Meet The Nation 334 - Michael Mctighe

Happy Monday, everybody.

This is going to be a Meet the Nation Monday.

This is an episode where we talk to somebody

that lists it to the podcast, to get to know them

a little bit better.

If you want to do one of these, email me at 10JackMoz.gmail.com.

If you've already emailed me or on the list,

it gets you.

I apologize for the delay in the production schedule.

I'm kind of adjusting to both getting out

these other episodes, the coaching episodes,

and then also going through a terrible thing with my dog

and the neurological issue that we're trying to figure out

if we can fix.

Anyway, things are coming together.

I've got a long run coming out this week,

and then I'm going to get back on the train with these things.

And my train is going well too, so.

Lots of good stuff coming.

Don't stop subscribing.

Tell your friends, cap on board.

There's been some really positive feedback

on the injury to the finish line episodes, my coaching calls.

People are really getting a lot out of them, so.

Pass that around.

Tell your friends.

Could be good.

Hopefully it keeps up.

We've been training all week this week.

I mean, hiking, but still.

Something's better than today.

We're calling Michael.

Mick Ty.

Mick Ty.

I'm going to go with that.

Could be wrong.

We're going to find out about a minute.

10 miles.

All right.

Here we are with Michael.

I'm going to try Mick Ty.

Mick Ty, you got it right.

Like what you're wearing on your neck.

That's it.

Wow.

There's a lot more letters in there.

Scottish.

You're on a vacation right now.

Yeah, so I'm currently visiting the Hudson Valley area.

It's where I grew up.

I'm from a small town called Brewster.

And seeing the sights, visiting the FAM,

and taking some aunts and cousins to a Jesse Wells concert.

Who's Jesse Wells?

He's a he's a folk singer.

He's kind of in the line of the tradition

of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan and Pete Singer.

Made some viral TikTok videos.

And just a very good singer's songwriter.

Highly recommend.

That's it.

I'll have to look that up.

So where do you normally live when you're not

visiting the Hudson Valley?

Yep.

So I moved to Rochester about nine years ago.

Rochester, New York, right off one of the great lakes

along the Eerie Canal.

Yep.

That's where I'm from.

And what do you do for work?

So I'm in the data analytics and systems space.

I kind of accepted my fate as sort of an IT guy

at a mental health clinic.

I work at a outpatient behavioral health clinic

that serves our area.

And I support them with their reporting needs.

And I manage our electronic client record.

Very nice.

And what about your running life?

Tell me a little bit about how did it start?

And what was your journey?

Give me your two minute story of my running.

Yeah.

So I've always had kind of the spirit

of an endurance athlete in me.

I used to like to walk a lot when I was a kid

and walk across my town 10 miles here, 15 miles there.

But like many people, I got started smoking cigarettes.

Quit smoking cigarettes decided to run a marathon.

Started smoking cigarettes again.

Where it really took off for me was during the pandemic

when everything shut down.

I found myself without a job in a little bit of free time

before grad school.

And so I quit smoking and kind of ran out the door

to deal with the withdrawal and the anxiety.

I haven't really stopped.

I did the virtual race across Tennessee,

which was a phenomenon back during the pandemic.

And they really opened me up to the whole world

of ultra endurance running.

And I've just been going on for a couple of years now.

I've done, I think, 34 ultra is 500 miles.

And I like to do races in interesting conditions.

And so happy to talk about running.

I think my wife and my family are kind of tired

to hear me talking about it.

So I could talk about it with you.

That's why you need running friends.

So they'll listen to your stories.

Exactly.

How long did you struggle with trying to get off the cigarettes?

Well, you know, I made the really fun decision

thinking I'd be super cool to start smoking

when I was about 13 years old.

And it's been kind of the, you know,

smoke for five years and I'll quit for two years.

And then, you know, I'll relapse and smoke for another year.

But I think, you know, I'm probably about two years

off in the routine right now, again, for the multiple time.

And so it's a lifelong journey.

If there's anybody out there who's been struggling with that,

it really is a kind of one day at a time, lifelong journey.

Yeah, I mean, I've got enough, you know, pills,

I've got enough, you know, cocaine, alcohol,

but cigarettes was the hardest thing to quit.

Because it's just like such a behavioral thing.

It's part of your life, you know?

Right.

Right.

And I think running is really a great way to cope with it

because it gets your lungs involved,

gets the whole oxygen system involved.

And it's just really good medicine.

Yeah.

So what are you training for right now?

What's next?

Next one on the calendar.

So I really like to do virtual races.

I think getting involved with the great virtual race

across Tennessee in 2020 really opened my mind up

to virtual races.

When I was in grad school, I did some studies,

not very good studies on the virtual race community,

but I do a lot of the events with Berks running.

They do dread milling during challenge

and Satan's sidewalk and they've got a virtual 50K

that I do every year called the Ladybug 50K,

which is kind of pick your own adventure

and I'll probably be doing that in about two weeks,

but you can kind of decide which weekend of the month

that you want to do it and pick your terrain.

And so I'll be doing that.

But up in Rochester, one of our premier events

is the Mini on the Jenny.

It's about a 45 mile loop around Let's Work State Park

and we consider that the Grand Canyon at the East.

And so a lot of my friends are doing it

and my wife's doing it and really looking forward

to doing many on the Jenny this year.

No, I'm kind of ignorant about New York,

but is where are you up by like the finger lakes

and all that, that, yeah, okay.

So like Ian Golden, his races and all his companies

and that kind of stuff.

I think so.

Is that the guy who does when green lakes and I'm not sure,

but I was here.

There's a robust community up there upstate New York.

We've got a great trail running scene.

So and just ultra endurance in general.

I mean, there's the can lakes ultra,

the beast of burden is just, you know,

a fantastic event.

Mighty mosquito is one of the local events that we do.

And so there's several options for 50Ks and 100Milers

that, you know, there's a great community.

We got a bunch of people who are involved and, you know,

like many running communities,

we all help each other out and really glad

I stumbled upon it.

Very nice.

Tell me something about you that nobody would ever believe,

not a million years.

Let's see.

I hate to say it, but I've become kind of a watcher,

fishy and auto in the past couple of years.

You know, I still remember the days

where I'd get texts from the bank account saying

that I got three cents in my checking account.

And, you know, now I've really found myself

on the corners of the internet learning

about watch movements and wrist watches.

And so I don't know, like,

I down here visited my aunt, my uncle,

and they were just like, yeah, we didn't see this coming.

So I guess that's my answer for that one.

So like, is there like a white whale of watches?

Like if you won the lottery tomorrow,

is there a watch you're going to run out to go buy?

Well, there's this really interesting game

that you got to play where it's like,

even if you want to watch, you really can't get it.

You got to get on this weight list and kind of rub somebody's feet

in order to get to the top of the list.

But I mean, you know, I think Omega's got some really cool

historical watches and you know,

they've got some nice speed masters out there.

So if I hit the lottery and I was prepared

to make an impulsive decision,

probably get myself a like a cold speed master.

Very nice.

So we have some high end watchmakers here in Chicago

and there's they're always advertising like $100,000 watches

and this crazy kind of stuff.

But I've never doubled in the watch world.

But you know what, there's something about having something

that's a really high quality product

that really makes you happy that, you know, it's kind of cool.

So, yeah, it's innovative and there's history to them.

And my wife and I were driving down

doing our road trip yesterday and she's like,

I think I might want to do CCC out in the Swiss Alps

and say, go, there's save some money by a Swiss watch

when we go out there.

There you go.

I'd be a place to do it.

So how does you find out about 10 junk miles?

So I've been listening on and off for years.

When I first got introduced to ultra running,

I really was a student of this sport.

And you know, I read that can't hurt me book

and my impression from that was like, okay,

the toughest guy in the world can run 100 miles.

And so, and I don't know what that does for me,

but I found a couple books of just regular everyday

people who decided that they were going to go out

and do these crazy things and run 100 miles, 200 miles.

And I read a book called Training for Ultra

by a guy named Rob Stager and he had a podcast.

And I listened to that podcast religiously.

And next thing, you know, I'm listening

to all sorts of different podcasts.

And so, I've been, I've been tapping in

and checking you guys out not every time, every week,

but pretty regularly for the past five or six years now.

Love the conversations that you do with folks

like Dean Karnasis and some of the round table discussions

that you have really gives me good insight

into some of the races.

And, you know, I've just learned so much

from listening to these podcasts and everything from,

you know, injury prevention to blister management,

to nutrition, to fund races to do.

And so, I'm grateful for the stuff

that people like you do for the community

and give me an opportunity to sort of nerd out on this stuff.

Well, I mean, you're also kind of like our target demographic

when you talk about the fact that you're doing these,

do it yourself type ultras, you know,

I can give you running friends

when you don't have everybody else to run with, you know,

so that's kind of fun for the virtual races,

you know, run across time to see and all that kind of stuff.

I think it's just that you have a conversation

as to like what the perspective is on like,

because some people will be like,

a virtual races don't count and it's self-supportive,

events like that don't really,

you know, if somebody's trying to run 100,

100 miles in their lifetime,

I think it's like, oh, well,

you shouldn't count the virtual races,

but there's different perspectives on that.

And I'm definitely of the type like,

you know, I think if you go out and you start the day at zero

and you get to 31 miles,

like that's a huge accomplishment.

You should really celebrate that

and put it in your check list.

Yeah, well, I mean, I couldn't agree more.

And when the pandemic came and I started putting

on virtual races for 10-junk miles,

I did it as like a compromise to people

so that they'd have something

and I didn't feel very strongly about it

until I started to realize that the guy that makes the metal

and the guy that makes the shirts

and the guy that makes the buffs

and all these other people in the industry

are all supported by virtual races.

And there are people like you that, you know, right now,

you can go race with live people anytime you want

and you still enjoy it.

So there's value in it and I hope that it sticks around.

I think that, you know, the other thing is like,

let's say that you're someone that really passionately

wants to do like the Leadville 100,

but you can never go there at the time

that the race is on.

Virtual races will allow you to go and see that course

and do that course virtually, you know,

on your own time with, you know, bring a crew

and just do it.

So I think that's kind of cool.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And that's my story because I get two weeks of vacation

a year from my job and, you know, three days

I got to visit my family, three days I got to visit

my wife's family and to go out and do like a big

destination race, it's going to take a week of vacation

to get there and recover and, yeah, I mean,

I respect the people who can get on a plane Friday

around 100 miles and come home Sunday.

I think that's insane.

I can't do that, but the opportunity to just go out

on a Saturday, random Saturday and hit 50k is awesome.

And also there are people that need to race other people

to motivate them and that's clear.

But if you're someone who just wants to move their body

that specific distance on that specific course,

you don't need to do it when other people are there.

You can just do it when you feel like it.

So it's kind of cool.

It's a very good perspective.

And I think that more people need to hear that

about virtual races because there are people

that do dunk on them.

Was there an episode of Tenjok Miles

that you particularly liked or that stands out in your mind?

I just, I'm kind of a Dean Carnassist fanboy.

So anytime you get him, I think he's really inspirational.

He's got just really awesome language to describe the sport

and, you know, I relate to his relationship with the sport

and so I like his episodes.

Yeah, he's a really good person too.

Like people dunk on him and I got to tell you,

I've interviewed a lot of people, a lot of famous people,

I've met a lot of famous people

and he's 100% authentic and every time I see him,

he's always nice to me and remembers and he's good dude.

Is there anybody, go ahead, sorry.

No, and I want to emphasize that.

So back in 2021, there's a gym in my community

called Rock Covery Fitness.

I'm going to shout them out and they are basically a sober gym

that anybody could go to and exercise

and they have all sorts of classes

and the only condition is that, you know,

you got to have 48 hours to continue with sobriety.

And so one summer I had a class called Intro to Ultra

and I had reached out to a bunch of authors,

Dean Carnassist included saying like,

hey, I'm starting these class.

I'd love to introduce some people to some of the stuff

that you guys have written and he sent me a couple of his books

and I was able to pass those along

to some of the people in the class.

So, you know, at no cost, which was a really nice thing to do.

Very nice.

Is there anybody in the ultra world that you think that I,

that I should interview that maybe needs to get a little bit

more attention?

That's a good question.

I think there's a guy in the Rock Covery space.

His name's John and he's a really good friend of mine.

We've crewed each other multiple times.

John Westfall and, you know,

he's got a couple hundred miles under his belt right now

but he really does a lot for the community

and he's just a true inspireer and he's a badass.

And of course, he came out and ran with me when I did a,

you know, one of those sub-zero runs.

And so I think I owe him the things.

All right, how about this?

If I put you on a desert island for the rest of your life

and you can only bring with you one book, one record,

and one movie, what would they be?

Okay, so I hear this question when you do your,

when you do your podcast and I feel like my answers

are caught out.

So when I was little boy, I got Black Sabbath's Black Box.

Then it was just formative.

It had all their albums with Ozzy, you know,

Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master Reality, volume four,

Sabbath, the whole list of them.

And that Black Box, if I could take that anywhere,

like that would be it, but that's kind of a caught out.

And so this new guy, Jesse Wells, he really speaks to me

and so he made some albums of just him recording

underneath the power lines.

They're called under the power lines.

And they're really good.

So I think that's my album answer.

Checking the Black under the power lines.

All right. Fantastic record.

As far as books go, I'd love to say the Dark Tower.

I know you hear that one quite a bit.

Big Dark Tower fan.

But interesting fact about me is that I've been involved

with free masonry for about 10 years now

and we have a standard workbook,

which outlines all of our rituals and degrees

and workflows that we can find it all to memory.

And so if I were stranded on a desert island,

it'd be nice to just study the workbook and memorize it

and maybe set some stuff up in the forest.

So if anybody came upon it,

it would really just drive the conspiracy theorist

totally crazy.

I was in Dimalay when I was a kid.

I never made it to the masons,

but the masonry was big in my family

and my community medium.

My grandpa was a mason.

My sister was a job's daughter and I was a Dimalay.

Very cool.

All right, and one movie.

90s version of Stephen King's It, the one with Tim Curry.

I want to say the Lord of the Rings,

I'm a diehard Stephen Lord of the Rings fan,

but I mean, I just came of age watching Stephen King's It

and I just love the character so much in the story

and what it represents kind of my comfort movie,

which is weird because it's supposed to be disturbing

and horror, but nice.

The newer one was good with the new Pennywise

and I like the new show,

but the 90s version just has a very special place in my heart.

I like that you kind of have a cheater answer for each of these

and then you have the actual compromise answer.

You don't get the black box, black Sabbath

and you'll, but I'll compromise for this record.

You want the series, but you'll take this.

I like that.

It's a good technique.

Are you going to play the trivia game?

I think I'm going to pass on the trivia.

Okay, that's okay.

Respect for declining.

Semantic memory is not a skill of mine.

Understood, understood.

And then are you going back to do any more winter ultras?

Are you, he looks like you, you know,

you gave me two pictures.

Of course I'm taking the winter ultra picture

for my, for your, for your graphic.

I love the winter, but did you like it?

You going back for more?

I, so yeah, that was beast of burden winter.

It was a hundred miles, was like 15 below zero.

I said after that, I'm never going to run in this snow again.

And, you know, I retire from that, but I was actually registered

for the 50 mile that they were going to do this year,

but they actually canceled the race because it was too cold.

So I mean, I think if I, so if I really hit the lottery

and didn't have to go to work,

yeah, I did a road trail invitation,

all it just seems like kind of the peak for me.

Like that is the ultimate.

They got some cold weather this year.

Ooh, and in very challenging conditions,

a lot of people, even really tough people had to turn back

after they went from 350 going to the 1000

because it was just, the trail wasn't broke,

there was deep, deep, deep snow,

and they didn't, you know, we're able to do it,

but yeah, that does look fun, doesn't it?

It's insane to me.

I mean, I still remember the days

where like a half marathon sound isn't saying,

sound isn't insane, but like where I'm at right now,

like 200 miles, I've never done a 200 mile,

but I think like if I trained well and had the time off,

I could execute a 200 mile, but the 300 mile is like,

man, that is just the peak.

Well, you got your work cut out for you.

There's a whole bunch of things to check out.

I want to thank you for green to do this

and it was fun to get to know you.

And if you're ever in Chicago, let me know.

We'll get together.

Okay, well, a badger 100 is definitely on my bucket list.

So I hope to give you one of them big sweaty hugs

and I promise not to cry at the end.

Oh, if you cry, I'll cry, I'll promise you that.

All right, you have a great day

and it was nice to meet you

and we'll see you down the trail.

Of course, bye now.

Thanks.