Episode 45: Cocodona 250: Your Questions Answered

You asked, I answered. This episode is a full Cocodona 250 Q&A — your questions about training, gear, crew, the mental game, recovery, and everything in between. If you've been curious about what actually goes into running 253.4 miles, this one's for you.

In this episode:

• How long my training block actually was and what peak weeks looked like
• Heat prep, shoe swaps, and nutrition that held up (mostly)
• Crew and pacer logistics — and how half my pacers weren't even planned
• The mental side: mantras, doubts, and aid station to aid station thinking
• Recovery timeline and what finishing this changed for me

Links & Resources for This Episode

• Follow me on Instagram
• Visit my website: www.sunrisetrailscoaching.com
• Want to work together? Learn about 1:1 Coaching
• Free guide: What’s In My Pack? Download here

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all, welcome back to Dirt Nap Diaries. I'm your host, Britney Olson, Trailrunner, Women's Trailrunning Coach, Hype Woman, and Professional Overpacker of the Midrun Snacks. This show is for the everyday trailrunner, the ones training on real life legs and real life time. You've got work, relationships, laundry pets, a group text that never shuts up, and maybe a big goal sitting quietly in the back of your head that you're not totally sure you're allowed to want. You're not here chasing podium spots, you're chasing finish lines, sunrises, and maybe a little sanity. This podcast is about trail running, but it's also about navigating life. The hard seasons, the joyful ones, and the ones where everything feels like too much. So let's get into it. Alright, y'all. Um, running volume still picking up just a little bit. Um again, last weekend, if you guys listened to my last podcast, I got a little little sick. Um, the sickness is gone, uh, but I have an after uh like cough, the lingering cough, and then congestion. And I have not had anything last this long in quite some time. So it's a little frustrating. Um, it's not fun throughout the day, but it's definitely not fun when I'm running. Um, too much information. I just gave a whole description of my snap to uh one of my friends slash athletes, Catherine. Hi, Catherine. Um, and it is it's just ugh, but I am feeling a ton better, lots more energy, uh, just more. It will not go away. So if anybody else has this or ends up getting this, whatever it was, it's not the most fun, and there's something that's lingering, so just be prepped. That's all. Um, outside of that though, I actually had a weekend of we didn't work going anywhere. We'd been to um Vegas for a concert right after Coca-Dona, and then we went and did a summit challenge in Sierra Vista, which is in southern Arizona, it's super pretty. Then we went to another concert in Tucson last weekend, or like the prior weekend that and this past weekend. The only thing we did was we went to a Cornish uh pasty and vet some friends uh for dinner that we've been trying to meet up with. Uh Glendale just opened a Cornish pasty, so we were excited. So we got to do that, and then this coming Friday we actually have another concert in Tucson. So uh it's been busy, and then in July we go to France. So just just a lot happening, but a lot of good stuff. But it was nice to not do anything on the weekend that involved like being a car for a long time or standing up uh for a while and listening to music. Not that's not fun, but it was just nice to chill. So um, so outside of that, let's get into this episode. Um, it's kind of structured. It is questions that I received about Coca-Dona. Um, I tried to put them into different categories, like ones like training and prep, one's gear and nutrition, a little bit about the crew and pacers. I have talked a lot about them, so I probably won't get like hugely into that, but like I will get into it just a little bit because I had a couple questions. Um, the race itself, the mental side, and then like recovery um and the aftermath. So um, I don't think this will be like a five-hour episode unless I just can't stop talking. But there are a lot of good questions that came in, some some very similar, some completely different. Um, but we're gonna start with the training and prep and just go in order of what makes sense in my brain. Um, so first question was how far out did you actually start your training block for this? And what did peak week look like? So I will say for a 200-plus miler, um people think that we're training for like a year or 10 months, um, and that is not the case at all. My actual training block for this, so that would be the VO2 Max's the first block, started at the end of December. Um, and this race was the first week of May. So week wise, I just realized I don't know how long that is, but you know, maybe about 20 weeks or so. Now, let me caveat with I am always running and lifting. Like, I am not always necessarily training for a specific race, but like I have a very strong base. I like to keep my base where I can run a 50k at any time. So your training block can look a little bit different, it might start a little bit earlier, um, just depending on your background, your experience, what your foundation is, um, what you've raced, things like that. Um, but mine started, people feel like that's late, but that is not late at all. Um, so that's when it started. Um, peak week, what it looked like for me, my peak week actually was not the couple of weeks before um Coca-Dona. So for 200 plus milers, depending on your life, depending on um what training weekends, like training camps are offered on on certain weekends, that really kind of, at least for me, is what made my peak week my peak week. And I feel like I had a couple of them with where the volume is higher. So peak week means like basically it's at highest volume week. And by volume I mean time on feet. Um, so mine, I had uh, I would say one in March and one in April. Uh so in March, everyday Ultra, which is who my coaches through, they did a three-day uh weekend uh of a training camp, and we did the first 36 and a half miles of the course, then we went and did the hangover trail. Um, and then we went and did um, oh my gosh, Eldon. So those were like, and then in April, um Era Vipa put on their um training uh camp, which was doing that first 36.5 miles uh for um again, I got to that twice, which is amazing. It helped me so much during the race. But then like I had uh runs on each side of that too. So my again, mine was not just two weeks before, um, because of just those training camps were offered and there was water drops and different things like that. So that really got me to you know where my peak weeks were. That said, I always I had high volume for quite a while. Um, but you can't have high volume for so long that your body can't recover. So even in some of those high volume pieces, like there were weeks where we did have a bit of a step back. So um, and we call those recovery weeks, step back weeks. You'll hear hear that too. Um, that just allow your body to soak in the fitness that you have, let those that body actually recover because it's not just your legs that are recovering, it's it's your mind, it's your GI system, it's everything um that's being worked out there, needs a bit of recovery. That doesn't mean you stop running, it means there's just a little bit of reduced volume, more than likely not no intensity or not much intensity in a workout. Um, so workouts might be dropped completely. So um that's again, that's it's not like hey, here's peak week. If if it had worked out and peak week was exactly two weeks before, or even three weeks before, that would have been fine too. But I got all the training I needed. So what you just need to know is for 200 plus milers, you are doing a lot more volume than you would for other races, even a hundred miler. So sometimes just because of how much you time on feet you get, it doesn't just always look exactly as you think it would because of the fluidity of it, of trying to fit things in your schedule as an everyday person. Um, hopefully that helps. And also just remember that training block is not a year long. You may hear somebody be like, I'm training for a year. They might be training, they might be having Coca Donna or whatever race they're doing, like on their brain. But training blocks are typically depending on the distance, like 16 to 30 weeks, and that's a big range because you could be training for something shorter or longer. But that's typically I cat people out at 30 weeks, and I rarely put anybody in for 30 weeks. So and again, all of this is very nuanced depending on your background, your experience, your goal, your age, all of it matters. So, okay, there's that one. Um, I was asked about specific workouts or terrain types that I prioritized, um, or was it mostly just time on feet? Um, so um, so the workouts themselves are fair or ex are pretty much how I coach too. You know, the first three weeks, maybe in four weeks, VO2 max block, that is the highest intensity and the lowest volume I had. So I had a couple of those a week. Um, and that is just to make my engine um raise that ceiling on my engine, make my engine bigger. Um, and that way the rest of the blocks it can push up everything else too. So um had that, went into the lactate threshold block, which is really like tempo runs, think like effort level around like seven to eight. Um, so not hitting that nine or ten, but seven to eight. Uh, and then the big bulk of my time was spent workouts that are called steady state runs, and those are around like a six to a seven. Um, so holding that, and those intervals are much longer. I think I got up to 15 to 20 minute intervals at one time. If I did 20 minutes, it was a two by twenty, but it might have just been three by fifteen. So anyway, but like those were those workouts that I would do on say a Tuesday, and then I would do my normal runs too throughout the week. That way, by the time I hit my long runs on the weekend, whether it was a back-to-back weekend or a back-to-back-to-back weekend, I was feeling a little bit more fatigued. So, yes, they help build fitness, but really the goal of all that volume is to make it so when your long runs happen, you've got a little bit of fatigue on you. You're feeling those things because you're never gonna run 200 plus miles in like a few days before you run this race. Like that's not how it works. Um, so the goal is to do these workouts to build some, you know, like you want some physiological adaptations, but you also want to make your legs, um, your stomach even a little more fatigued. So you're feeling that what some kind of way whenever you're doing those long runs, you can practice your eating, you can see how your feet are gonna feel, you can see where your head's gonna be at, those types of things. Um, so those are the workouts. I did steady state runs where I spent a ton of time in, which makes sense. That's in that third block, that endurance block. Um, so lots and lots of time there. I enjoy those steady state runs because they're a push, they're comfortably hard, um, but they're also not so you're pushing at a VO2 max, which I'm focused on pushing at VO2 max, I couldn't hold anything for 15 minutes. So um, really, really enjoy those steady state runs. And then um it talks about the train types you prioritize. I mean, I was on trail a ton. If I have a run an hour or more, just in general, like I am on a trail. If it's under, so normally it's 45 minutes or under, I do road um just because of the drive time to the trail. Um, and sometimes it's just nice to sleep in a little bit uh and just get the trail running done. And sometimes life just I have to do a road run. Like I just have to, um, just because of work or whatever it is I need to do. But like it was mainly trail uh and how my long runs looked when because they did ask about tri terrain types and how it was. Normally for long runs, if my if my uh schedule allowed for it, I would do my first run would be a lot of vert, and it would be the longest run uh that I would have. Uh, that is because that's how the race set up. I believe I mentioned this in a in a podcast a little while back, but vert, vert is the name of that race in the very beginning. There's more vert throughout, but a lot of it comes in the beginning. So those first runs, uh the first long run would be all that vert technical terrain, um, if available and where I live, it's very much so available. And then that second long run or third long run, depending on how it was too, um, it would be a lot more flat, which is like the second half of the race. And not that there's not any climbing. Um, if you guys are running on trails a lot of times, it's hard to actually find a flat, flat trail, but it's not vert heavy. The focus was not getting like say 4,000 feet of vert in five hours. That was not the goal, you know. Um, it was just more like let's just keep those legs moving, uh, let's still keep them turning over, let's see how you feel, let's run tire. And this is like the second half of the race. Um, so that's how I trained for that, and that's how I trained for uh my athlete who actually also did Cokodona. So it makes sense because the beginning of the race, Vert, the end of the race is a little bit more flat. Yes, Eldon is at the end, trust me, I am well aware of that, but for the most part, your vert comes in the beginning. So, and again, like it's a pretty like technical piece is especially at the beginning. So I was on technical, but there are many places um throughout Cocodona that are not so technical. Um, there's even some road there, so it is good to do all the different things, learn all the things. There are a lot of videos out there. Obviously, y'all could ask me, but if you do end up having like questions, I mean just ask if you're doing it or if you're thinking about doing it, like I can tell you all the different different spots out there and you know what's what's smoother, um, what what's harder, what's chunky, all that stuff. Um, also a lot of questions came, and I wasn't sure if I'd get this one just because I do live in Phoenix, so it does get warmer here. Um people said, like, how did you handle the heat training piece? Well, as you we in March we actually got a lot of heat, um, and then it started cooling off to be more normal temperatures. Um, but I just run at the same time every day. Uh, and this goes in general for heat training too. Uh, and you will acclimate here. Um, so so for so if I'm getting up at 4 o'clock every day and hitting the trail by 5, it gets hotter and hotter and hotter throughout the summer. And sometimes by the time we're starting a run, it's already in the 90s. So um that goes for how it was here. I mean, I think I had a few runs that it was 70 degrees when we started. Um, not often, I think it was mainly in the 60s, but like when you are running for 11 to 12 hours, um, some days it's gonna get warmer as you go because it's Phoenix and it was Phoenix in March and April. And by the time May hit, I was already in taper because the race started May 4th. Um, and then also there are different things um you can do. Like a lot of times what what will be recommended is you can go for your run um and come home and or go to the gym and get in the sauna. Like if there's a sauna there, you can get in there for 15 to 20 minutes. It can help those red blood cells. It's supposed to help with that heat acclimation. Um, if you don't have access to that, you can actually take just a hot bath for 15 to 20 minutes. I don't really enjoy hot baths, but I did that a few times. Um, but that also helped. And it has to do with like the red blood cells and expanding those. So if you don't have, again, if you don't have access to a sauna, you can you can run a hot bath and get into it for 15 to 20 minutes afterwards. Um, even if you can't get in right after a run, the reason I say right after a run is because your body's already heated up uh and you can get in. Uh, but you can also do that throughout your day. It's not the exact same thing, but you're still gonna get some benefits from that. And you don't have to do that every single week of training. Like you can. I know people who do, and it's totally fine. Like, but you can do it the last two weeks um of training, and you will get physiological adaptations to doing that. Um, you don't have to do it. It's not it's not something that you have to do, um, but it it can help a little bit. I know I have an athlete who does it, Renee, and she uh is doing well. It's getting hotter and hotter here, and she is not feeling heat like other people. So something to keep in mind, it can benefit you. I also understand that everybody has the time to take a bath, you know, or get to a sauna afterwards too. So it's not gonna make or break you. Um, it can just help you. So um, I was I just asked too, like, did I do any tune-up races? I did not do one race leading up to this. I have pre-race anxiety and I struggle not to race when I'm out there. Uh, this race might have changed me for that, by the way. But um, I didn't do any. I enjoy the training process. I love being out there. I did a ton of solo running, a ton. Um, I went up to Dewey Humboldt and found a trail, super randomly, just looked it up, had no idea how technical it was, and it was really great training um and did that. So, like, I just did a lot of just long runs um on my own. Uh, no race. And I have no problem with people doing training races like when when needed, or they like to practice aid stations, or it's just it's just easier, right? It is easier to have a course that's already marked that is race sp like more race specific for you. But I did not do any of those. Um, I just did a lot of long runs, a lot of vertie, long runs that first day, and the second day might be a little more vert, and if there's a third day, it'd be pretty flat. So, um, yeah. So you can do tune-up races. I just don't do them. Um, I don't race a whole lot. I do pick my races pretty um specifically and intentionally. So and then this was a recurring one in different uh in different spots, but like what's one thing I would have done differently in training? So a lot of people are asked, like, what would you have done differently like with eating? What would you have done differently with like the race? What would you have done differently with recovery? Um, you know, for training, I'm I think what I would like to do, and it's it's just because my stomach did get off and I did puke quite a bit. I feel like I want to try more salty things. It's not that I didn't do salty things at all, but um, I'm not sure what makes my stomach do what it does sometimes, and I'm just wondering if there's a lot of sweet, and if I got some salty in there would help. And I do have sodium going into me, guys. I do, like it's not like I'm not having any sodium, I have electrolytes on me, but more like can I mix up my food a bit more? So I think what I would have done differently when I'm just grant this is looking back, hindsight's 2020, is just trying some more salty things. Um, I did have like a burger out there, you know, I had some chicken nuggets out there before. I had a grilled cheese that was salty. Um, but I think I would have had more, say, like checks mix, you know, trying something else out that was not um that not that I didn't try during the training block. But really, outside of that, my coach Liz, I mean, she's amazing. Um, Liz Myers is her name. If you want to give her a follower, it's Liz Myles. My Myers is her um it'd be awesome if her last name is Miles, but it's Liz Myers is her uh Instagram handle. Um, but she she got me prepped. We talked, you know, we left each other voice messages, what I like to do with my athletes too. But like we she she she had me so prepped for training. The volume was there. We talked food, even though we talked food a lot, like, and my stomach held together, by the way, all the training. I had no puking during that training block, and last one I did. Um, so like everything, it's just more when I was out there. It seemed like when my stomach did flip, I was like, well, maybe if I had some more salt on me, that my salty food on me, that might have helped. So, but I feel really good about the training and prep that went into it. Um, the prep itself, which I had a couple people ask about, the uh how I had like all my stuff organized. A few people saw my picture on Instagram. I am very much in a type A person, and I am fine with that. But everything was labeled like I had stuff in different size uh plastic totes. Everything that was in the tote was labeled with tape on top of it. And the things within the tote, if they needed labeled, were also labeled. Like I had I had uh all my uh gels and my nutrition, they were in a plastic tote, and they had the aid station on them that I needed them at. Um, so like those, and if I had there were some spots where I went see crew for a couple of aid stations. So I see a crew at an aid station, there'd be an aid station between before I saw the next crew. Those two different fuels would go in one big Ziploc bag, and it was labeled as such. Um, clothing, shoes, uh, just things were labeled that need to be individually labeled, but the things like such as like my my bathroom kit, it just said bathroom kit on top, and it labeled like what was in here toothbrush, toothpaste, chapstick, all of those things too. So I didn't label those separately because you could see them in the tote, but like everything that way they knew um just where things were. So even if like for that aid station, I didn't think I would need something there, I could be like, oh my gosh, like I need my toothbrush. Um by the way, the theme of that race by the end of it was was toothbrush, toothpaste, like right away. Your your mouth feels so weird after having so much food and moving for so long and probably being maybe even a little dehydrated, I'm not sure, but just like different things, and all the electrolytes, tailwind, scratch, so your mouth feels some kind of way. But for prep to make it as easy as possible on my crew and pacers, I just labeled everything well, and then I had a spreadsheet that said, you know, I might need this, this, and this. But for the most part, once you're in that 200 plus mile, you can spreadsheet things as much as you want. Things are gonna change out there. So having everything just specifically labeled, and then even if they don't have it ready for you when they're there, and let me tell you, like, Greg had things ready. They he did, like, so he he was like boom, but if it's like, for example, if like I'm like, oh man, like I ran out of chapstick or I need more anti-chaf, I don't have any more because I had some in my pack, it was labeled on top of the box. So he could have easily looked at like the top of the top of the box and been like, oh, here it is, and get it out. So just something it makes it for me, it when I do those things, it it takes stress off me, and hopefully at the same time, it takes stress away from the crew and pacers too. So that was the big prep. And it did not take as long as I thought. I did have to do math. Um, I used Ultra Pacer to figure out maybe like how much fuel I would need in between the spaces based on like timing. Uh, and I always throw in a few extra stuff because you might be out there longer. But okay, so that's really like training prep questions that I got. Feel free, y'all, if if there's another question that pops as you are listening, send it to me. I'm not saying I'm gonna do a whole podcast about it, but I'll answer you just so you know. Um, but now we're gonna do gear and nutrition. I don't think this one's gonna be uh have as much, um, only because there's many of these things that I talked about a bit, and I don't want to like go too deep in the weeds unless I really feel the need to. So um the question was what shoes did you run in, and like how, how, why when did you decide to change them? So I did talk about this um in a couple of the Coca-Dona episodes, but I ran in Mount to Coast is the brand exclusively. Or that's all I ran in, that's the exclusive brand that I had. So Mount to Coast, and then I wore their T1s, which is their trail shoes, and their H1s, which are their hybrids, which you can run on the road, on gravel, on trail that's maybe not too technical. I think you could run on technical trail in those too. Uh, so I did start out in T1s, so anytime it was gonna be super technical, um, and I knew it, I was putting on those T1s. So I started the race in the T1s because that's a very chunky place, lots of climbing. Um, and they have bigger, they the lugs on the bottom, it's it they're bigger, so they have more grip to them. Um so wore those. I did not wear them as much as I thought I would. And just you know, I had those, uh I did have those labeled um just to make sure I had the right ones because I did train in other ones too. Um, and so I had multiple pairs of shoes in the same color. So label your shoes if you have them in the same color, by the way. It helps out a lot. Uh, and then the H ones, the the lugs on the bottom are smaller. Um, they are to me, for whatever reason, they fit my foot. Um, and they are the most comfortable running shoe I've put on, and I now I'm wearing them on the road, um, period. Like I'm not wearing my R ones, which is another Mount to Coast. Um, I am wearing those H ones uh on the road, and they feel better than the R ones do. But I wore those, uh like I said, the whole race is not technical, it's not all chunky. Uh, and I started wearing those when I hit um Prescott, so Whiskey Row. So I did wear the T1s um from the beginning at Deep Canyon Rance to Crown King, and then from Crown King all the way to Whiskey Row. I'm not gonna lie, I really wanted them on the way into Whiskey Row because there was a little bit. Bit more road, but that said, I had my technical those technical shoes for some pretty technical pieces out there, and I wasn't seeing Greg until Whiskey Row. So that's just how that one worked. Sometimes you gotta make a decision for yourself when you know you're not gonna see crew for a piece, and you have to decide, okay, what shoes do I want to wear out here? And I had already chosen not to change my shoes at Crown King. So um, so anytime like I knew it was gonna be basically, I don't say like easy terrain, but easier terrain, gravel. Um, I did wear my H1s and I wore it, ended up wearing them a lot more, partially because my foot uh got so big my left foot got huge. Um and the T both both shoes have dual lacing, but the H1s you actually tie at the top so they're easier to loosen and keep loose. By the end of it, I don't think I had any kind of tightening or tying on that shoe at all, except to like so it wouldn't drag like it was tied but not actually tightened. Um and it was just easier to keep on my foot. Uh and then the T1s, they're both, I don't know what you call them, but they're both, they're it's not a tie on the top. You just zip it. And like, I say zip, it's not really a zip, but like you just pull it and you pull it tight. I did put my foot into the T1s on the last 20 miles, uh, because I was going up and down Elden and going down Eldon is technical, and I wanted as as much grip as possible. Fortunately, my foot was huge, but it did not hurt. So Greg was able to get those shoes on me. Um, and I think looking back, I probably could have worn the H1s, probably, with how good of a shoe they are, but I had those on and everything was fine. So those are the shoes. How I chose to change them was just based on the terrain, and I have I had paced over a hundred miles on this course, and I had done the training run the the year before and this year, so I knew a lot of the course and what what I expected um with my shoes, and I had labeled my spreadsheet for my crew of the shoes. That was one thing I labeled for shoes, just like here's the shoes I'm planning on wearing because of the different terrains. So H1s did get, like I said, got worn a little bit more, but that's what you need to practice during training. You can't just go out and buy what I'm wearing or what somebody else is wearing and just expect them to work. You have to wear them and see if they work for you. So, as you guys know, I don't talk about shoes a whole lot only because I don't want people to just buy them and then like they try to force them and they don't really fit their feet. So always test out your shoes before race, before even a long run to make sure they fit you and make sure the place you're ordering from has a really good exchange or return policy because we don't know how shoes are really gonna feel until we're out there. Um had a few questions about um pack setup. Uh I don't really feel like my pack was set up any way like special. Um, I have a what's in my pack guide, by the way. There's a link in the show notes. You can go check it out. It actually has pictures of how um how I pack. So if you want to see that, you you you can like just click there um and you can get the guide. Uh, but um, so my poles, I have a quiver, they go in the back. If I wasn't using them, I didn't use them the entire the the whole entire race, but I always had them on me because it's nice to be able to get those out. So there's a quiver on the back of my pack. I have two flasks that sit in the front. Um, they are 500 milliliters apiece or about 17 ounces. Those are where my electrolytes go. And then I had a two-liter bladder in the back of my pack, um, which was plain water. So uh typically that was filled up at every single aid station or every single cruise spot. Uh my gels and my nutrition went up in my front. There's pockets up front in my vest. That's where I keep those. Um, my phone was in a zipper pocket up front, and then I actually had like anti-chafe, chapstick, toilet paper, emergency blanket, all the required stuff. And then when I had the winter stuff, it was if I wasn't wearing it, it was in the back zipper pocket. I have a tw- I was a tw- I have a 12-liter pack. Uh, the carrying capacity is 12 liters, and it expands a lot, so I can stuff everything in the back. Um, always remember toilet paper, guys. And wipes, if you have them. You need to have wipes uh for that long of a distance. Uh so and this is a race, and most races are like this. Your pacer cannot mule for you, and what that means is they cannot carry anything for you. So you are carrying all your own stuff, your pacer is carrying all of their own stuff. I do not wear sunglasses when I run, if you are wondering. Um, I had a few people notice, like I just don't. They bounce on my face. I have a very tiny head, so that gear was not on me at all. Um, and then the one thing that I had added that I hadn't practiced um with, I had worn it, but I hadn't practiced it on a long run, um, was wearing a naked belt around my waist to put my empty um nutrition packets in. I was struggling, like, what do I do with this? And people are like, why don't you just have a ziploc in your pack and like put the empties in there? Because you have so much in your pack that trying to go through all of that is actually a really big pain in the ass. And then gel starts to get like in your pack because you don't always empty the gel or you don't realize it, and then things get sticky. So I had this, I had a naked belt, you can look it up, it's it's awesome. And I just stuffed all my empties there, and at every aid station or every cruise spot, they emptied it and then threw those out, and that's just where I kept my stuff. And that changed the game for me. Like that was awesome. I will always have that now when I'm running a long run because it makes everything so easy. Um, Greg did have to clean it off once because it got so sticky. I was struggling to open it because things were drying. Um, but it was that that would be the gear that I had not tried in training, and I would recommend y'all give it a shot because it does help having somewhere to carry um your empties. Um, but it's also a great spot. People will wear those. You might see them. They will put an extra flask, soft flask in there with an extra so it has water or electrolytes in it. Some people will put their phone in there, some people put chapstick in there, some people have their like a key fob in there. So it can be used for other things too. I just found it really useful to throw my empty gels in there because there were times where I probably had 30 to 40 like empty packs of gels in that thing. I know it was a lot, trust me. I ate quite a bit out there. 40 is probably excessive. I would say probably 30. Let me let me be real. I think 30 is probably the most, but it's still a lot. And think about if I had my nutrition that I hadn't eaten yet in my in my normal pack, and then I was putting empties in there too, and you're trying to grab the full ones, and you keep on grabbing empties. That's what was happening during training runs. So, yeah. So get the naked belt, or they have other belts too, by the way. Just find one that fits you. Um, so uh, what did nutrition look like on course and did it hold up? Well, y'all know this one. Uh I I definitely puked some, but I was able to keep eating and eating, and I do attribute that to the training I did with my nutrition that I ate. So I just kept eating. Um, I had Morton Gels, Precision Nutrition Gels, uh Goo Liquid Energy Strawberry Banana. Uh in the beginning I had goo chews, which are also strawberry. Um, those are caffeinated. They did not last a long time. I don't, and part of it might have been the caffeine, but part of it was really I didn't want to chew anymore. I had Science and Sports beta neutral flavored, and then the strawberry flavored. I love strawberry for you guys. I'm sorry, orange flavored. I love strawberry though, so you hear a lot about strawberry in there, but the orange flavored is really good. Um, and there was something else. Oh, and the science and sport, um, just their salted strawberry one too. So, yeah, lots of that stuff. So I ate a lot, and I still have a lot because the feed had a big 30% off sale. I think that's what it was. So I stocked up. But honestly, like it held up as much as it could. Like I did puke for a while, but I ate gels until that last aid station. Yes, at when I saw crew when I was at AIDA station, I ate real food, but throughout the course, when I was out there, I ate all of that until the last 3.9 miles from the finish. So it it held up, in my opinion, even though I puked. So practice the nutrition though. That is huge with these right with any race, but huge when these races get longer and longer. Make sure you're practicing. I eat every 30 minutes and it works really, really well. Maybe you need to eat every 20 minutes. Maybe you need to eat every 45 minutes. If you're eating every 45 minutes, so you're eating a lot at one time because the goal is 60 and 90 grams of carbs. Um, yes, I know there's nuances and stuff, but 60 and 90 is a really solid guideline to follow for that. So practice the nutrition. Um, I do this go, this goes with the naked belt, I think. It's was there any gear that surprised you? Um, like it either saved you or it let you down. So the naked belt was a big one. Um that was I've already talked about, so I'm not gonna harp on that, but get the naked belt if you need it. And I don't think anything actually let me down. No. The one thing I learned is I need to make sure to have, especially overnight, or if I'm really tired, is just have my glasses in my pack. Um, because at one point, uh my contacts, I I did take a nap on the ground. Um, cat whip woke me up, but like my contacts dried out so much, and like I needed to have my glasses on me. So just learning thing. Um, if you wear contacts out there, just have your glasses in your pack too. Um, it can help. And I think it's funny because I actually did plan on having my glasses in my pack at times, and it just never hit me, and I never mentioned to my crew either. So not blaming anybody for that. More of just, hey, didn't say it out loud and I should have. So, and then my specific gate station food, uh, the lifeline, it was ramen. Um, I ate so, so much ramen. Uh, it was one I didn't have to chew it, right? I mean, you gotta use your teeth a little bit, but like you can just eat it. So the aid stations had it. Um, Greg went and bought some. Uh that way he could just make it and have it ready too. So, I mean, but that I ate I ate other food, but like ramen was the big thing that I had. Um, I was looking forward to a couple burgers out there, and this is not me bitching about aid station food, but they were dry. There were two spots I could have a burger, and they were just dry, and I'm guessing it was because I I if I'd been like a mid-pack person and a front of pack, maybe things are fresher. I have no idea. But uh, I have had back of packer people be like, yeah, like Aid Stations kind of go meh, you know, the the longer you're out there. And I did experience that with some of the stuff you could tell it been there for a while. Um, so that's something that is interesting, needs to change because backup packers are out there longer and they need it too. But uh so ramen was the saving um grace for me. I did have some mashed potatoes too, but um, it was ramen. Um, lots and lots and lots of it. So uh keep that in mind. A lot of times people will start with broth if their stomach gets upset like mine do, and that can really help like trigger to eat. Um, I tried it, I did eggs and bacon at one point too, and they worked, but then the big thing that also worked outside of ramen is at Walnut Canyon. I had a uh and I mentioned this in another podcast episode, but they had uh scrambled egg and bacon wraps, and I I destroyed those. Those are so good. So but again, a lot of times when you do these long distances, you're not always gonna know what looks good. You can practice and practice and practice, and that's great because you should, you should figure out what gels work for you, what nutrition works. But sometimes you're gonna get to an aid station, and something's gonna look good, and you're gonna eat it, and something that you normally like is gonna look terrible, and you're not gonna eat it. So just remember that. Be fluid, be flexible, be able to adjust as as you need to. Um, crew and pacers, I have talked so much about them, so um, and I didn't get a ton of questions, and it might be because people have listened to my episodes already and already heard about my crew and pacers, who were amazing. Um, but I did ask, like, how did I pick my pacers? And well, uh, cat I had picked uh almost right away, and I wish I could tell you exactly like the reason, and part of it is just because anytime we're together and it's not enough for my liking. Um, but we always laugh. It's always like a positive experience. Uh we're very real, we're realistic about just how life is, what it's like. Um, she has a kiddo, I have a I have a step kiddo, like just what what challenges we see, and then like we can laugh about all the things. So, like, and she's solid. Like, I knew she if she said she was gonna be there, she's gonna be there, and she was. Um, so that was one. Um, one did not work out due to timing being off, and that was totally fine. Like, she let us know and she was super concerned, but as you guys all know, things worked out really well. Um, so I had actually only two because I wasn't gonna use them of boost pacers like all the time. Um, it's very hard for me to ask people to use PTO or or take time away from their family um during the week. I mean, that is a very difficult thing for me, and I know people want to be a part of it, and I've mentioned this before, so it's just it's very difficult. And luckily, my friend Courtney, who lives out here on the west side like I do, um, I had mentioned something when we um were chatting. Uh, I think we we went for a run and we went to the corral after afterwards, which is a little um food food place um by the white tanks out here, and she volunteered to help and she took some time off work to do that, which I'm super grateful for. So I ended up uh with her because she volunteered and she is a person that I would totally love to would have totally loved to have out there anyway. Like she would have been one of my asks, but again, like it takes away different time from her two kiddos who were in school and um work, and which means like I said, she used PTO. So uh like doing that, but she came out and that was that was like how she got picked because she volunteered. Yay! Um Amanda came out there and paced. Uh part of that was because she had let me know before that she was volunteering at Mun's Park and she has a cabin there, and she was going to have her pack there. And we realized due to the timing that I had that I was gonna need somebody there. And so she joined in. Um and I told Kat when I was out there, she's like, we need somebody for Munz. And I was like, Amanda, and she's like, Does Amanda know? And I was like, Well, she said she's got her stuff there, so she's up. So Amanda uh came out there and did that. So we are at that was fourth pacer, was that my fourth pacer? Who have I mentioned so far? Now my brain's like, nope, that was my third pacer. Um before that, we had had Kristen, who was also unplanned, uh, and that was from Kat too. Kat got her to she was able to come out and pace me from Sedona Posse through the hangover trail to Schnebly. Um she is she's a good friend of mine, um, and Kat, a good friend of Kat's. So it just it worked out really freaking well. Um, and then the last person, Meg Coon, I had never met in person. Uh, I guess that could be a crapshoot, but she was also friends with um Kristen and Kat. Um, and I had heard, I had heard about her several times, and I know her who her boyfriend is. So it was just like, meh. And it was kind of the last seven miles before I did the last 20 miles on my own. And she was amazing. We chatted the entire time. Um, and she was fantastic to have out there. So so uh so as you can see, so that pacer came from me just trusting the people that I knew that were out there, and I already had amazing people out there, so I just trusted they would have another amazing person for me. So that's how that's how pacers went, and sometimes that's how it goes. Sometimes you grab somebody along the way, sometimes somebody will post something on Facebook. It is, it can be whatever. I don't know if I would randomly post on Facebook for me personally because I'd be a little too nervous, because everybody who was out there I knew, or like with Meg, I trusted the people who knew her and you know went with that. So um it just went like, but for me, the big part was, and I mentioned this in other episodes, was that they did all of this work in the background, and I really didn't know the scrambles or anything that was happening. So for me, it's just like I just need a pacer, and that was that was what they did for me. So that was amazing. Um people ask a little bit about like logistics. Um, I mentioned it earlier where I just labeled everything. Uh crew, Greg, like he had to drive from spot to spot. They give very specific GPS coordinates um and where you can actually pace and crew and all the rules. They have a whole um pacer and crew guide that gives a lot of information. I would read that if I were interested, because it's a really good guide. Um, and he had to, you know, be at each spot. And luckily, drive time is a lot less than the runtime. So, you know, they would have time, whether who whoever you have, crew you, there is some time to sleep. It's very hard to sleep because of um there's just so much going on. There's so much excitement. You don't want to miss your runner. Um, they also have to eat. They may be running an errand for you too. Like at one point I needed cough drops because it was so dusty out there, my throat was really sore. Um, when I needed the ramen, like he went to the store and grabbed ramen. Uh, you know, like if I had been craving, say, um something, like some fast food, they could have went and grabbed that too. But it really was like getting the logistics and giving them all the information ahead of time, and then driving some spot to spot. And it is a lot of kind of I it's not even like hurry up and wait, but it's definitely a lot of waiting around. Um, but there's also work being done making sure things are organized, making sure like my clothes are ready if I was gonna change them, um, just and just knowing where things were. So it is a lot of work to be crew. Um, I have done it before and I absolutely love it. Um, and I will continue to do it, especially at Havelena. I'm there every year. But um, it is a lot of work. And I'm making maybe I'm making it sound too simple, but you are not sleeping much as a crew or a crew chief either. You can you can get some naps, but you are gonna be just as exhausted, not just as exhausted as the runner, but you're gonna be tired. Um because the crew person, people or person, very important, very important. They're taking care of you and making sure you have everything you need. So, um, but yeah, without without all those people, I'm not I'm not saying I wouldn't have finished, but I can't right now I can't imagine um finishing without them. I had so much support. And definitely, like I mentioned before, like the lots of friends um came and said hi to me. Um didn't didn't even like weren't pacing, weren't crewing, but were there to say hi and like that they were proud of me and encouraged me. So that was that technically not crew and pacers, but I see them as as my crew too. So but I would say like if you want to have a pacer, make sure it's people you trust, make sure it's people who are gonna show up, um, make sure it's people who are actually uh physically fit enough to run. Mentally, there's somebody who you can have a long conversation with. I was with some of my pacers for like nine hours, ten hours. So make sure it's somebody you can be out there with and somebody who can be quiet if you need them to be quiet too. So you know your people, and you may love somebody to death, and you're like, they cannot pace me for more than four hours because like I just know I know there's a limit. And that's okay to know that. So you pick your pacers just based on that relationship and based on what you need. This race is about you. Um, and I think you should be grateful for all the people out there helping you, especially like crew, pacers, volunteers, race directors, all of those things. But the race is still about you. So you need to pick the people um who will help you get to that finish line, who will be there for you, who can make that moment and those moments not about themselves, but about you. So something to keep in mind there. Um, the race itself, I did not get a lot of questions here, and I think it's because I did the recap and people listened to that. But the big thing was that some people were like, I heard your feet didn't hurt that much. What's up with that? Uh I had like three people ask that, and I don't know. I had been warned that my feet would hurt so bad, and not just hurt, like, oh yeah, you're you know it, but like hurt, and you're not gonna expect it. My feet never went to that spot. I'm not saying I never felt anything, um, and that my feet didn't hurt like period, but they never ached. Like I wasn't out there and like I need to sit down because my feet hurt. When I needed to stop, it was because I was tired, like I was fatigued, like my eyes were closing, I was kicking rocks as I was moving. I didn't have to stop because my legs hurt or my knees hurt or my feet hurt or my shoulders hurt. Like my shoulders, my upper body, for whatever reason, I do lift a lot, but like didn't hurt at all. And then my feet didn't hurt at all, which were two unexpected things. Even in my training run tonight, my shoulders would start to ache just a little bit because you are holding weight up there. Um, so I'm going to attribute it part of it to just the weight training I do, and then for physical therapy, I do have a foot and ankle mobility and strength workout that I did two to three days a week. Um, so that probably helped just strengthen everything. And then I also live in Phoenix where the ground is very hard. So my feet are used to running on hard surfaces. Um, so that might be part of it too. And I did a lot of training, I feel like a lot, not tons, but a lot of training on core. So I was able to feel that underneath my feet too. So it's a combination of all of that. Um, if you say you live somewhere, I don't know, I'm just gonna use Oregon for an example because I've ran there a couple times where there's not super hard ground, where it's pretty soft, your feet might hurt more at a race like that where the ground is harder because you're not used to running at at somewhere that that hard. And there's not a whole lot you can do to train for that except come out and experience it at a training camp weekend, or whatever you have time for. Um, because that's just how it goes sometimes. I remember the first time I ran in flag stuff, I was like, holy cow, this is what it's like to have soft ground underneath my feet. They've got some technical trails too, by the way, in flag, but not everything is, so um, I think that's probably why. Um, and then the other question really was about like when did I know I was gonna finish? Um And that's a hard one. Like I've been actually looking back on that. I knew when I got to Wildcat Canyon um when I was gonna be pacerless, I knew I was gonna finish. Like I did, like I just knew it. Um, and the one time I definitely had like a big doubt was that Tuesday night when I had puked for the last time, and it was before Courtney started pacing me. Uh I had doubts because I was just so tired of vomiting and I was just done. I was over it. Um, but I don't remember the moment, like some magical moment of just like I'm gonna finish. I remember when Courtney picked me up and we took off. I remember feeling like I have the support I need to do this. I remember thinking that. Um, and I but it wasn't like this whole like I'm gonna finish. It was just more like I've got the right people in my life, and I'm gonna do this. Um and then like getting I remember getting to um Jerome, which was with Courtney, it was up and over Mingus, and getting there, and Kat showed up to say hi, because I was going, I was gonna do go pacerless at that time too, and I knew Jeremy was gonna be um at Dead Horse Pass, the next aid station. And I remember just being like, okay, like this is like the half, I'm gonna hit the halfway mark. Like I it's just something about that, and it's true, like you survive through to Jerome, and you still have 125 miles left, by the way. Actually, a little bit more than that at that point. Um, but there's something for me in that halfway point that was like magical too. Just like I'm halfway there, and I just did some hard shit, like really hard shit. I can do this. I can and it's not that throughout it wasn't hard, it's not that throughout there wasn't a thing of like, why am I out here? Oh my gosh. But like it was just knowing that I had the support and they were gonna keep me moving, and they did. So, um outside of that for the race itself, people still are like, How did you sleep so little? and still. Still be able to keep moving for five days. Um, you just do it. Uh, you take little mine was little dirt naps along the way, and again, it was the support I had. Um, I could not sleep laying down uh very well, like in a bed, it just wasn't working out. Uh Greg thinks I slept around two hours, maybe a little over uh in total. Um, but you don't know till you're out there. And I'm not trying to be secretive. I'm not trying to get, hey, hire me as a coach and I can help you with sleep. That's not what it is. You are not gonna know how your body reacts to that distance until you do it. Um, there is no practicing that sleep thing. Like, some people will try to train and they will be like, okay, like I'm gonna run here for this long run, then I'm gonna run overnight for this long run and do all these things. You cannot do that very often because you will not be able to recover and you can burn out, you can get injured. Um, it can lead to overtraining. It is not something I advise people doing. If you want one time to mentally do something where you don't get much sleep and you want to run through the night, I would help you schedule that. But for the most part, you just need to run at the same time of day you normally do for your long runs because if you are trying to practice that too much, again, you're not getting recovered, you're gonna be overtrained, and that's where injury happens. So there's not really a way to practice it. I had somebody ask them, or actually, one of my patients asked if I had practiced the dirt naps because I would fall asleep when I was really tired and I would pop back up and start moving. No, I didn't practice that. I just would fall, I was so tired, I would lay down, fall asleep, and then after five to seven minutes, I'd get up and move. That's just what you do, and that's what I did to keep moving. And if I ever do a 200 plus myler again, I will probably do that. I will probably do more dirt naps than anything. Um, because sleeping in the van in a nice, amazing bed did not work for me. So, alright. So that was the race itself. Um, again, but I went in, if you haven't listened, um, episodes I believe 42, 43, and 44 are all like race recap. Um, and you will hear a lot more about the race itself. So, um, but I did not get a bunch of questions because I'm assuming most people who sent questions have listened to the other podcast. Um, the mental side, uh, somebody asked if I had any mantras out there. And I don't remember actually repeating anything to myself out there like I've done in the past. And I'm not sure why. I don't know if like I was tired, if when I was out there, sometimes I was just talking to people, but I did not have any mantras this time. Um, when I qualified for boss, and that's been several years ago, I remember like at one point I could feel my legs start to slow down, and my brain was just going, I didn't come this far to come this far. Like that was it. Like that was the mantra in itself. And this one, I didn't have anything specific to say. Um, I know I was tired and I was talking, or my patient at least were talking a lot to me, and sometimes I was talking a lot back, sometimes I wasn't. But my I feel like my mental trick, if we'll we'll call it that, was having my pacers talk to me. And then when I was out there by myself, it was just more of like a couple times I'd be like, okay, I'm getting in my head a little bit. And I was like, holy cow, like I got to take off work and come out here and do this and be and be out here, and I get to do this race, and I would also envision the finish line quite a bit, um, which may sound silly to some people, may sound like a hippie, but that was what got me through was thinking about that finish line, envisioning crossing, crossing it, envisioning that buckle. Um, Steve's the race director there, like getting a big O hug from Steve, um, seeing all my people at the finish line, getting that finish line um picture where they take a picture with you and your buckle, and then you can do side by side from the beginning picture where you have your bib. Like I was I was specifically thinking about stuff like that when I would um even when I was with Pacer Snipes, I'd be thinking about that. Um, and it really helped. So that was kind of my mental rich we'll call my mental ritual was was thinking about that finish. Um, and then sometimes it was just as simple as like just thinking about the aid station. And there were times where I really was so tired and so down that I was just heads down grinding it out, and I would wasn't really thinking much of anything except why am I doing this? You know, and then eventually I would flip, flip around, and you know, start thinking about okay, the finish and and do that. So um, it is crazy. It's crazy sometimes. Like I had a person ask, like, what do you do when you're a mile eighty? And you're like, oh my god, I have like 170 miles left. Like, what the heck? And you've already PR'd for distance. Like, how how what what goes through your mind? And you don't think of that you have a you don't think about having 170 miles to go. You think about aid station to aid station, and that's what I do with all of my races, not just this this race in particular. Like it's eight. Sometimes the aid station's five and a half miles apart, sometimes it's eight, sometimes it's sixteen. You know, sometimes it's I want to say was 17 the longest between eight stations. I can't remember now, but like it's eights you don't think about the whole totality of it. When I did that, I thought about it before the race started that morning, just because it hit me, and I cried. Um, because it's a lot to think about. So it's really focusing on that aid station to aid station, having people out there talking to people, not focusing on I have 170 miles left. Um, my mind would this tell me every step's a PR. Once I hit like 65 miles, I was like, every step's a PR. Every step's a PR. So maybe that was my mantra at times. I don't think I realized. See, I'm processing still. I have not processed everything. It's been almost a month since I finished, maybe right at a month. So, but it was like I, you know, it's just more every step's a PR. So yeah, remember that mantra. Hey, look at that. Came out of me. So, um, all right, that's the mental side. Last piece, um, recovery and just the aftermath. So I talked a little bit about recovery. Uh, it's amazing. Uh, some people do not, a lot of endurance athletes do not like to be in recovery, they don't like to sit around for too long. Um, sleep, eating, and then light movement, really. Um, and sleep is very hard. It took a couple weeks before I actually got a good good night's sleep. So just if you were doing a 200-plus miler, expect that. For my first 50k and 100k, the first 50k was the first night I couldn't sleep. The 100k it was two or three nights. So then, like after that, it seems to at least for me, it extends. Um, so maybe if you do a bunch of 200, it's not as hard to sleep. But that first one I can tell you, took about two weeks before I got a really good night's sleep. Um, I was hungry at very random times. Sometimes I would start eating and I would get full very quickly. Other times I would eat my entire meal and still be hungry. So that is just your body figuring things out because you just did something really hard and it is all very, very normal. Um, light movement for me. Um, it did involve walking. I did jump onto the Peloton just like a couple of times, and not, I didn't even turn on the screen or even my watch. Like I would just get on and pedal a little bit just to keep that, keep my legs moving. Um, I did mobility not right away because I literally could not move in what in a way I wanted to. I was not in bad shape, but it just felt weird to move in that way. Um, so I did some mobility work um with uh my hip flexors especially and my hamstrings, those were things that bothered me the most. Um and then I did some ankle things just because my ankle was huge, but like, so I wanted to, and I couldn't do it when my ankle was huge. I had to wait until the swelling went down somewhat, but I did try to just do even some simple ankle circles to work through that. Uh after, I don't know, I want to say it was like eight or ten days. I don't know. I went out for my first jog. I think it was like 30 minutes, maybe. Um, and it was a jog walk, and I felt very weird. I think I told people I felt like a newborn baby deer or calf. Um, that was really, really it felt like I'd never ran before in my life. Like it was my first time. It's very, very weird. Uh, and then from there, just things started moving a little bit better and better, and everything was slow. 30-minute walk runs, 45 minutes, back to 30 minutes. Um, last week, maybe, maybe it was the week before I finally did an hour of running. Um, and now I'm back on the trails. So it's like I said, it's been about a month, and now we're starting to get back into it. Part of the reason, too, is we have some goals, as I do have a hundred miler in September. Um, I have had some doubts about that. It's Mogeon Monster ID and F, but not from finishing it, but because I just had such a big ass training block, it's hard to think I'm jumping into another one. But the rest of my brain and body are also saying, hey, you're really fit right now. Keep this momentum going, keep training, get that, get that white whale, which is which is mogue for me. I want to get that belt buckle of moog. And then after that, take some time, do some shorter races next year, you know, get to some more finish lines for your athletes and all of that. So I am to the point where I'm about to start building um up again. Uh, but I feel really good about it. My I've given my body time to recover. My coach is in communication with me too. Like, hey, how you feeling? Like, what do we need to do here? She notes like my programming too, like, hey, you can go up to this. If you're feeling good, you can go a little bit further. If you're not, you know, don't do this. If something doesn't feel right, shut it down. Like, so so we're still talking and we're and going through because my body's gonna recover for a while. My GI system and my immune system are not quite there yet. Like, those are normally the last things to recover, or one of the last things. So, like, there are still things happening that even if my legs are starting to feel super fresh, other things are still recovering. So I will do a whole podcast on on recovery and like I should and talk about like the GI system and the things that you think are recovered, and they're really not. Um, but that is something like you've just got to be real honest with yourself. There is no reason to jump in to training again. Like, yes, I do have a hundred miler coming up, but I haven't really jumped into anything. I had a 90-minute run on Saturday, took it super easy with my friend Courtney and slash pacer Courtney, um, and just went out and moved my legs, and it feels so good to just move. I have had no intensity in my workouts. Just some strides at the end, so those are a little more intense, but they're very short. But just kind of feeling how things are, feeling myself out, and easing into it. That's the big thing is take time off, sleep, eat, do things you couldn't do while you're in a big training block. Like I've been reading a bit more. Um, I've been spending more time trying to build my coaching biz. Just things like that. Do things that you could not spend time with, occupy yourself, um, and enjoy that recovery because it is super, super important. Uh, and then for the aftermath, I've had some people like ask, like, would I do it again? I don't think I'll do Coca-Dona again. It has nothing to do with the experience. It was amazing. Um, I could talk about it forever. I think. I mean, what this is like my fifth episode in it, y'all, and I would talk about it for for for the rest of my episodes. I won't. Um, but I will I don't know. I I've I don't know. I I think I would probably do a 200 plus miler again. Um, but not necessarily a coca donut. Part of that is because I don't normally repeat races. It's just not a thing for me. Um, and there's nothing wrong with repeating races, so don't take that as like condescending or saying don't do a race. I know people who love to try to beat their time or just love a course because they just it's just their thing. So like that's totally cool, just so you know. For me, when it comes to running 200 plus miles, um I want to see something different. I want to go to terrain I haven't seen, like maybe go up to Oregon and see something, or go to the East Coast, or go to somewhere in Cali. Like, I want to see when I'm gonna be out there for 200 miles, I want to see something different. Now, if we're talking, like, say, you know, there's like a 15k, 20k, 25k, there's something like that. I could see myself repeating one that I really like that's here. Um, that, you know, that I'm just like, you know what, that was enjoyable. Um, Moog has a 42k that I've done. And I haven't done it since, but like I love Pine Arizona, and that's where this race is. I could see myself doing that 42k again. That could be something really fun. Um, I gotta do the 100 miler first. But like that is something, but it has to be something for me when I think about a race. It's gotta be something that I really love and enjoy to repeat it. I want to have a fire fort and love, love it too when I sign up for like a brand new race, but the repeat one, it's gonna have to be something like I either like love the train, love the scenery, there's something about that race that pulls me in to redo it. So would I do Cokadona 250 again? I will never say never. Um, I said it out loud this it's to Steve that I was the race director that I was never doing it again, but like it's something that like is not on my mind right now to do. Um, and that said, I also think this race is super popular and super amazing, and I think people deserve the opportunity to be able to do it. Um so when repeaters come out and do it, and people might take this as a diss, and maybe it is, um, maybe take a step back and think about the people who haven't got to experience this because some people are doing this race four, five, six, six, seven times, you know, maybe I think next should be the seventh year. Um, because I just think that there's so many people who could really enjoy this, and everybody deserves that chance. You know, people, people want this race. This is getting more and more popular this year. It was a lottery for the first time. So when I look at races like this too, I'm just like, man, like I want so many people to experience this. To maybe not have the exact same experience I had, but get out there and have their own experience and see what it does and see what it changes in you, and see what it makes you feel like you're capable of, and see the people who come out and support you. And maybe you do it without support, but like how the volunteers support you and like how the race is all set up. So that's my two cents on would you do it again? I know that was a long one, but that is how I uh really feel about that. And then last but not least, like, has finishing like changed what I think I'm capable of? Um I don't know if it's changed what I think I'm capable of. I'm a person who's all like rah-rah, let's do it, let's train for it, let's do it. Part of that is my privilege. Um, but I think it's given me some more confidence. Um Moge 100 is like I said, my white whale, and I DNF'd that last year due to puking, and then once I started puking, like I was dizzy, and then I was seeing spots and I was seeing double. So that's kind of that was what made me pull the plug, by the way. Not necessarily the puking, but the after effects of it. Um, but it's given me confidence to see what I work through. And I did have a longer period of time to work through things at Coca-Dona because it's a much longer race. Uh, but that said, there is a confidence in me that has been built that's like you can work through things. Like you just did a badass thing, and you can work through that. And you can work through that at the shorter distances too. You can you can do that. Like, this is so I think there's something in me. I don't want to say something that broke, but something that came to the top of my mind of like I've I've I've thought I have this thing with like believing in people and believing in myself, and not that there's never a doubt in my head, but more like I do believe I am capable of doing a lot of things. It's really a growth of confidence and seeing what I work through already and knowing I can apply that to other things. So that is where I'm at. So thanks for all your questions, guys. Um, hopefully I answered what you needed. But again, y'all can always reach out to me um and just ask. Ask any questions you have, or if you have something, if you have a thought on a podcast episode, whatever, like always here. But just remember at the end of the day, um, everyone's asking some version of the same question. How do you keep going when you have every reason to stop? And my honest answer is you don't do it alone. You do it with the people handing you food, talking you through miles you won't remember, and showing up even when it's not glamorous. 253.4 miles of proof that it's not just me who finished this, finishes races. It's a we. Alright. Thank you so much for spending time with me here. Uh I believe this is the last Coconut episode for a little bit until I'm like, I just thought of this, I need to talk about it. But um, we'll have something else next week. But if you love this episode, make sure you download it, follow the show, leave a rating or review, share it with a friend, whatever it is, it does help this podcast reach more everyday peeps just like you. So now go move your body, drink some water, stretch your calves, and if you're listening while running, loosen your shoulders. You're welcome. Good effort, positive attitude.