Marine Corps Marathon Race Recep

Summary

The conversation explores how society categorizes individuals into archetypes, affecting our perception of their identities. It discusses the implications of these stereotypes and the importance of recognizing the complexity of human experiences.


Takeaways

We categorize people into archetypes like heroes or villains.
Stereotypes can limit our understanding of individuals.
Recognizing the complexity of identity is crucial.
Society often fails to see the actual person behind the label.
Different archetypes can lead to different societal expectations.
The need for empathy in understanding others is emphasized.
Human experiences are often more nuanced than stereotypes suggest.
Challenging societal norms can lead to better understanding.
The conversation highlights the importance of personal narratives.
Understanding identity requires looking beyond surface labels.


Keywords

society, archetypes, identity, stereotypes, human experience

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Transcript

Mike Ergo (00:00.069)
Okay. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the ginger and chocolate podcast. I'm your cohost, Mike, along with Lindsay. Lindsay, how are you?

Lindsay Hiken (00:08.27)
Hello. I'm doing well. For once, I have to report that I'm not tired when we're recording. it's a win.

Mike Ergo (00:17.145)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (00:22.585)
win for sure. Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good too. I'm a little recovering from a kickball injury. So I feel like I'm getting old because I play recreational sports and I get hurt.

Lindsay Hiken (00:33.07)
Lindsay Hiken (00:40.138)
Yeah, was that something you were doing with other adults? Or were you messing around with kids? that's fun.

Mike Ergo (00:44.027)
Yeah. huh. Oh yeah. This is adult kickball league full on really a lot of fun, a lot of fun, but I, um, I slipped going around first and slid and I was wearing, um, shorts. so I have this raspberry the size of a dinner plate on my backside of my front of my legs.

Lindsay Hiken (01:07.502)
Did you get this after you did the Marine Corps Marathon or before?

Mike Ergo (01:12.155)
I, yeah, I tweaked my shoulder before diving for a ball. So yeah, it's a mess. It's the whole thing's a mess. I love it, but I don't know. It's definitely gonna get in the way of my endurance board stuff if I keep it up.

Lindsay Hiken (01:35.02)
Right, right. I didn't know there was such a thing as a kickball league, to be honest.

Mike Ergo (01:39.791)
Yeah. Yeah. Right where I live, they have one. I think there's about five teams, a lot of fun. It's kind of like a beer league softball. I mean, a lot, a lot of adults are drinking. but it's, it's just kind of, it, I guess it depends on the team who takes it seriously and who's out there just for funsies. So.

Lindsay Hiken (01:46.048)
Awesome.

Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (02:00.96)
Right, right. I mean, let's not take it too, too seriously. That's right. That was actually one of my faves in in grade school because I was my legs were stronger than most kids. I was a good runner runner. And so I was one of those people where.

Mike Ergo (02:05.935)
We are playing kickball, a game for girls and boys.

Mike Ergo (02:21.348)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (02:25.696)
Sometimes they would say boys against girls or something, but then they would want boys would want me on their team, that kind of thing. And I remember just like wearing those jellies that were popular, those little weird little plastic shoes in the 80s and playing kickball in those and doing well, doing well. I feel like I'm with you. That's right. That's right. I feel like if I did it now, I'd have the same experience you're having, which is

Mike Ergo (02:31.414)
Hahaha

Mike Ergo (02:38.331)
I remember those, yeah.

Mike Ergo (02:44.025)
Yes.

Mike Ergo (02:47.515)
kicking the hell out of the ball.

Lindsay Hiken (02:55.36)
injury from a recreational league softball or kickball. Anyway, I wanted to share something, which is that one of the reasons I'm not tired is I get up at 5 a.m. now every day instead of just like when I work out or recording days. I have like a more set schedule. A guy I know had said he was having sleep issues and

Mike Ergo (03:02.777)
Yeah... Yeah...

Mike Ergo (03:17.69)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (03:23.744)
They told him not only go to bed, you know, around the same time every every day, but get up the same time every day, even on the weekends. And so I started getting up at five and it's going to force me to go to bed earlier. Josh is also getting up early. we've been like last night we were in bed. We got in our beds at like, I mean. 850.

Mike Ergo (03:38.747)
the

Mike Ergo (03:50.81)
Wow.

Lindsay Hiken (03:52.981)
And I slept, you know, and I feel so much better. It's really, it's really good. I still get up in the middle of the night. I still had to read a book in the middle of the night, but at least I'm in bed long enough that I get more sleep. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (04:06.811)
So the big difference for you, is it the getting up at the same time?

Lindsay Hiken (04:12.236)
I think it's the getting up at the same time and the so going to sleep and getting up at the same time and giving myself that extra like 45 minutes to an hour in bed so that I if I'm awake for an hour reading I still have eight hours to sleep. Now I'm not getting eight hours of sleep I'm getting like six and a half to seven in a nine hour period but when I give myself only eight or seven and a half I was getting five hours of sleep which isn't enough. Yeah. So I'm really.

Mike Ergo (04:25.627)
I it.

Mike Ergo (04:36.463)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (04:41.326)
I'm really stoked. Sometimes I don't have anything to do. I get up and I'm like, hmm, well, I don't have shit to do, but I'm figuring it out. So yeah, it was a win. So today we're gonna talk about, we're gonna get a race report from you, which I'm very excited to do. But first I wanted to talk a little bit about Veterans Day and ask you how that was for you and if you did anything and all those good things.

Mike Ergo (04:47.919)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (05:06.827)
huh. Yeah, it was, it was a day of travel for me. I took the family out to New York for the weekend. We went and saw a couple of Broadway shows. Hung out with my, yeah, yeah. My, my, went out with my dad and his wife and spent some time out there just exploring Manhattan. And it was, it was a fun time. It was.

Lindsay Hiken (05:20.025)
how fun.

Mike Ergo (05:35.001)
It was one of those times where I watched my kids have so much fun that I had fun through that and through some of the activities and at the end of it I was definitely excited to come home. I think I like to visit big cities but not stay there too long.

Lindsay Hiken (05:55.373)
Yes, same, same. New York's very cool, but I've never been there and thought, wouldn't it be cool to live here? I've never thought that. I've always thought, this is great, I'm going to leave.

Mike Ergo (06:04.793)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. It's exactly my experience. you know, it's, it's, it's definitely for some people. And for me, I had a lot of decompression from all the hustle and bustle by, you know, spending the day all day yesterday hunting and just being out there in the marsh. was, it was nice. So yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. One duck hunting.

Lindsay Hiken (06:28.91)
Oh, did you actually hunt yesterday? Oh, cool.

Mike Ergo (06:36.131)
But, then to answer your question though, so Veterans Day, we're flying back. So we didn't do too much. I didn't go to any of the parades or any of the, ceremonies or anything this year. And I usually don't, I have before, but Veterans Day is usually like right in the middle of the anniversary of these big battle I fought in.

in Fallujah and, and so it's not as, as fun for me. It's, it's more, I think of it as, you know, that time rather than, something to be excited about. So what I, yeah. So it's, it's okay. And I appreciate what everyone does for it. really do. what I

Lindsay Hiken (07:06.52)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (07:17.71)
Just.

Lindsay Hiken (07:24.558)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (07:30.115)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (07:31.356)
did do was on Friday before Veterans Day that my kids school had a ceremony for it. And I was the guest speaker again this year. And so I spoke about what Veterans Day is and what a veteran is. And I spoke to the school about that. And it was a unique challenge to explain these things to kids that are anywhere from five to 12 years old.

Lindsay Hiken (07:40.011)
Mike Ergo (07:56.942)
So, you know, I wasn't telling war stories or anything like that. but just explaining what it means to be selfless or, and what it means to be of service and, you know, apply it to things they can do in their life. And yeah, I really enjoyed that. That was, that was an enjoyable experience.

Lindsay Hiken (07:57.38)
huh. Yeah, definitely.

Right.

Lindsay Hiken (08:20.704)
Yeah, that's a neat thing to be able to do, I think for kids to help them understand. And I like the idea of putting it in the context of like being selfless versus, you know, this I was in this war. And this happened that happened not that that's a bad thing to share either. But you know, for kids to learn some lessons from what you went through is kind of a neat thing. Did you see I saw on the news not to get political and I won't get political but

Mike Ergo (08:23.483)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (08:33.787)
Lindsay Hiken (08:48.194)
they have some flights that take veterans to DC and then they take them around to, did you see that Obama got on the flight? On one of the flights, yes, he came on one of the flights and got over the PA system and like when they landed, he came into one of the flights, got over the PA system and thanked them for their service and talked a little bit about that. A lot of older veterans and

Mike Ergo (08:52.603)
huh.

Mike Ergo (08:57.442)
I didn't see that.

Mike Ergo (09:01.755)
No kidding.

Lindsay Hiken (09:17.902)
did a whole thing and stood there and shook each one of their hands as they got off and they were super excited about it. It was a really neat thing. Yeah, it was a cool thing to do.

Mike Ergo (09:22.629)
Wow.

That is so cool. Yes, and what you're referring to, they call the honor flight. And so they were taking, at first it was World War II veterans, and now it's shifted the focus to the Vietnam veterans. And they bring them to DC to see the war memorials, to see the wall where all the names of the killed in action are, and help them to...

Lindsay Hiken (09:27.906)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (09:42.027)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (09:54.298)
to grieve and remember and have that experience. I've talked to several vets who have done that and it seems like such a powerful thing for them. And that was so cool that President Obama got on and addressed everybody.

Lindsay Hiken (10:09.25)
Yeah, I highly recommend you guys look it up on YouTube or whatnot, because it is it was filmed by somebody. I think somebody probably on the plane. not like the footage, but it it it was cute to see to how freaking stoked they were to meet him. You know, like when he gets on and starts talking in the P.A., they're like, what? And then he kind of steps out into the aisle and they're like, my God, it's actually it's actually him. And then.

Mike Ergo (10:27.299)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (10:35.543)
Surprise. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (10:37.561)
Yeah, so they were all just very, very stoked to shake his hand. so definitely recommend looking that up. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (10:43.063)
That's so cool. That's so cool. Yeah, that's a special thing. I'm glad our country does that too for vets. It's an interesting thing where I am appreciative and though I'm a speaker and want to be in the spotlight, I've never been like...

Lindsay Hiken (10:51.374)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (11:11.771)
wanting, I don't crave the, the thank you for your service kind of stuff. Um, I appreciate it, but, um, I think it's really important for the Vietnam vets to, to get that. Cause a lot of them had a pretty awful experience coming home where, mean, think of it, especially the people who got drafted, who weren't excited to be there and they get back and they get blamed for a war they didn't even want to be part of.

Lindsay Hiken (11:17.517)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (11:31.629)
Right.

Lindsay Hiken (11:38.474)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (11:39.835)
It's tough situation. So honor flight, great way of, of helping heal that too.

Lindsay Hiken (11:47.311)
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah, I feel like. Well, so what do you think about? So one of the things I've noticed is a sort of like. Weird. Patriotism associated with people in the military where we do stuff like at the beginning of the football game, we do this whole song and dance, and I don't think it's a bad thing to obviously recognize people.

But at the same time, it's almost like performative. From my perspective, it's almost like performative. And in a way, I feel like it's not even really always that sincere. It's just sort of like, if you're a patriot, you will do this during the football game. And people who are into more of like the thank you for your service type thing and not really recognizing like what people actually went through and really internalizing that.

Mike Ergo (12:45.253)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (12:45.356)
do that. So I just kind of wondered about your, I mean, because I don't know, you know, it's just like what it seems like to me. I don't, I don't actually have any, you know, experience with that. But what do you think?

Mike Ergo (12:55.099)
I, I think I'm on the same page as you, Lindsay, for that. And it's, well, my mind goes to this, that when we talk to veterans, what we can do as a society is have different archetypes or stereotypes about them as either the hero that needs to be worshiped, the cold-blooded killer who needs to be feared.

or the broken person who needs pity. And when we do, when we stereotype or put people in these boxes, we don't see the actual person a lot of times. And I've, yeah, it gets a little weird when we do these things because I...

Lindsay Hiken (13:26.517)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (13:38.69)
Right.

Mike Ergo (13:52.228)
I personally think that service to country or family or the world is a good thing and that people benefit from doing that because they get to place themselves in a situation where they can.

give to others and provide for others and shoulder a burden so others don't have to. And it doesn't have to be military service, but I think military service is a good opportunity for that and it was for me. But to...

Lindsay Hiken (14:10.978)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (14:27.109)
to put these men and women in a box where we say, they're all heroes, they all need to be elevated. I don't think it serves the purpose that maybe people think it does. know? So.

Lindsay Hiken (14:45.974)
Right. Right.

Mike Ergo (14:50.477)
I mean, I feel strongly and appreciative of people who are teachers. feel strongly and appreciative of people who work in their community and like after school programs, you know. Military, I do too. And that's an extreme example because, know, military, there's definitely a higher chance that you might be killed or might not come home. it's, the stakes are pretty high.

Lindsay Hiken (14:56.119)
Right.

Lindsay Hiken (15:03.596)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (15:15.335)
Right, right.

Mike Ergo (15:19.375)
But I think when we do these things like at football games, maybe it puts on the idea that that is the only way to serve or that this makes someone a better person somehow and above others. And I can't quite succinctly say what I'm thinking, but it's along those lines.

Lindsay Hiken (15:19.597)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (15:35.118)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (15:44.015)
I get it, I get it. you know what I think about that sometimes is the same and not all the people, but a lot of the people who are doing the sort of hero worship and standing up at the football games and being very vocal are also the same people that are voting to cut like VA services and things like that. And so if you really want to help a veteran, you know.

Mike Ergo (16:08.336)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (16:11.894)
let's provide the safety net that's there when they get back because there are things that are traumatizing and there are things that kind of break people and or have physical consequences for what they went through and do need the support. And so just from my way of thinking, it's like, who cares if you stand up and applaud if you don't want to actually support these people when they come back.

Mike Ergo (16:21.467)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (16:35.887)
That I totally agree with you. And what I remember thinking and seeing and saying when I got home was there was when I got home from Iraq was 2005 and the war was starting to be pretty unpopular and, but there was still a big feeling of, you know, the support following the attacks in nine 11. And so a lot of people would have like support or troops bumper stickers.

And when you do things like that, it's sometimes it becomes like, well, I did the bumper sticker thing or I did the thank you for your service. so that's, that's all I need to do. right. And it seems like the long, the long lines of what you're saying and tangible ways. That's one of the things I spoke about at the school was three ways that we can show.

support for people who are veterans is one for the kids. said one is with our words, we can say things like welcome home or thank you for your service to people. We can use our ears to listen. So if somebody wants to talk, we're there to listen and we can use our actions and our actions of being of service ourselves to our community or

being a service to our school or, you know, an organization that's greater than ourselves or a purpose that's greater than just our own self. And so those tangible ways of trying to show appreciation, I think, mean more.

Lindsay Hiken (18:04.419)
Yeah.

Yes.

Lindsay Hiken (18:14.06)
Mm hmm. Yes. Think the things that you fought to protect are important to participate in because that was the whole freaking purpose that you guys were there, you know, is to protect our freedom, but also all of the things that that make up America. You know, the comedian Louis CK has a has a bit about have you heard his bit about how he's sitting in first class and here comes someone from the military and they're dressed and, you know, in their military.

Mike Ergo (18:24.761)
Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (18:43.874)
I want to call it outfit. don't know what the term is that you guys use. I'm pretty sure it's not just uniform. Thank you. I'm like, outfit cannot be right. but, and he thinks, you know, as this guy comes down here, I want to thank him for his service by, giving him my seat. And then I can go sit back and coach, you know, where, where, you know, where he would sit. And this is a great way to thank him for his service.

Mike Ergo (18:46.907)
Uniform, yeah.

Mike Ergo (18:51.991)
Hahaha

Lindsay Hiken (19:12.576)
And he says, and in his mind, he's like, God, I'm a really good guy. I'm a really good guy. As he lets the dude walk by and go back into coach, you know what I mean? Just because he had, it's like, I had the thought that I was going to give this guy my seat. Makes me a great guy. Yeah, so there's a lot of that going around. But well, I'm glad you got to.

Mike Ergo (19:28.197)
You see? Yeah, yeah.

players. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Hello.

Lindsay Hiken (19:42.371)
glad you got to hunt and spent some decompression time yesterday and that's really or actually on Veterans Day. That's really good. But what we're really here to talk about is about a race report from the Marine Corps Marathon, which you did a couple of weeks ago. And I saw pictures and if you guys don't follow Mike on social media, I highly recommend it. You'll see a lot of cool pictures. You'll hear

Mike Ergo (19:49.817)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (20:00.156)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (20:12.236)
you'll see thoughts and things about, you know, stuff like anniversaries of Fallujah. But so I saw pictures, you look like you were having fun. What was it like?

Mike Ergo (20:21.551)
Yes. It was, it was great. And going into it, I'll say this. I didn't, it is the least trained I've ever been for an event.

yeah, cause I mean, I, I started, was training up since the spring. and then, then I got hurt playing kickball, which was so embarrassing. I, wrenched my, I hurt my shoulder so bad, diving for a ball. And, and so I took about that and pulling my back out. my God. I sound like I'm an old person.

Lindsay Hiken (20:35.458)
wondered about that.

Lindsay Hiken (20:51.214)
you

you

Lindsay Hiken (21:02.08)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (21:04.249)
I took about three weeks off during my peak phase.

Lindsay Hiken (21:07.886)
Mike Ergo (21:09.275)
And flying out there, was funny. Sarah goes, are you going to survive this? I was like, yeah, I'll survive this. I'll get it out. And I was thinking of ways to back out. was, was, trust me, I was going through it. I went out there and just being around all the other. You veterans who are running with team Semper Fi.

Lindsay Hiken (21:15.214)
One way or another.

Mike Ergo (21:35.654)
part of the Semper Fi Fund who flew us out there and provided the race registration and this wonderful experience at the hotel there. We had dinners together. We had trivia night. We had a bingo night. We had just these group events to meet other people there and hear these inspiring talks from people who were there racing with us.

Was so cool. There was no way I wasn't going to run that race. And plus my, whole reason I was going to do it is me and three other guys signed up to do it, to carry the flag for a guy in our platoon, Bradley Faircloth, who was killed in action in Fallujah when we were deployed there. And I, you know, I just said, they're going to have to pull me off this race course. You know, I'm not going to give up. And.

Lindsay Hiken (22:07.703)
right.

Lindsay Hiken (22:27.875)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (22:31.781)
I was like, well, let's see how goes. I've done this before. So mentally I just had to get my mind right. Physically. What I figured was there's events you can, when, when you're trained for something, my measure of success is that it doesn't hurt as bad the next day.

Lindsay Hiken (22:38.477)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (22:53.772)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (22:54.875)
You know, and so the better trained you are, the, the, the less it's going to have you hobbling around afterwards. And we weren't going to set any kind of course record. You know, we were sticking to run somewhere between, uh, you know, a 10 30 to a 12 minute mile and pass the flag off every mile. And so we did that. Um, so.

Lindsay Hiken (23:01.666)
Hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (23:16.301)
Okay.

Mike Ergo (23:24.151)
The interesting thing about the marathon that most people probably know, but I didn't factor in as much and didn't factor in the implications as much as that, as opposed to Ironman, which is my experience of doing marathons. Everybody starts out at the beginning of the run together. There's 40,000 people.

Lindsay Hiken (23:46.464)
Yeah. Wow. That's a lot of.

Mike Ergo (23:48.22)
Yeah. So 40,000 people get together. Yeah. It's a, it's a lot of people and we had, you know, like layers of sweats on before because it was about, I think it was like 40 degrees. So it was a little cool. And then we shed the layers and they donate all the clothes. think the, you know, the goodwill or homeless shelters. Um, the race is really unique because a lot of the volunteers.

Lindsay Hiken (23:58.04)
Mm-hmm.

Oof. Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (24:16.251)
working the stations. I don't know, I guess they're not volunteers, but a lot of the people working the course too are young lieutenants, people who just graduated officer candidate school. And so they're newly commissioned lieutenants in the Marine Corps, passing out water, working the aid stations, cheering people on. And...

Lindsay Hiken (24:28.558)
I'm Nate.

Mike Ergo (24:39.383)
It was really cool. was really cool. And just the positive vibes were there at the beginning of the race. You know, we, we had the opportunity. People ask us like you're carrying a flag with a streamer. What does this mean? And so we got to explain, Hey, this is for our buddy who didn't make it back. We're just honoring his life and what he gave for this country and keeping his name alive. And so we started out and,

Lindsay Hiken (24:44.078)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (25:07.641)
it's crowded, so we're running slow. And that's, that was the biggest, one of the biggest, I don't want to say hassles, but obstacles is that, you know, the first few miles, it's just kind of shuffling. You're just trying not to run into people, right? So, the other thing I didn't factor in until the night before was,

Lindsay Hiken (25:19.862)
Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Mike Ergo (25:33.615)
The aid stations that have nutrition aren't until mile 14.

Lindsay Hiken (25:38.67)
Mike Ergo (25:40.282)
Right. So they have water stations, but, you know, so I scrambled to get some, you know, energy gels and stuff like that right before the race. I think you have a banana, maybe part of a bagel, but yeah, I didn't want to have anything too heavy. My pre-race thing is usually a banana with peanut butter.

Lindsay Hiken (25:42.668)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (25:51.274)
did you get a good breakfast going at least?

Lindsay Hiken (25:57.693)
Dang

Mike Ergo (26:10.413)
So that was set.

Lindsay Hiken (26:13.986)
Okay.

Mike Ergo (26:15.574)
What, what I, what I, what I did on the course though, was it made sure that I was taking in, you know, roughly, like 30 grams of carbohydrate per hour. just kind of ballparking it. And what was really cool was the crowd energy at that race was so intense.

Lindsay Hiken (26:35.552)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (26:47.47)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (26:47.547)
Cause and I get it because my experience being Ironman, there's what like 3000 athletes, something like that. Yeah. A few thousand athletes. They're so spread out. And so their supporters are so spread out. Right. But if you have 40,000 people, there's usually at least one supporter per person.

Lindsay Hiken (26:54.998)
Yeah, something like that. Yep. And they're so spread out.

Lindsay Hiken (27:02.659)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (27:10.412)
Right, right. They're just, well, I would think that you would just have people the whole course standing on the sides. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Mike Ergo (27:12.505)
Not, not... Yeah.

Mike Ergo (27:17.551)
Yeah. So there were stretches where there's, you know, no one yelling and clapping, but there's so many places along the course where people had funny signs like you're running better than the government right now or tap here for a power up and, you know, things like that. yeah. So there's so many, and everyone's was, was so positive.

It was great. so we had, we had a great time. And when you get to mile 13 on the Marine Corps marathon, they have this in other races, but they, especially it's a big feature here. They have what they call the blue mile and the blue mile at mile 13 is where they have pictures of fallen service members lining the course. So on each side, there's a picture of a fallen service member and, we found.

Lindsay Hiken (28:06.766)
Mike Ergo (28:15.191)
our guy Bradley, and we found this picture, we took a picture by it and with our flag and the name and everything and, you know, send it to his mom. Yeah, it was really cool. yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (28:17.038)
Mm.

Lindsay Hiken (28:25.11)
That's neat.

Lindsay Hiken (28:29.186)
That's really neat. it's a nice pause right there, because you're halfway through pretty much. being able to pause and think about someone else probably helped the second half of the race be a little less painful than if you were just running it and not thinking about anybody.

Mike Ergo (28:48.091)
Yeah, exactly. and I, that's that's the thing about me for racing is like, I need a big purpose to do it. need a really strong why. And I like running. I love it. Um, but to transfer something, I need a why I need something to really rev me up. And so when, when the miles aren't as fun, right from like 14 to 26.

Lindsay Hiken (29:00.739)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (29:11.309)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (29:14.976)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (29:17.485)
that I, I'm like, of course this is why I'm doing it. This is why this, this discomfort or this suffering is, is worth it for this.

Lindsay Hiken (29:25.064)
Mm hmm. Yeah, we've talked about having a why and how important it is. And I used to be able to race without really having it just sort of having it be a personal thing. Like I've always wanted to do X, Y, Z. I'm going to do it. But that doesn't really help during those moments of those dark moments on the race course, because then

the whole personal goal of like, if that's the only thing you can think about is like, I just wanted to do this. It's easy for my brain to be like, well, we're changed our mind. We don't want to do this, you know, and so having a why definitely helps. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (29:58.64)
Right, right.

If it's as fickle as my emotional state, that can change. And so having a broader why helps. And so we finished the Blue Mile, right? And...

Lindsay Hiken (30:08.438)
Right, right.

Mike Ergo (30:21.495)
We get to mile 14 where they have the aid station. And so I said, great, now I can get the course nutrition. Well, they were out.

Lindsay Hiken (30:30.637)
no. no.

Mike Ergo (30:33.531)
So I said, Oh, shit, here we go. And so, um, I think my friend, Evan, he was carrying the flag at that point. So I got resourceful and I started looking on the ground for, uh, these nutrition packets that maybe people picked up, but just discarded. I found three. Cause by that point, one of our guys, he was like a nine, eight 30 or nine minute miler.

Lindsay Hiken (30:56.064)
wow.

Mike Ergo (31:03.533)
And he stayed with us for the first, think nine or 10 miles. And I looked at him I was like, dude, just go, man. You're, you're feeling it. Go ahead. We got the flag. You carried it already. You're good. And so he took off. And so there are three of us carrying the flag now. And so I found three nutrition things on the ground, you know, that were unopened. And I said, here we go. Let's go.

Lindsay Hiken (31:13.528)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (31:30.715)
And so we got that going and that was important because obviously, you know, we're crashing at the wall. Um, along the course, it, I mean, it goes all over Virginia and Washington, DC, and it starts out right at the Pentagon. You go through, I don't know if it's Alexandria or Arlington, I think. Um, and then.

Eventually you work your way into the, the, the mall where the monuments are. And we were run by the Capitol and that was, that was really cool. There's just, again, so many people out there. had high school marching bands playing that the Marine Corps band playing and all my friends were like, yeah, my friends were like, Hey Mike, it's your people there. You know, cause I started out in the Marine Corps band before I switched over to the infantry and

Lindsay Hiken (32:05.838)
Okay, yep.

Lindsay Hiken (32:14.126)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (32:21.437)
that's neat.

Lindsay Hiken (32:29.558)
I didn't, wait, hold on, pause. I did not realize that and you must be a very good musician because I know people who were just musicians who were in the Marine Corps band and it was a big deal for them to go in and do this. And the couple I'm thinking of, they went in as a couple. They were like jazz musicians before they got into the Marine Corps band and.

Mike Ergo (32:31.587)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (32:55.163)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (32:58.028)
they were saying they did have to go through a boot camp and it wasn't, you know, something that they were into really, because they were like, actually, I just play the saxophone or whatever it was, you know, but yeah, what did you play?

Mike Ergo (33:01.295)
huh.

Mike Ergo (33:10.137)
Hahaha

Mike Ergo (33:14.287)
Yeah.

Saxophone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I played the saxophone. So the way you get in there is, uh, you do on an audition, they have a musical recruiter who comes around. They have a couple, like one for the East coast and one for the West coast and at the recruiting stations, you know, for each branch, they'll have a musician that, that does an audition for people. And so I passed the audition because I did all the bands of high school. did the jazz band marching band, symphonic band, band.

All that stuff.

Lindsay Hiken (33:46.028)
Wow, did you go to band camp?

Mike Ergo (33:49.17)
I went to band camp every year. Love it. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, it's so...

Lindsay Hiken (33:50.447)
Awesome. So you didn't have any real like, I'm going to go into the infantry and go to Iraq. And that wasn't really in your mind. were more on the.

Mike Ergo (33:59.695)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (34:06.171)
No, I joined before November or excuse me, I joined before September 11th of 2001. So then my spring, as soon as I turned 18, I enlisted in the delayed entry program, which means you enlist, but you go after you finish high school. So for me, I decided not to graduate high school. was, I was going through some stuff at the time. I

Lindsay Hiken (34:13.246)
Lindsay Hiken (34:26.236)
huh.

Mike Ergo (34:34.363)
Failed a couple of classes, had to do summer school, so I ended up leaving for boot camp in October of 2001, right after 9-11. And then after 9-11 happened, I started having all these thoughts of, I just, I don't know if I can be stateside and playing in parades and stuff while people are overseas fighting in a war. And so I switched over to the infantry.

Lindsay Hiken (34:41.966)
Mike Ergo (35:00.057)
I just, felt, for me, it felt like my place was with the infantry and not with the band at that point. And so I made this glitch and they allowed me to, which is what was happy for.

Lindsay Hiken (35:11.266)
I have a little funny story about that couple that was in the band, which is they were at the White House during this is long. I mean, this was during the Clinton administration. they, you know, the husband and whoever was standing on one side and then the wife and her people, her band people were standing on the other side of the sort of like hallway. You know, they made sort of a walkway and Clinton was coming down, shaking each person's hand and

Mike Ergo (35:14.106)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (35:41.039)
They said, he's very charismatic and good looking in person and he was, and a little bit of a womanizer and he, the wife in this situation was very pretty platinum blonde haired girl and just, they were in their late 20s and, or maybe mid 20s at the time. And.

Mike Ergo (35:52.866)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (36:07.128)
Clinton paused, you know, and was holding her hand for like longer than he'd been holding other people's hands. And husband said he looks across, you know, and his wife has this goofy smile on her face, like, my God, you know, and he's holding her hand. And he said he was just like, get off my freaking wife, you know, but he had to just, he's like, you can't run across the room when you're in the Marine Corps band and introduce yourself and push them away from your wife. So he just had to stand there and take it.

Mike Ergo (36:10.821)
Hahaha.

Mike Ergo (36:25.871)
Hahaha

Mike Ergo (36:36.575)
Hilarious. Plus it's the president, you guys security detail and everything. Hey bro, Mr. President bro, come on. Leave my wife alone.

Lindsay Hiken (36:37.374)
you

Lindsay Hiken (36:44.91)
Right, you can't run at him. Exactly. Get off my wife. Yeah, exactly. You want to go? You want to take this outside?

Mike Ergo (36:56.897)
Yeah, yeah, it's hilarious. But yeah, we, we, saw the bands playing and, we went right by the Capitol. We stopped and take, took pictures right in front of the Capitol. did my best to take pictures while we're running. That was a new experience too, because I'm not, wasn't used to having a, like a phone or a camera on the course, but I did. So,

Lindsay Hiken (37:21.282)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (37:25.115)
I think some people were listening to music. I, just wasn't going to do that because I had my guys there to talk to. Um, I could, I knew, so one of, one of our guys, he had never run a marathon before. So in mentally he was had that, which we all do of the unknown distance, like, can I make it? And so he was a little afraid and I don't want to say afraid, but he was nervous. I think that he wasn't.

Lindsay Hiken (37:47.054)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (37:54.426)
what if he doesn't make it? I kept saying, dude, just decide you're not gonna quit. And then it's really simple. You just keep going. And I said, you you've been through things that are harder than this. Trust me.

Lindsay Hiken (37:56.428)
Right, right.

Lindsay Hiken (38:03.618)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (38:10.786)
Right, Yeah, definitely.

Mike Ergo (38:12.343)
So, and then, one of our other guys, he probably wasn't taking in enough nutrition. So he started to slow down around probably like mile 18. And so, by mile 20, we had to stop for a bathroom break for him.

Lindsay Hiken (38:28.002)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (38:37.155)
And then we're, you know, you're waiting in line for a little while. So we kind of, our legs kind of stiffened up and then mile 20 comes around and we're not limping, but we're not at, you know, the starting line, physique and phase anymore.

Lindsay Hiken (38:43.724)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (38:52.414)
Right. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (38:55.227)
Uh, and he was just hitting the wall and there's no way around it. And so, you know, I was, I was getting extra nutrition for him. was kind of coaching them through. need to eat a little more and drink a little more, uh, have a little more electrolytes. And so we're, we're doing that. And then we turned it into like a run walk.

Lindsay Hiken (39:07.565)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (39:14.041)
You know, we, we'd pick a target where we're going to run to that and then walk for a little while to that next light pole. And then we're to run for a little bit. My run, was like a slow jog. And so, you know, we were estimating, you know, we'd finish around five hours. turned out to be around a little under six hours that we finished. one of cool things is that. Yeah. Yeah. And, and.

Lindsay Hiken (39:33.216)
Okay. That's not bad. That's not bad.

Mike Ergo (39:40.988)
The other part of that mental hurdle was, you know, not being like married to a specific time. was like, as long as we finish in under seven and a half hours, I think it is, we're going to be okay. We're to get the same medal. We're going to cross the same finish line. It's going to be great. It's not going to be a problem. And so we continued our run walk.

Lindsay Hiken (39:59.341)
Right.

Mike Ergo (40:10.529)
met some people along the course who asked us about the flag and about our friend. And we got to talk about that. And was like, this is the whole point, man. We get more of a chance to do it. I plus we're getting our money's worth. We get to run the race for longer than the other people.

Lindsay Hiken (40:22.574)
Right. That's awesome. So are people who are not in the military or weren't in the military running this as well? OK, so people just can come sign up for it and run it. Hmm.

Mike Ergo (40:28.027)
So yeah.

Mike Ergo (40:34.998)
huh. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (40:39.023)
Yeah. huh. Yeah. It's, it's a lot of, a lot of civilians, lot of people who have never served or run the race. And I think it's open to open to anybody who wants to sign up to it. And that was, it's such a great marathon. It is.

Lindsay Hiken (40:52.854)
I can see putting that on my bucket list.

Mike Ergo (41:00.379)
The scenery, the energy.

Lindsay Hiken (41:00.534)
And when I lived in that area, was not doing my, was not, things weren't going well when I lived out there, you know? And so it'd be kind of a healing process besides the energy of all of the people and the veterans and the people in service just running through the actual like terrain that you're going through and seeing all this stuff would be kind of a cool thing for me. Cause I saw a lot of it, you know, while I was.

Mike Ergo (41:07.513)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (41:13.157)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (41:29.538)
going through a divorce and drinking Chardonnay, know, it wasn't really my best. So, no.

Mike Ergo (41:32.89)
Yeah.

I really think it would be for you, Lindsay, because the same way that we met was when you posted about your race report about Ironman and Santa Rosa going from someone who's kind of chained to the alcohol like I was to running a freaking Ironman through wine country, being unshackled from alcohol.

Lindsay Hiken (41:53.933)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, that's definitely, I'm gonna put it on my list. I haven't run a marathon in a long time. I've run a couple, but a trail one I did. And then I did the Big Sur marathon, which is it, it

Mike Ergo (41:59.324)
Hmm.

Mike Ergo (42:12.666)
Nice.

Lindsay Hiken (42:17.646)
you know, they close highway one and they just drive you way out to Big Sur and then you run back to Carmel is basically what happens. And so you run along, you can see the ocean, there's no cars, there's a lot of people. There's actually, you know, there's actually some people out there. It takes a while for you to get to where there are people, but there are some people out there. Mile, I want to say 13 or 14, they have these drummers. They're like,

Mike Ergo (42:23.835)
Lindsay Hiken (42:44.428)
I think they're Polynesian drummers. They have these huge drums and they're playing and it's a cool thing. It kind of gives you a little boost, know, like you're talking about that mile. So that's cool. But in general, it's a little bit of a lonely race because it's so many hills, you know, it's just as big rollers. People string way out and there's, know, because the road is closed, people can't, there's a lot of space where no one can get to the road except for the

Mike Ergo (42:52.625)
huh. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (43:00.815)
Yeah

Lindsay Hiken (43:12.812)
handful of people that live in Big Sur, there's like five of them, you know what I mean? And so, there's a lot of time for you to just be alone with yourself. And I ran with a Pacer, which was great. And I had some music playing, but I just stayed with a group that was, I think, 10 minute miles. at the end of, I was in really good shape, and I was much younger than I am now.

Mike Ergo (43:15.249)
huh. Yeah, exactly.

Lindsay Hiken (43:41.583)
the last, you know, before the last mile, she just looked at me and was like, you haven't breathed hard this whole race, you need to pick it up and just run in as fast as you can. And so, and so that's what I did. And it felt great. It was not a fast, by any stretch of the imagination, it was not a fast race for me. But I felt like because there was a headwind the whole way. And, and all those hills, it was like, in fact, the next day in the newspaper, said,

Mike Ergo (44:05.273)
Yeah, that makes it tough.

Lindsay Hiken (44:10.222)
Wendy is Big Sur marathon and in, you know, memory. But it was it was cool. It's different than doing an Iron Man marathon. You know, definitely different. There's people out there that are running really fast. then but I'll just say there were guys that that kind of. I don't know how they got towards the back of the group like that, because they were clearly younger guys that were going to run faster. But the first five miles are net downhill.

Mike Ergo (44:14.021)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (44:27.065)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (44:40.014)
And then it's these big rollers and it's kind of clear, kind of climbing up. at mile like, I think it's 22, 23, you hit maybe a little bit before that, but you hit the highlands and it's just these steep pitches. It's the steepest part of the race is that that like late in the race. And these guys blew past us and the pacer was like, oh, we're going to see them again in the highlands because they're because you feel good that downhill.

Mike Ergo (44:59.055)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (45:07.854)
you feel like you're all good and then you do the rollers and then by the time they get to the highlands, their legs. So I was like, oh, okay. mean, I don't think we're going to see these guys. They're like in their twenties and in same time. So we hit the highlands and there's a bridge and all of them were standing on the bridge, like with their legs, like trying to like pound their legs out and stretch and whatever. And we just came on by with our like 10 minute.

Mike Ergo (45:09.413)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (45:28.311)
Yeah, yeah.

Exactly. That and that's, we saw a lot of that in the course too. the Marine Corps marathon, the last quarter mile maybe is all uphill. And so yeah, it's a, in true Marine Corps fashion, you know, they make you earn the last part and for sure. Came across the finish line and

Lindsay Hiken (45:34.648)
Because.

Lindsay Hiken (45:44.403)
okay.

Mike Ergo (45:57.126)
Just happy. just, it was, it was a cool experience for me, for myself to finish it. But what I really loved was doing it with my guys. mean, four of us and then three at the end, staying together and running the same pace. That's, that's, that's difficult because we didn't train together. We trained separately across the country from Georgia to Texas and Louisiana to

Lindsay Hiken (46:07.682)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (46:17.411)
Right.

Mike Ergo (46:23.555)
Florida and then me out here in California. So we were like, all right, this is our goal pace to stay together and we're to do our best, but you do what you can. So that was a huge feat. then for me to see my friend also named Mike finish his first marathon. I was just so proud of him. Just so happy for him to do that. Cause Brad was one of his best friends too. And so we made sure he carried the flag across the finish line. I was like, you're carrying this flag across the finish line, brother.

Lindsay Hiken (46:32.685)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (46:45.166)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (46:52.891)
And yeah, yeah, because, you know, carrying the flag for me has been a solo adventure for the most part. And to be able to share that with my with my brothers was absolutely amazing, fantastic. Felt great that it was a team thing that we did, not just, you know, the Mike Ergo show of carrying the flag by himself. So that was great.

Lindsay Hiken (46:53.42)
that's cool.

Lindsay Hiken (47:02.284)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (47:15.555)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (47:20.972)
Right, right.

Mike Ergo (47:22.331)
Yeah. And then, um, at the end team Semper Fi had their own tent. So all the team Semper Fi athletes, you know, they had food for us and they had, was, it was, yeah, they have a lot of the Marine Corps Marathon supports a lot of charities, lot of veteran and military charities. so team Semper Fi being one of them, we're Semper Fi in America's fund. Um, so we,

Lindsay Hiken (47:31.888)
that's nice.

Lindsay Hiken (47:38.178)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (47:45.751)
Okay.

Mike Ergo (47:47.162)
We had our own thing. had people giving massages. It was a long line, so I get one, but we had food, we had water, and then yeah. Then we had our own shuttle back, which was amazing in itself because think of organizing 40,000 people to get to a start line and then to get to their hotel or home from the finish line is...

Lindsay Hiken (47:58.478)
That's nice.

Lindsay Hiken (48:09.6)
Right.

Mike Ergo (48:13.083)
pretty big feet. So the fact that we had our own shuttle back to our hotel was luxury, complete luxury.

Lindsay Hiken (48:15.09)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. With Big Sur, they put you on a school bus at like 330 in the morning because they need to get you all the way out there and then they need to get the half marathon people out there. And so just a school bus at 330 morning and then you sit in the cold and wind by this little tent that has coffee.

Mike Ergo (48:24.111)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (48:34.362)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (48:44.141)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (48:45.184)
until you start at like seven in the morning. to have like a nice cozy shuttle and food at the end, that's something that I'm slow. So like I miss the food. Like Iron Man, there was nothing left when I was done. They were like, you know, it's late. Like just go back to your hotel room. That was kind of the message there.

Mike Ergo (48:58.949)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (49:05.987)
Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (49:08.876)
What a neat experience. I'm really glad that you got out there and did it and that you didn't throw in the towel, even though you weren't as trained as you'd like to be. That's really, that's really good. Congrats.

Mike Ergo (49:18.363)
I, thank you. Thank you. just, felt fortunate and that I was able to finish it and, you know, not let the other guys down. And I felt fortunate that my body was able to perform that feat with way less than ideal training. I think my longest training run was, it was either 13 or 15 miles. Um, but that was.

Lindsay Hiken (49:35.288)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (49:42.894)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (49:44.868)
at the beginning of my peak phase and then I got hurt and didn't work out for, I just basically walked for about three weeks. so plan on doing next year plan on getting Brad's mom out there to the race so she can be part of it and carry the flag for him again with the same guys and maybe more if we can get more guys into it. yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (49:51.15)
Hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (49:55.446)
Right, Well.

Lindsay Hiken (50:08.746)
that's really neat. OK, cool. That's really cool. What a neat thing for her to go do it too. Well, today is a day that I am the secretary of my meeting. And so I have to wrap it up so that I can get there on time and do my service to my community, which is what I need to do to have, you know.

Mike Ergo (50:15.0)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (50:34.208)
a sane life myself. And, you know, so I appreciate your race report. And I appreciate the conversation we had about at the top of the show about, you know, appreciating veterans and those in service. I think that's useful information for those of us who don't really know necessarily what to do, or how to show appreciation. So I think that that's that was important and key for us to hear.

Mike Ergo (50:36.783)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (51:01.934)
Any last words before we wrap it up?

Mike Ergo (51:07.727)
Hmm. You know, I think that, again, I, if there's something that our listeners are looking at, like an event, cause we talk about a lot about races and, and athletic events. If there's an event you're looking at, that kind of scares you a little bit. I'd say sign up for it and have something to train for and find a why and.

Lindsay Hiken (51:32.046)
Hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (51:36.899)
Yep.

Mike Ergo (51:38.235)
commit to a training plan and do it, push yourself a little bit. And the experience that you'll have will be amazing because you'll be pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. You'll be meeting new people. You'll be trying something. You will extend the limit of what your mind understands as the possibilities of what you can do. And that'll go out to all aspects of your life, not just running or triathlon. So yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (51:59.768)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (52:06.156)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, if that great advice, think we'll end it there. Folks, if you want to support the show, please share the link to this episode or any episode that you liked with a friend and, you know, encourage them to listen and subscribe and like on whatever podcast app that you use. And we will see you next week. Bye.

Mike Ergo (52:31.707)
Alright, see ya.

Lindsay Hiken (52:35.065)
Thanks, Mike.