Ryan Burrell: 2:53 Marathon Debut, Houston 2026, Cramping Miles 23–25, and What's Next

DFW Running Talk: Ryan Burrell
===

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

~Hey everyone. Chris Detzel here from DFW Running Talk and~ I have a race shoot. ~So~ on April 4th, Panther City Ultra at Marion Sampson Park in Fort Worth, Texas, ~uh,~ there's four distances, a 50 K, 20 5K, 10 K, and a 5K. ~So here's the thing,~ my wife Lea, my son Tegan, and I are all running the 5K and. That morning, and it's actually Lea birthday, so we're making a family celebration on the trails, and I want you to join us.

~So ~whether you're chasing that 50 K challenge or just wanna knock out of 5K,~ um,~ like we are, ~uh,~ the race has something just,~ you know,~ basically for everyone. So it's in Fort Worth. It's a great atmosphere, always great atmosphere when, ~uh,~ Rob ~put these,~ puts these races on and is captain at about 300 runners, so it's not gonna be the zoo.

Rise Racing is putting this on for us. They're our very first sponsor, as some of you might know. ~Uh,~ and ~they,~ they do all the races right? ~So ~use code DFW for 10% off April 4th. [00:01:00] Marian Sampson Park, let's run together. The link is in the bio and I hope to see you out there. ~Take care.~

All right. Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, and today's special guest is Ryan Burrell. Ryan, how's it going?

Ryan Burrell: I'm doing fine, Chris. How are you?

Chris Detzel: Good. I'm glad you got on. This is gonna be exciting. What did I tell you? Like, uh. I think when I first met you I don't even know, maybe it was a year ago, but you were telling me a little story around your first marathon that you wanted to run.

Mm-hmm. But that was like eight months, nine, 10 months away was Houston Marathon, which was this year. Yeah, 2026. You ran your first marathon, but you ran some five Ks in 10 Ks. Maybe half. I don't know. Really fast. I told you. When you're done with your marathon, I'm very interested in how you do, and you reached out and you said, Hey, I'm done with my marathon, and here we are.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Do you remember that conversation?

Ryan Burrell: So I know we met at the Velvet Hammer.

Chris Detzel: Oh, that's right. That's a 5K. That's,

Ryan Burrell: yeah. Yeah. That was the one where, um, where my [00:02:00] coach, Matt and the other sloth folks, like we all showed up and it was kind of like a sloth takeover. So

Chris Detzel: It was crazy too. I mean, you guys got like top.

I don't know. There's one guy that kinda got in the top five that wasn't a slop, I think. Um, but the rest of you guys were right there.

Ryan Burrell: I think we took like top four or five spots and then think one of one, one person got eighth, I think.

Chris Detzel: Oh, okay.

Ryan Burrell: So

Chris Detzel: yeah, I mean you, yeah it was pretty crazy, but it was kind of cool.

I got a photo and everything. But yeah, that was the first time we met, but then we met a few other times and talked about the podcast a little bit. But

Ryan Burrell: yeah,

Chris Detzel: I would love, so just kind of the hook here is. Brian ran his first marathon, and we'll talk about this later. Mm-hmm. At a 2 53 in Houston. Is that right?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. 2 53 0 1. Yep.

Chris Detzel: Oh one man. If you would've just ran two seconds faster.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. It could have been 2 52. I know. Yeah. Like

Chris Detzel: you live and learn, man. But hey, 2 53 0 1. Phenomenal. Amazing. For your first, but [00:03:00] before we go through that, let's talk a little bit about your journey, who you are. You know, like did you, you're 28 years old and you know, would love to know kind of your running journey and how you got started.

Did you play sports in high school or anything or,

Ryan Burrell: yeah, I run on track in high school, but even before that I started running in eighth grade. Um, okay. I started out trying to be a sprinter, like my very first race ever was a hundred meters. I mean, everybody wants to be a sprinter, so

Chris Detzel: of course those guys' legs are huge.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah, my very first race was a hundred meters and I got smoked, like, um, I thought I was pretty fast, but I realized I'm not that type of fast, like explosive speed type of fast. So then. Through eighth grade, they put me in like the 400 and stuff and I did. Okay. Yeah. But I didn't really get into the distance running until like high school.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: And,

Chris Detzel: uh, so you actually ran distance in high school?

Ryan Burrell: My main race was the, uh, one mile.

Chris Detzel: Okay. What was [00:04:00] your best in the mile back then?

Ryan Burrell: Before 23 or I guess 1600 technically, which, you know, 10 meters shorter than a mile. Two second. Like

Chris Detzel: we don't have to be technical in high school. It's four laps around the track.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Four laps. That's, we have. So 4 23.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty good. Did you win? Do, did you win any of those?

Ryan Burrell: I didn't win state. Like I think I remember I got fourth at state and

Chris Detzel: Still

Ryan Burrell: things like that. I mean, what task

Chris Detzel: school did you go to?

Ryan Burrell: Baton Rouge High. I'm from Louisiana.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Right. Mm-hmm. Cool.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

But, uh,

Chris Detzel: all right, so you ran the mile, and did you do anything else besides the mile or, and you went to State fourth place pretty good.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Um, I was on the, uh, on our four by eight, uh, relay. I was the first leg on on that, and I did a, I did the 3,200 sometimes. My best race by far was the mile.

I mean, I wasn't too shabby in those other races. Um, I think I did a 2 0 1, 800 and a 9 48 800. Excuse me. Uh, 9 48, 3202

Chris Detzel: mile.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. And in cross [00:05:00] country, Louisiana's a little weird. Well, I think they might have changed this now, but when I was running back then, they only did three miles and not the 4 0 5 k, but

Chris Detzel: Oh, really?

Just three.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: exactly.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Uh, I, my best three mile I remember was like 15. 12. Yeah. Which wasn't,

I

Chris Detzel: mean, it's pretty good for high school. It

Ryan Burrell: would've been about a 1545 for the four five cab I league.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Did you win then? Did any of those, or was it,

Ryan Burrell: I got top 10 at State and I got like,

Chris Detzel: oh, you went to State?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I mean it's, it's like you go to that. That's pretty awesome.

Ryan Burrell: And I mean, I had like some Allstate award or something like that as well,

Chris Detzel: so long ago, you know?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: 10 years ago plus,

Ryan Burrell: yeah. Time passes

Chris Detzel: for you. All right. So you did some running in high school quite a bit, you know, distance and things like that.

Did you, what'd you do after high school? Did you do any running after that or?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, I, I ran in college for one year, but I would've ran more than that, but pretty much I realized, um, I actually realized this recently looking back based on like, uh, going through chat GBT, [00:06:00] but towards like the later parts of like high school, like towards the middle to end of my senior year.

And it got worse in like a college. But I really trained incorrectly throughout, um, throughout high school. Now, I didn't train like most distance runner train. I almost trained like a sprinter a little bit as in like, just hard like, like extremely hard reps, like repeat fours, eight hundreds, just. Blazing like 1200 meter.

Um, like reps,

Chris Detzel: you wasn't doing, you weren't doing any long, slow stuff.

Ryan Burrell: No. And yeah, like, uh, at least according to what Chad GBT was telling me, like I guess I had the talent to be able to do that for some time, but eventually without like a sufficient aerobic base uh, it'll start, uh, crashing down.

So, I mean, I think my story is like a testimony. To why easy running is, uh, is important. I think Chad g Bt said that it was like neuromuscular fatigue that I went through. Mm-hmm. And I'm saying I [00:07:00] keep on talking about Chad GBT because before nobody knew what was going on with me. Like why my, um, performances started to drop.

And I mean, I didn't know, like, it just felt like my body just wasn't responding anymore. Like, um, no matter how much I tried, like my legs just didn't have that snap anymore. And I, and again, I didn't know what was going on. Nobody else could tell me like, it's not a. It's not like a injury, but it's just,

Chris Detzel: yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I, I mean, when I, when I discovered it on Chad GBT after all this time, I was like, you know what? That was it like that's exactly it. I mean, and, and it's crazy that after all that time, I mean, I, I discovered that I think the, a couple months ago that, um, like, like,

Chris Detzel: well I think Ryan, that when you look at that kind of running, a lot of us do that, and a lot of us will.

Maybe you're talking about something different, but a lot of, like, I remember, I'll give you an example. When I started running, again, I can, when I was 37, I'm 50 now. So 14 years ago when I started running, I'd start running every, like when I got into it, [00:08:00] every mile, it was my, like I would run a 10 k four days in a row, but I was trying to beat yesterday's 10 K.

You know what I mean? But yeah,

Ryan Burrell: you

Chris Detzel: know, we don't know, you know, we don't know what we don't know. And especially if you don't have like a. A coach that is trying to tell you that, Hey, look, you de you definitely in a mile, you're gonna have to run a lot of speed work,

Ryan Burrell: mm-hmm.

Chris Detzel: To, to get fast. But there's probably three or four in my mind, you know, let's do a long run, like four miles a, a week or something like that.

Of somewhat slow and, and not necessarily, you know, the speed stuff. I'm not saying you don't need the speed stuff for a mile, two miles, whatever, and you do. I mean, that's really how you're gonna get faster. But I'm with you. Your body's gonna break down and your body's gonna get really tired and that that's all you're doing for these hardcore workouts all the time.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I think we know this now. This is, yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I

Chris Detzel: Yeah. A lot of us people that have been running for a long time. But for I think that is a good point, is when you're first starting out to run, don't go run, like don't go sprint every mile. Like, you know, you're getting better. It's, you're just gonna get hurt and or [00:09:00] fatigued.

So long runs and slow. Or maybe two or three times a week you do some speed or maybe twice. I don't know. Mm-hmm. When you first start out, maybe it's once you know. You just need to get the miles the first, you know, for the first, in my mind, you, you could,

Ryan Burrell: yeah.

Chris Detzel: You know, if you train for a marathon all right.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I digress a little, but you learned a little bit about, you know, using chat gt, but I, I think that's probably what you're talking about. If not, let me know. So you start kind. In college you ran just for a year. Did you just like, screw college? It sucks, or what?

Ryan Burrell: So it was a, it was a continuation of, I guess, what I was going through because I mean it like, uh, yeah it started in like, I think the middle of my senior year and it got worse.

And in college obviously I'm running against world competition, so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually like, I'm getting destroyed out there. That's not really good for my confidence anymore. And again, I know, like, I know that, I guess like before I'm thinking, I'm like, man, if I would've been able to run like what I ran in my junior year, then I could've did this or that.

And I don't know [00:10:00] why. And again, and since I'm a freshman in college, most of the people don't even know me, so they really

Chris Detzel: I

Ryan Burrell: just, uh, just whining and complaining, you know, about, about whatever and stuff. So, yeah. Like, um, after about a year, yeah. I left, or, well, I left, uh, the track team. I said I was gonna come back as soon as I felt better, and then I didn't really feel better because, I mean, it, I guess it doesn't heal that fast and that's what damage doesn't get undone.

And so yeah, I stopped and I honestly didn't intend on coming back. I didn't plan on it. It wasn't until I moved here to Dallas and I remember I was doing, like for a short time, I was doing like boxing classes and stuff. What,

Chris Detzel: when did you go to Dallas? What year?

Ryan Burrell: 2024. Summer of 2000.

Chris Detzel: Oh, okay. So not that long ago.

Ryan Burrell: No. Excuse me, my bad. 2021.

Chris Detzel: Oh, okay. Okay. So you've been here for

Ryan Burrell: four

Chris Detzel: years or so?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, yeah. Five

Chris Detzel: years now, so,

Ryan Burrell: mm-hmm. Yep. Okay,

Chris Detzel: good.

Ryan Burrell: Bot instructor, I had older, older Scottish guy was doing like marathons and half marathons, guys in, was in his early sixties. And running pretty good times, um, [00:11:00] for those distances like.

1 30, 1 35 or something for the, uh, for the half and things like that. He motivated me to kind of get back into it. So I remember now this

Chris Detzel: is your boxing guy that you are talking to?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Boxing instructor.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Yep. Um,

Ryan Burrell: yeah,

Chris Detzel: he was into half some fulls and stuff.

Ryan Burrell: Okay. Yeah. Yeah, just talking to him like it kind of got me back interested.

So that was pretty much like four and a half years after, um, after I quit in college.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, I, I'd gained weight and everything too wasn't in, in, in, its,

Chris Detzel: that happens. Yeah. Normal.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: But I think you and I both know how to lose it, right?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. You

Chris Detzel: know,

Ryan Burrell: just, yeah. Now Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Run.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Run and eat better.

Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Well, e eating is probably 80 to 90% of it. Right. You know?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: You're only gonna lose a certain thing. You will lose some weight for sure. Just exercising, you know? Uh, it only goes so far, 80 to 90% of this. Diet, so Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: All right. So you saw this instructors talking instructor's like, dude, you should get [00:12:00] into it.

So what would you do?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Um, I was doing it on my own. I didn't know of any run clubs around here.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, you'd probably didn't even think about it.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Nah. And I was just running, like from my apartment and stuff, and I remember I was just, I hadn't learned my lesson yet about the, um, like, uh, run easy.

So I was trying to just run. I remember I, I could, no matter what, I could always average at. Bare minimum, like eight minute pace or something. Okay. Even going to like the sevens, like the high sevens somewhere, even back then. But I would, obviously I wasn't even paying attention to heart rate or anything like that, so I would just go in, I would go until I just couldn't go anymore, which would've been anywhere between like two miles, then May, then it would go up to like three, maybe four miles or whatever like that.

But as soon as like, I felt like I needed to stop, I just stopped. And then I'm like, well, that's it until i's done.

Chris Detzel: But there's no really program. You're just got back into running.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Did you just kind, did you start losing weight a little bit or No, by doing that?

Ryan Burrell: A little bit, but I was still, I was still eating.

I [00:13:00] mean, it was kind of minimal. I mean, um, like, uh, and plus since I had just moved out here, I wanna check out all these new food spots,

Chris Detzel: exactly. Well, I hear you. That makes sense. There's a lot of good food in Dallas, so, all right, so you kinda got into it, checking out the food spots, you know, just doing a little bit of running hard, running, do.

Did you sign up for a race at any of those times, or not really? Or what?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah. I my first race that I signed up that I signed up for, like post like college, it was the Tur Trot down there in Baton Rouge, and I signed my mom like two. Okay,

Chris Detzel: cool.

Ryan Burrell: Like, uh,

Chris Detzel: was she a runner at all, or no?

Ryan Burrell: No. She just, um, it just, you, you, her to, you know, get some exercise in, you know, so

Chris Detzel: kind of walk it

Ryan Burrell: mm-hmm.

Or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Like, um, I know some people like do races like with their parents or whatever, and they run with them. I, I'm pretty bad. I'm too competitive about I'm like, I'll see, I'll see at the finish line. But, um, I'm sure

Chris Detzel: she didn't care.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Like, um, but I [00:14:00] remember I didn't even, I didn't have a watch.

I didn't even really like go with my phone to try to pace with any, like, external app or anything like that. I really just went out. I felt like I was dying pretty much like. I did like a 22 minute and like 32nd 5K pretty, and I remember pretty, I wanted to walk so bad. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Welcome, snowball.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

I wanted to walk so bad, but the only thing that stopped me was my, was my pride. 'cause I was thinking back to like high school,

Chris Detzel: right?

Ryan Burrell: I don't know what my pace like what my splits were, like, I'm pretty sure they were just. Just crap. So like, um, yeah, but after that race, I mean, I, it, I kind of got, got bit by the bug again, you know, I was like, okay, I wanna drop my time now.

You know, like I'm, yeah. Pretty much re re-sparked that, um, that interest, like, um, so then I did some other five Ks. I like here in Dallas. I, one of them was at Christmas, 5K Trinity Groves. And then I did, um, the Irving, um, St. Patty's five KI did like 2130 or something. And then that,

Chris Detzel: the 22. [00:15:00]

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, A whole one minute pr and then, um, at this time I still wasn't following any plan.

I was still doing the same other stuff that, you know, but I did, uh, then I did the Irving, um, the Irving Marathon, the one in April, but I did the 5K. Okay. And I met, that's when I, I met like ZFT and I met, uh, this guy named, uh, jt.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Like, uh,

Chris Detzel: ZFT.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah,

Chris Detzel: jt. Okay. I don't know him, but yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Okay. He, uh, like a, a good buddy of mine, but we met pretty much going to war in that race and not Oh,

Chris Detzel: really?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. He's a, uh, that's cool. Yeah. And he's, he's short, like real sw built guy. Um, yeah. And I remember, I remember this race. I'm pretty reckless at this time, so I remember at this race I'm thinking, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna actually line up with the, uh, people in the front.

'Cause I was always going, I, I was always like sitting in the middle. 'cause I'm like, yeah, I'm fast, but I'm not that fast. I don't want to be in the front. Yeah. But this time I was like, but I'll go in the front and I'll try to go with the fast people. And [00:16:00] I'm like, I'm probably gonna die. But, um, did you

Chris Detzel: already knew that?

Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Like, um, so yeah, he and I went to war. He took off on me in the last, uh, mile, but um, I remember I did like, I think 20 minutes and like 15 seconds. So then after that, yeah. And um, and I was still like, I was still on the hip side.

Chris Detzel: I mean, you like crazy.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: You're pr and like crazy, so that's good.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Newbie gains pretty much. Yeah. Yeah, like, so then after that, then I, then I'm really committed still. Not necessarily like training the way I, I'm supposed to, but I am running more, at least. Yeah. But I don't, I didn't do any race in the summer 'cause I was scared of the heat and,

Chris Detzel: Hey man, you should do five Ks in the summer because that way, and you're.

And you probably know this now, but by October, November, you're just gonna be fastest. Hell, you know? Oh yeah. Yeah. Because

Ryan Burrell: I mean, I do, I do that

Chris Detzel: now. Yeah. Five Ks are the best thing to do, you know, in Yeah. The summer. I mean, now, you know, because you've done a marathon now, so now you're like, five Ks is nothing.

Ryan Burrell: Mm-hmm.

Chris Detzel: It's still hard. Five Ks are [00:17:00] tough.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Anyways all right. You said I'm gonna train more. Did you start hanging out with the guy from ZFT or jt? Did you go to run with him or what?

Ryan Burrell: I mean, whenever I would see him, yeah. Like, um,

Chris Detzel: oh, okay. But.

Ryan Burrell: No, a good friend of mine, like, uh, like we, you know, we talk on the phone and stuff.

Like, and, and actually by the way, I forgot to mention, he's actually in his, uh, he's in his late forties. Okay. He, I'm in that race. He, uh, like I remember it. That kind of let me know that. People who are older can actually still roll.

Chris Detzel: Exactly.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. He did like 19 something at that time.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Hey, you know, I was 50, uh, turned 50 and still did 1901 on a downhill half marathon.

I did two of them. So I mean. I'm really old,

so it can happen, you know, like I feel like from my age I'm pretty fast,

Ryan Burrell: yeah. Well, I mean, well seeing, uh, people like, uh, like him and then, then hearing you, that, that lets me know that, hey, I mean, I have plenty of time. I can still, oh man. I can [00:18:00] still do that Waiting young

Chris Detzel: dude. Yeah. So, yeah.

You're gonna be one of my young bucks that I push on. But anyways, so you, you, you run that, did you run with the group at all? When did you start getting with the group? How'd you find that out?

Ryan Burrell: So, so I was running with a, I was running with ZFTA little bit like a, during that time, that was still 2022.

That Did you find

Chris Detzel: it helpful?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I mean, if anything else, it was just like a good community of, uh, supportive people. Yeah. To uh, to run away. Yeah. Uh,

Chris Detzel: just kinda seeing like, eh, most people, yeah. Community was awesome, but you're just like, yeah, that's fine.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. But, uh,

Chris Detzel: so you ran with EFTA little bit and then, um, you started after and after that Irving one with jt.

Ryan Burrell: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no. I ran with, uh, well, here and there. I ran with Pegasus. I met, I,

Chris Detzel: I Oh, okay.

Ryan Burrell: With the Pegasus. I wasn't able to always get myself up in the morning to, to meet with them. But I remember the first time I ran with them, I, I couldn't finish the workout actually.

Chris Detzel: Makes sense.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Like, um, but. But now [00:19:00] I, I have a pretty, uh, key infamous race that, um, most people, I'm not shy to talk about it now at this point. This was still in 2022. This was a, I think I needed this to happen to me to kind of learn, but, uh, yeah. Katie Trill, um, 2022 5K.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Ryan Burrell: I was trying to break, um, 20 minutes. Since, I mean, I was so close in that other race.

Yep.

Chris Detzel: Very close.

Ryan Burrell: And so, and I'm good. I think it threw me off because it's a later race as well.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And it's hot.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. And so. I remember I went out and my heart rate immediately went like 1 95, like, and it didn't go any lower. I kept pushing because again, back to me, I had such a reckless mindset. I, like I tell people now, I was like, back then, this might sound crazy, but I'm like, I thought it was supposed to feel like death.

You know? I thought you, I thought you were supposed to suffer.

Chris Detzel: That case are tough like that sometimes, but.

Ryan Burrell: Like

Chris Detzel: a, I mean, look, you ran at seven o'clock at night. You weren't used to running at seven a race and Katy Trills hut. Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. [00:20:00] And it's uh, not an easy course either with that, uh, with that hill in the second mile.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: It's not that easy, but it's the heat in the late. But a lot of people do that, so I would never think that you're gonna get your best time on that to try. But

Ryan Burrell: yeah,

Chris Detzel: it's gonna be really difficult.

Ryan Burrell: Actually, I did, like I did, at least at that time. Yeah. I did 1941, but the issue, it, it was the issue.

I remember I was blacking out in the middle of the race, but I was so stubborn, I kept going, wow.

Chris Detzel: Fucking out Jesus.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I, I finish like, I, I fight to the finish. I mean, people are passing me up, but, and I can't do anything about it, but I see the clock and I, I cross, I lay out, I lay on the ground, hear this lady saying, oh, you might not wanna lay there.

Like, I try to push myself up, but I'm so weak I can't. And then, um, and then a couple of, uh, people. Um, kind of, they kind of pulled me off to the side and they try to lean me on the rail and then I can't stand. And I, I mean, I pass out that

Chris Detzel: Oh, wow.

Ryan Burrell: It was a really [00:21:00] outof body experience. I mean, if I kind of just talk about that whole experience, like by itself, I mean, we'll be here a while, but Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah. No, I passed out. That was a, like, they had to call the ambulance. That was a defining experience for me. Um, and so

Chris Detzel: How, so what, what, what kind of, what made you kind of, what, how was it defining? I'm curious.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. That was a that made me think that I started doing like the easy running after that.

So that, that was a race that kind of taught me. That's

Chris Detzel: good.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, like I remember I took like nine days off because I just had to kind of reflect, readjust. I wasn't even sure if I was gonna run after that. 'cause I remember when I was going through that again, I, it was just like, uh, it really felt like I was outta my body or something.

So I'm thinking like, man, I shouldn't have even done, shouldn't have even been trying to run like I was like back then. And I didn't have any self-awareness to know that I'm not in the conditioning that I was back in high school to be able to run that hard. You know, I'm [00:22:00] still like maybe 40 something pounds heavier or something, so,

Chris Detzel: oh, wow.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I think I was like 1 65 or one 70 probably at that time when I got back into running, I was like close to 180.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: And I'm five six wasn't

Chris Detzel: muscle right. It was just a little bit of,

Ryan Burrell: some of it was muscle, but, but I mean, not all of it

Chris Detzel: yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Kinda get a little fat on you is really

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: What happened? Eating like Taco Bell and whatnot.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: That's kind of things. Alright, let, let's kind of fast forward a little bit to, so it was a defining moment. Did you start training, you know, you said you started kinda doing some other stuff. Did you?

Ryan Burrell: Still wasn't following a plan, but I was just doing my own thing.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: In fact, I was doing my own thing up until like the very beginning of last year.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: I just 20,

Chris Detzel: 25.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Like, um, but think, I think I was just gaining more fitness just by like, um, doing that more like, just more of the easy runs. Like I was doing easy runs. [00:23:00] Then I remember I didn't do like any hard workouts until like maybe some months after that.

My time actually improved. So I mean like, um, like off of that,

Chris Detzel: did the light bulb hit then? Is that when I was like, oh, I should do more of these slower runs, or Not really?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, yeah. At that point.

Chris Detzel: So let's fast forward. So you said you were running a little bit with Pegasus here and there, and you're running with, I mean, was there some specific group that you really started kinda hanging out with more often and then just kinda, you know, what, what did you do?

Like when you fast forward to. Uh, kind of the group saying, you know, or how did you meet Matt or the sloths? Okay. You know, what, what did that look like?

Ryan Burrell: Okay. So that I met Matt in, uh, 2024. I knew about the sloths already. At least somewhat like I, they feel a little underground, so it's not always easy to, yeah, I

Chris Detzel: do

Ryan Burrell: Find them, but I, I met Matt.

Like, um, when I was going to a, uh, to a workout with, uh, with Trained Pegasus, this was summer of 2024.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: I had already kind of seen like his [00:24:00] name here and there, and saw he was, you know, really fast, but I never actually formally met him. And so I did a, uh, at this time I was going to Pegasus every Tuesday, and I was just asking people like what their workouts were.

Yeah. Like I didn't plan, and if someone says something I liked, I'm like, okay, I'm jumping in there. And so, yeah. I remember him and, uh, Mimi had, um, like some 1000 repeats, and so I jumped, I I jumped in the nose and I remember at that time I was actually like really, really fast as far as like, just my speed.

Yeah. Like, still not endurance, but you know, like just raw speed. I was, I was pretty up there and so I was able to hang with him. Well. I could hang with Mimi a little bit. I couldn't, I still couldn't hang with Matt even then, but, um, I remember I was dying, like I could do it, but I was dying.

I mean, and they looked like they were a little bit more controlled than I was. So

Chris Detzel: they've been, Mimi is an elite athlete, so she's been doing it for a while and that, you know, she's just. He's been doing it for a while too.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah. And so after that workout Matt, he followed me on shot. I followed him.

[00:25:00] Um, and so we, I mean, at that point, like, uh, it was like, okay, well, we know each other, but I, I didn't start getting coached by him until after BMW 2024.

Chris Detzel: You did a half, I

Ryan Burrell: guess. Yeah. Yeah, I did. And the thing is, I decided to reach out to him. Because I wasn't really happy with that half marathon time. I prd I think I did 1 23 or 1 24 pretty

Chris Detzel: good.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Was that your first or no,

Ryan Burrell: no, no, no, no. My first half was in, uh, it was BMW 2022.

Chris Detzel: Okay. So you've been kind of running halves a little bit.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, I've done eight at this point now. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Got it.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: So, you know, you're not a, you kinda know what it takes to run some distance. By that time.

But you, you wanted to do better than 1 23? What'd you wanna get?

Ryan Burrell: I wanted to do like sober one 20 that time, but

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: Just based on like, I remember at that time I'd run like a 1657, [00:26:00] 5K and so

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Ryan Burrell: I'm thinking like all these other people who have slower 5K times, like, um, they're like, um, I should be able to beat them in a half.

But, um, it wasn't the case. And again, at that time I still, I wasn't training, like I still wasn't training optimally on my own, even though I was

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Training, like I was consistently training and I was doing pretty well. I was definitely in a better position than I was, um, 2022 for sure. But you

Chris Detzel: lose all that weight.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: By then.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, because I mean, you look pretty darn good. The last time I saw you.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, I I mean af like, uh, I lost a total of I think like, uh, 30 pounds. I'm like, I floated in like the high one forties, maybe like one 50 on the.now.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Right around 30 pounds I lost,

Chris Detzel: so I hit up down to 1 39 in the summer.

So I was very happy about that. It was probably a little less than usual. Usually I, I weigh about one 50 ish, so. But, and, and I think weight helps, from a time [00:27:00] standpoint to be optimal, you know? Yeah. Definitely think it's a big deal.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, there, there's limits to like how much weight before it gets, like detrimental.

But yeah, like, um,

Chris Detzel: yeah, no, I mean, I'm not saying like I. For sure. For me, my, I could tell my optimal weight was one 30 to one 40.

Ryan Burrell: Okay.

Chris Detzel: When I ran my half, because I ran like a 1 26 back in September. But I, I was training a lot more and uh, and I lost quite a bit of weight. I've not been down to that low in a long time, you know?

And so, and it translated though really well.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: my wife told me. Please don't lose anymore weight at that time. But anyhow, I digress. All right, so you call Matt, you say, mm-hmm. I think I could do better than that, what he say.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Um, he was excited to coach me and so we got started and I like, um, he, he gives very creative workouts.

I, I'm always excited to see what he has like, um, for the upcoming week.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: And I'm pretty sure the weakness he saw in me was just like, just the endurance, like not getting enough [00:28:00] mileage. Me and, and I mean I had enough endurance to, you know, be able to run a, you know, a good 5K and of course, but

Chris Detzel: pretty good.

Half 1 23 is not,

Ryan Burrell: yeah,

Chris Detzel: slow. No, I, I understand what you're saying.

Ryan Burrell: I mean,

Chris Detzel: but most people can't run that fast, to be honest. Like

Ryan Burrell: underperforming, but I mean, still a good time

Chris Detzel: Underperforming. Yes. You were had a 16 something probably underperforming a half fair.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. But, um, so yeah, he put me on a lot of threshold stuff and a lot of like, just more consistent knowledge like last year.

And I've seen big gains. Like I've, uh, I noticed subtle things like years ago to two, even up to like 2024. I'd finish races and be like gassed. Not, not dangerous to where I'm like about to pass out or something, but just like, you know, lay out on the ground and, you know, and, uh, that doesn't really happen anymore.

You know, I've noticed those types of, uh, those types of like differences. Like I'm just a lot stronger, you know what I mean?

Chris Detzel: But you're running like 70 and 80 miles a week at points?

Ryan Burrell: Well, not, no, not [00:29:00] me. I haven't, I haven't been able to go above like 55.

Chris Detzel: Okay. All right. So you 55 at the most?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. But like, um, I've been really consistent with, uh,

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Ryan Burrell: like between 40, 55.

Chris Detzel: I like it.

All right. So did you get him to train you or coach you for the, uh, half first? Was that what you were thinking?

Ryan Burrell: No, the first race said, the first race that, that he coached me for was this, uh, capital 10 K in Austin.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I, I like jumping around in the distances and stuff.

Yeah. Yeah, like, um, I did this Captain K and, uh,

Chris Detzel: captain Crow. Captain K is what it's called.

Ryan Burrell: No, no, no, no, no. Captain K.

Chris Detzel: Captain K. Got it. Yeah. I thought you said Captain 10 K. Got it. All right. Ka, so you did this and what was your goal and what, what'd you do?

Ryan Burrell: I wanted to.

Chris Detzel: You don't look happy.

Ryan Burrell: No, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm

Chris Detzel: okay.

Ryan Burrell: I was, I was pretty happy with that. Um, I guess I'm thinking I want to go a lot faster now the next time I run a 10 K. But like, uh, at this [00:30:00] time I did like 35 minutes and 36 seconds. And it's a, wow. It's a hilly course too.

Chris Detzel: That's really good.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Um, I beat my, uh, I only ran the 10 K one time in college and I beat that time, so that's a, uh,

Chris Detzel: I'm sure

Ryan Burrell: big deal for me.

But, uh,

Chris Detzel: did you get a place like, I would think you would get?

Ryan Burrell: No. 'cause it's such a big race. I think I got my 70th or something, but it was like, I think almost 20,000. You know, I mean,

Chris Detzel: yeah. I mean, I'll

Ryan Burrell: take it, but, uh, but yeah.

Chris Detzel: Great time.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Um. Then we had a 5K cycle, you know, in the summer, and that's when I met you.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: And then after that, then we went into the marathon cycle. Houston,

Chris Detzel: did you run a like during that marathon cycle, did you run a half marathon to kind of gauge yourself or no?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, that was, uh, BMW again. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Oh, so you ran it in 2025?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I, I, I've run BMW every year since I've been here. Okay.

So I, I've run like,

Chris Detzel: how'd you do, how'd you do in BMW this time

Ryan Burrell: I did a big PR five minute pr. I did, uh, 1 17 50.

Chris Detzel: [00:31:00] Wow. Wow. Now tell me you're happy with that, at least.

Ryan Burrell: Uh, a I was ecstatic. Ecstatic about that. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Talk about training. So you decided to, so Matthew Campbell is your coach just in case. I didn't say that out loud.

I know I said Matt.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: Matt Campbell, he's been on the podcast a couple times.

Ryan Burrell: Mm-hmm.

Chris Detzel: Uh, he's pretty well known, especially within the slots and others, you know, he's very good runner. But So did he talk you into it or are you just like, Hey, you see all these people doing it, him and others and you know, I better do it?

Or what, what happened there?

Ryan Burrell: You're asking did he talk me into, I'm doing a, um, BMW or the, um,

Chris Detzel: no, no, the marathon. Sorry.

Ryan Burrell: Okay. So pretty much, I guess when I was training for the, uh, for the 10 K, he started putting me on like, 16 mile runs and things like that here and there. And now at that point, I hadn't run when I was running on my own, I hadn't trained like higher than like 14 miles.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: So after hitting these types of like distant like those distances, I started to wonder. I was like, you know, it started to kind of cross my mind. I'm like, so maybe I can do a do a [00:32:00] full now. I've had plenty of other people try to get me to do fos. Like, uh, people in, um, like run it up and

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Ryan Burrell: like that, like over the, like over the years as reckless as I was back then, I, like, years ago I had enough self-awareness to say that I didn't wanna do a full at that time.

So it's pretty

Chris Detzel: smart.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. And so, yeah, but after doing these types of like big workouts for like. 16 miles and stuff. I was like, so maybe I can do a full, you know, like, like, like maybe it's time. 'Cause um. I remember I told these people like, um, I'm not saying I'm not gonna do it, I'm just saying I'm not gonna do it right now.

Yeah. You know, I'll do it later sometime, but eventually later came and so, yeah. But no, he didn't, uh, he didn't pressure me or anything. I just decided to do it on my own.

Chris Detzel: So what, tell me a little bit about kind of the training program. What kinds of things did you do that were different? You know, when you started training for a full marathon, obviously, you know, he put you on some 16 milers, but when [00:33:00] you officially said, Hey, I'm gonna do the marathon, I'm gonna start training.

Talk a little bit about the, the training plan. What did a week look like for you?

Ryan Burrell: So. I would run five or six days out of the week. Usually bare minimum, it would be like, um, like at least six to seven miles I remember it, it would be a lot of like tempos. Mm-hmm. A lot of tempos, like, and maybe some speed sprinkled here and there to just kind of maintain speed.

But it was a lot of like, maybe like three mile tempos at like marathon pace, six mile tempos at marathon pace, things like that. Or maybe like slightly faster. One of my favorite workouts that he had. For during one of my long runs, I think it was a total of 18 miles, I think it was seven miles easy then 10 times, three minutes at six minute pace.

Six flat pace with one minute recovery. But the one minute is like at marathon pace, which was like six 30.

Chris Detzel: That's the recovery.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, um, yeah, it's a very, yeah, like I said, [00:34:00] he, he has some very creative workouts and that, and that, and that one, that one burned. But, uh, but that way it was a little fun.

I mean, and it felt good to be able to actually do that.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Like did, was there any like, hey, this, this week you're just gonna do a 10 mile just slow run, or was there any of that? Or was it always kind of adding in some speed to some of those longer runs?

Ryan Burrell: So, it seemed like every other week he would have like a workout within the long run, and then other times it would be like just a steady, long run at, you know, whatever pace I kind of feel.

Okay. Like, I mean, it could be easy, but. I can't really stand to run that easy for like 16 or 18 miles or whatever. I always have to kind of push the pace at least a little bit.

Chris Detzel: It's in your nature, man. Not gonna stand that the whole time. So that makes sense. Do, uh, since you kind of built up, did you feel pretty confident going into, well, one, you ran Dallas half or BMW Dallas half [00:35:00] and.

So I'm sure you felt pretty confident going into the marathon. How'd you feel before?

Ryan Burrell: So I was actually, no, I, no actually was worried like, uh, just 'cause I, I mean, I know I did the, that half marathon fast, but I was, I remember I was supposed to at some point, hit like 70 and 80 mile weeks and I never did that.

And I also was slacking on my strength training. So I was, and I think I only had, and I know Matt, he, uh, like, he kind of adjusted some things to make sure that I was just gonna like not get hurt or something. But

Chris Detzel: yeah. What's the reason you didn't get up to 70? Was it just 'cause she just didn't,

Ryan Burrell: I remember one, you tell me I was gonna try to get to 63 or 65 for the first time and I had a good shot at doing it, but then I remember I did the Turkey trot, Okay.

That week. But after that, like my hip was hurting so then I had to skip along, run. So

Chris Detzel: Got it.

Ryan Burrell: So yeah.

Chris Detzel: I think that's smart though. Like, 'cause you've never run that much in your life.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, no.

Chris Detzel: So you're running a lot of miles for you.

Ryan Burrell: Mm-hmm.

Chris Detzel: And you're, you're actually getting [00:36:00] better, so that's good, but you're doing a lot of speed within those miles, tempo and things like that.

So, I know maybe one day you wanna get to 70 or 80, but you know, I think what you're doing is,

Ryan Burrell: yeah. Yeah. I think even though like last year I only got up to like 55, I think the fact that I was so consistent with like 45 to 50 and 55, I think that helped me out a lot because, um, the year, year before, and I guess when I was left to my own devices, nobody's holding me accountable and I'm just doing whatever.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: 50 is a super 50 was a super week back then, you know, but usually I'm like, 35 is a nice solid week.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: And then, and then may, then maybe some other week, maybe I hit like 20 or something. So it's just, kind of just up and down. Um, just the fact that it's more consistent now, I think that does wonder.

Chris Detzel: No, I think for a marathon you have to be way more consistent. There's no cut in corners, in my opinion, to get to do really well at a marathon. It's rare that if you don't do the work, you're not gonna do real [00:37:00] well. You know that's rare that you do. And if you do okay, you're gonna be hurting at the end.

You're gonna be hurting anyways. Without proper training, you're probably gonna hurt even with your first. So let's get to the marathon day. Tell me about it, how you're feeling, thinking, and all that kinda stuff.

Ryan Burrell: Okay? I was staying with a, with a buddy of mine, like in an Airbnb. He's used to waking up at like 3:00 AM Oh.

And so it was, it was nothing for him. I told him, I was like, look, just wake me up at like three 30. Give me an extra 30 minutes. Um, and so yeah, he woke me up and we got ready for the race. He was doing the half. Okay.

Chris Detzel: I did the half too, so it's fun.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I won't happen next year, but Yeah. Yeah. Um, but, uh,

Chris Detzel: that's a good one to do too.

Really good.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: As you know, you've done the full No. Okay, go ahead.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Um, and so yeah, this was my first time doing, I guess Chevron in general, so like young. So heard good things about it. And so when I got there, like, uh, yeah, it pretty much lived up to what they were, um, what everyone was telling me.

And so I'm walking towards the, uh, starting line and [00:38:00] I'm seeing all the, for one I've never seen like pacers for like, I. I think I saw a pacer for like the one 15 half. I never, I never saw anything. Like I never saw pacers that fast, so

Chris Detzel: I don't think I have either. I didn't see those guys, but I'm not surprised.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. So, and I mean, and yes, height they're talking about the elites and everything like that, so, you know, the energy's up there. And so I'm just, I'm going through my plan thinking. I'm like, don't get over zealous and go out too fast. And so I line up behind the 2 55 pacer. Looking back on it, I probably could have, um, lined up a little further up.

But again, I'm trying to just be a little conservative and you know, like, um, 'cause again, I had ran beyond like 21 miles and I did that only one time. Like, uh, I have a lot of

Chris Detzel: encouragement. It kinda had in mind that you're gonna do a 2 55. Is that what you had in mind? The, uh, 2 55

Ryan Burrell: I had, uh, so I had an A goal and B goal and a C goal, pretty much two 50 being the A goal 2 55 being the B goal.

And at worst I wanted to at least break [00:39:00] three.

Chris Detzel: Okay. I mean, it's fair and hopefully you're happy with what you got. Yeah. 'cause it's your first All right. So, yeah, go ahead.

Ryan Burrell: So, yeah, I mean, so the race starts and I'm going and, uh, I go out conservatively and then I kind of get into the, uh, rhythm a little bit.

And the first 10 miles, I'm consciously holding myself back just a little bit to, you know, try to just make sure I'm not going too fast, too early. I end up passing the, um, like. I catch up to the, uh, 2 55 Pacer. 'cause I actually lose contact with them. But then I catch 'em, I think after like three miles.

And then I then at some point it feels like they're going a little slow. So then I just, I just, uh, run away from them. And

Chris Detzel: after a couple miles,

Ryan Burrell: I think, yeah, I stay. With them from mile three to mile six maybe, or mile five. Okay. Something like that.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: And then after that, yeah, like, um, I'm just, uh, some people are passing me up, some, I'm passing some people up.

I don't really care, you know, I'm just trying to, you know, do my own thing.

Chris Detzel: It's a big marathon.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: It's gonna happen.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. And so, um, and so yeah, I catch up to somebody I think at around mile [00:40:00] late, this guy. Um, I mean, I don't, I didn't know who he was. I just started talking to him a little bit. Um, he told me something that I think helped me later.

Like, uh, he, so, I mean, I told him it was my first fall and he asked me how I was feeling. I was like, I think I'm feeling okay. I mean, I don't know if I'm supposed to feel better than I'm feeling at this point or not, but I mean, I think I'm okay right now. Um, mean, he, he told me, uh, like it's the marathon.

You're gonna go through some, um, through like some, some ups and downs and um mm-hmm. I think that was his 14th marathon, so he was experienced and so. Like, uh, so I ended up, um, like I separated, I ended up separating from him and, uh, yeah, what, what he said helped me because I remember I went through a rough patch and I think like mile 11, like mental rough patch you know, and, um, I think it started to warm up just a tad and I guess like my body had to kind of adjust and so, so yeah, I got to, yeah, I went, I went through that rough patch probably for like a mile or two and then I hit, and then I hit the halfway point.

And then I'm thinking to myself, I'm like. Usually I'd be done, but[00:41:00]

Chris Detzel: nope. But I mean, you've been training so, you know, but it, it is funny that mile 10 or 11, you started kinda thinking of those kind of things.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I mean I shook it off I think once I got to like 13 and a half or 14. 'cause I'm just thinking like, I'm more than halfway there. I'm like, I've done more than what I have left.

That's what I'm kind of thinking to myself

Chris Detzel: from a race standpoint. Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Dom. I'm think I'm thinking about like a whole lot of people who like, um, like I, again, I, I was telling some people, Hey, you know, I'm not sure about this. And they were, they weren't having it. They were telling me that, no, Ryan, you, you got it.

And so I'm thinking about all these people who, you know, cheering me on, like through the app. I'm getting text messages on, like, in the middle of the race and stuff. So like, um,

Chris Detzel: do you have your earphones on or something? You could hear it, or are you checking your text during your run?

Ryan Burrell: So like, um, I could kind of see the preview of the text.

Like, um, on my phone, I didn't open it up, but I could like see the preview of like, some of the stuff that they were saying.

Chris Detzel: Like you had your phone running, [00:42:00] just Oh, yeah.

Ryan Burrell: I ran with my phone. Yeah. I don't do that for like, the, uh, shorter distances. You, you half marathon and down, but for the full, you know, run with the phone.

Chris Detzel: But I mean, you're, you're checking it like you can see, like you're looking at it when running. Just kind of so and so sent me a text.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: That's crazy. I would never do that. I mean, I might even carry it, but I'm not gonna pull it out. Let's say he was texting me.

Ryan Burrell: I mean, I had it in my hand the whole time, but,

Chris Detzel: okay.

Well, I can't have stuff in my, like, I'll, I'll carry a water bottle and that's it,

Ryan Burrell: oh, oh, see, I can carry water bottles. I mean, it feels heavier. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. All right. Well that's an, that's an interesting little tidbit there all right. Well that's cool. I mean, maybe you're getting, people are kind of, good job.

Go, go, go. It's quite helpful.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: You know.

Ryan Burrell: And, um, and at that, I mean, after, after like halfway, it's, it's really just mental.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: I, I, I catch up to a pack of, um, of some guys, me and this other guy were kind of just, um, like, uh, like I remember I was kind of drafting off of him for a while, for like maybe a mile [00:43:00] 15 to, to like maybe 16 16 or something.

And then he starts drafting off for me and I, and I, and I remember I kind of moved to the side a little bit and then he goes right behind me and I say, well, I guess I was doing this before. So it's okay.

Chris Detzel: Fair enough.

Ryan Burrell: And, um, and then, um, yeah then a then after that both of us are working together a little bit and we're just running with this pack of, I think two or three other people.

I don't think they liked it, but I'm like, we're just trying to make it, so, um, we're doing what we have to do. And so like, uh, pretty much each mile is passing and I'm just trying to just make sure, you know, I'm staying mentally positive, you know, I'm staying determined. I'm all, I'm. I know, like other people are, you know, they talk about like hitting the wall at mile 18, mile 20, things like that.

Um, I'm keeping that in mind and I'm like, okay, I hit mile 18. I'm still feeling okay, relatively speaking. At least it's okay that as I can be and, uh,

Chris Detzel: you're taking go and things like that.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, there's taking, I'm just taking jails every like three, three and a half miles.

Chris Detzel: [00:44:00] Okay. So you, I mean, that helps.

Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Detzel: A lot of people hit the wall because they're not one, taking gels or, properly fueled so.

Ryan Burrell: And I'm grabbing water from every water station that I that I see. Like, um, I think I learned a lot from like, some of your other interviews with other athletes, so, yeah.

Chris Detzel: Well, that's good. All right. So

21, 22, you're still hauling at and still feeling good or.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Um, actually surprisingly, like I was like, uh, I think once I hit 20 I kind of like, I'm kind of starting to feel a little bit, but I'm still, I'm, I think I'm pretty good at holding a steady pace as long as it's not killing me.

So I'm actually running extremely steady. I remember like, like I remember once I hit mile 10, the plan was to just like go into my race pace before, because the first 10 I was kind of just, uh. A little, a little bit slower than race pace, but not by much. But then the second 10 miles, like lock in on race pace.

Okay. And I think I was, I think for those, each mile was probably like within five seconds of each other for those 10 miles even going into,

Chris Detzel: it's pretty good. [00:45:00]

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. And, um, and then I'm going into like mile 22. At this point, I'm actually catching different points where like, if I step wrong, like I have to kind of like kind of watch how I set, because at this point, like if I step the wrong way, then the cramp is gonna just hit me.

Yeah. And so like, um, I had a couple of scares, but then I, I was still like, it

Chris Detzel: happens.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: But then. I think when I hit like mile 23, or I remember I had like a 5K left to go. I stepped on some uneven part of the ground and that's what did it, like I, I was avoiding the cramps all the way up into that point.

And then like I, I caught myself, but then like my right hamstring tightened up and then like even up here, like. Yeah. All of you started tightening up,

Chris Detzel: everything starts to hurt.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. And, and so then I actually, I mean, I, I had to stop to, um, kind of work it out and then the people who I was passing before they, they were passing me back up.

You know, that sucks. And, uh, and I could see their focus. I'm like, they're just trying to make it, they're just trying to make it too. Mm-hmm. Um, but, uh, so then I, after maybe a minute or so [00:46:00] I'd start back again and I remember like as I. Getting back in my running form. Like this is like here, is starting to like, it's still like cramping up a little bit, but I'm thinking I don't wanna stop anymore.

So, but maybe like 30 seconds. I think I run like with a chicken wing kind of like this. Just to try to like muscles relax.

Chris Detzel: So those that looking at audio, you know, you could go to the YouTube and watching, do you know his shoulder and stuff anyways?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Some people are just on Apple or, spotify listening.

Ryan Burrell: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, uh, after that, since I cramped once, it seems like it's gonna keep happening. Yeah. Like here and there. And so I had to stop I think two other times, like briefly to try to

Chris Detzel: Wow.

Ryan Burrell: Like, um, not, like, not as long, these next few times, but I did have to stop a couple times to try to like, like, um, like stretch out my, uh, my hamstring again.

And so the second time. Like, uh, actually first, like, um,

Chris Detzel: you're at mile 23 already or 24 and you're

Ryan Burrell: stopping? Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. The second time I stopped, I think I was at mile 24. [00:47:00]

Chris Detzel: Okay. Wow.

Ryan Burrell: And then, uh, this, and then Rachel I don't, I don't know if you know her, Rachel Sanchez.

Chris Detzel: I know her. Yeah,

Ryan Burrell: yeah, yeah. She, uh, she passed me and she was like, no, Ryan, not now.

Not now. And I'm like, uh, yeah, I'll be okay. I'm, I'm, I'm gonna make it. I'm just gonna, you know, I just gotta stretch this out. And so, yeah, like, I, I start back again. The crowd is extremely supportive. They're like, they're like way to get back in and, you know, so, you know, like, um,

Chris Detzel: that's great.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. And then, um, and then I see Matt at like mile 25 and like, uh.

Like, uh, I'm thinking at that. I'm thinking at, at at, um, at that point I'm like, oh man, if he if only I hadn't have cramped, I would've looked better with passing coach. Now I look like I'm struggling.

Chris Detzel: It's normal. Don't worry about that.

Ryan Burrell: And then, uh, and then I had to stop one more time. I think like with maybe a mile or maybe a kilometer to go, something like that.

Chris Detzel: Oh, Ryan, geez.

Ryan Burrell: Like, uh, and, and then at this point, the other guy who we were kind of drafting off of each [00:48:00] other way back in mile 15, I had lost contact. Like he had dropped off I guess at mile 20, but it caught up again and he actually stops to try to like, uh, to ask if I'm okay. I'm like, no, no. Hey, go, go.

I'll, I'm gonna make it. I, I'll be okay. I promise I'm gonna make it, you know? So like, uh, I, so after that I get started again and then I can kind of feel the tightness kind of work. Coming back, but I'm like, I'm not, I'm not stopping again. So I changed my, my run it for him a little bit just to kind of like, uh, just, uh, loosen up my, my hamstring and it works.

And so then we're on that exciting final stretch. And yeah, like at that point I'm not stopping. I get like one of my, uh, one of my friends, he, he actually he finished the half, he actually gets on and he runs on, um, on the side of me, like, uh,

Chris Detzel: pushes you a little

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, yeah. Just kind of posts up.

Yeah. And he, he's recording and posting that video or whatever. Yeah. And I, and, and, and, and I'm looking at 'em. I say, I say, Hey man, them cramps kick my ass the last two miles.

And so yeah, like, um, [00:49:00] yeah, that made for a real funny video. And then after I, uh, I'm seeing like, I think 800 meters left, 600 meters left, 400 meters left. And I mean, I'm just, uh, like a, I mean, I'm, I'm just hauling. And then I remember as I see the finish line. The tightness wants to kind of come back again and I'm like, it's almost like my body nose, but I'm not stopping.

Right. Here I see it. So I I, I kind of straight l like, I kind of run like with straight leg just to try to, you know, hobble to the finish and, uh, and then I crossed and, um, yeah, like, uh, I remember

Chris Detzel: Sure. Nothing was done.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I mean, it, it was a surreal feeling for a while because it was just like, I really did that.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ryan Burrell: And I hear about people getting like emotional and stuff after they finish the marathon and stuff. I didn't necessarily get emotional, but I remember like after maybe a few minutes, I caught a little bit of a flutter for a second. Like, wow, I really did this and I didn't, you know? And again, at that time I was having doubts.

Well,

Chris Detzel: and we can call that emotion, it's okay.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: It's a little bit emotional. Maybe you didn't cry or anything, but

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. [00:50:00] A little and, uh, you know, I guess being proud. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: That's awesome.

Ryan Burrell: And yeah, like, um, I remember even after, when I got on the, uh, they get on the massage table that they had.

Mm-hmm. Like I, when I laid down I remember my body was just shivering and, and I, I looked at the lady and I was like, I think my body's in shock right now

Chris Detzel: probably.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. And so, uh, but then after that, yeah, I mean, I'm. I'm extremely proud. And then like the next two days, I'm walking extremely slow.

And

Chris Detzel: of course,

Ryan Burrell: well

Chris Detzel: man, that's amazing. Look, that's normal. People, have you still ran a 2 53 0 1? Yeah. So I just think if you didn't cramp up, who knows what you ran. You know. Yeah, I, so,

Ryan Burrell: I'm pretty sure I lost like, maybe two minutes. It would've been close to two 50 on the dot, something around there.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. I don't disagree, but hey, you know, that's just normal. It's, it's a great learning experience for you. Yeah. What's next for you? If you, are you thinking [00:51:00] about another marathon in the future, or what, what does that look like?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, so I knew I was gonna wanna do another marathon after this, no matter what the outcome was.

Because like, whatever I ran, I was gonna be like, I wanna go faster next time. And so, um, of course. I don't have one planned in the immediate future. I don't know which it may be next year. Um, I'm not, it's not, I doubt it's gonna be this year. It's probably gonna be next year. Okay. Um, I'm not sure which one yet.

I need to discuss that with Madden and then we can decide a good one. I would love to do Houston again, but I mean, I already said I wanted to do the half there. I want to try the half out. 'cause I heard that's, that course is really fast.

Chris Detzel: It's a great one. Yeah. But you know, you could do half anytime at Houston.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Uh, I think coming up now, have a, um, I'm doing the Cherry Boston 10 miler.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Again, that'd be

Chris Detzel: fun.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. I don't like to like train like the same distances, like consecutively, like that. I like to jump.

I

Chris Detzel: mean, [00:52:00] marathon would be tough. You want us to do that?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Do something a little different.

I love it. Well you qualify for Boston then, right? So I think

Ryan Burrell: so. A, the standard time is like 2 55. Oh, '

Chris Detzel: cause you're so young.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah. Um, I know they do that on that buffer thing, so

Chris Detzel: sometimes. We'll see.

Ryan Burrell: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: we'll see. I mean, you'll, because they did change some stuff to where marathons that were, um, like downhill, so they, they penalized people that do specific downhill, at some point, like the Revel races at 52, 50, 200 feet of down, they'll penalize you 10 minutes and then five minutes from some others and, and things like that.

So, positive is, is maybe that lessens the amount of people that. Get in, you know, and maybe the time kinda gets closer to that for you, that 2 55, I don't know. We'll see what happens this time around. More specifically next time. Cool. Was there anything that I missed that, I mean, we talked for a long time, it feels like, but.

Yeah. Yeah. Did I miss anything? You wish you could say, Hey, this is, we should [00:53:00] have talked about this, or did we cover everything?

Ryan Burrell: I don't think, uh, anything, uh, really comes to mind. Yeah, this was, uh, it's pretty, uh, pretty extensive.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Well, Ryan, thank you so much for coming on to DFW one Talk. I really appreciate it.

You're. Your story is really cool. It's inspiring and, uh, you learned a lot, I think, and I think that's just normal. You know, the sky's the limit for you depending on, where wherever you wanna go from a running standpoint you now have got not just the talent, but you've got some stuff behind you, you know how to run, you know, long runs, all those things.

And, and I think that it's gonna be pretty awesome. So. Well, thanks everybody for tuning into another DFW Running Talk. Don't forget to go to DFW running talk.substack.com and go to our newsletter and subscribe. Then you will never miss an episode. Ryan, thanks again for coming.

Ryan Burrell: Hey,

Chris Detzel: thanks everybody tuning again?

Ryan Burrell: Yeah, thanks having me Chris. It's an honor.

Chris Detzel: Thanks you sir.