Real Life Runners with Angie and Kevin Brown

444: Kevin's Running 100 Miles...Again - Return to the Long Haul 100

• Angie Brown

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Prepping for the Long Haul 100: Training, Mindset, and Fueling Strategies with Kevin

With just two days to go before toeing the line at the Long Haul 100, Kevin takes us behind the scenes of his year-long build toward a 100-mile ultra marathon. In this episode, we dive into what really went into his preparation—from how his training evolved over time, to the mindset shifts that made the biggest difference, to the fueling strategies he’s using to go the distance.

Kevin reflects on lessons learned from past ultras, the mistakes he didn’t repeat this time around, and how he’s learned to stay flexible when things don’t go according to plan (because in ultras… they never do). We also talk mental toughness, adapting in the moment, and why preparation is about more than just logging miles.

We wrap up by sharing how you can follow Kevin’s race in real time and what to expect in our post-race recap episode once the dust (and miles) settle.


00:59 Kevin's Current State and Mindset

02:23 Kevin's Ultra Marathon Journey

09:38 Training Insights and Adjustments

24:45 Balancing Training with Life

28:27 Setting Ambitious Goals

31:29 Fueling Strategy for Ultra Running

34:54 Training the Stomach for Endurance

42:27 Mindset and Race Strategy

47:39 Final Preparations and Expectations

51:19 Follow the Race Live

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Angie:

Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast. Today we are talking to Kevin all about the long haul 100, which is a 100 mile ultra marathon that Kevin has been training for the past few months, or the past kind of year, And, it is in just a few days. So the day that we release this episode, we're two days away from the race. So today we're talking to Kevin about his training, his mindset, how he's feeling, how everything has been going, how this year is different than last year. All the fun updates as we come into the long haul 100. So stay tuned. What's up, runners? Welcome back to the show. We are just a couple of days away from the long haul 100 and we are here to check in with Kev, see how it's all been going.

Kevin:

It's what's

Angie:

up Kev?

Kevin:

It's my favorite type of episode. It's one where all the focus is on me and I get to try and do as much talking as possible.

Angie:

It, you do love the attention. One might call you, quite the attention hog when it comes to the two of us.

Kevin:

Yes, very much Yeah.

Angie:

So before we jump into everything, where are you right now? Like how is your energy level, how is your mindset? what's going on right now

Kevin:

in general? Pretty good.

Angie:

Very. You're five days out.

Kevin:

Yeah. Very specifically. I came home from school today and was not feeling great. So very specifically I'm not feeling so good, but in general I've been feeling great. My runs have been going really well. I just, I didn't sleep well last night and I think it all just kinda. Caught up to me this afternoon.

Angie:

Yeah, I actually wanna talk about that. I was thinking about that when I was in the shower about like your headaches and things like that. We have to figure out where we can fit that in to the episode because I think that's an interesting observation that I've had over this train cycle as well. So overall. are you ready? what's going on?

Kevin:

I definitely, I have to be ready, like the race. By the time you're listening to this, if you're listening to it on the day that it comes out, we're packing up and getting ready to drive out. And it's possible that as you listen to this, I'm literally in the middle of running the race. And if so, thank you for running along with me. That's great.

Angie:

Yeah, because this is actually, for those of you that are maybe new to the episode, first of all. If you're new to the episode and you're hearing some noise in the background, maybe some squeaking or some Romping.

Kevin:

romping or just growling, I think is another thing we've got going here.

Angie:

Yeah. Our, our dog decided he was going to have a lot of energy and just had to play with his toy right now. So if you hear him, that's Jasper. Hey Jasper. What's up? So those of you that might be new to the show, a little background on Kevin and Ultra Marathon. So this is Kevin's fourth 100 mile starting line. And we say starting line because he did not finish his first attempt. So his first attempt was back in 2023, right? Or 2022?

Kevin:

2022.

Angie:

2022. So that was

Kevin:

the, I think we've done one a year.

Angie:

The key is 100. In 2022. And then you did Daytona in 2023.

Kevin:

Yeah.

Angie:

And then long haul in 2024. No, that's not right. No,

Kevin:

no, that's not right.

Angie:

Was it 2021 was your first one?

Kevin:

No,'cause I did long haul in 2025 because it is currently 2026.

Angie:

It is 2026. Oh my God. Is

Kevin:

is actually how that math

Angie:

is working out. Yeah. So we're right. So yeah, so Daytona was 2023. And that, because that was in December.

Kevin:

Yep.

Angie:

And then long haul was January of 2025. So you didn't do it in 2024.

Kevin:

That's right.

Angie:

Okay.

Kevin:

It was basically a year apart,

Angie:

but it was in December to

Kevin:

January. Were

Angie:

at long haul again. So first, I guess the question is why are you doing long haul again? Because that's a question that I have been asked by multiple people. Actually, wait, before we even jump into that's. Have we finished like the history of 100 miles? Maybe give us a brief idea of why you even want to run a hundred miles.'cause that's another very common question. Like why?

Kevin:

All right. That goes back more towards 2017 when, I mean for those people who have been with us for a while, 2017 was the year of three seizures in one calendar year, and once I got back into training after that,

Angie:

wait a second, you just like. Glossed over that. Three seizures in one calendar year.

Kevin:

I had three seizures in a calendar year.

Angie:

Yeah. So Kevin had three seizures in 2017 and we didn't know why.

Kevin:

Yeah. There wasn't a, cause they still actually don't have a reason for it. Yeah. Like we went to all sorts of specialists. Angie took me to all the specialists, they ran all of the tests and the conclusion is they can guess what the cause is, but they can't actually tell me a specific thing. They can gimme medication that makes me not have seizures.

Angie:

And that's the most important thing.

Kevin:

I think that is the most important thing, and

Angie:

I shouldn't say the most important, but that's definitely a big piece of the puzzle.

Kevin:

It's very high up on the list, and I have not had any episodes since New Year's Eve 2017.

Angie:

Yes. So we just celebrated eight years seizure free. Which is amazing.

Kevin:

Which is huge. Yeah. So That's fantastic. Following that, I asked the doctors. Because Angie made me ask the doctors, can I keep running? And the doctor said something to the effect of oh yeah, sure, you can, you can jog around. And then Angie clarified what my question meant of no. Can he still go out and like race marathons and. Then I didn't start hitting ultras until during COVID. That I stretched the distance. I'm like, all right, there's no races. Why don't I try and do something a little bit more entertaining? And in the back of my head, I always had this idea that I wanted to run really far. I had a neighbor growing up who ran ultra marathons, and I thought it sounded amazing, but it just seemed like something that was something I might do eventually. And when you have that. Mental, and the medical issues that I had in 2017, it does bring up the. That's something I'll do someday to, maybe that's something that I should start looking into now. is where it came from. And it did, it took me a few years to get there, but I think 2020 got a lot of people to be like, all right, maybe this is something that I should start doing now. So that's the background of why I go this far.

Angie:

He just loves running far like

Kevin:

that too.

Angie:

Kevin just loves running, and this is one of the things that a lot of people don't understand, Kevin. Loves just running and being out there running. And I think that it started, from my observations, he was racing half marathons, and then COVID hit and all the races went away. And then he was like, oh, let me figure out some other fun things to do for running. So he ran 40 laps of our neighborhood. Yep. And then he did a, I think that was the 31,

Kevin:

that was 30

Angie:

miles, right? 31 miles on the

Kevin:

31st,

Angie:

yeah. Yeah. and then it just kept getting stretched and then like he said, it became, okay, graces are back. Now let's try to hit some of these goals. So he has done. Like I said, four. So we just, do we already name that or was that our last recording?

Kevin:

No, we already did that

Angie:

because this is like our second attempt. We have a new microphone set up, and so we were trying to make sure that the microphones were equalized and the volumes weren't too far off. So I'm like. We, did we record that already and I deleted it, or is this the It's a, the same recording.

Kevin:

it's a work in progress. It, which is honestly the theme of the episode. True. It is the theme of this episode is

Angie:

that is so

Kevin:

true. It's all a work in progress.

Angie:

Okay. So this is the second time you're doing long haul. That's true. And for those of you that aren't familiar long haul, 100 is an ultra race here in Florida. It is six loops. it's in a state park. It's, each loop is like 16.7 miles and. He does it six times and we are there as his crew. We have a whole aid station set up in the car and they of course have other aid stations around where the volunteers are and stuff. So it's a fantastic race. He had a great experience. We all did. We all had a really great experience last year, but why are you doing this again?

Kevin:

Okay. And I've heard you give the answer to other people. Yeah. and you've. You know the answer to this one. Let's share with the audience. This is a qualifying race for the Western States 100, which is like the Super Bowl of ultra running that takes place in California in June. And in order to get into that race,'cause there's very limited number of spots inside of that race because of like park permits and stuff. In order to get into that race, you have to enter a lottery. And so you need a lottery ticket. And the only race in Florida that offers a lottery ticket. Is this one. So it's the closest lottery ticket that I can buy,

Angie:

right? So we can drive up there. It's about four hours north of us. We don't have to buy any plane tickets. And Kevin is a very thrifty. Runner.

Kevin:

That's true

Angie:

for being a runner because we all know like sometimes being a runner can be a very expensive sport. I would call you a very thrifty one.

Kevin:

how many miles did I put on my last pair of shoes?

Angie:

You claimed and told me you put about 1800 miles on those shoes, which is insane.

Kevin:

I just looked at'em the other day'cause they're still sitting in the garage for like yard work and stuff. I looked at him and flipped him over the other day. There is not a lot of. like hard rubber on the bottom of it. There's a lot of exposed foam.

Angie:

You should just throw those away. You have plenty of old sneakers that you can use for yard work.

Kevin:

I have one other pair of sneakers that I use for yard work.

Angie:

Yes. So that's the main reason that Kevin's doing the long haul because it is a qualifier for Western states, which is his ultimate big goal that he is working towards.

Kevin:

Yeah, it'd be interesting'cause eventually that's going to happen. that's just literally, if you keep putting in. Lottery tickets, you will eventually get into it. That's just how it works out. So it's gonna be interesting to see what happens once that goal is reached.

Angie:

Yeah, and it'll also be interesting to see how long it takes for your name to get pulled in the Western States lottery.

Kevin:

Because there are people who only had one ticket in the lottery last year, whose name was drawn. There were, I don't know, there were more than 10, I'll tell you that. Much more than 10 people only had one lottery ticket and they got selected. They get to go run.

Angie:

I look forward to whenever that might be for you slash us.

Kevin:

Yes, it's gonna

Angie:

be, should be fun.

Kevin:

It's gonna be an awesome experience.

Angie:

Yeah. So let's go into your current training and how things have been going for your training this year for long haul. So you've done this race already, you chose to do it again. How has. Your training been the same? And how has your training been different? so what lessons did you learn from running long haul last year that you then took into this year and applied to your training?

Kevin:

so I think that every time I do another race like this, that you're gonna gain just a little bit more understanding, but it's also, everything's such an experiment. Like when you run a marathon, you don't know how you're gonna feel at mile like 25 because you never get there in, in training.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

But the first time you do it, it's not oh, this is what Mile 25 feels like. if you go run another marathon, mile 25 might feel a little different. Maybe it's a different course, maybe you feel differently. Maybe the temperature's different, but you can run marathons a little bit more often than you could run hundreds. So I could go through and do the exact same training and have a different experience. It's just another year of training on my body and I'm just more familiar with maybe like how my body starts to feel in the back half of the race. So a lot of my training was very similar to last year. It's a lot of focus on consistency of trying to hit, different speeds throughout. But there was a lot that was just make sure that I am really adding up a whole heck of a lot of miles.

Angie:

Okay. So what does consistency look like to you?

Kevin:

what's a week look like?

Angie:

We can, we can go into the details of your week, but what about your overall training volume? Would you say that your overall training volume last year versus this year was similar or did you increase or decrease? Your volume

Kevin:

before? Probably like the six months heading into the race. I think that they've been pretty similar between the last two years. Okay. Last year I actually had slightly lower mileage because I coached track for the first time in a few years.

Angie:

And you had hernia surgery?

Kevin:

No, it was the year before.

Angie:

When was hernia surgery?

Kevin:

Before

Angie:

24.

Kevin:

Before Daytona.

Angie:

2024. Yeah. No, before day. No. You ran Daytona with a hernia

Kevin:

and then I ran long haul without, that's right.

Angie:

Yeah. So you Wait, okay, let's go back. So you had hernia surgery in March of 2024? Yes.

Kevin:

Yep.

Angie:

And then long haul was January, 2025.

Kevin:

Yep.

Angie:

Yeah. That's one of the reasons that you didn't do a hundred. One of the reasons that you didn't do a hundred twenty twenty four is Yeah. Because you were recovering from surgery.

Kevin:

Yeah. No, that sounds right.

Angie:

Yeah. You had to, so basically your mileage at the beginning of 2024 was essentially non-existent. Be before your surgery because you were in a lot of pain coming off of the Daytona 100.'cause he ran a hundred miles with. A hernia, y'all. That's what this

Kevin:

Yes I

Angie:

did. This crazy man did.

Kevin:

Yeah. I don't recommend that.

Angie:

Yes. Do not recommend 10 outta 10. One outta 10

Kevin:

zero stars. One

Angie:

zero stars.

Kevin:

Do not recommend. Do

Angie:

not recommend.

Kevin:

So my mileage was really low because I was recovering from dealing with a hernia. and then recovered hernia surgery. And had to slowly, really slowly build back from that.

Angie:

So you basically had a six month buildup for your first a hundred,

Kevin:

right. For long haul. So this one's been better. Like my summer this year was better than my summer last year. When we were out in California, I was running a lot more up and down mountains.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

Last year I was not, I did a little bit, but I could not push myself very much last year at all.

Angie:

So that is one of these. So I'm very interested to see, we're gonna obviously do a recap episode after the race to,'cause I love

Kevin:

the talking

Angie:

Yes to, but also to let you all know how it all went because people are invested in this. I know we get messages a lot, people are. Very excited about your journey and to hear how everything is going and how everything turns out. So overall, your cumulative training volume since surgery has been a lot greater, and you've been a lot more consistent this year than last year because you didn't have all of those medical issues.

Kevin:

Definitely, and I think that even. Even if you just look at the fall when I was like, I was doing better last year versus the, this fall. I think that I've been just a little bit higher per week. Okay. it's not drastic, but just a little bit more. I cleared 2000 miles this year, even though I didn't get a huge amount of miles this spring. I didn't have zero months because of surgery, but I had lower months'cause I was focused on coaching track. but this fall has been pretty good about consistently getting. At or over 200 miles a month.

Angie:

Yeah. So was there anything after your last race that you decided you were not gonna do again, or you were going to definitely change because of your first long haul?

Kevin:

I changed what I wanted to eat. Okay. Because I, that's one of the big ones, and there's a couple things that I'll cover, but one of them was eating and I know that you wanna talk more about eating later a little bit. but one of them was eating because there's only so many. Like GOs that I can take down.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

So I tried to try a few other options. I experimented a little bit more with what I can eat and I did that before, I. The keys 100. I was trying a variety of things this year. I changed up. I tried even more.

Angie:

I was gonna say, I think we've been doing that ever since you got on this ultra marathon train.

Kevin:

I think it's really, that's one of the continuous iterations. And then even when you find something, you're like, ah, is that, does that continue to work for me? what if it's, what if that thing stops working? Yeah. but one of the other. Things that I had changed in my training was, like doubling down on strides, which is like at the complete opposite end of running a hundred. if you're thinking, oh, what do you really do to train for a hundred? Oh, you just go out and run slow all the time. If you go and run slow all the time, you're gonna get really good and efficient at running slow. But I'd like to go out and race a hundred miles, which does not mean that I'm like, fire the gun and I take off flying, but I still need to work on like high end speed. So I on strides. weekly, or at least every other week, we'll really push the pace on strides, like beyond what we would recommend as strides. I'm putting closer to a sprint. Like I'm really pushing that effort, which I think has paid off this year.

Angie:

Okay. So you increase the intensity of your strides?

Kevin:

Yes.

Angie:

Weekly. Or biweekly. Yeah. And then what about your other speed workout for that week or like what your other training sessions of the week look like?

Kevin:

My other training sessions have been very consistent for the last several years. Like my overall training kind of looks like yours. I have a couple of speed sessions during the week if I'm overwhelmed and I'll only have one speed session. Like I'll adjust and be like, yep, only getting one in this. Week, but it's a speed session where I push a little bit faster. It's a lot of interval training. It's a lot of fart like training.

Angie:

Okay. So tell, give us an idea of what does your typical training week look like?

Kevin:

So let's say that it works out,'cause this is ballpark. So Monday about eight miles, like everything's about eight miles until I get to the weekend, Monday will be easy. Tuesday will be, depending on how I'm feeling. Usually like a tempo based, interval thing. So say four minutes on, two minutes, easy where my on will be like L five. And then Wednesday's easy. Thursday's easy. Usually with strides on at least one of those days, maybe both. And then Friday will be faster speed, where my speed stuff is more like 5K effort, like L seven ish and. Saturday easy, Sunday long run. One of those days is an off day.

Angie:

Okay. So you typically do two speeds per week.

Kevin:

Yep.

Angie:

One around a level five, one around a level seven, and then also add on strides to another day.

Kevin:

Yeah. Sometimes strides is on one of the workout days. and on one of the easy runs,'cause strides don't really tire me out.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

I could do really hard strides one day, and I feel completely fine the next day. But I'm still getting the benefits from the strides. That's why I love strides.

Angie:

Yeah. So typically what I've noticed is Monday tends to be your off day.

Kevin:

Monday has definitely

Angie:

been during this cycle.

Kevin:

Yeah. Especially for the last couple of months. Monday's been off because my weekends have been really big. And especially if I do, when I did back to back long runs, I did a 20 and a 20 on Saturday, Sunday that Monday is off.

Angie:

Yeah. So talk about. That too. Like specifically your long runs, because that is another question that I get from a lot of people when I talk to them and tell them that you're doing a hundred miles. They ask how do you train for that? And what was his longest run?

Kevin:

You train for it? similar to a marathon.

Angie:

Okay.

Kevin:

Plus extra practice on fueling, quite frankly. And that's why like my longest long run was, I did 40,

Angie:

yeah. This time around it was 40.

Kevin:

And most of that is just practice being out there for so long. Like where does your brain go? Are you still able to stay in with what you're doing or, after a few hours of running, after 30 miles, you're like, I hate this.'cause if you hate getting to mile 30 in your training run, when you're in full control of what's happening, are you really gonna enjoy racing for a hundred miles?'cause you probably aren't. And A lot of that being out there for so many hours lets you see how does the fueling work?'cause sometimes fueling seems fine on a 20 miler, but if you keep doing the same fueling for another 20 miles, it could quickly go downhill. Yeah. And what seems great at hour two is awful. At hour four.

Angie:

Yeah. So you did one 40 mile run this year? Yep. Or last year, And then you did another weekend about a month later where you did back to back 20 milers.

Kevin:

Yes, back to back twenties. And then I think I did both of those at like comfortable pace with a lot of fueling on those ones. And then I did another one where I did I think 15 on one day and 20 on the next. Okay. But I did some Like a bit of a steady effort, a little harder effort on the 15 being there, and then came back the next day. It's not like I was pushing it that hard. Yeah. Like it was probably

Angie:

you were pushing it more than a level two.

Kevin:

I was pushing it more than a level two, but I'd say I was pushing it to like level three. Yeah. It was still slower than marathon pace. It was fairly comfortable, but a little bit more so that my body was bringing a little bit of fatigue into the next day when I then had to go out and hit 20. And so much of it is just can my body handle. Fueling and the intake of all the liquid during all of it.

Angie:

Yeah. So when we train our clients, a lot of times, especially people that run marathons. In marathon training, obviously a marathon is 26.2 miles, and marathon training never goes to 26.2 miles. Most of our marathon plans go to around 20 miles. Some people are 18, some people go to 22, but 20 ish miles is your long run typically before you actually hit the marathon. And there's a lot of people that have this idea and this question of. If I've never done it in training, how am I going to be able to do it on race day? And we always say, you just will. You're going to be able to do it. And we always encourage our clients to trust the magic of training. You have to trust the process because. We always say it's not worth the wear and tear on your body to keep going after that point. Like the risks outweigh the benefits at that point in time. okay, that's an extra 10 K, right? That's an extra six miles. And now you're telling us that you, the longest that you ran in training was 40 miles, so that's an extra 60 miles that you have to run.

Kevin:

Yeah.

Angie:

How in the world does that math work out? that sounds crazy. And that's where I think a lot of people don't understand ultra training because they think, oh, in order to run a hundred miles, I have to build my mileage up to 50, 60, 70, 80 miles and get closer to that a hundred. To be able to know that I'll. Be able to complete it.

Kevin:

Yeah. I'd argue if you are really good with fueling or maybe you've just, you've never had any tummy issues on any long run you've ever done. If you train for a marathon, you could, instead of like you show up at the starting line, if they told you, Hey, it's not a marathon, it's a hundred K, you could definitely do it. Like I think that you're fully trained to do it.

Angie:

To do a hundred K.

Kevin:

Yeah.

Angie:

Okay. So a

Kevin:

hundred K would be you. You could probably even go further.

Angie:

A hundred K is 62 miles. Yeah. Okay. Why, like how is that physically possible for the human body?

Kevin:

Because you pull yourself back so much more. Like when you're running a marathon, there's a level of pushing on the gas. Throughout, and there are. Some freaks of nature that race a hundred mile ultras, where their foot is literally on the gas pedal. Yeah. I've heard some interviews with these people. They're like, oh, I just, I really felt like I had to keep my foot on the gas until I hit the blah, blah, blah mark. I'm like, that is mile 97. You kept your foot on the gas until 97 like it sounds bongers. And that's because they're

Angie:

like, all of it sounds bonkers to most of us.

Kevin:

But if you look on a bell curve, you can't even see where they're on the bell curve. Yeah. Because their part is so tiny to the right. Like they, they're not on bell curve. I think that most people, if you go to try to do something that is really long, 50 miles, 62 miles, a hundred miles, something that long, a lot of it is just saying, can I mentally be out there and continue going? You can physically do it. Your body is physically capable of doing it. As long as you mentally tell yourself this is just what we're gonna do. Like the time that it takes, not the time that I'm aiming for, but the time that we're allotted to finish this race is 32 hours. That means if you walked the entire thing, you could cover. The race under the timeline,

Angie:

you can walk a hundred miles in 32 hours.

Kevin:

You'd have be pri I

Angie:

never figured out the,

Kevin:

I'm pretty sure you'd have to be briskly walking, but I

Angie:

think yeah, we should figure out that pacing, but that's interesting. and that's usually my answer to people when people ask me this question of how can he run a hundred miles if. The longest he's ever gone is 40. And I, that's my answer, is there's gonna be a lot of walking involved.

Kevin:

So yeah. And I always then try and correct people and be like, I don't just go out and walk in the woods because the first time that I ran that I finished, I crossed the finish line in Daytona. I had to walk a lot of it.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

Because my hernia was pushing out of my lower abdomen and it was super uncomfortable, so I had to keep pushing it back in. And that slows you down. and I had some foot issues, but also the intestines.

Angie:

yes. Also internal organs on the inside of the body for the, when

Kevin:

it really helped the next time I did it. so I got back and I told my students that I had done it. Several of them were following along. With like on, you're posting live updates on Instagram? Yeah. And they were following along with what was happening. And so I came back and I'm wearing the belt buckle the next week and the kids were asking questions and some of'em were like, how do you run that much? Like how much did you have to walk? Because we had some kids on the cross country team that were in that class. They're like, how much did you have to walk? And the answer was a lot more than I wanted to. And I think that part of this is how much can you get your body to move into, like slowly jogging along. Versus walking. Like how much can you feel like you're pushing A little bit. It's not like I'm pushing hard on the gas, but like you put your body into cruise control and it's I'm just gonna find this pace and this pace is very comfortable for me. I'm gonna ride this for as many hours as I possibly can. That statement seems weird to say, but that is a lot of what Ultra is. Is finding a pace that I could just lock into and I don't have to. Think about it, it's just so comfortable that I'm like, I'm doing this for hours. let's just go run through the woods now.

Angie:

Yeah. So when you go into the, actually we can go into your race strategy, I think later in the episode today. Sure. So going back to your training this cycle.

Kevin:

Okay.

Angie:

How did you balance those days where you just had to adjust because your body was saying Not today. And this is, I think, a good place where we can talk about the headaches. Yeah. that I've noticed. But how often did you experience that where your body was just like, Nope, that's, it is just not today.

Kevin:

it varies a lot based off, not based off of running. Most days if all I had to worry about was running, I could go out and run and it'd be fine.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

But then you throw in like midterms or the end of the quarter Is very tough on as a teacher or you turn in big races coming up for our cross country team. Yeah. And it's I can't go on this day because we have a race and it just, it throws the schedule off. I just didn't freak out if I only got one speed session in during a week. I was just like, I'm getting one, one speed session. Maybe I'll put in an extra set of strides. that was my biggest thing is I was just I tried to stay as calm as possible and be like, look, it's gonna be okay if I only get one speed session in. I don't have to try and squeeze that in later. Or if I'm really not feeling today, it doesn't have to be an easy run, it could just be an off day. that's why when it was like, this is my typical week. Lately I've been doing a lot of Monday off day, but during cross-country season I just, I would usually run on Monday because I knew somewhere during the week there was gonna be an unplanned off day.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

And that was my off day for the week.

Angie:

Yeah. And then like in one of your past training cycles, it was a lot of times a Tuesday because we had dance and We had, our girls had different thing places to go. Yes.

Kevin:

Lots of people needed to be driven places.

Angie:

Yeah. So there was it very much, your schedule very much fluctuates with our real life schedule.

Kevin:

Yes, because. It'd be great if I could get up every morning and get my run in before any possible, like distractions come in. But sometimes we're up late and if I'm not going to bed until,

Angie:

especially with teenagers, my goodness.

Kevin:

'cause they don't wanna go to bed. So if I'm not going

Angie:

to, oh, not only do they not wanna go to bed, they also have homework and all sorts of things now.

Kevin:

Yeah. There's things

Angie:

actually keeping them

Kevin:

up. There's things that are definitely actually keeping them up. But if I'm not in bed and asleep before 11. I'm not getting up at five to go for my run. That's not gonna be a good consistent pattern. I think that's what led to 2017. Let's not go back down that road.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

That seems like a bad path to go down.

Angie:

I agree with that. So would you say this time around. That you were more calm and more accepting when those schedule changes or when your body was saying, not today, we have to adjust versus previous,

Kevin:

I think IWI, I consciously was trying to be more calm. I'm not sure I necessarily was, we could ask you and the girls about that because in the past, on days where I'm like, this is gonna be my run and it didn't get in.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

I would get very grumpy.

Angie:

And I think that you definitely were more calm about things now and I just. So my question was going to be, so that was a very intentional thing for you to remain calm in the face of whatever kind of was thrown at you.

Kevin:

I, this is now, like we've said, this is the fourth, a hundred or a hundred mile starting line I've gotten to, and I know that one of the biggest things I need is to literally just build up some mileage And be able to get in some speed during the week. Yeah. it's not super precise exactly what I need. I'm not, it'd be awesome if I won. Someone asked the other day, are you trying to win? I'm like, I don't know. I've got some ballparks of times that I might be able to go for. I don't know what that's gonna actually. End up with,

Angie:

I think it's pretty wild though, like this whole world of 100 milers, just to see your progress thus far with the hundreds that you've done because you literally drop hours off of your time, which is so crazy because in any other race that's just not possible. But your first finish line, you hit in 21 something. I think it was like 21, 18,

Kevin:

something like that.

Angie:

And then. Your second one you hit in 1811. So you literally dropped over three hours off your time.

Kevin:

Yeah.

Angie:

And so then we're gonna see, I know what your goal is. I don't know if you wanna speak that out loud or not, but it's again, a chunk of time Yeah. That you'd like to drop.

Kevin:

I'd like to take a couple more hours off.

Angie:

Right.

Kevin:

Which sounds crazy to say out loud.

Angie:

It does sound crazy. Oh, it just sounds crazy. Period. But yes. Out loud too.

Kevin:

from what you are saying, it sounds crazy to say, I'm gonna take a couple of hours off. Yeah. But I also know how fast that starts to get. And then it, that just, it's to sound a little bonkers also.

Angie:

Yeah. So do you wanna put it out there, what your goal is for this race?

Kevin:

I'd like to get around 16.

Angie:

16 hours.

Kevin:

Yeah.

Angie:

What pace is that?

Kevin:

It's under 10 minutes per mile.

Angie:

It's under 10?

Kevin:

Yeah.

Angie:

Wow. That's wild.

Kevin:

I know.

Angie:

That's wild. Last time you did it, you were just under 11, right?

Kevin:

I don't remember

Angie:

your average pace.

Kevin:

we could do it. So

Angie:

I think you were at 10 50 something.'cause I feel like I remember looking at it and thinking to myself like, oh, that's just my Saturday long run pace.

Kevin:

that's the thing is it's the pace that some people go off their long runs and it included like some, stopping at aid stations throughout. But

Angie:

yeah,

Kevin:

for the first. two loops of it, I was holding seven 30 pace. So like I, I build up some buffer on the Yeah. At the beginning of the day. Yeah. I don't hold the same pace throughout.

Angie:

I have full faith that you're able to do it if. Depending on how the day goes, right? depending on how your fueling goes and how your body responds. I think that you've been, it seems like you're in very good shape. It seems like your training has gone very well, at least from my perspective and from talking to you, but mentioning those headaches that I was talking about. Kevin came home today and had to lay down'cause he had a headache and I have noticed, and I don't write these things down or really pay much attention to exactly how often they're happening, but I just had this thought today of, I think that's been happening a little. More recently with the headaches over the last few months. On Mondays specifically, like the day after your long run. The

Kevin:

day after the long run, yeah. Is usually when they happen.

Angie:

And I think,'cause I think that's one of the big reasons that Mondays have become your off day too. It's not just because your legs are tired or your body's tired. It's usually because of a headache that's going on because. Most likely a fueling issue that has happened from you not either not fueling during the run enough or not refueling most likely afterwards?

Kevin:

Usually, because I think I've been doing a lot better job fueling during, because I have felt a lot better on Sundays after the run. Than I have in the past.

Angie:

Okay.

Kevin:

Like for the rest of the day on Sunday, I've usually felt pretty good.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

And I don't know if that's good or bad because I think one of the things that then follows that is, I feel fine. So I'm doing other stuff instead of

Angie:

on Sundays. Uhhuh

Kevin:

instead of sitting down and eating continuously throughout the rest of the day.

Angie:

Gotcha.

Kevin:

And I need to make sure that I am eating. Basically nonstop through Sunday and Monday breakfast and Monday lunch. And Monday di like the amount of food that I need on Monday

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

From a very long run on Sunday. Is still pretty drastic.

Angie:

Yeah. So let's get into this fueling discussion. Okay. With like your nutrition strategy or fueling strategy, because like you said, this is a very important piece of running ultras. So much of you. Anyone being able to run for that long of a period of time is how are you fueling your body? What are you actually putting in to give your body the energy that it needs in order to do this ridiculous task that you have at hand

Kevin:

sugar.

Angie:

So how has your overall fueling and nutrition strategy evolved since last year?

Kevin:

I have moved to, and. Anybody who's in the lake, the trail running ultra world at all knows that ultra running has been basically taken over by har high carb fueling. So the people that are out there winning the races are taking in such huge amount of caloric loads. It's ridiculous to, without getting overly sciency, your body can basically absorb 60 grams of glucose an hour. Pretty much regardless of who you are, that's what it can do. And that's the cap. So if you eat 70 grams of glucose, your body can absorb 60 of them, and then you have this overflow. And if you have too much overflow, it usually makes your stomach upset. But then what they figured out is if you also bring in a different type of sugar fructose, you can suddenly take in a whole lot more sugar. And so there's people out there winning races that are sucking in 120 grams of carbs an hour of basically just straight processed sugar. Which is a little nutty. The suggestion is,

Angie:

what do you mean nutty?

Kevin:

that's so define

Angie:

nutty

Kevin:

that so much over the course of, people that are winning these things over the course of 12 to 14 hours to take in 120 grams of sugar an hour. Let's round down for easier. Math. 120 grams of sugar. An hour for 10 hours is, 1200, 1200 grams of sugar. I don't think that necessarily meets the recommended daily guidelines.

Angie:

Yeah, but you're running a hundred miles, like all of it's. Wonky.

Kevin:

yeah. Running a hundred miles

Angie:

probably. He said It's silly. Yeah. So was running a hundred miles, like all of it is like

Kevin:

valid.

Angie:

You can't,

Kevin:

you make

Angie:

a, it all goes hand in hand.

Kevin:

You make a good point. And so the suggestion and this, the newer science behind this is the. All the different fuel companies have found ways that people can take in more fuel with less likely GI distress. So a lot of the fuel that I'm currently taking is a lot more liquidy. So it just, it goes down smoother, which is gonna be a whole lot different than what I took in last year. Last year partway through the race, you remember I moved over to grapes Yeah. and liquid calories. Yeah. Was pretty much what I had. because I'm like, there's no way I can have another one of those gels. Because there, it just. Feels so thick. it felt like it wasn't, it was nicer than this, but it felt like the consistency of like toothpaste. And that's just too much. I'm like, I can't do that anymore.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

So what I have now is a lot more liquidy and it just goes down so much easier. It's also in one little packet, 50 grams of sugar, whereas last year I was doing like 25 in one thing. Yeah. And then I had to keep taking them.

Angie:

Yeah. So how is your fueling strategy? let's, before the race, like just overall fueling up until now, overall nutrition up until the race,

Kevin:

like from like of this week are we

Angie:

talking or what are you

Kevin:

saying?

Angie:

So let's just talk during your training, like during your training runs, and then we'll also talk about just your overall. General nutrition strategy, like when you're not running, so when

Kevin:

you

Angie:

to help to promote recovery and adaptation.

Kevin:

So if I'm running an hour or less, which is basically all of my runs, I, I don't feel during the runs unless I'm trying to do something to be like, let's see if my body can handle this. what if I try and take in, when I tried the new gel, I took in that and a whole bunch of water before I even started the run just to be like. Let's see if I can make my stomach uncomfortable and then still get through the run. And I did. I did. I went fine. so most of the runs, if they're an hour or less, I may have, if I get up in the morning and immediately run, I'll have a banana.

Angie:

but as you like cough over there for a second, I just wanna point out what Kevin just said. He intentionally tried to make his stomach full of stuff and then go out and run. So this is a training strategy, and this is one of the things that we tell our clients as well is your fueling strategy and your. Stomach has to be a part of your training. This is not just about training your legs, training your cardiovascular system and your lungs and all of that. You're also training your stomach to be able to take in all sorts of different types of food and fuel, and then you be able to continue to run, even though your stomach is full or your stomach is a little sloshy, like all of these things are trainable. Yeah. And so he would. Intentionally cause like stomach fullness and even a little bit of stomach discomfort, and then try to go run on it,

Kevin:

right? Because your stomach is entirely trainable. It's. Probably more rapidly trainable than your muscles are. The negative of that is it's also more rapidly de trainable. Because the cells inside of your stomach,'cause they're sitting in stomach acid, break down faster than your muscles do.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

So where You can hang onto your endurance training for weeks and weeks, even if you're not doing very much, you don't really hang on to like your gut training for very long at all. So you kinda have to stay on top of this and make sure that you are regularly making sure that you're fueling. You can't be like, oh, yeah. I did the, I did my long run. like four weeks out for my marathon and I fueling for that went well. So I don't have a big long run. I don't need to fuel my long runs going forward and I'll be fine during the race. It's no. You don't have those same cells inside of your stomach anymore for the race. You need to make sure that it's continuously working.

Angie:

Yeah. So going back to the headache situation, do you think that you just weren't eating enough food on that day? Like of the long run on Sundays?

Kevin:

Yeah, I don't think I was eating enough food for the rest of the day post run.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

It's, that's the answer is

Angie:

I agree

Kevin:

the food and hydration is usually, it hasn't been a hydration issue. The answer has been have a little bit of water, have a snack and lay down. But I think it's the snack and laying down that helps. It's not necessarily the water that's helping.'cause usually it's have a good snack and then go lay down and I feel fine. An hour later, sometimes two.

Angie:

Okay. so how does the fueling that you practiced. Up leading up to now, how is that going to translate for race day? What's the fueling strategy actually on race day?

Kevin:

so I've got a gel that I've been working really nicely with. and if, and it's 50 grams of carbs Of two different types of carbs. That's,

Angie:

that brand is called carbs, fuel. Carbs in case carbs. Carbs Fuel.

Kevin:

Yeah. Carbs fuel.

Angie:

Yeah. in case anybody is curious.

Kevin:

That's a good one. Yep. it's kinda a, it's a bigger packet. It's nice and liquidy. there's not a flavor to it. The flavor is just like sweet. So that's also really nice. That Nice is there's no flavor to it. Yeah. and then, but it's

Angie:

sweet enough that it's palatable.

Kevin:

it's definitely sweet. It's sugar. it's a packet. Packet full of liquified sugar. Yeah. So it's very sweet, but there's no actual, flavor that they've put into it.

Angie:

Okay. So how often are you doing those?

Kevin:

every 40 ish minutes.

Angie:

Okay.

Kevin:

I'm debating, and this is part of I need to go over with you of the details of Yeah. We

Angie:

need to kind

Kevin:

of work this out. So part of this is if I have one of those every hour And I keep drinking in a bottle because my water bottle always has scratch inside of it that's got carbs in it also. And if I mix that up and periodically take in these scratch chews that I really like'cause I like the flavor of them. And those have caffeine in them. Yeah. So they're nice for a little extra boost when you start fading. then I think I only really need to take in one of those gels every. Hour.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

Because that plus liquid is gonna put me up over 75 grams of an hour, and I know that I'm good there. I know I'm good there without stomach problems.

Angie:

Have you tried 90?

Kevin:

I've tried 90 and I think that if I keep pushing 90 for longer, I will get to the point of stomach issues. Okay. I, I don't

Angie:

What about non-carbs? Because I know in the past we've tried, real food and adding some protein in and things like that too.

Kevin:

So real food, if I have to start doing a lot more walking, then it's a lot easier to take in real food. Until then it's let's make sure that I'm getting as many calories in as possible, and it's a lot easier to get the calories in. With gels than it is with a fistful of raisins. Like it just, it's a lot. The amount of raisin. Yeah. I've measured this out before. The amount of raisins that I would need to take in to match what I can suck down in a gel in five seconds.

Angie:

and raisins also have fiber and like this is the other thing that we're looking at too, and this is one of the things we've learned from one of his previous races when we were doing fig bars as part of his fueling strategy. A lot of fig bars. I think that the too many fig bars had too much fiber. And that was one of the reasons that you had gut issues in the Keys?

Kevin:

Yes. when I first got into this, you were very big on making sure that I was eating as many like real whole foods as possible during the run. Because you didn't want all the like. Gels and GOs and stuff. You're like, that's a lot of like fillers that are in there. But what I have right now has very little fillers. Yeah. I'm not suggesting that it's not processed. It's uber processed, super processed, but there's not a lot of filler inside of it.

Angie:

Yeah. I think that this is one of those things too that we always have to balance out because in general, we eat a very whole foods. Diet in our house, like we eat a lot of whole foods, proteins, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, race situation is different. I think that this is one of the things that, one of the evolutions that I've come to as well of just because you eat quote unquote healthy and you eat more whole foods in your normal everyday. Life does not mean that those whole foods are the best choice for you during a race.

Kevin:

That is. That is

Angie:

true.'cause sometimes these races require something different and it's best for you to give your body what's going to keep it going. So yes, you and I do definitely need to sit down and. Map this whole strategy out

Kevin:

and there are people that would prefer to run, walk the entire thing and go to aid stations and get the real food. There are aid station quesadillas happening. Yeah. Last year there was potato soup. It smelled delicious, but I'm like, no. I gotta go. I don't have time to spoon some soup and this is not my plan right now. I'm going

Angie:

so and that's also. So your difference in, in the way that you race it versus the way a lot of people race ultra marathons as well, like

Kevin:

you are really the way I currently race it,

Angie:

right? The way that you're trying to race this is to get the fastest time that you possibly can.

Kevin:

Yes. Without being a jerk during aid stations with you or really any of the volunteers.'cause they're all also awesome.

Angie:

Yeah, definitely the volunteers as well.'cause those, all of those people, God bless anyone that's doing. Aid station volunteering. I

Kevin:

mean, last year these people were out in like in a downpour. Yeah. Overnight. Yeah.

Angie:

Amazing.

Kevin:

Because it didn't start raining until two in the morning.

Angie:

Yeah. Definitely you are not a jerk. You just get a little cranky and moody around somewhere around mile 50. it's fun. So we're gonna see what that looks like this year. alright. Any other comments on nutrition and fueling?'cause I know you and I still have to work that out, so we'll give you guys some details of what it all actually looks like at the, in our recap episode.

Kevin:

I think we may get a lot of that one in the recap episode. Yeah.

Angie:

Alright, so mindset. Pressure perspective, like how has your mindset evolved and what do, what's your mindset like going into this race and how is that different from past years?

Kevin:

All right, so I've been racing for 30 years, the way that I've approached races has changed a lot. This one is hundreds are different because it is, even though I've crossed a couple of finish lines, it's still a leap into the unknown and I think all races are a bit of a leap into the unknown. This one, I still have so much that I'm not sure how it's gonna play out, so I think to me, that takes some of the pressure off. One of the other races that, we've had podcasts on, that we do every year is our school 5K. There's a weird pressure on me in that one also'cause I'm like, I'm the cross country coach and I've won it so many times and people are like, oh, are you gonna go out and win it again? And. Every year for the last several years, I've said I'll go as fast as I can, but I don't know who else is gonna be there. And it's really separating what I can do from who else is going to be there. And I've said that so often for racing our school, 5K. And I have really brought that into racing the hundred is I'm gonna go out and put forth the best performance I can. I could finish 20th. I have no idea. Like I really don't know where I'm going to finish in the race. That's not the point. it's really not the point of why I'm doing this thing. I'm doing it to see what happens. I'm going to see like how I can push myself. What if I take it out too fast and I blow up and I run slower than that when last year? What? that's a good learning experience. Don't do that again. That didn't go very well. Like it's all. It's all just learning opportunities. It's an interesting experience to see what I can do, pushing myself. Yeah. And that takes a whole lot of the pressure off when doing it slower than last time isn't a failure. It's a, it really is. I've so adopted. that's a pretty good learning opportunity.

Angie:

Yeah. I think that this is one of the ways that we can get it so wrong as runners, no matter what our distance is that we put so much pressure on ourself to either hit a certain time or hit a certain distance or feel a certain way. And in reality there's only so many things that we can control. And so I really love that. Mindset that you have going in here. This is an experiment. It's a learning opportunity. We're gonna try something out, we're gonna see what happens and then we're gonna go from there. Because sometimes this is mirrors our conversation with our 16-year-old daughter yesterday as well.'cause we were talking to her about something else and one of the things I said to her is, babe, please remember this is the first time we've ever parented a 16-year-old before. Dad and I are just trying to figure this out Also. And we're gonna make mistakes. And it's not that you're a science experiment by any means, but we are doing the best we can. We're making the decisions that we think are best for you because overall your highest good and your happiness and growth and. All of that is our number one concern. And everything we do is out of love, but we're gonna get things wrong. And it's the same way with racing, right? racing in real life here they are mirroring each other again, but going into it with that sense of curiosity and, okay, let's try this and we're gonna see how it goes. I, I really love that. And I know that you and I were talking about this yesterday. I brought it up with. A run walk strategy and I asked you if you were planning on doing any sort of structured run walk strategy because you were talking about Sally or I think I had seen something like Sally McCray, she's a professional ultra runner. She's also doing this race, and she, I think was. Did, I think you told me right? Yeah. That she was playing on a set like run walk ratio that she was gonna go with for

Kevin:

Yeah. So I was watching her YouTube'cause it just came out that she was running this race. Yeah. So I was watching her to see how her training's going.'cause she's coming off of a serious knee injury,

Angie:

knee surgery,

Kevin:

and, She had her video was one of her big, like long, I think it was like a four hour training run, and she was doing like run for 10 minutes, walk for three. And so you asked what kind of run walk strategy do you have? I'm like, I'm gonna just try and keep it as comfortably running as possible. But the thing is, every time I eat, I walk. Like when I first started training for these, I was like, all right, how much can I eat while I continue to run? And then in that first race, I'm like, all right, by the time I've been running for a few hours. I'm taking walking breaks. Why don't I just walk every time I eat because it's going to be easier to eat. I'm not gonna be choking on any of these things. I'll, I can probably digest it a little bit better. If I can swallow it smoother, I can get the drink down with it. All that's gonna go better. In and that's going to lead to better results. So I take a walking break every time I eat, like I don't try to jog with any of the stuff. I did the same thing last year during the race. Like I lost people because I stopped and was taking down the gels I did in my last marathon. I was stopping at every single aid station to drink the cup of Gatorade they had.

Angie:

Yeah. Yeah. So that's a good strategy for you.

Kevin:

It works for me. Yeah. It drove one of the other guys in the marathon nuts. Every time I would stop at the aid station, he would look back over his shoulder with a weird look at me, what is he doing? And then in 30 seconds, I was right back on him. I'm like, I needed to get a drink buddy.

Angie:

I needed my drinks. all right. Cool. So overall. Feeling good going into it with a sense of curiosity. We've got some lessons from last year.

Kevin:

I'm excited.

Angie:

You're excited?

Kevin:

I'm really excited for this one because I'm, I want

Angie:

define excited. What does that mean to you? It.

Kevin:

I've gone through nerves multiple times. Because like on Sunday, that was my last run that was still double digits, and I know that like my last long run workout was the weekend before or two before I forget, and I finished that one. I'm like, all right, I've put in all the work, like there's nothing else that I'm doing this week that's going to help me to get in a better. Position.

Angie:

Yeah.

Kevin:

Training wise, there's just not. With a 5K, it takes about a week to get training to actually pay off in the race with a hundred mile race, I'm not sure how long that window is, but I'm not building endurance anymore. Yeah. Like that ship has sailed.

Angie:

Right.

Kevin:

So at this point. Which is freeing, but then also nervous. And then it's freeing and exciting and then nervous. And so I've gone through that rollercoaster multiple times over the last couple of weeks. Yeah. Of knowing that the training is done, but then, oh no. Oh no. The training's all done.

Angie:

Is it enough?

Kevin:

Yeah. Yeah. Because there's always that feeling of, is it enough? Is

Angie:

that question like how many times is. Does that question come up frequently for you?

Kevin:

Oh yeah. Like every other day.

Angie:

Every other day.

Kevin:

So today I'm on a, I feel good. I feel good about the training that I've put in. I feel like I'm in better shape than I was last year. I ran our Christmas 5K faster this year than I did last year. Yeah. And I'm a year older, so I that. Had me feeling really good when I put that in.

Angie:

okay, so if you had to put your coach hat on right now, okay. If you were your own athlete,

Kevin:

it's fluorescent yellow, by the way,

Angie:

his hat. If you were your own athlete, what would you say as a coach to your athlete that was a couple days out from this a hundred?

Kevin:

Ah, this is why I don't currently coach people that race a hundred milers. I am pretty good at being able to look at somebody's training block and ballpark a good racing strategy and pacing strategy for a marathon.

Angie:

Yeah,

Kevin:

I'm still experimenting a lot with what that means over the course of a hundred miles. That's why I have, we've talked in way previous episodes of different levels of goals. I have so many different levels of goals of let's start here and see how my body feels and this is probably what I would say is. Have an A goal and start there and be willing to adjust from your A goal quickly to your

Angie:

beagle. So is your a goal, what is your a goal?

Kevin:

Sub 16.

Angie:

Sub 16?

Kevin:

Yeah.

Angie:

Oh, dang.

Kevin:

Yeah, but. It is very loosely held, like very loosely held. I'm willing to give up my, a goal within a couple of miles. That's the thing is if two miles in, I'm like, this is not the skies did not part, and a beam of light came down upon me, then nope. that goal is out, and then start moving into more realistic goals. I know that I can do it in 18 hours. I did it in 18 hours and I think that I'm in better shape this year. The weather needs to cooperate. It's gonna be cold, so I have to deal with that,

Angie:

which could be a good thing.

Kevin:

It's gonna be better in the middle of the afternoon. The first couple of hours are gonna be cold, like

Angie:

Yeah, cold for us. Like cold for Floridians, but everyone else,

Kevin:

a Floridian.

Angie:

That is true. True.

Kevin:

True. that's the thing is people that are coming from like up north where it's snowing and they're coming down here, it's gonna be like, oh, that's chilly. Because it's gonna be in the forties, but that's just outright cold for me. yeah, I have to deal with that for the first few miles and then I'm hoping to finish before it gets really cold again. That's the other side.

Angie:

Yeah. So fun. Alright, any last thoughts or final words that you would like to share?

Kevin:

I think we should share how people can follow along.'cause I know you're gonna be live updating.

Angie:

I'm gonna do my best. last year, the service out there,'cause we are in the middle of a state park in Florida, so the service was not

Kevin:

dicey.

Angie:

Yeah, it was not reliable. We'll just put it that way. I had made some videos and I put them to upload on Instagram and they weren't uploading. So we drove into town to get Starbucks and then they did. but the, it made the. Rest of the updates that day. A little spotty. So we'll see what all will or will not be able to do. But yes, you should definitely follow along on Instagram. That's where I'll be posting updates on our Instagram stories. So

Kevin:

there'll

Angie:

be also as real life runners is the Instagram handle.

Kevin:

There's also live tracking. I go over timing mats throughout the course. Yeah. And there is live tracking, so we'll post my number up on real life runners also.

Angie:

Yeah, I'll do my best. to give you guys updates'cause I do like to take videos and updates, especially when Kevin comes in. Me and my two girls will be his race crew again. So we've got a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old and me best race

Kevin:

crew around.

Angie:

Yeah. And then, We decided not to bring the new dog.'cause we have had our new dog now for three months and I'm hoping that he will become part of our race crew in the future. But since he's only been with us for three months and we're still working on some training things, we thought it would be best to.

Kevin:

I'm glad that

Angie:

the crew

Kevin:

captain made that choice.

Angie:

Yeah. so thank you to our amazing friends that are gonna watch him while we're gone. But, yeah, that's the way to do it. So check us out and follow us over at Real Life Runners on Instagram. Because typically your races are some of our most viewed stories all year long. So definitely follow along over there.

Kevin:

So whether it goes well or poorly, man, it's some good content.

Angie:

that's it. People like the story, right? Like people wanna follow along with the story. I know I've had so many people telling me like, I've, I was watching, I was up, I stayed up all night.'cause I wanted to see when Kevin was gonna finish.

Kevin:

Yeah. honestly like this podcast is great'cause it's like chapter one, but then the race happens and there's a whole story that's gonna get told. and no one knows what the ending is.

Angie:

Yeah. And even if I'm not able to post it in real time, I will still take videos and then make the posts. Afterwards at some point in time when we go back to the hotel.

Kevin:

Great. And I will try to be friendly when I see the camera.

Angie:

no. You have to be cranky, Kevin, at one point in time. What? No, you just have to be real. don't put on a face and a facade because you,

Kevin:

that's the thing.

Angie:

You don't have any energy for that. No. there's no reason.

Kevin:

That's why after I'm through,

Angie:

yeah.

Kevin:

Lamp one, I'm efficient through the aid station. After that, I'm just as real as it gets because it's fun. I don't have energy for anything beyond that.

Angie:

Yeah. So like the first time that, the first race that we did, The very first race that we did when we did the Keys 100, I was really not sure and I was nervous because of Kevin's history with seizure. You

Kevin:

thought I was gonna die in the middle of the race.

Angie:

I was seizure. I was nervous about lots of different things because I just didn't know any better. And then that second one we went to in Daytona, we went to the race panel the night before and that was very helpful for me as the crew chief.

Kevin:

Yes. That was the best.

Angie:

Yeah, because they were basically like, no, your job as crew chief is to get your runner through this race and there's gonna be. Highs and lows and you have to just keep them going like that is your job. Like it, they're not gonna wanna keep going. You are going to keep, continue them, down the road. it's a little tough. Love never hurt anybody.

Kevin:

Yeah, no, it's beautiful. You guys are so good as a crew.

Angie:

Yeah. alright guys, follow us over there on Instagram. Thanks for joining us today. we will definitely have an update for you probably next week, and we will do the post-race recap. Of the long haul. 100.

Kevin:

Excellent.

Angie:

So fun. Kevin loves being the center of attention.

Kevin:

I just hope that I can have the focus by when we try and record for next week.

Angie:

and maybe it doesn't come next week, and maybe it's the week after. That's why I don't wanna promise anything. Maybe next week will be, a different episode and then the recap will come the week after,

Kevin:

right? Because sometimes it takes good 24 hours where I can actually form a coherent thought.

Angie:

I was gonna say, it's not just the physical recovery, it's also the mental recovery.

Kevin:

It's the mental recovery. We can talk about that on the next one too.

Angie:

Absolutely. Alright guys, if this was fun for you, interesting, leave us a review, share the episode, all the good things, follow us, subscribe so that you don't miss our next episode.'cause you definitely don't wanna miss what actually happens during the race and all of our thoughts afterwards. So thanks for joining us. This has been The Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 444. Ooh, it's 4 4 4 Kev 4 4 4. Now get out there and run your life.