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Guest: Matt May @mattmay87

Show Notes:

Matt May ⁠and I met through the 2025 Marine Corps Marathon team for Ainsley's Angels. Matt has been lending his legs to AA for four years.

During this episode, sponsored by ⁠Amazfit⁠ and ⁠Foot Levelers⁠, we talk about:

• His tattoos because the day we recorded he had a three hour sleeve session 

• How he’s been a runner off and on since high school 

• How his coworker got him to do three 70.3 Ironman triathlons (Matt is a man of his word)

• Four years running with ⁠Ainsley’s Angels⁠ for marathons, half marathons, 10Ks, 5Ks, trail races, Spartan obstacle races and triathlons

• Running his first ever marathon at the Louisiana Marathon while pushing for⁠ Ainsley’s Angels ⁠

• Winning his first ever ultra marathon and the beautiful prize he won

• The Marine Corps Marathon experience with his family and with ⁠Ainsley’s Angels ⁠

• Having Matt come up to Indy for the 50th Indy Mini in May and me going to Lake Charles, LA for the Sunset 5K in July 

• His “outdoorsy-ness” - becoming an Eagle Scout and what he does now

• Losing his mom to Alzheimer’s

   

  Sponsor Details:

  - ⁠Amazfit⁠ - Use ALLYB for 10% off your order

  - ⁠Foot Levelers ⁠- Visit their website to find a provider near you

   

  This is a ⁠SandyBoy Productions⁠ podcast.

Episode Transcript:

FINAL VERSION

[00:00:00] This is a Sandy Boy Productions podcast.

 

Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones, a podcast for everyday runners. I'm your host, Ally Brettnacher and if you run, you're a runner and every runner has a story. Join me each week as I share these stories and we celebrate finish lines and milestones together.

This week's episode is brought to you by it is a global, smart wearable brand that designs smartwatches, fitness trackers, and health technology for active lifestyles. It might be a brand you've never heard of, but they've been around since 2015 and I've been using one of their smart watches, A GPS watch called The Balance Two.

And my favorite thing about it. Is the battery life 21 days compared to the Garmin that I use now. The other thing that you should [00:01:00] know about Amaze Fit is that they have the highest quality products, but at a really competitive price point. So as an example, the Balance two is on sale for Black Friday at only 2 69.

So when you compare that to the other products on the market, it's really competitive. And so if you or someone that you know or love this holiday season is looking to try a new GPS watch, look no further than Amazfit,

Head to their website, amaz fit.com. That's A-M-A-Z-F-I t.com. Check out their smart watches and other products, they're all tied together in one ecosystem, one app for all of your health data. Thank you so much to Amaz fit for supporting this podcast.

Before we get into this week's episode, I do wanna say that I'm so, so thankful for you, for listening, for supporting, and if you are thankful for this podcast, I would be so grateful if you would leave a rating or review or share this podcast with another runner in your [00:02:00] life. I am hoping to grow this community looking into 2026 and beyond, so I really appreciate you.

Thank you so much.

And now for this week's episode, I'm so thrilled to catch up with my friend Matt May, who I met. Originally on Instagram via the Ainsley's Angels family. If you don't know Ainsley's Angels, we talk about that a lot in this episode, but it's an organization where you can lend your legs to somebody who can't cross the finish line themselves.

And so Matt was on the kickoff call for the Marine Corps Marathon team for this year, and that's really how we got connected. And now we're friends. So I love talking to him about Marine Corps, but also learning a ton about his own running experience, his very first marathon and ultra marathon. Both of those were this year, earlier in the year, and he did his first marathon with Ainsley's Angels.

And he actually had signed up for his first ultra marathon before even doing a marathon. Matt is super outdoorsy. He's an Eagle [00:03:00] Scout. He works in the outdoor industry. So we talked a lot about that stuff as well. But I know you're really gonna enjoy meeting my friend Matt May

Ally: Hey Matt. How's it going?

Matt: Good, how are you?

Ally: I am doing great. Happy Thanksgiving week.

Matt: It's, it came in Marine Corps, it's like, I am ready for more food.

Ally: yeah. There you go. Yeah, well, it's, it's about that time. Thank you for recording with me on a Monday when you're off work to get a tattoo. So that's where I wanna start. I wanna know what this, what tattoo you're getting today.

Matt: finishing up my, I guess, lower arm. Um,

Ally: Okay.

Matt: a, a my shoulder down to about my kind of, I guess my elbow. And then we're working on, I mean, the people can't see it, but I got like Mother Nature and then father time. Kind of,

Ally: It's incredible. Yeah.

Matt: the upper part is, uh, kind of a swamp scene.

So it's got like a, a cypress tree, a paddler, a bird, and then the [00:04:00] inside has like a little snake. it kind of goes into like a whole like nature sleeve.

Ally: So cool.

Matt: some blank spaces we're kind of filling in to just connect the two.

Ally: Nice. So how long will that take today? Like how long are you scheduled to be in the chair?

Matt: he said like hours or so. So he doesn't have to really draw anything up. It's more like I sent him some pictures of the blank spaces and he is just gonna put in some filler or connecting. I don't know. He's, he's done great so far. It's, it's been a fun process.

Ally: how long has the process been. When did you start this sleeve?

Matt: maybe two months ago. I've been gone

Ally: Okay.

Matt: about every three weeks, um, just to where it can heal up and then get more work done. So we've, I think this would be, so this will be the fifth session.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: done Face, father Times's hand, and then Mother Nature's kind of work, and then Mother Nature's shading, and then today's just the extras just to tie everything [00:05:00] together and finish it

Ally: Wow. That's wild. Okay, so how does this impact your running? Because you're not supposed to work out right after you get ink done, so like what do you do?

Matt: I've been texting my coach. She has a couple tattoos. She was like, Ugh, really? Again. Okay.

Ally: Annoying. This is annoying, Matt.

Matt: so I did it. I just say easier stuff where I try not sweat. She's like, all right, we'll just do some power walking. I was like, okay, cool. So I put on my weight vest and just try to walk, and in one of the notes she said, try not to sweat.

I was like, we live in Louisiana.

Ally: just gonna say the same thing. I was like, how the hell are you not gonna sweat in Louisiana? I'm sweating just thinking about it.

Matt: artist and told him, I was like, Hey, this was, you know, months before Marine Corps. I was like, Hey, I'm training for a marathon. It's hot. should I do? He's like, okay, just if we're doing the second skin thing, just do your best to, you know, take it off and clean it. Um, but that's what I've been doing. Like I did the North Shore half marathon, uh, I think four days, three or four days after I got [00:06:00] the, like, the line work of Mother Nature done.

Ally: Wow.

Matt: it was one of I'm, I, I bought a sun sleeve 'cause I didn't wanna put any sunscreen on it, so I bought, like in the race pictures, there's me wearing one white sun sleeve.

Ally: People were like, what in the heck? It's hot, man. Like, what are you doing?

Matt: it, was an amazing day for, for weather-wise, for Louisiana. Anyway, it wasn't super hot.

Ally: Oh, that's good.

Matt: I wear sleeves, uh, all summer long, like just sun shirts, um, when

Ally: Mm.

Matt: my paddling So having that sun sleeve, it was super thin. And uh, when I took it off, there was definitely some like ink residue or whatever on the sleeve.

And I'm like, okay, well, went to the bathroom, cleaned it, and then, you know, put some lotion on it and I was like, okay, we're, we're, we're good. You know, it's healed up really nice.

Ally: yeah. Well that's, that's, that's ama It looks, it does look really good. It's really beautiful. Um, so people should look at the video so they can see, you could kind of see it, I think, but it won't do it justice.

Matt: it on my [00:07:00] social media at some point. Um, he's shared on his page a couple times, so it's always fun when the tattoo artist shares your, the tattoo that you just got and you're like, oh,

Ally: Great.

Matt: it. Like,

Ally: Yeah. Yeah,

Matt: didn't share. I was like, well, I like it. So

Ally: that's, that's actually I got a fine line one on my, um, like forearm and I got it. It would've been about a year ago and she never shared it and I was kind of like, Hmm, does she not like it? 'cause you're right. Like they, you know, shared everything else. I was like, will you send me the pictures?

At least? 'cause I love it. I think I had her take out some flowers that I didn't love and I think maybe that pissed her off a little. I don't know. But yeah,

Matt: know,

Ally: whatever. Right? It's like, that's for sure. But I will be going back to her at some point 'cause she did a great job, so Yeah.

Matt: I was like, uh, I'll be done for a little bit after this, but this is, I got one in February after I finished my Ultra, and uh, I was like, I'll be done. No, I wasn't done. So I have another idea and another idea and

Ally: Yep. Yep. I,

Matt: [00:08:00] like, you know, like definitely like my tattoos will tell stories.

Ally: yeah, it's really cool. I love it. I have four and they're all pretty small, but I, the last one I got is a little bit, my husband call, calls it my cuff or like my sleeve, and I'm like, honey, it's like a, I mean, it's like barely anything, but I, I don't know. Who knows? It is a slippery slope.

Matt: it is. I got my first random one, I guess it was earlier, I guess it was last year now. met up with a, you know, he was supposed to come down. He got a flat tire. I was like, well, I'm already at a tattoo shop, like, you're an hour out. I'm just gonna go ahead and get it done. So went in, they're like, yeah, we do get what you get here.

We got a big dice. And then each number correlates with a drawing. I was like, well, are there any inappropriate things? Anything that's like, not cool? They're like, no, it's like trees, flowers, skulls, birds, So I was like, okay, cool. So I'll flip through the book. And I was like, I'd be fine with any of these. Roll the dice and it would land it on a fish. I was like, okay. At least it's a fish. It [00:09:00] suits kind of my personality, like being nature and

Ally: Right. Absolutely.

Matt: his name is Stormy Norman. It's a little goldfish about this big. Took

Ally: That's fun. I love it. That's so fun.

Matt: be my, I have a, a, a spur of the moment.

I just want to go get a tattoo. something on there maybe.

Ally: That's crazy. that kind of stuff makes me a little nervous. I'm like, I don't know. I think about it for a long time and then I'm finally ready to do it, and then I don't know. We'll see. But I think as you get more, it's kind of like, eh, whatever.

Matt: Exactly, Now I have like, this is my most visible one, and it looks amazing, and I've gotten tons of compliments on it. you know, I've been hooked for a while. I got my first one probably 20 something years ago, so

Ally: You've been hooked for, with running for a while. You've been like a lifelong runner too, so high school.

Matt: year of been running on and off, like high school. It was, you know, sophomore year, junior year. Senior year. I just kind of helped manage the team. I was like, I don't wanna run, but I want to be a part of the team. So I'd help keep [00:10:00] times and motivate people, and I would do some of the workouts and then in college. it was more like ultimate Frisbee stuff, it was, being active but

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: just a couple of races in college, just like your Santa runs and Turkey trots and things. Um, and then I did, let's see, moved to Tennessee for a couple years and then my buddy got me into triathlon up there. so I was, you know, climbing, whitewater, kayaking, hiking, doing all the stuff you're doing in the Smokies. And he's like, come do a triathlon with me. And I looked at him, I was like, next year, well next year rolls around and we're still working together. And he's like, Hey Matt, you remember he said last year?

I was like, yeah. He's like, all right, time to start training. Like, what's, you got like four or five months to do it? Let's go sign up. And I was like, I don't have a bike. He's like, I'll find you a bike.

Ally: You're like, okay, what else could I, how else could I get out of this?

Matt: bought a, you know, found a, a bike on, Facebook or wherever it was at the time, a super heavy steel frame, road bike, like down tube [00:11:00] shifter. So to shift I had to like, reach down and like pull my little lever, did my first triathlon, and I was hooked. Like, I loved it. I was like, okay, this brought back, like high school, cross country stuff.

The community was great. And so I did a couple of races that year and triathlon for about 10 years. full distance, but I, I've done three half Ironmans. And, uh, after my last one I was like, I'm, that was fun. Like I had a good time, you know, I didn't really train much. I did train a lot for my first half Iron man. And then after that I was like, I've got enough base fitness and I'm an active person. I'll be fine. And I suffered

Ally: Yeah, that sounds so painful. So for the, for the 70.3 races, the half Iron Man races that you did, were those all in where Memphis, were they all in Tennessee or did you do them other places?

Matt: one, I guess my first two were in Louisiana. So I

Ally: Okay.

Matt: one in New Orleans. That was first one. It was the New Orleans half Ironman. So swimming in [00:12:00] Lake Pon train, area, which was kind of gross. Um, then biking around the kind of outskirts of New Orleans. And then the run was kind of through the lake shore area.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: one was which is in kind of outside Baton Rouge. And, uh, new roads. Nice for Louisiana standards, a hilly course. Um, I had just gotten back from a backpacking trip like the week before, so my legs were a little tired. So on the like, swim was fine. Swim's my favorite one. I just love zoning out in the water and, and doing my thing and just kind of keeping going.

But the bike was hilly and I thought I was just tired from the backpacking trip, and I got to mile, I don't know. 25 or so, and I was like, this is not right. Something's not right. And I get off the bike and I spin my wheels and I hear this little. My back brake was just barely touching my wheel. for like

Ally: Oh

Matt: miles or I was going up and down these hills.

I was like, God, I'm not this out of shape, like on a flat. I was like, why? What is going on? And I was in the

Ally: wow.

Matt: like, [00:13:00] figure this out. So I get off and it situated and then trying to get that momentum back, I get off the bike and my dad was like, you good? And I was like, no, this is gonna be a long half marathon.

I'm hurt. Like, I'm, I'm tired already. My legs are shot. So it was a, you know, a, a slog for

Ally: Wow.

Matt: bad 'cause they were like starting to pick stuff up and I'm like, on. No. Like, I'm not that far behind

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: down transition and I'm

Ally: no, you are like,

Matt: I need You're like, y'all aren't helping.

Ally: this is brutal. That would be so hard.

Matt: Memphis 70.3. It was the inaugural year and it was a good time, but the weather was just garbage.

Ally: Oh.

Matt: the, you know, rain driving to the parking lot. They pushed the race back like an hour because everybody was having trouble parking and getting stuck in the parking lots and having to walk about a mile from, you know, where you park to transition and then go from transition to the swim start.

And everything was just [00:14:00] delayed. So you're sitting at the swim start just waiting to go and it's just a long line of people getting in the water. And so you're just waiting and it's raining and you get out the water and it's still kind of raining. Not a heavy rain, but just a consistent rain. the bike was, was a hilly bike for me.

I was coming down one hill and a turn and a car almost hit me. So that was kind of terrifying. Get off the bike and the run I got about three or four miles into the run and my IT band started tightening up. I was like, well, this is a, this is a familiar scene. So it was a, you know, a jog walk for that 13 miles too. but I finished it and there's a video of me somewhere of, you know, I'm kind of running towards a finish and somebody's cheering, go, Matt, go, Matt. And I just look at 'em like, I hurt, I hurt. And I just kind of finish. And you're like, I'm gonna go sit down and eat. I'm tired.

Ally: Oh

Matt: then we're to the car with my bike and my daughter decides that she's tired.

She jumps on my back.

Ally: yeah, of course. You're like, oh girl, I can barely move.

Matt: He just did a halftime. I'm like, I'm I'll be [00:15:00] fine. Like, it's okay.

Ally: Yeah, it's, it's fine.

Matt: And then my last triathlon, I guess was probably two or three years ago now is a sprint or a little bit more than a sprint.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: 'cause

Ally: done a long sprint before. It's kind of funny. Yeah.

Matt: thousand yard or a thousand meter swim and 18 or 20 mile bike and then a four mile.

Ally: Mm-hmm. Okay.

Matt: and that was a challenge. The swim was a piece of cake. 'cause the, the boat was towed just like a little bungee cord, so I would slow down.

It would kind of catch up. The bike was tough.

Ally: Was the swim, is the bungee on your foot, I'm assuming?

Matt: basically like a big, almost like a weightlifting belt. So it's a really

Ally: Oh,

Matt: padded belt that, yeah. So it, uh, and I thought it was gonna get in the way of my legs and it didn't, I, you know, I asked Landis the, uh, Baton Rouge Ambassador. I was like,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: get all

Ally: Interesting.

Matt: stuff?

He is but no, you don't, it,

Ally: Hmm.

Matt: it, it just, worked. There was two little bungees that came off the back, the little, you know, like a, a d-ring and it came off the [00:16:00] back, uh, to kind of hold the boat on either end of the boat to, it wouldn't, you know, get tippy or

Ally: Okay.

Matt: well. my athlete was Devin. Um, and I've run with Devon a bunch of times with other races and stuff. She's a sweetheart. She was at Marine Corps um. we did the race and it was a, it was a good time. The bike was tough. I had to get off and push the bike. 'cause on my tri bike, it's like a super lightweight bike and those chariots are not light. at one point I didn't, 'cause I'd done crawfish man, I think four times. This was my fifth time doing it. So I was like, I know the course, I'll be good, you know, but I was not good on the bike. I hurt again, I didn't bring enough nutrition. And a guy passes me up and I'm just like the

Ally: Oh,

Matt: he is like, you okay? And I look at him, I was like, no, do you have any nutrition at all that you can spare? He was like, yeah, I got these blocks. I was like, I'll take whatever you

Ally: Oh, that's nice.

Matt: but

Ally: But thank you. Yeah,

Matt: you.

Ally: man.

Matt: two then that got me to transition and landis's like, you good.

I was like, I'm just [00:17:00] tired. I'm ready to, you know, get this run done and you know, we'll run, walk it, have some fun with it. And ate a banana in transition. Got my socks and my run shoes on and I was like, all right, let's go for our run. And it was, you know, through a neighborhood and it's got a nice little roller hill.

So it was, it was another challenge, but it was fun. And Devin got out and we ran across the finish line

Ally: Oh, that's so fun. So you're gonna have to tell people now, although maybe in the intro and maybe people who listen to this have heard me talk about Ainsley's Angels over and over again, but for people who listening who might be new or have like never heard of Ainsley's Angels, will you tell people what it is?

Matt: So it is an organization that promotes inclusion without limits. it basically opens up the endurance community to everybody. You know, whether you're physically disabled, mentally disabled, if you have any kind of health issues. If you want to be in a race, there is a way to get you in a race, whether it's a road race, bike races I'm sure are out there. Spartans obstacle course races. Trail races are [00:18:00] starting to, we're starting to get more athletes in

Ally: So cool.

Matt: so cool. It

Ally: So cool.

Matt: been racing with Ansy, I think now I'm about to start my fourth year, with them. got me into it and I've been, trying to bring people in and like, look, you don't need to be fast.

You don't need, you just need to just want to do something more.

Ally: Yes, yes. I love it so much. And so that's how you and I got connected and we met for the first time. In DC at Marine Corps this year, and I didn't realize that that was your first Marine Corps marathon. You probably told me that, but so that's amazing that it, your first Marine Corps marathon you do did with Ainsley's Angels.

It's so incredible.

Matt: I've kind of been running since high school, like we were talking about,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: time, really want to do a marathon. I've, like, I've done, road races most of my life and I was like, one year rooster was like, you need to come do Marine Corps. And I was like, nah, I'm not worried about that. And he's like, how about just Louisiana Marathon? Like that's a local [00:19:00] race where I was like, nah, I don't know. And so, you know, fast forward a couple years, I did a half marathon with them. I guess four years ago my friend and I pushed together. And since then, if it's a road race I'm trying to push.

Ally: Yeah. I love that.

Matt: marathon in January with Ainsley's, and then I did one in New Orleans called Hotter Than Hell Marathon. It starts at midnight.

Ally: I need more about that. Yeah.

Matt: it's been a, it's been a big year for me, just up in my mileage from what I've been doing most of my life to now, I've done three marathons and an ultra marathon just this year,

Ally: And it was your first marathon ever was this year,

and it was with Ainsley's Angels. So cool.

Matt: start line nervous as I'll get out and my friends that were there, like, you can do this, like you're a strong runner. And, and that, that thing in the back of my head, kind of that doubt was there. I was like, no,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: confidence, but I'm still nervous.

Like I can cover the distance. It's just a matter of how I'm gonna feel doing it,

Ally: Yeah,

Matt: because that kind of in my training block to train for [00:20:00] my first ultra. 'cause I wasn't planning on doing a road marathon, but I reached out to Landis and I was like, shot in the dark. Hey, do you need anybody else for Louisiana?

Thinking and kind of hoping, he was like, I need someone to push for the half. And he sends back a message, I need someone to push Courtney for the full.

Ally: just slightly different things.

Matt: was like, and I looked at my wife and I was like, I mean, I'm training for a 30 mile trail race. What do you think? She's like, I mean, sure. So I was like, all right, sign me up.

Ally: Wow.

Matt: my coach. She's like, okay, cool, well, we'll shift things a little bit, do some more strength stuff and yeah, you'll be fine. And so she did the race two and she got to the finish and, uh, was able to give me my medal. And she looked at me and she's like, how do you feel? And I did like three squats while holding on the chariot. She was like, okay, you ready for your 30? I was like, I think I am. This, this was a good

Ally: Wow.

Matt: was a good, a And that

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: where I've kind of been going this year with, with running

Ally: Yeah. So, pushing for your first marathon, did you have a partner or did you push solo?

Matt: Sort of. So I wasn't supposed to have [00:21:00] help. but there was two friends that were supposed to push someone for the half their rider got sick for whatever reason, didn't show up, and, , so for Louisiana Marathon, if you've never done it, the full and the half run together for. I would say eight or nine miles. And then the half kind of makes a turnaround and then the full just keeps going. So they help me push for the first, like, I don't know, I push for the first two and then they kind of switch back and forth because every big race, it's really hard to navigate for that first little bit.

'cause there's so tight.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: with you run downtown, you run down a hill, you run over a bridge, you run, you make a hard right turn, and then you can start kind of spreading out a little bit. So that's about a mile and a half or so. And then we started switching off every mile. and then after that, it was me from whatever it is, eight or nine all the way to the finish. So it was a, it a great time. I saw a lot of people on course I knew, which I was just surprised at. Um, my cousin, they live on the route. I didn't realize this, but her husband ran with me for like, I don't know, a quarter mile, just in like his house slippers cheering me on. And, and I was like, [00:22:00] Jack, what do you do? Like, stop. Right. Your, your, your girls are up at your house. Like, thank you. I'll, you know, I'll see you next time.

Ally: That's so sweet. That's really funny. how is the elevation? Is it flat for the Louisiana Marathon?

Matt: flat. So around the LSU Lakes, there's little tiny hills. There is a bridge that you go over right at the beginning and then right at the end and there's a sign. Some lawyer has a sign every single year just about who puts a hill at mile 25. You may be entitled to compensation.

Ally: That's a good one.

Matt: go up this bridge, it's, and right at the top mile 25 sign, like, okay, and then you get to go down the hill and then you

Ally: Okay.

Matt: But there's a little. Sneaky little, little turn over a hill and it just kind of sneaks up on you. Especially if you're pushing the chair, you're going down the hill and all of a sudden like, what the hell?

Like, why am I going uphill again? And then you make a turn, then you finish going, uh, towards the capitol, and it's a really cool finish. so from, I guess mile [00:23:00] 25 to 26, where that, you see the 26th sign, you're running towards the capitol and people are hooting and hollering that whole corridor.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: by the LSU Lakes and it's just tiny little bumps and rollers. but it's mostly flat. And then the back half of the marathon, it's pancake flat.

Ally: Wow.

Matt: a good, if you little bit of a faster marathon, I would say it's a good one. Weather's usually good. Sometimes it can be a little bit cold, but it's usually good. Like this year I ran in a tank top, uh, some arm warmers and gloves for a while and then kind of stripped off my layers.

Ally: Yeah, that sounds ideal. So.

Matt: perfect.

Ally: So what made you sign up for a 30 mile trail race before you'd ever run a marathon?

Matt: so the year before that, I did the half marathon and, uh, my friend she'd done Ironmans and marathons and whatnot, but she was pushing for the marathon for her first time, pushing one of our, our friends named Christina. So we were cheering for her. And by the end of the day, I looked at my garment and my step count was like 22, 23 miles.

And I was like, I could do a [00:24:00] marathon. I don't need to do a marathon. Let's, let's bump it up a little bit to an ultra and just skip a road marathon and do a trail ultra. There's one, there's a, an organization here called Q 50 and

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: races and big extravaganza in February, where this past year there was a 50, a 40, a 30, a 20, a 10, and a five.

So it's

Ally: Okay.

Matt: your distance,

Ally: Wow.

Matt: you don't have to run. Here's some ample cutoffs. So I've messaged a friend of mine. to see if she wanted to do it. 'cause she likes doing stupid, crazy stuff. And, uh, she said yes it was a good time. You know, we, we, you know, she, she lives in Georgia, so her and her friend came in.

We spent some time together and did the race and we talked the, you know, the whole race. It was one of those times where you have headphones but you never use 'em. if we weren't talking, we were just in the zone running for a little bit and then we would start talking about whatever it was. you know, that's who we're, I'm doing the podcast with.

We're starting one and it's called Bananas and Wood,

Ally: I love it. You did tell me that. I love it so much. Yeah.

Matt: [00:25:00] name and it's a fun story and, you know, it's just gonna be fun talking to people. Kind of like what we're doing here. It's

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: we we're athletes, whether it's, you know, we don't have to talk about running, if we don't wanna talk about running.

Like, let's talk about, you know,

Ally: Tattoos and, yeah.

Matt: Just

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: connection, building Yeah.

Ally: Yeah. I love it so much. What is her name?

Matt: Sarah.

Ally: Sarah. Okay, well, I can't wait to to hear you. And Sarah's podcast, when is it gonna, when is it gonna launch? Approximately? Yeah. Okay. That's fair.

Matt: decided,

Ally: Whenever we want.

Matt: we want.

There's no rhyme or reason. Hopefully, next year we, you know, holidays are gonna get busy, you know,

Ally: Absolutely.

Matt: a preteen son and, you know, she's busy with life. We're busy with life. It's one of those, Hey, we haven't talked in like three weeks. just get on here and just talk like,

Ally: Yes.

Matt: we've two episodes so far. and so we're [00:26:00] gonna have some guests on and talk about races and life and all the things.

Ally: Perfect. Perfect. Well, what you, what you hadn't mentioned about your first ultra marathon, do you know what I'm gonna ask you? What place you came in? I.

Matt: so I, uh, went into this race wanting to just go have fun. Like it was a beautiful day. I'd done the marathon and between the marathon and the, the Ultra, I think it was like two or three weeks. So that two weeks I think we did maybe one or two more long runs and I was just like, I just want to go have fun with it.

I like trail running, I like being in the woods. expectations. I think the cutoff was like 14 hours. I was like, we could walk the bulk of it. If we're having a hard time, let's just do that. So, you know, day comes, we're nervous, gun goes off and we just start going, you know, and Miles are slowly getting ticked away.

And it was a looped course, so it was a 10 mile loop. And so it was

Ally: Okay.

Matt: [00:27:00] aid, they had an aid station, I think it was at mile two, and then that little bit made a little loop. So you pass it again I think at mile six. And then the aid station at the check-in checkout had mile 10. So you get. Technically three aides, each loop, which was great. And it was a hot day for Louisiana in February. I, I was wearing a tank top and shorts and we were just sweating like the first round, so like the 40 miler. And the 50 miler went off an hour or two hours before us. And I saw my buddy who was attempting the 50, he came back and he was just drenched. I was like, did you swim? He's like, dude, it's so hot. I was like,

Ally: Did you swim?

Matt: They're like, he was drenched. And I was like, bode well for Louisiana. And I, you know, we had a cool winter, it had snowed like great. And

Ally: Right. Yeah.

Matt: 80 degrees and we're just like ringing stuff out at the end.

Anyway, so race is ticking by and you know, we're talking with people having a good time. There's a lot of people cheering on course. There's dogs, you know, at the [00:28:00] campsites and all the snacks and. Drinking all the things, whether it's like, you know, we didn't do any alcohol. They had at the A station, they had alcohol.

I was like, I'll eat a quesadilla and a banana and some pizza, some candy, some chips. I don't really feel like alcohol, but a beer might have been good. So we're doing the race, having a good time, and uh, we get to the finish and I'm just exhausted, like mild 27, 28, 29. I was just like, I am Like my hips are hurting. Everything is a little bit bothersome. Let's just get this done. And so we're walking and then the finish had a another little sneaky hill and she's like, come on, we gotta run this. I was like, oh fine. Fine. So we're running and we get to the finish and you know, we finish the race and we are, you know, hugging our loved ones.

And they hand me this piece of pottery Boom. like, Hey, you got first place mail? And I looked at her, I don't know if we can cuss or not, but I looked at

Ally: You can say whatever you want.

Matt: I looked at her, I was like, are you fucking kidding me? I [00:29:00] won. yeah, you got first place male? I'm like, no, I'm not. No, I'm, I'm like a mid-pack run. I'm always like in the middle, like top of the middle or bottom of the top is what I say.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: you won. second place, female. I was like, wow. Okay, cool. Thanks. And like the things on my mantle right there, I can pull it down if you wanna see it.

It's like a beautiful piece of pottery. And

Ally: Okay. Show. Show the people. Make the people watch the video

Matt: the video. before the race, there's a local potter named Craig McMillan, and he makes these amazing pieces of pottery. And before the race they were showing pictures of like, Hey, here's what you could win if you get in like, first, second, third place in, in whatever race it was.

And I was like, man, I want to get one of those one day and sure shit like, you know,

Ally: Oh my gosh.

Matt: Q 50 kind of, you know, embalmed or emblazoned there, you

Ally: That's beautiful.

Matt: I mean, it's pretty on the mantle, so it's one of

Ally: Yeah,

Matt: don't know. a beautiful piece. It's a good memory and uh, I'm gonna hopefully [00:30:00] be able to keep it forever.

Ally: yeah. I know. Yeah, please don't break it on. Yeah. Can you, uh, I would feel be bad.

Matt: joke. I'm gonna keep it until I die and then get cremated and then just get stuffed into that and capped and.

Ally: You know, it did look, it did have like a little bit of an earned vibe, only because I guess any vase on the mantle is like, you know, but I pictured it being like brown clay, like straight up, just like off the potter's wheel. I don't know why, maybe 'cause the ultra marathon scene, is a beautiful piece.

It's so cool. What a great prize.

Matt: thing for the people that finish the Ultra is you get a, uh, walking stick

Ally: Oh,

Matt: and like grabs a bunch of goodwill canes and you know, kind of wood carves Q 50 extravaganza.

Ally: that's funny.

Matt: then I got the walking stick, and that's part of the whole bananas and wood story is, you know, I did this for a banana at the finish line and a walking

Ally: Yeah. And a piece of wood. Cool. Yeah.

Matt: it was a race. And again, my coach was there cheering on and she [00:31:00] was like. You liked it and I was like, I mean I'm hurting, but yeah, I did. She's like, you're gonna do more. I was like, yeah, gonna do more. It, it wasn't that moment of one and done, like after the marathon.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: loved it. it was one of those, yes, this is hard. Like I had a blast doing it. Like I

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: four and a It was a beautiful day. I've spent a lot of time in the woods in really crappy weather, a lot of time outside in really crappy weather, so I know how to handle myself. But these days that I've had, I've been so great so far and it's one of those I'm gonna keep going until I don't like it.

And that's what I've been doing most of my life. Like with triathlon, I didn't not like it. I just, the, the bike rides were scaring me. in our area it's getting a little bit busier and there was a couple people that got hit or had accidents. I was like, I don't wanna be that number. So let me just run on the trace.

It's a little rail to trail system right by my house.

Ally: Wow.

Matt: kind of you know, outta the triathlon, thinking more into the running, running thing. And then I just, I love trail running. it's a blast. I mean, I did one this weekend and I've, you know, [00:32:00] ate shit once, rolled my ankle twice. It was, yeah. Yeah. It's

Ally: I am dabbling. I'm, I have a friend who listens to this. Ashley, she'll listen and she loves the trails. Like, that's her jam. She's done a hundred miles. She's a beast. She's incredible. And so I've done like, limited trail running. Um, so we'll see. We'll see how much more I start to dabble, but I'm getting a little bit of an itch.

So the race that you did over the weekend, did you, you recently did two races. Are you like racing every weekend?

Matt: not really, but it almost seems

Ally: It seems like it.

Matt: you know, after Marine Corps, like I had been. Really training hard for that ultra. And then over summertime we were kind of doing a build for Marine Corps. So, you know, every weekend we were doing long runs. You know, my longest run, I think before Marine Corps is maybe 18. Um, so not a crazy long distances. Um, before the Louisiana Marathon, I did a 20 miler in the [00:33:00] woods, on a wet, rainy day. It was an amazing experience. And that was my long run before the marathon, and then the marathon, and then the 30 miler. And then after that we were just kind of building speed and trying to build some durability for a Marine Corps

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: a hillier a new area, it's, you know, pushing still.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: it was one of those Really my focus was Marine Corps. And then after that I kind of hit that, you know, post Marathon Blues and was like, I don't really feel like doing anything. Kind of little niggles in my hip and my foot. And I was I just don't wanna do anything. Like I'm, I'm lazy.

Like I don't, I've, if it's been a good year, I've done three marathons, ultras, some Spartans, some trail,

Ally: Crazy.

Matt: know,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: absorbing

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: it was one of Chupa Cabra is a midnight trail race that I've done, I think now five times.

Ally: so cool.

Matt: I gotta do it like it's my favorite trail race.

It's my favorite race locally in this area. And so I did it, I signed up for it and I signed up for this armadillo dash that my friend signed up for the 5K. And I hate that I'm turning into this, but it's one of those I'm not [00:34:00] gonna drive all the way

Ally: know.

Matt: the and away just to go do a 5K. Like, I'm gonna go drive an hour and then run, you know, a half marathon instead.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: my time and

Ally: Yep.

Matt: And so he is you start an hour before I do, so it's gonna be a race. See who wins. He's like, dude, you're doing a five chem, doing a half marathon. He's like, but you're faster than me. was like, but I'm only an hour ahead of you. It's gonna take me two hours. I can't run a half marathon on road, much less on trails. And like an hour 35. My PR is like 1 46, 1 47

Ally: Okay.

Matt: and flat.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: I start and we're going, it's a 5K loop and then two five mile loops. And so we get done the first lap, and then the second lap I see him and it's a, you know, nice zigzaggy area and I see him and he's like, you gotta slow down.

I was like, dude, I still have four miles left. I'm not

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: you're

Ally: way.

Matt: done. have four left. Like, I'm not going to catch you.

Ally: Yeah. [00:35:00] That would be insane. Yeah. Unless you, yeah. Start crawling.

Matt: So, you know, he eventually finished and I eventually finished and uh, I definitely went out way too fast. Uh, my first 5K loop was like an eight 30 pace and get to the age station. I was like, I'm gonna slow it down a little bit. My dad was out there. He is like, you good? I was like, yeah, that was just too fast for the heat. Like it was, God, it must've been like 75 degrees, almost

Ally: Oh, dang. Yeah.

Matt: it was, ugh, hot.

Like, and it's, you know, it's in New War Norco, so it's in the Spillway, which is a, a floodplain for the Mississippi River. When it does flood, they open up and they can flood this whole area out to relieve pressure from the Mississippi River. So we're

Ally: Okay.

Matt: some really single track, it's mountain bike trails, so it's really tight, single track, so it's really hard to pass. And, it was just, it was a good time. And, uh, Ainsley's, uh, new Orleans group. Was out there, they just got some new of the adventure chairs, so they were doing it, it's kind of like a test race.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: it was them [00:36:00] out there and they're like, yeah, these chairs are great. I was like, I know, right?

Like, they're so fun to push. And the riders were like, do we need a helmet? I'm like, Hmm.

Ally: Yeah. I mean, maybe I feel like if with me pushing, you should probably wear a helmet.

Matt: Yeah. So we've, the, the adventure chairs are, they're a lot of fun to push. They're different than pushing like the road chariots.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: tipping point, if you just kinda like, barely push it back, the whole chair is gonna go backwards, so you gotta really be careful about that. Um, but the

Ally: Interesting.

Matt: you know, go over roots and rocks and they, they do really well over sand, which is really cool. Like at the Spartan Race in

Ally: Interesting.

Matt: like floating on top of the sand. It was really cool.

Ally: Huh?

Matt: an for sure. But yeah, so now that the New Orleans chapter has those, we will be doing some more trail races.

So between the Baton Rouge chapter, new Orleans chapter and the South Mississippi chapter, all the ambassadors are gonna start like picking and choosing where we can go with the adventure chairs now too.

Ally: So [00:37:00] incredible. They look, they do look so fun. Maybe that's how I'll get into trail running.

Matt: I, yes.

Ally: I don't know if we have any for North Central Indiana. I'll have to ask Christie. I'm trying to think if I've seen any pictures of races nearby where I don't think so, but we'll see. I mean, Indiana does have trails.

You know, people picture Indiana, it's like, where are you gonna run in the woods? We got plenty of it. so back to the, the midnight 10 miler. That's really cool. So midnight. What's the vibe like? Do you have, is everybody wearing not only a headlamp, but like light up stuff and,

Matt: So you got some people that are serious about it and they're running with one handheld and one headlamp

Ally: okay.

Matt: taking And then you got other folks, like I was wearing a headlamp and I got an ultra spire waist light that I was trying out again.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: I mean it was great.

Like I didn't trip once out there was really cool. 'cause I usually do pretty good at Bo Chitta, which is a hillier course, but at Fountain Blue, [00:38:00] another local state park, it's pancake flat. I eat shit all the time. So it's one of those, I'm a little bit more careful on the hillier spots where I run more. but yeah, there's people with the vest, there's people with glow sticks, and Caesar, the race director, always gives a talk.

He's like, all righty, who's crazy enough to do this for their first time? And that was my first trail race with Q 50, I think now six years ago. And so like, I've been doing

Ally: Wow.

Matt: come out every year, it's, I think maybe. Around a hundred people for the five mile or 10 miler combined. uh, it's just a fun vibe like you're talking to people and that's what I like about the running community and, and the trail community. It's a different vibe than the road community. And it's

Ally: Yes.

Matt: they much. Like, what are you doing

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: go have Like, what are you going, I'm not gonna pr like there's no pring out here at midnight.

Ally: Right. Yeah.

Matt: to go have fun, you know, find someone that runs your pace and, you know, I ran with two guys for the second lap uh, the second [00:39:00] lap, , this dude in front of me just took off.

He's like, I gonna see what I got left. I was like, you can go run your eight 30 pace. I ran a marathon a week and a half ago. I'm still tired.

Ally: Yeah, my body still hurts a little. Yeah, yeah,

Matt: tired and I'm exhausted and I'm doing this because I love this race and I love the organization and the people out there. Amazing. And yeah, it's just a fun time to be awake. some people think it's scary, but the woods were, I mean, it was quiet. There was

Ally: yeah.

Matt: spots where I there was something over there, but I'm just not gonna look at it and just keep going.

And if it's my time to go, if it's something gets me, then it's gonna get me. If the Pac Cabra comes and gets me, then so be it. I'm dying in my happy place.

Ally: Are they mean? They look so cute.

Matt: Yeah.

Ally: mean.

Matt: a monster forest creature thing, so you know, it is what you make of it.

Ally: Are they are, am I picturing the right thing? Chupa. Cabra is the one of like the little, what do they look like?

Matt: scary haunted [00:40:00] goat killer thing.

Ally: So it's not the cute things. Do you know what I'm talking about? The Berra? Yeah, that's, I'm getting confused. That's what I was picturing.

Matt: Barra.

Ally: Okay. So that's, that does sound scarier then, because I was like, oh,

Matt: Yeti and Bigfoot and just

Ally: okay, okay.

Matt: like they or not it's just fun to talk about.

Ally: Okay. Cool. Well,

Matt: Yeah. They're,

Ally: I mean,

Matt: a this year they kind of cartoonized the, the usual quote unquote, UBA copper, so it looks like a little, you know, Looney tune character this year.

So it's fun.

Ally: that's funny. That's really funny. okay, back to Marine Corps. I wanna talk more about Marine Corps with you 'cause we were both there. Your daughter, is it Kaylyn? Is that what you said? Her name was? Kaylyn. Kaylyn. And you call her KK for short. That's so cute. And how old is she? Okay. And this was, tell people about what this trip was for her.

'cause I think that that's really cool.[00:41:00]

Matt: So it was a trip of firsts for her. It was her first flight, first trip to a major city like this. first time seeing this big of a race, like they came to Louisiana and kind of cheered on, but then they left, you know, first time doing public transportation like we did, you know, first time traveling like this.

Like we've done like small driving trips. But like I said, it was the first time flying. So anxious kid flying, the nervous walking around town, nervous taking the metro. the one bus ride we took from. I don't know, the bus station to the packet pickup. She was, she enjoyed that. But it was interesting 'cause she didn't fully understand how DC is very small and then like everything else around it has a different name. So we're like, Hey, we gotta go across the river to where, I think it was, I guess it was in Maryland somewhere to go pack it, go to

Ally: Yeah,

Matt: And no, I wanna stay in dc. We're like, you, you don't understand. It's all kind of connected.

Ally: all dc. Yeah.[00:42:00]

Matt: you know, we live in an area called Covington, but it's right next to an area called Mandeville.

And like they're just, just kind of weaved together and it's, it's all dc Well, no it's not now. I know. So she got all upset about that. But it was a good experience except for maybe packet pickup.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: it was many people and she got overstimulated and she got super anxious and

Ally: Mm.

Matt: eventually the hustle and bustle of all the merch stuff to the kind of outsides of like the vendor tents.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: and my wife tent and they bought some like, hair curler thing and,

Ally: There you go. Excellent.

Matt: is Kaylin okay? Yes. Are you gonna use this a bunch of times? Yes. Then call it a wash. Like, we're good,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: let's go eat some food. And, uh, so we the, the, traditional what I call like the touristy stuff. So like she was really excited to see the monuments and the uh, the reflecting pool and, and all that stuff. So she was telling the class about all she [00:43:00] was gonna be doing and I was taking pictures of her at each place. And she said she wants to do some sort of like, presentation at school,

Ally: Oh, that's cool.

Matt: what of those, it could be cool if we get 'em printed up.

Ally: Yeah, I.

Matt: But day was just a beautiful day, what, two days before the race and, uh, we're just kind of hanging out at each little spot, walking around 10. She, we ended up doing like five miles and so that was really cool for her to see that she could do a little bit more than just sit on the couch and just kind of wander around and she'll do some races, one mile and stuff. uh, she was super excited and then turns out on race day she got sick.

Ally: I saw that. Yeah. Uh

Matt: was a, So, you know, doing the race stuff, we, we meet up with everybody, get to the race and they were gonna be either at the race, start with the ansleys groups from like the Baton Rouge chapter that we know, or at miles, it's like 22 and a half at that turn where that aid station was, where Ansys was

Ally: oh. Yeah.

Matt: So see 'em at the start. It's like, okay, cool, I'll just message 'em at mile 20, see where they're at and you know. Didn't check in. 'cause I was in [00:44:00] marathon mode and I was busy and

Ally: I can't, it's hard to even, yeah. Yeah.

Matt: to mile 20 and we're running on the bridge and I text and I was like, Hey, you know, checking in where y'all at?

And I just get back. been throwing up all morning. shit, okay. So I'm like, okay, well I'll be done as quick as I can. Like I'm at mile 20, I've got a 10 K left. She's like, take your time, we're fine. We've got snacks, we've got water. Do what you need to do, enjoy your race. I was like, I'll do my best.

Ally: Aw,

Matt: So

Ally: that's so hard.

Matt: the race. I hang out with some friends for a little bit and you know, eventually make my way back to the hotel with some people. And uh, you know, as I'm call, as I'm getting to the hotel, I was like, Hey, I'm gonna stop at the CVS by the hotel. I'm gonna pick up whatever we need.

She's like, okay, get this, this, this and this. And you know, normal throw up stuff. So Pedialyte.

Ally: Yep.

Matt: Go to McDonald's next to the hotel and get some french fries and

Ally: Oh, yes.

Matt: back up. And so we just have a chill night. I go get some takeout and [00:45:00] we just eat in the hotel room. Eventually she, you, we all go to sleep next morning she wakes up and we're like, Hey Kaylin, how you feeling? I'm really, really, really hungry. Okay, she's back. Cool. We're good. So we eat breakfast and then we go to Arlington and do that and then get back to the hotel, grab our stuff and go to the airport.

Ally: Wow.

Matt: So yeah, I was like, if you were gonna be sick, I'm kind of glad it was on race day. 'cause you got to do literally everything else. Like the,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: historical It's like you've seen me race before. It was a lot of people and I think if she was going to be sick, I'm glad it was on a race day.

Ally: Yeah. That

Matt: was in controlled environment, being at the hotel than being at mile 22

Ally: mm-hmm.

Matt: a her getting sick.

And then, okay, well what do we do?

Ally: Right. Yeah. Or like the day leading up to it. Yeah. did you get sick at all? You or your wife?

Matt: didn't

Ally: Amazing.

Matt: one of like we ate all the same stuff at the dinner. It was just one of those, eh, for a little while [00:46:00] and next morning she's like, I'm hungry, my throat's sore.

And she was good to go.

Ally: Wow, that's nuts. Wow.

Matt: So it it was a, a very good trip. it showed her that she can push past that little comfort bubble. Um, you know, we live in and we don't have much public transportation around here. I think she liked the Metro versus the Ubers, but the Ubers were a lot more accessible because with the Metro it's like, okay, we gotta go to the metro station and then wait. And with Ubers like, we can sit right here and they'll come pick us up.

Ally: right? Yeah. Yeah.

Matt: so a trip to like, I wanna go back to New York. And I think she would like the subway system there. 'cause it's a lot easier, I feel like, than walk. I mean, I feel like in New York the subways are a lot closer.

Ally: They're just everywhere. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt: train or you can go that way and hit a train. That one goes this way, that one goes the other way. And in DC it was like, I gotta go to Crystal City, which is on the other side. So I gotta go another block to go down and around. I'm like, okay, I don't [00:47:00] live here.

Tell me where to go. I'm like, just get my Uber.

Ally: yeah. Yeah. Well thanks to you. Thank you for helping me navigate the race morning stuff

 

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Well thanks to you. Thank you for helping me navigate the race morning stuff

because yeah, I was supposed to get in the van and then I realized that I was one of the people who was like, didn't have the paperwork I needed to for the base stuff. 'cause some people went on to like a military base and then, yeah.

And so you and I walked to the Metro together. It's funny, I actually have a metro card that was mailed to me after I was like, frantically trying to buy, I dunno if you remember that, but I was like, okay, I'm just gonna buy it online before we go down there. 'cause I just picture in my head, I'm like, there's gonna be lines of like 50 [00:49:00] people.

I don't wanna be late. I'm gonna make sure I have my card. And like, I remember after telling my brother-in-law that he's like, you can just use Apple Pay. You literally just use your phone. And I was like, well, cool. Yeah.

Matt: too. I was it, and

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: smart And then I just did Apple Pay.

Ally: annoying, but it's fine. Whatever. We made it. We made it

Matt: So we ended up walking together for a little bit and then we met up with, . Annie our rider, me and Scott's rider, we just all happen to be at the same station.

But then we meet up with more Ainsley's folks on the train and then we get off the train. There's more Ansley's folks. So to see if pink just kept growing and

Ally: It's so fun.

Matt: experience. It was a little cold, but it was one of those we're all excited. Everybody's going in the same general direction.

And then you see like our CF pink just continue to grow. You're

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: is, this is a I'm gonna savor this and embrace this, and

Ally: Yeah, it was really fun. Yeah. And your partner, Scott, who you ran with, it was his first marathon ever. Right? [00:50:00] crazy. You guys are crazy to me. I'm like, I just can't even imagine that like as my first marathon.

Matt: we've got a little friend group. We have a little group chat and um, so Scott's been running with Ainsleys. He started earlier this year at like a two miler and, uh, him and me, uh, used the same coach.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: up to the marathon, like he had seen Corps Marathon. He's a Marine, well, I guess retired Marine, always a Marine.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: he's a so he was wanting to do the 50th running of Marine Corps Marathon and he saw that Ansys was doing it. So he is like, Hey, let's kind of make this a fundraiser, a family trip. Kinda like what we did.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: a couple of races together. So we did the Blue Moon, race. I think that was what, in August.

It's another night race in Fountain Blue. And then we did North Shore Half Marathon together, I guess two weeks before Marine Corps.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: Marine And so, uh, it's. It was definitely, it, it was a great time. Scott's a cool [00:51:00] dude. so it was his first half marathon distance race at North Shore.

Half while we were pushing. He had did like a 18 miler in training, but it was his first official

Ally: That's funny.

Matt: uh, we get towards a finish and we're clicking away at like a seven pace, and we're all just like, we're, we're, we're suffering. Um, our other helper, Alan, who's rider, uh, you know, didn't show up.

So we had three people for

Ally: Okay.

Matt: marathon, which it was great.

Ally: That's nice,

Matt: run It's like, hey, every, I only run, ran with, with Deb and I think. Two times, three times.

Ally: right?

Matt: you butt. And this race course is flat. And so Alan was, he was like, let's push the pace a little bit.

And me and Scott were like, I don't know dude. Like, you're fast. We're kind of medium and we're getting to the finish line. I'm like, y'all, my PR is like 1 52, I think. And so he is like, we got this. And we get into the park and we're just hauling we're, I look at my watch, I'm like, a six 30. I was like, Uhuh, Mm-hmm. Nope. We're gonna, we're gonna bring this back a little bit. And we eventually finished at like a 1 47, 1 [00:52:00] 48. And so I ped Scott prd. I don't know what Allen's was, but it was a good race.

Ally: Wow.

Matt: we Corps. And his long run up to that. I think that point was 20.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: we get to mile and like, you know, right as I'm texting my wife, I take another video and I send it to some of our friends.

Like, this is this dude's pr distance. Everything else is after this is just icing on the cake kind of a thing. He's like, yep, boy, let's go. And so we finish it and he's kind of absorbing everything. And you know, it was his first marathon. So automatic pr.

Ally: Yeah, I mean, that is your first marathon is pretty epic. And how did you end up getting, did Rooster, who's Ainsley's dad, by the way? Um, did Rooster rope you into signing up? Like how did you end up signing up for Marine Corps?

Matt: years ago, rooster came down, so he's from Louisiana area, lake Charles. so the Lake Charles Ambassadorship puts on this amazing race called Sunset 5K, amazing fundraiser for the organization. And it's a pancake flat 5K. And they put on, uh, a [00:53:00] team dinner beforehand. And so we're at the team dinner, he's hanging out with us and kind of making his rounds and he is like, you need to sign up for Marine Corps. I was like, nah, maybe later. And then like fast forward two years and you know, I wanted to be a part of the 50th running of the Marine Corps marathon and then the 250th kind of celebration kind of after that. And so it was one of those, I want to be a part of it, like I'm just gonna be another number in the crowd.

But I was there

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: I was blanket over here still.

Ally: Mine's right next. Yeah. On the floor next to me too. Yeah. My dog lays on it.

Matt: I'm like, my dog's not getting this one. This's mine. She has other blankets, one of those. I've been with Ainsleys now for, I guess now four years, and like, I want to do more. And that was a huge, you know, boost of confidence.

Like, okay, cool. Would I get a lot of people of like, well, I don't want to, do this. I I can't do this. I'm like, yeah, you, you, you can, like, can you walk a 5K? Yeah. Then you can, you can join Ainsley's. Like you don't have to sign up for a race. You could just [00:54:00] be a part of it and support it. Show up to races and help set up, or,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: just cheer Like, we like to support. I like when I'm pushing and people are cheering for Amy or Devin or

Ally: Yes.

Matt: Carly or whoever, Sebastian, whoever else I've pushed over the years and. If they have the ability with my athletes, when they're smiling, I can see it in their faces and, and it's just heartwarming. I love it. It's one of those, I have the ability to do this, I get to do this. I, I pay to do this for these races.

Ally: Yep.

Matt: don't have to pay to do that. I'm like, I know, but it's going towards a, cause

Ally: Yeah, yeah,

Matt: a banana and a metal sometimes and you know, that's all I need.

Ally: yeah.

Matt: 5K

Ally: Right.

Matt: out for the Turkey this week. I was like, I don't need another Turkey trot shirt. Like, I don't wear them

Ally: Yeah. Yeah.

Matt: they're

Ally: I agree. Yeah. Yeah, I,

Matt: that, I'm like, I can save $5 by not getting a shirt I'm never [00:55:00] gonna wear. Cool.

Ally: well, I'll do that. Yeah. Yeah. How so how many races do you think in the last four years or so, have you done with Ainsley's Angels? If you had to like guess.

Matt: Pushing in the teens. I don't think I'm to 20 yet. I should

Ally: Okay.

Matt: figure got the, um, Angelie's Angels metal holder. I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna get this home. 'cause it kind of looks like a weapon. And we only did carry on, or we did one check bag. I mean,

Ally: Okay. Yeah.

Matt: in check bag. I, I didn't know what it looked like, so I'm gonna go through all of my medals and like pull off the ones I've done with Ainsleys. But I've, I don't know, I feel like I've done probably at least four or five a year,

Ally: Okay.

Matt: last four close to 20, this year I think it's been, I think I'm at or six this year.

I could probably think about it,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: yeah, road race, then I wanna try to push and now trail races too, it's like, Hey, I'm doing a trail race. Is Ansys gonna be there? Or if I'm traveling, you know, DC if we're going to Tennessee or [00:56:00] Arkansas or whatever, I'm gonna email the ambassadors and be like, is there a race that I can sign up for I get approval to do a race, like a

Ally: Right.

Matt: kind of a

Ally: I know. Approval. I like that. I feel the same. another one, but I.

Matt: I wanna go a race.

Ally: Right.

Matt: Let's go.

Ally: It's just in the morning, you know, it's just a, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. yeah, so the next year is the 50th running of the Indie Mini in Indianapolis, where I'm from. And so we're trying to get 50 teams, which is, I think the same number we had at Marine Corps.

And so I'm like visualizing the sea of pink at Marine Corps, and I'm like, that would be so amazing for Indie. I mean, indie has to get, we'd probably have like 30 teams if I'm like picturing. I mean, it's pretty big contingency at the Indie Mini, so, you know, if you wanna come up to Indiana in May,

Matt: that seed was planted I think two or three years

Ally: good.

Matt: so up in that area

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: And pushed her at Sunset, I guess it was two years ago, her [00:57:00] mom was telling me about it and then Misty's put it in my ear and then a few other people have kind of planted that seed.

I'm like,

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: sounds lot of fun.

Ally: Yeah, it's so fun. It's May 2nd.

Matt: It's

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: I could make that work.

Ally: Okay. then exactly which we would need to talk about, but, um, the, the sunset five KI was telling Rooster my 40th birthday is July 10th and so the sunset 5K next year is July 11th. And I was like, that could be really fun, like Lake Charles, Louisiana.

I saw there's a casino there. I was like, I'll bring my family. We'll, you know, it'll be my first race as a master. I could also have my daughter Sydney, who's eight. She has been asking me to run a 5K. I was like, that could be really cool to have her do it too. So anyway, I'm like noodling on that idea as part of my like year of turning 40.

so

Matt: and you come down do sunset.

Ally: like a fair trade. Yeah, [00:58:00] yeah, yeah. So, okay. Dang it. We, I said it out loud. Well, what's great is it's my birthday, so I can be like, well, you know, to my husband. Well, for my birthday, this is one of the things I wanna, I wanna do so many things for my 40th. I'm like, should I run an ultra marathon before I'm 40?

Should I do this? That, you know, all the things. Yeah,

Matt: you can do a 50 k. You

Ally: that's what everyone says, right?

Matt: And the is like there's, you don't need to have speed. It's just consistency. Like, just keep going forward. Like I've got a tattoo that says go the distance. You

Ally: There you go.

Matt: You know, the song.

You know? It's one of those just keep going forward, like. Just relentless forward progress, and that's what Ultras are, is just being stubborn and trying to not stop.

Ally: Yeah. The one I'm eyeing that we have a local one that's on a rail trail, so it's actually a road ultra.

Matt: okay.

Ally: where I've done most of my marathon training has been on this very trail. And so for me it's like, that's pretty approachable too. But yeah, it [00:59:00] is a different mindset for somebody like me who's like a lot of times has been focused on speed or whatever, it's kind of like you have to re, it seems like you have to reset that whole side of your brain and just be there for the experience, which, you know, Ainsley's Angels has really helped me do too.

'cause it's, to your point, like I've done so many races, I don't, I don't need to PR every race I run. Like, I would love to do this for others. And so, yeah.

Matt: And that's is for me, I feel like with Ainsleys. And then trying to get involved with it more in depth and seeing what else I can put into it. And I know there's like the other programs you can do, like the Ally development program and all that stuff that a friend of mine's doing actually this year. And it's one of those like, okay, maybe that's the next step where I want to take

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: we'll see. But yeah, I don't need another 5K t-shirt. I do this because I, it makes me feel good. I have fun doing it. My daughter likes seeing it and she wants to push at some

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: it's gotta find that race that we can do

Ally: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Does your wife [01:00:00] ever run?

Matt: she does, sometimes it's, um, a little bit harder for her to get the time to train. Um, I, you know, she is a little bit more of a high stress job. she's a director of biosafety for tooling. Um, so it's a little more stress on her part. And I'm like, ah, play outside and work in the outdoor industry.

I just, man, whatever.

Ally: Right? Well, for her.

Matt: uh, some five Ks and 10 Ks, um, here and there over the years. So, but uh, they're doing the one mile fun run and I'm doing the 5K Turkey trot on Thursday,

Ally: Oh, nice. Yeah, we're doing a two miler altogether. We'll see.

Matt: be fun just to go slow and have fun with it,

Ally: Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be, um, very cold up here, so I'm jealous of your Turkey trot.

Matt: we're gonna be, I think it's gonna be in the forties or fifties here. So for Louisiana, that's cold.

Ally: It's gonna be in like the twenties. I'm already like stressing about how I'm gonna get my kids not to complain. I'm like, this is gonna be really hard. I'm just gonna put them in their snow suits

Matt: What's a snow shoot? Like?

Ally: Exactly. There you go. Yeah. [01:01:00] It's ex

Matt: a have good layers here. Like,

Ally: it's,

Matt: it snowed they were, I think she was in like three layers of like sweat sleep pants. So they'd play for like an hour or two. They'd come inside and dry everything off and then eat lunch and then go back out. I was like, this is terrible. Like, you're gonna get hypothermia

Ally: yeah,

Matt: you know, 31 degrees outside. But it's, it was a cool experience for the, for their kind of like a first big snow. I mean,

Ally: totally.

Matt: of

Ally: It. I, the, it's crazy.

Matt: It

Ally: I saw some pictures and I was like, are you kidding me? Is that the biggest snow you've ever seen in your life down there? Does it, has it ever snowed there, like, since you've been there?

Matt: every few years. Um, I'll say from the time I was born, I grew up in Baton Rouge, so the

Ally: Okay.

Matt: I was born to now, I seen it air maybe four or five times.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: much.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: running in it, like it was fantastic running in it.

I was, you know, put on some tides, put on, you know, maybe two [01:02:00] layers and some gloves and a, you know, a little mask to cover my face. And I was running on my little rail trail system and I was making fresh tracks and it wasn't iced over yet, so it was like a nice

Ally: That's cool. Mm-hmm.

Matt: a nice crunch. off my music.

It was so quiet except for my footsteps. It was, it was cool.

Ally: I actually,

Matt: later I was like,

Ally: yeah.

Matt: A one.

Ally: Yeah. I like, I actually don't mind running in the snow. I feel like it's almost warmer when it's snowy versus like when it's like super windy and freezing cold. Um, but there is something really special about that, the crunch of the snow and like how pretty it can be. I'm like psyching myself up to do winter running, if you can tell.

Like it's good. It's beautiful. I love it.

Matt: this.

Ally: I love this. This is great. How lucky am I? okay, so I wanna talk about your outdoorsiness. So did you grow up like really being into the outdoors? Is that how you kind of ended up doing what you're doing now? Kind of take us through [01:03:00] that journey for you.

Matt: did the whole c Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts got my eagle. And I've been in the outdoor industry, I guess professionally now, I think 16 years. I will call it Blame My old scoutmaster. His name was David Snead. He passed away a couple years ago, but I think I was in first grade and he was trying to promote the Cub Scout pack that was at our school.

And he came to the classroom and he tied a bowling around his waist. Blew my mind, my first grade

Ally: What?

Matt: so So it's a, it's a knot called a boing.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: a creates a loop in the rope and it's a secure knot that doesn't slip.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: if you, if you're a sailor, if you're a hunter, if you're boaters, it's one of the main knots that you learn to just

Ally: Okay.

Matt: need to tie something, it'll be like, Hey, that loop's not going anywhere. It's not gonna slip, uh, you can tie it around your waist really fast. And he did like a little timing thing. And our first grade brains were like, oh, you can go faster, go faster. And that kind of got me started [01:04:00] in scouts.

So I went home and gave my dad paperwork and they're like, okay, let's go. So got involved with the scouts and then, um. Got into Boy Scouts and then did that whole progression up to get my eagle, and then got to college. And when I was in college, it was one of those, what do I want to do with my life? I'm 18, I don't know. I like being outside. I don't really like math. I don't really like English or science. And so I was looking through these degree programs and there was one at, so I went to Northwestern State University in Naish, Louisiana, it had hospitality management and tourism. I was like, Hmm, I mean I, it sounds interesting.

And I started, you know, talking to people and I didn't want to do hotels and I kind of dabbled in some restaurant stuff, but there was a concentration called recreation administration. I was like. I like recreation. I like being outside and, you know, [01:05:00] doing sports and camping and fishing and paddling. And so I went towards that direction and there was, mostly like management courses and things like that. so for that major you have to have a minor. I was like, well, I don't know what to minor in. And there was a chef that had just started working for the school and he was trying to build up the culinary program. I was like, well, I like cooking. It's fun. I like to eat. My dad's a good cook. why not? So I started the minor in culinary arts. So I've told people I got a degree in having fun and a minor in cooking so I can eat afterwards.

Ally: sounds pretty amazing.

Matt: so I got my degree in hospitality management, tourism with recreation concentration in the minor, culinary. Worked in a couple of restaurants. I was like, I'm not that. Type of person. I like cooking and I can go back, like if anything ever happens, I don't think restaurants are going anywhere. I can go get a job at a restaurant, cooking, whatever, I just need some money, let's go do that. But the outdoor side has [01:06:00] been there kind of from the beginning with Cub Scouts and then in Du Boy Scouts getting my eagle.

And then with college I needed to set up an internship. And so I've, you know, heard about this camp in Tennessee. It was a friend of my grandfather's who was like a, at that point in time when I met him, probably 65 or 70-year-old retired pastor. And he was showing me these videos of him rock climbing and hiking in Tennessee and videos of him, ice climbing in New Hampshire.

And he's like, you need to come up to this camp I work at in Tennessee. You would love it. forward like six or seven years. I remember Bob and I was like, I need to set up an internship. So I got Bob's information and contacted him. He's like, okay, I'll put you in touch with the director of the camp.

And we built an internship with the camp. then, so I did a summer camp, like camp counselor job. And then for the fall I set up the internship. So it was a environmental education program. I was teaching like these outdoor education classes, so like stream [01:07:00] ecology, orienteering, we did some caving, we did a lot of rock climbing and repelling and just outdoor ed stuff.

So like campsite selections, a lot of paddling in the summertime. just really fun things like that. And then I eventually moved back to Louisiana, um, and I worked for a program called Loop was Louisiana Outdoors Outreach Program. So kind of that similar stuff like initiative games, team building. communication, progress, history of the area, you know, natural history stuff.

And then I worked there for about three years. And then I have been also working with now Canoe and Trail Adventures for about 10 years. so yeah, been doing outdoor guiding for a long time now, and it's one of those, I still like it.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: I, when I stop liking it, I'll stop doing it and I'll do something else.

Um, but I also work for an outdoor shop called Masses Outfitters, and we basically sell outdoor equipment. [01:08:00] sell clothing, we do shoes. And so I've learned a lot about the retail side of things in the outdoor world. So now it's really cool being on the outside of it and then being on the inside of the outdoor industry.

Ally: Yeah. Do you sell running stuff at that store? I feel like I've seen you share some content about that. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt: a specific store. There's one down the street called Varsity Sports that does that, but we have running stuff like your basic hokas, a couple of ons, um, some ultras, some topos, Solomon's, stuff like that. So

Ally: Gotcha.

Matt: people and then when people want more, I'm like, okay, here's what we can do here.

Ally: Mm-hmm. So,

Matt: you know, I like Ultras, but I, I'll run and I'll try running in anything and see what happens.

Ally: yeah. Wow. Well, like snow. And then also I saw a video of you running like after a hurricane and you're like, everybody's like, you know, freaking out. And I'm just out here just, just running,

Matt: Yep. Yep. I think I did like, you know, 12 or 13 after the hurricane, and

Ally: you know?

Matt: Ida. [01:09:00] one. I was like, am I okay? Probably not. Like everything is, we're, we're safe, we're fine. But, you know,

Ally: Yeah. That's,

Matt: it's, it's interesting when they hit.

Ally: yeah. Yeah. I'm sure that's a really crazy time. How did you learn all the outdoor stuff? The Eagle Scout in particular, can you tell people who aren't familiar with, like Cub Scouts, boy Scouts, Eagle Scouts, like what does, what does it mean to you to be an Eagle Scout?

Matt: So it, what I tell people, it's, you can work hard, you can work towards a goal and like everything with Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts kind of builds on itself with like the skill. So when you're in Cub Scouts, it's very basic, like learning how to talk to people, learning how to tie your basic knots. Um, when you get to Boy Scouts, it's more about learning how to plan everything.

So like, Hey, we're gonna go on a camp out, plan it. got the adults here to help. Kind of guide you, but you're gonna plan the camp out. Like we're going to, you know, let's say a camp called Camp Avondale. We're gonna go here. what [01:10:00] do y'all want to eat? Well, we don't know. Well, do you like to eat? We're not doing hamburgers and we're not doing hot dogs. We're gonna learn to cook. Like if you, if you want to cook tacos, cool. You wanna do scrambled eggs for breakfast? Cool. You want to do biscuits? Cool. The adults will be there to help kind of guide you how to do it. And learning how to use those certain skills.

Like, hey, we're gonna look, you know, building fires, setting tents up, um, learning to be prepared for certain situations in the outdoors, if you like recreating in the outdoors of like, Hey, if this happens, what do you do? Okay, go do it. Okay, if this happens, what do you do? Okay, we'll go do it. We'll practice it. And I would say that just kind of progressed in my life and then I was able to find a job that pays me to do it. Um, but I would say learning it like the skill side was through scouts and then the natural history side, the identification side, the getting more hands-on with stuff came [01:11:00] from the Master Naturalist program that I took in, I think 2016.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: so

Ally: Wow.

Matt: with Canoe and it's a nationwide organization called Master Naturalist, and it just. Discusses the natural history in your particular area. So where I am, it's the greater New Orleans area. So a lot of history of the Mississippi River and how it was created by the river and how we have these, you know, pine savannahs to swamps, to marshes to the Gulf there's a ton of biodiversity here versus where I lived in Tennessee where it's mostly like bedrock and you know, really one or two types of ecosystems Here I think we've got like five

Ally: Crazy.

Matt: there's in those little pockets and it's really cool. And so being in that organization, it plant seeds.

And what they say is when you figure out what you wanna learn more about is when you can go in deeper. So for me, I really like the amphibians and reptiles. So I like the snakes, I like the frogs, I like the turtles, I like the fish. And I mean, I've been fishing my [01:12:00] whole life, so like it just kind of right in my alley.

And then with the paddling, it's a little bit. More of my, you know, of my sleeve. Like, I like looking down, I like birds and stuff and they're really cool to see. But for me, and where I'm paddling, I like looking down at stuff

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: for the and the turtles and know, looking for those little things inside the grasses and trying to point out the frogs.

And, you know, and it clicked in my head when I started working for Canoe and Trail. It's like people are paying me to show them the beauty. I have, you know, 10 minutes away from my house, you know, working with Loop, you know, that second job I had after I moved back from Tennessee. It's like Louisiana is beautiful. You just gotta think differently about it. Like, yes, we have a lot of water around here and some of our land is disappearing closer to the coast. And it's stunning. You know, we get people from all over the world to come see what we have here in our little pocket of this, you know, this state. Like I've had people from, I would say [01:13:00] almost every continent.

Ally: Wow.

Matt: with

Ally: That is cool.

Matt: had you know, like when we get people from Europe and you know, in the middle of the summer, I'm like, you're gonna burn bad. Like you are white. And they come back as pink as your shirt,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: here's some sunscreen.

Just put it on again. I just did it. Put it on again,

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: not and you're not wearing sleeves, you're not wearing a hat, you're barely wearing sunglasses. Like you gotta cover up a little bit.

Ally: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I, I see your, what do you call 'em? Sies with the snakes. I feel like 50% of the pictures that I've seen of you on Instagram now are of you and a snake, and I'm just like, oh my Lord. I mean, obviously you know which ones you can handle, which ones you shouldn't. You know all the things about each type, but it's like, whew,

Matt: Yeah. it's a [01:14:00] one of my buddies, Kevin, he kind of got me into like handling of the snakes.

Ally: okay.

Matt: like, once you and what's not, getting bit by a non venomous snake isn't a big deal. Like there's very little pressure behind it. I tell people it almost feels like a kitten where it's like you can feel the sharpness, but there's no pressure. And

Ally: I.

Matt: once you the reaction of like, to not pull away, if you want to handle snakes, they've got little like curved teeth, if you pull away, it's when they, that cut gets bigger. So if you just learn to catch a snake and just let them bite you, they'll eventually let go and then they'll chill out. But you don't have to, like I tell

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: you can just look take a picture of it and send it to me and I'll help you identify it.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: have to go with it.

Ally: We just get some oven myths. I mean, and lessen the blow. Yeah. I mean, we don't, we have snakes in Indiana for sure, but not a ton. Especially where I live, it's pretty rare. Um, I've seen maybe a snake once while running actually very close to my house, which is kind of wild. [01:15:00] It scared the bejesus outta me 'cause it's very unexpected to see, like, on a sidewalk here.

So, um, but yeah, but there's so many, so many,

Matt: so I've seen a few running on the trace. but it's not a ton. Like they don't want to be around you. And like

Ally: right?

Matt: you don't to get close to it. Well, it's in my backyard. I'm like, then spray it with water. Like if you live near the woods, if you live near a ditch or a drainage, there's gonna be critters there.

Like you're gonna get, you know, some birds and maybe some, you know, feral cats and maybe a snake and maybe a fox. And you know, like, who knows? Like, you know, if you're in a neighborhood that has woods near it, they cleared some woods to build your house. Those animals are now in the woods, close to your house, and they'll eventually come find food in your yard.

Like you kind of got to deal with it a little

Ally: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Matt: to be okay with it and you don't have to touch 'em, you know, shoo 'em with a broom. Most people get bit trying to kill a snake. Like, just don't worry about killing it. You know? I understand If you have a dog, you have a [01:16:00] cat outside, whatever kids, I totally get it.

If you need to kill it,

Ally: Yeah,

Matt: thing. it's one of those you don't have to. So, you know, teach your kid to come away from it. If you have a dog, hopefully it's not a venomous snake. If it does get bit, there's anti-venoms out there and vets, but you know,

Ally: yeah,

Matt: everything with all the things

Ally: yeah.

Matt: about identification and that's what I tell people. It's like I know what not to pick up. Like that's a spicy one. We're gonna let that one, we're gonna take some pictures of it and you know, if it's in the way, just shoot it with a sticker, a broom, or whatever it is. If it's just a water snake or a ribbon snake green, whatever it is. Go pick it up. I'm like, send me a picture of it and I'll tell you if you can pick it up or not.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: I'm I'm usually pretty quick about responding. If it's a, if I see it in like the preview of like a picture, I'm

Ally: Right?

Matt: am I

Ally: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I feel like at least now, thankfully, Google has made it easier to like identify things from pictures, but also that's not always a hundred percent accurate, so that also would, yeah. [01:17:00] So good to have somebody like you double check.

Matt: the, stuff in your area. Like, I, like, I think we only have what, five venomous snakes in our whole state. and I know which ones they are and if it's a green one, I know off the, right off the bat, it's not venomous like they're my favorite. Like if it's a dark bodied snake and I can't see its head, I'm gonna,

Ally: Not touch it.

Matt: more

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: Yeah. It's definitely one of those. If it's a brown snake with Hershey kiss, don't touch that one. That's a copperhead. Like,

Ally: Ooh.

Matt: mess with

Ally: yeah. Oh my gosh.

Matt: educate yourself. You know, you can spend an hour learning the snakes in a new area and then be good to go.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: I'm going to somewhere, if I'm gonna Utah, I'm

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: in the okay, if I see this out, I'm gonna do this, that, or the other. You know, if I'm going to, you know, make another trip to Tennessee, I'll, you know, confirm the snakes in the area and be like, okay, well there's, you know, cotton mouse and know, copperheads.

Cool. All right, I got those here. I know what they look like. I can avoid them or go handle whatever,

Ally: I feel like [01:18:00] when I do a trail race, I want you to be there or somebody who has the level ex of expertise that you have needs to be there. I'm not a

Matt: out to

Ally: but yeah. Yeah. Right. Um, okay, so speaking of like hosting people from other countries, when you guide, um, I saw that you have family in Spain. Is that your heritage?

Matt: um, nope. My, uh, my cousin met a woman from Spain and they've kind of bounced around. They lived in the States for a while and now they live outside Madrid.

Ally: Okay.

Matt: he's like, open, if you wanna come over here, come on by. Like, I'm more kind of got like a French and German heritage.

grandmother's parents came over from Germany and my mom's mom was, you know, Cajun French,

Ally: Okay.

Matt: kinda, south Louisiana, Cajun accents

Ally: That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

Matt: So Billy's the one that lives in Spain. Um, his brother Ken lives in [01:19:00] Australia.

so I've got

Ally: cousins, they're just like, yeah, they're living all over the world.

Matt: and I, I, at some point in time I want to go visit him, but it's just, you know, time and money.

Ally: Well, if you like Snakes Australia seems like it should be towards the top of that list.

Matt: hear.

Ally: Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Matt: uh, kind of my people.

Like they're naturalists and they like doing stuff. Um, Billy and his wife Lada came in last, oh God, that was this year and like January they came in and we went and took a paddle and was just cool hanging out and hearing Laura's stories of, you know, she grew up in Spain and you know, she didn't see Spanish Moss for the first time until she came to Louisiana.

And I was like, I'm gonna tell people that in my tours. 'cause I've had other people come on my tours that I've done, like the airboat things and they're like,

Ally: Yeah,

Matt: the guy moss that's hanging in the trees was brought over by the conquistadors from Spain. And she straight up was like, I've never seen this before [01:20:00] until I came here.

It's like, cool, thanks. You've been a world traveler for years. I now got firsthand kind of that traditional ecological knowledge from, you know, a Spaniard.

Ally: crazy.

Matt: So, you know, little things kind of get put into place and it's like, I'm gonna tell stories from, you know, my cousins and like, you know, bringing in history to my tours. that way I'm not straight up lying to people and if I don't know an answer and be like, I,

Ally: Dunno.

Matt: Good me write it in my notes and I'm gonna learn it. And then that way when it comes up again, I'll know,

Ally: Yeah. Yep.

Matt: tell lie. I'll talk around the subject until you forget it

Ally: Yeah. Until you forget what you ask. Which is also a great skill to have as a parent.

Matt: Like, let's redirect

Ally: Let's just, yeah, we've had some conversations about Santa, about how kids are made, like recently, and I'm just kind of like trying, you know, it's hard 'cause you don't wanna just Yeah, we could go down a whole rabbit [01:21:00] hole.

Matt: absolutely. My wife and daughter are actually at a, um, like a body changing class right now

Ally: Oh, there you go. I know. It's almost that.

Matt: and they're, they're taking care of that right now.

Ally: That's good. I know. Thank goodness there's like, now classes. And in DC actually, I was, I stayed with family and my sister-in-law was telling me in DC they have a like, physical store you can go in that has like, education and like all kinds of crazy stuff, which is amazing. I was like, that's so smart. Yeah. You could have added that to your list while you were in town for the marathon. Didn't even know.

Matt: Lessons

Ally: Well,

Matt: for next time I go

Ally: yeah, it'll be, yeah. Top of your list, I'm sure. Um, okay. I'm, I am gonna ask you the end of the podcast questions. I can't believe it. so the first one is, what is your favorite running mantra and or song?

Matt: so I've got actually two tattoos, um, that are, I would say my kind of like life mantras. The first one, it was my [01:22:00] first tattoo. It's on my ribs. It says Live the adventure.

Ally: Ooh.

Matt: and my buddy both have it. He has his on his bicep mines on my ribs, and it's one of those, like, life sometimes sucks, but it doesn't have to stay that way. it doesn't have to be an exuberant, grand, you know, multi-country adventure. I try to do my runs, and I try to change my mindset like, okay, this could be my last run. I don't really know what's gonna happen.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: it is my to make it a good one and enjoy it. You know, driving an hour to Baton Rouge, like, okay, it's monotonous, but like, where's some joy?

Like finding some joy in like the everyday things, like having little micro adventures and know, and just enjoying the little things in life. Um, and then the other one is go the distance. And then my other buddy, the one I did the hat, the race with this past weekend, he has his on his foot. I have mine on my bicep.

It says Go the distance. And it's one of those, you know, my mom passed away from Alzheimer's about I [01:23:00] guess now what, four years ago. And you know, that battle was along six years and you know, got, so I have go the distance and then the background's a purple ribbon that's kind of tattered. Um, to just remind myself like I can just keep going a little bit more.

I can go one more mile, I can hurt a little bit more. Because on the other side of that hurt you know, is happiness. Even if happiness doesn't last. Like, you know, enjoy the happy moments. They're not gonna last forever. Embrace 'em, you know, push through the hard moments. They're not gonna last forever.

And remember the lessons that you learned from that. So I'd say those two things are kind of what sticks in my head when I'm going through a little rough patch. If I'm missing my mom, if, know, I'm having a rough day with Kaylyn, if I'm having just a blob run, if I'm just not enjoying what I'm in, just take that step back and take a breath. Be in that moment for a little bit, and then on. You know, like in races, you hit a [01:24:00] wall, just, just push past it just a little bit. You know? Eat something, drink something, take five minutes, take five seconds, and kind of recalibrate it. You know, it's, it's cliche, but it works for me.

Ally: Such good advice though. Yeah, it's, it's so good. Um,

Matt: then, I terms of favorite songs, it's, you know, I mainly listen to Rock, so my favorite song of all time is Hotel California by the Eagles.

That's just a good go-to,

Ally: uh.

Matt: fun song. and then, you know, I like to screamy stuff, so anything that can scream at me get me feeling good.

Ally: Yeah, that's good.

Matt: Seing,

Ally: Okay.

Matt: uh, of Men, and it, it's a screamy song, but it, it's like when you can sit and listen to the lyrics or read the lyrics, it's really meaningful lyrics talking about like, I hope I make your proud.

I, you

Ally: Hmm.

Matt: it, it's, of my mom, you know, not that she screamed a lot, but it's one of those, you

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: I hope I you know, I'm gonna [01:25:00] keep pushing through and, you know, kind of being grateful for it.

Ally: Yeah. How old was your mom when she passed?

Matt: 70. Mm-hmm.

Ally: early for Alzheimer's, man. It is the worst. I'm so sorry. You went through that for that long.

Matt: Six years and it was go in on Tuesdays. Um, so I had people, yeah, I would, you know, I would, post pictures or videos just 'cause I wanted those memories. uh, you know, you can see the progression kind of

take that and it's, it was hard, you know, my God bless my dad, he did what he could. I would go in on Tuesdays and, you know, he'd be at work for a while. We'd hang out and I would take mom out. We'd go to a coffee call and get food and snacks and, and then as things progressed down and we was like, Hey, we're just gonna sit at home. You're not as mobile, you're not, you know, personable right now.

It's just kind of a shell.

Ally: Yeah,

Matt: but I'll say thing that will stick with me until I die is the last thing I said to her was, I love you. And the last thing she said to [01:26:00] me in a very lucid moment was, I love you too. Passed away the next day. Yeah,

Ally: that's,

Matt: was, yeah, it was one of those, yep. Okay. I'm at peace and yeah.

I

Ally: yeah.

Matt: up in a minute.

Ally: Mm-hmm. No, you're gonna get me too. I just think about, I told, I mentioned my grandmas both passed from Alzheimer's and.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Ally: There would be moments every once in a while where she would just all of a sudden be like, where's Lisa? And like she said it in a point where like we were just at the dinner table and she was just asking casually.

And you're like, you remember, you know, but it would just be these fleeting moments. And so it's so incredibly special that you got that as like that final moment that you can like really hold onto. 'cause ugh, Alzheimer's is the worst. um, and then shortly, right God And like we could go on, but to your point, it's like we get to do this.

And that's something that I always am reminding myself of too. And you know, back to Ainsley's Angels, it's like we get to give [01:27:00] other people this experience, which I think is just really special.

Matt: so.

Ally: and then what is your next finish line or milestone? I guess Turkey trap, probably technically.

Matt: Thursday I got a 5k.

Ally: Yep.

Matt: it goes. you know, I haven't done much speed work lately, so it's gonna be fun. part of me was like I could do a sub 20 5K pushing if I train for it, but I don't think I'm there right now.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: I 5K, it was like 2045, so I mean, I'm edging on sub 20 for a 5K, but I haven't done much speed work over the last couple months, so we're gonna go have some fun with it. let's see. Kind of plans into next year, I would say. So I'm doing Louisiana Marathon again, which I

Ally: Okay.

Matt: sign up for, but I'm for that one again. and then it's still kind of in the works and I've talked to my wife about it a little bit, but there is, a group of Ainsley's folks that have been doing these Spartan races and I've been

Ally: Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up 'cause I forgot to mention that you mentioned it briefly. Yeah. So talk [01:28:00] about that. Mm-hmm.

Matt: it's, I've done now, I guess the past two years we've done Spartans in Texas. Um, and Spartan's been a great organization with Ainsley's. There's a, it's a good partnership or it's a budding partnership, so we're gonna hopefully try to do the 10 K one on Saturday and then the 5K on Sunday. And I was like, well, if I'm there, I might as well try to do the 13 and just get the trifecta. Um, it's one of those, see if I can do it. But here's the thing is there's also a 50 miler that I want to do the next weekend. And so I'd be in Texas doing three races with Spartan, with Ainsleys, and then the next Saturday do a 50 miler, or maybe still the way around, maybe it's the 50 miler and then the Spartans.

Either way it's like back to back to back weekends.

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: the 50 Spartan. So I'm like. Do I want to push my body to that

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: I kind of do.

Ally: Let's just see.

Matt: yeah. Like if I go ahead and pay for it now, I'll, you know, I'll suffer later.

Ally: Yeah. Yeah, you'd be fine. [01:29:00] the Spartan stuff with Ainsley's in in particular, so I don't remember when I saw that like triathlons were even possible with Ainsley's. I, I don't feel like people don't really realize that. And then the trail, like with the adventure chairs, it's like, holy crap.

And then Spartan. Okay. So for people who don't know what a Spartan is, even what obstacles there are, like I saw a picture where you've got your athlete under the barbed wire. So could you just tell people kind of like what that is? Because it's nuts.

Matt: it's kind of more of like a physical race where there's obstacles that you have to climb over or climb under, or. Dive under. There is a dunk wall that you go under a wall. The wall is like eight inches wide, so you're not gonna drown or anything, but it's a quick little blo and then you go under, you come back

Ally: So do you drag your athlete down and go under it?

Matt: so

Ally: Wow.

Matt: depends on the water, on the athlete.

Ally: Yeah,

Matt: on Saturday, on Sunday we did not because the weather dropped and the temperatures got cold. And so, and it depends [01:30:00] on the athlete's ability. Like if they have a feeding tube, if they have,

Ally: totally.

Matt: not

Ally: Yeah,

Matt: bit more abilities,

Ally: yeah,

Matt: if they it, let's do it. Like we did Sebastian, we've done, we've dunked Matthew, I think, um, Owen's been dunked a couple times. Like it's, it depends on the athlete.

Ally: yeah. That makes sense.

Matt: it's a challenge. So we have teams of like around six people helping the athletes get through the course.

And so we've got the adventure chairs, we've got trail chairs, so some athletes have their own chairs. They just change the tires, tuck a trail tire, and then off we

Ally: Wow.

Matt: Um, if adventure chair, then they can find the partnership with that and then get in the chair, and then we get to an obstacle.

If it's a climbing one, there's ways to set up ropes and not be a official belay, but just be a little security line. and just being that little back, that little safety, just in case the athlete falls, they're not gonna fall and hit the ground.

Ally: Right.

Matt: slide, and then that's it. so just, [01:31:00] you know, progressing through the course with each element. If we can do it, great. If not, then okay, cool. You know, with Spartan you're supposed to do like burpees or something, but sometimes we do, sometimes we don't.

Ally: yeah,

Matt: those, you the runners will. Partake in

Ally: yeah, yeah. That makes sense.

Matt: it's very similar to like the trail community and the road community where they see us out there. it's the people that aren't the elites that are gonna be a little bit more pompous about it, because we're gonna be moving slow

Ally: And if people are like trying to get around. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Matt: sorry, we are not the fast people.

The fast people started two hours ago.

Ally: yeah, yeah.

Matt: to and have some fun with this and make sure our athlete is safe. And, uh, it's, it's been a blast. I, I've enjoyed it. It was, you know, two years ago I got asked to do it and I signed up and I was like, let's go. And so we did Houston and Dallas last year, and then this past year we did both days in Houston

Ally: Wow.

Matt: I right now [01:32:00] for Ainsley's, but it's growing. It's, it's, there's going to be more out there and I can't wait to see it

Ally: Yeah. That's so cool. an incredible experience for the, for the athletes. I mean, to be able to participate in in that is just amazing.

Matt: We had a, uh, one of the, so after the Don Wall, there's a little like rope climb up and there was a photographer at the top and the wall might be 15 feet. It's not very tall, but it's super slick 'cause it's wet. And we got one of our athletes, his name is Xander, we got him to the top and he was starting to get a little nervous, a little

Ally: I mean,

Matt: of helping out and we're all pushing him and pulling him. And the photographers just clicking away at these photos and we get to the top and Xander and his dad, Mike, have a nice moment and everybody's tearing up. And the photographer's like, dude, are y'all doing to me?

Like,

Ally: yeah.

Matt: down and eyes. And, you know, like everybody around was hoot and hollering for Team

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: it was, was just a cool moment to be a part of. And like everybody [01:33:00] around it is seeing us with our pink. Or there's another organization called Dealers of Hope

Ally: Mm.

Matt: what is they do the OCR stuff. So if you're looking to get involved in ocr. dealers of Hope is another one. Oscar Mike is another one. So there's a few different organizations that are similar to Ainsley's that focus more on the obstacle side of things.

Ally: OCR is obstacle course racing. Okay. And then do you do any adventure racing?

Matt: No, but I want to,

Ally: Because you seem like the perfect person for that. Yeah,

Matt: been told I need to, it's

Ally: yeah,

Matt: one, and then time and money.

Ally: yeah. I,

Matt: know,

Ally: right. Yeah, probably like.

Matt: the the, hiking, the biking.

Ally: You could probably create your own like race and like, you know, go down that path because you would be great at at that. Yeah. I had a guest on, he was a race founder for one of our local races and he's super into adventure racing and I had never really heard about it. And so that is a whole [01:34:00] nother level of, there's so many different things that you can do in this world and it's, I wish I had all the time and the money to do them all.

Yeah, yeah,

Matt: Well you, I have one young kid. You have two young

Ally: yeah.

Matt: where life is gonna go for the next few years and I'm gonna dip in some

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: of what I

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Matt: there,

Ally: Absolutely.

Matt: that. Like

Ally: Absolutely. I know. Yeah. And you and I are similar in that, like our spouses have the more like stressful, professional level job, and then we get to have a ton of fun for the most part. And so it's kind of like also finding that balance, which is really tricky at times. so yeah.

thank you so much for doing this with me. This was so much fun. I mean, I could talk to you for a long time. and I'm excited that I'll get to see you in May and July potentially this year, so.

Matt: Yepstarting

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: up

Ally: Yeah.

Matt: up like for races

Ally: I know. Yeah. My poor credit card, like the holiday shopping and like the race stuff is like, woo.

All right. Yeah. well, [01:35:00] yeah, totally can't wait to listen to Bananas and Wood.

Matt: We'll have you on too.

Ally: Excellent. I would love that. And I would love to meet Sarah , so well thank you and thank you to everybody who has listened to this and happy running and Thanksgiving will have been yesterday, but happy Thanksgiving if people listen to this today after it comes out.

Yeah. Alright. And.

If you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Boy Productions, sponsored by Amaze Fit and Foot Levelers, please, again, like I asked at the start, go share, go rate review. It helps other people find the show, and I can't wait to keep telling these amazing stories of everyday runners.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Safe travels to anybody traveling. Hope you enjoyed your Turkey trot and I'll talk to you next week. Bye.