“Iron Will” Sprouse: Overcoming Injury, 100-Mile Streaks, Double Grand Slam & Running Wisdom!

Transcript

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Hello and welcome.

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

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You're 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 on Apple, you have the opportunity to leave us a short review as well.

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Those things are like gold dust.

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They're really appreciated.

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My name is Richard Gleave.

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I've been running ultras now since 2017.

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Now, since 2017.

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I've taken on and finished numerous 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 are Now.

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Today's episode is especially awesome since our guest was actually suggested by a listener, brandon Walker.

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So hey, brandon, hello out there.

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Thank you so much for the email and the suggestion, and Brandon said we simply have to talk to this next individual.

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So I am thrilled to be joined in the studio today by Mr William Iron Will Sprouse, an ultra runner with a pretty incredible story of resilience After surviving a pretty devastating motorcycle accident and a stroke that doctors said would leave him in a wheelchair.

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Will has defied the odds to complete over 100 100-mile races, and he's recently been taken on his biggest challenge yet running eight 100 mile races in just seven weeks.

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Now let that just sink in for a minute.

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In addition to his personal running achievements, will is also the founder of the Iron Will 100-mile race, an adaptive-friendly ultra-marathon designed to welcome runners of all abilities, including those with physical challenges.

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Tune in, as Will shares his journey, his insights into overcoming adversity and how he's working to make the sport more inclusive, along with his 100-mile challenges.

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We'll be back right after this.

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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.

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He's English, not Australian.

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Richard Gleave Will welcome to the show.

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Really fantastic to have you on.

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There is so much to talk about here.

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I think Maybe we start with a little bit of your background.

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How did you first get into running?

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Because I think, just checking your UltraSignUp account, you've been running for some time now.

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How did that all come about?

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Where did you, where did your love of running come from?

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Well, in high school I did do some track, but the furthest distance I ran was a quarter mile and I played football, so I didn't do cross country or anything.

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Oh yeah, my dad was, um, a really good marathon runner.

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Oh right, a really good marathon runner, oh right.

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Unfortunately, he got cancer and he fought it for about 12 years and upon his passing I was 35 years old and I was overweight, weighed 308 pounds, and just to kind of cope with his death, I kind of started to take up running.

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I lost half my body weight in about six months and I was up to running over a hundred I mean over a hundred miles a week.

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Eventually I would peak out at about 140 miles a week and then I started to run marathons.

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That's a lot.

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Yeah, I wasn't a fast marathon runner just under four, four hour marathon runner and I was, oh, just kind of doing that as a hobby.

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Unfortunately hopefully I'm not going too fast into this but I had a motorcycle wreck and broke 46 bones and I was kind of told by doctors to find a different hobby.

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But I was pretty stubborn.

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I got back out there and I started running.

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So I noticed right away I was considerably slower Instead of running eight-minute miles.

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It was a struggle to even get down to 10-minute miles, or 12-minute miles was my comfort zone.

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So I looked to cultures.

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I had met a guest speaker at the Lincoln Marathon that I thought was kind of crazy.

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His name was Dean Karnazes and I actually met him in the elevator of the hotel I was staying in very cool, and I never that's the first time I'd ever heard of 100 mile races, and so I kind of looked into it and I found it.

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After the motorcycle wreck and all those injuries, I still had great endurance, but I just didn't have any speed.

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So that's where I crossed in the ultras at that time.

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And now did you go straight for the 100 miles or was there any kind of buildup?

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I know some people take the normal path and others just jump right in.

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Yeah, so I jumped right into the 50 miler.

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I did do some 50 Ks later on, but my first one was dances with dirt.

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It was devil's lake, which is a pretty brutal 50 miler.

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It's technical trails and elevation gain.

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I was hooked.

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I actually ran that trail marathon in road shoes.

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I had no clue what I was doing and once I switched to trails, I've went back for some road races.

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Most of them are like Badwater type formats.

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I did Badwater, salton Sea and Honey Badger, but typically the single track trail was what I got hooked on and where my love was.

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Brilliant.

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Now that motorcycle accident that you mentioned I think that was 2010.

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Yes, I mean just moments on that, in the midst of your running journey, sort of.

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I'm just my mind is blown a little bit.

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How did you mentally and physically recover from what I assume was a pretty significant injury?

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How did you come back from that?

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What was your mental state, never mind your physical state?

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Yeah, well, I'll give you just a real quick on my physical.

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I hit a dog in broad daylight that came out of the weeds.

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It was about 4 pm and when I hit the dog it flipped me over the bike but my right foot got caught in the brake pedal or the brake lever and snapped my right toe in half.

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So I knew before I even hit the pavement that I'd broken my right toe and as a runner I was already mad about that before I even hit the asphalt.

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Yeah, it was kind of crazy.

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And when I got that toe caught I was getting ready to face plant right into the asphalt and it kind of whiplashed me and it caused me to rotate and I landed on my right shoulder across my back and pelvis and basically everything from my shoulder down was kind of shattered my pelvis and ribs, backbone.

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But my back was broken 10 places.

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23 of my 24 ribs were not.

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They weren't just broke, they were just obliterated into me and just shattered.

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And I don't know they had me so drugged up.

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For the first few months I didn't, even don't remember a lot of it.

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I did a lot of sleeping and I finally broke myself off the pain meds and actually asked them to quit.

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You know doping me up and then I actually I didn't feel any pain until they started to take me off of that.

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But yeah, I bet I got back to running.

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That happened Memorial day week in the 2010.

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I did my first run and try attempt in September, but I had some issues my ribs.

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When they healed back they kept cutting me up in the inside and I get internal bleeding.

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So then they'd have to punch through my front ribs, put a chest tube in, drain the blood and at any rate, february of 2011, I ran a 50K called the Black Warrior in Alabama and I ran that successfully as about I don't know six hours, 15 minutes not real fast.

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And then in 2012, I decided to move up to the 100 miler and it would be February 4th 2012.

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Rocky Raccoon oh, yes, I remember as a trenchal downpour, heavy rain, muddy, sloppy conditions.

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I think I finished it around 27 hours, but that was my first 100 miler and after that I was just completely hooked on the 100 miler, and after that it was just completely hooked on the 100 miler.

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In fact, if you ever look at my ultra sign up, there's almost nothing but 100 milers.

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since that point, you know I did, I did look at that, yes, and that was going to be my next question, like what?

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What about the rocky raccoon in in the downpour, the mud running around huntsville state park there?

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I mean, what was it that hooked you on on the 100 miler?

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Was it more the distance, the challenge?

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I think it was the distance, the challenge of you know, the first three miles of that race is extremely technical with the roots and then you go onto the fire roads and I think it was more to distance.

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But I I just let one thing I found I finished Cajun coyote five times and that race eventually turned into Lugaroo.

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Oh right, and it's the same course, but I think I love those pine trees.

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I like going down in the Southeast, whether Mississippi, georgia or Texas, and just the smell of running through those pine trees, or Texas, and just the smell of running through those pine trees.

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Of course I've ran Black Hills 100 as a similar deal, but it's a little more hilly, a lot more hilly actually.

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And then Levitt is a beautiful course, but I think a lot of it was the beauty of the wilderness and, like you said, just the distance of the 100 mile.

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Yeah, and you really took off with that distance after that.

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Is that right?

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You're now at over 100 milers.

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Yeah, I think I'm at 109, give or take one.

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I haven't been counting lately, Wow, but yeah.

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So I think it's right around 109, somewhere in there.

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Yeah, well and that's also including, I mean, the motorcycle accident isn't your only big scare challenge that you've had along the way either.

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I mean in 2020, you had a stroke, and so how did you manage to overcome that challenge and all the challenges that followed in life, as well as trying to continue running after a stroke?

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Well, 2020 was a crazy year.

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That's the COVID year.

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I was actually registered for 36 100 milers and I had a goal of doing three per month.

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In 2021, I planned on trying to run one every weekend, which would have been 52.

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So 2020 was my training plan of.

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I thought, well, I'd just start with three in a row, one off.

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Three in a row, one off.

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So January, february, no issues.

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Finished the first rattled off six right then in those months.

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Then COVID came along and they started canceling races.

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I was, in fact, so desperate that year I actually ran a hundred mile.

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It was a 24 hour race around a quarter mile track and I finished in under 24 hours to get the credit for the hundred mile.

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But I mean, if that tells you how desperate I was to get a hundred miles in, that's the only quarter mile track when I've ever ran.

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It wasn't as bad as I thought it was.

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I just kind of stayed focused with my pace and before long it was over.

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So right after Dinosaur Valley, it was a pretty tough 100 miler.

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It actually required the runners to wear masks the entire time.

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I don't think it had anything to do with my stroke, but three days later I got a pizza restaurant.

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I went to work there and I got a headache.

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I've never had headaches in my life.

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Everybody says I'm crazy because I never had a headache.

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I got this weird headache so I went and sat down.

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The pain went away in about 10 minutes, got up and my employee's nose right away the side of my face was drooping and I was slurring my words.

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So we knew I was having a stroke.

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So I went to the ER at the closest hospital, which they rushed me to a bigger hospital.

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Rushed me to a bigger hospital.

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But I had a hole in my heart from when I was born.

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That was undiagnosed so I never knew about it.

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But what happened was between the two chambers blood had coagulated, caused the clot and then it shot up into my brain.

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So my stroke, my brain damage, was in the medulla, which is part of your brain stem.

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Unfortunately for that type of stroke, if you have a stroke and get brain damage in other parts of your brain, I was understood that different parts of your brain could take over for that function, but there's nothing that can take over for medulla damage.

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But I'm starting to question that now.

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I hit a plateau for a couple of years after the stroke, but I feel like I'm getting better and stronger, but I do have significant disabilities.

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So I by the time this happened the stroke happened about 4 pm, I'm guessing on this, I'd say probably by 10 pm I'd lost my ability to swallow, to see.

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Of course I couldn't stand.

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I lost a lot of movement abilities.

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To this day I have almost no feeling in my right side.

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I actually have no feeling on the outer surface, but if something's deep enough pain I can feel a little bit.

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I also have brain connection problems with mainly two muscles, hamstring on my right side and my glute, which are pretty important running muscles.

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So my right side was my strong side, but now my left side is my strong side because my left side functions 100% normal.

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So I went into this hospital with the stroke.

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They sent me off to rehab.

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I was still unable to stand or walk.

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They were trying to train me to live life in a wheelchair, had absolutely no visitors allowed because of COVID.

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Not even my wife could come see me and I didn't know this.

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But they were making plans to put wheelchair ramps up at my house and I got upset during my rehabilitation because they were like hey, we're just trying to decide whether or not you're going to need a care worker with you or we're trying to teach you how to basically do hygiene and get along in the wheelchair.

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And I said, well, I want to walk again.

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And they said, well, it may or may not happen, but I think I was in there about seven days and I stood for eight seconds without falling over.

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I got really excited.

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I just kept working at it, working at it, and, I kid you not, they kept trying to tell me it's time for you to.

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You know, go lay down, You've overdone yourself, You've done enough.

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But the ultra runner in me came out by 8 PMm that night.

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I was taking my first steps without anybody on a gate belt, or I did.

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Basically, I went from one day from getting confidence to stand.

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I wasn't walking very good and I was really staggering all over, but it got better and better and better.

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I still have balance issues.

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In fact.

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I just ran 100 mile last weekend and this guy came up behind me.

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He goes man, you're just weaving all over and staggering.

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I said, hey, it's all right, it's normal for me.

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I do this at night.

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I've got vertigo and I got balance issues.

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I said I'm fine, but thank you, and I hear comments all the time.

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People come up behind me.

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I probably run a lot of extra miles because I stagger from side to side of the trail, but it's kind of a lot of times.

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When I first started out, I never did this.

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Before my stroke I'd have to lay down in the trail and take a little nap and then get up.

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One race I got up and ran the wrong way and I ended up timing out because I ran 92 miles but I ran about, I think about four or five miles the wrong way before.

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Oh no, I was going the wrong direction.

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So now if I take a nap, I put some type of marking as to which direction I'm going.

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Yeah, I take a nap.

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I put some type of marking as to which direction I'm going.

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So, yeah, I started walking and then the insurance said like, okay, you've exceeded way more than expectations, so they weren't going to pay for me in rehab, no more.

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So I had to go to outpatient.

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They'd pay for outpatient.

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When I went to outpatient, which was closer to home, I told them they knew me personally.

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I said, look, I said I don't want to waste my time with anything but learning how to run again.

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And they listened to me.

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They set like obstacles up and I tried to maneuver over obstacles and we just kind of geared it towards me get back to running.

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We went outside, I ran in the grass because numerous times I would fall over and lose my balance, and that way it wasn't that bad in the grass, yeah.

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So I worked hard at it, but eventually I got back to well.

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It took me.

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So I had my stroke in November 2020, and I made my first attempt at a horribly brutal race.

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I don't even know what I was thinking.

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I went to Outlaw 100, which it's got a 48-hour cutoff and it's not as tough as Cruel Jewel, but it's a similar type of technical, difficult race.

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Yeah, and I made it.

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50 miles, miles, and my brain just won't hold my body up anymore.

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Then I went to Prairie Spirit, a race that I'd finished over 10 times, most of them sub 24s.

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My PR race was 22 hour and 37 minutes at this course.

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I thought, okay, I'd get to that.

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So I went out to beat the cutoffs and by mile 41, I tried to run with a stroller.

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I talked with Thomas Green who had had a stroke and he kind of gave me some advice and helped me out a lot.

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Unfortunately, he runs with a stroller for balance.

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We had similar disabilities, but I found out that when I lost my balance I'd just pull the stroller over and fall over with it.

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So, yeah, at that race I kind of ditched the stroller idea.

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It worked well for him.

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So I DNF Prairie Spirit.

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Then I went out to Jackpot out in Las Vegas.

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Right, yeah, yeah Actually scratched that between Prairie Spirit and Outlaw.

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I went down to Louisiana and ran Red D dirt, a race that I was familiar with, and I made it to mile 75 there and I can't hold my balance anymore.

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I had some other issues there.

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I got off course, got disoriented, added some bonus miles, so then I went to jackpot, made it to mile 75, had plenty of time left with the cutoff, but I couldn't get my body to even stand up anymore, so I DNF'd there.

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And then I think it was the first week of June it might have been around June 6th and I ran a race down in Oklahoma.

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It was called the Mother Road.

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Temperature was 100 degrees, heat index might have been 115, 120.

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It's pretty humid, oh my goodness, yeah, yeah, it's pretty humid down there, but I I pushed right through that race.

00:20:48.190 --> 00:20:52.877
It was a race on route 66, oh, very cool.

00:20:52.877 --> 00:21:01.517
Yeah, it was a road race and that would be my first hundred mile finish, seven months after my stroke, which I was told was a world record.

00:21:01.517 --> 00:21:03.425
But I don't know how you compare that.

00:21:03.506 --> 00:21:22.253
Everybody's strokes are a different degree and you know I I mean that's what a lot of people told me, but yeah Well, whether it's a record or not, I would say that's incredibly impressive and well done, and all from it seems that eight second stand on your own that seemed to trigger in your mind okay, I this like it's doable.

00:21:22.253 --> 00:21:25.750
Once you crack that, then you can get into all the rest of it, right, so I?

00:21:26.030 --> 00:21:32.574
I knew it was going to happen, but I had, though back in rehab they were like this is a miracle.

00:21:32.574 --> 00:21:33.857
We've never seen this happen.

00:21:33.857 --> 00:21:39.905
But you know I they didn't like me in a lot of ways, but they learned to love me by the time I left.

00:21:40.006 --> 00:21:42.775
But I told them it's because you guys are negative.

00:21:42.775 --> 00:21:44.849
Yeah, you don't, you know.

00:21:44.849 --> 00:21:50.269
And they say, well, we don't like to get people excited about something that may not happen.

00:21:50.269 --> 00:21:52.034
That was the reason.

00:21:52.034 --> 00:21:53.298
Well, I had this one gal.

00:21:53.298 --> 00:21:54.988
It was kind of funny.

00:21:55.067 --> 00:21:59.258
Well, I was real serious about getting back to it, so I couldn't even walk.

00:21:59.258 --> 00:22:06.631
So I got off my bed and I was going to just do some pushups on my knee and they had me alarmed.

00:22:06.631 --> 00:22:06.971
So they ran in.

00:22:06.971 --> 00:22:16.113
She gave me a lecture, so then I pulled up my bags and put them on the bed to hold the weight down so the alarm wouldn't go off.

00:22:16.113 --> 00:22:21.851
And it was like two o'clock in the morning and I was down there doing pushups and everything was all fine.

00:22:21.851 --> 00:22:27.198
But they come busting in the door and my heart, my heart rate had elevated.

00:22:27.198 --> 00:22:28.640
So that's how they knew.

00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:31.977
Yeah, so after that they alarmed everything.

00:22:31.977 --> 00:22:37.230
They learned the wheelchair, they learned the nurse was just really nasty with me.

00:22:37.230 --> 00:22:41.394
I don't know if I interrupted her Facebook time or what happened.

00:22:41.394 --> 00:22:43.939
That was that.

00:22:44.660 --> 00:22:56.011
That was that Wednesday and, like I said, the Thursday, by about 8 PM I was walking on my own and they had this red band on me that I, I wasn't allowed to do anything.

00:22:56.011 --> 00:23:07.260
Well, by that night they'd given me the green band and she came back to work on Friday and right when she walked in I raised my arm up and showed her the green band and she was just crying.

00:23:07.260 --> 00:23:07.982
She goes.

00:23:07.982 --> 00:23:09.788
I've never seen anything like this.

00:23:09.788 --> 00:23:14.618
You know Wow, but you know a lot of it's my ultra random mentality.

00:23:14.618 --> 00:23:17.910
I just don't take no for an answer and I, you can't.

00:23:17.910 --> 00:23:18.730
You can't do that.

00:23:18.730 --> 00:23:21.675
When you're at a hundred miles, you have to know that you're going to finish.

00:23:21.675 --> 00:23:24.740
If you get doubt, you've lost the race.

00:23:25.987 --> 00:23:33.596
Yeah, and I was on a Facebook page the other day and one lady said what's the most important thing that I should work on to finish my first 100?

00:23:33.596 --> 00:23:36.432
And I think the answer well, my answer was something similar.

00:23:36.432 --> 00:23:37.296
It was belief.

00:23:37.296 --> 00:23:42.267
And you know there were people like, oh, make sure your nutrition is sorted and you've done the strength work.

00:23:42.267 --> 00:23:43.928
Yeah, you need to do that stuff too.

00:23:43.928 --> 00:23:51.313
But, much like you're saying, my comment was along the lines of if you don't believe you can do that thing, it's really unlikely that you'll finish.

00:23:51.313 --> 00:23:52.653
End of story.

00:23:52.653 --> 00:23:55.914
You've got to believe in yourself, which is part of the reason.

00:23:55.914 --> 00:24:01.018
I mean, I have some challenges with anxiety and self-belief and that's part of my reason.

00:24:01.018 --> 00:24:13.713
That's part of my why for running is that to sort of work on that whole self-belief thing to do 100 and 200 miles, you've really got to think about believing in yourself.

00:24:13.713 --> 00:24:16.268
So, yeah, I would agree it's that belief aspect.

00:24:16.268 --> 00:24:20.946
Much like you're walking, again, you've got to believe you can do it first, and then everything else.

00:24:21.548 --> 00:24:23.834
Yeah, and you know you don't have anything to lose.

00:24:23.834 --> 00:24:25.577
You might as well try Right.

00:24:25.577 --> 00:24:27.969
I had a friend, an early influence.

00:24:27.969 --> 00:24:30.775
His name was Ken Arbel, great ultra runner.

00:24:30.775 --> 00:24:36.715
He he told me, if it hurts, keep on going, eventually it won't.

00:24:36.715 --> 00:24:42.712
Won't hurt as much or you'll go through phases, basically, of pain and not pain.

00:24:42.792 --> 00:24:56.492
And and it's been true to the most point, I did have in 2014, when I was doing my first grand slam, I turned my ankle at mile 20 in a race called the Hawk 100 and it hurt.

00:24:56.492 --> 00:25:03.032
And I just finished that race, the last 80 miles by not turning my left ankle.

00:25:03.032 --> 00:25:07.496
And then I had a hundred mile or two weeks later called Heartland 100.

00:25:07.496 --> 00:25:15.239
Oh yes, and I was cruising on that race and about mile 70, I just had this shooting nerve pain just up my leg.

00:25:15.239 --> 00:25:21.298
I was on a sub 24 pace and I could not run at all.

00:25:21.404 --> 00:25:26.432
Every time I took a step I'd have this electrical shock nerve feeling shooting up my leg.

00:25:26.432 --> 00:25:29.923
But I was able to walk somewhat comfortably.

00:25:29.923 --> 00:25:49.791
So I walked the last 30 miles, finished the slam, went to the hospital and got an MRI and they said well, when you turned your ankle about three weeks ago, you broke your fibula about four inches below your knee, so it was broken in half and you kept running on it and then you tore your soleus.

00:25:49.791 --> 00:26:11.077
That was the most devastating part of it was the soleus tear, and actually in Heartland, in one step I felt the tear because I felt like a warmness tingling down inside my leg and that was the blood from it and then that triggered what's called the post-tibial nerve and that's what was causing the electrical-type shock.

00:26:11.465 --> 00:26:13.373
Man, you've had some challenges going on.

00:26:13.664 --> 00:26:18.657
Yeah, so to a point, if you run through pain it usually gets better, but that one never got better.

00:26:18.657 --> 00:26:20.327
Yeah, that one's not going away.

00:26:20.327 --> 00:26:22.131
There's no ibuprofen to fix that.

00:26:22.230 --> 00:26:23.534
One is there when you're running.

00:26:24.035 --> 00:26:25.877
Yeah, welcome yeah.

00:26:29.625 --> 00:26:29.765
So Will.

00:26:29.765 --> 00:26:41.490
You talked about your Grand Slam there, but currently you're in the middle of, I think, what we're calling a double Grand Slam 800 milers in seven weeks yeah, it's a double slam.

00:26:41.490 --> 00:26:44.775
What was the inspiration behind taking this on?

00:26:44.775 --> 00:26:45.968
So I?

00:26:45.988 --> 00:26:50.071
had done five previous Grand Slams and then I've also done.

00:26:50.071 --> 00:27:00.756
Another runner or another race director created something called a Super Slam, which was basically five 100-milers, and I did that twice.

00:27:00.756 --> 00:27:05.557
So I decided to try to up the Annie and let's do a double slam.

00:27:05.557 --> 00:27:11.156
But most of the slams, all the slams I did, weren't back to back 100 milers.

00:27:11.156 --> 00:27:13.567
They would have a few weeks of rest between.

00:27:13.567 --> 00:27:20.435
So I decided I'd try to do eight 100 milers in 49 days.

00:27:20.435 --> 00:27:23.660
So I called the iron will double slam 849.

00:27:23.660 --> 00:27:26.027
So it's eight 100 milers in 49 days.

00:27:26.027 --> 00:27:28.230
I had some people interested.

00:27:28.230 --> 00:27:33.606
I advertised it for a year but unfortunately I'm the only one that entered it.

00:27:33.606 --> 00:27:37.094
So I'm I'm just out to prove that it can be done.

00:27:37.094 --> 00:27:39.959
There's a lot of runners out there.

00:27:39.959 --> 00:27:43.296
They're capable of doing it, it's's just their schedules don't work out.

00:27:43.296 --> 00:27:46.473
Another thing I heard was the cost.

00:27:46.473 --> 00:27:52.278
Well, I only race direct one of those eight races and that's the Iron Will 100.

00:27:52.278 --> 00:28:00.736
And I chose eight races from eight different race directors, so nobody, you know, is benefiting twice from it.

00:28:01.465 --> 00:28:03.053
So, I did it that way for a reason.

00:28:04.226 --> 00:28:07.816
Well, it's a terrific challenge and good for you for going after it.

00:28:07.816 --> 00:28:19.520
I am trying to figure out, though, how do you kind of manage the physical and mental fatigue that comes when you run 100 miles back to back like that?

00:28:19.520 --> 00:28:22.615
Do you have a strategy, or how do you manage that?

00:28:23.625 --> 00:28:25.470
Yeah, I don't know how to explain it.

00:28:25.470 --> 00:28:32.471
So typically most hundred milers start about 6 am on a Saturday and I'll leave.

00:28:32.471 --> 00:28:40.732
Usually most hundred milers I run that are five to eight hours from driving distance from my home.

00:28:40.732 --> 00:29:02.417
So I'll leave on friday after work, basically get to the hotel, get up, run the hundred miler, drive back and then I work at 5 am on monday and, like this morning, I went to work at 5 am after completing 100 miler and it's gotten to where my legs aren't too bad Now.

00:29:02.417 --> 00:29:04.661
I just ran Cowboy.

00:29:04.661 --> 00:29:20.576
I just finished Ultra Palooza last weekend but the weekend before Cowboy was all exposed and it was about 94 degrees up in Nebraska and I didn't carry enough water, which a lot of.

00:29:20.576 --> 00:29:28.255
So over half the field, about half the 100 mile field, dnf that race and I think most of it was due to hydration issues.

00:29:28.664 --> 00:29:30.451
Yeah, it's very exposed on that course.

00:29:30.724 --> 00:29:31.567
Yeah, so I had to.

00:29:31.567 --> 00:29:37.439
Actually I'd ran that race before, in November, which was no problem because it was a lot cooler then.

00:29:37.439 --> 00:29:43.076
But I had to kind of ration my water out and slow down and take a lot more walk breaks.

00:29:43.076 --> 00:29:48.217
Even though I could physically run, I knew that if I ran I'd run into water issues.

00:29:48.217 --> 00:29:50.471
There's some long stretches there.

00:29:50.471 --> 00:30:04.028
The first one is 33 miles until you see your crew, and then you see your crew about mile 50, and then you don't see them again until mile 75, and then you don't see them again until mile 75, and then you don't see them again until mile 100.

00:30:04.028 --> 00:30:11.286
But they did have some unmanned water stops, but it was still tough in that heat.

00:30:11.286 --> 00:30:18.627
So I had to just slow down and I was able to finish it in 30 hours and 51 minutes, which the cutoff is 32.

00:30:19.250 --> 00:30:23.278
So when I'm running back-to-back hundreds I'm not trying to go for any PRs or anything.

00:30:23.278 --> 00:30:34.461
I mainly look at the cutoff and try to give myself a little insurance, like at least an hour underneath it, and just complete that, save what I got for the next race.

00:30:34.461 --> 00:30:46.970
So Monday I'm active at work and Tuesday I just try to stay active, keep my body moving, and usually by Wednesday or Thursday my legs are pretty much back to normal.

00:30:46.970 --> 00:30:57.605
But I will say in the heat with the cowboy one my legs were still pretty trash going into ultra palooza but I I was able to run about.

00:30:57.605 --> 00:31:03.979
I think it was 29 hours and 34, 29, 35, and the cutoff was 30 hours.

00:31:03.979 --> 00:31:09.565
So my legs feel a lot better this week than they did after Cowboy already.

00:31:09.826 --> 00:31:12.434
Do you find that that developed over time?

00:31:12.434 --> 00:31:17.416
So the more you did the races back-to-back, your legs got better and better after each one.

00:31:18.946 --> 00:31:21.972
Yes, I do, and I do a lot of other weird stuff.

00:31:21.972 --> 00:31:26.336
When I marathon ran, I used to do ice baths and all that.

00:31:26.336 --> 00:31:30.051
Well, I found out from experience.

00:31:30.051 --> 00:31:34.943
Now I do hot tubs or saunas Okay, get the blood flowing a bit.

00:31:34.943 --> 00:31:42.938
Yeah, what cold does is it constricts your blood flow and your blood vessels and it makes you feel better.

00:31:42.938 --> 00:31:49.353
But blood flow is the key to healing and heat promotes blood flow.

00:31:49.353 --> 00:31:58.769
So I've learned instead of doing ice baths, I do like hot tub or sauna, and that heals you faster than ice bath.

00:31:58.769 --> 00:31:59.990
Ice baths, like I said, that heals you faster than ice bath.

00:31:59.990 --> 00:32:18.993
Ice baths, like I said, they make you feel better pain-wise, yeah, but heat promotes blood flow and blood flow is the key to healing because it's whisking away dead cells and trash and bringing in new to rebuild your cells Brilliant, yeah, I've swore by that.

00:32:18.993 --> 00:32:22.694
I'm not a medical guy nor a scientist.

00:32:22.694 --> 00:32:25.353
I've just learned by trial and error.

00:32:25.353 --> 00:32:26.055
You know tricks.

00:32:26.484 --> 00:32:31.290
Well, there's a lot to be learned from experience when you're doing these things, and you're doing them to the nth degree.

00:32:31.290 --> 00:32:35.419
We'll definitely take on some of that learned knowledge for sure.

00:32:35.419 --> 00:32:41.978
Now, this past race was number three, I think you said, or was it number four of your eight?

00:32:41.978 --> 00:32:42.989
It's number three, number three.

00:32:42.989 --> 00:32:44.096
I think you said, or was it number four of your eight?

00:32:44.096 --> 00:32:44.720
It's number three, number three.

00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:45.384
What do you got coming up?

00:32:45.384 --> 00:32:47.045
What are four through eight?

00:32:47.045 --> 00:32:47.786
I got.

00:32:48.266 --> 00:33:00.020
Tulsa Urban, which I've ran numerous times, and usually it's around 100 degrees and it's humid in Tulsa and sometimes the heat index can be 115, 120.

00:33:00.020 --> 00:33:03.772
Fortunately for this week the forecast high.

00:33:03.772 --> 00:33:05.277
Right now it's 80 degrees.

00:33:05.277 --> 00:33:08.496
I've never ran at that court, so that's going to be a relief.

00:33:08.496 --> 00:33:15.636
So I'll go to tulsa urban and then I'll head over to illinois and run henny pin, which I've ran that race before that's a canal race, isn't it?

00:33:16.747 --> 00:33:19.892
yeah, canals, it's somewhat point to point.

00:33:19.892 --> 00:33:24.460
There's twopoint, there's two small out-and-backs, but other than that it's point-to-point.

00:33:24.460 --> 00:33:37.869
And then after that I'll go do Heartland, which is pretty hilly I've ran that a lot and weather can be an issue there and then I'll run Pumpkin Holler, which is similar to Heartland, it's very hilly.

00:33:37.869 --> 00:33:49.842
And then I'll go back to the Fall Prairie Spirit race for number eight and it's got a 30-hour cutoff which, since I've had to stroke 30-hour cutoffs, they're pretty challenging to me.

00:33:49.842 --> 00:33:56.464
That's why all four of my races that I race direct now have at least a 36-hour cutoff.

00:33:56.464 --> 00:34:05.928
One of them is a timed race, a 48-hour, but the other three all have 36 cutoffs, because I want to give people an opportunity to finish.

00:34:05.928 --> 00:34:10.516
You know it, I I didn't think before I had my stroke.

00:34:10.516 --> 00:34:14.331
I thought 30 hours isn't that tough, that's easy, you know.

00:34:14.331 --> 00:34:18.824
Yeah, I never really considered till I became disabled.

00:34:18.824 --> 00:34:23.353
It's like well, you know, I want other people to have the opportunity to do a hundred mile race.

00:34:23.875 --> 00:34:35.128
Even doing a hundred mile or within 36 hours is a great feat in my opinion yeah, it can be for sure, depending on the on you and the terrain and the weather, and there's all sorts going to play, I think.

00:34:36.230 --> 00:34:45.597
It's actually harder I mean it was easier for me when I ran them under 24 hours to you get done and you start recovering and then you run another.

00:34:45.597 --> 00:34:56.264
Well, because you're out on your feet another six or 10 hours or whatever, your body's more trashed than it was when you.

00:34:56.264 --> 00:34:59.726
I know it sounds crazy, but from experience I found that's true.

00:34:59.987 --> 00:35:00.487
Absolutely.

00:35:00.487 --> 00:35:03.333
Well, let's talk a little bit about that.

00:35:03.333 --> 00:35:05.860
That's a nice lead into our Iron Will 100 conversation.

00:35:05.860 --> 00:35:13.324
So tell us a little bit about that race and what inspired you to create the Iron Will 100.

00:35:13.324 --> 00:35:18.181
And how did you go about designing it to be adaptive, friendly, if that's a term?

00:35:18.842 --> 00:35:20.576
Yes, so I chose a race.

00:35:20.576 --> 00:35:26.914
Adaptive, friendly, if that's a term yes, so I chose a race.

00:35:26.914 --> 00:35:28.119
It's I, it's a nice course and mostly trees along the river.

00:35:28.119 --> 00:35:30.409
It's it's a rail trail format, but it's not actually a rail trail, but it looked.

00:35:30.409 --> 00:35:43.909
It's identical type surface, yeah, and I wanted it to be to where, if somebody wanted to use a stroller for balance, you could use it on that type of surface.

00:35:44.512 --> 00:35:48.501
So the very first inaugural year I had a good friend.

00:35:48.501 --> 00:35:51.519
He's an ultra runner I've ran a lot of miles with.

00:35:51.519 --> 00:36:08.740
His name is Dennis Wilson, from Lincoln, nebraska, and I ran Henny Pin with him after my stroke and we hung side by side side and we both finished and unfortunately, after that race he suffered a stroke.

00:36:08.740 --> 00:36:09.061
Oh no.

00:36:09.061 --> 00:36:14.563
So he came to my Iron Will and he was there again last year.

00:36:14.563 --> 00:36:20.483
But he completed a 50K and it was, I mean, amazing.

00:36:20.483 --> 00:36:23.018
And he's still getting better and better.

00:36:23.018 --> 00:36:31.882
He finished 100K at my Iron Will this year and you know, I know he's going to get back to the 100-mile thing again too.

00:36:33.050 --> 00:36:45.760
But that's the kind of thing I was kind of looking for is to, you know, give people with all abilities, even if they don't have a disability, even if they just want to run a hundred mile but they can't quite beat the cutoffs.

00:36:45.760 --> 00:37:00.581
I mean, I've ran and I'm not bashing these races, but I've ran like Leadville and Pinotti, where they got you running like 10, 12 minute miles to get to the first aid station in three miles and they just eliminate the field.

00:37:00.581 --> 00:37:02.025
And I'm more of a.

00:37:02.025 --> 00:37:05.456
Numerous times I've negative split hundreds.

00:37:05.456 --> 00:37:25.016
So I run the second half faster than the first half and I'm more of a patient runner where, like right now, if it's a 30 mile cutoff, I'm all right with running all 30 miles at an 18 mile pace, 18 mile pace which comes out to 30 hours, and with early cutoffs you can't.

00:37:25.277 --> 00:37:29.311
You can't run that kind of race and I know numerous other ultra runners that are like that.

00:37:29.311 --> 00:37:34.451
So with all of my races we don't have any intermediate cutoffs, it's you can.

00:37:34.451 --> 00:37:36.655
If you can do it at the end, that's good enough.

00:37:36.655 --> 00:37:38.478
And actually I'm kind of flexible, flexible.

00:37:38.478 --> 00:37:45.822
If they go a little over, I'm gonna, I'm, I'll give them credit, I'm not, I'm not that hard on it so fantastic and and have you had?

00:37:45.889 --> 00:37:50.713
I know you talked about your one friend there, but do you find that a lot of adaptive runners have come through the race?

00:37:50.713 --> 00:37:52.460
I mean, is the is the word getting out?

00:37:52.460 --> 00:37:54.949
How has the community response been?

00:37:54.949 --> 00:37:56.672
Yes, we've.

00:37:56.913 --> 00:38:06.425

“Iron Will” Sprouse: Overcoming Injury, 100-Mile Streaks, Double Grand Slam & Running Wisdom!

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