The Hobby Jogger Podcast
Welcome to The Hobby Jogger Podcast, where elite athletes and ham-and-eggers lace up their stories. We explore the common ground that running creates from the world-class runner to the hobbyist hitting the pavement, trail or treadmill. Expect a blend of inspiration, laughter and the shared joy that makes every step count. Join us on this journey, where every run is a story worth sharing.
The Hobby Jogger Podcast
E29 | Matt Parker's Canal Corridor 100-Mile Win and Post-Race Recovery
Matt Parker demonstrates immense determination, completing his first 100-mile race at the Canal Corridor in just over 14 hours. Explore the nuances of ultra-running as we discuss hydration and nutrition, critical components that can make or break a race. Personal stories unfold, including a scary bout with rhabdomyolysis post race.
We look at the camaraderie and mentorship that fuel the ultra-running community. Young talents like Matt are shaping the future of the sport, guided by experienced mentors like coach Connie Gardner & Jeremy Pope. From strategic race planning to the sheer mental and physical grind of ultra-marathons, this episode encapsulates the resilience and passion driving athletes forward.
Stay tuned for a sneak peek into our next episode featuring Abby Herring's achievements at the Columbus Marathon.
Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Hobby Jogger. We have a very good episode on tap for you. I've brought two guests on with me today. One has been referred to quite a bit on the podcast, Mr Grant Johnson. Grant, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Doing all right, recovered from a couple of weeks ago, so get ready to get back in the swing of things here.
Speaker 1:Nice, did you watch Javelina at all yesterday?
Speaker 2:I did not. I was on a trip to Columbus because somebody forgot their wallet.
Speaker 1:I did hear that. I did hear there was a forgotten wallet at the Starbucks in Columbus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we went to Columbus to get some Starbucks. It was the best Starbucks, I guess, in Ohio, so we had to go back Sweet.
Speaker 1:Perfect. I'm also joined by my co-host, as always, Mr Rob Myers. Rob, how are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well. Yeah, it's been nice with the cooler evenings getting out there for those long rounds.
Speaker 1:Heck, yeah, yeah and much nicer. I don't like the heat.
Speaker 3:It was very hot at Javelina yesterday. Did you watch Javelina? Yeah, I caught some of the highlights Trekking our boy a little bit Tough.
Speaker 1:Go of it for Mr Ethan Koza. Haven't talked to him since. Looked like he DNF'd. But yeah, brutal conditions out there, 95, 100 degree temperatures in the desert. Always tough. Have of it what you will. But we have another guest on today, rob, mr Matt Parker. Matt ran Canal Porter with us. Did quite a bit better than Grant and I One. Yeah for one. He finished Right, matt.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was good. I was happy with the result, just yeah. The recovery after has been a little interesting. Pretty much now I'm back to feeling normal, but it's still taking probably another week or so off of running.
Speaker 1:That's smart. You did win. What was your final time? I'm sorry I don't have it pulled up here.
Speaker 4:I came through it was like 14.01 and some change.
Speaker 2:That came out to an 8.25 pace, if I'm correct. Right, yeah, yep, yes, sir.
Speaker 4:Solid day. Yeah yeah, I was happy with it. My goal was pretty much like I wanted to try to finish right around 14 hours, which I think when I originally set the goal I was like kind of freaked me out a little bit because, being my first first hundred, I was not totally sure what to expect. But minute off a bit, I can't. Can't be too upset with that.
Speaker 1:No, not at all. Not at all. Rob, do you? Do you have any dreams of running a hundred miles with us?
Speaker 3:I would love to run a hundred miles, but I'm just looking at your time, man, I mean it's just, that is an amazing, amazing time 1401. I mean number two is 1444. I mean you were cooled down, dried off, and I had a couple of glasses of water before number two even crossed the finish line.
Speaker 1:So congrats on that, thank you very much and, Matt, I did talk to you at a second soul a bit. Where do work? And also, if anyone's listening and you need shoes or anything else, definitely check out Second Soul, the premier running store in Akron, Ohio as far as I'm concerned. But you had previously run 100K and biggest difference I mean obviously it's 38 more miles. 38 more miles, but big jump up in distance, what. What was the biggest difference for you, though, Making that jump? I mean, I know the courses are similar on the ones looped what was the biggest difference that you had going from a hundred K to a hundred miles?
Speaker 4:I feel like the biggest difference for me, honestly it was just. I feel like the biggest difference for me honestly it was just I felt two different ways, like versus the a hundred K versus the a hundred mile. I think I just got super lucky during the a hundred K Cause, honestly I mean I felt really good all the way through like 35, maybe even coming into like 40 for that a hundred K and felt I didn't have to like struggle too long I guess, um, for the race. But yeah, there there was a point during the 100 mile where, like I think I was probably around like 30 miles in just was not feeling as good as I expected to and definitely did not feel as good as I did during the 100k. So then I just started thinking like, oh, like I've got 70 miles left of this and how is this gonna play out.
Speaker 4:But yeah, no, I think just the days they're just two totally different days and how my legs felt and stuff. But I think too, just I did a lot of like mental preparation beforehand because, yeah, I mean you're right, yeah, 38 miles, it's definitely. I definitely felt the difference. I can say that for sure. Yeah, I know it's a glaring difference.
Speaker 1:Obviously you gotta run 38 extra miles, but it's just always good to hear a little bit different. You know what happened and you said your legs weren't white as good at mile 30. That's, that's tough. I mean grant, we were feeling going up to that. What was that aid station? We're gonna go up the hill oh, I just pulled that up.
Speaker 2:That was a that deep lock, yeah, deep lock, quarry. I was like, oh, we could run up this grant like let's go.
Speaker 1:Like you know, I'd much rather run up hills yeah, the first 50k was good.
Speaker 2:Um, so it's kind of me myself was feeling good there and for you to say at mile 30, you're just already feeling it. So what was it? That was kind of like kicking in your legs or just eating not too much, but is it stomach? What kind of sort of getting you?
Speaker 4:yeah, it was it was more like it was my legs, like it was like my hamstrings like just started to kind of just get that like fatigue pretty early. I like wasn't really expecting that to happen and I think too, they also. Some of it could have been a little bit like mental for me, just because when I was running in college I was used to like trying to like go out like really like and like hold a lead pretty much like from like gun to finish. If I could, I had gotten past, I think, at like mile, like pretty much right around at the brewery at 20.
Speaker 4:I knew the guy in front of me then like he really started to like put a little bit of distance on me. I was like, oh, shoot, okay. Well, I need to like keep like running my own race. But then also I had like that like in the back of my head like you know okay, like if he's ahead of me, how close are other people behind me. So, yeah, I just kind of between my legs and the mentality part there, just kind of had to reset a little bit, like once I got to deep lock I think, and then a little bit after that got up back, took a little bit of like a high. I think once I hit like 40 to 45 because I knew I had my one buddy coming in at 47 to start pacing and I think just blocking in for the for like 15 more miles or so kind of got me over that hump early wait.
Speaker 1:So you weren't leading at the brewery at the turn or not the turnaround, but at the brewery where we no.
Speaker 4:So I well I came in, so trying to think now I I was leading like with, like the, I was with like the main group in the front for the first, like 10, 15. Then I think like I maybe put a tiny bit of distance coming into that 20 mile aid station. That was. The other thing I've also learned is like definitely can do a little bit better with my efficiency at aid stations.
Speaker 4:I I hung out there a little too long and yeah, then I saw the guy running down the trail. I mean he was just in and out. I mean it was 30 seconds. I was like okay, this guy knows what he's doing, because I'm over here digging through my bag, just kind of hanging out doing whatever. And yeah, yeah. So I think I then ended up around 47 or so. Once I got my friend Nick who paced me, we started to kind of make up a little bit of ground on him and I think maybe around like right before 50 is, I think, when we then like had shifted into the lead and yeah, I kind of kind of went from there and I know a friend of the show, jeremy Pope Rob.
Speaker 1:You know Jeremy well, frequent travel companion of ours, good friend of the show. He also paced you. Correct, matt, at the canal quarter.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he, he did, he was with me. 85 to a hundred, yeah, no, that made the huge difference. Huge difference because, yeah, I don't know, I mean, originally I was a little nervous because we were trying to figure out like pacing situations and there was a stretch where, um, well, as you guys like because you guys knew the, the aid stations, everything, where it's like only certain ones allow for pacer access and all that kind of stuff. So then there was a point where I thought like I might be running like five miles towards the end of the race, like by myself, until I got maybe to like second soul and amen was possibly going to pace me and looking back on it now I'm just like I'm so glad he was able to do the last 15 total because, yeah, I would have, I would have been, uh, I would have been rough, I probably started walking at some points and, yeah, those lonely, uh, four to five miles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's some good knowledge to have with you going from 85 to 100. You know somebody who's done it multiple times and has had pretty good success, so good guy to have finished with you?
Speaker 4:Oh, 100%. Yeah, no, he was helpful. I mean, he knows I didn't do very much talking, but I think honestly, like him just kind of just talking for me and keeping me engaged for the last little bit of the little bit of the race, definitely, uh, just help me, help me to get across the line in one piece, you did finish.
Speaker 1:You did win. You kind of came across the line in one piece, I guess. Yeah, yeah, maybe the pieces were separated a little bit. There was some, there was some gaps in the puzzle pieces, little rough go of it afterwards I know. Uh, talking to Jeremy a little bit about it, nothing like I didn't get any kind of details, just that it was a little bit rough. So anything you want to share about the, the post-race recovery.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, yeah, totally fine. Um, yeah, so, pretty much right off it was like 10 minutes after I'd finished, I just started to get like a little lightheaded, kind of nauseous, and and I had figured like I'm like, well, like you know, I just ran a hundred miles, so I'm like maybe this isn't anything super out of the ordinary and was like, you know, all right, let me like take a seat. I just grabbed a trash can just in case. And then, yeah, like next thing I knew, um, thankfully I was sitting down and I like kind of woke up to people like you know, checking my pulse, like tapping me on the shoulders, being like hey, are you okay? And what just happened. And they were like, yeah, you know, you passed out. Like you know, we're going to try to get you inside, okay. So, you know, I stood up, they walked me into the brewery to try to get me warm a little bit and I started drinking like Coke. Just we thought my blood sugar was maybe really low, so that helped for like 15-20 minutes maybe. But then, yeah, after sitting there, again same thing happened. So, yeah, it was a. It was kind of a freaky situation, just because I've never experienced anything like that before.
Speaker 4:So we went over, drove her to the ER and hooked me up to some fluids and we're running some tests. And basically they come back and they start talking to me saying they're like yeah, so your ck levels are pretty elevated. So, like I think the norm they said I can't remember like I want to say it was maybe like 300 is like the high end of the norm. And then doctor was like, yeah, your levels are like 72,000 right now. And I was like, oh, okay, uh, it sounds pretty bad. And thankfully though, cause I asked him I was like, well, what's the highest you've seen? And he's like, thankfully, it's not the highest I've ever seen, but he's like it's definitely. You know, you've, you've got rhabdomyolysis. Uh, pretty decent dose of it. Yeah, I pretty much.
Speaker 4:Then got taken to the Medina hospital, cleveland Clinic, and I thought I was only going to be there maybe for like a day or two. Um, them putting you know fluids and doing all that stuff just trying to help, especially, like it was my kidney function was was really low and it was rough. I ended up being there till Friday morning. So I was there almost a week and, yeah, thankfully, I mean, you know, the doctor told me he was like you know you'll make a full recovery and you shouldn't have any long lasting impact or anything like that, but pretty much had told me that, especially in the second half of the race, like I wasn't even close to being hydrated enough and I think a lot of that just stemmed from uh, probably me just a being inexperienced and got a little too excited coming into the lead and, yeah, pretty much nutrition was great, but just was probably drinking less than half of the water I should have been taking in and then taking a little bit too much salt as well.
Speaker 4:This was kind of like the perfect storm, unfortunately, but yeah, no, it was, it was. It was tough, but thankfully now I mean my legs my legs feel pretty much back to normal. I would say my legs feel pretty much back to normal. I would say I mean a little bit of fatigue at times, but all of my blood work and all that kind of stuff has been back to normal, so that's good.
Speaker 1:That's pretty scary. Yeah, I quit with a tummy ache and you were, you know, elevated CK levels in the hospital.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean hey, hats off to you for going through that, but glad to hear that you learned. I agree with the hydration thing. It was tough. That probably did help, like me for sure, because it's a different and I think Grant would agree with this. And, and Rob, I know you'd run more mountain stuff, more you know elevation, but it was very tough to pace yourself and for me to eat and drink the same because we were at such an easy pace until it got really really hard, like I. I don't think I was drinking enough either, but I could see where you would have that difficulty, just because you're like I don't know what your, you know your paces look like, but I've, you know, looking at your, your strava, you're obviously very fast runner. So when you back it off to whatever, like what were you running like 845s, yeah.
Speaker 4:I think like yeah, especially especially towards the end, like I want to say most of my miles are between like last 15 or probably between like 830 845 and I like had gotten like a little, maybe like a few splits in the beginning where we're quicker to get the, the, the average, but but yeah, no, that last, that last 10, I think, and that's where it was hard too. It's like I didn't really, I guess, like know anything out of the ordinary, like I know some people I was looking up like, especially with um really hilly races they've talked about like if they're running downhill and they start getting rhabdo, like they'll almost almost start like falling backwards just because like their muscles are so like fatigued out and they're just like starting to lose control of the muscle contraction. And it was almost like helpful, I guess, with it just being flat for the most part, other than just the uphill going into Akron to finish, I didn't notice anything like crazy out of the ordinary other than me just being like I just want this to be over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a whole different experience for us. Rob, you're going to have to try a flat one. Like a previous guest, jim Walmsley, said, it's a whole different set of problems to solve, and it definitely was.
Speaker 3:And I would think when you're in the front of the pack, like that, you know, in the top five, it's a whole different level to remember to eat and drink. I'm in the back of the pack, so I just want to finish. I'm taking my time. If I had another 10 minutes because I'm remembering to eat and drink, it's not a big deal. But when you're in the top five, top 10, moving that fast with one goal in mind, I can see I could just completely forget, especially on a flat course like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and especially because you probably met, I imagine you didn't ever feel like you weren't pushing the pace and you know, looking at your Strava, you went out for some longer runs at for me what is a very fast pace, but your heart rate was very low and you probably don't drink much water on those runs. You don't, you know, take in calories on those, those runs for you, right.
Speaker 4:For the most part, like I'll do, maybe like a gel or two, just kind of depending, but yeah, but hydration wise, I mean, like I'll you know, if I'm running the towpath or something you know every hour or something, I'll like stop off just like you know, grab like a couple sips of water at the water fountain and then just get back on to it. Yeah, I think, uh, yeah, for for the future, it's another, another piece of the puzzle. I think I'm I've learned a little bit. Is uh hydration so much, uh, so much more important than I, than I thought it was? I think just when I think of hydration, I'm like oh, like it's not super hot so I don't feel like I need to keep drinking a ton of water, but definitely, uh, learning that's not the case.
Speaker 2:I feel like you hit that like nail on the head with not as hot. You're not moving as fast as like you can. You know you're running at a much more easy pace. So you know getting water down is just you don't want to drink it, you don't feel like you have to and it's. You know it's hard to sit there, like rob said, to just get it down absolutely.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was yeah like.
Speaker 4:Even jeremy got on me a couple times, which helped because he started to notice like I had like my handheld and I even had like in my vest I like an extra water bottle and he noticed like I wasn't even using the one that was in my vest at all and he was just like he's like how much water are you drinking right now?
Speaker 4:Or like you taking in you know other stuff, and I couldn't even tell him like I like probably drinking maybe like half my water bottle between like eight stations, and he like looked at me and just like he's like dude, he's like you need to like I know it sucks, but like you gotta like get that's like dude, he's like you need to like I know it sucks, but like you gotta like get that in. Like you can't. He was like you can't just like not not drink anything and he's like I know it's probably doesn't feel great in your stomach right now, but you know it's better to finish and maybe you know yak or something after, cause your stomach's full. Then, uh, not finish at all because your body can't even move anymore. So because your body can't even move anymore.
Speaker 1:Jeremy's a great guy to learn from. I've learned a lot from him and made myself a much better runner just talking to him. He's been through it all. He's hit the moonwalking races, death marched at home. He's been dehydrated after. He's been through everything. He's experienced quite a bit. Great guy to learn from. It sounds like he was definitely at least trying to point you in the right direction there, matt. So it's good to hear of Jeremy, nice guy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's been and he was. He was the guy who actually, after the 100K, he kind of encouraged me to do Canal Corridor and yeah, I mean it was kind of nice, like when I was training all summer I would, you know, bounce ideas off him or you know what his thoughts were on stuff. So he's been, yeah, just really good resource to have for sure.
Speaker 3:So, matt, how many days were you in the hospital? I?
Speaker 4:was in there. So I'm just going to think it would have been right around six, six days, because I was there basically like Sunday morning, I mean, yeah, saturday night, sunday morning, I kind of was like one, and then all the way I got discharged till Friday like midday somewhere around there. So it was just, yeah, a much, much longer process than I had ever expected. And the other big part of it that was rough was so I actually just finished a clinical rotation, um, this past Friday and so I still have, like you know, my entire caseload of patients and stuff and you know, thankfully, all the people at work like they're able to kind of cover that. But then I'm like worrying because I'm just like, okay, like you know, am I going to get out one day, two days, and like you know, like how's, how's this patient progressing?
Speaker 4:and like do I need to. You know, like send in like a bunch of like notes and stuff or whatever they need. And that was probably one of the worst parts too is then you just feel bad about leaving patients in the dark, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got to take care of yourself or you won't have patients to take care of in the future. I know you are up in the process. Maybe I don't, and I don't know, because you said you have patients being a physical therapist, correct, yeah, Yep, yeah, I'm in my final year of PT school at Walsh.
Speaker 1:Nice. Well, congratulations on that, and I'm sure you'll be helping patients down the road. Uh, we'll have to bring you on as a physical therapist next time. Uh, I know we had a Dr Bonnie Wilder, uh a previous guest, uh physical therapist. Great information there. So, no, I'd for sure I'd be down for it.
Speaker 2:Now you have a full experience to uh kind of take into that field with you.
Speaker 4:Right, yeah, no, it's. Uh. Yeah, I definitely interested in working. I mean like, I mean I love like like sports medicine, but yeah, especially like the endurance side of things. That's kind of like my passion. You know, of course I'm a little biased being a runner, but it'll be good to be able to kind of use that towards, especially like other people, whether it's, like you know, training for their first 5K or training for first 100, and something like that will be good to have.
Speaker 1:So, matt, you got out of the the hospital. Thankfully, you're back to back to being recovered. Ish, now what? What do you have planned for the future of running?
Speaker 4:yeah it's a lot of people have been asking and yeah, I mean, like I definitely I wouldn't say I'm like, like, afraid to like, do like another 100 mile or something. I think, though, realistically, like I'll probably take, maybe like at least like a year, year and a half at the soonest, just maybe do like some some more 50 mile stuff, a hundred K, just kind of keep trying to get used to like to those distances a little bit more, and then, I think, take a stab at another 100 mile. No concrete plans right now. I've debated on maybe trying to switch it up a little bit to do something that definitely ton of a ton of elevation change, at least compared to Eagle up or canal corridor, and do that a little bit. Get, get some trails.
Speaker 2:So yeah, definitely some elevation difference there.
Speaker 1:Hope it. You clearly have a talent for running far and fast, so it's just yeah, I'll be interested to see your, your, your, your, very young but of talent for running far and fast.
Speaker 2:So it's just, yeah, I'll be interested to see your, your.
Speaker 3:You're very young, but you're 20, 25. Yeah, yo did my research there.
Speaker 1:See, rob, see david did my research. It's a research. Yeah, you're, you're 25, that's. That's very young for for the ultra. From from what I see, I mean grant and I are basically prime age between our age groups of running ultras, it seems.
Speaker 2:People our age are out there flying. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:Definitely look forward to seeing what you do, matt, because it's cool to see such a local young guy being so competitive already. What were you sixth fastest? It might be down a little bit now after yesterday, but six, you were six fastest 100 mile time right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I was sixth as of like, yeah, pretty much as of a couple of days ago I think. I'm pretty sure I got jumped. I think I was checking a little bit. I want to say I might have gone down to like 11th, 12th maybe after. After Havalina yesterday, which was funny, and Eamon were, we were watching it at the store a little bit and I was like, well, it's like I mean I'll still be, like I'm, you know, still really happy with how I did, but it's, it's crazy, like watching some of those guys, I'm like someday I would like to, you know, try to try to mix it up like that if I can. But I'm like looking, I'm like 95 to 100 degrees and I mean they're out here ripping, like, you know, 13 or just under 13 and I'm like that's just insane.
Speaker 1:It's a whole different level yeah, and I have a lean, I think, other than the heat, and I'm sure will will text me mr will walmsley will text me as soon as he hears this and I say this but I think it's probably the optimal course to run very fast because there is terrain changes.
Speaker 1:It's not super steep uphill, but you're engaging a little bit different muscle and then you get to go downhill for a long period of time, which is engaging a different set of muscles, and he's definitely going to tell me I'm wrong on that but I'm okay with that. Huh, Graham.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yep, he's going to eat you alive in some kind of technical way, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:But it was tough running that flat for that long. It was the same repetitive. I felt way worse after that than I did grindstone 100K or grindstone 50K. That same repetitive pounding of the same four muscles in your leg, the foot, the same way. 100 miles flat is very, very challenging, I think, and I think Javelina is probably the optimal terrain to run a fast 100 miles.
Speaker 4:Yes, I was kind of surprised when I've been talking to some people, something like Connie Gardner a little bit. I even got the chance to talk to Arlen a little bit. Um, I even got the chance to, I talked to like to Arlen a little bit too, and just talking to them about a like I mean running my first hundred, but then also the course for for canal corridor, and they, they had told me kind of similar things where, like you would, in my head I was like, oh, it's going to be, it's flat, so I'm like like I don't have to worry about hills. So not that it was gonna be like a cakewalk by any means, but in my head I was like, oh, like, I think you know this will be better for me than trying to do like something with a decent amount of elevation change, especially for our first hundred. And they told me they're like like, yeah, I mean you know it's, it's, it's helpful in some senses.
Speaker 4:But it sometimes does come back to bite you, especially towards the end of the race, when it's like you said, I mean you're just using so many of the same muscle groups and by the time you're like you know 20 to 30 to go. It's just like. You're almost just like praying, you're just like could I just have like a little bit of uphill or an incline or something? Just like engage my quads or like my hip flexors more or something?
Speaker 1:yeah, just use some other other muscle group and also shout out coach Connie I know she she definitely helped Will out for the the Columbus marathon. Up there at the track I did some track workouts with her awesome, awesome person super, super knowledgeable. We should probably get her on for an episode. Huh, huh, rob, yeah.
Speaker 3:I think we should Her name's come up. What past three episodes? I think it's just a primer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's a wealth of knowledge. She's more experienced than anyone I know in running large amounts of distances and super accomplished in the field. Coach Constance, I think Nikki refers to her as, which is good, but did she help you out any kind of training or anything for this, matt?
Speaker 4:no, actually. So the guy who was like giving me some of my training, I was a guy that I knew when I was running at Malone and then a little at Walsh. He had gone to to Walsh and then Ashland. So I just kind of met him through like some friends of friends, like I want to Stephen Capes. Um, they were like super close um, so he was like writing some training for Stephen, for marathon based stuff, and then one day we were all out and he's talking to me and I was like, yeah, I was like well, like I don't have any kind of coaching me right now, and I was like, do you think that you could like do anything like you know, training for for ultras? So yeah, so he, he helped me for the for the hundred K and hundred mile and yeah, so so far, I mean, I've been, I've been liking the training. I think it's been been going well. So I'll probably try to keep rolling with it, probably try to keep rolling with it.
Speaker 4:Um, I will say, though, connie definitely helped a lot with, uh, like she, she was there, I want to say like the aid station, especially like towards the ends of the end of the race, like I just remember, like I think it was that second soul. You know, I'm like I like six miles left and I'm starting to kind of drag my feet a little bit through the aid station, and she could tell that I was kind of like debating on, like oh, like I might stand here for a second, and she just looked at me and was just like she's like Matt, I promise, like you, standing here is not going to make any difference in how you feel. You just need to keep moving forward. Okay, you're right. So I was like when she was someone like with her knowledge, I'm like if she tells me what to do, I'm going to listen, for sure.
Speaker 1:She's one of the people that if she tells me something, I'm you listen because she's experienced it Just like Jeremy. Been through it all, been through the ringer, done it all. Yeah, super knowledgeable, super helpful. And she is correct yeah, longer you sit at the aid station it's probably going to get, not better. And I I think that's where I made my mistake. I didn't eat enough at all. And then mile 35, eight like 500 calories, and stomach did not respond well to that, whereas previously Rob and I had just run grindstone and I was probably putting down 125 calories, what 60 carbs around that area an hour and then just didn't really do that. So, yeah, I think that's what went wrong for my stomach my little tummy ache that made me quit at mile 50.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it didn't really come back for you either. It was just something that kind of stayed with you there for the next what half marathon or so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the next three days. I just, it just wasn't wasn't right, you know so yeah, you live and learn. Hey, you know right, matt, we we're here to learn, we're here to get better, and we certainly learned a lot. I learned a lot about rhabdo from today. I, you know, never, never experienced it, never want to, not sure I can push myself hard enough to experience it.
Speaker 3:I don't know. Could you Rob, do you think you can put yourself?
Speaker 1:into that At a much, much slower pace. And no, I couldn't. I think I hit my ejecto seat before I get to that point. I don't have the mental toughness that you have, matt. So, grant, you also did. You know, dnf, you did make it to mile 85, which is a huge accomplishment, yep.
Speaker 2:Yep 85. What made you stop? So I picked up Kim I can't think of wrong. Would that be 73 on the way back Forget that aid station, I think it was canal exploration, maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I just kind of stopped eating after that. Like I just I don't know if I was just tired and fatigued after I think it was like 16 hours or so at that point and, just, you know, didn't want to drink, didn't focus on keep getting whether it was gels down or eating anything of any kind. I just kind of was like in an aid station, took a few bites and I was like, well, let's keep going, going, because it hurt more just to sit there or stand there than it was to actually move. So I think maybe I should have spent a little bit more time there before I left. But I think that was the ultimate downfall where things were going good until they weren't.
Speaker 2:But then at 85 we had that storm rolling in and it was just going to be probably walking for the next 15 miles and Will came out. He was going to help me through it and I was like you know what, man, we're not going to do that, even if I could walk it out. I was like it's going to be high 40s and torrential downpour and lightning, so it was going to be a rough three, three hours or so, so we decided to pull the plug there at deep lock.
Speaker 3:Was that your first DNF grant?
Speaker 2:It was, it was I can relate you know I wasn't mad.
Speaker 2:That was 30, 35 miles further than I've ever ran before. I was served up some humble pie for sure, but I mean I really went into the hundred, kind of kind of blind, under trained. So I'm still happy with it. I found out, you know, I can go further than I thought. So it was a, it was a cool experience. Got to run, you know, the first 50k, actually a little bit longer with Casey, so it was good to have somebody with you and kind of help pace you, not get over the top, because I know Casey reeled me in a couple times and I reeled him a couple times when we started creeping up on our pace.
Speaker 1:So that was the hard part was keeping it at such a slow pace. And I, matt, how did you do that? Because everyone's pacing structure is a little bit different. Like Grant and I was 945 to 10 minute pace and, for comparison, like I've run a 136 marathon, so 720 is, or half marathon, 136, half marathon, so 720 pace, so quite a bit under. You know what I can run and it was very difficult to keep the the pace. How did you do that, being at the faster end of the spectrum than us?
Speaker 4:yeah, because, like going in, like I like my goal was to finish like right around like if I could like that at 14 hour mark. So I kind of knew roughly like I had a whole document spreadsheet of like you know where I should be at this aid station this time of day and kind of even had it like set my phone on me and had like a little slip of paper too that I had like in one of my pockets where I would just kind of be able to look and know I'm like okay, like you know should be getting around there. And I think the biggest part early for me um was just trying to make sure like I really wasn't creeping up too much faster than like like 750 was, I think, where I was kind of like trying to like cut myself off at. There was definitely couple of times in the beginning where I got a little too excited during the first like 10 to 15 and had a couple of faster splits. But I think thankfully, once I got to 30, I was able to start trying to hold consistently like 8 to 8.15, just depending. And I think that was the other thing too with uh, with aid stations, um, every time I would try to talk to my like family cause, like they were helping, helping the crew. I had some friends that had come out and support.
Speaker 4:So just also like letting myself like, okay, like you know, I want to be efficient, but then also it's just like I don't need to like try to fly through every single station, like let myself slow down a little bit, kind of collect my thoughts, make sure I have everything that I need, you know, for the next five, 10 miles or you know wherever I was going to see him again. So so, yeah, that was kind of my strategy. It's definitely, I think in hindsight probably could have been a little bit better. For sure, in the early stages I think maybe just my legs might have not been nearly as fatigued, uh, coming up like into that 20-30 mile range at the start. But yeah, thankfully I said earlier a little bit it was just kind of once I got over that hump, getting into like 40 to 45, then I was like, okay, I was like you know, now we're kind of up on halfway and I can hopefully finish this thing out. Just try to just keep clicking off the same pace. I don't need to do anything crazy right now.
Speaker 3:So, casey, what's impressive is we keep talking to these young guys that just have a plan dialed in the mental fortitude and you just push. I mean it's amazing. It seems like there's a new breed.
Speaker 1:Rob Grant and I did have concepts of a plan. We were also two hours ahead of schedule, which is not good, not good at all, so you know we did have a plan.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you were out there, right.
Speaker 1:That's all that matters. But I do agree, like this younger, this younger group. Definitely they're better at building plans, I think, than maybe the older generation, like Grant and I, who just go out and wing everything pretty much Right. Grant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I signed up, I think with a week left and I just came off a 10 day vacation of pretty much drinking like 10 beers a day and I think I ran four miles.
Speaker 3:So so you were well hydrated.
Speaker 2:I well hydrated Yep.
Speaker 1:Carbed up Yep. We're ready to roll, I mean well, we we certainly thank you, and that actually is a good point, because our next guest that we have coming up, Miss Abby Herring. She is a former runner of.
Speaker 1:Caleb Bowens from Marshall University coming off of a top 10 finish at the Columbus Marathon. I imagine Abby had a great plan going into that and we'll probably delve into that with her, rob. So that's our next episode that we have to look forward to here at the hobby jogger. I think this is about all the time we have. Matt needs to get to work, grant needs to go Hopefully find Kim's purse somewhere at another Starbucks.
Speaker 2:We got that. Now we've got to go find her on the trail hiking somewhere.
Speaker 1:Sweet. But, Matt, thank you so much. We do want to have you back here because I think physical therapists are great to talk to, especially one winner of an ultra race. I think there's a lot of wealth of knowledge we could gain from that in your schooling as a physical therapist. So I thank you for your time today helping us review the Canal Corridor 100 mile endurance run. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And thank you, Rob, Mr Co-host, for waking up early today on this fine Sunday morning.
Speaker 3:Can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday. Hey, matt, so where can our listeners find you?
Speaker 4:My Instagram. That's the one I use probably the most, and it's just MattXParker is just my username On Strava, it's just Matt Parker.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys very much. We certainly appreciate it, and that's all for this episode of the Hobby Jogger. Thank you.