Cole Brecka: The Great World Race, 100-Mile Ultras & Why Hydrogen Water is the Ultimate Recovery Tool

The Great World race, it sounds like seven marathons and seven days. Like you run a marathon, you get to sleep and you lay down on the plane. It's not that. You pack your shit, you get on the plane, you fly though, you run a marathon. And the race kicks off. I still to this day don't know where you went in that pain cave because you didn't quit. Everything that could go wrong just started going wrong. I'm running on broken ankles. I can't keep any food down. I can't keep up the climate. I haven't slept. It was like the most raw and vulnerable and like primal that I'd ever felt ever. The more pain you're in, the easier it is for you to find something that you're grateful for. Listen, if we take everything we know about human performance, optimization, science, in a hundred days time, is it possible to not only go out and attempt this race but complete it? And so you did just that. I wondered if you'd talk a little bit about the race rap. At some point, you cross a threshold where you have to have. Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host and father, human biologist Gary Brekkah. And today I'm sitting down with my son and actually one of my mentors, Cole Brekkah. Now, I've done over 200 episodes of this podcast. I've interviewed Navy SEALs, UFC Champions, world-class athletes, PhDs, doctors, MDs, researchers, and some of the most elite performers on the planet. But I've never been as nervous and concerned and as proud as I was as a father when I watched my son and five other of his buddies, including Kyle Forgard from the NELK boys, run a hundred miles straight through the Vegas desert. And what makes this even more insane is that Cole has not ever run a hundred miles before. In fact, just 10 months before this race, he'd never even run a marathon. Last year, he went and did something absolutely psychotic. He ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven days at the Great World Rice. Let me say that again, seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. That was the first time he'd ever run a marathon. He started in Antarctica at 28 degrees below zero, nearly died from frostbite and hypothermia. We ran through a stomach bug that left him fasted for four consecutive marathons, developed double stress fractures in both feet. And as a father, nothing was more concerning to me than him now attempting to run a hundred miles. A hundred miles straight through the Nevada desert, a special attention when Cole talks about going primal. At moment when everything materialistic disappears and all you want is sleep, food, water and shelter. That's when you find out who you really are. This isn't just a father son conversation. This is a front row seat to the future of human performance optimization. If you've ever wondered what you're truly capable of, if you've ever wanted to push beyond the limits you've set for yourself, this episode is going to change your life. Kyle is popping in the running community, right? Yes. I think because due to being an influencer and to run 100 miles, it's like, especially for. I would say, I'm not kidding. You can be an influencer. Like so many influencers do five Ks or run marathons or do stuff like that, but to run 100 miles is like, you can't walk on and fake that. Like I used to say when I was in the triathlon game, you could walk on and do a sprint try. Yeah. It's like an hour and 10 minutes. You're not walking onto a cone of iron man. You know, it sounds like a great idea. By the way, you could kill yourself. I mean, you get out there untrained and like, you know, you could end up getting robbed or something and really hurt yourself. So I mean, from. And you've had robbed that before? Yeah, and it was. It's horrible. I mean, like, I remember even when I got robbed of blood. I remember, it was. When I was training for the Great Old Race, I was like moving houses and I just started training and it was like. My first time getting into it, we had such a little time to prep for the Great Old Race. And so I remember just like diving in headfirst and like trying to just ramp up the miles as fast as possible. And. But you were also doing more time to box it? I was doing. Yeah, I was doing more time. I was also like. I wasn't a runner. I was like a basically a bodybuilder if you will. Like I was just a gym bro. And so when I was training like that, I just started running like seven miles a day and 13 miles a day. And then I was like just trying to get in as many miles as possible. And then I remember I was moving houses and stuff like that. So I was just on my feet all day. And I woke up like in the middle of the night. And I felt like every single muscle in my body was cramping. Like I felt like the muscles in my fingers. Really? Like my hands, my wrists, my biceps, everything and everything like curled over. And I woke up and I was like super tense. Yeah. And I'd never had a full. I thought it was just having like a full body cramp. Yeah. And like it stayed like that and eventually it eased out. And I was like super sore and I got up and I just went to piss. And I was like, "Brown." Yeah. It was brown. And I remember feeling like I got COVID or something. Like I felt like just depleted. Like I felt like everything in my body was gone. So like that's like the risk you run into sometimes was in the same. And Rabdo can shut your kidneys down. I mean it couldn't be life threatening. There have been ultra marathoners and competitive distance athletes that I've actually died from Rabdo. Well my thing was like if you can only control so much. Like you can eat all the right things. You know go through the full training program. Like I followed for the 100 mile race. I followed the training program to a T. I didn't miss a single mile. But Rabdo is something that you don't even know that it's oncoming. It's painless. You don't know your level of values are super stressed out. And if you rush into something like a 100 mile race, especially someone like Kyle, like that is a huge risk. Yeah. Like you could. It's very seriously got there. Especially if you're mentally strong and capable, which he was. And so on, you can just think like you're pushing yourself through just a pain. I mean you go through tons of pain while doing these races. Or you're just too sore. Just like I'm just. Too sore is something. So you sleep well, whatever it is. Yeah and you just. When you're first getting into it, you think like more is always better. And like I know you talk about it all the time. Like these most professional athletes are not overtrained or under recovered. I think like. Totally true. In our training protocol. In this 100 mile race training protocol, the one thing that we took very, very serious was the recovery. Like after every workout it was so on a cold punch, hydrogen water, we were doing hyperbarics with you, we were doing red light. I made sure of it. And I made sure like I did all that. And I think that's why it felt so good running this last 100 miles. I'm surprised you feel that good right now. I want to sort of back it up for the audience because a lot of people don't even know what the Great World race is. So let's back up. So this is November 2024 that you did the Great World race. But what's important about that is 10 months before that, you'd never run a marathon. In fact, right up until the day you did it, you'd never run a marathon. Yeah, great. So for context, Great World race is seven marathons and seven continents and seven days. Yeah. The concept behind that was there was a guy named Alvaro Nunez who you had on the podcast. And I listened to his podcast. I'm a huge fan of, level up, who's actually become a huge mentor in my life from the fitness aspect. And he's actually going to coach me in this next thing. Great. Great human. I saw him talking about this race, the seven marathons and seven continents and seven days. I think you were out for a run with them. Because I'll never forget. You called me and you were like, Dad, you're like, Dad, I just finished a run with Alvaro. And I think I want to do the Great World Race. And I was like, the Great World Race isn't that seven marathons and seven continents and seven days. And you're like, yeah. And I was like, you don't mind if I stayed the obvious studio. You're like, no, I'm like, you've never run a marathon. So maybe we should start with one. Yeah. So concepts are just like, listen, if we take everything we know about human performance, optimization, science, everything like that, in a hundred days time, is it possible to not only go out and attempt this race but complete it? Yeah. So we did just that. And I think, you know, it started in Antarctica, which was insane because it was negative 28 degrees Fahrenheit. So, you know, it's funny. One of the rules about Antarctica is if you sweat, you die. And that's because you know. Because you know, it's because like if you sweat, you know, the clothing that you're wearing absorbs all that moisture, it'll actually freeze and you'll go hypothermic. And I remember just like sitting in that race briefing as they're telling me this being like, what am I doing? Dude, I don't remember when we flew into Cape Town south Africa. And they were passing the microphone around. I remember the first day of the race. And so you're like, now everybody introduce themselves and tell each other a little bit about yourselves. And the first girl that takes the microphone is like, I'm a three time US Olympian. And I'm like a de-Cathalon. The next guy was like the world record holder in the Ultramarathon. There's one guy there who's like, they start passing around. I was like, oh, I've run over 100-100 mile races. I'm like the Olympic qualifier for Lebanon. I, you know, I, I'd be Dave. There's a, there's that one girl there with pink hair, her name's Ashley Poulson. She was like, I'd be David Goggins at Badwater 135. I know. And it gets to me. And I'm like, I've never run a marathon before. It's my first marathon. The whole, the whole room just stopped. And they're like, yeah, the fuck is this guy? Like literally, they think he was your own chance of finishing. I felt so shallow and so small. Plus you were big. You were like 208 pounds. 210 pounds. 210 pounds going in there. Yeah. And then you, you look like a rugby player. In Antarctica, you stack on layers and stuff. So it was probably racing like 2, 13, 2, 14. I was full of carbs and water and stuff too. So that was those insane. But anyways, we get to Antarctica. And I remember. running around. So the way that the course map was laid out is in articles of research base. And so like, they're very delicate on like whatever you bring in there. So like you have to like check all your nutrition and stuff like that. Like you can't bring your own stuff in there. They make you like wipe your feet off as soon as you get off the plane. Like, no dirt, like no trash, like everything is studied. And so like, they're very particular about what they have there. So they once know mobile, they've got, you know, a couple of huts that, you know, are dedicated to research that we ended up using. But you basically land on this tarmac, which is a fucking block of ice, you know, in the middle of nowhere. But we got to put up an image of that. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great because there's literally nothing for us far as you can see. And actually, the only thing you do see is mountain peaks, and which is a crazy concept because you don't realize that there's an entire mountain under you. So you're at like 3500 feet in elevation gain. Again, it's negative 28 degrees Fahrenheit. And this course map is set up in like six and a half mile loops. And you do like just just before them. And so like at first, you start out, you go and everybody's kind of together. But like the qualifications of some of these people, like some people going fast, some people are going slow. Some people know that like there's six more marathons after this. So everybody just immediately spreads out. And there's only 60 racers. So like you start to spread pretty thin. So like, I was going to periods of just not seeing anybody like for miles, like almost some hours. And I remember like one thing I didn't realize about Antarctica is although it's frozen solid, it's also a desert. So like the UV index is 13. And so the layers I was wearing, I was wearing like this black base layer and this black jumpsuit. And I had these big like Oakley glasses on and this beanie and the ski mask and these gloves. I started like cooking from like the inside out. Yeah. And I remember like just trying to drop layers as fast as possible. And I come through the first aid station. And I remember telling Max, you know, a videographer who's shooting the documentary that like, hey, I need like fresh gear, fresh gloves. I was like, go in the support bag, go find me, whatever you can. And I need you to somehow just get me some stuff out there. And my concept was like, hopefully I get while I'm out there running, I can drop some layers and I can cool back down and then I'll make it back to the A-tation, you know, run six and a half miles and I'll make it back to the A-tation. Well, I left that first aid station and 20 minutes goes by or whatever. And I immediately feel like my fingers have gone completely numb. Yeah. And it happened so fast. It's not like painful, like a normal slow frostbite. It happened so fast. It's like all of a sudden you look down on your hands or white and they're numb. Hands are numb. And I remember I had one hand warmer and I ended up tearing it open to try to like shove my fingers into it. I was like, I, whatever's on the inside, like I want my fingers to be in. And so I tear it open. I was trying to share it between like one thing and my gloves were soaked, my shirt was soaked, my beanie was soaked. So I just started like taking stuff off. And then I would sort to free. So like put my gloves back on and as I'm running, I swear to God, it was like something in the movies. Like I felt my vision just like start to narrow. And it just starts going like legit tunnel vision. And like your ear start ringing, your vision gets blurry. And I swear I saw it like just start to close in on itself. And my fingers had gone numb. And I was like, best case scenario, pass out here, you know, hopefully some runner or somebody, you know, sees me soon. And they can get me at least saved my life. You know, because the runners were spread out sometimes by miles. Like miles, yeah, you sometimes couldn't even see the other runner. And so for me, it was like, I was like also like I'm worried like if I fall asleep or I pass out or whatever, like my blood's going to move slow. I'm going to freeze even faster. I was like, so hopefully somebody finds me and they at least like saved my vital organs. And I live like a couple of fingers or something. And I can walk again. But by the grace of God, I'm running. And I swear my vision's going tighter and tighter. But he asked for Max to literally save my life. He came out on the only snowmobile in all of an article. Comodier that thing. Comodier that thing. And literally came out. Max was off camera. Where did you get the snowmobile from, dude? And he said he just took it. Brought me. Yeah. Thank God, by the way. Yeah. Brought me fresh gloves. He brought me a fresh beanie. And like if it wasn't for that 10 minutes, Max, like I would have hit the deck. Yeah. Because I was in such like a fighter flight weird mode where like there was nothing, you know, like no racers by. It was the same distance to go to the next station as it was to turn around. So you're in like this weird predicament. And you think like, oh, I'll just keep going and keep going and keep going. I and try to get as close as possible. And then so I get fresh gear. And as I'm racing in Antarctica, I also like I did all of my training in Miami. So it was a lot of like road running. I mean, we went up to the mountain to Colorado to try to simulate. Yeah, yeah, we used to get about 430 to more than close as possible. I would follow you from 10,500 feet up to 14,000 feet. And I remember we were trying to wake up at 430 in the morning. So we get out before day break. So it would be as cold as high as possible. So yeah, you know, we could try to simulate in Antarctica. I mean, the altitude was a lot more. It was insane that you were able to run from 10,500 feet to 14,000 feet. That was even that was like 30 degrees Fahrenheit, which is freezing, but still 60 degrees away from where it was. Yeah, 60 degrees difference from that to Antarctica, which is insane, even think about. Yeah. But again, like I did a lot of like other than like the mountain running that I did. I did most of my training on on the roads. So what ended up happening is a mixture of ice and like snow, compact snow. Yeah. It was almost like running in sand. And so it made me sore in places I hadn't been sore before. So like, like all my muscles got accustomed to like road running. So like as my foot placement was getting off and everything like that, it really jacked me up. And so that we finished that marathon and you know, get on the plane and then we fly to Cape Town. And in Cape Town, it's the polar opposite climates. It's, you know, it's like hot. 90 degrees Fahrenheit, humid UV again, 13 suns beaming. And I think the soreness and everything like that threw off my mechanics because as I'm running in Cape Town, I feel like my ankles really start to hurt. My feet like are really, really hurting. And it's not like soreness. It's like starting to become like ligament pain and like I could feel like my tenants like really, really deep, deep like tissue pain. And I'm running around Cape Town and it's hot and immediately like there, I'm like, I think the crazy thing is too that you finished the marathon in Antarctica, but it was only a five and a half hour flight to Cape Town. So we literally ran straight to two and a half on the plane. Like my feet were sitting around like this, you know, and I'm like, shopping this to like all the swelling is going into my feet. Yeah. I'm just strapped on this. This basically this old like war war two prop plane. Yeah. That thing was something out of the stone. And yes. And so no, we land back from Cape Town. The food was awful on that part of the flight too. It was like five and a half hours of Cape Town. We landed Cape Town with clear customs and go straight to the start line. So really it was the first two marathons were in less than 24 hours. Oh yeah. Well, I think man, Antarctica also like it's so unpredictable how the weather is like you could have a blizzard one second and like crystal skies, you know, the next. And so like they watch the the weather for days and as soon as you get like a window, you have to leave. Yeah, we left like two days early. I think her day and a half early left yet. Yeah, like 28 hours early. Yeah. So like you think you're getting into Cape Town, you're going to warm up, you know, you'll get a shake out run, eat some good food. And then next thing you know, they're like, all right, we're leaving in an hour. Yeah. And like you pack your shit, you get on the plane, you fly there, you run a marathon and the race kicks off. Yeah. And so like now you're in it. So like you travel in Antarctica, you run the marathon, you immediately get on a plane and on the plane, like you're not really resting because you're one you're sitting upright. To like you're trying to get nutrition, you're trying to, you know, deal with all your injuries or whatever. And then you land, you've got to grab all your stuff, run a marathon literally within seven hours of your last one. And then again, pack up your stuff and it's time to travel. And like so like a lot of people didn't realize like, and I didn't even realize it either like the great world race, it sounds like seven marathons and seven days, like you run a marathon, you get to sleep and you know, you lay down on the plane. It's not that you got to, you got to clear customs, you're in different time zones, you're in different climates, you have to like travel to the airport. Sometimes you're in a vice a bus for like an, we actually have spent one night in a hotel. Everybody knows every other night was on the plane. Like there was only one night and that was in Turkey between the European side and the Asian side. So it's a race progress. So we did in Antarctica, Cape Town and then we flew to Australia. And I think, I don't know, something about Australia. I felt pretty good in Australia going through Australia, but I think somewhere between Perth was nice. Yeah. Cape Town in Australia though, like I don't know if I got a parasite or I, a bunch of runners did or the water. I knew better not to drink like local water, like out of the tap. You know, I don't drink tap water in general. But I knew better not to drink like that water, people always say like it destroys your gut. But I think one of the things you said is they like wash the vegetables and the water and you know, most of the athletes that got the Greek salad or the ice that has interest. Yeah, the ice and the drinks, yeah, ice and the drinks or something like that. So it could have been the water, but from that moment forward in the middle of the Australian marathon, I couldn't keep anything down. I remember. Dude, I was so worried about you between Istanbul and Cartagena because we had done Antarctica, Cape Town, Perth, Australia, Istanbul, Asia, Istanbul, Europe. And then it was almost 19 hours. Remember, that was the longest flight. I think we refueled in Dubai. And they wouldn't let us off the plane so you and Alvaro and I went out and took it. They put the thing up for the steps, and they said, you can't touch the ground because we're not clearing our customs here. So they put the thing up against the plane and we just went out on the little platform, we did breath work. And then we get back on, but and then we, it was like six and a half hours into the flight and I would say 25% of the athletes woke up, puking, shitting, monosumers were saved. It was all within an hour and a half of each other. I had everybody come into my seat and they're like, Gary, Mr. Rekha, do you have anything for nausea? Like, I'm just awesome. Not just all of a sudden. And I think David, the racetractor, said, you know, trace it back to the ice or the salad. But I mean, you probably lost, you didn't take on one ounce of fluid and you probably lost so much weight on that flight. It was everything that could go wrong to start a goner. Like my ankle started to collapse because again, like the way I was supporting it, I was definitely also too big. I was 210 pounds like bracing like that. And that's not some more. Yeah. I ended up with double stress fractures. You know, I had one in each, one in the top of my left foot, one in my right ankle, which made my ankles swell like a balloon. And then I got this bug, this stomach bug, and I couldn't put a cracker into my system. Not a, I was trying to give you like, literally toned cap holes of, cap folds of coconut water. Yeah. And I would pour it into a cap, literally the cap of the bottle and you would try to sip it just to keep moisture in your mouth. And then when we got to Cartagena, it was 98 degrees blazing sun. It seemed like the worst possible course because it was a concrete, long, flat unforgiving course with no shade. And then they just had those little portapodys like every two and a half miles in the little table set up. And, and dude, you would go into that portapoddy and you would like vomit and other shit. Literally, every two and a half miles. Dude, I couldn't do anything. I remember telling Max, I was like, oh, by the way, that's the sixth marathon. So this, this happens at the end of Australia. Okay, so that's three marathon's in. I go four marathons completely fasted. I know. Like it's crazy to see, so it goes in Artica Cape Town, Perth, Australia, Istanbul, Asia, Istanbul, Europe, Cartagena, and then Miami. And I remember just like thinking like, dude, how, how to just try to make it worse. I was just trying to make it worse. Like, I was like, I feel like everything that could go wrong, I'm running on broken ankles. I was like, I don't know. I mean, I can't keep up the climate. I haven't slept. My longest sleep during seven days was an hour and 50 minutes consecutive. Yeah. Because like you're trying to slam nutrition in, and you're like, now I'm like throwing up every 30 seconds. And like your whoops score had a recovery of one. Every day. Yeah. Yeah. One percent. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's honestly like spectacular, you see how primal like the human body can go. Like there's those stories about people that get stranded in the woods or in the mountains or something and survive for three months off, you know, like berries and sticks. You know, you know, catching rabbits and shit. And like, that's true. Like, yeah. No, you were in the pain. The human capabilities are insane. Yeah. And like, so to feel that, there was like the most raw and vulnerable and like, again, primal that I'd ever felt ever. Like I, it's weird how like anything like materialistic or anything like that or like the little shit that people care about like, you know, your clothes and what kind of shoes you were in and you know, like what the, what kind of car you drive and shit like that and like kind of watch you have. Dude, I didn't want anything. I wanted sleep, food, water. Like, like, like I wanted shelter and kind of in that water. I'm glad we're in that water. Literally, I felt like a caveman. I wanted shelter. I wanted nutrition and I wanted to hydrate. Yeah. And that's all I wanted. And like, I would have done anything for it in that moment. And like, I couldn't keep anything down. So like, the race just started slowly breaking me and breaking me in one of the crazy things is that to 66 year 65 race were started for only 40 finished. There was a guy, he had a Dublin Ireland who broke two world records on the Great Old Race. He broke one in Antarctica, one in Asia. He ran a 214 marathon in Dublin. And they actually found this guy and they brought him on the Great Old Race. He took the record in Antarctica. In Cardahania, that race you're talking about, I'm running behind him and all of a sudden I see him start to like wobble. And I'm literally running behind him and all of a sudden he just hits the deck and just like falls to the side. And like, he's looking up and his eyes are just glazed over and he's just like sitting up and I'm like, dude, what? You mind? Yeah, I saw, they actually pulled a couple of people off every person. Cardan people off, taking them to the hospital. I remember they would drop people off at the plane and like, like, IV's still in their arms. He would pull them and like, they're all on the plane. So it was chaos and to see like, again, I'm just this kid coming in here like, yo, I'd never ran a marathon ever. Yeah. And here I am like running seven marathons and seven continents and seven days like, absolutely battered. And you go in a survival mode. And like, once you're in survival mode, it's like, it's an insane feeling. It's something like I've only felt in that moment. And I only feel like when I do these ultra endurance things, it really, you have to strip yourself physically of like everything you have and you really start to find out who you are mentally. Like, what is your mental capabilities? Like, how do you-- Is my mind as strong as my body? Is my mind as strong as my body? Like, how can you handle adversity? In those times, you know, it's like, what's your ability to problem solve and stuff like that? I remember when we pulled up to the race start in Cartagena because you were still fasted. You've been fasted for over three days. And I remember pulling back to side. And I was like, I think there's 0% chance he finishes this race. And I said, if you don't give up on this race, I won't give up on you. That was the only marathon I've ever ridden running either. Because I was so worried about you. And I hadn't trained. So I was in horrific pain. But I had only run one. And then you were on your six, so I didn't say a fucking word. Yeah, well, that's part of the documentary that we ended up filming on. It was like, you were kind of the scientist. And I was kind of this guinea pig. But then there's also like, when we started racing, there's also like concerned father and son. Like, at what point do you-- Very concerned. Push the boundaries as a scientist and throw in the towel as a father. It's like-- But there was a lot, dude. I'll tell you exactly when it was. It was mile 18 in Cartagena. I was like, what did I say to be getting this race? If you don't give up on this race, I won't give up on you. I was like, hey, if you were throwing the towel, I'm actually good with it. I'll tell you. Lots of people have quit. Not everybody that quit the skills. It's crazy. Yeah. Thomas Edison failed 3,000 times before he found the label. But I still to this day don't know where you went in that pain cave. Because you didn't quit. I didn't quit the one marathon. But we started breaking it down into the distance between the ice buckets where they had the waters to just shove our whole legs. And they had to cut my socks off me. Yeah. I remember the MT's cutting your socks off. Do you have this big balloon out the front of your tibia? And then I was like, do when do I throw in the towel on my son? I'm like, one marathon away from him, completing his goal. He's already done six. And I was running it through my mind. I'm like, what do we come back next year and try it again? And so I wanted you to finish so bad, but I also didn't want you to have permanent damage. Yeah. I was running that fine line the whole time. I was, you know, when do I start, when do I keep doing science at this and biohacking and recovery? Because the science and yeah, inside of that war. Yeah. And then when do I, you know, just say, listen, I can't, you know, watch me. Yeah. So I want to transition to the, to the 100 mile race because you'd also never run 100 miles. Yeah. And there was a moment during that race. So just two days ago, by the way, and hats off to Kyle Forgard and now four of the guys that were in with you guys because when that race started and I was in there because it was live streamed, when that restarted, I was in the comments and chats and just listened to what people are saying. Zero percent of the people thought that you guys would finish at zero percent thought all six would finish. And all six of you guys crossed the finish line. But I think it was around mile 32 where every single one of you entered the unknown. What was the first you'd ever written around before that consecutive 37 miles. Okay. So 37. So for you, for them, that's 31. Yeah. For them was 31. You were 37. Yeah. And that was the uncharted territory. So that would every step after that. Yeah. It was a personal best. Yeah. So, you know, I, I wondered if you talk a little bit about the race prep and like, first of all, you're a completely different racer. I feel like we went into great world race, blind. Yeah. And you went into this one really structure to me, Matt, you know, helped tremendously. Yeah. Shout out to Matt Johnson. Yeah. if you haven't seen the podcast with Matt Johnson, please check it out. - No, he's a life saver, right? And I think his program was a huge part of kind of why I did so well. He's between him and Andy Glaze. I mean, those two guys basically took me - Animal too. - Across that finish line, they crafted this thing so well, they have so much real world ultra racing experience that I basically just turned my life over to them from a training standpoint. And I said, listen, this is my goal. I wanna run this under miles. I wanna do a consecutive, I don't wanna sleep in between, and I wanna do it in a straight shot. So little eight stations is possible. It's minimal time is possible. And I wanna stay on my feet, and I wanna feel good also doing it. I was like, the Great Wild Race scarred me pretty bad. It jacked me up for months, and I didn't want to run after that. Like it really messed me up. I lost 37 pounds in the Great Wild Race. I double stress factor that. - You did it. - 180. - It also stressed out like the family, my fiance, like it was hard to, yeah. - It was hard to, yeah. - Yeah, she was throwing it down. - Throwing it down. - So like when I committed to another race that's similar to that, this is four of those marathons, but I'm doing it in 24 hours. So it's tough. And so for me, I wanted to find some of those super, super experienced. And so they created a program tailored it to me. I followed it to a T. Like if anything, there was no day that I went under miles, I did over miles. And that also gave me confidence, I think going into this race, that I could just kind of trust in the process always. - Yeah. - You know, like if they said I could do it and everything like that, I knew that my training wasn't gonna fail me. I was like, at a minimum I know I'm qualified based on whatever they say. - Right. - It's just whether or not you're gonna have the mental fortitude because-- - The mental fortitude. - There's nothing they can do to prepare for that pain cave. It's also like the unknown can hit you. I mean, you could train, you could be perfectly in shape, but like some of those guys were getting like gut issues. And like gut issues could take you out. One of them developed like, so you're running behind a support van for 100 miles. It's kicking up dust. One of the guys like started developing sauce. - Dots of sauce. - We using an asthma, dry air and stuff like that. So like he went to the ER today. - Oh, did he? - Yeah, Mark's go to, he went to the ER today. Two days after. - Seven trouble breathing. - Trouble breathing. He just couldn't handle it. - Yeah, Andy called it desert lung. He's like the dry air with all the dirt and like, it was so dry and do when those semis were coming by and it was going, boom. - Yeah. - The wind was just like a wall that felt like a linebacker hitting you, trying to knock you off the road. - It was the uncontrollable, but like mile 20 to 40 was probably the toughest honestly. Because when you start to feel pain like a mile 20 and that early on, I have done another 20 mile runs and I was like, I felt better on those runs and like, why do I feel like this right now? And then I'm also like, I'm not even halfway to the halfway point. Like, yeah, halfway to the halfway point. - I'm not even a marathon in. I got three and a half marathon to go. You start to, like all those starts start to play in your head. So it's like, they call it, and it calls it mile lady training. - Yeah. - The reason it calls it that is because like, you get to a point, for me it was like 50 miles. Once I got to 50 miles, I got to start to count backwards. I was like, I was no longer going like, up to 50. - Almost like you're going downhill. - That was like then 49, 48, 47 and so on and so forth. But it was scary for everybody. 'Cause when we started feeling like that, one of the things about this race was majority of it was in the darkness. Okay, there was 16 hours of knife fall. The sun sat at around four o'clock, it got up at like seven a.m. So the majority of the race was in the night and we started at 10 a.m. So like, we're running through the day, it's pretty overcast. During the end of like right before the summer setting, like the sun was beaming on us. And so like, I started to sweat, everybody started to sweat. Like there was a section of this course that was like 15 miles of like, the support fans couldn't be on the side of the road with us so we couldn't have like crew and stuff. So we were running in a single file line. There was, and it was just silent. Like you're out in the desert. - Until the traffic comes by. - Like the desert desert, area 51 is where we ran. - Yeah, what is here? - What are we doing? - Area 51, so like, Google area 51, there's nothing. - Yeah. - Okay. - There's actually only-- - Sketchy shit. - Yeah, there's one gas station that sells fireworks. - There's a strip club, fireworks, a bar, and alien gear. - And like an alien restaurant. - Yeah, super random and an alien restaurant. - Strangest combination, right? But I remember just being out there and it was so silent you're just like, that's when the thoughts start to come in. And it's insane, like how creative the brain gets when you're in those moments. Like how creative you start to convince yourself like to quit. It's like, listen, if you just like step on that rock over there, maybe it'll hurt your ankle and like everyone will be like, oh, that's a serious injury, that could be permanent. And like you can go out or like, you're like, oh, you know, I got the flu two weeks ago, you know, everybody will be like, oh, you sick and stuff like that. How creative your brain like just starts to convince yourself. And I think that's where the training and the preparation and the trust and the recovery comes in because you're like, listen, you, somewhere in the back of your mind, you know, like qualified. You know, like I did the preparation, I'm qualified. You knew these thoughts were gonna come. Like, you know, it's not gonna be easy. You know, there's gonna be the mental aspect and they just start flowing in, especially in those high times or those low times. And the hunt and mile races like just highs and lows. And you have high highs and you have low lows. - You know what's wild about that? It's like I watched you guys. And I would, you know, run nutrition and stuff back up to the front and back to the van for you guys, mainly for you. And I watched like the motion and the energy of the crowd, the six of you guys shift. And like you would run so long and like the longer you would run, the more the mood would like it suppressed and suppressed and then like when they decide they would allow you guys to have caffeine. And then they would allow you to have Advil. It was like mile one for you guys. You guys were animated and chatty, but Kyle started rapping. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, to the music. And it was like, it was like. - It's the little things to you. I swear, God. - Just doorstep two sips of a bang and two Advil. - Well, you go primal. - Once you're in problem, it's like those little things. It's crazy. Like you get a little bit of water and like you get to put your feet up for a second and that's like, like you do. - Change is your perspective. I think it's such a metaphor for life. - Oh yeah, yeah. - Highs and lows. - It's just highs and lows, but also perspective for like what are you thankful for? And like the more pain you're in, the easier it is for you to find something that you're grateful for. You know, because you were so grateful for like a quarter of a bang energy and to Advil. - You have no idea what that did to my body. - I thought I'd offer you anything else. - Do you want a new Ferrari or do you want these to add up? - I'm stuck in milligram of that energy drink just like hit my soul. - Dude, you know, I don't have a few tips. - My soul. - But what I did is I'm paying energy. Good for your soul. - Yeah, yeah, so honestly, everything that I ate on that race do not eat unless you're on a diet. - Oh dude, and the ultimate human I was like, "Dude, he's on his 50th Rice Krispie treat." - Dude, yeah. - I can't watch this. - Honestly, I need a Rice Krispie sponsor after this. - You do, dude. - I fucking pounded probably 150 Rice Krispies. - You do. - Dude, it's gross. - It's like Coca-Cola, yeah, it's Skatele's and shit. It's the nasty stuff, but it's fuel. Like you just kind of, you take from these guys that have this ultra running experience and it probably works. - Yeah, and you start getting soars in the mouth. - And I think, you know, what I did with the caffeine was I tried to delay it as much as possible. So like, there was a section where like, I was just running and I felt myself like going asleep. I was like, I'm gonna fucking fall asleep while I'm running. I was like, I feel like I'm yawning. I'm like getting delirious and I like, I'd start to nod off and I was like, okay, this is probably the time I should have it. But I wanted to delay it so it like, gave me something to look forward to. It gave me a good energy. - Insane how depleted your body is that something like that little was not a lot of caffeine. It was a quarter of a bag. So it's probably 80 milligrams of caffeine. - Yeah, yeah. - There's something that you got. But you guys lit up like Christmas trees. And then the two Advil just dolled a little bit of the pain so your pain cave went from an eight to a second. - Yeah, yeah. - Just that. - It was insane. And so as the race progresses, it goes from kind of being warm like in the evening to being freezing cold. And then it goes down into I think like the upper 30s and stuff like that. So like when you're moving, you're heating up. But as soon as you stop. It's like you're shivering, you're cold. And your blood starts moving cold. It's like you immediately get exhausted and tired. And so I remember like coming out of those eight stations and just being like so fatigued. And then like you start running and you start to pick back up again and then you're in cruise control. But tell you what, I honestly, I felt good. Like I felt a lot better than I thought I was. - Now you look great. - Like honestly like I handed up actually going to the gym. - Yeah, you got back up. - And then you got back up. - And then it's the gym. And I think as corny as a my sound, the hydrogen water - Yeah. - Actually works, actually save my life. The whole reason not to even get into the HU tab. But the whole reason I started HU tab is when I was doing the Great Wild Race and the Great Wild Race prep, I found a research article 'cause I was studying all that stuff. How can I amplify my recovery? because it's marathon, you know, playing marathon, playing seven marathon, seven continents and seven days. And I was looking at all this things, beta alanine, you know, beta carotene, you know, like all these things that amplify recovery, I was looking at beat juice and all this different stuff, nitric oxide stuff and like everything. And I stumbled upon this research article in delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS. And it showed a reduction in DOMS by like 76% or something. And so I contacted the patent holder on the tablets 'cause I realized it was from the tablets. Got my hands on some of these tablets and I took them on the great authorase and other than their physical ailments, like the stress fractures and the gut, I wasn't sore. And I ran seven marathons and seven continents and seven days and I wasn't sore. Like I could have walked out and hit a back squat. And like that was freaky to me. Like I was like, I was like, that's, I was almost skeptical. I was like, what is that? And so like, you know, I got that science over to you. You really started to validate it. And I think that is when we took the leap on HUTAB and I got to validate that again with this 100 mile race. Like I was taking 500 in tablets before the race and then I would do these little hydrogen water bombs where I was to put like three tablets and like half a liter of water, I'd let it fully dissolve and I'd chug it back to like if you go back and I mean the whole entire race is livestreamed. You go back and watch how I felt throughout the entire race. - No, no, you look, you go completely different race. And I think I'm with you. I mean, I don't want to turn it into a high HUTAB either. But hydrogen gas I think is one of the greatest, it's rolling the human body. It's one of the greatest discoveries of our millennia. I know it doesn't break it fast. It's a selective anti-oxidant. We could go all into the mechanism of, you know, how it restores something called redox homeostasis, which is a balance. And we bathe in the hydrogen water. I mean, I bathe John Jones in that before. You know, his big last title fight, Sean Ryan talks about it all the time. I'm just in the gettin' my bathtub. (laughing) - Rogan, Sean. - Yeah, Rogan too. I want to close out by rounding out on a few things. So we have a big project plan. And you know, we're gonna do a documentary around it, but the whole concept is, you know, the vast majority of athletes are not over trained. They're under recovered. And we don't-- - That's a huge statement. - Target are recovery at the tissues that need it the most. To mean, you know, strengthening conditioning is, in my opinion, that is a field that has, where there is just absolute excellence, you know, and professional sports teams have strengthened conditioning coaches, the positional training, you know, hand-eye coordination speed, timing agility strength. You know, we've really maxed out with where we are, but we haven't gotten anywhere near the threshold on recovery. And this is joints, ligaments, tendons, connective tissue. And this is where people, where athletes break down, I mean, we've got a number of non-contact injuries in the NFL, you know, these are non-traumatic injuries, you know, blown into KELSEA, or running up the sideline, blown in ACL, running a pattern. You know, those are injuries that, that, professional teams and athletes should not have to tolerate and it has a lot to do with recovery. And so, creating a documentary that's, that's gonna be centered around how far can we push the limits of human performance. And my role will be to target the recovery of those tissues, your joints, ligaments, your tendons, your, your spine, your nervous system, you know, target of red light therapy, hydrogen, nano bathing, hyperbarics, you know, post-electromagnetic field. And can we get this connective tissue in these areas of body that are deprived of oxygen to recover as fast as our muscles? And if so, can we reset every day to baseline even after something as extreme as a full-distance retirement? - Well, when you get into like multi-day endurance events, it's like, there's only so much training you can do for something. Like, like for the 100 mile race, like my, my longest run was 31 miles, 32 miles. It's like, me running 50 miles or 60 miles, doesn't do me any better than me running 30 miles. So, so at some point, like the training actually does start to plateau. It's like, you can't, more training is not true it's gonna mean more miles you can run. - Right. - That's not a thing. And so like, where you can buy more time and buy more, buy better performance is in the recovery. And for me, like the things that start to go in these multi-day endurance events are the tissues for ligaments, the tendons. That stuff that is just completely getting pounded for, you know. - Yeah, I believe in this. I think we're gonna prove it. Should we say what you're gonna try to do? - 10 Iron Man's in 10 days. So the distance of 10 Iron Man's, we're gonna condense it down. So it'll be a 24 mile swim into an 1100 and 12 mile bike ride followed by a 262 mile run. And we're gonna try to complete that in 10 days. - By the way, if anybody wants to join. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughing) - And we're really gonna see how we can push the limits and the biggest thing. And the whole concept behind that is like, at some point, you cross a threshold where you have to have all of that where else you can't complete. You just physically can't. Like you can't do 10 Iron Man's in 10 days without having your physiology and every ounce of blood work and everything just dialed into a team. - We'll dial all that. - You're training your sleep, your recovery, everything has to be dialed in to AT. And that is why we chose this distance. I actually, Dana White called me after doing the great world race and he said, "What you did was fucking insane, one, two, he's like, I'm so fascinated about it. I want to, whatever you're doing next." - No, we were sitting in my kitchen that day. - Yeah, he's like, whatever you're doing next, he's like, I want it on it. He's like, I want to film something about it. He's like, it's so inspiring, it's so crazy. And so like the concept behind the great world race was how do we take somebody in a hundred days time that was not around or anything. - Never around a marathon. - Tournament to, you know, a mediocre athlete. How do we take a mediocre athlete and tournament to a super athlete? - Yeah. - And I think following this sometime in early 2027, you're gonna see the first wave of superhuman athletes at the market. - I believe it. - And I hope to be a big part of that. And you're gonna see human records shattered by margins we never thought possible. So, you know, before we wind down the podcast, I just wanna say on the podcast call, you're an inspiration to me, is your father like, I couldn't be more proud. - Thank you. - Is it that? - I mean, we are entire family. And you know, both of our careers have been built on this backbone of health, wellness, and preaching health, wellness. So for me, it was like, when looking for a test subject to do stuff like this and be this guinea pig, you know, it was me that raised my hand just because, you know, if you're gonna talk to talk, you better be able to walk the walk. And for me, it's like, you know, I wanna hide your job water company. And I talk so much about the benefits and the performance benefits that like, I wanna be the first person to prove it to people. It's like, don't take my word for it. Just look at the actions that I do, you know? Like I just ran a hundred miles. (laughing) You can't fake that. You know, like a lot of people can, you know, talk about supplements and stuff on the internet and talk about health and performance and bi-optimization. And I think for us, it's like how do we, you know, put our money where our mouth is and prove it to the world. Like, you know, I talk about this stuff for a reason. I was a user before. I was, you know, someone that promoted it. And, you know, I had a life changing experience with all of it. So for me, it's like, how do I become the test subject? How do I become the example and like, take everything that we've always preached and like put it back into ourselves? - Amen. - So you know that I won down all my podcasts by asking my guests the same questions. You know the same guest. You get the same question. You forgot about that one, didn't you? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Dude, what, 200 podcasts? You know I've done so far. - Well, you said. - So I don't watch a lot of the podcasts on the screen. I'm usually watching it person. So. (laughing) - So you're ready. What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human? - I don't know. For me, it's, it's pushing yourself beyond your own capable limits. And I think, you know, we talk about this notion called the Musogi. And you know, basically, - Yes, yes, yes. - Just so that's his thing. You know, that's where I learned it. Basically, that's like one day a year, you do something that's so impressive that you can reap the benefits of it for the rest of the year. - You're supposed to only have a 50/50 shot. - 50/50 shot. - I come in. - And I think for some people, it doesn't have to be seven or seven marathons or it doesn't have to be 10 Ironmans. It could be starting a business. It could be writing a book. It could be doing a 5K or losing 10 pounds. It's just taking the leap for something. You know, my message out to the people back, you know, I have to do in the Great Old Race was not that I want you to go out and run seven marathon and seven continents and seven days. You know, that was insane. But it's to show people that, you know, I did that in a hundred days time. I dedicated my life to this thing and like I just went all in and I cut off all distractions. I cut out anything that didn't serve a purpose for that mission. And I think if you're watching this, you can do the same. And if you want to get 10,000 steps a day, like just get out and do it and then, you know, cut all the bullshit out of your life and just go after it. And so for me, like being the ultimate human or the ultimate human version of yourself, it's just kind of just taking a leap at what you want. For me, that's endurance stuff, that's business, that's being the best fiancee it could be, that's being the best dog dad. And you know, you are a great dog dad. - One thing you want to be is a dog in call's house. - Oh, dude. - They actually will make your meals for you every day. Bring them to you in your own bed. - Yeah, no, close down, but I have a set of two. - And he'll actually carry you down the steps. - Yeah, I've got a 17 year old black lab that's on peptides and make his whole food. - Peptides. - Peptides on BPC, KPV, he's on, put them on MCT oils, I've got a multi-vitamin, I make his own food, mega my fiancee spoils the both of them. So, so there, well, I love you call it, can't wait to see this unfold. - Thank you, that's been human. - Awesome, let's do it. - Until next time, guys, let's just science.