February 13, 2025 • 50 mins
Kelton Shelley shares his extraordinary journey from childhood leukemia to becoming a dedicated endurance athlete, highlighting the power of resilience and the importance of investing in oneself. His story inspires listeners to face challenges head-on and embrace their unique paths to success.
• Definition of 'deposit' in the context of personal growth
• Kelton's childhood in Utah and initial passion for sports
• Overcoming leukemia and the pivotal role of family support
• Transition to endurance sports and the significance of hard work
• The challenges and triumphs of participating in Spartan races
• Insights on dealing with pain and mental perseverance
• The balance between racing and playing drums in a metal band
• Setting future goals and embracing life's adventures
• The deeper meaning of adventure as a continuous journey
To follow along with Kelton give him a follow on Instagram @kshell36.
Want to be a guest on Journey with Jake? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake
Visit LandPirate.com to get your gear that has you, the adventurer, in mind. Use the code "Journey with Jake" to get an additional 15% off at check out.
Visit geneticinsights.co and use the code "DISCOVER25" to enjoy a sweet 25% off your first purchase.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What comes to mind when you hear the word deposit?
According to dictionarycom, itmeans to place something for
safekeeping or trust, but for myguest, kelton Shelley, a
deposit is an investment inhimself, one that will pay off
down the road.
Kelton may not be the biggestendurance athlete I've ever
spoken with In fact, he might beone of the smallest but his
(00:22):
work ethic is unmatched.
He pushes himself harder thanmost, making consistent deposits
toward his achievements.
Get ready to be inspired toovercome obstacles and maybe
even rock out in a metal bandwith my guest, kelton Shelley.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
(00:44):
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures, this show willentertain you.
Each episode will feature adifferent guest or guests, as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you will also
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces and what they
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
(01:06):
their way.
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
experiences of my guests, withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all, it's not all aboutthe destination as it is about
(01:27):
the journey.
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the show.
I'm Jake Bushman, your host ofJourney with Jake.
If this is your first timelistening, welcome.
I'm thrilled to have you here.
And, to my returning listeners,thank you so much for your
(01:47):
support.
It truly means the world to me.
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Network.
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discover a variety of fantasticshows.
If you'd like to see clips fromthe show and get to know me a
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(02:09):
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Just search for Journey withJake podcast, subscribe to the
channel and hit that like buttonto stay updated with new
content.
Now let's talk about today'sguest, kelton Shelley.
Kelton is an endurance athletewho thrives on challenges like
(02:32):
Spartan races, but his journeyhasn't been easy.
After battling leukemia as achild, kelton learned to channel
his resilience into relentlesshard work, turning his
challenges into an advantage.
His story is truly inspiring.
If you enjoyed this episode, Ihighly recommend checking out my
conversation with MichaelWhiteside in episode 44, where
(02:53):
we dive into the world of ultrarunning.
All right, let's get to it.
Here's my conversation withKelton Shelley.
I'm pretty excited today.
I've got Kelton Shelley on theshow with me today.
I know Kelton reached out a fewweeks ago and I was looking at
who Kelton is.
First of all, everyone knows Ilove endurance athletes.
I love runners.
I love hearing their stories.
They're always accomplishingsomething.
(03:14):
So, kelton, I'm excited to haveyou here.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Kelton's very excited to be here today.
Sorry, I started with thirdperson because I told my friends
I would try to be third personbut it's not going to last very
long, so that'd be funny a wholepodcast with you know, third
person.
But anyway, yeah, I'm excitedto be here and I want to say
thank you to you because there'sso many people out there, you
know, that have stories and youknow we're just like I don't
(03:38):
want to call them like regularpeople, but you know, just go to
work, do their thing every day,but they have awesome things to
share but they kind of get lostin translation because of these
.
You know, you have these peoplewho are like the bigger stars
or whatever the big athletes,musicians, actors, stuff like
that and so I feel like it'sgood what you're doing to get.
Hey, I can relate to thisperson because they go, they get
(03:59):
up, they go to work, just likeI do every day and you know that
kind of thing.
So like I do every day and youknow that kind of thing.
So, uh, thank you for doingthis.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, no, I appreciate that.
Thanks for saying that.
Yeah, I, I think that's onething I love about doing this
show is I don't want to saywe're everyday, normal people,
but we are.
But we're all extraordinary inour own ways and that's why I
enjoy hearing people.
I have people like you on whohave your own extraordinary
stories, and maybe to one personit doesn't mean so much, but
maybe another person that does.
(04:26):
We've all got something toshare, so that's why I'm excited
to have you here.
Like I always do on the show, Iwant to know a little bit about
who you are and this is thefirst time you and I've talked,
so I want to know kind of just alittle background, where you're
from.
All that good stuff, if youdon't mind.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Okay, yep, just born and raised here in Utah.
My whole life Grew up in WestPoint, utah.
It's about three miles west ofClearfield Clearfield's by Hill
Air Force Base.
If you're not familiar with thenorthern Utah area, yeah, just
grew up there, had a fun littlefriend group we hung out with
growing up that we did all kindsof adventures with, played all
(04:59):
kinds of sports growing up Wentto Syracuse High School.
Later graduated from college atWeber State University.
Yeah, just kind of stayed inthis area.
I now live in Clearfield, utah,so didn't move too far from
West Point.
Yeah, west Point's like a smalltown.
I remember it was a big deal afew years ago when they got a
Smith's there.
It's really blown up.
They have like three or fourschools there.
(05:23):
Now they building some more.
When I grew up it was just morelike a farm town.
You know it's the type ofcommunity where you drive or
walk down the street.
People will wave at you superfriendly, good, like tight-knit
community.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So what did you study at weber state?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
at weber state.
I got my degree in healthpromotion and I got a minor in
sport coaching.
I should be working at thehealth department.
I have not worked one day in mydegree.
So yeah, I've done some otherstuff, just having a degree, you
know, getting other jobs, sokind of fun that way.
But I'm a big believer in mydegree because you know it's
just kind of promoting healthand having things that you can
(05:59):
control to so you don't have togo to the doctor.
Basically, you know havingthings in place that you can
control your own health ratherthan have to rely on medicine or
whatever it might be.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So and growing up only child, you have siblings.
What's kind of the story there?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, I have one older brother more on him.
Later We'll talk about someother things.
Yeah, and then just my mom anddad.
So, yeah, we're about threeyears apart, me and my brother.
We got to play some sportstogether, kind of like stuff
like that.
So it was good running thishuge gap to where you know he's
off doing his own thing and I'mstill over here.
So it was kind of cool.
He's always been a big part ofmy life, so I'm grateful to have
(06:39):
him.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
So one thing that I love the reason I love talking
to endurance athletes is youhave to overcome things to do
what you do.
And I know I think as ayoungster you had something that
you had to overcome you hadleukemia.
Do you mind kind of sharing alittle bit about what went on
there?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah.
So I remember we were in StLouis.
My aunt lives out there.
We were.
I just remember being superweak on this.
This was when I was four.
I just like couldn't walk.
I'd have like my parents carryme everywhere and stuff, super
low on energy.
I got back home, long storyshort.
I remember I think I went tothe Davis hospital it's near her
house and they were like, oh no, he's got to go to primary
children.
So I went down to primarychildren's.
(07:17):
Long story short.
I got diagnosed with leukemia.
Just kind of in and out of thehospital for four years I had it
till I was like eight years old, more in than out of the
hospital, I should say.
I remember being in there a lot.
Yeah, I had to have achemotherapy.
You know like completely ballof radiation therapy.
I got a bone marrow transplant.
(07:38):
This is where my brother comesback in, because to have one of
those, your bloods kind of haveto match and he was the match
for me and so he basically savedmy life.
He donated his bone marrow tome.
That was a big deal.
So I think that's why we have apretty good connection too, is
he literally saved my life?
(07:58):
So, yeah, in and out of thehospital.
This is a fun story I like totell you know, people like get
18 older, they oh, I got myfirst tattoo, stuff like that.
Like, oh, man, you know, I liketo tell people I got my first
tattoos when I was five becausefor some of the traits they had
to know where stuff was.
So I have, like, these dotsthey're very hard to see but I
(08:19):
still have like, so I'mobviously because it's a tattoo.
But they kind of just go downbecause it was like helping them
find I think it has to do withmy lungs.
I can't quite remember, butyeah, so that's, that's my story
like to tell people I got atattoo when I was tattooing when
you're five years old yeah, Iremember that really bad as a
five-year-old.
yeah, that was not, it was notfun.
And now the hospital, I don'tremember.
(08:41):
I remember at point I want tosay I had an over under 20%
chance to live, but I think Igot through that, because I
don't remember a day my mom wasnot there with me in the
hospital.
She was always there, justalways, you know, being super
supportive, helping me, just,you know, on top of it had to
sacrifice a lot to be there, youknow, and so I'm super grateful
(09:03):
for that.
And I feel like I don't knowwhat, how I got through it, but
I ended up surviving.
Obviously, yeah, she, she wasalways there.
And then we had an outpouringof support from friends, family,
stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And four years old.
I mean when you go back tosomeone who's four and obviously
you probably can't remember awhole lot right at the beginning
there, but being four years old, I mean that's an age where
they're active and you knowyou're young and you want to
move around and to be so tiredand then, and because of this,
because you had leukemia, youhad something going on.
And then four years I meanthat's a lot of years, you know,
(09:38):
until you're eight years old,to be in and out of the hospital
, mostly in sounds like that's a, that's a that's tough on a kid
.
Do you have any memories of, Idon't know, maybe.
Just I mean I guess the, thelike, the sound of the hospital,
like the beeps and that.
Do you have like any thoughtsof?
Like what comes to your mindCause I know you were little
back then but what comes to yourmind?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
It's like I have still images, like I remember
certain things.
They're like kind of a picture,like oh, I remember this, like
I remember kind of what the roomlooked like.
I remember when this happened,kind of what it looked like.
You know, there's not reallylike a defining like thing, but
it's just kind of still you knowimages stuff, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
So Four years old till till the time you're about
eight.
How old are you now, Kelton?
I'm 28, 28 years old, okay, 20years ago.
Basically like cause, what kindof when you, when you got out,
is there any lingering effectsor anything that it has on you?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I was told that you know, I'm going to have a lower
immune system.
Some of the things we had to do.
I'm a very short guy, like I'monly, like I like to go off the
scale.
I found one time that I'm fivefeet tall, but I'm probably more
like 4'11", because there'ssome things that kind of stunted
my growth when I was goingthrough all these treatments,
you know, and so that's kind ofhad that kind of had an effect.
(10:57):
I didn't have.
I remember in the hospital Ireally wanted to be, I really
wanted to go to school and bearound the other kids and do
those things.
You know, I didn't go to schoola full year until fourth grade
so I missed out on kind of thoseinteractions with other kids.
You know, for a little bit Istill had my friend group and
some other things.
But yeah, I just rememberreally wanting to go to school
(11:19):
and be around around that.
Yeah, basically those thingslower immune system and then,
yeah, being short and I wonderyou know I've seen some videos
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I'm like count looks pretty short.
I didn't want to.
I didn't know if that wasaffected or not.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It sounds like it did funny stories on this I can
pass is probably being a 15 yearold.
Sometimes, like right now, Istill have times I go into the
restaurant with family, you know, or friends, and do you need a
kid's menu?
And sometimes I'll take one.
So that's kind of fun.
I still have people when I goto the gym that will go up and I
(11:53):
don't think he's old enough tobe here, like you know, because
they want you to be with anadult, you know, and then they
have to be like, no, we know,kelton, you know, kind of a
thing.
But so I still get stuff likethat.
I think it's pretty funnypersonally, yeah, because
sometimes I'll, I'll like playalong with it and I'm like, oh
no, I'm actually 28.
And then they're like, oh okay,but I've gotten through
security at places, just noteven checking me.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Kind of fun that way well, I love, I love your
attitude about it, because youcould be bitter about it, but it
wouldn't.
What would that do?
It wouldn't do anything if youwere bitter about it.
So instead you kind of tend tolaugh it off and do you ever
have moments where it bugs?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
you.
Do you ever get kind of likeokay, come on, guy, it almost
feels like somebody's liketalking not down to you, but oh,
I don't really know what tothink of this, so they're kind
of talking to you different, youknow, or whatever.
So kind of that sometimes.
(12:53):
But it doesn't really bug methat much Because, honestly,
like I had somebody asked me awhile ago like man, if you could
be like 5'8" you know, 5'9"above, would you?
And I said I thought about itand I said no, you know, I like
doing kind of regular, like Iwouldn't be as driven to do all
these things that I do, and soI'm actually super grateful for
(13:16):
it and I'm glad that it's it'shappened, so yeah, it helps
drive you.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Were you ever bullied in school?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You know what this is funny?
No, but I was in my head thewhole time oh, these people
don't like me because I'm shortor like all this stuff.
But I honestly went backthrough you know the all the
times through school, all thisstuff, and it never happened.
Nobody ever bullied me.
But I put in my head sometimesthat, oh, you know like they
(13:44):
mistreated me because I even,like, had to finally do that,
even when I was like 24, be likedude.
That never happened, you know.
Nobody ever bullied you, youknow.
So sometimes I think you canconvince yourself things have
actually happened or like, oractually really bad and it's
really nothing.
You know.
You have to really go backthrough.
And did that actually happen orwere you perceiving it that way
(14:05):
, you know?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
that's a good way.
A good way, interesting way tolook at it.
I think sometimes we do.
We get in our own heads and we,in a sense, you're bullying
yourself by putting thesethoughts in your head.
That's an interesting way tolook at it.
I thought it was interestingyou talking about about being
short and how you wouldn'tchange that, because it's kind
of helped drive.
Give you that drive and kind ofwho you are.
I want to read something that Isaw on your Instagram profile
(14:28):
and kind of just ask you aboutit.
It says on there.
It says accomplish great thingsdespite limitations or
circumstance.
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
To me that means that you know you can convince
yourself all these things, oh,I'm not going to do anything
because when I I'll just use myexample when I was four I had
leukemia or oh, this happened inmy family.
Or like people being like, oh,this person said this to me when
I was trying to date orsomething, and so I'm never
going to go on a date again, youcan convince these things and
(14:59):
like that becomes a limitationto you.
You know it's just like, hey,what's the next thing?
I mean this might get some badtraffic, but like anxiety is
kind of a word right now, right,like people, oh, I have anxiety
about this or that.
But I feel like anxiety issomething.
It's telling you to dosomething that's uncomfortable,
that you need to do so.
(15:20):
Like, for example, if I'mscared to talk to people, you
know I have anxiety abouttalking to people.
What you really need to do isgo talk to more people, you know
.
So that's how you overcomethose limitations in your own
mind of, oh, I'm socially weird,I'm awkward.
You know, like I have anxietyabout playing instruments in
front of people.
You know you need to go play aninstrument.
(15:41):
You might be really good andthat's a talent people need to
see, you know, but it's kind ofthat's more or less what that
means.
It's finding where yourtroubles are, the things that
make you uncomfortable, andactually just going and doing
them.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It's a good way to look at it.
I appreciate, appreciate yousharing that.
So, leukemia when you're fourtill you're about eight kind of
stunned your growth a little bit.
Where did this whole endurancething come about?
How did you get into doing that?
Because that's that's prettycrazy to go from almost dying to
now you're running.
I don't know.
I think you said you did 30some odd races this past year.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, yeah, I did 32 this year.
I did.
I've done 81 total in underfour years.
Come March It'll be four yearssince I very first did my my
first race.
But honestly, like I grew uploving sports, I played
everything.
I played lacrosse, I playedfootball, I played, you know,
soccer, basketball, baseball,all those, all those sports I
just loved like I don't know ifthat's due with my size as well,
being like, oh, I have to provemyself, you know, like what
they call it, little guysyndrome or whatever, but like I
(16:44):
just grew up loving sports andstuff like that and honestly,
this came from.
Actually I'll go back a littlebit.
I played lacrosse in highschool and I quit my sophomore
year and I love lacrosse but Ireally didn't want to go do the
conditioning again.
I hated running, I hated doingall the stuff we did for
(17:04):
conditioning.
I worked super hard and gotbetter the year before, but then
I was like I'm not doing thatagain.
So I kind of played it off toeverybody.
Oh, I'm in three bands rightnow.
I have some stuff going on athome.
I'm done with lacrosse kind ofa thing I'm always somebody
who's had to have.
I need something to play orsomething to do.
I found this flag footballleague in Salt Lake City and I
(17:25):
started getting super into that,and so it's weird because
endurance racing that I do nowactually stems from flag
football, because I wanted toget super good at flag football
and like be really good in thatleague and stuff like that.
And so I started going to thegym.
I do this crazy stuff where Iwould like 2017, my fitness
(17:48):
routine was I'd get up in themorning, I'd run around this
track and when I run, like Iwould sprint like the little
part of the track, and then I'dlike run and not just jog, like
run that, like the long part,and I do that for 45 minutes
straight.
And then I would do like someabs and the stair climber for a
minute, and this is all in themorning.
And then I'd go to work andthen after work I'd spend 45
(18:11):
minutes on the elliptical, abouta half hour on the stair
climber, go lift weights for anhour and then go run three more
miles, and then sometimes I'dswim before that too.
So I got like super into oh,I've got to, you know, do all
this stuff and I got to get inreally good shape because flag
football is my thing.
That's the only thing I hadgoing on, like I didn't have
anything else really.
(18:32):
You know, going on and Iremember seeing people's race
shirts during this time andbeing like, oh, I don't need
that to.
You know, I don't need a stupidshirt to do it, like I'm just
going to keep doing this stuffbecause I can, you know kind of
a thing.
Anyway, long story short, I didstuff like that Probably, yeah,
end of 2016 to up to like 2020.
(18:52):
Because it was all about thatleague and some other stuff got
thrown in.
I got into like pickleball andsoftball and stuff.
So I was like I want to be likethe guy you know for all of
these, the most in shape dude.
You know, we had a mutualfriend on our team me and my
brother played on the softballteam.
His name was andrew and he knewabout this stuff.
My brother was kind of gettinginto it.
Same time, too, doing similarstuff was like you guys would do
(19:13):
super good at a Spartan raceand he's done them before and
he's like there's one in.
It was in 2021 March.
He's like let's just go, let'sgo down and do it.
And we grabbed my cousin andhim and me and my brother and we
went down and I just kept.
You know, training hard andstuff.
Where was the Spartan race.
At the Spartan race at thespartan right very first one was
(19:36):
in mesquite, nevada, okay, butit was actually labeled as las
vegas, but you know that's notanywhere close to las vegas.
Yeah, we went down there.
I remember getting in thestarting corral you know
everybody's there ready to goand I remember looking around at
people and being like man, Idon't belong here, these are
like, these are like alpha, likeyou know, like big deal people.
And then I remember on thatrace I found myself ahead of all
(19:57):
of them and that's honestlywhere I started to believe hey,
I can maybe be pretty good atthis or pretty good at this
whole thing.
I ended up finishing that firstrace, I remember, in like 43
minutes, super fast, had a goodtime, and then from there I got
the trifecta that year and theykind of just kept compiling onto
(20:18):
each other.
What can I do next?
I wonder what it's like if I doa regular 5k without obstacles.
You know, I wonder how fastthat could be yeah, let's.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Let's pause for a second, because a spartan race
is a 5k, but with obstacles yeah, smart, so I'll go back a
spartan.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
There's.
There's actually four differentones, they're all go back
Spartan.
There's there's actually fourdifferent ones.
They're all trail race basedthere.
I mean, there's some stadiumones and other things they do,
but for the most part it's atrail race 5k and you do a 5k
with 20 obstacles that's calledthe sprint and then they have
the super, and the super is a 10K with 25 obstacles.
And then they have the beast,and the beast is a half marathon
(20:54):
with 30 obstacles.
And then they have the ultra,and the ultra is 30 miles.
You do the beast twice pluslike an extra loop to get that
extra two miles for the 15.
You do it twice and thenthere's 60 obstacles, so you do
basically the whole beast twicewith all those.
I just kept kind of going.
You know I want to do, I'mgoing to get my trifecta.
(21:15):
The trifecta is you have to geta sprint, a super and a beast,
and a beast can also alternatefor an ultra.
So you can do an ultra or abeast to get a trifecta.
But I did those three and thenI was like man, I want to see
what I can get, just like on a10K, and so I just go sign up
(21:39):
for 10ks.
Man, I want to see what I canget on a half marathon.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
So I just go do half marathons, full marathons, like
I just kind of kept going andyou were okay and you were, you
were doing well on these,because you I mean you had quite
the routine.
Just, you're like flag football, I'm gonna work my tail off for
flag football, doing a crazyheavy workout, you know, getting
yourself in shape.
And then it led to, oh, let medo the spartan thing.
Can you tell me some of the,some of the obstacles?
(22:00):
What kind of obstacles are wetalking here?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
yeah, and I actually got a story to share on.
The thing with some of theseobstacles is some of them are
based for maybe a little bit youknow smaller people, but a lot
of them aren't.
Like it's your advantage to bea little bit taller and all that
stuff.
So some of the obstacles areyou're going to like jump over
walls, you're going to do likethe rope climb.
You have to climb up this 20foot rope off the ground, touch
the bell.
There's lifting based ones.
(22:24):
We have to pick up like ahundred pound Atlas ball, the
big round cement ball, carry itback and forth.
There's monkey bars.
There's like those rings, likethose Olympic rings that you go
across.
Just some other ones they'vecome up with are crazy.
There's like ones where youhave to carry a bucket for a
certain amount of time, just allkinds of things.
And sometimes the course itselfis the obstacle.
Like if you do the race at Utah, it has all these hills because
(22:49):
it's at a ski resorts, at snowbasin.
I've also done one in Arizonawhere it's, just, you know, flat
, and so sometimes and thensometimes like you're running
through and there's like riversand streams you have to cross,
and so it's kind of like this itis kind of an adventure, in a
sense, like every race is, soit's kind of crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Well, and I can see how for someone who might be a
little on the shorter side, howit could be a little difficult.
You know those rings might be alittle, you know, for someone
who's got length in their arms,who can reach.
You know things like that, Ican see how.
But then there's might bethings that you're you have
advantage with.
You know, maybe the stuff theyhave to get low to the ground
and crawl under things, thingslike that maybe you have an
advantage like that probably.
You know kind of hit or missboth ways.
(23:31):
You're still, I think you'restill.
I think people are probablyshocked when they see you
cruising by them.
You kind of get those lookslike people are like whoa,
where'd this guy come from?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, I've definitely gotten those.
This one I just did in SouthCarolina.
I ended up winning my age group.
I got first and I got in thetop 10.
And this was on the ultra.
This was the 30 mile one withthe two loops.
There's this one called stairwayto sparta.
It's basically this big a-frameand then on this side of it,
this other side, the giantladder, for when you get to the
top you climb down.
But this side has, like, youhave to jump pretty high and
(24:04):
there's this.
There's like those rock wallthings, those red rock wall
things.
You see, you have to jump up,grab those kind of, climb up it
and then grab the ladder andclimb over.
It's one where a lot of peoplemiss it and they have to do the
penalty.
But I run up to this thing.
There's this big crowd.
When you do the ultra, peopleknow, hey, the ultra is coming,
you let them through, you get tobe first in line.
(24:25):
If there's like a line ofpeople going into the obstacles,
nobody's getting this thing.
And this was on my second timearound.
The first time there's thislittle red block and it kind of
helps you get up to it.
The second time I came aroundthe lady.
I failed it the first time so Ihad to do the penalty loop.
The lady was like oh, sheremembered me, she's like you,
can I?
I asked them you can use the redblock if you want this time, or
(24:46):
like anybody, can you know?
And I was like, okay, and I wasno.
I looked at her and I said thatand I ran up and I grabbed it
and I climbed all the way upjust like normal and I did it.
I don't know if something likejust got into me.
And then I remember all thepeople were just like what?
The like?
It was kind of a probably thecoolest moment I've had on a
Spartan race, no-transcript,like just just commit and find a
(25:48):
way to get through theseobstacles, don't teeter, you
know, on it.
And so I just did that and gotthrough all of them.
And then I started to believe,you know, I'm like hey man, like
you belong here, like youstarted to convince yourself
sometimes that oh man, like, uh,I'm not as good as these other
people or whatever you know.
but that's where I was kind oflike no, you belong here, look
how well you're doing, kind of athing.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
So that's a.
That's a tricky thing and Ithat's something I struggle with
.
I, you know, I sometimes think,oh, what am I doing?
I'm doing this podcast, I don'tyou know, I don't, I'm not up
there with these otherpodcasters or whatever.
You kind of did the same thing,we kind of you know.
How do you talk yourself out ofthat?
How do you?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
how do you get to the point where like actually comes
from me and my buddy, chris.
This last summer I got him intoSpartan races too.
We went in, like we're outthere in a hundred degree
weather, like carrying thesebuckets back and forth, doing
burpees, running around the park, all this crazy stuff.
To answer your question, like Ido that stuff on a daily basis,
like I work out seven days aweek, twice a day.
All this you know stuff.
And I'm sitting there andhonestly, for me it was dude,
(26:55):
you put yourself through hellevery week.
Why would you not give thisyour best effort, you know?
Why would you do all of that ifyou're just going to like mosey
through it?
You know that kind of thing.
So I kind of think back to hey,I've put in the work for this
and I know what it takes, youknow, know kind of a thing.
(27:16):
And also to people, likelistening sometimes you don't
feel ready and like there'speople because in spartan
there's the competitive heat.
Right, you wear the redheadband and people know you're
competing and they actually keeptrack of you and stuff.
Then there's the open heat andthat's just the one where you
kind of do it to complete it,you know, and these people were
talking about what they did totrain for the ultra and it.
It was some crazy stuff and Iwas like holy crap.
But they're doing the open heat.
But in their mind they're stillsaying, oh, I couldn't do
(27:39):
competitive and I'm like why youtrain super hard?
Put yourself in the game.
You know what I mean.
Stop staying on the sidelinebeing like I'm not good enough.
Go and figure it out.
I mean at and if you don't dogood and competitive, whatever
it is, then you still get.
You still finished it, you know, and you still.
It's still a big accomplishment.
So put yourself in the game.
That's what I'd say.
Know that you've earned you.
(28:00):
Put in these deposits to bewhere you're at.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Put yourself in the game.
I love that.
It's a good way to look at it.
Yeah, any other Spartan racesor just any regular races that
you, you know, have any thoughtsor stories that you want to
share?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
There's a couple I wanted to hit on.
My very first marathon was theOgden marathon.
This was a this is more of atraining aspect thing.
I did not run one mile for thatfirst marathon to train for it,
cause I was super into hitworkouts.
I do like burpees, like themountain climbers, like all
these these body weight likejust being an overwhelming good
(28:35):
condition.
You know I'd be on astairmaster.
I wanted to do everything Icould but run and I got like a
325 on my first marathon.
And so I'm just like, if you,you know you don't have to go
out and run all these miles andstuff, there's other ways to get
in shape is kind of what Ilearned from that one.
But but then I also learnedthat you do have to go out and
(28:56):
run, you know, even if you don'twant to, to like to get more of
the wear and tear, the feel ofrunning, cause, yeah, like mile
19 at that, I remember.
I'm like, yeah, I probablyshould have ran at least a
couple of times for this.
Yeah, I just wanted to sharethat just to be like, hey, you
can do a lot of things even justbeing in, you know, just pretty
good shape, doing othermovements and stuff like that.
(29:17):
So I did the dead horse ultraout in moab in 2022.
This is my favorite race, butit's also the one I did the
worst at.
I did the.
I finished like the bottom fivepeople okay let's get a little
background.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
so Dead Horse Ultra is it a hundred mile race?
Is it a 50K?
What are you?
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Okay, oh yeah, so the Dead Horse Ultra has a 50 mile,
it has a 30 mile and then ithas, like some other ones, I
think it has a 10K and like an18 mile.
I did the 30 mile one because Ijust wanted to see where I was
at once again like, oh, this isjust running, no obstacles, you
know, kind of a thing.
I was in fourth place for 18 ofthose 30 miles and then IT
(29:56):
bands blew up, everything justlike hit, you know.
And I remember like limping tothis station at like mile 20.
And I remember telling myself Iwas like every step hurts, so
bad, that is the worst I've everfelt at a race.
And I made it to station 20 andI was like, dude, you can dnf,
like you know, there's noproblem with that whatever.
(30:19):
And I just kept telling myself,well, what's, let's walk down
here to this tree and let's seehow we feel.
And I kind of just did that andall of a sudden there was five
miles left.
But I'm telling you every stepwas horrible and that that day
and I kind of limped my way tothe finish line and finished it,
but I that's honestly, I wantedto quit.
(30:39):
So bad during that race that,uh, that's my favorite one I've
had because I know like you canget through pain and stuff to
get through to the finish line.
So for you overcoming that pain, because you said, every step
was brutal.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, and I guess I'm kind of looking at it for
someone like me.
I'm sitting here thinking, okay, overcoming that pain, because
you said every step was brutal.
Yeah, and I guess I'm kind oflooking at it for someone like
me.
I'm sitting here thinking, okay, how does someone do that?
Like, how do you, how do you dothat?
I don't know.
I mean, you kind of explainedit.
You said you'd get to this tree, and is that just what you did?
Was it just one step at a time?
Like how do you?
How do you do this?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, One step at a time.
But I also, you know, I had toconvince myself hey, man, like
and this is in November too soyou know, I in my mind, Every
step hurts, this totally sucks.
But I was like this is where Iwant to be.
So I had to convince myself Iwant to be here, I want to be
(31:30):
doing this right now, and sothat's kind of how I made it
through.
It as well is like I didn'tcome clear out here and drive
out here to quit, you know, andso I'm going to do what it takes
to finish, even if it takeslike 10 hours or whatever that's
why I love talking to ultrarunners.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Your, your mentality that you guys have is amazing
and I admire it because it'sjust amazing that you can put
yourself and figure out how toovercome that pain to where you
can keep, keep moving on, likeyou said.
Now you look back and you'relike that was my favorite race,
even though it was your, yourtoughest race yes, yes.
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So kind of along the same lines.
The other race I wanted to talkabout was the.
This was the very first Spartanultra I did.
This was before dead horse,actually.
This was at snow basin.
They don't do the ultra thereanymore, I don't know why.
Well, I know why, cause ithurts, but that was the very
first one I did.
This was where I kind of hadthe mentality of I was.
(32:25):
That one again was brutal, likenot as bad IT bands and stuff,
but like my hand was torn upfrom one of the obstacles, I was
bleeding, like all this stuffwas going on.
I started, you know, you startto kind of feel bad for yourself
Like, oh man, well, I have thisgoing on, nobody else is
feeling this way, and stuff likethat.
But that's when it very firsthit me.
Dude, somebody out here isgoing through worse than you and
they're still getting after it.
(32:46):
Yeah, so I kind of like to gainthat perspective of you know
you don't have it all that bad.
There's people struggling worseand it could be worse for you.
You know you're fine, you'restill moving and you're doing
pretty good, you're going tofinish, so kind of thing.
But also on this one I ended up.
So in Spartan this is somethingI missed earlier Now it's more
of like, it's more official,like if you fail an obstacle,
(33:09):
you run a penalty loop.
Like they have these loopsdrawn out, you run.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I wanted to, Guy.
I wanted to ask about what thepenalty situation was, Cause you
mentioned having to take apenalty.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, so that's what it is now, and they they
actually just threw back in theburpee penalty for like two
obstacles, but anyway, back whenthis is 2022, they still had
mostly burpees.
There are some penalty loopshere and there, but if you fell
an obstacle it's 30 burpees.
Okay, and I think a big part ofSpartan is do like there's so
many people who do the open heattoo.
(33:37):
Oh, I didn't do it and theyjust walked past.
So much of Spartan is doing the.
That's kind of what you paidfor.
It's part of the experiencedoing the penalties and so I'm
doing this ultra.
I ended up failing I'm not goingto do math right now, but I
failed enough for 420 burpeesand on that ultra, with the 30
miles and everything going on, Iended up doing 420 burpees that
(33:58):
day on top of all of that, andso I just wanted to kind of
share that to be like hey, dokind of what you signed up for.
You know, like this is part ofit.
Like in life, if you somethinggoes wrong, you kind of have to
get a penalty, you know.
And so you have to accept that,hey, I messed up and I'm going
to move on, but I'm going totake the penalty and I'm just
going to keep going.
So yeah, so I just wanted toshare that.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
It's a great way to look at it.
It's part of the process, it'spart of what you got to do.
You miss something, you got todo something to make up for it,
and instead of you know, likesome, like you said, some people
in the open division can justlike, ah, they'll just kind of
walk around and not do it.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, yeah, you didn't pay for a hike, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Amazing.
That's a.
That is a great life lesson fora lot of things, for for what I
do with this podcast, for whatI do at work, you know, for any
of those things a hundredpercent.
I love that.
Thank you for for sharing that.
That's amazing.
What else you got for me,kelton?
I know I think I mean any otherrace stories, because I do want
to touch on.
(34:59):
You said something about, youknow, being in a band earlier,
so I do want to.
I want to touch on that, butyou have any other race stories
or anything you want to share?
Speaker 2 (35:06):
really quick.
Just, you know, like I saidearlier, become like your, your
favorite.
I know this sounds kind ofegotistical or narcissist,
whatever you want to say, but somany people get wrapped up in
like, oh, I'm obsessed with whatthis actor's doing or this
other athlete or something.
What are you doing?
(35:26):
You know, become like yourfavorite, like hey, put in the
work for you to become that.
You know, that's just kind ofwhat I want to want to say and
it's okay to go in with like anunderdog mentality.
But at the same time, when youput in the work, you got to kind
of put in the mentality of, hey, I'm up here now and so I
deserve to do a lot betterbecause I have put in the work,
like I did this thing for 2023.
(35:47):
I like would hide in the middleof the packet races and stuff.
Be like, oh, you know, I'm justfiguring out, I'm just trying
to finish this one, whatever.
You know, I had to startputting myself at the front
again to have that belief again.
Hey, I belong here, kind of athing.
So don't be afraid.
Like I said earlier, putyourself in the game, build a
reputation with you to becomethe best that you can be and
that becomes, you know, hittingstuff every single day.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
I know another thing that you do you're a drummer in
a band.
Can you want to tell us alittle bit about what you got
going on there?
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, the fourth grade I got into playing the
drums.
This is kind of funny how I gotinto playing the drums.
There's this song for school,something like that.
I know it had a drum part in itand I was like man, that'd be
so cool to play that in front ofthe school.
I remember that and I was likethat was like my whole reason
for getting into it.
Yeah, I ended up getting signedup for drum lessons and I've
been drumming since fourth grade.
(36:37):
I had the opportunity to play.
You know, our first performancewas horrible, when I actually
had my first band.
I've been in bands since 2011,up until now, so about 13 years.
We just showed up, you know.
You think, oh man, this isawesome.
I go back and look at it nowand I'm like what the heck were
we doing?
Like, you got somebody wearinglike a fake wig.
(36:58):
We got like stuff's notstructured very well, you know.
But I think that's kind of partof doing stuff.
You get better as you go, youknow, and you learn, hey, we're
not doing that, we're not doingthe wig thing again and stuff
like that.
But, yeah, I got into.
I don't look like I'd be inthis kind of band, but I'm in a
metal band, okay.
I play drums in that heavy metalband I was in.
(37:19):
That's kind of all I've everbeen in is that kind of band.
The first band that kind of gotsome traction was my old band.
It was called Silent Sorcerer.
We did this whole get up thingwhere we dressed up and had this
whole theme going and with thatwe had a chance to have our
song on a couple of radiostations.
I got to play in several states.
(37:39):
I played in basically all theWestern states.
Coolest show I got to play wasthere's this boat.
It's kind of like the Titanic.
It's in Long Beach.
It's called the Queen Mary.
I got to play on that boat fora festival.
We technically playedunderwater because we played on
like the low level of where theboat was Like we were
technically sitting underwater.
(38:00):
Yeah, so that was kind of cool.
It was a big festival but itwas a gear nightmare Everybody's
.
So that was kind of cool.
It was a big festival but itwas a gear nightmare everybody's
gears there it was.
It was terrible that way, butit was a lot of fun and
definitely, uh, something youknow I can always remember and
played in idaho, wyoming, youname it.
Western states recorded twoalbums in ohio.
We went back there.
We had like a contract where wewent and recorded and stuff
(38:23):
like that, and so we had somebig opportunities, music videos.
It was a lot of fun.
Then, 2017, I decided kind ofeverybody collaboratively was
like hey, we're not going topursue this anymore, and so we
stopped for about a year.
And then my brother worked withthis guy who's been in musical
theater and stuff, and so in2019, we formed a new band.
(38:45):
My new band I'm in is calledTides of Autumn Same kind of
stuff.
We actually do a lot of the oldband songs, but we revamped them
and they're a little bit better.
But we have a music video outon YouTube.
We have Instagram, we havestuff on Spotify and Apple Music
, yeah, and it's just a bunch offun goofy guys.
We have songs about pirates,mortal Kombat, the circus.
(39:08):
We just kind of play off ofeach other and make these cool
songs.
Yeah, it's a little bitdifferent than the race
mentality.
You go in there and you okay, Iwant it to look this way.
It's got to sound like this.
It's more like a logisticsthing, like playing a show and
stuff.
We got to make sure we stick toour certain amount of time.
It's more like a logisticsthing being like playing a show
and stuff.
We got to make sure we stick toour certain amount of time.
It's just kind of a wholedifferent aspect, but I love it.
(39:30):
You know we don't play a ton ofshows, but when we do we have a
pretty good turnout and beenable to do some really cool
stuff that way as well.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, what is it that ?
What is it that the playing aninstrument being playing drums,
what is it that it does for you,kind of mentally?
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Just kind of adds a different element to my life.
Honestly Helps me step outsideof my comfort zone again, kind
of trying to get more on thecreative side, make things I
don't know just a little bitdifferent and gives me just a
different avenue to kind of playaround in.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I wanted to ask you here, you are 28 years old,
plugging away.
I mean, you look like you'reprobably in some of the best
shape of your life.
You're just still working outhard, you're playing the drums,
you're doing those things.
What are some of the challengesyou face?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Like I said earlier, I work out seven days a week and
twice a day.
Honestly, every morning I'd sayfive out of the seven days I
wake up and I'm like, screw this, I do not want to do this.
This is stupid.
Why am I doing this?
Like I hit that.
I'll even hit snooze a fewtimes.
You know some of the challengesI've had to overcome as of late
or taking losses.
You know like you're going tolose in life a lot.
(40:36):
You have to remember to justkind of get up and get back
after it again, because that'sall you can really do.
You know, jocko I don't know ifyou know Jocko Willink.
He has this.
He's like a Navy SEAL.
He has like a book and apodcast and stuff.
But he has this thing, thisthing he talks about where, even
if you're it's just not a goodday, right, like if I'd say, hey
(40:57):
, I'm not feeling it today goingto the gym, right, just if
anything, go through the motions, just go do the workout, even
if it's not your best.
Hey, I'm hitting a PR orwhatever it might be.
Just go through the motions,because you're still making that
deposit in yourself that youshowed up for that day and you
still did it, even though youdidn't want to.
It might not have been the best, but you still did it.
(41:18):
Some other challenges too isjust kind of finding out what's
next.
What I'm trying to do to donext, that kind of thing.
But one thing I'd recommend topeople is have you heard of 75
hard?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
I have yes.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I would highly recommend that to people.
I've done that like five times,you know.
It kind of gets you.
It makes you go outside,because one of the workouts you
have to do is outside.
It makes you stick with theseeasy but consistent things for a
long period of time and that'swhere I believe I've gotten the
most deposits is just, you know,doing those consistent things
(41:54):
and doing that program.
So highly recommend that to topeople, cause I think that's a
big difference maker.
It's not like a onlinechallenge, like it becomes like
an actual program, you know.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Very good.
So 75 hard you talked about,you know, one of the challenges
being just kind of when you haveto take losses.
Like life's tough, there's somesome losses you have to take.
What are some losses for you?
Like what would that be?
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Oh, you know there's sometimes.
I'll use the band again.
We showed up.
This is going to be a big show,there's going to be a lot of
people here.
This is a good opportunity, andit just doesn't work out that
way.
Or, oh, I hit this guy up onthe email.
This is going to be a sickopportunity.
I got this meeting planned withthis person.
It's going to go super well.
And sometimes that just doesn'thappen and that can be really
(42:38):
difficult because you're like oh, nobody's listening to me or
nobody knows what they can getfrom me, what I bring to the
table, kind of a thing.
The only thing you can do, likeI said, is just get up and get
after it the next day, andthere's going to be races.
There's so many races I've doneout of 81.
I'd probably say over 50 ofthem that I was just like I
(42:58):
thought that was my, this is myrace, you know, and it just
wasn't so.
But then you can just sit thereand be like, oh man, you know,
or you can just get back up and,well, I'm going to get after it
for the next one, and then youjust keep going.
But I also think the same thingcan be said about wins, cause
there's so many people you knowthat they caught their, their 30
(43:20):
and they caught the gamewinning touchdown pass in high
school against the rival you andthey hold on to that and that's
been their win for their life,you know.
So you got to like not hold on,like give yourself a certain
amount of time to.
I think Ryan talked about thison his podcast too right ahead,
about like not focusing so muchon the win but then getting
ready to move on to the nextthing, because you can get stuck
(43:42):
right there on.
Hey, I, I did this thing yearsago.
You know, what really mattersis what you're doing now, going
forward.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
So the other thing you kind of mentioned too and
this is what I want to ask youabout kind of before we wrap up
here is the future, like whatyou know you said.
Sometimes it's like what, whatyou're gonna do next?
That can be kind of a challenge.
So for you, kelton, if you'reand I know, things change,
things happen, but what does thefuture hold for you?
Where do you want to go?
What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (44:05):
First of all I'm going to my thing lately is
because I've done a lot ofquantity lately.
You know I've played over ahundred shows, done over 80
races me.
You know that are things Ihaven't really tapped into
before and I'm trying to put thequality of training into that,
or the time it takes in the bandor time it takes at work.
(44:34):
You know, putting in that high,those high quality spots to do
those things like, for example,my races next year.
I don't have like a ton of themplanned but they're all like
really big and so it's forcingme to train.
I've got a 50 miler coming up.
First time I've ran over 30miles will be at Antelope Island
in March.
I'm going to do that one andthen I'm going to do a half
(44:56):
Ironman down in St George in Mayand so those kind of scare me,
the open water, you know, likethat kind of thing.
So it's good to have.
I'm a big advocate of havingsomething on your calendar that
scares you, you know, and itdoesn't have to be a race or
playing a concert or somethingyou know it can be.
Hey, I really hit it off wellwith this person at work right
(45:17):
on your calendar.
I'm going to go ask them on adate, you know.
Or hey, I've been wanting to goto school and you write on your
calendar sign up for college.
You know, because it scares youand you know you start to
convince yourself all thesethings, but you, literally, you
put it on there.
It's going to make you thinkabout it and you're more likely
to do what I feel like.
So, yeah, like I said, justfocusing more on quality.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
And just to kind of wrap us up here adventure I mean
this is like an adventurepodcast, I think.
What you're doing, I thinkplaying into bands and adventure
I think spartan races obviouslyare an adventure.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
Regular races are an adventure.
What does adventure mean tokelton?
To me, adventure means, like Isaid a few minutes ago, just
always pushing yourself to thenext level, always finding what
more you can do, because we allhave.
I just feel like we all have somuch we can do in our life and
we're all living like this muchof what we could be.
You know, go out on a limb,sign up for something, go on a
trip you don't want to go on.
(46:14):
You know, go to a new place,like talk to somebody new,
always making you can haveadventures, even just every day.
You know, just trying to makeyourself better in small little
ways.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Awesome Kelton, thank you so much for coming on
Journey with Jake.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah, you bet it was awesome.
Super glad that I was able todo this.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
A huge thank you to Kelton Shelley for joining me on
the show and sharing hisjourney and offering some
incredible advice on pushingthrough tough times.
I truly appreciate you, kelton.
If you'd like to follow alongwith his adventures, be sure to
check him out on Instagram atkshell36.
That's kshell36.
Next week, on February 18th,sacred Spaces Volume 3 is
(46:57):
officially launching, and I'mhonored to be part of it.
My chapter Chapter 8, divesdeep into my personal journey
and how this podcast came tolife.
It was a meaningful experienceto contribute alongside so many
fantastic authors.
You can grab a digital orpaperback copy on Amazon and I'd
love for you to check it out.
The mastermind behind theSacred Spaces series is Colleen
(47:19):
Aves, who first appeared on theshow back in episode 99.
In the next episode, I'mbringing Colleen back to talk
about this project and why it'sso important, not just to her,
but to me as well.
Be sure to tune in for thatconversation and finally, just
remember it's not always aboutthe destination as it is about
the journey.
Take care, everybody.
(47:39):
Thank you.
What comes to mind when you hear the word deposit?
According to dictionarycom, itmeans to place something for
safekeeping or trust, but for myguest, kelton Shelley, a
deposit is an investment inhimself, one that will pay off
down the road.
Kelton may not be the biggestendurance athlete I've ever
spoken with In fact, he might beone of the smallest but his
(00:22):
work ethic is unmatched.
He pushes himself harder thanmost, making consistent deposits
toward his achievements.
Get ready to be inspired toovercome obstacles and maybe
even rock out in a metal bandwith my guest, kelton Shelley.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
(00:44):
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures, this show willentertain you.
Each episode will feature adifferent guest or guests, as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you will also
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces and what they
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
(01:06):
their way.
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
experiences of my guests, withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all, it's not all aboutthe destination as it is about
(01:27):
the journey.
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the show.
I'm Jake Bushman, your host ofJourney with Jake.
If this is your first timelistening, welcome.
I'm thrilled to have you here.
And, to my returning listeners,thank you so much for your
(01:47):
support.
It truly means the world to me.
Journey with Jake is proud tobe part of the Podmatch Podcast
Network.
If you're on the hunt for moreamazing podcasts, check out the
Podmatch Network at podmatchcomforward slash network to
discover a variety of fantasticshows.
If you'd like to see clips fromthe show and get to know me a
little better, follow me onInstagram at
(02:09):
journeywithjakepodcast.
That's where I'm most active,so drop by, leave a comment and
say hi.
I love hearing from you.
And don't forget, journey withJake is also on YouTube.
Just search for Journey withJake podcast, subscribe to the
channel and hit that like buttonto stay updated with new
content.
Now let's talk about today'sguest, kelton Shelley.
Kelton is an endurance athletewho thrives on challenges like
(02:32):
Spartan races, but his journeyhasn't been easy.
After battling leukemia as achild, kelton learned to channel
his resilience into relentlesshard work, turning his
challenges into an advantage.
His story is truly inspiring.
If you enjoyed this episode, Ihighly recommend checking out my
conversation with MichaelWhiteside in episode 44, where
(02:53):
we dive into the world of ultrarunning.
All right, let's get to it.
Here's my conversation withKelton Shelley.
I'm pretty excited today.
I've got Kelton Shelley on theshow with me today.
I know Kelton reached out a fewweeks ago and I was looking at
who Kelton is.
First of all, everyone knows Ilove endurance athletes.
I love runners.
I love hearing their stories.
They're always accomplishingsomething.
(03:14):
So, kelton, I'm excited to haveyou here.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Kelton's very excited to be here today.
Sorry, I started with thirdperson because I told my friends
I would try to be third personbut it's not going to last very
long, so that'd be funny a wholepodcast with you know, third
person.
But anyway, yeah, I'm excitedto be here and I want to say
thank you to you because there'sso many people out there, you
know, that have stories and youknow we're just like I don't
(03:38):
want to call them like regularpeople, but you know, just go to
work, do their thing every day,but they have awesome things to
share but they kind of get lostin translation because of these
.
You know, you have these peoplewho are like the bigger stars
or whatever the big athletes,musicians, actors, stuff like
that and so I feel like it'sgood what you're doing to get.
Hey, I can relate to thisperson because they go, they get
(03:59):
up, they go to work, just likeI do every day and you know that
kind of thing.
So like I do every day and youknow that kind of thing.
So, uh, thank you for doingthis.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, no, I appreciate that.
Thanks for saying that.
Yeah, I, I think that's onething I love about doing this
show is I don't want to saywe're everyday, normal people,
but we are.
But we're all extraordinary inour own ways and that's why I
enjoy hearing people.
I have people like you on whohave your own extraordinary
stories, and maybe to one personit doesn't mean so much, but
maybe another person that does.
(04:26):
We've all got something toshare, so that's why I'm excited
to have you here.
Like I always do on the show, Iwant to know a little bit about
who you are and this is thefirst time you and I've talked,
so I want to know kind of just alittle background, where you're
from.
All that good stuff, if youdon't mind.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Okay, yep, just born and raised here in Utah.
My whole life Grew up in WestPoint, utah.
It's about three miles west ofClearfield Clearfield's by Hill
Air Force Base.
If you're not familiar with thenorthern Utah area, yeah, just
grew up there, had a fun littlefriend group we hung out with
growing up that we did all kindsof adventures with, played all
(04:59):
kinds of sports growing up Wentto Syracuse High School.
Later graduated from college atWeber State University.
Yeah, just kind of stayed inthis area.
I now live in Clearfield, utah,so didn't move too far from
West Point.
Yeah, west Point's like a smalltown.
I remember it was a big deal afew years ago when they got a
Smith's there.
It's really blown up.
They have like three or fourschools there.
(05:23):
Now they building some more.
When I grew up it was just morelike a farm town.
You know it's the type ofcommunity where you drive or
walk down the street.
People will wave at you superfriendly, good, like tight-knit
community.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So what did you study at weber state?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
at weber state.
I got my degree in healthpromotion and I got a minor in
sport coaching.
I should be working at thehealth department.
I have not worked one day in mydegree.
So yeah, I've done some otherstuff, just having a degree, you
know, getting other jobs, sokind of fun that way.
But I'm a big believer in mydegree because you know it's
just kind of promoting healthand having things that you can
(05:59):
control to so you don't have togo to the doctor.
Basically, you know havingthings in place that you can
control your own health ratherthan have to rely on medicine or
whatever it might be.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So and growing up only child, you have siblings.
What's kind of the story there?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, I have one older brother more on him.
Later We'll talk about someother things.
Yeah, and then just my mom anddad.
So, yeah, we're about threeyears apart, me and my brother.
We got to play some sportstogether, kind of like stuff
like that.
So it was good running thishuge gap to where you know he's
off doing his own thing and I'mstill over here.
So it was kind of cool.
He's always been a big part ofmy life, so I'm grateful to have
(06:39):
him.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
So one thing that I love the reason I love talking
to endurance athletes is youhave to overcome things to do
what you do.
And I know I think as ayoungster you had something that
you had to overcome you hadleukemia.
Do you mind kind of sharing alittle bit about what went on
there?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah.
So I remember we were in StLouis.
My aunt lives out there.
We were.
I just remember being superweak on this.
This was when I was four.
I just like couldn't walk.
I'd have like my parents carryme everywhere and stuff, super
low on energy.
I got back home, long storyshort.
I remember I think I went tothe Davis hospital it's near her
house and they were like, oh no, he's got to go to primary
children.
So I went down to primarychildren's.
(07:17):
Long story short.
I got diagnosed with leukemia.
Just kind of in and out of thehospital for four years I had it
till I was like eight years old, more in than out of the
hospital, I should say.
I remember being in there a lot.
Yeah, I had to have achemotherapy.
You know like completely ballof radiation therapy.
I got a bone marrow transplant.
(07:38):
This is where my brother comesback in, because to have one of
those, your bloods kind of haveto match and he was the match
for me and so he basically savedmy life.
He donated his bone marrow tome.
That was a big deal.
So I think that's why we have apretty good connection too, is
he literally saved my life?
(07:58):
So, yeah, in and out of thehospital.
This is a fun story I like totell you know, people like get
18 older, they oh, I got myfirst tattoo, stuff like that.
Like, oh, man, you know, I liketo tell people I got my first
tattoos when I was five becausefor some of the traits they had
to know where stuff was.
So I have, like, these dotsthey're very hard to see but I
(08:19):
still have like, so I'mobviously because it's a tattoo.
But they kind of just go downbecause it was like helping them
find I think it has to do withmy lungs.
I can't quite remember, butyeah, so that's, that's my story
like to tell people I got atattoo when I was tattooing when
you're five years old yeah, Iremember that really bad as a
five-year-old.
yeah, that was not, it was notfun.
And now the hospital, I don'tremember.
(08:41):
I remember at point I want tosay I had an over under 20%
chance to live, but I think Igot through that, because I
don't remember a day my mom wasnot there with me in the
hospital.
She was always there, justalways, you know, being super
supportive, helping me, just,you know, on top of it had to
sacrifice a lot to be there, youknow, and so I'm super grateful
(09:03):
for that.
And I feel like I don't knowwhat, how I got through it, but
I ended up surviving.
Obviously, yeah, she, she wasalways there.
And then we had an outpouringof support from friends, family,
stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And four years old.
I mean when you go back tosomeone who's four and obviously
you probably can't remember awhole lot right at the beginning
there, but being four years old, I mean that's an age where
they're active and you knowyou're young and you want to
move around and to be so tiredand then, and because of this,
because you had leukemia, youhad something going on.
And then four years I meanthat's a lot of years, you know,
(09:38):
until you're eight years old,to be in and out of the hospital
, mostly in sounds like that's a, that's a that's tough on a kid
.
Do you have any memories of, Idon't know, maybe.
Just I mean I guess the, thelike, the sound of the hospital,
like the beeps and that.
Do you have like any thoughtsof?
Like what comes to your mindCause I know you were little
back then but what comes to yourmind?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
It's like I have still images, like I remember
certain things.
They're like kind of a picture,like oh, I remember this, like
I remember kind of what the roomlooked like.
I remember when this happened,kind of what it looked like.
You know, there's not reallylike a defining like thing, but
it's just kind of still you knowimages stuff, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
So Four years old till till the time you're about
eight.
How old are you now, Kelton?
I'm 28, 28 years old, okay, 20years ago.
Basically like cause, what kindof when you, when you got out,
is there any lingering effectsor anything that it has on you?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I was told that you know, I'm going to have a lower
immune system.
Some of the things we had to do.
I'm a very short guy, like I'monly, like I like to go off the
scale.
I found one time that I'm fivefeet tall, but I'm probably more
like 4'11", because there'ssome things that kind of stunted
my growth when I was goingthrough all these treatments,
you know, and so that's kind ofhad that kind of had an effect.
(10:57):
I didn't have.
I remember in the hospital Ireally wanted to be, I really
wanted to go to school and bearound the other kids and do
those things.
You know, I didn't go to schoola full year until fourth grade
so I missed out on kind of thoseinteractions with other kids.
You know, for a little bit Istill had my friend group and
some other things.
But yeah, I just rememberreally wanting to go to school
(11:19):
and be around around that.
Yeah, basically those thingslower immune system and then,
yeah, being short and I wonderyou know I've seen some videos
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I'm like count looks pretty short.
I didn't want to.
I didn't know if that wasaffected or not.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It sounds like it did funny stories on this I can
pass is probably being a 15 yearold.
Sometimes, like right now, Istill have times I go into the
restaurant with family, you know, or friends, and do you need a
kid's menu?
And sometimes I'll take one.
So that's kind of fun.
I still have people when I goto the gym that will go up and I
(11:53):
don't think he's old enough tobe here, like you know, because
they want you to be with anadult, you know, and then they
have to be like, no, we know,kelton, you know, kind of a
thing.
But so I still get stuff likethat.
I think it's pretty funnypersonally, yeah, because
sometimes I'll, I'll like playalong with it and I'm like, oh
no, I'm actually 28.
And then they're like, oh okay,but I've gotten through
security at places, just noteven checking me.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Kind of fun that way well, I love, I love your
attitude about it, because youcould be bitter about it, but it
wouldn't.
What would that do?
It wouldn't do anything if youwere bitter about it.
So instead you kind of tend tolaugh it off and do you ever
have moments where it bugs?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
you.
Do you ever get kind of likeokay, come on, guy, it almost
feels like somebody's liketalking not down to you, but oh,
I don't really know what tothink of this, so they're kind
of talking to you different, youknow, or whatever.
So kind of that sometimes.
(12:53):
But it doesn't really bug methat much Because, honestly,
like I had somebody asked me awhile ago like man, if you could
be like 5'8" you know, 5'9"above, would you?
And I said I thought about itand I said no, you know, I like
doing kind of regular, like Iwouldn't be as driven to do all
these things that I do, and soI'm actually super grateful for
(13:16):
it and I'm glad that it's it'shappened, so yeah, it helps
drive you.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Were you ever bullied in school?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You know what this is funny?
No, but I was in my head thewhole time oh, these people
don't like me because I'm shortor like all this stuff.
But I honestly went backthrough you know the all the
times through school, all thisstuff, and it never happened.
Nobody ever bullied me.
But I put in my head sometimesthat, oh, you know like they
(13:44):
mistreated me because I even,like, had to finally do that,
even when I was like 24, be likedude.
That never happened, you know.
Nobody ever bullied you, youknow.
So sometimes I think you canconvince yourself things have
actually happened or like, oractually really bad and it's
really nothing.
You know.
You have to really go backthrough.
And did that actually happen orwere you perceiving it that way
(14:05):
, you know?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
that's a good way.
A good way, interesting way tolook at it.
I think sometimes we do.
We get in our own heads and we,in a sense, you're bullying
yourself by putting thesethoughts in your head.
That's an interesting way tolook at it.
I thought it was interestingyou talking about about being
short and how you wouldn'tchange that, because it's kind
of helped drive.
Give you that drive and kind ofwho you are.
I want to read something that Isaw on your Instagram profile
(14:28):
and kind of just ask you aboutit.
It says on there.
It says accomplish great thingsdespite limitations or
circumstance.
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
To me that means that you know you can convince
yourself all these things, oh,I'm not going to do anything
because when I I'll just use myexample when I was four I had
leukemia or oh, this happened inmy family.
Or like people being like, oh,this person said this to me when
I was trying to date orsomething, and so I'm never
going to go on a date again, youcan convince these things and
(14:59):
like that becomes a limitationto you.
You know it's just like, hey,what's the next thing?
I mean this might get some badtraffic, but like anxiety is
kind of a word right now, right,like people, oh, I have anxiety
about this or that.
But I feel like anxiety issomething.
It's telling you to dosomething that's uncomfortable,
that you need to do so.
(15:20):
Like, for example, if I'mscared to talk to people, you
know I have anxiety abouttalking to people.
What you really need to do isgo talk to more people, you know
.
So that's how you overcomethose limitations in your own
mind of, oh, I'm socially weird,I'm awkward.
You know, like I have anxietyabout playing instruments in
front of people.
You know you need to go play aninstrument.
(15:41):
You might be really good andthat's a talent people need to
see, you know, but it's kind ofthat's more or less what that
means.
It's finding where yourtroubles are, the things that
make you uncomfortable, andactually just going and doing
them.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It's a good way to look at it.
I appreciate, appreciate yousharing that.
So, leukemia when you're fourtill you're about eight kind of
stunned your growth a little bit.
Where did this whole endurancething come about?
How did you get into doing that?
Because that's that's prettycrazy to go from almost dying to
now you're running.
I don't know.
I think you said you did 30some odd races this past year.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, yeah, I did 32 this year.
I did.
I've done 81 total in underfour years.
Come March It'll be four yearssince I very first did my my
first race.
But honestly, like I grew uploving sports, I played
everything.
I played lacrosse, I playedfootball, I played, you know,
soccer, basketball, baseball,all those, all those sports I
just loved like I don't know ifthat's due with my size as well,
being like, oh, I have to provemyself, you know, like what
they call it, little guysyndrome or whatever, but like I
(16:44):
just grew up loving sports andstuff like that and honestly,
this came from.
Actually I'll go back a littlebit.
I played lacrosse in highschool and I quit my sophomore
year and I love lacrosse but Ireally didn't want to go do the
conditioning again.
I hated running, I hated doingall the stuff we did for
(17:04):
conditioning.
I worked super hard and gotbetter the year before, but then
I was like I'm not doing thatagain.
So I kind of played it off toeverybody.
Oh, I'm in three bands rightnow.
I have some stuff going on athome.
I'm done with lacrosse kind ofa thing I'm always somebody
who's had to have.
I need something to play orsomething to do.
I found this flag footballleague in Salt Lake City and I
(17:25):
started getting super into that,and so it's weird because
endurance racing that I do nowactually stems from flag
football, because I wanted toget super good at flag football
and like be really good in thatleague and stuff like that.
And so I started going to thegym.
I do this crazy stuff where Iwould like 2017, my fitness
(17:48):
routine was I'd get up in themorning, I'd run around this
track and when I run, like Iwould sprint like the little
part of the track, and then I'dlike run and not just jog, like
run that, like the long part,and I do that for 45 minutes
straight.
And then I would do like someabs and the stair climber for a
minute, and this is all in themorning.
And then I'd go to work andthen after work I'd spend 45
(18:11):
minutes on the elliptical, abouta half hour on the stair
climber, go lift weights for anhour and then go run three more
miles, and then sometimes I'dswim before that too.
So I got like super into oh,I've got to, you know, do all
this stuff and I got to get inreally good shape because flag
football is my thing.
That's the only thing I hadgoing on, like I didn't have
anything else really.
(18:32):
You know, going on and Iremember seeing people's race
shirts during this time andbeing like, oh, I don't need
that to.
You know, I don't need a stupidshirt to do it, like I'm just
going to keep doing this stuffbecause I can, you know kind of
a thing.
Anyway, long story short, I didstuff like that Probably, yeah,
end of 2016 to up to like 2020.
(18:52):
Because it was all about thatleague and some other stuff got
thrown in.
I got into like pickleball andsoftball and stuff.
So I was like I want to be likethe guy you know for all of
these, the most in shape dude.
You know, we had a mutualfriend on our team me and my
brother played on the softballteam.
His name was andrew and he knewabout this stuff.
My brother was kind of gettinginto it.
Same time, too, doing similarstuff was like you guys would do
(19:13):
super good at a Spartan raceand he's done them before and
he's like there's one in.
It was in 2021 March.
He's like let's just go, let'sgo down and do it.
And we grabbed my cousin andhim and me and my brother and we
went down and I just kept.
You know, training hard andstuff.
Where was the Spartan race.
At the Spartan race at thespartan right very first one was
(19:36):
in mesquite, nevada, okay, butit was actually labeled as las
vegas, but you know that's notanywhere close to las vegas.
Yeah, we went down there.
I remember getting in thestarting corral you know
everybody's there ready to goand I remember looking around at
people and being like man, Idon't belong here, these are
like, these are like alpha, likeyou know, like big deal people.
And then I remember on thatrace I found myself ahead of all
(19:57):
of them and that's honestlywhere I started to believe hey,
I can maybe be pretty good atthis or pretty good at this
whole thing.
I ended up finishing that firstrace, I remember, in like 43
minutes, super fast, had a goodtime, and then from there I got
the trifecta that year and theykind of just kept compiling onto
(20:18):
each other.
What can I do next?
I wonder what it's like if I doa regular 5k without obstacles.
You know, I wonder how fastthat could be yeah, let's.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Let's pause for a second, because a spartan race
is a 5k, but with obstacles yeah, smart, so I'll go back a
spartan.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
There's.
There's actually four differentones, they're all go back
Spartan.
There's there's actually fourdifferent ones.
They're all trail race basedthere.
I mean, there's some stadiumones and other things they do,
but for the most part it's atrail race 5k and you do a 5k
with 20 obstacles that's calledthe sprint and then they have
the super, and the super is a 10K with 25 obstacles.
And then they have the beast,and the beast is a half marathon
(20:54):
with 30 obstacles.
And then they have the ultra,and the ultra is 30 miles.
You do the beast twice pluslike an extra loop to get that
extra two miles for the 15.
You do it twice and thenthere's 60 obstacles, so you do
basically the whole beast twicewith all those.
I just kept kind of going.
You know I want to do, I'mgoing to get my trifecta.
(21:15):
The trifecta is you have to geta sprint, a super and a beast,
and a beast can also alternatefor an ultra.
So you can do an ultra or abeast to get a trifecta.
But I did those three and thenI was like man, I want to see
what I can get, just like on a10K, and so I just go sign up
(21:39):
for 10ks.
Man, I want to see what I canget on a half marathon.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
So I just go do half marathons, full marathons, like
I just kind of kept going andyou were okay and you were, you
were doing well on these,because you I mean you had quite
the routine.
Just, you're like flag football, I'm gonna work my tail off for
flag football, doing a crazyheavy workout, you know, getting
yourself in shape.
And then it led to, oh, let medo the spartan thing.
Can you tell me some of the,some of the obstacles?
(22:00):
What kind of obstacles are wetalking here?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
yeah, and I actually got a story to share on.
The thing with some of theseobstacles is some of them are
based for maybe a little bit youknow smaller people, but a lot
of them aren't.
Like it's your advantage to bea little bit taller and all that
stuff.
So some of the obstacles areyou're going to like jump over
walls, you're going to do likethe rope climb.
You have to climb up this 20foot rope off the ground, touch
the bell.
There's lifting based ones.
(22:24):
We have to pick up like ahundred pound Atlas ball, the
big round cement ball, carry itback and forth.
There's monkey bars.
There's like those rings, likethose Olympic rings that you go
across.
Just some other ones they'vecome up with are crazy.
There's like ones where youhave to carry a bucket for a
certain amount of time, just allkinds of things.
And sometimes the course itselfis the obstacle.
Like if you do the race at Utah, it has all these hills because
(22:49):
it's at a ski resorts, at snowbasin.
I've also done one in Arizonawhere it's, just, you know, flat
, and so sometimes and thensometimes like you're running
through and there's like riversand streams you have to cross,
and so it's kind of like this itis kind of an adventure, in a
sense, like every race is, soit's kind of crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Well, and I can see how for someone who might be a
little on the shorter side, howit could be a little difficult.
You know those rings might be alittle, you know, for someone
who's got length in their arms,who can reach.
You know things like that, Ican see how.
But then there's might bethings that you're you have
advantage with.
You know, maybe the stuff theyhave to get low to the ground
and crawl under things, thingslike that maybe you have an
advantage like that probably.
You know kind of hit or missboth ways.
(23:31):
You're still, I think you'restill.
I think people are probablyshocked when they see you
cruising by them.
You kind of get those lookslike people are like whoa,
where'd this guy come from?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, I've definitely gotten those.
This one I just did in SouthCarolina.
I ended up winning my age group.
I got first and I got in thetop 10.
And this was on the ultra.
This was the 30 mile one withthe two loops.
There's this one called stairwayto sparta.
It's basically this big a-frameand then on this side of it,
this other side, the giantladder, for when you get to the
top you climb down.
But this side has, like, youhave to jump pretty high and
(24:04):
there's this.
There's like those rock wallthings, those red rock wall
things.
You see, you have to jump up,grab those kind of, climb up it
and then grab the ladder andclimb over.
It's one where a lot of peoplemiss it and they have to do the
penalty.
But I run up to this thing.
There's this big crowd.
When you do the ultra, peopleknow, hey, the ultra is coming,
you let them through, you get tobe first in line.
(24:25):
If there's like a line ofpeople going into the obstacles,
nobody's getting this thing.
And this was on my second timearound.
The first time there's thislittle red block and it kind of
helps you get up to it.
The second time I came aroundthe lady.
I failed it the first time so Ihad to do the penalty loop.
The lady was like oh, sheremembered me, she's like you,
can I?
I asked them you can use the redblock if you want this time, or
(24:46):
like anybody, can you know?
And I was like, okay, and I wasno.
I looked at her and I said thatand I ran up and I grabbed it
and I climbed all the way upjust like normal and I did it.
I don't know if something likejust got into me.
And then I remember all thepeople were just like what?
The like?
It was kind of a probably thecoolest moment I've had on a
Spartan race, no-transcript,like just just commit and find a
(25:48):
way to get through theseobstacles, don't teeter, you
know, on it.
And so I just did that and gotthrough all of them.
And then I started to believe,you know, I'm like hey man, like
you belong here, like youstarted to convince yourself
sometimes that oh man, like, uh,I'm not as good as these other
people or whatever you know.
but that's where I was kind oflike no, you belong here, look
how well you're doing, kind of athing.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
So that's a.
That's a tricky thing and Ithat's something I struggle with
.
I, you know, I sometimes think,oh, what am I doing?
I'm doing this podcast, I don'tyou know, I don't, I'm not up
there with these otherpodcasters or whatever.
You kind of did the same thing,we kind of you know.
How do you talk yourself out ofthat?
How do you?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
how do you get to the point where like actually comes
from me and my buddy, chris.
This last summer I got him intoSpartan races too.
We went in, like we're outthere in a hundred degree
weather, like carrying thesebuckets back and forth, doing
burpees, running around the park, all this crazy stuff.
To answer your question, like Ido that stuff on a daily basis,
like I work out seven days aweek, twice a day.
All this you know stuff.
And I'm sitting there andhonestly, for me it was dude,
(26:55):
you put yourself through hellevery week.
Why would you not give thisyour best effort, you know?
Why would you do all of that ifyou're just going to like mosey
through it?
You know that kind of thing.
So I kind of think back to hey,I've put in the work for this
and I know what it takes, youknow, know kind of a thing.
(27:16):
And also to people, likelistening sometimes you don't
feel ready and like there'speople because in spartan
there's the competitive heat.
Right, you wear the redheadband and people know you're
competing and they actually keeptrack of you and stuff.
Then there's the open heat andthat's just the one where you
kind of do it to complete it,you know, and these people were
talking about what they did totrain for the ultra and it.
It was some crazy stuff and Iwas like holy crap.
But they're doing the open heat.
But in their mind they're stillsaying, oh, I couldn't do
(27:39):
competitive and I'm like why youtrain super hard?
Put yourself in the game.
You know what I mean.
Stop staying on the sidelinebeing like I'm not good enough.
Go and figure it out.
I mean at and if you don't dogood and competitive, whatever
it is, then you still get.
You still finished it, you know, and you still.
It's still a big accomplishment.
So put yourself in the game.
That's what I'd say.
Know that you've earned you.
(28:00):
Put in these deposits to bewhere you're at.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Put yourself in the game.
I love that.
It's a good way to look at it.
Yeah, any other Spartan racesor just any regular races that
you, you know, have any thoughtsor stories that you want to
share?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
There's a couple I wanted to hit on.
My very first marathon was theOgden marathon.
This was a this is more of atraining aspect thing.
I did not run one mile for thatfirst marathon to train for it,
cause I was super into hitworkouts.
I do like burpees, like themountain climbers, like all
these these body weight likejust being an overwhelming good
(28:35):
condition.
You know I'd be on astairmaster.
I wanted to do everything Icould but run and I got like a
325 on my first marathon.
And so I'm just like, if you,you know you don't have to go
out and run all these miles andstuff, there's other ways to get
in shape is kind of what Ilearned from that one.
But but then I also learnedthat you do have to go out and
(28:56):
run, you know, even if you don'twant to, to like to get more of
the wear and tear, the feel ofrunning, cause, yeah, like mile
19 at that, I remember.
I'm like, yeah, I probablyshould have ran at least a
couple of times for this.
Yeah, I just wanted to sharethat just to be like, hey, you
can do a lot of things even justbeing in, you know, just pretty
good shape, doing othermovements and stuff like that.
(29:17):
So I did the dead horse ultraout in moab in 2022.
This is my favorite race, butit's also the one I did the
worst at.
I did the.
I finished like the bottom fivepeople okay let's get a little
background.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
so Dead Horse Ultra is it a hundred mile race?
Is it a 50K?
What are you?
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Okay, oh yeah, so the Dead Horse Ultra has a 50 mile,
it has a 30 mile and then ithas, like some other ones, I
think it has a 10K and like an18 mile.
I did the 30 mile one because Ijust wanted to see where I was
at once again like, oh, this isjust running, no obstacles, you
know, kind of a thing.
I was in fourth place for 18 ofthose 30 miles and then IT
(29:56):
bands blew up, everything justlike hit, you know.
And I remember like limping tothis station at like mile 20.
And I remember telling myself Iwas like every step hurts, so
bad, that is the worst I've everfelt at a race.
And I made it to station 20 andI was like, dude, you can dnf,
like you know, there's noproblem with that whatever.
(30:19):
And I just kept telling myself,well, what's, let's walk down
here to this tree and let's seehow we feel.
And I kind of just did that andall of a sudden there was five
miles left.
But I'm telling you every stepwas horrible and that that day
and I kind of limped my way tothe finish line and finished it,
but I that's honestly, I wantedto quit.
(30:39):
So bad during that race that,uh, that's my favorite one I've
had because I know like you canget through pain and stuff to
get through to the finish line.
So for you overcoming that pain, because you said, every step
was brutal.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, and I guess I'm kind of looking at it for
someone like me.
I'm sitting here thinking, okay, overcoming that pain, because
you said every step was brutal.
Yeah, and I guess I'm kind oflooking at it for someone like
me.
I'm sitting here thinking, okay, how does someone do that?
Like, how do you, how do you dothat?
I don't know.
I mean, you kind of explainedit.
You said you'd get to this tree, and is that just what you did?
Was it just one step at a time?
Like how do you?
How do you do this?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, One step at a time.
But I also, you know, I had toconvince myself hey, man, like
and this is in November too soyou know, I in my mind, Every
step hurts, this totally sucks.
But I was like this is where Iwant to be.
So I had to convince myself Iwant to be here, I want to be
(31:30):
doing this right now, and sothat's kind of how I made it
through.
It as well is like I didn'tcome clear out here and drive
out here to quit, you know, andso I'm going to do what it takes
to finish, even if it takeslike 10 hours or whatever that's
why I love talking to ultrarunners.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Your, your mentality that you guys have is amazing
and I admire it because it'sjust amazing that you can put
yourself and figure out how toovercome that pain to where you
can keep, keep moving on, likeyou said.
Now you look back and you'relike that was my favorite race,
even though it was your, yourtoughest race yes, yes.
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So kind of along the same lines.
The other race I wanted to talkabout was the.
This was the very first Spartanultra I did.
This was before dead horse,actually.
This was at snow basin.
They don't do the ultra thereanymore, I don't know why.
Well, I know why, cause ithurts, but that was the very
first one I did.
This was where I kind of hadthe mentality of I was.
(32:25):
That one again was brutal, likenot as bad IT bands and stuff,
but like my hand was torn upfrom one of the obstacles, I was
bleeding, like all this stuffwas going on.
I started, you know, you startto kind of feel bad for yourself
Like, oh man, well, I have thisgoing on, nobody else is
feeling this way, and stuff likethat.
But that's when it very firsthit me.
Dude, somebody out here isgoing through worse than you and
they're still getting after it.
(32:46):
Yeah, so I kind of like to gainthat perspective of you know
you don't have it all that bad.
There's people struggling worseand it could be worse for you.
You know you're fine, you'restill moving and you're doing
pretty good, you're going tofinish, so kind of thing.
But also on this one I ended up.
So in Spartan this is somethingI missed earlier Now it's more
of like, it's more official,like if you fail an obstacle,
(33:09):
you run a penalty loop.
Like they have these loopsdrawn out, you run.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I wanted to, Guy.
I wanted to ask about what thepenalty situation was, Cause you
mentioned having to take apenalty.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, so that's what it is now, and they they
actually just threw back in theburpee penalty for like two
obstacles, but anyway, back whenthis is 2022, they still had
mostly burpees.
There are some penalty loopshere and there, but if you fell
an obstacle it's 30 burpees.
Okay, and I think a big part ofSpartan is do like there's so
many people who do the open heattoo.
(33:37):
Oh, I didn't do it and theyjust walked past.
So much of Spartan is doing the.
That's kind of what you paidfor.
It's part of the experiencedoing the penalties and so I'm
doing this ultra.
I ended up failing I'm not goingto do math right now, but I
failed enough for 420 burpeesand on that ultra, with the 30
miles and everything going on, Iended up doing 420 burpees that
(33:58):
day on top of all of that, andso I just wanted to kind of
share that to be like hey, dokind of what you signed up for.
You know, like this is part ofit.
Like in life, if you somethinggoes wrong, you kind of have to
get a penalty, you know.
And so you have to accept that,hey, I messed up and I'm going
to move on, but I'm going totake the penalty and I'm just
going to keep going.
So yeah, so I just wanted toshare that.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
It's a great way to look at it.
It's part of the process, it'spart of what you got to do.
You miss something, you got todo something to make up for it,
and instead of you know, likesome, like you said, some people
in the open division can justlike, ah, they'll just kind of
walk around and not do it.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, yeah, you didn't pay for a hike, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Amazing.
That's a.
That is a great life lesson fora lot of things, for for what I
do with this podcast, for whatI do at work, you know, for any
of those things a hundredpercent.
I love that.
Thank you for for sharing that.
That's amazing.
What else you got for me,kelton?
I know I think I mean any otherrace stories, because I do want
to touch on.
(34:59):
You said something about, youknow, being in a band earlier,
so I do want to.
I want to touch on that, butyou have any other race stories
or anything you want to share?
Speaker 2 (35:06):
really quick.
Just, you know, like I saidearlier, become like your, your
favorite.
I know this sounds kind ofegotistical or narcissist,
whatever you want to say, but somany people get wrapped up in
like, oh, I'm obsessed with whatthis actor's doing or this
other athlete or something.
What are you doing?
(35:26):
You know, become like yourfavorite, like hey, put in the
work for you to become that.
You know, that's just kind ofwhat I want to want to say and
it's okay to go in with like anunderdog mentality.
But at the same time, when youput in the work, you got to kind
of put in the mentality of, hey, I'm up here now and so I
deserve to do a lot betterbecause I have put in the work,
like I did this thing for 2023.
(35:47):
I like would hide in the middleof the packet races and stuff.
Be like, oh, you know, I'm justfiguring out, I'm just trying
to finish this one, whatever.
You know, I had to startputting myself at the front
again to have that belief again.
Hey, I belong here, kind of athing.
So don't be afraid.
Like I said earlier, putyourself in the game, build a
reputation with you to becomethe best that you can be and
that becomes, you know, hittingstuff every single day.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
I know another thing that you do you're a drummer in
a band.
Can you want to tell us alittle bit about what you got
going on there?
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, the fourth grade I got into playing the
drums.
This is kind of funny how I gotinto playing the drums.
There's this song for school,something like that.
I know it had a drum part in itand I was like man, that'd be
so cool to play that in front ofthe school.
I remember that and I was likethat was like my whole reason
for getting into it.
Yeah, I ended up getting signedup for drum lessons and I've
been drumming since fourth grade.
(36:37):
I had the opportunity to play.
You know, our first performancewas horrible, when I actually
had my first band.
I've been in bands since 2011,up until now, so about 13 years.
We just showed up, you know.
You think, oh man, this isawesome.
I go back and look at it nowand I'm like what the heck were
we doing?
Like, you got somebody wearinglike a fake wig.
(36:58):
We got like stuff's notstructured very well, you know.
But I think that's kind of partof doing stuff.
You get better as you go, youknow, and you learn, hey, we're
not doing that, we're not doingthe wig thing again and stuff
like that.
But, yeah, I got into.
I don't look like I'd be inthis kind of band, but I'm in a
metal band, okay.
I play drums in that heavy metalband I was in.
(37:19):
That's kind of all I've everbeen in is that kind of band.
The first band that kind of gotsome traction was my old band.
It was called Silent Sorcerer.
We did this whole get up thingwhere we dressed up and had this
whole theme going and with thatwe had a chance to have our
song on a couple of radiostations.
I got to play in several states.
(37:39):
I played in basically all theWestern states.
Coolest show I got to play wasthere's this boat.
It's kind of like the Titanic.
It's in Long Beach.
It's called the Queen Mary.
I got to play on that boat fora festival.
We technically playedunderwater because we played on
like the low level of where theboat was Like we were
technically sitting underwater.
(38:00):
Yeah, so that was kind of cool.
It was a big festival but itwas a gear nightmare Everybody's
.
So that was kind of cool.
It was a big festival but itwas a gear nightmare everybody's
gears there it was.
It was terrible that way, butit was a lot of fun and
definitely, uh, something youknow I can always remember and
played in idaho, wyoming, youname it.
Western states recorded twoalbums in ohio.
We went back there.
We had like a contract where wewent and recorded and stuff
(38:23):
like that, and so we had somebig opportunities, music videos.
It was a lot of fun.
Then, 2017, I decided kind ofeverybody collaboratively was
like hey, we're not going topursue this anymore, and so we
stopped for about a year.
And then my brother worked withthis guy who's been in musical
theater and stuff, and so in2019, we formed a new band.
(38:45):
My new band I'm in is calledTides of Autumn Same kind of
stuff.
We actually do a lot of the oldband songs, but we revamped them
and they're a little bit better.
But we have a music video outon YouTube.
We have Instagram, we havestuff on Spotify and Apple Music
, yeah, and it's just a bunch offun goofy guys.
We have songs about pirates,mortal Kombat, the circus.
(39:08):
We just kind of play off ofeach other and make these cool
songs.
Yeah, it's a little bitdifferent than the race
mentality.
You go in there and you okay, Iwant it to look this way.
It's got to sound like this.
It's more like a logisticsthing, like playing a show and
stuff.
We got to make sure we stick toour certain amount of time.
It's more like a logisticsthing being like playing a show
and stuff.
We got to make sure we stick toour certain amount of time.
It's just kind of a wholedifferent aspect, but I love it.
(39:30):
You know we don't play a ton ofshows, but when we do we have a
pretty good turnout and beenable to do some really cool
stuff that way as well.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, what is it that ?
What is it that the playing aninstrument being playing drums,
what is it that it does for you,kind of mentally?
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Just kind of adds a different element to my life.
Honestly Helps me step outsideof my comfort zone again, kind
of trying to get more on thecreative side, make things I
don't know just a little bitdifferent and gives me just a
different avenue to kind of playaround in.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I wanted to ask you here, you are 28 years old,
plugging away.
I mean, you look like you'reprobably in some of the best
shape of your life.
You're just still working outhard, you're playing the drums,
you're doing those things.
What are some of the challengesyou face?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Like I said earlier, I work out seven days a week and
twice a day.
Honestly, every morning I'd sayfive out of the seven days I
wake up and I'm like, screw this, I do not want to do this.
This is stupid.
Why am I doing this?
Like I hit that.
I'll even hit snooze a fewtimes.
You know some of the challengesI've had to overcome as of late
or taking losses.
You know like you're going tolose in life a lot.
(40:36):
You have to remember to justkind of get up and get back
after it again, because that'sall you can really do.
You know, jocko I don't know ifyou know Jocko Willink.
He has this.
He's like a Navy SEAL.
He has like a book and apodcast and stuff.
But he has this thing, thisthing he talks about where, even
if you're it's just not a goodday, right, like if I'd say, hey
(40:57):
, I'm not feeling it today goingto the gym, right, just if
anything, go through the motions, just go do the workout, even
if it's not your best.
Hey, I'm hitting a PR orwhatever it might be.
Just go through the motions,because you're still making that
deposit in yourself that youshowed up for that day and you
still did it, even though youdidn't want to.
It might not have been the best, but you still did it.
(41:18):
Some other challenges too isjust kind of finding out what's
next.
What I'm trying to do to donext, that kind of thing.
But one thing I'd recommend topeople is have you heard of 75
hard?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
I have yes.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I would highly recommend that to people.
I've done that like five times,you know.
It kind of gets you.
It makes you go outside,because one of the workouts you
have to do is outside.
It makes you stick with theseeasy but consistent things for a
long period of time and that'swhere I believe I've gotten the
most deposits is just, you know,doing those consistent things
(41:54):
and doing that program.
So highly recommend that to topeople, cause I think that's a
big difference maker.
It's not like a onlinechallenge, like it becomes like
an actual program, you know.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Very good.
So 75 hard you talked about,you know, one of the challenges
being just kind of when you haveto take losses.
Like life's tough, there's somesome losses you have to take.
What are some losses for you?
Like what would that be?
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Oh, you know there's sometimes.
I'll use the band again.
We showed up.
This is going to be a big show,there's going to be a lot of
people here.
This is a good opportunity, andit just doesn't work out that
way.
Or, oh, I hit this guy up onthe email.
This is going to be a sickopportunity.
I got this meeting planned withthis person.
It's going to go super well.
And sometimes that just doesn'thappen and that can be really
(42:38):
difficult because you're like oh, nobody's listening to me or
nobody knows what they can getfrom me, what I bring to the
table, kind of a thing.
The only thing you can do, likeI said, is just get up and get
after it the next day, andthere's going to be races.
There's so many races I've doneout of 81.
I'd probably say over 50 ofthem that I was just like I
(42:58):
thought that was my, this is myrace, you know, and it just
wasn't so.
But then you can just sit thereand be like, oh man, you know,
or you can just get back up and,well, I'm going to get after it
for the next one, and then youjust keep going.
But I also think the same thingcan be said about wins, cause
there's so many people you knowthat they caught their, their 30
(43:20):
and they caught the gamewinning touchdown pass in high
school against the rival you andthey hold on to that and that's
been their win for their life,you know.
So you got to like not hold on,like give yourself a certain
amount of time to.
I think Ryan talked about thison his podcast too right ahead,
about like not focusing so muchon the win but then getting
ready to move on to the nextthing, because you can get stuck
(43:42):
right there on.
Hey, I, I did this thing yearsago.
You know, what really mattersis what you're doing now, going
forward.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
So the other thing you kind of mentioned too and
this is what I want to ask youabout kind of before we wrap up
here is the future, like whatyou know you said.
Sometimes it's like what, whatyou're gonna do next?
That can be kind of a challenge.
So for you, kelton, if you'reand I know, things change,
things happen, but what does thefuture hold for you?
Where do you want to go?
What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (44:05):
First of all I'm going to my thing lately is
because I've done a lot ofquantity lately.
You know I've played over ahundred shows, done over 80
races me.
You know that are things Ihaven't really tapped into
before and I'm trying to put thequality of training into that,
or the time it takes in the bandor time it takes at work.
(44:34):
You know, putting in that high,those high quality spots to do
those things like, for example,my races next year.
I don't have like a ton of themplanned but they're all like
really big and so it's forcingme to train.
I've got a 50 miler coming up.
First time I've ran over 30miles will be at Antelope Island
in March.
I'm going to do that one andthen I'm going to do a half
(44:56):
Ironman down in St George in Mayand so those kind of scare me,
the open water, you know, likethat kind of thing.
So it's good to have.
I'm a big advocate of havingsomething on your calendar that
scares you, you know, and itdoesn't have to be a race or
playing a concert or somethingyou know it can be.
Hey, I really hit it off wellwith this person at work right
(45:17):
on your calendar.
I'm going to go ask them on adate, you know.
Or hey, I've been wanting to goto school and you write on your
calendar sign up for college.
You know, because it scares youand you know you start to
convince yourself all thesethings, but you, literally, you
put it on there.
It's going to make you thinkabout it and you're more likely
to do what I feel like.
So, yeah, like I said, justfocusing more on quality.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
And just to kind of wrap us up here adventure I mean
this is like an adventurepodcast, I think.
What you're doing, I thinkplaying into bands and adventure
I think spartan races obviouslyare an adventure.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
Regular races are an adventure.
What does adventure mean tokelton?
To me, adventure means, like Isaid a few minutes ago, just
always pushing yourself to thenext level, always finding what
more you can do, because we allhave.
I just feel like we all have somuch we can do in our life and
we're all living like this muchof what we could be.
You know, go out on a limb,sign up for something, go on a
trip you don't want to go on.
(46:14):
You know, go to a new place,like talk to somebody new,
always making you can haveadventures, even just every day.
You know, just trying to makeyourself better in small little
ways.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Awesome Kelton, thank you so much for coming on
Journey with Jake.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah, you bet it was awesome.
Super glad that I was able todo this.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
A huge thank you to Kelton Shelley for joining me on
the show and sharing hisjourney and offering some
incredible advice on pushingthrough tough times.
I truly appreciate you, kelton.
If you'd like to follow alongwith his adventures, be sure to
check him out on Instagram atkshell36.
That's kshell36.
Next week, on February 18th,sacred Spaces Volume 3 is
(46:57):
officially launching, and I'mhonored to be part of it.
My chapter Chapter 8, divesdeep into my personal journey
and how this podcast came tolife.
It was a meaningful experienceto contribute alongside so many
fantastic authors.
You can grab a digital orpaperback copy on Amazon and I'd
love for you to check it out.
The mastermind behind theSacred Spaces series is Colleen
(47:19):
Aves, who first appeared on theshow back in episode 99.
In the next episode, I'mbringing Colleen back to talk
about this project and why it'sso important, not just to her,
but to me as well.
Be sure to tune in for thatconversation and finally, just
remember it's not always aboutthe destination as it is about
the journey.
Take care, everybody.
(47:39):
Thank you.
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