I met my friend at 10:35 a.m. on his 36th day of transcontinental running in an R.V. parked next to a bike path. He had just finished his first run of the day. Before he set foot in the R.V. for a break, he took a marker and updated a small whiteboard he called his “roar board.” He checked the two GPS watches he wore, along with a third GPS tracking device he carried. He and his crew kept meticulous records, which included posting his route, his GPS data, and making daily videos of the run, all of which will be checked and verified by the Guinness Book, which will certify the record.

Kostelnick recorded the 42.5 miles he had just completed, along with his start and stop time. Trasie Phan, who served as the trip’s logistics coordinator, said that only Pete could touch the roar board. “He told me the only other people allowed to touch it were Katy Perry and David Hasselhoff.”

Kostelnick wolfed down a few thousand calories, shoveling beef stew, a protein shake, protein bars and chocolate-covered toffee into his stomach as if it were coal entering a fiery furnace. We were ready for his second run of the day.

The first few miles were uneventful. We chatted about our families, he asked me about my work and running and we tried to decide whether Ohio was actually part of the Midwest. “It’s so great to have you here,” he told me. “This has been one of the lowest days of the whole run. With you, I can just relax and take it easy.”

The renowned ultramarathoner and author Dean Karnazes had a similar experience when he completed his transcontinental run in 2011. He said most people asked him practical questions about his run, wondering what he ate and how many shoes he wore out. “You don’t really have meaningful conversations,” he said. “Psychologically, that’s hard to deal with.”

“I think of each day as its own episode,” Kostelnick told me. “Today is Episode 36.” Mentally, he said he splits the day into four chunks of mileage along the lines of 20-20-20-10. By running a steady pace, he maximized his daily rest. “Each day I try to stay off of my feet for 11 hours,” he said. “I’m not the best sleeper. Most nights I get six hours.”

We continued at a comfortable pace, stopping along the way to receive sips of soda, water and salty and sweet food. While it may sound strange, drinking soda is fairly common in ultramarathon running. We drink it because it’s an easy way to get calories and often caffeine. The carbonation can also help settle your stomach. When you’re burning more than 7,000 calories each day you can’t have the same health conscientiousness that you normally do.