Freedom Fest Backyard Ultra - An Adventure

Well hello world. The Freedom Run 5K and Backyard Ultra in Good Ridge, Minnesota, a long, long way from home. To start, the weekend of July 25th and 26th, they're right around there, the last weekend of July, is a race weekend. There are lots of races in the Ultra variety going on all over the country. Last year, I ran the Creed 100 or 106 out in Creed, Colorado, and I did not finish. It was a very difficult race that as fit as I thought I was, I was probably a little unprepared. You train with the kids during the summer, during cross-country. You have a lot of, you know, interaction and training built up. It's like a long, solid training block from spring all the way into summer. I had ran a festival of miles, 24-hour race, doubted Orangeburg, Missouri on a track, back on May 30th. I was feeling really good, and I thought, hey, let's find a race that you want to do this weekend. On top of that, my partner, Mandy, she has girls weekend this weekend down in Atlanta. So it was going to be kind of left to my own devices. My ex-wife, it's her birthday. She was going out of town. My oldest daughter was on an adventure down at the lake, and my younger daughter was really just hanging out with her friends and doing her thing. So it was open. And I found this race for those of you who aren't familiar when I've been asked how do you find these races. They were on this website called Ultra Sign Up, which is basically a repository of distance races. Primarily things that are over a half marathon in distance, but that's not always the case. You could use them for five cases, but it's a really nice searchable database with links to various races all over the country. And I just put in backyard, because that's kind of what I was looking for, and I'll just find a little bit more about that in a moment. And I found this one in Goodrich. So I look up Goodrich, Minnesota, and I was like, God damn, that is almost Canada. But I have family in the Twin Cities, St. Paul, specifically by Uncle Tom. And I figured I wouldn't have to make the journey in all one day. I can drive up on a Thursday, stay with him Thursday night, have a nice breakfast, make it up in time. The little twist to this race was that it was taking place starting at 7 p.m. on Friday evening, rather than 7 a.m. which is typical with a lot of these backyard style, last man standing events. So I thought, okay, this looks like it fits kind of what I'm trying to do. And you know, a lot around the checking most of the boxes of what I look for, what I'm trying to do a race, and things like that. So I thought, let's do it. Oh, there should be one other thing I say. And this is no disrespect to anybody who are race directors and what races on all over the country. There are, if you're not familiar, you're going to have insurance, permitting, volunteers, paid people. If you have to have health and safety, lots of folks, so the swag for the races. So there are things that make races more expensive than they used to be, like seemingly everything else in the world. But it's difficult when you're looking at a race sometimes and you see the cost to register and you think, man, that is a lot of money. And the mountain ultra that I did last year, I looked it up because I thought that was what I was trying to determine what I was going to do. It was really between going out to creed or going up to this race in Minnesota. And I was excited because I noticed when I went to the creed page, they now have a 50 mile race as well as the 106 mile race. And I thought, okay, I know I can do 50 miles in the mountains. I mean, that's how I got to 56 last time. Pretty sure I could do that. And then I looked it up and I believe the register, it was well over $300 and some dollars, almost $350. And while I'm not trying to bag on anyone who sets the races, I understand they're expensive. And you have a lot of things. I mean, you figure you're going to be out there for a long time. All of that stuff has to go, like all the eight stations, all the support has to be taken into the mountains. It's a difficult process. So I do not begrudge them for a moment. But in my life, that's expensive. And when I looked at the good rich backyard ultra, it was $125. So let's, which is, you know, me, my friends and family like to say that I'm so tight. I'm squeaky. That's probably true. But anyway, let's talk a little bit about what a backyard ultra is for those of who might not understand what I'm saying when I say it. So backyard ultra is what is called a last man standing race for woman because women excel at these as well, you run 4.17 miles. Cavia, Lazarus Lake, Gary Kien-Trell, the man who puts on the Barclay Marathons, he's the originator of this style of race. The first backyard, I believe, was on his property. The world championships is on his property. There's now a team of world championships. This event style is just exploded. And I believe there's a few reasons why at least in my brain. So it's 4.17 something miles. And why is it that many? Because if you run one of those loops and it's usually a loop of 4.17 miles in an hour. So you have exactly an hour to run 4.17 miles. And there are some rules to these things. There is a corral with two ropes. You must be in the corral when the gun or bell or buzzer or whatever goes off to start the race. So for this race at 7 p.m. on the dot you had to be standing on the line ready to go. If you run the loop in 45 minutes you have a 15 minute break. You can do whatever you want in those 15 minutes. But at 8 p.m. or 8 a.m. you have to be in the corral ready to run when the buzzer sounds every single time. 4.17 miles is the same course. If you don't complete a lap, so you go out to run, you're out. If you don't make it to the corral in time, you're out. If you choose to stop, you're out. If you take longer than an hour, you're out. Every time someone goes out, that's one less person in the race. And the way you win is that you are the last person left. So eventually you get to what could be 100, 200. I mean there are people who have done these in ran 400 miles, 4 days, 4 days of running. 96 hours of running. It is amazing what a human can do. But you have to have two humans to run that far. Because the race is predicated upon one person being left. So you have to get, let's say you finish, you and another person are left, the only two left. You finish a loop. Either he doesn't go out for the next race or she or for the next loop or you go out together if they don't finish. If that's the case, you have to run one more on your own in order to win. Every single participant gets a did not finish a DNF, except the winner. There is only one winner and they like to be a little cheeky and say the second person who comes in second gets the assist. It is an amazing format but these races are indeterminate. So, you may be there for two days, it is a pretty cool format, and I've done this before a couple of times, and I thought that this fits my style, and it's a little easier to do this self-supported, a little easier, because you can have your own little pot, most of the people running these types of races right around the finish line, they'll be a tent area, and that is where you set up all of your stuff like a little pop-up, maybe a tent, your car camping, you have all your fuel and hydration, and clothes, and all this stuff, so it's somewhat conducive to being by yourself, and that was appealing to me this time, because I knew I was going to be doing this race solo, and it was going to be self-supported, I'd say self-supported, there was eight stations and all that, but I'll get into a little bit of that here, momentarily. To those of the race, that was the race I decided to do. I left on Thursday morning, I drove up to St. Paul, Minnesota, and had an absolutely great time with my uncle Tom, you know, if you've got an uncle or an aunt or a cousin or a friend that lives, and you can make a reason, you know, or have a reason to maybe detour yourself a little bit, and then get there the rest of the way, do it, do it, 74 years old, he's my dad's younger brother, he's a twin, to my aunt Kitty, the best way I would describe this is that he is the ultimate hype man. From the moment that I walked in, to the moment that I left, he was building me up about my life, from my career, parenting, running this race, like I was, my batteries are like fall to the brim of good juice. It was incredible, like it was incredible, I was so glad I stopped and decided, instead of, you know, I'm just going to rush up there, it's 11 and a half hours from Kansas City to Good Ridge, Minnesota, if I go via St. Paul, so it's a little bit longer than if I would have just gone straight up, worth every minute of that detour. Memories made, glad I did it. We'll go up in the morning, started a little car bloat with a couple of bagels, freshly prepared by Mongol, hopped in the car, and drove to Good Ridge. The drive itself was beautiful, you know, there's something about being on roads you've never been on, like looking around and seeing things you've never seen. Yeah, maybe you've seen farms before I get it, but what I'm talking about is seeing that farm for the first time, seeing that thing on the side of the road for the first time, seeing these little towns you've never been in in your life for the first time, it really made the trip so worthwhile from a travel perspective, very enjoyable, and when you're by yourself, you know, you can take your time, kind of look around, stop at some places, take some pictures. It didn't feel like I was rushed, the race started at 7 p.m., but before I get there, let's explain Good Ridge, Minnesota, a sign in Good Ridge said it was 112 people, 112. There was no stop sign, you know, you talk about a one stop light town, there wasn't a stop light, there wasn't a stop sign. To this moment, I still don't really know how or why there's anything there. There was a gas station, there was a tiny, tiny park, there was a Lions Club International, more about that later, some houses, I mean it couldn't have been more than four blocks to the east, four blocks to the north, four blocks back to the west, out to the main little state or county road. I drove through, we were supposed to meet, or the beating place where it kicks off in the race, and all of that was going to happen is from the Lions Club, you're not familiar with the Lions Club, it is a secular, non-denominational community organization, they do all sorts of work in their community, it's really, I think in these kind of smaller northern areas of the country, specifically in the Midwest, it is kind of fills that role of community gathering place in these really small towns. Having been in it now, they had a spot where you could have meals and they had a big kitchen and tables and chairs and a bathroom, like very conducive to a reception or a little dance or a meeting, and this, the building itself was probably 50 yards, no that's way too big, it was probably 30 yards long, and it was one of those that has the shell over it, so it's like a half of a can that has been placed down onto the ground, and they're all dirt around it, tin or metal roof, inciting, burial school, the town itself, I drove through because the packet picked up where we got our stuff didn't start till 4 o'clock, and I was there by about 3.30, so drove through, looked around, truly wandered other than the farms, which is it is absolutely a farming community, there just wasn't anything there, although they were getting ready and setting up for freedom fest, their annual celebration where they were going to end up with unbeknownst to me, have a parade in all these bounce houses and music, live music, contribute to fallen soldiers, memorial speeches, vendors, like it was a big deal in town, and they were setting up for it, I was too early, so I decided okay, let's go down the road and see what else there is, and kill some time, and there was a town called Thief River Falls, about 17 miles from Goodrich, and it's the closest town of any size, if by any size I mean, it was probably a couple of thousand people, maybe 8,000 people, I think that's what it was, I don't know if that might be too much, but you could fact check me, so drove over there, went to the local grocery store, got a few more supplies that I thought I might need, another big bag of ice, called Mandy, just a talk tour, make sure she got into Atlanta, okay, took some pictures, and then drove back, and at that time when I drove back there was one tent, more pop-up with walls set up, that was had been set up, it was not there when I got there, at first, and there was a truck that was parked, you started seeing other trucks kind of coming in, and two race directors were setting up their tent outside, it was probably like 30 mile an hour gusts at the time, and I looked at them and they kind of laughed, they're like, we might put this up later, and I started to laugh, I was like, yeah, probably a good idea, so I went into the Lions Hall, and they had some tables set up where they were doing the check-in, and I asked, how many of us are doing this race as I met Jenna, or I'm sorry, Jenna and Cliff John's route, Jenna and Cliff were the race organizers, and then putting on a 5K over this weekend, and in Good Ridge, for about five or six years, this was the first time the annual backyard ultra that they were going to do, small, small town, not a lot of stuff around it, as I'm talking to Jenna, who was an absolute joy, she told me there were seven people in the backyard ultra, now, if I said I didn't get a little disputed in that moment, I would be lying to you, what I mean is that, again, this is a race where it is last man standing, I drove 11 and a half hours, my brain, of course, being me, thought, I hope there's someone that can run as far as I can, I mean, I can try to say, yeah, I live humbly and live with humility, but sometimes, man, sometimes, think a little bit too highly on myself, anyway, Cliff, now Cliff, as we're talking, he came over, he said, how far do you think you're going to go, and I said, well, I'd like to try to get to 100 miles, but that's really dependent upon somebody else getting to 100 miles, and he said, oh, that's great, I'm going to try to get to 100, immediately I was like, it's on, we're going to race, I've got someone to race, this is going to be fantastic, Cliff was an awesome, he's ran, it finished the run rabbit run 100 out in steamboat, no joke, mountain 100, so I thought, okay, this guy knows what he's doing, give you some more insight into Cliff as we were running together later, wonderful people, all the volunteers, and there's a lot of people showing up for the 5K, so the 5K is kind of their bread and butter, they've been doing it for a long time, almost 75 runners, so you've got piles of t-shirts and swag, they're handing out, you've got all these people in the community coming in from all over these little towns. that a lot of high school kids, you can tell tons of families, tons of families. I don't want to spoil the ending of what this is all about, but I will, when people ask me why, why do I do this? Because I do get that question quite a bit, like why would you want to do that? And what I've been able to boil it down to what it really is all about is community, community. From the day that I register to seeing my family as I drive up to the people that you meet along the way, to the moment that you walk in, the registration area, to start talking to people, the feeling and the support and the love and the camaraderie that you get is incredible, not to mention. This is the best use of social media. I truly believe it can be a way to support and uplift each other. I decided to use this race as a way to raise money for artists helping the homeless. It's the nonprofit that I work for. So I made a landing page on our website, where you could go and fill out a form, and you could choose to pledge for every lap that I run, or yard, so one lap one yard being 4.17 miles. You can give a flat donation, you can cap your donation, you could do whatever, you could do nothing. You could just submit a form and say, "Hey, good luck in the comments box." I blasted that out all over social media, the amount of texts, and emails, and forms, and support that I received, even before the race was overwhelming, overwhelming. And then you get there, and you see that this is a really big deal for the community, a really big deal. People from all over, I can't tell you how many of, let's say there were 75 people running the 5K. About that 75, probably at least 15 families, at least 15 families. And if it wasn't families, there was somebody with a friend. There couldn't have been more than, there were less than five solo individuals who came with a 5K without anyone else. Community. Places with things and places, it doesn't even have to be a place where you can get together in a shared experience and really give each other some love and support. It's amazing, it is why I do these things. It's less about winning, which I still like to do. It is about this feeling of community and togetherness that we need, I need it. I need it. So we check in, get all our stuff, and we have about two hours, maybe an hour, and 30 minutes before the race is supposed to start at 7 p.m. Now, first wrinkle. I have never done a backyard ultra that started in the evening. They've always started in the morning. So you run your first 12 hours, let's say 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and it's light out. And then as the sun goes down, you run your next if you could make it to 100, your next 12 hours. This race, they decided to start in the evening because the next day, so starting in Friday at 7 p.m. the next day, that's when all the festivities were going on in the city or in the town or the city is being very generous, very generous. That's with the concerts and the parade and the hot rods and the bouncy houses and the vendors and the rock and roll and everything was going to go on, which was really kind of cool, like to be a part of that while you're running. If you can make it that far, really give you something to get your mind off of when you start to really suffer. 7 p.m. start. But when we get there, as I'm checking in, one of the things Jenna did mention was that it looks like the rain is going to come in really quickly around 7, but it should be out of here at no time, be out of here by 8. Okay, that's fine. I don't mind. I have tons of backup clothes, all of that. I won't set up my pop-up yet. I'll leave that for later. I say that with the understanding that how these races work for me is I like to run between a 40 and 45 minute loop, which gives me anywhere from 18, I guess 20, it's usually not 20, but 18, 12 minutes to sit down and rest, get nutrition, hydrate, change clothes if I have to, change shoes, change shocks, work on my feet. Do whatever I need to do to make sure that I'm ready to go on the next loop. That usually does not involve setting up a pop-up tent, bringing out a table, getting everything ready after I have already started. So, one of the initial little things to think about was that I wasn't going to have anything outside of my car, except there was a lion's hole, which was available for everyone to use as their staging area. First time I've been a part of that, and let me tell you, fantastic, fantastic. Because I did. I used it for the first probably four loops, three or four loops. I set the things that I thought I would need. We have to have a reflective vest. We've got to have a headlamp. I had to have some food, my nutrition, my dues, water, perpetual, which is this kind of caloric drink. All of that stuff set up inside on one of the tables, one of the, I guess you say, lunch tables inside this old hall, this excellent. Well, Jenna had mentioned that the storm was going to come through, and then we all start getting the alerts on our phones, where there was a tornado warning, not a watch, a warning. So, Jenna says, what do you all think about, including the five pairs, starting the race at 730 instead of 7? Flexibility is flexibility, right? What am I going to say? No, we have to start at 7. Of course, starting at 7.30. It's better than starting at 8. I did like the idea of if we're going to start kind of wanting to start, you know, you feel like you're working towards that moment. 7.30, we decided to start. Everyone starts looking at their phones to look at the weather. I don't look at my phone because in most of the area of this town, you have one car of reception at most. And my phone, for some reason, never wants to give me any reception. I did have some, but I couldn't get the weather. Honestly, what are you going to do? Like, am I not going to run? No. Are we going to still go out and start at 7.30? Yes. So, everything gets ready. I've got my tank top on. I've got my race shorts. I've got them wearing these Sukkone tempest shoes. I have four pairs of shoes that I plan on rotating through over the course of the race. Knowing that it's going to rain, I thought, all right, I'll let these shoes get soaked. I won't change these until it is done raining. It sounds like a plan. The first loop is kind of cool because we go out with the 5K racers and here's the course. So, you leave the Lions Hall and run down this little dirt parking lot. And I say down, it's completely flat. This whole race is completely pancake flat. So, you start out by running across this grassy area right next to you on behind the band shelter and the little park where all the festivities are getting set up for the freedom fest and you go to the main county road and you take a right. So, you're on a county road with a little shoulder gravel and road. There's no cars coming. So, you run on the right side of the road for about three tenths of a mile and then you make a right and head feast on a gravel country road. You run on that gravel road for what we ran with the 5K racers to the one of 5K turn around signs. So, 1.5 miles. We ran about 20 meters past that sign and took a right to the south on legit a dirt or a grass. Access road between massive corn field on our right, massive soybean field on the left. And I'm talking like he had just moted the day before. It was not the greatest of footing but it was fine. It's a trail. You ran on that for not quite a mile and then you make a right onto another country road and this would be another gravel road. You ran that for about a little over a mile or maybe about a mile. mile somewhere in there and then you took a right back onto that going north again onto that country road or under the county road, ran for about three tenths or so of a mile, took a right into Goodrich, ran through a couple, like a little orchard, didn't finally hit up with this little gravel road, you took a right into the lion's club parking lot then you were back, damn near a perfect square of country goodness. The road, all the roads themselves, nothing was, I'll be at your flat and no elevation change, the roads itself are cambered, so it was tough to find a place that was level while you were running, but that's okay, like every hour we went the different way, so to start the race when we got onto the county road we went north, the second hour we went south, it helped to keep your shoes wearing out too much on one side or your knees for that better, so the first loop we got to the first gravel road, so no more than a mile in and it really starts to rain, winds blowing hard and it's raining, raining raining, lightning, but it's not that close, but man it is raining, we run to the 5k sign, the 5k start turning around and the rest of us, all seven, keep going and hit that country road, I was probably in the lead, actually if I remember correctly I was the one out front of the loop, the rain is coming down harder, we make our way back, I'm pretty much soaked to the bone at this point, but there's not like a lot of puddles and things out on the course, but it's raining hard, the second loop, so to back up, go into the Lions Club, try to take off, I was wearing a little raincoat, took that little rain jacket off, readjusted some things, took some nutrition, took some hydration, this was a race where I, one of the things I kind of like about backyards is that you don't necessarily have to carry your hydration, in the night especially, I figured I could drink enough between the loops to make up for not drinking while I was running on the loop, and it's not like you have to chug it really fast because you have 15 minutes to kind of recover, which means you can sip and sip and sip and still get in a whole lot, so that was how I was kind of thinking about it or working towards it, second loop starts, we all line up on the line, we haven't lost anyone yet, and to give you the competitors, there was myself, there was Cliff, John Threw, race director and runner, one of his friends who's actually ran and crewed with him in his 100 mile attempts, as well as this gentleman was an iron man, there was a couple from right outside of Hargo, a husband and wife who it was the cutest, they even dressed like each other, hilarious, they were running and I talked to them for a while, very nice people, have a couple pictures of them, their further stated ever gone was 50 miles, it's a backup Cliff, had actually the guy who said he was hoping to run 100, had never ran a back yard old trip before, ready to run 100 mile race, so I feel like the ability is there, even if the format is different, there was another gentleman and his daughter, who were going to do the race, she was no more than fresh out of high school, that's the seven of us, oh and one more guy named Don, he was the first person there, he was the one that was already there when I got there to set up, his wife was with him, she was his crew, every single person different shape and size, as well, tall, skinny, maybe a little, a little more round on the midsection, lots of different folks, fantastic, it's like a loop we go out, and now it's really coming down, and it had been raining hard for an hour, so there's puddles, where there weren't puddles before, everything's a little slick, you kind of have to know you're just going to get a little wet, but you have your head lamp on, it's now starting out at 8.30, so you can still see, it's not dark, but there is a lot of lightning and thunder, and it doesn't feel like the lightning's that close, but it's not that far away, running the opposite direction this time, rains coming down, I get about, no I'm in the front again, like probably a solid couple hundred meters at least, maybe even a quarter of a mile, and I come around this corner, and the lightning, I was getting more, it was getting bad, something I've never experienced before, there was a bolt for, I don't even know if it was a bolt, because when you're that close, I don't think you could see the bolt, maybe a couple hundred meters away, I don't really know, the crack, the boom, the flash, it was this blue glow, was right in front of me, right by this little tree line, scared me, I mean I jumped in the air, and might have peed myself a little, but it was raining so hard, I guess it didn't really matter, terrifying, momentarily, almost this, a little bad amount of time as the lightning itself, it was like super scared, going away, and I knew I was pretty close, I really picked it up, to finish on that county road and get into the line's hall, because it was a little scary, I will say, but man, what an interesting, like natural phenomenon to be that close to, like almost feel it, get back to the lines, love, so through and through, through and through, the other runners start trickling in, there was a police set at that corner where I came around with a lightning that got on or had struck down, and they actually had mentioned to a couple of the runners, if they wanted to get in and get her right back, it might be the best thing to do, but being that we are not a lot that always seems to make the best choices, nobody did, because they didn't want to get going to kick that of the race for breaking the rules, so everybody finally comes in, Jenna's looking at the weather happens and saying, well, it should be gone pretty soon, it should be gone pretty soon, go out on the third loop, the third loop, when we were between, when we were on the north-south road between the cornfields and the soybeans, I do not think I have ever been in such a downpour and so soaked in my life, I should back up, these past two loops, and this one, we've been beginning hailed on, like real hail, dime, quarter, nickel, like it hurts, and I have my hood pulled off, but we have been kind of running with it on occasion, so it's hitting me in the back, it's not as bad, but this one, it's kind of getting us in the front, it's all you can do is laugh, you're not going to be seriously injured, at least that's the hope, but I've never, have I been in a frame for, I just think to myself, this is hilarious, this is insane, it was so much fun, so much fun, and those first three loops were basically like a little warm up, we're 12 miles in, and I haven't really even thought about the running part yet, it was more about just trying to manage, just trying to manage, so we get in on the third loop, and it's the rain has stopped, and just looking at the radar, we were not going to get any more at all for at least the next two days, so you know it's going to, the rest of the night, you're just going to be dealing with puddles and you know things along those lines, which is fine, I can deal with puddles, I can deal with, you know, you don't, not getting to run into straight of a line for too long, because you're kind of dodging things, trying to make your way through, it's all good, it's all good, changed my shoe, well no, no, no, that's not true, I thought okay, I'll do one more loop, I'll get four loops in, then I'll change my shoes, because there's still going to be all these puddles, I'm going to need to change shoes and socks, I got to five loops in, and that's when I actually decided okay, it's time to change, so it is first loop was 730 to 830, 830 to 930, 930 to 1030, 1030 to 1130, 1130 to 1230, so it's 1230 before the next day, it's Saturday morning and 1230, when I got back from that loop, I changed my shoes, changed my socks, changed my underwear, changed my shorts, changed my shirt, really changed everything, I'm wearing a reflective vest at this time, I've got a headlay upon minute felt glorious to change shoes and socks, I mean everybody's dealing with something their own way, trying to figure out what they're going to do next, we lost our first competitor at the end of four, loops and it was the young girl, the high school girl. I asked her at the start line how you feel and she goes, "Well, everything sucks." And I just laughed because I've been there where everything hurts. She tried to finish that loop and then she was done. The nighttime run is really just kind of about managing and repeating the same thing over and over. If you make it to 7.30, really the next goal for me was to make it to 5.30. So that would be 10 loops in. And the reason that one was sticking out in my head to be about 42 miles was if you get to 5.30, the sun starts coming back up because those night loops, doing it first instead of second, was a little interesting. I was feeling tired. Another thing to remember about this is since the race started at 7 p.m. normally, you sleep the night before, you wake up at 5 a.m. or 5.30, you go to the race and then you run. So you've had a night of sleep for this race. You know, the last time I had slept was when I woke up about 6.30 in the morning on Friday morning. So now it's 5.30 and I've been awake for almost 24 hours. That was new. It was a new variable I had never experienced before. 5.30 rolls around. Sun starts coming up. I'm starting to feel good. I know it's 7.30 and I'm going to change my shoes again. So I was wearing Sakoni glide 15s. So I start with these tempest, then I move into these glide 15s. There's this road shoes and they're not even that nice. I think I've got them both on eBay for like $65. But they're fine. They do the trick. I'm not looking to, you know, I don't need a $200 pair of shoes yet. So we get to 50. Now we've lost the husband and wife. They have dropped out. The gentleman who was with his daughter, he went out around 40. So there are three of us left. The guy that was the Iron Man and he was not actually registered to run the race and he just ran the first few loops just for fun. Good guy. He's gone. So it's Cliff, myself and Don. It's all we have left. Three of us left. We're around 50 miles. Little disconcerting because what that really means is that we have a long time if we're going to get to 100 miles for three of us to just run together and it's starting to get a little bit warmer as the day comes along. We got fortunate in the next few loops, next few hours. It was overcast. So it wasn't immediately right out into the sun. So we go out on the 50th loop. So the 50th loop, my apologize. We got for a 13th loop and we make that. I ran that whole loop with Don like he had been the last finisher every single loop and he decides to run with me and we talk. Great guy. Young man started running ultra. It's not that long ago. Really enjoys the backyard format. He's married him and his wife are working on their first child. She's genuinely affable, lovable soul. Talked to him for almost an hour. He ran with me. Well, we ran it in about 43 minutes, which I was great. I think like this is wild. I can't believe you're going to run this fast when you've been running, you know, 55, 56s. And as we're talking, we're talking about races we've done. And he said to me that, you know, he likes to be in the 52 to 56 range for loop because when he is, that's when he can run the longest. So I had an inkling in the back by my mind of why are you doing this? Like, why are you running this one with me? If you've said this is the kind of thing that burns you out. But we're talking. He has a really good setup. His wife had been helping him all day, all night. Fantastic. So we're getting ready to go out on the 14th loop and myself and Cliff are standing there and Don comes up and he shakes our hands. He's like, Cliff, Ben, great job. I'm done. And he walks back out of the corral and there is a big cowbell that you have to ring when you're officially out of the race. And he rings the cowbell and he walks away. And I look at Cliff and Cliff looks at me and we think, here we go. We're going to run to 100. We've just, we've done 54 miles. We have 46 miles coming up here together where we're going to have to just become real good friends. So Cliff and I went out on that loop and we talked the whole time. We want to talk about some interesting parallels. He has a 20-year-old and 18-year-old. I have a 20-year-old and 18-year-old. He's a farmer. Lives just outside a good rich. He's been doing this for a long time. What's his why? Why does he run? He quit smoking four years ago because one of his best friends died of a heart attack when he was in his 40s. He just turned 40, late 39-40 when his friend had died. And it was a wake-up call that he knew he needed to change the way he was living. So he did. And he found something. He found a community that he wanted to be a part of that made him feel as if there is something more to it than just the day-to-day of life of kind of grinding along. There's this whole group of people, men and women, kids out there who are just looking to see how far they can run, see how fast they can run. Have fun at a park or in a little town or in the mountains or down by the beach or wherever it is coming together with a shared experience lifting each other up to see how the best we can be. He became a part of that and it got into his bones real quick. Like I mentioned, he had done the run, rabbit, run, 100-mile race and took him 28 hours in steamboat Colorado in the mountains. I have done the steamboat 50k, maybe a decade ago, and I will tell you, there's no joke, no joke. So knew he had a lot of fitness. We talked about did not finish some DNFs. He had some DNFs and on. I think it was the Black Hills 100. I've had some DNFs. I had just DNFs last year out of green. If you're going to do these things, you're going to have those times where you don't finish and even sharing that with somebody. I mean, I think about how many times in my life I've had something very disappointing happen that becomes the topic of the conversation when I meet someone for the first time. Usually it's the other way around. This is my job. These are the good things I'm doing. Look at me, right? And this is the exact opposite. You know, I didn't finish it and I tried to figure out why and I'm trying to learn and hopefully this time it's going to go better. Humility feels like humility. It feels like just trying to relate to another person with their difficulties so that we can really understand that we do have more similarities than we have differences we do. So, but when I ran that next one together, we get to 60. It is getting hot. I think the high temperature for the day was scheduled to be around 90 degrees. With all that all that moisture, it's pretty humid and now it's about trying to stay cool, hydrate, nutrition, nutrition, nutrition, make sure you're getting enough calories. I was still using my car as my home base. And as I had mentioned, I never had time to set up my pop-up. I never had time to do a lot of the things that I thought I was going to do. Instead, I had my cooler out on the ground. I had my chair next to it. I had my little plasable foot stool and I would sit there and just chill and drink my water and drink my electrolyte drink, take my nutrition and then get to the line. At three minutes, they always sound a buzzer, letting you know you have three minutes to get to the ground. At two minutes, they hit the buzzer again and then at three minutes, with one minute to go, you have to, you know, that's usually when I would start my little walk or shuffle as the day went on over to the ground. At mile, so I think it would have been around mile 62. I was starting to suffer pretty badly. My legs had started to hurt, my feet were hurting, I was having some pain and my glutes and in my hips. And this is not like pain as I know I'm injured, it's just you're just sore and tired. I mean, at this point, I've been up for, you know, it's 62 miles, where somewhere around 9, 30, 10, 30 in the morning. I keep on going out, I keep running. So up and to this point, up until almost mile 62, I had averaged right at 45 minutes of loop. Maybe sometimes a little under, but I'd run the same way every time, the same pace, the same path, the same thing every single time. And that helps, that consistency is good for me. But at 62, that's when the first seed to doubt started to get sewn in there. I'm thinking, "Oh, no, Help! can I go what I'm also thinking is how far can he go right like maybe he'll quit we don't have to get to a hundred I just I do want to win I mean I do want to win but if he gets to a hundred or if he leaves before me then I would only have to finish one more what's been cool about this whole time is that it mild 25 and a little after mile 50 I did a post so I made a video thanking and giving updates to all the folks that were following along because this was a campaign to raise money for artists helping the homeless and called it one more lab one more life and so I had gone through and I looked and found on our database all the people that had donated their pledge so I let I made a video a short video letting him know how I was going how I was feeling and then said you know thanks to all those people that were part of it I did that at mile 25 I did it a little after mile 50 I had to run with my phone because there was only one place on the course where there was reception and where that would upload the video up in the Instagram Facebook but it worked because I and I know it did because I kept getting texts from all sorts of people during the race as I would go by that section saying you got this this amazing incredible I donated this all this positivity just just the swell of positivity just kept coming in so the goal was at mile 75 I would send another update it's getting hot we're running through the town is starting to really pop off it was awesome there's all these old hot rods all these old tractors all these old classes cars that are all getting lined up around the Lions Club or the Lions Hall because that's the staging area where they are going to start their parade at this is incredible all the vendors for silk was set up selling everything you can think of homemade honey a knickknacks clothes beef jerky or as my friend Sarah tried cow meat all these fun bounces houses are getting set up there's a van playing there's people sitting under on to this giant tent cars backed up with the tailgate so people sitting on trucks bull guys standing on the backside around the back of a bed of a picked up truck shooting the shit all these people around a bite an absolute five an absolute five so we roll through there a couple times it's fantastic I'm getting a little bit of a lift from all of this of my feet are starting to hurt at this point I'd switch to my oca speed goats that are very worse for wear the sides are kind of split I was hoping I would get rocks in them but they were it was a reprieve you know this little reprieve of putting on these shoes for a little bit I did that around mile 15 so I told myself okay at 75 I'll switch to my my fast pair I've got this pair of super shoes I got them off eBay they're a deed is sitting there called prime x or something like that I've had a pair of them before they're normally like 200 and some dollars I think I got it for 80 they're in great shape super thick it's like running on a cushion like you know those commercials where they have a wine glass on a mattress and a bowling ball and they drop the bowling ball and the wine glass doesn't spill I think that's what they make these shoes out of it's fantastic so I ran that I get to mile I think it was or 62 I think it was 62 or 66 somewhere in there that one of those loops where I said okay I've got I want to change shoes I think if nothing else at all it'll be a nice change of pace it'll make my feet feel better it was 66 so it's 66 after that I only had five minutes it's that that's 62 to 66 67 I was honestly I didn't know if I was going to be able to go much longer I really didn't I was now doing kind of the walk run methodology my walks were getting slower my runs were getting slower I came around in 55 minutes that man I only had five minutes to do whatever I needed to do so all I did was change clothes I'm now carrying water because I didn't think I had enough time to cheerly hydrate and I needed water from my head I have an ice bandana Jenna had filled up for me and side note on Jenna or Jenna the entire time every single loop what can I do for you what can I help you it what do you need what can I get for you so anything I can do do I'm going to move stuff over here so you don't have to walk as far I'll put you right under this pop up it's nice and shady it's or anything else she went out of her way to make sure I was having the best possible experience that I could have that is an amazing even being irrespective of race director she was so thoughtful so that loop I changed my shoes put on my super shoes and they made a difference so from 62 to 66 or 66 yeah I think it was 62 66 or 66 to 70 something 71 my feet felt so much better my my legs were still really sore but my feet didn't hurt as much and my runs were fast again so when I would run for let's say a quarter of a mile and then walk for a minute that quarter of a mile I was doing in nine minutes that was my pace so I was going that I was getting back to the 11 minute 12 minute miles which gives me more time so I finished that loop we're at 70 so we're at 70 a little over 70 miles I know Clifcerding I'm hurting it's it's hot we both have ice I'm carrying ice I have ice in my hat it's melting down my back I'm I am hurting as much water on myself as we're moving as I am drinking just trying to stay cool he I can see it he's stealing it too he's completely soaked we're still talking but most of the time I'm out in front and then but he had the past two laps he had passed me with about a mile to go where I was really suffering and having to walk and he was still able to kind of keep his slow pace going and that's a little disconcerting right because it's like oh no I've been being pretty consistent in my speed in my pace this whole time and I'm just really fading so we get to 70 and my feet are feeling better and I thought you know what when I can run I'm going to run and I kept telling myself as we went out of that loop but I would start to run to the next telephone pole okay just get to the next telephone pole and I wound up running about a 48 so now if he came in so I get in at 48 I had moved my chair I finally moved my chair right to the finish line where they had this pop up that's where Jenna and Cliff and the volunteers and like the timer and the clock had been the whole time the cowbell and I just sat down right there just like what can I get you I was like how about some ice water and at that point I thought I had quit I hadn't said anything yet but I thought I think I might be done if Cliff says he's going back out and this is where so there's a little kinksmanship involved in this so if I would have so the race we go off of the next loop and him and I are standing there and I know I'm not going to finish it if I go out on the loop and run one foot past the line and turn around he has to run that loop and another loop to be considered the winner that's some evil shit I like to make somebody do that but I thought about it I genuinely thought about it well well I'm sitting there waiting his friend is back his dad is there his wife is there and his son is there and the clock is ticking and in my head I'm thinking I hope we didn't make it and I was far enough ahead that I looked behind me a few times on that loop and I didn't see him and I thought I don't know maybe please don't make it if he doesn't make it all I have to do is run one more or I can quit and we tie we would tie at 75 months well right around 58 we see him come in and he makes it in and he walks right up to the folding tables that are underneath so he comes in he's coming from the east he's coming running east comes through the corral stands in front of the table I'm sitting in that chair behind the table he looks right at me and he goes you think you can keep going and I said do you think you can keep going is that I don't think I can go one more I said I think I can and he rang the bell and up and to that second I thought I was done in my head I had kind of given up and then I thought oh now I can win now I can win and I again the why do I do this that's not why and I want to be very clear about that. But at the same time, I run races. From when I was four years old and we were in the backyard, running to the first person to touch the fence, I wanted to win. And now I have this opportunity where if I run one more loop and under an hour, I'm going to win. There are at least a hundred people who have touched this race in some way that they're supporting me, whether it was a like or a comment or a donation, all sorts of different ways. But there's a lot of people who've been following along this ride for this race. And I didn't make a post after mile 75. So I'm not okay. And I went out there and I ran a really, really, really good loop. I ran most of it, not all of it. And I do a couple things one. I was probably going to cry. And then I kept thinking how do I want to cross the finish line? Because Jen and I have a taken pictures and Facebook posts about the race over the course of the day herself. And I knew I would be on there and they would take some pictures and things like that. And sometimes Ben thinks to himself, you know what? I'm going to let my hair down. I'm going to take my shirt off. I'm going to run through the finish line. I didn't do all those things. I did let my hair down. It had been up the whole time. I'd let my hair down. Took my hat off. Took my glasses off. I ran to the finish. I got about five feet in right before I crossed the line and I just walked it in. Janet was right there, taking pictures. I gave her a hug, shook Kliff's hand and I sat down. Thankful and grateful for that opportunity. It felt the sense of relief combined with satisfaction combined with just this. It's over. It's over. Over the next 15, 20 minutes. Some more pictures. Pick up. Try to start picking up. Jenna came over. Of course she helped me. Pick up my trash. Got my car loaded up. I won a rocking chair. Well, it's a camp chair, right, but it's a freedom fest and embroidered rocking camp chair. It's fantastic. I've never won anything like that. That was incredible. This is great. I said, I'm going to take this everywhere with me. Anytime I have to bring a chair, I'm bringing this one and then I'm going to let people understand how I got it and let them bask in my glorious nature. But it was pretty cool. It was pretty neat. And an anti-soccap, because we can always use more sockets or stocking cap for some of you out there. Music was playing. People come up to me. Like there was some folks who knew what was going on who had came over to talk to Jenna Cliff. They introduced me to them. So much love. So much support. Changed all my clothes. Made a recording in the Lions Hall with the last update. Letting people know that I had made it to 80 miles. That I had hopefully raised awareness. I shared as many things as I could. People do get a little concerned and make sure that I'm okay. I wanted to make sure people do. I was good. I was feeling all right. I think I cried a little. But it was a nice little bow on that race, on that adventure. Knowing that I hadn't slept in, I don't know how long. I drove to Thief River Falls and stayed at the quality end. I got there around 3.30 and other than sending some texts and telling some people, "What's up?" I think I slept until 6.30 in the morning. Off and on, while I did take a shower, brush my hair, brush my teeth, lay down, cost and turn, got some cramps and just glowed. I just glowed. I do this because it makes me feel alive. It is a way for me to connect with the greater world to tie together something that I love to do with people and a organization or mission that I love and support. Being able to grow and draw some awareness to artists helping the homeless and the difference they're trying to make it homelessness in the Kansas City area specifically for men. And I say that specifically because everybody needs it. Everybody needs it. But these young men need it as well. And we have this ethos in our country of kind of pulling yourself up by your food straps, which has been very, very successful. But we don't do anything alone. We do nothing alone. The success that I had in this race is predicated upon hundreds of other people. Hundreds of other people. There's these two guys in my life, Chuck Hill and Walt Breider, who I met a long time ago, who were runners. They helped spark an interest in me that maybe this was something that I could do that might be something I could do to help change my life. And it did. And it does a community of togetherness of support, of uplifting, of trying to make the world our little part of the world a little bit better of a place. I am fortunate to be a part of that. And I get to do it through running. I get to do it through running. I even had a special little moment where one of my high school runners reached out to me after the race. And we talked on the phone for a little bit. And that felt so good that I'm fed. There are these young people that are also getting to or having the opportunity to be involved in something greater than themselves. Man, it was such a good moment. But days, whatever. But thank you so much. If you've made it this far, you must have nothing to do. Just kidding. But if you did make it this far, thank you. Well, I'll have a story to tell. I like to tell stories. I have a feeling if you're listening to this, you're probably a part of this. And now you already, even if you aren't. I love everybody out there. That's pretty nice to each other. It was a good day. Peace.