Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Spartan Race Founder Joe De Sena On Why It's Important to Do Hard Things and Build Resilience

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

Today's guest is Joe De Sena. Joe is a bestselling author and the founder of Spartan Race. His new book called 10 Rules of Resilience: Mental Toughness for Families is out now. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about growing up in Queens, New York and working for some of the biggest mob bosses, how fitness changed his life, why it's important to do hard things, why people are scared to get uncomfortable, how he founded Spartan Race and bought their competitor Tough Mudder and much more! Join me for our Spartan Race on January 30 in San Bernardino, CA. Email [e-mail] and [e-mail] to participate FOR FREE! For more info on Spartan Race visit http://spartan.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blin. What is going on, my friends? Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm Chris Van Bleet. Thank you so much for being with us on this episode. And for a lot of you on every single episode, although if it does happen to be your first time here,

take your coat off. Stay a while. Also, make sure to hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this right now. What a fascinating and inspiring. conversation today with Joe DeSena. He's a bestselling author. He's also the founder of Spartan race, those incredible obstacle races

that I'm sure you've seen online. And you'll hear during this interview, he actually talks me into committing to do a Spartan race when they're here in the Los Angeles area. I've always wanted to do one, and now we're making it happen. I committed, I said we're doing it.

You'll hear more about it during this interview, but he said, I can do the race for free, and you can do the race for free. So come join me. Here's the deal. It is January 30th in San Bernardino, California. Email Joe at Joe at Spartan.com. Email me. CVV at Chrisfanfleet.com. And you're in for free. That's it. I mean, we'll mention it more towards the end of this interview. But yeah, commit to do it with me. And this is also a big part of this interview.

It's important to put out your goals out into the world so the other people can keep you accountable for them. but January 30th, Spartan race, we're making this happen. And I feel like after this conversation, you're going to want to do this, even if you don't live in Southern California. Fly in. Let's make it happen. You can find Joe on social media at Joe Descena. You can find Spartan Race at Spartan Race. And you can find me, Chris Van Fleet, at Chris Van Fleet.

Big shout out to our fan of the week, copulent lace, who says, it's so effortless. I love the conversation style and the relationship that Chris brings. I feel like I'm genuinely part of the conversation with purpose. I have to say, this is one of my favorite podcasts. Well, thank you so much for that. And thank you for taking the time to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. I read one out on every single episode. So if you want a little shout out here, just leave a review.

Or if you've already left a review, go back in right now, add a word or two, add your name so I can shout you out. and then it will show up as a fresh and new review, and we will see it. So let's make it happen. All right, get ready for it. Also, get ready for the Spartan race that we'll be doing together on January 30th in San Bernardino.

Joe's new book is called 10 Rules of Resistance, Mental Toughness for Families. It is out now. Please welcome. Joe, DeSena. Joe, thank you so much for making this happen. Thanks for having me. try to get people to talk to me. Nobody wants to talk to me. So it was nice that you were willing to

do this. That is completely untrue. You're a very difficult man to track down. Was it hard to get me? It wasn't hard to get you, but it's hard to pin you down because, you know, you've got your finger in a lot of pies. You're doing a lot of different things. It is, it is funny. Like, Susan is the gatekeeper for me, and it would be so much easier, I think, every day for her and for me, if I just handled my own calendar. But if I handled my own calendar, what I tend to do, because I'm a maniac is I triple book myself. So I've got a podcast going with you. I could take a quick phone call before

and it just goes nuts. So Susan really protects me. I feel like most people will know you for creating the Spartan games. But if you go way back here, your story's like a movie. Like your story is, it's insane. It is a crazy story.

By the way, guys, if you're listening or why, my email makes noise, as most people do, it pings. And I can't figure out how to get it to stop. Dr. Laura, who co-wrote the book, we're going to talk about, 10 Rules for Resilience, who's supposedly a genius. She's a psychologist. She went to school, the whole thing.

She just came in before the podcast started and said, oh, I know how to turn the pinging off. I'll just click this button right here. She goes, thank you. And she strutted out of my office only to the point where we just heard another ping. This is how popular you are, Joe. Yeah.

So I would question everything in the book. We don't even know if she has a real degree at this point. Certainly not a degree in turning off email notifications. I don't know if anybody, they don't teach that in school. Come on. They don't teach that in Psych 101. So it's a crazy story. You know, I grew up in Queens, New York,

round zero for Goodfellas. If you saw the movie Goodfellas, you hear the beeps? That's coming from somewhere else, though. It was much louder before. It was louder before. She turned one of them up. But I grew up there, and if you saw the movie Goodfellas, all organized crime, grew up across the street from the varios, which the story was based on.

And I wanted to be a tough guy. You know, you grow up in that neighborhood, and everybody around you that has money and nice cars, they're tough guys. And they probably went to jail because if you go to jail, that was like earning your stripes. That was like going to college. college. So you start thinking at a very young age, eight or nine years old, like, could I do it? Oh, man, I got to go to jail. You know what I mean? It'd be like, if you grew up in a neighborhood in Cambridge, let's say, and everybody's going to Harvard or they're, like, am I smart enough? It's the same exact thing. So, but my mother, thank God, my mother goes into a health food store

in the 1970s, and she meets a yogi from India who just came in, you know, JFK Airport just landed. And he convinces her that she should stop eating raviolis and gonoles and sausage and peppers and maybe become a vegan. So she leaves the health food store and that's it. She's a vegan. She's going to meditate. She's going to teach yoga. And not long thereafter my parents get divorced because she's bohemian at this point. Nobody even understands what she's talking about, including my sister and I.

And she moves us to Ithaca, New York, much more forgiving place, much more open-minded, very hippie-ish. And I go back and forth between the neighborhood and living with my mom. And I really want to be a tough guy. I want to go back to the neighborhood. I want to make money. I don't feel like eating branch sandwiches up in, you know, Ithaca. And somehow I end up going to college, which was not even part of my plan. No one guided my sister and I on colleges, not even my mother, but in Ithagas Cornell University and Ithaca University.

And somehow I weaseled my way into Cornell. And when I graduated, my friend convinced me to go to Wall Street. But by at that time, I had a business in Queens. I had built a pool cleaning business. And my customers were all the bosses of all the five families. And then all the levels below the bosses, I had 700 customers, mostly all organized crime, or business owners. And my friend was pushing me, hey, you're graduating Cornell,

go to Wall Street. And I was like, I'm making $250 grand a year at this point with my pool business. And I feel like a tough guy. They're all my customers. I own my own my own my own trucks. And I own my own bulldozers and backhose. and I'm feeling pretty good. Why would I go to Wall Street?

Anyway, he convinces me. I sell my business to my employees. It still exists today. They've made millions of dollars, which is awesome to see. I just brought my daughter there to see that business two weeks ago. And on the way to it, number one, I said, I'm going to take you for the best sandwich you ever had in your life. She said, come on, Dad. I said, I'm telling you.

Best sandwich you ever had in your life. We're going to get Mutzed out and roasted peppers on a, an Italian hero. I couldn't eat it because I'm gluten-free now. I turned into my mother. And she ate the sit. She was like, Dad, this is the best sandwich I ever had in my life. I said, I told you.

And then I said, come on, I'm going to show you my business. And she said, is that still a thing? I go, is that what 12-year-olds say these days? Like, is that still a thing? Yeah, it's still a thing. And she saw the business, which was cool. Anyway, fast forward. I end up going to Wall Street.

I end up selling the business and ended up building a pretty big, You know, pretty sizable business on Wall Street. Trading, equities, derivatives, bonds. Wasn't feeling very healthy on Wall Street, very stressed out. And I went back to what my mother said. I said, maybe I should do some yoga. Maybe I should eat some plants.

And started running up and down the stairs in our building for exercise every day. Somehow stumbled upon this thing called Adventure Racing in the mid-90s and started doing crazy races. around the world, the crazier the race, the more interested I was. I went across Alaska. I did the I did a rod by foot. I can't even tell you how many Ironmans. I did how many ultramarathans.

I did marathon. There was a race, and it was challenging, and there was a chance I could die. I was interested. And I had so much fun that by the late 90s, early 2000s, I said, you know, I'd love to do this for a business. I'd love to get out of Wall Street, and I'd love to, like, get people out of their comfort zone and doing stuff that's extremely healthy. Yeah.

Because I watched my mom transform people, including me, and all this stuff was transforming folks around me. So I started it. And I couldn't get anybody to come. I mean, who would want to run a 350-mile rate? Like, nobody wanted to do it. I couldn't get any- It was insane.

It was insane. My marketing was wrong. My product was wrong. and I'd lie to people. I would say, like, if I was trying to get you back in 2000 and do one of the races, I would say, hey, come up to our farm in Vermont. I bought a farm in Vermont. I said, come up to our farm in Vermont.

We're going to have a barbecue weekend. And I'd wake you up at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning, and you say, Joe, why are we getting up at 5 a.m. for a barbecue? I said, well, we've got to carry the barbecue up the mountain. Oh, my God. And I would just crush people by lying to them. And then afterwards, they say, oh, my gosh. that was crazy, but that was fun.

We had a lot of fun doing it, and I turned it into a business, and eventually that business became Spartan. And now we're in, well, pre-COVID, 45 countries, you know, one and a half million people a year, 325 events. We bought out our competitor, who was a very formidable competitor, Tough Mudder. I was fighting with them every single day.

And now I've been working on a television show, crazy enough. We landed a television show on CNBC and I've been running around the world for the last 25 days filming and we do it for businesses. We go in and see companies and beat the shit out of them. What's crazy is you built all of this yourself and I think there's this moments. Well, it's never by yourself. Sure, but a lot of this was like your brainchild of figuring out like how can we do this. I think there's those moments in our life where you're like a crossroads where like life could go one way life could go in other ways. So when you're working in the organized crime business or you're working with those people, did you have a moment where you could have gone down that path?

Oh, that's the path. I wanted to go down desperately because those guys, they had everything in my mind. And little Vic, Vicamuso, you guys could look them up, AMUSO. We became friends. and he used to clean his pool and he was just a great guy and he went to the gym every day. His wife was like, looked like a movie star. His house was unbelievable.

And he was the big boss of the Lucchese crime family and we became friends. I became friends with all the guys but him in particular because we had that, we shared the desire to be fit. So we had those conversations.

I was still exercising like crazy. I was doing all this construction work and cleaning swimming pools. And I remember saying to his wife once, You know, I'd like to get in the garbage business. I like, which was like really a signal that I wanted, you know, I wanted to go deeper. I wanted like, I wanted to, the business I was doing was, was too clean. I wanted to.

And she turned to me and she said that business is not for you. And for some reason, you know, my dad could have said it and he did. My mom could have said it and she did. My friends could have said it. My uncle. But when she said it, it was like, okay, I guess. that's not my direction. I don't know why, but when she said it, it really hit home.

And she said, I tell you what I'm going to do. She said up on Cross Bay Boulevard, which was in the neighborhood where I was Howard Beach, Queens, there's a piece of land that we own. And you could use that piece of land to build your business expand and set up a storefront. So she gave me that piece of land. And we ended up, we ended up. ended up building the business and that became my path, which then led to Wall Street. So, you know, she really saved, she saved me. I mean, listen, like I said, everybody told me to go on the

straight and arrow. But for whatever reason, when she said it, it stuck. I love that, like, fitness is like a theme throughout this whole thing. I always tell people, like, that's the fountain of youth. Like, working out as the fountain of youth. It's amazing to me that people don't find time for this. It's kind of like you've got to brush your teeth, you got to take a shower. You got to sweat every day. Every day you got to sweat. So we've been on the planet for a million years as a species. And, you know, we used to at least have to go pick our own fruit off a frigging tree,

if not kill an animal, if we happen to not be vegan, you know, 400,000 years ago, wherever we lived. We walked a lot. We probably got wet in the rain. We were outside. We weren't distracted with devices. Like there's a reason our species has survived and thrived. And I think we need to get back.

We definitely need to get back to some of that. So for someone who's never done a Spartan race, is like, first of all, what do you say to someone that's like on the fence about it thinking about doing it? Well, the people that are on the fence say a few things. One thing they say is I'm going to get in shape first. And my answer is actually you have it all wrong. You're not going to get in shape first. Because if you were going to get in shape first, you'd already be in shape.

So you're not going to do it. Most people don't do it. Look at obesity rates. Look at diabetic rates. We are at our core motivated by the avoidance of discomfort. The number one thing that motivates our species is to avoid discomfort. Wake up in the morning and tell yourself you're going to work out. Subconsciously your brain says, oh, let me go grab a cup of coffee.

Let me read the newspaper. Let me do this. my phone, your brain is trying to avoid the workout because it's hard. Same thing when you have to study for an exam. Same thing when you go down the list. If anything hard, your brain is wired to avoid discomfort. So given that that's true, you're not going to do it. You're not going to get in shape.

The paradox, the funny thing is, when you sign up for the race or you sign up for the class or you sign up to get married, whatever it may be, when you sign up for that hard thing, then you do the work because it's more uncomfortable to not do the work. In other words, if you're signed up for December 25th to do a Spartan race and you know it's coming and you told your friends you're going to do it, guess what? You're going to start going to bed early. You're going to start waking up early. You're going to put down the glass of wine.

You're going to not eat the cookie. So to get in shape, you sign up. first. You don't wait to sign up. It just doesn't work that way. And people don't get it. The other thing people will say is, I don't understand. Why would I crawl into Barbar? Why would I do that? Why don't I have a perfectly good couch? I mean, people legitimately say that to me all over the world. And my answer is, listen, if we were living in, you know, Delhi, India, and we had a really tough life or living in Siberia, I would say, yes, the couch and Netflix makes sense. Life is pretty hard. But in our first world where everything is easy, everything's at our fingertips,

and we're so friggin complacent, the science and biology shows you actually need the barbed wire. You actually need the cold water. You need this stuff that Spartan and Tough Mudder, and all that, because in order to stay alive, in order to call all your cells in your body to attention, you have to do something hard. You have to. And if you don't believe me, go get a pet dog today if you don't have a dog or a cat and just have your dog or your cat stay on the couch for like four days straight. And watch what happens.

The dog is going to go nuts. The cat is going to rip your curtains off the wall, bite everything. like animals need to get outside and move. Otherwise, we lose our mind. So this is like this is actually tough. For people who have never done this, this is actually tough. This is not simulated difficulty.

This is actually difficult. No, this is hard. This is hard, but it has to be hard because if it's not hard, it doesn't transform you. You know, they say if you want to turn iron into steel, you got to heat it,

you got to pound it, and you have to drown it. And so that's what we do to people. You eat them up, you pound them and you drown them. That's it. That's what we do. What's the biggest transformation that most people have when they finish, when they go through that first? Oh, my God. I mean, again, 10 million people have done these races now. There must be something that's in common, though.

I don't drink anymore. I don't smoke anymore. I don't do drugs anymore. I'm back with my husband. I'm back with my wife. I met a new girlfriend. I started a new business. I got a new job. Go down the list. It becomes a fulcrum for change. United States Soccer Federation Present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinemberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking.

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What do you say to people that like, I feel like this for some people is like running that marathon. Like I did the Spartan race at one point in my life. I ran a marathon at one point of my life. How do you kind of go from like doing just one to making this a part of your life every day? I created something called a trifecta. And I did that because we as a species, we are one and done. We don't want to go back to uncomfortable. But if you do three of them in a year, which I gamified, most people,

are hooked. It becomes that drug that you're chasing. And then I run into you somewhere in the world and you're like, I've done 87 Spartan rate. I mean, I hear it all the time. I got the tattoo. And, you know, it's not about the revenue that that generates for us because it's not a lot. We don't, we don't actually charge enough for these damn races to make it work, you know, to be a thriving business. But what it does is it keeps you really healthy. Because if you always, And that's what I did when I raced. I always had a date on the calendar. Next month, I'm doing another race.

Next month, I'm doing another race next week. Because if I did that, I just lived for fitness and health. I had to. I had no choice. I got another race coming. Yeah. And it becomes part of people's identity. Like, how important is that, is having that as their identity?

Well, listen, I mean, some people go to church. Some people identify with the place they work for. Some people identify with the neighborhood they live in. this is a really healthy community. 10 million strong that'll do anything for you that are really good, that in the middle of a race will stop and lend you a hand. And so to be able to define yourself as a Spartan versus a hell's angel is pretty good. If it's transformed all of these people's lives and they've learned so much from this,

what have you learned through this whole process? I learned people are better than we give them credit for. Like, people are just generally good. I learned that we need this. You know, when I started it, I needed it, but I didn't realize the whole world needed it. I mean, it's actually gone so far the other way with the devices and the shitty food and everything else

that the government should really give me funding to do this as a public service. service. Like, we need it. And I've lived all over the world building this business. And, you know, the U.S. is exporting obesity. And we're exporting fast food and all this stuff. And so, like, the whole world now needs this, this mindset, this hard stuff that we do. I didn't anticipate that 20 years ago. I thought it would be a tiny little segment, maybe 50,000 people globally that would want to do something like this. What else did I learn? I can't even tell you how many people meet their future husbands or wives on course.

And so I didn't. Better than a dating app. Better than a dating app. I didn't realize that that would happen. And I certainly didn't realize that I'd be writing books and TV shows and all this stuff. That wasn't part of the plan. I just, I'm ready for the couch, to be honest. Yeah, I think you need to do the opposite.

We need to, like, create, like, the couch games for you. I know. Well, the new book's called Ten Rules for Resilience. And what was the idea behind us? Is it that people need more resilience right now? People need more resilience. It's really a parenting book, a family book, that I got the wake-up call. Three years ago, my kids were being asked by me to carry kettlebells through the neighborhood.

I used to make them carry rocks and all kinds of stuff. And just for exercise early in the morning, sometimes in their pajamas. And some lady pulled over and started screaming. dreaming at them. And do you know him, kids? Are you okay? Why are you carrying that stuff? And I was like, ma'am, they're my kids. And I didn't want to get in a fight. But then it occurred to me, you know, she hasn't seen kids walk on a sidewalk outside in 15 years. Kids don't go outside anymore, right? She hasn't seen kids carry kettlebells ever. So I can't really blame her for being confused. And I thought, really got to write a book on how we as parents have to get our kids way outside

their comfort zone. We got to get them failing more. We got to stop over parenting and protecting them. And there's just some ancient principles, ancient rules that parents need to follow for their families. Otherwise, you end up with kids that are, you know, obese, depressed, not confident. That was the impetus for the book. How much did having kids change you as a person? Change me significantly. I mean, you're now. responsible to those four creatures. And your day, your life, everything I do is centered around how to make them better. There was an ancient saying in Sparta to be better than us. We had to make the kids better than us. And so my brain all day long is how do I make them

better than me? Easy better than me. Better than my wife is hard. I'm not a parent right now. and I'm sure I will be one day, but Joe, the idea of it absolutely terrifies me. Yeah, well, come to a Spartan race and then parenting's easy. What do you mean? Spartan's tough. Parenting is you have the kids, as long as you make tough decisions when you have the choice to make it easier or hard for them, as long as you do hard and you're not worried about what the neighbors think, you're not worried about what the kids think. You're not, it's not a popularity contest. As long as you could do that, they figure it out.

They go make their own sandwiches in the kitchen, right? Like, it's not that. We probably make it harder than it is because we're trying to win a popularity contest. We want them to love us. We want our neighbors to think we're the best parents ever. And because of that, we make it so hard. But again, we've been parenting for one million, one million, years on the planet. And, you know, you hand the kid a pitchfork, you tell them or her to go outside

and till the earth and plant some seeds and do their chores and get to school. They'll do it. It just becomes really complicated when you don't do that. When you give them everything they want, you overparent them. Well, I think, and again, I'm not a parent. I think what's difficult is you want your kids to have a great life. You want them to have all of these great things. How do you step back and go, yeah, you'll figure this one out on your own. It's hard. Your instinct is to protect the kid and keep them in the nest or her. And you're actually doing the kid of disservice because you're raising an adult.

You're not raising a kid. And when you realize that, you've got to prepare them for all the things that come along with adults. What's your morning look like? What's your morning routine? My morning, I skipped this morning, and I'm embarrassed to say. but my morning I won't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone.

My morning routine at home, when I'm home, I'm usually on the road, is I get on a bike lately. I've been getting on a bike for 10 minutes, get warmed up, get sweating. And then I got this rope pulley, which you could kind of see right here. Oh, yeah. See that? I got this rope pulley. I'll do for 30 minutes. Then I've been running on a treadmill, one minute intervals and then doing burpees and pull-ups.

Then I go in a sauna and I get it up to like 150, 160 degrees and I do a workout in the sauna. So I'm all in about 90 minutes and then an ice cold shower. Then somewhere in there I woke the kids up and they got to get their workout done. And then I won't eat until 9 a.m. And then I'm in the office, but it's hard these days to get people in the office because everybody wants to work from home. So I'm in the office like with five. I'm in an office that fits 100 people. I got five people here.

So is coffee a thing for you? I don't really like coffee. I don't like the taste, but in the last... Maybe too. Yeah, I don't like the taste. But in the last two years, I find myself wanting to have one in my hand because that's what other people do.

But I don't like it. I think there's a lot of people that want to have a morning routine, like the one you described, maybe like 10% of it. Maybe like I'll just walk in a treadmill for 10 minutes. And they don't, probably because the bed is so comfortable, probably because the couch is so comfortable. How do they start to get into that routine?

You know, you got to make a commitment to yourself, and then you got to shout it from the rooftop to everybody you know so that you'd be a fraud if you don't do it. You've got to have a date on the calendar. And, you know, we talk about 21 days makes a routine, but, you know, it's probably more like 90 days, and you'll feel better. You got to pat yourself on the back for doing it.

You got to keep the streak going and celebrate that streak to everybody you know and just keep saying, creating a narrative that is, this is what I do every day. So I'm on a podcast, I'm telling you that's what I do. I have to do it.

You'll hold me accountable. I love that idea of being held accountable. Like if someone's like, I want to lose, I always say vague goals get vague results. So specific goals get specific results. If someone says, I want to lose 15 pounds before the end of the year,

and then they're posting Instagram stories about their pizza and their donuts, I think you can, hold them accountable. Exactly. Same page. Right. Joe, it's been so great catching up with you. Thank you so much for making this happen. Thanks for, thanks for having me. No one likes to talk to me, so I was glad that you were willing to. And I'll see you. When am I going to see you? Where are you? Do you tell me, when's the next Spartan race? I'm in California. When's the next Spartan race here? It's coming up, and I want your commitment that you and a whole crew, no cost,

that's on me, are going to come out and do one. You've got to do your verbal commitment right now in public. I'm doing it. I'm serious. Okay. I'm in. All right. You round up a bunch of people, have them send you a note or whatever.

You send me an email. Feel free to share my email, Joeatsparton.com. If you write me an email, one sentence only. And I'm going to hook all you guys up. And then I want to do a post-race podcast with you. And I want your feedback. And honest feedback, if you're like, Joe, that was the dumbest thing ever. I can't believe I did that.

I don't believe people pay to do this. Or it changed. Like, whatever it is, I want to hear it. Yeah. Okay. Well, everyone should CC me on that email. CVV at chrisfanbleet.com. And yeah, let's get a crew together and we'll make this happen.

Or email you and CC me or whatever. But you put the listing of it. It could be 200 people. I don't care. It's on me. And I want everybody's feedback. And then as far as the book goes, if you can get the book, that would be cool.

And if you don't want to buy the book, at least get two cinder blocks and carry him around the neighborhood. And Joe's being serious here. I'm dead serious. Ten rules for resilience. And Joe, I end every interview with the same question. I love gratitude. I start and end every day saying out loud three things I'm grateful for.

You sit behind me. Be great. Be grateful. What are three things in your life that you're grateful for? I'm grateful. my family, everybody's healthy, right? I'm grateful that I get to do this. I got to pinch myself.

Two weeks, three weeks ago, I'm in Abu Dhabi on a camel in the desert. I'm filming a TV show. I'm doing interviews on this frigging book. So I got to pinch myself that I get to do this. And I love it, that you get to do it, not that you have to do it. I get to do this.

And then I guess I'm grateful that I'm healthy. I'm alive. because my dad's dad, my mom's dad, a lot of people I know are dead or in jail from years ago, right? I know people 25, 30 year jail sentences. So like, how could you not be happy and grateful? Yeah. I am so excited for my Spartan race. Yeah, careful what you wish for.

I'm going to make yours a little harder. Oh, no. I do love the idea of being accountable. So thank you for putting that out there. This is happening. This is happening. You're on the hook. Joe, thank you so much.

Appreciate you. All right, thank you. There we go, my friends. I've been thinking about doing a Spartan race for years, and now I'm doing it. It's so important to put stuff out into the world and hold yourself accountable for it. So January 30th, join me for free, just like Joe said, San Bernardino, California. Shoot Joe an email at Joe at Spartan.com. That's Joe, J-O-E at Spartan.com.

CC me, CVV at chris fanbleet.com, and we're doing this thing. It's going to be difficult. It's going to be challenging. And it's going to be awesome. And I asked Joe, what kind of training do I need to do for this? Because I've never trained for a Spartan race before. He says six times a week, you need to run two miles a day, 30 burpees, 30 pull-ups. That seems pretty simple.

Like, that doesn't seem like a lot. So let's do this thing. January 30th, San Bernardino. We're going to be Spartan racing together. Snap a screenshot, tag us on social media. Let us know you're committed to doing this race with us. Tag Joe, he's at Joe DeSetta. Spartan race is at Spartan race,

and I am at Chris Van Vleet. And I'll leave you with this from Frida Pepper. It seems so fitting since we're going to be doing this Spartan race together. The quote is, it is much more exciting to do hard things. Anyone. Can do easy things. Hmm. January 30th.

Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Woo! Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes.

So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan. on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of Sports Smack. Ticket banjo, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast.

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