Kansas Buckleheads’ Jonathan Prosser Shares His First 200-Mile Race Experience At The Epic New “Summit 200”!

Transcript

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Hello and welcome If this is your first time with us.

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Thank you so much 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 on Apple, you have the opportunity to leave a short review too.

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Those things are like gold dust and really appreciated.

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My name is Richard Gleave.

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I've been running ultras since 2017.

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I have 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.

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Now, today, I am thrilled to bring you a conversation with Mr Jonathan Prosser, a dedicated ultra runner from Topeka, kansas.

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Now, jonathan is not only a husband and father of two sons, with a daughter on the way, but he's also the owner of Rocking Chair Running and race director of the Skyline Scramble, which is a three, six and 12 hour timed race out there in Topeka.

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Jonathan's journey into ultra running began in 2018 as part of an intentional shift towards a healthier lifestyle after struggling with being overweight.

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Since then, he's fallen in love by his own admission with trail running, pushing his limits and embracing every new experience along the way, and he's the current Ultraverse Supplements Ambassador.

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Now, in the episode here, we're going to dive into Jonathan's recent accomplishment at the inaugural Summit 200, a grueling new 200-mile race through the mountains of Summit County, colorado, put on by none other than Chase and Casey Hammond of Ultraverse Supplements, who, you may recall, talked about this new event as part of a pretty epic conversation right here on the show that got us kicked off with season two in episode one.

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So if you haven't already done so, definitely go listen to that one to get some additional background into how they put on this amazing new race.

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Whether you're a seasoned ultra runner or just getting started, jonathan's story is definitely going to inspire you, so let's jump in.

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Hear all about his incredible first time 200 journey.

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What a one to pick.

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Jonathan, welcome to the show.

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Fantastic to have you on.

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It's been a little while since the run.

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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 great.

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I feel good, I feel recovered.

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I've been doing some training for the next event.

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Wow, all has been well.

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Brilliant, brilliant.

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Well, before we get into the race itself, I would love to hear a little bit about how you got into ultra running in the first place and what are some key experiences or races that maybe have shaped your running career prior to Summit 200?

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.

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Yeah.

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So I used to play basketball a lot and I started running consistently to try to just get in shape better and my wife took it upon herself to sign me up for my first half marathon.

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How kind, yeah.

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At the time I think the longest distance I had done was like six miles and I was like, okay, we're doing a half.

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And it just completely snowballed after that.

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I just I loved it.

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I love the experience, love the community, and I was like I got to, you know.

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From then I looked for a marathon, did the Kansas City Marathon shortly after that, and then I just kept looking for what's next, you know.

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So I, I did.

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I think I ran my first ultra.

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It would have been january of 19, I think, or 18 yeah I think it was 19.

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Yeah, it was just a local one around uh lake perry and it was.

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It was a great experience.

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I knew then and there that I wanted to keep doing ultras and how far I didn't know at the time.

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I loved the experience and the community was a huge reason why I loved it even more.

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That's kind of how I started even more.

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But so that's kind of how I started some of the some of the races that like early on, like I think I did my first 50k and then I had heard of david goggins went down oh yes, went down that bunny hole of listening to all his podcasts uh, book you, things like that.

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And I heard about the Leadville 100 and I was like this is crazy, it was the first time I had ever heard you know somebody running 100.

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I was like this is nuts, there's this many people doing this.

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And I was like I got to have a piece of that and like right was like I want to, I want to do leadville and so I was fortunate enough to run the austin rattler down in texas.

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Oh yes, got, got a ticket and I was so excited, decided to defer running it in 2021 and, uh, ended up going to run it in 2022.

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And I was blessed with a body.

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They got me through it and it was just that was.

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That was an awesome, awesome race experience having.

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Uh, I had hired a coach, uh, cliff Pittman, who works with CTS coaching and I just wanted to take it serious.

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I was like this is a huge investment, but also like I don't know if I can get back to there.

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So, yeah, I took it real serious, did the training.

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It was probably one of my hardest training blocks that I've done so far, but, yeah, I just having everybody there, I got to run the last street up into the finish.

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Yeah, with everybody that was there my kids, my wife was recording at the finish line and you know, seeing faces like scott jurick cheering for you when you come across the finish line it was like oh wow, this is, this is unreal.

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This is unreal and so wild.

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Yeah, so just riding that high I.

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It was a great experience.

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And looked on to the next one a couple of months after that, like what do I want to do?

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And that's kind of been what drives is like any race that I do it's.

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It's a race that I really want to do.

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Yeah.

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This is a passion for me and, uh, I know it's a hobby and it takes a lot of time, but there's no race that I'm going to sign up for, that's just to get that buckle.

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I genuinely enjoy it.

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Yeah, there's got to be something about it, like something interesting to pull you in.

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It's not just I'm just going to throw away race, unless it's maybe a build to, as part of a training block to something else.

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But yeah, I'm with you on that for sure.

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Now for those that maybe aren't aware or didn't listen to season two, episode one, where Chase and Casey were talking about Summit 200, I think maybe we should start off with having you tell us a little bit about the race and then why you chose it as your first 200 miler.

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Was it the challenge, the, the scenery or something else that motivated you to take on this really difficult 200 mile race as your very first one?

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I mean, I think that's wild and bold.

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I'm not sure you'll have to.

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Uh, maybe it's all of that, I don't know I'll start with why I picked it.

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So I had originally picked the KD 225 as my first 200 and not because I left flat.

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You know, that was kind of the opposite and the reason I picked that race one.

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Chase and Casey are awesome.

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There's some of the best, most genuine race directors that I've dealt with at a race and just talking to them after races.

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They're just genuine people and want to build the sport and so when I saw that they had this race I'm like it starts in Clinton, missouri, that's like a couple hours from my house I was like this is a perfect opportunity.

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I can volunteer and stuff and help pay for it.

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It was just a good opportunity.

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And the reason I had picked that is because I don't like I wanted the challenge, because for me I don't necessarily like flat miles right, it's not my favorite, but I wanted to see if I could push through that mental, physical barrier of doing that.

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It was kind of unfortunate.

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The race kind of got pulled out from under them a week and a half before it.

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Yeah, that was terrible.

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There was a lot of us that were disappointed that we couldn't run it, but also just for them, it was kind of messed up and heartbreaking for them.

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But so that was my first one that I picked.

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But with the choosing the summit, it was a.

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You know, for those first reasons chase and casey were directing it.

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I absolutely love colorado.

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I love the mountains.

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I've I've been fortunate enough to race there with Leadville and a couple other 50 milers, so I knew right then, and there I was, like I want to do this, can I make it happen?

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And it was kind of daunting thinking, okay, is it even possible for me to do this?

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A hundred kind of broke me in the mountains?

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It even possible for me to do this like a hundred kind of broke me in the mountains?

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I just talked, yeah, I just talked to a lot of people that have had a lot more experience than me and they kind of shared their takes on it and why they thought I could do it.

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And there's just different aspects of a 200 that are very, very different, not just in terms of the distance but the pace you have to keep.

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I already had things down like fueling and like gear and stuff like that, so it was still a learning curve so this was all about the challenge for you really more than anything else, and the fact you get to do it in colorado, up in the mountains there.

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Back to kind of the lead fill type area.

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Yeah, summit County.

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I've been there in the winter skiing and stuff, but never got to experience it in the summertime, so it was like I got to do this.

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So, from a preparation and training perspective, then, once you decided to go and put your hat in for a Summit 200, how did you go about training for this challenge Do you do like?

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What kind of buildup did you do?

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What kind of block had you done, especially given that I think Kansas is relatively flat, much like here in Texas, and clearly Colorado is not.

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So what was your training like, getting getting ready for Summit 200?

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Well, we have some favorite hills and these hills are not very big.

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I think the biggest hill we have is maybe 190 feet.

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So hill repeats are an absolute must, Whether you like them or not.

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You know hours of going up and down the select hills that we have.

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That's the only choice, unless you want to get on a treadmill and hike the incline up.

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But that doesn't really give you the technical aspect or the real foot feel, feel and I don't think we went back and said but I think summit, summit, 200 is what is it?

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40 000 feet of vert or something like that.

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You start at 9 000 feet and go up to 12 and a half and 40 000 feet of vert and drop yeah, which is just insane.

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Yeah, it doesn't like uh, it doesn't sound super crazy over 200 miles compared to like uh, uh, uray, with like 40 000 feet and 100, but I guarantee you will feel all of that 38,000 feet or 40,000, whatever it is.

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So you found your hill in Kansas and did, I would imagine, some number of repeats on that hill.

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Oh, yeah, yeah.

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So I knew that I had to carry a larger pack, a heavier pack than I was used to.

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So that was the biggest, biggest change for me Training for this, versus other hundreds.

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It was just getting used to the weight.

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So I'd started with a weight vest, just doing hill repeats.

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With that.

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I'd go as long as I could and then take it off and then keep, keep going without it and but for the most part my training I didn't necessarily get more miles or or even harder miles, it was just more specific to exactly what I was doing.

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I did.

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I did a lot more hiking than I had ever done in previous training blocks, just with weight, with my hiking poles.

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I was like I'm going to get it, you know, as close to what I'm going to be carrying, what I'm going to be doing, cause the majority of the 200, you're not running right.

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Yeah.

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You're trying.

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You're trying to fast, hike and run some.

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Trying you're trying to fast, hike and run some.

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So just trying to keep it as specific as possible, I think I I mean I had some big uh training in races that I picked before the summit.

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It was kind of my year of going past 100 and seeing what, what I could do.

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In february of this year I started with the outlaw 135 and that is one tough race.

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It's it's, it's it's check, it's technical, it's got hills, but there's something about that course.

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Like the first 50 miles you like oh, this isn't that bad.

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And then the second half, you're like this is the worst thing ever.

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So it was a fun race and I was able to snag DFL at that race, which I've never been more proud to be DFL, and I will gladly claim that.

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I love DFL and I was talking with Victor Ballesteros on a previous episode and he said we shouldn't call it DFL anymore, we should call it the Rising Star Award.

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So, that's what I'm going with moving forward like the Rising Star.

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All right.

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So there's other races.

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You know the sticks we got to run together out there at the 72 hours at the sticks sticks.

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We got to run together out there at the 72 hours at the sticks and my goal for that one was kind of just uh, practice, sleep, practice, foot care as needed, just some other things that you know going past 100, things that are kind of necessary to to know, and uh, go before going into a 200.

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So I just had fun with it, you know.

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Yeah, I was going to say I think sleep's a big one past 100 because most people can strong arm your way through one night and keep going, but once you get into a second, third, fourth night, if you're not on top of your sleep in particular, I mean other things too, but particularly sleep can really start getting to you after a while.

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So for me I've always thought for 200s is you've got to really nail your sleep somehow and it changes based on the 200.

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But yeah, that's a great one to practice how far you can and can't go before you really need to crash.

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And then, when you do need to crash, like what do I need?

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Is it short naps?

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Is it longer stuff?

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Like what?

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Is it short naps?

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Is it longer stuff?

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Like what?

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What is it?

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I don't think people really get and I don't think it plays as big as a part of it as it probably could in in strategy for for really any 200, for that matter yeah, yeah.

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So I that was the first race that I had ever actually gotten more than like a five minute or 10 minute, you know, dirt nap, and so it was.

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It was great knowing, like getting a little bit of sleep.

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I was able to get back up.

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I felt so much better doing so, and so having that knowledge going into the summit was huge for me.

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I was like, all right, I do need to sleep.

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It'll propel me forward faster than if I tried to avoid it.

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And that's the thing I don't think people quite grasp.

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They just think, oh, if I just go through it I'm still moving right.

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But there's a lot of times if you stop for an hour or two or even three hours, the boost you get on the other side of that more than makes up for the lack of time that you've been moving really slowly, at a snail's pace that had you not slept.

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So just the mental boost and the physical boost you get can can be a real game changer.

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But I think people have it in their head that I got to keep moving as far as and as slow as I can to just be moving, and I'm not sure that's.

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I mean there's a lot of unknowns about 200 training.

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Still I don't think anyone's really got it nailed in yet as a here is exactly what you need to do.

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But sleep is a big one for me.

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Yeah, yeah, I don't know that.

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I definitely think that it helped a lot.

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And, trying to make up time, I don't think that I would have sacrificed the sleep in order to make up the time.

00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:08.288
So let's talk about the race itself then.

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Did you have a strategy going in and how did you plan to manage pacing and then nutrition?

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And we talked a little bit about sleep there and then kind of look after yourself on it, because I think there's some really fairly long unsupported sections of that course as well.

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So what was your strategy going into this race?

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Some really fairly long unsupported sections of that course as well.

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So, like what, what was your strategy going into into this race?

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How did you approach it?

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So I was planning on and did start the race with Lisa Marie and Renee.

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You might've met them out at the sticks.

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Oh yes, fatsal Griffins, hello.

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Yeah.

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Renee's an Arsenal fan, but I forgive him for that Cause he was kind of nice.

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He was a nice guy.

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Yeah, at least Marie is a Broncos fan, so I have to get over that.

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There you go.

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I'm not sure how I can do that, yeah, so I started the race with them and kind of I was, you know trying to, you know trying to.

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I had my own race strategy, but I also wanted to stick with them because they have way more experience with these longer distances than I do, and so it just kind of gave me a peace of mind not to go out too fast or too slow and just to relax.

00:19:18.094 --> 00:19:30.734
And so that was kind of my strategy, kind of mooching off of their race strategy, until I got a pacer at 72 miles, gotcha, gotcha.

00:19:30.734 --> 00:19:33.165
Yeah, you know I have.

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I have a hard time with coming up with a complete race strategy and I put one together and for me it always seems to just go awry, like it never works out perfectly.

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So it's kind of just more of like a parameter of like, yes, I want to do this, I should, you know.

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Yeah, I think that's actually quite a good strategy in of itself.

00:19:59.952 --> 00:20:10.759
I mean, there's a lot of people, me included, that have built strategies for races where you plan out almost every what do I need to do to catch up, where am I going to be, you know?

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And so I kind of I I'm gravitating more towards giving yourself the latitude to kind of move around and just go with the flow a little bit.

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It seems way less stressful to me at a race that's already pretty, pretty stressful.

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So, yeah, I think there's a lot of merit in in just sort of maybe not have no plan, but just have broad swaths of okay.

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I know I need to be here by around about this time, so that's what I'll shoot for, and I can go faster, slower in between and do what I want to do.

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I think that that seems like a way less stressful way to approach racing for me anyway.

00:20:53.209 --> 00:20:55.753
Yeah, I mean that's ultra or ultra running.

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In a sense, right're adapting to the.

00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:03.915
You know the things that you can't see and you know it can.

00:21:03.915 --> 00:21:05.700
It can change so much.

00:21:05.700 --> 00:21:13.240
You can be feeling great and feel like, okay, well, I'm going to push here, just just go with the flow, really, and adapt on the go.

00:21:14.241 --> 00:21:25.363
Um, my only main thing was like all right, well, I definitely want to stay ahead of cutoffs, and so that was my, that was my overarching, like you know, watch the cutoff time.

00:21:25.363 --> 00:21:26.171
I.

00:21:26.171 --> 00:21:33.183
I wanted to try to get about four hours ahead or more and stay there for the for the whole race.

00:21:33.183 --> 00:21:40.323
That way, if something went, something went wrong, I had a little bit of cushion time, so we kind of went out.

00:21:40.323 --> 00:21:44.170
We kind of went out like the had a little bit of cushion time, so we kind of went out.

00:21:44.170 --> 00:21:52.810
The first section of the race starts on a bike path that goes around the Dillon Reservoir For a bike path.

00:21:52.810 --> 00:21:53.251
It has awesome views.

00:21:53.251 --> 00:21:55.700
You can see the water and the mountains in the background and stuff.

00:21:55.700 --> 00:22:09.615
So for running through town to start the race, it, it, it was nice, you know, it gave us a chance to make up some time yeah before we hit the single track and technical so brilliant.

00:22:09.875 --> 00:22:14.905
And now I don't think there were comparatively many folks running this race.

00:22:14.905 --> 00:22:23.579
Were there like 50 folks maybe, or, uh, maybe not quite that many, but there weren't a whole lot of folks running the 200 in the first place?

00:22:23.579 --> 00:22:30.065
And I think, just looking at ultrasound up, about 50% of those finished and 50 didn't this go around.

00:22:30.065 --> 00:22:38.713
So did you factor that into your strategy, like, hey, there's, there's a great possibility here that I might be alone for quite some time as I go through the mountains here.

00:22:39.075 --> 00:22:44.304
Was in your thinking at all and did it play out that way in the end, aside from renee and lisa?

00:22:44.951 --> 00:22:49.951
so that's kind of why I wanted to stay with them, because I was like I could be alone for a long time.

00:22:49.951 --> 00:23:00.266
And yeah, the race field started with 25 runners it I've I've started races with smaller than that.

00:23:00.266 --> 00:23:04.000
I think the smallest was seven, starting a hundred mile.

00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:13.085
So I wasn't necessarily worried with the numbers, but I did kind of have the mindset going in.

00:23:13.085 --> 00:23:18.876
I was like man, I could be out there for a long time and not see anybody unless I was in the aid station.

00:23:18.876 --> 00:23:24.818
So I definitely was prepared for that and tried to just prepare my mind.

00:23:24.818 --> 00:23:34.457
Like you know, this 20 or 22 mile section that could take seven, eight hours or longer, you know if it goes bad.

00:23:34.457 --> 00:23:41.026
So yeah, I had that player in my in my head, but it never really panned out that way.

00:23:41.026 --> 00:23:48.044
I was around or with somebody for all of the race, except for about like six miles.

00:23:48.044 --> 00:23:48.904
Yeah, yeah.

00:23:48.924 --> 00:23:50.434
So let's, let's talk about the race then.

00:23:50.434 --> 00:23:54.530
So we've talked strategy and training, so how did the race itself go?

00:23:54.530 --> 00:23:56.175
How did it unfold?

00:23:56.175 --> 00:23:57.159
Did it go to plan?

00:23:57.159 --> 00:24:04.256
Did you find yourself having to adapt your strategy a lot as you went like, how did how did this thing play out for you?

00:24:04.256 --> 00:24:04.896
It?

00:24:05.198 --> 00:24:09.510
it played out better than I had planned.

00:24:09.510 --> 00:24:18.241
Honestly, there's there wasn't any super low moments, which is crazy to say yeah that's awesome.

00:24:18.461 --> 00:24:22.066
I had some struggle moments, but yeah.

00:24:22.066 --> 00:24:31.862
So the race just, you know it kind of just flowed and I just took it aid station to aid station and focused on.

00:24:31.862 --> 00:24:54.663
I had a little cheat sheet that was laminated in my pack and it had like all the stats for between each aid station, how long my estimated time and stuff like that, and I just kept it at that, trying to keep it very small minded, focused on okay, this is what I got to do to get to this aid station.

00:24:54.663 --> 00:25:02.044
So breaking it up like that was, I think, a huge reason that it was a success.

00:25:02.044 --> 00:25:13.452
Every time I have thought of, well, I've got 70 more miles or 50 more miles and you're in a low, that can be really daunting.

00:25:13.452 --> 00:25:26.780
But if you just say to yourself I've got nine more miles to this aid station or whatever it is, it makes it a lot more manageable and then you can ride that low to another high.

00:25:26.780 --> 00:25:36.605
I mean, the race is really just a roller coaster in terms of the actual terrain and the mental aspect of it.

00:25:37.430 --> 00:25:47.856
Did you find any unexpected challenges out there that you hadn't thought about in advance, anything that you hadn't considered before you got out on the course, or did it all go to plan pretty much?

00:25:48.349 --> 00:25:55.662
You know, I don't think there was anything that stuck out that was crazy had to learn on the fly or something like that.

00:25:55.662 --> 00:26:10.496
The one thing I I knew going in was uh, not by experience, but other people had said, like your foot pain just from being on your feet, that long is, you know, it's another level than 100 and so I knew that.

00:26:10.496 --> 00:26:24.857
But once you actually get there it's like, oh my, this is like, these are my only feet, this is the pain, uh, so that was probably the biggest struggle, just foot ache you know it was.

00:26:24.857 --> 00:26:30.432
It wasn't that I had a lot of blisters, I had a few, but it was just the pounding.

00:26:30.432 --> 00:26:32.974
I'm a bigger guy, so like that pounding on my feet.

00:26:33.536 --> 00:26:45.555
So every aid station I would either sit and have people you know it's, it's nice when you can ask them and they're willing to bring it to you.

00:26:45.555 --> 00:26:49.789
Other races, like I'll just stand up and, you know, keep going.

00:26:49.789 --> 00:26:53.156
But this one I kind of took the approach like I'm going to be out here a while.

00:26:53.156 --> 00:27:04.846
I should use use my uh crew and or the aid station volunteers that's what they're there for and they were awesome did you find your feet, uh, swelled up a lot?

00:27:04.925 --> 00:27:12.095
because I know when I I've done 200, my ankles in particular and my feet swell, swelling and oh yeah, I had a plan for that.

00:27:26.030 --> 00:27:28.516
I thought ahead, I asked somebody else.

00:27:28.516 --> 00:27:32.262
They gave me the thought to have a pair of shoes sized up.

00:27:32.262 --> 00:27:41.810
So I had a pair of shoes that was a size bigger and a size or size wide for the swelling and that that really helped.

00:27:41.810 --> 00:27:42.152
It was.

00:27:42.152 --> 00:27:44.256
It was an awesome, awesome tip.

00:27:44.256 --> 00:27:48.771
Going into this great tip that I think it really said.

00:27:48.771 --> 00:27:52.460
I don't know if it saved the race, but it definitely helped on the back half.

00:27:52.901 --> 00:27:54.714
Oh yeah, that, that foot pain.

00:27:54.714 --> 00:28:01.076
It really starts to annoy at you after a while and then you look down and you see your ankles, like you know, twice their normal width.

00:28:01.076 --> 00:28:03.477
I mean that can mess with your mind a little bit.

00:28:03.477 --> 00:28:05.635
Yeah, Now we talked about sleep.

00:28:05.635 --> 00:28:10.061
Did you have a defined strategy going into Summit 200?

00:28:10.061 --> 00:28:12.759
Because I know they had sleep stations, I think that were available.

00:28:12.759 --> 00:28:18.776
Did you specifically plan to stop at those and how did that work out?

00:28:18.776 --> 00:28:21.734
Or did you just kind of drop on the trail and and do what you wanted?

00:28:22.375 --> 00:28:26.833
Yeah, so so my rate, my sleep, did not go go to plan.

00:28:26.833 --> 00:28:33.744
So I did plan to sleep at all four of the sleep stations and take advantage of that.

00:28:33.744 --> 00:28:40.644
I knew that I get pretty sleepy at night Every race, you know, I've gotten sleepy.

00:28:40.644 --> 00:28:46.455
Caffeine doesn't always work and so I planned to sleep.

00:28:46.455 --> 00:28:57.832
I think it was like a total of I want to say like six to seven hours total, and I had broke it up between each aid station, like the first one.

00:28:57.832 --> 00:29:02.182
I was like just get like like a 30 minute nap to an hour and then keep going.

00:29:02.182 --> 00:29:06.681
But yeah, that that the first one I'll get to there.

00:29:06.809 --> 00:29:12.583
The the that first night was I was so happy that I was not alone.

00:29:12.583 --> 00:29:13.451
There was.

00:29:13.451 --> 00:29:25.917
There was definitely a couple of spots where, if you were super sleep deprived, you could fall off and roll down the mountain, and so I was like I'm really glad that I wasn't alone.

00:29:25.917 --> 00:29:34.021
But it seemed like the four of us that were together were all kind of struggling a little bit with staying awake.

00:29:34.021 --> 00:29:39.138
But it helped that we were all together and we had to.

00:29:39.138 --> 00:29:49.411
You know, every like two miles or so we would sit and take like a five minute, just close your eyes and then keep going yeah just to get us through that.

00:29:49.490 --> 00:29:53.398
That first night was it was rough, I'm not gonna lie.

00:29:53.398 --> 00:29:58.153
It was, uh, it was one of the more rough nights, just because of the, the sleep.

00:29:58.153 --> 00:30:04.765
I mean, I was trying to stay awake, but I don't know how you combat that.

00:30:06.051 --> 00:30:08.299
Yeah, this is the first night that you were out there.

00:30:08.410 --> 00:30:11.363
Yeah, the very first night I was like, oh great, this is going to be a rough ride.

00:30:11.363 --> 00:30:12.148
What a precedent to set.

00:30:12.148 --> 00:30:13.493
Yeah, like oh my gosh.

00:30:13.954 --> 00:30:15.098
This is going to be a challenge.

00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:18.238
Yeah, so we got through it.

00:30:18.238 --> 00:30:27.691
It's like hours longer than I had planned on my sheet and I that's kind of when you just say, just survive, let's roll with it yeah, just go with it.

00:30:27.691 --> 00:30:31.377
You know we got to the aid station at like five.

00:30:31.377 --> 00:30:32.299
Back to the.

00:30:32.299 --> 00:30:43.553
This was the north fork loop, so the, the night section, was actually the longest section of the first day and it said it was about 16 miles.

00:30:43.553 --> 00:30:48.221
We all came out with our watches saying it was around like 19 miles.

00:30:48.221 --> 00:30:50.794
I don't know if that's even accurate.

00:30:51.414 --> 00:31:14.461
It might have been like our downtime, like you know, just adding some time on there, but yeah, and the watch gps is moving yeah so but we got, we got back to the aid station and the once you got back there, that was when you could use the sleep tent and the cots and stuff and I got back there and there I was.

00:31:14.461 --> 00:31:16.084
I was really surprised there was.

00:31:16.084 --> 00:31:17.875
There was no room in the end.

00:31:17.875 --> 00:31:24.721
Oh really, yeah, there was enough runners that everybody was still sleeping.

00:31:25.563 --> 00:31:25.682
Oh.

00:31:26.109 --> 00:31:36.814
And they said there was like three runners that had just came in within like 30 minutes to an hour, and I was like I'm not kicking anybody out.

00:31:36.814 --> 00:31:44.464
The rule was the person that's been sleeping the longest will give up their spot for the next person.

00:31:44.464 --> 00:31:49.414
And I was like I'm not doing that, they just got there.

00:31:49.414 --> 00:31:55.796
So I ended up just taking a dirt nap in my bivy bag and it worked out great.

00:31:55.796 --> 00:32:02.539
I had the aid station workers there keeping an eye on me so I wasn't like worried about like waking up.

00:32:02.539 --> 00:32:05.578
I said, hey, can you guys wake me up in a little bit?

00:32:05.578 --> 00:32:07.154
And yeah, it was good.

00:32:07.958 --> 00:32:08.539
I was cold.

00:32:08.539 --> 00:32:19.336
Yeah, I was pretty cold I think that night and that morning was the coldest stretch of the race or coldest point.

00:32:19.336 --> 00:32:44.728
We were down by a Creek for part of it and had to do a Creek crossing at like four in the morning and yeah, and then, yeah, just coming from Kansas right now it's most days it's, you know, high, high, 90s, high humidity and going to Colorado was kind of a shock, with it being 35 degrees that morning.

00:32:44.728 --> 00:32:54.751
So I had there's some pictures, but I had all my layers, all my layers almost on Everything everything in my pack like layers almost on Everything, Everything in my pack Like put it on man.

00:32:54.771 --> 00:32:55.255
Yeah, I was being a baby.

00:32:55.255 --> 00:32:58.661
And then like as soon as you start the climb, you know you're going to take it off.

00:32:58.661 --> 00:33:02.681
But you know, you got to do what you got to do and stay comfortable.

00:33:03.435 --> 00:33:04.734
What were the swings of temperature?

00:33:04.734 --> 00:33:07.523
I mean, it was 35 and that was the coldest.

00:33:07.523 --> 00:33:09.281
What was the average, would you have said?

00:33:11.855 --> 00:33:12.777
what was the average, would you have said?

00:33:12.777 --> 00:33:14.098
Is it, was it like 40s, 50s, up to the 80s?

00:33:14.098 --> 00:33:24.984
Most of the most of the nights were then in the low 40s to mid 40s, uh, and then the the high temperatures during the day, maybe like 73, 75, something like that.

00:33:25.645 --> 00:33:36.626
I never actually looked at I I didn't have the weather on my phone, but what you you weren't checking the weather halfway up a mountain, uh, during the day, no, no, no, all right.

00:33:36.626 --> 00:33:40.076
Three, three quick questions for you then, jonathan, just as we're going.

00:33:40.518 --> 00:33:58.790
Favorite parts of the race for you, segment that you liked most or least, and favorite aid station oh, favorite section I think would have to be from Hall Valley to Lodgepole, from mile 100 to 122.

00:33:58.790 --> 00:34:08.449
And you climb up this Jeep road and go up to a summit and the views were just amazing.

00:34:08.449 --> 00:34:28.496
And you kind of hit that section twice, but from a different mountain range, so you can see where you were the day before and see how far you've come, knowing like how much time has passed from the point that you were just there and you did this like crazy, crazy loop to get back up to there.

00:34:28.496 --> 00:34:36.181
And then, uh, then there's a section like you're climbing the ridge and you gotta, it wasn't like dangerous fault.

00:34:36.181 --> 00:34:44.762
Well, if you went to the edge it would have been, but you got a basically a cliff on either side and that section it was just.

00:34:44.762 --> 00:34:56.309
You had high altitude, awesome views, and then it ended with getting to run on the color Trail down to the lodgepole aid station.

00:34:56.309 --> 00:34:59.340
So I think that was my favorite section.

00:35:00.344 --> 00:35:01.146
Favorite aid station.

00:35:01.146 --> 00:35:03.804
I mean they're all pretty good with Ultraverse usually.

00:35:03.804 --> 00:35:06.083
I mean they don't mess around with aid stations.

00:35:06.083 --> 00:35:10.563
But was there a particular favorite, either a location or just something happened there.

00:35:10.563 --> 00:35:13.202
I'm going to have to there, or a food.

00:35:13.735 --> 00:35:34.065
I'm going to have to say Francie's Cabin, and not because it was inside, it was the only aid station that was indoors, but at the point of the race it was pretty hot then being able to get inside, out of the sun and just chill.

00:35:34.065 --> 00:35:53.155
Casey's parents were there, Ken and Kim, Uh, and so they, you know they they're some of the best volunteers ever, they, you know, they just they joke with you, they always have a smile on their face and but they take real good care of all the runners.

00:35:53.155 --> 00:36:01.998
And Kim had actually I had told her I was like where's at one of the earlier aid stations, like where's all the watermelon, Like she knows?

00:36:01.998 --> 00:36:06.903
Well, she doesn't know Watermelon's like one of my favorite things at aid station.

00:36:06.903 --> 00:36:12.300
And so there wasn't watermelon at all the aid stations and or any of them that I noticed.

00:36:12.300 --> 00:36:25.398
And so there wasn't watermelon at all the aid stations and or any of them that I noticed.

00:36:25.418 --> 00:36:30.322
And so I get to francie's cabin at 157 miles and she has cold watermelon.

00:36:30.322 --> 00:36:31.884
I almost cried over watermelon.

00:36:31.884 --> 00:36:32.164
Yeah, it was.

00:36:32.164 --> 00:36:33.085
It was amazing, yeah, but yeah, just the.

00:36:33.085 --> 00:36:34.365
I mean like every aid station had great hot food ready to.

00:36:34.365 --> 00:36:40.552
You know, they would ask you what you want and make it on the spot Excellent.

00:36:40.552 --> 00:36:46.302
Nobody was leaving without their hot food, but all the aid stations were great.

00:36:46.983 --> 00:36:54.581
Yeah, and we talked about altitude too, and of course that's a big thing in this race, talked about altitude too, and of course that's a big thing in this race.

00:36:54.581 --> 00:36:55.023
It starts at what?

00:36:55.023 --> 00:37:00.061
Nine thousand feet and goes up to, I think we said, twelve and a half or just a little bit, just a little bit over that, and it never goes below nine thousand feet.

00:37:00.061 --> 00:37:04.159
So how did, how did you, how did you deal with that, coming from kansas?

00:37:04.159 --> 00:37:05.161
Were you there in advance?

00:37:05.161 --> 00:37:10.697
Did you spend time acclimating, if I can say it right, did you feel it at all as you were going through the course?

00:37:11.398 --> 00:37:23.775
Yeah, so my very first hundred mile attempt was out in Fairplay, colorado and that's my only DNF so far.

00:37:23.775 --> 00:37:27.983
But the altitude really, really kicked my butt on that one.

00:37:27.983 --> 00:37:30.949
And I didn't acclimate before.

00:37:30.949 --> 00:37:38.623
Like I had showed up two days before the race and went out and tried it and felt like an elephant was on my chest.

00:37:38.623 --> 00:37:39.760
It was so hard to breathe.

00:37:40.235 --> 00:37:49.961
So I knew, before Leadville and these other ones, it's like I spent basically a week before doing Leadville and it really helped.

00:37:49.961 --> 00:37:57.222
And so before this I was like, if I'm gonna do this, I'm like if I'm going to do this, I'm going to, you know, make the effort to acclimate.

00:37:57.222 --> 00:38:07.929
So I came out eight days before the race and was just uh, dirt, bagging it out of my van, was lucky enough to have some things to do.

00:38:07.929 --> 00:38:15.809
Like I got to go, uh mark part of the course with Chase and I put together drop bags and stuff like that to occupy my mind and time.

00:38:15.809 --> 00:38:45.860
But yeah, just getting out there early, I had some friends running High Lonesome and so I got to go down and help with that and see them and it just it made the whole experience that much better, just getting out the not just acclimate, but, you know having good things to do, and I was never bored, so yeah, well, talking to friends too, I I think you had a crew out there supporting you during the race.

00:38:46.161 --> 00:38:48.286
If I remember, maybe you just had paces, I'm not sure.

00:38:48.286 --> 00:38:52.000
Did you have a crew and if so, how did they contribute to your success?

00:38:52.000 --> 00:39:01.581
And, you know, were there any sort of key moments where their support really made the difference between you carrying on or not carrying on?

00:39:01.581 --> 00:39:02.864
Or talk about the crew.

00:39:02.864 --> 00:39:03.746
I love crews, man.

00:39:03.746 --> 00:39:05.900
They don't get their dues a lot of the time.

00:39:05.900 --> 00:39:09.835
So definitely want to give a shout out if you've had any folks out there helping.

00:39:09.916 --> 00:39:13.505
So I had an awesome crew and awesome pacer.

00:39:13.505 --> 00:39:18.523
They, the crew, was the, my crew and they were both crewing and both pacing.

00:39:18.523 --> 00:39:31.268
So I had scott hagerty was crewing and then he was pacing the back half of the race and so it made a huge difference.

00:39:31.268 --> 00:39:39.523
I think, seeing seeing other people that didn't have a crew versus me having one I I don't know that I would do this.

00:39:39.523 --> 00:39:50.063
Some people do it and they choose to not have crew, not have pacers, and I like that challenge, they like being the solo for me.

00:39:50.063 --> 00:39:59.369
I love the experience and bringing people along with it that are willing to help, and so it made all the difference for me in this race having them.

00:39:59.369 --> 00:40:00.914
They did awesome.

00:40:02.016 --> 00:40:12.101
Scott was crewing and then Ashley Forche I met her running at Outlaw and just by talking during another race.

00:40:12.101 --> 00:40:18.521
She's well, I live out there, I'll pace you if you need somebody, and it was.

00:40:18.521 --> 00:40:19.403
It just worked out.

00:40:19.403 --> 00:40:20.568
I mean, it was awesome.

00:40:20.568 --> 00:40:21.771
They, they both.

00:40:21.771 --> 00:40:32.545
I had never had them crew or pace me, and so I was like this is going to be a fun experience, just here we go yeah new new thing, but they did awesome.

00:40:32.565 --> 00:40:39.891
I mean, they're both, uh, seasoned veterans when it comes to ultra running, and so it wasn't like I was picking a newbie, yeah.

00:40:39.891 --> 00:40:52.731
So ashley paced me from 72 miles to 133, and then scott jumped in and paced me the rest of the way in.

00:40:53.815 --> 00:40:56.704
That's some good pacing right there, 60, 70 miles apiece.

00:40:57.085 --> 00:40:57.286
Yeah.

00:40:57.355 --> 00:40:58.740
Yeah, that's some good stints.

00:41:00.860 --> 00:41:03.327
They did not have an easy job.

00:41:04.074 --> 00:41:06.081
Yeah, across all that terrain.

00:41:06.081 --> 00:41:07.746
That's a tough pacing game right there.

00:41:08.978 --> 00:41:20.550
But just having somebody to have a conversation with and they respected the time when I needed to just be silent and just didn't, you know, be in my own head and my own thoughts and stuff.

00:41:20.550 --> 00:41:21.858
But just having them.

00:41:21.858 --> 00:41:25.788
There was confidence and it was awesome.

00:41:25.788 --> 00:41:29.204
It was enjoyable with both of them.

00:41:29.204 --> 00:41:35.237

Kansas Buckleheads’ Jonathan Prosser Shares His First 200-Mile Race Experience At The Epic New “Summit 200”!

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