May 1, 2025 • 57 mins
What drives someone to swim 24 miles, bike 1,120 miles, and then run 262 miles without stopping? Meet Robert Absug, an ultra-endurance athlete whose journey from college swimmer to extreme distance competitor reveals the fascinating psychology behind pursuing seemingly impossible physical challenges.
Robert's story begins with promise and heartbreak—a D1 college swimmer training for Olympic trials whose career ended abruptly due to a shoulder injury. After taking years off and finding himself overweight at 30, Robert decided to reclaim his athletic identity, starting with a 26-mile Tampa Bay swim. That decision sparked a progression through increasingly demanding challenges: marathons, Ironman competitions, a Triple Ironman (completed in just under 59 hours straight), and ultimately a Deca Ironman—ten times the traditional Ironman distance, requiring 12 days of nearly continuous movement with minimal sleep.
The physical toll was extraordinary. During his races, Robert experienced hallucinations, saw phantom semi-trucks blocking his path, and developed feet so swollen he needed oversized shoes with the sides cut out just to continue. Yet despite year-long recovery periods, he kept seeking the next challenge. As Robert explains, "I need that mental, physical challenge. I like that point where you welcome the pain like your old buddy."
This conversation goes beyond athletic achievements to explore deeper questions: What happens when an athlete loses their identity? Why do some people crave extreme challenges that most would consider impossible? How does the mind overcome when the body wants to quit? Whether you're an endurance athlete yourself or simply fascinated by the outer limits of human potential, Robert's experiences offer remarkable insights into the resilience of body and spirit.
For those inspired to explore ultra-endurance events, Robert recommends the supportive community found through Ultra Sign Up and local running groups. His next challenges? A 125-mile unsupported race through Florida wilderness and the Moab 240—pushing boundaries yet again.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're a driven, active person who wants to reach
and pursue a higher qualitylife with some ambition, then
guess what this podcast is foryou.
This is the Driven AthletePodcast.
What's up?
Y'all?
It's your man, dr Kyle.
Welcome back to the DrivenAthlete Podcast.
We got a really cool guest, alegend with ultra marathon,
(00:20):
ironman swimming Not a legend,mr Robert Absug.
I appreciate you coming in.
Thank you, tell us about whatyou're doing, what you do for a
living, and then how we ended upgetting in contact.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
All right, Well, I'm Rob Absug.
Like you said, I am a generalcontractor down here in South
Florida.
I've lived here for about 50years now down in South Florida,
and I build and renovatehigh-end custom homes uh, ground
up construction or large scalerenovations Pretty much what I
(00:56):
do, Okay?
So you're?
You're on your feet a lot Allday long, every day, climbing up
on a roof checking out what theguys are doing, walking through
the foundation over steel,reinforcing over concrete,
jumping, walking all day longaround the house, circling,
checking on guys, yeah, yeah.
Or I'm sitting in the cardriving to the next house and
(01:17):
checking on the next house,Gotcha.
So all in the field, verylittle office work and
constantly on my feet.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yep Gotcha, and then you reached out to me.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I did so I have a buddy that also.
So I do long distance racing,whether it's long distance
swimming, biking, running, longdistance triathlon, and when I
say long distance I mean likemultiple Ironman type races, a
hundred mile type run races, athousand mile bike long, long
(01:50):
stuff.
That's crazy.
So I have what I thought wasplantar fasciitis and being of
course, the expert diagnose thatI am not quite that's facetious
.
So I have a buddy that wasexperiencing the same thing and
he came to you and you solvedhis issues and dealt with his
(02:13):
feet and he's back up andrunning.
So I reached out to him, askedhim Leo Acosta, okay, yeah.
Asked him and he said go tothis guy, he's a genius, don't
know all that.
So I did, reached out to you,we set an appointment and, uh,
we're here cool, all right.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well, I appreciate that.
So, and we were working, I wasevaluating you, yes, and I was
like, tell me about what you doand stuff.
You're like, yeah, I run, I'mlike, okay, all like, okay, all
right, we got a, you know,weekend warrior, you know guy
likes to run a lot and stayactive, right, but I had no idea
at the level of what you weredoing, right, um, so tell us all
right, so let's dive in.
(02:53):
So you, you, you've doneIronman, I have, you've done
triple Ironman, I have DecaIronman, I have the cross the
state, like from the lake toocean, yep.
Ultra race, yep, and thenthousand long mile bikes, yep.
So I.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I'm old and slow so I am no longer fast where I can
beat the fast guys, the youngguys.
So as I got older I had to golonger.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I still don't win anymore, but this is where I'm
at, so using your experience toyour advantage versus sprints
yeah, I'm just too slow, can'tbeat the fast guys, just
finishing.
It is insane.
Um, all right, well, tell us,let's back up a little bit,
because I want to.
We'll get into those details,details.
So you were a swimmer incollege?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I did so.
I grew up swimmingcompetitively.
I started when I was four yearsold on a swim team and racing
my brother also, and eventuallyI swam D1, swam in college,
trained my entire life to swimand play water polo.
I was never going to make theOlympics but I was definitely
(04:07):
online for Olympic trials, coolNCAA kind of stuff, world-class
kind of ranked.
And I got hurt my freshman yearof college and hurt my
shoulders and that was the endof my swimming career on that
level.
Yeah.
So I took some years off, uh,lost in life for a little while
(04:31):
there.
Uh, imagine that you spend yourentire youth growing up with one
goal, one life.
And that was what we did.
We swam before practice beforeschool, went to school, swam in
the afternoon after school,lifted weights, went to swimming
again, went to water polopractice after that.
(04:53):
That was it, that was life,that was my life, with one goal
and that was to be best in theworld, at least up there with
the best in the world.
I was never going to be thebest.
I wasn't that good, but it was,I mean that's.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And then you made it.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You got a D1 opportunity, did had full ride
uh and then got hurt andunfortunately that was that.
So I took some years off.
Uh, wound up like most guys at30 years old had kids, was fat,
was heavy, looked in the mirrorone day and said what the heck
(05:33):
are you doing?
You're disgusting.
Disgusting is not the rightword, but in my head that's what
I was.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
For your own expectations.
Correct From where I was.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I'm an athlete Exactly for your own
expectations, from correct fromwhere it was.
Athlete exactly from where Iwas in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
there I am and uh said I gotta do something so
it's interesting you say that,like I, because I've myself
included, and then also peopleI've talked with where it's like
, was a previous competitiveindividual, played sports,
college athlete, that's over.
Yeah, my identity crisishappens.
Yeah, as in like I don't knowwho I am, like I'm missing, like
(06:08):
well, I don't know what to do.
You know, I couldn't evenimagine for, like pros, like
plays, you know multiple years,they just can't give it up.
You know what I mean.
Uh, or just can't let go insome fashion.
Anyway, I get it and I'm likeand there's a professional.
I was talking with a mentalhealth professional and they're
saying the same thing.
They were like there's like anidentity crisis.
They don't know who they are,what to do, what's the next step
(06:29):
?
Where do they get the samedrive or feel that they're
looking for it's very true.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
It's more than just a lifestyle.
It's who you are in your head,that competition, that need to
go extreme, whether it's extremelong distance racing or
whatever that may be.
It's not that I need to workout every day just to feel good.
It's in my head.
I have to have that drive to be.
(07:07):
It's not even drive to be thebest, but I have to have that
competitive feeling, thatpushing myself to the limit and
whether it's skydiving or I wentrock climbing and ice climbing,
whatever it is, I I need thatpush every day, or otherwise I
just I don't feel me.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It's tough and that leads to then like just a
trajectory in the not bestdirection.
Oh yeah, and then you were 30,you woke up and you're like what
, the what am I doing?
What am I doing?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, I mean, I looked in the mirror and I'm
like, oh, who is that guy that'slooking at me?
Yeah, so I got my butt back inshape.
I got back in the water whereI'm comfortable, where I am way
more comfortable swimming thanon land.
It was your element.
Yeah, yeah, so, and how manykids did you have at that point?
I had two kids then.
Yeah, okay, so you know, yeah,and they were nine and four, so
(07:57):
you had a kid.
Nine and five, you had a kidyoung.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Oh, I did, I was really young.
That's tough, that's tough,that's tough yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I did.
I was 21 when my first son wasborn.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So I got back in the pool, swam, swam for maybe three
or four months and I was likeall right, shoulders feel good,
they're not hurting me, Kneesfeel good, Everything feels okay
, let's do a race.
So I was at swimming on theocean one day and these guys
(08:31):
were talking about this TampaBay swim race.
I said Tampa Bay, what's upwith that?
So it's a 26-mile swim race.
I said I could do that, noproblem.
So I call up my brother, whohas always been my partner in
crime.
My best friend Also swam D1 andplayed water polo, played at.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Georgia Tech.
So you guys trained together.
Oh yeah, All growing up.
He's two years younger than me.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Okay, so we've always my best friend, always my
swimming companion, adventurer,up for anything.
Same personality, same he's me,yeah, yeah, cool.
So, hey, stu, what do you thinkabout a swim?
He also hadn't been swimmingand he's like sure, I'm in, I'm
in.
So we both swam Tampa Bay swimrace.
(09:18):
Okay, and we both did it.
He beat me.
Of course it's very funny.
Growing up, I always beat mybrother, it didn't matter what
it was, it could be baseball,swimming, soccer, football, it
doesn't matter Water polo.
Sure enough, this is the firstrace he ever beat me, and that
was he's beat me ever since.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Interesting.
So that was the first one heever beat you.
Yeah, wow, yeah.
So we did the Tampa Bay swimrace and- how long did you guys
train leading up to it?
Four months, okay, maybe so themonth.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So the mirror episode we were like, what am I doing
was right about my birthday inOctober and so and I guess it
was six months, because the swimis Earth Day in April oh, okay,
okay, gotcha.
So six months later, we swam it.
Cool, it was awesome.
Okay, how'd you feel after that?
A mess, the shoulders were amess, it was tough, it was a
hard swim, but we did it.
(10:12):
It was hilarious.
So you have to have a kayakerwith you to.
That's your support.
So, in long distance swimming,you can't you're, you can't
touch the bottom, you can't haveforward progress by anything.
You have to have your own aid.
That's with you.
This is a 12-hour swim.
Well, it's a 10-hour swim.
So we had a kayak with us andboth of our kayaks sank in the
(10:35):
middle of the race.
We had no idea what we weredoing.
I mean, we had towels andcoolers for old beer for the
guys that were kayaking andwater and Gatorade for us.
I had an extra bathing suitpacked.
I mean, what the heck am Igoing to need an extra bathing
suit for?
We didn't know.
And we were so packed down andit was a rough day and it was a
(10:55):
real chop in the Tampa Bay andboth of our kayaks sank.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It was hilarious.
So Coast Guard came, becausethey have a Coast Guard
patrolling around checking onthe race.
This is back before you had tohave a powerboat.
Now you have to have some sortof real powerboat with you.
Back then you didn't.
This was old school, this wasWild West.
Yeah, sure enough, the kayaksank.
It was hilarious.
(11:21):
Wow.
Coast Guard had to pull them up, and I'm not trying to water
for 30 minutes while they'refiguring that out.
I just kept on going.
Yeah, yeah, you have to useyour energy.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
And then they found us.
Oh, okay, it was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Wow, so they caught up to you guys.
Yeah, they caught it.
Coast Guard pulled the kayak upto us, found us Okay, we were
another direction.
And uh, wow.
So then, uh, to jump forwardthe next year maybe it was two
years, I think it was actuallythe next year we did it again,
the same.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Tampa Bay right, so you were, you were, your
shoulders were sore.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Your legs were sore.
Legs were fine, shoulders weresore, some burnt, but uh,
shoulders were definitely sore,man, I couldn't move my arms for
a little while after that, butwe kept swimming.
We swam Key West.
There's a race around Key West,so it's 12 and a half miles.
We swam that and he beat me inthat one too.
(12:15):
And that was the year after.
So the April Earth Day, aprilis the Tampa Bay race, june is
the swim around Key West.
Swam nationals, masters, oldpeople, nationals, masters, yeah
, yeah, a couple in betweenthere.
(12:36):
And then we swam again TampaBay race the next time.
And kayak didn't sink that time, but did, but he beat me again.
He beat you again, okay, uh.
So then we I've done this swamsome long distance races.
(12:56):
I did a couple sprint triathlons, like in there, what's that
look like.
So sprint triathlon was wasgreat for me, although it's a
very depressing race for me as aswimmer.
Basically, I'm first out of thewater.
I could still at that age afterbeing back in the water, I
could still win the swim.
So I could beat anybody.
Didn't matter what their loss,unless they were a D one college
(13:19):
swimmer that was out coming todo the race, I would still beat
them in the swim, even the prosdidn't matter.
But then I got passed byeverybody.
The entire race is spentgetting passed.
I get on the bike and I'm apretty good biker, could ride,
didn't matter.
I was so far ahead that all thepros would pass me, all the
guys that win pass me, and thenI suck at running, so it was all
(13:43):
downhill from that.
Okay, so we do a couple racesand, uh, I needed a new
challenge.
I needed something new.
I had done long distanceswimming, did an Olympic
distance race.
I'm like you know what, let'sdo an Ironman, okay.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So, and when was that ?
And with the tryout, the firstsprint triathlon you did?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
that was like your first running long distance
competition, uh actually the thefirst running long distance
competition I did was a marathonIn between that In between.
So I did a marathon and I waslike, all right, it was Palm
Beach Marathon, actually thefirst one I ever ran down here
(14:20):
Growing up, when I was a kid,down here they used to have a
fundraiser, the uh, March ofDimes marathon walks and uh, I
would walk it with my parents.
We did them the orange ballmarathon, March of Dimes walk.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Whatever, I was a little kid.
So first race, a run race Iever did was the Palm beach
marathon.
And uh, how old were you atthat point?
Oh, I was.
Oh, maybe 35, or so 30 nah 3332, 33.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
You're three years into the, into the long distance
.
Yeah, getting back into stuff,how did you feel?
How long did you train for thatmarathon, that first marathon?
No, I don't a few weeks maybeand just like I'm doing it.
Yeah, I just did the marathon.
How did your feet and your legsfeel after that?
I mean, mean, I was sore.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, so it's the.
I find training for all rightWinning is different than just
competing or just completing.
It's tough to win, it's toughto go fast, it's tough to be in
the top.
Just completing the race isn'thard Mentally it's tough.
(15:29):
Physically.
It's not that hard Any race.
I find.
It's the recovery afterwards.
That's tough If you're out ofshape.
The recovery, the injury.
All that stuff comes from doingthe races which you shouldn't
be doing.
But as far as finishing theraces, not that tough, like an
(15:49):
Ironman as an example, I thinkif you're a swimmer and you can
swim the distance, forget it,you don't have to be a swimmer.
But if you can make it throughthe swim, completing an Ironman
isn't that hard in the timeallowed.
Physically, mentally it's toughbecause you have seven hours of
walking, seven hours of sittingon a bicycle and you just got
(16:15):
to make the swim, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
All right, so I want to get into the Ironman for sure
.
Okay, so that was your firstmarathon.
You were 33, three years in,you were getting back into shape
and then you were like allright, I need something, I need
something else, let's combinethis.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Let's do this, let's do an Ironman.
So I need something else.
Let's combine this, let's dothis, let's do an Ironman.
So again, call up my bro.
How did you hear about theIronman?
There's a relatively local racein Claremont that they do that.
They just stopped doing itcalled the Great Floridian Great
race, highly recommended.
They don't have the distanceanymore, but he still puts on
races.
Great race in Claremont, toughcourse, uphills in Central,
(16:49):
tough course up hills in centralFlorida, our hills, yeah, yeah,
yeah.
So it was hard.
Came out of the water, crushedit, crushed the bike, did a good
job on the bike and then didthe run.
And my feet were a mess afterthe run.
Oh man, did my feet hurt?
So my brother, call up mybrother.
Before the race, my partneragain hey, stu, what do you
(17:10):
think?
He said sure, so he.
Before the race, my partneragain hey, stu, what do you
think he said sure, so he had abike.
I did not at the time and wedid the.
We both signed up for it.
Two weeks before the race, mybrother crashes, gets hit by a
car, breaks his collarbone andcouldn't do the race.
Wow.
So I did it and I did okay andit was fun, so I did the race,
(17:36):
borrowed a bike to do the race,bought a pair of bike shoes,
like three days before the race.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
My feet really hurt.
Okay, get done with the race.
My now wife came to watch therace.
She was really good friendswith my brother, so she came to
watch both of us do the race.
They went out to dinner afterthe race and I couldn't walk to
the bathroom.
My feet were such a mess I hadto crawl on my knees to go to
(18:08):
the bathroom.
In the middle of the night, youtold me the story yeah, and you
and that.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So what was the running distance for that 26.2.
So it was an Ironman just inClearmont.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Full Ironman in Clearmont Just not.
Not Ironman brand Got it, butfull Ironman distance, yeah,
race.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And clarify for everybody that's not familiar.
It's a 2.4 swim, 2.4 mile swim,112 mile bike, 112 mile bike,
26.2 run, and then a marathon.
After that, yep Back to back toback, back to back to back.
That's insane Because I know,like running a marathon, like
running 26.2 miles, I mean thattakes, how long would that take?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So if I most people if they go run the marathon
anywhere between four and a halfand five and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Four and a half and five and a half hours yeah.
After you do 112 mile bike anda 2.4 mile swim yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
And those are the slow guys.
The fast guys are still running240, 245.
Oh my gosh, they're so fast,that's nuts, they're amazing,
and that is not me.
So you did the Ironman, so I dothe Ironman.
And then I was like, all right,well, I did an Ironman, I got
to do something else.
So I signed up for a 50-milerun race.
Where was that one?
(19:22):
That is Brooksville.
Rails to trails Neededsomething.
Next, had already done it, didthe 50-mile run race.
No real training for oh, Ididn't know how to train for
anything like that, but I did it.
Uh, it was about 13 hours,something like that.
Wow, took me slow, super slow.
(19:44):
These guys are so fast, they'relike six hours, seven hours, my
gosh amazing.
Not me, yeah, but I did it anduh, uh, feet were okay.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Really yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Wasn't that bad.
I mean, they hurt but notterrible.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Were you training purposefully for that one?
After the marathon, you firstIronman?
You did no.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Okay, I would do some six mile runs, seven mile runs,
but not really Okay.
I didn't know, didn't know whatI was doing, but I was young so
it was okay, it didn't matter.
You know, when you're young itdoesn't really make a difference
.
You could do anything.
Just do whatever you want.
Yeah, you'll recover, it'll befine.
Yeah, you'll be fine.
So I did that.
And then I needed somethingelse.
I was like all right, so I'vedone an Ironman, done a 50 mile
(20:27):
bike race.
What do we got next?
I read about this race calledthe triple Ironman.
Back then it was always held inHuntsville, alabama, but this
was one of the first years itwas moved to out in Virginia.
Okay so, triple Ironman a 7.2mile swim, 336 bike and 78 run
(20:49):
triple marathon at the end.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So do so.
Do you like?
Do you do?
An iron man, another iron man,another man, it's all in a row.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
No swim, it's all three swim, so it's 7.2.
Complete swim 300.
You hop out of the water, jumpon the bike.
336 straight bike.
Get off the bike in 78.6, 78.6miles run after that.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, oh my gosh, it was awesome.
It was awesome.
So, what's like you?
I mean in the water, it's likeyou have to.
You can't take breaks, really,because you have to tread water,
but the bike would you be ableto get off the bike and take a
break?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
So it's running clock .
You could sit as long as youwant.
There's a time limit of 60hours, so you have to finish it
within 60 hours, but it'srunning clock.
So if you want to take a fourhour nap and you're fast enough
to be able to do that, the guythat won did that.
(21:47):
He was amazing.
Name, lived in New York City andall he did was train on a
treadmill and a bike.
Because he couldn't at the timecouldn't, whatever reason.
He didn't train outside.
He went on and he ran Badwater,badwater's 135 mile run race
through Death Valley.
So this guy was amazing,crushed me by hours and hours
(22:09):
and hours and hours and hours.
But anyway, so back to yourquestion is yeah, it's running
clock.
Uh, you, if you want to sit,you can sit.
If you don't want to sit, youwant to try to do faster time,
do faster time.
Took me 58 hours and 59 minutes.
58 hours and 59 minutesstraight.
Wow, I mean I sat for a coupletimes for like 10 minutes here
(22:29):
and there, but it was prettymuch straight racing, my gosh,
that was-.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Were you like delirious halfway through?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
That was pretty cool too, on the run, for sure.
There was one time when I wasrunning and I saw a semi truck
parked all the way across theroad, perpendicular to the road,
and I stopped because I thoughtI was going to walk into this
semi truck.
There was no semi truck thatwas there, it was all in my head
.
My God, I was like wait asecond.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
There's nothing there .
Speaker 2 (23:00):
You're like walking out with your hands up Like yeah
, yeah, yeah I saw elephantswith balloons in a tree, what I
don't know where it came from,but that was my hallucination.
Wow, that was a hard race, thatwas a tough one.
(23:25):
So I've done other races thatare long and I've gone, but the
sleep deprivation and the, justthe tiredness was tough.
The swim piece of cake I setthe record in the swim for the
triple Ironman.
Wow, no problem.
Oh, and, by the way, my brotheralso.
I called him up and said hey,Stu, let's do the triple Ironman
.
He said absolutely Okay, Signedup and first lap on the bike.
(23:48):
He crashed and broke his othercollarbone.
Oh no.
So he's never been on a bikesince, really Not one time.
Two races, two trains, twobroken collarbones that's it, oh
my gosh.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
So yeah, and how old were you guys at this point for
this triple?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
2001.
So I'm off on my time for themarathon I was 32.
Okay, so the marathon and allthat stuff happened when I was
31.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
it was only one year, one year after signing up the
first timpabay yeah wow, okay,yeah, cool, no, I'm off.
So you're like right, rightaway, I'm like more yeah.
So, yeah, how old were you forthe?
For this first triple?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I was 31 hadn't turned 32 yet wow, okay, so that
was real fast.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, quick turnaround.
All within all, within twoyears.
Wow so then, and yeah, how didyou after that?
I mean, I imagine the sleepdeprivation my feet were a mess,
feet were killing you Always.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
It's always my feet is what it is.
I mean, I was sore everywhereelse and I was tired.
We went to a ward ceremony.
Afterwards I don't remembergoing.
I have pictures of me there.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Like straight afterwards or like tomorrow
morning.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
No, I finished the race, go back to the hotel.
Oh, here's a good one too.
So I had monster blisters allover my feet.
Back then, I didn't know whatto do about blisters, so I put
duct tape over the top of them.
Oh my gosh, duct tape.
I read about that once Put ducttape on, you'll be fine.
So imagine pulling that ducttape off and ripping the skin
(25:28):
off all those blisters in thebathtub.
So did that?
Fell asleep after I did that.
Wife gets me up.
And I was married still at thattime.
She still married me, though.
Imagine that.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
And so my father-in-law.
So did she help you pull theduct tape off?
No, she heard me screaming,though In the bathroom she's
like don come in here.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
My father-in-law came to watch the race.
He wasn't my father-in-law yetand my wife told this story.
Actually, my father-in-law toldthe story when we got married,
at the wedding that mywife-to-be Karen said he's doing
great.
He's doing great, Dad.
He only has one marathon leftto run.
(26:14):
And he was like, oh my God,who's this nut?
But yeah, still married me.
So anyway, the recovery ispretty tough.
It was my feet that were rough,but it wasn't that A couple
months, not a big deal, and didit.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
So I do the triple iron man.
How long did it take you tofeel like you could put shoes on
and walk normal after that?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
That one wasn't too bad, just a few months A few
months.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah, it's like slip her shoe on, go to the grocery
store.
Yeah, not too bad, but beforethat it was like you had to walk
pretty ginger.
Oh yeah, put on band-aids andoh yeah, whatever feet are nuts,
but yeah, but that wasn't toobad.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
So just a couple months, okay.
So do the triple iron man.
What am I gonna do now?
Now I gotta do something.
So I did a deck iron man,signed up for the deck iron man,
so you know what the tripleironman is.
That's three times the distance.
Deck Ironman is 10 times thedistance.
So it was 24 mile swim, 1,120mile bike and 262 mile run.
(27:21):
My gosh, and it was all justlike the triple Ironman.
It was straight 24 mile swim,straight 1,120 mile bike and
straight 262 mile run oh my goshthat seems un, that seems like
unreachable.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
It was hard and what is it the same like are you able
to?
Is there a time cap same?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
thing.
It's, uh, 14 days, 13 days.
I want to say something likethat is, maybe it's 12 days.
I don't remember something likethat Running clock.
Sleep when you can sleep, restwhen you can rest, do as little
as it of possible and try to win.
And uh, I did really well.
(28:04):
Actually, I was the top rankedAmerican at the race, my gosh.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Uh, and what year was this your?
Your first Ironman was that, orthe triple was 2001.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
This is the next year , probably 2002.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
A year later You're like let's, let's triple this
amount.
Yeah, let's triple this triple.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I needed something else, yeah, so, oh my gosh, so I
did it.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So I did that.
So you have a 13 day, 12 daycap 12, 13 day cap on it and it
was basically 21 hours a day ofracing.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
You would sleep for like three hours a day for 11
days.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
My gosh, it was tough .
Speaker 2 (28:48):
That race was hard the triple really the sleep
deprivation.
And mentally the triple wastougher.
Mentally it was harder.
It was harder to keep going andracing the triple.
Physically, the DECA was muchtougher for me.
(29:09):
Again, I didn't know what I wasdoing.
I had no idea about training.
I trained just like I alwaysdid I swam.
So I swam and I ran, some biked.
Maybe the longest distance bikeride I had done before this was
50 miles.
Longest distance run was intraining.
Longest distance run was intraining 13 miles, something
(29:33):
like that.
I mean I never sleepdeprivation.
I didn't know what to do aboutthat.
It was gone.
These people had big crews thatcame.
Some of them had physios therewith massage therapists and
doctors and bike mechanics.
I went by myself, just showedup, just went.
Yeah, in fact I had my molarspulled the week before my face
(29:58):
was still a swollen mess as Igot off the airplane.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Wow, it was pretty funny.
Usually they don't let peopleto swim for like three weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, my dentist told me no, but I just did it, it'll
be fine.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
It'll be fine.
Infection, it's okay, I'll dealwith it.
Was it saltwater?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
No, so the swim was in a pool.
It's a 50 meter long coursepool, so it was 24 miles in a
pool Just going laps back andforth, laps back and forth, back
and forth.
For me that was no big deal.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
That was your thing.
Yeah, I mean, it was 10 hours,so it was not that big a deal.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
So I did the 10 hours , got off, I rode for I want to
say 24 hours or so Straight.
I got off a couple of times,got a snack, so you didn't sleep
, I did not sleep.
So it's 34 hours, right, I wentthe first 30 ish hours without
sleep, something like that, wow.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
And then you got off your bike and then eventually
got off the bike and you naplike on the road, like is it on
this, is this?
Speaker 2 (31:01):
So there's the other tough part.
It was actually a mile loop, soyou had to go 1,120 mile loops
on the bike, which mentally washorrendous.
The good thing is you got offthe bike.
You did the same loop on therun, but in the opposite
direction, so you got a littleexcitement.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, like we're going different left instead of
right.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, exactly, they caught someone cheating in that
race.
It was a mile loop and one guywould cut the course in the
center through the woods, andthey caught him.
You believe that Someone wouldcheat?
Wow, why would they do that?
I don't know.
I mean, there's no prize.
Yeah, what do you get?
A trophy.
Yeah, you had to cheat for thetrophy Wow, unbelievable.
(31:43):
So now the recovery on the run.
So when I knew I was tired andI needed to sit for a little
while is when I would hit 40minute miles.
Now, slow 40 minute miles arewalking.
Think about that.
Your slowest walk.
You're meandering through themall, looking at shop, at stores
(32:03):
or whatever.
Yeah, you're 25 minutes.
This was 40 minute miles.
Oh my gosh, it was so slow.
I had my shoe, so I wear a size10 shoe.
I borrowed someone's size 12shoe.
My feet were so swollen and cutthe sides so that my feet would
(32:30):
fit in those shoes.
Yeah, wow, yeah, wow.
This is when crocs very firstcame out.
So and someone went and boughta pair of crocs and cut the
sides so my feet would be fit inthe crocs.
Oh, it's terrible wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
So how did you?
So you felt solid after theswim?
Yep, the bike.
You started going and you feltsolid after the bike.
Solid's not the right word, butI was okay, solid up to what
point on the bike, because Imean 1100 and 500 miles.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
600 miles until the bike felt okay.
Last 500 miles were tough onthe mentally.
Mentally the last 300 plusmiles super hard on the bike.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
In what way Like mentally hard.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
What do you mean?
Just wanted to be off the bikealready.
Your tush hurts, your legs hurt, you're bent over, you're
hunched over, and I mean it.
Just it's uncomfortable.
You're tired of the mile loop,you're tired of the monotony.
It's hot this was in Hawaii, soit was hot.
It was humid during the day.
(33:34):
You're still going at nighttime, which actually happens to be
my favorite time to ride and run, because normally I just like
the sound of the wind and nonoise, and that's all you are.
You don't know where you are.
You kind of feel like you're ina tunnel.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
But it was hard to get through the night.
You're tired, you're hungry,you're nauseous, just mentally
want to be off the bike.
You just want to be walking atthat point.
So that was really hard.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
How long did that bike, that 1100 mile bike take?
I'm going to say about fivedays Five, oh my gosh, something
like that, which is like take anap, come, wake up, get back on
the bike.
Yeah, 10 hours of time, take anap, or 20.
How, 20.
You do 20 hours of bike ride.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
You get off, you have breakfast and breakfast.
So my wife came the second weekand my daughter I think she was
one at this point in time, soyou know she didn't even
recognize me.
She had more than nothing to dowith me.
My wife and daughter come andthis was on Oahu the island.
(34:42):
So she would pick up a SubwaySub this is my nutrition, okay.
She would bring me a Subway Suband I would sit and I would
have a bite of this, eat alittle bit of the Subway Subway.
She came the second week of therace and my daughter would be
in the stroller and we wouldwalk the mile loop.
That was there With them, withthem.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Oh, that's cool.
It was really cool because youwere allowed to have a crew.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
You were there, so you were allowed to.
That was my crew.
It's like my wife and strollerdaughter in the store.
Yeah, because I'm walking 40minute miles.
Yeah, pushing the stroller isno big deal, that 40 minute mile
now.
Yeah, and they lasted one loopand they were out of there.
Really, they said we're goingback to honolulu and they would
go and they drive back and theywould leave me all day and that
was my subway sandwich is what Iate and uh, yeah, then I would
(35:29):
get back.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Oh my gosh.
So I mean I, I can imagine themonotony, your butthurts, your
legs are tired, you just want toget off and that took five days
.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Oh yeah, so 10 hours swim, five days of biking Five
days of bike and then five daysof run and walk.
Meandering, walk, yeah, Iwouldn't call it a run.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
It was a death march.
Yeah, did you run at?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
all, maybe the first three miles out of 10 miles in
the beginning.
The rest was just a death march.
It was nonstop stumbling forward, walking.
I can't imagine it was tough.
Mentally there was no problemonce I got off the bike.
(36:17):
So the walking was okaymentally.
Physically it was hard.
Mentally it was no problem.
No hallucinations, nothing likethat.
It was just physically.
It was really.
That was tough and the recoverywas tough.
There that's when my feet werereally a mess.
I can't imagine we're not.
This is a year, it was a fullyear before my feet didn't hurt
(36:41):
anymore.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
So the death march, the 76, what was it?
78 mile 262.
Sorry, I was thinking thetriple, hey, don't cut me short.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, 262.
Sorry, I was thinking thetriple, hey, don't cut me short.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, 262.
That's right, 10.
262 miles, death march, yeah,and that took five days.
Yeah, when you were getting upto like mile 261 and you're like
(37:05):
I got one left, I ran, you ranit.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
I ran into.
Well, not the whole lap, but Idefinitely ran the last quarter
mile into the finish.
Oh yeah, taking photos.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, for sure.
That's a oh my gosh.
And then what we have?
Did you just collapse like justlay down and just my wife was
really angry at me.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
She did not want me to do this race.
We were married and I had aone-year-old daughter.
Yeah, and my wife had beendealing with my one-year-old
daughter for two weeks in Oahuand where was your son, or two
sons?
They did not come to this race,they had school, so they were
with my parents at home and Iwas gone a long time, like two
(37:55):
weeks.
So I was gone a week before therace two weeks and my wife said
we're going to the Four Seasonsand here's your daughter.
And so I'm this mess.
I've been racing for 11 days.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
This is a zombie, zombie.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I could barely walk.
My feet are a mess.
I'm sunburned, I'm just notgood.
My wife said here's Julia.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah, take her.
Yep, your turn, your turn, andyou're like sure, for sure, I
got you.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I love you, babes, of course, totally, absolutely,
I'm ready to go and my daughterwanted nothing to do with me
because she I looked a mess.
I mean, my face is swollen fromthe sun, um, dehydrated.
I hadn't shaved in three weeksand she didn't know who I was.
And it was pretty funny, mygosh.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
So when were you able to like?
I imagine that night you sleptpretty good.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
You know, after a race it's interesting After a
race like that, even in Ironman,for me it's you're hot and cold
at the same time.
You have chills, but you'rejust sweating and uncomfortable.
You're hungry, but you'renauseous, so you want to eat,
but just nothing tastes good orfeels good.
(39:13):
Everything's just nausea.
You have a headache, but yourbody aches and it hurts to sit
down.
It hurts to lie down, but yourbrain is wired.
You're still running, so you'restill completely wired, but you
can't sit down and relax, butyou have no energy whatsoever to
(39:35):
walk anywhere, and so that'swhat's going on in your head.
So no, there's no sleep, it's it.
It takes a while, at least forme to get back into it.
Yeah, you, you completely crashfor a couple hours because your
body just shuts down.
There's finally.
There's like your body says,all right, I'm going to relax,
(39:57):
I'm done, and you crash, butit's, it's not a peaceful, it's
not like a REM sleep, it's notlike, oh, it's kind of like a
night of drinking.
You go and you drink all nightand you're like you pass out,
but it's not a good sleep thistimes 10.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Yeah, I bet, oh my gosh, the question always, I'm
sure, and I'm clear to myselfwhy, that's a good question Like
, hey, this is what I'm doing,honey, I want you to stay with
the daughter.
Kids are going to stay home.
I'm going to travel a weekearly because I'm going to do
this Deca Ironman.
It's going to take 12 days,absolute misery.
I'm going to be sunburned,swollen, like absolutely wrecked
(40:35):
feet.
My body's going to be terriblysore.
It's a death march.
It's not a race Like at the end, this is what I want to do.
Why?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I just need it.
It's just a part of me.
I need that challenge and I hadalready done the shorter stuff.
I needed something else and Idon't know.
It's just, it's who I am, it'swho I am.
So when I trained for that Iactually did train a little bit
for this it was running on atreadmill in the dark in my room
(41:08):
, no TV, no radio, lights off,just running.
It's.
I need that.
I need that mental, physicalchallenge, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
When you did finish, was there a point where you were
like like pretty satisfied Likeman, like I did that high five,
I feel good Like about, likethis is man is really great
accomplishment.
No, yeah, I mean I was happywith myself.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I feel good Like about, like this is man.
That's really greataccomplishment.
No, yeah, I mean I was happywith myself, I was glad I did it
, but I was looking for the nextthing almost immediately Went
back to swim practice.
When I got back swimming in thepool, I got interviewed.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
How, when, when did you start swim practice like
swimming training again?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Oh a week, two weeks, oh my gosh, something like that
, no feet just swimming.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Yeah, that's true.
What kind of what was yourphysique at that point?
Like I was in good shape.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
I wasn't old and fat like I am now.
I was in pretty good shape backthen.
So again, recovery wasn't bad,except for my feet.
So again, recovery wasn't bad,except for my feet.
It took a good six monthsbefore I could walk without my
feet hurting, and a year before,over a year probably before I
(42:22):
could run.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
So you didn't run in between, you just swam, I just
swam.
Did you lift weights at all?
Yeah, like your body core andstuff.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
I did Back then.
I would lift weights quite abit, uh, with a buddy of mine,
personal trainer, so I wouldlift with him and we did all
core body type movements.
Wouldn't say I lifted heavy,but it was swimming lifting yeah
, you're lifting for your sport,correct your competition,
(42:50):
exactly.
And it was all total body stuff.
It was, uh I can't think of theword off the top of my head,
but all kinds of reaching thestuff that we do in there, that
which is great, all mobilitythings like that, yeah, and uh,
actually a lot of the sameexercises that you have me doing
for the rehab is stuff that wedid.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Nice Well that's good .
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah, it's a good setup for it's plyometrics,
right.
Some plyos, yeah, stuff likethat.
It was great On the ball withthe balance but utilizing all
the muscles, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Yeah, that would be just like balance stability
training.
Plyometrics would be like boxjumps.
It was not that Agilitytraining and jumping and stuff.
Uh, jump rope okay, yeah, yeah,but it was a lot.
That's like, that's a greatform of training for running,
like when we rehab people backto like running and stuff.
Jump rope was one of the one ofthe progressions.
Yeah, because it mimics theimpact and it's double leg, so
it's not single leg impact.
(43:44):
When you do, you know if youwant to do double leg jump rope
and it just prepares your, yourjoints and your feet, ankles,
achilles and stuff for the samekind of repetitive motion impact
and it's hard, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Yeah, I mean you think, well, if jump rope big
deal, no, it's hard, yeah.
So we did a lot of that stuff.
And then the recovery is tough.
But I did an interview with theMiami Sun Sentinel I guess it
wasn't Miami Herald, the SunSentinel, I guess it wasn't
Miami Herald, the Sun Sentinelback then I'm dating myself
because they really hadnewspapers so yeah, with the Sun
(44:16):
Sentinel, and they asked me thesame question why, what are you
doing?
What's next?
So I told them I'm going to dothe double, double deca, a
double deca.
Yeah, but I did not do it.
Life got in the way.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Yeah, but I did not do it, life got in the way.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, that would havebeen, I could, and that's the
same thing, just straightstraight 48 swim, 48 mile swim,
2200.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yeah, 2200 bike and 520 run.
How many who's done that?
There are a few people thathave done.
They have a race every year.
Actually, I think it's everytwo years they do the double
deca.
It's in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
My God, and that takes a month.
It's 30 day cutoff, 30 day cap.
Yeah, it's like guys, we've got30 days, we've got 30 days, go
on, I get out.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know howpeople take off for that long,
oh my gosh, that's insane.
I don't know what their feetlook like after that.
On mine it would be a mess.
How many people do you think inthe world have done a deca?
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Oh, I don't know, maybe 100, 200.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
200 people in the world yeah, maybe 200 people and
then a double deca.
I would imagine half of that.
Less Quarter than that world.
Yeah, maybe 200 people and thena double deca.
I would imagine half of that,less quarter than that, probably
less 20 people in the wholeworld.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
20 people, oh my gosh now probably I could go, do it
not in an organized event, butyeah wow and so, but you wanted
to, yeah, oh, for sure I wouldstill love to do it.
I would do it if I could take30 days off of work and away
from the family now.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
But I can't.
Yeah, that's when life gets inthe way.
Man, that's crazy.
I don't.
It's weird, I don't really havea desire to do that.
It's just not like longdistance training, for, as of
the current walk of life thatI'm in right now, my current
vision on I'm like I just don'thave a desire to do that, my
current vision on the I'm like Ijust don't have a desire to do
that I can understand that,which is I was just how, I was
(46:17):
just me, but, um, I like thepain, you know I.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
There was a guy I think it was Eric Hyden who
wants who.
I read a book.
He's a speed skater.
Uh, he was in the Olympics, Iguess, probably eighties or so,
and he would say you have towelcome the pain, Like it's your
old buddy.
That's when you know thatyou're you've reached that point
.
When you're you're that pointin a race you know you're doing.
Well, it's like, hey, there youare, how you doing, pal, yeah,
we meet again.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Thanks for joining me .
Yeah, that's what's that likemellow song, it's like hello
darkness, my old friend.
Yeah, yeah, here we go, heydarkness.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
I like that point.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Yeah, interesting, I don't disagree with you.
Like I mean, I get enjoymentout of that too, maybe just a
satisfaction afterwards of likethe challenge.
You know what I mean afterwardsof like the challenge, you know
, because I definitely have someinstances of like my
personality somewhat similar, asin like, um, I have to, like I
just it's I do, I have the metal.
(47:19):
Can I do this?
You know, I gotta challengemyself.
I have to prove to myself thatI can do this.
Yeah, nobody else is even likesaying you know, you don't have
to do this.
No, you're like this isdangerous.
There's a time like, as anexample, I remember a similar
mental situation Like thesurfing is like one of my
favorite things to do, right, soI haven't surfed in like a year
(47:40):
and a half, two years becauselife gets in the way you know.
Yeah, we're in the practice,we're having kids and like I'm
like I can't just like have adrop of a hat and go surf, um,
but anyway, I was, uh, I justfinished college and I was about
to go to grad school and, uh,there was a huge hurricane that
was just came and like arefraction swell was.
Anyway it was, it was huge andit was here in Juneau.
(48:02):
Okay, it was massive, like oneof the biggest days this area
has ever seen and, um, nobodywas out and I was like I gotta
go, I have to, I have to go, Igotta paddle out.
And I was like I got to go, Ihave to, I have to go.
I got to paddle out and Ididn't really.
I mean I don't, I surfedgrowing up but like never really
like officially lessons andlike know what to do and you
know training and stuff likethat.
I was mediocre, you know what Imean.
(48:23):
I could stand up and like makeit happen, but like I wasn't a
pro by any means, but anyway.
So I was like I have to go,like I can't not take this
opportunity, you know.
But anyway, I paddled out likeoff of like north of Marcinski,
you know, okay, so betweenJuneau Beach and like the
Jupiter Inlet area, sure, andthe current was so aggressive
(48:49):
going south, so it was like anorth swell coming in, so the
current was going south.
It took me forever to paddleout.
The waves were 15 feet, like itwas massive.
Oh, that's awesome, yeah, forthis area.
That's big, yeah, and it'saggressive.
And I paddled out and I was bymyself, there's nobody else out
there and I made it out becauseI was like in shape and I could
put myself in the situation.
I made it out the paddle and,uh, it was a hard paddle and I
(49:12):
was so deep that, um, I justfloated past the pier by, like I
was probably a hundred yardsbeyond the other there's like
the wake buoys, and beyond theJuno, like a bound piers.
I was past the buoy, thosebuoys, those wake buoys, wow,
and I just floated past the pier.
There are people fishing outthere.
(49:33):
These, these and these freakingmassive waves are coming in and
I was more of like if I getcaught inside, like we're in the
waves, if I don't make it out,if a rogue set comes in, uh,
like I'm, I'm effed, like I needto make sure I'm deep enough.
So if set would come and I'dpaddle out and make sure I'm not
get caught, I was more worriedabout just not dying than like
actually catching a wave.
And when, when I was floatingpast the pier and I've already
drifted a mile at this point,sure, you know, cause I'm like
(49:54):
up by the inlet almost, and Idrifted all the way.
I mean a couple of miles, I'mjust drifting, you know, mass.
I'm like how am I going to getin now?
You know, that's awesome.
So I'm drifting past and there,god, like you're a human, Like
and I was floating, I remembereven before I saw this guy,
there was all these bait fishjumping around me.
(50:17):
I'm and I'm by my and I'm reallydeep and I'm like I pulled my
feet up and my hands up and I'mjust like drifting at this point
and I'm like please don't havea's.
Like good day, mate, you know.
And I'm like this is every dayfor him.
Yeah, he's like good, no, mike,I can't.
Like this is insane.
Nobody else was out, you know.
(50:38):
And then he, uh, I paddled, Idrifted past him.
I think he caught a wave.
I tried to catch some waves.
I didn't not even catching anyand I just paddled in, um,
beyond past loggerhead beach.
Wow, yeah, I drifted multiple,like so a couple miles, a
handful of miles.
Oh, that's great.
And anyway, looking back, I'mlike why did I do that?
Like it was just a matter of mebeing like I have to try.
(50:59):
Yeah, I can't do.
I have the metal to make thishappen.
That's great.
And uh, anyway, the challenge,you know, I did it, but I didn't
even catch any waves, it's allright, you got out there and the
wind was really hard offshoretoo.
So the times that I did catch,when I was trying to paddle for
some the spray was in my face, Icouldn't even see and I was
like I bailed.
And I was like I can't even see.
I would look down this drop in,and I have like a 15 foot drop
(51:22):
and I'm like I can't even see.
I bailed, you know I was.
And then I'm like, oh shoot,now I'm too deep and I had to
paddle back out again.
I started to get caught insideand it was just that, over and
over and over again, with baitfish jumping around me and some
things were nipping my foot andI was like, oh my gosh, I'm
going to die.
That was crazy.
But you lived, but I lived, Imade it.
(51:43):
But anyway, that's a somewhatsimilar story of like just got
to challenge myself, just got todo it.
It's weird.
Yeah, no, I get it.
So what's next then?
Right now, so I've been doingsome long running races.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
You mentioned Lake to Ocean.
Yeah, is a really cool one,which I tried two years ago and
I didn't make the time cut offon it.
So again, I am fat, old andslow so I could make the
distances.
I have a hard time making therun cutoff times that are there.
(52:19):
So this was a hundred K.
It's a little shorter but it'sfrom Lake Okeechobee to Hobe
Sound beach and that one.
The next one's the NMA.
If my feet are okay and I'mwith you trying to fix those
feet so that I could do it,that's a.
It's a really cool race.
So it's all through the, the,the parks that are along the way
(52:39):
Dupuy park, corbett park, uh,through JD a little bit.
So it's through the Everglades.
So you're wading through waterthat's up to your knees.
There's a couple of pointsthat's up to your hip that
you're going through and thenyou run on.
It's all trails.
So you're through the trails,through the mangroves, through
(53:00):
the cypress, through the pinetrees in the middle, and the
route takes you meandering allthe way from Lake Okeechobee to
Hobson Beach.
Oh my gosh, full raves, really,really fun.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
I mean, what about alligators?
Yeah, they're out there.
And pythons?
Yeah, you see, python I neversaw.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Okay, that would be pretty cool.
I haven't seen the python.
Lots of alligators.
You always see the alligatorsout there, deer Hogs.
I've seen bobcat out there.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
So I mean, what do you do with alligators?
Speaker 2 (53:31):
They don't bother you .
You just wave to them hey.
No, I'm just kidding, you justkeep going.
I've never had one like acrossthe path, blocking the path.
That would be a little scary,but you see them when you're out
running there.
They have a neat one that'scalled the Just Survive 125.
So you think the one way istough Just survive 125.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
It's actually both ways Down and back.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah, so you start in Hope Sound, you run to Lake
Okeechobee and you come back.
So that's, that is January 2ndor 3rd, something like that.
I'm signed up for that one.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
You signed up, oh yeah.
Oh my gosh, that's insane.
I have a.
How long does that take that?
Speaker 2 (54:09):
is.
I think it's a 24 hour.
I don't remember something likethat.
Wow 28 hour no sleep, maybe alittle longer than 28 hours,
yeah, no sleep.
In fact, there's no aid.
You're not allowed to crewthere, oh my goodness.
And no aid stations.
So you have, you're allowed toput out in five designated spots
(54:30):
.
You could put out your ownlittle setup of what you want.
So you have like a call it aHome Depot bucket Like, and you
could put that out there and youhave a gallon of water in there
and you have some snags.
So no backpack.
You can carry whatever you want, but it's hard to make the time
(54:51):
.
And then, as you get to thatdesignated spot, you refill your
water.
Those are the only spots you'reallowed to put something at and
you're not allowed to have anyaid from anybody else.
There's no aid stations.
You know, like in a marathon ora 5K race, whatever, to have
the guys that hand you cups ofwater.
There's nothing in that.
(55:11):
Wow, it's all in that.
Wow, it's all on your own.
So that's a pretty cool race,my gosh.
That's in January.
In October I have the Moab 240.
It's actually November.
Set up, it's 240 miles throughMoab Desert.
It's up the mountains, down themountains, all over Running or
bike Running, my gosh.
So you better heal my feetbecause I got a lot of stuff to
(55:32):
do, man yeah seriously, nopressure.
Yeah Well, I'm going to doeverything I can.
Well, you're amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
So so far so good, well, I appreciate that.
No, well, I'm going to doeverything I can to get your
feet right so we can keep yougoing on these crazy, crazy runs
.
Well, let's land the plane.
If people want to get into this, where do they start?
Speaker 2 (55:57):
So Ultra Sign Up is a website online.
They have all the ultradistance running races.
It is a fantastic community,everybody's great.
I got to tell you it's.
One of the big draws to ultradistance running for me is the
community Supportive community,everybody's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (56:14):
I've never had anybody not be nice and I
imagine I mean, in order to getinto that and do those things,
there has to be a massive amountof humility.
Speaker 2 (56:23):
Yeah, you're failing constantly.
I mean, the challenge is justto finish, so it is, and
everybody is great.
The challenge is just to finish, so it is, and everybody is
great.
Of course, everybody has adviceNot all of it always good, but
everybody has advice and it'salways from a good place,
well-intentioned, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah, and so Ultra SignUp.
It's a great local communitythat's out here.
(56:45):
Just go out to Corbett Park andyou'll see people running
Anywhere JD, jonathan Dickinson,anywhere that's around, uh, and
it's great Cool.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
I really enjoy it.
I can appreciate that.
Well, I appreciate you comingin.
I know you're a busy guy,business owner, family guy.
Um, yeah, I appreciate youcoming out and sharing more of
your story, hopefullyencouraging people to to do some
of these things and take somemore challenge in their own life
, you know, yeah.
But thanks again and if y'allhave any questions, don't
hesitate to reach out.
We're always open to comments,questions concerns suggestions,
(57:17):
and if you have any pain or likethat, you can always reach out.
We can at least chat on thephone and see what you have
going on, if we can help you,and we'll catch y'all next time.
If you're a driven, active person who wants to reach
and pursue a higher qualitylife with some ambition, then
guess what this podcast is foryou.
This is the Driven AthletePodcast.
What's up?
Y'all?
It's your man, dr Kyle.
Welcome back to the DrivenAthlete Podcast.
We got a really cool guest, alegend with ultra marathon,
(00:20):
ironman swimming Not a legend,mr Robert Absug.
I appreciate you coming in.
Thank you, tell us about whatyou're doing, what you do for a
living, and then how we ended upgetting in contact.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
All right, Well, I'm Rob Absug.
Like you said, I am a generalcontractor down here in South
Florida.
I've lived here for about 50years now down in South Florida,
and I build and renovatehigh-end custom homes uh, ground
up construction or large scalerenovations Pretty much what I
(00:56):
do, Okay?
So you're?
You're on your feet a lot Allday long, every day, climbing up
on a roof checking out what theguys are doing, walking through
the foundation over steel,reinforcing over concrete,
jumping, walking all day longaround the house, circling,
checking on guys, yeah, yeah.
Or I'm sitting in the cardriving to the next house and
(01:17):
checking on the next house,Gotcha.
So all in the field, verylittle office work and
constantly on my feet.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yep Gotcha, and then you reached out to me.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I did so I have a buddy that also.
So I do long distance racing,whether it's long distance
swimming, biking, running, longdistance triathlon, and when I
say long distance I mean likemultiple Ironman type races, a
hundred mile type run races, athousand mile bike long, long
(01:50):
stuff.
That's crazy.
So I have what I thought wasplantar fasciitis and being of
course, the expert diagnose thatI am not quite that's facetious
.
So I have a buddy that wasexperiencing the same thing and
he came to you and you solvedhis issues and dealt with his
(02:13):
feet and he's back up andrunning.
So I reached out to him, askedhim Leo Acosta, okay, yeah.
Asked him and he said go tothis guy, he's a genius, don't
know all that.
So I did, reached out to you,we set an appointment and, uh,
we're here cool, all right.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well, I appreciate that.
So, and we were working, I wasevaluating you, yes, and I was
like, tell me about what you doand stuff.
You're like, yeah, I run, I'mlike, okay, all like, okay, all
right, we got a, you know,weekend warrior, you know guy
likes to run a lot and stayactive, right, but I had no idea
at the level of what you weredoing, right, um, so tell us all
right, so let's dive in.
(02:53):
So you, you, you've doneIronman, I have, you've done
triple Ironman, I have DecaIronman, I have the cross the
state, like from the lake toocean, yep.
Ultra race, yep, and thenthousand long mile bikes, yep.
So I.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I'm old and slow so I am no longer fast where I can
beat the fast guys, the youngguys.
So as I got older I had to golonger.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I still don't win anymore, but this is where I'm
at, so using your experience toyour advantage versus sprints
yeah, I'm just too slow, can'tbeat the fast guys, just
finishing.
It is insane.
Um, all right, well, tell us,let's back up a little bit,
because I want to.
We'll get into those details,details.
So you were a swimmer incollege?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I did so.
I grew up swimmingcompetitively.
I started when I was four yearsold on a swim team and racing
my brother also, and eventuallyI swam D1, swam in college,
trained my entire life to swimand play water polo.
I was never going to make theOlympics but I was definitely
(04:07):
online for Olympic trials, coolNCAA kind of stuff, world-class
kind of ranked.
And I got hurt my freshman yearof college and hurt my
shoulders and that was the endof my swimming career on that
level.
Yeah.
So I took some years off, uh,lost in life for a little while
(04:31):
there.
Uh, imagine that you spend yourentire youth growing up with one
goal, one life.
And that was what we did.
We swam before practice beforeschool, went to school, swam in
the afternoon after school,lifted weights, went to swimming
again, went to water polopractice after that.
(04:53):
That was it, that was life,that was my life, with one goal
and that was to be best in theworld, at least up there with
the best in the world.
I was never going to be thebest.
I wasn't that good, but it was,I mean that's.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And then you made it.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You got a D1 opportunity, did had full ride
uh and then got hurt andunfortunately that was that.
So I took some years off.
Uh, wound up like most guys at30 years old had kids, was fat,
was heavy, looked in the mirrorone day and said what the heck
(05:33):
are you doing?
You're disgusting.
Disgusting is not the rightword, but in my head that's what
I was.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
For your own expectations.
Correct From where I was.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I'm an athlete Exactly for your own
expectations, from correct fromwhere it was.
Athlete exactly from where Iwas in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
there I am and uh said I gotta do something so
it's interesting you say that,like I, because I've myself
included, and then also peopleI've talked with where it's like
, was a previous competitiveindividual, played sports,
college athlete, that's over.
Yeah, my identity crisishappens.
Yeah, as in like I don't knowwho I am, like I'm missing, like
(06:08):
well, I don't know what to do.
You know, I couldn't evenimagine for, like pros, like
plays, you know multiple years,they just can't give it up.
You know what I mean.
Uh, or just can't let go insome fashion.
Anyway, I get it and I'm likeand there's a professional.
I was talking with a mentalhealth professional and they're
saying the same thing.
They were like there's like anidentity crisis.
They don't know who they are,what to do, what's the next step
(06:29):
?
Where do they get the samedrive or feel that they're
looking for it's very true.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
It's more than just a lifestyle.
It's who you are in your head,that competition, that need to
go extreme, whether it's extremelong distance racing or
whatever that may be.
It's not that I need to workout every day just to feel good.
It's in my head.
I have to have that drive to be.
(07:07):
It's not even drive to be thebest, but I have to have that
competitive feeling, thatpushing myself to the limit and
whether it's skydiving or I wentrock climbing and ice climbing,
whatever it is, I I need thatpush every day, or otherwise I
just I don't feel me.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It's tough and that leads to then like just a
trajectory in the not bestdirection.
Oh yeah, and then you were 30,you woke up and you're like what
, the what am I doing?
What am I doing?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, I mean, I looked in the mirror and I'm
like, oh, who is that guy that'slooking at me?
Yeah, so I got my butt back inshape.
I got back in the water whereI'm comfortable, where I am way
more comfortable swimming thanon land.
It was your element.
Yeah, yeah, so, and how manykids did you have at that point?
I had two kids then.
Yeah, okay, so you know, yeah,and they were nine and four, so
(07:57):
you had a kid.
Nine and five, you had a kidyoung.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Oh, I did, I was really young.
That's tough, that's tough,that's tough yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I did.
I was 21 when my first son wasborn.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So I got back in the pool, swam, swam for maybe three
or four months and I was likeall right, shoulders feel good,
they're not hurting me, Kneesfeel good, Everything feels okay
, let's do a race.
So I was at swimming on theocean one day and these guys
(08:31):
were talking about this TampaBay swim race.
I said Tampa Bay, what's upwith that?
So it's a 26-mile swim race.
I said I could do that, noproblem.
So I call up my brother, whohas always been my partner in
crime.
My best friend Also swam D1 andplayed water polo, played at.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Georgia Tech.
So you guys trained together.
Oh yeah, All growing up.
He's two years younger than me.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Okay, so we've always my best friend, always my
swimming companion, adventurer,up for anything.
Same personality, same he's me,yeah, yeah, cool.
So, hey, stu, what do you thinkabout a swim?
He also hadn't been swimmingand he's like sure, I'm in, I'm
in.
So we both swam Tampa Bay swimrace.
(09:18):
Okay, and we both did it.
He beat me.
Of course it's very funny.
Growing up, I always beat mybrother, it didn't matter what
it was, it could be baseball,swimming, soccer, football, it
doesn't matter Water polo.
Sure enough, this is the firstrace he ever beat me, and that
was he's beat me ever since.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Interesting.
So that was the first one heever beat you.
Yeah, wow, yeah.
So we did the Tampa Bay swimrace and- how long did you guys
train leading up to it?
Four months, okay, maybe so themonth.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So the mirror episode we were like, what am I doing
was right about my birthday inOctober and so and I guess it
was six months, because the swimis Earth Day in April oh, okay,
okay, gotcha.
So six months later, we swam it.
Cool, it was awesome.
Okay, how'd you feel after that?
A mess, the shoulders were amess, it was tough, it was a
hard swim, but we did it.
(10:12):
It was hilarious.
So you have to have a kayakerwith you to.
That's your support.
So, in long distance swimming,you can't you're, you can't
touch the bottom, you can't haveforward progress by anything.
You have to have your own aid.
That's with you.
This is a 12-hour swim.
Well, it's a 10-hour swim.
So we had a kayak with us andboth of our kayaks sank in the
(10:35):
middle of the race.
We had no idea what we weredoing.
I mean, we had towels andcoolers for old beer for the
guys that were kayaking andwater and Gatorade for us.
I had an extra bathing suitpacked.
I mean, what the heck am Igoing to need an extra bathing
suit for?
We didn't know.
And we were so packed down andit was a rough day and it was a
(10:55):
real chop in the Tampa Bay andboth of our kayaks sank.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It was hilarious.
So Coast Guard came, becausethey have a Coast Guard
patrolling around checking onthe race.
This is back before you had tohave a powerboat.
Now you have to have some sortof real powerboat with you.
Back then you didn't.
This was old school, this wasWild West.
Yeah, sure enough, the kayaksank.
It was hilarious.
(11:21):
Wow.
Coast Guard had to pull them up, and I'm not trying to water
for 30 minutes while they'refiguring that out.
I just kept on going.
Yeah, yeah, you have to useyour energy.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
And then they found us.
Oh, okay, it was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Wow, so they caught up to you guys.
Yeah, they caught it.
Coast Guard pulled the kayak upto us, found us Okay, we were
another direction.
And uh, wow.
So then, uh, to jump forwardthe next year maybe it was two
years, I think it was actuallythe next year we did it again,
the same.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Tampa Bay right, so you were, you were, your
shoulders were sore.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Your legs were sore.
Legs were fine, shoulders weresore, some burnt, but uh,
shoulders were definitely sore,man, I couldn't move my arms for
a little while after that, butwe kept swimming.
We swam Key West.
There's a race around Key West,so it's 12 and a half miles.
We swam that and he beat me inthat one too.
(12:15):
And that was the year after.
So the April Earth Day, aprilis the Tampa Bay race, june is
the swim around Key West.
Swam nationals, masters, oldpeople, nationals, masters, yeah
, yeah, a couple in betweenthere.
(12:36):
And then we swam again TampaBay race the next time.
And kayak didn't sink that time, but did, but he beat me again.
He beat you again, okay, uh.
So then we I've done this swamsome long distance races.
(12:56):
I did a couple sprint triathlons, like in there, what's that
look like.
So sprint triathlon was wasgreat for me, although it's a
very depressing race for me as aswimmer.
Basically, I'm first out of thewater.
I could still at that age afterbeing back in the water, I
could still win the swim.
So I could beat anybody.
Didn't matter what their loss,unless they were a D one college
(13:19):
swimmer that was out coming todo the race, I would still beat
them in the swim, even the prosdidn't matter.
But then I got passed byeverybody.
The entire race is spentgetting passed.
I get on the bike and I'm apretty good biker, could ride,
didn't matter.
I was so far ahead that all thepros would pass me, all the
guys that win pass me, and thenI suck at running, so it was all
(13:43):
downhill from that.
Okay, so we do a couple racesand, uh, I needed a new
challenge.
I needed something new.
I had done long distanceswimming, did an Olympic
distance race.
I'm like you know what, let'sdo an Ironman, okay.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So, and when was that ?
And with the tryout, the firstsprint triathlon you did?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
that was like your first running long distance
competition, uh actually the thefirst running long distance
competition I did was a marathonIn between that In between.
So I did a marathon and I waslike, all right, it was Palm
Beach Marathon, actually thefirst one I ever ran down here
(14:20):
Growing up, when I was a kid,down here they used to have a
fundraiser, the uh, March ofDimes marathon walks and uh, I
would walk it with my parents.
We did them the orange ballmarathon, March of Dimes walk.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Whatever, I was a little kid.
So first race, a run race Iever did was the Palm beach
marathon.
And uh, how old were you atthat point?
Oh, I was.
Oh, maybe 35, or so 30 nah 3332, 33.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
You're three years into the, into the long distance
.
Yeah, getting back into stuff,how did you feel?
How long did you train for thatmarathon, that first marathon?
No, I don't a few weeks maybeand just like I'm doing it.
Yeah, I just did the marathon.
How did your feet and your legsfeel after that?
I mean, mean, I was sore.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, so it's the.
I find training for all rightWinning is different than just
competing or just completing.
It's tough to win, it's toughto go fast, it's tough to be in
the top.
Just completing the race isn'thard Mentally it's tough.
(15:29):
Physically.
It's not that hard Any race.
I find.
It's the recovery afterwards.
That's tough If you're out ofshape.
The recovery, the injury.
All that stuff comes from doingthe races which you shouldn't
be doing.
But as far as finishing theraces, not that tough, like an
(15:49):
Ironman as an example, I thinkif you're a swimmer and you can
swim the distance, forget it,you don't have to be a swimmer.
But if you can make it throughthe swim, completing an Ironman
isn't that hard in the timeallowed.
Physically, mentally it's toughbecause you have seven hours of
walking, seven hours of sittingon a bicycle and you just got
(16:15):
to make the swim, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
All right, so I want to get into the Ironman for sure
.
Okay, so that was your firstmarathon.
You were 33, three years in,you were getting back into shape
and then you were like allright, I need something, I need
something else, let's combinethis.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Let's do this, let's do an Ironman.
So I need something else.
Let's combine this, let's dothis, let's do an Ironman.
So again, call up my bro.
How did you hear about theIronman?
There's a relatively local racein Claremont that they do that.
They just stopped doing itcalled the Great Floridian Great
race, highly recommended.
They don't have the distanceanymore, but he still puts on
races.
Great race in Claremont, toughcourse, uphills in Central,
(16:49):
tough course up hills in centralFlorida, our hills, yeah, yeah,
yeah.
So it was hard.
Came out of the water, crushedit, crushed the bike, did a good
job on the bike and then didthe run.
And my feet were a mess afterthe run.
Oh man, did my feet hurt?
So my brother, call up mybrother.
Before the race, my partneragain hey, stu, what do you
(17:10):
think?
He said sure, so he.
Before the race, my partneragain hey, stu, what do you
think he said sure, so he had abike.
I did not at the time and wedid the.
We both signed up for it.
Two weeks before the race, mybrother crashes, gets hit by a
car, breaks his collarbone andcouldn't do the race.
Wow.
So I did it and I did okay andit was fun, so I did the race,
(17:36):
borrowed a bike to do the race,bought a pair of bike shoes,
like three days before the race.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
My feet really hurt.
Okay, get done with the race.
My now wife came to watch therace.
She was really good friendswith my brother, so she came to
watch both of us do the race.
They went out to dinner afterthe race and I couldn't walk to
the bathroom.
My feet were such a mess I hadto crawl on my knees to go to
(18:08):
the bathroom.
In the middle of the night, youtold me the story yeah, and you
and that.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So what was the running distance for that 26.2.
So it was an Ironman just inClearmont.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Full Ironman in Clearmont Just not.
Not Ironman brand Got it, butfull Ironman distance, yeah,
race.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And clarify for everybody that's not familiar.
It's a 2.4 swim, 2.4 mile swim,112 mile bike, 112 mile bike,
26.2 run, and then a marathon.
After that, yep Back to back toback, back to back to back.
That's insane Because I know,like running a marathon, like
running 26.2 miles, I mean thattakes, how long would that take?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So if I most people if they go run the marathon
anywhere between four and a halfand five and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Four and a half and five and a half hours yeah.
After you do 112 mile bike anda 2.4 mile swim yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
And those are the slow guys.
The fast guys are still running240, 245.
Oh my gosh, they're so fast,that's nuts, they're amazing,
and that is not me.
So you did the Ironman, so I dothe Ironman.
And then I was like, all right,well, I did an Ironman, I got
to do something else.
So I signed up for a 50-milerun race.
Where was that one?
(19:22):
That is Brooksville.
Rails to trails Neededsomething.
Next, had already done it, didthe 50-mile run race.
No real training for oh, Ididn't know how to train for
anything like that, but I did it.
Uh, it was about 13 hours,something like that.
Wow, took me slow, super slow.
(19:44):
These guys are so fast, they'relike six hours, seven hours, my
gosh amazing.
Not me, yeah, but I did it anduh, uh, feet were okay.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Really yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Wasn't that bad.
I mean, they hurt but notterrible.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Were you training purposefully for that one?
After the marathon, you firstIronman?
You did no.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Okay, I would do some six mile runs, seven mile runs,
but not really Okay.
I didn't know, didn't know whatI was doing, but I was young so
it was okay, it didn't matter.
You know, when you're young itdoesn't really make a difference
.
You could do anything.
Just do whatever you want.
Yeah, you'll recover, it'll befine.
Yeah, you'll be fine.
So I did that.
And then I needed somethingelse.
I was like all right, so I'vedone an Ironman, done a 50 mile
(20:27):
bike race.
What do we got next?
I read about this race calledthe triple Ironman.
Back then it was always held inHuntsville, alabama, but this
was one of the first years itwas moved to out in Virginia.
Okay so, triple Ironman a 7.2mile swim, 336 bike and 78 run
(20:49):
triple marathon at the end.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So do so.
Do you like?
Do you do?
An iron man, another iron man,another man, it's all in a row.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
No swim, it's all three swim, so it's 7.2.
Complete swim 300.
You hop out of the water, jumpon the bike.
336 straight bike.
Get off the bike in 78.6, 78.6miles run after that.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, oh my gosh, it was awesome.
It was awesome.
So, what's like you?
I mean in the water, it's likeyou have to.
You can't take breaks, really,because you have to tread water,
but the bike would you be ableto get off the bike and take a
break?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
So it's running clock .
You could sit as long as youwant.
There's a time limit of 60hours, so you have to finish it
within 60 hours, but it'srunning clock.
So if you want to take a fourhour nap and you're fast enough
to be able to do that, the guythat won did that.
(21:47):
He was amazing.
Name, lived in New York City andall he did was train on a
treadmill and a bike.
Because he couldn't at the timecouldn't, whatever reason.
He didn't train outside.
He went on and he ran Badwater,badwater's 135 mile run race
through Death Valley.
So this guy was amazing,crushed me by hours and hours
(22:09):
and hours and hours and hours.
But anyway, so back to yourquestion is yeah, it's running
clock.
Uh, you, if you want to sit,you can sit.
If you don't want to sit, youwant to try to do faster time,
do faster time.
Took me 58 hours and 59 minutes.
58 hours and 59 minutesstraight.
Wow, I mean I sat for a coupletimes for like 10 minutes here
(22:29):
and there, but it was prettymuch straight racing, my gosh,
that was-.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Were you like delirious halfway through?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
That was pretty cool too, on the run, for sure.
There was one time when I wasrunning and I saw a semi truck
parked all the way across theroad, perpendicular to the road,
and I stopped because I thoughtI was going to walk into this
semi truck.
There was no semi truck thatwas there, it was all in my head
.
My God, I was like wait asecond.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
There's nothing there .
Speaker 2 (23:00):
You're like walking out with your hands up Like yeah
, yeah, yeah I saw elephantswith balloons in a tree, what I
don't know where it came from,but that was my hallucination.
Wow, that was a hard race, thatwas a tough one.
(23:25):
So I've done other races thatare long and I've gone, but the
sleep deprivation and the, justthe tiredness was tough.
The swim piece of cake I setthe record in the swim for the
triple Ironman.
Wow, no problem.
Oh, and, by the way, my brotheralso.
I called him up and said hey,Stu, let's do the triple Ironman
.
He said absolutely Okay, Signedup and first lap on the bike.
(23:48):
He crashed and broke his othercollarbone.
Oh no.
So he's never been on a bikesince, really Not one time.
Two races, two trains, twobroken collarbones that's it, oh
my gosh.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
So yeah, and how old were you guys at this point for
this triple?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
2001.
So I'm off on my time for themarathon I was 32.
Okay, so the marathon and allthat stuff happened when I was
31.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
it was only one year, one year after signing up the
first timpabay yeah wow, okay,yeah, cool, no, I'm off.
So you're like right, rightaway, I'm like more yeah.
So, yeah, how old were you forthe?
For this first triple?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I was 31 hadn't turned 32 yet wow, okay, so that
was real fast.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, quick turnaround.
All within all, within twoyears.
Wow so then, and yeah, how didyou after that?
I mean, I imagine the sleepdeprivation my feet were a mess,
feet were killing you Always.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
It's always my feet is what it is.
I mean, I was sore everywhereelse and I was tired.
We went to a ward ceremony.
Afterwards I don't remembergoing.
I have pictures of me there.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Like straight afterwards or like tomorrow
morning.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
No, I finished the race, go back to the hotel.
Oh, here's a good one too.
So I had monster blisters allover my feet.
Back then, I didn't know whatto do about blisters, so I put
duct tape over the top of them.
Oh my gosh, duct tape.
I read about that once Put ducttape on, you'll be fine.
So imagine pulling that ducttape off and ripping the skin
(25:28):
off all those blisters in thebathtub.
So did that?
Fell asleep after I did that.
Wife gets me up.
And I was married still at thattime.
She still married me, though.
Imagine that.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
And so my father-in-law.
So did she help you pull theduct tape off?
No, she heard me screaming,though In the bathroom she's
like don come in here.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
My father-in-law came to watch the race.
He wasn't my father-in-law yetand my wife told this story.
Actually, my father-in-law toldthe story when we got married,
at the wedding that mywife-to-be Karen said he's doing
great.
He's doing great, Dad.
He only has one marathon leftto run.
(26:14):
And he was like, oh my God,who's this nut?
But yeah, still married me.
So anyway, the recovery ispretty tough.
It was my feet that were rough,but it wasn't that A couple
months, not a big deal, and didit.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
So I do the triple iron man.
How long did it take you tofeel like you could put shoes on
and walk normal after that?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
That one wasn't too bad, just a few months A few
months.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah, it's like slip her shoe on, go to the grocery
store.
Yeah, not too bad, but beforethat it was like you had to walk
pretty ginger.
Oh yeah, put on band-aids andoh yeah, whatever feet are nuts,
but yeah, but that wasn't toobad.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
So just a couple months, okay.
So do the triple iron man.
What am I gonna do now?
Now I gotta do something.
So I did a deck iron man,signed up for the deck iron man,
so you know what the tripleironman is.
That's three times the distance.
Deck Ironman is 10 times thedistance.
So it was 24 mile swim, 1,120mile bike and 262 mile run.
(27:21):
My gosh, and it was all justlike the triple Ironman.
It was straight 24 mile swim,straight 1,120 mile bike and
straight 262 mile run oh my goshthat seems un, that seems like
unreachable.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
It was hard and what is it the same like are you able
to?
Is there a time cap same?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
thing.
It's, uh, 14 days, 13 days.
I want to say something likethat is, maybe it's 12 days.
I don't remember something likethat Running clock.
Sleep when you can sleep, restwhen you can rest, do as little
as it of possible and try to win.
And uh, I did really well.
(28:04):
Actually, I was the top rankedAmerican at the race, my gosh.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Uh, and what year was this your?
Your first Ironman was that, orthe triple was 2001.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
This is the next year , probably 2002.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
A year later You're like let's, let's triple this
amount.
Yeah, let's triple this triple.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I needed something else, yeah, so, oh my gosh, so I
did it.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So I did that.
So you have a 13 day, 12 daycap 12, 13 day cap on it and it
was basically 21 hours a day ofracing.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
You would sleep for like three hours a day for 11
days.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
My gosh, it was tough .
Speaker 2 (28:48):
That race was hard the triple really the sleep
deprivation.
And mentally the triple wastougher.
Mentally it was harder.
It was harder to keep going andracing the triple.
Physically, the DECA was muchtougher for me.
(29:09):
Again, I didn't know what I wasdoing.
I had no idea about training.
I trained just like I alwaysdid I swam.
So I swam and I ran, some biked.
Maybe the longest distance bikeride I had done before this was
50 miles.
Longest distance run was intraining.
Longest distance run was intraining 13 miles, something
(29:33):
like that.
I mean I never sleepdeprivation.
I didn't know what to do aboutthat.
It was gone.
These people had big crews thatcame.
Some of them had physios therewith massage therapists and
doctors and bike mechanics.
I went by myself, just showedup, just went.
Yeah, in fact I had my molarspulled the week before my face
(29:58):
was still a swollen mess as Igot off the airplane.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Wow, it was pretty funny.
Usually they don't let peopleto swim for like three weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, my dentist told me no, but I just did it, it'll
be fine.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
It'll be fine.
Infection, it's okay, I'll dealwith it.
Was it saltwater?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
No, so the swim was in a pool.
It's a 50 meter long coursepool, so it was 24 miles in a
pool Just going laps back andforth, laps back and forth, back
and forth.
For me that was no big deal.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
That was your thing.
Yeah, I mean, it was 10 hours,so it was not that big a deal.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
So I did the 10 hours , got off, I rode for I want to
say 24 hours or so Straight.
I got off a couple of times,got a snack, so you didn't sleep
, I did not sleep.
So it's 34 hours, right, I wentthe first 30 ish hours without
sleep, something like that, wow.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
And then you got off your bike and then eventually
got off the bike and you naplike on the road, like is it on
this, is this?
Speaker 2 (31:01):
So there's the other tough part.
It was actually a mile loop, soyou had to go 1,120 mile loops
on the bike, which mentally washorrendous.
The good thing is you got offthe bike.
You did the same loop on therun, but in the opposite
direction, so you got a littleexcitement.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, like we're going different left instead of
right.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, exactly, they caught someone cheating in that
race.
It was a mile loop and one guywould cut the course in the
center through the woods, andthey caught him.
You believe that Someone wouldcheat?
Wow, why would they do that?
I don't know.
I mean, there's no prize.
Yeah, what do you get?
A trophy.
Yeah, you had to cheat for thetrophy Wow, unbelievable.
(31:43):
So now the recovery on the run.
So when I knew I was tired andI needed to sit for a little
while is when I would hit 40minute miles.
Now, slow 40 minute miles arewalking.
Think about that.
Your slowest walk.
You're meandering through themall, looking at shop, at stores
(32:03):
or whatever.
Yeah, you're 25 minutes.
This was 40 minute miles.
Oh my gosh, it was so slow.
I had my shoe, so I wear a size10 shoe.
I borrowed someone's size 12shoe.
My feet were so swollen and cutthe sides so that my feet would
(32:30):
fit in those shoes.
Yeah, wow, yeah, wow.
This is when crocs very firstcame out.
So and someone went and boughta pair of crocs and cut the
sides so my feet would be fit inthe crocs.
Oh, it's terrible wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
So how did you?
So you felt solid after theswim?
Yep, the bike.
You started going and you feltsolid after the bike.
Solid's not the right word, butI was okay, solid up to what
point on the bike, because Imean 1100 and 500 miles.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
600 miles until the bike felt okay.
Last 500 miles were tough onthe mentally.
Mentally the last 300 plusmiles super hard on the bike.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
In what way Like mentally hard.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
What do you mean?
Just wanted to be off the bikealready.
Your tush hurts, your legs hurt, you're bent over, you're
hunched over, and I mean it.
Just it's uncomfortable.
You're tired of the mile loop,you're tired of the monotony.
It's hot this was in Hawaii, soit was hot.
It was humid during the day.
(33:34):
You're still going at nighttime, which actually happens to be
my favorite time to ride and run, because normally I just like
the sound of the wind and nonoise, and that's all you are.
You don't know where you are.
You kind of feel like you're ina tunnel.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
But it was hard to get through the night.
You're tired, you're hungry,you're nauseous, just mentally
want to be off the bike.
You just want to be walking atthat point.
So that was really hard.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
How long did that bike, that 1100 mile bike take?
I'm going to say about fivedays Five, oh my gosh, something
like that, which is like take anap, come, wake up, get back on
the bike.
Yeah, 10 hours of time, take anap, or 20.
How, 20.
You do 20 hours of bike ride.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
You get off, you have breakfast and breakfast.
So my wife came the second weekand my daughter I think she was
one at this point in time, soyou know she didn't even
recognize me.
She had more than nothing to dowith me.
My wife and daughter come andthis was on Oahu the island.
(34:42):
So she would pick up a SubwaySub this is my nutrition, okay.
She would bring me a Subway Suband I would sit and I would
have a bite of this, eat alittle bit of the Subway Subway.
She came the second week of therace and my daughter would be
in the stroller and we wouldwalk the mile loop.
That was there With them, withthem.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Oh, that's cool.
It was really cool because youwere allowed to have a crew.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
You were there, so you were allowed to.
That was my crew.
It's like my wife and strollerdaughter in the store.
Yeah, because I'm walking 40minute miles.
Yeah, pushing the stroller isno big deal, that 40 minute mile
now.
Yeah, and they lasted one loopand they were out of there.
Really, they said we're goingback to honolulu and they would
go and they drive back and theywould leave me all day and that
was my subway sandwich is what Iate and uh, yeah, then I would
(35:29):
get back.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Oh my gosh.
So I mean I, I can imagine themonotony, your butthurts, your
legs are tired, you just want toget off and that took five days
.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Oh yeah, so 10 hours swim, five days of biking Five
days of bike and then five daysof run and walk.
Meandering, walk, yeah, Iwouldn't call it a run.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
It was a death march.
Yeah, did you run at?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
all, maybe the first three miles out of 10 miles in
the beginning.
The rest was just a death march.
It was nonstop stumbling forward, walking.
I can't imagine it was tough.
Mentally there was no problemonce I got off the bike.
(36:17):
So the walking was okaymentally.
Physically it was hard.
Mentally it was no problem.
No hallucinations, nothing likethat.
It was just physically.
It was really.
That was tough and the recoverywas tough.
There that's when my feet werereally a mess.
I can't imagine we're not.
This is a year, it was a fullyear before my feet didn't hurt
(36:41):
anymore.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
So the death march, the 76, what was it?
78 mile 262.
Sorry, I was thinking thetriple, hey, don't cut me short.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, 262.
Sorry, I was thinking thetriple, hey, don't cut me short.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, 262.
That's right, 10.
262 miles, death march, yeah,and that took five days.
Yeah, when you were getting upto like mile 261 and you're like
(37:05):
I got one left, I ran, you ranit.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
I ran into.
Well, not the whole lap, but Idefinitely ran the last quarter
mile into the finish.
Oh yeah, taking photos.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, for sure.
That's a oh my gosh.
And then what we have?
Did you just collapse like justlay down and just my wife was
really angry at me.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
She did not want me to do this race.
We were married and I had aone-year-old daughter.
Yeah, and my wife had beendealing with my one-year-old
daughter for two weeks in Oahuand where was your son, or two
sons?
They did not come to this race,they had school, so they were
with my parents at home and Iwas gone a long time, like two
(37:55):
weeks.
So I was gone a week before therace two weeks and my wife said
we're going to the Four Seasonsand here's your daughter.
And so I'm this mess.
I've been racing for 11 days.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
This is a zombie, zombie.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I could barely walk.
My feet are a mess.
I'm sunburned, I'm just notgood.
My wife said here's Julia.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah, take her.
Yep, your turn, your turn, andyou're like sure, for sure, I
got you.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I love you, babes, of course, totally, absolutely,
I'm ready to go and my daughterwanted nothing to do with me
because she I looked a mess.
I mean, my face is swollen fromthe sun, um, dehydrated.
I hadn't shaved in three weeksand she didn't know who I was.
And it was pretty funny, mygosh.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
So when were you able to like?
I imagine that night you sleptpretty good.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
You know, after a race it's interesting After a
race like that, even in Ironman,for me it's you're hot and cold
at the same time.
You have chills, but you'rejust sweating and uncomfortable.
You're hungry, but you'renauseous, so you want to eat,
but just nothing tastes good orfeels good.
(39:13):
Everything's just nausea.
You have a headache, but yourbody aches and it hurts to sit
down.
It hurts to lie down, but yourbrain is wired.
You're still running, so you'restill completely wired, but you
can't sit down and relax, butyou have no energy whatsoever to
(39:35):
walk anywhere, and so that'swhat's going on in your head.
So no, there's no sleep, it's it.
It takes a while, at least forme to get back into it.
Yeah, you, you completely crashfor a couple hours because your
body just shuts down.
There's finally.
There's like your body says,all right, I'm going to relax,
(39:57):
I'm done, and you crash, butit's, it's not a peaceful, it's
not like a REM sleep, it's notlike, oh, it's kind of like a
night of drinking.
You go and you drink all nightand you're like you pass out,
but it's not a good sleep thistimes 10.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Yeah, I bet, oh my gosh, the question always, I'm
sure, and I'm clear to myselfwhy, that's a good question Like
, hey, this is what I'm doing,honey, I want you to stay with
the daughter.
Kids are going to stay home.
I'm going to travel a weekearly because I'm going to do
this Deca Ironman.
It's going to take 12 days,absolute misery.
I'm going to be sunburned,swollen, like absolutely wrecked
(40:35):
feet.
My body's going to be terriblysore.
It's a death march.
It's not a race Like at the end, this is what I want to do.
Why?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I just need it.
It's just a part of me.
I need that challenge and I hadalready done the shorter stuff.
I needed something else and Idon't know.
It's just, it's who I am, it'swho I am.
So when I trained for that Iactually did train a little bit
for this it was running on atreadmill in the dark in my room
(41:08):
, no TV, no radio, lights off,just running.
It's.
I need that.
I need that mental, physicalchallenge, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
When you did finish, was there a point where you were
like like pretty satisfied Likeman, like I did that high five,
I feel good Like about, likethis is man is really great
accomplishment.
No, yeah, I mean I was happywith myself.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I feel good Like about, like this is man.
That's really greataccomplishment.
No, yeah, I mean I was happywith myself, I was glad I did it
, but I was looking for the nextthing almost immediately Went
back to swim practice.
When I got back swimming in thepool, I got interviewed.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
How, when, when did you start swim practice like
swimming training again?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Oh a week, two weeks, oh my gosh, something like that
, no feet just swimming.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Yeah, that's true.
What kind of what was yourphysique at that point?
Like I was in good shape.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
I wasn't old and fat like I am now.
I was in pretty good shape backthen.
So again, recovery wasn't bad,except for my feet.
So again, recovery wasn't bad,except for my feet.
It took a good six monthsbefore I could walk without my
feet hurting, and a year before,over a year probably before I
(42:22):
could run.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
So you didn't run in between, you just swam, I just
swam.
Did you lift weights at all?
Yeah, like your body core andstuff.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
I did Back then.
I would lift weights quite abit, uh, with a buddy of mine,
personal trainer, so I wouldlift with him and we did all
core body type movements.
Wouldn't say I lifted heavy,but it was swimming lifting yeah
, you're lifting for your sport,correct your competition,
(42:50):
exactly.
And it was all total body stuff.
It was, uh I can't think of theword off the top of my head,
but all kinds of reaching thestuff that we do in there, that
which is great, all mobilitythings like that, yeah, and uh,
actually a lot of the sameexercises that you have me doing
for the rehab is stuff that wedid.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Nice Well that's good .
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah, it's a good setup for it's plyometrics,
right.
Some plyos, yeah, stuff likethat.
It was great On the ball withthe balance but utilizing all
the muscles, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Yeah, that would be just like balance stability
training.
Plyometrics would be like boxjumps.
It was not that Agilitytraining and jumping and stuff.
Uh, jump rope okay, yeah, yeah,but it was a lot.
That's like, that's a greatform of training for running,
like when we rehab people backto like running and stuff.
Jump rope was one of the one ofthe progressions.
Yeah, because it mimics theimpact and it's double leg, so
it's not single leg impact.
(43:44):
When you do, you know if youwant to do double leg jump rope
and it just prepares your, yourjoints and your feet, ankles,
achilles and stuff for the samekind of repetitive motion impact
and it's hard, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Yeah, I mean you think, well, if jump rope big
deal, no, it's hard, yeah.
So we did a lot of that stuff.
And then the recovery is tough.
But I did an interview with theMiami Sun Sentinel I guess it
wasn't Miami Herald, the SunSentinel, I guess it wasn't
Miami Herald, the Sun Sentinelback then I'm dating myself
because they really hadnewspapers so yeah, with the Sun
(44:16):
Sentinel, and they asked me thesame question why, what are you
doing?
What's next?
So I told them I'm going to dothe double, double deca, a
double deca.
Yeah, but I did not do it.
Life got in the way.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Yeah, but I did not do it, life got in the way.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, that would havebeen, I could, and that's the
same thing, just straightstraight 48 swim, 48 mile swim,
2200.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yeah, 2200 bike and 520 run.
How many who's done that?
There are a few people thathave done.
They have a race every year.
Actually, I think it's everytwo years they do the double
deca.
It's in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
My God, and that takes a month.
It's 30 day cutoff, 30 day cap.
Yeah, it's like guys, we've got30 days, we've got 30 days, go
on, I get out.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know howpeople take off for that long,
oh my gosh, that's insane.
I don't know what their feetlook like after that.
On mine it would be a mess.
How many people do you think inthe world have done a deca?
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Oh, I don't know, maybe 100, 200.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
200 people in the world yeah, maybe 200 people and
then a double deca.
I would imagine half of that.
Less Quarter than that world.
Yeah, maybe 200 people and thena double deca.
I would imagine half of that,less quarter than that, probably
less 20 people in the wholeworld.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
20 people, oh my gosh now probably I could go, do it
not in an organized event, butyeah wow and so, but you wanted
to, yeah, oh, for sure I wouldstill love to do it.
I would do it if I could take30 days off of work and away
from the family now.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
But I can't.
Yeah, that's when life gets inthe way.
Man, that's crazy.
I don't.
It's weird, I don't really havea desire to do that.
It's just not like longdistance training, for, as of
the current walk of life thatI'm in right now, my current
vision on I'm like I just don'thave a desire to do that, my
current vision on the I'm like Ijust don't have a desire to do
that I can understand that,which is I was just how, I was
(46:17):
just me, but, um, I like thepain, you know I.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
There was a guy I think it was Eric Hyden who
wants who.
I read a book.
He's a speed skater.
Uh, he was in the Olympics, Iguess, probably eighties or so,
and he would say you have towelcome the pain, Like it's your
old buddy.
That's when you know thatyou're you've reached that point
.
When you're you're that pointin a race you know you're doing.
Well, it's like, hey, there youare, how you doing, pal, yeah,
we meet again.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Thanks for joining me .
Yeah, that's what's that likemellow song, it's like hello
darkness, my old friend.
Yeah, yeah, here we go, heydarkness.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
I like that point.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Yeah, interesting, I don't disagree with you.
Like I mean, I get enjoymentout of that too, maybe just a
satisfaction afterwards of likethe challenge.
You know what I mean afterwardsof like the challenge, you know
, because I definitely have someinstances of like my
personality somewhat similar, asin like, um, I have to, like I
just it's I do, I have the metal.
(47:19):
Can I do this?
You know, I gotta challengemyself.
I have to prove to myself thatI can do this.
Yeah, nobody else is even likesaying you know, you don't have
to do this.
No, you're like this isdangerous.
There's a time like, as anexample, I remember a similar
mental situation Like thesurfing is like one of my
favorite things to do, right, soI haven't surfed in like a year
(47:40):
and a half, two years becauselife gets in the way you know.
Yeah, we're in the practice,we're having kids and like I'm
like I can't just like have adrop of a hat and go surf, um,
but anyway, I was, uh, I justfinished college and I was about
to go to grad school and, uh,there was a huge hurricane that
was just came and like arefraction swell was.
Anyway it was, it was huge andit was here in Juneau.
(48:02):
Okay, it was massive, like oneof the biggest days this area
has ever seen and, um, nobodywas out and I was like I gotta
go, I have to, I have to go, Igotta paddle out.
And I was like I got to go, Ihave to, I have to go.
I got to paddle out and Ididn't really.
I mean I don't, I surfedgrowing up but like never really
like officially lessons andlike know what to do and you
know training and stuff likethat.
I was mediocre, you know what Imean.
(48:23):
I could stand up and like makeit happen, but like I wasn't a
pro by any means, but anyway.
So I was like I have to go,like I can't not take this
opportunity, you know.
But anyway, I paddled out likeoff of like north of Marcinski,
you know, okay, so betweenJuneau Beach and like the
Jupiter Inlet area, sure, andthe current was so aggressive
(48:49):
going south, so it was like anorth swell coming in, so the
current was going south.
It took me forever to paddleout.
The waves were 15 feet, like itwas massive.
Oh, that's awesome, yeah, forthis area.
That's big, yeah, and it'saggressive.
And I paddled out and I was bymyself, there's nobody else out
there and I made it out becauseI was like in shape and I could
put myself in the situation.
I made it out the paddle and,uh, it was a hard paddle and I
(49:12):
was so deep that, um, I justfloated past the pier by, like I
was probably a hundred yardsbeyond the other there's like
the wake buoys, and beyond theJuno, like a bound piers.
I was past the buoy, thosebuoys, those wake buoys, wow,
and I just floated past the pier.
There are people fishing outthere.
(49:33):
These, these and these freakingmassive waves are coming in and
I was more of like if I getcaught inside, like we're in the
waves, if I don't make it out,if a rogue set comes in, uh,
like I'm, I'm effed, like I needto make sure I'm deep enough.
So if set would come and I'dpaddle out and make sure I'm not
get caught, I was more worriedabout just not dying than like
actually catching a wave.
And when, when I was floatingpast the pier and I've already
drifted a mile at this point,sure, you know, cause I'm like
(49:54):
up by the inlet almost, and Idrifted all the way.
I mean a couple of miles, I'mjust drifting, you know, mass.
I'm like how am I going to getin now?
You know, that's awesome.
So I'm drifting past and there,god, like you're a human, Like
and I was floating, I remembereven before I saw this guy,
there was all these bait fishjumping around me.
(50:17):
I'm and I'm by my and I'm reallydeep and I'm like I pulled my
feet up and my hands up and I'mjust like drifting at this point
and I'm like please don't havea's.
Like good day, mate, you know.
And I'm like this is every dayfor him.
Yeah, he's like good, no, mike,I can't.
Like this is insane.
Nobody else was out, you know.
(50:38):
And then he, uh, I paddled, Idrifted past him.
I think he caught a wave.
I tried to catch some waves.
I didn't not even catching anyand I just paddled in, um,
beyond past loggerhead beach.
Wow, yeah, I drifted multiple,like so a couple miles, a
handful of miles.
Oh, that's great.
And anyway, looking back, I'mlike why did I do that?
Like it was just a matter of mebeing like I have to try.
(50:59):
Yeah, I can't do.
I have the metal to make thishappen.
That's great.
And uh, anyway, the challenge,you know, I did it, but I didn't
even catch any waves, it's allright, you got out there and the
wind was really hard offshoretoo.
So the times that I did catch,when I was trying to paddle for
some the spray was in my face, Icouldn't even see and I was
like I bailed.
And I was like I can't even see.
I would look down this drop in,and I have like a 15 foot drop
(51:22):
and I'm like I can't even see.
I bailed, you know I was.
And then I'm like, oh shoot,now I'm too deep and I had to
paddle back out again.
I started to get caught insideand it was just that, over and
over and over again, with baitfish jumping around me and some
things were nipping my foot andI was like, oh my gosh, I'm
going to die.
That was crazy.
But you lived, but I lived, Imade it.
(51:43):
But anyway, that's a somewhatsimilar story of like just got
to challenge myself, just got todo it.
It's weird.
Yeah, no, I get it.
So what's next then?
Right now, so I've been doingsome long running races.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
You mentioned Lake to Ocean.
Yeah, is a really cool one,which I tried two years ago and
I didn't make the time cut offon it.
So again, I am fat, old andslow so I could make the
distances.
I have a hard time making therun cutoff times that are there.
(52:19):
So this was a hundred K.
It's a little shorter but it'sfrom Lake Okeechobee to Hobe
Sound beach and that one.
The next one's the NMA.
If my feet are okay and I'mwith you trying to fix those
feet so that I could do it,that's a.
It's a really cool race.
So it's all through the, the,the parks that are along the way
(52:39):
Dupuy park, corbett park, uh,through JD a little bit.
So it's through the Everglades.
So you're wading through waterthat's up to your knees.
There's a couple of pointsthat's up to your hip that
you're going through and thenyou run on.
It's all trails.
So you're through the trails,through the mangroves, through
(53:00):
the cypress, through the pinetrees in the middle, and the
route takes you meandering allthe way from Lake Okeechobee to
Hobson Beach.
Oh my gosh, full raves, really,really fun.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
I mean, what about alligators?
Yeah, they're out there.
And pythons?
Yeah, you see, python I neversaw.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Okay, that would be pretty cool.
I haven't seen the python.
Lots of alligators.
You always see the alligatorsout there, deer Hogs.
I've seen bobcat out there.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
So I mean, what do you do with alligators?
Speaker 2 (53:31):
They don't bother you .
You just wave to them hey.
No, I'm just kidding, you justkeep going.
I've never had one like acrossthe path, blocking the path.
That would be a little scary,but you see them when you're out
running there.
They have a neat one that'scalled the Just Survive 125.
So you think the one way istough Just survive 125.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
It's actually both ways Down and back.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah, so you start in Hope Sound, you run to Lake
Okeechobee and you come back.
So that's, that is January 2ndor 3rd, something like that.
I'm signed up for that one.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
You signed up, oh yeah.
Oh my gosh, that's insane.
I have a.
How long does that take that?
Speaker 2 (54:09):
is.
I think it's a 24 hour.
I don't remember something likethat.
Wow 28 hour no sleep, maybe alittle longer than 28 hours,
yeah, no sleep.
In fact, there's no aid.
You're not allowed to crewthere, oh my goodness.
And no aid stations.
So you have, you're allowed toput out in five designated spots
(54:30):
.
You could put out your ownlittle setup of what you want.
So you have like a call it aHome Depot bucket Like, and you
could put that out there and youhave a gallon of water in there
and you have some snags.
So no backpack.
You can carry whatever you want, but it's hard to make the time
(54:51):
.
And then, as you get to thatdesignated spot, you refill your
water.
Those are the only spots you'reallowed to put something at and
you're not allowed to have anyaid from anybody else.
There's no aid stations.
You know, like in a marathon ora 5K race, whatever, to have
the guys that hand you cups ofwater.
There's nothing in that.
(55:11):
Wow, it's all in that.
Wow, it's all on your own.
So that's a pretty cool race,my gosh.
That's in January.
In October I have the Moab 240.
It's actually November.
Set up, it's 240 miles throughMoab Desert.
It's up the mountains, down themountains, all over Running or
bike Running, my gosh.
So you better heal my feetbecause I got a lot of stuff to
(55:32):
do, man yeah seriously, nopressure.
Yeah Well, I'm going to doeverything I can.
Well, you're amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
So so far so good, well, I appreciate that.
No, well, I'm going to doeverything I can to get your
feet right so we can keep yougoing on these crazy, crazy runs
.
Well, let's land the plane.
If people want to get into this, where do they start?
Speaker 2 (55:57):
So Ultra Sign Up is a website online.
They have all the ultradistance running races.
It is a fantastic community,everybody's great.
I got to tell you it's.
One of the big draws to ultradistance running for me is the
community Supportive community,everybody's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (56:14):
I've never had anybody not be nice and I
imagine I mean, in order to getinto that and do those things,
there has to be a massive amountof humility.
Speaker 2 (56:23):
Yeah, you're failing constantly.
I mean, the challenge is justto finish, so it is, and
everybody is great.
The challenge is just to finish, so it is, and everybody is
great.
Of course, everybody has adviceNot all of it always good, but
everybody has advice and it'salways from a good place,
well-intentioned, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah, and so Ultra SignUp.
It's a great local communitythat's out here.
(56:45):
Just go out to Corbett Park andyou'll see people running
Anywhere JD, jonathan Dickinson,anywhere that's around, uh, and
it's great Cool.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
I really enjoy it.
I can appreciate that.
Well, I appreciate you comingin.
I know you're a busy guy,business owner, family guy.
Um, yeah, I appreciate youcoming out and sharing more of
your story, hopefullyencouraging people to to do some
of these things and take somemore challenge in their own life
, you know, yeah.
But thanks again and if y'allhave any questions, don't
hesitate to reach out.
We're always open to comments,questions concerns suggestions,
(57:17):
and if you have any pain or likethat, you can always reach out.
We can at least chat on thephone and see what you have
going on, if we can help you,and we'll catch y'all next time.
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