S2E8 -- Connecting the dots – Ohana style (with guests Jen McVeay & Jeremy Howard)

Over the next few episodes I will be profiling athletes from the upcoming Ultraman Florida and Ultraman Arizona. 

My first conversation today is with Jen McVeay who is the co-race director of UM Florida and Race Director for UM Arizona.   We discuss how she became a part of the Ohana and why she chose to bring Ultraman to Arizona.

Steve King talks about “El Toro”, Inaki de la Parra.  Inaki has been the champion at UMUK and the Ultraman World Championships in 2016.

The Ultraman Florida 2022 athlete profile features Jeremy Howard who was at the UMWC race with Inaki in 2016 as a crew member.  He has raced there three times himself.   This will be his first race in Florida– or maybe not?

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Ultraman Florida
• Ultraman Arizona
• Ultraman World Championships 
• Outschool.com. (Jen's Online School)
• www.jennymactravel.com   (Jen's upcoming Travel site)
• Ultraman UK
• Ultraman Canada
• UM Australia
• Beach 2 Battleship 
• The Practice of Groundedness (book) Brad Stulberg 
• Range (Book) by David Epstein 
• Yale Cancer Center
• Connecticut  Challenge

Shout outs and mentions in this episode:

• Steve King
• Andre Kajlich 
• Chris Holzner
• Juan Craveri
• Inaki de la Parra
• Chuck Kenemy
• Kasia Solińska
• Christian McEvoy 
• Mike Coughlin
• Rob Gray
• Lionel Sanders
• Jan Frodeno
• Richard Thompson
• Caroliine Bloom 
• Gaurav Makkar
• Abhay Kelkar
• Adam Ellenstein
• Ryan Toner

___________________________________________________________

Show Contributors:
Host : Larry Ryan
Contributing Raconteur : Steve King
Announcer : Mary Jo Dionne
Production : 5Five Enterprises
Music  :  Run by 331

___________________________________________________________

For show notes and past guests, please visit the Podcast Website: https://515theultrapodcast.buzzsprout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/515TheUltraPodcast

 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or where you get your pods.   

 I would like to hear from you and who you think should be interviewed.

 Email : 515Ultraman@gmail.com

Transcript

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UM Arizona Race Director Jen McVeay

Larry 0:48

My Ohana guest today is an artist, a photographer, a teacher, and a veteran crew chief for races like Ram and Ultraman. She is also a race director for numerous races. So with jobs like that, she clearly does what she does for love and not the money. Further proof to that premise, during the pandemic, she has decided she is going to start a travel blog and a travel agency. She is the co-race director of Ultraman Florida and the race director for Ultraman Arizona. And I'm quite sure she is the only Ohana member to ever appear on the Wheel of Fortune. Jen McVeigh, happy new year and welcome to the 515 podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Thanks, Larry. Happy New Year to you, and thanks for having me.

Larry 1:34

So let's start with that uh fun part of the introduction. Can can you tell us about being on Wheel of Fortune? How'd that happen?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Uh yeah, that was that was a few years ago. Back in 1988. That's a few. A friend of a friend um had the phone number to call to to set up tryouts. So I called it, I set up a tryout, went up to LA, took a test. Uh there were 60 people in the room. Five of us passed the test. So it was a pretty tough test. And tested, did a few other tests throughout the day, and that was in January. Five months later, I got a call and said, Can you be up here on Friday to film? So that was pretty exciting.

Larry 2:33

What what what kind of tests did they have? Were they like crossword puzzles tests, or what were they?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

It was kind of like the puzzles. It was a the first one was a written test, and there were 15 puzzles with just a few letters in each one, and they would give you the category of person, place, or thing. Back then, they only used three categories: person, place, or thing. And you had five minutes to try to fill them out, and you had to get at least eight right to move on. They were they were very difficult. And I got exactly eight right. So I barely passed the test, but I passed.

Larry 3:14

And and so did you guess any of the puzzles when you were when you were a contestant?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

I actually did pretty well. At that time, you were allowed to stay on for like five days in a row or something like that, and I was on for three days. Wow. So so I was the big winner on the first two days, and then on the third day, I got my butt kicked by this girl from Alabama. Um, but I was very happy with my winnings, and I won a Chevy Blazer.

unknown 3:45

Ooh.

Larry 3:47

And did you did you keep it? Did you drive it or did you did you sell it?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

I kept it. I had it for about five years. It was actually a lemon, unfortunately. Um, but I had it for five years and uh and then I eventually sold it.

SPEAKER_07 4:02

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

That that particular year of Chevy Blazers is not a good year for them.

Larry 4:09

Well, uh that's a that's a very interesting story. Um, I don't know of many people that have been on game shows. Um can you tell me what your what your life was like before entering the ultra world? I mean, now we know you as one of the key players around Ultraman with the Ultraman Hawaii and Ultraman Florida, and now your own Ultraman Arizona, which we'll be talking about shortly. But what what were you doing before you got involved in this ultra world? I I understand you were still a race director of some other races.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Yeah, um, I fell into being a race director um with a 5k. This was totally by accident. About 15 years ago, um, I offered to help a friend who needed to step down as the RD. Um, that then led to me starting a half marathon, which happened by accident when another half marathon got canceled. Um, then I started it in an 8K and then another 5K, and eventually I put on a uh an overnight ultra called the cow race. Um, so I've been involved in the race world for many, many years um before joining the crazy ultra world.

Larry 5:22

Yeah. And you've also been a crew chief, as I said in the opening for some some pretty big races, race across America, um, Badwater. Um I know that you you've worked with Andre uh on the on the Ram. Can you can you tell me a little bit about what that experience was like um working with Andre on Ram?

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Andre is quite a character. Andre Kailek, uh he ended up becoming the very first double amputee hand cyclist to cross the Ram finish line. And uh it was quite the experience being on his crew, definitely different from the first time I had crewed Ram. The first time I crewed Ram, I was a crew chief and I was crewing um a team, a four-man team. So so switching over and being on the crew and crewing just a single solo rider was very different from crewing a team. Um I was on the RV crew uh with my co-pilot, uh Chris Holzner, also known as JB. And we were in charge of all the food for the crew and for Andre, um, as well as booking all the hotels, basically all the logistics stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Um, doing all the laundry, that was something else. Uh, but it has to be done, you know. So somebody's gotta do it. Um, so I didn't get to like see Andre much because we were kept apart from him. Uh, but I'm super stoked that I got to see him do it uh because he's pretty pretty incredible guy.

SPEAKER_07 7:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

The first time I met Andre was actually at Ultraman Worlds a few years before that. And I'll never forget watching him wheel his regular wheelchair down the Queen K um on the day three run and thinking he's totally gonna eat it because you know parts of the Queen K, you're really at kind of it has it has a camber that's really planted. Yeah, so I thought for sure Andre was gonna eat it, but he he didn't, he made it. So and he's uh he's a good friend. We we have a lot of laughs. We we keep in touch to this day, so yeah.

Larry 7:52

And and I guess you take some of that same crewing experience over to your Badwater, because the Badwater's not quite as long, you're not going across the whole country. Um, but a lot of the same same ideas are are part of that, and and you've crewed Badwater three times as well. So um, who have you crewed at Badwater?

SPEAKER_01 8:13

At Badwater, I've crewed my good friend, the Juan and only Juan Creveri. Um, Juan is really the reason why I ever got involved in Ultraman in the first place.

SPEAKER_07 8:27

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Um, I had met him at another race and ended up crewing him at Ultraman Worlds in 2011.

Larry 8:36

Oh, I also crewed him in 2011 at Ultraman Canada.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

I heard about that. Lucy crewed him. That's right. Yeah, yeah. And uh so you know how easy Juan is to crew. He is the easiest person in the world to crew. Yes, um, he doesn't really need crew, except he's required to have crew, and and I think now he enjoys having crew because we have a lot of fun out there. Um, I've crewed him many times. I can't even count how many times I've crewed him at different Ultraman races and three Badwaters.

Larry 9:12

Yeah. Well, I know Juan was also looking at doing Uberman. Were you gonna be part of that crew as well?

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Um, we hadn't gotten to that point uh because the pandemic happened. Yeah, so I definitely would love to be part of that crew um when that happens because I know eventually he will do that race.

Larry 9:32

Yeah. So when I interviewed him last season, um we were talking about that race, and I just assumed that it never went off. But yeah, I'm sure you could use your experience there.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yeah, it didn't go off. Um, I definitely would love to be a part of that though. But our our Badwater adventures were very fun.

Larry 9:51

Um was it wasn't there some kind of um contest going on as well?

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Oh, the poop contest. The poop contest actually started at Ultraman. Oh, yeah, but we but we definitely you know feel that we need to do it at every event that we participate in together. Um the poop contest, you usually standard is that it happens on day three of Ultraman, and it started with just the crew guessing at what mile would Juan poop because during a double marathon, almost everybody poops, and uh whoever came the closest uh to the mileage or the K that they guessed was uh was gonna be receiving a prize from Juan. Eventually we expanded that and we allowed the general public, um, Juan's fans to to jump in on social media and guess what uh when he was gonna poop. So yeah, the poop contest is pretty pretty famous, I think, at this point.

Larry 10:54

That's great. Many or most of your friendships now are probably as a result of your many years going around to different Ultraman races. And Jeremy Howard, who I'll be interviewing next in this podcast, will be racing at Florida. Um, I understand that you guys are pretty close as well. And you you got to shave his head or something at one point, or how what was his story?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

I did get to shave his head. Uh it's funny. Jeremy, I met Jeremy in 2011 too, the very my very first Ultraman. Uh one year, I don't know what year it was. Jeremy can tell you what year it was. One year there was a big bet between um Anaki and Jeremy.

Larry 11:42

And Anaki is the Steve King story this episode, so it's all come together.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah, oh, it's perfect. Um, great guy. Anaki's awesome. But basically, if Jeremy lost, he was gonna shave his head. And and Jeremy's hair was long at the time, and his hair, if you've ever seen it, is really curly when it's long.

SPEAKER_07 12:04

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

And so I actually got to be the one to shave his head, and I got great joy out of that.

Larry 12:14

Like, did you shave it right down, like bald?

SPEAKER_01 12:16

All the way down, yeah, completely. It was it was awesome.

Larry 12:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Now I'm gonna have to go pull up the photos.

Larry 12:25

Yeah, maybe maybe send them through and we'll uh post them on the on the website. Yeah, yeah. One of those things that that you have taken on now is your own Ultraman race and Ultraman Arizona. So how many times have you rescheduled the race at this point? Because I know you even bumped it off of the March date.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah, we bumped it from March 2020 to November 2020 and then bumped it to March of 2021, and then March of 2022.

Larry 13:00

So this is this is gonna be the fourth one.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yeah, and and hopefully we're having a race. No, as far as we know, like we are we're go, we're a go. Um, Arizona is open. Um, as long as permits are issued, which we anticipate all permits being issued, we are a go. So we're pretty excited.

Larry 13:22

Yeah, yeah. And I'm and I'm also excited to be able to bring some of the the athletes to the listeners that are coming up for uh Ultraman Arizona as well. Can you tell me a little bit of the highlights of your course design? Because there's not a lot of information out there about your course. Can you tell us a little bit about the course?

SPEAKER_01 13:40

We're not purposefully keeping it a secret. Uh and athletes have asked us, and we tell them. Um, the swim is gonna be held in Lake Pleasant, uh, which is at the uh upper northwest corner of the valley. Um, beautiful lake, beautiful location. Um, so after the chili swim, they'll hop on their bikes and they're gonna ride south. And the day one course is pretty fast on the bike. Um they're gonna be heading down through like surprise, Peoria, surprise. They're gonna end up on this really long stretch of highway, the sunrise highway, and they are gonna fly on that. So it's gonna be really fun to see what the what the day one bike times are gonna be. And day two is gonna be really hard. Uh, it's 8,000 something feet of climbing, uh, which is comparable to day two at Ultraman Worlds. And one of my favorite sections of the course is actually in the 145-mile range. They go on this out and back section that's hilly, um, windy roads, but it's beautiful country out there. Um probably it's uh yeah, kind of back roads away from the they get out of the houses and everything. And then our day three run course is uh is challenging as well. We start in Peoria again, and the first marathon of it is actually the first covers part of the day two bike course. And after the first marathon, they'll uh they'll head a little bit east and they're gonna be going up into some hills in the uh north kind of Cave Creek area, but uh the west side of Cave Creek, and there's definitely some challenging terrain up there, but beautiful country again, lots of good views and everything. Hopefully they'll see, you know, some rabbits, coyotes. Uh doubtful that they'll see any rattlesnakes, but they might be out there. Um, and they'll finish up both day two and day three, finish up at Cave Creek Regional Park.

Larry 16:06

And and how many people are are you expecting at the starting line?

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Uh right now we have 47. So hopefully that uh hopefully we don't have any more travel restrictions uh that hit us and and prevent anyone from flying. So I anticipate between 45 and 47, hopefully.

Larry 16:31

That'll be a nice race. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Yeah.

Larry 16:34

One of the things that I wanted to talk to you about is your photography. And I know that wildlife photography is one of the things that you are really into with your photography, uh, as long as as well as your um, I know you recently got into the astrophotography as well and took a trip up to Alaska and things like that. Um so can you tell me a little bit about your photography and um you know what what it is about it that you you enjoy? And do you have any um commercial aspects to your photography or is it all just for a hobby?

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Uh for now it's all for a hobby. Um, people have been pushing me to to you know post a website and I'm working on that. Um even if I sell you know a couple of pictures, it's just bonus because I'm not I'm not a professional photographer. Um but I love taking photos of animals. Animals are have always been my thing. And um going on safari in Africa was my bucket list forever. And I saved up my miles and I was able to get down there. I I figured out how to do it affordably. Um, I learned that you can self-drive in South Africa, you don't have to pay $10,000 or $15,000 to go on a safari. Um, it's very affordable when you do it yourself. Rent a car and have the guts to go do it. Um, some of my South African friend Ultraman friends um taught me that like they go to their national parks just like we go to our national parks in North America. Ours just don't have wild animals that might want to eat you. So as long as you follow the rules of the park, you're totally safe. So um, once I figured out how to do it affordably, I've been able to go down there um twice a year, with the exception of 2020. Um, but yeah, I it's my happy place. I love it down there. And now I have friends down there. I have uh I have game ranger friends and guides and uh one set of friends, they actually own a BB and their own safari company. So I'll go down, stay at their house at the B, and we'll go out on game drive twice a day for like four to five hours. Yeah. And oh, it's so fun, and it's different every time. Yeah, um, because some people have asked me, like, why do you keep going? Like, it's the same animals, right? You never know what the animals are gonna do, yeah. And I've seen some crazy stuff, I've seen some adorable little babies, I've seen crazy lion fights, you know. I've seen I've actually seen a croc crab an impala and eat it and just wild stuff, and so the challenge for me now is like to be in the right place at the right time, capture that, capture it, yeah. And you just have to have patience, and and then my my safari game ranger guys, those friends, they have awesome massive cameras and lenses because they're out there every day, right? And I've learned a lot from them, you know, on the technique of capturing the animals, right?

Larry 20:03

Yeah, and I know during the pandemic, another thing that you did was uh take your love for safari and and put it into your art as well at your house. You you did a little uh I did a little thing at your house. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

I did. Um, early in the pandemic, people started putting um hearts in the windows for um for the first responders, basically to acknowledge them and tell them that we love them. And I came across this photo. A boy had created paper hearts, and he put a giraffe in the window made out of paper hearts. And I was like, Oh, that's so cool. And obviously, I love giraffes. Um, I'm like, huh, I wonder if they make stickers. I wonder if they make heart stickers. Let me get online, let's go to Etsy and see what I can find. And I found this company, which happens to be Canadian, Larry, um, that made these vinyl, all different colored hearts. So I ordered some and I was just gonna do giraffes. And I started doing giraffes because I have a white fence, um, one of those, it's probably some hard vinyl plastic fence in my front yard. And so I went out and sketched out the outlines of a giraffe, and I started sticking hearts in it, and it turned out really good. And I was like, holy cow, this looks great. Let me do another giraffe because it's each panel on my fence is like five or six feet wide. So I ended up putting a daddy giraffe, a mommy giraffe, and a baby giraffe all on one panel. And so then it was on. I got back online and I ordered all kinds of colors of hearts. Like, okay, I need some grays and I need some blues and I need some yellows and I need some oranges. And and I created over the course of the next few weeks, um, in addition to the giraffes, I have a hippo, a lion, an elephant, a rhino, and a leopard in a tree. And they turned out really good, if I do say so myself. So that's my tribute to our first responders. And little did I know that it was going to, you know, be a two-plus year pandemic. And and it is now a permanent fixture on my street. So Yeah.

Larry 22:42

Yeah, that's that's great that that's still up there for them and and for you to be able to express yourself in that way. And I understand you're also taking some other art lessons because art's really important to you. What what other kind of art are you into besides the photography and making sticker art?

SPEAKER_01 22:59

That was the sticker art was a one and done thing. But um, although I do have like four more panels of fence around the side that I could do, yeah. Um, I've been taking watercolor classes and I take uh acrylic painting classes. I'm really into the watercolors right now um and learning the different techniques and uh that might branch out a little bit into the Ultraman world. We'll see. There might be some some type of watercolor awards, perhaps.

Larry 23:32

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

We'll see. I have to practice and see if it comes out the way what I'm thinking. If they if my practice ones came out good, there might be some personalized watercolor awards. Nice, yeah.

Larry 23:47

I know with uh Ultraman Canada this year, I uh I designed a a wooden award and uh I had friends of mine, Cassie and Greg, who actually made it for me. Um, but yeah, the the personalized kind of unique uh awards are a nice part of Ultraman when they happen.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Yeah, like we did uh wooden uh medals for Ultraman Florida, our last Ultraman Florida in 2020, which was the last that was the last Ultraman Florida, yeah. And uh, you know, I did the the wooden award, but then we turned it a little more Hawaiian and brought in the Ohana, Aloha and Kokua feel by making um handmade lays to be so instead of a standard ribbon for the metal, they actually had lays.

Larry 24:44

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Yeah. Trying to bring in a little bit of the Hawaiian part of the ultraman.

Larry 24:51

The island, yeah, that's great. So you you like taking these classes. Um, you're taking, you know, you're learning your photography, you're learning your art, but you you also teach some classes online as well. Um what's the name of that company or the or the platform that you provide your your courses through?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

It's called outschool.com. And I started teaching on there just to have some extra play money about four years ago when they had just started. They were a brand new company when I got on the platform. And so I've been teaching off and on, you know, every week or so I'll teach classes, um, not every single day, but it really exploded when uh the pandemic happened and all kids had to do school online. And so it became my full-time job and it saved me in 2020. Since all my races were canceled, um, I mean, if if it weren't for the online teaching, I would be sleeping on friends' couches. So uh it's calmed down a lot now. Um, you know, now I teach, you know, one or two classes a week, not nearly what I was teaching in 2020. Um, but I'm very grateful to have that. Um basically I have all kinds of ironies and all kinds of fires, and I pivot when I need to. Um just to try to, I don't want to ever go back and have a nine to five at a desk. Um, I want to be able to work wherever I am. I want to be able to travel and work and have that flexibility.

SPEAKER_07 26:37

Yeah.

Larry 26:38

And and what are the what are the courses that you offer? Are these like regular um school district courses or are they courses that you develop yourself? Are they recognized for any credits? How, what kind of programs or courses are they offering? Are you offering?

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Um, our school itself offers everything, um, all of the standard, you know, English, math, history, science, um, the required courses. Um, and kids do get credit for them. If it, if it's a homeschool kid, they get credit for those. Um, I'm not sure exactly how the homeschool requirements run, but I don't teach anything that's required. I want the kids to want to take my classes. And so I teach all electives. Um, I teach my most popular class is Wilderness Survival. And that is uh super popular with certain age groups. Um and then I teach a ton of animal classes, I teach a lot of national parks classes, and I teach a California class that's pretty popular, and I teach a few painting classes as well.

Larry 27:50

Oh, excellent.

unknown 27:51

Yeah.

Larry 27:51

You're able to bring it all together.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Exactly.

Larry 27:56

And and as you said, you keep your your irons around all over the place to be able to pivot when you want. And one of the things I mentioned right off the top was that you want to take your love of travel and start to to turn that into something too. Tell me, tell me about what you want to do with that.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Um, yeah, I I'm starting my own little travel business. I I haven't announced this. This is the official announcement, I guess.

Larry 28:21

Oh, yeah. Breaking news.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Breaking news. Um, and basically, you know, I'm not looking to be a full-time travel agent at all, but why not try to get really good deals for myself and my friends and family? So uh the past several months, I've taken several hundred hours of classes and uh got my official travel certificate, I guess. I don't know what it's called, but but I passed the travel uh proficiency exam basically, and I'm almost done with my website, and I'm gonna be combining that with a travel blog. Um, I already have I think 37 uh articles and with photos, and I've had people, you know, encourage me, you should write a blog about this, you know. So why not?

Larry 29:22

So when you launch, you'll have uh a good set of things all ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Right, exactly.

Larry 29:29

And and then are you are you looking at doing something weekly or monthly to supplement that or just whenever?

SPEAKER_01 29:35

I think I'll probably try to do weekly. Um, since I'm ahead of the game already, um, I can be continuing to write um and combine it with my photos. And so as I'm going to different places, I can write as I go.

Larry 29:55

Oh, yeah. Excellent. Well, I'll uh I'll be sure to put in my show notes any of your uh links that we need to put for your photography or maybe this travel business, and uh people will be able to look you up and find that information.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Oh, thanks. That's awesome. Oh, that's pressure. I better get those together, huh?

Larry 30:14

Yeah, I guess you better. Um well, uh Jen, I want to thank you very much for uh coming and being the guest today and introducing yourself to all the listeners. I'm sure many of them already know you around the Ultraman world. But um for those that that didn't know you, I'm sure they know a whole lot more about you now. Uh what a genius you are with your word puzzles and and all the little jobs that you do to keep going. So thank you very much for joining me today. And uh uh look forward to seeing you again at a race soon. And um good luck with your inaugural Ultraman Arizona when it comes up.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Thanks, Larry. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Now here's another.

Steve King Stories : UMWC 2016 champion Inaki de la Parra

SPEAKER_03 31:01

Hi everyone, Steve King here. So the person I'm going to refer to now has got a nickname, and that nickname is El Toro or the ball. The reason for that is because he has what you would call an atypical physique for an ultra athlete. But this is a gentleman who's done a stunning array of sports, including Higher Live, Mai Tai. He was a professional kickboxer, very much into motorsports, uh shooting and biathlon. In fact, he he was a great marksman and a Mexican champion at uh sharpshooting. He's done a number of I-Men, of course, including Frankfurt, Cosmo, Cancun, but got involved in the ultra distances uh when he began his Ultraman career in 2002, when he raced in the UK in Wales and won uh the title there. In fact, became the first Mexican to take a title. And uh in 2013, he came to Ultraman Canada and was our sixth place there. 2014 he went to Ultraman Florida and came second overall with a great time of 22 hours, 41 minutes, 34 seconds, and that was to Chuck Kemeney, who uh became later on the race director of that event as well. In 2015, he was very, very sick, went to the big island for the world championships, and ended up uh with a 13th position, but still gotly finished with the 27-24-54 blocking. However, 2016 he came back to the world championships, an amazing personal best of 22-34-18, and won the world title. Now he's trained uh in four different countries basically in the US. I saw him quite a few times in Canada, in uh Vancouver and Victoria. He was a coach there as well, but he's also uh raced, of course, in his home country of Mexico, as well as in Poland. In fact, his wife is Polish. They met in Barcelona, his wife is Cassia, and what's been neat is the family have come to many of his races and acted as his crew. He's now a triton coach, he's a chemical engineer, got his MBA, he's a fourth generation of a family that is in dairy production, and he's also the co-founder of a Mexican organ donation group, and uh really appreciate what is given back to many, many people. He's an incredible athlete, and a really nice man, and uh wonderful family. It's always a delight to uh see him at the races, and we are referring, of course, to Inaaki de la Para.

2022 UM Florida Athlete Profile : Jeremy Howard

Larry 33:59

Today I will start some new athlete profiles to introduce you to a few of the competitors for the two upcoming Ultraman races, Ultraman Florida and Ultraman Arizona. First is Ultraman Florida, which will take place in February on the 11th, 12th, and 13th. This will be my guest's first race in Florida, though he has crewed there before. He's also raced Ultraman Hawaii three times in 2011, 2015, and 2017. He was a state champion swimmer in high school and also swam for the University of Kansas. He holds a master's in education and is a certified teacher. But like the guest in my last episode, he turned to full-time coaching instead of following the original career choice. My guest today is joining me from his home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Welcome to 515 Jeremy Howard.

SPEAKER_04 34:51

Thank you, Larry.

Larry 34:53

Hi. So let's get into some of your background here for uh for the listeners. Um after a number of years as a competitive swimmer, as I mentioned in the intro, what was it that brought you, or who was it, who brought you over to triathlon and got you out of the pool?

SPEAKER_05 35:11

Um, so I I actually did my first triathlon in high school um on a mountain bike, got heckled the entire way. Um and uh and dabbled in triathlon for about 10 years after that. Um and then it was my buddy Christian, uh Christian McAvoy, uh, that introduced me to Ultraman. I crewed for him in 2010, uh, had never heard about it at all, and um and absolutely fell in love with the atmosphere of Ultraman and um the night that he finished on day three, um, I three beers deep, four beers deep, I was signing up for my first Iron Man because that was the only requirement we could find anywhere uh as to what it took to qualify for an Ultraman.

Larry 36:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:09

Um in the rest of the yeah.

Larry 36:11

I think I've heard that story before where somebody was a few too many beer deep and signed up for a race. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That that usually is something different outside of the triathlon community. Do you realize what you did last night? Would be a totally different story from oh yeah, I signed up for a race, of course. Yeah. And is it correct that you did your first Iron Man and Ultraman in the same year?

SPEAKER_05 36:46

Yeah. Yeah. So I crewed uh in 2010, uh, then signed up for Iron Man St. George in May. Uh did did that, and then um, and then did Hawaii in uh November. Wow.

Larry 37:06

So so you went from, I guess you were doing smaller triathlons at that point still?

SPEAKER_05 37:13

I I think at that point I hadn't raced a triathlon in maybe a year and a half, two years. I was running running more at that time.

Larry 37:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 37:23

Um, and then I trained with my buddy Christian a bit when he was training for Ultraman. Um, I think I probably did my first 112 with him in training. Um yeah.

Larry 37:41

So uh were you scared to like suddenly sign up for an Iron Man and then an Ultraman all in that same year, and and really all you're doing is some running?

SPEAKER_05 37:52

Um honestly, you know, the distance never never intimidated me. The conditions in Hawaii, um, that intimidated me a lot.

Larry 38:02

Right.

SPEAKER_05 38:03

Um the winds and and some of the slick roads in the second half of day two. Um for whatever reason, I was never bothered by the thought of running longer, which I think is probably a huge, a huge asset. Um and and fortunately for me, I've I I've always been my I've always had a really strong stomach, so I wasn't necessarily cognizant of the need for a ton of calories, but I just did it anyway. Um because I liked eating and um and Christian and I were using insurance boost as um race nutrition at that time, mostly for the convenience.

SPEAKER_07 38:55

Right.

SPEAKER_05 38:55

Um you know, there's 300 calories in like this six-ounce thing. You could put in three of those, so essentially a thousand calories into a water bottle and then it fill up two of those and then go out for a long ride, and you'd have 2,000 calories with you.

Larry 39:13

Um and that's and that's a smart thing to do is to train on that same liquid calories that you're gonna race on, so that it doesn't just become the race day.

SPEAKER_05 39:25

Yeah. And and so I think you you know, it wasn't necessarily based on research or um or a significant strategic plan. Um, we just kind of happened to stumble into it and then realized later on, you know, how many things were going right as a result of that random choice.

Larry 39:51

Yeah. You you are gonna be doing the Ultraman in Florida. And as I said in the intro, you've you've crewed there before, so you have an idea of what the course is gonna be like there as well. Um, do you have any specific goals you're trying to reach in this race? Um, what what is it that you're looking to get out of this particular race?

SPEAKER_05 40:12

I I I I did. I had some um some bigger uh goals that I've been working toward toward for that race um for about a year and a half now. Um and unfortunately, in in the last couple weeks, um it's starting to look like I'm not gonna be able to get to the start line. Um I I had an MRI last last week for a knee issue. Uh and it's it's nothing super serious, um, but the the timeline between now and and race day is is super short uh to reach that event. Essentially, uh essentially I I got up um maybe 10 days, 12 days ago, and I I couldn't even walk. Um, couldn't straighten the leg, couldn't couldn't bend the leg, couldn't even put on, couldn't put on a sock. Um and it turns out there's this little fat pad underneath the the uh patella and that's getting impinged. And so it's super painful and creates a feeling of instability in the the knee. Um and you just have to wait for I I have to wait for the inflammation to go down, um, and then start some physical therapy uh to uh get the patella to track right again.

Larry 41:53

Yeah, because I guess right now it's being raised up and sliding back and forth instead of tracking properly.

SPEAKER_05 42:00

Yeah, so it's it it's not really an overuse injury. Um it the the guess is that at some point, and it might not have been sport related, I hyperextended my knee. And so that created the initial pop out of the um out of the uh Patella tracking correctly. And and then after that, it did become a little bit of a chronic thing. So it made it more likely that I would it would track out and and hyperextend. And in hindsight, that's been happening more frequently. Like I felt that sensation of hyperextension, um, especially in the pool, pushing off the wall. Um it it and so it was probably in a acute situation that I don't even remember at some point in the last six weeks or so. And and then I re-injured it and re-injured it and created this impingement, who knows how. Um I f I get the I get a bigger follow-up with a physical therapist on Tuesday, which will give me more of a timeline um as as to how inflamed it is and um what I can expect over the next two months.

SPEAKER_07 43:29

Right.

SPEAKER_05 43:30

But it unless they uh unless they tell me something incredible, I'm gonna assume that it's not enough time to get back up to twenty hours a week uh training to attempt to raise it a high level.

Larry 43:52

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, man. That's the body, man.

SPEAKER_05 44:00

Yeah, yeah. The these things these things happen. Um and I'm actually I I'm I'm super grateful to be i in good fitness again um and just to get to this point because I'm really not sure if I'd be back in a position a year and a half ago where I'd be super fit again.

Larry 44:19

Yeah. So well well, maybe let's talk about some of those times when you were super fit then. Let's uh let's track back to Hawaii and and some of your races there. Um you you did the race in 2011, where you came fifth overall. In 2015, you moved up to third place. Um that was the year that Mike Coughlin was the winner. He was my guest on my last episode. Oh that's right. Um yeah. And then in 2017, um you got up to second place, uh, and that was when Rob Gray was the winner. So maybe let's uh talk about some of these races then. Mike was talking about his race in 2011 when he had his accident and how the Ohana rallied around him to help him get to the finish line that year. And so now you're racing with him again in 2015. Did did you get any opportunity to to race with him, talk with him during those days?

SPEAKER_05 45:21

It we we got to know each other a little bit on the run. We ran essentially shoulder to shoulder for the first marathon.

SPEAKER_07 45:29

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:30

Um he was doing a a little bit of a run walk. So he would walk for like 15 seconds, drop behind me, and then quickly catch up, and we'd run together, and then he'd stop. Um, and then in the second half, he just ran away from me.

Larry 45:47

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:47

Um he was he was super steady that day.

Larry 45:50

Yeah, and I think um Rob Gray did a did a similar thing. Uh he he utilized a run-walk strategy as well. Um, I think you you were up there and uh running faster than him, but he knew how much time he had. And I read a race report of his where he was like, you know, watching you and seeing what you were doing to figure out his race. Were you aware that you know there was there was that much calculating going on at the behind you?

SPEAKER_05 46:20

I had an idea. Um, I I've always been pretty steady um in my running, even splitting. Um I knew I had a lot of deficit to make up that day. Uh but somebody, but it didn't let that affect the beginning of my day. Um in try and push too hard. Uh somebody told me that he was like 13 minutes behind at the half marathon, and I it and they and they told me in a way that was like, oh, you've got this, you're gonna do it. And I'm like, oh no. He learned his mistake because the year before I crewed for Anaki and Um he had a little bit of a deficit. Rob had a little bit of a deficit to make up on Anaki, he only had six minutes, but he he tried to go hard. Um and we just kept Anaki in control and we rolled past him around mile four 40, which obviously you know, when we passed him on the road, that meant Anaki had a six-minute lead on him.

SPEAKER_07 47:35

Right.

SPEAKER_05 47:35

And then we put in another 40 minutes into him between mile 40 and the finish line. And so I was hopeful that he wouldn't learn his lesson and and that he'd be like two minutes behind me at the half marathon, and then we'd have a replay of that. And and so I knew it was gonna be uh a tough day. Um and the gap was going up on the run, but I knew I I could tell um that it it wasn't going up by enough.

Larry 48:08

And and you had you had a fantastic run. It was 624-17. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:14

So yeah, and I got 35 of the 40 minutes I needed.

Larry 48:18

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, that's that's quite the race going on.

SPEAKER_05 48:23

Yeah, yeah, it was a it was it was a fun, fun experience. Um, I learned a lot from from that race uh in terms of I thought I had a hand, I I've always had a good handle on how to pace a day. Um, I thought I had a good handle on how to pace a stage race and was pretty conservative in that regard. And that day, that year taught me that I didn't that you need to be a bit more um conservative uh on day one, especially in Hawaii. Um probably not as much in in any of the other courses, primarily because you don't have 8,000 feet of climbing on the bike. Yeah, you're not getting that in Florida. Or or a two in the big one is there's a 2,000-foot climb right out of the water in Hawaii, in the in the searing heat.

Larry 49:29

Um a lot of people are going on a an unfriendly belly too, from being in the water and up and down on the waves and yeah. So so what were you looking to to do in Florida then? Like taking those past experiences, um what what was what is I'll say what is the race plan? Because I'm I'm assuming that there's still that chance that you're gonna get healed up and be at that starting line because I know I know Ultraman people, and you know, even if you're undertrained, you might show up there just because you paid your money might as well race. So tell me what is the plan for Florida?

SPEAKER_05 50:09

The the the plan is to execute a a three uh a three-day race. Um and and act on the lessons that I learned in in Hawaii. Um I I want to be able to be strong all three days. And um to be honest, I I thought I had the ability to go under six hours on the run when I was in Hawaii. Um, but because of what and I had a range of where I thought I'd be. And day one, I was at the fast the faster, harder, more powerful end of um what I did. And days two and three were were kind of at the uh poor end of what I thought I could do. And so I I just want to be a bit more conservative on on day one and and be where I thought I could be. Yeah, you know, and and the athletes that I've coached um since then that have executed in that manner have been able to do put up the same power on the bike on day one and two, um, and then run an even split or a negative split double marathon. Um so I've seen it happen. Uh I I just have to do it for myself now.

Larry 51:35

Yeah. And and I think um Ultraman has kind of got to the point now where there are enough good experienced athletes that are in the coaching ranks and bringing along this next generation of of Ultraman athletes as well, that these records around Ultraman circles are gonna just continue to fall because it's not like the old days where you know people would just go out there on an Iron Man training because they don't know what Ultraman is and mess up a stage race. Like today's racers come in with a lot of knowledge based on the people that have come before them and the mistakes they made.

SPEAKER_05 52:16

Yeah. And and and I look, you know, there's some low-hanging fruit for some really great performances in Ultraman. Um because it's not at the it's not at the stage where 70.3 or Iron Man Racing is, where you have all of these athletes that are super super elite and um are coming out on a weekly basis and and doing these um performances and training for um for for this type of event. Um you know, if I and part of the reason I'm I'm comfortable, you know, looking, I I was looking at a sub-20 finish at in Florida. And part of the reason I'm I was looking at that is I figure if a guy like Lionel Sanders or John Ferdino targeted this event and did it, they could go 17 and a half to 18 hours. Um and so it's in terms of what's been done in Ultraman, 20 hours is super fast, but if if you look at it in terms of an Iron Man, which is pretty pretty close to a an Ultraman effort, um 20 hours isn't necessarily as as fast as it seems.

SPEAKER_07 53:45

Right. Yeah.

Larry 53:46

Um in that belief that it's not as fast as it seems helps to work towards you need you need that one person to uh break the barrier to open the floodgates.

SPEAKER_05 54:00

Yeah, and if and if I'm that person, great. Um if not, I know you know Richard Thompson is is shooting for the same same thing in at Ultraman uh um Australia.

Larry 54:14

Yeah, that'll be it'll be fun to watch for.

unknown 54:17

Yeah.

Larry 54:17

What I'd like to do now is uh I want to flip over to our our more personal side and get away from your your races per se um and do the two minutes on transition to get us there, as as listeners will know that we do our rapid fire questions. So um I'll do the rapid fire question, you do the quick answer, and we'll see if this works for two minutes.

SPEAKER_04 54:39

Okay.

Larry 54:39

All right. Uh so what has been your favorite event that you've done so far?

SPEAKER_05 54:45

Uh probably beats the battleship. Um outside of Ultra.

Larry 54:50

Okay. Bucket list event for you that you got 24 hours running.

SPEAKER_05 55:51

That's uh that's really good. And I just read reading that's good.

Larry 55:58

What do you like to do that is not arrived in the uh I I love reading off?

SPEAKER_05 56:07

I was just created right in there.

Larry 56:11

And I know you like to travel, um and since none of us have really been traveling too much lately. Um, what's the next place you want to go to?

SPEAKER_05 56:19

I would really like to go to Alaska. Um and then internationally, um, I'd love I'd love to get to New Zealand someday.

Larry 56:31

So last question for the for this uh transition round. Do you have a New Year's resolution this year?

SPEAKER_05 56:40

I had a New Year's resolution about 25 years ago to never have another New Year's resolution. So I've been holding strong on that.

Larry 56:50

Wow. All right. You got that one down. I know um Caroline Bloom is one of your your athletes, and uh she she described herself, she was on uh in episode three of the season, she described herself as being married to triathlon. Um do would you would you say that you're kind of along that same same line? Is that is that what makes the two of you mesh well together?

SPEAKER_05 57:15

Um I'm not sure I'd I I'd I'd say that I we we work well, we work well together. Um I think a little bit because we're opposites. Um we're very we're very we we share a very common uh passion for triathlon, but um uh outside of that we're very different approaches to things. So um it it allows I I I learn a lot from coaching her uh and seeing the perspective she has on the different things that I say or um or what she experiences, um which wouldn't necessarily be my first thought if I experienced the same thing.

Larry 58:04

And will you be going with her to Ultraman Canada?

SPEAKER_05 58:08

Yeah, yep. I'll be I'll be crewing for her in July.

Larry 58:13

Awesome.

SPEAKER_05 58:13

Looking forward to that. I haven't I haven't been to British Columbia, so it'll be nice to check out.

Larry 58:20

It's a beautiful course, beautiful course. Um so as a coach um and as an athlete then, what what advice are you giving your athletes that are taking on these 515 events? Like you said, you've learned so much from it, you know kind of great strategies to work out, um, maybe for some other athletes that are maybe trying to do this on their own. What's what's some good advice that you you share with all your athletes?

SPEAKER_05 58:46

The biggest thing toward any of those is just consistency. Uh it's not the big workouts or you know super long days. It's just the day-to-day consistency um being much more a determinant of success than having to go go long or frequently. Especially on the run, I think you know, I I constantly um have the conversation with my athletes of them uh being surprised at how little uh long running they're doing.

Larry 59:24

Yeah, it's interesting how different coaches take different philosophies toward how they want to get their athletes to train. In a way, this kind of works with today's Steve King's story, which is about Anaki de la Para. And I know that you have a relationship with him, so much so that you actually have traveled to Poland a few times to to work with him and to work on your coaching. Can you tell me a little bit about how it was that you and Anaki were came together to to work in this way?

SPEAKER_05 59:56

Um we get we get along really well. Uh and and he started a he moved there in 2017.

Larry 1:00:06

Um started a coach at the world, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:12

Yeah, we met in 2015. Um we were both in Hawaii for Iron Man World Championships um for that week. We weren't neither one of us were racing. Um and and so we did a bunch of training together that week. Um and and then he ended up getting uh really sick uh and and barely finished in 2015. And so um I came back and crewed for him in 2016 when he won.

Larry 1:00:51

Let's take a break from the interview for just a second and listen to Steve King calling that finish at the Ultraman World Championship for Naki.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:17

What an outstanding performance.

Larry 1:02:19

Thanks, Steve, for that call. Uh, we'll get back to the interview.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:25

Through all that, we were Bonstant coaching ideas off off each other, and um I really respect his opinion. He has a wealth of knowledge and and is um dedicated to always learning more and um and and so he's he's a great person uh to have uh to be able to talk through things with. Um and so when he started a coaching group over in Poland, um I I went over and you know we did some training together, and uh it was it was good to you know meet some different people over there um and and some people who were working in exercise physiology over there and uh get their perspectives on things and see how they're doing things.

Larry 1:03:19

Yeah. And and you've also done a coaching clinic in India. Can can you tell me about what brought you to that experience?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:29

Uh so I I coach an athlete um who lives in Delhi, uh Gourav Makar, and he's he's been involved with um Triathlon India uh in in creating a coaching group, um, an athlete group over there, but it's still very, very um underdeveloped. There's no infrastructure for triathlon over there, and and so um you know through a lot of our conversations, um we we had talked about you know what he can be doing to um create a better community and he wanted um to bring me over and and have me talk to you know some of his athletes and some of the coaches that he's worked with loosely um on on different education topics. Um and and so you know after a couple years of talking about it, um the opportunity arose and I uh ended up going over there for three weeks and um Tim and I ran uh a couple of clinics in Delhi and then one in Mumbai and uh got in front of about total, I'd say about 150, 200 athletes and coaches over there. So it was good. And we did some uh practical sessions um in in the water in both places.

Larry 1:05:16

Yeah, I I mean India is such a large country that it it would be hard to start anything there, I think, right? It's so spread out, and uh the the people that have the means to do it are also spread out. Um back back in my first season, I was talking to Abbey Kelkar, he's uh Indian uh athlete who's coming to Ultraman Canada, and uh he's just like he's in a really small mountain village. And uh yeah, there's not going to be that kind of uh infrastructure available to a lot of people there to to take up that sport and really get into it.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:54

Yeah, and it the the knowledge is there. Well, the knowledge of the sport is Is there now and the desire is there, may maybe not in a percentage. The same percentage of Indians want to do it as the same percentage of Canadians or Americans. But in in terms of raw numbers, there's probably just as many. But yeah, access to pools, access to access to open water, access to roads. But there are roads that you can ride on there, even outside of Delhi. It just takes a little bit more planning. Triath on India is putting starting to put on races. And so it'll it'll do nothing but grow. And there's some decent athletes that are you know performing in in all of these races. And now we've seen races where five Indian athletes have have finished.

Larry 1:07:26

And they do they do have their own 515 race over there as well now.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:30

Oh do they? Yeah.

unknown 1:07:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:34

Oh, that's right. I did I did see that. I did see that.

Larry 1:07:36

Slight slightly misusing an Ultraman name, but they yeah, they have that that race. Um you've you've actually um been an event director as well for for races. Um tell me a little bit about your experience in that. Um I I think you did one that was a big fundraiser. So tell me about some of those experiences.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:02

I I've kind of been an accidental race director. Um yeah, I me too. I learned I I learned a little bit about it from you know, helping out at you know, local five and 10k races, and and then obviously um, you know, with swimming, you're kind of putting on an event with with swim meets that um and and we put on bigger, smaller swim meets. So um from there, I had a uh uh again, my buddy Christian uh ran across the country and raised money for the Yale Cancer Center. Um and I was out visiting him during his run, and we were talking about you know ways that would be special to to finish it. And he was gonna be finishing in Narragance at Rhode Island, and so I came back from that trip and with the goal of organizing a marathon to coincide with um with the end of his finish. And it ended up probably being a bigger event than it would have. It was Rhode Island on December 17th. Oh it ended up being 70 degrees that day in 2006. Uh it we got got lucky, uh super lucky, but it was the only marathon in Rhode Island that year. So we got all the 50 staters that that wanted that go for trying to complete a marathon in every every state. So we ended up with runners from like 40 states um and just over 500 athletes total um going from idea to race date in three months.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:02

So um yeah, so that was that that was an experience. Um it was fun, it was a lot of work because I was a full-time swim coach at the time and and was going back and forth um between Rhode Island and Western Connecticut. Then after I switched to more full-time coaching, working part-time with in a cycling event there, I I originally just started as a volunteer and then morphed into offering logistical support for the event. And then by 2015, I I became the event director.

Larry 1:10:42

What was that event?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:43

Uh it was called the Connecticut Challenge. Um and it still exists. Uh and they they run a survivorship center, um cancer survivorship center in in southern Connecticut. And uh their big fundraiser every year is this uh big bike ride, hundred has 100 miles, 75, 50, 25, and 10 mile routes.

Larry 1:11:11

Okay. What how many riders would be on any given year?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:18

Uh the the year that I was the event director is the peak year for for riders. They had 1400 riders that year.

Larry 1:11:29

Uh and what kind of money is are they raising then for that that year was two and a half million.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:35

Um typical year is is roughly a thousand. Nice.

Larry 1:11:38

And and your thousand riders salary was ten percent or uh yeah, I wish.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:48

Um no, it it uh it was it was a bit more uh work and and grief and aggravation than than than uh than I wanted to come back for a second year.

unknown 1:12:04

Yeah.

Larry 1:12:05

Um you know one of the one of the selling points that I put on the podcast is talking talking about the reason that people come back to Ultra all the time is the Ohana. It's it's the people that you meet, the lifelong friends that you have, and and you've shared stories about some of those people already with uh Anaki and Christian. What are who are some of the other people that you've met through this then and some of the reasons why the you know they are important to you and and what's going on and and how it shaped your life a little bit? I know um like we're talking about Ultraman Florida, and Jen McVeigh's obviously been uh a long time part of that race. And um also in this episode I speak with Jen McVeigh as uh introducing her as the Ultraman Arizona um race director. So maybe maybe start there, but share some of your other friendships that you've you've come to have.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:06

Yeah, I uh so Jen's first time crewing at Ultraman was my first time racing, and um we didn't meet until probably the end of day three. Uh she I was she was cheering for me a lot on day three, um, partly because she met my entire crew and had beers with them. Uh and my crew that year was was Christian and my parents. Uh and they they were all out drinking at um the end of day one. Um, and then I I ended up running uh quite closely for the first half of the day with uh her athlete Juan Cravari. Um so kept seeing her as I passed their crew vehicle. Uh and then we officially met um the end of the day.

Larry 1:14:02

Yeah, yeah. The crews the crews get pretty tight out there when they start leapfrogging each other. It's uh that's a good part of the race as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:11

And then we we we really uh we hit it off, you know, talking about race directing and and the different events that we'd seen and and all. Um and I'm not the the race director she is, but uh um that was that was one of our initial connections. And then I've been fortunate. Yeah, I spent some time out in Hawaii and was fortunate to be able to go over to Oahu and and check out one of one of her races and help out. Um she had a race on New Year's uh for a number of years. Uh that was essentially a 24-hour run um around Kualoa Ranch.

Larry 1:14:54

Who who are some of your other crew and people you've crewed for and uh and the friendships that have been developed?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:00

Yeah, one uh probably the most unexpected uh friendship I've developed through Ultraman is with uh Adam Ellenstein. Um we just both randomly happened to crew for an acquaintance of of ours in 2014 in Hawaii. Um and and we met then and uh absolutely hit it off. I love um and so you know, after after spending that weekend with him uh in 2014, I I asked him to be my crew chief in 2015. And I love I love his perspective and and his mentality uh in approaching these longer events. And and so I got to uh 30 miles in and things started going south. And Adam you just kept forcing me forward and kept forcing food down me. You know, he uh essentially said, you know, you're just low calorie. Um you can you can still run. And so he he forced calories down me for about an hour and a half, and I got up to scenic point, and my parents had flown out for the end of the race. Uh, and so they were sitting at the top top of that climb. Nice. And at that point, I think I was walking with with my buddy Ryan, and I was like, well, I guess I have to run now if they flew all the way out here. And so I started jogging in my with some walk breaks, and my sister jumped in and started jogging with me, and and I gradually started feeling better. And and um and I remember, you know, it was it wasn't even obvious to me at at the time, but we hit the three-quarters mark. And right when you hit the three-quarters mark, there's a bit of a climb, and we hit it, and my sister's like, I'm out. The van was nowhere to be seen. Um she's just like, I can't, I can't run this fast any longer, uh, which made me realize I had been picking up the pace. And and and the last half marathon that that day was um was pretty special. I I I think I went from a 205 third half marathon to a 131 last half marathon. Um and and that wouldn't have happened without you know uh without Adam, but um you know, staying patient and in recognizing and and keeping me uh grounded and in the moment.

Larry 1:18:00

Yeah. Wow, yeah. That's yeah, and and that's what you need with a crew, right? Is someone who knows you well enough and and knows the racing well enough to be able to keep you on your track and and do that. Um you you mentioned Ryan there as well, um Ryan Toner. Um he's he must be a pretty good friend because um he's gonna spend his honeymoon uh crewing you in Florida.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:31

Not exactly. So yeah, he's he's getting he's getting married uh January 9th. Um and then they're gonna have a honeymoon in the summer. But yes, he's the first trip he's taking after after he gets married is yeah.

Larry 1:18:57

Well, congratulations uh to Ryan and his and his wife. What what's her what's her name?

SPEAKER_05 1:19:03

Tammy.

Larry 1:19:04

Tammy. Um, because uh you know it'll only be a few days a few days to the wedding when this uh episode is is released. So congratulations to you guys. And and you'll be you'll be at the wedding as well. You'll be performing uh duties.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:20

Yeah, I'm I'm in I'm in the wedding. Yeah, that's great. Um yeah, I'm I'm excited to be there for him and and Tammy.

Larry 1:19:28

Yeah. So you just different ways of curring for people, huh?

SPEAKER_05 1:19:32

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Larry 1:19:35

Well, um, you know what, Jeremy, I want to say uh thank you for for coming on and um and doing this this interview. Um obviously it's been recorded a little bit earlier, so I'll have to do an update as to how you are feeling and um what the prognosis is for you and uh the ability to get to the race in February. Um but uh happy new year to you and uh thank you so much for giving me the time today and uh letting me introduce you to the people and introduce you as a Ultraman Florida athlete. Uh and uh sure you'll make it to that starting line in uh one way or another.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:18

Thank you. I certainly hope so. Um thank you for having me.

Larry 1:20:22

All right, thanks a lot. So, since our conversation, I have heard from Jeremy again. And unfortunately, he will not be towing the starting line at Ultraman, Florida. He will likely, however, still be attending and helping out with the race because that's just what ultra people do. Good luck with your recovery, Jeremy.