Win Today
Win Today is a performance enhancing podcast filled with actionable insights and inspiration to come out on top in life. Through captivating interviews and solo episodes, a powerful tool is created and given to listeners to be able to push through any situation in life.
Hosted by Ryan Cass, he delivers messages that align to his purpose of helping people establish a foundation for sustained success, break trends of adversity, and chart desirable courses for life. Win Today!
Win Today
#173 | 150 Mile Ultramarathon Recap: 3 Life Lessons Learned From Running Into Uncharted Territory
What does it take to run 150 miles with nothing but sheer will and a burning passion to make a difference? Hear about the epic journey of embracing pain for personal growth, as I recount my ultramarathon experience across the iconic Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, South Carolina. This wasn’t just a test of physical endurance, but a powerful tribute to families battling cancer through Breaking Ribbons. Along the way, I faced the harsh realities of weather, relentless inclines, and the psychological warfare that comes with pushing beyond perceived boundaries, all while surrounded by a community that believed in the impossible.
Join me as I unravel the layers of challenging limits and overcoming doubt. Imagine starting a monumental run at 3:30 a.m. amidst 86-degree temperatures and no cloud cover to shield you. Each mile was a testament to determination, with every step reinforcing the belief that our limits are often self-imposed. Through the searing pain and mental battles, I discovered that the journey wasn't just about the destination, but the lessons learned along the way. Even as exhaustion loomed near mile 80, the strength found in brief moments of rest and community support illuminated the path to not just finishing but thriving.
Discover how extraordinary goals demand a powerful support system and the resilience that comes from teamwork. Reflecting on the concept of "return on inconvenience," I share insights from both my personal and professional life, emphasizing the monumental opportunities unlocked through struggle. From the unwavering support of friends and family during the ultramarathon to the inspiring story of Phil Knight’s journey with Nike, this episode is a tribute to the indomitable spirit of community and the transformative power of embracing life's challenges. As Breaking Ribbons evolves from a passion project to a nonprofit dream, I invite you to join me in this pursuit of positive change and self-discovery.
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Because on the other side of temporary pain is a better version of you. On the other side of temporary pain are families that don't even know that they're counting on me. Yet On the other side of temporary pain are people that are going to push themselves further as a result of witnessing this 150 mile journey, that are going to do something bigger than themselves as a result of me putting myself in this extremely challenging arena, in honor of those that are in an even more challenging arena that don't have a fixed ending point as to when their pain goes away. 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 would 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.
Speaker 1:The journey of a thousand miles all starts by taking one step, by taking action, by putting on your shoes, walking out the door, walking towards, running towards, moving towards whatever it is that you desire to create in this life. Miles on the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, south Carolina, last weekend to provide for families that currently have a loved one battling cancer. This is in support of my passion project. One of my passion projects Breaking Ribbons, and Breaking Ribbons is designed to support families that have a loved one that's currently battling some form of cancer. In a perfect world, we don't have these ribbons because we have cures, and when you win a race, the winner breaks tape. When you win a running race, you'll see a marathon the winner comes across and breaks a ribbon or breaks tape. When you win a running race, you'll see a marathon the winner comes across and breaks a ribbon or breaks tape. So that's how the name Breaking Ribbons came about.
Speaker 1:If you're unfamiliar with Breaking Ribbons, maybe this is your first time tuning into one of my episodes. Go back to episode number 171 and I'll walk you through the genesis of it and more of the ins and outs, but this episode is intended to go through the most recent feat in support of Breaking Ribbons, where I ran a 150-mile ultramarathon back and forth on a two-and-a-half mile stretch of bridge here in Charleston, south Carolina. I'm going to walk you through all of the lessons learned, what that experience did and what I want these type of experiences to do for others. When I talk about these things, do for others. When I talk about these things, especially as it relates to endurance, I feel that sometimes people may believe the message is all right, you need to go and run a lot of miles in order to experience the best version of yourself. That's not the case. This happens to be my preferred outlet to go and understand what I'm truly capable of, and I believe that a lot of people can understand what they're truly capable of in life by exploring endurance. But that's not the sole message here. So I'm going to walk you through. It took 43 hours, go through some of the difficult moments there, attempt to create this picture that you can relive the experience, extract a few lessons and then we're going to talk through some next steps and what you can expect from me in the future. I love to use this podcast and my social media to also put out in the world. Here's what's coming next big, scary things that will then hold me accountable to getting it done.
Speaker 1:So, 150 miles that's something I've been talking about since 2023. I started mentioning it a lot in 2024. Started mentioning it a lot in 2024. And in my book, if you say you're going to do something, then you better do it. So, 150 miles it is October 26th 2024 in Charleston, south Carolina, and I'm out on the Ravenel Bridge at 3.30 in the morning, 3.30 in the morning start time and having done this last year, where I ran 100 miles on the bridge, started at about 4.30, I wanted that extra hour to take advantage of as much time as we could before the sun came up, and it just so happened that the weather that day was not the most favorable for running 150 miles. It was 86 degrees, zero cloud cover, perfectly sunny day, perfect day to maybe get a lap or two on the bridge or go for a walk. Not the best day to be out on the bridge for an extended period of time, but it actually, I will say, because of those things, it was the best day, because it also made it that much more difficult, that much more strenuous on the body, and I believe that in the most difficult conditions that you will reap the most benefits. If you can show your body and mind that you can withstand the most challenging tests and in the most challenging environments, then the question that I ask myself is, if you can do that, what can't you do? So very warm day.
Speaker 1:I went in there with a plan to ideally be done in about 36 hours and we didn't hit that. And my B goal was to not see two sunsets. We didn't hit that. And my C goal was to simply survive and ideally not see a third calendar day. So I didn't want to see October 29th on the clock. Now, fortunately, we succeeded on the seagull. It ended up being 43 hours total, roughly 32 and a half hours running and 11,700 feet elevation gain, 19,543 calories burned, something along those lines. Now, with running watches there's always some sort of variability. Maybe it wasn't completely 19,000, but it was definitely up there when you're out that long.
Speaker 1:And the Ravenel Bridge again for context, if people aren't from Charleston, the reason why it's so special, or one of the reasons why it's so special it's a beautiful bridge. It connects downtown Charleston, which is a big peninsula, beautiful, beautiful, right along the water, connects to Mount Pleasant, south Carolina, and this bridge is suspended about 200 feet above the water. So you start at ground level and you're going up, you're ascending 200 feet both times. So when you're going from the Mount Pleasant side to downtown, you're going up a six percent incline, about 200 feet, and then you're cruising back down to ground level for about one and a half miles. And then, on the flip side, when you're coming from downtown to Mount Pleasant, you are cruising up a minor incline for a mile and a half and then you're getting shot down a 6% grade incline for the final mile. So round trip, this bridge is five miles. So round trip, this bridge is five miles.
Speaker 1:And I was doing it 30 times back and forth until the watch said 150. Why 150? Because I did 100 last year and I figure what's an extra 50 miles Now? I'm going to get into straight into the lessons now because this is very fitting for the first one. So, 150 miles.
Speaker 1:I love challenges. I love seeing what our body and minds and spirits are truly capable of. I'm grateful to be surrounded by a lot of people that are also constantly exploring their personal limits and, through this podcast, have hosted a lot of people that are champions in exploring personal limits and just defying the odds. Just defying the odds. And the more that you surround yourself with people like this, that believe these things, that think this way, you yourself will more likely become of that manner. You yourself will be more likely to explore what your limits are. You'll believe that these things are possible. There's a lot of people that you can talk to that think even running 20 miles is impossible, and no discredit to them, they might not be around people that are doing these types of things or even willing to explore what they're capable of. So, 150 miles I never believed that it was impossible, because I know so many people and have talked to so many people that have done it, have done 200 miles. 250 miles have broken the world record for running the most amount of marathons in a row with one leg. Like, the only things that are impossible, guys, are the things that we deem to be impossible. The only limits that we have are those that are self-imposed.
Speaker 1:And as we got up to the event and as I'm getting there at three.30 in the morning or about to start, and it's already 62 degrees, it's humid I can feel myself getting warm and starting to sweat right off the bat. I did start questioning the 150 number, thinking this might be a little freaking crazy. What are we thinking here? But also this this might be crazy and I freaking love it. And if you call me crazy, I say you're damn right, I'm crazy. I'm crazy freaking motivated baby.
Speaker 1:And zooming out as I'm going up and down, my feet start burning at about mile 15. I probably wasn't wearing the right shoes. I decided to wear the shoes that I wear for my tempo and speed workouts, just because they're lighter. And the year the previous year, doing a hundred miles, I went with a lighter shoe, but that wasn't cushioned as much and that really that really hurt a lot. I didn't want to go with a super heavy and cushiony shoe, just given how long I was going to be out there. So I went with a lighter shoe in the middle and figured that was the best thing I may need to revisit.
Speaker 1:That Feet start burning and I'm thinking how the heck am I going to go through this for another 135 miles and I'm thinking how the heck am I going to go through this for another 135 miles? And there's this new thought that I have in, there's this new thought that I adopted, and really the first lesson here when we're going through big things, or when you're on a big pursuit, or when you're going through something tough, remember this. It's only a fraction of a percentage of your life. Check out this math 43 hours equals, which is the amount of time I was out there. 43 hours equals 1.8 days. Okay, now let's assume that the big man upstairs allows me to be here for 100 years, so that's going to be 36,500 days. 1.8 of those days equates to 0.000049% of my entire life. If maybe we're being too generous with the years, let's say I go to be 90 years old. That equals 0.000054% of life. Now let's even say that you know what? I'm not going to have a whole lot of time here and only live a 40-year life. I'm 31 right now, about to be 32. It represents 0.00012% of life. So think about that.
Speaker 1:Most of the things that we do in this life, that are the things that we dread, are the things that we don't want to do. We don't want to go do a one-hour workout, or we don't want to go run a marathon, or we don't want to go do a one hour workout, or we don't want to go run a marathon, or we don't want to spend an hour every night working on a side business that we want to become a full time business because it's inconvenient in that moment. It doesn't even represent a percentage of your life, even if you add all those days up. Even if you add all those days up, it doesn't even represent a percentage of your life. What if I asked you, would you be willing to give up 1% of your life, 1% of your life? Would you rather, would you be willing to sacrifice 1% of your life to reap the benefits for the next 70% of your life? Let's just say you're 30 years old. Would you give somebody, or give me, or give yourself? Rather, would you give up 1% of your life, so 365 days total. Would you give up 1% of your life to experience the best 70% of your life? I don't believe that we think about that very much. What's the return on inconvenience? So we think about you.
Speaker 1:Know one thing I think about with ROI, so I just renamed it. Roi is usually referred to as return on investment. You buy a stock for $100, it goes up to $150. You made a 50% return on investment. That's awesome, and a lot of us talk about man wish we would have invested in Apple or Microsoft or Tesla when no one knew about it, or that we would have bought Bitcoin before it exploded. The ROI on that is insane. What about the ROI on your own life?
Speaker 1:So I kept thinking in the back of my mind this is 0.00005% of my life that I'm going through right now, and I know on the back end of that there are families that don't know that they're counting on me, don't know that they're counting on me. On the back end of this. Now I'm showing myself what I'm capable of and I'm going to reap the rewards from this for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years, because now I know that that distance is conquerable. We're going to either do it again or increase the distance. It's gonna give me a story to tell for the next several decades that is going to inspire at least one person to dig deeper. It's going to inspire at least one person to do something that's bigger than themselves.
Speaker 1:For a measly 0.00005% of your life, you can shift the outcome for the remaining 50%, 60%, 70% of your life. 50%, 60%, 70% of your life. If my math is correct, that's a 521 million percent return If it benefits you for the next 70% of life. Think about that and so when I think about, even when I'm going, you know, maybe we're going through these rough patches in our lives or man like really just don't want to keep pushing through this right now or this stinks.
Speaker 1:Many of you may know that I'm in the corporate world and I've been with the Boeing company for nine and a half years and it's been no secret to the world that for the last five years and it's been no secret to the world that for the last five years that Boeing has had its fair share of we'll call it opportunities. But within that, struggles and as a leader of teams managing people, for the last several years it's been very challenging. But when we zoom out on that timeline again just assuming we'll be here for about 100 years, it'll represent 5% to 6% of life has delivered so many monumental moments of growth that have helped create what you see today, what you're listening to right now, have helped create new programs being built, have helped create how I serve people and show up in the world how I serve people and show up in the world. A measly percent of life that may be deemed as an inconvenience can give you the greatest returns for the future. So think about when you're going through something difficult or maybe you're debating on whether or not you should go down this difficult route what is the return on inconvenience, the ROI. So, 43 hours, the ROI here is massive because we've raised over $7,000. Now we're going to help multiple families. A new level has been unlocked. This story will be told for several decades to come as I get the opportunity to continue sharing on this podcast, on other podcasts in the public speaking realm, on stages big stages that's another dream of mine. Stages, big stages that's another dream of mine. These are all things that you get to keep by choosing to put yourself into the arena. So consider the return on inconvenience. The inconvenience is your investment and remember that it's only a fraction of a percentage of your life. Now, what a day. One of my favorite quotes is and this is the second lesson if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Speaker 1:So, from 3.30 am on Saturday to about 10.30 pm on Sunday. That's how long I was out there, going back and forth, taking breaks as needed when I needed nutrition. I would thank God had a lot of friends that were there, making sure I was basically shoving food down my throat even when I didn't want to. When I needed to take a breather, I had a chair and people that would bring me everything that I needed when I was starting to get tired. I had my girlfriend that literally spent the night outside sleeping in her own chair, wrapped in a sleeping bag, so that when I needed to sleep for a little bit, the longest I slept was 45 minutes, but when I needed to sleep, she made sure that I didn't fall asleep for the whole night and kept me going.
Speaker 1:If it wasn't for having such a strong support system, I'm not sure if I would have made it through, or if I did, rather I would have made it through, but I guarantee you it would have taken far more than 43 hours and I definitely would have been out there into Monday feeling sorry for myself, not feeling, not not being as hydrated as I needed to be, and it would have been a really extremely tough day on top of the tough days that it already presented itself to be Over. The course of the 30 laps that I ran, I recalled I recounted 36 people, 36 people that came out and ran throughout the day. I'm so grateful for the level of support that I have, and that's one thing that I couldn't stop thinking about as I'm going back and forth on this bridge so many people came out and, whether it was to run one lap, a couple laps, multiple laps, drop off food, check in, see how I'm doing, bring supplies just you name it. I believe going through things like this or when you're on your biggest pursuits regardless of if it's a race, whatever it is, when you're on your biggest pursuits I do believe that that's one of the times in life where you'll really really know who's in your corner and who really wants you to win. Now, I knew that there were going to be people coming in and out throughout the day. I wouldn't have guessed it was going to be 36 people and I believe there may have even been more than that, but from what I can remember on my tally sheet, 36 folks. I was just in awe and blown away, blown away. And my encouragement to you listening is that when you have a support system or rather take a look at your support system. Who's really in there, who's really in it for you, who's really in it for you, who can you really really count on? This helped me reaffirm who I know I can really count on. Not to say that if you didn't show up there it means I can't count on you, but this helped me really reaffirm the people that I know are a phone call away and will really show up.
Speaker 1:And I do have some special shout-outs. I can't call out all 36 folks, but I will call out a few that were just, I'd say, instrumental throughout the day. So when you're starting something at three o'clock in the morning, it might be a little difficult to convince some people to come out there. And the first shout out is to my buddy, alejandro Avendano. He came out there. He was the first one there at 3 am with me on the bicycle, helping get set up, sharing the message with everybody that he knew he was riding the bike for the first five hours out there for five hours, brought his running club out there. Just tremendous. This guy is an absolute ball of energy. I love him to death. If you are on Instagram, check out the Million Friends guy. He is just this jubilant ball of energy and joy and wants everyone to win. He's someone that you want in your corner.
Speaker 1:As the day went on, I went about 40 miles and before I really started taking in better nutrition, I was taking electrolytes on every lap and gels and rice cakes and I would eat tangerines, but I wasn't really taking in any sort of real protein or fats. I did have bagels and peanut butter there and I figured that I would eat them later in the day and I'd be okay. And as the temperatures kept going up, all I wanted to do was have liquids and I didn't really care about having bagels with peanut butter. It was the last thing that I wanted to have. And thank God that Edwin Martin showed up with one of his buddies, but I'll give the props to Edwin and Carl Johnson, two of my Citadel buddies.
Speaker 1:They came out there, ran 35 and 20 miles respectively, I believe, and, man, they were making sure that I was actually eating, shoving food down my face, wouldn't let me start a lap until I ate the bagel with peanut butter and Ed would sit there and say, man, you got to shove this down right now, even if you got to swash it down with Pedialyte and electrolytes. You got to do it and I remember thinking man, this is a disgusting combination. Think about stuffing your mouth with a peanut butter bagel and it's 87 degrees outside. You're covered in sweat, you've got chafed body parts. Your nipples are chafed, my ass was chafed, my arms are chafed. So even as I'm swinging my arms, they're chafed on both sides, just under the armpit, right where my arm is rubbing up. The last thing I want to do is stuff a bagel of peanut butter down my mouth when it's going to dry my mouth out, and then I'm going to wash it down with some nasty Pedialyte. But that's exactly what we did, and did it several times.
Speaker 1:Edwin was getting everything ready and then it was either that or okay, now we need to eat this banana with peanut butter on it, now we need to eat this banana with honey on it. And even just the prep time and having ed do that was incredible, and you know, and that wasn't something that I would have asked him to do before. But he just came in and jumped right in and you know, said how can, how can I help you? And you know, never, never once, did he complain about making anything. And he was happy to. He was keeping my spirits up. Same thing with Carl. They were bringing me additional food and one of Edwin's friends came out as well and was super helpful. I'm blanking on the name, but it's amazing. So they helped me. They really helped me with my nutrition.
Speaker 1:My girlfriend, christina, who came out and literally slept in a chair for six hours after working all day working a double, slept out in a sleeping bag on a chair. I was most nervous as it got later in the night because when you're on a bridge for 43 hours, and especially in the wee hours of the night on Halloween weekend, you see some interesting things, and it was around one o'clock in the morning. I'm not moving very fast at this point. This is probably one of the times where I'm starting to feel myself falling asleep on the move and you start to see the people leaving the bars downtown and some people, rather than take an Uber to Mount Pleasant, they walk the bridge or stumble the bridge, and there was one point in time where this one guy was stumbling from the downtown side to the Mount Pleasant side of the bridge and I can't move very fast at this point and I'm thinking I've got to beat this drunk guy. I've got to beat this drunk guy to the Mount Pleasant side so he doesn't see my girlfriend sleeping in a chair and attempt to do anything. And that gave me some extra energy in that moment, even though I really wanted to fall asleep. But she stayed out there like a champ and then woke up with minimal sleep and still went to work.
Speaker 1:My friends Maggie and Tyler, who came out multiple times. Tyler, who hooked me up with an IV afterwards and just to check in and spread the good word, provide supplies. And then this other gentleman that we met along the way at about mile 115, I met him for the first time in a cycling group. Gately Williams, who knew what I was doing, introduced himself, came back around 6 pm that day to check in and then he said I'm going to check on you tonight and Christina and I were doing basically walk jogging alternations for the last three laps, so 135 through 150. And at mile 140, we see this light coming our way and you can tell it's an e-bike. Don't know who's on it and it's gately. And he rode side by side with us for 10 miles and this helped keep me pushing, challenged me to jog further than I wanted to at times, because at one point in time your legs get so cooked that you start playing games and, okay, let me jog for five light poles and then I'll walk for five light poles. Or, most commonly, jog for three, walk for three and Gately would push and say nope, keep going, keep going, two more light poles, two more light poles. And that helped get a lot more good energy and momentum going, and had I not been with those people throughout the course of the day, I don't believe that the laps would have gone nearly as well as they did. The tough parts would have been a thousand times harder.
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Speaker 1:And it would have been just an extremely long day. The pain, the level of pain, was excruciating Again burning feet, shaved body parts. Couldn't pee for 10 hours because that's how quickly I was losing fluid. It was that hot out that from 7am to 5pm, with the exception of some little dribbles here and there, I didn't pee once I was taking in probably 32 ounces of fluid every five miles, including carrying a handheld with me. It wasn't nearly enough to keep the body going.
Speaker 1:The lesson here again if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. There's no such thing as a one-man show. There's no such thing as a one-man show. Yes, I was the one that ran the 150 miles, but it was not possible without these 36-plus people and a lot of people even outside of that, stopping by, providing support, hanging out at my base camp so they could say hi and introduce themselves, and coffee throughout the night, running the 2 am laps, with me, trevor West being out there at 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock in the morning, going into Sunday. These are things that I wouldn't have asked people to do because I figured it'd be an inconvenience, but people are more willing to help you out than you would ever imagine when you're going through something big and difficult. You know, I dream of the day where I love the times where people ask me to go and help them, whether it's supporting their fundraiser or going to their event or pacing them for their race. Pacing them for their race, because I know what it's like to to to need somebody there. I know what it's like to to have somebody just on your side, even if it's someone that's just there. Maybe they're not even saying, saying a word.
Speaker 1:I wasn't very talkative for some of these laps that I was deep in the pain cave. But, man, you want to talk about a boost in spirit. 150 miles, 30 laps I was alone for maybe five of them and they weren't consecutive either. So maybe one lap in the middle of the day, one lap towards the night of 25 miles alone out of 150, that's phenomenal and I owe them so much. I remember thinking at mile 80, I had this false positive man, I'm almost done, because last year I ran 100 and figured oh, I've only got four laps left. At mile 80, I'm thinking'm thinking, oh, we're good man. And then I had that thought come through my mind oh wait, you have 70 more miles to go. This is not good, and if it wasn't for those folks, man, I don't know, I probably would have had a breakdown right then.
Speaker 1:And there, shoe Dog by Phil Knight. It's the founder of Nike and Nike first started off as Blue Ribbon Sports and it was just Phil selling Japanese tiger shoes by himself, going around to all the different track meets across the country after he finished running at University of Oregon different track meets across the country after he finished running at University of Oregon and he had this big vision and dream for what the shoe industry could become, especially for running. And it wasn't until Phil decided to enlist help, first with his friends, that Blue Ribbon eventually turned into Nike and Nike now the juggernaut that it is in the athletic industry. So there is no one-man show. Even though when people think of Nike, they think of Phil Knight, or they might think of Michael Jordan, they might think of Kobe, all these people had great teams behind them. So I want everyone to recognize that.
Speaker 1:Yes, you know, while the things that you may want in life will require effort from you, make sure that you've got an army of support and people that are truly there for you, not just people that say they're there for you and then don't show up Like look at, take inventory. Let this serve as a call to action. Take inventory on do you have the right level of support, do you have the right people in your army, do you need to recruit some more people for your army, and if that's something you need help with, I'm here. Please reach out to me. I want to support you, but check on your army Now. The next lesson is stop Rather. The next lesson is you have one level greater than you think you do.
Speaker 1:There was, at the very beginning and then a couple times throughout the day, where my mind went haywire. I went south and went to this place that you don't want it to go. But nobody I mean nobody is immune to negative thoughts hitting you. Nobody, not even David Goggins. Everybody, at some point in time, will have that negative voice come and pay you a visit or come and question you and what the heck you're doing and attempt to soften you.
Speaker 1:So I'm thinking how the am I gonna run 150 miles? At that mile 80 point. Thinking, how the hell am I going to go 70 more miles? And at that point I started doing runner's math. And for you runners, you may know what runner's math is. It's not. It's not simple math, because your brain eventually turns into mush, even at a half marathon or a marathon.
Speaker 1:You attempt to do these calculations well if I run this next mile at a 620 or a marathon. You attempt to do these calculations. Well, if I run this next mile at a 620, then I can get back on pace and then I need to run a 640 for the next three miles and I could drop down. All of that makes sense in a normal state, but when you're going, you start questioning your calculations and everything, and your calculations don't even make sense. So I had this brief moment in time where I'm, I realized I have 70 more miles to go. How the hell am I going to run 70 more miles and how? Questions will get you in trouble, because when you ask yourself, how the heck am I going to run 70 more miles? Or how am I going to launch a podcast? How am I going to leave corporate? How, how, how, how, how, your mind starts thinking of all the different things.
Speaker 1:You go through this analysis, paralysis. Well, you're going to need to run, you're going to need to pick up the pace to this amount, or you're going to need to launch a podcast. How am I going to launch a podcast? You're going to need to find a service, an RSS provider, and you're going to have to get a camera and microphone and then learn how to do guest outreach and make a guest outreach template and you become inundated with all these things that you have to do. You get to do and then most people don't take action because of all these things that just hit them.
Speaker 1:Versus how you're going to do, how you're going to run another 70 miles, you're going to do what you've done for the last 80. You're going to put your left foot in front of your right foot and you're going to move forward. And if you need to walk for a little bit, you're going to walk, but you're going to keep moving forward. It's as simple as that Stop wondering and just start moving. Stop wondering and just start moving. You know, I just started chipping away. Those voices started softening and the energy started to come back. The belief started to build back up again, because these voices I say the demons they can't handle someone who has an unbreakable warrior spirit and they can't handle an abundance of positivity. So when you're just one percent louder than those voices, and you might need to play the song for a long time, they will go away and you will continue moving forward.
Speaker 1:I remember it about mile 95, 90-ish, 95. I'm literally starting to fall asleep as I'm walking at this point, transitioned to walking a little bit. It's around 2 o'clock in the morning. I've been going for about 23 hours and I only slept about five hours the night before. So running five hours of sleep total, going 23 hours straight. Now haven't closed the eyes yet and at that point I'm thinking okay, I know I need a nap, I'm going to go one more loop, we'll get to 100 and we'll get a nice I believe around 100, a nice little 45-minute nap in. And I remember telling Christina okay, I'm going to sleep for about 45 minutes, charge up the watch and we'll be good to go.
Speaker 1:And I'm shivering because my body has no idea what the heck is going on. I'm cold, I'm wrapped in a sweaty shirt, a wet towel or a somewhat wet towel because of the condensation, the humidity and a sleeping bag, and I sleep for 45 minutes curled up in a little ball, and it was, would say, the most uncomfortable but, at the same time, most amazing sleep, because I was so tired. And waking up from that, though, then your body really gets to feel all of the pain that you're in. I mean really like it'll really soak in if you sleep, take a little nap, and then you feel like what the heck just happened and those first few steps after falling asleep were I may as well have had a cane and I could have been in an advertisement for life alert or something like that Like help me, I can barely walk. That was me and at that point you know I had some friends show up that mile 100 to 110 was one of my best 10 mile stretches of the day. I ran those both straight through and again, like just goes to show that you keep showing up and stay positive, stay grateful. Those voices will go away. They know they're not going to win, they're not going to beat you anymore.
Speaker 1:And Sunday much better day cloud cover pretty much the whole day, about 10 degrees cooler. And we were rolling. You know, sunday was still tough. It was long, I wasn't able to move as fast, but we were rolling and people kept coming. And at mile 148 or at this point we're with Gately on the e-bike and and Christina we're doing the run walk at 148. I look down at my watch, you know, and we've been out there about 42 and a half ish hours and I'm thinking, man, like it's over. I almost don't want it to be over. We just got started. You go through this roller coaster of emotions, but just know this that when you don't let that voice win, guys, when you don't let that voice win, you will experience a whole new level of yourself. You have one level greater than you think. And I remember Edwin sending me a text hey, let's see if you can run a sub nine minute last mile, because we've been running about 10, 10 and a half most of the day.
Speaker 1:And then as I got into walk jogs about 14 ish to 15-ish minute miles, just doing the best I possibly could, and at 149, I told Gately, all right, he had the e-bike, he started filming me. He said, all right, let's go, let's go, I'm going to go as hard as I possibly can, even though I'm hurting. Let's see what we got. And the first few steps definitely you, you know you feel that pain on every step, especially as you're attempting to get your body to move fast. Now and we're going downhill, which definitely helped. But you'll feel it a little bit more in your legs.
Speaker 1:And I remember, looking at my watch, seeing eight and a half minute mile. And then I I'm looking like, okay, you can go harder than that. And then start seeing a sevens pop up and and then I'm thinking, man, this watch is. This watch has to be off. There's no way, like I'm, I'm pounding right now. Look down again and start seeing it's in the sixes and then figured, okay, let's see how fast we can go. It's in the sixes and then figured, okay, let's see how fast we can go, and we got about a quarter of a mile left. I'm down there at about 550 540 and just I mean yelling at myself now like come on, come on and keep going, keep going ended up running the last mile at a 6.42 pace.
Speaker 1:That just goes to show that again, that speaks to the power of having someone with you. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. It also speaks to the power of you have one level greater than you think you do, and the only way you're going to find it is by exploring whatever you believe your limit is today and doing everything you can to push past that, even if it's for one mile, even if it's for one hour, even if it's for one week, whatever the case may be. You have to go and test whatever your perceived limit is. At that point in time I'd never gone more than 100 miles, never gone more than 100 miles, but when you show your body that, okay, yeah, we can go past this man. Now I am starting to think about a number with a two, starting with a two, but we'll save that for later. But you have more in you than you could have ever imagined.
Speaker 1:The last one is this is very painful day. I've described it. The laps were difficult, the sun was beating, the body wasn't very happy, the chafing, the not wanting to take food down, everything, everything. What a blessing it is to feel pain. Remember that. What a blessing it is to feel pain because every step that my feet hurt, every time got to feel those chafed body parts. You know what that reaffirmed? It reaffirmed that I'm alive, that you're alive, that we're alive, that we're here, and it is a blessing to be out here experiencing this moment. And I'm so grateful for this pain, this temporary pain, because on the other side of temporary pain is a better version of you. On the other side of temporary pain are families that don't even know that they're counting on me yet. On the other side of temporary pain are people that are going to push themselves further as a result of witnessing this 150-mile journey, that are going to do something bigger than themselves as a result of me putting myself in this extremely challenging arena, in honor of those that are in an even more challenging arena, that don't have a fixed ending point as to when their pain goes away.
Speaker 1:The 150 miles that I signed up for is a fixed distance. There is a fixed point in time that I knew that I was going to be done, or a fixed distance that I knew I was going to be done. I didn't know how long it was going to take, but I knew that at some point it would be over and that I would recover. My pain is fixed. The people that I'm supporting and that we're doing this for, their pain is unfixed. We don't know when their cancer may end. We don't know when the big man may say hey, we need you. We don't know. So I can't imagine what it feels like to go through chemotherapy, through radiation, through endless surgeries. I don't know. What I do know is that those things are far worse than the pain that I was experiencing. The pain I was experiencing was intentional. The pain they're experiencing is unintentional.
Speaker 1:It is a blessing to feel pain. It's a blessing that we can use our bodies as a vessel to help others to inspire others. To inspire others to do something bigger than themselves, to help others to push themselves, to see that they have more in themselves. It is an absolute blessing. What I wish people would understand from this is that I believe that the most rewarding things in life come from service to others. The best part of this entire experience isn't the fact that I ran 150 miles. The best part are the families that we're going to impact. The second best part are the people that are going to take action as a result of seeing this. The third best part got to see something that I'm capable of, but it's all about helping somebody else. The best gift is to give back, and that's my personal opinion, but I'll stand by it for the long haul. I can't wait to bless multiple families with $7,000 that it's going to help them in a troubling time in their life and we get to bless them. We get to bless them, not I get to bless them. We did this, we did this.
Speaker 1:Whatever you believe, your limit is, test it. You have so much more in you than you may believe. Here's the formula. Here's why we landed on 150. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to declare whatever it is that you're going to do. Declare it and take action on it, but put it out there in the world. If you're going to run a marathon next year, if you're going to start a podcast, you're going to exit corporate, put it out there in the world and take action on it, and I promise you that you will find.
Speaker 1:When you're, when you really take action, when you truly commit to it, when you're truly consistent towards it, you will experience several new levels that you were unaware of before. Those are the two things that I want people to really know. The greatest reward comes from helping others, and you have all the tools you already need. You have all the tools and all the capability. You can go so much further, so much harder than you would have ever imagined.
Speaker 1:Now you may be wondering what's next? What's next with this? Because Breaking Ribbons, this initiative, this passion project. Eventually it will become a full-fledged nonprofit, but for now, we're going to keep just giving and inspiring. That's what we're going to keep doing. But what's next? I do have a number, with a two that I'm starting to flirt with in my mind. I'm not totally committing to something yet In the near term. I'm going to go back to fast marathon training and adding a little bit of muscle so we can go for the sub 250 marathon.
Speaker 1:That's the next physical test that's coming up and what's finally out this month is the Unshakable Discipline Mastermind.
Speaker 1:I developed the course a few months ago. This takes into account everything that I've learned and studied over the last 13 plus years and into a course, self-guided course. That is part of the mastermind, and the mastermind is for people that want to experience the greatest version of themselves and the and what they already have inside of themselves. We have weekly mastermind meetings with a lot of people that brought on to this podcast or it's me teaching and we're pouring our heart out week in, week out. This is part of the dream that I have to eventually do this stuff full time. So those are the things that are next in my book. I greatly appreciate you guys and wish that again. If you do anything from this episode, if you take one thing, it's that you go and help somebody, and if you take another thing, it's that you push yourself one step further than you may have done so in the past and experience another level and win today. Thanks so much, thank you.
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