Run Your Race Podcast
When I first listened to David Goggins' book in 2019, I was hooked. If he could run 100 miles without training, I thought I could do it with training! It unlocked something in me, leading to my journey into ultramarathons. Since then, I've completed multiple 100- and 200-mile races, something I once thought impossible. This podcast aims to give you that same mindset shift. Each week, we interview elite endurance athletes to inspire you to believe more is possible and push yourself to the next level.
Run Your Race Podcast
#005: Luis Cocco - Miami 100 Race Director and Running 9,696 Laps Around A Martial Arts Studio (200 Miles)
From high school cross-country to ultramarathons, Louis Coco's journey is nothing short of awe-inspiring. This episode takes you through his transformation into an ultra-running powerhouse, and the creative mind behind the Miami 100 ultra marathon. Louis shares how a significant injury propelled him toward uncharted running territories, sparking a passion that has led to over 21 races of 100 miles or more. Get ready to hear about his adventures, including a remarkable 240-mile trek through Florida.
Navigating the highs and lows of endurance running, Louis provides insights into the mental fortitude and strategic planning required for ultramarathons. The episode covers the emotional rollercoaster of participating in races like the Daytona 100 and the Keys 100. Louis's stories, from self-supported marathons to a unique Disney marathon experience, highlight the significance of patience, staying present, and the power of community. Learn how adaptability, shaped by family responsibilities and personal commitments, plays a crucial role in his running philosophy.
Explore the creation and evolution of the Miami 100, a race designed to showcase Miami's vibrant culture with a format that keeps runners on their toes. Inspired by the Great New York 100 Mile Race, the Miami 100 features a dynamic course that changes yearly, demanding attention and navigation skills without the typical markers. Louis shares his advice for aspiring ultra runners, stressing the importance of perseverance and learning from setbacks. Tune in to uncover how a certified 100-mile race became a catalyst for raising $10,000 for Thumbs Up International, and what keeps Louis motivated in his relentless pursuit of new challenges.
You can find Luis Here...
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/luis.cocco.92/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/running.ninja/
Running Ninja Events - https://runningninjamiami.com/miami-100
Boom. Welcome back, everyone to the Run your Race podcast. I'm your host, pierce Schau, and I'm excited for you to hear from our guest today. Today, I'm joined by Louis Coco. Louis is an ultra runner, having completed, I believe, if I did my research correctly, 15 races over 15 races that are 100 miles or more. He's a taekwondo master. He's the race director of the Miami 100 ultra marathon that I'm actually running this weekend. We're, I think, four days away from the race. Super excited to have you on, lewis. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you, pierce, for having me Appreciate it and yeah, it's been a journey ultra running.
Speaker 1:I bet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so actually. So on ultra sign-up, I have about 1,500s or longer, but I've actually done. I've gone over the distance about 21 times. I've done a lot of you. You know, covid era spurred a lot of like uh, solo runs and stuff like that and a lot of people were doing that. So there is, there is a few kind of interesting and unique runs that didn't end up getting officially uh documented on ultra sign up but they were very. They were very real to me.
Speaker 2:So yeah, us ultra runners, we, we keep track of every single one, because you know for sure, for sure, like there's one that um recently it was a 240 miler and it's, uh, it's, it's a pretty unique route. In florida. You do the ocean lake hiking trail which is, you know, it's really unique. You're basically kind of going through like Florida swamp and a lot of different, uh, unique um ecosystems, and you end up you take that, you start out in the ocean, you go through that trail which is a hundred kilometers, and then you end up at Lake Okeechobee and then you circumnavigate all of Lake Okeechobee, which is 118 mile um path. It's a dike elevated over the lake and then you come back to the, to the trail, the a hundred K trail, and you got to take that back and finish in the ocean.
Speaker 2:So it's pretty, it's pretty gnarly. It was kind of created as like an FKT type thing and so not very many people have completed it, especially that just the Florida, the terrain and the weather poses a lot of challenges and that especially that trail section tends to be heavily flooded year round. I mean, it's rarely is it ever dry. So it's, it's got a lot of unique challenges to it and so that was. That was a pretty, pretty neat experience. That was um last. I can't believe it's been a year already.
Speaker 1:That was last year, wow and yeah so that self-supported, or did you have a crew?
Speaker 2:no, I had, I had crew, I had crew. Okay, um it it's a it actually be a pretty neat uh journey to do self-supported um, but also trying to kind of just factor in safety and other things and keeping keeping the family happy with what I'm doing. I gotta, I gotta have crew, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, well, I know that, Lewis, you, you didn't start it at 240 miles, right, and so you know. I think a lot of people can see you know and hear that and be like man, I'm just so far from that. Um, so I'd love to dive into where you were at, you know, years ago when you started running. How did you get into running originally? What did that look like for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, without getting into too much of a backstory, I did run some cross country and track in high school, which was quite some time ago, showing my age, you know. But I always just ran short stuff and so, and being a martial artist, I've always just really not been a distance guy. I've been more of an explosive athlete and so, like I would, you know, two miles was like a long run for me. That sounded like a long run and basically, and once I kind of got into, you know, uh, the adult portion of my life, I never really ran more than you know, like one to two miles at a time.
Speaker 2:That was kind of like going out for a run and it's like you know, bang out a hard, quick mile or whatever, and it's like man, I went, did a long run today, that kind of thing, and I actually tore my ACL competing in 2011. And then, after having reconstructive surgery and rehab, I really actually started walking a lot as part of rehab and, you know, I kind of kept testing like how much further could I walk, how much better could I improve my pace, kind of kept testing like how much further could I walk, how much better could I improve my pace, and simultaneously my my wife kind of just randomly asked me to train her to do a half marathon and so that sort of happened around the same time and then in that process of you know, helping her with that and I had never done that distance, but I was.
Speaker 2:You know, I I teach martial arts and I coach for a living. So like, okay, well, I, I think we can handle this. We're not going for record speeds here, we're just yeah, learning to do it and get right and for completion.
Speaker 2:And then I I ended up pacing her, uh for the Miami half and it was. It was a great experience, you know. We had a blast and that kind of spurred the thought for myself. I was like I wonder you know what I could do in a half a blast, and that kind of spurred the thought for myself. I was like I wonder you know what I could do in a half, and and then I kind of I did a few of them and I started devouring books on running and of course, like many other ultra runners at least you know kind of I feel like around my job I think everybody still does. But you know, a little bit further back people were reading like ultra marathon man by Dean Karnazes and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:You know, the newer generation might have other kinds of role models or people that have been like David Goggins for exactly.
Speaker 1:I'm not from the.
Speaker 2:Goggins era in terms of like his media reach. I know he's been around for a long time doing it, but in terms of like media reach, you know, I read that ultra marathon man by Dean Karnazes and I was just blown away. I was like what in the world is this? How do you, how do you train yourself to be able to do these things and experience all this stuff? And I always loved hiking and nature and going to all these remote places when I did my travels, competing as martial artists, visiting national parks and stuff like that. I was so I was immediately blown away and I was like man, this would be so cool to train up to be able to go somewhere and, you know, run a hundred mile mile race and see some stuff that probably only people that can train themselves to go these distances can can have access to.
Speaker 2:And that really sort of just started that process and then I just kind of started testing myself with like little mini journey runs in in my neighborhood in Miami, and that's really kind of the origin of Miami 100 as well, because I've I've also always been fascinated with, with travel and maps and stuff like that. So I, instead of just doing like neighborhood loops and stuff like that, I'd always create courses and I was always like well, I want to run over here. That'd be cool to you know kind of experience this area.
Speaker 2:And so all those sort of formative years of learning an ultra run. It was really sort of the beginning and the origin of putting Miami 100 together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's incredible and we'll dive into that a little later and how unique that race is, with the course changing every year and all of that. But let me ask you this like what did your progression look like from that time that was the first half marathon to like an 100 miler Like how long of a time was that? And then did you like kind of stair step it up to do full marathon? You know, 50 mile, 100 mile, or what did that look like for you?
Speaker 2:It was a little atyypical, but not from what I see from a lot of ultra runners, not not that weird. A lot of people do skip over a lot of the distances, and so I did. I believe it was um two halves by myself, and then I wanted to see if I could go the marathon distance and that I just did as a as my own little journey run and it was. It was terrible. You know, it was super, super slow and it was everything that I hoped it would be. You know, I did it again a la Dean Karnazes.
Speaker 2:Just, you know, put, put some money in my pocket and you know, have like a take a few snacks and, and, you know, have like a take a few snacks and and, uh, you know, a bottle that I could refill and whatnot, and, um, and so once I completed that, I felt pretty good about it and then I was like, okay, it's time to register for my first race. And, um, my first race turned out to be a 50 K in Chattanooga. I'm actually wearing the. Well, that was the second year. I did the fit the lookout mountain 50 mile. Uh-huh, I did that 50k and it, it, man, it like destroyed me, I ran it was like the craziest thing um.
Speaker 2:Also, being from miami, you know it's pretty flat, so we're not running trails, technical trails, not running a lot of elevation gain. But I just kind of went full steam ahead, completed that that 50k and just loved it. But man, I was like I was like a 95 year old man. After the race I could barely walk and but I was like, okay, I gotta you know life stuff and training and and you know um kind of uh, managing my businesses and everything like that. I came back the following year and did the 50 mile in Chattanooga.
Speaker 2:And after that I was like, okay, I need to do a hundred mile race. And then I, um, pretty soon there after that that I I went and attempted my first hundred and I never I never did an actual marathon until recently. So I did like all these hundreds and stuff and other ultras and then, like two years ago, I did my first official marathon at disney, which was really fun. Kind of funny that I was like this is going to be my first marathon.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's kind of how it went really. So it started out slow, you know, and then once I committed to the 100-mile distance, you know I fell in love with that distance just because of all the strategy and the training that goes in and the logistics and the planning that. That's the part that I really love and, you know, and that still kind of draws me to the sport I like. I like some of the short stuff too, but you know, really my heart is set on the longer kind of runs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's actually a question I had for you, because I was going through your ultra signup and it looked like you had done Daytona 106 times and I was curious like what keep? What about a race like that keeps you coming back?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. You know a lot of things. It was my. It was my first race. I actually dnf the first time I tried it and um, it was terrible. It was my first. I was so ramped up for, for my first hundred, um, I had a fundraiser going on and everything and like I had all this stuff riding on it and I dnf'd at mile 89.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah why, unbeknownst to me, I had, I had a cellulitis in my leg and the doctors think I might have had like a spider bite or something before the race, and and the effort exacerbated it, but I didn't know. And but I got to a point, my, my leg was so swollen and I could just I was down to about a one hour per mile pace toward the back end and it was just pure misery. And I got to a point where, you know, I was like this is, this is a pretty bad situation we had. We had to throw in the towel and I was distraught because I'm I'm a hard line kind of like. You know, you sign up for the race to finish the race.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Like no matter what. And, um, I spent three days in the in the ER after that race on on IV antibiotics Wow yeah, cause it was pretty, my leg was pretty bad. And after that race on IV antibiotics, wow yeah, because my leg was pretty bad. And after that I recovered and a few months later I did the Keys 100. That was my first official finish and barely squeaked that under 24, and it was pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:So that's when I was like, okay, I can actually do this, because the first one left me with a lot of questions and even though I had the cellulitis thing, I still was like man. I didn't finish, what did I do wrong? And kind of went back to the drawing board. And so, to go back to your original question, daytona it's a great race, great community, the course is beautiful and it was special because it was that that first attempt. And then I came back and then it was redemption kind of thing and, um, and yeah, just a lot of memories there. And again, it's a beautiful course. It's also a great course to try to, you know, score a pr if you're if you're ready for it and you've trained up well and you go racing it's.
Speaker 2:It's definitely a great road race to attempt a pr. Usually the weather is perfect at that time of year that's good.
Speaker 1:What do you feel like is the hardest part about running in a hundred miler?
Speaker 2:um, a lot of.
Speaker 2:Definitely there's a lot of hard parts, but I think, you know, just staying patient really is, I think, the most difficult part for a lot of um ultra runners and even experienced ultra runners.
Speaker 2:You have to remind yourself and kind of um, really stay in the moment. You know there's all these sort of corny adages and stuff like that that we all know, like, you know, run the mile that you're in and stay, and all that stuff, but they really are true, you know, and if you get ahead of yourself, especially when you're suffering and you're having a low moment, and you start doing math like oh man, I have, you know, 48 more miles to go, or whatever it is, or even you know, a little later in the race you've passed the 100K mark, but you just feel so miserable and now it's nighttime and you know you're feeling sleepy, you're moving slower, you know you're sick and tired of drinking stuff and eating stuff and you're just feeling like crap and you're thinking about how much more you have to do, really just staying patient and sort of letting the moment uh, you know um unwind itself.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's good. Yeah, I find that almost during every ultra marathon I do, there's a some point during it where I question like why the heck do I do these things? Why do I put myself?
Speaker 2:through this. You know I've always. I love the challenge, I love the journey. So, generally speaking, even when I'm at my worst, I'm pretty still like happy-go-lucky and grateful but at the same time recognize, like man, this is bad, like I'm not. I am way far away from the finish here and I am not feeling well, or you know, or I'm just like having a really tough time feeling well, or you know, or I'm just like having a really tough time and I think that's what, again, what you know.
Speaker 2:The hardest part of the race is knowing how to stay strong and stay mentally in it and stay patient, so that way you don't let all those little things, uh, kind of manifest themselves and ultimately, you know, cause you to maybe prematurely stop.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of times we tend to have more in us than we think we have and even with completed races, you might go back and think about your finish and be like man did I really give it everything I had, or did I kind of ease up a bit over here, or did I baby myself too much over there? You know that, that kind of thing. So I think, staying patient and staying, you know, in the moment and really, um, giving it your best effort is. I think that's the hardest part, and even as you build experience, you may become used to doing these things and then you it's almost like you forget that the effort that you need to put in and it can be easy to get complacent and coast versus. Like I need to, I need to work hard and and push myself, and this is supposed to be hard. You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Now I got to ask you. I was like looking up pictures of you and you are really lean, like I feel like you say stay very lean and muscular. Uh, through all this ultra running, what? What do you feel like helps you do that? Do you do a lot of weight training and stuff.
Speaker 2:I lift more now. To be honest, most of my entire adulthood I lifted in high school during sports, but that was really about it. After that it was just martial arts and calisthenics.
Speaker 2:So, outside of you know, like some pushups and pull-ups and that that type of thing. Um, really that was about it. But recently, uh, my wife and I have been lifting more together, which has been great. It's been, you know, fun to kind and I'd be lying if I said that that really has been like what I give credit to. I guess for my fitness it's really been more just, I guess, a consistent lifestyle of always being active and what I do, you know, for a living. Even if I'm kind of having a slow day, I'm still pretty active. I'm teaching martial arts, I've always trained a lot, so it's kept my body pretty limber.
Speaker 2:And, you know, I guess I could also thank my parents for giving, you know, lean genetics. I guess I can. You know, I tend to be lean pretty, pretty easily and if I, if I push myself hard in training it, you know it comes through pretty fast. But yeah, I think more than anything it's just consistent hard work. So even when I'm not doing massive amounts of lifting or running or anything like that, I'm still pretty active, lifting or running or anything like that. I'm still pretty active, like my, my baseline kind of um, not doing a lot, I think it's still probably pretty active for most.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for sure. Now you know, I know you're, you're married. Do you have kids?
Speaker 2:I have two kids.
Speaker 1:Okay, how old are they?
Speaker 2:14 year old son and an eight year old daughter. Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So you, you're married, you have kids, you have a business and you also do a ton of ultra running. I know you know ultra running is is not a uh, you know one hour a week sport. You know you're out, getting in a lot of miles and spending a lot of time on the road. Um, what have you found? How have you found to be able to balance all of that? Like, is your wife's pretty supportive for all the races you do, or what does that look like?
Speaker 2:For sure you know my family really is the backbone and you know my wife and my kids are amazing. They've always been super supportive. You know my wife actually like signs me up for the races half the time you know she'll go on ultra, sign up and and be like, or or she'll kind of nudge me like you should, you should do this, or, you know, and she co-directs the miami hundred with me. So she's very involved in the community and knows, you know, a lot of the the ins and outs of what's going on in florida and the florida race scene and all that stuff and and so you know she's always encouraging stuff and and so you know she's always encouraging me to get out there and or you know travel events and stuff like that as well. Um, so they've been, they've been super supportive and, um, you know, without that for sure it'd be, it'd be impossible.
Speaker 1:And still it's always.
Speaker 2:That's always the thing you know. Finding balance is always the hardest, the hardest part, you know being a husband, being a dad, being a business owner. You know, trying to do your, you know personal training and and and work toward a goal and all that stuff can be challenging and so, um, you know, just trying to find, find the middle road. I guess is I don't know that I have a great answer or technique, you know, I think you got to.
Speaker 2:Just, you know, learn to manage your responsibilities and figure out where you know where you can kind of fit in your training and stuff like that. You know where you can kind of fit in your, your training and stuff like that. And fortunately for me I've been, I've been pretty blessed and lucky that you know my, my business hours and my lifestyle does give me a lot of flexibility.
Speaker 2:And so over the years, my training cycles have have been very different and and at times you know, like there's when my daughter was really young or just born, that's around the time that I was prepping when she would. Actually, when my wife was pregnant with her, which is over now over nine years ago, I was prepping for my first hundred so and then she was. My daughter's daily was a terrible sleeper actually I always credit her for helping me with my ability to you know, to power through ultras and stuff like that and stay up.
Speaker 2:You know, and even like when I rate, like when I race direct, it's actually like some of the gnarliest times because I don't, I don't sleep a wink, I don't rest a wink and I'm, you know, burning the midnight candle and, and you know, getting ready for the race. Usually friday night, race night, I'm still doing stuff till like midnight and then got to be up by about three or so to get ready, to get down to the start line, get everything set up. Then I'm powering through the race through the night waiting for the runners next day over. So I'm usually doing like 40 plus hours straight on on miami, 100 off of a few hours of sleep and yeah, so that was.
Speaker 2:I credit that to my daughter, you know, not sleeping well and me constantly had to like get her up. You know, pace up and down, leap, all that stuff and um, and so, yeah, I used to train a lot at at night or weird hours, overnight hours, um, early morning hours, stuff like that, you know, midnight runs. But then, as, as our family dynamic shifted and changed a little bit, then I got more into kind of more normal time periods, morning runs, but then things change again and um, a lot of times my runs are like midday, and which, as a Florida runner, it it works out well too, cause we're always dealing with the heat out here. That's the biggest factor of all of our races, really, and so how well you can manage the heat, so running, running late mornings or midday runs are great, because you're getting the brunt of of that heat and humidity yeah, so you've just gotten used to that, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's good and I think that's really powerful. You know, what you said is like there was no one way to do it, um, but also, like you know, having a kid, having kids, having you a spouse can make it a little bit more challenging, but it's not an excuse to not be able to do it. Like you can still find the time, you can still make it happen if it's really that important to you to stay fit and to keep up with your training.
Speaker 2:For sure, I think, you know, I think we can all do uh better, you know we can all do more or we can manage our times. You know our time a little bit better and a lot of times also there's, you know, we we tend to do the things that we like and sort of avoid the things that we don't like or we don't want to do and that and that's again.
Speaker 2:That's always a work in progress for me as well. I'm always trying to figure out how I can, you know, do my best at everything, and you always kind of feel like you're you're letting the ball drop a little bit in one area, you know, when you're balancing life, and so we, you know you never have it all figured out, but I think, um, it's the, it's the effort to, you know, try to improve and recognize, like you know, you know we're, we got to give it our best and and, you know, sometimes we kind of, you know, take a back step or slip up or whatnot. But you can get right, you know. You can get right back at it and try to, um, you know, try to make the best of things and or, again, manage whatever's going on in your life and your family. For me, family is always a number one priority. So the running stuff and other things kind of have to shift around that, depending what happens.
Speaker 2:And I always, when I got into ultra running, I never wanted to be the type of person that was like, no, I have to prep for a race or I'm training, I can't, you know, I need to go to bed really early or things like that, like it's the complete opposite. You know and and I've always gotten a lot of tough love too at home, which is great for me I I guess it's hardened me up but like, yeah, I'll be, it'll be the night before a race and everybody's up and about watching movies and stuff in the house and you know I'll, I'll get to bed late, I get a few hours of sleep and I'm like, well, it's race day, let's, let's go, it's rock and roll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I got you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get, get, get to work there's. There's stuff that needs to be done in the house and kids are ready to hang out and play and do stuff, so yeah, Got to be adaptable.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Um so, switching gears more towards the Miami 100, um, what made you want to start that race? And and when did you start that race? Was it in 2018?
Speaker 2:That's correct. Yeah, 2018 was the inaugural year and, um, really, you know, as I just became like fully enthralled with the ultra running and and researching all the different races and then really researching florida races, um, you know, I was just kind of shocked that there was no miami 100 or there was no race in the past. You know, in miami that was like a hundred mile or something like that. There. There have been a few ultras in miami, but there were like smaller events, fixed time races, stuff like that but there was no. You know, epic miami 100 and, um, I just felt compelled, I put on uh, before doing the race directing I was a martial art, a Taekwondo tournament director as well.
Speaker 2:So, you know, I have experience. My wife and I would put on Taekwondo events, so naturally there's always an inclination to do events already. So, because of that background and experience, I was like man, there should be a Miami 100. And then I just had this. I kind of really rushed in 2018 because, I don't know, I had this really crazy sense of urgency that I needed to get the race off and sort of claim it now because somebody else is going to start something yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and not do it justice. You know, and and there's going to be I don't know what. I just felt like Again, miami is so unique and diverse and interesting and really it's it's hard even, you know, to see a lot of it in one shot. But I was like let's, let's do something that's different and really showcase some of that diversity and the unique and the beauty of Miami and the culture. And so that's what really kind of spurred me on to put the race together.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and tell everyone what the race format is like and why you chose it to be that way. Because I personally have never run an ultramarathon like this, and I'm chose that it to be that way because, um, I personally have never run an ultra marathon like like this and, uh, and I'm excited for it.
Speaker 2:so, yeah, and uh, it's definitely different. Um, I was inspired a lot by the tgny 100, the great new york 100 mile race, and you know it's new york city and it's 100 miles through new york city. Um, but that course is fixed. So the course is is fixed. You do get all the directions ahead of time and and nowadays you can download the gpx file and all that stuff. But, uh, I was thinking of that race and how it just kind of goes through all these cool areas. It really inspired me. And then I was like, okay, I could kind of put my own little twist on it and instead of you knowing you know the entire route. I kind of really wanted people to be present in the moment. So I was like, okay, you don't know the whole route, so you can only really run the leg that you're in. You know you can, so you are.
Speaker 2:The race is typically between five to six checkpoints and then the finish line. So, example, this year it's five checkpoints and then the finish. So you're doing six segments. So instead of you know while you're you'll be out there running. You can't really get ahead of yourself and think about all this other stuff, because you have one mission to get to checkpoint one, you know, and until you get, follow the directional card and get to checkpoint one, the race doesn't go on until you, until you get there, you know. So I felt like it'd be a unique way to to have runners really be a little bit more present and and it's kind of a little bit of an adventure versus just following like a loop or a track and just looking for, like directional arrow signs. You're really out there paying attention and you and and in this race you're actually, you know, looking for the street signs and stuff like that and so you're.
Speaker 2:You know a lot of people will get overwhelmed and they're like oh man, that sounds so hard, it's so difficult, and I'm terrible at navigation and and I think that's the if there's anything I can impress upon people that are thinking about the race is that it's not meant to be difficult, like the directional part tells you exactly where you're supposed to go and what I tell, tell their other rds some of my colleagues we joke about. I'm like hey, man, you know, you guys you're setting up all these like little course markers with arrows and stuff like that, and those can get turned around, they can get knocked over, they can move. You know we're using the actual fixed street signs that belong to the city, so it's like our. You know no one's going to pick up the street sign and move it or it's not going to get knocked down by rain or something like that. So it's actually I feel like in a sense it's not more difficult. If anything, it could be easier.
Speaker 2:You have to pay attention and you can't just get into like a trance and just start running and you miss. You know you were supposed to turn a quarter mile ago and you just kept going. Get into like a trance and just start running and you miss. You know you were supposed to turn a quarter mile ago and you just kept going down on a certain street. So that's you know, that's kind of it, and and really I felt like, uh, there's so much to see and I wanted to to make the course unique every year. So that's why I committed to always changing the course and to our, my, my poor wife, into my own difficulty and an extra work and extra stress every year. Um, you know, we've committed, we've kept the, we've kept the race format the same, and this is the seventh year doing it.
Speaker 1:Wow, so this is the seventh year. That's incredible when it comes to those race directions. So it sounds like it's pretty simple, like it's just you know run for two miles, turn right on. You know X street, then run another. You know four miles Is street, then run another four miles. Is that kind of how the directions are?
Speaker 2:It doesn't really say do it for this much distance. It tells you. So the card will tell you exactly the directive, what you're supposed to do. So example like turn right on Southwest 168th Street. So example like turn right on Southwest 168th Street, you know and you'll, and you're, as you're going, you're going to see, you're going to be looking, seeing the street signs and stuff, and you're going to very quickly figure out the pattern or see what's going on, and you know you'll make that turn and then it'll tell you the next step. You know, let's just say it's turn left you know, on 82nd Ave left.
Speaker 2:You know, on 82nd ave okay, on the card, not on every single step, but most of the steps that we feel like it's important or it just kind of gives you helps you with your bearings there'll be a number in parentheses and that's the approximate mile. You know distance that you're at at that step. So when you're making that left it might say five. So you know you're supposed to be at my mile five when you make that left turn and that kind of.
Speaker 2:And then there's there's a corresponding map, hand-drawn map that I I pride myself on and I make these little hand-drawn maps on the back of the card. That only it only has the route that you're taking, so it's not a confusing map with tons of cross section roads and stuff like that. It's basically showing you exactly what you're supposed to be doing. So if you just a lot of runners don't like using the map, they just read the card and you and a lot of runners are totally successful just following the directions. But if you just glance at that map and look at it, you know it'll kind of enlighten you a little bit. It's like oh, that's what we're doing and it makes more sense.
Speaker 2:And so when you, as you see the map and then you read what you're supposed to do, that you know those two things together make it pretty easy. Or if you're, if you're ever just a little bit insecure, you get to an intersection like was I supposed to turn there, or was I supposed to?
Speaker 2:do that and and if you just quickly glance back over at the map, it'll very quickly clarify what it was supposed to be. That's really it in a nutshell. You know it's pretty straightforward and pretty simple. And again, I always tell people that the goal is never for it to be like an orienteering thing and for people to get lost Like I hate when that happens, like we want all our runners to have a very successful journey yeah no missed turns.
Speaker 2:And you know, um, some runners, sometimes you know they're, they're struggling with it and whatnot, and and you know, most of the time what we tell them is like you're just overthinking it and you just have to trust. You got to trust the card actions, you know the leaders always have zero issues.
Speaker 2:They always just like blaze through it. And they, they all say the same thing like directions are perfect, we had no issues. And once you know we always we're always stressed out during the race. We're like, okay, we just make sure everybody's getting through. And once the leader comes through every checkpoint, we're like, okay, everything is golden. You know, they made it through perfectly. That means everything is good, you know.
Speaker 1:No, that's great and I love your point on too. It like makes you stay present because I think that can be something that can destroy your race during an 100 miler. If you start to think, you know, at mile 30, maybe that was the longest run you did leading up to the race and you're like man, I don't feel great at mile 30. Like I can't even imagine going 70 more miles. And then you start to get in your head about how far that is and how long it's going to take. But when you're just focused on getting to the next checkpoint, you're segmenting the race by checkpoints. It makes a huge difference.
Speaker 2:For sure. I think that that really was always my idea. And in going back to what we talked about previously, I think you know learning to have that patience and stay in the moment. I think this format it really sort of helps you kind of, you know, enjoy that journey aspect of the race and really breaks up the race into like little mini adventures and kind of, you know, like mini quests. It's like I got to get to this checkpoint. Once I get there, and then you feel more accomplished too, because once you get to the checkpoint you're like all right, man, I'm doing it, I got here. You know, the first, the first mission has been completed. Now I now I'm going on my second mission, and so it sort of gives you like renewed purpose each time and even if a little sluggish or you're hurting a little bit.
Speaker 2:You know it's like, okay, this is the next leg. It's, it's 18 miles and and oh, okay, this is cool, I'm going, we're going into this part of miami and that that's also a little bit of that unknown like what are we doing now? Where are we going now? Plus that, you know, smaller, I think, gives everybody that that focus and a little bit of excitement and sort of helps people stay in the game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, that's awesome. Now, with this being the seventh year of the race, um, have you noticed about anything that the front runners typically do differently, or um are just, yeah, do differently compared to people who don't do as well in the race?
Speaker 2:I don't know that there's anything. You know one, any one thing, I think, obviously they're, they're strong runners to begin with. So I don't know that it's necessarily a strategy thing. I think again, um, it it comes down to, you know, being, of course, being ready for the race, being strong, managing you know, all the things that are important for a hot south florida race to begin with, like managing heat, all that and but yeah, trust, you know, just in terms of following the route and all that stuff, just trusting the card and not overthinking it and and just having that faith and keep keep going, keep going forward. Yeah, I think other other than that, really, and that's not to say that leaders have never had any issues before, but I think all of them are usually very quickly resolved, and so that's again.
Speaker 2:We've had very, very few instances where somebody really kind of went off the rails and did a lot of extra.
Speaker 2:You know, most of the time, um, you know if you're off it's an easy fix.
Speaker 2:And also, and we and we talk about this and pre-race and stuff like that, but you know, everybody should have a phone on them, uh, and it's pretty easy to just open up your maps and see where you're at on your phone and if you see that and cross-reference it to what you're supposed to be doing, you can pretty quickly fix or self-resolve and that kind of thing. And again, the courses. It's not like you're spending the whole time looking for stuff. It's very runnable. You're going to have long stretches where you're on the same road and stuff like that. You know and and so and I, I was I always talk about this with my, with my wife, about different things and you know, life and adventures and stuff like that. We, we tend to get really stressed out about stuff you know and we think of everything coming at us like really fast. And I'm like when you're actually out there during as the race is unfolding itself, and in the moment actually, everything's coming at you pretty slow, especially during a 100 mile ultra marathon.
Speaker 1:You're not driving, you're running.
Speaker 2:Everything's coming at you real slow. You know you got plenty of time to assess and figure things out, and that's in any race or anything in life. You know it's not like everything's coming at you at warp speed. You know so, and and that's where it just goes back to like staying present, staying in the moment, not not panicking when things happen, you know, just problem solve, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's really good. I love that. Now I want to ask you one final question. Um, what would you say to someone who has never done an 100 mile race but is considering doing one?
Speaker 2:and uh, yeah, they're just like not sure about it yeah, I think that if you know what I would say to anybody out there that's thinking about it, I would definitely, you know, say, go for it. And you know you can, you can do it. I mean, if you're even thinking about it, you can definitely do it. I think that's the beauty of ultra marathoning, is that really, it's accessible to everybody. You know, if you can move, you can move a little bit longer.
Speaker 2:You know, and so sure, there are some races that may have a more stringent cutoff or a little bit longer. You know and so sure, there are some races that may have a more stringent cutoff or a little bit more difficult. But if you're thinking about doing it, find, find a race that is um kind of like congruent with your goals or that will allow you. So if you're, you know, if, if you love ultra running but you're not a front pack runner or even a middle pack, you're a back of the packer, find a fixed time race, go for a 48 hour that will allow you more time to push yourself and test your limits and give you that format and that ability to see that you can do it to. You know, see that you can do it.
Speaker 2:And you know, I think with all of us, we we tend to doubt ourselves sometimes what we're really capable of and I'll tell you, know, I would tell anybody out there that you know, if you, if you believe in yourself as much as I believe in you or somebody else, you know, or you could see really what you're capable of if you just kind of continue forward you know, quite a revelation.
Speaker 2:So I think it's really just about being ready to take that next step and just go for it and not be afraid to fail. It's OK. It's OK to fail, and you know, get suit back up and try again. You know, learn from that and figure out what you need to do better or how to be more prepared, and then go for it again.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, yeah, and and I mean from your story specifically, you didn't make it on the first one. Things came up but you got got back on the saddle and you finished in 100 and now you've done. You said I think 21 or so of them like incredible.
Speaker 2:So, uh, oh, go on yeah, no, no, there was a. There was a few during covid where, with all that uncertainty, we did a few virtual hundreds and I did. One of the more bizarre ones was I I did um 100 miles inside of my studio, which you'll you'll get to check out on friday, and it was, uh, it was 5 000 laps. But but then the following year, during covid, it was a kind of joked about it I was like, well, now we got to try to do a 200. Then it turned into a whole thing. We made it a fundraiser and I ended up having the course measured, certified. It was 9,696 laps for the smallest course ever to achieve 200 miles. And so we did 200 miles inside the studio. The what thing was live streamed and every single lap recorded. Yeah, it was pretty. It's pretty wild.
Speaker 1:I was like in a cage for 84 hours or whatever it was oh my gosh, did you check it, track it via gps, or how did you track the number of laps?
Speaker 2:mike melton, who's one of the you know premier timers in the world. He's done some of the you know he's done, uh, 24 hour, world championships, bigs backyard, many other very notable races. He came in, measured, certified the course at distance. We had a I wore an ankle bracelet tracker. Every single lap got report, got recorded, um, and you could actually still access that database. You could see every single lap split. You can access those files and the whole thing was live streamed to for you know, to certify it. We were trying to get a guinness world record, even though guinness came back and and said this is not one of the classic distances that we monitor and they didn't you know, verify or whatever, but for me it was a little gimmicky, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just for fun.
Speaker 2:It was just for fun, you know, but it was still. It was more about the challenge, like, can I actually do like 10,000 tiny rectangles to create 200 miles? And that was the hardest part was like 40,000 turns, 90 degree turns on my body, on my, on my ankles, on my knees, and so that was like the real challenge, but it was. It was a great community event and so many people from the community came in and hung out and, you know, supported me and stuff like that. So it was a bizarre time, you know, event, but it was really one of my favorites all time.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's incredible. I got to ask you about that. One more question, like what are you thinking of during this race, or are you listening to music or podcasts? Are you just present in the moment? Like, what does that look like?
Speaker 2:play some music. For sure, there was definitely music being played other times. Just, you know, chatting with whoever was there, as you've noticed, today, I, you know I could talk a bit, I can, I could definitely talk with the best of them, um, but you know other. But just again, just staying in the moment, you know we were also raising funds for Thumbs Up International, which is an incredible organization that provides opportunities for differently abled athletes, you know, to make it to start line and stuff like that and participate in sport, and so you know we raised $10,000. And that was really, you know, my driving purpose and, yeah, just staying. You know I was really focused on being able to do it, so it never felt burdensome, like I know, for a lot of people like that, since how could you keep doing those tiny, tiny, tiny little loops? But some strange part of me was just motivated by the challenge of it and how absurd it was that I stayed. I really stayed pretty, I guess, happy about it the whole time. Like I said, yeah, there were some tough. There were definitely some tough moments and actually I I did the the first time I attempted this, the a hundred miles. It was without the certification, without the recording. I just did it on my watch, indoor setting and you know my kids were like dad, that's going to be so boring, and they actually took some of my plyo boxes and created a hill for me in the studio and I ran up and down. I got like 7,000 feet of gain off of like some little boxes and 7,000 feet of descent inside. But you know, coming back the second time, when I attempted this and it was certified, the way the course was set up, mike Melton created these 90-degree turns and I had even less space so the perimeter was really squeezed tight and I didn't account for that in my training.
Speaker 2:And the first time I attempted it I went to take my first nap at like mile 60 something. It was like two in the morning. I laid down on the floor, which was another terrible mistake. When I got up, my my knees were locked shut from all the turns. I just could not unlock knees. I spent like four hours in agony trying to get going again. I got back up I I powered through like 10 laps where I was moving so like hour 20 per mile pace, just trying to get it going, could not my my knees were just completely shot and had to pull the plug.
Speaker 2:And you know, I got home that day I was pretty bummed and disappointed and my kids immediately were like Dad, you're going to try again, right? And my wife's like no, no, no, no, no, you know like you got hurt, you're not doing this again. And my kids were like no, no, no, you're going to do it. And my son's like we'll, we'll film a documentary and this will be your comeback. And then my daughter, the little one, she's like dad, running, running ninjas never give up, and so that was you have to do it then right, and so I I called up mike and I was like, hey, let's, uh, let's run it back, let's set up a date right now.
Speaker 2:and we, you know, we pushed it back like another six months and I learned a lot from that. And I learned from those 90 degree turns. I actually practiced how to place my feet and how to approach those turns and you know, I I came in with much more of a game plan and much more specific practice for that and also got it a zero gravity chair instead of laying on the floor, which was also a game changer for naps, for a little mini naps, and that that turned out, you know, and everything went great the second time around. And so, yeah, there you go, don't give up, learn don't, don't give up learn and come back, do it better yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:That's a great story of just like doing something again, like failing the first time and getting back up and and overcoming. So hope that inspires you listening to this episode. And uh, lewis, where can people find you? And and find the Miami 100 race.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know the Miami 100 race is is on ultra signup. Of course you can go to our website, which is runningninjamiamicom Also, I think if you just punch in Miami 100.com or you know, just a quick Google search Miami 100 ultra marathon, um, you know, we're on Instagram and Facebook as well and my, my personal social is running, uh, running Ninja. Well, on Facebook just my name, lewis Coco Um, and on Instagram it's running dot ninja. Um, I tend to be a little more active on on Facebook, uh, and through my personal page, and that's sort of where I have the most uh engagement with my community and fellow ultra runners and um, also fellow RDs and stuff like that. But but yeah, you know Awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks so much for coming on the show man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Thank you, Pierce, for having me. It was great and I'm looking forward to you running the 100 this weekend.
Speaker 1:Let's go. It's going to be amazing. We'll see each other in person soon. All right, thank you so much.