Peach Podcast
Two guys and an occasional guest breaking open topics on: Purpose, Energy, Attitude, Commitment and Health through shared experiences.
Peach Podcast
S4EP07: When time feels short, purpose runs long; What Would You Do Different If Time Were Short?
In this episode we connect you with purpose-led endurance, about starting the next lap even when you know you won’t finish, and about riding at 85% without letting pride get in the way of progress.
We break down how a backyard ultra actually works—3.5 miles with 550 feet of climbing every lap, every hour on the hour—and why the real race is against the clock and your own head. JP’s opening message set the tone: lean into discomfort, endure with purpose, and live with urgency and compassion. Six hundred runners showed up, sponsors and volunteers turned a free event into a masterclass in community, and the field thinned from a sea of starters to the few still making cutoffs as the hours wore on. We talk pacing that scales—hike the steeps, run the runnable, protect the downhills—and the moment a 59:30 finish turned into the most important choice of the day: step back out for lap ten, tag the gate, and own the DNF with pride.
Day two brought a different test: swollen feet, tight shoes, coastal rain, and legs capped at 85%. Acceptance became the winning strategy. We share how to ride within your reality, measure effort over ego, and use cold rain like a moving ice bath to keep rolling over long climbs. These lessons roll forward to bigger goals like the Sedona 125: break long into small, decide once and repeat often, and keep your why front and center when fatigue makes the questions loud again.
If you’re craving a shot of real talk about resilience, community, and cause-driven training, you’ll feel at home here. Hit play, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and if it resonates, subscribe and leave a quick review—what’s the next hard thing you’re saying yes to?
Check out JP's open remarks before kicking off 600 ultra runners in support of cancer and each other: https://youtu.be/66qrJQQe_rw?si=3plhSbRWWnnutHLP
Welcome back to Feats Podcast with Doug and Daryl. Another week of just checking in and breaking down some badass stuff that happened this last weekend, man. I got to tell you, Daryl, we're going to just dig right in, man, because you and Eric did a run. It's called a Backyard Ultra and Ultra Event Challenge. And unbeknownst to me in the beginning, when this was all laying out and coming together, the following day, you had to drive to the other side of the Bay Area. So you had a big drive in front of you. And then you had to go do a, I don't know if you did the metric century or the century. It doesn't really matter. You did a long ass bike ride the next day. So I am just uh, you know, we haven't really spoken in depth about this, but man, I'm just curious. I'm always curious about what happens to athletes, um, weekend warriors, uh, competitors when they are going back to back like this with big events. What what goes through your mind? What goes through your uh body physically? You know, how do you how do you deal with some of the things you you uh maybe thinking about, man, why am I doing this? So with that said, Daryl, um real quick, just describe in in really brief overview the two events that you did this weekend, and then I'm gonna then we'll back up and I'll give you some questions.
SPEAKER_03:Sure. Um, first of all, uh great uh great doing this podcast. Um we're kind of on our every other week. We're very, very busy and thrilled to be back. Uh it ended up being a really awesome and really impactful weekend. And oh yeah, by the way, I did some athletic things too. Um so um, as you know, we've talked about this. We actually did a podcast about this last year. Uh, the company I work for, uh, we focus on uh one of our big sponsor rides. It's called Tour to Cure. It's for diabetes. Our company, along with other people, put together a um a basically a bike challenge. They uh we did the metric century, there was other ones. There's about 900 people, and it was the goal is to cycling um basically to end diabetes. And so our company, we had about 30 people in our company that did it. There were 71 teams, about 900 people. It's uh out of Palo Alto. You ride some beautiful hills, get out to the coast and back, and it's just an awesome, awesome event. We raise over 32,000. So that's locked on my schedule. That's locked. Sunday, Palo Alto, big team event. Get to put on the bike gear for our company, and it's awesome. Then Eric and I continue to look for ways to challenge ourselves and do some runs. So we actually were signed up for, and I'm not going to give the name of it, but we were about to sign up for a one in Sacramento, and at the end of the day, the registration was really expensive. And um, and that's not that that is what it is, but it just seemed like maybe it's just not worth it. And just both Eric and I just didn't quite feel that that was the right time and everything else, all these other ones. And I said, Eric, let's just chill. Uh let's just train everything else. He goes, Yeah, I'll go look around. So he happened to look up and he found this challenge, and it was JP's um Backyard Ultra. Okay, and I'll tell the story about it. And he sent me a video about JP, and JP is a great, unbelievable thing, and actually it's free. Now that's not the reason we did it, but it was free because he's actually working on raising money for cancer, and it was just he asked for donations. It was his third year doing it, it was down in Napa. I said, Man, that sounds really good. And I said, Eric, send it to me. And I watched a video and I was so hyped up on it, and then I heard when the date was, and I went to my calendar, and it was on the Saturday before.
SPEAKER_01:And I was like, So wait, wait, what is a backyard ultra? So just so we know what's going on through your mind and what kind of decision you have to make. You're you're already signed up for uh Metric Century, right? And and I know that I know the area where you were. There's a lot of climbing going on over there. And so now, what's a backyard ultra? What it what does that consist of, or what did JP's challenge consist of?
SPEAKER_03:So JP's challenge, uh backyard ultras are where you run a set distance every hour. Uh so in this one, uh, you would run a loop. A loop to have a starting point and you'd run a loop. This one actually had a lot of elevation. It was in Napa, uh, it had about 550 feet of elevation. So it was definitely some hills and some climbing. And you need to run that within an hour.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:How long was the loop? Uh the loop was about 3.5 miles.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so 3.5 miles uh an hour, but with elevation.
SPEAKER_03:So that's so generally with that, and I'll just kind of give our experiences, I should be able to do that to start in about 40 to 45 minutes. Right. Okay. You come in, you're done with that loop, you cross the line, maybe get some water, you chill. Some people sit in a chair for a while, and then on the hour, they give you a five minute, a one minute, and on that hour, you start another loop.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So if you come in at 45 minutes, that that means you have 15 minutes to rest before you take off on the top of the hour. Okay, I got it.
SPEAKER_03:And and um, this one, just to be clear, the normal backyards, the official ones, they go until there's only one person standing.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so there is no time.
SPEAKER_03:There's no there is no so you could do 15 loops, you could do 100 loops. The only thing is you kind of tap out when you basically don't make it back within an hour or you don't start the next one.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:So it's kind of this kind of game, and I'll kind of walk you through the thing. So overall, so that was kind of it.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so overall, so I didn't I didn't know that. I I knew that if you didn't make it within the hour, you're out. Then you're you're kind of you're done with the event, you gave it your best shot. And if you didn't make it within the hour, but are you saying also that you have to start at the top of the hour as well? When they say go, you gotta go.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because um that there's a saying that's like don't die in the chair. You don't want to die in the chair. Yeah, if they take off and you're still sitting in the chair, uh-uh. You're done. And um, the thing that was so amazing about this, and I'm gonna talk a lot about this uh in in a minute, was this was oh great, I'll donate to this. I had no idea what I was getting into. I was like, Eric, how many people? He's like, I don't know. I think the first year they had 40. I think last year they maybe had a hundred. He goes, I'm not quite sure. Uh so we both donated um and we decided to go down there. And so Eric actually went down on Friday and we camped right there. And uh I came down Saturday morning and uh that was it. And so overall, you kind of think about it, you're gonna run. And my goal was I definitely wanted to run about 30 miles. I that I wanted to run a marathon, but I had never done this before, so I hadn't I had no idea I didn't know how the hills were gonna be. So my target was somewhere between 26 to 30, 30 miles. Maybe I get to 33, 35, whatever. Um, but I just my my internal goal was I'd never done this before. I didn't know how I'd react, I didn't know how the hills were, but I said I want to run at least a marathon, and I was hoping to get 30 miles, right? So that was kind of my target going into it. Um, and then basically he did it for 10 hours. So the maximum you could do is somewhere, I think it was between 33 and 35 miles. So it was a 10-hour fixed item. Okay. The first year he did it, only four people made it to uh the last uh the 10 laps, which is the last hour. Okay. Um, so that kind of gives you a gauge. So not many people, and he also has a couple other things. The last lap, right, the fastest time is uh there is some competition. The last lap number 10. Shit, the the fastest person gets a big ass trophy, too. Really? Yeah, and so that was cool. So the last lap, man, people are hauling, man, and you you can imagine, and you're dying, and these people are running super fast. So but the whole thing, and we'll talk a little bit about he gave a speech ahead of time. This was about community, people coming together, and people volunteering, and so um, so that's what it was. So when I looked at it, I was like, oh, Eric was excited about it. I was like, fine, I signed up for it. And then all of a sudden, Doug, I thought, I'm gonna be running like a marathon up hills, and then I'm gonna the next day go do a sentry ride.
SPEAKER_01:And you're sleeping in a tent in between all this, right? Is that is that am I is that correct?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's that's true.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so you just you know, you don't get to wake up to a cozy little shower and go go ride. It's like, oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_03:But can I tell you what I kept telling myself? I was like, you know what? I'm um I was doing cancer, uh supporting cancer on Saturday, I was supporting diabetes, right? I was uh I was knocking out my uh you know uh my charity and my uh my giving back. So uh I I I felt good and um also I didn't take it too incredibly serious as far as you know, number one, um, I was out there for a cause much much bigger than myself. And so that that kind of had some motivation. I wouldn't normally sign up for two events just on the weekend, but these were for amazing causes.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And and you're saying that JP's backyard challenge, there was no charge, it was a free event, and uh and you just donated. Yeah, and you told me that uh number one, JP has got uh, I don't know, I don't know the kind of cancer, maybe you do, but he has a terminal cancer. He's got uh he was uh given five years to live, and he's on year three and a half right now, and he's showing up at these events, he's giving speeches and talks at these events, and and he's even participating uh in some of the laps in a lot of pain. You were talking about a special brace he puts on and stuff to to get it done and and kind of have uh little conversations with people who are running alongside him and whatnot.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was it was absolutely amazing. So we went down there. The only thing I saw is I watched a little YouTube video about it, and it was sounded like a great cause. He's talking a little bit about it. I get down there, there's people coming together. Eric got a tent set up. There's about 40, 40 pop-ups in the middle. Wow, and we we go to check in and everybody's checking in, and they say, you know, like you've gone to a lot of races. They said 7:30, we're gonna give you some instructions. There's definitely some instructions, right?
SPEAKER_00:Right, right.
SPEAKER_03:So he gets on the microphone, and there's a there's an MC, and then he gets on the microphone and he kind of talks about it. And uh he says, I'm gonna give you a couple things, and I'm gonna give you uh I'm gonna give you my message for the day. This area is where he used to run and train. So this is a great this loop that we're going on was one of his training loops that he did for um for his things. He's a big ultra marathoner. He'd done an Iron Man before the Iron Man in Hawaii, did the Iron Man in Hawaii. So he's a really cool, great story. We'll put some links in there.
SPEAKER_01:While he was while he was going through chemo, I believe he went to why he was going through chemo.
SPEAKER_03:And uh, like I said, I walked into this, Doug, watching a two-minute video and signing up. Yeah, so I knew a little bit, but I didn't know a ton. And he started to tell a story. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It's a rare type of cancer. I believe it has to do with things in his lungs, and he's got different lesions and everything that'll spread to the rest of his body, his back and all over. Right. When you see them and you've seen the video of him, he looks like a pretty healthy person, right? Um, he's a great and he's an amazing speaker. Um, but as I saw him through the day and I saw him out there, he uh, like you said, some of his race days are behind him. Um, halfway through this, I think about a year, year and a half ago, he completed the Iron Man in Hawaii. He made it under the swim within two minutes.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, because in the swim, if you don't make it a certain time. Oh, there's a time. And you can't even finish the rest of the Iron Man.
SPEAKER_03:You can't even finish. And he said he got out and he said he was ugly crying, his words. Wow, yeah. And not because of the pain, uh, not because of that, because he had the opportunity to try to do the next event, the bike and the swim. I mean the bike and the run. Bike and the run, yeah. And uh he said it was so painful he had to turn over sometimes on his back because he had trouble breathing because of the lesions. And he told this story, and he's basically dug three and a half years into what they told him was a um you know, a five-year kind of journey of how long he'd be alive. He started this three years ago. I think the first year he had about 40 people. Last year he said I thought Eric said he had about 100, he had about uh he had about 200. This year there was over 600 people that showed up.
SPEAKER_01:At this backyard event, there was 600 people.
SPEAKER_03:600. And as Eric and we had no idea, as we're walking up there, this parking lot is filling up, and people are just coming in in droves. Wow, and Eric and I are looking around, going, What? And as he's giving this, and then he gave this little speech, and I just want to read two things to you. Yeah, he says, and there's a video out there, and I'll we can put put the link.
SPEAKER_01:We'll put it in the we'll definitely put it in the show notes.
SPEAKER_03:And it was about 10 minutes long, and I'll tell you what, you got about 600 people, maybe about 500, because the rest of them are coming in from the parking lot as he's giving this speech, and usually they give you a little talk, hey, pep talk, and everything else there. Um, you know, if you look around, there was about at least over half the people with tears in their eyes at the end of this. Wow. And it was probably the things. I'm gonna read the three points he said. He says, I need you to lean into discomfort. He says that's where the growth lives. And he talked about it. Then he talked about you need to endure with purpose. How do you find your why? And the last one he talked about is live with urgency and compassion. Wow. And he, as you you watch the video, yeah, he gave examples of those items. He goes, those are the three things. And he ended with this. He asked us, what would I do different if time were short? That's right. And and that's what's that's his life. What would he what has he been doing for the last three and a half years? How would I love harder? How would I serve more deeply? He talked a lot about in examples, and Doug, this is 7:50 in the morning as we're about ready to go take off a running between three and a half to 35 miles for the next 10 hours. And I tell you, I got up to that starting line and my head was just spinning. All I could think about, and he talked about, you know, when you're suffering everything else, help somebody else, help a runner. When you don't think you go any farther, just run to the next tree. And he talked about breaking things down. So the gun goes off, right? After hearing the speech, people are crying, and 600 people take off to go do this thing. So it was just one of the coolest events um that that I've been at. And by the way, free event, all donations. He had some of the amazing sponsors. Lulu Lemon was there as a corporate sponsor, right? Every kind of nutrition, all the wineries were there. There was five different running clubs from all over the place, right? There, um, they had a huge lunch that was catered and everything. It was by far the most first class events. Afterward, people got trophies. They had an award ceremony. This is 10, 12 hours later. They did raffles all through the day, and he was raffling off. And lap number two, and I think lap number eight, I I got to talk to him a little bit on lap number eight. Yeah. He um he he ran with us um uh there. So just an amazing, amazing event.
SPEAKER_01:You know, Darrell, I'm glad you you highlighted those things at the end there because it really, you know, in in a time that we're living in right now, there's a lot of chaos, a lot of conflict globally, right? And uh some people might lose hope in humanity. But uh your story, this story, uh, speaks uh profoundly of the the wonderful humanity that still exists. It might be in small pockets, but it's there. And it just reminds me that uh within each human being there is uh a huge desire to connect, to collaborate, uh, and to and really great create uh generosity and giving and love and support. So what a what a great story and and JP, you know, to uh put together an event. Uh you know, most people are thinking, well, how much should I charge? And I gotta get my break even and all this, and uh but to throw out an event and be supported the way uh you're describing man, that's that's that's real humanity. I that's what I like to believe is really out there if we can just create the opportunities for people to step up and fill them gaps. They do, they do, and in your case, they did, they did, and that that is just absolutely beautiful. I want I do and by and and by the way, Doug, yeah, it was really, really hard.
SPEAKER_03:As much as I'm talking, I was fired up in the morning. I don't think I've done something that hard, and I'm not quite sure I've done something quite that hard.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, I know this is back to back, man.
SPEAKER_03:I'm telling you, like this is oh my god.
SPEAKER_01:This is this, you know, two things I was thinking at first. I'm like, oh man, that poor bastard. He, you know, I don't know if he realized he got himself into this mess. I gotta ask him some questions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then I started thinking, I said, you know, he's not a poor bastard. This is exactly what he needs because when he when he gets to May, yeah, you're gonna have two or three days of hard ass shit that you're gonna have to get up where you're gonna be sleeping on a dirt trail, you know, in the middle of the night with rattlesnakes um in Arizona. Uh, and had to throw out the rattlesnakes, just so you know. Um, you know, that uh, you know, so this is a great precursor to uh what to expect down the road. Although this was running and then cycling. Um, but we'll we'll we'll get to that in a second. So I want to ask you a couple questions and just keep it 100%, man. Keep it real. Is um before this weekend came, um, what were you anticipating? Like what was going on in your head? And I'm asking this question for the the listener who is just who's struggling with because you the fact of the matter is you got it done, right? Here we are, we're talking about it and we're breaking down. So I'm trying to I want to pull and extract out of you some key elements mentally, you know, what was your thought pattern and physically, you know, how you got through these things. And along the way, I'm sure you were thinking, oh shit, like how am I gonna do this, or blah, blah, blah, blah. And so what were you anticipating before the weekend?
SPEAKER_03:I I think two things. Um, I knew what the bike ride was because I had done it before. Um, so I kind of knew that I had no expectations on the run. Okay. I was like, I don't know, um, you know, maybe I'd try and do three laps. I was like, hey, you know what? You know what? And a nice Saturday 10 mile run would be cool. Yeah. So I was kind of like there. Um, I had no idea that once I got out there, there's no way I'd want to stop. I like there.
SPEAKER_01:Once you heard the speech, you're like, I'm in.
SPEAKER_03:Once I heard the speech, and you know, Doug, everybody's around you, and I couldn't, I like like those thoughts just left. Yeah, and then all of a sudden I was like, Oh my god, how am I gonna do my record on Sunday? So there was a bit of a little bit going into it, cautious, but I don't know, man. Once once you get there and that gun goes off, or the people are around you, it just I don't know. It was just uh all right. I my my expectations were I knew I needed first of all, I'm one of the organizers on the of the Sunday one. I knew I needed to, I knew I needed to get that done. I mean, there's no way I I could be walking my bike right now, still it's Wednesday. I could still be walking, but I would have finished that. You would have been you to showed up. Yeah, so the bike thing was on a debate. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So you had a little tension going because that that Sunday event wasn't something you could call up last minute and say, I'm not done. No, no, no, you had to be there and you had to do it. Yeah, okay, so good. That's good to know. And and you did, and you showed up. So through Saturday and Sunday, what overall what did you experience physically and mentally? Like what what what happened to you as you were running and as you were riding? Like, what were you experiencing in the moments, uh in the hard moments, physically and mentally?
SPEAKER_03:Uh yeah, I'll talk about the run. Uh the run. Um we Eric always gave me an out. Hey Daryl, you gotta do your Sunday ride. So you know what? Just just take your time. Once we start, once we did lap one, right, and I knew what it was, I was like, this is gonna be awesome, and this is gonna be one of the hardest things I've done. Wow. Um and uh you ran it one way, okay, okay, and then you reversed it, so you got to see it. And the first way was more gradual and then big hills, right? And then the and then in the middle, a little little cruisy up and downs, and then down. Then the other way was you went 50 yards and you were climbing. Oh, yeah. So once you kind of mentally had both of those in your mind of what they were, you're kind of like, okay, I've done them both ways. I got to do this five more times, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And then you then you the brain starts hurting and everything else there. Uh so overall, I think that was interesting. The bike ride, uh I'll be real honest with it, Doug, um, was a bit harder than I expected.
SPEAKER_01:Number one, I wonder why, Daryl.
SPEAKER_03:No, number one, just running, because I ran the short version, I ran 30 miles, right? So we'll get to what we did at the end. I ran 30 miles, it was about 5300 feet. And that night, it happens when I run long distances, my feet swelled up. My number one thing is could I put my bike shoes on the next morning, which I was really panicked about. Oh, wow. Um, and once I did that, I took off and I felt okay riding. But Doug, I rode when I because you you know, you know, when your time should be. The best I could do, no matter how hard I pushed it, was about 85% of normal.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It was so interesting, Doug. I, you know, you know, the the effort it would take me to get to 15 miles an hour, I was at 13. Um, the effort it took me to get to 20 miles an hour riding was at 17. It's like like I looked down at my legs and I was like, what's what's going on? I mean, my legs, I I literally the best I could do was 85%.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:And um, and I did I had to accept that right away. Yeah. I the first 10 miles, I was like, this is the best I have, right? And a couple of my buddies that I would normally keep up with, and Paul, who's a killer rider, and Tim is a killer rider. I had to honestly say, Nope, I I can't do that. So I I stayed more in the middle of the pack and I was fine with that. And then I just said, Can my 85% get me over these two hills? Yeah, right, because there's two big mountains. So those were a couple of the things that that that I really had to address. And the bike ride was just something I had to say. My 85% is the best I can give, and I'm gonna give it. And I knew it was a five to five and a half hour ride, and uh I just locked in on that, and that's what I did.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, that's awesome, Daryl. I was gonna ask you about, you know, did you have moments of doubt or or weakness? And if so, what were your strategies? And it sounds like your strategy was acceptance, like acceptance, 100%. Yeah, acceptance that this is it, and you you were good with that. Yep, you didn't feel beated, beat up or defeated, or you were just like, hey, I'm here and I'm I'm just gonna get over the finish line. Yep, that's awesome, man. Very, very cool. So, moving forward, what did you learn about yourself, especially in regards and preparing for what's gonna be a very physically and mentally challenging um event in May? You you and Eric are gonna be running what is it uh 125 miles or 155. 125, and that's the Arizona. What's it called again?
SPEAKER_03:Uh the Sedona 125.
SPEAKER_01:The Sedona 125. And so that you're gonna do that over uh two or three days or something like that.
SPEAKER_03:It should be somewhere between about 50 to 75 hours. So it'll definitely go into the third day.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. And so so again, what did you learn about yourself that you can apply to because that's a big that that's gonna be a big event. That's all running, man.
SPEAKER_03:It is. Um, I think the biggest thing is, you know, at some point what we are learning in this running journey is you just have to pace it out and stay consistent, uh, and just follow a plan. And I'll be honest with you, the thing is, is you do an hour and then you do another hour in there and you have to break it down into chunks. And there's some point, Doug, I think where it's just about sticking with it. Um, a couple real simple things. Once you got to about lap four, everybody did the same thing. On the steep uphills, you hike them, right? On the flats or the rollers, you run them, right? And on the downhill, you kind of uh you run them, but you don't you gotta run them smart because you can burn out your legs. Right. So there's a little things, and you know what? By the way, these are killer runners that probably do 100 milers with us. And once once everybody cleared out and you kind of got to them, everybody walks, hikes the uphills hard, everybody runs this. So you kind of get into this pattern, right? Yeah, yeah, and uh in there, and it's just it is what it is, and uh try to stay very consistent. Um, the other thing, just overall, is you do not burn yourself out. Um, one of the things they told us, if you're really gonna go do this for long periods of time, your strategy on lap one should be your same strategy on lap 10. Oh wow, you know what I mean? Yeah, like like like there's no reason to like like there's zero reason to try to burn yourself out. You know, we're gonna be running for two or three days, Doug. Yeah, there's no benefit of having a great day one and having a bad day three. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's just kind of this general consistency, I love it, and knowing that over a period of time, you will slow down a bit. So let me give an example. The first time we came in at 42 minutes, the second one we came in, I was like, Oh, I think I'm a little slower. I was at 4230, right? And I'm like, oh, I did really good. I came within 30 seconds, right? Yeah, and then Doug, every lap, it's 44, 46, 47. And you can feel yourself slowing down a bit, right? You know what I mean? And you gotta be okay with it, and you can't be too freaked out or it can mess with your head, right? Yeah, like if I don't get back, I don't have enough time. So I think there's something about consistency and not stressing over time.
SPEAKER_01:Daryl, was there uh any laps that you were just right under the wire? Because you had to make each lap, and and again, we're getting back to JP's uh backyard challenge. Um, you had to run these laps within an hour. And if you weren't, you were out of the event. You're you're done. You just pack it up, you can watch everyone else run or go home or whatever. But was there any, I mean, what's the longest one that took you? And were you freaking out at all, or did you manage that?
SPEAKER_03:So I actually we did really, really well. Oh, good. Um, uh, we did really well up until about lap seven. Okay. Um, and there's a couple laps where I finished ahead of Eric, and then a couple lap all laps he finished in front of me. And then uh lap number seven, Eric got his um second wind. Oh shit. And I'm like, that happens all over. And I gotta tell you, uh, there was about 600 people to start. Once you got back to about lap five, there was about a hundred. About lap seven, there's only about 50 to 75. Really? Yeah, so it cuts down a lot. That's a substantial drop, yeah. And so it was lap seven, and I'm going around, and I we were tired. And uh I was ahead of Eric, and then we started running together, and he says, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm feeling good, I'm gonna push it a little. And so he pushed, and I saw him, I could see him take off and going. And this guy, Mike, uh, that I met was kind of behind me, and we started talking for a little bit. And I kind of said, Hey, I think I'm gonna come in about 52 to 53 minutes, and uh, which was by far, I kind of looked at my watch, that was by far the the longest I had gone, and I was like calculating in my mind. And uh we got to this area about about a mile out, and Mike said to me, I don't know if we're gonna make it. Oh shit. And I never even thought of that before. I'm like, of course we are. And I looked at him, I was like, oh crap. And I said, Yeah, we are. We're gonna we're gonna run it all the way in. Right. I said, We're in, and he looked at me, he goes, I don't got that. And I said, Come on, Mike, let's give it a try. And you're all by yourself. I just met the guy. I said, Come on, Mike, let's just try. So I ran it all the way in, and I got in at uh uh about 54 minutes. Wow, and I didn't see I and I and I didn't see Mike. Right. And Eric was already waiting for me. He had that nervous look like where's Daryl? Are you coming in? Is he going to make it? You know? And uh and then Mike was about two minutes behind me. He finished there and he came in. And then when you only got like five, six minutes, you just go get some water and you have to go right back to the line. You're standing there. Oh and I knew, and I knew it was gonna be it was gonna be tough. From then on out, every every lap was a battle. And I will tell you, so I we we did lap, we did nine laps.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Um, we did nine laps. Um, if we'd have done 10, we'd have done like 34, 30, 30, 33, 34. Eric and I really wanted to get to that 30 mark. So we did nine laps. We we missed the last one. We we walked some of it. Lap nine, I came in at 59 minutes and 30 seconds. No way. And uh I came back in and Eric was standing there, and he knew that we weren't gonna be able to really if I I wasn't gonna make the next time, you know. I was tired and all this. And I sat there and he says, Great job, great job. And all of a sudden we turned around. He says, What are you doing? I said, We're going out on the next lap. Wow. And uh I knew I knew I wasn't gonna be able to do the whole lap, but there's a concept that says, Don't die on the course, yeah, don't die on the chair, yes, right? And so I so I said, Hey, Eric, let's do our best, let's run to the first gate. There's a gate about uh you know so far ahead. So we ran to the first gate and we walked back, and that's what most people do. It's like there's no way, Doug, I could have made that last lap, right? I I just I wouldn't have made the time, I was behind everything else. But I I could honestly say that I finished nine and then you go back and you write, did not finish for the last one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So um, so that's it. And so then that was it. And then we got to watch the 10th laps go in. So um, so what a beautiful story, Daryl.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, and a lot of uh uh just uh mental growth for you, man, emotional growth for you because uh, you know, the Daryl Gannis, I know, man, he finishes. But to just accept and and um come back with grace and write the DNF, that's that's awesome, man. That is because this, you know what, Daryl, there's there's as you know, as a runner, and by the way, as I say that, I want to go back to our first episodes when I was you know calling on the whole universe to say Daryl is a runner, Daryl is a runner, and now Daryl's a runner, all right, man. He he's a huge transition. But uh, you know, as a runner, there's no there is no finish line, you know, like this event. You learn something in that ninth lap, and you learn something in attempting the tenth lap, and you learn something around DNF, and you learn that it doesn't change who you are. You know, you're still beautiful soul, you're still out doing amazing causes, raising money for incredible people and and incredible causes and and doing it with community and bringing others along. Yeah, and uh that that's just so awesome, brother. I love watching you uh just grow and and your layers coming off and you're seeing bigger pictures of what what this whole yeah, running is a bonus. The running part is is a bonus of all this this whole thing. There's so much so so much bigger life benefits that comes out of all this if you keep showing up. Just keep showing up. You're gonna keep running into people like JP, people that do the diabetes calls like you guys did for work. And uh, you know, just really proud of you guys and excited for you guys. That's what an awesome weekend. What an awesome weekend. Great real quick though, uh two biggest takeaways on each on each event. What do you what are your two biggest highlights? If you had to choose one highlight from the JP backyard event and the uh HP uh diabetes event, what would be the two highlights?
SPEAKER_03:On the JP one, um the number one thing is uh this event was bigger than me. I like that. I think that's what everybody felt like. You were I was running and I was tired and I was this, but this was this was nothing about me. Yeah, this was about the community doing the right thing, bonding, learning. You know what I mean? It just it was kind of like it's felt like so much bigger than a than a than a run. Yeah, it really did all day long. 10 hours, 12 hours. By the way, they had a big award ceremony after we stayed there, we watched it, we spent the night there. It just it was so much bigger than me. Right. No, no, no, number one. And uh I just uh I I couldn't be uh I couldn't be more proud. So that was one. Uh the diabetes ride, um, you know, everything was super cool. That was a big corporate kind of event, all these high-tech companies and everything else. And um that was really fun of kind of mixing my kind of like like athletic and my endurance with my work. And that was really fun. Yeah, you know what I mean? These are people I ride with like once a year, and some people I don't ride with too often, so it was just super fun and like that team atmosphere and people that you know, you know, I get to ride with once a year, and I got to put on my company jersey and kind of represent there. Yeah, and it was it was really, really fun. And uh there was two big climbs, the first one I got over, and it started raining at the top, Doug. Oh man, it started raining, you know, like that that coastal rain and mist and fog. And I was like, oh man, are you kidding me? It it sucked because I was cold, but you know what it did, Doug? You know what it does. That's a cold plunge while you're riding your bike. That's it, and it helped my muscles like you wouldn't believe. And uh then I got to the bottom and I had to go climb um uh climb back over the coast thing. And Doug, I had to dig deep. I mean, I it's been a long time since I've been on a bike that I've had to like dig that deep. It was eight miles up over the hill, about a 2,000 five, you know, kind of like our normal, like those long, long mountain.
SPEAKER_01:I think I know the climb you're talking about. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:We've done it, you've done a mini, probably more than I have, King's Mountain, and it's the it's a backside getting over uh La Honda and everything else there, and it's in the forest, and it sent some pictures. Doug man, I I just kept looking down. This will take me an hour. This will take, and I was clicking off every minute in my head, Doug. I'm telling you, and I got up to that top, and I still had 15 miles, but when you know, once you're up to the top of the hill, you know you can do it. But Doug, that was that was deep. Yeah, that was digging way deeper than I've done in a long time. That's amazing. And uh yeah, those were the two things. I think overall, bigger than me, and I really enjoyed kind of combining kind of my work and kind of my you know, kind of some of my physical things, and just knowing I had to get over that last hill. Um, uh was really cool.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome, Daryl. Man, what a great interview! Thank you for letting me uh just peel peel apart and unpack this experience with you. There's so much wisdom, so much uh just just life skills and and life opportunities that you shared. And I hope people can read everything in between what you've shared as well, because there's a lot of juice in there, man, a lot of gold. Just keep digging. But I I don't have any more questions, but if you have something else you want to add, man, I want to hear it.
SPEAKER_03:I just want to and I say you the little video. Um, there was a lady, uh, she was in this pink top, and she uh she had uh I think she had one or two walking sticks. I'm not not like not like the the poles, like when we were climbing the poles. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and she must have been gosh 80 years old at least. And I sent the little video to to you and everything else, and we would see her as we were lining up going on the next lap, and she would barely be coming in, right? And everybody's cheering her and everything, she'd be coming in, kind of limping a little and everything else. And Doug, she went out on every lap. Come on, seriously and I and I don't know if she finished the 10th lap, but I probably saw her in at least seven or eight laps, and Eric one time walk, said, Great job, you're doing great. And she goes, I'm doing okay, but you're doing good yourself, right? She was like, Don't be giving me some charity cause. She was like, No, you're doing good, right? And Eric was like, We're blown away. We're like, Man, she's like, you know, she's like, Don't give me that fluffy bullshit. Don't give me that fluffy bullshit. She's like, Good job, you too. I ain't that far behind you.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. And uh we saw her all day long. Yeah, that's awesome, man. That you know what? That I that's the kind of shit I live for because those you know me, I'm Mr. Longevity. Everything I do, everything I do is tied to my 80, 90 year old self. And to see, to hear about uh a person of that age out there competing like that, you know, she's got nothing to prove, you know, but she's doing it because why? Because she can, Daryl. Because she can. And so that's something to strive for. You know what? I'd like to just throw uh plant a seed out there and toss out an invitation into the universe. Is uh, you know, I'd love to get JP on the on the podcast.
SPEAKER_03:I sent him a note. I told him that we were gonna be recording this week's podcast, and I'd send it to him and send it through the social. Yeah, um, and I definitely I I know this, I can only imagine him decompressing over this week, all the different ones. I'm definitely gonna send him a message and I'll ask him if he'll be on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, do me a favor, send him personally, send him this episode link once I get it uploaded. I'll get it up and load it for Friday or Saturday. And uh, but when it comes up, uh, you probably have his contact information or something like that. But get that over to him. Let's get him on the show because I I would love to unpack just his heart and his soul that he can share with uh with our audience and it and the air.
SPEAKER_03:And um, he asked if we would do one thing. Yeah. And I told you this. He said, if you're gonna put something on social media, could you tag our sponsors? Yes. Think how simple that is. Yes, right. Well, you know what? He didn't ask for anything, and I and when I put my little post on social media, I tagged all of them. It took me all of two minutes. It's I I had to write them down. There was eight or nine of them. When we put out this podcast, we'll tag the same one.
SPEAKER_01:Well, send me, send me, make sure you send me all those tags because I'll I'll put it in the little tag section. Correct, correct.
SPEAKER_03:And you know, I just um, you know, I just uh I was blown away by a lot, but I was blown away, like you said, this was about somebody doing it right. And you know, we when you do something that's truly for human, and he mentioned in his speech he used the word humanity many times, so did you just now, right? You know, for bigger than you, people respond. And these companies responded, these running clubs responded, the population responded, everything else there, and um, you know, and it's just giving back and just uh, you know, you know, really giving back to a better, bigger and better cause than yourself.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that's the note we're gonna end on right there. Giving back to a bigger and better cause than yourself. So without any further ado, I'm just gonna sign off like I always do and say God blessed and peach out. We're out.