Bomb Suit Marathon

Live better and longer with the fitness show hosted by fitness expert author and tv personality Fitz Kohler she'll tell you why diets are dumb supplements or snake oil and the truth about how you can earn a lean hard pain-free and athletic body now for our favorite bossy blonde Fitz Kohler, well hi team i'm fitz kohler your very noisy race announcer from fitzness.com and welcome to the fitzness show today i have a special guest that is running one of the races i announced not only one

of the races but the race that got me into race announcing the oc marathon that's orange County in California and one of the finest athletic events in the entire country each year. It's a spectacular race weekend. And David Lyman is my guest. It's funny. I was on the OC Marathon Instagram page a few weeks ago and I got notified that there was a man who was an EOD specialist, you know, a bomb squad guy who was going to run the entire OC Marathon. That's right. Go 26.2 miles in a bomb suit.

I thought, well, what? Why? Now, mind you, I've seen lots of incredible people take on the marathon distance in a bunch of incredible ways. And one of my favorites is Cliff Walker. He's a firefighter that I met at the finish line of the OC Marathon in 2014 or 15, I believe. And he did the whole thing in a full firefighter suit. In fact, I have a couple of favorites, Rudy and Dan, who have done the races in their law enforcement uniforms and firefighters.

And gosh, we've seen some really interesting things, but a bomb suit, do you know what a bomb suit looks like? What I need you to do is go Google that and just imagine, imagine walking around your house during breakfast time, Right. Just trying to cook breakfast in a bomb suit. It just doesn't seem like a really, I don't know, easy experience, comfortable. And David Lyman is a man who does not have a priority on easy or comfortable or safe, apparently.

He doesn't have any of those intentions. His intentions are clearly for greatness, for service. And I'm so in love with all of our military, but he served in the Navy. He was deployed in all sorts of cool places. And yeah, now he's taking on the OC freaking marathon in a 74 pound bombsuit, helmet included. So stay tuned for that, folks. If you would like to learn more, go to ocmarathon.com. Once you're done listening to the show, you'll see a great video interview with David on the front page.

There's a place for you to follow him on Instagram and it's bombsuitmarathon. That's his handle. And then you can also donate to the EOD Warrior Foundation. That's an organization that supports bomb squad folks and their families when in need, folks that have been injured or killed on the job. And imagine, just imagine, I try not to be so freaked out while talking to him, but can you imagine working with bombs every day? That's your job, the guy or the gal who's supposed to go defuse the bomb.

I think it's absolutely fascinating. So go check out OC Marathon. While there, you should probably register to participate. And we have people that fly in from every state in the country and all over the world to be there for this special event the first weekend of May. So if you want to register, the discount code is FITZNESS. That's right. F-I-T-Z-N-E-S-S. Our race director, Gary Kutcher, was very generous with my listeners. He's giving 15% off all the races, which is a very big deal.

You're probably not going to find that anywhere else. So come be a part of one of the most magical athletic events on planet Earth in May. And if you haven't done so yet, make sure you follow the FITZNESS show wherever you like to enjoy podcasts. Click like, leave a review, visit me at Fitsness on Instagram and Fitsness.com so we can connect. And if you're running the OC, maybe you can notify me in advance and I can pour

some extra noisy love on you at the start and finish line with my co-announcer, Rudy Novodny. Ready? Are you okay if every now and then I sip? Is that like bad? Absolutely. No. No, it's very casual and cool. I like it. Trying to. Yeah. Make it look great. It's perfect. It's perfect.

Gorgeous. Thank you. thank you for all right so of course of course david lyman welcome to the fitness show how are you today i'm good how are you i am absolutely spectacular and i've been really looking forward to our conversation so thank you for making time for us i'm grateful i appreciate you uh having me on, Okay. So you're going to be, this is how I'm introduced to you. It's a press release that this man is going to be doing 26.2 miles with us at

the OC marathon. And folks, if you don't know what the OC marathon is, you're missing out. It's one of the finest marathon weekends in the entire world. It's a full marathon, a half marathon, a 5k kids races. It's just, it's, it's in Southern California, the first weekend of May.

And it is one of the most special events on earth and i'm so blessed to be one of the race announcers rudy and i started in 2014 and i've been in love with it ever since so i get the press release it says you and i'm gonna label you here like a psychopath are going to do our entire marathon this may while wearing a bomb suit yep yeah i uh it seems like a bad idea sometimes yeah i mean yeah always good to have a bomb guy around just in case, but I have so many questions in my head.

The joke is always like, if you see one running, try and keep up, right? You don't want him running. Right. Moving really, really slow, but I feel like you're going to move faster. So before we get into running a marathon in a bomb suit, tell us who you are and why you wear a bomb suit. So my name is David Lyman. I am a retired Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician. I retired from the Navy after 23 years in October of 22.

And I had, you know, brief history on me, like right out of high school, I joined the Navy and spent, you know, my first couple of years in the fleet, just working out there. And then I wanted, I kind of learned about a new community, not a new community, new to me. And I wanted to join it. It's EOD work for the Navy. All the branches have EOD techs, but the mission is a little bit different for everybody. So we do...

You know, we render safe, you know, ordinance, chemical, biological, improvised stuff underwater. These guys kind of do it all. And when you see a group of people like that, you can't you can't not just be like, holy cow, like what do I have to do to join? You know, so I I put in a package and pause right there. pause because I think many people might look at a group of bomb removal folks and say, no, I don't, I don't want to be a part of that.

I'm looking at you and I'm thinking he's got to be meticulous. He's got to be patient. He's got to be smarter than almost anybody I know, but yeah, go on, go on. I don't know about those, but I definitely appreciate it. Sure.

That's how I, I mean, that's the exact way i looked at these guys and it sounds crazy at first right but the degree to which these guys guys train it's i don't want to say it's a walk in the park but i think it's it's just kind of basic for them by the time they've trained like these i mean monster hours all day all night underwater in the dark i've i've dove in water up in uh the puget sound up to Washington state and you can't, it's daylight and that's about it.

That's about all you can tell because there's so much swirling in your face. But when you train like that and so constantly, it starts to be like, you learn a lot, you onboard instruction from all these different people. It becomes a bit more methodical. It becomes like, well, this is what you do. These are the steps. And if this, then that, and it becomes kind of a puzzle with everything laid in front of you.

So as long as you can kind of keep your, your head and wits about you, probably going to be okay. Yeah. A puzzle with the most dire consequences. One can imagine at the, the oops, I chose the wrong path, but so cool. So, so you, you apply to this team and they choose you. Is it hard to get on the team? How did that go? Yeah. So once the package got accepted, I went to Pensacola, Florida for dive school, that's two months long at Pensacola.

We do scuba for about a month, and then you do Mark 16 rebreather. So it's a, it's a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, so no bubbles. And how often no bubbles? Because a lot of underwater ordnance has like firing systems that listen for like acoustic signatures, right? Like underwater mines have like might have like a magnetic firing system, but they might also have like an acoustic system, right? So scuba bubbles make a ton of noise in the water.

And really like they're not listening for guys like me. They're listening for ships. but we want to avoid doing anything that might wake up the more finer, like the finer systems. Right. Okay. So, you know, the Mark 16, and I don't think any of this is classified, like you can Google it, no bubbles and it's got like a very low magnetic signature. So, you know, when you're swimming up to this thing, it doesn't know you're there basically.

So you do that for about two months and if you get through it, then you move on to EOD school, which is a 10 month pipeline or was, it was back then this is in 2005 is when i went through and i mean eod school is is literally there's a there's a test on day two for everything you learned on day one and if you fail that you'll get a retest on day three but day three then you'll have a retest and then the test for day two it is it is non-stop once you get there and it was you know for

me it was particularly challenging like i i dropped out of high school i wasn't i wasn't a very good student so not only am i having to learn how to do this incredible job, I had to learn how to study. I didn't know what mnemonics were. I was like, oh, welcome to adulthood. I got to figure out my life.

So that was it that was the start and then you know they say once you get through school, you know you get your eot badge and it's like your license to learn like now you're really like kind of training wheels are off now you can really go you go to a unit you get put on a platoon and then you really start learning how to do the job and and then i i got to do that with with a bunch of guys and some of them one of them his name is justin

he was on my second platoon he might be coming out to pace me for the race. We're trying to work out schedules, but just, you know, a lot of these guys are, it's kind of a, I mean, it's a family. I think a lot of folks would probably agree. I can imagine when you actually have each other's lives in each other's hands, it might, might bond you pretty quickly. Now, everything you've described so far makes it sound pretty scary.

I'm thinking, okay, if I'm underwater moving towards an explosive device and I blow a bubble because I'm breathing. Perhaps that device might explode in my face. It all sounds very, very scary. Do you have any fear in your heart as you're taking these classes, or is it just exciting and interesting? It's pretty exciting. I didn't have a military family, so I wasn't the first in my family to be in the military, but my grandfather was, but he had passed before I met him.

Some others had military background, but But, you know, my immediate family was all like mostly academics. So being a high school dropout, I sort of diverged from that path a little bit. But I think I don't think it's like that I'm fearless. I think, you know, I trust the training that I've been given. I trust the guys to take care of me if I get hurt. And I don't want to let them down. That was often one of my biggest motivators is like the team needs me to go.

Like, you know, if we're the underwater stuff is kind of a big, it's probably one of the best examples because, you know, we go out on our boat and you're usually only putting one diver in the water, or at least when I started in the community, I think that's changed a little bit, but that's, you know, that's doctrine stuff.

But initially, you know, the new guy in the team is the one diving and he's the one that has to find this mine, you know, and if I don't, then we might fail the drill or somebody else is going to have to go down and find it. And it just makes the day longer and harder. And I'm talking about training stuff, but I think when you've trained like that, you perform like that, the real thing would be a very similar mindset. If I fail in this, somebody else is going to have to do it.

And that ultimately can mean putting one of my teammates' lives in danger. So I think if you just, it is exciting, but you have a job to do and you need to get it done.

And the training teaches you, it's not looking for you. you know it's not it's not designed for you it'd be a waste for it to go off on me you know okay, so you're like okay like so you end up worrying about things like i'm really cold or are there sharks around me right now you know you're like your your mind's sort of like okay well i can't worry about this one thing and then it kind of finds other things for you to think about okay so and so a couple of

things there a you said train the way you perform or you'll perform the way you train, that's exactly like running. Just like running, right? Climbing, running, lifting. Yeah. Yeah. So I find athletics really crosses over into every aspect of my business life and my personal life. I can always go back to some excellent skill set or mindset that I learned through sports.

So very, very cool. So, I mean, I have a bazillion questions, but before we get to the actual suits you wear, well, actually that's, that's it. If you are wearing your bomb squad suit whether you're underwater or on land and a bomb goes off how likely is that suit to protect you like help you keep your arms and your skull intact or i mean how effective are those suits and we will be right back do your hips glutes quads and hamstrings need extra support while running of course they do.

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We're back. Yeah. so the suits are are primarily used for surface ordinance response right or ieds they're not used in the water there it's a 74 pound suit there's been many iterations on it and i try to talk about like the history of the suit a little bit on my my instagram because it's a pretty interesting, evolution so the suit is made by medenge which is a company that that falls under the safari land umbrella they're based out of canada and these these guys

are storied right like when i was going through EOD school, they used to say they wouldn't release a new model until the CEO has been blown up in one. And we're like, really? And you can't Google that. I've tried. I haven't found anything concrete that says it, but it's a good story. So the suit I'm running in is the, we call it the EOD 9. So it's really the EOD 8 suit with the new helmet.

So they call it the 9. the 10 just came out but the suit is made of you know kevlar plates and and like ripstop fabric right and and basically it's i don't know if you've seen a picture of it yet but i can i can send you some stuff sure but like it's a suit that is i mean if you've seen like the hurt locker is a great a great example right the idea is to guide a blast wave around you you know so it's a lot of Curves on it and they try to make sure like, you know,

you have like a neck dam coming up and then your helmet sits below the neck dam and, And that way, you know, when blast wave hits you, it sort of wraps around you instead of hitting just a flat surface. You have spine, like a spine protector on your back, kind of like scales. So your back doesn't bend. And it is phenomenal at blast pressure reduction. That's the whole effort behind the suit. Have you ever experienced a blast while wearing the suit?

I haven't. I've only worn it for work and training.

I can't i'm pretty sure i'd remember if i'd worn it for real okay but i you know plenty of guys in the community community have especially when we were in you know when the u.s was in iraq and we were fighting like an ied war or at least that's that's like my piece of that war right like that's what we do like we did a lot of response you know unit would get hit or or see something that they suspected to be dangerous and call you to units out, you know, and, and it's up to that team's judgment,

whether or not the suit is appropriate, because you have to also remember the suit is 74 additional pounds. It doesn't breathe at all. So if you're in Iraq in their summer, you know, it might be well over a hundred degrees there, you know, it, is it going to help you? Or is it going to hinder you? And you have to think like, how well can I move and work? You know? So when you're wearing the suit, you're not wearing anything else underneath it.

I mean, where you're wearing like you know clothing but no armor i think it's it's sort of up to the guy's discretion team of their discretion if they're taking weapons down what tools they're taking down so it's sort of variable in what each individual tech might utilize while in the suit. Usually don't have gloves on because you want dexterity but yeah so where have you served and And before you get there, I want you to know how much I appreciate your service. Thank you.

Freedom is my favorite thing. There's nothing in front of freedom. And so those who protect it are just the best. Thank you, David. Thank you so much. So where have you served? And what are some of the more interesting things you've done in those places? So my first EOD deployment, when I was in the fleet, I did three deployments on the ships. That's not nearly as exciting. I just drove a forklift out to sea, but it was a good experience. And then my first deployment with UD was to Iraq in 2009.

And that was, I mean, it was pretty great in that I got to drive, you know, we use robots in our line of work a lot. And you're supporting other units, like you're supporting people in, this might sound like I have a hero complex, but I love the idea of being able to help or like protect or save others, prevent others from like, I like the idea of the EOD mission. And I feel like we really got to do it there. And then next deployment, we went to Africa.

So we were deployed to Djibouti, but while there we get to, we would forward deploy to other areas.

So I got to go teach the mining in Kenya to, to Kenyan bomb squad, which was like, you know, I mean, I think we've, you know, growing up, at least I always heard like how Africa is just ridden with landmines everywhere is that true it there's a lot yeah and we call it uxo so it's not just landmines but there's ordinance that's unexploded unexploded ordinance uxo from combat from from you know whatever internal wars they're having with now for example and and there's a bunch of i i'm not a dummy

but i would say in this category kind of a dummy like me who doesn't know an unexploded advice, would that be maybe a grenade that hit the ground and didn't explode? Yep. It could be. So a good example was, or it could be when we were there teaching some of the guys we taught had to go out, some kids had found mortars, right? Which are, it's just leftover remnants of war.

You know, we used to call it ERW, the name changes, but it's just stuff that's not exploded yet that presents a hazard, you know, and it's one thing if, you know, military folk encounter it, it's different if civilians are or kids are playing right like can't have that so then they go out there they find it and really in instances like that generally just blow it up just get rid of it because there's nothing to exploit you know ieds are different as we saw you know recently

unfortunately and in in the states right in new orleans like ieds need to be exploited so we don't necessarily we may not always want to just blow them up right away if we can exploit them and get intelligence out of them, we do. And that is part of our job. So exploiting would be saving it and then figuring out the forensics, like who bought this and what's in it and who's responsible for putting it there. Yep. Where'd they get the parts from? And the job, and I have to tiptoe because.

Every situation is different right so it's really up to the guys on the ground what's the best course of action you know if it's if it's just too dangerous it's too dangerous but most i would i would think most guys are like no we can beat that there's a way to beat it and then and then if we can recover that stuff that might help us pin the bad guy you know and that's not our job but we pass that off to other folks who who rebuild it and analyze it and do all that do all that, you know,

forensic work that then can help the other good guys. You know what I mean? Like it's, we're just part of a, a, a greater puzzle, a greater team that's just trying to keep folks safe. And that's a big draw. Like how, I mean, how could you resist? Like, what are you going to do today?

Well, I'm going to jump out of an airplane into the ocean, dive 300 feet down to save them, to, to get rid of this mine that could endanger this, the carrier, you know, you're like, no big deal incredible have you done that i've jumped out of yeah we had to jump out of airplanes we have to be able to do a lot of what other military units can do so we could go help them like if we support them we need to be able to do what they do too yeah so it's just the career is just it

it's like a movie right you just get to do all this amazing stuff you know and you know work with guys who are just like how are you so smart like you know very very movie-esque and then my last deployment with the community was in bahrain i went to bahrain which we do a lot of.

Diving it's it's basically like a diving deployment there so diving on mines and learning learning how to dive on mines and just training training training, fascinating fascinating so i would like to know what experience was the most exciting for you what was the most scary for you and what was the most what what's the experience you're most proud of so exciting scary proud exciting goodness i probably probably well i don't know where to start,

exciting was was probably just my deployment to iraq because you train so hard right like you you want to do the job you know so i i finally get there i'm i'm a new guy on the team. And and for me like that was you know i had my team leader up front ray and and rj and a couple other guys were the alternative for driving you know ryan was our lieutenant but and i'm mentioning their names just in case they watch and i want them to get good but like you know now i'm doing the job.

Like the, you know, my job every day was like, make sure the truck was ready to go, you know, at any moment, make sure the robots are ready and charged and, and, and set up in the truck. You know, it's because when we're driving somewhere, I'm in the back of the truck, like working, I'm not sitting there like waiting till we get there. Like I've got stuff to do, you know? And then when, when we get on scene, like, you know, my team leader is the one making the calls.

He's taking it, you know, our advisor input, but he's making the calls and I don't want to let him down, you know, because this stuff's for real. Right. And so when we were there, it was kind of a quiet time, a quieter time, you know, 2009 and where we were. But, you know, I know guys that have been there and done, you know, 600 IEDs in six months, which is, is insane to me. Like that's many a day, which is all life threatening.

Right. And with an IED can come any number of other things that are detrimental to a healthy life. So, but getting there and being able to do the job kind of for real was was probably pretty exciting stuff. Oh, scary. It was, I don't know if there's kind of two instances. The first one was once you graduate UD school, you have to go through jump school at Fort Benning.

I'm not the biggest fan of heights. I like climbing, but that's a little different jumping out of, you know, C one 30 while attached to it. It's very, very Normandy esque. It's not a great feeling. Like it's just not a lot. You're like, you're not high enough off the ground that it feels.

I don't know. have you ever gone skydiving no no no it's a very different feeling it's it's it's not real how far away you are from the earth you know so you can kind of like yeah that's it's okay i've got time to think about things and i'm okay but like static line was not my favorite experience, but we also got to teach the pakistani bomb disposal teams demining kind of like we did in kenya but when we were there they would lock us in a gymnasium at night

and we'd have a bodyguard outside but like we were just locked in this building in karachi pakistan no gear no armor no weapons and it you know that's not the greatest place to be as an american. Wow that is very scary it was kind of an uncomfortable position we were just like this is just really weird. Like we, and we weren't allowed to leave. And, you know, during the day we would go to school, we would teach them and

then we'd go back to the gym and like, that was it. It was a weird experience for sure. I think it's fascinating that your two scariest moments have nothing to do with disposing of a mom. So I trusted my training and my team leaders. I believe you. I believe you. And then what are you most proud of? I think just that.

It's hard to like pick a moment you know my my time as a tech is what i was proud of i think and that that might sound sort of general or basic but like i kind of i have a hard time not fanboying over the people i got to work with like i'm not suggesting that i'm as intelligent as them, this community is just full of people who are like incredibly smart and like they can see things just in a way that others don't you know there's only like 1100 i think navy eod techs right

that's like one percent of the the navy probably less you know in in the caliber of people you you just work with like it always just kind of floored me like how these people and they're not and they're humble like you know their sideburns might be out of regulation right or or or they're playing music real loud and you know and but they're they're they're joking and they're laughing and they're having a good time and anytime i've like anytime i asked for help whether on my team

or for like for my guys or for me personally i was never met with a no people were always willing to in addition to whatever they had on their plate help and that's that being a part of something like that is i mean maybe a good segue too but like that's what makes that community amazing, and and incidentally that's sort of what even though i've been retired like that's sort of what makes me want to contribute or try to keep contributing. So on that note, this is a great transition place.

So running the OC Marathon in your, what do we call it? Bomb suit? Is that the prop? That's what I'm going with. Okay. Okay. How come? Why? I think it's a good symbol for our community. I think, you know, generally, you know, our civilian populace doesn't have, doesn't really know what EOD is. We have the Hurlocker. But what, you know, what's funny to me is like Navy SEALs, right? A lot of SEAL movies out there.

Yeah. Navy SEALs and EOD have the same father. A man named Draper Kaufman started it in 19, well, he started EOD in 1941. And then a few years later started Navy SEALs on the Pacific front. World War II, good Lord. And so SEALs have a very easy, they're going to be like, what? Their mission set is sort of a little bit simpler to explain, I think. in some terms, and looks great in movies. EOD stuff isn't quite as attractive, maybe, as Hollywood would like.

It's not as easy to be like, this is their job, and this is one specific... Because a lot of effort in the background goes. We did blow stuff up. Yeah, kind of. Or all the forensic shows that are out, there's a lot more to it. So, you would like to just shine a bright spotlight on the work that these men and women are doing?

Yeah. You know, and, and, and that other little piece is, and I, and I sort of grapple with this, like, not just because like you and I are talking, but trying to like really put it into terms, like simple terms that I can, I can digest. But there's guys that, you know, I say guys, you know, guys, men and women who've been hurt. Right. And I feel, you know, or, and killed or killed. Right.

And I don't, this is the, this is a conversation that like, I think probably a lot of techs have, or maybe internally, I don't know. But like, I don't think I feel guilt that I didn't get hurt, but I feel lucky. Right. Despite, I think doing my job well, you know, I think there's a certain amount of luck involved as well.

And I, I like the idea that I can do something to contribute to, you know, so somebody that gets hurt in the future, you know, like the foundation I'm supporting, they also have scholarships for the children of, right? So like families that have that need, I want to contribute to that. Like if I can support them, if I can help in some way, and if I suffer, all I'm going to do is sweat and my knees are going to hurt. Like that's a good trade. If I can get through that, it's worth it.

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Visit Fitzness.com today. That's F-I-T-Z-N-E-S-S.com. Fitzness.com. We're back. Okay. And what is the foundation you're supporting? So it's UD Warrior Foundation. They support all the branches that have UD technicians. They support the wounded service members. They support their families. They have wellness retreats. So you don't necessarily have to be hurt or have experienced a loss to benefit from this organization. They are nonstop.

Doing work for these families, you know, from the scholarships, from honoring those that have passed to supporting, you know, current service members. One of the things they do, there's a guy I spoke to, he's been helping me with the history of UD, his name is Mike Vining. One of the things he does with UD Warrior Foundation is they go and find folks from past wars that have died, that may be, maybe got buried, or maybe like their families didn't know anything about them or why they died.

And they go and find these folks. And even if they're not EOD techs, they help develop a record. So they all know. So the families know what these people did. And Gary was like, yeah, we'll support and you can do this. And I was like, okay, good. And it's a flat course. Perfect. Yeah. I think you've made a brilliant choice doing the OC Marathon. Now, where do you live? So I just moved down to San Diego. I was in LA for work for about a year, but I've been here for about 15 years.

Okay. my girlfriend and I live in in ocean beach and and yeah like orange county I drive so I would drive through all the time and I just went up and saw Gary I got to meet him face to face the other day and pause for the listeners Gary is Gary Kutcher the race director and the owner of the OC marathon co-owner yeah and he I mean he's just I can't say enough things I just emailed him yesterday just just to say thank you because he's helping out we're trying to get some

video we're trying to work out. This is the first time I've ever done a fundraiser of this magnitude. I've done some stuff in the past. I've ran a 5K in Imperial Beach in the bombsuit. I did a 5K in. Africa in the bomb suit and i did a ragnar 15k ragnar relay in it but this is the first time, i've ever done anything like to this level so let's let's boil down a couple of questions is uh without the bomb suit what is the farthest you've ever run just in.

Regular clothes uh 65 miles okay if you're a talented runner you can run long distances that's not a problem for you and now you're going to tack on a 74 pound suit will that include your helmet will you be running with the helmet oh yeah yeah initially initially i was going to try to get out of it like i don't i didn't want to wear it and it's not gonna it's gonna be awful and then i started like you know like when i was you know googling and

like seeing who's done runs in the bomb suit because i know people have done miles like fastest miles in the bomb suit and i came across a number of folks who have done like a bomb suit mile and they're all wearing the helmet and i was like oh and then i was looking at guinness yeah right and i was looking on guinness and i was like has anybody done a marathon in a bomb suit and and for a while i thought no because i whatever i was searching wasn't getting

me any feedback i was like i don't have to wear the helmet like i can nobody else has done it i can kind of get away with it and then a guy named ian church who's a british ud tech he currently has the world record for fastest marathon in a bomb disposal suit and he's got the helmet on i was like no i gotta wear the helmet now dang you in church okay so and what's his time what's the time to beat six hours 28 minutes that's that's quick in a bomb suit yeah yeah so it's i think that's like a 14

20 14 28 something like that a minute or a mile and then And if you're not wearing a bomb suit. What is your normal mile pace for a marathon? I actually have only done like one marathon and it was terrible. I did the LA marathon many years ago and it was like a four hour. So I think that's like. That's great. I mean, come on. Was it? I don't know. In reality. I was, hey, my personal goal was a lot faster, but I don't always train right.

So I'm like, I'll be able to like power through it. And then a marathon will show you quickly that.

No, no. that's right so you're hopefully training appropriately so do people in san diego see you just roaming down the street in your mom's suit getting mild in they're going to i've actually had i had a pretty tough time getting a suit there's a lot of rules around using suits and fundraising so it's it wasn't the easiest but i've got one now and they're going to start seeing me over the next few months, especially since we're doing pretty good on the fundraiser.

I set kind of a ridiculous goal of raising $10,000 as well. I don't really know why I pick these really impossible goals. It just sounds like a good idea. And then once I've said it to somebody, I'm like, oh, I'm committed now.

I do stuff like that too and get myself into all sorts of weird little trouble but it always works out but it's working out we're halfway there where can people donate tell me tell us right now how people can you can go you can donate on the oc marathon page let me bring it okay so if they just go to ocmarathon.com they'll find a link to donate yeah so if you go to it's basically the run sign up.com bombsuit marathon that's my donation page and on that page you'll be able to read about

the non-profit udwarriorfoundation.org they'll have links there and then my instagram will be there as well but that's at bombsuit marathon on instagram but if you also look at the the oc blog you'll see a post on me there as well and someone recently said i'm like if you go just like the oc marathon their home page like i'm right there um so so i think you'll find it okay so you're fundraising aimed for 10 000 you've already put in five, you've already brought in 5,000.

So we're at like 52%. Yeah. Okay. So even $5 folks just donate something because this man is in for a bunch of hurting. I'm not trying to stress you out, David, but the, the, the, you will be considered the chafer of all time. There is no human on earth who will likely chafe it, who has chafed as much as you likely will chafe at the OC Marathon. It's going to be a small donation, right? So you've done 5K in the suit. You've done 15K in the suit.

What are the ramifications for your body while you're in it, walking or running, and then the aftermath? So most of the stuff, like when folks see me wearing the suit out now, like I'll probably do a few short runs in it. Those will probably more be toward like geared for visibility just to get attention. Cause you see that, like, you know, it's going to catch your eye. Most of the training I'm doing now, I'm wearing a wave vest.

I do have a couple of coaches. They're based out of the climb clinic in Colorado. And they're just giving me a lot of like, like not necessarily strength training to get bigger, but to be able to continue on. Right. Some of the things I really worry about are, you know, 74 pounds with 12 of it specifically just on my head is breaking my, my running form down.

You know, I, when I'm running, I, you know, it's easy when you're just in clothes, like, you know, shoulders down and back, keep your spine straight, head up so you can breathe.

But you know i did a marathon a training marathon in december where i wore 50 pounds a 50 pound vest up in poway so kind of a hilly course and i started noticing like as i got tired i started breaking down on my back you know i was bending and then that you know it starts to hurt you know so your form is bad now you've got you know discomfort in your back it's just so really really holding on to core running fundamentals is is like my goal here so i'm running

a lot of distance of course like you would kind of for a normal marathon training distance wise but just kind of endless reps of lunges and squats and squat thrusters and core stuff are you working with resistance band and working your hip flexors as well i am but mostly for. Like PT. So I have, I have PT from my lower back from an injury from, from my career that basically that's my warmup. I do a lot of like mobility stuff and resistance bands for my, my warmup and then for recovery as well.

Okay, good. You should be doing them because the glute medius is going to be your friend if, if it's strong on race day. Yeah. And that's, and that's in recovery is the other piece I've probably spent more time and effort on, I'd say, well, maybe as much effort on having a proper nutrition and recovering? Like, what do I need to be stretching? Because historically, and I think, I don't know if all runners are guilty of this, I'm definitely guilty of not always stretching enough.

Like for recovery. You know, we go out, we eat, we're walking around, but that's not the same as like, okay, I need to target my calves and get them stretched out. I need to work on, you know, variety of things, especially, you know, I'm never going to acknowledge getting older, but it is a reality for an older runner that you have to do other maintenance to your body, not just run, not just lift, not just whatever.

And so calories, like that's, that's been the other, my, probably my biggest concern other than heat. I expect to burn somewhere around 8,000 calories while running in about two and a half gallons of liquid lost. Okay. So this is one of the big questions i had coming in is how on god's earth is he going to hydrate in a helmet bomb suit helmet how yeah so it has a visor that pops up and so the visor will be up the whole time.

And the helmet will be on the helmet i'm debating there's a fan system oh yeah that'll probably be running it doesn't do a lot but but really what it'll do is it'll help me communicate with my team, because it has little speakers so they'll amplify what they're saying because this the helmet fits very snuggly and there's a picture of me putting it on in Djibouti and and it just like smashes your ears flat you know it's just not a great it's not the best feeling in the world and,

but so yeah for managing heat i don't know like okay messaged ian and i just heard back from him and we're trying to we're gonna we're trying to set up a time to talk because heat management is going to be the biggest issue the suit just doesn't breathe it affords you protection from blast it affords you protection from fragmentation but it also affords protection from fire right chemical stuff too i'm sure yeah so the the in the manual it would say if the suit was on fire you have about

two minutes to get it off before you would start feeling that to a significant degree. Okay. Which is a long time. The flip side of that is like, yeah, it also doesn't let any heat out. And when I ran it in the past, it starts to feel like there's a furnace, like just in your chest. It is miserable. Huh? So, oh, go ahead. I'm just thinking you're in, you're in for a really good time, David.

But here's the thing, the fact that I know this, I'm going to be able to pour so much love on you at the start line and let everybody know what you're in store for so though you're going to get the most support from all of these athletes that are running by you and of course the warmest welcome anyone's ever received at a finish line you make it to that finish line and i believe you will it will be a hero's welcome as noisy as they come well i'm excited and you know and talking with gary like

you guys are gonna have me right up front like that's that's more than I just wanted to be able to have, like be able to run it with, with everybody. You know, the number of people that are going to be there. I think the crowd is going to be pretty great for hype. I think, you know, my, my welcome is going to be, has been more than I could have ever asked for.

I mean, I think we're going to have, I'm going to have a pacer and I think we're going to end up with two pacers and we're going to have a flag with us. You know, don't tell anyone, but we're going to have like a flag with us. That was flown over the, the Memorial. So we sort of have like a final mile.

Plan coming together a friend of mine is gonna be there for videoing and we might have sort of a documentary in the works like yeah i mean please i think that during the expo perhaps there could be a booth or a place where some of the athletes can come and meet you and check out your suit because yeah gary and i were talking about it i think we're trying to figure out exactly what that looks like i and i have the suit so it will be there i'll

you know i'll obviously be there. My team will be there. And I would love to be able to meet the other runners. Like I can't wait to, it's going to be, I don't love getting passed, but I fully understand. I hope I do get passed by everybody. Yeah, probably will. You're going to come damn close to almost everybody getting passed. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Wow. And so, okay. So drink will be able to get into your mouth. You need a straw for that.

Yeah. So the, the suit has, you know, lots of little like pockets on it and there's kind of two in the front that like where you put battery packs that run the suits electronics most of which i won't need for the race as we get closer i'll really dial that in but i don't think i'll need most of it so those pockets will be empty and so my team member pacer travis the poor guy he's gonna be running the slowest marathon, on earth like i you know my goal pace is is basically anything better than 14

minutes per mile, you know? And so as I need supplies, he'll run up to, you know, aid stations in my, in our team, grab stuff, come find me and switch me out, you know, in an effort for me to not have to stop. But I'll probably have like two little camelbacks kind of on me. Okay. And then, and then he's going to have a backpack of food.

And when I go off my runs now, I'm probably, I don't see a lot of people doing this, but like, maybe, maybe I'm just not running with the right people, but like, nobody's carrying around ziplock baggies of like ham and cheese and pickle sandwiches and then eating like shot blocks and goos. And then like, I'll pull a PB out from behind. Like I'm just constantly eating

in an effort to just get used to eating. I. Have you found when you're running do you have a hard time eating like marathons i actually very much do i find that whatever if i'm doing a half or or further i get hangry at mile eight i instantly i need there's a wall there right yeah i become miserable and so um also i have that weird thing where my stomach's like don't feed me a hole so it's a contradicting it's very hard yeah i choke down food while I run long distances.

And how, do you mind me asking your, you seem quite lean. How tall are you? What do you weigh? Can I ask? So I used to weigh six or be six, four. I had a back. I'm six, three. The, the realization I was like, Oh, I'm six, four. And for most of my career. And then one day they're like, no, no, you're six, three quit rounding up. And then I weigh about one 80. Okay. So very lean, very lean man.

Yeah. So with that, you know, and in 2018, I ran an ultra, it was my second attempt at a hundred miles and I did not manage my nutrition at all. I think I approached that race looking like rest on my laurels. Like I've, I've ran enough in my past. I'll be okay. And it didn't serve me. And I got, and I, and I got heat exhaustion pretty bad. Like I wasn't sweating.

It wasn't, I had nothing, no outflow you know so like yeah yeah oh that's the other thing what if you have to use a porta potty on the course i'm sorry to interrupt but that's another big factor you're gonna laugh so the suit it's called a diaper but it is not an actual diaper like it is not what we're using for but there is you have like like the farmer john like a bib and that's like your leg protection okay right and that comes on and so

it's like a your legs are armored but then the top is is pretty light, like just kind of like a vest that goes on and then secures. And then you still have, you would still see my running shorts if I was just wearing the bib to paint the picture for you. And then the diaper, as we call it, is really just... You know, nylon, like ripstop, nylon and Kevlar that, that goes on much like a diaper and Velcros. But the idea is to afford more protection to that, to that, to your groin. Right. Okay.

So to be honest, I don't really anticipate needing to go, but I do have that, you know, I could pull that off and do what I need to do. The idea though, is I don't want to stop.

Like I, I don't think i can afford it and if even if my time is is good marathons are are a unique distance and i don't think you have like a lot can happen like the first half can go great you still have 13 miles like that's not nothing where something bad can happen you know if you've mismanaged your nutrition if you step funny you get lazy with your form like a lot of bad can happen.

And i don't want to think about it or wish that on anyone right if you think about it and train about it then you're less likely to have it happen to you well i gotta tell you i can't think of anything that would be funnier than seeing a man in a bomb suit going into a porta potty the door won't be shut i won't be i won't fit entirely i will we will figure it out if that's something i mean i don't wish it upon you but if it does i know

you'll have your video crew and i'll be sticking out of it halfway and just it's not going to be awesome yeah it'll be funny for everyone else hopefully and then that's good enough for me that's right that's right i mean it's just such an exciting event and you're gonna miss out on beautiful views because i'm i'm sure it's probably hard to see in that thing but we we often have spectacular weather it's quite chilly in the morning and it's really brisk for running it's only.

We've only had rain on a very rare occasion, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's brisk in the morning and, and it certainly warms up by two o'clock type thing, but it would be a beautiful day. I'm predicting. I think that's, and that's, that's the other thing. Like I've kind of been looking at your guys' history and, you know, nice early start. It's gonna be nice and cold. I'm hoping for a little Marine layer.

I mean, if I can, I can't control it at all, but anything that works in my favor, you know, I think my pace will be slow enough.

That i don't heat too much and then if the environment you know the weather's good like i think that i think that that helps that'll be helpful yeah oc is the perfect place to do that i do believe gary kutcher has mother nature on speed dial and he works a little mess wouldn't surprise me if he's found a way to manipulate it right he's he has it so you know he's got it so set up like so perfect he sure does he sure does and even if it did rain or whatever it's just it's

it's it's a 10 out of 10 anyways and it'll be a little bit it's southern california i don't think the weather's bad for very long here you know like we're pretty lucky so yeah yeah it's funny i'm from i'm a floridian so when californians complain about rain it's hard not to giggle because yeah i believe you get it sometimes aggressively every now and then when i was in ud school though i mean i think we got rain every day like 2 30 like clockwork yep yep yeah it's just that was of the day and

then about an hour and then it's back to normal. Yeah. Yeah. Blow down a few dozen oak trees and then it's perfect sun again bed. But yeah. Anyway, so it'll be great. I have no doubt. David, how can people follow you? So I'm on Instagram. You can go to it's bombsuitmarathon on Instagram. Easy. That also goes to my Facebook account. I'm not super active there, but it does link so you can still see it there. And I check messages.

So, you know, So please, you know, anybody that wants to reach out, please, please feel free. We've got some folks that are, that are, I mean, Gary is, is one incredible sponsor. He's doing so much for us. And there's some other folks too. You know, UD Warrior Foundation is doing everything they can to support like 361 degrees. They just donated some running shoes. Nice.

Yeah. Trail shoes that I'm using them on the road because the good padding, good grip, like, and I haven't even had a chance to put on the road shoes yet because I like their trail shoes so much so like they they were they've been incredible. You know, so I'm talking about those, all these guys on Instagram. So the more love I can get on Instagram, like that helps out. So I can, I can share my sponsor's name. And then the other, that's kind of it.

I'm kind of keeping it just Instagram kind of, kind of keeps it simple, you know, between work and family and training. It's, I don't have a lot of extra time for social media. Well, you know what, you're doing something really special for a wonderful organization that It serves wonderful, heroic people who care about others. So it's good, multiplied. And you're also serving as a really good reference point for people who think they can't.

You know, the people that are always making excuses on why they can't blank. I can't do a 5K. I can't do a marathon. I can't ride a bike. Maybe you can. Maybe you can. Because not only have I seen firefighters in full gear go the full distance of a full marathon, But I've seen people with zero legs run a full marathon. And so, again, marathon doesn't have to be the goal for everybody, but you should have goals. And, you know, the bigger they are, golly, the better the outcomes, right?

Even if you fall short, you're going to have one heck of a time training for and enjoying the experience. Even, David, if you only made it to mile 19, what a gig. Oh, we're making it. I believe in you. I believe in you. But no matter how far you go, it's an extraordinary accomplishment and still all of this money for a great, great organization. So I hope people look at you and think of how they can extend themselves in their own.

Yeah. Right. And I agree 100 percent. And I think it's easy and invalid to be to have. You know, obstacles in your life. Like we're all tired. We all work, you know, we're all doing our best. Right. Like I genuinely think people are just doing their best, whether it's just to survive or to achieve, like, you know, wherever you are, like in whatever you're doing, like we're all doing our best. And so I think it is easy and valid to be like, I'm too tired. I don't have the time.

I don't have, and, and, you know, running in a suit or isn't to say like, look at me, i found time it's just like hey look we're trying i'm trying to do something i'm just i'm trying and and i and i hope people are able to like you know what like i'm gonna pick whatever their version of of that is because it it changes your life too right like whether it's running or swimming or art or playing guitar you know i mean whatever it is you just you just gotta find a little

bit of time for you you know try to get your cup full and and that's what this is doing for me i definitely have a new idea it'll be for visibility but it's it'll be something that i it's terrifying terrifying and i've never done it before but like let's do it let's let's see what it feels like to be thoroughly out of my comfort zone well you know what your comfort zone extends to possibly being blown up so your comfort zone is pretty

big david right like i just want i think if people are motivated or can be encouraged to test their limits, awesome. I'm good on you. I'm proud of you. I hope I see you. Please donate. If you don't pat me on the back or say something, you know, like I just I just want people to like be happy. Yeah, I love it. Take care of folks. Like that's that's what matters, you know. All right, David. So we always wrap up the fitness show with two things. Number one is a communication tip.

And so trying to help people be better at the art of communication with other or communicating with other people. So what you got for me?

Man what comes to mind is some advice i was actually asked for at my job it was like what advice would you give to somebody that's new new here and i think it might apply to a lot of things but it's like you're volunteering to be here so lean into it like whatever that thing is like you chose to do it so commit like like that doesn't mean that's all you do 24 7 but when you're there that's what you're doing and really really lean into it figure out the nitty like the the the little details

to it you know because like if if you've chosen to be there it must mean something to you so that's right so buy in you know i love that and then the other thing i need to ask of you is for a recommendation for our listeners to add to their playlist so if they're going to come and do the oc marathon or the 5k or maybe they're gonna go tree climbing what song do you want them to add to their playlist oh genius by by sia diplo and labyrinth it's a great start song it's like the best song

to start with i don't know my taste in music is eccentric at best but okay i would say try that one you guys try genius well thank you so much for your time david i will be counting the minutes till we are together in Orange County. Of course, of course, folks, if you would like to come run or walk alongside David in early May in Orange County, we would love to have you use discount code FITZNESS. You can save 15%, which I think is the largest discount code out there right now.

It's F-I-T-Z-N-E-S-S. And just come be a part. And again, he's doing it in a bomb suit. So you could do the 5K, you can walk the whole way, you can push your baby stroller. I don't know. You can go at a reasonable pace. Your first 5K, we'd love to have you. And you can always come out and just celebrate David. So be there at the start line and then wait at the finish line with me to welcome him. But I'm really excited to see you.

Good luck with your training. And I will be following you on Instagram. Awesome. Thank you. If you haven't done so yet, go to eodwarriorfoundation.org. You can go to ocmarathon.com. There will be links for you to donate to David's cause. And yeah, we'll be rooting for you. David, you have one more assignment. You got to look into the camera and with gusto, tell our listeners to get to work. Get to work, you guys. I'll see you out there. Can't wait. Bye, team.

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