The Dailey Edge Podcast
Join hosts Trent, TJ, and Todd Dailey as they explore the intersections of technology, culture, fitness, and personal growth. Through engaging discussions and personal anecdotes, the trio dives into topics ranging from childhood gaming nostalgia and cutting-edge fitness tech to the pursuit of happiness and lifestyle choices. Whether reminiscing about epic gaming marathons, sharing tips for staying on the forefront of fitness trends, or unraveling the complexities of modern life, The Dailey Edge delivers thoughtful insights, lively debates, and relatable stories for listeners of all walks of life.
The Dailey Edge Podcast
Episode 61: Prairie On Fire Race Guide
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Prairie On Fire is around the corner, and if you’re racing or crewing, the smartest “training” you can do now is getting the details right. We walk through the 2025 Prairie On Fire backyard ultra logistics with TJ, including the runner bio link you received, how canopy status affects phased load-in, and why sharing a canopy can improve your setup near the corral. With the event swelling to about 240 runners and a huge number of canopies, we also get blunt about the biggest change: no on-site parking for crews or runners, plus a faster, more organized Saturday morning gear load-in so the start stays calm instead of chaotic.
We also talk about what’s new and worth getting excited about: physical therapists available in a more prominent spot, Mount To Coast on site with demo shoes, and a Daily Edge livestream that will capture interviews, crew stories, and the real-time highs and lows that make a backyard ultra unforgettable. TJ teases new approaches to timing and improved runner tracking so friends and family at home can follow yards more easily, then shares why filling out your bio questions and social handles helps the broadcast team tell your story.
The biggest addition is purpose. Prairie On Fire is partnering with New Shoe Day to donate shoes for kids, aiming for a pair of shoes for every yard run. We connect that mission to performance advice you can actually use: eat real food early, don’t overhaul your fueling plan last minute, save caffeine for later when you truly need it, embrace walk breaks, and protect your mental energy because your mind usually quits before your body does. Subscribe, share this with your crew, and leave a review, then tell us what part of Prairie On Fire you want us to cover next.
Prairie On Fire Kickoff
SPEAKER_03Welcome back to the Daily Edge special edition. It's that time of year. Prairie on Fire is coming around next weekend.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, September 12th.
SPEAKER_03So we are this is one of TJ's two races. It's massive. There's so much going on. So this episode, we're going to give you all kinds of details and take you through it and try to answer as many of those FAQs. We've all run it. And then TJ runs the race. So I'm going to let him kind of jump in and uh let's talk prairie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So there's a couple things this year that I'd love to start off with. By this point in time, you guys have gotten uh a link sent to you via either text or email. And this is your runner bio. So if you haven't taken a look at that, please do. There's some really important things that it calls out. And this year, we're finally at a point. You know, we love that this race to feel like a family. You guys have been out there. We want everybody to feel like they're part of it. Everybody, you know, by the time you're done, especially if you spend a lot of time on the prayer, you're going to know a lot of names that you didn't know before you got there. Um, everybody is treated the same. We have some phenomenal athletes on both sides of the fence, people coming out and doing their first marathon or ultra
Runner Bio Link And Canopy Tiers
SPEAKER_00people, you know, this year targeting 200 miles. But when it comes to that link, you got um, we have gotten to a point where we've got to be a little bit more stringent and rigid. Um, we didn't do a lot of this at registration this year because we didn't know what was going to happen. Last year we had 160 some runners uh start, I think, um, and we had 63 to 65, something like that, canopies on the prairie, so around that pavilion area. And if you were there last year, that was pretty busy. Pretty full. Not crazy, crazy over the top. Well, this year, by the time registration was done and we got a chance to look at the numbers, we had 185 canopies. As you can imagine, that's we've done some mapping pretty close to impossible. Like if every square inch is accounted for and we're putting things in you know, some questionable areas, we could probably make it work. So, one of the main things you're gonna see inside that link is your canopy status. This year, because we are getting to a point where we're overwhelming the campground, we will be doing load-in in phases. Okay, so your past performances, the number of times you've completed the prairie, and whether or not you're sharing a canopy or with a team will affect when you get to load in and in turn affect where you are relative to the corral. Now, nobody, regardless of where they're at, is going to need to walk more than probably 75 yards to the corral. So you're maybe talking about an extra 60 seconds. Um, and as the field whittles down, you can feel free to move closer to the corral. But when you click in, you will first and foremost be faced with okay, what is your camping setup? If you can camp with somebody, do it. Especially if this is your first time. If you need help and want us to place you with somebody, we can do that. My contact information will be on that page you get. Click it and you can contact me. What that will do, so so how how this works is we have an elite tier. Uh, so our elite tier are runners who have finished every prairie on fire, which is three people, and our podium finishers from the year prior. Um, and then tier A is anybody who has run over 100 miles on the prairie. Those two teams will load in on um Thursday at, I believe one begins at 4:30 and then can continue on to whenever. The next group will come in at 5:30, uh, which is the tier A and then tier B will be the last group to load in on Thursday. Those are the people on teams. So if you're affiliated with the team, or if you're sharing a canopy with somebody else. If you're neither one of those, you have not finished the prairie more than a single time, um, you will be in group D, C D C D or E, which load in on Friday. So if you're in the last group, you've never run prairie before, it's just your first prairie, and you're not sharing with anybody, there is a high likelihood that you will be as far from the corral as as anybody could be. So we encourage you to get on, share with somebody if you can. That will bump you from E to B and allow you to get a better placement. In that same breath, I'd like to call out that when you load in, we would like you to load in your hard goods. So we'd love for people to load in canopies. You have tables, chairs, anything that can be left outside. Uh, we obviously suggest you try to secure your canopies. So if you're on a camping pad and you're with a team, use sandbags. If you're on the pavilion grass itself, use stakes. Um, but we we suggest you secure it. There will be people overnight watching your stuff. Uh, so that's a big thing.
Phased Load In And Parking Rules
SPEAKER_00A second thing that you'll notice in there is details around parking. People will be loading in their gear Saturday morning. We will open the gates at five. Race starts at eight. Uh, gear is perishable food, shoes, clothes, cooler, whatever, like things that you wouldn't leave out overnight in case it rained or whatever. That's gonna be a process, right? You have 240 people this year versus 150, 160. We have a much more serious group this year, so there will be people bringing in a lot of gear. We're gonna need to be move through it quick. There will be no parking on site for crews or runners. Over the years, as you guys have probably seen, a lot of times what will happen is a crew will come last minute, they'll unload the canopy Saturday morning, they'll unload the gear Saturday morning, and then they'll just kind of saunter up and park on the grass and just kind of keep their car there. We can't do that this year. We're gonna have double to triple the amount of people with crew, with family and friends. Um, so crew and runners will need to park off site. So you'll also see in that link information on parking, and then just of course, general rules, frequently asked questions as it relates to the race itself. But those are super, super vital. Uh, you'll also see um your past performance via that link. So there'll be a runner bio page alongside the page I just kind of referred to. It's gonna show you any badges you've unlocked, coins you've earned over the years, total number of yards over the years. You'll be able to upload a picture. Those of you who have participated in the new shoe day activation, uh, you'll be able to track your progress there. So um I wanted to throw that out first, just as a disclaimer at the very, very beginning of this. I know that was a couple minutes of me talking, is that's extremely important as we go into this year to ensure that this uh goes smoothly.
SPEAKER_03Sounds like um as the race continues to grow and you've kind of reached max capacity, uh, there's been some challenges.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there have been.
SPEAKER_02Well, let's talk about. I know um with the group that puts on this race, there's always a desire to do something uh new or level up the experience in some fashion. Although I I feel like last year and in years past,
New On Site Experiences
SPEAKER_02the experience people all always rave about anyhow. But anything you can share that will be new or um something people can look forward to this year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's a couple things. So everything that you guys have experienced and or heard about in the past is coming back. Um, and and it, you know, it will try to make some of it different. Um, but you know, there'll be a different special gift this year in the box alongside the shirt. Um, we're gonna have some different people on site, you know. A couple last year we had Mike and Tyler, um, but they were kind of hidden. Those are the physical therapists, they will be available to utilize, so we'll have them there in a little more of a prominent location. Mount to Coast will be on site this year with demo shoes. Wow. They are the you will see on the on the yard, um, number of people, especially our top performers out there, are in Mount to Coast. The H1 and the C1, but the H1 specifically is kind of built for this kind of thing because it's a hybrid shoe. Um, you're gonna see probably 25 to 30 percent of the field in those shoes. And, you know, in talking with Mount to Coast team, they have been blown away by the number of people they've seen that have tried their shoes mid-race and like kept them on. Um, so they'll have we'll have them there. We're working on curating that experience. The other thing that I think is extremely relevant to this is that there's going to be an element of the Daily Edge present at the Prairie. Um, this is the first year we're live streaming. And uh, you know, if you've watched any Backyard Ultra live streams, The Last Soul Ultra finished recently, these two will be hosting. So, you know, I know they're a little uh nervous about how that's gonna look because that's a really long broadcast. Uh, those of you who watched last year's film uh with Angela Kumar, who's one of the women who finished 100 miles, she will be a correspondent in the field. So she's gonna be talking to all of you out there, your your crews, yourselves. Um, these guys will be interviewing you when you're done, potentially. Um and that I guess that goes back to that link I talked about. There's some bio questions in there that these guys are gonna need to really uh dive deep on you as a runner, as they're kind of broadcasting throughout the day. So live broadcast is new, and then we are working on, and I'm gonna say it, uh, we'll figure it out, but we're also working on a potential new approach to timing. We're not quite sure if
Running For Shoes Philanthropy
SPEAKER_00it's gonna make it in time. Um, we've got some testing to do, but there's that element as well.
SPEAKER_02So um there's one uh thing I'd love for you to talk about uh maybe in a little more detail. Um that is the first time at this event, which is a philanthropic uh angle, which I think is huge. I think a lot of people come to these events, and you know, certainly there's a focus on setting personal records, building your own personal confidence, and uh entering into the ultra territory. That's always been like a whole uh theme for your races. Uh, this brings on a whole new dimension and a whole new level of motivation, which is really cool because there have been some studies done that talk about people's motivation. A lot of times, uh, if it's for someone else or beyond themselves, can extend themselves much further than if it's fully intrinsic. So why don't you talk about that a little bit?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this came to be, and I and yeah, I mentioned it very briefly on another podcast, but this came to be um for a number of reasons. You know, we've developed a good relationship with New Shoe Day, and we love what they do in terms of providing shoes for for children and for anybody, really, that uh they're the Indians only shoe bank, so providing that for the less fortunate and helping those kids build confidence, you know. But to your point where we really saw synergy was I think there's there's maybe I'm wrong, but I think there's a duality here from a benefit perspective. Number one, um, you know, uh we'll see how much of this is translated to the people receiving these, you know, because I I think you know, we've utilized commentary in the past. You had mentioned on a prior podcast about writing a check for something. It's like getting getting money for your birthday from somebody. It could have been like a last minute thing where there wasn't a lot of effort. You know, I think for these kids, and and maybe it won't be fully translated to them, but like somebody busted their ass to earn these shoes, you know, because they believe in you. Um, I'd love for that to be part of the messaging that goes out to them. But conversely, yeah, you know, as a runner, we find, and and you look at the data every year, there are two points in that race where people drop like flies because that intrinsic purpose they had just isn't cutting it. And so our goal this year was to put ourselves in a position where uh for every yard run we're donating donating a pair of shoes. So when you go out there, and if you're going for a hundred miles and it's mile 70, so you still have more than a marathon to go. There's no other major milestones, you just hit 100K. What am I doing this? Because it's gonna happen. You guys have both experienced it. I'm sure. Why am I doing this? This is ridiculous. Like there's nothing to prove. Oh, wait, I know why. And then by the time, oh, I'm gonna go run four more four pairs of shoes to kids, like how dope is that? Um, so you send emails out to everybody. Um, your your link is also available in the link that I sent out to the people that are running the race. Um, it has been incredibly successful already. I think we're at the point or close to the point where we've raised almost enough money to cover a thousand yards. Um, so we're we're continuing to work forward forward there. Our goal is um to cover 4,000 because we believe we have a team that is strong enough to get there.
SPEAKER_02So many yards did was last year.
SPEAKER_00Um let's just say I should know this by the analytics. Probably 1600 to somewhere in that 16, 2000, somewhere in that range, below 2,000 but above 1,500. Yeah, I think. But again, we've got an extra hundred people, and I think you, you know, based on the caliber of field we have and the work people are putting in, um, I wouldn't be surprised. And I don't even think I'm jinxing anybody by saying this, I wouldn't be surprised if we see like 70 people over 100. I wouldn't.
SPEAKER_0250 to 70. It it's been exponential. Um the first year, 88. 80. 80 miles won it, then 88. 86 or something like that. And then the next year we had seven hit a hundred.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Jeff went like 120 something, and then 20 plus.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was 24 or 24, I thought, last year. It wouldn't shock me to see 50 plus.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think 50 to 70 is probably a really good if the weather cooperates, even if it doesn't, um, as long as it's not crazy hot. Um, that's another fun fact. We just had a historic flood. Um, I don't know if anybody saw pictures. Maybe, maybe we can have them throw up a picture up, but the water was about a foot below the roof of the pavilion.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You didn't see that picture? No. Look at this.
SPEAKER_03It's unbelievable. It's insane. So he pulls that up. Um, something that I know is probably really important to all the listeners. Food for whether it's spectators or anyone gonna be there. What type of food? Is it only available during meal hours? If you're there hanging out, are you gonna be able to buy food? What's the what's the food situation and how how long does it exist?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we are um that's the we'll throw that picture up on the screen and send that to tonight. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's unbelievable. I drove by there today, it is completely receded, so it's gone.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that unbelievable. This is just so you guys have it's a couple day time span. But um everybody's confident. But yeah, from a food perspective, uh, we will have food on site again this year. Um, we're looking to do food that is a little bit easier for us. Last year it was smoked meats, which you know, once it's gone, it's gone. You can't throw another hog on for 12 hours, like last minute. Yeah, uh, so we will have a number of different um things on site. We're looking at the easy foods, kind of like your your cookout food. So burgers, dogs, something for the vegetarian, vegan crowd, um, probably a little bit of the smoked meats. They will be available.
SPEAKER_03Um credit card cash.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, credit card cash, uh, just like last year.
SPEAKER_03Um, hopefully, breakfast right now, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But right now we'll plan on like within you know a two-hour window, probably, like potentially not all day. Maybe we'll have some snacks there. But we funny thing is, we just started talking about that fairly recently with John, who runs all of that.
SPEAKER_03Um and so we're he always puts on a great spread. I was just curious.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there will be food on site for sure.
SPEAKER_03That's great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we'll also have for anybody that participates in the new shoe day, we will be doing custom shirts with their names on the back. Uh, every yard is a gift. And then, of course, as we did last year, we'll be printing shirts on site. We spent uh a lot more time this year on the designs. Um, so there are some really clever designs that we're we're um gonna launch this year that will be on site. Uh, and we'll be utilizing the same uh partner that we utilize for the Fulmo. Uh so you know, not necessarily this exact uh shirt, but like same quality uh of product, so you can expect some really good stuff out there this year for sure.
SPEAKER_02So let's talk just a little bit about performance.
Fueling Pacing And Mental Strategy
SPEAKER_02Um, I mean, a lot of people have done this multiple times, and and but I think for some and they're early or looking for tips and tricks to be able to get extra yards. Sounds like there'll be a little extra motivation, which is awesome. Um what have what what what are the what are the common things that you hear from the people who finish at near the at or near the top of the the leaderboard every year?
SPEAKER_00Sure. Well, cool thing this year is it's wide open because our winner, Jeff Walker, uh who won Prairie in 2024 and 2025, has qualified for worlds. Uh so it's team worlds this year. So he'll be down at Biggs Backyard Ultra in October, um, running down there. Uh Jeff won our race this last year and then went to Queenie, which is in Missouri, and won that silver ticket. Uh, I think ran 260 some miles. Um, so a considerable uh number of yards, I I think something like that, or 60, 63 yards. I don't remember what it was, but it was a ton. Uh so he won't be there this year. He'll be there running. He's gonna do 50 to 70 miles kind of training as he gets ready for bigs. So it's wide open from a uh winner's perspective. But I've had a lot of conversations with him along with some other people that have run these races, and I think there's a couple things, you know, at this point you're listening to this. The Hayes probably in the barn. You're not gonna gain any fitness between now and then. Um, so I think it's important to stay hydrated and stay fueled. And I think I say that in the context, especially with fueling, use what you have when you can. And use like don't abuse things. For instance, one of the one of the big things that one of the big things we got from from one of the guys who's gone very, very far. He's like, I don't use caffeine until night two. Like, I'm not taking caffeine off the jump because I want to make sure that when I really need it, it's there. Um, I would say that it could could hold true potentially. Now, this is to each to his own, right? I think there's nuance to everybody's approach, but I think that holds true with music.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_00If you're gonna listen to music, don't listen to it off the jump. You're gonna have so many people out there to talk to. I think you guys can attest that. Yes, it's gonna hurt, it's 40 miles. And for some of you, that may not be in the cards or your goal, but if you're having a conversation every yard, you can make 40 miles go pretty quickly. Right? So you utilize music potentially when you need to utilize it. Don't utilize it off the jump. That's what I kind of mean. Uh, food is the same way. Start eating real food and eat it till you you guys you've been there till you don't want to chew anymore. Like I'm done chewing. My body doesn't want to digest solids. Okay, now let's switch to this or switch to that. If you've been practicing gels and your body can handle gels for 100 or 150 miles, whatever you want to do, or 80 or 60, use them. Do what you've been practicing, don't change it last minute. Uh, you know, you can you can almost never take it too easy. I think that's another thing. One of the things I've heard from a lot of the guys that have done really well is and gals alike, right? We have one of the most elite women's fields. I say I say guys to include both men and women.
SPEAKER_01Um microaggression. Is that what they call those? A microaggression.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, right. Sorry. Um, but you know, I mean Tanny's a great example, right? The walk breaks, like just dialed. Whether that's you're so we have some people that do it off of time. I'm gonna run three minutes, walk three minutes, and you'd be surprised, and I think both of you know this, how much you can walk and still get through a lap with 10 minutes left. Um, it's a pretty substantial amount. So whether it's timing, whether it's landmarks, whether whatever, you can never go too easy. You can, you know, I I think one of the other things that I would say is just because you can finish in 57 minutes and turn around and go out early and continue to do that, I don't necessarily think, you know, that's always the best bet. Um, especially because if you run into a problem, as we know, problem solving is a major thing out here, you don't want to have to fix a blister in 90 seconds.
SPEAKER_02And I think there's something to be said too to mixing things up at times. I mean, if you're in a zone, stick to whatever works for you. But I think I know for me, um running the same pace, the same cadence, the same impact uh for uh 15, 16 yards caught up with me. And so there were times where I mixed in a fast one or a walk run or whatever, I think that can really help mix up the impact.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, your mind's gonna can try to convince you. I mean, I was with Phil will appreciate this, so probably listen to this. Well, he ran a 12 hour race. Phil is is again one of the uh he's finished prairie all five times and he's a contender. Um, we were running a 12 hour, and for you that don't know how timed runs work, um Whatever loop is part of it. So let's say it's a two-mile loop that you run over and over and over again, you have to be able to finish the loop for the miles to count. So you can't typically in a timed run stop halfway and get a mile. And Phil and I came in and he was close to being able to break a record. And he can his mind had convinced him that if he ran uh eight minute miles, he would destroy his training for the next six weeks. Like, and your mind's gonna tell you that. And when you're out there running those same paces and you look down at your watch, and what has felt like a 1030 all day is a 1230, you're it's like, oh no. And I know from personal experience as as well as you do, you know, uh it's in there. Just stride out and go get it. Um, you could probably, I mean, Jeff closes these in 7:30 pace. Um, so like I think you're absolutely right. People walk backwards and do, but the different muscle group engagements, I think, is a huge piece of the puzzle.
SPEAKER_03I I went out um in the first 10 laps or so, I was like, I'm gonna find a new person to talk to. And so I found people that I'd never met before and got in different groups and just did life with people for like 10, 10 laps. Um, some of the other things that I did with that were successful for me is my wife made um stir fries, so like meats and rice and stuff, and put them in glass containers, and I had like four of them. I ate regular food the whole time and I never had food issues. I eventually went out at 100K due to like chafing. But you know, you gave me really good advice on my, you know, you at some point in time your legs are gonna hurt, and so, but they're not gonna hurt any worse. And you kind of told me that you're like, it's not gonna get any worse, and then it kind of went away, and then you just deal with these different nuances, and you gotta be able to mentally get past every couple yards, there's gonna be something else that comes comes your way, and then staying staying motivated. But um enjoy the people, enjoy the time out there. You can always go further than than you think you can, and um fuel, fuel, fuel, fuel.
SPEAKER_00You gotta eat. I mean, again, at the top, the top people are eating, you know, um, depending on body size, four to six hundred calories an hour.
SPEAKER_02Isn't that crazy? I mean, that's a lot.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you know, if you're eating clean, that's a full meal. Yeah, you know, hourly. And it's in 10 minutes or whatever you type.
SPEAKER_03And you gotta be uncomfortably like there were laps where I was uncomfortably full for a lap, and then I'd be fine.
SPEAKER_02That's you can you can start a lot of people start their next lap with a walk as they're still digesting.
SPEAKER_00Or just keep it with you. People will on them, right? I've got my water on me, and I've got my food on me, and I'm kind of nibbling as I'm going.
SPEAKER_03Um I can't do bars and for like long periods of time, me personally, like I I will call those all supplements. Like, I can't go off of peanut butter pretzels and bars and gels. I need like solid home cooked meals.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's where I found the most success.
SPEAKER_00And that's what this all is, right? I mean, you guys have both run it. It's it's it's realizing there's always something on the other side, but it's solving all these problems. Like, I don't want to eat anymore. I don't want to, like, how do I get over this? I have to, or I'm not gonna make it. Um, you know, I don't whatever, you know, whatever it is, it's it's it's blisters, it's chafing, it's you'll lose some toenails, you'll have blisters.
SPEAKER_03I don't care what you do.
SPEAKER_02This would be my semi-annual plug for um mental game. Most of what we talked about here is physical. Uh, the race will be won or lost mentally. It'll be one or lost right up here. And I have had a ton of success with mental tapering going into events like this, like two, three days before, not doing intensive, exhausting mental things. Um, that makes a huge difference when you hit walls. And then early on in the race, protecting your mental energy at all costs. I think that is just as important, if not more important, than a lot of the physical, because it will be your mind that stops you. Your mind will stop you before your body is is unable to go for the vast majority of people. There are some unique uh I mean there's a slider, right?
SPEAKER_00Like that's how I think of this mental picture that I draw. There's toughness and there's fitness. And your winners are probably gonna be about here. Um, we have seen some of the toughest of the tough, but if you're running 20 miles a week, you're probably gonna end up, you know, it it seems to be that the real breaking point is somewhere around 150 miles for those people. Like, um, you know, but we've seen people go from nothing to 100 to 150, right? Or not running much.
SPEAKER_02Um this may be for some people, and I'm a little more introverted, talking to a different person each lap, that drains me mentally. And so, like, I would rather prefer to keep to myself a little bit, or maybe have some light conversation, or you know, maybe in and out. But if you're somebody who feels like you've got to be on when you're in a conversation, yeah, like over the course of 10 laps or 40 miles, you would be shocked at what that can do to your mental energy.
SPEAKER_00And there, you're you're I mean, it's funny you say that because like Jeff loves to talk, like you do, he loves to talk to people. Cam, he'll tell you that he thinks the reason he hasn't done well is because he's putting expending too much energy talking to people because he's kind of like a celebrity at a race like that. Um, so like you're you're absolutely right. There's definitely two sides to that coin.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it can energize you if that's your personality or it can the other interesting thing is um I've seen it work out, but I've had it not work out to where you have a plan to like stay with someone, like run your own race. Um there's been times where it's like, okay, we're gonna stick together, and then arguably you guys are gonna have different issues at different times. Just run your own race, have that understanding. This is about um obviously you have a team there, but this is about your own personal journey.
SPEAKER_00So unless you're Kristen and Tanya, you guys can run together. They've run every step together, it seems like, for the last two years. Um absolute metronome watching those two run. It's it's unbelievable. They know each other backwards and forwards. Yeah, I mean, uh there was there was something else that kind of popped into my head as you were talking. Um, you know, I I want I I think one thing I want to say is I want the community to be proud of what they've come together to to do. Uh we are the largest in the country this year. Um second largest in the world, to my knowledge, largest in the United States. Um I would assume that, and I'll have numbers when we get their day of, that we will have uh more yards completed for an event than any event ever before. Like a crude total number of yards. Um, last year we had more hundred milers than anybody. I think we'll
Check In QR Codes And Bigger Goals
SPEAKER_00do the same this year. So phenomenal group of people. I think another important thing to mention is that uh this year we will have a check-in process. So you will see QR codes when you get there. And there will be a couple different QR codes for different things. Most of it will be uh make sure you're checked in because that puts you through hell last year. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, please just check in. Uh, you may be wondering why. We spent 16 hours trying to figure out who was at the start line, as you might imagine. There's 150. You have people pick up their packets but didn't show up the next day or whatever. Uh, people maybe, you know, maybe we didn't get something quite right when people were picking up the packets because they're picking up for multiple people or whatever. So if you check in, that's just going to help us tremendously from an analytics perspective.
SPEAKER_00And for those of you who haven't run, just to give you a reasoning behind that, we don't do bibs. We don't want you guys to have a bib on for two days or a day or whatever. And if it's raining or if you're switching clothes every you know dozen yards, we don't want you to have to unpin and repin. So you're not wearing a bib. Um, again, I am I alluded to earlier that we're potentially working on some timing stuff. So maybe we'll have that, but I would I would definitely check in via the QR code, and then we'll also have a QR code there for new shoe day donations and one for the live stream. We want to make sure we share that. Uh, at the same time, we talked about filling out your bio and that link you got. Uh, also fill out your social media so that we can either shout you out or tag you if we clip uh some of these things up in the future. So those are some other big things that I wanted to call out. I want everybody, I think, you know, not only our team, which now is so big it's hard to mention everybody. Um, you know, Christy, Keegan, Corey, Angie, Dakota, you two, Ricardo, um, Phil, Phil helps, John. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. Um it's something that I think that everybody can be proud of being a part of a phenomenal ultra community in Indiana.
SPEAKER_02Hey, can you just for a second? I'm curious. You mentioned the bronze, the bronze ticket, the silver ticket. Uh, what what is I know there's a process where you can kind of get upgraded as a race. Like, can you talk about what Prairie was when it first started, what it is now, and and do you have goals for it to be yeah?
SPEAKER_00So we were uh recognized by Backyard Ultra with Laz in the Biggs team from the beginning, but um I don't think we became a bronze until year three. Um our goal is to become a silver. If you win a silver, you get to go to worlds, um, you get an at-large bid to worlds. Um, you know, what that requires, and this is this is kind of anecdotal because I'm not in the room, but what it seems to require is a very high top-end finish, and then all of the other things we discussed. You know, I think, you know, if if somebody this year goes 275 and we have 70 people finish 100 miles, plus all the exposure we have from a social media perspective, so many amazing people sharing all of our content out there, the films that John Kuhn has produced, um, and the stuff that he does for us on social, the stuff Christy does, et cetera, et cetera. I think with all of that collectively, um, we have a really strong case to become a self-project and be one of those championship races. Um honestly, for those out here watching this, I have no problem uh stating this publicly. Um there are four to five backyard altars in the world that I think could be a step above everything else out there. That's no shade on any of the ones that exist, but I think that we have the community, we have the team, we have the facility. Um Hamilton County Parks is just a wonderful partner. Um you know, the Cicero Fire Department, like we have the medic side of things, like everything is so we're so lucky to have all of that have come together that I think we have all the ingredients to be like a pinnacle event in this space globally.
SPEAKER_02So we talked logistics, we've talked performance, talk to the philanthropic side. Any any final things to add?
SPEAKER_00I mean, thanks. Thank you everybody for the support. We're really gonna be excited about your feedback this year. We have some some new uh technology we're implementing this year, which is really cool. So runner tracking could be a little bit more um accessible. That's a big thing. Um, I'm kind of being a little coy around that and the timing because those are like in development right now. Uh, we're we're kind of getting to the end of that. We'll be testing that. Um, but new back-end tracking for friends and family at home, uh, new front-end stuff as we've talked about from a bio and race information perspective. Um, yeah, I mean, it's gonna be it's gonna be a heck of a year, and we're looking forward to seeing everybody out there on for a couple days on September 12th.
Final Reminders And Livestream Invite
SPEAKER_03The last thing I will say is if you get done your laps really fast, or when you finally finish the race, come and see me and Todd. We're gonna be streaming for 30 some hours, uh, probably over the however many days this goes. So we'd love to talk to you. We'd love to hear your story, we'd love to learn about everything about you. So please fill out those bios. Please drop by and see us so we can spend some some uh time with you.
SPEAKER_00Heck yeah.
SPEAKER_03All right, perfect. We'll see you out of prairie. Thanks.