Speaker 1: Up until the very first year that you finished it
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. Yep, and it started in the mid eighties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, eighty six.
Speaker 3: Eighty six.
Speaker 1: Okay, how many people had finished it by by your
Speaker 1: first year of running it?
Speaker 2: Fourteen had finished.
Speaker 3: Fourteen humans had ever finished this race.
Speaker 1: Tashha Tosh Show, Tosh Show Show, Happy, Happy Tuesday. It's
Speaker 1: your buddy, Daniel Tosh. Welcome to another episode of Tosh Show.
Speaker 1: Who I am relieved?
Speaker 4: Why are you relieved?
Speaker 3: Eddie? I done? Goofed?
Speaker 1: I done, Goofed. I'm worried they're gonna back trace me.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I consider myself to be a top ten parent. True
Speaker 1: or false doesn't matter in my head. I'm a top
Speaker 1: ten parent. But what I did to my daughter the
Speaker 1: other day, if someone were to say, hey, we we
Speaker 1: have to take your child away from you for a
Speaker 1: week just so you understand how bad what you did was,
Speaker 1: I would be like that seems fair?
Speaker 4: Wow?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you ready for this?
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's hear it.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: Every day of my son's life I walk them to school,
Speaker 1: but I walk him with his sister. His sister's year
Speaker 1: and a half a little bit older. We get there,
Speaker 1: we do a routine. We go to his class, puts
Speaker 1: his book back away. We play for about three or
Speaker 1: four minutes outside, and then we go in. We start
Speaker 1: on the first project of the day. They let the
Speaker 1: parents kind of assist, you know, with the first little
Speaker 1: writing activity. He and my daughter sometimes, hey, she participates
Speaker 1: with me.
Speaker 3: On this day, they.
Speaker 1: Were doing a little One of the classmates was doing
Speaker 1: a presentation to start the class, and my daughter is
Speaker 1: being a little loud, so I excuse myself with her.
Speaker 1: We go outside, stand by the window and watch from outside.
Speaker 2: Got it nice?
Speaker 3: Okay, you're not ready for this.
Speaker 4: I don't think I am.
Speaker 1: There's a metal bin about table height, you know, just slightly.
Speaker 1: My daughter's a little bit taller than it is. That
Speaker 1: they put all the balls in from recess. I thought
Speaker 1: it'd be funny. I put my daughter inside of it.
Speaker 1: It's right next to the window. I can watch inside.
Speaker 1: And then my daughter starts throwing the balls out. And
Speaker 1: then I picked the balls up, I put them back in.
Speaker 1: She's laughing. Now we've got a game. Okay, she throws
Speaker 1: the balls out, I pick them up, I put them in.
Speaker 1: I go to my phone, I look at things. I
Speaker 1: take a photo over how cute, let's do it again. Okay,
Speaker 1: next thing, I know, I don't know what I was doing,
Speaker 1: certainly wasn't paying attention. She climbs up out of the
Speaker 1: cage on our way, flips over, heads straight down into concrete,
Speaker 1: bites her tongue in half, bleeding. I'm positive she's concussed,
Speaker 1: just screaming. The TK teacher assistant she sees me. She's like, oh,
Speaker 1: like she saw it. Oh no, there's nothing I can
Speaker 1: do at this point. I'm like, oh no, so I
Speaker 1: just start running. No, I'm kidding. I picked my totter
Speaker 1: up and she's just screaming, like, oh why have you
Speaker 1: forsaken me?
Speaker 3: Father?
Speaker 1: You've never let me get hurt? And I'm just like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I'm holding her, and you know, my wife,
Speaker 1: she I don't know where she was at the time.
Speaker 1: She just comes running out of the classroom. She's like,
Speaker 1: oh no, what happened. I I just tell the truth.
Speaker 1: I'm like, she was in this thing. She climbed, got
Speaker 1: herself up and flipped over, landing on her head. You know,
Speaker 1: do we need to go get a cat scan. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're supposed to do. I don't know
Speaker 1: how hard you're supposed to hit in your head on concrete.
Speaker 1: Turns out she has bit her tongue a little bit,
Speaker 1: not too bad, but she is bleeding. But that that's
Speaker 1: starting to stop. But now I'm like, well, i gotta
Speaker 1: feel her head. You know when a kid hits their head,
Speaker 1: it knots up really good. Yeah, okay, I can't find anything. Nothing.
Speaker 1: I'm just like, there's nothing wrong with her. She laid
Speaker 1: on her head, she rolled out of it perfectly. Maybe
Speaker 1: she hit her shoulder. I didn't actually see the impact.
Speaker 1: All I know is she's got a nap coming up,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be three hours long. And for those
Speaker 1: three hours, you know, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: panic stricken. Right, her mood snaps back to normal, her
Speaker 1: eyes look fine. I'm trying to do concussion protocol. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, you know. I I'm like,
Speaker 1: let's go to the blue tent. Yeah, let's see if
Speaker 1: you can still play. She's playing. You gotta get her
Speaker 1: back out there. I keep thinking in my head, she's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be nauseous or irritable if it's a real concussion.
Speaker 3: She was neither of those. Anyway.
Speaker 1: She goes down for the nap. She sleeps for two
Speaker 1: and a half hours. I keep checking her. There's movement.
Speaker 1: Her personality seems slightly altered. But whatever, maybe it's for
Speaker 1: the better. The rest of the day, she's fine. You know,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? This happens? Yep, you feel
Speaker 1: so stupid.
Speaker 4: You do feel bad, God.
Speaker 1: You feel stupid. You're like, how can I let this happen?
Speaker 1: I never let it happen with my son. He never
Speaker 1: never took a spill under my watch. But my daughter, whoo,
Speaker 1: this was a real one. Anyway, I got a new
Speaker 1: game I want to play. It's called Peter Verse nine.
Speaker 1: What do you like better, Eddie, Peter or none?
Speaker 4: I'm going none.
Speaker 3: That's how you play.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: Give you guys an update about having my wife on
Speaker 1: the podcast now. The negotiations have hit a snag, partially
Speaker 1: because my daughter was dropped on her head.
Speaker 3: It's okay, okay, but.
Speaker 1: You know this year, calendar year twenty twenty four not
Speaker 1: looking good. First of the year twenty twenty five. I
Speaker 1: think I can make it happen. I think she'll be
Speaker 1: over it by then, and I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 1: Have my wife probably not gonna be that interesting anyway,
Speaker 1: You're gonna find out what my knight's like every day.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, you want to go to bed, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's eight forty five, let's do it.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: We have a wonderful relationship. It is riveting. So so
Speaker 1: many fun stories to share, all right, not as fun
Speaker 1: as today's guest. Today's guest may single handedly be the
Speaker 1: most impressive person physically that I've ever met in my life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy Pasha. There's a good chance my guest today ran
Speaker 1: all the way here from Tennessee. He is one of
Speaker 1: only a handful of people in the history of humankind
Speaker 1: to finish the Barkley Marathons, and he's done it three times.
Speaker 1: Please welcome to the studio where we sit down in
Speaker 1: chairs for an hour like normal people, mild mannered masochist,
Speaker 1: I mean, ultra marathon or John Kelly.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Excited to be here. Didn't come all the
Speaker 2: way from Tennessee, but I was tempted to run to
Speaker 2: the studio here.
Speaker 3: Oh man, where'd you come from?
Speaker 2: Santa Monica? Just down the read.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Santa Monica, I thought he was in Tennessee.
Speaker 3: You live in Tennessee, though, don't you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm right there on the North Carolina Tennessee border.
Speaker 1: You guys got hammered. We did on this storm? Dude,
Speaker 1: you how did your neck of the woods do?
Speaker 2: So? Our house was very fortunate. We lost power and
Speaker 2: water for a few days. Our road was washed out.
Speaker 2: But yeah, there are definitely areas that I've effectively been
Speaker 2: wiped off the map.
Speaker 1: Oh that's awful. Oh well, I'm gonna get more in Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Let's start this with my first question. Okay, do you
Speaker 1: believe in ghosts?
Speaker 3: John?
Speaker 2: I'm ghost agnostic. Okay, evidence isn't there?
Speaker 3: Your name is John Kelly. You worked under President Trump.
Speaker 2: I get that a lot. I get lots of angry
Speaker 2: messages on social media thinking that I'm that John Kelly,
Speaker 2: But no, not me.
Speaker 3: Were you on the track team in high school?
Speaker 2: I was did track and cross country. I was good,
Speaker 2: definitely not great. Took about ten years after that before
Speaker 2: I started running again.
Speaker 1: Can you be a great ultra marathoner at nineteen or
Speaker 1: does it really take experience? And like I mean, you
Speaker 1: can go till you're fifty, right or is that not true?
Speaker 2: Yeah? The things that I do, the multiple day events,
Speaker 2: there are people still competing at the top end until
Speaker 2: about fifty. Some of the shorter events you could certainly
Speaker 2: do when you're nineteen and be extremely good. But the
Speaker 2: longer things get, the more time you have to have
Speaker 2: to build that aerobic base and to build the experience.
Speaker 3: What's the longest distance you've ever run? A one hundred mile?
Speaker 3: You ever done one of those dumb races?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, that's I focus on the multi day stuff,
Speaker 2: and so one event I did was about three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty.
Speaker 3: Three hundred and fifty miles.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I love everything you're saying.
Speaker 1: And when you average your time out, what minute miles
Speaker 1: are you doing for three hundred and fifty miles?
Speaker 2: So that one took about five and a half days,
Speaker 2: but that's including sleep. I probably got about six staight
Speaker 2: hours of sleep over that period of time. So you know,
Speaker 2: in the mountains for that length of time, if twenty
Speaker 2: to thirty minutes a mile is going to be pretty solid.
Speaker 2: You look at Barkley and it's really all you have
Speaker 2: to do is move thirty minutes a mile to finish
Speaker 2: and you're good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, let's get into the Barkley marathons because
Speaker 1: now this I'm gonna I'm gonna ramble on it.
Speaker 3: You correct me when I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: Somehow something came into my feed I started reading about this,
Speaker 1: and then I just became fascinated, and then I just
Speaker 1: all I could do was look into this. So the
Speaker 1: Barkley Marathons are a multi day race of five five
Speaker 1: day race sixty hours, sixty hours, sixty hour race in
Speaker 1: the mountains of Tennessee, and it's basically every you're running
Speaker 1: a loop, which is basically a marathon. It's a little
Speaker 1: less than a marathon. Yes, twenty miles a day, is
Speaker 1: that what it is? Or twenty miles a loop?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he calls it twenty miles. It's more like twenty six.
Speaker 2: It's all on marks, okay.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, it's unmarked. You don't have like a GPS
Speaker 1: with you or anything like that. You have to run
Speaker 1: this crazy race. There's a book they get to rip
Speaker 1: a page out that coincides with your numbers, so that
Speaker 1: to verify that you actually went this.
Speaker 3: People lose pages.
Speaker 1: People's books have been occasionally mysteriously lost or misplaced, and
Speaker 1: if you don't get that page, your race doesn't count.
Speaker 3: You know, you're not in the record books.
Speaker 1: As someone who finished it and up until the very
Speaker 1: first year that you finished it in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: Yep, how many people had finished the race? And it
Speaker 3: started in the.
Speaker 2: Mid eighties, yeah, eighty six, eighty.
Speaker 1: Six, okay, so you know no one can do that? Math,
Speaker 1: but how many years with that? When twenty seventeen, thirty one,
Speaker 1: thirty one? All right, so how many people had finished
Speaker 1: by your first year of running it?
Speaker 2: Fourteen had finished.
Speaker 1: Fourteen humans had ever finished this race. This is why
Speaker 1: I became fascinating. The first person to finish the race
Speaker 1: was a full decade after the race had been going on.
Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, and he kind of everyone thought it was
Speaker 2: a joke at first, like no one can actually do
Speaker 2: the first five loops, and this Mark Williams came over
Speaker 2: from the UK and wasn't in on the joke, and
Speaker 2: he went ahead and went out and did the full
Speaker 2: five loops.
Speaker 1: How many people have finished to this day twenty now
Speaker 1: and this year twenty twenty four, the first female finished.
Speaker 3: What did you think of that? Were you upset?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: It was incredible. So that was Jasmine Paris, a brit
Speaker 2: I lived in the UK for a few years and
Speaker 2: got to know her quite well, and it was. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't know that I'll ever see anything in sports
Speaker 2: like that, definitely not in person. Everyone had given up.
Speaker 2: She had no chance. Time was running out and then
Speaker 2: running into camp and finishing like that with thirty seconds
Speaker 2: to spare.
Speaker 1: If she was thirty five seconds wouldn't have counted.
Speaker 3: Nope, there is sixty hours.
Speaker 1: She was thirty seconds away from it, not counting, finished
Speaker 1: all five loops.
Speaker 3: How many women every year do you see in the race.
Speaker 2: I'd say it's about a quarter, so you know, eight
Speaker 2: to ten.
Speaker 3: They only let forty people run, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's math to try to figure out the
Speaker 2: number of total loops amongst those forty people.
Speaker 1: And this race was based off of the assassination of
Speaker 1: MLK what's his name, James Arlwray James ear Olray, who
Speaker 1: escaped from prison and was caught sixty hours later and
Speaker 1: had only made it twelve miles away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was less than that, just a
Speaker 2: few miles. Kind of curled up in the fetal position,
Speaker 2: and so Gary Cantrell, the race director, kind of said,
Speaker 2: I could go one hundred miles in that amount of
Speaker 2: time in those mountains.
Speaker 3: That was the genesis of the race.
Speaker 1: Yeah, By the way, the guy Gary Cantrell, he's the
Speaker 1: one that started this race.
Speaker 3: But is he a runner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he's quite an accomplished culture runner back in
Speaker 2: his day, and also a heavy smoker. So there's where
Speaker 2: you get your mix there.
Speaker 3: Okay. Has he ever finished the race?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: No, No, not.
Speaker 2: Like not close. He's done a loop at least.
Speaker 3: And by the way, does he own this land?
Speaker 2: No, it's a state park.
Speaker 3: And has the state ever been like, oh, you can't
Speaker 3: run on this Yeah.
Speaker 2: In the early two thousands, the head park ranger effectively
Speaker 2: tried to shut it down and it took a resolution
Speaker 2: by the Tennessee State Senate to keep it going. And
Speaker 2: that's why things are so strict now on kind of
Speaker 2: protecting the land that we run, on limiting the number
Speaker 2: of entrants, limiting any sort of spectators.
Speaker 1: It's not a spectator sport or is it at all?
Speaker 1: And no, can I come and watch the finish?
Speaker 2: No, because it's in a tiny park that's really resource
Speaker 2: in space constrained as it is, just with the participants
Speaker 2: and most of it is off trail out in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: I just want to see the final leg. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's about cameras. Will he set up cameras.
Speaker 2: Ever, he has had a few people on specific spots
Speaker 2: on course with cameras before, and he does have a
Speaker 2: few media people there each year.
Speaker 1: Okay, why I'm so fascinated with you in particular is
Speaker 1: that you grew up in a neighboring mountain, and the
Speaker 1: odds of that are are ridiculous.
Speaker 2: This is a tiny rural community that you know, the
Speaker 2: high schools don't even have track and cross country teams there.
Speaker 2: No one runs. The whole idea of running for fun
Speaker 2: is just a foreign concept to most people there. So
Speaker 2: it's it's astronomic laweds someone would want to do it,
Speaker 2: much less be capable of finishing it.
Speaker 1: He probably has no desire to commercialize the Barkley Marathons.
Speaker 2: Oh, there are no sponsors. The entry fee is still
Speaker 2: a dollar sixty.
Speaker 3: And what's that the price of so.
Speaker 2: Originally it was supposed to be one or yeah, one
Speaker 2: cent per mile with one hundred mile or plus. The
Speaker 2: fund you're on added together is where it came from.
Speaker 1: To get in the race. This is all so fascining.
Speaker 1: You don't just like, oh, I want to show up
Speaker 1: for this race. It's not like the New York Marathon.
Speaker 1: You have to write an essay every year? Do you
Speaker 1: have to write an essay? Are you grandfathered in?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm grandfather done and once you finish, so I
Speaker 2: don't waste my time or his with a big essay.
Speaker 3: And what is he grading papers? What is he looking
Speaker 3: for in this essay?
Speaker 2: He's looking for do you have the motivation and do
Speaker 2: you have the credentials to actually have a legit shot
Speaker 2: at this?
Speaker 1: Well, what if you're like a famous ultra marathon or
Speaker 1: but you're like you don't want to pick up a
Speaker 1: pen and jot a few things down.
Speaker 2: Well, if you're not motivated enough to do that, you're
Speaker 2: probably not motivated enough to finish the race.
Speaker 1: John, I hate everything you're saying, and it's one hundred
Speaker 1: percent accurate. Okay, so you write an essay. He lets
Speaker 1: you in the race. Now, the race always takes place
Speaker 1: in April or May, March or April. Marcher, I don't
Speaker 1: I tried to research it. This is just all from memory.
Speaker 2: You've done good again, much better than a lot of
Speaker 2: running podcasts that.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just batshit bonkers what they're doing. Okay,
Speaker 1: he lets you know when the race is going to
Speaker 1: be how far in advance?
Speaker 2: A few months?
Speaker 1: Yeah, But then when you get there, the start time
Speaker 1: is tbd.
Speaker 2: It can be anywhere between midnight and noon. And you're
Speaker 2: notified an hour ahead.
Speaker 1: Of time, okay, And then when the race starts, he
Speaker 1: blows a conk shell or something that's that's your one
Speaker 1: hour warning. That's a one hour warning. And then when
Speaker 1: he lights a cigarette, start running. Yep, everyone at the
Speaker 1: same time or is it staggered.
Speaker 2: No, it's it's everyone. It's a small field, so that
Speaker 2: kind of keeps things spaced out.
Speaker 3: Your preferred time to start the.
Speaker 2: Race an hour before first glide, I think for me
Speaker 2: is perfect because you start off on a climb, and
Speaker 2: on the climbs you don't really need light very much
Speaker 2: because you're going slow, so that by the time you
Speaker 2: start your first descent you have daylight.
Speaker 3: Okay, and sure you're going through the mountains.
Speaker 1: It's not a loop, but it's not like a trail
Speaker 1: that like every you know, tenth tree is painted red.
Speaker 1: It's you have to figure this out. He gives you
Speaker 1: a watch, like some digital crappy watch.
Speaker 2: Yes, I get ten dollars Walmart Time.
Speaker 1: Next I wear when I I only wear it when
Speaker 1: I go surfing, and then that way, I know it's okay,
Speaker 1: the kid's about to wake up. Time to get home
Speaker 1: and be a parent. But you have to navigate some
Speaker 1: new path through the mountains. And the elevation that that
Speaker 1: you're going up and down throughout this sixty hour race
Speaker 1: is the equivalent, uh to two up and downs of
Speaker 1: Mount Everest.
Speaker 2: Yep, zero zero net elevation change.
Speaker 1: That is ridiculous. So that's the race. Now, the first
Speaker 1: time you ran it, did you finish?
Speaker 2: No? I got three loops?
Speaker 1: Is that that's considered a fun run? It is so
Speaker 1: calls if you do three loops of fun. By the way,
Speaker 1: each loop, first loop one direction, second loop opposite direction,
Speaker 1: and then who's ever in first place for the fifth
Speaker 1: and final loop, they get to pick which way they go.
Speaker 3: Is that an advantage at all?
Speaker 2: It is generally clockwise direction is preferred and someone just
Speaker 2: might be more familiar with a given direction.
Speaker 3: Have you ever been in the lead for the fifth loop?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So I chose my direction both of my first
Speaker 2: two finishes, and this past year I kind of I'd
Speaker 2: already finished twice and I knew both directions pretty well.
Speaker 2: So I kind of just told the other people they
Speaker 2: could pick and I go out whenever look at you. Well,
Speaker 2: I also, you know, I wanted the finish in the
Speaker 2: other direction.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the years you finish twenty seventeen, what's
Speaker 1: the next one?
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty three?
Speaker 1: Oh, what a huge gap of failure in between there.
Speaker 1: Do you consider it failure if you don't finish?
Speaker 2: I only tried twice in that gap. The first time
Speaker 2: I was in the lead after two loops and I
Speaker 2: just quit. I didn't want to do it.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: I was cursed with knowing what the later loops would
Speaker 2: bring and realized that I just didn't didn't care enough
Speaker 2: to go through that. And then twenty twenty two, I
Speaker 2: lost my pages. I had them in a little waist belt,
Speaker 2: and the waist belt came off. I spent hours going
Speaker 2: up and down a hill looking and by the time
Speaker 2: I found them, just not enough time left to keep going.
Speaker 3: I mean, just horrible depression after that.
Speaker 2: No, it's fine, And you know it's like you said,
Speaker 2: do I consider it failure? You know, maybe technically, but
Speaker 2: like those early failures for me in Barkley, like my
Speaker 2: first year, I did three loops the second I did four.
Speaker 2: Those failures were my quickest path to success. I really
Speaker 2: jumped in the deep end and had no idea what
Speaker 2: I was doing that first year. So sure my goal
Speaker 2: was to finish, but failing is what led to my
Speaker 2: eventual finish. You won it, yeah, I want it in
Speaker 2: two thousand and so I was the only finisher in
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: Was that the most rewarding race of your life?
Speaker 2: The first finish, all I wanted to do was was
Speaker 2: get there. The second finish, I wanted to enjoy it,
Speaker 2: and it was. It was incredible. Like the final climb
Speaker 2: goes up a mountain that overlooks my childhood home, and
Speaker 2: it was a beautiful sunset, perfect conditions, and like I
Speaker 2: just stopped and enjoyed it for like twenty minutes at
Speaker 2: the top, and that was rewarding. And then this past
Speaker 2: year getting to see others finish, Jasmine finish like that
Speaker 2: was that was an experience.
Speaker 1: Correct me if I'm wrong here, but this has happened
Speaker 1: where I panicked when you said you stopped and enjoyed
Speaker 1: it for twenty minutes. People have tried to do like
Speaker 1: a twenty minute cat nap and then just fall asleep
Speaker 1: for eight hours.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's happened, and it's something that I'm always concerned about.
Speaker 2: I try to follow it. If I do do that
Speaker 2: on the trail, I try to find really uncomfortable spots
Speaker 2: to do it to where I know that my body
Speaker 2: will wake it self up after a bit of time.
Speaker 1: I think I read about somebody that tried to fall
Speaker 1: asleep in like a tire rut that was full of water.
Speaker 2: That was that was me?
Speaker 3: That was you? Yeah, that was you.
Speaker 1: Oh I read about that that was so put himself
Speaker 1: in a tire rut, just like what he's saying, because
Speaker 1: it was like, this is the most uncomfortable place. There's
Speaker 1: no way I'll sleep for a long time in here.
Speaker 1: How long did you sleep?
Speaker 2: It was, you know, fifteen minutes if even that? And
Speaker 2: that was so sorry. This was this was one of
Speaker 2: maybe my craziest culture running story.
Speaker 3: Wait wait wait there was a family. Yeah, okay, go on.
Speaker 2: So I laid down. I found this muddy tire track, like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's perfect, and I laid down there for a few
Speaker 2: minutes and then I look up and here comes this
Speaker 2: guy and his wife and his two kids walking up
Speaker 2: and just without hesitation. I go, oh, hey, Kit, how's
Speaker 2: it going? And he says, oh, that's a John Kelly
Speaker 2: Nap if I've ever seen one, And I mumble something
Speaker 2: about Barkley and he just keeps going. And it wasn't
Speaker 2: until after the race that I was like, wait a second,
Speaker 2: the probability that someone was out there at that time,
Speaker 2: in this random place that it happened to be one
Speaker 2: of my childhood friends from twenty years ago that I
Speaker 2: hadn't seen since high school. I immediately recognized him, and
Speaker 2: then he just kept going like everything was fine. So
Speaker 2: I was, you know what, it didn't happen. I was convinced.
Speaker 2: I was like, I finally had my first real hallucination.
Speaker 2: Because other people have hallucinations like seeing pink unicorns and
Speaker 2: all sorts of crazy stuff that never happens to me.
Speaker 2: I was like, I finally had it. And then I
Speaker 2: found him on LinkedIn of all places. I was like,
Speaker 2: hey kid, this is going to sound weird, but was
Speaker 2: this you? And he said yeah, yeah, it was me.
Speaker 2: We love going and for hikes out at Frozenhead. I
Speaker 2: actually saw it.
Speaker 3: Why did he say? Why did he say the John
Speaker 3: Kelly Knap thing?
Speaker 2: Because he knew about Berkley, and he knew what I
Speaker 2: had done there, so, you know, because normally I would
Speaker 2: think if you see someone face down in a muddy
Speaker 2: higher track in the woods, you might be concerned and yeah,
Speaker 2: but no, you just kept going face down. Yeah, well,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a stomach squeeper.
Speaker 1: Well I meant to be uncomfortable. Do people in the
Speaker 1: area are they even familiar with this race? Do they
Speaker 1: know that people throughout the world care about this race?
Speaker 1: That are these elite athletes?
Speaker 2: They definitely do now And that's been one of the
Speaker 2: cool things for me is seeing that knowledge and that
Speaker 2: pride and it grow over the years that I've done it.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid, my dad kind of knew
Speaker 2: that crazy people showed up in the woods at the
Speaker 2: park there once a year, but didn't know much more
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, there should be a sign going into your
Speaker 1: city that says you live there. I mean, do people
Speaker 1: know who you are in town? Like, oh, hometown boy
Speaker 1: made good or no a bit? Yeah, that's my goal here.
Speaker 1: My goal here is to get you on a Wheaty's box.
Speaker 1: If anybody should be on a Wheati's box. By the way,
Speaker 1: we underrated Cereal it tastes pretty good if you dump
Speaker 1: a lot of sugar on it.
Speaker 3: What about your diet? Are you crazy about your diet?
Speaker 2: No, I'm pretty infamous for my sweet tooth and junk foods,
Speaker 2: so it's fule. Yeah.
Speaker 3: How do you eat during the race?
Speaker 2: A lot of its liquid calories and jels. Some of
Speaker 2: it is also in a race that length, You're you're
Speaker 2: missing actual meals too, So between loops in particular, might
Speaker 2: have a burger or pizza or whatever.
Speaker 1: You're missing birthdays, missing meal the days. But by the way,
Speaker 1: has it ever fallen on anything where you're like it?
Speaker 1: You know, it has some pretty uh serious conflicts with
Speaker 1: your personal life.
Speaker 2: That's something that I avoid. Uh, it's and it is
Speaker 2: a bit of a minefield now as the kids have
Speaker 2: more activities, there are only so many weekends per.
Speaker 1: Year, endless activities. It's just NonStop. The every day with
Speaker 1: these kids a new thing I have to care about.
Speaker 1: You have four children, Do you like being a dad?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: That's pretty fun.
Speaker 2: Huh that's great.
Speaker 3: Are your hands on father?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, all right, it's I mean, now, I'm not
Speaker 2: a helicopter parent by any means. No, No, they've.
Speaker 3: Got to learn Okay, well, I mean sure, but.
Speaker 2: Got to have the freedom to screw up, all right, But.
Speaker 1: You don't want to get hurt physically. You live out
Speaker 1: for me, not permanently. The best parenting anybody's out. You
Speaker 1: don't want to get it hurt permanently. I love that.
Speaker 3: Wait, when you go for a daily run, what do
Speaker 3: you go distance? Or do you go time?
Speaker 2: Mainly distance? But you know I don't go as far
Speaker 2: as everyone assumes I would. I really don't train more
Speaker 2: than a serious marathon runner would.
Speaker 1: More than a serious marathon or you know that seems
Speaker 1: like a lot. So you're doing multi I mean five miles,
Speaker 1: ten miles?
Speaker 2: Yeah, five tennis?
Speaker 3: You ever run on a treadmill?
Speaker 2: I do? I hate it?
Speaker 3: You hate it?
Speaker 2: But I did start doing I got a bike trainer
Speaker 2: recently and started doing this swift thing with the virtual
Speaker 2: kind of video game thing. That's fun. You enjoy that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Can you bring anything on your persons during this race?
Speaker 2: I mean other than electronic devices?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like you can bring some toilet paper
Speaker 1: if you felt like it. Do people do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: How many times do you go to the bathroom?
Speaker 1: And when I say go to the bathroom, I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about urine during this two and a half days.
Speaker 2: This time, probably a couple of times. It's you know,
Speaker 2: one of the secrets of my first finish. It was
Speaker 2: zero none, zero poop run. Yeah, you held it the
Speaker 2: whole two and a half days. I just didn't didn't
Speaker 2: need it. I guess I was mostly on luck with
Speaker 2: calories and it never had the urge.
Speaker 3: And then what do you do do you just go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, find a nice spot in the woods somewhere, or
Speaker 2: hold it for between loops when you can actually have
Speaker 2: the luxury of a nice bathhouse and toilet.
Speaker 1: When the year that you quit stopped whatever after two
Speaker 1: laps because you knew what was going to come ahead.
Speaker 1: Talk about the things that come ahead, your mind playing
Speaker 1: tricks on you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the worst for me, everyone kind of has their
Speaker 2: own strengths and weaknesses, and the worst for me is
Speaker 2: dealing with sleep deprivation. Like some people hallucinate, some people
Speaker 2: just can't think straight I will straight up, you know,
Speaker 2: I'll fall asleep on my feet and go down harder
Speaker 2: than the bad guy in a Rocky movie. I just
Speaker 2: cannot stay awake. And so that's that's the point for
Speaker 2: where for me it still gets pretty miserable.
Speaker 3: So how long do you get to sleep after each loop?
Speaker 2: Generally none? This past year, I was the only one
Speaker 2: of the finishers that swlept, and I went back to
Speaker 2: my campsite between loops four and five and slept for
Speaker 2: like twenty minutes, and that let people get out in
Speaker 2: the directions they wanted to go. And then I was
Speaker 2: on my way two.
Speaker 3: And a half days and you had a twenty minute nap.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, do you realize what we're.
Speaker 3: Talking about here? Guys? You understand why I was so
Speaker 3: passionate about this. This is just nuts.
Speaker 1: I can't make it past lunch without needing an hour nap,
Speaker 1: and then I need one hour to recover.
Speaker 2: But have you ever, really, have you ever had that
Speaker 2: motivation to just see if you could push through it? Well,
Speaker 2: not running, I think you could do it.
Speaker 3: What are you talking?
Speaker 1: No, I'm not cut out for this. I don't like running.
Speaker 1: Every step is awful.
Speaker 2: That's fine, and you know, but any of these things
Speaker 2: you build up to them, and you know, starting running.
Speaker 2: If you told me I was going to finish Barkley
Speaker 2: or do half the things I've done, I would have
Speaker 2: said you were absolutely nuts and crazy.
Speaker 1: I've ran about four times this year because I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I need to lose some weight and you can't cheat running.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, I'll just start running.
Speaker 1: Every day that I ran, I like spent the next
Speaker 1: three weeks just telling everybody that I went running.
Speaker 2: But you know, again, I think you could do a
Speaker 2: lot more than you think you could. Maybe you couldn't
Speaker 2: build up to finishing, like I'll never build up to
Speaker 2: dunking a basketball or running a ten second hundred meter dash.
Speaker 1: Have you seen that current dunk champion is a short
Speaker 1: white kid? That's true, and out of Philly can just fly.
Speaker 2: I can't even palm my kids like toy basketballs, so
Speaker 2: it's not happening. But you know, I could do better
Speaker 2: than I think I could. And you know, maybe you
Speaker 2: could do a loop at Barkley.
Speaker 1: Who knows well I would, but I'm the problem is
Speaker 1: I won't be able to get in my strong suit
Speaker 1: would be the essay. I probably could pull that part off,
Speaker 1: but I just want him to know that I only
Speaker 1: want to try one lap and that's not going to
Speaker 1: interest him.
Speaker 3: He's not gonna be well, you're not taking it seriously.
Speaker 2: So there's people that try to get in every year
Speaker 2: as the Virgin sacrifice the number one BIB. But you
Speaker 2: know those are people that are still serious runners but
Speaker 2: just have no chance. And he kind of no one
Speaker 2: has ever gotten in by volunteering to be that person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not gonna I'm not. I mean no part
Speaker 1: of me would take it. Seriously, How easy is it
Speaker 1: to get lost on these races? Like how do you
Speaker 1: figure out where you have to go?
Speaker 2: Most races you do actually have a GPS under route
Speaker 2: that you loaded into your watch or your phone. The
Speaker 2: Barkley you do not. You just have a map and compass.
Speaker 2: But also at Barkley it's in a fairly confined area,
Speaker 2: so if you wander off in the same direction too much,
Speaker 2: you're you're gonna hit a road at some point. And
Speaker 2: people who have certainly done that and had to kind
Speaker 2: of hitchhike back to the start finish.
Speaker 1: Can you cheat and get to the book a shorter way?
Speaker 2: They are laid out to where the course is pretty
Speaker 2: much self penalizing, like if you don't go the correct way,
Speaker 2: you're losing time from it. Now, as far as if
Speaker 2: you can kind of do the books in a different
Speaker 2: order and get a short cut that way, It is
Speaker 2: theoretically possible, but it's pretty well self policed out there
Speaker 2: because people are gonna notice, like, hey, how did you
Speaker 2: get ahead of me?
Speaker 1: And you guys are so you care so much, it's
Speaker 1: like who are you cheating? You know, and that's my
Speaker 1: instinct is like how do you cheat to finish this?
Speaker 3: Do you ever practice there? Actually at that mountain? Off season?
Speaker 2: So you're you're actually not allowed to go off trail
Speaker 2: at the park other than during the race.
Speaker 3: What a strict park?
Speaker 2: Well, part of it's to protect some kind of some
Speaker 2: native species that are growing, coachers from coming in, and
Speaker 2: there's also open mind shafts from like decades ago that
Speaker 2: you could just fall into. But there is an on
Speaker 2: trail twenty mile loop around the park that you can
Speaker 2: go run.
Speaker 3: Do you ever run that one?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah all the time.
Speaker 1: Is the terrain capable of continuing to get hard enough?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: They could change things and make things way worse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's definitely gotten to the point where it's
Speaker 2: converging on what is really possible. I mean, if there
Speaker 2: are other huge improvements in gear.
Speaker 3: I mean, what other gear besides shoes.
Speaker 2: That's one of the things I love about the race,
Speaker 2: is it the course keeps getting harder to try to
Speaker 2: keep it right at that edge where like one percent
Speaker 2: can finish, And a lot of that is in response
Speaker 2: to to gear improvements over the years. You know, in
Speaker 2: road running we have this big debate about super shoes.
Speaker 2: Shoes were a thing at Berkley. The course would just
Speaker 2: get harder and that would solve that problem. Back when
Speaker 2: this race started, the course was easier, but people were
Speaker 2: seriously out with carbided mining lamps on their head because
Speaker 2: their other choice was those giant mag lights with the
Speaker 2: four D cell batteries that would last for like five minutes.
Speaker 2: We now have running vests, great shoes, led headlamps, running, nutrition,
Speaker 2: training and knowledge is good, so I don't know how
Speaker 2: many worse hitting, diminishing.
Speaker 1: To get a shirt that changes temperature to keep your
Speaker 1: body the same.
Speaker 3: Temperature at all timebe that.
Speaker 2: But you know again, he can start coming from the
Speaker 2: other direction and eliminating some of that stuff, like there's
Speaker 2: no gps, you can't listen to music, there's no altimeters.
Speaker 3: So do you like to listen to music when you run?
Speaker 2: I don't. It's kind of like my one time of
Speaker 2: day when I don't have to think about anything, and
Speaker 2: I can kind of just let my mind wander on whatever.
Speaker 3: Supposed to listen to your body. Yeah, that's what people say.
Speaker 2: Or nature taking nature.
Speaker 1: Do every year, do you have a talk with your
Speaker 1: wife like, Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna race it this
Speaker 1: year or do you does she just know that you
Speaker 1: probably will?
Speaker 2: Now it's it's pretty much at a fault after that
Speaker 2: first year, Like that first year was gonna be a
Speaker 2: one and done sort of like my first marathon, and
Speaker 2: so that was a conversation going into the second year.
Speaker 2: But at this point, the way I approach it has
Speaker 2: changed a lot. I know how to train efficiently to
Speaker 2: or it's not a disruption and it's not this obsessive, unhealthy,
Speaker 2: all consuming thing. It's really just going out and having
Speaker 2: fun in the woods with my friends.
Speaker 1: Would you have a job like you're not you're this
Speaker 1: It's not like you're like one of the best in
Speaker 1: the world. If not the best, you're you're you're in
Speaker 1: the conversation, right, Is that fair?
Speaker 2: Within a tiny niche, within a niche, you know, ultra
Speaker 2: running as a whole, No, definitely not okay, But with
Speaker 2: elevation type of race like Barkley.
Speaker 1: People would say I don't know if they would say
Speaker 1: this because it's so niche that it's like, well, if
Speaker 1: more people knew about this and cared about it and
Speaker 1: there was money into it, then there would be these
Speaker 1: apps athletes they could do it. But I feel like
Speaker 1: the only the people that can do this do this already.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's not like it's not like Lebron
Speaker 1: James could be like, oh I'll do this.
Speaker 3: He would die.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are certainly some people out there that I
Speaker 2: would love to see do it whenever they have the
Speaker 2: desire just so they just they feel it tunity, Yeah,
Speaker 2: well to see what they could do. But you know
Speaker 2: a big piece of this is having to have that
Speaker 2: desire and that little bit of crazy in your head
Speaker 2: to go after it. And if they don't have that,
Speaker 2: then no, they're not going to finish.
Speaker 3: Do you genuinely enjoy these races?
Speaker 2: I do now, And you know, Barkley, like I kind
Speaker 2: of had this where I was over focused and obsessed
Speaker 2: with it and then dropped off to where now I
Speaker 2: just didn't care enough, and now it's just this. I
Speaker 2: genuinely enjoy doing it, even in the moment other than
Speaker 2: when I'm trying to stay awake and I have no stress,
Speaker 2: I have no pressure of trying to finish. It's just
Speaker 2: an adventure out in the woods.
Speaker 3: Do you feel like you've accomplished like amazing things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I've done pretty well, you know, But that's
Speaker 2: not to say I don't still have goals. And that's
Speaker 2: one thing. The first time I finished Barkley, I was
Speaker 2: kind of like, well, what do I do now? I
Speaker 2: never want to get to that spot where I'm like,
Speaker 2: I've done good things, nothing left to do.
Speaker 1: That's literally my goal in life is to get to
Speaker 1: a place where I'm like I'm done.
Speaker 2: I mean getting there with my job and getting there
Speaker 2: financially would be fantastic.
Speaker 3: That's where you got hosed.
Speaker 1: You were cursed with being amazing at something that a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't care about. That's a rough one
Speaker 1: of this type of race. Is this the one that
Speaker 1: people care the most about? Or how many are there
Speaker 1: throughout the world.
Speaker 2: Barkley is pretty neat unique. It's definitely a niche within
Speaker 2: the niche of ulture running. There are other multi day
Speaker 2: events like Tortoisian is one that I've done quite a bit,
Speaker 2: which is in Italy and I haven't been successful at
Speaker 2: it yet. It is one of the more well known ones.
Speaker 1: At what age will you stop doing ultra marathons and
Speaker 1: go back to regular old marathons like some pussy Well?
Speaker 2: I mean the thing is, the longer it gets, the
Speaker 2: more well suited it is for old age. So you know,
Speaker 2: if anything might go the opposite direction.
Speaker 1: What about then the joints and the knees, everything on
Speaker 1: your body good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're good. And I think that's kind of my
Speaker 2: biggest superpower as an ultr runner is I've managed to
Speaker 2: not have any major injuries the whole time I've been
Speaker 2: doing it. I fell off a ladder six weeks before
Speaker 2: Barkley last year and went in and did it. I
Speaker 2: just I haven't had anything that's kept me sidelined for
Speaker 2: a while.
Speaker 1: Eddie fell off a step stool, can't do anything for
Speaker 1: four months.
Speaker 2: You know, if you catch things wrong, it can happen.
Speaker 2: I was fortunate. I was bruised my ribs and broke
Speaker 2: my wrists.
Speaker 3: How high up were you?
Speaker 2: I was about twenty feet.
Speaker 1: Twenty feet here that step toool's playing it on asphalt.
Speaker 1: He was up twenty feet on asphalt. Ran the Barkley
Speaker 1: Marathon six weeks later. Unbelievable.
Speaker 4: He's way lighter than me.
Speaker 2: I just kind of bounced.
Speaker 4: He bounced.
Speaker 3: Everybody's on the show.
Speaker 1: I give them gifts, but it's all, you know, just
Speaker 1: so you know, it's just stuff around my house that
Speaker 1: I don't want anymore. These companies had been setting me
Speaker 1: a bunch of socks. I didn't like it, but I
Speaker 1: feel like they're probably not good. There's some bombas in there,
Speaker 1: there's some element. I just wanted you to have some
Speaker 1: fresh socks for your toes.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, that's that's handy.
Speaker 1: The other day a person was just throw it on
Speaker 1: the floor, was on the show, and I gave them
Speaker 1: old Tosh point zero merch.
Speaker 3: I was like, get rid of this.
Speaker 1: Then I found another box of Tosh point o merch
Speaker 1: in my garage.
Speaker 3: I'm like, son of a bitch.
Speaker 1: So now you need extra T shirts for running and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. There might be sweatshirts in here. I
Speaker 1: don't know who knows. You wear a new shirt, then
Speaker 1: you send it to goodwill.
Speaker 2: My wife and I used to love the show back
Speaker 2: when I was in grad school.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: Now you're you're gonna want all the shirts.
Speaker 3: I can't stop giving you this. These are fun. These
Speaker 3: for your kids.
Speaker 1: Since you have twins, you always have tip two of everything. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is These things are like electric boards. They go
Speaker 1: so fast. Now the joke with these, I gotta call
Speaker 1: I always get two.
Speaker 2: This is gonna be interesting getting back on it, and.
Speaker 1: I'll ship everything. I always think it's funny. My brother
Speaker 1: has twins. I always think it's funny to order him
Speaker 1: things and just have it sent to his house and
Speaker 1: then he just calls me furious.
Speaker 3: He's like, what did you buy? What are these things?
Speaker 3: They're dangerous, they're too fast.
Speaker 1: But anyway, he last time he came thought it was funny,
Speaker 1: threw them back in my garage and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: well played, buddy. But now I'm like, one of your
Speaker 1: kids will like these. They're barely used, we got charge.
Speaker 3: They're heavy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they got real batteries in there. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: trouble with those. You'll like them. Thank you for getting
Speaker 1: that off the table. I also got got your kids.
Speaker 1: I always have these toatch point oh not tous point o.
Speaker 3: These are from tours, stand up tours.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, skateboards, just because I want your kids I
Speaker 1: want to make sure your kids get into something that's
Speaker 1: cooler than running.
Speaker 2: There is a skate park, right, but right, they got
Speaker 2: to give them some skateboard. This is the perfect kind
Speaker 2: of thing where they can get hurt, but not permanently.
Speaker 1: Right, well, you can get permanently hurt on a skateboard,
Speaker 1: but whatever. Those things are probably not even good skateboards,
Speaker 1: but at least they can have fun with that.
Speaker 2: What's that up? Because because I was aware of, Oh no,
Speaker 2: what you do here? What is this hold on?
Speaker 3: What kind of bag is this? Is this a running bag?
Speaker 2: It is, it's a running vest. But they're they're kind
Speaker 2: of like Santa's.
Speaker 3: With those weights.
Speaker 1: Ever, No, when I see people walking around my neighborhood
Speaker 1: with that, I'm like, just walk longer.
Speaker 2: No, I've never done that.
Speaker 1: One of my friends put one on his dog, wait,
Speaker 1: like to burn off energy, and the vets like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're killing your dog's hips.
Speaker 2: So, so you know my own set of hand me
Speaker 2: downs here.
Speaker 3: I'll look at you tit for tat.
Speaker 2: Here we go get my own Italian designer uh running
Speaker 2: shirts here? Uh huh. You know you're probably taller than me,
Speaker 2: so I definitely how those are going to work.
Speaker 3: I like, I like jogging in the mid drift.
Speaker 2: The things that you can fit in these bags. I got,
Speaker 2: you know, for your kids?
Speaker 1: Here?
Speaker 3: What is this?
Speaker 2: Got evy?
Speaker 3: Is this a pokemon?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: My son is into it.
Speaker 2: Got a dress for your daughter, I'll take it.
Speaker 3: Look at this dress?
Speaker 1: You watch, you watch, I'll send you a photo of
Speaker 1: her in this immediately.
Speaker 3: That's adorable.
Speaker 2: Here's the bet I actually look at you. I didn't
Speaker 2: even know this was in here.
Speaker 3: This is it.
Speaker 2: I don't want whatever that is limited edition. Just hold
Speaker 2: on to it and uh limited, Maybe sell it on
Speaker 2: eBay in a few years.
Speaker 3: What is it?
Speaker 2: That's that's some of the liquid nutrition for it.
Speaker 1: Meant I gotta taste this just just kind of you
Speaker 1: mind if I taste this.
Speaker 2: It's a powder. So you got to mix it under
Speaker 2: your drink. Yeah, I was just gonna pour it. That
Speaker 2: wouldn't end well.
Speaker 1: But I don't even know the cost. So you mix
Speaker 1: this into your drink and then that that's your meal
Speaker 1: for the night.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's probably half my calories off my desk. No,
Speaker 2: it's fine. I don't know if we fully so. The pages,
Speaker 2: so there are books along the course, and you have
Speaker 2: to rip out your page from each book.
Speaker 3: What's your page? What's your page?
Speaker 2: So you have a BIB number for each Loop, and
Speaker 2: so whatever your BIB number is, you have to rip
Speaker 2: out that number page from the book to prove that
Speaker 2: you followed the course. And so here is your very
Speaker 2: own page from an actual Barkley book in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: the year that I gave up. I thought you would
Speaker 2: appreciate that.
Speaker 3: Year Loop too, you know. I actually.
Speaker 1: This is probably my second favorite gift that I've ever
Speaker 1: received on this show.
Speaker 3: First I was a hat that I liked that what's
Speaker 3: his next?
Speaker 2: Fair?
Speaker 1: But this this right here, has he ever is there
Speaker 1: any significance the in what book he puts out there?
Speaker 3: Every year?
Speaker 2: Usually anywhere from twelve to fifteen books per Loop, and
Speaker 2: they all have sort of mocking titles like this one
Speaker 2: I think has Lost Souls, and you know you'll have
Speaker 2: all sorts of them that the kind of poke fun
Speaker 2: at the people out there.
Speaker 1: I mean, the importance of page sixty seven to you?
Speaker 3: Or were you sixty eight?
Speaker 2: It's all odd numbers. There are only odd number bibs
Speaker 2: because if you had someone that was sixty seven and
Speaker 2: another person that was sixty.
Speaker 1: You could still you could space them out. It was
Speaker 1: only forty people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, but multiplied times each group, so generally you
Speaker 2: know my final.
Speaker 3: Oh, they're not putting different books out for each loop.
Speaker 2: No, So like you know your BIB one, your loop
Speaker 2: one BIB might be thirty seven, and then your loop
Speaker 2: two bib like seventy nine.
Speaker 1: And why can some people one loop everybody finds the book,
Speaker 1: and then loop four nobody can find the books missing.
Speaker 3: Has that happened or no?
Speaker 2: There have been a couple times where yeah, books come missing,
Speaker 2: but most of the time it's just by that point
Speaker 2: in time, your your mind is not thinking very clearly.
Speaker 2: You might be going in the opposite. No, you can
Speaker 2: have this too. I ha been used. Yeah it has,
Speaker 2: but I washed it. It's been washed. Have you drank
Speaker 2: those have been washed as well?
Speaker 3: So it is disgusting.
Speaker 1: Man, there's no world where I'm putting my mouth on that.
Speaker 3: Ever. I'd rather just dehydrate. Has he ever used the Bible?
Speaker 2: No? No, not to my knowledge, none of the years
Speaker 2: that I've done.
Speaker 1: I bet you, I bet you there'd be people like
Speaker 1: you know, just boycotting the rays. They're not You can't
Speaker 1: rip these pages out and the importance that you were
Speaker 1: just just that right there isn't that silly? How much
Speaker 1: has he changed the race from from the very first
Speaker 1: time he had it to what it is now? You
Speaker 1: know things the book, the odd pages that was from
Speaker 1: the one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's all there from from the beginning.
Speaker 3: But yeah, did you ever read this page?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: I haven't.
Speaker 1: It's kind of well, it's kind of like a little
Speaker 1: romance novel of sorts. There's there's some kissing going on
Speaker 1: in this page with Christy.
Speaker 3: Do you get anything at the end? Do they give
Speaker 3: you anything? You get a ribbon.
Speaker 2: So the joke is that the award for finishing is
Speaker 2: that you don't have to do another loop, which you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's nice in the moment.
Speaker 3: There's no plaques, there's nothing is your name.
Speaker 2: No, I made my own plaque. I took all the
Speaker 2: first finish I had. I took all of my pages
Speaker 2: and make kind of a little picture frame collage of
Speaker 2: all the pages.
Speaker 1: After the race, do you guys all go out to
Speaker 1: a you know, a restaurant together or a party? Does
Speaker 1: he does he throw a barbecue for everybody?
Speaker 2: No, we oftentimes will We'll pick a local restaurant and
Speaker 2: go there for dinner or breakfast some of us, but no,
Speaker 2: pretty much, Gary included is is kind of exhausted and
Speaker 2: you know he's he's old and smoking the whole time
Speaker 2: and not sleeping, and so yeah, he's he's done.
Speaker 1: And how quick after a race do you catch yourself
Speaker 1: in normal life where you're like, you know, you're playing
Speaker 1: with your kid or you're doing something that you don't
Speaker 1: want to be doing with them, and you're like, you
Speaker 1: know what I was doing a day and a half ago.
Speaker 3: Or is that like? Or do you give yourself a
Speaker 3: week to decompress?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's that's the other thing. I've basically
Speaker 2: just put my life on pause for a few days,
Speaker 2: so I have to try to catch back up on
Speaker 2: things with with war and family and everything else that's
Speaker 2: going on. So there's not a big kind of just
Speaker 2: crash and do nothing for a week like people might think.
Speaker 3: Right Like, it's not like winning the NBA Championship.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh, okay, now I get to take a
Speaker 1: month off and just lay in Italy.
Speaker 2: I do have a week where you know, there's there's
Speaker 2: no running and I eat absolutely everything, which I love, but.
Speaker 3: And do you enjoy a week of not running.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do, Yes, I do it.
Speaker 3: Could enjoy that, that's one thing every week.
Speaker 2: I've never understood people going into these races. You have
Speaker 2: a taper generally where you decrease your training right before
Speaker 2: the race, so you go unrested, and a lot of
Speaker 2: people hate the taper, and I'm always just like, wow,
Speaker 2: this is this is awesome. You know. I enjoy having
Speaker 2: that bit of downtime and bit of rest and relaxation.
Speaker 1: I'd like, I mean, I'm just letting you know. You
Speaker 1: could extend that instead of a week, you could make it.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know, a lifetime.
Speaker 2: You gotta have the balance.
Speaker 1: Well, John, thank you very much for taking some time
Speaker 1: out and sitting down.
Speaker 3: I'm you know, good luck to you.
Speaker 2: Thanks very much, appreciate, enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Casha. What did you think of that, Carl, John,
Speaker 1: it's impressive. Now, Hey, I want to say something. I
Speaker 1: thought this was a funny bit on the show where
Speaker 1: I give stuff away, but now too many guests are
Speaker 1: bringing me things and I needed to stop. Now, John,
Speaker 1: I want to say that giving me that page that
Speaker 1: I love, the other stuff, I don't want it. I
Speaker 1: don't want other guests to be like, oh he brought
Speaker 1: I watched this, he brought something. I don't want your stuff. Guys,
Speaker 1: do you take my shit? It just defeats the entire purpose.
Speaker 1: The best gift you could ever give me is nothing
Speaker 1: at all. I don't want to hold anything. I don't
Speaker 1: want to look at it. I don't want to respond.
Speaker 3: Just stop.
Speaker 1: Thank you, but no, thank you. All right, let's do
Speaker 1: some plugs. Carl, where did you go? Come on, man,
Speaker 1: we're still doing a show. You only have to do
Speaker 1: the last act of every episode, and you act like
Speaker 1: I'm torturing you. Show some enthusiasm. There you go, let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's do this right, all right, let's do the plugs.
Speaker 1: Boyswearpink dot com, tossshowstore dot com.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: Put your head right back down. Eddiegosling dot com. Check
Speaker 1: out his tour dates. Hey Edie, I heard you're gonna
Speaker 1: work in a Key West coming up?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Key West, second or third week of January.
Speaker 1: Try to look at that. I love the Keys. Never
Speaker 1: been you've never been to the Keys? No, man, are
Speaker 1: you gonna fly into Key West?
Speaker 4: I guess? So where would I go? I mean maybe Miami?
Speaker 1: A lot of people flying in Miami and do the drive,
Speaker 1: but then they realize, oh shit, that drives two and
Speaker 1: a half hours.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, then maybe I gotta figure that out.
Speaker 3: You'd also swim in from Cuba.
Speaker 4: Huh yall fly into Cuba and then swim across.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I like that.
Speaker 1: That's kind of the cool way to get in anyway,
Speaker 1: was what was I talking? And then our tour and
Speaker 1: check out our tour? Oh Daniel Tosh dot com. Okay,
Speaker 1: best part of the show. Free plug? What struggling business?
Speaker 1: What mom and pop company or fundraiser are we going to.
Speaker 3: Help out this week? I love that music.
Speaker 1: By the way, this week's free plug is for Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1: She's performing in Vancouver, Canada, at BC Place December sixth
Speaker 1: through the eighth as the final show of the Airs Tour.
Speaker 1: Tickets are still available starting as low as one five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars as at US Yes, that's US fifteen hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: That's before fees. You're looking closer to nineteen hundred. That's said,
Speaker 1: and I don't know this to be true. They are
Speaker 1: by no means a sponsor of this free plug full disclosure,
Speaker 1: but you might still be able to use our seat
Speaker 1: geek code.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's still a thing. But it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, pay full price. It's just a good show.
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift the airas tour. Is there somebody opening for her?
Speaker 1: Is that Gracie Abrams opening for her?
Speaker 2: She is?
Speaker 1: She is great, she's wonderful, little Nepo baby, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all right. And she was taught by my kids
Speaker 1: music teacher music. That's interesting. It all ties together, guys,
Speaker 1: I think that does it, Carl, Until next week. I'm
Speaker 1: the captain now.