Colby Sharp.

Say it louder.

Colby Sharp.

Thank you, Leo.

Yes.

Colby Sharp.

I'm a huge fan of Colby's.

I don't know if he found me or if I found him or where it all started, but I love the content that he creates on Instagram and YouTube.

Seems like his life's pursuit is to not only enjoy life, but to get others to enjoy it through the medium of reading.

He's a fifth grade teacher, a father of five.

Yes.

Five kids.

He's on a running streak.

He's nearing 1700 consecutive days, and today he's gonna join us and talk about that streak.

And I couldn't be more excited to welcome my new friend, Colby Sharp.

All right, well, welcome to the DFL Before DNF podcast.

I'm Josh from Borderlands Trail Running.

I am super excited about this one today with Colby because of multiple reasons, but one of those reasons is I have a fifth grader and he is a fifth grade teacher, and he has a strong presence online around reading.

And maybe he talks about books for other grade levels as well, but they just happen to catch my attention when it's something that my son might like.

And so I love to consume what he's putting out there on that level.

He's also a runner, run streaker, if you will.

And so it's not just about kids books.

However, if it was, I wouldn't be sad.

I think this is going to be a fun conversation, so I'm super thankful.

So, Colby, welcome.

Thanks for joining me today.

Thanks for having me, Josh.

This is exciting.

I love all the Borderland stuff, especially, I think.

I don't know how many people can say this, but I've listened to every episode.

I listened this morning on my run, and I'm really bad with names, but I guess I give all the episodes like my own little name.

Like today I listened to the skateboarding hot sauce guy.

Oh, isn't he fun?

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to that collaboration that you're going to do with former skateboarders that run.

Me too.

Me too.

It's been fun.

Well, I appreciate that.

And here's another thing that I admire about you from just some little bit of due diligence on my end, is that not only are you a teacher, you've got this run streak going that we'll get into more.

Um, but you clearly have kids that you love and that you.

That you value, and I think there's five of them.

Is that true?

Yep.

Tell me a little bit about them.

What.

What do you.

What's it like being a dad of five kids.

It's the best.

Yeah.

I, I've taught the older three in class, which is amazing.

I teach in a small town that I actually grew up in.

You can see my parents house actually from school, which is kind of fun.

So they teach.

What town are you in?

Parma.

So there's probably.

I mean it's your truly the one blinking light town.

Not even a stoplight.

One blinking light town.

I grew up here.

My dad grew up here.

He went to the same school.

I teach a classroom that I had as a kid.

No way.

Yeah.

My kids get to walk home to grandma's house when they're in elementary every day after school.

So that's a really fun way to grow up.

But yeah, we have five kids from 17, so.

17, 15, 13, nine and seven.

Okay.

So you haven't sent the first one off yet to college or.

They haven't graduated high school yet.

He's a high school.

He's our band kid, cross country track runner.

We're working, working the fast food, Jimmy John's restaurant job, like doing all those, all those growing up things.

So it's fun, man.

Well, yeah, I say, you know, from, from one dad to another, I just always admire when I see other dads just proud of their kids.

And you clearly, clearly are.

And so I think that's, that's just a cool point of connection.

Good kids.

Yeah.

Good.

So let's talk a little bit about reading even before running.

I mean, you clearly have a passion for it and you go way back as someone who's been talking about it publicly and advocating for reading and advocating for authors, it looks like also books that you love because you have a big platform on YouTube and Instagram.

Talk to me a little bit about your passion related to reading.

I mean, you're a teacher.

It would be easy to have a passion like hot sauce or something.

That's not what you do when you're not working.

Maybe looks a little bit like what you do when you are working.

Yeah.

So, you know, I was like your traditional kid.

I read a lot in elementary school.

You know, Gary Paulson's Hatchet was the book that I say changed my life.

Okay.

Then I got to middle school, I read one book in three years.

I got to high school, I read one book in four years.

And then I went to a community college and I couldn't pass the science class.

Like I couldn't.

It was the first time in my life I couldn't just show up to school and do well.

I actually had to, like, be able to read this textbook.

And I just.

I tried, but I couldn't do it.

And it was because I wasn't a good enough reader.

And I made it all the way through school.

I got good enough grades, but I couldn't read.

And at the time, my girlfriend was a big reader, and she was getting, like, a full ride scholarship to the small liberal arts school.

She was one year behind me in school, and she was always reading, like Count of Monte Cristo she would, like, have in the car when we would go on dates.

And so I asked her for a book, and she kind of got me reading.

She's my wife now, mother of our friends, five kids, so that's a good part of the story.

But I started reading and I got to hear all these great stories and all these magical worlds, and I was then able to do the things that I wanted in school.

And I just saw the power when I became a teacher.

And I wasn't maybe a very good teacher at first.

It was through reading teacher books and different things that helped me to see what was possible.

And I didn't want any of my kids that I teach to have to go through what I went through in college, where I was not able to do what I dreamed to do because I wasn't a good enough reader.

So that's really why I throw all my passion into that.

I see the impact that reading can have on kids.

And throughout.

Do you remember what the one book was in high school that you read?

Yeah, it was a biography about Bob Hurley.

So I was obsessed with Bobby Hurley, the basketball player from Duke.

Okay, okay.

He's this little point guard, and it was his dad, who was a legendary Catholic high school basketball coach in New Jersey.

So that was the one book that I read.

Sports.

Interesting.

I mean, I think it's curious because you're talking about all these other books that you read, but that I think on some levels, it's a fascinating conversation to say, what?

Like, how did that one book get you compared to, like, being presented with all these books?

Because mine was Catcher in the Rye when I was 17.

That was the only book I read before the age of 18.

And that one might be more obvious, like, I'm not holding Caulfield, but I am coming of age.

I am trying to figure out who I am.

And I do.

You know, I felt growing up was hard, and I didn't want to.

You know, I wanted to.

I love sort of the childlike nature keeping kids young.

That.

That one book captured your attention.

That's just interesting to me.

One of all the ones that you.

Were presented with and the part of the story that I didn't say, my teacher handed it to me.

She was at an event and saw the book and she says, I think that you would love to read this.

And that's kind of the way that I walk into my class every day.

Every day could be the day that a kid finds that book.

Every day could be the day that they find their hatchet, that they find their Catcher in the Rye, that they find that book, that, you know, reading's always going to be there for a kid and we're going to have these times, these peaks and valleys in our reading lives.

Yeah.

And if they have those books to hang on to, that Catcher in the Rye, that hatchet that, the One and Only Ivan or Wonder the Wild Robot, the books that kids are reading today, they always have that foundation that they can come back to.

So if we can help them to have those, a lot of people call them those heart print books, then reading is something that they can see has value in their lives when they're ready to come back to it.

And as a fifth grade teacher, I guess even in a small town, are you, are you teaching, you're teaching every subject to a fifth grade class, Right?

My teaching partner and I switch for science and social studies.

So I teach all the social studies, she teaches all the science.

Okay, so then you're.

Your passion for reading kind of has its moment in the day with your.

These same kids that you see every day.

So do you see a trend, I mean, with someone who's so into reading, do you see a transition in your kids from day one to, you know, the last day of fifth grade every year in terms of reading?

Yeah.

And plus I have a reputation now, like they know what they're getting.

When you walk into my classroom and you see 3,500 books, so from the moment they walk in, they know what we value.

And I think that's a big part of it.

Right.

Like, just being excited about reading is such a big part of the battle.

Just being excited about anything.

Right.

Like the, the math teacher that is just nerdy about numbers is going to, is going to get kids to be excited about that.

I'm not a great social studies teacher, but man, I get excited about the stamp act, man.

When we are doing the Intolerable acts, I am like, this is the most exciting thing ever.

Yeah.

So, yeah, getting and they're excited.

My kids know authors and illustrators and books and series as well, as I would say, just about any class around, because we're excited about it and we live.

We live it.

And it's a community.

Right.

Like, you're such a big community guy and the community that you've built.

And that's what we have.

I really say there's four things you have time to read, choice to read what you want.

You have access to lots of books, and then you're part of a community.

And if we can do those four things, then really great things can happen.

Wow.

I mean, I don't even know where to begin.

I think I'm curious.

I don't always love the word influencer, but you are influencing a lot of people to see certain authors and to parents to motivate their kids to read and then motivating kids to read.

Where did that start from?

Colby Sharp, the influencer.

Was that on Instagram?

Was that on YouTube?

Maybe 12 years ago.

I do this thing at the beginning of the year.

I don't know if you've ever seen.

There's this famous video of Steve Ballmer, who was like a big Microsoft guy.

He owns the Clippers, where he's just like, running around stage going nuts about his company.

Oh, yes.

Well, so many years.

The first day of the school year, I do this thing where I talk about how I love reading, and I'm just like, at a level 9 or 10 volume.

I'm jumping on desk.

I'm jumping from desk to desk, talking about how much I love reading.

I love reading.

And one year, someone filmed it.

Oh.

And then that was put on social media.

Okay.

And then that kind of got.

A lot of people watched it through that way.

So it was.

Yeah, that I love reading speech.

So if you ever just Google, Mr.

Sharp loves reading.

A much younger version of me will be hopping from desk to desk.

Oh, man, I love it.

I don't know if it's.

I don't know if it's aged well, but that's probably where it all started.

Okay.

And it really also started with me just learning from other teachers and getting book ideas.

It was kind of like the earlier days of Twitter where we were all just like, excited to be talking to each other and everything was real positive.

Yeah, that's cool.

So we had a brief exchange yesterday, just by email saying that there was.

On your mind was this idea of why kids aren't exercising or running as much after they leave elementary school or, you know, in that also like reading being this launchpad into being a lifelong reader as well.

I think even as we kind of hone in on some specifics with this conversation.

I like this idea and I'm.

And what I admire about you as a teacher is you're.

You're kind of.

You're thinking, setting these kids up for life.

And that feels like that should be intuitive, like you're in elementary school and that's what you're going to do.

You're kind of laying a foundation so that when they're out of your class, you've left an impression of love for reading and perhaps running.

Yeah.

It's the same thing.

Like, every kid just about comes to school loving to read.

Right.

You'll just see them.

They don't even maybe know how to read the words, but they will just sit with books and turn pages and want to show everyone everything else.

It's the same thing with running, Right.

Like you have three kids.

Kids do not learn to walk like they walk so that they can run.

The kids are trying to learn to run.

Yeah.

And our gym teacher, who's is just amazing, they do.

They have to run the mile in fifth, right.

For a time.

And so they.

We have this track, it's like 4 1/4 laps or something around the playground.

And every lap they get a straw, Right.

So that they can keep track of how many laps they've done.

Yeah.

And they don't love it.

They don't love it in fifth grade.

So already we've taken this thing that they love to do, running, and they're already developing being against it.

But in kindergarten, at the beginning of the year, he has them run a lap just to.

Just to.

Just to try it.

Right.

And he gives them a straw at the end and he's like, if you want to keep going, keep going, but you know, go.

Or you can go play on the playground after your lap.

And they all just keep running laps and they just keep collecting straws and they're so excited about, like, they're just so excited to run and be outside and.

Right.

Like, we have to teach them to not run and they just want to run everywhere.

And I think about, like my own journey in school.

I don't really know what your story is, Josh, from like your younger days is running, but mine was basically, I hated it in middle school.

This is like reading, right?

Yeah.

I remember the first week of middle school we had to run around the gym for three minutes, cones at each corner.

And then the next week four, and then the next week five, until the test at the end of the semester was, can we run for 20 minutes?

And it was the worst.

Yeah.

So that's my memory from middle school.

Then in High School, 10th grade, trying out for the basketball team.

We had to run two mile a time, two miles, eight.

Eight trips around the track.

And I remember finishing dead last.

And the next day I was caught from the junior varsity basketball team.

So all I had were these awful memories around running.

Just like with reading, I didn't have a lot of positive memories.

I had, like, the Scarlet Letter that I read a page of.

I had the Great Gatsby, which I read a chapter of, like, all of these failed moments.

And I'm just thinking, like.

And I don't.

I'm not.

I don't have the.

I have some answers with reading.

I don't have the answers with running.

But what if we can just.

And just like with reading, this lifelong skill.

Like, my daughters are Competitive gymnasts, practice 25 hours a week.

They're not going to do gymnastics as adults.

Kids are not going to play football.

Very few kids even play basketball as adults.

But running is something moving your body forward is something that.

If we can give kids positive experiences with that and keep them running, keep them moving, it will change their life.

Yes.

Yeah.

I.

My.

My experience with running as a kid was that I was a baseball player.

And so running was punishment for doing something wrong later in life.

It didn't even occur to me until I made these really great friends.

They were the Mauers.

They're from Wisconsin, and they moved to Salt Lake City.

I grew up in West Texas.

I moved here when I was 19.

So the Mauers were a running family.

And Jackie shows up wearing a shirt that says, my sport is your sport's punishment.

And that was just like, that's it.

Yeah.

I mean, so I really got into running.

There's a handful of people that were influential, but the Maurer family was among the most.

And I thought, yeah, that was it.

Like, I always viewed it.

I viewed that if I had done something wrong in baseball, and not so much that it was like, it's not.

It's.

It wasn't even, like, deep or, you know, angry.

It was just like, oh, yeah, perceptively.

Yeah, push your body hard like that if you make a mistake.

So let's not make a mistake in baseball, because the goal in baseball is different.

And that's not even condition.

That's not even conditioning, which, you know, you do need for certain sports.

That's flat out, we have to fix a problem.

We're going to make you do this thing that you don't want to do.

Yes.

So by making that the thing that you do when you've done something incorrectly, it's just cast in a negative light obviously.

So it's.

Running is negative.

And if you don't want to run, then you got to play baseball better.

Yeah.

Easier said than done.

Easier said than done.

Right.

And then I started to get obsessed with it when these really important men in my life who were mentor types were also runners and, and they were like, hey, I don't have time for a one on one with you, but we're running up the canyon.

Join me, let's talk.

And so we would do these hard runs or you know, with this, this guy named Lee.

And you know, there was just, there was just all these people that came in and so then to me running became formation, like of the whole person.

So it was where I would become more healthy.

But that was actually secondary because I was so interested in what these men had to give me.

So running became so deeper, so much deeper.

And then I found ultra running.

And then you know, I was able to kind of tie so many parts of like my ambitious personality to my desire to be formed.

And all these sort of things came at this intersection of ultra running.

So that's, that's my elevator version.

So you have.

And you just thinking of like the positive things that you associate with running.

How many positive.

I mean even though you've haven't finished seven of your 800 mile runs, you still have an overwhelming amount of positive things that you can associate.

So you're more likely to do it.

Yes.

So that's what I want to be able to help these kids that we serve.

Like how can we give that they're not all going to try to run a hundred miles?

I don't.

Right.

You know, I don't need that.

But I want them to be healthy.

I want them to have things in their life where they can get that, like this, that time alone that you can have with yourself.

Running is just.

I don't think I could, I could live without that.

Yeah.

And so what about you?

Did you, you've all.

Running has been a hobby.

Did you run in college?

Did you.

No, I ran like I started to run a little bit in college because I wasn't playing sports and I, I was worried that I was, I, you know, what, am I getting out of shape here?

Yeah.

So there was, my wife was a runner.

She was all state cross country, all state track girlfriend at the time.

So I was getting around cross country more.

So I thought I Would try to start running and the goal was to run two miles because I left my house and I went south on the road my parents lived on.

I would end or the one mile turnaround was right before you had to go down a big hill.

So I'm like, if I ever.

I'm never going to go farther than this because if I go down this big hill, then I have to come back up this hill.

Right.

So I was able to work up to that.

And you know, then kind of on and off.

I would say when we started having kids is when I really started to run a lot more.

And so where does this run streak come into your story?

I guess the first time I heard about the run streak was in the book Running with the Buffaloes, which follows the Colorado men's and women's cross country team first season.

And the coach.

Oh, I don't know.

This book, it's probably the best.

It's probably the best running book I've ever read, really.

Running with the Buffaloes.

And what's really interesting in so many of the running books is a lot of the characters like the people you see in other books.

Adam Goucher is in this book.

Right.

Who now is, I guess, often referred to as Kara Goucher's.

Yes, that's how I know the name.

Cara Goucher's husband.

He was a multiple time national champion Colorado, but the coach had a running streak and I remember he needed hernia surgery, but he decided not to get it because it would affect his streak.

I'm like, well, that's different than how I run.

Then I saw just some people online who, who did it.

I had a teacher friend who I saw he was trying to do it for a year.

And then, yeah, August 4, 2019, I started running.

I feel like Forrest Gump here.

I just started running and then I tried to do it for a month and then when Covid came, like really came in March, that was really like the only way for me to kind of get out of the house and.

Yeah.

And have some, some normalcy in my life.

But yeah, every, every day.

So I'm not like there's people who have way longer streaks, but I'm over 1600.

Between 1600 and 1700 days every day.

Every single school day.

But maybe one or two a school year is in the morning, so it's always 4am alarm out the door.

Okay.

Six miles is pretty much every day.

Really.

Okay, that's what I was going to say, like in a run streak, like, you know, what about like, you're traveling for some reason, you're in an airport.

I've seen run streakers running through airports before, you know, like, trying to keep it alive.

Like, what are some of the crazier things you've had to do to keep it alive?

My wife and I celebrated our 20th anniversary last year in St.

Lucia.

And the day before we're supposed to fly home, a tropical storm hit and I was very.

So all the power went out, the sound, the wind.

And so I ran for like 50 minutes at like one in the morning just to try to.

Because I couldn't sleep.

So I just like ran around our Airbnb just nonstop, nonstop.

So I'm by chance that one's not on Strava, but love to see that most of the other ones, I think I only marked it as like a mile because I didn't want to, like, cheat or anything.

Yeah, it's.

That was probably the hardest.

It's hard when we're like, our daughters have like, gymnastics meets and things in different states.

Those are the hardest.

Like a Saturday.

If I have to get up at like 5am to run from a hotel, that's tricky.

Not bad.

It's actually become easier at home to run than I think.

Than to not run, I bet.

If I don't do it in the morning.

Yeah, if I don't do it in the morning, I worry about it and I think about it.

So it's best to just.

What time are you going to bed?

If you're getting up at 4 and able to run.

I don't know, like 10:30, 11:00.

So you're able to.

I mean, are you extroverted or you don't need as much sleep?

Maybe I really like the sleep, but, I mean, I'm fine.

We have five kids, right?

Like, we have all that training of not having a lot of time to sleep.

So you probably.

So you kept.

So with your youngest being sleep trained.

You know, at this point, there is this thing, wherever it comes from, evolutionary biology, whatever, we've evolved to be able to handle less sleep than we think.

You learn that among other places if you have kids.

And so what you're saying is maybe on some level you kept that alive.

Like, you didn't let that.

What strength, I would say, of needing less sleep atrophy after your kids got older.

Yeah, and I try to make every.

All of the running and all of the social media stuff I do with books, I try to make that have as little impact on my family as possible.

So 90% of my runs are Done before while people, at the worst people are just waking up.

Yeah, yeah, I'm similar.

I'm similar though.

Different.

So I will wake up now at 4:30, but it's to do a lot of work so that when I go on my run in the middle of the day I'm not, I'm not sacrificing family, but I'll go in the middle of the day.

But it's because I've, my job is flexible enough to where I can put in a couple hours before kids are awake, before anybody's awake.

So yeah, I'm not good at getting out the door and going for that run at 4:30, but I am good at getting up at 4:30 and working.

So that's my trade off.

Yeah, I think you have to balance and figure that out.

And there's nothing wrong with like running when my kids are awake.

Like you need that time and you need to like take care of yourself.

So for me that seems, that seems to work and I don't have to think about it.

I always tell people like that are trying to work out, like if you just do it in the morning, it's done and then if you don't get it done there's time.

But if you wait till later in the day and something comes up, then you just can't do it.

Yeah, yeah.

Like today is kind of a funny day for me.

Like I've got, I'm doing three of these interviews today to roll out over the next few days.

Had coffee with an old friend this morning and I teach a class at the University of Utah on Thursday nights for three hours and I've got to, and I've got to run 10 hours.

Sorry, 10 hours, 10 miles today.

I'm trying to.

So it's one of those days, you know?

Yeah.

You just figure it out though.

Yeah.

And we're capable of doing it and, and it helps for me, you know, when we talk about ambition as a parent.

Wanting to be a good father and wanting to be a good husband, but to have a partner like my wife who.

Yeah, that's who gets me.

Yeah, like that's important.

Can't be understated.

Hey, I have a question for you.

Yeah.

So I have no plans to run a hundred mile run, but my wife is running a hundred this summer.

Yes, right.

Some Tahoe rim thing.

Yeah, the rim trail.

Yeah, Tahoe 100.

So what is your advice for me?

Like there's lots of advice for her out there.

Like you've ran these races, you've been crewed by people.

Like, what do I need to do to be.

Because I love.

Like, I've done, like, I've crewed her in the backyard ultras.

I've crewed her at 50 miles.

But, like, this is different.

What a great question.

It's more than twice as long, right?

Because you're not going to be running as fast as.

So I don't really know.

I can't, like, envision what that time looks like for me.

Are you her crew chief?

I am the only person coming.

Love it.

So you've got reliable babysitters and you.

Know, that are, like our anniversary summer trip.

Yeah.

Oh, gosh.

First off, I love you.

This is great, like, to.

I.

That you're doing this, you know, and thinking this way and, like, that this is what you guys are doing when you're, you know, for.

For fun together.

When I think about that, I.

So for so long, I hadn't been on a crew until a buddy of mine, Cordell, asked me to pace him at some races.

And, man, I just think that, first off, I.

There's, like, I get kind of romantic with my language in this space, but it's like, it's sacred space to be in suffering with somebody regardless of if it's voluntary or not.

So first off, like.

And you say this is her first hundred miler?

First hundred mile, yeah.

Yeah.

She's gonna encounter something in herself that she's never met before.

And so one of the key things, abstractly, is to have grace on her when you encounter her, and perhaps you don't recognize the person that's before you.

And this is late race.

This is middle of the night.

This is desire to quit, kind of if she goes there mentally.

I was just talking to the guy who's going to be the crew chief for me at Zion coming up.

And I'm not externally motivated, so for me, the trick is we've got to have a lot of conversations leading up to say, hey, how do we put all the stuff in me that I can pull from?

And how can he help me pull from what's inside of me instead of.

He's not going to be able to say, hey, get up.

You can do it.

You can do it.

Unfortunately, I don't hear that.

Okay.

And that could be a problem, I'm willing to admit.

But if it's.

If there's a, like, a well within me that we can grab stuff out of.

So what we're trying to do is fill that well up.

So one question I would have for her is big picture Are you externally motivated or internally motivated?

If you're externally, let's talk about how I can encourage you, how I can coach you, how I can push you.

When you say you want to stop, do you want me to tell you to keep going?

Do you want me to get in your face?

Or do you want me to put my arm around you and say, if I were in this situation, I'd want to stop, too?

I get it.

Like, does she want to be understood?

And this is.

This is Also, like, marriage 101, I guess.

Like, do you want to be understood right now, or do you want me to push your ass out there and, like, are we going to finish this thing?

Or if you want to start, like, what type of partner do you need?

A lot of it.

And she also won't be able to answer it, but just to say, like, hey, we're talking about.

Then you get to this moment of like, okay, you know, she doesn't want this.

She does want this.

You know, one of the things that people do for me that is fun, even if it's not motivating, is showing up with snacks that I didn't ask for.

So it's like, hey, I thought, here's, you know, like, have 10 things in your pack.

Like, when she shows up, she knows what she wants.

She has her race plan, and just say, hey, I brought.

Also brought these things.

And she may say no to all of them, but for me, that's just kind of fun.

It's like, oh, variety, because there's going to be flavor palate fatigue of all the stuff that she thinks that she wants.

Yeah.

So.

So really, it's like, imagine that you're showing up with 100% of yourself and you like of what you think is enough.

Here's 100% of Colby.

But what she's actually going to need is 150% of you.

And that other 50%, you won't know until the moment.

Okay?

So to just be like, I'm here for whatever this.

Whatever it means to be here and having your first aid kit of goodies, that first aid kid is both.

Anything from Vaseline to Oreos or whatever she likes or the things that might bring her delight at mile 80, it's such a cool experience.

I mean, that sacred space of being with someone when they're suffering, whether it's voluntarily or not, is so special.

Well, how do you feel about bringing so many more people along this time then?

Because you are, you know, you've had your races that you haven't finished and the race that you did finish, but now you're bringing along this entire community.

Yeah.

And there's expectations and I don't know if there's pressure or what is that like, that's quite bold.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I feel like one thing I haven't done is burn the ships, so to speak, where it's like, I am finishing.

I'm finishing because I am kind of happy within myself and I don't need external things to.

I don't need the awards to feel validated within myself.

Like, there's this.

I'm.

I feel like very, like.

Okay.

Within myself.

So if I quit, whatever.

Well, I.

I don't want to do that this time.

So one is.

It's like opening it up to the whole world.

I'm doing this.

I'm seeking advice.

And most of that advice comes down to just a few things, but one is being convinced within your own mind that you're going to finish.

I still struggle with that to this moment.

But bringing them all in is also.

There's a part of me that the people I love, even though I'm introverted, so I don't have a wide circle, but the people that I love, oh, I just love being with them.

So I've got my friend Alex, one of my best friends from high school, Ryan, and then my good friend Jeremy, who's been in a lot of different things.

Jeremy's former Navy, Alex is currently in the Air Force, and Ryan is a former Green Beret or Army Ranger.

So I'm trying to tap into that.

The joy of being with them will be one thing.

The next thing will be they're all bringing this military mindset that hopefully I can pick up the crumbs of their.

That you don't listen to, that you don't.

I know.

So, like, let's just.

I'm trying to get through Osmosis.

Do you think you're going to finish this time?

I do this time.

I think.

Oh, let's go, Josh.

So, you know, since you've listened to some of the stuff, there's the.

The Matt.

Matt Johnson's.

Makes me laugh.

But it also was a good moment of like self awareness.

It's like saying that I'm the best and then finishing 976th and then saying, see, I told you I'm the best.

I think that to me was one of the more like, oh, okay.

So he's like this kind of arrogant coming off guy, but he's really just saying, not saying.

I'm really, I'm not Literally the best.

I know that.

But I need to tell myself better things than what I currently tell myself because the current messages in my mind are not working.

They are not good for anybody.

So if I can work on this self talk piece of like, hey, I am good, I can do this.

I don't know if I could ever say I'm the best, but to be like, I am good, I am strong, I should be able to do that.

There's no reason I can't do this unless I get a legit injury.

So I'm going to finish.

So of the seven you haven't finished physically, how many do you think you could have finished?

I think of the seven, I think if I, if I try and be objective on them, I think three of them I legit could have, okay, could have kept going.

I think my first one, which set the tone, which I DNF'd that set the tone.

I made it to mile 78.

I, I, I ran out of water and my Pacer for 16 miles.

He didn't bring water.

He wasn't an ultra guy, but he's an old road marathoner.

He's like, oh, I, I wish I would have thought to bring water even for myself.

It was only 16 miles and so I didn't think I would need water.

And I was like, so, yeah, so they all have their stories, but I think there's, there's a few that was just like my brain, my brain is my biggest weakness.

I, you know, my self, messaging, all this sort of stuff is the key takeaway for me and it will make me a better ultra runner, which ultimately because I'm not elite, my, my greatest goal for being a good ultra runner is becoming a better person.

And I think that this self talk thing is going to take, is taking me in the right direction.

You got this.

Josh.

I love your, thank you for asking me questions.

That was, that was nice.

It's just so exciting.

Like, I don't know, all this like running stuff, it's just, I just can't stop thinking like a couple of weeks.

I ran my first 50k last year.

Oh, nice.

It was like 30 people, 24 people, right?

And it was awesome.

And then like I've run a couple 5Ks lately, there's like 300 people and just, I've done the, I've been to the backyards with my wife and big ultras with my wife and it's just all awesome.

This is why like running with young kids is so great because it's just magical, like watching every every 5k that I've been to, they always ask the same question.

Whose first 5K is this?

Yeah.

And there's always a bunch of hands that go up and just like, the thought that they have an opportunity to join this community that has given us so much.

Yeah.

It's just so exciting.

It is.

That's a.

That's a good note to end on and to let you.

For everyone listening, needs to know that you're on your lunch break.

Gotta go get the kids from recess.

Yeah.

And you're about to get the kids from recess.

And that's so generous of you to give of what would normally be maybe some good downtime or something for you.

So thank you so much for.

Appreciate you, Josh, sharing your time.

And I can't wait to hear how your wife does that race and how you do as Pacer.

I mean, I think that's a.

That's a legit thing.

Like, you know, make sure, as a crew, whatever.

Like.

Yeah.

Making sure you take care of yourself.

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks, Josh.

Cheers.

Thank you.

See you, man.

Thank you.