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(crickets chirping)
(slow country music)
- My mom had everything.
She had a huge network of friends.
She had an incredible family.
But the one thing she didn't have was her health.
You guys, this is gonna come as a surprise
but I have not always been this athletic
and sexually appealing.
(audience laughing)
Yeah, its kind of a new thing for me (laughing)
I grew up in a super rural area of Missouri
on a pig farm.
(upbeat country music)
In elementary school, I was the epitome
of the chubby, funny best friend.
I made everyone laugh so hard that they didn't have time
to make fun of how chubby I was.
(laughing)
That was my game plan and it worked.
(laughing)
I was chubby as a kid and I've tried a gazillion diets.
At one point I decided I would have vegetables
with every meal but eventually I got tired
of eating french fries three times a day.
(audience laughing)
So I joined a gym and you guys,
it went really, really well.
After the first two weeks, I went to the locker room,
I stepped on the scale and you guys,
I had lost 17 pounds.
- Woo!
- Thank you.
(audience claps) Thank you, yeah.
So I decided to celebrate so I stepped off of the scale,
I put the out-of-order sign back on it.
(audience laughing)
And I went to the Dairy Queen.
- Jeffrey was not athletic as a kid.
I can remember one specific incident about Jeffrey
that he played on a basketball team
at our small elementary school
and he really was putting out no effort
to run up and down the court.
So the coaches had told him that they were
taking him out of the game until he was ready
to put out some effort and he said, "Okay".
And he never went back in the game.
- I tried wearing a bro, which is a bra for men.
But I had to stop wearing that because it was obvious
I was wearing a bro.
I mean, people could see the indentation in my back fat.
(audience laughing)
They could see the straps anytime I wore a tube top.
(audience laughing)
And it was a dead giveaway anytime I pulled cash out of it.
(audience laughing)
- Always hilarious.
Great at musical theater.
Not athletic at all.
He wasn't really an outdoor kid from what I could grasp.
He tried a few crash diets in college, I can remember.
He did Atkins once which his version of Atkins
included going to McDonald's and ordering
two double cheeseburgers sans the bread.
And that didn't go, actually I think he did lose weight
but it didn't last for very long.
- And nobody ever said, "Hey, you might wanna
"put those Ho-Hos down."
Like it wasn't a thing.
"You're hungry?"
"Yeah, eat something.
"You're not hungry?
"Should you eat?"
Probably.
I read somewhere that eating spicy food
speeds up your metabolism so I learned to like jalapenos.
So I watched an instructional video
on how to properly chop up jalapenos.
And it went really well and then I went to the bathroom.
(audience laughing)
And that did not go as well.
(audience laughing)
It took about 30 seconds and y'all my man business
was on fire (laughing).
So I threw it in the sink, I started splashing water on it.
That didn't work.
So I called poison control and they hung up on me.
(audience laughing)
So I called my mom and I said, "Mom, there's a problem
"with my naughty place."
And she hung up on me.
(audience laughing)
So I called my dad and I said, "Dad, I've gotten
"jalapeno juice all over Buford."
(audience laughing)
And he said, "Well hell Jeff, you gotta put it in milk."
(audience laughing)
I didn't know.
So I went to the fridge, I grabbed a carton of milk,
I took it to the bathroom, and you guys,
it totally, totally works.
But then, get this you guys, my roommate
has accused me of being, of all things, inconsiderate.
- No.
- So I did the right thing, I funneled the milk
back into the jug, put it back into the fridge.
(audience laughing)
Inconsiderate.
- I would say that in all of my descriptions of
Jefferey Binney, I would never, ever have used
the term athletic before maybe a year and a half ago.
He was a lot of things but he was never an athlete.
He, I can remember being in marching band with him
and him running all over the place to do marching band stuff
but not necessarily running in a way that would inspire
other people to think that he was
actually running somewhere, so.
He, yeah, he's come a long way.
- You guys, I grew up on a pig farm in Missouri.
(crowd cheers) I know, right?
Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. (crowd cheers)
There came a point when I had to sit
my father down and have a really, really
uncomfortable conversation with him.
I sat him down and I said, "Dad, I'm sure this isn't going
"to come as a surprise to you.
"As a kid, I was very sensitive.
"I was very, very involved in the theater
"and I never really dated girls but I am vegan."
(audience laughing)
And he said, "Well hell, Jeff.
"I thought you were gonna tell me you were a gay."
And I said, "Oh girl, please."
(audience laughing)
My dad, she is totes ridic.
You guys, substantially less funny.
When I was 11, my mom was diagnosed with heart failure.
And they gave her, you know, maybe two,
three, threeish years.
She pulled out 17 more years.
- Woo!
- Yeah, right? (audience claps)
Absolutely.
But I think because she knew her time was limited,
she made the most of it.
And she was super caring, super giving, super generous,
very philanthropic and a lot of the stuff she did
we didn't even know happened.
And one of those times was actually at her funeral.
This woman came up to me and she said,
"Hey, I bet you don't even know this story
"but years ago, in the middle of the night,
"my family's house burned to the ground.
"I got out.
"My husband got out.
"My kids got out.
"Everything was destroyed but we all got out.
"But this is while your mom owned
"her children's clothing store.
"And in the middle of the night,
"somehow she found out that our house was on fire
"and she went to the store and before
"those firetrucks had even left our driveway,
"she showed up with boxes and boxes of clothes for my kids."
(audience claps)
Right?
Yeah.
But she said, "There's more.
"Not only did she bring us boxes and boxes of clothes,
"but she gave us 20% off."
(audience laughing)
- Woo!
- Like super generous, my mom, right?
Well she was just like the epitome of the mama bear.
I mean, she would protect me at all costs
if she thought something unjust was happening to me.
But at the same time, if I was being a little turd,
I mean there was no patience.
There was no patience for turds.
♪ For she's gone over the hill ♪
♪ Which nobody can deny ♪
♪ For she's gone over the hill ♪
♪ And so we say bye bye ♪
(video squeaking)
But I was spending all this time in the waiting room,
slowly, slowly kind of like, kind of going mad (chuckles).
Like losing it a little bit.
I mean, just sitting with nothing to do.
Just desperate to not end up in the same situation.
To not be saying goodbye to my family at the age of 58.
And the doctors made no bones about
why she was in this situation that she was in.
She was overweight by a lot and she tried so hard,
she tried really hard to change that
but she just couldn't, she couldn't understand
why asparagus wasn't still healthy
after it had been breaded and fried.
(audience laughing)
So I'm spending all this time in the waiting room
and I look over one day in a particularly
dark, dark moment in our ICU story
and I see this, a "Trail Runner" magazine.
Apparently this is a magazine that people buy and pay for.
(audience laughing)
And I start flipping, I guess I can count them
out as a sponsor, right?
(laughing)
Sorry "Trail Runner" magazine.
So I start going through this magazine
and I mean, its just, you know,
all these like gorgeously, athletic people
just bounding, bounding over mountains
and I get to this hilarious article,
this one right here.
The title's amazing, "Is the 100 Mile Ultramarathon
"The New Marathon?" (laughs)
You guys, I'm pretty sure its not (laughs).
But I start reading and it says this,
"So the Leadville 100, one of the country's oldest
"and most difficult ultramarathons.
"Set in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado,
"runners face some of the longest and steepest
"climbs in America with a total elevation gain
"of over 15,000 feet, the equivalent of
"six times the Empire State Building.
"Runners must stave off blisters, hypothermia,
"hyperthermia, hyponatremia, hypernatremia,
"hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, exhaustion
"and runners are in a constant battle
"to eat enough food to prevent
"their body's natural tendency
"to shut down its digestive system
"in order to divert resources
"to more critical body systems."
(laughs)
And I thought what anyone desperate
to lose weight would think.
You guys, I should do this.
(audience laughing)
(upbeat cheerful music)
(heavy breathing)
And then, then I look over and I was like,
"Hmm, who is this tall, British drink of water?"
(audience laughing)
Ian Sharman, Ian, okay who is this?
Okay, "Ian Sharman is one of the world's
"preeminent ultrarunning legends, a London native
"who left a financial career to pursue running."
- I'd always used to play loads of sports
but I just wasn't doing that anymore
so I decide I need to do something
and while I was in that mindset,
I saw a TV documentary about a race
in the Sahara Desert so I became a runner.
And when I first started, I was training
for a desert race but I included a few marathons
and one ultra in the buildup to that.
And I just found I was gradually enjoying it more
and then got a little bit addicted to racing
so I was doing about 30 marathons a year
for about three years.
- "In addition to being the fastest ultrarunner
"in the country, Ian also runs a wildly successful
"training business and trains some of the world's
"fastest, elite ultrarunners."
You guys, "he trains some of the world's
"fastest, elite ultrarunners".
I bet, I bet he wants to train me.
(audience laughing)
(laughs)
So you guys, I called up Ian Sharman
and I said, "Look dude, here's the deal.
"I'm a 6'2", 340 pound lumberjack
"and I'm gonna run the Leadville 100.
"Don't you want to train me?"
And he said, "Uh, maybe."
You guys, I went to acting school
and so I'm really good with dialects.
They're kind of my thing.
I also have a really good Australian.
It's kind of like, uh, maybe.
I don't know, someone else call out a dialect.
Anything, like somewhere, a country.
- German. - German, um, uh, maybe.
(audience laughing)
Yeah.
- What's kinda, you know we have like six weeks,
seven weeks, what's the kind of bigger picture game plan,
when, what really big weekends do you want me to get in
and when will we kind of start to lay off and taper?
Will we?
- Well you got seven and a half weeks
so it's a little bit longer than you thought there.
(laughing)
So the idea being that we'll have at least one big weekend
of back-to-back runs.
We're gonna have plenty of long runs,
still most weekend will be longer runs
especially to just explore your new location
because you're gonna have maybe five weekends
where you can just try out new places,
new trail areas, ideally doing a couple of races
around the 50K distance would be great
because that's a good distance that you can recover from
fairly quickly and that you're just getting
to have enough time on your feet
but with aid stations and all the logistics
taken care of for you.
- I told my family.
They thought I was ridiculous.
I told my friends.
They were certain I was mad.
But there was one friend who is a triathlete,
super fit like this is totally his thing.
And I called him up and I told him
what I was planning to do.
And he said, "Look Jeffrey.
"I don't want to be unsupportive,
"but when you go to the horse races
"there's a reason why you don't see any Clydesdales."
(audience laughing)
The best way to get me to do something
is to tell me I can't do it.
My mom used to use it all the time.
She'd be like, "I bet you can't do that laundry."
I'd be like, "I bet I can."
(audience laughing)
"Bet you can't rub lotion on my feet."
"Oh yes I can.
"You just watch me."
(audience laughing)
Y'all, if you have to do hill repeats,
I think this is the place to do 'em.
What?
When I was a little kid, I was really, really confused
as to where babies came from.
My family used to tell me this story
about how out of all of our baby pigs
there was one baby piglet that they liked
more than all the others.
They liked him so much that they had him
turned into a little boy.
And that's where I came from.
(audience laughing)
No, I know but you guys now I'm a 33 year old man
and I am very well aware of where babies come from,
your mom's butt.
(audience laughing)
- Yeah.
- But when I was a little kid you guys,
I totally believed it because I thought
that's where I got my tiny, pink, spiral-shaped penis.
(audience laughing)
- Wow.
- I always wished my parents had been donkey farmers.
(audience laughing)
- When my mom passed away, I think it was probably
the hardest on Jeff because they were extremely close.
- Jeffrey is not a person who wears
his emotions on his sleeve.
He internalizes a lot and then when Deb passed away,
Jeffrey sort of disappeared.
Jeffrey went off the grid a lot and he went running
and he was in the woods or he would go camping.
- I think the running was a therapy for Jeff
after my mom passed away.
We all have something that we turn to
when things are that bad and I think running
was just a way to distract his mind and,
not only for a distraction, I mean we'd watched
our mom die, lay there day after day suffering,
and it was all obesity heart disease related
and I think he turned it into something positive.
- So I started training for this.
Of course, it was easier in the beginning
and then it got worse.
My typical week looked like this.
On a Tuesday, I would do a medium-length run,
somewhere between eight and 18 miles
with some speed work in the middle.
Wednesday, a really low-key recovery day, just five miles.
On Thursday, another medium-length run
with speed work in the middle.
No running on Friday.
Saturday, long run, usually marathon distance.
Sunday, another long run, usually another marathon.
At the end I was averaging just above 70 miles per week.
(upbeat intense music)
I guess a lot of things can go wrong.
(laughing)
A lot of things can go wrong when you're trying
to run that far.
For me, my toenails are a big issue.
When your toenails hit against the end of your shoe
2,337 times, they slowly die and then they fall off.
I have a lot of problems eating enough.
If you run out of enough energy, which you guys,
up until this point, I had no idea
what it felt like to truly be hungry.
(laughing)
I had never once let myself get to the point of true hunger.
- There's a lot of things that can go wrong
in a 100 miler, no matter how fit you are.
Just starting out, I mean altitude
is probably the biggest factor here.
So he could get altitude sickness
or it could just slow him down so much
that he doesn't manage to reach the cut-offs.
He could easily pick up an injury,
you just twist an ankle, fall over, pull a muscle.
Anything like that which then makes it very difficult
to keep moving at a good pace.
He could have trouble with his stomach,
which is particularly bad when it's at altitude
and especially if it's a hot day.
And if he's vomiting all over the place,
it's gonna be really difficult to keep moving.
But you can usually pull it back from there.
Not always, but you can usually find a way to get through.
He could just wear himself out, go too fast early on,
push too hard on either the uphills or the downhills
and trash his legs.
And that, again, is probably the number two thing
after altitude that would slow people down
and cause them to drop here is if they run
the downhills too hard and then their legs are toast
and then even the easy stuff, they can't run
and they get timed out.
There's probably a number of other things
that could go wrong, medial issues potentially,
getting hit by a car.
You know, there's a lot of things that can happen out there.
He could get attacked by a bear.
Depends on how extreme you want to go
but it is out in the mountains
and mountain weather can be very bad.
And actually that's one other thing, lightning.
If there's storms, that can force people
to have either stop and then waste time
because they're waiting for the storm to go
or they go through it and then they either get very cold
or wet or something else that happens like that
and they end up going to hospital.
So this is not an easy race.
And it's really extreme conditions out there.
- Well at the finish line of the 50
when I was crewing in San Francisco,
when Jeff crossed the finish line,
I didn't immediately know that anything was wrong.
He seemed fine.
He got his medal.
We started to go get something to drink
and then I realized that he was either delirious
or something else was seriously wrong.
He needed food and I tried to give him
some broccoli with hummus and he was unable
to get that to his mouth.
I had to find him a chair and lay him back
and I was feeding him as he laid there
like a bird with his mouth open.
- The scary truth is that people have died
while ultrarunning and that's terrifying for me
and for Jeffrey's sister and you know for Kevin
and for anyone involved with the race, so.
- If it comes to the point that we think Jeff
is in a situation where maybe it's going to cause him
some kind of physical damage, or it's no longer
healthy for him to continue on,
you know, we'll have to come together
and look at all the factors and maybe even seek some advice
from the professionals that they have there
and make a decision then.
- I think the thing that excites me the most
about being on the crew is that Jeffrey's been
working on this for awhile.
I knew I was gonna be on his crew for awhile
and he's been working so hard
and when he finishes this 30-hour, 100-mile,
crosses the finish line, I'm gonna be so excited
'cause I can go to bed.
- I can't say that I totally understand ultrarunning.
I can't say that I understand why Jeffery
would want to do something so extreme to his body
or something that scares his family and friends.
But I can definitely understand
the wanting to make a change in your life.
(upbeat country music)
(laughing)
(upbeat country music)
- 1988 when I came to Colorado,
I had never seen an ultra of any type or distance.
But I had read about it in a magazine
about guys running a hundred miles
and I had to see it.
So I came to Leadville to see the race in 1988.
Didn't know one runner.
Didn't know one mile of the course but I came anyway
and I slept in my car right near the starting line
for the first race and I've seen every one since 1988.
- I chose the Leadville 100 because
it is one of the most beautiful 100 milers.
We're gonna be running through the Rocky Mountains.
I also love the energy of the town.
It has such a cool story and history
and I've always been fascinated with the run.
And also, they take anybody (laughing).
I didn't have to have a qualifying time.
So that was important too.
I have 30 hours.
There's a 30 hour cutoff.
So if I'm not done in 30 hours, I don't finish.
I didn't finish.
I didn't officially finish.
Like I don't count.
It didn't happen
It's not only that I have to be
at the finish line in 30 hours,
I also have to be at each of the eight stations
by their cutoff times.
So if at any point, I fall behind the cutoff time,
I get pulled from the race.
No naps, no sleeping.
I gotta run.
So, I mean that's it.
There's six major climbs.
(marker scratching on board)
This one's probably gonna be,
well both of these, are probably gonna be
real total mind-fucks because this really seems
like the big, you know, kinda like,
"Oh cool, I'm over halfway done
"and I'm done with the biggest climb."
But actually I have two more pretty rough ones.
So I mean really, when I get to each aid station,
this will be the most, I mean basically
when I get into each aid station,
I will have just done a really terrible climb
except for the first one and this one,
I will have had a ways before.
(marker scratching on board)
- Can you put a heart around all that?
(laughing)
Just, (laughing)
- Now draw a penis where you are afraid.
(Annie laughing drowns out Kevin speaking)
Okay.
- Oh, wow.
(laughing)
- Yep, keep going.
I'm catching it all.
- I don't think this is going in the film.
(laughing)
(slow serious music)
(slapping)
(slow serious music)
- This morning, Leroy was asleep on my feet.
When he heard me wake up, he like slowly
inched under the covers up to me
and just like laid down next to me
and gave me this look like, "Don't do it."
(laughing)
"Don't go, what are you doing."
I'm like, "I don't know buddy.
"I don't know."
(door squeaks)
- Good morning.
- Oh morning.
Are you ready for this?
- I'm ready, are you?
- I don't know.
Do I have a choice?
- No, it's too late now.
- I don't know if I'm the mood
to run 100 miles today?
We can do it next week.
- I'll run part of it for you.
- Okay.
- Everyone ready.
We ride.
Let's go.
And at 5 a.m., in the dark, I stood
at the starting line of one of the most difficult
and most storied ultramarathons in the world,
surrounded by 800 people who are
substantially more fit than I.
- Nine, eight, seven, six
five, four, three, two, one.
(starting gun fires)
(crowd cheers and whistles)
- And we started the race and it went all right.
(upbeat intense music)
I made it to mile 17 I guess
and I had a problem.
I almost missed the cutoff at the last aid station
because I was about to crap my pants.
And I waddled two miles to the aid station
with my cheeks clenched like a vice
trying to convince myself that I could run
another 70 miles without pooping.
And I finally gave in and pooped in a porta-potty
for the first time ever.
And it was devastating.
I got poop on my hands twice.
The smell was awful.
I'm never ultrarunning again.
Waa!
(radio crackling)
You guys I'm really weird about pooping.
(audience laughing)
I don't think I'm weird about pooping
but other people think I'm weird about pooping.
For instance, I only poop in my own toilet.
That's not that weird.
But I also, I won't poop unless I can
immediately afterward, take a shower.
(audience laughing) Yeah.
Oh cool, you think that's weird.
You know what I think is weird?
Grabbing a wad of the thinnest paper known to man
and smearing it up your butt, pulling up your pants
and saying, "Yeah, I'm good."
(audience laughing)
Savages.
(audience laughing)
But I think I know why I ended up this way.
When I was a little kid, I refused to wipe my own butt
and I would make my mom do it
and I remember very vividly sitting on the toilet.
I remember exactly how I would say it.
I would scream, "Mom, come wipe my butt."
(audience laughing)
And she would, every time.
It went on way too long but eventually she had to stop
because it was a four-hour drive to my college,
so I couldn't ask her to do that three times a day.
(audience laughing)
Tragically, that is half true (laughs).
You guys, where to go to the bathroom
is one of the biggest concerns
when you're running an ultramarathon.
A number one, not that big of a deal.
You just, especially for men, just pop off the trail,
take care of your business and keep running.
For women, a number one is a little more involved.
About mile 17 of the Leadville 100
I met this girl who was running beside me,
we were about keeping up about the same pace.
So we were chatting.
Turns out she's from St. Louis so we had tons of stuff
in common but all of the sudden, she stops
and she pulls down her pants in the middle of the trail
and squats down and starts peeing
and she says, "I am so sorry, please, please,
"go on without me, I'll catch up with you."
And you guys, I am a nice, nice farm boy from Missouri
so I did the polite thing and I said,
"That's okay, I'll wait."
(audience laughing)
- Woo!
- You guys, I had never seen that.
I mean I hadn't seen that but I also hadn't seen that.
(audience laughing)
My mom totally lied to me because that looked nothing
like a freshly-baked peach cobbler.
(audience laughing)
- We've got a gingerbread man coming up the road.
He's still a ways out though
so you can relax.
- A gingerbread man.
Oh it's too loud.
Woo, Jeffrey!
- Oh yeah, he totally was looking.
- Good job.
- I don't know if he's looking at the cow bells
or your loud mouth (laughs)
- Woo!
Wait, I was looking at that guy.
(man laughs)
- Where?
- I thought it was him.
Oh he's there. - He's right there.
- Oh.
(serious music)
Yeah!
(cow bells ringing)
- I should of made up time and I didn't.
- It's all right.
You're still doing good.
- Good job man, that was good.
(slow quirky music)
- Yeah!
Woo! (cow bells ringing)
- How are you guys?
(laughing)
- We're great.
Bye, love you.
- Get it.
- Woo hoo!
(clapping)
(upbeat quirky music)
(slow serious music)
- You can do it!
- I'm really close to missing the cutoff.
- It's okay.
- Hey buddy, keep working.
Keep pushing.
- You got this. (clapping)
- It's been about 20 minutes on checkpoint
every one, so.
- Yeah, and its a lot of downhill, so.
Ah, come on Jeff!
(upbeat cheerful music)
(heavy breathing)
(upbeat cheerful music)
(clapping)
- Woo hoo!
(clapping)
- You're good.
- Yeah.
- You want some soup?
Potatoes?
- I think I'm good.
Thanks though.
- How's your phone?
(Jeffrey mumbles)
- Yeah.
- It was awful.
- Okay, where do you want taped?
- Not pooping, just the ball of my right foot.
- Jeffrey, do I need to push the button on this thing?
- Yeah, right button right there.
You're good, you're good.
- Okay, all right, you're charging.
(upbeat cheerful music)
- Bill Dooper was talking up a storm about you.
- You're good, want some more?
- John, how are you?
- Doing good, Jeff.
- What are you here for?
- To watch the race?
- I mean in Colorado.
(man mumbles)
- Just came here for me?
- You're worried about time.
Probably not a good time for the weight.
- Take it off.
- No, no I think I should rolling
if I have time I'll...
- You can't go down this way.
You gotta go up. - To the right.
- Okay, bye guys.
(clapping)
- All right, don't worry about us.
Worry about your time.
Don't think about pooping.
- What?
- Don't worry.
- The hardest part of the trail is Hope Pass.
You go over and down and then you go a few miles,
turn around and do it again.
If you're successful on that part,
there's a pretty good chance you're gonna be successful
in the race but that's the toughest part of the course.
- It's already brutal.
Like brutal.
It's the most miserable feeling.
It's like you literally can't breathe.
I mean, you can try.
But it's like you can't get air no matter how,
not matter how...ugh!
I knew that it was close.
I knew that I was really, really, really close
to missing the cutoff.
(cheering)
- Do you know if it was a medical or 'cause of timeout
- I don't mean to be, these were mostly were timing
because they got past there at 4;15.
And they were turned back.
- Okay, there's no other way
to tell, find that out other than just going?
- None that I know of or that I'm aware of.
I mean, the only way to transport somebody out
the top of Hope is by helicopter.
So, yeah, there'd be a flurry of activity (laughs)
if that was happening.
- Sorry, his sister's freaking out.
We just said we'd ask (laugh).
Yeah, my suspicion is
they just turned back and he's walking back.
- Okay.
(clock ticking) (wind blowing)
- I just talked to the guy on the radio
he confirmed Jeffery was, in fact, sent back at Hope Pass.
His time was 4:15.
It was after 4:15, the cutoff was 4:15.
So they sent him back to Twin Lakes.
Sucks.
Feel bad.
He had a lot going right, you know,
a lot working against him.
- I just feel so bad.
I'm being so emotional.
I just feel like everything he's worked for.
He's gonna be so bummed and he tried so hard
and he trained so hard.
- I know.
He's still gonna be proud.
- I know.
He just needs to be proud.
I just don't want him to be really upset
and I just want him to be okay.
Which they said he was because there would be a
helicopter to a mountain if
anything was terrible, so.
(heavy breathing)
- I didn't make it.
(heavy breathing)
I didn't make it.
I missed the Hope Pass cutoff by 14 minutes
and so I got pulled.
(heavy breathing)
I don't know what to say to this dumb thing.
- Nice job guys.
- I'm like numb.
I've never been in this much pain.
That was the hardest thing I've ever done.
I don't know, I don't want to talk to this.
(laughing)
- I was like, "Okay" (laughs).
(engine running)
(somber music)
- Instead I'm sitting here on the sofa,
literally shoving pasta in my mouth.
So that's a decent consolation, isn't it?
(spoon clanking)
I don't know, it's so weird.
It's like it's still sinking it.
It's like a slow burn.
(spoon clanking)
Even when I was climbing Hope Pass, like you know.
It's not like you get there and it's like,
"Oh, did I make it, did I not make it?
"Oh, I didn't make it, aw."
You know you're not making it.
You can see the minutes going by
and you can see how far you have to go.
(spoon clanking)
And you get there and you're like praying,
"Oh maybe my watch is off.
"Maybe they're just not making people
"follow the rules, today." (laughs)
I don't know, maybe, something.
(spoon clanking)
But no.
I was late.
So.
(spoon clanking)
I'm kinda fine with it.
I mean, I'm not fine with it.
I'm really disappointed but the harder thing
is everybody else, you know?
I made such a big f-ing deal (laughs)
about running a hundred miles.
(somber music)
Never again.
You know I'm trying to figure out what thing
I should have done differently
and I can't think of one thing
that I should have done differently
because there are a million things
that I could've done differently.
And I don't know, I don't know what it was.
I don't know, I mean I just don't know.
And I probably will never know.
(computer beep)
Hi Ian.
- Hi.
How's it going and how are you feeling after Leadville?
- Oh, I'm fine (laughs)
- We went into it knowing it was gonna be very tough.
Especially living at sea level
doing an altitude race and I think that was probably
the largest single factor that made it difficult.
But you still got a hell of a long way,
longest run you've ever done.
And there was some very good running in there.
So there's a lot that we can take away from that.
- Mm-hmm.
- I bet it doesn't feel like that
but you do tend to learn more from the races
that don't go well than the ones that go perfectly
and we weren't expecting, no one ever would,
at a race like a hundred-miler like Leadville
to just breeze through it and it to be
relatively easy and everything go well.
But I think that realistically,
we've got a lot of positives that came away from that,
some really good running, some really good
buildup to it as well and we can definitely
take that on to things in the future.
So I wouldn't be too down-hearted by that.
Just even starting it is a big deal.
And the fact that it didn't go perfectly
the first attempt, that is no negative
or thing that you should just think you've failed
because really, if you look at the race,
I think less than half the people finished it.
- You guys, I was in the depths of despair.
I was so over it.
I finally pulled myself up by the bootstraps
and said, "You know what? (sighs)
"Let's do this again."
(upbeat cheerful music)
I'm vegan but I'm not an obnoxious vegan, you guys.
I'm like a cool vegan, you know I mean like
I eat meat, you know.
(audience laughing)
- He's now vegan which is, if he hasn't told you, he will.
(vibrant country music)
- You know there's so much buildup to Leadville
and then I had been planning and training for it
for over a year, kinda feels like
I've been planning a wedding. (laughs)
- Yep, yep.
- It just didn't happen.
In the end, just everyone got there.
Everyone arrived.
We started the wedding but it just didn't happen.
And so, I definitely--
- The bride ran off but lucky you found another bride, so.
- I found another bride.
- Very soon afterwards, yep.
(laughing)
- Yeah, yeah exactly.
(cheerful country music)
- I'm just a chubby ginger on the verge
of heat exhaustion and I need some shade.
(cheerful country music)
Supposed to run 21 miles today.
Quitting at 15.
One of those runs.
(upbeat country music)
I started training again.
Six months later, I am in Huntsville, Texas
to run the Rocky Raccoon 100-mile ultramarathon.
(cheerful quirky music)
It's the day before the race and my crew is jazzed.
- I'm jazzed.
She's ready.
She's ready to go.
- I don't know.
The one thing I know from Leadville
is that I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow.
I have no idea.
Like, no clue.
Like I'm ready, I've trained but I don't know.
I mean literally, anything could happen.
(slow pensive music)
Oh, did you want to come in with me?
(cameraman mumbling)
- These feet done been taped.
These feet done went and been taped.
Mm, oh, these Pro Bars are amazing.
I love Pro Bars.
If it wasn't for Pro Bars, I don't think I'd be able to run
at all, ever.
Mm, mm, Pro Bar, mm, oh.
Okay.
- What's that?
- A little Hair Club for Men.
- Oh, really?
(upbeat quirky music)
I've got party all around but
if you're coming in from a helicopter,
- Watch out.
- The party stops (laughs) pretty quickly.
I think I'm doing this because
while she couldn't change her life, I can, you know?
I finally pulled it together and I decided
I was going to run another ultramarathon,
another 100-mile ultramarathon.
So I talked to Ian and we finally decided
that the best next option was the Rocky Raccoon 100.
A 100-mile ultramarathon just north of Houston, Texas.
I don't know, I guess I'll feel fine.
It's really dark and it's gonna be dark
for the first 45 minutes so I get a little taste
of what the 13 hours of hell
in the middle of the night are going be like (laughs).
So I kinda kept this one on the down-low
just because I was, I don't know.
I just, after Leadville, I'd made
such a big fricking to-do about it, you know.
It was like, just made it that much harder
to tell everyone I failed.
So, nobody knows about this one.
I'm doing this one in secret, sort of.
My close friends know but other than that,
nobody knows that I'm here doing this this weekend.
I don't have to deal with the barrage of text messages
asking me how it went and how it felt
to cross the finish line (laughs), when I didn't.
So, we'll see what happens, I don't know.
I don't know, I don't know.
(slow pensive music)
(crowd chattering)
(slow pensive music)
I'm heading into the end of my second loop
and shit's officially starting to fall apart
and my body is officially starting to fall apart.
My feet hurt.
Not that guy.
He's looking good.
(deep breath)
But, on the bright side, I only have,
I only have 65 miles to go.
So, I should probably start running.
- Do you want to try a little something to eat?
- I'm okay.
- You look great.
Keep your bag?
- Yeah it's okay.
- Can I keep your jacket?
- Yeah.
(slpw inspirational music)
- You want it on now?
(slow inspirational music)
- Okay, this is good.
No it's okay.
- We can be there, we can be there.
(slow inspirational music)
(crowd chattering)
- We, ugh...
somewhere between 60 and 63.
- And as I was falling in slow motion
I had a decision to make.
Do I break my fall with my chest and save my food?
Or do I let my food go and use my hands to break my fall?
Well anyone who knows my relationship to food
(audience laughing)
knows that I chose to break my fall with my chest.
It did not hurt that bad at the time.
But it would turn out 36 hours later at urgent care
that I had fractured a rib.
- So he didn't have enough calories so we left him
at checkpoint at 63 and we have hiked
a mile and a half. - A mile and a half.
- Through the woods at mock speed.
- After- - In Ugg boots.
- Yeah, in Ugg boots after picking up at a meal at camp.
- And incubating it.
- And incubating it in the AC.
- In her coat.
- In the AC crock pot over here.
It's in here which is pretty great.
I'm feeling like it might be too hot
for him to eat when he gets here.
Here's start/finish.
He came out here.
This is where we saw him at the nature center,
right here where these stars are.
- Okay.
- Then he has to come all the way down here,
this, all this orange trail and this is where
we got on, here.
This is the trail head where we got on.
So then he's gonna come down exactly where we were,
hit this trail, come all the way out here.
- No, he didn't have time.
- I don't think he woulda.
- So here's over here.
- He's gonna come from this direction then.
I said at 11:59, "Found my phone, see you at Damnation."
And it was delivered.
- Okay mine hasn't been delivered yet.
- I don't know, does he do read receipt?
- No. - Okay, okay.
So now we just wait.
- He has that shut off.
He's sneaky like that.
- That's okay.
- You know what?
- What?
- I'm just gonna take this, sorry if you're already
there, I'm just gonna take this headlamp.
- Okay, you don't want any batteries in this then?
Want new batteries?
- We got 'em laid out for ya.
- There we are right here.
- Um, I need to be out of here by 20.
- 20?
You got 4 minutes.
We can do this.
Your breakfast is ready.
- Yeah I need a NoDoz and can you put a NoDoz
in the top, left front zipper?
- Sorry, do you want me
to wash your face or anything?
- No, it's okay.
- Okay, how are your feet?
You need tape?
- Do you want ibuprofen again?
- Yeah.
- Do you want any cramp stuff in your bag?
- Yeah and I want one now.
- You want one now?
- I'm pretty sure you just drank one, didn't you?
(slow mellow music)
- Oh my God guys, what am I doing?
It's really cold.
- Yeah, we know. - It's very cold.
- It's really, really cold and I'm sweaty.
- You didn't take these?
- No.
- All right, Jeff, breakfast.
- Okay.
- You got 2 minutes 15 to go.
Are you leaving the blue coat on then?
- I gotta put my pack on underneath it.
- Okay, all right, here we go, grab.
- It's gonna be a big one, one.
- Okay, let's do it.
- Two, three.
(Jeff groans)
(slow pensive music)
- Make sure your phone stays in.
You've got one minute.
(slow pensive music)
- Can't see it there in the darkness.
(slow pensive music)
Take this.
I got it.
- You got your gloves?
- Yeah, I should.
(Jeff groans)
- Sorry.
- Nope, don't be sorry.
- Okay what about the lightweight black one?
Are we tucking it in somewhere?
- On my hose.
- Your hose?
- No I don't know if that one.
- Hey, you're looking good.
- Oh yeah.
- He's looking great, isn't he?
- He's looking great, he's coming back out.
- So proud, he's on his way.
All right.
- Oh there's one in there too.
(slow pensive music)
I don't care, punch it.
(Jeff groans)
Okay
- Do you want me to meet you with
the rest of your breakfast at the nature center?
- It doesn't matter, i don't care.
- You gotta have these calories to keep you
enough heat going.
- Okay.
- What time is it for real?
- For real, for real?
- Yeah. - 22.
- Okay.
- All right, love you.
We'll see you at the next stop.
(laughing)
Bye, we love you.
- Love you more.
- 20 more, you've got this.
- Holy shit! - So fucking jazzed.
- Okay so he's been there, so that's good.
- Okay.
Do you want to take that bag up?
Yeah.
(rising music drowns out women speaking)
(women cheering and clapping)
- Come on Jeff, you got it!
Woo!
(slow pensive music)
- Good job.
- Do you?
- Yes.
(laughing)
- You looks like you had just woke up.
Can we help you?
See you in a little bit.
(slow pensive music)
(rising inspirational music)
- She was my safety net, if anything went wrong,
ugh, she was always there no matter what happened
I knew like, well sure that sucks
but I'll call my mom.
She'll take care of it.
(slow inspirational music)
Like I just don't have the words to describe
what it feels like to have that net pulled out
from under you, (sniffs).
(laughing)
You think I was a mama's boy?
Look at me.
(laughing)
But, I miss her a lot.
(slow inspirational music)
(crowd cheering)
- Oh, no, but he's behind them.
- Come on, Jeff!
- Yeah!
- He's gonna make it. He's gonna make it!
Jeff, let's go!
(rising inspirational music)
(crowd clapping)
(rising inspirational music)
- Time, 29 hours, 50 minutes, 16 seconds.
Previous mile in 20 minutes, 13 seconds.
Distance 100 miles.
(electronic zoom)
(slow pensive music)
- That was really hard.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
Well yes it was hard.
- Why did I do that?
- We've been wondering that all night long.
(laughing)
- We wondered why did we agree to do this?
(laughing)
- When you're running these things,
thy have professional photographers along the trail.
And at mile 97, I see a photographer.
He's in a bush.
Up until this point, in every ultramarathon,
I have refused to pose for these photos.
I want people to see me, I want it to be real.
I want them to see me how I am an when I'm running.
But at this point, I decided I just ran 97 miles.
Imma a pose for this.
(audience laughing)
And this it, you guys.
This is me, this is me at mile 97.
(crowd cheers)
Thank you.
(crowd applauds)
I was falling apart, you guys.
You can't see my feet, but my feet,
I had blisters upon blisters which would
have to be lanced at the urgent care the next day.
Two toenails would fall off in the following weeks.
My feet, every muscle in my foot was,
foot and ankles, was completely shot.
This, impossible.
It was like I was running on two nubs.
Like completely useless.
My calves, my calves were fine.
My calves are always fine.
They're always good.
(crowd cheers)
I know, like it's not a huge deal.
It's just whatever, you know, it's like
(audience laughing)
You can touch it.
(audience laughing)
You're welcome.
(audience laughing)
This cup, apparently I thought I knew to hold onto
this styrofoam cup in case I stumbled across
some food in the woods or something.
(audience laughing)
And it's slightly ironic that I was eating
this vegan, organic, non-GMO food
out of a styrofoam cup (laughs).
The vegans are not gonna be happy about that.
And my brain, you guys, my brain was like a disaster.
Your brain can only use sugar, carbohydrates as energy
and the thing you are lacking most
when you're doing something like this is sugar.
And your brain, like you're just not all there.
You can go from crying to hysterical laughter
(snaps) like that.
So I'm gonna go to the doctor in a little bit.
See what they have to say about it.
Get some drugs.
But, other than that, I'm fairly unscathed.
I think.
I mean, I finished so, I'm on top of the freaking moon.
Over the moon, I'm over the moon,
I'm on top, I don't know, I'm really happy.
(laughing)
But three miles later, I crossed the finish line
in 29 hours, 52 minutes and 16 seconds.
Across crossed the finish line, limped.
(crowd cheers)
Thank you.
- Woo!
- Across the finish line, limped this Clydesdale.
I was running down the final stretch
and all these people cheering and screaming for me.
It's amazing, like amazing.
It's totally worth, you know, not being able
to walk and having a fractured rib.
You should try it.
The running part, not the fractured rib.
(laughing)
I had a good cry.
I was crippled for a few days.
But I survived.
And I think the moral of the story is,
as cliche as it is, we only live, we only live once
and we have to make the most of our time.
You know my mom would have given anything
to have been here longer.
You know, we don't have control
over how long we're here.
We don't have control over how we leave.
But if going for a few hundred-mile runs
and eating a few less Doritos
is going to improve the odds of me
not leaving the way she did, yeah,
let's run a hundred miles, for sure.
It's totally worth it.
If there something you want to do,
there's like the crazy thing you've always wanted to do,
like this is the time, like now.
Like right now.
- You wanting to do another one ever?
- No I didn't say that.
- I'm asking.
- Not right now.
(laughing)
- I didn't mean right now.
- Not right now, I don't ever want to do another one, but
I'm sure I will at some point.
(upbeat inspirational music)
But all of this was inspired by a quote
by Mae West that I have always loved since I was a kid.
Mae West said, "You only live once
"but if you do it right, once is enough."
(upbeat country music)
♪ Ain't gonna fight with a raging fire ♪
♪ Ain't gonna walk with the same ♪
♪ Courage comes from my own desire ♪
♪ Leaving myself with the blame ♪
♪ But a spark turns into flames ♪
♪ It's hard to run from the endless worry ♪
♪ Lonely times are so cold ♪
♪ You left me with a fighting fury♪
♪ Burning deep in my soul ♪
♪ And a spark ♪
♪ turns into flame ♪
♪ And the fire ♪
♪ begins to rage ♪
♪ Fighting the devil in and out ♪
♪ On my own I'll lose ♪
♪ I know without a single doubt ♪
♪ I'm gonna win if I choose ♪
♪ And a spark turns into flame ♪
♪ Uh oh mm mm ♪
♪ I've had to fight with a raging fire ♪
♪ I had to walk with the same ♪
♪ It burns from my own desire ♪
♪ Strength I don't want to tame ♪
♪ And a spark becomes a flame ♪
♪ And a fire ♪
♪ begins to rage ♪
♪ Becomes a flame ♪
♪ Oh oh mm mm ♪