S7E8 -- Ohana Guests | Mary and Randy Latza

Get ready for an inspiring conversation with Mary and Randy Latza! Hailing from Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, this power couple has an astonishing 32 Ultraman events under their belts either racing or crewing. 

They'll share invaluable lessons and heartwarming stories of the friendships they've built as part of "Rat Pack 2.0." But their racing doesn't stop there—Mary and Randy are also gearing up for the Ironman World Championships in Nice and Kona. 

Plus, Mary sheds light on Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare condition impacting her family, and how she's used events to raise awareness and funds. You can find more information and donation links at this website.  

515 is Now on YouTube.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• DeSales University 
• IM Ottawa
• IM Lake Placid
• IM St. George 
• Ultraman Florida
• IM New York City
• IM Mont-Tremblant
• IM Louisville
• IM Switzerland
• IM Waco
• Stiff Person Syndrome
• Ultraman World Championships
• IM Nice
• IM Wisconsin
• FulGaz 
• Spartan
• Death Race
• Winter Death

Shout outs and mentions in this episode:

• Julie Moss
• Eric Suro
• Simon Shurey
• Sheryl Cobb (S2E6)
• Mark Jones
• Tom Regal
• Billy Rickards (S7E1)
• Joan Kim
• Dede Greisbauer (S3E13) 
• Leanda Cave  (S1E8)
• Billy Edwards
• Chris McCormack 
• Cynthia Bartus 
• Ryan Toner
• Jeremy Howard (S2E8)
• Chuck Kemeny
• Steven Keller (S2E10)
• Jamie Harris  (S2E11)
• Jen Annett (S6E9)
• Armando Armelli  (S4E9)

Transcript

Larry 0:30

Today is two foot and speaking to an Ohana couple and regularly show up the American races either too or to race. It's a bunny. It's a line. It's Iron Fag. Today, listener, you are getting a two-for-one Ohana guest episode. These two humans have combined for a total of 32 Ultraman race experiences as either athlete or crew. As such, if you have attended an Ultraman race in the USA, you have probably met these two, whether you knew it or not. And that is because they are often disguised while crewing. Joining me today from Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, it's Mary and Randy Latza. Welcome, guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Hey, hi. It's great to see you.

Larry 1:21

Great, great to have you guys here. Hi, Randy.

SPEAKER_04 1:24

I'm not in costume, believe it or not. I I was gonna throw on my stitch hat, but I was like, let's just keep it common professional for once.

Larry 1:33

For once. For once.

SPEAKER_04 1:34

For once, yeah.

Larry 1:36

Uh for the people that are watching on YouTube. Uh yes, they're a married couple. Yes, they're in the same house, but I have them on separate computers just for the fact that it makes it way easier for me to edit the podcast later when I'm doing the audio because I have separate audio tracks for them. So it's not like they're uh split up and they're in different places. They're both in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania. Um, guys, where is Pennsburg in relation to like maybe a bigger city in Pennsylvania or a nearby state that we we might recognize?

SPEAKER_04 2:10

I always tell everyone we're about an hour north of Philadelphia. That's the easiest way to explain it.

Larry 2:16

Yeah. And I think, yeah, most people are gonna know Philadelphia if they're from the states. And and what sort of things, Mary, is is the town known for? Is it like a university town manufacturing? What what what's it known? How big is it? What's it known for?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

A very small town. It's a borough, I believe. Um, if you drove through the town, you would hit three towns right in a row. Uh East Greenville, Pennsburg, Red Hill. Um, I would say East Greenville is known for the Blomber chocolate factory.

Larry 2:47

Oh, okay. Well, you also have Hershey in Pennsylvania, too.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Yep. It's just like Hershey because it smells like chocolate all the time around here.

Larry 2:56

Okay. And and what is it that that you guys do there? What are your jobs? What are your careers that you guys are in? Um, Randy, let's let's take you first on that one.

SPEAKER_04 3:07

It was a big joke with me. When people I work with hear about what I did last weekend, they're always just like, what? And when you people hear about what I do as a live for a living, it's also a shocking. I'm an accountant. I'm just I'm mild manual controller of a manufacturing company. I do spreadsheets and all that kind of stuff all day.

Larry 3:29

That sounds very exciting. So you're one of those Excel geeks? You you know all the different uh ways of no, no, the funny thing is I I know what I can do for my job.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

You don't know how many times I ask her, like, hey, I want to do this really complex thing in Excel, and she's like, You mean hit these three buttons and make it work? Like it's not complex at all. But to me it is. Um the only time that really comes out the nerdum is like my well, we can get into my training or what you want to call training later. But I always have spreadsheets for like races and analysis and things like that. That's about the extent of it. I'm like the most atypical accountant out there. I'm far from it, but it's what I decided I was doing senior year high school, and I couldn't take a fifth year of college. I had to be four years in out, and that's what my major was. So that's where I wound up.

Larry 4:22

Oh well, it seems to have worked out for you. Uh you've got you've got the the the life to be able to uh go out and do these uh these big races and these events. So uh it's obviously you know fits into your lifestyle very well.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

Yeah, exactly. And and where I am, um, I've been here, I took a little break. We went to Virginia for a few years, but I've been here over 20 years now with the same company. And it just works really well for our lifestyle, like you said.

Larry 4:50

Yeah. And Mary, how about you? What what do you do?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

So uh I like to tell people that I save babies. Um I've been in the pharmaceutical industry for almost 25 years now. It'll it'll come up on 25 years in February. And in my time there, the majority of those 25 years, 22 of them, um, have been in vaccines. So right on the manufacturing floor, making vaccines, uh supported the measles, measles, mumps, and rebella vaccine. Um and currently my team uh is responsible for the release of uh the rotavirus vaccine for babies. So and uh we also make a my team also does a couple of the vile vaccines. So we my site is the main vaccine manufacturing site uh in the United States for Merck.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

But yeah, that's what I've been doing my whole career.

Larry 5:47

Now, going back into your guys' athletic careers, you were both in athletics when you were in college. Is that is that how you two met?

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Yep. Yep.

Larry 5:58

Same school, different schools?

SPEAKER_00 6:00

We uh both we did cra Yeah, we both went to the same college, and so he was a year ahead of me. And so we both did cross country, indoor, and outdoor track. Uh, and it was a very small team at the time, so we spent a lot of time together.

Larry 6:13

Okay. And and which one of you was the better college athlete?

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Randy.

Larry 6:21

What what were your main events when you were when you were running track, other than uh obviously some distance because you did cross country as well? Did you have some specialty events that you did, Randy?

SPEAKER_04 6:31

Hybrids, I think is the right word. So, like I've been running since a week before my fifth birthday. So I'm coming up on 45 years of running. Okay, but high school, as I started to grow a little bit, I've always had some pretty good hops, so they put me in the high jump. And then we started hurdling, which means you're doing the steeple chase when you get to college. And then at some point we decided, let's see how many more you can do. So I ended up doing the 10-athlon indoors, the decahlon outdoors, and it was a colossal failure. Like I have no upper body strength, so the the weight events were not were not good at all. But I did I did do it, and then the only event I didn't do in college was the hammer throw. I literally did every event they offered indoor outdoor from the hundred all the way up to the 10k, jumping everything. The the pole vault. Um I can I jump higher than I can pole vault. Uh that's not a stretch, but the uh yeah, to this day, I'm like, I wish they just let me throw the hammer once because just to say I did every single one. But I mean, we even did the race walk, and um the way our conference was, you people anyone could do the race walk. So like I was literally teaching my fellow uh teammates because I had seen it done because I've been around for so long. So my coach is like, well, can you teach them how to do it? So we put like 10 guys in a race walk just to get some points for our conference, but yeah, like did it all. Yeah, oh that's great.

Larry 7:58

Yeah, I I coach track at the high school that I work at. So I appreciate a guy who's willing to go out and get some points for the team.

SPEAKER_04 8:06

Yeah, do what you gotta do.

Larry 8:08

Yeah, uh, Mary, how about you? Did you have a specialty event?

SPEAKER_00 8:13

So uh I would say um, yeah, I mean, I was a multi-eventer as well. Uh, but uh believe it or not, my two best events in college were the javelin and the 1500. I was more of a mid-distance, I didn't really like the long distance events. Um in high school, the mile was my best. Um, but you know, I did everything, you know, that we joke, you know, my nieces, uh, I'm the youngest of seven. So I have nieces who are almost as old as me. And their their kids are starting to do track. And so we went to all their their track meets this season.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

And you know, they're you know, exhausted after having done a race. And I'm like, yeah, just wait. You just wait until you do the two mile and you're sitting collapsed on the infield, and coach walks over to you and says, I need you for the four by four.

Larry 9:05

Yeah, always, yeah. Yeah, I do the same thing to my athletes now. They don't like it.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

So yeah, I really enjoyed doing all of the different events, it was fun. Um, and that I mean that's how Randy and I met, uh, because we small team, we didn't even have a track in college. We like our college did not have a track surface.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

So we would go do uh intervals. There was a one road that was painted with 100 meter markers. Uh, we would go over to the local high school and practice. And so, you know, on Tuesdays and Thursdays were the days we stayed late to do throwing and multi-events, and you know, they would save our dinners from the cafeteria because it you know at it was a very small school. So dinner was when dinner was. And if you were an athlete and couldn't make dinner, they saved two plates for you. Okay. Uh and so yeah, I mean Randy was like kind of like my coach for the high jump when the coach wasn't there. So I was not good at the high jump.

Larry 10:05

And what school was this?

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Uh Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales. It's now called De Sales University.

Larry 10:14

Okay. And has it grown in size since you were there or is it still the same size?

SPEAKER_00 10:19

It's a it's a bit bigger, but I mean not giant, but it's still a smaller division three school. Yeah.

Larry 10:26

When you guys are in college and you're doing these track events, obviously lots of running and stuff like that. Um, was there any swimming at this point? Which one of you was the first one to jump into triathlon?

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Um, I was a lifeguard uh through college. And so our swim manager uh required all of the lifeguards to swim a mile a week. Uh and the first season I lifeguarded, I realized that it was probably a bad idea to have ice cream every break. And inside, I instead of doing that, I would swim on my breaks. So we would get a break every hour for 15 minutes. And so, you know, on the weekends I would go in and I would swim for 10 minutes on that break. So uh it was nice. And I actually got into triathlon. I graduated college in '99, and my first triathlon was in 2000.

Larry 11:24

And was that one of the shorter distances the way people do it?

SPEAKER_00 11:27

It was a sprint. Yeah. Where I was working over the summer, um one of the people I worked with, we would run. And then another person I worked with that we're still friends with to this day was a cyclist. And he was like, Hey, I want you to come out and ride with me. Uh, and you know, immediately I jumped to, well, I may as well do a triathlon now, because if I'm gonna do all these things, I can swim. So yeah, that's that that was as quick as it was.

Larry 11:50

Yeah, yeah. And and how about you, Randy? Was it a while after you see uh saw Mary's success in triathlon? And you're like, Well, I can do that too, then, or or how did you get into it?

SPEAKER_04 12:01

So literally I tell I tell people I saw Julie Moss girl across the finish line when I was like five years old. I saw it on ABC and said, I'm gonna do that someday. Okay. It wasn't until 20 years later. Um, I can't I well, you could argue and we'll argue that I still can't swim, but I couldn't swim. Um after college, I just kept running and then I hurt my knee a little bit just doing what I could tell you exactly when and where I was jumping over um a six-foot bar and uh just tweaked my knee a little bit. And I'm like, all right, well, I gotta stay in shape. So I started riding, and I can't just go out for a bike ride to go out for a bike ride. I needed a goal. So I signed up for a fundraiser with the goal of riding a century. And once I finished that, I'm like, well, now it's time to learn how to swim. It's it's time to do this. Um, and I just went in order. I went sprint Olympic half full. Yeah, and I was done. I did our first Iron Man in 2005, and I was I got the I got the M dot tattoo on the calf, and I was never doing another another Iron Man, and it was six years before I did another one.

Larry 13:07

Yeah. And then so what brought you back after the six-year break?

SPEAKER_04 13:12

I wanted to beat her.

Larry 13:16

And and since then, um, if if I have the number right, you've completed 16 Iron Man races. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_04 13:24

Yeah, I I joke with people is in that one, six years later, um I'm like in the middle of it, and something just snapped, and I'm like, what's next? And then I just started piling them on. I've done back to back, I've done three weekends in a row of fulls. We got involved in Ultraman, back to back, like just I don't know. It just went crazy from there. Yeah. I'll probably, I'm not gonna say I'm gonna stop, but 20 is pretty close, and that's a nice round number. Um, I was saying, like, that's kind of the way I went with Ultraman. Like, I'm not saying I'm done. If they were to put one in a great location, you know, if if Ottawa or I from an Iron Man side, uh Ottawa's the week after Lake Placid. Right. I might I don't have that much vacation. If it was a month later, I would do Ottawa, just somewhere new, a cool location, something like that. But um I'm not fast, but I can suffer and I can my pace is what my pace is, and I can just keep going. So it's you know, yeah. I I'm never in doubt that I'm gonna I did uh when St. George was the world championships one year, I did that one. And I trained like I've never trained before because I was kind of concerned about that. But once I get off the bike, I can walk a six-hour marathon. And if you've made the bike cut off, you'll basically have six hours. So I'm never really concerned about finishing any of them. That's where Mary and I differ. You know, she has time goals and power goals and this and that. And I'm like, put on my costume, give me a beer in the middle of the run, and we're good to go. And Mary's like already done, you know, back at the hotel.

Larry 14:59

So well, completing three in in uh consecutive weekends, how did you plan that out? What were the three races that you did? They must have been fairly close together.

SPEAKER_04 15:09

So it was it was right after we we learned about Ultraman. And I didn't have what I felt was a good enough resume to get me in at the time. So at the time, you had to do an iron distance within 16 or 18 months of the race you wanted to do. So if I want to do the 2015 Ultraman, I signed this up for August. At the time, in 2012, they had the one-time only Iron Man in New York City. Oh yeah. I went to that and volunteered. My plan was to do New York City, ride my bike from that venue up to Mont Tremblant, and race Mont Tremblant the next weekend.

SPEAKER_03 15:50

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

Well, then they didn't have New York City the second year. So I ended up, I did uh a buddy of mine, Eric Surro, did his own, he called it Surro Man. He did his own homegrown triathlon, like swam in the pool, the local pool, biked in the area, and then ran. And so I'm like, that's a good idea. So what I did is I did my own in my area. The next weekend I did Tremblant. The next weekend I did Louisville. Okay. So it was three, it was three within 15 days. Um, and the worst part was really driving from Tremblant and two days later get in the car and driving to Louisville because it was about eight hours from Mont Tremblant and then like another 10 to Louisville, I think. But I had someone with me both both times, Mary, and then my brother drove with me to Louisville, but it was yeah, it was long. And actually, Tremblant to this day is still my PR, that race after doing one the weekend before. That's okay. I needed to warm up. I don't know.

Larry 16:50

That's great, yeah. And Mary, uh, you've done about a dozen or so Iron Man's, is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Yes. I I always forget the number, but yeah, I was on like the every three-year plan at first. So I um, you know, 2005, 2008, 2011, um 2014, I was signed up to do Ironman Switzerland, and in the end of 2013, my dad passed. And so I was like, okay, well, I can't, I gotta be there for my mom. Um, and then you know, the next year my mom had some health issues, and so I don't I don't think I did another one until 15 or 16. Uh I went back to Lake Placid, um, and then I went back again in 2018. Lake Placid is just super convenient because it's drivable for us. Um but yeah, and I went back. I actually had my one and only DNF at Lake Placid. I had had just a ridiculous couple of weeks leading up to the race at work. Um, and we had a big audit for a project that I was the main uh person leading all of the, you know, all of the conversations. And I wound up having to stay an extra day and we couldn't go up to Lake Placid as early as I wanted to. And it was just a mess going into it. And I came out of the swim and I had had a bad swim, not a terrible swim, but I got beat up in the swim, which can happen in Lake Placid. Yeah, and I was just kind of like I had a bad start to the day. And I spent, you know, I got up and over. If you know the Lake Placid course, you climb for about eight miles or so, and then you go downhill, the big teen descent. I got down the descent, and then I spent the next like 30 miles convinced myself not to quit. Um, and I ran into Randy on the hills at you know, Papa Bear coming back into town, and I just like lost it. And Randy's like, you're done. It's not safe for you to be out here. Um, so I turned in my chip at the end of the bike. We went out and drank beer the rest of the day, cheered everybody on. Um, but then on the way drive home from Lake Placid, I signed up for a Trem Blonde, uh, which was about a month later, and I had a really great race up there that year. So I kind of redeemed myself. Um I still don't love the DNF, but it was the right thing to do on the day. Um, but yeah, since then I then I uh you know we moved back to Pennsylvania and then COVID hit um and all kinds of things. My first Ultraman was 2017 though. So um that was, you know, there was some arm twisting there. So Randy did it in 2015 in Florida, and then we crewed for him, and I met Simon Shuri there for the first time, and I got to spend, I don't know, 10 to 12 hours with this complete stranger in a car for you know the weekend. Um, and then we all crewed for Simon the second year, and then they all said to me, Hey, well, you know you know you know the rules, right? And so my first Ultraman was 2017. Um yeah, and then I wasn't gonna do it again. I really wasn't. I I I was never gonna do Ultraman again. Um, and then COVID hit and I needed a goal. Um, I did an Iron Man, we did Waco uh because we were supposed to do Tremblant and then Canada wasn't back open again and then we couldn't defer anymore, so they let us defer to Waco, and so um we did Waco coming out of COVID, and then I was like, Well, I need I did Ultraman and I um raised, I used it, raised funds for my niece, uh, my great niece who was diagnosed with stiff person syndrome at like 18 months old. And I'm like, okay, that's it, that's my goal. I partnered with their foundation. It's a rare disease, so to find a charity that dedicates especially for it was hard. And so I did some of my homework. I found a foundation and let all almost all of their funds go directly to um I can't get to Johns Hopkins, but I could be wrong. Um and uh yeah, she was the youngest person ever diagnosed um with it. And uh it's it's uh I mean she wouldn't you wouldn't know if you met her. She she looks like a normal kid. She's super duper skinny, she's like a little bane pole. Um and I think oh goodness, I should know how old she is. Um I think she's gonna be six in July. Um, so she's had it now almost her whole life. Um, but every month she gets IV infusions of uh immunoglobulobulin. And that that along with some other medicines is the only treatment.

Larry 21:51

And this is the same disease that Celine Dion has. Is that right? Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Yes. And so yeah, I partnered up and we did some. fundraising. Um her dad, my my nephew-in-law, if you want to call him, um he is uh the superintendent of a golf course up in Port Smith near Newport, um Rhode Island. And so they did a big golf tournament last year. Um and so yeah, I mean I I did a big fundraising in 2023 for it because I because I was doing all those different races. Uh I haven't done a lot in the past year, but if I do another big race again I would I would kick off another campaign.

Larry 22:33

Okay. Yeah. We will pick up that conversation with Mary in just a moment. I want to tell you about an upcoming episode. Have you ever wanted to replace something small in your house and it just gets a little out of control you go to fix a sweaty toilet tank and you decide just to put in a new toilet. Which leads to getting a new sink to to match the color and style. And then while you're at it, well you might as well update the vanity cabinet. At which point you're kind of pot committed to put in new lights and a mirror. And if you're doing all that you might as well repaint and put down a new floor. Now your toilet repair is a full reno with a much bigger bill than you were thinking about. That's what happened to Shane Kent, the guest in my next episode here's a brief piece of our conversation that starts off with some training volume and then he shares the inspiration to start this particular journey.

SPEAKER_05 23:34

Thanks Kath Spencer for pushing me one day off a month lots of double days minimum 20 hours a week of training um building up until last week last week was almost 30 hours of training over Saturday Sunday and some of Monday. Yeah you get some big talks going right now yeah yeah um I'm I've I've got some downtime now got a few nickels that I gotta try to work out um but but I suppose the journey to get to this point started after Ultraman when I finished Ultraman um I've done Kiwi Man and upon reflection I always like what can I do better and if I could be a better swimmer I would be a better tri fleet. So then I said to myself well how can I become a better swimmer? I know I'll swim the English channel. So that's how this idea formed in my head to swim the English channel and then signed up for Arched Arc right and eventually got in and um so I signed up back in 2021 but hadn't been able to get in until now and then um yeah really focusing on trying to swim better.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

That is Shane Kent who I will be speaking to in my next episode and now back to Mary and she explains why she decided to go all in for Kona 2023 um I signed up for a tremblant again and that was the first year that that was going to be the second year that women and men were separate and there was more women for tri slots and I you know um I may be better at Excel right but I also have my own set of spreadsheets that I keep right and I had a spreadsheet with all of the qualifying times and the average times and um if there was this many Kona slots what space would I what place would I have needed to be um for like five or two or six years of results. And uh you know I had I I had a pretty good feeling that provided I had like a good day and I didn't have a bad day that I was going to qualify. But I but I was like I don't want to just qualify because I don't want people to say oh well she just went because of you know the extra slot. So I I said you know I said to my coach I'm like all right let's do this. I want you to push me um you know I did the math I'm like man if I get some running legs I have a chance you know and so yeah I really I trained really well I did um before Penn State that I did Penn State that year and I had a really good race um then I did Tremblant and I was forced. I I I never imagined I'd get on the podium and um that was the first time I finally broke four in the marathon I think I ran like a 346 or something um and I was just like on cloud nine the whole day. You know I think Randy said to me at one point you're fourth and I I was trying to talk to him about something and he's like just run and then leading up to that I had said I'm like oh wow okay like if I pull off Kona it's only six weeks between Kona and Ultraman worlds and I will never be in the best and better shape ever in my life. So I had actually reached out to Cheryl and I said hey um if I do this uh you know I didn't know if they were still accepting applications for that year right I didn't know and she was like I've I she she kind of said yeah you you know you let me know and uh I think it was the day after Tremblanc I got an email from her with just two words I'm waiting um and so yeah I decided to do Ultraman worlds that year. I knew the swim was going to be a challenge for me because I get seasick. In hindsight I should have just worn some kind of patch or something because I did I just did everything in my power not to get sick in the water.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Um but uh but yeah it was but it was crazy.

Larry 28:05

That's how I that's how I wound up doing Ultraman three times is I just you know and uh Hawaii was as beautiful as I expected it to be and as hard as I expected it to be well you you you're talking about uh the Ironman worlds and both of you have gone to Iron Man worlds um in in Kona and Nice I believe is that correct between the two of you he hasn't gone to Kona yet oh okay I went to B so far St.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

George I'm doing Nice this year and I have my legacy for Kona next year. Okay.

Larry 28:37

Now with that in mind and now that they've come back we we just briefly kind of touched on the idea of them having extra slots for the women um and now coming back to Kona combined what is it what are each of your thoughts on on that scenario is as as a racing couple do we like it or it sounds like maybe Mary is more of the I like the purist I want my I want to earn my spot and um I do but I I do I do think here's a way I explain it to people um I don't know that I would have had the year I had and gotten the motivation to lead me to be on the podium and do as well as I did.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

I PR'd like over an hour that year um in Tremblant um I don't know that I would have had that motivation if the carrot weren't there in front of me. Like most years I'm like I'll never go to Kona because you have to be top one or two. So like there is something to be said about increasing women's participation by increasing the number of slots right um I mean I'm gonna race Iron Man no matter what but um you know the other thing is you know I I do like the split right I like I told you about what that one day I had a bad race. It's because I got beat up by all the dudes in the swim. Like I I got dunked and my feet pulled and you know um so I'll tell you it was it was a crazy vibe when I did Kona with all women like everybody was supportive there was nobody like getting mad because I passed them and trying to like stay on my wheel and pass me back. Like there was none of that and everybody on the run course was just you know lifting each other up and but we were all out there to compete you know and all of the races leading up to that the women's slots didn't roll at least maybe not until like maybe later right um but when I did Waco there was an odd we stayed at Waco because I had placed I think I was ninth in my age group at Waco and Randy's like we better stay because you might go he's like you gotta go to roll down. And like nobody nobody let any slots roll um but his role to go to niece or no go to um St. George sorry um so I I like the split format but I completely appreciate that Hawaii can't can't handle it. I did niece because I got the opportunity to go I got the email invite from Ironman like hey would you like to go and I was like you know mate why not? It was beautiful but it was not Kona but yeah I mean I I like the split format but I can also appreciate that Kona can't handle that many people on two separate days. So um like I wish there could be a way to to be equitable equitable but not like and have more women slots.

Larry 31:52

Randy what what do you think about this?

SPEAKER_04 31:55

I mean it doesn't affect you as much as far as the slots go not not the slots but I'm slower so I mean at a a given race there's generally more women I I will say there's generally more women passing me on the run because they they're smarter than we are as guys typical guys go balls to the wall on the bike and then they get to the run and they've cramped up or they don't have legs. So I see a ton more men walking on the marathon than girls. So without the girls you know you don't have the ego kick of getting past multiple times in the marathon. But I will say obviously I wasn't the competitor in either of them but I was with Mary in Kona and then again in Nice. And the vibe in Kona the first year of the split was amazing.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna do my legacy but I do not have the desire that I had four years ago to do this. And then they keep changing the rules on me. It was like coming out of COVID, they're like oh you just have to do this and then since there were no races for a while they're like oh we changed the rules again you've got to do a full next year and the year that you're doing the race. Okay well we go to Lake Placid every year anyway so I'll just sign up for that. There's no more additional expense I'm literally in Lake Placid two days before the race at the pub and they're like hey we changed the rules again why don't you do and I it was going to be the um the 25th anniversary of Lake Placid. So for those of us already signed up they gave us a a little discount to sign up for next year. If I got an email from Ironman two days earlier I wouldn't have signed up but they were then Mike Riley was coming back and they were having pro relays and stuff so it was really cool. But again they just keep changing the rules so like this year I have to do a half um which we're going to Mont Tremblant. But again I have a reputation so we're going to Wisconsin in September and they have a special double where you do the half on Saturday you do the full on Sunday.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:03

And then a week later I'm going to Nice to do the world championships. That was not in the cards I got offered a sl a spot so I'm like well I did St. George I'm doing Kona it'd be kind of cool to say you did it all three locations. Yeah yeah yeah you know yeah they they I got I was offered a spot they offered some of the legacy people again because a lot of people don't want to go to France at least a lot of the Americans don't you know and that's why they're they're rolling and so they offered me a spot a couple years ago and I had no desire to go plus it was their first year and I don't like doing any race the first year uh just for logistics.

Larry 34:38

And then Mary did it last year and I was like you know what it's cool kind of town the course was like she said the bike seems awesome the pictures look really cool I'm like uh we'll do it so and and it's certainly uh parts of it are very challenging for the bike I'm guessing you're not gonna get you're not gonna get the chance to practice that in Pennsylvania the what or you're gonna face in Nice yeah so I will say that um I knew that there was no chance that I could practice here.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Yeah uh there's a there's a climb out by us it's kind of north of Reading called Hawk Mountain. Um even that is not good enough so I will tell you this I um it was August into September of last year and every weekend I was on the trainer doing the Neats course on on uh full gas oh yeah I did I would say I did the I did all of the climbing four times four or five times and then once I did the whole course and I will tell like my coach at one point said to me he's like do you really think it's gonna take you like I think it took me over eight hours uh that day I did the whole thing. Oh yeah and uh and I was like I don't know it's what it took me um I think I was just 715 or so on rage day but um but yeah I mean it's it's no joke over there and and the descending you can't prepare for on on a no on a training um it's yeah it can't and I watched the I watched the video a couple times just to get a sense but no it's um I will say I'm a good descender but that that was next level because it was hairpin turns and stuff so it was you know I felt like I was a little bit tour de France kind of thing but um definitely you can't cross a center line you know definitely lends itself to the European riders who train in those kind of mountainous regions all the time. Yeah yeah but it was fun it's fun when you survive yeah yeah I was you know I was uh aggressive but yet not reckless.

Larry 36:53

Right. And and Randy what's your approach to that um particularly maybe you know the the climb and and and how you're preparing for that and also the descent like are you are you confident descender?

SPEAKER_04 37:06

Yeah when I did Ultraman Worlds and uh when St. George was Iron Man World Championships it was a lot of trainer work and similar to what Mary said like I was doing all the hills I was doing the course in in breakouts and then eventually on the longer days doing almost the full thing. But yeah you can't practice a descent like that like literally that's when I would take a bathroom break oh well we're descending for 10 miles now I'm gonna go get a new bottle and go to the restroom and my guy's just coasting down the hill the whole time um I'm no I'm I won't say I'm bad or good at descending I'm obviously a lot heavier than Mary so I can go a little faster.

Larry 37:48

But are you comfortable with that speed on that?

SPEAKER_04 37:51

Well no that's the other thing. Yeah what am I thinking? Hold on we need to rewind here so several several years ago going down the big descent in Lake Placid um I started to get a wheel wobble and I'm talking my wheel went maybe if your center line is here probably a foot to a foot and a half left and right wobbling and I'm like it was fresh pavement like okay at least I shouldn't get too much road rash this is gonna hurt I was able to pull it in and and survive since then on three different bikes and three different body weights more sizes I've had it happen on that hill. So it's not like oh it was your arrow bar I've had it a road bike I've had it happen on two different tribes and anywhere from 185 to 225 pounds. So I 35 is about my limit these days like sometimes if it's a a nicer section I might go up to 40 but like I don't even need to look at the speedometer like I can just feel and I'll start slowing down and like that yep I'm doing 35 because I just miles that's just where it is so um but I don't mind taking a 90 degree turn at 35. It's just I won't go like so like the hairpins I'm not as concerned I can handle my bike well as long as it's not wet or anything but like I'm not you know doing a hundred kilometers an hour down a hill or anything like that. Like that's just yeah so you'll on the on that course on the knees course it's that's gonna hurt a little bit you know because you I won't be making up as much time as some other people.

unknown 39:25

Right.

SPEAKER_04 39:25

And and again going back to the split women are generally a little smarter than the men and a little safer. So that is in the back of my mind, you know, what are these idiot age groupers going to do flying down a hill thinking they're Tour de France when they have no because I mean stereotypes are there for a reason triathletes can't handle bikes you know and that's a course like that does scare me a little bit dealing with other triathletes.

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

Like Mary said her her coworker that we're still friends with he we were taught how to ride by a cyclist and there's so many races where like the amount especially like shorter ones where Mary especially will just make up time on people by doing nothing other than knowing how to corner and how to come out of it the right way compared to like a triathlete and it's yeah and I feel like it's only got I think unfortunately I feel like Zwift has made it worse because and hey I don't mind it either with the way traffic is getting and stuff like that. I completely understand it. But if triathletes can't handle their bike to begin with and then all they're doing is riding on a trainer until race day it's you know yeah it's not crazy. Yeah yeah yeah yeah well let's let's jump up to to the Ultraman distance here you know this is 515 uh podcast uh Mary you told us about the the years that you've raced in ultraman um randy can you tell us about what were the years and the and the races that you did at Ultraman as an athlete back when Spartans weren't even a thing yet there was no tough mutter um there was a race called the the death race and another race called winter death and it was like beginning of extreme where you would like literally you'd go run through the woods unmarked chop three cords of wood go crawl through a stream with a refrigerator on your back in winter death one year they started by doing hot yoga and then a race director took all their clothes and throw them outside into a giant puddle and he's like oh we're done and you had to go try and find your clothes in 20 degree weather and then the race started an hour ago but you didn't realize it um so a guy that was in my triathlon club who did all this stuff and was amazing at his name's Mark Jones he started what we call the extreme team as part of our triathlon club and we did stuff like that where we'd we'd just do crazy stuff and chop wood and go off road and all this and they had all these different levels and awards and I have no upper body strength I'm a runner I can't do any of these but one of the higher levels was this thing called the Ultraman World Championships. And I'm looking at all these other things I could never do the the world's toughest which is like the 24 hour tough motor world championship I'm like I can never think that I'm like I can't swim 10k but I might be able to and I can do the run in the bike how do I get into this race and so that's why I did the the triple in 2013. So I did Ultraman in 2015 um Florida and I D yeah in Florida um and then I was gonna do worlds that year like the same year and I'm like that's probably too soon and then the guys who went one two three in Florida that year all DNF'd worlds and these guys literally beat me by a day like their final time was faster than my two day one and day two time and these guys all DNF'd and I was just like whoa you know what what am I getting myself into um I don't know what year do I finally do worlds 2018 I think uh 17 you have listed here 17 okay we will never agree on training because my training is unlike anything anyone else in the world does so of course Mary said I didn't train enough for worlds um say look at there's the face but I I trained more than I had trained for any other event previously but it wasn't enough and basically what happened is during the swim um when I finished it was I had in my mind what time I'm a five hour swimmer at Ultraman all of all four of them have been between 450 and 505 and I really needed to be like 430 at the latest in order to finish that bike because unfortunately I had done the bike virtually several times. So I had checkpoints all along the way um I had some issues with my kayakers uh not to disparage them but we we didn't see eye to eye on a couple things right and when I got done on the water it was like right around five but it was slower than I needed it to be and I was mentally just Just ride from everything that went on. So we got we got me on the bike, and then my first checkpoint on, and it was that was a really hot day. It was like 90, you know, that climb coming off the water. Yeah, yeah. It was 90 degrees. Um, and I had swallowed some water, so like that Pacific salt water is very salty. It's a lot saltier than the Atlantic. And like my throat was kind of shot, so I'm not really drinking much. And you're going up that climb to the the the traffic light up in uh was that Captain Cook, and I was just done. And so every checkpoint I had, I was further and further behind. And I wound up calling it somewhere in the last 25 miles when you're doing the I got to the Black Sand Beach and started the climb up to volcanoes, but eventually I called it and uh I was like, because I can keep riding for two more hours, but I'm not gonna make the time, so why bother? Right. Um the next day, we uh might have been the last year that you still went over the Kahalas. It was and yeah, and it was brutally windy, rainy, all kinds of weather. Um, I had actually I complained, I so I wasn't planning on doing it, but I wanted to do the descent from volcano. So I'm like, I'm doing a descent, this is awesome. And uh we could do the whole red road back then. So I'm like, all right, I'll do the descent, get down because that road's gorgeous along the ocean. The end of the red road, I'm gonna get in the van and call it a day. My van wasn't there. Okay. So the next time I see them, they just give me food and we go. I'm like, all right, I'll get to Hilo and I'll stop. They literally threw stuff at me, closed the door to the van and drove away. So I couldn't stop. Next time I go to stop, the van's not there. And like we played this game. And then eventually going up uh one of the climbs after Hilo, one of the bridges, they had decided, okay, they're tired of my stuff. If he wants to quit, we'll just let him quit. And so one of the, not the not the singing bridge, but one of the bridges later, I hit it and both my tires flattened at the same time. Thankfully, they were just on the other side of the bridge. So I'm walking my bike and uh Tom Regal's crewing with us, and they're he's assuming I'm done. I'm like, no, I got two flats, and he's like, What? I'm like, both we had spare tires. Yeah, so they switched those out.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Um I'm like, don't you dare use your brakes because we had carbon carbon brakes on, and the spares were alumina, and I was like, you just can't use your brakes until we get back to you.

SPEAKER_04 46:29

No, and and what made it worse was I I'm not a fan of like discs or deep rims or anything like that. So I was running a regular front wheel and a carbon rear wheel. So now they've switched. So now I have a carbon front wheel with regular brakes, an aluminum back wheel with carbon brakes, and and it's coming up to all those gulches. And Mary's like, don't touch your brakes, and I'm like, So eventually we got into um uh where does Billy live? Um, Waimea. And I we've been to Hawaii enough, I know the area very well. And I was like, hey, we're gonna go up here, you're gonna make a right, there's gonna be a strip ball. I want that Snickers better still be there. I want a coke, and I want my jacket. And they're like, wow, what's going on? We're gonna fit. So we get up and over the Cahalas and the wind was insane. Like it was blowing me. At the time, I was probably around 200 pounds. You throw on the bike, you're probably talking 230 with gear and everything. And I'm getting blown from the shoulder to the yellow line. And I was like, I can't imagine what the smaller girls are dealing with. And then it started raining, and then it's dark. And I finally said, Hey, we have like five, six miles to go. I and I called it and I was like, This is it's not safe. I'm not in the race anymore. You know, why bother? And they're like, No, no, no, you can make it. Well, I start going again, and on that course, you had it like a one mile straight downhill to the stop sign, and it's pouring so bad I can't see the next block. And there's a video of the finish line that year, and it is you can't see the clock, it's raining so hard. I'm like, oh yeah, I was three miles away at that point. So then I just start cruising and I come over into the park for the finish line, and it's it's you know, we're at 12 hours, so it's pitch black, and I can see the clock, and all I can see is 11.5, and I can't see what that last digit is. So I just put my and it's raining, it's blurry. I just put my head down and go, and I think I finished at 1153. Um, yeah, that sounds about right. And to this day, like that was, you know, seven, eight years ago, that was the most epic bike ride of my life. Um, and I say, like, I'm kind of glad I quit early the day before because if I had kept riding uphill for the next two hours, I probably wouldn't have had the energy to finish that.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:49

Um, and then the third day I bailed at the marathon mark. I was like, you know, it was it had gotten up to like 90 degrees, and I kind of feel like you only have so many. When I had to Florida, it was in the 90s for the run. And I'm like, I feel like you only have so many of those in your body. And so I'm like, I'll come back. We got in the car, we drove up the road, and the temperature went up like 10 degrees in the next three miles, and I'm like, no, that was a good choice. And then so then I went back in 21 anymore. Or you, whoever's got the notes. I think it was 21.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

22 and I was two because it was a year before me.

SPEAKER_04 49:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I trained a lot more, and like I spent more time getting like losing some weight, and I trained a lot more. And an interesting thing was my swim was actually slower. And I hit a spot with before you turn into the final day, and we were not moving. And like I was watching the coral, I was moving side to side quite a bit, but I was not going forward at all. And I had actually just reached a point of like peace, and I was just kind of like, well, if I finish this, maybe this race just isn't for me. Like, maybe I just cannot do this. And like I wasn't upset or anything, I was just kind of like, it is what it is, you know. I'm not a great swimmer. And we we crossed the finish line or got out of the water, and I was like, let's go. And there's an awesome picture of I'm standing on one leg. Uh, Joan Kim, who I poached from someone else's team, is shoving a banana in my mouth. Mary's putting sunscreen on me. I've got one foot off the ground as Tom's putting a sock on me. I had the fastest T1 of any, not that they keep track of that, but I did looking at everyone's swim and bike times. I had the fastest T1 of anyone that that day. And I passed two people in transition and then another person the second I got on the bike, and I was like, this is great. And then um I didn't have as many time checks this time because it didn't go as well the first time. So I was five minutes ahead at my first time check, never looked again until I got to Black Sand Beach. And I was like, okay, you have this much time to get to the top of the hill, just keep pedaling. And then it was and the only time on I only on day two, I only thought about quitting once because I was like, you came here to finish day one. You already did that. This is great. And I was like, no, you can't, you can't.

Larry 51:09

I gotta go now.

SPEAKER_04 51:11

Yeah. And then like day three, uh sometimes I have stomach issues during the run of Iron Man, and that's what happened during that. And uh I was cruising, it was really hot that year. Like, there's a picture of one of the guys. Oh, the one guy that won the year was the guy I think who was going for sub-23, maybe, or 26. I forget what the number was he was going, maybe even 20, some obnoxious time. He threw down like a 540 first mile. Like when they said go, we're all looking at him and he was already out of view. But it was really hot. Like the first set of pictures they have when the daylight came up, everyone was drenched. And uh, I didn't cramp, but I couldn't keep anything down. And so we tried different things, and then the one crew actually went on uh Mary put the call out, hey, can anyone help? And the one crew actually came back with like some ginger tabs. And Mary's like, just take these, and it worked. And then I unbeknownst to my crew, which they figured out eventually. Uh, I was like, Well, if I get to the half marathon at this, and I was good, I'm like, well, if I get to 20 at this time, I can literally walk the next 30 miles, like just jogging periodically, and I'll break the cutoff. And so that was it. Like I it's stupid, but like I walked so much, it was insane. And I wasn't even as sore the next day as like a myth. Um, no, we hit we hit one section with like maybe like five miles to go, and I saw one of my friends further up, she wasn't having a good day. And I threw down like a 630 at mile 47. My body hurt after this, but I was Mary's like, okay, like hey, it's signs. Like, are you done yet? Like they wanted to be out of the car because unlike the other places where you can leave your bike behind, your bike's in the car. Yeah, and my bike's kind of long, especially with the arrow bar. So they keep hitting their head and stuff, and they were they were offering it to locals if they wanted to anyone wanted to buy it. So they were ready to be out of the car. And Mary's just like, no, you started running, get to the finish line. We're we're we're done with this. It was awesome. And it was cool too, because that was the year that Dee Dee and Leander were both racing. Um, and I've known Leander uh on social media for quite some time. She coached one of my friends down in Miami for a while. And then Dee Dee, um, I was uh the shoulder incident if you've heard that story. If not, we don't Randy's not allowed in kayaks anymore. Um, that was the year that Dee Dee won Florida, and so like we kind of bonded and I always check for her races and stuff. So it was amazing to be able to be in the race with the two of them as well. Yeah, and that was just that was so freaking cool.

Larry 53:44

Two fantastic triathletes there, yeah, for sure. Um you know, you're you're talking about the the people that you've met, um, and and you guys have kind of formed, you know, Rat Pack 2.0 out of Florida. Um there's a group of you now that if one of you is racing, the others are crewing, and then every once in a while someone new comes in and it's just kind of expanded and grown. Can you can you tell us a little bit about how this crew of yours has kind of expanded out of Florida?

SPEAKER_04 54:18

When you get into this and you've been to the meetings, and you can never can never duplicate your first time when you're sitting there and they're reading the resumes, and you are like, What have I gotten myself into? Because you know, this guy's climbed Mount Everest and Billy Edwards was there, and he's like, you know, the trial on coach for like the Air Force. I think he's flown fighters. They're just this guy, one guy in the race had a bullet lodged in his body, and we're sitting there like, um, I drink and wear costumes. And this year, yeah, this year or last year, we're I was at a table with someone in that position. And their family, as they're reading off the resumes, are just like, what is what are we doing here? I'm like, you'll be fine. Well, when we first got into it, we had no clue what we were doing. And you know, it's it's four or five days of vacation. And to ask someone to give up their vacation to come down and crew for you is a little difficult. Mary had no choice, and I was going through my friends, and uh, I knew Simon Shuri, he lived in Nantucket at the time, and he has an atypical job, so I knew he might be able to, I knew him from a different club uh internet. We were on um the Maca X team, which Chris McCormack at the time had an international triathlon team. So that's how I met Simon and I was like, hey, can you come down? And he didn't know what he was getting into either. And so, like Mary said, the next year we crewed for Simon along with some other MACAX friends, and then we're at the banquet, and everyone's like, Hey Mary, you need to ask you next. And she didn't want to, but she did. And so when she raced, she wanted to have a female on a team, so she brought our friend Cynthia on. And it's like day two in the car, and I'm like, Cynthia, you know the rules of this team, and she's like, I know. So she did it the next year. We crewed for her, and her husband is smarter than all of us. He has no desire to do any of these, he'll crew all day, but he's not racing any of these. Right. So then Simon and I did it again, and it was hold on.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

We gotta tell the story about that first time though with Cynthia. We we had to abandon her on day three because our older dog, who was not old at the time.

SPEAKER_04 56:28

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 56:29

Yes, she went on a walkabout from our dog sitter the second night. Um and I got a panicked call from our dog sitter in Virginia. Uh, we had just finished day two. Um and she was I had a GPS tracker on her because she had tried to run away a previous time on the dog sitter because she, you know, she was slippery like that. Um but the problem was it she lived in a rural area and so it lost battery really fast. And we hadn't yet figured out that you needed to have it on Wi-Fi. So she got a panic call like, hey, she got out on me. I slipped. It's the winter in Virginia. Um, and I can't find her. And so we drove, well, Randy drove most of it. I drove like an hour. Um, we got a rental car and drove from Florida to Virginia, and it was like what, 14 hours or so. And by the time we were, we were almost back. And we got the call that they found her, that she um had warmed up to some this random person, she was like five or so miles away from where she had gone, and she went onto this person's porch, but their dogs weren't dog friendly. Um, and so yeah, she we we went back, we picked her up, she was snoozing. Like she just had the best, but if we had to abandon Cynthia and uh like it's the end of the Brian Toner and uh Jeremy Howard stepped in to crew for her on the run.

SPEAKER_04 57:56

Oh yeah. Yeah, and that's what I that's what I tell people. So um Cynthia got two penalties on day two. And the first one I will debate to this day, it was I don't agree with it. And um, this was in Chuck, Chuck was the race director at the time. Yeah, and even at the banquet, he's he and I had a discussion about it, and I just said, Chuck, I plan on being in this sport forever, so I'm going to walk away because I can get we're friends on social media. You see, I can go, I can go there really quickly. So I was like, you know, but her second penalty, um, there was it was very foggy that day, and a lot of, especially the internationals, were violating every rule in the book with driving. And uh locals were not happy, and I had said something to Jen, and Jen calls me, and I was about to go into detail, and she's like, No, your girl has two penalties. You need to talk to her now because they were they were in quick succession. And she told me the first one, and then she tells me that she blew a stop sign. Right it is one where you come up to an intersection, you can see a mile, and it's a T, and you can see a mile in either direction. On a weekend ride, you're not stopping. Like totally. Well, I said, just don't tell me it was the intersection that Toner was sitting at. Ryan Toner is literally sitting there as an official with the clipboard checking people off as they stop and proceed through the intersection. And Cynthia didn't stop. So the next day, he is running with her to get her to the finish line. That's that's how I explain to people what this means. Right. Like he literally gave her a penalty the day before, and then the next day, he's on her crew. Um but so with that, you're you're the point of your question. So then now Simon and I are racing against each other. Well, how's this crew thing gonna work? Um so I went with an all-female crew, and I took previous to that, two years before that, um, they had to run a camp in December on the Ultraman Florida course to just give people training and show the course and all that. Um, I forget what the reason was, but Jen McVeigh couldn't run it that year, so we stepped in. So that was the year Cynthia raced, um, Rich Reed raced, Michelle Williamson was racing, and uh I forget who else was there, but Mary had attended camp the previous year, and it was such a positive impact on her race between meeting people and just getting out there and training with everyone. They're like, hey, we'll run the camp for you. Um and we bonded with all those people. So then when I need a crew, I called up Michelle Williamson. I'm like, I want an all-female crew. Can you come down? So she and she hasn't left since the year she raced, right? And we're all ingrained. And then when Mary did it again, um we brought a local girl up from here who's kind of interested, kind of not interested, our friend staff. So we're like, you need to come down and you need to see it. Um, and then we brought Toner in to join us as well. But it's it's just one of those things like so um Mary went out to Arizona and crewed for Keller one year because he was so she team kabam could not be together. So Mary took the place, so you take Billy's place, I think, for that one, because we should yeah, yeah. So it's like we're we're all integrated, yeah, you know, and now the last couple years, Mary and I have been um in 2020, I was staff, and that's when I rolled the kayak, and that was the whole issue. And in 2021, we were both staff. Um, and there's nothing wrong with doing that, but like we really like the crewing aspect of it. Yeah, yeah. So we told Jen, hey, we would like we'd prefer to be on a crew next year, but we're a package deal. You know, we're not gonna, it's just too logistically insane to not be on the same team. So we crewed for uh two different Filipino apps, one last year and now one this year. Um and now they're both racing worlds and we're crewing for both of them on separate teams.

Larry 1:02:01

Oh, so you are splitting up. Because they both asked and like are they sharing accommodations in Hawaii, the two Filipino apps? No, they oh that would have been smart.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:12

We suggested it, yeah, but they weren't they weren't like compatible. So we were like, hey, we'll do whatever you want, you know. Yeah, it that's how it grew though. You know, I mean it's kind of like I don't know, it's like organic, like it's you keep adding you know, adding these people in. Um and you know, the people who met along the way, they kind of just stay, right? And it just it's this weird, and you know, like it's just this weird family that you see once a year, but you're back to like it was like yesterday, yeah. That you just saw each other, right? And it's just you know, and you know, you really get into some, you know, it's it's not easy to race and either. So, you know, you're you're there for the worst of people and their worst times. You know, I hopped in uh the year I crewed versus Steve in Arizona.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:06

Um crewing for the fastest athlete is much different than crewing for the slowest or even the midcast.

Larry 1:03:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:16

Um it's it's more high pressure, you know, you're you're you're planning things out, you know, um, quicker. Yeah, but our days were shorter.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:27

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:28

Our days were much shorter. And so we finished you know, I think Steve ran two, three something in Arizona that year. So we're it was like 6 30, and we were finished. Um and Jamie Harris was racing Arizona that year, and she was having a rough she was having a rough weekend. Um and we all stayed actually at the same house. So uh Steve and all of us, um, and Jamie Harris and all of her crew. Jack Hemini was her coach. Um and Chuck actually pulled me aside the night before the run and said, Hey, I know you're gonna be done early tomorrow. Do you do you think you'd be willing to come back out and help with Jamie if we need fresh spaces? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. Um, and so we actually all went back out, including Steve. So they drove me out. Um we found where they were on the course, and then I hopped out. And I I think I ran the last 14 with her that year.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:33

Um and I just swapped out and her crew went back into the van. And um, you know, I was, you know, I was a fresh face and you know, got her through.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:42

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:42

Um, so it's just like that. You know, it's like you know each other, and it's just a big family, and it's pretty cool.

Larry 1:04:51

Hello, listener. I love getting your feedback and suggestions for the podcast. Keep them coming at 515ultraman at gmail.com. For those that want to help me promote the show, I suggest that you tell a friend to listen to. Word of mouth is a great way for podcasts to get new listeners. And if you don't mind publishing your feelings, a free way to support the show is by leaving a five-star rating and review on your podcast app. It's a chance to tell me what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it too. Finally, if you're so inclined, you can show your appreciation for my work by clicking the support link at the bottom of the show notes to go to my Find Me a Coffee page. Thanks for all of your feedback and support. Now back to the show. Well, uh, Randy, you're kind of well known for your costumes at these events. Um I I gotta ask you, how many do you have at this point? Do you do you ever repeat them? And do you guys have enough space in your house for them, or are you like paying for it? Storage locker for these things.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:02

Yeah, with Mary's on the other line here, so I don't know how I'm gonna answer this. Um, no, I have a fair amount, and it got worse because uh last fall I had signed up for a loop race where you do a 5k every hour on the hour. And I I got a free entry from somewhere. And right after I registered, I get an email from the race director, and he goes, you know, 24 hours is a lot of time for costume changes. And I'm like, I have no idea who this race director is, but he obviously knows who I am. So at the time, I did not have 24 costumes that I could run in. I mean, I have that many costumes, but not that I could actually run a 5K in. Now I can say that I do, on top of all of my other costumes. So to say I probably have 50 different ones that I could wear, yeah, that's probably not an exaggeration. Um, when we moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia a couple years ago, I was I had the tailgate of my truck had a giant Tupperware on it that was filled with costumes. And that was just one set. And then there's a whole other area, which is like the iron fan, the outfit I wear for Iron Man. I have a whole thing with that. And I'm just going room to room. I'm just Mary's in the living room, and I'd come from the basement with like three in my hand, and then I'd pop out of this closet with two more, and then I'd come from this other room with another one. And then I was like, hey, I'm missing this, this, and this. And she's like, I swear I didn't throw any out. And I'm like, where would I have hidden those? And then I go into another room, pick up a cupboard, and there's like, oh, there's a bag, and there's three more in there. Now they're all in this house. I have two closets that I've pretty much taken over. Most of them are on hangers, and yeah, appropriate. Yeah.

Larry 1:07:48

Treating them well, treating them well. What's your thought on these, Mary? How many costumes do you have?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:54

Uh almost zero. Um I have a couple. I have a couple of costumes that I've picked up for Halloween here and there. Uh costumes aren't really my thing. Um, we did do costumes pretty early on, though. We did this four-mile race at the New Jersey shore um for Halloween. And it was back right when I graduated college. So both of us are were running um and pretty fast at the time. And here we are in matching MM costumes, running sub seven, probably right in this four-mile race. And all these people are looking at this, like, what is wrong with you?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:39

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:39

And we're beating the people that didn't have costumes on, and like these things were like sales, you know. Um, but uh, but no, I mean, costumes really aren't my thing. Um, I will dress up and you know do the fun stuff for Ultraman because you know, a lot of times that's what gets you through. You know, you see these people out in something ridiculous in the middle of the course, and then you all you have to do is laugh, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:00

Um, that is Randy's thing. Um when he crewed for me for uh the first Florida Ultraman. Um I didn't, you know, I didn't really want like crazy costumes. I didn't not, I didn't really not want costumes. It's just, you know, I didn't want that to be the thing. Like for me, I was racing. Um so Randy wore like a tux with a top hat for the kayak on day one. And my friend Cynthia wore like a flapper dress. Um, so it was fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:36

Yeah.

Larry 1:09:38

So so Randy, where where did the inspiration come from? And what should we be expecting at future races? What costumes do you have in the bin that haven't been uh displayed yet?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:48

Well, if something is for the so I DNF that 24-hour one after like 12 hours, I turned my ankle. You started at six o'clock at night, so you never got a good look at the course. And I turned my ankle a couple times, and then the third time I turned it, um, actually, Ryan Toner was crewing for me because I had crewed for him for an ultra the previous year. And we were changing my socks, and we both looked at my foot and were like, oh, it's a little worse than I thought it was. So we we called it a day. So they want me to come back because I literally set up a uh a canopy and I had all 24 costumes hanging up. So when I got done, you didn't really have to think about what I had a clipboard with the list, but you didn't really have to think about what was next.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:25

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:26

And uh they were all just like, Well, can we see the other ones? And I'm like, no, no, you you can't see them. Um, how this all started, I blame my parents. I was a clown for probably the first 10 years of my life for Halloween, and it was this it wasn't an awful costume, but you had to like stuff newspaper down the legs to like make them look fatter and stuff. And I think that just scarred me so much that I've turned into this. Uh, I'm sure some therapist has something to say about that, but that's you know, and it's funny because I don't even go crazy Halloween, like I do it year-round, so like come Halloween, I'm just like, yeah, I'll just throw something on, and you know, it's easy for me to find something.

Larry 1:11:04

Well, from all of these people that you have raced with or you've crewed for, and you know, doing the races yourselves, I I would like to ask each of you to share with the listener who is perhaps just contemplating this for the first time, you know, what is some of your best crewing advice or tricks that you believe are important in getting people to the finish line each day? And as an athlete, what is the best advice that you can give someone, whether that's in training or racing, because people listening to the podcast, a lot of them are doing it to get these tips and and to learn more about the races themselves. So um, Mary, let's go with you first. What's what's a crewing one and what's one for the the athlete? What would you give us some tips?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:49

Yeah, we've crewed a lot. So I think uh being organized, I mean it kind of seems silly, but being organized is probably number one, right? Um and uh just track your athlete. I mean, this will they'll go over at any race, but I always like to, even if nothing's going wrong, I like to track what the athlete has eaten um during the race, uh, even if it's just high level, because if stuff starts to go sideways, then you have an idea of how many calories they've had and like what might have gone wrong. Um we, you know, this passion uh Florida um the we had some trouble getting our athlete to have as many calories as they needed. And so um it became and it became very meticulous the tracking, um just to, you know, just to try to know if they were actually endangering themselves, right? You know, at some point. We were like, you know, I didn't want to have to pull, you know, but I was like, we man, you need to eat something. You know, we we need to get something in, you know. Um, so I mean, for me, that's what it is, because you know, food is your life during those races. And um, like Randy said, he he's had some issues here and there. I've been very fortunate um because I am very boring and I stick to my nutrition. And that's what I take. I I use infinite uh and I take it for three days straight and it's really boring, and people are like, Oh, aren't you tired of that? I'm like, Yeah, but it doesn't make my stomach upset. Um so you know, having to go to plan A, B, C, D, E, F, and G with an athlete is stressful both for the athlete and for the crew.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:40

Because you're trying to figure out like, well, what what could they, you know, what could work?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:45

So that's my crew advice.

Larry 1:13:46

And sometimes the the athletes haven't come in with their plan at all. I've crewed for people that don't come in with any nutrition plan. It's like, I don't know, we'll go to Walmart and pick up some food before the race.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:58

And you know, it's like Yeah, famous last words, right? Yeah.

Larry 1:14:03

And what about as an athlete? What would be a tip that you would give someone that's that's going to be racing?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:09

Try not to let little setbacks ruin the day. Um, because it's a long three days. Um, and if you're a perfectionist or if you're like me and you like to look at your numbers, if let's say the bike shop doesn't put your pedals back on correctly and your power numbers are off, you know what, whatever. You know, um it's yeah, I mean, I think just trust your training and um you know, trust your crew. I think that's the other thing. Like, don't obviously we've had some crews go sideways, right? We've seen crews go sideways and you're like, oh man. But um for the most part, most of the crews are are out there and they're doing their best. So um, like listen to your crew and uh, you know, just try not to let the little setbacks kind of like throw you for a loop.

Larry 1:15:05

Yeah. Randy, how about you? What's your best crewing tip?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:11

My first Ultraman, Mary and Simon, were in the kitchen for three hours making rotisserie chicken wraps because that was my plan. I didn't eat a single one the entire weekend, and they existed on them. So, like I had plan A through D, and none of that is what we wound up eating. Um, you gotta have stuff in the van, and you also need to force it on your athlete at times. Right. I'm not hungry, I don't want this. Hey, try this, I don't want it. Just put it in your mouth. You can spit it out if you don't like it. Oh, that was really good. Can we do that now an hour later? I don't like that anymore. You gotta have options. And there's a lot of times you need, they can't think anymore. You need to tell them what they need to be doing. The whole eating thing, like, oh, I only eat this much for an Iron Man, I'm fine. Yeah, but try and get up again and do it the next day. Like what you do on day, and this is for kind of crew an athlete, day one prepares you for day two and day three. And if you don't, it doesn't matter whether you like it or not, you gotta eat dinner after the race on day one, maybe two dinners. Because if you don't and you're skimping, you might even get heavy through day two, but by day three, you're done. And like recovery, whether it's massage, whatever, but eating when you finish these things, getting enough calories in, especially the first day, as much as you can the second day, because also on a run, you can't consume as many calories. You've got to be as close to topped off as possible. You start day two or day three in the hole, or you start day two in the hole, forget day three. Um, and as far as strictly the athlete, just like kind of like what she said, when you're out there, especially as long as I am, like I was 11 and a half hours all three days my first year. Stuff can go wrong, stuff can go great. Don't don't dwell on it. I mean, you kind of dwell on the great stuff, but like it's gonna pass. You might feel miserable, it's gonna go away. It's raining. Well, sometimes it can rain all 12 hours, but you know, just compartmentalize, you know. We obviously like to suffer, or we wouldn't be doing this stuff. Just, hey, this sucks. Or if you got a flat, okay, it's changed, keep going. It's over, you're done. You know, just move on. Don't let, don't let whatever happen. Or like she was saying, oh, my swim wasn't great. Well, you know what? You're at 50k into a marathon, into a double marathon now. Who cares what happened on the swim?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:26

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:26

Just, you know, but also embrace it. You know, your crew, the other crews, like it's not all work. It's a little bit of fun, you know. That's like sometimes it's great. Like this year, that's so many people finished within, we didn't see them, but I think in the last 20 minutes, five athletes finished. Like you're all out there together, you know, taking it in and you know, enjoying the whole thing.

Larry 1:17:48

Yeah. Well, as we are recording this, we are in June, but this episode's going to be coming out the the day of the start of another Ultraman race. And this would have been Steve Keller's third race. I know that you had some things to say uh online and social media earlier. What what are your thoughts on your friend Steve Keller and you know what he's been meaning to this community for such a long time? We're talking about the friends you've met. What what do you think about uh how that has has gone for Steve and will he be coming back?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:28

I think I think the biggest word is it's just disappointing as as a whole, like um for everyone involved. It regardless of whether what side of it you're on, whether it was appropriate, inappropriate, action should have been taken, shouldn't have been taken. We're a niche sport, we're a niche event in a niche sport. And for all of a sudden, all these headlines to be out there for not celebrating winners or you know, Didi, or I'm sorry, I forget the girl's name who won this year and set all the course records who won Canada, like that's what you want your focus to be on. Yeah, that's what you want your focus to be on. And instead, we're discussing rule violations or not rule violations. And on top of that, it happened to like, with the exception of maybe Armando, you couldn't find a nicer person, a more positive person promoting the sport, helping everyone else. And it just, yeah, not the greatest situation. And I think all parties probably could have handled it better. Leave it at that. If you're friends with me on social media, it was handled otherwise also. But um, as to whether he'll be back in official Ultraman events, I would say yes, but I'd say it depends which events we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:00

Yeah, I know he's still coaching athletes, right? That want to do the event. So, you know, obviously he's gonna be around.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:07

Yeah, yeah. Um, Steve is such a great guy, you know, he's competitive, right? So just like all of us, right? I'm sure, you know, um, you know, I've you know, I have crewed for him. So uh, you know, uh he means business when he wants to win, right? Um but yeah, I mean I was always so excited for what he he was trying to do to, you know, just get the word out about Ultraman, you know, um, and you know, try to get people interested. And you know, a lot of people are trying to look and say, well, what's next after Iron Man? And what else can I do? Um, and there's there's other events out there, you know, there's the extreme ones. Um but you know, not those are hard to get into too, right? And so Ultraman in some cases is like the next reachable level, right? Because you can you can get in. Uh there's in the United States, right? There's there's two, three, right? Um, at least for now, right? Uh there's the two. Um and so yeah, I mean, he's a great guy. I, you know, I like I said, I've crewed for him. I've been around him in races when he was crewing for people. And so um just disappointed.

Larry 1:21:20

Yeah.

unknown 1:21:22

Yeah.

Larry 1:21:23

Well, um looking uh looking ahead for for you guys, you said you're both gonna go and crew at the worlds this year. What are your racing plans coming up? Whether it's uh you we know about the the world championships in Iron Man, but are there any uh Ultraman races in your guys' future?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:45

Uh not at the moment. No, no, um no Ultraman for me. Uh like I said, I might, if there would be one in like East Coast Northeast, uh maybe that was on a course that was really interesting to me. Maybe. Um for me, world was like I had a good race and you know, I did well. Um, so uh I'm happy. I love to go crew and help people, and we're gonna go to Nice uh and I'm gonna look at the calendar and see what else is out there in the fall. Um I might have a low-key year this year, uh, because we're doing Trumbullot next weekend. Um and then we'll see. I think I'm gonna do Iron Man Lake Placid next July. Um and who knows, maybe I'll pull something out and then Randy and I can do Kona together.

Larry 1:22:38

So there you go. All right. That's that's looking ahead. How about you, Randy? Is there another Ultraman race for for your future?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:47

Um, I'm slightly intrigued by van's race in Mexico, not quite enough to sign up for it. What I said is it would take kind of like what Mary said, it would take, I've been telling people for years, like we'd take a new location somewhere that's interesting to me, and then they announce Vans race, and I'm like, not quite, but you're you're getting closer. Like if they were to put one on in Costa Rica or something, I'd be like, I'm in. Um, so I I don't I kind of got screwed over. I mentioned before, like the whole legacy thing. Like my plan was do Kona with my legacy, did I Ultraman Worlds, and I'm not saying I wouldn't do any of this anymore, but like I was kind of ready to take a step back and I have to keep doing it because of of the whole Iron Man thing. So um never say never, but uh worlds I don't think I would do again. I I don't I didn't I was so pissed out of DNF, I didn't want to ever have to do that swim a second time. I certainly don't want to have to do it a third time. Yeah, no real plans to compete in an Ultraman anytime soon.

unknown 1:23:46

Yeah.

Larry 1:23:47

Well, uh I want to thank you both for for joining me, and I really appreciate you guys taking the time to tell us about all the people that you know in the Ultraman community and sharing your advice and thoughts and telling us about the times you've raced and crew. It's it's what these stories are all about. So thank you guys for taking the time and joining me on the podcast.

Mary Jo 1:24:09

All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:10

Awesome. Thanks, Larry.

Mary Jo 1:24:12

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