July 21, 2025 • 30 mins
This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we head to Buckner, Missouri for one of the most brutal events you’ve probably never heard of — Summer Argo. Calling it a “race” might be generous, since this officially classified “group run” skips the timing mats, aid stations, and course monitors in favor of raw grit and punishing hills. With over 2,200 feet of elevation gain, no closed roads, and a 9:00 a.m. summer start time designed to turn up the heat, this event is less about medals and more about survival. Only 46 runners dared sign up — 44 showed up, and every single one of them finished. In this episode, we break down the challenge, the community, and what it takes to conquer Argo Road when the sun is high and the pavement’s melting. No shade, no shortcuts — just sweat, suffering, and a whole lot of character-building. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to run straight into the fire, this one’s for you.
Sorry for the audio issues! We'll have it cleaned up by next episode!
Sorry for the audio issues! We'll have it cleaned up by next episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hell everyone, greetings in sanitation to welcome back to another
episode of the back of my podcast. I'm Your how
Skyle Walker can be So much for tuning in. We
are back from a very hot, very uncomfortable, very narly,
very nasty Midwest July weekend. It was so gross, so
gross out there. But if you were out there this weekend,
if you got miles in whatsoever, whether it be a
race or a training run or whatever, you might have
(00:33):
done good job out of you because you one earned
every bit of those miles. With the lord awful temperatures
that we've been dealing with, it was just gross. As
for us this weekend we ran and again we're gonna
talk about it because I said we're gonna talk about it.
We're gonna talk about it because I did it. I'm
not worried about anything other than the event that I
(00:55):
attended the side noise about it. Notwithstanding, this was the
weekend of Summer Argo. Now, if you are not familiar
with Argo, it is a held twice a year race
i'd say race, not even really a race to my understanding,
this is a group run, okay, because the course has
(01:18):
been labeled too difficult to be ensured so that it
could actually be a race. So this is a group run.
There is no kip timing, there are no official aid stations,
there's no volunteers, there's no road closures. This is a
group run along a very very very very all the
varies grueling road that really is just kind of out
(01:43):
of place in this area. Like, yeah, we're in the Midwest,
and it is definitely hillier than a lot of people
give a credit for it, but you still don't have
the hills like you have at Argo. So it really
is down Argo Road. That is what it's called. That
is in Buckner, Missouri. So here's how it all wait.
You get notified on the Book of Faces, maybe a
(02:05):
month now, not even a month. It was about three
weeks before the running of the race. Here is the
day of quote unquote registration. You have to show up
in the parking lot where the race is run, where
the gentleman who runs this race is sitting there with
his picnic table and some music playing and I hope,
for his sake, a couple of beers in the cooler.
You have to bring forty dollars in cash and you
(02:27):
hand it over and you sign your name. You sign
the way your intention to do Summer Argo or Winter Argo.
Like I said, they do it twice a year. I
think the aim for what is historically the hotest day
of the year, and they aim for what is historically
average wise, the coldest day of the year. The whole
point of this race is they wanted to be miserable,
they wanted to be hot, they wanted to be disgusting.
(02:48):
The race does not start until nine am, so again
you're going to be running into the heat of the day.
That's the intention behind this race. So you have to
go on the day to sign up, and it gets
announced on the Facebook page. Bring it for forty dollars,
sign your name. I'm going to be here for this
three hour window on this day here to here do it.
This year it fell on the day that we did
the All American eight mile Race, and thankfully that race
(03:11):
was about five miles away from the sign up of Argo.
So I went. I did the eight mile race. I
hopped on my motor carriage and my motor vehicle and
zoomed on down the road and eventually found the parking
lot where the sign up was. I gave them forty
dollars and I signed my name. Another thing that is
advertised if you go and you give them money and
(03:31):
you sign up and then you know show, you are
going to get put on blast for you showing that race.
So that was another thing in the back of my head.
So I did it. I signed up because I have
heard about this race. I have heard about it quite
a bit, both people who love it and both people
who hate it, and both people who are just on
all ends. Apparently there's no just man feeling about argo.
(03:52):
You have a strong feeling about it one way or
the other, whether you've done it or heard of it,
or any of the other situations arounding it. But anyway,
I sign so that would have made it. What June
twenty eighth, and the day of the running was July nineteen,
so I was ready to go fast forward. We get
to July nineteenth, and I'm not gonna lie. I woke
up that morning and who I was. I was dreading it.
(04:15):
What I had done for those three weeks in between
was I really kind of downplayed it. But I'm thinking, Okay,
you know, I know a lot of runners, and again
this is gonna sound more egotistical than I mean it,
And hopefully you kind of understand what I'm saying. There
are runners who I know have completed that race that
I feel that I am personally a better runner than. Okay,
(04:36):
I'm not saying I'm elite. I'm not saying I'm great.
It's just I'm like, Okay, well, I know this person,
I know where they average things, and I know that
on average I finished races before said person. Okay, that's
all it end, is it? Not I'm better than that person.
I put down faster times on average than this person.
They completed this race, so I should be able to
(04:58):
complete this race. And again, this is not with malicious intent.
This is just kind of how my mind was telling it.
And then I look at the elevation. Argo's elevation is
over twenty two hundred feet. Game, all right. It is
a lot of up, and so I'm thinking, Okay, well,
what comes up or what goes up must come down.
So we're gonna go up these terrible hills, but then
we can just run down the backside of them, no problem,
(05:18):
no issues. Okay. And again, these are the things I'm
telling myself, even though on race morning I was definitely
feeling the butterflies kind of flying around the tumtongue a
little bit like, Okay, this feels like this is gonna
be a thing. We wake up. We have overcast skies,
which was lovely because if this was a sunny day,
it could have been a very big problem. But we
(05:40):
were definitely under an excessive heat warning already. All Right,
we are hot in this area. We're in for like
our worst week and a half stretch of the year.
So they weren't terrible weather. They got it on this one.
So excessive heat warning, but overcast, guys, we get out there.
I arrived right at eight o'clock. I'm the first runner
of the race of this group run to a ride.
(06:03):
The gentleman who organizes the whole thing, he's getting his
miles in, you know, he's getting his work out in.
But there's a sheet of paper they get to sign that. Okay,
you are here, and I'm the first one. I sign up.
You are here. Everyone starts to show up. This is
a lot of people come back for this year after year.
Up the year. You bring your own support. So I
had my cooler that had some gatorades, some waters, a
(06:25):
cold towel in it. I wheeled my cooler up to
the side of the course because you will see your
cooler several times during the course of the race. Others
show up. We're taking pictures. Everyone's kind of shooting the breeze.
Everyone has to line up in a single file line
before you start the race, all right, And the organizer
of the group run, I keep saying, race, group run.
He films it. You know, everyone going down the aisle.
(06:47):
I think this year they have forty four registrants. Two
people no show. Okay, so forty two people took part
in this group run. But after he does the video
over everyone, everyone gets on the starting piece of tape again,
no chip timing, no matter, It's just a piece of
red costume tape that was laid across the parking lot.
And at nine o'clock he says, go, and so we
(07:09):
went out of the little park. We go and you
turn onto Argo Road and you're gonna be on this
a lot. You start immediately going down the hill and
you're feeling great about life. You get a little bomb
a little bit more downhill, feeling wonderful. On your first
time out, you have to take this little almost I
don't know, maybe almost two miles detour where you turn
on what is an old Church road? I kid you,
(07:30):
not in something along those lines old church I think
it's Old Church Road or Church Road or something like that.
But you can take a left on that and you
have to go up this big hill, turn out the
top of the hill. Then you have to go back
down and back to Argo Road where then you turn
left again and you continue to I believe, go nor
and then you get to a certain point. Now, one
of the biggest issues I have with this group run
(07:51):
and where I know there have been problems previously because
people told me a lot of people will go right
past this electric turnaround. You really have to look and
hopefully here in your pre race instructions what the turnaround is.
Apparently there was winter years where it was a snowman.
When you see the snowman on the side of the course,
that's where you turn around. Other years it was a
pile of rocks. You see the rocks and you gotta
(08:13):
turn around, and that's where you go. This year, it
was just a stake in the ground, and I mean
not even twelve inch maybe twelve inches off the ground,
ramped in white tape. It would have been real easy
to run by that and I'm talking real easy, So
I really was keeping an eye off for these things.
And when I saw that the roll was gonna be
on kind of the left side of the road of
(08:34):
where you're running, I always make sure to look the
left side. Thankfully there are enough people around me. I
could see where Michael at the top of the hill
was turning around. Okay, so I know the steak is
up there. So when I got up there, I saw
the stake and I turn around. It came back. So
you go north after your one detour, you turn around.
Now you're head and sap on Argo Road. And my friends,
(08:54):
I'm telling you, the elevation on this was no stinking
joe and the biggest problem I had and where my
pre race thinking was wrong, where it was flawed. Yes,
what goes up must come down. The problem is you
were at such elevation and then such steep, deep line.
(09:14):
You can't just run it out on those kes. They
can't just be like, oh, I'm catching my bread. We're
going downhill. You are leaning back so far because if
you lean forward too far, you're gonna get top heavy
and you're gonna go ass over tea kettle down a
freaking hill and there's no way that's gonna feel good.
So while there were a few hills where you might
be able to kind of get your normal running stride,
(09:36):
most of them you couldn't because they were too steep
going down. And then, of course, if you have any
sort of knee issues, and haha, I'm forty five in
fat I have knee issues, there were times on those
downhills where my right knee would kind of do that
little buckle. You feel that little shit where it goes
side to side. You're like, is it got a hold
or is this thing about to snap? And everything ends
(09:59):
running wise for like a year. So with every step
on the downhill, I was scared to death that it
was going to be my last and that my knee
was just finally going to say done, finished with you,
done with your nonsense, done with this race, and you're
done with the running for a very long period of time.
So it was definitely a concern. But as you're heading south, okay,
(10:20):
where we go, We're we're heading back south, we hit
the we hit past five came mark and like, okay,
it's the five came mark. I was feeling pretty good,
like I was trying to be real strategic. I'm walking
the ups for the most part. I'm running the downs
for the most part. It's not the easiest downhill running,
but I'm doing it. I'm making it, and we're pruising along,
all right. So we take it all the way south.
(10:40):
We go past the park where we start. That's the
first time where you look to your side, there's your car.
Your car's right there. If you decide maybe I'm kind
of over this nonsense. And I think you get even
with your cars at about mile four four and a
half somewhere in there. That's the first time to see
your car. Dang, my guard, I'm not coming back to
you yet, but it's nice to see you're still there.
(11:03):
And I continue on after you go past your eight station.
All right. So my coolers are on the side of
the road, so I got my cold found, I got
some water. At this point, of course, it was already hot,
and it was already human. The sun started poking out,
you know. We started with the overcast, but it didn't
stay overpast the whole time. The sun is starting to
make its presence felt a little bit. And we go
past the eight stations, and you know, our coolers and
(11:25):
our cars and kind of where everything is set up,
and we're doing the back half of our go now
and again I'm talking just straight up and straight down.
The back half is where the absolute worst hill is.
And I don't even know what the elevation is that
you can see in some of the videos and pictures
and people took like if there's a person at the
bottom of the hill and then you see someone at
the top of the hill, you can just see how
(11:45):
steep that hill is. And it's not like it's a
long gradual uphill. It's straight up, straight down the backside.
And you have to do this hill several times because
you've got a lot of out and backs going on.
So finally you get to me to the southmost and
hopefully I don't have confused. I think we started going north,
then we go south, get to the south end, we
turn around to get into comeback and no on am
(12:06):
all right? No, I might be backwards. Sorry either A joy,
And you know what, you're going north south this whole
day in time there you go, and so maybe you're
going east west, you're not a lot of it goes
on direction. I have de larious at some point, but
right when I hit the ten k mark, I'm halfway okay,
this has a four hour time limit, and so I chat,
I'm at an hour and a half, which that wouldn't
even be my worst ten k time, even though this
(12:28):
is probably the worst course. So I'm at a ten
dam halfway done, with an hour and a half done.
There is a four hour time limit, so I'm thinking
I've got this name no problem, even if I can
just duplicate this. Again, we're looking at a three hour
even if I can't duplicate it. Even if I'm way over,
I still have an hour of cushion before I have
to have this thing done. And so at the halfway mark,
(12:50):
I did a little TikTok I put it out there.
If you're following us on TikTok, I hope you saw it.
Please like our videos on TikTok and comments. Those are
the only way they go out into the world, is
it you guys interact with it like that's it the
There's also a reel on Instagram, so hopefully you saw
the reel on Instagram. I think that was doing well
with a lot of views. But again, anytime you see
a reel or TikTok like it and comment on it
(13:11):
because that helps you get it to more people and
more people can see what nonsense we're doing. Either it's
way out digress. But at the halfway I'm feeling okay.
All right. I see Sydney and Dane and you know,
we're saying hi, and you know they're they're right behind me.
We're just kind of cross doing the out and back
part a little big deal. But they're doing well. They're
hanging in there, hanging tough. And yeah, i still got
(13:32):
Michael in front of me, and I'm still just trying
to keep him kind of with insite. Most of the time.
He's a better runner than I. But I felt like
I'm doing okay timeline wise, if I can still see it,
you know, and i'd be at the bottom the hill,
if we'd be at the top, and then I'm at
the top and he's at the bottom. But he was
always with inside, so that was good. A few times
I caught up with shot the breeze and then he
would continue once again better running. So after the turnaround,
(13:54):
you go back up the god Affle Hill and then
do a few more ditsy do dunk ruse in your
back at your car. Here's your car number two, left
side down and see everything. You could just walk right
over there, walk right there and be done. Instead, I
got more water out of my cooler, put the towel
back so it could start getting told again. I start
to slash down some water, and I'm continuing on for
kind of the second half of this race, not quite
(14:16):
the second half, but pretty close to the second half.
This time, you avoid the left turn on Old George
Road and you just do another down turnaround back and
around back to things. Okay, so we're head to get
We're heading north, south, east or west, whichever direction we're
heading this time, he kiss. This time, though, on the
back half of this race, that is where my legs,
my quads, my caves were cut put. These hills had
(14:39):
finally kicked my rum to the point of in training
I had done now was not substantial enough. It was
not enough to be ready. And now that I've done Argo,
and now that I've seen those hills, and now that
I understand what it would have taken for me to
train correctly for this race. My neighborhood, my area, it
(15:00):
does not offer those hills. I've got a few hills,
but compared to Argo, there are mountains of dirt that
I have around here. I don't have Argo Hills that
I can use to replicate their race. I just don't
have it. I think the only way to run Argo
Hills is to go out there and run Argo. It
is that kind of a steep race. There was nothing
(15:20):
around here to prepare, and people ask me, well, what
about Shawnee Mission Park. Yes, Shawnee Mission Park has some
awful hills. When you're down for the trail and you're
going back to like the finish line at theater in
the park, that hill sucks. That hill is also long,
and it's a steady incline. It is not the straight
up of Uggo. So no, I'm sorry Shanna Mission Park.
(15:41):
Even you guys don't hold a candle to the steepness
of the Argo Hills. So the second half of my
race it went horridly like I'm slowing way down. The
uphills are getting very, very difficult. The other point there
was one hill just one time, but I attactually stop.
I stopped and I stood for maybe I mean twenty
five seconds because I had to kind of wheel my
(16:04):
legs to continue forward. They were done, My hips were done,
I mean, my cabs, my quads, my knees, my everything.
They were done because I cannot replicate these uphills. So
I'm doing my best, all right, I go down, I
get to the turnaround. I'm like, okay, this is the
last time I had to go on that side of
the road. Now I've got my turnaround and I have
to go all the way back up and down again
(16:25):
until I get to the last turnaround and I'm going
hand again. The wheels were completely off the rails at
nine miles. Nine and a half was bad. Got to
ten miles, I'm like, okay, I just got a five
k left. Even if I do a five k in
an hour, I know, I'm okay. Timeline life, the four
hour time limit was never concerned for me, and I'm
thankful for that. We get to about two and a
(16:46):
half miles loft and I'm really hating line. Like at
this point, Sydy again, they had passed me. They're leaving
me in the dust. I no longer know where the
hell Michael win He's going, and I am out there
all alone because I have fallen so far. Another runner
walker has past me and I'm struggling. Here comes my
(17:06):
saving grace of Argo in a huge shout out to
all of our great running friend Michelle Michelle Burt comes down.
She is out there. They came out and her it's
got to support and to cheer people on. She was
just gonna get some miles in. She sees me, she
comes on over and decides she's gonna stick with me
until the end of this bad Boy. And honestly, if
(17:28):
she hadn't, I'm not saying I would have quit, because
I was too close to really quit, but I wouldn't
have gotten the time that I got, and I would
have been a lot closer to that pour our time moment.
She saved my white ass on that race day, not
gonna lie. And here's what she did. She was the
distraction I needed. We talked, we shot the briefs. We
(17:50):
talked about running things, we talked about non running thing,
We talked about argo, we talked about races that weren't ourgo.
We talked about the blue Ole that was happening that night.
We were talking about the five case she was running
the next morning. We were talking about her full marathon
that she did for one hundred mile er that she did.
The distraction in the interaction with someone else It was
exactly what I needed to kind of push some of
(18:11):
that pain and agony out of my mind and focus
on something else, and another trick, the trick that she did.
Don't think I didn't notice this, because I noticed things
like these and it was perfect and it was spot on,
and everyone can keep this in mind the next time
you're helping one of your running buddies from struggling. And
this is how I know she's going to be a
great pacer when she pays her first race coming up.
(18:31):
She would always stay that half step in front of me.
We never walked shoulder and shoulder. It was never a
side by side step for step. She was almost a
half step in front of me, like she was pulling
me up these hills. She was pulling me along this course, okay.
And as she would continue on in order to continue
the conversation or continue to pains or whatever, I had
(18:52):
to match, even though it was a half step behind,
I had to get pulled with her up the course.
And it really did say all of my bought the
rest of that race, because without her being there and
without her kind of willing me up these hills, I
don't know how that thing was going to end up.
It probably would not have ended up with the time
that I finished with, and it would have been a
(19:13):
little more stressful as the four hour time limits started looming. Now,
to their credit, they do say that the gentlemen Seth
who organizes this race, he's sitting there on this truck
and he's looking right across and you can see it
on if he were looking at his watch and said
four hours, and he knows that you have passed kind
of the finish line area and you're on that last
loop that lasts down and back. He's not going to
(19:35):
come out there and plow you off the course and
respect for that. Like, I think that's the correct call,
because once you pass them going that last direction, it's
it's much shorter. These are not even parts on either
side of the start finish line, okay, and the left
side is way longer and way more and more time
consuming tall to say, than the right side. So if
(19:57):
you can pass them and you're on the right side
of the park, the shorter part at the four hours,
you're gonna be able to think of So I'm I'm
getting there, Michelle and I are doing this thing. It
were on the last stop and see My problem was
damn it. Someday I'm gonna learn this wasn't this day
that electrolytes and blood sugar, while they used to not
be a big thing in my running world, they are
(20:18):
now because I could totally feel that I tanked my
blood sugar completely tanked. I was woozy, I was dizzy.
I was feeling like I was gonna stumble a few times.
I felt like, oh, my light's gonna turn out on
this not going deady by, but like you know, crashing
blood sugar. Why am I gonna pass out on this course?
And you know, with the heat and humidity and the
(20:38):
difficultness of that course, whatever you think you're doing hydration
wise and nutrition wise, you probably need one. And I
needed more. So I made sure that I had that
last stop by the cooler before our last down and back.
I got out a nice big sugary gatorade and I
had like my coal towel. I had some water and
some gatorade. That's a that gatorade with me, and it
was the best. It was exactly what I needed. That
(21:00):
gain rade is what I needed for the last two
miles one and a half. Whenever you're even equal with
the finish line. You gotta do that down last, down
and back on. I don't know. Maybe that's the south
side of the course. Maybe it's the north side of
the purse. Again, why do I care? Somtimes I'm wrong?
Whatever it is. So did that and we go out
to do our last mile and a half. Move but
it is about a mile and a half to get
(21:21):
down around and back to the finish line. And so
we're going, we're talking. Other runners are coming the other direction.
They're on their last hill to come in. Because of
course finish is going up at hill. Why wouldn't it.
And so we're down the hill, we're up the back
side of the gigantic hill. It work down the gigantic hill,
up the last make the turn down the hill, up
(21:41):
the gigantic hill. One last time we had to do
this ord hill. And what did they say? And if
I'm getting the number wrong, I'm sorry. What they say
that that last hill was like thirty nine percent of
the mini fine. I swear someone through that number out
there just an insane angle. And this was after they
(22:03):
had apparently shaved off the top of that hill, so
it used to be a steeper hill and people were
getting in car wrecks on that thing. So eventually they
came out and kind of redid the road and they
lessened the steepness of that hill. But even now it's
still an ungodly steve hill. But to gain over the
last hill, the very last one, well the last of
the big ones, down the hill and then back up
(22:23):
to the finish line. I get to the finish line,
we had to stop and get a picture taken by
the sign this says Argo Road. So thank pri Michelle
was able to do that for me. She took that
picture and then she took my gatoray bottle and peeled
off and I took it down to the finish line.
But again all the credit to her. I would not
have done well nearly as well if she had not
helped me that last two and a half miles. So
(22:44):
much love, thank you so much, missus. Hollydo. You're going
to be a good pacer because you were good at
getting people just staying that half step in front and
getting people that finish line. So thank you very much
for that. I finished the race at a time of
three hours forty four minutes, and I think by twenty
nine seconds something along those lines. And seconds. I don't
care about three forty four, all right, So I got
(23:05):
sixteen minutes under the four hour deadline. I'll take it,
no problem. There were two people that finished after me.
Great job out of y'all to get that nonsense done.
It was easily the most difficult course I've ever done,
and yet it is now surpassed the Baton Memorial Death
March as the most difficult race I've ever done. Baton
(23:26):
took longer. Baton took me eleven hours, but it was
eleven hours, and it was a designed walk, and it
was a planned walk. It was walking boots, it was
a pack, it was walking stakes. It was an hour
at the halfway point getting burgers and soft drinks and
refueling and waiting for other people in the group. So
it took a long time and it was very, very difficult.
(23:47):
But I had planned for that, and you plan for
an old event, so your your hydration is different, your
nutrition is different, everything was different. This being a half marathon,
and I mean, i'd say half marathon because yes, a
maasure's thirteen point one inch miles, but the difficulty of
that course kind of puts it above. And you have
a half marathon I've ever done. So the Liberty half
(24:07):
got nothing on ourgo, the Hospital Hill half nothing on ourgo.
This was the most difficult race I've ever got. Okay,
that's it. So, Yes, it's because of the nine am started. Yes,
it's because of the excess at the warning. Yes, it's
because of high humidity. I am thankful that we did
not get the full brunt of the sun the entire time.
(24:28):
We certainly got it. We certainly got it at points,
but then the clouds would come back and it would
help a little bit when you got to the top
of some of the hills. You've got a little bit
of a breeze. When you got to the bottom, though
you didn't get squat because the wind wasn't getting down there.
And so, you know, you had to deal with a
lot of different elements when it came to the weather
and the time of year and the temperature, and then
(24:49):
of course the course, of course, the course a horse
is a horse, of course, of course, but.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
That it was designed to be offered, designed to be miserable.
It is designed to test you. Now, you don't get
a medal for finishing this race, this group run. There
is no metal. What you did.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Is the shirt that you see in front of you
arego thirteen point one toughest race in knny C. Absolutely correct.
On the back it has the elevation chart which is
just you know, the spikes up and down and then
I think it says Summer Finisher or something along those lines.
The reason that these shirts are so coveted though in
the Kansas City area is you get it handed to
you when you cross the finish line. This is not
(25:29):
a participation shirt. This is not a shirt you pick
up at packet pick up. You can't buy this, you know,
for twenty dollars at the xpot. It is handed to you.
It is ordered with your you specifically in line. It
is ordered for you and handed to you upon completion
of the riks. So if you see someone wearing an
ARGO shirt, that means they finish some shit. My friends like,
(25:51):
no question. They they were in for a bad time
and they were able to finish it. So yes, I
do understand now while you see a lot of people
wearing their ardush, it's kind of a pride and why
people get a little little you know how amidy about it,
because you know what you've done something you earn those
bragging rights, and people ask me, well, why did you
do this race? It's you know, it's not even really race.
It's a group from There's no metal and there's no bid,
(26:14):
there's you know, none of the things that you normally
do racist for well for me, and the reason why
even the people who give me a hard time about it,
I don't really care. I am all about the experiences
at this point in my running proof. If there is
something I can experience that challenges me, or interests me
or entertains me, then I'm gonna do it because I
at least have to do it once. I've got to
know what I'm doing or you know, what I'm missing
(26:36):
or what I'm not missing or what I'm experiencing. I
am only in this now for the experiences. There's nothing
left to prove in my running world, not that there
ever wanks the only thing I can ever prove, and
because we just yesterday passed the anniversary of it, I
can prove that a guy with two open heart surgeries
can still run races. I can still do the difficult races,
and I can still do it hargument, and I can
still run a full marathon, and I can do all
(26:57):
these things with a mechanical valve in my heart in
nine years post heart surging experience. That's why I do
the things previously. And it had always been Hey, Boston,
Boston is ain't number one on the bucket list. I've
got Boston. I got Boston in twenty twenty three. And no,
I don't care that I didn't qualify for Boston. I
still have run Boston. I raised a lot of money
and you all raised a lot of money. The next
(27:20):
thing I want to do, I really want to accomplish
in my running careers with joking challenge at the Walt
Disney World Marathon weekend. And yeah, people have negative opinions
about Disney in some areas. I don't care. I'm collecting experiences.
I'm collecting the things that I want to do. And
so Argo was one of those things that I wanted
to do. I had heard about it, I felt it
was going to challenge me and did it. And so
I went out and do it. I went out and
(27:41):
get it done. So folks, as we've talked about before,
do the hard things. We're freaking runners.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Man.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
We're not in this because it's easy. Nothing's easy. It's
not easy to get up early on Saturday morning and
go run a five k. You know all of you
people yesterday on you ladies, I can say that who
did Dima dash on Sunday? It was miserable out there.
I'm glad I just volunteered. I stood under a tenth
and watched you all work your butts on. It was hot,
it was humid, it was gross, it was just nasty.
(28:09):
You all chose to get up and do hard things
in that morning, and that's what we as runners do.
So don't ever be afraid, despite what others say, to
do the hard packs. If you see a race that
interests you, if you know what's gonna challenge you, if
you know what, you're gonna feel some satisfaction when you finish,
do the damn race a right, and then we'll all
tell stories about it afterwards, and that's what makes it awesome.
(28:31):
So I have now done Summer Argo. I have this
finish your shirt. I am wearing the shirt with pride
right now as I record this episode. No one can
take that away from me. You can't poopoo on this.
He'd be like, oh yeah, you did it, boy, three
forty four. It's not even really race whatever and hey,
I did a hell of a thing on that Saturday.
(28:51):
I messed with some serious freaking elevation on a nasty day,
and I looked the tail to tap. So that's all
I say about it. So next, all right, Next weekend,
I am out of town. It is my boys weekend
at the lake in Oklahoma. We're gonna sit in the
water on our floaties, beers in hand. It is my
weekend away to recharge my batteries and just enjoy not
(29:13):
having to worry about the thing. I don't have to
worry about the dogs. I don't have to worry about
the wife. I don't have to worry about kids. I
don't have to worry about the house. I don't have
to worry about the mother. I don't have to worry
about the races. I don't have to worry about the podcasts.
Now it is my time to get away and recharge.
So we will certainly have some episodes. Don't worry. We're
not going to miss anything on that, but you will
not see me at a race next weekend. After that,
though we had the Spencer, Seed, Duntons five K and
(29:33):
Gardener of Kansas. We do have a back and pack
podcast team. If you still want to sign up for
that race, so get a few dollars off your registration
by signing up under the podcast team. And then on
August ninth, we have the Run to Bless. Now I
want to give them a shout out because last year
was their first year. It's in Greenwood, Missouri. Hell of
a good race. Sorry, it's through a church. Maybe I
shouldn't say it was a hell of a good race.
It is a great race though, and I might still
(29:55):
be my five kPr. I'll have to go back and check,
but it was real close last year. Great rays, great
group of people that do this race. Again. I'm blown
away by the tons of the volunteers and the folks
who run that race last year. So on August ninth,
if you don't have something going on, sign up for
the Run to Blast in Greenwood, Missouri, and I will
see you out there because I'm absolutely doing that race
(30:17):
just a five king. There's nothing else offered. There is
no ten, a half or four, So please come out
and do that five k and support a wonderful church
with a really solid group of people. Again. Can't speak
highly enough of them. Okay, So that's going to do it.
To the soon's episode of the Back of the Back podcast.
I'm the host, Kyle Walker. It is my pleasure as alist.
Everyone has a safe week of training. Excessive the warning,
so I mean make sure you're double sake and we
(30:37):
will see you next week
Hell everyone, greetings in sanitation to welcome back to another
episode of the back of my podcast. I'm Your how
Skyle Walker can be So much for tuning in. We
are back from a very hot, very uncomfortable, very narly,
very nasty Midwest July weekend. It was so gross, so
gross out there. But if you were out there this weekend,
if you got miles in whatsoever, whether it be a
race or a training run or whatever, you might have
(00:33):
done good job out of you because you one earned
every bit of those miles. With the lord awful temperatures
that we've been dealing with, it was just gross. As
for us this weekend we ran and again we're gonna
talk about it because I said we're gonna talk about it.
We're gonna talk about it because I did it. I'm
not worried about anything other than the event that I
(00:55):
attended the side noise about it. Notwithstanding, this was the
weekend of Summer Argo. Now, if you are not familiar
with Argo, it is a held twice a year race
i'd say race, not even really a race to my understanding,
this is a group run, okay, because the course has
(01:18):
been labeled too difficult to be ensured so that it
could actually be a race. So this is a group run.
There is no kip timing, there are no official aid stations,
there's no volunteers, there's no road closures. This is a
group run along a very very very very all the
varies grueling road that really is just kind of out
(01:43):
of place in this area. Like, yeah, we're in the Midwest,
and it is definitely hillier than a lot of people
give a credit for it, but you still don't have
the hills like you have at Argo. So it really
is down Argo Road. That is what it's called. That
is in Buckner, Missouri. So here's how it all wait.
You get notified on the Book of Faces, maybe a
(02:05):
month now, not even a month. It was about three
weeks before the running of the race. Here is the
day of quote unquote registration. You have to show up
in the parking lot where the race is run, where
the gentleman who runs this race is sitting there with
his picnic table and some music playing and I hope,
for his sake, a couple of beers in the cooler.
You have to bring forty dollars in cash and you
(02:27):
hand it over and you sign your name. You sign
the way your intention to do Summer Argo or Winter Argo.
Like I said, they do it twice a year. I
think the aim for what is historically the hotest day
of the year, and they aim for what is historically
average wise, the coldest day of the year. The whole
point of this race is they wanted to be miserable,
they wanted to be hot, they wanted to be disgusting.
(02:48):
The race does not start until nine am, so again
you're going to be running into the heat of the day.
That's the intention behind this race. So you have to
go on the day to sign up, and it gets
announced on the Facebook page. Bring it for forty dollars,
sign your name. I'm going to be here for this
three hour window on this day here to here do it.
This year it fell on the day that we did
the All American eight mile Race, and thankfully that race
(03:11):
was about five miles away from the sign up of Argo.
So I went. I did the eight mile race. I
hopped on my motor carriage and my motor vehicle and
zoomed on down the road and eventually found the parking
lot where the sign up was. I gave them forty
dollars and I signed my name. Another thing that is
advertised if you go and you give them money and
(03:31):
you sign up and then you know show, you are
going to get put on blast for you showing that race.
So that was another thing in the back of my head.
So I did it. I signed up because I have
heard about this race. I have heard about it quite
a bit, both people who love it and both people
who hate it, and both people who are just on
all ends. Apparently there's no just man feeling about argo.
(03:52):
You have a strong feeling about it one way or
the other, whether you've done it or heard of it,
or any of the other situations arounding it. But anyway,
I sign so that would have made it. What June
twenty eighth, and the day of the running was July nineteen,
so I was ready to go fast forward. We get
to July nineteenth, and I'm not gonna lie. I woke
up that morning and who I was. I was dreading it.
(04:15):
What I had done for those three weeks in between
was I really kind of downplayed it. But I'm thinking, Okay,
you know, I know a lot of runners, and again
this is gonna sound more egotistical than I mean it,
And hopefully you kind of understand what I'm saying. There
are runners who I know have completed that race that
I feel that I am personally a better runner than. Okay,
(04:36):
I'm not saying I'm elite. I'm not saying I'm great.
It's just I'm like, Okay, well, I know this person,
I know where they average things, and I know that
on average I finished races before said person. Okay, that's
all it end, is it? Not I'm better than that person.
I put down faster times on average than this person.
They completed this race, so I should be able to
(04:58):
complete this race. And again, this is not with malicious intent.
This is just kind of how my mind was telling it.
And then I look at the elevation. Argo's elevation is
over twenty two hundred feet. Game, all right. It is
a lot of up, and so I'm thinking, Okay, well,
what comes up or what goes up must come down.
So we're gonna go up these terrible hills, but then
we can just run down the backside of them, no problem,
(05:18):
no issues. Okay. And again, these are the things I'm
telling myself, even though on race morning I was definitely
feeling the butterflies kind of flying around the tumtongue a
little bit like, Okay, this feels like this is gonna
be a thing. We wake up. We have overcast skies,
which was lovely because if this was a sunny day,
it could have been a very big problem. But we
(05:40):
were definitely under an excessive heat warning already. All Right,
we are hot in this area. We're in for like
our worst week and a half stretch of the year.
So they weren't terrible weather. They got it on this one.
So excessive heat warning, but overcast, guys, we get out there.
I arrived right at eight o'clock. I'm the first runner
of the race of this group run to a ride.
(06:03):
The gentleman who organizes the whole thing, he's getting his
miles in, you know, he's getting his work out in.
But there's a sheet of paper they get to sign that. Okay,
you are here, and I'm the first one. I sign up.
You are here. Everyone starts to show up. This is
a lot of people come back for this year after year.
Up the year. You bring your own support. So I
had my cooler that had some gatorades, some waters, a
(06:25):
cold towel in it. I wheeled my cooler up to
the side of the course because you will see your
cooler several times during the course of the race. Others
show up. We're taking pictures. Everyone's kind of shooting the breeze.
Everyone has to line up in a single file line
before you start the race, all right, And the organizer
of the group run, I keep saying, race, group run.
He films it. You know, everyone going down the aisle.
(06:47):
I think this year they have forty four registrants. Two
people no show. Okay, so forty two people took part
in this group run. But after he does the video
over everyone, everyone gets on the starting piece of tape again,
no chip timing, no matter, It's just a piece of
red costume tape that was laid across the parking lot.
And at nine o'clock he says, go, and so we
(07:09):
went out of the little park. We go and you
turn onto Argo Road and you're gonna be on this
a lot. You start immediately going down the hill and
you're feeling great about life. You get a little bomb
a little bit more downhill, feeling wonderful. On your first
time out, you have to take this little almost I
don't know, maybe almost two miles detour where you turn
on what is an old Church road? I kid you,
(07:30):
not in something along those lines old church I think
it's Old Church Road or Church Road or something like that.
But you can take a left on that and you
have to go up this big hill, turn out the
top of the hill. Then you have to go back
down and back to Argo Road where then you turn
left again and you continue to I believe, go nor
and then you get to a certain point. Now, one
of the biggest issues I have with this group run
(07:51):
and where I know there have been problems previously because
people told me a lot of people will go right
past this electric turnaround. You really have to look and
hopefully here in your pre race instructions what the turnaround is.
Apparently there was winter years where it was a snowman.
When you see the snowman on the side of the course,
that's where you turn around. Other years it was a
pile of rocks. You see the rocks and you gotta
(08:13):
turn around, and that's where you go. This year, it
was just a stake in the ground, and I mean
not even twelve inch maybe twelve inches off the ground,
ramped in white tape. It would have been real easy
to run by that and I'm talking real easy, So
I really was keeping an eye off for these things.
And when I saw that the roll was gonna be
on kind of the left side of the road of
(08:34):
where you're running, I always make sure to look the
left side. Thankfully there are enough people around me. I
could see where Michael at the top of the hill
was turning around. Okay, so I know the steak is
up there. So when I got up there, I saw
the stake and I turn around. It came back. So
you go north after your one detour, you turn around.
Now you're head and sap on Argo Road. And my friends,
(08:54):
I'm telling you, the elevation on this was no stinking
joe and the biggest problem I had and where my
pre race thinking was wrong, where it was flawed. Yes,
what goes up must come down. The problem is you
were at such elevation and then such steep, deep line.
(09:14):
You can't just run it out on those kes. They
can't just be like, oh, I'm catching my bread. We're
going downhill. You are leaning back so far because if
you lean forward too far, you're gonna get top heavy
and you're gonna go ass over tea kettle down a
freaking hill and there's no way that's gonna feel good.
So while there were a few hills where you might
be able to kind of get your normal running stride,
(09:36):
most of them you couldn't because they were too steep
going down. And then, of course, if you have any
sort of knee issues, and haha, I'm forty five in
fat I have knee issues, there were times on those
downhills where my right knee would kind of do that
little buckle. You feel that little shit where it goes
side to side. You're like, is it got a hold
or is this thing about to snap? And everything ends
(09:59):
running wise for like a year. So with every step
on the downhill, I was scared to death that it
was going to be my last and that my knee
was just finally going to say done, finished with you,
done with your nonsense, done with this race, and you're
done with the running for a very long period of time.
So it was definitely a concern. But as you're heading south, okay,
(10:20):
where we go, We're we're heading back south, we hit
the we hit past five came mark and like, okay,
it's the five came mark. I was feeling pretty good,
like I was trying to be real strategic. I'm walking
the ups for the most part. I'm running the downs
for the most part. It's not the easiest downhill running,
but I'm doing it. I'm making it, and we're pruising along,
all right. So we take it all the way south.
(10:40):
We go past the park where we start. That's the
first time where you look to your side, there's your car.
Your car's right there. If you decide maybe I'm kind
of over this nonsense. And I think you get even
with your cars at about mile four four and a
half somewhere in there. That's the first time to see
your car. Dang, my guard, I'm not coming back to
you yet, but it's nice to see you're still there.
(11:03):
And I continue on after you go past your eight station.
All right. So my coolers are on the side of
the road, so I got my cold found, I got
some water. At this point, of course, it was already hot,
and it was already human. The sun started poking out,
you know. We started with the overcast, but it didn't
stay overpast the whole time. The sun is starting to
make its presence felt a little bit. And we go
past the eight stations, and you know, our coolers and
(11:25):
our cars and kind of where everything is set up,
and we're doing the back half of our go now
and again I'm talking just straight up and straight down.
The back half is where the absolute worst hill is.
And I don't even know what the elevation is that
you can see in some of the videos and pictures
and people took like if there's a person at the
bottom of the hill and then you see someone at
the top of the hill, you can just see how
(11:45):
steep that hill is. And it's not like it's a
long gradual uphill. It's straight up, straight down the backside.
And you have to do this hill several times because
you've got a lot of out and backs going on.
So finally you get to me to the southmost and
hopefully I don't have confused. I think we started going north,
then we go south, get to the south end, we
turn around to get into comeback and no on am
(12:06):
all right? No, I might be backwards. Sorry either A joy,
And you know what, you're going north south this whole
day in time there you go, and so maybe you're
going east west, you're not a lot of it goes
on direction. I have de larious at some point, but
right when I hit the ten k mark, I'm halfway okay,
this has a four hour time limit, and so I chat,
I'm at an hour and a half, which that wouldn't
even be my worst ten k time, even though this
(12:28):
is probably the worst course. So I'm at a ten
dam halfway done, with an hour and a half done.
There is a four hour time limit, so I'm thinking
I've got this name no problem, even if I can
just duplicate this. Again, we're looking at a three hour
even if I can't duplicate it. Even if I'm way over,
I still have an hour of cushion before I have
to have this thing done. And so at the halfway mark,
(12:50):
I did a little TikTok I put it out there.
If you're following us on TikTok, I hope you saw it.
Please like our videos on TikTok and comments. Those are
the only way they go out into the world, is
it you guys interact with it like that's it the
There's also a reel on Instagram, so hopefully you saw
the reel on Instagram. I think that was doing well
with a lot of views. But again, anytime you see
a reel or TikTok like it and comment on it
(13:11):
because that helps you get it to more people and
more people can see what nonsense we're doing. Either it's
way out digress. But at the halfway I'm feeling okay.
All right. I see Sydney and Dane and you know,
we're saying hi, and you know they're they're right behind me.
We're just kind of cross doing the out and back
part a little big deal. But they're doing well. They're
hanging in there, hanging tough. And yeah, i still got
(13:32):
Michael in front of me, and I'm still just trying
to keep him kind of with insite. Most of the time.
He's a better runner than I. But I felt like
I'm doing okay timeline wise, if I can still see it,
you know, and i'd be at the bottom the hill,
if we'd be at the top, and then I'm at
the top and he's at the bottom. But he was
always with inside, so that was good. A few times
I caught up with shot the breeze and then he
would continue once again better running. So after the turnaround,
(13:54):
you go back up the god Affle Hill and then
do a few more ditsy do dunk ruse in your
back at your car. Here's your car number two, left
side down and see everything. You could just walk right
over there, walk right there and be done. Instead, I
got more water out of my cooler, put the towel
back so it could start getting told again. I start
to slash down some water, and I'm continuing on for
kind of the second half of this race, not quite
(14:16):
the second half, but pretty close to the second half.
This time, you avoid the left turn on Old George
Road and you just do another down turnaround back and
around back to things. Okay, so we're head to get
We're heading north, south, east or west, whichever direction we're
heading this time, he kiss. This time, though, on the
back half of this race, that is where my legs,
my quads, my caves were cut put. These hills had
(14:39):
finally kicked my rum to the point of in training
I had done now was not substantial enough. It was
not enough to be ready. And now that I've done Argo,
and now that I've seen those hills, and now that
I understand what it would have taken for me to
train correctly for this race. My neighborhood, my area, it
(15:00):
does not offer those hills. I've got a few hills,
but compared to Argo, there are mountains of dirt that
I have around here. I don't have Argo Hills that
I can use to replicate their race. I just don't
have it. I think the only way to run Argo
Hills is to go out there and run Argo. It
is that kind of a steep race. There was nothing
(15:20):
around here to prepare, and people ask me, well, what
about Shawnee Mission Park. Yes, Shawnee Mission Park has some
awful hills. When you're down for the trail and you're
going back to like the finish line at theater in
the park, that hill sucks. That hill is also long,
and it's a steady incline. It is not the straight
up of Uggo. So no, I'm sorry Shanna Mission Park.
(15:41):
Even you guys don't hold a candle to the steepness
of the Argo Hills. So the second half of my
race it went horridly like I'm slowing way down. The
uphills are getting very, very difficult. The other point there
was one hill just one time, but I attactually stop.
I stopped and I stood for maybe I mean twenty
five seconds because I had to kind of wheel my
(16:04):
legs to continue forward. They were done, My hips were done,
I mean, my cabs, my quads, my knees, my everything.
They were done because I cannot replicate these uphills. So
I'm doing my best, all right, I go down, I
get to the turnaround. I'm like, okay, this is the
last time I had to go on that side of
the road. Now I've got my turnaround and I have
to go all the way back up and down again
(16:25):
until I get to the last turnaround and I'm going
hand again. The wheels were completely off the rails at
nine miles. Nine and a half was bad. Got to
ten miles, I'm like, okay, I just got a five
k left. Even if I do a five k in
an hour, I know, I'm okay. Timeline life, the four
hour time limit was never concerned for me, and I'm
thankful for that. We get to about two and a
(16:46):
half miles loft and I'm really hating line. Like at
this point, Sydy again, they had passed me. They're leaving
me in the dust. I no longer know where the
hell Michael win He's going, and I am out there
all alone because I have fallen so far. Another runner
walker has past me and I'm struggling. Here comes my
(17:06):
saving grace of Argo in a huge shout out to
all of our great running friend Michelle Michelle Burt comes down.
She is out there. They came out and her it's
got to support and to cheer people on. She was
just gonna get some miles in. She sees me, she
comes on over and decides she's gonna stick with me
until the end of this bad Boy. And honestly, if
(17:28):
she hadn't, I'm not saying I would have quit, because
I was too close to really quit, but I wouldn't
have gotten the time that I got, and I would
have been a lot closer to that pour our time moment.
She saved my white ass on that race day, not
gonna lie. And here's what she did. She was the
distraction I needed. We talked, we shot the briefs. We
(17:50):
talked about running things, we talked about non running thing,
We talked about argo, we talked about races that weren't ourgo.
We talked about the blue Ole that was happening that night.
We were talking about the five case she was running
the next morning. We were talking about her full marathon
that she did for one hundred mile er that she did.
The distraction in the interaction with someone else It was
exactly what I needed to kind of push some of
(18:11):
that pain and agony out of my mind and focus
on something else, and another trick, the trick that she did.
Don't think I didn't notice this, because I noticed things
like these and it was perfect and it was spot on,
and everyone can keep this in mind the next time
you're helping one of your running buddies from struggling. And
this is how I know she's going to be a
great pacer when she pays her first race coming up.
(18:31):
She would always stay that half step in front of me.
We never walked shoulder and shoulder. It was never a
side by side step for step. She was almost a
half step in front of me, like she was pulling
me up these hills. She was pulling me along this course, okay.
And as she would continue on in order to continue
the conversation or continue to pains or whatever, I had
(18:52):
to match, even though it was a half step behind,
I had to get pulled with her up the course.
And it really did say all of my bought the
rest of that race, because without her being there and
without her kind of willing me up these hills, I
don't know how that thing was going to end up.
It probably would not have ended up with the time
that I finished with, and it would have been a
(19:13):
little more stressful as the four hour time limits started looming. Now,
to their credit, they do say that the gentlemen Seth
who organizes this race, he's sitting there on this truck
and he's looking right across and you can see it
on if he were looking at his watch and said
four hours, and he knows that you have passed kind
of the finish line area and you're on that last
loop that lasts down and back. He's not going to
(19:35):
come out there and plow you off the course and
respect for that. Like, I think that's the correct call,
because once you pass them going that last direction, it's
it's much shorter. These are not even parts on either
side of the start finish line, okay, and the left
side is way longer and way more and more time
consuming tall to say, than the right side. So if
(19:57):
you can pass them and you're on the right side
of the park, the shorter part at the four hours,
you're gonna be able to think of So I'm I'm
getting there, Michelle and I are doing this thing. It
were on the last stop and see My problem was
damn it. Someday I'm gonna learn this wasn't this day
that electrolytes and blood sugar, while they used to not
be a big thing in my running world, they are
(20:18):
now because I could totally feel that I tanked my
blood sugar completely tanked. I was woozy, I was dizzy.
I was feeling like I was gonna stumble a few times.
I felt like, oh, my light's gonna turn out on
this not going deady by, but like you know, crashing
blood sugar. Why am I gonna pass out on this course?
And you know, with the heat and humidity and the
(20:38):
difficultness of that course, whatever you think you're doing hydration
wise and nutrition wise, you probably need one. And I
needed more. So I made sure that I had that
last stop by the cooler before our last down and back.
I got out a nice big sugary gatorade and I
had like my coal towel. I had some water and
some gatorade. That's a that gatorade with me, and it
was the best. It was exactly what I needed. That
(21:00):
gain rade is what I needed for the last two
miles one and a half. Whenever you're even equal with
the finish line. You gotta do that down last, down
and back on. I don't know. Maybe that's the south
side of the course. Maybe it's the north side of
the purse. Again, why do I care? Somtimes I'm wrong?
Whatever it is. So did that and we go out
to do our last mile and a half. Move but
it is about a mile and a half to get
(21:21):
down around and back to the finish line. And so
we're going, we're talking. Other runners are coming the other direction.
They're on their last hill to come in. Because of
course finish is going up at hill. Why wouldn't it.
And so we're down the hill, we're up the back
side of the gigantic hill. It work down the gigantic hill,
up the last make the turn down the hill, up
(21:41):
the gigantic hill. One last time we had to do
this ord hill. And what did they say? And if
I'm getting the number wrong, I'm sorry. What they say
that that last hill was like thirty nine percent of
the mini fine. I swear someone through that number out
there just an insane angle. And this was after they
(22:03):
had apparently shaved off the top of that hill, so
it used to be a steeper hill and people were
getting in car wrecks on that thing. So eventually they
came out and kind of redid the road and they
lessened the steepness of that hill. But even now it's
still an ungodly steve hill. But to gain over the
last hill, the very last one, well the last of
the big ones, down the hill and then back up
(22:23):
to the finish line. I get to the finish line,
we had to stop and get a picture taken by
the sign this says Argo Road. So thank pri Michelle
was able to do that for me. She took that
picture and then she took my gatoray bottle and peeled
off and I took it down to the finish line.
But again all the credit to her. I would not
have done well nearly as well if she had not
helped me that last two and a half miles. So
(22:44):
much love, thank you so much, missus. Hollydo. You're going
to be a good pacer because you were good at
getting people just staying that half step in front and
getting people that finish line. So thank you very much
for that. I finished the race at a time of
three hours forty four minutes, and I think by twenty
nine seconds something along those lines. And seconds. I don't
care about three forty four, all right, So I got
(23:05):
sixteen minutes under the four hour deadline. I'll take it,
no problem. There were two people that finished after me.
Great job out of y'all to get that nonsense done.
It was easily the most difficult course I've ever done,
and yet it is now surpassed the Baton Memorial Death
March as the most difficult race I've ever done. Baton
(23:26):
took longer. Baton took me eleven hours, but it was
eleven hours, and it was a designed walk, and it
was a planned walk. It was walking boots, it was
a pack, it was walking stakes. It was an hour
at the halfway point getting burgers and soft drinks and
refueling and waiting for other people in the group. So
it took a long time and it was very, very difficult.
(23:47):
But I had planned for that, and you plan for
an old event, so your your hydration is different, your
nutrition is different, everything was different. This being a half marathon,
and I mean, i'd say half marathon because yes, a
maasure's thirteen point one inch miles, but the difficulty of
that course kind of puts it above. And you have
a half marathon I've ever done. So the Liberty half
(24:07):
got nothing on ourgo, the Hospital Hill half nothing on ourgo.
This was the most difficult race I've ever got. Okay,
that's it. So, Yes, it's because of the nine am started. Yes,
it's because of the excess at the warning. Yes, it's
because of high humidity. I am thankful that we did
not get the full brunt of the sun the entire time.
(24:28):
We certainly got it. We certainly got it at points,
but then the clouds would come back and it would
help a little bit when you got to the top
of some of the hills. You've got a little bit
of a breeze. When you got to the bottom, though
you didn't get squat because the wind wasn't getting down there.
And so, you know, you had to deal with a
lot of different elements when it came to the weather
and the time of year and the temperature, and then
(24:49):
of course the course, of course, the course a horse
is a horse, of course, of course, but.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
That it was designed to be offered, designed to be miserable.
It is designed to test you. Now, you don't get
a medal for finishing this race, this group run. There
is no metal. What you did.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Is the shirt that you see in front of you
arego thirteen point one toughest race in knny C. Absolutely correct.
On the back it has the elevation chart which is
just you know, the spikes up and down and then
I think it says Summer Finisher or something along those lines.
The reason that these shirts are so coveted though in
the Kansas City area is you get it handed to
you when you cross the finish line. This is not
(25:29):
a participation shirt. This is not a shirt you pick
up at packet pick up. You can't buy this, you know,
for twenty dollars at the xpot. It is handed to you.
It is ordered with your you specifically in line. It
is ordered for you and handed to you upon completion
of the riks. So if you see someone wearing an
ARGO shirt, that means they finish some shit. My friends like,
(25:51):
no question. They they were in for a bad time
and they were able to finish it. So yes, I
do understand now while you see a lot of people
wearing their ardush, it's kind of a pride and why
people get a little little you know how amidy about it,
because you know what you've done something you earn those
bragging rights, and people ask me, well, why did you
do this race? It's you know, it's not even really race.
It's a group from There's no metal and there's no bid,
(26:14):
there's you know, none of the things that you normally
do racist for well for me, and the reason why
even the people who give me a hard time about it,
I don't really care. I am all about the experiences
at this point in my running proof. If there is
something I can experience that challenges me, or interests me
or entertains me, then I'm gonna do it because I
at least have to do it once. I've got to
know what I'm doing or you know, what I'm missing
(26:36):
or what I'm not missing or what I'm experiencing. I
am only in this now for the experiences. There's nothing
left to prove in my running world, not that there
ever wanks the only thing I can ever prove, and
because we just yesterday passed the anniversary of it, I
can prove that a guy with two open heart surgeries
can still run races. I can still do the difficult races,
and I can still do it hargument, and I can
still run a full marathon, and I can do all
(26:57):
these things with a mechanical valve in my heart in
nine years post heart surging experience. That's why I do
the things previously. And it had always been Hey, Boston,
Boston is ain't number one on the bucket list. I've
got Boston. I got Boston in twenty twenty three. And no,
I don't care that I didn't qualify for Boston. I
still have run Boston. I raised a lot of money
and you all raised a lot of money. The next
(27:20):
thing I want to do, I really want to accomplish
in my running careers with joking challenge at the Walt
Disney World Marathon weekend. And yeah, people have negative opinions
about Disney in some areas. I don't care. I'm collecting experiences.
I'm collecting the things that I want to do. And
so Argo was one of those things that I wanted
to do. I had heard about it, I felt it
was going to challenge me and did it. And so
I went out and do it. I went out and
(27:41):
get it done. So folks, as we've talked about before,
do the hard things. We're freaking runners.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Man.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
We're not in this because it's easy. Nothing's easy. It's
not easy to get up early on Saturday morning and
go run a five k. You know all of you
people yesterday on you ladies, I can say that who
did Dima dash on Sunday? It was miserable out there.
I'm glad I just volunteered. I stood under a tenth
and watched you all work your butts on. It was hot,
it was humid, it was gross, it was just nasty.
(28:09):
You all chose to get up and do hard things
in that morning, and that's what we as runners do.
So don't ever be afraid, despite what others say, to
do the hard packs. If you see a race that
interests you, if you know what's gonna challenge you, if
you know what, you're gonna feel some satisfaction when you finish,
do the damn race a right, and then we'll all
tell stories about it afterwards, and that's what makes it awesome.
(28:31):
So I have now done Summer Argo. I have this
finish your shirt. I am wearing the shirt with pride
right now as I record this episode. No one can
take that away from me. You can't poopoo on this.
He'd be like, oh yeah, you did it, boy, three
forty four. It's not even really race whatever and hey,
I did a hell of a thing on that Saturday.
(28:51):
I messed with some serious freaking elevation on a nasty day,
and I looked the tail to tap. So that's all
I say about it. So next, all right, Next weekend,
I am out of town. It is my boys weekend
at the lake in Oklahoma. We're gonna sit in the
water on our floaties, beers in hand. It is my
weekend away to recharge my batteries and just enjoy not
(29:13):
having to worry about the thing. I don't have to
worry about the dogs. I don't have to worry about
the wife. I don't have to worry about kids. I
don't have to worry about the house. I don't have
to worry about the mother. I don't have to worry
about the races. I don't have to worry about the podcasts.
Now it is my time to get away and recharge.
So we will certainly have some episodes. Don't worry. We're
not going to miss anything on that, but you will
not see me at a race next weekend. After that,
though we had the Spencer, Seed, Duntons five K and
(29:33):
Gardener of Kansas. We do have a back and pack
podcast team. If you still want to sign up for
that race, so get a few dollars off your registration
by signing up under the podcast team. And then on
August ninth, we have the Run to Bless. Now I
want to give them a shout out because last year
was their first year. It's in Greenwood, Missouri. Hell of
a good race. Sorry, it's through a church. Maybe I
shouldn't say it was a hell of a good race.
It is a great race though, and I might still
(29:55):
be my five kPr. I'll have to go back and check,
but it was real close last year. Great rays, great
group of people that do this race. Again. I'm blown
away by the tons of the volunteers and the folks
who run that race last year. So on August ninth,
if you don't have something going on, sign up for
the Run to Blast in Greenwood, Missouri, and I will
see you out there because I'm absolutely doing that race
(30:17):
just a five king. There's nothing else offered. There is
no ten, a half or four, So please come out
and do that five k and support a wonderful church
with a really solid group of people. Again. Can't speak
highly enough of them. Okay, So that's going to do it.
To the soon's episode of the Back of the Back podcast.
I'm the host, Kyle Walker. It is my pleasure as alist.
Everyone has a safe week of training. Excessive the warning,
so I mean make sure you're double sake and we
(30:37):
will see you next week
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