Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 2 - Episode 20 with Cris Howard, Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker

Transcript

The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 2 - Episode 20 with Cris Howard, Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

• 0:00
  Hello, my name is Leslie.
• 0:02
  I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a podcast to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, why not today?
• 0:10
  I started this podcast and honored my father, Patrick Cain, who often did say why not today.
• 0:15
  I'm based in Reston, Virginia, a planned community right outside of Washington, DC.
• 0:19
  And thanks for joining us today.
• 0:21
  And I'm excited about my guest today, Chris Howard.
• 0:23
  I don't know really much about her except for what I've seen in the press.
• 0:27
  A friend of mine sent me a link to her story that was on a local news station of her adventures.
• 0:35
  And she's like, you need her on the Why Not Today podcast.
• 0:37
  And so I reached out to her, found out she lives maybe a half a mile from my house.
• 0:43
  I think I could walk barefoot to your house.
• 0:44
  Yeah.
• 0:45
  So I'm sure we've run into each other and passed each other and walking.
• 0:48
  So I'm excited to have you here and share your journey, your experience.
• 0:51
  So before we kind of hear all your courage stories and everything, tell us a little bit about who Chris is
• 0:56
  and a fun fact about you.
• 1:00
  Well, a fun fact is I'm a bit of a princess, honestly.
• 1:05
  Oh, that's for you.
• 1:06
  Which is a bit of a juxtaposition to the story that we're just about to talk about.
• 1:10
  Right.
• 1:11
  In fact, I just redesigned my home to kind of reflect my personality.
• 1:17
  And it's designed in pink, crystal and fluffy everywhere.
• 1:24
  I love that.
• 1:25
  So the other hat I wear.
• 1:26
  Unapologetically, yes.
• 1:28
  That's OK.
• 1:29
  The other hat I wear is, and I do have a pink shirt on today, is I'm a sales director with Mary Kay.
• 1:34
  And so I still, January, my wall behind me was bright pink.
• 1:38
  But I moved.
• 1:39
  Oh my gosh.
• 1:40
  So yeah, pink.
• 1:42
  My niece asked me one time why pink was my favorite color.
• 1:44
  I'm like, if really not, it just pays me really well.
• 1:47
  But now pink and fluffy is always good.
• 1:51
  So I'm excited to hear your story and your adventures.
• 1:55
  And so before we kind of hear that, what does courage mean to you, Chris?
• 2:02
  For me, courage is daring to live your authentic self.
• 2:09
  So courage comes from deep inside.
• 2:13
  And when the heart and your actions are totally aligned,
• 2:18
  then you know exactly what needs to happen from what may.
• 2:23
  Yes.
• 2:24
  And we're not worried about consequences.
• 2:27
  We're not worried about what people think we're doing what we need to do in that moment.
• 2:32
  I would agree.
• 2:33
  Got to look at values.
• 2:35
  And so many people don't, unfortunately.
• 2:37
  Yeah.
• 2:38
  So you had a really cool adventure.
• 2:40
  And I was kind of teased about it.
• 2:42
  But, and, you know, honestly, I read the story, part of the story, not the whole story.
• 2:48
  And because I kind of want to be surprised by it.
• 2:50
  And, and I don't know if I've known anybody that's accomplished this.
• 2:55
  So let's talk about what you accomplished, why you did it, the backstory,
• 2:59
  and some of the courage steps in between.
• 3:01
  So I'll let you spill the beans and share what you did.
• 3:04
  Before I, yeah, just jump in and, you know,
• 3:08
  let me redirect if you need me to.
• 3:10
  So.
• 3:13
  So we'll just start with the it.
• 3:15
  So the it is the big adventure is I left my job.
• 3:22
  I was 11 years with lab core drug development and 33 years as an executive
• 3:29
  in bio pharmaceutical development, drug development.
• 3:33
  And, and I just resigned in order to go hike the appellation trail.
• 3:40
  And for those who may not know what the appellation trail is,
• 3:44
  it's the longest footpath in the world, continuous footpath.
• 3:49
  I started.
• 3:51
  Yeah. I started in Springer Mountain, Georgia and walked
• 3:58
  with whatever I could carry my back and all my supplies, all my food,
• 4:03
  all my water, my sleeping bag, my tent was 25 pounds in the winter time,
• 4:09
  19 pounds in the summertime.
• 4:11
  And I walked through 14 states along the East coast and ended my journey
• 4:16
  in Maine, Mount Contaudin, Maine, right smack dab in the middle.
• 4:20
  Yeah. So the total mileage is 2,200.
• 4:25
  So when did you do that?
• 4:27
  I started April 10th of this year.
• 4:30
  And I started in Contaudin on September 24th of this year.
• 4:34
  So it's about five and a half months to me.
• 4:36
  Okay. Wow.
• 4:38
  Wow. So was this something you'd always dreamed of doing?
• 4:43
  Is this was it a was it a pandemic?
• 4:46
  Like, OK, let's relook at our life and what are we doing and putting your
• 4:51
  thought maybe a lot of people that I've talked to are just like at that point.
• 4:56
  It's like, OK, what's next?
• 4:58
  And this is not fulfilling me.
• 5:00
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 5:02
  Well, there's a convergence of three different factors that were all kind of
• 5:06
  happening at the same time that kind of was the fine point to me
• 5:10
  making the decision to do this.
• 5:13
  First of all, my background was an Ironman.
• 5:18
  Well, the ultra distance swim bike runs as a total of 112 miles.
• 5:24
  And I did that for 10 years.
• 5:27
  And really, my my identity was formed through Ironman.
• 5:31
  How many?
• 5:33
  12, including the World Championship.
• 5:35
  Wow.
• 5:36
  I actually interviewed him on the podcast in March of last year.
• 5:41
  He did like Placid and.
• 5:44
  OK, yeah.
• 5:46
  Yeah, yeah, that was my life.
• 5:48
  I was even on the board of Ironman and, you know,
• 5:51
  end up doors for women to participate in a sport and increase the women participation.
• 5:56
  So it was it was everything.
• 5:58
  But then I experienced an injury.
• 6:00
  I had a tear in my back called the multifidus.
• 6:04
  And the bottom line is I can no longer run and I can't I can ride a bike.
• 6:10
  But when I'm used to doing 112 miles at 22 miles an hour and now I can only do 14.
• 6:17
  That's just not fun anymore.
• 6:19
  So so that that part of me and I try to replace it with, you know,
• 6:24
  lifting weights in the gym and all this other stuff.
• 6:27
  But being outside all day, I really missed that.
• 6:29
  And then for my company, my job at work, I built a department from scratch.
• 6:36
  And it was, you know, my job is to work myself out of a job.
• 6:41
  The cliche is true.
• 6:43
  And so I'm working entrepreneur at work and this was reaching steady state grew.
• 6:48
  This department to 300 people, project managers around the world, 24 countries.
• 6:54
  Wow.
• 6:55
  And so so I was I was kind of reaching that kind of culmination.
• 7:01
  I was looking for something next, another challenge, something to fill that in.
• 7:06
  And the company was that my division was sold off to start a new division.
• 7:13
  The time was good.
• 7:14
  It was a good time.
• 7:15
  It was not disruptive.
• 7:16
  It was it was it was an easy transition out.
• 7:20
  Right.
• 7:21
  And then the third factor is I got diagnosed with melanoma.
• 7:23
  Oh, wow.
• 7:24
  And so I took some time off work about five weeks off work to get that treated.
• 7:32
  And while I was there, I saw a map of the Appalachian Trail on a friend of mine's wall.
• 7:39
  And I was obsessed.
• 7:41
  I was studying it all the little lines, all the little twists and turns.
• 7:46
  And it felt like a bolt of lightning hit me from the sky.
• 7:50
  And it was that moment that I was like, this is it.
• 7:53
  This is this is this is going to scratch the endurance itch.
• 7:57
  I need an adventure.
• 7:59
  This will bring me back to my core self.
• 8:02
  And two months later, I was on trail.
• 8:05
  Wow.
• 8:06
  Love that.
• 8:07
  And by the way, a little detail.
• 8:09
  I've never hiked before.
• 8:12
  I've never camped before.
• 8:14
  Okay.
• 8:15
  Before honey, I'm not kidding when I say I'm all princess.
• 8:18
  And that's such a why not today story.
• 8:21
  It's like jumped it and did it.
• 8:23
  And like this podcast, I had never done this.
• 8:25
  And literally in my first episode, I reported on a Saturday.
• 8:29
  I launched on a Saturday, I recorded it Friday at three o'clock because I was scared.
• 8:32
  I'm like, okay, I just got to do it.
• 8:34
  If you don't, if you think about it too much, then you'll talk yourself out.
• 8:38
  Yeah.
• 8:39
  And you know, and so that's part of the podcast is I don't edit it.
• 8:43
  It's because it's just it is as it is.
• 8:45
  And it's real.
• 8:46
  Yeah.
• 8:47
  And I love that you've never been camping.
• 8:48
  And yeah, my idea of, I always say my idea of rooms of camping is when the room surface
• 8:53
  cuts off at midnight.
• 8:54
  So I couldn't imagine the camping part.
• 8:57
  Oh, that's great.
• 8:59
  Did you go by yourself?
• 9:02
  Yeah, I did.
• 9:03
  I did the entire trek by myself, but I was never alone.
• 9:07
  So there was lots of other people who, who, who also are on the trail.
• 9:13
  So in fact, the first time I, the first campsite, I logged in and there was this ring of these
• 9:22
  very experienced hikers and they were, you know, very rough.
• 9:26
  They had their beards and their skin was weathered and their hair was like long and unkept and
• 9:32
  their clothes look like they slept in it for a month, probably more honestly.
• 9:37
  And they were having the fire and they're cooking their food over the fire.
• 9:40
  I mean, these people were legit.
• 9:42
  And this one guy had a tie dye shirt and the shirt said, I have weed for sale.
• 9:47
  Right.
• 9:48
  So this is, this is the kind of people.
• 9:49
  Right.
• 9:50
  And I'm not people that I would normally hang out with.
• 9:53
  And I walked up and I had my little pearl earrings on.
• 9:56
  And I was about to ask how pretty were you dressed during this thing?
• 10:00
  You know, all my clothes are brand new, you know, and I walk in and I'm like, catch a
• 10:07
  tent.
• 10:09
  And the guy who was wearing this, that shirt I've got weed for sale.
• 10:16
  His name was Woodstock.
• 10:17
  We all have trail names.
• 10:18
  His name was Woodstock, which was quite appropriate.
• 10:21
  And he had a deep, deep Southern accents, so deep it almost required a translator.
• 10:28
  And he says, well, shit.
• 10:31
  He said, I've been out here all my life and I still don't know what I'm doing out here.
• 10:37
  And all the other people just laughed and all, and the whole gang got up and they walked
• 10:44
  me around and they showed me the ropes and they taught me how to look for a campsite
• 10:50
  and make sure the tree is not going to fall a branch on your head and look out for snakes
• 10:55
  and make sure you look for this kind of flat land.
• 10:59
  And they adopted me.
• 11:01
  And so that story, you know, I think we need to be risk being vulnerable to people who
• 11:09
  are quite intimidating, right?
• 11:11
  Because they were purely experts and just be willing to laugh at yourself and be messy
• 11:17
  and look like a fool.
• 11:19
  And it opens up new doors.
• 11:21
  It's certainly dead.
• 11:22
  Yeah, that's really the message I'm trying to get across is we need to live our life
• 11:27
  and just do the things and not be afraid.
• 11:29
  And I was talking to somebody yesterday about doing events and things for women.
• 11:34
  And she's like, you know, we were talking about people who just say they're going to
• 11:37
  do something and then don't follow through.
• 11:38
  And there's, you know, if you don't have to pay, there's not a lot of skin in the game
• 11:42
  I found.
• 11:43
  And what she was saying that, you know, a lot of people, they say they want to do it,
• 11:46
  but they're scared to walk out of their house or scared to walk in a new situation or scared
• 11:49
  to meet new people.
• 11:50
  Yeah.
• 11:51
  Which is so true.
• 11:52
  So, well, I guess you have amazing stories.
• 11:56
  So I love that story.
• 11:57
  So what was your, what would you call it, your trail name?
• 12:02
  My trail name.
• 12:03
  My trail name is Phoenix Rising.
• 12:06
  Okay.
• 12:07
  Love that.
• 12:08
  And everybody called me Phoenix for short.
• 12:10
  So whenever I'm on the trail, nobody knew what my real name is.
• 12:14
  They only knew me as Phoenix.
• 12:16
  Oh, wow.
• 12:17
  That's really cool.
• 12:18
  Yeah.
• 12:19
  All right.
• 12:20
  So what were the hardest parts that really took courage or once you started, you're
• 12:25
  like, okay, I'm good or were you ready to quit or?
• 12:27
  No.
• 12:28
  No, it was so hard.
• 12:30
  It was so hard.
• 12:31
  And, you know, I need to stop saying it was so hard because we need to define hard, right?
• 12:36
  And put words to it.
• 12:38
  And wait, I think that I've got a friend that says I can do hard things.
• 12:41
  Yes.
• 12:42
  Yes, for sure.
• 12:43
  But this, this made an Ironman look like a walk in the park.
• 12:47
  Oh, wow.
• 12:48
  And the, I, the, I'll just give a couple of stats.
• 12:52
  Um, total, there's 550,000 feet of elevation gain, which is the equivalent of climbing
• 12:59
  Mount Everest 18 times.
• 13:01
  Oh my goodness.
• 13:03
  And the trail, the train is best described as the longest obstacle course in the world.
• 13:11
  So if you're not dealing with mosquitoes, you're dealing with heat and then all of the
• 13:18
  heat rash and the, um, your heat crystals, the salt crystals burrow into your skin and
• 13:27
  create a lot of swelling, especially on your back where your backpack is.
• 13:30
  Um, if it's not that, then it's mud and rain.
• 13:34
  In fact, there was over 60% of the days were rainy and even those non rain days were wet
• 13:40
  and soggy and mucky.
• 13:43
  And there were, I'm not even exaggerating states miles and miles and miles of nothing
• 13:50
  but mud.
• 13:51
  And if you can think about what that is, it's basically paid vegetation.
• 13:56
  So if you take a bag of spinach that's rotten and then hail, that's what I stopped like.
• 14:02
  Oh, that's the mud.
• 14:04
  And so I'm slipping and sliding in that mud.
• 14:06
  And literally there was one day where I was just trying, I mean, I slipped three times
• 14:12
  in quick succession.
• 14:13
  I just could not go in a straight line.
• 14:16
  And I took my, my stick pole, am I allowed to cuss?
• 14:20
  Sure.
• 14:21
  I was fine.
• 14:22
  I was in my pole and I'm sitting in this mud and I'm literally dripped all over because
• 14:26
  this is the third time I fell that day.
• 14:29
  And I took my stick and I go, you fucking beat you.
• 14:33
  I screamed just because it was, it was, it just could not walk in a straight line.
• 14:42
  It was so hard.
• 14:44
  And then if that's not finished, then you have technical climbing.
• 14:49
  So literally you're climbing up rock faces and I've never climbed before and I've got
• 14:53
  this big pack and my balance is off.
• 14:56
  You did like practice or train or you just did it.
• 15:00
  You know what, all what I was doing sounds like something silly or I'm gonna say stupid
• 15:05
  that I would do.
• 15:06
  Let's just do it.
• 15:09
  The success rate is only 20%, 20, 25% depending on who you talk to.
• 15:17
  Wow.
• 15:18
  I would not be surprised if it's less than 20% this year because twice we had states
• 15:23
  of emergency, we had the fires, the Canadian fires.
• 15:27
  First thing.
• 15:28
  Yeah, that really caused me an adverse atubation, which required me to get some medical attention.
• 15:35
  ASAP, I was, I couldn't even say the words, I can't breathe.
• 15:38
  Oh, wow.
• 15:39
  That was too hard for me.
• 15:42
  And there was a hurricane, two days after the hurricane, there was another flood that
• 15:49
  came, it was two days of bolting rain.
• 15:52
  So when I went through the 100 mile wilderness, which is right before you reach Katahata in
• 15:57
  Maine, really rugged area, the river crossings were up to your waist and it was so strong.
• 16:04
  We did have one guy who died, we had another guy who got trapped under the water and had
• 16:08
  to get popped out of a stick.
• 16:11
  So they did have some workarounds, I took the workarounds, but that added like 15 miles
• 16:16
  to the trail.
• 16:18
  So it was just dangerous at every turn.
• 16:21
  But in that process, you know, you type 12 hours a day, you have to collect your water,
• 16:32
  you have to filter your water, you have to certify and boil your water before you can
• 16:39
  drink anything.
• 16:40
  So you do all of those things and you just wake up and you do it again.
• 16:45
  You are exhausted and you are at your core.
• 16:49
  And what I found in all of that, besides we can do hard things, but it stripped you away
• 16:56
  of all of the things, right?
• 16:58
  We surround ourselves with pink and fluffy and crystal like I'm doing here.
• 17:02
  You know, you surround yourself with I drive a fancy car, that makes me cool, you know,
• 17:06
  before you have these friends or you had this makeup to hide, you know, the wrinkles, you
• 17:12
  know, all the things.
• 17:13
  I was raw.
• 17:15
  I was vulnerable.
• 17:16
  I was at my, my most vulnerable moments.
• 17:21
  And what I found was I'm enough.
• 17:24
  I'm enough as I am.
• 17:26
  I can do this.
• 17:28
  I will do this.
• 17:30
  And so I emerge with this kind of sense of power that's inside of me of knowing that I
• 17:35
  don't need all the things.
• 17:37
  I'm unstoppable as I am without all the props.
• 17:42
  So that was,
• 17:43
  You were pretty unstoppable before.
• 17:45
  All your Ironman and success and stuff in your business.
• 17:50
  Yeah.
• 17:51
  Yeah.
• 17:52
  Well, I've always had that, you know, kind of innate drive to do tough things, but this,
• 17:59
  this doesn't lie to candle to anything because it's such a, such a paradox to who I am,
• 18:05
  right?
• 18:06
  Yeah.
• 18:07
  You know, even doing an Ironman, you know, at the end of the day, you go back home to
• 18:10
  a shower and fresh clothes and a bed, you know, when you're done.
• 18:16
  Yeah.
• 18:17
  Here you go to bed with those wet, soggy, muddy clothes that smells like decayed spinach
• 18:25
  and you wear those clothes day in and day out.
• 18:28
  I was going to say, are there, there stops places that you.
• 18:33
  Yeah, but there's places to stop.
• 18:36
  There's places to do hostels, do laundry, people there.
• 18:39
  Yeah.
• 18:40
  Yeah.
• 18:41
  About every five days or so on average depends on where you are.
• 18:45
  So at the beginning and at the end, you're more out wilderness and it's more rugged and
• 18:51
  there might be, you know, five to seven days before getting to a town and a hostel that
• 18:57
  will take you in and do laundry and you have a bed to sleep in.
• 19:00
  Right.
• 19:01
  So the middle states from Virginia to about New York, it's a lot more populated.
• 19:07
  And so if you want to, you can go into town every day.
• 19:10
  Not everybody does that.
• 19:11
  So you have a lot more choices in those times.
• 19:13
  So did you have people come and hike with you that you knew and join you?
• 19:18
  Yeah.
• 19:19
  Yeah.
• 19:20
  Yeah, that was really cool.
• 19:21
  So I blogged and I just kind of like the Piper, the further along I went, the more people
• 19:28
  I accumulated, which was really fun.
• 19:31
  So I'm sorry.
• 19:32
  I said, that's fun that people are joining you.
• 19:35
  Yeah.
• 19:36
  And like my old professor from business school, he came out and I had another friend who actually
• 19:43
  he's a friend now.
• 19:44
  I actually never met him, but he's in the industry.
• 19:46
  He's a medical device.
• 19:47
  He's got like 16 patents in his name.
• 19:49
  He's completely obsessed with the story and he came out on trail and gave me some new
• 19:54
  shoes.
• 19:55
  Wow.
• 19:56
  And then I went to lunch, that was really special and then there's like random strangers
• 20:01
  who would also come out and they would set up hamburgers.
• 20:06
  They would grill hamburgers for you.
• 20:09
  They would take your trash that you've been accumulating.
• 20:11
  You have to hike out your trash.
• 20:14
  They would give you a chair to sit in.
• 20:17
  That was glorious, a chair.
• 20:20
  And then they would, various snacks or whatever.
• 20:24
  And that was called trail magic and you get a lot of trail magic, but he's random people
• 20:29
  for random acts of kindness.
• 20:30
  Yeah.
• 20:31
  It was really cool.
• 20:32
  Oh, that's really cool.
• 20:33
  You still have a motivator.
• 20:34
  You want to do it.
• 20:35
  So fun.
• 20:36
  Did you hike?
• 20:37
  You didn't say it was fun.
• 20:38
  Do you hike with people the whole time or are there parts where you're by yourself?
• 20:47
  So you're with a bubble.
• 20:50
  So I was by myself, but I was never alone.
• 20:55
  So you could sit at a shelter, which is a three-sided structure to help you get out of
• 21:00
  the rain.
• 21:01
  And those are about every eight miles or so.
• 21:04
  And so you could sit in one of those shelters and sit there for an hour and you'll have
• 21:08
  maybe three people who will pass you.
• 21:10
  Two of them you might already know and it will be this long lost reunion.
• 21:15
  And then one person you just met that day.
• 21:17
  So you end up, if you've ever run a race or a marathon or something, you know, it's always
• 21:24
  crowded at the beginning, but then towards the end, you end up kind of leapfrogging
• 21:28
  with the same people who are your pace.
• 21:31
  And that's about what it's like.
• 21:33
  Yeah.
• 21:34
  Were there people that go the other direction or does everybody go north?
• 21:37
  About 80% of the trail goes from south to north and then the rest of them goes from
• 21:42
  north to south, they have to start around July because of the snow and the rain and
• 21:48
  all that.
• 21:49
  And then other people do flip-flops.
• 21:53
  So they'll do kind of sections of the trail and flip around to get theirs done.
• 21:59
  But significant majority goes from south to north.
• 22:03
  To hike the whole trail, is it you do it all in one time or do some people do a little
• 22:08
  bit here and a little bit there?
• 22:10
  Also what your goal is to be called a through hiker and to be recognized by ATC, which is
• 22:16
  the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, you need to do all 2,200 miles within the same calendar
• 22:25
  year.
• 22:26
  So most people don't have luxury of an entire year to do this.
• 22:30
  So they might split it up a little bit and have some more rest.
• 22:34
  Other people, they are not interested in the title through hiker.
• 22:39
  And they just do a weekend and 3 weeks at a time and it will take them 20 years to do
• 22:45
  the whole trail.
• 22:47
  And then other people not even interested in doing the whole trail, they'll just do section
• 22:51
  hikers and they'll do a sections at a time.
• 22:55
  So we're all mixed together.
• 22:56
  Yeah.
• 22:57
  So how many people did it like you, start to finish?
• 22:59
  About, I think the number is 3,000 each year.
• 23:03
  Wow.
• 23:04
  Why?
• 23:05
  Maybe 20% or so, maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less, actually finish.
• 23:10
  Wow.
• 23:11
  So many cool, I'm sure you have so many lessons and stories and.
• 23:16
  Yes, yes, I've been doing a lot of talks, which is really fun.
• 23:21
  So I do give a talk about setting big audacious goals and sticking with it and all that other
• 23:26
  stuff.
• 23:27
  So I've been quick to my alma mater and a couple of universities and whatnot.
• 23:31
  So it's really fun.
• 23:32
  I'm really happy to, if anybody's listening, that he's looking for a speaker, I love it.
• 23:36
  I can talk about it all day.
• 23:37
  I've actually thought about taking this podcast and making it into more of a membership that
• 23:42
  people can join and they get more access to whoever the speaker is.
• 23:46
  I have a couple of things to do book clubs with.
• 23:49
  I don't know.
• 23:50
  We'll talk about that.
• 23:51
  These other fun ideas.
• 23:53
  Yeah.
• 23:54
  Yeah.
• 23:55
  So did you go back to work?
• 23:58
  Well, it was a piece of cake.
• 24:01
  With the company, my division was sold off.
• 24:05
  And so, and honestly, it's time for a new chapter.
• 24:10
  And so I am interested.
• 24:11
  So I'm just now starting my interview process.
• 24:13
  I took a month off.
• 24:14
  So the month of October, I just really slept.
• 24:17
  I mean, consistently slept and recovered.
• 24:20
  My knees still are really jacked up and all my tendons are messed up.
• 24:27
  And so November is when I really have just started the networking and looking for a job.
• 24:31
  So it'll be a while.
• 24:32
  Looking for something totally different.
• 24:34
  No, I'm going to stay in the same industry by a pharmaceutical and because I'm looking
• 24:40
  for a leadership position, those are those are a little bit harder to come by.
• 24:45
  So the right moment will show up when it's ready.
• 24:48
  You never know who might listen to podcasts.
• 24:51
  Who knows?
• 24:52
  Yeah.
• 24:53
  So what was the biggest thing you missed about the luxuries of home?
• 25:00
  Flumming.
• 25:01
  Flumming.
• 25:02
  Yeah.
• 25:03
  Yeah.
• 25:04
  There's one blog that I wrote right about and that's Pooping in the Woods.
• 25:11
  It is a whole other experience.
• 25:14
  Like normally our business, what I call it, normally we just don't even think about it,
• 25:19
  right?
• 25:20
  Right.
• 25:21
  But you have to move about your business.
• 25:23
  Out in wilderness.
• 25:25
  It is kind of take a hole.
• 25:28
  You have to make sure you're not going to fall down into that hole.
• 25:30
  You got to hold onto a tree.
• 25:32
  Hopefully you're not, you know, you're on this big slant and, you know, God help you
• 25:38
  if there's snakes and prism.
• 25:40
  And bears and it's like just to do the one thing that we all have to do.
• 25:46
  It's much more complicated.
• 25:47
  Oh wow.
• 25:48
  Did you see bears and snakes?
• 25:50
  20.
• 25:51
  Yeah.
• 25:52
  20 bears.
• 25:53
  One of them, most of them, they're very, there's nothing to be afraid of.
• 25:58
  And but there was one that was a little bit more curious and hung around more than that
• 26:04
  I would like him to.
• 26:05
  So we tried to scoot him off and he was just too hungry and too curious to know what was
• 26:10
  going on.
• 26:11
  Snakes.
• 26:12
  Oh my gosh.
• 26:13
  Let's just say I'm not afraid of snakes before I was afraid of snakes, but now I guess
• 26:17
  through repeat exposure, I am no longer afraid of snakes.
• 26:20
  There's tons of them.
• 26:21
  Rattlers, black snakes, red snakes, spiders and everything in between.
• 26:26
  All the bugs.
• 26:27
  Yeah.
• 26:28
  So what's your next adventure?
• 26:33
  You know, I don't know.
• 26:35
  I don't know.
• 26:36
  So I think my first goal is to get a new job and to, you know, got to replace the coffers,
• 26:44
  you know, living a year without income and really without health insurance to speak of.
• 26:50
  That's a consideration.
• 26:52
  So I've got to be responsible again.
• 26:54
  But you know, who knows, like I'm volunteering out on the trail.
• 26:58
  I just got certified as a hike leader by the Potomac Appalachian Trail.
• 27:02
  I plan to volunteer and do some trail maintenance.
• 27:06
  I want to go out there and do some trail magic and give a bunch of happiness and love to
• 27:11
  random strangers.
• 27:12
  I think that's, I can't wait to do that.
• 27:15
  And then I started, you know, now that I know that I can walk like a chimp.
• 27:20
  I'm starting to race walk, which is a whole other thing.
• 27:25
  So I, I, I'm just, my goal is to race walk a marathon.
• 27:30
  So that's, so it's not running anymore, but by golly, I can walk the thing.
• 27:36
  I can walk, but I'm not going to race walk, but I'll walk around Lake Ann with you anytime.
• 27:41
  I will do that anytime.
• 27:44
  In fact, we're doing a turkey trot for Thanksgiving.
• 27:48
  We do walking around Lake Ann, which for those person that aren't local, it's a whole mile
• 27:53
  and a half around.
• 27:54
  And we're so strenuous that we literally, at the first time I did it, I said it was
• 27:58
  a 10K and my brother's like, it is not a 10K.
• 28:01
  Well my last name is Kane.
• 28:02
  I'm like, there are at least 10 of us there.
• 28:04
  But we walk around half the lake and you know, when you have your water stop, we have mimosas
• 28:11
  stop.
• 28:12
  So we have to walk around the lake for mimosas.
• 28:14
  Cause you know,
• 28:15
  We're going to get along this fine.
• 28:20
  Yes, exactly.
• 28:21
  So how I always ask people, how would you empower somebody else to do the courageous thing
• 28:27
  to say why not today?
• 28:28
  Not necessarily have to do an Ironman or a Appalachian trail hunt, but how would you
• 28:34
  refer somebody else?
• 28:35
  This is a little bit extreme and I don't think the message is to do this.
• 28:40
  But I think, you know, we, we need to go back to our core.
• 28:44
  We need to remember who we are and the things that we love and dare to be that person.
• 28:49
  If it's, you've always wanted to be an artist and really good when you were a kid, you know,
• 28:55
  drawing and it took you away and you lost time, do that, you know, or if you like to
• 29:00
  cook, you know, take some cooking classes, but don't be afraid to live and it just takes
• 29:06
  small steps.
• 29:07
  It doesn't have to be quit your job and do nothing for five months.
• 29:10
  You know, it's, you know, you can just do it spread into your existing day, but give
• 29:16
  back to yourself and remember that core person.
• 29:19
  And when you give back to yourself and you remember who you are, then you're just so
• 29:25
  much better at giving to others because you have that full tank.
• 29:28
  So great.
• 29:29
  And that's one of the reasons I do this is really to encourage people and it doesn't
• 29:34
  have to be the big, it could be the little like, you know, some days it's just getting
• 29:38
  out of bed.
• 29:39
  And what are the things you enjoy and you want to do?
• 29:41
  And yeah, we got to live our life and not be so tied down.
• 29:46
  I did interview somebody off to go back and listen to the episode with Charlene Willis
• 29:50
  and she wrote a book about, I think it's called I am enough, which tied into what you're
• 29:53
  talking about, but she went to the ranks, the high ranks of corporate America and got
• 29:58
  cancer twice and finally is like done.
• 30:02
  Like I need to live my life.
• 30:04
  And you know, we were talking about the whole health insurance thing when I quit my job,
• 30:07
  people like, what are you going to do about insurance?
• 30:09
  I'm like, I'm going to pay for it.
• 30:10
  She's like, I had amazing insurance and my job that paid me, they gave me the main amazing
• 30:15
  insurance made me sick with all the stress.
• 30:18
  So you know, there's definitely trade off.
• 30:20
  So yeah, you got to live your life.
• 30:22
  So I love stories and can't wait to read some of your blogs and follow.
• 30:26
  So I always try to connect back to my dad.
• 30:30
  And I think, you know, he had definitely a similar mentality.
• 30:35
  Just do it.
• 30:36
  Figure it out.
• 30:37
  Just take the leap and he did some crazy things in his life.
• 30:42
  And he was still active.
• 30:43
  He had had strokes and he still did things like went skiing and body surfing and couldn't
• 30:49
  use half his body because of the stroke and he only had one eye most of his life, but
• 30:54
  he still did all the things and lived his life.
• 30:58
  And you know, I think also the connection you live in Reston and I mentioned you, we
• 31:02
  have mutual friends who you know from Reston Runners, which was a good friend of my dad's.
• 31:08
  So it's a small world.
• 31:10
  So I'm going to share all the ways to get in touch with Chris.
• 31:15
  Is there any particular way that you like people to find you?
• 31:18
  I'll just cut it in your blog details and we'll share that.
• 31:23
  So you know, if you like the podcast, share it with somebody like it, pass it on, review
• 31:30
  it.
• 31:31
  I'm really trying to grow the brand.
• 31:32
  So I do have for those watching or listening, I have why not today T-shirts and for people
• 31:37
  to say why not today?
• 31:40
  And why not?
• 31:41
  Why not today cups and all the fun things to really encourage people just to be brave.
• 31:48
  So thank you Chris for your story.
• 31:50
  I'm excited to give you to know you better and thanks for everybody that listened.
• 31:54
  And remember, just say why not today?
• 31:57
  You never know.
• 31:59
  That's great.