Jeff Suppinger, MD - Athletes in Motion Podcast

Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to the Athletes in Motion Podcast, from race to recovery. With your hosts, Tom Regal and Kenny Bailey

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:19

Hey Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 0:29

I'm fantastic. Kenny, how are you?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:31

I am fantastic. Welcome to the show. We have Dr. Jeffrey Suppinger. Welcome to be a family practicing family practice. Yes. All right family practice. But more importantly, a runner in a very fast one at that. We hate you for that. So thank you for coming on the show. Thank you. We understand that you just you did Leadville this year was sort of your bucket list item that you finally did. So you traditionally were a marathon runner, right? Yes. And then you decided to help with it. I'm just gonna start.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:00

Yeah, no, no. I had a friend that said I don't Yes. Well, that's summing it up quick.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:05

All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:07

I did. I've done a lot of marathon running, got kind of got into altruism. Last Five Years, random, more and more. I had a friend that says why don't you do this? I'd kind of there's lots more background, but I finally said, sure. I'll do it trained a lot and did it and was one of the best races of road cars. Yeah. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:23

before we go down that path.

Tom Regal: 1:25

Yeah. So take us back to you know, how did you get into running when you're eight years old? You

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:29

were eating waffles? Yeah. What? What made you decide to start running?

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:33

Oh, gosh. So it's interesting. Thinking about this? Well, one thing I remember as far as running, I remember, gosh, I grew up with some 49 years old. I grew up at the time where Mark Allen? Oh, yeah, the big ry Iron Man stuff. I remember getting Nike trainers shoes, where you got the there was a circle and you had to put your time on three different sports and see if it's equal lateral triangle. Oh, really? I don't know that. I did not know that. Ever see that? That is on a cross trainer shoe from way back. So you know, I guess first time running. My soccer coach said go, you gotta run two miles in less than 15 minutes. And I trained and did that easily. And I might have been the second fastest guy on the soccer team. Not the second.

Tom Regal: 2:16

Fastest, but I was second. Take what you can

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 2:18

again, so did kick for Hill. No, so I did that. And I was always good at endurance sports. From the beginning, I was way better endurance sports and so did that, you know, played soccer and other sports. But then cash first running. I probably did a few events in college, but then in medical school, I kind of coming off of that, you know, remembering the Ironman triathlons, I did half Ironman. Nice night by simply reading a book.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:48

Excellent. Tonight,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 2:49

I read a book. You did? Where did you do like water? Eagleman look at you. Because I grew up in on the eastern shore of Maryland. So I got a book. I mean, this is as nerdy as it can be. I didn't know what I was doing didn't have anyone to train with. I was basically trying to survive my first year

Tom Regal: 3:04

medical school and had enough enough strength training.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 3:08

Cool, didn't know how to do open water swimming, but I did the race finished it was way better at the running than anything else. Guys got through, did some things probably rode my bike a lot more when I was in when I was young. And in even I did my residency in the University of Colorado in Denver. So yeah, did a lot more mountain biking launches

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:34

basically blew up and you're gonna say you're already doing endurance. So I'd love to add a layer of like, yeah, wants to go with it

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 3:41

did a couple that. So kind of finished my residency pilot did more writing was interested in cycling, and then came back started, started working here in Tennessee, and then did probably more well, actually. The at the very end, Mark Cuca Zela, Dr. Mark cuckoos. Ella, who's has BookOut and he's for barefoot running and so forth. He was my residency instructor at the University of Colorado. So he said, Jeff, you just run a marathon. I ran first marathon. Steamboat, Colorado. Nice. Right at finishing my residency. So I did my first marathon in 2003. And then came back came here started working probably did more cycling. And then I ran another marathon. I remember I trained for 2004, New York, and hurt myself. I mean, yeah, surprising. You couldn't run the race, but went out there. And I had a friend that was live in New York City, and what I remember is hanging around the South side of Central Park. And so I'm guessing these guys are like 240 finishers are pretty fast. There's a person coming to you. I'm walking with my wife, I see a guy come around the corner stop, vomit on a tree

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:59

and then you're saying That's for me. And then he

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 5:02

kept me kept running. I said, I gotta do this.

Tom Regal: 5:05

I'm not doing it right, I gotta do it. So

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 5:07

2005 I did the race. And then I started in New York in 2005. My second, and then I was, it was faster than my first I was within, you know, not very far from qualifying for Boston, which was easier than Yeah. And then, so I ran my third race, and qualified for Boston that lead to run a marathon. So we did a bunch of that. So that's kind

Tom Regal: 5:29

of the that. So when gifted for the endurance run,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 5:33

run the endurance. Well, yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 5:34

And then you move to Colorado and just, you know, do high altitude training. So it sounds like you were doing a lot of athletics during your residency. And was it something where you found it to just be an escape or it's just an extension? You will

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 5:47

probably be, you know, thinking about this? It's probably for me, probably both. Like, it's probably a good compensatory, healthy escape, like coping mechanism. Yeah. But it's become a little bit of who I am and what I enjoy. And, and it's not just, I mean, it's enjoyable.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:06

Yeah, I guess from a mindset standpoint, it's like some people like, Oh, I gotta go train, I have to go train versus you just need to get out and do something physical. So you could go back and your brain will go out

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 6:15

and do something physical, it's healthy. Yes, I always has found it. Well, actually, I should go back and tell one other story that I have found myself even telling patients. I remember the moment it was, it was, I was 24 years old. It was a second year. It was a third year medical school. You know, first two years, you spend mostly in classrooms. The third year, I had spent one, toot my first two month rotation in the hospital. So we're at an inner city hospital, Atlanta, Georgia. And you know, sleeping poorly eating Chinese food, I was probably 15 to 20 pounds heavier than I am today. 15 pounds, I would say, worst shape of my life. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:55

And I was just still 50 pounds lighter.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 6:59

And I'll tell you as you guys. And it was surrounded by like, I have to say I was surrounded by lots of unhealthy Yeah, individuals, and I say unhealthy in a lot of different ways, psychologically, physically, everything and people that looked older than they needed to look. And including some of you know, people in medicine, per se. I came home from that two month rotation exhausted, ran two miles in, in the highlands. In Atlanta, I was exhausted, tired. I was out of shape. And I remember that moment, because I said this isn't going to happen to me. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, not going to be like, this is not happening. And from that point forward. I can you know, through different things. I've not always been in race condition and top shape and I've never been a mess that

Kenny Bailey<br>: 7:49

but yeah, you can start take up smoking and you know, not you know, drinking just straight other.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 7:56

Right, I said, I'm gonna eat healthy, I'm gonna maintain my weight. I'm gonna stay fit. So that that was kind of the beginning of it. And then, you know, that was, that was a while ago. And then since I've gone on. Yeah. And so to answer your question, it's like, I just enjoy being active. It's become fun. And then all these now it's adventures. When you talk about alternatives and other stuff and Leadville, it's like,

Tom Regal: 8:18

well, now you're pushing yourself that sort of has always found you're always just pushing yourself just a little bit further. Can I do that? What about that? You have a friend that says, hey, why don't we go do this this exciting experiment or whatever? And you're like, Okay, I'll try this one.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 8:31

And when you're younger, like, I think this is typical. Like, at first it was like, Okay, I run a little faster. I get into Boston, Boston, and then and then it was a couple races later, I was like, I want to break. I did time, Barry I wanted to break and I bring like three hours. I was gonna say a breakthrough. I broke three hours, which I was real proud of it. That's fantastic. failed a few times. Sure. And then later, I wanted to see a PR Well, I think the PR was 10 years ago. I don't think it's coming again. Let's be honest. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:00

that's when you start going longer, right? Yeah.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 9:02

And then we say like, well,

Tom Regal: 9:03

that's my excuse. Like, not that fast. I'm just gonna go a little longer.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:06

I think to your point, though, it sounds like I think all three years the same ways as I need something that's slightly scares the shit out of me. Yeah, right. Yeah. To your point. It was running the marathon. Well, I Okay. I've conquered that it was Boston. Okay, I've conquered that. Right. It's like well, that's not going to scare me anymore. Yeah. Because I remember you and I are talking you were like what? And tell me if this is true, because it really pisses me off if it's true. It's like you know, within three minutes or what your time is gonna be like I think you were telling me like I don't know if I should just push on this run. You know, because I may you know, I could get under three but should I get under three and you were like off by three or four minutes I'm rather not you know, finishing or not finishing is number one for me. Four hours would be a dream but you know, not being completely you know, my calf not blowing up in the middle of a race would be awesome but you know, within minutes like that's how it kind of in tune your when it comes to these merits.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 9:53

Yeah, yeah, I've done enough to where that's kind of where I got to, and you know, you could argue but maybe I could be pushing harder and going fast. Sir but you know yourself but I knew myself I knew what I didn't do my plan and that sort of thing. So the

Tom Regal: 10:04

idea is not to get hurt. That's I mean, you have family, you have other responsibilities your patients to take care of like, you can't just like, kill yourself out there and

Kenny Bailey<br>: 10:13

you're fairly disciplined person just by just by your nature. You seem to be

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 10:18

disciplined and consistent. I think the key is consistency. Yeah, that's a

Tom Regal: 10:23

really good point. Yes. completely consistent.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 10:25

So you're bored with the marathons. You're like, you know, any fool can run when it was you?

Tom Regal: 10:33

Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 10:34

Have you done trail running before? Is it something good to me? I love trailrunning. The idea is that your clock gets to be put back.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 10:41

Oh, yeah, it's gonna go like I think. I think the first one was maybe 16 or 17. I started. Yeah, I think one was in 16. I ran that Music City. Okay. And I think this is the one I have a great picture that it's at the front of it. You can see David Goggins in the front of the shirt.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:01

Of course, yeah.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 11:03

And you see me kind of in the background, you can see me and I was like saying, can you tell the difference? But he's so that was a 16 race here was a 50k. So I did some 50 ks and I think I did one of the Naches trip Natchez Trace has a race and the first race your inaugural race was a 43 miler. So that was the first long one. I have since done a couple other 50s like a tunnel Hill and Natchez Trace. So I've done a couple of those and the trail runs became to your point. You know, at some point, you're not going to get any I'm not going to get any faster chasing that has lost its it's not as exciting anymore. Running in the woods reminds me of being a kid playing. Yeah, I get to play in the woods. Yeah, that's one thing. The race director at Leadville, said, they said how, like, all of us tomorrow get at least a day to play in the woods. Yeah, kids,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:59

the pressures off, right? Because because of the terrain, because of what you're doing, you know, one of the first times I remember, I think I did a 25k. And it was like trail running. And you know, people are walking up a hill and like you can, you can do that. Because they know that, you know, if you blow it, you can run up that hill, but you're done for the day. So you know, just the whole notion of you just throw your watch away. And you just like you said, you enjoy what you're doing.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 12:23

And Road Runners I know will say well, what's your pace would you get exactly right? Yeah. And I say you don't get it. You don't get the pace is dictated by like, a tree in front of me that the crawl over? Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 12:34

right. Yeah. Yeah. Is it slick?

Tom Regal: 12:36

There's so many people on the ultras that go off so hard. And, and the beginning stories of people just blowing up, you know, 1020 miles, and all of a sudden realizing it? Well, it's going too fast. Like, yeah, you got a long day ahead of you.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 12:48

And did you have to adjust yourself on that when you were doing it? Or did you Oh, kinda.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 12:51

Yeah, I mean, I would say absolutely. At first you go. It's like I knew how to I could she internally, we all know if we're running a five mile run 10 mile run or doing a 20 mile track? To kind of know, internally how hard to go, or if you run a marathon? Well, I was pretty good at knowing how to last 26 miles. Yeah, first time at 250 K. It's like mile 28. You're like wow, that gets too hot. So yes, absolutely. And I you know, I don't know if you've ever I mean, I guess I've had moments where I said this was really great. But I mean, I just ran after Leadville I ran a 50 miler Gosh was two months later it was whenever the Natchez Trace was and you know, I thought it was recovered probably mostly was but paced great for like a 55k. And then it got really hard. And I was like, it's just it's that's part of the game. Yeah, you slow down. You're just in highs and lows and just get through it. And I got through it. It was fine. So yeah, so

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:52

I guess that's what I wanted to talk to both you because you both have done 100 milers this year, and I have no desire whatsoever to do that. So it's kind of I want to do I actually want to do room to room but we'll talk yeah. So there's a to your point. There's a there's a time like you're comfortable with 2030 miles, right, you're you're training for 100 At what point does it get? Like does 50 get weird? Does 60 Get weird when to things like because I know you said you started hallucinating on your first on the first one. Yeah, like the bushes turned into rabbits and

Tom Regal: 14:25

I had all sorts of credit stuff but that was where I was looking back at that I had a lot of mental stress the week before Oh, dogs got sick. We lost one on the Monday before the race was on Friday. Yeah. So the second one got sick right after was in the hospital got released from the hospital the day I was driving out to the race almost didn't go to the race because it was that much craziness going on. Got out there wasn't sure I was going to have the will to do the race. My first 100 miler 14,000 feet of climbing. You know out there we're trying to figure this out and it was like so I got through it. The sun started coming up in the morning. And you know, 24, almost 24 hours into this race and that's when like my mind started to do funky stuff like leave started to take on forms, I saw boats I saw demon child, I saw a bunch of stuff. And I was just like I kind of absorbed it and I said, Okay, know what's going on? Yep. And then I just kind of enjoyed it. Because it was like, Okay, this is pretty wild. I mean, this is there's no way there's a boat out here. You know, there's no river. You know, what's, what's going on? And I kind of went through that and I met a few other people who were running with we're having that issue. Last year this year did it again, opposite direction, no stress, no extra stress, whatever. No hallucinations, nothing. It was perfectly perfect to say

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 15:43

well, well for me, I, I did pretty well, I did a one thing that went really well for me as my nutrition and so there was only one moment it was probably mile 85 in that range where I was maybe a little behind and we're it was completely dark in my part of this. If we go through the race, I'll kind of walk through this but my vision wasn't great at the time and and I swore I might have stepped on a rabbit and my pacer looked at me. He's like, you just I still don't read. He's like that someone poured some water on the ground. You're okay, so there's that moment, but the one thing I can think of is that I had in my reading and preparation and you know, I listen to podcasts and did some reading and so forth is I and I then I experienced this and I thought it was the most interesting thing. It was more on I did the Sterling gym 40 miler. Okay, so it's race in Tennessee. And, and I had read about if you start getting dark and negative, you might be hypoglycemic and need to eat look at it. Yeah. Interesting. You know, yeah. Okay.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:44

So every single race I must be.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 16:48

I remember there was one moment where like, I think this is this was so it was interesting me because it was really astonishing how, like, yeah, it's like, how specific this was I, I started getting really negative. And it's like, I was in my 30s. And I was like, why am I here? What a waste of a Saturday. What am I doing? Yeah. And I was like, This isn't me. Yeah. And but those thoughts were creeping in. And I said, I think I need to eat. Yeah, so that's like, emotionally, I like retained control. Yeah, didn't go down that path. And I just drink a bunch. I forget if I had some, you know, spring energy, or I drink a bunch of something at the next ad. And then within five minutes that came back.

Tom Regal: 17:28

Right. I'm saying, this is a Snickers bar. Sure.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 17:31

Yeah. You came out of that thing. So yeah, so it was like, so I had kind of had some experiences in training with that. Well,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:38

that's kind of interesting, right? Because you just learn a little something from every room. Yeah. So even if they're like, that was what a 30 miler was 40. Yeah, so in relative terms, yeah. You know, you know, it's not that much over but you learned quite a bit and you keep picking up these little, you know, nuggets of information to be able to do that. So, so what led field to me, I think is is it not knowing that it feels like it's one of the like, it's a Boston Marathon version, right? It's Leadville it's like one of the it's like New York Boston

Tom Regal: 18:07

Yeah, it's it's in the top top races. I mean, it's at altitude, I mean, it's at 11,000 feet what 10 Five is when Leadville is

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:14

you can you just

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 18:16

sign up for it? Or do you have to have like, you can read it you can you I guess there's probably a handful of people that get in you can when you can get in a lottery Yeah. There's some people to get in through the gym because it's sponsored by lifetime Oh, yeah. And there's probably a handful of people to get yeah yeah a handful of people that probably get invited because they win or other events but

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:39

general gets will get in because he's gotten Yeah.

Tom Regal: 18:42

Helicopter Yeah, jump out of a plane and wrestle a bear. Yeah,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 18:46

but I think they are but there's a lot of part of the reason part of the reason the low finisher rate is because there's a lot of first timers Yeah, because I think this year the finisher rate was like 44% and part of its its its first timers were a lot of some of the other big 100 milers require previous you have to get in lotteries with previous entries are qualified

Tom Regal: 19:07

yeah have some qualifying races to get you into that.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 19:10

But it's it was a 40th year this year. Oh nice. That's which which is That's amazing. Yeah. Which is a while so I think Western States coming up is going to be 50th Yeah, but

Tom Regal: 19:20

it's Western states is the granddaddy and Leadville is right behind it. Yeah,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 19:24

so like these are you know, we're neither

Tom Regal: 19:26

for the US race is hard rock you've got Yeah, Western states definitely up there. Leadville was way up in that Yeah. And they have the whole lead man series so you can do that half iron or the half marathon. What is it a 50 miler

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 19:39

they're 50 mile marathon they have 100 mile mountain bike Yeah, they might have another mountain bike to that Yeah, I

Tom Regal: 19:46

think there's a shorter mountain bike as well if you do all five events in one year you get the lead man. You know how stupid we are. It's crazy. It's like it's like a pickaxe miners pickaxe which is Yeah, He's done it. So it's just kind

Kenny Bailey<br>: 20:01

of like the dopey challenge in Disney. You get more, you get more medals and Phelps, right? Yeah, I did a double century bike ride because we did it one year. But if you did three of them, you get a jersey. And we're like, well, we gotta get you got to do that. So we did three double centuries, and then the five double centuries, you get a gold band nice. And I'm like, well, we got to have a gold band. I mean, come on. It's just the dumbest thing.

Tom Regal: 20:21

That's why I went back to the no bids, no business 100 was because if you do both directions, you get an extra buckle. Bigger buckle where you guys are finishing. So I have two buckles just for finishing one year and then the next year. And then then I got the double buckle, which is almost the size of both of them. It's massive. Well, I'm wearing it to a family wedding. And yeah, I mean,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 20:41

amateur road racing, right. We're doing great. Right and in order to keep the pace up what they do is they do premiums are premium labs. Yeah, yeah. And so one of the premiums was like a six pack of beer. So you got these weekend warriors, going 3540 miles an hour just you know, the joke is for any you know, any those rates to people are gonna go home in an ambulance. You just you don't want to you so you're doing a premium you're going like crazy. You've trained like hell to get a six pack of beer. You know, it's like the most insane thing we do just for was there a buckle?

Tom Regal: 21:12

A sleeve of Oreos? Yes. I got a sleeve of Oreos wasn't

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:16

that funny. But the people that know when they see the buckle, it's sort of like when you get down with Leadville and they see that

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 21:22

well, that's that was my that's my number one goal was to finish. My second goal was to get the bigger buckle.

Tom Regal: 21:33

Absolutely.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:33

And I take it under a certain time you get a bigger buck. Yeah, bigger buck. Oh, wow. Yeah,

Tom Regal: 21:37

like Nora Norseman. You get the the black T shirt or the white t shirt. Right? If you do that's fun. You know?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:42

So how did you get it? And did you get it through lottery I

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 21:44

got in I got into the gym. Okay. And so which they had I think you've you've been a member of the the lifetime gym, which is gym, that's real close to the office and right here in the area locally. Then they let certain amount of people in I don't I? I don't know how many people get in that way. And then how much? How much did you throw them away?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:05

You know, maybe you're gonna remember your Benjamin Franklin think we really need to just say it. I don't know where that came from, sir. It's

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 22:14

not mine. It's I got it that way. Like, you know, there's there was a window and and anyway, so how many

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:23

months? Did you want it? Was it between signup training?

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 22:26

It was the signup. I think it was in around the new year. It was around January. And the races when and the race is August. It was I think August 19. You started January training? Well, what I was thinking about it and one thing I you know, again, prep you when you when you speak, when I think about prepping for this that the prep is probably been everything I've ever done. Yeah, yeah,

Tom Regal: 22:49

you're right. You're consistent with your training year over year. So this builds. So it's just a matter of specific training for this

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 22:56

specific thing. But you think oh seven, one thing I did in the fall, that was kind of a game is I said, Well, you don't want to put in more miles and just see if I can run more big events close to each other and, and tolerate it. So I ran the Natchez Trace marathon, which is a trail marathon and I ran the one in Percy Warner flying monkey find one two weeks later. Great. And then three weeks later, I did a 50k in Montgomery Bell. Okay. And I just approached those all just when I went slower. Yeah. Like I kind of put my hat down like this.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:31

Is that is that is that a hard thing to it was less B because you're running like sub threes.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 23:35

It was a little more difficult. But like, when you start thinking of that it wasn't that difficult. I just said, I gotta run this like a training run because I want to run another marathon in two weeks. And I figured out that I could Yeah, but I just had to go significantly slower. Like my marathon time on that thing was 40 minutes slower than I had run a couple years before. But a trail marathon I just slowed down a lot. So and then I did the next one and ran it slower than I probably could have and then ran the 50k and I so that kind of was my Yeah, I was like okay, I think I can like run Leadville. That was kind of my like, if I could do this man. Yeah. So then I started then and then I, you know, then I started putting some miles in. I like downhill skiing. So I went on a couple ski trips and my number one goal through that was like, Okay, people say, Well, what about your Leadville training? I said, Well, first thing is I need to not get injured. Yeah. So you know when I check, you know, yeah, check. So when I put my skis up at the end of the winter, yeah, I was like, Okay, I'm number one done. Yeah, you're very much you'd like to live

Kenny Bailey<br>: 24:40

life gives you like a grocery list or you like giddy

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 24:45

everything. So I got to do that. And then I probably then started putting more miles in and in April, you know, April, April, May, June, July. What's

Tom Regal: 24:56

your What was your typical weekly mileage? Let's marathon like for for marathon before, when you were going faster times and stuff, were 40 to 64 to 60. Okay, and what did you get to?

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 25:09

I probably was more in the 50 to 70. And will or maybe even it's surprisingly not that it's not that much, someone were like maybe even 60 or 65. But that the hours were a little bit more because it was slower. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 25:24

What percentage was off road versus on road?

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 25:26

I would say, as far as days of the week, it was three out of six. Okay. As far as time it was probably 75% percent. So you

Kenny Bailey<br>: 25:37

would do a couple of like, in during the week just yet? Did you show up to like, run group?

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 25:42

Yeah, run groups do run a couple, you know, five, seven miles, eight miles, maybe I'd get it loose. Yeah, something like that. Maybe I tried to Wednesday at a half day of work. So I have the afternoon. And I'd always try to particularly prepping for Leadville to try to get out to one of our local parks and do some laps just to be because I, I learned before on trail runs. It's like, Oh, why is this so hard? It's because I haven't been running on the trail. Because different miles. Yeah,

Tom Regal: 26:10

different muscles, trails teach you to pick your feet up.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 26:14

smaller steps, lateral movement, all the different stuff. So yeah, figure that out. And then I do like big weekends, Saturday and Sunday.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:21

Were you doing weight training as well? Or was it just

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 26:24

a little bit, but then as I got more miles,

Tom Regal: 26:26

you couldn't do? Just too much? I

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 26:28

mean, you know, I, you know, I was looking at something in Jason coupe. Ultra. So he has like a book. It's about Yeah, so he has this flow diagram that I agree. It's kind of like, should you do weight training? It's like, Could you be running more? Wood running more help you run more? Yes. Do you know how to lift weights? Do you know how to lift weights and not get hurt? And like you have to see the right answers to all those before the end of it. It's like, just go around. There's no no time for me to do a lot of weight training. But I did more weight training at different times through the winter. Months before. Yeah, so

Kenny Bailey<br>: 27:03

recovery is near and dear to my heart. So what was your career looking like, as you're doing that? Do you try to just or were you? Are you just naturally gifted? You don't? Well, what part like hamstrings are terrible for me is or is there a particular thing that you know,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 27:16

I you know, you know, no, I probably it's probably a weakness. Like I'd say, I could probably stretch more, I think, either were probably times training where I probably was overtraining, you know, where you're just like, I feel exhausted. Yeah, you're just dragging. I was like, I'm tired. But I think one thing I've been able to self regulate is recovery. It's just not pushing too much. Like, I need to take a day off or, or, you know, I had this idea that I want to run eight miles today, but it's gonna be four.

Tom Regal: 27:44

Yeah. So you're good with that. That helps. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 27:47

so you're walking dichotomy, which is cracking me up? Because it seems like you very much like a program, right? You like to write stuff down, you'd like to do research, but you're, you're astute enough to know that just because it says eight doesn't mean I'm doing eight today. Or if it supposed to be a training day and you wake up to your point, like I'm thinking of overtraining that you can just you can, you can say stop. Yeah, that's a rare treat. But some people have Yeah, the reason why people go to you is because people like me that don't know. It's at eight I did. Yeah. Are you feeling my caffeine?

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 28:16

In maybe? And maybe I know this because I've done it. I've done it before. Yeah. Okay. You kind of learned that and then you get older and then you say like, okay, like, I want to I want to do something in a week. And you know, just filling out the box on the piece of paper doesn't really

Tom Regal: 28:30

and as you get older, it takes you twice as long if not more to recover and it's more devastating.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 28:38

How was your fuel then? I mean, are you generally a clean eater anyway? Or is it something that you do you have to like increase the protein was or the carb increase? What what those things that well, I'll take it for what I knew for me, that's a difficult thing.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 28:49

Trent Well, training and I'll say training and then race. Yeah, differently. Yeah, we will get to the race and the training. Yeah, I generally eat pretty healthy. So like, I generally, you know, don't eat much fast food. You know, luckily, my wife cooks really clean and healthy. So there's healthy stuff around the house, you know, we don't have a lot of junk food and that sort of thing, but at the same time, when you start putting on more miles, yeah. And, you know, I'd come off weekends where, you know, I did, you know, four hours on on the trails on Saturday and two and a half hours on Sunday. And it's Monday and I'm ravenous. Yeah, like and I can say this medically, it doesn't matter at some point. It's just you need Yeah, you need to feel reaching Yeah, eating bread or you know what I read I mean, bunch of bread is disco anything on it? You just you want to eat something? Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 29:42

Well on your engine. I mean, your furnace.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 29:43

Organ? Yeah, where you finished a big thing and it's like, Okay, I'm gonna stop and you know, get a subway. I don't know. Yeah, you know, is there

Kenny Bailey<br>: 29:51

I have to tell you because I know when I'm like, if I do a hard workout or I do a hard run and I'm super hungry for some reason fried chicken. sounds incredible. Is there is there Like, is there a thing? I know fried chickens terrible. I know that. But don't tell my body that all I want is fried chicken. Like when I get done when I got done with Ironman Half Ironman in Muncie, I think I think a drink of like a liter of beer and fried chicken. That was I don't know why. But is there is there like a craving you have something that I

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 30:19

think it's interesting you say, Isn't it and it's probably different for everybody, but, but your body will crave what you need.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 30:25

Like if my body needed for a while I think to your point, I think I'm hypoglycemic when it comes to this because I hydrogenated the hell out of myself. Yeah, it

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 30:33

was terrible if you're hungry. Yeah. Like, like, if you're low on protein, sometimes you your body is craving protein. And if it's, if it's carbs you need, it's like, it's just carbs. And so, you know, hard for to say I just, I never, I've never really, I've been very lucky with nutrition in the sense of like, I can digest just about anything Lucky. Lucky. And that's, you know, something that's probably an attribute that helps with the 100 mile run. Oh, totally. You know, if you just had to put things in a pie graph and say, What do you need to be successful? If you have a gut? That is pretty resilient? Yeah,

Tom Regal: 31:08

you'll do okay. Yeah, that's, yeah,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 31:12

what you can't, you know, that's just,

Tom Regal: 31:14

there's back and forth. And people say, you can train your gut to do that, you know, to be that way. And I was like, I think there's a certain amount of that, but there's a certain amount of inflammation, if your body gets inflamed, certain people have different responses to that. And you can train it a little bit, you can get used to eating on the run. But I think if you're gonna have these big inflammation reactions to things, you're gonna get some

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 31:35

idea. Some people are like, and I guess this happened system with my experience. professionally. There's a bell curve of every attribute of human Yeah. exists. Exactly. Yeah. Like your gut tolerance is one of those. Yeah, and so anyway, well, I

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:50

think it's it's I think newer people that even like marathon runners or anybody else I think they under called nutrition during the race, more than anything else, like it surprises almost everybody. I mean, I think that's the, the trough you have to go through. Right? The the education you have to go through is like mile 30. You know, your body is going to react differently to whatever fuels you thought you were going to do. I remember my first marathon, I thought I would take seven gels, right. And I was driving. Like, that's not going to work, right. So you just know, like, I have to take more real food because but you, you don't know that until you go through that kind of deal. Experience.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 32:30

Oh, and I can, you know, can add on to that, the longer you are out there exercising, and this is you need more food. And obviously, even training, like I'll generally when I'm not going to be out more than an hour and a half. And even if it's a weekend run with other people, I could go two hours and not eat, but I figured out training during this event. Yeah, that if I'm going to be it's, I'm actually it's a better training event. And I feel better if I actually eat a little bit since it's gonna be more than an hour, hour and a half and you eat a little bit concerned, a little bit of carbohydrate. I feel better. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 33:09

And so what is your what is your Are you more like, do you when you did the 100? Or you do the 50s? Is it more like you eat like, potatoes with salt on it? Are you more like liquid nutrition? Okay, so

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 33:20

I'll tell you, you know, I, I thought about this, and again, had kind of a plan and I guess, and again, it goes back to again, this is it, you know, no one and it's me. I had all these, like I had all this idea with food and I'll tell you what happened. Yeah. Number one as I said, I gotta stay hydrated and part of this is coming off training in Tennessee. Yeah, I got used to it drink and so much fluid because you know, we know it's hot is anything in the summer I trained all through the summer, I didn't drink tons of fluid just to survive a two hour run. Yeah, right. So I said, What one thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have dilute scratch. Like, whenever I'm drinking, I'm gonna have dilute scratch. So I consumed a lot of scratch energy, which was added up to a lot of calories. And sometimes it would really be nice. If I had a leader that it'd be I mixed it such as it'd be 160 calories of that, just so I was I was doing that at least every hour, and sometimes a little bit more. So I was getting a lot of liquid energy, which is great, which again, worked great for me. I never had any GI issues from it. And then I packed spring energy, which I like to tolerate. Yeah. And I had a bunch of that now I had also packed rice and potatoes and like a whole bunch of other stuff as it worked out. For most of the race, I was just doing spring energy gel and doing scratch and then it got like a couple times. You know if I go through if I you know, there's different points on this, but there's one point I got a little bit behind it was like before mile 50 Yeah. And then when I got to the aid station, I had coke and ginger ale and they had some cake there. had some potatoes and some other stuff. I just basically just throw it in your garage

Tom Regal: 35:05

aid station set. These altars are amazing a buffet of this the most amazing foods and it's great. It

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 35:12

was great. They had cashews, there's some fantastic stuff numbered and forgetting what it was. But it was anyway hope pass has a fantastic aid station today, which is pretty cool. So I did that. And then when I got back to my miles 62 of that race you end up that's when you have some Pacers? Yeah. Okay, you can have pacer starting at 62 on that race. And, and through the rest of it. I just consumed a little bit more, but it had all this solid food. Yeah, like Fig Newtons. And for whatever reason, I think, like my assumption is I had, I wasn't behind in salt. I wasn't craving salt. So my assumption is I had done a good enough job of supplementing that with all my energy drinks that I got there. And it's like, I thought I'd want all this solid food but I just I just wanted by the end I wanted coke. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 36:03

yeah. Yeah. Because once you I understand once you open up that Pandora's box, you gotta throw in caffeine. Oh,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 36:08

I was like, Coke was like. It's like, yeah, I was like, I remember being on hope. Hope past you guys have coke. And they're like, No, we have I'm like, Okay, that's great.

Tom Regal: 36:19

Well, they're not my favorite eight states. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 36:23

When the sun goes down and Iron Man right is when they get the they get the bronze. Yeah, the broth out. And so I lived off a coconut broth. I'm like, and I'm running with people. And we could chicken broth. We could take chicken broth. Chicken broth coke. Yeah, that's it. It's just I don't know what it is yet.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 36:39

So my experience was a salt. You don't know. Like, I had all these ideas. Ideas. Yeah. And then when it came down to it, I just, I did stay on top of it. So it was okay. But I did an interesting

Kenny Bailey<br>: 36:51

thing you say about sodium though, because I never really thought about that. Because you always think about calorie. Yeah. But not necessarily about sodium. Because that's that could be it right? You start getting hungry all of a sudden you're so

Tom Regal: 37:00

here's a that helps with absorption, too. Yeah, yeah. So here's your here's a good story. What happened? I did 100k and Alabama in the heat of the night in August as my training race. My my B race leading up to it. So it's 420 5k loops. I get out there. It's hot. We're sweating like crazy. I've got a good plan set up. I've done it the year before I get through the first 25k I feel good. I'm right on pace, right where I need to be a meeting when I need to be everything. I get out there for the second loop before I get to the first aid station and three aid stations. So every five miles essentially, I start to feel like crap. I mean, like I'm bonking at this point. But I've been eating and going through stuff. But I realized looking back at it now that they didn't have electrolyte mix like they used to at the aid stations. They had tailwind, which was great, because I love tailwind but there was no electrolytes. So I barely made it. That second loop. And I was like if I don't feel good. I'm I'm out like and I don't ever want to drop out of the race. I mean, you get lows and stuff. So it comes through. I had started taking in salt, I tried to grab everything that I possibly good. I found somebody at the station had salt tabs, I got those, I had a bunch of those. So I'm doing this as I get back, get back where my wife was helped me at the aid station. And I get this bonus stuff. That's this hydrolyzed salt, essentially. So I take that with me, I take a few days of that small, more salt tabs. I'm just chomping the salt at this point because I'm not thinking about it because this usually kicks me out of it. So now I start to feel good. So I head back out there again, my third loop, I'm killing it. I'm right on pace. Everything's great. And I just keep going with the salt. I figure I'm good. The fourth loop I get out there before I get to that first aid station. I'm an envelope. Ah, I'm purple. I'm so swollen. I can't run too much. I went way over to the opposite direction is good. And it's like yeah, and it was just I wasn't paying attention. I think it was the stuff that I was spraying in because I wasn't I was just like, it's like a breath mat right at this point. And so I'm going along and it's still dark, because we start at 6pm and coming through in the morning. And I'm like and I'm like, I don't, I can't I can't flex my hand. I'm like this as the sun is coming up. My arms are purple. And my legs are purple. I was just a big Oompa Loompa and I was like, Oh no. Now what do I do? So then it was like potassium, I need a banana and I need a lot of water. I can't eat anything because it all has sodium in it. So I spent that whole loop just basically surviving to get that flushed out of my system, which took me a little bit longer added an extra hour probably on to my race to get back to the start finish line. I felt better when I got back but even at the finish line photos my wife was saying like I was gonna post the picture but yeah, you'll look yeah, I was. I was really bad. I mean, how bad was that? Is that Yeah, is that something like I should have just been like,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 39:57

well, you're okay here.

Tom Regal: 39:59

I knew how manage that, because I've done enough races where I've gone I've gone the opposite direction. Yeah. And I know I've gone not quite this far before. I've had experiences with that. And we kind of figured out what to do really quickly. But I mean, that's something to watch out for. Oh, yeah,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 40:14

you had? Yeah, I think I think that, you know, my take on a lot of that is, if you allow your, there's always a balance here. Because with with eating, you have to for an alternate event like this, you have to be ahead of the game, you have to eat early, and often you have to eat early and often. You have to be ahead of it from a hydration standpoint, some of that needs to be thirst driven. I think, like if you if you you can, it can be dangerous if you over consume free water and you can kill yourself that yeah, and and then the same with salt to like this habitual. You know, so I, you know, looking back, I think it's from my own experience, the fact that I came in, and I didn't want the potatoes with salt. And some and the potato said you didn't need I didn't need it. Yeah, like that's what it was. But when I saw that, Coke there look like cocaine. Yeah. Like I wanted that. So yeah, I remember that.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 41:12

Sugar man. It was just a beautiful day. When is the best? So yeah, so So Leadville is that at elevation? You're in Tennessee, which is not? Yeah. How does one train for that?

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 41:23

Well, what I did well, first of all, there's, there's an element and I'm answering this, partly from my experience, and partly from my medical knowledge and physiology is part of it is you're never going to be unless you were out there for six weeks and trained, you're not going to be as good as you could be if you were local. Sure, like so if we, if the three of us were, you know, training Olympic team, and this was an event, say we need our athletes out there six weeks before, and we need some training in Denver, and I'm gonna be there. Now, I didn't do that. Now, what most of us do is there's two choices. You either go out a day, like right before the event, and try not to get sick and hope that if you get altitude sickness, you're mostly near the finish line. Which I chose not to do or be more than four days ahead. So I went out there. I flew out Sunday night, and went up and stayed in Breckenridge. And then just for the week, kind of did some reading and chilled out went on some three mile run and kept it real low, kept it low key high THC

Kenny Bailey<br>: 42:20

to keep you sleeping.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 42:22

We did that. It was great. And I think that, you know, I can only assume that having had five nights at altitude, yeah, made a huge difference. Because you know, other than I can say coming over hope passed the second time, which is at 12. Six, and I was like mile 55. Maybe. I had a little bit of a headache. And I was like, Okay, I don't feel good. Is this fatigue, headache, altitude sickness. And I at the same time, I'm like, Well, if it's altitude sickness, I'm about ready to go down. 3000 feet. Yeah. So and they did it was done. Yeah. So that was it. Oh, perfect. So I like survived the altitude. So that's the answer to that is I a week ahead. And I think if I had to give advice to someone, I'd say if you can give you can do that, if you can do that. That's huge. Okay.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 43:08

Is it a dumb question? Is it the, is it a, is it a similar thing? If people are coming in from like better, traditionally drier on the West Coast, for example, and you come in into the south with that much humidity? Or is it just you're gonna sweat?

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 43:20

I think well, altitude, I think he's just separate. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 43:23

Is there a similar type of thing for people that, like when we first moved to South? Yeah, because we came from California to South my kids started doing cross country, they were purple when they came home. Like they just didn't understand that sweat, sweat. I just didn't know if it was 100. Well,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 43:38

what I understand about heat training, so let me kind of talk about this. So from a standpoint of the training is one of the Yeah, the difference with if you're, let's say you're used to exercising in Scottsdale, Arizona in the heat versus Tennessee Well, in Arizona, you're not going to be soaking wet. But you're may be sweating just as much or more.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 43:59

Yeah, it just dries well. That's

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 44:00

the tricky thing about the tricky part you guys obviously don't realize it and it reminds and and so the difference here is just you're soaking wet sweating. So I think you know he training in my mind should be equivalent. Okay? Like it's your it's if you're used to sweating now if you're if you're like a friend of mine and another prep event for this, my friend, I helped paste my friend to the Key West 120 Yeah, that was super. And in fact, a side note here and that was we talked about I helped him with some ideas on how to prep because in Tennessee, it's just April May, it's not so hot, he had to go down there for an 85 degree heat and so he did some stuff to kind of prepare for to be super hot, and be trained and there's some things you can do for that. But I guess what was I gonna say? The one thing that helped me about doing QA ever see every event helps me. Yeah, I think you're thinking you're making me think of two examples when I did the Key West one. So I go down there I'd never seen a hunt Before this was in May before the August event, and I kind of thought I knew what 100 Miles was when I saw saw him. Do 100 miles. I was like, Oh my God. That's crazy. So yeah, so I would finish the race Monday I fly home. He's there with his buddy. They're still hanging out at a pool on Tuesday. They look on Strava I ran 14 miles. I said Jeff scared. And they texted me. And I said, Actually, you're right. I was like, I'm freaked out a little bit. Yeah. So that's when the end then. Anyway, so the other thing you said about being hot is I ran a Las Vegas marathon a couple years ago. And I it was, it was relatively warm. Yeah. But it was so dry there. Yeah, I didn't drink enough. Because I didn't realize what how much I was sweating. Yeah. And

Kenny Bailey<br>: 45:56

my first time in Arizona was in you know, I was living in Tennessee moved air, you know, went to Arizona. And the first thing you can think of is like, this is fantastic. There's no humidity. But the second thing you realize is I literally packed three chopsticks because you just get dry, right? And it's weird. So I'm like, Well, if I put a chapstick in my bike and that can help on a myriad of things by lips conveying if I get a little rash or whatever, you can do that. But yeah, it was just like, you just don't understand like that difference between and then when you are going from drying you come in here you're just like you feel like you're trying to run in a swamp right? You got to feels like there's a cotton Yeah, you know thing in your mouth that you're trying to breathe through. It's just like and you just have to adjust for that. So you know we've been dancing around the the conversation of Leadville but you're there for days ahead. What was the plan going again? What What was the plan? Okay,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 46:43

so the so you know, I'm there ahead of time I had some good friends come out on Thursday, we got to Leadville have a house was great with another friend. And gosh, how many of us were in the house? Maybe seven of us total? Oh, it was great. So one guy had done the race three or four times before he helped her we had a good buddy of mine and other friend that did the keys that who's there to pace me another friend that came in to pace? You know? So how big was your support for them? That for us was for me specifically it was two I'd my buddy was there and he had three people and two people but we were all kind of together. Got it? Yeah. So we're all together so we basically

Kenny Bailey<br>: 47:21

just got ignore you got

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 47:24

five who and why support people in two runners. Okay, that's great. Sounds good. So we So did that got there. And then you know, the race starts race there starts at 4am. So, you know that I remember the night before and this is, you know, we all I lower, you know, a bunch of, I guess spaghetti at about five o'clock, right? So it's like 630 And like, Let's go to bed. Everyone's like you should go to bed. Try to get some sleep. Yeah, I remember sitting staring at the ceiling. Yeah. Five or six hours. Yeah. And then slept. Maybe two. Yeah. And then the alarm goes off at like 130 in the morning. Well, it's a big deal. I mean, this is local. Yeah, you're just like saying like, I'm sitting here thinking like, you know all the thoughts that go through your head you're like you're excited you don't disappoint I wonder how well it's gonna go like here's my piece

Kenny Bailey<br>: 48:08

is your mindset because doing Boston is also sort of a you know, it's a it's a bucket list event right before Boston. Did you feel the same way you did that? Or did you feel the same way Leadville? Which one felt a little I think

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 48:17

well for a it's hard to think back to the first one but but very similar, was it I think, but Leadville was more frightening

Kenny Bailey<br>: 48:24

because of the distance and because like there's so many things Oh, yeah. Like

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 48:27

it's just like I had listened to people that did it and podcast and being there

Tom Regal: 48:32

and seeing the grandeur for 20,000 voters and you're all around you is like, wow, yeah, just mind blown.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 48:40

Like it was yeah, there's so there's, like an element of like, I feel very confident know what to do. But there's more of this is beyond my control. Yeah, like it's gonna happen. And my goodness, big, like, this big. Um, I can get out to see some of roll my ankle and I can get so sick. I can eat like, I really want to finish this thing. Like, what's the like, the weather report was pretty good. Because

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:03

how prepared did you feel going in? Did you feel like you did enough?

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 49:06

I yeah, I felt like I did enough. Now if you if you drill down and say Could I be? Goodness is the always the

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:13

everybody's always gonna say that. Oh, yeah. If you felt healthy, you felt I felt healthy

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 49:17

and well, and good enough, and in a great place, and the prep was great. And all that was good. Now, you know, I could do more specific training and kind of push your lactate threshold. But like, it was more for me just about being healthy and well, and rested and fit, but

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:33

that wasn't in the back of your head, like,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 49:34

you know, you felt good. I felt good. I felt like I'm competent do this. And in fact, you know, part of the thing that was exciting for me is like I remember in particular, and this was months before that. There was a ledger podcast. And I don't know this. I don't know this guy's story that much. But it was all about drew Peterson. I think drew Peterson he's a professional skier he had finished the year before and he had broke 25 hours. So I listened to his old adventure. And, and I was like, you know, I think I think I'm fit enough, you know, I'm not 29 And I'm not an ex professional skier I think I am, but

Kenny Bailey<br>: 50:14

But I said, I think you're a mediocre soccer player.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 50:19

We went on a long run. You're the guy when the coach says, Go run for eight miles. And Eric is like, Oh, please. I'm talking. Anyway, so. So I, I listened to that and listened to his whole trials and tribulation about through the race. And I was like, I think that was like, in my mind set my I didn't want to talk about it too much. But my a goal in my head was like, and I told my guys, it's like, this isn't about anyone else. It's not about like, the standings or anything. I said, I want to finish number one, I said, but I think I can beat 25. And I'd like that big bug is Yeah. And so that was that was a, it's a nice bump. And yeah, and I just so that was in my head at the start. And then how

Kenny Bailey<br>: 51:02

much does that drive you? Because that drives me way more than it should? Right? Because everyone's like, well, I just want to finish it like no, you don't? I mean, you do. There's always a number. Yeah, I

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 51:10

think, you know, for me, I think there has to be whatever it is, like whatever your benchmark is, for me, that was my benchmark. And

Kenny Bailey<br>: 51:18

well, I think the number is also based off your ability to mobility, like, I'm never going to figure out how to do at 25. Like I like when I want you to have I'm like, I should be able to keep this pace. Because I know during my training plan, I can lose pace. Yeah. So when I start doing math, I'm thinking, okay, it should be around this number. And then you know where it goes or where doesn't go. So there's always a number there. So 25 was a magic number.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 51:36

That was magic number. And again, it's kind of it's about buckle in. It's a big buckle. It's

Tom Regal: 51:41

just Yeah, it's the bigger buckle.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 51:44

Come on. Totally swag sachet into a restaurant in Denver with that bad boy. Heck, yeah, you're not you're not buying drinks. Look it up, buckle this manager and put a scorpion in it. He's a 25 hour man. Anyway, so you tow the line. You're for a it's just 20 fives in your head. And then

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 52:06

I think goes off. You know, there's, I think 826 People started I remember that number.

Tom Regal: 52:13

And they talk about the it's a shotgun blast that goes off. And they that's frickin awesome. Yeah, they talk about they pack it, they pack the shell with a little extra powder. So it gives a little bit more.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 52:26

Because kin Clover the cancer cancer guys Yeah, shuts it off. And then. And then Mary Lee, she's the one at the finish to get. They said that prerace they said, you know, basically, it's really simple. When the gun goes off, you start running. And when Mary Lee puts the thing around your neck, you can.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 52:42

Yeah, so it's like, any questions. So start climbing, and if we get what else they should do start just started 10

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 52:51

two, okay, so you tend to and then, you know, kind of on a road out of town. Oh, and one thing, let me full circle to this is my third year residency in 2003. In February, I did a rural rotation where I spent three weeks working at the hospital in Leadville. So it was like a clear kind of connection there. So a little bit of connection and small hospital and just, gosh, I'm sure it's expanded into and purchased and so forth. But one side was the acute care. And then the other side was the the, like assisted living or nursing. Okay, so that's how small was Yeah, I think so. Anyway, so I you know, I kind of knew about that way back. So this was full circle for me. Yeah. And my first marathon was at steamboat, which is yeah, you're right there, Colorado. So I kind of joked with some friends I said, this is a great story, because it's 20 years and if something happens to me, it's a great like, bookend. Yeah, 20 years later.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 53:46

It goes bad, we just wheel them into the hospital.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 53:50

Yeah, started off, you had like a couple out, you know, you kind of go out of town and you're on a dirt log, like kind of a dirt road, you kind of it's a little bit of dirt on your there were sections that like we're hiking up really steep stuff. And I just like, I just go easy and have a laugh. And I just laughed as like, this is where my Lodge and I'm like a log jam of people and I'm hiking up something that's so steep, my heart rates really high. And we're like, This is crazy. So then we have to go around turquoise lake like, five, six miles to maybe the first plane you see your cruise at 12 and a half, you get around like so you get this long section and and what I'd read before is like, just get comfortable. Don't spend time trying to pass people. It's a waste of effort. And and I did and it was good. And we chatted with people and they talked and and so

Kenny Bailey<br>: 54:38

that community is really nice, right? Everyone's pulling for each other super friendly fan. Oh, it was great.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 54:42

Like I saw on Dean karnezis at the Expo. And I like I said, Can I get a picture with you? And he said, I said I read your book like 10 or 15 years ago, he said and you still like me?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 54:55

You're here today? Kinda. Yeah, kinda. Yeah, yes. That's

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 55:00

pretty cool. So that by so got around to the first thing 12 That's when you start seeing your people and it was excited. It's a big aid station because so for a race like this Every, every 15 miles you see people so they're, you know, stripped off some stuff got rid of the headlight and then had another section had to go over Sugarloaf Mountain. So 1000 feet of elevation was doing the scoop trying to figure out how to run walk and and then came around down that you've heard power line is kind of a famous climb down that's like 1800 feet of steep downhill. And then you get to your group at 24 miles where Outward Bound, which is the next spot and I remember coming into there I saw Sally McRae yellow runner, and like I was like, Oh, wow, Sally, like I almost stopped it, like get a picture. But even though in retrospect, I should have stopped,

Tom Regal: 55:49

she would have been fine.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 55:53

I said I'll see her later. But then I didn't see her later. she I think she was there pacing someone. So my buddies there. And they it was great, because we had, like, since we had five people and two of us like, and my buddy was behind me. So they're, you know, we kind of all helped each other. They're putting stuff and get me taken care of. And then, and then I select everybody, the next one of my buddies just sitting

Kenny Bailey<br>: 56:15

back there just yet. We weren't together. So anyway, so you're on, you're on pace for your 25.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 56:22

Yeah, and I really was Yeah. And I had looked at my pace thing. And they said, Jeff, you're fine. I found a pay pace thing. And I was like, I wasn't really looking at it much. But then when I came in, I looked at it and like okay, surprise, surprise. And mostly it was like my I was completely at that point. And I can say I was completely and I can't remember the numbers now. But I was I had done like I need to consume three 500 milliliter things scratch, I need to do this mini spring energies, I need to come in with this many calories because that was kind of figuring 250 an hour for me. And so I was on pace. And then the next section, when you go from there, up until 38 is Twin Lakes as you go up, and you're kind of next to mount massive and Mount Elbert mount Albert's the tallest peak in Colorado, and you're up kind of aspen for a single track. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous cutting edge. I mean, it's beautiful. And I remember one time the only time I fell in the race. So I met this other guy. His name is Garrett. And we were talking and he's like, Yeah, I met Sally, certainly. A woman. So as she He says, Yeah, I took a picture with her had a great sopra great conversation with her and he pulls his phone out of his pocket. I fall. And like scrape up my hand. I'm bleeding. I'm like, well, that's okay. Yes, it's the worst thing. And then, and then he is trying to look at his pictures to show me a picture of him and her together. He fought. And I said, I said, I said I said I don't think we should look at the phone. Or 35 Right. So anyway, I came into Twin Lakes and with my guys and the whole group was there. It was exciting. They said, Oh Jeff, you're doing great. I said I feel wonderful. And one thing I say I learned that I had never experienced with is you know for that race, there's periods where you're running flat hiking, uphill, running downhill, and I recognized by this point in the race I was running a lot of flats and uphill and then I I was then I started running downhill into Twin Lakes because you kind of come up from it'd be 1000 feet and go down to 9200 maybe and I and I was looking my muscles I said I can't wait to hike up hill because Twin Lakes you have to run across a meadow for a couple miles and then 3500 feet up to go over you're

Kenny Bailey<br>: 58:37

one of the people that say that but I know it sounds counterintuitive but

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 58:41

it is counterintuitive but it's because it was more muscular Yeah, it was like I'm just need to activate activate other muscles relax and once I started hiking I was like this is coming Yeah, it doesn't hurt as much because I've been running so much under that points down so you know I got good good news. It was a little warmer than average but coming from Tennessee and hike and training summer it wasn't hot by any means. Yeah maybe it'd be nicer but the good thing was is there were no storms yeah so when it came into my 38 I was like do I need my rain jacket my rain stuff and all this and they said Jeff No rain a new pack for all Yeah, I had all this stuff

Kenny Bailey<br>: 59:17

is there is there is like is there both of you on this? I think socks for you is a big deal is there are socks a big Is there a certain sort

Tom Regal: 59:24

of concern about your feet would you would you do for foot care for foot care? What

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 59:27

I did is I looked them up had good socks, good shoes. And then when I got back at mile 62 I stripped that off and they wiped off my feet really new socks and a different pair of shoes. Good. So I switched like we've gotten

Tom Regal: 59:41

out this is now back Yeah. And there's no water crossings. There was a water cross there was one there

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 59:46

was a water crossing. So I left at Twin Lakes were left across some water you know short stream so I got wet, hiked up the hill, and then I would get I got wet again and then when I came back into Twin Lakes to which is Anytime there, that's when I was did my change as I was wet and I was like this a great time. And I ran the first half with Saucony, Peregrine twelves. And one in me, you know, maybe I was working on some blisters on the inside of my feet. I switched to Nikes Adamas and I think it's unusual. Yeah, I you know, and I switched, those are softer shoes, and I knew it'd be walking more in the last portion. And it was a great deal to switch shoes. Yeah, because it wasn't rubbing. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:00:28

that's never because usually same shoe right? Yeah, dryer, the icy

Tom Regal: 1:00:33

ice which is the first time I did it, I had to switch shoes because my ankles were getting banged up. My ankle was a different shoe. It was an older model of the same shoe. Yeah, just but it was like a couple unique I'm sure hurt. Yeah, does that I had to at that point. For this last race. I had the same shoe. I switch shoes once after a whole section of water crossings in the beginning. Interesting. I switch shoes, but it was just the same model. And,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:00:59

and for me, this was planned. Yeah, in retrospect, switching the shoes changed all the pressure points. And I had no problem. Yeah. So anyway, so cool. Yeah. So that was there was a lot of things that went well. And that was one so I go up this thing and when I can think of to like, tell there were two moments in that race that were really difficult and like the mental stuff, and I was going to I was halfway up hope past the first time I got a trapezius spasm so bad that I couldn't use my pole on my left side. Okay. And I had again, thank you drew Peterson, who was the skier he said you one of the mindset things he said is you always have to believe it's going to get better. Yeah. So I I said, Okay, you know, what do I do? Okay, so I just left my left arm hanging, but it relaxed, hiked the rest of the hike uphill with my right. And I told myself, well, by the time I climb up, go down and ascend this again from the other side, which is gonna be hours from now. It's gonna be better. And whether it was true or not, that's what I told him. Yeah. And it was, yeah. And so that worked. And then, you know, cover the past it was come down. What? Again, another thing about Ultras is like, I didn't study map quite as well, I thought I'd come down. This was like, massive disappointment, like, get to the top, and I was like, Okay, I'll just descend the hill. So I descend a couple 1000 feet, and I'm like, Okay, where's the aid station? I was behind on food. And it's like, oh, four more miles. Oh. That was tough. So that was my second point, which I was behind on food and behind on water. Yeah, but I was like, I just got to get there. So when I got to the aid station, I read it. And the other thing that helped us right about four miles out I saw all the leaders come by Yeah, and when I saw the leaders come by again this it makes me laugh in retrospect. One guy was walking with his hands on his knees. Another guy was like spraying and all soft in the in the stream and I'm like, okay, these guys are hurting. Yeah, and everybody hurts Yeah, and I'm like these are the ones that are they did 17 hours and so they weren't skipping up this hill. Yeah, they were so got their turn around came up hope passed the second time which is so like soul crushing. It is so hard like to go up. Yeah. The backside I hope pass is super steep. I mean, I was maybe two miles an hour or something. And I was doing just login I was doing as well as I could. Came down the bottom had this moment where I said, I said okay, this is the last moment before I'm running with friends that are running with friends like the I came in so my buddy was having a harder time so this is where the just having the right guys there was the best group of guys. They said Jeff, I had one guy that was going to pace me the last 38 I think he figured out that running an altitude wasn't his. And so they said Jeff, you're on fire. You got three pacers we split this up. Cool. He Rob's gonna go David's gonna go and Vance is going to take the lead. So I said fans, I said great. That's wonderful. I'm so happy so I had each of them and then and then I ran walk and then as it got further when I got on this going up but gosh, once I got about mile 80 and it was dark. I have to tell you another thing that I did wrong, like a lot of things right but one thing I did wrong is they were contacts and right about this is you know 10pm midnight. They were so dusty. Yeah, I could not like it was fine hiking uphill. Yeah, but once I came over sugar low pass, it's like maybe mile 85 And I was like this is great. We got a forest road 3% downhill I can make some makeup some time started trying to run I could not see the contour of the dirt. Oh, geez.

Tom Regal: 1:04:41

So are you wearing a headlamp.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:04:44

I had a headlamp okay, but it was the context. So when I finally when I got to the final aid thing I spent about four minutes and gosh, it's most painful thing I ordered some out and put a new one in. I had one good contact. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:04:59

you run out And then I Jeff here.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:05:02

Yeah. And so did that did a lot more walking. I I wanted to break 25. So I had I slowed a little bit in the last bit. Part of it was a strategic conservative approach. Because when I started running and again, I can't blame my context. I was tired is your thing. Yeah. And you're not coordinated. It's terrible. I was tripping and it hurts. And, but, so I slowed down. I just kept telling my guys I'm like, Am I on pace? They're like, Jeff, you're on pace. It's okay. Just keep walking this pace. I was walking pretty quick. Yeah. And but another thing happened again. I still am friends with this. Vance. I'm still friends with him. You shouldn't be we're about like, three, four miles from the end. We took a wrong turn. And this is like middle of the night. Leadville. I ran point eight miles out of the way. Oh, we and we get to the top of this hill. And I'm like, there are no flags your four way turn back there. We did the wrong turn. And so here's again, another interesting thing about the mind. Yeah, I turned around. I said, we're going Yeah, and I started running and sub eight

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:06:09

miles of adrenaline.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:06:12

I dropped in. I dropped my Pacer. It was like Jeff, I can't run this fast. I'm like, keep up. Yeah. And I'm like at mile 98 You're like, oh, shit, we're going off because I was scared. Yeah. And then once you get back on and get back on and then I finished and it was

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:06:27

it was amazing.

Abby Groeneweg: 1:06:31

2442 Nice. Another situation with the wrong way. I know. And with you know, a little bit extra time. Temperature but so so so 2442 And the interesting thing full circle that that podcast I listened to with the skier he finished like 10 minutes behind me. I just saw I mean, I didn't eat them. I wish I wouldn't eat them. Yeah, I met him but later, I was like, I would have said like thank

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:06:55

you. Yeah, for 42 You got the big bucks. Because he came in

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:06:59

at like 55 or like to break 25 again

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:07:02

Yeah, so anyway, that's awesome. So you got the buckle I

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:07:05

got the big buckle and and then I had got the big buckle was felt great and excited at the finish line took some pictures and about 10 minutes later vigorously started to shake. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:07:18

body temperature. This isn't it weird. Your body just can't Oh, regulate body like it was

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:07:23

in the low 40s. And immediately I grabbed some one of the guys grabbed me. I said I need to be in a car. It took me car I warmed up, slept 45 minutes. So it was like calm. We were all like let's have a beer and hang out. Okay, so I shout like sit in the shower for a while. I get out of shower. I'm like, No way I need to sleep. 6am So I go to bed. Wake up 45 minutes later, hacking up dirt. Yeah.

Tom Regal: 1:07:47

Yeah, I've had so dry like

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:07:49

for three minutes. So like two or three minutes I hacked and I was like, This isn't good. And then it ended and I never did it again. Yeah. And then that was kind of clear with your recovery. And now I'm so thrilled and now know what I'm gonna do next. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:08:02

you gotta figure out 24 The The interesting thing about when listening to you guys, it's it's not that you're going to it's not that you have knowledge or education of the good race. It's knowledge of education when the race doesn't go well. Yeah, right. How to course correct. It's sort of like good golfers aren't perfect. Shot hitters, right? Yeah. I mean, Tiger isn't a fantastic golfer, because he can get out of a rough, right? You guys are trying to exact same thing. It's not I can put together the perfect race. It's if the race goes wrong. How can I course correct. Get back to and if you're wrong, don't freak out? Yeah, just kind of put it back. Okay, how do I how do I fix it? How do I trust that? Yeah, the stuff that I've known in the past is going to be do it and be able to do that. So kind of the last thing before we go here is like, so if you have you know, when you talk to people that are doing, you know, marathons or 50 k's and they're saying, hey, we want to we want to, you know, kind of go up to that next notch. What do you generally What's your kind of advice that you tell those people? Like? I'd

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:08:55

say? Well, I'd say learn from other people. And, you know, incremental goals.

Tom Regal: 1:09:01

Get Jason Cruz book. Yeah.

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:09:03

I think listening to other people, incremental goals, and kind of like a stepladder approach. Yeah. And then you just have to figure out what's right for you.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:09:11

And yeah, like you said, you can read all you want, but you have to listen to your body, your

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:09:15

body and figure out what's right for you. And you, you know, whatever. And like it helped me for me that I've done, like several 50 k's and made

Tom Regal: 1:09:24

that lead up of we call them B races, right, B and C races I think are highly critical that you can test. All sorts of clothing, nutrition, you want things to go. Yeah, those are the ones stay with, right, have it go wrong, DNF it whatever, just figure out testings out,

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:09:42

and you gotta go slow, and it's just gotta be patient. And I think like, for me, kind of the exciting thing is the idea of you have to build you have to be positive, and you have to control your emotions. And like I think have moments in there where it's like, okay, I hurt. Now if I'd gone down a spiral of negativity I could have given up. Yeah.

Tom Regal: 1:10:05

He's easily Yeah. And but

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:10:07

you have to believe that and and then just adjust, you know, like I could have been I could have a very different response to my vision. Yeah. And I said, Well, no, I'm just going to go slower. Yeah, because I can still walk fast at my polls. They're still moving. I still moving. Yeah. And it's a little frustrating. But gosh, there's worse things to have happen. Oh, yeah.

Tom Regal: 1:10:30

Yeah. That's great. So thank you so much. I mean, that's great. Congratulations. Thank you. I love that race. That's what I would love to do sometimes. Oh, yeah. We need a picture. We need that for sure to put up see if

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:10:44

I had it here. I could sit down

Tom Regal: 1:10:52

we'll get the belt across like wrestlers, wrestlers. Well, thank

Jefferey Suppinger, MD: 1:10:57

you guys. Yeah. Because having anyone that will listen to me talk about this. Left, I'm just talking myself. Another cool.

Tom Regal: 1:11:12

Cool, thank you so much. Congratulations again, everyone. Thanks for listening and checking in and watching us on the YouTube channel. Keep the comments and questions coming and give us the five stars and thumbs up that helps the algorithms and helps everybody find us. We've been getting a good bump up recently. So we appreciate everybody for listening and checking it all in. So until next time, we'll we'll catch you