Sen. Cory Booker on how he pulled off his marathon speech: Fasting, Hokas, and a record to break

After Sen. Cory Booker made history for the longest individual Senate speech delivered in the chamber, he told reporters he was sore and battling dehydration but grateful that he’d lasted as long as he did.

He also shared some of the behind-the-scenes preparations that got him to the record-breaking moment.

“I’m so grateful for all my colleagues and a lot of help that people gave me to do this,” Booker said, a little hunched over and wide-eyed, about an hour after stepping off the floor. “I didn’t know how long I could go. I’m so grateful I lasted 25 hours.”

Booker stood at his desk in the back row of the Senate chamber for 25 hours and 4 minutes, speaking for most of the time in protest of President Donald Trump’s actions, though Democrats came in to ask questions and give him speaking breaks. He broke the previous record set by Sen. Strom Thurmond, who filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

» READ MORE: Cory Booker delivers record-breaking Senate floor speech protesting Trump’s actions for 25 hours

The speech was shrugged off or derided by some Republicans who labeled it a stunt. Democrats largely commended the moment, as the party has struggled to figure out how to resist Trump while in the political minority.

Across the country there was a fascination with how Booker did it.

Booker, 55, said he consulted several people on how to prepare for a speech-athon. He fasted starting three days before he took the Senate floor and stopped drinking water 24 hours before.

“I think that had good and bad benefits,” Booker said. “I definitely started cramping up from lack of water.”

Asked explicitly if he wore a diaper or catheter to avoid leaving the floor for a bathroom break, Booker said: “I don’t want the Senate doctor to get mad at me, my doctor to get mad at me, but I really spent time dehydrating myself so I did not have to go to the bathroom.”

“Instead of figuring out how to go to the bathroom, I ended up I think unfortunately really dehydrating myself,” he added.

Booker, wearing black Hoka Clifton running shoes, battled leg cramps and muscle spasms for hours, shifting from side to side. He didn’t want to carry any extra weight, he said, so he took everything out of his suit pockets except a Bible verse from Isaiah that includes the line “They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Booker, who is vegan, had his first food in more than a day when he got back to the office: some pineapple and watermelon, according to staff.

Booker said once he crossed 15 hours he had his eye on Thurmond’s 68-year-old record, even if he had not set out with the goal of breaking it.

Thurmond (D., S.C.), a segregationist, spent hours railing against the passage of the Civil Rights Act. He sustained himself with sips of orange juice and bites of beef and pumpernickel bread kept in his pockets. His staff had set up a bucket in a Senate cloakroom.

“I was very aware Strom Thurmond’s record existed. I always thought it was a strange shadow hanging over this institution that the longest speech, with all the issues that come up … it seemed wrong to me, always seemed wrong,” Booker said.

But Booker was not sure it was in the cards for him. He had supported Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) in a filibuster nine years ago. Standing with Murphy for all 15 hours as Murphy spoke about gun control, Booker was sore and was unsure how his body would hold up for another marathon Senate speech.

“I didn’t want to set any expectations. The mission was really to elevate the stories of millions of Americans,” he said.

In the aftermath of the viral moment, Democrats are contemplating how to keep up the momentum or find ways to match it. Booker acknowledged his speech did not change any policies and said he plans to continue to find ways to speak out.

“I think that there’s a lot of people out there asking Democrats to do more and take risks and do things differently,” Booker said. “… A lot of us have to do a lot more, including myself.”

The 2019 presidential candidate demurred when asked if he sees himself as the future of the party.

“No, God bless America. No, I’m just trying to step up as we all should be thinking about doing,” Booker said.

Some Democrats heading to a late-night vote Tuesday — pushed back by Booker’s verbosity — gave him kudos.

“He made the Senate relevant and he captured the moment,” Sen. Peter Welch (D., Vt.) said.

Asked what he thought of the speech, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky answered succinctly.

“Long.”