Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running | Lex Fridman Podcast #205

The following is a conversation with Zach Bitter, ultra-marathon runner and coach who held multiple world records in the 100-mile run and other ultra-endurance events. He is currently training for a run across America, which for now is planned for September this year. Like many of the things Zach has done in the past, this is a big, fascinating challenge. Quick mention of our sponsors: Ladder, Belcampo, Noom, and BetterHelp. Check them out in the description to support this podcast. As a side note, let me say that Zach has been advising and coaching me on my own running journey. I wanna mention that Zach sent me some running shoes from ALTRA, which I think is a company that sponsors him. When I put those shoes on, I feel like Zach is watching me and I get that extra motivation to make him proud. And by that, I mean I wanna put a lot of miles on those shoes. Running is something that has always been difficult for me, but I love it because it is difficult. The hardest part is I'm left alone with my thoughts for one or two hours. Some thoughts are dark, like thinking about mortality, my own and that of others. Some are self-critical, like personal weaknesses or dreams not realized. Some are simply human feelings of loneliness, personal and existential. And yet, they're the moments during a run when all that fades and I'm left empty of negative thoughts, full of appreciation for the beauty of experience, of nature, life, the whole thing. This is why I returned to running, not to get in shape, but to face myself and to run through it. That's why I'm inspired by people like Zach and by David Goggins and others like them who seek to find the limits of their body and mind. This is the Lex Fridman Podcast, and here is my conversation with Zach Bitter. Where does your mind go when you're running an ultra-marathon? Are there a lot of positive thoughts, negative thoughts, demons, inspirational things? Maybe no thoughts at all.

Yeah, that's the really interesting part of the sport, I think, 'cause you can... Essentially what it is, when we're looking at like the 100-mile distance or anything that's like all day long, is you're gonna have the full range or the full spectrum of emotions, of mental processes, both kind of positive, negative, and in between. So it almost feels like you've lived multiple, multiple lives, or a- or a full life maybe is the best way to say it, in that one time period. So it's like a- it's almost like a simulation of what you may experience in a long period of time in a very condensed period of time. And I think that's just a weird mental process to reflect upon, and that's what kinda draws people back to it. But, I mean, it's a battle too, because if you're looking at it from a performance standpoint versus an experience, you obviously wanna minimize the negative mindset stuff. You wanna try to keep those emotions and those thought processes at a low, and I think when you can keep yourself from letting those thoughts creep in, they- you- you end up having better races. And it's- it can spiral in either direction, like I notice, like there's- there's kind of like this scenario that occurs where in the beginning, like a negative thing creeps into your mind, it's like super easy just to slap it down and say-