199 | Chad Ultra | Jeremy McCoubrey | Thank you for an amazing 2025

It's our last regular episode of the year and we cap off 2025 with Ultra Chad!

In this episode, the hosts welcome Chad Ultra, an elite ultra runner, who shares his journey from road running to ultra marathons. The conversation delves into his experiences in cross-country running, the impact of foster care on his life, and the importance of community support and sponsorships in the running world. The hosts also discuss their live shows, future plans, and the joy of sharing their passion for running with others. In this engaging conversation, Eric and Erika reflect on their podcasting journey, the growth of their community, and the evolution of their experiences in ultra running. They discuss the importance of friendship, support, and humor in the running community, as well as the unique culture that surrounds ultra events. The conversation also touches on personal growth, the joy of themed races, and the role of music in their lives. With a mix of lighthearted banter and heartfelt moments, they celebrate their achievements and look forward to future goals.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
03:27 Thanksgiving Reflections
06:27 Skiing Adventures and Equipment Choices
09:26 Camera Gear and Content Creation
25:03 Chad Ultra: The Alter Ego
28:21 Foster Care and Running as an Escape
31:12 Inspirational Moments in Cross Country
34:11 Growing Up in Astoria, Oregon
37:01 The Bluey Experience and Social Media Insights
39:54 Seattle Sports Culture
45:56 The Journey into Ultra Running
54:45 The Yeti Trail Runners and Friendships
01:05:55 The Hilarious Finish Line Antics
01:06:54 Post-Race Revelations and Challenges
01:09:44 The One Step Closer Race Experience
01:13:30 The Ultra Community: Support and Camaraderie
01:17:12 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in Ultra Running
01:21:50 Chad Ultra: Creating a Unique Running Culture
01:32:04 Future Race Ideas and Creative Concepts
01:38:15 Dinner Guests: A Fun and Creative Choice
01:54:05 Music Discussions and Hot Takes
01:56:22 Sponsorships and Partnerships Overview
01:59:16 Fundraising Events and Community Engagement
02:02:09 Live Shows and Future Plans
02:05:07 Year in Review and Looking Ahead
02:07:55 Closing Thoughts and Gratitude

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Don't Fear The Code Brown and Don't Forget To Stretch!

Transcript

Eric (00:00)
Carolina. Yes. I have a hard time with that one. Don't ever call her Carolina.

Eric (00:59)
What's up, everybody? Welcome to the final episode of 2025 episode one 99 of the on the runs podcast. And what a year it's been. There's been a lot to be thankful for after an incredible Thanksgiving weekend. Six star got a new toy. Adeline and her whole entire cheer team are off to Florida right now in New Hampshire. It's snowing, baby. There's so much to talk about and more. But first, I must say hello.

to my kick-ass Rockstar Overcodes, six-star Erica, what's up?

Erika (01:32)
I really hope this intro ends up on YouTube so you guys can see what I'm seeing right now. Eric just pops up with his, what do you call this, a fat head? Like the giant head on a stick. A big head, a big head.

Eric (01:39)
Let's go!

It's Big Head.

It's called Best Big Heads. It's a head on a stick. And wait, do you want to see the other one? You want to see it?

Erika (01:51)
my god. Yes, yes, yes.

Dude, your sister got the looks.

Eric (02:00)
My sister got the looks from me. Look at those looks. Yeah. How cool is that?

Erika (02:03)
Audition, is that how it works?

Hannah you're so pretty!

Eric (02:11)
These were incredible in the New York City Marathon.

So Thanksgiving just happened. Hannah was home and my mom goes, you guys, you want these? So my mom ordered these best big heads. Shout out best big heads, but hashtag no free ads. And this was incredible during the New York City Marathon because once we're looking for our parents and our family and everybody, right? We knew they were around mile 13. And all of a sudden,

Erika (02:19)
Mm-hmm.

No free ads.

Eric (02:38)
We saw these big heads like way up high. Right? Right. So the next couple times we saw our family, I just looked for the big heads above all the heads above everybody else. It's like just look for the big heads. There they are. It was so cool.

Erika (02:39)
How can you miss yourself? You're definitely going to find them in the crowd with those. Yes.

It's

genius. It's a genius, like, total genius move. You can't miss yourself.

Eric (03:01)
So shout out, ⁓

yeah shout out bestbigheads.com. Do you want to sponsor, partner with the pod? Let's do it.

Erika (03:08)
Hmm?

I mean, somebody should make one of those for me and come cheer on my races, because mine get little lonely sometimes.

Eric (03:16)
Well, you know, people used to go to your races and support you until you never went to theirs. So. Ooh, we're not going to end the year on a sour note though. No, no episode.

Erika (03:20)
Mm-hmm. I see how it is. I see.

But what's up

buddy, must be in a great mood with all the snow coming. Can you believe it? It's a little too early for me.

Eric (03:34)
Boom. mean, yeah,

you know, we do these 24 hours early, but on Tuesday it's going to be snow and massive snowstorm coming to New Hampshire. I can't go skiing this week because I'm with the boys. It's boys week for the next 10 days. Yeah.

Erika (03:49)
Gotcha. Did you get to play

hooky the other day? I know you were wanting to, but we never heard if it happened.

Eric (03:53)
Nope, I didn't.

so my toe, okay. I got cut off rudely by Carolina last week talking about my toe. ⁓ It was a great surprise. My toe, all right. So, no, it's definitely not broken, but it was a little sore after I got off the meds, five days of something. And it was just sore. It felt like an old injury or you know what it kind of felt like? Kind of felt like that nagging.

Erika (04:01)
That was my fault, my fault.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (04:23)
during Taper Week and you're like, no, ⁓ no, right? And then I ran the Turkey Trot with you, ran, walked it a lot with Adeline. That was still a blast. Beautiful weather, great day. Shout out, yeah, shout out Fisher Cats and Millennium Running. What a great event, what a great day. Shout out you for driving up north and we'll talk about that later. But the next day, that was Thanksgiving, being on my feet all day, my toe was a little sore.

Erika (04:26)
Uh-huh, yeah.

We had so much fun.

Sure.

Eric (04:51)
So this is the outside joint of the big toe, kinda like, not even on the toe, but on that bulge that sticks out.

Erika (05:01)
Uh-huh. Like where a bunion would be, right? Isn't that like what happens?

Eric (05:01)
Yeah, and in

Yeah, and what did I actually have? forget, gout. So it was gout and my toe was at like out of a zero to 10, 10 being the worst, it was at a 22 with the gout. Now, at the worst, it's at a 1.5, like it's that net. But so my point is, I had this fear that what if it's not gout? What if it is a stress fracture? Take care of it, lay off the foot for a bit.

Erika (05:09)
Scout!

Ooh.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (05:33)
Don't do any high impact things. Don't go skiing and playing hooky to go skiing and make it worse before the snow gets really good. So I was like, I have a solid 10 days of just me and the boys. I, no chance to go skiing or running. Let's just take it easy. can Peloton bike and I've held on bike now for like six straight days. It's low impact, no move, nothing on the toe. What hurts when it hurts is if my hand here is my toe on that step when

Erika (05:55)
Great.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (06:03)
your toe flexes up at the end of the step. That's what I'm trying to avoid. ⁓ just I feel like some rice, breast, ice, elevation. What's the C? Compression, right? ⁓

Erika (06:07)
Gotcha.

Compression, compression I think. Yeah, so yeah,

mean, rest is very good for you, so that's a start and yeah, bike, gotta use that investment. That Peloton's not gonna pedal itself. Good for you.

Eric (06:27)
I'm on like a five day streak. Yeah. I've been doing all

the scenic rides though, just like on my phone, working with emails or something or doing, ⁓ what else I wanna watch. I can't get into a course yet because I wanna start a program again and I can't just pick like a random ride with a random instructor. I did schedule some live rides just to have them, but ⁓ easy rides like 15 minute live hills or something.

Erika (06:36)
nice.

Mm. Yeah, you got to build the bass backup, though.

There you go. Why not? Yeah.

Eric (06:57)
So yeah, that's me. That's

me in a nutshell. The girls are off to Florida for cheerleading nationals and I don't know what else, you know, I'm wicked excited for skiing. built a new ski rack. dad, shout out to my dad, took my truck, got some work done to it, cleaned it out like it looks like it was detailed. And we, you remember when my truck got stolen? The dude stole my bike with one wheel.

Erika (07:22)
Yeah.

Eric (07:25)
Well, my bike was on these special customized crossbars that go across the bed of the truck. And so it gives you all that room underneath for everything else and your bike rides high. I do have a truck cover, so that's why these are custom. So I miss that because when my truck was stolen, they like pried those off to get the bike and huck them in the woods or whatever. So my dad helped me thieves.

Erika (07:40)
Gotcha.

Terrible thieves.

least you got

your truck back. That's the important part. Unicycle, yep.

Eric (07:51)
Must be really good at riding a wheelie though, remember that? Stole the bike with

not the front wheel and left the front wheel in the truck bed. It was right there for him. Such a dummy. He did not know what he was doing. So we built this custom ski rack above the truck bed where now my skis ride above it. My dad, this is all my dad. Like I had the vision, I told him what I wanted.

Erika (08:02)
ridiculous.

Ugh.

Eric (08:17)
He took my truck for a couple days. Like he said, my truck had to go in for some work. He detailed it and he did the racks for me on Thanksgiving. It's sick. I just think it looks cool driving around with skis and stuff up like that. You just look like a cool adventure dude. So, which I'm not now.

Erika (08:32)
Well, now you get to show off your,

well, you will be and you'll be able to show off your sick new pair of skis because they are awesome.

Eric (08:40)
They're beautiful, they're beautiful. Were you surprised by the color?

Erika (08:44)
Yes, yes, I was because it's totally something I would choose ⁓ because they are like, so you're probably better at describing them, but they're like, the skis themselves are like a gradient pink into a purple, aren't they? Yeah, something totally up my alley. Yeah.

Eric (08:57)
Right, right, the front, tips are pink, like really nice pink, and

it goes into a dark purple on the back, like almost where it's black, right on the tail. It's sick. They're beautiful. And I almost went with these other skis that were $1,300, this beautiful OTR blue color. I was only gonna pay and buy that because of the color. I watched hours worth of YouTube videos, and I decided on the ski. I decided on the ski, not the color.

Erika (09:04)
Ombre. ⁓

Eric (09:26)
because skis only come in one option, sometimes two of color. So it actually came down to a beautiful pair of yellow skis, these beautiful pink and purple skis, which honestly, they pop. They look so good. And then the blue skis. And I chose the pink ones because of the actual ski and its purpose and its use. It's not like I can get it in blue, green, red, whatever.

Erika (09:26)
Mm-hmm.

you

Yeah. Well, that's kind

of the smart move, man. That's like choosing a shoe that you really like and you're like, but this model over here has a better color way. Like, no, you want the specific shoe. You get what you get color wise.

Eric (09:57)
Right.

But here's where I actually got a little, I don't know what the word is, but I did get picky with the bindings. Because I saw a YouTube video of someone testing these skis and the perfect match set bindings. And so these skis have a little OTR blue on like the sidewall, right? And these bindings were limited edition. They were super expensive. And I had to have them.

Erika (10:10)
huh.

I noticed that,

Eric (10:30)
I found them online at some ski shop in Utah because like the website for the brand didn't have them anymore because they, it was last year's special edition. This year was this, actually this year's was the yellow one that went with the yellow ski. So I knew I was like getting this super sick looking bindings. So my skis had the perfect match set, you know, color coded bindings. These are meant for it, like specially designed and they're pink.

Erika (10:31)
TREAT YOURSELF!

⁓

Yep.

Gotcha.

Eric (11:01)
And they're beautiful. They're so beautiful. They're pink and blue. No.

Erika (11:02)
Dude, no complaints, no complaints over here. Absolutely

not, because they are totally my color scheme. I love it.

Eric (11:10)
I did screw up in one area, not really. So you can't be that picky about boots. You have to get the right boot. And I went and tried on boots. I put on probably five pairs. I had to get everything brand new. Everything. Because they're like, you can't buy new skis and use your old boots because your boots are so old. They won't work with these skis in the bindings. You can't buy new boots because they won't work with your old stuff. I am keeping my old stuff just for two reasons. One,

Erika (11:12)
Hmm?

Eric (11:38)
to keep on my truck so it looks cool driving around. And I don't care what happens. Two, because I'm gonna try pond skimming this year. It's the last weekend at the ski mountain every year, but you don't wanna do it on nice skis. Yeah, and nice boots. So I'm gonna pond skim this year. I might eat it. It's usually the, it will be the weekend after the run show. my God, I hope it's not the weekend of the run show.

Erika (11:41)
Really?

Okay, that's great.

I get that. huh. Hey, you tell me. You tell me when I'll be there.

Eric (12:09)
We'll have to go to another mountain and do it.

Erika (12:11)
And I hope it's

a Sunday if it's the weekend after because that's the cheap marathon. That's my goal race for the spring.

Eric (12:18)
Yeah, we'll see. Well, if I don't get to do it this year because of podcast commitments, we will do it. I will hold on to the skis and do it the following year. Yeah, it would be so cool. You come and drink some beers and watch everyone. Everyone dresses up in costumes, too. Like guys wear. Yes, yes. So let's get to that. Well, let me finish what went wrong. I bought these boots and I got really good boots.

Erika (12:19)
We'll figure it out.

Mm-hmm.

Might as well, they're not going anywhere.

I could take some cool content now. Winkity wink. ⁓

Eric (12:48)
And the colors are nice, but you can't be that picky about like I was with the bindings. Cause you don't want to get crappy boots or boots that just don't fit you right with the arch and everything and all that. The boot I got is like the Ross and all called all track. Let's just call them eight hundreds. I'm making the number up, but the next level. Yeah. The next level up like the nine hundreds, right? They, I didn't see them at the store. They weren't there.

Erika (13:09)
I'm not gonna know the difference.

Eric (13:16)
But when I looked them up online, they were the perfect match set for the skis and the bindings. And I'm debating about just throwing mine on marketplace and buying the 900s. Because they're the pink and.

Erika (13:17)
Okay.

Well, hey, it's an investment and

you know you're going to use them. So YOLO.

Eric (13:36)
Well,

I ultimately think I'll just start the year on the boots I have and then maybe go ahead and get the other ones next year. They could exactly. Then I could sell mine. So we'll know a year from now if I'm going to go for the pink boots. They're not just pink, but and then again, the ski, your ski pants cover the boot. Yeah. Now I've been watching a lot of YouTube and thinking of other ways to create like content outside of running.

Erika (13:44)
I could go on sale. I don't

There you go.

Eric (14:06)
and there's a ton of these POV videos. I've been telling Allie G all about it. And I've been looking at cameras. And one of the cameras I've been looking at happens to be your brand new toy you just bought.

Erika (14:13)
Mm-hmm.

That was the one you were looking at. I have been noodling on this camera for maybe a couple months now, because I would click on it. And of course, it would keep showing me all the targeted ads. like, stop it. Stop it. The cookies, yep. I've got some cool things coming up next year. And I decided, why the hell not? So it actually came in when I thought it was going to. And I was like, man, you better be excited, because I have a

Eric (14:31)
The cookies.

Erika (14:49)
A fun thing to show you on the, where did we go the other day? don't even remember. Race, the race, the turkey try.

Eric (14:53)
The turkey trot. Yeah, I thought

when you said that it was going to be like a turkey costume or t-shirt or a hat or something. Yeah.

Erika (14:59)
which I would have totally done, but I was like, nah.

But yeah, so I showed up with this camera and it's the Insta360 X5 and it does these cool like 360 views and invisible selfie stick and all that good stuff. And so I just got to play around with it, took some footage and I actually, it took me a day, but I was able to edit the footage and put together a nice little reel and I hope it made you a little happy, do something for the podcast. Yeah.

Eric (15:08)
Yes.

Oh my God, I was thrilled. I was

thrilled. So I saw this and I was like, interesting choice. I have, because the only thing that's shied me away from that camera was I'm familiar with the GoPro style cameras, but also the editing and the 360. I'm like, is that something to want to tackle? But I actually think it's perfect that you bought it now to test out before, you know, anything that might be coming up in your future.

Erika (15:35)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Things.

Eric (15:52)
I don't know if your name's gonna stay with six star

Erika (15:52)
Yes.

Eric (15:54)
or are you gonna be six, seven, six, seven? I don't know. But, you know, fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. ⁓ Because, like, you should test it and figure it out the way you want to use it in these small events versus taking hours of content at an ultra marathon or a world major for the first time and then just being overwhelmed.

Erika (16:01)
Someday.

Mm-hmm.

yeah, and it is kind of overwhelming from me who rarely does this kind of editing and it's just totally foreign to me. So I figured out a way that works for me and it wasn't that difficult to put it together and make something fun. So it is kind of a long video, but it's more for me and we'll see.

Eric (16:34)
Yeah, it's gonna be super cool.

It looks like you can do it with vertical and horizontal videos and it has its own app, right?

Erika (16:44)
That's what I really

have to figure out. Yes, it has its own app. And the first video that I was playing with, don't think it was necessarily 360 view, or like got to figure out how to make it stay vertical. ⁓ Because if I do it the other way, I think it's like 8K. And that's why it was not horizontal or whatever. I don't know. I have research to do, you guys.

Eric (17:05)
It-

Go to the university YouTube, learn a lot and just have fun. Just play with it and don't get frustrated over like, ⁓ it's so hard. Don't get frustrated. Just keep like, just start over. Do another one and don't feel like they're all important that you have to ace it, right? You're not going to ace it in a year from now. Like you're just going to keep figuring out and getting better. I shared you a reel that popped up for some reason.

Erika (17:12)
I will. I will.

Just gotta learn.

Mm-hmm.

Probably not. Who are we kidding?

Eric (17:38)
And I was like, holy shit, this was a couple years ago. It was the reel that got us Aaron Azar. And I remember spending like a solid hour on that and fine tuning it and thinking it was perfect. And I sent it to you and I was like, this reel is terrible. How the hell did Aaron Azar be like, yeah, this is great. I'll come on your podcast. I'm like, the logo is way too big. And just like the, my God.

Erika (17:48)
Mm-hmm.

you

Eric (18:05)
But like, I didn't care at the time. I thought it was great and we've just gotten better. So, 100, of these now.

Erika (18:06)
Practice makes perfect.

Yep. Yep. So, hey, I'll get there.

Wow, dude, it's, I am so impressed, honestly. We have come a long way. We've talked to some amazing people this year, like almost 200 episodes. It's mind boggling. But hey, we're on the ride. It's quite the ride.

Eric (18:27)
Well, we actually

hit 250 drops a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Right. I mean, that includes re-crap, that includes bonuses, the old OTR lives we used to try to do, the outros before we called it an episode number. So, yeah, I went back because I'm starting to do like prepping some best of. We could talk about that in the outro. We'll tell you what to expect over the next month and stuff. But I've been going back and I'm like, wow, so cool to go back. But, you know,

Erika (18:31)
yeah, well yeah, all the extra stuff. We have the re-crap too.

Yes.

Eric (18:56)
It has been, well, let's talk about the year a little bit. It's been such a sick year. I don't think we imagined at all what we're going to do. We did four live shows all in the last four months.

Erika (19:06)
That was a surprise, a very, very nice one.

Eric (19:08)
Yeah.

We mastered, I say mastered, we have a ways to go, but we've done in-person interviews with like legit camera and audio because we shied away from in-person in the past because we didn't get the video and the content, just the audio. And we figured that out. What a cool like evolution that's been in process. And we're like slowly, we're kind of putting in our Amazon cart more and more gear that we want for things or I am. And finally, we

Erika (19:34)
Yep.

Eric (19:38)
Hold the Patreon money out. We don't even talk about this enough. We have a Patreon, guys. We want you all, like, if you can, you know, just help by share this podcast. Our big goal for 2026 is growth. And you'll hear that in, an end of the year Monday night media recap episode with me and Ali G.

but we have a Patreon and we have amazing Patreons and thank you so much for everything you do. So if you guys want to support, you can do that by jumping onto Patreon. Everything is linked in bio on the Instagram. Also, like I actually saw because I had my hands on an iPad and I went and looked, we have like 22 reviews on Apple.

And Apple is important even though it's frustrating at times. I'm struggling right now with an iPad trying to set it up for Adeline. But I saw that we got like 22 five-star reviews. If you listen to us on Apple or Spotify, go and give us a five-star review if you think we're five-star worthy.

Erika (20:23)
awesome.

You can do it on Spotify too, I just don't think you can comment or I don't know how to read those.

Eric (20:33)
Well, can't read,

you can comment, you can't leave a review, which I bet that will change one day. But wherever you listen, give us, give us a review or a comment, you know, share the pod though. That's the big goal, as I said, let's share this. Let's, let's make this grow massive. It's, it's pretty cool. The attention we're, we're attracting from others, brands, people, organizations. It's been such a great year.

Erika (20:37)
Mm-hmm. We still like the stars.

Yes.

Eric (20:57)
We're gonna recap that later, but I just wanna say thank you to everybody who's helped make this an incredible year. 199 episodes, about to hit 200. Like, insane. So thank you so much. Like, oh man, we don't say this enough, I feel. And we don't ask for help as much as others do. And I just wanna gloat for a second and be like, holy frickin' cow. What a year!

Erika (21:10)
You guys are awesome.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, we've

got awesome listeners out there. where would we be without you?

Eric (21:28)
That's where we'd be That's where we'd be. It's always been great. We have a cool episode today like some really good music, but Yeah, speaking of in person this guy okay. He's really the first to fly here to do an episode I know Tariq a couple weeks ago flew here, and we're like you're the first to reach episode just happened to drop before before Chad's

Erika (21:29)
Yes. Yes.

Speaking of, this is in-person episode too, so that helped us out.

Uh-huh.

Eric (21:50)
But we have, all right, I'll give him his respect. Chad Ultra on the On the Runs podcast. And this is your friend. Yeah. This is your friend, your buddy. You're excited. He was excited. He came here a couple months ago. He ran Ghost Train. He got to meet a lot of you East coasters, but you met Chad out West about a year or two ago, right?

Erika (21:55)
my god, he said it right you guys

Mm-hmm.

did, and it was awesome. He was one of the first people who really welcomed me out to the Pacific Northwest. I had flown out there for that Yeti 100, and it was, to this date, the most gorgeous race I've ever done. It was absolutely stunning, and he just welcomed me with open arms. I show up, and I was like, finally, somebody I recognize from the internet. Internet friends are real, you guys. He just made my trip and my experience so much better.

And I owe him a lot. So I'm glad I could do the same when he came this way. And I just hope that that ghost train in New Hampshire delivered the way that he did for Washington.

Eric (22:52)
It's actually a great episode to end the year on.

because it was a really fun time talking to him in person in your kitchen where we started this whole thing a few years ago. And it had that conversation feel or that just like with your buddies feel not the virtual thing. So it was a lot of fun, a lot of jibber jabber, some good stories, some personal stuff. A lot of stuff I didn't know about Chad. So I'm sure a lot of you already know who Chad Ultra is his ultra ego Chad. His real name is Jeremy, by the way. So

Erika (23:00)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It's kind of important we put that out there.

Eric (23:21)
I'm sure a lot of you know this already,

but it's a good one to end the year. He's a good one to end the year. Mine is his, you'll hear his music take later, but we'll, digress. We'll talk about that in the outro. But guys, Erica, since he's one of your good friends, why don't you do the honors?

Erika (23:29)
you

We are so happy to have Jeremy, AKA, Chad Ultra on the On the Runs podcast. We hope you enjoy it.

Eric (23:50)
Our next guest on the pod was an elite road runner who found Goggins and now runs ultras. He's a Northwest Pacific kid with a big heart who was voted most inspirational on his cross-country team.

He's afraid of nothing but HR and all women. He's the first guest to fly all the way across the country to record his own episode in person.

Needless to say, we're wicked excited to have Jeremy McCubry, AKA Chad Runs Ultras, on the On the Runs podcast. What's up, dude? Hey, welcome to my podcast. So happy to be here with you. ⁓ Jared. Nice try. What's up? This is exciting. You flew all the way across the country to come on this podcast. You're welcome. You know, it's no big deal. I do what I can for the small guys.

Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love it. We are he's not wrong. I say it all the time We're small with the small guys who play a wicked big game. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we are. Jeremy or Chad or Jared? ⁓ Ultra Chad Chad ultra like alright, let's get this straight. Let's figure it out. Okay, so real names Jeremy McCubry Alter ego Chad Chad ultra it's known all across the

the North West. Or as Eric likes to call you, Ultra Well, just to piss you rolls off the tongue, Ultra Chad. No doesn't. you got all mad at me one day and then we went back and forth and we can talk about that because I think we were comfortable with each other that way, giving each other shit. okay, so for this episode, we are going to call you Chad. Works for me. there's many famous Chads out there. Chad Little, NASCAR driver. Chad Kroger, one of the best rock bands in the world. Shout out Lindsay.

I don't know this band. Nickelback, good or bad? They're from your neighborhood. ⁓ I gotta go. See you guys. You know, there's two kind of people in the world. There's Nickelback fans and there's liars. And there's people in denial. Pretty sure I told you that in the car. You did. You did. The funny thing is, I'm not even a huge Nickelback fan. I just don't get all the hate. You look like one, but. Well, I don't get all the hate. Wait, wait, wait, wait, They're not bad. You gotta tell me what a Nickelback fan looks like.

It looks like Eric. It's just Eric. Damn good looking if you ask me. Yeah, nobody did, but. Well. Sweet. You know, know, somebody in our group chat sent a picture of someone we all love and she's like drooling over him. ⁓ And my thought was, man, I wonder if people do that about me.

You'll never know because it's people doing it in other group chats with. Yeah. Are they like sending screenshots of me and being like, Those podcast groupies. My God. He's so handsome. You guys, he's looking for compliments. I the shine. It is so shiny. Yeah. Yeah. The shine. I should have shined it up. But anyways, Seattle, Washington came all the way across here to do this podcast. You did just run Ghost Train. We already talked about that.

He joined us for the TROES for episode 191. This is like episode 199 maybe. I don't know. It should be episode 69, but. Well, we didn't know you then. We gotta go back in time. Let's do that. Let's get to know you. And how did you find us? How did you find Six Star here? Like, let's get the Chad story. We got history now. So as you said, from Seattle, Washington and every year out there we have, I think the superior

Yeti race, the Washington Yeti 100. And is that Jason Green race? Yeah. So any Yeti race is a Jason Green race. He does. Well, he doesn't do just Virginia. No, he's all over now. He's got his pain break where Samantha's the RD and Jason's the assistant RD. It's the 200 miler. But yeah, Jason's involved in all of them. OK. But Erika was coming out to do the Washington Yeti. And I think she was asking for like

course descriptions and advice. Is this like a Facebook group? Yeti Trail Runners. And I run that course all the time. Like I've attempted. I've ran that race three times. I've ran marathons out there. I do training runs out there. So I probably overshare. And I think also. I knew about the podcast because of Charlotte, but so we connected and you already knew Charlotte.

Yes, because I ran my first Yeti race before I did the Washington one. So that I had met Charlotte a year before I did. And how did you know Charlotte? Just from Yetis? Yeah, from Yetis. Yeti family. Yeti fam. challenging her to a fight. yeah. she would kick your ass. You have no idea. Like, I made I made a joke about challenge her to a race and people, they love Charlotte for good reason. They came at me hard. ⁓ Charlotte has a crew.

Well, gotta crew the Yeti runners like if she wanted to lead a mutiny she could she could that why I wrote in my intro You're afraid of nothing, HR and all women well strong women. Well, I all women are strong So yes, I changed I took out the word strong. Yeah, just what well Wait, wait, so wait, is this a real story? It is All right. All right. You challenged her to a fight like a fight no to a race. So it was

Back when Courtney Dewalter won and set records for Western States Hard Rock. Not a big deal. it Leadville? No. Or was it UTMB? The world? Probably. So I had to make a Chad Ultra video where I was making a big deal about how I was going to set a course record at, you know, I was picking the hardest. Do I do Hard Rock as well? I chose Dark Anchor because the joke is that's a three and a half mile loop with 10 feet of elevation.

And Eric is kind of race. It is, honestly. Yeah. And ⁓ I I knew Charlotte because I'd met her at a couple of different races. So I was like, and I'm going to leave her behind in the dust. I didn't tell her about this. I don't know her well, but I. It's serious. And and I came a little too aggressive and. She thought it was funny. A lot of people thought it, but like the people had her back. Let me tell you, like. ⁓

She did kick your ass. Charlotte is a staple in the Yeti community. Yes. Listen, dude, we're not supposed to get that serious this early on this podcast. We're supposed to talk about... Charlotte and I are good. We're good. okay, let's start with this one. How did you become most inspirational runner on your cross, or most inspirational person? So, school, cross country. I was a respectable runner back in the day. ⁓ Shocking. I know.

So I was on the cusp of like JV and varsity like as alternate. And I remember there was one race where I was running and I started to flag a little bit and there was two kids. I think they were twins from another team. And just the way they passed me on the course, they went on either side of me and something just clicked. And I just just yelled at them. That is, ah, and it gave me a little burst of energy. And so I got back ahead of them. And every time they tried to

pass me, I do the same thing for the whole race. And I beat some of the varsity runners on our team and that just became my thing. And they voted me most inspirational as a sophomore, which was kind of unheard of at the time. PR that race. So. Nice job. I love cross country. I was on the same. I was like a little bit JV, a little bit varsity. I only ran to stay in shape for hockey. But when I would get on the varsity, I would be like intimidated of the varsity race. I'd be like.

My goal is don't finish last, don't finish last. And I remember some kid on the Manchester course where you run up the mountain I run up every week, fell like twisted ankle. And I was like, yes! I'm not gonna finish last. So they're all like, yeah. And I'd be like, oh my God, are you okay? And I'd stop and help. See, that's marathon runner and ultra runner. Okay, there we go. Anyway. Distinction made. I ended up beating more than just the guy who fell. And I think he was fine. I think he was fine, but he did not catch up to me.

I think another cool thing I learned about you is you're foster kid. Yeah, so a lot of people don't know this. have biologically two brothers and two sisters and we were all placed in foster care. I have that thing where I don't remember a lot of that time in my life. So I can remember when I was nine or 10. And one of the things I loved about cross-country and track is

Like that was my escape and my foster mom. She she's one of those like bad parents. And so I was only allowed to do track and cross country because she wouldn't have to pick me up after practice. She just told me to run home. extra practice. So it's her being lazy that just like me too. And if I took too long, then I got in trouble. my gosh. So like, you know, this is eighth grade and high in like freshman year. So it's like, I mean,

two or three miles, but after school and after practice, like that was, that's a lot seems like a lot for a young kid. Yeah, with all the school books too. Yeah, man. Did you get to stay with your brothers and sisters or were you all separated? So I, there was some fluctuation, but to make it simple, I stayed with both of my sisters the whole time and not my two brothers. ⁓ I'm really only close with my younger sister. You actually met her in the,

Crystal Springs ⁓ Aid Station. Yep, Michelle. And yeah, I mean,

I've started talking to my younger brother a little bit now, but really only communication with those two. Yeah, all out west like you grew up in Seattle the Washington area or was this somewhere else? ⁓ So grew up primarily in ⁓ Astoria, Oregon area. So the Goonies. ⁓ wait, that's where the movie the Goonies is from. yeah. I'm really my biggest claim to fame is I was the paperboy for the Goonies house.

Like like in real life, in real life, delivered to the house. I delivered the newspaper to the house. You're in the movie and you were a paperboy. No, I'm still I'm still I'm not that old. But yeah, no, I delivered the papers to the Goonie house. Yes. I went to fourth grade in the kindergarten cop school. No shit. And then my friends lived in the Free Willy house. Oh, is this like an area where movies are made? It sounds like a dude. Yes. Like he just gave you three huge ones. The ring to.

Short circuit. Wow. Washington, Astoria, Washington. No, Oregon. Oregon. Yeah. ⁓ okay. So the same, but yeah. Yeah. Same, but different. Also, when we said in real life, I thought I have to get a video clip of Bluey going in real life. ⁓ random off topic thing. ⁓ I got a cute little dumpster fire, ⁓ thing from my ghost train race, ⁓ from bingo. think it's chili. It's chili.

Chili's a babe. A of two cute little people dressed up as, well there was a Bluey wasn't there? No, I think was Chili and I think it was Bingo, but. Oh god damn, I don't The orange one is Chili, the mom, and Bingo, the little sister. And Bluey you would think would be a boy, but Bluey is actually a girl. a girl, yeah. And then Dad is Bandit. Okay. I'll be honest, my boys don't watch Bluey as much anymore. And you're bummed? Yeah. We watch these stupid, and Adeline's doing it too, watching kids play video games on YouTube. Yeah. Like what?

Expedition unknown. That's that's what I get my daughter watching Lots of adventures and cool. Yeah looking for treasure and stuff one other thing can I I've been meaning to talk about this so I know well We were really serious and we had to bring it down a notch, which is good. Yeah, because this got real serious we're talking about foster parents and we're talking about fights with our friends and

And all that. Okay, remember a year ago, less than a year ago still, I took the boys to Bluey's house. You did, yeah. The incredible thing is the insights to this reel. All right. It has 5.8 thousand likes. Wow. 44 comments. 2.8 thousand shares. Wow. Who is sharing a video of your kids? 910 people have saved it. Oh my God. It is...

Currently been viewed a total of five times on Facebook, five, but on Instagram, 385,507. It's unreal. I'm really confused as to why somebody would save that video unless they're like, ooh, maybe I'll take my kids here. Dude, I had so many DMs saying where is this from people all around the world. Oh, no way. Total watch time, 85 days, 11 hours, 39 minutes, 45 seconds.

Almost 10,000 interactions. Average watch time is 24 seconds. I'm just going down here. I've been meaning to mention this, like incredible. It's real chat ultra energy to hijack my episode about your Bluey post from a year ago. I kind of ruined it too though. The whole dumpster fire. insane. love Bluey though. Like insane. So Ashley is doing Adeline's Instagram account now being like, we have to have her have her Instagram account.

for some company, all this. And she's like, show me, she runs, one day comes home from work, I'm doing laundry. She runs into the bedroom like with her phone, like just show me something. And she goes, it's got 500 views or maybe it was 5,000. And I it was 500. And I'm like, oh, good job, good job. You know, good job, golf clap. I go, you want to see one of mine? She goes, oh, your podcast? I go, no, Tommy and Tyler, 385,000 views. I don't know what it was that hit that one off, but.

Insane. Maybe I need to make a Bluey video. I love Bluey. Bluey's to be a popular subject. I went to Bluey's house partly for me. Like it was so cool. It was so cool. They don't have those kinds of things out in Washington. Here's one other thing. do you know? Because we're in the city of champions, which is something I want to talk about actually. When you were walking at Ghost Train and not hurrying up to the finish line. even that. She's crawling. Crawling.

I was on two legs. I was hanging out with you and just all of a sudden, Tara, Tara Daxwell and I go look at each other and I just go, Bruins suck again. And you're like, you know, we don't have that. We're out in Seattle. Like just you're like, you guys have this sports thing. Good or bad. You're like, we're great. Undefeated. We suck again. And you're like, no one cares out there. Even though the Seattle Mariners right now are

Playing what? Tonight? Game 7. game 7. Tonight's game 7. Yeah, but you gotta remember too, like, they went, what, 25 years in between playoff appearances. It's hard to get opinionated and passionate about a team that just falls on their face every year. And this is, this is really hard to watch because you're waiting for them to fall on their face, but it's game 7. You want them to do so well. And Toronto's been making them look so bad.

That's probably why I was able to actually get good seats when I was out in Washington to visit. got to see a Mariners game. It was so much fun. It is so weird to see it sold out. I've only before this year, I've only seen it twice. One when they were playing to get into the playoffs last year and the other time to go see the Savannah Bananas play at their stadium. Erika just realized that she's not going to be here when. No, but I could probably make the Foxborough one if they are they playing a baseball game in Foxborough? Yeah. Yeah.

We're going to go see the Bananas somehow. So the Bananas League is going to be in Manchester next year, but not the Bananas, another team. ⁓ OK, so Seattle sports fans. So Seattle has the Kraken, which seems super cool. Their jerseys and their colors are awesome. You got the Mariners. You don't have a basketball team.

We did. You had the super so Oklahoma stole them from us. You do have a football team. I believe they're called. They're called the Seattle Seahawks. Yeah. Is there a name that rings a bell here? Malcolm Butler. Does that ring a bell? You you're really, really trying to make me to be in this podcast. Eric, if you want to start a podcast with me, I might just. Should they have run the ball or pass the ball? Look, so I have opinions about this. I.

I get the pass play. aren't, they're expecting the run. You do the pass play locket should have driven harder, but that's what she said. I was on that one. Maybe they should have thrown it to Marshawn Lynch. Maybe they should have Marshawn Lynch throwing it. You know, you know what I think is funny is, know, Marshall Lintz has been all around lately. He's been retired and he's doing

Photography. Yeah at stadiums. He's even doing it at football games NASCAR races and stuff and every time someone sees him they go Hey, should they pastor run the ball and he just like has some luck, you know Yes, it was did they say make a reference there cuz everyone makes the reference she's like I know I was the right call we would have won the Super Bowl if I you were in probably would have I remember that man I remember being in Steve's house and I mean feel bad for the Patriots out West so we had to give you one

You know, you guys were about to lose Tom Brady and Belichick. my God. You follow the Bill Belichick stuff lately? No, because I hate Can we save this for like a follow-up episode? We are not talking about our guest. This is his episode. We are, but we're just giving him... Hey, this is the treatment he gets for all the... This is what Chad and I do. He gives me shit, he calls me out. I'm going to give it back. Because you do this... Okay, let's talk about it.

⁓ You do it constantly, not constantly, but you do it quite often because I feel like you maybe, so I do a lot what you do. Where I give some people who I'm comfortable giving shit to shit. I give Erika shit all the time. Occasionally she gets really mad and we go a day or two. ⁓ That happens once a year on average. But we're like, we still, you know, it just happened really. Where was When I quit the podcast. You quit the podcast.

But at the same time, I'm like, did nothing wrong. I don't think I pushed the line. I think with the story you just talked about with Charlotte, maybe you pushed the line. But we do that, you and I, back and forth to each other. And you're like calling me out saying I'm chicken to race you. You never responded to his videos either. I'd be like, I'd tag your personal Instagram account just to make sure you saw some of it. Well, sometimes he replies, but it's lame. I do reply. I feel like I haven't gotten back to everyone. It's all time.

It's all time. And it's also like, what do you got? I ran a marathon. Well, no, is, he's doing it. He's three hours behind me. So he's doing it at nine p.m. I'm sleeping. I wake up. I see it at six. I'm like, I'll get to it later than I never get to it later. Yeah. life happens. But anyway, city champions over here. But you know that that is one of the key features I've had to learn when to tow down the Chad Ultra stuff. Yeah, I can tone up. You can kind of fill people out usually like.

Lindsay and Tara right away. I was I Could tell right I can be yourself Yeah See I said it right there for you. It's your episode. I'm say it right Chad ultra wait No, it's Chad ultra you call him ultra Chad because you think that's what it should be But it's Chad it should be that way. So little known fact the original name was gonna be Brad the Chad ultra

But my wife told me, no, just make it Chad or Brad Ultra. And I had to go with Let's go into that more. How you discovered your alter ego. I it had something to do with seven orcas. Are we talking the re? Seven trails, Orcas Island. Okay, there we go. So seven free willies. as.

So as most things and best things my life started out as an I a little on that one. I don't know what that button is. I can't hear that one. Okay, I can hear that ⁓ button from here. So it it started out as an inside joke between me and some friends. We were doing a loop race and I bought some ridiculous sunglasses like I have to make up this character. I play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons, so maybe I make a character a little too good and

You know, short story short, I bombed that race hard. Oh, I don't think I've shared this, but like I thought I was done ultra running like I had a goal of 70 miles. I made it to, I think, 26 until a friend convinced me to go do a couple more. We call them truly laps now where we grabbed a can of truly and did some laps on it. Yeah. And I made it 36 miles. But I had signed up for this race on Orcas Island. Another Yeti race, you know, is expensive because it

It was a trail camp. So you get a camp there overnight. It was 34 hours. You can say before and after you take a ferry to get out there like a lot of investment. It was supposed to be 100 mile a tent. And I was like, I paid all this money. I'm done ultra running. This was so. So you were just so discouraged that it was going to this was going to break you. Yeah. Well, I didn't come to find out I have gout. Oh, shit. I had to learn. But take. Yeah. Not to.

Oh, yeah. I didn't know that. No. So. So like right before the race, you know, my ankle was hurting super bad, like I couldn't walk on it on the plane flight out. Oh, no. I thought it was a recurrent injury and it went away after a day or two. And.

just come to find out my body was just full of inflammation. So horrible race. So I go out to I just I'm not going to waste the money. I'm going to seven trails no matter what. ⁓ I'll just walk it if I have to. But I'm done ultra running and I made up this Chad ultra character. That was kind of fun for me. That's where I met my friend Reggie and I introduced myself as Chad ultra and he just looks at me goes, Chad ultra f****. ⁓ All right. There we go.

So I had a lot of friends going to this race. ⁓ Our little running group called the House Pickles. So I make stickers, you know, I get costumes, I get props and Chad is a total bro. So I show up the race in character the whole time, which was a big mistake, because I didn't know a lot of the runners there and everybody is just looking at me like, who the fuck is this guy? Is he for real? Like.

Yeah. But I did the race in character. I have props like I have a water bottle. Looks like a dumbbell. I brought a baguette that I did five miles with holding it and eating as I'm running. And but slowly and surely people start to get the joke. I think my friends were telling them about it and. It something just clicked like when I did races before my goal.

was to try to make the volunteers laugh at every aid station. And that helped cheer me up a little bit, know? Corny jokes. And with Chad Ultra, I found a way to make the runners also laugh. And it just became so much fun for me and opened up a new, new experience. And believe it or not, like, I very socially awkward. have a hard time in talking to people and meeting new people.

But when you dress like a jerk and act like a jerk, you have to talk to people or they think you're an actual asshole. Yeah. And it's also an icebreaker and a friend tester. Like if I show up somewhere and I saw this at Ghost Train, like if they think that this is funny, we know we have the same kind of humor. looking back, I've probably like there's probably like 10 runners that I met at Orcas Island Seven Trails.

that I'm now good friends with. that's I didn't know before. was... kept me ultra running, to be honest with you. How did they get its name? Was it the whales? Yeah, well, because orcas. Have you seen one? ⁓ Not in Seattle, because I don't go whale watching, but that's what the area is known for. Don't you know this? Don't you know everything about Seattle? I thought it was Vancouver. That's right, the Canucks.

Well, Vancouver's right there. Yeah. Swing in. Well, I want to know, have you seen one like is this a popular spot? It's Orca Island. Well, it is. I was busy running. Charlotte actually was at that race and dressed as an orca. that's so that photo. Yeah, that's OK. Yeah, it's all coming. It's all make sense. She was one of the first people to meet Chad Ultra. And I mean, I like to think I won the costume contest that race, but let's be honest, it was probably her. But you got to give her credit for running in a

Orca. my God. I don't know how she does it. Yeah. The dedication. I mean, you both are dedicated for like just sticking to your. don't want to say gimmick, but sticking to what you the stick stick. I like that better, actually. But you stick to it. And it does bring joy to these races, especially like we all we all know, except for Eric, that altars are hard. You get into the dark place. We need something to uplift us. Even even the volunteers who are up at three o'clock in the morning, making sure that

They're taking care of us. We got to make sure we take care of them. So let me tell you, there's there's no better feeling than bring joy. ⁓ Coming into a race where there's people who are doing their last laps of a 200 mile race and you make them laugh like that. That's it's either that or they're crying or like in pain. So a laughter goes a long way.

you got to meet Chad Ultra during your Washington yeti. Like I did. I'm curious. Like, what was that experience for you on your end? Because we talk like we're friends at that point, but we had really just met the night that really was our first night meeting for in person. But you saw him in the Facebook group chat. Yeah, yeah. But we had the interaction. saw him as Jeremy. She did the background checks, made sure that I wasn't.

I'm murderer But you're Jeremy on Facebook. Yeah, you don't actually know the ultra So I feel like I can't even remember remember if when I met you it was the at the packet pickup if you were as your Persona or if it was if it was you it was I've learned to do only the races chat. ⁓ I was dressed Ridiculously, but it was as well. You were very welcoming when I met you because you gave me like the bracelet

I don't want to say that I even got one for Eric because I gave it away. I gave it to Carolina. I have one in my truck actually. I'm so glad because yes, I had two. I was bringing in everything. I set up everything. The two of you were just chatting and doing your own thing. I had two bracelets that I brought home and I wound up giving one to Carolina because she was interacting with you and I was like, you're going to love this. That was actually a different time. I didn't have bracelets at that point. I gave you a shirt and stickers.

I gave the bracelets to my friend Christine to give to you at Washington. Oh, so then I got to still. And all right. But yes, so I have the the other shirt, which I did bring a special limited edition New England version of it. It has my name on there to remind you. Chad Ultra. Nice. Finish hard. Wicked hard. Nice. Is this for me? This is for you. For me. Oh, it's like.

Sport techy material. yeah. It's blue. It's not on the runs blue, but it's blue. If there's one thing I'm good at is taking a joke too far. Where are the sleeves? What do you need sleeves for? He them off. Don't you hit the gym? What's this? Oh, I thought that was our logo. Oh, very cool. Very cool. Thank you for the shirt. Oh, I'm going to I got to work out, do some bicep curls. There you go. I can show you how it's done. Yeah.

But yeah, my first impressions of you, you are just you are a genuinely nice guy. And then on race morning, I got to get the full Chad Ultra experience. I got kind of a big, big crew. All my friends either run or volunteer that race usually. So, I mean, as you know, a friendly face makes a lot of difference on the race. And if I recall correctly, you did offer your crew to help me. They're like, if you if you need anything, just reach out because they will help you. And

I was like, that is the nice thing. Me coming from, me coming from across the country to try a raise like this. And, and you were just like, Hey, we want to make sure you're taken care of. And, and I really did appreciate that. thought it was super awesome. And I remember being out there, we were maybe like 20 something miles in and I see you carrying like an inflatable, like a barbell thing. And I was like, how long have you been carrying this thing? And it was just like, I was in on it. I was in.

Well, did you see what I carried for that stretch this year? A parasail. my gosh. Because normally there's a lot of sun on that section. So I bought a parasail to carry a very lacy and red and black. And we're to have to get you to send all the pictures to Eric so he can. What is a parasail? An umbrella, an umbrella, but for the sun. So, know, like think of the old the southern madam.

Yes, with the lace and like you twirl it and they're wearing the belt like the bell of the ball dresses, you know. OK. Just just imagine it's beautiful. So one thing about me is I hate the sun and I hate heat. So if I can work some anti-sun stuff into my running routine, I will. you like rain? Because it rains out there. I love rain so much, mostly because I run hot and then people can't tell how much I'm sweating.

And also I like to think the people driving by think about how crazy I am and badass. Yeah.

Let's talk about some cool races. You did cross country, right? But you, even though you're an elite road runner turned ultra athlete, you're not, you didn't really, you're not really a road runner. You don't really do the short things. Maybe, maybe fun, you know, with your kids and all. We didn't even talk about like his, like what got him into, like, well, I know he started with the cross country, but like what, what made you do your first long race? So, ⁓ you met my brothers. ⁓

A family took me in after high school. So don't get confused. That's my family life is weird. They're natural athletes. Six foot five, six foot four. I'm five, seven. I have nothing but muscle. Yeah, I have a young daughter and I just I wanted to get healthier. So I started eating better, lost some weight and I kind of plateaued and I was like, well, I used to run in high school. I'll start running again.

And I had tried that in the past, but it got easier. I had lost 15 pounds, so it was like, And I just started slowly building up distance. And I got to the distances that I was running in high school. And I actually ran more than I did in high school. And I was like, all right, fuck you, high school Jeremy. You may have been faster, but I got the distance. And I did my first eight mile run. And I was like, should I do a half marathon? OK, I don't know.

And I remember signing up for my first half marathon. as soon as I hit the click, like I just got that sense of dread. Like, how the fuck am I going to pull this off? my God. I've got like three months. I actually remember telling my wife, like, don't worry. I'm not going to ever run a marathon. just too far. words. But. Probably the best thing that happened is I was looking I was targeting June to run my first half marathon.

And there was three of these on consecutive weekends that I couldn't decide which one to do. The first one was the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon, which is a party. And one of my best friends passed away when he was 21 from cancer. I'd run that in his honor. Yeah. But then the weekend after that was it's called the Snohomish Downhill. And so it's a downhill half marathon. Like, that'd be easy. And then the third one is called the Great Fairy Race. And you start

on a ferry in Seattle. You go across the Sound to Bainbridge Island and the half marathon starts on the ferry and you go run around the island, but it had like 1800 feet of elevation. Like that sounds cool, but that's the hardest half marathon. Right. So I was juggling which one to do. I was like, you know what? I love ridiculous ideas. I'll just do all three. Why choose when you can have it all?

And I remember because one of the things that helped me lose weight was this thing called nerd fitness and like they gamify getting it into shape and like they have like that they have an online group and people are like, oh, are you sure you should do that? You should talk to your doctor and do do do and say, yeah, I'll just do it. Like, so what's the worst that can happen? One of my favorite stories you're to tell us. I actually went pretty good. Yeah, I set my half marathon PR 207, which respect. That's great. My favorite story from those three.

is my buddy Jordan. He's a boxing coach at Miss Martial Arts coach. And he's like, you know what? I'll come up to Seattle. I'll do that second one with you. I can tough out a half marathon. OK. That's excited for us to do it together. He didn't show up. Yeah. ⁓ he's he's not a runner. But I took I had people take pictures of me like as holding his shoulder like I had me and Jordan doing our half marathon. That's amazing. Fuck you, Jordan.

That's a song. Something corporate. Anybody? Fuck you, Jordan. I need to know it now. I will send it to you. But yeah, so and because I'd signed up for so many half marathons with this race company, I got a free marathon. ⁓ and it was in October. And it's like, well, that's perfect. From June, I can train up to a marathon. so you could piggyback off of the training you're already doing. And of course, it went horrible. ⁓

No, my sister got married in North Carolina in September. And I mean, I just wasn't into the training. I was aiming for like a 430 marathon. I finished and I think it was like 545. And of course, they were tearing down the aid stations as I'm pulling up like that is such a New York would never.

Iron Man would never. New York would take water by Boston. ⁓ not everyone's perfect. But it was like the finish line was all torn down, but it was my wife and my daughter at the finish line to hand me my medal. That was part was awesome. That's cool. And I had my choice of the porta potties. that was. See, there's an upside to most stories. I don't want to say all stories, but this is all before Ultra, though. Yeah. Well, that was so one.

My motivation would flag for training. ⁓ That's only human. Yeah, I would watch running videos. And that's actually how I found the Yeti Trail Runners is I found one of the videos. Awesome. That was about Jason, the Yeti Trail Runners. And so I was like, you know what? I kind of want to do this because I love bad ideas. Chad Alter runs on bad ideas. Did you my T-shirt yesterday?

I don't remember. I can honestly say I did not. I had a hoodie on maybe that's why. ⁓ It's the one that says that's a horrible idea. What time? What time? Yes. And that's, I actually signed up for a 50K with my good friend Sam after that. I convinced him to do ultra running because he was just doing 5Ks. And of course the 50K went horrible for me.

He finished in like six and a half hours. It's really hard. 50K in southern Oregon. And again, I was like, you know what? I guess this would be the first time. I like, I'm ultra running to not for me. I'm going to stick to half marathons. I'm a half marathon guy. But. I had signed up to volunteer at the Washington Yeti the following weekend. OK, so I hobbled into that volunteer shift of I showed up at six p.m. after work.

and then volunteer until seven a.m. the next morning. Wow. That's a long ass shift. Yeah. And it they did a different that year where it was double out and back down to rattlesnake. so it was a long lonely night. It was all the runners who had signed up for the covid year the year before. OK. I didn't run it virtually. So it was a really small field. Yeah. But I met my friend Christine there who. Shout out, Christine. Yeah. Awesome. Christine, the blister queen. Oh.

And she was talking like, know, since we're volunteering, we get a free risk race credit next year. And I'm like, no, I'm not doing that. But she worked on me. And by the end, we had a suicide pact that we would run the 100 the following year. Yeah. And she kept me ultra running and we both showed up and both DNF the following year. But so wait, which year was that? Was that was that the year I was out there or the year before that year before that? OK.

So that still had the really, really long outback. Chad Ultra. This is well before Chad Ultra. This is I so I decided to start trail running. You hear about the trail running community and how great it was during Covid. And like I said, I had a hard time just making conversations with people. I the only person I knew at that race was actually Christine. And I just talked to her when we volunteer the year before. I didn't reach out in between that year at all. So.

My brothers were there to crew me and my friend Jordan. Fuck you, Jordan. I feel like we hit our max where now it has to be Jordan. But, you know, and I ran the race just knowing Christine. And so that it was a long, lonely race for me. yeah, gotcha. But after that, you know, I started meeting more people. I met some people there.

which started forming the core group of our little running group, which is where Chad Ultra originated from, where we crowd sourced the idea for Chad Ultra, where it's this guy that, you know, ex marathon runner that should be on the national team, but the coaches don't like him. You are always has a hamstring injury. His course records just don't ever save the Strava. You know the story.

know, fears nothing but HR or pregnancy tests. Yeah. And that's when I really started connecting with people because it gives people excuse to talk to you and for you for me to talk at people. Talk about that buckle. You got that buckle. So Washington Yeti third attempt. So the year after you and I ran it together. ⁓

My training was on point. ⁓ I wasn't going to run it that year, but my good friend Penny wanted to fly in from Colorado and make that her first 100 mile race. And she asked for me to run it with her. was like, no, I'll crew you or I'll pace you. Like, no, you're running with me. It's like, OK, your pressure is a real thing. Yeah. And we we made a pact that I'm very opinionated about music. ⁓ If either of us missed our pre-work run.

We had to listen to the playlist from the other person. And for me, that is absolute torture. Ali G. I have opinions about music. Bring me on your podcast. I I only had to do that once. You know, I ran after work and said to before work. So my training was there. ⁓ My brothers were there to crew me there. They're the best crew. They only lightly assault me. ⁓ I.

And one of the things that keeps me going is the little sticks I have planned for the race, like the Paracel at for eight miles for some goddamn reason. I bought, you know, those little blow up balloons that they look like pets that are like at walking level. You see my mouse. I got one that was a unicorn, which is a recurrent theme for the Yetis that they tied to my vest that was behind me as I ran on one of the out and backs. But what really kept me going

was I had this idea to stop before the finish line, have my crew like take off my shirt, wipe me down, fix my hair, put shaving cream on, make it look like they're shaving me. I have a video on my Instagram and then put on a new shirt and then go finish because I thought it'd be hilarious. And it happened that I was DFL, dead fucking last.

which I'm proud of because one of the big things I don't want to impacting anybody else's race. You know, I don't want to be in their way as they're coming into finish. Yeah. Steal their spotlight. Yes. So I happen to be last place. So that worked out perfect. So I got the Yeti tunnel and some pretty epic pictures that I'm sure my daughter is going to be embarrassed about in a few years. That you want like a code brown story from that. Yes, we do. Now we don't talk about that shit.

So this story I've only told to certain people in private because the exclusive. Let's go. so I finish ⁓ my friends at Thunders Sisters. They do champagne spray on me because reasons. I rented a cabin nearby the finish line because I'm smart like that. what's the first thing you want to do when you get done with an ultra shower shower?

Okay, good. said the right answer. Poop and showers. So I get into the bathroom and keep in mind, it's me, my two brothers and my sister. I stripped down naked, sit on the toilet and I just started sweating profusely and feeling lightheaded. ⁓ no. And my brain's not working right. Yeah. Post post hundred. Yeah. I feel like I'm going to faint. I'm like, crap, I have to throw up. And so I hobble up to throw up in the toilet like

Oh no, I have to shit. Oh no. And then I'm like, but I can't do both. Oh no. And I feel like I'm going to pass out. Am I going to have to call my brothers in here and they're going to have to help me naked? Are they going come in here and find me passed out, covered in shit and puke? And then I figured out I can sit on the toilet and puke in the bathtub. gross. But then I realized, like, no, there's a trash can with a bag in it. I think, oh, I didn't end up throwing up or passing out. That's good.

I sat, I got the feelings down, got where I wasn't sweating. You didn't take a dump though. Oh I did. And then I took a shower and then I took the basket with me in case I had to throw up in the bed. How was the shower? The shower was a little painful but I mean I always get chafing, I'm a very sweaty guy but like parts of it felt amazing.

But you're like, I'm finally not salty. I was just glad I didn't have to call my brothers in. Can you carry me naked and bathe me and sponge back? That's how you find out like your true ride or die family is if they would do that for you. made that. I made a series of how to run 100 miles race videos, and that's one of them. You find your fourth best friend to be your lube guy to lube your butt at aid stations.

Didn't we nominate Eric to do that? I feel like that was a thing. did. And he, he slept on that one. He doesn't remember the cricket. I think next year is going to be Jordan, but fuck you, Jordan. I'm catching on. I'm catching on. All right. Let's talk about another one. Tell me what I got. I got this one line here. One step closer. ⁓ so.

I mean, this is kind of the beauty to me of what Chad Ultra is all about is so I did this race called One Step Closer put on by Evergreen Trail Runs. They're amazing people. Although I didn't know that it was a so it's held at this park in West Seattle called Lincoln Park. I didn't know One Step Closer was a Lincoln Park song. band. God, no, I would not have ran the race. I knew that ahead of time. What the fuck is wrong with you? I told you I'm opinionated about music. Also, in park is also fuck Pearl Jam.

⁓ By the way, Allie G will not have you on her podcast if you ask her, but she won't say because of that, she'll go, because Eric said, I can't keep having people remit his podcast on. I said, you need to widen your scope there. so, what the hell? All right. Let's save music for the end when Erika has her music question. So, ⁓ I signed up for the 18 hour and I happened to set up my gear.

It's a 2.3 mile loop we do for 18 hours. So I happened to set up my stuff next to this gal that she ended up winning the, I hope she doesn't mind me telling the story. She'll never hear it, who cares? We're a huge You didn't name names, you're fine. I happened to set up next to her and she happened to win, I can't remember if she won overall or she won, I think she won overall. was just, I think she did like 80 or 90 miles in 18 hours.

and she was cruising and we talked a little bit in between laps. We talked a little bit in between laps and you know her daughter came and visited her and talking with her I found out that they lived a little bit north and her and her husband came down there staying with a friend who lived a mile away and her friend was originally going to pick her up from the race but she couldn't do it because she had a concert to go to.

and her husband wanted her to walk from the finish line. She's like, no, I'm just gonna take an Uber. I'm not walking a mile after doing this. So she finishes right before the 18 hours and she's uncontrollably vomiting. ⁓ There's a great picture of her on the podium and she's turning away to throw up. And I'm like, there's no way an Uber's gonna let you get in their car and you can't walk. ⁓

Look, I know we just met and you don't know me, but if you're comfortable, I will drive you to your friend's house because you can't walk, you can't get in an Uber. you know, I think she picked up on the good Chad vibes. The Jeremy vibes. Yeah, the Jeremy vibes. And so Evergreen Trail Runs gave her a bowl to throw up in and I slowly drove her to her friend's house. Was she inside the car or like strapped to your?

We didn't admit Romney here, no. She she she was riding shotgun. And of course, she gave me the wrong address at first. We a little bit the wrong way. no. But then we went the right way. And there's so many bumps. ⁓ and she she she did not puke in my car to her credit. She held it in. She wait till she got out. And so like I helped her get out and I waited for her to get inside her friend's door.

And I left and the next morning she messaged me like, thank you. I got into my friend's mud room and I laid there till she got home because I didn't want to throw up in her guest room. And it's like, my God. ⁓ I mean, that's something that I never would have done before. I wouldn't have started talking to this lady like she doesn't know me. And, I think that's beautiful. They, you know, make friends that way and altruists, help each other out.

Yeah, you make friends for life that you never see again. I do. I love that aspect of the ultra scene because everybody is in it the same way, even though like somebody could have a very bad day. like you took care of that runner. I'm sure she appreciated it. But just the support system is there. Like everybody is willing to help. And I have rarely found somebody who is an actual asshole.

out there. So it's nice to know like it's everybody's just welcoming and it's you don't get the elitist attitude that you get at some marathons. Yeah and word gets out if you're an asshole you're like yeah okay yeah for sure. Why are you looking at me? Well you're across the table for me I have no choice. Mr. I need a bigger Those are some good stories buddy those are good stories yeah those are great.

⁓ one more race I have on my list to talk about, and this is cool. I love listening to it. And I think these are all on Erika's bucket list, but the, this word sticks out to me because we have a very popular one or over here. We have anchor down. You have dark anchor. Is this a battle between the anchors or it should be. And I'm just like, it should be, but dark anchor has nothing.

⁓ so nothing. I to run dark anchor so I can compare the two or we got to get you to come to anchor down. Both. So, ⁓ yeah. Running in heat and humidity. It's favorite. It's favorite. You know, I ran I did a training run in Atlanta once in July and a homeless person stopped to ask if I was OK. No joke. No. Yeah, it was bad. So maybe it's not for you, but I'll come down. Well.

When is dark? Dark Anchor is like winter time, but end of January. Georgia. Yeah. Jekyll Island. You never know what you're going to get. Dark Anchor is going to be raining. I hope so. I love the rain. Snow. Snow. Dark Anchor is a blast. Like the Yeti crew really brings it and it's just full of amazing runners that will give each other fireball dressing costumes and sing and do porta potty photo shoots. know. Brumble.

Shout out Bremblo. Jaren promised to catch me at the finish line. So you're going to do like a like an arm jump and he'll catch you. Yeah. my God. Please get it on video. I was hoping for the dirty dance scene, but I I don't think either one of us has the strength. I just want to see you get a jerry and hug and be covered in glitter like I was. It was something so magical and everybody deserves to experience it. Well, I got my first Jason hug finally.

There you go. So I'll get my first jerry and Did you not get a Jason hug when you did your 80 mile 100K? I take that back. did get that, but that, that felt different. No, no, it was an 80 mile 100K. Yeah, but it wasn't a hundred. So it didn't feel the same. It's still look a finish. Yeah. But he's even saying the same thing. It wasn't the same. You wanted the, you wanted the big one. Yeah. And boy did I get the big one. So happy.

That must have been cool. It was like it. My that's my problem. My proudest altar run. Well, it is my proudest altar moment. So I end working something that long to reach that goal. I I had two hundred mile attempts that were DNF's, you know, sixty nine miles. Nice. And then eighty one miles. So it was nice to finally be there because absolutely. mean, I I tell people Chad Alders about

putting that imposter syndrome at home and forget that. know, you've especially when you try and you fail, you can't help those doubts creep in. Like, can I ever accomplish 100 miles for real? And thanks to to my crew, my friends, Penny and everybody like I was able to do it. Absolutely. We're fucking proud of you, dude. Thank you. Yeah, just. There we go. It's just having the courage to try in the first place.

and to try again if you fail. And that's what bringing my bestie Bex Gentry into the picture. She always says failure or fail means first attempt in learning. So just take what you learned. Try to figure your shit out and you made it work. Thank you. Yeah. One thing Killian said that stuck out to me one time was when you fail, it's just a reason to go do it again.

Are we talking Killian Journey? Yes. Okay, good. I didn't feel comfortable pronouncing his last name. I no clue who these people are. Oh yeah. When you get into the Ultra World, you'll know. Okay. It's like there's a handbook. I'm going to make Eric his very own like a handbook about all things Ultra. There will be a special chapter about Courtney DeWalter and apparently the New Hampshire Courtney DeWalter. I'm dubbing it now. Wait. That's what he called me

Erika the Courtney Dauwalter of New Hampshire Call her that it's it's gonna what was that evaluation process like you know she told me She doesn't run in gym shorts she doesn't win First loser typically hey, I was third for my age group in the second loser was it ah And number one number two nobody no no number number two

Something number three, nobody remembers. See, Courtney DeWalter doesn't win races and I got awards over that. I'd want say you're I don't know the New Hampshire scene well, although I feel like they're all my friends now, but I think you're hard pressed to find somebody more prolific this year.

than Erika. If your evaluation process is just like someone who goes out there and doesn't stop, keeps doing it, gets the buckle every time, does the marathon the next week, then another ultra and just keeps going, then that is Erika Hamill. 1000 % six to Erika. stupidity or stubbornness or both. And I think, you know, she could do it with her, she could be the New Hampshire's Courtney Duhalter with her own identity too, cause you got the

You always have colorful skirts or if it's not a skirt, it's a colorful legging type of thing. Even if it's like a bike short type. Yeah. So I get it. Well, you know, she's like Chad, ultra. She always says to Erika here, guys, she always finishes and Chad, ultra sometimes finishes sooner than expected. You know, and it's better because your ex doesn't think you could fit. You know what? That sign was something and everyone loved it, but they would come over and they would say something to Chad and I'd be like, you don't get it.

Like Chad finishes and doesn't like let them finish first. People get it. Well, the right people get it. my, I'd say running front Angela, she's like, she saw that I had that sign out before she did her first 100 hood hundred. And she's like, me and my friend, my pacer talked about that for the last eight miles, like all the different condentations and how much it means. Here's how I view it. If you were doing the race with Erika, you would let Erika finish first.

And then you would have one. But that's how. But I do have a friend that she saw that sign and she's like, oh, my God, you take that sign to all your races. I make one for all. Yeah, that's becoming staple. I mean, sign said what? So for people who are like, I said, your ex doesn't think you can finish Chad Ultra. So my friend saw that and she's like, oh, my God. So I was doing it was I think in Oklahoma and Urban 100.

and her ex, they had just broken up, would follow her around in his truck and yell at her that she couldn't complete the 100 mile race. And it's like, my God, I didn't know the sign was perfect for you. no. ⁓ And at this race, a woman came up to me. She's like, my boyfriend and I just broke up and he just ran 100 mile next week. And I hope that I can finish mine. Screw that guy. We got to follow up and see if she ever did. hope she. Yeah.

I have a hard time remembering names from this weekend, so reach out to me. If you finished, let me know. So we can make fun of your ex on this podcast. And we'll do it publicly. We'll post it on Instagram. Yes, we will. So let's talk about some fun things. Stickers, wristbands. Like you've taken Chad Ultra to another level. So I had to think about that. How do I call it? I'm good at taking a joke too far. like Stars Aligned. ⁓

I did, Chad started coming about around one of my birthdays. So my sister-in-law is a graphic artist. So she made me some Chad Ultra logos and stickers. So I get those made. And you there's a couple different ones. One is it's a pair of sunglasses that say Chad Ultra. I think I have that one. There's another limited edition one I gotta get more made. It has my face on it that says making memories and enemies.

I want that you send me stickers. I'll send you stickers. Yes and then one of chat ultra has a lot of sayings the first one was chat ultra never tired because of Spell it out You can tell when people start figuring out they're like chat ultra. He's never tired ⁓ But I had to as Manning and aids crew and I'm sorry happening and

aid station and a mile past it was the turnaround for the 100 K years and the 100 miles would keep going for another bit. So there was an official race turnaround sign, but I made my own that said jerks turn around here. I can't just leave it as that. Assholes keep going. Perfect. And some people reach out after the race like, who put that sign out? That became my motto for the rest of the race and it kept me going. So now

That's one of Chad Ultra saying his assholes keep going and I make wristbands that I hand out. ⁓ I'm waiting for this like pretend influencers start paying off because I'm losing a lot of money. I'm to spend some stickers. Tell me about it. And shirts. But we know about that. But I mean, it's kind of for me what alter running and running is all about. Like sometimes I can show up to a race like I feel like this weekend, like I was part of the vibe.

You absolutely were. just seeing how people react to that, you know, and not in like a selfish way, but to see how much people enjoy it. Like, you're my kind of people. You know, I can remember the first time I had that when the first year I ran Dark Anchor. ⁓ I didn't again, I didn't know anybody there. And in one of Jason's race videos, he's marking one of his courses and they're interviewing him and he's like, yeah, it's a pretty flat course, but.

These fucking runners like you can make it as flat as possible and they're going to complain about how hilly it is. So dark anchor, three point five miles, eight feet of elevation. And there's one section where there's a little bridge that goes over a creek. And so I made a video that it was like, Jason, you told us this was a flat course. I come up here. This mountain pass. What the fuck? And I post on the website because we had self-service and at the after party.

My now friend, Rebecca Bird and her sister, Shannon, came up to me like, are you the guy who made the video? And I said, yes. And like they started talking to me at the after party rep, posting me sitting by myself. And it was the first time I really felt included in a race. That's cool. It was a really good feeling. So I'm I'm glad if I can bring that to other people. Yes, I got to say, I got to thank you for doing that to me, like for me.

when I was out in Washington because you set up that whole after party thing for us at the the brewery. so I got to Brandon and I got to go and hang out and just talk a little bit more. And it just felt nice to be included in a place that I wouldn't normally know anybody. So you just definitely brought that. And I appreciated it more than I can even tell you. So thank you. You're welcome. And you did the same for me out here introducing my pleasure. And that's what I tell people. Like if I had a superpower, it's

the friends that I'm able to make because I've made the best, most amazing friends. And Chad Ultra has sped that up because it it's a litmus test. Like, you think these dick jokes are funny? We can be friends, you know, and those people will then seek you out and you find each other. Yeah. And then you fly across country and stay in the room having to meet them one time in person.

You made enough of an impression. It's a cool community. Like you don't see this, I think in the triathlon community that I love. Cause they're all criminals. And you don't see it as much in the running. I going to say competitive, but criminals are worse Well, you know, so I kind of thought of this over the weekend was Erika's really the ultra person. I was a huge, like really into triathlons and then running's kind of in the middle of this mutual ground. And the way Erika and I have known each other for, God. A hot minute.

21 years now. 21 years now. But we started running together when I was training for Ironman, she was training for marathons, and then you eventually did the ultra thing. But my point is, it seems your community is that tighter community, that welcoming community, a little more than maybe the triathlon community. And the running community is just that perfect, happy medium in the middle.

It seems like you have the right one, especially for your people and your brothers and your sisters and everyone, whether it's real or not real, they're all real. But, um, yes. You know what I think the difference is about? Like you have your triathlons and we have the ultras. I don't have triathlons anymore. The only real difference is that the reason we get to interact with people so much is we have so much more time to do so. We have the 30 hours, we have the 34 hours, we have the 48, the 72.

and you have no choice, but you're seeing only that, a lot of them are loop courses, so you just keep passing them. I mean, I love it when I'm at All Your Ultras, the ones I go to and support your races, knowing that she hasn't gone to any of my races yet. I'm just waiting for the right one. We meet super amazing people like Celeste. Yeah, I was just thinking of her. Julie at ADU, and Callie and Kelly at ADU. wish I could go, I went three years in a row. Now I think I've missed three. My favorite though is like,

meeting people that you just can't wait to see the next year. Yeah. I think in ADU again, Zach and Ainsley. That's why I keep coming back because there's so many cool people. And shout out Candice and Maurice. You know who I saw you say while walking out? Patrick. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's so cool. Herron. He shows up a lot too. that's exactly why I started my own invite only race is I got tired of only seeing my friends at races for a little bit. So another excuse to hang out. Come hang out.

do this silly race, the Chad Ultra Ultra, and we can have fun and talk Was it like a mile and then you hang out after or what? So my parents... get a cool beer can medal. My parents that took me in after high school, they own 40 acres along a river and it's right across the logging road up to it's called Radar Mountain. so it's 10 miles. You go 2000 feet up and 2000 feet down. you know, they live on the river. there's...

paddle-boarding, canoeing, there's a little creek, and also, you know, that area is very beautiful. You have to show up with your own persona. ⁓ The winner- What's Erika gonna be? Courtney? Six-star duck. The winner of the race gets a loaf of bread. That's a medal! That- Well, I told you, I- Put it on a scale.

From the scale of his race. we talking a baguette or are we talking like sourdough? This year, it was, I think it's Tommy's power seed. ⁓ so you get the good protein. You're getting all the good stuff. The winner of the costume contest gets a better prize. And then there's also a traveling trophy where it's the original pair of the Chad Ultra Ultra sunglasses. I usually it's a friend that

Either completed like this year was my friend that paced me at the 100. Another friend. I have a friend that DNF'd at Coco Dona 250. So she completed the the secret chat ultra race, the ultra Dona 150. ⁓ And so they get it for the year. They have to bring it back the next year and it goes out to somebody else. That's cool. I like that because it makes sure that they come back. You bring this back or else you're on the shit list. Yeah, but it's good excuse to get all my friends there. Good. I like that.

We should do something around here like that. But I don't want to organize anything. I going to say, are you going to make it happen? don't think so. Breaking news. I have been talking to somebody that lives out on the East Coast about joining forces and maybe putting on a race in probably in North Carolina. OK. I'm also working on one in southern Oregon. Nobody steal this idea. TMTM.

Chad Ultra presents Ultra Prom. So it'll be a fixed time event with prom afterwards with a bedazzling station for your hydration vest, friendship bracelets and supportive awards like best smile while running. Yeah, I would win that one, obviously. ⁓ I love what point of the race when I show up at the end and you're like, dude, I don't want to hear anything right now. Like.

You opened up my twizzlers the wrong way. No, hamster wheel last year. Well, I was in a bad place. That was real bad. Imagine winning best smile and best bad place. Yeah, that is such an amazing idea. That just sounds like so much fun. I can't wait to see slash go. I have a few dreams of ideas I want to see an ultra race that I hope that I can do.

Well, let's figure out this music thing. Apparently, you would know music. Well, I wouldn't say no music. I have opinions about music. What's the greatest band in the world of all time? Of all time? All time. I'll give you a hint. They're from New Hampshire. I'm to say I know what you're saying. I'd say of all time, it's obviously going to be the Violent Femmes. Never heard of them. Blister in the Sun, right? Yeah. Right. Because I'm like, that's the only one I know.

I mean, but it's hard because I don't even know if it's worth telling you who that great spin in the world is now. There's also the dead milkman right up there, along with no effects and the cramps. and the buffs. Everybody loves the muffs like he doesn't even know what genre you're talking about. He is a punk rock fan. So Fat Mike, who is the lead singer basis to one of my favorite bands, no effects once described

Punk music as great music played by terrible musicians. And I like to think that's how I run. It's a great race ran by a terrible runner. What kind of music? Punk rock and third wave ska. Cow punk. Third wave what? A little bit of hardcore thrown in there. How are we friends? I've never heard of any of this. Well, because you don't listen to good music or you don't listen to terrible music. That's great.

Guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Shots fired. With Ultra Chad. Oh, the long blondes. Oh my God. I feel like I heard of that one. Long blondes. I don't know. Are you thinking of four non blondes? That maybe. That song, What's Going On? Is that what it is? And I said, hey. Yeah.

So what's your song? You know, Eric has question. Yeah, I'm not even going to ask it.

Chad, I'll turn those. I mean, it's obviously going to be on the turntable photograph by Nickelback on the turntable by the interrupters. OK, this obviously isn't a big band, so I can play. my God. You know what? my God. Time out time out. I think somebody else put the interrupters on there. I think it was Mark Dubrik. Was it Mark Dubrik? I need to become best friends. I'm going to figure this out. I wrote Mark the shark. I'm going to time out and get my phone. So so all right.

Tell me who was it? I'm looking it up. I got a list. The Interrupters. The Interrupters. What's the name of the song? On the Turn Table. On the Turn Table. Spotify doesn't even know what it is. By the Interrupters. All right, let's hear this.

My fridge ain't broken, my beer ain't

never heard of this. they can't hear the song right now but everyone listening can it. know what this is making me think of? is making me think of apartment 60.

I loved 60 because they listened to all the same shit that I did. who like rock out to Andrew WK? Yes, yes. I loved listening to punk rock, but I was more of the pop punk, so I loved like the Fall Out Boy, the New Prop Glory.

Motion City soundtrack that doesn't even count but like I don't know it's good stuff like if you want big fish I know that one put ⁓ let's get fucked up by the cramps on your running this well I know that one I think ultra song you feel like you've been hit by a truck let's get fucked ⁓ and it's beautiful

But the inter- Third Wave Skull I found is the best running music because it's happy and it's got a good beat. And also the Interrupters are one of the greatest new bands. New band. I mean, like in the last couple They had a long ways to go to get to Aerosmith level. you like Green Day? Yes, I do. my god. don't like Green You know what I think is one of the worst songs in the world and it was why I hate September? It's Jeremy Spoke in Class today. Is that Wake Me Up When September's Over.

I wonder what Patrick's thinking right now, hearing all this. Patrick's like, I love all genres of music. This is great. No, everyone likes what they like. Eric likes his good music. likes his good music. I did go to Warped Horror once and we're in the car, waiting for the concert and the guy next to us was playing Green Day on his CD player. So we synced up songs and played the same song in the same spot that he was at. Then he got mad at us and switched CDs. Luckily we had that same one too.

Great song still playing good. Yeah, we better not get sued for this Hey interrupters. Oh, we're not they're a little little band. They're not gonna be like this is amazing. We got some plays They're kind of the biggest thing right now Well, let's let's look at some Spotify stats. Okay, you you think they're a big thing. Let's look at some Spotify That's not their big song. Look at cares. No, no, I'm just looking at the band. Okay the band. All right

They have an average of 813.4 thousand monthly listeners. It's not even a million. Half of them are me. No, I mean, it's cool. They look fun. They look fun. Cool. I don't mind the song. I was listening to it there. I enjoyed it. I will listen to it after because I just added it to the playlist. Yeah, it was fun. It definitely gave me a part of my 60 vibes. I only give you shit because I love you. So anyways, my question.

You know what it is, right? I do. I want to tell you though, this is possibly the last time it's being asked. So you are inviting the last person outside of Erika and I will do something at the end of the year and pick ours like maybe two people, maybe three. I already did. I think I already picked mine. We did. I think we talked about this somewhere, but we can always read discuss. Okay. Who you taking? So dinner. this, you know, it's hard. Like I don't want to go with the like.

serious for real ones, which would be like my friend that passed away. you know, that's not, I feel in the spirit. ⁓ So I'm a huge nerd. for that. Cause I like, don't mind when someone He wants the creative answers. Yes, I love the He loves the sentiment, but wants the creativity. So I'm a huge nerd. And right now. Chad Kroger. Wow.

My favorite author is Matt Deniman who writes the Dungeon Carl or Carl series. And I know you haven't read it. But Carolina will. Carolina. no. I did. So that came out of nowhere. I'm sorry, Carolina. She gives us so much shit, especially me, if I get your name wrong. We got to redo that. can't let her hear that. ⁓ no. No, no. Erika's so wasted right now. Carolina.

I'm still tired, but she can't hear that. only Carolina. She's only thinking it because she was giving us shit if we say it wrong. And he also said North Carolina earlier in a cross. It crossed everything in her brain. But we love you. But Taylor Swift. But he just gave her that book, right? And she's going to read it for her birthday for her birthday. So the premise of the book is ridiculous. And I put off reading it for a little bit. But the author pulls off

an awesome balance of ridiculousness, ⁓ humor. And then also, I've never cried with a talking cat speaking in a book before. This book made me cry. right now. The book is that good. If you're listening, the audiobook is excellent. ⁓ Say the book and the author again. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dineman, read by Drew Hayes. Matt is the one coming. Yeah, Matt is coming. He's always coming. ⁓

But he's a funny guy. ⁓ Super. I've met him a couple of times. I don't stalk him that much. He's actually from the Seattle area, too. And. Yeah, just the blend of how he writes this book. I got to ask him who hurt him and who hurt him so hard to write this post apocalyptic. Aliens come to the planet talking cat book. It's he's going to be a hoot at the party. Yeah. And he beat out Brandon Sanderson.

my next favorite author and also Weird Al who I think would also be amazing at the pasta dinner. Weird Al would be cool. If you could pick Weird Al or Tom Green. Weird Al. Tom Green would annoy the shit. Yeah, Weird Al all the way. I'll tell you this, Tom Green just got married. I saw a picture of this, maybe think of it, but he was on the Spit and Chicklets podcast a couple of years ago around COVID. It was one of the best episodes.

Sometimes they talk to someone who's not really a hockey guy, but you know Have you ever seen the picture of Tom Green and Andy dick where they dressed up as each other for Halloween one year? is like I'm like Andy dick haven't that even while he I could not stand back in there like early to him. He was bad Funny Tom Green was

My bum is on the Swedish. Sometimes he was great, sometimes he was horrible. no in between. doing pretty good right now, though. ⁓ my God. ⁓ my God. That picture. ⁓ I don't know when I saw it, but literally like they are the same exact like wow.

Wow, well that's a note we gotta end on. Holy cow. Hey, well, walk over to the YouTube, walk over to the camera, still in the picture. Wow, that was cool. Your thumb, or just said by the way, it is 69 degrees. It just popped up the 69. Giggity. That's it, man. Wow, Chad, this is fun. We've done about three hours worth of recording. Oh damn. gonna kill me. Brandon, yeah, probably.

But we had pizza. We had a good time. I got to meet you and talk yesterday, which was a lot of fun. So it wasn't just like a quick in and out for me here. It was a quick in and out yesterday. That's what she said. If Erika would have fucking run. I would saw her too. Anyways, dude, this is fun. Thanks for flying across the country to come on this podcast. thank you for having me. Like, and also you're just New Hampshire runners have all been amazing except for Eric. But no, I had a great time out here.

I got to try and convince my wife to be willing to come out here more often. So do it next time you do. What's your wife's name? Lindsay,

Lindsay, listen up, Lindsay. Turn up the radio a little bit. If you're driving, you should probably park your car. All right. New Hampshire in the fall. Peak foliage. Beautiful people. Beautiful weather.

Melt Washington. Talk about birds. Oh, we like birds. Birds, moose, bears. We have lobster, lobster rolls. We're just going to end on lobster rolls. Lobster rolls. Have you ever had a lobster roll, Lindsay? Come on, Lindsay, come get a lobster roll. We'll butter that tail up. Put it in a hot dog bun.

This is how I get divorced. Beats Bears Battlestar Galactica. Thank you. beautiful, Lindsay. Come here, check it out. Ending on that note, did you see the Michael Scott ⁓ sign at the ghost train? sent it in the group chat for Lindsay, but Michael Scott something something ghost train. hold on a second. Last thing. All right. You like your music, but what's wrong with the other music?

Aerosmith by the way. I feel like you. Why does everybody hate Nickelback? I feel like you get this. You got to have an opinion. I hate it when people say I like every type of music. Like, no, you don't. Yeah, I don't. There's lots of I don't like. It's raining tacos. And there's music that gets annoying. who wrote that song is also in one of my favorite bands Nerf Herder. Are you shitting Which is a nerdcore band. He now does that. He said that song paid for his Tesla.

Anyway, have an opinion. Like your music. Oh shit. Find the music that you love and embrace it and then be ridiculously opinionated about all the rest of it. There's just some people out there who just say Nickelback sucks to not be like looked at funny. And Lindsay is one of those people, not your wife, Lindsay, not your wife, but we know deep down inside Lindsay Bristol.

that you enjoy Nickelback. I can confidently say she does not. Can we at least say that Creed and Nickelback are the same band? I can confidently say that, yes. No, they're totally different. They got a little different singers. One is Chad Kroger, the other one is Scott something. Stab, ooh, it's bad I know that. Anyways, all I got to say is look at this photograph. It's time to end the pod.

Thank you so much, Chad, for coming across the nation to record. This was a great time. Ghost train was a success. Erika could have just run, she would have seen me at the finish line. Maybe she didn't want you to see her finish.

⁓ boy, Chad Ultra on the On The Runs podcast. Guys, that was wicked awesome.

Erika (1:46:17)
Jeremy, we are so, so happy you made the trek all the way across the country to come visit with us. And I just hope you had as good of a time as we had. You are an awesome dude. So you're welcome back anytime, especially if you want to do another ultra, because we are all for it, or at least I am. Maybe I'll actually see Eric this time during that.

Eric (1:46:35)
He's got it?

Well, I'm busy, but I feel like he's gotta come back because he had one day, Monday, the day we recorded to do whatever he wanted after Ghost Train, and it downpoured. So he was gonna go up to like Franconia Notch, he was gonna do the flume, and I just felt bad because even though he did do those, he had shit for weather. Yeah, so.

Erika (1:46:41)
busy.

Mmm.

It was kind of a trash day.

Mm-hmm.

I know, right? He tried

to go up to Cannon and the tram was closed, yeah, because it was too windy. Was that the case? And it was also...

Eric (1:47:06)
Well, no, the tram closed

because they're changing. They're going to a third tram. So, Cannon's had a tram for 70 years. And the first, like, 40 was... The first, like, 35 was tram generation one. And then the two you've seen our entire lives, the last 35, 40 years, have been the same two trams. And so, this next year, they're removing them, they're recabling, they're redoing things, and they're getting two brand new trams. And I'm curious, like...

Erika (1:47:14)
⁓

Wow.

Eric (1:47:37)
The old ones were red and yellow. They called them ketchup and mustard. What are you gonna do this time? What are they gonna do? That would mesh too much with the forest, the trees. The blue, not the blue, what am I thinking? The red and the yellow popped. Like you could see it from far away on the highway.

Erika (1:47:42)
Get a relish? I don't know. A green one for a relish.

We can do a bright

green, that's not gonna blend. Yeah, a pickle. A pickle.

Eric (1:47:58)
Like a lime? I don't know. I don't know. Relish? I don't know.

I imagine whatever they do will be great, but I do fear when they're not red and yellow, people will be like, you ruined it! You ruined it! I know. Like, just don't go with something boring. Yeah, don't do something boring like state forest colors of brown that say New Hampshire State Parks. You know, don't go gray or black.

Erika (1:48:13)
Well then they can't change it. They gotta just maybe do a red, red to yellow gradient.

⁓ Nah.

Boring. Yeah. But hey, before we move on to talking about trams, ⁓ I just want to say thank you again to Jeremy slash Chad Ultra You're awesome. But also thank you to Carolina for not hating me after the whole name debacle, because I felt super bad about that. But in my defense, I was really tired. I know you just left it in. I was like,

Eric (1:48:28)
Do something that's exciting. Don't be boring. Don't be boring, New Hampshire, because we're not. We're awesome.

That was funny. That was really funny. That was so good. Because you were like before we recorded, don't

get her name wrong. Don't get it wrong. And who got it wrong? I never do. I never mess up Carolina because

Erika (1:48:59)
Mm-hmm. That's because you always mess it up and the one time I do it, the one time. ⁓ that's bullshit.

That's bullshit.

Eric (1:49:09)
I don't think I've ever messed up Carolina, because I always have to think about it. I always pause and hesitate. like, we have Carolina on the podcast.

Erika (1:49:16)
He's never done it on the air.

Or he's edited out. No, no, no.

Eric (1:49:21)
No, no, you're lying now. This is actually a lie because I don't think I've ever

messed it up besides maybe the one time and then you told me, which I didn't know I messed up, but then you're like, you can't say it wrong. And that was before Chad. And then you said it to Chad and then you said it wrong. And the best part is I made a reel. I'm going to post the reel. It's probably already posted and you guys are going to see it. I showed it to Carolina already because you're like, it needs her approval. And I was like, bullshit, it doesn't. And then I just want to show her.

Erika (1:49:32)
Mmm.

⁓

Yeah, I just wanted my social media manager to make sure it was okay.

Eric (1:49:51)
She goes, right.

But she, her response was, Erica, this is worse than you led me off to believe.

Erika (1:50:02)
She can hear it in my voice. I'm like, no. No. Because I knew you weren't going to edit that out. There was no way. ⁓

Eric (1:50:05)
No.

I actually was

going to edit it out until you told me like two days later like you told her and then I could keep it. was out if you ever tell me I honor it and you were even even You've never told me to edit something out that I've kept in

Erika (1:50:14)
Well, I had to, because that was going to eat me alive. that's bullshit,

That's true. Well, it hasn't happened yet, but I have a few. Well, I have a feeling it probably you'll be like, no, no, it's too good for content. Anywho.

Eric (1:50:33)
Well, I mean, we'll just have to see what happens. I do feel like

though with time you turn around and you you you're like, okay, it's cool.

Erika (1:50:42)
But going back to this, the whole reason I mentioned her name wrong, we were talking about that book. And I want to recommend that to anybody who's listening. So that was Dungeon Crawler Carl, if anybody was paying attention, by Matt Dinaman. It's a great book. I mean, it's so fun and just very adventurous and imaginative. So I would give that a shot. I'm on book four already. It's a whole series. There's going to be like eight of them at least. So got to see where it goes now. Good recommendation, Jeremy.

Eric (1:51:10)
I've

maybe read four books in the last 40 years.

Erika (1:51:13)
⁓ I

do audiobooks. count it as reading because I mean, I still have to pay attention, but I've been plowing through them. They're good. They're really good.

Eric (1:51:22)
And back to Chad real quick. I know we talked a little

bit about music. Dude, I don't know what he was thinking the other day in a text chain. He, one created a text chain between the three of us and he starts talking about like good. Oh, it was the new question of the week or the month or the guest for next year, hot take. And he goes, well, one, this doesn't go on the list because he's not a guest for 2026. He was a guest of 2025, but he told us what his hot take was. And it was about what

Erika (1:51:28)
Hot take.

you

Eric (1:51:51)
bands are good bands and not and he list off a few bands and I could care less for I get the whole Nickelback thing like Lindsay's on that train too and I recently have been listening to a lot of Nickelback just to be like yeah this isn't bad and then I'm like a lot of songs that are strip club songs and the Nickelbacks albums by the way I'm like these are totally strip club songs but

Erika (1:52:09)
Seriously?

Should I ask how you know that?

Eric (1:52:16)
Just like in movies. The vibe, the vibe. So or their hockey pump up songs. The other like all Nickelback songs, not all, but a handful is that like, it's like hockey players get jacked up for that. Right. But my opinion of Chad and he's now Ultra Chad again has gone down the drain after he bashed.

Erika (1:52:17)
The vibe. the vibes. ⁓ I get it. Yeah. Yeah. Sure.

Eric (1:52:45)
One of the greatest bands of all time. Listen.

Erika (1:52:47)
just did like what, 15

minutes?

Eric (1:52:51)
Yeah, I don't know. But listen, Sublime, 311, Nickelback, Green Day. You don't like them? That's cool. That's fine. Chili Peppers. Everybody has has, you know, I think, you know. But then he put you two in that category. One, they're not even the same genre. What is he thinking?

Erika (1:53:01)
You put chili peppers on the list.

Eric (1:53:19)
All-time like greatest song my favorite song is beautiful day by you, too And this isn't a biased opinion because it's my favorite song Like if if you told me okay, you've seen all the concerts you've seen if you could only go see one more concert Who would it be? I'd go see you too Like that's it. Maybe Bruce Springsteen in the East Street band like that would be a good show too Coldplay, I'm not a Coldplay fan

Erika (1:53:31)
He did.

Eric (1:53:47)
I would totally go see Coldplay. Like, they're in that category of like, you have to see. Also, the tickets are like $1,000. So you have to be rich, and I'm not rich, but U2 is incredible. What the heck is he talking about?

Erika (1:54:05)
No comment.

Eric (1:54:06)
Anyways,

moving on. Good thing you didn't say the greatest band in the whole entire world though, because like that would have just been like, all right, we're just going to jibber jabber for this whole episode. Nobody is better than Aerosmith and U2 is a close second. My opinion, my opinion. Yeah, freaking amazing band. Anyways, ⁓ wow, I think, okay.

Erika (1:54:26)
with Aerosmith.

Eric (1:54:34)
Anything else you want to talk about before we send everyone off for the final episode of the year here?

Erika (1:54:42)
I mean, I've got some cool stuff coming up next year, but I feel like that's better talked about in our Christmas episode when we get a little jolly and we can have some fun and talk about what's coming up for all of us. So let's just chill. Let's wait.

Eric (1:54:53)
Right,

we're going to do the Christmas episode. It's going to come out on the 23rd. We already got it scheduled. We already started prepping notes. I have a goal for you for 2026. This is also a continuation of your goal from 23, 24, and 25, is to do your show notes and to do your notes in the Google Doc.

Erika (1:55:10)
that's kind of important. Yes. Yes, I can at least get that done. So we are going to have a good time at the Christmas party. yeah, that's least I can do. I do it occasionally.

Eric (1:55:18)
Well, she said that every year. I love it.

Listen, I know we talked about it a little bit in the intro, but a couple big thank yous. One, ⁓ earlier this year, we had our first ever sponsors or as we like to call them partners of the pod. Two that really stepped up to the plate. MyRaceTats and RightSocks. So let's quickly talk about MyRaceTats. Remember we had Don on the podcast earlier in the year and then he was like, I want, I want a

Erika (1:55:43)
Absolutely.

Eric (1:55:45)
I want to partner, I want to sponsor. Anything I can do, let me know. And it was new territory for us. I should say me, I took the meetings, but it was new territory. This year had so many meetings and we have so many more in December. December, you guys will hear best ofs and stuff, or maybe a classic, but like I'm taking meetings. Erica is joining me in these meetings. We're talking to others. This is exciting times. And it started with my race tats in Don.

when he jumped up to the plate and sponsored the pod. He actually paid some money, went towards our fundraising. You guys bought, hold on.

but it was Don from MyRaceTats who stepped up and he's the first person who's actually ever outside of our patrons sent us money and he helped us fundraise so the money didn't go in our pockets. It went to our fundraising for New York City and Chicago and you guys bought their tattoos and percentages of that went to our fundraising as well. Don stepped up and shout out to Don. Thank you, Don, for being the first one to do it. Round of applause. ⁓

Erika (1:56:51)
yeah.

Eric (1:56:51)
Round of applause. You even bought some of my race tats.

Erika (1:56:55)
I did and they carried me through that 72 hour ultra that I had over the summer and God did I need that forward as a pace. And I had that right on my forearm the whole weekend stayed on through the sweat and the rain and the humidity. It was perfect. So there are going to be more my race tests in the future.

Eric (1:57:14)
Yeah, that's exciting. And hopefully we expand that partnership with Don but not just with On the Runs, but the whole Monday Night Media thing. That's another one, the meetings, the meetings that are happening. Number two, Wrightsock This one was fun because Wrightsock actually approached us and they reached out to us. They sent us a bunch of free socks the beginning of last year that we were able to give some away. We were able to try them. We talked about them. We were really slow on making a post about it. So was like, if you like them, please make a post. There was no

Erika (1:57:21)
Yeah.

Eric (1:57:44)
requirement to make a post, by the way, which was good and bad. Like good part was, okay, we like that, but bad was like we felt like we needed to do it. We felt guilty, but you tried on some right socks. I tried on some right socks. Right socks are awesome, right? Did you like them?

Erika (1:57:58)
yeah. Absolutely.

I do like them. They're actually really, I find them really warm. So like they're my go-to pair of socks during the winter. I'm loving them.

Eric (1:58:08)
I'm a fan, I need more. actually, so I had two pairs, but I lost one. So now I have one and a half pairs. Like the sock ran off. Isn't it funny how they run off?

Erika (1:58:13)
no!

One and a half pairs? no.

You know what? You're going to find it stuck to the underside of a blanket somewhere just from static electricity. It'll turn up eventually. I hope, at least.

Eric (1:58:26)
Yeah, yeah.

They were awesome and then they came on the pod so like part of the deal was and hopefully we do more with them like maybe a giveaway because we did the My Race Tats giveaway months later and our big thing was okay if someone wins we want one of their friends to win too maybe we'll do something like that with Wrightsock in the future but they they yeah and they donated a bunch of socks like a dozen pairs for the

Erika (1:58:43)
Yeah, we love that. We love sharing the things we love.

Eric (1:58:54)
big fundraising night we did. which that was the first event, like thank God for Jen, by the way, helped me out with that. That was incredible. We raised over four grand that night. Right. Some other brands that donated that night actually were Firefly, which we need to set up a meeting with them, because I need new ones and I need to get you some, that's right. ⁓

Erika (1:58:54)
your fundraiser. Yeah.

That's amazing. Yeah, you guys did awesome.

I gotta get me one of those. You keep telling

me how awesome they are. like, know I want one. Dude, that's not that bad. ⁓

Eric (1:59:24)
They're only $99. Right.

It seems more like a thing you buy and you use them for the year and you buy a new one the next year. That was my takeaway. But like for $99, that's fine. And you get two pairs for the 99. So they're really 50 each. And it was amazing. they donated one to me and then two, three pairs for the fundraising night. Three pairs.

Erika (1:59:34)
Okay.

Mm.

wow, that's great.

Eric (1:59:53)
Bare Butt Wipes, you're gonna hear more from them next year, but ⁓ they were fun because I had some meetings with them earlier this year. Shout out Chad, even though he hates you too. Chad actually is the one who introduced me to that brand. they donated for the fundraising night. I actually finally used some in the New York City Marathon. They came in clutch, as you guys all know the story. by the way, like our most downloaded episode in the,

Erika (2:00:04)
you

Mm-hmm.

Eric (2:00:19)
recent couple of months was the New York City recap. Mine. Yeah, I was shocked when I saw that. People like me. People like me. And then UFOs, lucky we know somebody, ⁓ they donated towards the fundraising night too with a hundred dollar gift card. Yeah. Another Chad won that one actually. Four, well, no actually a lot more than four people. I won't do this again. I'll tell you what I won't do is I had people, pod fam,

Erika (2:00:22)
See man? They like listening to you too, it's not just me.

Thanks, Jen.

Eric (2:00:48)
Reach out to me and say, I'm gonna Venuel you $50, can you put my name in for the Firefly or the Bare Butt Ripe, so the UFOs. Five people did that, four of the five won. I will not do that again, you have to be there. That was something else. Yeah, that was, well we had over 60 prizes, more than 60. I wanted to say 80, but maybe 80 was including.

Erika (2:01:02)
Understandable. It takes a lot to do a fundraiser like that and crazy.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (2:01:14)
Vacation packages that you could win and I know some people won it was great to see the podfram out the podfram was out there So that was great. I don't know. I'm what else who else do we have to think we should be thanking some people Erica

Erika (2:01:26)
Well, we can't forget about Millennium because they were the ones who gave us the opportunity to do our first live shows. I think that's incredible.

Eric (2:01:34)
Yeah, that was fun, because we just jumped at the opportunity. It was like, we got a race in three weeks, you want to do it? And I was like, yes. ⁓

Erika (2:01:38)
Yeah. it was.

My face, I'm like, a live show? no. But I'm actually, because of you, you make me calm when it comes to, if you're not nervous, I'm not nervous. So yeah, the first live show went off without a hitch. It was kind of a, how's this gonna sound with the DJ booth, like bumping music the whole time. We're pretty close to the finish line. But everything just went so well. I was so happy with how that went.

Eric (2:02:08)
I was nervous. I didn't know what to say to start and I'm like, we need to start, what am I gonna say? Because I put so much prep into testing the equipment. How's it gonna sound? What settings do I use here versus writing my intro and stuff? And I was just like, what do I say? And if you remember, I go, good morning. It was 7 a.m. But like, I'm like, what do we do? And then we just started talking like a normal episode.

That was a lot of fun. So Millennium, John especially, thank you for the opportunity. That was great. We're gonna, so thanks to look forward to, we're gonna have more of those. Another one we hope to do more of is stuff with marathon sports. So we need to thank Zoe, Matt, Mr. 305 for making that happen. That was very different and also I would say very successful. I think you were more nervous for that though than the Millennium Live shows, at least after the first Millennium Live show.

Erika (2:02:38)
Mm.

Yes.

because that was more like you're front and center. You are on stage. There's nothing else to distract people. They are looking at you. So it was, that was a little bit of a curve ball, but again, we made it work.

Eric (2:03:10)
Yeah.

It's not like people walking around

and just being like, is that a radio show? Is that a podcast? What are they doing? Is that live? Can we go on? We need to do better at that. We need to do better getting people to come on the live shows, but.

Erika (2:03:20)
Yeah, we had to work on.

Yes. I think we've kind of nailed that in the past couple of ones at the Manchester City Marathon at least. ⁓ So I missed the beginning of that one, but you got some of the winners. That was super cool. And I mean, just some friends who are rocking by, got to learn a little bit more about them. So yeah, it was nice.

Eric (2:03:43)
Yeah, well, I needed help. Like

we needed help. had Barry bringing us the winners and then Tara was out there mingling. And same at the New Hampshire 10 mile. Because as we're sitting there, we need a third person to be like, I need you to come over here and sit down at this table. And I kind of joked, but I'm not I'm not joking. I'm serious. Like there could be an episode where you and Tara can host and I can be that person mingling. And we have so many creative ideas because we live streamed a couple of those. And I want to live stream mile 19.2.

Erika (2:03:47)
Mm.

She was running.

Eric (2:04:12)
and have like wireless microphones and just talk to the live stream and you guys can watch it live or later. And we're live streaming those live shows we're doing. And we just have some more and more creative ideas and content we want to do at the future races. And one of them was like, you and I, or just whoever's on sitting down in the booth can be sitting there and a third person can be walking around with a wireless mic that connects to everything. It could be John and John could be like,

Erika (2:04:36)
⁓

Eric (2:04:40)
Hey, Eric, I have the winner over here and it could be like a little interview with the winner back to you, you know, like these are ideas we've had and we've talked about and discussed and it's been cool. Like the meetings, my favorite part of this year outside of the incredible guests we've had has been the meetings. I've had so much fun doing meetings with like, with some pretty big brands and people and not everybody says yes, at least not right away. Right.

Erika (2:04:45)
Yeah.

Eric (2:05:07)
but it's been a lot of fun and learning experience. You got to sit in on a few of those and your takeaway was kind of, it meant a lot to me,

Erika (2:05:15)
I'm like, damn,

Well, I could see just sitting in on some of these meetings how much time and effort you put into it. You know what you're talking about with the business side of things. So it's evident how you want this to grow, the direction you want things to go in. we just need some people on board. And I think you're doing the right work. You're doing what we need to do.

Eric (2:05:34)
Yeah, I gotta learn some things. I

think the LLC thing is next. I really want a website. I need a website pro to do it for me for free, Like, one person offered for $2,500. I'm like, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of things to work on. But, whoa, it's been so cool. It's been so fun. So, like, the fundraiser weeks, like, that was a learning experience. Remember we did the fundraiser series?

Erika (2:05:40)
Yes. Yes.

That's how somebody can help us out. That's how somebody can help. Just let us help us that one up.

Eric (2:06:03)
I don't know if we'll do exactly that. That was a little too much like work that we planned on.

Erika (2:06:07)
We talked to a lot

of people and as much as I did love it, I wish we could have gotten more personal and had more time with them. So we just crammed a lot in.

Eric (2:06:14)
Right? They were a little disappointed too, if you remember. Not all, like,

they were just, they loved the experience. Then they'd be like, when's it coming out? And I was like, April. And they're like, ⁓ Or when are we recording? was like March and April, you know, I get that because they're trying to fundraise and maybe we just readjust.

Erika (2:06:21)
Mm-hmm.

Well

Yeah, it came out not,

yeah, like past when they needed to, or they had an event or something and it was, came out after the event and yeah, timing was tough.

Eric (2:06:41)
Even if we, yeah,

yeah, even if with some of them, even if we got it out the next week, the event was passed, but, ⁓ it was a learning experience. And then, and then I think the highlights of the year was Chicago for you and New York for me.

Erika (2:06:47)
Right. We tried, you guys. Yeah.

Those were definitely high points. This has been an epic year and I'm glad that we at least got to do some recaps on it, talk about it, get to relive it a little bit and share it with you guys.

Eric (2:07:09)
Yeah. So we will be back, like we said, for a Christmas episode. I'm hoping to do, I've always thought it'd be cool to do a State of the Pod. I know other podcasts do that. The Bruins do a State of the Bruins, right? I've always like heard, but I think I'm going to call it like the annual Monday Night Media Year Recap and Review. I might host it with Ali G. We might talk about future exciting things that might be coming to Monday Night Media.

Listen, I would love for Nicole and I'd love for Maurice to do their podcast. ⁓ but we, and we did the Hillary one that started and ended. it does take a lot of work though. And I can tell you Nicole's working on hers and we're hoping to drop that early January. We were also hoping to drop it last June. Like that's, that's what goes into it.

Erika (2:07:55)
Hey, life happens,

yeah.

Eric (2:07:57)
The Hillary one that was a lot of fun that kind of I feel like proved myself what I can and can't do also like it just takes commitment from from the host and and I don't know if you're watching her but she's traveling the world and that sounds a lot more fun than podcasting from home, so I Know she's in Hawaii right now to at the ultra Ironman or whatever

Erika (2:08:11)
Mm-hmm. She's a little busy, but hey, we, got to, we got to give credit.

We got to give credit to Ali G though. She's out there crushing it. She's got 40. What? How many episodes under her belt? She passed episode 17. There you go.

Eric (2:08:27)
I think... Right, she passed 17! 40

is just past or coming up this week, which will be, again, like a year-end solo. And the best-ofs for On The Runs is actually gonna be a mix of On The Runs, LAG Show, and The Recrap. So we should shout out The Recrap!

Erika (2:08:46)
Love it.

Let's, my gosh, I am so proud of Tara and Lindsay for taking that crazy idea and running with it, having some excellent guests that we've had on the podcast, just doing kind of a, are you now? What have you been up to? And we love catching up and seeing what people are up to and also hearing more about Tara and Lindsay, because they're just a boatload of fun. I'm so happy. I can't wait.

Eric (2:09:03)
Right?

Right? They got one more coming too. Might

be next week, maybe two? They got a guest scheduled on the books too? I'm proud. I'm proud of them. they, I've tried to let them take ownership while guiding them. I love that they came up with nicknames. It feels like Lindsay has kind of taken over as the host because she does the intro and all that. But Tara has put so much effort into the notes and the prep and I'm so proud of her for that too. They've done great.

Erika (2:09:18)
pumps.

Eric (2:09:36)
And they've done it at their own pace. And I will say, I'm looking forward. We might have another podcast similar to the re-crap, actually completely different to the re-crap, but like a once a month drop with some local people. Not that they're runners, but they're not really talking about running. And I'm excited. It might not be for everybody. We're not for everybody, but we're trying things. It's going to be fun. 2026, it's going to be fun.

It's gonna be the busiest yet. And 2025 was super busy, so... Get ready, Erica. I need you.

Erika (2:10:12)
do my best. I'll, I'll check with you before registering for more races. I got a, I got a little bit of a reprimand cause I'm like, I signed up for this, this, this. And he's like, what the hell? ⁓ Sorry. Oops.

Eric (2:10:23)
I go, we told someone we record live for them. well. Thank

you, Tara, for stepping up at the Manchester one and or or or committing to the other one. For the future, so I will say, OK, what I can confirm is weather permitting, we won't be out in a live show if it's raining, but we will be at the there's a St. Patty's Day 5K, 10K for Millennium running. We will be at the.

Erika (2:10:32)
Yes, thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (2:10:51)
We should be at the cheap marathon. think that one is also, and yeah.

Erika (2:10:54)
That's the one that I was like, ⁓ that's

my goal race. And I signed up for it last April and sorry, this was before all of the live stuff even happened. So I'm good.

Eric (2:10:59)
Yeah.

Right. And then we hope to be at the Boston Run to remember at the Expo. And we also hope to be very involved, and we'll have more details on this later, with the Boston Run show in March. So we're looking forward to it. Lots of cool things, lots of opportunities, people are thrown away. We're learning as we go. Lots of prep. And it's been fun. So we'll talk to you in a few weeks for the Christmas special. Fingers crossed we can lock down a

Erika (2:11:08)
Yup.

Big things.

Eric (2:11:31)
Big-time guests for the first episode of the year and I'll be honest with you guys. I'm 0 for 3 right now. Nobody's responded. I feel like my luck has run out. We got real lucky on the first 100 to some huge people. I'm almost like what? Why is no one responding? Am I going too big Erica? Am I going too big? I am. I'm shooting big. ⁓ I'm trying to find out who their PR people is like, ugh.

Erika (2:11:38)
Yeah.

You know what though, you are shooting for the stars. Yes, you really are.

Hey, if any of those land, I will be ecstatic, but if they don't, it's okay.

Eric (2:12:04)
We will record so

big that we will record on Christmas Day if they say that's the only time they can.

Erika (2:12:10)
Probably, yes. Yes. Yes.

Eric (2:12:11)
At least with half of them because there's

actually four but to give you a clue two are the same two are within I don't know what am I Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. So we're over three We'll try one more time. We don't hound people by the way. We're not like in their DMS every day

Erika (2:12:21)
The same household, we'll put it that way, yes.

Eric (2:12:34)
dragging everybody on now. Our hardcore 40 % still listening. So thank you to our hardcore 40. What a year, 199 episodes. I apologize if I was supposed to thank one of you for something, but we'll get to it later.

Erika (2:12:49)
Yes, we have to thank all of you out there. Everybody is important to us. We love you all. You are fantastic. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Are we doing the ending now? I'm going to say that twice again, but just thank you for everything.

Eric (2:13:01)
I feel like we already said it twice. We already said it twice,

That's right, we'll see you for the Christmas episode. Have a great holiday season, Erica. Six, seven, Erica, take us home.

Erika (2:13:16)
Six, seven. Thank you guys so much for listening. You know we love you.

Eric (2:13:23)
Don't fear the code brown!

Erika (2:13:25)
and don't forget to stretch.

Eric (2:14:20)
Carolina. Yes. I have a hard time with that one. Don't ever call her Carolina.

My favorite author is Matt Deniman who writes the Dungeon Carl or Carl series. I know you haven't read it. But Carolina will. Carolina. no. I did. So that came out of nowhere. I'm sorry, Carolina. She gives us so much shit, especially me, if I get your name wrong. We got to redo that. can't let her hear that. ⁓ no. No, no.