- At first, I thought it was crazy, of course, because I think that's everyone's reaction right away is how weird or it's just like, where do you come up with this?

And that was my first question.

I said, "Why?

What's making you do it?"

I thought maybe it was like a group of runners or something like that.

So it's been something he's been talking about since I very first met him.

And so, I think a lot of times you meet people and they talk about their crazy ideas, and you don't think it's ever gonna happen.

So that's kinda what I thought at first, like this is just something he talks about.

But then he took the job at the post office and then it's just something he's talked about the entire time.

- So before van life happened, the main thing was like, you go on a trip and you only have so much time.

You only have so much vacation that you accrue every year.

And I would, at the time, living in California, and I'm from South Dakota.

And I would road trip back.

Well, that takes up a day and a half, if not, two days to get back here.

So that's two days that's off your trip and then you gotta do it back.

And I had a dog, so he'd come with me.

But then as a trail runner, I would see these beautiful trails that I'd never explored before, but I didn't have enough time to stop.

'Cause I had to get home, spend time with family, enjoy that time.

So we never really get to enjoy the rest of your life or time.

And I just in my head started talking about, let's figure out how we can just quit your job, live in an RV, at the moment, was the main idea.

And then, I just started being more minimal and minimal and minimal throughout like a year and a half.

And then van life was like, that's pretty simple.

All you need is a bed, water, some food, and then find some trails.

So van life was just live simple, be free.

And then do what makes you happy at the same time.

- I figured he was just BSing.

(Arnie chuckling) And then, I thought he was just crazy.

And then when he said October, I was like, he's forgotten what South Dakota can be like in October.

- I've been to all 50 states, 49 in the van, and I've run a trail in every one of the states, and then flew to Hawaii, and checked off two islands of Hawaii.

- For me, coaching Joel was pretty easy.

I had been an athlete for 30 to 40 years.

I had run across the United States in a competitive race.

I had been professionally trained, professionally coached.

- [Joel] He knew the first time we met, I mentioned that I wanted to run across the state of South Dakota, not the country like him.

And that at one point I was going to have to reach out to him and have him coach/advise me on what to do.

Because I'm the most dirtbag runner you'll ever meet in your life.

Like I love running, but I don't know what I'm doing.

Maybe people could say I'm naturally good at running, but I wouldn't even say I'm that.

So it was good to have him in the arsenal of people to meet when I was living in the van.

- I remember him talking about it a while ago that he wanted to run across South Dakota.

And then for the longest time, he never brought it up again.

And then towards the beginning of the year, he started talking about it again.

And he kept talking about it.

He wanted to be more serious about it.

And eventually he's like, "I'm gonna do it."

I'm like, "Well, if you do it, I'll crew you."

- That's the beast I've been struggling with, was telling myself, "Don't go hot.

Just hang out for a hot second."

- [David] Yeah, you'll pay too much of a price.

And you'll have to quit with your tail between your legs.

(Joel laughing) And so, it will be a good learning lesson for you.

- Right.

- [David] Because the experience that I have is really valid from all the years that I've observed 11 races.

Coaching Joel by phone was pretty unique.

I took on two aspects.

First, we had to coach him through the training portion of his challenge, and then through the actual challenge.

A lot of the pre challenge training I could do through texting and an occasional email to give him a overview.

And then, we could touch bases through an occasional phone call.

Once he completed all the training and he tapered down for his actual cross South Dakota challenge, there wasn't much talking with him.

I talked maybe in the first three days, maybe once, briefly.

And then after that, I just texted him encouragement.

At the end of the day, I gotta let your horse run when it's ready to run, and Joel had done his preparation.

You did the work, so you're ready.

So don't overthink it and enjoy.

- All right.

At least the moon looks pretty.

(crew laughing) We're T-minus less than 15 minutes, pretty sure about that.

So that's zero mile marker for Wyoming, so we're sitting on the border.

I'm not sure, does this say zero on this side?

It does!

I thought there was a zero sign over there.

I was like, is there like empty space between Wyoming and South Dakota?

But anyways, I guaranteed nobody's up right now, especially most of you on the eastern part of South Dakota.

We're here, got Rich, my dad, Zeke; just talked to coach a little bit, and he's hammering it into my head, "Go slow."

I don't even, that's the thing.

Go slow, that's the biggest thing, so I'm excited for it.

(wind whooshing) (indistinct talking) I mean, I was nervous, because it finally was becoming a real thing.

I had talked about it, talked about it, talked about it, thought about it, thought about it, thought about it.

And now we're on the eve of actually pulling the trigger to run across the state of South Dakota.

And I was just excited to like get it done, so leading up to it, I thought I would get a lot more sleep.

Well, I didn't make wise choices, let's put it that way, leading up to it.

Didn't get the best sleep beforehand, and I should have done a lot better on that.

And then I couldn't sleep because the night before I couldn't sleep, 'cause I was excited.

And the first day was gonna be probably, in my opinion, was gonna be the toughest for the crew to navigate through.

Because we had the cities, we had three, four cities to go through before we got to the highway to get into the middle of nowhere.

So the logistics of keeping everybody together or where to be was probably my biggest worry for the most part.

That was the only day we started before six.

Like the plan was to start at six every day, and I think I actually started at 5:58 that day.

And then day one actually was probably, next to day two, one of the easiest days.

Probably 'cause we had the cities to go through, made it all the way through Spearfish, Whitewood, and then going in the Sturgis, outside of Sturgis, past Buffalo Chip is where we end up finishing.

But that was probably the easiest day of 'em all because we had that night, another hotel stay.

So you knew you were gonna get a shower, you knew you were gonna be able to clean up, and just refocus and regroup, and then leave for the next day.

So I think day one was probably the easiest.

That was probably the only point that I had one lady push me off the road, 'cause I was running frontage roads in between the cities.

And that was probably like one of the scarier moments 'cause she was, I don't know what she was doing, but she wasn't paying attention to me on the side of the road.

We had some rain towards the end, which I mean, it wasn't bad, but then I was starting to get hot, sweating 'cause I was putting the rain jacket on back and forth.

And I remember we were making pretty good time getting to Buffalo Chip, and that's when I called up coach.

Because Buffalo Chip was like mile 39, according to my Strava and my GPS tracker.

So I was at mile 39 and I called coach up, and I said, "Well, here's where I'm at.

I'm gonna go past 40."

And he strongly advised against me going past 40.

And I strongly advised him that I could probably go 'til it got dark.

So I got 44 miles that day, and he was okay with that.

'Cause I told him I won't run it fast.

I was feeling good.

It was day one.

You know, you're probably gonna feel good on day one.

So I convinced him to let me go past 40 miles, which ended up being like 44, almost 45 miles.

- He's been starting roughly around six o'clock, and he's been getting done around seven o'clock, roughly.

Sometimes a little before, sometimes a little after; it depends on the mileage.

He's pushing way beyond a marathon every day, which is amazing.

And then he's doing it day after day after day after day, with no fanfare.

I mean he's got social media that's pushing him and that's been really encouraging for him.

But beyond that, it's just us and social media.

- There's a point where you can see it in him that he should be just shutting down and not worrying about, "Oh, I can make 44 miles," when he's already done 40, you know?

And so, then I start pestering him and somewhere along the line, sometimes he listens and sometimes he doesn't.

But that's pretty much, you worry about him all the time, especially on two lane highways.

'Cause I'm seeing the traffic before he does.

(Arnie chuckling) - Day two was kind of a blur, I guess.

It felt easy.

That was my longest day, it just felt super easy.

And I ended up doing 47 miles.

Yeah, I had to think about that for a second.

'Cause it literally, 47 miles for day two went way past what coach recommended me doing.

And obviously, it was a blur 'cause I just kind of like locked in and went.

I just felt great.

Like I'm pretty sure there was moments I was doing a seven minute pace if I actually looked at it.

- I kind of knew he wasn't gonna listen to his coach.

I knew that was coming.

And so, when it happened, it didn't seem...

I remember telling him like, "Just listen to him.

You're gonna burn out and not be able to finish," is what I was worried was gonna happen, or get injured, or whatever.

- Yeah, 47 miles on day two felt great.

And I wish that would've continued.

Oh gosh, that stings so bad!

So bad.

(children screaming) (Joel stammering) All right, well, day two, already have a blister.

But we got 92 miles done, and so we got 12 in the bank.

So we're planning on 40 a day, so we're sitting at 92.

I guess that's the penalty I pay for trying to go too far.

We'll take it, we'll take it.

(Joel claps) (wind whooshing) This is a little puffy right here too, huh?

- [Rich] Yeah, this one's been bothering you.

Well, you had it wrapped earlier, so yeah, it feels a little puffy.

Compared to your other foot, it is.

Day three, I was really worried that this was gonna be the end of it.

He was in a lot of pain on day three, and he was really hurting.

And we got him through day three into day four.

And I was surprised when day four came around that he was feeling a lot better.

And he did really well.

And then again yesterday, yesterday he just drug all day long until just about the end of the day.

And I was kind of getting worried that it was starting to catch up to him, but today he's been going strong.

So there's been those two days that I was thinking he may not make it through.

- All right, we'll see you guys in a few.

- [Crew Member] All right.

- Day three was a struggle.

Like it was really windy that day.

And again, the semis, there was a lot of hills, there was no shoulder, and the way the wind was blowing was pushing me off the highway.

And that's about the same time that my kind of shin was starting to flare up.

And that's when we wanted to move over to the other side, but it wasn't safe enough, 'cause of the rolling hills, semis, and cars couldn't see what was coming.

So they weren't getting over, and I didn't have very much shoulder.

To be honest with you, it didn't cross my mind to actually quit that day.

I do remember saying, "Why am I doing this to myself?"

I do remember saying that like, "Why did I decide to do this?

Like I could have been running a trail somewhere.

Why am I running highway?"

But day three, I think the biggest struggle was between the wind and then not having even like a courtesy, like touch the yellow line, the middle line.

They weren't even moving over a little bit for me.

So just that mindset of me trying to continuously push through the pain, and the wind, and the struggle was insane.

I think I used the word insane a lot.

Like why am I doing this?

It's kind of insane.

- Yeah, that's the crazy part.

And he's doing it 26 miles and that isn't even, that's like the beginning.

The hardest part's been like the last 10, 15 miles, making sure he is getting it, and pushing it to get through it every evening.

Like now it's getting dark.

He's still got miles to go.

Last night, he was in the dark doing it because he was trying to get that...

He got almost 30, I think 37 miles.

- Just couldn't get anything to work on day three.

That was insane.

A lot of hills and then no shoulder.

Then it was windy, and people weren't getting over because it was hilly, so they couldn't see what was coming.

So can't even get mad at that aspect.

But that was just a rough day.

And then finally, got some legs towards the end once we got the Bridger and that big hill.

Obviously, I'm gonna get legs at the hill.

- The biggest thing he's racing here is like a tractor instead of running with people.

He had a, can't even remember the town now, or where we came through, but it was this huge hill!

And he saw the tractor, and he figured he wasn't gonna let it pass him.

It was a combine crew moving.

And he tried, but it was super steep, and the tractor won.

(Arnie laughing) But it was a big hill.

- Tried to race that tractor!

I was doing good for a hot second.

The lakes come alive with a beautiful view, that's for sure.

I'm doing the perfect social distancing right now.

(Jada laughing) I'm out here by myself, couple people.

- He's also doing a radio show, yeah, which is kind of crazy.

- KCountry 102.3, B-town's country station.

What's up?

You have it on the Joel de Show as we roll into your Monday Workday.

Thanks for hanging out with me.

Right now, the show is on the road.

I'm currently running across the state of South Dakota and yeah, where am I at?

I don't even know, got mushy brain syndrome.

So far, I've run over a 130 miles.

My focus right now is just to get to Pierre, so if you wanna follow the journey and the run, go to JAdRunning on Facebook or Instagram.

And we'll share some stuff on KCountry too.

All right, y'all, check into weather details and back to the music.

Hayes is coming up, I think.

Hayes is the next town.

All right, you could jog this out.

All right, here you go.

See the no passing sign, that's where you're gonna jog.

- Well, you'd like to put his shoes somewhere else.

That's the first thing you notice when he gets done running.

Usually he's on social media, and I'm pestering him to go to sleep, and it's hot.

He got a fan here a couple nights ago, so that makes a difference.

But the other nights, when you finally fall asleep, it just gets terribly warm in there.

And then both of you are sweating, you already smell bad, 'cause you've been out for two days, so it's worse yet.

Then you wake up in the morning, and you want to get out of the van.

And you bring your arms out from underneath their sleeping bag, and it's freezing out there.

It's not too bad here in Eastern South Dakota, but Western was really cold, really cold.

- Going into today in the beginning, 'cause my ankle was swollen, and we ended up icing it.

I iced it all night, but yeah, I think I paid for it today for a little bit.

And then finally, took that break around mile 20 and iced my foot today.

And that felt great.

It was really, after that is when I really felt great and knocked off the next 20 pretty quick.

Goal for today, no blister on the heel.

(Joel chuckling) More like goal for today, finish 40 miles.

You can come up with a bad runner joke like that you did on day one.

What did the runner who said he was gonna run 415 miles say on day four?

Golly Gee Wiliker, I still have 288?

What was I thinkin' saying this was easy?

And that concludes today's bad runner joke.

"Ba-dump."

I feel like we should maybe start doing this early in the morning 'cause there's no traffic, you know?

- Just gotta worry about the coyotes.

Pretty much get up, run around, fill up his water, water bladder thing, and make sure he gets food; pester him because he wanted to leave at this time and he's peddling around, he's not getting it done, you know?

And then we go two miles down the road and wait for him, and make sure he's got water and everything else.

Pick up, go two more miles down the road, and that's the way the whole day goes until you shut down for the night.

And then, you're back to making sure eats and try to get him to go to sleep, so.

(Arnie laughing) - [Joel] Already ready to be done.

All right, we'll see you guys in a bit.

- [Rich] See ya in a bit!

- So day four, felt pretty good that day too.

Still on the western part of South Dakota, but Pierre was in sight.

Like Pierre was, okay, I should hit Pierre by day five.

So you're like a day and a half away from getting to a city and possibly, maybe getting a hotel, which we ended up getting a gifted hotel from somebody.

So it was kind of like, "Okay, you get to this day, get through this day, these miles, then you only have probably 40 more miles until you're into a city."

So I think that's kind of why day four made it somewhat easy on me, for the most part.

I know there was some low moments, but for the most part, day four was probably a pretty easy day to get through.

KCountry 102.3, B-town's country station.

Joel de here with you.

Thanks for hanging out with me on your Monday afternoon.

Struggle bus is a real thing, and I'm on it right now as I am running across the state of South Dakota.

If you're following along over on JAdRunning on Facebook or Instagram, thank you for hanging out with me there.

It's been a struggle.

I started on Friday, and I'm still pushing.

So this is day four of being on the road and running across the state.

So go to JAdRunning on Facebook or Instagram, and you can follow along if you...

It sounds like I'm out of breath.

It's because I just stopped to record this, so anyways, all right, we got more country music coming up next!

- I kind of expected there to be issues with maybe some logistics, which we haven't really had anything with that.

He pretty much figured out the route.

There was a detour we had to do this morning, but that hasn't been that difficult.

Some of the issues that I wasn't quite expecting was as many issues he had with his ankle.

That started like almost day one, and it's continued on.

I wasn't expecting that.

I was expecting like the blisters and those kind of things, but not the ankle.

- All right, y'all, so if you don't know, now you know.

I am currently on the road, so if it sounds windy and if it sounds like I'm out of breath, it's 'cause I'm stopping to do the show as I make my way across the entire state of South Dakota.

This is day four.

We started Friday, October 2nd, and we're four days in.

And what?

I still have like 200, probably 40 miles to go at this point.

I'm losing track of mileage.

I'm not paying attention to that.

I got my crew.

They go up a little bit and then they just tell me, "Hey, you're doing a good job."

And they gave me some potato chips and pasta, water, all that kind of good stuff just to keep me rolling.

So you can go to JAdRunning on Facebook, Instagram to follow the run.

We're gonna queue up some more great country music next here on B-town's country station.

It was the first year of van life, I was on the east coast, and I was sitting at McAfee Knob, which is like one of the most photographed places in Virginia on the Appalachian Trail.

And I had just met a guy who was running across the country back then, and it just kind of inspired me to think about that.

And I'm like, "The whole country's a lot, you know, that's like 3000 plus miles."

And then I was like, "A good way to wrap up van life and just traveling in the van would be to run across my home state."

- All I had to do was figure out how to specify the training to simulate the needs of the challenge that Joel wanted to take on.

So I looked at the numbers and running across South Dakota was 425 miles.

And I figured if Joel had run 50 miles before, he probably could run 40 multiple days in a row with the right training.

So with a goal of eventually working up on the weekends to running two to three days in a row of 30 miles a day, I felt that was sufficient training and preparation for Joel to take on 10 days of 40 miles a day.

- I think that because of his coach telling him to try to stick to the 40 miles a day, I knew day one, he wasn't gonna listen.

- So that presented some unique training challenges for myself.

So the main thing that I looked at was Joel was working for the post office, walking with a bag up to eight to 12 hours a day.

That's the same as training.

- He explained it to me as if like time on feet.

So he needed, it wasn't about running every single day.

It was just getting used to being on his feet all day long.

Almost every day he was doing like 20 miles already, so I think that the concept of running 40 miles a day wasn't that crazy to him, as crazy as it is to everyone else.

- Little by little, week by week, Joel worked up to the ability to run 30 miles in a training day, and then 30 miles back to back two days in a row, and then 30 miles three days in a row.

And that was really important because anyone can really, if you're a trained runner, can get up and run a marathon, and then get up the next day, and get out the door, okay?

And at least have a lot of pain and muscle through that second day.

But getting up that third day is one of the special skills that you need to survive a multi-day challenge like Joel wanted to take on.

So he had to prove in training to me and to himself, more importantly, that he could do in training what he needed to do in his actual challenge.

- So day five, let's see what happens.

Day five, that day, there was a lot of big climbs to get into Pierre.

And there was a big descent to get into Fort Pierre itself, as well.

If this knee starts working, especially this early in the morning.

Yesterday was...

Yesterday, I didn't feel this good, so that's good.

I can send you a postcard from the road.

We actually, my crew is gonna be mailing a couple off here for some people who picked those up, so thank you to those people.

Doing FaceTime videos and it's time for a "What the What?"

And since I'm on the road, we don't have the cool little bumper music to play right now, but here's the, "What the What?"

The "What the What?"

is that I'm doing my show on the road as I run on foot across the entire state.

I'm out of breath, my leg hurts, everything hurts, and it just makes me say what the actual what was I thinking?

But you know what?

It's a goal of mine to do this, and I'm just thankful for everybody who's been giving me the inspiration, and the pep talks on social medial, and just telling me to keep pushing away.

Because it's struggling and mentally draining to be out here and just continue to do this, especially as we get ready to make about 200 miles today.

As I continue to struggle, I still, if we get to Pierre, I'm halfway there.

I'm about to try to ring this bell that I saw on the side of the highway.

(bell tolling) Woo!

Let's keep going and wrap up this hour here at KCountry 102.3.

The crew's excited to get a hot shower, 'cause it's been a few days since we've scrubbed up.

The flies are definitely hovering around us, so that's how you dirtbag it and rough it up when you're doing crazy things like running across the entire state of South Dakota.

Anyways, all right, y'all, Joel de here with you, and that's my cue to start wrapping up my time.

The Joel de Show almost finito.

So I knew like, okay, don't take it for granted because there's still a lot of climbing in it.

And there was a lot of just gradual climbing up.

And I felt okay, like at the very beginning.

And then I remember it was right around mile 37, I remember I was kind of finally cresting that last hill.

It was just a long, gradual climb.

I was trying to run with traffic, because my shin was still flaring up.

And I was running with traffic, but then people kept hitting the rubble strip.

And it was scaring me the whole time, 'cause you hear the rubble strip, and you're trying to focus on one foot in front of the other and just move forward.

But you keep hearing rubble strips.

So then you're stopping to look behind you to see if you're going to get hit.

- It didn't register how much pain he was gonna be in.

Like I knew it would be hard.

I'm not a runner, but I knew it would be hard, and he would struggle.

But once I got there and saw what it was like, and how you guys were setting up, and meeting every couple miles or whatever, and how horrible his nutrition is, or was, is, it's different seeing it in person, for sure.

There's physical strength for that mental strength to be able to push through.

And then you hear him say like that, "It wasn't that hard."

I'm like, "What?

You were in so much pain.

What are you talking about it wasn't that hard?

It was hard."

- Mentally right now, it's I think just trying to finish.

He's hurting, and you can see it, but he just keeps grinding 'em out, which that's awesome to me.

I think I'd've shut down and went, "Well, people, I made it this far, you know, and that's it."

But every day he gets up, it's not a record to beat, 'cause there is no record.

So you're just making your own time.

- Day six felt amazing for majority of the run.

I mean, I'll just skip right to it.

I remember there was like eight miles of pain, and I was trying to hide it from the crew.

They could tell, obviously, I wasn't going as fast as I would like, and as they probably would like, just so we could get done, and eat, and rest, and repeat day seven.

So day six felt great, but then there was just a moment with like eight miles left.

Just, it was a grind to get to 40.

And earlier, day three, there was a moment too when I actually broke down and like cried, just because the pain and trying to figure out and navigate through how to get to the finish line without quitting.

So day six was the exact same thing, but eight miles of like struggle.

So every time I would see 'em, I would try to cheer up just because I didn't want them to see the struggle or the pain.

My shin was just so bad.

I couldn't like push it outta my brain.

I just, I tried to focus on it.

Okay, there's your pain.

Focus on it, let it go away.

It's there.

Whatever.

And I couldn't do it.

I could keep going forward, but I couldn't run.

I couldn't jog.

I couldn't anything.

I could just walk and that hurt so bad.

And at that moment is when I was kind of like, I think this is probably a fracture 'cause it hurt so bad.

It would like, it was just creeping up my entire bottom part of my leg.

And then I just remember at the very end, like before we quit, I was like, just get me to wherever mile 40 is, let's get mile 40.

The crew got me to like a little bit over 40, and I just remember breaking down.

That was the worst.

My body hurt so bad and I'm pretty sure I cried for four miles straight just hobbling just to get 40 miles.

And I don't even know why I didn't stop.

Like I should have stopped.

There was no reason for me to continue to push through that because this is my own thing.

It's not like...

It's just, it was my own thing.

I'm the one who chose to do this to myself.

So why am I continuing to push this hard through pain when I could just stop?

- One of the things that's important about taking on a challenge of anything unique, like Joel took on, like running across the state of South Dakota, takes a lot of experience.

And if you don't have the experience, some of the things that go into acquiring that experience through previous challenges would be things like having reasonable expectations.

Someone that's never done a multi-day event can't think that they're gonna run, in Joel's case, 425 miles straight across the state of South Dakota.

You've gotta break it up into chunks.

So I had to convince Joel to take on a reasonable expectation.

Being able to modify your effort based on the conditions of the world and yourself is an important element in being successful.

- So he gets, yeah, I think he gets depressed sometimes.

(Arnie laughing) I would be, you know?

- That's the crazy thing is this whole time I've been, that's the word that I keep using.

Like, this is amazing, what he's doing is amazing.

And he's amazing that he keeps doing it; hasn't quit or hasn't even really said, "I am going to quit."

I thought there would be moments where I would have to talk him off the ledge from quitting, and it really hasn't happened.

- He's just doing it because that's what he's been talking about.

And Joel's always been that way.

If he decides he's gonna do it, you know it's gonna happen.

You just, you don't know when.

- Day six started a struggle bus, but that's probably like one of my most proudest days, just because it hurt so bad.

And I probably could have stopped at like mile 26 because it hurt so bad.

And then, I just continued to push through all of that.

And I just remember breaking down, but we got 40, and that was the main objective.

And I think I would say I was proud of that day for the fact that I...

I can't even explain the pain that was going through my body at that point.

And just to be able to get there was good.

(Joel whistling) Day seven sucked!

Day seven was a random 87 degree day with probably another 40 to 50 mile an hour winds, coming directly out of the south, pushing me off the highway.

The shoulders were tiny, harvest was going on, so all the farmers were out with their trucks, the semis kicking corn out again at me, and the shoulders were just tiny.

There was nowhere for me to go.

Between the heat and the wind, that was my biggest struggle.

It was like, "Try to continue to run."

So I had to navigate through not getting hit, navigate getting hit again by a bunch of corn, because it was just on the highway, and they would drive by at 65 to 80 miles an hour, and pelt me with corn.

And I took a nap that day, too.

'Cause I was gonna quit.

I was gonna quit for that day.

My body was done.

It was so hot.

I was totally over it.

I was completely fine with being done at mile whatever I got that day.

I think it was mile 23.

And that was a struggle, because I really wanted to quit at mile seven that day.

And I continued to just push through it.

And I think I finished off pretty decent on that day.

We ran into the night just to get to mile 32, and it just didn't feel safe enough to continue to run into the dark going into Miller.

So we called it quits at mile 32, and we could erase that day.

I'd be okay with erasing that day from the run and doing another one.

'Cause that was horrible.

- The part of it I didn't expect to see was, you know, probably some of the struggles that he's gone through or the emotional part of it.

I kind of expected it, but not really expected it, that he had like two really bad days that he was really tough.

And what I didn't expect is for him the next day to totally like recover from it and push through.

I wasn't expecting that.

- I figure the longer he sets in one place, you lose that flexibility, and you start cooling down, and try to get him moving right away.

Because you know when you get 15, 20 miles into it, you just as soon sit and take easy as move.

- So I think going past that, I was like, "All right, if I can just continue to hit 40 miles, I'm okay."

At that point, should've listened to coach back on day one and day two, and just hit 40 miles a day.

Day eight was kind of just a...

It was kind of a up and down, felt good, didn't feel good, so that just led to me having to be more aware of not getting hit by people texting and driving, or not paying attention.

So we made it just outside of here on again, and the sunset was beautiful.

I do remember that day.

And yeah, I was just, I was ready to be done again on that day, 'cause you get to that point, it's like, "Let's just hit the 40 miles, and go rest up, and do it again."

'Cause you're getting close and there's definitely no take-backs at this point.

And that's where people, you start going through the little towns, and people are starting to stop too, and recognize like what was happening.

So that felt cool to give you that little boost of energy, was kind of the motivation to just get the 40 miles knocked out that day.

- He had put a wrap on his calf, and he fell asleep and left it on.

And when we got to the spot where we left off the previous night, he's like, "Look at my foot."

And his foot was completely white.

It was swollen.

It almost looked like a fake foot.

It was that puffed up, so you know, I helped him get his shoe on.

'Cause his foot was actually swollen up that he could barely get his shoe on.

So we got his shoe on, but yeah, it was pretty bad.

It took him about four miles for it to finally loosen up.

- Day nine, same thing.

It was kind of just... That one, we went into the night, as well.

And that was just to get same thing, a little over 40 miles just to get inside of the city of De Smet.

So you're, again, you're just kinda, at that point, I'm just clicking off miles.

I'm getting close.

Like you hit Huron, then it's De Smet, then it's Brookings, then it's the border, and then you're done.

So getting to De Smet, had a nice little place to stay instead of in a parking lot.

We kind of had a little secluded place outside of the city that we stayed in this little nature park area.

So to have that and just be able to sleep somewhat decent, which is far fetched to say I was sleeping decent by any means.

- He's got some physical things going on and I think those physical things are contributing to his, maybe at the times, doubting himself when those physical things flare up.

But today, he's got like a different attitude.

He's kind of seems like he's accepted that I'm gonna have these pains.

I'm gonna have these issues, and I'm just gonna push through 'em.

- He's tired, and he's trying to roll his legs, which I won't do, because I know I won't go hard enough.

And I said, "Yeah, I know you're in pain.

I'm not gonna give you more."

We just talk about the day, and what he was looking forward to, how he feels.

It's a busy day.

It seems boring, but it's not.

And we've had some really awesome mornings and some beautiful evenings.

Some of the sunsets the last couple days with all the harvesting going on and stuff, that was...

I couldn't believe it, you know?

That's the kind of stuff you wanna see all the time, and animals moving, and it's been great.

- When you're running, I just like block everything out.

I lock in and I just go run however long I'm going out for.

But then that kind of just builds you in, in your mentality.

It just builds that mental strength.

And that's one thing coach has been telling me too, is a lot of time on feet and just being okay with being by yourself, being bored.

A lot of people can't be bored.

Like after van life, I'm absolutely fine being bored.

And I don't even consider it being bored.

It's just hanging out type of thing.

Those are probably the main things.

You gotta be okay with being bored.

You gotta love yourself, and then just push through it.

And I think mile 23 was Iroquois, and we took a nap for 30 minutes.

I think it was maybe longer.

I just passed out.

I don't think, a nap wasn't intended.

I laid down, ate something, and fell asleep.

And I remember the crew waking me up, and I just remember like my eyes fluttering, but like bright lights.

It felt like a semi was like...

It just kept coming at me.

And woke up, and I was like, all right, well again, I felt good, had a little power nap, let's do this.

I feel like I'm glad that I did that type of training is the time on feet training.

Because I feel like back in the day, I was more speed.

Like I cared about running super fast.

So this whole training part to like just time on feet and it's not necessarily how many miles you do, it's how long you're on your feet.

So if somebody's actually getting ready to train or thinking about doing even just an ultra, or even a marathon, and you're not trying to go for speed, just go.

Just like get out there, put the miles in, but go slow type of thing.

Work up to it.

The biggest part is I'm just fine by myself.

I talk a lot to myself.

I'm giving myself pep talks all the time, cheering myself up, singing out loud.

I've had horses run with me.

I've had cows come up, so you're not alone.

There's always something.

But I mean, I guess the biggest thing would be the fact that I'm okay with being by myself and just the mental aspect of just keep pushing.

Everything's breaking down at this point.

And then sometimes, they feel great.

Like I thought the biggest struggle was gonna be my right knee.

That was kind of an issue with a lot of the time on feet.

My right knee hasn't been the issue, so I don't know if my right foot sometimes hurts.

Obviously my ankle got swollen and just focusing on that; like tell yourself, "Okay, the pain's there, probably not gonna go away, so focus on it.

It's there, continue to push."

And I guess that's just the little trick that I do.

Just focus on whatever it is when you're running.

Yep, your groin hurts.

All right, can you lift your leg?

Only this high?

That works, 'cause you're moving forward.

So just keep pushing, focus on the pain, and get to the finish of wherever it is you're pointing at.

The first three days I was running on the proper side, against traffic.

We decided that I should probably switch.

We decided that this would be a good idea to kind of just even out my body.

Because three days of the way the highway slopes, so it could drain probably, is why one leg is probably hurting.

Because my right foot is hitting first before my left, and it's getting the full stride almost.

Going into day 10, same mindset, just get the 40 miles.

Because there was no way that I was going to do more than 40 miles a day, you know, for those consecutive days.

So day 10, we're coming out of De Smet.

I had some fast food in my belly, felt good for that.

Again, had a cool little place to stay and then kind of knew, once you're in De Smet, you're pretty much, that's one day run to Brookings.

My sponsor showed up and actually ran two miles with me.

Paul Cruise, he ended up running two miles with me into Arlington.

And that was a windy day too.

He ran that two miles with me on that windy stretch, leading into Arlington.

And then they got some pizza in my belly.

And then I remember, it's not that big of a hill coming outside of Arlington.

But they call it Bunker Hill and it's legit, just a climb.

And the wind was coming from that direction, super hard.

I think another 40 mile an hour day again.

And I was running into the wind, up the hill, pushing.

And then people were watching me, so I was like, "I can't look like a chump.

I can't look like a chump.

I have to run."

So I tried to run up this hill into the wind.

I did it.

And that was probably one of my fastest days, day 10 was.

And that's probably why, because there were so many people, and I was like, "I can't just not run.

This isn't the walk across South Dakota.

This is the run across South Dakota."

So, you know, I started running, finally crest the top of the hill.

I was like, "All right, get my breath back."

And then, all of a sudden, I hear, beep, beep, beep!

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Here comes my uncle.

He runs across highway 14 and catches up with me.

And we were literally at the sign that said 10 miles to Volga.

And we were clicking off the miles, which was awesome because yeah, I had somebody to talk to, just kind of black out everything, and just run.

And well, I'd get to the van where my dad was and Rich was, and I'd be like, "Okay, I need to sit down for a second.

Like my feet hurt, my legs hurt, my shin hurts.

I need to eat something."

And my uncle would just be walking around in circles, like, "You ready?

You ready?"

And I was like, "No, I don't want to run this fast anymore."

But then I'm like, "Okay, I guess I'm ready."

So then I would just get it.

And I'd be like, "Hey dad, next aid station, make sure I get this, this, and this."

You know, electrolyte, some salt tabs, whatever.

And then, we can just grab it and continue to run.

'Cause I know like if I got somebody to pace me right now, especially with people being out here, and people were driving by and cheering and honking, it's like, now it's officially let's run some miles, let's click it off.

And I was surprised how good I felt.

So I was super thankful for him to kind of pace me through that and just click off the miles.

We got done earlier than we had kind of anticipated, 'cause we'd been struggling, and getting done really late, and having long days.

So I think the crew was happy to be able to finish up early.

Day 10, wrapped that one up and felt good about it just because we had everybody around.

And so, I was excited and happy for that moment.

The wall is almost every time.

I don't know how to explain that 'cause a lot of people hit the wall, and then it's just, it's hard for them to continue to push past that.

And I think that's where the mental comes in, the mental strength and just the little tricks that I have, you know, picking out funny stories.

You pick those stories up.

You're down, you feel bad about yourself, why are you doing this?

Why did I pick this as a goal?

Why am I putting myself through this?

But then you can also go to past stories, and pull those out, and make yourself laugh a little bit to get through the next moment.

- Lean over quick.

Look normal.

- Look normal.

(Arnie laughing) - Look normal, pop.

- Okay, are you ready for this Joey?

- Final day, final.

11 days on the road, and we are officially almost done, 20 miles out.

- 20 miles.

- Basically smack dab in the middle of Brookings and Waldo is where I finished off yesterday.

- Super traffic.

- Lots of traffic, but we get to run through the city.

And yesterday was a good day, ran super fast.

Feel okay; my right shin kind of flaring up again because it wasn't used to going that fast.

I mean, we were doing like a seven 50 minute split was my fastest, and then it was the slowest for the last 12 miles was a nine minute pace, which was pretty fast.

So anyways, last day, last miles.

- You're doing good.

It's been fun.

(Arnie groaning) - All right.

- I love you.

- Love you too.

Day 11 was just less than a marathon.

Only day less than a marathon, 24 and a half, and I changed last minute, changed the spot.

Because people were talking about coming out to the finish line, and where I originally was gonna do was gonna save me about four and a half miles.

But it was on the side of a tiny highway, which thankfully I ended up changing the end, which was right on the border of Minnesota.

There's a wayside park.

People could park off the highway.

And then there's a Minnesota border sign, so it was kind of cool just to have that at the very end too.

But it's like, okay, you have less than a marathon.

The winds decided to pick up, but I was running from Volga through Brookings, so that felt good.

My friend Derek Powers came out and ran with me for the most part of Brookings, so that was good.

And just having people out there to kind of cheer me on and honk as they drove by kind of gave me that extra motivation.

And then you get outside of Brookings, and then it kind of, you know, that energy is like going, going, going, going.

And then all of a sudden it sinks because nobody's passed that point.

It's not a long ways, but it's still a long ways, especially on tired legs.

And there were people that would follow the crew that were kind of out there cheering me on.

But it was just this weird moment of like you're almost done, and it doesn't feel like I should be done.

And I had talked to my coach the previous night and the one thing he told me to do for sure, especially on the last day was to like take a moment during that run and just think about the whole thing.

Four miles, Joel.

Just take a second to let this sink in 'cause you don't know what's gonna happen in four miles at the end.

It's gonna be a whirlwind for a hot second.

This has been your normal right here, running shoulder, running pavement, running with semis, running against semis, hot, cold, beating your body up, and only a few breakdowns, really.

That's pretty good.

You only had a few mental breakdowns; fought back one earlier today, doing good, just one foot in front of the other.

You're almost there.

Just think about it, right here, that was one curve, two curves, finish line.

You're already on the straightaway, one curve, finish line; one curve, finish line.

You're good right where you're at.

You got plenty of legs left, Joel.

You got plenty of legs left, Joel!

This is almost over, dude.

It just doesn't even feel real.

It's almost over.

10 and a half days, 420 plus miles, it's almost over, dude.

(Joel panting) Come on, legs!

420 miles ain't nothing.

Let's go!

We're almost done.

You're gonna be done in hot second.

Let's go, legs.

Let's cross.

We're crossing.

I guess we're crossing.

Gotta get that Minnesota side.

We gotta go back.

That signs right there.

That signs right there!

That signs right there, come!

(Arnie laughing) Right here!

(indistinct talking) (Joel exclaiming) (Arnie laughing) - You did it.

You did it!

- We did it, pa. - Awesome guy!

You did good.

- That was kind of the one thing I was hoping for.

Like I was grateful, you know, for people being at the finish line.

My girlfriend was there.

She brought my dog.

My buddy Rich was there.

Zeke was there and a couple other people showed up, so it was just like to have that actually, like people to be there at the finish line was amazing.

But then the biggest part was like, let's...

I just wanted to like hug my dad at that point too.

'Cause I was like, this was supposed to be...

I know he didn't physically do it, but he still had to like...

I mean, so did the crew, but he still had to be there.

And like as a dad, I know the biggest thing he was worried about was me being on the highway, being safe, and just to have him actually at the finish line to accomplish this and watch me do it was like probably one of the best feelings too.

- I think he pretty much did what he said he was gonna do, you know, really close to 10 days.

And seeing it in person was kind of crazy because of knowing that he was in pain.

But I don't know.

He did it.

It's crazy.

But no, it was really cool to see him accomplish what he said he was gonna do.

And to see how people showed up to support him and not just like in person, but on Facebook or whatever.

He's got like a really cool support system that was, I think, genuinely happy to see him succeed at what he said he was gonna do.

One really cool thing is that his dad did it with him.

I think that was really cool to see too.

At the end when he finished and hugged his dad, or he like grabbed him and wanted to keep going to where the Minnesota sign was instead of where his dad was standing.

That was a really cool part.

- Well, you can't come any closer to a goal like running across South Dakota in the fastest known time.

Congratulations, Joel.

- Being a dirtbag is like you just love what you do.

And I fell in love with running and trail running in general, which is kind of funny and ironic that I'm running pavement through my home state.

But dirtbagging is you just get consumed by whatever it is you love.

And I consider myself a dirtbag runner.

Lived in a van for three years, traveled 49 states in the van, half of Western Canada in the van doing trail running, and races, and just boondocking and parking wherever you are.

Kind of like what we're doing right now tonight at this little state park area.

So boondocking is just setting up, dry camping.

It's hanging out and enjoying it.

So yeah, two of my favorite things, being a dirtbag and boondocking.

(Joel laughing) Life is short, but it's long at the same time.

You don't know if you have tomorrow.

You know, being in my mid thirties, and when I first started van life, I was 30.

I was like, "You don't know.

I'm going through a mid midlife crisis maybe, but you don't know if you have tomorrow."

So to just be able to do this whole run, and van life, and cap that off, and to know that I accomplished something.

And to just to let people know too, at the same time, your purpose is yourself.

Find happiness.

You just need to learn how to love yourself and be able to enjoy doing crazy things like this.

You don't need to have a reason.

Like if something makes you happy, do it.

I'm not saying run.

I'm not saying quit your job.

Just if there's something that makes you happy, whatever it is, regardless, find a way to do it.

Start making little checklists to get yourself into position to be able to do it.

I'm not even good at running.

I started slow, one mile a day.

You just kind of have to slowly move yourself into positions to do stuff.

Same thing with van life.

I saved up, I started becoming minimalist, and changing my mindset and ideas.

So just to have, I don't even know how to explain it.

Just be happy.

Figure out how to do it, and that's all you have to do to serve your purpose in life.