KHC 216 - Mark Dowdle

Cameron Hanes (0:17)

This is the Keep Crammering Collective with Mark Dowdle.

Mark Dowdle (0:22)

That's me.

Cameron Hanes (0:23)

Dude, you're here.

Mark Dowdle (0:25)

Finally.

Cameron Hanes (0:26)

Can you believe it?

Mark Dowdle (0:27)

I was thinking about this on the drive over. I was just like, man, this is crazy that this is my life now. We're here. We made it.

Cameron Hanes (0:35)

Your life is just like driving around doing podcasts.

Mark Dowdle (0:38)

Yeah, pretty much.

Cameron Hanes (0:41)

So I have a question for you. I've been dying to ask this question. So let me set it up.

If we go back into the archives of the Mark Dowdle story, not even that deep into the archives, Lap 87 on Last Soul Ultra, right? Did I set it right? In Germany? Yeah. Almost missed the race, had a private jet, this whole thing. Big story. Everybody can look it up. But Lap 87 was the crux of the race. It's the one that's getting all the drama.

Mark Dowdle (1:18)

Yep.

Cameron Hanes (1:19)

So this race, and we'll go over all this, but in general, Mark is extremely talented at last man standing format races.

Mark Dowdle (1:31)

And that's running 4.167 or 6.7 kilometers.

Cameron Hanes (1:38)

Every hour.

Mark Dowdle (1:39)

Every hour.

Cameron Hanes (1:40)

You have to finish before the hour and be on the start line before the top of the hour. So, he is... How many of these have you won now? Like, I know you want... So the big ones have been BPN, last man standing, and then this last soul, right? And then you've won Arrowhead. I know that that's a straight up Ultra, 135 miles.

So, your trajectory is you're like kicking ass and winning.

Mark Dowdle (2:07)

Yeah, I'm trying to think... I think I've done a total of 10 traditional last person standing races.

I DNF'd my first three, didn't make it past 24 hours, and I've won every race since then.

Cameron Hanes (2:24)

Okay. So, you've won seven?

Mark Dowdle (2:27)

Yeah.

Cameron Hanes (2:27)

Oh, that's pretty good.

Mark Dowdle (2:28)

It's pretty good. It's a pretty good percentage.

Cameron Hanes (2:31)

So, all right.

Mark Dowdle (2:33)

But I'm not a part of the 100-hour club yet. I haven't made it.

Cameron Hanes (2:38)

I haven't made it. You've got 90-some?

Mark Dowdle (2:39)

94

Cameron Hanes (2:40)

Hours. Yeah.

Mark Dowdle (2:41)

Yep. And that's 391 miles, something like that.

Cameron Hanes (2:48)

Okay. Well, we'll get to all that.

Mark Dowdle (2:50)

Okay.

Cameron Hanes (2:51)

Lap 87, Last Soul, Ultra, lots of drama. And how it happened was Ello was the last person you were racing, says U2.

What they say about the person who helps the winner is the second to last person gets the assist.

Mark Dowdle (3:14)

Yep.

Cameron Hanes (3:15)

And so at this time, we didn't know who was gonna win. It was a dogfight. Lap 87, so you're 300 How many miles is that in?

Mark Dowdle (3:24)

Yeah, I mean, three, what, 360?

Cameron Hanes (3:27)

Okay.

Mark Dowdle (3:27)

Something like that.

Cameron Hanes (3:28)

So it weighs into this.

Mark Dowdle (3:29)

Weighs into it.

Cameron Hanes (3:30)

Yeah. Anyway, Ello takes off at a blistering pace, takes off out of there running. So in my mind, after 360 miles, he takes off out of the ordinary fast. He's trying to break you.

Mark Dowdle (3:49)

As I perceived it, yes.

Cameron Hanes (3:52)

Okay. It was a different tactic than what he had had in the previous laps, right?

Mark Dowdle (3:57)

Sure.

Cameron Hanes (3:57)

I mean, he went out quick. So it was like, he was, he was trying to do something. You answered the call, you stayed on him, right? So then this is where it turns into, this is at night. I don't know what time of night it was, but I know there's a he signature camera or something picking up your, the heat of your body. So you're sowing the silhouette and you see two guys on this road. One stops, the other one stops.

So he stopped because you were like right on his ass.

Mark Dowdle (4:26)

Correct.

Cameron Hanes (4:27)

You went down on one knee, acted like you're messing with your shoe.

Mark Dowdle (4:30)

Well, I had to tie my shoe. All right.

Cameron Hanes (4:32)

If your shoe comes untie, what if you tripped?

Mark Dowdle (4:35)

I mean, they don't have, the shoes I was wearing don't have laces, but I still needed to tie them up.

Cameron Hanes (4:40)

That makes it...

I just had to check. It doesn't make sense, but it makes perfect sense. So you had to double check that your laces that you didn't have were tied.