Episode 501: First Double Amputee To Finish Leadville 100 Mile Run | Brian Reynolds
Brian Reynolds is a Brooks-sponsored double below-knee amputee runner who, in 2026, became the first athlete in that category to finish the Leadville Trail 100 — on his fourth try, in 28 hours 55 minutes. He lost both legs at age four to meningococcemia, a rare bacterial infection with grim survival odds. For years he hid the amputation and stayed off the trails. A Grand Canyon hike cracked that open. He went from powerlifting to a 2:58 marathon, multiple classification records from 5K to the marathon, and Team USA para-athletics.
Brian: IG: @brianreynoldsrunner
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Podcast episode summary: Zach Bitter interviews Brian Reynolds — first double amputee to finish the Leadville 100 (after four attempts).
Background
Contracted meningococcemia at age 4 (“healthy at breakfast, dead by dinner”); medically induced coma, then double below-knee amputation. Relatively lucky compared with many cases (only two limbs, no major cognitive issues).
Little memory of early rehab; jumped from hospital to school and walking on early (partly wooden) prosthetics.
Grew up playing town sports; later horseback riding through college. Became a gym rat and competitive powerlifter (deadlift ~500 lb, bench 300 lb at ~135 lb bodyweight) because he couldn’t squat.
Wore pants exclusively until ~22; hid his prosthetics and avoided being pushed physically (doctor’s note to skip gym). Putting on shorts was a major mindset shift.
Path into endurance
Post-college: signed up on a whim for a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Grand Canyon hike despite barely being able to walk a mile. The 14–15 mile hike destroyed him and hooked him.
Followed with harder hikes (Half Dome, Kilimanjaro, White Mountains).
Started running in everyday walking legs (~2013) — “like running in ski boots.” Built from 1 minute/day on the treadmill for weeks; skin sometimes split to the tibia. Eventually received running blades and felt like he was flying.
First marathon after only a few miles of running experience. Later ran 2:58 (world record at the time for double amputees at London 2018; still holds 10K and half-marathon records). Sub-3 marathon took from 2017 to 2025.
Leadville was the only ultra he ever signed up for. Fell in love with the town/community while working the race (employer was a sponsor) and crewing.
Leadville attempts (4 years, 4th try successful)
Year 1 (2023): First lottery entry, got in immediately. High variety of cross-training (rowing, stairs, high-rep strength) + ~40 miles running/week (can’t handle high pounding volume). Trails that are “runnable” for others meant constant falling (30+ times in 6 miles). Covered in blood by first aid station. Cut at 50 miles (Hope Pass downhill too slow/unsafe). Decided the next morning he was coming back. Needed a complete reset of training + prosthetics.
Year 2: More specific training, extra lights (strobe-light setup to see rocks/roots), pacers allowed earlier, pack carried by pacer (changed center of gravity), second “hiking” set of legs for descents. Running treads disintegrated at mile 13; duct-taped them for 37 miles. Missed 50-mile cutoff by ~5 minutes. Fitness was there; equipment failed.
Year 3: Better treads (700–800 miles durability). Hiking legs had issues; treads failed again ~mile 55. Missed Pipeline cutoff by 5 minutes after more duct-taping. First time he seriously wondered if it was possible. Crew talked him back into another attempt.
Year 4 (finish): Switched prosthetic companies (All Care, closer to home). Two sets of running legs + removable/swappable treads (changed every aid station like a pit crew, 30 seconds/foot). Extra liner for downhill security, almost no chafing. Weekly PT instead of reactive care. Optimized aid-station transitions (liner changes every 10–12 miles used to take 15–20 min; cut to ~7–8 min). ~23,000 calories and 5 gallons of fluid; peed 30 times. Treated it like a fartlek — ran roads hard knowing downhills would be slow. Felt “right” from the start line. Only rough patch ~miles 26–34. Calf cramped ~mile 70 (enclosed in carbon fiber); walked the last ~29 miles at ~15:30 pace but ran the final street with a 19-person crew (including Scott Jurek). Finished well inside the 30-hour cutoff.
Unique challenges
Running on blades is like being on tiptoes constantly — terrible balance on rocks, roots, cambers, and especially steep loose downhills (Hope Pass). Legs sometimes bounced 20 feet down the trail.
~38% higher energy cost even on a treadmill (study); trails/hills likely more. Hips are the main power source and injury site.
Aid stations take far longer due to liner/sweat/skin management.
Extremely niche: only ~9 amputees worldwide have finished 100-milers; most are single-leg, so they have a biological leg for balance/downhills.
New equipment often tested on race day.
After the finish & next
Will not race Leadville 100 again (doesn’t want the “gorilla” back on his back). Happy to crew, pace, or volunteer. The community and shared struggle made the finish far more meaningful than his sub-3 marathon.
Training load was 20–25 hours/week on top of work and three kids.
Interested in the Comrades Marathon (road, frequent aid stations). Wants the next big goal to feel like a deep personal connection, not just “another 100.”
Key themes
Relentless iteration: every DNF produced specific equipment, lighting, pacing, fueling, and transition changes.
Stubbornness as a feature — would not stop moving until cut or finished.
Technology + community + crew made the difference more than raw fitness.
Instagram: @BrianReynoldsRunner.
Timestamps:
0:02:03 Introduction to Brian's Journey
0:03:53 The Impact of Meningitis and Early Life
0:09:05 Discovering Athletics and Overcoming Challenges
0:14:12 Transitioning to Endurance Sports
0:20:08 Preparing for Leadville: The First Attempt
0:30:07 Learning from Failure: The First Leadville Experience
0:39:22 Planning for Success: Year Two of Leadville
0:43:34 Reflections on Growth and Future Goals
0:44:19 Navigating Challenges with Equipment
0:49:29 Learning from Experience: The Journey to Completion
0:55:28 Fueling the Journey: Nutrition and Hydration Strategies
01:02:12 Technological Innovations: Advancements in Prosthetics
01:05:39 The Emotional Journey: Overcoming Doubts and Celebrating Success
01:14:09 Looking Ahead: Future Challenges and Aspirations
Transcript
Introduction (00:00)
Zach Bitter (02:03)
All right, Brian, welcome to the show.
Brian (02:06)
Thanks for having me.
Zach Bitter (02:08)
Yeah, I'm really excited for this one because I think your storyline has two two variables that I find incredibly interesting. One of them is just this idea of persevering in general or coming up with big goals and reaching for them and things like that. And the other one is this storyline that is often part of that process, which is just taking your failures and learning from them and not
giving up even at points when I think it probably looks like a lot of time from outsiders, maybe even like, Okay, there's no way that this is gonna happen. Why is he still trying to do this type of mentality? And I mean you blend them all so perfectly. So I really appreciate you taking some time to come on and chat.
Brian (02:53)
Thank you, I'm looking forward to it.
Zach Bitter (02:55)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe we start with kind of the the big overreaching topic that I think some people listening to this will probably be aware of it because it was a a bit in the news after Leadville, which you became the first double amputee to complete the the hundred mile run at this year's Leadville. And what made it even more interesting is it wasn't like you had decided six months prior to Leadville I want to do that. You've been trying to do this now for I think it's like four years.
Brian (03:23)
Yeah, this was my fourth time at the start line of Leadville.
Zach Bitter (03:27)
Incredible. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to get into all of that. Like the first idea of Leadville, something I want to try to accomplish and kind of everything that went into that first year, what you learn and then going and applying it to those next few years and then ultimately getting to the finish line this year. But maybe before we jump into that, we just touch on kind of your background a little bit because I've had I've had actually a I think it
three other amputees on the podcast in the past and it's always interesting to kind of hear the story about just how they how they got to where they where the where they've gotten because some of them it was they spent a good chunk of their life with both of their legs fully functional and then they had an accident or something like that. And others had things happen quite early in life. So they don't necessarily have much background. Maybe we will jump in a little bit to you about your experience. I th my understanding is you were quite young when you
Discovered that you were gonna have to have a double amputation?
Brian (04:26)
Yeah, so when I was four I contracted meningitis. It was a rare form of meningitis called meningicoxemia. And one of the big sayings that kind of floats around meningicoxemia is healthy at breakfast, dead by dinner. Because that is how quickly it kills you basically. So the fact that I am here on this show with you and having completed Leadville and other things is really amazing in and of itself.
So when I was four I contracted meningicoxemia and resulted in the double amputation of both my legs. And again, it's something that I was relatively lucky with because a lot of people it affects all four limbs or there's a lot of cognitive issues that come out of it. So the fact that I only lost two legs below the knee is really quite remarkable and it's a testament to how amazing my health care was up in
Up at Boston Children's Hospital and just how quickly they were able to identify that I had meningitis and start the treatment for it. so
Zach Bitter (05:35)
Yeah.
That is like me. I try to think it's one of those things where it's almost impossible for me to try to relate to something like that. But when I do, my first thought is I can remember some things from when I was four years old, but it's not very granular. So how much do you actually recall if I mean, obviously a situation like that maybe that creates more vivid memories? Do you remember that process at all early on of just
I mean, you didn't really have a whole lot of prior context to know what life was or going to be like necessarily, but I imagine that would have been just a hard conversation and time period for you and your family in general. Does anything kind of stick out from that in your memories with respect to just how you started, kind of like viewing what you wanted to try to do with your life at a very, very early age?
Brian (06:26)
Yeah, I mean I think for a four year old I remember a decent amount around that time period and like you said it's probably just because of how traumatic an experience was and it creates those vivid memories. But I do remember the day I was very sick as a child in general. I was born with
I forget the name of the autoimmune disorder, but essentially I didn't have any immunity towards sickness. I was basically like the bubble boy. so I was sick all the time. And the day that I woke up and would inevitably end up needing to go to the hospital was just another day that I didn't feel sick and I mean that I felt sick and in meningitis it presents like the flu. You have a high temperature, you have body aches, you don't feel good. So that's why it
So hard to diagnose meningitis is because most of the time by the time they diagnose it it's already too late. But I do remember that day that I was sick. I had an extremely high temp. I think it was like one seven or something like that. Like something that is not generally compatible with life.
Zach Bitter (07:38)
Yeah.
Brian (07:39)
so my parents rushed me to the hospital and that's where the memories stopped for a while 'cause they put me into a medically induced coma for a few weeks. and then the amputation happened when I was in that coma. But I do remember going to the hospital and then putting me in a bath full of ice and just screaming and everything. and then it kinda goes blank and then I start to have memories again. When I actually woke up, like I demanded to know what was wrong with my legs and, you know, they were like
Trying to not tell me, let me wake up and recover and stuff. Like I would not let it go. I knew that there was something wrong, and I just kept asking until they finally had to tell me. And I don't think anything really set in right then. Like I didn't know what it meant or what life would mean. and it's funny, I have all these memories in the hospital of going around the hospital and being in a wheelchair and going to different activities and stuff at the hospital, but I don't actually remember getting my first prosthetic.
or learning how to walk. My brain just kind of goes like hospital, prosthetics and walking. And like there's not much in between really there. So I don't really remember like the PT and learning how to stand on prosthetics or anything like that. My brain just kind of skips going back to school and being relatively ambulatory again.
Zach Bitter (09:05)
Yeah. I'm really curious about the path towards athletics and sports because you definitely have a very interesting evolution within that outside of just the Leadville side of things. And then also it's one thing when you see people targeting and training for races like the Leadville one hundred, there's often a lot of different exposure points to different types of sports activities, physical endeavors and things like that. So it's
I I guess my first question is like, what was the first point when you were like, Hey, I think I wanna try to do something physically versus just maybe conceding that physical athletics wouldn't be something that you'd have as available to you in your life? Was there a point that stands out to you where you started getting interested in that sort of thing?
Brian (09:53)
So I as I was growing up I I played a lot of the town sports, whether it was baseball or basketball, stuff like that, but I think that
When we're looking at that we have to acknowledge how different prosthetic technology was in the nineties. I mean, to give you an example, part of my first prosthetics was actually carved out of wood. So in the nineties they're still carving parts of a prosthetic out of wood. and now knowing what the toc the technology that we have now, you know, for me it's carbon fiber and titanium for other amputees that might need knees, they have these amazing microprocessors and stuff like that that help them walk.
So just the arch of technology has made things more accessible. But as far as growing up, I never particularly thought that sports were gonna be this big thing in my life. You know, I was mediocre at baseball. I was terrible at basketball. We could blame it on the legs, but it was hand-eye coordination. So I didn't do anything super intense when I was growing up.
It wasn't until I think it was like well, you know, I got pretty heavy into horseback riding when I was eight and I did that all the way through college. But it was not really until the end of high school and then until those beginning college years that I really became the gym or the gym rat. So I got into power lifting, which is all about bench press, deadlift and squat. I couldn't squat because of my legs, but I got very competitive in competition.
At deadlift and bench press. And that kind of carried me all the way through college. But at that point, if you had put a million dollars at the end of a mile, I'm not sure that I could have gotten there. And that's talking like a 21 or 22-year-old. I had absolutely no endurance. And it wasn't until after college that that became something that became more of a focus for me.
Zach Bitter (11:59)
Okay, interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I did look up some of your background before we were recording and the internet told me that you actually deadlifted four hundred and eighty five pounds at one point.
Brian (12:13)
Yeah, I I think I hit five hundred was my was my h highest max. and then on
Zach Bitter (12:18)
Did you? Wow.
Brian (12:20)
bench press it was three hundred pounds. And I I was only
Zach Bitter (12:23)
Okay, that's incredible.
Brian (12:24)
I only weighed in for competition at like right around one thirty-five.
Zach Bitter (12:28)
Wow. Yeah. So you're that's a pretty incredible power weight ratio therefore for power lifting. And I always find it interesting too, like the different interests and athletic feats that sometimes feed into ultra running nowadays too, 'cause it it it it just seems like one of those events where you'd imagine someone is like kind of going through their paces of like five K, ten K, half marathon, marathon, and then eventually they find themselves doing a hundred mile race or an ultra marathon, but
Today we just have people coming from all sorts of different backgrounds into it and even like strong backgrounds and stuff like that. And as a coach, I've had a division one offensive lineman request a hundred mile coaching in the past. I always think that's such a cool story when you see people coming into the sport from areas that you maybe wouldn't expect early on when you just look at the nature of what it's like to be out there all day long and running and things like that.
Brian (13:26)
Yeah, my first is well, I grew up not far from the Boston Marathon, so I had some marathon exposure, you know, that's just what you did on Patriots Day because everything was closed. You just watched the marathon. So I knew that it existed, I knew the people
ran marathons, but I didn't know anything further. And then when I was in college, just like everyone in that period, like two thousand and six to two thousand and ten, I read Born to Run and I read Scott Jurik's book. I think it's called Eat and Run. And those two books were like my first entrance into crazy people who run further than a marathon, which is already crazy. but it that was that was the gateway into
people
do a lot crazier things than I could have ever have thought of at that point.
Zach Bitter (14:19)
Yeah. Yeah. And in your situation too, you didn't go from power lifting straight into ultra marathon either. My understanding is you're actually quite fast at some of the Olympic distances. I think I saw that you ran like a two fifty eight marathon. And is that a world record for WMTT?
Brian (14:36)
so records for amputees are interesting and like how they have how you have to record them and there's very few courses that are paracertified for records. So right now I wanna say that the only course that is currently certified is actually London. but there are a couple double amputees that are faster than me in the marathon.
When I ran London back in twenty eighteen, that was a world record at the time, but it's been surpassed by other amputees now. I still hold the record in the ten K and the half marathon though.
Zach Bitter (15:18)
Interesting. So that was maybe your introduction into running was through some of those I guess exposure to the Boston marathon and then getting into some of the more Olympic distance type events.
Brian (15:30)
Yeah, so my initial exposure to endurance sports in general was not long after college. I came across a banner that was from the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. They work with a team and training and you kind of train for endurance events and then go do the event at the end of it. And it was advertising a hike in the Grand Canyon with us. And at this point, you know, like I said, I couldn't even walk a mile, but I signed up for it immediately.
Like there were no second thoughts or anything, and my parents and family took one look at it and were like, You are an idiot. Why would you do that?
And I was like, I don't know, so it seems like a fun adventure to me. And, you know, I trained with the team, all around the local trails and in the Boston area. It was like three or four months of training, and at the end of it we went and hiked in the Grand Canyon, and it was I think it was like a fourteen or fifteen mile hike total. And it absolutely destroyed me. I pretty much crawled the last couple hundred meters out of the canyon. And I had never done anything
that hard, whether it was lifting or any other sports, that was just it was ridiculously hard and I was hooked. I was like, if I push myself through this for like a few months of training, like what can I do if I keep exploring this? And it didn't switch to running right away. It it kind of steadily continued on with harder hikes. and
They, like me, ended up going up Half Dome in Yosemite and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and a bunch of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and stuff. And
It wasn't until probably like two or three years after hiking that I was like, I wonder what running's like. Because running prosthetics are different from walking and hiking and anything like that. And they're easier to get now than they ever have been, but in twenty thirteen they were still more difficult to get.
And so I actually ran for probably like six to ten months on my everyday walking legs, which is just terrible. It's like if you tried to go for a run in ski boots. They're heavy, they don't move well with your body, and they cause massive amounts of chafing.
And it took me forever to even run one mile. In order to be consistent and to build up the muscles, for every single day for a week I did one minute on the treadmill. And then the next week I did two minutes on the treadmill. And it took me eight or nine weeks to even hit one mile. But that was kind of laying those basic foundational muscles that I had pretty much avoided for my entire life. And
Even though I was strong, I was powerlifting and everything like that, like running muscle is different, endurance muscle is different. And building up to that mile and then two miles and three miles, it took me like six to ten months of just being consistent and kind of just dealing with all of the pain and chafing that came with running in my everyday legs. You know, there were some weeks that you could actually see my tibia through the skin.
But because I'm stubborn, I just didn't stop. I would throw, you know, some butterfly stitches on there and then just go out and do my next three or four minutes or whatever it was. Is that great advice? No, it's not, but it was just me refusing to stop and give up on something. And
Because I moved down from Massachusetts to New Jersey, it was the fall of 2013. I had to go to a new prosthetic company because it was just too far to travel. And, you know, those six to ten months of building up these muscles and showing I could do it, my new prosthetic company said, Okay, we're gonna take a shot and we're just gonna give you running legs.
And the first time I ran on those running legs I felt like I was flying. It was just an absolutely surreal and incredible experience. I felt like my legs had been weighed down by cinder blocks before and now I was just floating through the air. And I got those in November of two thousand and thirteen. I think I did a a five K R a turkey trot five K
like in the next week or two and I was like, this is great, let's do a marathon. And that was my that was my tri
Zach Bitter (20:13)
Mm-hmm.
Brian (20:15)
my trajectory. I basically hadn't run more than like four or five miles and just skipped directly to the marathon.
Zach Bitter (20:26)
No, the funny thing to me is that my intuition would have been that hiking in areas like the Grand Canyon as a starting point would be more difficult than a short run. But it sounds like just the way the impact of running is maybe and then the prosthetics at the time, that actually wasn't the case. And a better starting point for you was on that kind of very train that included lower impact, more maybe extreme inclines and things like that.
Brian (20:55)
Yeah, I think that it was based on the technology that I had available to me at that time. And I only had walking legs. I didn't have all of the different technology available to me now. And a lot of it I mean, it's like I said, it's still not easy to get a running leg, but it's much easier than it was in twenty thirteen and before. There's so many amazing organizations that do grants and stuff now.
But I tried to get them at twenty eleven and it was just really difficult. So it was like, do I want to keep battling and not doing something, or do I want to start moving in a direction that's exciting to me and something that I want to do? And I signed up for that hike without a second thought.
But it was also after talking with companies about how do I get running legs and it just wasn't feasible at that time. So being able to kind of enter the endurance space and not have all of the problems that we were associated with running probably ended up being a better point for me anyways.
Zach Bitter (22:16)
Yeah. Yeah, that is really interesting with the development of technology and how that sort of feeds into stuff. It's just an interesting mindset that you have because it sounds like throughout life you've been given these hurdles that a lot of people would consider like very very reasonable reasons to not do something. And you've sort of said, well, even if there's a way to do it.
And it's just not available to me right now. I'm gonna do something directionally similar until it becomes available to me. That's like the one of the more interesting things about you to me, I think, is that mindset of just like, I don't care what circumstances you give me, I'm gonna find something to make progress, even if it's not as much progress as I could in an optimal situation. And I just think like the way that probably sets you up in terms of an ability to respond to failures, use them as learning lessons.
and move on to the next stage in the process to get to whatever the end goal happens to have to be just one of the most like uniquely powerful skills that you have.
Brian (23:21)
I will say that that is not a skill that I had while I was growing up. I was very much like, I have prosthetics. Why should I run? Why should I push myself in ways that might be uncomfortable? I mean, even in high school I had a doctor's note that said I didn't have to do gym class. And
I understand why that was the case then, but looking back on it now, there is part of me that wishes that I was pushed outside of that comfort zone more. And who knows what I would have found or gotten into. Like in the tail end of college and after college, I found wrestling in jujitsu. And for the amount of time that I did it for, I was actually pretty good. And
You know, I look back on it and I'm like, if I was pushed to be more physical like that in high school, could I have wrestled in high school? Could I have wrestled in college? I don't know. But a lot of it stemmed from the fact that I was hugely uncomfortable with my own body and my legs. Like I didn't want people to look at me or know that I had prosthetics. I wore pants exclusively until I was like twenty two. It didn't matter if it was a hundred and fifteen degrees out and I was in the Sahara, I was wearing
Jeans. And I found it, you know, it's a retrospect looking back on it. I found that that mentality left me shackled mentally. Like I made myself a prisoner with that type of mentality. I didn't allow myself to push beyond because I didn't want people to know about my legs. And it
There's probably some sort of metaphor in there, but it wasn't until I put on shorts that I kind of changed into this mindset of what I am now, of pushing beyond what I thought was possible and figuring out how to overcome obstacles. It was really just putting on shorts and taking off the pants that was that first big shift for me.
Zach Bitter (25:36)
Do you find that when you are doing something or preparing for something and you get those inevitable seeds of doubt where your mind starts asking you, like, is this really something that's worth your time that you should be trying to do? You reflect back to like those high school years where you now look back as like, you know, what if I would have just given myself the benefit of the doubt and pushed myself a little bit there? Who knows what I could have learned? Does that sort of like what is maybe a perceived missed opportunity in your mind feed into
What you're willing to try to go after now.
Brian (26:10)
Yeah, I mean I think that there's a little bit of a chip on my shoulder at this point in time. But it's really I don't want, you know, that was the first twenty-one or twenty-two years of my life. I don't want to look at it and say, I don't want twenty years from now to look back and say, I wish I had tried this or done this, but I was afraid to take the first step. And
You know, just by spending one minute a day on starting running, it changed my entire life. So how can I make sure that I don't let those opportunities go in the future?
Zach Bitter (26:53)
Yeah. Yeah. So I wanna go back to the point where you got your running legs for the first time. You went for that run and you're all like, okay, this is a nice upgrade from the walking legs with respect to what I can do and how I feel doing this. At what point during that journey did you start getting interested in Leadville one hundred? Was that the first ultra marathon that you were interested in? Or were there other ones along the way that
You kind of used catapults towards that.
Brian (27:25)
So Leadville is the only ultra marathon I have run or signed up for.
But my entrance into knowing about Leadville started with those two books, Born to Run and Eat and Run. And I kind of went down the YouTube rabbit hole on Leadville after that. And then I didn't really think too much of it. I ran a marathon. I ran my first marathon and I was like, great, check that off the bucket list so I don't have to do that again.
And kind of just went back to like my strength training and like occasional running and stuff. So even though I had running legs, it took me a couple more years to really start running. I think it was like the fall of twenty sixteen that I actually started running and it was more 'cause I was at the gym with friends and they were all seeing how fast they could run on the treadmill. And then I was like, okay, I'll try it too and I actually threw down a pretty fast mile for somebody that was casually running.
And I was like, okay, I'm gonna actually put in a marathon training cycle and see what happens. And that's when I ran the 2017 Houston Marathon in January of 2017. And
I was like an hour and ten minutes faster than my first marathon and that was still not like a fully complete marathon cycle. But that was like that was the definitive transition of dropping heavy strength training and moving into endurance sports and seeing what I could actually do at the marathon distance. That's when I set the goal of trying to run a sub three and
That was a journey in and of itself. It took me from twenty seventeen until twenty twenty five to finally run the sub three. And
At some point in all of this, I think it was two thousand and twenty-one, I got to go to Leadville for the first time. And I knew about Leadville and the history and the legend of it going there, but I got to go, the company I worked for was a sponsor for the race, so I went and worked on it. And instantly fell in love with the town and the people and the community. And I went back the following year to crew somebody. And that love only deepened.
And so that was the first year that I entered the lottery. I was like, it'll take a few years to get into the lottery. Like most people seem to say it takes like three or four years. And then I got in the first year. And it was like, okay, that's we're we're doing it.
And
Zach Bitter (30:07)
Yeah.
Brian (30:08)
so that was my first entrance into Leadville as a runner was in t twenty twenty three.
Zach Bitter (31:37)
Okay. So you find out you're getting into Leadville. Then the timeline starts. The clock starts ticking from now until essentially tapering to start preparing for this thing. You have a background in hiking in canyons and on mountains and things like that. You have a running background, you have a strength background. So you have a lot of these like tools that I think are probably useful for a long hundred mile race to help you wrap your head around maybe what that's gonna look like. But I'm really curious about what that first training cycle entailed.
From when you were like, Okay, I gotta start preparing my body for the specifics that Leadville's going to offer. Can you just walk us through maybe what that looked like a little bit in terms of the preparation for that first try at Leadville?
Brian (32:20)
Yeah, I mean I had known from years of running that I just can't do high mileage. not from a muscular standpoint, but my legs and aside the prosthetics just can't do that much pounding repeatedly. So even for marathons, I don't really run a big mileage. I'll tend to cap out around forty miles of running. So we knew
Going into it, my coach and I knew that we were gonna have to be innovative in how we approached this because you still need to get in volume. Like you can't, you can't go to a race like Leadville and only run forty miles a week. So we knew that it was gonna have to entail a lot of different types of cross training. And that first year
I think I incorporated the biggest variety of c of cross training. I was rowing, I was stair climbing, I was doing tons of strength training for lots of reps. And then I was still running like forty miles a week. And I knew going in that I didn't know what I was doing. But I didn't know how little I actually knew.
Zach Bitter (33:33)
Mm-hmm.
Brian (33:34)
and you know, part of that had to do with
Not just with training, but like how my legs and prosthetic equipment actually responds.
over the ultra distance. Like me I know how it responds over a marathon, but that's so different to how it responds over an ultra distance. And I think my first year of Leadville was just the biggest learning opportunity I've ever had in endurance sports. Not only for what did and didn't work in training, but also for how the prosthetics themselves needed to be adapted for me to be successful at it.
Zach Bitter (34:16)
Yeah. Yeah, that's that that is something that is just almost entirely unique to you on that course, given given the way that the the technology that you're required to rely on is it it it's it's one of those things where, you know, I think of like most people who've run long distances can probably think of a time when they were maybe a little bit overexerted and they're going down a hill and they're just like, I'm not a hundred percent my leg is going to hold every one of these.
eccentric contractions that are about to come my way and you have that little bit of uncertainty there. Whereas I imagine for you on a course like Leadville, there are parts on that course where you're trusting the equipment, but you don't know that it's necessarily going to tolerate what you're about to ask of it. How much of that went into that first year just learning, like, what do I need to do in terms of the way I approach certain parts of the course? So the equipment even just holds up.
Or is that a big problem that you're having to kind of troubleshoot along the way?
Brian (35:17)
So running on running blades would be the equivalent of you walking around or trying to run exclusively on your tippy toes. so balance becomes a huge problem when you're talking about
Any terrain that varies basically, whether it's from side to side, rocks, roots, up, down, it becomes something where a trail that you would consider perfectly runnable is like a fast walk for me. And that's basically what I found out that first year is the trails that you start on for you're on the road for like six miles, which is great, but then you have like six to eight miles of trails, which are considered very runnable trails.
Especially for ultras and stuff like that. But those trails had me tripping and falling on the ground like 30 times inside of six miles. So by the time I got to the first aid station in Leadville that first year, I was covered in cuts and blood and everything else because I had just spent the last six miles falling all over the trail into trees, into other runners, and stuff like that. And it really just got worse for me from there because you start hitting progressively bigger.
Climbs and downhills, and a lot of them have loose rocks and gravel and stuff, which again causes me to fall. So that first year was the most I I don't know if I've ever been more sore in my life because I spent more time on the ground than I did moving forward, and that was like the first big takeaway: is that as a double amputee, you probably can't complete this on a single set of legs, because especially on the downhill.
Hills,
Like the big one obviously being Hope's Pass, you know, you're going down the backside of Hope's Pass, and there's points of it where there's a 40-degree decline and it's all loose rock and stuff. And my pacer that was with me, like if she hadn't grabbed me a few times, like I would have just tipped over the edge. so that first year in Leadville.
I basically said like if I'm gonna do this I have to go completely back to the drawing board and revamp everything that I have done from training to prosthetics.
Zach Bitter (37:40)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you're like b you're you're you're trying to draw a blueprint for future years almost at that point. It was I'm I'm sure going into the race before you got to that point, you weren't like thinking of it that way. You were probably thinking of there's a path forward here for me to finish. But was it at around six miles where you started thinking, okay, it's probably not going to be a finish line for me today, and it's just gonna be about learning what
Brian (38:02)
Yeah.
Zach Bitter (38:02)
I need to do differently for future years, or was that even something you were considering?
Brian (38:07)
No, I never considered at any point that the first point that I considered in the race that I wasn't going to finish was not until I hit the top of Hope's Pass. Like every aid station I went through I got progressively closer to the time limit, but I was straight out determined that if I was not cut on time, I was moving forward and it didn't matter how close I was to the time limit or anything like that.
Right.
I think I said it I alluded to before, but I have a stubborn streak that just would not let me stop moving. But when I was sitting on top of Hope's Pass, I just knew that I was gonna be so slow going downhill that I wasn't gonna make the cutoff. And I had the cho I had the choice at that point to go back to the previous aid station or go forward and finish fifty miles and I was like, I'm just gonna finish the fifty miles. Like at at least I'm gonna get that much learning experience out of it.
and learn what the rest of the course looks like. But it was like the most miserable six miles of my life going down Hope Pass and then into the fifty mile aid station Winfield.
Zach Bitter (39:22)
Yeah. So you get cut off the course fifty miles in year one. Was it an immediate decision? I'm coming back next year to see how much improvement I can make on this, or did it take some time to kind of say, All right, there's a different protocol I can try that's gonna potentially get me further?
Brian (39:43)
It took me until the following morning to say that I was going back.
Zach Bitter (39:46)
I had a feeling you're gonna say that.
Brian (39:49)
it took me until the following morning to
say I was coming back. It took me a lot longer to think about everything that I had learned and what I could start to change. because you know, part of it's out of my control with the prosthetics. Part of it has to come from the company that I was working with and how much they're willing to be innovative and work on it as well. And obviously the other part is my own component of changing the training and putting in more.
hours and stuff like that, but you know, there's that at least fifty percent of it that I can't influence directly.
Zach Bitter (40:28)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Cause yeah, you sort of have a situation where I'm sure there are bright minds and technology that could be built very specifically to a course like Leadville, but you gotta get people to buy in to do it for essentially one effort at this point in time and not necessarily be thinking of it as something that can be kind of necessarily mass produced and utilized at a at a higher level. So that becomes a very kind of big ask at at a certain point to
Be hopeful that within a year's time you're gonna have a lot of extra tools that you didn't the year prior, I'd imagine.
Brian (41:01)
Yeah, I mean you're talking about just such a niche community. I mean
I think right now that there's nine amputees that have completed the ultra distance in the entire world. And two of us were in the same week. I think I was number eight, and then there was another amputee who finished UTMB a week later. So you're not talking about something that is necessarily applicable across a larger group of people, like even hundreds or thousands, you're talking about just this small little category of people that are looking to push the limits.
of what's possible as far as prosthetics and amputee racing goes. and it takes a collaborative approach. Like they have to take my feedback and be willing to create something. But
It's not even like a one time creation. To create running legs in general is just a hugely intensive long process where you're looking at a prosthetic company that might spend like a hundred hours per leg making them.
So now I'm saying, okay, these prosthetics are great, but now I need you to figure out how to make a brand new set that doesn't exist right now so that I can bring both with me. And it's just it's an intensive process, not only for them, but for me, because I have to be at all of the appointments testing stuff and seeing what works and what doesn't. And, you know, I live in New Jersey, so I don't have access to
a lot of stuff where I can go out on the trails and test these things regularly. So a lot of it is us making hypothetical equipment and then saying, great, we're gonna test it in the race for the first time. Yeah. Usually they say nothing new on race day. Well like I'm the king I I am the
Zach Bitter (42:51)
Everything new on race day.
Brian (42:53)
king of everything new on race day. Like the last three years in a row, like I have just demoed, I've demoed new equipment for hunting for an ultra marathon.
Zach Bitter (43:05)
Yeah. It's just a unique experience, I think, that we can all like to be in awe of essentially. So what was it that did change between year one and year two getting ready for Leadville for the second time? Were there a few things that stood out to you, both equipment wise and just training wise that you applied that you thought, okay, this is gonna be something that's gonna make this process a little bit more manageable?
Brian (43:34)
Yeah,
So as far as training goes, I actually cut down on the variability of my training a little bit. I just think I had spread myself in so many different ways the first year that it just didn't give me enough specific training. Like I was strong kind of everywhere physically, but I noticed like going up climbs, like my quads were shot or like going down my hamstrings were shot. So instead of being so varied with what I was doing, I focused on a little bit more.
But the biggest changes really were in how I approached the race. you know, from the start line II took a lot more lights. I looked like a
like
a big walking strobe light so I could actually see all of the roots and rocks in front of me that the first year I just had a single headlamp and I I couldn't see what was directly in front of my feet, so adding in like chest light, waist light, and a double headlamp, one pointed further ahead, one pointed like further down, allowed me to like actually get into the first aid station without falling everywhere. And then from that point on I actually took pacers.
For the second year. And this was sanctioned by the race. They let me take pacers and they let the pacers mule from me from that point on instead of waiting until like most runners get them coming back in from Twin Lakes, so like 62 miles. And that was another thing that I hadn't thought about before, but the running pack changed my center of gravity so drastically that I was more unstable, especially on the downhills. So by giving my pack to
a pacer, it allowed me to go down the declines more safely. But as far as the declines go, I actually brought a second set of legs that year that was more of a hiking base leg that was specifically made to go downhill. So it allowed me to descend those steeper sections in a much safer manner. Because the first year that I did it, like when I fell, my legs would bounce down the trail. Like they would be like twenty feet ahead of me. So
You know, a couple times I happened to be around other runners who were amazing and stopped and like gathered my legs and like helped me get myself back together. But like a few times I was just crawling down the trail trying to reach my legs.
Zach Bitter (46:01)
Well, cheese.
Brian (46:03)
which, you know, that was an experience in and of itself. But that second year bringing
Bringing the set of hiking legs was a big change, but one of the adaptations we made with the running treads, it just didn't work. They broke at mile thirteen. And I spent the following thirty-seven miles having to duct tape them. Like every couple miles I'd have to stop and duct tape We went through like seven or eight rolls of jumbo-sized duct tape. And I missed the cutoff for the fifty miles by like five minutes.
So out of the three times that I've been cut at Leadville, that one was by far the most difficult, knowing that my fitness level did not dictate me finishing the race. Like it was 100% I don't know if I would have finished. Like maybe I would have finished, maybe I wouldn't, but I know for a fact I would have gotten past fifty.
Zach Bitter (47:00)
Mm-hmm.
Brian (47:02)
and it was just because
The treads on the running legs. They essentially disintegrated.
Zach Bitter (47:09)
Yeah, it's one of those things where when somebody gets w either like DNFs or gets pulled off a course because they get cut by a cutoff point. There's often times like especially if it's a DNF, because then you're kind of pulling yourself off. You sort of have like this list of like, okay, this is what I'm willing to tolerate to keep going, or what I'm not willing to tolerate to keep going. And just hearing you describe some of the things you were willing to tolerate to keep going keep going. I think it was like
pretty far beyond what we'd expect most people to do. Like, like I I don't know what the equivalent would be to stopping and duct taping your your tread back on your prosthetic every two miles to keep the momentum would be for someone with with two legs, but it it wouldn't be very far from their shoe falling apart every couple of miles and having to duct tape it together. So that's just amazing to me that you know you're you're going into these things with that level of kind of depth of
All right, something's probably going to happen that I can't plan for, that I don't know is gonna be an issue that will become one. And I have to decide how much of that I'm going to tolerate. And essentially in your case, dis determine like whatever it is, I'm going to tolerate it and take it as far as I can. I think that's a really fascinating piece to your story, is that that again, we're maybe getting back to your stubbornness and determination as being one of your strengths, but it's really interesting to kind of hear the actual details that go into.
Kind of the overview of the storyline of the three missed attempts before the completed one.
Brian (48:41)
Yeah, I mean it's just really been a learning journey the entire way.
And even though I've talked to the other amputees who have completed a hundred miles, it's just like they're all single amputees, so it's the same, but it's also drastically different. As far as I know, they don't go there with multiple sets of legs because they have good legs that can go downhill for them. So it acts as that balance point and pivot, so like maybe they fall more than a regular runner or something, but they don't like they don't fall as much as me or especially
Especially going downhill, they have that heel that can provide a better and safer approach for them coming downhill. So it's just it's been so much learning.
Zach Bitter (49:29)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So coming off a year two, you're going I'm I'm guessing morning after you're already deciding to do do a third year, if
Brian (49:39)
Yeah.
Zach Bitter (49:40)
not immediately after getting taken off the course.
Brian (49:42)
I it took me it
took me the drive back into town to say I was doing it again in the second year.
Zach Bitter (49:50)
This time you do have that added benefit of going in thinking, okay, I think physically I probably had what it would have taken to do this, and it's just solving some mechanical issues or some non-fitness related issues. What was that next process between year two and year three like with respect to trying to get to a point where you weren't planning for a duct taping session every two miles?
Brian (50:14)
Yeah, it was like it was one of those things where we went back to the drawing board again, we ordered a bunch of new types of tread. And we knew the hiking legs were working, like those that did their job, so we didn't have to do too much fine-tuning there. But we tried out a bunch of different tread and we settled on this tread that I was getting huge mileage out of. Like I was getting like seven or eight hundred miles out of it, which is much different than like the two hundred that I was getting before. And
I tried it on some local trails, but yeah, n I'm not going that huge distance all the time, so like we knew that it worked on trails and that it seemed super durable and we settled on that. And the training we kept was pretty close to what it had been in year two. I think I just added a little bit more volume in. and then year three came and
Year three I didn't. I didn't feel as good for the race as I had felt the other two. Like, you know, just the nutrition and hydration wasn't clicking quite as well for me. and I ended up having first mechanical issues with the hiking legs that had been dialed in before. and then later in the race, but it happened again, my treads essentially disintegrated at mile fifty-five.
And I missed the cutoff for the pipeline by five minutes. And, you know, it was after spending the previous seventeen miles stopping and duct taping the legs every two miles or so. But I was feel I was feeling pretty not great at
71 or 72 miles, whatever that aid station is at that point. So I think a teeny bit of me might have been relieved. I was disappointed. I was crushed. But I was also a little bit relieved. And this was the first race that I thought maybe I didn't know how to get to the finish line.
Like I had spent three years changing around prosthetics and adapting things and it just didn't seem to be working for me. It took a lot of positive talk from my crew to get me back to a baseline level. And then I think it was like a full week or two before I said that I was gonna go back and do it again, but it was a lot of talk from the crew.
about things that we could fix or different ways to optimize everything and you know what I think what I haven't talked about at all during this is the amount of time it takes me to go through an aid station. And, you know, most runners come in and out pretty quick, a couple minutes or so. But I have to switch my leg liners every single time I go through an aid station because the sweat build up is pretty bad in them. So if I I don't stop like every ten or twelve w miles, whatever the aid station distance is,
It causes a lot of skin breakdown and tearing. And that process takes me about eight or nine minutes. So I'm wasting anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes at every single aid station, on top of losing a ton of time going downhill. And that was something that
From year three to year four was something that was heavily discussed amongst my crew about ways that we could optimize that and make it flow better. And it was actually a primary thing that I worked on in my training cycle this time was speeding up that transition so that instead of spending fifteen minutes I'm only there like seven or eight minutes. And what they need to have ready for me so that we can make this like the fastest possible transition.
But that was definitely something from the first three years that was a big problem. I think the first year was the worst. I was in aid stations for like 20 minutes. 20 minutes, it's not because I felt horrendous or anything. It was just inexperience changing all of that stuff quickly.
Zach Bitter (54:39)
Yeah. Is you have all these extra logistics and variables that you have to deal with, but you also can't let those get in the way of the other things that are essential for any ultra runner to make it to the finish line of a hundred mile, like your fueling and your hydration and all that sort of stuff. So you're not just like, okay, I've got this different set of problems I need to be accounting for. You're
you're accounting for those and you're also trying to make sure you're doing the other things that will potentially allow you to continue or keep you from continuing. So like the fueling and hydration side of that, is that something that's a big challenge to do? Are you doing a lot of that in the aid stations or are you doing a lot of between aid station fueling and hydration too? How does that look?
Brian (55:28)
Yeah,
so
You know, this is a topic that's actually super interesting from an amputee perspective, 'cause there is a study released, I think it was like the end of last year, that said as a double amputee, you use thirty-eight percent more energy when running. And those studies were done on the treadmill. So can you imagine if those are a hundred percent accurate, like when you take into account trails and inclines and declines and stuff, how much that number could potentially go up.
So the amount that I have to take in is drastically greater and that is something too that then became a focal point of this fourth attempt training block is like, how do I take in
enough calories to keep me going comfortably. And to your point in question is I did the majority of it on the trails. Because I was able to have that pacer with me the entire time, I ended up taking more calories with me. And they would carry my hydration. I would kind of like pack all the gels into my shorts pockets and stuff like that. But
like in between every aid station I was taking I was taking in a huge amount of calories. I actually did out the calories with my crew after the race and I took in about twenty-three thousand calories over the course of Leadville this year. And it was like five gallons of fluid. I think one of the proudest things I did this year in Leadville is I peed thirty times. So
Zach Bitter (57:13)
So you stayed hydrated.
Brian (57:14)
I was very
hydrated the entire race. but i it was definitely something that
my crew who now they've been returning for a couple of years so they know me very well and stuff like that. They made sure that I stayed on top of nutrition and hydration while I was on the trail and then it was just like a couple of fill-ins when we were at the aid stations, you know, as the race got progressively further, like I'd be changing my leg. There's a funny video of
One of my crew members likes feeding me mashed potatoes. It's like I'm trying to change out my legs and stuff. She was quite literally force feeding me p potatoes and ramen or whatever. so it was like quick hits when I went into the aid stations while I was changing, versus keeping the majority of all of the fueling on the trails.
Zach Bitter (58:10)
Mm-hmm. One other thing you mentioned that I'm really interested in here with your specific situation is that study you mentioned about the 38% energy expenditure increase on double amputees is it's a topic I'm interested in in general because when you when people think of running, I think they think of like this full leg power generating movement. When in reality the majority of your power production in
A 100% able-bodied runner is coming from a calf Achilles complex. And things like glutes, quads, and hamstrings tend to be a little more supportive. They've generated some of the power of a running of I I should be specific, like endurance running, like slower running versus like sprinting and things like that, where
Brian (58:51)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Zach Bitter (58:53)
you start calling upon hamstrings and glutes and quads and things like that little bit more. But you've essentially removed that piece to your anatomy. So almost all your power generation must be coming from like
I would imagine like hips and glutes and quads and things like that. Is there any
Brian (59:10)
Yeah.
Zach Bitter (59:10)
sort of research on that in terms of like where your primary power generating like your for the just the mechanics of your running have to be drastically different in terms of how you are getting that forward momentum?
Brian (59:21)
Yeah, I'm not sure if there's any specific studies on it. I can tell you a decade of my own running experience tells me that my hips have always been the point that I need to focus on the most. it I'm trying to think of
Outside of Leadville training, I don't know if I spend a specific amount of time doing quads and hamstring type stuff, but I always have to do hip work if I wanna run any sort of distance, whether it's a half marathon or a marathon. If I don't do my hip exercises, it's a recipe for disaster for me.
Zach Bitter (1:00:00)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. It would just make sense to me that there'd be an increased energy expenditure there because you're actually asking muscles that are less efficient to take
Brian (1:00:09)
Mm-hmm.
Zach Bitter (1:00:09)
on to do what we're asking more efficient muscles to do in a normal circumstance. So yeah, it's just less efficient and usually is more energy expensive. So I mean if some people maybe think go ahead. Sorry.
Brian (1:00:19)
Yeah, and I was
ju I was gonna say the overuse injuries that come around the hips for me are pretty big.
Zach Bitter (1:00:29)
Yeah, did you deal with any injury in injury issues throughout this whole process?
Brian (1:00:34)
Over my past Leadville attempts I definitely had stuff like before I did Leadville the first time I was having a major hamstring issue and I barely ran at all for that first Leadville. Everything was just
supplemental training, biking and rowing and whatever else I was doing then. But this year I don't know if I could have asked for a more perfect build up this year. Over the past couple of years I actually moved into just doing PT every single week. Instead of being reactive to anything that might pop up, I go every single week I get bodywork done and do work with them. And over the past couple of years that seems to have been the recipe that really keeps me able to
continue pushing hard.
Zach Bitter (1:01:22)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. It's like, yeah, let's get ahead of the problems before they come up, especially since yours are going to be unique. You can't necessarily predict them to the degree that runners can predict their injuries. I mean, I think that
Brian (1:01:33)
Yeah.
Zach Bitter (1:01:34)
Sometimes there's probably a little bit of a better trend line in hindsight when you have these things pop up where we look back and say, Okay, if I would have done this differently, I probably could have avoided that. But there's no map for you. So I think having those frequent PT sessions just to stay ahead of that makes a ton of sense. And
So yeah, year four, the big year, the year that you completed the goal. Training went great, it sounds like, compared to maybe the or better, I should say, compared to the prior years. Were there any technological innovations that occurred going into year four that you didn't have available those first three years that you felt stood out to help manage the course a little bit better?
Brian (1:02:12)
Yeah,
the biggest change this year, well
I ended up moving to a new company just logistically, it was easier for me to switch to them because they're only about 10 or 15 minutes from me. It's called All Care Prosthetics and Orthotics, and I was able to bring them three years of knowledge and self-research on the race. So I actually went into this race, I brought two sets of running legs with me instead of one. And I would say the biggest thing is that I now have removable treads. So when
When the treads break, I can take them off and put on new ones, and it takes about 30 seconds per foot.
and you know we just ended up not waiting for them to break in Leadville this year. Like they sent me with like five or six sets of extra treads. And instead of waiting for things to break, I was like, we're just switching them out every single aid station, guys. So after the first few aid stations went by and they had a little bit of wear on them, I was like, let's just rotate like a NASCAR pit crew type thing. And
I don't even know how much time and effort that saved without having to stop on the trails and duct tape or anything else. It was just such a big deal to be able to change out those treads.
Zach Bitter (1:03:32)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's an amazing advancement from year one to year four is just not having to tolerate any of that. But that yeah, it makes total sense to rotate them like that when you can pop them on and off like that. So did did w was that a big sense of relief going into year four, knowing that that had been a pinch point on essentially all three years to some degree, to now know, okay, this is probably not gonna be a problem I'm gonna have to be worried about as much as
And maybe just free up some mental cognitive bandwidth to be able to focus on the other hurdles you need to get over just to make it to the finish line of a hundred mile race?
Brian (1:04:07)
Yeah, I mean going in, this was the first year that I didn't have the anxiety of will the equipment hold up. Of course it was replaced by a little bit of anxiety of, well now it's just performance based and if I don't finish it it's on me. but
Going in knowing that I did not have to worry about that aspect of things was just a huge relief. You know, the other thing I did too this year is I actually got a liner that goes over the outside of the leg so it holds my leg on more firmly. So going down
Normally I don't use them for running because they restrict your motion a little bit at the knee. And in a road race that's not helpful at all. But as far as going down a lot of these big descents, knowing that my leg wasn't gonna give out or turn in a different direction, that was a pretty big bonus as well. And because the leg was moving less, I ended up with no chafing this year at all. but th those two things knowing that the chances of
of me having to deal with equipment issues this year were just limited to almost nothing. It was just a huge relief. It allowed me to just focus all my effort on the training.
Zach Bitter (1:05:20)
Hmm.
Yeah. So during the race this year, inevitably there's highs and lows in these things, regardless of how well everything's kind of structured. Were there points during this year where you were having some doubts with respect to whether you're gonna get to the finish line? Were there things that were standing out as hurdles you had to get over this time?
Brian (1:05:39)
Very
little this year to be honest with you. It
It just felt like when I stepped up to the start line that this was it. The weather was phenomenal and I just had an amazing crew and an amazing group of pacers and it just felt right. And I don't know about you with your racing, but for me there's been like very few start lines that I've stepped up to that have felt right. But all of them have ended like my last one before that was when I ran 258 and
marathon like I stepped up to the race and it felt right. It's just like this indescribable type of feeling where it feels like everything's gonna flow right. And that's what Leadville felt like this year.
And for the most part, I didn't have one brief part from like twenty-six to like thirty-three or thirty-four where I didn't feel great. But that was the only part of the race where I was cranky and grumpy and not feeling good. Other than that, like everything just kind of ticked off how it was supposed to. I was hydrating well, I was eating well. I was way ahead of all of the cutoffs where I should be. Like unlike most people
Who ran a hundred-mile race, like I treated it like a fart lick, where I ran the road sections hard, knowing that I was going to be super slow on the downhills. So it was like for like the first seven miles of the race this year, I was like right with the lead pack. And I think all the way up until Hope's Pass, I was like on the timetable for like a 21-hour finish.
just knowing that all that time is gonna be eaten up on those very steep technical downhills coming up right there. so like everything just went exactly how it was supposed to, basically.
Zach Bitter (1:07:37)
Yeah, and I know enough about the course too to know how that last stretch at Leadville is compared to some of the more mountainous, challenging sections of the course, too. So what was it like for the first time to reach those stages of the race thinking? I mean, you had to be thinking in your mind, like, all right, I'm through the rough parts of the course where or I mean, I could be wrong about this. I have no experience with with double double amputee, but I imagine like
I think it's like maybe around mile eighty seven inward, the trails just become a little bit more runnable. when you got to that point, was you were you thinking like, okay, I sort of have like the the real challenging
Brian (1:08:15)
Yeah.
Zach Bitter (1:08:16)
spots behind me and I can just do my thing here or you still have eighty-seven miles on your body, so it's maybe hard to be like that no matter what.
Brian (1:08:25)
Yeah, I mean I
I've never run more than seventy one miles, so part of me was still like it's
It's like I can't celebrate, like I can't have a peremptory celebration here. I would say the only thing that I really didn't like going particularly how I wanted it to, despite what most people think, I do have a calf muscle, it's just not attached to anything on the bottom, obviously. So like there's no work that can be done for it, but I still have one. And it started cramping at like seventy miles. And it it wasn't like a solid
thing or a nutrition thing, it's just being enclosed in carbon fiber is tough.
And so I couldn't. I couldn't run basically from that point on, even though as you said, you kind of hit those like really runnable trails, especially from like six or seven miles out. It's just, you know, butter smooth trails, like dirt buttersmooth dirt trails, like into actual paved roads, which should be a strength for me, but I just could not run at that point. So it was fast walking. I was maintaining like a fifteen and a half minute pace still, but I just I've seen
Having like crewed at other altars and stuff, I've seen people get cut, like have to drop out for whatever reason at like ninety and ninety-five miles. So coming up those trails was as much as I was like in all of the emotions and feelings, knowing how far I got, I was also thinking that like you'd have to stay upright and keep going, and this isn't the time to celebrate. When you can see the finish line, you can celebrate. But you know, one of my friends did his first marathon.
And he passed his wife at 26 miles and like had his arms in the air and was screaming, I did it, and then he collapsed. And
Zach Bitter (1:10:20)
No.
Brian (1:10:21)
he didn't finish the race, like he had to be rushed to the hospital. And like that was my main thought. I think I actually told my pacers that story at that point. I was like, you can
Zach Bitter (1:10:32)
Mm-hmm.
Brian (1:10:33)
you like you can be happy and start celebrating. I was like, I told him that story. I was like, no. No, not not yet.
Zach Bitter (1:10:37)
Nah, no, I'm crossing that line. Yeah. Yeah.
Brian (1:10:41)
We can celebrate when we cross the finish line. and I honestly thought that I was gonna be much closer to the thirty hour cutoff than I was. Like I wasn't looking at my watch or anything, so I didn't really know what time it was. Like they kept insisting that I had plenty of time and I thought they were lying to make me feel better. but coming up
There's like a big final straightaway that they call the boulevard before you turn onto the final street. Like it really started to set in there where you could see the end of the road where you hit the pavement and you're back in civilization and stuff and then I rounded the corner and my crew was there and I had a huge crew this year. There were nineteen of them. So when we all ran down sixth street together and it I felt like I had like an army at my back 'cause they were so loud.
And it was loud enough that the other runners that were ahead of me, like, all moved off the road.
Zach Bitter (1:11:44)
Yeah.
Brian (1:11:45)
Because you know, suddenly after not being able to run for twenty nine miles, I was able to run the final street.
Zach Bitter (1:11:51)
Yeah.
Brian (1:11:53)
naturally. So like we're trotting down sixth street and I have like all these people at my back. And Scott Jurik, who's been part of my crew for two years as well, like he jumped in with us and stuff, so it was just amazing coming down the finishing chute with everybody that has been there supporting me. And knowing that almost all of those people
Came from Leadville. They're people I met at the race and who have come back to support me now for the past couple years. It's just something that wouldn't have been possible without them. You know, I think that they spent just as much time trying to figure out how to get around all these roadblocks as I did. And just having them there with me was I couldn't have thought of a better way to finish. And I don't think finishing Leadville would have felt as special.
or the same if it happened in the first or even the second year. All these people are part of the journey. And even the ra like the race directors themselves, Tamra and the athlete director Rochelle, like their willingness to like work through this with me and figure out what we can do that stays within honoring the like the the time limits and the race boundaries and stuff like that.
It just made it so special. And something I'll never forget. Like I spent, I don't know, seven or eight years trying to get a sub-three hour marathon. And I felt wonderful and everything, but it didn't feel as fulfilling as this did. Doing it at
Zach Bitter (1:13:33)
Hmm.
Brian (1:13:33)
this race with this community, having worked through everything. It was just absolutely amazing.
Zach Bitter (1:13:41)
So this year you cross the finish line and some of the questions are new that you ask yourself. Some of them are the same, but there's just another year of experience and in this case a finish. Are you going back to Leadville again to try to improve upon your time? Or are you thinking, okay, I've checked that box, maybe let's go explore something different? I think that's always an interesting question. Later runners ask themselves if I optimize at a specific event or do I try to move on and take on a new challenge?
Brian (1:14:09)
Yeah,
My journey at starting the one hundred mile race at Leadville is over now. It's an amazing community. I would love to go back and crew people or maybe even pace somebody if there's a section I can jump in on or volunteer or anything, but I don't
I have trouble letting things go, so if I started again I wouldn't be able to stop until I finished again. And I've had this Leadville gorilla on my back for, you know, five years now, if you include the training before the first one. So I think it's time for me to find other challenges. But I can't wait to go back to support other people in their journey. You know I I think a lot of my crew said that
they're ready to go back themselves, so if they do I'll be there with them.
Zach Bitter (1:15:02)
Awesome. Yeah. So you you have a family at Leadville now and it's just how what role
Brian (1:15:05)
Yeah.
Zach Bitter (1:15:06)
Do you play in that family going forward? Is the question. That's really cool to hear. I mean it's not that long since Leadville finished. So I appreciate you're most likely still in this process, but have you given any thought to what you want to do next?
Brian (1:15:21)
Yeah, I'm I've I've been asked that question by all of the crew at this point, and I don't I don't know right now. there's other races that interest me. like I've always wanted to do comrades down in South
Zach Bitter (1:15:37)
nice. Yeah, yeah.
Brian (1:15:38)
Africa, and I think the fact that it's on the road is probably something that's very beneficial to me. but I don't
I did Leadville not because it was a hundred mile race, but because I felt a deep connection to the town and the people. And I don't know if I'm not necessarily in love with the hundred mile distance. So it would be I wouldn't say no, I'm not gonna do another hundred miler, but it it has to be something that I feel strongly about because the amount of time and everything that goes into me training for them is just
exorbitant. You know, this training cycle, I was training between 20 and 25 hours a week on top of working and having three kids. I love training, so that process didn't bother me at all. But it definitely has to be something that I feel deeply and fully committed to.
Zach Bitter (1:16:40)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. My vote is for comrades for what it's worth. I think that's such
Brian (1:16:45)
Yeah, I I
Zach Bitter (1:16:46)
an awesome event.
Brian (1:16:47)
Have you done it? Okay.
Zach Bitter (1:16:48)
I have, yeah. I did. I
Every year I say I'm gonna go back and every year I don't, but that's a problem for me, not an event problem. It's an amazing experience. Yeah, and I think it maybe has some some specific aspects that would just be like a great piece for you for your puzzle would just be at the aid station frequency there is like every two kilometers or something like that. So
Brian (1:17:13)
Okay.
Zach Bitter (1:17:14)
yeah, you're
Like I remember when I went there, I had a crew with all my nutrition and fluids and things like that that I would get like periodically throughout the race. I ended up just totally scrapping it and going off the race stuff because they hand you these little plastic tubes. They're a little like flex, they're like soft flasks, disposable soft flasks essentially. You like to bite the corner off of it and then you can just kind of pinch it closed with your thumb and just sip at it.
And they have water and a sports drink. So some I can't remember what the brand is, some South African sports drinks. And it was just like, well, if I'm drinking enough of this, I'll get enough calories from this, plus maybe a few gels and and and the A stations are so long. You can take one in the beginning and basically finish it and grab another one on your way out. So
Brian (1:17:58)
I have heard that about
the length of the aid stations.
Zach Bitter (1:18:02)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's incredible.
Yeah. The support is incredible there.
Brian (1:18:05)
Yeah, I have to see what it looks like to get into that, but it's it's definitely something that I ha it's it's the only other ultra that I have specifically said I wanna run, so
Zach Bitter (1:18:16)
Mm-hmm. Awesome. That'll be a nice balance to go with Leadville. A comrades in
Brian (1:18:21)
Yeah.
Zach Bitter (1:18:22)
Leadville experience is a nice, nice kind of full package of ultra experience right there. So very cool. Awesome. Well, Brian, I really appreciate you taking some time to come and chat about everything. Your story is amazing. I'm inspired by it. I know the listeners are gonna listen to this, and I'm sure they're going to be inspired by it too. I think there's no way you can walk away from this one without asking yourself how much.
How much do I have to give that I haven't tapped into yet? So before I let you go though, is there anything or any spots you'd like the listeners to know that you're frequently, like social media channels or websites and things like that that people can stay up to date on what you're up to?
Brian (1:18:59)
Yeah, I'm mostly just on Instagram at Brian ReynoldsRunner. I haven't gotten myself too deep into the other social media stuff yet. Yeah.
Zach Bitter (1:19:07)
You make it easy. It's a one stop shop.
Very cool. Well, I'll definitely link that to the show notes. And if you think of anything else you want me to share to put in the show notes, I'll be sure to drop it in there as well. But other than that, I really appreciate you taking some time to come on.
Brian (1:19:23)
Thank you for having me. It's been awesome.