in that
• 21:46
  22 hour range maybe. But you know, who knows?
• 21:51
  It was my first running more runnable race, so I had no idea.
• 21:57
  So we get on the start line and some people just go out ripping
• 21:59
  and I'm fairly fit, so I kind of go out harder in the 1st, you
• 22:04
  know, climbish 1st, 1020 miles, nothing crazy.
• 22:09
  Like I wasn't really dipping too much into, you know, getting
• 22:14
  myself to it to into a hole, but I was going up faster than I
• 22:16
  wanted to. Then my splits.
• 22:19
  But in the first part of the race, I actually was running
• 22:23
  with Kyle Curtin for like the first stretch.
• 22:26
  Up to the first, yeah, up to the first climb.
• 22:30
  And we were chatting for a while and, and which was kind of cool.
• 22:34
  And I, I knew that he had known Christina Fulsick because I
• 22:37
  think they had raced together. So we kind of like, and she was,
• 22:41
  she had coached me the year before.
• 22:43
  So we kind of were chatting a little bit and he was very, very
• 22:47
  nice, very cool. Like we didn't say, you know,
• 22:49
  didn't say talk too, too much, but yeah, it was cool.
• 22:52
  And I remember I did ask him. I was like, you know, give me
• 22:55
  some advice, man. You know, you got, you just hit
• 22:58
  me with a little bit of and he, he just said to me, he said run
• 23:02
  the first half smart and run the second-half tough.
• 23:05
  And I remember like running be like, all right, yeah, perfect.
• 23:08
  Like that's kind of my plan. That's what I want to do.
• 23:09
  Like nice. Like you heard it.
• 23:11
  You heard it here. First guy knows what he's doing.
• 23:15
  Come to find out, I, I, I made a modification to that phrase,
• 23:20
  which I guess we'll just put it in now.
• 23:21
  He was 100% on the money on any ultra run.
• 23:26
  The first half smart and the second-half tough.
• 23:28
  But no, I mean, like, really, really, really, really bleep and
• 23:33
  tough. That's my addition to, to the
• 23:35
  quote, because in this race, I just got hit like a brick.
• 23:39
  And it's, it's ultras are always going to be way tougher than you
• 23:44
  think. Even like, oh, no, I can suffer
• 23:46
  when it hits me, the pancake hits me, I'm going to get
• 23:49
  through it. No, whatever you're thinking,
• 23:51
  it's going to be worse. And you're going to have to be
• 23:53
  more mentally strong than even, you know, And I think that's why
• 23:57
  a lot of people love ultras. But yeah, so that's what he said
• 24:01
  to me there. And yeah, honestly, he started
• 24:04
  out running the race really good, like really smart.
• 24:07
  We were probably started out maybe like around 10, maybe
• 24:10
  around like 1515 to 10 in there for the first little like
• 24:17
  flatter section and then up the first big climb towards the top
• 24:21
  of the climb. I think we were probably like
• 24:23
  7889 or something like that and there were people moving.
• 24:26
  But on that first big climb, I passed a few people and he took
• 24:31
  off in front of me and I eventually caught up to him, but
• 24:34
  I passed a few other people. So usually in these ultras, I, I
• 24:39
  feel like a lot of people just go super hard from the
• 24:43
  beginning, like really, really hard.
• 24:46
  And everyone's fitness fairies and stuff.
• 24:48
  But yeah, I would say especially the first climb or the 1st,
• 24:54
  whatever of your ultra, if you can be passing people, that is a
• 24:57
  good sign because no one's that far ahead and it's just going to
• 25:02
  give you a momentum and you're like, all right, I'm doing good.
• 25:04
  So that's how the first climb went.
• 25:07
  And then the first descent after that, What do I remember for the
• 25:11
  first descent? I mean, it was dark.
• 25:13
  So the first like few hours you were in darkness, but it started
• 25:17
  to light up and I had never even seen these trails before or the
• 25:22
  day before. Did I take a walk on a trail?
• 25:24
  I don't even know if I did. I'd never seen the trails
• 25:26
  before. And I just remember when it got
• 25:28
  light. The trails were very, very cool
• 25:30
  out there. Like I said, they were less
• 25:32
  technical, more runny. But I mean, it was May and
• 25:35
  things were super green, super kind of bloomy.
• 25:38
  It looked a little bit different from here.
• 25:40
  I mean, like if anyone has been down in the Carolinas or
• 25:44
  wherever, you probably know what I'm talking about or down South
• 25:46
  hiking more. But the trolls are very, very
• 25:48
  cool. It was a different feel than up
• 25:50
  here. It was really thick and really
• 25:51
  green, but it was a nice place to run.
• 25:56
  And yeah, in the in the when it started daytime after the first
• 26:01
  big climb, you kind of go down a big descent.
• 26:03
  And I for sure was going pretty, pretty fast.
• 26:07
  I actually think that people running faster than me on the
• 26:12
  descents and I was climbing faster than the people around
• 26:15
  me, which was exactly backwards to how I thought it would be,
• 26:19
  which was very interesting. And I think really just come
• 26:22
  down to I'm, I wasn't and am not as good at running low grade
• 26:27
  descents as I am steep descents. And so, like, I remember on one
• 26:31
  of the first descents, that guy Jake Moreau, he comes ripping
• 26:36
  down the trail out of nowhere, like going so fast.
• 26:39
  He had full headphones in already.
• 26:41
  And I was like, this guy is, I mean, in my head I was like,
• 26:44
  this guy's got to blow up, right?
• 26:45
  Like he just is sprinting down this descent.
• 26:48
  But he ended up didn't blow up. But yeah, so people are moving
• 26:53
  fast in the descents. And I think I got tricked into
• 26:55
  moving a little bit faster on this descents than I wanted to.
• 26:58
  And so I think like on some of the faster, it was just so
• 27:02
  smooth and fast like I dropped like a few miles in the seven
• 27:06
  somethings, which on the downhill is not overworking me
• 27:11
  aerobically at all. Like it was definitely like zone
• 27:13
  one, probably zone one. It wasn't super hot, but but
• 27:20
  it's just a lot of impact on your legs.
• 27:23
  And if you're going to run that speed at the beginning of an
• 27:26
  ultra, you better be running at least 10 minute miles at the
• 27:30
  end. Because if you're not doing 10
• 27:32
  minute miles at the end, you got no business going 8 minutes, 7
• 27:36
  minute downhills at the beginning.
• 27:38
  Even if you're fit enough to do it, it just is going to destroy
• 27:42
  your legs more than it's going to help you if you really can't
• 27:45
  sustain it. And so if anything, you got to
• 27:48
  start slower and end, if you can be ending on 8 minute miles that
• 27:54
  that is like you probably ran really, really close to your
• 27:57
  potential. So that was definitely not
• 28:00
  great. But I remember ran some of the
• 28:02
  seven 30s in the field that kind of like the people around me, I
• 28:05
  kind of take it off in front. So I was probably, I don't know,
• 28:08
  8-7 or something like that still.
• 28:11
  And I was just amazed like I was dropping 7 something miles and
• 28:14
  all these people stood ahead of me.
• 28:15
  I was like, Dang, OK, well, they're getting after it.
• 28:17
  But there was an aid station that was a turn around.
• 28:20
  I forget what mile and it was, but at that aid station, I, I
• 28:23
  remember hearing the people at the aid station and I see
• 28:26
  running towards me because it was a quick little out and back
• 28:29
  was Kyle Curtin. So it was only a couple minutes
• 28:31
  ahead of me, which I was like, OK, perfect.
• 28:33
  Like you actually, you're not, don't worry, people are not.
• 28:36
  This is the thing in ultras, people disappear on the trails
• 28:40
  and in your head it's like, oh man, this is going a little bit
• 28:43
  harder than I thought. I'm going slower than I thought.
• 28:44
  These people are miles ahead of me.
• 28:46
  But in reality, usually they're not.
• 28:48
  Usually they're just going a little bit faster.
• 28:50
  Obviously sometimes they are. But that was a good like,
• 28:54
  alright, you're good. You don't have to like you're
• 28:55
  just just settling where you are.
• 28:58
  So settled in that next climb. And it was starting to get hot
• 29:02
  out. It was a hotter day and I think
• 29:05
  the beginning of the day was going to be hotter and then
• 29:06
  there was rain and cold at night.
• 29:08
  So I knew like heat, you know, I don't know if I got ice there,
• 29:11
  but was just trying to be conscious about dipping your hat
• 29:13
  in water, staying cool, drinking enough.
• 29:17
  But that next climb was a beast of a climb.
• 29:20
  It was something kind of like something similar you'd see
• 29:22
  around here without rocks. It was very steep.
• 29:24
  It was a 20 plus percent grade for 1000 feet or something like
• 29:27
  that, which I think I'd known. That was a very steep part and
• 29:33
  and it wasn't like I was unprepared, like I, I'm on these
• 29:36
  trails all the time, but was going up that and thinking it's
• 29:39
  steep and it's hot out here. And this is when a fellow comes
• 29:44
  up behind me, Sondre Steer Thornburgson.
• 29:48
  And I think, yeah, he was from Norway or something.
• 29:52
  He was from some of the country, from Europe.
• 29:54
  And he'd come over and he comes up behind me and we start
• 29:57
  chatting and kind of hit it off a little bit, or at least like,
• 30:00
  we got into a good conversation right away, you know, saying
• 30:04
  where I'm from, where he's from, whatever.
• 30:06
  I think I cracked a couple jokes.
• 30:07
  Like some of the the, you know, kind of cheesy jokes are like
• 30:11
  stupid jokes that I tell hit, which is like for me is like
• 30:15
  gold. So I said a couple of jokes that
• 30:17
  hey, he was laughing. It was good.
• 30:19
  And I could tell this dude was fit.
• 30:21
  He he was really fit, but he had just started at the back and I
• 30:24
  remember he had said to me, Oh, what, what place do you like, do
• 30:28
  you think we're in? And I was like, he was like,
• 30:31
  what do you think? We're like 40th or something,
• 30:34
  40th or 50th. And I and I turned around and
• 30:36
  was like, what? And he was like, what place do
• 30:39
  you think we're in? I was like, dude, we're like in
• 30:41
  7th place or 6th and 7th place or it was like something like
• 30:44
  that. And it was like, oh, wow, I
• 30:46
  didn't even know. I just there were so many people
• 30:47
  at the start line. I just kind of started running.
• 30:49
  I'm like, I'm like, OK, dude, that is in.
• 30:52
  I don't even know how his brain like could have thought that.
• 30:55
  But because there was only maybe like 150 Max, maybe 125 who
• 31:00
  started the race. So I don't know what that dude
• 31:03
  was on, but he, he, I was like, dude, we're in 6th place right
• 31:07
  now. He's like, oh, wow, cool.
• 31:09
  And so we chatted for a while and then one of the things was
• 31:12
  we went over Rattlesnake Rock or whatever it was.
• 31:15
  And I remember telling him he I knew he was going to pass me.
• 31:19
  Like he was doing a little bit better than I was, felt fresher,
• 31:22
  even though he was like, oh, wow, that first ascent really
• 31:24
  kind of was tough on the legs, which I will get back to
• 31:27
  hopefully. At one point I was like, yeah,
• 31:30
  you go first and stuck with him for a while and then eventually
• 31:34
  kind of took off ahead of me. But I remember saying like,
• 31:36
  yeah, I I'm really just glad you're here because, you know,
• 31:38
  you go over Rattlesnake Rock 1st and then, you know, I'm just
• 31:40
  going to hop over you once the snake gets you, which I think he
• 31:44
  thought was funny. And and then no, eventually we
• 31:47
  get up, we get on top of this climb and he goes off and I
• 31:51
  don't see him. And that was like a nice little
• 31:53
  encounter or whatever. Didn't think much about it.
• 31:56
  Or I did, you know, it was a nice to run with something like
• 31:58
  that, like you always when you have a good conversation.
• 32:00
  But that was like, OK, cool. He was a cool guy.
• 32:03
  From there, I get to an aid station at the end of that big
• 32:06
  climb. And I think we had a yeah, we
• 32:08
  had another descent before climbing up Mount Mitchell,
• 32:11
  which is the highest peak east of the Mississippi, which the
• 32:15
  race goes over. That's the middle climb.
• 32:18
  And before the descent, that next descent I caught up to this
• 32:22
  guy's name was Micah Bauer. I'm pretty sure he was another
• 32:26
  person. I think he's an all American
• 32:28
  marathoner. He was like a 220 something
• 32:31
  marathoner. He was he literally runs 90 or
• 32:34
  100 miles, 110 miles every single week.
• 32:37
  Go look at his Strava. I remember looking and be like,
• 32:39
  what is this guy's insane? He just doing walks and bikes
• 32:43
  and all this stuff all day, doing insane mileage, running
• 32:45
  super fast every day. And he had done like maybe like
• 32:50
  a PCT hike or some sort of hike that that.
• 32:53
  But anyway, but he was like an all American marathoner, so
• 32:56
  crazy good fitness, but caught up with to him at mile 30th or
• 32:59
  something, which I thought was interesting because in my head,
• 33:03
  Oh my God, this person is definitely working a lot less
• 33:05
  than I am. But I, you know, I didn't know
• 33:09
  his mountain experience, trail experience or whatever, But you
• 33:11
  know, I caught up to him and he, he was kind of like shrugging a
• 33:14
  little bit, which he ended up finishing the race in in just
• 33:17
  kind of baller fashion. But remember, caught up with
• 33:21
  him. I don't think I chatted with
• 33:22
  him. I think I just kind of passed
• 33:23
  and then the descent came, went down to that descent and I
• 33:27
  remember being so hot down that descent.
• 33:30
  No water. It was really hot and humid down
• 33:33
  there. Even though it was like 8, it
• 33:34
  was like in the 80s maybe it was going to get cooler.
• 33:37
  It felt just really hot and humid as you get into the
• 33:39
  valleys because you're going ±3, four thousand feet.
• 33:44
  So there are big temperature differences just like there are
• 33:46
  up here. So I was getting down lower and
• 33:49
  I was getting hotter and like, oh man, you know, kind of
• 33:51
  feeling a little bit not headachy, but woozy.
• 33:54
  But get down to that descent and there's like a big aid station.
• 33:58
  That was the first crew spot that I saw my mom.
• 34:01
  So I don't know if we did a shoe change or but I definitely got
• 34:04
  an ice band and I kind of got refueled, new, new, whatever,
• 34:07
  anything I needed. And then we're going climbing up
• 34:09
  Mount Mitchell and I actually felt like this was kind of the
• 34:12
  turning point. So I don't know what place I was
• 34:14
  in. Maybe somewhere 6:00 to 8:00.
• 34:17
  But Oh yeah, I must have been, I think I had climbed up to six.
• 34:21
  Yeah, I think I climbed up to 6 is what it was going up this
• 34:24
  climb. And I felt like I'd only been
• 34:26
  passing people, which is like perfect.
• 34:27
  It's going good. And going up this climb, I was
• 34:30
  kind of feeling, I was feeling pretty good, feeling better and
• 34:33
  better and thinking like, all right, this is like how like
• 34:35
  good, this is going to go good. So I climbed up and I think that
• 34:38
  that climb, I didn't see anyone for the pretty much the whole
• 34:41
  climb, all solo cool climb, like very low grade, a little bit
• 34:47
  technical on the on the Mount Mitchell, but like nothing
• 34:49
  around here. And when I got close to the top,
• 34:53
  I ended up passing or seeing the 5th place guy who is I think it
• 34:58
  was Sean Pope. Yeah, it was Sean Pope, who is a
• 35:00
  a local guy, strong runner and, and got up to the top tag Mount
• 35:06
  Mitchell, which it has this big. It's kind of like a Washington
• 35:09
  like obviously because it's such a big peak, I'm sure lots of
• 35:11
  people know it, but it had like a big, almost like you drive a
• 35:15
  car up like a big driveway, but I don't think cars go up there.
• 35:18
  Maybe they do. But it was like this big kind of
• 35:21
  like kind of curvy place up to the top.
• 35:23
  You touch the summit and they went back down to the aid
• 35:25
  station and from there I, I think yeah, that Sean Poker was
• 35:33
  going out of the aid station. When I was coming in, I saw my
• 35:35
  mom again, actually, she made it up to that aid station, got my
• 35:39
  stuff and was out of there. Like I was such in race mode.
• 35:42
  There's a couple pictures of like chips in my mouth and me
• 35:45
  just like I need my stuff and then I'm going.
• 35:47
  So I was in race mode going that down that next to Cent.
• 35:50
  There was a few miles of actually some decently technical
• 35:53
  stuff which I had known about. And again, here I caught up to
• 35:58
  that Sean Pope guy on the descent.
• 36:00
  And every time it got rocky technical, I would catch up to
• 36:04
  him on the descent. And then when it got smoothed
• 36:06
  out, he would just kind of like take off.
• 36:08
  And he had said, and we had kind of chatted for a while.
• 36:11
  I told him I was from New Hampshire.
• 36:12
  And he said, oh, I've been up there before.
• 36:13
  I really like the mountains up there.
• 36:15
  So we were chatting for a good while.
• 36:16
  But I remember he had said, like, after a couple times of
• 36:20
  catching up, he was like, damn, you can't run on rocks or
• 36:22
  something like that. And I was like, yeah, I wish the
• 36:24
  whole course was like this. But then when it smoothed out,
• 36:27
  he would just take off. So me and him are kind of doing
• 36:30
  a little leapfrogging. Like I think he was in 5th.
• 36:33
  So between 5th and 6th, 5th and 6th, and pretty much ended that
• 36:38
  descent. He was a little bit ahead of me.
• 36:40
  And this is when a rainstorm came in and everything went
• 36:43
  wrong for me. So I got down and I got to the
• 36:49
  aid station. My mom was there again.
• 36:50
  So it was another crewed aid station and I don't think Sean
• 36:54
  was there, but I knew it. Sean and Kyle had just recently
• 36:56
  in the last maybe half hour, gotten out of there.
• 36:58
  So I knew it was close. And I think my mom or someone
• 37:01
  had made a comment that Sean was saying, Oh, you were catching up
• 37:03
  to him on all the descents. He was faster on the descents.
• 37:07
  And so I was like, that's how it's been going.
• 37:09
  I that was the opposite of what I thought, but that's how it's
• 37:12
  been going. So I kind of real fueled up and
• 37:14
  at the ACH and it started downpouring and I was like, in
• 37:17
  my head, I was like, perfect. I'm a cold weather runner.
• 37:22
  We're about to climb. I'm let's go, like I love the,
• 37:26
  the gnarly weather. Let's go.
• 37:28
  I'm, I'm going to go catch this guy and so get fueled up, take
• 37:31
  off. And I think the aid station
• 37:33
  people were like, Oh, I don't know if you want to wait a
• 37:34
  little bit because it was like just sheets of rain.
• 37:37
  I was like, I, I'm in a race, people, you got get I'm in a
• 37:41
  race, I'm out of here. So I took off and this next
• 37:44
  climb I kind of started maybe pushing a little bit, but just
• 37:48
  going and out of nowhere, man, just energy, everything kind of
• 37:53
  just sucked out of me basically started bonking.
• 37:57
  It didn't feel like I didn't like I just was moving slow.
• 38:00
  It wasn't sometimes when you bonk, you know that your calorie
• 38:03
  like you're in a calorie deficit, but I didn't really
• 38:06
  feel in a calorie deficit. I just couldn't move fast.
• 38:10
  And so that climb ended up being a slog and I'd only, I only had
• 38:15
  two big climbs left. So it was like you just got to
• 38:17
  get up two big climbs and then you can breathe your way out
• 38:20
  and, and I started dogging it. And at the end of the climb, it
• 38:25
  flattens out for like a couple miles before the aid station and
• 38:28
  I couldn't even run at the top of it.
• 38:30
  I was down bad. I, my legs were just killing me.
• 38:36
  I had no like energy that I didn't even realize.
• 38:39
  Like I was just, I couldn't even run.
• 38:42
  And literally in my head I remember thinking, so we're at
• 38:44
  mile 60 now. I was thinking I may have to
• 38:47
  walk for 40 straight miles because for a mile I had flat
• 38:49
  stuff and I couldn't run it, could not run it.
• 38:52
  And I was on sub 24 pace up until mile 60.
• 38:56
  And then slowly I'm just getting behind like a couple miles go
• 38:59
  by. I'm like, wow, this is like
• 39:01
  something that I was thought I'd be running 11 minute miles on
• 39:04
  and was walking eighteens or something.
• 39:07
  You know, bad, bad, bad, BAD, bad.
• 39:11
  And so I walk into this aid station.
• 39:13
  I put on all my layers. Now I'm getting cold because now
• 39:16
  it's getting dark. I'm wet.
• 39:17
  It rained, and now I'm not moving at all.
• 39:19
  So I'm getting colder. And these are mountains.
• 39:22
  Like I remember thinking, Dang, this is kind of, you know, I'm
• 39:27
  freezing. I can't move.
• 39:28
  This is like not what you want to be like in the mountains and
• 39:31
  get to this aids next aid station.
• 39:33
  Oh, my guys, I'm cooked. I may need to I'm my legs are
• 39:36
  just destroyed. I don't know what happened.
• 39:38
  It hit me so fast and they're like, oh, just kind of you know,
• 39:41
  you're no, you're doing good or whatever.
• 39:43
  And subconsciously without knowing, I, I pretty much
• 39:47
  scrapped my like more in jails, all these things.
• 39:51
  And I was just like, I may have to walk this thing in like I
• 39:53
  have no, I'm done. And I know this happened fast,
• 39:56
  but this is actually what it felt like in the race.
• 39:58
  It happened just out of a blue. Like, how can I just be done?
• 40:01
  Like I got nothing. The part of me is like, do I
• 40:02
  want to walk for 40 miles? And so I was like, I'm out on
• 40:08
  the, the gels and stuff, like I might just eat whatever I want.
• 40:12
  So they had a little avocado toast.
• 40:14
  I was like, you know, let me see that toast ate the toast.
• 40:17
  And it like quick and they're like, oh, I can make another
• 40:19
  one. I was like, man, if you want.
• 40:20
  And then I saw these fudge stripe cookies that I used to
• 40:22
  love fudge stripe cookies. I was like, I'm gonna take a
• 40:24
  couple of these. And then I had some oranges
• 40:26
  'cause I always have an orange and a banana.
• 40:28
  And then and then I was like, I'm going to take a couple more
• 40:32
  cookies. I was loving these cookies.
• 40:33
  So I'm like eating all this food and then this person goes, do
• 40:36
  you want this piece of toast? So I was like, I'll take that
• 40:38
  toast to go. And they were, they were like,
• 40:40
  OK, I remember this one guy who I'll talk about at the end, but
• 40:44
  he said to me, he's like, dude, you're good.
• 40:46
  You just need to eat. Like you just ate so much more.
• 40:49
  You look as good as the other guys.
• 40:50
  Like you just, you just need to eat, dude.
• 40:53
  I think you're going to finish six or something like that or
• 40:55
  whatever. I was in and I because I told
• 40:57
  him I was like, I got to walk the rest of the way.
• 40:58
  I'm done. And it's like, I don't know what
• 41:01
  this guy was talking about, but so I end up going because at
• 41:03
  this point I'm maybe in like 7th or 8th, like at 1, I think one
• 41:07
  or two, maybe just one person had passed me.
• 41:09
  No two people had passed me. And I was like, why?
• 41:12
  I can't believe two people have passed me.
• 41:13
  For the last hour I've just been twiddling my thumbs out here and
• 41:16
  no one's caught up to me. It's going to start happening
• 41:19
  soon for sure. But I kept going and then this
• 41:24
  one guy, so no one person passed me.
• 41:26
  And then one guy come up, he passed me and something in my
• 41:29
  head kind of like lit a fire. And I started running again on
• 41:32
  this downhill, like trying to. And it really hurt my legs.
• 41:36
  Like the biggest thing, my legs were really hurting.
• 41:39
  Like that was one of the big things that happened kind of
• 41:42
  fast. And then I start running and I
• 41:44
  think with the food, you start running a little bit of
• 41:47
  adrenaline. I'm running fast again.
• 41:49
  And I'm like, oh, my God. And I caught up to the guy ahead
• 41:52
  of me and he must have been like, oh, I should pass this
• 41:54
  guy. And he was walking and saying,
• 41:56
  like, I got to walk it in. Now he's just running.
• 41:59
  And we ran 10 minute miles out for a few miles together.
• 42:03
  And it was actually kind of like a little bit of a camaraderie.
• 42:05
  I think we both kind of like picked each other up a little
• 42:07
  bit. He was Chase, His name was Chase
• 42:09
  Price and he had ran a couple of fast, flatter races.
• 42:15
  So he was a strong runner, but like another like a bigger kind
• 42:18
  of like athletic, you know, super strong guy.
• 42:21
  And so I ran with him for a while.
• 42:23
  I was like, you know, and I was just all of a sudden back and in
• 42:27
  my head, obviously looking back, I was just calorie deficient or
• 42:31
  I was, I needed more calories, I needed more food.
• 42:34
  And then the other thing I think was happening was I was tired
• 42:38
  and I wasn't eating enough and I couldn't diagnose that that was
• 42:41
  what was going on. Like because your legs, you run
• 42:44
  60 miles, they're going to hurt. Like no crap.
• 42:47
  But I didn't process like you just need to eat.
• 42:51
  Probably take some caffeine. They gave me a couple caffeine
• 42:53
  pills at the thing and just be tough.
• 42:56
  Be tougher than you know what I mean, tougher than it.
• 42:59
  Would Kyle Kurt be tough? No, like really, really, really,
• 43:02
  really freaking tough. That's what you have to do in
• 43:04
  the back half of these races. So that's what I kind of started
• 43:06
  doing and we I ran with him and then we had a Six Mile descent
• 43:12
  and I remember my legs were in a lot of pain and I was like, you
• 43:16
  are going to run every step of this.
• 43:18
  It was like a gravelly Rd. because I'd I'd seen yeah, this
• 43:23
  is before an aid station, so no. So I roam with him, we get an
• 43:25
  aid station and then there's another aid station a few miles
• 43:28
  where I see my mom before this gravelly 6 mile Rd.
• 43:31
  And on this, this was still a different ravally road that I
• 43:35
  was on before, the one I just said.
• 43:37
  But on that road, there were some people camping out there.
• 43:40
  And I was, I was pumped, my energy was back.
• 43:42
  Actually passed Chase for a little bit.
• 43:44
  He was back at the aid station. I'd passed him.
• 43:46
  So I don't know what place I was in, but I was running, I was
• 43:48
  feeling good. And there were some people in a
• 43:50
  campfire and they were drinking, like they were kind of hooting
• 43:52
  and hollering, like doing their thing.
• 43:53
  And as I ran by, they're like, yeah, whoo, cuz they must have
• 43:56
  been cheering people on. And I remember I literally
• 43:58
  yelled. I was like, let's go, I'm back.
• 44:01
  Woo, like just like how and doing whatever and they like
• 44:05
  they loved it because they were just like wasted or whatever.
• 44:07
  So they're and I'm like, Oh my God, like adrenaline pumping
• 44:10
  like I was back. I was dead and now I'm back zero
• 44:13
  to 100 so fast. I just needed some food and I
• 44:18
  ran that to the next aid station, saw my mom and I think
• 44:21
  I'd fallen so far behind on the tracker by an hour or two.
• 44:24
  I said I had some whatever, but I'm feeling good now.
• 44:27
  I'm back and she's like OK, OK, got my stuff and head out and
• 44:30
  I'm good. And so like I said, the Six Mile
• 44:33
  Gravelly Rd. this is where I kind of started feeling like it
• 44:37
  was hurting again. It was painful, but I was like,
• 44:39
  no, this is what you said. You felt the pain Cave and
• 44:43
  Jigger Johnson 101st time I was ever in the paint cave and I
• 44:46
  remember saying next time I get in the paint cave, I'm going to
• 44:49
  I'm going to be tough because I now I know what it feels like
• 44:52
  and I can endure, but I want to try to be tough.
• 44:54
  And on that Six Mile Gravelly Rd.
• 44:56
  I said to myself, you're going to run every step.
• 44:58
  It hurts a lot. You're going to run every step,
• 45:01
  and I did. And I think that was a big win
• 45:04
  for me kind of mentally because I think I definitely was being
• 45:07
  tougher. Even though I had that blip, I
• 45:09
  was being tougher than I had been in the past.
• 45:12
  Like pushing through, really, really pushing myself one mile
• 45:15
  at a time, just head down. And shortly after that descent,
• 45:20
  my kind of toughness ran out a little bit, which basically
• 45:26
  toughness is a skill. It's a muscle.
• 45:29
  You have to work it. And you know, when Courtney
• 45:32
  Dewalter says, chipping away at the pain cave, I think that
• 45:36
  analogy, I totally get it now. Each time you do something
• 45:39
  really hard, you can be a little bit tougher and grit a little
• 45:44
  bit more. But it's not something that you
• 45:46
  can just lights on. I'm going to see red and be, oh,
• 45:50
  you know, I got the mindset. I've been doing meditate all
• 45:53
  this stuff. I'm going to be once I get
• 45:55
  there, I'm going to just face it on Nope.
• 45:58
  It's like you'll do a little bit better than last time and then
• 46:01
  the next time, hopefully do a little bit better.
• 46:03
  And it's like building a capacity, growing a muscle for
• 46:06
  enduring like that. I think it's not a flip and you
• 46:09
  have to learn it and acquire it over time.
• 46:12
  And that's a big lesson that I did learn.
• 46:14
  So I was proud that I I grinded a little bit more, but I didn't,
• 46:18
  it wasn't like I could just flip the switch and grind for 30
• 46:20
  miles because when you're in so much pain, it's hard to do it
• 46:23
  for 30 miles. You run six, you run a mile and
• 46:27
  you're like, wow, I got to do it 29 times.
• 46:28
  That took all I had. And so it's just a muscle you
• 46:32
  got to work. So that's why I learned there
• 46:34
  and it hit me. And so basically I had 20 miles
• 46:37
  left and I canned it in on the last climb.
• 46:41
  One of my knees, like one of the tendons of my knees, like really
• 46:45
  flared up and really, really hurt, which I wasn't really
• 46:48
  expecting on a climb, which really slowed me down.
• 46:51
  And I was hitting kind of a wall again.
• 46:53
  Like, I think I was just calorie, you know, behind on
• 46:56
  calories. And I was tired.
• 46:58
  Like, I think being tired definitely played into it.
• 47:01
  And I did this whole race with no pacer.
• 47:03
  So I had seen a few people, but I had no pacer to like lift up
• 47:08
  the spirits, take care of me, guide me, literally just tell me
• 47:10
  to eat and drink a little bit more, take some caffeine or
• 47:12
  whatever. And so I just kind of like
• 47:16
  collapsed from there. I finally made it to the last of
• 47:18
  the the last climb and I hit an aid station there.
• 47:22
  And this is another thing that I learned in an ultra late at
• 47:26
  night, if it's cold, especially when you're starting to like
• 47:29
  bomb or like not too good, you are not going to stay warm.
• 47:34
  And if your legs get really cold when you stop at an aid station
• 47:40
  and they're in pain and they get cold, you lock up, it's going to
• 47:43
  take a long time for them to warm up and like feel good
• 47:46
  again. So I stayed in an aid station,
• 47:48
  ate some food, like maybe 5-10 minutes, and it took me 20
• 47:53
  minutes for my legs to warm up. Like, I'm like, Oh my God, my
• 47:56
  legs were just toast after coming out of it because they
• 48:00
  were cold locked up. And so in any aid station when
• 48:04
  it's cold, when you don't, like I was in shorts, like probably a
• 48:07
  lot of people put pants on. But if you're not, if you're
• 48:09
  underdressed, you have to keep moving.
• 48:12
  Because if I just grab food, grab drink and kept moving, my
• 48:15
  legs would have never shut off. They would have been fine.
• 48:19
  And I probably would have not had the 5 or 10 minutes at the
• 48:22
  aid station and then I wouldn't have had the 5 or 10 minutes
• 48:25
  like trying to like wake them back up on the descent.
• 48:28
  So that's another piece of a tip.
• 48:31
  If you're getting cold, you got to make sure you stay warm and
• 48:33
  stay moving because it's going to double cost you time getting
• 48:37
  warmed up again. And then on the way out, I get
• 48:40
  to the end of this last descent and there's like an 8 mile, 6
• 48:44
  mile Rd. run out and you're at mile 98 or 96 or whatever.
• 48:49
  And I'm just, I'm in, not, I'm out of it.
• 48:52
  I'm just like, I need to get to the finish.
• 48:53
  I'm so done. This is insane.
• 48:55
  I get to the end. I'm like, I have 6 miles like
• 48:57
  that could be two hours like this is.
• 48:59
  I was in the depths of it. Some people had caught up to me
• 49:03
  at that final aid station. I think like two people.
• 49:06
  So I was now in in, you know, I was kind of clinging to 6th, 7th
• 49:11
  like, but then I dropped and then and then whoever passed me
• 49:14
  at the the last two people passed me and I was in 9th and
• 49:19
  part of me was like, I might just walk this it like I was in
• 49:23
  so much pain. I was so done.
• 49:26
  I was so defeated. And yeah, honestly, I ended up
• 49:32
  running the last couple miles in that were super painful and I
• 49:35
  made it to the end. But that the the end.
• 49:37
  I just, I mean, completely cratered, underfed under
• 49:41
  toughness. I mean, just just like I got my
• 49:43
  teeth kicked in and I ended up finishing in 2630, which is
• 49:49
  still a great time. I finished in 9th place overall,
• 49:53
  top 10. It was close to 24 hours.
• 49:57
  You know, with all the adversity I faced, no pace or no sleep,
• 50:00
  you know, all the pain, I made it.
• 50:02
  I got the buckle. Like I was very much happy with
• 50:05
  that time. Like I thought I was going to
• 50:06
  have to walk for 40 miles. I didn't.
• 50:07
  I threw down 2020 good miles out of that last 40.
• 50:13
  But yeah, that that just, I mean, it taught me a lot of
• 50:16
  lessons and I just, I got absolutely beat up in that race.
• 50:21
  And so I think, yeah, the learning lessons, like I said,
• 50:25
  getting sleep is important. At least one R.E.M. cycle.
• 50:28
  Having a pacer is in 100 is going to help you with just
• 50:32
  keeping your stuff together at the end and a little bit of
• 50:35
  motivation. Eating enough food, drinking
• 50:37
  caffeine and food. If you're feeling crappy bonky,
• 50:40
  your legs hurt, Caffeine and food can help a ton.
• 50:44
  Like that is like the main thing.
• 50:45
  Get caffeine and food in, stay warm, and be really, really,
• 50:50
  really, really, really freaking tough.
• 50:51
  Don't be tough. Be really, really, really,
• 50:53
  really, really, really, really, really tough.
• 50:55
  And I mean that some people probably laugh, as I said, up
• 50:57
  four times, but it's the truth. Like, it always hurts way more
• 51:02
  because humans are not supposed to run for 100 straight miles.
• 51:07
  That, I think is what amazes me about these ultras.
• 51:10
  Like the top athletes, the Courtney DeWalt is all these top
• 51:13
  people, they feel the same pain that you feel because human
• 51:19
  bodies are not meant to do this stuff.
• 51:21
  And the people that are pushing the limits and consistently do
• 51:24
  it, they are just obviously fitter, more trained than you,
• 51:28
  but they are just way tougher than you and they feel the same
• 51:32
  things. Their legs are made of muscles
• 51:35
  and tendons and just like yours, it is.
• 51:37
  You're just a little soft tissue BLOB human.
• 51:42
  Same pain, but they just pushed through it.
• 51:44
  And so those are all the lessons learned in the recap.
• 51:48
  And to recap the race. So I get down the end of the
• 51:51
  race, a few things I want to circle back on one that aid
• 51:55
  station volunteer at the 60 mile aid station, he was there at the
• 51:58
  finish line and I think he kind of congratulated me.
• 52:01
  He definitely remembered who I was.
• 52:03
  I didn't finish like the 6th or 7th that he said I would, but I
• 52:06
  finished 9th. Like still a lot better than I
• 52:08
  thought I was going to. And I wish I could tell him
• 52:12
  maybe one day if I go to the race again, he might be there.
• 52:14
  But I don't know, Like at the end of these races, you're kind
• 52:17
  of your, your brains, mashed potatoes, you don't know.
• 52:20
  I wish I could tell him how valuable he saved my race.
• 52:24
  I appreciated it so much. Thank you.
• 52:28
  Like you meant the world to me, like you saved.
• 52:31
  I wish I could just tell him that because he really did.
• 52:34
  And I saw him at the end. I definitely said thanks or
• 52:36
  whatever, I remembered him or whatever, but he didn't probably
• 52:39
  understand how much he did help me.
• 52:41
  So shout out to that aid station volunteer.
• 52:44
  There's probably millions of stories like that of aid
• 52:46
  stations volunteer, just like saving people's races.
• 52:49
  So that's always cool. So that was the end of the race.
• 52:52
  I remember I sat down next to a heater, my body was freezing and
• 52:56
  in like 20 minutes I I turned to my mom.
• 52:58
  I was like, I need to get out of here.
• 53:00
  My body's about to shut down. I haven't slept in two days, 2
• 53:03
  1/2 days. I'm freezing, I'm distraught.
• 53:05
  I can't even keep like I need to get out of here now.
• 53:10
  And I think she realized like, oh, this he is messed up.
• 53:12
  But so it was the end of the race.
• 53:14
  And so took a recap that year. So I get to the end and
• 53:20
  apparently my boy Sondra steer Thorn Bergson finishes course
• 53:27
  record. So the course record was like
• 53:29
  2130. He runs 20 hours, 0 minutes and
• 53:32
  44 seconds. He beats Kyle Curtain by 5
• 53:36
  minutes and 32 seconds. So a photo finish at the end of
• 53:41
  the this race here, which was super quiet.
• 53:43
  I remember hearing that being like Sondra, let's go dude, my
• 53:48
  guy. So that was super cool.
• 53:51
  And that's, I mean, he was a robot out there in the in the if
• 53:57
  you looked at a straw or whatever and in cows right up.
• 54:00
  They basically were neck and neck for that last Six Mile Rd.
• 54:02
  stretch. And Sondre finished it out with
• 54:05
  like a 6464630. Unbelievable.
• 54:11
  To run 104 miles, 24,000 feet of game and finish with a 21
• 54:15
  minute, 105K sets obliterates the course record.
• 54:20
  Beats Kyle Kurt in the pro. And I remember what he said to
• 54:23
  me on the climb. I should have said this earlier,
• 54:24
  but he said, yeah, I really want to finish it.
• 54:27
  I want to make it hurt. Those are his two goals for the
• 54:30
  race. When he thought he was in 50th
• 54:31
  place, well, he came back and ran the course record.
• 54:34
  An amazing run. That run is just so, so
• 54:36
  impressive. And obviously Kyle's was too.
• 54:38
  But he couldn't catch up. And I think in Kyle Curtin's
• 54:42
  recap, he said, you know, I was working well with my pacer.
• 54:45
  We could see his light in the in the in in front of us at times
• 54:49
  like we, I really thought I was going to catch him.
• 54:51
  I I gave all I had. I was running seven 30s, but
• 54:54
  this guy ended was freaking six 30s.
• 54:58
  So that was cool. So they had just a, a slugfest
• 55:02
  out there. And then third place is that guy
• 55:04
  Mark Marcus Welker. He ran a 2132, which I don't
• 55:08
  know if that's the third fastest or fourth fastest time, but he
• 55:11
  had a really, really strong time.
• 55:12
  And then there were three people who were under the 24 hour mark.
• 55:16
  Sean Pope, Jake Morrow, Randy Elliott, Those are all people
• 55:20
  that I think if I, if I'd just eaten more and been tougher, I
• 55:23
  would or just had a pacer like any of those 3, all of those
• 55:26
  three I would have been in the mix with.
• 55:28
  But they ran, they ran better. And then there was Chase Price,
• 55:33
  William Connell and me. We ended in 261326162630.
• 55:38
  So we're those are the two people right, Right at the end.
• 55:42
  And and then 10th place, 30 minutes, 25 minutes behind me
• 55:47
  was Meg Landymoore. So that was that race.
• 55:52
  And again, I think this is like learning lessons if everything
• 55:57
  went. Right, I think I.
• 55:58
  Definitely could have got sub 24 at that race been been more
• 56:01
  competitive, but and and and these things are like little
• 56:05
  things during the race that I could have done differently, but
• 56:08
  I didn't. I think one of my pet peeves is
• 56:11
  when people do races and then like every ultra, you just see a
• 56:15
  list of why people didn't do as good as they want like in the
• 56:18
  recap, which here are my thoughts.
• 56:21
  I'm not saying like, so obviously I just talked about
• 56:23
  all the things I could have done better, but that day I did not
• 56:27
  have the skill set or the capacity to run.
• 56:30
  What I, what I'm saying like my potential was I just didn't have
• 56:34
  the skill set. Like everyone's like, oh, I
• 56:35
  could have done better. I should have done better If I
• 56:37
  this, this or this happened, but I just didn't have the skill set
• 56:41
  or, or that day. I just didn't have what it takes
• 56:44
  to hit those times. So things that I could have,
• 56:47
  these are things that I could improve for next time.
• 56:50
  If I did them better, it would have led to better results.
• 56:52
  But I didn't in the time, like I just didn't have the skill set.
• 56:57
  And it's just all it's all kind of like learning.
• 56:59
  So yeah, in in like Strava, write write ups.
• 57:02
  If if your race goes bad, talk at least about the good things
• 57:05
  too, because every ultra things go wrong like that.
• 57:08
  This is what ultras are. It's problem solving.
• 57:10
  It's getting through like nobody just goes out there and 100
• 57:13
  miles just skips and feels great and no stomach or whatever.
• 57:17
  You're always going to face things.
• 57:18
  So instead of just blaming these things for happening, it's like
• 57:22
  you just didn't have the skill set to handle those things in
• 57:25
  the moment, which is cool. That's like every like everybody
• 57:28
  you just have to learn from. But it's not, you know, no pity
• 57:33
  parties after these ultras, if stuff happens, deal with the
• 57:37
  best you can, try to finish and and and that's all you can do.
• 57:42
  So that was the race there. That was the hellbender recap,
• 57:48
  which, yeah, I definitely want to go to that race again.
• 57:51
  It it's a very cool race, but I have some other things first.
• 57:56
  But I would definitely recommend it.
• 57:57
  And when I was down there, I was like, I could live in winters
• 58:01
  Nashville. It's it's nice down here.
• 58:03
  I like it, but that was the. Hell Bender recap all.
• 58:07
  Right, so we got 2 quick things to end this off.
• 58:10
  So the first we're going to go through the Tark Yeti Trail Trot
• 58:15
  50K results, first ultra of the year.
• 58:18
  So like I said at the beginning, this was the Gills Athletic Club
• 58:23
  Fat Ass 50K in November. Give you a little bit of
• 58:29
  background. November 20th, 2025 is from Mass
• 58:32
  Ultra, the blog. This is the race director of the
• 58:35
  Gills Athletic Club Fat Ass 50K. After 25 years of kicking off
• 58:40
  the ultra running New Year in New England, the Gills Athletic
• 58:44
  Club is hanging up its sneakers, so to speak.
• 58:47
  In a post to the club's website, race director Rodger Martel
• 58:52
  announced that the GAC 50 Fat Ass 50K will not return 2026.
• 58:57
  All good things must come to an end.
• 58:59
  Martel wrote. After 25 years, the run has its
• 59:03
  last loop. Thanks to all the runners who
• 59:05
  have come Dave come over and run over the years.
• 59:11
  So that was kind of no longer that's it.
• 59:15
  And I haven't been to the race, don't know much about this race,
• 59:17
  but sounds like it's a long standing tradition kicking off
• 59:20
  the ultra running year. But then in 20 on December 26th,
• 59:25
  Mass Blog writes a New England Trail and ultra running Classic
• 59:29
  event will return in 2026. After all, barely a month after
• 59:33
  the Gills Athletic Club announced that its popular GAC
• 59:36
  Fat Ass 50K. How many times am I going to say
• 59:39
  GAC Fat Ass 50K would not return following a 25 year run?
• 59:43
  The region's official kickoff to the new trail and ultra running
• 59:46
  season. Now the event has been revived
• 59:48
  by the Trail Animals Running Club.
• 59:51
  In an announcement to the Tark Facebook page, Patrick Karen
• 59:55
  shared the news. We're excited to take over.
• 59:57
  It is now going to go by the name of Tark Yeti Trail Trot.
• 1:00:02
  So cool. So a race kind.
• 1:00:03
  Of dies and tark. Steps in, they have a bunch of
• 1:00:06
  cool races and and they take it over.
• 1:00:09
  So it relives. And so that was the first race
• 1:00:12
  of the year and so they ran it this year.
• 1:00:15
  So there was obviously this race before this was kind of the
• 1:00:19
  first year as the the Yeti trot 50K, but it's been run before as
• 1:00:24
  the fat as 50K and the the event is it's a marathon and a 50K
• 1:00:31
  with a it's like undulating trail.
• 1:00:33
  So I think the 50K at about 2300 feet avert there are 10K loops
• 1:00:37
  and participants can do one to five 10K loops.
• 1:00:40
  And what's cool about this totally free, totally a free
• 1:00:44
  event, which is awesome. And I think the goal, I think
• 1:00:48
  they said to like the goal of this event.
• 1:00:50
  It's kind of loosely goes through results, but it's kind
• 1:00:54
  of a it's a semi official timing, laid back family reunion
• 1:00:58
  style atmosphere. Anyone can come for free, do as
• 1:01:02
  many loops, do your thing. So really cool event and the
• 1:01:07
  course records at the event, the male record 2019 Patrick Karen.
• 1:01:11
  He runs a 323 for the 50K and then female no, no shockers
• 1:01:16
  there. And then the female 50K record
• 1:01:19
  Lila Godrealt running last year, 2024.
• 1:01:23
  Two years ago she ran 351. So those are the course records
• 1:01:26
  for the 50K. And obviously when you have a
• 1:01:29
  winter ultra, conditions can be all over the place.
• 1:01:33
  Conditions were extremely icy this year from what it sounds
• 1:01:36
  like with all this freeze, melt, whatever.
• 1:01:39
  And so it was a skating rink out there to say the least.
• 1:01:42
  But we'll go through the top three times from the 50K and the
• 1:01:45
  marathon. So top three men in the 50K.
• 1:01:48
  First overall, Tom Hanlon, he runs a 340.
• 1:01:54
  That is a 659 minute pace on ice, 450K on trails.
• 1:02:01
  I don't know Tom. I got to look up Tom.
• 1:02:03
  That is extremely fast. 2nd place person with Jonathan
• 1:02:07
  Western. He ran a 420.
• 1:02:09
  So Tom finishes 40 minutes before John, who I know is a
• 1:02:12
  fast marathoner. I think he ran Jigger Johnson
• 1:02:15
  with me that first year. I think he DNF but he came in
• 1:02:18
  second and Tom beats him by 4040 minutes.
• 1:02:21
  What Does anyone know if Tom Hanlon was on ice skates out
• 1:02:25
  there? This guy might have been skating
• 1:02:26
  around because he put the beat down out there, but he runs 340.
• 1:02:31
  John was 420 and then Joshua McGill runs a 449 to finish out
• 1:02:36
  the podium there. And then the top three women,
• 1:02:40
  Jennifer Bosco, she runs five hours, 28 seconds.
• 1:02:44
  She almost slipped somewhere to the five hour mark, but still
• 1:02:48
  very, very impressive. 2nd place Mika Sao Sawata five O 5 and
• 1:02:56
  then third place Charlotte Kelly 529.
• 1:03:01
  So those are the 50K results and then the marathon results top
• 1:03:06
  three men. First off Todd Callahan, he runs
• 1:03:10
  a 337. Gregory Lowe runs a 426 in
• 1:03:15
  second and then Sasha Mcgurran runs a 456 for 3rd.
• 1:03:21
  So that was the top three men's, and again, Todd wins by almost
• 1:03:27
  50 minutes. So I.
• 1:03:28
  Mean Todd and Tom, they went in there with ice skates and we're
• 1:03:31
  just like, hey God, this would be this would be fun.
• 1:03:33
  We'll only use them when no one's around.
• 1:03:36
  No, I'm just totally kidding. And then top three women.
• 1:03:39
  First was Rebecca Hill, 540 second Lori Wetzel, 5.
• 1:03:45
  OK, Rebecca Hill 54018, first place, second place, Lori
• 1:03:49
  Wetzel, 54018. They tied.
• 1:03:54
  But but I guess Rebecca Hill also won.
• 1:03:56
  Maybe she she edged out a little bit, but sounds like two people
• 1:03:59
  came into the finish at the end together and maybe Laurie let
• 1:04:03
  Rebecca take the first place overall.
• 1:04:05
  Very nice. And then third overall in the
• 1:04:09
  marathon was Jennifer Rizzo. She runs a 6:05 and those were
• 1:04:14
  the results from the race. So a cool race.
• 1:04:17
  It is being continued. It's kick.
• 1:04:19
  It kicks off the ultra, New England ultra running this year.
• 1:04:23
  And I think January 2nd said mark your calendars 2027.
• 1:04:27
  It's going to kick off the year next year.
• 1:04:30
  The only other race I want to talk about was the Burke's
• 1:04:34
  Treadmill Marathon and Frozen Frozen Folly Virtual 50K.
• 1:04:41
  Holy tongue Twister. This is, I think it goes for the
• 1:04:44
  whole month, but it's basically like a virtual DIY.
• 1:04:48
  You can run a marathon, you can run a 50K, you can run a
• 1:04:51
  marathon and a 50K. You can run 250 KS.
• 1:05:00
  Race Register. For one race or all three.
• 1:05:03
  So it sounds like it is a free for all.
• 1:05:05
  It's kind of a fun challenge. OK, so yeah.
• 1:05:08
  Select any 36 hour period between January 1st and January
• 1:05:11
  31st to log your distance. You have 36 hours to do it and
• 1:05:16
  you can post in the Facebook page, e-mail the race director.
• 1:05:19
  Cumulative time for those different races.
• 1:05:24
  Early registration $10.00 for another.
• 1:05:25
  Cheap race, but. That is the other race that's
• 1:05:27
  currently going on in January that that there may be some
• 1:05:32
  results from, but we don't have the full slate.
• 1:05:34
  So we'll get that at the end of the month.
• 1:05:38
  But alright, that was the that was the race results section.
• 1:05:42
  And then last last thing, top three, top three fruits.
• 1:05:48
  So last thing for today, we got one O 6 the top three fruits.
• 1:05:55
  This is this is going to be tough.
• 1:05:57
  I actually didn't even prep this at all.
• 1:05:59
  I just wrote this on a whim at the at the end top three fruits.
• 1:06:02
  So this is going to be off the cuff and hopefully I I'm going
• 1:06:05
  to I'm going to talk to them some things, but it's going to
• 1:06:08
  be very, very tough for me. But OK, hold on my top.
• 1:06:12
  Three favorite fruit, I think. Like I said, I have a lot of
• 1:06:16
  fruits that in the summer they hit really, really good and I
• 1:06:19
  and I would say like all these are my top three favorite fruits
• 1:06:23
  when things are good. But in the dog days in the
• 1:06:27
  winter, I think for sure, without a doubt my number one
• 1:06:31
  favorite fruit. I love it when it's good.
• 1:06:34
  I love it even in the winter. You still get good ones.
• 1:06:38
  You can do regular, you can do frozen.
• 1:06:40
  I put it in smoothies. I eat it all every week for a
• 1:06:42
  couple basses every week, every day in my smoothies.
• 1:06:46
  The blueberry, the blueberry is my number one fruit.
• 1:06:49
  When it hits really good, it's so good.
• 1:06:52
  It's a staple, so it's you know what you're going to get.
• 1:06:55
  Usually it can be really good, but you know what you're going
• 1:06:57
  to get. You can put in smoothies
• 1:06:58
  diverse. I I made a carton of blueberries
• 1:07:01
  before my my, my afternoon run. Beautiful.
• 1:07:06
  That is my number one fruit from here.
• 1:07:08
  It gets dicey. I think from here I'm actually
• 1:07:11
  going to go with, and this is kind of a more recent
• 1:07:14
  development, probably in the last year, my number two
• 1:07:17
  favorite fruits. And this is just because we're
• 1:07:20
  going to go with hassle too, because some fruits are kind of
• 1:07:22
  a hassle to make and eat. But #2 I'm going to go with
• 1:07:28
  pineapple. In the winter you can get, I
• 1:07:31
  don't know where you get pineapples from, but in the
• 1:07:32
  winter you get the good, you can get a good pineapple.
• 1:07:35
  In the summer you get a good pineapple.
• 1:07:36
  I don't can you even get fresh pineapples?
• 1:07:39
  I don't know where they grow pineapples, but I can get good
• 1:07:42
  ones all year round. And if you get it and you cut it
• 1:07:45
  up, you do work if you get a good pineapple.
• 1:07:49
  Oh man, I love a good pineapple and I think I'm going to give it
• 1:07:53
  when it hits really good. It hits good.
• 1:07:55
  And I think just the year round aspect is why it's in my top
• 1:08:00
  three now. It could be 3, you know,
• 1:08:03
  depending because it it's a lot of hassle to kind of cut it up.
• 1:08:05
  I like to cut it up. If you buy the cut up ones at
• 1:08:09
  the store, it's not as good and you're basically getting robbed.
• 1:08:12
  No, I, I sometimes I get it too, but they're just way more
• 1:08:15
  expensive when it's pre cut, which makes sense because you go
• 1:08:17
  to cut them and you're like, God, I hate cutting these
• 1:08:19
  things, but pineapple is going to be in there.
• 1:08:22
  Now from here. What I'm thinking there's a few
• 1:08:25
  options and I'm going to throw out someones that I don't even
• 1:08:28
  know what I'm I don't even know what I'm going to put in there
• 1:08:31
  put in here. But I think when a strawberry is
• 1:08:34
  really, really good, strawberries can be there.
• 1:08:37
  But strawberries are kind of inconsistent for me.
• 1:08:39
  I feel like I can't get a good strawberry in the winter.
• 1:08:42
  I haven't I've tried some straw. A good fresh strawberry though,
• 1:08:46
  is so good. So that's what I'm thinking,
• 1:08:49
  watermelon. When you get a good fresh
• 1:08:52
  watermelon, who like so good that one, that one's close that
• 1:08:57
  I think that one's probably above strawberry for me, just
• 1:08:59
  because how do I feel I can get more good?
• 1:09:02
  Watermelons and when it hits? Really.
• 1:09:04
  Good. I think it's a little bit better
• 1:09:05
  as a strawberry for me. Something about I guess it cut
• 1:09:08
  up strawberry, but watermelons up there.
• 1:09:11
  Another one that people are going to hate, but I'm going to
• 1:09:14
  put it in there because I just don't care.
• 1:09:17
  Banana is a contender because I eat probably at least 2 bananas
• 1:09:21
  every day, sometimes 3, rarely one, usually 2 staple.
• 1:09:27
  It's cheap. It doesn't knock your socks off,
• 1:09:29
  but it shows up. I mean, it is always going to be
• 1:09:34
  a solid fruit. Now you got to time it.
• 1:09:36
  I mean, I got to get a green bunch, I got to get an in
• 1:09:39
  between bunch, and I got to get a yellow bunch to get a full
• 1:09:41
  good week. But a banana is just such a
• 1:09:45
  staple. It's never over the top, but
• 1:09:47
  it's always there. So do I, do I grant?
• 1:09:49
  Like what am I granting here? You know, do you grant stability
• 1:09:53
  or do you grant at the upside? It's tough.
• 1:09:56
  It's tough because in the winter, because in the winter
• 1:09:58
  it's nice. And then in another category
• 1:10:00
  with the banana, I think an apple.
• 1:10:03
  I love an apple before bed. I always have apple and eggs
• 1:10:07
  before bed and I love the app before bed.
• 1:10:11
  It doesn't knock your socks off usually even the fresh ones I
• 1:10:14
  think are really good, but I wouldn't say they like really
• 1:10:16
  knocks your socks off. But it's just a staple.
• 1:10:21
  You know what? You're going.
• 1:10:22
  To get I. Little an apple a day keeps a
• 1:10:24
  doctor away. When I'm feeling a little bit or
• 1:10:26
  a little bit off, I just eat an apple and I just feel like it
• 1:10:28
  makes me feel a tiny bit better. There's something about eating
• 1:10:31
  an apple that I just, I love eating an apple.
• 1:10:33
  But yeah, if I have to pick for the people, it's so it's so
• 1:10:38
  difficult. I'm trying to think if there are
• 1:10:41
  any other, like, really outstanding fruits that I want
• 1:10:43
  to throw in there, like melons. Is avocado a fruit?
• 1:10:47
  I love avocados, but I think it's in a different category.
• 1:10:51
  Am I missing any berries? Am I missing any?
• 1:10:53
  I'm probably missing some sort of like, Oh, also also pineapple
• 1:10:57
  on a pizza. I know Jocelyn loves pineapples.
• 1:11:01
  On pizzas and. I just last night we were
• 1:11:03
  watching the Stranger Things where that surfer dude is like,
• 1:11:07
  oh, don't knock it till you try it, man.
• 1:11:09
  Yo, my dude, can we use your your ice cooler for a bath?
• 1:11:13
  My my girl here's got superpowers, but we need to put
• 1:11:15
  a salt bath in the ice cooler, my dude, my dude, I actually
• 1:11:21
  don't. I don't hate that.
• 1:11:23
  Did I say I hate pineapple on a pizza?
• 1:11:25
  I don't hate it. Like I will eat it, but I don't
• 1:11:27
  know if the flavors really add up for me.
• 1:11:29
  Like I really love the pineapple flavor and the pizza flavor, but
• 1:11:32
  I don't think it does it for me. But I don't really know if I
• 1:11:34
  really go with that the full ham Hawaiian style.
• 1:11:42
  Anyway, no. So that was my panel about.
• 1:11:44
  Pizza, but what am I going to get back back to the fruits?
• 1:11:47
  I had pomegranates the other day, which I didn't know what I
• 1:11:50
  kind of it's kind of like that thing where I just kept getting
• 1:11:52
  back and eating more of them, but I definitely don't know it's
• 1:11:55
  kind of a weird taste. They would definitely not be my
• 1:11:57
  top three. I also this is AI don't I don't
• 1:12:00
  grapes. I don't know.
• 1:12:03
  I honestly mess. With raisins.
• 1:12:05
  I like grapes in a salad, raisins if I'm just eating a
• 1:12:08
  handful, I don't know why I think a grape just kind of
• 1:12:11
  tastes like a weird apple to me. What other fruits are there?
• 1:12:16
  This is like when you play like some sort of word association
• 1:12:19
  game and it's like name a fruit that has AM and you're like I I
• 1:12:23
  don't even know a single fruit. It could that could be in that
• 1:12:25
  category. Now those are my top.
• 1:12:30
  Fruits, I don't know. The other barriers are kind.
• 1:12:31
  Of meh cherries. Now.
• 1:12:36
  All right #3 number three, I am going to actually know I'm going
• 1:12:43
  to do it. I'm going to do it.
• 1:12:44
  Shout out number three, favorite fruit.
• 1:12:47
  I'm going the banana. You know, it comes through for
• 1:12:51
  me through thick and thin. It, it, it is just.
• 1:12:55
  Always there. For me, no matter the season,
• 1:12:57
  it's so cheap it doesn't bring the bank.
• 1:13:00
  That's another thing too, actually.
• 1:13:01
  It's wicked cheap, This. I feel bad about the
• 1:13:04
  strawberries, the watermelons, you know, the apples, All
• 1:13:08
  clementines. Oh, clementines.
• 1:13:12
  Clementines, that is actually. It's between.
• 1:13:15
  Oh no, it might be clementines. Oh no, this is the one I was
• 1:13:19
  forgetting. 3 might be clementines and no, that would
• 1:13:24
  be doing bananas so dirty. Oh it might be clementines.
• 1:13:29
  I love them when they hit, they're so good.
• 1:13:35
  It might be Clementines. Yeah, I'm going to do.
• 1:13:39
  It I. Apologize to the banana.
• 1:13:43
  Third favorite fruit is clementines.
• 1:13:46
  I think sometimes I go in phases, like I wouldn't say
• 1:13:49
  they're all year round. They're not a staple, but
• 1:13:51
  they're pretty staple and I just, they're so good.
• 1:13:55
  They just pack a little punch. And I love getting those Hales.
• 1:13:59
  Oh, I love getting to clementines and going.
• 1:14:01
  And they're so juicy and they can be so good.
• 1:14:04
  Yeah, honestly, sorry. I, I feel bad that I, I put the
• 1:14:08
  banana in there for a little bit and then took it out.
• 1:14:10
  Like, that makes me feel bad because, again, like, it's not a
• 1:14:13
  wow factor. But that's what I will say #1
• 1:14:17
  blueberries #2 pineapple #3 clementines.
• 1:14:21
  Honorable mention. Strawberries, watermelons,
• 1:14:23
  apples, bananas. That's the fruit countdown.
• 1:14:28
  Let me know what you think. And that's how we're.
• 1:14:30
  Going to end end the podcast with the fruit countdown.
• 1:14:35
  I'm happy with it. Yeah, I think I'm happy with how
• 1:14:37
  that went. And this is a good like unlike
• 1:14:39
  the Mac and cheese challenge, this is a good healthy fruit.
• 1:14:42
  We we could just eat a bunch of fruit and see really what's
• 1:14:45
  best. But yeah, those are my top
• 1:14:47
  favorite fruits. That was the Yeti Trail recap
• 1:14:51
  and that was my Hellbender 100 recap.
• 1:14:55
  Thank you everybody for listening.
• 1:14:56
  I really appreciate everybody listening.
• 1:14:58
  It's been a very cool doing the podcast.
• 1:15:00
  I'm really excited for this year.
• 1:15:01
  I got more stuff in the works and I do want to say that I am
• 1:15:06
  now officially offering Ultra mountain trail running coaching
• 1:15:12
  services. So if you go on my website,
• 1:15:14
  runmountainpeaks.com, there's just a few things on there
• 1:15:19
  related to it, but go check it out, send me an e-mail at
• 1:15:23
  andrew@runmountainpeaks.com if you have any questions, any
• 1:15:26
  interest, if you know somebody who's interested in in getting a
• 1:15:30
  run coach for any of their Ultra Mountain Trail adventures for
• 1:15:33
  this year. Like I've said before, I got a
• 1:15:36
  run coach when I was getting into it and it was really
• 1:15:38
  helpful just kind of learning how to train, getting the
• 1:15:43
  philosophy down, different training types, prepping for
• 1:15:45
  different types of events, lots of knowledge, lots of
• 1:15:48
  connections and stuff that you can learn from a coach.
• 1:15:52
  And I think they can be very beneficial.
• 1:15:55
  And I got a lot of information, knowledge, resources, and I want
• 1:15:59
  to get you faster. So if you have any interest in
• 1:16:02
  coaching, reach out to me. And that's all I got for this
• 1:16:05
  week. So we will see you next week.
• 1:16:09
  Have a good week, get after, get some miles in peace.