The Good Stuff

CRAIG: Just giving myself pep talks in my head, like shake off that [bleep] pain.

Shake off that [bleep] pain.

It's actually-- it's not getting worse.

I think I've just achieved maximum pain so far.

So that's good.

So when we first began brainstorming ideas for playlists for season 2 of "The Good Stuff," we thought persistence would be a good playlist to end on.

And a good final video for that playlist would be me running a marathon.

And we decided on the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in November 2015, because Vegas would be awesome.

Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

So I stupidly agreed to run a marathon.

Let me tell you how I feel about this.

When I agreed to do this, I didn't know-- I actually didn't know that a marathon was 26.2 miles.

Once I learned that, I'm like, what?

What am I doing?

That's OK.

I think I can do this.

It's just about training.

I currently weigh 192 pounds.

We're going to see how much I weigh by the end of this.

I'm going to run three miles today today.

Going to run three miles tomorrow.

Yep, I might die.

So let's enjoy me while we can.

OK.

Here we go.

Let's go outside.

And begin.

Mile 1.

Already wish it was mile done.

Man, fighting the voice in the back of my head telling me to stop.

Mile 2, whoopity doo.

Oh, man.

This is-- I really want to stop.

But I can't fail on the first day.

Three miles.

27 minutes, 27 seconds.

I have a long way to go, guys.

Oh.

Just did a mile and a half.

It's easier than yesterday.

Three miles, still going.

Coldest running day so far.

Two miles.

Look at this.

See this?

See who's at the park?

No one.

Because it's cold.

How you feeling?

I'm feeling great.

MAN: All right.

What are we at, mile 4?

1.

We literally just crossed mile 1.

Oh.

Oh, god.

Six miles.

I made it a lot further than I thought I would have.

I think I'm going to make it the whole way.

I did it, nine miles.

An hour and 27 seconds.

I don't-- I don't like to brag, but damn it, I'm proud of myself.

My legs hurt.

My everything hurts.

Around four and a half miles I thought, well, I should stop now.

I don't know if I'm going to make it.

But then I thought, I have to run 26 at some point.

I better continue.

And then I did it.

It has been a little bit of time since I ran last.

I mentioned my knee hurt.

Well, it turned out it hurt pretty bad for a few days.

It's-- I'm pretty sure it's my iliotibial band.

Yeah, I'm smart.

I said words.

And I'm just going to run three miles today.

And I don't know where I'm going to pick up in the schedule.

Nope.

Made it like a quarter of a mile and I'm feeling tightness in the knee again.

And I don't think I should keep running.

Dang it.

This might put me out for a little while longer.

Now, I haven't been doing these jogging videos for a while because-- well, I hurt my leg.

It just continued hurting.

And also, the winter happened.

And it was terrible.

And I didn't want to leave my bed ever.

And my leg is actually-- I'm doing some stretches.

And it's not hurting as much.

Usually want to lean on something, but I'll just hold my balance this time.

So I'm going to jog for three miles today.

Ran three miles.

Three miles is actually getting pretty easy for me.

We're in a good position right now, guys.

Today, I'm going to attempt to run, let's say, somewhere between 8 and 12 miles.

At first, running was like, I hate life all the time.

But now, I actually feel better after running.

Mile 1, super fun.

Mile 7, up yours, Chris Evans.

Mile 8.

Should I meet my fate, give my love to Chyna Pate.

10 miles, 90 minutes, 9 minutes per mile.

I'm going to go for a big job today, guys.

A big one.

My goal is 12 miles, which will be the longest I've ever done, ever in my life.

Hey, it's an hour and 45 minutes later.

I just ran 12 miles nonstop.

I'm going to shower now.

Mitsy's licking my leg as usual.

But she doesn't have as much leg to lick because there's compression socks there.

Mitsy, you weirdo.

CRAIG: I think I've never been this physically fit in my life, actually.

I legitimately feel better after running.

Like my mind is clearer.

I just feel comfortable.

Like, my muscles feel like-- you know, they did their job.

It's hard to explain, I guess.

MAN: So Craig.

CRAIG: Yes.

MAN: What's happening today?

I'm running.

Attempting to run a marathon.

Why do you say attempting to run a marathon?

I don't know.

Well-- You know what Yoda has to say about attempting?

What does he say?

It's do or do not.

There is no attempt.

Exactly.

That's exactly-- that's verbatim, I think.

I've been training and, uh, the past month or so, I haven't gone more than like three and a half miles because my knee would start to hurt.

And I'm-- I was supposed to in my training regiment, I was supposed to get up to-- at some point, like 18 and 20 miles at least once.

Never did.

MAN: Well, how do you feel about it?

I feel-- right now, my legs feel fine.

They're not sore or anything.

I feel like I could make a good dent in the marathon.

MAN: I think the main thing here, you should have fun.

Have fun?

MAN: Yeah.

OK.

I'll try.

Have fun.

And take it easy.

Yeah?

You know, don't push yourself too hard.

OK.

But I think you can make it.

Yeah?

Mm-hmm.

I got faith in you.

I've been persistent for a while, so all I can do at this point is just hope that I did everything right.

And, uh-- just have the courage to go through with it.

There's a lot of doubt in my mind, like I didn't do this right.

I didn't do this right.

I'm not ready for this.

I'm not ready.

But I'm just going to have to go for it.

I've trained too long to give up now, but maybe not long enough to not fail.

But-- but let's see.

MAN: That's fine.

Yeah.

MAN: Cool.

Well, uh, good luck.

Is that the proper thing to say?

Yeah.

MAN: Good luck.

Don't say break a leg.

MAN: No.

Don't say break a leg.

CRAIG: This will be a good shot.

This is going to be a good shot.

All right.

It's important.

Now that I'm seeing people running, I'm getting a little excited.

Woo.

[cheering] AUDIENCE: Four, three, two, one.

[horn sounding] One mile.

I'm going at a slower pace than usual, about 10 and 1/2 minute miles.

That's good.

First water station.

1.8 miles.

Doing fine.

I littered.

I think we're around mile 3 or so.

I don't know.

And I'm feeling fine.

There's hope.

There's hope that I'm going to make this.

A long way to go.

People get so excited [inaudible].

Celine Dion watching over all of us.

This is for you, Celine.

I'm going to get these people excited right here.

Woo.

Woo.

[cheering] Oh, that's fun.

Knees aren't hurting.

I think we're at around mile 5?

Doing pretty good.

Feeling fine.

Off the main strip now.

Heading toward downtown.

All right, feeling the burn now in the legs.

Everyone seems a little bit quieter now.

Getting tired.

Got a lot more to do, too.

A lot more.

Knees are starting to hurt.

Kind of just denying it Just deny it.

It ain't happening.

Mile 7.

So many more to go.

Just had some glorious water.

Taking a little walk.

Oh, jeez.

This is-- this is quite a run.

[cheering] Yeah, cheering crowds.

It actually really helps.

It's weird that it really helps.

How you feeling, Elvis?

Getting there.

Yeah.

How you doing?

My knees are killing me.

WOMAN: Put those hands up in the air.

Put those hands up in the air.

[inaudible] It's the only marathon I've ever run.

But I'm pretty sure it's the best marathon ever.

Got some goo.

Then I'm going to get some water.

And I'm going to stretch a little and walk.

Get my knees back in order.

Going to get back to it.

Getting to mile 10 soon.

And then only 16 more.

[cheering] Yeah.

My knees are killing me.

My knees are killing me.

MAN: You're doing such a great job, man.

Thank you.

What's the timing?

I have no idea when I started.

MAN: I think you're making pretty good time.

Yeah?

MAN: Yeah.

I only-- I stopped and walked at every water station, and that's about it.

MAN: Hi, Craig.

See you later.

Good luck.

Bye.

If my knees are hurting this much, and I'm not even halfway.

I don't know how I'm going to do this.

Really in the middle of nowhere Vegas now.

A lot less people.

A lot less cheering.

A lot less music.

Oh.

Where's my music?

That was motivational.

My knees are killing me.

I'm just trying to figure out other ways of running, changing up my form.

Hitting my foot in different places so my knees don't hurt so much.

It's kind of working.

This is rough, guys.

This is rough.

You know what mile we're at?

11-ish.

11 and 1/2.

11 and 1/2?

Man, not even halfway.

Getting there.

Getting there.

We'll get there.

Oh.

I feel like I'm on my own.

Not so may runners around now.

Knee is killing me.

I really want to stop.

But I'm going to keep going.

I'm a little concerned I might be pushing myself too hard and I'll cause an injury.

But maybe this is just a little pain.

You know, maybe I won't be able to walk for five days.

But we'll see.

And walking again.

Oh, no.

Finally at the turnaround.

Watch this.

Shortcut.

I really want to finish this.

I really, really want to complete.

I want to do the whole thing.

But it doesn't seem-- right now, it doesn't seem likely.

One foot in front of the other.

That's all I got to do.

What's going through my head right now is I'm not going to make it.

There's no way I'm going to do this.

And then the pain will subside a little.

And then, you know, like, yes.

I'm going to do this.

I'm going to suffer through it.

And then the pain will get bad again and then I want to stop.

Shake off that [bleep] pain.

Shake off that [bleep] pain.

All right, I'm stopping.

Need a break.

Mile 14.

[sigh] Farthest I've ever gone.

It's just-- it's just willpower at this point.

It's just-- it's just keep going, keep going, keep going.

Now I'm doubting myself again, guys.

I had to walk.

I've been walking for a little while.

Oh.

This is rough.

Really rough.

I'm probably-- I don't know, maybe mile 15.

Ugh.

So there's an hour and 40 minutes left till the marathon's over at 10 o'clock.

And there's no way I'm going to finish by that time.

I got like at least 10 miles left to go.

I really wanted to finish.

The Good Stuff crew is waiting for me at mile 20.

We'll just pretend that's the end.

I can only walk now.

My-- my legs are in too much pain.

You know what?

I lied.

Let's give it a shot.

Maybe I'll go-- I'll go further than mile 20.

I'll just go until the end.

A lot of giving up and then going for it again.

That's what today is about.

Hi.

Yay.

CRAIG: How are you?

There's no spectators at mile 20.

CRAIG: No.

I ain't done yet.

WOMAN: Keep going.

CRAIG: All right.

Hey.

MAN: Hey.

It's terrible.

My legs are terrible.

MAN: But you're doing it.

You're walking on them.

I'm trying to walk fast because I still want to get as close as I can to the end.

MAN: So what do you think?

Are you going to try to go for it?

Yeah.

I don't think I'm going to make it I got less than an hour now.

Finishing is finishing, time limit or not.

If you go 26.2 miles, that's a marathon.

That's true.

MAN: That is a good point.

All right, man.

WOMAN: You going?

Yeah.

WOMAN: OK. All right.

We'll see you later.

Call me if you want us to pick you up somewhere.

Bye.

They're going.

MAN: OK.

They're going.

By the way, for those of you Good Stuffians who don't know, this is Chyna.

She's my wife.

23 miles.

3.2 to go.

I'm going to make it.

A little-- probably a little over 5 hours will be my time.

Under 2 miles to go.

I've reached my limit.

I can't run at all.

And I can barely walk.

This is a new, interesting, and highly compelling kind of pain that I'm experiencing.

Oh, yeah.

It's deep.

It's deep.

You got this.

Less than a mile.

Something just cracked in my leg and it hurts less now.

Oh, good.

Woo, let's go.

Let's go, baby.

Let's go.

MAN: Hey, Elvis.

CHYNA: Do you want to run like the last 10 feet?

I don't think I can.

Oh, no.

Oh my god, I can't.

CHYNA: Don't.

I can't.

CHYNA: Don't.

Oh my god.

My legs are in bad shape.

MAN: Come on, Craig.

You got it.

You got it.

Come on.

[inaudible] Did it.

I did it.

I got to get down.

Never walk again.

Never walk again.

I get a medal.

I did it.

MAN: That's amazing.

They gave me a medal.

And they gave me beer and pretzels, which was good.

Because I'm in a lot of pain.

I was thinking about quitting, like several times.

And then I just decided, well, you know?

If I'm going to finish, I just have to go with the pain.

Just go with it.

Why did I decide to run a marathon?

Well, I like working towards goals.

And I like accomplishing them.

That's the best feeling in the world.

And I want to have that feeling.

And I thought this would be a good challenge.

It would be healthy to lose some weight.

I wasn't sure I'd actually be able to do it.

And I'm very happy that I did.

Especially wasn't sure I'd be able to do it after my knee injury, but I knew there was going to be obstacles.

That's what this is all about.

You have to overcome those obstacles.

And, uh, so I kept going.

I am currently jogging.

I'm starting to train for another marathon because I feel like I didn't do it well enough.

I didn't train well enough.

I had a wedding in the middle there and I didn't have enough time.

I want to do it better.

I want to improve upon my time.

Just doing it once, that's not enough.

I want to do it right.

Finishing the marathon was good, but I had mixed feelings about it.

I had to walk the last six miles.

I was in a terrible amount of pain.

And I saw that other people weren't in a terrible amount of pain.

And I-- I think I can do what they do.

And it'll be a good feeling if I accomplish it.

And if I don't accomplish it, at least I know that I gave it my all.

I'll regret it if I don't.

Thank you for watching.

That is the end of our persistence playlist, and the end of season 2 of "The Good Stuff."

We're going to be taking a little break, but we have some future plans.

And we'll let you know about those soon.

But thanks for persistently watching our show.

And a special thank you to our Patreon supporters for making it possible.

Last week, we talked about bananas.

And this is what you had to say.

Jed [inaudible] wondered why they don't just genetically modify the Gros Michel so it's resistant to Panama disease.

Well, they have done this with plantains, but they haven't done it with the Gros Michel or the Cavendish, mainly because it's not easy to do.

It takes a lab with sophisticated equipment to create and grow the banana.

And this is expensive and hard to replicate on a large scale.

But obviously in the future, this could become a big problem.

But geneticists right now aren't making it a priority.

A couple of you pointed out that banana flavoring based on the Gros Michel is a myth.

And you were right.

We were wrong.

But we can admit it.

It turns out artificial banana flavor is not based on the Gros Michel.

The chemical isoamyl acetate, or bananas foster.

Now, banana ester, happens to taste more like the Gros Michel.

Because people often say that Gros Michel tastes more artificial than the Cavendish.

Now, taste is subjective.

And identifying one flavor as artificial is tricky business.

But the truth is, flavor manufacturers were trying to make a generic artificial banana flavor that tasted like bananas.

Diogenes the Vlog said how crazy it is so many fruits and vegetables aren't naturally occurring.

And he said that he thought broccoli was a descendant of cabbage, which is right.

Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, and a bunch of other veggies come from the same plant.

Plants are weird.

Some of you said I was opening the banana wrong.

Well, let's roll the original footage.

[beep] Mm.

That makes me hungry.

There's going to be a lot of commenters telling me I'm opening the banana the wrong way.

MAN: There's a right way?

Yeah, they're going to say to open it, like from here or something.

I open it how I want.

[beep] See, I was aware you were going to say I was opening it wrong, so I'm right.

Thanks for all the great comments.

And thanks for watching all of season 2.

I hope you liked it.

We'll see you soon.

Bye.

I'm going to start training for another marathon.

All right.

You do that.

I'm just going to stand here and wait.