Just Human

The Warrior's Path: Finding Purpose in Your Hard

• Jay Boykin • Season 2 • Episode 7

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Summary

In this episode of Just Human, host Jay Boykin interviews Tyler Herman, a former Marine and current ultra-marathon runner. They discuss Tyler's journey from military service to law enforcement, his challenges in combat, and how those experiences shaped his resilience. Tyler shares his passion for ultra-marathon running, explaining the mental and physical challenges involved and the motivation behind his participation in these grueling races. The conversation emphasizes the importance of support systems, finding purpose in pain, and the mindset required to overcome obstacles in life and running. Tyler also discusses his upcoming race, the Ure 50, and the significance of pushing personal limits.

Takeaways

  • We all wrestle with the same questions about growth and connection.
  • The journey from military to civilian life can be challenging.
  • Resilience is built through shared experiences and support systems.
  • Ultra-marathon running is a metaphor for life's challenges.
  • Finding purpose in pain can lead to personal growth.
  • Comfort is an illusion; true growth happens in discomfort.
  • Surrounding yourself with trusted individuals is crucial for success.
  • Mental challenges in endurance sports reflect life's obstacles.
  • Setting stretch goals can push you beyond your limits.
  • It's important to find your heart and pursue what matters to you.

Sound Bites

  • "Comfort is an illusion."
  • "Go find your heart."
  • "It's all a mindset."

Chapters

00:00
Introduction to the Human Experience

01:16
Journey to the Marines

06:39
Transitioning to Law Enforcement

09:56
Resilience Through Adversity

14:55
The Shift to Ultra Marathon Running

22:18
Understanding Ultra Marathons

23:08
Mindset in Endurance Racing

27:03
The Challenge of Endurance Racing

32:05
Preparing for the Next Big Race

38:50
Mindset: Overcoming Mental Barriers

42:12
Finding Your Heart: Personal Growth Through Challenges

46:12
Lighthearted Moments: Running and Shoes

SPEAKER_00:

well hello everyone and welcome to just human i am jay boykin i'm your host and in this place we explore what it truly means to be human whether we're talking about at work in relationships and in life in general and so you know no matter where you come from or what we do we all wrestle with the same questions how do we grow how do we connect and how do we live with a purpose and stay true to ourselves so just human is built on this simple but powerful truth we are all human beings first and so On this podcast, we talk about a lot of different topics because that's all part of our human experience. And I am really glad that you are here. So we're going to dive in. I have a guest with me. I'm really excited about this interview. So I've got... This individual is a friend. He is a former combat Marine. He is a former law enforcement officer, and he is a current ultra marathon runner. Tyler, how you doing, man? Tyler Herman.

SPEAKER_01:

Great, man. Great. Glad to be here. I appreciate you having me on the podcast. Excited to... talk about some stuff. I love what you're doing here. I think it's great and you're right. I think as we get older, we start to realize that we're all kind of humming to the same tune. Sometimes someone's figured something out that maybe you're still dealing with and so I love what this is about.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I really appreciate that, buddy. I've been excited about this episode and I think my listeners are going to be excited about it as well. Let me ask you this. Tell me a little bit about your early days and especially what led you to join the marines and i know i opened up with former marine but i i'm going to correct myself because i know that once a marine always a marine so i'll correct myself there and also say thank you for your service

SPEAKER_01:

yeah no i appreciate it you're actually right it is former marine it's funny though one of the commandants recently came out and said we're getting rid of former like you said it doesn't exist anymore once you're in you're in for the life of it. It's a really interesting story, although it's not as sexy or as attractive as you'd think, but it was... I can't explain it other than my whole life that I have grown up, I have felt this need and desire to give back. Especially when I was younger, I felt so grateful. You've got all of these opportunities presented to us. Whether you choose to look at them like that or not is up to you, right? And I, at a young age, just couldn't help but think, I've got to say thank you. There's a lot of things I want to do in my life, but I've got to say thank you somehow, some way. And so when I was really young, I was trying to figure out what to do. I was actually in my grandfather's house on my mom's side. And this is back in the day. Maybe you know about this. He used to watch the Broncos games, but he would have the TV muted and the radio on. And you would sit there on the couch, disciplined, and I'll never forget it. This Marine Corps commercial came on and I didn't know much about it. I'm 13 years old, sitting there watching a game, just sitting here like this, right? Just watching in silence almost as the radio tunes. And that was the first moment I kind of started to look at, well, what is that? The sword, the few, the proud, all that. That was... That was the defining moment of like, hold on, what is this thing that I knew existed but never really contemplated? And I just did some research, as simple as that. Now, internet was not as easy to access back then. They were that old, but internet wasn't

SPEAKER_00:

as available. Well, I am. I'm that old. You're not, but I am.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I didn't want to call you out here. No. And so I researched it. It just became an infatuation. It became, over time, so set in stone that it wasn't, oh, I think I'm going to do this. No. At the age of 13, it was pretty determined. I was going to go in the Marine Corps. I was going to do that really difficult thing. Wow. And that's kind of where it started. That was 13 years old.

SPEAKER_00:

That's amazing. So you finish high school. Yeah. And then you go off to– to training?

SPEAKER_01:

They call it the DEP, the Delayed Entry Program. Signed up, must have been, I think you have to be 17. Signed up, 17. I wanted to go infantry. My mom did not want me to go infantry. At 17, you have to have their signature. My mom, she was adamant. She was like, no, I'm not okay with this. I was playing sports. I was in football and running track and At this time, I was getting ready for track season, which is going to put you in really great shape. And I had a conversation with her. I sat her down, and I said, I appreciate you, Ma. I love you. I love that you're trying to protect me. But unfortunately, this is something that I have to do. It's happening. I just really need your signature here. And she signed. She signed the dotted line. And so her signing the line allowed me to sign the line. I went to basic training, and I graduated a day before my 18th birthday, earned the title. We're all faced with really difficult things. But up until that point, I mean, that was by far the most difficult thing I'd ever done. And little did I know, it wouldn't hold a candle to what life would have in store for me. Right. But in that moment, it was the hardest thing I had ever done.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. And so how long did you serve?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, four years. Yeah, served, entered in 2004, ended up getting out in 2008, had a couple opportunities to reenlist. I didn't end up enacting those. It's an eight year program. So once you complete your four years of active service, you do four years of inactive ready reserve where they can call you back in if they need to. So total contract eight years, but four years total.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Yeah. Okay. So you do four years as a Marine and you saw some combat and we won't get into all of those details, but then post your Marine career, you transitioned into law enforcement. So tell my listeners about that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I'll hit on this in two parts because the transition is really kind of interesting. But we're going to get into this here shortly, but I want to call this out. 2004 to 2008, I think most of your listeners will probably recall, we were active in two engagements, two conflicts, Operation Enduring Freedom, which is Afghanistan, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq. And unfortunately, our unit ended up losing 31 Marines and sailors, killed in action. And we'll jump back into that here in a little bit because we're going to talk about the ultramarathons and the fuel that creates that. But the transition to law enforcement, it's really interesting. You do these really... fantastic, neat, you could use a lot of words, very difficult things. You know, we were deployed, you know, our cycles for deployment were typically longer than we were home. You know, I think I spent eight months in Afghanistan. You're home for six months, but you've got deployment readiness that you've got to take care of. So you're really only home for three and a half, maybe four months before you ship back out again. And when the time came to either reenlist, which I had the opportunity to do, or get out, you know, I was kind of wavering. I was on both sides of the fence. I thought I would do 20 years, but the combat cycle, we were deploying early and often. We were actually getting ready for a third deployment. So long story short, it was ultimately decided that I would get out and I applied to the Colorado State Patrol while still in the Marine Corps. Okay. Took about 10 months. That process was very long. I think back then, I don't know the numbers, but there was like seven or 8,000 applicants for I think what ended up being 38 positions. Ended up getting selected and it just blows my mind. It was just such a cool opportunity. But yeah, ended up getting selected to go to the Academy. And this is back in 2008. The Academy started in 2009. Wow. And

SPEAKER_00:

now how long did you serve with the State Patrol?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I did two years with State Patrol. would have done longer. The State Patrol was a great organization. This is Colorado State Patrol. They were a great organization, treated me very well. They put me up in the mountains. I was out of the Kremlin sub-office, you know, early 20s. Didn't love being stuck in the mountains, a little bit more social at that time. And so I ultimately decided to spend two years there and then had an opportunity to join the Parker Police Department where I spent another eight years and wrapped out about 10 years in law enforcement over that ending from when the Marine Corps ended and law enforcement transition took over.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. Again, thank you so much for everything that you've done serving our country and our community. And I really am curious because you've been through what I can only imagine are a lot of challenging things in both of those career journeys. What were some moments or some things that really tested your resilience the most, if you can recall anything in particular?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, absolutely. I think one of the most important things to remember is we are only as strong as our single whole. When you put a group of people all with the same mission and mindset together, it really truly is fantastic to see what you can accomplish. And, you know, I think being so young, deployed, I mean, it pushes you, right? I mean, gosh, and I can't remember the ages. I think I was in Afghanistan by 18 or 19. I was in Iraq by 1920. You know, I was running, you know, four-man teams in Iraq. I couldn't even buy a beer yet, right? And yet I was out there running satellite operations with, you know, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines and Iraqi Freedom. And it's only successful because of the people that you're with, right? One person can only do so much. But I tell you, when you get four Marines together who are dead set on not getting hurt or getting hit, which obviously didn't happen all the time, unfortunately, but It's a powerful group. It's a powerful group. And, you know, testing your resilience, you talk about, especially Iraqi deployment, especially in the beginning, the first two months of that deployment, it was really, really kinetic is the term that I would use. Right. Engagements were often. And it really, truly gets to a point, which is, again, just looking back at this, and I'm more open about this now than I used to been. I've found that invulnerability, there's actually healing. I think a lot of veterans Sometimes we put up the facade to try and show as a barrier of protection, but I really didn't start to grow out of that until I started being vulnerable and trying to, you know, slowly tell my story. But from a resilience perspective, when you hit a point, I mean, gosh, I had written my first death letter by 19 years old, right? Which is, and I don't even have it. I wrote it and I never opened it. And I think I burned it along with the other guys, right? Iraq was a very kinetic deployment. There's, uh, there's a lot of, we call them the angels of Anbar. It was a very terrible time. They called the Anbar awakening. It was not a great time to be in the province. And you had to rely at this time, it was only men in combat roles. So you had to rely on the Marine to your left and right, because that and one other person were the only four people there for most of that. Right. And, uh, Once you can lean on that, once you have that experience, you're set up to tackle a lot. And this all bleeds into what a lot of your listeners are probably going through. Yeah, I know combat, it sounds intense, and it is, and it's very different. But at the end of the day, it all boils down to the same believable system. If you surround yourself with people that you can truly trust, that make you better, you are capable of some really incredible things. And we were, and we did.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm so glad that you said that. I had an interview in my last episode with a woman who is a professional skydiver, and she talked about our support systems and who we surround ourselves with. And so having you echo a similar message is really important because I think that all of us really need to have that strong support system uh in order to to to help us get through whatever it is that we're going through most of us are not going to experience uh the combat situations that that you did and and that your uh your brothers at that time did and and currently the the men and women who are serving our country and again thank you to all of those men and women and to the families because they sacrifice as well so thank you for all of that. But yeah, we have to have those strong support systems. So Tyler, I want to start to transition into this other very interesting topic. So I want to share with my listeners, Tyler and I know each other because our wives work together They're no longer at the same brokerage, but they still work together as realtors. And we would go to these events and Tyler and I had the opportunity to be arm candy at these events. Tyler's definitely better arm candy than I am. And we had the opportunity to have some great conversations. I think that the most important one was the proper way to eat a steak, but we won't get into that too deeply because i know that you know the right way to eat a steak but uh but we had this connection and uh recently tyler told me about this new sport that he is involved in that is again mind-blowing to me it is ultra marathon running but If memory serves, you didn't just start right into ultra marathon, right? Didn't you start with regular marathons or you jumped right into ultra?

SPEAKER_01:

I went right in and for better or worse. Yeah, better or worse. I'm not, I wouldn't advise it, but yeah, no, right into the Big McGee.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. Tell my listeners why, because I think it's going to transition back a little bit to what you were speaking on before, but tell my listeners what got you running ultramarathons?

SPEAKER_01:

This is my favorite question of all time because I think the goal is is that I get and I get really fiery about this, right? Like this. This is where everything comes to fruition. Rewind about two and a half, maybe three years ago. I'm sitting in a room with a colleague of mine, and he's a phenomenal athlete, played hockey almost his entire life, no doubt. Had circumstances changed, he may have made it into the NHL. He wouldn't say that, but talent exists for sure. And having a conversation with him, and he's much younger than me. 10, maybe 12 years younger than me. And I looked at him and we're having this conversation about doing hard things. And I looked at him and I'm like, I feel like I still have it in me. Like I've done a lot. in my life, the Marine Corps, being a cop for a long time. I used to run, but I didn't run competitively. I had done the Spartans and the trifectas with the other race that is escaping my mind right

SPEAKER_00:

now. The triathlons?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, not the triathlon. It's the sister to the Spartans. I cannot believe I cannot remember this name right now.

SPEAKER_00:

It's going to pop back into your head in a minute.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they're the Tough Mudders, which are really fun, which are really great races. Hard. You can make them as hard as you want to. Some go out and have a great time. Some just want to go get dirty. Some say, if I drag myself across the finish line in 15 hours, I'll be happy, which is what I love. So we're sitting there having a conversation, and I look at him, and I'm like, I just feel like I still have it in me, but I haven't really pushed myself. Not nearly to the degree that I'm used to, at least when I was younger. Right. And I feel like I can. And I popped up. I said, how hard can it be to run like 50 miles? Like, how hard could 100 miles really be? Which is so funny because, you know, you ask those questions. And then like this little like with wisdom comes this little radar moment where you're like, if everybody could do it, they would be doing it every day. Right. And so you almost say it tongue in cheek where you're like, how hard could this really be? then you get to get humbled later which is exactly how this all plays out but that's what it boils down to there's really two reasons okay one prove to myself i could still do hard part of my french hard stuff you're all good and number two you know i got two young kids right they're watching me and i work real hard at least i call working hard but what are they really taking away from that like what are they actually watching happen So I'll tell you when the whole thing came crumbling down in the best way possible. I'm doing a slow run, kind of jogging around, getting ready for a race, haven't really signed up for anything yet. I hit the corner not far from my house right here, and Jay, it hit me like a ton of bricks for those who can't. Right. Okay. And I know you and I have talked about this, and this is where the passion turns to emotion, right? I'm running around at this time and the listeners, I'd love to just real quick. I used to do a lot of work for the crisis intervention teams in law enforcement. I think you and I have talked about that, but it's law enforcement's response to those with mental illness. And very humbly, it was my job to travel the state of Colorado and certify law enforcement officers and basically using our mouth as a de-escalation tool and try to avoid the other tools on our belt when we don't have to, right? I mean, this is so much harder to use than going hands on. So many people are, you know, cops are really smart bunch of people and they pick up on this stuff and you put a real big challenge in front of them. Most jump at the chance to learn it, but deescalating somebody who's a 12 out of 10 is really, really difficult. Think about the naked guy running down the street with a knife, right? Right. You got to deescalate that. And so I was given the opportunity to do that. That's when everything kind of shifted. I'm on this run and I'm thinking about there was a couple of veteran suicides and I speak nonchalantly about it because it's just, it seems to be so common now. And it was just taking up my mind space. And I asked myself, what are we doing? Why is this happening? I think we had lost two guys from our unit who had taken their own lives in the previous month. And all the group chains are going off. We've got to stop this. We've got to figure this out. We're all here. And one of the things that came to a realization of was for a lot of us, we did our hardest thing. That was the peak. And we did it at 21 years old or 25 years old. then from there we kind of you know we've kind of already done it that's a really dangerous place to be and that was my first realization my second was like what would these 31 marines and sailors who didn't make it home with us what would they do if they could come back like if we could rewind the clock and put them in a scenario to feel pain again would they do it and i surmise that they would i surmise that of the 31, and I've been challenged on this, but I surmised that if given the chance to feel pain again, they would, because we take it for granted. We try to be comfortable, but comfort is an illusion. It's when you get comfortable with discomfort, that's when we're dangerous. And that's where the ultra marathons came.

SPEAKER_00:

That is super powerful. I, you know, you said that so eloquently. You know, I talk all the time about no one grows in a place where they're comfortable. You've got to feel some challenges, go through some things. But the way that you just articulated that, that we've got to be comfortable with discomfort, that's super powerful. So you make up your mind that you are going to do these ultra marathons. Now, Tyler, for my audience, explain to them, like many people may know what a 5K is and a regular marathon, but explain for my listeners what an ultra marathon means.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I'm still a rookie too. I'm sure there's a more... tenured athlete out there that could define these better than I, but basically an ultramarathon is any distance over a marathon, starting more commonly with the 50K, which is a little over 30 miles, 31 miles. And then it goes up from there. You've got 100Ks, 60 plus miles, then you've got 100 milers. You've got 12 hour races, 24 hour races, 48 hour races. You've got things like the CopaDona 250, which are 250 mile races. So anything over a marathon.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. Now, at this point, you said that you're still relatively new in the sport. But at this point, what is the longest distance that you've competed in?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, my longest distance race was 100 miles. It was in September of last year. It was the we call it the Stagecoach 100. It was the Flagstaff. So you start in Flagstaff and you run to the Grand Canyon on the trails. Beautiful country back there, by the way, if you haven't been.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. So look, I'm going to be honest with you. When I start thinking about distances around 100 miles, I'm starting to think about a plane ticket. And so you are strapping on some running shoes and you are running 100 miles. That is crazy. Amazing. So talk about, you know, as you're you're doing this, we had a conversation previously and you talked about this and it was just it was beautiful. But, you know, so you're running and, you know, talk about your mindset from mile one to mile 50 and then trying to get to the finish line at mile 100.

SPEAKER_01:

There there is so much to dive into. I want to lead with this though. I truly firmly believe that everybody of able body can run 100 miles. It's here. It's there. And if anybody decides to tackle something like this, I promise them it is life changing. It will challenge you in a way that you cannot, I still have yet to be able to describe it, but I'll try. Mile one is exciting. And we talked earlier about your teamwork. So I do not want to let this go without my crew because I've been fortunate to have a crew for all of my races and it has been absolutely game changing in my ability to do this. And we'll be in the race that I've got two races coming up, which I'm sure we'll briefly hit on. My first race was a 50K, inexperienced. I didn't have any coach. I got very, very injured on that race. Still beat my goal time by 16 minutes, but got very, very injured on that race. And it was a pretty rude awakening. I ended up getting connected with a phenomenal coach who I've had for the last, gosh, a year and a half, I believe, who's got me back on the right track. So I did the 50K. So here's what I want to tell you though, Jay, is when I started this, it wasn't like shoot for the stars out of the gate. I was actually very quiet. I had only told two people in my life that my stretch goal was a 100-mile race. Now, even though I had openly declared, like, how hard can it be? Joking, of course, recognizing that. I had not wanted those words to come out of my mouth because I'm one of those people who says, or who thinks that if I'm going to say it, if I'm going to speak it, there better be some validity to it. Like, it sounds cool. Well, it did to me. But if I have no intention of running 100 miles, like, who am I? to even say that. And so, you know, the 50K was very humbling, very humbling. Got back on track. It took a little bit of time from the injury. I ran my next race, which was 100K. Had a phenomenal support crew. I had a couple of Marine buddies come out and support me. We were running for those who can't, which I really had to dive deep on. That was the Great Divide down in Divide, Colorado. It was like 60, 61 or 62 miles. I think it was close to, I want to say it was close to 10,000 feet of climbing. Maybe a little under that, if I'm being honest. Brutal course though. And unfortunately, the allergies had just popped up. This is a June race. And you ever heard of, oh gosh, what is it? It's bronchial constriction. And I cannot remember the medical term.

SPEAKER_00:

It sounds uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01:

Exercised induced bronchial restriction, I believe is what it's called.

SPEAKER_00:

Never heard of that, but it sounds very uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01:

It's basically exercise induced asthma, which I've never had in my entire life. And about halfway through the course, the way I describe it is I could basically breathe from 40% to 70%, but anything outside of those would cause me to violently cough and thus almost vomit. Wow. And I had that for about eight hours of that race.

SPEAKER_00:

Now that's eight hours. How long was the overall race?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's a good question. I meant to actually look at my times beforehand. It's actually, for those who aren't trying to podium in the ultra world, your times are a little, you know, they're a little, they're just not relative. I believe that race took me a little over 16 hours. Wow. Started, you know, in the morning, I think, I can't remember what time we started, 6, 7, 8, it was dark, whatever time we started, and then finished about 10 p.m. at night. So yeah, I think it was a little over 16 hours for that 100K, yeah. And... Just being humbled the entire way. And then... Keep going, sorry. Oh, sorry. And then there was the 100 miler.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Now the 100k, that was the goal. It was actually a 50 miler, but I found a really cool race. And why do 50 when you can do 60 plus, was my thought. You're a beast, man.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It was humbling, Jay. Ultras have this weird thing where you'll literally question why you do them. Why are you putting yourself through? Nutrition is a massive component of this. You're in pain. Everything's blister. Just things are going wrong every way. I remember one point in the race, there was a lightning storm that had come through. I mean, I swear it was so loud. You get that feeling like this is not where you should be. I should be somewhere safe and this mountain is not it. And when I finished that race, that's what I told everybody. That was the goal, that distance. When I finished that race, I knew I could do 100 miles. I knew that I could tell people, although that was my stretch goal, that is my actual goal. And the goal had always been 100 miles by 40. I was 36, 30. I had just turned 37 when I finished a hundred K and I knew last year, that's the year I'm doing a hundred miler. Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. That's, that's incredible. Now

SPEAKER_01:

you asked me, Oh, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00:

Keep going. Go ahead. This is so fascinating. So you just keep going. You run this podcast. I'm just going to sit back and listen.

SPEAKER_01:

You asked me. So you asked me a really interesting question. I think the context is so important, though, because you can't you just can't go from couch to 100 milers. I can't. Maybe somebody out there can, but I can't. The first mile is fear and excitement. It's you recognize my coach said it best, Jay. And maybe you could take this into life. I take it into life. He said, Tyler, with every one of your races, it's like driving 60 miles an hour in dense fog. There is a brick wall blocking the road somewhere in front of us, but we just don't know where it is. That's what our races have been. Because every race for me had been a new, I'd never run a marathon competitively. I don't even think I'd ever run a 10K competitively outside of a Spartan race. Wow. So I had no experience, man. When I say rookie in the industry, really have no idea what I'm doing. Truly. But that experience, you get it. And you get it quickly. So mile one is excitement. But you also recognize, at least in my shape, this is probably going to be north of 24 hours, right? This is going to be a big race. So mile one is a lot of excitement and fear.

SPEAKER_00:

That's amazing. So, I mean, so listeners... And thank you wherever you're tuning in. If you're watching this on YouTube, thank you. Hit the like button, maybe subscribe. If you're listening on your favorite podcast provider, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope that you caught that, that Tyler said you're having to wrap your brain around the fact that you're going to be running for like 24 hours. That is... Amazing. So I'm going to come back to that piece of it in a second, Tyler. But you've got an event coming up this summer. And when you and I first talked about this, I said that I want to have you on the show at least twice, maybe three times. But tell my listeners about the event that you've got coming up here in Colorado.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, thanks for asking, Jay. This event is the real... This event makes me... This is a humbling event. This makes me nervous even bringing it up now. I am comfortable saying that my stretch goal became a 200-mile race, and we're going to reserve that for next year, but that's not what this race is. This race comes back to that very beginning. Remember when we were talking, I was with my colleague in that conference room, we were talking about, I feel like, how hard can 100 miles be? Well, He had brought up a race, it was the Euro 50, and it's got about 21,000 feet of climbing in it. And the goal, this is two and a half, almost three years ago, was to go do that. And at that time, I just didn't feel like I could. I just didn't feel like I had it. I had no training, had never run a marathon, had never done anything. And the race was like two weeks after this conversation. Well, after I finished my 100 miler, I was talking to my coach. We had kind of set up for, I was going to do Sedona Canyon's 125 this year. It's actually this month. Actually, I think it's this next weekend. And I was on the wait list for that. And I kind of got this wild hair. And I called my coach and I said, I have a crazy idea. There's a race in Ouray. It's 100 miles, 102.1 miles. It's 42,000 feet of climbing. And it has a 52-hour cutoff. I want to do it. And of course my coach goes, it's not my job to tell you yes or no. It's my job to get you ready. It's July 18th and I am cautiously enthusiastic. I am excited and both scared and ready for whatever it is that we're about to embark on because I don't have the natural talent. And if you hear anything from me about my earlier comment, like anybody could do a hundred miler. My full expectation, I don't care where I place. I want to complete this race and I am not convinced I am talented enough to do it while sleeping as well. I am debating on what that strategy is going to look like, but there is an expectation that perhaps this is 48 plus hours with no sleep.

SPEAKER_00:

So you're, Let's go back to those numbers for a second, Tyler. So you said 102.1 miles. We can't forget the 0.1. Don't forget it. And you've got roughly 40 plus thousand feet of elevation change.

SPEAKER_01:

I believe it's 13. I believe it's 13 mountains that you climb.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. And... you have 52 hours to complete it with an official time like you know i'm assuming that if they just shut things down and you finish in 53 that they're not going to pick up the road and not let you cross the finish line but everybody's going to be gone but you're going to finish it but for people that may be listening that are not familiar with colorado talk a little bit about the oxygen at those altitudes, or more specifically, the lack of oxygen at those altitudes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there's probably a scientist out there that's chummin' at the bit to dive into this better than I can describe it. So I'll describe it as I feel, but for anybody who hasn't been really north of 10,000 feet, the air just seems as if it's non-existent, right? Not there. Yeah, it's, I mean, there's air, but your body isn't processing it in the way that you would at, say, sea level. And so your heart rate, right, has to elevate to help the muscles. They require a certain amount of oxygen. Your heart rate has to elevate to get the oxygen to it. And when you do that for elongated periods, you can imagine that you have to burn more calories, and we'll dive into that. So, you know, average elevation of this race is somewhere around 10 000 feet i believe and again there's a lot of i believes here and i intentionally didn't go back and look at the website to throw out all these numbers because that's not what these races are for it's a guiding principle i am training my coach has all the information and he points me in the direction i have found that it's actually helpful for me about a month or two out which we're not at yet to really start diving into the terrain and things like that but I have to trust my process. My process is not to worry about these 13 climbs or whatever they are. It's to worry about this. Especially when you're north of Treeline, which I think most of these climbs are, almost all of them are 13,000 feet-ish, the air just doesn't seem to be there anymore. You're just grasping. You can feel your heart beating out of your chest. you know, regardless of the shape you're in, we live at 6,500 feet. I still go to 10,000. I still feel it. I certainly feel it at 13. I feel it at 14 and I expect to feel it the entirety of this race.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, man, that is amazing. So now we talked about, and I hope that we're able to make this happen. So you're, you're in your training and you've got this, this race in July and, I would love to get you back on the show and talk about how your training is going as you prepare for this race and talk about how you're feeling physically, how you're feeling mentally right before the race. And then we want to get you back. afterwards and talk about what your experience was like. So I appreciate your willingness to entertain putting up with me for three different episodes. But I think that telling the story to its completion is really exciting. So I'm looking forward to that part of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

So I want to transition a little bit. So Tyler, most of the people that are listening are not going to do anything that physically demanding. But you did talk about the fact that the biggest obstacle that you have to deal with is between your ears. And I think that Insert whatever your hard situation may be, the biggest challenge that you might be trying to overcome. Talk to my listeners a little bit about your philosophy around just developing that proper mindset to deal with that challenge.

SPEAKER_01:

What a wonderful question. I always say, I call it, go find your heart. There's never really a world where I sit here trying to preach that everybody needs to do a 100-miler, although I do think it's an incredible experience that will humble you in ways you could not even yet imagine if you've never done it. At least it was for me. But go find your heart. When I completed my 100-miler, you don't know who's watching. And I'm really passionate about what I'm trying to accomplish for those who can. Just a reminder that there are people who would maybe do this. Maybe they would love to have that opportunity again, and they don't have it. And I think if you're still here breathing, trying to figure out what can I go do, you need to go find your heart. That's what you need to go do. Go find time to go do something you don't have time for. Because I promise you, you're going to shift what you have time for. Jay, it could be I have one friend, go walk a mile. That was her challenge. I just want to find the time to go walk a mile. It wasn't that it was physically demanding, although I'm sure it could have been. It was, I don't have time, which is a farce, right? Because you do have time. It's just you've chosen to allot that time to something else that you feel is more important. But when you're running or whatever it is that you're doing, that's going to require that shift in that perspective. I tell people, go find your heart and it doesn't need to be this. It could be spend more time with your kids, dedicated time with your phone on the side. It could be literally anything, Jay. But just go figure it out and then go do it. And don't make an excuse about it, though. The most important component, don't make an excuse. Give yourself a freebie, but don't make an excuse. Go find your heart. But once you've found it, probably going to have to find another one after and it's going to keep going.

SPEAKER_00:

Man, I just, that is so powerful. I love it. And again, listeners, Tyler is not saying that you need to strap them on and go run a hundred, but if you want to do it, but find the thing that is, is your heart. You could be, You could be thinking about a career change. You could be thinking about starting a business. You could be thinking about a diet and trying to transform your body. Whatever that challenge is, just think about that mindset and focus on it. Don't make the excuses and say that you can't because you absolutely can. And If this man is out there dedicating all of this amazing time, and he's a busy professional as well. Don't get me wrong there. He's not just running 24 hours a day. He's got a family. He's got a great wife, young children, a career. And so he's making time for all of this as well. So I think that it is an amazing message for us to share. find whatever our hard is and just go attack it. I love it, Tyler.

SPEAKER_01:

I thank you, Jay. And you know, I have, I have yesterday, yesterday morning, I had a long run. I had to fit a medium run that I had to fit in this week. Okay. And it fits in with what you just said. That's why I want to take a quick second and quickly go through it. But I set my alarm for 3 30 AM. I've got to be down at the office. I work in downtown. So I got to get up early, got to get nine miles in. and i'm sitting there in the bathroom right before my run and i hear the you know the clinking of rain hitting the window and i'm like oh it's wet oh it's wet okay all right and so i you know i stick my hand out and i'm like that's a drizzle it's not that bad and so i decide okay i'm gonna go i'm gonna go four and a half miles in one direction okay and remember it's 3 30 in the morning so it's dark i don't wear a headlamp intentionally but i'm gonna go four and a half miles in one direction because I'm not calling my wife to come pick me up. And I've never done that, but it's not happening today. So regardless of what happens with these conditions, I'm four and a half miles away. That's four and a half miles of grit. And I get to the end. It's gorgeous. I'm in this real rural area south of where I'm at. I love it. I'm eating it up. I keep going south. I actually find that I went over on mileage because I kept going south. I turn around and you know when you're running or walking or maybe the wind is to your back and you just don't feel it nearly as much, but you turn around and face it and it hits you? I didn't realize how much it was raining. Totally missed it. Zoned out, didn't realize it. Turn around, headwind, freezing. Took my hat and my neck gaiter off, put it right back on again. And I go, okay, I've got four and a half miles of this. Oh, shoes are soaked. I just wasn't paying attention. four and a half miles. And I looked at it and at first I'm like, this sucks. And I was like, eh, think about it though. Your race is going to suck.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll probably lean on this. I'll probably lean on this, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's all

SPEAKER_01:

mindset. It's all mindset.

SPEAKER_00:

Ever since you and I had our first conversation about this, Tyler, it's changed my mindset on, you know, I can't complain about my hard challenges you know i so i started my own business and my mindset on that has been so much different i i used to think that that was something that i could never do and i don't think i love it i i think about it that way now and but when i get out so i try to get out a couple times a day two mile walk in the morning, two mile walk in the afternoon. And, and that's my thing. I walk and I do it more so for mental clarity, uh, as well, because I seem to come up with some of my, my best ideas when I'm, I'm out walking. But, you know, when the, when the conditions are not ideal, I sort of think about you every once in a at that time is gonna suck and you're gonna be pushing through it. So I'm looking forward to hearing about that. You mind if I ask you a couple, maybe silly questions, but they're a little lighthearted, but I'm definitely curious about it. So you're doing all this running, you're doing all this training. How many runs can you get out of a pair of shoes, bro, before you got to throw them away?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my God, that's a million dollar question, man. finally have the right road shoe. And I get to about 300, 350 if I really stretch it. And you got to be careful with injury. But it's, I mean, there's a period of time where that'll last me about three weeks, a month, depending on, just depending on where I'm at in my training cycle. So I've got, actually, I've got my, I got a pair upstairs right now and I just ordered two more. I've got two fresh pairs sitting up in the closet because We're starting our ramp up period here. We're going to be cycling shoes in weeks, not months or years.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, when you get to your race and it's time for that race, are you strapping on a brand new pair for that or are they going to have a couple miles on them so that you know how they feel?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, a couple of miles. Jay, that's actually a great question. I'm actually working on that right now. So road shoes, trail shoes, very different. I run a couple of different brands. What I did during my 100 mile race, I wish I would have known this, but at about mile 22, this really nasty rainstorm came through and basically the shoes I was wearing, mud got kicked up in there. Well, that mud over the course of miles and miles and miles the leather like as a basically a little cleaver. So for about 70 plus miles, I had literally this leather cleaver that had hardened ripping at my Achilles. I've got a photo. I can share it with you, but I get to mile 98. My wife looks at me and she goes, what is on your shoe? What was all this like coagulated dried up blood that had been coming out of my Achilles for the last 70 something miles didn't even I just everything hurt so bad that you just You don't think of, oh my God, I'm in pain. I should look at that. It's just that hurts. And so does 97 other parts of my body. So you let it go. So I'm actually going to try something different. I think I'm going to bring three different pairs for this race. I'm getting another pair today, which I'm excited about. I'm going to try those out and see who gets excited about shoes. But these things, I mean, 100 miles, you need a good pair of shoes to keep your feet ready to

SPEAKER_00:

go. Yeah. Yeah. You can't just... No offense to Skechers, but I'm assuming that that's not one of the brands that you're just going to slip on and go run 100 miles.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no. And unfortunately, these shoes are not nearly as cheap as I wish they were. But, you know, quality matters. You put the money in the product, but the product's supposed to last. And these two pairs, they've got runners that have taken over 1,000 miles in them. Probably not racing at 1,000 miles, but...

SPEAKER_00:

That's crazy. So I had another silly question that came into my head, so I'm going to ask it, but I still got one more after this for you. So you run this amazing race and you finish. You're going to finish. I just believe in you. You're going to get it done. So do you take that pair of shoes and you put them in a trophy case and display them? Because that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01:

they get moved over into a training shoe. Nothing special.

SPEAKER_00:

Dude, you're, you're, you're autographing one of those things and I'm putting one of your stinky ass shoes like right there on the shelf right there. So

SPEAKER_01:

yeah, they, they get real nasty. Uh, they get real broken in over the course of, you know, the conditions and the rain and the, you know, you, the river and the, whatever you're going through, right. It all gets trucked into it. So a shoe, uh, fresh out of the box, you gotta, you gotta break that baby in and

SPEAKER_00:

let her ride. We're totally sealing that bad boy up in one of those nice little plastic boxes. So, you know, it'll be, it'll be great. So, uh, last question for you, buddy, and I'm gonna let you go, but, um, I, so when you're running one of these races, um, do you have your, your, your pods in, or are you just out there with nature? Um,

SPEAKER_01:

A little bit of a sensitive question. I train with the buds, right? The buds cost me in my last race about 45 minutes. I ended up putting them in after having them out for a while. I think it was mile 35. I put them in just to get my headspace back in and I missed a turn. That turn cost me almost three miles and was detrimental. I ran out of water as a result of it and all these other complications. And so had I not put those in, I would have been okay. So typically when I race in the beginning, I have one headphone in. I have found that music actually can lower your heart rate. If you're listening to Metallica or Rammstein, it elevates your heart rate. But I put on a chill mix, which is very chill, and listen to that for a little while. And then about 15-ish miles in, I'll take them out, and I'll just be one with the people around me, if there are any, and nature. And then once the sun goes down, that's when I always say, that's when all the demons come out, right? When the sun goes down, about 2 a.m. is when things get real weird. I'll try to put one in again just to try to lighten the mood. But yeah, music has a bittersweet, I should say.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow.

UNKNOWN:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

man tyler this was really amazing uh you know 50 plus minutes just flew by i feel like i could keep you here for another hour but i'm gonna get you back for two more episodes and and we're gonna talk about this but uh i really appreciate you you coming on and telling everybody uh not only about what you do But even more importantly, the reason why you do it. And so, again, I just want to reiterate to our to our military, those out there in harm's way so that we can appreciate the freedoms that we have. We we we thank you for your service. We appreciate your sacrifices, your families. They're sacrificing as well to all of our law enforcement officers, our first responders, all of you. We definitely appreciate the things that you do for each of us every day. We may not need you every day, but when we need you, you're always there. So thank you for that. But to my listeners, thank you for joining us on Just Human. I really hope that you enjoyed this episode with Tyler Herman. Remember that with Just Human, That's the place that we want to lean into. It's just our shared humanity. And so much like Tyler mentioned, let's go out there, find your hard and commit yourself to it and see what that does. See what challenges you can overcome and what obstacles you can knock down. So thank you, everyone. Tyler, thanks, buddy. And we're going to talk to you again here real soon, my man.

SPEAKER_01:

Looking forward to it, man. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Take care.