Jim Walmsley - Champion Ultra Runner - A true Story.

Let me tell you an amazing story. This is the story of a young man whose dreams and career was shattered in a blink of an eye. A man who went into a deep depression and contemplated to end it all. This is the story of a man who faced his demon, fought with it stride by stride, and came out a champion. This is the story of Jim Walmsley. Jim was a second lieutenant in the Air Force with a five-year commitment, but one unfortunate day he was charged with DUI, though he was not driving his car. One thing led to another and he was ultimately discharged from the Air Force. His world came crashing down. In this story, we will see how Jim overcame his fear, kept on fighting, and ultimately came out a winner and an inspiration to the ultrarunning community across the world. Just turned into these big depression, I started seeing psychiatrists, getting suicidal. I couldn't drink at home by myself. I'd like beat myself up at night and just break stuff all the time and it's just a hard place to feel like isolation and being by yourself and knowing that if you had a quick way out you would have totally taken it. I've been in a crappy place for a long time and stuff hadn't gone well since I moved to Montana. It was just exactly what parents needed to be. I was actually the psychiatrist that was like I think you should start running and making that priority in your life and and I think like I see that you're happier when you run and you go through bad spells when you don't get out the door and you don't go run. So it kind of became like just a medication. After his discharge from the Air Force, he moved to Flagstaff Arizona. There he found a band of brothers who shared his passion for running. Together they trained, had fun. A fire was ignited, a pact was made. That was a time to hit the reset button to shape my life how I want it to be. I started running consistently. I started training again. Things have just started to take off from there. I decided to change my life and do something I'm really passionate about. I want to isolate other runners and make you run by yourself and me with myself and I'm going to put all my chips on me and just be like not getting me. It's just been proven again and again and again at this point. I'm winning those battles. Maybe the motivation and the heart. In 2016 he set a new record time for Bandera 100k, lake Sonoma 50 mile, and qualified for western state's 100-mile race. He started very strong and on the way to create a new course record. Something historical was going to happen. Everybody was excited to see the young runner breaking all previous records. Then something happened. At mile 92 93-ish I ended up running past a turn I was supposed to make. I just blew right past it. [Indistinct  talking] And it just turned into this absolutely demoralized like deflation immediately and and you feel you've been running through so much pain all day that's like all right I'm gonna just take a deep breath and sit down for a second. After the demoralizing race he regrouped, trained hard. He set his bar high, and went absolutely determined to cross that bar. He went on to win the 2017 Tarawera 100 kilometers ultra marathon in Newzealand and smash the previous course record. He is now ready for a second chance at the Western States. In the 2017 Western States 100-mile race Jim went for a sub-14-hour record. He started flying from the start go. People started questioning his pace. Will he be able to make it till the end at this breakneck speed? This was an unusually hot summer day with temperature touching 110 degrees Fahrenheit. But Jim trained for this and he was in a good mood and way ahead of his second-place rival. He started to feel the heat but his friends at aid stations encouraged him to go on. He could not keep the food down and started throwing up. He momentarily felt better but things went south from there. [Jim's Pacer] He wants to call it. He's in he's getting gradually more like loopy. He resigned from racing and started walking slowly. His body just gave up in the intense heat and exhaustion. His friends came running to walk with him. Friends in this moment with me and guys that would go to war with me any given day. We're all in it together. Yeah I mean we're all each other's biggest fans. It takes a whole village to run that race. For marathons, I really like the process behind it. The training's less structured less systematic. It's more intuition and listening to your body and kind of exploring as well as adventuring like you just go out for runs in cool places. It's kind of an escape for me mentally. I feel I need it. Exercising, in general, I feel healthier I feel more at ease. I get restless without running and exercising excessively. So uh it helps me stay in balance personally. I feel really really blessed that I don't feel like it was a chronic depression. It was a phase or a time in my life that wasn't the prettiest, not my proudest but it really steered me in a direction in life to re-prioritize what's important. You hear the like cliche of like do something you're passionate about and things will just work out. After two failed attempts, Jim got wiser now. He started training with his band of Coconino Cowboys. He trained harder, he trained smarter. In 2018, he smashed the Western State's 100-mile course record by 16 minutes at 14 hours and 30 minutes. In 2019, he bettered his own record in 14 hours and 9 minutes. Success and Redemption At Last. [Music] Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (by Mozart) I think ultrarunning right now is an interesting time with guys that want to go push it and then guys that want to stick to the tried and true tradition of start out what is comfortable what's going to get you to the finish line feeling good and going to get you there no matter what. Personally, I like pushing the boundaries more on the risky wild side. Go push yourself challenge yourself and go see what happens. I don't consider myself special but at the same time like I am gonna give it my whole heart and yeah I need to fight from step one to the last step. It's okay to go out there and try, it's okay to go out there and and go crazy with it, because I'm happy doing this regardless if it's a good day or a bad day or running like it's still a pretty awesome life right now. [Please consider Subscribing to my Channel. It will encourage me to bring you more amazing stories. 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Channel: JAOM

Views: 69,021

Keywords: jim walmsley western states 2019, jim walmsley, ultra running motivation, trail running motivation, trail running, mountain running, utmb, ultra marathon documentary, running motivation, running, western states 100, ultra runner, trail runner, training motivation, ultra marathon, coconino cowboys, ultra running, hoka one one, western states, running form, marathon training, tarawera, jim walmsley hoka, jim walmsley running, jim walmsley western states 2018, cross country

Id: KbfTkxT1ifQ

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 12 2020