S7E10 -- Ohana Guest | Acyr Da Luz

The decision to change often comes at our lowest moments. For Acyr Da Luz, it wasn't a missed promotion that defined him—it was his response to it. "I'm going to change myself," he declared, setting in motion a transformation from 120kg corporate executive to four-time Ultraman competitor.

What distinguishes Acyr's story is how he integrated family into his endurance journey. His young daughter biked alongside his early training runs and eventually his entire family became his support crew. This approach transformed triathlon from an individual pursuit into a family adventure, creating bonds that strengthened rather than weakened through his athletic endeavors.

The podcast offers invaluable insights for aspiring endurance athletes, including advice Acyr received from 2017 Ultraman World Champion Rob Gray.  Acyr candidly shares his failures—from multiple flat tires in Canada to a harrowing open-ocean swim in Hawaii that left him severely dehydrated—and how each setback provided crucial lessons for future success.

If you've been inspired by Acyr's story, check out his book "Running to Myself: A Journey of Endurance" available now on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle formats.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Escape from Alcatraz
• Running to Myself :  A Journey of Endurance
• Ultraman Canada
• Badwater 135
• Ironman World Championships
• Ironman Cozumel
• Ultraman Florida
• Ultraman World Championships

Shout outs and mentions in this episode:

• Daniel (Dani) Mathias
• Sophia Da Luz
• Gabriel Da Luz
• Fernanda Keller 
• Jai Da Luz
• Tatiana (Tata) Da Luz
• Yonathan (Yon) Stephanos
• Mark Naphin
• Lucy Ryan (S2E5)
• Jordan Bryden (S1E7)
• Rob Gray (S4E13)
• Slava Makalskaya
• Sheryl Cobb (S3E11)

Chapters

• 0:15 Introduction to Acyr Da Luz
• 14:22 From Inactive Teen to Health Crisis
• 28:40 The Pivotal Decision to Start Running
• 41:25 How to support the show
• 42:12 Family as Support Crew
• 55:45 First Ultraman Experience in Canada
• 1:07:35 Learning from World Champion Rob Gray
• 1:19:54 Redemption at Ultraman Florida
• 1:30:29 Hawaii's Open Ocean Swim Challenge

Transcript

Mary Jo : 0:15

You're listening to 515, the Ultra Podcast, the show that invites you into the lives of people who make up the Ultra family. Here's your host for these conversations Larry Ryan.

Larry Ryan: 0:28

Thanks, mj. Today's Ohana guest has raced at four Ultraman races. In our conversation he shares not just stories but a ton of tips. Some are what not to do, which he learned the hard way, and some tips that worked for him, including advice from some world champs. My guest today has escaped from Alcatraz and competed in four Ultraman races. Despite being dyslexic, he was able to skip a grade early in his education in Brazil and eventually attended Stanford, where he was a member of the triathlon team. After an intense career that has taken him and his family around the world, today he is working for a startup in California. These are just some of the things I learned by reading Running to Myself : A Journey of Endurance, a new book by my guest who joins us today from Belmont, California, Acyr Da Luz . Welcome to the podcast, Acyr.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:27

Thank you. Thanks a lot, Larry. Thanks for having me Honored to be here.

Larry Ryan: 1:32

For our world audience, because we do have listeners from around the world. Belmont is on the San Francisco Peninsula, about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose, kind of not far from Stanford. What is it like there? Why do you choose to live there?

Acyr Da Luz: 1:54

Yeah, no, thank you. Yeah, you're right, it's halfway through, I'll tell you, like Palo Alto and San Francisco and it's a great place to live. We really love living here. We moved to the peninsula for Stanford, so we moved over here for school right in 2016 and decided not to move away because changing kids' school again and keeping them in the same school that was kind of the plan. We ended up moving from Palo Alto to Belmont and what is close, very like 20 minutes, but you like a lot of friends in the area.

Acyr Da Luz: 2:32

What I really like on is because I live in an area that is has a lot of opportunities in terms of work, education, a lot of things happen in the Bay Area, but I'm 10 minutes, 15 minutes from the from, from the mountains, from very nice bike rides, from the coast. I'm like 30 minutes from the coast. So it's it's a very I can really enjoy nature here and, uh, it's one best cycling places in the us, right, just like on thes a lot of mountains, very safe to do it. So I think it's a good combination.

Larry Ryan: 3:10

Yeah, yeah. So it brings all of your different parts of your lifestyle together, of your training, your work, enjoyment of the nature with your family.

Acyr Da Luz: 3:21

Great. That's an awesome place to live in and we are kind of not too far from Tahoe that we go snowboarding a lot, not too far from Yosemite that we go camping a lot, so there are places that we go every year as a family and here it's kind of a good place to be Excellent.

Larry Ryan: 3:41

Well, I mentioned that you're working for a startup in that introduction and I know from reading your book you spent a long career going through some major companies, but maybe tell us about where you are now and the people that know you from past races they can catch up to where you are now in your life as well. With this startup, what sort of work are you doing?

Acyr Da Luz: 4:04

Yeah, so I spent most of my career in consulting, started back in Brazil in 2001. And for a long time started as a new analyst and developed my career on that other age of partner and moved around the world right Went to Europe. We lived in Switzerland for about five years, spent some time in Asia. We came to US in 2012. 2012,. From now we moved different places in the US, but mostly now live in California since 2016.

Acyr Da Luz: 4:40

So my life was really working with large corporations and building business within consulting. Late last year I got an opportunity to join a startup to work on AI innovation, something different that I was willing to do and I'm learning a lot. It's a different size of the company, the organization, how you navigate. It has a lot to do with what I studied and learned and lived through at Stanford, so I'm excited because of that. One of the main reasons I have done and studied at Stanford was to do that to move from the big corporation, big corporate America world to the startup world, and I think that that's happening corporate America world to the startup world and I think that's happening.

Acyr Da Luz: 5:26

So excited with that.

Larry Ryan: 5:28

Excellent. Well, you know, I would like to kind of go through a little bit of your history. You're not unlike a lot of the Ohana guests where you start off with maybe not the best sporting background, or at some point in your life, in your case, you became not the best sporting background, or at some point in your life, in your case, you became not the best sporting background. And then you, you know, you start off with oh, I'm going to do a 5k run, I'm going to do a marathon, and and, and that story goes on and on. But let's, let's go right back at kind of early on into, like your childhood years. You were originally, you said in the book, like your childhood years. You were originally, you said in the book, you know, fairly thin athletic. You skipped a grade in grade school, despite suffering dyslexia, and I guess that meant that you were hanging out with some older kids you know.

Larry Ryan: 6:19

And so when you got into your teen years, things started to turn a little bit for you where you weren't already treating your body very well. Can you tell us a little bit about, like, what happened at that time and that stage in your life?

Acyr Da Luz: 6:33

Yeah, no, definitely. So we started early on in life, right? So as a kid I was very active. I'm from Rio, originally Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, but my family had a house in the mountains close to like two, two and a half hours from Rio. We'd spend all the weekends there and I would never be home. I would get my I'm talking about five to 10 years old. Right Between that age I arrived there, get my single speed bike and just disappeared. My mom sometimes would have to chase me down because with the car and try to find me in the many roads around. That Didn't have many cars on the roads so I was pretty safe. I would spend the whole weekend biking with the kids. It was plain with friends. For me it was not exercise, it was just plain. But that's why we would do a lot.

Acyr Da Luz: 7:34

Then I was about 10 years old. My dad had some issues on his job. He lost his job, had to start a company. As a consequence, we stopped traveling, stopped going to the house, stay more in rio. That environment that for me was kind of was where I would love to spend my time with nature biking friends. But I went away and and in r Rio I would swim, I would go to the club and swim during the week and bike on the weekend. That was kind of my main activities.

Acyr Da Luz: 8:12

Then, from one time to the other one, very quickly it went away and then I started putting weight without noticing. For me it's easy to understand what happened now, but back then I could not see that. And then I would be quiet and more not very active as I was, and then I felt like 13, 14, like teenage years. I was younger than everybody, right, because I had skipped a grade early on. So a way to fit in, of course, is like the easy one. At that time it's like oh, go, drink, right, because it doesn't require a lot of skills to do that. Right, let's say it.

Acyr Da Luz: 9:02

And I remember as a teenager I would drink a lot, a lot of beer, hard liquors going out. Brazil was probably easier access than the US for drinking, especially back then in the time, and a lot of the friends that was kind of the community I started to hang out with and I don't think that was treating either my body or myself the way I would today, but that that's how it worked back then. And uh, and I was, I was getting very distant from the kid that was growing up before, the active kid that would spend all day biking, never stopped. I would wake up five in the morning, knock the window off of my friends, get them on the bike and disappear, right that that. That kid was left behind and I became the guy that would, I don't know, pull all lighters drinking with friends, come back, not dedicate too much time to the, to the studies that I needed to, that I should so.

Acyr Da Luz: 10:05

So it kind of, if I compare my early ages with late ones, very different. Right and uh, and at home I didn't have a lot of reference on exercise, or my dad never exercised, or my mom did a little bit, but was more walking. For me, exercise, or like a marathon or anything, was something that I'm watching the tv, some ultra person doing that, that would not. I'll not belong to that world, right that I'll never see that, yeah, um, so so that's how I grew up, right and and things took a turn on teenage years that were not very healthy and it took me a while to really understand that.

Larry Ryan: 10:57

Tell me if I'm reading in too much of what I read in the book. It probably has a little bit to do with the relationship with your father as well, who was a bit of a serial ultra entrepreneur maybe, or it just he would move from one thing to the other and would work super hard and thus that kind of was you got into the idea of. You know that that health and fitness maybe was not the most important thing. You know that health and fitness maybe was not the most important thing.

Acyr Da Luz: 11:27

But a career and working hard was important. Yeah, I think you are right on many aspects. His focus was always on the companies, on the business he was building one when I worked, he would build the next one and move from business to business, never prioritize his health or even the relationship and the family, so it was very distant. I would see that from a distance. When I was about 18, I was 18, actually his companies, all of them kind of went south, and at that point I looked in the mirror and said, look, he's not going to be my dad or his company. I think I have to own this and build my own life.

Acyr Da Luz: 12:16

That was a very, very difficult time in our family for my siblings, for my mom, for him, for everybody, for me. Everyone took a little bit different. What I took was I have to focus on it, on my career. I have to build my own world here, right? No one's going to do it for me. And so I dedicated a lot of time to the work, to the career, and neglected the body and the health. That was not very well taken care of in teenage beginnings, right? So things didn't go very well, right. I started getting very overweight and a lot of health issues would come after that.

Larry Ryan: 13:04

Well, you tell the story in the book of when you joined the service in Brazil as mandatory at 18, you were unsure of what your weight was and you were shocked when you found out where you actually were.

Acyr Da Luz: 13:17

Yes.

Larry Ryan: 13:18

Can you tell us about that?

Acyr Da Luz: 13:19

Yeah, yeah, exactly, I was 18. In Brazil it's mandatory that you have to enlist for the army, for the military right that I did for the Navy. And then you go there, you have to do a physical exam and all of that, and in front of the military person there he puts on your form and keep going. And I remember on that queue, right, I was on that line and then the line was going very slow. So the military guy was like, hey, people don't need to wait, just put your weight over there. When you come here, just tell me your weight and we'll move forward quickly. Right, don't need to wait, I just want to push the line across. And then it was like a few minutes before me and I was like, okay, good, I don't have to wait, right. And then, uh, and then then the person in front of me, he would ask the weight, and the guy, he said 80 kilos. And then, uh, and then he asked me right after right, I didn't know, I announced it 80 kilos. And then he asked me right after right, I didn't know, I said 80 kilos, whatever, just go with that, it's good, it looks good, sounds good, let's go Further down the line. The guy took my forearm and said, uh-uh, this is not right. So what? You don't have 80 kilos, let's go back there and wait? Said okay, let's go back.

Acyr Da Luz: 14:44

And it was way above that. I think it was like 114, right, it was like way, way above that. And then for me it was a reality check, right. I said, oh, things are worse than I thought and I had to face that. At that time I said, look, I'm going to lose weight and I did. I went all the way to 83 at that time 83. But when the crisis happened with my dad and then I had two folks at work, they start to come up, come up, come up, and suddenly I was above 113. I was like 120, right, when things got really bad and I was working extremely hard. It was very hard to find balance and I think that was I was probably turning. I turned the person that I what I did not admire my dad. I ended up becoming that.

Larry Ryan: 15:42

Right.

Acyr Da Luz: 15:43

Right, because I was not really having a healthy life, not dedicating time to the family. I was just focused on work. He was focused on the company. I was focused on my career. But it's still work. Yeah, and at a certain point on my career I had a very big disappointment right that I was all set, ready to be promoted to become a partner. It was a big deal, big promotion at that time and did not happen. But when that happened for me it was kind of a turning point. I took it hard. I said okay, something's not right.

Larry Ryan: 16:23

Yeah.

Acyr Da Luz: 16:24

And there's a reason why this did not happen. And I went back and soul searched, back home. I think I mentioned that in the book. I could have changed jobs, I could have changed countries, go back to Brazil, I could have changed careers. But I said look, I'm going to change myself. I think that's what I need to do. I need to focus on what I think the core things are spend time with my family, take care of my health, and that day I decided to start running.

Larry Ryan: 16:56

Yeah, this is my favorite story in your book and I just want to set this up a little bit. It's like when you decide it okay, there's a time for a change, you talk to your boss that night and you're like he wanted you to come in for some 5am meeting or something and you're like I can't do it. I'm starting my running program tomorrow, and he was a little incredulous and a little bit bit maybe insensitive and didn't believe that this was something that you were going to be doing. And maybe that even sparked you a little bit more, because not only did you start a running program, you didn't even wait for the next morning. You decided you went home and you started that night is what you've written in your book that, like, if I don't start it now, he might be right, I might never start this thing, and so there there's just something about. Can you tell us a little bit more about how that?

Acyr Da Luz: 17:56

went down.

Acyr Da Luz: 17:57

Yes, I think the start is always very hard, very hard, and I always decided I'm going to do, instead of focusing on losing weight. I said, look, I'm going to start running because I think running is positive and I'm going to lose weight by running. I'm going to run, I'm going to start running. That was my focus. And I was on a 7am call with him not call meeting, in-person meeting and then he said, look, let's meet tomorrow at 5. And then I said, no, I can't, right, I can't. And why? You have another meeting? I said no, because I'm going to go for a run. And he was like what, what is that? What are you talking about? And I'm saying, look, if I told you I was going for a doctor appointment, you would be okay with that. I'm just preventing that doctor appointment, just avoiding that. And he was like he was in shock and um, and I remember he was like I said, look, I have to take care of my health, I'm going to start running, I'm going to do the morning. And then he was shook, his hand, his head, and yeah, we probably need to take care of our health as well. Of course he was thinking. I'm sure he made him think his own life because he was working a lot and I didn't put his name in the book. That's just just uh ideas, right, I protect who that one, that person is, because I don't expose him. And then he, um, and then said okay, so I'll take care of it, we can meet another time.

Acyr Da Luz: 19:41

And I drove home and then I said you know what? This is not going to go well because if I don't show up tomorrow morning, things will make, got a snowball, make it worse, um, there will be reasons not to run every time. But when I arrived home, I said there's no reason not to run, I'm going to do it now, I'm not gonna wait, and then I'm gonna. If I can do it, I'll do it tomorrow morning, if I do the other day, I'll do it. So I said I'm gonna use every time, every spare time I have to put the run right.

Acyr Da Luz: 20:18

So I arrived, went, changed, left, left the home and I didn't even know where to go right, like, okay, go run. I said, yeah, run for what? Run to what? What goal? No course, it's not like a running track or running. There's nothing. There was like a parking lot and I'm saying it doesn't matter, I'm just going to start running and it was very hot. I had not noticed it was hot because I was never out, I was in the car, I air conditioned the whole day. I said you know, I'm gonna just do it, and it was very hard, horrible, dragging myself, like there were a little bit of of small hills that for me were very hard to climb at that time yeah and I said no, I did it.

Acyr Da Luz: 20:59

And um, so I ran and I was there on the next day I think it was six, maybe five or six am and I shocked him. He was surprised and he was oh, no, run this morning. He expected me not to run.

Larry Ryan: 21:13

Right.

Acyr Da Luz: 21:13

Right and said no run this morning. I ran yesterday and I'm going to run every night. Yeah, there was a part of me that wanted to do it, and there was a part of me that wanted to do it, and there was a big part that wanted to prove him wrong. Right, so I used that in my favor. I said, look, I'm going to use this for a positive energy for me doing something good. And I never stopped since that day. And there were many reasons not to run many days.

Larry Ryan: 21:40

Yeah, and I think you know this is what I feel like the book was really all about. It was that, that taste of grit or resilience that moved you on to the path that you're able to. You're able to build on it each time and kind of set a new goal. And many people don't have that grit or resilience to even take that first step. But once you took that first, step.

Acyr Da Luz: 22:13

It reshaped all facets of your life, One of the main reasons that I wrote the book. That got me going to write the book and motivated me, and I thought that very often. One thought that I had was one day I'm sure my kids will be in a difficult situation. Something didn't happen professionally, personally, a relationship, whatever. It is right. This is life. It's going to happen and I want them to know, to remember, to have it vivid on their memory, that a lot of the good things they lived through happened because I was in that moment Right, so they can turn bad things in their favor and use that energy to do good things for them.

Acyr Da Luz: 23:00

Yeah, both on career, on their health, on in relationships or who they are as people. Yeah, and in the book, you're right, it's a lot about taking negative stuff that happened that you didn't plan, and how can I turn this into something positive? Right, even some issues on races. I step back and look Now I understand what happened and why it happened. That way becomes my energy for the next one. Of course, when I finish, get a medal, it's good, it's great. But I would say the most fun chapters to write and the ones with most lessons are the ones that did not finish as I expected, and I tried to put a lot of I don't know some fun into it, because when you look now, things are laughable At that time. There's a lot of stress involved, yeah, yeah, but a lot of them are laughable now. Right, all right. And I think, try to keep it light. Yeah, absolutely, it comes across that way.

Acyr Da Luz: 24:08

It's not going to be perfect, but take that energy and make it positive. There were a lot of things that, when I look back, I could take it negatively in life, like when my father had a lot of financial issues and some health issues that I had. I could do that and take it negatively and blame others. But instead, okay, how do I make this and take it to the positive side? Not easy, but it can be done, yeah.

Larry Ryan: 24:39

I feel like you've definitely done it. I mean, and, and the way you progressively go through each of the different goals that you have, and it doesn't matter, like you share the, the, the parts that went wrong, as much as you share the parts that went right, and and I think that makes for some great storytelling. You know you're not hiding the, the failures you had there, they're in there as well. And you know, even looking back to your first goal, which was quickly set once you get out running, and that you were like I want to run a marathon and and then you're like I want to run a marathon in under four hours, like you were making some lofty goals pretty much right away.

Larry Ryan: 25:23

And like all great quest stories, though, you know the protagonist, they need to find some aid along the way, someone to create bonds with in completing these quests, and for you, it was your friend, fellow Brazilian, danny, and your family, who you brought in. You know your children were very young at the time when this was going on, and now you know they're off in college and things like that. So the book tells a great story of your family and all the way through their growth. But can you tell us how that was a part of what it was that was important to you, like bringing in these other people like Dani and your family.

Acyr Da Luz: 26:08

Yeah, no, definitely so, for anything in life, it's very hard to do it alone, right alone. Right, you need the support network, I, and when I started, one thing that was clear in my mind was that the support network had to be my family. If I could not engage them, the running career, the oath, the triathlon would would. The running career, the triathlon would put us apart and not bring us together. Right, it's not uncommon to see people starting down that path. I'm going to do an Ironman, I'm going to do triathlons, I'm going to do ultra distance racing, and then marriage and family just take a second place, and then things don't go the right way. Right, for me, that was clear, and how to do that was hard. Right, because people all have their own priorities and what they like to do and what they don't like. But for me it was can I build that support network with them, even if it's support network with them, even if it's not the fastest, even if it's not the most efficient? Right, but can I do that? Um, I could get the coach, I could join a running club, I could. Right, dunny, I think, was a great buddy because our, our wives, were close right, they were friends. Our daughters were close, right, they were friends. Our daughters were friends. So we would go for races together, we would train together, they would meet us. That was great and we were neighbors, both from Rio, so that was good.

Acyr Da Luz: 27:56

But I would engage the kids, principally very early. And I joke I joke a lot Today, half joking, right, because I say on the beginning I would go for a run and Sophia and then Gabriel. But Sophia was five, six years old, she would bike, have whatever 16-inch bike, 14-inch bike, I don't even remember. She would bike with me. I would go to a nice path this is very near the bike path I would do like 20k, 21 K and she would go. She was like small and doing it right and and for her that was normal. That was like she would stop, eat some granola bar, take some water. I would be running back and forth till she recovers and then we would continue. It was fun.

Acyr Da Luz: 28:47

She started growing up and gave her the same story. Then they become too fast on the bike and they become a little bit bored because they are trying to keep up. I used to keep up with them, but now they are much faster and then they grow a little bit bored because they're trying to keep up. I need to keep up with them, but now they're much faster and then they grow a little bit more. They start running with me, right. So we start running together and I'm trying to get them on the right pace and I have to wait for them and it's okay. Now I'm in the phase that I'm almost getting. I think I need to get the bike to chase them, because they start, they're like they go. So, no, come on, wait, wait, like I. Like I saw the whole the whole journey, right.

Acyr Da Luz: 29:28

Yeah, she was like the little one I had to wait to push on the bike on the heels and oh, we are together now you're faster, come and run with me now. I say, hey, where's my bike? I'm almost at that phase, right. So so it's, it's, it's them. It was natural, right. And today we do the triathlons together and we did a couple of them. We did the nationals together. We were ready for the nationals this year to do together with her, myself and her, but then it got canceled on the day it didn't happen because of rain and all of that. But it's been a fun experience, something we do together, yeah, you've been a great role model.

Acyr Da Luz: 30:06

When I look back, I said, okay, it worked Right, because it's not that if I push too hard maybe I would get them away from it because they would hate or that's something that forces me to do it. I was always trying to make it fun, so it's not easy. There is not like a straight answer. It's kind of more great and right. Yeah, but it worked. More art than science.

Larry Ryan: 30:28

Yeah.

Acyr Da Luz: 30:29

Yeah.

Larry Ryan: 30:29

No, I think it's great the way you were able to have the family be such a big part of what you were doing. You know many of the people I talked to that's one of the things they give up is. You know they spend their hours training and they're out on their own a lot of the time and you know so they're giving up those family hours or they're finding other ways to bring in family hour times and you just incorporate it all together, which is fantastic, and I think it's obviously been a positive role modeling for your kids. They have both dabbled in this already, so, yeah, it's a good story.

Acyr Da Luz: 31:08

No, it's good, and that was so you mentioned I start running, I want to do a marathon. I did a marathon in much shorter time than I expected right, I expect to do a marathon in three years. I did like six months right, less than six months and I said I'm going to go for the Ironman. What for me, was just some superhuman would do that. That's how I grew up right, there was one person in Brazil that was a reference. She's like amazing, like Fernanda Keller. I remember growing up and looking at the TV would always be her doing this Ironman in Hawaii and all these kind of insane things for me. That's how I grew up, thinking about triathlon and Ironman. I said I'm going to go for it, and it was. I grew up thinking about triathlon and Ironman. I said I'm going to go for it and it was very hard, injuries and so on but it was fun to do it. I was happy and the family was proud. But I could see Jai and the kids. They were all proud and happy to be in the race, but there was limited engagement when I tried the Ultraman at Canada. I think it's because now they are part of it and that was the main thing that attracted me to the Ultraman instead of the Ironman, because I was not alone anymore.

Acyr Da Luz: 32:45

The whole race and even preparation. It was not an individual sport, it's a team sport and my team, as I mentioned in the book, was my family, so we would discuss strategies. The first one is a big lesson, everybody right, it was so hard and sleep, deprivation, lack of food, all wrong, right, we're not prepared. But the second one was great. They were great, right, and, and I finished because of them. When the third one is different, right, right, you have read the book. There were some issues on the swim and they were perfect. I was not and we didn't finish. But then they became a well-oiled machine, they know what to do and they are engaged and they had fun, they run with me. It's good, they supported me, it's good and it supported me. So I think becoming a team sport, making triathlon a team sport, was what really led me to the.

Larry Ryan: 33:47

Ultraman. Yeah Well, let's kind of go through each one of these a little bit. We are 515 Ultra Podcast, so let's hear about these Ultraman races you were doing. I know in 2019, when you came to Ultraman races you were doing I know in 2019, that when you came to Ultraman Canada I was. I was there helping out to organize the race. At that time is before, I was the co race director and and you say that you felt a little bit out of your league, that the briefing that I was giving was completely intense and you were feeling the imposter syndrome with all the people in the room and their resumes, and you were just really not prepared for what it took to do that race. You told your family crewing would be simple. They'd have to see you every couple of hours. Tell us about how that race went for you, yeah.

Acyr Da Luz: 34:40

Tell us about how that race went for you.

Acyr Da Luz: 34:43

Yeah, so I wanted to do the Ultraman in Hawaii, but you need to qualify. You had to qualify, right. So Ultraman Canada was open and I said you know what? I'm going to register. I don't know if they're going to accept me or not, invite me or not, but I'm going to register. I don't know if they're going to accept me or not, invite me or not, but I'm going to try.

Acyr Da Luz: 35:01

I have done the Ironman last 12 months. I have the distance. Let me try. I was not sure I would get in. I said I'll register If I get in. I get in. All right, then I'll think about it. But but I'm not. But I didn't put too much thought into it and then I registered.

Acyr Da Luz: 35:26

A few days, weeks probably later, I got the email from Brad invited to register. I said, oh, this is now serious, let me talk to my wife. And then we went and talked to her. She was, oh, I'm not sure. And we were questioning. After a while she was on board and she was.

Acyr Da Luz: 35:41

But what is a judge? Easy, it's easy, don't worry about it, it's. It's a place with a lot of wineries. You can spend time on wineries with the kids. I need you to kayak for me for 10k in the lake. She and she looked at me. I never step inside a kayak, I don't know how to do it. I said that would be easy. Come on, I'm swimming, you're a kayak. But she never had entered in a kayak before. I said, no, no, we'll manage that. Kayak is not a problem. And then every three, four, five hours we meet so we refill my water bottles and change food and keep going. No rush, no stress. Then I got her to agree. Right, that was the deal.

Acyr Da Luz: 36:26

And then I talked to my sister. She was in Brazil. I said, oh, I'm gonna join. That's probably fun. I would spend time with Jai on the wineries and the kids. I'll help her out. We'll meet you once in a while.

Acyr Da Luz: 36:40

Is it your sister? Yeah, and then, and then my friend at work. I was working with yon at that time. We have done one half ironman together, one marathon. I told him, hey, I'm gonna do that. And he said, oh, my gosh, this seems so hard. I said, uh, you can crew for me if you want to tell you I'm gonna want to do that, okay, good. So suddenly I had like a good crew. Number of crew. Yeah, but no one had ever done it right and I had never done it. But I said, okay, it's fine. It's okay, guys up, get the course. I'll load on my Garmin. Everything will be fine, don't worry, I'll manage. You just need to meet me every so often. So change the water bottle. That was the message.

Acyr Da Luz: 37:25

And then we get to that briefing, and then there was so much detail and oh, talking about that side of the road that I don't know that shop and like the know that shop and like every the false flats and this, and I was looking at this. Everyone knows what they're talking about. I have no clue. I said, okay, we have to look at this more seriously. It's not follow the course only, there's more to that. Oh, I forgot to miss that. I missed something.

Larry Ryan: 37:59

Go ahead, change it. I registered.

Acyr Da Luz: 38:03

And I was training not too much because I was working too much, but I was managing and then the elevation profile was published, right, I don't remember. I don't know exactly when you joined, but the elevation profile was published after, yeah, or at least I got to know after. Right, maybe I didn't pay exactly when you joined, but the elevation profile was published after, or at least I got to know after. Maybe I didn't pay attention to it.

Larry Ryan: 38:24

Yeah, it was the traditional course for a number of years, but yeah, yeah, but I have no idea.

Acyr Da Luz: 38:31

And when I look at the elevation profile, I said I'm done, there's no way I can do this, not because of the distance or the elevation, but the time my average pace when I turn the mountains. Here it is, it was about 15, 20 below. It needed to be for three, four times. I said. The distance, I said it's a problem, but okay, but I consider not going to the race. We're talking to my wife before because, look, it's going to be too hard, I'm not training this elevation, and she was oh, we signed up already, let's go. I said yeah, let's go. Fine, I think she was interested in the whining and then she thought she would be spending time on the whining.

Acyr Da Luz: 39:14

And then we come to the briefing Late. We were behind, I didn't know it was mandatory, I didn't pay attention to it. And then we come late. They are looking for food, the kids are hungry and all these details that you're presenting, and I'm trying to keep up. I'm looking at yon, I'm looking at that and and we are like look, what is he talking about? Right? And then there's this introduction of the athletes. I remember I had done three Ironman and I thought that it was a lot. And then come these people oh no, I have done the best, race is Badwater, I love that. And I said what's Badwater? And then I look it up while in the meeting, in the presentation, and like 135 miles in the desert, I said oh, my god.

Acyr Da Luz: 40:11

And then people, oh, and by the way, I'm gonna do next week again, and two people, I think mark and uh, right, yeah, both were like I'm gonna do this this weekend and next weekend I'm gonna do the. This was the 515. I'm going to do the 520. That was the like. There was some conflict which one would stay. One 520 was going away. They decided to stay, right, yes, and I'm looking. These guys are going to do this today, this weekend and in five days from now. They're biking, they're doing everything again and I'm saying look, I, I don't belong here. Everyone that presented there. Oh, my favorite race was either bad water or the iron man world championship. That was kind of most of it. I said, oh, if I look at my time and I remember I'm so far from being qualified. Right for me, I, this is not my group, I'm going to be in trouble here. Right, I said that's going to be hard. I really, really felt out of place, right, I felt okay this I'm not built for this.

Acyr Da Luz: 41:11

I don't think I should even start. But you're there, you travel all the way there. I said I'm going to go for it, I'm going to do it. But it was hard, it was a wake-up call, I would say.

Larry Ryan: 41:26

Hello listener, I love getting your feedback and suggestions for the podcast. Keep them coming at 515ultraman@ gmailcom. For those that want to help me promote the show, I suggest that you tell a friend to listen too. Word of mouth is a great way for podcasts to get new listeners and if you don't mind publishing your feelings, a free way to support the show is by leaving a five-star rating and review on your podcast app. It's a chance to tell me what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it too. Final, if you're so inclined, you can show your appreciation for my work by clicking the support link at the bottom of the show notes to go to my buy me a coffee page. Thanks for all of your feedback and support. Now back to the show. You are listening to my conversation with Ohanagas Asir Dulus. After getting a little background into Asir's life, we are about to hear if his fears that he is not prepared for the 515 experience are founded. Here comes his wake-up call, as he said, and the lessons he learned as a result.

Acyr Da Luz: 42:42

And then we went for day one. Day one was very, very hot. Temperature was like 45 Celsius, right, a lot of wildfires. The course changed because of wildfires. I started to swim. I did the 10K swim.

Acyr Da Luz: 43:02

Swim is by far my best sport, not that it's great, but it's better than the other ones. I had a challenge on the swim because I had trained in Santa Cruz for the long runs. There was salty water. When I did at Okanagan Lee I kind of felt I missed the salt. So I finished the swim a little bit down. I was planning to do like 320, 310 was more, like I think, like 340.

Acyr Da Luz: 43:37

But I needed 45 minutes to recover, to even recover before I can get on the bike. And then I finished the bike. That I thought was easy would be easy because it was just 145 kilometers, very hot. My head would explode. It was so hot. I would stop to meet the crew and they would throw ice on my back, on my head. I would not even feel it and I had a flat tire. And then I finished. But it was way harder than I thought. I started having a lot of fever and feeling bad and almost throwing up when I arrived at the Airbnb. It was all this a lot of sun and it and, and it was hard right like sunstroke.

Acyr Da Luz: 44:28

And I remember talking to my wife saying I don't think I can start tomorrow. I look, if 145 kilometers was like that, can imagine 276, and I can't do it right, and she was. And then, and then she was about to say not to do it, and I remember my, my sister would come say, go for sleep. You sleep like a rock. Every time you don't, don't even move, you just just pass out and wake up the next day. You're gonna be fine tomorrow we'll talk. We are the ones that don't have. Don't sleep that easy. It's going to be hard for us.

Acyr Da Luz: 45:07

I went to bed but didn't, I didn't even remember much. And then when I woke up for the next day, I don't even I didn't remember. I was what was happening. And then my wife was bringing me when we're talking to her. I was, oh, I have to race today and all of that. And and she was like, are you really going to do it? I said, oh, I am, because I really woke up feeling fresh when I went to stand up from the bad note.

Acyr Da Luz: 45:34

It was hard. I said, oh, that's going to be hard, but I did it. I said, let's do it, let's get started. I did a big mistake because I just didn't know right. And then what we did was no one was ready. So I asked Dion to drive me to the starting line and then the crew would be ready and then he would come back to meet me, to pick them up and meet me later.

Acyr Da Luz: 46:05

And it then was very, very hard. I almost did not start and then you know, everyone line up, the guy, go right, the gun went off and I said, look, I gotta go, what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna just quit. And then I start doing and it felt good, it didn't feel bad, I think the adrenaline. And I said, look, maybe I can do that. And then I start pushing. I remember I was very close and a little bit ahead of Mark at that time. I remember for me a reference on my pace was Mark. That was the reference I was having right on the on the bike and I could leave him behind and I was doing well, feeling great. We were kind of in the second group. There was the first group that went off, like Jordan and a few folks.

Larry Ryan: 46:58

I'm glad you didn't try and keep up with Jordan.

Acyr Da Luz: 47:01

No, that would not be smart. That would be a very fast decision to quit after. So I was like trying to keep our head up. This guy has done before because we talked right. So look, if I'm on his neighborhood, I'm in the game and I was pushing, it was going well and then I flat tire and I said oh gosh, no crew, nothing. I had filled the tires with sealant. I said, look, maybe I'll just load the air here. See what happens. And it held. I said okay, let's go. But like another hour and a half later, another flat tire. And the reason for all these flat tires was I was so concerned with the time, right that, the pace to close that, all the elevation and everything 12 hours. I went for the fastest tire that I could find and I said, look, this is going to hold for a day. I don't need to hold for a week, it's just a day. But it didn't. It did not, it doesn't. I remember it was Victoria Corsa and it's built for like indoor kind of track.

Larry Ryan: 48:20

Right.

Acyr Da Luz: 48:21

The stones, the little rocks stick to it and then the more you pedal, the more the wheel goes right the tire. It starts passing through the tire and then punctures. It's not that you hit the puncture, it's just a normal rock that does it. But I didn't know that and so that was a flaw in my strategy. I didn't know, so I had to pump the tire again and then I had to stop and change the tire, so I had a lot of tire trouble. You mentioned Jordan, right.

Acyr Da Luz: 48:56

When I finished like race was finished he won. We were sitting side by side just chatting and I mentioned that I had all these tire challenges and he said what I did you use. And then I said, oh, I came to your course. And he said, oh, you did this. I did the same thing you did in Cozumel 2014. The race ID, the first Ironman, said I did the same thing. And then he was like and I had five flats and quit the race because I could not do it. I said, great, you are just five years ahead of me. That's okay. Right, I'm five years behind you because I'm not the only guy. I didn't feel that stupid anymore, right? So look, the guy is winning this race. He did the same thing five years ago. I get it Right.

Larry Ryan: 49:49

But like it's just a matter of experience, and he went on to win the world championship that year as well.

Acyr Da Luz: 49:51

He went to. Yeah, he did that, he did that and it was awesome. So I didn't finish. So in the end, before the tire challenge, I remember everyone was concerned with the wall, the famous wall right, yeah, famous wall and I saw people walking the bike on the wall. It's very challenging for us. Very beautiful place, very beautiful area. I would never be to British Columbia I was not planning to do that, but we love it. We love the lakes, we love the mountains. The ride was beautiful, very challenging, but the wall was fine. It was just a hill right, a big hill in the incline. What for me was very, very difficult was the wind when you come down the other side of the wall and that corridor of wind that doesn't matter if you're on the left, right the valley, it's just like headwind all the time.

Acyr Da Luz: 50:49

And that part I was surprised. I was not expecting it. And then I would see my average right, my speed. I said, guys, this is not looking good. I've been pushing.

Acyr Da Luz: 51:01

The end missed by eight minutes that day. Right, and it was the first one that didn't make the cut right, mark was the last one to make it. And then I didn't make it and like I was very, very frustrated. But on the other hand I was proud because young came to me and said, look, I think you're built for this. Looking how much you train, how much mistakes we all did in this race, the wind, that was there in like eight minutes. I think you can do this. And that's how I left there. Left that day I said, said, look, I I think was very close if I had the experience. I'm sure I had. Like it was not about having the physical or the mental strength to do, it was the experience. Yeah and um, so that's how I left the second day, um, and when I finished that race I said no, this, no, this is, I'm close enough, I'm going to do another one. Yeah, and then I went for Florida and we were much better prepared and there was one event right.

Acyr Da Luz: 52:21

So I was working at Google at that time and I was on the cycling distribution list. It's good, you're there. You see what's happening, people invite for rides and all that. And someone wrote asking about hey, I'm going to do my first Ironman, any tips? And then I replied with what I thought would be helpful for her Things that I had learned on my Ironman. And then I wrote in the end very like I didn't believe we'd have any results, but I put there does anyone has the experience of Ultraman? I probably need help.

Acyr Da Luz: 52:59

I didn't finish one and I'm trying to go for the second one and I let that happen, right, I said no one who at at Google is gonna be doing Ultraman. And then a guy reply, copying Rob by say, oh, you just have Rob, great, the world changer, right. And then. And then Rob replied very kind, advice was very nice, is oh, great, we can meet up for lunch and then we can talk, and so on. I said yes, of course, Right. So it was the first time I was meeting someone that had done and I had never talked to anyone.

Larry Ryan: 53:37

Yeah.

Acyr Da Luz: 53:37

But from the race that had done right to get coaching. Yeah.

Larry Ryan: 53:42

For people that might not know, you're speaking of Rob Gray. He was the 2017 world champion. He was also on the podcast back in season four, episode 13. Great guy, Lots of information. Unfortunately for you, this was before the podcast existed, so you didn't have this ability to get information about Ultraman.

Acyr Da Luz: 54:12

Lucky for you, you were able to hook up with Rob Gray. It was luck. It was luck and you're right, there was not Right. But for Hawaii I had the podcast and it helped me. It helped me a lot, I'll tell you how.

Acyr Da Luz: 54:27

But then I met with Rob. He was very helpful, very helpful. A lot of recommendations, right, and sharing his own stories. And I remember three things specifically right. One of them was I was not training a lot during the week because I was working too much, and then I felt I had to offset that by going very long the weekends.

Acyr Da Luz: 54:54

And he said forget about that, don't do that. You need to count the week mileage, not the day. The day doesn't matter, you can stay on the bike 12 hours, it doesn't matter, right? So I start planning for the whole week mileage and not for days long mileage Like you do in a marathon that, oh, I have to be 36 or I have to right, you don't have that long ride that you have to do. You need to have volume per week. That was his first one. It's more important volume per week than what you do in a single day. Uh, that was one. So I adjusted my plan. And then the second one I don't go for a run, I don't run straight, I go for one walk, one walk right. And then he was like very fast, describing his strategy I start with eight and a half 1.75, with eight and a half 1.75 seconds, and this, yeah, and he was like look, do like nine minutes one minute.

Acyr Da Luz: 55:50

And I remember thinking to myself, right when I started running and did the marathons and did all these races, I would never allow me to walk on the race right on the run. Maybe because I would not allow me to walk on race right On the run, maybe because I would not feel a runner if I was walking right or something right, or maybe I'm not tough enough because I'm walking right, whatever right, and I'm seeing across the world champion say, oh, the best thing is because I walk. And I said, look, yeah, sometimes you're like yeah, like feel like stupid, right and uh. And I said look, yeah. And then he said look, you gotta save your legs, so walk in the beginning, do five, like 10 minutes, one minute, sometimes. Do eight and a half, one and a half, and describe his strategy and so on, and then and then you reduce that over time, right, and then the last 21k you probably just run because it becomes very hard to stop and stop, but at least you save your life, because if you go running too much and then you're dragging yourself. And he was describing all that and and then and then. That helped me a lot, I think, making breaking a mental barrier that I could walk right on the run. That was actually smart to do that early on instead of dragging myself afterwards. So that was one and the other one.

Acyr Da Luz: 57:13

He was always very efficient on training. I could I could see that how he managed his. He's someone I I think myself on someone that always try to be efficient on things and can do a lot of things at the same time. I could see his thoughts. He's always looking for efficient ways to train, efficient ways to race, efficient ways to engage his family as well. And then he was like look, the best way to train for a long run is not doing a long run before, but start with a downhill run that's going to wear down your quads and then you do another 20, 30, 40 kilometers after that and then he'll say run till it's done. After you do the 10K downhill.

Acyr Da Luz: 58:01

He lived in the area before. He's now living in Boulder, but he knew the area, the mountain. He said go to Page Mill Road, run that down and then run to the Leo Legs Up Down. Once you do that once or twice, you're ready for the ultra. You'll finish the ultra without problem, and that's a strategy I use for Florida. Six weeks before I went to page mill road. It's like a 13 kilometer downhill steep can get up to 15, 16% and I did that and then did to complete 50K and then was six weeks before the race and it helped. So these three things helped me a lot when I met Rob and then I felt I really felt ready for Florida. Based on that, I got the right tire, I got the right volume per week and I got the right training and strategy for the run.

Larry Ryan: 59:04

Yeah. And you got a crew that now has experience which is probably one of the bigger ones as well, because you brought back the same crew, correct?

Acyr Da Luz: 59:14

Same crew. Everybody wanted to go back and I said are you guys sure you want to go back? And they were no.

Larry Ryan: 59:19

Now we're going to do this and and but, but you still, even though you've had all this and you, you've psyched yourself up to do it. Um, I just want to share some of your times with the people that are listening, because you still, you push the limits. My friend like, uh on on day two, you were an 1144 and on day three, that crew would have been pulling their hair out because you were 1154. So your walk run strategy. I'm sure at points they were calling it into question and maybe you were too.

Acyr Da Luz: 59:58

Oh, they were very stressed. Everybody was very stressed about it. Yeah, that's right, that's right. So go for florida. The first day, the swim. It's okay. I, I make time on the swim so I can kind of cool down on this on the bike on the first day. Right, I don't need to push too hard. Yeah, and I finish on.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:00:23

The swim was challenging because a storm came in and and flip kayaks and and slow down the kayaks, not so much the the swimmers, so I would have to wait. My wife she was in kayak and she could not move because it was too windy and she was struggling and I would wait for her to catch up with me. So the swim was hard for the kayakers. There was one that flipped twice or three times and sank and then the athlete had to quit the swim. So my wife was safe, she was good. She was with a lot of pain on her elbow afterwards and complained with me for a long time. I had to hear that. But it was okay and day one finished okay, as expected.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:01:11

Day two I knew it was hard, I knew it was very hard, the pace, but barely Canada. Canada was more elevation, but I was managing. Well, I could manage. I could see that I was about to finish and and then it was time to get dark. I still had time and you old finish. So I kind of took the goggles out, the glasses out, because it was getting dark. I slowed down and said look, there's one goal now be ready for tomorrow. I told my crew stay back In the last 40, last hour I was much slower, very high cadence.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:02:02

I said I have to get ready for that run because they chew in Canada. If I did not have the flats I knew I would have finished, but I knew I would not have finished the run in Canada. I knew that I did not finish. I tried and locked and I said they choose behind me it with like an hour and so on. I said my challenge is going to be this one and I know it's challenging. And it was. I did the run, the walk-run strategy, and I kind of knew my pace and I was like I'm going to let you sprint to the last 21K and I know how much I can do in the 21K, 21k. I can do that if I need under two hours. So I'm going to pace myself to be before that. But at that time when the last one can arrive.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:03:02

My crew met Slava. That was an athlete that they had met in Canada In Canada as well, yeah, and she was. Are you guys doing what you need to do? Are you driving your athlete? Are you pushing him? He doesn't know what's happening. He's tired, he's exhausted, right.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:03:20

She gave them a very hard time. So they got desperate and they said, oh, he's not going to finish that. I didn't know any of that because I'd never stopped running and for me it was all about look, I cannot go too high on heart rate. I was under control, I knew I would finish, right, but I was under control. But they got desperate and they start pushing oh, I have to go on this. I said got desperate and they start pushing, oh, we have to go. And this said we'll do it, we'll do it, we'll do it, and and then, and then. Then I said, look, it's fine, I'm gonna do it because I can do this, I can do I. I was very conscious the whole time, but I knew it was coming close, cutting close right yeah, I said I'm gonna sprint.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:04:02

I remember talking to my wife and the kids and they last mile. They come together right.

Larry Ryan: 1:04:07

Yeah.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:04:08

And then let's sprint. I said I'm going to sprint when I see the finish line Because if I get injured, if something snaps on my leg, I can still finish. I'm not going to do it now, I'm not Not. And then a lot of people came hurled around for running in the end. And then a lot of people came hurled around for running. In the end it was very nice because I think everyone expected me to be completely wiped out, but I was not. I was kind of preserving myself. I was preserving myself for a sprint that I did not need to do. And then when I saw that finish line, I said, okay, guys, let's go, let's sprint, let's do this. And when I started running, I leaving every, everybody behind, everybody, right, no one could keep up. And my wife and my kids what happened? Where were you? I said look, guys, I was saving myself. That's what I took from raw right I. I did not wanna. The worst thing is wipe me out, like in the first 42k, and then I can't finish this right. And then then finish, as you mentioned, like five minutes, right, six minutes to go. But in my mind I was never afraid. I was very conscious, yeah, very. I knew I would finish and, um, when I crossed that finish line, I I remember it's possible, I did it. I felt very, very, very proud. I was very happy, was harder than the Ironman, much harder because multiple days you had to engage the people, so many weather element challenge you have to face, so long on the bike, but I was very happy, very excited and, uh, and the whole team, the whole crew, and said, okay, now, now we go for the world. Right, we go for kona, for for the big island. Yeah, kovid hit a month later. That was was February. I did that in February 2020. March 2020, lockdown, all race canceled. Everything Took, I think, two years for the Ultraman world to come back. They canceled two years in a row. They canceled 2020, 2021. But they came back in 2022.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:06:26

And I registered for that and I trained a lot, a lot. I would listen to your podcast all the time and I had a lot of known people. That was in Canada, right. Briefly, a lot of stories. He helped me a lot, a lot. Um, I remember and I forgot his name now the japanese athlete. Uh, I think it's japanese athlete. He, he mentioned that one of like. Normally you finish asking what's the one thing you recommend or you advise people right, and he was do not underestimate this one. Even if you're a good swimmer, do not underestimate this one, for somehow that got stuck on my mind. I trained like the sport I probably least needed less. Least training was swimming and was the one I trained the most yeah I said, look, I have to train this thing right.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:07:33

There's a reason people are afraid of the swim there it's. It's called open ocean. You start from a bay, go open, then come back on a bay. This is not a lake swim, it's not a bay swim that I do in Santa Cruz or even here in San Francisco. I said, look, I trained a lot. I was doing open water, I was doing the pool with the wetsuit in the pool, wetsuit open water. I was not like my shape was very gooduit in the pool, wetsuit water. I was not like my shape was very good, especially in the swim for that race.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:08:13

Yeah, and I went a few days before to Big Island with my sister and Gabriel, my daughter and my wife. My daughter had school, she could not go. I went a few days early. I drove this, the course, right, I did everything, I studied everything. I was, I was perfect, I'm gonna do that. Nothing's gonna stop me. And then we go for the day, we do the check-in, we go. And then day one starts. I wake up, what, 5 in the morning, 4.35. And then I get an email from the kayaker that is supposed to go with me and then, hey, I'm feeling sick, I'm not gonna join.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:09:09

I said oh great, great start yeah, then I text um cheryl right and said already working on it. I said, good, fine, and I I would stay. I stayed this time, in both times, at the courtyard, that you see the starting line right there, this swing, right, I'm there, I can, I can see, and I can see people arriving, I can see. I try to make logistics easy, right, as easier, as easy as as it can be. And then, and then he said, hey, we have a challenge, have to go down. So we went down there, said, hey, we have a challenge, have to go down.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:09:48

So we went down there and there was no kayaker. And then she was working on that. But how do you pick someone now to kayak 10 kilometers at five o'clock in the morning and like, oh my gosh. And then, and then the stress building up and all of that, everyone, everyone in the water already. And then comes someone. Oh, I can be, I found someone. It was a friend of someone that was helping Cheryl and the person was kind of a very nice person, was a great human being for doing that, but had no experience right.

Larry Ryan: 1:10:25

Right.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:10:25

When I said that said, hey, you have to give me all this food during the, and she said, oh, do I have to give you something? Yes, what? I said, no worry, I'll tell you along the way. And and I said, look, you're going to start from the beach, I start from the pier, we'll meet over there. I said, oh, I know you're kind of tall and this I'll be on the water. You can't see.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:10:45

I'll yell the number very loud all the time. Memorize the number, yell back the number, we'll find each other. I said, okay, good, and then as I start entering the water, the horn went off like time to go and everybody's swimming and I'm catching up. And then I start swimming. It comes the place where you meet, like whatever 100 yards, 200 yards on the front, and then I start yelling the number. You can see it's kind of still dark and you see all these people they all look the same from the water and I started yelling my number no, not this, not this. I said, okay, what do I do? And then I look, I'll continue swimming and she's going to find me because kayak is much faster. And then I start, continue swimming, and then another kayak come and then I yell my number, nothing. And I say, look, I think I'm in trouble here. I think she's not going to show up. She quit, what can I do? I was just looking at the kayaks in front. I said I'm going to follow that because that's the path and I would just go. No support, I'll just keep going until someone get me out of the race, because you can't run, swim without support. But I'll try to hide myself in here and keep swimming. And then, and then the, the, the would come like a small boat or the, uh, the jet ski, right in check. I said before he asked anything, I'll say just ask, find my kayaker, and then I'll give the number. Keep swimming. I said, look, I've not looked too much before. I'll not make eye contact, I don't want this guy pulling me off the race, right. And then they're like I'll find her. I said great. And then I keep swimming. But then it starts spreading out the people. When I was looking the kayak, it was far. So I'm looking at the mountain now and like alone in that ocean, I said, doesn't matter, I'm not going to stop. And then I'm going to swim this.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:12:47

I knew I had to be by like seven to eight kilometers at a certain time, because the currents would turn. Because the currents will turn, and if you are slower than that, it becomes exponentially harder because you're now against the current right. So I said, look, I have to push, I have to push. I was planning to finish in three hours or sub three hours what would be a great time, right? And I said, look, I got to push. I got to push and before the current turn, forget about food, I'm going to make this and then I'll recover on the bike. And then, about an hour, she found me. I saw she come in and she found me. And then the story is she was afraid to go alone, so she had to find one more good soul to join her on that kayak.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:13:37

On a double kayak, she go with me. And that took time, of course, right. And then when she she arrives, okay, good, no one's gonna pull me out of the base, I can finish this. And and then, and then she arrived, I said, look, there's been a right. Since I'm pushing hard, I get water, drink some water. And then I swallowed some food, right, more than normal, because I was trying to recover.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:14:11

Things didn't settle well when I started, right, because maybe I did too fast. This was shaking, because I're now on the outside of the bay and it's shaking, and in the mar the ocean is kind of hard and you're trying to go fast the waves, sometimes you swallow more water than you you should, right. And then and they're like, oh, this thing is not feeling great. But I said look, look, but I have to be there by two hours, otherwise this is going to be exponentially hard. And I'm there, swimming, swimming, swimming, and the nausea starts building up and I said, look, do I slow down? I look at my heart rate it's very high. I did another mistake. I like the full wetsuit because I'm much faster, but it's so warm and I think that was a problem to keep my heart rate down because temperature was high. So everything built right. Too much food, quickly, the ocean mix up and down right Very, very hard, swallowing water, the stress that I had to go through.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:15:21

At a certain point I said, look, I didn't reduce the pace and the certain point I just I just could not handle right. And then I started like feeling stop, feeling bad. I stopped and and then, and then it like started throwing up right and I said look, how it was horrible, horrible. I was very bad, feeling horrible. They stopped by my side and I was like trying to hold on the kayak. The kayak would bump on my head and like all this, because you're on the ocean, an open ocean, and she's like raising her hand to call for support, right, and I'm saying no, don't do that, don't do that. No, no, no, no, don't do that. These guys are gonna pull me out of the race, don't do that. Like I'm okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna recover, and then and then. But I could not say that because I was throwing up and having all these issues and then and then, once we finally got down, I said no, no, I'm gonna be okay, I'm going to be okay.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:16:18

They said fine they were scared both of them of course and like the guy's going to drown here.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:16:27

And then I said, okay, I'm okay, I'm better, I'm going to start swimming back. And then I started swimming. I did half in an hour and a half like 5k in an hour and a half, like 5k an hour and a half. The other 5k took me three hours and I would stop all the time. All the time I said I just go slow, so I keep my heart rate very low. I I'll glide to the water, yeah, but then you don't move because the current had turned right. So I would swim.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:16:59

That transparent water from from hawaii is great. I'll look at the bottom, one, two, three times. And then I'm over the same rock, right, and I'm like, okay, this is not working, and then I'll have to push. Every time I'll push, I would move, my heart rate would spike, and then I would have to push. Every time I would push, I would move, my heart rate would spike, and then I would have to stop, throw up and then come back. So it was like a grind. That next three hours was like very, very hard and all the way to the end, right. I remember stopping so many times and then, when it was not that bad. I would just I'm swimming, I would turn to the back, swim backwards, throw up and then keep swimming. I said, look, if I'm not finished, if I don't do that, it was very hard, very hard when I left that water.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:17:56

So when I was arriving there, taka came to pick me up from the water ride to meet me there. I felt like twice. I was completely dehydrated, I was dizzy, I could not see water, food, anything. It was very bad. And then my wife started like she started holding me to stand and to go to the bike. And Jai was now go to the bike, there is water for you, fresh water to clean. I said I don't understand, I can't go up, I can't climb on this bike right now. So I had to go to the restroom. I took a shower. I kind of recomposed myself.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:18:37

I remember looking in the mirror and I looked of recompose myself. I remember looking the mirrors. I look like half of what I started because I was so depleted. The right thing to do there certainly was to stop right. All right, we all know that. But and I thought about that, right, but look, train, so much, you do so much. You're there with a family. Tata had traveled from Brazil to Hawaii just for that race, and she was coming back. She was not enjoying anything. I said, look, if it's not for me, at least for them. I'm going to do this and I'm going to go back on that bike. I really, really I gave it all out. I said, look, I'm going to buy because, as there is no, no second or third day, because otherwise I'm not going to make it.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:19:34

I caught up a lot of time but end up missing that day for three minutes three minutes yeah, and and because I start cramping up on the hill on the last, on the final stretch, I was depleted, dehydrated. Cramping up, I, I could see it, I, I knew I could do it, but the, the legs didn't. The end I missed for three minutes. It was horrible, right? So much training. It's different in Canada. Canada was unprepared. This time I was super prepared.

Larry Ryan: 1:20:10

Yeah.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:20:12

And the family. So it was a very difficult moment. We finish decided should we look what do we do now? Do we stop? Right, call iron man done. Ultraman haria done.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:20:31

My life was in camp of that. Look, you already did an ultraman. You're good, you don't need to come to this. It's too much effort. But I said, look what example I'm giving. If I go there, try it, fail and don't do it, I don't finish. Right, and I really wanted to do that.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:20:50

So in the end, we agreed and I decided to go back in 2023. Yeah, we agreed and I decided to go back in 2023. And but I said, okay, for this time, I'm going to call that old friend called Rob Gray and said, hey, rob, what about becoming my coach? So I don't have to get a review by myself. And that was very helpful, very, very good, because then make training more efficient, preparation more efficient and another knowledge, right, what type of wetsuit and a lot of things that are not not written that people do, right, and then you learn that, whatever, I think 90 of the people that take anti-nausea medicine before swimming I didn didn't know that, right, no one talks about this, right, no one published that on Facebook, right, but I look it up Is it banned or not?

Acyr Da Luz: 1:21:46

It's not banned, you can take it and all of that, but like, but no one talks about it, right? So there were a lot of good pieces of information that he gave me right. He would say, look, get one or two cokes in the kayak. If things start getting bad, get that.

Larry Ryan: 1:22:03

So there was all these tricks that you had to live through, that, or listen to the podcast, which I know you were getting some tips there, but maybe not all of them. A lot, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:22:16

And he was like, okay, once you start, take that cap off, right, no one's going to look for the cap and that's going to help you a lot with the heat, right. And then if you look at that race, a lot of people already start without the cap because it's so warm, the water and it makes a difference. So there are all these kind of things that you need to experience, right, the podcast helps. So in the end it helped a lot. And it was hard, it was very difficult but could make it. Swimming had 10 feet wave on the first day, so it was way worse than the year before but I did it without any nausea and then finished the bike, not a lot of time left right, but I was in the control, I was not stressed. I was very afraid of day two because they choose long and I thought there's a lot of risk. You're asleep, deprived, busy roads, right and, but was outside. The best I ultra man day I have ever had was that day to the year before. That's like a small, small trick, but I think a lot of people may benefit from this.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:23:41

The year before, when I did not finish a miss for three minutes, I went for day two, to go down the mountain, the volcano Kilauea. I wanted to time how long would take it because the next year I could do the math and like I was trying to right calculate in my head, I said I want to do that and then I'll go. But then I was very slow on that day. I was going down very, very slow kilowatt. Everyone was leaving me behind. I said, look, I'm demotivated, I get it, but like, but I'm still pushing. And even I was like pedaling hard. I could not keep up. After 30 minutes, or 25, 30 minutes, I had a flat tire without crossing. That puncture was just, you know, the flat that comes from inside out, right, that that you hit like a hole, but I didn't hit a big hole and I was trying to understand. I never could make sense of that.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:24:39

And then, day two of the second year, I left the bike on the car because I was too tired and then I went to the bike, to the car to get the bike to pump up the tires. For day two, when I started doing that, I brought the bike inside the home to pump up the tires and then it was very cold outside the volcano altitude and then I came to the warm at the home and said let me pump up the tire. And then I couldn't understand what happened the year before and would happen again this year. I was doing that in a warm temperature when I would go outside the tire. The pressure is not the same. The cold temperature would lower the pressure and my tire pressure was way lower on the day two of the first year. I didn't know, so I took it out, I emptied both tires, filled it with the cold air and I really flew that day. It was amazing.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:25:40

I, I finished it and I and I knew was cold, so it's perfect condition for me going downhill. I said, look, I'm gonna make time. In the beginning I finished that killer. Well, my wife thought I was a second right. I was like I said I'm gonna do this and and then there was a rain, I think all in cold temperature. I was like I said I'm going to do this, and then there was a rain, I think all in cold temperature. I was much faster than the other ones and then, when it heated up, and then I started to slow down but I knew I would finish and I finished with over an hour left and it was very, very, very, very good and then just had the double marathon on the extreme heat to deal with.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:26:21

Um, it was a very difficult race during the last day, very difficult, but uh, one thing that rob again suggested and helped me a lot. He remember I mentioned that I was doing this downhill runs and this was helping me getting ready to a certain extent, because if it was too close to the race it would wear me down and take me too long to recover. So I had a few races, especially Ironman California in Sacramento, that I could not run right, and that was four weeks before, before the Ultraman, and we figured out that was the reason and so on. So one of the mitigation actions that Rob gave me was okay. One thing that you could do I know you didn't train that way, but trust me it's going to help you and I said, oh my gosh, you start with one shoes that is more cushion was the Bondi, right, the Rocker, the 101 Bondi.

Larry Ryan: 1:27:24

Yeah.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:27:25

And then switch halfway through and get something that is lighter, less cushion, but lighter. For the second marathon, I was kind of scared about it and it took me a while to do it. I dragged all the way to 60, 65k when I did it, but it felt fresh. It felt like fresh legs. It was amazing. I said why don't I do that in every race now? Because it felt really, really good. So in the end, finish this time not only six minutes left on the double marathon, it was more like 15, but it was very good. I think everyone was very happy and excited about it.

Larry Ryan: 1:28:10

Yeah, well, you know you're talking about. You picked up some lessons off the podcast. Thank you for sharing your lessons as well, because there is somebody out there who was in that's in your shoes now that was you know at the time who doesn't know all the little tips and tricks and is probably listening to get those. So your tips and tricks are just added now to the to the catalog for the people that listen. Every episode there they they get them all.

Larry Ryan: 1:28:40

so thank you for adding those in and and uh thanks to rob for uh giving those to you yeah, no, thank you yeah and and speaking of you know tips and tricks and people coming for things I I don't know that your book would necessarily be written for an Ultraman person, because I think the story is already known. However, I think it's probably more written for someone who, when you tell them about Ultraman and the distances and they're like, oh that's crazy, I could never do that. There's inspiration in it to maybe not do an Ultraman, but to make a change that's going to make a change for them. I think that's what I took away from it. It's not. I mean, ultraman is how you're telling the story, but it's more about taking that first step, having that grit, that resilience to make that change, and I don't know, was that the purpose behind what you were looking at?

Acyr Da Luz: 1:29:47

Yeah, yeah, I did not want to convince anyone that Ultraman was the best in the world and everyone should do Ultraman. Yeah, I wanted to inspire people to do things they don't believe they can do it. Hey, change is possible. You can do it. If you have the discipline, you can do it. Go, start moving.

Larry Ryan: 1:30:10

It's going to be good for you and we get to see your children grow up through the book as well. Yes, so that they get to the point now where they're, you know, hopefully taking in some of the lessons learned and applying it to their own lives. It's. It's a good journey, for sure, for the people that are watching on YouTube. I'm going to just put up an Amazon link here and they can hit that QR code and find your book on Amazon, and if you're listening to the podcast, you have to search it up. It's easy enough to find. Is it available in other places other than Amazon, and what formats is it available in and what formats?

Acyr Da Luz: 1:30:56

is it available in? No, I have. I have right now an Amazon. Uh, I just just published on Amazon I I have on different place for physical store, but I didn't advertise on publishing that too much yet. Okay, um, so Amazon, it has, um, it has the the the hard cover with with with nicer pictures. It has the hard cover with nicer pictures. It has the soft cover, soft back, what is easier for reading to carry around, but the quality of the pictures are a little bit less. And then it has the Kindle version, right, the digital book version. For the next, I'm working on the audible and the portuguese translation that's what I was going to ask.

Larry Ryan: 1:31:40

Are you releasing it in portuguese?

Acyr Da Luz: 1:31:41

as well. Yeah, I am, I am, I have the version.

Larry Ryan: 1:31:45

I'm still editing, uh, but it will come soon great, and, and, and what's next um athletic career wise for you yeah, I have a few.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:31:58

I have an Ironman coming up, ironman California. Again that happens here in Sacramento. It's going to be a restart this race. Next year I turn 50. And I think for a long time I have not done. I'm going to focus more on time, try to lower that time, maybe do my PR on marathon, pr on the Ironman. I think that's the goal and I'm looking to build for the ultra races actually in California that I'm very interested in, badwater. Going back to the kickoff session on Ultraman Canada, where the first I learned about the event and the more I searched the more I know how hard it is and that inspires me. And the other one is Western States, just because in the place that I go often, we go often to Tahoe, we go often to that resource, specifically to Palo Alto, and I think that will be a very interesting race to do Not next year? Next year focus a little bit more on time, then the year after going after those.

Larry Ryan: 1:33:15

Well, thank you very much for coming and sharing your stories to the listener and for giving us some new tips to follow for the people that are doing these upcoming 515 races. It's always good to have those extra tips brought in by someone, and we didn't get into all of your stories. Obviously from your book, so people should check it out. And there are, as we say, obviously from your book, so people should check it out, and there are, as we say. You know, people learn from their failures and, as I said earlier in this podcast, you put all yours in there as well, and I think that's something that is nice that you don't hide those and then people can learn from those as well. So some extra tips if they pick up your book as well, whether they're doing a 515 race or a marathon or just trying to get in shape, you know you've added some good information in there. So, and definitely inspire with your determination that you've shown.

Acyr Da Luz: 1:34:13

Thank you, thanks, larry, and thanks especially for hosting the podcast. It's a wealth of information. I love to listen and it had helped me a lot preparing for the races, and I'll continue to be an active listener. Thank you, excellent, all right while you're there.

Mary Jo : 1:34:42

Drop the names of the people you think we should interview and we'll get in touch with them and make that happen. Thank you for listening to 515, the Ultra Podcast, a production of 5.5 Enterprises. Now, really, go subscribe now before you forget.