 If in the next two and a half minutes you get a little inspiration, a little motivation, let's share this video. Let's share it baby. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, wherever you want. Let's spread this video far and wide. Little inspiration. Let's spread the love. Spread the love. East end of Magnolia Road now. And I just want to share a story about this road that connects to the book, Running with the Buffaloes. Connects to my freshman year in college. And I hope connects to a lot of high schoolers and everybody out there. But especially high schoolers and maybe you're a freshman in college. I've got a story I want to tell you. But first we got to go down this road about three miles so I can get to this location that I just got. I got to share this story. I got to share this story. Whoo baby. We are at 8400 feet. So this is just a rolling dirt road with lots of mud today, lots of snow. Oh and by the way, the turbos crushed it. They crushed it. I slipped once or twice but overall they crushed it. I decided to come record this section of the video at the CU cross-country course. That's where I'm at. It's a little quieter here. I'm not going to talk about Running with the Buffaloes in complete detail today. That's coming. Stay tuned, especially for all the high schoolers out there. I've got a pretty interesting story that's connected to this book. But I do want to talk about Magnolia Road. And essentially I was a senior in high school in 2004. A friend gave me this book. I read the book and it did change my life. It changed my life. But I'm not gonna, we'll talk about this at another time. But essentially I did not know that collegiate cross-country frankly even existed. I was just not, it was not on my radar. I was not recruited out of high school and I will, I'm just gonna tell you now because some guys are asking my high school 5k PR was 1627. Good time, solid time, but not division one cross-country type of time. I arrived at the University of Colorado in 2004 as a freshman and essentially I am trying to figure out how do I run competitively in college? Like what does it take to be a CU cross-country runner? So I look to this book which believe it or not has quite a few tips and training locations listed in this book about how the CU cross-country team trains. So one of the places that the team trains at is Magnolia Road. CU is at 5400 feet above sea level and in about 30 minutes of driving you could get all the way up to 8000 feet altitude training. So as a freshman at Baker Hall on campus I was living in Baker Hall. I did not have a car. I had a bus pass and this is before Google Maps. Keep that in mind. Keep that, this is well before Google Maps and so I pull out a paper map and I'm like how do I get to Magnolia Road? Where is Magnolia Road? Which is talked about in this book. Hold on. There's a helicopter. Hold on. Get out of here. All right, the helicopter's gone. The helicopter's gone. Okay, so I'm trying to figure out how do I train like a collegiate athlete? So I look up Magnolia Road on a paper map and I don't have a car so I get on the bus. I take the bus up Boulder Canyon where you saw me park my car today. There's that bus stop. It was that was not the beginning of where the University of Colorado cross-country team trains. It's another three miles up pavement up 2,000 feet of vertical to get to the dirt where you saw me running today. And so this run that I did my freshman year with no help, no, like I had my backpack. I had water in there, a little bit of food, some extra clothing, bottom line. It turned into this crazy epic running adventure, my freshman year of college. And I just tell you that story for everybody but especially for the high schooler out there that's I or maybe the college freshman that's I trying to walk onto a cross-country team somewhere like it takes dedication, consistency, and yes, ridiculous amounts of perseverance. Don't give up. If you feel like you've got the drive and the thirst to run at the collegiate level, you can do it. But it's going to take work. It's going to take going a little crazy at times. All right, that's all for now from the cross country course. I got to get back home and then we're going to record more about the 35 turbos. I want to tell you how they performed on a 20 mile run today through mud, slush, dirt, craziness. All right, let's go back home. Come on. Come on. And we're back. And we're back at the house. All right, guys, running with the buffaloes. I'm not sure I was completely clear with you guys back at the cross country course. So I'm going to I'm going to just try and revisit the thoughts a little bit. But first I'm going to read from the book. And this is Magnolia Road. This is the magic, the lore of Magnolia Road. So here you go. I'm just going to dive in. This is chapter that's called Monster Island. It starts by saying, Mark Wetmore, the head coach, moved to Boulder from Bernardsville, New Jersey on August 17, 1991. Within 24 hours of moving to Boulder, he had discovered Magnolia Road. He was running it probably the first Sunday I was living in Boulder. This was not by accident. He says, knowing where I am going to run is pretty important to me. I take the trouble to get a map, usually a topographical map, and I look for a squiggly, wavy road that usually means it is a little out of the way dirt road. Furthermore, found witness walk-ons enjoying as much success under Wetmore as those with sterling resumes. In the spring of 1994, found was running a 20-miler on Magnolia Road, while in 1349, 5K shape with Jake Cleckler and John Cooper, two junior university walk-ons. He was running a little over six minutes a mile, and they blasted me. It was a preview of what they did that fall. Here were two guys from backwoods areas that no one wanted that became all Americans. When they left, they still couldn't break 420 in the mile. And therefore, this book, I read those words to you just to give you a little taste of what is inside and specifically about Magnolia and Magnolia Road. And of course, you know the keyword. It's Magnolia. Hopefully you can spell it. Good luck spelling it down below. Essentially, running with the buffaloes is the name of the book. I'm not going to talk about the book in full or how this book impacted my life specifically, other than to say I was not recruited out of high school. I wasn't recruited. And so I was looking for a little bit of a blueprint as to how someone goes about training at the collegiate level for cross-country. So I found that, well, I was given this book, thankfully, and I read it. And I read it again. And seeds were planted. Little mustard seeds were planted in my mind and in my heart. And I had dreams after that, after reading this book. And so basically, it taught me the different ways of training more volume and also where this cross-country team trains in Boulder. That's why I went on that crazy adventure up the pavement, up to Magnolia Road alone with a backpack on, with food and water and had no clue what I was doing. And I think I was out for like six or seven hours. It was insane. It was a little insane. No cell phone. This was 2004, folks. Cell phones were just not quite, they were on the radar, but they weren't on the radar. Google Maps, you just go for it. Right. That brings us to the end of today's video. Well, we're almost there. First, the question of the day. What is one goal that you set for yourself in running that you that you achieved? Okay, this could be in a workout. This could be in a race. This could be in health, overall health. You know what I mean? This could be in weight loss. This could be in nutrition. This could be in stretching. By the way, one of my goals is to be able to touch my toes by the end of 2018. That's like my stretching goal. So it could be anything. What is one goal that you have set any time in your running career that you actually achieved? Sound good? Comment below. That'd be amazing. Okay, real quick, just real briefly, the Nike Pegasus 35 turbos. I was reflecting back on the run today. I slipped three times. I almost went down once because I stepped right on this slush. But so overall, the shoe felt amazing. It felt amazing. The grip and the lug action on the bottom, the traction, the outsole, it definitely is not made for mud and snow. I was slipping a little bit. You saw it like it got pretty warm today. And so all the snow was melting and it got a little muddy. And as I was running through the mud, I just was thinking to myself, oh no, there goes the uppers, the upper, the beauty of the uppers is gone. But they survived pretty well. They treated me very well, very comfortable today, 20 miles on dirt at 8,000 feet. I didn't feel like my heel was slipping at all. I really didn't have, I really don't have any complaints other than maybe it was a little slick at times because the outsole is, you know, it's, it's made more, it's definitely made more for the roads. But the turbos thumbs up, two thumbs up, frankly. And I might, yes, I might have to get another pair, not now, but maybe like in January or February for the spring training, getting ready for the marathon. So anyway, I digress. And one last point before signing off, basically yesterday's question of the day, what are the top two reasons you watch running videos on YouTube? I'm going to do my best to take all of the data, all of your thoughts, all of your amazing ideas, and put them into basically a spreadsheet so that I can communicate those numbers and those percentages back out to you based on all the people that commented. And I think it's well over, I don't know, seems like well over 150 people so far. So thank you again for commenting. All right, see beauty, work hard. Love each other.