153 Days, 153 Half Marathons: Pierce Showe's Treadmill World Record and Journey to Ultra Running Glory

DFW Running Talk: Pierce Showe
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Chris Detzel: [00:00:00] Welcome to DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, so let's get started.

All right. Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel. Today we have special guest, Pierce Showe Pierce.

Pierce Showe: How's it

Chris Detzel: going?

Pierce Showe: I'm just amped up to be talking to you, man. It's cool that you've got this podcast going on in Dallas.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Pierce Showe: the Dallas running scene's awesome. I was running on the Katy Trail today.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, shout out. Shout out Dallas

Pierce Showe: running. ~I saw that on your, I'm excited Strava.~

Chris Detzel: And, you're fast. I dunno if it was today or yesterday. I saw that you running on the Tyrell and you're running like seven miles at seven minute pace. It's pretty good.

Pierce Showe: Yeah, I I don't just do far things and if you run ultra marathons, you can run fast too.

I've had a time of my life where I went after a fast marathon and I'm actually gonna prep for Houston here shortly. So going back into the fast. It's fun to run fast.

Chris Detzel: I agree. Are you doing the marathon or half? I'm gonna do

Pierce Showe: the Houston full.

Chris Detzel: Okay. [00:01:00] I'll be there at the half, so maybe I'll get to see there.

Yeah, that would be great. So here's the thing is I was doing a little research on you and wow. One, you have quite the following on YouTube, Instagram, I don't know, I didn't see a t I'm sure you have TikTok, I'm not sure, but you certainly have a really great following, so I could appreciate that.

It's funny because a lot of runners, especially in DFW. Don't have followings like that, but you're doing some amazing things and so that's really why I got you on the podcast is because you're doing extraordinary things. I talked to this one woman not too long ago. Alison Miller. I mentioned that she did 400 miles within 10 weeks.

Did that kind of, that what do they call that? The grand slam of a hundreds. Of the hundreds. And so I've never heard of that until I started talking to her. But you've done even some even more cool things as well. And so as a matter of fact, you've done some 200 milers, we'll get into that.

You've done five Ks, you've done. I think you even hit a world record. We will talk about the world record. Yeah. In, in, I think it's a half marathon in, is it [00:02:00] 150 days? 153? Yeah. On a

Pierce Showe: treadmill.

Chris Detzel: On a treadmill. Surfing. So in Dallas and in DFW. Yeah. That's great. So we'll talk about all of that. So I'm certainly excited to get deep, but before we do, let's talk a little bit about, this is one is you have this 1980s haircut and I saw some of your other.

Stuff that you've done. It's more of a mullet now. It's really just puffy. Are you bringing that back? It's pretty iconic, or are you just avoiding like the barbers during like heavy training blocks? What's going on?

Pierce Showe: A little bit of everything. That's funny you say avoid the barbers during heavy training blocks.

'cause I was just doing the half marathons and then I went out to Colorado for a bit 'cause I did Leadville and haven't been home to get my hair cut. No, but it's it's just fun. It's memorable. I started the mullet 'cause my mentor had a mullet and I just. Kept it, it was just too good.

And we're bringing it back, baby.

Chris Detzel: I love it. It's a great persona as well, it's pretty cool. Pretty funny. And you told me a little secret, we don't have to go deep into [00:03:00] this, but, something, special's happening, coming up. What is, what's happening?

Pierce Showe: Yeah.

I'm running is no longer my girlfriend and I'm not no longer married to running. 'cause I'm getting married on Saturday, so Wow. Gonna be running through life with a partner now. So I'm excited for that.

Chris Detzel: I'm gonna talk a little bit about that because you, she has some, if you're gonna continue this on after we kinda dive deep into some of your history on running, support has gotta be there, right?

For both, right? You can support her and what she wants to do and all of that kinda stuff. Yeah, and I've talked about a lot of that on my podcast with a lot of these. These women that are running these really fast times and marathons, they're hitting under three hours. They have to do high, high intensity training, right?

So I'm running 70, 80, 90 miles, and they have two or three kids, right? And and their husbands are big time into either running or CrossFit or something like that, and so we'll talk about that later. But, think about a plan, that you might think about later, with the wife and stuff like that.

But congratulations, it's pretty awesome.

Pierce Showe: Thank you.

Chris Detzel: So let's talk a little bit about you, your history, like when you first started [00:04:00] running and then how you got into ultra marathon. Let's do that.

Pierce Showe: Yeah. So how I started running was grew up in Columbus, Ohio. A big part of my story is my parents got divorced when I was six years old.

That was really challenging for me growing up, but God's really shown me through it all. Like it's developed me into who I am. Today, and I would not be who I am today without that. And so what it did was it put a drive in me to work really hard. And so I was always a really hard worker growing up. Was never the most talented athlete, but I just worked really hard.

And lacrosse was big in my hometown in Ohio. I played lacrosse and come high school we'd do tryouts and for every week, every day, the first week of tryouts, we had to run a 5K. And at this time I was, I think I was like 15 and a 5K was like, oh my gosh, that's awful. Like, why would you ever want to do a 5K?

All my friends were complaining about it, but I did it and I realized, I was like, huh, I'm not that bad at it. [00:05:00] And so I got some confidence through that and it's so powerful when you like crush that first like distance, whether it's a 5K, whether it's you go five miles and you just break through a ceiling because you're like, oh my gosh, wow, you gained some confidence.

And so for me, I was. Primarily raised by my mom. My dad was around, but my mom has run a marathon every year for the last 33 years, and so she never told me to run. She actually never had a plan for me getting into running, but she set a good example. An example is worth a thousand words. And so I saw her example.

Saw her doing a marathon every year, and I was like, man, if she can run a marathon every year, I could probably at least do a half. And so that's how I got into running really was I tried this half marathon and I had some doubts, had some reservations if I could do it, but I pushed through, I finished the race, and once I finished the race, it was like that [00:06:00] explosion of wow. I didn't think I could do this, but I did it. What else is possible? What else can I do? And so that just led me to going for a marathon then 50 miles, 60 miles, a hundred miles, and then ultimately the 200 milers and all that. But it, it just came from progressively doing a little bit more and more, because yeah.

Years ago, I never could have even fathomed running a hundred miles or 200 miles and maybe listening to this podcast, you can't even fathom that. Maybe you can't even fathom doing a marathon. But with each distance you go a little bit further, more becomes possible to you and you're able to go after it like

Chris Detzel: that.

And I think that, it's interesting. Did your mom help you did she kinda give you any guidance on kind of your first half marathon or, did you talk to her a little bit about it or what? A

Pierce Showe: little bit. She, in those days, they, we didn't have all the fancy running gels and stuff.

They just had cliff blocks. And yeah. Or the, no, it was the cliff. Like it tasted [00:07:00] like icing. It was so hard to get down, but. She gave me some of those. She gave me some Tylenol told me to take that, during the race. But yeah she's old school. She just gets out there and runs.

But she just encouraged me. She's yeah, you can do it. Go for it.

Chris Detzel: She must be proud of you now, huh?

Pierce Showe: Yeah. Yeah. And she also takes some flack from my family 'cause they all think I'm crazy and that she created a monster in me going after all these races. They think my knees are gonna be done when I'm 80.

I tell them they just need to start running.

Chris Detzel: It's true. It's, I think there's maybe some truth to the knee thing, but I don't think for the most part there is any much truth to the knee thing. Yeah. I think if you're carrying a lot of weight and you're running or walking, then you know, there could be some opportunity for you to, maybe walk run or those kinds of things so that you're not pounding your knees because of that kinda stuff now.

I don't know. I don't know what you think about the thing around the knees. I hear that all the time. I'm like, no. Yeah, and these are

Pierce Showe: pretty good. My whole thing is, sorry to interrupt you, but my whole thing with that is [00:08:00] everyone who says something about that doesn't run. And so it's that's right.

It's almost like their justification for not running. That's right. And yeah, I know so many people who are sixties, you see it during these ultra marathons. You'll see 70 year olds doing these a hundred mile races, and it's just what in the world? In fact. I'm usually the youngest person at these races I go to.

The majority population is between 30 and 50 or more, probably 40 to 50 than anything else. Because they've had those years of endurance built up, the bone density they have and all that kind of stuff.

Chris Detzel: That's a good point. I think that. The longer distances for the most part, whether it's a marathon and above, you don't see a lot of 20 year olds doing that.

You're pretty young. And how old are you? Mid twenties. I'm 24 now. Okay. Yeah. You're super young, but yeah, seeing. 24 year olds do 200 milers or a hundred milers and 50 et cetera is quite rare. You see some do marathons, but it's not, [00:09:00] certainly a lot less in the ultra. So you, so we'll get off running for a second.

You're also known for in kind of the Jesus. Is King shirts everywhere. Yeah. You've got a Jesus king shirt. Now, you know how many conversations has that actually, started like at airports

Pierce Showe: all the time? All the time at airports, and I don't know if you know this, my thing at airports is when people comment on my shirt, I pray for them.

Okay. So it's always a great conversation starter and opportunity to bless people. But yeah, God's changed my life. I wasn't a believer growing up, but went through some tough things and God was there for me. And even through the successes with ultra running, like I ran my first a hundred mile race when I was 19 and like quickly got like attention from it and I was like drawn to that attention.

But. Of course I like would go through these races and have these mountaintop experiences where I, run a hundred miles or run 200 miles and everyone's cheering for me and messaging me how much I inspire them. And then, a week goes by and all that's gone and you just like, man, [00:10:00] just this emptiness feeling.

And i've grown my relationship with God over the last five years, and it's been the best and that's why I wear the shirt and also have a run club called Run With Christ in Dallas on the Katy Trail. So any listeners who are in their twenties and want to come out we're always on the Katy Trail.

Saturdays at 8:00 AM Shameless plug.

Chris Detzel: I love it. I'm always looking for run clubs to talk about. I've got some leaders of different run clubs that are coming out. There's this one podcast that I'm doing with that I did with have you seen Run It Up? Have you heard of that? No Club. But basically they have literally thousands of people in that club, and I just talked to the guy that runs it, come out in a couple weeks.

But I think that's awesome. I think that, running clubs have taken off, over the last. They've been there for a while, but they've just taken off over the last five to six years and just become huge in different areas. I love that, that you've done that. Hey, what's that?

Pierce Showe: I think that a lot of people want to build community off of healthy habits. I think in the past we see like just the culture of going out for a [00:11:00] drink with people grabbing, a drink and getting together. And that and I'm not here to shame you for that. I'm not whatever, like you do whatever you want, have a beer, that's great.

But I think like people, and I'm especially seeing this with young people, is they want to like. Do fun things and get together around something that's productive and healthy. Yeah. And so you can get up early, go for a run, be done by 9:00 AM on Saturday. Exactly. Feel amazing versus waking up at 10 or noon.

Hung over regretting the decisions you made the night before. I don't know, that's just a hypothesis I have. 'cause they just have really skyrocketed. You're totally

Chris Detzel: right. Yeah. And I think that. It's just a way to build community and like you said, a healthy way to do that and just do what others are doing as well.

You're sitting there running a hundred miles maybe those people in the community will just do five to seven miles with you. You know what I mean? And that's cool. You still want to run with people and you even created a group around it, so I love that. Let's talk about that a hundred miler that you did at 19.

What inspired you to do [00:12:00] that? And you said you got all these kind of people sending you messages and stuff. What happened there?

Pierce Showe: Yeah, I did the marathon my senior year of high school. That was 2018. Okay. And then went out to college at USC in California, or summer of 2019 going into freshman year of college.

I read Goggins book. Can't Hurt Me. Yeah. And that's where I first heard about a hundred Mile Races and I didn't really understand that there were like actual races you sign up for. Like I didn't realize how popular they were. And I think since that book's come out, I think the ultra scene that probably has blown it up a lot too.

But yeah I just thought. Like for an ultra, you just make a one mile loop and do it a bunch of times. And so I did, at USCI did 52 miles during exam study days to, to raise money for mental health. So wanted to do it for a good cause. I thought that a lot of people stress over exams and Yeah.

Yeah. It's yeah, you want to do good, get good grades, but it's not worth making yourself sick over and yeah. So yeah, did that, then did [00:13:00] another one in COVID time, and then worked my web. So I went 52 60 and then a hundred and then, okay. That a hundred mile race was just. One mile loop around my neighborhood in Ohio and got a bunch of friends to come out.

And then, yeah, just through posting it on social media it, it reached a good amount of people. But it was really cool. It was powerful. It was powerful for the people that got to be there. I had a lot of friends and family who had never run more than 10 miles. Go 15, go 20. Some do a 50 K with me because when you're going a hundred miles, you're not moving the quickest.

And so most people can keep pace, especially once you get over 50 miles and you start slowing down. Yeah. So it was really cool to, to build community through that. But yeah, just making up these challenges and really with the goal of testing myself and seeing how far I can go.

Chris Detzel: So that's interesting that you're just making it up, making up the challenges yourself.

Oh, I'm gonna run. A hundred miles around. Is it a track or just a loop? A mile loop here. One mile

Pierce Showe: loop around my neighborhood. So like a [00:14:00] block in my neighborhood. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty cool. What inspired you to do that? It was just like, Hey, I wanna invite all these people to come out and run with me.

Yeah. What's the

Pierce Showe: I just got so excited about oh my gosh, I found this thing running. And I'm able to push myself and inspire other people and, and it's just who knows what it could become? And I thought like I wanted to figure out what I could do, and I just started craving that to, to see and then also like after doing these races and these huge efforts, it's whoa.

I was able to do that. That's pretty wild. That's really cool. And so there's we are wired to get satisfaction out of working hard and like accomplishing things. And so I think like through that I found some like. Worthy challenges that I was able to push myself with. Do you

Chris Detzel: work, do you have a job

Pierce Showe: or, yeah I worked for a ministry for two and a half years and Okay.

The guy I worked for really cool story. I won't get into it too much, but essentially he [00:15:00] was a NFL player on a Super Bowl, but. At the expense of every other area of his life. His life is in shambles, but found God and God completely changed around his life. So I worked for him and his ministry for two and a half years.

His name's Steve Weatherford. And then that's what brought me to Dallas and Steve helped me start coaching people and running.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Pierce Showe: Just like I said, the power of a good example with my mom, like the power of mentors. Like I'm not who I am without the mentors. I've had the running coaches, I've had the triathlon coaches, the people like Steve who were like, Hey, you've got this skill with running, like you should help other people run races.

And so now I do that full time. I've been doing it a little over a year, full-time coaching people for marathons and ultra marathons. It's

Chris Detzel: pretty cool that at such a young age, you, you really knew to, or somebody helped guide you to find mentors and find people that are smart around you that, what did that look like?

At 24, most people are like [00:16:00] just trying to figure out life. Not that, not to say you're not, but just to have somebody like that to. Help you what kind of guided you towards making those good decisions? I'm curious. Yeah. To be honest.

Pierce Showe: I'm definitely still figuring it out, so don't gimme too much credit.

Yeah, of course. We all are. But like I said when I was growing up, like parents got divorced when I was six. Yeah. Because of that, it. Made me grow up faster, which sucked in some ways, but was good in others. Every summer I worked like 40 hours a week on my uncle's construction site, doing like manual labor stuff.

And then my mom was a nanny, so she was working all the time. And so it just made me more responsible. It made me more driven, like I. I realized like from a young age, like I didn't want to be divorced when I grew up. I didn't want to struggle with money when I grew up, and so it just gave me a focus.

Yeah. And and then when I got to college was when I really started reading, like personal development books, started studying guys like Tony Robbins and the Rich Dad, poor dad, like Robert Kiyosaki and [00:17:00] learning personal finance and so yeah, just started reading a lot of books. Then all these books talked about like how you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

And then also like how, your mentors are so important and also how like when you're young it's more about working to learn rather than working to earn because you're just like developing yourself. And yeah, I think I just, like God just guided me in a very unique way to start studying this stuff like earlier on and just be more desire of that more.

And it's been really cool, like how it's panned out and what God has done.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty cool, man. I love that and I love that you're smart enough to kinda take hold of that, thank you. Did your. When you think about coaching and stuff like that, how do you what does that look like for you and your clients?

How are you coaching them? Are you putting training plans together or, what does that look like?

Pierce Showe: Yeah, so the main thing is training plans, like understanding their goals, where they want to get to and then where they're at and how can we bridge the gap with the structured training plan.

I [00:18:00] think. It's just it's really just intentionality behind the way that they train. Like my like target person that I coach is not like an elite Olympic athlete. It's more of like you and I guys who wanna get out there, push our bodies, see what. See what fast marathon time we can run, maybe even run our first marathon or run our first a hundred miler.

And so when you get to that stage, like when you're in that stage, it's really about consistency. Developing the habit of running multiple times a week. It's about not doing too much too quick because 90% of running injuries are caused just by scaling up your volume too quick. And I think in the age of Instagram and running influencers and all that.

Like you can see these guys crushing 50 miles a week, 70 miles a week, a hundred miles a week, and think, oh shoot, if I wanna be good, I need to do that. When in reality, you don't realize they've been running for six or 10 years. Yeah, exactly. And so if you start there, you're gonna get injured. And so I [00:19:00] really help people develop the consistency, give them a plan to follow so they don't.

Scale up mileage too quick. Strength training's important for running as well. And then the fueling aspect of it too. Like fueling helps. Having more carbs in your system, taking in gels while you're running, makes a huge difference, hydrating. And so I, I help people with the whole journey, but that's the first couple.

Things that people really need to dial in.

Chris Detzel: On that note, I know you went from winging it with eating sandwiches, pizza during the first, a hundred milers. Yeah. And finally for your 200 milers, you decided, Hey, I need to hire a coach. Yeah. What's the, tell me a little bit about that and talk a little bit about the biggest train myth that you believed early on that.

You now know is wrong.

Pierce Showe: Biggest training myth? That's a good question. I think for a lot for when I got into the two hundreds, I started going keto and doing that stuff because like it's such a long race and you're running at a low heart rate. But that kind of set me back because I wasn't taking enough [00:20:00] carbs during my training and carbs.

Carbs are not the enemy, like carbs are fuel. And so when I, especially

Chris Detzel: not during those kind of races.

Pierce Showe: Yeah. And then too, if you wanna run a fast marathon, you gotta have carbs. You gotta like the science is showing in the best performances that, like the higher carbs, the higher amount of carbs you're able to take in.

Like the more the better you can be. Like for instance, the guy if it, Roche, I'm not sure if you're familiar with him, he won Leadville the last two years. I'm pretty sure he is been doing something like 110 grams of carbs per hour, which is during the race. Yeah, during the race for 15 hours straight.

Crazy. Yeah. But so him. And then here's one recently that I even learned is like during these longer ultra endeavors, like I used to only take caffeine like the last couple hours of it because I'm like, if I get on, I, if I get on caffeine, I have to stay on, which is true, but I didn't realize I could take it long for longer during the race.

And so I would [00:21:00] only use it like the first or the last four hours. But at Leadville, I was taking caffeine for I think it was 12 to 16 hours or so, like I was doing okay. 200 milligrams every three to four hours. Now this may be getting technical for some people, but yeah, caffeine usage was a myth.

You really can use it the entire time or somewhat within reason. Yeah, those are just a couple things.

Chris Detzel: So I wanna go back to the coaching later, but talk a little bit about some of those big races you've done. You mentioned Leadville. Yeah, I think you've done Moab and some other things like that.

Let's talk about that.

Pierce Showe: Yeah, so after I did my first a hundred mile race, I was like, oh, there's actually these ultra marathons that I can sign up for. And I got a little excited and I did three a hundred mile races in a year. I did the keys 100 from Q Largo to Key West, which is like insanely hot if you wanna.

If you wanna run in the run through the sun that's a good race. 90% humidity that I [00:22:00] did Leadville that year. And then I did Brazo Bend a Texas race. And so that was that. And then the next year I got. Tricked by the Instagram algorithms and this race director, and this bur not tricked, but she started posting and saying, 200 is the new 100.

And I was like, all right, I'm gonna check these out. And then they do so great on their marketing that. The two hundreds when I signed up for them were lottery, but if you signed up for all three of 'em, you would automatically get into all of 'em. And so I was like, don't temp me with That's great marketing.

I

Chris Detzel: love that. She's smart.

Pierce Showe: Yeah. And so I ended up going from never running a, a 200 mile race to running three, two hundreds in, in three months. So that's probably like what I'm most well known for is like I did the Tahoe 218 days later I did the Bigfoot 200, and then a month and a half later or so, I did the Moab two [00:23:00] 40.

So yeah, that's like the the first one actually turned out to be like 220 miles. Then the second one was two 14. That kind of sucks. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And then the last was supposed to be two 40, but my watch clock two 50. Especially when you're that late rate, when you're, that race, if you're moving at 15, 20 minutes a mile just hobbling through 10 miles, that's two and a half hours.

Chris Detzel: Extra that weren't planning eternity. Sometimes during marathon, if you're dying, if you think you have three miles, that's, that seems like a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Something that I read is that. In the 200, 200 miler ta Tahoe at Mile 60 you almost quit, right? Yeah.

But then you went to run, but you didn't quit. You kept going, finished, but then you went to run like Bigfoot eight hours faster, just 18 days later. What kind of went through your, me your mind, what changed? Like, how'd you go through, how'd you do that, right? Yeah. Like how do you mentally get through all of that?

Knowing what you've done [00:24:00] at Tahoe wasn't, is probably. Great. As you would've liked. Yeah, especially on mile 60. You almost quit. You got a long ways to get.

Pierce Showe: So during that race I came more close to quit quitting than I ever have during an ultra-marathon. And ultra-marathons are such great teachers for life.

Yeah. And here's a great lesson that I learned. So I honestly came into Tahoe a little bit, air arrogant. I was like the young guy who's doing all these marathons. And I was like, no way. Yeah. I was like, man. If I usually place the top 10% of these races, I'm sure I can get, top 10% of this 200, even though I've never done 200 before.

And so I was arrogant and then I was just excited and so I forgot to lube up. And I usually lube all my private areas, my armpits, my nipples, all that, just the places that are gonna chafe because. Chafing can become a real issue and can destroy your race completely at that distance. Like you can get away with it during a marathon, but try doing [00:25:00] that.

Eight times over and that can lead to like just your skin being just destroyed. So anyway, a mixture of not looping up. And then I had an electrolyte imbalance and so I started going diarrhea a lot. And so I had to keep going to the bathroom on the trail and I was wiping and just, I started chafing really bad.

Yeah. So I'm 30 miles in, 40 miles in. I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, how in the world am I gonna be able to go 160 miles left to go? And so I started considering how far I had to go to my goal, and that's where I went wrong. Because when you're 40 miles into a race and you're already tired, you can't comprehend going 160 miles.

To go. It's like in life when we have these big grand goals for our lives and we're not even close to them, it can feel like, how in the world am I gonna get there? And so I let that get to me. Luckily, my coach, the power and coaches, he told me [00:26:00] before you make a decision to quit during a 200 mile, eat and sleep.

So anyway, I decided I was just gonna get to the sleep station, eat and sleep to appease him. Then I was gonna quit in the morning 'cause I was so miserable. But luckily I took his advice and I was good enough to go after, like two hours of sleep to keep going and I fought through that race, struggled the rest of the race, but I was able to get it done.

And so I finished that race. My crew's are you really gonna do Bigfoot? I didn't think I was even gonna be able to, but I talked to my coach, he's Pierce, we've trained for this. You can do it. But I knew that my mindset needed to change. So I had a meeting with a mentor who's a former Navy seal, and he told me about this thing that they do in SEAL training called, they teach 'em called segmentation.

And it's this mental strategy of breaking a larger goal down into smaller parts, into smaller segments. And he said, basically what they teach us in buds is to get through this, you've gotta focus on [00:27:00] breaking it down into smaller parts. And so I was like, all right my body's shot. I don't feel good.

Like I'm still recovering from this, but let's see if I can change reality by changing my mind. And so I put. The course distances on my phone for like how far in between each section. So I knew, okay, the segment's gonna be 12 miles. Okay, this one's gonna be 15 miles, this is gonna be eight miles. And then I had the vertical gain and then the descent.

So I knew if it was like a mainly uphill section or a downhill. And then I just went out for that race. I'm like, I'm gonna give it all I got. And so I had that mindset going in. And so right then it was more possible for me because I didn't have to think about 200 miles. I just had to think. 12 months and two, the cool thing is about that is like you may be feeling awful going into an aid station.

I was feeling awful at certain points. But you get there, the crew's there, the volunteers are [00:28:00] there. You have some Coke, you have an energy drink, whatever, and your energy gets up. And so I would find that sometimes I would be at my end, but I'd just focus on getting to that segment. And then at that segment, my energy could shift because of those things.

So not just in ultra running, but in life. Break it down into segments because you can turn into, turn a 200 mile race into easy chunks because of that. And it's so true in life as well.

Chris Detzel: I love that. Do you think that because you're breaking it down and into segments like that and thinking about that all the time, that seems like a mental trap as well, is that.

Or is it just, what do you mean?

Like you're saying, okay, I've gotta do these eight miles and that's from this hill to here, and then I've gotta break it down to this and this. You can think a lot that, that's a lot of, preparation right there. Do you do that race or do you.

Pierce Showe: You just gotta focus on one at a time. So all I'm thinking is 12 miles. 12 miles, just gotta get these 12 miles done. And my phone already has all the segments broken down. It's already downs already. And [00:29:00] so I just am looking at a pic, a number on a screen.

Chris Detzel: Did you win any of these races more specifically around your, I don't know if you I want 'em or, no, I didn't.

Maybe I didn't end up

Pierce Showe: winning. Once I finished those, I became the youngest guy to do the triple crown. But yeah, didn't win any of them, but was able to knock 'em out.

Chris Detzel: I didn't know if, you get up there with Jim Wamsley at some of these a hundred milers and just thought, I'm gonna kick his butt.

Yeah. Not yet.

Pierce Showe: Not yet. He's a freak. I love it. He's a great guy. Oh, I

Chris Detzel: too, yeah. He, I don't know him, but, he's been some of my, he's been my favorite to watch for a while. And so I love what you're doing. It's really cool. Yeah. Thank you. How do you, so when I was looking at some of the Moab footage, like from Yeah.

One of your videos, there was a moment where you were clearly struggling and you say something like, I had no clue how long this is gonna take. So how do you balance that planning versus accepting uncertainty in those that ultra. How do you think about that?

Pierce Showe: And I think that's like just [00:30:00] di that's diligence too.

I think if I recall that clip was from Tahoe, so that was the first 200 race I did. So I think that's also what helped me during Bigfoot was I had this realization, I am gonna be out here for three to four, excuse me, three to four days. I'm gonna be out on this trail for three to four days, 70 to 80 hours or so.

And so with that, I came in with a good expectation so that when it was taking longer, I didn't get so frustrated. 'cause if you go into a race with a goal of finishing it in 72 hours and then you know you're. Your goal time's just like completely out of the wash and you're focusing on, oh man, I'm gonna be out here for so long.

I'm gonna be out here for so long. It just makes it so worse. It's like even in a marathon, if you do that, it's the same concept, just different races. And so yeah, having that right [00:31:00] perception is really powerful.

Chris Detzel: How do you think about crew? Like one is I think you're gonna have to have crew, at least from a hundred miler in general, like especially at the lead vs.

And how do you get people to do stuff like that? Seems like you have a pretty good personality and people seem to follow you and do things, so that's good. But how do you ask people to do that stuff for you and what's that like?

Pierce Showe: Yeah I hate asking people to do things for me. They have to, luckily.

Luckily I have just such a great supportive crew and how I view it is too, like my views changed. Like I used to think oh, it's just me getting people to do things for me when in reality, like it's actually inviting people to be a part of a life changing experience for them to, to where they may be changing your water bottles and getting you food and following you around and being your servant for the day, but they get to be in an environment.

That's life changing where you see people just come into the end of themselves, but pushing through. That's inspiring. Like it's inspiring seeing people [00:32:00] struggle, but keep going. Yeah. And so what I've found is all my crew leaves these events inspired. They leave these events just believing that they can do more.

They leave these events like wanting to do another one. And yeah, that, that's what I've learned. But yeah I typically just ask friends to help me out. Some of my athletes will crew for me. And so it's unique when we get to have that experience together.

Chris Detzel: Are you, are your outta curiosity, are your athletes younger?

Are they

Pierce Showe: no. I coach people who are forties. All the way from like teens to forties. I have some athletes that have been in their fifties. It's interesting just the position God's put me in where I'm like leading other men that are, double my age.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. No, I think that makes sense, right?

You've done, master such skill. Yeah. At such a young age you've done a lot and it's just crazy what you've done and I think it's pretty cool. So in one of your videos that I listened to, you've talked about rejoicing and suffering and finding purpose and discomfort.

Yeah. How do you distinguish [00:33:00] between productive suffering and just being a masochist?

Pierce Showe: I guess a lot of people would consider what I do masochism. Take what I'd say with the grain of salt, but but, no I think it's on a continuum. It's not binary. It's not, productive versus masochism.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, there, there's degrees and I think that at the end of the day, it's is it gonna make you better or not? Like I think there's a certain point where some of this stuff like doesn't make sense, but then there's a point where it does, and I think it's. It's dependent on the person to decide that for themselves.

Pierce Showe: Like for me, there's races where I'm like I'll be taken off on a stretcher. Like I don't care. I'm gonna get it done. But if I was going to deal with some life altering condition because of some race I did that wouldn't be worth it for me. Yeah. I'd live to play another day. I think people just see a hundred mile races and 200 mile races, and they're so unfamiliar with it that they think honestly, like they think I'm gonna die or something. And I think it's just that, that in that [00:34:00] case is just a lack of understanding. How

Chris Detzel: do you balance the training? When you look at, look, when you talk about, oh, I'm gonna go run a hundred miler or two oh miles.

It's not that you just can go out and run a hundred miler or 200 miler, you have to train for that, that's why you hired a coach. To, to train for something that insane, yeah. It's just, and is it insane? Look, it's a lot of miles.

I'm not saying it's not, and, but. What is your training cycle like? Is it that much different from a hundred miler to a 200 miler?

Pierce Showe: Yeah, two, 200 milers a little bit more. It might be like 25% more, but it's real. It's not double. Because your body can only take so much be before you get injured or there's breakdown.

You, you're just like, through training you're constantly like riding the, how can I stress the body without overstressing it to the point of injury. And yeah, that's the case. But when it comes to training's a lot like a hundred Mile race. I used to think like everyone should run on a hundred Mile race, and I think that sounds great in theory, but I don't think that now because if you have a family, you have kids, [00:35:00] yes you can do it.

But if you're also trying to grow your business at the same time and provide for your family and build a financial fence around your family and all that it may not be worth it. It's like opportunity cost. Do you wanna spend. 12 hours, 15 hours a week running and away from your family, away from those other commitments away from your business.

Or do you wanna focus on those areas? So I think it's productive for certain people in certain seasons, but it doesn't make sense for everyone.

Chris Detzel: I think balance in life is, you gotta have. Yeah, I believe that exercise and it doesn't necessarily have to be running, I just find that running for me and for a lot of people have been helpful in weight and stress relief and things like that, and helps me to wanna accomplish something.

Example, I have a half marathon this coming weekend. Let's go. I'm gonna fly out to Utah and my hope is to pr. And that's just my own personal thing. Yeah. That I'm trying to, you gotta have goals accomplish. Yeah, you gotta have goals, right? For me, back in the day, it was more about losing [00:36:00] weight when I was 20 pounds, 30 pounds overweight.

So 15 years later, I don't know, visit. 13 years later, 14. I'm still doing it. I'm very consistent at it. I've met a lot of great people, and I think you're right. Yeah. You don't have to run a hundred miles a week or even 50 miles a week or, but you can do 10 or 20 miles a week, and that's good enough, especially if you have a family and work and all of these things.

Yeah. What's next for you? What's as you kinda look forward, I know you're about to get married, so that's awesome. Yeah. That's my next

Pierce Showe: soldier marathon.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, that's hopefully the forever marathon,

Pierce Showe: for sure.

Chris Detzel: Anything that you know, comes to mind or is that, are you taking a break or what?

Pierce Showe: Yeah, I so I just finished up the five months running a half marathon a day, and then I went into Leadville. Alright,

Chris Detzel: let's talk about that. Sorry about that. Let's, oh, no, you're good. Let's talk about your 50, your 153 days straight of half marathon. What was that? What inspired you to do that and what happened?

Pierce Showe: Yeah, so it's cool. Like I feel like I've been divinely led through all my [00:37:00] challenges. 'cause there's so many different races you can do and I'm always like, God, which one do you want me to do? So someone, a friend sent me this guy breaking the record someplace in Europe and it was how many days can you run a half marathon on a treadmill in a row?

And it has to be on the same treadmill. You have to have video record it two angles. You have to have two witnesses there every single day. I was gonna ask you what that was. Yeah. Yeah. So just. Lots of qualifications. It's way more than just running on a treadmill. Yeah. And it's a half marathon.

It's two hours a day you're running. But but anyway, so someone sent me that couldn't stop thinking about it. I'm like, maybe I should do it. And I talked to a friend about it. He talked to his manager at Lifetime Fitness and they opened a. A door to do it at Lifetime here in, in Las Colinas.

I was like, sweet let's ride. And so I did that challenge to, to push my body also to inspire people that they're capable of more than they think. Yeah. And then I fundraised for Lifetime's Foundation that helps get healthier food in schools because I think, yeah, we just, in America, you look at [00:38:00] Europe and you look at our food system and it's completely different.

And I think there's just a lot of garbage that, that we allow in our country that other countries don't, unfortunately. Like True. Unfortunately that's true statement.

Chris Detzel: Go to France, like I was just in France and you get to go to the market. Fresh foods, their meat is not to get off on this, but whenever they look at their meat and it's all lean, it's all grass fed.

It's, and it's all certified, right? Yeah. You can't, in France put this processed meat in front of people. You can't. Yeah. It's against the law. Yeah. So there's just stuff like that. You're you're right. And I love that. That's awesome.

Pierce Showe: Yeah. So yeah, just saw that and I'm like, we need to raise some awareness.

So anyway, that was what the whole challenge was about. It, it was a challenging five months for sure. Three times I had to restart the day because I had to get off of the treadmill and go to the bathroom because if you have to get off, you have to completely restart for the day. Had that tomorrow.

Were you

Chris Detzel: in what? Were you in the last miles or,

Pierce Showe: oh yeah. One time I was at mile 11 [00:39:00] and I had to get up. Yeah, it was horrible. I had to do 13

Chris Detzel: more.

Pierce Showe: That's awesome. Yeah someone was like, you need to get diapers, but

Chris Detzel: you

Pierce Showe: can't run and go, the bathroom is really hard to do. This is worse. So I had the two cameras and they have to be recording and one of the days, no, I had to com I forgot to delete the camera storage. And so I like the camera shut off without me knowing. So I finished the whole 13 only to look at my camera and it's dead. And I'm like, oh my gosh. So I had to completely run again. So those were marathon days, but oh my goodness.

The challenge is the point, yeah. I had, this day, it was day 98 or 9 98 or 99, it was one of those days where I forgot to delete my camera storage and I run the whole thing and I look, and it's not recording and I'm so pissed off and I go into the bathroom and I'm just like, 'cause I didn't want everyone else to see.

I [00:40:00] was just like really mad and I just wanted to take a moment for myself and it's okay. I, of course, I thought to myself in life we have defining moments. Sure. There are moments in our lives that define our lives, and this was a defining moment for me because it was like, I could be the guy who the camera thing happens.

It's not really my fault, but is I could make up some excuse and then not continue on in the challenge, and people would probably support me and encourage me and say, oh, it's all right. Just get it next time. Sure. I could be the guy that figures it out, finds new witnesses, and comes back later and gets it done no matter what at all costs pushes forward.

And I just had this realization where it's like I'm just choosing to be that guy and choosing to be that guy every day. Because who's to say that if I didn't, if I quit on this challenge, I wouldn't quit on other things in my life. Like when my marriage gets hard or kids get [00:41:00] hard, or these other areas of my life get hard, it's like this endurance.

Some people would say, oh yeah, you're being extreme for that. Yeah, I am extreme because I don't want to have a divorce. I don't wanna have these different things, and so I treat. Like aspects of my life like this to those extremes. Because it's like training in your running is training for life because it trains your mind.

And okay I'm done with that ramp. But it was a powerful day. Who do you wanna be? That's awesome.

Chris Detzel: Look, relationships are different than running. You'll see. But, there will be all obviously opportunities within, your marriage and relationship, a lot of fun things, a lot of opportunities, that are gonna be hard at times and you'll have to figure out how to overcome it in a different way.

Won't be running away but that's awesome. And look, whatever it takes, I think, to kinda get you through that. I mean it was, it's a good point. Hey look, my life is, I wanna keep going, and I'm gonna, accomplish this because one, it could, it's gotta be inspiring for me, not just inspiring.

Yeah. But I wanna overcome this, yeah. No matter the challenge, it was a challenge. You just ran 13 miles, yeah. [00:42:00] 13.1 and now you gotta do it all over again. 'cause it's some stupid mistake you made, that is life and I love that you overcame it and you still did it. Was there any.

Other big challenges? Was it like, Dave 51, 53 was like, oh my goodness, yes, there's some excitement, but maybe even before that was there yeah, this is ridiculous. I'm tired of it. The

Pierce Showe: main thing I tell people this is like running a hundred miles is harder, like minute by minute for sure than that.

But 153 days straight. Consistency, getting two witnesses a day, doing all the things I had to do today that day, like not traveling at all for five months, like passing up family vacations and whatnot. That's a sacrifice, that's a commitment. And so that, that was challenging. Consistency is hard.

Consistency is challenging. Especially trying to do that.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Look, the things that you're gonna be good at in life are one, getting people to do stuff. Making it like an amazing experience. Two is, overcoming hard things, and just you can really, again, get some people to come and [00:43:00] watch you video it, get to a gym to in a sense sponsor it in a way.

Yeah. So I love that. It's pretty cool. As you kinda look at, did we talk about you? What's next? I don't even know. Oh yeah. I don't think we've finished that.

Pierce Showe: Yeah. Conversation. I think my main focus right now is like getting married, starting marriage off in a, an amazing foot.

And then I'm running the Houston marathon. My goal's 2 45. Dang. Yeah, in January. Love that. So gonna go for that. And then we'll see where it takes me. I want to do battle water 1 35 at some point. And then, it's been a goal for a number of years. I just haven't got around to focusing on it.

And then, yeah we'll see. I don't know, we'll see where life takes me.

Chris Detzel: So with the Houston Marathon, are you, do you run with a group or are you just focusing in just on your own and doing a train plan?

Pierce Showe: I'm coaching some guys for it. But yeah, I'm gonna train myself for fast marathon and practice what I preach and get faster and yeah.

So document. So what does your training

Chris Detzel: look like for that? I'm curious.

Pierce Showe: Yeah. So I'm about to [00:44:00] get into it, but mainly consists that six days a week are running, yeah. I'll do four easy days. One speed workout and then a long run. And then the long run, probably four to six times will over the 16 week block will be like a marathon style workout where I'm working in longer sets at Marathon pace.

Speed. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So three miles on, one mile off, work up to four or five sets of that at Marathon pace.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. If you ever are interested, there's a group called Pegasus trained Pegasus here in Dallas that that that are about your speed, about your time. And a lot of those guys are run a CIM and stuff like that.

Okay. So you might, yeah. If you wanna get into group, check 'em out. It's called Train Pegasus. They're on Instagram, so sometimes it's just good to run with people that are like-minded. And another group called the slots are hitting under these to load in mid two thirties. So yeah, so that could be another group.

They all run together sometimes too, okay. But this is kinda your speed, guys, gals. Yeah. That's awesome. [00:45:00] Yeah. So a fun lightning round. I've never done this before, why not? But I know as an ultra guy, you've had to stop at the gas station and get some food and stuff like that.

So what's your favorite gas station food during the race?

Pierce Showe: Favorite gas station food? I'm not a big gas station food guy. Really? But what do you bring? I'll take I'll get water in the electrolyte drinks. I drink Alani sometimes, as energy drinks late in a race. The old Mexican Coke is great.

It's hard to find sometimes. Heck yeah. Yeah. But that pure cane sugar is great.

Chris Detzel: I love that. The worst hallucination during to 200 mile race.

Pierce Showe: Oh, I don't have a crazy story, but one of my friends thought he saw people waving at him from the other side of a ravine and there was like a gas station and all this stuff.

So he was top 10, I think, at the Moab two 40 had this horrible hallucination. Starts going off the trail, down this ravine that's extremely steep, like cliff [00:46:00] drops. And luckily the race director sent someone out and got him and he was okay, but he went from 10th place to one of the final 10 to finish.

But yeah, it can get wild. That is wild.

Chris Detzel: Too bad if it wasn't yours, yeah. So if you had a crew, someone else threw a 200, what's the one thing you do differently than your crew did for you?

Pierce Showe: I've had great crews. Sometimes though, because it's 200 miles and it's multiple days, it's rough.

They'll forget where they put certain equipment of yours. So one time I was going out at aid station, I'm like, Hey, I need my hat. And they didn't have it. I'm like, guys, you've been sitting around for and also when you get late in a race, your filter goes off. And so I definitely have had some unfiltered moments.

Chris Detzel: I was pacing my wife during her first 100 miler one time. One time it was so late. So she was so tired and she's never done. And so we were sitting there walking really, we weren't running at the time. And she was like, can you hand me this thing? And I was like, yeah. I [00:47:00] go, hold on. Let me get all this other stuff outta my hand.

She goes, you are my mule. You need to help me now. And I was like. Okay, I'm gonna help you. That's hilarious. But it's gonna take a minute. Yeah. Because but she was just completely unfiltered and Yeah. Yeah, it happens. It happens the best of us. But I'm yeah. Is there anything that I should have asked you that I just completely missed and that you were like, I wish these podcast people would just ask me these questions instead, or.

They missed this or that. No, this podcast has been really fun. Chris. I loved this conversation. I think maybe one thing is that I just lead people with and encourage people with is the only way I've been able to do these races is because I started with the 5K. Yeah. And so I don't know what that next thing is for you.

Pierce Showe: Like I went from the 5K to the half, to the full, to the 50 miles. Just figure out what's next for you. Go after that, because you don't need to say, oh, Pierce ran 240 miles. I need to do that. If you've run a marathon, go for 50 miles, or if you want to get [00:48:00] into triathlons or you wanna do something else.

But when you do these things, the more you do, the more becomes possible. And so I just wanna lead people with that as you're capable of way more than you think, and you'll get yourself to realize that as you push yourself. And so don't let anyone die. Hold you back, tell you that you can't do that, that you're too old or you're too young or you're too outta shape.

Like you can do it and get some momentum in your life because that will help you actually accomplish it.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, and my advice there too is train with the group. Find a running community that, are doing some, two mile runs or whatever, or Yeah. If you want longer runs, go.

There's lots of, especially in the DFW metroplex, there's Yeah. 60 or 70 running groups and all of dfw. So get yourself into that, train properly and then yeah, push yourself, it's nothing like, just pushing yourself to get better and staying as healthy as possible, yeah. I love that. And you have great message.

Pierce Showe: Pierce,

Chris Detzel: it's been great, man.

Pierce Showe: Yeah, I've loved [00:49:00] this, man. It's been so fun. Thanks for having me on, Chris. Of

Chris Detzel: course. Thank you everyone for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel;. Don't forget to rate and review us and make sure you subscribe to DFW running talk.substack.com for our newsletter.

Would love to have you subscribe, and until next time, Pierce shall so Pierce. Thanks again.