Leadville 100 Ultramarathon | More Than The Miles

Now you hear of this race for years, Leadville 100, Leadville 100, Leadville 100. And when you're finally there doing it, you're thinking this is the Leadville 100. I am racing the Leadville 100 course right now, and it's an opportunity a lot of people don't get. We've been talking about this for months, and it was almost surreal that it was finally the day we were about to go and execute on everything we've planned for, everything we've worked on. Put Nick's Garmin in reach so that we can track him. If you look at life as the miles you put in, over the course of a lifetime, you cover distance, you cover miles. You go up mountains, you go down into valleys. If you just look at 100 miles, if you just look at a lifetime, you're just seeing it for the miles it is. But in reality, it is so much more than that. Just putting this title of 100-mile race to it, it does not give it the justice it deserves. It's all these factors that compound and come together. The team, the crews, the support. It's not just me racing this, it is the entire BPM team doing Leadville 100 together. So more than the miles simply means that you can look at something from a big picture perspective as just the miles that it is. But there's so much more that happens beneath it. I think the Leadville 100 Ultra Marathon is one of those things that if you are given the opportunity, you can't miss it. The day Nick got selected for the Leadville 100, I want to say I was surprised. I think that was definitely a moment where I was like, this guy is not messing around. Because he looked at me and I was like, are you doing this? And he was like, I'm doing it. You're damn right I'm doing it. I think I just chuckled to myself and I was like, okay, well, let's do it then. It was one of those moments in my life where I was never that excited to run a race. That feels good. Keep rocking and rolling. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We knew Nick was just so ready to run. This isn't going to be a normal 100 miles. This is a different kind of 100 mile race. This right here is how I will be sleeping at 14,000 feet. So I began to focus on training at higher altitudes, utilizing the hypoxic ecosystem, terrain acclimation. We're just exploring now. Overall, just trying to simulate conditions of Colorado here in Texas. This is like one of the coolest things ever. While all of this was important, I knew the most essential piece to a successful race was to put together a team that believed in the mission and was down for the work. That's 50 miles, baby. That's a week of Leadville prep. Feeling strong, feeling good. It's 5 a.m. in the morning on a Thursday. Austin's waking up. This is what we did while Austin slept. He said 17, 15. I said, Jordan is not leaving. What I found in the military and the infantry was that there was this camaraderie that I never found anywhere else before. And what I realized is we built that same thing within BPN. The person to the left and the right of you, they want to see you succeed. They want to help you succeed. They want to help you get there. It's not a I or me. It's a we and a team thing. So when we accomplish something, it's always accomplishing that together. We did that. I mean, Wyatt is making sure every little need is met for each person. Adam is heading each checkpoint and then tags in as a pacer. Steph is doing her best to think of exactly what I want and need. Trey is leading the marketing team while trying to balance taking photos and helping out with the crew. And each person plays such a vital role and has to be 100% committed to the mission of this team. There is this mixture of anticipation and excitement, but also what is actually about to happen. I don't think I understood the extent of 100 miles literally until we were driving in Colorado. I think that's when it started to get real. Real in a sense of how big of an undertaking it is. I mean, it's 100 miles. Come gather around the map. Let me orient you to where we are currently at. We knew it was going to be a lot. We knew it was going to take time. We knew we weren't going to sleep. I knew the experience would be life-changing. That's what a live board is. I think for all of us, we were like, we don't know what we're getting into, but we know that we really care and we're here for each other and we're going to have a hell of a time. This was not just a race that I was running. This had to be something that we were running together. This team has been assembled because everyone here is wanting to live out their dreams. So for me, it was just this realization that there's a lot of work to do, but make sure we just enjoy this because this is a special thing that's happening. So I'm a big fan of controlling the controllables and adapting to what you can't control. And the phrase or saying that goes, if you fail to plan, plan to fail. So what I'm doing right now is just laying the things down that I've already built out to make sure that I'm not missing anything and having redundancies and things that I might need or might need support of. It's just planning for things to go wrong. So I have things located at certain checkpoints that in the event the crew can't make it there, well, I have my drop bag and just go to my drop bag. If I need some extra of something that the crew can't be at because there's no access, I have it right here. Everything I need. We came into this having a logistical plan. We knew kind of where we were going, but until we actually saw checkpoints, we saw the train, we saw locations, we were able to identify, okay, for our crew to get from point A to point B, it's not three hours, it's 30 minutes, it's 45 minutes. And that really changes things up, but we do all these different steps that allows us to just focus on really what's most important. It's an orchestra, right? There's this orchestra that's just being conducted and you have the violins that are the crew. You have the cello, it's like the credos. You have all these different pieces and when they're all in sync and working together, you're just making ******* music. You cross the finish line, you get the buckle. It's not, race this man, he ran 100 miles. It's, we ******* did, guys. We did this. Is there any part of you that thinks you won't finish this race? There is zero part of me that thinks I won't finish this race. Doubt is only dangerous when you doubt yourself. You can have the entire world doubting that you're going to do something, that you're going to accomplish something, but that's only dangerous when you start believing in yourself. When you have that support, you have that crew, you have that plan, well, doubt just doesn't stand a chance. Okay! That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. All the headlamps. That was sweet, yeah. We are about to chase Nick Bear through the Rocky Mountains for 30 hours. We just need to send it. That's so sick. Did we make it? First aid station was a blur. It was still super early in the morning. I remember it was cold. It was pitch black. We had zero clue what to expect. None of us had really seen how aid stations operate. We just kind of were like, okay, let's try to figure this out. And I was really just falling in a groove, in a rhythm. I stayed very conservative for that first 12.6 miles from Leadville to Mayqueen. Everything felt almost effortless. We walk up there, we see people with a nice blanket spread. Tents and bonfires and warm meals. They had everything laid out. And grills, and these people who know what they're doing. And I walked to the aid station with two English muffins wrapped in crumply, dirty paper towels. Watching Nick come up that little trail, immediately it was like, okay, here he comes. And I arrived to the first checkpoint with energy was so high. Nick rolled up, and I'm digging through my bag, getting BioFreeze and getting gels, and he's eating a sandwich. What do we do? What does he need? Not really sure. A scoop of electrolytes in each bottle. No, I don't want this right now. Actually, I will do that. Thank you. Every time I arrived to a checkpoint and saw the team, that was just the best part of the race. I kept that so conservative, and now I'll pick it up. He was in great spirits. He was confident. He was feeling great. He was very talkative. Hung out for a second, talked to us. He had so much left to give. Things felt right. Things felt good. I knew it was going to be a good day. He kept saying, like, I'm holding back, I'm holding back. I kind of want to break away from the pack. I was ready to keep going for that next 88 miles. And then he was gone, and it was like, okay, we just did that. It seemed like a little chaotic. We kind of took notes, what we need to do, and we moved forward, and we're just getting ready for the next checkpoint. We saw the other crews. Oh, you did? Yeah, so we're wondering if we're cutting it close. We're not dropping us off up there? No. No, we saw the van and the expedition. And Nick's, I don't have service, but he was around in the corner across the lake last time I had service, so hopefully we didn't. Mountains are no joke. Just about hit mile 16. Two hours, 52 minutes, 37 seconds. Holding a good pace. This first 13 miles, kept it very conservative. Left a lot in the tank. Going from May Queen to Houndward Bound. So far, there's been a lot more hills, so we'll pull back a little bit, walk up the uphills, hike, and then the flats and downhills, try to make up some time. But as of right now, I'm ahead of my pace for what I planned by a lot, so we're in a good spot. So Outward Bound was a pretty seamless checkpoint. Everything was going very smooth. Nick was extremely ahead of his estimated paces and arrival times at checkpoints. He's 20 minutes ahead, and I would assume he's going to stay on that head pace. I think what we learned at Outward Bound was let's set up so we have everything ready because it's kind of hard to know exactly when he's coming. We would see Nick coming, and it was like we would get this adrenaline rush. And we had five minutes, so it was like, this is going down. This is happening. We need to just do our jobs. Kind of like a pit stop to just get him refueled, get what he needed, and get him out of there. You want those bottles back up? Yeah, take those out. Okay, we got Tylenol and caffeine, and I fell. Look at my leg, too. I was running downhill. Just lost it all of a sudden and just tanked it. You look cool. It was like three miles of climbing. I was able to hold like a 15-minute mile pace, and then it was like three miles straight downhill. I was doing like 830 paces. What time is it right now? 817. Where do I go out from here? Are both these bottles filled? Yep, both are filled with 2 grams of G1m. Anything else? A stinger? Yeah, I'm going to get a stinger. Okay. Do you need any salt sticks? Thank you. That's it. I'm good. You good with socks? Oh, ----. I'm going to change socks. Can you untie those? I think it's a good idea to change them out so I don't get blisters. What was the time cutoff for this one? It was 10 a.m., and you have 11.30. You can get the hot pot. We could spare if you wanted to come. See ya. Let's go. Good job, Nick. Yeah, Nick. All right, here we go. Here we go. From Outward Bound to Twin Lakes. Again, we hit some small changes in elevation, and when we got to Twin Lakes, I knew that was kind of the pivotal point of the race. Everyone says the race only starts when you get to Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is unbelievable. It's in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. And it's this little town that is just obsessed with this crazy race. The energy was amazing. It was kind of like the base camp because once your runner came through that first checkpoint, you knew you wouldn't see them for a long time. And you only see Nick. He comes down from this mountain off of this little tiny sliver of a slope, and you only see him at this little aid station. We got, like, 40 yards outside of him coming off that hill, and he was like, I gotta stop, and I got toenail issues. And he ripped his shoe off, took his sock off. I just remember him counting down, like, 3, 2, 1, and he just ripped his toenail off, put his shoe back on, sock and shoe, slammed his foot down, and then just took off running. I was like, I think the race is actually about to start. This is where it's about to start. He runs through this town where everyone is jam-packed, drinking, barbecuing, listening to music, looking around being like, this is un-freaking-believable. So Nick came through. He lost a toenail. I need my toe kicked up. His spirits were still super high. Do you want Tylenol or caffeine? No, I'm good. Toe kicked up. Part of that course humbled me pretty good. They say there's a lot of hills in this course? There's a lot of hills in this course. Ow! You all right? Yeah. Sure? Yeah. Dude, this toe is, like, oozing. Yeah, it is disgusting. We just made sure that he had everything that he could possibly need. If there was temperature changes, extra fuel, an extra jacket. And it was just exciting to see him go up, knowing that he had one of the biggest challenges ahead of him in that next few hours. Oh, that's going to hurt. Once you get through this, though, it'll be a home stretch. Yeah. So I think he knew that it was going down, but he was ready for it, and he was excited for it. He said, this is why I signed up for it, to see if I can get through this part of the race. He was ready for a challenge. All right, Nick, I'm going to tell Kathy I got the picture. Then he came through the field, and we watched him disappear between the pass, and I was like, now we wait. These twin lakes, the scenery is insane, so I was like, I got to buy a two-foot micro rod, get some spinners, and just toss around. So this is just a little pond right next to the main lakes right now. But after this, I'm going to head to the main lake. But this is just one thing I love doing now, is just even when Nick has these events, if we have a lot of downtime, buy a little fishing pole here, and then just have some fun. So we'll see if we can get some trout. So when Nick left Twin Lakes, and we knew that we were at least going to be here, not moving, going to a new checkpoint for six hours. We kind of set up camp at this parking lot about a quarter mile from the checkpoint. Beautiful view. We had this big mountain to look at. We had both of our cars. It's amazing what you can do when you have no cell service, and you're stuck in the middle of nowhere. I think that was the first time where the wear and tear of the day started to set in. So I know people were sleeping, trying to eat food. It was funny. I don't think anybody really slept. We were just kind of recapping everything, talking about what we've learned, a lot of laughs, a lot of coffee. And you have seven hours to kill, while people that you really care about are 3,000 feet in the hardest terrain possible trying to capture this moment. So it was just this crazy lull of being like, we're super anxious, we're super grateful, we're super tired, and we're starving. And we have no reason to make any excuses about anything going on because we knew what was going on up the mountain. So just this interesting lull of trying to be ready, but also trying to conserve energy and enjoy everything while it was happening. And we just knew Tyler and Jordan were up in the mountains somewhere. All the temperatures are going to be me breathing heavy. We're coming for you, Nick. We are heading up Hopes Pass. We're at mile 40. And after we get over Hopes Pass, go to Winfield, we'll hit mile 50. That'll be the turnaround. But I believe this is close to 3,000 feet of elevation gain just to get up Hopes Pass. 500 feet. It's right up there. We just made it to Winfield. Halfway. 50 miles down. That's 38. I'm good. This is Hopes Pass aid station right here. This is nuts. We got llamas. We got a campfire going. We got cram crackers, cookies, ramen. So stoked we made this trip. I barely made it. Tyler left me in the dust, but it happens. We're here. We're refueling. We're going to chill and wait on Nick. As I was going into Winfield to turn around, I fell, trashed my hands pretty good. But right now, I'm on round two of Hopes Pass, and it's kicking my ass. I'm getting to the top of Hopes Pass for the second time. I see Jordan and Tyler with their cameras. And I meet up with them. They start following me down Hopes Pass, and as soon as they start following me, it starts hailing. Whatever it takes. So right now, we're 57.38 miles in. We are 13 hours, 33 minutes in. So we're at the aid station of Hopes Pass. We're going to fuel up, grab some more things, top off on water, and head to Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is where we're linking up with Adam Klink, and he'll pace me. And then it's just 38 easy miles back home. It wasn't what I expected. It was a lot harder than I expected. That one definitely broke me off a little bit, but I was fine when I got up there. I thought this was it when I got here, and it took another to get up there. The backside, though, coming up was so much steeper, and that one was pretty tough. See you guys down there. You know, I could tell that everyone that was involved in this operation, this race, they felt the pressure to complete their responsibility to full effort, and you don't find this everywhere. The day we landed in Colorado, I watched the media and marketing team go out in scout locations and plan everything. And the day before the race, we had our team meeting, our team briefing. Everyone knew their job, their responsibility, where they were going to be when, and what they were going to be doing. And when everyone's on that same timeline, and they know what they're doing, and they know their role, I could tell that the pressure was on everyone. Two years ago, there was four of us, and now there's all these people, all in on Nick's crazy dream. And it's not just Nick's crazy dream anymore. It's all of our crazy dream. Everyone looked around and said, let me just make sure the little things are taken care of. Everyone's got the food, everyone's got everything set up, and I think that's what I love to see about this team, is we're all flying around. Jordan and Tyler are flying up the mountain. Preston's cooking burgers for everyone. We're all just doing whatever it takes in order to make what we want a reality. You're doing great. You know, there were times I was sitting on the chair. Steph was throwing a blanket over top of me. Clink was putting BioFreeze on my knees. Trey was changing out my socks and putting new shoes on me. I had a lot of, like, pinch-me moments, because I'm like, how did we find all these people? How did we create this family? Let's get it! And to look around and say, we are BPN. We are a part of this thing that is very special. That was Nick's goal all along, wanting to create something that everyone wants to be a part of, and he's done it. If you can get people to believe in a mission, the opportunities are endless, you know, and I think that's where we're at now, which is like, it's only going to get crazier, and that excites all of us, but just to make sure we're always just in love with what we do is a testament to why we were able to do what we do. It wasn't me just running this race. You know, everyone was there to support this, this goal. It wasn't just to support me, Nick Baer, running. It was to support our goal to run Leadville 100 together. We've made it to here. We're going to make it. And out comes Nick, out comes Jordan, out comes Tyler, and you guys look like you went through some serious stuff that I think you guys will remember and feel for the rest of your lives, and I think we're just thankful to see you guys. And we run through the crewing station, and everyone is just, like, cheering for Nick. That's when Hella came through. I thought Hella was going to tackle Nick. I was like, Hella just jumped on Nick after 62 miles of running. Your new fuel and that, I don't need Hella's. This, water, just water. Put some pre-roll in this and use some tape. Cut it off. It's going to rip. Get it. You don't have electrolytes yet for this one. Oh, yeah. **** yeah. All right. What do you want to change into? I'll take a long sleeve with me. Here, wear some glasses. Miguel, if I already hit save, does it save it on your black one from this morning or this one? Black one from this morning? Oh, it passed. It was ******* brutal. Brutal. Made it through. Dude. Gnarliest thing? It was so ******* gnarly. I had to do it twice. Come on. Tylenol, Tums, caffeine, one of each. Yeah. My bun. Water? Never mind. I swallowed it. Can I get some Bio-Freeze on my foot, knees, and quads? Thanks, guys. Appreciate you guys. Come on. You don't want any Bio-Freeze? Let's go. 38 more miles and we're done. We got it. Oh, actually, can I get the nut butter? It's not like that. It's in my bag. Oh, yeah. What's going on? Oh, God. All right. Hey. Here we go. You got this. Good, good, good, good, good. Wild, man. That was wild. I don't even... Uli fell. You ate it? Yeah. He ate it. Bad. Hey, guess what? I had one of these. He saved the gimbal. He saved the camera. All that matters is the shot. That's all that matters. His energy is, like, really, really, really high. He's a little beat up. Pinky's hanging on. Steph thought that he was going to have to get it amputated. But other than that, he's out now with Klink. Klink's going to pace him for 25 miles. We're stopping now so that you guys can change clothes. But everything seems good. Energy's high. The team's good. I know we're all kind of, like, hanging on by a thread. But other than that, I think we're cruising to a finish line now. We're on the back half. I know it's going to slow down a little bit for him. But he'll focus, stay healthy. He's got people with him. We're going to take care of him. So at Twin Lakes, I picked up pacer Adam Klink. As a pacer, I had zero clue what to expect. The most I've ever run in my life was 10 miles at a time. But I also knew that I was going to do anything that I needed to for Nick. Just stay moving. He's mentally with it, though, so that's good. I'm there. Yeah, he's there. I felt a good amount of pressure on myself to just keep Nick's energy high as it's now 14, 15 hours into this race. Man, look at that. How do you feel? You just got over the hardest part. Just finished Hope Pass twice. Twice. I'm tired. I'm just tired. But there's nothing crazy for the next 38 miles. We should be good. I had to juggle me being fresh and excited and then Nick hurting so bad already and being as fatigued as he was because he only had so much into the tank. And I really learned quickly that my role was to help him manage his energy throughout the rest of this race. If you move even slow, it's going to hurt the same. These first three miles are just a long uphill. So we're just hiking. And then we're going to pick it up when it levels out a little bit. Guys, for real, though, look at this view real quick. It's amazing. Unreal. It's getting harder. Yeah. It's really hard at this point. I quickly realized how bad Nick was starting to struggle when every 100 feet, 200 feet, Nick was having to stop. And I had to stop to take some big deep breaths because I felt like I couldn't breathe anymore. How do you feel? Tired. I felt like I was breathing through a straw. Got about another half a mile left uphill. Just trying to get through this tough part. Hurting a little bit. Nick's hurting a little bit. It'll start to get more fun here in a little. Starting to lose a little daylight, too. So we're going to start to run through the night. How are you feeling? Pretty rough. And this is where I really started to kind of feel the change of the pace of the race. I finally made it up over that peak. And at the same time, it starts getting dark. GoPro's having trouble picking up. It's so dark. And that kind of changes the perspective and the way you view and feel during a race as well. All right, here we go. Back to gaining some speed. Man, it does feel good to go down. I think the biggest thing now, as it gets dark, as it gets tired, maybe a little lightheaded is just to focus on his feet. Just follow me. Crushing it, though. I was feeling this fatigue. I was feeling this exhaustion. I started going to some darker places. You know, 100 miles is long. So I would take checkpoints mentally into consideration, not really thinking about mileage. You can't be counting down. It'll get in your head. The hardest part right now is my legs are just absolutely smoked. I'm out of energy, you know? I've been running for 17 hours. So we really have to take advantage of the downhills, declines, some of the flats. We're in a really good rhythm of strided out, maybe 100, 200, 300 meters, and then walk at a brisk pace. How are you feeling, picking up some steam? I'm feeling in a rhythm now. I feel like absolute dog ----, leaving Twin Lakes, probably because it's all uphill. I was pretty beat from Hope Pass, but that had me a little concerned. But now I'm cooking again. This last mile was 12.36, and we're really taking advantage of the terrain. At this point in the race, you have to. So every downhill, we're running it. I was just thinking up there, I was like, man, if I were to do this by myself, it would be so lonely. I'm sure I would wonder if I was on the course. And there's times where Nick was brought to his knees or was sitting on the side of the path that if he didn't have somebody with him, I'm not quite sure how long he would have stayed there. It's dark now, but we're hitting some good little stretches. I knew that Nick was going to feed off of me whatever I was able to give him. How are you feeling? I felt better. Aches are starting to creep in a little bit. I'm glad Clink was there. I don't think anyone better could have taken care of him. Adam was a great coach out there, a great leader. He had great energy coming in. We just got to get it done now. It was less about me and more about Nick. My number one focus was just to keep Nick awake, alert, motivated, and I just got to get Nick through this. Twin Lakes to hour bound is like over 14 miles. We knew it was going to take a little while. We got the text from the second car that they just saw Nick. They didn't say anything that he was hurting or anything like that, but that he was about two miles from us. We're almost to mile 75. It's the middle of the night, and we get to this big open field. I'd already been out in the field waiting. I remember standing out there thinking, this is taking longer than I thought. When I saw them when they came up, he wasn't breathing great. You could hear it. It's like a small wheeze. I could tell he was hurting really bad, that the last 14 miles was doing some damage. We have that all ready. Five minutes. We're just managing energy. There is a lot of what we call hurrying away. I just got crushed as soon as we went out. Every checkpoint, it was kind of a guessing game. Where's Nick? What's he doing? How's he doing? What's going on? He's in pretty rough shape right now. It was all day, all night, just go to the checkpoint, wait. He comes through. Massive blur. There's so much going on, and you don't want to mess up, and you want to make sure he's okay. You just see the wear and tear on him. Adding a cut, adding a bruise. Almost moments where you black out. Adding a gashed finger to his, adding a missing toenail. It goes by so fast. Every checkpoint was under 10 minutes. Don't even know if I fully remember what happened. All right. And then he leaves. 38. 38. Good job. Keep working. If there was ever a question mark on the whole event, it was right there. The next time we would see them would be the last checkpoint, and I definitely was a little nervous to see him at that last checkpoint. I think we were all, to some degree, worried. Not worried that he couldn't finish, but worried for him. It was like, is he going to be physically okay? We're so used to seeing Nick do a lot of physical feats all the time, and this is just now a complete mental battle. Like, the body gave up miles ago, and now it's just convincing yourself, it seems like, step by step to put one foot in front of the next. So I think just mentally it's just a huge challenge that he's really focused on, but it's going to be a heck of a push to get this done over the next few hours. So we're locked in and just doing our jobs to make sure it all happens. I remember getting back into the car, leaving Outward Bound. Couldn't feel my face, couldn't feel my hands. Steph was in the back seat, and I could tell that she was just, this was really hard. I think we were all ready for him to be in bad shape, but it was in the middle of the night, it was 2.30 in the morning, and we just didn't know what to expect. Everyone was tired. We closed our eyes and just kind of sat there in the dark and in the quiet. It was kind of hard to take a nap knowing he was out there with Klink and it had been rough. And the last time I saw him, he could barely breathe. That was just like the worst thing to think about. We had another epic climb. The back half of this, and I haven't done all of this. Wild. It was a lot of climbing today. Lots of climbing today. But we're about to get to May Queen, and May Queen is pretty flat. So I'm pretty excited. You're still talking. I'm still alive, baby. Somehow. I'm still alive. 84 miles so far. We were all banged up at this point. I mean, you drive into this aid station, and you're in the middle of nowhere, and there's just people parked on the side of this cliff, and we were all exhausted. We had no idea at that point where Nick was. I think there's a big difference between running 100 miles and running the Leadville 100. He was banged up, like the worst a lot of people had seen. It's also a true test of can you keep moving when your body hurts very, very, very bad with a smile on your face. And seeing Steph starting to have some genuine concern about Nick overall, because when we saw him at Outward Bound, Inbound, he was pretty glassed over. My legs don't work. I want to be with Michaela by three. And then this is where Michaela, our second pacer, tagged in. And she was going to bring Nick home through the morning. I knew that Michaela was excited but also, like, a little anxious about it. All right, let's do this thing. Michaela good to go? Oh, yeah. Yeah, good. She's just going to keep Nick moving. Yep. Got it done? Yep. Last pass. We're like, well, we have about 6 hours and 45 minutes to run 12 miles. He's dead. Yeah. By the time I got to May Queen, I was hurting pretty bad. I was in a pretty dark spot. Sit. Don't sit down for too long. I remember just sitting in the chair and pure exhaustion across my body. Sandwich, please. It was kind of like the lights were on, but nobody was home. To see him get to May Queen with Adam was unbelievable. I just reached a point where I was like, man, I got to sit down. And, like, my whole world just, like, closed in and went dark. And you're, I'm sure, sleep deprived and just the oxygen. I gave everything I had to give to Nick for what my capabilities were. Clink went from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. with him. They had just climbed 25 more miles. You do these runs. You do these races. You sign up for these things because you want to feel. You want to experience these dark spots. But through that extreme process, you're going to find things, I don't know, about yourself, about your strength and weaknesses that you have never found unless you just do it. Let's go, Nick. Go one more, baby. You got this. So Nick's out there somewhere with Mikayla, and we're all looking around saying, we've got this far. But it's a hell of a home stretch to get through, and let's just all hold on and see if we can get to the 100-mile mark. We were finally almost there, but we were at our breaking points as a crew as well. I think at that point you're like, I know he's going to finish, but I just hope he's okay. I hope everyone's okay. Our mindset is just a group of people that are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish a goal because we have seen that it's possible, and we're willing to do whatever it takes to make our dreams come true. And he comes over this hill out into the distance. We've been waiting 27-plus hours to see him top the hill. And it was just, again, relief. Got to get my buckle. I think we all just had goosebumps. One of the first things he asked me, he was like, where's our team? Where's the BPN team? Another block. To watch someone run 99.2 miles, and the first thing they ask is, where's our team? That doesn't kind of make you emotional? Nah. I don't understand that. Round them up. I mean, that's one of the reasons I came to work for BPN. Join me. By the time we got to the base of what was the finish line, the entire BPN team was there, and we ran into the finish line to cross together what we started together. And it's one of those moments I will always remember because of the journey that it was to get there. You could visually see it and you could feel it that everyone knew and realized that they had a massive role in this accomplishment that we achieved together. This was a clear example of the power that exists when people come together, and that's what we want for you. We want you to find people who are committed to something greater than yourself because when you accomplish things together, it is truly fulfilling. I don't even want to see my feet. I'm definitely losing some toenails. Pulling the skin off. And the truth is, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. Looking at the team we've built and what we accomplished during those 30-plus hours, truly, truly amazing. So, let's start from the beginning. All right, let's do this damn thing. Weeks ago, Nick said, all I want when I get back from Hope Pass is a burger. And at like 3, we planned to have a picnic and grill and stuff like this, and Preston was going to cook. Preston Bear getting on the grill and making some legendary bear burgers. All right, this is the only thing that I had a little pressure on the whole time. Preston doesn't have the best track record with grills. And Preston pulls out the smallest grill I've ever seen in my life. I mean, it's like not even the size of a skateboard. And so we light charcoal in this gas grill. And I was like, I cooked with charcoal once before and it sucked. And I can't screw this up because this is like, this is everyone's main meal and it's Nick's food too and energy. It's just sitting on the ground in this gravel parking lot. Preston and Wyatt are trying to light this fire. And during that period, it starts pouring rain. So we brought the grill over, got a cover over it and kept going. And the rain is pouring on Preston and he's just holding out his jacket and he's there for 15 minutes just getting drenched. In his mind, which is just unbelievable, is he's like, all I know is that my brother, wherever the hell he is, wants a dang hamburger. I'm going to do whatever I have to do to make this hamburger happen. And the burgers turned out, I think, pretty well. Burgers and dog. He brought it home for sure. Screwed up one. I think I undercooked one of them a little bit too much. Was it the one you gave Nick? No, I think Mikaela got it. And I knew I shouldn't have pulled it off yet, but people were anxious to get more and stuff, and I knew I screwed that up. But, yeah. Good luck in the race. What do you hope to place? Finish. Just finish. Okay. Have you done it before? I have not. It's my first time. Well, you're going to have to compete with a 70-year-old guy, you know. He's run it before, and that's what he said. I'm going to finish. Yeah. I just hope to finish. But there's a thing here called endurance, and it takes years to build. You've got to beat him. You're just the right age to do it. Yep. 31. That's great. That's my prime. That's just great. Yeah. Oh, thank you. You guys have fun.