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
#006: Matt Scoletti - From Alcoholic to Conquering the Mammoth Endurance 5X Anvil (Quintuple Ironman)
Join us for an inspiring conversation with extraordinary endurance athlete Matt Scoletti, whose transformative journey from battling alcoholism to conquering the world of endurance sports is nothing short of remarkable. Matt opens up about the pivotal moment that changed his life: the tragic 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. This heartbreaking event inspired him to run his first marathon while wearing a weight vest to honor the victims, igniting his passion for running and pushing his limits. Through candid discussions, Matt draws powerful parallels between overcoming addiction and the mental toughness required in endurance sports, offering listeners profound insights into resilience and personal growth.
Matt courageously recounts his struggle with alcohol dependency and the moment he realized that sobriety was essential for true self-confidence and strength. He shares his journey of embracing sobriety in 2016, highlighting the vulnerabilities and challenges he faced along the way. His story is a testament to the power of envisioning a future free from personal demons, using this foresight as a source of motivation for change. As Matt opens up about his path to self-improvement, he underscores the significance of embracing both mental and physical challenges, cultivating discipline, and finding joy in living a life of purpose and achievement.
In his quest to push beyond comfort zones, Matt describes his recent triumph in the Mammoth Endurance 5X Anvil—a grueling quintuple Ironman challenge that tested his limits. He shares the importance of smart training, perseverance, and the unwavering support of his dedicated team. Throughout our conversation, Matt's narrative underscores the strength found in embracing fears, the value of consistency, and the transformative power of pushing one's boundaries. This episode is an inspiring reminder that failure is merely an unexpected result, not a defeat, and that true resilience comes from embracing life's challenges head-on.
You can find Matt here...
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mattscoletti/
Website - https://www.mattscoletti.com/
Okay, what is up everyone? Welcome back to the Run your Race podcast. I'm your host, pierre Hsiao, and I am extremely excited for this one today. This has been years in the making. Today's guest and I met in 2021 at an event called 29-0-29, where you hike the vertical equivalence of summiting Mount Everest, and he was kind enough to drive me home from the event and we just had the best conversation ever, and he's been one of those friends to me that you could go months and even a year without talking to, and you pick up the phone and talk and you just pick up right where you left off.
Speaker 1:Today's guest is an emcee, a speaker, an entrepreneur, an endurance athlete. He's also one of the most savage guys I know. He coined the term in the event Savage Saturday, where him and his friends work out literally all night on certain Saturdays that they plan for. And this guy is amazing. He's run 21 marathons in 21 days. He is a former alcoholic, turned sober and really just transformed his life.
Speaker 1:But what we're bringing him on to Tade to talk about is his story. But also he just finished an event the Mammoth Endurance 5X Anvil, a quintuple and you're probably like what is that? What are you talking about, and this, essentially, is a five times Ironman distance. So what that means is they swam 12 miles, biked 560 miles and then ran 131 miles, and the cool part I think about this is he went out and went for it the first time and he actually didn't complete it the first time, and he came back, adjusted his approach and was able to finish it this time. So our guest today is Matt Scaletti the Savage. How are you, man? Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 2:Pierce, thanks for having me. My friend, that intro was better than anything I could say, so we could just end it now, if you want, because that was well said.
Speaker 1:Let's go, man I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, this is going to be a great one, Matt. What I want to start where I want to start is. A lot of people think like, oh man, you've done this, something I could never even imagine. I can't even think about running five miles, right, but I know you weren't always the guy that did quintuples. So let me ask you this where did you get your start in like endurance races and like pushing yourself physically?
Speaker 2:Was there like a story or a moment that you decided yeah, actually there was, and we can get into the alcoholic days or not if we want, but so the moment where I got into endurance running was actually October of 2018. So I live in Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and we had this tragedy happen. Actually, I love Pittsburgh. I'm a huge Pittsburgh guy, through and through. There was a shooting in this tree of life synagogue where 11 people were killed, and it hit home for me because it is my home, and I think it's one of those things where you see bad things happen and never think it's going to happen close to you until it does. And I had never run a marathon before and I had to do something just being a Pittsburgher, something to lift up this community a little bit, if I could. So I decided that I wanted to run my first marathon wearing an 11 pound weight vest, which was one pound for every victim in this tragedy.
Speaker 2:And what happened which I didn't expect it to happen was social media and some local news outlets got word of what was happening and that race that I ran. It was in May of 2019. It just felt like the city had my back and like I'm Catholic and this happened to the Jewish community and like my message was just it doesn't matter what your religion is, your background is, we're all human beings and love will conquer hate. So that event was still the most emotional probably the most emotional finish line I've ever had wearing this weight vest. It was raining and I was not very smart, pierce, because I had sand in the weight vest. So when it's raining and it's sand for the weight, it turned into like a 30 pound weight mess at the end of this thing. But the guy who ran the Tree of Life Synagogue was waiting for me at the finish line, which I didn't know. He was going to be there and we embrace that was.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm just bawling my eyes out at the finish line of this Pittsburgh marathon and I, after that event, I just fell in love with running and I just thought what's next? What can I do? And I ran the Cleveland Marathon two weeks later and I'm an obsessive person. So once I start going it's like, okay, I can run two marathons in two weeks. What else can we do? How far can we push this thing? So that's where the start really came about.
Speaker 1:Let's go. That's amazing Way to turn a horrible event into the catalyst for something amazing. I know that I think before this time I don't know when, it was in relation to when you got sober but I do want to talk about that because I think there are so many people who may have something in their life that they feel like they just can't conquer and they can't get over, whether it's drugs, alcohol, addiction, certain bad habits, Like I've, at some points in my life, felt like food had excuse me control over me and I couldn't control whether I said no to certain things or said yes to certain things. So what did it look like for you getting sober?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate you asking. And with the food is interesting one too, because you put peanut butter in front of me, that jar can be gone in about 30 seconds. I still struggle with that. Actually it's funny, but true at the same time. I still struggle with that. Actually, it's funny, but true at the same time.
Speaker 2:So, with sobriety, I was like the typical great high school student. I had everything going. I was captain of the basketball team, played four years in high school, never drank straight A's dated the head cheerleader, like everything was going for me. And then I went off to college and I got introduced to this nightlife and alcohol. And the problem was I liked who I became. When I was drinking I wasn't scared of anything. I could talk to anyone. I was like the party guy who knew everybody. And if you wanted to elevate your party like I, was that guy, and if you wanted to elevate your party like I, was that guy. And I think that was part of the problem was I liked who I became and told myself that I would quit after I graduated college. That didn't happen.
Speaker 2:It's getting worse. I got fired from my first job because of alcohol. I couldn't I didn't drink at work, but it was. It was making it worse and I'd come in in the morning hung over, came back to Pittsburgh and just kept struggling. So for me, it took two times.
Speaker 2:There was a moment in 2011 where I hit my rock bottom and I just had one of those moments. I woke up, hung over and I looked in the mirror and when it was almost like 10 years of my life, flash forward like flash in my eyes in like five seconds and I thought I was this healthy basketball player, high confidence and 60 pounds overweight, no confidence and can't control alcohol consumption. I need to change, and the way that I shifted would help me. First off was God. As I know, you're a big time believer and if it wasn't for him, this would have never happened. The second thing was I projected in my as I'm looking in the mirror. What if I don't change? What's my life going to look like 10 years from now? If I stay on this path? And I was convinced I'm still convinced that I would have been in jail or dead for certain, one of those two would have eventually happened, and that made me realize it was accountability. It was on me to manage if I wanted to, and that was the start of it. I didn't fully get sober until 2016. And it was actually shortly after.
Speaker 2:I'll share a quick story. I was blessed to be on American Ninja Warrior in 2015. And it was. You would think that's one of the greatest things that an athlete could do is get on a huge show and on the show they asked me questions to interview me. You don't know who they're going to feature on American Ninja Warrior. They interview and they have 250 athletes run the course. I think they featured 10 on the show and on the show I promoted that I had been over and I overcame this alcohol addiction.
Speaker 2:Meanwhile, before the show aired, before I ran the course and I ran the course at like one o'clock in the morning. It's crazy, they record the show overnight, but I drank like seven or eight shots to get myself comfortable in front of all those cameras. Meanwhile the show airs and it's millions of people watch this and I'm the first story they feature. So I'm watching myself telling the world that I'm this sober guy and then they show me running the course and nobody knew it at the time for myself and two close family members that I was hammered running this course and, like the, the feeling of just.
Speaker 2:I just lied to the world and everybody that I have some inspiring story and I'm drunk on this show was something I didn't admit until like three and a half ago, like it took me five, six years to even share with anybody, or seven years to share with anybody that this happened. So combination of that, and then a couple bad decisions, led me to finally get sober in 2016. But I don't regret it for a second. I feel like for those horrible days, I wouldn't be as happy I wouldn't have met people like yourself and so many others that I'm blessed to have in my life now. So I think it all happened for a reason and I thank God for those setbacks, because challenges build champions. Pierce. End of story.
Speaker 1:Let's go Challenges, build champions. That's such an incredible story. Thanks so much for sharing that, because I think that gives people hope to not get discouraged when you go through a time where you say, hey, I'm done, I've had enough, I'm going to stop this thing and I'm going to be vocal about it, I'm going to do my best to rid this out of my entire life. But then you make a mistake, you have a fallback, you know, and you slip up into that behavior again. It's just another point of encouragement that you can mess up and still get it right forever, like, if you fall back into it, you don't have to stay there, and so I think that's really, really powerful and I think it's funny.
Speaker 1:Maybe not funny, but you bring up like the fact of the drinking was to make you feel comfortable in front of the cameras, because I think that's such a lie, man, that you have to drink, and I think that's why so many people are drawn into it is because you think you like the way you are better when you're drinking. You're more loose, you're talking to people, whatever, when in reality, if you showed up for yourself, you did hard things, and for me, a lot of my strength and confidence comes from God, like because I care more about His opinion of me than other people's. So I don't need alcohol to feel that same way, right, because I have God, because I'm confident, because I've committed to certain things and stuck with those commitments. So I think it's cool too now that you preach the complete opposite side of hey, you don't need these things and you can be sober and live an amazing life.
Speaker 2:Well said, my friend, and you're right, I was living a lie, telling myself that I like who I am when I'm drinking, because, as everybody knows, I mean it all leads to ruined friendships and relationships, and I mean I could tell you a bunch of stories, but you're right, it was this lie that I was living, but I believed it at the time and that was the scariest part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a great quote. I forget exactly what it is, but it's something like when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing, you'll finally change and it seems like for you that living the lie, the pain of staying the same, the pain of projecting and feeling what you would be like 10 years down the line, magnified it so that you actually made the change. I think that's a powerful lesson. Is that, if you imagine this, take, take five seconds and think about if you carry into 2025, the bad habits, the addictions, the whatever that you are trying to get over right now, if you carry them into 2025 and say, five years down the line, who are you going to be and are you going to be proud of that person? And I think it makes it a no-brainer.
Speaker 1:But I want to get on to really this progression, because I know you ran. You had that powerful marathon. You sign up for another marathon a couple of weeks later. What do the next like years look like for you in building up the strength, the mental endurance, the perseverance, the person you are Like? What did that look like for you to actually tangibly change who you were?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question and I think it was. I often think about, like, are we running something or running towards something? And I think that's a fascinating discussion to have. And I think I'm an obsessive person. So when I'm obsessing about alcohol, I'm going all in there and luckily I exchanged one unhealthy habit for a healthy one.
Speaker 2:So I'm just somebody that once, two marathons and two weekends seemed insane to me, and then you start wondering, well, what else is there? And you reach out to people like yourself and you see, wait, there's people that run a hundred miles. Like that sounds ridiculous. I mean, how is that even possible? That was the next thing I started looking at what's a, what's an endurance, what's an ultra endurance run, look like. And I think what was happening, pierce, was, as I'm looking at these things, the next step. I'm celebrating the one that happened and I'm enjoying those moments. I'll always be looking at the next thing without celebrating what already happened.
Speaker 2:But I really started to realize that it wasn't about the physical part. Of course, I love the physical part, I'm a gym rat, I love lifting weights, I love working out but what I started to realize is it's the mental part that I became obsessed with where, if I could run two marathons in two weekends, or 100 miles and train for that and get through that. Then, when life smacks me in the face with something I'm not expecting whether it's a relative gets sick or somebody passes away or an illness like I think we're I'm much more prepared to handle that if I'm pushing myself in these scary ways voluntarily, because we all know life's going to happen when we least expect it and I'm more obsessed with the mental toughness part. So I started leaning into what's scary. A hundred miles sounds terrifying. Let's see if we can achieve that. So after 2019, like 2020, I signed up for my first 100 miler, which happened to be April of 2020. And for those that know what happened then, it was supposed to be in South Carolina. Signed up for this race.
Speaker 2:Covid hits I call the race director and I'm like I've been training for nine months for this race. Can I come down there and still do it and just run the regular course? And he's like, no, we're in the middle of this pandemic, you can. Can I come down there and still do it and just run the regular course? And he's like, no, we're in the middle of this pandemic, you can't just come down here and do that. So I asked him what if I have the whole thing on my watch? Run it on my neighborhood street. He said, okay, we'll count that if you log all the miles.
Speaker 2:So I ended up running my first hundred miler April of 2020 up and down my quarter mile street that I think I ran like 300 times up and down because we're in the middle of quarantine and it was just like, oh my God, like I can't believe that just happened. And I remember like going to bed that night and just thinking how did my body just go a hundred miles in 26 hours or whatever that was, and enjoying that, embracing that and then also going OK, like we got to keep pushing. What's next? I don't know if that answers your question, but I think just the mental toughness part is what my obsession is.
Speaker 2:Part is what my obsession is and the mindset behind doing things, as you said, that are hard, because it prepares us for when life hits us with unexpected hard things and now we feel prepared to handle it.
Speaker 1:That's really good, and also what I'm hearing you say too, is you don't do these challenges because you need them to like, fulfill you. You do them because they help you become a greater version of yourself by challenging you mentally, and so they make you a better person, because they make you better, for when the hard things hit in life, like the thing with the relative, or like something unforeseen just comes out of nowhere and smacks you in the face, if you've pushed yourself mentally by choice, when those things happen unexpected, you have greater mental endurance and fortitude to be able to keep going.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right, and I also lean into I don't know if you lean into this or not, pierce, but I like to be the one who's like a lot of times in different circles I'm the crazy one.
Speaker 2:It's like, oh, he's probably out there running without his shirt on when it's 25 degrees out, and first I was like you kind of feel this judgment coming off, but now it's like I embrace that because I'm doing things that are way out of my comfort zone, and I think I've found people like yourself and others that are in our Savage Adventure Camp community, where we a lot of times in our circles, are the crazy ones, until you get into a circle of people who do the same thing and then you, even more accepted and like you, can help push each other in these different ways. So that's helped me a lot, as well as connecting with people who want more out of life and who want to live life on their terms, and sometimes that can be seen as unique or weird or different, but I love people like that Brace, that weirdness. I think that's what makes us amazing as humans is we can do a bunch of wacky stuff, and I love when people lean into that.
Speaker 1:For sure. It's like no one's inspired by someone who's just like very average and doesn't do anything exceptional and does what everyone else does, and I find myself to like leaning into being crazy as well, like going and running during the middle of the night or waking up super early, staying up late to run Like I. When I was at USC, there were times on Friday night where I'd run around campus and I'd be like I'm running while these people are out there drinking and I love that like crazy feeling Cause also like I connected to those people in a way as well, because I was that way for a while too. I went out and I went to parties and I did this, but then I found so much fulfillment in making myself better.
Speaker 1:But you one of the things, matt, that I feel like you do really well is and you've had to do really well to be able to do all you've done. You know the marathons, the triathlon, all of that is you've had to be very consistent. Like it's not like you can train one week for these things. It's not like you can even train one month for these things. You can even train one month for these things. So let me ask you this Like what do you feel like is the key to consistency? In in your consistency, like how do you stay so consistent?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question and I love talking about this stuff. I think it's just about the discipline of. I've conditioned myself to um be somebody that when the alarm clock goes off, there's no choice, like that's when I'm getting up. I made the decision the night when the alarm goes off, I'm getting up, and I think it all stems back from who I used to be, which is I was a snoozer. I knew exactly how many times I could snooze before getting up and getting to work one minute on time or like right on time. And now I want to be somebody, somebody that's proud of myself, and I wasn't for so long, and I think a part of it is God, like he's given me this body that I'm blessed to have. Who am I to spit in his face and not use it to the best of its ability? And I think that's think that's a huge part of it. So I think too.
Speaker 2:I just gave a speech to a bunch of college students about this and I brought it with me. I should have brought it for your podcast, the first thing I look at every morning, and maybe this is morbid, but it hits home for me. I printed off a Google image of just a generic tombstone headstone, implement. I put my name in there Matthew Scoletti, 1983, dash. Who knows whatever that number is going to be?
Speaker 2:And when you're talking about, how do I be consistent when I wake up in the morning and I see that I know it's going to end? I don't know much about life, but I know it's going to end at some point. It could be 2025. It could be 2065. It could be whenever the date is.
Speaker 2:But I know when I look at that, it just hits home for me that at some point all this beautiful earth I won't see it anymore. So I better make the most of today, because I don't know how many I have. And it centers me in such a way, pierce, that it's like a smack in the face of reality. And today matters. What I do today matters. And it's hard to look at that and then roll back into bed and I just I love, I almost love the workouts more. I have a friend about this that you don't want to do. But then you show up for you or whatever your why is, and then you leave and you're like, oh my God, I didn't even want to be here and now I'm leaving like I could conquer the world. Like those workouts to me are almost the most fun, I think. To be consistent, I often think about my mortality and realizing that I don't know how many days are left, so I better make whatever I do today count.
Speaker 1:That's really good, matt. That's really good, matt, and I think it's very interesting to think through how you've created that for yourself, like you've created and cultivated this consistency by using certain things to get yourself into action. It's not like most people live their life according to their feelings and they're like, oh well, I feel like doing this, I'm going to do that, I feel like doing this, I don't feel like this, I'm going to do that. But you have decided that you're committed to what you're committed to, and then you've cultivated this environment by looking at your tombstone every morning, which is amazing. I love that. I'm about to print out my own Google image and Photoshop it on there.
Speaker 2:It feels real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because, like, that's going to create urgency too, and it's almost like you've created this mental diet of reminding yourself that you're going to die someday. So it creates this urgency for action and to make the most out of the life that you've been given.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right, pierce, and I think of all the things that I talk about. I think I'm a creating urgency kind of guy. I think that really is something that I love talking about it does. It stems back from so much of my life where there was no urgency. Now I clearly want that I got to make up for lost time. There's a decade in there where I'm proud of nothing, and that motivates me too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing. God uses that. Yeah, that's amazing. God uses that now for you. That wasted time for you to have even more urgency. So you have accomplished more than probably most people will ever in know, doing this quintuple in a couple years. Um, but but tell me, where did this idea come from? Because I've personally never heard of a five times full distance triathlon. Where did you first come up with it and why did you decide to do it?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's you. You got some great questions, pierce. I love this. You're getting me to tap into normally. Talk about it. I love that. I did my. So I did the 100 miler in 2020. And then I did my first Ironman in 2021, which was one of the best experiences of my life.
Speaker 2:I was coming off Achilles surgery and I thought I could never run again, and then met this doctor who performed the surgery and I'm back running and it's like, wow, I have a second chance at this. And again, like the obsessive nature comes in and it's like, okay, I'm Ironman. That was amazing. Like, is there a distance? That is further. And again it comes back to just what scares me, and doing something longer than what I thought pushed me to my limit, which was an Ironman, sounds terrifying and I that's what I love leaning into is, if I'm not scared of it and I do it, then that doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment. But if I'm really scared of it and it's something I know is going to push me so far out of the comfort zone, I got to go for that. So I think I was just doing the you know the Google thing and looking around and saying toughest, longest endurance events that in the United States and this one came up and I thought I mean so, five times an Ironman distance, like is it like one Ironman a day for five days? And it's not. It's like it's five times each distance. So to me, swimming for 12 miles sounded like the most horrifying thing I could ever think of. But I'm like the Ironman is four miles. Five times that, 12 miles sounds like. Do you just keep swimming or do you get out after a couple hours? How does that work?
Speaker 2:And it was in Virginia last year and I had trained, which I thought I trained well for the event. I think what ended up happening was I over-trained for the event, which is not surprising given my obsessive nature and things and I came into the event. I actually did. I went down there by myself in Virginia last year. I didn't have any crew and I'm part stubborn Pierce and part like I want to make it even harder. So everybody has like these tents with like four, five, six crew members, all these different like massage tables and all the food, and I had one folding table that they gave me some food and drink and a little like folding chair and that was it. And I'm like, let's see if this is going to work. So I actually did the 12 mile swim and it was freezing and I was, you know I was jackhammering but it took me like 10 hours to do it, stayed in the water the whole time.
Speaker 2:And then I get out and start biking and like 250 miles into the bike, my left calf it just it didn't feel like it was sore, it felt like some sort of injury was developing and I was getting frustrated because I'd never had that before and I had an awkward half fall, half bad dismount like 260 miles into this event and basically I tore my calf Like I had a I can't remember what they call it stage two tear or something level two tear in my calf. But I was like I have a right foot, I can bike with my right foot, let's try that. So I get 450 miles into this bike and my left leg is basically just dangling there and I'm like I'm not going to run 131 miles on a torn calf. So it was the first and only event I ever DNF'd, did not finish, I quit and I remember this Like this was the biggest takeaway from this Pierce.
Speaker 2:I walked away going okay, let's analyze what happened. Was that a failure? And I had never swam more than three miles and I just swam 12. I had never biked more than 250, and I biked 450, half of them on one leg, and the tagline from the event was failure is fiction, failure is fiction. It just doesn't exist, because it was an outcome I didn't want. But did that necessarily mean that I'm a failure now? I couldn't even get myself to believe that, so I came away with my head held pretty high, even though off for a few months because of my calf tear, and then this coming or this is just a couple months ago, in September of 2024, they had the event again in Wisconsin 5X event and I'm like okay, I got to redeem myself. Johnson 5X event and I'm like okay, I got to redeem myself and I trained smarter. I knew what I was doing, talked to other people that had completed the event in the past, and also I planned on going there by myself again. Just because I'm like I got to defeat this thing solo, ended up having one of my best friends, cody Newton, surprised me the day before and crewed me, and then Jesse, my fiance, surprised me the next day, so both of them were there for the majority of the event and really, had they not been there, either I wouldn't have finished it or it would have taken me a lot longer.
Speaker 2:And I love the, I think think I believe the comeback is always stronger than this and that whole comeback of it didn't go the way I wanted the first time. How much sweeter is it going to be this time around? I love I think anybody loves a story like that where, like a good buddy uh of ours, dylan, like try to qualify for Boston did not do this time and I love that he didn't do it the first time because he pushed harder the second time and then he did it and he crushed it. And I get goosebumps just talking about him because I love that story. So this time around everything went really, I mean, as good as it could have gone, with a massive amount of pain, physical pain, but no injury. Got 12 mile swim. I was like euphoric after the bike because I didn't finish the bike the first time around. So 560 mile bike in the books and then running is just as you.
Speaker 2:You know, this is like I love that, like running is my favorite of the three disciplines and anything short of a horrible injury. I wasn't going to stop, no matter what. So I kind of got into this mile 90 when a lot of dips were happening. So I have 41 miles to go. I kind of I mean I call it like savage mode, like this alter ego I call mine the savage comes out at certain times and it came out like at mile 90, whatever happened clicked and I had been walking for like 10 miles and I ran mile 90.
Speaker 2:And I told I told uh, jesse and Cody, I'm like I'm going to run one. So I ran one, and then I ran two miles, then I ran five, then I ran 10. And Jesse's asking me, like, do you want to know how many miles you just ran? I'm like, no, I don't want to know, I just want to keep going. So it was almost 20 miles, like mile 90 to 110.
Speaker 2:I went faster than I did any of the other ones and to went faster than I did any of the other ones. And it's to me, it's like, was I hurting any less? Physically? No, it was probably worse. But mentally you can tap into this version of ourselves that, like those 20 miles, I felt like I could do anything at any point, like if you wanted me to lift that car. I feel like in that mindset, I feel like I could have and it's just amazing how we can, we're capable of so much more. I think, myself included, I'll believe that forever and just tapping into that with these crazy endurance events is a passion and a love that I have. That's hard to explain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure it can be. I can relate. It could be very hard to explain For you. How do you feel like you tap into it?
Speaker 2:I feel like it's like a combination of probably 75% gratitude of I can't believe I get to do this and in my head this is probably the last time. I don't know, but it could be the last time I ever do an ultra endurance triathlon like that. How grateful am I to be able to be out here competing with the best endurance athletes in the world in this sport. And it's that's just to me. I mean, I got goosebumps. It's just. I'm so honored to be a part of that group. And then 25 percent of it and somewhere around there is there is it's within, like it's kind of a I don't want to say dark, but I think about the dark times, I think when I was an alcoholic, and I think about it's like proud of myself, but also you got to keep going like you don't want to be that person you once were that was mentally weak and was 60 pounds overweight.
Speaker 2:You're this new version of you. I know you have more in the tank and it's like this. It's on loop in my head. It's like this self-talk where you just say all right, we can keep going. A few more steps, a few more steps, and that turns into a mile, turns into 10, turns into 50, turns into 131. And it's like a combination of both of those.
Speaker 2:But there was some auto barking going on as well and some yelling as I was running. So I get into like that mode too and I just kind of start like it's almost like you're not an out-of-body experience, but you're kind of you space out and you're just like so lasered in on this one thing that is going on and you can just tap into this version. So and I think we all have it, and I also don't think you have to run 131 miles to tap into it for sure everybody listening and watching has been in that flow state where it's like you just start rolling, and whether it's something you're just ultra passionate about and you're leaning into, I just think it's a state that is fun to be in and these events help me tap into that.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love how extreme you are. You're amazing.
Speaker 2:Hey, I want to give you a little bit of credit real quick because I think when you put out I think it was on Instagram when you couldn't sleep one night so you decided to go to the gym and I was like, yes, I relate to this guy, I love this guy, because that's just, I don't know. It's like life can be so fun like that. We don't have to live in this box of you, have to do things exactly this way. The inspiring stories and the best stories often are out of the box stuff and I'll never forget that. When you posted that, I'm like, if I ever can't fall asleep, I'm going to the gym because Pierce said it was okay to do that.
Speaker 1:Let's go. I love that man. Thank you so much. I think a lot of people quit because they don't think things are going to change and they lack patience. I know for sure. I've experienced this. It's like man is my work ever going to pay off? Am I ever going to get there? Am I ever going to finish in a race? I feel like this at mile 50. How could I possibly go for 150 more miles when I think I'm just going to get worse and worse and worse? Doing an endurance event, by the way for everyone. How long was this endurance event specifically, do you know?
Speaker 2:It took me like four and a half days. I think you had just over. Five days was the time limit.
Speaker 1:Okay, so four and a half days you're out there getting after it. Did you sleep at all? Like did you sleep a little?
Speaker 2:bit. I slept the last night I didn't sleep at all.
Speaker 1:The other three I slept for like one to two hours, give or take three at the tops, maybe one of the nights, yeah so basically going the whole entire time and, for context, I don't remember the exact distances of the course, but like they were smaller loops, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the swim. I think you do 40 loops in this lake. The bike was a hundred loops of like just over what? Just over five miles, five and a half miles, and the run was one mile. It was half a mile out, half a mile back. You do 130 times so they're very small loops.
Speaker 1:Yeah, half a mile out, half a mile back. You do 130 times, so they're very small loops. Yeah, okay, so very small loops. Let's just take the run, for example. You're running a half a mile out, a half a mile back, that's, you're running that same thing 131 times For you. How were you able to stay patient throughout the entire thing? Because it's super monotonous. You're doing the exact same thing for days.
Speaker 2:What would you say to that? Yeah, that's a really good question. What I would say to that is my brain often, for this event specifically, was you know, it's going to be painful. I mean, it was already painful on mile one because I just biked 560 miles. You're jumping off the bike, throwing on your running shoes and going. But for this event specifically, I continue to go back to last year's event, when I remember what I was doing when people were running their 131 miles is I was laying on the couch with an ice bag on my calf because I just tore my calf muscle. Now my calf muscles healed and I have a hundred more miles to go after this and I think that's where. That's where I would start to lose it is.
Speaker 2:It's not like I often think, it's not running 131 miles, it's running one mile 131 times. So it's just let's just get to the next mile. And, like my brain, I have ADHD, so my brain will go a bunch of different directions and I think it's interesting. For one of the miles, I may be thinking about how I'm going to eat the best salmon salad once this event is over. And the next mile I may be thinking about what's a speech I'm going to give after this event to inspire college students.
Speaker 2:So my brain, each mile was almost like sometimes it was a completely different thought in my head and I didn't really have headphones on. I think for maybe five miles I had headphones on, so it was basically me and my thoughts, or me and running with another athlete or Cody or Jesse out there. But I, yeah, I just often think just get, just finish this loop, finish this mile, and then the next mile is a new journey. Versus, I have 93 miles to go, I'm screwed, this is going to be horrible and I think once you start thinking that way, the task feels insurmountable and like you can't do it. So I just chunking it down in the shortest bits really helped me out. And even if you're walking like thinking, walking is still moving. I want to be running, but if I'm walking, that's still forward progress and it'll still get us to the goal.
Speaker 1:That's really good. Quick analogy that just came to me is when you're in school and it's almost at the end of the day and you're looking up at the clock and you're checking, and you're checking, it feels like those five to 10 minutes or so go by so slow. But if you also think about, like this year right, it's 2024. I don't know about you, but I feel like this year has gone by so fast because I haven't been like okay, it's this day, it's this day, it's this day and just like super focused on the exact time. So I think that does help. It's like you disassociate with the time passing and the specific mile you're on and how much you have left, and you're just present where you're at and you kind of let your mind drift. That's really good. One thing I want to get into, matt, is what did your training look like for this? Did you have a coach? Did you just research yourself? I know you talked to some people who had done it before. How did you decide what your training looked like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's basically what it was Pierce is. I talked to a couple people that had completed it the previous year. The one guy won it, the other guy got second place, so I had really good mentors I guess you'd call them and they helped me put together some sort of strategy. And I see over your shoulder, you got your Ultraman banner up there and I love that because I have a new appreciation for that, because I did like a solo. Ultraman was like my big training weekend and I think it ended up being so like a six mile swim to 300 and some mile bike.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 270 and then 52.4 mile run yeah, 270.
Speaker 2:And then 52.4 mile run yeah, 270. And then a double marathon and I think, once and again, I did it. It was like a solo, it wasn't an official event, I did it around here in Pittsburgh and I think, once that was complete and I knew I was not physically injured, that that gave me the confidence to go. Okay, the body's ready and the mind is definitely ready to push a lot further. But to that question and I talked to a good buddy luke about this, which is and maybe you can speak to it too pierce one of the things I struggle with, especially just with family and friends, is this event.
Speaker 2:You're training hours, like sometimes you're biking for 1012 hours a day and I would bike overnight just to get used to the sleep deprivation, and it hurt a lot of close relationships because I was so focused on this event and I think one of the things that I'm continuing to work on is how do I train while also living life and enjoying things outside of an event like this? So people ask me like there's a DECA, there's a 10X version of this, like twice as far. Do I have a desire to do that next version of this? Like twice as far, do I have a desire to do that? And the answer right now is absolutely not, because just because of the time it takes to do something like this and I admire everybody that has done one because it's, it's insane accomplishment but I think it's that's not in the cards right now, and I think shorter workouts that are more intense are in the cards and I don't even remember what question you just asked me, but I launched off into that story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what did your training look like and how did you decide it? Yeah, tell me a little bit about what your training looked like on a weekly basis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, weekly basis was I would swim at least once during the week and once on the weekend. Normally it would be one to two miles swim, so I'm in the water for one, one and a half hours ish, and then I would do. I would bike mainly on the weekends, just because it would take me a while to do it and I would bike for I mean, the minimum I think I biked was 100 miles and just getting used to being on the bike for an extended period of time, and then the runs I run three to four days a week and a long run being on the weekends as well. So the weekends were just packed with. It would normally be a swim on Saturday morning and then maybe I bike a hundred to 150 miles and then Sunday I'd run 10, 15, 20 miles.
Speaker 2:So and it was that most weekends, like I was doing a full Ironman, plus almost every weekend for four or five, six months. So it's just like time wise, it's grueling and I loved it, like I love training and also it's nice. When I got to the finish line of this event, pierce, it was like 90% euphoria and 10% Thank God I don't have to do this for a while and I can just relax because the amount of time training definitely took its toll yeah, that's insane.
Speaker 1:Everyone think about this. A full Ironman every single weekend for four months to train for this thing? That is insane. Dude that. How many total Ironmans did you do? Didn't you keep track?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think I did. Yeah, I think I did like 16, something like that seven, and I did a couple of them like overnight, to get used to that. So I would start the swim later in the afternoon, then bike overnight and then run the next morning and just go straight through, which that's always interesting to do stuff. As you said, our Savage Saturday group we normally start those workouts at midnight and work out until the sun comes up. So I think that prepped me mentally for the highs and lows of working out during crazy hours, which was it prepped me in a good way. Those savage saturdays really helped yeah, that's really good.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, and to answer your question, it does, uh, take so much time to train for these things. It's amazing and I love training so much, but I think that's part of why this year, after doing the triple crown of 200s last year, I each race is at least a week long. Then I did Ultraman, so that's four weeks of races for that year, in addition to all the other things I'm doing. So I'm saying no to a lot of family trips and whatnot. So that's why this year I trained for a fast marathon, because I was like man, I really want to invest in specific relationships that are very important to me. So I think sometimes you got to just know what the season is, but at the same time, you also have to.
Speaker 1:Your friends ended up getting weeded out that don't support these things or don't do them themselves, just because they don't understand. You got to go train Like if you want to do what you want to do and you have the goals that you are committed to. You're not just hanging out on Saturday or Sunday. Most of the time you're training for hours on the weekends and I love it Like. I think it's amazing, I think it's fun, but you know it does put some strain on relationships, I think. The last thing, matt, I want to ask you about, and then I'll let you go I know you didn't have a crew your first one. I know you didn't have a crew your first one and you had some people show up for this one, um, but you and you said like they made a big difference and you would have finished a lot slower, probably, if you would have finished, uh, had they not been there, what difference had? Does it? Did the crew have on your, your race?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think, Pierce, what I'm learning is through many experiences, including this one when you're doing hard things with other people, it definitely raises my excitement around it. So it's and that not to say and I know you've had crew and you've had many experience with this they're not all pretty Like when you're coming around and you're hitting I know you've hit lows. I've hit many lows in events and sometimes those when you stop off and the. You know, Jesse, my fiance would. I didn't want to have a cold towel on my neck and I would say, you know, like I'm okay, and she put it on anyway and I'm like, wow, that felt really good. I'm glad that you, you know, I'm glad you did that.
Speaker 2:But you go through these ups and downs and I mean a lot of times I do run happy, like I'm excited to be there, but there was one in particular where I was at a low and they really helped me through that and made me smile and move on. So, and I think to that point as well, I think this is a little hack for any endurance race, especially one like this, where you're running up and down 130 times like high fiving other athletes and tell them like you're looking great, You're looking great A lot of times like that's seen as selfless, which I think it is, but it's also selfish because I get energy from that, Like if I'm high-fiving you and now we have a little bond. Every time I see you now I get to get excited when I see you coming back, whether I'm in the same category and we're competing against each other or not, I think it's all of us against the course anyways. Especially in that event, it doesn't even matter what the distance is. You're high-fiving people and smiling and telling them they're looking great and they're doing a great job. That energy goes up.
Speaker 2:So to your question my crew was huge. The two of them worked countless hours for the whole time and Cody did like the last. He went all overnight with me. The last night Jesse ran, I think, well over a marathon with me and the other athletes and the other crew. It was like all of us were a community by the end of it and everybody just wants to do whatever they can to get all of the athletes to the finish line. And to me, that's what these events are about too. I've met people through these events, yourself included, doing hard things that I will never forget and when the phone rings and it's you or some of these other people I've met, I'm picking it up and I can't wait to talk to that person, because you build these bonds through doing tough stuff and it connected me deeper with my crew of Jesse and Cody and other athletes out there. And doing things as a community, I think, just builds relationships a lot quicker when you're doing something difficult together.
Speaker 1:That's so good. I lied. Last question Do you have anything planned for next, or are you in recovery mode, kind of figuring out what's next still?
Speaker 2:mode, kind of figuring out what's next. Still, I'm in recovery mode and I told Jesse what's next is just doing my best to be best future husband I can and be a better friend to some of those people that I didn't have time for. And to steal a page out of your book, pierce, with I think I'm going to do something more. Shorter distance, whether it's a 70.3, and just seeing how fast I can do that. I want to pour into others.
Speaker 2:I'm doing a lot more race emceeing and motivational speaking and to me I get energy from adding value to other people and if I can be somebody that people smile and they get to the finish line because I'm on the mic and I give them a fun finish, a more excitement, finish that they wouldn't have had otherwise. Or like last week I gave this speech to college students and if I can give them one or two things that may help them this year, next year or in their life, I want to be pouring into others and that gives me so much more energy and I just got to keep doing that. So that's going to be this.
Speaker 1:That's amazing man. Well, you're great at that. You pour into me without even knowing and give me energy, so thank you for that. Thank you so much for coming on the show, and where can people find where you're at?
Speaker 2:I appreciate you having me Pierce, and Instagram is definitely where I'm most active. It's just my name at Matt Scaletti, and I'm happy. I love interacting with people on healthy living or running or anything of that nature. Mindset reach out, for sure, and I'm happy to chat with people about that topic. I love this stuff.
Speaker 1:Let's go, man. Thanks so much, guys. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Go follow Matt and go out and run your race.