Still Strong #35 Luke Curley

Intro voiceover: [0:01] I learned the hard way, nothing's overnight, some days you lose, some days you survive. Still Strong, even moving slow, every step counts more than you know. I found gold in the everyday, showing up and staying brave. We're rolling right now.

Keith Vance: [0:28] We're rolling right now. Yeah, you're ready. Luke Curley. Welcome to the Still Strong Podcast. Yeah, good to be here.

Keith Vance: [0:39] Luke, I'm having a hard time figuring out where to start with this one. Just because you and I have been friends for so long, and there's so many places that we could start. Yeah. But to bring everyone up to speed with who you are, why you're here. You do ultra marathons. You recently finished one. Mm-hmm. I went up there to support you. Yeah.

Keith Vance: [1:13] So, the reason why you and I connect is we do these things not because we're weightlifters or runners. We do these things for another reason. Mm-hmm. So, that's what we're going to talk about. But before we get into all that, okay? Before we get into all that, who are you today? If you would describe yourself today, what do you do for work? Okay. Your family life, how long have you been married, where do you live? Just give me a snapshot of what it's like to be you for a week. What do you do?

Luke Curley: [1:47] Yeah. So, right now, I'm 36. Born in 1990. Let's see. I have a beautiful wife. I've been married for 15 years. It's been 15 years already? 15 years, yeah. Wow. It's crazy, man. Wow. I know, preparing for this, I started to think about where I'm at in life and stuff. And it's crazy to think of milestones like that. Like, 15 years. I've been running for 20 years. We got four kids. What are their ages? So, we got married at 20. And then, we had our first daughter at 22. She's 13. Then, we got, and that's Elena. Then, Lucas, he just turned 11. Celia is six. And then, six going on seven. She'll like that. But then, and then Solana is two years old, going on three. So, and we're pretty happy with four kids. And you live in Rochester area? Rochester, New York. Yeah. And it's kind of crazy, too, because I grew up in Rochester in a small town, Churchville. And then, we get married, moved to like three miles away from where I grew up. Oh, okay. And then, like, eight years ago, bought another house. That's still like four miles from where I originally grew up. So, like, it didn't really move too far away, you know. And then, you do an interesting, you have an interesting job. Oh, yeah. Elevators. Yeah. So, I work on elevators. I've been doing that for, since I was 18. So, 18 years. Wow. Like, going on 18 years. I feel like. Which is crazy, too. If you would have asked me, I would have said, yeah, you've been doing it like four or five years. Yeah. I mean, it kind of feels like that. And the company I'm with now, I've been with for 11 years or almost 12 years. So, probably actually about 12 years. And so, it's like, oh, I've been doing that this long stint of 12 years. But I've been in working on elevators for 18 years. So, it's pretty wild. It's actually a great career, though. I love doing that. And I have that troubleshooting mindset. And so, it helps in everyday life. It helps at work. Just having that ability to troubleshoot things and fix things.

Keith Vance: [4:07] When I, I don't want to tell the story yet because we're going to get to it in the next. Remember I said we're going to, there's a stack of plates and we'll set it over. Yeah. I don't want to get to it yet. But when I went up there to watch you learn that race a few weeks ago, you were working. And you're like, hey, you want to see what I do? And you showed me, you showed me like how the elevators work. And I got to see some stuff behind the scenes. We actually rode, Michael, bro. We actually rode, he opened up the doors and there was no elevator there. It was the top of the elevator with the cables and everything. And he's like, hop on. And I was like, I didn't want to hop on. But we did. We hopped on. He's like, no, we're doing a safety check. Yeah. So we rode the top of the elevator with all the moving mechanical parts.

Luke Curley: [4:50] We may or may not have rode the top of the elevator. But yeah. Oh, sorry. Well. But this is, yeah, go on. Okay.

Keith Vance: [4:57] So it made me feel. Like, I don't want to ride elevators. Yeah, yeah. Because they don't work the way that I thought they did. And here's the other thing. Here's the other thing is I got claustrophobia. Elevators are normally kind of hot. And depending on how many people are in it, I will get out. I'll get out if there's too many people. But in my mind, kind of like my safety mechanism was, was I could just pop a panel out and just hop out. No. Ride the top of the elevator. No, no, you can't. It's bolted down. It's bolted down. You can't get out. So that's another thing that I'm going to have to take the stairs. Yeah.

Luke Curley: [5:30] And then looking at, I mean, I showed you like the controllers and stuff up there too. And yeah, it's been a fun career to be involved in. And I kind of got into that because, I mean, that's a whole story in itself. But like when I was, when we were, I was 16 when I met Jacenia. But we were just friends at the time and actually got, I don't know if you want to tell this whole story or not, but wherever this goes, I guess, right? But there's no roadmap. Yeah. So I'll even back it up a little bit further. I'm a Christian. I got saved when I was 12 years old. So I trusted in Christ, put my faith in Christ at 12 years old, but kind of was in and out of church after that. Then got invited to another church when I was 16, Gospel Light. And started going there, met Jacenia's brother, Lex. And he took me under his wing. It was like, hey, man, I want to disciple you. And let's hang out. I'll show you the Bible, stuff like that. I was like, perfect. So we kind of hit it off right there. And like me and him started doing like a bowling league. We started shooting guns together, like hunting, all sorts of stuff, and quickly became best friends. So because of that, I ended up over at their house a lot, eating dinner, hanging out, and got to know Jacenia quite a bit. And when we were 18 years old was where I finally got her to fall in love with me, essentially. So we figured out like, hey, we actually like each other, love each other. We want to like pursue a relationship. I ended up talking to her dad at the time. It was like, hey, I'm interested in your daughter. Want to, you know, date her. Was like just looking at like date her. And he's like, nah, you can't date my daughter. Like you're working at a pizza place. And like I was just an 18-year-old kid, like just graduating high school. And he's like, nah, how would you even support my daughter? Like what's the point of dating if you're not going to get married? And I'm like, oh, man. So he kind of put the, like pumped the brakes hard and like shut that whole thing down. And it was like you got to marry my daughter, like pursue a relationship. Like you'd have to have a job. You have to have like insurance. You know, where are you going to live? Like you're living at home with your parents right now. Like what would you do with all that? So it kind of challenged me at that point in time. Like, well, I need to, like I love her. I want to pursue this. But I need a career or something. So I prayed about it. I actually went home crying to my parents because I was like, man, I just got shut down like so hard. I thought this was like the will of God anyways.

Keith Vance: [8:20] Did he, as part of your, him shutting you down, did he tell you your beard wasn't long enough?

Luke Curley: [8:26] I was so clean shaven back then that this didn't happen until I was 25. Bro, you're making me jealous. Yeah. Man.

Keith Vance: [8:34] Okay. So anyway.

Luke Curley: [8:35] Yeah. But no. Yeah. So he shut me down pretty hard. And then, but it forced me, it gave me like a point in my life, I think, where it was like, okay, I can kind of like put up or shut up. Like if you really want this, let's pursue it. Got it. Or ask, it's going to be too hard. I'll just move on kind of thing. And, and so I, I was like, well, let me pray about it and see what happens. And I went out, I put in job applications, like all over the place, all these Home Depot, Wegmans, like all these grocery store, all this stuff. And, but then my dad was like, Hey, why don't you call, call Uncle Don? He's over at the elevator company and he does pretty well over there. I should give him a call. Maybe they can hire you doing something, whatever. So, so I would call my Uncle Don and he's like, yeah, come on in, bring a resume, whatever. We'll see. So they ended up hiring me and I was just getting 10 bucks an hour, just pushing a broom at the shop kind of thing. But little did I know the whole company was going to get organized into the union within like six months. So I started working there. I was like, well, maybe I got some room to grow here. Six months later, the whole company joins the union, which. You got grandfathered in. Yeah, I got grandfathered in 18 years old. And so now all of a sudden we drew. In the union, I get health benefits, I got a retirement package, a pay raise, like big pay raise, like all this stuff. And if you hadn't had that conversation with your future father-in-law, I don't even know what I'd be doing right now. You wouldn't be in that position. Honestly, like I don't even know. I don't know if we'd be married. I don't know if we'd, we wouldn't have kids. Like, I don't know. I would have went to college for something. I would have joined the military. Like, where would I be? I don't even know. And so like his challenge to me is, you know, and looking back, it's easy to see the hand of God bringing me through all that. But obviously, it was like super stressful and challenging and tough.

Keith Vance: [10:41] And there's something there because like we're not done yet, right? So there's always, there's going forward, there's still things we need to grow in. What am I supposed to do? There's those things like, am I doing, like you seek the will of God and you're like, okay, I don't want to become complacent. I don't want to become stagnant. I don't want to, I want to be always being what I'm supposed to be. But what is that? Yeah. And then these opportunities happen where they just so happen, it's just so happened that this happened. And then you, you look back and you can see, no, that was the hand of God. But when you've been walking that life or, you know, as you said, it's been 15 years. And once you get that traction, you can look back and you can see more of those markers. And then when life gets hard, you can be like, no, look at these markers. Look at these markers. They've been sustained. It's going to be okay. Yeah. So that's, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up because he is faithful to us. He has a plan for us. Absolutely. But it's nice, bro, when you can just look back and be like, you get enough, you've had enough mileage behind you. You can say, man, it's going to be okay. Look here. Boom. Look. Yeah. He's going to continue it. That's good. I'm glad you brought that up.

Luke Curley: [12:03] It is. It's definitely a big thing. And honestly, like looking back to that, being faithful at the time to God and like, hey, this is, you know, I was like, we want to do this the right way. Let's try to do everything right. Really just put my head down, went to work, was saving money, like doing all that stuff. And to kind of finish that story too, because 18, put in the union. Now I'm like, oh man, I got, I got like, I checked all these boxes that he had, like health insurance and retirement, all this stuff. And I had money saved, bought a house at 19, like was remodeling the house, all this stuff. So by the time she turned 20, he allowed us to date. So then it was like, okay, now we're back kind of on target. He knew I was working in the elevator stuff. And, and then it was, it was shortly after that, like June, I think, or something. I met with him at a Tim Hortons donut shop there and had like a whole binder of like my pay stubs. Like, here's, here's what I make. I like slid it across the table. I was like, here, this is, here's, here's, here's everything. Like, am, am I good enough now? You know? Wow. And, uh, yeah. And he gave me his blessing there. It was awesome. What's your relationship with him now? It's, Mateo is absolutely awesome. Like awesome father-in-law. I do like a lot of stuff with him. He's, I don't know, man. Like it's the, it's crazy to think, um, I'm super blessed with all the family that have my family, just sent his family. Like it's, I don't know. It's amazing to have that. And like, I can't picture life without it or in a different way. Um, but Mateo specifically, he's been, the thing, biggest thing with Mateo is he's, he's always been a Christian, like a man of God. He's been over the 15, well, he'd been married 15 years, but I've known him for like 18 years or yeah, about 18 years. Um, or 20 years, actually for 20 years, he's been super consistent. Just a man of God. Like you walk into his house, you'll hear him singing like in the house. Like he's singing praise, some worship song, something like we're out, we do side jobs together. He'll invite me to do side jobs cause I'm handy and work good with them and stuff. And, um, just always singing praise, always a joyful guy, like awesome to be around. Um, so he's been like actually a big influence in my life to be that consistent. Man of God and like the head of the household, like how do, you know, as a 18 year old kid, you. 20 year old kid, we got married at 20. How do I want to start my marriage? How do I want to start my family and lead them? He's been a big influence in that.

Keith Vance: [15:14] Consistency is a good word and it coincides with Still Strong. When you're consistent in your beliefs and what you do, you'll be strong. You can go 20 years and be a source of strength for people to look to consistency. I like that word. Consistency. All right, bro. That was a good introduction. You got me going. You got me going. Before we get going, you watch my podcast. Everybody comes on the podcast. They get these Still Strong hats. Yes. They're Richardson 112s. My kids tell me they are the best. I'm excited about this hat. You can buy those on our website, shopstillstrong.com. We got shirts and hats. Or you can come on the podcast, tell me your story, and I'll give you one.

Luke Curley: [15:58] So I wear a lot of hats, so I'll be wearing that hat. So, yeah. All right. You ready?

Keith Vance: [16:04] Yeah. Okay. I think so. Here's where we're going to start. Here's where we're going to start.

Keith Vance: [16:15] You and I were talking a few months ago. You're wanting to do this challenge where you run a marathon, a 50-miler, and then a 100-miler within a certain amount of time. Yep.

Keith Vance: [16:33] Your world got kind of flipped upside down. Didn't look like you're going to be able to do it. So let's start there. Let's start with your next goal. Let's talk about the adversity you went through in that time frame, and then let's talk about when I called you. Hey, bro, you going to do the 100? You're like, man, I want to, but I don't know. So let's start there.

Luke Curley: [16:58] Yeah, there's a lot to unpack with that whole thing. Okay, let's get it.

Keith Vance: [17:00] All right, I'll let you tell it.

Luke Curley: [17:03] So, I don't know. Do you want me to tell? I could start. I've been running for 20 years. So my normal last couple years have been structured where, and I do ultramarathons. I don't know if you want me to give. Let me just start with an ultramarathon. Let's just get the definition of ultramarathon because some people probably don't even know what ultramarathons are. But marathon distance is 26.2 miles. So anything above 26.2 miles is an ultramarathon. So any race, 50K, 50 mile, 100 mile, 100K, they go bigger than 100 miles also. So anything like that is ultramarathon. I got into ultramarathons 2016 and had success, then injury, success. But the last couple years have been kind of like I structure it where I do the marathon in May. It's Sega Honda. It's a trail marathon. So all these races are pretty much all trails also. So do Sega Honda marathon in May. Then June, July, I find a 50 miler. It's either many on the Jenny or Finger Lakes 50. There's a couple different races, but find a 50 miler June, July. And then end of July or August is the 100 miler. And so I can kind of like ramp it up and make that my training pattern. So coming out of winter, I don't really run a whole lot. I don't really like train a whole lot. It's freezing cold in New York. So it's tough to be like motivated and ambitious to go outside when it's 10 degrees and snowing. And you still do it like every now and then. And there's a race series. They do the Freezeroo race series, and there's six races every other weekend from December till February time frame. So I'll do that to just get me out, get me on a Saturday, go out for, you know, five miles or 10 miles or eight. I think the longest is like 8.4 or something like that. But then getting into springtime is when I'm like, OK, I need to start ramping this up and start doing something. So to force myself into like a discipline, a discipline training schedule, I just structure those races, 20, the marathon, 50 mile, 100 mile. And then that way it's like I have to hit these goals, these milestones to get to the 100. So which also this year I'll include that I tried running in toe shoes. So like I wanted to implement kind of a barefoot, minimalistic running and do toe shoes. So I bought toe shoes in like February, started walking around in them. Actually, I didn't. I think I had them when I came down here in February. And trained a little bit, like, I think I ran seven or eight miles in them. And then I did the marathon in the toe shoes. And it actually went pretty good. Like, I made it through the marathon. Didn't really have any issues with them that, like, I noticed, like, oh, man, these aren't going to work. So I kind of, like, checked that box. Like, okay, the toe shoes are going to work for the 50. But then between the marathon and the 50, I didn't, like, train that much. It was just kind of, like, coasting, which isn't really uncommon for me because I don't really – I definitely don't over-train at all.

Keith Vance: [20:41] So we're going to get into that side of it. You run, but you're not a runner. Yeah. And we're going to – I want to talk about that separately. If that makes sense. You run, but you're not – we're kind of unpacking this in a weird way, but I want to, like – we're doing good.

Luke Curley: [20:53] Yeah, there's so much here. There's, like, so – there's 20 years of stories and, like, literally thousands of miles that I've run. Yeah. So to navigate through the whole thing, we'll just try to pick it apart. But for this year, it was – the marathon went good. In toe shoes for the first time. In toe shoes for the first time. Then did a couple little runs, like, three-mile runs in the toe shoes. Nothing crazy. But then it was, like, a week and a half before the 50-miler. Then I was like, man, I should really go out and do something. I haven't really run much since the marathon. So I threw – it was after work on a Thursday. Threw on the toe shoes. I actually had to go fix – try to fix Mateo's dryer at his house, and they live, like, three and a half miles away.

Keith Vance: [21:42] You're like an indentured servant.

Luke Curley: [21:44] So I literally – I had a part that I bought from Amazon, put in my backpack, put on the toe shoes, started running. I was like, oh, hon, I'm going out for a run, probably 10, 13 miles, something. Go run out, like, six miles, run back to Mateo's house, work on the dryer at his house, kind of get it fixed, run back home, all in the toe shoes, did 13 miles. So I ran a half marathon after work. That's just, like, the normal – that was – You're used to it. Your body's used to it. And in my mind, I kind of, like, okay, I checked the box. I did the 13 miles. I'll be good for the 50. Like, that's what I was literally thinking. And then that Saturday, I'm doing yard work in the backyard and, like, got my parents' tractor, cutting up trees and burning the chicken coop, like, doing all this stuff. We go to my son's flag football game, like, an hour after that, and I'm carrying chairs out on the field. Set the chairs down, and all of a sudden, I could just feel my lower back just, like, tighten right up. And I'm like, oh, no, this isn't good. I've had back problems before. So it's – I was, like, as soon as that happened, I was, like, oh, man, dude, my back is messed up. This is not good. And this is now one week from the 50-miler. So, like, that's, like, the first thing on my mind is, like, I forgot 50 miles next week. Like, I can't be having these back problems. So, that week, I went, saw a guy, orthopedic massage guy, and really my back tightened up because running in the toe shoes, I was running poor form, just, like, yeah, whatever, just running, jogging, not paying attention to my form and stuff. So, I ended up, like, stretching out my hamstring, my calf, all that stuff just balled up. And then that pulled on my lower back.

Keith Vance: [23:37] And so, people who don't know what toe shoes are, it's basically, like, running barefoot. Yeah. And running shoes have, like, a lift to them, right, where you're – They have a drop, yeah.

Luke Curley: [23:45] So, they got a cushion across the entire sole of the foot, but then the back will actually have more cushion than the front, and that's dropped, but it ends up, like, pitching your foot down forward. So, you're used to running with your foot in this position. Yeah. Now, all of a sudden, you've been – Barefoot. Running basically barefoot. And I did that on the road also.

Keith Vance: [24:07] And it stretched out your – Yeah. Hamstring in the way.

Luke Curley: [24:10] I just overworked muscles that weren't being – weren't exercised because I just ended up running toe shoes like that. So, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but apparently my body thought it was a big deal. So, it balled it all up. I started going to see this orthopedic massage guy. He gets it loosened up, but, like, by Friday I saw him again. The race was going to be that Saturday. And it just – it wasn't – like, I still had back pain. Like, I was – I was like, dude, I'm not going to be able to run. Like, I'm not – I can – I could walk, but if I try to jog right now, it's going to hurt. And then to think if I go do this 50 on trails – and I could even drop it to the 50K, which is 31 miles. But I'll say even if I do 31 miles, there's going to be a potential of me – I'm kicking a rock or falling or tripping, doing something, and then tweaking my back, and then that would put me out for the 100. So, I've never, I don't think I've ever actually had to, I've never actually, like, deferred in a race either. This is my first time having to, like, back out of a race or not do a race in the 20 years that I've done this. So, this was definitely, like, a curveball, and it was, like, something I had to, like, really, like, each day was, like, it was stressful. It was, like, I like to do the races, and I like to keep on pace. If I sign up for something, I'm doing it. Like, there's, I'm not, especially if I start it, then it's going to be tough to get me to stop. I'm just doing it. So, so I ended up not doing the 50, not even doing the 50K. Passed on that, which was a good idea, because the other thing I didn't know I was dealing with was I got bit by a tick and got Lyme disease. So, that weekend, I was getting, like, fevers and body aches. Like, it was all these weird symptoms that I, I'm like, what's going on here? I'm dehydrated. Like, what's happening? And, and then that following Thursday, so after the 50, that Thursday, I noticed a big bullseye on the back of my leg. And I was like, oh, man, I got bit by a tick. So, I went to urgent care. They did blood tests, came back positive the next day. They started me on antibiotics. So, like, all of this stuff, and I'm still getting rid of the back pain at that point, too. Like, still just getting out of, like, my leg is feeling better. My back's feeling better. I could, like, oh, maybe I could go start running and training for the 100, and all of a sudden I get hit with Lyme disease.

Keith Vance: [26:57] I got to make an interjection, because as you're telling your story, I just had a memory. You were here in Florida for something before all this. Mm-hmm. And I told you I was doing this podcast, and you said, well, I'm going to be running, I'm going to be running 100. You told me about this. Yeah. I said, dude, after you get it done, after you get it done, let's do a podcast and see how it went. Yeah. And we booked you for today. Yeah. And we thought we were going to be talking about the marathon, the 50, and the 100. We thought we were going to be talking about that. Yeah. And then I don't want to tell your story for you, but when you get hit with a Lyme disease, you call me, say, hey, bro. I didn't run the 50. My back's all locked up. Yeah. I got Lyme disease. I'm on antibiotic, and I don't even know if I'm going to be able to do the 100. And you're like, I know we scheduled the podcast, but he's like, I don't even know if we should do it. I don't even know where we're at. Yeah. So that, I'm glad you, that.

Luke Curley: [27:52] That was July 4th. That was July 4th weekend there.

Keith Vance: [27:57] So we were going to, like, we had anticipated talking a story of, like, boom, and now all of a sudden.

Luke Curley: [28:02] I didn't know, yeah. I didn't know. I didn't know if I was even going to be able to do the 100. And then having Lyme disease in itself was like, that's a terminal, like, that's like a chronic issue that you could have for life if you don't take care of it, if it doesn't get rid of.

Keith Vance: [28:20] So we booked this podcast before all this happened in anticipation to tell a story that was like. Yeah. And now here we are.

Luke Curley: [28:29] Which I also had that pressure in the back of my mind, too, of like, yeah. Like, man, I want to go do this. I want to go tell the story.

Keith Vance: [28:37] And now we don't even know. I don't even know what that story is going to look like. And we don't even know if we have one. Maybe I have to rebook somebody because, like, we don't even know. So I was like, hey, dude, let's just get through it and we're going to leave it. Yeah. So I'm glad I had forgotten about that.

Luke Curley: [28:51] So anyway, go ahead. So the guy hit with the Lyme disease was at least my back was starting to feel better, but then had this hit with Lyme disease. So that's like I'm starting to research everything about it. I feel like, too, I had this point of, like, again, like put up or shut up kind of thing. And, like, either just take the antibiotics and just hope that that works. Or do I go full out and do antibiotics, change my diet, up my vitamins, and really try to, like, kick this thing out of my system? And so I did, like, a ton of stuff when I found out I had Lyme disease. And friends of ours gave us a drink, chlorine dioxide stuff to drink that helps kill parasites and bacteria. So I started drinking that stuff, cut out gluten, sugar, dairy, changed my whole diet. And, like, this is, like, a lot for me because... Because you love ice cream. I love ice cream. I love pizza. I love sugar. Part of my life is eating that stuff, which is also kind of ironic, I guess, for a runner, too, because that's what people ask me all the time. I'm like, oh, what's your diet? And I'm like, that's pretty horrible. I just eat whatever I want, like junk food and ice cream and sugar and all that. So, yeah. So, I had this moment of like, okay, I got Lyme disease. Let's take this serious and see if we could really just get rid of this thing. And I was really fatigued. For two weeks, I was coming home from work and just exhausted, like pulling the driveway, going and taking a two-hour nap. I was just tired. My body's trying to fight this, and there's just a lot going on. I'm changing my diet. So, for two weeks, it was trying to get this thing under control, trying to deal with managed stress and all this stuff with the 100 coming up, podcasts, like all these things happening. But thankfully, kind of saw a little light at the end of the tunnel the week before the 100. I set this goal. I'm like, I'm starting to feel a little bit better. And let me go out and do 10 miles on Saturday and see how I feel. I nixed the toe shoes. So, I was just going to do regular shoes. Went out and did 10 miles on Saturday. That went pretty well. I did it on trails. I was like, if I do 10 miles Saturday, I'll try to do 10 miles on Sunday and do back-to-back 10. And if I can get that done, I'm just going to probably go for the 100 and just see if I can do it. Completely under-trained, but I'm going to go for it. And so, I did that. I did the 10 miles on Saturday. We went to my friend's birthday party, who's also a runner. That actually got me into ultra-marathons, Phil Nesbitt. And he's like, hey, I'm...

Keith Vance: [32:08] Don't forget about him because we're going to talk about him.

Luke Curley: [32:10] Yeah, there's definitely stuff to talk about there. But I went to his birthday party and he's like, hey, I'm doing a birthday run tomorrow. We're actually going to run for my birthday. There's people meeting up. I was like, perfect, dude. I want to do 10 miles tomorrow. So, met up with him, a whole group. Ran the 10 miles on Sunday. And at that point, I was like, okay, I'm feeling pretty good. I still don't have full energy, but I'm feeling good. My body's recovering okay. I think I'm going to go for the 100 and just see what happens. Which is really kind of scary for me.

Luke Curley: [32:49] And I don't want to jinx myself or something. But all the races I've done, I've never DNF'd. I've never not finished a race that I've started. So, I had this big thing in my head. And I didn't want it to be pride either. Where I can't not finish because of pride or something. But I just had that in my head. That's in there floating around. Like, hey, every race you've done, you've finished. You've sought through.

Keith Vance: [33:23] At some point, I called you. How are you feeling? Like I said, the 100's coming up pretty soon. He's like, yeah, dude. It's like, in a few days. He's like, I got one more day of antibiotics to do. So, I said, how are you feeling? And he's like, I think I'm going to go for it. But you were still unsure of yourself because, is my back going to spasm up? Is it going to tighten up? Because you've only done two 10-mile runs. Yeah. And he's like, dude, I think I'm going to go for it. I got one more day of antibiotics. I think I'm going to go for it.

Luke Curley: [33:59] Yeah. Which I ended up extending those antibiotics to Thursday. I ended up doing two full weeks. Yeah. So, I finished the antibiotics on Thursday and started running on Saturday. Which was doxycycline, too. Which, I guess, is bad for your liver and gut health and all that stuff. So, I'm like, man, I don't know how my body is going to hold up from this. But let's see what happens. Which, your phone call, too. That was, like, really encouraging that you were willing to want to come up here. Like, and I know you didn't, you didn't, like, you wanted to come up here. I think you had different intentions, maybe. But, to me, it was, like, this huge thing of, like, you wanted to support me. I remember telling you that. Like, that's crazy you want to support me like that. And you're like, oh, man, like, you know, people don't support you or whatever. But, like, to me, you want to come up here and you're like, oh, I'm going to fly your brother up, too. That was, like... I got off the phone with you, I started crying to Jacenia because I'm like, man, this is insane that somebody wants to invest in me or be there for me. And I mean, it was huge to have you come up there and then you guys actually crew me and we can get into that. But that, I think, saved my race. Like, the whole thing, it went way better than I pictured because you guys were there supporting me.

Keith Vance: [35:35] So, we had talked a couple times during that time frame. And when you said, hey, I think I'm going to go for it. But I sensed an unsureness in your voice. Like, I sensed like, I'm going to go for it, bro. But I don't know if I'll make it. Like, I sensed it. A bunch of unknowns, a bunch of variables. And I was thinking, if that guy's going to put them, if that guy's going to do that, like, I want to be a part of that. Like, I want to support you. Like, this guy's going to need, this guy's going to need everybody he can get on his side to push through. Yeah. So, just hearing in your voice, like, a little bit of the fear, a little bit of the anxiety. But you know what? I'm going to do it. And knowing you, that if you're going to do it, you're going to finish it. Like, knowing that. Mm-hmm. And I was a little bit, to be honest with you, since we're talking, a little bit scared for you. Yeah. Like, is it healthy for him to finish? But he's, I mean, I've known where you've ran races before, and we can talk about it, where you're pissing blood. Yeah. And when people would have stopped, you just kept going. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, I'm like, thinking.

Luke Curley: [36:46] That was my first 100-miler, too. So, that was all brand new to me at that point. But, that reference.

Keith Vance: [36:52] So, you're right. So, I didn't know what I was getting into. I was like, you know what? I'm going to call your brother. I said, hey, bro, let's go up there. He's like, Keith, I can't swing that. I was like, dude, let's go. Let's get it. So, we flew up there to New York. And you want to go and make that transition now?

Luke Curley: [37:11] We can, yeah. Well, you know what? One thing I'll mention, too. I was thinking about this, too. Because when you go through a hard time in your life, you try to, you should try to reflect on it. And I always try to reflect on, like, where was God in this? In the sense of, like, what did I do? Was this self-inflicted? Was this something that I did that God wasn't pleased with and brought it upon myself?

Keith Vance: [37:42] Or... Questing motivation. Yeah.

Luke Curley: [37:44] Or, like, let me reflect on this and see the hand of God through this, right? So, one thing I was thinking, I remember praying for discipline leading up to that 50 miler. And this is, like, something I deal with all the time is discipline in my life with diet, with sleep, with my time management, all that stuff. And I remember praying because I was like, man, I'm under-trained for this 50 at this point. I need to do something. But I just, like, couldn't get, like, a grip on... I'm still just eating out for lunch, just eating ice cream. I'd be, like, scooping the ice cream and be like, I probably shouldn't eat this tonight, but I won't eat it tomorrow night. I remember I was praying for God to, like, show me, like, some discipline and help me out with that. But, and, um, something I've heard is when you pray for something, God isn't going to just give it to you, but he's going to give you opportunity to exercise it. And then it's up to you to do something with it. So, I remember praying for discipline, and then I get hit with back problems and Lyme disease. And to me, I think that was, like, my wake-up call of, hey, you can exercise discipline now and change your diet and do the antibiotics and, like, focus on your life and get a hold of yourself. Or you could just go through the motions, hope that the Lyme goes away. You know what I mean? Like, there was, I look back on that as, like, like, when I was praying for something, God gave me the opportunity to show myself that I could be disciplined, if that makes sense. And I think it's like that as well as, like, if you pray for patience, God isn't just going to be, like, okay, you're patient now. Like, you're going to be patient. He's going to give you... These tests or these opportunities to exercise patience. And it's up to you to start working on that and be patient. Hold that microphone up a little closer. Or to be kind. Or to love people.

Keith Vance: [40:24] I'm going slow with this and quiet with this because

Keith Vance: [40:34] you just like what you just said like

Keith Vance: [40:42] I've been in that. I've been in that. That mixer. Yeah. Almost where

Keith Vance: [40:53] I'm almost afraid to pray for certain things because you don't know what it's going to look like. Like do you really know what you're asking for right now? Yeah. Yeah. So that's why I'm like I'm glad that you slowed me down and brought that up. Because when you pray for patience, what's that going to look like? Right. Because we think we know what that looks like in our life. How we need to be patient.

Keith Vance: [41:26] But we don't even know. Like we have these blind spots. And we don't even know. Like we think our patience. I need to work on this. Well you know what? Actually, here's where. Yeah. You think it's just going to be like a little three-step program. And I'm good. In a couple weeks I'm good. Yeah. Meanwhile, there's these levels. And you're like, man, where is this thing going to hit bottom? Like I prayed for this. And like it just keeps going. Yeah. And on one side, it's almost like I wish I hadn't prayed for that. Because this is painful. Like I didn't know there were so many levels to this in me. Yeah. But then the other side is like, this isn't painful. But it's like on a balance. This is very painful. But there's something balancing it out that I wouldn't give it up. Yeah. There's some kind of a sustaining thing here. There's something that's. It's like there's grace. There's grace on one side of the balance of the pain. And it's. Yeah. They balance each other out. I don't want this pain. But without this pain, I'm not going to experience this grace. Absolutely. Yeah. And.

Keith Vance: [42:45] You don't learn those lessons when. You're not in a place of endurance. A place of suffering and pain. And we're going to talk about all this kind of stuff. Yeah. I don't want to rush this thing. I don't want to rush it. We'll go slow. Well, like I said. Yeah. I just want to mention that. We'll go wherever it's going to navigate it. Yeah. But you struck a chord here. You struck a chord here. Because we want to grow. If we're not growing, what are we doing? Mm-hmm. If we're not growing, what are we doing? And God uses suffering and pain to grow us. Absolutely. And again, it's like I relate it to these ultramarathons you go through. My knees are hurting. My stomach is messed up. Why am I doing this? But there's something on the other side that I'm growing through this. Yeah. And I wouldn't give this up. So go ahead.

Luke Curley: [43:39] There's, yeah, you can, I mean, I guess that's kind of what brings me back to the 100 miler. Is that pain, that suffering, that long suffering. I guess I kind of see it as like you can subject yourself to this long suffering. And that brings out all these characteristics inside you that were just deep down, maybe dormant because you don't access them. Right? Mm-hmm. Until you have this traumatic experience of some kind, which for me, 100 miler does that. But let's say a car accident. Mm-hmm. Let's say a sickness and you're in the hospital. People that go to war, like those people that really have to dig down to like, who am I to survive? Like that's, you can, you can go through those hard times with a car accident or a sickness, or I can subject myself to this, put myself through this and like forge myself in fire. Like I'm going to go through this 100 miler race. I'm willing to work. I'm going to push myself so hard that it's going to force this inner being to surface. And I either have it or I don't. I'm awakening this thing inside me. We can touch on that for now, too. To me, in the 100-miler race, this is where mile 30 is a tough point for me. And I feel like there's this transition of power that takes place where you've got your body, but then you've got your mind and your soul, your heart. And there's this transition where it's a battle between the mind and your soul, who you are. Your mind is screaming at you. By mile 30, your feet hurt. You got a little knee pain. You kicked a rock. You tripped. It's getting hot out. You're not digesting food. All these things are starting to happen, and it's only mile 30. You got 70 miles left of this. And so that's the first transition where your mind is screaming to you, hey, we need to stop. We're getting broken. We need to stop. But then you have this ability to reach down in your heart and who I am. This is my characteristic. I'm going to keep going. And this is like I'm pulling out perseverance, long-suffering, integrity. Like these are the characteristics of who I am and what I want to be. And this is the point in that race where people can get broke and they can get overwhelmed and drop out. Or you can tap, start to just tap into this inner you and say, no, no, no. Like, shut up. We're going to keep going. Like, we're not stopping. And you start to just like chip away. And slowly, like, you're suppressing your mind and your thoughts of like, oh, we can't do this. Oh, this hurts. Stop doing this. And you're bringing out this. No, we can do this. This is, we have integrity. We have, we're able to suffer long. Like, we have perseverance. And so, like, that's, to me, like, that's a, that's what brings me back to 100 miler. Is that experience of really, like, tapping into yourself, unlocking something deep down inside you. That, even if you kind of know, maybe you have it or you kind of don't have it or whatever. Like, you sharpen it when you're out there. You know what I mean?

Keith Vance: [47:51] I think everybody can identify with this. So, let me.

Keith Vance: [48:00] When I was immature. And hardship would come into my life. Because my mind was weak. Because no one likes suffering. You automatically are looking for a way out. Yeah. You're looking for a way out. And the answer is, how do I get out? And looking for a way out, you're missing the whole point. Because you're not growing. You're not being transformed. You're not being changed. It's when we embrace the suffering, bro. Mm-hmm. Okay. I don't know why I have Lyme's disease. But apparently, there's something for me here to embrace. Mm-hmm. And when you stop asking why and looking for a way out. Okay. I must need this. I'm going to embrace this. Yeah.

Keith Vance: [49:02] Yeah. Yeah. Then your gratitude comes out. Mm-hmm. When your family is showing compassion on you. Where normally you're short with them. And now you just, why are these people loving me? Like, when you embrace suffering. Yeah. Yeah. And people come and surround you or things happen. That's when we're changed. Yeah. That's when we're transformed. And I'm learning. And I, bro. Like, you know, like I said, there's certain things I don't want to pray for. Because you don't know what you're asking what you pray for. It scares me to say I'm learning to embrace suffering. Because when you've embraced suffering in certain things. Yeah. You already learned this lesson here. But there's another one that's going to, it's going to be harder. You know, there's going to be a 150 miler that I have to run. And I know what the 100 felt like. But now... in order to grow, I'm going to have to do 150-er. You know what I mean? So there's that. It's good. That's good.

Luke Curley: [50:09] You just made me think, too, of the phrase or whatever that I always think about is you've survived all of the worst days of your life. So, like, a lot of times we get caught up in something we think is, like, hard or rough. But, like, it's just perspective. So a lot of times it's like you just are thinking of that pain you have right now or what's going on in your life, emotions, whatever. But if you can just stop and think of, like, the hard times you've already gone through. And I've survived all of the worst days of my life that I thought at that moment I wasn't making it, I wasn't finishing, I wasn't losing this or having this hard time, but I survived that. That perspective should allow you to, say, have this optimistic outlook that, you know, I survived this in the past. This is a different situation, but I'm going to survive this moving forward. And then that kind of shifts. For me, that shifts focus from the problem to the solution. Like, how can I resolve this? Because we look at everything as a problem. And this is, again, my troubleshooting mindset at work. If I go in and I'm just looking at a problem, I'm just focused on a problem. Oh, there's this door lock issue, whatever. And I don't walk in with, like, an open mind and, like, I can fix it. Like, if I'm just like, oh, man, there's an issue. I don't know. I can't, I don't know. Then I'm probably going to, like, psych myself out, not be able to focus, not be able to, I'm going to botch the whole job. But if I go in and I'm like, all right, let's see. All right, there's a problem. Let me take a step back. And let me just focus on what are the solutions? What can I do to fix this? Now, all of a sudden, it just opens up this whole mindset. That's like, it is fixable. And let's focus on that. Let's move forward. Let's just keep moving forward, essentially.

Keith Vance: [52:22] Let's take a break. But before we do, I want to stay in this race that I observed. Yeah. So I want to take, you already mentioned mile 30. So we're going to take a break. We're going to talk about this race. Yeah. We're going to talk about, you break it down however you want, 10 miles at a time on your side. And then I'm going to talk about what I observed. And then we're going to translate your race to the real life race. And those connections, like, that's the whole reason why you do this, is to grow, to be a better day. Like, I know this about you. Yeah. So let's just take that race. We're going to break it down from your perspective, perspective, my perspective, translate it to the real life race. And then from there, we'll just take another break and we'll just dial into something else. Yeah. I feel like it's a nice flow there. Yeah. Right. This part of the podcast is brought to you by Frequence. The product is Rise. These are my nootropics. Derived from a blend of seven different mushrooms, I take this for mental clarity, cognitive health, and it's also a natural pre-workout. Find the link in the bio. Now let's get back to the show. All right, brother. You ready? Yeah. So you're the 100-mile race that was the first one I ever went to.

Keith Vance: [53:53] You're not in the best of shape where we're going to get everything we got. And I think the fact that you aren't in the best of shape is probably the big reason why you're here talking about it. Because sometimes people won't try unless it's just perfect. Yeah. But you've got to work with what you've got with the cards you've been dealt. Right? Yeah. So there's a whole other thing there that we can talk about.

Luke Curley: [54:20] Yeah, I was completely under-trained for this race. Yeah. And you had things that were out of your control. Yeah. A lot of cards stacked against me, for sure. Yeah. Okay. A lot of easy cop-outs, I would say.

Keith Vance: [54:36] Okay. So let's talk about that. Yeah. Because easy cop-outs. That's hard because there's a voice in our head that is us. Yeah. That makes an easy cop-out sound like a legitimate reason to stop. And we need to analyze that voice and be like, okay. Is this a legitimate reason to stop? Is this dangerous? Is this like a legitimate thing? Or is this just me because that weak voice is uncomfortable? And we need to distinguish between the two, right? I think a lot of us are looking for, like a lot of people just looking for a way out of the pain, looking for a way out of the uncomfortableness and any little thought that pops in head as a reason may not be a reason. Yeah. So do you want to speak to that at all?

Luke Curley: [55:32] Yeah. So going into this 100, I took last year off. I didn't do 100 last year. I just did the marathon because, and I did that because two years ago when I did this 100, this is my fifth time doing the Mighty Mosquito 100. But two years ago when I did the 100, it beat me up so bad and I was so broken. 32 and a half hours. It was the longest 100 I've ever done, like time-wise. Like I couldn't get it done quicker. It was so hot and humid. I threw up at mile 50. Like this was all two years ago. I was, I was broken. Racing the clock, like it was a struggle the entire way. After that, I was like, yeah, I'm taking next year off. I'm not doing 100. Like, I, like, I don't, I didn't train enough for that one. And then it was just the weather. Everything was like just brutal. So I was like, I'm going to take a year off. Then last year I'm like, oh, I'm going to do 100. Like I'm going to get back into 100 this upcoming year, which is this year. So I haven't run 100 in two years. So I had that going against me. So I'm not like fresh, the whole, if you don't use it, you lose it kind of thing. Like, like how long can you go without running 100 miles before you can't run another 100 miles? Because if I'm not doing it every summer, every year, like that's a giant question mark. So that's like question mark number one is I took a lot of time off. Can I just jump back into this? Then back problem, leg problem. Now I actually have a physical issue a month away from the 100 miler forces me that I can't do the 50 miler. So all my training plans leading up to the hundred kind of just dwindled to like me just running those back to back 10 miles essentially. And that 13 miler in June, end of June. And, um, so completely under trained with that physically, like wasn't able to run any miles really to train for the hundred. Then you throw in Lyme disease, which is just a chronic illness that is like horrible, like throw that in. And that's only three weeks before the race as well. So like all these question marks were piling up, piling up, piling up. So going into this a hundred was the definitely by far the most under train I've been for any hundred miler. And this was my eighth hundred miler and I've done the 200 miler also. So getting into it was like, and this is where I think just sending it to was like the most nervous about me doing this, this race because, um, she knows my training regiment. It's horrible. Like I haven't trained at all for this. I didn't do anything last year. She sees me eating ice cream in bed every night. Like she sees all that stuff. And then I'm like, yeah, I'm going to still do this in her mind. She's like, yeah, you're going to die. Like she's literally thinking, well, this, this could be it. Like this could be real bad. And I think also for her to like, is like my, my level of commitment when I do things is like, if I'm going to start something, I'm going to finish it or I'm going to like almost die trying basically. And maybe I, maybe I won't actually die, but it's going to, you're going to, it's going to take a lot. I'm going to be hospitalized before I drop out of that race, like a broken bone or severely dehydrated. Like something's you know, and God forbid something like that happens, but my idea of like, if I'm starting something, my heart is in it and I'm going for it. So I think that's like kind of what scared her the most of me committing to do it.

Keith Vance: [59:35] Your brother and I showed up.

Keith Vance: [59:40] We loaded two vehicles down a tent, a pop-up tent, coolers, like flat top grill. It was a task. It was a task. We set everything up. There was the a hundred miler going on. There's the 50 mile going on a 50 K going on. There was some hundred mile relay. There's a lot of, a lot of stuff. Going on, people like doing their thing. It was in a nice park. The weather was nice. The weather was beautiful. Nice lake. This race was set up in these 20-mile, there were 20-mile fingers, right?

Luke Curley: [1:00:17] There was two 10-mile loops. Two 10-mile loops. And you had to do each loop, you know, five times. So, you do this loop, go to the next one, do that one, and just finger 8 it for the 100 miles. And there was two aid stations.

Keith Vance: [1:00:28] So, you do 10-mile loop, aid station, 10-mile loop, aid station. You just do these loops.

Luke Curley: [1:00:32] It was, well, it was, the start-finish line was an aid station, but then during each 10-mile loop, five miles in, you'd hit an aid station. So, every five miles, you've got an aid station. Yeah.

Keith Vance: [1:00:48] And I guess what I didn't understand, what I was getting into is, I thought I was just going to show up, watch you for a while, go to the hotel, come back. So, there was that side of it. Yeah. So glad I brought your brother, bro. Oh, I'm so glad, too. Yeah. Yeah. So, we get there, we get everything set up, like, oh, we're going to be camping. You know, it's going to be kind of cool.

Keith Vance: [1:01:13] So, you, the runners line up. They line up. 6 a.m. start. 6 a.m. start. Yeah. Your brother and I got there at 7. We got everything set up. Mm-hmm. And 6 a.m., they fire off. We're on the race. We just finished up our antibiotics with our, Yeah. with our, for our Lyme's disease. Yeah, 20 miles in training. Hopefully, my back doesn't tighten up, but I'm in it. Mm-hmm. So, let's walk through it. Let's walk, let's run through this race.

Luke Curley: [1:01:46] Yeah. It's, um, at least now that I've done a couple of them, I don't get as nervous at the start line just because, I mean, you really don't want to be nervous at the start line because you've got nothing but time out there. So, like, if you're nervous from the start, it's going to, it's going to start eating away at you pretty quick, like physically, mentally, everything. So, like, I've been able to say, like, okay, when I line up to do this, I know I'm going to be able to do 20 miles. So, let's just cruise through the first 20 miles. Mm-hmm. And, like, you kind of already have that, like, checked off, like, even going into it. Like, you, you're at the start line, you're kind of just like, all right, let me, like, I wonder which one of these people I'm going to be able to, like, talk to. And, um, and that's kind of what I did with this race, too. So, I started out, um, the one guy, Clint, I actually ran with him two different times at this race. He was, he was there at the start line. So, he's like, oh, hey, Luke, how's it going? This is my buddy Dave that he's running. Uh, it's his first 100 miles. So, we started out, we ended up meeting up on the trail. We ran probably, we ran almost 10 or 15 miles together, all three of us. Um, and, uh, so, that first 20 miles is kind of just, like, already a check mark. You're just kind of going through, you're talking to people.

Keith Vance: [1:03:08] Are you enjoying it?

Luke Curley: [1:03:09] You're enjoying it, yeah. Yeah, it's actually.

Keith Vance: [1:03:12] Because the scenery is beautiful. Like, the nature is beautiful. It is, yeah. Which. The first 20, you're enjoying it. You're interacting with people. You're just. Yeah. Getting your heart rate up, getting in your groove.

Luke Curley: [1:03:22] Yeah, you're really just, like, clicking off miles because you know I've got 20 miles. Like, I can easily do 20 miles. Got it. And I know it's going to get harder after that. So, let's just enjoy this. And having conversation with people, that helps just, like, distract you and keep time going by. And, uh, and keep clicking off miles because they're almost just, like, monotonous miles. Like, you wish you could just hit the fast forward button and get past mile 20. Got it. Because it's just, like, you're just out there burning through your energy trying to get into the race. Let me ask you a question here.

Keith Vance: [1:03:57] Um, the first 20 miles, because it is, they are loops. Mm-hmm. Are there a certain terrain, is there a certain terrain that is difficult? You're like, oh, this is going to be a problem. This could potentially be a problem. Yeah. Are you noticing things about the race that, okay, I need to figure this one out? Because I know there's inclines. I know there's stuff going on.

Luke Curley: [1:04:20] There is. So, they changed the course this year, too. And I didn't, again, like, I was, like, I didn't even, when I signed up for this, I didn't even, like, read through their stuff online. Because this is my fifth time doing it. I'm just, like, oh, this is, it's Menden Ponds. I know the park. Like, it's going to be the same course. I did see it was, like, 10 miles and 10 miles. But I'm, like, okay, so it's the two 10-mile loops. But I didn't know, I didn't actually, like, research anything. I just signed up for it and was, like, yeah, I'll be there. And that was it. Like, I really don't, like, put a whole lot into this stuff. And, I mean, some of it's... Like, it's probably like a, I'd make it worse for myself because I don't do that. But, but it was just like, oh, it's too 10 mile. I don't really care. I'll run whatever 10 mile loop you show me. But, but as we're going, I'm like, wait, this is different from last year. Like, we're going on the trail backwards. And then you're realizing like, oh, man, so we're gonna have to go up that hill to the water tower, like the back way. That's gonna be harder. Like, oh, we're running down this rocky ravine. area where normally we walk up it. And now we're running down it. So that's, so those are things that you're, you're like taking an account and putting the back of your mind, like, okay, I got to do this loop four more times. And so this is going to be like mile 30, 50, 70, 90. This is going to be pretty rough 70, 90 miles in. Like, so that is something. But again, you just kind of like compartmentalize like a lot of that stuff where it's like, I don't want to think about mile 90 right now. I just want to think about mile 15 or, you know, 20, whatever I'm at right now. And not get too caught up with overwhelmed with the future of the race. If that makes sense.

Keith Vance: [1:06:15] You brought that up. I live in that world.

Keith Vance: [1:06:21] You, I got to do the hundred, but you don't see it in 100 mile segment. You're breaking that thing. Like absolutely not. Yeah. You're breaking that thing up, but small segments that your mind can digest because once you overwhelm your mind, bro, you're in trouble. Yeah. Big trouble. So you've, you've understand that this hundred miler, I'm going to, I'm just going to do the next 10 or whatever, which is what you just spoke of. And I think that translates over to real life. When things get overwhelming, break it down. Yeah. You know what? Just survive the next 30 minutes. Just get through the day. Don't worry about tomorrow. Just get through the day. Yeah. There's a lot that can be said for that. Right?

Luke Curley: [1:07:04] Yeah. I think there's, I think it's a 20 minute rule that they have for running. Really? Yeah. So don't quit now. Quit in 20 minutes. And so the, the rule, the, uh, idea behind that is because especially in a hundred or in an ultra is you're hurting right now. A lot of things hurt, but there's like so many variables and, and your body is able to adapt and change. And you may, you might eat something and 10 minutes later you're feeling great. Like, so there's this 20 minute rule of don't quit now, quit in 20 minutes. And that just is like giving you a little break to get out of the hole you're in. Okay. Whatever that is, mentally, physically, you know, something I got a blister and man, this is like really just irritating. You know what? Let me, I got to get back to the aid station. I'm going to tape it. I'm going to change my socks, whatever it is. And then I'm going to reassess and move on. Like opposed to, uh, the blister hurts. I'm done.

Keith Vance: [1:08:03] I'm going to use that because quitting is just a thought away. Like in life, one thought and you just stop. So I like that. Okay. I'm feeling about quitting 20 minutes. So I like what you said. I've never heard that before, but I'm going to use that. Yeah. Bro, it's, it's scary how, how quitting is just so close. Not just in a race, but what about quitting in relationships or like, it's too much. I'm just like, it's just a thought away, bro. And then once you quit.

Luke Curley: [1:08:40] You're, you're done. You're done. You're done. Yeah.

Keith Vance: [1:08:43] Get off the course, bro.

Luke Curley: [1:08:44] Get off the course. Like revisit this in the future. Maybe like, but some people quit and never, never revisit it. Some people are just out forever. Like I can't do this. It's not for me. I'm not a runner. I'm not, whatever it is, triathlon or sports, whatever it is. Like they don't go back to the drawing board and they just, they just hang it up and that's it.

Keith Vance: [1:09:06] They don't grow. Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of is if I quit, what else am I going to quit in? Oh yeah. That becomes, when that becomes your threshold. Okay. Well mile 50 is too hard and you quit. That becomes the threshold. Yeah. What other things are the threshold if you just quit? Like, so these things translate for me. It's not about the race or the endurance. It's not about the lifting. It's about the real life stuff.

Luke Curley: [1:09:35] Yeah. Yeah. There really is. And there's like, there's muscle memory to quitting. Is there really? Yeah. Like your body. Once you know, like, oh, once if I quit this last time, like that becomes an option for the future. So before where it's like, I, that's not an option. I'm not quitting. Like that's not even in my cards. It's not who I. It's not who I. And that's not when I line up, I'm not like, oh, man, I wonder how far I'm going to make it before I quit. Like there's it's not even there. It doesn't exist. But once it exists, now it's there. Yeah, maybe it's in the corner. But like you said, like it's it'd be easy to reach for.

Keith Vance: [1:10:21] Easy to reach for. Yeah, because it's an option.

Luke Curley: [1:10:24] I mean, in that in this hundred miles I just did. And I don't even know how many times I could have told you that I could have quit. Like there's I could probably look through 30 times in that race and say, oh, like I could have quit right there. I could have quit right there. I should have quit right there. Like two years ago, I'm throwing up at mile 50 running this race. I should have quit there. But then I make it back to the aid station, sit down, regroup and, you know, I'm going back out. I'm just going to keep moving forward and just see how far I can get before my time runs out. But I'm not quitting. So but if I would have quit then, then this year I probably wouldn't even did the race. I probably would have been like, yeah, I'm under trained. Like I got Lyme disease. I got back problems. Like nobody's going to judge me. Like who if I was like, yeah, I backed out of the hundred this year. I had Lyme disease. I had this. Oh, man, how you doing? Are you feeling like nobody would have been like, oh, like you didn't you didn't even try. Like so I have that going into it. Like I don't even need to do this. Like nobody's going to be looking at this like, oh, he's a failure. He he quit. He didn't start. He didn't do it like. But it's not in who I am to like, I don't want to allow that to control me. And so like that transition of power that like throughout my everyday life, my mind and my my heart, my mind and soul are like in a constant battle of my mind wants comfort. My mind wants the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. That's what what struggles up here. But this is Lucas Curley. And if I don't have this driving me. And this takes control. And then that's where you get into get into trouble. You get into just laziness. You get dishonesty. Like there's now. Like, who are you when nobody's looking? Are you still honest? Are you still. Do you have integrity? Do you have loyalty? Like, who are you when no one's looking? So I like to put myself through these situations, I guess, to prove to myself or to just like show myself like like Lucas is still in control, like I'm still in control. And it gives me this discipline. It gives me this this perseverance, this long suffering. And like you mentioned in gratitude, like there's so much when you're going through that hundred miles. I'm not thinking of like people that did me wrong. I'm not thinking about someone who cut me off in traffic. Like I'm thinking about, man, when I get home.

Luke Curley: [1:13:46] I'm going to hug my kids. And, you know, kiss Jesenia. And like, what am I really grateful for? Like, what's what's my purpose in life? Like, that's what you're when you're going through something hard, a trial. I'm sure you can relate to this. Like. You're not thinking of people that did you wrong. You're not thinking of like these things that are just so worthless in life. You're thinking of this perspective that like, man, who loves me? Who's here for me? Man, Keith and Jake showed up for me. Man, Marco's and Marco and Roger and Phil, like they're here for me. Like they're. And like there's this gratitude. There's this perspective that you gain from this. This experience.

Keith Vance: [1:14:35] I'm more related to this way. The stuff that doesn't matter gets stripped away. So quick. Through suffering, the stuff that doesn't matter strips away. And I try to live and I try to live there as long as I can because I become. It's like this, like my heart. My heart can. My heart can. If things are too easy for too long, my heart can get this fatty tissue over it, and it doesn't feel like it's supposed to feel. But the stuff that you're talking about, the stuff that we're talking about now, through suffering, that fatty tissue layer evaporates, and that the exposed heart, the part that you touch it, it feels, the part that feels is right on the surface. And as a man, as a father, grandfather, business owner, I need to protect my heart and make sure there's not a fatty tissue that I become calloused when it comes to the things that matter. Does that make sense? Yeah. And that's what you're talking about. How do you keep that fatty layer off your heart to where when something touches it, you feel? Right. Bro, it's through suffering. When everything else is stripped away, why am I doing what I'm doing? Yeah. Money don't do it. Pride don't do it. Yeah. What am I doing? Like, why am I doing this for? Yeah. And when you're suffering and you're asking yourself those questions, why am I doing this? I'm not getting paid to do this. Nobody cares if I'm doing this. I could stop right now and nobody would even blame me for stopping right now. Why am I doing this? The why's start popping up. Oh, that's a good why. I'll hang on to that one. Mm-hmm. Because those are the ones that keep you going. Yeah. Like, what's your why? And, again, all this stuff translates to real life. Yeah. Keeping that heart in a place where it's, when somebody touches it, I can feel. Mm-hmm. Let's, we talked about quitting. I mean, I don't even know if we're done with mile 20 yet. We're already talking about quitting. How it's a second away. And you said, hey, the 20-minute rule. Mm-hmm. I'll quit in 20 minutes. So the first 20 miles, the first 20 miles, you're locked in. You're enjoying. You're good. You're okay. Yeah. That train's going to be a little challenge. Let me figure it out. You're not looking at the whole hundred because you'll become overwhelmed, and that could potentially make you quit, like, when your brain can't process it all. Yeah. Like, all the pain that's, like, it's in my way. I've only run 100 miles once, and we can talk about that later. Yeah. But you've done this many times. You've been running forever. So is there anything else in that first 20 miles that you're feeling that relates to real life?

Luke Curley: [1:17:31] I don't know. Like, the first 20 is, like, I guess, so... It can't get over fast, what you said, because it's... What I could say, though, is, like, and in the Christian circle, you hear a marathon get preached a lot. Yeah. Like, you know, pretty much all the pastors, any message that I've heard, they've never preached about an ultramarathon. They've preached about a marathon. Life is like a marathon. I wish the Christian life was, or life in general, was a marathon, because I would crush it. But it's not. It's an ultramarathon. And this is, you know, and I get the idea of why they expound on a marathon. It's more relatable. There's more people that have done a marathon. It is challenging, stuff like that. But I could leave right now and go do a marathon and be totally fine. And I could do two marathons. You know what I mean? But if you said, I have to leave right now and go do 100 miles, I'd be like, whoa, dude. Is there an aid station? Is there, like, how, what's the structure? Like, there would be a lot more, like, questions with it, right? And I don't know exactly what's there. But, like, when I, when, if you break down what you go through, all the, like, there's so many variables in a 100-mile race. It could rain in a marathon. It could rain for two hours in a marathon. And, oh, man, it rained. But you still finish the marathon in five or six hours. Like, maybe it added, like, a half hour to your time or something. If it rains in a 100-mile race, like this, it rained for four hours in this race. Because my feet were soaked. There wasn't, like, any time that my feet were dry and out of the weather. I even went skipping forward a little bit. Mile 50, I changed my shoes thinking, all right, I'll get fresh, dry shoes. And that's when it started raining was after that. So, you deal with so many different variables in a 100-miler that aren't really that big of a deal in a marathon distance. So, I don't know, something just to. Something stuck with me. Throw that out there, I guess.

Keith Vance: [1:19:47] Something stuck with me the day after you ran your 100-miler. You and I went, bro, you got to fix your freaking diet. I ate the worst I ever ate up there. So, bro, listen. The dog. That's in pizza and the day after we were on that he runs that freaking race. They take me to a freaking donut shop, which was good donuts, man. Yeah, it was good. The line was long. Like, you know what? It was good. Yeah, it was good. But I felt like crap after being up there or the garbage plate. I had to get back to my routine and get some good food in me. But anyway, eating garbage, you and I had a good conversation and you just spoke of a marathon. You said a marathon or less, people are into themselves because it goes by so quick. So here you just described the first 20 miles of your ultra marathon. You're saying, hey, guys, what's up? And you're like, you said a marathon or less, people are earbuds in.

Keith Vance: [1:20:54] People are into themselves. Yeah. You want to talk about that for a little bit? Because that really resonated with me.

Luke Curley: [1:21:01] And this is what I started running at 16. I've been running for 20 years. I started out running a mile. Like, I wasn't, you know, people, that's like one of the big things that I get. Probably misconception is that I'm a runner and I was a born runner. Like, this is like in me to run. Like, no, I worked super hard for this. And, you know, and like I've worked very hard to get where I'm at. And now I, I suffer for maybe lack of training. But like, I do work hard for, for running. Like, it's not like I can just wake up and go win a race or something. Out of all the races, I was counting up all the races. I have over 65 bib numbers from the races that I've done. So 65 plus races, I've never won any single one of them. Like, I'm not built for running. But I, I do it because I've found it brings something out in me that, that I need. And that's like very valuable to me, to my family, to being a Christian, a testimony, a father, husband. You finish. You know what I mean? Yeah. You don't win, you finish. Yeah. But, but anyways, going back to 16 years old, I started, started running. Did a mile, did three, you know, did three miles at 5K, 10K, half marathon. Then I did a marathon. And I've run, I think I've run like 11 marathons, like actual races. I've probably done more marathons in training than I have actually like sanctioned races. But, but definitely something I've seen in the marathon is like people are like out there for themselves. And they're just running their selfish race. Like, how fast can I do this? Can I beat my own time? Like if somebody trips next to them, they're running around them. And this isn't to like bash marathons or like talk bad about it. Like I love all runners and everybody. It's a challenge. And like do you. And I can't say that I don't line up to try to beat my time as well. Some of that. But like what I see overall in the big picture is everybody's got earbuds in. Everybody's got like their playlist, their, their gels that they're going to eat, their time that they're going to make. They got this brand new Garmin or Apple watch or whatever and like brand new Hoka shoes and everything is like dialed in and they've trained all hard for this and everything. And they're running their own race. And they don't, they don't like even like acknowledge people next to them. Or if someone else is like struggling, they kind of just like go buy them. But you get into the ultra running community and this is a community. There's ultra runners that like we're a community. So if you're an ultra runner, like you relate on a whole nother level to other ultra runners because there is a suffering that takes place out there. There's a stripping down. There's a sacrifice. There's like there's such a rough time out there that you can relate to somebody, another ultra runner on that level. But when you get in an ultra running, we're out there for each other. As much as I'm out there to finish my course, I'm out there to motivate and encourage any other runner out there. And whether I'm at mile 50 and someone's at mile 30, I'm not like, oh, man, I'm at mile 50. You're only at 30. Like I'm not putting them down or anything. I'm like, oh, man, you're at mile 30. Keep going. Like, oh, man, you're doing great. Just get back to that aid station. Like, good job. Good job. Keep it up. Like, you need anything. Do you need do you need something? Like I can I got a gel. Like, oh, you're sitting down. Like you need like something wrong. Like you're concerned. You're worried. You're help. You're there for that person, you know, for fellow runner. Like and you don't even know. A lot of these people, you don't even know these people. Maybe you keep doing local races and you get to know some of the people, but other people, you have no idea who they are. But you want to almost invest in them. And that first 20 miles you're out there running, you'll catch up to somebody just so you can have a conversation with them. Hey, where are you from? Oh, Pennsylvania. Wow, you drove up here for this? Oh, you're from Long Island? You flew in for this one? Oh, cool. Tell me your story. You know, whatever.

Keith Vance: [1:25:32] How does that translate to real life? The difference between...

Luke Curley: [1:25:37] The real life, I think people think we're running a marathon and we're running an ultra. And you're not here for yourself. You're here to do your race and be the best person you are. But you're also here to motivate and encourage and uplift and link arms with whoever's around you. And even if they're not struggling, you're still like, hey, how's it going? Encouraging, helpful. I think a lot of people are just so kind of caught up with themselves sometimes that I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to get bigger, I want to look a certain way, I want to hold a position at work or have seniority or something. I think I'm going to be... And they kind of get lifted up a little bit and they got their earbuds in. They're just like in their lane doing their thing. And because of that, I guess maybe you don't do as great of a job helping other people. You're kind of just focused on your own life. And you can go years like that before you realize like, oh man, who have I helped in the last couple months or weeks or years or whatever? Like, what have I really done to make for the name of Christ? What have I really helped somebody? Like...

Keith Vance: [1:27:11] There's someone suffering next to you and to not even know it. Not a good sign.

Luke Curley: [1:27:17] Yeah. Or to say they're suffering, but if I stop to help them... It's going to slow me down. It's going to slow me down. And I'm not slowing down for this. I got my wife, my kids, I got my family. I can't... That's going to cost me some money. That's going to cost me some time. That's going to make me uncomfortable. So now I understand. Why should I do that?

Keith Vance: [1:27:42] So now I understand why you felt it so hard when I said, Amy and Jay are going to fly up there and see you. Because most people are running marathons. And people in marathons don't do stuff like that. Now I understand. Like to me, it wasn't a big deal.

Luke Curley: [1:27:56] It was a big deal. It was a huge deal. So I don't even think you... I really don't think you fully understood what you were getting into. But when we had that conversation and we hung up and I'm like, I can't believe he wants to do that. Like to me, and I've never had somebody actually crew me the entire race. I've had people show up and pace me for a little bit or show up and, you know, like just saying he brings me some soup or something. But I've never had somebody there for me set up. Like every time I'm coming through, I've got this aid station to help me get through this thing.

Keith Vance: [1:28:39] So thank you for making that distinction between a marathon and an ultra marathon and how it relates to life. Because most of my life I've been running a marathon. I run around people. I ain't got time for them. I got stuff I got to do. And I'm trying to learn how to live in the moment. I'm trying to like... I don't have a good smile, bro. Like people tell me... You do need a smile more. People tell me I'm unapproachable. I'm working on it. Yeah. But I can't do a fake smile. Like, you know, so anyway.

Keith Vance: [1:29:15] But slowing down, hey, if I'm running my race and there's someone ahead, I'm trying to be willing to slow my pace a little bit to offer aid and encouragement. I'm not going to stop. I can't stop. But I can slow my pace. Yeah. I can run a couple miles. I need to slow my pace. Being encouragement. That's what's been...

Luke Curley: [1:29:41] I guess you realize too, like... So the marathon is a lot of time. It's like, you know, I did the... I want to do the marathon. I want to qualify for Boston. I need to run a 305 marathon. Something like that. It's probably like 255 now. So I'm going to go out and do that marathon. I'm going to go out and do that marathon. and nothing's going to slow me down. So nobody else, nothing else, like I'm out there, I'm just going to get it done. But the ultra is like everybody's plan Z, like wheels fall off, everything goes haywire and nothing works out. My last ultimate plan is to finish. I don't care what the time is, I'm just going to finish the course, and that's it, 100 miles. So you might start out at a good pace and, oh, yeah, man, I'm on track for 24 hours. Then all of a sudden it starts raining and you're like, oh, man, it just slows me down, it's getting muddy, this and that, whatever. And all of a sudden you can't digest food, it's heating up, whatever. And so you get slowed down, but you still have, everybody has this goal to finish. So I guess with that mindset, it was like my ultimate thing is to finish. You're more open to if you see someone hurting, you're going to stop and help them out. You're not thinking of like, oh, this is going to cost me 10 minutes or like five minutes, or it's like I'm giving them my gel or filling up their water bottle. Now I don't have that. I got to make it to the next AC, but they need it more than I do. But you're not thinking of like, oh, man, it's going to hurt my time in the race or something. You're just thinking like they need it. We're all suffering. I'm going to help them out, and then I'm going to just move on and figure this out. And whatever that time it costs me, it is what it is. But I just want to finish ultimately.

Keith Vance: [1:31:41] Between mile 20 and mile 30, it really surprised me. You came in the aid station at mile 30. And you said like at mile 30, you had the worst disposition of the whole race. And I didn't say anything. Yeah. But I looked at Jake. I was like, bro, that ain't good. You've got 70 more to go. Yeah. So let's.

Luke Curley: [1:32:03] Part of that, too, this race is the first one that I've got like lost for the most or like cut the course. So that was a big mental thing. So in the two timeout loops, when we did that second timeout loop, which was a whole new course to me, I didn't look at it or whatever. So we're just following these pink flags. And we're with the guy, Clint and Dave. And we're talking, running. Well, we missed a turn on the pink flag trail. And we ended up running down that trail another like 100 yards. And it just so happened to link up with the pink trail again. So we do that. But then we're talking. And all of a sudden, we're getting back closer to the to the main aid station. We're like, well, man, this should be like we should have like like two or four more miles, whatever it was like a couple more miles to go. So then we're getting back to the aid station. And it's like, like, wait, did we miss something on the course? And then sure enough, we get with the race director, Jake, and he's showing us. He's like, oh, dude, you guys probably missed this, this whole loop. And sure enough, we did. So from there, it was like he was at least nice enough. OK, next time you do that 10 mile loop, just do that loop twice. So I was like, OK, we can do that. But now mentally, where we thought we were mile 20, we were actually only mile like 17 or 18, something like that. I think it was somewhere around there, 16, 17 miles. So just that can kind of screw you up a little bit because now you're thinking like, oh, I should be at mile 20. That's the even number. And you're going out. But now every calculation you're making mentally adjust for it. Yeah, because now now when I should be at mile 28, I'm actually at mile 25. And then when I get back to the aid station, I should be at mile 30. But I'm actually only at like a marathon. Like that's like, ah, man.

Keith Vance: [1:34:03] And that was messing with your head?

Luke Curley: [1:34:05] It started to mess me up. Yeah. Just because.

Keith Vance: [1:34:07] And that happened early on.

Luke Curley: [1:34:08] Yeah, that happened early on. So you're dealing, I was dealing with that. But then also you just start to deal with little lingering pains. So like now my feet are starting to, bottoms of my feet are starting to hurt. It's starting to heat up. Like it was like, I think mid-60s when we started temperature wise. And then it got up to 80. I think it was like 86 that day was like the high. But by mile 30, it's starting to get, you know, now we're, I think it's like four hours, five. It's probably like six hours in. So it's like noon, one o'clock. We're 30 miles in. It's starting to heat up. And now is where digestion starts to get messed up. So like as you're running, your body can only. It only has so much blood flow. So obviously blood flow is going to all your muscle groups, but then blood flow has to go to, oh, it's heating up. We got to start cooling ourselves down. So now it starts to go circulate around organs and whatnot to cool you down. Well, that takes away from your digestion. So now mile 30, you're already burning through probably 2,000 calories, and now you're starting to get into fat burning. So now you're pulling from fat storage. You're burning through your glycogen and glucose, all that stuff. So now there's a transition physically happening inside you where now you're starting to be sluggish because you don't have sugar coming in as much as going out kind of thing. So physically you're dealing with just being sluggish and your energy is starting to drop, and then you're trying to start cooling yourself down so you're not eating as much food. And this is where I'm coming in. I think mile 30, I'm force-feeding a peanut butter and jelly, washing it down with water. The whole time I'm like, man, I'm not even hungry, but I got to eat this. And trying to eat watermelon or oranges, just stuff, something that tastes sweet, but just trying to get something in you. And so to me, mile 30 is like the start of this is starting to suffer.

Keith Vance: [1:36:29] It's the start of suffering. Yeah.

Luke Curley: [1:36:32] And like I said... From there is where you start to really break the race down from... Because that's your first moment of I have 70 miles left, which at that point was like 74 miles or whatever. Right? Which is playing with your brain. So it's playing with your brain because now you're like, oh, I'm not at mile 30. I'm actually at 26. And then to think, well, I have that much more to do. Like that's the point of where you have to turn that off and be like, no, no, no, it's not 70 miles. It's the next time out loop. I just got the next time out loop. And really, I don't even have to do the time out. I just want to do five miles and get to the next aid station. And you just start to pull back all that anxiety that you've got. Right? That's like starting to creep in. Oh man, can I do that? And all these question marks that are getting bigger, just kind of pulling all that stuff back in and saying, like, nah, let's not worry too much about that. Let's just figure out where we're at right now. Let's get some food. Get another five miles. Let's just get another five miles.

Keith Vance: [1:37:36] Again, I'll just reiterate what I said. Mile 30 was too soon for me and Jake to see how bad you're suffering. Yeah. Yeah. It was too soon. And he waited before you left. But he's starting to judge you. Yeah. He's starting to judge you. Why is he doing this? He should have trained for it. Like, he's hurting too bad because he doesn't train. He should have trained hard enough. And he's got a Lyme disease. Why does he do this? So there's talk. Well, we didn't talk until you left.

Luke Curley: [1:38:14] Well, I appreciate that. Because, yeah, that can mess someone up too.

Keith Vance: [1:38:17] There's talk. And that talk, because he's your brother, obviously it comes from a place of love. Here you are suffering. He's like, bro, you know, like, you get a long way to go. Yeah. So there was that dynamic that you were unaware of. The other thing I thought was kind of neat was, and maybe you can speak to this because this is my first time, was you had your cell phone on and you would text your brother or you would call him. Yeah. Hey, bro, I'm coming to the aid station. I'll be there in 30 minutes. Have this ready, this ready, this thing ready for me. Yeah.

Keith Vance: [1:38:55] And this will be a recurring theme because we're only at mile 30 right now. Yeah. But observing that you were able to, hey, dude, here's what I'm feeling, here's what I'm going to need, and then roll in to be able to sit and have him do that for you. Is there anything there? Did that help you on the race? Was it nice to have him there? That absolutely helped. Yeah. And then again, let's just do the same thing. Let's just, okay, this is how it helped me. If there is a connection to real life, let's just make that connection to real life. Yeah. Because the Bible talks about our race, our life as being a race. I mean, it literally calls it, hey, run with patience, run with endurance. There's a prize. So there's these things that I think is applicable to real life. Yeah.

Luke Curley: [1:39:44] Well, for that race, this is the first race that I've had like that support, like that level of support, and being able to call him like a mile out and be like, hey, bro, this is like heat up. Try to make me a... Well, you need to work on work. Well, you need to work on work. Well, you need to work on work. Well, you need to work on work. Well, you need to work on work. A cheeseburger. I'm going to try to eat a cheeseburger this time. And I'm going to drink a Coca-Cola. To have that definitely 100% helped. You guys changed my race, the trajectory of my race, for sure, because of that. I knew it was going to impact me like that before I even started. But definitely, I could look back and see through that whole thing. If I was doing all that stuff by myself, it would have taken me so much longer. It would have been such more of a mental fatigue, a physical fatigue, emotional, like everything. You're dealing with so much out there that a lot of times, if you don't have support from somebody, and I roll in an aid station and there's nobody there for me, I kind of waste time there. I'm like, what am I even doing here? What am I supposed to get? I should probably eat something, but I'm not hungry. And I could just leave the aid station unprepared for the next five miles or ten miles. So having you guys there, having Jake there, being able to call ahead and put in an order, kind of like, dude, get that gray chair out. I'm going to sit in that for five minutes. I'm going to change my shirt, and it's getting hot. I'm going to put a tank top on, this and that. Being able to do those things gave me kind of like this peace of mind. Like, okay, I got another mile. I'm going to get back. I'm going to get recharged. And I'll be able to kind of roll in there. And you see him, he's like taking my backpack off. I had a backpack with water bottles on it. He's filling them. Yeah. He's putting ice on my head. And some of that stuff was like unprovoked. Like, I wasn't even like, oh, like, bro, give me the ice and put ice on me. He's just like, he sees the need. And he's like, man, you know. And he's never done a 100 miler. So, like, for him to even know, I don't even know how he knew some of the stuff. Like, or if he, I don't know. But, like, he's getting ice out. He's putting it on me, putting it on my legs. Stuff like that where I'm just able to kind of just sit there and like, oh, yeah. Like, okay, let me just rest for these four or five minutes. Try to eat some food. Where normally it would be, I'd sit down and I'd be like, just, I don't even know. Like, you'd be sitting there like, oh, man, I should probably change my socks. And you could burn through 15 minutes, 20 minutes, like, real quick. And now all of a sudden you're getting closer to the cutoff time. Like, so that was huge to have him. I could call ahead, sit down. He's taking care of me. Like, he's recharging me. He's helping me out. He's putting the backpack back on me. Encouraging me. Like, come on, bro, you got this. Like, you're doing good. Like, just get to the next one. We're going to see you at five miles. Like, in five miles, just get there. You know, stuff like that is, like, real world application. I mean, you can easily tie that into the church and accountability. I could even think of, like, we do a small group. Like, a life group. And to have somebody you can, like, that you know is there to support you. It helps to have a spouse that's supportive. But it also helps to have somebody else that holds you accountable, support you. Like, when you need that, you need that aid in life because something's just dragging you down. Like, you can call on them and they're there to help you out with whatever that situation is. Or just to encourage you. Like, hey, man, it's going to get better. Like, it's going to, like, just get through this. Just, you know. And if there's, is there something else I could help you out with, you know. Even pray with you, man. Like, I think of a buddy of mine, Mike Krabowski. He's prayed with me a number of times, man. Like, I'll be dealing with something. Like, you know, my mom went through a bunch of heart problems.

Luke Curley: [1:44:28] And I was telling Mike about it at the time. And he's like, man, let's pray about it right now. And he just stopped and prayed.

Luke Curley: [1:44:42] And same thing with the Lyme disease, man. Mike, he stopped and prayed. Another buddy of mine, John Spargo, he stopped and prayed with me. Like, things like that where, you know, you get overwhelmed. You don't know the outcome of a circumstance or what's going to happen. But even just someone, you know, a lot of people are like, hey, I'll pray for you. But that was like, those things have been like a testimony to me of like, not only am I going to pray for you, but we're going to pray right now. And we need more of that. More of that in our church, more of that in just our everyday life. It doesn't even matter if the person you're praying with or praying for is a Christian or not. Like, something like that is, you know, just thinking about it, is you can be a help to somebody if you just, if you take your focus off of you and just carry the burden with someone else, even for that moment. It's just, it could be the help to get them the aid to move forward, to keep going.

Keith Vance: [1:45:51] Let me make a few comments here. When I asked you, what was it like to be able to call your brother? Hey, dude, I'm a couple minutes or a couple miles out. Yeah. And you made a comment. I think you said, I don't think you guys realized how much of the help that was to me. Bro, we felt like we were camping. We thought we were on vacation. We were like, there's a beautiful lake. Like, look at all these people running. We're chilling. We were just enjoying life. I was enjoying being around your brother. Yeah. It didn't feel like work. Well, until it got dark. Then it did. Yeah. Like, you didn't stay awake. But it didn't feel, so it was just funny that, you know, to make you a hamburger. Well, your brother made you a hamburger. Yeah. To fill up your water bottle. It was light work. Like, in our mind, you were doing all the work, and this was like nothing. But a cup of cold water in his name can keep somebody going one more time, right? Yeah. So those things that seemed so insignificant, oh, it was easy. It, it, that act of kindness, as insignificant as it feels in your own mind, may be something that, man, somebody just gets in their car and it just weeps because that's exactly what they needed. Mm-hmm. So a friend of mine texted me yesterday. He's like, Keith, I watch one of your podcasts. And he said, I was in line, single moms in front of me with three little kids at the gas station. Mm-hmm. He said, Keith, she was putting $4 worth of gas in a tank of her car with change. Mm-hmm. And he said, so I paid for what I had to do. He said, I followed her out there. I said, ma'am, can I, um, can I just fill your tank for you? No strings attached.

Keith Vance: [1:47:48] And that lady broke down. She's like, do you know how long it's been since I was able to fill up my car? She's like, do you know how, like, what a blessing that is for me right now? So, bro, like 30 bucks, that's light work. Mm-hmm. Is like a million dollars to somebody. Yeah. So you don't know, like, that small act of kindness that's small to you. Yeah. When somebody's struggling just to get through and all you do is make a little hamburger. Hey, bro, you good? Somebody puts a little ice on you. Hey, bro, you good? Mm-hmm. It goes a long way, right? So that was to watch, to observe that. And then to hear, man, that was huge for me. Because it didn't feel huge. It just felt like easy. It wasn't easy. Um, and then another thing that you mentioned was prayer. Praying in the moment. Man, I've had freedom to do that.

Keith Vance: [1:48:42] I've had freedom to do that.

Keith Vance: [1:48:47] The last six or seven months. I prayed with you. I prayed with you over the phone. You did. Bro, I've had freedom to.

Luke Curley: [1:48:54] I'm pretty sure you brought me to tears, too.

Keith Vance: [1:48:56] I have freedom to pray with people, like, in the moment. Yeah. That's not me. It's like having a conversation with somebody. And my wife and I are having lunch conversation with somebody. And they're asking about us. And the conversation is about us. They're trying to get to know us. And it's about us too much. So they're willing to get to know these people. So I asked them a question. And, dude, the response I got was freaking heartbreaking. Mm-hmm. Heartbreaking. Mm-hmm. So here these people are trying to get to know me. I asked them one question. And they were hesitant. And they're like, well. Actually, my wife is going through this. Both of my girls are going through this. I'm going through this. We're in, like, a. We're in a. We're in a refinement time right now, Keith. Hmm. And then be like. Can I just pray with you guys real quick? Right there in that restaurant? Like, the freedom to do that.

Luke Curley: [1:49:56] Yeah. And. And the impact that that can have. have on those people, on that person, is huge.

Keith Vance: [1:50:05] But bro, if I was running a marathon, I would have missed out on that opportunity.

Luke Curley: [1:50:11] You wouldn't, you'd pass right by it.

Keith Vance: [1:50:12] I would have passed right by it, bro.

Luke Curley: [1:50:14] With your earbuds in, you'd be listening to something, and you wouldn't even see that opportunity. Wouldn't you? You'd separate over it. There's a lot of opportunities out there.

Keith Vance: [1:50:27] We're just blind to them, we're oblivious to them. So I'm glad you hit that one. Yeah. The first aid station, 30 miles. So. You got in, all right. You got up, you got up. All right, guys. I'll catch you in, whatever, right? Yeah. And you're back out. What's your mindset? Do you remember?

Luke Curley: [1:50:55] So that 30, 30 to 40, so that was when I think I had to make up that loop. That was kind of exhausting. You're getting into the. You're in the heat of the day. The heat of the day. So that's where I struggle the most, and I know it. Like, I'm not good in the heat. Um, so my body just wants to shut down. It doesn't want to digest food. It doesn't, has no appetite. Um, your energy drops. So it's just, and then you're, I'm just profusely sweating. And I, I sweat so bad that I'll have like salt crystals underneath my eyes. I'll have salt that literally gathers around my waistband, causes chafing. Like you can deal with all these problems. Um, so I don't do good in the heat. So that's usually where I end up slowing down, which this race, I kind of structured mentally. Like, Hey, I'm going to take like mile 30, 40, even 50 and just dial it back. Yeah. Because I usually just kind of try to push and then I blow up. Yeah. And that's where two years ago I'm throwing up at mile 50. Got it. On my hands and knees in the grass. Got it. Like rough. So this time I was like, you know, I'm going to pull back a little bit and, and see if I can like preserve some energy and just like keep moving, not overheat kind of thing. Um, that kind of worked out, I think pretty good. Um, still had to like force feed myself. So a lot of like take a bite of peanut butter and jelly or take a bite of banana and then just like washing it down, like swishing around and get it down. Just try to get it in you. Um, but those are kind of like, you know, that you know, that's going to happen. Let's just keep moving forward. You kind of just keep backing it off a little bit where, okay, like what's the next, what's the next like relief I'm going to get? Like, okay. Got it. Yeah. So this, this stinks right now. This hurts. I'm hungry or like, um, I know I don't have good appetite, but mile 50, like, let me just at mile 50, I'm going to change my shoes. Like my feet are wet. Let me get to mile 50. I'm going to take a, I'm actually at a pretty good pace. I can actually take like a, a 30 minute break. I'm going to sit down, like take my shoes off, put my feet up, relax for 30 minutes and like recover and like recoup, cool down, hopefully get some food in me and digest some stuff. That's going to be my next relief. So like, that's kind of where I was at in the race was, let me get there.

Keith Vance: [1:53:34] You said you're looking for those places of relief. Are there also some of those places in mile 20 that you thought, man, this is going to be challenging that you're also like not looking forward to, or is it just is what it is? Are there certain areas there? Like on the trail, you mean? Yeah. Like on the trail, like there's a place called the devil's bathtub. I don't know what that means, but there's a certain, there's a certain place on the trail. Like, yeah, this is the part that really sucks.

Luke Curley: [1:54:00] Like there's there is or no, there, there is those spots and you just, you kind of try not to like put yourself there until you're there because then you end up worrying about it or you end up thinking overthinking it. Like, but in this race, there were those spots. Oh yeah, absolutely. There's okay. Yeah. So this is, can you describe a couple of them? There was overall over the a hundred miles, there's about 15,000 feet of elevation. So a lot of that is, it's all spread out through the, the two 10 mile loops, but you're hitting these hills that are like really steep. You're, you're hiking up them with trekking poles or you're literally touching the ground in front of you and like kind of scrambling up. Oh really? Oh yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. I probably should have brought you on a couple of the trails or something, but.

Keith Vance: [1:54:48] So you like climbing?

Luke Curley: [1:54:50] Yeah. So yeah, there's literally like you're stepping on tree roots to get up the hill or it's literally rocky or something and you're grabbing a tree. and pulling yourself up the hill.

Keith Vance: [1:55:01] So you're expending a lot of energy and not really getting very far because of the...

Luke Curley: [1:55:05] Yeah, and then your quads are on fire because you just hoofed it up this 100-yard hill and just put all this lactic acid into your quads now. And now your legs are heavy, and now you've got to tell yourself, well, let's just keep moving 200 yards, and then hopefully that burns off. You've got to clear it out of your muscles kind of thing. So there's hills, and then the other worst part is open sunlight where there was a spot on the second loop that went through a big part of the field. They had a big trail mowed in part of the field, but you're exposed to the direct sunlight for a whole mile on the back part of this trail. So that would be a spot that I would come up out of the trail, hit this spot in the field, and I'm like, well, here you go. The next 15 minutes is going to be just direct sunlight, no relief in that spot unless there's one little overhanging branch you can tuck under or something. But there was... It's funny, though, there's raspberry bushes in there.

Keith Vance: [1:56:18] Oh, good. So there's respite.

Luke Curley: [1:56:20] Yeah, so some of that was you'd be walking some raspberries. I'd grab a couple raspberries or blackberries or whatever and eat those.

Keith Vance: [1:56:28] Were there any times in that open area where you got a respite? Maybe there was a little breeze or something, a little something that just gave you... Oh, yeah. Doesn't that make you thankful?

Luke Curley: [1:56:40] There's been times... There's been times... Man, you throw your arms up like, thank you, Lord. Yes. That was it. Oh, yeah, there's definitely...

Keith Vance: [1:56:48] I've gone through times like that that it's just humid and miserable. Yeah. But then there'll be this breeze that just gives you relief, and your mind goes to gratitude. Yeah. Because he didn't have to give me that breeze. Like, literally... God, thank you. I needed that. Like, thank you so much. So those little things, a little breeze, a little this, a little that... That... Yeah. Like, the gratitude... Yeah. Wow, I don't deserve this, but thank you.

Luke Curley: [1:57:13] Yeah, and especially in something like this where you're struggling and you're suffering, and there's just a... It's a chronic pain. Like, you're... Even those... The things we say that are a relief does not mean my pain goes to zero. That doesn't mean that, like... It's like you're waking up fresh and you're ready to go back out. That means, like, the relief means your pain went from an eight, a level eight, to, like, a level three while I'm sitting there. And then I know when I get back up, it's going to go back up to level eight. That's the relief. It's not, like, this relief where, like, you're completely fresh and everything's great. But it's just... Like you're saying, like, I'm still in fully exposed sunlight, but a little breeze rolls through, man, that's relief. I'm still in the sunlight, but that's the relief. Like, that's... Oh, man, the hand of God. Like, that's it. Like, you kind of feel like... And if you're on the trail, you'd probably hear me hooting and hollering in some of those moments because, like, man, I get... They actually, like, charge you up. They fire me up a little bit, too, because... Because you're just... You'll find yourself in, like, a low point. And, like, oh, man, kind of dwindling on something. But then you get that little bit of relief, and it's like, oh, yeah, man. Like, this... Oh, that felt so good. And, like... I don't want to get you off your story.

Keith Vance: [1:58:38] Yeah. Or the race. But did you find your... In this next little bit that we're in right now, I think we're almost to mile 50, right? Yeah. Did you find respite and... I'm getting ready to go through this hard spot, but there's someone with me. Were there times that you went through the sun and you were alone? Like, were there times where you got relief because there's someone next to you and you can... Yeah.

Luke Curley: [1:59:09] Do you remember it all? It's kind of... So, like, by mile 20 or 30, there is, I think, 17 of us in the race. We get so spread out that there is... There is times you can go for an hour and not see anybody on the trail. Does that play a mental game? It kind of does because you're by yourself. So, if you're not good with being by yourself, like, talking to yourself, and thankfully I talk to myself a lot, you know, but if you're not in that mindset of being able to just deal with... with where you're at and stuff by yourself, then it can mess you up.

Keith Vance: [1:59:58] Because I'm just picturing myself... because I know what it feels like in that open area with the full sun by myself,

Keith Vance: [2:00:10] feeling hurting, feeling fatigued, and I'm just going to walk this. As opposed if somebody's next to me and we mutually encourage one another, hey bro, let's just lock in for a little bit, let's just like push it a little bit. When you talked about the ultramarathon community, we're all suffering but we're all encouraging everyone, and here you are, stints of it, you're alone. You're alone through stints of it. Anyway, I don't know if there's something there you want to speak to or not.

Luke Curley: [2:00:44] For me, I think when you have a pacer, so like mile 55, Roger showed up to start pacing me, I think that having somebody link up with you, maybe it's someone on the trail, like you're lucky that your paths cross and you guys can run for a little bit, that does help, definitely helps. But having a pacer, somebody to show up for you, and then to say I'm going to stick with you through 10 miles, like not even the rest of the race, but just get you the next 10 miles. It kind of gives you this sense of relief of like, okay, I'm going to have someone there to kind of watch over me or help me out. Because you're just kind of a mess at a lot of points where you might not eat food, you might skip food, you might not fill up your water bottles because you just forgot, like you rolled through an aid station and forgot to fill up your water bottles. Like so to have someone there who's more fresh and clear-minded and able to look at different perspective, have a different mindset, whatever it is, like they're able to fully support you, it kind of takes that pressure off because now it's like, okay, I can focus on just moving forward. And they're there to kind of distract me with talking, keep me focused on just moving, you know, like don't sit down, just keep moving kind of stuff. And then when we roll into an aid station, they're there to like, hey, I'm going to take your water bottles, fill them up, get you this, oh, did you eat anything? Did you have salt tablets? Whatever. And, oh yeah, yeah, I forgot about that. Oh, yeah. And kind of help you out in that support. Where are we at in our race right now? I'd probably say mile 50.

Keith Vance: [2:02:36] What time is it at mile 50?

Luke Curley: [2:02:38] Mile 50 was right before dark, because I think I left 50 with a headlamp. So it was probably like 7 or 8 o'clock or something at night. Yeah, it was probably like 8 o'clock, because I think Roger met up with me. Yeah, it was 14 hours. It was mile 50, so 8 o'clock at night. 8 o'clock at night, you're halfway through. Mile 50 was like, for me, it was like a checkpoint of, okay, I'm halfway through the race. I'm at a good time. I was at 13 1⁄2 hours. So I was like, okay, let me structure in 30 minutes to recover. My feet were wet and pruney just from water on the course going through stuff. And it was hot out, so I was pouring water on myself. Yeah. So I literally went through like a whole change of clothes. Yeah. At mile 50. Changed my clothes. Yeah. Like left my shoes off, put my feet up, let them dry out for a few minutes. Tried to get some food in me. Ate some stuff. I forget what I even ate, but probably I ate some stuff. And then, and that's when my parents were there. My Aunt Wanda and Uncle Carl showed up. They were there. It's kind of like an encouraging atmosphere. I probably didn't seem too motivated or encouraged, but those things that like, those definitely help you out to have people there show up for you. And, you know, just have like a conversation. Even, you know, it's like, it doesn't even have to be anything serious or relevant. It's just something to just kind of distract you or get you off of the pain that you're dealing with, right?

Keith Vance: [2:04:24] So my observation, every time you come to these aid stations, you are more and more broke down.

Keith Vance: [2:04:36] I don't say this derogatory just because I can't think of a better word, but it's more and more disgusting.

Keith Vance: [2:04:46] You're, like you just said your feet. Yeah. I didn't even want to look at your feet. Yeah. Like I looked at them and my feet hurt. Yeah. But your brother took your socks off. Mm-hmm. Well, I saw you there. Well, I saw you there. Well, I saw you there.

Keith Vance: [2:05:06] So, if you can imagine what someone's feet looks like or smells like being in a pair of shoes for 50 freaking miles. 14 hours, yeah. And your brother took your shoes off, didn't even think about it. Didn't even make a joke about it. Mm-hmm. And just took your socks off, took a paper towel and a wipey and cleaned your feet, bro. Yeah. I was covered in mud. Meanwhile, you're sitting there trying to eat and you're burping. Bro, you're trying to eat and you're farting. Your clothes are like you need to take a shower. You're filthy. Yeah. And again, not derogatory, but it's disgusting. It's broke down. Yeah. And I purposefully, like I did little things to assist Jake, but I purposely didn't get too involved in the work because I didn't want to miss the experience. And I'm glad I didn't get involved in the work because watching your brother minister to you when it wasn't sanitary, when it wasn't clean, when it smelled, and for him just to minister to you in a way that only a brother could.

Luke Curley: [2:06:27] because bro as much as i like you i don't i don't know if i could do that with your feet dude without like hold on a minute you know you know yeah it's just you know what i'm saying you would have to i would have to it'd have to be somebody that i really like really love to do that and um so to observe that the care yeah and if he wasn't there who's gonna do it you would have you would do it yourself i'd be trying to unflexible trying to do it all myself yeah so um and he did that stuff too again like unprovoked on like i i didn't call him that time and say hey dude i'm you know i told him i was changing my shoes so i said hey grab the other shoes i'm gonna put in you know get into but but i wasn't like oh my my legs are muddy and like you know i'm gonna need you to wash them off when i get back or anything like that was it it was like hey i'm gonna change my shoes and just take a half hour try to eat some food and stuff like that and get back there but then he's literally looking at looking at it like what can i do to help him out yeah and it's at this time because it's getting dark and we've been up there since seven yeah now it's eight o'clock this is where i start feeling it because we flew up from florida Yeah.

Keith Vance: [2:07:46] So I'm already jet lagged. Yeah. We were up late spending time with you, so it's not like we were rested. Yeah. And so now I'm starting to feel it. It's getting dark.

Keith Vance: [2:07:59] And we'll get to it, but you didn't sleep at all. No, this time no naps this time. You didn't sleep at all, but you know who else didn't sleep? Yeah.

Keith Vance: [2:08:16] yeah your brother didn't sleep i did i tried to stay up well bro i just i tried to with your brother like your brother stayed up all night and again there was something there special to watch because you got you got a brother suffering and you got another brother's supporting like giving aid and i'm and in a way bro he was suffering with you. He was suffering with you and it was like so precious to watch, man.

Luke Curley: [2:08:54] Yeah.

Luke Curley: [2:08:57] I'm beyond grateful to have

Luke Curley: [2:09:02] to have Jake as a brother. And it's been like that, man, ever since we grew up. you know we we push each other's buttons and like we know you know how to get on each other's nerves and stuff but man when push comes to shove there's no one else I'd rather have with me by my side than my brother

Luke Curley: [2:09:29] but and you know his character like you know you know me as a friend kind of thing but you've been with Jake for two decades now or whatnot, right? Like, you know his character. Like, you know his personality. We thrive off each other's energy. We thrive off of helping people, doing stuff for people. And, like, that's just who he is. And that's... That's what's taught me, I think, growing up. I'm trying to think of where did I get integrity from or where did I get all these characteristics that I have, but I think it's because I've had my older brother. He's a year and a half older, so we've been close. I think I've always had his hand-me-downs. I've always had, like, what is he doing? I want to do it. And then he's always been there to encourage me or motivate me or, like, yeah, bro, let's do that. He's just always there for me.

Keith Vance: [2:10:43] Watching two brothers like that was one level that touched me, but on a deeper level. It was when he washed your dirty feet, dude. Yeah. Do you know when Christ washed the feet of his disciples?

Keith Vance: [2:11:03] Do you know that it was the slave of the slave's job to wash feet? It was the slave of the slave's job to wash feet. And Christ washed the feet of his disciples.

Keith Vance: [2:11:22] Watching you suffer, watching you run your race, and then watching your brother administer aid was Christ-like. Like, he has the heart of Christ. Christ doesn't just say, hey, go do it. Let me know when you're done. He ministers to us. He binds up our wounds. He brings aid. He comforts. And in fact, you know what? Since he's a burden bearer, he runs with us. He's there with us. So watching your brother, like, on a couple levels, like two brothers, it was special. But again, because he is a believer, and then, like, watching him be like Christ, bro. And then I was convicted because I just, man, those are dirty feet. The disciples, they wore sandals. Yeah. It was dusty, smelly. And he just got down there in humility. Let me clean your feet. The job of a slave of the slave. Yeah. So it was precious to watch. It was precious to watch. And again, at all points, like, this race that you're running translates over to stuff that matters, like real-life stuff. Yeah. I could care less about running the race. Like, if you want it. Like, if we weren't talking about this kind of stuff, what difference does it make? Right. You got some cool buckles, dude. Cool. Yeah. But the kind of stuff that we're talking about is what matters. It's why we do what we do. Yeah. So that was my perception of mile 50. Was it mile 50 when it started to rain?

Luke Curley: [2:12:59] Yeah, mile 50 is when, like, that's, so that's, again, like, you make all these plans. So, like, okay, I'm coming in 13, half hours, half hour break. I'm going to dry my feet out, get, change all my clothes. It's going to get dark and start cooling down. And, like, it's almost like that's the relief. I do all that stuff. And literally, as I'm about to walk out of the aid station, it starts raining. So, so now it's all of a sudden, I'm going to be all wet again. And, like, mentally that starts to mess you up again because I'm trying to dry my feet out. I'm trying to get, like, I'm dealing with these blisters that are starting to pop up, these hot spots. And so I'm, like, now you leave there, it's starting to get dark out. So now you're going to put the headlamp on. I put a rain jacket on. The temperature starts to drop. Like, this is where, like, starts to transition into darkness.

Keith Vance: [2:14:02] So hold on a minute. I've got to finish painting this picture. It wasn't just a little rain. Yeah. Bro, we were holding down the freaking pop-up tent because it was blowing over. It came in hard, fast, and heavy. Yeah. Yeah. So, but again, the timing of it. Okay, it's raining. But again, in God's sovereignty and in God's grace and God's goodness, I translate over things to real life. You could have been way out on the other side when it started. Oh, yeah. But the fact that you were there, your brother hooked you up. Yeah. It comes in hard, and you were able to have a raincoat. Yeah. So, yeah, it's raining, but I'm at the best place that it could start raining because I could have been way over there. So I'm seeing these things, these obstacles that are happening that are out of our control. Yeah. But, man, if it's going to rain, like, what better place? He's here. He's fed up. He rested. He had his feet up. Yeah. Right when he gets ready. Right when he gets ready. They go out, it's a freaking downpour, and we've got a raincoat for them. So I'm just observing that. But it's dark, and here you go. Not only is it dark, but it's not just like a light rain. It's blowing sideways. So go ahead.

Luke Curley: [2:15:15] Yeah. So it's just something you have to deal with in the ultra. I was looking at the weather forecast, too. It wasn't supposed to rain at all. I know. There was like a 2% chance, I think, of rain. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, I didn't know it was raining, like going to start raining until I got into that 50, the 58 station. And then Jake's like, yeah, dude, I think in like an hour, it's going to start raining. I'm like, what? Like, I wasn't even going to pack a rain jacket either, because I was up until the start of the race there. I'm like, I don't even need to pack this. Like, it's not going to rain. And I'm glad I did, because it, like, unexpectedly, it just started raining. And so, yeah, throw the rain jacket on, go out, start getting wet again.

Keith Vance: [2:16:02] I had that video of when you went out in the rain. You, like, look back, the head knife on. Yeah. Like, kind of put the hood up. All right, guys, I'm going out.

Luke Curley: [2:16:14] Yeah. A few hours. Mm-hmm. And that's what it is, is like motivating yourself to just get out of the chair and get back out there. Because it's, man, it is so comfortable in that chair. Like, to go from that level eight to level three for half hour and, like, really just subside everything. And then to be like, oh, man, as soon as I leave here, we're ramping back up. Like, so a lot of that is just motivating yourself. I got to keep moving forward. I just got to get out of here. I got to leave. I can't stay here. I got to leave. And so I get back out on the trail. Well, the next big thing was Roger showing up at 55 miles. And he. Who's Roger and what's all that? Roger is a running buddy. Met him through a group. We do a group run. We were doing a group run for a while. I was. And it was, like, Sunday mornings. We get together. A bunch of us do, you know, five miles, seven miles, whatever. Met him through the friends at the running group. And he's, I think he's, like, mid-50s or something. So he's, like, older than me. But we just hit it off with running. And I was.

Keith Vance: [2:17:33] Was that planned for him to come up? It was, yeah.

Luke Curley: [2:17:37] He's come out and paced me.

Luke Curley: [2:17:42] Was it two years ago or three years ago? He paced me. He paced me in one of those races before, a couple years before that. And then I actually went and paced him for his first 100-miler that he did. Got it. And so there's, like, a brotherhood of camaraderie with that. And so when he found out I'm doing the 100, he's, like, yeah, I'll come out and do some miles with you. He actually had a 100-mile race scheduled for, like, the next week. Wow. So this was, like, he's, like, oh, I'll come out and this will be, like, some training for my race.

Keith Vance: [2:18:13] But even the timing of him coming. Yeah. Like, he knows when you need it. Yeah. Like, he didn't come out the first five miles. No. No. But to come out to drive in the dark. Yeah. Like, when you needed it most. Right? So there's, I don't want to get into real life yet, but he timed it strategically when you need it the most.

Luke Curley: [2:18:39] Yeah. Yeah. And he helped out a ton with those 10 miles. So he got, he hooked up with me at mile 55, the aid station. It's dark out. And there was still, like, drizzling rain at that point. Like, it let off a little bit, but it's still raining. So we start going out, do some miles. It was definitely a refresher having him out there because now you've got somebody to, like, talk to. And he's asking me how I'm doing, you know. But then as a pacer, you kind of want to get them off topic and not just be, like, well, how are you feeling? Because you start asking that, and now you start focusing on, like, well, yeah, how am I feeling? Oh, man. My feet hurt. Oh, this hurts. Like, my knee hurts. This, you know, I tried to step over that log a couple miles ago, and, like, my hip is hurting me now. And, like, there's, like, all these different things. So the job of the pacer is to really, like, like, hey, like, you got any vacation scheduled? Like, you got anything going on? And they kind of, like, distract you. So you get talking about all sorts of different things, family and vacation. And he's got races coming up. So, like, talk about his race a little bit. But all that's just to kind of, like, just to take your focus off of. What you're feeling right now, and you're refocused on the conversation, and you just kind of like zone this out, having that conversation, and you're just moving forward in a way. Can we park here for a minute?

Keith Vance: [2:20:13] I just had a thought. Yeah.

Keith Vance: [2:20:18] You're hurting. You got a pacer there. He knows what you're feeling because he's been there. So, he knows how to direct the conversation and to not steer it in a way that's going to pull you down. But I would imagine, having run for as long as you did, and it's dark, that you could be annoyed. So, to know how to direct the conversation in a way that's not annoying. Again, we've all experienced this. You're going through suffering, and then someone comes along and tries to give you encouragement, but it's like, bro, just shut up and go. Like, I hear you, but it's... Or they want to one-up you. Or they're trying to talk philosophical or try to talk this way, and it's just all... Yeah. It's not helping. It ain't helping. It's making it worse. Dude, just shut up. Making it worse. Just shut up. I'm appreciative for people who know what I'm feeling and know how to communicate with me in a way that helps me. I don't appreciate people that just talk because we all know them, dude. Yeah. We all know them. They don't know what to say. Well, you know what? If you don't know what to say, just don't say anything. Let's just walk together. Yeah. Is there anything there? Because I would imagine...

Luke Curley: [2:21:56] Man, there could be some things there with like... Have you had some bad pacers that are talking... Yeah, there's some people I wouldn't invite out there. Like, for sure. And I don't. Like, I'd rather be out there by myself than having someone out there that's like that. Where, you know, if I got... If Roger's out there and he's just spouting off about his race and his life and what's going on and all the goodness stuff. And it's like... And I'm like... Like, if he was doing that, it could easily drive me crazy. And I'd be like, dude, like, what are you even out here for? Like, you're not helping me at all. So, to have somebody that's like... Like, hey, what do you got going on? Like, what's going on here? How's your wife and the kids doing? Like, how's that going? Like, oh, man, they're getting big, huh? And like, now it's... Now that's the conversation I want to have.

Keith Vance: [2:22:51] There's something to be said for measuring the tone or reading the room. Measuring my words before they come out. And I would imagine that in this case, you'd want someone who would measure their words. That when they commute... There's a verse, I think, of Proverbs. Like, words are like apples of gold and pictures of silver, something like that. Like, words can edify. Words can lift up. Words can make me feel like, good, dude. But you know what? Words can also make me feel like, dude, just shut up.

Luke Curley: [2:23:22] Yeah. I think Proverbs actually says, like, there's... There's a... Like, life and death are in the power of the tongue. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. Right? So, you could be speaking life or you could be speaking death. Death.

Keith Vance: [2:23:37] Again, I just... I translate all this stuff over. Like, when I talk, I want people to listen. Yeah. I don't want to just say a bunch of stuff that doesn't mean anything. Mm-hmm. Like, if you're suffering, I want to speak in a way that's going to encourage you. But sometimes that takes some thought. Yeah. Before we just go rambling off a bunch of stuff. But anyway, go ahead.

Luke Curley: [2:23:54] I feel like some of that's like, who are your friends? Mm-hmm. Like, who are you hanging out with? Are they actually there for you and supporting you and, like, encouraging, uplifting, edifying, moving you forward? Or are they there for themselves? And, like, you know, they're... Like, is it really that... What kind of friendship is that? What kind of friend? And those are the people... Like, you could probably think of people in your phone right now. You can call... I can call Jake. I can call Phil. I can call a bunch of different people and they're going to be there for me. They'll drop what they're doing. They'll be there for me. Like, that's the kind of friendship that I want. That's the kind of people I want. And then there's people that you don't even want them to know that they're out... That you're out there because... There's people that don't show up. Yeah. Don't show up. Yeah. There could be. There could be people that, you know, that... Yeah, I'm, like, not even going to tell them I'm doing a 100-mile race because if they show up, it's like, oh, man. I don't know. Yeah. Thankfully, I don't really deal with that too much. There's not... Not a ton of people that want to actually come out in the middle of the night. Yeah, so.

Keith Vance: [2:25:05] So he's running with you. Not only is he pacing you, you feel like you're being taken care of. Yeah, yeah. You don't have to think about certain things. He's like, hey, watch out for that. Do this. Like, you just feel like all you got to do is concentrate and just put the next step forward. And then he's directing the conversation in a way that's kind of getting your mind off of where you're at and putting your mind somewhere else in a positive way. Like, I'm sure you're talking about the family and things that matter. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Luke Curley: [2:25:28] Yeah, and so Roger was there. 55, mile 60, Marco actually showed up. So he got there a little bit earlier than what I was even expecting. He was going to get there at, like, mile 65 was what I was thinking. So it overlapped. He showed up mile 60. So Roger stuck with me. So I actually had Roger and Marco for 55 to 60, or 60 to 65. I had both of them. And then that's when Roger was like, hey, I'm going to take off. Like, and he did a great job. Like, that 10 miles was huge having him there. And it's just, like, I do love the support of other fellow runners. Like, people, like, when Roger was like, hey, man, I want to be there to run with you. Like, tell me what time. I'm like, dude, that is awesome. Like, that's huge. If you can get me 10 miles, 10 miles is 10% of the race. Like, that's huge. That's a big portion of suffering that he's going to bear with me. He's going to come in and link arms with me and be there for me. Like, to do whatever he has to do to move, keep me going, keep me moving, right?

Keith Vance: [2:26:42] Tell us who Marco is in a minute. But what you just described with him was something God's been working without me. Someone said, someone told me, he said, hey, Keith, it's easier to write a check than it is to give your time. Mm-hmm. And that was case in point. Yeah. This guy gave him, gave you some of his time. Yeah. And it edified you.

Luke Curley: [2:27:08] It, like, kept you, it kept you going. I got a bunch of text messages of encouraging stuff. Like, hey, good luck out there. Hope you do great. Yeah. Be praying for you all. But Roger showed up. Okay. Marco, who was he? Who was he?

Luke Curley: [2:27:27] Yeah, Marco is a friend from church. We've known each other for a bunch of years. And he actually came out, did 17 miles with me at a previous race, I want to say two or three years ago. He's not a runner either. Like, he, but he just likes to, he likes challenges. He likes adventure, all sorts of stuff. So he, when he was like, hey man, I'm going to come out. He found out about the 100 miler. He's like, dude, I'll, I'll come out and do some miles with you. I'm like, no way. Like, dude, that'd be awesome. And he's also the adventure type of, I'll go out at midnight. I'll show up at midnight and go like, till he ended up being there till like 5 a.m. Like, those are, those are the roughest of hours. We can get into that too. But him, him showing up, him even saying he's going to show up. Like, these are things that going into the race are like, I'm putting that in the bank of like, oh man, Roger said he's going to be there. I know these guys are accountable. Like, they're, if they say they're going to be there, especially that they know what it's like in the ultra, they're going to be there. So I'm counting on those things, but I'm also not hinging the race on it. Because at the same time, if Roger calls me, he's like, hey man, I got a flat tire. I can't make it. Then I'm, you know, what am I, oh, all right. Well, I guess I'm done at 55. Like, I'm not making it any farther. So there's, there's aspects of it where I'm, I'm counting on them, but I'm also like, again, my plan Z is just finish the race, whatever it takes.

Luke Curley: [2:29:12] But Marco, yeah, great friend, loves adventure, like doing that stuff. So when he said he was going to come out, I'm like, dude, that's awesome. Like, I figured he'd be good for maybe 10 miles, like more in the middle of the night. And I don't even know what time he showed. He must have showed up at like 1130 or midnight. It was something like that.

Keith Vance: [2:29:32] It was, that was when I started getting delirious.

Luke Curley: [2:29:35] Yeah, it was, it was mile 60. It was mile 60. So it's, it's pitch black. It's late. It's, it's somewhere's around 1130 or midnight. Yeah. Somewhere's in there. And he's, he overlapped with, with Roger. So we go five miles. Roger takes off like, hey man, thanks a lot for coming out. So now it's just me and Marco. I figured Marco was only. I'm going to be doing like 10 miles. So like we go back out mile 65. And this is a lot easier too to like go back out. Like I keep saying go back out. So a lot of that is like you get to an aid station. I sit down immediately. Like I want to get that relief, that comfort to just like give my body a rest. Like that's the, I'm not usually sitting down on the trail. Like that's a temptation kind of thing. But I know my reward is at the aid station. I get rest. Right. So, but I can't stay there. I have to keep moving. So again, yeah, Roger got me to 65. He takes off. Me and Marco go back out. Like let's just keep moving forward. Like if you can get any mile 70, like that would be huge. Like now I'm, now I'm getting like so far enough into the race where now. You can start to see, you can start to see. Yeah. Like, man, this like, there's another transition where that 30 miles is like horrible. And you're like a lot of unknowns and I got a lot of suffering to go. But now you're on that other side of mile 70. When you're reaching that point, now you're kind of like, oh, man. Like there's, there's more suffering. But your brain starts to understand. Like there's, there's starting to be a little light at the end of the tunnel that like I can start to see this actually working out. And I'm looking at the time and I got 12 hours to do 30 miles. Like that's totally, that's four hour loops. And I'm doing them in three right now. Like I got some wiggle room. Like, so like all these calculations and when the calculations work out, then you're kind of like at a little more peace because now you're like, oh man. All right. Like this is possible. This is like in your confidence starts to build. So this again is like huge having pacers in that point in the race because they're getting you through that, that dark window of time where it's literally pitch black out. The temperature drops. It just got through the rain. Like you're, you're exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally. Everything is just drained because it's now it's two o'clock in the morning and like you're going, you're fighting a sleep cycle. You're getting caught up on calories, like eating stuff. Like there's so many things going on. Having somebody there to just be with you hand in hand, like foot in foot is, is huge. Like that's a huge thing. Um, so 65, we get close to 70 miles and this is where I'm starting to like kind of, uh, test Marco of like, if he's going to go any farther with me. Cause in my mind I was like thinking like, man, I hope he wants to go farther, but I don't want to like actually selfishly ask him to like, keep going with me. You know, here I'm nearly 70 miles into the race and he's only done 10, but he's not a runner and he's out there sacrificing his time from his family. It's two o'clock in the morning and like, and here's the thing you got the buckle.

Keith Vance: [2:33:19] What'd he get? You know what I'm saying? Good point. What did he get? He didn't get a certificate of participation.

Luke Curley: [2:33:27] Honorable mention. That's about it. It was like a text the next day. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for coming out. Yeah. But he showed up. Not only did he show up, but we get to that mile 70 and I'm, I'm like, Hey man, um, you know, thanks for, thanks for coming. Like, I don't know. Or did you, did you want to do any more? Like you, like, he's like, yeah, you know what? I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. Like, I want to get you, I think I want to do 20 miles. And when he said that, I'm like, dude, that's crazy. Like you want to go 20 miles? Like you're going to go another 10 with me? He's like, yeah, yeah, I think so. Like, I think I'm going to do 20. I mean, I'll, I'll at least do 50 where I'm at least going out and we're going to do the next five miles to the next aid station. But he's like, I think, I think I want to do 20. So let's, yeah, let's do that. Let's do the 15 and then we'll see whatever. So just for me, for that was, was huge. Like it again is like another little relief of like, okay, I got somebody else with like, he's going to keep going with me. And it's, it's all aspects of that because it's like, he's not actually like taking, he's not actually like, it's not like I'm on a bike and he's like pushing me through the track. Like I'm still doing the work, but he's just there sharing the workload with me. Like just there. Just being there. Right.

Keith Vance: [2:34:51] That makes all the difference.

Luke Curley: [2:34:53] Huge difference. Yeah. Yeah.

Keith Vance: [2:34:59] Here's the other thing. I want to save this for later, but I'll hit a little bit now. We kind of talked about the pace or the conversation.

Keith Vance: [2:35:15] But they're with you in a way that makes you want to keep going, and he's not critiquing you. He's not telling everything you're doing wrong. Hey, bro, we're behind pace. You need to pick it up. He's not because that's not what you need right now. You need somebody to keep you going. You could, as a pacer, if you say something at the wrong time, you could put somebody in the ditch. So there is time for correction, for counsel. But when somebody is suffering, measure your words. Maybe they don't need to know that they fell behind pace. Right. Maybe that's not the thing they need to say. You know what I mean? There's discretion. There's discretion. Discretion when it comes to what we say and how we say it. Yeah. So go ahead.

Luke Curley: [2:36:17] Yeah. Yeah. So that was a huge encouragement. He wanted to keep going. So we, mile 70, I think mile 70 is when we got that chicken noodle soup. Got some chicken noodle soup and a Red Bull. Yeah. And kind of got a little, finally got some like good warm calories in me. Like start a little, little burst of energy, I would say. Like you start to feel a little, a little bit better.

Keith Vance: [2:36:44] And again, now, now your brother's not just ministering to you. He's ministering to you. To Marco now too. Your boy's suffering too. He's doing 15, 20 miles. Yeah. And he was enjoying that chicken noodle soup too. Oh yeah. He was enjoying it. So your brother, yeah.

Luke Curley: [2:37:01] It's a full circle thing, man. Like you're, again, like this is, you're there. Jake would have made chicken noodle soup for a different runner. Like you're not just there for you or for, for you. Like you're there for everybody. Like that is a huge part of that thing. Even the race directors, every time I'm coming through, they're like, Hey Luke, you need anything? Like, dude, like, dude, you're going to be doing a great job. Keep it up. Like, how's it going? Like, oh man, get back out there. You got this. Like, yeah, come on, man. Like everybody is just encouraging, motivating, helpful. Like, do you need anything? Like, oh man, I wanted two watermelons. Oh, I'll go get you two watermelons. Hold on. I'll be right back. Like.

Keith Vance: [2:37:44] I remember the amount of like relief we all felt when that, when you finish that chicken noodle soup and you're like, and it felt, it tasted good and it felt good and it nourished you because we were struggling. Like you're, you're having a hard time getting food down. You're like chewing and like, man, I can't get this down. But like, we all felt, we, we all said, Hey, remember this next time he does a race. Chicken noodle. Like, don't forget. Yeah. So like, we all felt that, that little breakthrough. Yeah. Yeah. We all felt relief. Yeah. All right. Good.

Luke Curley: [2:38:17] Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, we, we left there, kept going. Um, so that was mile 70. He got me all the way to mile 80, which was crazy because like, and this, and this whole time we got headlamps, his headlamp actually died at 75. Yep. We had to borrow someone else's headlamp to, for him to keep going. Um, but this is all like just a huge help. Like I almost kind of actually don't even remember mile 70 to 80 because of him being there. Wow. Like I could almost, like I'm trying to think of suffering and stuff that I had in there, but it's like, because he was there, I can remember the conversations we're having, but I'm not really remembering every footstep that I had. You know what I mean? Um, but he gets me back to mile 80. I guess we can get, get to that point, I guess. Um, now it's actually getting, I think close to daylight again is when I think we got back and, um, before he gets you the mile, he gets you the mile 80, right?

Keith Vance: [2:39:34] So we're there. Yeah. Does he say goodbye?

Luke Curley: [2:39:37] He said goodbye. Yeah. I said goodbye to him and left the aid station, but, um, so mile, mile 80, we get in, I think hold on a minute.

Keith Vance: [2:39:47] Cause there's something here. Yeah. Uh, you took off. So mile 80, he did, he did the 20 with you. You got, you got to keep going.

Luke Curley: [2:39:57] I take a picture with him and I.

Keith Vance: [2:40:00] And I'm going to head out, yeah. You head out. You head out. And again, I'm just telling you something you don't know because you weren't there. Yeah. You head out, and he goes, he's like, looks, you're far enough away. Like, oh, bro, my back was killing me that whole time. So, he was suffering. Yeah, yeah. I didn't find that out until later. He held that so well. His back was killing him. Yeah. And he's like, man, my back is locked up. He's like, those last five miles were killing me. Yeah. But he didn't bring it up.

Luke Curley: [2:40:32] Yeah. Again, that discernment you're talking about of like, we all have burdens. We all have our own problems. But when you're going to go help somebody and support somebody. It's not about you. It's not about you, man. Like, yeah. You know, and hopefully someone's there for you too. But like, there's got to be this love and this compassion and this willingness to serve that you're just willing to put yourself aside and say, man, they need it. Yeah.

Keith Vance: [2:41:09] Before we hit this last 20. Yeah. Let's take a little break. All right. This part of the podcast is brought to you by Frequence. The product is source. These are my trace minerals. It's no big secret that the American diet isn't what it used to be. Our food is not nutrient dense. This helps close the gap for me. Find the link in the bio and let's get back to the show. All right, brother. We're back from the break. We're going to break down the last 20. But before you do, there's something that you had said when we were eating our donuts that one day. Running through the night with no sleep, seeing these little places that would be, oh man, if I could just sit there. And you said having a pacer with you, you'd be like, hey, dude, I need to sit there for a minute. And he'd say, okay, dude, you got 60 seconds. Hey, dude, 60 seconds. Like he held you accountable. It's accountability for sure. But you also said that you found that if you just got past that log, if you just got past that little spot that you'd sit at, you know, you're not going to go back to find it. So you talked about seeing these temptations or these things when you want sleep and man, that would be a beautiful place just to lay down for 30 minutes. You just thought if I just get past it. And I think I don't, I didn't want to lose that because I think there's a lot there. And I think it goes to that when it comes to suffering, if I just suffer for 20 more minutes. You lived it, you went all night with no sleep, exhausting energy. So I didn't want to miss that. You want to speak to that a little bit before we get talked about the last 20?

Luke Curley: [2:42:50] 100% a good little nugget is, is exactly what he said. So, um, man, again, and anybody that's been through any sort of like pain or trauma or something like, or, yeah, you're out there. You're so broken at this point. And so hurt. So everything like you're just feeling everything that everything becomes every little, again, little relief becomes this temptation. But deep down, you know, if I keep doing all these little things, it's going to end up messing up the race. Like could even actually potentially kick me out of the race. Like if I, if I stop and potentially lay down on this park bench and sleep, I might wake up and be completely locked up because I'm 70, 80 miles in. Now I just relax my muscles. I just took a nap laying on this park bench. Now I wake up and my legs are just stiff. Like, and now like it can mess up your whole race. Like, um, those are all little temptations. A hundred percent. I dealt with it. Every single time you pass a log, like you're on these trails. Um, some of them are like big enough, like for like a side by side. Other ones are like single lane trails, but trees fall over them. So they just take a chainsaw and cut the log out of the middle and just move the log out of the middle. So you're walking through these trails and there's numerous spots where there's a log there or a tree stump. And you're like, man, I could just sit down and relax, like just like 30 seconds. And like, you're telling yourself that, but you're also kind of knowing it's not going to be 30 seconds. I'm going to sit, if I sit down, it's going to be like five minutes. Like you already know, maybe because I've been there and I've sat on enough logs that I know like, man, it never, never works out. You know where this leads to.

Keith Vance: [2:44:57] You know where it leads to. Yeah.

Luke Curley: [2:44:58] I know where this leads to. And this is just. Temptation and sin is the same exact way. You give into it, it feels good, comfortable, whatever it is, but you're not better off coming out of that. It just hinders your race. But if you can get through that temptation, if I'm five feet past that log, I'm not turning around to go back and sit down on it. That log is behind me now, and I'm moving on. There may be another one ahead of you. There might be another one ahead of me, and there sure is.

Keith Vance: [2:45:33] But that one's dealt with and not even thinking about it.

Luke Curley: [2:45:36] And there's even ones that I might have planned. Oh, because of loop. Like, oh, man, this one goes up that hill, and I know there's that park bench right there at the top of the hill. And, like, man, I'm going to sit on that. I'm going to take a break up there. Like, that's what I'm going to do. You can maybe structure it that way. But I would relate this to sin and temptation. Like, it never works out, like, to the better. Unless that aid station, I guess you could say, is the main aid station. Because you could correlate that with the church. Okay. So I guess you could think of that. Like, you want to tie this in. Like, all those spots on the trail where you're alone, man, it would feel so good to just stop and give in. But, man, if I can make it to that aid station and get the care that I need, get refreshed, that'll get me out the next five miles. Okay.

Luke Curley: [2:46:45] That's good.

Keith Vance: [2:46:46] Thank you, man. Yeah. Last 20. Last 20. My mind is already breaking it down. Like, I can already feel it. Like, I've gone through this journey with you. You're making me relive this whole race. It's like... I've gone through this journey, like, in my mind with you. Now, the last 20, like, my mind can break that down. Like, I feel like... I feel like... It's uplifting. It's better. All right, bro. Here we go. The sun's up. 20.

Luke Curley: [2:47:08] 20 is like the first 20. The first 20 was easiest. Yeah. We've got to do it one more time. Yeah. It's not, but it's like that. I wish it was as good as the first 20. You kind of think of that, too, because the first 20, you know, I'm doing the 10-mile loop. I'm getting it done in, like, two hours. I think it might have even been, like, less than two hours for the first loop. But now I'm doing three-hour loops. So you're like, man, I wish I could just... My legs were good enough. I could just have that energy and just go knock out four hours. Yeah. I've got four hours. But now it's like, yeah, I got, like, six hours left. So it's still... Again, you can't think of it like that, too, because now you've been in the race for 24 hours. I've been in this... I've been mile 80. I'm 24 hours in. But I still have six more hours of doing this. Like, a lot of people don't even do this for six hours when they're fresh. And now I'm 80 in, feel horrible, sleep-deprived. Sun's coming up, but I'm going to go back into the heat of the day again. Like, there's still not a lot of relief there if you look at it that way. So, again, you have to kind of, like, just constantly be reeling this back in and telling yourself, like, hey, like, we're at mile 80. The good news is now when I go out, I only have to do each loop one more time. So let's think of it that way. Like, and you start to just really dissect the race into, okay, at least now when I go out, everything is going to be like a check mark. Like, I'm checking off this hill. I don't have to do this hill again. Like, I'm going through this open field. I don't have to do this open field again. That feels good. It feels real good. Just hearing you say that. Because in life, it just feels... You can probably picture it, right?

Keith Vance: [2:48:54] It just feels good to be like, that's the last time I got to do that. Oh, yeah. And that feels so good.

Luke Curley: [2:48:59] Yeah. So that's, like, the key part in this race for mile 80 because the 210 mile loops, now you're getting into, like, all right, this is the last time I'm doing this one. So, like, when you leave there, even everybody at the aid station, the race directors, other people, they're like, oh, hey, Luke's at mile 80. All right, everybody. Like, everybody's, like, cheering for me because they know, like, you're at that point in the race where it's like you're going to check this box and then mile 90, you're, like, unstoppable and you're going for it, like, no matter what. Like, you're redlining this thing to get it done, you know? So that was, like, another shift in the race. Mentally, you get mile 80. Say goodbye to Marco. Marco didn't know he was hurting that bad, but he hit it well. He did awesome, got me 20 miles. Roger got me that 10. So I go out kind of just, like, power walking at this point just to, like, let me leave the aid station and just keep moving. Okay. A little bit of power walking, a little bit of jogging, and these are just the miles that you're out there by yourself.

Luke Curley: [2:50:12] They can get kind of emotional out there.

Keith Vance: [2:50:15] Let's hear it. Okay.

Luke Curley: [2:50:17] I mean, it's like, you start thinking of everything you went through. I don't know. You're digging for so many reasons to keep moving that people are popping up, like my wife, my kids, Marco, being there, Roger, just you guys, you and Jake being out there. Like, this is where it's like, it starts to get like, so like, there's emotional spots throughout the race, but I think around there is like, you start to, it starts to weigh on you emotionally. Kind of in a good way, because it fires you up. I was like, man, these people love me so much. They're here for me so much, like, and it fuels this fire inside you to, like, they're here for me. They came up, like, dude, this, I'm, and I'm doing this. And you're able to just like, dig deep and find these like, crazy, emotional, driven energy. I don't know what it is, like, inside you.

Keith Vance: [2:51:24] You're not necessarily searching for it. They're just coming out. Oh, it surfaces. It just surfaces. So everything surfaces.

Luke Curley: [2:51:31] Like, you're literally so broken out there that I am. Maybe someone else can do the 100 miles and just like cruise through it. And that's a different experience. But for me, I haven't found anything else that breaks me down so much in every, every aspect where, like, it's, I don't know, to keep moving, I have to dig so deep and think about, like, who I am in a way. Like, and my purpose and everything. That's what drives me to keep going. So a lot of that kind of surfaces in that time frame there. And it can kind of fuel you to hopefully energize you and kind of motivate you to keep going. And I think of, not to, like, come off of this race, but it's probably a good time that my mom showed up for me one time.

Luke Curley: [2:52:40] It was this same race, but it was a couple years prior. And I was out there by myself.

Luke Curley: [2:52:50] Like, I do these things and it's like, like, I want to do it. I'm out there and I'm going to just do it. But, but man, I was hurting real bad. And this was one that it was like low 80 miles. I was probably 80, 82, 84 miles in. And it was like five o'clock in the morning. I got, got into the aid station and these were six mile loops at the time. But man, I was hurting so bad. I was like, I'm going to take a nap. I ended up sleeping in the chair for an hour and a half. And it was, it was just after six o'clock that I, I wake up like and open my eyes and my mom is standing there. And I'm like, mom, like I was like out of it. I'm like completely messed up. But my mom showed up. She had her sneakers on. Man, dude, talk about serving. Okay.

Luke Curley: [2:53:53] And you know, my mom, like she's not a runner. Like she's not. But she's like, Hey bud.

Luke Curley: [2:54:04] She's like, I couldn't sleep.

Luke Curley: [2:54:12] I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about you. I figured you need somebody. So I'm here for you. And I'm going to, I'm going to go out and do some miles with you. And she had her shoes on. Like she's ready to go. And I'm like, I'm kind of like dead in the chair, man. Like I was like just hurting. And that's like, I think probably the biggest show of support that like the craziest to open my eyes. My mom is standing there willing to just go out there and take on something she hasn't trained for. She hasn't done like, and at that moment, man, that race that I remember that race. It turned crazy on fire. I got this huge fire. I saw my mom finally process some stuff that she's actually here. This is crazy. Nobody invited her out. I didn't call her. I didn't tell her what I was doing. She just showed up. And so, I was like, Mom, I can't believe you're here, but just hang out for a minute. Let me go out and see how I'm feeling. It's six miles. It's hilly. Let me just go do this next lap if you want to hang out. Dude, I cried that entire six miles just thinking about someone that's willing to be there for me like that. You know what I mean? And I ended up, I actually ran that next lap pretty fast. It was like an hour and 15 minutes or something. And I ended up coming back, went back out. I remember I actually got stung by bees on that second loop. It just kept moving. It was fueled and fired. Like, ah, bees don't got me. Like, I remember, like, just, it was crazy. Like, that changed the entire trajectory of that race in that last little bit. Her showing up for me. And then she went up and did the last mile with me to that water tower and got that stone with me and came down. There's a recurring ending here.

Keith Vance: [2:56:28] Just showing up.

Luke Curley: [2:56:59] Just being there, doing it. With your shoes on. Oh, man, dude. It changes someone's race. Like, that changes someone's life. All right. I'm processing some things. Yeah, not to get you off track on that mile 80 there. No, I'm processing some things. But that popped in my head, man. That was good.

Luke Curley: [2:57:25] But, yeah, mile 80 to 90 was, it's kind of like just that emotional roller coaster. Like, you're kind of like spitting and sputtering physically. Like, you're just, you're doing okay, but you're not doing okay. Because now you're kind of getting like this energy of like you're seeing that light at the end of the tunnel. And like, you know, I'm going to actually push a little bit harder. Maybe get done sooner and have a little bit less suffering kind of thing. So there's a bunch of stuff going on there. But you're kind of just starting to push a little bit more because you're getting closer to the end.

Keith Vance: [2:57:57] Bro, that was good. You can't control your suffering, but you can control the duration.

Keith Vance: [2:58:07] I can stretch it out and take a break. Yeah. Or I can just lock in and get it like. Yeah. Everybody's suffering. The only thing you control is the duration of it. Yeah. Or can we even, I don't know, can we even control that? In real life, we can't, can we? In real life, it's, there's a start, there's a finish. We can't even control the duration. We don't know what it is. But in your race, in your race. In the race, you could definitely. You can control, you can control the duration.

Luke Curley: [2:58:41] Yeah. Not going to sit in that log. Everything has a time stamp. Yeah. That's something to think about. Yeah. In the race, everything has a time stamp, man. Everything is, that's going to cost me five minutes. That's going to cost me. If I stop to go to the bathroom, if I stop, change my shoes, change my shirt, food, whatever it is. Other than probably the only thing I don't really consider is like a time stamp on is helping someone else. Like that would be something I've done many times. You know, there was actually a second hunt of that marathon that I do on the trails. Last year when I did it, there was a, like a 10 year old kid that was doing like a relay portion of it. He was lost. Like I kill him running down the trail and this kid is like at the bottom of the trail and he's crying. He's like, I don't know where to go. I don't know where that. And so I like was like, Hey bud, like, let's go start talking. Yeah. And I backtracked on the course, like a half mile, took him back and I'm like, Hey, just follow this right up to the road. And that's where the aid station is up there. And it's, you know, like you don't even think twice about that kind of stuff. You're just like, you know, I saw him later on in the race too. And he's like, Oh man, thanks. Thanks a lot. Like you got me back up there or whatever. But, um, yeah, so rolling in. 80, 90, 90, I'm coming to the aid station. And now this is where, like, in my mind is like, you start to like, hey, this is, you don't want to be overconfident, but it's like, I got this in the, in the bag at this point. Like, now it's just a matter of like, like you said, like duration of suffering, like, how quick can I get this last 10 miles done? And so I sit down. And you mentioned something about my buddy Phil Nesbitt coming. And I'm like, nah, I think he's in the Adirondacks. I don't think he's. And then all of a sudden, Phil comes walking out of the, like up the hill, showing up and like, dude, are you kidding me? Like, that was completely, had no idea. In fact, I thought he wasn't coming because he was supposed to be in the Adirondacks or everybody got home early or whatever, got home in time. And now he's showing up to do the last 10 miles with me.

Keith Vance: [3:01:02] First two paces were planned. Yeah. The last one wasn't planned. We got to know who Phil is. Oh man.

Luke Curley: [3:01:12] Yeah. Phil is, Phil is, uh, that's all that's going to be, that's a long, long story. Just make a little, little snapshot of Phil. Um, I started running 20 years ago when Phil started running. So we both started, we were working at Pontillo's Pizzeria in Churchville. Tim Ciancion was our boss at the time. He's a great friend of ours and running buddy now. Um, he, Tim actually started running, did like a 5k, told me and Phil about it. Cause he knew we were active. We were actually doing a bunch of cycling at the time, like biking. And so me and Phil went out and we all, me, Phil and Tim did like a 5k together. And from there it was like just a spark. And we just kept running 5k, 10ks. We like, I don't even know how many 5k t-shirts I had when I got married at 20, like, you know, just any, threw them all out. But, but, um, but Phil, we, man, we hit it off when I started working at Pontillo's and we rode bikes together, ran together, did little trips together, um, worked out together, like just really good friends. And Phil is again, like definitely like a best friend, like a good, he's on my list. If I had to call somebody, I'm calling Phil. He's there for me. So, and he's been there many times for me, man, like many races and Phil, um, 2011, Phil did his first 50 miler. So started running in 2006. I was 16, 2011, he gets into an ultra marathon and he does a 50 miler. And I, I paced them for 17 miles of that 50. And that's where I saw him going through all these like emotions and highs and lows and like just a bunch of struggling. I'm like, and Phil actually wins races. Like he's actually really talented, good runner, awesome personality, but he's like, I've never seen him in this shape before. And so he does a 50 and that's what sparked me. Like, man, I need to see what, what am I made of? Like, could I do that? Like that for me, that was a stepping stone of like, like, man, I wonder if I could do 50. And so the next year I signed up, I did the 50. It went, went pretty well that. And then that, I mean, took off into my ultra running career. And so the, uh, again, the first two are planned.

Keith Vance: [3:03:56] This one wasn't. Yeah. But what, what a perfect person to finish out with.

Luke Curley: [3:04:02] Phil was the, the perfect, but yet like he was the, the person I wanted to see, but the last person I wanted to see. Yeah. Because he's going to push you because he's going to push me. Yeah. So, so you saw him like, Oh, he's here. And then you're like, Oh, I think I even said it too. Like, Oh man, now I have to run literally was pretty sure I said it. You did. Cause, uh, cause I see him walking up the hill and I'm like, dude, if Phil's here, like the, he's not going to let me just like cop out on this one. Just easy. Like I could have left 90 miles, said bye to you guys and then walked the last 10 miles. I could have did it as slow as I wanted.

Keith Vance: [3:04:43] Here's the other thing you don't know. So we talked about the timing of things. We talked about when it started raining, the timing of it. Yeah. The timing of when Phil showed up. Oh yeah. You were right there. I just sat down. I just sat down. Just came in way over there. Like that. Yeah. So just the timing of everything. It was like perfect. Spot on, yeah. If you were going to plan a race, you wouldn't have planned it any differently.

Luke Curley: [3:05:06] No, no, actually, like it was of God that this one worked out the way it did because... So, you came in, having all the support. You got 10 miles left. Yeah. You sit, you're getting geared up for the last 10. Yeah, I think I threw all their shoes on real quick that had holes in the side. And your boy showed up.

Keith Vance: [3:05:24] Mm-hmm. Right as you happened to be sitting there, and none of this was planned. Yeah. He's like, hey, dude, where are you guys at? I think I'm going to show up. He drives over just like the timing of that. Yeah.

Luke Curley: [3:05:33] And Phil just got done. I didn't even know, but he just got done running 10 miles with his buddies before he came over there. Yeah. Yeah, that was cool. At probably a 630 pace or something. Like, he's crazy. He's nuts. So, like, it just fueled me up. I see him, and I'm like, you know, part of me is like, ah, man, now I need to, I got to actually perform because I'm not going to, I'm not just, you know, what's an out on this one. I'm going for it. Got it. Now, now we're going to see how quick we get it done. Like, which, again, is like, that is a turning point in that race because if Phil didn't show up, I would have finished the race. Right. Like, I had, I had four hours to do that, the rest of that 10 miles. Like, that would be, I could do it. But Phil showing up, now it was like, how quick can we do this thing?

Keith Vance: [3:06:20] Okay, we're going to land on something at the end. I can see it already. Yeah. But before we land on what I want to land on, we've been talking about edifying and encouraging. We've been talking about exhortation. We've been talking about measuring this stuff out. Yeah. Now we're in exhortation because now your boy Phil showed up fresh. You got 10 miles left and you want him there, but then you don't want him there because he's going to hold you accountable. Oh man. But bro, he held you accountable in a loving way. Yeah. He could have, he could have made that last 10 miles, that last, last 10 miles miserable for you with how he handled it. Yeah. But he, hey bro, you sure that's all you got? In a measured way that got a little bit out of you, but in a way that, man, I can do more and I want to do more without crushing you. So there's this thing I want to land on.

Luke Curley: [3:07:19] I think some of that too, thinking of Phil, like we've been through the fire together. We've done enough ultras pacing each other and being with and running with each other and just know each other that again, like you get to know somebody in an ultra, you get to know somebody's real self. Like, because now this isn't Lucas Curley. That's like fresh and feeling great. This is Lucas Curley. Who's sleep deprived and 90 miles into this thing that, you know, just the worst I'm at my worst. Right. When you're seeing me. And like, so me and Phil, we've gone through a lot of that together. And so he knows, he knows how to, how to gently push me. And then inside of me, I know without him even saying anything, I know he wants me to jog up this hill. Like, I just know, like he's behind me, but I can just sense like him telling me like, Hey, let's you got. And then as I'm doing it, he's like, Hey man, nice job pushing up that hill. Like, Oh, you're doing great, man. That was awesome. Like, keep it up. So like, there's, there's probably something to that also where like, when you have an accountability partner, when you have somebody that you've been through the fire with, without even like really saying anything, you guys just know, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is what I needed and keep moving and keep pushing. And like, again, like I see him and I'm like, well, I guess I'm going to work. Like I got 10 more miles, but now we're, now we're pushing it, you know? Yeah. It was a good watch. Yeah. So, I mean, that last 10 was as much of a breeze as you could say, you know, 90 to a hundred miles is a breeze kind of thing. But, but yeah, we were, we were cranking out some 14 minute miles. Like it kind of sounds slow, but it's pretty quick on trails with no sleep, with no sleep. And yeah. 90 plus miles. Yeah. It's a good pace. Yeah. So, um, yeah, I mean, that a hundred miles, he got me through. It was nice. The last two miles of that course was like, you came out of the woods onto like field. And then you would just run, you're running through the field. Again, this kid, it was like heat of the day, a lot of that stuff, but it was nice to just be, there's one point. So 98 miles hit this field. I knew like, oh man, once we get out of the woods, it's just like a jog back to the, to the finish line. Basically, so it was a nice finish. Once we hit that, we're just like chatting it up, talking, and kind of at that point, we're like, like, oh, man, like, I'm gonna like, man, I can't wait to get home and shower and eat. Like, I'm already like thinking they're kind of already done at that point, even though you're still hurting and moving. And, yeah, then we roll across the roll across the finish line, which is also another crazy experience, I guess, because you, you just like you cross when you finally cross the finish line of the hundred. It's like such a weird feeling because you've just been in motion doing something so physically, mentally exhausting, draining, and now all of a sudden, like, you're done. And we still, we went up to the water tower, got the rock and came back down, got the bell buckle, like, and finished the course, all that. But when you finally, like...

Keith Vance: [3:11:05] We need to explain that real quick. So, you do the hundred. Yeah. You do the hundred, you finish. Time stops. But then they had this twist to it.

Luke Curley: [3:11:14] They said the time stopped, but it actually kept going. It did? Yeah. So, I finished 30, 24, 30 hours and 24 minutes. So, it was supposed to stop. Supposed to stop.

Keith Vance: [3:11:23] I mean, technically, I don't know. Yeah. But then they say, hey, your race is over, but in order to get the bell buckle, you got to do another mile. Yeah. Just to mess with you. You go out a half a mile, they got a little treasure box with this little stone. You got to go get it, bring it back, and then you get your buckle. Yeah.

Luke Curley: [3:11:39] So, it was like a little thing at the very end. And it was up the hill to the water tower. So, it's like up another 500-foot climb. Yeah. Like, for just to mess with you. But that's like the structure of their race. And that's, yeah. Yeah. Which, to me, is like a fun thing. Like, maybe to someone else, it's like, oh, I got to go one more mile. But to me, it's like, I just did 100. What's one more mile? Yeah. Which, isn't that a Bible verse? Like, a brother goes with you, one goes with you, 20 or something. What is that? Yeah. Butchered that one. But, yeah. But when you finish the 100, though, you probably, like, if you ask anybody else that's never done a race, they're probably thinking like, oh, man, you probably feel so good. And, like, I don't know what their description of that feeling would be. But it's probably nothing what they think. Because you finally sit down. It takes, like, a good chunk of time. Minutes, if not, like, probably hours to kind of comprehend what you just did. Like, it's a whole different day that we finish. So, I started on Saturday. I'm finishing on Sunday. So, like, you're even messed up with, like, what day is it? Like, and then the fact that, like, oh, I'm done. I don't have to run anymore. Like, this is it. Like, I don't know. It's a crazy realization, I guess. Like, when you finish and then you're just like, oh, that was it. Like, I guess. Like, I don't know. You're so broken and everything. But then you feel like there would be something more rewarding right at the end there. And there's not, in a way. Like, it's.

Keith Vance: [3:13:35] And then people are asking you because you've done five of them. Are you going to do one next year? So, then you got that. Like, bro, they didn't even wait. They didn't even wait very long. It's like, oh, Luke, you did five of them. Are you going to sign for next year? I guess this could be, like, the.

Luke Curley: [3:13:51] It's not about the pursuit of happiness. It's the happiness of the pursuit. It would be something like that. Where, like, I didn't run this race to. There you go. To cross the finish line and get my belt buckle. Right. I ran this race to pull out and unlock this person inside me that was so deep down and suppressed. That's now, like, as I'm going through that, now I'm reprioritizing my life. I'm thinking of all the people I love and forgiving people and having gratitude towards people and love. And, like, all of that. I went through the 100-mile race not for that, but for, like, for the buckle, but for the experience of that 100 miles. Like, the happiness of that pursuit. Not the finish line.

Keith Vance: [3:14:44] But I'm going to say a couple things that I've been holding in, and then we can continue or we can stop. But there was a time in the race, I want to say you were.

Keith Vance: [3:15:01] Yeah, I think it was Sunday. I don't know. I could be wrong. You were deep into the race. It was during the daytime. I can't remember. But you were getting ready to go out for another leg, and a guy was coming back. Oh, yeah. And you're like, hey, dude. You knew each other. Hey, how's it going? Here you are getting ready to go out. I'm observing this. You're getting ready to go out to suffer again. And there's a guy walking back. Hey, dude, how you doing? You said I'm at mile whatever. It was early on. It was like mile 40. I know who you're talking about. And then, how are you doing? And he's like, I'm checking out. I'm done. He was doing a 50K. He's like, I'm checking out. I'm done. And again, measure your words appropriately. I'm coming back. My heart went out to you. That guy should have lied. Yeah. In my mind. Because here you are getting ready to suffer. Oh, I'm checking out. I'm done. And the reason why he was checking out was because if I don't beat my... There's these people. Yeah. There is. Yeah, there is. We talked about there's these people that if I can't beat my time, then I'm just going to like... I'm not going to finish. Yeah. Where with you, you've never won a race, but you finish them. Exactly. And I'm just thinking, man, how can... Like, that would take the wind out of my sails. Here I'm getting ready to go suffer. And you're just going to walk off the course and quit? You're like, you're not even going to... You're just going to... What does this even mean to you? Yeah. So even in running our race, when you choose to quit,

Keith Vance: [3:16:51] that could affect somebody... Could knock someone else out, too. It could knock somebody else out. It could put that thing in their head, say, well, such and such and such who is a better runner, if he quit, it puts something in there. Yeah. So again, I'm just having these thoughts.

Luke Curley: [3:17:10] I've had that multiple times, too. I've seen that in other races, too, where someone is very talented and they go out, they're 40 miles in, and they end up dropping. And I see them at the aid station. I'm like, oh, man, what are you... Like, how are you doing? Oh, I'm dropping out. Like, really? Like, oh, man, like... What's going on? Like, yeah, I'm just not feeling it today. It's too hot out. Like, and I'm like, oh, all right, man. Well, you know, see you at the next one or whatever. Like, kind of just still... But then you go by and you're like, like, dude, that guy, he's 10 miles ahead of me. He could take, like, a two-hour nap or he could just chill, wait for the sun to go down and go back out and still probably win the race, actually. Like, or place in... Like, whatever. Like, he'd 100% finish the race. But it's like, eh, stars in the line. Like, I don't want... Not really... There's some people that are like that. Yeah. They run with a different purpose is what it is.

Keith Vance: [3:18:13] I observed that... And again, I'm translating to real-life race. Yeah. If I quit, how is that going to fix somebody else? Because I'm not running it perfectly. Or it's not... Whatever. Fill in the blank. Fill in the blank. So we're all out there suffering. And your suffering can inspire me as long as we keep moving. So I can feel that. Yeah. Here you got somebody, like, just dropped out, like, so nonchalantly. When you're getting ready to go out, I'm thinking, dude, you should have just kept your mouth shut. Then I'm sitting here in this tent observing, because there's other races going on. I'm observing this older woman, bro. I don't even know what race she was running. I don't know if she's running one of the 50Ks. I don't know if she's running a relay. But she was an older woman. She had this brace on her knee. And every time she came by me, she was hurting. Like, she was physically hurting.

Keith Vance: [3:19:18] But she inspired me, because she had that thing. She was alone. She was alone. You could see the pain on her face that she would come in. Yeah. I would hear her. Ugh. Like, hear her. I'm thinking, man, that woman's got, that woman's doing this for something other than a belt buckle. Like, that lady, whatever that lady's doing is inspiring me. Yeah. Because she should have, she should have had the reason to drop out. If someone's got an excuse. If someone's got, it should have been her. Right. I never did get to talk to that lady, but I'm observing. The, um, and anytime you, anytime as I'm talking, you say, hey, Keith, hold up a minute. Like, um, so you're, you're, Brother and I, we had the tent set up. So you'd come through. We had our tent set up. You would come over to us, and we would take care of you. But then that start-finish line is also an aid station that's kind of up the way. So there's aid stations, and then what would your brother and I be called to? It'd be like my crew.

Luke Curley: [3:20:19] Your crew. Which would be like you guys would have your own aid station, basically, yeah. You guys had your own aid station set up for me. Okay. So having you guys there, I was able to say, now I can pick what food I want and stuff like that and have it at where you guys are set up and then not have to go up to that aid station, get stuff, and then come back to where you guys were. You just had it. Got it.

Keith Vance: [3:20:44] I noticed as people came to the aid station, people in the vicinity, as a runner came up, no matter what people were doing, they would stop, and they would say, good job. Good job. They wouldn't even know what race they were in. Hey, good job. You're doing great. Keep it up. They would offer encouragement. And thank you. There was this. I noticed as people would come into the aid stations, there was people that were volunteering at the aid stations, and they were ministering to these people. Hey, what do you need? A water moment? What can I get you? And then the runners were saying, hey, thank you. Thank you for it. There was this. Thank you for being out here. Thank you for giving me a water. Thank you for this. So there was that going on. So I want to talk about aid stations, because I'm thinking like the aid stations in my life. And I think this is what I couldn't sleep last night. I'm thinking about your race and what I'm observing. Could you have done it if Jake and I weren't there? Could you have done it if those aid stations were there? Could you have done it if you just had a backpack on your back and you were alone? You might have been. But Jake and I being there made a difference. Your boys rolling with you, running with you, made a difference. Huge difference. Those aid stations made a difference. It gave you something to look forward to. It gave you like, okay, this is going to suck, but in two hours I'm going to be here. Yeah. So I just thought about the aid stations in my life. Like my family is my aid station, my home. Like when I come home, like it's, as a Christian, like the main aid station in my life is the church. Mm-hmm. My daughter Ella the other day, yesterday, she's like, Mom, I just can't wait to go to church. She's 16 years old. Mom, I just can't wait to go to church. Yeah. So can we speak to the importance of aid stations in a race? Have you had a good aid station? Have there, like...

Luke Curley: [3:22:51] You guys are like the best aid station I've ever had. Like a personalized, catered-to-me aid station.

Keith Vance: [3:22:59] But the ones that are on the course, the ones that are races, the people that are volunteering like that. Oh, yeah. Is there... Can we speak to those? Yeah. And the importance of a good aid station in a race? Yeah.

Luke Curley: [3:23:13] It's a necessity. A necessity. It's a necessity. It's a necessity and it's like a focal point. Mm-hmm. Every lap, every time you go out is make it to the next aid station. Like that is your focal point is... And then you break it down a little later, like, okay, get to the top of this hill and stuff like that. But your big thing is, like, get to that next aid station. Like that is your... That's your life support for this race. Like for continuing on. So that's... I couldn't do it without the aid station. Like where would I get my water? I need nutrition. Like you're burning 20 plus thousand calories. Like over 20,000 calories in this race. Like it's hard to even eat 20,000 calories in 30 hours. But now you're trying to... So you're not even replenishing all your calories. Like you need fuel. You need water. You need all this stuff. Like... And then other things that help are just... Like maybe I don't need a rain jacket. But man, it helps to have that rain jacket. Like maybe I don't need 30 miles of pacers. But every mile that somebody is with me and just sharing that burden with me helps me out. Like... So... And then having people that crew me, having both of you guys there, someone I can call up to and, hey, I need... Like it is... It's a necessity to have those.

Keith Vance: [3:24:44] When you're suffering and you roll into that aid station and you got a volunteer that gets... Hey, you can just say, hey, do you want some... Can I get some watermelon or whatever? And they're taking care of you. Yeah. That's... That's one thing. That. But what about... They all seem to be trying to be positive and encouraging. You get ready to roll out, and they're like, does that do something for you?

Luke Curley: [3:25:10] It does. It's kind of like just a little spark, probably. Maybe depending on who it is, but it definitely sparks something. And it's maybe not, because it's hard to just all of a sudden, I can't just drink this water bottle, and that gives me recharge. Fuel tops me off, and I'm leaving there like, yeah! That usually doesn't happen. If anything, my mom showing up for me out of the blue, something like that is like, I'm leaving there. I actually somehow had like an hour and 15 minutes of adrenaline, just an adrenaline dump after that, because I ran that lap. So, maybe it's not like this big, like when they're clapping, I'm leaving. Like, it's not this giant motivation thing, but there's something inside you that's like, oh man, people are here. Like, you're still feeling it and knowing it and going out there.

Keith Vance: [3:26:16] I couldn't sleep last night, because where I landed last night, when I was going over and over my mind, was your race and the provisions for you in that race and those aid stations in that race. They could have made a break, made a broken race. And you said that, I'm not looking forward to the log, I'm looking forward to that aid station. Yeah. And, um...

Keith Vance: [3:26:52] When it comes to, because we're Christians, when it comes to the church, I think the church is our main aid station. Yeah. You come in broken, you come in depleted, you come in needing nutrition, you come in needing my shoes changed out, you come in... Yeah. And then you get ministered to, but bro, you can't stay there. Can't stay there, yeah. It's called equipping the saints to, bro, I gotta go out. Yeah. And, um, observing the aid station, observing people coming in, being ministered to by these volunteers. Even those volunteers that work through the night, dude, for no money. There's people that there, they minister through the night for no money. Yeah. And I'm thinking, if people can do that in this race that really, in life, is really not a big deal, but there are things in life that are a big deal, and the church, I think, for a Christian is a big deal. If people on a 100 mile ultra marathon are doing it better than the church, like, I look forward to going to church. Yeah, me too. I get ministered to, I'm edified. Yeah. I can... Our kids are plugged in, it's a great community. Our burdens are... I get... Yeah. I get that push.

Keith Vance: [3:28:28] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if you're not looking forward to the aid station... Yeah. It's a problem, right? If you're not looking forward to the aid station, where does... Where does the runner... They're vital. They're vital. Where does the runner get his... Get it. Yeah. If you're not looking forward to it, it's vital. If I just do...

Luke Curley: [3:28:46] It is. There's no... I haven't done any race that doesn't have an aid station. There might be, like, self-supported aid station or self-supported races, but that just means you need to find your own aid, but you still need aid. Mm-hmm. You can't make it through... I can't just go out and do 100 miles with absolutely nothing. Like, that's... You will... You're gonna die. Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Luke Curley: [3:29:20] Um... Man, I don't know. I mean, there's... No, we'll have to do a part two. So...

Keith Vance: [3:29:29] A few years ago, I did 110 miles. Mm-hmm. Because you... You were doing them, I think, just like Phil. Mm-hmm. Phil did that 50-mile or whatever you like. You got the itch. He was experiencing emotions. And, like, you said in the podcast, I need to experience what this guy's experiencing. Right? So now you were doing them. And, like, between Christmas and New Year's, our family goes away and I'm out. side of my routine. So being outside of my routine, I look at,

Keith Vance: [3:30:07] I evaluate myself. Did I, was I who I was supposed to be? Was I complacent in some areas? Was I lazy in some areas? I just evaluate myself and I want to be what I'm supposed to be. So every year I'd do something that's going to challenge me. Yeah. And so I had that thought like, all right, let's do it. Like what would it be like to do a hundred? The problem with me, dude, I don't like doing team stuff, bro. Like I don't need that belt buckle. Like I don't want to do stuff with other people. I want to do it on my own. I don't know if that's my pride or what. I just want to like, yeah, to sign up and do something with a bunch of people. Like it's probably my pride, but I wanted to experience it. So, okay, I'm going to do this a hundred. So I had my wife, you know, the story had my wife dropped me off in Sarasota. Yeah. I tell. And so I'm going to run the Naples and I was, it was self-supported, right? So I had a backpack on with my phone charger, some stuff, had my phone, my GPS running from Sarasota down 41 to Naples. There was some construction going on. And so it rerouted me down this long, this long way. So now I'm behind on water. Oh yeah. And when you talk about running in full sun here, I'm in Florida and running down a sidewalk with a road, like it was all full sun. Yeah. So I was getting behind. Yeah. And I didn't even realize I was getting behind. Depleted him. I was behind, didn't even realize it. So I, uh, like you said, the first 20 miles is easy. I've run 20 miles for it. It's easy. And like, and I love this cause you're not a runner neither am I. Like I hate running. Yeah. The first 20 was easy. 40, not too bad. 50 was when I started breaking down, but I, um, got to the hotel and I stayed at the hotel all night. And when you said, Hey, don't sleep all night cause you're by, I didn't know that if you rest too long, your body thinks you're done. Body's like, Hey, we're done. We're done. We just did 50. We're good. So I got in, I ate some dinner. I sat in the shower with Epsom salt cause I was all rashed up. Yeah. That was a new experience for me. It just hurt so bad. Eight. And then I, I got up like three in the morning to get back out and I ran for maybe an hour or two and I couldn't even like bend my legs. So that was new for me. So long story short, I had the backpack on and I, um, didn't think I was going to be able to finish it. Actually I was locked up. I told my wife, I was like, Hey, I, I'm, I can't do this anymore. I said, I'm at 60 miles. I was feeling good with it. Well, you did 60. Yeah. Nobody cares. You know, just. Yeah. Nobody's going to say anything about it. Nobody's going to say anything about it. Nobody's going to say nothing about it. So I couldn't even bend my legs. Like it was like I was locked up and she was like, she was like, why don't you just go to a waffle house or something? I said, I said, you don't understand. I can't like bend my legs. I said, come pick me up. Picks me up. I go home. You know the story. Like I like things started loosening up. Yeah. I was okay. Well, I think I can do this. So now, now that I know I can do it, now I got a decision to make. You're going to finish it or is he going to be done?

Luke Curley: [3:33:36] So I, in the comforts of your house at that point too. Right.

Keith Vance: [3:33:39] So like, but people are texting me, people are texting me and call me. How's the race going? And I don't want to tell him I'm home. I did 60 miles. I don't want to tell him. Yeah. Now I can bend. Now I, now I can do it. And people are asking. So I, she drops me off and I said, Hey, do me a favor. I got to get rid of this backpack because it was rubbing blisters in my shoulder. It was just, just not having that backpack on. You ever boxed holding five pound weights, like practice. Oh yeah. And then you, then like your hands move faster. It was like that. It's like, wow. I'm so I asked my wife and this was during the week, like people are working. She was working. I said, Hey, I can, I'm going to finish. But I said, if you just drive out five miles, I'll just run to you five miles. Yeah. So that's what I did. The last 40 miles ran to her five miles at a time. And, um,

Keith Vance: [3:34:41] I got to Fort Myers, Benita Springs, my sister. Um, people in my community, I started getting, I started getting where I live and people in my community start seeing me because on Facebook, Oh, I saw them. People are honking their horns. So now I'm feeling it. Um, um, My daughter, Brooke, had gotten off work and drove by and circled around. She calls her mom, hey, why is my dad running out of the side of the road? So it's like, I'm seeing the end in sight. Feeling good. And I see my sister with her son. She did like a mile with me. And I'm getting to Naples. I'm getting to Naples, but it's getting dark, but there's streetlights up. There's streetlights up? Yeah. And I felt strong. I felt strong because all these people on a freaking Friday night, ain't nobody doing what I'm doing, brother. All these people are going to dinner. All these people are like soft. I'm getting after it. I'm getting after it. And I felt like, man, I'm...

Keith Vance: [3:35:48] And so I think I got like 20 miles left. And I see this guy running up to me with his big beard. So when you talk about your buddy Phil... Bro, this is better for me because you had flown from New York to Florida... Yeah. ...to fix an elevator that nobody could fix. Your boss said, hey, just go fix this. Yeah. You fixed it. Happened to be this. The day that I just happened to be in Naples, that area. I didn't even know you were here. Yeah. And to see you running up when I'm having all my... Yeah, I texted Karen. Like, where's he at? I'm having all my feelings. Yeah. But I didn't know about nutrition and all this kind of stuff. So he's like, hey, you've eaten yet? And you made me stuff down a hamburger. And that's the worst feeling. Like, when you're trying...

Luke Curley: [3:36:39] Eat something that... You want to... No appetite.

Keith Vance: [3:36:41] Everything inside you wants to get rid of it. We used to get it down. Mm-hmm. And after I got it down, I got some energy. Mm-hmm. And that last 20 miles I did with you, just having you there, like, I felt like... I felt like, okay, here's somebody that's done it. Mm-hmm. I felt like I wasn't carrying all the burden anymore. And you were kind of pushing me and encouraging me. And I had streetlights. So I would just walk to one, run to one, walk to one, run to one. And then when the end got in sight, I think the last couple miles, like, dude, I think I got this. Picked it up, yeah. I think we got this and ran that last two miles.

Keith Vance: [3:37:25] I went through all the motions you did. Like, all those times I wanted to quit. Mm-hmm. Why am I doing this? Nobody cares. Everybody's working. Everybody's working. And nobody's going to know if I quit or not. Nobody's going to say anything if you did, anyways. But I was just thankful, one, that I was able to do it. Like, I was thankful for the suffering. I was thankful that, man, I'm able to do this. Like, people are going through life, working, doing stuff. Here I am suffering on a Friday, like on a Thursday or Friday during the day. And, like, I'm able to do this. Like, people don't get this experience. So I was thankful for the experience. I was also listening to God's Word while I was running.

Keith Vance: [3:38:06] And listening to the Gospels, Christ. Yeah. For the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, this endurance. Yeah. A bunch of things were connected in my life. Like, okay, like I'm suffering, but Christ suffered like no man. Right. Like, we think this is suffering. Christ suffered. He suffered alone. He suffered alone that nobody can identify. Like, you and I know what it feels like. He suffered alone. And to just... So the timing of everything, when you're going through these emotions, the timing of everything, and then towards the end, to be able to finish it out with a guy that inspired me to do it, I didn't tell him. It was like, I had my own little story. Yeah. Yeah. It was encouraging.

Luke Curley: [3:38:50] So that's... I don't know. We did your first marathon together. Yeah. Organized that and went out and did a backyard marathon. Yeah. That's why... That's the way I roll. I do backyard stuff. That's what... Yeah. That's why I appreciate your friendship. Yeah. Over the years, man. It's been good. You want to rep this thing up? Yeah. It's pretty good.

Keith Vance: [3:39:08] You think you're good? Yeah. Nothing else you want has got inside you?

Luke Curley: [3:39:13] I don't know, man. Yeah. I could talk forever on running and stuff, but I'm good. I'm good. I think we hit it for you.

Keith Vance: [3:39:22] I'll say this one last thing. We'll wrap up. The... It's not about the belt buckle for you. It's not about winning for you. It's about being a better... You said it. Being a better dad. Being a better father. Yeah. Being that. And being around you that weekend, I observed that. Okay? Whatever it is you're doing, I observed it. We... We... You came home from work. This was a new experience for me. You came home from work. Your wife and all your kids came out. Your wife and all your kids... came out. Yeah. Hey, Dad, how was work? Every day. And I observed, I observed before the race your reason. I observed it. Yeah. You come home from work, Daddy's home. All your kids come out. Hey, how was your day? How was this? Your son fist bumps you. How was work today? It was good, son. Bro, that was a new experience for me. I'm thinking, I love those moments, man.

Luke Curley: [3:40:34] They were real. I appreciate those moments so much. They were real. I'm going to miss them when they're gone. Yeah. Yeah. I don't take those moments lightly, man. They come out pretty much every day I get home from work, even in the snow. They'll run out there. They see me at the window, whatever. Man, it's so awesome.

Keith Vance: [3:40:56] I observed the fruit of your labor before I saw the suffering. Okay? I see it. I see what you're saying, yeah. I went to do the elevator thing with you before the race. Yeah. We come home. Your family comes out, and I observed the fruit of your suffering before the race. Now I know what you do, and it was refreshing to see it. You follow me? It was good. I appreciate it. Yeah. It was good. So we'll close on that. Yeah. Been good, brother? You good, man? I'm good, man. Thanks for having me. Still Strong.

Intro voiceover: [3:41:34] I found joy in the simple days. In honest work and faith. Still Strong. No rush, no rain. No rush, no rain.