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Peter: From ���ϳԹ��� Magazine, this is the ���ϳԹ��� Podcast.

It happens to the best of us: sometimes, you end up signed up for a race that you really have no business running.

My name is Peter Frick-Wright, this is The ���ϳԹ��� Podcast, and the race I didn’t belong in was earlier this year and called the Yakima Skyline Rim 50k, and pretty much every single K is either straight up, or straight down.

I was in good shape at the time. I had been following a training plan for a 50M, which is not quite twice the distance, but most of those M’s had been slow, and on the flat. Just like my race was going to be.

But then, my plans changed. Instead of a long, slow, flat race, I got an opportunity to do something very difficult, and very vertical. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, so I started looking around for races with similar terrain.

I signed up for the Yakima Skyline race because it had 10,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. I didn’t know much else about it, nor did I look into it much once I was signed up. And the morning of the race, one thing I realized I was particularly in the dark on was: who was this guy Tyler Green that everyone at the campground was talking about?

He was some kind of big deal, Ggoing for the course record, using this race as a tune-up for UTMB, the big trail race, in France. People were excited that he was there. I looked around the starting line to see if I could figure out who he was—maybe there would only be one guy who looked like he ran up and down mountains professionally—or maybe he would be wearing a nametag that said, “Tyler”—but it turns out lots of people look really fast. And he is not a guy who needs a nametag at most trail races.

The course started with a roughly 2,500 foot climb, straight up the Yakima Canyon. I mean this thing was brutal. Basically an hour climbing an incline steeper than stairs. And the stairs were the side of a mountain. This course would not pass building code.

After you got to the top, the trail took a long, steep descent all the way back down to the river you just climbed away from. That was where they put the first aid station, and after that there was another basically 2,500 foot climb, and another spirit-killing descent back down to the river. Then, to get to the finish line, you did that whole course in reverse. 5,000 more feet of climbing in the other direction.

And it was at the top of the second climb where I decided I was actually having a pretty good race. I felt great. My food and water had been timed out perfectly, I was moving well, my body felt good. None of these feelings would last to the finish line, but the point was, through the top of that second climb, I don’t think I could have been moving much faster. It didn’t feel like anyone could move much faster.

But that’s when I met Tyler Green, running back the other way. He would be finishing the race about 45 minutes after I hit the turnaround point.

We made eye contact. I nodded. We kept running. And despite winning the race by kind  of a lot, he didn’t quite get the course record that year.

So a few weeks ago I was talking with Robbie, our composer and sound designer here on the show, and we got to wondering how fast would that guy be compared to other professionals? Did he have any business running UTMB?

Here’s Robbie.

Robbie: Do you ever wonder about the actual differences between elite athletes—people who are really, really good—and professional athletes—the best in the world?

It’s understandable if you’ve never pondered this. I mean, if you happen to be lucky enough to be born with the genetics needed to be ANY kind of athlete, it seems crazy to scrutinize your good fortune any further.

Just accept your stroke of luck and move on. You won. Enjoy your life.

But, if we start to consider the differences between the extraordinarily fortunate vs the astronomically fortunate, well, isn’t it kind of crazy how some of us are born with bodies especially well suited for very specific athletic pursuits?

Like if your wingspan is greater than your height, and you have a low center of gravity, and a ridiculous metabolism? People are going to gape at what you can do in the climbing gym. Maybe put you on the cover of magazines, or in films with really awesome sound tracks.

Over 7 feet tall with hands the size of dinner plates? Welcome to the NBA.

Built like a tree trunk with a neck thicker than most people's heads? Enjoy your wrestling scholarship.

But just as athleticism exists on a continuum, so too does what that athleticism can do for you. Just make it to the bench in the NBA, and you’re sitting on a 1.1 million dollar  contract. If you’re one of the thousand guys playing major league baseball right now, you’re getting a minimum of $720,000 dollars a year.

But what if your god given talent is hitting a bunch of white pins with a heavy ball from 60 feet away? Well, if you want to keep your lights on you better be one of the 20 best bowlers in the world. And don't expect those lights to be in the Hamptons. The world’s top bowlers make around $250,000 a year. Most professionals make about $50,000. And the numbers just get more daunting the more niche your sport gets. There are more than 1,500 pro surfers across the world, but barely 100 of them make a living off of it. Professional skier? You’ll be lucky to pull in 30k to start.

What I’m trying to say is, even among the astronomically gifted, the greatests of all time, there are still winners and losers.

Which brings us to ultrarunner Tyler Green, genetically gifted with a wiry frame, springy legs, and more grit than your average navy seal. Grit that’s rewarded, well, poorly. A full 30% of pro ultra runners reported making less than $5000 a year from the sport. And If Tyler wants to meet the average living wage requirement in the US? He’ll need to be in the top 10% of professional ultra runners in the world.

We are joining Tyler at the starting line of the 106.5 mile Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, or UTMB. If you’re going to prove yourself as a truly gifted trail runner, there’s no better place than UTMB. And that fact did nothing to calm his nerves.

Tyler Green: There is just this this different frenetic energy than any other race out there. To the point where it's like a little bit exhausting, like just to get to the starting line.

Robbie: UTMB takes place each year in Chamonix, France. Tucked into an absolutely stupendous mountain valley, it’s easily the biggest, most important trail race in Europe, arguably the most important in the world.

And it’s tough.

Runners climb more than 30,000 vertical feet as they circumnavigate Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe.

Tyler: And the climbs are very steep. Like, I don't think they utilize switchbacks quite in the same way that we utilize switchbacks. And yeah, it just makes it makes for a really challenging course, especially for Americans.

Robbie: It’s also one of the few places anywhere that trail running attracts real, actual spectators.

Tyler: Just, it just feels huge. I mean, there's people lining the trails and lining the roads for almost 20 straight miles. Tons of people like where it feels like a tour de France stage, like a, like a climbing stage wherever, where people are on each side of you, like cheering as loudly as they can.

Robbie: Crack the top ten at UTMB, and a runner can break through to sponsors, media, maybe even the public at large.  Tyler had been focusing on this race all year. And he needed it to go well. Better than last year, at least.

Tyler: The year before I had a really terrible race and had to stop, I don't know, 20 miles from the finish, and take a nap and just. I finished the race, but it wasn't like up to my competitive standards.

Robbie: Stop and take a nap. In the biggest race of the year. The most competitive race in the world. He had finished in 52nd place. That wouldn’t fly two years in a row. But a lot had changed for Tyler in the last year, and the difference between the runner he had been, and the runner he thought he could be, would come down to the next 24 hours. He knew that.

Tyler: This is our chance to do this. Like this is the last time we'd be able to do something like this for quite a while. So we better make it happen.

Robbie: No matter how talented a runner you are, you don’t just show up at UTMB and lace up your tennies. You have to race your way there.

Tyler: I think every ultra runner has their kind of, blunders in their early years. And their funny stories that come along with that.

Robbie: Tyler grew up running cross country in school, and exploring the mountains with his father. He was a natural runner, and while he swore off racing after his first miserable experience with a marathon, he loved trails. And that eventually brought him to the McKenzie river 50 miler in Oregon. Where, he said, he made the mistakes almost everyone makes.

Tyler: I carried like, uh, gosh, maybe like a four ounce flask of water with me without electrolytes, something. I mean, it was just this absolutely tiny water bottle and I was using that, um, as my main fuel source and maybe ate a couple of gels as well, but didn't understand the, the feeling aspect of ultra running as well. So ran pretty, ran pretty hard for a while, felt like I was running within myself and then it all came crashing down very quickly.

Robbie: A bonk can be disastrous in a big race. You end up walking, sometimes puking, and you’re probably not going to be competitive afterwards. Sometimes your body doesn’t want to take in any more calories and your electrolytes get screwed up and you have to drop out of the race entirely.

Which meant Tyler lost that first race. But not by much.

Tyler: Um, I still ended up second. And so, you know, it felt like, Oh, maybe this is something that, you know, that, that I have, uh, have some future in. And then all of a sudden I was like fully into ultra running.

Robbie: The next year, in 2015, Tyler was back at the McKenzie river ultra. Which he won. And where he met his future wife, Rache Drake.

Tyler: We actually, um, met while washing in the river together. And offered my bottle of soap to her as we were washing in the river. And we struck up a conversation

Robbie: Rachel had been a division one runner in college, and was a few years into a medical PHD that would lead to an MD. If that’s not intimidating enough, in the coming years she would begin cracking into the upper echelons of the sub-ultra distances, trail runs in the 20-30 mile range. But for now, she just needed some soap.

Tyler: We kind of dated and then, and then didn't date and became friends and training partners, and then all of a sudden, uh,  then, then all of a sudden things happened very quickly. And we were basically talking about getting married and stuff.

Robbie: Tyler and Rachel wanted to turn their two lives into one shared experience. To permanently merge their training programs, to pop each other’s blisters and fold each other’s toe socks. To crew for each other, forever. So that’s what they did.

Tyler: My wife's, an incredible runner. And so we were able to, like, that was some of the, those are some of the best times when we connect most is to go out and train.

Robbie: As Tyler and Rachel's relationship deepened, they also deepened their ability to kick some serious ass on the trail.

Tyler: She was like going to a lot of different races and beating a lot of people that had been on the global stage for a while. Like just smaller races, but there's someone there who's, um, Who's really shown themselves to be really good. And she goes out and beats them like, who is this person?

Robbie: Eventually they both secured a Nike sponsorship, and Tyler earned a much coveted ticket to compete at Western States, the most prestigious and oldest 100 miler in the US. He came in 14th. It was a solid finish, but it left him hungry for more.

Tyler: I just set on this path to be a student of the sport and to, um, give myself opportunities to learn how to do it, because by the time I raced Western States, it was like four or five years already into the sport and felt like, Oh, I'm, I'm pretty good at this. But I don't quite know how to get to this next level yet, and I'm just gonna see what I can do and learn how to, how to get there.

Robbie: Up to this point, Tyler had been a part-time student of the sport and a full-time math teacher at a boarding school. He also coached their cross country team. It was a nice little job.

But push come to shove, being a professional athlete was probably better. So with Rachel’s blessing, he turned his attention to training full time. But just as he was beginning to grasp what being a full-time student of the sport was going to require, life decided to make Tyler a student of something else, as well.

Tyler: I've actually, my baby's awake,

Robbie: Yeah, I was just about to say I think I hear Lewis in the background.

That's after the break

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Robbie: Tyler ran the 2022 UTMB barely a month before Rachel's due date. And while he no longer had to spend time wrangling little kids in the classroom, there was an even littler kid, forcing even bigger changes, even before he was born.

Tyler: I felt a lot of sadness as I started to not be able to run quite what she was capable of because she was pregnant and, and just seeing like, okay, this is, this is a change in how our relationship will be from here on out. And as I'm saying all of this, I'm like, I'm the one talking from a more privileged position here where I was able to continue my running. So I think that like her experience was much more difficult than the road that I had to, had to travel.

Robbie: Tyler lost his training partner, but Rachel lost her training. For a while, anyway.

Tyler: We knew that we wanted to be parents, and there's a point where, you know, there are all these different races that I'd be disappointed not to run. But, I think the greater disappointment, the greater miss would be not having a kid and having the experience of, of being parents if it's possible for us.

Robbie: Baby Lewis was born in September, 2022, healthy and happy. As parents, they were overjoyed. As runners, they had a little something extra to run for.

Tyler: I have a responsibility to provide for my family is one, is one part of that. I also have  an opportunity through running to learn more about myself and my ability to do hard things. And what it means to go after something. And live with like passion for something. I think that those are all things that, that running is going to  provide for me that that I'm hopefully able to impart on Lewis.

Robbie: And so began Tyler’s life as the running dad. With Rachel doing medical rotations, Tyler fit his runs in as he could, getting his recovery time in by napping with Lewis, bringing him along to cross country meets, where he still acted as a coach for the boarding school. But as any parent will tell you, having kids will deepen many aspects of your life, but it will also narrow others. And while Rachel definitely sacrificed more than Tyler, being a father was requiring significant adjustments to how he related to running.

Tyler: Having a baby, it's just, you know, you can't, it's not like we're going to go out and travel quite as far as we used to. And, we're not going to go on as big of adventure runs as we, as we once did, like it has to be a little more efficient. And that means like, for me, I'm usually running out my front door and, you know, we have a good collection of trails and parks and stuff nearby. Um, but you know, it's, it is a bummer to, to miss out on.

Robbie: It just wasn't the year of freedom and focus on running that Tyler had dreamed of. Instead, he'd traded pristine alpine runs for bleary eyed bottle feedings, given up meandering trailside chats with the love of his life and replaced them with logistical conversations between diaper changes. And then Rachel developed stress fractures as she tried to return to training.

But they had each other, and Lewis, and as they looked at the path they were on, with Rachel about to start her medical residency, they realized that, despite the challenges, if they were going to go for it as runners, this was the year. Rachel wanted to race OCC, the 50k distance at Mont Blanc, and Tyler had his eyes set once again on UTMB. 106.5 miles. The races were just days apart.

So Rachel took a leave of absence, and with two months free of any other obligations besides training and taking care of Lewis, the family flew to Europe and set up a base camp near Chamonix, where UTMB would take place.

Tyler: Rachel and I really just fell into a good little routine where, um, I mean, we actually kind of incorporated part of our like family time into training or training into our family time where every morning we would load him onto our Osprey Poco, um, the little like kids backpack. I throw him on my back and we do like a hike  and we kind of just had our, we had our two or three different routes that we would take straight from home. Um, maybe pop into like a, a little patisserie afterwards or hop into the grocery store to grab whatever we needed. But it was also pretty good training, right? Like, I mean, it's low intensity training, but both of us were able to hike up steep stuff. I put the extra weight on me just as a weight  of getting some real functional strength for climbing that could be applied well for UTMB training.

Robbie: After their morning hike, it would be time for Lewis’s nap. Rachel would get her hard run in, and after that, Tyler would head out. They had also invited family and friends to come and stay, so often had extra hands for Lewis. For two runners prepping for their season peak, it couldn't have been more idyllic.

Tyler: So we just had this great, this great kind of back and forth, like we're handing off Lewis, or Lewis is somehow a part of the training as well.

Robbie: In a way, it allowed them to wind back the clock, and return to a time when running together in beautiful new places had been the ultimate expression of their relationship. Only now, it was better.

Tyler: As we were spending time in Europe, we both just said, like, this wouldn't be as fun without Lewis around.

Robbie: Rachel raced first, at OCC. For her, at least, the time in Europe had done its job. Being with her family, away from the stresses of medical school, had helped bring her back to something of the form she remembered. She took sixth place.

Tyler: She just had a really great, really great performance where I think she  was still wondering, she was wondering if she still had it, you know, if, if after pregnancy, like where her, where her body would be and where she would be athletically.

And, you know, I think she's still, still, still getting her legs underneath her, but that was a really good performance that was saying like, okay, like I can do this.

Robbie: Then, it was Tyler's turn. Unlike many ultras, which start at the crack of dawn, UTMB starts at 6pm.

Tyler: Um, you know, you, when, when the race starts at 6 PM, it means you haven't, you already haven't slept all day, like, and then you're going, and then you're going to stay up all night, you know, and then you're going to run all day the next day too.

Robbie: Tyler started well, running through the cheering crowds, into the silence of the night. He ran fast, but stayed within himself while keeping pace inside the top 20, anticipating how good it would feel for the first morning light to hit his face.

Tyler: And when the sun came up for me, it just like, that was actually a time when it was like, I'm just like, not really feeling this right now. And you have a long ways to go still. It's those miles that are where you're deep into the race, but simultaneously far away from the finish line, that can be some of the most challenging. And that was definitely the case for me.

Robbie: If you’re 53 miles into UTMB and you’re hurting, well, shoot. You still have 53 miles to go. �ճ󲹳�’s tough. But Tyler bit down and got to mile 90 within striking distance of the top ten.

Tyler: I was running right next to a guy, um, and he was in, or we were in 10th and 11th place. And, you know, at the, at the moment it was feeling like, well, one of us is going to get 10th and one of us is going to get, is going to get hard luck 11th.

And I was running the downhills faster than him. Um, but I ended up taking a wrong turn on the downhill as I was trying to get a gap on him and ran quite a, I don't, not too far, maybe just a quarter mile off trail down a hill and had to come back up. And I thought like, that was it. I got, it was over

It was a, I think it was just a brain fart where I was starting to get bonky and not taking care of my nutrition and therefore just wasn't thinking straight. But, you know, once I caught the mistake and had gotten back up, I was like, what did I just do? I've been fighting for this thing the whole time. And it's taken a lot of time to just get up into this top 10 position and I just threw it away.

Robbie: With only 15 miles left in the race, it was a devastating mistake. He'd lost over five minutes.

Tyler: As I was going downhill, which I felt like my, was my superpower up until this point, I was just feeling like kind of this drunken confusion and that my legs were uncoordinated going downhill.

Robbie: The year before, Tyler had bonked so hard he had to take a nap. This year, however, he learned that if your baby’s complaining—I mean, if your body’s complaining, you give it a bottle.

Tyler: And I was like, okay, I need to. I have to eat right now. Even if I don't want to, I like it down to the rest of the Coke that I had in my bottle and took some gels.  And it was only like three or four minutes later that I was like, Oh, I feel good again. Cool. Okay, let's go.

Robbie: By the time he reached the next aid station a few miles later, he'd caught back up. The race for tenth was back on.

Tyler: Rachel was there and she's just like, you are going to have to fight for your life here. Like this is, you got to give it everything.

We ran maybe, there's this two mile kind of just really, really light uphill where we just stayed right next to one another. And, and then when we got up to the steeper climb. He like took out something to eat and, you know, from like my cycling days, I knew like, okay, when someone's going to eat, like, that's your time to attack. Right. Like they're distracted. And so that's when I kind of attacked and tried to get as much of a gap as I could and actually ended up kind of getting, I don't know if we call it a second wind, but getting finishers help, like knowing that the finish line is close and this is the last climb and you got to give everything, and imagine that the finish line is at the top of that climb, as opposed to the bottom of the descent.

And then like other guys started showing up, like up the trail that were really hurting. And I passed another one and I was like, okay, now I'm in ninth. Okay, cool. Now I got a little, now I got a little cushion where I can still get in this top 10 and then I see another guy up ahead.  And those are the types of things where, yes, you're exhausted, but you know, it's over soon.

You know, you can last a little bit longer. And something kind of just like primal clicks, which is  that's I mean, that's the thing that you kind of live for in these things to have like, it's not just drudgery and pain. It's that in like mile 90, that's where the real special stuff happens.

Robbie: Tyler flew down the final descent, passing another exhausted runner, knowing he was nearing the finish where Rachel and Lewis were waiting for him.

Tyler: And it wasn't until like, what, two miles.  Maybe three miles out from the, from the finish line that I caught the last guy. Um, but I also like kind of knew that I was going to get him because I was just like, wow, I'm moving so well in these last miles and nobody can be running this fast.

Robbie: As the finish line came into view, the emotions of the past year began to flood Tyler, the joy and the sacrifice of relearning how to be a husband, finding himself as a father, and stretching to be the fastest runner he'd ever been. For Tyler, it was a beautiful moment.

Tyler: Yeah, that was like, I definitely like kind of started crying a lot. And I think that was just this culmination of all of the hikes that we had done together and the way that our family had kind of made this big investment in this race and for it to all like culminate in that. Umm, and having Rachel and Lewis on the finish line, having my parents at the finish line and, and my crew chief Jordan, who has been really supportive to me as well.

Robbie: Sometimes, as an athlete, it all comes together. The training goes just right, your sleep and nutrition are dialed. You hit peak fitness when everyone’s eyes are on you, and you absorb little changes to your routine, like, say, your wife having a baby and becoming a stay at home dad.

Sometimes, you’re the main character.

Tyler: Yeah, it was just, uh, it's this, it's these pinnacle moments that it's kind of like you get to,  get kind of lifted. Like you see, all of a sudden you see like how all of these things connect, you know, it's this moment like this cinematic moment in the movie where you get these flashbacks of like, Oh, that happened and that happened and that happened. And all of it like builds towards this moment.

Robbie: The buildup to this moment hadn’t been easy. His whole life had changed within a year. And he’d never run better. But in a way, it made sense.

Training, after all, is all about going hard, and then giving your body time to recover. �ճ󲹳�’s when you get faster.

And sometimes life works the same way. Rachel and Tyler had been going hard all year, putting in the miles, both as parents to an infant, and as runners. So in Europe they took their foot off the gas, allowed themselves to catch their breath and put their legs up. They reconnected as a family.  And then they kicked some serious ass.

Announcer 1: This is Tyler green on your screen, and there is Rachel Drake and their baby Lewis.

Announcer 2: Oooh that is a lot of emotion.

Announcer 1: Lew is unphased, Lew is like Dad why are you crying. Congratulations Tyler, what an absolutely incredible performance. His wife there Rachel was 6th in OCC on Thursday. �ճ󲹳�’s quite the duo this weekend

Announcer 2: Oh yeah, power couple right there.

Tyler: And, um. And, you know, there's those moments, they happen very quickly, and then they're gone. Um, so... You know, fully embrace them.

Peter: Robbie Carver is the only person to have worked on every single episode of The ���ϳԹ��� Podcast.

This episode was written, produced, and sound designed by Robbie, with editing by me, Peter Frick-Wright.

The ���ϳԹ��� Podcast is made possible by ���ϳԹ���+ subscribers. Learn more about all the  benefits of becoming a member and sign up at outsideonline.com/outsideplus.

Robbie: You know, as we've been talking like this, I always try to ask, uh, is there anything that you're you that I haven't asked, you know, in this world that you'd like to be sure we get down?

Tyler: I just hope that it comes through of how appreciative of I am of of Rachel. Um, you know, I think I've been able to really pursue my athletics, um, because of a lot of the sacrifices that she's made. And, um, yeah, she just deserves all sorts of credit for that. And, um, I think keep an eye on her because she's going to be doing some cool stuff, both athletically and professionally. Um, you know, we, it's cool to be a witness to the tour de force that she is out in the world.