On The Runs 181 | Mike Durkin | NH 10 Miler Winner | Adaline returns!

In this episode, we catch up with Mike Durkin, winner of the AutoFair NH 10 Miler from this past weekend. The conversation explores his early beginnings in running, the challenges and joys of cross country, and the mental strategies he employs during races. Mike shares insights on training, race preparation, and the thrill of competition, as well as his future aspirations in the sport. The episode concludes with a special sub in co-host who recaps her first few days of school and the past summer of fun!

Takeaways

Mike Durkin has a deep passion for running, feeling it's integral to his life.
There is a gray area between amateur and professional running.
The New Hampshire 10-Miler is known for its challenging course.
Mental focus is crucial during races, especially when competing for place.
Mike prefers cross country over track due to its unpredictability.
Training for races involves both physical and mental preparation.
Post-race recovery includes hydration and socializing with fellow runners.
Mike enjoys the camaraderie and community within the running world.
He aims to continue improving and exploring longer distances in running.
The experience of racing is both challenging and rewarding. 

My Race Tatts Affiliate Page - 15% of your purchase goes towards our TEAM FORCE Fundraising efforts for the NYC Marathon

Wrightsock Affiliate Page - 15% of your purchase goes towards our TEAM FORCE Fundraising efforts for the NYC Marathon

Eric's NYC Marathon Fundraiser - Team FORCE, a dynamic organization that supports the hereditary cancer community

Erika's Chicago Marathon Fundraiser - for American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in memory of her brother, Nick

Strava Group
Linktree - Find everything here
Instagram - Follow us on the gram
YouTube - Subscribe to our channel
Patreon - Support us
Threads
Email us at OnTheRunsPod@gmail.com

Transcript

Eric (00:54)
What's up everybody? Welcome to episode 181 of the On the Runs podcast and happy Friday Eve. A very special bonus episode for you today is we have the winner of the New Hampshire 10-Miler. But first, before I get to him, as badass as he is, I have to say hello to my kick-ass Rockstar of our co-host, six-star Erica. What's up?

Erika (01:17)
Hey, you guys. How can you talk about me when we have this awesome badass here who just kicked so much ass on the New Hampshire 10-Miler course? How can you even bother with me? We got somebody cooler. I want to introduce Mike Durkin to the podcast.

Eric (01:30)
Of course that you don't even like.

I stepped over

Erika (01:34)
No,

Mike Durkin (01:34)
Thank

you for having me.

Erika (01:34)
let's just go with Let's just mute your mic.

Eric (01:35)
Awesome, Mike. So great to have you.

You got that flowing hair. I saw the videos. You were just feeling it yesterday. It looked amazing. But I don't want to talk about the race yet. We're going to make this a special bonus episode. And we're talking a little bit on the phone. You got a New Jersey number, which is kind of funny because you live down in Mass Net Boston. But Mike, real quick, give us a little bit of a tell us who you are. Give us an update. Like, let's let's pretend we're live at the race.

but I want to know about you first.

Mike Durkin (02:06)
Yeah, we could do like a day later post race interview right now. Mike from greater Boston area grew up in Hingham went to UNC Charlotte ran with them for four years. Just living in Cambridge right now and racing as fast as I can. That's ⁓

Eric (02:09)
Yeah!

Is that

Erika (02:26)
Well, that's

Eric (02:26)
your

Erika (02:26)
pretty fast from what we know.

Eric (02:27)
thing? Like is this a thing you're doing every day? Like you're training for races like this or for winning? Are you, I don't even, do I call it, are you a professional runner? I don't know man, this is first time we met.

Mike Durkin (02:39)
I don't really know either. Isn't there kind of a strange, blurry, like there's a really wide gray zone between an amateur and then like a professional runner you see like last name bib in the Boston Marathon, you know?

Erika (02:54)
Mm.

Eric (02:54)
I

got you there because the pros have their first if they want it, Or no, the opposite. I forget. Dez does.

Mike Durkin (02:55)
So.

Erika (03:01)
Well, I mean, Dez does. I mean,

Dez has hers. And so I guess it's all what you want.

Eric (03:06)
But I get that, there's a cuff, like maybe, okay, so I'm gonna go back, we have a friend of the pod, Mark Dubrick, and I think he was on that cuff for while before he came pro. Like, is that a goal of yours? Like, you don't know yet, or are we trying to get there?

Mike Durkin (03:07)
Yeah.

I don't know that I'm trying to get there. mean, I wouldn't like stop myself from getting there, but I don't know. I have a day job as well, if that's what you're asking. ⁓ But yeah, no, I absolutely love this sport and like, I can't picture my life without it. So I feel like I live the life of a pro without getting paid by a major brand. So it's like you get all the downside and none of the upside at the end of the day. yeah.

Eric (03:31)
Okay. Yeah.

Okay, yeah. We can work on that for you though. We can get you paid.

Erika (03:46)
you

We're gonna manifest.

Eric (03:51)
Yeah,

we'll manifest it. We'll manifest those brands out there for you. Well, maybe I'm jumping way too far ahead, Mike. Maybe what I should do is I should go back as we like to say, go in the DeLorean and hit 88, or as Erica likes to do.

Mike Durkin (03:54)
I'll... I've been trying.

Erika (04:04)
It's a wind-fro thing. I don't know.

Eric (04:05)
Let's like, when did you find

running? think like, did this go all the way back to elementary school for you?

Mike Durkin (04:11)
It did. It went probably as early as like I could run. ⁓ I just it it's such a good feeling. The racing itself, I think, started around fifth or sixth grade, ⁓ but I was doing every sport like I don't know.

Erika (04:18)
Wow.

Mike Durkin (04:32)
Myself and everybody that grew up in my neighborhood was just like we do soccer in the fall We do baseball in lacrosse in the spring Tennis in the winter and summer and basketball like whenever we can, you know, just like 20 sport kid ⁓ But Of course, of course. Yeah, just parents want to get ready mostly so they just throw you in whatever and they'll they'll drive to get You know some peace and quiet for an hour and a half. Whatever the practice is But I wasn't really talented at any of them

Erika (04:43)
Mm-hmm. The usual, right? Yeah.

Mike Durkin (04:58)
aside from being fast. And so, you know, if you're not good at soccer, other than being faster than everybody, you just subtract the ball into nets, you just you're left with like cross country. And so it kind of was a natural progression from that to, you know, something that requires slightly less coordination and a little bit more just like nose to the grindstone attitude, I guess.

Erika (05:23)
So when you were growing up, did you prefer more of the cross-country stuff or were you like a track guy?

Mike Durkin (05:29)
think I still do prefer more cross country. ⁓ I like the variables. Like you can have plenty of fun stuff happen on the track, right? People fall all over the place or whatever else, but the unpredictability of a cross country course and a cross country race itself, I don't

Erika (05:37)
Mmm.

Mike Durkin (05:51)
there's anything like that. It's also a good part of the country to run cross country and right like going out into the woods and fall in New England.

Erika (05:58)
Hills, hills everywhere. Yeah.

Eric (06:01)
Yeah, roots that

jump out at you. I personally enjoyed cross country better. When it was in the fall, so was cool. And I didn't love running on the track. there's a lot of these, like Manchester has a famous cross country chorus. And we were talking to John Mortimer recently and John talked about how cross country didn't actually matter about the time. It was about the chorus and how you could attack it. Maybe you had a flat chorus and some.

Mike Durkin (06:04)
Yeah.

Eric (06:25)
fast runners really excel, but maybe you had a hilly course and the stronger runners excelled because of the hills and stuff and the technicality. And that's why I seem to like it better than Erica here, who just likes flat, simple, no roots that jump at you. you're from Massachusetts, so you probably ran a lot of Massachusetts cross-country races. What were some of the more popular places in Mass to run on the trails?

Erika (06:39)
you

Mike Durkin (06:49)
⁓ it's not trails, but I have distinct memories from Rentham. It's a big idea. Are you guys familiar with it? It's essentially the track. They do have outlets, but there's a really big field that they have there. I don't know what the course is called aside from Rentham. That's just what we called it. ⁓

Eric (06:59)
familiar with... Yeah.

Erika (06:59)
Don't they have outlets? That's all I know.

Mike Durkin (07:12)
but it's essentially the track of cross country races. And they have just a massive field with like small rolling hills and everybody's like spectators always loved it because you could see every second of the race. But like, I always loved cross country because you couldn't see every second of the race and you kind of got your alone time. yeah. But they always used to host, they would host like regionals or I guess,

Erika (07:33)
Okay. So living in...

Mike Durkin (07:40)
divisionals, whatever like states was in high school. So it's, yeah, it's a good one. Did you just pull it up? Mm-hmm. Yup.

Eric (07:46)
It legit is a field. This is it right here. Yeah, is this it right here that I'm sharing on the screen? You're just

running in circles on this field. So you're saying you did not love this course.

Erika (07:54)
⁓

Mike Durkin (08:00)
Well, it's a love hate relationship. It's a fast one. It doesn't have any massive like bear cage hill climb like you do in Franklin Park. and, you know, if it rained the night before, you can see all the switchback turns that were just like brutal. You're like, you're praying.

to the heavens that your spikes hold up or you switched them the night before and they're extra sharp. And so you're not like slipping on grass, especially if you're one of the later races and like the course is completely chewed up. It's a, yeah.

Eric (08:28)
Yeah. It's gotta

be epic for spectators because this is a gigantic field. You do three loops and it's three miles. So essentially like each loop's a mile here and you even make some S's and everything. So it's gotta be fantastic for spectators. That's wild. I've never heard of this course. So that's, and you said it's rolling hills.

Mike Durkin (08:50)
Yeah, the back, which is the bottom of that screen right there.

Erika (08:54)
Interesting.

Eric (08:55)
Very cool.

I always loved the Manchester one. And also there's one in Thedford, Vermont. We would always go to the Thedford Invitational. And it was in the woods, but it would have some of these big hills. And I love the hills because I was not a fast runner at all. I am still not a fast runner today. But I've never struggled on hills like others. Like, so some people might run really fast. It'd be ahead of me. I would always catch them on the hills. And I was better at the downhill. If it got flat again, they would fly by me.

But that was what I enjoyed. I enjoyed the challenge. And that's maybe why I hated the track, because it was flat and everyone could see me. And I didn't love that.

Erika (09:25)
You

Mike Durkin (09:34)
You must have loved the race on Saturday then.

Eric (09:36)
Yeah, Erica, whatever, whatever I've always said. It's one of my favorites. was one of my favorites. How did you find out? Let's get to that. Let's jump there. How did you find out about the New Hampshire 10-Miler? What attracted you to this race?

Erika (09:38)
He does love that one. Hills pay the bills.

Mike Durkin (09:50)
Yeah, what attracted me initially was it was on the USATF circuit, I believe two summers ago. And so there were some really big names there. Like I was like 10th, 15th place a couple of years ago. ⁓

And but what kept me coming back, including this recent year, is the course itself. Like I I love how intentionally brutal they made it, including that little part where you do like the optional road, right, where you take a right and you do almost a switch back to just get one more climb and then back down. it's like, thank you. We didn't get enough elevation. I needed just one additional hill on the side.

Eric (10:23)
Yes.

Erika (10:34)
So you mentioned that this is not your first New Hampshire 10-Miler. How did you do this weekend compared to some of your other performances?

Mike Durkin (10:42)
Yeah, this weekend was a good one. I don't know if it's my training or just it was a nice cool morning and the stars aligned, but it was a minute and five second course PR.

Erika (10:57)
Wow, congratulations.

Eric (10:58)
the entire course.

Mike Durkin (11:00)
Just personally, just personally. Yeah, I was a minute and five seconds.

Eric (11:01)
Okay, okay. I was gonna say you're leaving number one

because it's not coming back from what we've been told. But yeah. Well, let's break it down. Let's do that. Let's break it down. It's nice actually that we're doing this after. I can look at all these stats and break it down. We're gonna split it into three because that's how Millennium Running's website splits it into. So split one was 3.6 miles. You ran that in 1812, by the way, at a...

Erika (11:07)
Still amazing.

Mike Durkin (11:07)
That would be next level.

Thank you.

Eric (11:28)
⁓ 504 pace, not a big deal. How was that? How, how was that first 3.6 miles? Like when you started like, like paint us a picture here where people sticking with you, where you're going to lead the entire time. Tell us about that first segment.

Erika (11:32)
I only cackle because I'm like, holy shit.

Good job.

Mike Durkin (11:48)
Yeah, for sure. I'll start at the very beginning. We started at like a brisk jock and I felt really antsy for like probably 200 meters. And then I just let that feeling take over and it was no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go. So it separated after about 400 meters into the race, which for 10 miles, like 1%.

⁓ But I would say that first three and a half ish was definitely the most enjoyable. Like from a pure enjoyment, you get one of those really big hills where you can't see the top. And other than that, it's like your body temperature is still low. You're not like sweating into your own eyes yet. The sun is still like peeking out behind the trees, but it's still kind of low. like John was in the lead car next to me.

Erika (12:20)
you

Mm-hmm.

Eric (12:39)
Was he?

Mike Durkin (12:40)
And I was like looking over like, hey John, nice to see you again. Like, it was very fun.

Eric (12:45)
Well, actually, that was a question I had here because there's this video of you and it looks like you're flying the lakes just to your side. Your hair is flowing. And I was going to ask like, kind of like, what's that like having the lead vehicle that probably that beautiful auto fair Honda SUV following you, but not just following you, but alongside of you. And you know, they're taking, they're making content right now of you winning this race.

Mike Durkin (13:10)
It feels cool. It feels, ⁓ it almost feels like they're running right alongside you. Like I have somebody to chat with over here. How's it going guys?

Eric (13:18)
That's so cool, you're even chatting

Erika (13:18)
you

Eric (13:19)
with them at a 504 pace for that matter. You're just like, what's up, John? How you doing? How's the family and kids?

Mike Durkin (13:27)
Well, that's that's the key to a race that is that difficult in the back half, it staying conversational for the first 30 40 percent of it is the only way you're going to maintain any pace on like we climbed what six seven hundred feet of elevation gain across 10 miles. That is no joke.

Eric (13:48)
Yeah. At a 504 pace.

Erika (13:48)
Hmm. That's why it's not my

favorite race.

Eric (13:53)
Well, the other thing I wanted to ask you actually is, do you actually get to enjoy the scenery when you're running, when you're racing? You're not just running your racing. When you're racing at a five minute pace here and you're focused, like what's your mind on? Is it in the scenery or like, that's a really nice sunset or that's a really nice lake. Or are you ever thinking like, how big of a buffer am I building here between the guy behind me and the guy behind him?

Erika (13:54)
So impressive.

Mike Durkin (14:20)
It's a good question. never, I don't think I've ever thought of it until now or had anybody ask me that question. I don't enjoy the scenery at all when I'm racing. I have distinct memories. Unfortunately, yeah, because especially that course is like stunning. It's around like the most perfect lake at like sunrise in Manchester, New Hampshire and an August morning. Like I remember seeing the lake on my right at.

Erika (14:31)
so you're laser focused then, right?

Mike Durkin (14:49)
two, two and a half miles, but like I almost didn't process it because I'm just one foot in front of the other trying to stay as calm as possible and essentially like keep your mind as blank as possible. It actually helps preserve The less you can think the better.

Erika (15:09)
So Mike, you get laser focused when you're running, and you're in lead at this point, a few miles in. Are you ever finding yourself looking over your shoulder, or does that totally derail your focus?

Mike Durkin (15:21)
It will depend on the race. does derail your focus, but sometimes like, especially if you're racing for place or if there's like podium money on the line, what derails your focus more is the mystery.

Is somebody three seconds behind me? It's just far enough where I wouldn't be able to hear their footsteps, but that would be a serious threat, especially if you know on the inside, you're like, I took that last hill too hard. Like I'm in trouble right now. If somebody's close to me, I need, I need to know where they are, but I'm typically not checking my shoulder a ton. Yeah.

Eric (15:50)
Yeah.

Probably smart, probably, especially like if you ever at one point kind of like I do know sometimes in races, lot, ⁓ call it an Ironman cause I've done a couple of Ironmans. You might have people there and they'll kind of feed you what's going on already. Right. And maybe that can really play games with you if you know, and sometimes maybe just not knowing is better and you don't know that and you don't know that you are already crushing it. You could probably save a little.

It's a game, it's a 50-50. Like it works for some people, it doesn't work for others. And it seems the best thing for you to do is not to look back and race your own race, which is probably the smart move.

Mike Durkin (16:39)
I was talking with my coach after this race, because he called me and he's like, what was that? You killed that. I was like, thanks, man. And he always asked me, like, did you learn anything? And that was one of the main things we talked about was almost not responding to other people's moves during races. Like if you have somebody that you know is racing and you know they're fast and you almost put your own little mental target on their back and you're like, man, I would love to beat that person.

and you see him take off up a hill, your first instinct is, I mean, it's a race. Like I got to go with this guy. And I think I've actually gotten myself into a lot of trouble doing that before. And I think for the future, I'm going to stop doing that and trust myself and my own racing tactics to.

in this example, like try to reel them back in by the end, right? Hope that that hill killed them as much as it would have killed me if I went with them and then figure out what I can do in the last two miles.

Eric (17:40)
That's smart. Yeah. Kind of racing your own race, ⁓ reacting to the way your body's reacting and what your body's telling you to do and how your legs feel. Smart. We'll never run that fast so we don't know.

Erika (17:41)
Good call. That's, yeah, very smart.

Mike Durkin (17:51)
Go ahead, go ahead. Yeah.

It's a unique

feeling, but I have to say it is, it's objectively a terrible experience. it, you guys race, you know, like it's, it's not the most fun thing. You kind of feel like you're on fire.

Eric (18:03)
Yeah.

Erika (18:03)
you

Eric (18:07)
Sure. Yeah. Well, let's jump into segment two here. So segment two brings us up to five miles. So it's 3.6 to mile five. This is that hill on 121. You're now, you're going away from the lake. You don't see it anymore, which you weren't watching anyways. And you run this again, this massive hill. And it's not just any hill because it goes up and up and up, flattens out and it's up again. It's like a sneak attack. You think it's over. It's not. You did this. Yeah.

Erika (18:34)
Pretty sure that's my least favorite Hill

out of all of them.

Eric (18:38)
You did this at a 5'12", so you slowed down a little bit. What happened?

Mike Durkin (18:43)
the hill happened, right? If I were to try and keep that pace, it's kind of like what we were just talking about a second ago. I feel like if I tried to run five flat up that the last two miles would have been six flat like

Eric (18:44)
the hell? Yeah.

How do you approach it? Like, do you go a day before and drive the course? Do you know when a hill's coming up, like, okay, this is how I'm gonna attack a hill? What's your game plan?

Mike Durkin (19:08)
For this one, I mean, this course is burned into my memory. So I remembered each and every one of those, including, I remember the specific detail of the three hills where you can't see the top from where you are on the road, because I do hate that. Whether I know how long it is or not, I'm like, really like it goes beyond the tree line. So, ⁓ but yeah, I think the main thought there

Erika (19:31)
you

Eric (19:33)
No joke.

Mike Durkin (19:38)
is just to maintain your, I don't what you call it, like almost your perceived effort. So keep the gas pedal pushed down the exact same amount and let yourself slow down, keep, yeah, just keep pressing the same amount and you will slow down naturally, but.

That way it'll be a lot easier to pick right back up to the same pace after because if you try to really push into it all of a you reach the top of the hill and you're like I have six more miles to go and I just like I've wasted a ton getting up this thing like this much faster

Eric (20:20)
Right, there's this feeling and I love when I have this feeling. It's when I have the energy at the top of a hill to keep going at the pace I was going at before the hill. And that's kind of like what I strive for because then if I don't have that energy, I know I overdid it.

Erika (20:20)
Yeah, not worth it in the long run.

Mike Durkin (20:37)
And that's at mile four or five, that's a tough feeling when it's a 10 mile race.

Eric (20:40)
Yeah.

Absolutely. So segment three here. Now, now everything shows you're in first place, first place, first place. So we, we know like you crushed it, but again, you're not looking back. Are you at all thinking about it? Like how far back is this guy or does this guy have more in the tank? Are you still just focused on just yourself?

Mike Durkin (21:02)
Focus the most on myself at that point. I mentioned the little U-turn. It gives you a good peer into the people behind you because you go up that road and then right back down. So you can see who's on your tail. Not the people that are closest if you're like in a pack, but you can see, get a good idea of it. So.

Erika (21:09)
You're right.

Eric (21:19)
Right. At that point, where

was he?

Mike Durkin (21:23)
It's tough to tell maybe 200, 300 meters back. So, you know, a threatening position, but I was yeah, definitely, but I was feeling confident and calm. And that's like exactly what you want to be feeling going into the third leg of a race. you're not panicked.

Eric (21:28)
Okay.

Erika (21:32)
Still a threat, yes.

Eric (21:32)
Right.

Mike Durkin (21:46)
and you're not like second guessing yourself, you're basically in the best position possible.

Eric (21:51)
Is this a feeling you're used to? Have you been in this position before, like winning a race and having to do this, or is this somewhat new to you?

Mike Durkin (21:58)
It is somewhat new. I'd say I fall victim to the worrying about what other people are doing during a race and letting it impact me mentally and physically. And I think there's a lot of that that I think stems from college running. like UNC Charlotte Division 1 school in the South region.

for cross country, we're competing against the Tar Heels, you know, Duke, we would go up to Notre Dame to race like the people that are going to be the best runners in the world in two to three years if they're not already. And in those environments, you're kind of trained to respond to people because it can bring breakout performances out of you. But I think right now, especially in the longer distances, finding ways to

settle into your own headspace is going to be like, I'm excited to keep experimenting with this in future races.

Erika (22:57)
to not derail the whole conversation, but what is your favorite distance to race?

Mike Durkin (23:02)
something I go back and forth with. I love 10 Mile and I love Half Marathon. And the only reason I don't say anything longer than that is because I haven't ventured up there yet. I'm kind of like...

collecting them as I go. Like I'm happy enough with my 5k time, so I'm going to start trying to run 10ks fast, happy enough with that time and feel like you gave it all you got. I feel like I've unlocked 10 milers and I can start trying to like hammer fast ones there and then move on. So I'm kind of playing in like that 10 mile half marathon space and we'll say a tie for first because they're different races, but they're, they're similar.

Erika (23:42)
Yes.

Eric (23:43)
That's interesting,

so you've never done a marathon.

Mike Durkin (23:47)
I've run 26.2 but nothing organized just like for fun to see what it feels like.

Eric (23:50)
Yeah. So you're working your way

up and you're patient. You're not worried about it. And I love that. You're kind of just like clicking one thing off at a time here. It seems like, I know you work a full-time job, but just like this podcast for us, not going to lie. We care about more than our full-time jobs and that's how you probably treat running. And so we don't know what the end goal is here. It'd be nice to have the sponsors and get paid one day. Who knows? Maybe win a marathon, maybe Olympic trials or something like there's endless opportunities it seems for you.

Erika (23:53)
You

Eric (24:20)
but you're patient and you're taking your time and you're just focusing on the next

Mike Durkin (24:26)
I think it helps you keep the love for the sport too. And there's a whole other aspect here that's so beautiful, right? Like I'm 27. I finished grad school like three and a half, four years ago at this point. If I was an NFL running back, I would be the oldest NFL running back that's on a starting lineup. And I didn't look that up beforehand, but I'm just guessing. But like I...

Eric (24:49)
I think you're pretty accurate.

Mike Durkin (24:51)
I would imagine, take any position really. Like running is such a beautifully longitudinal sport. You see Kipchoge breaking too in the marathon at, what was he, 39, 40? I forget exactly, but like it's an...

Erika (25:12)
something like that. He's incredible.

Mike Durkin (25:15)
It's an age that almost no other sport, but it's not just him that's like, he is incredible. I totally believe you, but like we get to enjoy competing and improving for so much longer than so many other sports. And I, I feel like a lot of runners don't like mention that enough or kind of take it for granted. I'm so excited for racing into my thirties and into my forties and just

Erika (25:23)
you

Mm-hmm.

Mike Durkin (25:41)
continuing to, so I feel like I'm saving it as like a special little treat for them.

Eric (25:43)
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah,

that's awesome to hear. By the way, the correct answer is 34. He was 34 when he broke his first sub two. Quick website I found, it's incredible. It's called google.com. You should check it out. It's great. So let's get it. Yeah. No, no, no. Hey, dude, you listen to this podcast more, we get a lot of facts wrong and we always correct ourselves on the Google machine. but anyways, the end of the race, you get that last third final hill.

Mike Durkin (25:55)
Yeah. I should have gotten my facts straight.

Erika (25:56)
Thanks

Hahaha.

Mike Durkin (26:06)
Yeah.

Erika (26:07)
you

Eric (26:13)
You know what I like about that hill is there's this guy who has the house at the top and then the house is a Corvette and it says Gatorade Dual 125, which is the Daytona 500 qualifying races. And it's a Corvette and the license plate says, won it. And I always tell people when you see the Corvette, the Gatorade Corvette at the top of the hill, that's the top of the hill. You made it. So you just hit the top of this hill. Now you got a long stretch downhill, one mile downhill. How you feeling?

Mike Durkin (26:41)
pretty bad after the hill, honestly. I thought I would have more to give in that last mile, but ⁓ something about that ninth mile hill and how they're staggered throughout the race. You have one at one mile, one at four miles, you have a little one at six, a massive one at seven, a massive one at nine, and you're in the home stretch. ⁓ Even though you are staring straight downhill and then at a long flat to the finish, you know the terrible running is over. It was still...

Erika (26:46)
⁓ no.

Yup.

Mike Durkin (27:11)
I mean, it's a real grind at the end there.

Erika (27:14)
My question, so we know how bad the uphills are for most of these, but I recall there being one very intense downhill, and I think it was right after the mile seven hill or something like that. How was that treating you? Because I know a lot of times that can blow out your quads. That could just throw off rhythm too.

Mike Durkin (27:32)
It was funny, I was almost laughing to myself during that segment because I'm in super soft super shoes, right? That aren't necessarily the most stable thing in the world. ⁓ And you're battling these brutal hills, the uphills, right? That are just killing your...

Erika (27:43)
Mm.

Mike Durkin (27:49)
hamstrings and quads as well. And you're finally looking forward to the downhill and you almost have to like put the brakes on to a point that you're exerting more effort running down this hill than you would if it was just flat. And you're like thinking, I was thinking to myself, dude, I can't, you just can't catch a break in this sport. It's unbelievable.

Erika (28:10)
You

Eric (28:11)
There's

gotta be some appreciation for that though. Like, this is a challenge. It's not, right.

Erika (28:16)
I love running downhill, but it's just like,

feel like I have to be like, whoa. like, it is hard to keep your balance and keep running like correctly instead of like overcompensating.

Eric (28:29)
I'm with you there, but I appreciate the challenge of the up and down, the course being different. That's kind of why I said earlier, I love the cross country versus the track. it's just to say, ⁓ listen, I don't want to put down like, I'm going to go Ironman here. My buddy Scott did Ironman Cosmo. It was flat. It was fast. It was amazing, great accomplishment. But I think it was so much cooler when he can say that he crushed Ironman Montreux Blanc in Quebec.

super hilly, are so steep that my watch paused when I did the race because I was moving that slow uphill on my bike. Like that kind of a challenge. think these are the courses I love because of that. Like flat is I'm gonna lie, it's a little boring. This was an awesome, this is my favorite course, one of my favorites of all time.

Mike Durkin (29:09)
Mm-hmm.

Well, here's the difference between the people that just do it for the time and the people that do it for the experience, right? If you want a great cross country time, you're going to pancake flat. If you want to really have like, that was a true pure race. You want something with Hills.

Eric (29:30)
Yeah. Yeah.

Something with a challenge that really challenges yourself and your competition. And maybe just because I felt like when I could do it, that's how I excelled. Maybe that's why I like it. I don't know. But we're talking about you because you're the winner. You crossed the finish line at an amazing 52 minutes and eight seconds. And why I think that's amazing is because when I got the little rap sheet about...

Everything to expect there's gonna be 1,400 runners. This is where we park. This is where the tents are set up This is where the portiparties are. This is what time the race starts projected time of the finisher They missed it by eight seconds. They said 52 minutes and you were right there 5208 You're crossing the finish line Did John and Millennium have like they must have the tape right the tape that goes across and when you cross it Do you let it break or do you grab it with your hands?

Mike Durkin (30:21)
I went hands up. I think it was my first time ever breaking held tape.

So I just kind of like my mind reverted to what I've seen other people do, which is just kind of the hands up approach. But then as it hit my stomach, I was like, am I about to trip on this? Like it's going to hit my stomach and then fall to my feet. Like is my first moment of not racing going to be just like pancaking onto the cement? But I did it. Everything was fine.

Erika (30:41)
no.

you

Eric (30:51)
That's amazing. So you know how there's a long stretch there? You make that huge corner. You got that long stretch. Like what's that crowd like? Is it busy right then with a lot of people? Do you hear Jamie on the microphone? Do you hear DJ Darren Roy playing the tunes? Like, can you remember what song he was playing or is John calling you in? What's that final stretch like?

Erika (30:54)
you

Mike Durkin (30:55)
Mm-hmm.

can't remember what song was playing. I remember it was perfect for my cadence though. Like I can hear the beat still in my head and I remember hearing him say my name and that kind of gives you that little boost for the last 10 seconds. You're like, oh man, this is awesome. Like you just yelled my name to all these people that are standing around with like DJ's got the music blasting and everybody's just like, oh my God, here's the first guy. It's like, yeah, it's a very, very fun experience.

Eric (31:35)
is so cool.

That's so cool.

Erika (31:41)
We are so incredibly proud of you, Mike. That is just an epic performance. Just knowing how incredibly difficult that course actually is. Like, John may be a little sadistic for actually creating that course in the first place, but you just absolutely, yeah, absolutely crushed it. And we are sending you so many congratulations for it.

Eric (31:54)
I love it for it.

Yeah, it was incredible, dude. ⁓ My final question, actually, we're gonna ask you our final two big questions, we ask every guest, but my final question is, what goes on after the race? When you cross that finish line, are you focused on your cool down or do you have to go and do like, at NASCAR, they do the hat dance, they all have to wear every sponsor's hat, like, what's going on after the race for someone who just won?

Mike Durkin (32:26)
I mean, immediately after the race is just like try to feel normal again as quick as possible. So hands on the knees until like my breathing slows down a little bit immediately water electrolytes anything to start replenishing because you're just so depleted ⁓ quick podium picture. And then I have a bunch of friends around chat with them.

If not, I'll find one or two guys I know and we'll just catch up on a cool down. We did five, six miles with my buddy Brendan after the race and yeah, running, running the little, running the little trails in the area. That's, Erica and I were talking before this, we were saying it was our favorite warmup and cool down course because they have that little soft surface rail trail right there and it's just, it's stunning.

Eric (33:00)
Not a big deal. Just crush 10 miles.

Yeah. it's beautiful.

congratulations, man. I mean, you absolutely crushed it. Fantastic. Well done. Erica, why don't you go ahead with your final question for Mike?

Erika (33:26)
Sure thing. So I wish you remembered the name of the song that you were coming through, because I feel like it would be perfect. we have a Spotify playlist, and we'd like to invite our guests to add a song to it. And I feel like whatever it was would have been perfect. Maybe we'll do some research and see if there's a video. is there a song other than that one? Yeah. Is there a song that you would like to add to our playlist?

Eric (33:41)
DJ Darren Roy, what was it?

Mike Durkin (33:47)
That's a good question.

It is, it is that one. I just, can't think of it. I could even pull up the video. Yeah, I could pull up the video on my phone right now and hold it to like Shazam or whatever and figure it out.

Eric (33:54)
We're gonna find out. We're gonna find out.

yeah. We're gonna

find out. We got connections. We're gonna call DJ Darren Roy. We're gonna say, we need you go back. What did you play when Mike crossed the line? Because I don't know, maybe it's always the same song. We should have asked him that when he was on the podcast earlier this year. Maybe he always plays the same song for a winner, right? Who knows? He probably has a couple different winning songs. It would have been great. We'll find it and we'll add it. But I will ask you my final question. And I kinda came up with the second one after that.

Erika (34:06)
you

Eric (34:28)
On the Runs this year is hosting a massive pasta dinner and it's going to be amazing. The guest list so far is incredible. You are welcome to come and you get to bring a plus one. You can bring anyone in the world, alive or dead, but not anyone from your family. Who are you going to bring to a pasta dinner?

Mike Durkin (34:51)
such a... this is a cerebral one. I I came prepared to chat running. I don't know if I even want to stay in the same theme.

Erika (34:58)
you

Eric (35:03)
That's a call because some people have thought about that and they went that direction. I'll give you, like we have Lewis Hamilton is coming, Jesus is coming, the Obamas are coming. We got some cool people. One guy invited a very, very bad guy who died a long time ago and I don't think we're gonna invite that bad guy, but like they even went in that direction. Cause they're like, I would love to talk to him in here why he killed millions of people.

Mike Durkin (35:12)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's very creative.

Erika (35:17)
You can take anyone.

He's no.

Mike Durkin (35:27)
Yeah, he doesn't.

If we're thinking about the same person, he does not deserve pasta dinner. But I want to go in a direction that is like showing somebody kind of in a Jesus way, like somebody that definitely didn't have pasta because it was so long ago. Like I want like a Greek philosopher, like a Confucius or something, somebody that's just gonna like he's gonna give us a wealth of like

Eric (35:35)
Exactly.

Mike Durkin (35:57)
Here's my thoughts on pasta and how it changed my life. Just having it for one time like Yeah

Eric (36:03)
Yeah, especially

because it's gonna be the best pasta in the world. We're gonna get the best cook in the world to come and cook it for us. It's gonna be great. And if we ever really do one, Mike, you're welcome to come.

Mike Durkin (36:15)
I would love to. I'll cook it for you. I love cooking pasta.

Eric (36:17)
Yes. All right.

Yes. I love it. I love it. Hey, I did think of this last one because I made a comment earlier and either I'm jealous of your head of hair or I'm not. don't know, but I always like to make comments about my beautiful bald head, my shaved head. Like when you go running, does your hair get in the way? Do you have to do things to this hair? Because in that video, man, it was flowing like tell us the hair routine for a race.

Mike Durkin (36:45)
Yeah, sure. mean, I've been I've been growing and cutting my hair in pretty much a continuous cycle for my entire life. I've donated to like long heads of hair to locks of love for making wigs for like, yeah, chemotherapy patients. ⁓ Honestly, the synthetic hairs now have gotten good enough that I don't even need to do it anymore. But it's just a habit. And so why not? ⁓

Erika (37:05)
Love it.

Eric (37:06)
That's amazing.

Yeah, it's amazing. It's so nice.

Erika (37:12)
Yeah.

Mike Durkin (37:15)
Any longer than this, you kind of have to do something with it. But right now, aside from like the really windy, windy days in Boston, it kind of behaves. ⁓ I always find running to be a great way to get rid of like the Einstein head of hair that I wake up with in the morning because like the sweat and the wind will kind of put it back where it should be. And I can just like hop on a work meeting and I don't look like I got hit by lightning. So yeah.

Erika (37:41)
you

Eric (37:42)
Amazing amazing man. Well, it was maybe one of my first observations when I saw that video and it must have been John or someone from the Lenin team in that truck such cool stories man behind the scenes of your race a little bit of the details of everything that went into it and I love that you gave us a little snippets there of like you saw John in the car you're like, what's up? How you doing? And that just means you were in the zone. You were feeling it. This was great. Promise me one thing. This was a short

Erika (38:04)
Yeah.

Eric (38:10)
30 something minute quick episode race recap. But I know you ran at UNC Charlotte. I used to live in Charlotte, right? I love the area down there. Great, great little city. Also known as the Queen City. Fun fact, just like Manchester. And we want to hear like more about you, your whole running career. So we'd love to have you come back on the pod one day. You're in Boston. It would be actually kind of cool as we're doing this more and more. We're getting better with in-person interviews. We'd love to do it in person with you. We'd love to have you back on the pod one day. And here.

the rest of the story.

Mike Durkin (38:40)
I would be honored. This was so much fun.

Erika (38:43)
This was wicked cool. are so proud of you. mean, like we said, that course is no joke and you just completely crushed it. So we wish you the best of luck for the rest of your racing season. We hope you can break more tape and just, ⁓ keep the head of hair flowing. So congratulations again and yeah, keep crushing it.

Mike Durkin (39:04)
Thank you both so much.

Eric (39:05)
Thank you, Mike. Guys, I really hope you enjoyed that. The winner of the Auto Fair New Hampshire 10-Miler, Mike Durkin on the On the Runs podcast.

Speaker 1 (39:16)
Mike, thanks so much for coming on the pod, man. And pod fam, I'm sure you're wondering why I am thanking Mike and doing the outro and not Erica because we completely forgot to do it the other night when we were recording and I was editing. I was like, no, we forgot an outro. But Hey, I'm a quick thinker and I got a special co-host, a sub in. say she is everyone's favorite co-host.

more popular than Erica herself. have Adeline back on the pod. What's up Adeline?

Speaker 2 (39:52)
Nothing really except for school just started very very depressing. What?

Speaker 1 (39:57)
It's supposed to be fun and exciting. School started today was the second day of school. Yesterday was the first day and I love, you know what I love most about school? What? I get to bring you every day. There's no school bus for you. I drop you off. And that's my favorite thing about school is that I get to drop you off. It is pretty fun. And it's like not a short drive. It's a 25 minute drive. Yeah, it's really long. I know. And when we get traffic, we're like, oh, but guess what? Hey,

Speaker 2 (40:17)
That is pretty fun.

Speaker 1 (40:26)
Two days in a row, we have left at the time we wanted to leave, which is 7.50 in the morning. Last year, we always left at 8.15, and we'd be one of the last ones to roll in. Now we're leaving at 7.50, because I can get you there as early as 7.20. We've been getting there before that, and we're waiting in line. That's actually kind of impressive. You know who else likes that? Who? My work, because I'm there earlier. But hey, school shouldn't be depressing. It should be fun. What did you learn today?

Speaker 2 (40:56)
We did a little bit of math, but we didn't like learning any math. We did a lot of reviewing math. We got a little more into the school-school part than just saying what we should be doing at the time, but instead doing other stuff.

Speaker 1 (41:12)
What grade are you in now?

Speaker 2 (41:14)
I am in force.

Speaker 1 (41:16)
You're in fourth, yes. Well, I hope you enjoy school. It shouldn't be depressing, it should be fun, and you get to do recess still, like that was so cool, and you're gonna have a lot of fun this year. I know you're gonna do well in school, but you just started school. There's a lot that went on over the summer. Let's review your summer real quick. How was your summer?

Speaker 2 (41:36)
⁓ It was very good. I did my triathlon that I do every year. This would be my third year. And I also did the Manchester 5K and I did two plays, The Addams Family, which was last week, and Junie B. Jones.

Speaker 1 (41:55)
Yeah, you did amazing because in Junie B. Jones you had an amazing role and you had lines and you just crushed it out there. But you know what's funny about Junie B. Jones? You were the girl who didn't like cheerleaders. And you even had to do, you had to say like cheerleaders, ew gross, right? Can you do your line, do it in the same way you did it during the show?

Speaker 2 (42:18)
So this girl said, who cares about blah blah blah blah blah. I'm gonna be the cheer captain. And I said, who wants to be a stupid old cheerleader when I'm gonna be crowd control? already have a badge, so all I need is a stick to poke people and a gas mask.

Speaker 1 (42:34)
And let me tell you, you just had to remember that from like two months ago, but you absolutely aced it on stage and she did it with some sass and she's looking at the crowd and every time you do something on stage, the crowd has a reaction. It's great.

Speaker 2 (42:47)
The funny thing is I also had to end up being a cheerleader in it.

Speaker 1 (42:51)
That's right. And you

did some cheer moves. you, in fact, when you do these shows now, they have you like show off your aerial and some cool things and the whole entire crowd just starts going like.

Yeah, and they're much louder than that. They are cheering loud and they're just like, wow, amazing, unreal. We had a fun summer. You also went camping. You did a lot of beach days, lake days. Your Mondays with mom and the boys and Brittany and their kids is like epic girls day and the boys just join you. Like that was your Mondays. It's a thing now, two summers in a row. You have these epic beach Mondays.

They are really fun. Yeah, I joined you on a couple of them because I was jealous. But you teased, you did a triathlon for the third year in a row, and you did the 5K. So let's start triathlon. What do you remember from that day?

Speaker 2 (43:48)
Well, I remember having to go against my best friend, Nettie, and her brother, so that was fun. She totally placed above me, because she's way faster, but I won eighth place in my division, and I had a lot of fun.

Except for the swimming, I felt like I was going a little slower on my swimming because I don't think my goggles were tight enough. So when I was swimming, they fell off like the second I got into the pool. So I had to swim without my goggles on. So I had to keep on looking to see if I was at the edge so I didn't hit my head. Because without goggles, I usually start swimming sideways instead of forwards. So that was pretty hard. But.

The biking was probably my best one, but since the running was the last one, I felt more tired because biking like works your legs mainly and running also does. So it was harder and I felt like I was going really slow, but everyone says I went fast.

Speaker 1 (44:52)
She

was running like a 710. Okay. She felt like she was going slow. She ran a 710 or something in that range. It was incredible. She can't, it's only, so it's a one mile bike and a half mile run in one lap in the pool, right? So it's only half a mile. And she did it in like three minutes and 20 seconds or something like that. But she crushed it. Like it was her fast, every split was her fastest from the previous two years. You absolutely crushed it. And you finished strong.

And he had a blast after like he had a smiley. Well, actually I remember guys check out the vlog because she's it's vlog number two. And it was a lot of fun. That was fun. We're learning how to vlog. It's an experiment. It's in practice, but that was fun. Yeah. It added an element to it. And even the staff there thought it was super cool and they jumped on the pod and wanted to talk. And then everyone got to see you at the raffle night from the night before helping me out. Like my little helper. love it.

Speaker 2 (45:38)
It was really fun.

Speaker 1 (45:51)
You're my little helper and you're my podcast co-host when Erica's not around or when I forget to do the outro. That's my fault. I'm going to take ownership in that because I didn't properly do the show notes to say, we got to do the outro for Mike's episode that drops on Thursday. Oopsie. But then you ran the Delta Dental Corporate 5K. And that was so cool. Tell me what you remember from that day.

Speaker 2 (46:22)
I remember showing up and telling and looking for my dad's friend group and Right when I got there and I saw to her pterodactyl. I saw Well when I saw her I told her this burn slash joke. I've been dying to tell her ever since Okay

Speaker 1 (46:42)
Burn. What's the joke?

Speaker 2 (46:47)
So I thought one day, wait, if she calls herself a pterodactyl, she's technically calling herself old. Because pterodactyls are a dinosaur and they're old. They technically are extinct. So she's calling her stinky because extinct smells like stink. And she's also calling herself old. So.

Speaker 1 (47:07)
You got it good. And we saw her the other day. We did a fly by remember she's at the golf course. ⁓ Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:12)
I think I was driving to cheer practice and

we saw her.

Speaker 1 (47:18)
We pulled a UEE and then another UEE so you could stick your head out the window and what do you say?

Speaker 2 (47:24)
Tear Tear Doctor, you rock! And you're-

Speaker 1 (47:33)
Heard her so she's a coach and I heard her team the players that she coaches in golf looked at her and go to that girl Just call you old and Tara goes. Well, yeah, I guess I am kind of old All right, but how'd the 5k go?

Speaker 2 (47:49)
I think I ran pretty fast on that one. My stomach started hurting a couple of the times.

Speaker 1 (47:59)
Brown

no okay not yet girls don't do that

Speaker 2 (48:09)
My dad taught me a trick to do when I'm running for a long time and it get hot You know how they like they give you water to drink. I pour it on my head. Yeah

Speaker 1 (48:19)
Yes, that's awesome. And remember the sprinklers?

Speaker 2 (48:23)
yeah, there were sprinklers there for like people's yards and I think we're allowed to run in then, I'm not sure if we were. Well there was a couple that was like personally in people's yards. Yeah, but I ran through all of them except like maybe two.

Speaker 1 (48:31)
⁓ we are. yeah.

I think they turned them on just for us.

⁓ and it was fun. Did it cool you off? Yeah. Yeah, so you ran your first mile at like a 920 And then that's fast and then we took a walking break and then you ran another mile Probably just a little slower, but you you took a break after every mile and then right before the hill at the end of the race We took one more walking break So you only took three walking breaks from what I remember and that's gonna be on the next vlog that will hopefully be dropping

when everyone's listening right now. It'll be up soon. That's a fun one. That's a real fun one because at the 5K man, you were crushing it and there was how many people were there?

Speaker 2 (49:23)
almost 4,000 people and like how many people were in my division?

Speaker 1 (49:29)
I don't remember, but you finished fifth.

Speaker 2 (49:31)
Yeah, I finished fifth place in my division. It was like the youngest you can do it to eight.

Speaker 1 (49:38)
Which is super impressive because ⁓ really it was zero to eighteen yeah, I Got a double check to confirm that

Speaker 2 (49:46)
I think it was. And it was like a lot of people. Mom says that there's most likely like a hundred people because a lot of people do do it.

Speaker 1 (49:48)
Cow.

In your division. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to look into this that's amazing considering in the triathlon you were eighth in your division Yeah, so hey one girl saw a picture I posted and It got a lot of comments, but this one I remember and the girl goes I looked at her at the end of the race I saw her and I just go damn She looks speedy You fit the part like I don't know where you got it, but you dress like a like a like a fast-fit runner there

Speaker 2 (50:03)
Yeah, and there's less people.

Speaker 1 (50:26)
I got it. I know you're because you're a pro. You are a pro. You're going to be fast. You're going to be a lot faster than me one day. So are you going to do another 5K? Yes. Yes. All right. Cool. Maybe we do one on Thanksgiving because they have the turkey trot. We were going to do it last year. But if you remember, it was like 30 degrees and raining. So when we woke up, I was just like, you know what?

Speaker 2 (50:27)
Yeah, I nakey pro

Speaker 1 (50:53)
I didn't want you to have a bad first experience.

Speaker 2 (50:57)
Because

I remember we were sleeping at Mim's house.

Speaker 1 (50:59)
No,

I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (51:02)
We were at Mom's house and we sleeping and he said that we were like a race or something and then when I woke up it was like maybe 930 and you were gone and I was like mom where's dad? And she said oh she went to the race because it was like raining so he didn't want to bring you or something I don't know.

Speaker 1 (51:20)
That was two years ago, you're right. So the last two years for Thanksgiving, the weather was bad. This year, it's not gonna be, it's gonna be epic. It's gonna be beautiful running weather for Thanksgiving. We're gonna have Turkey Trot 5K. You run in the baseball field, the one that we saw, that we go and watch and see the fireworks. You get to run in the field, is that cool? Yeah, that's cool. I can't wait. So that's gonna be fun. And as I saying earlier, I wanted your first to be a good experience. And I think waiting until the Cigna or the...

Delta Dental Elliott Corporate 5K, I think you had a good experience. Because you want to do it again. And you saw so many cool people. Remember you saw Erica and Lindsay, Tara. You saw Jay. Who's Jay? Jay, my buddy Jay. He had the On the Runs t-shirt. We were hanging out with him after he took our photo.

Speaker 2 (52:10)
skinny guy with a big beard.

Speaker 1 (52:12)
Yeah, that guy. What about Jay?

Speaker 2 (52:19)
He's too tall. ⁓

Speaker 1 (52:20)
Too tall.

Jay, you're too tall. I think I'm taller than Jay.

Maybe. Jay, how tall are you? Shoot me a text. Well, I'm so proud of you. You had an amazing summer. You did some cool things. Triathlon, 5K. You did dance and you did, because remember you did that big dance thing in Rockport. You had dance nationals. We didn't even talk about that. Wow. You won nationals.

Speaker 2 (52:25)
She's totally...

Speaker 1 (52:51)
So cool. You did that, like that was this summer, but it feels like so long ago. You did so much. You are so busy, girl. And now we're falling into a cheer season right now. And why don't we leave everyone and tell them about cheer? What is your theme?

Speaker 2 (53:04)
This year I think Miss Spice Girls and a couple people on our team got picked to be one of the Spice Girls and I got picked to be Baby Spice and I think we all knew that if I was one of them I would be Baby Spice. Because I am the youngest on the team. I got moved up to this division because if I stayed on the team that is my division. I would have been stuck at level one for for multiple years and I and this year we're level three and I already have level three skills and they didn't want.

Speaker 1 (53:33)
Bro got skills. Well, cheer's gonna be fun. We're going for nationals again and then globals. And let's not forget about skiing. We gotta do a lot of skiing. Yeah. All right, it's gonna be a lot of fun. This is gonna be fun, but you gotta take us home, Adeline, because Erica's not here to do it. You need to say two things. You need to say, you know we love you. Then I say my line.

Speaker 2 (53:45)
Never.

So. ⁓

Speaker 1 (54:03)
And then you say Erica's famous line. Are you ready? Yeah. All right. We're going to ace this on the first try. Here we go. Adeline, take us home.

Don't fear the code brown.

Speaker 2 (54:12)
You know we love you. And

don't forget to stretch. But I always remember. But Erica doesn't.