Tavi Wallace and Hunter Williams describe the Dream Endurance Race

Ultramarathoners Tavi Wallace and Hunter Williams describe their Dream (nightmare) Endurance Race in Indy, how they go through it, and the difference between what they do and Olympic level runners...

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's pretty fun what you just didin Indianapolis. I just read the name

(00:03):
is the Dream Endurance Race. Correct, It might be a little bit more
of a nightmare though, I wouldsay so, please describe for our listeners,
Hunter though the weather conditions the twoof you and many others endured.
So the race, it starts atten am, perfect time to start a

(00:23):
race in July. In July,probably about ninety five degrees right when the
race starts, you know, it'sonly gonna get hotter nowhere to gope it
up. And then probably about noonone o'clock it was probably around one hundred
heat index and then stayed that wayuntil oh my, the end of the
race, triple digit heat index forsure. So this time they set up

(00:45):
like an eight hour shot clock,right, so you're going to run for
eight hours and just accrue as manymiles or a quarter miles, tens of
miles, whatever measure. Yeah.So this was a fixed time ultra marathon,
so there's not not a set distance. You just going for as many
miles as you possibly can and consideringthe conditions. You know, everybody got

(01:06):
varying amounts. Yeah, you lookhappy in the photo I saw on Instagram
and actually one of your friends isrunning along with you too. Yes,
my friend Allison got married the nextday, and I convinced her to do
the five k option with me.So she good morning. She did three
point one miles with you, andyou did somewhere around what forty forty five
miles? Yeah, a couple more, yeah, and then she just went

(01:27):
home. And I know she gotmarried the next day and she hadn't run
for I think she said about ayear, and she got second she did.
We hustled, and she was sorefor her own wedding. So I
do apologize to her for that.EF forged like seven minute miles for the
first five minutes. Terrible strategy.Go out fast, it really is.
Don't do that seven minute miles forthe first few definitely her fastest miles.

(01:53):
Yeah, oh my. So thenall right again, what are you doing
to for sustenance? I mean,your body is depleted. The climate conditions
that Hunter just described are ridiculous foranybody just even be outside sitting on a
porch, but you're running. Andby the way, is there are there

(02:13):
trees around? Is there any shade? Not a lot? It was designed
to be kind of as hot aspossible, So there is a little bit
of you can choose your adventure everytime you head out again to kind of
clock your laps, clock your mileage. You can choose kind of a shorter
mostly road hillier road option that's athree k or you can do a three
mile trail. So there are sometrees, but I don't think they're just

(02:36):
a tease. They're not enough toreally do anything. As far as your
nutrition, I think Hunter and Ihave completely different strategies. The humidity just
zaps kind of anything you can eatand kind of reduces me down to my
usual I was doing. This isvery like ultra runner, but pickle juice
for the sodium ooh, I know, pediolyte sport. I went through too,

(02:58):
like huge containers of that early.I was shocked. I think we
constantly the pickle juice both Okay,we were literally just drinking non stop the
entire day. The coaches still dehydratedCoca cola, and then the usual for
me pringles and gummy bears. It'sthe same every time you're not carrying a
tube of pringles as well. Hada couple of tea. I think we

(03:20):
ate all we went through them.Yeah, in that eight hour span,
how many times did you actually stop? Did we have once an hour?
We stopped like every two laps andmaybe once an hour kind of like refill
water and get snacked. Called itlike NASCAR pit crew. We tried to
check like ninety seconds in and out, grab what you Yeah, you can't
have people have things loaded for youand then you just grab them from them.
We didn't plan on that. Butmy friend Jeff Waterson, who actually

(03:44):
just got done filming Race to SurviveNew Zealand, surprised me because he lives
in Indianapolis, and he came outand was like helping, but really he
was just throwing ice at us.He was just there for like morale tell
stories. Yeah. This was onthe campus of Butler University, and I'm
a if you're doing forty five miles, you're doing a lot of different loops,
so you're seeing the same things overand over again in dreams. I

(04:05):
see it in we have that memorizedand in the recovery. What do you
do people? I've heard chocolate milkbefore. Is that a thing or is
that just made up? What didwe do? We went? You all
got Greek food, I ate anentire pizza, a whole pizza. We
got ice cream, ice cream.I had a bunch of hot dogs at
the post race. All right,whatever's your body craving that or does it

(04:29):
repel it at first? Sometimes itdoes and then other days you can just
eat right after the race. It'skind of odd. It depends. I
didn't feel great, Hunter, Iate a whole pizza, so I think
he felt okay. Yeah, andthen how many days until your leg's quit
hurting? My thigh still hurts today. So yesterday I felt like I could
run, if that answers your question. But you're not going to you need

(04:53):
a rest after that. We're goingto go run to day. Yeah we're
running. Yeah, well it feelsnice and comfortable. Just surprise, your
legs can tolerate. We're talking aboutthis past Saturday? Is when this happened?
Saturday? Yeah, well, Huntertold me about your run streak.
I am on run streak day onehundred and forty. Oh, so you
have to the next morning, Idrug her out and we ran a mile

(05:15):
and then we went for a nicebike ride and headed home. Yeah,
that's incredible. One hundred and fortydays straight. And then what's the goal
are you trying to get to athousand? As far as we can get
as long as you're on a mileor the wheels fall off. Yeah,
that's fantastic. I'm just always astoundedthat your body recovers so quickly from all
of this. I guess it takesa long time to adapt to it,

(05:38):
but once you do, more tiredthan anything. I feel like the lack
of sleep. Yeah. I knowwe've discussed ultras before and they come in
different shapes. But is there somethingthat goes beyond one hundred miles? I
know you've done that before, soyes, O on the bike, I
have, but not me. Butthere are two hundred and fifty. There's

(05:59):
a couple two hundred fift three hundredmile race I think next spring in Arizona.
That's bicycling. Oh no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, ohno. The limit does not exist.
They haven't, at least they haven'tfound it yet. Oh yeah, you
creatures or something else. This isastounding. So what's the next one?

(06:21):
That's the question. Do you haveanything? My next race? I'm going
to try to qualify for the BostonMarathon at Monumental in Indianapolis. Yeah,
you would be it seems like youwere already in shape enough to be able
to handle whatever the limitations are.When they say you have to make such
and such time. You can alreadydo that anyway, can't you, I

(06:41):
would hope. So, yeah,we're going to find out. It's different.
It's different, it's a different race. Yeah, so you were top
ten. I finished eighth overall andwon my age group. Okay, when
your age group and then the sevenpeople in front of you were just were
they aliens? Is that what itwas? She was one of them by
five minutes. So you two ofyou hang together for a long time until

(07:04):
like five and a half, sixhours most of it. Then Hunter took
off and I said, nope,and yeah, we just hit our eyes.
And so you took off and lefther behind for a while, and
then ultimately she passed you. Doesshe make some snarky remarks? I did
not say, actually played the waitinggame. I think we are too dead

(07:26):
to even speak. And you TobbyBenny's second. I heard I was second.
Yeah, the first place woman isa professional athlete, and then the
third place girl has gone to theOlympic trials. So I was happy to
be up there. Yeah, you'rea pretty good company there. Oh my
gosh. Yeah, how come you'renot a pro? I'm not anywhere near
as fast as I mean. Iwas just watching the Olympic trials in Eugene.

(07:48):
I would be lapped like immediately.I'm not that that good. Yeah,
I'm get at running really far.Yeah, really, we have less
pain receptors, asked Twitch Muscle.Okay, so what happens in the Olympics.
What are they doing a marathon?Obviously, oh gosh, the times
that they're running and then and thenare they what else is there? Is

(08:09):
there some kind of an ultra concastin the Olympics. No, that was
yeah, there should be. That'sjust mostly track and field events and they
have the marathon. Yeah, ofcourse, I only do all the sprints
and that sort of thing. Butno, ultra. That's that's the next
pitch we need. No, mygosh, no, we wouldn't make it.
Oh yeah, we need a twentyfour hour race and you'd be right
there with your little head lamp onthe bucket. They'd probably do something goofy

(08:33):
and like do it on a track. Oh, they probably would indoors.
Yeah, he's right. Here's themost important question. What flavor of pringles
sold vinegar there you go. Yeah, I cannot eat them outside of a
race, like really, yes,because I only eat them like when I
need them. So it's like almostlike you know, if you've had too
much alcohol of a certain kind.It's kind of that like oh no,

(08:54):
no, yeah, so you justneed it for the salt hits. Yes,
and then how many of those likepower things or you're doing something other
than just pickle juice of pedialyte?Right, yeah, I kind of I'm
on rotation. And it was likeas a what can my stomach handle basis?
But you can. The brand energyjails always work for me, no
matter how my stomach. And yougot to do it in advance to make

(09:16):
sure your body doesn't get depleted andthen crashing. So I probably had about
six gels. Did you do Jeels? I did? Yeah, I was
not paying to great. Oh youdid Goose's Head, the standard Goose.
Yeah. Yeah, those things arethat tastes like cake icing to me.
They're kind of gross. Yeah theyare. Tommy Wallace Hunter Williams, congratulations

(09:37):
on another ultra. You guys areamazing. Thank you so much. Keep
it, just keep it going.We'll work on the Olympics to accept you
sometimes so eight we'll see, We'llsee back in a minute on news Radio
eight forty w h A. S.