ZACH | In Relentless Pursuit Of His Best: The Journey of Ultrarunner Zach Miller

[Music] and the 56th annual jfk 50 miles give him a nice welcome here to williamsport overcame the mud overcame the blood overcame the smell five hours 41 minutes and a couple of [Music] seconds oh man [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] from stories my mom tells me to things i remember i was always very obsessed with you know doing the best i could i guess i kind of have this idea this theory that a race is meant to be respected um a race is a race for a reason we all have our reasons for why we do it but for me when the gun goes off you know that means i give my best until i cross the finish line that i go as fast and as hard as i can until i either get to the end or i can't anymore because if i get to the line feeling absolutely trashed i feel like i've given my best [Music] [Applause] [Music] even in training i just i can get in that pain cave and push [Music] so i like getting to that point where it's hard and then pushing harder [Applause] [Music] it's just part of my character to just always try and do the best that i can [Music] [Music] it's 7 a.m saturday morning in the square in boonesboro 33 degrees greets the balance of 1000 plus runners in the 51st jfk ultra marathon this is the test for the competitive field 50.2 miles from boonesboro to williamsport at the start 15.5 miles on the appalachian trail terrain that would test every [Music] runner at the end of 8.4 miles of asphalt the lead belonged to a late entrant based on his running resume race promoter mike spinler granted him a slot zach miller from columbia pennsylvania crosses the finish line in 5 hours 38 minutes 44 seconds the third fastest course time in the 51 year history of the jfk [Music] hello my running career is something that i didn't really see coming it was something i dreamt of when i was little not necessarily running i wanted to be a professional soccer player you know i basically wanted to be a pro athlete but you know that's just a dream i never knew that it would actually happen i mean i went all the way through college you know leaving college realizing that there was a pretty big disconnect between what i was doing and what it took to be a professional runner but sometimes i wonder if those little dreams and things we have when we're young are meant to motivate us to do something we're supposed to do because for me my dream came true and why it came true is is a good question does it have to do with what my purpose is i can't really help but think that yes it does um there's a million things that i could do in this world and there are a million different jobs i could hold or tasks i could take on but i'm not sure that very many of them suit me as well as ultrarunning if i look back through my life and all the skills and talents and gifts and characteristics i've had they seem to fit my life as a runner as an ultrarunner as a mountain runner so very very well the day that changed my life for me that was jfk i didn't know it at the time the impact that it was gonna have i got my job working on the cruise ships in the print industry and i think for a lot of people that would have been like oh there goes running like you're gonna live on a cruise ship there's no way you're going to keep running but ironically that's what kind of got me into ultra running because i didn't like running on the treadmill so i'd run on the treadmill on c days but then on port days i would get off and try and do longer runs so they didn't have to run as much on the sea days and i would just go out and run and i figured out that i could just run really long time could go out for hours but the story is really crazy i had been living on the cruise ship for about three months and i had a vacation so i actually got off the ship in europe and took a vacation in shamani and ended up running around mont blanc in four days not really knowing what i was doing but just kind of having fun and doing it and so when i came back to pennsylvania i was in really good shape and my old track coach who is assistant coach of the cross country team pulled me aside and said i know about this race called the jfk 50 miler why don't you try that one i know it's coming up and it's very it's local it's only an hour and a half two hours away from here i said this would be the perfect race for you like the oldest and biggest 50-mile race in the country and he pulls it up on his phone and he shows it to me and i had no clue there was any 50 mile race in maryland so zach entered the race and uh rob carr was in that race and history tells us that he he left rob carr at uh 42 miles ended up with a great final stretch running the last mile of that 50-miler under six minutes and i think it changed his entire life i mean the last eight miles i couldn't see anybody behind me so i was just kind of running on adrenaline so what did that last 50 meters feel like that felt amazing there's nothing matters at that point [Music] my main goal is to give it just my very best all you have is this year so you might as well make it the best you've got [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the ultra trail de mont blanc is a 171 kilometer foot race this starts and ends in chamonix and we circumnavigate mont blanc and it's annually one of the most competitive trail races out there winning utmb is something that no american male has ever done one day it will probably happen but it will only happen once and then you could go on and on with a million other reasons of why i'd want to do utmb from the scenery to the fans to the atmosphere after leading for quite a bit of the race there's something in me that wants to go back and give it another go and try and i guess you could say get redemption i feel like i have unfinished business i just want that shot at the wind just like anybody else it's anybody's game on race day i just want to have my chips on the table [Music] ah [Music] wow [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he says that he has lost like seven minutes he was in the front so he writes a little bit nervous but he starts eating good and he takes all the material that he needs to take and now we're riding here at kurmaya [Applause] how are you i've been there going through the aid station core my air i i said i wasn't in the best mental space i i was you know probably a bit beat up from running the steep downhill i was probably a bit tired i was still kind of mentally distraught from making the wrong turn and not catching up to the league group i wasn't where i wanted to be in the race and i was just really preoccupied with how far ahead of the leaders and how far behind am i [Applause] i like to feel like i'm in it fighting for the win and i just didn't really necessarily feel like that even though it was still very early [Music] utm 2017 was just it was just special i mean i'm having a race i was so proud of but not the one i hoped for but then you know i look at the other side and i say i just got to take part in what was potentially the most competitive ultra ever and i'm pretty happy to say i was a part of it utmb and ultra running in general is an amazing sport because it gives us a platform for pushing our limits [Applause] it showed us how much more we can accomplish when we come together as a group and we push each other [Music] life in pennsylvania growing up there being raised there it was really pretty special i grew up in lancaster county which is a pretty rural area a lot of rolling farmland i didn't really know i was going to become a trail runner or a mountain runner or an ultra runner but i always loved when we would go and run on the trails and just really great trails i can do like 30 40 probably even almost 60 mile runs in pennsylvania on trails the conestoga trail the mason dixon trail the appalachian trail and they have rocky technical trails with steepest senses steep descents they're just really great training grounds that'll get you in really good shape there's very large amish community and it's a very family oriented place so one with the amish community those families tend to grow up and live together for a long time and stay in the same places and pass down family farms but then that culture kind of spreads to the rest of the community as well even if you're not amish it's really common that like your aunts and your uncles and your grandparents they all live within i don't know a 30 mile radius people might think it's weird or wonder how the dynamic works but it's really everybody just kind of lives together i guess i mean sure tourists come in to see the amish and their lifestyle is very different but you know you go to a place like central market downtown in lancaster and it's just a big mix of all sorts of people you know you might buy your vegetables from an amish guy and go to the next stand and buy your chocolate or baked goods from somebody who's not amish i wouldn't trade growing up here uh it's just it's a really special place to grow up and it's a beautiful place to run these are the mountains i grew up in here in pennsylvania about this was only about two hours north of where i lived in lancaster mount nittany we come up here for years to go hunting man i just fell in love with it [Applause] east coast running is like a type of running that you always have to be engaged you can't just zone out you always have to be thinking about where to put your feet and it's not just a bunch of groomers i wasn't born in the us i was born in kenya i tell people that and then they're like oh that's why you're such a good runner i don't know if it has much to do with it or not but my parents were missionaries they served in the mission field for about 10 years i wasn't naturally good at everything when i was really little in kenya i was trying to paint a picture um my mom tells this story and i would be on my chair or whatever and then i would drop my paintbrush and go on the floor i'd start to cry or something and she'd tell me well no zachary just pick it up and keep painting so like i'd pick it up and get up i'd start to paint and then i'd drop it again and over and over again i kept dropping it and she kept making me pick it up and so we we joke now that like in races and things i could never quit because of my mom like she's the fault for my driven nature oh boy now if he's not going to grow up to be a good helper there yeah he just it's just the way he worked he had to he had to get it all right he had to get the a he had to get the 100 he was an overachiever and he was a hard worker always always always a hard worker he never gave up i remember when he was when i was teaching him how to ride a bike he didn't want me to hang on to him too long going down the driveway he wanted me to let go he would always say let go let go and he would fall 100 times but he always got back up and tried again his work ethic came from our family because growing up my dad was very important he taught us how to work hard and so i passed that on to zach at a very young age he was a very determined person someone's banana bread wow thank you so much oh you're welcome zach i know is someone who is always going above and beyond he was the one growing up who kept us up late at night helping him finish his extra credit when he already had an a-plus in the class and that continues to show in his running and the ways that he won't take a day off and trains every single day for long hours yeah we can should i i can kind dearly of thank you for this uh day that you've blessed us with um thanks for all the hikers that were able to come up and visit said about bailey's birthday and she went to our camp in the morning mm-hmm [Applause] they were taught how to work whether it was chores around the house we would cut firewood and split firewood and zach was always a part of that zachary who's boy are you there you go he's also an incredibly stingy person he really loves to save what he has where's the other one pop goes okay he was unique he was really really unique even even as a baby zachary what are you doing always thoughtful always thinking what are you doing as a person of of faith i can't help but think that there are a million different things god could have had me do with my life but i think he wants me to do far more than just run races and try to win races i think it's more about interacting with the people and having an influence on maybe the younger generations and just doing something very very positive with the gifts that i've been given to follow him around and see how he handles himself i mean walking down the street being stopped every five ten minutes every couple hundred feet somebody wants to take his picture he's just very humble and he'll i'll do whatever just very proud it's hard to believe that that is our son yeah i'm competitive and i love winning races but if i'm only winning races then i'm wasting the gift so as i as i run and i pursue my running career sure i'm gonna try to win races and i'm gonna try to get better and i'm gonna try and be a better runner and a better athlete but i'm also going to try and interact with people and meet people and you know maybe speak in schools and talk to kids and encourage people to be active and find a better version of themselves and just as cheesy as it sounds i guess inspire people to to get out and live their lives really kind of changed my life and uh since then i've been i've been all over the world i've raced in all sorts of different countries i've won all sorts of different races and i don't always win sometimes i go for i've had races in other countries where i've gone out really hard i've chased the win i've i've gotten really close to the finish and then it fell apart you know but some of those races i was actually also very proud of okay okay go ahead put it in high gear go as fast as you can how fast [Music] [Music] ready to dance so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] this is where my day kind of changed xavier caught me and he got out of eight ahead of me but then we regrouped on the climb and the two of us ran all the way to la fully together and that was where i felt i made a big mistake everybody was like really excited and cheering and yelling and and i got caught up in it then before i knew it xavier was right behind me again and that kind of woke me up again and as soon as he came up we went back to like a a one step dance both of us trying to one step the other a little bit just got competitive it felt like we were racing [Music] for some reason i got it in my head that i should try to break saviere on the way to champaign and i pushed really hard on the climb and unfortunately xavier was really strong and he did not break and i ended up breaking myself champion lock was just a boatload of hurt it was really kind of bizarre and strange it was different than anything i've had before in an ultra i mean i've had some aid stations where i'm pretty wrecked and i'm pretty tired and sore and you know not wanting to eat but this this experience was was different there were just so many things going on i my legs felt like they were shot my stomach didn't like anything except for hot water my body was cold i felt like i was sick not just like and i don't mean like a sick stomach i mean like i actually felt sick like i just wanted to crawl in a warm bed and go to sleep and it was really hard you know the thought of leaving the aid station and continuing on was was not very enticing but at the same point i wasn't sitting there thinking oh i'm gonna drop out or i need i you know i need to drop this is too bad you know i was just probably more thinking like man i'm messed up and i need to turn this around but i'm not sure how it's gonna happen you know i guess it's how the game goes sometimes and and you have to learn to to manage not only the good times but also the bad times and you know that's what makes a hundred mile race 100 mile race i didn't quite conquer it you know i granted i even finished this year but i saw so many things go right that that really motivates me to come back and try again because it's because all of a sudden it's it's kind of changed from like oh i want to win this race but this race always destroys me to like feel like i'm starting to get it like i'm starting to figure it out like i'm not quite there yet but i'm on track like i'm putting together that puzzle with a million pieces and it's oh boom i got the frame together you know and i filled in most of this corner and this corner and like now i just need to play with these pieces over here and it it's just like this is actually attainable now it just makes me want to keep coming back and in hopes that one day i can just have that race from start to finish where it's just like i nailed it you know zack is unique because he is so his appearance is so unassuming and he comes across as being so humble which he is but then you see moments where he's just turning himself inside out and to think that you know a person has that with inside of him it's just really inspiring he's not afraid to do something really aggressive in a race he's got a lot of grit he's willing to work really hard to accomplish his goals when you talk to zach you get this idea that he knows what he can do and he keeps it real you know he's genuine in that sense zach's racing style is pretty incredible to watch it's something that when it goes correctly for him he's going to have a spectacular result but also at the expense of sometimes it doesn't pan out and is something as a friend and a spectator exciting to watch and heartbreaking if it doesn't happen a lot of us have a perception of what our limits are when i race i guess i try to throw those out the window it's not that i don't have limits it's just maybe that i perceive them differently i just don't really know where they are and i think that's one of the most beautiful things about racing so many times i think we step to a race line with this idea of what we're capable of doing but sometimes i think we're capable of a lot more than what we think if you can step to a race line or a circumstance in life and say i'm not afraid of the failure i'm just gonna go for it and i may not succeed but i'm just willing to try that's a really freeing and really fun thing [Music] katherine [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] so i see my running as something that's tied very closely to my purpose and my purpose may evolve it might change entirely you know we can't take anything for granted i could wake up tomorrow and not be able to run [Applause] [Music] i don't go to races guaranteeing myself anything i don't even really go to races knowing what i'm capable of doing i more just show up to races willing to try something i'm not sure i'm able to do and sometimes it blows up in my face and i i don't get it and other times i do something that dumbfounds even myself it's been a mixed bag over the years but i'll tell you one thing the days where you take the risk and you get an outcome that you weren't sure was possible or an outcome that you stand on the other side of the finish line and just shake your head and say i don't know how i just did that that's a pretty great moment and then you go home and dream about what's the next wall you can get over it what's the next big thing you can do that yesterday you thought was impossible [Music] oh [Music] where's the bottle there's your pea bottle right there where right there [Music] time to cut [Music] right about now [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Billy Yang

Views: 422,212

Rating: 4.96981 out of 5

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Id: xvJMlwNUAsI

Length: 37min 58sec (2278 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/irrelevantelephant23]

I met this guy at Barr camp a few years ago and didn't even know who he was! I went back with a friend from the XC team a few months later who recognized him. I had no idea he was a big deal. Super nice dude, really committed to the lifestyle. Hope he's doing well.

[u/jasondino]

Really enjoyed my time on the indoor/outdoor team with him. Always super nice and fun to be around