Latest / Zone2Speak Podcast / Miron Golfman Riding for a Cause: A Journey of Passion, Advocacy, and Raising ALS Awareness

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Miron Golfman Riding for a Cause: A Journey of Passion, Advocacy, and Raising ALS Awareness · Zone2Speak Podcast

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  And now for the episode.
• 0:33
  Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Zone to Speak podcast. I'm your host, Juliana.
• 0:33
  Music.
• 0:40
  Going well. Yeah. I've been busy. I just flew to Colorado yesterday.
• 0:47
  Oh, I was going to ask if you were a student of Tucson. Okay. Yeah.
• 0:51
  Yeah. So I had my, gosh, I was in Arizona for two and a half weeks.
• 0:56
  It was great. Really valuable training. And then Yeah, I'm in Colorado here
• 1:01
  just for four days, visiting some family, and I'll do a little bit of riding here in the mountains.
• 1:08
  Nice. So all's good. It should be a little bit chilly.
• 1:12
  Is there any snow on the ground or too soon? Where I am, but there's definitely snow in the mountains.
• 1:16
  Yeah, yeah. Down low, I'm in Boulder, Colorado, which is a little bit,
• 1:21
  yeah, it's generally much warmer down here.
• 1:23
  But it's still much cooler than it was in Arizona.
• 1:27
  For sure. Yeah. For sure. So, yeah, no, it's all good.
• 1:35
  I'm such a tropical baby. You know, I can't stand the cold.
• 1:39
  I mean, I love visiting cold, but now I'm living in Spain and I'm in Girona
• 1:43
  and so many people are coming out to Girona for the season.
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  And like from now until or in Jan after the holidays until Feb,
• 1:53
  March, because it's such a nice weather here.
• 1:55
  But I'm thinking, oh, my God, it's getting so cold. That's funny.
• 2:00
  It's all about perspectives. For sure. It would be a dream to go be there for the winter.
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  No doubt that would be. We were just talking about that with one of my friends.
• 2:11
  He came and spent the second week in Arizona with me to train with me.
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  And we were talking about where would be a dream location to spend your winters for training.
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  And we both were like, well, Girona would definitely be pretty high at the top
• 2:25
  of the list of locations.
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  Yeah, it's true. I shouldn't complain. Yesterday, I was riding with some girlfriends
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  and we're still in shorts and short sleeves.
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  I mean, I had long sleeves, obviously, but everybody else had long sleeves and sunny, 20 degrees.
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  So I shouldn't complain. The temperature should drop, though,
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  but it's still, you can still ride the entire winter. Yeah, pretty amazing, huh?
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  And then do you pretty much spend your whole year there? Yes.
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  Well, actually, this is my first time here.
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  My husband and I just moved in March.
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  So we lived in Dubai, which is summer all year long, for 10 years. Oh, wow.
• 3:05
  Yeah. Dubai. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It was good. You're from Spain originally?
• 3:11
  I'm Brazilian. Oh, you're Brazilian. Oh, wow. Okay.
• 3:15
  Oh, fun. Yeah. Where in Brazil? So I'm from Rio, born, raised.
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  And then when I was 19, 20, I went to Seattle.
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  I went to school in Seattle. And then I moved around a little bit,
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  a little bit of London, a little bit of France.
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  And I ended up in New York and I spent 11 years in New York and I loved it there.
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  But every winter I was also like, I'm moving away.
• 3:42
  That's it, last winter. But then spring came and you forget all about it. Yeah.
• 3:49
  Amazing. You're quite the world traveler. And that's cool that you're from Brazil.
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  I have two very close friends who are both from Brazil who both grew up in Sao Paulo.
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  Nice. So I've got a bit of a Brazilian connection there.
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  I have yet to go travel there. It's a place that I definitely want to go.
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  They always go one month for every year.
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  Because they both actually live in Alaska. Wow.
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  And so they always go for one month every year. And one of these years,
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  I'd like to go be there while they're there.
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  Yeah, you should. It's not because I live there, but, you know,
• 4:26
  so many people that go really love.
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  My husband went with me for the first time this year.
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  Yeah, we went this year. And there's actually a cool race there called,
• 4:36
  it's actually an extension of the BikingMan brand.
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  I don't know if you've heard of BikingMan. It's big in Europe.
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  So there's an extension there for Brazil and they did, I think it's called 555,
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  which is 500 kilometers in 55 hours.
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  And they also have the thousand kilometer classic biking man.
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  And we did that this year.
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  Very beautiful. And, you know, you get great food. People are super helpful.
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  You know, Brazilians love foreigners. Yeah. So it was good. It's a good experience. Nice.
• 5:13
  Cool so you are
• 5:17
  on a mission it's a beautiful mission i know you started because you had the
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  influence of your uncle but i think you cycled before can you tell me a little
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  bit about your background and passion for cycling sure absolutely how the ultra
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  started with the mission for als And just for whoever doesn't know ALS,
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  it's a fatal motor neuroneurone disease because it's progressive degeneration
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  of the nerve cells in the spinal cord in the brain. Yeah. Yeah.
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  So my history with like, well, yeah, my journey to where I'm at now as an ultra
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  endurance cyclist, I grew up in a family of outdoor guides.
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  So my parents actually started their own school that was aimed at getting kids
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  outdoors on extended expeditions in the natural world.
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  But my parents also worked for other organizations.
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  And so I grew up rock climbing and paddling and biking and backpacking and on
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  the rivers and in the mountains and really just in nature.
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  And so that really just has always lived in me from a very young age,
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  just been a part of my life and who I am.
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  So I actually as a young, in my, you know, my middle school,
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  even in high school and going into my undergraduate years, I was really passionate
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  paddler, whitewater paddler.
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  And then my after my
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  sophomore year of undergrad i took a year off to go work as an outdoor guide
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  in utah and i was living in moab utah at the time and i had biked before that
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  actually my biggest when i was 19 is really when my passion for cycling began when i was 19 i.
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  I built an old Schwinn Voyager frame up, and I toured from where I grew up in just north of Boston.
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  And I rode my bike 6,000 miles to South America, to Ecuador.
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  Wow, at 19? Yeah. And we had close friends in Ecuador, and I just thought I
• 7:33
  knew I wanted to take a year off.
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  And anyway, so I had that background of I did that trip. It was very formative.
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  It really helped me become, you know, really come into myself as a young adult.
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  And so after my sophomore year in college, I went to work for Outward Bound
• 7:52
  in Utah, in Moab, discovered really technical mountain biking in a way that I had never before.
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  And I bought my first mountain bike, totally fell in love with it.
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  And when I went back to college at the school that I was going at,
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  they had a varsity cycling team.
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  And so I approached the coach and I asked him if I could join the mountain bike team.
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  And that was kind of that. For the next two years, I got to compete on the collegiate
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  level. And I really fell in love with competitive cycling.
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  In the years following that, I went into a full-time career as an outdoor guide.
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  And biking really just became my personal passion.
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  So while I was teaching paddling and rock climbing and all these other sports
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  outdoors, Whereas biking really was kind of the thing I got to do for myself
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  and that I just would do with all of my free time.
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  I loved it, really got into bikepacking.
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  And so that just was, you know, cycling was very much a part of my identity,
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  but it was part of my personal identity, just like what I wanted to do on my own.
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  Um, so in, in 2020, during the pandemic, I, I need, I decided to step away from
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  my career as an outdoor educator and a guide.
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  And I moved in with my uncle who was in the midst of his battle with ALS because
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  they were with the pandemic and social isolation. It was very hard for them to get a caregiver.
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  And at the time I felt like I could, well, I had some time on my hands.
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  So I offered to move in and support them.
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  And I spent three and a half months as his primary caregiver.
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  And it was an incredibly impactful experience. And it definitely,
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  you know, there's a lot to that.
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  Following that experience, my partner at the time and I decided to go on a bikepacking
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  trip over the Baja Divide down in Mexico.
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  It was really on that trip that I kind of reignited my excitement for long-distance
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  biking, remembering how much I just love life on a bike and the simplicity of it and beauty of it.
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  And to me, the bike is just the most incredible vehicle to explore the world.
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  I think you move at just the perfect pace.
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  It's fast enough that you can actually get somewhere, but it's slow enough that
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  you can really experience the places and the people that you're passing along
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  your way and really get to interact with the place and the culture.
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  And I really love that. and in that time I
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  also just I had never heard of ultra endurance cycling and
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  competition and just I was doing research about the Baja divide and learning
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  about and in it I kind of learned more about bikepacking and the like what is
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  bikepacking in the current day and then I found out what ultra endurance cycling
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  was and I just got totally enamored the idea and it captured my imagination.
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  And so with that, I knew that I wanted to stay involved with ALS and the support of my uncle.
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  And I was like, I really want to try ultra endurance cycling and give it everything
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  I've got and see if I can try to be an actual bike racer.
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  So I came up with this idea.
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  I approached my cousin. He's the son of my uncle.
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  And so we birthed this idea. It's called the Ride to Endure project.
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  And our first campaign was that we went back to Baja.
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  And as a fundraiser, a film crew of three followed me on an attempt to set the
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  fastest known time on the Baja divide.
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  And in 2022, I took off five minutes after midnight on New Year's to the backdrop of fireworks.
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  And And 10 and a half days later, I successfully set the fastest known time on the Baja Divide.
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  And we raised $50,000 for ALS.
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  And then this fall of 2024, we just released a 30-minute documentary about that
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  effort, that bike ride, and my relationship with my Uncle Bruce and ALS.
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  And it's a documentary that obviously tells the story of that ride,
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  but also a larger story of advocacy,
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  passing projects, and highlighting what ALS is and the devastating impacts it
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  has on the people and the families of those who have the disease.
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  Yeah, well, there's so much here that I want to unpack that you have shared.
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  Yeah, sorry. No, no, no, no, no. It was a mileage question that I threw at you.
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  So, well, I saw the documentary and it's so, so, so, so touching.
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  And I haven't been personally impacted, but I have a very close friend of mine,
• 12:53
  Nitu, and her mom was diagnosed.
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  So I saw her journey. And then, obviously, I felt even more touched by your documentary.
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  And it's so beautiful, Bahadur.
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  The views are amazing your journey the
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  ups and downs are captured and it you
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  know it's like i'm there with you and obviously
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  you know seeing your uncle in the movie and your relationship with him i will
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  share in the podcast description the link so everyone can go and watch the the
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  documentary it's really worth all the 30 minutes of your time but going back
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  to the beginning you said you were Outdoor Educated and Guide.
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  What an amazing childhood you had. Was that in Alaska?
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  No, no. So I grew up on the East Coast of the US. Yeah, I actually only moved
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  to Alaska four years ago.
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  So I grew up in Vermont.
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  And yeah, that's where I mean, I was really lucky to get to travel all over
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  the United States and around the world, a lot of adventures in Canada, South America as well,
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  throughout my growing up and then through my career when I was guiding. Yeah.
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  Amazing. And yeah, something else that you were talking about when you found
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  out about ultra cycling, because I come actually from triathlon and I always
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  love just riding my bike.
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  And when I found out about ultra cycling, I was also so excited.
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  I was like, wait a second, people
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  are on their bikes for all this time and competing sounds so much fun.
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  Obviously, I was terrified of all the hills, you know, as a triathlete. We don't do climbs.
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  So I'm like, okay, how am I going to survive this? But I learned to make them my friend-ish.
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  Yeah. A little bit.
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  And when you took off, I can only imagine how amazing it was to start this journey.
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  What a great idea at New Year's Eve.
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  It's like the fireworks were for you as you were taking off.
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  That was a boost of energy.
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  Yeah, it was. it's something that I just it was the primary focus of a year
• 15:02
  of my life and so yeah it definitely felt surreal I do remember this the feeling of,
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  It was almost, yeah, it felt surreal that it was actually happening because
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  I had been planning and thinking about the moment and thinking about doing this
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  for so long. And then it's like, oh, wow, it's finally happening.
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  And it was, yeah, I mean, it was just very exciting. A lot of adrenaline.
• 15:28
  Well, congratulations on making the fastest time.
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  That ending was super emotional and also no easy task to raise $50,000 for a last cause.
• 15:42
  Are you donating to a foundation or you
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  have a foundation made in bruce's name
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  and i'm asking just to see like can listeners continue
• 15:52
  to be involved this is something that continues the donations are still open
• 15:57
  yeah absolutely so our first fundraiser that we did with the baja ride we raised
• 16:03
  we specifically were raising money for the als association of massachusetts
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  And that's where my uncle lived in Massachusetts.
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  So that was the local ALS chapter within the United States to where he was.
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  And so that felt like a really, yeah, at the time that was the best beneficiary of our efforts.
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  We then the following year did a second fundraiser with a ride that I did of
• 16:27
  the Iditarod Trail Invitational 1000 ride from Anchorage to Nome across Alaska.
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  And we raised almost another $50,000 in that second campaign.
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  And that time, we raised money for the Mass General Hospital Healy Center,
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  which is their specific within the hospital, that's their ALS research facilities.
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  And it's one of the leading ALS research facilities in the world.
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  My uncle was part of a number of.
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  The field tests that they were doing there at the hospital.
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  So that was somewhere that he was going quite often. It was a place and a community.
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  The doctors and the medical staff there meant a lot to him. They were really important to him.
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  So it was just a place that he had a really strong personal connection to.
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  And so, again, it just felt like a really natural place to direct our efforts.
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  And so that's what that's that's where and and that
• 17:29
  continues to be so if you go on to the ride to endure website that
• 17:32
  is where we still have a link to if you want to donate to the ride to campaign
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  that's that's where our donations are going to all right just made a note here
• 17:42
  so i can share that yeah podcast description and since then i know your uncle
• 17:48
  bruce has passed and i'm so sorry for your loss.
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  Is the mission going on?
• 17:56
  Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, it's been, I mean, we're going on four years since we started.
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  So, right, our first year was Baja, the second year was the Iditarod.
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  This year, our focus was really on getting the documentary out into the world and sharing that.
• 18:11
  And then in 2025, we do hope to do another live campaign.
• 18:16
  And in fact, we've been thinking with my cousin that he and I will go to Spain
• 18:22
  and do a ride in Spain, potentially the Camino de Santiago.
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  And so we would do that again as a live ride and fundraiser.
• 18:33
  It wouldn't necessarily be for speed or anything like that. In fact,
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  it would be more of a storytelling of a journey for him and I to ride together.
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  And this would be the first time that he and I are able to get together and
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  do something like that since the passing of my uncle.
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  So yeah, we don't have to set plans yet. There's a lot in motion,
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  but for sure, we will be doing something
• 18:58
  in 2025 and excited to do another fundraiser and another campaign.
• 19:03
  And absolutely, my hope
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  is that the Ride to Endure becomes just an annual project that there's a new
• 19:14
  campaign every year and that we can continue to raise money and support the
• 19:21
  research towards finding a cure for this disease.
• 19:25
  Yeah well you're doing the best
• 19:29
  you can and giving an amazing contribution to
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  the cause so thank you so much i am
• 19:35
  excited to see what's next and if you do camino and let me know i mean i know
• 19:39
  it doesn't pass through girona but if possible to meet up somewhere just to
• 19:43
  say hello and support you part of your ride would love to how long is the camino
• 19:49
  is that over 2000k i think if you do the whole thing? I think so, yeah.
• 19:53
  I'll be honest, I have not done my detailed research.
• 19:56
  It's very much still like in... I think we'll find whatever,
• 20:00
  you know, have to be a mixture of, obviously, yeah, it's kind of that natural
• 20:06
  pilgrimage of that route, but also just.
• 20:11
  Yeah, life and time and what we can get to it. So we'll just have to see what comes from it all.
• 20:18
  I'm sure there's going to be amazing stories coming out of that.
• 20:21
  Yeah, for sure. And how about your past experiences? I know you have done,
• 20:26
  for example, Tour Divide.
• 20:27
  Can you talk me through some of your earlier ultra races distance and what were
• 20:32
  your big challenges that you faced and what kept you going?
• 20:37
  Yeah, let's see. So my start, my very first race that I ever did was because
• 20:43
  I had that whole idea of the Baja Divide.
• 20:45
  So I wanted to do a few races that year leading up to that.
• 20:49
  Just to, you know, I was just getting my ultra endurance cycling,
• 20:55
  racing kind of feet underneath me and becoming familiar with it.
• 20:58
  So the first event that I ever did was the Kenai 250. It's a 250 mile race in
• 21:04
  Alaska, just outside of Anchorage. It's a mountain biking ultra.
• 21:09
  And then from there, let's see, I did the Alaska Pipeline that summer.
• 21:16
  It's just shy of 1,000 miles, basically from the furthest northern point that
• 21:21
  a road goes in Alaska down to Valdez, Alaska.
• 21:26
  And then I went did the Idaho Smoke and Fire that year and that was the majority
• 21:33
  of the competitions I did I went down and I rode a friend of mine was touring the Great Divide,
• 21:41
  route that summer. And she asked if I could come with her and do the final segment
• 21:47
  through New Mexico to help her finish.
• 21:50
  And so I went down that summer and I rode that last section of the trail with her.
• 21:57
  And then I did the Baja Divide. I quickly followed up with that with my first
• 22:01
  race on the Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska.
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  And that was the 350 mile version, which is what you have to do to qualify in
• 22:11
  order to then race the 1,000, which I then raced the 1,000 miler the next following two years.
• 22:17
  Is that during the winter? Because I saw Lyle posted about it and it looked so cold.
• 22:23
  It is a full winter fat biking race, yes.
• 22:26
  So it is across Alaska.
• 22:29
  Yeah, it's a very unique event, very different than anything else.
• 22:35
  Do you see, like Alaska is quite remote. You have some towns here and there,
• 22:40
  you know, Anchorage, it's a big town, but they are, you know,
• 22:43
  the rest of Alaska is pretty remote.
• 22:45
  Do you pass other cyclists? Do you pass other towns? Yeah.
• 22:50
  So there are small villages along the whole route, but it's very different in
• 22:55
  that there's no amenities, there's no supplies in most of these villages.
• 23:01
  Some of them have little stores or something, but for the most part,
• 23:03
  what you have to do is actually, unlike most ultras where you can only utilize
• 23:09
  supplies that you find along the way, you are allowed to mail yourself resupply packages.
• 23:15
  You can only mail yourself food and basically consumable items.
• 23:21
  You couldn't send yourself a new jacket or anything like that.
• 23:24
  Whatever gear you start with, you have to have for the whole event,
• 23:28
  but you can send yourself food resupply because it's so limited along the way.
• 23:35
  You don't see a lot for me. I, once I, I was up in the front of the races both times.
• 23:42
  And so by not, you know, eventually I was really on my own.
• 23:47
  The second time I did it, my friend and I were quite compatible.
• 23:52
  And so we ended up being together almost the whole way because we're just about
• 23:57
  the same speed. So we were, we ended up racing the whole thing together.
• 24:01
  But aside from seeing the occasional going through a village,
• 24:06
  or sometimes there'll be snowmobiles, snow machines going.
• 24:10
  And then you also do see the dogs that are doing the Iditarod,
• 24:15
  the historic Iditarod dog sled race. So you see the dogs and the mushers.
• 24:19
  Both years that I did it, the conditions were hard.
• 24:23
  They were slow moving years. So towards the end, as I was reaching the last
• 24:28
  few hundred miles, The dog team's caught up to us.
• 24:32
  Yeah. So you're competing against the dogs? We're not competing against the
• 24:36
  dogs. No, it's a completely separate competition.
• 24:38
  But we are on the same trail. Yeah. Got it. We're on the same trail.
• 24:43
  Yeah. I would make out with the dogs. Like, they're so cute. Yeah.
• 24:48
  It's amazing. Yeah. Amazing to watch. But it's funny. They call us the crazy ones. So, yeah.
• 24:55
  And it's a competition like none other. It's really different from any other ultra, but I love it.
• 25:01
  I really, really love it. I love the winter.
• 25:04
  Well, yeah, I love winter in general, but I do love just the extremes that come
• 25:12
  with the competition like fat bike racing and ultra fat biking.
• 25:17
  And it just takes a whole nother level of preparation and skill set and capacity
• 25:26
  to endure the elements and navigation and planning.
• 25:31
  And there's just a lot that goes into it and your gear.
• 25:34
  I love how dynamic it is. I love how much skill and strategy it takes.
• 25:40
  It's really, there's just a lot to it. And I find that really thrilling.
• 25:45
  Yeah, I can't even imagine. I mean, the gear for sub-zero temperatures and then all the mailing.
• 25:52
  I guess you do all the mailing before the races start because then you're on the road.
• 25:57
  Wow. For like over a thousand miles, you have to think of all the stops and
• 26:01
  then mail all the food. And what is on those packages?
• 26:04
  What are like cans, canned goods?
• 26:07
  No, not canned goods. I mean, you want to think about what's not going to freeze, right?
• 26:11
  But yeah, it's a mixture of... So a lot of dehydrated meals.
• 26:16
  That's what you know you'll eat,
• 26:19
  for breakfast and for dinner because you'll actually stop and you carry a stove
• 26:23
  with you and you have like, it's really important to be eating warm, warm meals.
• 26:27
  So I do. So you carry a lot of dehydrated meals. And then during the day,
• 26:30
  it's, it's a whole variety of, you know, not that dissimilar,
• 26:34
  but often you're thinking a little bit more fats in, in your snacks compared
• 26:39
  to what you would be eating.
• 26:41
  Otherwise, when you're competing, just keep yourself warm and, and so on.
• 26:46
  But, you know, I eat a lot of cheese and a lot of meat and then trail mix and,
• 26:52
  you know, bars and what have you, things that are easy to digest.
• 26:58
  Salts. So, you know, keeping your electrolytes, it's, you know,
• 27:03
  it's hard to drink as much.
• 27:04
  So salty foods, getting your electrolytes and with your solace. Yeah.
• 27:12
  Yeah, it's quite logistic there for that race. Very logistically heavy, yeah.
• 27:19
  Yeah, yeah. I did, I mean, this doesn't even compare, but I was bikepacking
• 27:25
  with a friend, my friend Juliet Elliot in Norway for a few days and we took
• 27:30
  dehydrated food as well and couscous and oats,
• 27:35
  But mainly because everything in Norway is so expensive.
• 27:38
  So I was like, let's take our stuff to book.
• 27:41
  But yes, the days went by, I was getting so happy because I was getting lighter
• 27:45
  because we were carrying so much food with them. Absolutely.
• 27:48
  Yeah. Yeah. I know that feeling. It's, yeah. Whenever we take off from resupply,
• 27:53
  you're very, the bike is very heavy.
• 27:56
  Yeah. And because sometimes you're carrying, you know, yeah,
• 27:59
  there are days when you have to carry five, six days worth of supplies because
• 28:03
  you hope that it's not going to take that long.
• 28:06
  But the thing is, it's not like other times of racing where you can kind of,
• 28:12
  you know, within a few hours, you can guess how, you know, unless something,
• 28:16
  unless an emergency comes up or your bike fails, right?
• 28:19
  Like for the most part, you know how long it's going to take you to bike a segment.
• 28:23
  With winter biking if a
• 28:25
  snowstorm comes everything changes right
• 28:28
  you never know the conditions of the trail can you
• 28:31
  be biking are you going to be walking or you know are you going to be pushing
• 28:34
  your bike through multiple feet of deep soft snow so you could be you know the
• 28:40
  variety of or the variance of i could be moving at three miles an hour all day
• 28:47
  or i could be moving at 10 miles an hour, I have no idea.
• 28:50
  And so there's just a lot of, you have to account for that and you have to plan for the worst.
• 28:55
  And so that's why you have to carry a lot of extra supplies just in case.
• 28:59
  Yeah. I was thinking about that because if there is a storm,
• 29:02
  it's not like most races, you just have an emergency blanket.
• 29:07
  You've got to have serious equipment. I carry with me a negative 40 sleeping
• 29:13
  bag and a full bivy set up with that.
• 29:17
  Like I said, I'm carrying a stove so I can make hot meals, hot water,
• 29:21
  melt the snow to make more water.
• 29:24
  I'm carrying just a lot of clothes. So your bike is not light by any means.
• 29:32
  You just can't. You have to make sure that you're carrying ample supplies so
• 29:37
  that if you have to survive, if anything happens and you have to stay put for
• 29:41
  multiple days, you have what you need to survive in the harsh winter extremes.
• 29:47
  Yeah like that yeah and and that probably makes it easier the other.
• 29:55
  Races logistic you become like i i feel like you would be a pro after this either
• 30:00
  rod race it is pretty great yeah it's pretty nice when you're like oh wow i
• 30:03
  have to take nothing with me just you know like a thin little sleeping kid and
• 30:07
  and i barely you know yeah it's funny I ran and raced the Highland Trail 550
• 30:13
  in Scotland this past spring.
• 30:15
  And I was talking to a lot of folks and friends I've got in the UK.
• 30:20
  And people were like, it's known for being one of the most remote and harsh
• 30:27
  in terms of weather races in Europe.
• 30:29
  And it was just so funny doing my prep.
• 30:32
  And I was like, oh, that's like 100 miles between resupplies.
• 30:36
  Like within every 24 hours I'll be able to resupply and yeah I mean sure it
• 30:42
  rains and stuff but it rains a lot in Alaska where I live and train so it just it was like,
• 30:48
  It's all a matter of perspective. I totally respect that for a lot of,
• 30:52
  you know, for most folks, it's like, oh, that is very extreme. And it's, it's harsh.
• 30:56
  But to me, I'm like, wow, you can resupply within, within a 24 hour period.
• 31:01
  And, and you're not, you're not battling weather that can give you frostbite.
• 31:06
  It's like, it's all, it's all a matter of perspective. But every race is hard.
• 31:11
  That's not to say that, you know, I generally find myself in almost every race
• 31:17
  I do thinking, gosh, this might be the hardest thing I've done yet,
• 31:20
  even though I've done some of these really extreme races.
• 31:23
  Yeah, when we are on those low, low moments, it definitely feels like it's the
• 31:30
  hardest thing we have done. For sure.
• 31:32
  But yeah, I'm not taking for granted every race has its own challenges.
• 31:36
  But when you are prepared for the worst, prepping for the other races just might
• 31:41
  be a little bit less complicated.
• 31:44
  But you have been inspiring a lot of people with your, you know,
• 31:51
  races and approach to life.
• 31:54
  What would be your advice for someone who would like to start in the ultra cycling
• 32:00
  world or looking on to take on a meaningful cause?
• 32:05
  All right. That's a big question. I mean, I think, I don't know.
• 32:10
  Well, first off, I don't know if that ultra is for everyone.
• 32:13
  I think just finding something that you're passionate about in life is the most valuable thing.
• 32:20
  As human beings, I personally feel for myself and I know from,
• 32:27
  having been a teacher and working with young people that the thing that gives
• 32:32
  us meaning in life is doing something beyond ourselves,
• 32:36
  helping others that is human nature to want to feel of use to the greater good of humanity.
• 32:44
  And so I think, for me at least, I feel a very strong impulse that no matter
• 32:50
  what I'm doing, I find a way to utilize my platform, the work that I do,
• 32:57
  to have some kind of impact.
• 33:00
  It's what feeds me. It's what keeps me going.
• 33:02
  So yes, there is a level of, of course, there is some level of altruism in the
• 33:08
  work that I'm doing, but it's also like there is self-benefit to it. And I don't forget that.
• 33:15
  And so I think for anyone, I would hope that they find,
• 33:21
  whatever it is that they're passionate about and they find a way to use the
• 33:25
  thing that they're passionate about to make a positive impact because life,
• 33:31
  that is the greatest thing we can do with our life is to feel of use to those around us.
• 33:37
  And I think that if ultra endurance cycling is something that does spark your
• 33:40
  interest and that's what gets you excited and that's what gets you out of bed, that's awesome.
• 33:45
  And I think when it comes to ultra, there's so much more.
• 33:50
  We are capable of so much more than we might initially realize.
• 33:55
  And it just takes trying it, right?
• 33:59
  It's incredible what might feel impossible and then we go...
• 34:05
  Do our first ultra race, or we just go do our first bike race. We go do that.
• 34:10
  It's about taking that leap of faith, taking that step, trying that thing that seemed impossible.
• 34:17
  And maybe you don't reach whatever threshold of success that you might have created for yourself.
• 34:24
  But if you've done it, if you've tried, I mean, that is success in itself.
• 34:28
  And you most likely will very quickly realize how capable you are,
• 34:34
  how much stronger you are than you may have given yourself credit for ahead of time.
• 34:40
  And I think that ultimately, like it doesn't matter really, right?
• 34:46
  Do we win races? Like it's great. I personally, yes, I'm driven by competition.
• 34:52
  I really love the drive of pushing myself to be my very best and creating those
• 35:02
  benchmarks of achievable goals and performances that I hope to see out of myself.
• 35:12
  But it really comes down to, for me, what I'm riven by is challenging what is
• 35:19
  humanly possible. what I considered even achievable for myself.
• 35:24
  And when I reach those benchmarks, that is rewarding beyond anything else.
• 35:29
  And so I hope that that's what people see is just making goals for themselves
• 35:34
  and putting everything you have into achieving that. There's really no greater...
• 35:40
  Feeling of success and in those
• 35:43
  moments yeah so just taking notes of
• 35:46
  things bits and pieces that you say that speak
• 35:49
  to me yeah and i don't want to miss it but beautifully said i love when you
• 35:55
  said also just trying itself it's a success and i agree a hundred percent you
• 36:01
  know wherever you start just setting that goal and then getting there,
• 36:06
  it's a great feeling. It is a success.
• 36:10
  And I also love when you said, you know, fuel of use for those around us,
• 36:15
  not to be cheesy, but if we do fuel of use for those around us,
• 36:19
  and if everybody does this, it just makes a better world.
• 36:22
  You know, you started with your uncle and it became, you know, you just.
• 36:28
  Which is not just because it's a big task to be a
• 36:30
  caretaker but you were giving you
• 36:34
  know your time and efforts and energy to
• 36:38
  your uncle and and your family to be there for that
• 36:40
  period of time where they couldn't find help and that's amazing
• 36:44
  and so selfless and that
• 36:47
  was one step of the goal and now
• 36:50
  look look at where you are you know you
• 36:53
  have a documentary out and you're inspiring
• 36:56
  people you're continue your cycling journey
• 37:00
  and and your alas cause as
• 37:03
  well so yeah amazing it's been it's
• 37:06
  been an amazing journey i'm really grateful to yeah to
• 37:09
  be where i am and and really excited about yeah everything
• 37:13
  that's that's coming so i could not feel more
• 37:17
  driven and more excited just
• 37:20
  about everything everything that's going on for me yeah just
• 37:24
  the tip of the iceberg absolutely absolutely and
• 37:28
  we mentioned bruce is not here anymore but
• 37:32
  how has his strength and resilience
• 37:35
  influence your approach to cycling and to life yeah you know the what really
• 37:43
  sits like continues to have the biggest impact of my time that I spent with
• 37:50
  Bruce and my relationship with Bruce.
• 37:53
  Was his figure for living life to the fullest.
• 37:59
  And that's really kind of largely what drove me following my time with him towards
• 38:05
  thinking about, okay, what am I going to do next?
• 38:08
  And whatever it is, it needs to be something that I love and that feeds me.
• 38:13
  Bruce loved to tell a story of when he was in his early 20s,
• 38:18
  and he, following his undergraduate time, took two years to go travel the world.
• 38:24
  And he literally just with a backpack went, and he traveled the world at a time
• 38:30
  when that was not that common of something to do.
• 38:34
  And, you know, he had all sorts of experiences from multiple months of living
• 38:41
  on a kibbutz in Israel to backpacking in Nepal and going to base camp of Mount
• 38:49
  Everest and so many other stories that he just loved to tell.
• 38:53
  And that was something that he reflected on
• 38:56
  not that it was easy for him to accept the
• 38:59
  fact that he was dying it was never something that he
• 39:02
  found easy to sit
• 39:05
  with or really to accept but that being
• 39:08
  said he did speak to as he was
• 39:11
  losing control of his body and an ability to
• 39:14
  have physical autonomy he was
• 39:17
  able to sit at peace with that knowing that
• 39:20
  he felt like he had made the most of the life that he
• 39:24
  had well he had a body that he
• 39:27
  could use to explore the world to live and and i think that right like it's
• 39:35
  not that it's not a unique concept right to seize life to the fullest but it
• 39:41
  really was in living with Bruce, in taking care of Bruce.
• 39:45
  In having such an intimate and up-close experience of the fragility of life
• 39:51
  and watching someone very close to me losing their body, losing their life.
• 39:57
  It was definitely a wake-up moment for me to say, I want to,
• 40:03
  I love competing, I love using my body,
• 40:07
  I love exploring the world, I want to do that as much as I can while I can.
• 40:13
  Yeah. And then the fact that I can, and then I can do that and have some greater
• 40:17
  impact is like, is a dream, is a dream come true.
• 40:21
  And I think all of that, the piece of living my life to the fullest,
• 40:25
  using my body, having a greater impact, you know, Bruce really used his diagnosis
• 40:30
  of ALS to become a incredible advocate.
• 40:34
  He just dedicated himself fully to ALS advocacy and having a greater impact
• 40:39
  in the world and wanting to help people who couldn't, you know, help themselves.
• 40:45
  And so that for me has those, those factors have really stuck with me.
• 40:51
  The, and, and I hope will continue to be the driving force in the work that I do as an athlete.
• 40:57
  It's so beautiful, the two of you, just really beautiful how lucky you have
• 41:01
  each other and what a life well lived.
• 41:03
  In a way, it must be devastating. I don't even want to imagine what it is to
• 41:08
  have a diagnosis that you know your body is going to die on you.
• 41:13
  But I guess it's somewhat comforting that he was in peace, that he lived his life to the fullest.
• 41:20
  And he was somewhat in peace with that and then used the rest of the time he
• 41:26
  had to have some impact on the cause so it's beautiful to see it's not everyone
• 41:35
  that goes through this diagnosis and can take that with such a positivity.
• 41:40
  You have a lot of Bruce in your DNA with adventure, huh?
• 41:45
  Yeah, we share that in common Yes. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah.
• 41:51
  Yeah. No, I'm lucky to come from an adventurous family.
• 41:56
  A lot of natural space. I've been very lucky to have access to being outdoors
• 42:01
  my whole life. I feel really lucky about that.
• 42:05
  Well, enjoy your time in Colorado. Thank you. And I'm going to be on the lookout
• 42:09
  on what you do next. Yeah.
• 42:11
  No, I'm excited for what's next. I got my confirmation of I'm registered and
• 42:15
  paid. So I'm going to be at the Atlas mountain race and in Morocco and February.
• 42:21
  And I'm really looking forward to that. So yeah. Yeah.
• 42:25
  And I'll, I'll definitely be in touch if I, not if, but when I'm,
• 42:28
  when I'm in Spain, that would be, I would love there's I, for me traveling,
• 42:33
  it's all about spending time with folks that actually live where you are.
• 42:37
  Cause that's the best way to actually see somewhere. So I would love I,
• 42:41
  Girona is very much on my list of places I'd like to go.
• 42:44
  So we'll, I'll be, I'll be in touch for sure.
• 42:47
  Joanna, thank you. Please, please. I'm waiting here for you.
• 42:50
  Have a wonderful season and we'll chat soon. Thank you, Myron.
• 42:56
  And that's all for today's episode. I want to thank the listeners for tuning in.
• 43:01
  Your support means everything. If you enjoyed this episode.
• 43:04
  Music.