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| Running with 2017 Guilaume Calmettes at Big's |
Tell us a little about yourself not necessarily related to running: age, where born, education, area you live in, etc…..
I was born in Lexington, KY on April 1, 1995 (so I’m 23, unless this comes out after my birthday). My family moved to Florence, KY when I was two and I lived there until I went to college. I spent a ton of time when I was little playing outside and exploring “the woods” behind my friend’s house. I tried out many different sports and I was terrible at all of them. My mom ran all through my childhood and I always kind of liked it, so I started running formally in middle school when I joined the cross-country team. I ran cross-country throughout middle and high school. After high school I was pretty set on going to UK but I was nowhere near UK fast, so I mostly dropped running.
What is your profession?
I’m still a student at UK and living in Lexington. I started my college career studying materials engineering and after earning that degree, I switched over to work on an MBA. I’ll be done with school in May and I’ll have to find a job and become a real adult. Outside of school, I work at John’s Run/ Walk Shop part-time. Most of the time I’m helping people find shoes they like but I also buy socks for the store and plan our group trail runs.
How did you start running and what prompted you to do so?
My mom ran throughout my childhood, so I was exposed to it and respected it from a really young age. So when one of my friends signed up to do XC in middle school I joined him. I did XC until I graduated and a few years of track although I didn’t really like it. I’m not a big fan of running fast (like on a track) I would much rather run slowly for a long time (sort of like XC).
After high school XC I stopped running seriously for a few years. I pretended like I was going to do triathlons for a little while but that didn’t work out. Then I met my fiancé and she was running for WKU at the time. I thought she would think I was cooler if I was a runner, so I started running again. Along the way, I met Zack Beavin who helped me take it seriously and pushed me into trail ultras.
How long have you been running?
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| Cumberland Gap |
Did you participate in any other sports over the years?
I participated in all the basic sports when I was little. Once I got a little older I realized I was pretty bad at all of them and I stuck with running. In college I tried triathlons but swimming/ cycling require a lot more prep work than running so I went back to just running.
Did you run in grade school, High School or College?
I ran for Ryle High School in NKY. I wasn’t good enough to run at the kind of colleges I wanted to go to and I was pretty burned out so I didn’t do collegiate track/xc. All of my running in college has been on my own/ with friends and thankfully I’ve never had to race a 10k on a track.
So we get an idea of where you have been with running can you share your PR’s for: 5K, 10K marathon and any other distance you may have run in the past.
- Mile – 4:35
- 5k – 15:47 (should be ~15:20 but the lead vehicle went the wrong way. Still bitter)
- Half – 1:13:46
- Full – 2:39:47
- 50k – 4:29:19
- 50 Mile – 6:26:33
Last year I was lucky enough to somehow get into Big’s Backyard Ultra. Big’s is a last man standing race created by Laz (who also created The Barkley Marathon). The way it works is you run 4.166 miles starting every hour until there is only 1 person left. I made it through 28 hours (116 miles) before DNFing, the winner made it 68 hours (283 miles) before the race ended.
It was a really bizarre but awesome race. The thing that surprised me the most was that it wasn’t competitive at all. It felt more like a group run with friends than a race. Everyone was super nice and willing to give lots of advice and encouragement. This is because of an unusual aspect of the race, when the 2nd place person quits, the potential winner has to complete one more loop and then they can’t continue. The real contenders in the race are there to see how far their body can possibly go. They want to win but they also want the race to go on as long as possible. The feel of the race is so much different than anything else I’ve experienced.
If you want to read a little more about my experience check out my Race Report
Do you have a favorite workout you do?
I have 3 different workouts that I really like.
- 10x1k, I have no idea why but I really like doing 1k intervals. It just seems to be a perfect distance for me. It isn’t so fast that it really hurts but it still ends fairly quick.
- 20x400, 4@HP, 4@10kP, 8@5kP, 4@miP. I love how fast this one goes from “is this even a workout” to “I’m going to die”. I like that this hits on a lot of different paces and forces you to pace at the beginning and run hard at the end. I’m terrible at both of those so it’s good for me.
- My favorite workouts are 25+ mile trail runs. I love spending hours out in the woods by myself and just kind of wandering. I’m a trail/ ultra guy at heart and love exploring.
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| Rocky Top in the Smokies |
How about a favorite route you like to run?
I love the Gorge as whole. There are a lot of routes that I really like to run. Auxier, Bison Way, Swift Creek Camp, etc. There’s a loop north from Clear Creek that I love and got a tattoo of. My favorite though is running somewhere new and exploring. Things normally aren’t quite as cool the second time.
What is your favorite distance to run and race?
I like running a variety of different races. I raced a mile a few weeks before Big’s last year. Half marathons are probably my favorite road races. I haven’t done enough trail/ ultras to know what my favorites are there.
What shoes do you run in and what do you like about them?
I wear a ton of different shoes. I’ve always kind of had a problem but working at John’s has made it a lot worse. My favorite shoe of all time was the Nike Zoom Streak 5. It was Nike’s main racing flat, I got it for races but ended up running in it exclusively for about a year. The NB 1400v4 were a close second but a bit too cushioned for what I wanted at the time. Right now I’m liking the Nike Pegasus 35 for roads and the Hoka Torrents for trails. For racing I really like the Adidas Sub2s for short stuff and I’m excited to try out the Nike Vaporfly 4% for my marathon.
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| Example of my slightly lackjng diet at Big's |
I really don’t focus on diet much at all. I sometimes have a rough estimate of how many calories I’ve had in a day and how much I’ve run but I rarely do much with the numbers. I don’t restrict anything, I eat a lot of carbs, I eat a lot of salad, I drink too much beer. I try to run a decent amount and it normally all works out. I’m a little heavier than I would like to be right now but hoping the 60+ mile weeks will fix that.
Nothing really changes race week. Race day I have a bagel or some flavored bread or something like that. Normally I drink a couple bottles of Gatorade or Powerade within about 12 hours of the race. During races I’m a huge fan of SWORD, it has gotten me through all of my ultras. Muffins are great during ultras. I’m pretty flexible with food. My stomach is normally pretty happy for the first 20 hours, after that it can get a little finicky.
Do you have any long-range plans?
On the road I would like to break 2:30 in the marathon and then never run another. I don’t think anything is harder than going all out for a marathon and I don’t like it. I would also like to get under 70 and 15 in a half and 5k respectively.
Right now what I’m most excited about is trying out a 24-hour race. I think it’s something I can be good at and hopefully be competitive on a big stage. I also want to finish an official 100 miler. Besides that I just want to try out different ultras and trail races and see what I like and what I’m good at.
What do you like best about living and running in KY?
I’ve absolutely loved living and running in Lexington. I think Lexington is a great sized city and I’ve had a ton of fun here. Recently the competitive running scene has gotten a lot better too which has been really fun. There have been a lot of great people to run around with. There are also some amazing trails around the state. It’s awesome having so many choices for trail running within about an hour.
Anywhere else you would like to visit to run?
For the last few years I’ve been dying to go run Rim2Rim2Rim. That seems like a super fun run and really challenging. I also like the idea of seeing how I stack up against some of the other people that have run there. In general, I want to spend more time on some trails out west. I haven’t done much outside of the Daniel Boone National Forest or similar terrain.
Do you have any bucket list races?
I don’t think there are any races I would consider bucket list races. The closest thing would be going back to Big’s, I learned a lot and I think that with the knowledge I gained and a little more ultra experience I can go a lot further. Besides that, I would like to venture a little further out and see how I do in bigger more competitive fields. Races like Lake Sonoma, Western States, Georgia Death Race and UTMB all seem really cool but I don’t feel like I have to do them to be happy.
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| Running in the Gorge |
What do you struggle with most with regards to running?
Being smart. I tend to be a bit too impulsive in both training and racing. In training I have a tendency to start running really well. Then I’ll get excited and start running harder workouts and more miles and then I end up hurt. Then I won’t take enough time to heal and I end up being sort of hurt for months on end. I’m hoping that my eased back schedule will help prevent this. In races I’m still starting too fast and blowing up. I’m working on taking it easy for the first part of workouts and then speeding up at the end to try to teach myself how to pace.
What do you see as a trend in running?
It seems like there are a lot more people doing trails and ultras. In KY the number of trail/ ultra races has shot up dramatically in the last 5 or so years. I think it’s great that more people are getting out on the trails and there is more opportunity for races and events in the space. I think there’s something magical about spending some time in the woods and it’s awesome that more people are seeing that.
If you had one, well maybe two or three, things to say those that are running to encourage them what would it be?
Start small and build gradually. The biggest issue I’ve seen working at John’s and talking with newer runners is they try to do too much too fast (I’m not good at taking my own advice). If you want to get better you have to stay healthy which won’t happen if you’re ramping up too fast.
Learn how your body works. Too many people lock into a plan they found online and won’t deviate from it. I think the best thing you can do in running is learn to listen to your body. Your body will tell you if you’re pushing too hard or if you’re ready to go. Along with this, it’s important to keep some type of record of what you’re doing and how you’re feeling. That way you can look back and see what worked or what didn’t.
The last thing is find some people to run with if you can. It’s so much more fun that way and so much harder to sleep in if you’re supposed to be meeting someone.
Do you have a website or other social media site you would like to share?
- Instagram: - @Dustintomi
- Strava
- Twitter - @Dustintomi
- Also Zack Beavin, Sam Day and I have an IG for our adventures @antelopechildren
I kind of like quotes so I’ll end with a few of my favorites.
Nothing good happens in the world by being happy and cozy.
-Alex Honnold (Free Solo)
Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and let it devour your remains.
-Kinky Friedman
We were essentially fording a river, through a tunnel, at night, under a prison. It was right about then that I started questioning where I’d gone wrong in my life? Up until that point I’d mostly believed that I’d made reasonably good decisions with my life, but in retrospect, my epiphany was that I’d just managed a positive spin on a series of really bad decisions. I do really stupid things, and I do them with stunning regularity
-Gary Robbins (2018 Barkley Marathon Race Report)
********You can see past interviews here********
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