Peach Podcast
Two guys and an occasional guest breaking open topics on: Purpose, Energy, Attitude, Commitment and Health through shared experiences.
Peach Podcast
S3EP03: When Friends Help Each Other Push Past Their Limits: The Silver Moon Race Experience
Under the glow of a full moon, two ordinary guys in their 50s pushed themselves through vineyards and orchards to complete their first ultra-endurance challenge - the six-hour Silver Moon Race.
What happens when you sign up for something that scares you? Daryl and Eric share the raw, unfiltered story of their journey from casual half-marathon runners to ultra-endurance athletes. Their preparation wasn't extraordinary - just consistent two-hour training runs and strength sessions - proving that persistence matters more than perfection.
The emotional rollercoaster they experienced mirrors what many of us face when pushing past our comfort zones. The early excitement and confidence giving way to doubt around mile 17, when every step hurt and quitting seemed reasonable. "I thought to myself, man, I still got an hour and a half of this. I don't think I'm going to make it," Eric recalls.
Yet something magical happened as they continued - Eric suddenly found himself running his fastest pace of the entire event at mile 26, a surprising second wind when he should have been at his weakest. Meanwhile, even after falling hard and bloodying his knee, Daryl refused to quit, demonstrating that our minds often surrender before our bodies do.
With Doug serving as their support person - the self-described "snack bitch" - they created what they now call "core life memories" that transcend the physical achievement. Their experience proves that endurance events aren't just about covering distance but about discovering who you become in the process.
Whether you're considering your first 5K or dreaming of an ultra marathon, this episode offers practical insights, honest reflections, and plenty of laughs from three friends who found joy in the struggle. What adventure will you sign up for that scares you just a little bit?
Hey, hey, hey, welcome to the Peach Podcast. Just a couple of dudes and an occasional guest breaking open topics from everyday life on purpose, energy, attitude, commitment and health. So, if you're ready, listen in as we live, to learn from our losses, gain from our gratitude and laugh as we level up. Always remember, if you ever feel stuck, all you got to do is just start. Come on, let's go. Hey, welcome back to Peach Podcast with Doug and Daryl. We are excited to have you.
Speaker 1:If you are a first-time listener, welcome to Peach Podcast. If you want to know what PEACH stands for, it is actually an acronym. If you go back to season one, episode one, you will hear a really cool story about how the name Peach came about. Play a game with yourself and see if you can guess what the acronym stands for Before you listen. Go back and listen and see how close or how far off you are. Have fun with it, but continue to listen on. And if you're someone who's into sports, into health, into fitness, into general health, overall health, sleep, exercise, nutrition, all those things from women's perspective, from men's perspective, from medical people's perspective, dietician's perspective, this is the podcast to tune into. And let me tell you one thing, man. If you are here tuning in and listening up, that says a lot about you. That says that you are somebody who's in a growth mindset. You're always trying to advance, you're always trying to improve yourself. We just want to give you a huge shout out, lots of props to you for showing up, stepping up and taking everything you can in to become the best version of yourself.
Speaker 1:So this week we have an amazing episode. It's going to be a fun episode. It's going to be revisiting what happened just last weekend with Daryl, the co-host here on Peach Podcast, and our boy from Team Peach, eric Salgado. Yeah, they signed up for an amazing, amazing and kind of scary run and it was something that I wish I could have taken part of but unfortunately, due to some foot issues, I took part of in in a different way.
Speaker 1:I was a pacer, I was a support person, the cheerleaders and and, as my sister josephine says, I was the snack bitch and I was happy to do it. Man, I was happy to do. It was all good. Let's kick it over to Daryl real quick. To set this episode up, you signed up for what's called Silver Moon Race. Silver Moon Race. It's done on a full moon every once a year. But, like I said, and I've said on several podcasts before, you have this great gift of framing things. Why don't you just tell us a little bit about what the Silver Moon Race is and then we're going to go back and how in the hell did this thing event even come into play?
Speaker 2:Yeah, welcome everyone. I think we're two or three days after and I think we're still dealing with a little fatigue. So you might not hear quite the jovial self, but trust me inside, hear quite the jovial self, but trust me inside I'm smiling quite a bit. Silver Moon Race is in Reedley, California. Where in the world is Reedley California? It's in the middle of San Joaquin Valley. You just head down 99 toward Fresno. You get off at Manning Boulevard and take a left and go out 10 miles and it's really in the middle of really central California. You run through farmland, orchards, vineyards, canopies with oak trees. You just really are right on the side of this river. There's actually Reedley College and you actually go to college and it's kind of right behind it.
Speaker 2:The race details there's a two-and-a-half-mile lap on a farm road. The course is pretty flat. It's just kind of dirt. It's got some undulations. Sometimes you're running We'll talk about it running through an orchard, Sometimes you're running around vineyards, Other times you're over by the water.
Speaker 2:The cool part is they schedule this race every year to be underneath the full moon and so the full moon was really on Saturday night and that's why they call it Silver Moon. There is a six hour, a 12 hour, a 24 and a hundred mile effort and you're running with all of these people and you run it together. So you're all running at the same time, you take off at the same time and we'll talk a little bit about it. You go around this two and a half mile course and you actually go through a starting line, which is also the finishing line, and you actually go mark your lap. So it's a lap.
Speaker 2:So Eric and I had a big board for all the six hours that we did and Eric would see his name is Eric Salgado and he would lap one, He'd have a little pen, he would market himself. The reality is we had chips on, so it timed us, so we really didn't need that, but it was kind of psychologically. It was about how many laps can you do in your time. So that's what it was, and I can't take credit for it, because Eric and I got into a little bit of a trail running after Ralph was on the podcast and then, after a trail run, Eric came up with a great idea so I'm going to hand it over to Eric of how did we sign up for Silver Moon?
Speaker 3:Thanks guys for having me back on. Yes sir, I think I might be the first repeat interview.
Speaker 1:It's only been about 50 episodes. I'm not keeping track, but it's been about 50 episodes. Since you had me back on, he's keeping track we got to bring him on a third time. I'm keeping track. Keep the receipts.
Speaker 3:Yes, I got receipts, fellas All right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So how did we find this event?
Speaker 1:Eric, how did you find this event? Because all of a sudden, we got a text from you and all of a sudden we see this silver moon and who's in? Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:We're like what the hell is silver moon, so how did?
Speaker 1:you what, what inspired, you to look for this event and how did you find this event?
Speaker 3:Um, well, what inspired me is Daryl and I signing up for the Salmon Falls half marathon. Um, so we, we, that was a kind of a spontaneous thing. We're like, hey, let's start this trail running thing. And so we found that we did that and, um, we were really looking to push ourselves a little further and find our first 50 K. We weren't sure when we were going to do it. It might've been. We were kind of planning on having it the salmon falls 50 K the following year. So we'd, you know, have a year to train for it. But, um, I started looking into, um, you know you've talked about Masogi's, uh, doug, and uh, I've. I was looking for something that, um, I could challenge myself to right.
Speaker 2:And I found.
Speaker 3:Uh, I was looking at 50 Ks and some other races in this, uh, just on the internet, and this, uh, this race came up and so I kind of started looking into it and I thought, wow, six hours, that's tough. You know, daryl and I ran three hours on our half marathon on trails but we did some climbing. This is all flat right so maybe this is something we could uh, we can, we can, we could uh attempt attempt.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, right. So were you just scrolling the internet and just looking for, uh, 50ks, or like, how did this particular? I mean this place is out in the middle, fresno. You know all respect to the Fresno people, but it's really out in the middle of nowhere, man. It's in the dead middle of California, nothing but dust out there. And so how did this one come about?
Speaker 3:So if you go on the internet and just punch in, you know 50K trail runs California. There was a list of them and they were all kind of listed by the date that they were happening. So I was kind of scrolling down looking for stuff in Northern California. I mean, there's a ton of trail runs that that uh that they offer out here. Most of them had a lot of uh elevation and climbing.
Speaker 3:And I don't think, I don't think, uh, we were prepared to do something like that since we just started, um, running on trails, so we were going to kind of build up our strength and endurance for that. So, uh, this one was on that list and um, I just clicked on it and it said, uh, it's a flat race and uh, it's a six hour race. But there was also some other distances, like Daryl talked about the 12, 12, uh hour, 24 hour, and then the a hundred mile.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:And, um, it was interesting because the text I got from Eric. I went back to scroll a long ways back to find it. But when I did, eric didn't say Silver Moon. He says I think I found my Musogi. That's what he said to me. Oh, okay, and I said oh, tell me. He says I'll tell you tomorrow and we were going over to work out.
Speaker 2:So it started off to be Eric felt like he'd found something that he really wanted and he kind of explained to me the idea of where it was and it was kind of this odd two and a half miles in the middle camping a whole bunch of things and kind of talked about it. And I came home that night and I was talking to Josephine about this kind of idea and I explained it to her and she says that's kind of like an adult jog-a-thon yeah, because you're doing laps. And she said pull up ava's, because ava does a jog-a-thon around her school. And I text eric and I was like hey, are we doing this adult jog-a-thon? And she said to me something, let's see, there's running, there's camping and, uh, and something that eric might do solo or this. She was like that's Eric to a T Like camping by himself or with a couple people and running he's like that's Eric 101.
Speaker 2:So then it took about a week for us to sign up for it and I got to admit, when I first signed up I was like this is really odd, right, right, and then from there we'll talk about our training plan. From there, man, it just became this every day. It was like a stair step. I was more excited and more excited. The more we learned about it, the more we learned on it. We read on the website the people that host this. One of the reasons that I think a lot of people come back is just how well it's run and how well the people we were all there. They just really take care of you. So I want to give all credit to Eric. This was a great find by him and it turned out to be a heck of an adventure.
Speaker 1:It did, it did, and you guys, we'll talk about what, what you, what the final tally was on all your laps later on. But uh, for now let's talk about how do you get ready for something like this, for its six hours of running. And the funny thing is is you can look at this multiple different ways, and I think the two most standard ways is how many laps can I get done in six hours? Or who cares about the laps? Can I run for six hours and will I take a break in that six hours, or will I take a nap, or will I sit a break in that six hours, or will I take a nap or will I sit down and rest? And so I think there's multiple different ways of how different people approach this. I think there was even people who signed up for relays. You know where they were a team and you know some people ran two laps or one lap, and then they just go on for six hours.
Speaker 1:But what happened with you guys? Like, what was, um, what was your mindset, what was your thinking? And it might've been different. So, eric, let's hear from you. When you committed to this, what was your training strategy, technique, start, what did it start with?
Speaker 3:Well, I I'm probably gonna have to go all the way back to 2020, when we started cycling together. Um, since, since I'm what? Five years later we've been kind of just building up our strength and endurance to to do things like this just 10K runs and Darrell becoming a runner and doing his first half marathon last year, doing his second this year and then jumping from a half marathon to a marathon distance. I think for us it's just kind of like a lifestyle now. We've been getting together, working out, doing strength training and just different types of exercises. It's pretty much just kind of helped us mentally and physically through our, you know, just through our daily lives, and I think we're just on this wave that we just keep looking for something that's going to. You know, I'm a loss for word there.
Speaker 1:Push you to the next level or get you to the next level.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'm a loss for word there Push you to the next level or get you to the next level?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah. So did you have any kind of any kind of a thought in the when you signed the paperwork and said I'm in and you paid the money? You say, okay, I'm going to start, I'm going to need to have a running plan, I'm going to need to run more, I'm going to have to do long training, runs or weights or like what was your training plan in your head.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah. So we we'd already been on a on a pretty good roll. Um, uh, working out for, uh, getting ready for Shamrock which was in, which was in.
Speaker 3:Uh, let's see, that was in March, right, and so so we'd already been trying to build up our um, our long runs for that Um and yeah, I think just we just continued while we we kind of sat down and said, okay, what's it going to take to do this? We had a plan of 30 miles a week running and trying to get 30 miles and about six hours total throughout the whole week. We got pretty close to that. I know Daryl reached that 30-mile mark a few times. We only had about a month to prepare for this after Shamrock.
Speaker 1:When you were preparing the 30 miles a week. Did it uh, did it dawn on you at any time, going, okay, we're doing 30 miles a week, which is great, by the way. That's awesome guys. That's that's some awesome training. Did it dawn on you at any time that you're like shit, you know we're, we're gonna be shooting for 30 miles in six hours. We, we won't have a whole week to do 30 miles, we have to do it in six hours. Did that ever dawn? I don't think it dawned on you guys, like I don't know if you guys even talked about it.
Speaker 2:I think we didn't talk about that. At the back of our mind we kind of knew. If I kind of pick it up, february 22nd is when we did our trail run our half marathon.
Speaker 1:The half marathon trail run.
Speaker 2:And that was Saturday. Eric texted me on Sunday with he came up with this right, right. So we, basically we already had a plan for Shamrock, but basically, you know, instead of after Shamrock just shutting it down, which is the weekend of, you know, about March, we needed to continue. So we actually wrote out some things, two things that I took down on our training. Number one I didn't run with Eric at all heading up to Shamrock.
Speaker 2:Before then Maybe we did one trail run before From there every week. We were consistent, once to twice a week we ran together. So I think that was a big difference. We started running together and we'd say, hey, let's run, and we'd go out and we'd get on a trail, we wouldn't stay on the street. So we did a lot more trail running, we ran together. And then we committed and we had some good ones. I know we text you we would commit to two really big strength trainings per week, right, right, and it was funny because you know, life is life, you know. But when I look back on it, we hit our goals and we hit our. I don't think Eric and I said there was not a single time where we said, oh, I can't make it Right, which doesn't really happen too often in life. I mean, there's yeah, I think two things.
Speaker 2:That, if my mind is, we started training together and we hit the trails and we had a consistent plan. And I could tell you, eric said to me after we did the half marathon for Shamrock hey, we got two or three more long runs before this thing. And I was like, oh, and we did, and we did, we went out and knocked out the long run. So, um, it was very different running together and, eric, maybe you can talk about it is we ran slower? We did run slower on the trails, eric, maybe just spend one more minute on that, because you know we. I think that helps out. So, instead of just saying, okay, we want to knock out eight miles in this period of time, eric would say let's run for an hour, right, or let's run for two hours. We didn't care we. We weren't really, you know, committed to that, but we knew that we had to put in the time. So, eric, talk about us running slower.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that was definitely something that we had to learn how to do, cause I know every time I've gone out to run I'm always looking down at my pace.
Speaker 3:You know I, um, you know we talk a lot about zone two, right With our heart rate and um, so, and we've learned a lot with that and how beneficial that is, you know, um, to build up your endurance and your stamina and um. So, yeah, going out, we we really didn't have any expectations as far as a pace went, except that when we started to get a little too fast, either Daryl or I would be like, hey, let's slow down a little bit, let's just ease back a little bit. We'd look down at our watches, see what our heart rates were and kind of just keep that heart rate in that zone to keep us comfortable. So we learned over that short period of time, in that two to three weeks, how to just kind of run a really comfortable conversational pace. So you know we talked a lot. I mean, running is very therapeutic. So you know, daryl and I'd be out there and sometimes I forgot we were running, we would just be talking and next thing you know, we're five miles into a 10 mile long run. So right, right.
Speaker 1:So what was the longest training run you guys did leading up to the event?
Speaker 3:Darryl Hours, hours wide not miles, but hours.
Speaker 1:wise Two. We did a lot of two hours. That was kind of our goal.
Speaker 2:And, like typical Doug, we'd be like coming back and we'd be like an hour and 45 minutes and I'd look at Eric. He's like yep, I know we got to keep running, right. We'd go by the truck and we go down farther and come back.
Speaker 1:So anytime we got around an hour or two, so our thing was we would do an hour or two hours. So those were the two goals. So for those listening who are considering doing longer events and stuff like that, let's keep it in the lane of training time versus event, Because you were training for a six-hour event. Looking back now and just keeping it in this lane here, would you train longer hours or would you was two hours enough for you?
Speaker 3:I think two hours was enough. I think when you start to get into longer runs like that, you have to. You have there's a recovery period. So then you kind of put yourself behind the eight ball. You can't go out a day later or two days later and start running again and doing stuff like that. You kind of have to recover. So I think two hours was really good and comfortable for us, because the next day we'd hook up and bust out a monster weightlifting session in the garage and feel really good and recovered and so, yeah, it definitely worked for us. I didn't think we did. We didn't really feel like we needed to do these crazy long three-hour runs and to wear our bodies out. I mean, we're in our 50s, so recovery takes a little longer than these young folks.
Speaker 3:Okay, let's be honest here.
Speaker 2:One thing we did have under our belt is on February 22nd, when we did that trail run, it was like three hours and five minutes.
Speaker 2:So, mentally I knew in my mind I had done at least three hours and five minutes. So mentally I knew in my mind I had done at least three hours, right, Even though our, our, our long runs, like you said, were two hours. I was like, okay, I could, I could almost bank it, Okay, I got, I got a three hour. I can, I can do that. So there's a little I think there's a lot of mental aspect of what you've done and drawn on prior experiences, Right right, right, right, right, yeah, good, good stuff, man.
Speaker 1:These are good lessons and good tips for people who are thinking about because time, commitment time, training, for these things, time is a big thing. Some people don't have three hours to get out there and the fact of the matter is spoiler alert you guys got it. You guys ran for six hours. We'll talk about, you know, the final finals, but you know, and you did that with two hours of training. You know, and I guess the big question is could you have done it, could you have felt better, could you have recovered better if you had trained with longer runs? I don't know. We won't know until you go do something like this again, which I know you guys are going to do.
Speaker 3:I mean, you've got a 50, we, we not, not, you guys, we well, I'm, I'm working on.
Speaker 1:You know I got some foot stuff to work on and I saw my doctor yesterday and you know I may be stuck at a half marathon for a little while. So I need to get this foot repaired, but in the meantime I'll be a pacer for them. Super, super long things. We'll see. We'll see Because you can. Here's the cool thing. Cool thing If there's a lot of walking involved, which we'll talk about as part of strategy, then uh, you know, I, I think, cause my foot was uh, even when I was just there as a support person and put in almost 13 miles.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, those rests in between while I was waiting for you guys to do a lap or two in between, it helped tremendously. I mean, I felt the pain, but not as much as I would have if I would have just continued running for 13 miles. Mm-hmm, I mean I felt the pain, but not as much as I would have if I would have just continued running for 13 miles. So I pull up to Daryl's house, we're going to talk about the ride down and then, you know, walking around and saying hi to people. That was kind of fun and it was a big wake up call for us. We're like, oh, where the hell are we at, man, like what's going on here? But the first thing I noticed, I pull up in my car and I pull up to Daryl's truck and I'm thinking, okay, well, I don't need to pack a lot of stuff, we're only there, we're going to. The run doesn't start till 6 PM and it's for six hours. It's going to be over at midnight Then. Then we're going to camp, then we're going to wake up and go home, like it's literally an overnight camping trip, right. But I pull up and Daryl's truck is packed man, like he's got stuff in there, like we were going away for a week and I'm just going, oh my, like what did I not bring enough stuff? Like what's going on here? And you know, the funny thing is, guys and you can, you can, uh, back me up on this but I think we used everything in that truck and everything came in super freaking handy man. It was like it was. It made it a really enjoyable camping experience. We were not without anything. You know what I'm saying. We had everything we needed and then it was very comfortable camp spot. So I remember driving down and just, you know, we're talking a little bit. We're getting in the mood, getting in the energy.
Speaker 1:You guys are going a little bit back and forth about strategy and what were you feeling on the drive down? You know, I know you, you each, we kind of talked about it a little bit. But if you can just step back a minute, what was going through your head? Daryl, you had mentioned something earlier before we got on here recording. Last time you had to, you know, sit in this waiting area of life. You were getting ready for a boxing match, and so I could imagine the three hour drive down is like sitting in that waiting area. And then we get there and we have uh, gosh, I don't even know how much longer, like was it four hours or something, four or five hours before we started running. And so you're in this long holding tank and you got to have a, you know, maybe anxiety or anticipation is like, okay, I'm, let's just go. So what, what? What was going on through your heads on the drive?
Speaker 1:down when we got there.
Speaker 2:Two things that jumped out at me when I took back on it. One is we would train and you know we would talk. We went over every last detail about 10 times, cause I think we were just a little nervous, like, so we went over what we're going to bring, what kind of coffee, who's going to do what, how many sleeping bags. I mean like like we went to ignosium detail and eric is a crazy organized camper anyway, but we were like we did one night we sat up by, uh, his front porch, we went over it. It was good, good to go over it and I think just uh, overall, um, I told josephine I wasn't nervous, I was just real excited for it to start. I was like like by wednesday I was like why can't we do it tomorrow, right, yeah, so there was kind of like that, that anticipation. So there was there's a little bit of waiting, but I'll let Eric talk about it. But I think we got we're like almost like hyper prepared because we were so nervous because we we had Doug, you went down there.
Speaker 2:We had no idea what we were going into, right, none of us ever done this, so all we knew is it was going to be an experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know what. And when I look back and think about the vibe in the truck, you guys are really chill. You know we talked about a lot of stuff but like your energy was really chill, it was more chill than shamrock, it was more chill than any other event we've done. You guys were just like it was almost like we were going on a camping trip and running was going to be a little sidebar, you know. But, eric, what was going on in your mind? There you were on your lawn with all you had your extra table, your sleeping bag, your clothes and some camping stuff. So you're waiting for us to pull up and pick you up. What was going on in your mind then? And when you got in the truck, what was going on in your mind and on the way down?
Speaker 3:I'm going to have to say it was honestly just like hey, man, guys are coming to pick me up, it's a guy's trip, we're going camping Like I had. No, I wasn't really nervous at all. I mean, it's that mental strength that we've been building up with just everyday life. I was very. We did some research. I looked at some videos on YouTube and made me comfortable to know what we were getting ourselves into. There were some people that put some videos out on YouTube for the six hour race, and then there was a lady who did the six hour one year and then she put another video out of the 24. And so, you know, looking at the people and the vibe that was going on there, I thought, yeah, this is something that we could have fun with, right, and we kind of like to get into that pain, cave, right, we look for it, yeah. So, yeah, I was definitely eager.
Speaker 3:It wasn't. You know, it used to be. I used to always ask why, why are we doing this stuff? Now it's like, why not, right, let's go. Let's go challenge ourselves. And because let's go challenge our mental strength, I was definitely very relaxed and it helps being with my guys. We're out there doing it all together it makes it easy, very enjoyable. The anticipation was definitely there, but we had five hours to wait for the race to start. We were really chilled and relaxed and enjoying the weather and the vibe.
Speaker 1:We walked a lap of one of the one of the loops. It was a two, two loops. One of them was a what'd you say, eric? 1.2. And the other one was 1.4 or 1.1., yeah, 1.1., and then 1.4.
Speaker 3:And during the race, breaking that down, knowing where you were at like, hey, I'm on, I'm on my first loop. It's 1.1. I'm halfway through that loop. I only got a half a mile left to go on this loop. That definitely helps psychologically. Yeah, yeah, you know I'm somebody who likes to do.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't like to see the same scenery twice, so I always do these big loops, but in this particular case I think it was. It's beneficial to kind of, you know, do this big old loop, this two and a half mile loop, multiple times, because after your, after your mind goes, man, and the body's going, at least you know where the hell you're at. You know, as opposed to if you're running a trail that you don't know where the next turn is, that that could really mess with your head. But so we, we arrived down there, man, it was a dust bowl, dust bowl, central California, um, but it was beautiful. I mean. We pulled up, we camped right next to a vineyard, beautiful, in-between rows of a vineyard. Right there we were underneath this really couple hundred-year-old oak tree with beautiful branches spreading over our campsite. We took a walk and the other part of the—the other loop went around a whole orchard. We still had never figured out what that orchard was, but it's beautiful trees with some kind of fruit coming out of them. We couldn't identify them, but uh, it was just a beautiful, beautiful area. And then we went, we set up camp, got camp all set up and it was beautiful.
Speaker 1:We'll send, we'll put some pictures on with the podcast as we promote this podcast, and then we start meeting some people you know and saying hi, and how are you doing? And what, what, which event are you doing? And there was real, uh, you know, like there I was talking to Daryl earlier and he was like you know, when we went to Shamrock and other running events like there's like hey, high five, yeah, like the energy's high, people are excited. But man, when we were talking to people here, they were like locked into the zone. And tell me a little bit about that, drell. What was your impression as we were asking people what they were doing and their response and just their energy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was kind of like and I talked to Ralph and it was beautiful weather down there and you couldn't tell if the people you're meeting with are the support people or the runners or both and everything else, because it was almost like a family picnic. A lot of people had support, people had their setups, but people are pretty subdued and after I did the run, I understand why Some of these people are preparing their minds for 6, 12, 24, or 30 hours. They are literally getting focused, calm and almost becoming inward. Everybody was very nice, yep, but there wasn't a whole bunch of laughter or anything. It wasn't somber, like serious, like a downer, but it was just kind of this really kind of intense, calm, focused vibe, which was very different than like a big starting line event. Right, yeah, and there was definitely a little nervous energy and you're going into basically you're going into challenge yourself in a ultra type event, which is not something that normally you would do. Yeah.
Speaker 1:What about you, eric? Do you do? You? Do you get that same vibe, same feeling? Or what was your perspective from your mind?
Speaker 3:I definitely had that same feeling with some of the folks that we were meeting and watching. You know, get their places set up. They seemed like just ultra focused. Daryl and I, you know, this is our first time doing it, so we had a lot of a lot of questions. We're kind of just kind of reading, reading the lay of the land and just seeing how, how people were, uh, were vibing and, um, yeah, it was definitely definitely a different vibe from what we're used to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and I think it's important that we mentioned here as well that we saw every type of body shape that you could imagine out there. You know it's so important that people understand that you don't have to be this you know magazine cover body to be out there challenging yourself. We saw every type of shape, every age group, male and female, young kids. It was just. It was really. You know, that's the one thing about running and even cycling as well. You know it's. If you just want to challenge yourself or you just want to get outside and have some fun, man, just show up, just show up. Ain't nobody timing you. Stay in your lane, that's that's. It's a hard thing to do if you have a little bit of competitiveness in you because you start looking at other people's times and you start comparing yourself. And man, if we can encourage you to stay away from that shit and just stay in your lane, you will enjoy the hell out of the communities and just the event and the experience. It's really awesome. All right, guys, let's bring you up to the starting line. We decided around 5.15,. The start was going to be six o'clock, but they were going to have a orientation. I believe it's called at 5.45. And so we decided our campsite was about a 15 minute walk from the starting line, so we decided at 5.15, we'd get down. We started walking that way and we did. We showed up there a little before 5.45 and the people were gathering and the starting line was getting full and I think there was supposed to be 200 people there. Is that correct, daryl? Yep, yep. So around 200 people. And so you see, you start seeing the, the, the starting line gates filling up. Man, it was really cool. The energy was awesome. Six o'clock happens and or 545 happens.
Speaker 1:The guy gets on the microphone and he's, and he's. One of the things he says that I thought was really cool is how many first timers here, and I couldn't believe the amount of hands that went up, which is encouraging. It's encouraging to see that people are out there, whether it's the first time doing an event or running, or whether it's the first time for that event, just to go out and try new things. We were first timers, our hands were up, but also there was a lot of people as well who were returning, and that says a lot about an event. When you see a lot of return people, then you at a at a cool place with a great community. So the guy, he goes over some of the rules and some of the things to just keep your heads up on and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:And again, as Daryl or Eric, one of you said earlier, the road was undulating a little bit, so it's important to walk the track beforehand because you do see, these they're not deep ruts but there's little ruts and some divots and some of these holes are caused by when people fall, they create these little craters in the ground and stuff. So that's what legend has. I don't know, I don't know if those are true stories or not, but some of these little things and they have these other really deep, deep holes that you just got to be aware of. But wasn't it cool to see that as the sunset and the sun went down, moon was coming up the community and the event people. They had those glow sticks, man, and they were putting glow sticks by all the holes and big markers. They had even big traffic cone things out marking off some of the areas to really stay away from.
Speaker 1:So, all in all, I think most everyone felt really safe and sure, but still you still had to be sure footed, you couldn't get lazy in your mind, but you had to know that you were stepping somewhere and you might have to respond real quickly to get out of it, to to keep your stride going straight ahead. Um, so what, the gun goes off. What'd you guys think? Well, tell me. Take me a little bit through the, uh, the first couple of laps, the gun goes off, What'd you guys think?
Speaker 2:Well, tell me, take me a little bit through the, uh, the first couple of laps. What, uh, why don't we just kind of you know, maybe Eric and I will go back and forth on kind of mile once or 10. Um, we've done a lot of 10 mile training runs. So in our mind we're like, okay, one through 10, it's a Saturday afternoon, it's a Sunday morning, whatever, Right? Um, and you kind of get the first lay of the land of you know Eric and I are, is everybody going to be together or spread out and everything else. So you ran with us for the first few laps. It was pretty cool. You know, two and a half miles come, we go, we go and we do our first marking of our thing.
Speaker 1:So kind of get the idea of like you get through the two and a half, you've done a lap, Darrell. I'm just going to cut you off real quick because I want everyone to have a really clear understanding when you say these markings when you run by.
Speaker 1:So, when you run by the starting line, which is the finish line which you go by every time, there are these whiteboards or cork boards and they have big sheets of paper on them the six hour, 12 hour, 24 hour person or the a hundred mile person. There's a, there's a grid sheet like a spreadsheet and it has people's names and it has these little squares that you go off and you check off and it has laps. So every time you run by the starting finish line you got to go by and check off that you did that lap and I one of the things I love about that like it's. It's really only for your own sake, but man, you gotta, you have to admit that by the time you're done with lap six or seven, you're like you, you forget what lap you're on. Man Like, mentally, you're like. So it's a good thing they have that little check mark board there.
Speaker 2:So you can focus just on your run. But go ahead, Darrell, Sorry for cutting you off. No, absolutely. And as you go in there, that's where the water stations are, the aid stations if you want them, and then you mark that, and then you go. The nice part is after you mark it. When you go a little farther you get your only little downhill.
Speaker 1:You kind of go this downhill and then you go around.
Speaker 2:By the way, we kind of got a feel for it and Eric, we were like a couple laps in and we were heading up this orchard and it was our second time going up the orchard and I looked at my watch and I was like man, eric, we're slow up this orchard. It was a little bit there. And he said to me, and we kept looking, and he's like, yeah, my heart rate's high. And I looked at my heart rate time. So we're, we're finishing up kind of our fifth, our second lap, which is mile five, and Eric and I are feeling fine. It was a little warm, but Eric and I talk all the time on our runs. We barely talked for the first five miles. So talk about we. We had a little anxiety that first little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's what was going on. Definitely we were. We were looking down at our watches, thinking, wow, why is my heart rate so high right now? And we're we're kind of just cruising along, like you said, first five miles, that's when we're just getting warmed up. So I don't know if it was a little bit of just anxiety there or just I don't know just kind of still warming up, but we definitely noticed that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So we got through with our second lap and we're going down the downhill and I did it mainly for me I like ran and like bumped into eric, like I was trying to knock him off his feet or something. He kind of went stumbling and I was like eric, we need to have fun, man. And we both just started laughing and we're like, okay, let's just chill, man, just let's have fun. And then at least from then we kind of like okay, all right, we're good, we're good. Right, we know we had a long. And then at least from then we kind of like okay, all right, we're good, we're good. We know we had a long time, but at least we're able to kind of like acknowledge that this is going to be a long afternoon, a long evening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one strip, though you're right, and I don't know how many laps it took you guys to figure out running through the orchard. There's this one strip where you go through these trees. It's it's you literally running in an orchard between trees and you can't, you don't notice it at first. Um, it took me like two laps before I realized this is fricking a little bit of an incline going up, like you know. You, you noticed you're like my, why am I running slower and why does this feel harder? And but it was such, a, such a subtle incline you really couldn't see it. But once you saw it, you couldn't unsee it. So how long did it take you guys to figure out that? Okay, so you know, something ain't wrong with me. I just didn't know I was running on a damn incline. Uh, yeah it was probably.
Speaker 2:I got to admit I think it was like lap four or five where I don't know. At one point I finally I saw it and I'm like why didn't I see this before? But it is um, everybody, everybody's running uphill and everything else, and so it was cool. So, um laps one through four, which is to 10 miles. We're like, okay, 10 miles. In your mind you've got a third done. Eric, talk about miles 10 through 15. And then we'll talk about the fun post mile 15. Talk about how you felt miles 10 through 15.
Speaker 3:Oh, miles 10 through 15. Let's see, I, I, I wrote a couple of things down here. Well, I know, I know how I felt at mile 17.
Speaker 2:So, so.
Speaker 3:So before that before that, so between miles 10 and 17, I was pretty feeling, pretty confident, I guess. I guess you could say you know we were. We were doing well, we were hydrating well, we were sticking to our plan.
Speaker 2:We had talked about getting in like 200 calories of fuel every two laps, which was roughly every hour, and so we were doing that and I think we were just kind of getting into our rhythm there in that 10 to 17 miles, mile 10 to mile 17, and feeling probably a little overconfident yeah, and we also got kind of at a rhythm between the three of us, right, like so we would sit there, we would mark, and then it was about it's about what a three to four mile run over to, uh, where doug you were our camp spot and we'd say, doug, hey, we want some water and this.
Speaker 2:So so we got, we kind of got our rhythm yeah, yeah, yeah you guys, and then, uh, and then it hit us practically at the same time eric, I'll let you go, because we all kind of hit a little bit of a what just happened yeah, eric, you, yeah, eric.
Speaker 1:You were a little bit ahead on mile 17 and you got to the campsite. Man, what was, what was? What was going on in your mind at mile 17, at the campsite, at the turn there?
Speaker 3:Well, I wish it was something going on in my mind, but it was more physical. It was more of my feet. My feet were killing me, my knee was aching and my hips weren't feeling very good and I'm just thinking to myself this is, this is not good, Right and um, I think we'd done everything right. We were fueling correctly, we were hydrating correctly, but, man, at mile 17, it's like I almost hit this wall where just everything started hurting. I thought to myself, man, I still got an hour and a half of this. I don't think I'm going to make it. I don't know, this is bad.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, eric, I understand you like to be polite and stuff, but that's not what you fucking said at the campsite. Tell us, get real with us for a freaking second man. What did you say at mile 17? I can't remember.
Speaker 3:Honestly, doug, I can't remember what I said or how bad it was. I just knew it was bad, I just knew.
Speaker 1:Fuck this shit.
Speaker 3:Okay, that sounds like that sounds right about me, eric, I think you might be delirious. You didn't have an hour and a half.
Speaker 1:We had like two and a half hours left, man. We had a long, long way, man. You were only at mile 17 and you had to get the 30.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those that that's some brain fog going on there too Then if that was the case cause I don't even remember what I said, I just know I was in a lot of pain and it wasn't going away, it was getting worse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So so what happened is mile 15, we go around to the check mark, so between 15 and 17, we were running together, but you know, eric was kind of like getting a little bit ahead, and I just knew that it wasn't. I mean, and Eric is much faster runner than I am, so that's going to happen, right, we I was thrilled that we stayed together that long, and so he got a little bit ahead of me. But we were both in pain and, doug, there's no way. I was like I'm going to stay with him, right, let him go. And he, he was ahead of me. So I was feeling bad on that lap too, and also it was the first time I was by myself. Right, I'm like, okay, this is in my mind. I said this is probably the way it's going to be for the second half. You know, maybe we run together, maybe we don't. We're probably going to be split up, different things. We talked about that a lot. So when I came to 17, I knew that I was hurting and I knew that I still had this two and a half hours, and I said to you, doug, I need you on the next lap, Right, because I really needed him on that lap. But I was like, at least I was like I had something to look forward to, because I knew I was going to need a pacer. I knew I was going to. That's one of the big reasons I was so thrilled that Doug was there, because I knew in the back half I was going to need some support.
Speaker 2:And when I took off on that, uh, 17 to 20, um, I got through it. But that's, eric, where your mind plays tricks on you. Well, you know what let's just do. You know you're almost talking yourself out of it. You're we're not talking ourselves to stop, but you're like before you were like looking forward and all of a sudden you're looking inward and you're making everything like, oh, I don't have to do this, I don't, and and then and then. But I knew when I came around to run that lap with you, I had to put my game face on. I was just like. It was like like, like I did not want to show any weakness to you at all, and you know, I know that kind of sounds bad, but, man, it just helped me out because I knew I had you there. So it was cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was cool pacing with you. And I was surprised, daryl, because the lap prior to me running with you, I remember you were in the tent and I was ready to run with you and you go, no, no, no, don't run with me now, run with me on the next lap I want you to run on. I'm like, OK, ok, I'm ready. And but that lap, when you told me to stay back, you know, I could tell because I was timing you guys, and I could see, like, okay, they're in the pain cave because this lap is taking a little slower than before. And it was funny because it was, it was. It was funny.
Speaker 1:Some laps were slower and some laps were faster. Even as the night progressed you would think they would all get slower but somehow, some way you guys would find energy or something and you would finish some laps a little faster. But uh, and then when I paced with you, daryl, I was ready to just bring it, dial it way back because that lap had taken you a little longer than the usual laps. But, man, I'll tell you, man, I, you know, I picked a pace in my mind that I was going to try to hold you to and, bro, you stuck it, you stuck it out, and you're the one who was telling me okay, doug, we're not going to stop, we're not. And I'm like, dude, I ain't been running all night, don't, don't worry. You know, like you were, I think you were telling yourself like I was telling myself yeah, we're not going to stop to the finish line, Doug.
Speaker 1:Okay, Doug, and I'm like yeah, okay man, you got it. Man, we're not going to stop until then. So it was all good.
Speaker 2:We also had the walkie talkies, which were fun. That was fun, so I bought some, some guy toys, we talkies. Of course, the first time we tried them out was in the bathroom, which we won't talk about that, but anyway, they're like talking to me while I'm in the bathroom with the walkie talkies. But I go, take off. And I start to take off. Eric was ahead of me and Doug says oh, daryl, come here, eric wants to talk to you for a second. And so I called him on the walkie talkie right, and uh, I said something funny to him. Like silver is silver, moon, blah, blah, blah, blankety, blank, blank. And he started laughing and we could kind of like and we both were hurting, but it was nice just hearing each other in that hurting and then, eric, we took off together.
Speaker 2:Somehow we met back up and I was like, all right, we got, I think, five miles left or something like that, whatever it was going to be, maybe, maybe it was like seven, and I don't even remember, yeah. And we took off and we were just all right, let's get through this, let's get through this. And we made that one turn and I was like man, I'm looking at my watch. I said, hey, we're doing pretty good. And then we're like 11 minutes a mile. And Eric started to take off and I looked at it, it was 1050. And I had to let him go. Eric, what happened to you? You had the most amazing second wind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. I still can't really pinpoint what gave me that energy. I kind of want to think maybe it was at that rest stop where I had a little bit of Coca-Cola and some chips.
Speaker 1:I think it was the Coca-Cola man.
Speaker 3:I mean because we've been fueling correctly, We've been taking our energy gels and our electrolytes throughout and I was kind of still deteriorating. But I don't know something came over me, that one lap where, yeah, daryl, you and I somehow we met back up and we started that lap and we picked up the pace a little bit, like you said, and my legs, just like the pain, almost was gone. I almost felt like I wasn't jogging anymore. I was like running, I had some strides and I kind of just kept that pace up. My heart rate was actually lower than it had been the whole day, so I was surprised with that, actually lower than it had been the whole day, so I was surprised with that. So I said something's going on here where you know my body's responding in in in a good way, right, just kind of kept, kept pushing myself for that pace, uh, like about a 10, 10, 10, 15 pace, and, um, yeah, I, I, I but didn't you get down to like a, didn't you get down to like a 940 pace or something?
Speaker 3:yeah, that was 943 and that was uh, that's when I was feeling the best. I was like, I felt like I was flying I guess I kept. I kept using that word flying. I was flying, my feet weren't hurting anymore. That was at mile 26, I don't know if. Hey, let's stop for a second.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mile 26, the marathon mile. Yeah, eric was running 15-minute miles, three miles before Right Wanting to stop, and he wouldn't have stopped but was just in the ultimate. And then he's running at 9.43 in the marathon mile. That is nuts. Yeah, yeah, definitely, let's back up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, let's back up a little bit. I forgot about, you know, when we were in that pain cave, um, in those tough miles, we we ended up having to implement some walking and, um, we knew, we knew we talked about it before, like, hey, you know, there's going to be a point where we may need to walk a little bit and um, so what I've learned from this is that if you're going to be an ultra runner, you have to embrace the walk, because you know there was everyone, everyone else out there was walking at certain points and they were walking very comfortably, talking.
Speaker 3:I think they might've even had it scheduled to hey, after this many miles, I'm going to walk this many, this long, or for for five minutes, and then I'm going to pick up the running again. So I had no choice but to walk at some point. So, those those tough seven miles, I would run, I would walk, I would run, I would walk. And for me, psychologically, that was kind of frustrating because I thought, man, I, uh, this isn't going well, I have to walk, I'm hurting so bad that this is, this is just not my. My mental state was not very, very good at that time, but I've learned a lot from that. That is a strategy that ultra runners do.
Speaker 2:And the thing I think about it, when we know to reflect and we reflect a lot that night and we'll jump into the end here is, once we got through that section, we knew that it was kind of scary. I remember one time seeing the time clock and it said four hours 47 minutes and I was so excited that I only had one hour and 13 minutes. And I was so excited I only had one hour and 13 minutes. I was like I only have an hour and 13. If I think about that now, I'm like only an hour and 13. I had an hour and 13 left, but once I got beyond that point I was like somehow I I was like if I could get to five hours, I'm golden, you know. So I actually, eric, I enjoyed the last hour of that race a lot.
Speaker 2:The the hour prior, maybe the four to five, was just like hell. Yeah, but there was. There is that thing that it was like that's what I really loved and I know you and I were smiling I will talk about at the end but that last hour I actually got to enjoy the race 100%.
Speaker 3:I agree with you 100%. I felt the same exact way. It was funny, we were comparing notes and stories, even though we weren't running together at the end, but we kind of had that same feeling. I had that same exact feeling. At about an hour and 15 minutes left to go, I thought, okay, yeah, I know what an hour feels like to run.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is going to end well and one of the best phone calls, the best calls I got, was on the walkie talkie and he says Daryl, are you there? I said yeah, and he said let me be the first to congratulate you on your marathon Cause he knew that I had passed a certain spot and I had done the 26.2 and I was like, oh man, I just smile I didn't want to, I didn't want to miss that.
Speaker 3:Actually, matter of fact, when I passed up Doug on my mile 26, or maybe it was 25 and a half I picked up the walkie talkie and I said, hey, doug, make sure you give the walkie talkie to Daryl, because when he finishes this last stretch on this road, he's probably going to get to mile 26.5. And I, you know, I want to, I want to, you know, give a shout out to him, man, because that's a big, big deal for him. I mean, he hadn't gone that far. I mean, the farthest you've ran was what? 14 and a half miles, yeah, yeah, that was, that was awesome.
Speaker 1:You know I'm going to go back to the walkie talkies and and and I know Daryl won't say it and Eric won't say you guys are too damn polite. But Daryl and Eric aren't guys who are going around swearing all the time and unfortunately I'm the one of those guys who's like a sailor, but so. But what's funny is Daryl, I get there. Eric says make sure Daryl gets to walkie talkie. I want to talk to him. I'm like OK, so Eric is gone. You were about maybe three minutes, three to five minutes ahead of him, and so yeah daryl takes off and I'm like, oh shit, I gotta give daryl the.
Speaker 1:I said, daryl, come back, come back. So he comes back. I said eric wants you to have this walkie talkie. And so daryl grabs the walkie talkie. He goes okay, silver moon, motherfucker, that's what he? Said. He said where are you at?
Speaker 3:and I'm just listening to him going, holy shit bro, just just uh, just the energy in his voice, man was was awesome to hear because because like 15, 20 minutes before that man I know we were both hurting, really, really bad so it was good, it was great watching you.
Speaker 1:It was cool. It was really cool, man, like you guys had these internal micro climates going on each lap, like I didn't know who I was gonna get I didn't know who I was gonna get every, every freaking two and a half mile lap and it was. But whoever I got, it was something you know. I was either supporting them or just encouraging them and uh, you guys so proud of what you guys did and uh, you, you know, you know my, my saying, man, if you show up to the starting line, you already won and you know there's.
Speaker 1:So all this other stuff you did after the starting line was all bonus, man, but this is the kind of bonus that makes memories, makes improvements, uh, it makes it adjust your mindset, your heart set, your emotions, everything, man. It's just, it's really awesome.
Speaker 2:So you cross, daryl, you crossed your finish line let's uh, we got, we got two more. Uh, we got two more uh items right number one. Um, uh, I was so excited because I was rounding the corner, for mile would have been, it would have been 25. So it's going to be on my last lap right and he's rounding the corner. It's pretty dark, we're not. We're talking the whole time. We haven't even talked about it's dark, we got head lamps.
Speaker 1:You got headlamps on right, right right.
Speaker 2:So we're doing this thing and I'm just, and I can see the arches and I could see the finish line and I was like there. So I wasn't done. But I knew I was going to be on my last lap. I literally was like a baby a tenth and I look up, it was super dark over there and I kicked the dirt and then I and I and I and all of a sudden I'm down, I fell.
Speaker 3:The dirt kicks you back.
Speaker 2:The dirt kicked me back and I fell in the dark and there's generally a lot of runners around and campers. And I fell and I was like oh man. And I rolled over and I looked, nobody saw me, nobody was coming. I picked myself up, I dusted myself, I've fine, and then I I marked myself so of course it wouldn't be a, it wouldn't be an ultra, unless I fell Right.
Speaker 2:Um so that that's one. And then the big thing is I knew that that was my last lap, Doug, because I, I, you know, I knew because of the time there's some some things we'll talk about in a second so I knew that I had one more lap and so I was going to get to, you know, my basically 20, 27.5. Eric was flying trying to make it under the time and I didn't think he had any chance to get under the time so he could make it for one more lap.
Speaker 2:So those were the two items One I fell, and then Eric, somehow, and you called me, remember, you actually called me and said I think he made it, I think he's going to be, uh, do the other lap, which were two really cool things Right.
Speaker 3:I think I reached out to you, doug. I don't know if I cause. At some point I grabbed my phone and took it with me, or what was the walkie talkie? And so I was kind of uh talking to you back and forth saying hey, um, if I get uh to this point at before our five hours and 40 minutes, I can do another lap.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:And, um, somehow it worked out to where I came around with uh at five hours and 35 minutes and so I realized, hey, I can get, I can get another lap in which is pretty, pretty cool.
Speaker 2:So I um, I finished ahead of Eric. So my last, which was 27.5 miles, I was at 557. I took a little snapshot of it so I marked it. I went and jogged for a minute or two, so I got to my six hours and I turned off my watch and then it was cool because Doug called me and says Eric should be coming. Eric should be coming. So I got to wait there for him to come through and so it was good and I had the video and Doug was texting me back and forth he's trying to calculate exactly the time and so it was really cool.
Speaker 2:I was right at the finish line. I got to watch Eric come across the line and I could see him a little far out. It's kind of hard. It's got a headlamp. So you know right, you know they came, but I kind of tell, with this gate he came and man, eric, you were about 30 yards, you had both hands in the air victory formation coming across and I know that you came across. We hugged, then you walked and you took a minute and you looked I don't think I've ever this. You didn't look tired, you were ecstatic. That was pure joy. That picture, literally, was pure joy and I know, doug, you've seen it too the accomplishment of not only us both completing, but you having that final push. I'll be honest with you I don't think I've ever seen anybody that excited in my life.
Speaker 1:I don't know where that came from. I don't know where that came from, but I'm glad it did, because it must have felt good.
Speaker 3:Oh man good. Oh man it. It felt great. And then thanks, daryl for memorializing that you had it on video. I've watched it probably like 20 times.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I point out to my wife I'm like you see my body language, you see how excited I was, blah, blah, blah, you know. And she's like yes honey.
Speaker 3:Yes, I know you were. You did good. Thank you, yeah. So so it was. It was a great, great feeling, great accomplishment, and be able to share it with you guys and have Daryl there at the end with me, because you know, we trained for this thing, we signed up together, we put ourselves in this position to succeed and I think we both exceeded way beyond expectation. And then to have you out there, doug, to experience that with us, that was cool man, it was really really good stuff.
Speaker 2:So we grabbed our medals, took a couple pictures and then we were super. Let's get back to Doug, because Doug not only was manning our camp, he had this gorgeous fire going and we were going to be camping and telling stories and everything else, and we did. We got our medals and walked back. We got to walk back, not run back. And then we joined you and you had that fire stoked. Yeah, uh, that was that.
Speaker 3:That next four or five hours just sitting by the fire was something I'll never forget literally, we sat there for about four hours um and just talked about, uh, the experience, the day and just soaked in, um, yeah, all of that and we, you know it was really unique, uh, or what was unique about this particular event?
Speaker 1:It was cool Cause our campsite was literally next to the tracks, to the road where people were running, and so that whole time we were up. I went to bed a little earlier than you guys, maybe an hour before you guys, I was done, but you guys were living off of the juice of you know, having just done what you did, man, I knew that was going to keep you awake for a while, but we stayed up. You know, I was up for till about three, 30 or something in the morning, but, and the whole time there's runners running by us with these headlamps, going by, going by, going. You know what? I noticed that it was. I thought you know when, uh, cause it was a full moon thing, you wouldn't have to worry about the road or the light so much, but on a full moon run you really don't get the advantage of the light of the full moon. Until it's about midnight, so close to when the event for your six hours was over. That's when the roads were getting lit up by the moon, which was kind of cool, but you still needed the headlamp. It was, uh, it was. It was cool.
Speaker 1:But seeing all the runners go by and just sitting there talking with you guys and chatting and hearing what you experienced, you know, again, this season is about setbacks to comebacks. Eric, I'm just going to touch on this, you don't have to say anything. But one of the setbacks to comebacks that uh sticks out with me is, before we even went on the run, two days before, you sent a picture to our text thread, to me and Daryl, with a bag of ice on your ankle, saying something like damn it, it never fails, man. I'd go out for a little run just to da-da-da-da, and you had either twisted your ankle, messed up your foot You've suffered with foot problems in the past and sometimes they'll flare up and sometimes they won't and you were kind of bummed man. You thought you were down and out. But talk about a comeback or setback. What you thought was a setback turns into man. Look what you experienced, dude, because you didn't give up. You kept showing up. And, daryl, you said earlier in your thing that you were on your last lap. When you fell you were approaching the beginning of your last lap. Yeah, you know, when you fell, you were approaching the beginning of your last lap. Yeah, actually, you were about 100 yards before the beginning of your last lap, so it was over two and a half miles.
Speaker 1:All I know is Daryl runs up to the campground. He's got blood coming out of his knee, he's got his shirt, is like he's been rolling around in the mud. I'm like what the hell happened. And he's standing there. I'm like dude, what happened? Are you all right? Are you all right? Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. You know how Daryl is. He don't want to talk about it because then he'll feel it. Yeah, so he dusted himself off and, man, to have that ground was hard, so I knew it had to hurt when he took that fall.
Speaker 1:And to have that, uh, that little bit of a setback, daryl, and still have the mindset to finish and finish strong and not give up, you could have easily and none of us would have said, dude, we wouldn't have said nothing. We're like dude, look what you did. But you could have easily wrote that off and said I'm done, man, I can't move and cause, I know you were hurting. I could tell by your, your gate and your run and your limp and shoulder leaning and all this. I mean you was. You were a banged up truck man running down the road, down the farm road, but you got it done. You finished that six hours and you finished strong.
Speaker 1:So congratulations to both of you for showing up, stepping up and setting an example for many people, for all our listeners, for your families and, most importantly, for yourselves, because the more you build up in yourselves, the more you're going to be a bright light to others around you. To just to go out and be your best self, unless you guys have anything. One last thing to that you want to memorialize or highlight. I'm just going to sign off like we usually do, so is there any one? Any last things you want to say?
Speaker 3:I do. I do want to say one more thing. We're already planning on next year and we're going to shoot for the 12-hour race next year.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you hear it here, people. You heard it here Eric Salgado 12-hour race. Daryl is smiling.
Speaker 2:We've already kind of like, started to kind of hit. It's better to commit to the 12 than the 24, so we'll keep it at the 12. It's better to commit to the 12 than the 24, so we'll keep it at the 12. The other thing, hey, doug for me, the best way for me to describe this weekend was we created core life memories. Yes, I can't say it any different. I'm not thinking about 27.5 or six hours. Those were core life memories, riding down together with the boys.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Eric crossing the line, yeah, us experiencing that campfire together. Those are the things that will, uh will, stick with me daryl falling and getting back up and finishing strong.
Speaker 3:I mean, come on man yeah who does that, daryl?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, I remember that time we were riding and he shows up in my garage all bloodied up and he's, and we hadn't even started the ride. He's like let's, we're going. I'm like okay, yeah I got some stories.
Speaker 3:Maybe we, we, we, we cover those on another podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, for sure. All right, you guys. I'm proud of both of you man. You guys are awesome. You did team peach real proud of both. Jr and Dave were commenting in a thread on you know, just encouraging and how proud of you they were. You did the team really proud guys. So God bless you, man. So I'm going to do like I always do and say God bless and peace out, peace out we're out Bye.