Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 172. James Lawrence, Endurance Athlete Known As 'The Iron Cowboy'

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172. James Lawrence, Endurance Athlete Known As 'The Iron Cowboy' · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you have two options, lay down or stand up
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and fight. And we decided to stand up and fight
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and create a new future for ourselves. And it just
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: it just goes to show that you can build amazing
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: things from rock bottom. And sometimes and most often, that's
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the best starting point because you have a clean slate.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: You can now be creative and go do you want
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to do? But it's it's a fight, man, and it takes.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: It takes some time and some endurance.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Hey, hey, Emily, a body here.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: You are listening to episode one hundred and seventy two
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: of Hurdle.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: While this focus podcast where I sit down with inspiring.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Individuals to talk about big wins, tough moments, and everything
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: in between. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes and CEOs
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: to aspiring entrepreneurs on what it really takes to all
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: your passions. My mission is simple to inspire you to
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: be your best self, move.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: With intention, and have some fun along the way.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: For today's episode, I am chatting with James Lawrence. He's
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: a triathlete, an endurance athlete, and better known to many
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: as the Iron Cowboy.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: You'll find out why very soon.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: He made headlines earlier this summer by doing something he
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: called the Conquer one hundred, which involved him completing one
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: hundred and one iron Man distance triathlons in one hundred
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: and one consecutive days.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, insane.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: He didn't in Utah, where his family is based. For
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: those that are out of the loop, a Ironman distance
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: triathlon includes a two point four mile swim, a one
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: hundred and twelve mile bike, and a full marathon the
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: twenty six point two mile run. He did that for
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: one hundred and one days straight, raising money for a
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: local charity called Operation Underground Railroad. Now, this is the
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: second time that James has done something this outrageous. I
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: will call it back. In twenty fifteen, the father of
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: five completed fifty triathlons in fifty days in fifty different states,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: all while averaging less than five hours of sleep per
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: night in the process. This is again outrageous, unbelievable. In
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: today's episode, he gives me so much of the how
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: how he sets himself up for success to undergo these
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: crazy feats, the team that is involved, the support that
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: is necessary, and we also bring it back, you know,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: we talk about the devastating hurdle moment that James and
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: his family suffered in two thousand and eight when they
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: lost absolutely everything in the recession, including their house. He
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: talks about making ends meet at one point, moving the
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: seven of them into a one bedroom apartment, and all
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: the different activities and things that they learn to do
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: together as a family that costs absolutely nothing because it's what.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: They had to do.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Of course, we segue into how he used sport to
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: get through this difficult time, and there's no doubt that
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: the through line in this entire conversation is that with
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: determination and grit, anything is possible. Now, keep in mind,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: I want to say this off the top. This is
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: not me saying that the everyday athlete should just decide
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: tomorrow they're going to do.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: This amount of activity in this short of a period
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: of time.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: James had an extensive team of experts and consultants, all
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: whom worked with him to help him get him to
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: his goal. So be careful out there with your big,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: crazy goals, but know that I support you in going
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: after whatever is that excites you, lights you on fire
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: the whole thing. Responsibly, make sure if you aren't already
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: signed up for the weekly Hurdle newsletter that you click
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: on in over to the show notes.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: And do just that.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: I'd love to be in your inbox every Friday and
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: last week if you follow along with me over on Instagram.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: My personal is at Emily a Body and Hurdles is
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: over at Hurdle Podcast. You may have seen that I
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: was answering a bunch of different questions. Well, I did
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: not have time to get to all of those questions
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: over the weekend. But if you are listening to this
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: and you have a question for me, I would love
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: nothing more than if you'd send me a voice message
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: and I promise I will answer it on an.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Upcoming episode of the show.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: To leave me a voice message again, link is in
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: the show notes. Nothing dangerous to say this, nothing is
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: off limits.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: And with that, let's get to hurdling today.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: I am chatting with James Lawrence, who's better known to
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: so many as the Iron Cowboy.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: How you doing today, James?
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I am great? Thank you.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: I feel like right off the bat, I mean, people
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: must ask you this all the time.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Where does the nickname come from?
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah? During the twoy twelve world record when we did
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: thirty official events, through eleven countries. My kids were really little.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I mean we're talking you know, ten and under, and
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: so trathlon's are not a very great spectator sport, and
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: so during the marathon portion, I would wear a cowboy
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: hat so they could see me coming because we'd want
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: that energy exchange and they'd been waiting all day to
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: see dad, and so it just became this thing, and
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: then the public kind of just started to call me
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the iron Cowboy.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: I love that. I love that.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: So you just mentioned your kids, you and you are
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: based in Utah. How has been competing and mostly i
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: mean competing in a sense with yourself.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: How has that been for your family?
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting they I mean, my wife and I
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: got into this when our two oldest daughters were really
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: really young. We have five kids, and it's just been
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: part of our lifestyle and who we are, and so
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: they love it and they think it's funny. I'm just
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: dad to them, obviously, but I mean it's just been
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: who we are, what we are. My oldest daughter, Lucy
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: is now nineteen graduated, and she kind of runs the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: business side of what we do and is really involved.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: And my other kids should get involved anyway. They can
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: when they're not with their friends or I'm not too
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: cool for them.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Well, this didn't just become a family operation overnight. You
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: didn't just start running endless triathlons overnight. So let's bring
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: it back here and talk about your foundations of getting
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: into sport and when you started to get really active.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I've always been active. It's just been part of
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: my lifestyle. I actually grew up in Canada from Calgary, Alberta,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: played every sport I could in school, and then gravitated
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: towards wrestling, and I grew up a wrestler for six
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: seven years, eight years. And then once you kind of
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: get out of school in the structure of sports, I
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: wanted to find a new outlet and just started running
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: with my wife, and then we found triathlon together and
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: it just became this fun lifestyle for us of getting outside.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: If you've never been to Utah, it's awesome. It's some
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: some great mountains, some great lakes, and just a real
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: cool outdoor scene. And trathlon was on its big rise
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: up and we just raised and played every single weekend.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: And she's the person who's signed you up for your
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: first marathon, right.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she did. We kind of she signed me up
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: for a four mile fun run and I kind of
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: struggled through it, didn't love it, and she literally said,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: you're pathetic and signed me up for the Salt Lake
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: City Marathon and we ended up doing that. I hated that,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: but then found found triathlon and just really taught myself
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: out a swim. I bought a new bike, just like
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a four hundred dollars special, but then realized I just
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: really gravitated toward it and loved it, and now now
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: just like it engulfs our life and it's part of
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: who we are.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Anyone who hears the sentence, my wife signed me up
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: for a marathon, like so many people, that would be
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: like a marriage ending circumstance, you know.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Since then everything's obviously escalated and it's kind of what
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: we do full time. And so when when she gets
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: a little uh, you know, done with what we're doing,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I'll just say, hey, this is your fault. You started
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: at all.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: You started it all, so your affinity for endurance training
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: a lah, the marathon and then eventually the iron Man's
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: This came out of a really difficult time in your life,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Is that correct?
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah? You know, like a lot of America. We ended
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: up going through the two thousand and eight real estate
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: mortgage crash, and we were in the center of it
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: because we owned a mortgage company and so little kids
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: mortgage company. And in twenty you know, real short period
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: of time, your life gets turned upside down and on
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the daily policies are changing and we don't have any
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: control over it, and then literally overnight everything crashes and
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: you have to try to figure things out pick yourself up.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: We ended up losing everything, lost our home, everything, and
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: it was kind of a blessing to have that happened
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: now looking back on it. Right, when you're in the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: middle of something, it sucks. But then when tragedy strikes
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: and if you fight and persevere, you can learn a
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: lot of lessons and grow from it, which is what
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: we ultimately did. And it put us on this totally
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: different path than we were on, and it's completely blessed
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and edified our lives.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: I feel like when someone hears the sentence we lost everything,
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: we lost our home, they say, Okay, but then what up?
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: And then so what happened for you and your family
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: when you lost your home?
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: What did you do?
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had a good circle of influence. We found
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: a little one bedroom place that the seven of us
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: crammed into. We had a little tiny fireplace and a
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: buddy mine had access to some coal and to put
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: the coal in there and to keep us warm in
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the winter here. I mean, it was just we just
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: tried to make the best of it and really start
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: picking ourselves up. And really the only thing you can
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: do is fight. You have two options, lay down or
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: or stand up and fight. And we decided to stand
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: up and fight and create a new future for ourselves.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: And it just it just goes to show that you
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: can build amazing things from rock bottom. And sometimes and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: most often, that's the best starting point because you have
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: a clean slate. You can now be creative and go
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: do what you want to do. But it's a fight, man,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and it takes it takes some time and some endurance.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: In that scenario, being the father to these children, husband
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: to your wife, having to show up and like be
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: really strong for you when you were dealing with your
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: feelings about it. How did you find that strength to
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: show up for your family?
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think it's hard if you were
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: just single by yourself too. You know, you're the only
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: one you're responsible for. But when you have others that
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: are relying on you, it really helps you to go Okay,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: this isn't just about me. There's other people involved here,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and I brought these kids into this world and we
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: have a responsibility as parents to kind of make sure
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: that they're okay, and so that becomes a massive driving
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: force as parents. You've got these little people that really
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: they don't they don't they can't fend for themselves, and
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: they can't go out and get a job. I mean,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: you're talking about little little kids, and so we just
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: did what we could to make their lives as comfortable
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and fun as as we could make it.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: What were the moments of fun?
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Where did you seek fun at this time that you
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: may have not sought it previously?
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Oh man, great question. And we would just go outside
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: and go for walks and do these little adventures. And
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: we had a little tiny trampoline that the kids played
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: on all the time, and we'd go out and sleep
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: on the trampoline at night or you know, you couldn't.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: We didn't have a car, and so we would just
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: like do adventures around the house and outside. Again, we
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: live in Utah. It's beautiful and so you can always
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: escape up into the mountains for free and get outside.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: And that's actually interesting. While I was on my bike
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: ride today because post the big project we just did,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I've been suffering with some depression and sadness and it's situational,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: but for me, I was like, it's so important to
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: get outside and active in doing something. And I just
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: thought it's tragic for those individuals that do't can't get outside,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: because all what you start doing is you start isolating yourself,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: which is never a good thing. And then you start,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: you know, having these conversations with yourself, which is never
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: a good thing, and you're not outside breathing fresh air,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and you're not like seeing the elements out there and
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: like connecting yourself with the earth, and that's a huge
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: thing to do. So I like, I love to get
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: out and escape on my bike and it's really helped
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: my mental state because the worst thing you can do
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: is isolate yourself stay home and things just start to
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: spiral and you start to focus on the darkness and
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the negativity and whatnot, and you know, so really get outside.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: And that's what helped us in that really difficult time,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: was like, look, getting outside is free, and you start
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: focusing and realizing there's so much greatness out there instead
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: of sitting at home and focusing on everything that's going
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: wrong and not having that you know, that release or
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: those endorphins come in. It's so important.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: I can really sympathize with your sentiments of coming down
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: from such a large event and not knowing, you know,
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: what's the next right quote unquote right thing I should
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: be doing? And how am I gonna do something as
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: epic as the thing I just did? And you know,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: weighing other people's maybe thoughts are unsolicited opinions, and so
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: what you do next like it can feel just like
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: so much that come down.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Well, it was amazing because we just did a huge project,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: like I said, and the project was a quarter of
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: a year, and so it was literally all consuming with
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: what we were doing myself, my team, my family, and
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: then to come off it and then the public is
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: just was so involved with the journey. They loved it
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and they craved it every single day. But then immediately
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: after we completed it and were successful, they were like, hey,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: what's next, And I'm like, hold on, I'm like I
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: need a minute to process what just happened, and then
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you're so hyper focused on one thing for such a
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: long time that when you're asked or when you do
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: stop doing it, it becomes very difficult because I was
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: so so one goal oriented and focused that it ended.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: And I'm kind of walking around my house going, well,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: now what I don't know what to do? That was
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: my identity for so long, and now I'm in a
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: state of confusion, and the hormones are all messed up
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: because of the physicality of what we did, and then
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: the massive mental drain for doing, you know, one hundred
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: and forty miles a day for a quarter of a year,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and so you just come out of that and you're confused,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you're disoriented. There's sadness, there's depression, there's pressure from sponsors
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and all these things and media, and it was just
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: this crazy world when that happens after such a big thing,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: and it's hard, and I understand and have empathy for
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: those big life moments that you're talking about, and then
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: just this massive letdown. And I've done big things in
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: my career, but this one was just so big and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: for such a long period of time that it really
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: hit me. Yeah, and I've struggled. I mean, we're only
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: two months removed from the accomplishment and it's been really,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: really hard.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And so the accomplishment that we're talking about here
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: is what you called the Conquer one hundred. It was
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: actually one hundred and one triathl in one hundred and
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: one consecutive days. Now, again, you don't just start doing
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: something like this on a whim overnight. You've been doing
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: this for a long time. So let's actually rewind and
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: if you could even recall now perhaps how you felt
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: after completing your first triathlon distance, because I think that's
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: statistic that I've read before is something like one percent
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: of people complete and triathlon a proper triathlon distance.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so just for the general public, a triathlon is
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: anything swim bike run, and then there's four standard distances.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: There's a sprint, an Olympic, a half in a full,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: and the full is the iron Man branded type distance.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: So it's kind of been brought to the forefront because
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: of their great job at marketing. But it's swim bike run,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and I started just with that sprint trathlon that a
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: lot of fun, takes an hour to do. You can
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: go with your family, it's local it's explosive and I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: loved it. I did it for years, and then slowly
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: you get to where you tackle the longer distances and
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: now you're bringing in longevity and endurance and strength and
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: nutrition and pace just all of these things that go
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: into figuring it out. And as you start to do them,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: you want to better yourself and what you did. And
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: it's not about the other people on the cork. Okay,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I have to figure out how to swim, bike, run,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: keep myself mentally sound and going. You're talking about an
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: event that you have seventeen hours to complete. I mean,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that's a long time to be doing physical activity. And
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: so the full distance where the one that we did,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the one hundred in was a two point four mile swim,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: one hundred and twelve mile bike ride, and then a
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: full marathon run, and so that's one hundred and forty
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: point six miles. And you just said, like less than
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: one percent of the population does a marathon, let alone
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the full iron distance triathlon. And so I talked about
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: you can't go from zero to one hundred off the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: couch like it takes a long time to gain that
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: experience and knowledge to be able to do and tackle,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: tackle something like a full distance triathlon, and so over
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: my career we've slowly gained that knowledge and experience to
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: be able to wake up one day and even conceptualize
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the hundred and then and then, you know, beginning part
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty one, March first through June eighth, we
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: we did tackle it, and we we knew it was awesome,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: But this.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Wasn't This wasn't the first time that you set out
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: to do something like completely outrageous like this. So what
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: about the what about the fifty to fifty to fifty?
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the fifty is kind of what put us on
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the map, and we'd broken a couple of Guinness World
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: records before that, but that was all learnings, all experience
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to get to where we could do it. And when
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: we announced a fifty, which was fifty full distance trathlons
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: in fifty consecutive days, but then do it in one
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: in every state, and so we were in a new
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: state every single day. So you've got massive travel, massive logistics,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: total chaos, and then trying to execute something physically and
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: mentally that everybody said was impossible. And we have a
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: documentary as out on Amazon Prime. It's called the Iron Carboy.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: But that was an unbelievable journey. And again my kids
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: were six to twelve in age, and we all crammed
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: into a motor home and we literally whirlwinded the country
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: to do this. And then that's how really the hundred
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: came to be because for the last five six years,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I've I've toured around, spoken in forty eight different countries,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: We've written our books, and I've just realized that, like
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: people are stuck mentally and they don't know how to
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: really break through barriers. And so I was like, Okay,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: I want to showcase what is possible mind, body, and
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: spirit if you remove chaos. Because if the fifty is
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: like chaos, confusion, logistics, what happens if we can remove
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: some of that? Do we have the chance or is
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: it possible to double what everybody thought was impossible and
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: do one hundred consecutive? So we decided to do it
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: all here in Utah, remove a lot of the chaos
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: and logistic environments, and then truly find out, Okay, is
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the mind is the body capable of one hundred and
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: forty point six miles for a quarter of a year,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: which is a hundred consecutive base.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Wow, and we.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Found out and we found out well back to the
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: fifty for just one more second. So in completing that
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: two part question one, did you feel the same kind
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: of we're talking about this malaise that we're in right
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: now post event after the fifty as you did with
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: the hundred.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: That's the first part of the question.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: And then the second part of the question is, immediately
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: after the fifty, did you know that you were going
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: to have to do something outrageous?
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Again, Yeah, I didn't.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I said it after the fifty,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: and I said it after the hundred, like I'm completely
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: satisfied with that effort, and I didn't experience the same
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: let down, sadness and depression that I did off the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: one hundred, off the fifty because just sheer duration of
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: time and mileage and compounding damage on my body. So
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: if you take the fifty, just as it's time frame
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: and mileage, it was seven weeks and it was seven
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: thousand miles, Well you double that, you're talking fourteen weeks,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and you're talking fourteen thousand miles of self propelled movement
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: through effort, and so just that compounding effort day after
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: day after day you get into a state where your
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: mind is trying to protect yourself from the chaos from
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the trauma, and you don't go from you today to tomorrow.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I went from chaos to protection. You slip into this
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: state and then you don't even realize you're in that
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: state until you come out of it after the one
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: hundred and one days, and then your body set your
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: mind says, okay, I'm going to now let you feel
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: what I've been powerfully hiding from you. And because of
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the duration of it, it was intense coming out of it,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: where I didn't feel that off the fifty because it
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: was I know, seven weeks is a long time to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: do something, but it was only seven weeks compared to
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: the fourteen weeks of the hundred. And with the fifty
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: we were swept away immediately into speaking and media and
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: all of that, and the hundred we shut everybody out
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: because we needed to regroup as a family and it
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: was just so intense that we needed to shut it down.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: And those two things that we did differentely really impacted
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: how we were physically and mentally. But I just had
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to recover.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, so from the fifty, what did you
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: learn about your own recovery. Let's start with during the effort,
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: because I'm sure right off the bat you started to
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: understand that you may need things that you weren't even
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: prepared for to be able to continually, day after day
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: go through that effort.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's so hard to recover when you have
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: no time to recover. You recover with time and time off, right,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: So you need both those things. And during these types
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of challenges where it's every single day you don't get
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to take a day off, you now have, your preparation
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: becomes so pivotal because you have to overprepare knowing that
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: you just have to figure out how to hold on.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: And we do a lot of little things in order
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: to give ourselves the best chance with diet and supplementation
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and tools, and I mean we do we do red
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: light therapy, and we do hyper bear chamber, and we
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: do chiropractor, we do deep tissue, we do supplementations for
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: our cells, and I mean just all these things that
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: we do at a high level. I always say, look,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: there's not one thing that we do that separates us
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: from everybody else. The secret to success is doing a
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: lot of little things consistently over a long period of time.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: And that's what most people aren't willing to do. They're
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: not willing to do all of the little things that
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: make the difference, and they're not willing to do them
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: consistently so they can feel the effects.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Of those Well.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: I think the problem in that and the reason why
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: people don't do them right is because they don't feel
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: the It's not like an instant gratification thing. Like it's
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: like you need to get into some sort of a
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: habit or you need to create some sort of a
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: routine so that you can feel the accumulative effects of
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: all of these small things that can better you in
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: the long run.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and people aren't willing to do that. They want
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: to take a drug that makes them superhuman right now
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: that heals them for tomorrow and you for long term success.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: You just can't do those types of things. You've got
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: to do things and allow your body to adapt and
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: evolve over time. I mean, it's just how you have
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: to do it to be successful with these types of projects.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: Did any of the recovery tactics that you started to
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: use completely like kind of blow you off your feet
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: in terms of you didn't expect them to help you
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: as much as they did.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: That's a really tough one to quantify because we do
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of little things consistently, right, and so it's
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: it's hard. It's hard to say, Okay, this one made
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the biggest difference that this one did. And when you're
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: when you're at a level to where you're you're just
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: performing at such a high level, those micro micro adjustments
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: that you you know that we make in our training recovery,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: you don't feel them immediately or you can't like quantify Okay,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: this did this or this did this because you're doing
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: such a great job in executing at a high level.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: So it's very easy for somebody to go on like
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: a new supplement or whatnot when they're coming off the
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: couch when their baseline is so terrible and you can
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: see a big, drastic difference, like this is making a
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: difference in my life. But like when you're a top
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: level like an olympian or the top of your game
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: in whatever sport you're doing, it's really hard to see
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: those big gains and changes because you're your body is
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: already performing at such a high level. But I know
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: through experience that all of these little things are making
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: a difference. It's just hard to see, yeah, because you're
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: already performing, right, and you're already done. Put so much
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: effort and time into getting to that point that it
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: becomes hard to quantify those small little things.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: As you started to travel the country after the fifty
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: and do the speaking engagements and share more of your story,
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: was there a time during that period that you ever
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: started to feel a little bit of imposter syndrome or
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: were you like, this is one hundred percent my purpose.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I am so like, this is I am in, I'm
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: all in, no worries, I'm good.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm an introvert and so and I'm good on
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: stage too. So it's really weird. And it doesn't bother
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: me to get up on stage and talking to crowds,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: But when someone who knows me sees me on stage,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: they're like, who the craft was that? Every time my
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: speaking bureau books me an event, I get like nervous
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: and be like, oh crap, I got to go do that.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: But then once I get on stage, it is a
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: lot of fun. My story is my story, and I
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: tell it all the time. And I've had people see
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: me on a couple of different stages and they were like, oh, man,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I loved the way you changed that part of the story.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: And I was like, I didn't change it. You're just
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: in a different part of your journey and something different
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: resonated with you. And so that's what's really interesting for
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: me is we appeal to a massive audience because you're
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: either at the start of your journey, in the middle
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: of your journey, or the end of your journey, or
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: somewhere in between. And our story covers an entire journey,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: and so at some point in time you get engaged
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: with that part of what we're doing, and so that
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: that's a lot of fun for us too.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: I love as you're talking about your experiences and traveling,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: you keep using the wei and the R and recognizing
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: that this really is truly just such a family effort.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: I'd be curious to know along the way, perhaps not
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: just yet up to the hundred, but along the way
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: the fifty obviously traveling throughout the United States with everyone,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: were there hiccups or moments where you started to ask yourself,
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: like what am I putting my family through?
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Like are we really going to keep doing this?
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, for sure, especially when they're super young and
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: your wife's pulling her hair out and I'm doing my thing,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: and she's responsible to entertain the kids because you know,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: we we we discuss our roles and we know, you know,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: each have a very important role in order to keep
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: this thing moving. And when it gets chaotic and things
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: aren't going as planned and your bootstrapping things and things
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: start to go wrong and you've got to make sacrifices,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: and so yeah, it becomes very difficult and challenging. You know,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: we're not talking about one athlete, and the dynamic of
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: just okay, what are my needs in my you know, uh,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: what do I need in order to keep moving? It's like, okay,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: there's seven of us, and it's okay, what are my
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: wife's needs and what are my kids needs? And I've
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: got four teenage girls right now and a son and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: so they're all very not demanding, but they all have
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: different needs and wants and as a parent, and you know,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: we've got five different parenting styles because each one of
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: our kids is very unique. And it's so fun to
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: see that like these individuals came from the same two people.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, we've been married, we're going on twenty one years.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: But it's just so fun being a parent, But yeah,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: it is hard in these types of challenges. And I
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: always say, look, when you're putting together a team, don't
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: look at someone's resume, don't look at someone's great moments
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: or their highlights. Go find out how that person performs under stress, fatigue,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: and exhaustion, because that's who you want on your team
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: when that person's performing at their worst. Because everybody's great
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: when they're great. I mean that's easy. It's how great
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: are you when you're like broken? That's the team you
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: put together. And our family works really good. Exhausted, broken,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: We are just problem solvers and we figured it out
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: and we keep moving forward. And that's when being a
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: team or a fan is a lot of fun, knowing
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: one thousand percent every single one of them has my
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: back and they know I've got there.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I've heard that saying a ton of times.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: It's like you can do good times with anyone, but
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: it's like, who can you do those bad times with?
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: For sure? For sure?
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: Well, so are you traveling around the country for that?
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: I almost called it an experiment. I feel like of
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: sorts it was, But were you traveling around the country
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: in an RV?
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: For which for fifty.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Oh for fifty Yeah, every day was Yeah. We were
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: in an RV. So the you know, we had to
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: get to the next state, and so the wingman we
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: called them. There were the two guys on our team.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: They would drive throughout the night while I was trying
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: to get any sleep if I could, and get my
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: body and therapy worked on and get food in me.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: But the entire team was exhausted because it was a
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: moving caravan. We had multiple vehicles to move, we had team,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: we had equipment, we had everything. I mean, it was
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: we still had to do a full distance try every
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: single day, and that takes a lot of effort and
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of moving pieces. It took a lot of
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: volunteers across the country and every state that helped us.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: With the area that we were in. It was a
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: lot of fun to see the country just kind of
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: come together for one cause. Both when we did the
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: fifty and the hundred, I mean the community that came
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: out and we on the hundred, we raised you know,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for Operation Underground Railroad,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: which is trying to solve the problem save humans from
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: current day slavery and sex trafficking. Yeah, and so we
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: always attach a charitable component to what we're doing, which
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: makes it even more meaningful for our family and our
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: team to be able to be able to raise those
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: funds for those for those causes, because there's truly people
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: out there that are suffering that don't know when their
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: suffering is going to end, and if we have a
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: chance to help and make an impact on that, Like,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: we realize that our lives are incredibly blessed and we
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: have an opportunity where we can impact other people's lives,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: and so that's become a driving force for us as well.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: How did you decide on that particular charity for the
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: hundred because I know previously you had worked with others
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: in the past.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We kind of pick a different theme for each
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: one of the big campaigns that we do, and it
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: all hinges around where we are at that time in
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: our lives. And when we did the fifty, we did
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: it for childhood obesity and we had really young kids
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: and I was involved in the school system, and you
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: could see, Okay, this is a problem because when I
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: went to school, I could still name today, like the
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: two or three overweight kids in my class. Well, now
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: it's more than fifty percent of the class that is
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: struggling with this, and that's a very big problem. And
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: so that was really in our face. And so we
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: were like, okay, can we make an impact there? And
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: then now that I've got four teenage girls and it's
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: a Utah charity that was heading this up and just
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: a great cause, and it was just kind of in
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: our face, and my wife had a big passion for it,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and she's like, look, we need to we need to
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: do our piece here to try to save these humans.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: And so we just got behind the charity here, did
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: a ton of research on them, and was really happy
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: with the partnership.
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: And you mentioned kind of where the thought process came
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: from when it came to concepting the idea of one
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: hundred and one hundred, when.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: You first said this out loud?
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: Well, was it you that first said this out loud
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: or was it someone else on your on your team
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: akaa in the fam.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: No, it was it was definitely me. You know, they
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: they're satisfied, they're they're complete, and you know, fourteenage girls,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: they've got jobs, they've got school, they've got friends, they've
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: got dances, they've got both you know, all these things,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: and so that was that was the biggest thing when
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: we came up with the hundred or I came up
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: with one hundred and kind of presented it to the
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: family as they were like, Okay, well, I love the
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: fact that you want to control the environment and you
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: want to do the whole thing here in Utah because
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: we can't displace our family at this time in our
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: lives for a quarter of a year, especially coming out
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: of the pandemic, and there was a lot of confusion
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: and everything, and so so really it was the best
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: decision for our family because we didn't have to displace
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: our kids. They got to do their normal lives and
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: be with their friends, but still got to be involved
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: at a high level with what I was doing. So
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: it was it was, it was really really great.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: So talk to me about what the training looks like
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: for an undertaking like this.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a full time job and it takes a
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: lot of support from sponsors with equipment and product and
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: just everything we can to make it work. We're doing
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of damage in our bodies, you know. We're
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: training forty plus hours a week, plus the recovery time
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: that takes, plus all the therapy that needs to be done.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Plus we run a business on the side, and so
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: there's a lot too it. Obviously we do a lot
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: of swimming, a lot of biking, a lot of running.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: But then you've got to train the mental side of stuff.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: You've got to do the therapies. Like I mentioned, we've got
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: to do strength training because with this type of project,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: you know, if you look at pictures of me, I'm
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: not like I carry more weight than your average endurance athlete.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: It's because I know once we start, I'm going to
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: wither away and I have to be very durable. So
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: we do we do a lot of strength training. Supplements
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: become super important. We're releasing a ton of free radicals
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: and so antioxid has become a We partnered with a
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: company called mito Q and they have a great product
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: that really works on the cellular level. And as an athlete,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: those types of things become pivotabal Our bike sponsor, Fazari,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: becomes instrumental in what we're doing, the red light therapy,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: the hyperbaric chambers, all the swim equipment that we need.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, it just becomes this huge team and undertaking
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: just during the training process. There's three phases, right, there's training,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: there's execution, and then there's post and recovery. And each
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: one of those demands a different respect and effort in
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: order to get it right. And if you don't get
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: any of those right, it's detrimental to one your career,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: your lifestyle, but your health overall.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: How does someone feel the night before they're going to execute?
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: So when you started off, you were going to do
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: one hundred, and then you decided to tack on the
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: extra one.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we didn't make that decision until like three days before.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: You were like, why not just go? Why not just
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: go for the extra.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Well, i'll get into that. I'll just quickly cover why
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: we did that. But you know, the eve of an
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: enormous task like that, you are excited because you're about
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: to start something cool. You're you're nervous because there's the unknown,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: you don't know what it's going to be, But generally
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: it's overall excitement. You've got adrenaline, you've got the media,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: you know it's this big thing, and you finally get
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: to the start of it. And so the start is
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: always cool because you've got adrenaline, a ton of support,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: it's the it's the middle part of a quarter of
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: a year project that becomes hard because the excitement's worn down.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: People have either tuned out for a little bit because
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: you're in the middle part of it and it's not
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: close enough to the end and you're past the start,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: the exciting start. And so those I call them the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: blue collar worker days in the middle, because it's when
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: the work gets done where nobody's really paying attention and watching,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: and it's it's kind of the most important part because
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: you can't get to the finish line without that kind
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: of real grinding middle where nobody's watching. And that's kind
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: of way it is in life and business and relationships.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: There's always going to be those like blue collar, grind
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: them out moments that aren't exciting but are pivotal on
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: our journey to get us to where we are. So
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: we're going to have those exciting moments, those finish lines,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: those celebrations, those you know, all of that stuff, and
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: so those are important days. And then we were we
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: were less than a week from finishing the goal successfully
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: one hundred and I said to myself, I need to
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: do one more. And as a as a speaker, as
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: an author and whatnot. I have a core set of
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: values and principles, and and one of them is we
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: can always do more, even when we think we're broken,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: even when we're defeated, or even when we've celebrated and
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: we've reached the finish line. You have more in you
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: even when you think you're broken. And and I really
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't like it when a mentor a
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: coach is not speaking from experience, they haven't done it,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: and they're just telling somebody else's story or collaboration or
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: something right, And so I felt it was really important
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: that I had to go out and do one more.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: We'd reached the goal, we'd accomplished it, we had celebrated,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: and I was broken. And I got up the next
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: day and I still got on the water, I did
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: the two point four mile swim, I got on the bike,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: I did the one hundred and twelve, and then we
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: ran another twenty six point two. And sometimes in our lives,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: when you are broken, you defeated, it is dark. Sometimes
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: you have to get up and do one more on
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: your own because you are in the middle of that journey.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: And so I just really wanted to set the best
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: example I wanted to lead from the front that said
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I am broken, and I am going to get up,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: and I don't want to, but I'm going to get up,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to do one more today.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Taking a break from today's episode to give some love
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: to my sponsor at inside Tracker. When you do what
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: you love, like run now or racing or enjoying the
• 39:02
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• 39:04
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• 39:08
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• 39:11
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• 39:17
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• 39:20
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• 39:26
  Speaker 2: It's been really really helpful for me.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: I had been feeling a little sluggish a few months
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: back during my runs, and I knew that it was
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: a little bit more than just like the typical oh
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: my god, it's so hot out here, what am I
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: doing situation. So after doing inside Tracker, including a mobile
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: blood draw and a DNA swab, I was able to
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: get important insight as to what was really going on
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: with me and my body, which happened to be a
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: little bit low iron actually, and then I just in
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: my diet and training to be able to go better
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: after my Health and Wellness school, which.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: Right now, if you've been following along, involved.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: Me making my way to London to run a marathon
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: and then following that up about a month later.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: With a go at New York.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: Inside Tracker tracks your progress every day, every step of
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• 40:27
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• 40:31
  Speaker 3: S I D E t R A c k e
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: R dot com slash hurdle. I listened to a podcast
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: episode that you did where you talked about how as
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: the time went on, some of the execution wasn't exactly
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: how you had hoped it to be.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about that.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this project, because of the duration of it and
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: because of the amount of volume we were doing physically
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: naturally injury crept in and it becomes very difficult in
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: that moment's to perform at a high level when you're
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: dealing with an injury, you're trying to manage that, you're
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: trying to heal yourself while doing physical activity because the
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: goal is one hundred, right, that's the expectation. That's what
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: you've come out and said. You've got people around the
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: world watching you, thousands at a time tuning in, and
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: you're known as a person who sets a goal, accomplishes it,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: and doesn't quit. And so in those moments when we're
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: dealing with injury and we're trying to figure out how
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: to continue, it becomes very difficult because you know you're
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: not performing at the level that you are capable of,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: but you're currently dealing with some limitters that aren't allowing
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: you to do it. And we have to you know,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: we have to show patience and we have to you know,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: give it time. All the same time, you have to
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: still get out there and do and so it's a
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: really interest seeing time in the campaign when we were
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: dealing with some of the peak times of injury that
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: we had to execute patients, we had to slow down
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: and see the big picture and do what we could
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: as a team in order to get me to the
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: other side of those injuries so that we could continue
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: because we wanted to have an impact, We wanted to
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: raise money for the charity, and all of that stops
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: if I'm sidelined or I have to quit.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Two things.
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: One, I think many would argue that even if you
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: made it, and I know from our brief time together
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: that there's no way that you really were going to
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: decisively quit unless you were physically removed.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: But even if you were to.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: Make it to fifty five sixty seventy five, that the
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: good that you were doing was exemplary and you know,
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: better than no good at all.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: So I'll just say that.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: But what I will follow that up with is the
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: sentiment that for you, as these modifications so to speak,
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: had to start creeping in, where were you mentally? That's
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: my question.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, First, I'll say this, we achieved our fundraising goal
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: by by fifty by halfway.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Love to hear it.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: And then every single day you're breaking a new world record.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: And so we had a really intense bad bike crash
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: on day fifty nine, and nobody would have faulted me
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: for not showing up on day sixty because it was
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: a violent crash. We'd broken the world record, we had
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: exceeded our fundraising goals. But to me personally, I said
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: I was going to do fifty and so in my mind,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: I was like, I am physically capable, but it's gonna hurt,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be uncomfortable. I'm physically capable of getting in
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: the water and going through the next couple of weeks
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: which is going to be a recovery process from this crash.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: But I know I can do this, and I would
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: hate myself if I quit in this moment, knowing I'm
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: still capable. It's just going to be painful and uncomfortable.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: And it was easy for me because once in big
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: projects I do, I go all in to me. That's
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: what it is. You make a committment, you go and
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: you sometimes you have to make adjustments and it's it's
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: not the way you want it to but it is
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: still moving the project forward and and and that's the
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: big goal. But mentally it's hard, and I would always
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: say to myself, Okay, I'm in pain, I'm uncomfortable, I
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: don't want to do this anymore. But is the next
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: step going to kill me? And if the answer came
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: back as no, then I would have I would keep moving.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: And so mentally, I just had to ask myself one question,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: is the next step going to kill me? Is the
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: next pedal stroke going to kill me? Vannswer was no.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Then I had no other choice because there was no
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: other good excuse to quit other than death right, because
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: because if I die, I remove myself from my family.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I can no longer provide they lose their father. That's
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: not a good scenario, my wife's husband. That's not what
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: anybody wanted. And it never got to that point, and
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: so the question was always is it going to kill me?
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Answer is now, okay, I'll keep moving.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: I'll keep moving.
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: So as the again, the modification modifications creep in, and
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: I know at different times you had to maybe like
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: split it up a little bit more than you would
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: have liked. So talk to me about were you the
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: person that was making the calls as to how you
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: would change the execution or was that a bigger conversation
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: with your team. I know you went from running to
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: incorporating some more walking in those marathon distances as well.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: It was always big picture and the team and I
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: have been doing this for a long time, and they
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: know that I get exhausted. I sometimes aren't am not
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: thinking clearly because it's a physical endeavor. Your mind starts
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: to go once you do hit exhaustion. And I have
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: given full trust to my team and mostly my wife
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: to where she will make decisions for me. And I've
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: learned that I have to trust those and will battle
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: and we'll fight on some of those decisions, and ultimately
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: I'll move over and get in line with what's happening
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: because it sometimes takes me longer than I want to
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: or that she wants me to. But ultimately she's in
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: a better space to make those decisions because once she
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: knows me really well. And two in these challenges, I'm
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: so physically beaten down. We're both exhausted, but she is
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: less exhausted and can make probably better decisions than I
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: can in those moments. And so it becomes this really
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: important pivotal game of trust, and we have full trust
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: as a team, and we make those decisions as a team.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: As the days go on, there are different components of
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: each day where different individuals are kind of taking part
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: with you. Talk to me a little bit about how
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: that experience was The fact that not only were you
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: supported by these individuals, but people were traveling from far
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: and wide to be a part of this unbelievable mission
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: of yours.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that was one of the coolest
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: unexpected pieces of this was when the community just really
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: came out. I was prepared to do the hundred with
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: just myself, my small team and go out there and
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: execute and then have some stories to tell, and it
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: was just always amazing for us to see one of
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: the local community that came out. But every single day
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: during parts of the run of the ride, we'd get
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: you know, oh, so and so is from Alaska, so
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: and so it's from Pennsylvania, so and so is from
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: New York. And every single day we'd have people from
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: all over the country come in and sometimes out of
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the country as well. And pandemic made it hard for
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: people to travel, but on the social media we had
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: people joining us virtually from around the world, and we've
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: we've had merchandise and books orders from Poland and Iceland
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: and just every time of this really bizarre country comes
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: in for an order. We kind of talk about as
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: a family and the impact in the reach that that
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: the journey we've been on us have and that's the
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: biggest humbling thing is is we just try to set
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: the best example we can, and in turn, it's giving
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: other people hope on their journey, which is which is
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: why we continue to do what we do, which is
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: why we speak around the world, which is why we
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: film things, which is why we post content, which is
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: why we write and all these things. Is because it's
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: truly giving people hope in their lives and the struggles
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: that they're having.
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: I know at one point you thought that the best
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: example that you could provide was kind of from an
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: athletics standpoint, just performing at your top level constantly. Talk
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: to me about the humbling experience that it was for
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: you to learn that in order to exceed your own
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: expectations and to succeed in your journey, that you would
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: have to kind of dial that down a little bit
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: to move forward and progress.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as an athlete and as someone who has expectations
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: for greatness, you always want to be performing at a
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: high level. And with the injuries that crept in and
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: you know, circumstances that I had to slow down because
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: we had that, you know, again, you've got to complete
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: It's probably just my opinion, But nobody cares if you
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: do sixty when you say you're going to do one hundred,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: nobody cares if you do seventy five, if you say
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: you're going to do a hundred, and so in order
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: to do the hundred and do what you say you're
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: going to do, sometimes you have to do that back
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: because you can't give one hundred percent all the time.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: And with the injuries that came in, it became a
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: huge blessing because I did have to walk on portions
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: of the marathon, and it allowed people that wouldn't have
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: been able to join me join me. And we heard
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: it every single day, I'm so grateful you're walking, because
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: if you weren't, I wouldn't be able to join you.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: I'm not at that level. And so my injury and
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: my pain and my discomfort became a blessing for other
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: people that wanted to join us that wouldn't have been
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: able to And so it kind of changed the dynamic
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: of the journey and became a very special piece of it.
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: I got a lot of individuals reach out, you know,
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: via email, via DM asking you for advice on that
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: first step on I might not be in the place
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: to ever think that I'm going to do a triathon.
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: But how do I just start moving? What do you
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: tell them?
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you just start, because nobody starts a journey as
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: the expert, and I didn't on the journ that I
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: was on. I have a hilarious picture that I that
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: I share in my very first triathlon where I'm literally
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: hanging on the edge of the pool, gasping for air,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: wearing a nose plug, with fear in my face. And
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: I promise you nobody would have looked at that guy
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: and said, oh, that guy is going to go on
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: and set you know, sports and Durrance history. But that's
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: the reality is we all have a starting point in
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: our journey, and if we wait till we're an expert
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: to start, we're never going to start because you can't
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: become an expert without any knowledge and experience. And so
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: my biggest advice to people is wherever you are right now,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: it's okay, and that's just where you are, and to
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: be honest with you, it's your fault wherever you are
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: right and we all have to come to grip some
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: realization that this is our battle and we get to
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: choose and fight every single day, And that's the whole
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: point is just choose to start and you will gain knowledge.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: And start slow, start easy, don't go from zero to
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: one hundred. Because success breeds success and confidence breeds confidence,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: and that's the only way to build momentum. And if
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: you continually set these monster gidentic goals with no experience,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: you're going to fail immediately, and then you start to
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: label yourselves and believe that you're a failure, and that's
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: not true. Everybody's a successful winner. You just have to
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: put yourself in a position to be the successful winner.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: And so set yourself up with small, manageable, attainable goals
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: and start to get that momentum going. But just start.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: It's got to be interesting for you now dealing with
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: the bouts of depression, struggling through trying to figure out,
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: like exactly specifically, like where am I going from here?
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: Because you have the tools right Like I'm sitting here
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: and I'm listening to you and I'm hearing all this
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: stuff that so many people can't even tell themselves that
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: they can't get to where you are. They're working to
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: get to where they are, and they need people like
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: you to help them get there. But when you're the
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: person that you know, you know, but you're just struggling
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: to get over that hurdle, where do you look to,
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: aside from getting outside and getting on your bike and
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: leaning to activity for the resources and the help that
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: you need so that you can try to figure out
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: that next step.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think for me, it's important that I have
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: my family here, my wife, my five kids. I think
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: the pandemic slowing everything down is a positive in my
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: life personally because it does give me an opportunity to
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: have family time and put my focus and attention on them,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: which brings joy to me. I mean last night we
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: played cards for two hours and then went out on
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: a walk, all of which costs. It has no money,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: but it was great for my mind and my soul
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: to be able to do that. And so I just
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: think it's important that if you can't you do that,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: just always search for positive uplifting. I mean, the Internet
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: is so unbelievable, and I know social media takes a
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: hard wrap, but there's a lot of good, fun, positive
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: stuff on there, and we get to choose how we
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: interact with social social media. And my wife, she last
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: all the time, She's like My entire feet is is
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: I'll start with this. My kids set up an Instagram
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: account for our dog, and my wife is like, it's ridiculous,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: don't start an account for the dog. And then she
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: follows a ton of dog accounts because it's what makes
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: her happy, and cows make her happy, and so she
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: follows all of these animal accounts, and so I just think,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: you know, social media does get a bad rep, but
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of positivity, a lot of light, and
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: we just have to intentionally go seek out that positivity
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: to get our minds right.
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: Talk me through the final day one oh one.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in the public SYE one hundred was the final day,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: and it was chaos. I mean, thousands of people, a
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: lot of noise, a lot of distraction, a lot of chaos,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of nerve nervousness for me, you know, hundreds
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: of people come out on the bike that we've never
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: biked with before, and there's a peloton and crashes are
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: happening and you're just like, I have to keep my
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: wheels on the ground and where's my team to protect
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: me and all these things, and then you finish and
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: it's like this massive sigh of relief. Because you accomplish
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: something that's over and then in our minds and our team,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: nobody knows, but we're doing it again tomorrow and we
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: have to do the celebration. But we got to quickly
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: get back and regroup for tomorrow. And so it was
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: this kind of like weird day where everybody thought we
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: were done, but we weren't. And we didn't tell anybody
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: about one on one. We just went live on day.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: The next day, it was just me and the water
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: and it went viral and it was a really cool
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: experience because people were like, okay's he woke up. He's
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: going to give us a breakakdown of how he's feeling.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: And then it was me doing another one. And so
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: you know the difference between one hundred it was chaos,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: it was thousands of people, it was noise, it was excitement,
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: and then one o one is more me. It was
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: on my terms. It was our smallttle group. Nobody knew
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: we were doing it. We didn't disclose the run location.
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: It was just our core, you know, team and friends
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: who we've been on this journey with for a long time.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: That's that was a special day for us and how
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: we wanted to end that journey. They were just very
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: different between the two, but it meant a lot for
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: us to do that.
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't even I can't even imagine.
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: It makes me question and want to ask during these
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: gritty moments over the one hundred and one days, and
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: specifically maybe even on this last day, when things just
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: feel like you are literally swimming, running, biking through mud,
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: where does your head go? Aside from the am I
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: going to die with this next stroke? Run step? Where
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: does your head go? Is the What are you telling
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: yourself in these moments?
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just the realization that time is on our side
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: or against us, depending on how you choose to utilize it.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: And for me, I knew that June eighth was going
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: to come and go, whether I showed up and did
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: what I was doing or not. And once I realized
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: that it was going to come and go, because you know,
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: when you're in the middle of something that seems so crazy,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: so chaotic, like the fifty right, the fifty days and
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: fifty States was so chaotic, and I kept telling myself,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: July twenty fifth is going to come. Keep showing up,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: keep getting in the water. And then all of a sudden,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: five six years passes and you're like, Okay, time is
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: going to keep moving. And so I knew during the
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: one hundred. I was like, yes, this is what we're doing.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Yes we're grinding. Yes I'm in a lot of pain,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: but I know that June eighth is coming. Eventually, It's
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: going to get here and we will get through it.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: It's like the saying, this too shall pass, and it's true,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: as long as we stay and put our focus and
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: attention where it needs to be, this too shall pass.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: It's when we don't show up and when we take
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: ourselves out of the equation that time is going to
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: keep ticking. And now you have become a by standard
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: or spectator to everybody else accomplishing and deciding to show up.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: And so was that was for me one of the
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: things that I utilized when I was in those dark
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: moments that said, Okay, time is going to pass either way.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: And it was beautiful because I would have a really,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: really tough, difficult day and I'd be like, I don't know,
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I can do that again tomorrow.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: Like that was so mentally grinding, like I don't know
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: if I can do it again tomorrow. And Sonny would
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: always say, look, the work's done today. Let's just let
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: the team help you. You've done your job. We'll go
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: to bed, we'll wake up tomorrow and face tomorrow with
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: whatever it gives us. And so that was kind of
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: the pattern. It was like, I've reached my breaking point,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: but I knew that if I kept moving, I'm eventually
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: going to get to the finish line. Sometimes not in
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: the timeframe that I want to, but I'm eventually going
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: to get there. And then once the work is done, reset,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: take the therapy that you need, process that moment, and
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: then get up and fight another day.
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: Right Like, do the best you can with what you
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: have in these moments. So right now, someone goes your
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: social media page, if we're just talking Instagram, they see
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: endurance athlete who has performed in these unbelievable, wonderful ways
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: that raised so much money for charity. Father of five,
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: devoted husband. When you look in the mirror, what is
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: it that you see looking back at you?
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: Great question. One, I see a father and a husband,
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: and two I see a person that's still striving for
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: the limits. I don't I don't want to sit on
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: my laurels. I want to take I want to celebrate,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: but I want to take the knowledge and experience that
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: we've had and apply it to other areas of my life.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: I think I've truly satisfied, and I've said this before,
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: but I'm truly satisfied with with what we've accomplished and
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: how we accomplished it. I think the hundred really showed
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: who we are as a team, what we're capable of,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: the level at which we can execute, and we removed
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: any doubt or criticism that we'd ever received in the past.
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: And that was important to me to kind of reset
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: history and let people know we are who we said
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: we were. And I think that's very cool. And so
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: for me, I just want to look in the mirror
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: and say, you know what, I'm a person that does
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: what I says I'm going to do. I'm a person
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: that tries to set the best example I know how
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: for my kids, and I'm a loving, devoted husband to
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: my wife of twenty one years.
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: Have you thought about maybe what the next thing could be?
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what. I think I'm going down a
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: road of biohacking the human mind and the body, and
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: I think what's next for me is trying to figure
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: out how to live a high quality of life well
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: into my hundreds.
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: Love that. Love to hear that.
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: Right now, my friend, you have an opportunity to offer yourself.
• 59:47
  Speaker 3: You know what, I've never done this before, but I
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: think I'm going to do it here. You're in a
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: pretty big life hurtle moment right now. You have done
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: something that is so admirable and so wonderful in the process,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: have done so much good through your charitable efforts. But
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: as we spoke about the top of this episode, like
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: you're going through it. So if you were to take
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: a step outside of yourself right now and give yourself
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: one piece of advice in this hurdle moment, what is
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: it that you think that you really need to hear?
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just that I've done enough, You're worth it. And
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: just keep showing up consistently in whatever capacity or direction
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: that you take, and You'll just always be enough.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: You'll always be enough.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: I'm so grateful for your time today, James, Thanks so much.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: How did the hurdlers keep up with you? How do
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: they follow along with you? Give me all your details?
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, any thing that we do is on Instagram, Iron Cowboy, James,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: please follow us there and then any resources and courses
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: and books and all that and merchandises, all on Ironcowboy
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: dot com.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: Amazing.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: I'm over at emlaybody and at Hurdle Podcast. Another hurdle conquered.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.