May 13, 2025 • 53 mins
Summary
In this episode of Just Human, host Jay Boykin interviews Tyler Herman, a former Marine and current ultra-marathon runner. They discuss Tyler's journey from military service to law enforcement, his challenges in combat, and how those experiences shaped his resilience. Tyler shares his passion for ultra-marathon running, explaining the mental and physical challenges involved and the motivation behind his participation in these grueling races. The conversation emphasizes the importance of support systems, finding purpose in pain, and the mindset required to overcome obstacles in life and running. Tyler also discusses his upcoming race, the Ure 50, and the significance of pushing personal limits.
Takeaways
- We all wrestle with the same questions about growth and connection.
- The journey from military to civilian life can be challenging.
- Resilience is built through shared experiences and support systems.
- Ultra-marathon running is a metaphor for life's challenges.
- Finding purpose in pain can lead to personal growth.
- Comfort is an illusion; true growth happens in discomfort.
- Surrounding yourself with trusted individuals is crucial for success.
- Mental challenges in endurance sports reflect life's obstacles.
- Setting stretch goals can push you beyond your limits.
- It's important to find your heart and pursue what matters to you.
Sound Bites
- "Comfort is an illusion."
- "Go find your heart."
- "It's all a mindset."
Chapters
00:00
Introduction to the Human Experience
01:16
Journey to the Marines
06:39
Transitioning to Law Enforcement
09:56
Resilience Through Adversity
14:55
The Shift to Ultra Marathon Running
22:18
Understanding Ultra Marathons
23:08
Mindset in Endurance Racing
27:03
The Challenge of Endurance Racing
32:05
Preparing for the Next Big Race
38:50
Mindset: Overcoming Mental Barriers
42:12
Finding Your Heart: Personal Growth Through Challenges
46:12
Lighthearted Moments: Running and Shoes
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
well hello everyone and welcome to just human i am
jay boykin i'm your host and inthis place we explore what it
truly means to be human whetherwe're talking about at work in
relationships and in life ingeneral and so you know no
matter where you come from orwhat we do we all wrestle with
(00:23):
the same questions how do wegrow how do we connect and how
do we live with a purpose andstay true to ourselves so just
human is built on this simplebut powerful truth we are all
human beings first and so Onthis podcast, we talk about a
lot of different topics becausethat's all part of our human
(00:45):
experience.
And I am really glad that youare here.
So we're going to dive in.
I have a guest with me.
I'm really excited about thisinterview.
So I've got...
This individual is a friend.
He is a former combat Marine.
He is a former law enforcementofficer, and he is a current
(01:09):
ultra marathon runner.
Tyler, how you doing, man?
Tyler Herman.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15):
Great, man.
Great.
Glad to be here.
I appreciate you having me onthe podcast.
Excited to...
talk about some stuff.
I love what you're doing here.
I think it's great and you'reright.
I think as we get older, westart to realize that we're all
kind of humming to the sametune.
Sometimes someone's figuredsomething out that maybe you're
still dealing with and so I lovewhat this is about.
SPEAKER_00 (01:36):
Yeah, I really appreciate that, buddy.
I've been excited about thisepisode and I think my listeners
are going to be excited about itas well.
Let me ask you this.
Tell me a little bit about yourearly days and especially what
led you to join the marines andi know i opened up with former
(01:58):
marine but i i'm going tocorrect myself because i know
that once a marine always amarine so i'll correct myself
there and also say thank you foryour service
SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
yeah no i appreciate it you're actually right it is
former marine it's funny thoughone of the commandants recently
came out and said we're gettingrid of former like you said it
doesn't exist anymore onceyou're in you're in for the life
of it.
It's a really interesting story,although it's not as sexy or as
attractive as you'd think, butit was...
(02:30):
I can't explain it other than mywhole life that I have grown up,
I have felt this need and desireto give back.
Especially when I was younger, Ifelt so grateful.
You've got all of theseopportunities presented to us.
Whether you choose to look atthem like that or not is up to
you, right?
And I, at a young age, justcouldn't help but think, I've
(02:51):
got to say thank you.
There's a lot of things I wantto do in my life, but I've got
to say thank you somehow, someway.
And so when I was really young,I was trying to figure out what
to do.
I was actually in mygrandfather's house on my mom's
side.
And this is back in the day.
Maybe you know about this.
He used to watch the Broncosgames, but he would have the TV
muted and the radio on.
And you would sit there on thecouch, disciplined, and I'll
(03:13):
never forget it.
This Marine Corps commercialcame on and I didn't know much
about it.
I'm 13 years old, sitting therewatching a game, just sitting
here like this, right?
Just watching in silence almostas the radio tunes.
And that was the first moment Ikind of started to look at,
well, what is that?
The sword, the few, the proud,all that.
(03:34):
That was...
That was the defining moment oflike, hold on, what is this
thing that I knew existed butnever really contemplated?
And I just did some research, assimple as that.
Now, internet was not as easy toaccess back then.
They were that old, but internetwasn't
SPEAKER_00 (03:53):
as available.
Well, I am.
I'm that old.
You're not, but I am.
SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
Yeah.
I didn't want to call you outhere.
No.
And so I researched it.
It just became an infatuation.
It became, over time, so set instone that it wasn't, oh, I
think I'm going to do this.
No.
At the age of 13, it was prettydetermined.
(04:17):
I was going to go in the MarineCorps.
I was going to do that reallydifficult thing.
Wow.
And that's kind of where itstarted.
That was 13 years old.
SPEAKER_00 (04:27):
That's amazing.
So you finish high school.
Yeah.
And then you go off to– totraining?
SPEAKER_01 (04:35):
They call it the DEP, the Delayed Entry Program.
Signed up, must have been, Ithink you have to be 17.
Signed up, 17.
I wanted to go infantry.
My mom did not want me to goinfantry.
At 17, you have to have theirsignature.
My mom, she was adamant.
(04:55):
She was like, no, I'm not okaywith this.
I was playing sports.
I was in football and runningtrack and At this time, I was
getting ready for track season,which is going to put you in
really great shape.
And I had a conversation withher.
I sat her down, and I said, Iappreciate you, Ma.
I love you.
I love that you're trying toprotect me.
But unfortunately, this issomething that I have to do.
It's happening.
I just really need yoursignature here.
(05:17):
And she signed.
She signed the dotted line.
And so her signing the lineallowed me to sign the line.
I went to basic training, and Igraduated a day before my 18th
birthday, earned the title.
We're all faced with reallydifficult things.
But up until that point, I mean,that was by far the most
difficult thing I'd ever done.
(05:38):
And little did I know, itwouldn't hold a candle to what
life would have in store for me.
Right.
But in that moment, it was thehardest thing I had ever done.
SPEAKER_00 (05:48):
Wow.
And so how long did you serve?
SPEAKER_01 (05:52):
Yeah, four years.
Yeah, served, entered in 2004,ended up getting out in 2008,
had a couple opportunities toreenlist.
I didn't end up enacting those.
It's an eight year program.
So once you complete your fouryears of active service, you do
four years of inactive readyreserve where they can call you
back in if they need to.
So total contract eight years,but four years total.
SPEAKER_00 (06:13):
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you do four years as a Marineand you saw some combat and we
won't get into all of thosedetails, but then post your
Marine career, you transitionedinto law enforcement.
(06:35):
So tell my listeners about that.
SPEAKER_01 (06:38):
Yeah, and I'll hit on this in two parts because the
transition is really kind ofinteresting.
But we're going to get into thishere shortly, but I want to call
this out.
2004 to 2008, I think most ofyour listeners will probably
recall, we were active in twoengagements, two conflicts,
(06:58):
Operation Enduring Freedom,which is Afghanistan, and
Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq.
And unfortunately, our unitended up losing 31 Marines and
sailors, killed in action.
And we'll jump back into thathere in a little bit because
we're going to talk about theultramarathons and the fuel that
creates that.
But the transition to lawenforcement, it's really
interesting.
(07:19):
You do these really...
fantastic, neat, you could use alot of words, very difficult
things.
You know, we were deployed, youknow, our cycles for deployment
were typically longer than wewere home.
You know, I think I spent eightmonths in Afghanistan.
You're home for six months, butyou've got deployment readiness
that you've got to take care of.
So you're really only home forthree and a half, maybe four
months before you ship back outagain.
(07:40):
And when the time came to eitherreenlist, which I had the
opportunity to do, or get out,you know, I was kind of
wavering.
I was on both sides of thefence.
I thought I would do 20 years,but the combat cycle, we were
deploying early and often.
We were actually getting readyfor a third deployment.
So long story short, it wasultimately decided that I would
(08:02):
get out and I applied to theColorado State Patrol while
still in the Marine Corps.
Okay.
Took about 10 months.
That process was very long.
I think back then, I don't knowthe numbers, but there was like
seven or 8,000 applicants for Ithink what ended up being 38
positions.
Ended up getting selected and itjust blows my mind.
(08:27):
It was just such a coolopportunity.
But yeah, ended up gettingselected to go to the Academy.
And this is back in 2008.
The Academy started in 2009.
Wow.
And
SPEAKER_00 (08:34):
now how long did you serve with the State Patrol?
SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
Yeah.
So I did two years with StatePatrol.
would have done longer.
The State Patrol was a greatorganization.
This is Colorado State Patrol.
They were a great organization,treated me very well.
They put me up in the mountains.
I was out of the Kremlinsub-office, you know, early 20s.
Didn't love being stuck in themountains, a little bit more
(09:01):
social at that time.
And so I ultimately decided tospend two years there and then
had an opportunity to join theParker Police Department where I
spent another eight years andwrapped out about 10 years in
law enforcement over that endingfrom when the Marine Corps ended
and law enforcement transitiontook over.
SPEAKER_00 (09:24):
Wow.
Again, thank you so much foreverything that you've done
serving our country and ourcommunity.
And I really am curious becauseyou've been through what I can
only imagine are a lot ofchallenging things in both of
(09:45):
those career journeys.
What were some moments or somethings that really tested your
resilience the most, if you canrecall anything in particular?
SPEAKER_01 (09:59):
Oh, absolutely.
I think one of the mostimportant things to remember is
we are only as strong as oursingle whole.
When you put a group of peopleall with the same mission and
mindset together, it reallytruly is fantastic to see what
you can accomplish.
And, you know, I think being soyoung, deployed, I mean, it
(10:21):
pushes you, right?
I mean, gosh, and I can'tremember the ages.
I think I was in Afghanistan by18 or 19.
I was in Iraq by 1920.
You know, I was running, youknow, four-man teams in Iraq.
I couldn't even buy a beer yet,right?
And yet I was out there runningsatellite operations with, you
know, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marinesand Iraqi Freedom.
And it's only successful becauseof the people that you're with,
(10:46):
right?
One person can only do so much.
But I tell you, when you getfour Marines together who are
dead set on not getting hurt orgetting hit, which obviously
didn't happen all the time,unfortunately, but It's a
powerful group.
It's a powerful group.
And, you know, testing yourresilience, you talk about,
especially Iraqi deployment,especially in the beginning, the
(11:08):
first two months of thatdeployment, it was really,
really kinetic is the term thatI would use.
Right.
Engagements were often.
And it really, truly gets to apoint, which is, again, just
looking back at this, and I'mmore open about this now than I
used to been.
I've found that invulnerability,there's actually healing.
I think a lot of veteransSometimes we put up the facade
(11:30):
to try and show as a barrier ofprotection, but I really didn't
start to grow out of that untilI started being vulnerable and
trying to, you know, slowly tellmy story.
But from a resilienceperspective, when you hit a
point, I mean, gosh, I hadwritten my first death letter by
19 years old, right?
(11:50):
Which is, and I don't even haveit.
I wrote it and I never openedit.
And I think I burned it alongwith the other guys, right?
Iraq was a very kineticdeployment.
There's, uh, there's a lot of,we call them the angels of
Anbar.
It was a very terrible time.
They called the Anbar awakening.
It was not a great time to be inthe province.
(12:11):
And you had to rely at thistime, it was only men in combat
roles.
So you had to rely on the Marineto your left and right, because
that and one other person werethe only four people there for
most of that.
Right.
And, uh, Once you can lean onthat, once you have that
experience, you're set up totackle a lot.
(12:34):
And this all bleeds into what alot of your listeners are
probably going through.
Yeah, I know combat, it soundsintense, and it is, and it's
very different.
But at the end of the day, itall boils down to the same
believable system.
If you surround yourself withpeople that you can truly trust,
that make you better, you arecapable of some really
incredible things.
And we were, and we did.
SPEAKER_00 (12:57):
I'm so glad that you said that.
I had an interview in my lastepisode with a woman who is a
professional skydiver, and shetalked about our support systems
and who we surround ourselveswith.
And so having you echo a similarmessage is really important
(13:25):
because I think that all of usreally need to have that strong
support system uh in order to toto help us get through whatever
it is that we're going throughmost of us are not going to
experience uh the combatsituations that that you did and
(13:45):
and that your uh your brothersat that time did and and
currently the the men and womenwho are serving our country and
again thank you to all of thosemen and women and to the
families because they sacrificeas well so thank you for all of
that.
But yeah, we have to have thosestrong support systems.
(14:09):
So Tyler, I want to start totransition into this other very
interesting topic.
So I want to share with mylisteners, Tyler and I know each
other because our wives worktogether They're no longer at
the same brokerage, but theystill work together as realtors.
(14:33):
And we would go to these eventsand Tyler and I had the
opportunity to be arm candy atthese events.
Tyler's definitely better armcandy than I am.
And we had the opportunity tohave some great conversations.
I think that the most importantone was the proper way to eat a
steak, but we won't get intothat too deeply because i know
(14:57):
that you know the right way toeat a steak but uh but we had
this connection and uh recentlytyler told me about this new
sport that he is involved inthat is again mind-blowing to me
it is ultra marathon running butIf memory serves, you didn't
(15:26):
just start right into ultramarathon, right?
Didn't you start with regularmarathons or you jumped right
into ultra?
SPEAKER_01 (15:34):
I went right in and for better or worse.
Yeah, better or worse.
I'm not, I wouldn't advise it,but yeah, no, right into the Big
McGee.
SPEAKER_00 (15:42):
Wow.
Tell my listeners why, because Ithink it's going to transition
back a little bit to what youwere speaking on before, but
tell my listeners what got yourunning ultramarathons?
SPEAKER_01 (15:55):
This is my favorite question of all time because I
think the goal is is that I getand I get really fiery about
this, right?
Like this.
This is where everything comesto fruition.
Rewind about two and a half,maybe three years ago.
I'm sitting in a room with acolleague of mine, and he's a
phenomenal athlete, playedhockey almost his entire life,
(16:17):
no doubt.
Had circumstances changed, hemay have made it into the NHL.
He wouldn't say that, but talentexists for sure.
And having a conversation withhim, and he's much younger than
me.
10, maybe 12 years younger thanme.
And I looked at him and we'rehaving this conversation about
(16:38):
doing hard things.
And I looked at him and I'mlike, I feel like I still have
it in me.
Like I've done a lot.
in my life, the Marine Corps,being a cop for a long time.
I used to run, but I didn't runcompetitively.
I had done the Spartans and thetrifectas with the other race
(17:00):
that is escaping my mind right
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
now.
The triathlons?
SPEAKER_01 (17:03):
Yeah, not the triathlon.
It's the sister to the Spartans.
I cannot believe I cannotremember this name right now.
SPEAKER_00 (17:11):
It's going to pop back into your head in a minute.
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
Yeah, they're the Tough Mudders, which are really
fun, which are really greatraces.
Hard.
You can make them as hard as youwant to.
Some go out and have a greattime.
Some just want to go get dirty.
Some say, if I drag myselfacross the finish line in 15
hours, I'll be happy, which iswhat I love.
So we're sitting there having aconversation, and I look at him,
and I'm like, I just feel like Istill have it in me, but I
(17:36):
haven't really pushed myself.
Not nearly to the degree thatI'm used to, at least when I was
younger.
Right.
And I feel like I can.
And I popped up.
I said, how hard can it be torun like 50 miles?
Like, how hard could 100 milesreally be?
Which is so funny because, youknow, you ask those questions.
And then like this little likewith wisdom comes this little
radar moment where you're like,if everybody could do it, they
(18:00):
would be doing it every day.
Right.
And so you almost say it tonguein cheek where you're like, how
hard could this really be?
then you get to get humbledlater which is exactly how this
all plays out but that's what itboils down to there's really two
reasons okay one prove to myselfi could still do hard part of my
french hard stuff you're allgood and number two you know i
(18:21):
got two young kids right they'rewatching me and i work real hard
at least i call working hard butwhat are they really taking away
from that like what are theyactually watching happen So I'll
tell you when the whole thingcame crumbling down in the best
way possible.
I'm doing a slow run, kind ofjogging around, getting ready
(18:41):
for a race, haven't reallysigned up for anything yet.
I hit the corner not far from myhouse right here, and Jay, it
hit me like a ton of bricks forthose who can't.
Right.
Okay.
And I know you and I have talkedabout this, and this is where
the passion turns to emotion,right?
I'm running around at this timeand the listeners, I'd love to
(19:03):
just real quick.
I used to do a lot of work forthe crisis intervention teams in
law enforcement.
I think you and I have talkedabout that, but it's law
enforcement's response to thosewith mental illness.
And very humbly, it was my jobto travel the state of Colorado
and certify law enforcementofficers and basically using our
mouth as a de-escalation tooland try to avoid the other tools
on our belt when we don't haveto, right?
(19:24):
I mean, this is so much harderto use than going hands on.
So many people are, you know,cops are really smart bunch of
people and they pick up on thisstuff and you put a real big
challenge in front of them.
Most jump at the chance to learnit, but deescalating somebody
who's a 12 out of 10 is really,really difficult.
Think about the naked guyrunning down the street with a
knife, right?
Right.
You got to deescalate that.
(19:44):
And so I was given theopportunity to do that.
That's when everything kind ofshifted.
I'm on this run and I'm thinkingabout there was a couple of
veteran suicides and I speaknonchalantly about it because
it's just, it seems to be socommon now.
And it was just taking up mymind space.
And I asked myself, what are wedoing?
Why is this happening?
I think we had lost two guysfrom our unit who had taken
(20:06):
their own lives in the previousmonth.
And all the group chains aregoing off.
We've got to stop this.
We've got to figure this out.
We're all here.
And one of the things that cameto a realization of was for a
lot of us, we did our hardestthing.
That was the peak.
And we did it at 21 years old or25 years old.
(20:28):
then from there we kind of youknow we've kind of already done
it that's a really dangerousplace to be and that was my
first realization my second waslike what would these 31 marines
and sailors who didn't make ithome with us what would they do
if they could come back like ifwe could rewind the clock and
put them in a scenario to feelpain again would they do it and
(20:52):
i surmise that they would isurmise that of the 31, and I've
been challenged on this, but Isurmised that if given the
chance to feel pain again, theywould, because we take it for
granted.
We try to be comfortable, butcomfort is an illusion.
It's when you get comfortablewith discomfort, that's when
(21:15):
we're dangerous.
And that's where the ultramarathons came.
SPEAKER_00 (21:19):
That is super powerful.
I, you know, you said that soeloquently.
You know, I talk all the timeabout no one grows in a place
where they're comfortable.
You've got to feel somechallenges, go through some
things.
(21:39):
But the way that you justarticulated that, that we've got
to be comfortable withdiscomfort, that's super
powerful.
So you make up your mind thatyou are going to do these ultra
marathons.
Now, Tyler, for my audience,explain to them, like many
(22:02):
people may know what a 5K is anda regular marathon, but explain
for my listeners what an ultramarathon means.
SPEAKER_01 (22:16):
Yeah, and I'm still a rookie too.
I'm sure there's a more...
tenured athlete out there thatcould define these better than
I, but basically anultramarathon is any distance
over a marathon, starting morecommonly with the 50K, which is
a little over 30 miles, 31miles.
And then it goes up from there.
You've got 100Ks, 60 plus miles,then you've got 100 milers.
(22:40):
You've got 12 hour races, 24hour races, 48 hour races.
You've got things like theCopaDona 250, which are 250 mile
races.
So anything over a marathon.
SPEAKER_00 (22:52):
Wow.
Now, at this point, you saidthat you're still relatively new
in the sport.
But at this point, what is thelongest distance that you've
competed in?
SPEAKER_01 (23:06):
Yeah, my longest distance race was 100 miles.
It was in September of lastyear.
It was the we call it theStagecoach 100.
It was the Flagstaff.
So you start in Flagstaff andyou run to the Grand Canyon on
the trails.
Beautiful country back there, bythe way, if you haven't been.
SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
Wow.
So look, I'm going to be honestwith you.
When I start thinking aboutdistances around 100 miles, I'm
starting to think about a planeticket.
And so you are strapping on somerunning shoes and you are
running 100 miles.
(23:43):
That is crazy.
Amazing.
So talk about, you know, asyou're you're doing this, we had
a conversation previously andyou talked about this and it was
just it was beautiful.
But, you know, so you're runningand, you know, talk about your
mindset from mile one to mile 50and then trying to get to the
(24:08):
finish line at mile 100.
SPEAKER_01 (24:09):
There there is so much to dive into.
I want to lead with this though.
I truly firmly believe thateverybody of able body can run
100 miles.
It's here.
It's there.
And if anybody decides to tacklesomething like this, I promise
(24:33):
them it is life changing.
It will challenge you in a waythat you cannot, I still have
yet to be able to describe it,but I'll try.
Mile one is exciting.
And we talked earlier about yourteamwork.
So I do not want to let this gowithout my crew because I've
been fortunate to have a crewfor all of my races and it has
been absolutely game changing inmy ability to do this.
(24:56):
And we'll be in the race thatI've got two races coming up,
which I'm sure we'll briefly hiton.
My first race was a 50K,inexperienced.
I didn't have any coach.
I got very, very injured on thatrace.
Still beat my goal time by 16minutes, but got very, very
injured on that race.
And it was a pretty rudeawakening.
(25:19):
I ended up getting connectedwith a phenomenal coach who I've
had for the last, gosh, a yearand a half, I believe, who's got
me back on the right track.
So I did the 50K.
So here's what I want to tellyou though, Jay, is when I
started this, it wasn't likeshoot for the stars out of the
gate.
I was actually very quiet.
I had only told two people in mylife that my stretch goal was a
100-mile race.
(25:40):
Now, even though I had openlydeclared, like, how hard can it
be?
Joking, of course, recognizingthat.
I had not wanted those words tocome out of my mouth because I'm
one of those people who says, orwho thinks that if I'm going to
say it, if I'm going to speakit, there better be some
validity to it.
Like, it sounds cool.
Well, it did to me.
But if I have no intention ofrunning 100 miles, like, who am
(26:03):
I?
to even say that.
And so, you know, the 50K wasvery humbling, very humbling.
Got back on track.
It took a little bit of timefrom the injury.
I ran my next race, which was100K.
Had a phenomenal support crew.
I had a couple of Marine buddiescome out and support me.
We were running for those whocan't, which I really had to
dive deep on.
That was the Great Divide downin Divide, Colorado.
(26:25):
It was like 60, 61 or 62 miles.
I think it was close to, I wantto say it was close to 10,000
feet of climbing.
Maybe a little under that, ifI'm being honest.
Brutal course though.
And unfortunately, the allergieshad just popped up.
This is a June race.
And you ever heard of, oh gosh,what is it?
(26:45):
It's bronchial constriction.
And I cannot remember themedical term.
SPEAKER_00 (26:52):
It sounds uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01 (26:54):
Exercised induced bronchial restriction, I believe
is what it's called.
SPEAKER_00 (26:58):
Never heard of that, but it sounds very
uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01 (27:01):
It's basically exercise induced asthma, which
I've never had in my entirelife.
And about halfway through thecourse, the way I describe it is
I could basically breathe from40% to 70%, but anything outside
of those would cause me toviolently cough and thus almost
vomit.
Wow.
And I had that for about eighthours of that race.
SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
Now that's eight hours.
How long was the overall race?
SPEAKER_01 (27:31):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I meant to actually look at mytimes beforehand.
It's actually, for those whoaren't trying to podium in the
ultra world, your times are alittle, you know, they're a
little, they're just notrelative.
I believe that race took me alittle over 16 hours.
Wow.
Started, you know, in themorning, I think, I can't
remember what time we started,6, 7, 8, it was dark, whatever
(27:52):
time we started, and thenfinished about 10 p.m.
at night.
So yeah, I think it was a littleover 16 hours for that 100K,
yeah.
And...
Just being humbled the entireway.
And then...
Keep going, sorry.
Oh, sorry.
And then there was the 100miler.
SPEAKER_03 (28:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:12):
Now the 100k, that was the goal.
It was actually a 50 miler, butI found a really cool race.
And why do 50 when you can do 60plus, was my thought.
You're a beast, man.
UNKNOWN (28:29):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:30):
It was humbling, Jay.
Ultras have this weird thingwhere you'll literally question
why you do them.
Why are you putting yourselfthrough?
Nutrition is a massive componentof this.
You're in pain.
Everything's blister.
Just things are going wrongevery way.
I remember one point in therace, there was a lightning
(28:51):
storm that had come through.
I mean, I swear it was so loud.
You get that feeling like thisis not where you should be.
I should be somewhere safe andthis mountain is not it.
And when I finished that race,that's what I told everybody.
That was the goal, thatdistance.
(29:11):
When I finished that race, Iknew I could do 100 miles.
I knew that I could tell people,although that was my stretch
goal, that is my actual goal.
And the goal had always been 100miles by 40.
I was 36, 30.
I had just turned 37 when Ifinished a hundred K and I knew
(29:32):
last year, that's the year I'mdoing a hundred miler.
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (29:38):
Yeah.
That's, that's incredible.
Now
SPEAKER_01 (29:42):
you asked me, Oh, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00 (29:43):
Keep going.
Go ahead.
This is so fascinating.
So you just keep going.
You run this podcast.
I'm just going to sit back andlisten.
SPEAKER_01 (29:50):
You asked me.
So you asked me a reallyinteresting question.
I think the context is soimportant, though, because you
can't you just can't go fromcouch to 100 milers.
I can't.
Maybe somebody out there can,but I can't.
The first mile is fear andexcitement.
It's you recognize my coach saidit best, Jay.
And maybe you could take thisinto life.
(30:11):
I take it into life.
He said, Tyler, with every oneof your races, it's like driving
60 miles an hour in dense fog.
There is a brick wall blockingthe road somewhere in front of
us, but we just don't know whereit is.
That's what our races have been.
Because every race for me hadbeen a new, I'd never run a
marathon competitively.
I don't even think I'd ever runa 10K competitively outside of a
(30:33):
Spartan race.
Wow.
So I had no experience, man.
When I say rookie in theindustry, really have no idea
what I'm doing.
Truly.
But that experience, you get it.
And you get it quickly.
So mile one is excitement.
But you also recognize, at leastin my shape, this is probably
(30:54):
going to be north of 24 hours,right?
This is going to be a big race.
So mile one is a lot ofexcitement and fear.
SPEAKER_00 (31:05):
That's amazing.
So, I mean, so listeners...
And thank you wherever you'retuning in.
If you're watching this onYouTube, thank you.
Hit the like button, maybesubscribe.
If you're listening on yourfavorite podcast provider, thank
you so much for tuning in.
I hope that you caught that,that Tyler said you're having to
(31:32):
wrap your brain around the factthat you're going to be running
for like 24 hours.
That is...
Amazing.
So I'm going to come back tothat piece of it in a second,
Tyler.
But you've got an event comingup this summer.
(31:54):
And when you and I first talkedabout this, I said that I want
to have you on the show at leasttwice, maybe three times.
But tell my listeners about theevent that you've got coming up
here in Colorado.
SPEAKER_01 (32:07):
Yeah, no, thanks for asking, Jay.
This event is the real...
This event makes me...
This is a humbling event.
This makes me nervous evenbringing it up now.
I am comfortable saying that mystretch goal became a 200-mile
race, and we're going to reservethat for next year, but that's
not what this race is.
(32:28):
This race comes back to thatvery beginning.
Remember when we were talking, Iwas with my colleague in that
conference room, we were talkingabout, I feel like, how hard can
100 miles be?
Well, He had brought up a race,it was the Euro 50, and it's got
about 21,000 feet of climbing init.
And the goal, this is two and ahalf, almost three years ago,
(32:48):
was to go do that.
And at that time, I just didn'tfeel like I could.
I just didn't feel like I hadit.
I had no training, had never runa marathon, had never done
anything.
And the race was like two weeksafter this conversation.
Well, after I finished my 100miler, I was talking to my
coach.
We had kind of set up for, I wasgoing to do Sedona Canyon's 125
this year.
(33:08):
It's actually this month.
Actually, I think it's this nextweekend.
And I was on the wait list forthat.
And I kind of got this wildhair.
And I called my coach and Isaid, I have a crazy idea.
There's a race in Ouray.
It's 100 miles, 102.1 miles.
It's 42,000 feet of climbing.
And it has a 52-hour cutoff.
(33:30):
I want to do it.
And of course my coach goes,it's not my job to tell you yes
or no.
It's my job to get you ready.
It's July 18th and I amcautiously enthusiastic.
I am excited and both scared andready for whatever it is that
(33:57):
we're about to embark on becauseI don't have the natural talent.
And if you hear anything from meabout my earlier comment, like
anybody could do a hundredmiler.
My full expectation, I don'tcare where I place.
I want to complete this race andI am not convinced I am talented
enough to do it while sleepingas well.
(34:18):
I am debating on what thatstrategy is going to look like,
but there is an expectation thatperhaps this is 48 plus hours
with no sleep.
SPEAKER_00 (34:28):
So you're, Let's go back to those numbers for a
second, Tyler.
So you said 102.1 miles.
We can't forget the 0.1.
Don't forget it.
And you've got roughly 40 plusthousand feet of elevation
change.
SPEAKER_01 (34:49):
I believe it's 13.
I believe it's 13 mountains thatyou climb.
SPEAKER_00 (34:54):
Wow.
And...
you have 52 hours to complete itwith an official time like you
know i'm assuming that if theyjust shut things down and you
finish in 53 that they're notgoing to pick up the road and
not let you cross the finishline but everybody's going to be
gone but you're going to finishit but for people that may be
(35:17):
listening that are not familiarwith colorado talk a little bit
about the oxygen at thosealtitudes, or more specifically,
the lack of oxygen at thosealtitudes.
SPEAKER_01 (35:34):
Yeah, there's probably a scientist out there
that's chummin' at the bit todive into this better than I can
describe it.
So I'll describe it as I feel,but for anybody who hasn't been
really north of 10,000 feet, theair just seems as if it's
non-existent, right?
Not there.
Yeah, it's, I mean, there's air,but your body isn't processing
(35:57):
it in the way that you would at,say, sea level.
And so your heart rate, right,has to elevate to help the
muscles.
They require a certain amount ofoxygen.
Your heart rate has to elevateto get the oxygen to it.
And when you do that forelongated periods, you can
imagine that you have to burnmore calories, and we'll dive
into that.
So, you know, average elevationof this race is somewhere around
(36:19):
10 000 feet i believe and againthere's a lot of i believes here
and i intentionally didn't goback and look at the website to
throw out all these numbersbecause that's not what these
races are for it's a guidingprinciple i am training my coach
has all the information and hepoints me in the direction i
have found that it's actuallyhelpful for me about a month or
two out which we're not at yetto really start diving into the
(36:39):
terrain and things like that butI have to trust my process.
My process is not to worry aboutthese 13 climbs or whatever they
are.
It's to worry about this.
Especially when you're north ofTreeline, which I think most of
these climbs are, almost all ofthem are 13,000 feet-ish, the
air just doesn't seem to bethere anymore.
(37:00):
You're just grasping.
You can feel your heart beatingout of your chest.
you know, regardless of theshape you're in, we live at
6,500 feet.
I still go to 10,000.
I still feel it.
I certainly feel it at 13.
I feel it at 14 and I expect tofeel it the entirety of this
race.
SPEAKER_00 (37:19):
Yeah, man, that is amazing.
So now we talked about, and Ihope that we're able to make
this happen.
So you're, you're in yourtraining and you've got this,
this race in July and, I wouldlove to get you back on the show
and talk about how your trainingis going as you prepare for this
(37:41):
race and talk about how you'refeeling physically, how you're
feeling mentally right beforethe race.
And then we want to get youback.
afterwards and talk about whatyour experience was like.
So I appreciate your willingnessto entertain putting up with me
(38:04):
for three different episodes.
But I think that telling thestory to its completion is
really exciting.
So I'm looking forward to thatpart of it.
SPEAKER_01 (38:17):
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00 (38:20):
So I want to transition a little bit.
So Tyler, most of the peoplethat are listening are not going
to do anything that physicallydemanding.
But you did talk about the factthat the biggest obstacle that
(38:40):
you have to deal with is betweenyour ears.
And I think that Insert whateveryour hard situation may be, the
biggest challenge that you mightbe trying to overcome.
(39:01):
Talk to my listeners a littlebit about your philosophy around
just developing that propermindset to deal with that
challenge.
SPEAKER_01 (39:11):
What a wonderful question.
I always say, I call it, go findyour heart.
There's never really a worldwhere I sit here trying to
preach that everybody needs todo a 100-miler, although I do
think it's an incredibleexperience that will humble you
in ways you could not even yetimagine if you've never done it.
(39:32):
At least it was for me.
But go find your heart.
When I completed my 100-miler,you don't know who's watching.
And I'm really passionate aboutwhat I'm trying to accomplish
for those who can.
Just a reminder that there arepeople who would maybe do this.
Maybe they would love to havethat opportunity again, and they
don't have it.
And I think if you're still herebreathing, trying to figure out
(39:54):
what can I go do, you need to gofind your heart.
That's what you need to go do.
Go find time to go do somethingyou don't have time for.
Because I promise you, you'regoing to shift what you have
time for.
Jay, it could be I have onefriend, go walk a mile.
That was her challenge.
(40:16):
I just want to find the time togo walk a mile.
It wasn't that it was physicallydemanding, although I'm sure it
could have been.
It was, I don't have time, whichis a farce, right?
Because you do have time.
It's just you've chosen to allotthat time to something else that
you feel is more important.
But when you're running orwhatever it is that you're
doing, that's going to requirethat shift in that perspective.
(40:39):
I tell people, go find yourheart and it doesn't need to be
this.
It could be spend more time withyour kids, dedicated time with
your phone on the side.
It could be literally anything,Jay.
But just go figure it out andthen go do it.
And don't make an excuse aboutit, though.
The most important component,don't make an excuse.
(41:02):
Give yourself a freebie, butdon't make an excuse.
Go find your heart.
But once you've found it,probably going to have to find
another one after and it's goingto keep going.
SPEAKER_00 (41:13):
Man, I just, that is so powerful.
I love it.
And again, listeners, Tyler isnot saying that you need to
strap them on and go run ahundred, but if you want to do
it, but find the thing that is,is your heart.
(41:34):
You could be, You could bethinking about a career change.
You could be thinking aboutstarting a business.
You could be thinking about adiet and trying to transform
your body.
Whatever that challenge is, justthink about that mindset and
(41:55):
focus on it.
Don't make the excuses and saythat you can't because you
absolutely can.
And If this man is out therededicating all of this amazing
time, and he's a busyprofessional as well.
Don't get me wrong there.
He's not just running 24 hours aday.
(42:17):
He's got a family.
He's got a great wife, youngchildren, a career.
And so he's making time for allof this as well.
So I think that it is an amazingmessage for us to share.
find whatever our hard is andjust go attack it.
(42:39):
I love it, Tyler.
SPEAKER_01 (42:41):
I thank you, Jay.
And you know, I have, I haveyesterday, yesterday morning, I
had a long run.
I had to fit a medium run that Ihad to fit in this week.
Okay.
And it fits in with what youjust said.
That's why I want to take aquick second and quickly go
through it.
But I set my alarm for 3 30 AM.
I've got to be down at theoffice.
I work in downtown.
(43:01):
So I got to get up early, got toget nine miles in.
and i'm sitting there in thebathroom right before my run and
i hear the you know the clinkingof rain hitting the window and
i'm like oh it's wet oh it's wetokay all right and so i you know
i stick my hand out and i'm likethat's a drizzle it's not that
bad and so i decide okay i'mgonna go i'm gonna go four and a
(43:23):
half miles in one direction okayand remember it's 3 30 in the
morning so it's dark i don'twear a headlamp intentionally
but i'm gonna go four and a halfmiles in one direction because
I'm not calling my wife to comepick me up.
And I've never done that, butit's not happening today.
So regardless of what happenswith these conditions, I'm four
and a half miles away.
(43:44):
That's four and a half miles ofgrit.
And I get to the end.
It's gorgeous.
I'm in this real rural areasouth of where I'm at.
I love it.
I'm eating it up.
I keep going south.
I actually find that I went overon mileage because I kept going
south.
I turn around and you know whenyou're running or walking or
maybe the wind is to your backand you just don't feel it
(44:04):
nearly as much, but you turnaround and face it and it hits
you?
I didn't realize how much it wasraining.
Totally missed it.
Zoned out, didn't realize it.
Turn around, headwind, freezing.
Took my hat and my neck gaiteroff, put it right back on again.
And I go, okay, I've got fourand a half miles of this.
Oh, shoes are soaked.
(44:24):
I just wasn't paying attention.
four and a half miles.
And I looked at it and at firstI'm like, this sucks.
And I was like, eh, think aboutit though.
Your race is going to suck.
SPEAKER_02 (44:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (44:37):
I'll probably lean on this.
I'll probably lean on this,right?
SPEAKER_02 (44:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (44:41):
It's all
SPEAKER_01 (44:41):
mindset.
It's all mindset.
SPEAKER_00 (44:44):
Ever since you and I had our first conversation about
this, Tyler, it's changed mymindset on, you know, I can't
complain about my hardchallenges you know i so i
started my own business and mymindset on that has been so much
(45:05):
different i i used to think thatthat was something that i could
never do and i don't think ilove it i i think about it that
way now and but when i get outso i try to get out a couple
times a day two mile walk in themorning, two mile walk in the
afternoon.
And, and that's my thing.
I walk and I do it more so formental clarity, uh, as well,
(45:29):
because I seem to come up withsome of my, my best ideas when
I'm, I'm out walking.
But, you know, when the, whenthe conditions are not ideal, I
sort of think about you everyonce in a at that time is gonna
(45:51):
suck and you're gonna be pushingthrough it.
So I'm looking forward tohearing about that.
You mind if I ask you a couple,maybe silly questions, but
they're a little lighthearted,but I'm definitely curious about
it.
So you're doing all thisrunning, you're doing all this
training.
How many runs can you get out ofa pair of shoes, bro, before you
(46:13):
got to throw them away?
SPEAKER_01 (46:14):
Oh my God, that's a million dollar question, man.
finally have the right roadshoe.
And I get to about 300, 350 if Ireally stretch it.
And you got to be careful withinjury.
But it's, I mean, there's aperiod of time where that'll
last me about three weeks, amonth, depending on, just
(46:36):
depending on where I'm at in mytraining cycle.
So I've got, actually, I've gotmy, I got a pair upstairs right
now and I just ordered two more.
I've got two fresh pairs sittingup in the closet because We're
starting our ramp up periodhere.
We're going to be cycling shoesin weeks, not months or years.
SPEAKER_00 (46:51):
Now, when you get to your race and it's time for that
race, are you strapping on abrand new pair for that or are
they going to have a couplemiles on them so that you know
how they feel?
SPEAKER_01 (47:03):
Yeah, a couple of miles.
Jay, that's actually a greatquestion.
I'm actually working on thatright now.
So road shoes, trail shoes, verydifferent.
I run a couple of differentbrands.
What I did during my 100 milerace, I wish I would have known
this, but at about mile 22, thisreally nasty rainstorm came
through and basically the shoesI was wearing, mud got kicked up
in there.
Well, that mud over the courseof miles and miles and miles the
(47:25):
leather like as a basically alittle cleaver.
So for about 70 plus miles, Ihad literally this leather
cleaver that had hardenedripping at my Achilles.
I've got a photo.
I can share it with you, but Iget to mile 98.
My wife looks at me and shegoes, what is on your shoe?
What was all this likecoagulated dried up blood that
(47:46):
had been coming out of myAchilles for the last 70
something miles didn't even Ijust everything hurt so bad that
you just You don't think of, ohmy God, I'm in pain.
I should look at that.
It's just that hurts.
And so does 97 other parts of mybody.
So you let it go.
So I'm actually going to trysomething different.
I think I'm going to bring threedifferent pairs for this race.
(48:07):
I'm getting another pair today,which I'm excited about.
I'm going to try those out andsee who gets excited about
shoes.
But these things, I mean, 100miles, you need a good pair of
shoes to keep your feet ready to
SPEAKER_00 (48:19):
go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can't just...
No offense to Skechers, but I'massuming that that's not one of
the brands that you're justgoing to slip on and go run 100
miles.
SPEAKER_01 (48:31):
No, no.
And unfortunately, these shoesare not nearly as cheap as I
wish they were.
But, you know, quality matters.
You put the money in theproduct, but the product's
supposed to last.
And these two pairs, they've gotrunners that have taken over
1,000 miles in them.
Probably not racing at 1,000miles, but...
SPEAKER_00 (48:47):
That's crazy.
So I had another silly questionthat came into my head, so I'm
going to ask it, but I still gotone more after this for you.
So you run this amazing race andyou finish.
You're going to finish.
I just believe in you.
You're going to get it done.
So do you take that pair ofshoes and you put them in a
(49:08):
trophy case and display them?
Because that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01 (49:15):
they get moved over into a training shoe.
Nothing special.
SPEAKER_00 (49:20):
Dude, you're, you're, you're autographing one
of those things and I'm puttingone of your stinky ass shoes
like right there on the shelfright there.
So
SPEAKER_01 (49:30):
yeah, they, they get real nasty.
Uh, they get real broken in overthe course of, you know, the
conditions and the rain and the,you know, you, the river and
the, whatever you're goingthrough, right.
It all gets trucked into it.
So a shoe, uh, fresh out of thebox, you gotta, you gotta break
that baby in and
SPEAKER_00 (49:45):
let her ride.
We're totally sealing that badboy up in one of those nice
little plastic boxes.
So, you know, it'll be, it'll begreat.
So, uh, last question for you,buddy, and I'm gonna let you go,
but, um, I, so when you'rerunning one of these races, um,
do you have your, your, yourpods in, or are you just out
(50:07):
there with nature?
Um,
SPEAKER_01 (50:11):
A little bit of a sensitive question.
I train with the buds, right?
The buds cost me in my last raceabout 45 minutes.
I ended up putting them in afterhaving them out for a while.
I think it was mile 35.
I put them in just to get myheadspace back in and I missed a
(50:32):
turn.
That turn cost me almost threemiles and was detrimental.
I ran out of water as a resultof it and all these other
complications.
And so had I not put those in, Iwould have been okay.
So typically when I race in thebeginning, I have one headphone
in.
I have found that music actuallycan lower your heart rate.
(50:53):
If you're listening to Metallicaor Rammstein, it elevates your
heart rate.
But I put on a chill mix, whichis very chill, and listen to
that for a little while.
And then about 15-ish miles in,I'll take them out, and I'll
just be one with the peoplearound me, if there are any, and
(51:14):
nature.
And then once the sun goes down,that's when I always say, that's
when all the demons come out,right?
When the sun goes down, about 2a.m.
is when things get real weird.
I'll try to put one in againjust to try to lighten the mood.
But yeah, music has abittersweet, I should say.
SPEAKER_00 (51:36):
Wow.
UNKNOWN (51:36):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (51:37):
man tyler this was really amazing uh you know 50
plus minutes just flew by i feellike i could keep you here for
another hour but i'm gonna getyou back for two more episodes
and and we're gonna talk aboutthis but uh i really appreciate
you you coming on and tellingeverybody uh not only about what
(52:01):
you do But even moreimportantly, the reason why you
do it.
And so, again, I just want toreiterate to our to our
military, those out there inharm's way so that we can
appreciate the freedoms that wehave.
We we we thank you for yourservice.
We appreciate your sacrifices,your families.
(52:23):
They're sacrificing as well toall of our law enforcement
officers, our first responders,all of you.
We definitely appreciate thethings that you do for each of
us every day.
We may not need you every day,but when we need you, you're
always there.
(52:43):
So thank you for that.
But to my listeners, thank youfor joining us on Just Human.
I really hope that you enjoyedthis episode with Tyler Herman.
Remember that with Just Human,That's the place that we want to
lean into.
It's just our shared humanity.
(53:05):
And so much like Tylermentioned, let's go out there,
find your hard and commityourself to it and see what that
does.
See what challenges you canovercome and what obstacles you
can knock down.
So thank you, everyone.
Tyler, thanks, buddy.
And we're going to talk to youagain here real soon, my man.
SPEAKER_01 (53:28):
Looking forward to it, man.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00 (53:30):
All right.
Take care.
well hello everyone and welcome to just human i am
jay boykin i'm your host and inthis place we explore what it
truly means to be human whetherwe're talking about at work in
relationships and in life ingeneral and so you know no
matter where you come from orwhat we do we all wrestle with
(00:23):
the same questions how do wegrow how do we connect and how
do we live with a purpose andstay true to ourselves so just
human is built on this simplebut powerful truth we are all
human beings first and so Onthis podcast, we talk about a
lot of different topics becausethat's all part of our human
(00:45):
experience.
And I am really glad that youare here.
So we're going to dive in.
I have a guest with me.
I'm really excited about thisinterview.
So I've got...
This individual is a friend.
He is a former combat Marine.
He is a former law enforcementofficer, and he is a current
(01:09):
ultra marathon runner.
Tyler, how you doing, man?
Tyler Herman.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15):
Great, man.
Great.
Glad to be here.
I appreciate you having me onthe podcast.
Excited to...
talk about some stuff.
I love what you're doing here.
I think it's great and you'reright.
I think as we get older, westart to realize that we're all
kind of humming to the sametune.
Sometimes someone's figuredsomething out that maybe you're
still dealing with and so I lovewhat this is about.
SPEAKER_00 (01:36):
Yeah, I really appreciate that, buddy.
I've been excited about thisepisode and I think my listeners
are going to be excited about itas well.
Let me ask you this.
Tell me a little bit about yourearly days and especially what
led you to join the marines andi know i opened up with former
(01:58):
marine but i i'm going tocorrect myself because i know
that once a marine always amarine so i'll correct myself
there and also say thank you foryour service
SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
yeah no i appreciate it you're actually right it is
former marine it's funny thoughone of the commandants recently
came out and said we're gettingrid of former like you said it
doesn't exist anymore onceyou're in you're in for the life
of it.
It's a really interesting story,although it's not as sexy or as
attractive as you'd think, butit was...
(02:30):
I can't explain it other than mywhole life that I have grown up,
I have felt this need and desireto give back.
Especially when I was younger, Ifelt so grateful.
You've got all of theseopportunities presented to us.
Whether you choose to look atthem like that or not is up to
you, right?
And I, at a young age, justcouldn't help but think, I've
(02:51):
got to say thank you.
There's a lot of things I wantto do in my life, but I've got
to say thank you somehow, someway.
And so when I was really young,I was trying to figure out what
to do.
I was actually in mygrandfather's house on my mom's
side.
And this is back in the day.
Maybe you know about this.
He used to watch the Broncosgames, but he would have the TV
muted and the radio on.
And you would sit there on thecouch, disciplined, and I'll
(03:13):
never forget it.
This Marine Corps commercialcame on and I didn't know much
about it.
I'm 13 years old, sitting therewatching a game, just sitting
here like this, right?
Just watching in silence almostas the radio tunes.
And that was the first moment Ikind of started to look at,
well, what is that?
The sword, the few, the proud,all that.
(03:34):
That was...
That was the defining moment oflike, hold on, what is this
thing that I knew existed butnever really contemplated?
And I just did some research, assimple as that.
Now, internet was not as easy toaccess back then.
They were that old, but internetwasn't
SPEAKER_00 (03:53):
as available.
Well, I am.
I'm that old.
You're not, but I am.
SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
Yeah.
I didn't want to call you outhere.
No.
And so I researched it.
It just became an infatuation.
It became, over time, so set instone that it wasn't, oh, I
think I'm going to do this.
No.
At the age of 13, it was prettydetermined.
(04:17):
I was going to go in the MarineCorps.
I was going to do that reallydifficult thing.
Wow.
And that's kind of where itstarted.
That was 13 years old.
SPEAKER_00 (04:27):
That's amazing.
So you finish high school.
Yeah.
And then you go off to– totraining?
SPEAKER_01 (04:35):
They call it the DEP, the Delayed Entry Program.
Signed up, must have been, Ithink you have to be 17.
Signed up, 17.
I wanted to go infantry.
My mom did not want me to goinfantry.
At 17, you have to have theirsignature.
My mom, she was adamant.
(04:55):
She was like, no, I'm not okaywith this.
I was playing sports.
I was in football and runningtrack and At this time, I was
getting ready for track season,which is going to put you in
really great shape.
And I had a conversation withher.
I sat her down, and I said, Iappreciate you, Ma.
I love you.
I love that you're trying toprotect me.
But unfortunately, this issomething that I have to do.
It's happening.
I just really need yoursignature here.
(05:17):
And she signed.
She signed the dotted line.
And so her signing the lineallowed me to sign the line.
I went to basic training, and Igraduated a day before my 18th
birthday, earned the title.
We're all faced with reallydifficult things.
But up until that point, I mean,that was by far the most
difficult thing I'd ever done.
(05:38):
And little did I know, itwouldn't hold a candle to what
life would have in store for me.
Right.
But in that moment, it was thehardest thing I had ever done.
SPEAKER_00 (05:48):
Wow.
And so how long did you serve?
SPEAKER_01 (05:52):
Yeah, four years.
Yeah, served, entered in 2004,ended up getting out in 2008,
had a couple opportunities toreenlist.
I didn't end up enacting those.
It's an eight year program.
So once you complete your fouryears of active service, you do
four years of inactive readyreserve where they can call you
back in if they need to.
So total contract eight years,but four years total.
SPEAKER_00 (06:13):
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you do four years as a Marineand you saw some combat and we
won't get into all of thosedetails, but then post your
Marine career, you transitionedinto law enforcement.
(06:35):
So tell my listeners about that.
SPEAKER_01 (06:38):
Yeah, and I'll hit on this in two parts because the
transition is really kind ofinteresting.
But we're going to get into thishere shortly, but I want to call
this out.
2004 to 2008, I think most ofyour listeners will probably
recall, we were active in twoengagements, two conflicts,
(06:58):
Operation Enduring Freedom,which is Afghanistan, and
Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq.
And unfortunately, our unitended up losing 31 Marines and
sailors, killed in action.
And we'll jump back into thathere in a little bit because
we're going to talk about theultramarathons and the fuel that
creates that.
But the transition to lawenforcement, it's really
interesting.
(07:19):
You do these really...
fantastic, neat, you could use alot of words, very difficult
things.
You know, we were deployed, youknow, our cycles for deployment
were typically longer than wewere home.
You know, I think I spent eightmonths in Afghanistan.
You're home for six months, butyou've got deployment readiness
that you've got to take care of.
So you're really only home forthree and a half, maybe four
months before you ship back outagain.
(07:40):
And when the time came to eitherreenlist, which I had the
opportunity to do, or get out,you know, I was kind of
wavering.
I was on both sides of thefence.
I thought I would do 20 years,but the combat cycle, we were
deploying early and often.
We were actually getting readyfor a third deployment.
So long story short, it wasultimately decided that I would
(08:02):
get out and I applied to theColorado State Patrol while
still in the Marine Corps.
Okay.
Took about 10 months.
That process was very long.
I think back then, I don't knowthe numbers, but there was like
seven or 8,000 applicants for Ithink what ended up being 38
positions.
Ended up getting selected and itjust blows my mind.
(08:27):
It was just such a coolopportunity.
But yeah, ended up gettingselected to go to the Academy.
And this is back in 2008.
The Academy started in 2009.
Wow.
And
SPEAKER_00 (08:34):
now how long did you serve with the State Patrol?
SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
Yeah.
So I did two years with StatePatrol.
would have done longer.
The State Patrol was a greatorganization.
This is Colorado State Patrol.
They were a great organization,treated me very well.
They put me up in the mountains.
I was out of the Kremlinsub-office, you know, early 20s.
Didn't love being stuck in themountains, a little bit more
(09:01):
social at that time.
And so I ultimately decided tospend two years there and then
had an opportunity to join theParker Police Department where I
spent another eight years andwrapped out about 10 years in
law enforcement over that endingfrom when the Marine Corps ended
and law enforcement transitiontook over.
SPEAKER_00 (09:24):
Wow.
Again, thank you so much foreverything that you've done
serving our country and ourcommunity.
And I really am curious becauseyou've been through what I can
only imagine are a lot ofchallenging things in both of
(09:45):
those career journeys.
What were some moments or somethings that really tested your
resilience the most, if you canrecall anything in particular?
SPEAKER_01 (09:59):
Oh, absolutely.
I think one of the mostimportant things to remember is
we are only as strong as oursingle whole.
When you put a group of peopleall with the same mission and
mindset together, it reallytruly is fantastic to see what
you can accomplish.
And, you know, I think being soyoung, deployed, I mean, it
(10:21):
pushes you, right?
I mean, gosh, and I can'tremember the ages.
I think I was in Afghanistan by18 or 19.
I was in Iraq by 1920.
You know, I was running, youknow, four-man teams in Iraq.
I couldn't even buy a beer yet,right?
And yet I was out there runningsatellite operations with, you
know, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marinesand Iraqi Freedom.
And it's only successful becauseof the people that you're with,
(10:46):
right?
One person can only do so much.
But I tell you, when you getfour Marines together who are
dead set on not getting hurt orgetting hit, which obviously
didn't happen all the time,unfortunately, but It's a
powerful group.
It's a powerful group.
And, you know, testing yourresilience, you talk about,
especially Iraqi deployment,especially in the beginning, the
(11:08):
first two months of thatdeployment, it was really,
really kinetic is the term thatI would use.
Right.
Engagements were often.
And it really, truly gets to apoint, which is, again, just
looking back at this, and I'mmore open about this now than I
used to been.
I've found that invulnerability,there's actually healing.
I think a lot of veteransSometimes we put up the facade
(11:30):
to try and show as a barrier ofprotection, but I really didn't
start to grow out of that untilI started being vulnerable and
trying to, you know, slowly tellmy story.
But from a resilienceperspective, when you hit a
point, I mean, gosh, I hadwritten my first death letter by
19 years old, right?
(11:50):
Which is, and I don't even haveit.
I wrote it and I never openedit.
And I think I burned it alongwith the other guys, right?
Iraq was a very kineticdeployment.
There's, uh, there's a lot of,we call them the angels of
Anbar.
It was a very terrible time.
They called the Anbar awakening.
It was not a great time to be inthe province.
(12:11):
And you had to rely at thistime, it was only men in combat
roles.
So you had to rely on the Marineto your left and right, because
that and one other person werethe only four people there for
most of that.
Right.
And, uh, Once you can lean onthat, once you have that
experience, you're set up totackle a lot.
(12:34):
And this all bleeds into what alot of your listeners are
probably going through.
Yeah, I know combat, it soundsintense, and it is, and it's
very different.
But at the end of the day, itall boils down to the same
believable system.
If you surround yourself withpeople that you can truly trust,
that make you better, you arecapable of some really
incredible things.
And we were, and we did.
SPEAKER_00 (12:57):
I'm so glad that you said that.
I had an interview in my lastepisode with a woman who is a
professional skydiver, and shetalked about our support systems
and who we surround ourselveswith.
And so having you echo a similarmessage is really important
(13:25):
because I think that all of usreally need to have that strong
support system uh in order to toto help us get through whatever
it is that we're going throughmost of us are not going to
experience uh the combatsituations that that you did and
(13:45):
and that your uh your brothersat that time did and and
currently the the men and womenwho are serving our country and
again thank you to all of thosemen and women and to the
families because they sacrificeas well so thank you for all of
that.
But yeah, we have to have thosestrong support systems.
(14:09):
So Tyler, I want to start totransition into this other very
interesting topic.
So I want to share with mylisteners, Tyler and I know each
other because our wives worktogether They're no longer at
the same brokerage, but theystill work together as realtors.
(14:33):
And we would go to these eventsand Tyler and I had the
opportunity to be arm candy atthese events.
Tyler's definitely better armcandy than I am.
And we had the opportunity tohave some great conversations.
I think that the most importantone was the proper way to eat a
steak, but we won't get intothat too deeply because i know
(14:57):
that you know the right way toeat a steak but uh but we had
this connection and uh recentlytyler told me about this new
sport that he is involved inthat is again mind-blowing to me
it is ultra marathon running butIf memory serves, you didn't
(15:26):
just start right into ultramarathon, right?
Didn't you start with regularmarathons or you jumped right
into ultra?
SPEAKER_01 (15:34):
I went right in and for better or worse.
Yeah, better or worse.
I'm not, I wouldn't advise it,but yeah, no, right into the Big
McGee.
SPEAKER_00 (15:42):
Wow.
Tell my listeners why, because Ithink it's going to transition
back a little bit to what youwere speaking on before, but
tell my listeners what got yourunning ultramarathons?
SPEAKER_01 (15:55):
This is my favorite question of all time because I
think the goal is is that I getand I get really fiery about
this, right?
Like this.
This is where everything comesto fruition.
Rewind about two and a half,maybe three years ago.
I'm sitting in a room with acolleague of mine, and he's a
phenomenal athlete, playedhockey almost his entire life,
(16:17):
no doubt.
Had circumstances changed, hemay have made it into the NHL.
He wouldn't say that, but talentexists for sure.
And having a conversation withhim, and he's much younger than
me.
10, maybe 12 years younger thanme.
And I looked at him and we'rehaving this conversation about
(16:38):
doing hard things.
And I looked at him and I'mlike, I feel like I still have
it in me.
Like I've done a lot.
in my life, the Marine Corps,being a cop for a long time.
I used to run, but I didn't runcompetitively.
I had done the Spartans and thetrifectas with the other race
(17:00):
that is escaping my mind right
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
now.
The triathlons?
SPEAKER_01 (17:03):
Yeah, not the triathlon.
It's the sister to the Spartans.
I cannot believe I cannotremember this name right now.
SPEAKER_00 (17:11):
It's going to pop back into your head in a minute.
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
Yeah, they're the Tough Mudders, which are really
fun, which are really greatraces.
Hard.
You can make them as hard as youwant to.
Some go out and have a greattime.
Some just want to go get dirty.
Some say, if I drag myselfacross the finish line in 15
hours, I'll be happy, which iswhat I love.
So we're sitting there having aconversation, and I look at him,
and I'm like, I just feel like Istill have it in me, but I
(17:36):
haven't really pushed myself.
Not nearly to the degree thatI'm used to, at least when I was
younger.
Right.
And I feel like I can.
And I popped up.
I said, how hard can it be torun like 50 miles?
Like, how hard could 100 milesreally be?
Which is so funny because, youknow, you ask those questions.
And then like this little likewith wisdom comes this little
radar moment where you're like,if everybody could do it, they
(18:00):
would be doing it every day.
Right.
And so you almost say it tonguein cheek where you're like, how
hard could this really be?
then you get to get humbledlater which is exactly how this
all plays out but that's what itboils down to there's really two
reasons okay one prove to myselfi could still do hard part of my
french hard stuff you're allgood and number two you know i
(18:21):
got two young kids right they'rewatching me and i work real hard
at least i call working hard butwhat are they really taking away
from that like what are theyactually watching happen So I'll
tell you when the whole thingcame crumbling down in the best
way possible.
I'm doing a slow run, kind ofjogging around, getting ready
(18:41):
for a race, haven't reallysigned up for anything yet.
I hit the corner not far from myhouse right here, and Jay, it
hit me like a ton of bricks forthose who can't.
Right.
Okay.
And I know you and I have talkedabout this, and this is where
the passion turns to emotion,right?
I'm running around at this timeand the listeners, I'd love to
(19:03):
just real quick.
I used to do a lot of work forthe crisis intervention teams in
law enforcement.
I think you and I have talkedabout that, but it's law
enforcement's response to thosewith mental illness.
And very humbly, it was my jobto travel the state of Colorado
and certify law enforcementofficers and basically using our
mouth as a de-escalation tooland try to avoid the other tools
on our belt when we don't haveto, right?
(19:24):
I mean, this is so much harderto use than going hands on.
So many people are, you know,cops are really smart bunch of
people and they pick up on thisstuff and you put a real big
challenge in front of them.
Most jump at the chance to learnit, but deescalating somebody
who's a 12 out of 10 is really,really difficult.
Think about the naked guyrunning down the street with a
knife, right?
Right.
You got to deescalate that.
(19:44):
And so I was given theopportunity to do that.
That's when everything kind ofshifted.
I'm on this run and I'm thinkingabout there was a couple of
veteran suicides and I speaknonchalantly about it because
it's just, it seems to be socommon now.
And it was just taking up mymind space.
And I asked myself, what are wedoing?
Why is this happening?
I think we had lost two guysfrom our unit who had taken
(20:06):
their own lives in the previousmonth.
And all the group chains aregoing off.
We've got to stop this.
We've got to figure this out.
We're all here.
And one of the things that cameto a realization of was for a
lot of us, we did our hardestthing.
That was the peak.
And we did it at 21 years old or25 years old.
(20:28):
then from there we kind of youknow we've kind of already done
it that's a really dangerousplace to be and that was my
first realization my second waslike what would these 31 marines
and sailors who didn't make ithome with us what would they do
if they could come back like ifwe could rewind the clock and
put them in a scenario to feelpain again would they do it and
(20:52):
i surmise that they would isurmise that of the 31, and I've
been challenged on this, but Isurmised that if given the
chance to feel pain again, theywould, because we take it for
granted.
We try to be comfortable, butcomfort is an illusion.
It's when you get comfortablewith discomfort, that's when
(21:15):
we're dangerous.
And that's where the ultramarathons came.
SPEAKER_00 (21:19):
That is super powerful.
I, you know, you said that soeloquently.
You know, I talk all the timeabout no one grows in a place
where they're comfortable.
You've got to feel somechallenges, go through some
things.
(21:39):
But the way that you justarticulated that, that we've got
to be comfortable withdiscomfort, that's super
powerful.
So you make up your mind thatyou are going to do these ultra
marathons.
Now, Tyler, for my audience,explain to them, like many
(22:02):
people may know what a 5K is anda regular marathon, but explain
for my listeners what an ultramarathon means.
SPEAKER_01 (22:16):
Yeah, and I'm still a rookie too.
I'm sure there's a more...
tenured athlete out there thatcould define these better than
I, but basically anultramarathon is any distance
over a marathon, starting morecommonly with the 50K, which is
a little over 30 miles, 31miles.
And then it goes up from there.
You've got 100Ks, 60 plus miles,then you've got 100 milers.
(22:40):
You've got 12 hour races, 24hour races, 48 hour races.
You've got things like theCopaDona 250, which are 250 mile
races.
So anything over a marathon.
SPEAKER_00 (22:52):
Wow.
Now, at this point, you saidthat you're still relatively new
in the sport.
But at this point, what is thelongest distance that you've
competed in?
SPEAKER_01 (23:06):
Yeah, my longest distance race was 100 miles.
It was in September of lastyear.
It was the we call it theStagecoach 100.
It was the Flagstaff.
So you start in Flagstaff andyou run to the Grand Canyon on
the trails.
Beautiful country back there, bythe way, if you haven't been.
SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
Wow.
So look, I'm going to be honestwith you.
When I start thinking aboutdistances around 100 miles, I'm
starting to think about a planeticket.
And so you are strapping on somerunning shoes and you are
running 100 miles.
(23:43):
That is crazy.
Amazing.
So talk about, you know, asyou're you're doing this, we had
a conversation previously andyou talked about this and it was
just it was beautiful.
But, you know, so you're runningand, you know, talk about your
mindset from mile one to mile 50and then trying to get to the
(24:08):
finish line at mile 100.
SPEAKER_01 (24:09):
There there is so much to dive into.
I want to lead with this though.
I truly firmly believe thateverybody of able body can run
100 miles.
It's here.
It's there.
And if anybody decides to tacklesomething like this, I promise
(24:33):
them it is life changing.
It will challenge you in a waythat you cannot, I still have
yet to be able to describe it,but I'll try.
Mile one is exciting.
And we talked earlier about yourteamwork.
So I do not want to let this gowithout my crew because I've
been fortunate to have a crewfor all of my races and it has
been absolutely game changing inmy ability to do this.
(24:56):
And we'll be in the race thatI've got two races coming up,
which I'm sure we'll briefly hiton.
My first race was a 50K,inexperienced.
I didn't have any coach.
I got very, very injured on thatrace.
Still beat my goal time by 16minutes, but got very, very
injured on that race.
And it was a pretty rudeawakening.
(25:19):
I ended up getting connectedwith a phenomenal coach who I've
had for the last, gosh, a yearand a half, I believe, who's got
me back on the right track.
So I did the 50K.
So here's what I want to tellyou though, Jay, is when I
started this, it wasn't likeshoot for the stars out of the
gate.
I was actually very quiet.
I had only told two people in mylife that my stretch goal was a
100-mile race.
(25:40):
Now, even though I had openlydeclared, like, how hard can it
be?
Joking, of course, recognizingthat.
I had not wanted those words tocome out of my mouth because I'm
one of those people who says, orwho thinks that if I'm going to
say it, if I'm going to speakit, there better be some
validity to it.
Like, it sounds cool.
Well, it did to me.
But if I have no intention ofrunning 100 miles, like, who am
(26:03):
I?
to even say that.
And so, you know, the 50K wasvery humbling, very humbling.
Got back on track.
It took a little bit of timefrom the injury.
I ran my next race, which was100K.
Had a phenomenal support crew.
I had a couple of Marine buddiescome out and support me.
We were running for those whocan't, which I really had to
dive deep on.
That was the Great Divide downin Divide, Colorado.
(26:25):
It was like 60, 61 or 62 miles.
I think it was close to, I wantto say it was close to 10,000
feet of climbing.
Maybe a little under that, ifI'm being honest.
Brutal course though.
And unfortunately, the allergieshad just popped up.
This is a June race.
And you ever heard of, oh gosh,what is it?
(26:45):
It's bronchial constriction.
And I cannot remember themedical term.
SPEAKER_00 (26:52):
It sounds uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01 (26:54):
Exercised induced bronchial restriction, I believe
is what it's called.
SPEAKER_00 (26:58):
Never heard of that, but it sounds very
uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01 (27:01):
It's basically exercise induced asthma, which
I've never had in my entirelife.
And about halfway through thecourse, the way I describe it is
I could basically breathe from40% to 70%, but anything outside
of those would cause me toviolently cough and thus almost
vomit.
Wow.
And I had that for about eighthours of that race.
SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
Now that's eight hours.
How long was the overall race?
SPEAKER_01 (27:31):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I meant to actually look at mytimes beforehand.
It's actually, for those whoaren't trying to podium in the
ultra world, your times are alittle, you know, they're a
little, they're just notrelative.
I believe that race took me alittle over 16 hours.
Wow.
Started, you know, in themorning, I think, I can't
remember what time we started,6, 7, 8, it was dark, whatever
(27:52):
time we started, and thenfinished about 10 p.m.
at night.
So yeah, I think it was a littleover 16 hours for that 100K,
yeah.
And...
Just being humbled the entireway.
And then...
Keep going, sorry.
Oh, sorry.
And then there was the 100miler.
SPEAKER_03 (28:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:12):
Now the 100k, that was the goal.
It was actually a 50 miler, butI found a really cool race.
And why do 50 when you can do 60plus, was my thought.
You're a beast, man.
UNKNOWN (28:29):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:30):
It was humbling, Jay.
Ultras have this weird thingwhere you'll literally question
why you do them.
Why are you putting yourselfthrough?
Nutrition is a massive componentof this.
You're in pain.
Everything's blister.
Just things are going wrongevery way.
I remember one point in therace, there was a lightning
(28:51):
storm that had come through.
I mean, I swear it was so loud.
You get that feeling like thisis not where you should be.
I should be somewhere safe andthis mountain is not it.
And when I finished that race,that's what I told everybody.
That was the goal, thatdistance.
(29:11):
When I finished that race, Iknew I could do 100 miles.
I knew that I could tell people,although that was my stretch
goal, that is my actual goal.
And the goal had always been 100miles by 40.
I was 36, 30.
I had just turned 37 when Ifinished a hundred K and I knew
(29:32):
last year, that's the year I'mdoing a hundred miler.
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (29:38):
Yeah.
That's, that's incredible.
Now
SPEAKER_01 (29:42):
you asked me, Oh, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00 (29:43):
Keep going.
Go ahead.
This is so fascinating.
So you just keep going.
You run this podcast.
I'm just going to sit back andlisten.
SPEAKER_01 (29:50):
You asked me.
So you asked me a reallyinteresting question.
I think the context is soimportant, though, because you
can't you just can't go fromcouch to 100 milers.
I can't.
Maybe somebody out there can,but I can't.
The first mile is fear andexcitement.
It's you recognize my coach saidit best, Jay.
And maybe you could take thisinto life.
(30:11):
I take it into life.
He said, Tyler, with every oneof your races, it's like driving
60 miles an hour in dense fog.
There is a brick wall blockingthe road somewhere in front of
us, but we just don't know whereit is.
That's what our races have been.
Because every race for me hadbeen a new, I'd never run a
marathon competitively.
I don't even think I'd ever runa 10K competitively outside of a
(30:33):
Spartan race.
Wow.
So I had no experience, man.
When I say rookie in theindustry, really have no idea
what I'm doing.
Truly.
But that experience, you get it.
And you get it quickly.
So mile one is excitement.
But you also recognize, at leastin my shape, this is probably
(30:54):
going to be north of 24 hours,right?
This is going to be a big race.
So mile one is a lot ofexcitement and fear.
SPEAKER_00 (31:05):
That's amazing.
So, I mean, so listeners...
And thank you wherever you'retuning in.
If you're watching this onYouTube, thank you.
Hit the like button, maybesubscribe.
If you're listening on yourfavorite podcast provider, thank
you so much for tuning in.
I hope that you caught that,that Tyler said you're having to
(31:32):
wrap your brain around the factthat you're going to be running
for like 24 hours.
That is...
Amazing.
So I'm going to come back tothat piece of it in a second,
Tyler.
But you've got an event comingup this summer.
(31:54):
And when you and I first talkedabout this, I said that I want
to have you on the show at leasttwice, maybe three times.
But tell my listeners about theevent that you've got coming up
here in Colorado.
SPEAKER_01 (32:07):
Yeah, no, thanks for asking, Jay.
This event is the real...
This event makes me...
This is a humbling event.
This makes me nervous evenbringing it up now.
I am comfortable saying that mystretch goal became a 200-mile
race, and we're going to reservethat for next year, but that's
not what this race is.
(32:28):
This race comes back to thatvery beginning.
Remember when we were talking, Iwas with my colleague in that
conference room, we were talkingabout, I feel like, how hard can
100 miles be?
Well, He had brought up a race,it was the Euro 50, and it's got
about 21,000 feet of climbing init.
And the goal, this is two and ahalf, almost three years ago,
(32:48):
was to go do that.
And at that time, I just didn'tfeel like I could.
I just didn't feel like I hadit.
I had no training, had never runa marathon, had never done
anything.
And the race was like two weeksafter this conversation.
Well, after I finished my 100miler, I was talking to my
coach.
We had kind of set up for, I wasgoing to do Sedona Canyon's 125
this year.
(33:08):
It's actually this month.
Actually, I think it's this nextweekend.
And I was on the wait list forthat.
And I kind of got this wildhair.
And I called my coach and Isaid, I have a crazy idea.
There's a race in Ouray.
It's 100 miles, 102.1 miles.
It's 42,000 feet of climbing.
And it has a 52-hour cutoff.
(33:30):
I want to do it.
And of course my coach goes,it's not my job to tell you yes
or no.
It's my job to get you ready.
It's July 18th and I amcautiously enthusiastic.
I am excited and both scared andready for whatever it is that
(33:57):
we're about to embark on becauseI don't have the natural talent.
And if you hear anything from meabout my earlier comment, like
anybody could do a hundredmiler.
My full expectation, I don'tcare where I place.
I want to complete this race andI am not convinced I am talented
enough to do it while sleepingas well.
(34:18):
I am debating on what thatstrategy is going to look like,
but there is an expectation thatperhaps this is 48 plus hours
with no sleep.
SPEAKER_00 (34:28):
So you're, Let's go back to those numbers for a
second, Tyler.
So you said 102.1 miles.
We can't forget the 0.1.
Don't forget it.
And you've got roughly 40 plusthousand feet of elevation
change.
SPEAKER_01 (34:49):
I believe it's 13.
I believe it's 13 mountains thatyou climb.
SPEAKER_00 (34:54):
Wow.
And...
you have 52 hours to complete itwith an official time like you
know i'm assuming that if theyjust shut things down and you
finish in 53 that they're notgoing to pick up the road and
not let you cross the finishline but everybody's going to be
gone but you're going to finishit but for people that may be
(35:17):
listening that are not familiarwith colorado talk a little bit
about the oxygen at thosealtitudes, or more specifically,
the lack of oxygen at thosealtitudes.
SPEAKER_01 (35:34):
Yeah, there's probably a scientist out there
that's chummin' at the bit todive into this better than I can
describe it.
So I'll describe it as I feel,but for anybody who hasn't been
really north of 10,000 feet, theair just seems as if it's
non-existent, right?
Not there.
Yeah, it's, I mean, there's air,but your body isn't processing
(35:57):
it in the way that you would at,say, sea level.
And so your heart rate, right,has to elevate to help the
muscles.
They require a certain amount ofoxygen.
Your heart rate has to elevateto get the oxygen to it.
And when you do that forelongated periods, you can
imagine that you have to burnmore calories, and we'll dive
into that.
So, you know, average elevationof this race is somewhere around
(36:19):
10 000 feet i believe and againthere's a lot of i believes here
and i intentionally didn't goback and look at the website to
throw out all these numbersbecause that's not what these
races are for it's a guidingprinciple i am training my coach
has all the information and hepoints me in the direction i
have found that it's actuallyhelpful for me about a month or
two out which we're not at yetto really start diving into the
(36:39):
terrain and things like that butI have to trust my process.
My process is not to worry aboutthese 13 climbs or whatever they
are.
It's to worry about this.
Especially when you're north ofTreeline, which I think most of
these climbs are, almost all ofthem are 13,000 feet-ish, the
air just doesn't seem to bethere anymore.
(37:00):
You're just grasping.
You can feel your heart beatingout of your chest.
you know, regardless of theshape you're in, we live at
6,500 feet.
I still go to 10,000.
I still feel it.
I certainly feel it at 13.
I feel it at 14 and I expect tofeel it the entirety of this
race.
SPEAKER_00 (37:19):
Yeah, man, that is amazing.
So now we talked about, and Ihope that we're able to make
this happen.
So you're, you're in yourtraining and you've got this,
this race in July and, I wouldlove to get you back on the show
and talk about how your trainingis going as you prepare for this
(37:41):
race and talk about how you'refeeling physically, how you're
feeling mentally right beforethe race.
And then we want to get youback.
afterwards and talk about whatyour experience was like.
So I appreciate your willingnessto entertain putting up with me
(38:04):
for three different episodes.
But I think that telling thestory to its completion is
really exciting.
So I'm looking forward to thatpart of it.
SPEAKER_01 (38:17):
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00 (38:20):
So I want to transition a little bit.
So Tyler, most of the peoplethat are listening are not going
to do anything that physicallydemanding.
But you did talk about the factthat the biggest obstacle that
(38:40):
you have to deal with is betweenyour ears.
And I think that Insert whateveryour hard situation may be, the
biggest challenge that you mightbe trying to overcome.
(39:01):
Talk to my listeners a littlebit about your philosophy around
just developing that propermindset to deal with that
challenge.
SPEAKER_01 (39:11):
What a wonderful question.
I always say, I call it, go findyour heart.
There's never really a worldwhere I sit here trying to
preach that everybody needs todo a 100-miler, although I do
think it's an incredibleexperience that will humble you
in ways you could not even yetimagine if you've never done it.
(39:32):
At least it was for me.
But go find your heart.
When I completed my 100-miler,you don't know who's watching.
And I'm really passionate aboutwhat I'm trying to accomplish
for those who can.
Just a reminder that there arepeople who would maybe do this.
Maybe they would love to havethat opportunity again, and they
don't have it.
And I think if you're still herebreathing, trying to figure out
(39:54):
what can I go do, you need to gofind your heart.
That's what you need to go do.
Go find time to go do somethingyou don't have time for.
Because I promise you, you'regoing to shift what you have
time for.
Jay, it could be I have onefriend, go walk a mile.
That was her challenge.
(40:16):
I just want to find the time togo walk a mile.
It wasn't that it was physicallydemanding, although I'm sure it
could have been.
It was, I don't have time, whichis a farce, right?
Because you do have time.
It's just you've chosen to allotthat time to something else that
you feel is more important.
But when you're running orwhatever it is that you're
doing, that's going to requirethat shift in that perspective.
(40:39):
I tell people, go find yourheart and it doesn't need to be
this.
It could be spend more time withyour kids, dedicated time with
your phone on the side.
It could be literally anything,Jay.
But just go figure it out andthen go do it.
And don't make an excuse aboutit, though.
The most important component,don't make an excuse.
(41:02):
Give yourself a freebie, butdon't make an excuse.
Go find your heart.
But once you've found it,probably going to have to find
another one after and it's goingto keep going.
SPEAKER_00 (41:13):
Man, I just, that is so powerful.
I love it.
And again, listeners, Tyler isnot saying that you need to
strap them on and go run ahundred, but if you want to do
it, but find the thing that is,is your heart.
(41:34):
You could be, You could bethinking about a career change.
You could be thinking aboutstarting a business.
You could be thinking about adiet and trying to transform
your body.
Whatever that challenge is, justthink about that mindset and
(41:55):
focus on it.
Don't make the excuses and saythat you can't because you
absolutely can.
And If this man is out therededicating all of this amazing
time, and he's a busyprofessional as well.
Don't get me wrong there.
He's not just running 24 hours aday.
(42:17):
He's got a family.
He's got a great wife, youngchildren, a career.
And so he's making time for allof this as well.
So I think that it is an amazingmessage for us to share.
find whatever our hard is andjust go attack it.
(42:39):
I love it, Tyler.
SPEAKER_01 (42:41):
I thank you, Jay.
And you know, I have, I haveyesterday, yesterday morning, I
had a long run.
I had to fit a medium run that Ihad to fit in this week.
Okay.
And it fits in with what youjust said.
That's why I want to take aquick second and quickly go
through it.
But I set my alarm for 3 30 AM.
I've got to be down at theoffice.
I work in downtown.
(43:01):
So I got to get up early, got toget nine miles in.
and i'm sitting there in thebathroom right before my run and
i hear the you know the clinkingof rain hitting the window and
i'm like oh it's wet oh it's wetokay all right and so i you know
i stick my hand out and i'm likethat's a drizzle it's not that
bad and so i decide okay i'mgonna go i'm gonna go four and a
(43:23):
half miles in one direction okayand remember it's 3 30 in the
morning so it's dark i don'twear a headlamp intentionally
but i'm gonna go four and a halfmiles in one direction because
I'm not calling my wife to comepick me up.
And I've never done that, butit's not happening today.
So regardless of what happenswith these conditions, I'm four
and a half miles away.
(43:44):
That's four and a half miles ofgrit.
And I get to the end.
It's gorgeous.
I'm in this real rural areasouth of where I'm at.
I love it.
I'm eating it up.
I keep going south.
I actually find that I went overon mileage because I kept going
south.
I turn around and you know whenyou're running or walking or
maybe the wind is to your backand you just don't feel it
(44:04):
nearly as much, but you turnaround and face it and it hits
you?
I didn't realize how much it wasraining.
Totally missed it.
Zoned out, didn't realize it.
Turn around, headwind, freezing.
Took my hat and my neck gaiteroff, put it right back on again.
And I go, okay, I've got fourand a half miles of this.
Oh, shoes are soaked.
(44:24):
I just wasn't paying attention.
four and a half miles.
And I looked at it and at firstI'm like, this sucks.
And I was like, eh, think aboutit though.
Your race is going to suck.
SPEAKER_02 (44:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (44:37):
I'll probably lean on this.
I'll probably lean on this,right?
SPEAKER_02 (44:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (44:41):
It's all
SPEAKER_01 (44:41):
mindset.
It's all mindset.
SPEAKER_00 (44:44):
Ever since you and I had our first conversation about
this, Tyler, it's changed mymindset on, you know, I can't
complain about my hardchallenges you know i so i
started my own business and mymindset on that has been so much
(45:05):
different i i used to think thatthat was something that i could
never do and i don't think ilove it i i think about it that
way now and but when i get outso i try to get out a couple
times a day two mile walk in themorning, two mile walk in the
afternoon.
And, and that's my thing.
I walk and I do it more so formental clarity, uh, as well,
(45:29):
because I seem to come up withsome of my, my best ideas when
I'm, I'm out walking.
But, you know, when the, whenthe conditions are not ideal, I
sort of think about you everyonce in a at that time is gonna
(45:51):
suck and you're gonna be pushingthrough it.
So I'm looking forward tohearing about that.
You mind if I ask you a couple,maybe silly questions, but
they're a little lighthearted,but I'm definitely curious about
it.
So you're doing all thisrunning, you're doing all this
training.
How many runs can you get out ofa pair of shoes, bro, before you
(46:13):
got to throw them away?
SPEAKER_01 (46:14):
Oh my God, that's a million dollar question, man.
finally have the right roadshoe.
And I get to about 300, 350 if Ireally stretch it.
And you got to be careful withinjury.
But it's, I mean, there's aperiod of time where that'll
last me about three weeks, amonth, depending on, just
(46:36):
depending on where I'm at in mytraining cycle.
So I've got, actually, I've gotmy, I got a pair upstairs right
now and I just ordered two more.
I've got two fresh pairs sittingup in the closet because We're
starting our ramp up periodhere.
We're going to be cycling shoesin weeks, not months or years.
SPEAKER_00 (46:51):
Now, when you get to your race and it's time for that
race, are you strapping on abrand new pair for that or are
they going to have a couplemiles on them so that you know
how they feel?
SPEAKER_01 (47:03):
Yeah, a couple of miles.
Jay, that's actually a greatquestion.
I'm actually working on thatright now.
So road shoes, trail shoes, verydifferent.
I run a couple of differentbrands.
What I did during my 100 milerace, I wish I would have known
this, but at about mile 22, thisreally nasty rainstorm came
through and basically the shoesI was wearing, mud got kicked up
in there.
Well, that mud over the courseof miles and miles and miles the
(47:25):
leather like as a basically alittle cleaver.
So for about 70 plus miles, Ihad literally this leather
cleaver that had hardenedripping at my Achilles.
I've got a photo.
I can share it with you, but Iget to mile 98.
My wife looks at me and shegoes, what is on your shoe?
What was all this likecoagulated dried up blood that
(47:46):
had been coming out of myAchilles for the last 70
something miles didn't even Ijust everything hurt so bad that
you just You don't think of, ohmy God, I'm in pain.
I should look at that.
It's just that hurts.
And so does 97 other parts of mybody.
So you let it go.
So I'm actually going to trysomething different.
I think I'm going to bring threedifferent pairs for this race.
(48:07):
I'm getting another pair today,which I'm excited about.
I'm going to try those out andsee who gets excited about
shoes.
But these things, I mean, 100miles, you need a good pair of
shoes to keep your feet ready to
SPEAKER_00 (48:19):
go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can't just...
No offense to Skechers, but I'massuming that that's not one of
the brands that you're justgoing to slip on and go run 100
miles.
SPEAKER_01 (48:31):
No, no.
And unfortunately, these shoesare not nearly as cheap as I
wish they were.
But, you know, quality matters.
You put the money in theproduct, but the product's
supposed to last.
And these two pairs, they've gotrunners that have taken over
1,000 miles in them.
Probably not racing at 1,000miles, but...
SPEAKER_00 (48:47):
That's crazy.
So I had another silly questionthat came into my head, so I'm
going to ask it, but I still gotone more after this for you.
So you run this amazing race andyou finish.
You're going to finish.
I just believe in you.
You're going to get it done.
So do you take that pair ofshoes and you put them in a
(49:08):
trophy case and display them?
Because that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01 (49:15):
they get moved over into a training shoe.
Nothing special.
SPEAKER_00 (49:20):
Dude, you're, you're, you're autographing one
of those things and I'm puttingone of your stinky ass shoes
like right there on the shelfright there.
So
SPEAKER_01 (49:30):
yeah, they, they get real nasty.
Uh, they get real broken in overthe course of, you know, the
conditions and the rain and the,you know, you, the river and
the, whatever you're goingthrough, right.
It all gets trucked into it.
So a shoe, uh, fresh out of thebox, you gotta, you gotta break
that baby in and
SPEAKER_00 (49:45):
let her ride.
We're totally sealing that badboy up in one of those nice
little plastic boxes.
So, you know, it'll be, it'll begreat.
So, uh, last question for you,buddy, and I'm gonna let you go,
but, um, I, so when you'rerunning one of these races, um,
do you have your, your, yourpods in, or are you just out
(50:07):
there with nature?
Um,
SPEAKER_01 (50:11):
A little bit of a sensitive question.
I train with the buds, right?
The buds cost me in my last raceabout 45 minutes.
I ended up putting them in afterhaving them out for a while.
I think it was mile 35.
I put them in just to get myheadspace back in and I missed a
(50:32):
turn.
That turn cost me almost threemiles and was detrimental.
I ran out of water as a resultof it and all these other
complications.
And so had I not put those in, Iwould have been okay.
So typically when I race in thebeginning, I have one headphone
in.
I have found that music actuallycan lower your heart rate.
(50:53):
If you're listening to Metallicaor Rammstein, it elevates your
heart rate.
But I put on a chill mix, whichis very chill, and listen to
that for a little while.
And then about 15-ish miles in,I'll take them out, and I'll
just be one with the peoplearound me, if there are any, and
(51:14):
nature.
And then once the sun goes down,that's when I always say, that's
when all the demons come out,right?
When the sun goes down, about 2a.m.
is when things get real weird.
I'll try to put one in againjust to try to lighten the mood.
But yeah, music has abittersweet, I should say.
SPEAKER_00 (51:36):
Wow.
UNKNOWN (51:36):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (51:37):
man tyler this was really amazing uh you know 50
plus minutes just flew by i feellike i could keep you here for
another hour but i'm gonna getyou back for two more episodes
and and we're gonna talk aboutthis but uh i really appreciate
you you coming on and tellingeverybody uh not only about what
(52:01):
you do But even moreimportantly, the reason why you
do it.
And so, again, I just want toreiterate to our to our
military, those out there inharm's way so that we can
appreciate the freedoms that wehave.
We we we thank you for yourservice.
We appreciate your sacrifices,your families.
(52:23):
They're sacrificing as well toall of our law enforcement
officers, our first responders,all of you.
We definitely appreciate thethings that you do for each of
us every day.
We may not need you every day,but when we need you, you're
always there.
(52:43):
So thank you for that.
But to my listeners, thank youfor joining us on Just Human.
I really hope that you enjoyedthis episode with Tyler Herman.
Remember that with Just Human,That's the place that we want to
lean into.
It's just our shared humanity.
(53:05):
And so much like Tylermentioned, let's go out there,
find your hard and commityourself to it and see what that
does.
See what challenges you canovercome and what obstacles you
can knock down.
So thank you, everyone.
Tyler, thanks, buddy.
And we're going to talk to youagain here real soon, my man.
SPEAKER_01 (53:28):
Looking forward to it, man.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00 (53:30):
All right.
Take care.
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