Win Today

#170 | Breaking Ribbons: Why I Am Running A 150 Mile Ultramarathon

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Breaking Ribbons Fundraiser

Throughout this episode, we honor the memory of those we've lost, while supporting families currently battling cancer, envisioning a hopeful future where cancer is easily treatable.

Our adventure takes us to the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, South Carolina, where I undertook a grueling 100-mile run to rally community support and raise over $5,500 for affected families. The challenge, marked by steep inclines and demanding conditions, was made possible by the unwavering support of friends, family, and local residents. This collective effort underscored the power of community and compassion, illustrating how physical endurance can have a meaningful impact on the lives of those in need.

Reflecting on the experience, we delve into the concept of being "distance curious," where each challenge sparked a desire for even greater feats. As I prepare for a 150-mile run on the same iconic bridge, the episode highlights how embracing challenges and committing to goals can inspire personal growth and societal change. Together, let's push our limits, inspire one another, and create a ripple effect of hope and support that extends far beyond our personal achievements.

Thank you for tuning in! If you feel led, please subscribe & share the show to others who you believe would benefit from it.
Keep in touch below!

Speaker 1:

So I was good from 2015 to 2017. In March when the cancer returned Another major surgery and three years straight of chemo. The cancer wasn't gone but under control at that time and we decided to stop chemo because of the damage it was doing to me Many hospital stays and small surgeries between 2017 to 2020. It returned again in 2021 fall. I had three surgeries and ended up four months on a wound vac. Then I made it to December of 2022 when it came back worse than ever. Now I am stage four. I've been back on chemo since March and I did 10-day radiation through October through November of 2023. I truly think radiation was the hardest to function through. So scary. It was very hard, scary and a sad year, but I kept trying to fight and stay positive.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Win Today podcast, a weekly tool intentionally crafted to help people enhance performance, feel inspired and conquer life. Our commitment is that you will learn from some of the most disciplined, heartwarming and inspiring people on the globe, in addition to receiving a piece of a winning playbook from myself or a renowned expert in their field. My name is Ryan Cass and I'm your host, and it is my purpose in this world to inspire people, to establish a foundation for sustained success by developing systems that will enable you to accomplish your goals, break systemic trends of adversity and chart a desirable course for life. Thank you so much for tuning in. Please help us achieve our vision of becoming one of the top podcasts in the world by subscribing to the show, sharing it with somebody who you believe will benefit from it and leaving a review. Let's connect with our guest. That's a note from Miss Pam, who we helped last year in 2023, as part of the Breaking Ribbons 100 mile fundraiser run, and in a couple of short weeks we'll be doing it again the Breaking Ribbons 2024 150 mile fundraiser run. 2024, 150 mile fundraiser run. I'm going to tell you about Breaking Ribbons, the genesis of it, why we are doing this 150 mile run and really what it's all about.

Speaker 1:

That note from Pam. Just an excerpt from the note from Pam Miss Pam, just saying those words and looking at it, this is something that I keep on my refrigerator. It hurts. It hurts knowing that there's people out there and even with these efforts, including this one, including what this 150 miles is going to generate for multiple families that have a loved one battling some form of cancer, these efforts are. They're helpful for a few, and it's my wish that it could be helpful for the many.

Speaker 1:

This is one thing in this world that I wish that we could absolutely eradicate, because it doesn't serve any good purpose. If there is anything, it does bring forth a lot of amazing stories of resiliency. It inspires resiliency, it inspires fight. It inspires resiliency, it inspires fight. It inspires people to do good. It inspires people to, I believe, always seek positivity, because even in this note, if I read the entire thing which I won't, but if I read the entire thing there's glimmers of positivity in how Miss Pam talks about her family, and you can clearly tell that, even though in the midst of sending that note to me that she was in pain, she had a lot of things that she smiled about and allowed herself to smile about despite being in so much pain, and I wish that there was a better way that we could showcase our warriors in this world than by seeing these people fighting through such a terrible disease. There's no other way to put it. I'm so grateful that last year we were able to help multiple families and this year that's going to be the case again. So what is Breaking Ribbons?

Speaker 1:

Breaking Ribbons was formally named last year, in 2023, when I knew I wanted to put something behind all of this running that I've been doing over the years. Most of you know that I love competition running, particularly at the marathon and ultra marathon distances, and several years ago, I had this thought that all this running I do, I want it to be for something that's bigger than me. And how can I do that that's bigger than me? And how can I do that? And over the years, unfortunately, I've lost a few people in life to various forms of cancer. And more specifically, those three people are my grandmother, anita Cass, one of my best friends, mom Julia Tomasovich, and one of our family friends from home in Fort Mill, south Carolina, noah Mayberry. Each of them had battles with breast cancer, ovarian cancer and Ewing sarcoma. So in 2018, I decided I was going to start running with this singlet that had a ribbon for each of them pink, teal and yellow and I had a stay strong that went across and I had their names on my back and I figured that every race, I would run in their memory and and then make donations to their causes with whatever race fees I had acquired, and did that for several years Right across the chest it said stay strong, and that was really neat. And when I was thinking about my 2023 goals so late 2022, thinking how can I go bigger with this and do something greater that will generate more impact in their honor but and also inspire people and continue on this trend of endurance.

Speaker 1:

So, thinking through life, you know and I mentioned in those first few minutes in the intro that was going just straight from the heart In a perfect world, in an ideal world, we don't have these ribbons because we have cures for each of them. I believe that all of us dream of a day when catching rather, when all of us dream of a day when having cancer is like having a cold and it's easily treatable and you go on about your day. We all would love to see that happen someday and I believe that we'll get closer and closer to that. We're still likely ways away, but it's inspiring to see that we're continuing to identify more and more cures for these various forms of cancer. But in a perfect world, we don't have these ribbons. Now, in the running world, when someone wins a race, you'll see that they run across the finish line and they break tape, or some people will say oh, they broke the ribbon. So that's how breaking ribbons evolved, because in this perfect or ideal world we don't have these ribbons. And when you win a race, when you finish a race, you break tape, you break a ribbon. So the two things here are hey, breaking ribbons. Ideally, these ribbons go away. We're a ways away from that, but that is the genesis behind breaking ribbons.

Speaker 1:

And then the second thought was okay, we've got this cool name, I'm going to do something with it. What's something really hard that we can do to honor these three lives, create more awareness to ending cancer and these? And create more awareness, or rather inspire people to get involved in something, whether it's ending cancer, whether it's ending childhood abuse, something just. I believe everybody should have something that drives them at the heart level, something that that they're passionate about. And by being passionate about something, you can inspire somebody or a group of people or a community or the world to also become passionate about something. So we've got the name, we're going to do something challenging that's going to inspire people and create awareness.

Speaker 1:

What's the hardest thing that we can do here in Charleston, south Carolina? It's very flat. We have the. We're surrounded by the beach. A lot of people come here to vacation. It's beautiful, we have generally warm weather throughout the year and for runners we don't really have many hills. But we do have this beautiful bridge that connects downtown Charleston, the peninsula, to Mount Pleasant, which is our neighboring neighborhood, where a couple of our best beaches are, in my opinion Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms. There's this massive bridge that one way is two and a half miles long. On the paved portion of it, the walking portion, running portion, biking portion of it two and a half miles from downtown to Mount Pleasant or Mount Pleasant to downtown. So a typical run would be for people to go run the bridge out and back. So five miles.

Speaker 1:

And on that five mile run, if you're going up the Mount Pleasant side, you're going to be going against a 6% grade, 6% incline for about one mile and then you're going to flatten out and kind of just cruise gently downtown for about a mile and a half. And then on the flip side, when you're returning from the downtown side over to Mount Pleasant, you're going to have a general cruising incline for about a mile and a half and then you're going to have a steep downhill for one mile. So over those five miles you're going to get a good bit of incline, good bit of decline. It's going to light your legs up and us runners, we use this bridge to do our hill repeats, to do our incline training, everything. Because one route back and forth you're going to gain overall net gain about about four to five hundred feet, which that's a big deal for us living in very flat land. So decided, all right, I'm going to do 100 miles on the Ravenel Bridge, 20 laps back and forth.

Speaker 1:

This is the Breaking Ribbons fundraiser on October 21st 2023. And we're going to inspire people. We're going to raise, hopefully, $2,000 and find three families to support on this endeavor and we raised just over $5,500. And much appreciated. If you're one of the folks listening that has contributed to that, really appreciate it. $5,500 would have never guessed that that was the case or that would have been the case. The community really showed up and we impacted three families, four families actually. So there was one in New York that reached out to the hospital that my grandmother, anita, was staying at and explained the situation, what we're doing, and I would really love to help somebody that is in the same hospital that she was in going through the same thing that she was in during this difficult time. And the reason why I chose families is because I reached out to my family, to the Tomasovich family, to the Mayberry family, and asked them, or told them, what I was doing, and then asked them you know, because I'm raising funds in honor of their family members would they rather the funds go towards research or directly to families? And they all requested that it goes directly to families. So that's why we did that. So one family in New York, at the same hospital that Anita was at. One family in Fort Mill when I reached out to the Nothing Pink nonprofit, shared with them what I was doing. They found a family and then Noah Mayberry's family directed me to a nonprofit here in Charleston, camp Happy Days, where they identified two families that would be supported. So all of the funds were dispersed $5,500 out to those families and it was one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences of my life.

Speaker 1:

A little bit about the run October 21st 2023 started at about 4 am. At about 4 am, total running time took just over 18 hours. Total time was about 22 hours because at every lap I would stop, rehydrate, shake out my legs, talk to people. It wasn't like a normal race where you get back and you want to get your stuff, your fuel, as quick as you can and go. This was very much a community effort. Every lap I had almost every single lap throughout these 22 hours. I had at least one person with me, had tons of support from my friends at the Citadel, had some family members come out, had just throughout the entire day I believe I ran maybe 25 or 30 miles unsupported and they were scattered throughout the day, primarily in the middle of the day. Over 7,800 feet of elevation gain burned 10,543 calories. According to my Coros watch. I definitely didn't consume anywhere near that throughout the course of the day and you know the highs were having my friends out there, my mom, my girlfriend was out there lots of support. That definitely made the hard laps not as hard until later in the night. The hard laps not as hard until later in the night.

Speaker 1:

The difficult parts were, oh and another high at the base of the Mount Pleasant side of the bridge, because a lot of people start on that side. I put a whiteboard and wrote on there hey, if you see this guy with this breaking ribbon shirt on, I put a little cut out of the logo that was on the singlets that I was wearing. I had three that I was changing out throughout the day. If you see a guy wearing this singlet, give a high five or show some support. I could really use it. I'm running 100 miles and every time I'd come back I would come put a tally on what lap I was on. Every time I'd come back I would. I would come put a tally on what lap I was on. And throughout the day, you know, there'd be people as I'm running, you know giving me high fives like, oh, you're the, you're the fundraiser guy and it was. It was awesome, man, and just having those people and some folks donated as from there and just really provided a lot of amazing support Definitely wouldn't have been able to do it without all of them coming throughout the day.

Speaker 1:

And the difficult moments the mid-afternoon miles where the sun's kind of beaten down, it's 3 pm through, probably 5.30. Probably 530. That was also most of the miles where I didn't have folks and those were. Those were hard, those I didn't have my headphones in, nothing. But those were the ones where you're kind of questioning like why the heck am I doing this? And kept rolling, well, kept, you know, kept telling myself things. And then the most difficult stretch was actually the last lap. Not surprising, but the last lap. What made it more difficult was silly me. You know, one of my best friends had just come by to visit and I figured, okay, I'm going to sit down for a little bit and not just sit not sit down in a chair, which would have been the smart thing to do, I'm going to just sit down on the concrete and be by myself for a few minutes and getting back up. That completely shifted the game. That allowed all of the pain to really sink in and completely changed my gait, my running form. It felt like I was really lugging a ton of bricks up up. Into that point I'd been managing jogging the entire time, no walk breaks during the laps and holding about 10-ish, 11-ish minute miles, not wanting to go too fast but staying really controlled there After sitting down and getting ready to start lap 20 and mile 95 to 100, that changed everything.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

And I'm now fighting to hold even a 13 and a half to 14 minute mile. And my stubborn self, I said I'm not going to walk, I'm not going to walk any of these laps, I'm going to jog the whole time, even if at this point it really just means I'm shuffling. So, shuffled, shuffled, 13 and 14 minute miles for the last five and finished right around two o'clock in the morning. And at that point again finishing, getting over the finish line was quite surreal because in the moment I'm thinking, all right, yeah, thank God, now I can be done, go home, go to sleep.

Speaker 1:

But just stepping back and realizing what we did, it wasn't a me thing, it was what we did, because without those folks, without people coming in throughout the day, those miles become a thousand times harder. Without people graciously offering support and supporting the fundraiser, we don't raise nearly as much that goes directly to these families. Without people sharing what's going on, we don't create the awareness that could inspire countless people to do something that aligns to their hearts and minds. It was by far one of the most amazing experiences and when I look back on my running adventures someday even having the opportunity to compete in the Boston Marathon and some of these bigger races and run some pretty decent times this really sits up at the top of the list because it's a reminder that this whole running adventure and the things that you see from me, it is so much bigger than me.

Speaker 1:

And the intent isn't with sharing the things I do, with running and endurance, it's never to say, hey, look at all these cool running and all these miles and look at my mindset. It's a demonstration. The intent is that it's a demonstration to show others what is possible and what each of us have inside of us. We have so much. We have so much that we can give this world. We have so much that we're capable of when we push past the voices. We have so much to offer and we already have all of the tools available, all of the things you need. I promise you already have them and by doing this, it's my intent that, hopefully, this inspires at least one person, at least one person to realize that and it doesn't have to be an endurance event. This just so happens to be my medium. Now, on October 26th, I decided, or rather on October 26th, I am going to be doing this same adventure again. I am going to be doing this same adventure again, only this time we're going to run 10 more laps on the Ravenel Bridge, so 150 miles Every year.

Speaker 1:

When I'm planning out my goals, I ask myself a question just what is something extremely challenging that I can do? What is something extremely challenging that I can do Specifically in the physical realm? Because physical activities, physical challenges, have benefits that transcend far beyond physical benefits. Physical challenges have benefits that transcend far beyond just physical benefits. They enhance your mind, they enhance your mentality, they enhance your mental health, your emotional health, your spiritual health, everything. So I love going to the drawing board. I love going to the drawing board. How can I really, really push myself? And I landed on. Well, let's do 150 miles on the bridge. Never ran more than 100.

Speaker 1:

Once you start running these distances, you start to become we'll call it a distance curious, so even people getting started on their running journeys. It's I love seeing this and I love helping people push when they say you know, oh, I could never run a marathon. Well, if you say that, yeah, you're right, you can't, but I promise you you can Start with a 5K, 3.1 miles. Once you do that, you will likely become distance curious. Miles Once you do that, you will likely become distance curious. Oh well, if my body can run three miles, well, why don't we do a 10K? Because now, why don't we see if we can run six? And then you become distance curious again. Well, if I can do a 10K, I could probably do a half marathon, and then so on and so on. And I remember the first ultra marathon I did. After you run an ultra marathon, usually you'll probably start at the 50K distance, so 31 miles.

Speaker 1:

The hundred number comes into into the picture very, very quickly, at least I believe. I believe it does for most, because if you're already crazy enough to jump into the ultra world and go for the 50k, I believe it's fair that it won't take long until you become curious. Okay, what's 100 miles like? And I remember thinking about that early on, did that for the first time in 2022. Probably at the time said things like never again, this is crazy, I'm absolutely not going to do anything more than this. And did 100 on the bridge.

Speaker 1:

And then I'm thinking, all right, well, what's 150 like? And even in the very back of my mind. I'm really starting to think about okay, in 2025, what am I going to do, even though I haven't done this thing yet? Maybe I'll run across the state of South Carolina and raise even more money, and that'll be about 250 miles. And then, because I've got a friend that ran across the USA, I'm thinking, hmm, I think I want to do that too. I don't know when, but the fact that I'm even speaking it, that's probably going to be in the deck of cards someday. So 150, really how that was landed on was by being distance curious and asking that question just how can I push myself to another level? Now I will tell you that I'm very scared right now about this 150. Because when you're training for these distances, it's not like you go out and run 120 mile training run, or when you're getting ready for 100 and like, okay, I'm going to go do a 90 real quick and then I'll be ready for the 100.

Speaker 1:

Last year I looked back at all my data and I remember I just did a lot of 10, 15 and some 20 mile laps on the bridge, so got very acquainted and I've been doing that same thing again. I understand that it's going to get extremely challenging. It's going to look a little different than last year. Might be reconsidering the lap strategy with. Maybe it doesn't make sense to attempt to jog every single one up till 30. I don't know yet.

Speaker 1:

What I'm thinking is get to 100, ideally in 20-ish hours, and then from there start mixing in some run-walk and do as many run-walk laps through the night before the sun comes up. So in the most ideal world, I'll start around three o'clock in the morning on October 26th and by midnight on the 27th I'll be around 100. And then sun won't be up until about seven, and it would be really amazing to already be at about 125 to 130 by that time and then only have four laps to go. Now. That's the most perfect scenario ever. I don't know exactly what it's going to look like, but we're doing it again.

Speaker 1:

150 miles, and here's something that I've really been thinking about. Here's a little mental reframe. Here's a little mental reframe that has been on my mind and heart lately. So October 26th and 27th, and maybe, maybe, who knows, maybe it even needs to go into the 28th, but two days, two days out of 365, that equates to 0.55% of the entire year. Two days out of 365 equals to 0.55% of the entire year, meaning that one day would equate to roughly 0.25% of the entire year, to roughly 0.25% of the entire year.

Speaker 1:

So can I give up 0.55% of this year to ensure that there are multiple families that can benefit from this fundraiser? Am I willing to go through a really difficult time period for 0.55% of the year that can create an amazing impact for somebody's 20 to 30 to 40% of their life. Think about this too. I think about this a lot with races. Even so, one day, 0.25% of the year, that can generate a lasting impact for the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years of your life. Think about the return on that.

Speaker 1:

0.25% one day, or, in this case, 0.5% of a year, is going to and, god willing, I'm 31 years old. Let's just say I'm going to be 100. So I've lived 31% of my life. This is something that will create lasting impact for the next 70% of my life, because once this is complete, you know who knows again, like where this goes, who gets a hold of it, how many people this inspires, but, more importantly, these lives, what impact it creates for these families. It's also going to show my body, mind and spirit another level, another thing that I'm capable of, that I don't know what I have. I don't know what is in me beyond 100 miles right now, about to find out, but there are so many times in life where we say, man, I don't want to do that thing. That's going to be really hard. Would you be willing to sacrifice less than 1% of your life to receive benefits for the next five years, ten years, to inspire a generation for 20 years, 30 years? When you break down that math, it's pretty astounding. So little of our life can create so much returns for your life and countless other lives by simply enduring the process and sticking through, sticking with it. So I look forward to spending 0.55% of my life on October 26th and 27th, god willing to create a memorable impact for families that have a loved one that are really going through it. Now here's how you can help.

Speaker 1:

Or one more thing, one more thing I mentioned that I'm scared, I'm nervous, I'm not sure what's going on. There's a lot of voices in my, in my mind right now, and every time I've had those voices come up to me, I know that that means something big is coming, that means something good is coming. Every time those voices come in, those little demons on the shoulder of doubt, like are you sure you can run 100? Are you sure you can run this marathon? Maybe this is too much. Maybe this is for other people. Is this really the right thing? Lean into that voice, go for it, do the thing. I had voices when I was thinking about starting the podcast, had voices when I was thinking about running a marathon for the first time. Those voices are there to protect you. But I believe in what my reframe here is also to forewarn you that, yeah, something, something good, something big is coming. And if that voice wasn't there, it would probably mean I'm not doing the right thing or I'm not leaning in to the right thing. So when you're feeling a little scared, I believe that by leaning in, good will come your way.

Speaker 1:

Now here's how you can help and support. On October 26th and 27th. There is a campaign right now and you can go to givebut buttercom slash breaking ribbons. It's also linked in the show notes. If you are located in Charleston, south Carolina, would love to share some miles with you. I'll be starting probably around 3am or so give or take, or so give or take, and I will be out there for a long time. So if you come run with me at 7am on Saturday, you could even plan to hey, same time tomorrow, let's do it again. I will be there at 7am on Sunday.

Speaker 1:

Right now, my A goal is not to see two sunsets. That would be nice. So I know I'm going to see at least one sunset. I'll see two sunrises, but don't see two sunsets. That would be a pretty good goal. So those are the two ways to support. Thoughts and prayers are great. If you're in Charleston and maybe running is not your thing, if you want to come out there and walk or tell some people about what's going on, you can certainly use some friends and some company. So it's my wish that this inspires you to be involved, or or stay involved, in something that is close to your heart.

Speaker 1:

And by declaring it and I had a great conversation with this gentleman, justin Prince, last week. His episode will air next week he talks about having a 3D vision, when you define, declare and are dedicated to whatever it is that you're most passionate about. So, in this case, breaking Ribbons was defined in 2023. Hey, I'm going to go and formalize this thing that I've been doing for a few years. I'm going to call it Breaking Ribbons. I'm going to go run 100 miles on October 21st 2023. And here's how you can support when you declare that to the world now. There's no backing out and it's up to you to own your word and then dedicate yourself to that.

Speaker 1:

Show up, go run the miles, go do the thing. So define, declare, dedicate 3D vision. When you're scared, have that scared feeling, lean into it. Lean into it, good will come. I appreciate you guys and it's my wish that it's inspired you to do your thing, stay involved in your thing. We need more of this in this world, whether it's running, whether it's volunteering, whether it's whether it's volunteering, whether it's breaking a generational curse in your family, something, something that connects to your heart. Go and do that thing, because that will inspire at least one person to do that thing as well. We're going to crush these 150 miles in a couple weeks and, most importantly, impact multiple families that have a loved one battling some form of cancer right now. Thank you so much for tuning in and win today. Bye.

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