Follow Up to the 4X4X48

Four miles, every four hours, for forty-eight hours.

Well the Goggins Challenge ended up being a lot more of an experience than I thought it would be, and probably could've been more. I just wanted a reason to get out more than normal and run, and it ended up being perfect for that. It also gave me a chance to test out my injury and see how it would fair over a longer time frame without compromising a race. 

Being an "event" I not only was given a reason to run more, but also it gave me the go ahead to run within family time, which I rarely do. However, it turned into a pretty big deal, with a low key feel.

I was never too concerned about the physical side of this, I knew I could easily run all the needed miles outside of how my injury would react. However the sleep deprivation would be the big question mark. I never worried about being tired running but I was concerned about being tired around my family all day long. I get really grumpy when I'm tired, I just want to be left alone, and with two kids good luck with that! It's like being hungover, the reason I rarely drink. Kids. I no longer am able to lay on the couch all day long watching movies. The call for daddy beacons incessantly and my work ethic, being a stay at home dad, means there's always shit to do. Throughout the entire process I managed all the laundry (washed, dried, folded) including two sets of bed sheets stripped and replaced! Pretty much all the cooking for the family. All the dishes, I dusted, swept, vacuumed.....all the usual crap I do throughout the day. Naps? Good luck! During the day I never even considered a nap because I know as soon as I make an attempt the beacon calls.... "Daaaaaddddddyyyyyyy!"

I never really felt the hammer from no sleep. I did at night attempt to get some shut eye, between the running shifts of 8pm - 12am and 12am - 4am, I likely got maybe 1 1/2 hours of unsettled sleep but that's obviously not enough.

I got bored of my route options. That was likely my biggest complaint. I prefer to avoid people (even when there isn't a pandemic!) and with the weather so nice here there were people everywhere during normal hours of the day. I guess you could slot this one in mental challenges; boredom. I'm sure I was significantly better off than some due to living in a smaller town on the border of the countryside.

Now the one thing that made this special was the community involved which I should've taken advantage of. Maybe it was because I was usually surrounded by family so I didn't have time to get on Zoom early and chat with people but eavesdropping it seemed like pretty cool connections were being made. Not to mention the surprise running celebrities that ended up dropping knowledge and inspiration.

I'm not a huge fanboy of the sport of trail and ultrarunning. I kind of lurk on social media and have a limited finger on the pulse, but in general I'm not following it incessantly. It seemed as if Billy had on the fly gotten in touch with people to get involved which is pretty rad on his part. Oh, did I mention this was all free?

I've read and listened to David Goggins' book, "Can't Hurt Me" many times, it's fantastic and very inspirational. It opened my eyes to many things in life so I was pretty stoked when I saw his face, even before he opened his mouth letting Billy Yang know he was there. It seemed to me that Billy didn't even expect him to be on. Either way what a way to kick off the challenge!?

I had seen Twitter posts about Michael Wardian being involved as he's very active on social media so it was no surprise to see him. Any and all reports about him are that he's a top notch person with a passion for running over anyone, and it showed. I could feel his enthusiasm and all he was doing was walking on a treadmill playing video games!

All the other running celebs that popped in were pretty cool to see, however I missed most of it other than the last few sentences before heading out the door. I did get some knowledge out of Jason Coop, the CTS coach, about sleep deprivation and his experience in the Tor des Geants. Of course it was cool to see legends such as Dean Karnazes and then Rich Roll as well. Fascinating people that have done, and are doing, fascinating things to not only help runners but other people as well .

I'm really happy I stumbled on Billy Yang's Tweet about the "event." It was a last minute "why the hell not?" that I am really glad I did. I came out of it with a solid test of my injury, yes it's still there and needed some major rest, but it's runnable and getting better. I also realized I can still consistently run at a faster pace with little effort. Likely due to a lot of the strength training I've been doing as well as some "muscular awakening"/posture work I've been doing. It did screw up my routine. I had a solid program of a lot of martial arts, strength work, and running going on everyday. I'll need to refocus and get back to that.

I once again was shown the strong worldwide community that are trail and ultra runners. I still struggle with being a part of it all. I don't know why. Maybe it's just my personality being a fairly introverted person?  I enjoy the camaraderie, it was the same you get during an ultra, but I never wholly become a part of it. I usually just keep to myself and once it's all over I realize, oh, that could've been so much more. Maybe next time.