337: Running 100 miles: Kevin's Journey to the Daytona 100 Ultramarathon Finish Line

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 337, recap of the Daytona 100. If you're looking for ways to bring more joy into your running and you want to be a physically and mentally stronger runner, you're in the right place.

Speaker 2: 0:19

This is the Real Life Runners podcast, and we're your hosts, Kevin and Angie Brown. Thanks for spending some time with us today. Now let's get running.

Speaker 1: 0:29

What's up runners? Welcome to the podcast. Today we are going to be doing a race recap because Kevin successfully completed the Daytona 100 mile ultramarathon this weekend. Give it up for Kevin. I need to put some like applause sound bites in here.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Excellent. I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to do that either.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Yeah, so you get mine. Thank you, and everybody else here. So congrats, kev. Thank you. What an amazing accomplishment. I am so happy and blessed that I was a part of this as well.

Speaker 1: 1:08

So today we're going to dive in to some of the details of the race, because a lot of people have been asking a lot of questions and a lot of details about the race. So we said that we would come up with a podcast for you guys. So if you are not interested in Kevin's amazing feat of running 100 miles this weekend, you can just skip to the next podcast, because that's what we're going to be talking about today. And today is really about so much. It's about everything that went into this race. It's about the mental fortitude, the grit, the tenacity, all the emotional and mental roller coaster that you were on, the physical roller coaster.

Speaker 1: 1:46

We're going to talk about all the things, both physically and mentally, that you experienced during the race. We're going to talk a little bit about my experience as the crew chief during the race and what that was like, and hopefully answer everybody's questions. And if you have a question that we don't cover on today's podcast, feel free to send me a DM on Instagram at realliferunners Hopefully you are following us now at real liferunners, and we just want to give a quick shout out to everyone that followed along with Kevin's journey, with our journey during the race this weekend, everyone that sent messages of support, everyone that donated. We felt all of the support and all of the love and we want to thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 2:29

I mean, the support was just pouring in the number of people that were following throughout the race, regardless of time zones that people were going into. It was crazy the number of people following along through like the wee hours of the morning. Some people were behind us in time zones, Some people were ahead of us, but people were not getting a whole lot of sleep. We certainly weren't getting much sleep, but neither were a lot of people following and cheering along. If you lived far enough ahead of us in time zones, you probably could have fallen asleep, gotten back up and still caught my finish, which would have been kind of interesting too.

Speaker 1: 3:02

Yeah, I think we definitely had people that did that. I'm not sure if they slept or if they just stayed up until 8am their time.

Speaker 2: 3:12

You gotta just go to bed. It's gonna take a while. That's the thing with the 100 miles is it's gonna take a while. I've followed some of these myself, some of the big 100 mile trail races. I don't follow every step of them. I go out for a run. I went out for a long run in the middle of one. Like my quote, unquote long run. I was out for a couple of hours and I come back and people are a similar distance along as my long run and they still have 16 hours to go. It's nuts how long these races are.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Yeah, it is pretty crazy. So we want to start off today by just thanking all of the sponsors for Kevin's race. If you're new, if this is the first episode you're ever catching, we did like. Kevin did this race, and part of his story is that he was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2017 after a series of three unexplained seizures, and so when he decided to train for this race, we were talking about it and he decided that he wanted to raise money for the epilepsy foundation to help raise awareness and education and support for people with epilepsy, and so we started collecting donations and we had 49 people donate over the course of the last couple of weeks, which is absolutely amazing. We gave a lot of our donors a shout out on the last podcast, but there was a couple. There were some donations that came in since that podcast, so we want to first start by thanking all of those people today.

Speaker 2: 4:40

Do you know where on the list we need to start in order to make sure that we've thanked everybody, because there's there's a lot of list.

Speaker 1: 4:47

Absolutely so. We're going to start off by saying thank you to Tina Maria, terry, martha and Melanie.

Speaker 2: 4:56

Thank you to Debbie and Sarah and Marion, liz, marie, chris, michael. My mom donated. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Thank you to Rachel, Sue, Desiree, Pilar and Shannon.

Speaker 2: 5:10

And thank you to Lorena, Heather and Richie.

Speaker 1: 5:14

Which is one of your students.

Speaker 2: 5:15

Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Which is so freaking cute Like I. That was like one of the names I didn't know.

Speaker 2: 5:19

I think you donated like midnight, two in the morning. Like when did that thing come in? I don't know.

Speaker 1: 5:23

I don't think it was that late. I think it was like noon on Saturday, I don't quite remember.

Speaker 2: 5:27

He stayed up all night watching me finish because he called it out when he came into class the next day. He comes into class the next day and he goes so bone broth, in the middle of a parking lot. You say that's amazing.

Speaker 1: 5:40

So I mean the people on this list that donated and that I mean that was a fraction of, like all of you that were following along this in the stories and sent messages of love and support, and we just want to thank you so much. It's so cool to see all the names of all the people that were following along, people from teaching and coaching over the last couple of decades, people from our lives in the past, like from you know, when we were kids or when like family members and friends, from when we were growing up.

Speaker 2: 6:13

It was just really cool the number of different walks of life that support was pouring in from, from your life and my life and just following along as I just go running down the street. Like it's amazing how many people get drawn into a guy running down the street, which is kind of what happens.

Speaker 1: 6:30

Which is amazing, and we raised over $2,500, which is incredible 49 people donated. So thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you that made this possible and that really supported all of us Like definitely supported Kevin, but really supported all of us in this journey. We felt all of the love and all the support and we just thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Speaker 2: 6:54

Yeah, it was amazing.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Yeah, All right. So let's jump in to the race experience and talk a little bit. So in our last podcast we kind of wrapped up your prep going into the race. So let's talk about kind of your the day before the race. Where was your head the day before the race? As we obviously we had a lot kind of going on. We had some personal things that we had to take care of before we left for the race and getting packed up and getting on the road. Where was your head the day before the race?

Speaker 2: 7:26

I mean I was good, but you know we have. We had a timeline of this is what we'd like to do in order to get out the door and get going on time. And we missed as we often do when packing up a car and heading to a place we missed by by a little bit.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Well, I mean it did. We had an appointment in the morning and there was an accident where a truck had rolled over on its side, and so it took us twice as long to get home as we were expecting.

Speaker 2: 7:53

At least, yeah, it was. It was a long car ride home and a lot of traffic, and so then you were like, oh, no, you can get in, like you could head out and get in a shakeout run. I'm like, no, no, no, let's just let's get the car packed up and let's get out of here and let's let's just get moving.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Yeah because I asked you what was going to be better for your mental health in that, like your mental state in that moment, Is it better? Yeah, is it better for you to go out and get that run in, or was it better for you to just get on the road and go?

Speaker 2: 8:19

No, and the answer was like, as soon as we can start moving on our way to the starting line, that that was key. And I mean I think I, even on the drive I was up and down with like my ansiness, which I think you oh wow, yeah, well, you certainly sense, but you gave me some permission to be a little antsy in certain times and it's like, look, it's going to take as long as it takes to drive there. I could pick up the packet up until like eight o'clock at night. But there's just something about like getting there.

Speaker 2: 8:47

I was joking with, I forget, one of our girls of like the classic the airport joke of well, you know, I got to the airport on time, then I had to walk all the way to the gate to make sure that it existed and then I can go do what I need to do. Like now I can go to the bathroom and get some food, like I just I needed to get to the check in hotel because I there was something in me that was like I need to have the packet in hand, so I'm ready to go.

Speaker 1: 9:11

Yeah, and that's fine, right, and I think that that that's really how I saw my role of the weekend is really holding space for whatever you were going through. Yeah, and I think that it started the day before. I mean, it started months before, right. If we're being honest, the my crew chief responsibilities really started a very long time ago. But that's really how I saw my role as crew chief is really to help you attain your goal and do whatever I could do, obviously, other than run to make sure that you got to the finish line, and a lot of that is holding space and just allowing you to have whatever emotions you're having. Allow them to be there and then not let them just completely consume you.

Speaker 2: 9:58

Right and I had a lot of emotions. I mean, I had a lot of highs and lows and we talked on the last one about trying to be like level and even keel and it's really difficult Like you get during the race or before? Yes, yes, both during and before, but especially during, like, as you get exhausted, it's tougher to experience the emotion and to realize that it's just emotions and they're. They're going to be temporary and you can move past them.

Speaker 1: 10:23

Yeah, and I think that anyone that's a parent or a spouse or a human has experienced that right Like it's harder to regulate your emotion when you're tired, when you're fatigued, and so obviously, the longer you continue to run, the longer you continue to completely exhaust your body. It's going to be much harder to regulate your own emotions in your own psychological state.

Speaker 2: 10:46

Yeah, I mean just so we've got a timeline on this. We woke up at 430 in the morning so that I could have my pre race Breakfast.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Well, before we jump into race day.

Speaker 2: 10:56

I just wanted to give a timeline.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Okay.

Speaker 2: 10:58

So woke up at 430 in the morning and I finished after three o'clock in the morning the next day. Like, even if I just did like normal activities, if I woke up at 430 in the morning somewhere around like 9, 10 o'clock that evening, I'm going to start getting cranky, yeah, let alone running the entire time.

Speaker 1: 11:17

Right, and you finished at 318, but we didn't get to bed till 5am.

Speaker 2: 11:20

That's very true.

Speaker 1: 11:21

Yeah, so okay. So let's back up a little bit. Friday we drove up to Jacksonville, which is about a five. We actually made really good time we did make a time.

Speaker 1: 11:32

On the road, which was good. I think it only took us about four, four and a half hours, and so we made it to the host hotel in time for the expert panel and the expert panel was fantastic. So if any of you are ever doing an ultra race or any sort of race that they're having a panel of experts, it's really helpful, especially if it's your first time doing it, or especially if you feel unsettled or inexperienced in any way and going to that expert panel. I'll let you talk about your experience. My experience of it was very positive because there is one thing that they said that will stick with me for any time that I ever, if you choose to, it definitely affected me this weekend and then, if you ever choose to do it in the future, this is going to be on my mind, and one of the guys who was the is the course record holder, the male course record holder. He said, as the crew, you have the hardest job, which kind of, you know, made me step back Cause I'm like, uh, running a hundred miles is pretty much the hardest job. And he was like no, the crewing a hundred of miles is the hardest job because it's your job to make sure that they get to the finish line. It's your job to make sure that they are safe, that they are fueled, that they are psychologically okay and barring any sort of medical emergency. Your job is to get them to the finish line. They are going to have highs and they're going to have extreme lows. They're going to want to quit. There's going to be at some point in the race that they're going to want to quit and you can't let them do that.

Speaker 1: 13:06

And I just had this flash of oh, I let Kevin off the hook too easily at the keys 100. And you know you might argue with me on that and I'd love to hear your perspective. But there was a lot for me going on at that point in time because the first time Kevin attempted a hundred miles, I was nervous. You know I was scared about it, like with Kevin's history of seizures and his I mean, it's a hundred miles, for goodness sake. You know like I was nervous and running at night and some of those roads down in the keys didn't have sidewalks and you were just running on the shoulder, I was.

Speaker 1: 13:42

I was kind of relieved when you decided to call it quits. I was sad for you in a way. But I was also kind of relieved because I was like, okay, good, now he didn't. Now he's not driving at night, I don't have to worry that he's going to get hit by a car on the side of the road. And so I realized that I had failed in my job as crew chief because I didn't know enough either and I'm not beating myself up over it or anything like that but when he said that it was, it was very powerful for me that I decided in that moment I'm not going to let Kevin quit, like I'm going to make sure that he finishes this race, unless there's some sort of medical emergency.

Speaker 2: 14:19

Right, I mean that's the key is there. There is a valid reason to not make it to the finish line. If it is unhealthy like medically seriously unhealthy for you to continue, then you need to stop.

Speaker 1: 14:32

Of course, right, you don't need to be an idiot. Right, like let's, let's be real.

Speaker 2: 14:37

You have to be a little bit of an idiot before you even sign up for the race. You have to be a little crazy.

Speaker 1: 14:41

right, there's definitely an aspect of crazy, but there's there's crazy, there's silly, which is the word that you use, which I love. Like Kevin and I were going to bed the night after the race on Sunday night when we finally got home and we were going to bed and he was like he just looked at me and he goes that was silly, which I love. That that's the word that you chose, because it was silly and it was crazy and it was unrealistic. And I looked at him and I said, yeah, it was completely unrealistic, but it was also everything is unrealistic until you do it.

Speaker 2: 15:12

Yeah, which, which is is a beautiful statement. Everything is unrealistic until it's until you've done it, and then you're like, oh no, that's entirely possible because I did it. But yeah, the I don't think that it was as much on you in the last race. Like you, you could say that you let me off the hook, that when I said that I need to be done, because I had said I need to be done miles before I pulled the plug on that race and you kept me moving you kept moving the finish line along, which is one of the other things that one of the people on the panel suggested is when, when your runner comes in there like, oh, I need to quit, you're like, oh, okay, but we, we can't really do it at this spot. It'd be better if we got just a little bit further down so we'll meet you in like a mile and then then you could dance.

Speaker 2: 15:59

That's going to be a better spot because of where the streets are like make something up, because your runners probably not focused anyway, so you can make up and lie and trick them trick them real easy that it's going to be better in a mile, and then then when they get there and they still want to quit, then tell them what we tried to call the the course Marshall, and they're just not picking up their phone. So maybe if you run like, just get to the next aid station and then we can do it from the aid station, and then when you get to the aid station, have everybody at the aid station lie to them and just keep them moving down the right, so it's. It's weird, but in the in the keys, when I attempted this, I don't think that I had the right mental capacity to get to the finish line at three o'clock in the morning. I didn't.

Speaker 2: 16:42

I was not prepared mentally for that many things to go wrong. Things needed to go smoother in order for me to get to the finish line on that particular day. The way that I was mentally prepared for that one, I needed to get there with, you know, a couple of issues. Clearly, things are going to go wrong over the course of a hundred miles, but if things start going like completely off the rails, I was not prepared on that day and that, I think, is more than anything. Why did not make it to that finish line?

Speaker 1: 17:11

Yeah, so let's talk a little bit about your what's. What did you take away from the expert panel?

Speaker 2: 17:19

It's, it's going to be awful, is a big one, and. But I mean all the everything that I heard from the expert panel. I've heard from like ultra running podcasts and interviews with ultra runners and all sorts of things. There was nothing new and striking, but it's just it's good to hear the words again, you know, just a few hours before you tow the line, Like it's good to hear those things from people who are so super experienced, who are so good at it, like the guy who has the course record and the woman who has the course record. Both of them were on the panel and she goes.

Speaker 2: 17:52

You know, when I set the course record, that was not a great day. It's not like I felt good for a hundred miles. There were some bad portions. There were parts where I was like, ooh, my electrolytes are off and I need to stop and walk and drink for a while. And when I finished drinking I can't immediately start back up again, I need to walk for a little bit and absorb the electrolytes. And I still set the course record. And, you know, then she turned to the guy and she goes. When you hit the course record, did that go great? He goes. No, no, there were lows of that day, and that's that's something that you have to accept before the race starts.

Speaker 1: 18:28

Welcome to a hundred miles.

Speaker 2: 18:30

Right, like it's a given there's going to be lows, and like one of the the mantras and this this got me through many, many miles is one of the absolute truths of ultra running is it will get better. There are various reasons how it could get better. You could DNF and then the pain is done. You could. It could just actually start feeling better, which happens, totally happens. You could be feeling terrible and then an hour later you're feeling better.

Speaker 1: 18:59

An hour later.

Speaker 2: 19:01

I know it's funny. Or or you're going to get to the finish line and then the pain is done, Like something is going to happen and it will, and it will get better.

Speaker 1: 19:13

I love that and it's. You know, I was at a business conference by one of my mentors a week and a half ago and that's one of the thoughts that they offered is like, when you are in a low, whether it's in business or, in this case, case, ultra marathoning, this or something better, and I really really love that because it's like Okay, yeah, this is, this is hard, it's going to be this or something better, and that's a really powerful Thing that I can remind myself of when things feel hard.

Speaker 2: 19:45

Yeah, no, that's, that's a good one, and I mean it's that one got me through I don't know 30 miles in. It's not like I just kept repeating that over and over again, but that got me through a lot of the lows. Is this will get better?

Speaker 1: 19:58

This will get better and sometimes it doesn't right. Sometimes it goes down before it goes back up.

Speaker 2: 20:02

You right, it doesn't. It doesn't have to get better quickly.

Speaker 1: 20:05

It doesn't get immediately better.

Speaker 2: 20:07

That's not. It's not immediate, there's no timeline in the statement. This will get better and, like I said, there's multiple ways for it to get better. It could get better because you decide you're done, like I passed a guy at like mile 90 Somewhere around that and he was stopped and standing on the side of the road.

Speaker 1: 20:24

Yeah, that was the guy that.

Speaker 2: 20:25

I wanted to go help. Right, I passed two guys. That was one of them, and I don't think either one of them made it to the finish line and I came up to the the first guy.

Speaker 1: 20:35

Oh my gosh, I can't imagine making it 90 miles, and not. That was the second one. That was the guy that you want to help.

Speaker 2: 20:40

I came to him like you doing okay and he goes. I just threw up twice. Both calves are completely seized up on me and I can't stand upright. Well, like, can you walk? He goes, I'm done. My ride is on its way.

Speaker 1: 20:53

Oh, like his ride was picking him up his ride was picking him up.

Speaker 2: 20:56

Oh, it wasn't. It wasn't like the way he said it so hard.

Speaker 1: 20:59

I mean like and.

Speaker 2: 21:02

This. This didn't occur to me at the moment, because you're so focused on getting yourself to the finish line, but I like I would have. I would have walked with him for a little while. Yeah, like I was fully prepared to walk with this guy for a while and the way he just definitively said my ride is coming.

Speaker 1: 21:17

Oh, that's so. So I mean maybe, but maybe his ride didn't pick him up, like there's a chance that the ride just came and like gave him stuff that he needed, and then they continued.

Speaker 2: 21:27

It's very possible. The ride had a driver and a pacer right who they planned on just meeting at the finish line. Because if you've done this repeatedly, a final 10 miles without seeing your crew is reasonable. I got to see my crew all the time because it was really helpful. It was nice to see you guys on the regular and and and, you know, get some motivation along the way. But going 10 miles without seeing your crew and and seeing them at like 80 something and then we'll celebrate at the finish line makes sense. But maybe maybe a pacer was coming back for him or they were picking him up.

Speaker 1: 22:02

Yeah, so, okay. So let's kind of go back. So we talked about the expert panel. We talked about kind of what you took away from it. What did you eat the night before the race?

Speaker 2: 22:12

We went out and got dinner. It was pasta dinner. It was like my go-to pasta. It's it's pretty plain. It's it's noodles and tomatoes and garlic and basil. It's delicious and it Like we didn't bring our own food. I know some people are like, oh, you got to bring your food. Get a hotel that you can cook in. Like, no, just go to some places and you can. Yeah, I don't feel the need to like go to a place that you're like All right, I can eat here. This place is is clean and don't go crazy, don't go adventurous on the menu. Go to something that you know that you can eat. And I avoid spices Not that I've ever had serious mid-race issues from eating things spicy the night before, but I don't want to try.

Speaker 1: 22:55

Yeah, you don't need a chance that. No, especially on a hundred miles. No, it doesn't, doesn't seem like fun, doesn't seem like a good idea. Okay, so we went out to dinner, we got back to the hotel, we went to bed a little bit later than we had planned on, because we had a little unexpected expected. Snaff who that got stuck into the into the schedule.

Speaker 2: 23:15

Yeah. So as we're filling up water bottles for the next day, I read at the hotel. At the hotel, I Realize that I don't have my handheld water bottle. Like I was gonna make the stuff that we were putting in the water bottles and my electrolyte mix and get it going for my first ready to go is gonna stick it in the fridge. So it was all nice and cool when I started the race and I am like, oh my god, that handheld is in the bottom drawer in the kitchen and it's, it's not here. And it was what? Eight o'clock at night and I come rushing back into the hotel, you're in the fitness center filling up water bottles.

Speaker 1: 23:53

No, it was like 8, 30, 45. Yeah, yeah, it was almost nine o'clock.

Speaker 2: 23:57

Yeah, I'm like we have a problem. I don't have a water bottle.

Speaker 1: 24:01

Yeah, and so I said, okay, like it was my job to be cool and calm and collected and hold space. That was my job this week. I'm like, okay, we'll figure it out. So I found a dick sporting goods. So we were like, okay, no problem, we'll go, we'll go to dicks. So we went to dick sporting goods and they apparently had discontinued running water bottles, running handheld water bottles all.

Speaker 2: 24:25

Running water bottles that were no longer being carried in the store.

Speaker 1: 24:28

What the heck? Okay, we need to, like you know, tag at dick sporting goods here and be like what the heck, because all the specialty running stores at nine o'clock at night on a Friday are closed, obviously, and so they're. They literally had one option left, and it was. They had to pull it out of the back. It was dusty.

Speaker 2: 24:50

I don't know how we didn't get on like crazy sale, like clearly they were done with that. Seriously, it was absurd that we did not get regular price for like five dollars. Yeah, no, it should have been on super clear, no it?

Speaker 1: 25:01

was thirty five dollars for that terrible handheld water bottle. But we purchased it anyway because Kevin wanted to have a handheld and we said, okay, well, this is the option, we'll make it work. And so I had fully planned on Buying you know, going to a running store the next morning and, figuring you know, buying him a handheld water bottle and switching it out. But again, this did. That did not work out either. Like thing, things are not gonna go as planned all the times because apparently there are some running stores in Jacksonville and you were in Jacksonville, starting at 6 am and Running till I don't seven or eight, and then back by the time that the running stores opened at 10 am, you are down in St Augustine and apparently St Augustine doesn't have running stores, which is kind of crazy.

Speaker 2: 25:48

Right, but these small running stores they don't open on Saturday early like they just they open at 10, like that's kind of a given.

Speaker 1: 25:54

I've worked multiple running stores, 10 Roughly the weekend opening which makes sense, right, which makes total sense, but it was just one of those things that, okay, like this is what's going to have to work, like we're gonna make this work. It was a very Tim Gunn moment.

Speaker 2: 26:09

What is that was? That was why, like the night before, I'm holding the water bottle and the woman's, the dick's employee there is, like are you going to get it? It's like, well, yes, because I need a water bottle. Like that, I need to have something. This is not ideal, but it's better than other options which are not having a water bottle right. And then I saw another guy out there.

Speaker 2: 26:30

He had taken a plain water bottle and like a Zephyr Hills like plastic water bottle, yeah, and like somehow rigged up like a mini bungee cord to the top and bottom of it and was using that as his handheld water bottle.

Speaker 1: 26:42

There you go. He forgot one too.

Speaker 2: 26:44

It was, I know, like this thing was clearly Planned and thought out. That's. That's just how it worked.

Speaker 1: 26:49

That's, that's his hand.

Speaker 2: 26:51

Yeah, diy, yep, all right, it's pretty cool looking.

Speaker 1: 26:54

Yeah. So we ended up getting back to the hotel a little bit later Because we thought, okay, we'll just, we'll run over to decks 15 minutes away, 15 minutes back, like we'll run in and out of the store. We just grab a water bottle. But no, they had to go in the back and find one, and then we walked around Like eight employees.

Speaker 1: 27:10

Oh, my gosh and then we had to walk around the whole store. It was kind of nutty. So we got back later than we wanted to and went to bed later than we wanted to, but it was okay, like we got to bed when we got to bed.

Speaker 2: 27:22

Yeah, I mean once, once I got back in, because I immediately freaked out that we didn't have a water bottle and I came to you and like I don't have a water bottle and you said, okay, we're gonna fix this. And it took a lot off of me and I'm sure that you were like what the heck bring your water bottle dude. But the fact that you were like that would not have been helpful.

Speaker 2: 27:42

No, and that's not at all what you said. At no point Did you make it seem like there was an serious issue. You're like all right, we're gonna get you a water bottle and the next day you're like I'll see if I can find you a different water bottle. We can replace your water bottle mid run. By the time we hit like 40 miles, I'm like this is the water bottle that's getting us to the finish line. Yeah, I don't like this water bottle. It actually gave me a small blister, but I don't think any water bottle that I'm holding for a hundred miles is gonna not give me that little blister, 21 hours on your hand.

Speaker 2: 28:13

It's fine, but I couldn't. I couldn't get liquid to come out of the spout of it. It was is a mess, but it's what it was and we made it work.

Speaker 1: 28:21

Yeah, it was better than nothing.

Speaker 2: 28:23

It was much better right like it.

Speaker 1: 28:24

Actually, it served its purpose. It was not ideal, it was not Perfect, but it served a purpose.

Speaker 2: 28:31

Yes, it did yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:32

So we will not be recommending that handheld water bottle in our recommended gear and other things for you. So if you ever go to our little kit dot co where we have our recommended products, that one's not in there. You will not see that one. No, so that was kind of the night before the race. All right, so the race started at 6 am. You are wave went off at 6. What time did you wake up? What did you eat? What time do we get to the race?

Speaker 2: 28:58

woke up at 4 30?, immediately started eating a bagel and and got myself kind of like, put together and dressed. A lot of body glide on me straight off the back, because I'm like, look, if I can get through this race without having to change clothes, that's a good move and honestly like you.

Speaker 1: 29:15

I mean he didn't change clothes. Spoiler alert, he did not change clothes or shoes, and Did you really have any chafing issues like you? Never, really. You asked for body glide, maybe once or twice during the whole day.

Speaker 2: 29:27

I asked for bodyglide. I did a good job in the morning and then, when it started getting hot again, I did it again. Yeah, but I rarely carried things like. The shorts are amazing and I rarely had anything in the pockets of the shorts. And which shorts did you wear? Their rabbit shorts. They're excellent, phenomenal company. They make really good shorts, nice liner and they have lots of pockets, and I think the only time that I've ever had any issues with those is if I put, like, a key in the back pocket and the shorts don't cause an issue. It's just that you know the key bounces up and down. Well, I didn't need to carry a house key as I ran down the road, thank goodness. So I was good to go. I got a handheld. I got a handheld water bottle in one hand and my cell phone in the other, so that's all I needed okay.

Speaker 1: 30:13

So I Woke up like how are you feeling? Getting to the starting line? I think I stressed you out just a little bit Before we got to the starting line.

Speaker 2: 30:24

I don't remember why did you stress me out?

Speaker 1: 30:25

because I was trying to take pictures and you're like I just need to get to the starting line. I just need to get there.

Speaker 2: 30:30

This is. We were still in the hotel no.

Speaker 1: 30:32

Well, we got to the race. Like you were a little anxious and because we we got the starting line a little wrong, we went to the host hotel until this instead of the starting line, because I thought that the starting line was right at the hotel which is funny, because you knew for a fact that it was not.

Speaker 2: 30:45

I did yeah. I looked all of this up ahead of time you would plan this the night before, and then we went to the wrong place.

Speaker 1: 30:51

It's fine because we still were early, like we left with enough time that by the time we got to we you wanted to be there at 540 and we got there like 541.

Speaker 2: 30:58

Yeah, which is totally totally good.

Speaker 1: 31:00

But then we got there and you were starting to kind of just do some hip swings and get your body warmed up and I was trying to like take some pictures. You're like, okay, I have to get the starting line. I have to get to the starting line.

Speaker 2: 31:11

I mean by the time I actually physically got to the starting line. I think I stood in the starting corral for 30 seconds yeah, maybe before. They said alright, and now you go and you wanted me to take a couple more pictures. I'm like no, they're literally, they're counting down from 30 and I'm not in the corral yet.

Speaker 1: 31:33

I need to go stand over there and the girls are like mom, let leave them alone, mom.

Speaker 2: 31:36

Yeah thank you mom, we're done. The older one. I was gonna grab the phone from you. We're done with the pictures here. Dad needs to go be over there.

Speaker 1: 31:46

I wanted to document, of course you did.

Speaker 2: 31:48

I wanted to start the race.

Speaker 1: 31:49

Yeah, I know which is good and both, both are good. Yes so you took off the girls and I went back to the hotel.

Speaker 2: 31:56

I had some breakfast.

Speaker 1: 31:57

I had some breakfast which was Terrible, like a very, very poor hotel breakfast really cuz the one.

Speaker 2: 32:03

One of them told me it was amazing.

Speaker 1: 32:04

Oh, no, well, one of them made the waffles, yes, but everyone made the waffle.

Speaker 2: 32:09

The rest of the selections were terrible.

Speaker 1: 32:12

I was not impressed.

Speaker 2: 32:13

We will not name that company.

Speaker 1: 32:14

No, we won't so, but the hotel was nice, the breakfast was terrible. So the beginning of the race, first seven miles. We could not crew you or offer any support. How was the first like seven miles for you?

Speaker 2: 32:26

you run through this like quaint little beach neighborhood really nice. It's dark. I have no idea how the neighborhood actually looked. It's dark. You can hear the ocean waves through most of it, which is kind of cool, but you can't see the ocean because it's six o'clock in the morning, but you can just hear waves crashing. There are I don't know if these were people that lived there or People connected to the race itself, but this was like some of the most turning that you had to do. You went like straight for a little while and then you had to hang like a right and a left and the left and you had to like loop around a little bit. There was a water stop. That was definitely people connected to the race, but they were just. Every time I had to make a turn there was somebody standing there saying left, looking great, which is just so nice, that's nice. Like they I don't know exactly who they were and it went past them pretty quickly.

Speaker 2: 33:16

I Think it like three miles. The one lady told me that I had to go to the right. I said the finish line is just right, this direction right, and she gave me the good courtesy laugh, which was, which was nice, but it's fine. You know, you do this little like out and back. It's it's kind of a loop, but most of it is like out and back. It's more like a Drumstick. So you kind of do out and back with like a little loop on the end of it. So I actually got to see all of the fast people from the 530 start run back past me the other direction, which was kind of neat.

Speaker 1: 33:49

That was, that sounds good. And so then we saw you around mile eight and we kind of refilled your stuff and the goal was really to See Kevin every 30 to 60 minutes so that we could refuel and we can refill his fuel stores right, because I was checking like I have like the big back but like hydration backpack thing, but I didn't wear it for a huge amount of the race.

Speaker 2: 34:15

You didn't get put that on until Half, almost halfway through when, I halfway through the day, like maybe 12 or 1 o'clock, when it started getting pretty hot yeah and I'm like no, I should have water with me at all times at this point because I was doing good. See you often enough that I'm like, if I don't have to carry an extra liter and a half of water, let's not carry an extra liter and half of water right, and that was really the goal of me as the crew chief and trying to see you frequently.

Speaker 1: 34:41

It was not only just to cheer for you and and show you that we were there and Supporting you, but also to minimize the amount of things you had to carry.

Speaker 2: 34:49

Yeah, and I was certainly well hydrated for the first many, many miles, because it was, it was cool, it was, it was not super hot, it was not sunny, it was nice and shady.

Speaker 1: 34:59

It was shady.

Speaker 2: 35:00

It was plenty of shady. I was quite hydrated. I had to go to the bathroom badly for the first like 40 miles. What did you do when you had to go to the bathroom? They were porta-potties regularly. Some of them were connected to the races. Some of them may have been just a porta-potty in the front of a house that was under the construction under construction.

Speaker 2: 35:19

I may have used, I don't know, like ten of those along the road. I'm sure you weren't the only one. Oh, not at all. Like it was funny, because once the sun started coming up, we're running down the road and I can see somebody, maybe like a half mile mile in front of me, and I'm like, all right, just kind of keep a good rhythm with this person, and then that person would just disappear. I'm like where the heck did they go? And I get further down the road and I'm like, oh, there's the porta-potty.

Speaker 2: 35:42

Yeah that's just where people went.

Speaker 1: 35:44

Yeah, so I would say that the first really 30 miles were Good for you like you were feeling really good every time I checked in with you. You're like yep, doing great, like he was. He was had a good mood, he had a lot of energy you just had. You had a smile on your face, you were feeling good and ready to roll it was very peppy and moving you at one of the aid stations.

Speaker 2: 36:07

You told me you're like you're rushing through these aid stations and I was like I, there's people around, they're running similar pace to what I want to run. So I'm not trying to rush, I'm not trying to beat that person, I just want to kind of be near that person when I get back out and running again and I had a rhythm going, yeah, like that's. The thing is you have to stop and get new fuel and eat and and all the things. Right?

Speaker 2: 36:31

but you don't want to stop too long right, because I had a very nice smooth running form and good rhythm going.

Speaker 1: 36:38

Yeah, and I just I wanted to point that out because I knew that in the keys you said that the goal was completion, but the goal in your head was actually a time and a finishing place yeah and I didn't want you falling into that trap and that's what that was part of my reasons for kind of pointing that out of why, like when I noticed that you were, it felt like you were kind of rushing through and not just like Taking your time at the aid station I was like, is he mentally flipping over to? I'm competing again?

Speaker 2: 37:10

Yeah, and I really I was not trying to compete like I had. You know, we talked about AB and seagulls. We've done this podcast before. I don't know how many letters I had. I had so many letters in there of like all the different things that could go well, like what if I, you know, sprout wings and fly for part of the course, like maybe this could happen, like there are all these different things it could happen. But you know, getting to the finish line was Going to be a massive win for me and I had really fully embraced that what letter was that one?

Speaker 2: 37:42

I don't know there there were a lot of them. I don't I didn't do ABC goals correctly. I just had lots and lots of goals. Not like this was if things went great, if then? Then if things went good and if things went okay, if things went poor, like I didn't have, like those things, it was just lots of different things that all would have been cool Achievements yeah, but so what were some of those?

Speaker 2: 38:05

Midnight was gonna be one like can I finish before we the clock flips over would have been a good one. Yeah, you know, winning an age group, but that is completely out of my control. So I had that out there, but I had very, very little attachment to it because who knows who's gonna show up at this thing, right, but that, just that would have been a neat thing I think cool yeah, like that would be cool.

Speaker 2: 38:29

There's Because the race is so long, like you get into a half marathon, a lot of people put like a two-hour mark yeah or a two and a half hour mark. Well, you're running for a hundred miles, so is. Is it cool to hit 16?

Speaker 1: 38:43

What about 17, 18 hours, 19 hours, like literally every time it hits an hour is another like Big achievement that you could be under Well and when you were coming in, when I told I was talking to the guy at the finish line when we were waiting for you there, and he said, oh, he's gonna be Under 22 hours, and I said, oh, yes, like he's like. Which wave did he start in? Blah, blah, blah. I said and you know he was at 6 am. He's oh yeah, he's gonna be well under 21 and a half hours. Even he goes. That's really good.

Speaker 2: 39:14

Yeah, he just said that that was a really good accomplishment one of the reasons that people come to this race in particular. You have to one, you have to like running road races. There's a lot of people that do ultras. That train stay off of roads. They stick purely to to trails and stuff. But if you want to hit a time, one of the times that gets thrown out there for ultras is breaking 24 hours For a hundred miles, and so that was that was a goal out there. Can I, can I break 24 hours? And I broke that one by a chunk, so that was that was a big, big win too.

Speaker 1: 39:48

Yeah, so we just talked about kind of the first 30 miles. What about like miles 30 through 50? Do you have any recollection of kind of what happened in those somewhere?

Speaker 2: 39:58

in there. Yeah, it started going poorly and I can't remember exactly where it was.

Speaker 1: 40:02

Yeah, and neither can I like, and that's why I feel like when I think about the race, I really think of it in sections, because it's hard to know, like, oh yeah, exactly at 42 miles is when things started to go down hose Somewhere in this range, because we saw you every Two to five miles, essentially yeah, and somewhere in there it started going not not well at all from like a stomach GI issue perspective, and then that threw off my form and then that made my legs get even more tired and it was.

Speaker 2: 40:37

It was this quick physical spiral when it was like everything was going pretty smoothly and it's not like things started feeling like not great, things just started feeling bad, and that caught me off guard when it first hit.

Speaker 2: 40:51

Yeah, because you expected to kind of go more to like the a place instead of the oh right, like I thought it was gonna be like a Dimmer switch and instead it was like okay, someone actually just flipped the switch from good to bad. Like I thought there was gonna be like a gradual dimming over the course of the day and then maybe periodically cuz you hear stories about this of like I know I wasn't feeling great and then I started feeling a little better and then it wasn't feeling great and I it just suddenly flipped and I just Wasn't doing good at all.

Speaker 1: 41:17

And so then, what happened? How did you handle that?

Speaker 2: 41:19

I, I don't know I may have cried, I'm not sure. I definitely cried periodically throughout at some point. I would like I would yell just on the side of the road.

Speaker 1: 41:30

Like up at the sky.

Speaker 2: 41:31

Yeah, just yell Not, not any words, nothing profane or anything, just literally, just yell it felt good, like it really felt good, and then yeah, like a release. Yeah, and then you just keep moving because it doesn't matter that it feels bad, because the finish line isn't gonna suddenly get closer, because it feels bad Like there's nothing that my not feeling good is getting this somehow fix. So it's just a thing that I have to deal with as I continue moving down the road.

Speaker 1: 42:02

So do you think that through this process you Learn something about yourself and that you figured out how to maybe master or Get a better handle on your own emotions?

Speaker 2: 42:19

Probably. I mean, I think I really I've heard the idea that, like, emotions are like weather, that you know there Is it, is it raining, is it sunny? Is it snowy? Which one's good, like you. Just you have these feelings that come in and then they pass, and Are they good, are they bet that out of there, just the emotion that you're currently feeling.

Speaker 1: 42:41

So when you were, Experiencing this emotional roller coaster during your race. How did you handle it? Did you just allow it to be there or did you fight it like? How did you handle it?

Speaker 2: 42:52

So Fighting it? I tried both and I know that the appropriate way is to not fight it, but as your, as your race, of the appropriate way. I don't know the, the, the way that I've learned and all this, the personal growth and all the things right, you can't fight your emotions.

Speaker 2: 43:10

Allow the emotions just allow, just sit in the emotion. But you're racing and so, like I wasn't trying to beat people, so I don't. I don't mean that. I'm like I'm Competitively trying to do things, but you are in the middle of a race, you got a number on your chest and so my response to most things in that environment is to push against it. You know, in the middle of a 5k, as things get tired, I push against it, the I lean into the pain, because that lets you know that you're running fast enough. So if the emotions are struggling, I push against them and try and like Overcome the emotions, and that never worked.

Speaker 2: 43:50

And I know you know outside of a race environment, that that's not gonna work, that you just have to experience the emotion, then move through and move past, and many, many miles and hours into the run, when Negative thoughts would come up, it'd just be like oh yeah, well, that makes sense that I would be having negative thoughts. Right now I'm not going as fast as I want, my legs aren't feeling great, my stomach doesn't feel good, I'm still holding this stupid water bottle because I left mine at home, like all these things are happening and, and that's okay, I'm gonna keep moving down the road, and that was always a better way Because I would. I had the negative thoughts but they didn't then bring me down, and fighting against them almost always made me feel worse, which I know from like a like a book perspective. But this was a very practical experience of Trying to fight the negative emotions only made me feel worse, and just knowing that these thoughts came in and and then the thoughts can move out was always the shorter route to Mentally feeling better.

Speaker 1: 44:57

That's really powerful and it's very interesting too, because you've run a lot of races and you've experienced a lot of discomfort in your running journey, but never at this level for this long never for that long.

Speaker 2: 45:12

And that's the thing is. In marathon You're gonna have, you probably gonna have a low, and that low might grind all the way to the finish line in an Ultra. You're gonna have a low and then you're gonna recover and have a high and then you're gonna have another low and then you're gonna recover from that. Have like the number of times that I went up and down during the race Is it a lot more than any other race I've ever run?

Speaker 1: 45:34

right, because you ran almost four marathon straight. So your normal marathon experience plus you know times four essentially. But really when you run a marathon you usually run it in under three hours and obviously you weren't racing this at that level of intensity and so, in theory, right, you running three Marathons at your marathon pace would take about 12 hours. I say three and four, 12 hours and this took you 21 hours. So obviously I've got a much different experience, a much different pace, a much everything. But you were just out there for so much longer. There was really no escaping what was going to happen right, and I mean I think that you couldn't outrun it.

Speaker 2: 46:18

No, no, you can't outrun it, you can't outrun your emotions, and I mean, I've tried that for decades to try to outrun emotions and you you can't. And Knowing that and being like, but if I just keep running, eventually I'll have to outrun these things and nope, nope, three, four, five, twenty, fifty miles later, they're still there. So you just have to accept that they're going to be there and and that's the only way that you can actually move yourself along.

Speaker 1: 46:47

And that's so powerful is that when you finally just accept it, then it will actually you can release it. You accept it, you release it, you let it move through you and then you're able to move forward.

Speaker 2: 46:58

Yeah, I mean, one of the things that people ask all the time is like, what do you think about as you're out there? Do you just listen to a lot of music? I did not listen to that much music, actually, because it was it was draining the battery on my phone, so I didn't listen to a ton of music. There was a lot of just me running down the road and Like, what are you thinking about? Not much, like I was just moving down the road. We had talked about this on the drive home. Is it's such a chance to just be in the moment, because that's your best chance of success? Thinking about what happened in the last 10 miles outside of I ate this, my stomach immediately felt bad. Don't eat that at the next stop outside of that. Things that happened at the start of the race are no longer important to me.

Speaker 1: 47:45

Right and then thinking about the things that are ahead of you and how many miles you still have left also not helpful.

Speaker 2: 47:51

Right, I didn't start doing, like you know, runner math until nightfall and then, even then, I briefly did it and then I moved past it. It occurred to me that once you hit 100 kilometers, there's not another like significant distance that you hit until you hit 100 miles. Like those are the race distances. You can hit a 50k, then you can hit a 50 mile, then a 100k and you're at 62 miles. There's not another big milestone until you hit 100 miles. And that occurred to me.

Speaker 1: 48:22

I left and then I moved along. I mean, I guess 150k would be like 90 something, sure, but no one right.

Speaker 2: 48:29

but you're awfully close to the finish line. At that point no one raises 150k, unless that happens to be the random distance of the trail that you're on. So I thought, well, three full marathons is kind of substantial, but that's a long distance from now. So I'm just going to run until I hit the finish line. And then I was done doing runner math because it didn't help me anymore.

Speaker 1: 48:50

Yeah, and so it was really the ultimate practice of presence for you to just be in the mile that you were in.

Speaker 2: 48:55

Yeah, and presence for 21 hours is pretty awesome, like there's this race in New York that they just run around a city block for 3100 miles. It's like it's days and days and days and days. And it's just running around this block essentially, and they call it the transcendental 3100.

Speaker 1: 49:19

No, thank you.

Speaker 2: 49:20

But and I'm like, well, that sounds madness and kind of fascinating, but also madness and they live stream it also, which is the best. But the presence, that like the having to live in the moment, as as I'm running and then trying to expand that from day to day to day to day, and those runners sleep, like it's a you have to. You get up at a certain time in the morning, you're done by midnight, get up and do it again the next day, day after day after day, but what a crazy experience. But how amazing and meditative that could actually become, because you can't be flying down the road Like the people that are moving fast are not moving that fast. It's just such a huge self growth process.

Speaker 1: 50:09

Yeah, it's that ultimate practice and presence again, and I think it's so interesting and would love your thoughts on why does taking your body to the brink of your physical capabilities lead to that kind of mental and psychological and personal growth?

Speaker 2: 50:31

Well near at your physical limits. You're also pretty much at your mental limits. So you don't have the energy to put up these like mental walls anymore. Like all the energy that you put on like shielding and creating these personas that you can put it to the outer world, like all the armor, all the armor that you put up you, you don't have the strength to carry armor anymore. You leave the armor somewhere in the early miles because it's too much to carry for the rest of the race.

Speaker 1: 50:58

How early in your race? How early would you say? Obviously, this number is different for everyone, but in your race, what would you say?

Speaker 2: 51:09

I mean I. I think that my running really long distances is just, it's an open invite to drop the armor and be the most me that I am. So I honestly.

Speaker 1: 51:24

that's one of the reasons I started to interrupt you, but that's one of the things I love the most about when our oldest daughter interviewed you at that one stop, like when she walked with you. It was such a raw look at Kevin and I loved how just genuinely yourself you were during that interview and how you just let your your silliness come out, you let your humor come out, you let all of it just kind of like be shown and you don't show that a lot to a lot of people in your life.

Speaker 2: 51:57

Yeah, I have no idea what I said in that interview, because I didn't.

Speaker 1: 51:59

You should go back and watch it because it is amazing.

Speaker 2: 52:01

But the thing is that I didn't think about any of the answers and and that's a big key, I think, in being as honest as you possibly can Like, how often during the day does someone ask you something and before you just give them an answer, you think about? Well, who am I talking to? What answer did they want me to give? What answer would I prefer to give? How do I balance between these? What's going to be the repercussion? My answer she was asking me questions as I walked down the road. I just answered them.

Speaker 1: 52:27

Yeah, you put a filter on and so basically, when you're that at that level of physical exertion and exhaustion, those filters just disappear.

Speaker 2: 52:36

You don't have the energy for a filter anymore. It's like it's what you say when doing long runs with with your friends is after you hit a certain mile mark, there are no more filters on the discussions happening.

Speaker 1: 52:47

Yeah, anything's on the table.

Speaker 2: 52:48

And you know we put a filter, I think, on the our thoughts that we have inside of our own head, like all right, well, that that's a bad thought, so I'm not going to think that thought anymore. But you don't have the energy to filter your thoughts anymore when you're 12, 15 hours in.

Speaker 1: 53:04

So do you see that as a good thing or a bad thing?

Speaker 2: 53:06

I think it's a good thing. I think that you have to experience all of the thoughts that maybe thoughts that you've been pushing down, and maybe thoughts that you're like, all right, well, I can't think that thought that's going to be, that's going to be weakness, that's going to make me feel bad, that's I can't be powering through. But you can power through with all the thoughts like, whatever got you there, like like, oh well, that's a memory that I haven't, I haven't taken into account in for for a long, long time, because it makes me feel sad, it makes me feel bad, it makes me feel bad about myself. It if it's a memory from your life, that's a life experience that got you to where you currently are, so it has to be positive.

Speaker 1: 53:45

Yeah, did any sort of like traumatic memories pop up for you, or any of your history of seizures or any other like traumatic things kind of come to the surface for you?

Speaker 2: 53:58

Nothing, nothing big and or like nothing very specific.

Speaker 2: 54:02

No capital T trauma, right. Nothing like super specific came back up for me, which I thought was interesting, you know, especially since we made a big thing going into it, talking about how this is. This is showing that you can do what you want, like a diagnosis doesn't have to change the way that I'm training. I literally I'm running more now so I thought that I might get some like some flashbacks to it. But you know, looking back at it now, it makes sense that they didn't have big flashbacks those times because you don't form memories while having a seizure. So I'm not sure what I would flashback to.

Speaker 1: 54:40

Yeah, that's true, which is interesting because when I went to my event two weeks ago, a lot of what we did there like one of my business mentors is very much into the woo, and so we did a lot of meditation and other sort of things, kind of bringing up visions and different things of our, of our intuition.

Speaker 1: 55:02

And I did get and I and usually I have a really hard time and obviously this, this podcast, is not about me, but I have a hard time seeing the visions, because in the past I have always tried to control the meditations and I finally was able to release that need for control and it was crazy how the visions just kind of started flowing in nonstop like a flood flooding in would be a better word. And I did have a flashback to when you had a seizure in our house on my lap and you were, you know, season there, and it was a very emotional thing for me and I didn't realize that I was holding on to that, which was interesting. So I'm not sure how that ties in, but like we were just kind of talking about bringing that back up.

Speaker 2: 55:52

But it's the whole idea of when, you like, you've had a difficult time going through any of these visualization processes because you put a filter and somehow you were able to try to maintain control.

Speaker 2: 56:02

Right. So somehow you were able to take the filter away and give up control. There's not a whole lot of control over the course of a hundred miles. You lose the filters, you lose the control. You were in charge of what I ate, like I gave you some feedback on how I'm feeling. You're like okay, so this is what you're going to eat.

Speaker 1: 56:18

Yeah, I very quickly realized not to ask you questions Like I I did at the very beginning. I said do you want this or do you want this? And then I was just like nope, this is what you're eating. I decided at one point in time I don't remember exactly when it was that I was just going to give you the food and that's what you were going to eat.

Speaker 2: 56:34

Right and you know, maybe if my stomach was feeling a little bit better, it'd be like, hey, here's what you're going to eat, and I might have turned something down and you'd be like, okay, I've got this also and I would have taken option B instead. Maybe that could. That might happen at some point in the future, but I was not. I didn't want to eat anything.

Speaker 1: 56:51

Yeah, and that's what I realized is that I needed to take decision making off your plate. It wasn't because I wanted to have control, it was because you couldn't do that. Right now, all you needed to focus on was just literally putting one foot in front of the other and continuing forward, and you did not have the, the energy, the capacity or the um, what's the word I'm looking for? Like the need to make any decisions, like that was my job.

Speaker 2: 57:20

Yeah, I mean I could have made decisions on food, but I didn't want to eat anything, and so you deciding what I want. At some point kind of later in the afternoon I think I you mentioned peanut butter and jelly and I'm like, yeah, give me that. And so then the next time we hit a stop, you gave me more peanut butter and jelly because it sounded good. And the next time we did it I'm like, yeah, that's that doesn't sound bad, so give it to me. I think I was there enough that if you tried to give me something that I didn't want, I could have turned it down and you could have given me something else. But yeah, you stopped asking questions. Like one of the the few questions you asked, we, we hit a gas station, bath stop or a circle K or something like that, and you're like I want to get a slurpee, like, yeah, that that sounds like a good idea.

Speaker 1: 58:03

Let's do that, Like I really wanted you to. But if you were like, oh no, that sounds awful, then I'm not going to force you to do it.

Speaker 2: 58:08

But we had mentioned that the day before in or two years before in in planning.

Speaker 1: 58:13

And it was a great way to get in calories and also cool your body temperature, cause it was in the later afternoon and it was hot at that point.

Speaker 2: 58:19

Yeah, and we had discussed that Like that. That wasn't just a spur of the moment thing of like no, this might be a good idea in the afternoon and it was. It was a good one.

Speaker 1: 58:28

So how did you get through those final miles? How did you get through, so let's just say, the last 30 miles, because at that point you had already run 70 miles and you still had 30 miles to go. What do you remember and recall of kind of the last third of the race?

Speaker 2: 58:46

Um, all right. So I remember, as you get to like the outskirts of Daytona, which is probably like much more towards the last 20 miles of the race or so um, you start passing people on the street who are like out at bars and stuff, yeah, like that's, that's the crowd that you're now running past. And you're running through the sidewalk and people are, you know, eating dinner, like there's, there's outdoor dining. There was one place that I ran past and somebody at the first table yelled loudly as I'm kind of shuffling my way down the road, how many miles have you gone? And it was like the first table of maybe 10 tables lined up outside and I looked at my watch and I'm like I've gone 82 and the guy yelled back 82 miles. That's incredible and the whole restaurant cheered as I ran past. Random things like that. There was an Uber driver that stopped and he goes. There's some sort of race going. Where did you guys come from? I'm like Jacksonville, he goes. You did not Like right.

Speaker 1: 59:45

You know, and then like just there were those people at the gas station when we saw you at one stop.

Speaker 2: 59:51

They were super excited.

Speaker 1: 59:53

They were like how much have you run? You were like 81 miles. He was like 3.1 miles and you're like 81.

Speaker 2: 1:00:01

You 81. So, like anybody that saw, there were a lot of like random interactions with people because you you're going down the road in the middle of the night with a number pinned to your chest. So anybody that's done even like a local 5k, recognizes that he's got a number pinned to his chest. He's doing he's not just out for a run, something's happening here. And if you know the people that are sitting at the restaurants dining outside, somebody ran by and then 10 minutes later another person ran by and 15 minutes later another person. Like what the heck is going on? Like this isn't like a normal 5k. Why are they so staggered out?

Speaker 2: 1:00:36

Well, cause we started in Jacksonville, seriously. So I had a lot of like random interaction with people who would like just start driving slowly along or call out from wherever on the side of the road it was. It was weird. And then towards the, the very end of the race, you kind of get into like another neighborhood and so then it just gets really quiet and dark, like there was a lot of really dark before I got to Daytona. And then once you get through, like the downtown area which I turned off my headlamp because I didn't need it, like it was really well lit.

Speaker 1: 1:01:15

And then you got so many hotels and restaurants and bars.

Speaker 2: 1:01:17

Yeah, but then you get through that and it goes super quiet again and it's just like you kind of get into a park is essentially what you've got. So you're going through like this small neighborhood and then into a park, and it was, it was very quiet and it goes back to that part about okay, now it's just getting to the line, and there was a point where I wasn't going to be able to see you until I got to the line, like I saw you at 97, 6, something like that Somewhere in there.

Speaker 1: 1:01:47

And then I had to get to the finish line and there was like 97 and a half was the last time I saw you at the 7 11.

Speaker 2: 1:01:52

Yeah, but I think that, oh my God, the 7 11. That's when it, knowing having the mileage on my watch, did not work well, because the 7 11 was supposed to be at mile 97 and a half and my watch said it was at mile 99.

Speaker 1: 1:02:06

99.7. I think yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:02:08

And it's like well, that means that I should be done at the finish line. But I, you could. You could see the light from the, the lighthouse that we were running towards, and it was. It was not close and you texted. I was like the 7 11 is supposed to be here by now. It's not cool that it's not here and you're like, yeah, but isn't it cool that you can see the lighthouse light? And I'm like, no, no, I did not text you back.

Speaker 1: 1:02:33

You did not.

Speaker 2: 1:02:34

But I was like, no, it is not cool, because I can see how far away that light is and I have to still get there. And when we ran through, like the, the neighborhood to get to it, there was a street that I swear we could have turned up and gotten there faster.

Speaker 1: 1:02:49

I'm going to take some shortcuts and neighborhoods I don't know.

Speaker 2: 1:02:52

I mean, I think, in order to do it like once, I saw it the next day in daylight and with more mental capacity, I don't think I could have gone through one of those things. I think we would have had to like hop somebody's backyard fence, but I could have gone a straighter path to get to it. You had to run through this thing all the way to the end and then hang it right. I actually pulled up Google Maps on my phone at that point. I'm like how many more streets do I have to pass before I finally get to turn, make a right turn? Because I'm like I have to get to Lighthouse Drive. So I pulled up the map. I'm like I have four more streets that I have to get to. Yeah, it was really.

Speaker 2: 1:03:30

I was fighting for every quarter mile at that point and it was. It was rough. I caught somebody with like a half mile to go. She was running the 50 mile and she stopped because somebody was waiting for her and they came like running in with her over the course of like the last half mile. So that was. That was weird. I was like at that point I didn't, I couldn't even process what was happening. I'm like, well, you're not even allowed to have aid aid here. I don't know what's happening, but I'm just going to keep running and try and not get run over by a car, because it was really dark and just just had to get there.

Speaker 1: 1:04:05

Yeah, at that point it was just time to be done.

Speaker 2: 1:04:07

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:04:08

So what did it feel like to cross the finish line?

Speaker 2: 1:04:13

It's such a weird combination of amazement and relief and joy and utter exhaustion, with this layer of pain blanketed over the top of all of it. In like the last 10 miles, I'm thinking what am I going to do as I cross the finish line? Like, am I going to smile? Am I going to, like throw my hands up in the air? Am I just going to, like, fall across the finish line? How am I going to cross the finish line? I knew I wanted you and the girls to cross the finish line with me, and you know. Then I got to you guys and I'm moving so slow that I see you and you guys are waiting like I don't know 20 steps from the finish line and I'm like, am I anywhere near them? Why am I so far away from them still? And I come up and like you guys kind of grouped in behind me, which is fine, and there was no, I wasn't sure.

Speaker 1: 1:05:08

like what you wanted, like if you wanted to hold our hands or if you wanted to go in first, or like what kind of you wanted.

Speaker 2: 1:05:15

I don't know. And you know we've got two sleep deprived teen and tweens, and so what did they want? To hold my hand? Did they? Did they both want to? I'm sure you wanted to be next to me also. No one needs to fight over who gets to be next to the smelly guy that just ran for a hundred miles. Like that doesn't seem like a good way to cross the line, so it wasn't well planned. But my being in front and then the three of you kind of like to use the word from our wedding day that just popped in my head ensconcing me behind was I thought that was great. And the guy, like did you give him your phone and he filmed coming in? That was super cool. Did like a whole announcing thing. There's no one there. It's three o'clock in the morning. There's like there's a skeleton crew of support still there. There was a medical staff. It was a guy wearing a shirt that said medical. He came over and checked.

Speaker 1: 1:06:10

Yeah, and you were like I don't need to talk to you.

Speaker 2: 1:06:14

Yeah, he was like how are you doing? I'm like everything hurts from head to my toe, but not bad enough that we need to have an actual serious conversation. So we're good.

Speaker 1: 1:06:21

Yeah, and like just the fact that you were with it enough to say that and make a joke about it. He's like, yep, okay.

Speaker 2: 1:06:28

He's fine. That's when I had to stop and get my foot taken care of the race. Marshall, that was there Every time. I was joking because you were like trying to talk to him and like figure out, like is there anything else we should do? And I kept cracking jokes and he was like there's nothing else you need to do, he's fine. And he like I think they had to go to the store because like a mile down the road he drove past me to check and like they stopped. It was there were two of them and they slowed down next to me and they're like how's your, how's your toe doing? I'm like it still hurts, but it's a different pain. He goes, yeah, so it's a different pain. That's winning. Also, you're going really effing fast right now and I look at my watch and I'm shuffling like 1030 pace. So I'm like, yes I, the lightning is flying out the back of me, like the lightning.

Speaker 2: 1:07:16

Yeah, but I mean, but it was, it was a lot of support, like that was the thing is. There was so much support. You know we talked to the beginning of the show of the support from all of our listeners. But support from other runners, support from you and the girls, support from every aid station and water stop like support from random people eating dinner, like the amount of support and encouragement was awesome all day long.

Speaker 1: 1:07:39

Yeah, all right, let's. I mean, we're ending up being a long podcast, but I think it's okay because everybody wants to know the details.

Speaker 2: 1:07:47

So good warning at the beginning. This is going to be a recap.

Speaker 1: 1:07:50

Okay, so you cross the finish line, you eat a cold hamburger. No, no hot dog. Yeah, a hot dog.

Speaker 2: 1:07:57

I crumbled into a chair. And then I had a hot dog, the hot dog was amazing. Amazing I couldn't tell you if it was hot or cold.

Speaker 1: 1:08:03

That's hot dog you ever had.

Speaker 2: 1:08:04

It was hot dog covered in ketchup.

Speaker 1: 1:08:08

And then we. I decided you needed more food than that. So we stopped at the Waffle House on the way home because we're just straight across from the hotel that was the only thing that was open at that hour Got some food to go and then went back to the hotel. Our kids were done and gotten to bed ASAP and you tried to put some food into your mouth. Like you probably ate half of that dish and then I ate a lot of hash browns. Yeah, and then showered and we got to bed around 5am.

Speaker 2: 1:08:34

Yeah, and it was so difficult. I mean showering was super difficult. My foot was all messed up, like I didn't even unwrap my toe, which got wrapped with like a marathon still to go right.

Speaker 1: 1:08:48

Yeah, I want to say it was like 80 something. Okay, I think it was less than a marathon.

Speaker 2: 1:08:52

All right. So with over 15 miles still to go, my toe got wrapped up. I'm like I'm not taking that tape off until the next day.

Speaker 1: 1:08:57

I want to say that was that aid station was at like maybe 83.4. Something like that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:09:02

It was. My feet were all messed up and I still had to shower and then try to climb into the bed and sleep. People have asked me like were you all like hyped up? Still, I'm like well, there was enough downtime of like eating, getting into the car, getting the hotel waffle house have some food Like I probably could have fallen asleep in that chair at the finish line. Like I was excited but I was also so exhausted. But by the time I was actually showered and ready to go to bed, I was done. I think it took me a half a second to fall asleep. Like there was, I was done.

Speaker 1: 1:09:37

Yeah, you just had to, like, get yourself in a position that you felt comfortable enough, yeah, that you could just pass out.

Speaker 2: 1:09:42

Yeah, and there was not a lot of positions that felt comfortable at all. No, no.

Speaker 1: 1:09:48

So we basically went to bed around five, just after five, and slept till 11 on Sunday because we had to check out of the hotel at 12 and then got some food, went to a local diner and then went over to the awards ceremony that Kevin wanted to be a part of. He got third place in his age group, placed 14th overall. So those of you that are asking about the statistics Kevin completed the 100 miles in 21 hours and 18 minutes. He placed 14th overall, third place in his age group, and it's just an absolute rock star.

Speaker 2: 1:10:23

I mean, I finished. That was the big one. There's a lot of people that are asking, like, how did I do? And some people giving them those details like mean something to them in their head. And other people are just very supportive and when I say I finished this one, right, they're people that have been following and they know I didn't finish the last one and so finishing this one is a big win.

Speaker 1: 1:10:44

It's a big deal.

Speaker 2: 1:10:44

Like my. The school president asked how I did and I said I finished this one. He goes. That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 1:10:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:10:50

Like so that was pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 1:10:51

That is very cool. So how did you feel the day after and it's now been the day that we're recording this on Tuesday, following the race, you ran Saturday into Sunday, so basically you've had a half a day on Sunday and Monday and today is Tuesday. How are you feeling now? Like how did you feel like the day after and then leading into now?

Speaker 2: 1:11:13

Well, sunday was awful. It was a process to try and climb in and out of the car, like I needed to use my arms to pick my legs up to get in and out of the car. And then you know, that night I was just trying to move a little bit because movement is helpful but movement also hurts. So it's that combination of like wanting to have some movement and not get super stiff. That's the issue with the drive is I just got stiff sitting in the car and then we'd get up and like stop at a gas station or something, and the first 20 steps were awful and then I could kind of shuffle uncomfortably. But then you have to get back into the car.

Speaker 2: 1:11:50

And you know, I went to school on Monday and my physical activity was passing back tests to the kids and the movement just walking and shuffling around my classroom and passing back papers. That made me feel better by the end of the day. Standing for a whole 45 minute period was too much. My feet started hurting Like my toes were throbbing. I didn't wear real shoes. I asked for my principal if I could wear flip flops on that day, but just standing for 45 straight minutes was too much. I had to take a break in the middle of classes, but I also couldn't sit the entire time because I was getting super, super stiff. So you know, being at work, I think, was a good balance for me. And now it's Tuesday and I'm walking normal, I can bend over and actually like pick things up off the floor, which I could not do yesterday at all. My feet are still messed up, but other than that I feel fairly normal.

Speaker 1: 1:12:48

And what do you attribute that recovery to? Because I would say that's a pretty darn quick recovery after a 100 mile race.

Speaker 2: 1:12:57

Despite the fact that my stomach felt so bad, I still think that I took in as much food as I possibly could have.

Speaker 1: 1:13:04

And liquid calories too.

Speaker 2: 1:13:05

And liquid calories. When I couldn't eat something, I was taking in a ton of liquid calories. Then you got food into me afterwards. I think getting food in at the finish line and then get stopping getting more food before I went to bed. I think that was key. So fuel was a huge part of it and I think, just you know, accepting what my body was capable of doing Like I pushed limits, obviously, but knowing what, what was I was able to do I think helps also that I was able to get back in and functional by Tuesday, strength training for the whole year. Like I could not actually march, I couldn't lift my left knee up by the end of the race and I could kind of do it yesterday and now I can actually do it again. And I don't think that I could have done that if I completed the race a couple years ago, like I would have been out and done. You knew me when I finished my first marathon. I spent most of the next day laying on the floor of our apartment.

Speaker 1: 1:14:07

Well, your training cycle wasn't ideal. It was not.

Speaker 2: 1:14:10

But I mean just the, the level of running that I'm at right now to cover 100 miles and be able to I mean, it wasn't it's weird to say the next day, because technically I finished on Sunday morning but I kind of went to work the next day. That could not have happened. You know 20,. What was that 20 years ago? 20 years ago, when I ran my first marathon, I literally I tried to get out of bed, my calf cramped and I just collapsed onto a beanbag chair on the floor of the apartment I was.

Speaker 2: 1:14:40

I was in and I think you found me that afternoon.

Speaker 1: 1:14:43

Yeah, oh man, what a crazy and silly weekend.

Speaker 2: 1:14:48

What a silly weekend, what a silly weekend.

Speaker 1: 1:14:51

And so if you had some takeaways from this race, what would you say kind of your top two or three takeaways would be?

Speaker 2: 1:15:02

You have no idea what your limits are until you set a goal that you think is beyond you. Not getting that goal does not mean you found the limit. It just means you you can give it another try. That's a big one. Embracing all of your feelings, is sound scary, kind of was scary as I was doing it, but was also amazing, like it was. The whole experience was just phenomenal and, knowing that it was, I was so supported by you and the girls and so many people on in our real life runner community and my school and so much support it just it made the experience. It was just such an amazing experience. It really was.

Speaker 1: 1:15:51

Yeah, that's awesome. So the question that so many people want to ask already is do you think you're going to do it again?

Speaker 2: 1:16:01

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:16:02

Oh, you don't even hesitate that time.

Speaker 2: 1:16:05

It's been a few days and it hasn't been that many days. I have no idea when I don't know what race I'm going to do, but yeah, I think I will do it again.

Speaker 1: 1:16:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:16:14

I think, I think, I'm going to do it again.

Speaker 1: 1:16:16

This is going to happen again. All right, you've heard it here, I suppose. Are there any final thoughts you want to leave us with?

Speaker 2: 1:16:24

No, I think surprising you with the yes answer to that question should be a good way to wrap it up.

Speaker 1: 1:16:29

It doesn't surprise me that much. It just you've kind of avoided the yes for the last two days, and so for you to come out so quickly and say it was a little surprising. But I'm not surprised that the answer is a yes at all.

Speaker 2: 1:16:42

Yeah, I mean it, the fact that I'm actually functional and moving on Tuesday and seem, you know, no worse for wear I'm going to. I'm good I can do this, and now let's see what else we can do.

Speaker 1: 1:16:54

I don't think your mom's going to like that answer at all.

Speaker 2: 1:16:56

That's okay. I don't think she listens.

Speaker 1: 1:16:59

All right, you guys. Thanks for joining us. We know that this has been a longer episode than our normal episodes and we hope that you enjoyed following along on Kevin's journey to the Daytona 100 and through the Daytona 100 and finishing the Daytona 100.

Speaker 2: 1:17:17

This episode was not that long. If we went another 20 hours, then I could just finish the race again.

Speaker 1: 1:17:23

Wonderful. We're not going to do that to you guys. So thank you again to all of you that followed us on social media throughout the weekend on Facebook and on Twitter not on Twitter, facebook and Instagram at real life runners. If you're not following us already, you definitely should, if not for some of the recaps that we're going to post up, but for Kevin's next, apparently 100 mile adventure. So check us out over at real life runners. If you enjoyed this episode, please feel free to share it with a friend, screenshot it and share it on social media and leave us a review on Apple podcasts if you haven't already. And, as always, thanks for spending this time with us today. This has been the real life runners podcast, episode number 337. Now get out there and run your life.