Tayson: Hey what's up everybody welcome back to the Live Ultralight podcast today it's gonna be a pretty interesting episode it's actually going to be mainly about a mountain race that I just did my first one ever and breaking that down there was I guess you could say a a lot of highs and a lot of lows um they came early they came fast they came late um it's gonna be it was an interesting one I'm still trying to process everything that happened and then we're like half a week post race at this point so should be an interesting one um I've brought Tyler on here to help navigate through this um stop me if I'm going too fast and question things that I did and shouldn't have done things like that so it'll be really interesting.
Tayson: But if you guys are just tuning into this podcast this is the Live Ultralight podcast it's all about getting you outdoors more comfortably and more confidently um really trying to share experiences and uh just give you guys more touch points to be more confident when you head out into that country now this particular race isn't specifically backpacking or travel you know Adventure traveling things like that um but there is a lot of takeaways in terms of human performance in ways that you know things that you could learn and apply into a backpacking trip especially one at high elevation so with that I guess we'll dive in for those who've been listening for a while you you're probably well aware that I was planning on doing this race it was supposed to be a 70k um.
Tayson: It ended up being I think more like 75k about 45 and a half miles and the biggest part about this race though is really not the distance it's the altitude that you start at and stay at and all so the amount of climbing and descending that you do there was about twelve thousand one hundred feet of climbing and descending according to my watch other people got over 13 000 feet of climbing and descending but either way it it was a lot it was a lot so um should be should be interesting I guess as we get into this but did I miss anything in just uh introducing the podcast or anything you want to chime in here with Tyler.
Tyler: No I I think the reason that this is valuable for backpacking or even Adventure travel is just like Tayson said learning more about yourself allows you to apply that to your time on the trail and trail running has been our preferred way to train for backpacking and our our best way to learn what we can do in the back country so hopefully you guys have some takeaways from this and uh that it's worthwhile for everyone.
Tayson: Yeah for sure I think there will be really good takeaways and I also want to caveat this with uh this idea that I am not good at this uh I am very new to this and I also feel like I genetically this is probably not what my body was built for or likes to do but um nonetheless I enjoy it and I I think I enjoyed the challenge of maybe feeling like it's like it's extra hard for me um but yeah the things that I'm saying take with a grain of salt um I had a lot of lessons to learn still have a ton of lessons to learn but uh um yeah I'm no expert in this field I've been running for about a year and a half now when I say running for a.
Tayson: Year and a half I mean like before that there was no running uh like in my whole life really there were tiny spurts where I ran a little bit um but I really had no idea what I was doing and a lot of those were actually sports related where I had a coach just you know trying to condition you so um really was was it like an anti-runner I would say started running about a year and a half ago and when I started 2020 two I just I felt like I wanted to try some kind of an ultra I was looking for something like a 50k came across this race was actually new this race beforehand and just kind of decided they didn't have a 50k they had a marathon and they had a 70k.
Tayson: And I felt like the marathon wouldn't push me to train as hard as I wanted to be training um because that we've you know we'll do marathons sometimes just backpacking um or we've done them fast packing and so it kind of felt like I wanted to push the limit farther so I ended up signing up for the 70k which was ended up being a pretty aggressive yeah yeah so um so yeah I guess let me just walk through the day itself um and just kind of break down the entire race and just try to call out specific things that I feel like are worth calling out so my particular race started at 6 a.m that meant that I woke up at 4 30 a.m um ate some food and you know drank a little bit.
Tayson: And then navigated over to the start line so that I was there about 30 minutes early um so kind of stood around there my wife took me over um and then we were meeting up with Joe our videographer and he was capturing this as well at least it if the intervals were there were Aid stations he was he was running the camera a little bit and getting some some breakdowns and also just talking to members of my family a little bit and filming that so if you have interest in that make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel Outdoor Vitals YouTube channel because we will publish that here in another probably probably close to two months we've uh apparently backlogged Joe apparently we're creating more content than he can edit right now so uh we.
Tayson: Haven't even taught we haven't even posted the video from the Grand Canyon or our Appalachian Trail so it's a good chance it'll be going to be a little ways down there but you want to get subscribed to that anyways felt quite nervous but um felt pretty confident I was running with um a handful of our pieces prototypes and production I had an altitude I had a touch of rain jacket in my pack as well as my my legendary rain skirt and Rain mitts um just to have I had a little few first aid items but mainly I was running with um I think I started that race with two and a half or three liters of water I think I had three liters of water and the reason for that is these Aid stations were.
Tayson: About eight miles between Aid stations and based off of my times and some of the the basically the the training I had been doing it it shows that I'm losing about two liters of water every hour when I'm running thinking this wouldn't be quite that intensity and and based off some of the other sweat training stuff I've done I was counting on me needing three liters of water between Aid stations about a liter and a half of water per hour so started the race off with that definitely um had our Outdoor Vitals fast pack on had an altitude on had some prototype shorts on um but yeah mainly I think I just started with a little bit heavier pack than most as I looked around most people had little vests and what seemed like just. Two flasks um never did see anyone with a full bladder except for me I had two liters of water in a bladder and then two flasks which those are half a liter each so that's where I get up to that three liters but those are like the this ultra light Hydro flasks that runners use in their running vests if you're not.
Tyler: Familiar with that yep I will pause it also to set the stage a little more um the race started at just over ten thousand feet right in elevation and uh Tayson had made the smart choice of going up there more than a full day early right I slept.
Tayson: Yeah I pulled a I've got a camp trailer I pulled it up there slept Thursday night was up there all of uh Friday slept Friday night and then started the.
Tyler: Race and I came up Friday night to uh talk to the trail Runners at to the ultra Racers at um the packet pickup we were doing some r d stuff and trying to collect some information from all those awesome athletes and uh it was looking pretty ominous it poured rain like crazy um Friday afternoon and the forecast was heavy rain for Saturday.
Tayson: So yeah we uh Tyler did a good job selling rain jackets actually he also uh if you didn't know when you're on the toucher Mountain Run uh and you have a touch of rain jacket in your pack or on your body you're 10 faster so that's what I told everyone.
Tyler: It's pretty good pretty good sales pitch.
Tayson: But yeah so definitely was expecting some ominous weather in the afternoon kind of made you want to push in the morning and get you know good ways through some of the race before any kind of storms hit because there was a section that gets really bad in the rain really sloppy it's very clay filled and is rough so so before you get into like.
Tyler: Actually what you did when you started the race why don't you give them an overview of like the terrain just the the way the course wraps around where the downhills and uphills are and and like the things that you were worried about.
Tayson: Yeah so this race um elevation wise is is just absolutely brutal I mean it's like they they tried to put almost all the race where you're going straight up hill or straight downhill um not really but it's it's like that in fact one that has been compared to it that you may know if you're a trail Runner is the Hard Rock 100 now this is not the Hard Rock 100 by any means that's that's definitely harder but um it's nearly as like steep you know raise and descent as the Hard Rock 100 it also starts at super high elevation it's just a shorter race and it's in Utah so basically you you are just running around from 10 000 up to twelve thousand two hundred feet back down that's the high point in the race.
Tayson: On Mount Delano that's like that's the third highest peak or mountain range in Utah um but then you're just like dropping back down off of that and then you're dropping all the way down to 7 500 then you have to climb your way all the way back up to finish it works its way towards at Mile 30 you hit the low point in the race which is really the Pinnacle of the race so you you actually you know are up about nine ten thousand feet then you drop from one eight station to the next there's almost all entirely downhill for like six to seven miles you hit this low Point called miners Park and at miners Park basically you you take a break and then you turn around and climb at about 3500 feet straight.
Tayson: Back up the mountain to 11 000 feet so it gets down to eight thousand feet uh maybe seven seven nine right in that area but then you turn around and at 30 miles in now the next uh like seven mile seven and a half miles is nothing but climbing straight back up when I say that I mean I mean it just switched back so it's like switchbacks for two hours or three out you know however fast you are I guess but um but you're already 30 miles into a day so that's really the Pinnacle of the race for most people where um if they can get through that they're likely going to finish so that was in my mind in the back of my mind you know trying to be like okay hold back you.
Tayson: Need energy for that you need you know to get to that point in a good position and and so going into the race that was a big thought of mine that's usually also where people running the 70 and 100K races are picking up Pacers they can start helping them uh you know and start pushing them to the end of the race so I was really hoping to help Pace you from there not because you were being competitive enough to need it or because I knew what I was doing but because I wanted to just experience it with you and uh be in that hardest part you hit that very lowest point at 28 miles and then you still have to get to the 43 mile Mark yeah so when I hit it I was at.
Tayson: 29 and a half based off of actual run so yeah but I do I do want to cover that because it I think it really would have been helpful uh because you know as as things happen um it definitely happened in this race so so anyways back to starting this race off um a lot of excitement you know 6 a.m hits I start off with 120 people and uh you're just you're just trying to figure out what you're doing I feel like some people knew what they're doing some people like me were just like trying to figure out a pace should I be passing people should I be just go like walking out of the gate you know just trying to figure that out and kind of settled into a Groove I was trying to.
Tayson: Film some of it so I you know I remember pulling out the camera a couple times and trying to get some shots and uh probably didn't slow me down much but moved through this section it was really pretty the sun was coming up you're you're cresting and going through areas at 11 000 feet above tree line and it was really nice and started to talk to a few people there's a few people that I knew actually ended up knowing in the race I didn't know they were doing the Race till I was there but was aware of them actually some kind of distant family members so that was nice to see them at the start and I figured I'd be I'd be seeing them and um yeah I just started clicking off the miles and.
Tayson: Between kind of filming and being caught up in the race I think I you know I wasn't I wish that I had been a little bit more focused on some of my hydration and then I kind of started to realize that about about four miles and I'm like okay let me make sure I'm eating and drinking and I started to focus on that but about that same time uh one of these family members caught up to me and uh started talking to me and I got caught up a little bit and just conversing with them um and so I probably you know didn't drink and eat as much as I wanted to there because it's really trying to hit my markers for that and uh all of a sudden we get to the eight eight.
Tayson: And a half mile Mark which is our first aid station now this aid station is in the middle of nowhere there's no one like from Crews that are there just race people uh race volunteers that are there and so I get there I'm feeling pretty dang good I mean the first the first little bit we we clicked off pretty well I was running with a group um and just felt like I was running a pretty smart race but my first thought was I pulled out my my water bladder and my heart kind of sunk because I realized oh great like I I drank one of my or maybe both of my front flasks I'm not quite both and then I pulled up my water bladder and I'm drinking less than half of it and I.
Tayson: Was like oh man I thought I'd drink it more than that and so um I kind of thought dang I I kind of messed that up I should have I should have at least drank two liters if not closer to the to all of the water that I brought but again I kind of I think I just kind of getting caught up with it I'm like I'm the only one I heard this much water no one else is doing their thing and I think that maybe played a little bit into it so I filled up my water um and got going out of there and uh I was so that was four miles no that's eight miles that was eight miles in and you had drank essentially half of the water that you had planned.
Tayson: For that one yeah I'd probably drink in a liter and a half I know I drink in at least a liter and a half but not more than that so and then you also said that when you did those last sweat tests for sodium you were in the like 2 000 milligrams of salt that you were needing per hour per liter oh per liter so that's four thousand per hour per hour so you didn't get the salt either yeah so I got I didn't I wasn't getting all the salt in that I wanted to wasn't getting all the hydration in I ate one snack maybe I wish I could remember if it was one or two no I think I had one snack but I also drink uh this thing from scratch Labs called super.
Tayson: Fuel which has 400 calories in a drink mix you mix it up it's almost almost becomes like a syrup it's pretty thick and I had drink in that that went in pretty good and so I was feeling okay about that um yeah I got my stuff filled up and started to go on and the next little bit was just a straight climb up and through this pass uh not a massive climb maybe 500 foot climb or something like that but I definitely started to feel not good right there I started to cramp you know by mile nine by the time I'd even crested that I was feeling like I was starting to cramp um or just feel a little bit off um so actually I take that back I hadn't started to cramp it but.
Tayson: I was feeling off and got up through the pass and it started to drop off the other side it was pretty steep and I was like oh man now like I ran the first eight miles really good everything felt really good and as soon as I started drop off the other side my lower legs so my calves and the front of my calves um like my shin area where there's those muscles there in my knees were feeling hurt and stiff and I was thinking this is really early to already be feeling.
Tyler: That that was before you did the climb up to the very top of the lineup the sending off the top before we turn and go up the high point of the race and so.
Tayson: I might get mile nine get down in there uh and about Mile 10 we start turning to go up the the steepest climb so it's a it's a good 2000 plus foot climb uh going from 10 000 feet up to 12 200 ish I believe is what Delano is so um and right there so now I'm at Mile 10 I start to cramp up and I'm thinking this is really bad you know what I mean I felt pretty crappy from like mile nine up to Mile 10 and now I'm starting to cramp I got to get all the way up this 2000 foot pass like what is happening this is just bizarre to me um and so uh yeah so I I basically started pushing and uh do you remember how fast you were going.
Tayson: Up till that point like people um up to that point I was hitting my Pace marker so I hit the first aid station at two hours um so eight miles in two hours yep yep so that's a easy a pretty easy pace for a trail Runner so that's that's good so I didn't feel like I was pushing too fast um I was I was trying to hold back but but not like I was kind of trying not to get caught up behind groups but I wasn't really passing anyone I was just trying to settle in and run a smart race I felt like okay um I didn't use my trekking poles the first eight miles um just kind of kept my hands free I didn't see massive climbs and my thought also with that was.
Tayson: I'm gonna need my arms later in the day so I I didn't use trekking poles maybe that ended up being a factor I don't know but but yeah same same pretty consistent but yeah turn to go up this climb and I just started to to struggle and trying to put myself I guess back into that position I'm cramping and um I I wish I I wish you could just like take notes and I and hopefully I kind of got video a video clip or something of like what was happening but thinking back I I don't know if I was like already feeling some calorie loss or if my knees were hurting or if my gut was already hurting I know my gut was was turning pretty early on so it might have been a little.
Tayson: Bit of that too but just wasn't feeling fantastic but um pushed and pushed and pushed and got up the climb and you know by the time you get to the top you're like oh yes I can't wait for the downhill right and this is actually my first time somebody in Delano which is kind of cool but um where you hit up there now you hit into where all the marathoners that started after you and all the half marathoners that took a much shorter route are also at the peak so it's super busy up there I get up to the top and I'm just thinking this is not good this is now I'm about uh 12 to 13 months yeah is what the map says and and I'm just thinking this is this is not good.
Tayson: Right now like and and I'm just like in my head I'm getting down and I'm getting really frustrated and something um someone who works with us in PR said to me before the race was hey you're gonna have super low points you're gonna have super high points they can come at any point in time but they will fade and so I'm just trying to convince myself like this is just a low point I'm just getting my low point out of the race early and it's gonna fade um but just having tremendous pain in my lower legs uh as soon as I started to go down that Hill it became super apparent that I was I was not able to run that terrain especially as steep as it was and so I'm just hiking down as.
Tayson: Quick as I can but I'm in so much pain that in a it's probably a mile and a half distance to go from Delano the Pica Delano down to the to the road I sat down four times at least people were passing me and they're thinking that I like fell down or something like because why else would she be sitting on the side of this mountain right face isn't all muddy but yeah like and so they're out I'm like no I'm fine I'm fine and I'm just trying to like stretch I'm laying down so actually rolling was in pain so cramping was so I had some cramps up in my upper legs and I was rolling those with my trekking pole and um the front part of my calf when I'm going downhill is it's. Kind of interesting but like if you were to flex your toe up kind of the side the outside front of your calf is what gets like flexed I guess that muscle that kind of sets into your shin goes right along your your tibia tibialis or whatever um on the front of your your lower leg there that was.
Tayson: Um in a lot of pain it was kind of cramping but just that was kind of an area that had hurt me since the Grand Canyon and I'd you know struggled with and going into this I'll just say like I had had to derail almost all of my training plans through June and starting into July because of the injuries that I was working through from the Grand Canyon but my last like two runs I had felt really good and so I'm just thinking okay hopefully I've worked through those and I'm going to be ready for this race but um anyways so yeah coming down just a lot of pain in that lower leg I'm cramping still I'm struggling and uh I'm also because of all this pain I think not drinking as much as I.
Tayson: Want but I was also nervous that I I was nervous to drink too much because I didn't have um like I didn't feel like I had enough salt in my drinks even though I had a quite a lot I had I was mixing basically a hyper which is 1750 milligrams of salt per liter of water um so a little bit under like 2 000 milligrams per liter and it and I just kind of felt like I didn't have enough salt for some reason is what I was feeling like and so I again probably under drink as I went through that um scenario in fact I I put some notes down let me pull those out on my phone but it has a disclaimer Tayson's on the extreme side of the sweat test and uh so.
Tayson: What did they call it you were like a level five which was which is severe severe categories severe salty sweater so um if if you're interested in figuring out how much salt you need per liter there's three or four companies out there that allow you to do a sweat test that you can mail into them after you do the test and then they'll give you a report back so that's what Tayson had done and what was making him feel like he needed to have even more than than those scratch lab 1700 military yeah part so so basically as I got down and off there I got down and off there and I started you hike the road for about a mile or or so up to the next aid station at what's called Mud Lake.
Tayson: And I actually passed some family members at the same area that I I didn't even know were going to be up there they're actually up there watching this other distant family as well as you know cheering me on and that was really is actually kind of emotional for me which is it seems funny right you're like you're you're like 16 miles into the race or something at this point but I was at such a low point and I was so discouraged and disappointed that I was already having all of these issues that I was at a real like emotional low point I think and so when I saw these family members um it was I felt pretty emotionally charged up like almost teary-eyed just kind of just just I don't know it was weird um.
Tayson: But just just got a big emotional charge out of it and then you know went the other half mile up to the actual aid station and that's where I had like my biggest crew of the day I had my parents there but also Bree and Joe were there and they brought my kids and my and my sister was there and so got to spend a second there and that was for whatever reason I didn't expect this in a race pit stop I guess but um got a lot of energy I think from that um that just wasn't really expected so by the time that I had gotten there I had now drink between that aid station the next one so that eight mile section I drink in 2.5 liters of water so I did drink.
Tayson: Quite a bit I had finished my super fuel I guess I had only started it in that first section the first eight miles but on the next date I had actually finished it I drank I had eaten a pack of gummies and one honey Stinger so I wasn't actually too far off but my biggest issue with this one is it took me three and a half hours from aid station to aid station because because of me's long down but also just that massive climb and descend.
Tayson: And so it was even though that was not too shabby of eating and drinking for three and a half hours it was also again below the thresholds that I really needed um so I got there and I said to Brie I said okay I need my my clothing bag because in there I had compression sleeves for my lower legs um I'd never used them once in my life I had heard about them I'd ask some people about them and I just felt like my legs have been puffy and almost swollen since the Grand Canyon so I wanted to give them a shot in this next session so I put on these compression leg sleeves and almost instantly just that pressure kind of felt like it gave me some relief along with that I had me.
Tayson: Remix up my water blotter and I had her mix three hypers in the two liters of water so I I went up another section on my salt because I knew that I needed to get on top of hydration and salt and get these cramps you know subsided or my race was I mean who knew if I was even gonna be able to finish if I was going to have that many cramps that early on in the race keep in mind I'm at 16 miles at this point 16 and a half miles and uh so she did that and uh sat kind of stretched for a minute and and I mean I don't know those pit stops they probably feel like you're sitting there a minute but at the same but for the runners it feels.
Tayson: Like you're just like you just can't sit there very long you need to keep moving you need to keep moving and maybe that's some of my inexperience um I also had one of our eighth inch foam pads so every aid station I'd go in and I'd lay down and try to stretch whereas all the other Runners would just kind of stand around the tables in the Aid Station and grab grab their food and and water and on their feet non-stop yeah yeah which I don't know which is right and wrong at this point I thought I was doing a really smart thing um but maybe a mix would be better I don't know but left that aid station like I say having a little bit of energy again and just thinking okay I need to.
Tayson: Rewrite my expectations for this race right now I need to just focus on finishing and just focus on you know I may I don't know maybe maybe some good will come of that and uh so I kind of walked out of that aid station for about a mile with another Runner um that had talked to us at the booth and um he was 100K here and he was also having a real low point right there and we kind of walked together for about a mile and he said you know I think I'm feeling a little bit better I'm gonna I'm gonna start running again he ran ahead and so then I I also started to push and I was able to start to run some of those downhill sections um in this in this next.
Tayson: Part I think the next part we probably dropped about 1500 feet down to a lake called Blue Lake and uh yeah it was basically as I got farther and farther along that I started to feel a little better and better my calves were feeling way better with those compression sleeves on my hydration I was really putting that down pretty well and just started to feel better got a little bit of food down and some of the super Fuel and then um you know just started to be able to pick up the pace there and do well got to the bottom of that where you basically turn and then do this big long climb up to the next aid station so I think the section right there was like the shortest section of the day at.
Tayson: Only six miles between the aid stations um it's a full 2000 feet that's interesting yeah so um I started up that next climb and I was feeling good like I was like holy cow I've rebounded doing good I found I've settled into this like pace and I started catching and passing people on this uphill and I was just and I wasn't running right I'm just just power hiking really at a really smooth and fast rate um catch up to this one Runner that was doing the hundred no she was doing the 70k as well but she had run a bunch was from Seattle her name was Mary and uh me and Mary just trucked up the hill and passed you know another person or two and got out of there and I remember seeing my.
Tayson: Family members that had seen me before the Mud Lake section and just saw how bad I mean they were asking because they had binoculars they're watching me up on the hill and they're saying like are you okay like you you kept stopping like what was happening what's wrong you know and they could probably see just what I was at so coming up and out of that climb I felt like I'd put together a really good section and they're like holy cow you're flying you you caught up to the other family members they're watching and passed a handful of people like man you must be feeling a whole lot better and I'm like yeah and I had actually told Bree at the last section I said take everything that I told you and just push it.
Tayson: All backwards because I'm I'm going way slower than expected from here on out and so then I got concerned that they weren't even going to be at the Aid Station fortunately they had just arrived and um went to that aid station and because I think of how well that section had gone I told debris again I said all right do another three packets of hyper in the two liter water bladder get me a super Fuel and uh those that's what I need the super fuels were going down the easiest I could instead of eating them I could just drink them and it just seemed like that was working the best for me as far as just getting calories into my body.
Tyler: So that first time that you did the the three hypers that put you 1100 milligrams of salt over what your recommendation was but you felt like you were behind so going into it this time you were just kind of thinking like that works let's keep it going okay yeah.
Tayson: Which is uh ended up being a mistake which we'll we'll talk about here because the the problem with it too is if you're going to do one of these sodium sweat tests do it early enough that you can test it as well so I was going into this based off some scientific data but not testing it and not especially on big Endeavors I was essentially doubling or tripling the amount of salt I'd probably taken on any previous run or long hike without really testing it too much just kind of basing it off of the science of it so um yeah that was that was definitely a point but so to that point though now I had between those two eight stations I'd eaten a waffle a honey singer waffle um bar thing or whatever they're.
Tayson: Called I had a super Fuel and I had a couple pieces of banana at the Aid Station um I had drank 2.2 liters of water it says as well so I had done better with high I don't know if I'd say better but the salt seemed to really be helping I'm still only getting I was never getting to the two and a half to three liter level there's always I was always getting the addition with a little bit extra.
Tayson: Um but anyways left that aid station feeling like man the race has kind of turned around for me I'm feeling better I've made up a lot of time and started down this next section now this next section I was very scared for because it's all downhill like a hundred percent downhill you drop from um I want to say 10 000 plus feet uh down to 8 000 feet so it might have been eleven thousand feet yeah from about ten thousand seven hundred yeah down to about 7 900 feet yeah yes so started down that and was feeling okay but I kept trying to run and I would make it like 10 steps and then the pain would be so great in my in my lower legs that I just have to stop and then I'd.
Tayson: Like power hike as fast I could you know at like a 20 minute per mile or 18 minute per mile pace and then I'd be like okay I'm gonna I'm gonna try to run this little section and I try to run I'd get about 10 steps into it and I'd just crash again I'd be like this is so painful so by the end I just settled into just hiking as fast as I could down this Trail and uh what was.
Tyler: The terrain like going down I remember it was pretty Rocky right it varied.
Tayson: There are sections of it that are really good and then there's sections of it that are really get really nasty Rock slides cutting down and cutting down the side of the Hill a few bigger step downs and stuff like that those are kind of in the middle lower section I would say but the upper section started off pretty dang good and then it just kind of got worse and then eventually the last mile or so you actually tee into a dirt road and and cruise the mile down around a bend and back up to the aid station was it muddy had you been no no so I had somehow miraculously avoided the rain um I don't know how I was watching the radar all day and it just looked socked in like the radar was.
Tayson: Kind of like moving around Elena yeah but when I when I left Mud Lake the second aid station it was starting to thunder and I thought all right I need to get up through this pass and start dropping off the other side as quick as I can I was part of what pushed me out of that aid station so I knew it was just about to start raining there but when I dropped into Mud Lake no rain came and then as I was climbing out of Mud Lake or excuse me Blue Lake um got sprinkled on that was it and right before I got to that station it had just been dumping on that station too so I had just I literally was just skirting the outside of the storm as it was going up.
Tayson: And over Delano and the higher section there of the race but so in that steep downhill um was it was the trail pretty wet or was it like dry damp but not puddly I guess it's like there's there wasn't any puddles but it was it was moist I felt like the reason I ask is because it seems like if the Trail's real wet it's more fatiguing to go down because you're sliding around sliding yeah yeah no I I didn't slide much at all like the whole day even climbing out of Blue Lake you know where it was was sprinkling us on us a little bit just wasn't really a big factor so I got really lucky with that because it could get real nasty for sure and no lightning no light cream scares for me.
Tayson: I think other people you know running some of those shorter distances or behind me up on Delano and stuff I think that could have got scary but like I say I just just skirted around it Bree and Joe they were driving to the aid stations got absolutely dumped on a few times people at the start line we had some people at a booth at the start line got absolutely hammered but thankfully I kind of ran around the outside of where the storm came up and over the mountain I've never done a day my dad grew up in that area and I spent a lot of time as a kid up in those mountains and I don't think there's ever been a single day in July that I haven't gotten hammered like with rain and lightning.
Tayson: Up there so for you to make it through it's pretty pretty dang lucky I think yeah it it really was but yeah got to the bottom of that section and it's all downhill and so it's like deceptive of like how much it's taking out of you um between that section on that downhill section um I barely finished the super fuel by the time I hit the bottom and I couldn't remember eating anything else my stomach was really bothering me the interesting thing too about this section of Trail is every time I would pass like a stream I would have this really strong urge to drink the water um because it was like at least the ones that weren't muddy like there's some that were muddy there were some that were like pretty fresh Springs they.
Tayson: Were really crystal clear I had this really strong urge to just drink the plain water and I started to piece that together in my head thinking all right I've been drinking too much salt my body just wants pure water I'm over salted at this point um but I unfortunately I didn't really have a good solution to that I still had this you had really electrolytes in every single I had super Fuel and I had my Camelback that was mixed with really salty solution and so I was kind of like well just kind of drink what I can feel like I can drink and uh get down and then at the next aid station we'll we'll switch it up and uh but at the same time because my gut had started to turn so heavily now.
Tayson: Um I didn't eat anything during that section but I did drink one super fuel um so I got to the bottom and I also had started to notice right towards the end of that that my face had started to feel tingly and my hands were feeling tingly and stuff and kind of weird almost like it was like a small pulsing like twitch in my face I got down to the aid station I took a seat and I asked for just plain Water started to drink that and my stomach just felt terrible at this point like I the guy at the Aid Station um it was pretty cool he was he's actually someone who knew of us he walked over he's like aren't you the guy I've seen on YouTube and he's like yeah I've got.
Tayson: Some of your stuff and it was it was a cool conversation I'm like dying so I'm like yeah yeah but um he's like dude we got to get you some food You Gotta Eat you know and he went and made this this little bowl of food for me and he's like you got to try to eat it and I I ate a few bites like I ate as well he brought me a bowl of like pasta with like some a little bit of meat and red.
Tyler: Sauce in it oh yeah that was like one of the actual like lunch Aid stations yeah some of these Aid stations they do like these little like little actual foods like quesadillas or or turkey sandwiches or wraps yeah something like that I.
Tayson: Don't know I that's the only actual food that I ate or tried to eat ate a tiny bit of it and was just like man I I am struggling and he came over he's like dude you can't lay here too long you're gonna start cramping up if you don't get moving again and uh because I was I was probably at that aid station in the long well to that point the longest for sure but maybe 15 minutes maybe 10 minutes something like that um I don't know it doesn't feel long but it feels long at the same time uh type of thing but so um yeah I tried to eat couldn't really eat had a little bit of coke there um but also just had like a full flask of plain water then I had.
Tayson: Refill up another flask of plain water mixed a super Fuel and then my in my water bladder I went with a um just two hypers again instead of three which I regret because at this point and this is where long days are getting fatiguing so I'm sitting at 29 and a half miles right at this point in the day I know I've still got a lot more to go and a massive climb I've got a massive climb ahead of me that's just looming but I'd made up a lot of really good time and so I was also feeling a little bit of like pressure to be like hey you're doing pretty good just keep just keep pushing you know and you can finish this and you can you can dig deep and finish this and.
Tayson: Uh and so um but but if if I had been in a more clear head and one of the biggest lessons is at that point in time I should have realized just how far I had far gone I had taken my salts too much and I should have mixed my water bladder with at most one hyper for the two liters or or maybe even just gone to plain water but taking salt in case I feel like I needed it on the trail that would have been the best option because I did have some like salt capsules I had or Mountain Ops electrolytes and so I could have just popped one of those if I felt like I got to a point where I needed Salt but instead I was like oh yeah let's drop it.
Tayson: Back to two hypers instead of three I took one you know clean water and then a super fuel which a super fuel also has salt in it I want to say 400 milligrams which isn't a lot for me but it's still a significant amount for like a regular drink right especially if you're if that's on top of what you're mixing into your drinks yeah well that's yeah but like percentage-wise if I really did need 2 000 milligrams per liter that's well under that threshold um but yeah so took off was hoping I'd feel good but I remember sitting at that aid station and turning debris and Joe and saying can you see my face twitching I was like I can feel my face twitching and they're like they're looking and like no we can't see.
Tayson: It and I'm like I feel like I can see like if I look kind of down sometimes you can see your cheekbones or something um I felt like I could see it but they couldn't see it and I'm like this is this is really strange this is really weird and probably not a good sign um you know so you said it was your face and your hands my hands felt numb um they kind of felt like they started like tingly but then at this point they felt numb like like if they were cold but I knew they weren't cold they just felt numb I felt that way when I've passed out did you feel light-headed or anything um I felt I had it at some point later in the race I don't remember if it.
Tayson: Was quite that early or not but um yeah like when just like from standing up you get kind of that Head Rush and stuff but I don't think it was quite then but yeah just so like these tingly hands they weren't fully numb or anything like that but they were losing some feeling and and stuff um yeah I just didn't know what else to do but to push on you know and I wasn't gonna quit I was gonna keep going and and so but the thing about leaving this particular aid station is you do this massive climb and then you hit an aid station the first aid station of the day actually it's called all unite you hit that a second time and no one can drive to that aid station you can't have you.
Tayson: Know people crew members there it's it's just in literally the middle of nowhere on a really rough back road and so it's like you leave this aid station and it's a little bit like you gotta finish right because bowing out at that aid station would be like a a I don't know a vehicle probably a four hour ride to the start um like they put you in like a little Rhino or something and you oh your crew has to come get you yeah so that's 36 miles in right or would be the next aid station yeah yeah 37 and a half is what it was on the watch but so yeah I leave this next aid station and I start hiking and I'm like hey I feel pretty dang good and I was actually hiking.
Tayson: With these 100K guys that were now caught up to me that are you know guys that were probably in the top 20 or something like that of the 100k and I'm cruising up the mountain like hand in hand with them feeling great clicking off 20 minute miles while we're climbing like a thousand feet uh let's see well and in eight miles let's see I think it was seven and a half miles from miners for miners up to all unite to all unite well you you Peak at 11 600. Well let me just do it off a watch I know that I was at 29 when I left and I know when I got there I was at 37 and a half so so you're running a miles and eight miles a mile and a half.
Tayson: More than what the map said um so in eight miles climb the 3 500 feet so it's it's a very steep climb but I was clicking it off feeling really good and I was trying not to look at my watch and see how many feet I'd climbed right but eventually I got to the point where I'm like okay I've got to be 70 plus percent of the way up this climb and I look at my watch and I kind of was I thought I was I was over half and I'm like sweet but then I got thinking I'm like why did everyone say this was this climb because I was I when I glanced at the the thing when I was there and it had said 11 000 feet I was sitting at this and.
Tayson: I'm like that's only 3 000 feet why was everyone else saying this so I took out the map again I looked nice and I realized yep I had not actually gone all the way to the high point and so at that point then I was only halfway and I felt like I was like 75 percent of the way and that was a pretty demoralizing moment Plus at about that time and the reason I think I checked is because I was starting to really feel it but I hit a massive calorie wall I had really been under fueling all day long I had had super fuels between eight stations I had had like one honey Stinger instead of like two or three like I had planned the entire day and that just compounded and compounded and.
Tayson: Then doing this massive exertion of a climb I hit this calorie wall where you can see it on my my breakdown of my miles where I'm doing 20 and 21 minute miles climbing and then all of a sudden they jump to like 30 minute miles like it was just so apparent and at that point in time also my face twitching started to get worse pursue like my own perception of it my hands were worse and starting to lose a lot more dexterity and feeling and um but I still had miles to go I still had four miles to go and so I'm again Crossing these streams and I'm thinking man can I drink this water can I drink this water instead of what's in my pack because I I couldn't I just did not want.
Tayson: To drink any more of that solution my body was just like saying no like just this hard stuff I drank that fresh flask that I had really quick the super fuel I was trying to get down but same thing like it was like between the calories and the salt in it my I was just not wanting to touch it and uh and then it what my water bladder was just still so salty to me that I did not want to touch it so then I'm again um just feeling like I'm struggling got like got up to where it actually the the elevation you quit climbing and you kind of go the last mile or so around the mountain over to it and uh drink some more of my water I'm like I have to drink.
Tayson: Like I just have to drink more than I drink so drink more got into that aid station and really rough conditions this is I was feeling really really bad um got a chair someone pulled out a chair I sat in the chair and I was just thinking I'm I'm not in a good spot right now um I had drinking about two and a half liters of water is what my notes say here I drink part or most of a super fuel I'd eat half of a honey Stinger waffle I got half of it down it took me like 10 minutes to eat half of a honey Stinger waffle and then I just tossed the rest in the bush I just couldn't couldn't finish it my mouth was getting really dry so when I was eating.
Tayson: The honey Stinger it was like I had to take a bite and like Let It soften in my mouth because it was like powder it was just like turning to instant powder in my mouth um and then as I sat there this is when it started to get worse too I started to notice I couldn't say the words normally I couldn't say words normally so those family members I talked to you about that were kind of running the race as well they were they had caught me on that climb and so we were at that aid station together and I'm saying can you see my face twitching and stuff and he happens to be a doctor and he's like yeah that can be a it could be something from a potassium imbalance or something like.
Tayson: That and and I was kind of thinking the same thing like it's got to be related to my hydration and some kind of imbalance um and uh but as I was trying to talk to him I could tell I couldn't say the words I wanted to say meaning not not that I couldn't think of the words that I wanted to say but articulation it was like I had a lisp and and um and my face is just kind of vibrating my hands are numb and and I was I was like oh man this is this is bad um at this point in time it would have been like seven o'clock at night so and I was backtracking the very first section on the day so again in the morning I had run that section which.
Tayson: Is actually more downhill than uphill from this aid station I'd run that section in two hours so it's like man if you were in a great position I could have finished in the daylight and and been doing good but I was not in a good position and it's either 100K guy had come and sat down next to me who was clearly a very seasoned guy I knew what he was doing and he's like I'm in a bad place and he's like muttering and talking and he starts shivering and shaking and I'm like holy smoke so that's gonna be me if I don't like get moving and it's like I gotta get moving I gotta move so he takes off out of the Aid Station because he was just yeah he was he was losing he.
Tayson: Mentally and physically he looked and sounded like he was in a terrible spot I wasn't as talkative as that guy but I felt like I was in the same spot I wasn't shaking but I was just like this is a bad situation did you get like that metal mouth yes yes so I was starting to get a super metallic mouth which is typically symbolizes that you're like in ketosis where you just your body's just trying to burn as much fat as possible to get the calories it needs it can also come from extreme stress or from indigestion which you were probably having all three of those things at once yeah yeah for real so I still like I'm trying to eat I took what did I take out of that aid station well I got.
Tayson: There and I realized too that when I've left that lower aid station the last time I was with my Pacers not Pacers crew um I hadn't grabbed enough food all I cared about was like the hydration at that moment in time so I'd grab salts and stuff and threw those in my pack but I had like no food in my pack to take with me but sitting there I felt like I couldn't eat either so I was kind of hoping to try to walk and eat and take a few bites and just do what I could um so I ended up you know eventually getting up getting out of there I remember walking over to the lady at the Aid Station because you're supposed to check out of the Aid Station say hey here's my.
Tayson: Number I'm out right and I remember walking over there I remember being so grateful for these volunteers um and they they tell you like these people are volunteers be very kind and be nice you know be thankful and I remember walking over just thinking like I was so grateful that they had that aid station and I all I could say though was like I'm leaving and I remember because I even said that and my my articulation of the words was so bad that I was like almost embarrassed to try to say anything else like they were gonna see that I was in a bad place and try to stop me from going or I don't know but I remember clearly thinking that and I grabbed a they had a half a sandwich of peanut butter.
Tayson: Jelly sitting there and I grabbed that in one of my hands and I started walking out of there and I took one bite of it like a few steps down the trail and my mouth was so dry I couldn't chew it or like eat it so I took a sip of water you know kind of used my other hand to get a sip of water barely got that bite down kept walking and like I went to take the next bite of the the sandwich to just try to force it down at this point and my hands were so numb that it just flew out of my hands onto the dirt and I just thought that wasn't good it's like 200 yards to go back and get like more food there and I'm like that's 200.
Tayson: Yards too far like I can't even imagine taking a step backwards at this point and uh so I was like but I just remember thinking man that was not good like that was like one of my only calorie sources left at this point the only thing I have in my backpack is one package of Honey Stinger performance chews and uh so I get I get moving and I'm just walking I'm just sitting what time in the evening did you say that was I left that aid station somewhere around seven o'clock okay yeah um so yeah and at this point it's just finish mode it's just like everything's gone off the rails from cramping to not being able to eat to not being able to drink and my I'm just I'm in a bad bad position.
Tayson: My legs are killing me anytime I try to run like I get a few steps and my legs are so painful I just have to stop that lower leg shin muscle um and so yeah about six miles left eight eight still had eight miles to finish um and they weren't like the worst miles of the race but by any means but they were but there was still a lot of climbing to be done and a lot of descending um I don't know I I don't know exactly what the gain and Descent of that section was but um there's like some 500 foot climbs in there and I think there was maybe a seven or eight hundred foot climb in there but it's kind of like you're just going up and then down a little bit.
Tayson: Up and down a little bit the entire traversing around the mountain you're going through a basin but you're kind of climbing up and over Ridge down the next up in the net like it's like one massive Basin but there's all these finger ridges in it you know so you're just kind of doing that and um what it got to at this point was that every time I would go uphill I'd feel sick like sick to my stomach I'd have to really slow down on flat ground I could move I could walk at like a 20 minute mile Pace like I could just push and walk fast but then downhill I could do okay but then as soon as it got steep at all my legs were in such pain going down the hill that I.
Tayson: Couldn't um couldn't really take the steps and and so I had to really slow it down and just start crawling in fact I remember to go backwards when I was going down Delano at like mile 1314 I was so discouraged because I was going so slow even when I was on my feet I was going so slow that my watch quit registering a piece so I would look at my watch and it would say no pace and I'm thinking this is this is not good this is not good everyone else that's like doing my distance is running down the mountains you know what I mean like that's where they're making up tons of time because I could hike uphill at about their pace for most of the race but downhill um it was they were.
Tayson: Just gone like there's there's they were gone and uh anyways so yeah just kind of grunt through this section it gets gets really tough I get to probably the biggest climb in this section and I had I had I had to eat those honey Stingers in a group of two so I ate half of the package um to get a little bit of energy and then another like 15 minutes down the trail I ate the other half and at that point I was still you know four miles or so from the Finish maybe five how was that a food like how are you feeling like breathing wise because you're going from 11 000 feet 11 5 at that aid station down to ten five to finish but you'd been pretty high altitude all day long.
Tayson: Were you feeling short of breath or so breathing wise I never really did feel short of breath at all which was I think I had done a good job adapting I think my my VO2 max was also quite high like I so yeah my my breathing was never a problem and I think it's mainly because my body couldn't push fast enough for my breathing to become a big limiter but I had focused just at different times in the day on breathing through my nose trying to not like go faster than my breathing allowed so there's definitely times when I was like trying to force breathe through my nose and use that as a limiter on my Pace yeah so like if I was going too fast and I couldn't keep my breathing up through my.
