Chasing 400 (2022) Movie Script
John
From a young age, I've always
just had an undeniable, I guess,
unexplainable urge to test my limits,
to seek the best version of myself.
For me that has very organically
come in the form of ultra running.
So I guess the grand slam for me
was simply the next logical step in
that process of testing my limits.
So I am running for 100
mile races in 14 weeks.
First one will be old dominion, 100
June 5th, Western states, June 26.
Leadville 100 August 21st.
And then the last one, the
Wasatch front 100 September 10th.
Just find out so much about yourself in
the course of covering a hundred miles
on foot with every ounce of my being.
I know that I won't
stop until I reach that.
Finish that 400 mile
My name is Justin Kynar.
I'm from Casper, Wyoming,
and I am 34 years old.
So I've been running since high school.
And then in college went, went to college
and skied for the club, Nordic ski team
at the university of Wyoming, and then
really got into the ultra scene, um, trail
running kind of found it late in college.
And then, um, did my first ultra in 2012,
my brother John was definitely the one
who, um, I blame the most for getting me
into ultra big mentor mind, big idol of
mine that, um, started this whole process.
The ultimate goal from a personal
level is to just get it done.
You know, whatever, whatever that entails.
I mean, I don't concern myself with
how fast I'm going to run it, or like
racing people in a race too early.
I mean, it's a hundred miles a lot
can happen over the course of a
day or however long it takes you.
As long as everything goes,
goes well, physically.
And you know, I don't injure myself.
I'm going to finish the grand slam.
Being the first race I've
done on the east coast.
Um, there's always a lot more
unknowns being, being somewhere where
you've never been doing something
in an area you've never been to.
There's so much unknown with how my
body's going to react physically,
mentally to putting these four
together in a summer nutrition.
And it, it changes a lot based on
the time of day, how hot it is.
I'm going to be sticking.
As long as I can just
liquid calories tomorrow.
So in the form of tailwind, grabbing
stuff at the aid stations, that that looks
good, maybe it'll be something salty.
Maybe it'll be something sweet.
You, you look at like the six
months that you've put into it.
Like then you're talking about
doing a hundred mile race in a day.
I mean like six months versus a day.
I mean, like where's the, you know,
that's, that's the experience for me?
Not that, I mean, obviously the
race is why you're doing that
training, but my why isn't racing.
My, why is.
Putting all this stuff together, you know,
like your drop bags, you know, like this
is, this is this, this is the snapshot.
Like I've tested all of
this stuff in my training.
I wouldn't be using any of this stuff.
If it wasn't in my race, I truly do
believe that I could be finishing around
20 hours if everything's going great.
Um, which that's the hope, but, um,
yeah, I'm not giving myself the option of
finishing beyond 24 hours for this one.
So that's just something.
Got in my mind and I'm not
going to let it happen.
The racers, the crews, the volunteers,
the race directors, the ultra
running community is, is the same.
You know, it doesn't matter where
you're running in this country.
Everybody wants everybody to
have to find that success.
Um, we'll do anything they can
to get you to that finish line.
Maybe we have a beautiful day and maybe
we all gather back here again, later on
with great stories and your holy name.
We.
Amen.
So in the, in the course description,
they mentioned that there'd be pavement.
They missioned there'd be gravel.
They actually mission.
Twice in their course description, the
gravel roads were like packed gravel.
I mean, it might as well.
Yeah.
That'd be kind of want to switch my shoes.
It is just a lot of pavement.
It was definitely more than I was then
I was expecting the course description.
Um, like I said, informs you about it.
It doesn't tell you that there's like
80% of the course is what that is though.
I got myself into kind of, not a
negative head space early on in the
race, but I did allow myself to get.
It's space where it's like,
I don't care about 24 hours.
I just want to get the finish,
you know, get it under 28 so I
can keep the grand slam alive.
The struggle bus.
That mindset kind of stayed
honestly from like mile 30.
When I switched out of my trail
shoes into the road shoes, really
until, probably about mile 86.
I was just, I was just kinda like
just moving along forward progress.
Like I said, I'd never had a
mindset that I wasn't gonna to.
But I'm kind of was turned off
to the idea of being competitive.
But I think the biggest thing
with the unknowns at an event
like this is just being adaptable.
I mean, being able to not let little
things ruin your day, just to be able to,
you know, embrace the experience of what.
Therefore, you can either let those
changes those hardships defeat you,
or you can just keep moving forward.
Oh, it was on my crew for old
dominion has, uh, my mom and my
dad, the stalwarts of my crew.
Um, obviously it goes without saying
it wouldn't be here without them, but,
uh, having that experience crew that.
Is what I value the most.
That is literally what gets me through
those moments is having that crew there.
Just knowing that they're there at the
start finish, they're waiting for you.
The mental aspect of things is, is huge.
I mean, you hear all the sayings about
like it's 70% mental and 30% physical.
And I have, I have
absolutely experienced that.
Um, you reach a point where your body
is physically exhausted, but your
mind just keeps you moving forward.
Having cramps on my, in my like
abductors I'm, which I never had before.
So I don't know what that's all
about, but I am so ready for
that freaking sun to go down.
Seeing justice set as goals and, and, you
know, support him in all of his training.
And you know, all the trips, you always
want your children to set high goals,
set high expectations, and you do
everything you can to help them reach it.
They get to that point where
they're like 60 miles in and you
see the energy level that he has.
Then you get this level of comfort,
knowing that he's going to have.
Make that time cutoff so that
he can continue the grand slam.
I thought he seems pretty good.
Yeah.
You know, we won, you know, you get,
you know, there's coming to the one.
That'd be nice.
Cause he had originally said, give me
a headlamp here, any, when she said
you got two hours to get 10 miles and
he goes, don't get me the headlamp
that'll motivate me to get better.
Yeah.
Okay.
Good.
Initially just thinking about it.
I, it just seemed like a lot, but
I, I just knew that because of how
strong he is, that he could do it.
I could see the toll that,
that took on his body.
Just the pounding of, of pavement,
which he was not ready for.
Did not have any idea.
It was going to be like that.
I don't think I can really call it
doubts, but it was, it was hard.
To see, you know, to see
him go through some of that.
We see any snakes out there.
It wasn't until like 14 miles out.
So like 86 miles, there
was an aid station.
Or I looked at my watch and I
was a little over three hours.
So it was like little over
three hours and 14 miles left.
I'm like, all right, I'll have to push.
At that point, I knew that the rest of
the race was going to be on pavement.
So I was like, well, if you want to
go get that Sterling silver buckle.
To get under 24.
This is the, this is the time to do it.
Yeah.
Hey buddy.
All right, buddy, pick it up a little bit.
All right.
No, no, no, no.
As you get into town, as he got
into Woodstock, they had the last
aid station, which was a little
under two miles from the finish.
Then you're just running through the town
of Woodstock, you know, it's middle of
the night, nobody nobody's out there.
And so the only thing they say is to
go to the next, the next intersection
where you see the flashing sign, turn,
whichever direction that arrow is.
Are there
that made sense?
I was doing that.
It was all good.
And then as I got to the fairgrounds
where we started, which was also the
finish, um, they had one of those
flashing signs, have one of those
flashing lights, um, pointing me into
the fairgrounds and for whatever reason,
I mean, they didn't have the entrance to
the fairgrounds, um, lit up or anything.
So I kind of, was I, not
that I was thrown off by it.
I think it was just kind of the
fatigue of being on my feet for
almost 24 hours at that point.
Um, for whatever reason, I just
kind of ran right by the entrance
to the, to the fairgrounds.
And then.
Kind of the silver lining
blessing in disguise was that
they had a carnival going.
And I remember looking at looking at
my ride, I, as I'm running by them,
like I just passed a Ferris wheel
and watching him jog by the entrance,
into the end of the fairgrounds.
So I'll be like, oh my gosh.
And knowing that he was, you know,
he's going to be within a minute.
Making it
Old dominion was June 5th and.
Tomorrow's June 26.
So 21 days between all dominion and
Western states spa valley Dobber.
Recovery was pretty typical.
At least for me is as far as a
hundred miles ago, about a week out,
I was still kind of feeling like
a tingling sensation in my toes.
And I'm sure that's probably
due to the amount of pain.
Fact gravel I was on excitement
would be a vast understatement.
Um, I mean, this is, like I said,
this was the race that promised myself
that if I, if I got into Western,
that would be the year that I would
go for the grand slam and happened in
my fifth year of putting in for it.
So Adam will, will pace me from forest
hill, uh, mile 62 to Rocky Chucky.
My brother, John will be with me from 70.
Rocky Chucky too pointed rocks mile 94.
Naggy will take me from well 94
to, um, Robey point 98.9 from 98.9.
The plan is for all three of them to,
to hop in from Robey point to the finish
to be sitting here before the race I've
been planning for for the last five years.
Pretty surreal.
Pretty good.
I think the big thing tomorrow
is just going to be like at old
dominion is just heat management,
figuring out how to keep myself cool
enough to, to keep moving forward.
I don't sign up for these always
knowing that I'm going to finish.
If you did that, I think that would take
away a lot of the entry to doing it.
If you just knew, like, okay, I'm going
to finish this to start somewhere and
know where the finish line is, but not
know what's going to happen between a.
I mean, there's so many
things that can happen.
So many things that can go, right?
So many things that can go wrong.
Feel like that's something that I've
always been pretty, pretty good at
is being able to race my own race,
not getting caught up with all the
noise that goes around the bracelet.
Western states.
I'm John Kenner and I'm
Justin's oldest brother.
So, I mean, I mean, he's an older
brother, but I'm his oldest sibling.
Justin talks about that.
That I'm the person that got
him into all this in some ways.
That's true.
Um, I was the first to kind of do this
hundred mile thing, so he paced me up
my first Leadville first and second.
And then, then I pay some at his first big
horn, which was just the year after that.
So 14, 15, and then 16
was his first big horn.
We've done a lot of races together.
So we essentially like kind of
ran paste, um, like big horn.
We've done that a couple of times
now a lot of people get super
emotional finishing races like this.
For me, it was more emotional
getting him across those, his first
finish the opportunity to be able
to do something like this, um,
together to be able to run with.
To be able to support him in these
runs as much as, as often as I've
been able to knowing that, like
that is a returning the favor as
well, because he's done that for me.
Um, you know, we do that for
family and friends so often, but
in ultra running, it's such a.
You are literally there for me.
Well, we're on our way up
to the aid station here.
And.
Got about an hour and a half hour
and a half mile and a half hike.
We should be expecting Justin sometime.
Let's see.
It's almost eight o'clock.
We should be expecting
him probably 10 to 11.
So somewhere in the range of
two to three hours from now
so it be Western mountains
versus Eastern mountains.
Definitely more of the
trails and mountains that.
More accustomed to more comfortable
running in there will be a lot
more actual trail for this one.
So running on single track, um, I think
there's maybe a grand total of like
four miles of pavement for Western.
It's a little over 18,000 feet of gain
and little over 22,000 feet of descent.
So like my legs are, are
ready, prepared for that.
That quad beating.
Definitely.
Started to feel it warming up quite a bit.
So I actually had a, uh, I don't want to
go as far as saying it was a scare, but
it was something that I was moderately
concerned with up until Robinson flat.
So it was like 30 miles in.
I'd been doing tailwind, just like I've
been doing all summer with the heat.
I was concerned that I was going to
be sweating more than I, I typically.
So I was kind of throwing some
extra electrolytes on top of it.
I would have this urge of needing to go
to the bathroom, but like, couldn't okay.
Is this like kidneys shut down?
Like, I'm like this,
this might not be good.
You know, they asked how's it going?
I'm like, yeah, everything's good.
And, but like in the back of my
head, I had that going and I'm
like, oh my goodness, ultra running,
you know, a hundred mile races.
It's kind of a microcosm of life.
I had to adapt and change, um,
with the way things are going.
And, um, maybe it's because I've got too
much electrolytes, so I just completely
stopped taking the extra electrolyte
tabs and everything went back to.
I remember when I first told my mom now
her eyes got real big and I'm like, yep.
And that's why I didn't
tell you during the race.
Cause you were already concerned as it was
The brewing is, um, it it's a challenge.
And the biggest thing to me is I want
to be sure to have everything right
for him, because I know he likes.
Get into aid stations and
get out as quick as he can.
And so having everything laid out
the way he wants it, I play a lot of
that through my mind ahead of time.
I'll read his instructions, you
know, over and over, just to make
sure that we're getting things.
Some of the times everybody's asking
him something at the same time.
And I can tell that that he's
like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
That's everybody's
talking at the same time.
I love it.
You know, I, I love to be able to,
to help him and do, do whatever
I can to help him be successful.
This grand endeavor.
Yeah, no, he's cruising.
Yeah.
Coming back from a dusty corner,
dropping down to the canyon
and I was like on that file.
Big reason for it.
Obviously, I've done a lot of hundred
mile races with Adam, with my brother.
Maggie's, Maggie's always
been there, um, with Adam.
And so to just have, have such close
friends and, um, more family present at
this one really brings it a lot closer
to, closer to home and kind of one of
the bigger reasons why I love doing
what I do and, um, love doing this.
I love challenging myself in these ways.
People who want to share in
that experience with you?
Um, so having the more, the merrier
is always how I feel about it and
just the fact that they're, they're
willing to give up their time,
hurry up and wait at aid stations.
Um, it's not lost on me and
it's something that I just
appreciate them all immensely for.
And I know that there's a lot
more people that want to be here.
Super excited to have, have
more people along for the, for
the experience for the journey.
And.
I want them to get as much out
of it as they, as they can.
Adam did an awesome job pacing me
from, from forest hill to Rocky Chucky.
We've done a lot of races together.
We've had a lot of experiences on the
trails together, but that was like
the first time that either of those.
Paste each other.
And it was still hot.
Like the comments he was
making, like, it's like, holy
cow, it's still really hot.
And I'm like, I'm glad, I'm glad.
It's not just me.
I'm glad that you can, because I
mean, he's done some hot hundreds
as well, and he made a comment like
this is the hottest I've ever been.
Uh, John, I would plan on drinking
more than you think it's telling
us I've got a couple good.
I had one time I was fresh.
I went through later.
So I mean, yeah, I never really
felt like I cool down really until.
No, like crossing Rocky, Chucky.
And then even after, I mean,
you're, you're cooling down
because you're in the river.
But, um, at that point it was just,
even once you, once we got across
the river, like we dried off quick
and it was still warm, it was hot.
But I mean, like you just remind
yourself, like it's not, it's not just
hot for you, everybody who's out here
is dealing with this, um, reminding
yourself to not put yourself on an island.
You know, everybody's suffering.
It's not, it's not just you
we're, we're out there
roughly like five miles left.
It's not looking like he's going
to make that under 24 hour cutoff,
but he's definitely, uh, you
know, gonna make that cutoff to.
Yeah, keep working on this,
the grand slam, which that's,
that's his ultimate goal.
It's been a pretty brutal
day in terms of the heat.
And you know, of course she's,
he's running with his brother
right now, so that's, you know,
a little extra boost there.
Yeah.
One of the big things that always
keeps me moving forward in those
kinds of darker moments is the amount
of time, the amount of energy that
I've put into, into doing this.
Just being mentally prepared, physically
prepared in the back of my mind always
is just the people, um, family, friends,
um, that have helped me along the way.
Um, on the top of the track or Wyoming
ruins room, number three, that he wears
for all the people of his awesome.
Leadville was known for the
gold rush and the silver rush.
When the mines weren't producing
gold and silver anymore,
Leadville was headed towards.
Just becoming a ghost town.
And that was when they, uh, had this
idea of starting this race series,
you know, back in 1982, I think was
the first year that they did it.
This race series has done a lot for
this town, for the community Leadville.
It was the Leadville 100 that, you
know, like I saw my brother, who's
always been that mentor figure for me,
like saw him really struggling here.
And I'm like, holy crap.
This is like one of the
strongest dudes that I know.
He is at his limit.
That was where it really
kinda struck a tone for me.
It was like, I want to do this.
Like, I want to do Leadville
sometime, but like, I wanna, I
want to try to run a hundred miles.
I want to do it going
for my ninth hundred now.
So there's my crew dog.
Hey, sweetie.
Yeah, the crew dog.
Yep.
There's the addition
to the crew this week?
The buildup this summer has
been, um, not exactly what I
expected, but in a good way.
I mean like the time in between Western
and Leadville has set as has left a
lot of time for reflection and left a
lot of times for recovery for my body,
kind of both mentally and physically.
I'm at a point now where I feel,
I, I I'm feeling really good.
Um, physically, mentally, each, each
race, like the buildup, you know, like
first race, it was just mom and dad.
And you secondary.
So it was Maggie, Adam, my brother, my
parents, and then different friends.
Uh, Nathan and then
Katie, uh, John's girl.
Now it's my whole freaking family.
It's so hard to put into words how
cool it is being back in Leadville,
you know, like tone this line for
myself, where it all kind of started.
For John and I to both be doing this
at the same time, um, same day, um,
really just adds to the excitement
I was very giddy when I was packing
drop bags for Leadville, just like I, I
had packed some cool gear, cold weather
gear for old dominion in Western, just
kind of in optimistic, trying to wish
some, some good things upon me and upon
the other racers that we were going to
have some cool weather, but obviously
it didn't happen at old dominion,
Northwestern, but I'm at a good feeling
that it was going to happen at Leadville.
And like I said, it was just giddy
to, to have some cold weather gear.
And now.
Actually use it because I think more
people tend to perform better and in
cooler weather, and there was definitely
was a lot colder than I was expecting it
to be in that, uh, outward bound area.
Just kind of right there in
the middle of everything.
I think that cool air I'll just dipped
into that valley and made it a little
colder than I was expecting, but it
felt refreshing, felt rejuvenating.
Definitely didn't feel that.
Aches and pains that I, that I sometimes
feel when it's, when it's hotter out.
So yeah, it was very well from weather.
There's multiple things that
are challenging with Leadville.
Um, obviously the fact that you're at
10,000 feet, so you're at elevation
for the entire time, aside from
hope pass and some stuff over sugar
loaf pass, it's not super technical.
So it's a very runnable course.
And I think that's what can kind of get
people into, into trouble with it is,
um, they go out to go out a little bit
too fast, realized the oxygen debt isn't
going away because you're still at that,
that elevation for the entire race.
As you're fatiguing, your
muscles are fatiguing.
You've still got that lack of oxygen.
The elevation gain that you get over
in Leadville is around 15, 1500.
It's an out and back to
pretty significant climb.
So up and over a Sugarloaf pass,
then the other big climb that people
always talk about is, you know,
going up and over hope pass 12,600
feet right near the turn-around
fortunate to go up and over that once.
And then you get to come back.
A very iconic stage of the
race, breathtaking views.
I mean, both physically
and psychologically.
Cause I mean you're are 12,600 feet.
Views for days.
I mean, in all directions, there's
some pretty fun aid stations on it.
The aid station they have right below
the summit of hope passes really cool.
I mean, it's hauled in by alpacas and
llamas and it just gives you an idea
of kind of the, the technicality of
the terrain takes the super dedicated
group of volunteers to go there.
That's an area where I know that a lot of
people that's their biggest struggle with.
So to just see everybody at those limits,
still going with all the reason in the
world to not be going just that sheer
power of will that each person have you
see people in that pain cave in that?
Well, either defeating those
limits or so coming into
he called me up and over and over.
If I was in a bad way, I was looking
forward to seeing John coming back I'm
on his way back towards twin lakes.
And that was kinda my motivation
at that moment was just, I was
going to see my brother soon.
It wasn't.
It was just nice to be
with somebody again.
And, uh, obviously be with my brother,
um, kind of in that situation of both
of us being in the same race, but
still, you know, hiking up hope pass.
I mean, it was like kind of just deja
VU all over again, back to 2014 and 15.
When I was hiking up at with him,
I'd run Leadville before twice.
Um, Justin had paced me
the, the two times I ran.
He never run it, but.
Um, so he knew a ton of the course
it's he paced a bunch of it,
plan wasn't to run it together.
And then we've kind of caught
up with each other at 50 miles
and ran, essentially paced each
other for 50 miles of that race.
So
yeah, racing together is different
than pacing together, but in some ways,
in some ways it's not, you know, when
we have a relationship, like we have.
I guess some families might get
real competitive in that situation,
but for us it wasn't, it was just
like, I was happy to see him.
I was in a low place when he, when he
found me, we, we lifted each other.
Doing that one together was
big because it led to, it holds
a special place in my heart.
Right here.
And when you sit down here and there
This is silly.
This is silly.
There's peaks.
There's valleys.
There's long Dole sections where
you're just like, thinking about what
in the world am I doing out here?
Like, holy crap, it's been 18 hours
and we're still still doing this.
I mean, just, this is hard.
This is really freaking hard.
It's hard because.
Because I put myself in that
situation and I prepared myself for
that situation and, and that's, and
that's, and that's why you do it.
You don't do it thinking it's gonna be,
you know, like in those moments when
I'm low, like, you know, you're fine.
It's not, it's not getting worse.
It was good.
Yeah.
We had a good time.
It was fun.
Lots of laughs.
Yeah.
We kept playing.
We did, we stayed pretty true
to the like walk the Hills,
run the flats, run the downs.
So they stayed.
They were.
Turmeric bills.
I just go back to, again, I like the
support system that I have and the
faith in, in myself and my ability and
like the fact that I've, I've put in
a strong body of work to get me here.
I know I don't have like what a lot of
people would consider like an elite speed.
But what I do have is I have
an elite support system.
That has gotten me to this point.
I feel like I've kind of
just got an elite grit.
Just keep moving forward.
It would be so much easier to just stop
full bottles while I go over there.
Okay.
Just empty that.
Coming back from may queen.
I mean, so we had just, just under 13
miles to go and I'm looking at my watch.
Nathan's looking at his watch and I'm
like, well, we're gonna need to be
average in a little bit better than four
miles an hour to get back under that 25
hours, which we hadn't done in a while.
There was a little bit
more of a sense of urgency.
I think on my end, then there was John.
I think John was just in
a place mentally there.
I think he was there,
but not like all there.
And w w w we're all, there's always a
point in these races where somebody it's,
that was just his time at may queen.
I don't think that he really understood,
like, okay, we're, we're kind of
under the, we're under the gun here.
If we want to do this some
25, get the big belt buckle.
You could tell Nathan wanted to go.
And I was like, no, for
finishing this together.
It doesn't matter if it's 25 hours
in one minute, we had, we had kind
of already made that decision, not
really talking about it, that we
were going to finish together just
around three hours at the finish line.
It's like, okay, well, it's
becoming a lot more real.
If we want to do this, we're going
to need to kick it into gear.
That moment of like starting that race
together and then continuing and being
able to cross that finish line to.
Um, with a really, really
emotional moment, couldn't imagine
a more fulfilling experience.
It's not at all how we both
kind of plan for the day to go.
Can't imagine a better scenario for how,
how, the way things ended up building
Uh, it's pretty indescribable.
The way that it happened was just, I
mean, like when it was like, literally
the stuff like storybooks or meter
Cautiously optimistic
with how I'm feeling.
For sure.
I definitely don't feel as tapped out
as I did after old dominion or Western.
I don't know what that is.
I don't know if that's just kind of
accumulation of buildup from the summer.
Um, the body responding to the stimulus,
the stress definitely feel rested, feel
recovered so excited about the prospect
of that and the prospect of this being
the last one, the last of the four, I
mean, I've always taken an approach.
You know, taking it one at a time,
trying not to fall in that trap
of thinking about what's ahead.
I mean, everything's in the rear view
mirror and there's nothing really in the
too near future of what's next to come.
So I'm excited to see what maybe
that might trigger in me tomorrow.
I don't know what's going to happen.
The familiarity is definitely good,
you know, doing it in 2019, but
sometimes that can be not so good.
Cause you do know what's coming.
Thinking about a hundred mile
race from the start is like,
that's seems pretty monumental.
Just kind of tackling each section as
its own entity in the progression of
getting yourself to the finish line
is kind of how I've always attacked.
It.
let's start right here in Kanesville east
mountain, wilderness park, 4,000 foot
climb in the first four and a half miles.
So it's right in your face.
It's right there.
It's um, it's there for everybody.
24,000 feet of gain.
And then a little bit under that
for descent, definitely the most
of the four for the grand slam,
the most of a race that I've done.
It is a very pretty course.
I mean, it is very accurately depicted
as a hundred miles of heaven and hell.
If I had to describe the hell
section, it would probably be
between 32 miles and 46, 47 miles.
There's just.
No reprieve from the sun,
no reprieve from the heat.
There's really no cover jets.
Just really hot.
I mean, I remember that section being
really hot in 2019, it looks like
it's going to be even possibly a
little bit hotter tomorrow can pretty
confidently say it's probably not going
to be as hot as it was at Western.
Uh, the whole family is going to be
here again minus the nephews and niece
y'all have four different Pacers.
So brother-in-law, Chris will be pacing
me, um, then fell big guy that planted
the seed and, you know, the, the grants.
Paste I'm here in 2017 and his
last leg of the grand slam.
So being able to get to run section, of
course, with him, that'll be super fun.
And then John will paste me from Brighton
and then my sister, Jen's going to pace
me planning to face me from top of the
wall, with beyond words, beyond blasts,
to have the tribe, have the people that
I have with me along for the journey.
It just makes it that much more
fulfilling the mat much more,
you know, like motivation.
There was a point where he,
you know, like you could just,
I mean, I, and I think about.
I can just be done, you
know, like I'm fine.
But you realize like, yes, it
hurts, but it's not getting worse.
Can you bear this pain?
Can you bear this feeling for X amount of
hours and get yourself to your end goal?
The overwhelming answer for me
has been, yes, I can because it's,
it's, it's something that I crave.
I, I searched for those moments.
I crave those moments where I can, where
I can truly challenged myself and feel.
You know, like the most alive in
those moments, challenging myself
and are surrounded by like-minded
people in beautiful surroundings.
Like there's nothing better.
There's nothing better.
You know, there weren't a ton of lows.
I didn't have.
Like I had at Leadville, you know,
thinking about what's what's coming, I
guess maybe that's cause I there's nothing
really in the foreseeable future here.
Um, so just being able
to stay present with.
It was a lot easier at this one.
Cause uh, there isn't anything
planned for the foreseeable future,
all I'm feeling.
Okay.
Definitely feeling that
So, yeah, I really know Lowe's, I
mean, just like the usual kind of
like, Lord, this is hard and it's
still X amount of miles we'll finish.
And just like, but Nope, stay present
and failed at an awesome job with that.
Like just keeping me present.
And he's like, think about
it as 355 miles of 400.
I'm like, I like that Phil.
That was really helpful.
So then as the race kind of progressed, it
was like, all right, 360 of four hundred,
three hundred and seventy five before.
There were sections that definitely
the miles just seems to tick off a
little quicker because they were, um,
and then just sections that just drug
on because it's the terrain and just
the brutal, the brutalness of it, you
know, I'd try really hard to know.
Let doubt like self-doubts or anything
creeping can creep into my head.
But let me like to say that there weren't
any doubts would be, would be false.
Um, I mean, cause I mean, there's just
so many things that need to go right.
For you to.
Get to the starting line.
And we went like this, let
alone get to the finish line.
I mean, it was a perfect storm
of events that leads to that
happening and getting to the start
line, getting to the finish line.
So like going, going down the
face of those mountains, like.
There's consequence, you take a step
to the right, you know, take a little
messed up to the right or the left and
in different sections and like your side
of a mountain and you're sliding down.
Like maybe you break a leg, maybe
you twist your ankle and you have
to be, and you have to be done
having that, you know, kind of.
Faith in yourself and your
ability it's it speaks volumes.
It gets you places.
And, um, yeah, I think just
having that faith in yourself,
um, to kind of outweigh any.
That might creep them.
It would be so easy to just stop,
you know, and the, in the struggle
and the pain, but you, it comes
down to a choice, like, okay, how
much, how important is this to you?
Because like I said,
it's, it would be so easy.
You know, like in the struggle
and in end, whatever pain you're
feeling and just, just be done, you
know, and it's, it's, it's over.
I mean, and you get that instant
gratification of, okay, it's over
the guys feel, I feel better now
that I'm done, but then how long
do you have to live with that then?
You know, like how long does that last?
That's not something I want to find out.
Before this summer, I had an idea in
my head of what this experience, this
journey would mean to me this 14 weeks.
I can't describe it any
better than to say that.
Was completely blown out of the water.
Everything surpassed my
expectations, everything.
It was about so much more than just
running for 100 mile races in 14 weeks.
First thing that comes to mind
is the even stronger connection
that created with my family.
Then there's the deeper connections.
I was blessed to forge with my friends
who so graciously sacrificed their two.
To be a part and the excitement
I have to repay those wonderful
favors from the bottom of my heart.
I simply cannot express my love
and gratitude towards interview.
There's just so much that goes on
so many sacrifices that brought
all of us to that 400 tomorrow.
The microcosm of living a life in a
day that ultra running provides and
how running has shaped my life to
become such a huge part of me and
how it makes me reflect on my time
with running and how it has changed.
Coming to the realization
that chasing for.
It was not the end, but
merely a checkpoint in my
journey and carries with it.
The unbridled excitement
for what comes next.
So, uh, who are you?
How old are you?
Um, Justin Kenner, 34 years old.
Almost.
I'll be 35 next week, but.
And I am a grand slammer.
And I S he goes, man, it
just hurts when I sit.
And I said, well, if it hurts, when you
sit, does it hurt any more when you walk?
No, it's the same.
It doesn't hurt anymore.
When you're running.
No, it's the same.
And I said, well, if it's all the
same hurting, the, you might as well
run because you can at least get
that, get it over with faster, you
know, and he kind of looked at me and
kind of smiled and shook his head.
He's got up and took off, you know,
From a young age, I've always
just had an undeniable, I guess,
unexplainable urge to test my limits,
to seek the best version of myself.
For me that has very organically
come in the form of ultra running.
So I guess the grand slam for me
was simply the next logical step in
that process of testing my limits.
So I am running for 100
mile races in 14 weeks.
First one will be old dominion, 100
June 5th, Western states, June 26.
Leadville 100 August 21st.
And then the last one, the
Wasatch front 100 September 10th.
Just find out so much about yourself in
the course of covering a hundred miles
on foot with every ounce of my being.
I know that I won't
stop until I reach that.
Finish that 400 mile
My name is Justin Kynar.
I'm from Casper, Wyoming,
and I am 34 years old.
So I've been running since high school.
And then in college went, went to college
and skied for the club, Nordic ski team
at the university of Wyoming, and then
really got into the ultra scene, um, trail
running kind of found it late in college.
And then, um, did my first ultra in 2012,
my brother John was definitely the one
who, um, I blame the most for getting me
into ultra big mentor mind, big idol of
mine that, um, started this whole process.
The ultimate goal from a personal
level is to just get it done.
You know, whatever, whatever that entails.
I mean, I don't concern myself with
how fast I'm going to run it, or like
racing people in a race too early.
I mean, it's a hundred miles a lot
can happen over the course of a
day or however long it takes you.
As long as everything goes,
goes well, physically.
And you know, I don't injure myself.
I'm going to finish the grand slam.
Being the first race I've
done on the east coast.
Um, there's always a lot more
unknowns being, being somewhere where
you've never been doing something
in an area you've never been to.
There's so much unknown with how my
body's going to react physically,
mentally to putting these four
together in a summer nutrition.
And it, it changes a lot based on
the time of day, how hot it is.
I'm going to be sticking.
As long as I can just
liquid calories tomorrow.
So in the form of tailwind, grabbing
stuff at the aid stations, that that looks
good, maybe it'll be something salty.
Maybe it'll be something sweet.
You, you look at like the six
months that you've put into it.
Like then you're talking about
doing a hundred mile race in a day.
I mean like six months versus a day.
I mean, like where's the, you know,
that's, that's the experience for me?
Not that, I mean, obviously the
race is why you're doing that
training, but my why isn't racing.
My, why is.
Putting all this stuff together, you know,
like your drop bags, you know, like this
is, this is this, this is the snapshot.
Like I've tested all of
this stuff in my training.
I wouldn't be using any of this stuff.
If it wasn't in my race, I truly do
believe that I could be finishing around
20 hours if everything's going great.
Um, which that's the hope, but, um,
yeah, I'm not giving myself the option of
finishing beyond 24 hours for this one.
So that's just something.
Got in my mind and I'm not
going to let it happen.
The racers, the crews, the volunteers,
the race directors, the ultra
running community is, is the same.
You know, it doesn't matter where
you're running in this country.
Everybody wants everybody to
have to find that success.
Um, we'll do anything they can
to get you to that finish line.
Maybe we have a beautiful day and maybe
we all gather back here again, later on
with great stories and your holy name.
We.
Amen.
So in the, in the course description,
they mentioned that there'd be pavement.
They missioned there'd be gravel.
They actually mission.
Twice in their course description, the
gravel roads were like packed gravel.
I mean, it might as well.
Yeah.
That'd be kind of want to switch my shoes.
It is just a lot of pavement.
It was definitely more than I was then
I was expecting the course description.
Um, like I said, informs you about it.
It doesn't tell you that there's like
80% of the course is what that is though.
I got myself into kind of, not a
negative head space early on in the
race, but I did allow myself to get.
It's space where it's like,
I don't care about 24 hours.
I just want to get the finish,
you know, get it under 28 so I
can keep the grand slam alive.
The struggle bus.
That mindset kind of stayed
honestly from like mile 30.
When I switched out of my trail
shoes into the road shoes, really
until, probably about mile 86.
I was just, I was just kinda like
just moving along forward progress.
Like I said, I'd never had a
mindset that I wasn't gonna to.
But I'm kind of was turned off
to the idea of being competitive.
But I think the biggest thing
with the unknowns at an event
like this is just being adaptable.
I mean, being able to not let little
things ruin your day, just to be able to,
you know, embrace the experience of what.
Therefore, you can either let those
changes those hardships defeat you,
or you can just keep moving forward.
Oh, it was on my crew for old
dominion has, uh, my mom and my
dad, the stalwarts of my crew.
Um, obviously it goes without saying
it wouldn't be here without them, but,
uh, having that experience crew that.
Is what I value the most.
That is literally what gets me through
those moments is having that crew there.
Just knowing that they're there at the
start finish, they're waiting for you.
The mental aspect of things is, is huge.
I mean, you hear all the sayings about
like it's 70% mental and 30% physical.
And I have, I have
absolutely experienced that.
Um, you reach a point where your body
is physically exhausted, but your
mind just keeps you moving forward.
Having cramps on my, in my like
abductors I'm, which I never had before.
So I don't know what that's all
about, but I am so ready for
that freaking sun to go down.
Seeing justice set as goals and, and, you
know, support him in all of his training.
And you know, all the trips, you always
want your children to set high goals,
set high expectations, and you do
everything you can to help them reach it.
They get to that point where
they're like 60 miles in and you
see the energy level that he has.
Then you get this level of comfort,
knowing that he's going to have.
Make that time cutoff so that
he can continue the grand slam.
I thought he seems pretty good.
Yeah.
You know, we won, you know, you get,
you know, there's coming to the one.
That'd be nice.
Cause he had originally said, give me
a headlamp here, any, when she said
you got two hours to get 10 miles and
he goes, don't get me the headlamp
that'll motivate me to get better.
Yeah.
Okay.
Good.
Initially just thinking about it.
I, it just seemed like a lot, but
I, I just knew that because of how
strong he is, that he could do it.
I could see the toll that,
that took on his body.
Just the pounding of, of pavement,
which he was not ready for.
Did not have any idea.
It was going to be like that.
I don't think I can really call it
doubts, but it was, it was hard.
To see, you know, to see
him go through some of that.
We see any snakes out there.
It wasn't until like 14 miles out.
So like 86 miles, there
was an aid station.
Or I looked at my watch and I
was a little over three hours.
So it was like little over
three hours and 14 miles left.
I'm like, all right, I'll have to push.
At that point, I knew that the rest of
the race was going to be on pavement.
So I was like, well, if you want to
go get that Sterling silver buckle.
To get under 24.
This is the, this is the time to do it.
Yeah.
Hey buddy.
All right, buddy, pick it up a little bit.
All right.
No, no, no, no.
As you get into town, as he got
into Woodstock, they had the last
aid station, which was a little
under two miles from the finish.
Then you're just running through the town
of Woodstock, you know, it's middle of
the night, nobody nobody's out there.
And so the only thing they say is to
go to the next, the next intersection
where you see the flashing sign, turn,
whichever direction that arrow is.
Are there
that made sense?
I was doing that.
It was all good.
And then as I got to the fairgrounds
where we started, which was also the
finish, um, they had one of those
flashing signs, have one of those
flashing lights, um, pointing me into
the fairgrounds and for whatever reason,
I mean, they didn't have the entrance to
the fairgrounds, um, lit up or anything.
So I kind of, was I, not
that I was thrown off by it.
I think it was just kind of the
fatigue of being on my feet for
almost 24 hours at that point.
Um, for whatever reason, I just
kind of ran right by the entrance
to the, to the fairgrounds.
And then.
Kind of the silver lining
blessing in disguise was that
they had a carnival going.
And I remember looking at looking at
my ride, I, as I'm running by them,
like I just passed a Ferris wheel
and watching him jog by the entrance,
into the end of the fairgrounds.
So I'll be like, oh my gosh.
And knowing that he was, you know,
he's going to be within a minute.
Making it
Old dominion was June 5th and.
Tomorrow's June 26.
So 21 days between all dominion and
Western states spa valley Dobber.
Recovery was pretty typical.
At least for me is as far as a
hundred miles ago, about a week out,
I was still kind of feeling like
a tingling sensation in my toes.
And I'm sure that's probably
due to the amount of pain.
Fact gravel I was on excitement
would be a vast understatement.
Um, I mean, this is, like I said,
this was the race that promised myself
that if I, if I got into Western,
that would be the year that I would
go for the grand slam and happened in
my fifth year of putting in for it.
So Adam will, will pace me from forest
hill, uh, mile 62 to Rocky Chucky.
My brother, John will be with me from 70.
Rocky Chucky too pointed rocks mile 94.
Naggy will take me from well 94
to, um, Robey point 98.9 from 98.9.
The plan is for all three of them to,
to hop in from Robey point to the finish
to be sitting here before the race I've
been planning for for the last five years.
Pretty surreal.
Pretty good.
I think the big thing tomorrow
is just going to be like at old
dominion is just heat management,
figuring out how to keep myself cool
enough to, to keep moving forward.
I don't sign up for these always
knowing that I'm going to finish.
If you did that, I think that would take
away a lot of the entry to doing it.
If you just knew, like, okay, I'm going
to finish this to start somewhere and
know where the finish line is, but not
know what's going to happen between a.
I mean, there's so many
things that can happen.
So many things that can go, right?
So many things that can go wrong.
Feel like that's something that I've
always been pretty, pretty good at
is being able to race my own race,
not getting caught up with all the
noise that goes around the bracelet.
Western states.
I'm John Kenner and I'm
Justin's oldest brother.
So, I mean, I mean, he's an older
brother, but I'm his oldest sibling.
Justin talks about that.
That I'm the person that got
him into all this in some ways.
That's true.
Um, I was the first to kind of do this
hundred mile thing, so he paced me up
my first Leadville first and second.
And then, then I pay some at his first big
horn, which was just the year after that.
So 14, 15, and then 16
was his first big horn.
We've done a lot of races together.
So we essentially like kind of
ran paste, um, like big horn.
We've done that a couple of times
now a lot of people get super
emotional finishing races like this.
For me, it was more emotional
getting him across those, his first
finish the opportunity to be able
to do something like this, um,
together to be able to run with.
To be able to support him in these
runs as much as, as often as I've
been able to knowing that, like
that is a returning the favor as
well, because he's done that for me.
Um, you know, we do that for
family and friends so often, but
in ultra running, it's such a.
You are literally there for me.
Well, we're on our way up
to the aid station here.
And.
Got about an hour and a half hour
and a half mile and a half hike.
We should be expecting Justin sometime.
Let's see.
It's almost eight o'clock.
We should be expecting
him probably 10 to 11.
So somewhere in the range of
two to three hours from now
so it be Western mountains
versus Eastern mountains.
Definitely more of the
trails and mountains that.
More accustomed to more comfortable
running in there will be a lot
more actual trail for this one.
So running on single track, um, I think
there's maybe a grand total of like
four miles of pavement for Western.
It's a little over 18,000 feet of gain
and little over 22,000 feet of descent.
So like my legs are, are
ready, prepared for that.
That quad beating.
Definitely.
Started to feel it warming up quite a bit.
So I actually had a, uh, I don't want to
go as far as saying it was a scare, but
it was something that I was moderately
concerned with up until Robinson flat.
So it was like 30 miles in.
I'd been doing tailwind, just like I've
been doing all summer with the heat.
I was concerned that I was going to
be sweating more than I, I typically.
So I was kind of throwing some
extra electrolytes on top of it.
I would have this urge of needing to go
to the bathroom, but like, couldn't okay.
Is this like kidneys shut down?
Like, I'm like this,
this might not be good.
You know, they asked how's it going?
I'm like, yeah, everything's good.
And, but like in the back of my
head, I had that going and I'm
like, oh my goodness, ultra running,
you know, a hundred mile races.
It's kind of a microcosm of life.
I had to adapt and change, um,
with the way things are going.
And, um, maybe it's because I've got too
much electrolytes, so I just completely
stopped taking the extra electrolyte
tabs and everything went back to.
I remember when I first told my mom now
her eyes got real big and I'm like, yep.
And that's why I didn't
tell you during the race.
Cause you were already concerned as it was
The brewing is, um, it it's a challenge.
And the biggest thing to me is I want
to be sure to have everything right
for him, because I know he likes.
Get into aid stations and
get out as quick as he can.
And so having everything laid out
the way he wants it, I play a lot of
that through my mind ahead of time.
I'll read his instructions, you
know, over and over, just to make
sure that we're getting things.
Some of the times everybody's asking
him something at the same time.
And I can tell that that he's
like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
That's everybody's
talking at the same time.
I love it.
You know, I, I love to be able to,
to help him and do, do whatever
I can to help him be successful.
This grand endeavor.
Yeah, no, he's cruising.
Yeah.
Coming back from a dusty corner,
dropping down to the canyon
and I was like on that file.
Big reason for it.
Obviously, I've done a lot of hundred
mile races with Adam, with my brother.
Maggie's, Maggie's always
been there, um, with Adam.
And so to just have, have such close
friends and, um, more family present at
this one really brings it a lot closer
to, closer to home and kind of one of
the bigger reasons why I love doing
what I do and, um, love doing this.
I love challenging myself in these ways.
People who want to share in
that experience with you?
Um, so having the more, the merrier
is always how I feel about it and
just the fact that they're, they're
willing to give up their time,
hurry up and wait at aid stations.
Um, it's not lost on me and
it's something that I just
appreciate them all immensely for.
And I know that there's a lot
more people that want to be here.
Super excited to have, have
more people along for the, for
the experience for the journey.
And.
I want them to get as much out
of it as they, as they can.
Adam did an awesome job pacing me
from, from forest hill to Rocky Chucky.
We've done a lot of races together.
We've had a lot of experiences on the
trails together, but that was like
the first time that either of those.
Paste each other.
And it was still hot.
Like the comments he was
making, like, it's like, holy
cow, it's still really hot.
And I'm like, I'm glad, I'm glad.
It's not just me.
I'm glad that you can, because I
mean, he's done some hot hundreds
as well, and he made a comment like
this is the hottest I've ever been.
Uh, John, I would plan on drinking
more than you think it's telling
us I've got a couple good.
I had one time I was fresh.
I went through later.
So I mean, yeah, I never really
felt like I cool down really until.
No, like crossing Rocky, Chucky.
And then even after, I mean,
you're, you're cooling down
because you're in the river.
But, um, at that point it was just,
even once you, once we got across
the river, like we dried off quick
and it was still warm, it was hot.
But I mean, like you just remind
yourself, like it's not, it's not just
hot for you, everybody who's out here
is dealing with this, um, reminding
yourself to not put yourself on an island.
You know, everybody's suffering.
It's not, it's not just you
we're, we're out there
roughly like five miles left.
It's not looking like he's going
to make that under 24 hour cutoff,
but he's definitely, uh, you
know, gonna make that cutoff to.
Yeah, keep working on this,
the grand slam, which that's,
that's his ultimate goal.
It's been a pretty brutal
day in terms of the heat.
And you know, of course she's,
he's running with his brother
right now, so that's, you know,
a little extra boost there.
Yeah.
One of the big things that always
keeps me moving forward in those
kinds of darker moments is the amount
of time, the amount of energy that
I've put into, into doing this.
Just being mentally prepared, physically
prepared in the back of my mind always
is just the people, um, family, friends,
um, that have helped me along the way.
Um, on the top of the track or Wyoming
ruins room, number three, that he wears
for all the people of his awesome.
Leadville was known for the
gold rush and the silver rush.
When the mines weren't producing
gold and silver anymore,
Leadville was headed towards.
Just becoming a ghost town.
And that was when they, uh, had this
idea of starting this race series,
you know, back in 1982, I think was
the first year that they did it.
This race series has done a lot for
this town, for the community Leadville.
It was the Leadville 100 that, you
know, like I saw my brother, who's
always been that mentor figure for me,
like saw him really struggling here.
And I'm like, holy crap.
This is like one of the
strongest dudes that I know.
He is at his limit.
That was where it really
kinda struck a tone for me.
It was like, I want to do this.
Like, I want to do Leadville
sometime, but like, I wanna, I
want to try to run a hundred miles.
I want to do it going
for my ninth hundred now.
So there's my crew dog.
Hey, sweetie.
Yeah, the crew dog.
Yep.
There's the addition
to the crew this week?
The buildup this summer has
been, um, not exactly what I
expected, but in a good way.
I mean like the time in between Western
and Leadville has set as has left a
lot of time for reflection and left a
lot of times for recovery for my body,
kind of both mentally and physically.
I'm at a point now where I feel,
I, I I'm feeling really good.
Um, physically, mentally, each, each
race, like the buildup, you know, like
first race, it was just mom and dad.
And you secondary.
So it was Maggie, Adam, my brother, my
parents, and then different friends.
Uh, Nathan and then
Katie, uh, John's girl.
Now it's my whole freaking family.
It's so hard to put into words how
cool it is being back in Leadville,
you know, like tone this line for
myself, where it all kind of started.
For John and I to both be doing this
at the same time, um, same day, um,
really just adds to the excitement
I was very giddy when I was packing
drop bags for Leadville, just like I, I
had packed some cool gear, cold weather
gear for old dominion in Western, just
kind of in optimistic, trying to wish
some, some good things upon me and upon
the other racers that we were going to
have some cool weather, but obviously
it didn't happen at old dominion,
Northwestern, but I'm at a good feeling
that it was going to happen at Leadville.
And like I said, it was just giddy
to, to have some cold weather gear.
And now.
Actually use it because I think more
people tend to perform better and in
cooler weather, and there was definitely
was a lot colder than I was expecting it
to be in that, uh, outward bound area.
Just kind of right there in
the middle of everything.
I think that cool air I'll just dipped
into that valley and made it a little
colder than I was expecting, but it
felt refreshing, felt rejuvenating.
Definitely didn't feel that.
Aches and pains that I, that I sometimes
feel when it's, when it's hotter out.
So yeah, it was very well from weather.
There's multiple things that
are challenging with Leadville.
Um, obviously the fact that you're at
10,000 feet, so you're at elevation
for the entire time, aside from
hope pass and some stuff over sugar
loaf pass, it's not super technical.
So it's a very runnable course.
And I think that's what can kind of get
people into, into trouble with it is,
um, they go out to go out a little bit
too fast, realized the oxygen debt isn't
going away because you're still at that,
that elevation for the entire race.
As you're fatiguing, your
muscles are fatiguing.
You've still got that lack of oxygen.
The elevation gain that you get over
in Leadville is around 15, 1500.
It's an out and back to
pretty significant climb.
So up and over a Sugarloaf pass,
then the other big climb that people
always talk about is, you know,
going up and over hope pass 12,600
feet right near the turn-around
fortunate to go up and over that once.
And then you get to come back.
A very iconic stage of the
race, breathtaking views.
I mean, both physically
and psychologically.
Cause I mean you're are 12,600 feet.
Views for days.
I mean, in all directions, there's
some pretty fun aid stations on it.
The aid station they have right below
the summit of hope passes really cool.
I mean, it's hauled in by alpacas and
llamas and it just gives you an idea
of kind of the, the technicality of
the terrain takes the super dedicated
group of volunteers to go there.
That's an area where I know that a lot of
people that's their biggest struggle with.
So to just see everybody at those limits,
still going with all the reason in the
world to not be going just that sheer
power of will that each person have you
see people in that pain cave in that?
Well, either defeating those
limits or so coming into
he called me up and over and over.
If I was in a bad way, I was looking
forward to seeing John coming back I'm
on his way back towards twin lakes.
And that was kinda my motivation
at that moment was just, I was
going to see my brother soon.
It wasn't.
It was just nice to be
with somebody again.
And, uh, obviously be with my brother,
um, kind of in that situation of both
of us being in the same race, but
still, you know, hiking up hope pass.
I mean, it was like kind of just deja
VU all over again, back to 2014 and 15.
When I was hiking up at with him,
I'd run Leadville before twice.
Um, Justin had paced me
the, the two times I ran.
He never run it, but.
Um, so he knew a ton of the course
it's he paced a bunch of it,
plan wasn't to run it together.
And then we've kind of caught
up with each other at 50 miles
and ran, essentially paced each
other for 50 miles of that race.
So
yeah, racing together is different
than pacing together, but in some ways,
in some ways it's not, you know, when
we have a relationship, like we have.
I guess some families might get
real competitive in that situation,
but for us it wasn't, it was just
like, I was happy to see him.
I was in a low place when he, when he
found me, we, we lifted each other.
Doing that one together was
big because it led to, it holds
a special place in my heart.
Right here.
And when you sit down here and there
This is silly.
This is silly.
There's peaks.
There's valleys.
There's long Dole sections where
you're just like, thinking about what
in the world am I doing out here?
Like, holy crap, it's been 18 hours
and we're still still doing this.
I mean, just, this is hard.
This is really freaking hard.
It's hard because.
Because I put myself in that
situation and I prepared myself for
that situation and, and that's, and
that's, and that's why you do it.
You don't do it thinking it's gonna be,
you know, like in those moments when
I'm low, like, you know, you're fine.
It's not, it's not getting worse.
It was good.
Yeah.
We had a good time.
It was fun.
Lots of laughs.
Yeah.
We kept playing.
We did, we stayed pretty true
to the like walk the Hills,
run the flats, run the downs.
So they stayed.
They were.
Turmeric bills.
I just go back to, again, I like the
support system that I have and the
faith in, in myself and my ability and
like the fact that I've, I've put in
a strong body of work to get me here.
I know I don't have like what a lot of
people would consider like an elite speed.
But what I do have is I have
an elite support system.
That has gotten me to this point.
I feel like I've kind of
just got an elite grit.
Just keep moving forward.
It would be so much easier to just stop
full bottles while I go over there.
Okay.
Just empty that.
Coming back from may queen.
I mean, so we had just, just under 13
miles to go and I'm looking at my watch.
Nathan's looking at his watch and I'm
like, well, we're gonna need to be
average in a little bit better than four
miles an hour to get back under that 25
hours, which we hadn't done in a while.
There was a little bit
more of a sense of urgency.
I think on my end, then there was John.
I think John was just in
a place mentally there.
I think he was there,
but not like all there.
And w w w we're all, there's always a
point in these races where somebody it's,
that was just his time at may queen.
I don't think that he really understood,
like, okay, we're, we're kind of
under the, we're under the gun here.
If we want to do this some
25, get the big belt buckle.
You could tell Nathan wanted to go.
And I was like, no, for
finishing this together.
It doesn't matter if it's 25 hours
in one minute, we had, we had kind
of already made that decision, not
really talking about it, that we
were going to finish together just
around three hours at the finish line.
It's like, okay, well, it's
becoming a lot more real.
If we want to do this, we're going
to need to kick it into gear.
That moment of like starting that race
together and then continuing and being
able to cross that finish line to.
Um, with a really, really
emotional moment, couldn't imagine
a more fulfilling experience.
It's not at all how we both
kind of plan for the day to go.
Can't imagine a better scenario for how,
how, the way things ended up building
Uh, it's pretty indescribable.
The way that it happened was just, I
mean, like when it was like, literally
the stuff like storybooks or meter
Cautiously optimistic
with how I'm feeling.
For sure.
I definitely don't feel as tapped out
as I did after old dominion or Western.
I don't know what that is.
I don't know if that's just kind of
accumulation of buildup from the summer.
Um, the body responding to the stimulus,
the stress definitely feel rested, feel
recovered so excited about the prospect
of that and the prospect of this being
the last one, the last of the four, I
mean, I've always taken an approach.
You know, taking it one at a time,
trying not to fall in that trap
of thinking about what's ahead.
I mean, everything's in the rear view
mirror and there's nothing really in the
too near future of what's next to come.
So I'm excited to see what maybe
that might trigger in me tomorrow.
I don't know what's going to happen.
The familiarity is definitely good,
you know, doing it in 2019, but
sometimes that can be not so good.
Cause you do know what's coming.
Thinking about a hundred mile
race from the start is like,
that's seems pretty monumental.
Just kind of tackling each section as
its own entity in the progression of
getting yourself to the finish line
is kind of how I've always attacked.
It.
let's start right here in Kanesville east
mountain, wilderness park, 4,000 foot
climb in the first four and a half miles.
So it's right in your face.
It's right there.
It's um, it's there for everybody.
24,000 feet of gain.
And then a little bit under that
for descent, definitely the most
of the four for the grand slam,
the most of a race that I've done.
It is a very pretty course.
I mean, it is very accurately depicted
as a hundred miles of heaven and hell.
If I had to describe the hell
section, it would probably be
between 32 miles and 46, 47 miles.
There's just.
No reprieve from the sun,
no reprieve from the heat.
There's really no cover jets.
Just really hot.
I mean, I remember that section being
really hot in 2019, it looks like
it's going to be even possibly a
little bit hotter tomorrow can pretty
confidently say it's probably not going
to be as hot as it was at Western.
Uh, the whole family is going to be
here again minus the nephews and niece
y'all have four different Pacers.
So brother-in-law, Chris will be pacing
me, um, then fell big guy that planted
the seed and, you know, the, the grants.
Paste I'm here in 2017 and his
last leg of the grand slam.
So being able to get to run section, of
course, with him, that'll be super fun.
And then John will paste me from Brighton
and then my sister, Jen's going to pace
me planning to face me from top of the
wall, with beyond words, beyond blasts,
to have the tribe, have the people that
I have with me along for the journey.
It just makes it that much more
fulfilling the mat much more,
you know, like motivation.
There was a point where he,
you know, like you could just,
I mean, I, and I think about.
I can just be done, you
know, like I'm fine.
But you realize like, yes, it
hurts, but it's not getting worse.
Can you bear this pain?
Can you bear this feeling for X amount of
hours and get yourself to your end goal?
The overwhelming answer for me
has been, yes, I can because it's,
it's, it's something that I crave.
I, I searched for those moments.
I crave those moments where I can, where
I can truly challenged myself and feel.
You know, like the most alive in
those moments, challenging myself
and are surrounded by like-minded
people in beautiful surroundings.
Like there's nothing better.
There's nothing better.
You know, there weren't a ton of lows.
I didn't have.
Like I had at Leadville, you know,
thinking about what's what's coming, I
guess maybe that's cause I there's nothing
really in the foreseeable future here.
Um, so just being able
to stay present with.
It was a lot easier at this one.
Cause uh, there isn't anything
planned for the foreseeable future,
all I'm feeling.
Okay.
Definitely feeling that
So, yeah, I really know Lowe's, I
mean, just like the usual kind of
like, Lord, this is hard and it's
still X amount of miles we'll finish.
And just like, but Nope, stay present
and failed at an awesome job with that.
Like just keeping me present.
And he's like, think about
it as 355 miles of 400.
I'm like, I like that Phil.
That was really helpful.
So then as the race kind of progressed, it
was like, all right, 360 of four hundred,
three hundred and seventy five before.
There were sections that definitely
the miles just seems to tick off a
little quicker because they were, um,
and then just sections that just drug
on because it's the terrain and just
the brutal, the brutalness of it, you
know, I'd try really hard to know.
Let doubt like self-doubts or anything
creeping can creep into my head.
But let me like to say that there weren't
any doubts would be, would be false.
Um, I mean, cause I mean, there's just
so many things that need to go right.
For you to.
Get to the starting line.
And we went like this, let
alone get to the finish line.
I mean, it was a perfect storm
of events that leads to that
happening and getting to the start
line, getting to the finish line.
So like going, going down the
face of those mountains, like.
There's consequence, you take a step
to the right, you know, take a little
messed up to the right or the left and
in different sections and like your side
of a mountain and you're sliding down.
Like maybe you break a leg, maybe
you twist your ankle and you have
to be, and you have to be done
having that, you know, kind of.
Faith in yourself and your
ability it's it speaks volumes.
It gets you places.
And, um, yeah, I think just
having that faith in yourself,
um, to kind of outweigh any.
That might creep them.
It would be so easy to just stop,
you know, and the, in the struggle
and the pain, but you, it comes
down to a choice, like, okay, how
much, how important is this to you?
Because like I said,
it's, it would be so easy.
You know, like in the struggle
and in end, whatever pain you're
feeling and just, just be done, you
know, and it's, it's, it's over.
I mean, and you get that instant
gratification of, okay, it's over
the guys feel, I feel better now
that I'm done, but then how long
do you have to live with that then?
You know, like how long does that last?
That's not something I want to find out.
Before this summer, I had an idea in
my head of what this experience, this
journey would mean to me this 14 weeks.
I can't describe it any
better than to say that.
Was completely blown out of the water.
Everything surpassed my
expectations, everything.
It was about so much more than just
running for 100 mile races in 14 weeks.
First thing that comes to mind
is the even stronger connection
that created with my family.
Then there's the deeper connections.
I was blessed to forge with my friends
who so graciously sacrificed their two.
To be a part and the excitement
I have to repay those wonderful
favors from the bottom of my heart.
I simply cannot express my love
and gratitude towards interview.
There's just so much that goes on
so many sacrifices that brought
all of us to that 400 tomorrow.
The microcosm of living a life in a
day that ultra running provides and
how running has shaped my life to
become such a huge part of me and
how it makes me reflect on my time
with running and how it has changed.
Coming to the realization
that chasing for.
It was not the end, but
merely a checkpoint in my
journey and carries with it.
The unbridled excitement
for what comes next.
So, uh, who are you?
How old are you?
Um, Justin Kenner, 34 years old.
Almost.
I'll be 35 next week, but.
And I am a grand slammer.
And I S he goes, man, it
just hurts when I sit.
And I said, well, if it hurts, when you
sit, does it hurt any more when you walk?
No, it's the same.
It doesn't hurt anymore.
When you're running.
No, it's the same.
And I said, well, if it's all the
same hurting, the, you might as well
run because you can at least get
that, get it over with faster, you
know, and he kind of looked at me and
kind of smiled and shook his head.
He's got up and took off, you know,