Four 100-Milers in Ten Weeks: Alison Miller's Ultimate Test

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

Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, and today we have special guest Alison Miller. Alison, how are you?

Alison Milller: I'm great, Chris. How are you?

Chris Detzel: Doing well, and this is really the first time you and I have ever met. So this is, just a welcome to us,

Alison Milller: yeah, definitely.

Chris Detzel: Before we get started Alison's done something pretty amazing over the last, I don't know month and a half, how she, she's done these 300 mile races, Western states, Leadville 100, and for Vermont 100. We'll talk about those three things in a minute. And by the way. She did this all in a month and a half or so, right?

Month, two months, I don't know.

Alison Milller: Yeah. Seven weeks total. Exactly.

Chris Detzel: Seven a week. We could just talk about all of that, but I wanna get to know you first. I'm still amazed by saying that, 100 miler is hard enough. But let's talk a little bit about you. How did you even get into running?

And then we'll talk a little bit about trail running. What kind of, perked your interest?

Alison Milller: Yeah, [00:01:00] definitely. So I grew up playing soccer, played soccer in college, and then got into PT school after. After college. So I've always liked running, always really enjoyed it. And so I can always shoot big.

And so I said, Hey, I wanna run the Boston Marathon. So started training in PT school and ran a marathon qualified and went and ran Boston and then,

Chris Detzel: okay, wait. All right. You're going really fast. We're gonna slow it down. So first of all, you played soccer. Were you, did you get a scholarship in soccer or you just did it for fun?

Yes.

Alison Milller: Yeah. Okay. Yes. I played at Texas a and m University, so

Chris Detzel: yeah. Oh, you did? You got a scholarship. Wow. What position did you play

Alison Milller: Center? Mid forward and then a little bit of outside, mid, later in my last two years.

Chris Detzel: That sounds like fun. Getting a scholarship to soccer, I've always believed that soccer players are really good runners.

In general, like if they were to 'cause they're, you're running what, five or six miles sprinting a lot, and stuff like that. And so what I've seen is, that transfers over very well if you do the work. You still gotta do the work, yeah. But [00:02:00] that's pretty cool. And so did you do any kind of half marathons or anything during college or was it all just soccer stuff?

Alison Milller: I think I started with a half marathon once I was in PT school. Basically kind of training for the marathon. No, obviously we'd run a lot in practice. Yeah. But nothing really organized until really after soccer.

Chris Detzel: All right. So you get into PT school and you said, okay, I wanna run Boston Marathon.

But before that, you decided to run a race, a marathon. What'd you do? So what marathon was it? And then how'd you do, you obviously qualified your first one.

Alison Milller: I did actually. Yeah. So it was I was over in Dallas for PT school and so it was the big DI think it was maybe the first year they had it.

Chris Detzel: Wow.

Alison Milller: And I was old school, no Garmin watch.

No, I would just go out and drive the routes to see how far I ran in training.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And

Alison Milller: Yeah, so lots of fun. And so it was also crazy because I didn't wanna stop at any aid stations and so I didn't eat or drink anything the entire race.

Chris Detzel: Oh my God. But yeah, I

Alison Milller: came in at, I think 3 28 was my time.

[00:03:00] And so got that done and yeah, I went to Boston.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty awesome. 3 28, your first marathon. And did you, so you went to Boston, what'd you think of that first marathon anyways? Were you like, oh my God, this was easy or was it hard or what was your.

Alison Milller: It wasn't easy, obviously, but I wouldn't say it was hard either.

No, like I said I running's kind of always just been something that I've enjoyed and been, hasn't been hard for me, I would say.

Chris Detzel: Okay. And then did you learn anything from Hey, I need to drink some water and eat some stuff. Into Boston. What happened there?

Alison Milller: Kind of, I got away with it. So it's kinda one of those things, you do what you can get away with, so

Chris Detzel: yeah.

Alison Milller: Yeah, I did definitely did drink more, but yeah, not nearly as good on nutrition and hydration as I am now. And I still have a lot to learn about.

Chris Detzel: Don't we all? It's like we're never perfect at it.

So tell me a little bit about Boston. How'd that go?

Alison Milller: It went pretty well had fun. Obviously it's, one of the best marathons in the country in terms of crowd support and. Yeah, a great city. Yeah, from there I decided to keep running marathons. [00:04:00]

Chris Detzel: So then you decided, Hey, I wanna run how many more marathons until you get into trail running?

Alison Milller: Gosh, I don't even know Chris. So then I was like I wanna run a marathon in every state. So I started to do that, started working as a pt, and then one of my coworkers had started doing triathlon. And so I got, I did a sprint try. Taught myself how to swim, bought a bike when I came back from Boston and got into triathlon, and then obviously Iron Man races and somewhere after that

Chris Detzel: obviously.

Alison Milller: So isn't that the normal, progression?

Chris Detzel: Here's the thing, like I, I think maybe I don't hear a lot of people go from, Hey, I'm a soccer player to just running their first marathon, to getting them to Boston, and then, oh, you know what I wanna do. Triathlons. And maybe did you say you did an Ironman?

You did do an Ironman?

Alison Milller: I've done 19 total. Okay.

Chris Detzel: See, I wanna do some Ironman. So then I wanna do a hundred milers. What kind of, I'm curious what drives you, to just get bored and you're like, oh, I wanna try this, I wanna do this. What's the

Alison Milller: I [00:05:00] really like challenges. I like challenging myself and going big, it's, I don't know. It's something very internal, that I just, I like to do big things.

Chris Detzel: So when you went into the try, did you, was it just a, like a half or full, what, how, what did that look like in the beginning?

Alison Milller: I did, initially I did a sprint try and I didn't really even know how to swim.

And I borrowed my dad's mountain bike and I learned humility at that point.

Chris Detzel: Huh. Good. Finally she's human. Something happens. So tell me about that.

Alison Milller: Oh gosh, yeah. I even put in my wrong swim time. In a sprint try, it's usually a pool swim, and so they start you. Ranked by what time you put in.

So I started seven back from the front and I didn't put my hand under the water to swim. And so it was pretty embarrassing. But yeah. So from there I signed up for an Olympic and then a half. And then a full,

Chris Detzel: Wow. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about the full, your first full try or your first flying man.

What was that like? Was that, have you now learned to drink [00:06:00] and eat and fuel properly? No,

Alison Milller: not at all. Okay. No,

Chris Detzel: at least better

Alison Milller: A few. I think I had one granola bar and I got pretty hungry on the run, so I ate a bunch of oranges and pretzels and yeah. So not a great experience. I had fun.

I was, super pumped afterwards. But and definitely wanted to do another one. It wasn't Ironman branded, and oh, I signed up for an Ironman branded race after that.

Chris Detzel: And what did your training cycles look like? Were you a better trainer than, or, did you train well for these at least?

Or what was that like? It's

Alison Milller: interesting 'cause I have never used a coach.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Still

Alison Milller: don't I was an exercise physiology major and that's what my degree is in. So I know a little bit about training progression and but yeah, for that first one, gosh, I think probably my hardest training day was I just went out and rode a hundred miles and.

Got off the bike and ran 15, like in August in Texas, on a Saturday. So it was pretty hot, but I just yeah. Picked my own workouts [00:07:00] and tried to apply, you can always practice what you're gonna have to test on.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, just hardcore old school kinda, hey, let's just go out there and do a hundred miles on the bike and 15 during the heat, and that should be good.

Alison Milller: Ironman is breaking yourself down, right? Yeah. And then trying to run, so that's kinda, it's kinda what you gotta do in training.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. I'm sure the running part's not as easy, although if you're strong at that and you're not as strong as swimmers. A swimmer is not as strong as running, running's really, I think you can game ground, but I've never done one I wouldn't really know, but common sense would say,

Alison Milller: yeah, definitely.

We, we always say bike for show, run for dough.

Chris Detzel: I love that. And so you've done like 19 Ironmans and. Are you signed up for a new another one, or,

Alison Milller: yeah, so actually after this green Slam, I've got Kona in October. So I've got Wasatch a hundred miler in three weeks, and then Kona in October, five weeks after that.

Chris Detzel: Oh, I thought you were taking a break. I guess not. No. All right let's get into this. You talk. Talked about some trail. You've obviously done a lot of [00:08:00] trail running, or at least three big ones lately, but how'd you get into trail running? What's your, I'm not surprised now because, all the things that you're telling me you're into but when did you start doing trail running and what kind of, what'd you think about the a hundred milers like.

Oh my gosh. And now I need to do a hundred miler.

Alison Milller: So about 20 years ago, and I'd done a couple of Iron Man races and I wanted to, running's my favorite, so I thought, I wanna do an ultra right? 'Cause that kind of was becoming a bigger thing. And so in order, most ultras are trail. I mean there are some roads and there, yeah, more and more road ultras, but I think, old school as most of 'em are on the trail.

So I just found a 50 K and signed up. And it's in, it was in southern Missouri and I went and ran it kinda in the Ozarks. It was beautiful.

Chris Detzel: Did you think it was harder or just different? What? What was your.

Alison Milller: Definitely harder. I won it. So that was fun. And that kind of, that's awesome

Chris Detzel: when you win it.

Yeah. Anytime you win it's holy cow, I need to do more of these trails,

Alison Milller: exactly. Yeah. 'Cause I'm probably, I'm not as fast, obviously on the road there's [00:09:00] a lot fast people, and so I've always known one of my strength is endurance over speed. So the longer the better.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty awesome. Wow. So how many of those races have you won? Like the, any of the ultras?

Alison Milller: I don't know. A couple locals, several. Mostly local. It's, yeah, several. It's hard to go to the big races, NA, national races and then really win, obviously. Yeah, I won a couple local ones.

Chris Detzel: Okay. That's pretty cool. I love that. Any of the blaze trails do you win any of those?

Alison Milller: Yeah. Rockledge female obviously not overall. Yeah. Rockledge Rumble six. Oh. Bridgeport,

Chris Detzel: lot of

Alison Milller: grasslands back before it was Blaze trails. The marathon. But yeah, I think everyone and a couple of.

What Hells Hills? Down in our Austin Rattler in Austin down when it was at Bastrop before it was at the New Ranch.

Chris Detzel: Are you, so Rockledge is one of my favorites that they have. Just, I've been doing it for a long, I usually do the what is it, nine miler, 15 K or whatever. But, I've run UL Ultras, [00:10:00] not like you, but I've not, get out of it now, just do mostly half marathons on the road and just run with friends.

But yeah, Rockledge is fun. I think May, maybe because it's. I like the trail, but it's just local, so it's easy to get to for me. Yeah. So do you live still in Dallas or

Alison Milller: We act I actually live in Alito, which is just west of Fort Worth.

Chris Detzel: Oh, okay. Okay. Wow. So everything is far for you.

Alison Milller: Yeah, everything that direction.

Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, that's if you wanna run, do you still run road races or no?

Alison Milller: I haven't in a while. Mostly just for Iron Man.

Chris Detzel: Got it. But

Alison Milller: not many actual races. There's only, 5K for training. I think the last one I did, I ran to the 5K, ran the 5K and then ran homes, or, no, I didn't run home. I think I ran a five mile Cool down.

But yeah,

Chris Detzel: just raining. Yeah, that's that's the way to do it. This summer for me has been a lot of five Ks, which I haven't done a lot of in the past, but it is like, all right, I don't wanna run half marathons to do training really fast, so why don't I just do five Ks for speed work, and see how that goes for the summer.

That's pretty cool. All right, so you've run lots of trails [00:11:00] now and then let's talk about this grandson. Tell me about, the journey up to this, and you're thinking around maybe this whole year because you're doing a lot of stuff still, but let's talk about this year.

Like what kind of gets you into wanting to do all these big races, Western states, Leadville, Vermont, and then all these other two that you're talking.

Alison Milller: Yeah. I've hit, I've been lucky enough to hit a couple of the big a hundred milers. I've done UTMB, done bad water. Wow.

Cruel jewel ure 100 up in Colorado. And I've been trying, western states is a lottery and it's, yeah. Tough to get into. It's taken six or seven years. To get in. And so I kinda always knew once I got in, I wanted to do the Grand Slam. It's one of those things like I read about something that sounds really cool and hard, and then I'm like, oh yeah, I wanna do that.

Funny story, Christopher, my husband and I were watching the Netflix documentary on, oh as is race, gosh, blank Barclay's Marathon. Barclays, yeah. So we are, we finished watching the Netflix and he looked over at me and I was writing my letter to LA about [00:12:00] how, why I should get in to Yeah. To do it.

Anyway and then I read about, Paul Terranova was the only person I think so far to do what they call the Grand Conus Slam, which is the grand Slam of ultra running. Plus Kona. So the grand Slam of ultra running is western states of Vermont, Leadville and Wasatch. So Wow. Basically 10 weeks, 400 milers.

Some people substitute Old Dominion. There's actually five races and you choose four of 'em. But Old Dominion's in Virginia just before Western states.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I've been Okay. Wow. The challenge now, this is the challenge of all challenges right now for you, right?

Alison Milller: Yeah. This is the biggest challenge I've had.

Chris Detzel: Let's get into it. Western States, you got in it took you six, seven years. Yeah. My wife was trying to get into Western States for a while, and then she's eh, forget it. She's a big marathoner now, or has been, mostly. And but tell me about Western states you got in and how was the course?

How'd you do, how'd you feel? All that kind of stuff.

Alison Milller: The course was fantastic. I had a terrible race, so tough way to start the grand slam, worst I've ever felt in the [00:13:00] race and worst performance I've ever had at a hundred milers. So it was a tough one and it was a humbling experience and it scared me a little for the rest of, I've never had to chase cutoffs.

And I was having to chase that cutoff. So brought me down to earth a little bit.

Chris Detzel: What happened? What'd you do so poorly?

Alison Milller: Yeah I don't know, honestly, I'm funny. I'm driving my husband crazy 'cause I'm still trying to. Figure that out. But I couldn't really eat much after about 30 or 40 miles.

But yeah, I have no idea. It was hot, but I've done hot races. Obviously bad water. Kona previously is hot. Yeah, so I think it was just one of those days,

Chris Detzel: just couldn't get it together.

Alison Milller: Exactly,

Chris Detzel: I guess it happens. Was there any was it, was there any kind of special parts to that, when you kinda look back and think of, or were you just dying too much to even think about how beautiful and wonderful and all these things that people talk about,

Alison Milller: oh no. It was definitely gorgeous and I had I had crewed and pastd there before, so I knew that the top of the escarpment was. Just amazing. And it's still everything that people talk about. You can't beat that course for [00:14:00] just feel the race, how big time it is. But then, yeah, the scenery and the actual course itself is amazing.

So I, I told my husband the good news is. I'm gonna have to go back to Tahoe and do it again because I need to redeem myself. But it's a fun one,

Chris Detzel: If you keep doing these a hundred milers, you just always get a ticket to potentially get in. So who knows? All right, so you kinda limp through the Western states, it sounds and just struggle through it, but you've got it done, so you gotta be at least proud of that.

Alison Milller: Yes. And I will say the golden hour is great because there's a lot of people there to cheer you in that last hour,

Chris Detzel: that would be cool. Now, did you finish at night or was it early in

Alison Milller: the morning? No, it was the morning, yeah, Sunday morning.

Chris Detzel: Okay. I bet it's hard to go through the night like that.

Alison Milller: Yeah. I don't love running in the night, but I don't need a lot of sleep either, so I'm able to, I don't have any problems like staying awake. I never feel like I need a nap or anything like that.

Chris Detzel: Really. So how long did it take you for Western states? Western states

Alison Milller: took me 29. About 29 and a half hours.

Chris Detzel: And what's the cutoff? Completely

Alison Milller: the cutoff's [00:15:00] 30

Chris Detzel: okay. Yeah. Congrats. All that matters is that you're under that 30 at that moment, right?

I'm sure you wanted to do better, but

Alison Milller: Yes, I definitely had some bigger goals than that, but

Chris Detzel: second time around maybe. Yeah. Did you get rid?

So let's talk about Leadville, leadvilles even harder from my understanding. Or at least, a lot of people don't hit those cutoffs and some good, awesome. Runners get, go there and don't even do it. And that's their only a hundred miler for the year or half years. So what was your thinking going into Leadville?

Is Leadville next, right?

Alison Milller: The Vermont was actually next. Oh, let's

Chris Detzel: talk about Vermont. My bad. I thought it was, yeah, talk about Vermont because I don't even know what that, I've heard about it. And I know one or two people have done it, but I don't know a lot about it. Yeah,

Alison Milller: it's got a great feel. It's, it feels more small time, I think, or, not as big as like a western states, obviously or Leadville.

And so it's got a homeier feel to it. Vermont's beautiful. It's in kind of southeastern Vermont, just. Remote. But it's pretty close to where the Appalachian Trail [00:16:00] comes through. You don't run on the Appalachian Trail, but it's that that part of the country.

It's a lot of road actually. It'd be a good a hundred miler for you, Chris. 'cause it's mostly roads.

Chris Detzel: Perfect.

Alison Milller: But it's, by the way, it's really,

Chris Detzel: by the way let's talk about this part real quick. You went all the way from Dallas to California and then was it straight to Vermont or did you come back here to D or to Texas and then, because you're not done.

Alison Milller: I had to work oh, okay. I'm already barely, barely being allowed to get this much time off work for all these races, but yeah, so I had three weeks between Western and Vermont. Okay. So all came back, worked, worked a couple weeks and then flew out there about midweek to do the race.

Okay.

Chris Detzel: Got it. All right. Lots of travel. And how was it? What was it like? And you said it's beautiful, amazing, but when you get to the race it's gotta be even cooler, huh? Oh,

Alison Milller: definitely. And going into it, Western State scared me, so I knew I needed to be better, better about food and water.

Yeah. And just taking it easy, being conservative. Early on in the race and even between the races, my [00:17:00] recovery, and people who've done the Grand Slam before say don't run much at all. Which is hard for someone like me who loves to train and run. That's probably been one of the hardest things about this.

But so going to Vermont, I just try to kinda have a positive attitude and just. Enjoy it and it was easier for my crew to crew 'cause Western states is really tough to crew. Yeah. So that was nice for them. And it was really just an enjoyable experience overall. I just kinda enjoyed the day and luckily stayed a lot further ahead of cutoff.

So

Chris Detzel: that's great. So and plus you said a lot of it's road, so it's a little bit easier than having to go through the very technical trail that you just, Western State is pretty technical, right? In some places,

Alison Milller: definitely, yeah. Through the canyons, especially the down the descents as well as the climbing is pretty rugged.

Chris Detzel: So were you you said you had to be positive and I think. Attitude from, where you stand. Because you're in shape so that none of that matters, right? But it was more of the right attitude. I've heard that, by the way. It's like you gotta be [00:18:00] positive. 'cause if you're gonna be negative, then it's just gonna bring you down in a lot of ways.

How'd you stay positive for so long without running for three weeks too?

Alison Milller: I know that's the hard part, you're totally right. Especially in those a hundred milers. 'cause at some point. You're gonna feel terrible, no matter what, even if you do everything right, it's gonna be hard.

And if you don't have a positive attitude, then you really, I don't know how you keep going. So

Chris Detzel: how long do you allow yourself, let's just go back to Western States. And you got through it, it was good. But did you and you said you were bothering your husband a little bit about it, but did you know, did you give yourself some specific time?

Say, okay, 24 hours and I can bitch about this, but I gotta move on to Vermont now. Anything like that or just

Alison Milller: My husband would probably say, no I still bring up Western States and what happened what went wrong? Okay.

Chris Detzel: But, like just, my wife's my wife is she's run Boston 12 times.

She's gone on 13 times. And so if she has a bad boss or a bad race, and she goes, I allow myself 24 [00:19:00] hours to just. Bitch about it, but then I have to move on, 'cause yeah, you wanna know what you could do better and things like that, but you can't sulk in it for five weeks and think you, you can always think I can get better.

This is how I'm gonna do, this is what I messed up on all these things. I don't know, it's what it's, where I was getting at is

Alison Milller: yeah, no, I definitely had to move on and start focusing on Vermont and the, obviously the rest of the Green Slam and definitely. At some point you have to just let that go and 'cause it will drive you crazy.

I've been able to do that and I've evolved as an ultra runner even. And just, really with these races, you are what you are and it is what it is. You can't. If you're having a bad day, then you have to just make the best of it. And so even, after that happens, you gotta move on to the next one and do your best and again, whatever it gives you, you gotta just give your best.

And

Chris Detzel: yeah, we've still got another race or two to talk about, but. Before we do I'm a little interested, I'm interested in crew. How do you get so many people or how many people do you get to Crew for you and how do you get them to do it for you? What's the [00:20:00] secret?

Because I'm sure people are very interested in that. She meet people to help you, especially Oh yeah. Specific ones.

Alison Milller: Yeah. One thing about this Grand Slam, I know a lot of people I've actually had people contact me that are interested in the Grand Slam, and asking questions and whatnot, but you have to have a lot of money 'cause it's expensive to do all these races and or you have to at least, be willing to commit money to it.

But then yeah, I've been really lucky with some great friends that have crewed me in previous races and pace me. And, these are big races, so they're fun to go to. So like Western State. People wanna go crew and pace that race. But yeah, I've just been lucky to have a lot of support really throughout my ultra running career.

And then, my husband, he's also an Iron Man, decorated Iron Man endurance athlete, and so he's. He's super supportive and he totally understands that this was, has been a goal of mine for a long time and he's, been there at every, even though it's tough on him at work too, to be gone, but he's been there to crew and pace me, for all these races.

Chris Detzel: So I married my wife, it'd be seven years ago, but we've [00:21:00] been together for 11 and. To me you have to be supportive of each other during these things. If you don't have a supportive spouse, it's gonna be very difficult, especially what you're doing. Any of these things, right? If you're going to Boston or like you're going to all these different states to do these big things this year is crazy.

But I think you know who you're married to or who you're, significant other is crucial and very important in this and that they're very supportive. And vice versa. You gotta be supportive of his things too, when it comes to, and so I completely agree.

It's crucial to do that because if one person is, they don't do any of that, they don't, it's hard for 'em to understand, and it's gonna be hard to get along. Yeah. But I love that. That's awesome. So you get done with Vermont and you were excited, so you gotta be very positive, right?

Because it was a good race. For you?

Alison Milller: Yeah, it went much better. Obviously I always want to go faster than I go usually, but it was a lot better. It, I felt better. It went better. Yeah. And so I came back and I was excited about Leadville [00:22:00] because Leadville was actually my first a hundred miler nine years ago.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Wow. So I

Alison Milller: know the course. I love Colorado. And so I was, it's, and it's got a, it's another huge race that's got a really good feel though, it's got some good kind of grassroots, and so I was like really excited to go back.

Chris Detzel: That's good. Hey, very positive attitude, so that's positive, all right. You get to Leadville, you've done it, and by the way, it was your first a hundred miler you said.

Alison Milller: Yes. Nine. Okay.

Chris Detzel: See, you just really do to do things hard.

Alison Milller: I do jump in the deep end,

Chris Detzel: my first a hundred miler, it doesn't have to be rocky raccoon, it's just gonna be Leadville, I know some people that have been going to Leadville trying to do the 100 and just can't get it done. They just. You can't, but I think the cutoffs are extremely difficult. And they're aggressive from my understanding. I've heard that a lot. For you to go back, obviously the end here, you did finish it, but let's talk about it and your attitude going in and how your legs are feeling.

What do did you do No running again? You like it was [00:23:00] again, you're just off of running. What happened?

Alison Milller: No honestly I think I probably did too much going into it. Two weeks ago I did a hundred mile bike ride. Wow. Just a training day, knowing that I had Kona coming, I was getting nervous about biking enough, and so I threw that in there.

Probably shouldn't have done that. And then we did get to Colorado early about a week ahead of the race, and I went and had and climbed a fourteener on Sunday. So just to get acclimated, which I don't think was terrible, but then I might have hiked too much during the week before the race. So of course, it's funny because I had four weeks between Vermont and Leadville instead of just three.

And so I don't know if I felt like, oh, I've got a whole extra week I'll be okay. Or if I just kinda got wrapped up in the fact that I love Colorado and I love to hike, so I'm just gonna go do it. Hope it doesn't hurt me too much for the race

Chris Detzel: f the consequences,

Alison Milller: exactly. Did I finished I was welding ins.

Chris Detzel: How'd it go? You finished Fair enough. But what, how'd the race go? What'd you feel like with what went on there?

Alison Milller: Yeah. My legs were tired at this point too. You're starting to feel the cumulative [00:24:00] effect really. Of, of doing. These are they've all got a pretty significant amount of climbing in them.

Even Vermont's kind of. It's, you still gain 17,000 feet total, but it's a lot of small hills, so it's just constantly up or down.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Alison Milller: Definitely on the, I felt pretty good and I was conservative through Outward Bound and even through Twin Lakes the first time. And then man, the climb over hope passed, just, it got my guts, my legs both going outbound and then coming back inbound.

It's tough. There's just no way around it.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, but did you, were you close to the cutoffs or what was going on there

Alison Milller: so I was fine. Through Twin Lakes outbound. And then I got a little close and funny, we volun, I volunteered last year. My husband and I went up there and volunteered at the race last year.

That's a little trick for people is if you volunteer, you have a much better chance of getting in the lottery. So if you want a grand slam and you've done, you've been trying to get Western states for a couple of times a couple of years and you have a pretty good chance of getting in, then volunteer at Leadville.

It's a great experience to [00:25:00] volunteer. We had so much fun, but, but I swear the cutoff for Twin Lakes inbound was 11:00 PM last year, and it was actually 10 15, so I don't know if they made that tighter, even more. But yeah, I felt good through, through Winfield and thought I had enough time.

And then, someone on the trail said, oh, the cutoff's 10 15. And then I started to get a little worried and knew I had to pick it up. But yeah, so I came in a little close to cutoff, so I had to push and dig. Dig deep. Ken says at Leadville, but got it done.

Chris Detzel: It's interesting that you're able to dig deep some people, so what does that look like?

You're just like in your mind going, okay, just push through no matter what, and you start running faster. Is that what.

Alison Milller: Yeah, which is hard to do at that point when you're completely depleted and tired. But yeah, funny. My husband thought that the cutoff for May Queen was 6:00 AM and it was actually six 30, which I think it should be 6:00 AM 'cause I don't know.

You have to really push it if you don't come in until six 30. But, so we were about 30 [00:26:00] minutes out, or we were about 30 minutes until 6:00 AM and I was like, oh my gosh, like this is gonna be tight. And I was ahead of my pacer and so I, I had to actually run pretty hard into May Queen.

And I think that totally, I, I made it, I got there and they were like, no, it's six 30. And I was like, oh. I'm glad I just completely destroyed myself. But yeah, you just kinda have to, just put everything else outta your mind and just focus on, giving just as much as you can give down to the last drop.

Really.

Chris Detzel: That's impressive, Dean. That's. Geez. I'm excited for you. I can, you're not even done yet. Now i's dang, I should have had this podcast, later so I can, but maybe we'll get you back on. Tell me about what is next and then how are you feeling about it?

Alison Milller: So Wasatch, which is in the Wasatch Mountains of Salt Lake City, is the fourth one in the Slam, and I'm really looking forward to it.

I've only been to Salt Lake City once, never. That was to play soccer. We played the University of Utah, I think, and just flew in, flew out. So yeah, I'm really excited to spend some time in that area. And I, a lot of people I've talked to, it's their favorite race, their favorite a hundred [00:27:00] miler, and so I'm excited.

It's only three weeks away and I hopefully have learned my lesson, so I've been telling people they'll hold me to it, but I'm only gonna sleep and swim. And that's pretty much it. Till then,

Chris Detzel: yeah I'll be in Utah as well, I think that same day or same time. I'm doing the Revel half marathon downhill.

Nice. Yeah, so you know, I prd there a couple years ago and I was like, you know what, I gotta try it again. I'm in better shape now. So who knows? But yeah Chris and Ann go out there or have done that race Chris has anyways, but the game goes, her support. Place Trails. Yeah. No,

Alison Milller: I, yeah, I know Chris and Ann yeah, Chris, yeah, I talked to him a little bit before the Slam, but he about it 'cause he's done the Grand Slam.

And he's one of the, oh, that told me. Yeah. He told me that I think Wasatch is his favorite race. So

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I remember they were out there at the same time I was out there two or three years ago, whenever it was, I did that house that's pretty cool. So I at least know of that race. So how, what do you know about that race and what are you expecting?

Alison Milller: It's got a lot of climbing again. Which is gonna be tough on the legs. And from what I hear, it's got some steep descents as well, which is really. [00:28:00] Quad killer and a little and technical. So you gotta be able to go downhill.

Chris Detzel: How's the cutoffs there? Is it aggressive or

Alison Milller: No? They actually give you six extra hours.

So you get 36 hours to finish it, which I'd like to do it quicker than the hat, obviously. Sure. I'd like to not be, chasing the cutoffs but yeah. At least it's more generous.

Chris Detzel: That's positive. Maybe you'll need it. Who knows.

Alison Milller: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: And then you have this iron van.

Coming up. Yeah. Okay. Tell me about that. Have you done it before this one? Yeah. So

Alison Milller: this will be my, this will be my fifth time to do Kona. It's the Ironman World Championships. So it's the Super Bowl. Yes, you have to qualify for it.

Chris Detzel: Tell me about that. What's the, what do you have to do to qualify to get into that?

Alison Milller: Basically you have to come in it's based on kind of numbers and percentage of where you finish. In your age group, so it's not a time. Okay. It's honestly, sometimes it's who else shows up. So for the first four times I qualified, I had to come in first or second in my age group to get in. And

Chris Detzel: Do you mind if I ask you how old you are?

Because I could probably go look it up [00:29:00] pretty easily. Yeah, sure. No,

Alison Milller: I don't mind at all. I'm 46.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Got it. All right.

Alison Milller: So yeah, which I'm realizing I need to stop comparing myself to 20 and 30 year olds when I'm doing some of these races.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. You're no longer 20, yeah,

Alison Milller: exactly. None of

Chris Detzel: us are.

I'm 50, so trust me. I know. Yeah. I think I can go in and run as fast as those guys and then I'm like, all right, I can't do that anymore. Yeah. A quick story is I was running around the track with my son and, he's 14 and. I could beat him almost everything, but he is like, all right, let's do a hundred.

I was like, all right. And I can't I can run a hundred, but not like I used to if I were to go out, I really would hurt myself. And I felt it like that Ha. Like on the 50, and I was like, all right, I'm done. I can't, I'm, and he just smoked me because I was like, I can't run on Sprint like I used to, yeah. Anyways,

Alison Milller: it's just not the same. I feel like that's the first thing to go right. Is your, yeah. You can definitely still train, but it's just a lot harder to be as fast as you were when you were, 30 to 31 is actually the physical peak for men [00:30:00] and women's. It starts going downhill after that.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, it's crazy. All right, so let's get back to kind you have to qualify? No, you have to win some percentage in your age group or whatever.

Alison Milller: Yeah, you have to come in. So they take all the starters in the race. They do it by numbers. So you know, obviously like my husband's age group, and back in the old days would have 500 people start the race and so they would get, whatever, six slots for a race that qualified for Kona.

And then my age group, usually there's a hundred women, so we'd get one or two slots. And then one

Chris Detzel: or two.

Alison Milller: Yeah. So then it just depends on Yeah. Who, like I said, who else shows up? A couple times I had to race against the, the girl who would win Conan in my age group. So she shows up and I'm like, okay, hopefully I can get second.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Maybe she has a bad day, you never know. Yeah.

Alison Milller: She didn't usually have a bad day.

Chris Detzel: It sounds like you don't either. It might be a rough race, but really, you're gonna get it done it sounds like, so what are you expecting when you go into Conan? You've done it, but you've not [00:31:00] done these hardcore other four races right before it.

Alison Milller: I'm hoping that just the big running base, helps. Honestly, I'm gonna try, I have expectations. Even the four previous konas, once you're there it's celebration of qualifying. Yeah. And I know I, gosh a couple years ago I was talking to actually someone who does win my atri in Kona.

And she was talking about all this testing and in the wind tunnel on the bike and and I just had never really. My running in triathlon career, like just that focused on testing and, I just enjoy it. Not that she doesn't, but, so I really just use Kona as like a celebration of getting there.

And I don't I don't try and go win it necessarily. 'cause I know that would take a lot more really than I wanna invest in it.

Chris Detzel: Is there anything that I missed that you were like, man, you should, you didn't ask me about this, that, or the other, or, Hey, you've had amazing running and cycling and swimming career and doing crazy awesome things.

I'm sure people tell you this all the time, just for me running, I tell people how much I run. They're like, oh, you're crazy. I'm like, oh, have you [00:32:00] met Alison? That's what I would say. You met this woman. I just met her and I'm amazed. Anything that you would like.

Would wanna talk about that? I just missed.

Alison Milller: I think, it's funny because I think, and you probably understand this, most runners do, but anyone that wants to do anything like this, the hard, one of the hardest things, like I said earlier, I touched on it, is, not being able to run much.

Like I get a lot of joy and a lot of peace and, just my daily zen from getting up and going for a run in the morning. And so when I can't do that, and even after, about a week after these a hundred milers, you feel like, oh, okay, I feel pretty good. I feel like I'm recovered, but you're not, you really can't recover.

That's right. Even in, in three or four weeks. And so it's tough to have to hold yourself back and not train as much as you want to. 'Cause you know it's gonna affect the next race.

Chris Detzel: What do you do? What are you doing to keep yourself busy?

Alison Milller: Know. I am swimming, like swimming is pretty good.

So that helps a lot. Swimming. Yeah. I've been biking between the races too, which I'll probably shut that down a little more over the next three weeks just to make sure that I go ahead and finish this thing out. [00:33:00]

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah, it's smart. And and I didn't ask you this, but I should have what do you do for a living?

A physical

Alison Milller: therapist. Yeah,

Chris Detzel: physical. Okay. Got it. You're keeping yourself pretty fit. Would you tell, do, are you a PT for for runners and all those? Or is it just something different? What do you,

Alison Milller: everybody really. Okay. I work in an outpatient orthopedic clinics.

There's a group of surgeons that we kind of work with that, that refer to us mostly, but there's also a non-invasive sports medicine doctor. And yeah, I see a lot of runners, a lot of triathletes but then I also see weekend warriors and people who have never exercised and don't like to exercise.

And so I see pretty much the entire spectrum.

Chris Detzel: So one thing I do wanna ask. Because I think it's an important aspect, but just wanna get your thoughts, is when you're doing all these exercises, or are these races and things like that, do you have a community you go to from a running standpoint, like on, or swimming, cycling, whatever.

Do you say rely, but do you. Consistently go somewhere to run with people or [00:34:00] things like that, or

Alison Milller: funny, not really consistently starting out. I always ran by myself. And now, like I said my husband and I have always done a lot of training together, but, I've met a lot of people along the way.

I definitely know people in a lot of different communities, triathlon and running occasionally yeah, we'll, I'll jump in with. With one of those groups. Yeah. That's one of the greatest things about this sport is just the community and people you meet. That's probably one of the other things I'd say is it's interesting, being, even being like towards the back of the race, which like I said, is.

A little new for me these last couple of races, but it's it's been really inspiring just to, all the people that you know that go out and do this that just really put it out there and train really hard. And it's fun to talk to different people from all over the country and Yeah, different places and different, walks in life and, we call 'em trail friends, just, kinda single serving trail friends.

You just meet at these races and, talking to somebody, like you said, kinda makes the time go by and help. A

Chris Detzel: hundred percent. Look, if it wasn't for, to [00:35:00] me, I'm very I like to be around people. I've run a lot by myself and things like that, but to me, I just get bored of it. I'm kinda like you in a way. I have to have a race or something there to inspire me to. 'Cause I wanna run, and I have to train for it and things like that. And it sounds like, you guys do that as, as well. And by the way, for you to be back in the pack, for the first time, it's because you're running so much, like you're doing like these hardcore races and it's probably a good lesson for you.

It's like this is what it feels like. And you might be like, I won't do this again. I don't wanna be at the back. I don't know, but let's. This has been amazing. I don't think I've talked to anybody that's done as, as accomplished as much as you have. And to me it's extremely inspiring.

Not so much so that I wanna go do all the things that you're doing, but certainly it's inspiring what you are doing and what you're trying to, I get it. I'm not, personally, I wouldn't do it, but, I, it. Pushes me to keep, like Alison's doing this thing, like I just need to go run six miles tomorrow.

This is easy. It's little things that, to me that is important. So what you're doing is great. I love it. I'm sure you'll keep at it and [00:36:00] you're a driven person and that's a beautiful thing. So thank you for sharing your story, really appreciate it.

Alison Milller: Thank you so much, Chris, for having me on, and thank you for, I think it's great what you're doing in terms of just.

Like you said, this is, the running community is such a great community, and I think, that's, it's something everybody has in common that does it, and so it brings people together and it's a great thing. So thank you for sharing people's stories and having people like me on your podcast.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. It's a lot of fun. And thank everyone for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Tetzel. Don't forget to rate and review us and make sure you subscribe to our newsletter, DFW running talk.substack.com. Until next time.