Surviving the Beer Mile: My Record-Breaking Experience | Nick Symmonds DSH #810

always look at 08 really like with huge nostalgia because it was my first games.

That's the moment that makes an Olympian witch in track and fields.

Then 12, I knew what I was doing.

Like I wasn't as nervous.

I was prepared.

I'm so proud because it was like the pinnacle of my career.

Like I ran the fastest I ever ran at the highest level in sport.

I really proved who I was as an athlete in that moment.

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And here's the episode.

Ladies and gentlemen, Nick Simmons, a.k.a.

the bison in the building, man.

What's up?

A break on YouTube?

I'm in the middle of a six-month break.

Okay.

You set that time frame.

Yeah, I guess publicly I said, I don't know how long this is going to be, but in the back of my mind, I had this big event that was six months away.

And I was like, it'd be pretty cool if I just took a six-month break.

I feel I needed it.

And I'm three, four months in, and it's exactly what I needed.

Nice.

So you had some burnout.

I keep going back in my mind, like, do I want to use the term burnout?

And I don't, I don't think it's what I had.

I've been burnt out before as a pro runner and I ran pro for 12 years.

I know burnout real well.

This was boredom.

Boredom.

Which I think there's a there's a part of burnout that can be boredom.

This was just pure boredom.

I just made a video every week for seven years and for six and a half, I just loved it.

I think I told you I was on other podcasts and i'm like i would do this for free i love this so much and then it got to a point where i just wasn't i wasn't like laying in bed i used to lay in bed and i would just dream about video ideas like i couldn't shut my mind off i was so excited about the next video right and then i made all the videos that i wanted to make and then i was laying in bed like oh gosh i have to think of another video idea so i just kind of got I just kind of got bored with it.

Like,

I'd made all the stuff I wanted to make.

Yeah.

I still love the idea of YouTube and I still have some huge concepts that I want to make.

But like the, the niche we were in, I, I did that.

And I like put a bow on it.

And then I needed to just take a break before I could come back and start creating again.

I feel that there's only so much running you could do, right?

It was running and it was lifting and it was challenges and it was so much fun.

But like

I did it.

Yeah.

You know, and I've always been this way.

Once I feel like I've accomplished what I set out to accomplish, then I'm over it and I can't be bothered to continue with it.

It doesn't say, it doesn't mean I don't want to make YouTube videos anymore.

It's just I don't want to make that kind of YouTube videos.

I feel dumber.

So that six-month break is just a mental reset.

Do you have a plan when you come back?

Yeah, and I'm already working on it.

I just announced on YouTube in the community feature, I was like, guys, I'm not just slacking off.

I'm working really hard.

Next video drops July 1.

And in some ways, this is a video I've been working on for 10 years.

Wow.

Yeah.

It's a project I've been working on for 10 full years.

And it all culminates in June.

So I'll be filming it and dropping it July 1.

Is it running related?

No, it's mountaineering.

So we talked a little bit about that.

When I retired from running, I knew I had to throw myself into something else physical.

Like I couldn't just stop.

And so I set out two kind of simultaneous projects.

One to climb to the top of all 50 states and another to climb to the top of all continents.

It's called the seven summits.

And I've got two of the seven.

And there's this kind of like interlapping, interlapping point.

on Denali, the tallest mountain in Alaska.

It happens to be, you know, the end of the 50 state high points challenge, but also one of the seven summits.

So that's what I've been training for.

Bang out both of them.

I'm going to bang out both, you know, tick off two different lists.

And

I don't know if I can climb this thing.

I mean, it's a big mountain.

That one sounds tough just because it's in Alaska, too.

Yeah, and it's super weather dependent.

Like half the time you get to like 14,000 or 17,000 feet and a storm rolls in and you just sit in a tent for seven days and then you got to pack yourself out.

Seven days.

Yeah, or longer.

Wow.

It'll be three weeks on the mountain.

And it's a long time.

I've just always wanted to climb it.

And

I just turned 40 and I had this moment.

I was like 39 and a half.

And I'm like, I'm getting kind of old.

A little midlife crisis.

I think it was more a realization of there are so many things that I want to do in my life.

Yeah.

And some are going to be harder than others as I get older.

Right.

You know, like I can make money when I'm 50, 60, 70, but I can only climb some of these mountains like now.

True.

It's going to get.

I could climb Denali at 50, but it's going to be harder than climbing it at 40.

Because you're at the tail end of your athletic peak, right?

I think I've, I think I'm on the back end of the curve.

Yeah, I'm telling you, I have a lot of

tread worn on these tires.

You know, so many miles that

I think I've peaked.

And now just hanging on for dear life.

Yeah, you said you don't even run anymore.

I can't, man.

I would give anything to go out and just hammer an hour.

So you physically can't do it?

No.

Well, I could, but I wouldn't be able to walk for a week.

My ankles and knees are so shot from 20 years of pro running.

20 years of competitive running, 12 is a pro.

And have you looked into stem cells or anything weird like that?

No, I'm like, I won't even even take Tylenol.

Really?

I won't even take a multivitamin.

I hate medicine.

No supplements.

Nothing.

What?

Yeah.

Because there's got to be a ton of athletes on supplements.

Yeah, I mean, I was taking supplements when I was a pro.

I took, you know, caffeine is the best performance-enhancing drug.

Is it?

For running?

For anything.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah.

For weightlifting, for maybe not for target shooting.

They don't touch caffeine.

But like for explosive or endurance athletics, caffeine's a phenomenally effective performance-enhancing drug.

And it happens to be one of the ones that's legal.

But as far as supplements goes, I took a multivitamin.

I took some vitamin D,

protein, you know, carbohydrates, that kind of stuff, but nothing beyond that.

Interesting.

But I've always been really opposed to like medicine, not opposed to it, like,

I believe in Western medicine.

Yeah.

I just think we overdo it.

So I'm always really like, do I really need to be taking that?

And I almost, I mean, I don't take any medicine.

don't have any prescriptions, don't take any supplements.

Wow.

But something in your case, I don't know if that can heal naturally, right?

I think that there will need to be a surgery on my left ankle at some point, and I probably have to get my knees done at some point.

Damn.

Have you had surgeries before?

Yeah, I had a double knee surgery in college to fix some plagectomies, and I shot my left ankle full of PRP in 2016 trying to get ready for the games, but wasn't able to.

It was just shot.

Oh, that was a trials you didn't qualify for, right?

That was the, I was qualified for the trials, but I pulled out at the trials because this left ankle wouldn't.

It was just, it was just done.

And you were fast enough to make it.

Oh, okay.

That must have been really disappointing, right?

Yeah.

I mean, I, you know, I was always good about calling things as I saw it.

I'm like, hey, guys, I'm just not in shape for this one.

Or I'd say, guys, I have no reason not to win this race.

I'm in great shape.

Yeah.

I was in such good shape in 2016.

And then this ankle just gave out on me like two days before.

Dude, you killed it in 12.

I know.

Man.

I was bummed.

You could have meddled in 16, probably, right?

Who knows?

You know, like it's track and field.

I could just as easily have gotten tripped up and not even made it.

But so I was working pretty closely with a therapist at the time and I'm like, how am I going to get past this?

And he's like, how incredible that your body gave you two Olympic games.

He's like, yeah, you didn't get the third, but your body held up for 12 freaking years.

Wow.

You needed it to hold up for 12 years and two more months, but for 12 years, it allowed you to do what you wanted to do and made it possible for me to see the world and race in 34 different countries.

So, you know,

as today's theme seems to be gratitude, I was just like, gratitude.

I'm so grateful for everything this body gave me and everything else that I'll be able to do with it.

But no, Rio is not in the cards apparently yeah that's a good mindset to have yeah because some don't even get to one olympic so the fact you got two and almost a third is yeah i was i was lucky pretty good spot i was durable that was my special gift i wasn't the fastest by any means not the genetically most gifted i mean people looked at me and they're like how in the world is this kid running that fast but i was super durable so i could bang out 10 miles a day every day and i did so for 20 years dude your races were so fun to watch i still remember the first time i saw you and i was like who is that guy you just come the last everybody always thought that because i was always in dead last And then I'd turn it on in the last 200 meters.

It made it exciting for people.

I guess that fifth place finish at the 12 Olympics.

You were in last, right?

For the entire race.

The entire last 100 meters.

By a good amount, too.

It wasn't even like you were right on them.

No, I was like, this is incredible.

I got to leave up here.

I hope I can not finish dead last.

I just wanted to pick off one person in the last 100 meters.

And I picked off a couple.

The race plan was to ultimately do a Dave Waddell like he did in 72 and pick off everybody.

But, you know, in the world record race, no one was going to beat David Radisha.

Was that the race you set it in?

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

So to be part of that race, you know, again, being grateful.

Yeah, I didn't get a medal, but I got to be part of the world record race.

Yeah.

Pretty big honor.

Insane.

You think 140 will ever be broken in the 800?

Oh, yeah.

At this point, I don't ever question anything.

Like,

humans and technology and everything are just coming so far.

Like, someone will break 140 in my lifetime.

100% sure of it.

I thought David was going to do it.

I thought so, too.

But he's done now.

Yeah.

I mean, time gets us all, right?

Father time.

Yeah.

Can't beat him.

Yeah.

Did you like the 08 Olympics better or 12?

It's a great question.

I think I'll always

look at 08 really like with huge nostalgia because it was my first games.

And like, that's the moment that makes you an Olympian, which in track and field, it's like you're either an Olympian or no one's ever heard of you.

And you don't get paid anything.

Then 12, I knew what I was doing.

Like I had already been through the games.

Like I wasn't as nervous.

I was prepared.

And I'm

so proud because it was like the pinnacle of my career.

Like I ran the fastest I ever ran at the highest level in sport.

You know, like, I really proved who I was as an athlete in that moment to myself.

Yeah.

Um, but they both, you know, mean, mean different things to me.

I guess, you know, one, one, I stamped myself as an Olympian and the other one I proved to myself who I can be as an athlete.

Yeah, you peaked at the perfect time.

What was your best event?

Uh, 800.

Yes.

But nothing.

They say it's the hardest race.

Do you agree with that?

Yes.

Maybe not physically, although it is incredibly challenging physically, but like strategically, it's the fastest event that breaks from lanes.

You know, so the

way that you're pushing and shoving and jostling and positioning, it is a chess match.

And it's why veterans tend to do better because they've seen so much.

It's why I bombed out of the semifinals in Beijing and made it to the finals and finished fifth in London.

It just takes time to learn how to run that race.

It is a physical race.

So what are the legal things you could do?

Can you elbow people?

Oh, yeah, man.

Oh, you can.

I mean, the only thing you can do is like grab someone's jersey or shove them.

Okay.

But I'd be elbowing people.

The Kenyans used to hate it because they, you know, I was a big guy, like, as far as runners.

The bison, I was a 165 pounds out there while my competitors were running to like 120.

I just shove them all over the place.

If I, if I was boxed in and I need to move, I'd just give somebody a big shove.

Wow.

And they'd move and I'd make room.

If you go back and watch the 2008 Olympic trials, that's how I got free was just giving them

elbow.

Yeah, but like I was a soccer player.

I was a hockey player.

Yeah.

If I need to get somewhere, I'm going to bump you you and just be ready for that.

People say track isn't physical sport, man.

The 800, especially, man.

There you are.

Because you're just eight guys moving around the track.

And, you know, you remember, you never got boxed in because you're six foot five.

I was.

But if you're five foot nine, five foot ten, you're tucked into the rail.

I got guys like you that are like, there's no way I'm going to get around you unless I kind of like make space for myself.

Yeah.

Damn.

You ever watch Andrew Wheating?

He's six foot five.

Yeah, he's a tall runner.

He had to run the entire race in lane two.

I saw that.

Because he's so big, he can't tuck into the rail.

Yeah.

Like there's no rain.

there's no room for him.

You know, get boxed in and tripped up.

How much time do you think that adds if you ran in lane two?

It adds two meters per lap.

Two meters per lap.

So times two laps would be four, uh, four meters,

quarter of a second.

Okay.

Which doesn't sound like a lot, but in an 800.

But it got me a medal if I found that quarter of a second.

Yeah, that's true, man.

Did you think you were going to medal at any point in either Olympics?

Not Beijing.

Okay.

Beijing, I was just like, I remember I was so nervous.

I was talking to my sports psychologist and I'm like, how am I going to walk into the bird's nest?

Like, look up and there's 100,000 people in the stadium.

And I know there's 1.5 billion people at home watching.

He said, just put your head down, look at the track and remember that that track's 400 meters around, made of rubber, like every track you've ever run on.

And that's your home.

Right.

And then I was like, yeah, I'm just, I'm home.

Like, I'm just doing what I do every single day.

Good advice.

Yeah.

It was really a good way of just reminding myself that like I had earned the right to be there.

Right.

And that this was my home home and that I'm comfortable on a 400 meter flat track yeah no matter what no matter all the other stuff that doesn't matter like just put it out of your head just do what you do go to your office

so that helped a lot

but I really thought I would I was gonna meddle in London

right before the race my coach came up to me and he's this kind of like straight shooting British guy yeah Mark Rowland and he said fella you're not going to win the gold medal today.

He said, no one is going to beat David.

David is going to be not only the

gold medalist, medalist, but he's also going to run the world record.

So just get that out of your head.

But you're going to be the silver medalist.

And let me tell you how you're going to do it.

And so we kind of walked through the race and how everyone was going to go out too hard chasing David.

And then they would blow up in the last lap.

And I would run my race, perfect plus two second differential and reel in everybody on that last 200 meters.

But nobody died.

Only two people died.

So I was only able to go from eighth to fifth instead of eighth to second.

The adrenaline for people must have the noise.

And that's why superhuman things are done in the Olympic Games.

The amount of money that's on the line, the noise, the pressure, like people who have shown that they rise to the occasion, I mean, they're the ones standing on the line.

There's eight guys that have all shown that they can rise to the occasion.

Right.

And the adrenaline just pumping through your veins causes you to do crazy things.

You said money on the line.

So how much millions is on the line when you win?

Millions.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

When you consider...

What your federation is going to pay you, because, I mean, America doesn't get paid.

I think they get like 25 grand for a gold medal.

But some federations pay out a million dollars for a gold medal.

Your sponsors, I'll bet you Nike.

I mean, I can't speak to their contracts, but I know some medals are worth a million dollars.

Holy crap.

In track and field.

And then you're talking about

potential sponsorship on the back end.

You're talking about the appearance fees that you're going to get.

I mean, some of these athletes are getting $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 appearance fees

to show up to Zurich Diamond League after the Olympics.

So all said and done, a gold medal is worth, I mean, conservatively, a million dollars.

I didn't know that because the Olympics themselves don't pay anything, right?

They, I, it's a really good question.

I never won an Olympic medal.

I think they do, I think they do have some money, money associated with them.

Okay, um, but you know, you just add it up, especially over the course of a lifetime, you know, especially if you get that medal while you're young, it could be worth millions and millions during the course of your career.

Interesting, but you didn't do track for money, right?

That wasn't the main

yes and no.

I didn't do it up until about the age of 30.

And I always said, This, I would do this job for free just because I want to see how fast I can get.

But then there came a point where I kind of like reached my peak, 28, 29.

I really peaked, ran my fastest time in the mile, ran my fastest time in the 800.

And then I could see each season just getting a little bit slower.

And at that point, I was kind of over it.

You know, I talked about putting a bow on it.

And I'm like, yeah, I saw what I could do.

And then after that, it was a job.

I feel that.

But because in track and field, especially, you get paid on like, you know, your resume, on your portfolio.

Yeah.

Like I was cashing checks at the age of 31, 32

that were 10 times what I cashed at 22 or 23.

Even though I was running faster at 22 or 23, I had built up this resume and, you know, was getting much bigger appearance fees.

And so I felt I owed it to my younger self for having done the work, having come through the process to finally cash those checks.

And so I still trained hard.

I mean, I really wanted to make her the Rio team, but it was a job at that point more than like something I would have done for the money.

So it sounds similar to tennis where only the top like 1% actually make good money.

Very similar.

It's exponential.

You could be the fastest guy in the world and you're making millions.

You could be the eighth fastest guy and you're living below the poverty line.

Damn.

Yeah.

That's crazy to me.

Yeah, because other sports, you get like a minimum guaranteed contract.

Nothing like that on track.

Wow.

And it's so individualized.

It's not like you have anyone to hold you accountable.

Right.

And the events are different.

So if you're the number one, you could be the number 20 fastest guy in the hundred and still making good money.

And you could be the number one women's hammer thrower and living below the poverty line.

So like there's there's events that get paid really well and there's events that don't get paid as well.

Which ones get paid the most, do you think?

100 mile marathon.

That's where the money.

Yeah.

That's where the big money is.

Okay.

There's still money in the 400 and the 800, the 5K, but the big, big money is in 100 mile marathon.

Interesting.

And I wasn't good at any of those.

I guess the marathon has a lot of sponsors.

Well, because you can only run like two

a year, really, maybe three.

okay and uh so they're training really hard and they're going for the appearance fees right so like if you're one of the best marathoners in the world you're getting a quarter million dollars just to show up damn just to show up just to show up you don't even have to finish sometimes yo you just gotta start you just gotta start new york marathon if you're watching this yeah i'm in exactly any races you still think about to this day that haunt you

no i'm i'm like content you've come content there were when i retired races that haunt me and i still couldn't go back and watch some races damn i I was like, I can't watch that race.

It's just because of the tactical error.

Or just like the 12 games.

Like, what could have been?

I know I did everything possible.

I have everything possible.

Did you felt like you had energy left in that?

No, nothing.

I gave everything I had in that race.

And it was a personal best buy almost a full second.

Like

everything I had.

So I was at least at peace with that, but it still hurt to watch.

No, I mean, I look back on it and I'm just like, what a great chapter in my life.

You know, like I got to see the world.

I made some money.

I made some friends.

I just

had such an incredible time doing.

Again, how lucky for anyone out there, no matter what you're doing, whether it's sport or building a business or even your career, whatever it may be, to wake up and say, like, I look forward to my job on Monday, or I would do this for free.

I love it so much.

If you can find that, it's the holy grail in life.

To get paid to do something you would do for free, it's like getting struck by lightning.

And I feel like I've been struck twice now, once with running and then again with YouTubing.

Nice.

So I just, I feel very, very lucky.

I love that.

So you even like the training aspect of like the long 10 mile, 20 hour days.

It's an acquired taste.

You know, like, as you probably remember, like,

it's an acquired taste.

I hated it in high school.

Yeah.

I'm like, this sucks so bad.

Like, why am I doing this?

I did it because I was good at it, but I hated the training.

Then in college, it got a little bit better.

It's like, okay, I've been in class for eight hours.

It's nice to go blow off some steam with the guys.

You know, running through Oregon was beautiful.

And then as a pro, when I had nothing else to do, it was amazing.

It was like, wait a minute, you mean that in today's waking day from 8 a.m.

to whenever I go to bed, all I have to do is get my workout in and you're going to pay me to do it?

Like, it was incredible.

I feel that.

And your first couple of years, you were talking earlier, you only made $25,000 a year.

My first contract with Nike was right around there.

Wow.

You were stoked.

I was so happy.

That's crazy.

Because coming out of college, I was like, you know, how am I going to pay my bills?

I really want to train.

And I kind of made this decision.

Like, I am going to train for the 08 Olympic Games, even if I have to work at McDonald's to pay my bills.

But I had a great senior season and coming out of college, Nike picked me up on a small contract.

And I was so ecstatic because I was like, I can train full-time now.

I still had to live very simply.

It was a very small contract, but I didn't care about money.

All I cared was that I could put every ounce of my energy into trying to make the team.

Yeah.

Sigma Chi fraternity, man.

Yeah.

How'd you balance that with running?

Not well.

That was actually due to an injury.

So I'd never thought about joining a fraternity, but my sophomore year, I had to have double knee surgery.

surgery.

Cost me my cross-country season, cost me like six months of training.

Damn.

And I realized that year that all the friends that I had made were just runners.

Yeah.

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And I didn't want to hang out with them right then because I was, you know, going through it real low and didn't want to even talk running.

And someone was like well you know join join a fraternity like you'll have have a bunch of instant friends and you can just like not think about running so I did that it was a blast uh I had fun with it again my junior year but you could kind of tell it was like getting in the way yeah of my recovery uh physically you know i mean shoot i'd put 20 pounds on just drinking beer and lifting weights right crazy so i had to lose all that weight and then going from my junior to senior year was when I was like, okay, I got nine months to figure out how I'm going to make a living.

And,

you know, I'd like it to be pro running.

I'm going to have to go all in on this idea.

So the summer between my junior and senior year, I moved to central Mexico, trained for three months with a bunch of Kenyans, pro-Kenyans at altitude, learned everything about pro-running, came down 20-pound slider, and just every, every time I touched the track, new PR.

New PR, new PR.

And that's when Nike picked me up.

Wow.

So training at altitude, you'd credit that to helping you a lot, right?

Still to this day, like

altitude, I just, weight will melt off me.

Like if I ever ever have a problem with my weight, I'll just go live at altitude for two or three months.

Yeah.

It melts off.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

So I'd train at like 168

during the year, but then I'd go to Flagstaff, Arizona every April for four weeks and I'd come down 10 pounds lighter.

Holy crap.

That makes sense.

When NBA teams go to Denver to play, they're out of breath.

Oh, yeah.

And that's only 5,000 feet, right?

Only 5,000 feet.

I mean, we were training at Flagstaff at seven and I would, I would train at Toluca at nine.

Holy no, like the higher the better for me.

That's insane.

And it's hard.

I mean, you feel like you're out of breath the whole time and your time suck, but yeah, you're building red blood cells, the weight's melting off you.

You come down to sea level and you can almost like taste the air.

It's like, it's like breathing syrup.

You're like, there's so many oxygen molecules.

It's incredible.

And then you just crush workouts.

I feel that.

When I go to Jersey, it feels like so different the air out there because out here in the desert, there's no trees.

Yeah.

And it's there.

It's there.

It's definitely thinner.

You mentioned beers in college.

You ran the beer mile.

Yeah.

I like it.

5'9.

Yeah.

So for those that don't know what the beer mile is, you drink a beer from an unmodified 12-ounce canner bottle.

Then you run a lap and you got to do that four times.

So four beers, four laps.

My best, I did it like two weeks after the Olympic Games in 12, and I ran 519.

Crazy.

Which at the time was an American record,

which has gone and been destroyed since then.

Someone beat it?

Oh, yeah.

There are people doing like four.

30, 420 miles now, beer miles.

Oh, my gosh.

Did you throw up?

I didn't.

You get disqualified if you throw up.

And you're just wasting good beers.

It's a fun buzz because not recommending that anyone do this.

Yeah.

But as the adrenaline wears off, the alcohol in your system goes up.

And so like you have this like.

Yeah.

Did you feel drunk by the third lap?

No, you don't feel it at all.

Oh, really?

Yeah, because it's not enough time, you know, and you're just full of adrenaline.

Okay.

You don't feel the alcohol at all.

Even when you finish, you're like, oh man, that's crazy.

You don't feel it after?

You don't feel the alcohol.

What?

10 minutes after, you're spinning.

Just spinning.

Four beers in 10 minutes is under 10 minutes.

Yeah.

I haven't done it since, I don't know when the last one was.

I don't know, a few years back.

They're not fun.

They're miserable.

Don't do them.

Yeah.

It sounds fun on paper.

You're like, oh, let's do this guys, but then you do it and you're miserable.

I did it in high school with my track team and we all threw up and like burping and like foam everywhere.

And it's nasty.

Are you drinking when you hike?

When you hike down the mountains?

Never.

Yeah.

I, I mean, I'm 40 years old.

Like I enjoy whiskey, enjoy a gin and tonic here and there.

I still drink beer.

When I'm on a mountain and like in a different zone, I like,

and some of these, these aren't, these aren't like, you know, afternoon hikes, which I do.

I love those too.

And I might have a beer on one of those.

But when you're climbing one of these big mountains, it's not just like,

it's not just out hiking.

You're surviving.

So in Denali, when I go to Denali,

a plane will fly me into the glacier and I'll have three or four weeks worth of supplies that are in my backpack and on a sled behind me.

And that pilot's not coming back for three or four weeks.

So you're alone.

No, I'll be with a crew.

Okay.

I'm going to climb with a guide and a couple other other climbers um but the plane's not coming back to get you for three or four weeks so you've got to survive so you can't even back out there's no way there's not like a like please like come pick me up there's no like come there's no service there's no service there's not like come get me we carry sat phones with us so like if something went really bad they'd helicopter in and get you wow but yeah for the most part you're on your own out there dude that's um you know and so it's you're really thinking about more as like survival than you're thinking about like out having a good time so you're a little adrenaline junkie uh yeah it's like i don't don't, I suppose

someone would call it that.

Yeah.

I'm an adventure junkie.

My friend

hopelessly addicted to like adventures, big and small.

Love it.

Yeah.

My friend Mike Posner, he's a music.

Yeah, I know Mike.

Oh, you know Mike?

He claimed Everest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I went on a retreat with him to Poland in Poland to see Wim Hoff about three or four years ago.

Sick.

Yeah.

He said it took two months, I think.

Yeah.

I was like, holy Everest takes

next year.

If I do it, it'll be two months door-to-door.

It's like April one to June one.

Yeah.

And he said there was an avalanche one day and he was, he almost died.

Yeah.

Crazy.

Yeah.

He's incredible.

Man, what a story and he walked across the country yeah that's what kind of got him into mountaineering a little bit was he's like i just love walking i actually want to climb a mountain now you're inspired what do you want to climb i got to start small so i for those listening this 50 state high point thing is the is the most incredible way to dip your toes in because

everyone in america at least lives next to one because there's 50 states and you live in one of those states and that state has a high point and you could go to florida right now and just drive to it you could go to mount sunflower uh i think was that kansas and just drive to it.

So a lot of these you can just drive up, but that's an adventure in and of itself.

Just driving.

Just driving and seeing the country.

And then if you wanted to like branch out a little bit, you know, like Mount Rogers, I think is Virginia.

It's a great hike.

Mount Marcy up in New York is a great hike.

And then if you really want to push yourself, Mount Hood, Mount Whitney, Boundary Peak here in Nevada, Rainier.

I mean, Rainier is a three-day like glaciated mountain.

That's very, very tough.

Which one was the hardest for you so far?

Hood took three tries.

Which state is that in?

That's Oregon.

Oregon.

Hood took three tries because I was really a novice and I was like, oh, just go hike.

You can't hike Hood.

You got to like know what you're doing.

It's super steep.

Super steep.

And like, you can only climb it for like a couple months out of the year.

And I was off season, like, these rocks were rained down.

I'm like, I'm going to freaking die here.

So I had to like actually start learning about the mountains and researching them.

best practices and I took a mountaineering course and so like as you get better and better you like kind of know how to predict the mountains

Montana was

Granite Peak.

That was brutal.

Montana.

Sometimes I make them more difficult than they need to be.

Like I did Redier in 24 hours.

No one should ever do that.

You should like take time and hours.

So these take days.

Some of them.

Yeah.

I did Whitney in 24 hours too.

That was horrible.

Wow.

Just straight, no sleep.

Yeah.

Just wow, you're an animal.

Well, that was how I used to be.

Now I'm like slow and steady.

It wins this race.

You should climb, though.

I mean,

if you wanted to like just go out and climb boundary peaks not far from you, that's a a nice one.

That's Nevada's highest.

I'll try it out, man.

I've been to Red Rock, Red Rock's.

Yeah, I ran, I ran around there.

Oh, yeah,

Jesus.

Well, when you're a pro runner and the coach gives you a run, like, you got to get it done.

Even if you're in Vegas, yeah, you got to go out.

Any crazy running stories?

Because I've got a couple, actually.

I want to hear yours.

I mean, not as crazy as yours, but I rolled my ankle so bad once and I was seven miles out.

So I had to limp seven miles back to my high school training facility.

Brutal.

Crazy.

No cell phone.

No cell phone, dude.

Any stories like that for you?

Well, one at Red Rock's.

Yeah.

So I was out here, I can't remember what it was for, some meeting, but I was still pro runner.

And coach was like, hey, you need to get your long run in.

And he's like, I want you to do 10, no more, no more than 10.

And so someone's like, oh, go to Red Rocks.

It's beautiful.

So I went out there and like, I'm kind of like eyeballing it on the map.

And I'm like, okay, from here to there is like 10 mile loop.

Yeah.

And so I just turn my GPS watch on.

I start running for my car.

And I get to 10 miles and I'm still a long ways away from my car.

And I'm like, coach said no more than 10.

Like 12 isn't that much more.

So I ran another two miles and my car's still nowhere to be seen.

And I'm like, if I, if I don't, like, this could end up being an 18 mile run.

I could injure myself if I'm not careful.

Yeah.

And so I just start hitchhiking.

I used to hitchhike a lot when I was a kid.

So I'm not, I'm like kind of used to it.

And, um, but I'm just like, I'm literally just in little shorty shorts like we run in.

I don't have a shirt on.

I'm just in shorty shorts, freezing off in like the Nevada winter out there.

And I'm holding my thumb up and this Prius rolls up.

And they're like, are you okay?

I'm like, I'm parked just on the other side of the loop.

Like, I've already run 12.

I don't think I can get to my car.

And they're like, hop in, and they start driving me.

And they're like, dude, it's really dangerous.

You shouldn't be doing this.

And I'm like, oh, I used to do it all the time when I was a kid in Idaho.

And they're like, Idaho, we're from Boise.

And turns out that the guy driving the car had worked for my dad.

So it was like a super small, super small world.

Yeah.

What are the odds?

And that was in Vegas.

It is just outside Vegas.

Yeah.

They're like, oh, yeah, we just drove down here for the week to like, to climb a little bit.

Wow.

So they got me to my car and they're like, please don't hitchhike anymore.

Yeah.

Like, don't tell my dad.

That's crazy.

You ever get hit by a car running?

No, thank God.

Cause I know some people that have.

Yeah.

That was a good one.

I know some cyclists, too.

Oh, yeah.

People just texting and driving.

Oh, yeah.

These days, yeah, it's got to be.

I think I always say this.

They're like, because I'm a pilot and a mountain climber.

And they're like, aren't you worried about the risks that you take?

I'm like, not even close.

to the risk that I take when I'm road biking.

I think road bike, and I'm a super safe road biker.

I think road cycling might be the most dangerous thing that I do.

Seriously.

Because not because if i was just doing it on a green belt that'd be fine but if you do it on a road with drivers who aren't paying attention statistically that is a very very dangerous thing to do but my coach always made us run towards the traffic traffic yeah so you can see him coming and you can kind of like tell if they're yeah he would get pissed if he ever saw us like running with traffic yeah you miss it i do miss running but like you said a lot of damage on the joints yeah it's hard so i don't know a lot of your size man yeah I got injured all the time running, dude.

Did you run in Rutgers?

I ran in high school.

I could have ran in Rutgers, Rutgers, but I liked partying a bit too much.

Yeah.

My sister was a state champ in soccer and cross-country and track.

Damn.

And

everybody wanted to recruit her.

And she's like, no, I think I'm just going to go enjoy college.

Because she saw how much work I was doing.

She's my little sister.

And she's like, yeah, I don't know if I want to do that.

And I'm like, you're so smart.

So how much of that is genetics versus hard work in your family?

I mean, genetics obviously plays a role.

Everyone always asks me, can you not become an Olympian just with hard work?

I'm like, probably not.

Probably not.

You have to have some genetic gift.

So your parents were pretty solid?

They were great athletes.

Yeah.

Not like Olympians, but they

were good athletes.

But then I know a lot of people who were genetically more gifted than me that just wouldn't do the work.

So you have to have both parts to reach that upper level.

You have to be genetically gifted and then you have to work off to, as I called it, like.

Realize the gift.

I used to say, I was born with a lottery ticket, but the only way I can cash it in is by running 10 miles every day.

Yeah.

That's how I viewed it.

So how many days did you do that straight?

10 miles?

I mean, I averaged 10 miles a day for 15, 20 years.

Holy crap.

No days off?

We took two weeks off every year.

And I would take out days off occasionally.

So I say we averaged 10 miles a day, but like, you know, sometimes I'd call coach up and be like, coach, I can't.

I'm like, I physically can't get out of bed after yesterday's workout.

Like, I'm spent.

Yeah.

And he'd be like, okay, go aqua jog for an hour instead.

Could all be a good one.

Or sometimes he would say you can take a day off, but I really don't believe in scheduling days off at that level

because what if you feel great?

You know, save the days for when you really need them.

Got it.

The only time we'd really schedule time off is at the end of a season.

A season would run through mid-September.

And then if you were trying to like get yourself ready for another 50-week cycle, you just take two weeks totally off.

Damn.

And I would just drink beer and go fishing.

That's two weeks.

Then I'd be like, okay, I think I'm ready to drive back to it.

And what minute per mile, what mile per minute pace for the 10 miles were you running out?

If it was a long run, like a progression run, might start at like seven minute miles.

Work your way down to like six minute miles.

Yeah.

But sometimes, you know, like an evening run, because I would do doubles a lot to run in the morning and the evening.

Sometimes in the evenings, I'd do four miles just listening to music at like eight mile pace, eight minute per mile time.

Oh, shit.

Yeah, just time on your feet.

That sounds pretty doable.

It's doable.

Yeah.

So a lot of times I'd invite people.

No, I was dating into my 20s.

I'd be like, yeah, let's go for a run.

They're like, uh-huh, I'm going to run with you.

I'm like, I'm serious.

Like, you'll like this.

And we would just go out and go for like, you know, 30-minute stroll around Priest Trail at 80-minute pace.

It was really easy.

And

they didn't get invited to like the track workout the next day.

But like, yeah, you know, it's, I had a lot of friends that were just casual runners that I'd run with in the evenings.

And did you train alone or do you, did you have someone to keep up?

Okay.

Yeah.

I was lucky for eight years with Nike.

I had the Oregon Track Club Elite in Eugene.

And then I moved to Seattle when I started running for Brooks and I ran with the Brooks Beast.

And I always felt I didn't mind training on my own.

I was one of those people that like, I can train on my own.

I just loved having a team around me.

There's so much more energy and more support.

And it's easy to find.

When I go to the gym alone and lift, it's it feels longer.

Yeah.

Same with the sauna.

Yeah.

Like when I have people to talk to, it just goes by quickly.

Yeah, just have fun.

You know, like what could be more fun than being outdoors with

your friends?

Like, especially as runners on those easy runs, you're running slow enough.

We called it conversational pace.

Yeah.

So if you're going to go run for an hour, it'd be more fun to run with the guys and talk about anything you want to talk about.

Just slow.

I want to end off with Run Gum, man.

You built quite an umpire there.

Yeah, it was great.

I was the founder and CEO for seven years, six, seven years.

And then I kind of woke up one day and I was like, I don't, I don't want to be the CEO anymore.

So I hired my replacement.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he's still the CEO and I just am a silent investor, basically.

Nice.

I loved it.

Again, kind of like.

Talk about just like laying awake at night, like dreaming about things.

There was a time there as my as my running career was winding down, I'd just be like, I want to create a business so bad.

But after leading it for six years, I just want to go do something else.

And that's been really like the story of my career.

It's like I get really into something and I go all in and I find, because I, because I go all in, I find success.

And I just love it and hammer it to death until I'm over it.

And then I move on to the next thing.

And I've kind of done that for 20 years now.

That's how I am.

I think it's a new era.

I think with our parents, they had the same job their whole lives.

Yeah.

And some of them didn't like it, but they didn't want to do it.

Yeah, because of the benefits or whatever.

But now we're in an age where you can just do a bunch of different things.

Well, and you also have to think about living for like 100 years, right?

So like the Japanese have this term i'm gonna mess it up ikagai which is like your your reason for being and they don't have the word retirement wow which i love there shouldn't be i think we should just get this this idea of retirement out of our vernacular like we shouldn't even use the word it's like what are you going to go to next you don't have to like

You could quit your nine to five, but don't retire.

Just move into the next thing.

It doesn't necessarily have to be making money.

It could be volunteering.

It could be

growing vegetables.

I don't know.

Like, I don't ever want to retire.

I just want to move on to the next thing.

So I'm going to keep making YouTube videos, but when the day comes that I don't want to make a YouTube video, I'll need to move into the next thing.

And I just want to keep pursuing my passions until I die.

100% agree.

I'll feel like that was a great life, right?

No, that was good.

You're obviously living the same

lifestyle.

Dude, I'll never retire because this is fun to me.

Yeah.

Like just having conversations with the people that are the best at what they're doing.

You got struck by lightning.

Yeah, dude.

It's one of the best jobs ever, in my opinion.

Yeah.

Being a content creator.

You're a great one.

Yeah.

Thank you so much, man.

Where can people find out what you're up to, man?

You know, I plugged things for 20 years.

I plugged shoes.

I plugged run gum.

I plugged my YouTube channel.

I'm on a break.

So, like, you can go check me out on Instagram or nicksimmons.com, but you're not going to see anything for a few months.

If you do want to follow along this story of the mountaineering, you know, and trying to climb to Nali, that video will drop early July.

Right now, we're scheduling it for July 1.

Nice.

And

it'll be cinematic.

It'll be stunning.

And you'll find out if I have what it takes to get to the top of the tallest mountain in North America.

I don't think I do.

I'm just going to say that right now.

I don't think I have what it takes to get to the top of this mountain.

I've struggled.

Altitude, I'm working my butt off, dude.

I'm training seven days a week.

I'm going to do everything possible to find success on that mountain.

And then, you know, it is, there isn't there.

I think with the cameras on, it adds more pressure to you.

So, yeah.

And I respond well to pressure.

Thanks so much for coming on.

Thank you, guys.

Yeah.

Thanks for watching, guys.

See you tomorrow.