It’s ‘how am I going to do it?’ Not ‘can I? If I? Should I?…It’s how?
In October 2019, Melissa Urie became the first woman to line up at the start of Uberman.
Described as the world’s most challenging ultra triathlon, it consists of a 34km swim, 644km ride and 217km run which Mel finished - becoming the first woman to do so - in a total of 135hr 15min - that's over 5 1/2 days!
In the process, she also set a new swim course record for the event, finished second overall and smashed the previous course record by 31 hours.
A long race requires a long conversation; Mel and I spoke for 2 hours about all-things Uberman - her preparation and training, the race itself and the aftermath.
This is the second half of our conversation, in which Mel and I cover how the 644km bike, the 217km run leg and her recovery.
Mel shares:
* why she did a happy dance at the 300km mark on the bike,
* why she worried she may have felt unsatisfied without a significant (mental or physical) struggle along the way,
* the visualisation she uses when her ego is getting in the way,
* how even experienced cyclists can have (as I call them) “laying dismounts” off their bike 😉
* some of the hallucinations she experienced during the run leg,
* why she’s banning her crew from wearing clown suits in future events,
* the fatigue-related random things her legs started doing during the run,
* the last few kilometres and what she felt arriving at the finish,
* how much sleep she got during the 135hr it took her to complete the race,
* her nutrition and hydration plan for the event (and how they had to improvise),
* whether she experienced any chafing and if her “lady parts” survived ok,
- how long it took her to get a full, uninterrupted night’s sleep after the race,
* how she has physically recovered from the event (both in the immediate aftermath and 6 weeks later),
* the strategies she uses to avoid the post-race blues,
* the impact the race had on her hormones and her cycle,
* how her experience of returning to the Rich Roll podcast (one of the most popular podcasts in the world) was different the second time around, and
* whether she owes it all to her husband and how many donuts were consumed during the race.
Click here to listen on iTunes.
Notes and resources:
To find out more about Mel or to say hello, you can find her on Instagram or via her blog.
