Latest / Run Mountain Peaks / Inaugural Jigger Johnson 100 Miler Story

Transcript

Inaugural Jigger Johnson 100 Miler Story · Run Mountain Peaks

• 0:00
  All right, welcome back to another episode of Run Mountain
• 0:03
  Peaks. Today I am going to tell the
• 0:07
  story of my first 100 Miller, the inaugural Jigger Johnson
• 0:12
  100. I've told a few of my first
• 0:17
  ultra, some of my first race stories on the podcast before
• 0:21
  and eventually I want to tell all the stories.
• 0:24
  So I'm thinking over the winner every few weeks.
• 0:27
  If there's not much going on, I'll throw in one of my recap
• 0:30
  stories. So today we're just going to do
• 0:31
  the Jigger Johnson 100 story. I did a podcast about a month
• 0:35
  ago talking about the course itself, the different races, and
• 0:40
  kind of did a deep dive on some of the efforts there and and all
• 0:43
  that jazz. So I won't be talking as much
• 0:46
  about that stuff today. This is more my story of what
• 0:50
  happened in the lead up to it, what happened during the race,
• 0:54
  my first post 100 mile race experience.
• 0:57
  And I'll throw in a bunch of tips, maybe like takeaways I had
• 1:02
  on thoughts before your first 100 Miller and what I would do
• 1:06
  differently. So this could be, you know, how
• 1:08
  to run your first 100 Miller tips and tricks.
• 1:13
  Don't do what I did kind of things.
• 1:14
  So that's going to be the main topic today.
• 1:17
  And then I just ran Cannon Mountain from Kinsman Ridge
• 1:21
  Trail. Shockingly, there was there was
• 1:24
  only a couple of people on the trail, which is weird.
• 1:27
  And it is full winter conditions up here.
• 1:30
  It's kind of crazy how fast it got winter conditions.
• 1:33
  So I'll do a trail report at the end and then I'm going to do a
• 1:37
  Craft versus Annie's Mac and cheese preview at the end of the
• 1:44
  podcast. So we'll say we'll save the rest
• 1:47
  of it for the end there. That's what we got today.
• 1:50
  So the Jigger Johnson 100, like I said, I told a few of the
• 1:56
  stories, but essentially I getting into ultra running, I
• 2:02
  pretty much started and was like I want to do 100 mile race.
• 2:06
  So before I even really started running or was in the mountains
• 2:09
  or anything, I had this idea of I want to do 100 mile race.
• 2:13
  I think it's it's hard to just get to the start line of 100
• 2:17
  mile race. Just having that idea and
• 2:20
  finishing it. So it took me a few years to get
• 2:22
  there and like I said, I did a few races.
• 2:25
  So I did like a DIY50 mile back at home race and then after that
• 2:36
  I did what was my next race. Then I did, I think I did maybe
• 2:39
  like a Pemi loop effort and then I did the Jigger Johnson 50
• 2:42
  mile. And so I had a little bit of
• 2:45
  experience, but I was very, very new to training.
• 2:47
  I hadn't even really started training seriously.
• 2:49
  And after the Jigger Johnson 50 mile, I was like, OK, my next
• 2:54
  race has to be 100 mile race. I want to get the 100 mile
• 2:58
  distance done. I want to feel that pain.
• 3:01
  And so that was kind of the goal.
• 3:04
  And honestly, after running the 50 in my head, I mean, I'm
• 3:07
  pretty sure I may just be making this up, but in my head I was
• 3:10
  like, it would be cool if they just go out and back on this
• 3:13
  course to 100 miles on the whites because there's never
• 3:15
  been 100 miles on the whites. I had been spending a lot of
• 3:18
  time up in the White Mountains. So I liked running up here more
• 3:22
  than let's say like a mid state massive, like the mid state
• 3:25
  trailer or some sort of flatter course.
• 3:28
  And in my head I was like, it would be nice in two years if if
• 3:34
  they made this the 1st 100 mile race, you know, give me a year
• 3:38
  of maybe I go to a different, an easier hundred, a flatter 100 or
• 3:41
  just get another year of training experience and then
• 3:45
  I'll be able to tackle this. But shortly after the 50 mile
• 3:48
  race, the news was that next year they were having this
• 3:52
  inaugural Jigger Johnson 100 mile race, 100 miles over 30,000
• 3:58
  feet of climbing. And I was like, I think I should
• 4:03
  try it. So I had no no 100 mile
• 4:07
  experience before and I was like, well, might as well just
• 4:10
  go do one of the 100 hardest 100 Millers in the country to start.
• 4:15
  So that was kind of the plan. And after the 50 mile race, the
• 4:19
  50 Miller that I ran in 2022, I linked up with Christina Fulsic,
• 4:25
  who ended up coaching me after that race going into this Jigger
• 4:30
  Johnson 100 effort. So I, I kind of knew that I had
• 4:33
  to I-1, I had to train consistently and two, I had to
• 4:37
  train kind of smart And so linked up with her.
• 4:39
  And that was pretty much the, the a, you know, a race from the
• 4:44
  get go. It was a year out from that
• 4:46
  Jigger Johnson 50 mile that I ran.
• 4:48
  But the, the main goal was that 100 mile race.
• 4:52
  And so I was training for that and I think getting to that
• 4:56
  race, getting to the start line was a a bit of a journey I had.
• 5:01
  There was a cup, there was a couple races that I wanted to do
• 5:05
  prior, you know, scheduling out some races every every couple
• 5:08
  months kind of thing as I was getting into this training.
• 5:10
  And the first one was one of the Tark races.
• 5:15
  I think it was the Thanksgiving Tark race, the Winterfells race.
• 5:18
  And I want to do that. I wanted to do the 40 Miller,
• 5:21
  but I got sick at Thanksgiving. And then we just decided it
• 5:25
  wasn't smart to to I mean, I was sick.
• 5:27
  So I just didn't run it after that was kind of disappointing,
• 5:31
  but it was like, yeah, you know, I wasn't super tied to that
• 5:33
  race. After that I pretty much got
• 5:39
  back into training and probably like end of December, January I
• 5:45
  did got shin splints or or actually I should say out my
• 5:49
  shins had had been hurting for a while.
• 5:51
  It got pretty bad. I ended up going to a doctor and
• 5:54
  turns out I had grade 3 bone stress injuries in my shins,
• 6:00
  both shins which is one grade below fractured broken bone.
• 6:06
  So I, that was like a big, a big doozy.
• 6:10
  And I forget, I think I tried to train through it for a little
• 6:12
  while, but I think in February maybe was when I, I went and saw
• 6:16
  APT and was like, OK, I need to actually, I can't just, you
• 6:19
  know, this isn't like shin splints or this isn't something
• 6:22
  that's just going to go away. Like I, I, I'm almost going to
• 6:25
  break my legs here. Not really, but you don't want a
• 6:27
  stress fracture. And so that was that pretty much
• 6:31
  derailed my training big time. And it was, I mean, I don't
• 6:37
  know, it was kind of intimidating to be like, I have
• 6:41
  to heal from this. And me having not many years of
• 6:44
  training, like barely a year of of consistent running, how am I
• 6:48
  going to build back up for this, for this race?
• 6:51
  And so I think it was, yeah, it was a tough, it was a tough kind
• 6:54
  of time there. But basically I think I ended up
• 6:57
  taking maybe a week off at when I found out, you know how bad it
• 7:02
  was. But after that week, I pretty
• 7:05
  much, I never stopped training. I just really had to adjust my
• 7:08
  training and that's where I started to develop some of the
• 7:12
  training, some of the cross training stuff that I do even
• 7:15
  now to just increase my volume and prevent injury or work
• 7:20
  through an injury. So that was that coming back
• 7:26
  from it was just a lot of stairs, bike up uphill,
• 7:29
  treadmill, elliptical stuff indoors.
• 7:34
  I did a little bit of swimming. I'd hate swimming.
• 7:36
  I had a little bit of swimming and I just tried to work myself
• 7:40
  back into shape. And so I think by the time I
• 7:43
  shouldn't start to feel better was maybe April time frame when
• 7:48
  I was starting to do a little more running.
• 7:49
  And then the race was in August. So I had, you know, May, June,
• 7:55
  July to to kind of build up to it.
• 7:59
  And I may have the months wrong. It might have been, it felt like
• 8:01
  it was sooner than yeah, I mean, I guess I think four months.
• 8:04
  I went to the PT four months before the race.
• 8:06
  So it must have been in March. I was at the PT.
• 8:08
  So February diagnosis, March, PT, April getting back into it
• 8:13
  and then May, June, July, I kind of started back running.
• 8:16
  And so it wasn't a clean bill. That's basically what I'm trying
• 8:19
  to say. I don't know the mileage off the
• 8:21
  top of my head, but I know leading into that, into that
• 8:25
  Jigger Johnson 100, I did not go over 40 miles a week.
• 8:28
  I was probably doing 25 to 30 miles a week on average.
• 8:33
  I maybe have like a 40 mile a week, one or two of them now.
• 8:37
  I was doing cross training at higher volume, but the running
• 8:41
  itself, it just was not there. I was coming back from the
• 8:45
  shins. I was newer to running.
• 8:47
  And then in June I had a really bad ankle roll, which I was
• 8:51
  like, I'm finally starting to feel better, smash my ankle
• 8:54
  good. So I had to get let that heal
• 8:56
  and just a roller coaster override.
• 8:59
  So getting to the start line was not easy, but I, as I was
• 9:02
  getting closer, I was still, honestly, my shins were fine,
• 9:07
  but I remember my ankle really hurting up until the race and I
• 9:11
  was getting pretty nervous about that.
• 9:14
  But I figured if I can do my long run on the weekends and I
• 9:18
  can train every day, then I'm just going to try it, You know,
• 9:20
  I'm just going to try it. And so that's, that was my
• 9:23
  philosophy. And every long run I probably
• 9:25
  did a couple of maybe, you know, you know, longer run 20 miles
• 9:28
  Max and was like, that's probably, you know, if that's
• 9:33
  good, if, if the ankle's holding up for that, I should be fine
• 9:35
  for the race. So that was a build up to the
• 9:38
  race and I remember the week of the race laying in bed at night
• 9:42
  turning my ankle inward and being like ow like and me
• 9:47
  thinking I don't know how I'm going to, I don't know how this
• 9:49
  is going to work. But I actually talked to a
• 9:52
  friend who was like hey, I've rolled my ankles 2 weeks before
• 9:55
  a big race. It hurts so bad up to it.
• 9:57
  And then race day you don't feel anything, you just move through
• 9:59
  it and it was fine. And I remember that made me feel
• 10:03
  better. And honestly, that's something
• 10:05
  that I have experienced too. And some of these long distance
• 10:08
  races, you have something that's bothering you.
• 10:11
  And as long as it doesn't get really bad in your long runs or
• 10:15
  in your training, it's just kind of, it's been annoying for a
• 10:18
  while. But you can train through it.
• 10:20
  You can do the training that you would want to do sometimes in
• 10:23
  the race that it doesn't even bother you at all and something
• 10:25
  else that never hurt bothers you.
• 10:27
  So that's what I kind of learned about about that.
• 10:32
  But going into the race too, I mean, it was my first 100
• 10:35
  Miller. I had been training with a coach
• 10:37
  for this for this whole year. I feel like my back was against
• 10:41
  the wall a little bit. I was feeling a little bit of
• 10:42
  pressure. And I remember Christina asked
• 10:45
  me. She said, hey, Airwipe is coming
• 10:47
  down and doing a, you know, a documentary for this race.
• 10:50
  They wanted to highlight a few of the athletes in it.
• 10:53
  You know, you won the 50 mile this last year.
• 10:57
  Would you, would you mind kind of doing an interview in the
• 11:00
  race and having them follow you along for part of the race?
• 11:02
  And I'm thinking, I don't even know if I'm going to run 100
• 11:06
  miles. I, my ankle might give up at
• 11:09
  mile 20. You know, five hours into this
• 11:12
  race, my shins. I mean, I might break my shins.
• 11:15
  I've never ran for 100 miles. I have no idea.
• 11:17
  I can't even run 30 miles a week without getting hurt.
• 11:21
  I I just so much stress on me already, but I'll do it.
• 11:25
  That's what I said. So I remember that was like the
• 11:29
  week of I was like, Oh my God. So I was, I was pretty nervous
• 11:34
  about this effort. I was excited because it was
• 11:36
  like I had been looking to race for so long, like I felt like
• 11:40
  still just a rat in a cage. Is that the song?
• 11:42
  I felt like a rat rat in a cage. Maybe I was like, I just need to
• 11:46
  get out and push really hard on something.
• 11:48
  And so it was I was really nervous.
• 11:50
  I was really anxious, but I was also pretty excited to at least
• 11:53
  just just do it finally. So my takeaways from building up
• 11:58
  to your first 100 Miller, you don't have to do as much volume
• 12:01
  as you think you you do. Like I would for sure go into a
• 12:05
  race healthy over having X amount of miles per week.
• 12:09
  I think you can do less miles if you're doing lots of cross
• 12:13
  training and lots of volume and going a little bit
• 12:16
  underprepared. But going healthy, I don't think
• 12:20
  that's going to be the the fastest, best way to.
• 12:23
  I think the more miles you can do, it's just going to help you
• 12:25
  run it faster and and not hurt as much.
• 12:28
  But I still think you can do it. You're just going to do it a
• 12:31
  little slower. If you can't do that high
• 12:32
  mileage and for your first 100 mile, you're going to, you
• 12:35
  should go slow anyway and just, and, and you know, have no
• 12:39
  expectations, just try to get to the finish line anyway.
• 12:41
  So that's my, my take away there.
• 12:43
  And then if you have something that's bothering you, these
• 12:45
  races, it is a strange thing. Things pop up and things don't
• 12:51
  pop up that you sure thought would have popped up throughout
• 12:54
  them. And I don't really know what
• 12:57
  that is. I think at some point in these
• 13:00
  races you get your body gets in a state of survival, survival
• 13:04
  mode. And it one helps you do amazing
• 13:07
  things, but also it just takes care of of some things that it
• 13:12
  hasn't been taken care of in the in the past.
• 13:14
  I don't know. That's the only way that I can
• 13:15
  describe it. But I would be, if you don't
• 13:18
  have some sort of severe injury or something that was very, very
• 13:23
  traumatic, I think you should be you should be fine.
• 13:27
  Don't get over stressed about, oh, if it hurts when I'm doing
• 13:30
  my regular training, it's definitely going to hurt when
• 13:32
  I'm 80 miles in. It's not always the case.
• 13:35
  You would be surprised. So that's kind of leading up to
• 13:38
  your first, your first 100. Miller.
• 13:41
  So, yeah, So getting to the race, I show up.
• 13:45
  Oh, sleep before, before the race.
• 13:48
  I think I ended up sleeping 4 hours.
• 13:51
  I remember tossing and turning at night.
• 13:53
  I think I remember hitting midnight and me falling asleep
• 13:57
  shortly after that. I don't know how hopefully you
• 14:03
  guys aren't getting any background noise.
• 14:04
  I don't know how good these mics are, but sometimes I where I
• 14:09
  where I film these here's there's people that were close
• 14:12
  to like a highway or something. But I think the audio has been
• 14:14
  pretty good last week actually, I feel like I was just screaming
• 14:18
  too loud into the mic. And so the auto, I had to do a
• 14:21
  little not adjusted. I just adjusted the volume.
• 14:23
  But hopefully it was OK. And hopefully the auto is pretty
• 14:26
  good. These mics are pretty good.
• 14:27
  I don't know, this is the best I can do out here.
• 14:30
  But yeah, so sleep before before 100 Miller.
• 14:34
  I slept about four hours and I remember thinking, wow, this
• 14:37
  race is going to take me probably 40, maybe 40 hours.
• 14:42
  Am I going to be OK going out four hours of sleep because I
• 14:44
  had never done it before and four hours of sleep.
• 14:48
  Honestly, now if I got 4 hours of sleep, I'd be like, oh, I am
• 14:51
  good to go. I probably got a couple R.E.M.
• 14:53
  cycles. That's awesome.
• 14:55
  I've I'll talk about sleep before ultra is a different day,
• 14:58
  but I've had some really, really bad sleep before and I've tried
• 15:02
  lots of things. So don't worry about sleep.
• 15:06
  I think for up to 30 hours you can go off and no sleep before a
• 15:12
  race. I, I think just do your best to
• 15:14
  relax and if you get a little, maybe a couple hours, that is
• 15:17
  like good. But I, I mean, I didn't know
• 15:22
  that going in there. So I was pretty nervous, but I,
• 15:24
  I woke up before 30 or whatever and drove up and, and I felt
• 15:27
  like pretty, you're always going to feel awake before the race.
• 15:31
  So I remember I felt pretty good.
• 15:33
  Get to the start line just ready for this thing to go and, and
• 15:36
  whatever the, the gun goes off or whatever happened.
• 15:38
  No, they didn't have a gun there.
• 15:40
  Something, something happened. Christina probably said
• 15:42
  something funny and then we all took off in the first section.
• 15:46
  What I remember about that race. I no, actually there were a lot
• 15:51
  of really strong runners in this race.
• 15:53
  I'm not going to remember them off top my head, but there were
• 15:57
  some super strong runners I remember on this list.
• 15:59
  I think it the first year when there wasn't 100 mile alert,
• 16:03
  there was only like 20 runners between the two races.
• 16:05
  But that second year there was maybe 50 or 60 runners in the in
• 16:09
  the 100 mile race. So it had got a good amount of
• 16:12
  hype and and some strong runners came out.
• 16:15
  So I like Justin Kowski who ended up winning.
• 16:18
  It was out there, Steven Young, who I think goes by buck naked
• 16:22
  now. I don't really know the story
• 16:23
  behind that, but I just saw it was kind of funny.
• 16:26
  He was in it and he's he's a super strong runner in all
• 16:29
  distances. Who else is in it?
• 16:32
  Keith Naidu. He has the course record right
• 16:34
  now. I mean, he's just an absolute
• 16:36
  crusher. He's done so many of the race
• 16:39
  around here and super fast. So he was in it.
• 16:43
  Gordon Collins, a main guy who had run, I think the Riverland
• 16:47
  won the Riverlands, like done some good 100 mile races.
• 16:51
  There was this guy from Pennsylvania.
• 16:52
  Why am I forgetting his name? He was there, Tristan Baxendale,
• 16:56
  who I end up running with for a while and I, I really enjoyed
• 16:58
  meeting him, but he's a crusher. He's done all sorts of
• 17:01
  distances, super good ultra runner.
• 17:04
  And there were lots more. And so it was just, it was just
• 17:07
  a oh, Tyler Koontz. He had won the Jigger Johnson
• 17:11
  100K. So there's just a lot of really
• 17:13
  strong runners. And so we all take off and I
• 17:18
  remember going the first climb up to Tecumseh, there's a few
• 17:21
  miles of ski trails and then you go to Tecumseh.
• 17:24
  I remember I ran with Tyler and people were flying and at first
• 17:29
  there were probably 10 people in front of us.
• 17:32
  And I remember, I think my race strategy was I want to be about
• 17:35
  like looking at this sign up list, I want to be about 10th.
• 17:37
  And then I just want to move up from there as the race goes on
• 17:42
  because, yeah, running consistent is just the best way
• 17:44
  to run these 100 milers. But people were taken off and I
• 17:47
  Remember Me and Tyler were talking like, why are they
• 17:50
  running so fast? Do they know that we're going to
• 17:51
  be out here for two days? And I mean, I, I've taken off an
• 17:56
  ultras at the beginning. It's, I guess it's hard not to
• 18:00
  when you're really excited and it feels really easy.
• 18:01
  But yeah, running, learning how to run 100 mile consistently,
• 18:05
  it's so, so hard to do it, but it's the best way to do it.
• 18:09
  And always go out conservative in 100 mile and just remind
• 18:12
  yourself you're going to be out there for days.
• 18:15
  So yeah, people, a ton of people took off.
• 18:18
  Now, a couple of people did keep that pace, so kudos to them.
• 18:20
  But yeah, some people were taking off and we're hiking up
• 18:25
  to Tecumseh. What do I remember from that?
• 18:27
  I remember Tyler describing some sort of fantasy league where him
• 18:30
  and his buddies play that it's like 1, You get one person on
• 18:35
  your fantasy team from each major sports, and I'd never
• 18:39
  heard that before. I remember being very interested
• 18:41
  by that. I was like, wow, that seems very
• 18:42
  fun. So you have like 1 basketball
• 18:45
  player 1, football player 1. And there's lots of different
• 18:48
  sports. There's like soccer, you know,
• 18:50
  MLSI don't know, it's a lot all these different sports and
• 18:52
  players, you know, swimming, I bet track, whatever.
• 18:55
  And it's like some like big weird fantasy.
• 18:57
  So that's why I remember going up Tecumseh, coming down
• 19:00
  Tecumseh. I remember like I think up and
• 19:03
  down Tecumseh I was running faster than I should have been,
• 19:05
  but it felt pretty easy and other people were even going
• 19:08
  faster. So I felt fairly OK with that.
• 19:11
  Going down Tecumseh, I remember my ankle being a little a little
• 19:14
  sore, but it was like OK. And then on triple I Rd.
• 19:19
  I Remember Me and Tyler are caught up to a few people and I
• 19:23
  think we're about maybe 5th or 6th.
• 19:24
  So we had passed most of the people or a few of those people
• 19:27
  that had taken off and we're going up the Osceolas over the
• 19:31
  Osceolas. This is when it started
• 19:33
  downpouring. It was supposed to rain.
• 19:36
  It rained like almost the whole first day, but it started
• 19:40
  downpouring and I mean it's it was summer, it was cool temps so
• 19:43
  it wasn't cold or anything. It wasn't, you know, it was fun
• 19:46
  to run in, but you know, looking back, it's like, Oh my gosh, I'm
• 19:49
  going to be soaked from head to toe for the next however many
• 19:53
  hours. Chafing, blistering, all that
• 19:56
  stuff is just going to be bad. But it started raining on the
• 19:58
  Osceola's and that's when I had met up with Tristan Baxendale,
• 20:03
  who he's from New York. Like I said, he's done he he's
• 20:07
  ran some really strong times at some of the biggest.
• 20:09
  You know, East Coast races like he might have won or came in
• 20:12
  second at Eastern states. 100 had really good manitous times.
• 20:17
  He'd run that a few a bunch and he's done a hundred 200 Miller
• 20:21
  alone, I think, without a without a pace, right.
• 20:23
  I feel like if I remember right, and so just an interesting, you
• 20:27
  know, veteran of ultra running and just very cool.
• 20:29
  So we had linked up over the Osceola's and I was just having
• 20:33
  an awesome time chatting with him.
• 20:35
  I don't even remember what we were talking about, but just
• 20:37
  getting to know him a little bit and swapping some stories that
• 20:40
  was that was nice and he was a really strong runner and it was
• 20:43
  nice to kind of go up and over the Osceola was hit with him and
• 20:47
  I remember it kind of calm me down and it was like the rain.
• 20:50
  I don't know. And after like your first hour
• 20:52
  in a race, I feel like you calm down anyway.
• 20:54
  But that was just a nice little time for me.
• 20:57
  So up and over the Osceola's were were good for me.
• 21:00
  And then we started going to Hancock Notch.
• 21:03
  And this is where the 1st one of the bigger things that happened
• 21:08
  in the race happened to me. Going up Hancock Notch, my
• 21:13
  hamstring, one of my hamstrings, I forget if it was left or
• 21:16
  right, it started cramping or I don't know if it was cramping or
• 21:21
  it was starting to just really bother me like it hurt.
• 21:24
  And I hadn't had that in training.
• 21:26
  It was very, very random. And I was like, Oh my gosh, what
• 21:29
  am I going to do? And the first couple miles up
• 21:32
  that trailer, very flat, very runnable, you know, for where I
• 21:36
  was at fitness wise, maybe I could have been, you know, I
• 21:38
  should have been hiking anyway. But.
• 21:41
  But I remember I was like, all right, I need to slow down and
• 21:43
  figure out what's going on right now.
• 21:45
  So Tristan took off. I remember him just running up
• 21:48
  the trail in front of me and just going.
• 21:51
  It looked like he was running so easy.
• 21:53
  And he just took off in front of me.
• 21:54
  And I was thinking, I'm so screwed right now.
• 21:56
  Yeah, I'm so screwed. I was.
• 21:59
  I'm 20 miles in now, and I'm done.
• 22:00
  I'm so done. But I remember hiking and trying
• 22:04
  to be like, OK, it's all right, just, you know, you went out
• 22:08
  maybe a little bit hard on the Osceola's Tecumseh, just settled
• 22:11
  down a little bit and it's in it, you know, it's fine.
• 22:13
  And so I walked most of that flatter section, just power
• 22:16
  hiking and I had poles. I brought poles for the whole
• 22:18
  race. So I go through the flatter
• 22:21
  section and I get and I get through Hancock Notch.
• 22:24
  It's starting to feel better. My God, I think this is fine.
• 22:27
  Got to the aid station after Hancock Notch and then you, I
• 22:30
  started heading down towards the backside of Mount Tremont.
• 22:35
  And you know, I was doing fine, but it was still bothering me a
• 22:38
  little bit. I'd not never caught up to
• 22:39
  Tristan, which I was like, yeah, I don't know if that's a good
• 22:41
  sign. And then Tyler had caught up to
• 22:44
  me. He had caught up to me in
• 22:45
  Hancock Notch actually towards the end of it.
• 22:47
  So we ran together for a while and right before the climb to
• 22:52
  Tremont, I think Tyler stopped and took a dump or something.
• 22:56
  And so I kind of took off ahead of him.
• 22:58
  But as soon as I got on that, that vertical climb up the
• 23:01
  backside of Tremont, my, my hamstring was bad.
• 23:06
  And I just remember being like, I, I, this is it.
• 23:09
  I don't, I was 7 or 8000 feet of climbing in.
• 23:12
  It was so early in the race, but I was really, really struggling
• 23:15
  and it really hurt and I didn't know what was going on.
• 23:18
  And I was just like, there's, I don't know if I can finish this,
• 23:21
  like I, this is bad. I don't think I can do these
• 23:24
  races. I don't think I am who I thought
• 23:26
  I was like, I don't know. And so I really struggled there
• 23:30
  and Tyler caught up so fast and he took off in front of me and I
• 23:34
  was like, ah, this, this might be it.
• 23:37
  But I remember on that climb thinking, I don't know why this
• 23:40
  popped up to my head, but I remember Courtney Dewalter
• 23:43
  saying, you know, ultra running is just problem solving.
• 23:46
  You just have to problem solve. And I remember boiling that down
• 23:50
  and thinking, OK, I have a problem.
• 23:53
  My, my hamstring really hurts. What am I, what am I going to
• 23:56
  do? I'm not just going to stop.
• 23:57
  I'm going to problem solve. I'm just going to use my poles.
• 24:00
  I'm going to climb these mountains on my poles.
• 24:03
  And so I was leaning into my poles so hard.
• 24:05
  I was using my one good leg and the other leg was just kind of
• 24:08
  being a bum. But it ended up working.
• 24:10
  I got up the mountain and I think one person that caught up
• 24:14
  to me too. And so I was, I was moving
• 24:16
  backwards right at the top of the client, John West Western, I
• 24:19
  think his name was, who's really fast marathoner.
• 24:22
  He was another strong runner. He caught up to me at the top
• 24:24
  and I'm like, oh, I'm getting past.
• 24:26
  But, but I, I got to the top and I was like, I'm just going to,
• 24:32
  I'm just going to do this for now.
• 24:33
  And that's what I did. And when I started going
• 24:35
  downhill, I, I made got some distance ahead of Jonathan.
• 24:40
  And then at the bottom of Truman, I actually caught up to
• 24:42
  Tyler. And I remember actually think
• 24:46
  that really made me feel better because I was like, OK, you're
• 24:49
  still in this. It's OK.
• 24:51
  Your, your hamstring doesn't hurt on the downhill.
• 24:53
  So you can run downhill. It's just the uphill you're
• 24:56
  going to have to work through. I was like, OK.
• 24:59
  And so ran with him into the Bartlett aid station.
• 25:04
  All good. And then now we're about maybe
• 25:06
  40 miles in, I don't know off the top of my head, but I'm
• 25:09
  starting to kind of feel around. I get to the aid station,
• 25:11
  actually Tyler, me and Tyler get there.
• 25:16
  Keith Nadeau and then Tristan are there too.
• 25:19
  And I'm thinking, OK, I'm, I'm, I'm OK actually, I'm not getting
• 25:22
  smoked by everybody right now. This is OK.
• 25:25
  This is just, this course is really hard.
• 25:27
  And I think Tristan ended up dropping because it was so cold,
• 25:31
  cold, like crappy weather out there.
• 25:33
  And he's not from here. I don't even know if he had a
• 25:35
  crew or something. And then I think Keith was
• 25:37
  struggling a little bit. So I and so anyway, get to that
• 25:41
  aid station and that's when actually Larson, who was going
• 25:44
  to pace me on the back half of the race, he was there and my
• 25:48
  mom was there for the first time, like my crew was there.
• 25:51
  And so this, I remember that really lifted my spirits up and
• 25:56
  got some food and, and got back out.
• 25:59
  And so I think that was, you know, probably the peak of my,
• 26:02
  my, my attitudes was really, well, they're going really well.
• 26:06
  So anyway, take off and I remember climbing up to Table
• 26:08
  Mountain and then up to Adatash. And I think climbing up to
• 26:16
  Table, the same thing with my leg.
• 26:18
  I took off ahead of Tyler and then up to Table Tyler caught up
• 26:22
  to me, which I was like, I remember thinking like, this is
• 26:24
  just it. I'm just getting caught on the
• 26:25
  climbs. I have to make up time on the
• 26:27
  descents and I remember actually I think I'd caught up to Keith
• 26:30
  on the top of that table, climb or no, towards the the descent
• 26:34
  off of table. And I was like, all right, I I
• 26:36
  just need to send these descents and and try to hang on these
• 26:39
  climbs. So go down that descent at this,
• 26:43
  I guess I'm in fourth place now at this point in the race.
• 26:46
  So I've moved up actually how I wanted to during that race and I
• 26:49
  was like, all right, I'm feeling actually pretty good if I can
• 26:51
  just keep this hamstring thing going.
• 26:53
  So get down to table to climb up to add attach.
• 26:55
  I remember I actually pushed pretty hard because it had just
• 26:57
  gotten dark. I put on my waist light and my
• 27:00
  headlight and I remember being like, all right, if I can climb
• 27:04
  up to this mountain before these guys catch up to me, then I can
• 27:07
  definitely make up more time on the down.
• 27:09
  And that's what I ended up doing.
• 27:10
  So I I pushed that actually decently hard and I remember
• 27:14
  descending being like, all right, all right, good.
• 27:16
  Like you can you can do this like this is OK.
• 27:19
  And I think the big lesson that take away from that whole thing
• 27:23
  is 1. The problem solving, like I said
• 27:26
  earlier, things are going to pop up that you would have never
• 27:29
  expected to pop up. I don't know why they pop up.
• 27:32
  They've never done in training, but really problem solving is
• 27:36
  going to get you through it every single race and every, you
• 27:41
  know, the stories I tell in here, I will highlight these.
• 27:44
  Every single race had something unexpected that with some hurdle
• 27:49
  that I had to get over and deal with.
• 27:51
  And that's really where I feel like problem solving comes into
• 27:56
  the ultra running aspect because you think of ultra running,
• 27:59
  you're like, God, these people just love running.
• 28:00
  They get out running. You have to run fast, eat a lot,
• 28:02
  whatever. But I'm telling you, it's not
• 28:04
  just what do I have to eat? It's not just what gear do I
• 28:09
  need, there are things that I cannot describe that pop up that
• 28:12
  you need to figure out how to get through and, and just
• 28:16
  relentlessly try to get through them and keep a good, good
• 28:19
  positive attitude. And that's going to be super
• 28:22
  helpful. So just know that going to your
• 28:23
  first 100 Miller, something's going to happen that you would
• 28:25
  have never expected. And you have to do your best in
• 28:28
  the moment to work through that. So I pretty much I did that and
• 28:33
  I was moving good again. I was feeling good again.
• 28:37
  And I, I was, my spirits were really high.
• 28:39
  And so it can really just show you how you go from these lows
• 28:42
  to highs in these ultras and, and don't get too low, but and
• 28:47
  don't get too high. Just really always focus on
• 28:51
  problem solving, relentless forward motion.
• 28:53
  And if you're in a low it, you will get through it.
• 28:59
  So that's kind of the take away there.
• 29:01
  And you'll probably experience this in the in the first half of
• 29:04
  your ultra, not, not just at the end, because in the first half
• 29:07
  things will pop up. So yeah, I remember running
• 29:11
  overnight, running over the moats.
• 29:13
  I was alone. I didn't see anybody.
• 29:15
  And I don't really have any crazy, crazy things I remember
• 29:18
  from that. But I do remember I was almost
• 29:20
  to the top of no S Moat. So the last descent down to the
• 29:23
  aid station and I see a light coming at me and it is Justin
• 29:28
  Kowski. And I remember saying to him,
• 29:31
  holy crap, man, you are fly. I said you are a freaking beast,
• 29:38
  Dude. And he I just feel like, oh,
• 29:40
  thanks man, good job. Like he was.
• 29:42
  So I was like, I don't know who that is, but Dude can run.
• 29:45
  I don't know if I knew it was Justin or not.
• 29:47
  Maybe I did. But yeah, I was so impressed.
• 29:50
  I was like, he's so far ahead of me.
• 29:53
  I think he had split the halfway, like 14 hours, 14 1/2
• 29:57
  or something, which is just crazy.
• 29:59
  And then I start descending down South Mote and almost to the
• 30:03
  South Mote summit. Steven Young was there and I was
• 30:08
  like, wow, he's running fast too.
• 30:09
  He wasn't. Justin was probably 1/2 hour
• 30:11
  ahead of him, but he was he, he had a really strong first half
• 30:14
  too. So I was like, all right.
• 30:16
  And as I'm going down, I thought I was in fourth place, which
• 30:19
  kind of I was, but kind of I wasn't.
• 30:21
  And going down, I'm expecting that I'm running really good
• 30:24
  down a southbound. I'm like, I'm going to catch up
• 30:26
  to this third place person. And I never did, never did,
• 30:29
  never did. And I remember almost getting to
• 30:33
  the aid station and I heard cheering and I was like, oh,
• 30:36
  wow, he must be right, right ahead in front of me.
• 30:40
  And so I'm running, I'm running fast.
• 30:42
  And I get to the ACH, my Pacers there, Mike King, which I'll
• 30:45
  talk about in a SEC. But I'm like, oh, what is the
• 30:47
  third place person here? They're like, no, you're in 3rd.
• 30:49
  I'm like, I'm not third. They're like, yeah, you're in
• 30:51
  3rd. I'm like, what?
• 30:52
  I was like, I thought you were just cheering for somebody.
• 30:54
  They're like, we're cheering for you.
• 30:55
  We saw your headlamp. I was like, Oh my gosh.
• 30:57
  So that is actually something to know.
• 31:00
  You can see your headlamp flashing through the forest way
• 31:03
  further than you think because it felt like 10 minutes since I
• 31:06
  got to the before I got to the aid station that they could see
• 31:09
  me. And we're cheering.
• 31:11
  So if you're in the middle of the woods at dark and an ultra
• 31:15
  and you hear cheering, it's probably for you.
• 31:18
  So take that energy for you. But yeah, So what the story was
• 31:23
  actually. So this third place person who
• 31:25
  was ahead of me, he took a wrong turn.
• 31:27
  So instead of going up north mode, he went towards, I don't
• 31:30
  know, is it Diana's bath or something out towards Conway?
• 31:33
  And yeah, so I didn't know that, and they didn't know that at the
• 31:37
  time, but I was in 3rd place. I was like, oh, crap.
• 31:39
  OK, well, I was miscounting, but here we go.
• 31:42
  And at the halfway point, that is when I got my first pacer,
• 31:48
  Mike King. All right.
• 31:49
  Whoa, sorry. Sorry, guys.
• 31:51
  Had to make sure the battery's still rolling here.
• 31:53
  OK, We're good. Yeah.
• 31:57
  That was when I got my first pacer, Mike King, who's one of
• 32:01
  my good buddies in the mountains.
• 32:02
  I run with it. Yeah, I run with him a good, a
• 32:04
  lot, a good amount, and he's a strong runner.
• 32:08
  And I'd asked him to come out and pace and he did it.
• 32:11
  And so he met me and I remember just like feeling really good,
• 32:17
  like getting a pacer just makes you feel a lot.
• 32:22
  It just boosts the vibe. And yeah, I remember my vibe, my
• 32:27
  vibe was high and I started up climbing.
• 32:30
  I think at this point, did I do a shoe change?
• 32:33
  I might have done a shoe change, but yeah, I felt pretty good.
• 32:37
  And we basically got food, got more stuff.
• 32:40
  He, he had, you know, my drop back and everything and turned
• 32:44
  around and, and made the climb back.
• 32:46
  And so I was climbing really good and I was asking, am I
• 32:49
  doing OK? Is OK?
• 32:50
  You're, you're climbing pretty good actually.
• 32:52
  And I don't think it was a very fast time, but for, for, you
• 32:55
  know, 57 miles and a race, it was very fast.
• 32:57
  So climbed up to the moats. It was really good.
• 33:00
  I remember being slightly cold that night, but but not bad.
• 33:03
  I don't think I ever had thrown. I maybe had a little light layer
• 33:07
  over my my T-shirt. But besides, I remember I was
• 33:09
  just wearing AT shirt and I remember going up North MO, we
• 33:16
  passed a handful of people. So I knew there were a handful
• 33:18
  of people behind me, but I was just trying to keep moving.
• 33:21
  I told Mike I'm having trouble climbing, but I can descend
• 33:24
  pretty good and you know, I'm just moving fine.
• 33:26
  So that's that's what it was. And on this climb, my hamstring
• 33:31
  was starting to feel a little bit better and for no reason,
• 33:34
  but it was starting to feel a little bit better.
• 33:36
  My ankle was a non issue. And so I was like, Oh my gosh,
• 33:39
  you know, we're in the back half now.
• 33:40
  You know, I think I could do this.
• 33:43
  So moving through the night, it was pretty uneventful.
• 33:46
  I remember at the top of the most I was saying, Mike, I I'm
• 33:49
  so thirsty right now. I didn't have any water.
• 33:51
  We had to drop down off of north mode to get water.
• 33:54
  I just remember him be I'm being like Mike, I need water.
• 33:58
  He's like, we're almost there. We're almost there.
• 33:59
  So I was thirsty, but but it was ended up being fine.
• 34:03
  And then as we're climbing up to Additash, one of the things that
• 34:06
  I remember was I had asked Mike, hey, can you feel, can you do
• 34:11
  something? Can you mix this drinker drink
• 34:14
  mix for me or do something for me?
• 34:15
  He was like, yeah, I'll do it. You keep going.
• 34:17
  So I kept walking and I remember I got to a point where I could
• 34:21
  see a flashlight, but I was almost, it was like a bend.
• 34:23
  So I was almost getting around the corner.
• 34:25
  And I remember getting around the corner thinking like, Oh my
• 34:28
  gosh, I hope he, I hope he catches up to me because I think
• 34:31
  he was doing something too with his pack or something.
• 34:33
  And it was like 30 seconds or a minute and I hadn't seen him.
• 34:36
  I was like, Oh my God, do I stop?
• 34:37
  Do I keep going? I hope he didn't get off because
• 34:39
  there's one little little twist and turn and I remember, I
• 34:42
  remember just kind of like being at like, Oh my gosh, I need this
• 34:44
  guy. I don't know why I remember
• 34:46
  that, but I remember when I didn't see his flashlight, I got
• 34:49
  a little bit nervous. But then he comes around and it
• 34:51
  was fine. And then this was a point in the
• 34:54
  race. So this is something me and him
• 34:56
  will never forget. So I'm probably at 6060
• 35:00
  something miles into the race here and 1st 100 Miller and I
• 35:06
  need to charge my watch because the watch wasn't charging very
• 35:09
  good. But I need to charge my watch.
• 35:11
  And I had I had hooked it up to a charger or something.
• 35:15
  I don't know what had happened, but hooked it up to a charger
• 35:18
  and something had popped up and I was like, oh, I think it's
• 35:21
  fine. Put it away in my pack and then
• 35:24
  I charge it for 1/2 hour or something and I go to put it
• 35:27
  back on and I saw that that the the the watch was paused and it
• 35:34
  had been paused. No, actually this was the
• 35:35
  source. Sorry about this folks.
• 35:37
  I had started charging it when I picked up Mike and then 6 or 8
• 35:42
  miles later, I finally took the watch out was like, all right,
• 35:45
  let me put it on his Troy charge up for the rest of the time.
• 35:48
  And when I took it off, it basically had paused or
• 35:54
  something for the whole time and it said it was at 57 miles
• 35:57
  instead of 67 or whatever I should have been at.
• 36:01
  And I was like, I remember saying some expletives and just
• 36:05
  freak like immediately seeing red freaking out and like what?
• 36:08
  Because in my head I'm like, I need this watch say 100 miles.
• 36:11
  That's, that's such a big part of why I wanted to do this race
• 36:14
  was to say I ran 100 miles and if I get to the finish line of
• 36:17
  my watch that 99 miles, I am going to freak out.
• 36:21
  And I did kind of freak out on trail.
• 36:23
  Mike was like, I think Mike was like, let me look at it.
• 36:26
  Let me look at it. And it was something to do when
• 36:29
  I plugged it in charging. I don't know.
• 36:31
  And I think he was feeling bad because he, he, I don't know.
• 36:35
  And I was just pissed. And it was kind of like a oh
• 36:37
  gosh moment. And then 30 seconds, a minute
• 36:40
  later, I looked at the watch and it caught it.
• 36:42
  Basically it did just a straight line from that aid station to
• 36:46
  where I was, but it gave me most of the miles.
• 36:48
  So it just did like an as the crow flied and it gave me like 7
• 36:52
  miles back. And I was at 60 something and I
• 36:54
  was like, oh, Mike, it's back. And immediately I was unpissed.
• 37:00
  My mood changed like that. And I remember like it was
• 37:03
  something we immediately were just laughing about.
• 37:05
  But I remember, yeah, we'll never forget.
• 37:07
  I was so mad at that watch, not getting those miles because I
• 37:11
  feel like when you're out there, it hurts so bad.
• 37:13
  You're doing so much work. And every mile is like a war to
• 37:17
  get to the next mile. And and so it felt bad.
• 37:22
  It felt like somebody had taken away from me.
• 37:24
  So that's what I remember about that section.
• 37:27
  And then I get to the road. We get to the road finally.
• 37:30
  We're in the Bartlett Experimental Forest.
• 37:32
  So we're almost at the aid station and we get to a little
• 37:35
  Forest Rd. gravel that is a 0.5% slope, 0.5% slope.
• 37:42
  And Mike had had been pushing me to run the down a little bit on
• 37:45
  the road. And I get to this slope and I'm
• 37:48
  like, Mike, I know this is a 1% slope.
• 37:50
  I can't run it. He's like, he's like, OK.
• 37:53
  I was like, I'm like, I could feel it.
• 37:55
  It's so hard because we're I'm 70 miles in now, so I'm starting
• 37:58
  to feel the pain of it. And I remember I think I had
• 38:03
  told Larson who is the next pace that I was picking up.
• 38:06
  So Mike did like 16 miles and I had told Larson to meet me at
• 38:16
  six, let's say 620, right? I was like based on my pace is
• 38:20
  from from, I didn't talk to him for the whole majority of the
• 38:24
  race. I think Mike was texting or
• 38:25
  whatever, but the sheet that I gave him my pacing spreadsheet,
• 38:29
  I think I was going to get I said 630 be there.
• 38:31
  That's when I think I'm going to be there, 6:30 and it was like
• 38:35
  70 miles in and I were rolling in and I think it was it was
• 38:40
  like 620 or I had told them 620 and it was 630.
• 38:44
  It was within 10 minutes of when I initially told Larson I was
• 38:47
  going to be there. And Mike Kings goes to me.
• 38:50
  This is the most impressive thing you've done all day,
• 38:52
  telling Larson within 10 minutes of the split when you're going
• 38:56
  to be there. And so, yeah, I was 70 miles in,
• 39:00
  I think it was about 24 hours. And I was right on pace for my
• 39:04
  goal time, which was maybe 37 to 39 hours or somewhere. 37 was
• 39:09
  the A, 39 was maybe like the B or something.
• 39:12
  So I was right on pace where where I wanted to be.
• 39:15
  And so I was starting to hurt at this point, but I was feeling
• 39:19
  pretty good and we got in. We picked up Larson.
• 39:23
  And I think switching a pacer or getting a new person in also
• 39:26
  helps kind of change the vibe a little bit or not lift spirits.
• 39:29
  But we were out there for six something hours.
• 39:32
  I mean, Mike was tired, I'm tired, whatever.
• 39:35
  And it was daylight. And so I think it was I was in
• 39:39
  good spirits. I was starting to slow down a
• 39:40
  little bit, but I was in good spirits.
• 39:42
  And the one thing I will say, and I started to complain to
• 39:45
  Mike a little bit on his section, my toes were mangled.
• 39:50
  So I've learned after all these ultras that I think however, I
• 39:54
  run the shape of my foot, whatever.
• 39:57
  I've tried a few things and it hasn't really helped but.
• 40:00
  My big toenails just get destroyed in these in these
• 40:03
  steep technical ultras. I always lose both toenails
• 40:06
  after ultras and I think I cut them, but I hadn't cut them
• 40:10
  super short. And I remember they were just
• 40:12
  digging into into me every step and it was really painful.
• 40:16
  So I started to kind of voice that to Mike.
• 40:18
  But overall I was I was doing OK.
• 40:20
  And it was also just my feet have been wet for so long.
• 40:23
  So pick up Larson and I hadn't ran with him before.
• 40:26
  And so it was kind of, you know, it wasn't like I was, you know,
• 40:32
  I was getting tired or whatever, but I actually think we were
• 40:35
  chatting fair amount. I remember the client Larson was
• 40:37
  being like, yeah, do you know, do you want me to talk a lot or
• 40:41
  do you or this is something I was like, oh, no, it's it's
• 40:43
  fine. I'll probably be chatting most
• 40:44
  of the time. So I remember chatting or I
• 40:46
  think he was like, do you just want to focus on the climb here?
• 40:48
  Are you breathing or am I talking too much or are you
• 40:51
  talking too much? I was like, Nah, I'm just going
• 40:52
  to keep chatting. I think so, yeah.
• 40:55
  We were climbing up Tremont and I think I was climbing still
• 40:57
  fairly strong, but you know, starting to slow down a little
• 41:00
  bit. In the backside of Tremont.
• 41:02
  I was being a baby. I was using my poles now.
• 41:06
  I was using the poles for the descents because my toes were
• 41:09
  hurting so bad every time. That's that descents very steep
• 41:13
  and very dirt. Like, there's not a lot of like
• 41:17
  steps for rocks. And so my foot was just, my
• 41:22
  toenails were just jamming into my foot box.
• 41:24
  And it was excruciating. And I was really complaining.
• 41:27
  I was moving really, really slow.
• 41:28
  And I was pretty much using my poles to carry all of my weight.
• 41:31
  And then I would kind of just scoop my feet down.
• 41:34
  And I was still moving OK, but it did not look smooth, I'll
• 41:37
  tell you that much. And at this point too, still in
• 41:40
  3rd place. And so we're moving and then we
• 41:43
  get the backside of Trent and then we have lots of flat
• 41:46
  section. I'm moving okay.
• 41:47
  I'm moving fair, but not great. But I'm doing okay and just
• 41:53
  having a good time with Larson, kind of meeting him, chat with
• 41:56
  him a little bit, trying to keep the spirits up.
• 41:58
  And the one thing I learned in that section was Larson loves
• 42:02
  the pancave. I remember him just saying, I
• 42:05
  love the pancave. I love seeing people in the
• 42:07
  pancave. I love being in the pancave.
• 42:09
  I love it. And I was in the pancave and I
• 42:12
  was thinking like, I don't know if I like this as much as you
• 42:13
  do, but that's what I remember from that section.
• 42:17
  And we finally get to the next aid station and I remember
• 42:23
  Patrick Callahan, who stud runner on his own by in in him
• 42:29
  in it of himself. Oh my gosh, whatever, you know
• 42:34
  what I'm trying to say. Maybe he's a super strong
• 42:37
  running himself, but he was pacing Steven Young and Steven
• 42:41
  was only 20 minutes ahead of me at this aid station.
• 42:44
  So I think at the Turner at the 5th, at the halfway point, I was
• 42:47
  two hours behind him. At the next stage station, I was
• 42:49
  maybe 50 minutes behind him. At this stage station, I was 20
• 42:52
  minutes behind him. So I was gaining.
• 42:54
  I was feeling pretty good and I'm thinking I'm going to catch
• 42:56
  this kid, but I kind of wanted to try.
• 43:00
  But we get to that aid station feeling decent.
• 43:03
  And I remember Patrick saying we talked to him for a little bit
• 43:06
  and him saying I just finished the Tahoe 200 or something like
• 43:08
  that. It's like, Oh my God, this guy's
• 43:10
  an animal. But that's how I remember from
• 43:12
  that aid station. And then we pack up and me and
• 43:14
  Larson, you know, Larson's, he's been pushing me a little bit.
• 43:17
  Not like, you know, forcing me to do anything but motivational
• 43:20
  kind of guy. So I want to push it.
• 43:23
  And I'm like, yeah, let's try to catch up, catch up to that next
• 43:26
  person. And I remember I think 1/2 mile
• 43:28
  into that section, I think I said, I said, I think Larson, I
• 43:31
  think, I think I'm afraid to go and catch this guy.
• 43:34
  Like I was just starting to bonk a little bit and things were
• 43:37
  hurting and it was really hard to run fast.
• 43:39
  And I think moving that extra little bit was was really
• 43:43
  hurting me. And this is something that I've
• 43:47
  learned and is a good tip whenever you're going to up your
• 43:51
  pace at all at the back end of an ultra.
• 43:53
  So whenever you're like, I'm going to make a move here, I'm
• 43:56
  going to go a little bit harder than what I've been going.
• 43:59
  You need to eat something before you start that and you need to
• 44:02
  know that you're going to burn calories faster than before and
• 44:06
  you need to be eating more frequently.
• 44:08
  I can't tell you how many times I've tried to move a little bit
• 44:11
  faster and you immediately feel that that calorie deficit.
• 44:17
  So if you're going to make a move, you catch up to somebody,
• 44:20
  take a gel, wait 5 or 10 minutes and then start moving.
• 44:24
  And then know that you're going to have to take a gel or eat
• 44:26
  something 5 or 10 minutes before you had been because your body
• 44:30
  gets to this equilibrium where it's just doing the minimal
• 44:33
  amount to survive. And so if you're moving at the
• 44:35
  same pace the whole time and eating kind of roughly the same
• 44:38
  same schedule, your body adjusts to that.
• 44:41
  As soon as you start pushing a little bit harder, you need more
• 44:44
  calories that there's just no glycogen, there's no calorie
• 44:47
  stores, carbs to pull from at that moment because you're so
• 44:52
  depleted late in these ultras. So I was just bonking and I was
• 44:57
  being a baby. I was like, I actually don't
• 44:59
  know if I can push right now. So we just kept moving.
• 45:02
  And I remember at 1.01 of the things during Hancock Notch was
• 45:08
  I one of the first crossings I just went into with like just
• 45:12
  stepped knee deep into a river and waited across it.
• 45:15
  And Larson was like, why did you just do that?
• 45:18
  Because he I see him kind of jumping or whatever to different
• 45:21
  rocks. He stays dry.
• 45:22
  And oh, this was the year that Hancock Notch was just two miles
• 45:25
  of just straight streams. And I was like, dude, this
• 45:28
  section is so wet. You can't avoid getting getting
• 45:31
  wet. I'm just, I don't care.
• 45:33
  My feet are wet. I'm just going through all the
• 45:35
  all the things like, oh, OK. And I swear at the end of that
• 45:41
  two mile section of stream, somehow Larson had not gone in
• 45:46
  the water. I think I remember him telling
• 45:48
  me in the section he's like, I'm pretty sure footed people said
• 45:51
  I'm sure footed. It was actually the craziest
• 45:54
  thing that I've seen. Larson was jumping into the Bush
• 45:57
  a little bit, jumping rocks, doing all these things.
• 46:00
  And I don't think he he had got his feet wet at all over
• 46:04
  crossings over. I mean, this trail is a stream
• 46:08
  that we're running down. And and so I remember being
• 46:12
  like, I don't know how you're a wizard not getting your feet wet
• 46:15
  during that section. I would assume most of the
• 46:18
  people were getting their feet wet.
• 46:19
  But I remember thinking that made me realize like, wow, maybe
• 46:21
  I shouldn't have just been getting my feet wet for no
• 46:24
  reason. But my legs are so beat up and I
• 46:27
  was not being athletic. So I think it would have been
• 46:30
  hard for me to do what he was doing.
• 46:33
  But yeah, I think I think that was kind of an eye opener there.
• 46:37
  And then the other thing I remember on that section was I
• 46:39
  had stubbed my toe really bad. And it took me probably like a
• 46:42
  minute of of kind of limp walking like one of my toenails
• 46:46
  that had already been bothering me.
• 46:47
  I smashed it into rocks, into a rock or something.
• 46:51
  And it took me a little bit. And I think at this point,
• 46:53
  Larson was getting a little bit sick of of my toenails.
• 46:56
  And I think he was being nice about it, but I think he was
• 46:59
  getting sick of me complaining about my toes.
• 47:03
  So that's what I remember for that section.
• 47:05
  And then I come out, we come out to the Kank Kankamakis Highway.
• 47:09
  And so I think we're 90 something miles in.
• 47:12
  I'm getting my last pacer, AJAJ Azorian, and I remember we get
• 47:18
  to the aid station and two things I remember from that aid
• 47:20
  station 1, I remember Tyler Koontz and his wife was at that
• 47:25
  aid station. So he had ended up dropping out,
• 47:27
  I think, at halfway. But I think that they had kind
• 47:30
  of worked maybe tracking me or whatever.
• 47:32
  And I think that they wanted to come out and just support a
• 47:34
  little bit. And that meant so much to me at
• 47:38
  that point because, yeah, I was picking up a new pacer.
• 47:42
  But they kind of helped me get food.
• 47:43
  They asked me when I need it or whatever and I remember I think
• 47:47
  I had said thank you, but I was so mangled at this point because
• 47:50
  you're, you know, my brain starting to go to mush is 30
• 47:52
  hours in or something. I remember that meant so much to
• 47:58
  me, Tyler and his wife showing up and just helping me out a
• 48:00
  little bit. And I don't know if it was
• 48:03
  coincidence that they were just there, but part of me was
• 48:05
  thinking that they wanted to see me and just support me on.
• 48:07
  But that meant so much to me. And I don't know if I ever fully
• 48:11
  explained to him how much that meant to me in the effort.
• 48:15
  So I hope, you know, one day, I hope to just tell him, hey, and
• 48:18
  that really meant a lot to me when you, you and your wife came
• 48:20
  out. That was a real a real pick me
• 48:23
  up. And then the other thing I
• 48:25
  remember from that aid station was Larson being like this guy,
• 48:30
  we need to do something about his toes.
• 48:32
  This guy won't shut up about his toes.
• 48:34
  Does anybody have tape? And he got some duct.
• 48:37
  I don't know what kind of tape was medical tape or whatever.
• 48:40
  Took off my shoe and he basically grabbed my ankle and
• 48:44
  wrap that thing tight. First of all, it was
• 48:47
  excruciating. I remember when he did it after
• 48:50
  the fact, it felt better. But I remember him being like,
• 48:53
  we got to do something. He's got to shut up about these
• 48:55
  toes and he just wrapped them up tight.
• 48:59
  And I think it really helped because what had happened was my
• 49:02
  toenails were lifted off the bed and so they were just free
• 49:07
  floating in my skin because your toenails are attached to a lot
• 49:10
  of your toe skin, so you can't just RIP it off without bleeding
• 49:15
  and tearing out all the skin. But it is lifted off.
• 49:18
  And So what was happening was it was the toenail was just jamming
• 49:21
  into my soul, it felt like. And and so we just taped them
• 49:27
  up. And I remember they got better
• 49:28
  from that section. And yeah, from that section on,
• 49:33
  I don't think I made-up anytime on Steven.
• 49:35
  And from here on out at my race went downhill fast.
• 49:39
  I think up to then I was moving pretty well.
• 49:41
  But after that, I just was being a baby.
• 49:45
  I didn't have enough miles of training.
• 49:48
  So. OK, anyway, where am I?
• 49:51
  The last section, We're almost. We're almost done here, folks.
• 49:53
  About the story. Yeah.
• 49:56
  And so the last section going up, E Osceola, my watch hits
• 50:00
  100. I am being such a baby with my
• 50:04
  last pacer, who I feel really bad because I was just in such a
• 50:07
  horrible mood for that section. And I feel like, yeah, when
• 50:12
  yeah, when you're pacing someone, you get in the pain
• 50:14
  cave. It's just there's not much you
• 50:15
  can do to make them feel better. You just have to, they just have
• 50:17
  to get through it. And I'd never been in that much
• 50:20
  pain before, but I remember the East Osceola climb killed me
• 50:24
  like 1600 feet in a mile, 100 miles in.
• 50:28
  So my watch hit 100 miles because this race was 112 miles.
• 50:32
  That ended up being and then coming down Osceola, it's not a
• 50:37
  super steep grade, but it is so, so rocky and technical.
• 50:41
  And I remember just moaning like half the time they're kind of
• 50:45
  people hiking out there and being like, is this person OK?
• 50:48
  But I was moaning. I was very much verbalizing how
• 50:51
  how much pain I was in, which I think does not help you for me
• 50:57
  when you're in a lot of pain in these ultras, especially on
• 51:00
  technical stuff when it's hard to move and everything hurts,
• 51:04
  just shutting up and moving is going to be your best bet.
• 51:08
  I kept asking AJ how much to the how much to the to the next 8,
• 51:12
  how much to the next 8, how much to the next 8 and like 2 minutes
• 51:14
  would go by. He's like my watch says the same
• 51:17
  thing. And if I just when I officially
• 51:19
  was, I was like, I'm just going to shut up and we just were
• 51:21
  moving. That's when we made the most
• 51:23
  progress. So it's almost this thing where
• 51:28
  the pain cave is a physical thing, but it's also a mental
• 51:32
  aspect of, I view it as you're in this pain cave and the what
• 51:36
  you have to do is you got to hold it together mentally and
• 51:39
  stay kind of positive mentally and just think about moving
• 51:43
  forward mentally while you're in that pain cave.
• 51:45
  And if you can just do that better, a little bit better than
• 51:48
  the people around you, you're going to do really well because
• 51:53
  everybody else just know however you're feeling in a race,
• 51:55
  everybody else is feeling that too.
• 51:57
  And you actually have to kind of keep it together a little bit.
• 52:00
  And shutting up and not complaining really, really
• 52:02
  helps, or at least it helps me. And so then at the end, we just
• 52:07
  had to go up and over Tecumseh. I was just hurting a lot, wasn't
• 52:13
  moving good in the climbs, wasn't moving good in the sense
• 52:15
  it was going to that second night.
• 52:17
  So I was 3630, you know, 3637 hours in and I remember it was
• 52:22
  getting cold that night. And I remember telling AJ like,
• 52:25
  all right, we need to get off this mountain.
• 52:27
  I am getting cold, I'm getting out of it, I'm getting tired.
• 52:30
  I am so done. I'm so chewed up.
• 52:33
  And finally we get down off Tecumseh.
• 52:36
  I run it in. I ended up staying in 3rd.
• 52:40
  My finishing time was 38 hours, 45 minutes, which was which was
• 52:44
  so crazy. That's how long I was went out
• 52:47
  there because I get to the end and I'm like, I don't even, I
• 52:49
  feel like I just blacked out. I don't even know what's going
• 52:52
  on. I was so out of it.
• 52:54
  If you go watch the Air Viper, I forget what they call it, but
• 52:58
  every mile earned or something. Inaugural Jigga Johnson race.
• 53:02
  They have some footage of me at the end of that race, which I
• 53:05
  don't know if I could put that now, I probably can't put that
• 53:07
  in here, but I'll just like link that that video in the in the
• 53:12
  description or something so you guys can see it if you're
• 53:14
  interested. But I was so out of it.
• 53:17
  I didn't know what was going on, but people were taking care of
• 53:19
  me throwing layers on because I was getting super, super cold.
• 53:23
  But I had done it. And I think the one thing I
• 53:25
  wanted my buckle, I had wanted that buckle so bad, that 100
• 53:29
  mile buckle. And that was the first thing
• 53:31
  after I got to the finish line. Give me that buckle.
• 53:35
  And yeah, the one thing from the race.
• 53:38
  So I ended up being two hours behind Steven Young, which is so
• 53:42
  insane because I basically for 10 hours had made-up time.
• 53:45
  made-up time. I was 20 minutes.
• 53:47
  I want to catch up to him. And then he finished that last
• 53:50
  Section 2 hours faster than me. So insane, So much, much
• 53:55
  stronger than me, so much tougher than me.
• 53:58
  I just tibbied over to the trail essentially.
• 54:00
  And he was actually a strong runner and finished, finished it
• 54:05
  out strong. And I remember I talked to him,
• 54:09
  it wasn't after that race, but I'd saw him at it like an event
• 54:11
  later. And he said he was like, oh,
• 54:14
  somebody told me that you're right behind me.
• 54:15
  And I remember just on that last climb up to come.
• 54:17
  So I was just remember thinking, I think he said he was screaming
• 54:20
  or something like laughing at himself, thinking like, I would
• 54:23
  just be like, who wants it more? Who wants it more That Tutu
• 54:27
  wanted it so much more than me. He was so much mentally
• 54:31
  stronger, so much tougher. He was just faster, too.
• 54:35
  Yeah, I, I just keeled over the last 20 miles and he ran them
• 54:39
  tough, like like you should do in 100 miles.
• 54:41
  So kudos to him for running that section really strong.
• 54:44
  And then Justin Kowski runs six hours or 87 hours faster than
• 54:49
  both than me, 5 hours faster than him.
• 54:52
  Just a crazy effort, which I talked about in the last Trigger
• 54:54
  Johnson video. So that was that was the race.
• 54:58
  The other the last take away was so after your first 100 Miller a
• 55:03
  couple a couple things that I experienced and learned.
• 55:06
  One, the most pain and I am not making this up.
• 55:10
  The most pain that I was in for that entire 48 hours of being
• 55:15
  awake was getting to the hotel because I stayed with my mom in
• 55:20
  a hotel after the race up there in Waterville or wherever.
• 55:26
  I had to go to the bathroom. I had to take a poop.
• 55:29
  And I was thinking about everyone, everybody poop.
• 55:32
  So we're just going to tell the story, OK?
• 55:34
  Everyone poops. I had to take a poop because I
• 55:37
  hadn't during the whole race. And so I go, and obviously I had
• 55:42
  been lubing up a lot during the race, keeping things kind of
• 55:45
  clean and lubed and doing a pretty good job.
• 55:48
  And I didn't have a ton of chafing during the race, but I
• 55:51
  go to wipe and buy butt hole in my butt crack is so chafed.
• 55:59
  RIP raw red chafed. And I remember each wipe I was,
• 56:05
  I had to, yeah, I was in excruciating pain each time I
• 56:08
  had to wipe my butt in that hotel.
• 56:11
  I was just yelling, you know, however many times in the hotel
• 56:15
  that was the most pain that I was in because you got to wipe.
• 56:18
  But you know, it's it hurts so much.
• 56:21
  That was the most pain that I was in post race.
• 56:24
  So that's something to think about.
• 56:25
  I've never had to go to the poop on during a race.
• 56:30
  But yeah, that's maybe just something to think about.
• 56:33
  Oh, and then the other thing with the Lube is I was doing a
• 56:37
  pretty good job at each of the aid stations, like putting on
• 56:39
  Lube. But when I got to the end of the
• 56:41
  race, I remember Christina was like, yeah, everyone was talking
• 56:44
  about you lubing and all the all the aid stations just like right
• 56:47
  in front of everybody. And I remember thinking one, I
• 56:50
  guess I did kind of give up and I was like, I'm just going to
• 56:53
  the first couple. I'd go into the corner.
• 56:55
  And then after that I was like, yeah, I'm just going to Lube it,
• 56:57
  you know, with my drop bag and everywhere.
• 56:59
  And I think I'm just like, you know, it's like you just put
• 57:02
  your hand down in your pants. Because what I would do is I
• 57:04
  would put Vaseline or whatever Lube I was using in a plastic
• 57:07
  bag. And then I would fold the
• 57:09
  plastic bag out inside out, put my hand in it and then just put
• 57:14
  it down in my pants and do my thing.
• 57:17
  And I remember I didn't think it was a big deal.
• 57:19
  Maybe it is a big deal just putting your pant, your hand on
• 57:21
  your pants in front of a bunch of people at the aid stations.
• 57:24
  But she was like, yeah, if you were talking about that, I was
• 57:26
  like, did I accidentally like flash a bunch of people?
• 57:29
  Like, why? I don't know, maybe it is a big
• 57:32
  deal. Maybe it wasn't.
• 57:33
  But yeah, you got to keep things lubed up, keep things clean.
• 57:36
  But anyway, that's one thing I remembered.
• 57:39
  And then I, I ended up getting a couple sleeps, couple hours of
• 57:43
  sleep that night. It's really, really hard to
• 57:46
  sleep because your body is in this weird, weird place after
• 57:51
  you just destroyed, especially after your first couple 100
• 57:53
  miles because your body's not used to it.
• 57:57
  Slept a couple hours, woke up in the morning and I remember my
• 57:59
  mom went and got bacon and hash Browns at the motel and it was
• 58:04
  probably just like crappy bacon and hash Browns.
• 58:07
  But they, it was one of the best things I've ever eaten because
• 58:11
  I, my body was just so deprived of nutrients.
• 58:14
  I needed food. I was so hungry.
• 58:15
  I hadn't been, you know, at the end of the race you're not
• 58:17
  eating really well. I remember waking up and that
• 58:20
  was the best food. I ate it all so fast.
• 58:22
  She went and got another plate for me.
• 58:25
  That was one of the best meals I've ever had and I will never
• 58:28
  forget that meal. And she just kind of on a whim
• 58:30
  because we had a bunch of food at the hotel, motel or whatever,
• 58:34
  she just had a whim was like, oh, he might like this.
• 58:36
  And it was, it was so good. That's what I remember.
• 58:41
  What after, after the race, I remember my toes really, really
• 58:43
  mangled. And then the thing that I
• 58:45
  remember was the other thing that I wanted to say the first
• 58:50
  couple nights after that race, each night, two or three times a
• 58:55
  night, I woke up in full body sweats.
• 58:59
  And not just I'm sweating, my bed was wet, there was sweat,
• 59:04
  not sweat marks, pools of sweat from my pillow to my toes like
• 59:10
  two or three times a night. And I don't know what that is.
• 59:13
  I think your body is just working so, so hard all night to
• 59:19
  recover and rebuild itself that you just put off a lot of body
• 59:22
  heat and sweat a lot. But that kind of freaked me out
• 59:25
  the first couple nights because I only slept a couple hours the
• 59:28
  first couple nights after that race.
• 59:30
  And so you're going on four or five days of really only
• 59:32
  sleeping a couple hours a night. And I remember thinking if I
• 59:36
  never get a full night's sleep again, I don't know, my body
• 59:39
  might just shut down. I don't know what's happening.
• 59:41
  But finally after that, that third night or third or fourth
• 59:44
  night, you finally start to get that sleep kind of back.
• 59:48
  But but yeah, that was the race. And then that whole week or two
• 59:52
  after the race, anywhere I went, I remember if I was going to the
• 59:56
  store or wherever I brought my belt buckle, that thing was like
• 1:00:01
  my baby. I don't know if you if you don't
• 1:00:03
  have a belt buckle, try to get a belt buckle one day.
• 1:00:05
  If you do have a belt buckle, you know how much it means one
• 1:00:09
  because they just weigh a lot. And so I think that when you
• 1:00:12
  have something that kind of weighs a lot, it kind of carries
• 1:00:15
  weight with it in a non physical way.
• 1:00:18
  And then also, you know. Everything that went into your
• 1:00:21
  to your race, all of the pain you had to go get through it,
• 1:00:24
  finishing it out, it just meant a lot to me and I brought it
• 1:00:26
  everywhere. I would just put it in my cup
• 1:00:28
  holder. When I would drive around, I'd
• 1:00:29
  put it, you know, by the night stand, wherever I went, I would
• 1:00:33
  bring that belt buckle and I still have it.
• 1:00:37
  Actually, I had to put away for a while, but I brought it out
• 1:00:39
  and I still have it out now. That Jigger Johnson belt buckle.
• 1:00:45
  Yeah. And that was it.
• 1:00:46
  And that was that was the race. So that was that was the story.
• 1:00:54
  I think I hit kind of the main things I want to talk about.
• 1:00:57
  Yeah. If you're doing your first 100
• 1:00:59
  Miller, don't be at. It's not as intimidating as you
• 1:01:02
  think because you know you can you're probably not going to be
• 1:01:06
  trained as much as you want to, but that's OK.
• 1:01:08
  Your body can can just do amazing things.
• 1:01:12
  You're going to fig if you want to get to the end, your body
• 1:01:15
  will help you get to the end, but it's going to be harder than
• 1:01:17
  you think. It's going to be longer than you
• 1:01:20
  think. You're going to have to push
• 1:01:22
  through for a long time. But yeah, that first 100 mile
• 1:01:26
  hits different. Try to pace it good.
• 1:01:28
  I think one thing that I take away from that 100 mile is I do
• 1:01:31
  think I actually paced it pretty good the last two hours.
• 1:01:36
  I just think I wasn't trained enough.
• 1:01:37
  It was too long of a race. I wasn't mentally strong enough
• 1:01:41
  to push, but I think for the 1st 303035 hours I actually paced it
• 1:01:46
  fairly well. So go slower at the beginning
• 1:01:49
  and just try to push harder at the end.
• 1:01:50
  That's what I would say into your first race, but that first
• 1:01:54
  100 Miller, you're never going to run it perfect.
• 1:01:56
  It's just a learning thing. Go out there and try to get a
• 1:01:59
  belt buckle. That's what I that's what I got
• 1:02:03
  to say about that. But all right, let's see where
• 1:02:05
  we're at here. Hopefully this thing is still
• 1:02:06
  roll. All right, OK, we're at an hour
• 1:02:10
  or so. The camera's still rolling, the
• 1:02:13
  battery is dying, but all right, so we'll wrap this up.
• 1:02:18
  So the two things to wrap this podcast up, the trail report
• 1:02:22
  from today. So I did Canon Mountain.
• 1:02:25
  I did it from the Kinsman Ridge Trail and I knew, so it had
• 1:02:29
  snowed mid this week, a handful of inches and it hadn't gotten
• 1:02:34
  warm. So some of the recent trip
• 1:02:37
  reports were kind of beach sandy on consolidated snow and that's
• 1:02:41
  what I had all day today. I put snow shoes on from the
• 1:02:45
  start, so I didn't even try to just bare boot it.
• 1:02:50
  I put them on from the start because that beach sandy stuff,
• 1:02:53
  you're just going to be better off with traction.
• 1:02:55
  And that's what I found out there.
• 1:02:56
  Which beach sand from the start of the Kinsman Ridge Trail all
• 1:03:00
  the way up to the top. Honestly, it was somewhat Bony
• 1:03:05
  for the first up until the 1st viewpoint.
• 1:03:08
  It's definitely there were some sections.
• 1:03:11
  It was fair. There was.
• 1:03:12
  There is a lot of snow on trail, but any time you had a big
• 1:03:16
  boulder, a big rock that kind of sticked out or whatever, you had
• 1:03:19
  to stick out and you had to just make your way around it in your
• 1:03:22
  snowshoes. But for me, I have the smaller
• 1:03:25
  Dion snowshoes, so it wasn't a huge hassle.
• 1:03:28
  If you have bigger MSRS it might be a little bit of a hassle, but
• 1:03:32
  I think it probably saves you time putting them on from the
• 1:03:34
  start then messing around with with that beach sand.
• 1:03:39
  Shockingly, today I got there at 9:15 and there were only two
• 1:03:43
  cars there and I only saw one person going up, which I'm like
• 1:03:49
  part of me was like is this is it actually Friday and I should
• 1:03:52
  be at work or something? Why is there nobody here on a
• 1:03:54
  Saturday? But just wasn't a busy day on
• 1:03:56
  the trail. When I got back to the parking
• 1:03:59
  lot, there were a few more cars that show up in that couple
• 1:04:02
  groups of people that had snowshoes.
• 1:04:04
  But there's only going to be a handful of people that wear
• 1:04:07
  snowshoes on that trail today. I don't think it's going to get
• 1:04:10
  super warm in the afternoon. So I really don't think that
• 1:04:14
  trail is going to get impacted for tomorrow.
• 1:04:16
  So I would say if you're hiking it this weekend, probably
• 1:04:20
  snowshoes are your best bet. You don't, you don't need them.
• 1:04:24
  You're not going to postal if you don't wear them.
• 1:04:27
  But it's just going to make it easier when you have that like
• 1:04:29
  few inches of beach sand the whole way.
• 1:04:32
  But it was really cold and windy today, but it was still, it was
• 1:04:35
  still a nice day. It was kind of clear.
• 1:04:37
  It's clearing up. So it was good to get out.
• 1:04:39
  And yeah, hopefully the trails fill in more so it's less rocky
• 1:04:44
  in spots and you can just we can just make a path and we start
• 1:04:48
  getting to that freeze thaw routine.
• 1:04:52
  So we can kind of get that those highway snowshoe packed down
• 1:04:55
  trails. But yeah, it is crazy how fast
• 1:04:59
  it feels like full winter. I mean, this week has been
• 1:05:04
  really cold. Like usually in December, you
• 1:05:08
  can get really good running if it snows a lot and then you get
• 1:05:11
  that melted because it's been warmer these last few winters.
• 1:05:14
  So it melts in the afternoon and then it gets packed down and
• 1:05:16
  then and then it gets really, really clean.
• 1:05:19
  But it's like midwinter. It's not even get, it's not even
• 1:05:23
  getting warm enough to to melt these trails and and pack the
• 1:05:27
  powder down South. I mean, it's freezing.
• 1:05:30
  I don't know. This is the earliest start to
• 1:05:32
  winter in a long time. I hope we don't have a four
• 1:05:34
  month winter like this. I know a lot of skiers and
• 1:05:37
  everybody like a lot of snow. Let it snow, let the winter
• 1:05:40
  come. But for me, I like the snow up
• 1:05:43
  here, but I like mild temps if we can get them.
• 1:05:46
  So it's definitely winter. We'll see how this pans out.
• 1:05:50
  But yeah, it might just be a cold winter this winter, but OK.
• 1:05:56
  Last topic, the Kraft Mac and cheese VS Annie Mac and cheese
• 1:06:01
  preview. I have a box of press.
• 1:06:06
  So me and my girlfriend bought a box of Kraft Mac and cheese and
• 1:06:09
  a box of Annie Mac and cheese. They're at the apartment and
• 1:06:14
  hopefully this week we're going to make them and we're going to
• 1:06:17
  go toe to toe and see, see which one's better.
• 1:06:19
  I personally have never had Annie's Mac and cheese and so
• 1:06:24
  probably a lot of people already know their opinion on this.
• 1:06:26
  But for me, I'm doing my first taste of Annie's and I'm going
• 1:06:31
  to see which one I like more. This is a special treat for me.
• 1:06:35
  I really try to eat healthy most of the time but once in a while
• 1:06:39
  you just have a thought or you see something you buy.
• 1:06:42
  And I always loved Kraft Mac and cheese growing up.
• 1:06:47
  It is so good. I don't care if that fake cheese
• 1:06:49
  is so bad for you. I mean, 20 minutes after you
• 1:06:53
  craft Mac and cheese, you feel horrible.
• 1:06:55
  You feel like you just like, it's like a hangover.
• 1:06:57
  You feel awful. Your body is shutting down,
• 1:07:00
  basically 0 energy. You feel disgusting.
• 1:07:03
  But before that 20 minutes hits, Oh my God, it's so good when
• 1:07:07
  it's going down. And so I've always been a craft
• 1:07:11
  Mac and cheese guy, but we got Annie's.
• 1:07:13
  I'm going to try it for the first time.
• 1:07:15
  I don't know if we have white cheddar because part of me was
• 1:07:17
  like, I want to go, you know, give me your best shots.
• 1:07:21
  I want the best Mac and cheese. I forget if it's a white
• 1:07:24
  cheddar, onions, or if it's a regular cheddar, but I'm going
• 1:07:27
  to do a taste test of both this week.
• 1:07:29
  We're going to see which one I like better.
• 1:07:32
  I really have doubts that Kraft can be beat because it really is
• 1:07:35
  just such a classic taste. So, so good.
• 1:07:38
  I remember going to my babysitter when I was younger
• 1:07:41
  and just having warm craft and just bowl after bowl.
• 1:07:45
  Can I have more? So good.
• 1:07:49
  So we'll see how that showdown pans out.
• 1:07:51
  And if anyone has any predictions, let me know if you
• 1:07:55
  have any. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:59
  Thoughts. Put it in there.
• 1:08:00
  I don't know if you would like my Thanksgiving take from last
• 1:08:02
  week, but that's all right. So I may just have horrible food
• 1:08:05
  takes, but I like what I like. And I'm just going to, I'm just
• 1:08:09
  going to say what I think So, but we'll see.
• 1:08:11
  I'm going to go into this challenge with an open mind.
• 1:08:14
  I don't think I'm going to do a blind.
• 1:08:15
  Like part of me is like, should I do a blind taste test because
• 1:08:19
  I'm going to know craft, you know, it's such a distinguished
• 1:08:22
  taste. But but we'll see.
• 1:08:24
  But I'll report back on that next week.
• 1:08:27
  Thank you everybody for listening.
• 1:08:31
  Hopefully you guys enjoyed the story.
• 1:08:32
  We're going to do a few more of these stories.
• 1:08:35
  So these are kind of like throwback.
• 1:08:36
  That was 2023, but we'll do some more of these throwback stories.
• 1:08:40
  We'll talk more mountain stuff, more gear talk, more training
• 1:08:44
  talk. I have a lot of things that I
• 1:08:46
  want to that I, that I, that I feel like would be fun to talk
• 1:08:50
  about. So we have a lot more topics.
• 1:08:53
  Even though the races are kind of dwindling, dwindling down a
• 1:08:56
  little bit this winter, I'm going to keep these coming every
• 1:08:59
  weekend and hopefully you guys enjoy them and keep listening.
• 1:09:03
  And yeah, I appreciate everybody watching slash listening.
• 1:09:08
  So that's all I got today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
• 1:09:11
  your week, whenever you're listening.
• 1:09:14
  Peace.