OK, if you are still with me I will provide very personal insights into the RUT 28k. Many asked about specifics, so here it goes…

Disclaimer: There could be some spiritual language below… beware 🙂 Also, I typed this fast and have no time to proof it… its getting late.

“God chooses the weak and makes them strong”

I’ve had a very broken body most of my life, at least neurologically speaking. Even as a decent athlete, my key was to compensate and get the job done. A fair amount of this was the result of fear incarnated within my nervous system from my youth.

For some, it can be the gut, others the head, for me, it was directed to my muscles.

This led to a life of pain which I began to embrace in my late 20’s. In a mysterious (spiritual) way, it has been one of the great blessings of my life… and God allowed it for a greater good.

“Make friends with pain and you will never be alone” ~Ken Chlouber, Colorado miner and creator of the Leadville Trail 100 mile race

The pain of the 28k… when you are really running it hard, just below anaerobic threshold, is really high… for many hours.

What I chose to do with that is unite it to the Lord’s one eternal sacrifice (he is not bound by time) and from start to finish the 28k became both a felt crucifixion (no disrespect to the Giver) and a prayer. I saw amazing things happen in my family and friends… and I’ve felt much more alive since.

Sacrifice and suffering are key parts of life that must be embraced to life deep, rich and meaningful lives. In this fallen world, this is a key element to true love in our relationship to self, God, and others.

I was so so happy to get my goal of winning my age group! Any time someone passed me I looked for grey hairs… no grey, no problem. I didn’t realize, when I came in at 5 hours 14 minutes, the 2nd and 3rd placers where just 1 and 3 minutes behind me! Crazy!

I was so disappointed when I crossed the finish line and saw 5 hours, 14 minutes. I knew I was off, but it was over an hour slow than my goal of 4 hours.

The following things went wrong:

1. It was very hot, and got up to 90 for the last couple hours. This added dehydration to the mix of high elevation and 8000 up/down. I was dehydrated and the one time I uninated it was light brown.

2. I messed my electrolytes up… its a long story. Way too many early on.

3. I lost one of my two water bottles before the 2nd aid station.

4. I didn’t realize that they where going to provide water and electrolytes at the top of Lone Peak (they never have before). So I took 5 minutes at the 2nd aid station (which leads to the ridge up Lone Peak). I wondered if I was going to throw it up mid way up to the peak AND I had filled my 17 ounce bottle up to save it for later. Both unnecessary…

5. The biggest problem: In rehabbing my left knee, I did very little downhill training. I’d run straight up Mt Helena, then make my way down slowly through gentle terrain. I’m embarrassed to say this, but this didn’t hit me until 50 minutes into the race. We had our first descent… not very long, but 3 people easily passed me.

I then realized that I didn’t do much downhill training. In all the long climbs of the day, no one ever passed me. But on the steeper downhills, I got passed… like guys bolting by me, like never before. I probably got passed by 30 or so and it didn’t set well with me. This never happened in past races… but I could tell that I couldn’t go faster based on the condition of my knee.

6. I decided to go up to nearly 200 pounds for the race in training. This was mostly upper body. This was an extra good 15 pounds for every step downhill for my knee. While I consider 200 my new “fighting weight”, I need to slim down my upper body and get my legs bulked up for next year.

7. I got bad spasms in my right inner quad (first), then both adductor longus (groin), then both Psoas. I had to stop and then walk. So I’m walking down this easy decline where it would be easy to run. After a while I realized, if I don’t figure out how to run through this, I won’t win my age… I did… thank God!

8. I started too fast. The night before I got a text from my friend Regan Bold. She was a CC All-American trackster. She said, “Matt, you gotta visualize running this in 4 hours.” I did, and I realized… that means I need to run all 4 stages faster than I ever have. So the next morning I abandoned my plan to establish my physiological flow and go a little slower the first 30 minutes… I ran up toward the front of the pack. 30 minutes in, my hamstrings felt terrible. Then I remembered what my friend Ben Shaw (who ran for Univ. of Idaho) told me… “Matthew, if you lose your hamstrings, it takes 5 times longer to recover than if you lose your quads.”

9. Falls: I fell for the first time in the RUT hard on my back. I had about 10 near falls. I don’t like to fall, its pretty violent. So on every near fall, I would pray, “Lord, thank you for sending your angels” and make the sign of the cross.

Well, a good hour before the end of my race, I was running downhill on a decent descent at a pretty good clip. I had another young buck on my heals getting ready to pass me, so I was going a little faster than I should.

Then, my left foot hit a rock hard as I was striding through. What happened next I have never experienced in my body… my whole body flung forward as I went into full extension… my arms went back all the way (I’m in the air) and I felt my abs grab maximally when I went to full spinal extension… when they grabbed hard, somehow it flung me forward and I barely landed on my feet and kept running.

This is something I’ll never forget because it felt like a miracle in my body AND I have to believe that an angel DID truly assist me. There is no way I could have done this and it was in an area where I would not have wanted to fall hard.

10. I discovered many issues in my body the last couple months, including an imbalanced stride from a good year of near limping on my left knee. I also discovered an old B shin issue, probably from overuse that causes some neurological symptoms into the top of both feet. My main point: we’ve got issues in our body even when we can’t feel them… I’m looking forward to getting these fully recovered.

In the end, everyone ran a bit slower. I felt a lot better Sunday night when I studied the times. Had I run it in 4 hours (which I believe I can next year) I would have taken 11th place overall on Saturday… had I ran the 4 hours 29 minutes that I did my first attempt, I would have taken 21st place. And likely at least 6-8 of the runners where sponsored professionals.

So after telling Kelly “I’m never doing this again” after the race, I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to do it again next year and greatly improve on several things.

I believed at age 45 I could run this in 4 hours and I still do. I actually intended to do this until halfway through the race when it became apparent I couldn’t.

I believe my best athletic days are AHEAD of me.

And I’ve discovered that my right psoas has really never worked. I have a new thing… incredible thing on the CRa that retrains the psoas in a way that has never been done. 2 weekends before the race I started doing it and on rep 21 my right psoas was fatigued! Think of this in the context of 30K steps in a race… 21 reps!!!

Final notes… when someone passed me I would always say to myself: “I’ll catcha later” and smile.

Once I said it out loud and you know, we both laughed… these people were so humble and relatable… I so enjoyed all the people!!!

And my family support was over the top.

And so much of the FPT team was up there, it was awesome!

Music: I was wondering what music would pop into my head for the race. The craziest thing: it was “Take On Me” the a-ha hit from the 80s for the first hour… but I was hearing the bluegrass version from Love Canon… why I don’t know. I don’t sing this song, but it is on the list at the clinic.

Then I dictated two Rocky training songs to try to get my heart to engage and restore my hamstrings. Then Little Fighter by White Lion, a fav from my senior year of wrestling (and yes I was lonely in the Navy at sea). On the steep climbs I shifted to a great military marching song. Then the final 2 hours…it just popped into my head…when I wanted to quit…Good Life by One Republic….Oh this has gotta be the good life This has gotta be the good life This could really be a good life, good life Say oh, got this feeling that you can’t fight Like this city is on fire tonight This could really be a good life A good, good life… Hopelessly I feel like there might be something that I’ll miss Hopelessly I feel like the window closes oh so quick Hopelessly I’m taking a mental picture of you now ‘Cause hopelessly The hope is we have so much to feel good about…and I always tacked on the line from another verse “what there is to complain about.” over and over for 2 hours.

If you are going to try the RUT, you may want to start with the 11k. Here is the breakdown of elevation gain/descent (11K: 1700; 28K: 7800; 50K: 10500)

If you are still with me, I guess that means we are truly friends… thanks! Have a great day!