The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - Cole Brecka: The Great World Race, 100-Mile Ultras & Why Hydrogen Water is the Ultimate Recovery Tool | TUH #242

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Most people quit when their body screams stop, but what happens when you push 62 miles beyond that breaking point? My son, Cole, took us through his journeys in running 100 miles through Area 51’s brutal Nevada desert and the Great World Race, and what unfolded wasn’t just an endurance test. It was a live experiment in how far we can push human performance when recovery science meets mental fortitude. As both his father and the scientist monitoring his biometrics, I’ll show you why the vast majority of athletes aren’t overtrained, they’re catastrophically under-recovered. CLICK HERE TO BECOME GARYS VIP!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Connect with Cole Brecka Website: https://bit.ly/49YZGfn  Instagram: https://bit.ly/4bsSBEW  TikTok: https://bit.ly/4c1fj7c  Facebook: https://bit.ly/4keZrAk  X.com: https://bit.ly/45IRayu  LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4bp1NtX  Thank you to our partners A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD AIRES: "ULTIMATE20 " FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/4a3Duze BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV CARAWAY: “ULTIMATE” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3Q1VmkC COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC H2TABS: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn RHO NUTRITION: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: https://bit.ly/44fFza0 SNOOZE: LET’S GET TO SLEEP!: https://bit.ly/4pt1T6V WHOOP: JOIN & GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW Watch  the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8foX: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:00 Intro of Show 03:36 Risks of Not Training Properly for Ultra Marathons 06:44 The Great World Race Experience 22:38 Human Capabilities in Extreme Recovery 28:45 100-Mile Race Journey 39:38 Hydrogen Water Benefits 42:10 Pushing the Limits of Human Performance 48:20 What does it mean to you to be an Ultimate Human? Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions. Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation.  Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered promotional in nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Great World Race, it sounds like seven marathons in seven days. Like you run a marathon, you get to sleep, and you lay down on the plane. It's not that. You pack your shit, you get on the plane. You fly there, you run a marathon, and the race kicks off. I still to this day don't know where you went in that pain cave because you didn't quit. Everything that could go wrong just started going wrong. I'm running on broken ankles.

I can't keep any food down. I can't keep up the climate. I haven't slept. It was like the most raw and vulnerable and, like, primal that I had ever felt ever. The more pain you're in, the easy. easier it is for you to find something that you're grateful for. Listen, if we take everything we know about human performance, optimization science, in a hundred days time, is it possible to not only go out and attempt this race,

but complete it. And so you did just that. I wonder if you talk a little bit about the race prep. At some point, you cross a threshold where you have to have... Hey, guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host and father, human biologist, Gary Brecker. And today I'm sitting down with my son and actually one of my mentors. Cole Brecker. Now, I've done over 200 episodes of this podcast. I've interviewed Navy SEALs, UFC champions, world-class athletes, PhDs, doctors, MDs, researchers, and some of the most

elite performers on the planet. But I've never been as nervous and concerned and as proud as I was as a father when I watched my son and five other of his buddies, including Kyle Foregard from the Nelk Boys, run 100 miles straight through the Vegas desert. And what makes this even more insane is that Cole has not ever run 100 miles before. In fact, just 10 months before this race, he'd never even run a marathon. Last year, he went and did something absolutely psychotic. He ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven days

at the Great World Rice. Let me say that again, seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. That was the first time he'd ever run a marathon. Started in Antarctica at 28 degrees below zero, nearly died from frostbite and hypothermia, ran through a stomach bug that left fasted for four consecutive marathons, developed double stress fractures in both feet,

and as a father, nothing was more concerning to me than him now attempting to run 100 miles straight through the Nevada desert. A special attention when Cole talks about going primal. That moment when everything materialistic disappears and all you want is sleep, food, water, and shelter. That's when you find out who you really are. This isn't just a father-son conversation. This is a front row seat to the future of human performance optimization. If you've ever wondered what you're truly capable of, if you've ever wanted to push beyond the limits you've set for yourself, this episode is going to change your life.

Kyle is like popping in the running community, right? Yes. I think because, dude, to be an influencer and to run 100 miles is like... Especially for... I would say, I'm not kidding. Like, you can be an influencer. Like, so many influencers like do 5Ks or run marathons or do stuff like that.

But to run 100 miles is like... You can't walk on and fake that. Like I used to say when I was in the triathlon game, like you could walk on and do a sprint try. Yeah. You know, it's like an hour and 10 minutes. You're not walking onto a Kona Ironman. You know what I mean?

You're like, this sounds like a great idea. By the way, you could kill yourself. I mean, you get out there, you're untrained and like, you know, you could end up getting rabdo or something and really hurting yourself. So, I mean, from... And you've had rabdo before. Yeah.

and it was, it's horrible. I mean, like, I remember even when I got wrapped up. I remember it was, it was, when I was training for the Great World Race, I was, like, moving houses, and I just started training, and it was like my first time getting into it, and we had such a little time to prep for the Great World Race. And so I, I remember just, like, diving in headfirst and, like, trying to just ramp up the miles as fast as possible.

And, uh, but you were also doing Moy Thai and kickboxing. Yeah, I was still like in the gym. I was also like, I wasn't a runner. I was like a basically a bodybuilder, if you will. Like I was just a gym bro. And so when I was training like that, I just started running like seven miles a day, then 13 miles a day. And then I was like just trying to get in as many miles as possible.

And then I remember I was moving houses and stuff like that. So I was just on my feet all day. And I woke up like in the middle of the night. And I felt like every single muscle in my body was cramping. Like I felt like the muscles in my fingers. Like my hands, my wrists, my biceps, everything, and everything like curled over and I woke up and I was like super tense. Yeah. And I never had a full, I thought I was just having like a full body cramp.

Yeah. And like it stayed like that and eventually it eased out and I was like super sore. And I got up and I just went to piss and it was like brown. Yeah. It was brown. And I remember feeling like I got COVID or something. felt like just depleted. Like I felt like everything in my body was gone. So like that's like the risk you run into sometimes. And RAPDO can shut your kidneys down. I mean, it couldn't be

life-threatening. There have been ultramarathoners and, and competitive distance athletes that have actually died from Rabdow. Well, my thing was like if you can only control so much, like you can eat all the right things, you can, you know, go through the full training program. Like I followed for the 100 mile race, I followed the training program to a T. I didn't miss a single mile. If anything, I did extra miles. Rabdo is something that you know, you don't even know that it's oncoming. It's painless.

You don't know your liver values are super stressed out. And if you rush into something like a hundred mile race, especially someone like Kyle, like that is a huge risk. Yeah. Like you could very seriously go out there, especially if like you're mentally strong and like capable, which he was and so am I.

Like you can just think like you're pushing yourself through like just some pain. I mean, you go through tons of pain while doing. these races. Or you're just too sore or just like, I'm just, didn't sleep well, whatever it is. Yeah. And you just, you don't, when you're first getting into it, you think, like, more is always better. And, like, I know you talk about it all the time. Like, these most professional athletes are not over-trained. They're under-recovered. And I think, like, in our training protocol, in this 100-mile race training protocol, the one thing that we took very, very serious was the recovery.

Like, after every workout, it was stolen a coal-punch hydrogen water. We were doing, hyperbarics with you. We were doing red light. I made sure of it. And I made sure like I did all of that. And I think that's why I felt so good running this last 100 months. I'm surprised you feel that good right now. I mean, I want to sort of back it up for the audience because a lot of people don't even know what the Great World Race is.

Let's back up. So this is November 2024 that you did the Great World Race. But what's important about that is 10 months before that, you'd never run a marathon. In fact, right up until the day you did it, you'd never run a marathon. Yeah. So for context, Great World Race is seven marathons and seven continents in seven days. And the concept behind that was there was a guy named Alvaran Nunez who you had on the podcast

and I listened to his podcast. I'm a huge fan of, Level Up, who's actually become a huge mentor in my life from the fitness aspect. And he's actually going to coach me in this next thing. But great human. I saw him talking about this race, the seven marathons and seven continents and seven days. I think you were out for a run with him because I'll never forget. You called me and you were like, Dad. You're like, dad, I just finished to run with Alro

and I think I want to do the Great World Race. And I was like, the Great World Race, isn't it that? Seven Marathons on seven continents and seven days? And you're like, yeah. And I was like, you don't mind if I stayed the obvious, do you? Like, no. And I'm like, you've never run a marathon. Yeah, yeah.

So maybe we should start with one. Yeah, yeah. So concept was like, listen, if we take everything we know about human performance, optimization, science, everything like that. In 100 days' time, is it possible to not only go out an attempt this race, but complete it. And so we did just that. And I think, you know, it started in Antarctica, which was insane because it was negative 28 degrees Fahrenheit.

And so, you know, it's funny. One of the rules about Antarctica is if you sweat, you die. I remember him saying that at the briefing. Yeah, it's because like if you sweat and, you know, the clothing that you're wearing absorbs all that moisture. it'll actually freeze and you'll go hypothermic. And I remember just like sitting in that race briefing as they're telling me this being like, what the fuck do I get into?

Dude, I remember when we flew into Cape Town South Africa and they were passing the microphone around. Remember the first day of the race? And so you're like, you know, everybody introduced themselves and tell each other a little bit about yourselves. And the first girl that takes the microphone is like, I'm a three-time U.S. Olympian and like a decathlon.

The next guy was like the world record holder in the ultramarathon. There's one guy there that's like, they started passing it around. It's like, oh, I've run over 100, 100 mile races. I'm like the Olympic qualifier for Lebanon. You know, I beat Dave. There's that one girl there with pink hair. Her name's Ashley Poulson. She was like, I beat David Gagins at Badwater 135.

I know. And it gets to me. And I'm like, I've never run a marathon before. This is my first marathon. The whole room just stopped and they were like, yeah. The fuck is this guy like literally, they gave you zero chance of finishing. I felt so shallow and so small. Plus you were big.

You were like 208 pounds. 210 pounds. 210 pounds going in there. Yeah. And then you, I mean. You look like a rugby player walking out. In Antarctica, you stack on layers and stuff. So it was probably racing at like 2.13, 2.14.

I was full of carbs and water and stuff too. So that was insane. But anyways, we get to Antarctica. And I remember running around. So the way that the. course map was laid out is Antarctica is a research base. And so like they're very delicate on like whatever you bring in there. So like you have to like check all your nutrition and stuff like that. Like you can't bring your own stuff in there. They make you like wipe your feet off as soon as you

get off the plane. Like no dirt like no trash. Like yeah, everything is studied. And so like they're very particular about what they have there. So they have one snowmobile. They've got, you know, a couple huts that, you know, are dedicated to research that we ended up using. But you basically land on this tarmac, which is a fucking block of ice, you know, in the middle of nowhere. We've got to put up an image of that. Yeah, yeah. If you could pop one image, that'd be great because there's literally nothing for as far as you can see. And actually, the only thing you do see is mountain peaks, which is a crazy concept because you don't realize that there's an entire mountain under you.

So you're at like 3,500 feet in elevation gain. Again, it's negative 28 degrees Fahrenheit. And this course map is set up in like six and a half mile loops. and you do like just under four of them. And so like at first you start out, you go and everybody's kind of together. But like the qualifications of some of these people, like some people are going fast, some people are going slow. Some people know that like there's six more marathons after this.

So everybody just immediately spreads out. And there's only 60 racers. So like you start to spread pretty thin. So like I was going through periods of just not seeing anybody like for for miles, like almost sometimes hours. And I remember, like, one thing I didn't realize about Antarctica is, although it's frozen solid, it's also a desert. So like the UV index is 13. And so the layers I was wearing, I was wearing like this black base layer and this black jumpsuit. And I had these big, like, Oakley glasses on and this, this beanie and this ski mask and these gloves.

I started like cooking from like the inside out. Yeah. And I remember like just trying to drop layers. as fast as possible. And I come through the first aid station. And I remember telling Max, you know, a videographer who's shooting the documentary, that like, hey, I need like fresh gear, fresh gloves. I was like, go in the support pad, go find me, whatever you can. And I need you to somehow just get me some stuff out there. And my concept was like, hopefully I can, while I'm out there running, I can drop some layers and I can cool back down and then I'll make it back to the

eight station. You know, run six and a half miles and I'll make it back to the eight station. while I left that first aid station and 20 minutes goes by or whatever and I immediately feel like my fingers have gone completely numb. Yeah. It happens so fast. It's not like painful, like a normal slow frostbite. It happens so fast. It's like all of a sudden you look down and your hands are white and they're numb. Hands are numb. And I remember I had one hand warmer and I ended up tearing it open to try to like shove my fingers into it. I was like I, whatever's on the inside like I want my fingers to be in and so I tear it open I was trying to share between like one thing and my gloves were soaked my shirt was soaked my beanie was soaked so I just started like taking stuff off

and then I would start to freeze so like put my gloves back on and as I'm running I swear to God it was like something in the movies like I felt my vision just like start to narrow and it just starts going like legit tunnel vision and like your ears start ringing your vision gets blurry and I swear I saw it like just start to close in on itself. And my fingers had gone numb. And I was like, best case scenario, pass out here. You know, hopefully some runner or somebody, you know, sees me soon. And they can get me, at least save my life.

Yeah, because the runners were spread out sometimes by miles. Like you wouldn't, yeah. You sometimes couldn't even see the other runner. And so for me, it was like, I was like, also, like, I'm worried, like, if I, if I fall asleep, or I pass out or whatever, like my blood's gonna move slower. I'm gonna freeze even faster. I was like, so hopefully somebody finds me.

And they at least like save my vital organs and I lift a couple fingers or something. And I can walk again. But by the grace of God, I'm running and I swear my visions going tighter and tighter. And videographer Max, dude, literally saved my life. He came out on the only snowmobile in all of Antarctica.

He commandeered that thing. Commodeered that thing and literally came out. Max was off camera. Where did you get the snowmobile from, dude? I just saw it. It was a hexpeze and he just took it. You saw it in a geese and he just took it. And brought me, yeah, yeah.

Thank God, by the way. Yeah, brought me fresh gloves. He brought me a fresh beanie. And like, if it wasn't for that, 10 minutes max. Like, I would have hit the deck. Yeah. Because I was in such like a fighter flight weird mode where, like, there was nothing, you know, like no racers by.

It was the same distance to go to the next A station as it was to turn around. So you're in like this weird. predicament, you think like, oh, I'll just keep going and keep going and keep going and try to get as close as possible. And then, so I get fresh gear. And as I'm racing in Antarctica, I also, like, I did all of my training in Miami. So it was a lot of like road running. I mean, we went up to the mountains of Colorado to try to simulate. Yeah, yeah. We used to get up at 430 in the morning. And Arctic as close as possible. I would follow you from 10,500 feet up to 14,000 feet. And I remember we would try to wake up at 4.30 in the morning. So we'd get out before daybreak. So it would be

as cold, as high as possible. So, you know, we could try to simulate Antarctica. I mean, the altitude was a lot more. It was insane that you were able to run from 10,500 feet, 14,000 feet. That was like 30 degrees Fahrenheit, which is freezing, but still. 60 degrees away from where it was. 60 degrees from that to Antarctica, which is insane to even think about.

Yeah. But again, like I did a lot of, like, other than like the mountain running that I did, I did most of my training on the roads. So what ended up happening was a mixture of ice and like snow and compact snow. So it was almost like running in sand. And so it made me sore in places I hadn't been sore before. So like all my muscles got accustomed to like road running.

So like as my foot placement was getting off and everything like that, it really jacked me up. And so we finished that marathon and, you know, we get on the plane and then we fly to Cape Town. and in Cape Town, it's the polar opposite climates. It's like hot, 90 degrees Fahrenheit, humid, UV again, 13, sun's beaming. And I think the soreness and everything like that threw off my mechanics because as I'm running in Cape Town, I feel like my ankles really start to hurt. My feet like are really, really hurting.

And it's not like soreness. It's like starting to become like ligament pain. I could feel like my tenants, like really, really deep, deep, like tissue pain. And I'm running around Cape Town and it's hot. And immediately like there, I'm like, dude, what did I? Sorry myself. I think the crazy thing is, too, that you finished a marathon in Antarctica, but it was only a five and a half hour flight to Cape Town.

So we literally ran. But I was strapped into an economy seat, like my feet on the ground like this, you know, and I'm like, shopping. this. So like all the swelling's going into my feet. Yeah. We're just strapped on this. This basically this old like war war two prop plane. Yeah.

It's like something out of the stone age. And so no, we land back to cave to that. The food was awful on that part of the flight too. It was like five and a half hours of Cape Town. We landed in Cape Town. We clear customs and go straight to the start line. So really it was the first two marathons were in less than 24 hours. Oh yeah.

Well, the thing about Antarctica also like it's so unpredictable how the weather is. could have a blizzard one second and like crystal skies, you know, the next. And so like, they watch the, the weather for days. And as soon as you get like a window, you have to leave. Yeah, we left like two days early, I think, her day and a half early. We left, yeah, like, yeah, like, 28 hours early. Yeah. So like you think you're getting into Cape Town. You're going to warm up. You know, you'll get a shakeout run, eat some good food. And then next thing you know, they're like, all right, we're leaving in an hour. Yeah. And like, you pack your shit. You get on the plane. You fly there. You run a marathon and the race kicks off. Yeah. And so like. And now you're in it.

So like you travel to Antarctica, you run the marathon, you immediately get on a plane. And on the plane, like you're not really resting because one, you're sitting upright. Two, like you're trying to get nutrition. You're trying to deal with all your injuries or whatever. And then you land. You've got to grab all your stuff, run a marathon,

literally within seven hours of your last one. And then again, pack up your stuff and it's time to travel. And like so like a lot of people didn't realize like, and I didn't even realize it either. Like the Great World Race, it sounds like seven marathons in seven days. Like you run a marathon, you get to sleep and, you know, you lay down on the plane. It's not that. You've got to clear customs.

You're in different time zones. You're in different climates. You have to, like, travel to the airport. Sometimes you're on a bus for like an hour and a half. We actually spent one night in a hotel. It was so everybody knows. Every other night was on the plane. Like, there was only one night and that was in Turkey between the European side and the Asian side.

So as a race progressed. So we did Antarctica, Cape Town. Then we flew to Australia. And I think, I don't know, something about Australia, I felt pretty good in Australia going through Australia. But I think somewhere between Perth was nice, yeah. Cape Town in Australia, though. Like, I don't know if I got a parasite or I...

A bunch of runners did. Or the water. I knew better not to drink, like, local water, like out of the tap. You know, I don't drink tap water in general. But I knew better, like, not to drink, like, that water. People always say, like, it destroys your gut. but I think, you know, one of the things you said is they like wash the vegetables in the water and, you know. Most of the athletes that got the Greek salad or the ice had ice in the drinks.

Yeah, ice in the drinks or something like that. So it could have been the water. But from that moment forward in the middle of the Australian Marathon, I couldn't keep anything down. I remember. Dude, I was so worried about you between Istanbul and Cartagena, because we had done Antarctica, Cape Town, Perth, Australia. Istanbul, Asia, Istanbul, Europe. Yeah. And then it was almost 19 hours.

Remember, that was the longest flight. I think we refueled in Dubai. And they wouldn't let us off the plane. So you and Alvaro and I went out and did breathwork. They put the thing up for the steps. And they said, you can't touch the ground because we're not clearing customs here. So they put the thing up against the plane. And we just went out on the little platform.

We did breathwork. And then we get back on. But, and then we, it was like six and a half hours into the, flight and I would say 25% of the athletes woke up puking, shitting, monosumous revenge. It was all within an hour and a half of each other. I had everybody coming to my seat and they're like, Gary, Mr. Ricka, do you have anything for nausea? Like, oh, just nausea, just all of a sudden. And I think David, the race director said, you know, traced it back to the ice or the salad. But I mean, you probably lost, you didn't take out of one ounce of fluid and you probably lost so

much weight on that flight. It was everything that could go wrong just started going wrong. Like my my ankle started to collapse because again like I, the way I was supporting it, I was definitely also too big. I was 210 pounds like racing like that and that's not smart. I ended up with double stress fractures. You know, I had one in each one in the top of my left foot, one in my right ankle, which made my ankles swell up like a balloon. And then I got this bug, this stomach bug, and I couldn't put a cracker into my system, not a... I was trying to give you like literally... Capfuls of...

Capfuls of coconut water. Yeah, yeah. And I would pour it into a cap, literally the cap of a bottle, and you would try to sip it just to keep moisture in your mouth. And then when we got to Cartagena, it was 98 degrees, blazing sun. It seemed like the worst possible course, because it was a concrete, long, flat, unforgiving course with no shade. And then they just had those little porta-potties,

like every two-and-a-half miles and the little table set up. And, dude, you would go into that porta-potty and you, like, vomit and other shit, literally, every two-and-half miles. Dude, I couldn't keep anything. I remember telling Max, I was like... By the way, that's the sixth marathon.

That was number six. This happens at the end of Australia, okay? So that's three marathons in. I go four marathons completely fasted. I know. Like it's crazy to see. So it goes Antarctica, Cape Town, Perth, Australia, Istanbul, Asia, Istanbul, Europe, Cardahania, and then Miami.

And I remember just like thinking like, dude, how could this literally be any worse? Like, I was like, I feel like everything that could go wrong. I'm running on broken ankles. I can't keep any food down. I was like, I don't know. I mean, I can't keep up with the climate. I haven't slept. My longest sleep during seven days

was an hour and 50 minutes consecutive. Yeah. It's because like you're trying to slam nutrition in and you're like now I'm like throwing up every 30 seconds. And like your whoop score had a recovery of one. Every day. Yeah.

One percent. One percent. Yeah. Every day. Yeah. And so it's honestly like spectacular to see how primal like the human body can go. Like there's those stories about people that. get stranded in the woods or in the mountains or something and survive for three months off,

you know, like berries and sticks and, you know, catching rabbits and shit. And like, that's true. Like, yeah. No, you were in the pain. The human capabilities are insane. Yeah. And like, so to feel that, there was like the most raw and vulnerable and like, again, primal that I'd ever felt ever. Like I, it's weird how like, anything, like materialistic or anything like that or like the little shit that people care about like you know your clothes and what kind of shoes you're in and you know like what kind of car you drive and shit like that and like kind of watch you have dude I didn't want anything I wanted sleep food water and like like like I wanted shelter and kind of in that water I'd like literally I felt

like a caveman I wanted shelter I wanted nutrition and I wanted to hydrate yeah and that's all I wanted and that like I would have done anything for it in that moment and like I couldn't keep anything down so like the race just started slowly breaking me and breaking me and one of the crazy things is that to 60 60 or 65 racers started for only 40 finished there was a guy he had a Dublin Ireland who broke two world records on the great world race he broke one in Antarctica one in Asia he ran a 214 marathon um in Dublin um and they actually found this guy and they brought him on the Great World Race. He took the record in Antarctica.

In Cartagena, that race you're talking about, I'm running behind him. And all of a sudden, I see him start to, like, wobble. And I'm literally running behind him, and all of a sudden he just hits the deck and just, like, falls to the side. And, like, he's looking up and his eyes are just glazed over,

and he's just, like, sitting up. And I'm like, dude, what am I? Yeah, so they actually pulled a couple of people off that race. Carding people off, taking them to the hospital. I remember they would drop people off at the plane and like IVs still in their arms, they'd pull them and like throw them on the plane. It was chaos.

And to see like, again, I'm just this kid coming in here like, yo, I never ran a marathon ever. Yeah. And here I am like running seven marathons and seven continents and seven days like absolutely battered. Yeah. And you go in a survival mode. And like once you're in survival mode, you know, it's like,

it's an insane feeling. It's something like I've only. felt in that moment and you know i i only feel like when i when i do like these ultra endurance things that really you have to strip yourself physically of like everything you have and you really start to find out who you are like mentally like what is your mental capabilities like how do you is my mind as strong as my body is my mind as strong as my body like what like how can you handle adversity like in those times you know it's like what's your ability to problem solve and stuff like that i remember when we pulled up to the to the race start uh in cardania because you

you were still fasted. You've been fasted for over three days. And I remember pulling max aside. And I was like, I think there's zero percent chance he finishes this race. Yeah, yeah. And I said, if you don't give up on this race, I won't give up on you. That was the only marathon I've ever ridden run either because I was so worried about you. So, and I hadn't trained.

So I was in horrific pain, but I'd only run one. Then you were on your six, so I didn't say a fucking word. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's part of, I mean, part of the documentary that we ended up filming on was like, you know, you were kind of this scientist and I was kind of this guinea pig. Yeah. But then there's also like, during, when we started racing, there's also like concerned father and son. Like, at what point do you? I'm very concerned.

Push the boundaries as a scientist and thrown the towel as a father. It's like. There was a lot, dude. I'll tell you exactly when it was. It was mile 18 in Cartagena. I was like, what did I say at the beginning of this race? you don't give up in this race, I won't give up on you. I was like, hey, if you want to throw the towel, I'm actually good with it, too.

Lots of people have quit. Not everybody that quits is a loser. Yeah, like, Thomas Edison failed 3,000 times before he found a light bulb. But I still to this day don't know where you went in that pain cave because you didn't quit. I didn't quit the one marathon. But we started breaking it down into those, into the distance between. the ice buckets where they had the waters, you would just shove our whole legs in there.

Well, they had to cut my socks off me. Yeah, I remember the EMTs cutting your socks off. You had this big balloon out the front of your tibia. And then I was like, dude, when do I throw in the towel on my son? And we're like one marathon away from him completing his goal. He's already done six. And I was running it through my mind. I'm like, what, do we come back next year and try it again?

Yeah. And so I wanted you to finish so bad, but I also didn't want you to have permanent damage. And I was running that fine line the whole time. How much? you know, when do I start, when do I keep telling science at this and biohacking and recovery? There's no science and decided that war. Yeah. And then when do I, you know, just say, listen, I can't, you know, watch me. Yeah. So I want to transition to the, to the 100 mile race because you'd also never run 100 miles.

Yeah. And there was a moment during that race. This was just two days ago, by the way. Yeah, fresh out of it. Yeah. And hats off to Kyle Foreguard and four of the guys that were with you guys. Because when when that race started and I was in there, because it was in there, because it was It was live streamed. When I restarted, I was in the comments and chats and just listened to what people are saying. Zero percent of the people thought that you guys would finish at.

Zero percent thought all six would finish. Yeah. And all six of you guys crossed the finish line. Yeah. But I think it was around mile 32, where every single one of you entered the unknown. But what was the first you'd ever written around before that? Consecutive 37 miles.

Okay, so 37. So for you was 37. For them, it was 31. Yeah. for them was 31, you were at 37, and that was the uncharted territory. So every step after that. Yeah, it was a personal best. Yeah.

So, you know, I wonder if you talk a little bit about the race prep and like, first of all, you're a completely different racer. I feel like we went into the Great World Race Blind. Yeah. And you went into this one really structured. I mean, Matt, you know, helped tremendous amount. Yeah, shout out to Matt Johnson. Yeah, Mass Johnson.

We just, by the way, if you haven't seen the podcast with Matt Johnson, please check it out. I mean, no, he's a lifesaver. I think he's, his program was a huge part of kind of why I did so well. He's between him and Andy Glaze. I mean, those two guys basically took me a animal too across that finish line. They, um, they crafted this, this thing so well. They have so much real world ultra racing experience that I basically just turned my life over to them from a training standpoint. I said, listen, you know, this is my goal.

I want to run this 100 miles. I want to do a consecutive. I don't want to sleep in between, you know, and I want to do it in a straight shot, you know. Yeah. As little eight stations as possible, as minimal time as possible. And I want to, you know, stay on my feet

and I want to feel good also doing it. Yeah. I was like the Great World Race scarred me pretty bad. You know, it was like it jacked me up for months. I didn't want to like run after that. Like it really messed me up. You know, I lost 37 pounds in the Great World Race. I double stress fracture.

That one in 80. It also stressed out like the family, my fiance. Like it was hard to, yeah. Oh, Megan was about ready. Yeah, she was ready to throw in a towel. So like when I committed to another race that's, you know, similar to that, this is four of those marathons, but I'm doing it in 24 hours. So it's tough.

And so for me, I wanted to find someone that was super, super experienced. And so they created a program, tailored it to me. I followed it to a T. Like if anything, there was no day that I went under miles. I did over miles. And that also gave me confidence, I think, going into this race that I could just kind of trust in the process always. Yeah.

You know, like if they said I could do it and everything like that, I knew that my training wasn't going to fail me. I was like, at a minimum, I know I'm qualified based on whatever they say. Right. It's just whether or not you're going to have the mental fortitude. The mental fortitude. There's nothing they can do to prepare you for that pain cave. It's also like the unknown can hit you.

I mean, you could have, you could train. and you could be perfectly in shape, but like some of those guys were getting like gut issues and like gut issues could take you out. One of them developed like, so you're running behind a support van for 100 miles. It's kicking up dust. One of the guys like started to develop wheezing and asthma.

Dry air and stuff like that. So like he went to the ER today. Oh, did he? Yeah, Marks Goda. He went to the ER today. Yeah. Two days after. He's having trouble breathing.

Trouble breathing. He just couldn't handle it. Yeah. And he called it desert lung. He was like the dry air with all the dirt and all. And like, it was so dry. And, and dude, when those semis were coming by and it was going, boom, the wind was just like a wall that felt like a linebacker hitting you,

trying to knock you off the road. It was uncontrollable. But, like, mile 20 to 40 was probably the toughest, honestly. Because when you start to feel pain, like, a mile 20 and that early on, I have to another 20-mile runs. And I was like, I felt better on those runs. And, like, why do I feel like this? right now. And then I'm also like, I'm not even halfway to the halfway point.

Yeah. I'm not even halfway to the halfway point. I'm not even a marathon in. I got three and a half marathons to go. You start to like all those thoughts start to play in your head. So it's like they call it, Andy calls it Mile Lady Training. Yeah. The reason it calls it that is because like you get to a point for me, it was like 50 miles. Once I got to 50 miles, I got to start to count backwards. I was like, I was no longer going like up to 50. You're going downhill. I was like then 49, 48, 47, and so on and so forth. But it was scary for everybody because when we started feeling like that, one of the things about this race was majority of it was in the darkness.

Okay, there was 16 hours of nightfall. You know, the sun set at around 4 o'clock. It got up at like 7 a.m. Yeah. So the majority of the race was in the night. And we started at 10 a.m. So like we're running through the day. It's pretty overcast during the end of like,

right before the sun was setting, like the sun was beaming on us. And so like I started to sweat. Everybody started to sweat. Like there was a section of this course that was like 15 miles of like the support fans couldn't be on the side of the road with us so we couldn't have like crew and stuff. So we were running in a single file line. There was and it was just silent.

Like you're out in the desert. Until the traffic that comes by. Like the desert desert. Area 51 is where we ran. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Literally, Area 51.

So like Google Area 51, there's nothing. Yeah. There's actually only... Sketchy shit. Yeah, there's one gas station that sells fireworks. There's a strip club, fireworks, a bar, and alien gear. And like an Indian restaurant. Yeah, and then super random in an Indian restaurant.

Strangest combination of anything. But I remember just being out there and it was so silent and you're just like, that's when the thoughts start to come in. And it's insane, like, how creative. the brain gets when you're in those moments, like, how creative you start to convince yourself, like, to quit. It's like, listen, if you just like step on that rock over there, maybe it'll hurt your ankle. And, like, everyone will be like, oh, that's a serious injury. That could be permanent. And like, you can go out or like, oh, you know, I got the flu two weeks ago. You know,

everybody will be like, oh, he was sick and stuff like that. How creative your brain like just starts to convince yourself. And I think that's where the training and the preparation and the trust in recovery comes in because you're like, listen, somewhere in the back of your mind, you know, like, I'm qualified. I did the preparation. I'm qualified. You knew these thoughts were going to come. Like, you know it's not going to be easy. You know there's going to be the mental aspect. And they just start flowing in, especially in those high times or those low times. And the 100 mile race is like just highs and lows and highs and lows. And you have high highs and you have low, lows. And you know what's wild about that? It's like I watched you guys. And I, um, I, I,

I would, you know, run nutrition and stuff back up to the front and back to the van for you guys, mainly for you. And I watched like the motion and the energy of the crowd, the six of you guys shift. And like you would run so long. And like the longer you would run, the more the mood would like get suppressed and suppressed and suppressed. And then like when they decide they would allow you guys to have caffeine.

And then they would allow you to have Advil. it was like mile one for you guys. You guys were animated and chatty, but fucking Kyle started rapping. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, to the music. And it was like, it was like. It's the little things, too.

I swear to God. Just doorstep, two sips of a bang and two advil. Well, you go primal. Once you're in primal, it's like those little things. Yeah. It's crazy. Like you get a little bit of water and like you get to put your feet up for a second. And that's like, like you, dude, it's like a warm back.

Changes your perspective. I think it's such a metaphor for life. Oh, yeah, yeah. Highs and lows. It's just highs and lows, but also perspective for like, what are you thankful for? And like,

the more pain you're in, the easier it is for you to find something that you're grateful for, you know, because you were so grateful for like a quarter of a bang energy and two Advil. You have no idea what that did to my body.

If I'd offer you anything else, if I'm like, do you want a new Ferrari or do you want these two Advil? Fucking milligram of that energy drink just like hit my soul. Dude, I know of you. Get my soul.

Well, what I did is, is I... Bang energy, good for your soul. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Honestly, everything that I ate on that race do not eat unless you're... Oh, dude, that's the ultimate human. I was like, dude, he's on his 50th Rice Krispy treat. I can't watch this, too. Honestly, I need a Rice Krispy sponsor after this because, dude, I fucking pounded probably 150

Rice Krispies. You did. It's gross. It's like Coca-Cola. Yeah, skittles and shit. It's the nastiest stuff, but it's, it's fuel. And like, you just kind of, you just kind of, you just kind of, you just, you you take from these guys that have this ultra running experience and it probably works.

Yeah. And you start getting sores in your mouth. And I think, you know, what I did with the caffeine was I tried to delay it as much as possible. So like there was a section where like I was just running and I felt myself like going to sleep. I was like, I'm going to fucking fall asleep while I'm running. I was like, I feel like I'm yawning. I'm like getting delirious.

And I like, I would start to nod off. And I was like, okay, this is probably the time I should have it. but I wanted to delay it so it, like, gave you something to look forward to. It gave me a loose of energy. It was insane how depleted your body is that something like that little, it was not a lot of caffeine. It was a quarter of a bag. So it was probably 80 milligrams of caffeine or something that you got.

But you guys lit up like Christmas trees. And then the two Advil just dulled a little bit of the pain. So your pain cave went from an eight to a six. Yeah, yeah. It was insane. And so as the race progresses, you know, it goes from kind of being warm like in the evening to being freezing cold. And then it goes down into I think like the upper 30s and stuff like that.

So like when you're moving, you're heating up. But as soon as you stop. Yeah. It's like you're shivering. You're cold and your blood starts moving cold. It's like you immediately get exhausted and tired. And so I remember like coming out of those aid stations and just being like so fatigued.

And then like you start running and you start to pick back up again and then you're in cruise control. But tell you what, I honestly. I felt good. Like, I felt a lot better than I thought I was. No, you look great. Like, honestly, like,

I ended up actually going to the gym. Yeah, I know. When you got back, I was like, I went to the gym. And I think, you know, as, as corny as it might sound, the hydrogen water

actually works, actually saved my life. The whole reason, and not to even get into H2 tab, but the whole reason I started H2 tab is when I was doing the Great World Race and the Great World Race rep, I found a research article because I was studying all this stuff, like, how can I amplify my recovery? Because it's marathon, you know, playing marathon, seven marathon, seven continents and seven days. And I was looking at all those things, beta alanine, you know,

beta carotene, you know, like all these things that amplify recovery. I was looking at beet juice and all this different stuff, nitric oxide stuff and like everything. And I stumbled upon this research article and delayed onset muscle soreness or doms. And it showed a reduction in doms by like 76% or something. And so I contacted the patent holder on the tablets because I realized it was from the tablets. Got my hands on some of these tablets and I took them on the

Great World Race and other than the physical ailments like the stress fractures in the gut, I wasn't sore. Yeah. And I ran seven marathons and seven continents in seven days and I wasn't sore. Like I could have walked out and hit a back squat. And like, that was freaky to me. Like, I was like, I was like, that's, I was almost skeptical. I was like, what is that?

And so, like, you know, I got that science over to you. You really started to validate it. And I think that is when we took the leap on H2 tab. And I got to validate that again with this 100 mile race. Like I was taking five hydrogen tablets before the race. And then I would do these little hydrogen water bombs where I just put like three tablets and like half a liter of water. I'd let it fully dissolve and I'd chug it back. too. Like if you go back and I mean the whole entire race is live stream, you go back and watch

how I felt throughout the entire race. No, no, you look. It was a completely different race. And I think I'm with you. I mean, I don't want to turn it into a. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but hydrogen gas, I think, is one of the greatest, it's, it's role in the human body is one of the greatest discoveries of our millennia. I know it doesn't break it fast. It's a selective antioxidant. We could go all into the mechanism of, you know, how it restores something called redox homeostasis, which is a balance. And we bathe in hydrogen water. I mean, I bathe John Jones in that before, you know,

his big last title fight. Sean Ryan talks about it all the time. How I've convinced him to get in my bathtub. Shout out, Sean. Yeah, Rogan too. I want to close out by rounding out on a few things. So we have a big project plan. And, you know, we're going to do a documentary around it.

but the whole concept is, you know, the vast majority of athletes are not over-trained. They're under-recovered. And we don't target our recovery at the tissues that need it the most. I mean, you know, strength and conditioning is, in my opinion, that is a field that has, where there is just absolute excellence,

you know, and professional sports teams have strength and conditioning coaches. They do positional training, you know, hand-eye coordination speed, timing, agility, strength. You know, we've really maxed out with where we are, but we haven't gotten anywhere near the threshold on recovery.

And this is joints, ligaments, tendons, connective tissue. And this is where people, where athletes break down. I mean, we look at a number of non-contact injuries in the NFL.

You know, these are non-traumatic injuries, you know, blowing into Achilles seal running off the sideline, blowing an ACL running a pattern. You know, those are injuries that professional teams and athletes should not have to tolerate and it has a lot to do with recovery.

And so creating a documentary that's, that's gonna be centered around how far can we push the limits of human performance. And my role will be to target the recovery of those tissues, your joints, ligaments, your tendons, your spine, your nervous system, targeted red light therapy, hydrogen and nanobathing, hyperbarics,

you know, most electromagnetic field. And can we get this connective tissue in these areas of body that are deprived of oxygen to recover as fast as our muscles? And if so, can we reset every day to baseline. Yeah. Even after something as extreme

as a full distance iron man. When you get into like multi-day endurance events, it's like there's only so much training you can do for something. Like for the 100 mile race, like my, my longest run was 31 miles, 32 miles. It's like me running 50 miles or 60 miles doesn't do me any better than me running 30 miles.

So at some point like the training actually does start to plateau. It's like you can't. more training is not just going to mean more miles you can run. Right. That's not a thing. And so like where you can buy more time and buy more, by better performance is in the recovery. And for me,

like the things that start to go in these multi-day endurance events are the tissues, the ligaments, or the tendons, that stuff that is just completely getting pounded for, you know. Yeah, I believe in this. I think we're going to prove it. Should we say what you're going to try to do? 10 iron man's in 10 days.

distance of 10 Ironmans. We're going to condense it down. So it'll be a 24-mile swim into an 11-100 and 12-mile bike ride followed by a 262-mile run. And we're going to try to complete that in 10 days. By the way, if anyone who wants to join. And we're really going to see how we can push the limits of recovery. The biggest thing. And the whole concept behind that is like at some point you cross a threshold where you have to have all of that or else you can't complete it. You just physically can't. Like you can't do 10 iron ends in 10 days

without having your physiology and every ounce of blood work and everything just dialed into a nutrition. You're training your sleep, your recovery. Everything has to be dialed in to AT. And that is why we chose this distance. I actually, Dana White called me after doing the Great World Race

and he said what you did was fucking insane one and two he's like I'm so fascinated about it I want to whatever you're doing next I were sitting in my kitchen that day yeah he's like whatever you're doing next he's like I want in on it he's like I want to film something about it

it's like it's so inspiring it's so crazy and so like the concept behind the great world race was how do we take somebody in a hundred days time that was not a runner or anything never run a marathon turn him into you know a mediocre And how do we take a mediocre athlete tournament to a super athlete?

Yeah. And I think following this sometime in early 2027, you're going to see the first wave of superhuman athletes at the market. And I hope to be a big part of that. And you're going to see human records shattered by margins we never thought possible. So before we wind down on the podcast, I just want to say on the podcast call, you're an inspiration to me as your father.

Like I couldn't be more proud. Thank you. Is it that? I mean, we, our entire family and, you know, both of our careers have been built on this backbone of health and wellness and preaching health and wellness. So for me, it was like when looking for a test subject to do stuff like this and be this guinea pig,

you know, it was me that raised my hand just because, you know, if you're going to talk to talk, you better be able to walk to walk. And for me, it's like, you know, I own a hydrogen water company. and I talk so much about the benefits and the performance benefits that I want to be the first person to prove it to people. It's like, don't take my word for it. Just look at the actions that I do. Like I just ran 100 miles.

You can't fake that. Like a lot of people can talk about supplements and stuff on the internet and talk about health and performance and bio-optimization. And I think for us it's like how do we put our money where our mouth is? prove it to the world. Like, you know, I talk about this stuff for a reason. I was a, I was a, I was a, you know, someone that promoted it. And, and, you know, I had a life-changing experience with all of it. So for me, it's like, how do I become the test subject? How do I become the example and, like, take everything that we've always preached and, like, put it back into ourselves? Amen. So you know that I, I run down all my podcast by asking my guests the same

question. So you got the same guest. You got the same question. You forgot about that. Yeah. You forgot about that one did you. Yeah, yeah. Dude, what, 200 podcasts that you know I've done so far? I don't watch a lot of the podcasts on the screen. I'm usually watching them in person. Okay. So you're ready? What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human? I don't know. For me, it's, it's pushing yourself beyond your own capable limits. And I think, you know, we talk about this notion called the Masogi. And, you know, that basically Jesse Isler. Jesse Isler. That's his thing. You know, that's where I learned it. Basically, that's like,

one day a year you do something that's so impressive that you can reap the benefits of it for the rest of the year. You're supposed to only have a 50-50 shot. 50-50 shot. And I think for some people, it doesn't have to be seven marathons or seven marathons or doesn't have to be 10 ironmans. It could be starting a business. It could be writing a book. It could be doing a 5K or losing 10 pounds. It's just taking the leap for something.

You know, my message out to the people back, you know, after doing the Great World Race was not that I want you to go out and run seven marathons and seven days. Yeah, that was insane. But it's to show people that, you know, I did that in a hundred days time. I dedicated my life to this thing. And like, I just went all in.

And I cut off all distractions. I cut out anything that didn't serve a purpose for that mission. And I think if you're watching this, you can do the same. And if you're, if you want to get 10,000 steps, steps a day, like just get out and do it and then, you know, cut all the bullshit out of your life and just go after it. And so for me, like, being the ultimate human or the ultimate human version of yourself is just kind of just taking a leap at what you want. For me, that's enduring stuff, that's business, that's being the best fiance I could be, that's being the best

dog dad. You are a great dog dad. One thing you want to be is a dog in Cole's house. Oh, dude. You actually will make your meals for you every day. Bring them to you in your own bed. Yeah, not to close this out, but I have a 17-year-old. And he'll actually carry you down the steps. Yeah, I've got a 17-year-old black lab that's on peptides. I make his whole food. Pet tides. Pet tis.

He's on BPC, KPV. He's on, put him on MCT oils. I've got it on a multivitamin. I make his own food. Megan, my fiance, spoils the both of them. So that's right. Wow. I love you, Cole.

I can't wait to see this unfold. Awesome. Thanks for being all the ultimate human. Awesome. Let's do it. Until next time, guys. That's just science. Let me