6 Days in the Dome: “Living an Ultra Life” Podcast Host Mike Horner Walks Us Through The Race & His Mammoth 322 Mile Finish!

Transcript

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Hello and welcome again.

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If this is your first time with us, thank you for stopping by.

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You are listening to Choose to Endure the show dedicated to the back of the pack runners, where we share stories, interviews, gear and training tips specific to the tail end heroes of the Ultra Universe.

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If you haven't had a moment to do so yet, please consider heading over to your favorite podcast app hit, follow, rate the show and if you're getting something of value, definitely feel free to leave a review and let others know as well.

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Finished numerous ultra distances at this point, all the way up through 220 miles, and I am unashamedly a member of the back of the pack, just like many of you.

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Now, today, we are super honored to have with us the magnificent Mr Mike Horner.

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Mike is an accomplished back of the pack ultra runner with a pretty impressive track record.

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He has completed numerous timed events, including a host of 24 hour races, multiple 200 mile races, particularly at the Swami Shuffle, which is where Mike and I bumped into each other in an adventurous last 24 hours, and he's also done a few 150 mile events too, but most recently, just a few weeks back in fact, mike achieved a significant milestone by participating in the six days in the dome race in Milwaukee, wisconsin, where he managed to clock up a pretty staggering 322 miles, marking his longest run to date.

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That is just incredible.

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Not only that, though.

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In addition to his athletic pursuits, mike is also host of the Living an Ultra Life podcast, which he has been doing for several years now, where he talks with guests and shares his experiences and insights into our ultra running community.

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Mike's dedication, achievements and enthusiasm make him a standout figure in the sport, and I'm thrilled to have him on the show to discuss his most recent accomplishment as well as a little bit about his journey as an ultra runner.

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So don't go anywhere.

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We are about to jump right in.

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Discover raw, inspiring stories from runners who've been right where you are.

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This is the Choose to Endure Ultra Running Podcast With your host he's English, not Australian Richard Gleave.

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Mike, welcome to the show.

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Thank you so much for taking a short break from living an ultra life and joining us here.

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I hope you're rested up and healing well at this point.

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How are you doing, sir?

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I'm doing really good.

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Surprisingly, I'm already considering hopping back into my next training block.

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Recovery has been amazing, so I'm feeling very good.

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Brilliant, brilliant.

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Well, before we get into the running stuff, I would like the listeners get to know a little bit about you first, so if you wouldn't mind who is Mike, where are you based and what do you do when you're not running?

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Cool.

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Well, my name is Mike Horner, like you said, and I am based in Virginia Beach.

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Virginia Just turned 60 a couple days ago, so significant milestone there.

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Happy birthday.

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Yeah, when I'm not running ultramarathons.

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I'm a partner in a lightning manufacturers agency, just became a full partner about nine months ago, so I've been in the lighting industry for oh my gosh since 2008.

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So I've got a lot of years in the lighting industry, both starting in sales and then moving into a manufacturer's sales position.

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Ran a electrical distributorship and shared in Wyoming for a number of years, and now I'm back in Virginia Beach as a partner in a lighting manufacturers agency, which is just a fancy way of saying that, rather than manufacturers hiring salespeople all over the country, they hire agencies, and so we represent 26 different lighting manufacturers.

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So that's what I do on a full-time basis.

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I'm the guy who's out there working with architects, engineers, contractors and electrical distributors to move product.

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Brilliant, and I tell you what 2008 seems like such a long time ago now, doesn't it?

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I mean?

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Yeah, it does.

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It's like sometimes I sit there and think it was just yesterday and then all of a sudden I realize man, that was 16 years ago.

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There are people that are around that weren't even alive then.

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Very true, very true.

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And now, if you go have a look at your ultra signup account where you go poke around there, now you, mike, you were, can I say, relatively late into the ultra running scene.

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It looks like you got started around 50 years old.

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So what, yeah, how and why did you initially kind of get into the ultra scene?

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It was.

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It was an accident.

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Oh, get into the ultra scene.

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It was an accident, oh right.

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So when I was turning 50 in 2014, I had run probably two or three marathons at the time, so I didn't start running until I was 46.

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Like, I used to make fun of all the runners, because I grew up a hockey player and a football player and the only time you ran is when you screwed up and you know you had to go run laps or something.

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Yeah, yeah.

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So you know my whole adult life.

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You know I was in sales.

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I didn't I, I golfed.

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That was my main thing was, you know, I golfed and and I stunk at that.

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So I don't even know why I chased that little white ball, because it never went where I wanted it to go.

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And so at some point, my wife and I had lived overseas, we'd come back and I had gained a ton of weight.

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So I was pushing 265 pounds and I was getting ready to go make a sales call and I was in a size 40 pants.

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I breathed way in, as I was used to doing, and got my pants buckled, and then I breathed out, and when I breathed out, my button popped across the room and I realized that I needed to go buy a size up in pants.

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And so went and bought a size 42 pair of pants and realized I was going the wrong way and decided need to change my health trajectory.

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And so that was in 2010, like the late November 2010.

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And I went for my first run right after Thanksgiving in 2010.

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And I guess you could say I haven't stopped running since, but I got into ultras in 2014 in January.

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My wife and I were living in Sheridan, wyoming, and I walked into the kitchen one morning I said, hey, I'm going to run 50 miles on my 50th birthday.

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My wife looked at me and she's like you are absolutely insane.

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And I told her that's true, but you've been married to me for a long time, so you already knew that.

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So my first ultra marathon was just a 50 mile route that I made up on my 50th birthday on July 3rd 2014.

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It was a really, really hot day in Sheridan and I ran 50 miles and Sheridan's a very small town, so it was a slow news day and somehow one of the television stations came out and interviewed me about 35 miles into my run and the owner of the sports shop was a gal named Karen Powers and she contacted me and she said hey, I just saw you ran 50 miles, would you do?

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You know there are races that are called ultra marathons and I have not stopped running ultra marathon since.

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So that's how I got into ultra marathons.

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I am totally committed to the back of the pack because I have chased every cutoff there is to chase.

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Wonderful.

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So, Mike, the other thing that I noticed when looking at your ultra signup account now, you're a guy who likes a timed race.

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It seems like you've done a lot of timed races over the years.

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What is it about that particular format?

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Do you think that appeals to you?

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I think it's because, like when you run a you know distance race, you know there's always cutoffs and everything, and I think I stress myself out too much running you know distance races Like there are there are.

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I've done plenty of distance races and completed plenty of distance races, but I don't have as much fun at them as I do at timed races.

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Timed races it's like I take all the all the stress of a cutoff, you know, out of the equation and just go out and have fun and encourage the other runners out there and you know just really see how far can I push my body in this given time.

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And so I think the timed races have become more my thing, because I can just go out, have fun, be the goofball that I am and not worry about cutoffs.

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Yeah, the cutoff stress is real.

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That's kind of why I haven't done quite as many hundred miles as I have, because even and it seems ridiculous to say it, but even a hundred milers, it can get really stressful when you when you're especially technical ones or mountainous ones, whatever you know, you can be chasing cutoffs pretty early in those races.

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Again which seems really weird when you're saying it's a hundred miles.

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But yeah, you can be chasing cutoffs pretty pretty quickly in those, yeah, and once you start tickling them, it gets more stressful.

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You know, I remember my first 100 miler attempt was at lean horse and I tickled the the cutoff at mile 42.

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And probably ate something that I shouldn't have ate.

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And I spent the next eight miles throwing up and I got to mile 50 and tried to go on and I couldn't go on and then I got cut off and it was like, wow, okay, that stunk, you know.

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So I had to learn a lot about how do I manage the cutoffs and how do I manage the disappointment of oh wait, I, you know I'm, I'm not going to be in the front of the pack, and you know just different, just trying different methods.

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For me, you know, the biggest thing was learning in a distance race to go to the back at the start of the race.

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So I didn't pretend that I was, you know, one of those sleek, fast runners and and go out too fast and then burn myself out in the first, you know, 10, 12 miles and I've had more success since I started doing that.

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I've finished 300 milers, and so you figure out how do you do it and how do you stay within yourself and run your own race instead of trying to compete with people that you don't have any business trying to compete with.

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Yeah, it's an interesting one, but I agree, I think the timed races really give you the opportunity to work within yourself and build your own kind of build your own race almost.

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You set your own goals, you plan, you know there's not a dnf really in a timed race, it's just are you going to accomplish whatever goal you set out to do?

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And I think that's a great way to to do racing and a really different approach to trying ultras, which I think works for a lot of people.

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Now, mike, at what point during your racing did you start to think about a podcast?

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How did the idea for living an ultra life come about?

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Was that right at the beginning or did that sort of evolve as you were telling stories of your races?

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Where did the podcast idea come from?

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So it was during the COVID pandemic and it was kind of in the fall of 2020.

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And I've just you know my mom and dad would tell you I've always been a rebel without a cause and I was so tired of everybody saying what you can't do and I was just like we were not created in a can't do mentality.

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You know, we were created in a can do mentality and I'm so tired of every time you turn on television or radio or pick up any news type of thing, everybody's telling me what you can't do, and I was just like one.

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I'm part of the ultra running community and I'm seeing people do things that you would never think you could do.

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You know, like I had, I completed 200 milers during the pandemic, both virtual, because they got canceled, but you know they said, hey, you can go out and run this, you just got to complete it in this timeframe.

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One of them was 28 hours and the other one was 26 hours.

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Yeah, I was like I can do that.

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And so I completed my first 200 milers, virtually, and it was like, wow, there's nobody here cheering.

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My buckle got mailed to me.

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One of them got mailed to me six months later and I opened it up and I was like I don't even remember which one this was.

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Yeah, what was that?

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The podcast came about from that because I was like wouldn't it be awesome if we featured stories about what we can do?

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And we began refocusing our minds on, instead of this hyper focus on what we can't do, and started focusing on what we can do.

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And so living an ultra life is kind of one of those things that when I became part of the ultra running community, I've always kind of struggled in my geekdom, dorkiness, being a goofball and everything of fitting in.

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And when I started running ultra marathons, I quickly found out that the ultra running community is very accepting of people and you don't have to have all your stuff together.

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You know, you can be a total goofball, you can be a mess, you can be whatever, and the community welcomes you in with open arms and says, hey, come run with us.

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And so I was like if we could be more like the ultra running community as a society, we would be okay I mean all this hyper partisan divide along political lines and ideological lines and everything If we would stop all that stuff and learn to cheer for each other and learn to accept each other just as we are, we'd be okay.

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And so that's where Living in Ultralife came from, and so the podcast started in December of 2020.

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And we've been going since then and it's you know, it's a quirky little niche podcast that has pretty good listenership and shocks me, and we have some amazing guests that come on and they shock me because, you know, they they all come on and say, well, I don't have a story to tell.

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And then you're an hour later going.

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Ok, we sort of got to wrap this up.

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You know and they realize, wow, I had a story to tell and you know.

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So my motto has become the worst story that is ever told is the one that never gets told.

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So I just want to provide a format for people to be able to tell their story.

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Really cool, yes, and so listeners, definitely go go check out Living an Ultra Life, if you haven't already and if you have a moment, absolutely Now.

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What we really want to get into here, Mike, we want to get back into and hear about your whole six days in the dome experience that you just went through in Milwaukee.

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I want to get back into and hear about your whole six days in the dome experience that you just went through in Milwaukee.

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I want to say, before we get into what got you in there and how the race panned out for you, maybe you could take a few minutes to sort of give an overview for the listeners.

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What exactly is six days in the dome?

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What's the format?

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We said it's in Milwaukee, but what are the rules?

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Kind of give us the background to Six Days.

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What does this race look like?

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Six Days in the Dome is an amazing race.

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The race directors are Bill Schultz and Mike Melton.

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When I start to tell you the format of this race, you're going to be amazed that these guys can pull this stuff off, because it amazed me, but the format is so.

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This year there was a 10-day race, a six-day race, multiple 72-hour races, multiple 48-hour races, multiple 24-hour races, multiple 12-hour races and then a 24-hour invitational where they brought in the top 24-hour runners, not just from America, but there were a couple international runners in there also.

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And you want to talk about an exhibition and just amazing human beings running around a 443-meter track.

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That in the middle of the running track, which is only three lanes, so it's not as wide.

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None of the lanes are as wide as like your normal high school outdoor track, but probably the three lanes combined are probably about the width of two lanes on a normal outdoor track.

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So that's what you're running on.

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The surface is a concrete surface with a thin covering, and I don't remember the covering that it's covered with, but the concrete is very, very hard because, of course, in the middle are two full-sized hockey rinks and then on the outside of the hockey rinks is a long track that they didn't actually have ice for speed skating.

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So and this is all indoors, so the constant temperature is 55 degrees, 35% humidity, so your real feel is somewhere around 52 degrees.

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All the time, night and day, the lights never go off, so the lights are on 24 seven and that's what you're running under and trying to find ways to creatively sleep and all that stuff.

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They would provide a lunch and a dinner for you, so our calorie intake was phenomenal and the meals were catered in and they were all really, really good.

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It was good food.

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It wasn't like stuff going oh, how am I going to cram this down.

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It was all good food that you look forward to.

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So phenomenal race directing, when you think about all the different races that Mike and Bill put on over a 10-day period and pulled it off flawlessly with some of the most amazing performances by people that I've ever witnessed in my entire life.

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Yeah, and so how many?

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It sounds like a lot of races all going on simultaneously.

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How many people were on the track?

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I mean, was there a big crowd in those three finish lanes?

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Yeah, the only day where there were a lot of runners on the track.

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So there were.

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I think there were 24 10-day runners.

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There were 23 six-day runners.

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The most people that I ever experienced on the track was probably like my third, maybe in the third or fourth day, I don't remember which one it was.

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There were probably 60, 70 runners total on the track, but normally you had anywhere from 40 to 50 on the track at one time during the day.

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Once you got into the nighttime hours, those went down a lot because a lot of the runners would you know, they'd come out, they'd run 10, 12 hours and then they'd go back to the hotel room and these are probably the same ones.

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They'd go back to the hotel room and they'd get a full night's sleep and then us insane people would continue on until we couldn't physically continue on any longer, and then we'd go upstairs to a heated room where there were.

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It looked like a triage room.

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By day four of my day four, which for the 10 dayers was their day six that place looked like a triage room with people trying to you know, tape toes, get their feet up and you're all sleeping on air mattresses and little bitty cots.

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So it was kind of funny to watch the sleeping, sleeping and I'm putting big air quotes in there.

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It was crazy.

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And so how did you guys did you?

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Did they give you a space to put an aid station?

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How did how?

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Did you set up wherever your space was going to be for that many people around the track?

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So when we got there, so the 10 day people in the six day people were told that you can you go pick a table and that spot and three yards on either side of that is your spot.

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So however you want to set it up, you set up your table your spot however you want.

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So I at first was like, well, I'm going to sleep down here, I'm not going to go upstairs, and so I had my air mattress down there the first night.

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And then, you know, I had my table arranged, so I use Scratch Super Fuels as kind of the main kind of thing that I use the table.

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And then of course, tylenol, aspirin, lots and lots of tiger balm was used and that's all out on your table and everything.

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And so you know first aid, you know tape and toes or anything like that.

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When you got hotspots and all that kind of stuff, that was, that was your table.

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And so that was the first day I kept my air mattress downstairs until I realized that trying to sleep in 55 degrees weather is really cold.

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It was not comfortable and we've done cold before you and I so we, yeah, we've done.

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I was gonna say Richard and I have learned that, yeah, cold.

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Of course we were cold and extremely wet, so you have that on there.

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And it was kind of, yeah, our last 60 miles, richard and I endured a lot, it was amazing.

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So, yeah, trying to sleep downstairs was not good, so I brought my air mattress upstairs the second day.

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Brilliant.

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So only the 10 day and six day has got a table, and 10 Day and 6 Day has got a table.

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They got a table and then when 70, there was enough tables to go around, so 72 hours they would all do a table.

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And then there was a lot of sharing going on.

00:21:55.063 --> 00:22:15.987
I shared my table with a 24-hour runner, Just kind of scooted my stuff over and gave one of my chairs because we had two chairs and so I gave him one of my chairs and part of the table and he put his stuff there and ran his 24-hour race and wisely went home when he was done with his 24-hour race and I continued on for another three days.

00:22:15.987 --> 00:22:20.227
But so a lot of that was happening, so there was a lot of sharing of spaces.

00:22:21.420 --> 00:22:29.604
Did they stagger the start of each of those races so that everyone finished at the same time, or were there races finishing while other races had?

00:22:29.604 --> 00:22:32.286
You know, while the 10 day was still going on, you guys are still going.

00:22:32.286 --> 00:22:34.307
How did they stagger the finish so they only did two?

00:22:34.327 --> 00:22:34.607
turnarounds.

00:22:34.607 --> 00:22:36.549
So every six hours you would turn around.

00:22:36.549 --> 00:22:59.913
So all the races started at noon otherwise, so all the you know 48, 72 six day and 10 day races all started at 12 noon and then you would turn around every six hours and then what they would do is then the.

00:22:59.913 --> 00:23:06.111
There were I think there were only like maybe 10 or maybe 12 people who ran 12 hours.

00:23:06.111 --> 00:23:07.534
There's one gal crushed it.

00:23:07.534 --> 00:23:10.750
She did like 63 miles in 12 hours.

00:23:10.750 --> 00:23:13.128
I was like you are not of this world.

00:23:13.640 --> 00:23:15.884
So, um cause, mike?

00:23:15.884 --> 00:23:21.506
Mike doesn't even think about doing 60 miles in 12 hours, but um so, yeah, she was.

00:23:21.506 --> 00:23:28.751
She was amazing, but the 12 hour runner started at nine and then they would end at start at 9 am and end at 9 pm.

00:23:29.413 --> 00:23:29.713
Gotcha.

00:23:29.713 --> 00:23:38.335
So now, Mike, what initially drew you to participate in this event as either part of your 60th celebration or just in general?

00:23:38.335 --> 00:23:42.030
What was it about this event that kind of drew you to it?

00:23:42.742 --> 00:23:52.153
So I've always wanted to know what's the furthest I could possibly run before I don't have anything left.

00:23:52.153 --> 00:23:58.441
So I was talking with one of my friends who just happens to be the race director of Swami Shuffle 200.

00:23:58.441 --> 00:24:01.606
And I was telling him this story.

00:24:01.606 --> 00:24:16.980
I was telling him I want to discover what is it like to get to that point where, physically, you know you can't go another inch, where, mentally, you know you can't go another inch and he goes hey, you know you can't go another inch, where, mentally, you know you can't go another inch and he goes hey, you know, there's a six day race that happens in Milwaukee, wisconsin.

00:24:16.980 --> 00:24:19.125
It's in a hockey arena.

00:24:19.125 --> 00:24:22.632
He said you should look into that, and so I did.

00:24:22.632 --> 00:24:31.871
And so the more and more I thought about it, I was like, yeah, this could be it, this, this, this would be a perfect you know-day race.

00:24:32.592 --> 00:24:43.846
Initially, when I signed up for it, it was going to be my 59th ultramarathon finish, and so I was like, yeah, that's kind of cool, get my 59th ultramarathon finish there.

00:24:43.846 --> 00:24:48.323
And then a friend invited me down to run a really fun 50K down in North Carolina.

00:24:48.323 --> 00:24:59.480
So now it became my 60th ultra marathon finish and also I was like, you know, it's kind of symbolic, running one day for every decade I've been on this earth.

00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:03.229
And so all I've got to do is, you know, move the six days.

00:25:03.229 --> 00:25:09.111
And I just wanted to physically and mentally reach that point where I couldn't move another inch.

00:25:09.779 --> 00:25:11.064
Wow, very cool.

00:25:11.064 --> 00:25:14.315
Well, I think you ended up having a really great race.

00:25:14.315 --> 00:25:17.522
So, however you said about doing it, I think it's gone well.

00:25:17.522 --> 00:25:23.054
But how did you go about preparing for really to run six days?

00:25:23.054 --> 00:25:28.531
I mean, we run pretty far and we run for a number of days, but six days seems like a lot.

00:25:28.531 --> 00:25:38.019
So were there any specific routines or differences in training methods from what you've used before that you changed and maybe found particularly effective?

00:25:38.259 --> 00:26:01.413
now, looking back on the race itself, yeah, I actually did some really strange races not races but runs, training runs where I would start at like 10 pm and I would find places like I had a friend who has a warehouse and I was like hey, can I borrow your warehouse from 10 pm until 8 the next morning?

00:26:01.413 --> 00:26:03.019
And he's like what are you going to do?

00:26:03.019 --> 00:26:07.070
And I was like I'm going to run around the inside of your warehouse for 10 hours.

00:26:07.070 --> 00:26:08.285
He's like you're insane.

00:26:08.285 --> 00:26:11.645
But yep, here's the code, you know, just make sure you don't.

00:26:11.645 --> 00:26:16.032
You know, unlock any doors that need to be unlocked and just keep it locked.

00:26:16.032 --> 00:26:21.820
And I was like, okay, no problem.

00:26:21.861 --> 00:26:28.209
So you know, I set up a little course in his warehouse and ran around the warehouse for 10 hours because I wanted to find out how does my body react in the early morning hours.

00:26:28.209 --> 00:26:40.306
You know how does my body react at 2 am, because my whole thing was you're going to have a lot of noise, because it's a hockey arena and I know what a hockey arena sounds like and everything.

00:26:40.306 --> 00:26:42.236
So I knew the sounds and stuff I was going to hear.

00:26:42.236 --> 00:26:44.403
You're going to have music blaring all the time.

00:26:44.403 --> 00:26:47.800
The lights are going to be on during the day, so there's a lot of.

00:26:47.800 --> 00:26:57.231
It's not like Swami Sh, where you're in desolation alley, you know, between bass night bridge and jug handle bridge and there's nothing.

00:26:57.231 --> 00:26:59.365
You know there's none of that.

00:26:59.365 --> 00:27:00.788
There's always going to be people around.

00:27:00.788 --> 00:27:17.690
There's always going to be these external things that are going on, and so I wanted to find out how well I could move in the early morning hours versus the wake hours, because that's where I've always kind of stunk, as an ultra runner is.

00:27:17.690 --> 00:27:23.950
I like hit 2 am and I get loopy brain, and so I wanted to force myself to work an entire day.

00:27:23.950 --> 00:27:37.717
I think I did a podcast interview in the evening and then, you know, headed out to this warehouse at 9 pm and I did that twice just because I wanted to push myself, and both times I went over 40 miles.

00:27:37.717 --> 00:27:41.325
I think I did 46 one time and 48 the other time.

00:27:41.325 --> 00:27:42.487
So I knew I could.

00:27:42.487 --> 00:27:47.583
I could hit the miles and stuff if I could just stay awake, and so that was.

00:27:47.824 --> 00:27:50.851
That was kind of the big thing that I changed in my training.

00:27:50.851 --> 00:28:06.978
Of course, I had never run a track I so I've never done a speed workout before hit before this, and I was like so I talked to some friends of mine that are really good runners and I was like, okay, explain this whole track workout thing to me, because I don't understand the markings on a track.

00:28:06.978 --> 00:28:10.444
Remember, I've never run track or anything, so I don't know any of this stuff.

00:28:10.444 --> 00:28:14.491
So I was like, teach me what are the markings on a track, how do I?

00:28:14.491 --> 00:28:15.133
I?

00:28:15.133 --> 00:28:17.624
Told him I wanted to do the run walk method.

00:28:17.624 --> 00:28:21.154
I said you know what are marks that I should look for to do?

00:28:21.154 --> 00:28:24.141
And so you know, they taught me that and so I did a little.

00:28:24.320 --> 00:28:33.526
I did a couple of track workouts and stuff and I think one was like three and a half hours and pouring down rain in April and that was not fun.

00:28:33.526 --> 00:28:36.488
But you know, whatever, it's what we do as ultra runners.

00:28:36.488 --> 00:28:39.308
And so, you know, I did some different training.

00:28:39.308 --> 00:28:40.829
You know runs and stuff.

00:28:40.829 --> 00:28:50.535
Would eat a large dinner and then go out and run after eating a large dinner just to see how my stomach reacted, with a good amount of food in it and everything.

00:28:50.535 --> 00:28:52.215
So little things like that that I did.

00:28:52.517 --> 00:28:53.576
Fantastic, yeah.

00:28:53.576 --> 00:29:04.145
So as far as the race itself talked about sort of practicing some of these strategies in advance, did you have a strategy in mind going into this race?

00:29:04.145 --> 00:29:15.824
And then did you have a distance, a goal in mind for what you wanted to achieve in the six days and, from that strategy perspective, how you were going to get to that goal?

00:29:16.665 --> 00:29:18.069
Yeah, I did have a strategy.

00:29:18.069 --> 00:29:27.055
So one of the things that I learned I think it was in 2022, I was getting ready to run Blackbeard's Revenge 100.

00:29:27.055 --> 00:29:37.749
And one of my friends who is a Navy SEAL and runs Forge Glory Athletics, he kind of took me under his wings and he's like Mike, you've got a tremendous power walk.

00:29:37.749 --> 00:29:39.701
He said your run is really awkward.

00:29:39.701 --> 00:29:47.442
I've had a lot of things happen to the left side of my body and so my left leg lands really heavy.

00:29:47.442 --> 00:29:54.365
And he was like but when you power walk, you land light, you land, you know really really well.

00:29:54.365 --> 00:29:56.496
And he said you can get scooting with your power walk.

00:29:56.496 --> 00:30:01.008
He said you should just abandon the run and just do the power walk.

00:30:01.008 --> 00:30:14.015
He said in fact, why don't you do the first 50 miles, do your run, walk and once you hit the 50 miles at Blackbeard's, walk the rest way and get your power walk and gear and at you know mile 75, start passing people.

00:30:14.015 --> 00:30:25.593
And so I did that at Blackbeards and walked the entire last 50 miles and in the last 75, in the last 25 miles of that race, I passed 22 people.

00:30:25.593 --> 00:30:29.329
So I knew that I could.

00:30:30.140 --> 00:30:50.490
So my strategy going into six days was OK, I'm going to start out doing a run walk for throughout most of the first day, but at some point I was like I'm going to transfer over and just see how well I can do this power walk and just plow through the power walk with a little bit of running mixed in every day.

00:30:50.490 --> 00:30:52.432
So my goal was I had to run.

00:30:52.432 --> 00:30:56.675
My goal was I have to run at least 25 laps every single day.

00:30:56.675 --> 00:30:59.262
So I don't know why I came up with 25.

00:30:59.262 --> 00:31:00.826
But I was like I and I want to.

00:31:00.826 --> 00:31:14.335
I want to clip those laps off in the 250 to 325 range and then power walk the rest of them and try and stay in the 350 to no more than five minute laps.

00:31:14.335 --> 00:31:17.569
And I was pretty successful doing that.

00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:26.348
So I was happy with my strategy and my goal going in was to do 400 miles and, like I said, I've never done a six day.

00:31:26.348 --> 00:31:30.240
So I didn't know what I didn't know and I was just really blessed.

00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:33.089
I had some gentlemen talk to me.

00:31:33.089 --> 00:31:53.545
The first was Mike Dobies, who was the first person I've met and, for those of you who don't know, mike Dobies is like the biggest statistical guru in the timed event world and like the journey run Laz Lake world that you'll ever meet and just one of the nicest guys in the world and he asked me.

00:31:53.545 --> 00:31:54.648
He said you know what's your goal?

00:31:54.648 --> 00:31:58.866
And I told him I'd like to go over 400 miles and he said cut it in half.

00:31:58.866 --> 00:32:00.984
And I was like wow.

00:32:01.386 --> 00:32:03.806
Yeah, yeah, I was like uh, I've already.

00:32:04.086 --> 00:32:09.541
I told him I said I've already completed Swami shuffle twice, so that's over 220 miles.

00:32:09.541 --> 00:32:12.085
I was like if I cut it in half, that's 200.

00:32:12.085 --> 00:32:14.327
I said I want to do better than I did at Swami.

00:32:14.327 --> 00:32:15.829
I want to go longer than I did at Swami.

00:32:15.829 --> 00:32:18.313
He's like I'm not telling you you're not going to.

00:32:18.313 --> 00:32:20.955
He said cut your goal in half and then work your ass off.

00:32:20.955 --> 00:32:24.480
I was like, okay, so he was the first one.

00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:33.131
And then there was a gentleman from Scotland and I can't remember his last name, but Scott took me aside and he he needed.

00:32:33.131 --> 00:32:39.203
He was in the 10 day race and he needed some stuff from the grocery store and he asked me to Uber to the grocery store and pick some stuff up.

00:32:39.203 --> 00:32:41.871
So I did and I got back and he was like what's your goal?

00:32:41.871 --> 00:32:43.201
And I told him 400 miles.

00:32:43.201 --> 00:32:44.162
He said cut it in half.

00:32:44.162 --> 00:32:45.663
He said this surface is hard.

00:32:45.663 --> 00:32:50.108
Whatever you think you're going to do, cut it in half and be happy with it and just work hard.

00:32:50.108 --> 00:32:52.030
And I was like okay, that's two.

00:32:52.050 --> 00:32:52.672
That's twice.

00:32:52.672 --> 00:32:54.753
Yeah, what do I not know here?

00:32:55.234 --> 00:32:56.516
Very, very interesting.

00:32:56.516 --> 00:33:03.780
So then in the first day I'm just kind of running laps and everything and do my run walk thing and just kind of grooving.

00:33:03.780 --> 00:33:19.640
And David Johnston, who you know for those of you in the ultra running world that follow like runners from way out in the never, never land he is one of the top runners from Alaska who now lives in Missouri, but he's, he's a beast of a runner.

00:33:19.640 --> 00:33:29.633
I mean, it's just a phenomenal multi-day runner, backyard runner, and he's just so for him to kind of pull up beside me and just kind of come alongside me.

00:33:29.633 --> 00:33:32.823
And you know, he started talking to me about, you know, my gait and everything.

00:33:32.823 --> 00:33:35.230
And he said, man, you've land really heavy on your left foot.

00:33:35.230 --> 00:33:36.823
And he said what's your goal?

00:33:36.823 --> 00:33:40.031
And I, you know, I said, well, you know I was thinking 400 miles.

00:33:40.031 --> 00:33:49.326
He said, cut it in half.

00:33:49.326 --> 00:34:14.119
And I'm like, okay, I'm a dork'm gonna, I'm gonna say okay, once I pass 222 miles, which is Swami shuffle, I was like now I'm in uncharted territory, so that's, my goal is 225 miles and everything after that is sweet, sweet.

00:34:14.119 --> 00:34:15.061
Yeah, it was just, it was amazing.

00:34:15.061 --> 00:34:21.396
And I'm glad I did that because it enabled me to not focus on the number and to focus on moving efficiently and overcoming the pain.

00:34:22.137 --> 00:34:30.463
And most of all, you know you've ran with me, my my whole thing is, hey, let's have fun, and I just like to encourage other runners.

00:34:30.463 --> 00:34:37.422
So whenever I would see a runner, you know, struggling or something, I would just come up alongside of them and I would just encourage them.

00:34:37.422 --> 00:34:49.344
I just spend some time talking with them, telling them how amazing they were, and just try to encourage them to keep on moving efficiently, and so that's what I spent my whole race doing was just sliding up.

00:34:49.344 --> 00:34:58.769
One of the Japanese runners called me the good cheer guy, so you know I would come up with goofy weather reports every morning.

00:34:59.331 --> 00:35:00.793
Good morning, it's 55.

00:35:00.793 --> 00:35:04.869
Today's weather report it's going to be 55 degrees with 35% humidity.

00:35:04.869 --> 00:35:08.244
It's going to feel like probably around 52 degrees.

00:35:08.244 --> 00:35:08.686
Today.

00:35:08.686 --> 00:35:15.929
There's a 99% chance that you're going to experience some pain and there's 100% chance that you're going to experience discomfort.

00:35:15.929 --> 00:35:22.172
Have a wonderful day and I just go around the track doing goofy things like that, just trying to get people to smile.

00:35:22.172 --> 00:35:39.188
In the morning you get growls and stuff, but that was my whole goal and so once I hit 225 miles, I'm like I'm in total uncharted territory and that was in day four-ish, I think it was, and I was like well, you know, I got two more days, let's see how much I can do.

00:35:40.210 --> 00:35:40.592
Brilliant.

00:35:40.592 --> 00:35:44.809
Yeah, and you're killing me with your weather report, mike, that's cracking me up.

00:35:44.809 --> 00:35:46.012
I like it Very cool.

00:35:46.012 --> 00:36:14.780
No-transcript.

00:36:14.780 --> 00:36:17.730
That must have been a really interesting experience.

00:36:17.730 --> 00:36:22.905
Did you pick up any tips and tricks as you're going around, like you were saying, the one guy was like hey, your gate's kind of off.

00:36:23.440 --> 00:36:25.469
Yeah, I mean I got to spend.

00:36:25.469 --> 00:36:28.931
So Megan Eckert is just an amazing runner.

00:36:28.931 --> 00:36:31.610
She's been on the Choose to Endure podcast.

00:36:31.610 --> 00:36:37.992
So those of you who haven't checked out the Choose to Endure podcast with Megan Eckert episode, go check it out.

00:36:37.992 --> 00:36:43.367
Everything that Megan is on the podcast with Richard.

00:36:43.367 --> 00:36:47.041
She is in real life too and she is a beast.

00:36:47.041 --> 00:36:52.833
She was going after Camille's record, so this is her first attempt at a six-day thing.

00:36:52.833 --> 00:36:55.126
She's never tried anything.

00:36:55.126 --> 00:37:03.108
I think her longest race to date was a 55-hour and maybe a backyard where she did 200-something miles.

00:37:03.108 --> 00:37:08.161
So that was her furthest and she's like I'm going after Camille Heron.

00:37:08.161 --> 00:37:12.251
And first day she like lights out on fire.

00:37:12.251 --> 00:37:14.905
Just, you know you're watching her go around this track.

00:37:15.005 --> 00:37:16.871
Second day she really struggled a lot.

00:37:16.871 --> 00:37:25.405
And so I was walking with her at one point and you know she's just the most amazing, kind, gracious person you could ever be around.

00:37:25.405 --> 00:37:29.193
You don't think that this is an elite runner.

00:37:29.193 --> 00:37:39.146
And you know, we were talking and she asked me what I was doing and I said, well, I'm not focusing on a number, I'm just going to have fun and just see how far I can move this weird body of mine.

00:37:39.146 --> 00:37:43.322
And she just looked at me and she's like that's a different goal and you know.

00:37:43.322 --> 00:37:49.791
But it was fun watching her come back alive on day three and go out and crush it.

00:37:49.791 --> 00:37:56.170
And you know she finished 526 miles which, goodness gracious, that's fourth best in the world.

00:37:56.170 --> 00:37:58.440
So she's pretty amazing runner.

00:37:58.760 --> 00:38:06.041
But yeah, I got to spend time with amazing runners a runner that I really, really appreciate, ivo Majetic.

00:38:06.041 --> 00:38:20.588
He's a Czech runner who now lives in Colorado, but he is the world's record holder in 48 hour, 72 hour and six day ultra walking category.

00:38:20.588 --> 00:38:44.449
So he holds all the records in that category and around the third day he went and passed me and he never ran a single step, but the dude passed me a lot and he ended up being, I think, fifth or fourth yeah, either fifth or fourth overall third male with over like 440 miles.

00:38:44.449 --> 00:38:54.451
I mean just amazing, and he goes past me and he does this little finger wave with his hands and I'm going I think he wants me to kind of try and get on his feet.

00:38:54.451 --> 00:39:04.967
And so I just kind of fell in behind him and what I started doing was just try to mimic what he was doing with his walk Because I mean his walk is just vicious man.

00:39:05.099 --> 00:39:16.967
I mean it is the most efficient, lightest touch on the ground walk I've ever seen in my entire life and just I mean he can scoot man.

00:39:16.967 --> 00:39:21.625
I mean he was getting down into the 10s and 11 minute miles and I was just like okay.

00:39:21.625 --> 00:39:27.230
So I stayed on the hills for about an hour and when we got done he's like okay, did you notice what I was doing?

00:39:27.230 --> 00:39:34.226
And he started teaching me during the race how to walk better because he said you're a really efficient power walker.

00:39:34.226 --> 00:39:41.608
I think you could be really really good if you would just fully embrace the walking and not try to.

00:39:41.608 --> 00:39:45.081
You know, correct your gait, running and everything he said.

00:39:45.081 --> 00:39:50.224
I think you could, you know, at your age, destroy a lot of the age group records at your age destroy a lot of the age group records.

00:39:51.005 --> 00:39:51.505
Wow.

00:39:52.226 --> 00:39:53.347
And I was like wow.

00:39:53.347 --> 00:40:03.273
And so you know, he just, I mean here's, here's the guy with the world record sitting there going OK, I'm going to take some time and teach this guy.

00:40:03.273 --> 00:40:17.655
So I spent time with him day four, five and six just staying on his heels, him giving me little tips, and my technique got much better during the race, despite all the pain and discomfort that I felt.

00:40:17.655 --> 00:40:31.402
So, yeah, very, very appreciative of the people out there and these are elites that you think we think, oh, they're not going to spend any time, they won't talk to me and they would stop and talk to you, they would share tips with you.

00:40:31.402 --> 00:40:34.365
They would just like David, you know, picked me up one day.

00:40:34.405 --> 00:40:36.148
He was like why are you sitting eating your meal?

00:40:36.148 --> 00:40:37.431
I was like what are you talking about?

00:40:37.431 --> 00:40:38.893
I always sit and eat.

00:40:38.893 --> 00:40:47.389
He's like, no, you don't Pick up your meal, let's go.

00:40:47.389 --> 00:40:53.215
And he told like this is how you achieve higher mileage you don't sit down.

00:40:53.215 --> 00:40:56.809
He said the chair is your enemy and you know.

00:40:56.809 --> 00:40:57.931
So I mean it was just.

00:40:57.931 --> 00:41:10.105
It was six days of being around people who, graciously, if they knew that you were willing to listen, they were willing to share tips with you, and that was amazing.

00:41:11.367 --> 00:41:17.688
Yeah, that's definitely one of the things that I love most about this sport the fact that you get to run with elites.

00:41:17.688 --> 00:41:20.708
I mean, you can't do that in NFL or soccer.

00:41:20.708 --> 00:41:26.090
You don't get to share a field with those folks and play at the same time they do, but we do.

00:41:26.090 --> 00:41:28.923
We get to run with these and specifically these timed events.

00:41:28.923 --> 00:41:34.807
You get to share some real time with those folks, just like you're saying, and I think that's really cool.

00:41:34.807 --> 00:41:45.054
I will say, though, taking your dinner with you from Art's Place if you're having a burger and fries and a beer, probably more difficult to do walking down the street.

00:41:45.599 --> 00:41:46.885
I'm going to figure it out next year.

00:41:47.420 --> 00:41:48.947
Yeah, maybe they do a doggy bag.

00:41:49.661 --> 00:41:51.628
I don't know how we're going to do the beer, though, richard.

00:41:52.521 --> 00:41:52.902
I don't know.

00:41:52.902 --> 00:41:55.451
We'll have to have a McDonald's cup or something.

00:41:57.168 --> 00:41:59.806
The beer tasted really good at Arts Place it was good.

00:42:01.003 --> 00:42:11.052
Just shout out If you're doing Swami Shuffle next year, anybody, you've got to stop at Arts Place On the way down, on the way back, stop there and get a burger, get some, get, get a beer.

00:42:11.052 --> 00:42:16.434
Sort yourself out before the long desolate stretch, or after the long desolate stretch, Absolutely For sure.

00:42:16.434 --> 00:42:23.001
So those kinds of things, those sort of lessons that you got, Mike, seemed like they were things that went well for you.

00:42:23.001 --> 00:42:26.411
What else went well for you, Like from from the whole race perspective, what?

00:42:26.411 --> 00:42:28.945
What really worked for you and then what didn't work for you.

00:42:29.565 --> 00:42:29.867
Okay.

00:42:29.867 --> 00:42:37.972
So the biggest thing was you know, I told you that I always that I've wanted to get to that point where, physically and mentally, I could go no further.

00:42:37.972 --> 00:42:49.063
So in day five, it was like sometime before the 6 pm turnover I had gotten to like 270 miles and everything hurt.

00:42:49.063 --> 00:42:54.603
And I was just like I got to my table and I was just like I was going to sit down.

00:42:54.603 --> 00:42:56.507
I was like I just need a short little nap.

00:42:56.507 --> 00:43:04.701
And so I was like, well, I'll throw something down on the floor and sleep on the floor, put a hoodie over me and I'll just catch a nap.

00:43:04.701 --> 00:43:05.965

6 Days in the Dome: “Living an Ultra Life” Podcast Host Mike Horner Walks Us Through The Race & His Mammoth 322 Mile Finish!

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