WEBVTT - My Ultrarunner Hero - John Kelly 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.440 Up until the very first year that you finished it 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:05.520 in twenty seventeen. Yep, and it started in the mid eighties. 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:07.080 Yeah, eighty six. 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:07.640 Eighty six. 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.440 Okay, how many people had finished it by by your 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:11.440 first year of running it? 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:12.520 Fourteen had finished. 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:16.439 Fourteen humans had ever finished this race. 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:28.920 Tashha Tosh Show, Tosh Show Show, Happy, Happy Tuesday. It's 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.240 your buddy, Daniel Tosh. Welcome to another episode of Tosh Show. 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:34.840 Who I am relieved? 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:36.519 Why are you relieved? 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:38.479 Eddie? I done? Goofed? 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.640 I done, Goofed. I'm worried they're gonna back trace me. 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:44.800 Now. 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:49.560 I consider myself to be a top ten parent. True 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.800 or false doesn't matter in my head. I'm a top 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.080 ten parent. But what I did to my daughter the 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:00.080 other day, if someone were to say, hey, we we 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:03.120 have to take your child away from you for a 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:08.960 week just so you understand how bad what you did was, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.839 I would be like that seems fair? 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:12.720 Wow? 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:14.640 Yeah, you ready for this? 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:15.959 Yeah, let's hear it. 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:16.440 Okay. 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.680 Every day of my son's life I walk them to school, 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.680 but I walk him with his sister. His sister's year 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.080 and a half a little bit older. We get there, 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.720 we do a routine. We go to his class, puts 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:33.640 his book back away. We play for about three or 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.800 four minutes outside, and then we go in. We start 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.000 on the first project of the day. They let the 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.479 parents kind of assist, you know, with the first little 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:49.320 writing activity. He and my daughter sometimes, hey, she participates 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:49.640 with me. 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:51.960 On this day, they. 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.080 Were doing a little One of the classmates was doing 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.400 a presentation to start the class, and my daughter is 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:04.040 being a little loud, so I excuse myself with her. 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.400 We go outside, stand by the window and watch from outside. 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:08.560 Got it nice? 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:10.600 Okay, you're not ready for this. 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:11.639 I don't think I am. 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:17.800 There's a metal bin about table height, you know, just slightly. 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.120 My daughter's a little bit taller than it is. That 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:26.239 they put all the balls in from recess. I thought 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.200 it'd be funny. I put my daughter inside of it. 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:30.840 It's right next to the window. I can watch inside. 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.880 And then my daughter starts throwing the balls out. And 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.200 then I picked the balls up, I put them back in. 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.880 She's laughing. Now we've got a game. Okay, she throws 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:42.600 the balls out, I pick them up, I put them in. 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.720 I go to my phone, I look at things. I 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:49.400 take a photo over how cute, let's do it again. Okay, 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:52.480 next thing, I know, I don't know what I was doing, 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:57.840 certainly wasn't paying attention. She climbs up out of the 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:04.200 cage on our way, flips over, heads straight down into concrete, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:10.639 bites her tongue in half, bleeding. I'm positive she's concussed, 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:16.880 just screaming. The TK teacher assistant she sees me. She's like, oh, 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.320 like she saw it. Oh no, there's nothing I can 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.040 do at this point. I'm like, oh no, so I 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:28.480 just start running. No, I'm kidding. I picked my totter 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.480 up and she's just screaming, like, oh why have you 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:33.280 forsaken me? 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:33.680 Father? 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.800 You've never let me get hurt? And I'm just like, 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:41.040 oh no, I'm holding her, and you know, my wife, 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.520 she I don't know where she was at the time. 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.480 She just comes running out of the classroom. She's like, 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.600 oh no, what happened. I I just tell the truth. 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.400 I'm like, she was in this thing. She climbed, got 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:54.840 herself up and flipped over, landing on her head. You know, 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:56.880 do we need to go get a cat scan. I 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:58.120 don't know what you're supposed to do. I don't know 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.920 how hard you're supposed to hit in your head on concrete. 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:02.960 Turns out she has bit her tongue a little bit, 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:04.840 not too bad, but she is bleeding. But that that's 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.040 starting to stop. But now I'm like, well, i gotta 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.360 feel her head. You know when a kid hits their head, 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:14.480 it knots up really good. Yeah, okay, I can't find anything. Nothing. 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.600 I'm just like, there's nothing wrong with her. She laid 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:20.200 on her head, she rolled out of it perfectly. Maybe 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:22.200 she hit her shoulder. I didn't actually see the impact. 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:24.360 All I know is she's got a nap coming up, 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.280 and it's gonna be three hours long. And for those 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.400 three hours, you know, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.920 panic stricken. Right, her mood snaps back to normal, her 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:39.120 eyes look fine. I'm trying to do concussion protocol. Yeah, 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:41.400 I don't know what it is, you know. I I'm like, 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:46.400 let's go to the blue tent. Yeah, let's see if 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:50.720 you can still play. She's playing. You gotta get her 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.039 back out there. I keep thinking in my head, she's 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:57.600 probably gonna be nauseous or irritable if it's a real concussion. 0:04:57.839 --> 0:04:59.240 She was neither of those. Anyway. 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:00.960 She goes down for the nap. She sleeps for two 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.640 and a half hours. I keep checking her. There's movement. 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.200 Her personality seems slightly altered. But whatever, maybe it's for 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.599 the better. The rest of the day, she's fine. You know, 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:14.200 what are you gonna do? This happens? Yep, you feel 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:15.120 so stupid. 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:16.799 You do feel bad, God. 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.520 You feel stupid. You're like, how can I let this happen? 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:21.880 I never let it happen with my son. He never 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.760 never took a spill under my watch. But my daughter, whoo, 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.440 this was a real one. Anyway, I got a new 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:30.880 game I want to play. It's called Peter Verse nine. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:33.479 What do you like better, Eddie, Peter or none? 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:34.599 I'm going none. 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:36.039 That's how you play. 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:36.560 No. 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.520 Give you guys an update about having my wife on 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.800 the podcast now. The negotiations have hit a snag, partially 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:47.120 because my daughter was dropped on her head. 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:50.720 It's okay, okay, but. 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:55.839 You know this year, calendar year twenty twenty four not 0:05:55.960 --> 0:06:00.440 looking good. First of the year twenty twenty five. I 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.719 think I can make it happen. I think she'll be 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.120 over it by then, and I'll be honest with you. 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.799 Have my wife probably not gonna be that interesting anyway, 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.000 You're gonna find out what my knight's like every day. 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.000 It's like, yeah, you want to go to bed, Yeah, 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:14.800 it's eight forty five, let's do it. 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:15.640 Now. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:20.240 We have a wonderful relationship. It is riveting. So so 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:24.799 many fun stories to share, all right, not as fun 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:32.120 as today's guest. Today's guest may single handedly be the 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.640 most impressive person physically that I've ever met in my life. 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:45.839 Enjoy Pasha. There's a good chance my guest today ran 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.160 all the way here from Tennessee. He is one of 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.320 only a handful of people in the history of humankind 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.440 to finish the Barkley Marathons, and he's done it three times. 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.120 Please welcome to the studio where we sit down in 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:04.200 chairs for an hour like normal people, mild mannered masochist, 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.120 I mean, ultra marathon or John Kelly. 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:09.680 Thank you. Excited to be here. Didn't come all the 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.960 way from Tennessee, but I was tempted to run to 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:12.680 the studio here. 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:14.320 Oh man, where'd you come from? 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:16.800 Santa Monica? Just down the read. 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.920 Yeah, Santa Monica, I thought he was in Tennessee. 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:22.880 You live in Tennessee, though, don't you. 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.920 Yeah, yeah, I'm right there on the North Carolina Tennessee border. 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.800 You guys got hammered. We did on this storm? Dude, 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:30.800 you how did your neck of the woods do? 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.400 So? Our house was very fortunate. We lost power and 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.600 water for a few days. Our road was washed out. 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.560 But yeah, there are definitely areas that I've effectively been 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:42.400 wiped off the map. 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.920 Oh that's awful. Oh well, I'm gonna get more in Tennessee. 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.320 Let's start this with my first question. Okay, do you 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:49.240 believe in ghosts? 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:49.600 John? 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.360 I'm ghost agnostic. Okay, evidence isn't there? 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.760 Your name is John Kelly. You worked under President Trump. 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.320 I get that a lot. I get lots of angry 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.960 messages on social media thinking that I'm that John Kelly, 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:03.280 But no, not me. 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.120 Were you on the track team in high school? 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.440 I was did track and cross country. I was good, 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:12.480 definitely not great. Took about ten years after that before 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:13.600 I started running again. 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.960 Can you be a great ultra marathoner at nineteen or 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.560 does it really take experience? And like I mean, you 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.000 can go till you're fifty, right or is that not true? 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.360 Yeah? The things that I do, the multiple day events, 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.520 there are people still competing at the top end until 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.280 about fifty. Some of the shorter events you could certainly 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.480 do when you're nineteen and be extremely good. But the 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:38.920 longer things get, the more time you have to have 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:41.679 to build that aerobic base and to build the experience. 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.600 What's the longest distance you've ever run? A one hundred mile? 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:45.960 You ever done one of those dumb races? 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:50.360 Oh? Yeah, that's I focus on the multi day stuff, 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.800 and so one event I did was about three hundred 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:55.720 and fifty. 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:56.680 Three hundred and fifty miles. 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:57.079 Yeah. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:58.640 I love everything you're saying. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.120 And when you average your time out, what minute miles 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.600 are you doing for three hundred and fifty miles? 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.680 So that one took about five and a half days, 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.760 but that's including sleep. I probably got about six staight 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.480 hours of sleep over that period of time. So you know, 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.640 in the mountains for that length of time, if twenty 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.000 to thirty minutes a mile is going to be pretty solid. 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:26.120 You look at Barkley and it's really all you have 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.240 to do is move thirty minutes a mile to finish 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:29.880 and you're good. 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.000 Yeah, all right, let's get into the Barkley marathons because 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.560 now this I'm gonna I'm gonna ramble on it. 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:37.000 You correct me when I'm wrong. 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.559 Somehow something came into my feed I started reading about this, 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.280 and then I just became fascinated, and then I just 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.120 all I could do was look into this. So the 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:50.080 Barkley Marathons are a multi day race of five five 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:56.200 day race sixty hours, sixty hours, sixty hour race in 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:00.880 the mountains of Tennessee, and it's basically every you're running 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.240 a loop, which is basically a marathon. It's a little 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.480 less than a marathon. Yes, twenty miles a day, is 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.280 that what it is? Or twenty miles a loop? 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:10.840 Yeah, he calls it twenty miles. It's more like twenty six. 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:12.479 It's all on marks, okay. 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.520 Fair enough, it's unmarked. You don't have like a GPS 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.559 with you or anything like that. You have to run 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.560 this crazy race. There's a book they get to rip 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.320 a page out that coincides with your numbers, so that 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:25.959 to verify that you actually went this. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:27.319 People lose pages. 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:33.200 People's books have been occasionally mysteriously lost or misplaced, and 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.560 if you don't get that page, your race doesn't count. 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:38.599 You know, you're not in the record books. 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.200 As someone who finished it and up until the very 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.320 first year that you finished it in twenty seventeen. 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:47.240 Yep, how many people had finished the race? And it 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:47.959 started in the. 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.559 Mid eighties, yeah, eighty six, eighty. 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:54.600 Six, okay, so you know no one can do that? Math, 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.920 but how many years with that? When twenty seventeen, thirty one, 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:00.240 thirty one? All right, so how many people had finished 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:02.200 by your first year of running it? 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:03.800 Fourteen had finished. 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:08.360 Fourteen humans had ever finished this race. This is why 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.280 I became fascinating. The first person to finish the race 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.480 was a full decade after the race had been going on. 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.520 Correct, Yeah, and he kind of everyone thought it was 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.720 a joke at first, like no one can actually do 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:24.079 the first five loops, and this Mark Williams came over 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.440 from the UK and wasn't in on the joke, and 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:28.520 he went ahead and went out and did the full 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:29.160 five loops. 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.000 How many people have finished to this day twenty now 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:37.080 and this year twenty twenty four, the first female finished. 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:39.199 What did you think of that? Were you upset? 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:40.120 No? 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:45.120 It was incredible. So that was Jasmine Paris, a brit 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.160 I lived in the UK for a few years and 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.559 got to know her quite well, and it was. I mean, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:53.720 I don't know that I'll ever see anything in sports 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.360 like that, definitely not in person. Everyone had given up. 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.600 She had no chance. Time was running out and then 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.200 running into camp and finishing like that with thirty seconds 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:04.600 to spare. 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.760 If she was thirty five seconds wouldn't have counted. 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:11.360 Nope, there is sixty hours. 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.200 She was thirty seconds away from it, not counting, finished 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:16.040 all five loops. 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.280 How many women every year do you see in the race. 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:22.520 I'd say it's about a quarter, so you know, eight 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:22.880 to ten. 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:24.880 They only let forty people run, right. 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.240 Yeah, and it's math to try to figure out the 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.880 number of total loops amongst those forty people. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.400 And this race was based off of the assassination of 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:39.680 MLK what's his name, James Arlwray James ear Olray, who 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:45.760 escaped from prison and was caught sixty hours later and 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:47.800 had only made it twelve miles away. 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:49.680 Yeah, I think it was less than that, just a 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:51.840 few miles. Kind of curled up in the fetal position, 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.520 and so Gary Cantrell, the race director, kind of said, 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.439 I could go one hundred miles in that amount of 0:12:58.480 --> 0:12:59.960 time in those mountains. 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:02.199 That was the genesis of the race. 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.320 Yeah, By the way, the guy Gary Cantrell, he's the 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:06.240 one that started this race. 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:07.320 But is he a runner. 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.920 Yeah, yeah, he's quite an accomplished culture runner back in 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:14.360 his day, and also a heavy smoker. So there's where 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:15.720 you get your mix there. 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.280 Okay. Has he ever finished the race? 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:18.600 Oh? 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:19.800 No, No, not. 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:22.559 Like not close. He's done a loop at least. 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:24.680 And by the way, does he own this land? 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:25.920 No, it's a state park. 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:28.240 And has the state ever been like, oh, you can't 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:29.600 run on this Yeah. 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:33.559 In the early two thousands, the head park ranger effectively 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.240 tried to shut it down and it took a resolution 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.000 by the Tennessee State Senate to keep it going. And 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.240 that's why things are so strict now on kind of 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.240 protecting the land that we run, on limiting the number 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:49.160 of entrants, limiting any sort of spectators. 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:51.520 It's not a spectator sport or is it at all? 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.040 And no, can I come and watch the finish? 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.680 No, because it's in a tiny park that's really resource 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.760 in space constrained as it is, just with the participants 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.160 and most of it is off trail out in the wilderness. 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.280 I just want to see the final leg. Yeah, I mean, 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:09.840 it's about cameras. Will he set up cameras. 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:13.600 Ever, he has had a few people on specific spots 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.040 on course with cameras before, and he does have a 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.040 few media people there each year. 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.520 Okay, why I'm so fascinated with you in particular is 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.280 that you grew up in a neighboring mountain, and the 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.440 odds of that are are ridiculous. 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.520 This is a tiny rural community that you know, the 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.360 high schools don't even have track and cross country teams there. 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.320 No one runs. The whole idea of running for fun 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.040 is just a foreign concept to most people there. So 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.840 it's it's astronomic laweds someone would want to do it, 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.480 much less be capable of finishing it. 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.440 He probably has no desire to commercialize the Barkley Marathons. 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.440 Oh, there are no sponsors. The entry fee is still 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:55.880 a dollar sixty. 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:57.080 And what's that the price of so. 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:02.160 Originally it was supposed to be one or yeah, one 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.280 cent per mile with one hundred mile or plus. The 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.000 fund you're on added together is where it came from. 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.640 To get in the race. This is all so fascining. 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:13.360 You don't just like, oh, I want to show up 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.360 for this race. It's not like the New York Marathon. 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.560 You have to write an essay every year? Do you 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:20.360 have to write an essay? Are you grandfathered in? 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:20.680 Now? 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:24.120 Yeah, I'm grandfather done and once you finish, so I 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.800 don't waste my time or his with a big essay. 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.680 And what is he grading papers? What is he looking 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:31.640 for in this essay? 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.520 He's looking for do you have the motivation and do 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.040 you have the credentials to actually have a legit shot 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:37.320 at this? 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.200 Well, what if you're like a famous ultra marathon or 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.040 but you're like you don't want to pick up a 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:43.920 pen and jot a few things down. 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:46.800 Well, if you're not motivated enough to do that, you're 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:48.840 probably not motivated enough to finish the race. 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.920 John, I hate everything you're saying, and it's one hundred 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.160 percent accurate. Okay, so you write an essay. He lets 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.560 you in the race. Now, the race always takes place 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.920 in April or May, March or April. Marcher, I don't 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.160 I tried to research it. This is just all from memory. 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:06.560 You've done good again, much better than a lot of 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:07.480 running podcasts that. 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.680 It's just it's just batshit bonkers what they're doing. Okay, 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:14.800 he lets you know when the race is going to 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:16.080 be how far in advance? 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:17.080 A few months? 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.880 Yeah, But then when you get there, the start time 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:22.000 is tbd. 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.880 It can be anywhere between midnight and noon. And you're 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.000 notified an hour ahead. 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.880 Of time, okay, And then when the race starts, he 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.520 blows a conk shell or something that's that's your one 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.000 hour warning. That's a one hour warning. And then when 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:40.960 he lights a cigarette, start running. Yep, everyone at the 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:42.880 same time or is it staggered. 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.720 No, it's it's everyone. It's a small field, so that 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:47.240 kind of keeps things spaced out. 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.400 Your preferred time to start the. 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.360 Race an hour before first glide, I think for me 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:55.640 is perfect because you start off on a climb, and 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.440 on the climbs you don't really need light very much 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:00.880 because you're going slow, so that by the time you 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.360 start your first descent you have daylight. 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.520 Okay, and sure you're going through the mountains. 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:08.320 It's not a loop, but it's not like a trail 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.720 that like every you know, tenth tree is painted red. 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.520 It's you have to figure this out. He gives you 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.000 a watch, like some digital crappy watch. 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.360 Yes, I get ten dollars Walmart Time. 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.359 Next I wear when I I only wear it when 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:24.639 I go surfing, and then that way, I know it's okay, 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:26.720 the kid's about to wake up. Time to get home 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.360 and be a parent. But you have to navigate some 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:34.000 new path through the mountains. And the elevation that that 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:39.359 you're going up and down throughout this sixty hour race 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.679 is the equivalent, uh to two up and downs of 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:44.920 Mount Everest. 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.480 Yep, zero zero net elevation change. 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:54.359 That is ridiculous. So that's the race. Now, the first 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.359 time you ran it, did you finish? 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:58.360 No? I got three loops? 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.000 Is that that's considered a fun run? It is so 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.480 calls if you do three loops of fun. By the way, 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.439 each loop, first loop one direction, second loop opposite direction, 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.600 and then who's ever in first place for the fifth 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:14.240 and final loop, they get to pick which way they go. 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:15.960 Is that an advantage at all? 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:20.399 It is generally clockwise direction is preferred and someone just 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.200 might be more familiar with a given direction. 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:26.320 Have you ever been in the lead for the fifth loop? 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:30.359 Yeah? So I chose my direction both of my first 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.880 two finishes, and this past year I kind of I'd 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.560 already finished twice and I knew both directions pretty well. 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.159 So I kind of just told the other people they 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.520 could pick and I go out whenever look at you. Well, 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.119 I also, you know, I wanted the finish in the 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:45.760 other direction. 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.240 Let's talk about the years you finish twenty seventeen, what's 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:49.840 the next one? 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:51.680 Twenty twenty three? 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:55.480 Oh, what a huge gap of failure in between there. 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:57.679 Do you consider it failure if you don't finish? 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.400 I only tried twice in that gap. The first time 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:03.119 I was in the lead after two loops and I 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:04.879 just quit. I didn't want to do it. 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:06.960 Oh my goodness. 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.040 I was cursed with knowing what the later loops would 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.760 bring and realized that I just didn't didn't care enough 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.720