In an awe-inspiring journey, a determined runner embarks on a daunting mission to break the Pacific Crest Trail record, requiring him to run an astonishing 2,600+ miles. Unlike a singular 100-mile race, this monumental task encompasses over 51 consecutive days of relentless challenge, covering 51 miles daily through unforgiving terrains, comparable to traversing Mount Everest multiple times. With a heavy emphasis not only on physical endurance but also on mental fortitude, the protagonist narrates how his aspirations and determination motivate him to navigate the difficult landscapes battling harsh weather and navigational pitfalls, all in a bid to push human limits and achieve the impossible.

Supporting the runner throughout this colossal expedition is his family, who accompanies him for the entirety of the journey. This decision introduces additional strains, from emotional burdens and familial responsibilities to unexpected hurdles like the complications of a pregnancy. However, the family's presence turns this arduous expedition into a story not only of physical and mental resilience but also of hope, healing, and togetherness. Despite facing daily struggles and emotional turmoil, the family's faith in each other provides the cohesion and strength needed to endure and adapt to the challenges encountered on the trail.

The video offers several insights and lessons within its narrative:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. altruistic [ˌæltruˈɪstɪk] - (adjective) - Showing a selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish. - Synonyms: (selfless, compassionate, charitable)

Your goals have to be more altruistic than a gold medal.

2. razor thin edge [ˈreɪzər θɪn ɛdʒ] - (phrase) - A critical or dangerous position with very little margin for error. - Synonyms: (precarious position, on the brink, narrow margin)

He's on a very razor thin edge the entire time.

3. break us down [breɪk ʌs daʊn] - (phrase) - To cause someone to become physically or emotionally exhausted and vulnerable. - Synonyms: (wear out, exhaust, overwhelm)

We knew that it would break us down in really intense, raw ways.

4. logistically oriented [ləˈdʒɪstɪkli ˈɔːriɛntɪd] - (adjective phrase) - Being skilled in handling and planning the practical details and organization of a complex operation. - Synonyms: (organized, systematic, methodical)

Debbie, from a skill set perspective, compliments Krista very, very well. They're both very logistically oriented.

5. cohesion [koʊˈhiːʒən] - (noun) - The action or fact of forming a united whole. - Synonyms: (unity, solidarity, togetherness)

The family's faith in each other provides the cohesion and strength needed to endure.

6. arduous terrain [ˈɑːrdʒuəs təˈreɪn] - (phrase) - Difficult and challenging type of land or environment to travel through. - Synonyms: (rough terrain, rugged terrain, demanding terrain)

That's an absurd number of miles per week for any runner, even an ultra marathon runner. And he's having to do it week after week after week over very arduous terrain.

7. duct tape [dʌkt teɪp] - (noun) - A strong adhesive tape often used as a temporary fix for various problems. - Synonyms: (adhesive tape, sticky tape, gaffer tape)

There was duct tape involved.

8. aid stations [eɪd ˈsteɪʃənz] - (noun) - Stations set up to provide runners with food, hydration, and medical support during their races. - Synonyms: (rest stops, hydration stations, supply stops)

The fires were emerging and the final aid stations that I thought I was going to see Tim at kept kind of disappearing

9. contingency [kənˈtɪndʒənsi] - (noun) - A future event or circumstance that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty. - Synonyms: (eventuality, possibility, incident)

But the biggest contingency situation was Krista's pregnancy by far.

10. foster [ˈfɑːstər] - (verb) - To encourage the development of something, typically someone else's well-being. - Synonyms: (nurture, cultivate, promote)

Using shared challenges and struggles as a catalyst to foster deeper connections and personal growth.

The Mirage - Timothy Olson's Race Against Time (Full Documentary) - Nat Geo

Running the Pacific Crest Trail is a marked departure from running a hundred mile race. The physicality that this requires was just on a different level. 2,600 plus miles over every type of terrain imaginable. He's on a very razor thin edge the entire time. Your goals have to be more altruistic than a gold medal. Let's do this. Let's go. You can't just train for a project like this. This is taking a lifetime. The current record is 52 days, 8 hours and 25 minutes set by Carl Sabe in 2016. It's insanely fast and stout. When he told me that his family was going to be out there for the entirety of the Pacific Crest Trail, we may have to troll it, I thought to myself, you have no clue how tired you're all going to be. We knew that it would break us down in really intense, raw ways similar to what miscarriage did. Because that's where the magic is. That's where the healing happens when you're together. That's home. And home is everything. We had not planned the PCT thinking I would be pregnant and that I would be very pregnant. Nobody goes through these things unscathed. I don't even think Tim knew what he was getting into when he got into this.

It's day one. Now as a family, we embark on this to experience the highs and the lows. Definitely surreal. It doesn't mean there isn't going to be struggles, but it's happening. It's on. I think one of the biggest challenges will be the emotions all riding that wave. And hopefully we're all good surfers. Tim and I have the same intention for this project. The well being of our family is ahead of the completion of the project. This is a journey of hope and healing and I believe it's possible. And that is what we're gonna do out there is believe.

He certainly did not know the extent of how difficult it would be. And I don't think anybody really can do this. Which, am I going the right way? Yeah. North from what I understand. Not that way. All right, one mile down. One at a time, One at a time. I've had my heart set on going for the fastest known time on the PCT since 2009. To break Carl's record, I need to be running around 51 miles a day for 51 consecutive days. It's about 14 marathons a week. It's gonna be punishing, to put it mildly. It's far from Florida. It's nearly half a million feet of vertical Gain and a half a million feet of vertical descent. To put that in perspective, it's basically 17 Mount Everest from sea level. Definitely getting hot, but it's gonna get much hotter.

You have to be a little bit naive going into these things and try not to over process them because otherwise you get too caught up in exactly how hard they are. All right, yeah, day one. Day one. Day one. Out before 60 days. So 49 days left. Nice little 13 hour day. When you look at what Tim is about to undertake, there's really no way that you can describe it. We try to look at it in normal running terms. Runners like to think about the miles that they run per week and how long a marathon is. And so you can look at, okay, Tim's running 350 miles a week, two marathons a day for 51 consecutive days. That's an absurd number of miles per week for any runner, even an ultra marathon runner. And he's having to do it week after week after week over very arduous terrain. At the end of the day, you're going as hard as you can for way longer than you should, and it's like really fucking hard.

So middle of day two, I didn't think this is where I would crash so early, but the middle here had a 16 mile stretch where I ran out of water and just so exposed the whole time. Super dehydrated. Every day I woke up like day two on, I don't know if I can do this. I think it was day two or three that I sort of hit the wall of like, wow, okay, this is what we're doing. It had mostly to do with how completely worn down my whole family was. Just like groundhog day. I don't even remember what happened yesterday. Do you want any real food yet or anything? No problem. Do you just want to hop in the shower? Ye overwhelmed, Pushed to the limit. That reality hit real quick.

Get off now you get off. We just had to figure it out. Whenever you're trying to break a record, you want all of the conditions to line up in your favor as much as possible. You want the perfect weather, you want a tailwind, you want ideal temperature and the stars and the moon and the sun to kind of all align at once. But the biggest contingency situation was Krista's pregnancy by far. I was prepared to give birth in my van on the side of the road or whatever else. I went and I freaking youtubed how to do it, like, beforehand. And I consulted with physicians the whole nine yards. I'm seven months pregnant. Almost 30 weeks. I hit my third trimester the day before we left. So it's kind of a big benchmark all the way around for me and for Tim.

I think that the biggest challenge is probably more emotional. Your instinct isn't to be moving every day and in chaos. It's a primal instinct like nesting and preparing. I need you to chill out, okay? Your emotions are heightened, your needs are heightened, and we're all tired. As much as I would normally do. I gotta slow down. I have to take care of myself. I have to take care of the baby. I gotta take care of these two kids and then also take care of Tim. So it's a lot. We don't moon cameras. You don't wanna moon cameras. I'm mooning you. I know, but no. And you don't moon mommies either. Going into this, we knew it would be hard. We knew there'd be obstacles and logistics. But until you're here, you just, you know, you don't know what it's gonna be like. My biggest priority is the well being of my baby and making sure that she's healthy. And then beyond that, it's taking care of myself, my kiddos, and then it's Tim. It's definitely key on this project as part of the team to just be willing to help out wherever.

Krista had this push pull on her where she wanted to support her husband with every fiber of her being, but at the same time, she knew she had to take care of her family and take care of her health. Make no mistake, when you're out there, there's no rest. Like you're on. You're on from, you know, minute one, day one, until the whole thing finishes. This is the biggest thing I've ever done in my life. I mean, physically, mentally, it's gonna bring out the worst in me. You're gonna see the ugly parts of yourself. You're gonna be raw. I mean, that's what I'm going out here for, is to be raw. Things are just gonna come up and I'm gonna be emotional with highs and lows. And what I really feel like I can get through this process is learning to embrace and love my whole self.

How's it going? Good. Another day. Go in there and do some cleaning. And through those challenging moments, I can still look at myself and say, we're not all perfect in every moment, but I love you. And let's keep marching. You go through the Mojave desert section. Relentless hundred degree plunge days. Relentless. Every single day, day after day. Tim Is going to have to encounter sections of the trail where he is going to be without crew for long periods of time. One of the biggest challenges, we had record heat in the west coast that was unheard of. We had temperatures of 100 to 108 degrees. We are talking an extremely dangerous heat wave. Threatening heat in the west. The most extreme heat waves ever recorded. 110 degrees. And how Timothy did this, it's unbelievable.

I just really need to be checking in with myself of not getting heat stroke and not destroying myself or what's next and riding that. That fluids whenever you're on any endurance event are always at a premium. Desert raging. Your penalty for failure when you run out of fluids is much higher than your penalty for failure for almost any other aspect of this entire journey. Desert always has the upper hand. From the very beginning, Debbie and I were going to be a part of this project where we are sort of like running parents and we like this type of thing. We've done many other supports for Timothy in his races. We've been to ultra trio Mont Blanc, We've been to hard rock, We've been to western states. So we've done the crewing thing, but not to this level.

I'll be just riding along and helping out wherever we can. My job's mostly grandkids and Krista keeping them on track because they're the support crew for Tim. Debbie, from a skill set perspective, compliments Krista very, very well. They're both very logistically oriented. They're very good in those spheres. When Krista needed a break or was indisposed for kind of whatever reason, Debbie could come in and replace almost everything of what Krista was doing from a project perspective in keeping the whole momentum going. Bob's counterpoint to that was he was more of the emotional stabilizer amongst everybody, Using his background in family counseling. There's always another rainbow around the corner for Bob. From a balancing perspective, it ended up working out really well because each person had their own little silo that they could work in where they did have a high level of corporate core competency.

All right. If we look at all of the different roles and we all did different things as a part of the inner circle, I would say we could not have done this without Jason. Coop. Jason had background and experience. He had done other projects. He had done the 50 marathons and 50 states and 50 day thing. Rotocrost America thing. Jason Koop was invaluable. Wash clothes aisle. So cool. So, Bob, give yourself plenty of time to get there. That's the gist, because you're gonna drive a lot and you're gonna hike. That hike doesn't look that hard, but it's gonna. That'll probably take you two hours.

Tim was a fantastic athlete Before I even started working with him. He won Western states twice, which is the pin pinnacle of ultra running. He set a course record there after he showed so much success. He literally went from winning the most competitive ultramarathon on the planet not once, but twice. And not twice, but he set a course record during one of them. He went from that pinnacle moment in his career to literally not being able to complete a run. That peak in that valley is the biggest delta that you can think of in sports. And it was during that lowest of lows that he reached out to me to bring me on as a coach, to turn the ship around. That's improbable amongst 99 out of 100 athletes that have been in that situation. But for whatever reason, when Tim was in that exact situation and approached me, I believed in him. And I think that the strength of our relationship is based off of that improbable story.

All I can do right now is trust. Experiencing all that and feeling all that, it's led me down to this path that's been heart opening, eye opening, mind opening, and now it's up to me to be willing to bend my thoughts on what I think is possible and every day, lean into that. This is about how slow I move in the morning. Morning of day eight. I got some decent sleep last night. It is challenging to wake up every morning and start all over again. With ultrarunning, I've definitely learned to pace myself, and this is just pacing myself to the next degree. You do have to ride that line. Trying to push it out of my comfort zone but not break myself.

What do I got? 8.9 options. Yep, 8.9. And then 1,011 or 1200. Climbing 1500, reached 500 miles. Everything that he does out there, he has to own. And whether that is he has a great day and runs 63 miles, or whether he makes a mistake and gets off trail or whether he gets bit by a rattlesnake or whether there's a hundred different things that can happen while he's out there. I'm on the path of peace. That's right where I'm supposed to be. So here we go. I know. I'm just asking you to kindly move out of the way, please. So I've thrown sticks at it. There's a stick on top of it. And store movement, please. Thank you. Yeah, so that. That's on the trail, but, man, I got goosebumps from that one.

Wow. Hell, no. That is the second one. It's been right on the trail, like, ready to pounce, and it swiped at me. I'm really trying to be careful. Yes. Could be aware of nature. I am not the boss. Snakes everywhere. All right. Definitely struggling today. Good news is I'm one more day to the Sierras, and, I don't know, deep in the high country. Really looking forward to seeing those mountains. Just another day. Timothy was going, like, literally so fast from one day to the next. It literally was a, you know, half a day transition from him being in a desert environment to him being in a mountain environment, where he had to transition from using all of his desert stuff to almost a. Almost a completely different kit.

Okay, we have to bring a bear can in the back country. So, Bob, are you smarter than the bear? You realize this only gets worse after you. You've done 50 miles. I know, I know. Bears are gonna eat me. Yay. Food. You forgot to pack the food. You know that trick? The transition from the Mojave Desert into the Sierras is actually quite stark. Things change from very hot and arid to mountainous and cold and snowy. And it's very abrupt in the Sierras. It can change from relatively mild conditions. You're sitting in the 60s and 70s, and all of a sudden turn into the 20s and 30s in the blink of an eye. Storms can roll in, lightning can roll over you. It's just big, rugged, mountainous terrain going up those switchbacks. But more so than that, there's this psychological transition because you're used to trying to cover 55 miles a day or something like that. And then you transition into the mountains, and then all of a sudden, you're doing 40 miles. And sometimes that feels like big failure point for athletes when they have to make that sudden transition because they're literally seeing their stat sheet get knocked down day after day after day.

And just a reminder that not a single step of this is going to be easy. Today was hard. When you have something that is this big and this complicated and this audacious, you have to rely on other people more so than you would in a normal endurance situation. And there is a lot of trust involved in that. So I made a weird invention that I want to ask you if you're interested in so I won't make more. It's turkey wrapped around cheese wrapped around, potentially baked bacon. We're not sure. Potentially baked Bacon. You know how many people would kill to be eating a donut guilt free? Yeah, I know where they're in. Curses, donuts. People are literally trying to shove donuts down my mouth.

He's not only relying on us to give him food and water and things like that, but also a lot of logistical support. On our way up Kearsage Pass. Just getting above tree line. Hope we can catch Tim. Dude, you're looking perfect. Hey. Hi, man. Good to see you. Good to see you moving across. You're looking great. I've been moving. Good to see you guys. How's it going? It can mean the difference between life and death, because when you're out there in the mountains and in this type of environment, your gear, your jacket, your equipment is literally your lifeline. With elite athletes, you always win in your strengths. You never win in your weaknesses. His biggest weakness out on this whole trail is backpacking. Like, he's just not a backpacker. He's a runner first, and he's a good mountain athlete second. And he's a backpacker, like, 20th or 30th, like, way, way, way down the list.

Oh, yeah. Probably end this going in the water. Yeah. And a weight 48.96, so 49 mile there. Yeah, about that. I'm just gonna focus on getting open. I'm not worried about timing. It's harder than 49 miles. It is harder than 49 miles. Oh, get in there. There we go. Chris is right in there. Chris. That's. Yes. Refreshing my shin. That shin's been bothering me today, which is a little. A little troublesome, But I think things are just gonna keep continuing to hurt, and then they go away and they come back, and just part of it. You always have to keep reminding yourself that Tim's days are always infinitely harder than yours. Hoping my crew is having a good time keeping their together.

This is not very fun today, but there are just certain things that you really can't plan for. Now here's the point. Can you pick it up and tow this? So we may have to tow it. Bit of a rock slide here. Oh, good morning. I don't know. I'm actually regretting this decision a lot, so. Bloody nose for the last while, I'm, like, just covered in bud. Gonna walk in about. About mile and a half. Oh, I ripped this antenna off the other day with a branch. And then the little flood just not going to go over well. Yeah. Nice to him, as always. The solution. I don't think it worked.

It seems like everyone's freaking out. Back there, like, everything is going to. A lot of these, you know, misperceptions about what this would be became very apparent. So the sitting around the campfire with guitars and kumbaya and s'mores. No, not even close. The logistics on this thing are just an everyday challenge. You might call it a nightmare. When you're on projects like this, they're so inevitably complicated and physically arduous for the support crews. You want people on that team that are like, Swiss army knives. It's got a reasonable knife. It's got a reasonable pair of scissors. It's got a reasonable file. They're not the best in the world, but they'll do the job. Can I bring you a plate of food? It's meatballs and nookie, but instead we got one Swiss army knife, which is me. There's nothing easy about this. And we got a lot of, like, sporks with broken tongs. Heavy. I'm under big pressure because Krista's the crew chief and she's not been with me at an aid station. So now I'm going to be critiqued.

As much as I love Debbie and Bob and Krista, let's just face the facts, right? Krista, six months pregnant, that presents a lot of limitations. Debbie and grandpa Bob, they're great people, but physically, they don't have this Jack and Jill of all trades, type of skill, skill set. I can't believe it. That's so pissed to hear. I can't believe it. From a support standpoint, if you were thinking about the most ideal situation, you would certainly put different people on that. I'm sorry, you guys, but it's the truth. I love you. Please leave that in there. Just. Wow. As much as my crew is a huge part of this, most of this journey is spent in nature, in total isolation.

I made that jump right there. From there to there. Trail running for me has always been rooted in time alone. It's a place where I can just listen. It's where I do a lot of deep thinking. Place to heal, connect with myself. Every day. I needed to have micro finish lines. Good morning, boys. Good morning, Krista. No. I am thinking of you guys so much out here and that when I get done this silly journey, we will spend lots of good time together. I think what really kept me of having some type of celebratory thing each day was seeing my family. It was this magnet. If I can make it 30 miles, I'll get to see them.

Hi. You're at the rv. The RV was their space and even as a family member, I didn't go in that RV hardly at all. Yeah, I've been working all day trying to get here. Yeah, you made it. You got an early night. He knew he was gonna stop at the RV because that was his comfort zone. That's where his family was. That's where his goal was. That rigidity has a lot of limitations to it because if Tim is feeling particularly good on the day, he could have gone a little bit further. It was a magnet to pull him forward. Sometimes it was a magnet to hold him back.

So good to be by your face. Yeah. I missed you. Sorry I'm not fast enough. I was trying to get back last few nights. It's okay. It's not happening. Totally up. Okay. We're still with you. Gosh, it's good to see you guys. I don't want to leave. You can play with you. There's definitely this conflict throughout the whole time of getting to see my family but then having to leave them. And even if it was a few hours, sometimes those hours felt like days when I come in sleep deprived and all I want is sleep and eat food. But my sons want to show me the project they were working on that day or the different animals they saw. I want to be present for that.

For several years, both Tim and I have been like, let's set intentions of slowing down and let's set intentions of not having life be so busy and full and complicated. And then we choose to do the PCT and I start a master's program and we get pregnant. I oftentimes remarked to Timothy and told him, you know, this would be a lot easier if you just did the damn thing yourself and you didn't have all this chaos of family and an eight month pregnant wife and two kids. But that wasn't the project.

From a very early age, I knew I wanted to be a dad. And even when I. When I think I first met Krista, I think I said, yeah, like six kids would be cool. After high school, I went down a really dark path of really hating myself and turning to drugs and alcohol. Ended up in jail. Kind of got caught in the system. I lost a lot of friends and there was a handful of moments that I should have overdosed. I really didn't think I was gonna survive that time in my life. I knew that I really wanted to change. This was not the man I wanted to be. And I started running. I was detoxing. I was trying to clean myself up and I would, you know, run for a little bit and throw up and run and have cold sweat. It was awful. Then I met Christa at the local coffee shop.

When I met Tim, it was love at first sight. We were engaged after six months and married after 11 months. Our first two boys, everything went very smoothly. Going for a third child, we went to a checkup and there was no heartbeat. When we went through our first miscarriage, it was the hardest moment. I was depressed and sad and lost. I wanted to cry really hard and be angry and be heartbroken and be mad. I felt so much pain. I ended up in a really rough space. I was a shell of myself. I was just a mess. It created trauma. And the healing journey that I personally had to take was really hard. After the first miscarriage, it brought out the worst version of both me and Tim. He just was devastated.

There were moments where I was like, he's struggling more than I am because he feels things so deeply, which is beautiful, but it makes it hard when you're both falling apart. I remember just dropping to my knees and almost passing out. I really wanted to go back to alcohol and to anything, to drugs, to just numb and to just somehow take away the pain. That balance between us both being torn apart was really difficult. Getting out on the trail really allowed me to accept myself. There's times where that passion, that addictive personality, has led me to blowing up my life and torching everything around me.

I just knew he was doing the best he could and he was meeting all of his demons at once. We had to try really hard and really stubbornly hold onto our marriage. Our first miscarriage tore us apart. It gives you a chance to look at those things and to work through them and to come back together and begin transforming through the most devastating heartbreak I've ever been through. She was my daughter. She is this little spirit that will always be our daughter. The PCT and the heartbreak of our miscarriage is. I mean, it's about healing. It was about healing for myself and healing in my relationship with Tim, healing as a family and allowing that transformation to unfold.

So when I got pregnant again, it was like halfway. The tricky part is I'm on day 27. And so if halfway is on day 27, that means I got my work cut out for me. That means I gotta keep pushing. I thought I'm going hard, but apparently I'm slow. Have you guys heard what Timothy's trail name is? You haven't heard this? No. What is it you have to say? Mirage. The mirage. So the way it works is this is A tradition. The thru hikers, they all sort of establish nicknames, trail names for the other thru hikers. Feel like I got my trail name yesterday. Nice. And some people you're like a mirage. Now you see me ready to go. I am a mirage.

Every day Tim would get up and run another 50 miles and I was just in awe. He had done something more incredible than he'd ever done before. Every single day. Morning, jelly bellies. Since I saw him last time, my shin is bothering me so much. The tendon is done. I thought it was doing better, but it's not. This tendon is where it's like just rock solid there. How's your leg doing? It's really sore and it could, it could be far worse. So I'm hoping it just doesn't get anybody, doesn't get any worse. And then all of a sudden the leg, it was a serious problem. And I said, I think this, this project's done.

Nobody goes through these things unscathed. One day he's complaining about it and the next day he's complaining a little bit more. And the next day he gets slower and the next day he's taking a lot more time to treat it and then it reaches a boiling point. He could get here tomorrow and say, I quit the pct. None of us want that to happen and we shouldn't encourage it to happen. But if his leg friggin breaks, it breaks. If he breaks his leg and we're giving him painkillers, we're accessories to that headed. I don't think we do. When I'm asking for Tylenol, it's like less. Tylenol's fine. I don't care about Tylenol. I'm just not okay with Tylenol. Like four hours. Yeah, I don't want it all day. But like especially towards the end of the day or like I'm in the middle of the woods there and I'm just suffering and I asked for one, that's when I need one. I'm fine with that.

I don't have ibuprofen on the van. I've never had it. I won't ever. Just as long as you have Tylenol. I don't. We're also trying to protect you, you know. Yeah. You've got your best. Interesting mile. Yeah. We got a plan for like 40 miles. It like every step was excruciating pain. That shin is not gonna just go the measurement of if he's doing good or not. Does he talk? If he talks, he's Doing good. If it's total silence, not good. It's that simple. Scratch flasks in one bottle get pretty good. Water sour. All right.

One stretch at a time, ma'am. All right. Bendy's in the back. Yep. It's in your side. Are you a guy that's running the whole trail trying. Just lay down. Good. Give me that. Yeah, that's swollen. Yeah. It's quite a sports medicine challenge trying to support this condition on an athlete who is trying to break a record. The approach that we took was just to throw the kitchen sink at it. Mr. Massage, bracing, taping. There was duct tape involved. At some point you just start throwing shit at the problem and hopefully miraculously, it gets better. Hi. He's not stopping unless it's a medical emergency. Do you consider this a medical emergency?

I was very nervous. I mean, it was shocking to me that he could walk on that leg. It helps us training the stuff. I'm aware. I was really at an ethical crossroads of do I do. I advise Tim to quit the run. Normally, when you have an athlete that gets injured, the prescription is to rest here. The prescription to fix the injury is literally go, run, fix 50 miles. You would never prescribe that in the normal world for anybody. He's frustrated with this injury big time. I think it's mentally weighing on him. Now. You have five minutes of following me and then I want you to away. Okay? I love you, man. I'm just really tired of cameras. If I keep just feeding the story of so much pain, Gotta get the fkt. So much pain. Gotta get the fkt.

Like, if that's my only thought process, I miss. I miss the whole reason of manga. Connect, Enjoy Nature to heal. Tim has this ability through his mindfulness and his meditative practice where he is extremely capable of. Of shutting all of that nonsense out and really focusing on what's going on at the present time. Instead of sitting on the side of the trail worried about how much longer it's going to take him to get to the next mile mark or to get to the Canadian border, He's sitting on the side of the trail thinking, okay, how do I fix myself so I can get up? That's not a skill that everybody is born with.

Check out this shit. Nice, dude. Don't stop on my account. Fuck. You can keep going. Out of all of the physical and the mental skills that Tim has in his repertoire, that's the skill that he was able to leverage the most. And it just happens to be the skill that was the most important at first, running was a total escape. I would run until there was enough serotonin dripping in me that there would be some form of happiness. And if I had a problem, I could just run it away. I used that as meditation for a while running. Oh, it's so my mind's clear. But then when I'd actually sit in meditation, all those things that I ran away from would come up. It would resurface. I'm like, okay. I didn't work through those. I just ran until I was tired. I see running very differently than I did, you know, five years ago, 10 years ago.

Meditation allows me to follow that breath, bring that breath down, and to ground myself. So something was going on there. You know, call it God, call it Timothy's perseverance, call it his guts, the treatment, the help. Who knows? I was like, my God, we're actually maybe going to be able to do this thing, and maybe he's gonna break the record, and maybe we'll all get through this together without killing each other. My leg is finally feeling a little better. I'm able to actually take some steps without pain. There's miracles every day. Feels so much better. Touch my foot without me wanting to kick you. Well, this was like a solid slab of concrete, so that's a huge improvement. Huge. Yes, yes, yes.

How's everything else doing, though? Muscles all right? We were talking about, like, shoulders, arms, that kind of stuff from pulls. Is that all right? Yeah, it's all good. All right, let's dig. Oh, thank you, man. There's still so much to go. It's like, my mantra is be here now. Tim, super nice to meet you, man. So good. Yay. We're really rooting for you. Thank you. Right. I'm. I'm hiking the trail. I am so psyched that you're doing this. Good luck, man. Thank you very much. Rooting for you. Thank you very much. Bye bye. Thank you. Getting closer and closer to Washington and to Bridge of the guys. Crazy.

Thank you all. We appreciate it very much. Thank you. As Tim gets to the very last third of the Pacific Crest Trail, it's a lot of unknown. COVID has been a huge challenge this entire journey. Pandemic has slowed trail maintenance. The amount of fallen trees on this thing is something I never would have expected. Miles, miles and miles and miles. So tired. All the downed trees. So many downed trees. This is what it's about. Hike most of the day just hiking over trees instead of having these, like, traditional lines of demarcation along the Pacific Crest Trail of you're going from the Mojave to the Sierras and then the Pacific Northwest. We could just come of look at it as just one problem to the next. There's no water, there's no air. There are a lot of trees in the way.

Tim. Shit hurts. And then there are fires. Wildfires devastating the west coast and other parts of the burning more than 450,000 acres across the Pacific Northwest. With extreme drought conditions extending through the region, cities across the country are issuing air quality warnings. The fires were emerging and the final aid stations that I thought I was going to see Tim at kept kind of disappearing. And those were the hardest times for us, at least for me and I think for him and for the kids. The whole last week was really punctuated by all of the different fires that existed in the areas that we were moving into. There was large fire just to the east of the Pacific Crest Trail. And if you can imagine that if you step to your right off of the trail, that area is technically closed.

So the PCT is the only trail that's open in this area because there's 107 miles without any access to anything. And normally we've been kind of resupplying them every, you know, 10 to 20 miles or something like that. It's a big day. Biggest mileage 65 plus minus yesterday. The whole run has been a race against the environment as much as against the current FKT. We had ashes falling on us, we had smoke on us. We had concerns about parts of the trail being closed and how would we navigate that? It's bad. Timothy and Coop are essentially on their own. My biggest concern, bottom line, is Timothy. It's to get him there in a healthy state. It's to get him out safely. This final push through Washington, it isn't going to be easy. I just need to put my head down and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

We get to the last climb and I thought if anything, after 51 days of climbing all these peaks and like working so hard, there would at least be some place for celebration. I mean, it was very clear that his shin was still problematic. It was still hurting him very much. He just kind of put his head down and started descending. And I thought to myself, I'm like, this is, this isn't over yet. And so we start descending down into Canada. This last seven mile descent and it is not going well. I mean, it is just very slow. He was so bad. Like, I don't know if we're gonna walk out of here. I might have to carry you on my back. I told him the same thing I'd been telling him for the last few days.

As long as there's not a bone sticking out, you are finishing this thing. Why would I want this to be easier? Why would I want a red carpet finish? That's not why I was struggling from day one on. That's not why I've been working on this for years. I wanted this to be a challenge because challenges in life crack you open. Krista. Oh, I'm just waiting for this thing to update. You know how many days we've been doing this? T or Kai? 51 days. That's pretty good. What do you guys want to do when daddy gets back? Play lots of Legos and watch movies? Lots. Did you update?

We finally get a glimpse of some headlamps. Yeah. Welcome to Canada. Holy 1048. Yes. Oh, dear. To get to the finish, to have my coach there, it was so meaningful, Canada being closed. Like, I could have just ended up in Canada with no one there. It was really nice to have a buddy to come and witness me finishing the thing and like, we did this together. I never doubted you for a second. You're the strongest person I've ever. That you really are that way. Doesn't it? I mean, it's crazy. I got a message. Oh, you got a message. Coop just messaged me. He says, Timothy Allen Olson completes the Pacific Crest Trail, 10:48pm on Thursday, July 22. 10 minutes ago. She's done.

We were all cheering, but it really hit home when she's like, no, I'm excited that he finished. But for her, it wasn't over till he was back, you know, because for her, that was the true end of the journey where she could see him, hug him, know that he was safe. This was bigger than me, is much more than me. My little boy's getting amazing. Wife is much more than me. We got it done. Tim runs with his heart, and that heart, for him, is his family. This PCT was the exclamation mark of our relationship, of how much Crystal, you know, sacrificed and was there to help me no matter what. Tim watched me push my limits every single day. And Tim ended every day holding space for me and for our family and for our kids.

And for him to push himself physically and then be able to do that was beyond. Many of the amazing accomplishments that he's done has coincided with a really important time in our life as a family. And I just think that purpose and that intention of running with your heart is just so much of who he is. Tim trusts Krista to the nth degree. That's a level of trust that I aspire to. For something this big, without having the most important people in his life, I think it would be really difficult, if not impossible, for him to do that. Me and Krista have been able to go through all those highs and lows. Has brought us even closer together and we were really able to connect and heal together. That's where you tap into the magic of life.

This is just a note for Esmere. Dad is out running. Been over all those mountains. This is a hard one. But having a hard moment. It's really beautiful to think of you. Way to hold, hold you, love you, take you on adventures. Maybe not this crazy, but just. Just in our backyard.

ENDURANCE, ADVENTURE, FAMILY, GLOBAL, INSPIRATION, MOTIVATION, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC