What does it take to run 309 miles through the desert? Jeff Lippert, an OCR and ultra-running standout, is about to find out as he prepares for the Arizona Monster 300.

The Arizona Monster 300 is not your average race – it’s a grueling 309-mile point to point ultra run through Southern Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, boasting 41,162 feet of elevation gain. Runners will face mostly single-track trail running, while navigating rugged terrain, extreme heat, and vast solitude. Organized by Destination Trail, this self-supported endurance test draws athletes seeking to push their limits beyond the ordinary, making it a standout event in the ultra-running world.

Jeff, 36, brings a wealth of experience to this beast of a race, with a resume that includes backyard ultras, Tough Mudders, 50K’s and multiple performances at World’s Toughest Mudder 24-hour OCR event, reaching 95 miles last year. With this background, Jeff is ready for the next challenge and transitioning from a 24-hour OCR push last fall, to this AZ 300 race. And with the coaching from DJ Fox – World’s Toughest Mudder 2022 champ and 2024 Colorado Trail FKT holder – Jeff’s got the right mentorship by his side.

Jeff’s unique blend of OCR grit and ultra-running stamina makes him a fascinating figure for this desert adventure.

I talked with Jeff and here’s what he had to say regarding his background, training, expectations and plans for the Arizona Monster 300.

So how did you hear about this event?

This event company putting it on, Destination Trail, they focus on some of the big 200’s. Like Tahoe, Bigfoot, Moab… and I was interested in trying one of those. And then in the fall of 2023, I heard some rumors coming out about a 300-mile race. And I thought I’d hold back until more information came out there.

It was released and finalized in April of 2024, and I was like,

I’m just gonna go for it.
I know there’s a 200 miler one, but I’m going all in on this one.
It’s the first 300 out there, and I want to be one of the first to complete it.

So, as soon as the signup popped up back in April last year, I was one of the first people to sign up. And within probably 2 days, like 80-90% was sold out. I was like, “wow, there’s a lot of crazy people out there.”

Where do you get this motivation to go after something like this?

A lot of my friends ask me… “why?” and I’m like, “why not?”

I want to just keep on pushing the limit to see what my body is capable of.

I did just regular road races for a while.
And it just got boring.

Like a half-marathon or a marathon. I was like, well I’ll try the ultra. And then I was like, alright now let’s throw in some obstacles. And now I’m like, alright, let’s see how far I can actually go. Let’s see what my body can take.

See if I hit a wall, if I can move past that wall and continue on. Because I honestly don’t know what my body’s going to feel like beyond 108 miles. I’ve never experienced it and that’s going to be new to me and one thing that kinda scares me about it is the unknown of a multi-day race and what my body’s going to feel like when I get to the 2nd and 3rd day of this race.

Do you have a running background?

I never really had a running background. In high school I played sports, football, baseball, I wrestled.

But I hated running.

And then in 2012, one of my friends was like “hey want to do this 50K?”
I’m like “Sure”.

Yeah, I don’t know why. I just didn’t want to say ‘no’, and so I just said sure and signed up.

I trained for like a month and a half and gave it a shot. It took my like 7.5 hours and most of it I just had to walk because I injured myself.

It was brutal.
Not a good day.

What past races have you done that have prepared you for an event like this?

There’s that 50K in 2012.
And then in 2015, I did my first OCR race, a Warrior Dash.

In 2017 I started doing Tough Mudder’s. Just the normal one to start. In 2018 I heard about the 8-hour Toughest, so I took that on.

Then I found out about World’s Toughest Mudder (WTM), which I did for the first time in 2019, in Atlanta.
And that was fun.

The first time I had ran for 24 hours.
It was a huge shock. But it got me hooked.
I wanted to go back every year.

So I’ve done a handful of 50k’s, trail races. I’ve also done 3, 100mile races that I completed. 2 of them were a looped 2mile course, that were 24-hour events, get as many loops as you can. The most miles I did at that looped course was 108 miles. I did another race a couple years ago that was a point to point 100-mile race in Northern Michigan.

Last year I attempted a 100-mile race down in Key West. It was called the Keys 100. And I had to tap out at 65 miles. The heat and my feet were destroyed. I think it was on record to be the hottest on record there in a very long time. And it ended up with less than a 50% completion rate. So many people had to tap out because of the heat. Plus my feet were absolutely destroyed, just from running on pavement and road shoes. I wasn’t used to getting my feet wet in road shoes, like I am in trail shoes. And I was worried about damaging my feet, because I had a big goal for WTM last year and I didn’t want to ruin the rest of my season with possibly an injury.

I actually called DJ when I was ready to tap out, to get some advice, I was like “hey, what do you think I should do here?”
He leaned towards me calling it quits and doing any more damage.

But yeah, the farthest I’ve done so far is that 108 miles which was a little under 23 hours.
This Arizona 300 will be 3x that.

I looked over the running manual and it mentioned temps from 10 – 100 degrees. Is that accurate???

I’ve been watching the weather, and there’s a chance, because right now in Arizona, it is hot, I think it’s in the 90’s. And I think it’s supposed to cool down a little bit, it looks like the Friday of the race it’s supposed to be in the 80’s, but over that weekend, and the next 4-5 days after that, the highs are mid 70’s and lows in the upper 40’s.

I can see it being really cold, maybe on that big climb we have to do, called Mt. Lemon, where I think there’s sometimes snow up there. That’s likely the coldest part of the race. But other than that, I think at night it’ll probably be in the mid to upper 40’s.

But yeah, I hope the whole race isn’t in the 80’s-90’s.
That would be absolutely brutal.

Photo Credit: Destination Trail events

What’s your training looked like for this race?

I’ve been with DJ Fox for the last 2.5 years. I reached out to him after he won WTM in 2022. He had made a post about, ‘hey I’m doing some OCR coaching, if you’re interested, shoot me a message.’ So I did, and I told him my goals and what I wanted to do with World’s. And he was like, let’s do it.

So he started coaching me all throughout 2023. I’ve had a goal of hitting 100 miles at World’s. And in 2023 I got a PR of 85 miles there.
I wanted to keep it up another year and try again, and last year I got up to 95 miles.

And when I found out about Arizona Monster, DJ and I talked and decided he would continue coaching me all the way through that.

I took a little time off after World’s last fall. And then came back and started getting ready for the Arizona Monster.

What changed is, we eliminated all of the obstacle training. We took all that out and then we just started to build on mileage. And the first couple months getting back into it, like December and January, we’re building up miles, doing interval runs and also working on leg strength. Doing strength workouts to build the legs.

Then towards the end of February and all of March, we kind of maintained the strength by doing a strength session once a week, squats, lunges, etc. And then it’s been about mostly mileage and speed. We’ve had two different workouts throughout the week. Mid-week we’ll do interval workouts, and then on the weekend it’s a long interval tempo workout. And then a long run, usually Sunday.
Which includes all the gear I’ll need to carry. To get used to that.

So it’s been a lot of time on feet.
The most mileage I’ve had for this training, was just a little over 80miles. We typically maintain 70-80miles a week.

What about Vert? Over 40K of gain in this race and you’re training in Michigan.

There’s some rolling hills and stuff where I live. But if I want constant vert, I just jump on the treadmill at 5, 10, 15% for a little while. The majority of my vert has been treadmill, cause it’s very hard to find here.

Who are you bringing out to crew with you? And what’s that look like?

My sisters been part of my crew for all my big races for the past couple of years. Originally, my first crew was my wife, she did the first World’s with me. And she’s been at every one of the big races. But recently we had a baby in June of 2023. So she took a step back. She still comes to all my races, but my sisters been my main crew when it comes to making sure everything’s being taken care of. And stays up, especially for World’s, she stays up all night; to be there every time I came back from a loop.

You can have pacers. After 130 miles or something. But the one person I wanted to pace me can’t do it. Just from other prior commitments and all.

So I will be doing this solo.

But, they are starting the race in stages now. 11, 12, 1 and 2pm. And the people at 2pm are competing for the podium. So I think, with the way they’ve staged it, you’ll kind of see people along the course, and won’t be alone too much.

What’s the scariest part?

The elevation is the biggest part for me. It’s going to be a shock. Just because here in Michigan it’s pretty flat. So, the only elevation I can get in Michigan is trying to find some rolling hills, other than that it’s using the incline on the treadmill.

And then with altitude, the biggest climb we have to do, gets up to about 8,000 ft.

Another thing. When I was out on the course with DJ, I realized I’ve got to be a little careful with like insects and animals. That scares me a little bit.

Especially snakes, I’m not a huge fan of snakes.

So, if I do take a trail nap, I need to be careful where I lay down at. And also, I know there’s a lot of cacti and stuff that can scratch and poke you. It might not matter to you early on in the race but can affect you later on.

Also, I’ve had some situations with hallucinations, even under a 24-hour race. But getting in multiple days, when sleep deprived, I’ve heard some stories where people see some crazy stuff that’s not actually there. So, that makes me a little nervous, to be honest.

How about the solitude of running alone for possibly many miles/large sections of the course. How do you handle that?

During training runs, I’ll listen to music. But during something like WTM, I wouldn’t and might have moments where I’m just alone by myself, and just kind of have inner thoughts. And I do a lot of reflection when I run, about my past, present and future. And just kind of reflect on life, and that helps propel me to keep on moving.

The main reason I started running more and more, was a mental aspect for me. I’ve used running as therapy over the years. And it just brings me so much peace and enjoyment to be running and let out all my thoughts.

But also, what I’m excited about, is the crew aid stations, I think 6 or 7 of them. The rest are un-crewed, but with volunteers and stuff. But I’m excited for my aid stations, because if I’m feeling down, I’ll be able to see my wife, my sister, my kid. Which will be a boost.

What’s the gear setup and plan looking like for this?

I plan on carrying 3Liters of water on me between the aid stations. I’ll have a 2L bladder and 2 – 500ml flasks. I will be wearing the Salomon ADV SKN 12 to carry all the water and required gear for the race.

All the aid stations have food at them, some will have just grab and go snacks and others will have made to order food (pizza, burgers, breakfast burritos). I’ll also carry lots of gels with me and some liquid calories. My go to is Endurelite Fuel (has carbs, sugar and electrolytes in it). 1 scoop of powder of that is about 100 calories.

For actual gear I’ll be wearing: VJ trail shoes, a few different kinds. The Maxx2’s and Ultra 2’s and 3’s. Running shorts are from Wolaco. The shirt I wear is usually Dri-Fit material. My go to socks from XOSKIN. They are compression toe socks, and I wear compression leg sleeves.

There’s also some required gear I’ve got to bring; in case you get caught in a snowstorm or something like that. Most of the packs we have to carry are 12-14 pounds maybe.

What’s your plan for sleeping or taking naps. Have you ever dealt with that in a race?

WTM and the 108miles I did, there were no naps. It was just grinding it out for 24 hours.

This one, yeah it’s a little bit different. I have to plan some naps. I don’t plan on sleeping long. I know a lot of people that do the 200’s and stuff and people I follow will do trail naps of 20-30minutes at times. And I think there’s like 6 aid stations that you can sleep at. So I plan on utilizing a couple of those. But probably not until after 24 hours. I’m still trying to figure that out exactly in my race strategy of how I want to approach that. Because I don’t want to go too long and get too exhausted without sleep, but I also don’t want to sleep too early, to affect some goals I have with the race.

My goal is less than 4 days to complete this race. So less than 96 hours. And I think, I’ll probably sleep like 6 hours total. It all really depends on how my body feels.

Do you have any goals?

My overall goal has changed throughout my training and talking with DJ and seeing where I’m at. Originally going into this race, my goal was 96 hours. You’ve got to push hard, but under 4 days is doable.

And then I started getting more into training. And all my runs are usually by myself and isolated, I do 99% of the runs by myself. And I started thinking of the mindset of “I think I can win this thing”.

I truly think I have the endurance to keep up with some of those top athletes when it comes to long distance running and maintaining. And so now the goal is to go out and win it.
My goal is to be 1st.

Who do you want to thank or shoutout?

I would love to shoutout my wife Michelle Lippert for being so supportive over the years and being my original pit crew when this crazy adventure started. She has been my #1 fan to achieve my goals I set for myself. She is also an amazing mother to my daughter Lizzie.

Shoutout to my daughter Lizzie for the amazing kid you are. I hope I make you proud and can’t wait until you’re old enough to run these races together.

My sister Alana for being a major part of my pit crew over the years. You have sacrificed a lot of time from your family to be there for me at all these big races and I really appreciate it.

And lastly, shoutout out to my coach DJ Fox. You have been an amazing coach, and I truly appreciate all the training, knowledge and advice you have given me over the past 2.5 years no. Now let’s go win this race!!!

Final Thoughts

We wish Jeff the best as he chases victory in the Arizona Monster 300.

Stay tuned and follow Jeff at jeffrey_lippert on Instagram.

Drop some comments below about the race and his shot at the top spot!