Project 30 Run #4: Skydive Ultra
From rocketing towards Earth from a height of 12,500ft to running a 50k
Project 30 Run #4 was a 50k ultra that started at 120 mph as I jumped out of a perfectly working airplane from 12,500 feet!
Pre Run: The Skydive
My Intro to Skydiving
Back in June of 2020 I decided to get my Skydiving license in order to be able to freefall out of a plane on my own. To do this it requires being able to complete 25 jumps. So, I treated getting my license as a full time job for about 10 days straight until I was finally able to call myself a certified skydiver.
Leading up to this Skydive Ultra run, I decided to look back at my journal entries that I took during the license process. One of my recurring themes was just how nervous I was during each jump. As odd as it might sound, the fear I had was more of failing to progress in my jump routines than being afraid of becoming a pile of Dylan mush on the ground. That performance fear is something that I carry with me regardless of the activity that I am doing. In fact, it was one of the driving reasons why it was so important to me that I got my Skydiving license. I wanted, and still want, to use the confidence and skill needed to perform this high adrenaline activity as a conduit that improves my confidence in other activities whether they be professional or mundane in nature.
Skydive Spaceland
By the time I arrived for the Skydive Ultra, I had 45 jumps under my belt. Now that may sound like a lot of jumps to anyone that doesn’t skydive but it’s still a low beginner number to any experienced jumper. In fact, it’s really common to meet casual jumpers with a few hundred or even a few thousand jumps under their belt
It had been a little while since the last time I jumped at Skydive Spaceland, the name of the dropzone, so I was a little nervous. I made a point to understand where I would need to land and what my landing pattern would be. So, I immediately went to the onsite map to study what the overall dropzone looked like and where the landing area was situated. As soon as I began to ease my worries, I was approached by the pilot. The skydiving community is a laid back one, think of them as the surfer dudes of the sky, which makes conversations super easy and always fun to have. Anyways, the pilot came up to me and mentioned that this morning would be a windy one. In fact the ground speed would be 40 knots (or 46 mph). Which basically meant, it would be ridiculously windy. He warned me that as soon as I jumped out of the plane that I would be pushed pretty far so I should take that into account when I decide to open my parachute. I pretended I wasn’t phased by the insanely high winds and continued a conversation with him about the places we traveled to in our lives. But, in the back of my mind I was quietly freaking out about having to land in high winds. For context, as a student skydiver we aren’t allowed to skydive if the winds are at 15 mph or above. So, I wasn’t feeling 100% confident. Thankfully though, the plane that I was loading up on was filled with a wild bunch of skydivers that were celebrating a woman’s 100th jump by dressing up in rainbow unicorn onesies. Just seeing them laughing and extremely excited to jump was enough to calm my fears and to see this jump as the start of an exciting and very unique Project 30 run.
Boarding a plane knowing that you are about to jump out of it is always a surreal experience. Even with 45 jumps, I still feel a rush of nervousness and adrenaline course through my body. Which, unfortunately, is always accompanied with sweaty palms. As I was walking into the plane I saw the faces of tandem jumpers who wore smiles that doubled as masks to hide the transparent sense of fear that they were pretending not to have. This was humorously juxtaposed to the cocaine-like high energy intensity and laughter of the rainbow unicorn group that were nothing but jazzed to jump out of the airplane as they carried mouthfuls of doughnuts and celebratory screams.
After about 10 minutes of being on the plane, we finally reached our jumping altitude of 12,500 feet. As I waited for the gaggle of rainbow unicorns to jump I put down my helmet visor to shield my face from the hurricane like winds that occur during freefall. As the unicorns locked hands to jump out together I inched myself towards the edge of the airplane and looked down at the beautifully manicured gridlike patches of farmland, keeping a watchful eye on the flying unicorns. After counting 12 seconds in my head, the amount of time separation needed to make sure I had a safe enough distance from them, I crossed the threshold from being safely situated on a plane to rocketing towards the Earth.
Within milliseconds every worry, fear, and anxiety is just washed away. All that is left is a highly concentrated dose of pure adrenaline and a drug like high. There’s a great saying in the skydiving community that sums up the sport and the feeling very well.
”Skydiving is….more expensive than blow, more dangerous than meth, more addictive than crack, more entertaining than porn….and safer than driving”
As I ripped through the sky like a man shaped bullet I could help but scream in joy as I did multiple backflips, frontflips, and barrel rolls. I was in a pure ecstasy flow state.
After what felt like only a few seconds, I looked over to my left wrist to check my altimeter. It was time for me to open my parachute. So, I reached over with my right hand to grab a small knob located on the bottom of my rig. With a violent throwing action my body is immediately slowed down by the force of a 200 square foot parachute opening. After counting a few seconds, the time needed for a parachute to open fully, I looked up to make sure the chute opened correctly. After checking my braking system, I knew that everything was working properly. Now I had several minutes to enjoy the Floridian sugarlands and coastline. There’s very few experiences that can equal the feeling of floating over the Earth in an open parachute. I think it’s the closest that a human can get to experiencing the perspective of a hawk or eagle. In those precious few minutes, the world and its inhabitants are flattened. There’s no sound of traffic or people, just the sound of the parachute and your clothing flapping against the wind. It's a majestic moment of seeming stillness.
During my descent I kept the pilot’s warning in mind that the high winds would push me further from the landing area than usual. I attempted to stay above the landing area as much as I could as I descended but as I approached the 1,000 feet mark I realized that I was being pushed back from the wind, so much so that no matter what I did I couldn’t maneuver myself towards the landing area. I realized then that I wouldn’t be landing anywhere near the designated area, so I accepted the power of the wind and prepared myself to land in an open field that was about a third of a mile away from the landing area. I wasn’t the only one that misjudged the intensity of the winds, as I was approaching land I saw one of the jumpers from the unicorn group land near the area that I was heading towards.
One of the good things that comes from the heavy head winds is that landing becomes a gentle maneuver. As I engaged my brakes I gingerly approached the ground as if I was landing atop a mound of pillows. There’s a distinct feeling of elation that overcomes me everytime my feet touch the ground after a jump. It's the last checkmark to a successful and fun jump out of a completely good airplane.
One of the operators of the skydive dropzone saw that two skydivers ended up landing pretty far from the landing area so a driver in a pickup truck scooped us up. I turned over to the rainbow unicorn skydiver to see that she was actually the one that was celebrating her 100th jump. We both cheered, laughed and celebrated a successful jump. We then both had a moment of silent acknowledgment. We both had long runs ahead of us. I silently watched the rest of the jumpers begin to land as I mentally prepared myself to run for a 50k ultra.
Run: The Ultra
50k
Every time I jump out of an airplane and land, the overwhelming surge of excitement and adrenaline fills me with the mixed feeling of being both borderline exhausted and paradoxically surging with energy to embrace everything that is life.
One of the things I didn’t train for during all my miles of running leading up to Project 30, was having to fight the feeling of having an adrenaline dump and still going for an ultra run.
It was a surreal feeling for me to feel tired before starting my run while taking in the atmosphere and vibe of the Skydive Ultra organization. The excitement and energy in the air had a sort of invisible pull into engaging in the crazy activity of ultra running .
This was the first time since starting Project 30 that I have been a part of an official run. The previous times have all been solo, on routes that I have chosen for myself. This time around, I found myself surrounded by many runners, some novices and some clear veterans of the sport. This run was laid out in what was roughly a 7.2 mile loop. So, in my case in order to hit a 50k distance, I would need to do the loop 4.5 times. With the last lap being a shortened version of the loop.
My competitive side would automatically kick in every time I saw a runner in front of me or as I heard one approaching from behind me. So, throughout the beginning portion of the run I would have to remind myself that I am not here to race. As with the other runs, the race is just with myself. My intention with every run is to finish each run and to try to enjoy the place that I find myself running in.
At the onset of the run I decided to put on a book called Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. Essentially the thesis of the book is that on average we only have four thousand weeks during our lives, based on living for 80 years. Burkeman speaks to the modern trap that we live in, in which we have tools and technology that enable us to have more time to do things that we enjoy and yet we are inundated with tasks and to dos that seem to never get completed or end. As I listened to the book I started to realize I was doing precisely the thing that he was making a case for that we shouldn't do. That is to distract ourselves from living in the present moment that we are living. I got to a section in which he mentions one of my favorite authors and podcasters, Sam Harris. In addition to his podcast and books, Sam Harris also has a phenomenal meditation app that I highly recommend to anyone that is looking to become more mindful. Burkeman mentions Harris in order to introduce a mindful practice that he advocates to do, which Harris calls The Last Time. In this practice Harris has us reflect on the reality that we will perform all actions for the final time in our lives and more often than not, we will have no idea of that reality until long after the action has been completed. Upon being reintroduced to this practice, I immediately became aware of what I was doing during the run. Instead of taking in the fact that I was on the run, I was trying to distract myself from the very action I was taking. I decided to take out my AirPods and just allow myself to be present in the moment. To feel the pain of running, to listen to my surroundings and to breathe in the moment. I ultimately did this for just over two laps of the run, or roughly 17 miles.
It gave me the chance to truly appreciate where I was running. I was in the middle of Florida’s sugarland surrounded by sugar cane fields and palm trees. I heard the whistling of the wind that had gusts so powerful that I would be slowed down as if I was trying to wade through knee deep water. I began to notice the oddly satisfying sound of palm trees as they reminded me of a vibrating desktop fan. I watched in delight the belly of an ascending plane filled with eager would-be skydivers that were getting ready to drop towards the Earth at 120 mph. Strangely, I even savored the fact that I could feel blisters developing on my feet. Instead of letting my mind run away from these prescient moments, I choose to dig in and truly see, hear, and feel the present. To be honest, I am not sure if I’ll be able to maintain that level of prescience during every run or if I’ll just do this in short bursts, but I have to admit it was very satisfying to actually be in the moment and to engage fully with the environment and action of running an ultra.
As I approached the start/finish line for the fourth time, I decided to put on some pump up music to give me the extra boost I needed to finish off the last few miles. By this point my hunger was coming in strong and my blistered covered feet were reminding me of their presence with every step that I took. So, with my head down and the periodic smile that crept up with the thought of finally being finished, I kept pushing. Finally after nearly 6 hours of running, I was approaching the finish line for one last time. I savored every moment of it. I took out my AirPods one more time to fully take in the last time that I would be running here. Unlike the previous three runs, my finish was met with cheers and congratulations as fellow runners and supporters came in to celebrate with me.
Post Run
This run is the 4th one that I have done in the span of 30 days and my body was making sure I knew it. I was really sore after this run. It probably didn’t help that I had only eaten a banana and had a few scoops of my endurance powder throughout the run. Luckily though, The Skydive Ultra folks had a table full of snacks and delicious bacon ready for all the runners that crossed the finish line for the last time. It was a great feeling to have people to celebrate finishing the run with this time. I usually find myself screaming in joy alone while surrounded by strangers who have no idea if I’m a crazy person or someone that just forgot how to act in public. This time around though, cheering in joy made sense to the strangers that I was surrounded by and it was answered back with congratulations and warm smiles.
I stayed around the race area for a bit to talk to Eric, the creator and mastermind behind the Skydive Ultra, and a few other happy runners. It gave me a chance to meet other like minded runners but unfortunately most runners were either still running or back in their RVs, cars, or tents resting and stretching out.
Coming into the ultra I was hoping to meet a few more people that ran ultras like the 50k and 100 milers but unfortunately I was so fixated on getting my skydive in first thing in the morning that I missed out on chatting with the runners prior to the start and I obviously wasn’t going to disturb any of them as they made their rounds around the 7.2 mile loop. So, I had a few conversations and snacks before deciding to make my way to Miami to meet up with a few friends.
Now that I have let a few days pass from the run, I have decided the best thing for me to do is to heed the advice that I’ve been told by many, truly rest and recover. My intention is to allow myself to actively rest by continuing to do some maintenance runs, but my main focus over the next couple weeks will be to recover well with stretches and good nutrition.
Lessons Learned:
Enjoy the present, even if it’s filled with the pain of running, you never know when it will be the last time
Our body and mind can take a lot of punishment and we can actually strive in that zone
Skydiving is awesome. Okay not really a new lesson, but it’s true!
Gratitude:
Thank you to all of you that have read this far. It means a lot to me to have you willing to read the rambles of an amateur runner and writer. Hope all the best for you and yours!
Keep getting after it!
-Dylan
amazing my brother! congrats!
Legend!!! Stretch and take care of your body