Ferate's 5: My Mantras For Running A 100 Mile Race. (017)

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Happy Sunday everyone! Thank you for checking out this week’s edition of Ferate’s 5

A few weeks ago I finished a 100-mile ultra-marathon in Bend, Oregon that took me 31 hours and 49 minutes to complete.

One of my great friends and pacer during the race, Dirk Van der Velde encouraged me to break up the race into different mantras. Using them as mental benchmarks and breaking down the race into something that seems more doable. When Dirk completed his first 100-mile race he did the same thing, taking advice from David Goggins’ book and putting it into action.

His four mantras were inside four different hats that he would switch out at each crew aid station.

1. Begin with the end in mind

2. Pain is weakness leaving the body

3. We didn’t come this far, just to come this far

4. The race never ends

Check out his full story on my podcast where he dives in more details about racing and the rest of his life. Highly recommend. Follow him on Instagram 

Back to the main theme… As I prepped for my race, I wrote a letter to myself and journaled a lot about my race process/tactics (fuel, hydration, pace, distance between aid stations, crew, etc). Most importantly I made the decision about my mantras. Making them the background of my phone to create my own in-race reminder.

• Do something worth writing about: One of my favorite quotes that gives me the energy to keep investing in experiences, connecting with people, writing, and my newsletter. My mom actually reminded me of this the night before the race. She said that was one of her favorite parts of Dirk’s podcast episode. Gave me goosebumps.

• Be First: Lesson learned from Tim Ferriss and Gabby Reece that my best friend and I challenge ourselves to embody every day. First to say hi, first to smile, first to… it almost always pays off.

• Fun / Calm: Brad Scott shared this lesson during my training. The goal of training is to train for calm. Improving the skill of being calm and at peace while doing the work. (Have Fun)

• Amor Fati: Stoic principle “becoming better because of it” loving fate.

• Didn’t come this far, just to come this far: THIS WAS THE MANTRA.

• Bold Bison: When storms hit, cattle run away, and bison run into the storm. Facing challenges and getting them over with sooner. How can I be more bold? How can be more FERATE in all caps.

• Love yourself like your life depends on it: Inspired by Kamal Ravikant’s book.

Nothing ever goes to plan. After the 37-mile mark of seeing my parents and Rory at an aid station, I hit the point where it was just a 45-degree straight shot up. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. 12 hours into the race I got very short of breath, felt like I could only exhale, and was hiking just straight up this dirt logging road. For 2 to 2.5 hours I didn’t see any other races, I was alone, everyone ahead of me took off and no one was behind me.

Besides the difficulty breathing, and the straight uphill, the hardest part was realizing when I completed this leg of the race it meant I was now halfway done. oooof In that moment saying the names of friends was big, pretending they were there with me, We got this…. here we go….. come on….. and going straight to the mantra “we didn’t come this far, just to come this far” helped me push through. I was getting cratered by that hill.

At the top of hill, a guy caught up and passed me on the trail. As he cruised on by he said, “Remember man people cheer for the guy who runs it 20 hours, but EVERYONE REALLY CHEERS for the guy who makes it with 10 minutes to spare. Have a good one man!” (I AM SERIOUS, NOT JOKING)

I was like what? what did he just say? I was out of it but it hit me, he was right people cheer more for the person who barely makes it under the cut-off time compared to the dude you knew would smash the race and get a top-10 finish.

Would be cool to someday meet that guy, have no clue who he is.

Well, I made it to mile 49 where Rory could join me as a pacer, hydrate, get my feet up, and eat some chicken teriyaki for dinner with my crew (it was around 8 pm).

One thing that came up especially because I was having issues breathing was “one step, one breath” focusing on that simple task. That was all that mattered especially as I made it to the 11 pm aid station when Dirk joined me for the next 27 miles. Which turned out to be the actual hardest thing I have ever done 11 pm to 9 am, the 57 to 84 mile marker basically. That last 10 miles 74 to 84 when having to make it there before 9:30 am was the biggest test of them all.

Here’s a short clip for some insight into that 10-mile stretch and being +24 hrs into the race.

One mantra that came to me during all that time to think since I didn’t listen to music or wear headphones was David Senra’s quote “Belief comes before ability”. It was a quote heard a while back on a podcast with Danny Miranda. It really hit me during the race thought, I BELIEVED I could complete this ultra marathon before I started training.

When it hit me I told Dirk “dude remind me about this quote, I want to tell you about it later.” I was pretty out of it and didn’t want to mess up my breathing telling the story at 2 am. Ended up forgetting to explain it to him. But I just kept thinking about it over and over again. Belief comes before ability. I believed that I could do it, then signed up, then trained for it, drove to Bend, got to the start line, and then holy shit it is 2 am +60 miles deep into this race thinking about a David Senra quote making more sense than it ever has. That’s livin!

What is your mantra for this season of your life?

When have you used a mantra to help you face a challenge head on?

Please let me know what you loved, connected with, or feedback you may have! It is awesome when people reach out to connect!

Thank you for checking out the newsletter and spending some time with me on this Sunday. I wish you all love and consistency! Continue to stack those daily deposits, and make every day the best day of the year until tomorrow.

Appreciate you guys.

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