395: The Highs and Lows of 100 Miles - Long Haul 100 Part 2

In this second part of the Long Haul Recap, we dive into the concluding segments of a 100-mile ultramarathon. Kevin and his family reflect on the challenges faced during the race, including hydration management, dealing with calf cramps, and the mental fortitude required to push through such an endurance event. The episode highlights strategies for maintaining pace, the importance of strength and conditioning, and effective recovery methods post-race. Moreover, it showcases the emotional and logistical support from the crew and the sense of camaraderie among ultrarunners. This episode serves as a comprehensive account of overcoming physical and mental hurdles while celebrating the big and small victories along the way.

01:14 The Challenges of Running 100 Miles

02:21 Mid-Race Struggles and Strategies

05:51 Loop 4: Dealing with Heat and Hydration

13:07 Loop 5: Night Running and Caffeine Boost

36:33 Mental and Physical Challenges

39:00 Memorable Moments and Family Bonding

41:14 Navigating the Final Loops

47:04 Crossing the Finish Line

52:47 Post-Race Reflections and Recovery

59:21 Planning the Next Run 

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Episode Transcript

Angie (00:00):
And we're back.

(00:01):
So if you haven't caught lastweek's episode, Long Haul Recap
Part 1, head back to episode 394for the first part of the story
because this is part two.
We'll be kind of picking upwhere we left off from our story
last week and kind of continuingon to finish off how the race
went for Kevin and afterwardsand all of that good stuff.

(00:24):
So stay tuned.

(00:47):
What's up, Runners?
It's time for part two.
So, uh, as you heard at the endof last episode, we kind of ran
out of time because it wasdinnertime and there were things
on the stove and real lifehappened and then we had a
national championship to watch.
And unfortunately, our team didlose.
We are Notre Dame fans, um, butwe still love the Irish.

(01:08):
It was an amazing season and,you know, That's sometimes what
happens.
I mean, that, that

Kevin (01:14):
ties in nicely to the race is I have completed a
hundred miles before this thingstarted.
And so people, there was lessexcitement among like some of my
coworkers at school, becausethey're like, well, I remember
last time you, you did a hundredand is this different?
I'm like, um, It's still ahundred miles

Angie (01:31):
and it's on a trail.
So like you and I know thedifference of this, but I think
that it does lose the, maybesome excitement for some people
that are more loosely connected.

Kevin (01:40):
I mean, honestly, if I was doing the exact same race as
last time, it's still a hundredmiles.
It reminds me of that scene.
Obviously very differentexpedition, but the scene in
Apollo 13 where people kind oflike lost the excitement of
going to the moon They're like,yeah, I mean it's going to the
moon.
No, no, it's going to the moon

Angie (01:59):
Yeah, like

Kevin (02:00):
it's still we've

Angie (02:00):
already done that

Kevin (02:01):
like it's still running 100 miles And there's a whole
lot of stuff that could go wrongwhich did I mean I, my race went
great, but there was, there'vebeen runners in there who have
multiple times on like the alltime top 10 who finished hours
behind me because, you know, in100 miles, there's all sorts of
stuff that can just go right.
If your stomach turns south, itcould go really bad real quick.

(02:25):
And it's not like, oh, I'llprobably, if it's in like a
marathon, you might miss yourtime by 15, 20 minutes.
If something goes wrong in anultra, you might miss your goal
time by like three or fourhours.
So, you know, something goingwrong is drastic.

Angie (02:38):
Yeah, that's wild.
That was like when you and Iwere kind of looking at the
results afterwards, there were acouple of guys that were first
and second place for a while inthe race and they didn't even
end up in the top 10.
I don't think like I was like,what happened to those guys?
Did something happen?
And we kind of found one as wewent through some of their
splits, like there was one pointin time after, like, I think it
was around lap five where theOne guy took like a very multi

(03:02):
hour break.
So it was like, okay, somethingdefinitely happened there.
Not sure what of course, butstuff happens over the course of
a hundred miles for sure.

Kevin (03:10):
Yeah.
And, and this race inparticular, and it's the, it's
true of several of these races,but if you complete enough of
them, you get like a specialbuckle.
So there's the 500 mile finisherbuckle.
And one of the guys who was upthere, I think he was first or
second for a chunk of the racehas run the race.
This was at least his third timethat I know of, um, only because
he has two of the all time topten times for it.

(03:33):
And I don't, I don't think heeven broke 24 hours this time.

Angie (03:35):
Yeah, so stuff happens, but, I mean, I can see how
coworkers or people that areloosely connected would kind of
be like, Oh, okay, you're doingthat again?
Like, cause they don't really,it's hard for, Even me as a
runner to wrap my head around ahundred miles, right?
Like so people that don't runthat that sounds amazing and

(03:56):
superhuman and incredible, butthey also are like Oh, you're
doing another one.
Like I wonder in their head ifthat's kind of like, oh, you're
doing another marathon again Youknow like or another half
marathon like there's my coworker that runs those ultras

Kevin (04:09):
Or, or there's my coworker that runs.
Like there were people that toldme, congratulations on your
marathon.
Like after I did this, after Iknocked off a hundred miles,
you're like, Oh, congrats onyour marathon.
Like, No, there are people thatI would correct.
And there are people that I'mlike, thank you.
Because they knew that I did athing.
And really they said,congratulations.
So the rest of the words werenot all that important.

(04:32):
They knew that I did a bigthing.
It was a big thing for me.
And so they said,congratulations.

Angie (04:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, cause technically it is anultra marathon, right?
They just forgot the word ultraand you know, the 75 miles also
that went along with it, that isso weird to say, like you ran 75
miles more than a marathon.
That's insanity.

Kevin (04:51):
Yeah, no, I did like.
roughly four marathons.

Angie (04:54):
So crazy.
Okay.
So let's pick back up where weleft off.
Um, you, we left off, basicallyyou were still in loop two and
things were going fine.
You were just kind of tired.
So you went off in loop threeand we know that basically when
Kevin got back to us after loopthree, that would be the half
point.
Um, of the race, which is alwaysa fun time to talk about.

(05:15):
But tell us before we jump intothat, like, how was loop three
for you?
Do you remember?
Like, we're kind of a weekremoved now.
Like that's one of the benefitsof doing this.
Like the day after we got back,we, everything was very, very
fresh.
So this is a week later thatwe're recording this part of the
episode.
So do you remember loop threeand what happened on loop three?

Kevin (05:36):
Loop three and four kind of blend together a little bit.
But at this point in time,

Angie (05:40):
which is funny because your attitude when we see you at
those two points are completelydifferent.

Kevin (05:45):
I know, but just in general, some, some things that
happened during those times,you've been going for hours.
And so by this point, the sun isup.
Like you're getting the fullheat of the day and it was not a
hot day, but.
around the middle of the day, wealso had some breakthrough in
the clouds.
So there was more direct sun atthis time than earlier in the
morning or in the afternoonwhere the sun, the clouds kind

(06:07):
of started rolling back in alittle bit.
This was the sunniest that itgot.
So I was doing the best that Icould to just get as much
hydration to me.
When I would hit aid stations, Iwas taking down gel with like a
couple of cups of water thatthey would, they would give me.
Um, I think lap three is when Ifilled up my water bottle at

(06:28):
like the aid station at ninemiles and the aid station at
twelve and then refilled it whenI got back to you guys because I
just knew hydration wise.
I wasn't I was not.
I couldn't just do what I hadbeen doing.

Angie (06:41):
Were you drinking plain water this time?
That was one of the things thatwe had talked about going into
this race about how you need todrink more plain water and not
just rely on liquid fuel.
How was your water strategyduring the race?

Kevin (06:53):
I was just on, almost all of the liquid that I took in had
calories in it.
The only time that I took inplain water was at aid stations.
If I was taking a gel, I madesure that I took it down with
plenty of Plain water.
Um, but then you would

Angie (07:09):
drink some cold water when you got back to us too.
When we were refillingeverything, we had like a bottle
of ice cold water for you thatyou were drinking when you were
back at the car too.

Kevin (07:18):
That's right.
I don't pay that much attentionwhen I'm back at the, that's my
job, right?

Angie (07:22):
Yeah.

Kevin (07:23):
When I'm out there, when I, when I'm like, I'm coming up
on an aid station, the aidstation volunteers are amazing.
And you show up and they, likewoohoo runner.
What can we do?
And so I know this is comingbecause, you know, you hit the,
the first aid station, you hit amile, like four ish and nine
ish.
So you're going to get to thisstation twice and they're going
to say, what can we do for you?

(07:44):
If you have an answer for it, itgives them an immediate
direction.
If you're just like, eh, I'mkind of, I'm not sure, then
they're not sure what to do foryou.
And it's, it's slowly andconfusing and awkward.

Angie (07:56):
Yeah.
So one of the things that we diddo is.
Kevin used scratch powder to putin his water for his handheld
and so we made little packets ofscratch that he took with him.
And so that was one of thethings that you said you
basically did at every aidstation is you said, here's the
powder, please mix it with waterand put it in my handheld.

Kevin (08:13):
Right.
Which always got veryinteresting comments back for
them.
Are you, what exactly are youhanding me in this little
baggie?
I'm like, I swear it's scratch.
It's just, it's strawberrylemonade scratch.
Try and get most of it in.
And so Um, on 50, actually oneof the things that happened on
this one is My stomach was fineas I left it.

(08:34):
This is the third lap, or thisis heading out on four.

Angie (08:37):
Okay, so let's, let's get in here.
So when you came back on three,because it was after you saw us
after three, I think that yourstomach got queasy.
So when Kevin got back afterthree, now keep in mind, like he
said, this was the, the heat ofthe day was on top of him
essentially at this point.
Um, and I've noticed this,obviously this is our third race

(08:58):
now.
Um, around this 50 mile mark,around that halfway mark, he
gets, um, annoyed.
And like, that's kind of how youwere when you came back in that
midway.
After loop number three, youwere just kind of annoyed.
You like wanted, you were justlike agitated and annoyed and
you just wanted to like get Outas quickly as possible because
like I was trying to like letyou relax a little bit, you know

(09:19):
Let's get some cooling towels onyou and you're just like I just
gotta keep I just gotta go runlike and i'm like, okay Okay,
like it's just you you're kindof agitated around that point
and that's happened the lastcouple of races

Kevin (09:30):
yeah, because the cooling towels are great, but Anytime I
stop, especially once I've hitaround halfway, stopping just
makes me feel super, supertight.
Like if I stop and I'm walking,that's different because I can
go at least at the halfwaypoint, I can go from walking
back into fairly productiverunning, but every time.
from lap like, I mean, in thisrace, lap three, four or five,

(09:53):
if I'm back at the car and I'mjust standing there for several
minutes, it takes me a while toget going.
If I took too long at one of theaid stations, it takes me a
while to get going again.
Like my legs just are, they'reso heavy and they don't want to
get back to that running motionthat it's rough.
So yeah.
And I'm tired and I'm hot and Idon't want to be doing it

(10:15):
anymore.
I do, but I don't want to bedoing it anymore.
And yeah, like your job isbasically like, all right, let's
just give him, give him somefuel and send him back out
there.
He's going to be okay.

Angie (10:26):
He's going to be okay.
Yeah.
And so I did my best to try tolike cool you down.
And, um.
Yes, kind of be as efficient atthe aid station as possible and
the girls I just like just don'tworry about it This is just
daddy getting agitated rightnow.
Like it's not it's not us.
It's not you at all He's alreadyjust run 50 miles.
We just got to get him what heneeds and send him back out

Kevin (10:47):
So on the third loop I started taking in some different
Forms of fuel and we had talkedabout this before the race of
trying to like Increase amountof like protein that I was
taking make sure that I was evengetting some fats in and so
After the second loop at thecar, I took in a protein shake
like very liquidy protein shakenot like a thick smoothie and
then on the third loop, I ate apeanut butter and jelly

(11:08):
throughout that loop also.
So I was getting in a variety ofdifferent foods and by the time
I headed out on the third loop,I was, you know, a little bit
agitated.
We'll stick with that word.
That sounds like the nicest wayto say how I was.
Um, and by the time I got to theaid station around 54 miles, I
just rolled it in the aidstation.
They're like, what can we do foryou?
I'm like, what do you have thatmakes make my stomach feel a

(11:29):
little bit better?
And she goes, I've got Pepto.
But you may just be off onelectrolytes.
I'm like, I might be off onelectrolytes, but I will take
the Pepto also.
So that's when I popped in acouple of those chewables, which
was gross because that juststays in your teeth.
And then every time you try andtake a drink out of the water
bottle, the rim now has thislike pink residue on it, which

(11:50):
is super gross for the next like20 miles.
Cause you're trying, butliterally every drink for the,
for the rest of that loop andprobably more.
Um, it's, it's there every timeyou take a sip.

Angie (12:04):
Yeah.
So do you, do you have any ideanow that you've kind of had time
to think about it and look itover what maybe caused that
sourness in your stomach?
Or do you think it was justessentially running 54 miles and
the heat and all of that?
Yeah.

Kevin (12:17):
54 miles, the heat of the day.
There was such a variety.
Of things that I was taking inas fuel that I don't think I
could say it was specificallythat.
Um, I, I think it all just kindof adds up and builds up.

Angie (12:28):
Yeah, and I think that a little bit of queasiness is
probably to be expected, right?
At some point in the 100 miles.
I think like, did you ever haveany sort of like GI cramping and
things like you have had in theprevious races?
No,

Kevin (12:43):
not at all.
Like this was, I feel a littlebit queasy.
It'd be kind of neat if I could,like, I didn't, I'm not good at
forcing myself to burp.
That's kind of what I wanted.
Like if I could just burp alittle bit, I'd be feeling
better.
And so I took some Pepto andthat helped.
Like literally my stomach wasnot an issue.
After that other than the thelike visual of the pink residue

(13:05):
every time I took a sip out ofthe water bottle

Angie (13:07):
Yeah, so then is there anything else you want to say
about loop number four becausenow we're on loop four, right?

Kevin (13:15):
So loop four, this is a

Angie (13:17):
loop that finished right at dusk.

Kevin (13:20):
Yes.
So I thought heading out on thisone and the pace that I was
going for like the first half, Idon't know.
Somehow the, the first versussecond half of the, the loop
that I'm on the first one, youhit the same aid station twice
and then you go to a differentpart of the park and that second
half seems like forever.
Cause it's from mile nine ish tosixteen and a half until I get

(13:44):
back to you.
And it seems like that secondhalf is way longer than the
first, but it's actuallyshorter.
But you're just kind of off, andI can't see anybody for the most
part.
I'm lapping a lot of people.
They're doing a lot of walking,so I just keep going past
walkers.
I thought I was going to make itback with like an hour to go
before it got dark.

(14:05):
And I was thinking about this,and I'm like, okay.
I'm gonna have to take theheadlamp with me.
Should I put it in a pocket?
Should I just put the headlampon and then I don't know maybe
12 miles into that loop?
I just started feeling not sogood.
Like my legs just weren't Ididn't have the same turnover.
I just wasn't moving as well Ithink it was a dehydration
issue.

(14:25):
And so I roll into the secondaid station on lap four

Angie (14:31):
So this was about 100 K and you're probably around 62
miles then.

Kevin (14:34):
Yeah, which is So you've got like your marathon, your 50
K, your 50 mile, your a hundredK.
Like those are some numbers thatlike can hit you in your head of
like, wow, I've already done ahundred K and you still have so
much more to go.
So we're trying to get pastthat.
So I probably hit that aidstation at roughly a hundred K
and I was not feeling great andapparently I was not looking

(14:57):
great either because they'relike, Ooh, are you doing okay?
We got to get you back to likewhat, how.
How long until you get to yourcrew is like do we need to take
care of you here?
Because it's only like two and ahalf miles to get back to the
start finish line from them itdoesn't feel like two and a half
miles, but it's two and a halfmiles to get back to the start
finish line and One of the thehelpers at the aid station said

(15:20):
you look like you're starting tooverheat a little bit It's
coming down like the Sun'scoming down If we can just bring
your temperature down a littlebit and then get you back to the
starting line, the sun will godown and you'll do so much
better on the last couple ofloops once the sun goes down.
And so she took it upon herselfto pour a pitcher of cold water
onto me, which I did not thinkwas going to be a great idea.

(15:43):
I'm like, yeah, I know.
I just, I need some cold water,maybe like, uh, you know, some
straight ice water that I candrink, something that will help
me.
I think I'm, I'm dehydrated alittle bit.
And she goes, no, no, no, I'mgoing to pour this over your
head.
It's really going to help youfeel a little bit better.
And so she pours it over my headand I lean forward.
So most of it like falls forwardoff of me.

(16:04):
She goes, no, no, no, we got toget it like going down your
back.
It'll really help cool you down.
And so then she poured ice waterdown the back of my shirt.
And I, as, as you would kind ofthink you might do if someone
pours ice water down the back ofyour shirt, I kind of like,
jumped forward, so I like, shotmy chest and hips forward, and
as I did that, my calves crampedup on me.

(16:25):
Like, both of them.
Simultaneously.
Not, like, spasm rock hard, butboth of them were just like,
Ooh, that's super uncomfortable.
And then I had two and a halfmiles to get back to the car.
And, I left the aid stationlike, alright, Temperature wise
that felt fantastic, but I triedto start jogging out of the aid
station and I couldn't like oneIt's super super ruddy right out

(16:47):
of the aid station There's tiretracks that go in so you kind of
almost have to walk that partBut then you get around this
like hundred meter stretch and Itried to go into a jog and I
just couldn't I could not getmyself jogging because my every
time I started jogging I One legwould go or the other would go
or both of them would go mycalves were done with running I
thought on the day which is avery good lesson for an ultra

(17:10):
when your calves cramp up Thatdoes not mean you're done
running on the day at all.
I was just like I just I got toget back I got to get to the car
and she's gonna be able to fixthis thing But I've got to get
back to the car, and I feel likemy only way to do it is to walk
the next two and a half miles.
Which was unfortunate, becausethen I made it back at like
dark.

Angie (17:28):
So that's basically what you did.

Kevin (17:29):
Yeah.

Angie (17:30):
That's when you saw that other guy that was like trying
to help you too, right?

Kevin (17:33):
Yeah, so this guy passes me, and he sees that I'm like
attempting to run, but reallyI'm just walking out there.
And he's like, hey man, how youdoing?

Angie (17:43):
I love this story because it just is the coolness of
ultras.
I think of how helpful the otherrunners are on the course, like
to each other.

Kevin (17:51):
I mean, everybody's helpful.
Like every person that I sawfrom the guy that I was running
with at the beginning to otherpeople that I'm passing the
other direction, people that I'mlapping, everybody's cheering
for each other.
Not with always like a superamount of energy, but when
you're.
12 hours into something youdon't have that much energy, but
like way to go feels like a lotat that point So this guy comes

(18:13):
up next to me and he's like,hey, man, how are you doing?
I'm like, oh my calves are justboth of them are cramped up on
me so bad He goes, I think I gotsome salt tabs.
You want some salt tabs?
I'm like, no, no I just have toget back to my wife.
She's like two miles down thistrail He goes, alright, you got
you got this and and just leftme with that of like, alright,
you got this And so he takes offand does his thing I get back to

(18:36):
you and, you know, we'll, we'llcome back to this story in a
second, but I gotta, I gottawrap this story up.
I come back to you, you takecare of me and I head back out
on lap five and I pass himagain.
And I go, you know, justtrotting right past him.
He goes, dude, what happened toyou?
I said, I told you, I just hadto get back to my wife and then
I was going to be fine.
Did

Angie (18:56):
you also mention that your wife was a physical
therapist?
I did

Kevin (18:58):
not mention that,

Angie (19:00):
but that's okay.
So, so yeah, so Kevin came inafter loop four and this is like
the fun part of the race wherethere's always one point where
he gets a little loopy and it'ssuper fun.
He's just, he's just hilarious.
Um, in my opinion, obviously Imarried him.
So I think he's funny and thegirls think you're funny too.
So you start coming in and wesee you kind of off in the

(19:21):
distance, making your waytowards us and you're like, And
you like make, so you're likemaking funny sounds and like,
okay, good.
We're dad's dad's in a muchbetter mood now than he was on
the last time we saw him.

Kevin (19:33):
This is not 50 mile mark dad.
This is 66 mile mark dad.
We're doing good.
Yeah,

Angie (19:38):
this dad.
Yeah.
So.
Kev comes in, tells me thestory, he's like, I'm like,
okay, do you want, do you wantto lay down?
I can start working on yourcalves.
I was like, you know what?
Before we have you lie down onthe ground, because like he
said, anytime where he's just ina static position for too long,
that's not the best for hisbody.
Right?
Like if you're standing theretoo long, you're in.

(19:59):
not that you just stand still,you kind of move around a little
bit, but we wanted to get himout as quickly as possible.
It was just so that his bodycould get back into that rhythm.
So instead of putting him downand stretching him out, which
I'm happy to do, and I've donethat before in the keys, I had
to have, like, have him lie downin the car.
And I was trying to, like,stretch out his legs because he
was getting, you were gettingsome really bad calf cramping in

(20:20):
the keys.
That

Kevin (20:20):
calf, calf cramp was.
Awful.
I could not make my foot go theother direction.
Yeah.

Angie (20:25):
So we've dealt with this in many ways before, but this
time, the first thing I did wassay, okay, let's just do some
active stretching first, becausein my mind, that was going to be
a great tool for him if, in casethat he was out there, you know,
halfway somewhere, he could finda tree or something to do this
himself.
So I was trying to help.
Empower him with a tool that hecould use if this calf cramping

(20:49):
should come up again.
And so he put his hands againstthe, um, the car and was doing
some dynamic calf stretching.
I brought some wedges with me,so that was kind of improving
how much stretch he was able toget in his calf.
Um, and really after you justdid that for maybe a couple of
minutes, like you just did acouple of sets on each leg, you
were feeling a lot better.

Kevin (21:08):
Yeah, I mean after that you're like, why don't you walk
around and see how it feels andI look at you I'm like, can I
try to jog?
Like should I should I try tojog already or is there more you
want to do before I try and dothat and you're Like no, you can
try and jog and I immediatelywas able to jog.
It was not great form It lookedmore like marching than my
normal running form But I had acadence of running which was a

(21:29):
complete new ballgame like thatreally like in my head right
there I was like, oh, okay Now Ican run the back end of this
race because I I was not surewhat I was going to do for the
last 30 miles because I had justhad to basically walk straight
for the last two and that was,that would, did not seem like an
enjoyable experience.

Angie (21:47):
Yeah.
So we got him, uh, you know,fueled back up.
You had another protein shake onthat, uh, after that loop and
had, you know, you had a honeystinger and some rock team that
they were giving out during thatloop that you, you were, told us
and we just kind of wrote down,um, you took it another, one of
the shake protein shakes that wehad at the car.
Um, and that at this point, thisis when grapes started being the

(22:09):
best food that you've ever eatenin your life.

Kevin (22:11):
Yeah.
I mean, so I knew that this wasgoing to be a longer stop.
So one of the first things thatwe did was get the protein shake
into me.
Cause we knew it was going tohappen on this break anyway.

Angie (22:19):
Well, especially with the calf cramping and stuff too.
Like your, your muscles areobviously starting to break down
at this point.
You're 60 plus miles and 66miles into the race.
Um, and your muscles arebreaking down.
So, the more protein we can getinto you to help, not that your
muscles are going to like repairthemselves during the race, but
the protein, circulating proteinis going to be a good thing for

(22:41):
you.

Kevin (22:41):
Right.
So, knowing that it was going totake a little bit of time, I
took that thing in almostimmediately so that my stomach
could, process it and move italong because sitting there with
all that protein shake liquid isnot the easiest way to start
moving again.
Not that I was flying down thetrail at that point, but it's
just not the easiest.
So, um, I took it back off onthat one and yeah, on loop four,

(23:04):
I also started adding a lot morecaffeine to my regimen.
Because, because I told you thisas we were heading to the race
because we were going to therace and dusk starts coming, I
go, this is part of one of thehardest times to go because
we've talked on on last week'sepisode of you can try and just
skip over what mile you're atof, you know what, I'm going to

(23:27):
run the mile that I'm currentlyin, I'm going to run this
stretch of the trail, I'm goingto run until the next aid
station instead of trying tolook forward and be like, I
still have two more loops, Istill have three more loops,
whatever it is.
But once the sun goes down, it'sreally hard to not have your
mind recognize that you startedrunning as the sun came up and

(23:48):
you've been running and now thesun is going down.
Like it's hard to put that outof your mind and not realize how
much running you've been doingand how far you still have to
go.
Like that's a thing.
And so, I knew this was comingand so at the aid station you
could get some water but youcould also get guroctane which
is a lot of calories and apretty good amount of caffeine

(24:10):
and so I came in loopy and alsofired up off a caffeine

Angie (24:13):
which is great because Kevin doesn't drink a lot of
caffeine normally like he hasbasically one cup of coffee per
day so because caffeine doesaffect you like I can drink a
lot of coffee and not reallyhave it affect me you like a
physical response to caffeine.

Kevin (24:29):
Yeah.
If I have a cup of coffee afternoon, yeah, I struggle with
sleep.
If we get to bed at like a, ournormal planned bedtime.
Yeah.
Like I struggle and that's 10hours later, which I just, I
don't process caffeine.
Uh, and, and get it out of mysystem very quickly.
It hits me relatively quickly.
And so I was taking this guy,filled up my water bottle,

(24:50):
instead of filling it with thescratch bag that I had, I was
like, yeah, hit it with theRoctane.
And so now I'm caffeinated and,and it's dusk.
And I'm like, we're just havingfun now.
Everybody's going to getheadlamps on.
We're all just going to be someweirdos running through the
woods with headlamps.
And, and that sent me off ontoloop five.
So.
Off I go.

Angie (25:08):
Yeah.
So we had the headlamp on youand you were basically away,
away we go.
And so it did start to getreally dark.
And so the girls at this point,um, and I, uh, let's see, when
did we left right before thatloop actually to go get
Chipotle, uh, because I didagain, going back, if you
remember, I did not do a greatjob planning our stuff as far as

(25:29):
like camping and real food.
Like we had lots of food andfuel for Kevin, but not really
meals for the three of us.
So.
Um, we left after loop threebefore dusk, um, to go get
Chipotle.
And then we were back for thatlast, uh, little.
Um, stop that we just talkedabout anyway.
So the girls and I, um, ate ourdinner and basically it started

(25:52):
just to get really, really darkbecause we were out in the
middle of nowhere in the statepark and the sky was so dark and
the stars were so beautiful.
It was just so nice.
And it was interesting becauseright at dusk, it started to get
cold and I thought it was goingto really get.
Cooler and then it kind ofwarmed up later in the evening,
which was kind of strange Yeah,

Kevin (26:12):
it went from like dusk and getting cool and then it got
dark and immediately got humidYeah, really humid

Angie (26:18):
really humid like everything was do everything
around our car was wet.

Kevin (26:22):
Yeah, so was I I was kind of pretty wet At that point
which also I had to change myshorts because my shorts were
soaking wet after the yeahpoured water down my back So I
changed my shorts which changingshorts after you've run For as
many hours as I was going is notas simple a task as it seems

Angie (26:40):
I was not

Kevin (26:40):
but I did it and off I went and so I'm off on then

Angie (26:43):
you had different pockets, too

Kevin (26:45):
Yes Which is why I love the first shorts because they've
got a good amount of pockets onthem and the second pair did not
have The same level of pocket.
Yeah,

Angie (26:52):
so pocketry

Kevin (26:53):
is the word I'm

Angie (26:53):
pocketry So we learned that we have to buy another pair
of those shorts.

Kevin (26:56):
Yes So I'm out you guys sent me out with a good amount
of calories because I wasslowing down now And so instead
of being like, all right, weneed enough calories for him to
cover this loop in two and ahalf Now we need enough calories
in him to cover the loop inthree and a half to four hours
Because this could take a whileso I need more stuff out there
And I also knew I might be ableto grab something at the aid

(27:18):
station and get more fuel there

Angie (27:19):
Yeah, and I think that's a really important point to
make.
So those of you that are maybepreparing for an ultra yourself
or you're crewing someone, it'simportant to go by calories per
hour, not calories per mile.

Kevin (27:33):
As you slow down, you're already in a hole.
Like you're essentially tryingto take in as many calories as
you can, because you're burningway more calories than you can
consume and process.
Like you consume them, butyou're not going to process
them.
In which case, most likelythey're going to come back up.
So you're trying to get in asmany calories as you can because
you can't keep up with your burnrate.

(27:54):
So basically you can't keep upwith your burn rate.

Angie (27:57):
Okay.
Now I'm going to ask a really.
Uncomfortable personal questionand if you don't want to answer
it, it's totally fine, but Iactually don't think I asked you
this yet.
Um, so What did you do aboutgoing to the bathroom?
Like how, I asked you briefly,but like how many times did you
have to go to the bathroom andwhere did you go to the bathroom
when you were out there?
Like, both number one and numbertwo.

Kevin (28:19):
Two I used a port a potty one time.

Angie (28:21):
That's it?

Kevin (28:21):
One, one time I used a port a potty.
So you

Angie (28:23):
only had to go number two once?
Yes.

Kevin (28:26):
I don't remember what loop.
I feel like that was somewherein my second loop.

Angie (28:29):
And it was different on, in your other races, right?
Like your other races, you hadto do more than that.

Kevin (28:33):
My other race.
Okay.
Last race, I went productivelyand a port a potty that was like
at a construction site that I'msure I was not supposed to use,
but it was open.
And I went, but after that, Ialways.
Felt like I needed to, but nevercould, which I believe goes back
to my hernia issue is I just hadthis massive amount of gas built
up that always made it feel likeI needed to go to the bathroom,

(28:57):
but I'd sit there and notaccomplish anything.
On the other hand, I peed in thewoods.
I couldn't even tell you howmany times, all the time, which
is

Angie (29:06):
good because I mean, that's much more acceptable out
in the woods versus, you know,in someone's front yard as
you're driving or running downDaytona.

Kevin (29:13):
Yes, that is generally frowned upon.
But in the woods, I would kindof look before and after me and
be like, is there like a femalerunner close behind me who's
going to pass?
Because that's, that's not trailfriendly.
So I would try and like find anopen stretch so I could see
behind me by a good amount, makesure I had some clearance.
And then I just stepped to theside of the trail and go and

(29:35):
then off and running again.
Yeah.
So I couldn't even tell you howmany times that was.

Angie (29:39):
Yeah.
Okay.
But number two is only one time.
One time.
Okay.
So, um, all right, where are wenow?
We're essentially, you're out onloop five after dark.

Kevin (29:47):
Out on loop five.
I'm loopy.
I'm making friends.
I'm like a mile in.
This is

Angie (29:51):
like a very fun version of Kevin.
Yeah.

Kevin (29:53):
So now I'm chatting.

Angie (29:54):
And you're caffeinated.

Kevin (29:55):
Yeah.
I got more, uh, more roctane atthe aid station on this time
also.
Cause at this point I'm like, Ijust need as many calories as I
can.
And food is not feeling greatfor me.
Grapes were the only thing thatI could really.
eat that involved me chewingsomething.
So I was trying to get as muchliquid calories as possible.

(30:16):
I knew that Roctane had way morecalories than the scratch that I
was filling up my bottle with.
So with that, but the caloriescame with caffeine.
That was the only way I could doit.
There was not an uncaffeinatedversion.

Angie (30:27):
Yeah.
And you had a Martin three 20 onthat loop too,

Kevin (30:29):
right?
So you get, you really.
Loaded me up on calories on thisone.
So I was doing a lot of liquidcalories and So yeah, I've been
running for a while.
I'm punchy.
I'm caffeinated, which is likethe most talkative version of me
I'm making friends withstrangers I'm like high fiving
people at their like at thetents that they've got set up to

(30:50):
crew other people becausethey're like cheering I'm like,
yeah, you're cheering for me.
I'm high fiving you.
This is the weirdest version ofme

Angie (30:58):
Yes, it's definitely not normal.
Kevin, as people know you, no,

Kevin (31:02):
not at all.
Like I, I needed to retie myshoe.
Oh, I needed to tie my shortsband because I was in a new pair
of shorts and we had a wholepack of grapes shoved in the
back pocket.
So my shorts just keeps slippinglower and lower with every step
on this.
I got a handheld in one hand anda.
And so I can't just keep tuggingthem up.
So I get to this car and I'mlike, Can I use your car?

(31:25):
I need to put the stuff down outof my hands so that I can retie
my shorts because this is notworking for me.
They're like, Of course! We're acrew tent! Use whatever you
need! And awkwardly, I had like,Just past the person they were
crewing.
So then he had to come in and belike crude at his station as I'm
standing there, tying my shortson, um, like, why is he here?

(31:46):
And we didn't make a sign forhim.
And so I finished tying myshorts and took off.
Um, but I made a, I made afriend on that one briefly.
Um, I caught up to him and hewas going with another guy.
They were kind of like trying topush each other on and I ran and
he was like, I can go with thisguy and I'm feeling good.
And he goes, I, I am reallytrying to break 24 hours and I'm

(32:09):
looking at my clock.
I'm like, you can do 24 hours.
He goes, I'm doing the math.
And I feel like I should stopdoing math.
That's actually how he met me.
He goes, I'm doing the math andI feel like I should stop doing
the math.
I'm like, I am a math teacher.
You should never stop doingmath.
People should stop talking to meafter I've been running for like
12 plus hours.
No one should talk to me aboutmath It's a bad thing.

(32:29):
And so I'm trying to motivatehim that he can do it He goes
what lap are you on and I'm onI'm on five.
He goes how fast are you going?
I'm like, I'm trying to break18.
You can totally break 24 I don'tremember his name, but both of
us were just very much cheeringthe other person on as best as
we could and That's it likethat.
That was our interaction witheach other.

(32:51):
I don't know if I saw him on thenext loop I don't know if he
broke 24 hours, but while wewere next to each other I'm
cheering him on as much as I canhe's cheering me on it was
helpful because we kind of werewith each other through This
like windy trail part where bothof us had a headlamp going So it
allowed us to be able to seethings really clear because this
loop things got real dark realfast and The headlamp that I've

(33:14):
got I know that it lasts sixhours But I wasn't sure that I
was gonna be able to cover twoloops in six hours And so I can
put it to a dimmer setting andthen it lasts for like 24 hours.
So I'm like, okay Here's whatI'm gonna do I'm going to run my
first loop with Dusk, and as I'mpassing other people, I'm going
to use some of their headlights,and I'm going to have it on a

(33:37):
dimmer thing, and then my secondloop, where I'm getting even
more tired and exhausted, I'mgoing to go full blast with the
light, and go for it.
So that was my plan.
So I'm a little bit like notseeing things clearly on this
loop.
There's a couple of parts on thetrail where the other people are
coming back at you and they'reshooting headlights straight
into me, which is blindingtemporarily.

(33:57):
They're trying to like cheer youon.
They're like, way to go runner.
But as they say it, they turnand look at you and it's like a
headlight.
That's like that is way toobright right in my eyes.
So that was like the ups anddowns of loop five.
On the second half of that loop,I kept stepping in holes on the
trail, which was just sojarring, and thankfully, you
were like, alright, if thecalves seize up on you, you can

(34:19):
do this, this is gonna help youstretch them out again, because
every time I dipped into a hole,it was like, hamstring, or the
quads, or the calves, somethingfelt like it was on the verge of
seizing up.
Thankfully nothing really everdid it was just it was super
jarring and uncomfortable as Iwent But anything that felt like
it was about to go I wouldstretch the calf out and then I
was able to keep going so Ithink Trying to hydrate and get

(34:40):
as many calories in on this loopwas super helpful Because
otherwise hitting these holes Ithink would have just been an
Like start of a spasm that Icouldn't get out of.

Angie (34:49):
Yeah.
So luckily that didn't happenand Kevin came back in for us
and after loop five and this wasgreat.
And I was talking to a friendover the weekend and she was
like, I just so appreciatedKevin's.
Honesty throughout this process,especially that one point where
like at 83 miles, he comes inand he's like, I just really

(35:09):
want to get in the car right nowbecause it's like, yeah, you've
already run a lot of miles andyou have to still go out and run
another 16 and a half plusmiles.
Right.
And so, um, so that's kind ofhow.
you were when we saw you at Loop5.
Like, after Loop 5, you werejust tired and you were like, I
just want to be done.
Like, I'm not done.
I'm gonna go back out thereagain.

(35:30):
But, I'm just tired.
But you seemed well in all ofthe ways.
It

Kevin (35:34):
was similar to the end of lap 2.
Is, I'm tired.
It'd be neat if I was done.
I'm not done.
There's nothing drasticallywrong.
I'm going to go back out and I'mgoing to complete this thing.
I just don't feel great.

Angie (35:48):
Yeah, which is great.
I mean, I think that wasWonderful.
I think that you felt that way.
Like it wasn't like, Oh, okay.
I have to pull him.
I never during the race.
And this was one of the greatthings about my experience.
There was never a point duringthe race where I felt like,
okay.
Does he need to stop this,right?
Like, are we at that point yetwhere I need to step in and pull

(36:11):
him back in any way?
Like you really, of course youwere dealing with a lot of stuff
going on.
It was a hundred miles, but youjust seem so strong in this race
compared to the other previousattempts.

Kevin (36:23):
Yeah, no, I, I never really felt like this one was
getting away from me.
And I mean, there was

Angie (36:29):
never a doubt in my mind that you were going to finish
it.

Kevin (36:33):
The only, the lowest point that I had was On was on
lap four because I reallythought I was going to get back
in and have like an hour ofdaylight on lap five and I got
back in basically at dusk.
Like I pretty much lit theheadlamp as I left you guys.
Um, and so that was kind of likethat was a mental low and
physically I was walking, but Ireally had full faith that if I

(36:56):
could get back to you, you weregoing to make me functional for
the next 35 miles.
I also knew you.
Like I had to accept during thattwo mile walk like this is
tough, but if I, if I freak outover this, if I'm all panicky
and stressed out, it's not goingto bring my heart rate back
down.
So if you're walking, justaccept that you're walking the

(37:18):
next two miles.
And as soon as I was like, no,no, no.
Dude, you're just going to walkthe next two miles until you get
back to Angie.
And then she's going to takecare of you.
My heart rate dropped anotherlike 20 beats.
And so I lost some time here,but it was a good chunk of, it
was 40 plus minutes where myheart rate got back down towards
like a hundred.
Which was then nice to be ableto go off on loop five because I

(37:42):
started loop five at areasonable pace again For me for
that time in the race.

Angie (37:47):
Yeah, almost like a little recovery period there,
right?
That's what I was

Kevin (37:50):
like, this has to be a recovery period so use it as a
recovery period

Angie (37:54):
Yeah, but you had to mentally get yourself into that
place so that you are Youphysically could get into that
recovery period.

Kevin (38:00):
Yeah, no.
For the first half mile, thattwo and a half mile back, I was
pissed.
And I looked at my watch.
I've been, I'm like, I've beenwalking for 10 minutes.
Why is my heart rate still at140 plus?
Like I was mad and I'm like, Oh,it's cause you're mad.
Why don't you stop being angry?
Just enjoy the surroundings.
At one point I passed somebodywho was clearly enjoying weed in

(38:23):
the middle of the park, likejust mellow out

Angie (38:26):
on the right.
Not a racer.

Kevin (38:27):
The park was still open, so it's unclear who was doing
what, but there was, there's abig long straightaway, and I'm
like, that is not the smell of askunk.
That's, that's not skunk smell.
It's skunk ish.
It's skunk adjacent.
I'm like, and, and it just hitme.
I'm like, Dude, just mellow outand you're going to be okay.

(38:48):
Just, just get back to Angie andboom, the heart rate just
started dropping.
And I'm like, okay, so then whenI leave, I'm going to be able to
run again.
Yeah.
So that was, that was that one.

Angie (38:58):
That's cool.
All right.
So.
So, in the last loop, like, whatare your memories from loop six?
After you leave us for the lasttime and you say, okay, I'll see
you at the finish line.
Like that was really cool.
And I'm like, okay, well, Iguess we can kind of pack up
here where our jobs here aredone.

Kevin (39:14):
Yeah.
I mean, that was the, the nicepart is you then had three plus
hours to just pack everythingback up.
You move the car over to thestart finish line, so I didn't
have to go anywhere.

Angie (39:25):
So the, my favorite memory of this time was line.
Outside under the stars in thebig sky with my teenage
daughter.
Like that was one of my corememories.
I think that will stick with methat I absolutely loved from
this race.
Like I love supporting you inthis race, but I also love how
much of a bonding experience itcan be for us.

(39:46):
Um, especially when the otherdaughter was in the car, like.
getting mad at me because Idon't remember exactly what I
did, but I did something to makethe 12 year old mad.
And so having that time with the15 year old was fantastic,
right?
So I don't want you all to, youknow, be listening to this and
be like, Oh, like what anamazing thing they, it is an
amazing thing.

(40:07):
And, and we did have a lot ofreally great family bonding
time, but there was also a lotof, um, not friendly times, I
guess to say, like, you know,the girls were fighting and
this, what did you, you saidsomething to me.
The next day, I think, aboutlike how smooth everything was,
and how great the girls were,and I was like, Well, I'm glad
you saw that side, becausethat's what I wanted them to

(40:29):
portray to you.

Kevin (40:30):
Yeah, because as crew chief, you're like, no, every
time he gets back in here,everything's going great.
Like that is the attitude.
No one is

Angie (40:37):
fighting.
Everyone is focused on dad,period.

Kevin (40:40):
And it's not going to be very long.
So if you'd like to refightagain, that's going to happen in
a few minutes.

Angie (40:45):
Right, exactly.
So I don't remember any detailsof anything, but like there was
one time that she got mad at mebecause I like moved her stuff
and I wasn't hurrying fastenough to go to the bathroom
with her.
Cause she had to go to thebathroom and it was dark and I
wanted to walk with her so that,you know, it's for safety.
Um, and.
I also just enjoyed walking asmuch as I could so that I wasn't

(41:06):
just sitting the whole day long.
Um, and I didn't do that fastenough so she was mad at me.

Kevin (41:11):
Yeah.
I don't know.
That's 12.
There you go.

Angie (41:13):
Yeah.

Kevin (41:14):
Um, so in terms of like the race, five and six blend
together.
I don't remember events thathappened on five versus events
that happened on six.

Angie (41:21):
So on six, you took the extra light with you because of
the darkness on five.
You said, okay, I'm going totake that extra light with you.
And you said that that went alot better because you didn't,
you could see more of like thedips and divots and didn't have
as much of that jarring.

Kevin (41:34):
Yeah.
So I, there wasn't like a blindhole that I felt there was one.
On the entire loop that I didn'tsee coming, that I stepped in,
that was like a jarring thing.
So physically, when I wasrunning, it felt nicer on the
last lap, um, because I wasn't,I wasn't stepping in.
Essentially, they're like,they're trail potholes.
They're like, it's where therewas a rock and the rock isn't
there and there's a, there's ahole in the ground.

Angie (41:55):
How much would you say you were like running versus
walking at this point?

Kevin (41:58):
By loop six, there was not a huge amount of, of
running.
There were people who were onpace for like, Probably 30 ish
hours.
There were people who were ontheir fourth Lap as I was on my
sixth lap and I was like withthem for a little bit of time
There was somebody that I passedHer name was Emily and she goes

(42:21):
are you back already?
Is this lap six for you?
I'm like, it's six She waswhat's your name?
Like it's Kevin.
She goes Kevin.
You're amazing.
I'm like, what's your name?
It's Emily Emily.
You're amazing So like we hadthat exchange.
Yeah, I think she was on pace tohit like 30 ish hours because
she was Two laps behind me.
So that was going to take a lotlonger for her to go in.
And you know, as like allrunners are essentially slowing

(42:44):
down as the course goes, likeit's, it's what's happening.
Like you're going to be slowingdown as this course goes.
So like, that was a randominteraction that I had.
Um.
Um, you know, there's, there'sjust a lot of, of cheering and
support for each other.

Angie (42:57):
So when you were like running versus walking, what
would you say that ratio is?
I mean, obviously it's not likeyou were doing set intervals or
set ratios.
There

Kevin (43:05):
were people who were.

Angie (43:06):
Yeah.
I heard some beeping going by.
There's a lot of beeping.
Yeah.
There were a lot of people thatlike had the interval set up on
their watch.
But what would you say you werekind of doing at this point?

Kevin (43:16):
Running as much as I could,

Angie (43:18):
which is essentially what a minute, two minutes, five
minutes.

Kevin (43:21):
It depended on, like, there was no fixed thing.

Angie (43:24):
Right.

Kevin (43:25):
That's the thing is, if I felt like I could be running, I
was running.
And that's what I was doing foressentially the entire last
loop.
I'm like, if you think you canrun, you're gonna have to run.

Angie (43:36):
Yeah.
And then what about the loopsbefore that?
Was it kind of the same?
Yeah.
Like, when did you, how did youdecide, like, when to take a
walking break throughout therace?

Kevin (43:46):
I tried to do as little walking as possible, at least in
the first half after that once,you know, like you're in the
middle of like a hard workoutand your body's just like, you
need to stop now.
After you've been out there forso many hours, you don't need to
stop, but it's tough to tellyour brain.
No, I'm going to keep going.
Like it's tough to continue tosay no for the 12th, 13th, 14th

(44:11):
hour of the race, and then tohold it and be able to say, I'm
going to continue to maintain ano for the next four hours of
the race.
And so at some point your brainoverrides and says, Nope, we're
going to take a walking break.
And, and I did, I'm like, allright, so we're going to take a
walking break.
And I would be like, Until I getto that tree, I never was like,

(44:31):
I have to walk for a long periodof time.
Now I was always testing to seelike, can I start running again?
Like there was always like, allright, now I'm going to try and
start running again, get thisthing going.
Cause I knew if, especially asI'm like on the fifth and the
sixth lap, if I walked for toomuch, I was not going to be able
to run.
So I did.

(44:51):
a pretty good amount of runningon lap five, lap six.
I was just so exhausted thatbetween Leaving the, the, that
like primary aid station for thesecond time and getting to the
remote aid station felt like aneternity.
I took way more walking breaksthan I was hoping to.
I kept checking the clock andtrying to be like, I think I

(45:14):
might be able to break 18 hours.
I think I might be able to break18 and a half hours.
Like I was doing a lot of math.
Once I hit my like 90 ish, 85,90, I start doing a lot of math.
I get out to that aid stationand it's like two and a half
miles.
The guy who's running the thinggoes, What do we need to give to
you so you can complete the lasttwo and a half miles?

(45:36):
And I look and I'm like, you arelying.
It is easily three miles back.
He goes, I've run it.
I've run it so many times.
It's two and a half miles.
It might even be less.
I promise you.
And I had convinced myself,because this is the loop six, I
had convinced myself that it wasway longer.
And I think part of it wasbecause I had to walk it the
entire time one time.
I'm like, no, no, no, it's likean hour and a half to cover this

(45:57):
distance.
And he goes, it's two and a halfmiles.
You could do it in 30 minutes.
I'm like, I might be able to doit in 45 minutes.
And it turned out that I coulddo it in about 35 ish minutes.
Because, uh, I was like, okay,if he's, and he said it with
such authority and he said it'stwo and a half miles.
I'm like, I can run two and ahalf miles.
There may need to be somewalking stops in here, but I can

(46:20):
run two and a half miles.
And at no point do I need tostop and stand.
If I'm stopping, I am powerwalking my way through.
And so now it's the last twomiles.
I'm trying to debate withmyself.
What's faster walking because Icould briskly walk and actually
get myself according to my watchsub 15.
or shuffle at like 12 minutepace and walk at 20 minute pace.

(46:44):
I'm like, all right, for thisstretch, I'm going to power
hike.
And then when I turn, I'm goingto see if I can actually run and
get my running back down towards10 because that's what I was
trying to do.
If I could get my running paceunder 10 minutes, then I was
going to run.
And if I couldn't, I was goingto power hike this thing.
That's kind of how I made itthrough the last like five ish
miles.
All

Angie (47:03):
right, that's cool.
And so then tell us, When afteryou passed the place where our
car was Right like because ourcar was parked about a quarter
mile from the finish line So youpass by that and you know that
you only have about a quartermile to go like what's going
through your head at?
This point like where where areyou at

Kevin (47:23):
at that point?
I was running as fast as I couldbecause people were chasing like
I could hear The first femalefinisher coming up behind me
with about a half mile to go.
And I, I couldn't hear her.
Well, I could, she was makingall sorts of grunts and groans
cause she was in a lot of painand I could hear her pacer
cheering her on.
And he was like, all right,we're going to cross this road.

(47:45):
We're going to take a walkingbreak over the road.
And then, you know, it's a leftturn and you'll be able to see
the lights of the finish line.
And we're going to run that in.
And I'm like, Oh, Oh, firstfemale finisher is going to run
that in.
I am running this thing inbecause I did not want it to
come down to that laststraightaway because the, the
final like 30 meters into thefinish line, you hit a paved

(48:05):
path and there's going to betaken pictures of the first
female finisher.
They were taking pictures of mealso.
They're taking pictures ofeverybody.
I don't need pictures of metrying to outkick the first
female finisher.
That's not, not going to happen.

Angie (48:18):
Yeah.
So you had to open up enough ofa gap that that did not happen.

Kevin (48:21):
These are the options.
open a gap over her or let herpass and beat me by a solid
minute.
And I'm looking at the watch andI'm like, I am running a pretty
good time.
And so now suddenly I'mmotivated that I'm, I couldn't
break 18, but I was clearly wellunder 1830 and I couldn't
remember exactly what my PR wasfrom the last race.
And I'm like, it's, it was 21something.

(48:42):
I think it was 2120 ish.
So like

Angie (48:44):
18.
Yeah.

Kevin (48:46):
I'm like, I can, I think I can now hit a three hour PR.
So I'm moving.
I like, I passed where the carwas.
There was no walking suddenly,you know, it's the same thing.
When you see the finish line ofa 5k, you've got a gear that you
didn't know existed.
I had energy reserves that Ididn't think existed

Angie (49:04):
after a hundred miles.
Like that's the wildest thing.

Kevin (49:07):
Craziest thing.
Now suddenly you're like, wait,I can fully run at.
Almost my normal form and areasonable pace and I'm shooting
down this straightaway.
I passed a guy And he was kindof weaving because both of our
headlights are going I'm like, Igot you I'm on the left and so
he then moved over to the rightand I passed him came through
the finish line As soon as Icrossed the finish line, I was

(49:30):
done.
Like there was no like, Oh, I'mgoing to jog it out through the
fit.
No, I was done.
Get me a chair.
It was like,

Angie (49:35):
where can I sit down?
Cause everybody was focusing onthe female coming in.
He's like, where can I sit down?
And then somebody brought him achair.
Well,

Kevin (49:43):
cause I knew that if I.
turned left, I could get intolike the main aid station
building and there had to bechairs or benches or something
in there.
So I started going thatdirection and I think it was you
that called back and you'relike, where are you going?
And I was like, aid stationchairs.

Angie (49:59):
I know.
And I'm like, no, no, no.
I need to take pictures.
We need pictures.

Kevin (50:02):
So you or, and, and one of the race directors got a, got
a place for me to sit down.
First female came in, shefinished, I was taking pictures
with her, her whole crew and shehad a big group of people came
over and celebrated heramazingness, um, and then you
were getting pictures of me.
You didn't even notice that therace director handed me my
finisher's buckle.

Angie (50:23):
No, I didn't.
I missed that.

Kevin (50:24):
Yeah, no, she was very good.
And efficient because she alsoknew that first female finisher
was coming in and she wanted tomake sure that she had like the
trophy for her also.
And like, cause it's a very coolkind of carved out wood carving
trophy that she gets.
Um, so she made sure that shegot everything for me and then
was able to focus on her also.
So, um, it was great.

(50:45):
You know, our, our older oneknew that I got my buckle.
She saw it come to me.
So she got to watch that, butthe girls were so tired.
Cause you would like just wokenthem up too.

Angie (50:54):
So like they, they, especially the younger one, she
was so cranky.
And I was like, daddy isfinishing the a hundred mile
race.
We need to go right now.
And they were like, they wereboth like zombie ask.
Like Riley gets out of the car.
That's her older one.
She gets out of the car andshe's just starts walking.
I go, where are you going?
She's like, I don't know.
What do we, what do we.
Where are we?
Because I had moved the carwhile they, I had moved the car

(51:16):
while they were sleeping fromthat, um, over to like right
next to the finish line.
Cause I asked the racedirectors, I'm like, can I
please move my car so that, youknow, when he's done, he could
just get in the car and doesn'thave to walk back to the car.
Absolutely.
You know, and they were so nice.
They said, absolutely.
So, um, they get out of the carand they had no idea.
They were so disoriented, had noidea where we were.
And I was like, come on, we haveto go.

(51:37):
Dad's coming in.
So, but

Kevin (51:39):
once I made it there and then we, I made it back into,
you took some pictures of thefinish line.
I made it into the aid station.
The other one just flips it andsnaps into gear.
It's like, what can I do to getfor, what can I get for dad?
And she helped me get some food.
Um, you know, she just walks me,even if I'm getting the food,
she just walks with me to makesure that I don't fall over
because she has no idea.
Like I've run a hundred and.

(52:00):
Almost 102 miles on my watch.
And so she's like, if he falls,I should probably be there.
Not that I could catch him, butI could alert somebody that he's
laying on the ground now.
So she's, she's great.
And then we, uh, I got some foodinto me.
All the volunteers.
I hadn't seen any of thosevolunteers because I never went
into that aid station.
It was only a quarter mile fromyour car.

(52:20):
So I go in and the one's like,Oh, what can, what can I get for
you?
I'm like, do you have ice water?
Just cold water would beamazing.
She goes, yeah, sure.
Here have some water.
Asked what loop I was on.
I'm like, I'm done.
She goes, Oh, okay.
Cause they had literally neverseen me because they live in the
aid station house and I just ranpast it every single time.

(52:42):
So that was like, it was a weirdinteraction with those
volunteers.

Angie (52:46):
Yeah, that was kind of fun.
So what, you know, we're comingup, uh, on an hour here.
So what are kind of some of yourfinal thoughts about this race?
Like what were.
Yeah, and if you have anyfavorite moments, if you have
any least favorite moments, ifyou have any takeaways, like
what are kind of some of youroverall thoughts on this?

Kevin (53:05):
Uh, increased strength.
That's that's like, as I wasrunning, I'm like, all right, it
was good that I maintain myspeed.
I think that that was reallyimportant because during

Angie (53:15):
your training, yeah,

Kevin (53:16):
during my training, because you know, uh, a small
percentage of going pretty fastis still relatively quick.
That's what I was saying is.
If if I could run in like mile90 through the finish if I could
take it under 10 minute paceThat's not physically that hard
for me to do if I went out andran right now But at that point
it was exhausting and I thinkthat that's part of partly

(53:38):
because I was able to still berunning like I Don't know 16
minute 5k if I was really reallypushing myself But I think that
strength I did some goodstrength, but the month ish
leading before maybe two monthsleading before it was not where
it needed to be.
So my strength training needs toincrease.
Um, that's a big one.

Angie (53:58):
I agree.

Kevin (53:59):
I think we did a great job fueling.
Um, You know, we talked aboutthis on the last episode, making
sure that I can hydrate while Ihave the vest on, I can do it
when I've got a handheld cause Iknow when the handheld gets
empty.
I know when to refill.
I can keep track of that, but Ican't, I can't sense as well how
empty the pack is.

Angie (54:17):
Yeah.
So I think that when you havethe pack on, it's more about on
a schedule, right?
Like drinking on a scheduleversus like trying to sense how
much you've already drank.
I

Kevin (54:25):
guess.
Um, so that's something to workon.
Um, let's see what else music isamazing.
Like music is phenomenal.
Caffeine is, is super great.
Like we're at the finish areaand I'm like, I think I'm just
going to stay up until the hotelhas breakfast.
I think that was the one linethat crack you up.
You're like, that's so manyhours from now.

(54:46):
You're not going to do that.
No, we're

Angie (54:47):
not doing that.
We're going to stop at thewaffle house on the way home,
which apparently is going tobecome a tradition because
there's not many things open at2 AM.
And if you finish, you know,around these, these times where
we're looking at late nighttypes of food options.
Either that or I just need to bebetter, uh, packing up a post
race meal option for you when weget our, our camping stuff.

Kevin (55:08):
I was curious if you had gotten me a Chipotle.

Angie (55:11):
I was going to and the girls told me not to.

Kevin (55:14):
Yeah, I, cause it could have gone either way.
What do you

Angie (55:16):
think?
Would you have wanted it?

Kevin (55:18):
At the end of this race, that would have been fine.
I would have been totally okaywith that.
At the end of last race, Ireally wanted Waffle House.
Because I had run past, I don'tknow, a thousand of them on the
100 mile journey.
This time you run in the middleof the woods Chipotle kind of
sounded good, but you know, ifyour stomach's not doing great,
that might sound like a terribleidea.

(55:39):
So

Angie (55:39):
I was going to, and I like ran it by the girls and
they said, no mom, that's not agood idea.
Like we're just going to go gethim food.
And so they, they overruled methat time.

Kevin (55:47):
Yeah.
They also stayed in the car andslept as we went and got food.
Um, and it was, it was fine.
Um, I felt better at the end ofthis one.
And so.
Food that didn't taste good,didn't taste good.
And food that tasted good,tasted good.
So, like, I had a hot dog at theend of the last race.
And it was the most amazing hotdog ever.
I had a hot dog at the end ofthis race.

(56:08):
I was glad that it was, like, asalty hot dog and that it had
some bread wrapped around it andI had ketchup on it for the
sweetness.
It wasn't good.
It had been cooked for, I don'tknow, hours and we're just
sitting there staying warm.
It was not good.
We had Waffle House.
It was Waffle House breakfast.
Last time we had it, I'm like,this is so good.
Everybody should have some ofthis.
I felt better.

(56:29):
And so it's like I had moreawareness of what was going into
my body.
So that was also an interestingtakeaway on this one too.

Angie (56:36):
But I also think it is super important that, you know,
if you are somebody that, isdoing ultras, you have to get
food in as soon as possible.
And as much as possible, as muchas you can tolerate at the end
of the race, it's going to makerecovery a lot better.
So it's been a week now.
How did you recover after therace?
How did you feel the day after acouple days after?

(56:57):
Where are you with recovery?

Kevin (56:59):
The day after I was.
Stumbling like I was I wasstruggling.
I could have made it to school.
I was really glad We didn't haveschool on that Monday.
I could have made it I wouldhave needed to do a lot of
sitting at school But you know,I was just kind of hobbling
around everything was sore Therewasn't any specific area that
was like that is awful But justgenerally I was sore.

(57:21):
I wore my calf compressionsleeves all day long that kind
of helped me move around and asthe day went I kind of loosened
up and was I wouldn't say movingnormally by the evening, but I
was moving by the evening.
Um, and then I went back toschool on Tuesday and my brain
was not functioning.
And part of that is because Ihad to go back to like my school

(57:41):
schedule and get up early in themorning.
But part of it is I think therecovery process hit my nervous
system in a way that like Eventhough it was two days later, I
just wasn't firing on allcylinders.
I was trying to do like basicarithmetic and it just wasn't
working.
I was trying to explain mathconcepts and it's not that the

(58:02):
concept wasn't there, it's thatI just didn't have the words to
use.
So everything was just movingslow in my brain.
Body felt way better that day,but my brain wasn't working.

Angie (58:12):
Yeah.
And my favorite update was whenKevin told me he was so excited
because he bent over and pickedup a pen off the floor that day.

Kevin (58:19):
Like, like a kid dropped a pen and I casually bent over
and picked it up.

Angie (58:22):
Like I did that.
Like you were so proud ofyourself about it.
It was the cutest.
I

Kevin (58:27):
mean, I was still on a caffeine high by that point.

Angie (58:29):
From the Roctane.

Kevin (58:30):
From two days earlier.

Angie (58:31):
Yeah.
Um, so yeah, so overall, I mean,my.
Uh, assessment, I guess, like mypoint of view is that you have
been recovering fantasticallywell, um, like you said, you're
a little bit sore on Monday, butbasically from Tuesday on, you
started walking normally byWednesday, you were definitely
moving around the kitchenquickly and normally, and you've

(58:55):
been moving around the house.
It's pretty normal.

Kevin (58:57):
I feel like I walked the dog on Tuesday, that I had the
physical capability of actuallywalking the dog on, on her like

Angie (59:02):
Tuesday night

Kevin (59:03):
on her, yeah, on her night walk.
So I mean that, that's prettygood because that's like, if
things don't go wrong, like whatif the dog sees something and
she pulls, like I was strongenough and functional enough
that I could do that.

Angie (59:14):
Yeah.
So overall recovery has beengoing very well.
It's been a week out.
When do you think you're goingto run again?

Kevin (59:21):
Um, so thankfully for for me, the weather was miserable in
the week between the race andand a full week later, like it
was cold and rainy most days,and that prevented me from
having the desire to go out andrun because I kind of wanted to
at least go out and walk, maybeto see if I could jog.

(59:42):
And I know that would be a badidea, but I wanted to.
So I think the weather helped menot Why

Angie (59:47):
did you want to?
I just As a test?
Yeah,

Kevin (59:50):
I'm like, I feel fine.
I should go out and be runningagain.
I enjoy running, and I realizeJust because you

Angie (59:55):
love running.
Yeah,

Kevin (59:56):
I do.
And I know that I just did 102miles, but I'd like to go out
and get a run.
Because I haven't run in a fewdays.
It's certainly by like Thursday,Friday, I'm like It's been a
while since I've gone out andgone for a run.
I would like to go out and gofor a run.
Um.
But it's now been, what, ninedays and I have not run.
So I would like to be able to goout and run.

(01:00:17):
Um, I did a little mini strengthsession with very, very low
weights today.
And that went super smooth.

Angie (01:00:24):
He did not clear that with me, just FYI.

Kevin (01:00:26):
I did not clear that with you.
But I also didn't do anythingdumb.
And as soon as things startedfeeling like this is a lot of
weight that I'm holding, and itwas not a lot of weight that I
was holding.
Or, Maybe I don't need to dothat many step ups.
Like my goal was 20.
I made it to 15.
I'm like, and I'm done It's notthat I couldn't do another five
more.
It's just why yeah, what's thepoint?

(01:00:48):
I think that's where you're veryoften coming out with like why
you need to come back from thisWe've got a lot of people that
we train that's like well Howmuch time do I need to take off
after a marathon?
It's like well you should takeSome time off after a marathon,
like you don't want to doanything hard for like a week
and some people are trying torun like two days later and you
can, you totally can run twodays later, but to what end,

(01:01:11):
like, what are you getting outof that workout?
If I went out and ran, whatwould I be getting out of it?
And at this point, the answeris, I don't think I'd be hurting
myself anymore and I would bementally giving myself some joy
because I have not run in a longtime.
And as long as I don't push it,I don't stretch the distance.
I don't think that I'm, I'm at apoint where I would be hurting
myself anymore.

Angie (01:01:31):
Yeah.
And I think that that's reallythe key that we have to look at
is what is the point of the run?
It is not that you're losingfitness.
It's not that you're worriedabout that.
Like if that's your reason, it'sa bad reason.
Okay.
So if you finish a race and you.
feel like you need to get backout there because I don't want
to lose my fitness.
That is not a good reason to cutyour recovery short in any way.

(01:01:52):
If it's just purely for the joyand for the movement, that is a
good reason, right?
Like Kevin said, as long asyou're not doing any more
damage, because you don't wantto have to, if you go out and
you push too hard or you do toomuch or you jump, Into soon,
you're just delaying your body'srecovery, and that's just going
to make whatever training blockyou go into next harder and is

(01:02:14):
going to set you up and increaseyour risk for injury, which we
don't want.
Obviously, the key and you guyshave heard us say this on so
many of our podcasts is to makesure that your body's actually
recovering From the hard stuff,running a hundred miles is the
hard stuff, right?
So you need to make sure thatyour body is recovered enough
that you can get back out theresafely and not do any further

(01:02:37):
damage.

Kevin (01:02:38):
Right.
So I think I'll, I'll get backout there this week.
I really would like to go for arun.
It sounds like a great plan.

Angie (01:02:44):
So when you go out for a run, what is your plan for that
run?
Like on your first run back,

Kevin (01:02:48):
my plan is to start by probably walking for five to 10
minutes and then Running for oneto two minutes and then taking
some walking breaks Like maybeone to two minute runs as I come
back.
It's kind of like how I cameback to running in april Is
essentially how I'm gonna comeback into it after surgery.
After surgery.

(01:03:09):
Mm-hmm Is ease my way back inand see how it goes.
There's no reason to rush backinto this.
Yeah, if the first run goes fineas like a very gentle run walk,
I can add more running the nexttime and then I can add a little
bit more running the next timeand eventually I'll be out there
running again.
I don't need to rush this thing.
It's gonna be just fine.

Angie (01:03:29):
Yeah, and I think that's really, really important, but it
is important, like you said, foryour mental health and for the
joy because you do just loverunning and moving your body and
getting out there.
And that's what I think is.
We really need to keep in mindis mobility and movement is
really good good for you As longas you're not pushing yourself
too hard going out for a walkthrowing in a little bit of

(01:03:50):
jogging in there These are allreally good ways to recover from
a marathon or a really hardworkout or race You just don't
want to jump in too much toosoon.

Kevin (01:03:59):
Yes, that seems like a good takeaway

Angie (01:04:00):
All right, any other final thoughts before we wrap
up?

Kevin (01:04:04):
Internal organs on the inside

Angie (01:04:05):
that is always a good idea.
Always

Kevin (01:04:07):
a good idea a good

Angie (01:04:08):
idea All right, so thank you to everyone that followed us
through this journey, both onInstagram that were following
our Instagram stories that dayand that have listened to these
podcasts.
We really appreciate it and welove all the support that we've
gotten from all of you.
So if you like this series andyou found it helpful, please
share it.
Leave us a review Spotify to letus know how much you enjoyed it.

(01:04:32):
And we'll be getting back to ourregular programming next week.
So as always, thanks for joiningus.
This has been the Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
395.
Now get out there and run yourlife.