Liquids, “Brady Math,” and Road Super Shoes: How Riley Brady Won the Javelina Jundred

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Theoretically, Riley Brady didn’t have to kick into the end line on the 2024 Javelina Jundred on October 26. The non-binary runner from Boulder, Colorado, had solid almost a 20-minute hole over second-place girl Hannah Allgood over the last 99 and a half miles.

However they wanted to kick it in nonetheless.

“I by no means really feel like I’ve the win within the bag,” Brady stated. “A race will not be over ‘til it’s over. When folks present up at a end line and cease and stroll throughout the road, I’m like, ‘You don’t know who’s again there! You don’t know who’s gonna dash move you!’ It’s important to Zack-Miller-finish this race. Try to be sprinting as quick as you may throughout that line, after which you may collapse, or stroll, or do no matter you need.”

And that’s precisely what Brady did. The glow of their headlamp bobbed by means of the darkness, rounded the flip into the iridescent tent metropolis that makes up the Javelina headquarters, and zoomed down the seemingly unending immediately. Brady zipped throughout the end line and in a single fluid movement doubled over, fingers precariously holding the higher half of their physique up on their knees.

They stopped the clock in 14:19:01—the second quickest time ever within the ladies’s race on a traditionally sizzling day that noticed the thermometer creep as much as 100 levels Fahrenheit.

It’s their third consecutive Javelina Jundred podium, second golden ticket into Western States, and first win on the Burning-Man-meets-Halloween-meets-ultrarunning rave in Fountain Hills, Arizona. However merely inspecting these three information factors from the top of October in 2022, 2023, and now 2024 leaves out a lot of the story—together with why you might not even know who this very authentic contender on the 2025 Western States 100 even is.

Right here’s how the 29-year-old bike mechanic torched the Javelina Jundred this fall.

1. A Liquid Food plan

Heading into Javelina in October, there was no query to those who know them that Brady was match. Scary match. (This writer understood this deeply first hand, having had the privilege of getting dropped by Brady many occasions on lengthy runs and exercises over the previous yr.) The massive query was: may their abdomen maintain it collectively sufficient to let their health shine?

Violent nausea and vomiting that decreased Brady to the fetal place on the aspect of the path had been their downfall in longer races ever since incomes a golden ticket with a second-place end at Javelina in 2022, together with at Western States itself in 2023, Black Canyon 100K and Javelina in 2023, and the Black Canyon, Canyons 100K (the place they have been additionally sick with a virus), and CCC 100K earlier this yr.

“I’ve all the time thrown up in races, and it’s been a straightforward puke and rally,” Brady stated. “However this vomiting was so violent I couldn’t maintain my physique up. It’s very totally different when it’s such as you simply take a gel and it doesn’t sit proper so that you simply type of throw up. You’re not collapsed on the bottom.”

Sufficient was sufficient.

Brady enlisted the experience of Vic Johnson, a registered dietitian who focuses on working with mountain athletes. Sweat testing revealed that Brady’s sweat and salt charges have been each on the low finish, and but that they had not been hydrating sufficiently throughout races. Johnson set Brady a minimal of ingesting 500mL an hour.

“That’s one bottle an hour, which is kind of low,” Brady stated. “There have been occasions once I’ve undoubtedly been ingesting lower than that, so he was like, ‘When you begin dropping two to a few % of your physique weight, that’s once we begin to see these sorts of abdomen points come into play.”

Underneath Johnson’s steerage, Brady additionally began experimenting with extra liquid energy and fewer gels, the feel of which instantly despatched Brady’s gag reflexes on excessive alert. Because the forecast referred to as for temperatures reaching dangerously near triple digits, that technique proved particularly prescient.

Brady did their finest to drink 500 mL per hour on lap one of many five-lap course. The solar had but to shine its wrath on the desert, they usually in all probability fell slightly quick. However they have been working properly within themselves, simply forward of the lead ladies’s pack, and diligently downed a bottle of Skratch and Gatorade from assist stations on target, in addition to a gel. (Help stations additionally equipped Gu Roctane, however they didn’t have the Tea taste and that’s the one taste Brady doesn’t discover repulsive.)

“The Gatorade tasted slightly bit like a cleansing chemical, but it surely was ok that I may get it down,” Brady stated. “So I used to be like, ‘All proper, I’m getting some energy, some salt from this.’”

Beginning the third lap, Brady tried to down a Precision Vitamin caffeine gel, which that they had combined into water of their gentle flask simply as that they had performed in coaching “as a result of the feel is disgusting.” Their tried-and-true plan failed.

“I instantly threw up,” Brady stated. “And I used to be like, ‘OK, I’m simply going to chop this out.’”

Feeling like they might use some extra energy on lap 4, Brady tried taking yet one more gel, an SIS Beta Gas—one other tried-and-true staple. However the physique rejected that, too.

“I reduce these out, too,” Brady stated. “I used to be like, ‘The liquid energy are working. I’m not going to mess with that.”

Brady estimates they took in 45 grams of carbs, or simply underneath 200 energy, an hour during the race. Whereas that’s extra carbs than they’ve stomached in current longer ultras, it’s about half as a lot as many high-carb proponents suggest. The bonk began catching up with them by lap 5. However transferring ahead with some power was higher than curled up on the aspect of the path with no power in any respect.

2. Brady Math

A crown jewel of the Aravaipa Working race portfolio, the Javelina Jundred takes runners across the similar 20-mile loop by means of the sandy washes of the desert 5 occasions. Every loop encompasses a slight uphill over the primary half to the highpoint close to the foothills of the McDowell Mountains northeast of Phoenix earlier than looping again right down to the beginning for a complete of about 1,580 ft of climbing and descent on every lap.

5 20-mile loops could sound daunting. To not Brady.

“I don’t take into consideration the miles,” Brady stated. “I’m like, ‘We’re working 5 laps.’ You simply say ‘a lap,’ and it doesn’t sound that dangerous, you recognize?”

Compartmentalizing the 100-mile course into one thing as benign as a lap let Brady neglect in regards to the miles. In truth, they didn’t take a look at their watch as soon as all day.

“I put the mileage out of my thoughts,” Brady stated. “It’s actually only one laborious lap. The primary one doesn’t rely as a result of it’s the primary one. Second one, you’re in all probability nonetheless feeling fairly good, so it’s no matter. Third one is type of laborious, as a result of it’s the warmth of the day and it’s the third one. However then fourth one you get to choose up a pacer, so then you could have a buddy. And fifth one, it’s the final lap, so that you simply gotta get one lap performed.”

In truth, they only needed to make it by means of half of 1 lap:

“It helps that it’s barely uphill on the way in which out after which barely downhill all the way in which again. So I simply didn’t rely the downhill. That’s simple working. So I simply need to make it by means of half a lap.”

Feels like Brady math, a mindset fairly much like that of one other Brady legend.

“It’s not likely the way it performs out in actuality,” Brady admitted. “However that’s how I like to consider it going into it.”

3. Ice, Ice Child

Brady, who “hates” the chilly, is a pure in scorching temperatures. However they didn’t take that aptitude as a right, making the additional effort to spend time within the sauna and sizzling tub on the rec heart a few occasions every week, in addition to working within the warmth of the day on weekends throughout an often sizzling fall in Boulder. In addition they utilized a full warmth protocol throughout the race, utilizing pacer Leah Yingling’s particular bandanas Lululemon made for the Additional Undertaking and dumping ice water on their head and down their shirt. It helped that Javelina equipped ice at each assist station.

All of it paid off.

“To be sincere, it felt sizzling however not loopy,” Brady stated. “The one time I actually felt like, ‘OK, I’m getting fairly heat right here,’ was on the third lap throughout the warmth of the day coming into Jackass.”

There, Brady took a couple of additional seconds to verify their bottles have been refilled, in addition to to completely submerge in a kitty pool stuffed with ice water.

4. Highway Working Tremendous Footwear (Critically)

Two weeks earlier than the race, Brady had not as a lot as even ever tried on highway tremendous footwear. (That they had worn path tremendous footwear, akin to they’re, to various levels of success.) That’s after they obtained their fingers on a pair of Nike Vaporflys—a carbon-plated highway working tremendous shoe with next-to-no traction.

Brady took them out for a check drive on the Soiled Biz, a 15-mile, largely buffed out path and double-track loop simply south of Boulder that Brady characterizes as extra technical than the Javelina course. It was love at first run.

“I used to be like, ‘Wow. This matches my foot so completely. This feels so snug,” Brady stated. “I felt tremendous nimble.I simply wasn’t excited about my ft in any respect.”

For somebody with a neuroma who’s comparatively choosy in relation to footwear, this was a ringing endorsement.

“I didn’t really feel like they have been tippy,” Brady stated. “I didn’t really feel like I used to be going to roll an ankle.”

They admit the tread could possibly be higher, however that wasn’t going to make or break their shoe selection on a course as untechnical as Javelina. That they had no regrets.

“I couldn’t have been extra thrilled with them,” Brady stated. “I obtained a couple of rocks in my footwear. The higher is fairly porous. However I don’t have any blisters. I didn’t take into consideration my ft as soon as all through the day.”

Make no mistake, Brady says: this isn’t an commercial for Nike. However they’ve by no means liked a shoe extra.

5. Perspective of Gratitude

Brady’s shoe selection was a mirrored image of the liberty they’ve afforded themselves with a clear-headed angle. Over the previous a number of years, they’ve turned down modest sponsorship presents from shoe corporations whose footwear weren’t the right match.

“There have been some footwear that I simply don’t see working for me in path hundred milers. And that’s what I need to be working,” Brady stated. “And so if the shoe is gonna irritate my foot, all the cash on this planet wouldn’t be value it to me to have a shoe that doesn’t work.”

Working sponsorless has include a worth—Brady works as a motorbike mechanic, placing in three lengthy, laborious days every week on their ft and lugging heavy e-bikes and mountain bikes onto and off of motorcycle stands. (They love that work a lot, although, that they continued working time beyond regulation hours throughout the pandemic regardless of making lower than they’d have on unemployment.) They usually don’t have any sponsor help to journey to races (though they’ve supportive mother and father, who attend all of Brady’s massive races and pay for the rental home). Without having a sponsor would possibly knock the boldness of some runners at Brady’s degree, it doesn’t appear to part them.

“I’m not any person who appears like they want a sponsorship to really feel safe in my sense of self,” Brady stated. “I do know that’s some folks’s objective, however that’s not my objective in any respect. For a sponsorship to be value it to me, it must help my capability to run.”

If Brady have been to signal a sponsorship contract—and they’re in talks with some corporations—the deal must be large enough so they might stop their job as a motorbike mechanic. They don’t want time to coach extra: Brady places in about 90 miles every week, going as much as 100 on key weeks, with a couple of bike rides, energy coaching, warmth protocol, and bodily remedy slotted in there as properly. But it surely’s a militant schedule that leaves little time for cooking, spending time with their two roommates and two cats, and no time for Brady pursuing their largest passion exterior of working: welding. And that’s a ardour they hope to show right into a profession.

Brady carried this maturity to the race itself. After working alone off the entrance of the ladies’s race on lap one, Brady was caught by Allgood on the lengthy climb out of headquarters on lap two. They simply stored doing their very own factor, and positive sufficient their agility on the 10-mile downhill again to the beginning line reestablished that hole. They didn’t see one other competitor within the girl’s race for the remainder of the day—minus everybody they lapped.

6. An A Group

Talking of getting lapped, that’s the curse of doing properly at this race. The quicker you run, the extra folks you lap, and the extra folks you need to warn to get out of the way in which—as politely as you may, in fact.

That’s the place the ability of the pacer got here into play. Brady’s pal Chelsea Burns pulled them by means of lap 4, and Yingling ran them house on lap 5.

“It was actually useful to have Chelsea and Leah as a result of they might inform folks to maneuver,” Brady stated. “You’re passing so many individuals at that time, as a result of the 100K is out on target, and then you definitely’re catching the entire different folks within the 100 miler as a result of all people’s simply doing these similar loops, and it will get actually tough whenever you’re drained to maintain saying, ‘In your left! Excuse me! Coming by means of!’ And nonetheless sound form about it. I undoubtedly don’t need to be pissing folks off on the market, but additionally, I’m racing.”

Burns and Yingling additionally performed the pivotal position of serving as Brady’s consultant at assist stations, which whereas exceptionally properly staffed have been as chaotic as you’d anticipate with lots of of runners passing by means of each hour. (They have been so chaotic, in reality, that at one level Brady and Burns obtained separated and Burns ran up the path, pondering Brad had already left. They doubled again and located Brady simply rising from the help station lower than a handful of minutes later.) Brady’s pacers saved valuable seconds by serving to to amass ice and fill bottles. Yingling, ever the consummate skilled, supplied simply the stroke to the ego Brady wanted on lap 5 to get them to the end line and safe a golden ticket.

Safe a golden ticket they did. After failing to earn their manner again into States final yr, it’s an enormous aid, Brady says. However you’ll see them on the golden ticket circuit once more fairly quickly. They’ve some unfinished enterprise at Black Canyons to take care of. And also you’ll in all probability see them again at Javelina subsequent yr, too. However not with a bib pinned to their shirt.

“I actually need to be high 10 at Western States,” Brady stated. “I don’t need to have to return [to Javelina]. I’ve performed this race the final three years in a row. I need to get to expertise a number of the enjoyable social gathering facets of Javelina. I’ve different associates who I feel need to race it. I simply actually need to be on the crew and volunteer aspect of issues. Aravaipa has been so nice when it comes to serving to me get to this race, so I need to attempt to give again to Aravaipa in a small manner.”

As a result of greater than sponsorships or golden tickets, group is what attracted Brady to this sport as an undergraduate scholar on the College of Vermont, it’s largely what introduced them out to Boulder (together with high quality working and entry to trans healthcare), and it’s what retains them within the sport.

“That is in all probability gonna sound very cliché, and I actually hate clichés, however I do really feel so fortunate to simply have the most effective group round me,” Brady stated. “Going into this race, I used to be reflecting and simply felt so properly supported. I’m very appreciative of David [Roche] for being a very good coach, I’ve this nice PT, after which simply the most effective associates in Boulder.”

Roche, in fact, received the boys’s race.

Brady’s pal Rosie writes them a card earlier than each race, and Javelina was no exception. And upon returning to Boulder after the race, Brady was greeted to a congratulatory signal on their bed room door: “I’m quick as f***, boi!” And their two roommates took them out to a celebratory dinner.

“One of many causes to do that sport is the group,” Brady stated. “I’m simply actually, actually grateful and feeling rather well liked proper now.”