6 Days in the Dome: “Living an Ultra Life” Podcast Host Mike Horner Walks Us Through The Race & His Mammoth 322 Mile Finish!

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Finished numerous ultra distances at this point , all the way up through 220 miles , and I am unashamedly a member of the back of the pack , just like many of you . Now , today , we are super honored to have with us the magnificent Mr Mike Horner . Mike is an accomplished back of the pack ultra runner with a pretty impressive track record .

He has completed numerous timed events , including a host of 24 hour races , multiple 200 mile races , particularly at the Swami Shuffle , which is where Mike and I bumped into each other in an adventurous last 24 hours , and he's also done a few 150 mile events too , but most recently , just a few weeks back in fact , mike achieved a significant milestone by

participating in the six days in the dome race in Milwaukee , wisconsin , where he managed to clock up a pretty staggering 322 miles , marking his longest run to date . That is just incredible . Not only that , though .

In addition to his athletic pursuits , mike is also host of the Living an Ultra Life podcast , which he has been doing for several years now , where he talks with guests and shares his experiences and insights into our ultra running community .

Mike's dedication , achievements and enthusiasm make him a standout figure in the sport , and I'm thrilled to have him on the show to discuss his most recent accomplishment as well as a little bit about his journey as an ultra runner . So don't go anywhere . We are about to jump right in .

Ran a electrical distributorship and shared in Wyoming for a number of years , and now I'm back in Virginia Beach as a partner in a lighting manufacturers agency , which is just a fancy way of saying that , rather than manufacturers hiring salespeople all over the country , they hire agencies , and so we represent 26 different lighting manufacturers .

So that's what I do on a full-time basis . I'm the guy who's out there working with architects , engineers , contractors and electrical distributors to move product .

Like , I used to make fun of all the runners , because I grew up a hockey player and a football player and the only time you ran is when you screwed up and you know you had to go run laps or something . Yeah , yeah . So you know my whole adult life . You know I was in sales . I didn't I , I golfed .

That was my main thing was , you know , I golfed and and I stunk at that . So I don't even know why I chased that little white ball , because it never went where I wanted it to go . And so at some point , my wife and I had lived overseas , we'd come back and I had gained a ton of weight .

So I was pushing 265 pounds and I was getting ready to go make a sales call and I was in a size 40 pants . I breathed way in , as I was used to doing , and got my pants buckled , and then I breathed out , and when I breathed out , my button popped across the room and I realized that I needed to go buy a size up in pants .

And so went and bought a size 42 pair of pants and realized I was going the wrong way and decided need to change my health trajectory . And so that was in 2010 , like the late November 2010 . And I went for my first run right after Thanksgiving in 2010 . And I guess you could say I haven't stopped running since , but I got into ultras in 2014 in January .

My wife and I were living in Sheridan , wyoming , and I walked into the kitchen one morning I said , hey , I'm going to run 50 miles on my 50th birthday . My wife looked at me and she's like you are absolutely insane . And I told her that's true , but you've been married to me for a long time , so you already knew that .

So my first ultra marathon was just a 50 mile route that I made up on my 50th birthday on July 3rd 2014 .

It was a really , really hot day in Sheridan and I ran 50 miles and Sheridan's a very small town , so it was a slow news day and somehow one of the television stations came out and interviewed me about 35 miles into my run and the owner of the sports shop was a gal named Karen Powers and she contacted me and she said hey , I just saw you ran 50 miles ,

would you do ? You know there are races that are called ultra marathons and I have not stopped running ultra marathon since . So that's how I got into ultra marathons . I am totally committed to the back of the pack because I have chased every cutoff there is to chase .

. Timed races it's like I take all the all the stress of a cutoff , you know , out of the equation and just go out and have fun and encourage the other runners out there and you know just really see how far can I push my body in this given time .

And so I think the timed races have become more my thing , because I can just go out , have fun , be the goofball that I am and not worry about cutoffs .

Again which seems really weird when you're saying it's a hundred miles . But yeah , you can be chasing cutoffs pretty pretty quickly in those , yeah , and once you start tickling them , it gets more stressful .

So I had to learn a lot about how do I manage the cutoffs and how do I manage the disappointment of oh wait , I , you know I'm , I'm not going to be in the front of the pack , and you know just different , just trying different methods . For me , you know , the biggest thing was learning in a distance race to go to the back at the start of the race .

So I didn't pretend that I was , you know , one of those sleek , fast runners and and go out too fast and then burn myself out in the first , you know , 10 , 12 miles and I've had more success since I started doing that .

I've finished 300 milers , and so you figure out how do you do it and how do you stay within yourself and run your own race instead of trying to compete with people that you don't have any business trying to compete with .

And I think that's a great way to to do racing and a really different approach to trying ultras , which I think works for a lot of people . Now , mike , at what point during your racing did you start to think about a podcast ? How did the idea for living an ultra life come about ?

Was that right at the beginning or did that sort of evolve as you were telling stories of your races ? Where did the podcast idea come from ?

You know , we were created in a can do mentality and I'm so tired of every time you turn on television or radio or pick up any news type of thing , everybody's telling me what you can't do , and I was just like one . I'm part of the ultra running community and I'm seeing people do things that you would never think you could do .

You know , like I had , I completed 200 milers during the pandemic , both virtual , because they got canceled , but you know they said , hey , you can go out and run this , you just got to complete it in this timeframe . One of them was 28 hours and the other one was 26 hours . Yeah , I was like I can do that .

And so I completed my first 200 milers , virtually , and it was like , wow , there's nobody here cheering . My buckle got mailed to me . One of them got mailed to me six months later and I opened it up and I was like I don't even remember which one this was . Yeah , what was that ?

The podcast came about from that because I was like wouldn't it be awesome if we featured stories about what we can do ? And we began refocusing our minds on , instead of this hyper focus on what we can't do , and started focusing on what we can do .

And so living an ultra life is kind of one of those things that when I became part of the ultra running community , I've always kind of struggled in my geekdom , dorkiness , being a goofball and everything of fitting in .

And when I started running ultra marathons , I quickly found out that the ultra running community is very accepting of people and you don't have to have all your stuff together . You know , you can be a total goofball , you can be a mess , you can be whatever , and the community welcomes you in with open arms and says , hey , come run with us .

And so I was like if we could be more like the ultra running community as a society , we would be okay I mean all this hyper partisan divide along political lines and ideological lines and everything If we would stop all that stuff and learn to cheer for each other and learn to accept each other just as we are , we'd be okay .

And so that's where Living in Ultralife came from , and so the podcast started in December of 2020 .

And we've been going since then and it's you know , it's a quirky little niche podcast that has pretty good listenership and shocks me , and we have some amazing guests that come on and they shock me because , you know , they they all come on and say , well , I don't have a story to tell . And then you're an hour later going .

Ok , we sort of got to wrap this up . You know and they realize , wow , I had a story to tell and you know . So my motto has become the worst story that is ever told is the one that never gets told . So I just want to provide a format for people to be able to tell their story .

Now . What we really want to get into here , Mike , we want to get back into and hear about your whole six days in the dome experience that you just went through in Milwaukee . I want to get back into and hear about your whole six days in the dome experience that you just went through in Milwaukee .

I want to say , before we get into what got you in there and how the race panned out for you , maybe you could take a few minutes to sort of give an overview for the listeners . What exactly is six days in the dome ? What's the format ? We said it's in Milwaukee , but what are the rules ? Kind of give us the background to Six Days .

What does this race look like ?

This year there was a 10-day race , a six-day race , multiple 72-hour races , multiple 48-hour races , multiple 24-hour races , multiple 12-hour races and then a 24-hour invitational where they brought in the top 24-hour runners , not just from America , but there were a couple international runners in there also .

And you want to talk about an exhibition and just amazing human beings running around a 443-meter track . That in the middle of the running track , which is only three lanes , so it's not as wide .

None of the lanes are as wide as like your normal high school outdoor track , but probably the three lanes combined are probably about the width of two lanes on a normal outdoor track . So that's what you're running on .

The surface is a concrete surface with a thin covering , and I don't remember the covering that it's covered with , but the concrete is very , very hard because , of course , in the middle are two full-sized hockey rinks and then on the outside of the hockey rinks is a long track that they didn't actually have ice for speed skating .

So and this is all indoors , so the constant temperature is 55 degrees , 35% humidity , so your real feel is somewhere around 52 degrees . All the time , night and day , the lights never go off , so the lights are on 24 seven and that's what you're running under and trying to find ways to creatively sleep and all that stuff .

They would provide a lunch and a dinner for you , so our calorie intake was phenomenal and the meals were catered in and they were all really , really good . It was good food . It wasn't like stuff going oh , how am I going to cram this down . It was all good food that you look forward to .

So phenomenal race directing , when you think about all the different races that Mike and Bill put on over a 10-day period and pulled it off flawlessly with some of the most amazing performances by people that I've ever witnessed in my entire life .

There were probably 60 , 70 runners total on the track , but normally you had anywhere from 40 to 50 on the track at one time during the day .

Once you got into the nighttime hours , those went down a lot because a lot of the runners would you know , they'd come out , they'd run 10 , 12 hours and then they'd go back to the hotel room and these are probably the same ones .

They'd go back to the hotel room and they'd get a full night's sleep and then us insane people would continue on until we couldn't physically continue on any longer , and then we'd go upstairs to a heated room where there were . It looked like a triage room .

By day four of my day four , which for the 10 dayers was their day six that place looked like a triage room with people trying to you know , tape toes , get their feet up and you're all sleeping on air mattresses and little bitty cots . So it was kind of funny to watch the sleeping , sleeping and I'm putting big air quotes in there . It was crazy .

So I at first was like , well , I'm going to sleep down here , I'm not going to go upstairs , and so I had my air mattress down there the first night . And then , you know , I had my table arranged , so I use Scratch Super Fuels as kind of the main kind of thing that I use the table .

And then of course , tylenol , aspirin , lots and lots of tiger balm was used and that's all out on your table and everything . And so you know first aid , you know tape and toes or anything like that . When you got hotspots and all that kind of stuff , that was , that was your table .

And so that was the first day I kept my air mattress downstairs until I realized that trying to sleep in 55 degrees weather is really cold .

I shared my table with a 24-hour runner , Just kind of scooted my stuff over and gave one of my chairs because we had two chairs and so I gave him one of my chairs and part of the table and he put his stuff there and ran his 24-hour race and wisely went home when he was done with his 24-hour race and I continued on for another three days .

But so a lot of that was happening , so there was a lot of sharing of spaces .

There's one gal crushed it . She did like 63 miles in 12 hours . I was like you are not of this world . So , um cause , mike ? Mike doesn't even think about doing 60 miles in 12 hours , but um so , yeah , she was . She was amazing , but the 12 hour runner started at nine and then they would end at start at 9 am and end at 9 pm .

I was telling him I want to discover what is it like to get to that point where , physically , you know you can't go another inch , where , mentally , you know you can't go another inch and he goes hey , you know you can't go another inch , where , mentally , you know you can't go another inch and he goes hey , you know , there's a six day race that happens in

Milwaukee , wisconsin . It's in a hockey arena . He said you should look into that , and so I did .

And so the more and more I thought about it , I was like , yeah , this could be it , this , this , this would be a perfect you know-day race . Initially , when I signed up for it , it was going to be my 59th ultramarathon finish , and so I was like , yeah , that's kind of cool , get my 59th ultramarathon finish there .

And then a friend invited me down to run a really fun 50K down in North Carolina . So now it became my 60th ultra marathon finish and also I was like , you know , it's kind of symbolic , running one day for every decade I've been on this earth . And so all I've got to do is , you know , move the six days .

And I just wanted to physically and mentally reach that point where I couldn't move another inch .

So were there any specific routines or differences in training methods from what you've used before that you changed and maybe found particularly effective ?

And I was like I'm going to run around the inside of your warehouse for 10 hours . He's like you're insane . But yep , here's the code , you know , just make sure you don't . You know , unlock any doors that need to be unlocked and just keep it locked . And I was like , okay , no problem .

So you know , I set up a little course in his warehouse and ran around the warehouse for 10 hours because I wanted to find out how does my body react in the early morning hours .

You know how does my body react at 2 am , because my whole thing was you're going to have a lot of noise , because it's a hockey arena and I know what a hockey arena sounds like and everything . So I knew the sounds and stuff I was going to hear . You're going to have music blaring all the time .

The lights are going to be on during the day , so there's a lot of . It's not like Swami Sh , where you're in desolation alley , you know , between bass night bridge and jug handle bridge and there's nothing . You know there's none of that . There's always going to be people around .

There's always going to be these external things that are going on , and so I wanted to find out how well I could move in the early morning hours versus the wake hours , because that's where I've always kind of stunk , as an ultra runner is . I like hit 2 am and I get loopy brain , and so I wanted to force myself to work an entire day .

I think I did a podcast interview in the evening and then , you know , headed out to this warehouse at 9 pm and I did that twice just because I wanted to push myself , and both times I went over 40 miles . I think I did 46 one time and 48 the other time . So I knew I could .

I could hit the miles and stuff if I could just stay awake , and so that was . That was kind of the big thing that I changed in my training .

Of course , I had never run a track I so I've never done a speed workout before hit before this , and I was like so I talked to some friends of mine that are really good runners and I was like , okay , explain this whole track workout thing to me , because I don't understand the markings on a track .

Remember , I've never run track or anything , so I don't know any of this stuff . So I was like , teach me what are the markings on a track , how do I ? I ? Told him I wanted to do the run walk method . I said you know what are marks that I should look for to do ? And so you know , they taught me that and so I did a little .

I did a couple of track workouts and stuff and I think one was like three and a half hours and pouring down rain in April and that was not fun . But you know , whatever , it's what we do as ultra runners . And so , you know , I did some different training . You know runs and stuff .

Would eat a large dinner and then go out and run after eating a large dinner just to see how my stomach reacted , with a good amount of food in it and everything . So little things like that that I did .

I've had a lot of things happen to the left side of my body and so my left leg lands really heavy . And he was like but when you power walk , you land light , you land , you know really really well . And he said you can get scooting with your power walk . He said you should just abandon the run and just do the power walk .

He said in fact , why don't you do the first 50 miles , do your run , walk and once you hit the 50 miles at Blackbeard's , walk the rest way and get your power walk and gear and at you know mile 75 , start passing people .

And so I did that at Blackbeards and walked the entire last 50 miles and in the last 75 , in the last 25 miles of that race , I passed 22 people . So I knew that I could .

So my strategy going into six days was OK , I'm going to start out doing a run walk for throughout most of the first day , but at some point I was like I'm going to transfer over and just see how well I can do this power walk and just plow through the power walk with a little bit of running mixed in every day . So my goal was I had to run .

My goal was I have to run at least 25 laps every single day . So I don't know why I came up with 25 . But I was like I and I want to . I want to clip those laps off in the 250 to 325 range and then power walk the rest of them and try and stay in the 350 to no more than five minute laps . And I was pretty successful doing that .

So I was happy with my strategy and my goal going in was to do 400 miles and , like I said , I've never done a six day . So I didn't know what I didn't know and I was just really blessed . I had some gentlemen talk to me .

The first was Mike Dobies , who was the first person I've met and , for those of you who don't know , mike Dobies is like the biggest statistical guru in the timed event world and like the journey run Laz Lake world that you'll ever meet and just one of the nicest guys in the world and he asked me . He said you know what's your goal ?

And I told him I'd like to go over 400 miles and he said cut it in half . And I was like wow .

I was like , okay , so he was the first one . And then there was a gentleman from Scotland and I can't remember his last name , but Scott took me aside and he he needed . He was in the 10 day race and he needed some stuff from the grocery store and he asked me to Uber to the grocery store and pick some stuff up .

So I did and I got back and he was like what's your goal ? And I told him 400 miles . He said cut it in half . He said this surface is hard . Whatever you think you're going to do , cut it in half and be happy with it and just work hard . And I was like okay , that's two .

And David Johnston , who you know for those of you in the ultra running world that follow like runners from way out in the never , never land he is one of the top runners from Alaska who now lives in Missouri , but he's , he's a beast of a runner .

I mean , it's just a phenomenal multi-day runner , backyard runner , and he's just so for him to kind of pull up beside me and just kind of come alongside me . And you know , he started talking to me about , you know , my gait and everything . And he said , man , you've land really heavy on your left foot . And he said what's your goal ?

And I , you know , I said , well , you know I was thinking 400 miles . He said , cut it in half . And I'm like , okay , I'm a dork'm gonna , I'm gonna say okay , once I pass 222 miles , which is Swami shuffle , I was like now I'm in uncharted territory , so that's , my goal is 225 miles and everything after that is sweet , sweet .

Yeah , it was just , it was amazing . And I'm glad I did that because it enabled me to not focus on the number and to focus on moving efficiently and overcoming the pain .

And most of all , you know you've ran with me , my my whole thing is , hey , let's have fun , and I just like to encourage other runners . So whenever I would see a runner , you know , struggling or something , I would just come up alongside of them and I would just encourage them .

I just spend some time talking with them , telling them how amazing they were , and just try to encourage them to keep on moving efficiently , and so that's what I spent my whole race doing was just sliding up . One of the Japanese runners called me the good cheer guy , so you know I would come up with goofy weather reports every morning .

Good morning , it's 55 . Today's weather report it's going to be 55 degrees with 35% humidity . It's going to feel like probably around 52 degrees . Today . There's a 99% chance that you're going to experience some pain and there's 100% chance that you're going to experience discomfort .

Have a wonderful day and I just go around the track doing goofy things like that , just trying to get people to smile .

In the morning you get growls and stuff , but that was my whole goal and so once I hit 225 miles , I'm like I'm in total uncharted territory and that was in day four-ish , I think it was , and I was like well , you know , I got two more days , let's see how much I can do .

She was going after Camille's record , so this is her first attempt at a six-day thing . She's never tried anything . I think her longest race to date was a 55-hour and maybe a backyard where she did 200-something miles . So that was her furthest and she's like I'm going after Camille Heron . And first day she like lights out on fire .

Just , you know you're watching her go around this track . Second day she really struggled a lot . And so I was walking with her at one point and you know she's just the most amazing , kind , gracious person you could ever be around . You don't think that this is an elite runner .

And you know , we were talking and she asked me what I was doing and I said , well , I'm not focusing on a number , I'm just going to have fun and just see how far I can move this weird body of mine . And she just looked at me and she's like that's a different goal and you know .

But it was fun watching her come back alive on day three and go out and crush it . And you know she finished 526 miles which , goodness gracious , that's fourth best in the world . So she's pretty amazing runner . But yeah , I got to spend time with amazing runners a runner that I really , really appreciate , ivo Majetic .

He's a Czech runner who now lives in Colorado , but he is the world's record holder in 48 hour , 72 hour and six day ultra walking category .

So he holds all the records in that category and around the third day he went and passed me and he never ran a single step , but the dude passed me a lot and he ended up being , I think , fifth or fourth yeah , either fifth or fourth overall third male with over like 440 miles .

I mean just amazing , and he goes past me and he does this little finger wave with his hands and I'm going I think he wants me to kind of try and get on his feet . And so I just kind of fell in behind him and what I started doing was just try to mimic what he was doing with his walk Because I mean his walk is just vicious man .

I mean it is the most efficient , lightest touch on the ground walk I've ever seen in my entire life and just I mean he can scoot man . I mean he was getting down into the 10s and 11 minute miles and I was just like okay . So I stayed on the hills for about an hour and when we got done he's like okay , did you notice what I was doing ?

And he started teaching me during the race how to walk better because he said you're a really efficient power walker . I think you could be really really good if you would just fully embrace the walking and not try to . You know , correct your gait , running and everything he said .

I think you could , you know , at your age , destroy a lot of the age group records at your age destroy a lot of the age group records .

So I spent time with him day four , five and six just staying on his heels , him giving me little tips , and my technique got much better during the race , despite all the pain and discomfort that I felt .

So , yeah , very , very appreciative of the people out there and these are elites that you think we think , oh , they're not going to spend any time , they won't talk to me and they would stop and talk to you , they would share tips with you . They would just like David , you know , picked me up one day . He was like why are you sitting eating your meal ?

I was like what are you talking about ? I always sit and eat . He's like , no , you don't Pick up your meal , let's go . And he told like this is how you achieve higher mileage you don't sit down . He said the chair is your enemy and you know . So I mean it was just .

It was six days of being around people who , graciously , if they knew that you were willing to listen , they were willing to share tips with you , and that was amazing .

You get to share some real time with those folks , just like you're saying , and I think that's really cool . I will say , though , taking your dinner with you from Art's Place if you're having a burger and fries and a beer , probably more difficult to do walking down the street .

So those kinds of things , those sort of lessons that you got , Mike , seemed like they were things that went well for you . What else went well for you , Like from from the whole race perspective , what ? What really worked for you and then what didn't work for you .

So in day five , it was like sometime before the 6 pm turnover I had gotten to like 270 miles and everything hurt . And I was just like I got to my table and I was just like I was going to sit down . I was like I just need a short little nap .

And so I was like , well , I'll throw something down on the floor and sleep on the floor , put a hoodie over me and I'll just catch a nap . I never even got to that . I laid down on the floor , didn't put anything over me . Down on the floor , didn't put anything over me . I was exhausted , mentally exhausted , physically exhausted . And just I , I .

I finally realized I had gotten to that point where I'm sitting there going , I can't move another inch . I just I was done . I was just like I , 270 miles is good , I can be proud of this , I can't move another inch . And I was like whoa .

And so I laid there in about you know , probably two or three minutes into laying there , I was like wait a second , I've always wanted to get to this point . This is . This is where I've always wanted to be . See , now you know you're talking to a lunatic . So I was like I'm finally there to that point where I can't physically , mentally , push another inch .

And so I laid there and I was like , okay , god , this is the point where I finally reached the end of me . So now it's all on you . So I just like rolled everything on him . I was like , okay , if I'm going to continue on to hour 144 , it ain't Mikey , so none of it's going to be on me , it's all on you . And I had finally reached the end of me .

And so the thing that I am most excited about is finally reaching the end of me and what I was capable of doing , and then going out and doing another 50 miles .

The aching feet , the muscles that were sore for a week after the I mean just mental exhaustion . Mental exhaustion was not something I was prepared for , you know . You asked what was the thing I did wrong . I had not realized how mentally exhausting it would be to run in circles for six days . Wow , it was mind-numbing .

I mean , you just got to a point where it's like I literally had to force myself to go outside , to leave the track , leave the arena , go outside the dome and go . Okay , there's a sky , look there's a tree , look there's grass . There's a real world that doesn't exist , where I'm not hearing , you know , hockey pucks hit the boards .

I'm not listening to the skates . I'm not hearing all this stuff . I'm not hearing constant music . If I hear , pour some sugar on me again , I'm going to choke somebody , you know . I mean it was because you know , I think we had the same songs playing for six days and so the mind numbing exhaustion I did not prepare well for .

So I had to really fight through that and get to find that happy spot . You know you had to find that spot where it's like , okay , I , I can move on , all right , I'm , I'm okay . Now . I had my little grouchy moment . Now , okay , I'm just , I'm just exhausted mentally and I , I was , I did not prepare for that I don't know how you prepare for that .

So I I'm not sure about the answer to how . What could I do better there ? I'm sure there's something .

So every time you're going around in the middle of the rink there was always something going on .

I would , I would take and I would put my head down and just concentrate on my feet landing and listen to my music . And then , you know , when you came up on somebody and you're passing them , just scoot over and pass , and you know , it just got to point where you just put your head down and say , okay , I'm moving efficiently .

For the next , you know , and I'd set a time limit , I'd say , okay , for the next 45 minutes I'm going to move as efficiently as possible , not going to stop , I'm not going to do anything , I just can put my head down and just go .

And so you just had to set little things like that to kind of overcome the stimulation , because there's just so much stimulation going on .

How much did you sleep and did you stay at the air mattress or did you go up to the warm room after that , having figured out that it was probably kind of bright and cold ?

So at 16 hours I laid down , thinking , you know , put my feet up on one of the chairs laid down , covered myself up with my blanket .

Thinking , you know , covered my eyes with a , with a sock that I had brought to , you know , cause I knew I needed something dark to cover my eyes , cause the lights were never going to be off , and I thought , okay , so I'm out for two hours .

I was down for like a half hour and I'm just like I need earplugs , the one thing I hadn't brought was earplugs .

If you're going to stay down , you've got to bring earplugs or you're never going to be able to block out the music and the sound and the people that are still doing laps going around and talking and the sound and the people you know that are still doing laps going around and talking , and yeah .

So the first night I probably maybe got a total of 45 minutes of sleep , and that's why I moved my mattress up . The second day I took a break and said OK , we're moving the mattress upstairs , going to find a spot and that's where we're going to try and do sleep breaks from then on .

So every night the goal was to move until past the midnight turnaround , because you turned around and went the other direction every six hours , and so the goal was to get to the midnight turnaround , do another couple laps the other direction every six hours , and so the goal was to get to the midnight turnaround , do another couple laps the other direction and then

go up and try and get an hour or two hours of just downtime and realizing that you're not going to get sleep .

When I went back and analyzed so , out of 144 hours , I had a total of 32 hours down , whether that was sitting at my table or upstairs trying to get some sleep , and I think I roughly figured that out of the 144 hours that I got a grand total of about 13 hours of sleep . Wow , that's not a lot .

For them , specifically in preparing for and tackling ultra distances , if they're going to step up to hundreds or two hundreds , or maybe even think about a big timed event 24 hour or beyond , something like six days From all of your experience , what advice would you give somebody ?

So work on your mindset and work on running your own race . Run your own pace and don't let what's going on around you dictate what you can do , because you can probably do much more than you think you're capable of doing . But run your own race at your own pace and realize that you are good enough to finish whatever race you enter .

And I stopped by his table and I was like , dude , how many more miles do you need to do ? He's like . I got to do like four more miles , he's like , but I can't move another inch . I said , okay , let's go four miles . And so I just , I just went with him and , you know , just said we got plenty of time , four miles , not a problem .

I think he had like two and a half more hours and he was just like I can't move . He's like I don't have it , I can't move . I was like , come on , let's just go . And so I stayed with him until he finished four miles and then he went and did another mile and a half on his own .

So there were a lot of people like that that I was just able to come along and you know , I gave everybody nicknames , so you know , warrior , princess and Superstar , and I don't even remember some of that , but I gave everybody a nickname , so everybody had a nickname and I would come up on them and just spend time encouraging them and getting them to move .

Just move efficiently . It doesn't matter how fast you move , and move efficiently .

Where do I go from there ? Nothing will ever be as big or as as bold as these these huge races that are out there . So , mike , I got to ask where do you go from ? Six days in the dome , what is left for you to do ? Since you found you're at the end almost ? What is next for Mike ?

A sub 2400 miler and my next 24 hour race , which will be cape fear 24 hour down in lillington , north carolina , in october .

But I would have said the same thing about 200 miles , you know , a couple of years ago , right , and then people go and do it , and then you end up doing it and you're like , okay , I can do these things , and that's what I love about ultra running . It's right there in a nutshell .

Do you want to tell us the song you selected and why did you pick this one ?

There's a line that says that I have my own plans , but I take my own plans and I set them aside because your hands and your plans are better than mine , and so I've just kind of made that my my life's goal .

In everything I do whether it's growing a business , whether it's growing a podcast , whether it's completing ultra marathons , whether it's encouraging friends who are going through hard times there are better hands than ours and there are better plans than ours .

I think I really feel like we've dived into the incredible journey of an ultra runner who's not only conquered some grueling races but also has been really open enough to share his experiences through his podcast and chatting with us here today .

Mike's recent achievement at Six Days in the Dome , where again he ran an astonishing amount of miles 322 , if you can bend your mind around that for a moment , I think that serves as a testament to his dedication . The resilience that he has and his passion for ultra running that you can tell comes across when he talks .

His preparation strategies , the race experience that he talked about and the mental and physical challenges he overcame provide valuable insights for all of us , both as seasoned runners and if you are an aspiring ultra runner too .

I do hope Mike's story has inspired you , whether you're contemplating your first ultra or whether you're looking for motivation to push your limits further down the line . I will , of course , provide links to Mike's podcast in the show notes so that you can go and check out all of the episodes that he has out there when you have a moment .

While you're out there doing that , don't forget , forget . You can also subscribe to this show as well , get notified each time a new episode comes out and , of course , follow , share and review . That would be very much appreciated .

Doing any of those things really helps promote the show , helps gets the word out and increases the chances of other runners finding the information that awesome guests like Mike have given up their time to come and share with us .

You can find us on Instagram , facebook and over on choosetoeendurecom , so be sure to head over to any of those spots , check us out , send a message , say hello , suggest a topic if you have a moment . I definitely love getting all those interactions . Until then , continue to run long , run strong , live an ultra life and keep choosing to endure .