Redemption Race: Strolling Jim 40 Miler

June 24, 2026•3 min read

Redemption Race: Strolling Jim 40 Miler

3 weeks removed from Desert Rats and sickness I was feeling great and ready to race again after a disappointing 36 mile DNF. I've always wanted to run Strolling Jim because it is such a cool old school ultra with a long and impressive history and close enough to get to easily.

Race plan:preload some Santa madre unusual nitrous the day before, drink plenty of electrolytes otherwise in the leading days, 2 hours before take flycarb (new on race day) and Nomio, 30 min before take Tylenol (preventative medicine), 15 min before take a PF30caf gel. In race the plan was to drink one bottle every two miles with PF1000 and take one 30g gel every two miles. Crew stops every two miles.

Race recap:First off, this race was beautiful and amazing and I’d recommend it to anyone. The race kicked off at 7 am and I went out with the plan of going on my heart rate and just seeing what my legs are going to do for the day. After about 5 minutes I was feeling great and I knew it was going to be pretty fast if all things go well. I led and/or shared the lead through the marathon. The weather was perfect and the miles clicked away feeling easy. We ran a 2:55 marathon in a 40 miler and then a 3:33 50k in route to the aforetold happenings....

That’s when my fueling plan started to be hard to handle. I fell into second. My stomach wasn’t absorbing things well anymore and at mile 29 I puked like a fire hydrant for a solid minute. Eventual first place finisher, John, got to witness as he passed by. My stomach felt so much better afterwards but the cramps hit me hard after that at mile 30. I limped it in to Josh and tried to course correct quickly. I got a lot of fluids back in and he fixed my hamstring and I started running again.

It wasn’t near as fast anymore and that was a tad frustrating but I was running as fast as I could not to have major cramps so it was a win. I decided to just sip the bottles instead of drinking as much and it definitely paid off because the stomach still wasn’t doing a great job of absorbing things. I was able to run it in the rest of the race and hang on to the big goal of going sub-5 hours. I didn’t make up any ground on 1st and 2nd but held on for 3rd in my first Strolling Jim.

Good news is that I know what I’m going to change for my next races and I have some good takeaways. There are always learnings in an ultra. I wasn’t running too fast. My legs didn’t fall apart. I felt perfect aerobically and mechanically. Just need to tweak carb to water/electrolyte ratio and I think it’ll come together. Only time will tell!

Happy running,

R2S Team