 Hello everybody and welcome to another running with Ryan. I hope you're having a great day. I'm having a great day because I'm about to go running with one of my heroes in the world of running. She is a total badass. She is an ultra, ultra runner. And by that, I mean she does races that are over 200 miles long. She's so down to earth. She is the definition of Minnesota nice. That's where she's from. She loves candy. She has a total sweet tooth. She was named the 2018 ultra runner of the year. Yay! She has won races all over the world. And a lot of times she beats all of the men as well. Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the one and only Courtney DeWalter. Oh, look at her, she is, what's up? Hey, I hear you like running. I like running. All right, let's go running. You like running? I do. Let's do it. I'd like to point out that we're almost matching. Blue shorts, red shoes. We didn't get the t-shirt notice though. But it looks nice together. It does look good. It does look good. Cheers. This is your backyard. Look at this. Yeah, your backyard too, huh? That's true. We're kind of meeting halfway. I'm a bolder boy. She's a golden girl. Meetin' in the middle. Meetin' in the middle. It's perfect. Yeah, so you already went on a run today. Just a little jog. Start the day. What does a little jog mean for Courtney DeWalter? I don't know. It depends. Well, I think you'd be proud of me. I ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's fish food last night for dinner. One of the best flavors. I know. Marshmallow swirl and caramel in there. So good. I actually won my jobs in college. I was an ice cream scooper at Ben & Jerry's. Really? Yeah. That's kind of a dream come true. Did you have one arm that was really strong? Yeah, or I just really struggled with some of the scooping. Sample for you, sample for me. Exactly. Half baked. Oh, half baked is a good one. Oh, yeah. Anytime there's cookie dough chunks in ice cream, it's a good one. Absolutely. I am with you. That's so green. So green. Colorado is not like this very often. This is the only month that it's super green. And every year, I feel like surprising when it comes, because you're like, oh, it can be green. Yeah, you're like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Just glowing along the whole front side. You're from a very green state, Minnesota. Very green, yeah. How long have you been here now? Well, I came out for undergrad and then left for a couple of years and came out again. So I guess most recently it's been like, man, maybe eight years. So you've had a good year so far. It's only, what, May? And you've won a couple of big races? It's been fun. Yeah. Yeah, it has. Talk to us a little bit about the most recent one. How do you say it, Madeira? Madeira? Madeira, yeah. It's an island off the coast of Portugal. Look at you asking questions and then making it as run of a hill. I know. I'm sorry. This is the hill. This is going to be the most difficult workout of your life, talking and running for 45 minutes straight. OK, we'll give a pause once we get to the top of this hill. That's where you can put in some music. Yeah. OK. Yeah. So Madeira, oh, look at the snow-capped mountains. Look at this. That's cool. I don't think we're going to talk about anything. We're just going to enjoy nature today. Nature run. Nature run. Madeira is an island off the coast of Portugal. OK. And it's not super big. So it was a 115 kilometer race. And that was point to point from one end of the island to the other. OK, wow. So that was cool to experience the whole thing. And it's super mountainous through the middle. There's this whole spine of mountains. So you're running with ocean all around, but then climbing up these huge peaks. Let's go back a little bit. You haven't been an ultra runner all that long, really. Right? No. You cross country skied in high school. Yeah. Talk to us about your path quickly. Sort of normal. I did cross country running, track, and Nordic skiing in high school, in college, Nordic skiing, after college. I just wanted something to work towards. So I did a couple road marathons. OK. Which I thought before those, it's like the morning of the marathon. I'm like texting goodbye to my parents and my friends. Like you were going to die? Yeah, like a marathon is so long. Truly, I'm not going to survive this. I love you, mom and dad. Yeah. I'm like, thanks for the ride. But you survived. I survived, yeah. And so then surviving that was like, oh, sweet. What else is there that I could try to survive? And it brought me to the ultra running world, which I didn't even know existed. Yeah. And then. It's a weird world. I didn't know it existed either until recently. Yeah. A bunch of weirdos in this sport. A bunch of weirdos. Yeah. Are you like jumping into some of that weirdo? Yeah. Well, my first, and this is a very weirdo, ultra. But my first ultra was the Burning Man Ultra. Wait, is that why you run naked? You can run a naked. You can run it however you want. But yeah, that was my first ultra. And that got me into the world of running. And the thing is, it was the community. Yeah. It's the people. That's what got me into it. So supportive, so fun. And I was out there at Burning Man. And I'm like, wow. I'm seeing some people running this race. Who are seeing a lot of some of those people. That's who I was. Exactly. A lot of their bodies. But I was like, I would never tag that person as somebody who could run 31 miles. Yeah, it's cool. But they did. It's inspiring. Yeah. Yeah. It totally is that. So the community grabbed me on it too. I loved going really far and surviving these distances. I didn't think were actually possible. But it was the community that cemented it. And my first 50 mile race, so I did a 50K, 50 mile was next. And it was like this wild weather. We ended up in a hill, sleet, sideways. Everything was just crazy. The good stuff. Yeah. And I face planted into a mud puddle at one point. And someone in front of me ran back. I grabbed my hand and they're like, let's go. And I was like, that's so cool. That is so cool. And then. You don't see that in a lot of other sports. No. And then there's a guy running in a garbage bag as his poncho. Just like hooping and hollering the whole time. We're like getting pelted by this awful weather. He's loving it. It'd be easy to like, you know, just start trudging along and hating life. And he was just like, whoa. That's kind of how I feel when I run. It's like you're out in the middle of nowhere. You're connected to nature and the people. And you just want to like, whoa. It's just been really fun to keep exploring and keep like being surprised by what we can do. Yeah. Everyone who lines up, you know. Wherever you finish in the field in a race, like you covered that distance with just your two feet. Yeah. And I think that's really incredible. It really is. Human-powered adventures are my favorites. Yeah. I love bikes. I know, your bike's here. My bike's here, yeah. Yeah. How else would I get here? Holy bikes. Yeah. So what is it about running that you love? Take away the community of it. You're out on a trail by yourself. What do you love most? I love where you end up. Yeah. So the exploring you can do. I do some of my best thinking. Yeah. On a run. And I love that it's like something where it's a pretty direct correlation between what you put into it and what you get out of it. Yeah. So like you work really hard. Oftentimes that just correlates to then. Totally. Kicking some butt. It's cool. Oh, it feels awesome. When you train for something for months and you go out and do a race and you're like, well, my body feels awesome. Yeah. I feel like a superhero. All right, we're going to try some single track now. Good morning. I'm sorry. So I'm going to show you right between these trees. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Would you? Look at that. We were talking about running or something. No, that's not what it was. Running was boring. What do you do when it gets really hard? And maybe what's the advice for people? You know, when they're in their own race and it just seems insurmountable. Yeah. I think it's always going to get really hard. Yeah. And so just knowing that makes it already less stressful when it does get hard because you're like, okay, I expected this. Yeah, here we go. You know, I'm running a really far ways. Of course it's going to physically hurt. So I think that's the number one is like knowing that's going to happen and then knowing when it does happen. That's when you can like just mentally overpower the physical pain by breaking it into whatever digestible piece you have to. So like maybe you can like think of the next aid station and that moves you forward or maybe that's too far and that's stressful, you know? Yeah. So then it's like all that next tree, I can get to that. And then sometimes if it gets really bad, then it's just the next step. Like literally all I'm focusing on is the next one step. That's when you start chanting the little engine that could. Yeah. I think I can. I think I can. Yeah, it's just any trick you can do to distract your brain or to make your brain think like, oh yeah, I can do that. Yeah. And not like get overwhelmed by the big picture. So at this point your body is blowing up. Hello. But your brain stays in it by playing tricks on it as you say. Yeah. Your brain can stay in it if you make it. Yeah. Right? Like your brain will take the easy out also if it has it. It's like, oh sweet, I could stop now because it hurts. Yeah. Like sweet, I'm done. So it's not just like automatic. Yeah, absolutely. Like you're going to want to fight it, I think. But if you figure out how to do some trickery. Some mind games with yourself. Yeah. Which is so crazy. Jedi mind trick. Let's have a stop for the view really quick. I love it. Let's hear it for the view. Thank you, view. Yes. This is really beautiful out here. It is beautiful. I've never been on this trail. Can you give us any examples of some moments where you're like, I am done. I can't do this anymore. But you weren't done. You rallied. Oh, it's every race. Sorry about that. Thanks. Hi. Yeah. I'd say it almost happens every race for sure in the long one. So over like 100k plus. Yeah. There's usually at least one moment in it where it's like, oh, this hurts. This is no fun. But yeah. Yeah. Then you rally. Oftentimes I'll try like one of my first things I'll try is just calories. Yeah. Because one, it can be distracting. And also two, it's just like, I don't know, gives your brain maybe some extra energy to help you fight what's going on. Yep. So. And it tastes good. It's like, it feels good because usually ultra food is sweet. And it's like, oh, cool candy. Yeah. See, treats are great. I sometimes think about ultra races is not so much a running race, but an eating race. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Oh, for sure. Wait, so you think you'll ever try a 200? I don't know. I thought that 100 miles was crazy and that was enough. And now I look at people like you doing 200 miles and I'm like, huh. Interesting. Interesting. Maybe that's possible. Yeah. So the answer is I don't know. I don't like to say never, but it seems a little loco to me. That's pretty fun. That's pretty fun. Yeah. Let's talk about one of your 200 milers. It's such an adventure. Yeah. I imagine it is. Because it's not just one day. No. We're talking like two days plus. Two or three. If you're going fast. Five days. I think is usually. Hello. Yeah. Five days. So for Candace Burt's 200s. Yeah. Her destination trail ones. I think the cutoff range from like four and a half might be Tahoe. I think Moab is a five day cutoff. Wow. That just sounds silly. Well, it's plenty of time to, you know, do it however you want to. That's true. People do it where they treat it kind of like a stage race almost. Yeah. Take some solid naps. Whoa. Whoa. That was close. Did you get on camera? I didn't get on camera for sure. That was a good save. Almost lost my chopper. Oh my God. I'm so sorry. I know that feeling where you're not paying attention. You clip your toe. Oh, I'm glad you're okay. High five to you. Good rescue. Here we are again. We're still on a technical trail. I can't guarantee nobody's going to fall. But we're going to try our best. Yeah. What are your favorite types of trails to run on? Oh, I like it all. I like variety. Yeah. Some of the races I've done, you know, are just on a flat, like even a 400 meter track. Yeah, that's true. But I love getting in the mountains. I love, you know, the fast, runnable stuff. So I don't have a preference. Yeah. I don't think. Let's go back. You just mentioned running on a 400 meter track. How long did you run on that track for? Just 24 hours. Just 24 hours? Yeah. Some people have done like 48 hours. I think six day races are sometimes held on tracks like that. And how far did you run that day? The best I've ever done is 159-ish miles. 159-ish. Wow. In 24 hours exactly. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That is incredible. It's a cool type of race because it's just, how far can you get in 24 hours? Yeah. So like, you try not to waste any time. You know, you don't want to like sit if you don't have to. Yeah. You eat while you're going if you can. Gosh. Every second ends up counting because you need it. That kind of stuff boggles my mind because, you know, you go run 240 miles into a lab. You're in nature. You're not doubling back on things. A track is just like, wow, wow, wow. How do you work your mind on that one? It's a super cool mind game. I bet. It's fun though, because on a track like that, you can turn off like your footing. Yeah. You don't have to pay attention to your footing and your navigation. True. Just keep turning. Just go left. Yeah. Just keep going left. If you get confused, go left again. You get to like access some different parts of your brain. I think that like when you don't have to be focused on other things, you can really like get in there. Yeah. Which is a little bit scary. It is scary. It is scary. I think for me, when I've done some of these long runs, it's almost like therapy. Yeah, yeah. Because you go through these ups and downs, and you have time to really dig deep into your soul. Yeah. Have you figured some big life questions out on the long runs? Yeah. All the world's problems. All the world's problems. Awesome. Oh, this looks dangerous. Let's have a moment to look at nature again. Wow. Look how beautiful that is. Move the power lines. Yeah, we don't need power. What did your mom think about this? Because my mom thinks I'm crazy. Your mom, I don't know. She's amazing. Okay. Both my parents have, you know, once I started like doing these, they were like, what? What do you mean? And then they were just full on supportive. Like my dad was one of my crew people at the first 100 mile race as I finished. Nice. And there was this 24 hour race that I would go back to in Minnesota for like, I did it like four years in a row or something. Just like getting, you know, trying to learn how to get higher miles. Yeah. I would do it. And so my mom, after like going there two years, the third year I went back to it, she was like, well, I'm sitting out there for 24 hours anyways. Why don't I just sign up and I'll do the 24 hour race too. Oh, cool. She had never done a marathon and that day she did like 70 miles. Wow. I love it just off the couch. Yeah, basically. I mean, she's like an active person, but not like a huge, you know, she doesn't run every day. And speaking of, you know, you've inspired your mom. I've read a lot of the comments on the videos about you on YouTube and I would say the overwhelming majority say like, oh my God, I wasn't a runner before I saw this, but now I want to run because of you. What do you think about that? That's cool. Yeah, I think in general people don't like give themselves credit for what they can actually do. You know, you like set your bar low on what you think is possible. But if you just raise it up a little bit, I think we'd surprise ourselves with what we can actually accomplish in anything, you know, not just running like anything. Yeah. Relationships, work, jobs, projects. Yeah. Traveling to Mars. Traveling to Mars. No, and I truly, I believe that. And that's one of the reasons why I love pushing myself physically because it's not just physical, it's a mental challenge. And once you do like 100 mile race, you look at other challenges in life, you're like, oh wait, I got this. Yeah. I just ran 100 miles. I can do this. It's so cool. Yeah. Ah, nature. Nature. Nature. Yeah, I love candy. Yeah, what's your favorite candy? Fruity candy. Like jelly beans, lichen ice, gummy bears. Usually not the fruity candy in wrappers like a starburst. Yeah, okay. That's too much work. That is a lot. That's true. Starburst. Yeah, because you got like. Yeah, I'm with you because with starburst you have to have like long fingernails to open those packages up and it sucks. And then they get, it gets caught and you're like. You're like. And you're like screw it, then you eat it with the wrapper on because you're so hungry. And then it's just like, it becomes a mess. I'm just going to film you with the mountains and we'll make this slow motion. Growing up in Minnesota, Dairy Queen was our, like. Oh yeah. They have these Mr. Misty's. Yeah. They're like a Slurpee, but you can get ice cream mixed in. Yes. Speaking of Dairy Queen, Oreo Blizzard. Yes. So good. I'll have one of those right now. I'll have one of those. You'd love a 200 miler. You're trying, you're, you're good or a bad influence. The purpose of this run has now become get you to sign up for a 200. Okay. Sounds good. I will do it only if you coach me. He said it. Okay. Run camera. Let's do it. It's on camera. She fell on camera and I dedicated myself to a 200 mile race on camera today. Oh right. Okay. Going back to the candy stuff. Yeah. A lot of like elite athletes are so meticulous about what they put in their bodies and training regimens and schedules and all that stuff. But you're not as strict. Right? I wouldn't say strict at all. Yeah. You just kind of like listen to your body, right? Yeah. Yeah. For me, for the training stuff, I'm just trying to figure it out and having fun doing that. Like it's like a science experiment, you know? Yeah. Like yeah. How many Mike and Iks will it take to get through this 100 mile race? Yeah. Like if I do this much training, am I blown out and then useless or like is that still where I could build off of it to do more, you know? Yeah. Because I don't, I don't know. It's not a, there's no method to the madness really except trial and error. And then for food stuff, like I just want to enjoy and eat what I like and drink what I like. And... Sure. And also you kind of earn it. When you burn that many calories, you're like, hell yes, I deserve this giant Mr. Misty. Right? Even on a day where I don't run. Yeah. It still sounds good. Yeah. I think we should just run to the nearest dairy queen now. Yeah. Well, that's what we should have done. Just meet there. Yeah. Let's do last round of dairy queen. That would be a good ultra. That would be a good ultra. Yeah. How could you resist like stopping? Well, you know? Yeah. Maybe every 30 miles you're allowed to stop and get a, get a treat. Look at those purple flowers. A marathon Misty. Whoa. That's cool. What are those? Look at this. Look at that. We're totally distracted today by nature and candy. Yeah. Which is okay. I think that's okay. Let's talk about your husband and he's with you at a lot of these races and he supports you and he's part of your team. Yeah. He's like, he's the A18. Yeah. Talk about how you guys work together as a couple. It's been really fun because basically from the get go, he's been part of it. So like this whole time we've been kind of figuring it out together. And I feel really lucky that he likes crewing, which I know a lot of people don't like, you know, so. It is a pain in the ass. I don't take it for granted. You have to love the person you're working for. Yeah. And I mean, I've met plenty where their spouse, like they love each other a whole lot, but their spouse refuses to crew them. Hey there. Because I mean, it's not all that glamorous. No. I mean, you're up for days at a time and you're dealing with cranky people and crazy emotions. Probably sometimes he's like, why don't you prefer 50 mile distance? Couldn't that be your thing? Yeah. That'd be great, honey. We wake up in the morning. We go to the little bed in our own bed that night. Yeah. Done for a happy hour. Yeah. And is he much of a runner? He is now. Okay. Yeah. When we first met, he wasn't at all. And I think the community kind of scooped him into, like he started coming to these things to crew and then was like, you know, well this is an awesome community and adventure to be out on these trails. So now he has done 100 mile race, which is really exciting. Do you have any other like running adventure dreams like maybe a long fast pack or something for Appalachian Trail or something like that? Yeah. Oh, I think that stuff is so cool. Yeah. Any of that. Crazy. Any of those crazy trails, like, I mean I think living in Colorado, it would be really fun to do the Colorado Trail. Yeah, for sure. It's like 500 miles Yeah. across the whole state basically. Yep. See a bunch of good stuff. Yeah, would you take that a little bit easier or would you try to blast through as fast as possible? I don't know. Yeah. I think it depends on when that actually ends up happening. Because it would be fun to try it either way. Yeah, true. Take it nice and leisurely with your husband. Yeah. Run 25, 30 miles a day. Yeah. Camp out under the stars. What happened next, I can't really explain. I was running, I was talking, and then I ate it. I was on the ground. Unfortunately, it didn't record because the battery popped out of the camera and the file didn't record to the card. So all I have is the aftermath. I can't believe I did that. Here we are. Here we are. We were joking about crashing and falling and look, I did it. Wait, let's investigate the terrain that brought you down. I think it might have been that little rock. Was it this rock here? Yeah, it was that one. Oh, no. I think we, I dented the lens. Yeah, we're tough. That's awesome. No, we're one and one. We're one to one. Actually, I hit the ground though. You saved yourself. So Courtney, what does your normal day look like? You're not a teacher anymore. What do you do? Yeah. Definitely start with coffee and then run and then eat. Run. Okay. And then beer. And beer. That's a great day. That's a pretty good day. I love it. What's your favorite, your favorite local micro brew? Oh man. All of them. Yeah. As far as like breweries and golden. I love Neutrine. Okay. We've been there. I have not. They have a great setup and mountain toad. Oh, cool. Another good one. If it's wet and cold. I like it. I like it. All right, Courtney. We're coming toward the end of the run. We figured life out. We've been out here for hours. Hours. We both crashed and burned. The camera has a dink in the lens. Today was a good day. That's a good Thursday. It was a good Thursday. Now we're headed to Dairy Queen. Going to Dairy Queen, baby. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Absolutely. Oh, it's fun. It was tons of fun. Best of luck in all your races. Yeah, I'll send you the links to the 200s later. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Thanks, coach. Yeah. Maybe I'll do the Moab one. I love Moab. Oh, it'd be so cool. Yeah. Just a big adventure. Just a big adventure. I love adventures. Yeah. So thank you all out there for watching this. And stay tuned. I'll put some links in the bottom of Courtney's cool videos and films and articles. You can cheer her on. And we will see you next time for the next Running with Ryan. I'm going to have to get a new camera. Bye.