The Nick Bare Podcast - 062: The 300 Mile Race With No Rules & No Route

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

In today's episode, I share my experience of The Speed Project, one of the toughest, grittiest, and most disruptive races. We gathered six runners who had never worked together before to participate in an unsupported 300-mile relay race through some of the most unforgiving terrains in the country. The course was full of inclines and declines, with thousands of feet of elevation gain and loss through mountains and deserts, and we had to plot our own route with precision and speed. This was an unparalleled experience for me, and I can't wait to share some of the stories that came out of it with you all. Enjoy! Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Topics: 0:00 Intro 0:29 Welcome 3:08 The background of The Speed Project 8:46 BPN’s involvement 12:53 June is going to be a big month at BPN 14:59 What has made The Speed Project unique 17:15 The logistics 22:59 The start of the race 28:26 Our approach of the route 38:32 Barstow and the dogs 45:29 The difficulty of planning the course 49:24 Our fuel strategy 54:43 Where it got really interesting 1:02:33 The last 40 miles 1:06:07 Doing the hard things

In today's episode of the podcast, I'm breaking down TSP, which is The Speed Project, a six-person relay race that we just completed that starts in L.A. and it goes to Vegas. There's no route. There's no rules. There's no spectators. And it's unsupported and unsanctioned. So a lot going on right now. In this episode, I'm going to be explaining and breaking down the speed project. The race that we did last week, a week ago, which was a relay race, a six-person relay race, from L.A. to Vegas. Our team accomplished that, flew back to Nashville, where I'm currently sitting. and I want to go over what we experienced at the Speed Project, what kind of race it was, how we did, everything, because it was such a unique experience and a unique race.

But what I also want to share and what I was doing this morning was we officially have closed down our Nashville office. So as you guys know, and I've explained this extensively, we have now been in, Nashville for about seven months. And we moved out here. We established our new office. We brought a small creative team out here. And we were finally settled in.

And then things changed where I jumped back into the CEO role of the business, which facilitated some change. Myself, the creative team are leaving Nashville, moving back to Texas to HQ. And I will be moving in the end. of April back to Texas. So this morning, we officially closed down the Nashville office we had set up here, which is bittersweet. So I was working with the movers this morning, clearing all of our furniture, everything we have there, everything we built out in that

space. And we loaded up the truck and it's being sent back to Texas literally as we speak right now. So you will no longer see us recording, working, operating in the Nashville office. That chapter has come to a close and the next chapter is going to be starting and opening back in Texas. So I wanted to share that news. Right now we are actually recording this episode. Big shout out and thanks to Legacy Church of Nashville and Lyle Phillips.

We are recording this episode in Legacy Church's satellite offices. So I want to thank that crew and that team for letting us utilize this facility for this podcast. Now jumping into The Speed Project, this has been a race that I've wanted to do for quite some time. It's been on my radar for years now, and it's always grabbed my attention. really because of just the grittiness to it, it's a raw, it's real, it's disruptive. I just have always resonated with the look and feel of the race. And we ended up placing fourth out of the OG team structure, which I'll get into. seventh place overall, I believe there were around 88 teams total.

And our time to complete the race was 35 hours and 35 minutes. Now, it was a six-person team. It was myself, Mitch Amens, Lucy Holden, Ken Riteout, Joey Mousseo, and Lauren Osborne. The OG team structure is six people, four men, two women. Now, what is the speed project? Like I mentioned, I've been watching from afar teams, race, people running the speed project for years now. This year was their 11th year hosting the race.

and I've seen teams and brands launch films around the Speed Project, and it's always grabbed my attention. The way that people have documented and captured the Speed Project is very authentic, original, and true to the roots of the Speed Project. Now, this race is unsupported and it's unsanctioned, meaning that if you get lost, if you break down along the route, it's on you. If you get pulled over by the police or law enforcement, it's all on you. You can't say you are affiliated or part of the Speed Project.

You kind of just got to say you and some friends are running from L.A. to Vegas. So it's an unsupported and unsanctioned race. Super underground, very disruptive, super cool, in my opinion. It starts in L.A. So we kicked off the race at a Santa Monica Pier 4 a.m. on Friday. And the race goes from L.A. to Las Vegas. The way the race ends is that your team runs into Vegas. there's the welcome to Las Vegas sign as soon as you enter and you and your team have to get a

photo in front of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and post that photo in the group chat, which is hosted on WhatsApp. And once you post your team photo in that app, that is your time, your finishing time for your team officially. So L.A. to Vegas. there's no route, there's no rules, there's no spectators. You go from L.A. to Vegas as fast as you want on whatever route you and your team choose to pursue. And the way the speed project started, so the founder, Nils, he started this speed project I guess 11 years ago now. And him and a few friends were bored one day.

And they loved running. They were very into the running scene and community. And they decided they were going to put together this event. And six of them, it was four guys, two girls, were going to run from L.A. to Vegas. Unsupported, unsanctioned. So the reason that a team is called an OG team because the original team that Nils and his friends had put together for this

course, this race was four men, two women. There's also an OG route that they publish and share. So if you want to take the O.G. route, that is the route that Nils and his friends originally took from L.A. to Vegas. You can take the OG route. We personally did not. You can create your own route, which we did, but it's up to you.

So the speed project started by six people who love running, decided one day they want to push themselves. They ran from L.A. to Vegas. And that evolved into what the speed project is today. It's gained a lot of attention, a lot of popularity. It popped up on my radar a few years ago. I've been following along. Like I said, it's something I've always wanted to do. And this was the year that we finally got the opportunity to do it,

to run the speed project. Now, the way that BPN was involved this year is we were provided the opportunity to participate and supply all of the runners with BPN products. So you can enter the Speed Project in a few different ways. One, you can enter as an OG team. Again, like I talked about four men, two women. We had an OG team of six people. You can enter with as many people as you want.

You're just not considered an OG team. So there were teams out there that had seven, eight, 10, 12 plus runners running this rate. and there's also the solo. So you can do the entire stretch by yourself. L.A. to Vegas by yourself. Now, if you take the O.G. route, I believe the O.G. route is about 340 miles. The route that we ended up taking was 300 miles.

And I'll explain how we got there and how we kind of navigated that route that we established. We found a way to shave off 40 miles, which a lot of other teams did. There's a way to do it. You just jump off the road and go onto one of these trails, which is called Powerline, which we took and got lost on, which I'll dive into. But there were, I believe, maybe around 30 people doing it solo. So our involvement as a brand is in BPN. We supplied the teams and solo runners with supplements.

So when everyone checked in during that week leading up to race day, when teams and solar runners checked in, they picked up a box of BPN gear. And we had G1M Sport, which is our carbohydrate and electrolyte powder in there, a few bottles. We had go bars, which is our endurance, oat-based, lightweight nutrition bar. We had electrolytes and we had go gels. which is our whole food, simple ingredient, endurance gel. And then we had some Speed Project BPN collaboration water bottles in there. And that was applied to all the teams, all of the runners.

So we fueled the performance, the efforts of those teams, of those runners going from L.A. to Vegas. Great opportunity for BPN as a brand to gain exposure in front of, a lot of runners in front of a lot of the eyes, people who were going to see the content and the film and the features that come out of this effort and this experience. So it was great, it was great for BPN as a brand to get involved. We were super excited for the opportunity and working alongside the Speed Project and Nils, the founder, and his team.

They just do things really unique, very truly. very true and very authentic to themselves. And they've been able to do that because they're so strict in regards to the approach that they've built the speed project. And they've set their roles. They set their standards in which how they want to operate. And they don't break that. They maintain that year after year after year,

which is why it stays so gritty and raw and authentic and original and badass. That's how you maintain that. You maintain that feel, that look, that vibe by being so disciplined and strict by what you allow in and what you allow out. So they've done a really good job with that. Now, we will be releasing a film

on the Speed Project this coming June. June is going to be a cool month for the BPN brand. So we are hosting what we're calling our month of running. So we have a lot of things going on that I'm going to share with you really quickly. In the beginning of June, late May, actually, early June, we are hosting a GoGel launch party to celebrate Sally McRae because we are creating, or we have created, we are launching a collaboration. flavor of the go gel with Sally. And it's called Yellow Runner, and the flavor is mango. It's delicious.

So we're launching a mango go gel in collaboration with Sally McRae, beginning of June. And then June 5th is the global running day. So obviously, we're going to be running, and we're going to encourage you guys to run to. And then in the middle of the month, we just locked this in. We're hosting a 50-mile ultra on a ranch, one of our friends' ranches in Central Texas, which is really close to BPNHQ. And then a few days after that ultra, we are premiering the Speed Project film at a theater in Austin, Texas, and on YouTube.

So Jordan, George, and Ian are working right now to cut up the Speed Project film, which we had so much footage from filming when we were in L.A. and Vegas last week. And then after all of that craziness, we are going out to support Sally McRae at the Western States 100 towards the end of the month. And I'm going to be pacing Sally for a few of those miles, which I'm super excited about. So that's all in June. June is what we were calling our month of running. Now, what has made the speed project so unique? This was a race unlike anything I've ever done before for a few different reasons.

First off, it was the first relay race that I've ever done. I've never done a relay race or a relay race ultra, or a relay race ultra that had no route. So, you know, bringing together six people on a team who have never really worked that close together together before. I mean, this is my first time actually ever meeting Lucy. Lucy lives in the UK. I've been following Lucy and her husband Ben for quite some time, but we've never made. in person. The first time I ever met Lucy and Ben was days before the race when they showed up to

the Airbnb. So bringing together six runners who have never worked together before was a unique experience because you have all these different personalities and strengths and weaknesses and you're trying to learn and identify the strengths and weaknesses and skills everyone brings to the team while you're getting thrown into this environment, which is brand new, and there were definitely parts of the race where there were challenges, there were decisions we had to make, and there were opinions and perspectives and thoughts that were stronger than others. So when people were tired, hungry, uncomfortable during an ultra,

you know, things can get a little heated. Nothing crazy, but that was a unique experience in itself. Putting together a brand new team to navigate this very unique race that's over a long period of time. And just navigating that was unique on its own. Also, logistically, the Speed Project was just as much a logistical operation. as it was a foot race. I mean, there's just so much that went into it.

It was a point-to-point race, first off. Normally, in most races, you can at least hit checkpoints. Your crew can sit up and get established. Your home base is where you're coming back to at some point. This was not the case for this unique style of race. I mean, to give you a clear example, as we were doing all this planning, and there was a lot of planning because not only we're

coordinating the runners to get out to L.A. initially, but it was our crew. It was our media team. It was the vehicles that we rented. So we rented two RVs that we were able to pick up in L.A., drop off in Vegas. We rented a Jeep and we rented a truck. So it's maneuvering all these people, all these vehicles, all the food and fuel and coordination and communication over the route of 300 miles, that got challenging. And the logistics involved was just a lot

to provide some context about a week before the race kicked off as we were getting ready to head to the airport or a few days before we going to the airport. Liz, who's our brand project manager, She sent me a slack and she said, hey, where are we going to put everyone's suitcases at? And I didn't even think about that. I didn't even think about the fact that we were going to have to not only move about 17 people from point A to point B, state to state, city to city, but also all of their luggage as well in all of our food and all of our supplies.

So I texted everyone. I said pack light. Don't bring suitcases. Bring duffles, bring backpacks. Pack as light as possible. That's what we did. We packed very light. We were able to stow a lot of our gear, our clothing, our bags under the RVs. It was still tight, but we made it work. So what made the Speed Project so unique again was that it was so much more than a foot rate. It was a logistical operation. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy that part. It kind of took me back to being in the military and owning the logistical components of moving a large group of people from one point to the other. When I was in the Army and I was a platoon leader, you always have your primary duty and focus and job.

And that for me was being a platoon leader. and you have your secondary job. And that changes, but my secondary job for my company that I was in was being the, what's called the UMO, the unit movement officer. So as a unit movement officer,

which most people don't want, and I didn't want either, but I learned a lot in this position with this experience, the unit movement officer does certain courses and classes and gets these certifications to manage, handle, plan, prepare, and execute, to move units from one point to another.

So when we moved our company, our battalion, our brigade, from Fort Hood, Texas to Camp Casey, South Korea, it was my responsibility as the company unit movement officer to plan our company move to go from Texas to South Korea. So I had to logistically plan with all the platoons, my company commander, my first sergeant, all the squads. We had to take accountability of everyone's gear, weapons, equipment, vehicles. and I was the person in charge of facilitating the move and the shipment of all of that inventory

from Texas to South Korea, which was a lot. There was a lot to handle and manage and a lot to be responsible for, but I learned a lot in that position as well. So being thrown into the speed project and doing some of the planning, not by myself, but with the team, I almost had these nostalgic. feelings of being back in the military and coordinating a big move from point A to point B. But a lot went in that

and if you weren't prepared for the move and you didn't have contingency plans of what could have went wrong and what did go wrong, you'd be put in a pretty compromised position. So that's honestly what makes the Speed Project so unique. The logistical component there's no route it's unsupported it's unsanctioned you're pretty much on your own from when it kicks off to to when you finish now the start of the race again every aspect of the speed project was so unique the start equally as unique so it begins at 4 a.m.

at the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles. So we woke up that Friday morning at 2 a.m. in preparation. I fueled up. I had U&M Sport. I had a English muffin. I had a banana. And then on the way there, I slipped on some electrolytes, and I had a go bar before we kicked off. So I fueled up prior to. through the race kicking off because I was running the first leg. And at the start of the race, you show up Santa Monica Pier.

We didn't take the whole crew because we knew it was going to be absolute madness and chaos. And we didn't want to take our RVs there because we also knew there'd be a lot of vehicles, a lot of other RVs. So what we ended up doing was taking the Jeep and the truck that we had to the starting line. We had some of our crew there. some of our runners that would be running the first couple of legs. And the plan was to send the remainder of the runners, the crew and the RVs to checkpoint number three that we established on our route. The night before the race kicked off, we had a big team meeting where we sat down.

We went over the route. We went over everyone's duties and responsibilities. We set apart and set up checkpoints. and we just made sure that everyone knew exactly what they had to do in the morning for at least the first 30 miles until we got out of L.A. We knew things would change. We'd have to adapt. We'd have to pivot after that. So we got down to the Santa Monica Pier around 3 a.m. Our Airbnb was nice. It was about 15 minutes away from the pier. And we got down to the pier around 3 a.m. Friday morning. and it was just chaos. I mean, there were, there were so many teams. There were so many RVs everywhere.

There were people all over the streets. And the energy was just wild. One of the things that was so interesting and made this speed project feel real when we had our safety brief a few days prior to because every team, every runner had to participate in a safety brief given by the Speed Project team at their HQ before they could race. And one of the things they said is, you know, because this is an unsanctioned race, when we all

show up at the pier or the morning before the race starts, there's a possibility that the police, law enforcement, is going to show up and try to shut it. it down. And if the Speed Project team, if Nils, if the founder gets arrested, and the cops are there arresting people, no matter what at 4 a.m., that race starts. No matter where you're at what, you're doing, what's happening at 4 a.m., that's go time. Race begins. So when we showed up the morning of the race we didn't know what to expect but it was so many people

and we made our way to the pier for the starting line and the Speed Project team was there and there was this chant that they chant off before the race starts and they say a few lines and the runners, the crew,

everyone there repeats it and they say a few more lines and everyone repeats it. They say a few more lines everyone repeats it. and energy's building and building and building as the clock's ticking down and it's getting closer to 4 a.m. start time. And then finally 4 a.m. hits and runners go everywhere. Because everyone has their own route. No one is really following the same exact route. I mean, yes, there's only a few

clear, strong ways to get out of LA. And there's only a few options of ways to get from LA to Vegas in an efficient path and route. So you end up seeing teams and runners along the way. But still, from the starting line, it's not like everyone's going down this one shoot, this one road. It's mass disbursement.

Absolute just like wildness. Chaotic. it felt like you're almost running away from something instead of towards something. And that's how the race kicks off, just like that. So, you know, we had a different approach to our route. And Tyler McCain, who used to work for BPN, extremely talented creative videographer, photographer, we contracted him to come work for us during the Speed Project.

He was our lead photographer for the Speed Project, working with and alongside our other photographer on the team, Trey Freeman. But Tyler had experienced the Speed Project before. He was a part of a team. The Speed Project also happens not only from L.A. to Vegas. Vegas, but this past year, they hosted it in, in Chile as well. And Tyler was on a team that was doing the Speed Project in Chile. So he had some experience. And he knew people who have done TSP in, in L.A. before. So he had some knowledge and some communication with previous teams who knew of all the routes

that we could and should not or should take. And like I said, if you take the OG route, it ends up being around 340 miles, a lot of teams will hop off the road and take this segment called Powerline, which happens on the back side of the race, the back half, and that shaves off about 40 miles. So based off of that knowledge,

and then having Tyler on our team for the race and working with Tyler to build a route, we did plan on taking power line to shave off those 40 miles at one point. But actually leaving the Santa Monica Pier, we took a completely different approach than any other teams did. We went due west right from the beginning, up over the mountains, in on a trail, down the other side,

to exit L.A. And we didn't see anyone or many teams for a hot minute. And I had the first leg. So my first leg was six and a half miles. And really, the reason we did that is we wanted to push out far enough,

to get out of just the chaos of all the runners, teams, and vehicles. And we didn't want to bring our vehicles or too many vehicles in close to the city with just everything going on. So the thought process was, let's use that first six and a half mile segment to push out away from everyone else, come up over the mountain, and then link up with the RVs, the rest of the team, where we can have some breathing space and some distance. And that worked out really well.

But I will be honest, that first six and a half miles broke me off. It didn't affect me for the rest of the race. But the first four miles was pretty flat. And then there was about 1,100 foot climb for the last two, two and a half miles. and I climbed. I mean, I felt like I was just running straight up for two and a half miles. And then I linked up with Mitch, handed off to Mitch. Mitch took this trail.

And then that trail emptied out on the other side of the mountain where we linked up with Lucy. Lucy took over. And Lucy's segment then linked us all up with the Jeep, the truck, and the RVs. So the list that I mentioned in the beginning, the way that I chronologically listed the names, that was the sequence that we maintained the entire race. So I started. I handed off to Mitch. Mitch handed off to Lucy.

Lucy handed off to Ken. Ken handed off to Joey. Joey handed off to Lauren. A handoff was literally just like a relay race. We smacked hands, and when you smacked hands with one person, the person who was running stops, and the next person takes over their leg. So the running segments we utilized in the beginning, our approach was three-mile segments per person, and I would say we maintained that for the first, maybe 120, 130 miles.

and that worked out really well. And then we eventually, once we push into the woods, we went to two-mile segments, and then we maintained two-mile segments until the last 40 miles. The last 40 miles, we went to one-mile segments, which I will talk about. So the way we set up our vehicle planning and personnel, like I mentioned, we had two RVs.

We had a Jeep and we had a truck. We utilized the Jeep and the truck mainly for our video teams, but also to position at points of the course where runners could have gotten lost because it wasn't a straight shot. So we would position a Jeep or a truck at an intersection or a turn in the road to guide a runner because we were utilizing the RVs to leapfrog. We didn't want to utilize the RVs to trail people. If we had to trail, which we did occasionally for safety reasons,

we used the Jeep or the truck, but an RV would drop someone off and then push three miles up. And then drop someone off and then push three miles up and drop someone off and push three miles up. And the way we utilize the two RVs, as we split the team, three runners in each, every other runner. So for example, myself, Lucy, and Joey were in one RV, and then Mitch, Ken, and Lauren were in the other RV.

So I was in one, Mitch was in the other. I always handed off to Mitch. Mitch always handed off to Lucy, so on and so forth. and we did that. So in the event, we had the leapfrog RVs to resupply on food, gas, fuel, anything. We could do that easily because we had the runners split every other. And that worked out really well. So, route, we planned something different based off of the help and assistance of Tyler,

but also to shave off some miles utilizing power line. And the reason it's called power line is because it is in the wood line. It's a dirt trail, which I should have taken trail shoes. I didn't take trail shoes. Regret that, should have. If I do Speed Project again, I will definitely take trail shoes. I started off the race. Whenever we were on the road, actually, I wore the sock.

endorphin elites. And then when we were on the trail, I was wearing New Balance. The supercells, I believe they're called, New Balance supercells. And like I said, Sockony endorphin elites

on the road segments. But the reason it's called power line is because it's these trails and there's these big power lines that go over the trails. and these trails are set up to maintain the power lines along this course. And they go on for miles and miles and miles. So we knew we were going to utilize that part of the route because it saves a lot of time,

energy, miles. But I'll get to a point where we ended up getting lost because we had to hop on the power line earlier than expected. Now the scenery was absolutely stunning, and that's one thing I didn't expect. As soon as you exit L.A., and I haven't spent too much time in California, to be honest, usually when I'm in California, it's in L.A. for work. This is my first time ever pushing outside of the city limits. But once you get 30, 40 miles out, I mean, it opens up into, beautiful mountain ranges stunning.

I mean, you're running through these mountain ranges, just observing and like jaw dropping views. It was beautiful. Weather was ideal for running. It didn't get too hot. It was nice and like mildly, warm, slightly chilly. We had a little bit of rain off and on throughout,

some good cloud cover. So weather was ideal running conditions, I would say. Scenery in the beginning, beautiful. Then you go through some deserts and some run-down towns. And one of the things I've always heard about the Speed Project is the dogs. I've heard about these wild dogs being all over the course and people getting attacked by dogs, which we were told during the safety brief. and it was confirmed that in the 11 years they've been doing the speed project,

no one has been attacked by a dog. I thought maybe I could be the first, but I wasn't. But just let me paint you this picture of what I experienced with the dogs. We ended up running through Barstow, California. And Barstow was and looked very familiar to me because it's really close to Fort Irwin, California. and Fort Irwin, California is where they have the National Training Center. So the National Training Center is where military units go in preparation for a training rotation overseas or deployment.

And I spent 30 days at the National Training Center, also known as NTC, as we were preparing to go to South Korea in 2016. I was either at the National Training Center in 16 or the end of 2015. But I knew I recognized Barstow. And we ended up getting to Barstow, California on the way to Vegas as it started to get dark. And the sun was coming down. And we actually had some trouble in Barstow because at Barstow is when we had to resupply fuel. for the RVs, the Jeep, and the truck.

And we were trying to coordinate resupplying on fuel, also picking up some more warm food for the crew, the staff, the runners. And it all ended up working out, but there was like some lag time. We got disconnected, lost in communication for a short period time in Barstow. But we rendezvoused.

right outside of Barstow before he pushed forward. And after we rendezvoused and pushed forward, like I said, it was getting dark, sun came down, and you're kind of running through these streets that are a little eerie. It was windy at this point to paint you a picture.

I try to imagine this. I'm running on the outskirt of this small town, this small desert town. and it was, it was windy. And it was, it was a little chilly. And I'm running down the street.

And there's these, these small, a lot of run-down houses. And there's these, these street lamps and lights. Maybe every eighth of a mile, staggered on each side of the road. And they're like flickering.

It felt like a, a scene in a movie. And the wind is blowing everyone's chain link fences together. So you can hear these chain link fences moving in the wind. The lights are flickering. You can feel the cold, brisk air. Sun just came down, so your eyes are still adjusting to that transition from light to dark. You can hear all these dogs barking in the background in people's backyards.

It was this eerie feeling. and I'm running and I'm keeping a really good pace. And at this point, we're still doing three-mile segments. And I could hear these dogs barking. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, all right, here's where you always hear about the dogs and dog attacks. And I could hear these dogs barking. And I could hear the dog barks becoming more aggressive

and louder and more frequent and close. and closer and closer and closer. And I couldn't tell if the dogs barking were in someone's backyard or if they were coming at me. And then they got really loud and really aggressive and very close. And I turned around and I could see these three dogs running at me. It was a pit bull, a German Shepherd, and some other black dog. And I was like, oh my gosh, 11 years, no one attacked?

BS. Like, I'm about to be that one person that gets attacked. I was ready to fight. And these dogs surrounding me, I stopped. And I kind of just took the approach of putting my hands in the air and yelling at these dogs. And they ran off maybe 50 feet, but they just like they trailed me for a while. And I had my phone with me, so I called Trey. And I just said, hey, can you pull the Jeep up and at least just trail me until we get out of the city?

So I don't get attacked by one of these dogs. So the Jeep pulls up, dogs run off. and they trailed me for about another mile until we were out of like that city limit and didn't see any more houses, didn't hear any more dogs. It was just desert at this point. But so many different unique situations like that where, you know, you're running through beautiful mountain ranges and then you're running on access roads and you're running through like Barstow, California,

we ran through areas where there was nothing, nothing. But you'd be running through these areas in the desert where there's nothing, but people knew the Speed Project was going on. So every so often, there'd be a vendor selling things along the road. There was this woman that was selling fresh strawberries and peanuts and pistachios. So we bought a massive carton of strawberries and a bag of peanuts. peanuts and pistaches from her, which was super tasty and delicious. There was someone selling tacos randomly, like all these vendors along the route

who were just there to, what I'm assuming in predicting, they were there to sell their items, their goods to people who were running the Speed Project. It was a very unique experience. Super cool. Super cool. Now our fuel strategy, uh, along the way, being able to have access to vehicles move with you was really nice because we could stock those things up. What was also interesting that I'll talk about before I get in the fuel strategy that I didn't

really plan for. You know, we, we set up our map, our route in Strava. and then I was referencing our map on Strava with Google Maps as we moved because it would accurately pinpoint us where we were at on a map and I would reference that to our Strava course and our Strava map. And I thought in the beginning, based off of the way we structured and built this route on Strava, it looked pretty intuitive and straightforward. But when you get out on the road, it wasn't as intuitive or straightforward.

You know, roads that you planned for weren't there. Points of association or reference that you thought would be there weren't there. It honestly reminded me of being back in the military again. And when we travel in our vehicles, and I was in a company in the military, we were mechanized infantry. So we had Bradley fighting vehicles. And you have your route before you go out. but you're traveling pretty quickly in your vehicles. So in real time, you'd be looking at the map

and referencing your route, but I'd also always be referencing my compass and then my GPS. So I would always carry a GPS. It would give me a 10-digit grid that I would then be able to pinpoint where we're at on the map at any given time to ensure we were moving in the right direction.

It was similar to the way for Speed Project, where I was referencing terrain association, our map, our Strava route, and then our real-time tracker on Google Maps to ensure we were moving in the right direction. What I didn't plan for, and if we were going to do this all over again, I would have someone on the crew

whose only job was to manage our route the entire time and communicate that route and the changes and the next steps to all the drivers, the runners, the crew. And my assumption that the route was going to be more intuitive than it was, I was doing more route planning and coordination than I originally planned for. So I was the main person for a lot of that who was calling out checkpoints, communicating to runners as we were moving, you know, where they had to go on their next segment.

Hey, hey, you have a next three-mile segment. You're going to turn left on this road. You're going to turn right on that road at this intersection. There's this terrain association. Make sure you move to your two o'clock. So I was guiding a lot of the runners and the teams and the vehicles along the route that we were moving along. And that was something I didn't necessarily plan for myself to be doing as much as I was throughout the process. So that's just a note.

Like if I was going to recommend someone to do Speed Project, the one thing I would really encourage them to do is have one person who is managing and directing the route the entire time. And then also having a crew chief who was supporting the runner. Like Jeff Cunningham was our crew chief who was managing runners, helping with fuel, recovery, segments, pacing, but then also having someone on route would be super beneficial. Now, fuel strategy, because we had our vehicles, it was really easy to carry fuel with us. So we stocked up all the vehicles prior to stepping off. We had G1M Sport, electrolytes, in bottles, and in sick of. packs. We had go gels, go bars, bread, bagels, peanut butter, honey, fruit. We had dried fruit. We had beef jerky. We had pancakes, which was super clutch. We picked up pancake mix

last minute before stepping off because the RVs had stove tops, obviously, within them. and Steph was making pancakes for everyone in that first couple hours of the day, which was so good. I mean, some good Kodiak cakes spread on top with some peanut butter and some pure maple syrup. That just hit so right and so well. So fuel strategy was like maintaining calories, maintaining carbs the whole way through. and if I've learned anything from training for and completing ultras,

that you have to stay on top of nutrition. We had a few people who have never done ultras before that were doing Speed Project with us. And I knew and I watched them fall behind on calories and then feel it hours later. So I was constantly staying on top of everyone. And Steph did a really good job preparing food for people too. She's preparing not only pancakes, but peanut butter and jellies, peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches.

Just making sure that everyone was staying on top of nutrition and calories. Because what happens very quickly is you're logging miles and you're putting on these big efforts because we weren't just log in 9, 10 minute miles. I mean, for the first 100 miles, we held a 639 minute per mile pace. something like that. I mean, we're cooking good segments. And when you're putting out big efforts like that, you've got to stay on top of nutrition to fuel that performance and the recovery.

So our fuel strategy was supplements, real food, whatever you can get down, electrolytes, plenty of water. We were going through so much water, but we were able to really stock that, those vehicles with the fuel that we needed. And then we were stopping at gas stations along the way for certain things. We made ramen.

We picked up ramen cups. So we had some hot ramen at night, which was really nice. We had some of those just like oatmeal cups. We could add hot water to make oatmeal, which is really nice. You know, in the middle of the night when it gets cold, having something warm, having something that's dense in carbs, but also high in sodium. like ramen can be super beneficial for for these ultras. It's not super high volume,

but it's chlorically dense without being overly stuffed. But staying on top of nutrition is just so important for these ultras. And that's something we were really hammering into not just the runners, but the crew as well, because the crew is running all over the place, filming, capturing, supporting, helping. Just staying on top of that as much as possible. Now, nutrition strategy, we really didn't sleep. Yeah, there was some broken sleep here and there.

Because we were doing three-mile segments in the beginning, that did give everyone about an hour and a half of rest in between their segments, which is good and bad. good in terms of you get to rest. You get to stay off your feet for a while. But I'd say bad because you go out and you put out a big effort. I mean, you run a pretty hard 5K. And you come back and sit down in a vehicle for 90 minutes.

You start stiffening up very quickly after that. So recovery strategy other than stay on top of calories and hydration with supplements and food. we had compression boots in each one of the RVs. So every time someone would get done with running, those compression boots were constantly being used. People were staying off their feet, but also just moving so that they weren't getting too stiff. So between rolling out using some sort of myofascial release,

compression therapy, compression boots, movement, food, fuel, hydration. Sleep wasn't really there, but just rest. That was the best we could do for a recovery. But those recovery boots were always being used by someone. And I know it helped out a lot of people. Now, here's where the race got super interesting. It all started off, very smooth.

Like, route was going well. were putting out massive efforts on their segments. Everyone will stay on top of nutrition. Communication was strong. And like I said in the beginning, we knew, based of the route that we planned, we were going to get off the road at one point. And we were going to go into the trail, take power lines. And power lines was going to save us 40 miles.

And by the time we would get out of power lines back on the main road. from there to Vegas was 40 miles left. And we could just hammer that out on the main road. And it must have been around maybe mile 160. I could be off, but based off my just recollection, it might have been like 160, that we were on the route, we were on the road that we planned for. and we actually ended up coming across a road closed sign.

So one of the roads that was on the route that we pre-built was closed and we couldn't take it any longer. That's one of the curb balls that happens to you in the Speed Project. You can plan your route and you can have confidence in your route, but you need a plan B. You need contingency plans because that road might not be there anymore. there could be an accident, there could be a road closure, that road could be flooded, a lot of things could go wrong.

And not only do the runners need to navigate that next section, but also do the vehicles. They need to also navigate that next section. So we got to this one point, around mile marker 160, I believe. And we didn't plan on getting or going on to power lines for another 35, 40 miles.

But because there was a road closed, we had to build out a plan pretty quickly. So we stopped, pulled down our maps, pulled down our Strava course, pinpointed where we were on Google Maps at the moment where we needed to get to. And we made the executive decisive decision

as a team to push onto power lines early. We noticed where we were, we were out on that map, we could actually hop on to the power line route at that point, follow it to where we were going to get on power lines, and then follow that to our exit point for that last stretch going into Vegas. So we made the plan to jump over to power lines and then the RVs were going to push forward on the main route, on the main road, the highway,

because you couldn't run. We weren't supposed to or allowed to actually run on the interstates on the freeways. So runners, Jeep, and truck went off on power lines. RVs went ahead because they couldn't traverse power lines. It was too off-road. You needed four by four. So we were going to link up with them further ahead

before we got back on power lines. So we go out in the wood line and this is where it started actually getting really hard to navigate because you know, power lines looked like one route but when you get out there, there's like there's forks in the road here and there and there's trails that break off everywhere

and you're hoping they all lead to the right in same direction, but you can't be sure. And at the same time, it's dark, everyone's tired and you're in the middle of the woods. So we started pushing on power lines towards where we thought we needed to go. And we reached a point where, I mean, it was pretty sketch.

We reached a point where we would have to take the vehicles pretty much down like this rocky cliff. And we weren't sure that the vehicles could actually make it. So we spun around, went back to where we kind of entered that segment, tried to find another route around, couldn't find another route around. And we thought we were pretty lost. And we kind of were lost at this point. So we're going back and forth here in the woods at night. And we knew we were killing time.

We questioned ourselves for a period of time, did we make the right decision? were we supposed to actually push into power lines this early, or should we have tried to find a different route? And we finally got to a point where we're like, all right, the only way, because there's no way we're going back 20 miles, because we were on power lines for 20 miles at this point in the race, there's no way we can go back 20 miles,

link back up with the RVs, and try to find another route. That's just not doable. So we fully sent the GPS, in the truck down this big boulder rocky cliff and ravine, which we were, we were sure that either the Jeep or the truck was going to get stuck. We were going to get a flat tire. We're going to have to tell ourselves out.

But Jordan was the first one to go and he just fully sent it. He just fully sent it in the Jeep and it made it. It made it across. So then Trey took the truck, sent it over. That one made it too. And from there, we had some more confidence that we were on the right route. We pushed forward, which was definitely a lot slower. I mean, we weren't moving at six minutes, six 30, seven minute per mile pace anymore at this point.

We were moving at like a probably 830, 9, even 9.30 minute per mile pace at this point on the course based off. of how technical it was. It was super rocky. There was loose gravel. It was a lot of just like rolling hills on these these off-road four-by-four required trails. So it slowed us down. And we finally got to a point where we linked up with with the RVs at the point that we plan to enter power lines. So we resupplied. They had some hot ramen waiting for us, which was absolutely delightful. Resupplied on some food and some water. And we took the truck in the Jeep back out on power line for that last original

stretch that we were supposed to be on. And same thing, very technical, slowed us down a little bit, but we knew it was going to save us time overall. And that finally emptied us out into the morning where we linked up with the RVs again for that last 40-mile stretch. Now, we were planning on being on power lines for, I think, like six to seven hours. Ended up being on power lines for like 14 to 15 hours. So much more than we expected. And in this point, we were sure that we lost significant time, significant placing.

You know, Speed Project was keeping people up to date with placing, but it was very, I don't say inaccurate, but it was a rough guess. So in the beginning, we knew we were on pace for, or we knew we were in fourth place out of all the other OG, teams. And then at one point we got communication and word that we moved back to 28th place, which was pretty discouraging. And we thought this was because we got lost. And then we linked up with the RVs in the morning after we were done with all of the power line segment. We heard that we were in fourth place again. So we found this out, we decided as a team,

you know, it's time to send it. So for that last 40 miles, we went down to one mile segments and we were switching out every mile and we were putting out massive efforts on these miles. So overall, that last 40 miles, which we were on an access road next to a highway that led us into Vegas, overall, I think we held like a six minute per mile pace. My first mile I went out like a 545 and then like a 603. and then like a 550, 554, 602. I mean, we were cooking miles within those last 40, which felt really good, really fast.

Started raining on us. They got chilly. We had a tailwind a little bit that was pushing us. It was very fast-paced. I mean, it was fun. Energy was really high leading into Vegas. And that last 40 miles went so fast. And before we knew it, you know, you start seeing Vegas signs approaching.

And for that last mile, we all ran together. And we ran as a team with Jeff. So seven of us, the six runners and our crew chief Jeff, running into the Welcome to Las Vegas sign to get a photo and post our photo in the chat to mark our official time of 35 hours and 35 minutes. And when we picked up our supplements at Checkin at Speed Project HQ, they give you this box and then tell you not to open it until you get to the finish line. And we opened it up and it was two bottles of champagne and some Oakley glasses,

like big protective. snowboarding glasses, if you will. And we popped those bottles of champagne at the finish line, sprayed them all over everyone. And that was a speed project. We racked out in Vegas for the night. Everyone left the next morning. We returned the vehicles.

And the whole experience gave me similar vibes to to the Leadville 100. When we went to Leadville, one of the things that we told the team and we experienced was that when people are tired, hungry, and uncomfortable, their true character shines. It does and it will. And you find out who's strong and who's weak and who's selfish and who's selfless. And who can endure and who can't.

And you learn these things from people in moments, of discomfort, pain, being hungry and being tired. We saw that in Leadville. We saw the same thing at the Speed Project. But it's a great opportunity as well to build a team, to bring a team together, to do hard things together. That's super rewarding.

That challenge is powerful. And we got similar results and outcomes at the Speed project that we did at Leadville 100 in 2021. And something I was thinking about after TSP that I've been thinking a lot about recently that I wanted to share to wrap up this episode is that, you know, a lot of times we will choose to do hard things. And we will choose to do hard things knowing what it takes to complete it, how long it's going to last, what it's going to look like, what effort is required.

And by doing hard things, that does facilitate growth. It facilitates adaptability and resilience. I think that we should choose to do hard things. You should sign up for that race. You should set that goal. You should compete in that competition. But doing hard things is oftentimes a whole lot easier when you know exactly what to expect.

You know when it starts and when it ends. You know how to get from point A to point B. You know how much it's going to hurt. You know how much it's going to suck. You know what it's going to take to get there. You still got to do it. It's still hard. But there's a known.

There is something that is familiar. I believe that more growth comes from doing hard things where there is an unknown, where there is a sense of unfamiliarity, where you don't know exactly what you're getting yourself into. That growth facilitates another level of resilience. You become more adaptable to the unknown. You're able to pivot and react to things that arise

that you didn't expect or know of. So then when you're going throughout life and challenges happen, obstacles pop up, hardships present themselves to you when you least expected it, when you didn't know when or what was coming, you can be so strongly adaptable and resilient that you can manage that stress. You can manage that change.

You can manage the discomfort because you didn't plan for it. You didn't expect it. But that muscle, that adaptability muscle that's been flexed and tested and torn and broke down and rebuilt over time, it's so strong that it can pivot and react to anything that life throws at you. So as much as I'm a proponent of choosing to do hard things, that does be. build character, but your true test of character is how you react to things, hard things

that you didn't expect, that you didn't know we're going to happen. How you react says a lot about the person you are, the person you are becoming, and your character. So that's the speed project. TSP-2024 VPN team, Epic Journey. epic experience