Latest / Adventure Sports Podcast / Ep. 1127: Running Across Montana with Becca Boylan, Revisited

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Ep. 1127: Running Across Montana with Becca Boylan, Revisited · Adventure Sports Podcast

0:06
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, my dad, I grew up and my dad was an artist when I was growing up and everything was all connected.
0:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was all about how life's connected and there's meaning and everything.
0:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think I took some of that with me into adulthood.
0:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And so this, this Montana or on idea was like, I'm from Montana, my parents are from Montana.
0:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And I need a way to, you know, share that love for the state that I grew up in that's changing and share running with people that have been affected by cancer.
0:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And at the same time, I have this personal motivation to find a solution for the emotional pain of that really generous and stressful year of taking care of her.
0:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Episode 1127, we have a revisited episode with Becca Boylan running across Montana 475 miles to deal with the grief of her mother's cancer.
1:04
[SPEAKER_00]: You're listening to the Adventure Sports podcast.
1:06
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk with adventurers from around the globe to bring you the inspiration and motivation you need to get started in the outdoors or to keep you moving if you're already there.
1:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Now here's your host, Kurt Lindville.
1:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey friends, before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to share a couple of things with you.
1:24
[SPEAKER_03]: If you've been listening to the show for a while, you probably know that I have a book out, and the book is called 99 Words Building A Better Life, I wrote it.
1:34
[SPEAKER_03]: to serve as a toolkit, to help people to sort out solid belief systems that they can build a life on.
1:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's a lot less about what to believe, a lot more about how to sort it out, what matters to you and what is truth and that sort of thing.
1:49
[SPEAKER_03]: I bring it up because in way of letting people know that the book exists, I've been interviewing on other podcasts as a guest.
1:57
[SPEAKER_03]: and i was thinking it would be a really nice thing to do to share some of my favorite podcast that i've interviewed on with you not so you can listen to my interview but just so you know about the podcast i know that people that love to listen to podcasts like variety they like to listen to more than just one show and
2:13
[SPEAKER_03]: I know that I personally will shift between shows I like to listen to and then I come back and revisit again and so I thought maybe it would be helpful if I shared some podcast with you that I thought were really super cool.
2:25
[SPEAKER_03]: So today I want to talk about Jo Domino.
2:28
[SPEAKER_03]: He has a couple of podcast, famous interviews and neon jazz and he's just got a great spirit about him.
2:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was on the famous interviews podcast with him where he talks to people about what they're doing in their lives and that all that sort of thing There's a lot of music involved and a lot of just Encry into what makes people tick really enjoyed his show that again.
2:54
[SPEAKER_03]: It's famous interviews with Joe Domino
2:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Another one, which is interesting, is Project Mindfully Outdoors, and that's with Michael Martin.
3:05
[SPEAKER_03]: This podcast is more contemplative, and it's about meditating in nature, and connecting with nature deeply to look for healing, and I really like that approach, I believe in it.
3:19
[SPEAKER_03]: It is a lot of what the Adventure Sports podcast is all about.
3:23
[SPEAKER_03]: So Michael Martin project mindfully outdoors might want to give that a listen.
3:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I found it refreshing to talk to him because he's just so willing to share, you know, kind of the deeper things of the human heart and how the outdoors can have a significant impact there.
3:41
[SPEAKER_03]: So two podcast for you to consider.
3:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for joining us again today and this revisited episode was hosted by Mason.
3:50
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be fantastic.
3:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Hope you enjoy.
3:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey folks, welcome to the Adventures Board's podcast, I'm your host Mason.
3:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Today's episode is with Becca Boylan, who recently, very recently, a couple of months ago finished running 475 miles across the state of Montana, and why she did it is an even crazier story.
4:14
[SPEAKER_04]: She spent
4:15
[SPEAKER_04]: a year nearly at her mother's side as she dealt with cancer and she says metabolize and it kind of work through the living grief and the emotional challenge that was to be there with her
4:32
[SPEAKER_04]: uh... she ran across the state her mother did make it through but right before she started this run she was re-diagnosed and so that's gonna tell us that story about the impact of combining physical challenge with emotional uh... challenge we see this a lot and i encourage you if you're going through something
4:50
[SPEAKER_04]: find an outlet like this, find a challenge to do.
4:53
[SPEAKER_04]: It inspires so many people.
4:55
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a great way to deal with with it and you're just changed on the other side.
5:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Sounds like Becca's life will be forever changed.
5:03
[SPEAKER_04]: By the way, she's a fifth generation Montana.
5:06
[SPEAKER_04]: Montana?
5:06
[SPEAKER_04]: Is that the right word?
5:07
[SPEAKER_04]: On both sides, not just one side, but her mom and her dad.
5:10
[SPEAKER_04]: So,
5:11
[SPEAKER_04]: rare breed, as I say, because there's not a lot of, you know, folks that have been around in the same spot that long, uh, anymore.
5:19
[SPEAKER_04]: But all right, let's go ahead and dive into Becca's story.
5:22
[SPEAKER_04]: Becca Boyle, and welcome to this show how you're doing.
5:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Good.
5:27
[SPEAKER_04]: Good.
5:27
[SPEAKER_04]: Good.
5:28
[SPEAKER_04]: As, as is tradition, I always ask where, where's home for you?
5:32
[SPEAKER_04]: And if that's not where you're coming from right now, where are you coming from?
5:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, um, I was lucky enough to grow up in those in Montana.
5:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, my family's been here for five generations and stuck around and I'm still here.
5:44
[SPEAKER_02]: So I haven't let you to.
5:46
[SPEAKER_04]: You are a rare breed.
5:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
5:50
[SPEAKER_04]: It's generation boesman.
5:51
[SPEAKER_04]: Montana and Tannen.
5:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
5:54
[SPEAKER_02]: It's getting rare.
5:55
[SPEAKER_04]: It is getting rare.
5:56
[SPEAKER_04]: So I guess pioneer folks that, uh, you just stayed put.
6:01
[SPEAKER_04]: Is that, is that kind of the story?
6:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
6:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, I had great great grandma's from Sweden and great great grandpa's from Ireland come over and they just hung out and both, I'm both my mom and dad side, so both parents were fourth generation making the double fifth generation to the gas and power.
6:22
[SPEAKER_04]: No, it didn't.
6:23
[SPEAKER_04]: So, I mean, has, has, I only asked because being from Florida, it's kind of something.
6:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Just lots of people moving in.
6:30
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm third generation.
6:32
[SPEAKER_04]: And I know a lot of old timers, you know, five, six, seven generation Floridians.
6:36
[SPEAKER_04]: And the story is, you know, they're just not that many of us.
6:40
[SPEAKER_04]: And so for you, even more so, on Tana's just getting in and dated with people,
6:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Is there that conversation or kind of that narrative constantly like, you know, it's just changing around us, but where we've been here?
6:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, absolutely specifically to Boseman and the Gallauds in Bali.
6:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I think COVID didn't really do us any favors and neither did the show yell us down So between those two things and you know Boseman's really beautiful and people want to get out of the cities We've kind of blown up here and It's better sweet.
7:12
[SPEAKER_02]: It's it's hard to see you know
7:15
[SPEAKER_02]: fields that have been in homes and families for decades be, you know, going down and built into condos and that's hard.
7:24
[SPEAKER_02]: It's hard to have a bunch of new people in town and new familiar faces, and new thoughts, and ways of beings, and to feel kind of like, you know, you're
7:34
[SPEAKER_02]: values are kind of like pushed to the way sides a little difficult, but it's okay.
7:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Growth is good sometimes sometimes.
7:41
[SPEAKER_04]: Sometimes yeah, sometimes.
7:43
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, we're dealing with that.
7:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I hate to bring this up, but there's a funny connection here.
7:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Florida is a small peninsula.
7:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Tons of people moving here, but there's some unbutlers, panthers here, and black bears.
7:54
[SPEAKER_04]: And we're trying to protect as much as possible, but it's just getting turned to houses.
7:58
[SPEAKER_04]: It's beautiful.
8:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, we made a film, like a Nat Geo film, National Geographic film earlier this year.
8:06
[SPEAKER_04]: Telling this story, it was in theaters all over the state and the director is actually from Boseman.
8:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Eric Bindick works with Grizzly Creek films.
8:15
[SPEAKER_04]: If you've ever heard of Grizzly Creek, I think they make mostly like nature documentaries for like Discovery Channel or whatnot, but anyway, he's a Floridian.
8:22
[SPEAKER_04]: I just had him on this show.
8:24
[SPEAKER_04]: and he's become a good friend but he's right there in Boseman and he's telling our stories and i want to say like hey man that's uh you know you that's almost the same exact plot of this what basically what you just said what's happened in the Boseman too so very weird connection there but that's really cool
8:42
[SPEAKER_02]: maybe I should find Eric and we should have a talk or something.
8:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, definitely because he that's his love is that area and I know that y'all being filmmakers with coyote collective, I'm sure there's they're very well-established, grizzly creek films and I think they've got a couple like
9:02
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know if they got Oscars or what, but they've got some serious cred, but anyway, I'll cut all this.
9:10
[SPEAKER_04]: So, alright, board and raise Montana now.
9:13
[SPEAKER_04]: I know you too, you also come from a big family.
9:15
[SPEAKER_04]: Tell me about that, how that shape, how that shape is.
9:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I, I was actually born in Jackson Hole, a band of so my parents had a ski, a ski phase, and decided to be ski-bums in Jackson Hole.
9:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was accidental born in Jackson Hole on accident, and then my family, my parents came back to the galaxy and to be around their parents and my grandparents and the oldest of six.
9:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's myself and then I have two sisters and three brothers,
9:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're all two years apart, 18 months apart.
9:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow, and your point.
9:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I grew up, I actually grew up homeschooled for the most part.
9:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So I grew up writing horses, running around town, like doing big family adventures as a kid.
10:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that kind of made me able to think outside the box.
10:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And it definitely instilled a lot of self-confidence
10:15
[SPEAKER_04]: And also being the oldest, I'm sure you felt a, you know, or you feel a pressure to set the tone almost.
10:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
10:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah, absolutely.
10:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
10:25
[SPEAKER_04]: That's cool.
10:26
[SPEAKER_04]: So what are your, what are your siblings think about?
10:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, are they also, you know, they probably had the same childhood, or they also adventurous outdoorsy like you are, y'all kind of just taking different paths.
10:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh no, we're all, we're all similar in that way.
10:42
[SPEAKER_02]: We're all kind of rough and wild and crazy and like the personal limits and try and find, you know, try and find something to get into, whether it's fishing or hunting or running or whatever, whatever it could be.
10:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh man, we'll, we'll speak into that.
10:57
[SPEAKER_04]: I do want to, you know, I know our times a little limited.
10:59
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to talk about your adventure, running across Montana and I know
11:05
[SPEAKER_04]: I know why you did this, but I don't know why this specific challenge versus something else.
11:12
[SPEAKER_04]: Can you talk to us about your run across Montana?
11:17
[SPEAKER_04]: Why across the state you love, why the route you chose even, just tell us about like where this idea, the very beginning seat of this idea started?
11:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, it actually started with a cancer diagnosis.
11:35
[SPEAKER_02]: in June of 2001, my mom was diagnosed suddenly with acute myloid leukemia, she was super sick.
11:44
[SPEAKER_02]: We thought it was COVID, she went in, and she had a white blood cell count of over 200,000.
11:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Typical is 2000.
11:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was enough of a shock tour system that she had blood clots in both her lungs and her legs.
12:05
[SPEAKER_02]: close to 365 days with her as a caregiver taking care of her in the hospital in Utah.
12:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And we did chemo, she had chemo resistance genes.
12:17
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a bone marrow transplant, which is 100 days of outpatient care in Salt Lake in 30 days in a closed bone marrow transplant unit.
12:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And during her treatment, I would leave, and I'd go run the trails behind the hospital in Salt Lake.
12:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'd go sneak onto the track at the University of Utah and run.
12:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was this very cathartic mechanism that got me through her cancer diagnosis and her leukemia treatment.
12:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And she got better.
12:45
[SPEAKER_02]: It was successful.
12:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And in the middle of our treatment, I ended up signing up for this the right, which is this 50k mountain 50k that's insanely difficult in big sky.
12:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And to give her something to look forward to and, you know, she ended up getting better and was able to come to that race.
13:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And I felt like there is something inside of me that still needed some resolution.
13:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And when you go through something trying and something difficult a lot of times the body needs to express that in.
13:18
[SPEAKER_02]: in a form of like a challenge or pain, you know.
13:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And like there's all this weight of emotional pain that people carry around with them.
13:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was feeling that.
13:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And I came up with this plan to run across my home state to honor my mom, to honor my role in her cancer treatment, to honor everyone that had been affected by cancer and give everyone else that I knew an opportunity to join in this, to use running as a mechanism for therapy
13:47
[SPEAKER_02]: and reflection upon the hardships that life can have and bring in.
13:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so that was kind of like the inception of the idea was a personal challenge that would allow me to metabolize the emotional pain of her cancer treatment even though it was successful.
14:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It was like very isolating and a year is a long time to be in a relationship.
14:09
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a part of it.
14:12
[SPEAKER_04]: It probably gets under overlooked maybe, is.
14:16
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a long time for you, especially at that age, where there's a lot you're could be doing to spend, I mean, I guess where you almost basically move there, that's about a year.
14:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I'll talk to you driving, like I would drive in between Salt Lake and Bozeman, so seven hour car rides, I was 26 at the time, just freshly broke off an engagement.
14:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I stress time for me as a young adult,
14:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, you just kind of have to like push aside everything else in life and just focus on like survival and AML like my mom's particular genetics and some of the other clinical factors her survival rate was and is about 20% and which isn't great, you know, and so she's only she was only 50 six.
15:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I had two younger brothers that were still in the house.
15:09
[SPEAKER_02]: One was in high school still.
15:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So there was a lot of like responsibility and weight on me as the oldest kid with a degree in neuroscience and cell biology who worked in the ER for five years to step up to the plate and take care of a mom that was really sick when everyone else in my family really didn't have the time or resources or experience to be able to do that.
15:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And I needed an outlet and running was that for me.
15:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So running was that saving grace for me during her transplant.
15:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And afterwards, once she was considered, quote-unquote, in a remission, I found that I still had this emotional pain and I had to get rid of it in some way.
15:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And like, I'm a huge believer in turning challenges into growth and turning negative into positive.
15:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's always a way to turn a situation into something positive and beautiful.
16:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I decided to make this run about running my home state bigger than myself.
16:10
[SPEAKER_02]: and invite other people on the way to do it if you know if they were affected by cancer or if they had emotional pain that they wanted to kind of metabolize through running.
16:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
16:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, I'm the oldest, my mom's about the same age, funny enough.
16:26
[SPEAKER_04]: She had me young and yeah, and it's just like, I think I would be the similar, like I just have to do it.
16:33
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, it's just following me.
16:35
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know if my younger, they're all boys.
16:37
[SPEAKER_04]: The younger brothers would, would do it, but I could do it.
16:40
[SPEAKER_04]: But,
16:41
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's a thing, would I be able to do that?
16:45
[SPEAKER_04]: That's what I'm thinking right now.
16:46
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.
16:46
[SPEAKER_04]: So, Qdo's to you for that.
16:49
[SPEAKER_04]: So, you all probably obviously bonded, or at least had a different relationship for that experience than you did beforehand.
16:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
16:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, 100%.
17:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And, um,
17:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Her cancer diagnosis, like, my mom and I weren't very close, and my parents at the time had a really kind of rocky marriage and were considering divorce, adding to this dose of everything.
17:15
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yes, that's better to exist now.
17:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, yeah, but in a way, like, her cancer diagnosis was one of the most beautiful things that could happen at that time in our lives, because it really brought our family together, you know, my parents are now together and more in love than they've ever been through it.
17:34
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, it taught me compassion and empathy and my whole perspective about life changed because of this.
17:40
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you see, I remember like walking into the hospital room the first day she was diagnosed and I'd left work at the ER, drove seven hours nonstop, just tears streaming down my face, got to the hospital room in Salt Lake at University of Utah and Huntsman.
17:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And um, the first thing my mom said to me was she's like, you know, like, why was I so bitter for so long?
18:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Why was I so angry and so bitter for so long when that was her regret, you know, is anger and bitterness and, um, and that really like struck me and having a family member that could die literally like the next day.
18:23
[SPEAKER_02]: but they're not dead yet, right?
18:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like that slow motion death, that slow motion loss, that's so difficult, and so unique to cancer.
18:31
[SPEAKER_02]: That really set my perspective for life, and nothing's important.
18:36
[SPEAKER_02]: The things that are important, there's maybe five things, and it's time with family, loving other people, and going about the world with love, and maybe two or three other things, but 95% about what we're worried at.
18:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, my coffee was cold this morning.
18:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I don't like my haircuts today, whatever.
18:55
[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't matter in the big picture, you know, and that just totally changed my perspective about importance in priorities and what life is really about.
19:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the second thing that was really beautiful about her, her leukemia diagnosis is she found so pridey.
19:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So my mom was an alcoholic for a long time and struggled with addiction.
19:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's one of the reasons why I turned to running.
19:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I knew I couldn't turn to a substance as a young adult.
19:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I just couldn't, that was an option.
19:31
[SPEAKER_02]: So I just choose exercise instead.
19:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's been a really beautiful journey since then.
19:38
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow, that's good on you.
19:40
[SPEAKER_04]: That's, sorry to keep bringing up the connections, but I come from a family about the hallics and actually work for,
19:47
[SPEAKER_04]: a non-alcoholic and uh... you know sobriety is is a major reason people drink us a lot i mean it's a minority of people but still it's it's we're very popular in that community so
20:00
[SPEAKER_04]: My dad, self admitted alcoholic when I was born and quit and yeah, there's still some in the family that are dealing with it, but I totally, yeah, something replaces the addiction, you know, or at least can fill that.
20:16
[SPEAKER_04]: And so running is a great alternative because there's so many, but if it's well,
20:22
[SPEAKER_04]: all right so sometimes when this kind of stuff you know you obviously don't want to leave your mom side there's like it's your mom there's this year that you spent bonding your relationship growing and changing and in her process what then you had this idea to run across the state was that at all scary like now i'm gonna be you know away from everybody i love or did you
20:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't view it like that.
20:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It was more like life is too short.
20:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I had this moment of reflection where your life is too short, not to do the things, that scare you.
20:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Not to do the things that, like if you look back, like oh man, I wish I would have done that.
21:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Like regret is such a powerful motivator.
21:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And at the time, my mom was in remission.
21:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So my mom had a boomerate transplant.
21:12
[SPEAKER_02]: It was successful and her leukemia went away because of that.
21:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And I could go into a whole biology lesson but essentially the stem cells in your bone marrow make all of your blood cells in all of your immune cells, the majority of them, and her stem cells mutated.
21:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So the very genesis of all of her blood-making and immune-making cells became cancerous and uncontrollable and infunctional.
21:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the only solution for that is a bone marrow transplant
21:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I give you a donor bone marrow.
21:48
[SPEAKER_02]: So my mom got a donor through that be the match donor pool.
21:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And there an international mail that was like 24 years old at the time.
21:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So some random stranger saved my mom's life, which is really cool.
22:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
22:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Geez.
22:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, that is.
22:06
[SPEAKER_04]: Carly.
22:07
[SPEAKER_04]: That's wild.
22:08
[SPEAKER_04]: So, uh,
22:12
[SPEAKER_04]: This is even more emotional trauma or not trauma, just emotional to deal with and so yeah, I did you did you say okay my Montana's not long enough, let me just write it on the country itself.
22:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought about it.
22:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought about it, but then I realized like.
22:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, my dad grew up and my dad was an artist when I was growing up and everything was all connected and it was all about how life's connected and there's meaning and everything and I think I took some of that with me into adulthood and so this this Montana on idea was like I'm from Montana my parents are from Montana.
22:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And I need a way to, you know, share that love for the state that I grew up in that's changing and share running with people that have been affected by cancer.
23:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And at the same time, I have this personal motivation to find a solution for the emotional pain of that really genuous and stressful year of taking care of her.
23:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And literally was on a run with Connor when I was like, you know what I think I'm going to do is I think I'm going to think I'm going to go, I think I'm going to run across the whole state of Montana.
23:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And Connor at the time was like, you know what you should actually do is bite it.
23:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said no, I'm going to run it.
23:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And literally didn't like, I always knew I wanted to run from north to south.
23:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it's just prettier that way.
23:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Easter Montana's flat and boring.
23:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And I wanted to hit all the
23:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, becoming fond of, you know, living here, so I've, I've biked across Montana a couple times and yeah, you see sides kind of slow.
23:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Although I had, I have some great friends in Judith Gap you've ever heard of.
23:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, let it little small time, right in the middle of the state, but all right.
24:04
[SPEAKER_04]: So you're out.
24:05
[SPEAKER_04]: You wanted to do this.
24:06
[SPEAKER_04]: You wanted it to,
24:08
[SPEAKER_04]: You know metabolize I think is the word you use.
24:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's a really in very fascinating way.
24:14
[SPEAKER_04]: I've never heard of put that way But that makes a lot of sense.
24:16
[SPEAKER_04]: I can envision that so How did you choose like where you wanted to go because Montana is a place of beautiful trails Like you could have done this without being on any roads.
24:27
[SPEAKER_04]: What was the idea to stay on a lot of roads and kind of see your state in that way?
24:34
[SPEAKER_02]: totally.
24:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, a lot of it came down to functionality.
24:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And so Montana has some Indian reservations.
24:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So originally it was going to be from Starburst Montana, which is middle northern Montana by the Canadian border to Boseman to West Charleston.
24:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was going to run kind of two Boseman.
24:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there's an issue with that because
25:02
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I wanted to be respectful of the land and the Native American populations and not just think that I could just go running through a reservation and feel like I own, you know, like feel like I had a tone of me there, like so eventually I decided to start in your Recome on Tana, which is
25:22
[SPEAKER_02]: more on the west side of the state because we had some good friends that lived in Eureka that had been affected by cancer and it just it just made sense.
25:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I grew up I spent a couple of years in Libby, Montana and Eureka's pretty close to Libby and yeah it just made sense to start there and then make my way through the Celia Swan Valley which is super beautiful
25:48
[SPEAKER_02]: and then go to Oravando and run through that and then run into Ennis and then to the Idaho state line.
25:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I first built the route, there was quite a bit of mountain ridges and I wanted to run through the Bob Marshall wilderness.
26:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to run, there's a 50 mile stretch to the Bob Marshall with lots that a lot of people backpack on horses.
26:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And I wanted to run that with a support crew on foot originally.
26:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, so I had this whole plan to do kind of a mix of ridges and trails and roads and some of the wilderness area, um, and three days before the start date of the run, which was my mom's diagnosis date of June 12th, I got a phone call for my mom and after planning for like,
26:40
[SPEAKER_02]: nine months and training for nine months and getting sponsors and getting crews set up and getting a van donated and getting funds her gas and like scratch essentially I got a call from my mom and her cancer had come back three days and she was re-diagnosed with a cute mildly kimiha three days before the start of my my run almost two days to the date of her initial diagnosis day.
27:10
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and yeah, what does that change?
27:13
[SPEAKER_04]: What does that do for your trip and the way you're thinking about it all that?
27:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, the first thing I did is I like I zip down to my parents' house and we had kind of a family meeting and I was like mom, it's okay.
27:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I cannot do the run because I wanted her to start chemo immediately.
27:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Her, her cancer had gone kind of missed for like a month and it's super aggressive and things can change super quick like overnight.
27:39
[SPEAKER_02]: her her cancer can like just explode overnight um it's very aggressive and uh she was like you know what back I used it so much for me this time the way you can support me and the way you can take care of me is by doing this run and it was like totally this moment of selflessness where she's like I can see that you need this and I need you to run for me too like I'm gonna need something to distract me while I'm in the hospital going through chemo again
28:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And so literally the day I started running to restarted chemo.
28:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it was just like it's it's just so weird how life happens like that though like the timing of that you're just like this is insane like what are the chances that I you know it could have been any date it could have been any day it could have been any month any summer and you know is like literally almost down to the day that she got re diagnosed on the start date June 12 and the run start date as like this is.
28:40
[SPEAKER_02]: This is kind of a sick joke.
28:43
[SPEAKER_04]: It kind of, you know, I don't know, I just, I take that as just, I don't even know what I mean by this, but just some sort of sign that, all right, this is what I supposed to do.
28:53
[SPEAKER_04]: This, this is part of the script, you know, to mean of a little life, like I gotta, I gotta do this.
29:00
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I'm sure that made you feel like,
29:04
[SPEAKER_04]: In some ways more motivated and others like maybe I should be wither, but her blessing for the adventure I'm sure was, you know, a relief of some sort of say, okay, I'm going to keep going.
29:19
[SPEAKER_04]: Tell us about starting this because you know, it's one thing to say, I'm going to do this.
29:23
[SPEAKER_04]: It's going to be fun.
29:24
[SPEAKER_04]: It's going to be awesome.
29:26
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a whole other thing to start on that
29:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, so the first the first day, um, I, it was down pouring rain, like down pouring rain.
29:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had my younger sister, um, crewing me that day.
29:48
[SPEAKER_02]: We kind of had like some crewing issues because of my mom, so my younger brother's weren't able to come help me like we had planned.
29:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it's just my younger sister.
29:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And she had a three year old daughter with her.
30:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was just like one of the things where it was like, all right, great.
30:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I guess I'm kind of on my own today.
30:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And because not a lot of bandwidth, we can't do it a lot.
30:09
[SPEAKER_04]: And they roll the schedule, that's for sure.
30:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
30:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we started four hours later than I wanted to start.
30:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I started out like one PM.
30:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was supposed to run 25 miles that day in the rain.
30:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I got the Canadian line.
30:27
[SPEAKER_02]: They're on our running belt and there's some jails in my pocket and took off and literally just like I I'm really lucky where I the more I run the better I feel in that regard and so by mile 14 I was feeling pretty good and I ran into town at that point so the other part of this whole adventure was I was the one logistically planning everything and building the route and telling people where to be and where to meet me.
30:56
[SPEAKER_02]: and planning like daily timelines while also running six to eight hours a day.
31:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, like, I don't know how I did it, but somehow it got pulled off.
31:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And a lot of it is thanks to, you know, my fiance Connor, who, like, lit it, like showed up and helped at the end.
31:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And I couldn't have done this project without him.
31:16
[SPEAKER_02]: But the first couple, the first week was really rough.
31:20
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, I started it and I got drenched within the first, like, 20 minutes of running, like, absolutely drenched.
31:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And just was like, well, my only choice is to run 14 miles into town, so I better get going.
31:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And literally, I had this thought of like, back up, what are you doing?
31:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, this is like, I'm not a professional athlete.
31:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I'm not even like, like, even close to competitive at running.
31:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I just can go forever.
31:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love it.
31:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And so literally I had 14 miles to think about all of these things about why am I doing this.
31:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, kind of like what you were saying, like, this
31:57
[SPEAKER_02]: This kind of like internal voice was like, you know what, like, I just know I've been supposed to do, I know that I Supposed to be planning to do this and to do this for like a last nine months and I knew that my mom's cancer was to tie into it And I didn't really know how and so while I was planning their own there is this just internal drive and I was like, I just know I need to do this
32:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just feel like I'm supposed to and then when she got re diagnosed all of a sudden all it's like all the pieces fell into place three days before the start date and so I was just kind of like going for it until I knew what it was supposed to be when she got re diagnosed and and then all of a sudden it all became really clear like.
32:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh man, she needs this now and now it's got so much more meaning behind it and now it's not just me telling a story of cancer in review from two years ago, but now it's me telling a story and drawing parallels between, you know, running, alter running in physical hardships of running 25 miles a day or whatever with with the
33:11
[SPEAKER_02]: metaphor or as a metaphor for a cancer diagnosis, rather.
33:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And so then it all fell into place literally three days before the start.
33:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And, but yeah, like, as I was running this first 14 miles, all of that just kind of hit me and I was like, oh, I am supposed to be doing this.
33:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it's going to be okay.
33:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it's all going to work out because it's worked out so far.
33:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and just kind of putting like some some faith into like the universe and you know a higher power that like it's all orchestrated and if you have something on the inside you got to follow your heart and just trust that Trust that it's all going to work out for you because if you're doing that and you feel that drive on the inside chances are the world really needs something like that and and if you can do it great.
34:01
[SPEAKER_04]: and you might not know exactly how it's going to unfold just because you can't see 400 miles down the road but you just got to start and keep going and the pieces will fall into places you go and I don't know about you but sometimes on these big trips there's a big obstacle or something I'm really anticipating maybe really nervous about and then
34:24
[SPEAKER_04]: you know, it could be crossing a bridge or a river or or some sort of obstacle at going through a city.
34:29
[SPEAKER_04]: And then all of a sudden, it's like you're past it.
34:32
[SPEAKER_04]: All of a sudden, it's in the rear view mirror and like, holy cow, all that worrying about that thing is now gone.
34:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Was there anything like that on this route that you were kind of like, I don't know about this part?
34:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, yeah, for sure, there was a section where I had to run through a Tulane Highway, which I think is kind of technically illegal to be running on highways, but I did it.
34:55
[SPEAKER_04]: We'll tell anybody other than that.
34:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I missed the sound.
34:58
[SPEAKER_02]: But it was like, and there was no shoulder.
35:01
[SPEAKER_02]: It was in this totally dense forest in fair country up in northern Montana.
35:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm terrified of.
35:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm terrified.
35:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I hate the woods.
35:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I had a really scary bear encounter with my dad when I was young and ever since then I've totally avoided the woods and it was so claustrophobic and I had an inner reach and the trees were so thick the inner reach didn't work.
35:25
[SPEAKER_02]: and there's zero cell service and so I was stuck running the throat for five hours unable to tell my support crew where to find me, where to pick me up, like, hey, like, come check on me.
35:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And this part of Montana is also the highest rate of human trafficking and, and like, kidnappings in Montana for serious.
35:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely.
35:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, like unfortunately Montana has some of that going on, especially in the northern more remote areas, there's just not a lot of population and so people get traffic to cross that area quite a bit.
36:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and just through different states through that area, because there's, you know, you don't, you won't see cars for, you know, 30 minutes at a time on the highway.
36:16
[SPEAKER_04]: I've crossed the border at Ruzville, which is where you were in here.
36:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, there's just nothing around there Yeah, there's one thing there called the last chance saloon and that was like, all right, here we go That's it.
36:28
[SPEAKER_04]: That's it.
36:29
[SPEAKER_04]: That's all you got.
36:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's terrible.
36:31
[SPEAKER_04]: So you're running through the woods in this spot
36:34
[SPEAKER_02]: totally in the woods without I had forgotten bear spray and I had a small like 9 millimeter pistol with me that was my personal one just for protection and you know, you got to be safe out there and it's just it's part of reality running through country like that.
36:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had also forgotten that.
36:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I ran an arm.
36:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, you forgot the gun too.
36:55
[SPEAKER_04]: I thought you'd say you had the gun.
36:57
[SPEAKER_02]: No, totally, just like, totally vulnerable.
37:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And couldn't get a hold of my crew.
37:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, well, and so then my mind started playing that like, there's a bear.
37:06
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a bear.
37:06
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a bear.
37:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And for like literally two hours, I was just terrified running like, oh my gosh, I'm going to run a bear or sass quad.
37:13
[SPEAKER_02]: You're like, I'm going to get snatched, you know.
37:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And finally, I was just like, you know what, this is ridiculous.
37:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to confront this fear and like, it's all my head, like, I'm going to be okay and just literally had to use mind over matter to get through it because the only option, like, the only solution was to get over it so that I could run faster so I could get safe sooner.
37:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And and kind of call out, you know, kind of like that worry in my head of like, oh my gosh, like I'm totally going to get like eaten by bear here.
37:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And was it this amount of decision probably not did I get lucky probably, but also I think a lot of that is just choosing to have control over your mind and the fears and the lies and the scenarios that your mind can tell you.
38:01
[SPEAKER_04]: it'll it'll it'll it'll it'll run rampant yeah I'd say very least take some bear spray next time but you know besides that yeah yeah you know just you know it what's really honestly the most dangerous part of this whole thing as you probably aware well of his vehicles and so you know it's not the scariest thing because we deal with him every day but in reality that's by far
38:27
[SPEAKER_04]: The most dangerous part of this is you be on the road a lot of times and that's not something that, you know, a lot of people might even bring up if they talk about the dangers of what this would be.
38:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
38:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Bears, I'm sure, top of the list.
38:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
38:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Although I did almost step on a rattlesnake, like very legitimately, and that was like maybe the closest I came to any wildlife danger.
38:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but yeah, the the cars for the most part, like, I don't know if you, there was some guy that ran across Australia and he talked about cars like purposely trying to like swerve in and like scare them off the road and stuff and I experience some of that and there's a lot of fatigue that goes on in the nervous system when you're constantly running towards oncoming traffic essentially and so.
39:11
[SPEAKER_02]: trying to mitigate that nervous system fatigue was like a really interesting challenge as well.
39:16
[SPEAKER_04]: What do you mean, you mean like the having to pay attention so much kind of wears down your senses or what is that?
39:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, yeah, having to be constantly on the alert for potentially getting hit by a car.
39:31
[SPEAKER_02]: having to think about, okay, like if I, you know, come on this corner this way and there's a car here, how is that going to play out?
39:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I'm just the sensory overload of being passed by semi trucks for five hours at a time on foot.
39:50
[SPEAKER_02]: It and like the sound and the smoke and the like vibrations of it all it's a lot for a nervous system that's already running that's already like that's already a stress on like your nervous system and so um
40:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because if you do that for long enough, you actually will like kind of mess up your cortisol levels and you and then you won't be able to sleep and then you're really messed up for multi day yeah and you're really screwed for multi day runs like this where it's not just like I I have to make it through you know 48 hours of running it's like no I have to make it through this for 19 days.
40:30
[SPEAKER_04]: So 19 days, you know, a mix of running, and you got off road for some of it, at least on forest roads, tell us about some of what you were seeing, you know, I'm just sure just endless amounts of beauty.
40:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, so yeah, I mean, that was what was so wonderful about this, like this endeavor was I got to run through a state that I knew and I loved and I knew how everything looked
40:59
[SPEAKER_02]: mountains and fields and cows and ranchers and running underneath the Vick Sky and yeah so that propelled me just as much as like they're running or the thought of like sharing my mom's story or sharing a story of cancer with other people is yeah I'd be running and it was really stressful and my body hurt and I was tired and well it just typically trying to
41:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But then I was surrounded by this total natural beauty that just totally filled me up as the run kept going.
41:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know how people, I don't think you could run 19 days through New York City.
41:41
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no way, but you could totally run 19 days in Montana, like easy.
41:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's gorgeous.
41:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Did you learn anything new about your state?
41:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe.
41:52
[SPEAKER_04]: I just feel like places that it's actually something I'm going to be talking to someone about specifically soon is like thinking you know a place until you're forced to Explore it in a new way and you're like I had no idea this was here or I've never seen this before.
42:08
[SPEAKER_04]: Did you have any sort of realization like like that like wow this is this is where I call home Yeah, I mean absolutely I think in general
42:18
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a lot of appreciation for how rural Montana still is like despite those men really growing and you know our population influx being unreal right now.
42:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Montana is still so rural and there's still so much of it.
42:32
[SPEAKER_02]: That's untouched and empty and wild.
42:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was really comforting to see that.
42:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was really cool to find these small towns on the map that maybe had, you know, gas station a bar in a church, you know, and yep, yep, yeah, the essentials, yep, yeah.
42:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it was really cool to like, you know, there was this little
42:59
[SPEAKER_02]: is it's actually outside of a wildlife area and it's caught this great cafe in there that we have to stop in and save their butts because we needed food and coffee really bad and it has a church, a general store and a cafe and a fishing shop and that's the town.
43:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was like, you know, I've heard about it but I've never been there and then to go there and run through that place and run through the area that it's a part of was just
43:28
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so cool to see small towns like that still persisting.
43:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and like, you know, run into the general store and there's like 10 older guys sitting outside of it all smoking and they're like, where'd you come from?
43:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, I can't get from key to that.
43:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're like, wait, I was like, yeah, you know, and I'm probably like the youngest kid they've seen in like 10 years or something.
43:48
[SPEAKER_02]: They're all retired and fishing, but it was great.
43:52
[SPEAKER_04]: that was probably the stray bullet cafe or trixies antler saloon how do you know yeah the stray bull is yeah look at the map i'm not i don't know that by heart i'm looking at the map i anytime i talk so that's but maybe listeners don't know that but when people are talking i'm looking at the map of what you're talking about because i want to you know when the guest is talking i'm just like
44:13
[SPEAKER_04]: What's going on here, but yeah, I mean, they're in a whole lot there, you know, van does.
44:17
[SPEAKER_04]: That's, that's about it.
44:19
[SPEAKER_04]: And, uh, holy cow.
44:20
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, you know, you're an anomaly to people's day, too.
44:24
[SPEAKER_04]: They see it the gas station.
44:25
[SPEAKER_04]: They see somewhere.
44:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Did you have a hard time knocking out the mileage that you plan to do with just all the people that probably wanted to talk to you?
44:33
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I, I didn't.
44:35
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a few days where I fell short.
44:37
[SPEAKER_02]: My mom, I'm
44:39
[SPEAKER_02]: ended up in the ICU during the run and so I had to pause the run for three days to drive down and see like had a really serious medical complication with her chemo and it was, you know, we almost lost her then and so I had to leave to go spend time with her in the ICU and then there was a couple days where
45:10
[SPEAKER_02]: and I just could only run like seven miles that day.
45:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Like by the time it took me to wake up, get food, get motivated.
45:17
[SPEAKER_02]: that's all I had time for.
45:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, as far as the physical aspect of it, I never met my limit, which is unbelievable.
45:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I thought I'd be falling apart physically.
45:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But my limits were met mentally.
45:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, there was one day where I hallucinated and like, saw hay balers turn into giant caterpillars and thought I had like a bird following me for 23 miles and literally stopped and like thought cows were talking to me.
45:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And but that's like a mental limitation, like my body never gave out.
45:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And and then as far as like the timing thing, like I don't think there was a single day where I didn't start sooner than 9 a.m.
46:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And and so I was running through the heat alone at a time, which if I would do it again, I'd start earlier, and that's what we'd all tell ourselves, but it's almost physically impossible between the mental load of
46:15
[SPEAKER_02]: planning and running for like six hours a day or whatever and trying to eat before that and do PT before that and be all set and have a running plan for the day to run before you know nine a.m.
46:29
[SPEAKER_02]: if you're waking up at six.
46:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was that was honestly really cool part of the challenge though was figuring out you know with Connor
46:42
[SPEAKER_02]: for a lot of it.
46:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So just two people figuring out how do we do this?
46:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Where do you pick me up?
46:46
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you need to do?
46:48
[SPEAKER_02]: You know?
46:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
46:49
[SPEAKER_04]: What?
46:49
[SPEAKER_02]: What a...
46:56
[SPEAKER_04]: As you got closer, what was the feeling of getting close to the finish?
47:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Was it, since a relief, was it a sense of an unfinished business?
47:07
[SPEAKER_04]: Did it feel harder?
47:08
[SPEAKER_04]: As you got closer, or was that second, third, fourth win coming?
47:12
[SPEAKER_04]: Tell us about that.
47:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm always curious.
47:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
47:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, honestly, I think the beginning was the hardest part.
47:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I couldn't, I was in those trees for like a month.
47:26
[SPEAKER_02]: like, or not a month a week sorry, but I was in that like, wooded area for like a week where it was like boring, monotonous corridor of pine trees.
47:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm used to wide open spaces and mountains and, you know, the big sky.
47:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that was really mentally hard.
47:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And then as I neared, so I think from Orlando, I ran into Avon.
47:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I ran to Cardwell, Montana, and stayed at a campground there, which is awesome.
47:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And then from Cardwell, I ran into Norris, and then I ran to Ennis, and then I ran to Camryn, and then I ran to the Idaho State Line.
48:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And I specifically planned the run to run through Ennis, and I'm,
48:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Madison Valley because that's one of my favorite places in Montana and I knew it and I knew the roads.
48:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I knew the trails.
48:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I knew the ranchers.
48:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I knew you know the cafes and the bars and the coffee shops to stop that and so as I was coming into the home stretch it was a lot of like joy and and like towards the end and my mom got out of the hospital and was able to join me for the second to last day
48:38
[SPEAKER_02]: and walked like a mile and a half with me.
48:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And like that just like, you know, to like meter in, you know, at this old ranch homestead.
48:48
[SPEAKER_02]: That was our friends, like, to meter there and have people that had lost family members to cancer and have my mom show up.
48:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, it's the second to last day.
48:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm tired, I'm exhausted, like, I'm emotional and crying.
49:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's like, kind of this, like,
49:06
[SPEAKER_02]: the constructs that we put in front of ourselves that don't allow us to feel emotions had totally fallen.
49:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And because of the stress of running and I couldn't keep it suppressed anymore because you're running for so much your body, it's just gonna come out.
49:24
[SPEAKER_02]: That's just how being a human is.
49:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was definitely just a positive, beautiful experience towards the end.
49:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I was, I was exhausted beyond belief, mentally, even though my body felt good, it was hard to motivate.
49:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, I could eat all the caffeine and sugar I want, and I'd still be like, alright, I guess I gotta start running eventually, like, okay, here we go again, and like Conor literally like pushing me out of the van to be like, get going, like, here's your shoes, here's your socks, closing the door and leaving me.
49:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So I had no choice, like, that kind of like need for motivation was there at the end.
50:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but after, like, you know, if I warmed up a little bit, it was like, man, I did it.
50:09
[SPEAKER_02]: This is beautiful.
50:10
[SPEAKER_02]: This is amazing.
50:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I can't wait to be done, but at the same time, I'm so glad I'm here.
50:17
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, that's it's a sometimes you need a lot all of us needs somebody to push us into the van door, you know, whether in that third job, maybe they would be in the say, you know, a guarantee of Connor was doing it, you'd be like Connor get your butt out the door and get run in.
50:35
[SPEAKER_04]: These are do that when you're not the one run, but you need that person, you know, but life is very often.
50:41
[SPEAKER_04]: get your tail outside and do what you said you were going to do and then you start and then you're like, this is awesome.
50:48
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm so glad I did this.
50:50
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm so glad you got me going this morning.
50:52
[SPEAKER_04]: You need it.
50:53
[SPEAKER_04]: You need it.
50:53
[SPEAKER_04]: We all need it.
50:54
[SPEAKER_04]: In any stage of life.
50:55
[SPEAKER_04]: So what I was going to ask you, what are your siblings?
50:58
[SPEAKER_04]: You're your five younger siblings think about this.
51:01
[SPEAKER_04]: Think about their older sister doing this.
51:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, that's what's cool as I actually ended up.
51:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I convinced them to come to help crew me.
51:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So I had like five or six days of each of them coming to help crew me.
51:12
[SPEAKER_04]: What did it do?
51:14
[SPEAKER_02]: One out of time, yep, and we lived in a van.
51:17
[SPEAKER_02]: So I had a van with a green bed and a caught in it, and that was our vehicle.
51:21
[SPEAKER_04]: And so were they like, this is so cool or were they reluctant to crew like, are you sure you want to do this?
51:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this the same thing?
51:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think it was half and a half.
51:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I think half of them were like, that is crazy.
51:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, it was crazy.
51:35
[SPEAKER_02]: She's lost her mind.
51:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, she can't do this, you know?
51:38
[SPEAKER_05]: There's nothing.
51:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And that.
51:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and the other half of them being like, this is really cool.
51:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, my brother, Boyd, who's 21, he'd crude me for a couple days.
51:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's kind of quiet.
51:50
[SPEAKER_02]: He's kind of like, more quiet one of us.
51:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And he towards the end of his, like, crew time.
51:54
[SPEAKER_02]: He was like, hey, I, I think I want to run across Wyoming.
51:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And like, that's so cool.
52:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, just having the concept that it's possible to do that is so cool.
52:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And to see, you know, him,
52:07
[SPEAKER_02]: be like, you know, I think I'm going to start running, and I think I think I could run through the wind rivers like that kind of stuff is so cool, you know, the inspiration that that is awesome.
52:17
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, we'll take us through, you know, did you achieve, I know you achieved what you set out to by my finishing this run, but how do you feel like it helped you, you know, metabolizing those emotions when you talked about it, how do you feel like it achieved those goals?
52:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think part of it was making the run bigger than myself, it's so easy to become selfish with negative emotions and so opening it up to other people affected by cancer, you know, they could sign up, they could join me, I had a number of friends from the ERI workout come and help.
52:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going with me and join me for a day.
52:58
[SPEAKER_02]: That made it.
53:03
[SPEAKER_02]: You're able to share this common concept of pain and grief and seeing the run impact other people lives in a positive way where it's spreading the message of hope and like strength and essentially like the theme that we're so much more capable of what we think we are.
53:23
[SPEAKER_02]: like we are on limitations and the human body can do amazing things whether that's with chemotherapy or ultra running like those are the same thing in my mind and so to see you know this outreach of people on social media because I share the whole thing on social media and
53:42
[SPEAKER_02]: getting messages being like, hey, like, I just want to let you know, like, I've been I meant one guy and he is on probably a 600 day running streak and he just ran across his state.
53:51
[SPEAKER_02]: He ran 50 miles a day in three days and I think you're going across Indiana first dad with Pincriata cancer and he's on day 600 a running, but he followed along on the Montana run and then like, like, and I were talking and like,
54:04
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, three months later, he ran across his own state for his dad as a fundraiser.
54:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Like that kind of stuff is like, that's taking something so negative, which is like this really negative, emotionally heavy experience and making it, turning it into inspiration and positivity and that, like, I think that helped me a ton to see like, it's not what happens to you, but it's what you do with it.
54:31
[SPEAKER_02]: That's empowering in a way.
54:34
[SPEAKER_04]: absolutely gives you confidence for whatever whatever life might throw at you that's what I get out of stories of folks that take something really negative and turn it positive is okay you know if I ever have to cross that bridge almost have a guide now or a template to to approach it and approach it and make it a really positive impactful thing not just for me but for others and how do you think
55:01
[SPEAKER_04]: How do you think this will change you because I know you really just finished a few months ago, so you're still in a lot of ways process in this, how do you what do you think the legacy of this is going to be for you?
55:12
[SPEAKER_04]: How do you think it's going to kind of change your trajectory in life?
55:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, that's such a great question.
55:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I already want to do something more or continue doing stuff like this, I think.
55:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I think using running to build community and tell a story is really beautiful and I love doing it personally and I've had a lot of people be like, so can I sign up for next year and I'm like, what do you mean next year?
55:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I said no, I'm not a light.
55:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll see if I have like the the resources and the time and energy to do it again next year or maybe do something similar where it's more organized and more
55:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Because if maybe it's not the whole state, but maybe it's not in range with people or something like that.
55:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So that kind of thing would be really cool.
56:01
[SPEAKER_04]: And a lot you could do.
56:03
[SPEAKER_04]: If you want to, that's the thing.
56:04
[SPEAKER_04]: I feel like a lot of people feel pressure.
56:06
[SPEAKER_04]: Like what's next, what's next, and I mean, if that's what you will say how to do, and that's all you want to do, that's fine too.
56:13
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
56:13
[SPEAKER_04]: But if you want to do more.
56:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
56:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, I have a couple running project ideas,
56:22
[SPEAKER_02]: what I could do next.
56:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we'll see.
56:25
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see how things shake out.
56:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, there's I've got a friend that started.
56:30
[SPEAKER_04]: He paddle boarded from the Bahamas de Florida to his daughter was dealing with cystic fibrosis.
56:41
[SPEAKER_04]: And he had some friends and it's his horrible disease.
56:44
[SPEAKER_04]: And anyway, he's trying to find a cure for his daughter who's going to die of it.
56:49
[SPEAKER_04]: a couple friends and now that I think they're on year like 12 or 15 and they feel like 300 people a year that on paddle boards go like the 100 miles from the Bahamas de Florida every summer every summer so you know in a lot of ways this is like that you did something other people want to join they more or less do that same trip they did the first year just with lots of people and so and it's all and it all I mean they raise millions of dollars for
57:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Piper is a daughter so
57:23
[SPEAKER_04]: That's awesome.
57:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
57:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
57:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
57:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Keep it going.
57:27
[SPEAKER_04]: You're making it a dead in the world.
57:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Last question.
57:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
57:31
[SPEAKER_04]: It was hard to read just back to quote normal life after this.
57:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Dude, absolutely.
57:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I'm sick in the head or what, but I loved it.
57:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I loved running.
57:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, to just be like, I have two pairs of shorts.
57:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I have six pairs of running shoes.
57:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just get a run for eight hours today.
57:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, this is great.
57:48
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like you get to be at an elk out on the prairie or a rock horn.
57:54
[SPEAKER_04]: You just get to think about survival and that's it.
57:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Yep.
57:56
[SPEAKER_04]: It's pretty awesome.
57:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it was hard to like reintegrate.
58:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Like people would hear about the run and I came back and like I, you know, my body changed, like I was super vascular and like ripped and, you know, and some birds and I'd wear tan lines and I'd go back into work and it was, it was hard to reintegrate.
58:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not gonna lie about that.
58:16
[SPEAKER_04]: I think people kind of looked at me like what is it like you got something loose in the head and it was like maybe but I'm happy I got it because you know it's just just people didn't see it for a couple weeks you know so or a month and so then back kind of time flies by for you that felt like an eternity yeah after my first big trip I went back to college and I failed to classes I just could like make the adjustment it was too much
58:45
[SPEAKER_04]: You're changed and it is hard sometimes, but back I know you got to go in like one minute, but thank you so much for joining us.
58:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thank you.
58:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so glad we finally had the chance to talk to me and know her again.
59:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks Mason.
59:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks.
59:04
[SPEAKER_04]: All right, talk to you later.
59:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye.