The Nick Bare Podcast - 178: IED Survivor To World Record Endurance Athlete | Mike Egan

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

Marine veteran Mike Egan survived an IED blast in Afghanistan, rebuilt his life after losing both legs, and later inspired millions through his unforgettable viral moment at the G.1.M Ultra. In this episode, we talk about combat, recovery, service, endurance, and how Mike found purpose through fitness.CHAPTERS:00:00 Intro02:07 Mike's Definition of Service06:18 Why Mike Joined the Marines in 2008 (The Messy, Real Truth)11:17 First Deployment to Afghanistan and Earning Respect as a Squad Leader22:52 May 27, 201244:55 The Hardest Part Nobody Warns You About After the Military48:33 Finding Fitness, Coaching, and a New Purpose54:41 CrossFit, World Records, and Learning to Love Endurance59:06 152 Miles in 24 Hours1:04:58 G.1.M Ultra Story1:13:42 The Viral MomentORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210FOLLOW:Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutritionIG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitnessThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice.This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN)

Before we dive into today's episode, I want to let you know that we just launched the strength collection at BPNSups.com. Now, the strength collection is a three product system to be used around your strength workouts. It is pre, pump, and post. So the way that I use these products in my routine is I stack pre and pump about 30 minutes prior to my strength workouts. I sip on that. and I walk into the gym with pure intention, intensity, and grit and passion. It jacks me up for my workout. It primes my training session with energy, tunnel vision focus, muscular endurance, and crazy muscle pumps.

And then I sip on one serving, one scoop of post during my workout. These are essential amino acids, branched chain amino acids, carnitinelt tartrate, and Jerry Pure. You could also consume post after your workout, but this helps rebuild and repair the muscles you're breaking down during strength training and stimulates muscle protein synthesis. So this system, this collection is now live. I know it's going to transform your training experience. I love it. I'm a gym rat meathead at heart. And these products were designed for that lifestyle, that routine. There was a shift in the air.

Hey, we need to be ready to push. We needed to be careful where we were heading. How was his IED triggered? It was a pressure plate, stepped on it. And then after that, it was confusion, trying to get back up and dust myself off. And then realizing, oh, I can't get up. Then it hit. It felt like breathing was optional.

I just realized I wasn't done. and I want to stay here. I went through about 30 surgeries. It was just like, what does life look like now? I had no idea. I got this idea of going after the world record for the most miles covered in a wheelchair in 24 hours. And when I got to the end of it,

that was like, I think I could keep going. What did you want to come and deal at the Ultra? I wanted to see what broke first. When that torrential downpour came, I couldn't push anymore. I got out of the chair and I started yanking it. dragging it. I knew the race was done for me, but I wasn't done with the race. 27 hours, 110 miles. And I just had like hundreds of messages from people all over the world

telling me how it spoke to them and how it lit a fire in them. And I'm just like, holy crap, dude. Like I had no idea. So I want to dive into a lot today in our conversation. but I came across the post of yours and it said that you wanted to be remembered for giving back more than you took. What does that mean to you? Yeah. For me, that's service in a nutshell. I think being a contributing factor to your community, your people, your circle, is the meaning of life to me.

I just imagine what do I want to be remembered for is just giving back more than I took. It's a belief. It's a lifestyle and it's something I try and live up to every day. And I am so blessed and fortunate in this life that it's hard to keep up with that. And it's just a constant reminder of like, how can I give back?

I mean, obviously, joining the Marine Corps, getting hit by an IED in Afghanistan, 2012, shifted your life completely. But did that mindset of wanting to be remembered for giving back more than you took, did that start prior to the accident or was it after? No, it was after. my definition of service changed drastically from when I signed up for the military to join the Marines to where I am today. And I think when you're in the military, you have this clear trajectory of service and what your purpose is. And when I got injured, I can no longer do that anymore. I had to find what is service to me now.

What I saw as service was taken away, how do I be of continued service? And, you know, one of the things I actually shared, and I realized I don't really talk about it is I found out what the true meaning of service is from my, he's got to be in his 70s now, my 70-year-old neighbor. I got injured and one of the hardest things for me to do was to bring my trash can up the driveway. I struggled like every week. It's hard to push something up a driveway in a wheelchair. And a couple weeks after I moved in, I noticed my trash can was at the top of my driveway. Like every time, like clockwork. As soon as trash truck came, it was at the top of the driveway.

And I was like, who the heck is doing this? And I put up cameras. So I could see who was doing it. And it was my neighbor. Every time trash man came, that trash came was up at the top of my driveway, so I don't have to fight that battle. And he didn't do it for gratitude or satisfaction. He just wanted to be of service.

And I was like, my idea of service changed in a small act of kindness of just doing the thing for others without seeking recognition. and I was like, that's how I want to live my life. It's a very important recognition, like service without the recognition itself. Right. You know, it makes me think of on social media when you see people going to feed homeless,

hungry people in the streets, but they're filming it with a GoPro. I see the good I see the good in and of I want to show people that that we can all contribute to society and help those of less need

but the flip side is like I want credit for it I want to be praised for the generous acts of service that I'm doing and that's why selfless service is so unique and different because you're not doing it for the recognition, you're not doing it for the pride or the praise.

It is this invisible type of service that you're doing it just because you feel the responsibility and obligation to serve others. Right. No, I agree and I empathize with the social media aspect of it. I think it's good if your intent is good, right? Like what is the intent of posting this? Are you promoting what you're doing so other people contribute to what you're doing and get that giving mindset and spreading that? Or is it for self-gratification? And as long as whatever your intention is in service, as long as it is in good intent, that is true service.

An honest intention. Exactly. So you joined the Marine Corps in 2008. what guided that decision? Where were you at in your life at that point? I was a mess at that point. So I got out of high school, you know, the time I joined the military,

a lot of guys, you know, we still remember the time where we watch 9-11 happen and it impacted us a lot. How old are you? that was, I was 12, 13, so I was middle school. During 9-11? Yeah. And it had like a profound effect on my generation and as an impactful age.

And a lot of my friends at the time joined the military. And I was like, that's something I want to do. But I kept putting it off. I went to college for a couple years. and then in the midst of not being successful, lacking discipline in my life and purpose, I was like, I need to do this. Now is the time to do this.

If I don't do it now, I never will. And I was like, I just walked into a recruiter's office and signed up, didn't tell anyone, and went to boot camp three months later. What did you go to college for? Originally architecture. Didn't go down that road. I think I've changed, even after I got out of the military,

I went back to college, changed my major like three times, and got my degree in psychology, never used it. Nothing stuck. It's funny because when I was in high school, I wanted to go to college to be an architect. And then I realized I just wasn't smarter enough to be an architect. It's hard. It's really hard.

You know, I didn't get into any of the school, so I applied for when I was in high school. And I got an Army ROTC scholarship. So I could apply that scholarship to any school as long as I got into the school. So I was like, I want to go to Penn State. I want to go to South Carolina University. I wanted to go to College of Charleston,

which would do ROTC at the Citadel. Didn't get any of those schools. Yeah. So IEP was my last resort, but I wanted to be an architect when I was younger. So in 2008, when you enlisted, what were you doing work-wise?

Was it post out of college? Your career path, what were you set on at that point? Like pre-joining the military? What was my career path? I had no clear direction at that time. I was honestly, I was like, where do I fit in? And what makes me feel good about what I'm doing in this life. And I think I felt that loss of direction. I was just taking

odd jobs. I started working when I was 13 years old. I started my own lawn mowing business, just doing, like, had ad in newsletters, and I was just doing law mowing. Then I went in like the service industry, and I worked at a veterinary hospital. I was doing, I was just like, what, why am I here? Like, what am I passionate about? And I just, I couldn't find, the thing. And I was like, maybe military is where I find that answer. And I lacked structure in my life. I lacked people pushing me, and I knew I would get that in the military. You were infantryman, correct? Correct. Did you choose the infantry or did the infantry choose you? I chose to go on the infantry. I scored really high in my ASVAB. And

they were like, you shouldn't just go straight infantry, you should, you should do something else. And I did three years with fleet anti-terrorism security team. It's called Fast Company. It's like a branch of security forces. Basically, we're a quick reaction force for embassies under threat or hostage situation, stuff like that. Never really got fully utilized. Most people don't make a habit of attacking U.S. embassies. So it's just like a lot of really good training and traveling and doing stuff with that unit. But I made sure infantry was in my contract. So I had a five-year contract, a longer contract, so I could get that infantry time in. And where are you from originally?

Where did you grow up? Houston. Oh, so you're truly texting. Texas boy through and through. Okay. Yeah. There's not many of you in this area anymore. No, there isn't.

So your deployment in 2011 to Afghanistan, was it your first? deployment? That was my first real combat appointment. It was at the very end of 2011 and majority of 2012 I was in Afghanistan or the first half. And you were a squad leader while on that deployment. What was that rotation like from the time you landed in Afghanistan right up until you guys got hit? As a squad leader coming from that background, especially in the Marines coming from Fast Company. I was a higher rank than most guys in the infantry. And it was very long journey of earning their respect because I was in charge of guys who had already deployed to Afghanistan. And here I come, a corporal in the Marines putting in a squad leader

position and guys already did a pump to Afghanistan and lost guys and seen stuff. And I had no experience in that. So the workup was challenging. It pushed me in ways as a leader. I was like, how do I lead these guys when they only see me for what I haven't experienced and what they have? So the workup was hard, but it was rewarding in the pursuit of earning their respect to becoming a leader when it came time for it to count most. And during that workup, it was just leaning on them and their experience and saying, hey, I know what you provide to this team, you know, because I had three team leaders that had a lot of experience in working with guys.

And a lot of them, I probably took their position as squad leader going into this deployment. But I was like, I need to lean on you for your experience in Afghanistan. and I can provide all the extra training that you don't get in the infantry that I got in my previous unit and bring that to the table. And I just approached them of tell me what I'm doing right and then tell me what I'm doing wrong. And I think I sat down and had that conversation with them. Like honestly, I said, let me know, no repercussions for telling me what I can do better. And when I had that conversation with my squad, they were like, okay, here. here we go. And there was a shift in that workup. And it was awesome.

It's a very interesting inflection point for a leader that a lot of people outside of the military probably can't understand the pressure. You know, I was an officer going in to the army. and when I arrived to my unit, the platoon that I took over, my platoon sergeant was in the military for 19 years at that point. All my squad leaders, multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. So my team leaders had deployments to Afghanistan. And then here I am brand new second lieutenant, butter bar on my chest, no combat deployment patch,

brand new Ranger tab. It's like, hey guys, I'm the platoon leader of these 40 soldiers and non-commissioned officers. And learning how to earn that respect is such an art and science. You know, of truly coming in, letting the guys keep doing their thing and invite you in

instead of coming in and trying to change these things around the gate. that was such a pivotal learning lesson for me and shape the the trajectory of my leadership forever. That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

But what contrasts mine to yours is as a second lieutenant, it's almost expected. Hey, this guy's coming from college. She has no experience. We'll call him, sir, but like just be careful with how much we give this guy. But for another enlisted infantrymen

to come in to take over a squad leader role with no previous combat deployments, I can imagine even how much harder that was to turn the respect. Yeah, it was a challenge to say the least. I would find some of my stuff missing sometimes. I would find stuff in different places are mixed up. Like, people messed with me.

And there was pressure that was being applied, and I took it. I took it to the chin. You know, another thing in the workup, going to Afghanistan, you do several, like, different training blocks. And it's a tradition for anyone for their first deployment in the Marine Corps. you go do the training block, you shave your head. And as a leader, I was like, you know, I got to do it. And I shaved my head. And I came out and I lined up for us going out to that training block. And they're like, I can't believe this guy just shaved his head with all the boots going out there. And I was like,

I respect tradition. I respect their experience. And I need to show them that I am no better than anyone else, but I came here and I'm still going to do my job. Whether you like it or not, I was put in this position and I'm going to do it the best I can. Yeah, I mean, it's the only way you can approach it. I was talking to someone on the podcast recently, Heath Evans, and he spent 10 years in the NFL, 10 seasons. I asked him the question of all the coaches you worked for, what has created this environment that led to winning teams championships he said the best coaches he's worked for had two traits they embraced transparency and accountability where their door was open players could come in and and tell him what he was doing wrong like share with me my weaknesses

the word you see the holes of where I can become better. Complete transparency between the coach and the players and an accountability of like, as the coach, I'm holding the standard. I expect you guys to rise to the standard, never dip below. And if you have transparency and you have accountability, that could lead to winning teams and championships. Or in your case, saving lives. you know, successful missions.

When you guys got to Afghanistan in 2011, what was the pace of the kinetic environment? How often were you guys getting hit? It started off slow when we initially got there and it escalated towards the end of the deployment. Initially, we were just setting up security at a fob for I can't remember

exactly how long I'd say a month or two and it was just security rotation around just fence security and then we got assigned to be Helo Company to where we were

hopping on Ospreys and flying missions anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks and we would operate out of a fob,

FOB White House and we would fly these missions with a clear intent of what we're going to do when we're going into them of disrupting the enemy, disrupting operations, you know, pushing them back. And we were also

tasked with training and teaching the Afghan National Army and police how to hold those positions once we had gained them so we can keep moving forward. So first two months, not so much. And then once we started the Heel missions, it really started popping off. Was this firefights or IEDs or a combination of both? Both. There were a couple times we were flying in and you see the rounds like coming in as we're landing. So it was very kinetic environment.

Wasn't always like that, right? I mean, there were some ops we would go on and it would pretty much be nothing except occasional shots here and there. But once things picked up towards the end, it was nonstop. I'm always curious about this question, because during my time in service,

I didn't go on any combat deployments. I did a nine-month rotation in South Korea, but I didn't go to Afghanistan, I didn't go to Iraq. You know, you join the military, you do all this training, you prepare to go to war, and you have this vision, this imagination of what it looks,

like and feels like in the tempo and the energy and all of the things around it. When you finally got there and you're operating in Afghanistan, how did the realities match up against the imagination that you had of what war was? Yeah. At that age, when I got to Afghanistan, I was 23 years old, I was one of the older guys. and you have this vision, right? Everyone kind of creates this of like, what am I going to experience when I get there?

And I think at that age, everyone just feels invincible, right? Especially if it's your first combat deployment, you had no prior experience. You're like, I have done the work. I've trained hard. I know what to expect. And you go into it and you're like, I got this.

This is, give me the mission. I'm going to get it done. And I'm going to go back and reset and do it again. and the first time you experience around traveling past you instead of out at a range target, it completely changes. It's a completely different sound of a bullet flying past your head as opposed to shooting rounds at the range. You realize this is happening. This is life or death out here.

and that perception shifted quickly when I experienced that first firefight of just as a leader, it's my job to get these guys home. And that's it. I know it's probably a bad thing to say because you imagine like you have all these missions, these things you're supposed to accomplish out there. But my mission was like, I was like, I need to get these guys home. Because this is life or death out here. So I know you, I came across this and I think it was shared by the Washington Post. Oh, yeah. You, you had this blog post that recounted the day that you got hit by the IED, which I got to tell you, man, you're a great writer.

Thank you. You're a great writer. I appreciate it. Very captivating. May 27th, 2012, 3 a.m., correct me if I'm wrong, about one month left to your deployment. At this point. So one month until you're coming home. And you said, no kids ran in the streets, no elderly were in their compounds, and there were very few livestock, a telltale sign of a nearby IED or pending ambush.

What did that morning feel like before everything happened? Yeah, that morning was... There was a shift in the air of just you could feel it. Like something was different because we were used to the noise. Like there was kids playing. There was villagers there, you know, living their lives. And then we go to push out for our patrol in the morning and everyone was gone. Do you ever experience this before this day?

No, that was the first time we truly experienced, an empty village that we were approaching. The day before was highly kinetic. It was insane. We were calling in artillery for smoke screens to just cross, not huge open areas, some larger than others, but we were in some heavy fire fights the day before. So we were expecting going on the next day,

it would be the same and it was just empty. So that shift alone was like what happened overnight. So when we pushed out in the morning, I just remember my guys looking around like what's going on. And we slowly approached everything and we were extra careful, like moving through the streets. But we knew we knew something had changed. Like they changed their game plan on us and we needed to be careful where we were heading. What was the intent of that morning's push out? Was it presence patrol or did you have a mission you were on? We thought we were going to be in close quarter battle, not super close, but within a couple hundred meters of the enemy.

I mean, we were holding a compound position from what we fought up to that day and we thought we were going to push back further. and there was no pushback. There was no resistance. There was no presence where we were pushing out to, and we were highly expecting there to be heavy resistance. That's why we pushed out before sunrise to be able to scout out the area a little bit, but there was nothing.

Sun came up and no one was around. So you go in to say, my next steps change my life forever. I remember being thrown airborne for what felt like an eternity. Time slowed, yet my mind raced. And as I landed headfirst, a haze of confusion washed over me. I felt no pain and could see nothing for a short time. I thought I was blind.

As the dust settled, I asked myself if everyone was okay or if someone had been wounded. So what's happening leading up to how was his IED triggered? Do you got to step on something? Did it's on a remote detonate? Yeah, it was a pressure plate. So it was an IED with a pressure plate buried underneath the ground to where it wasn't visible. At the time, I was more towards the, because when you're in Afghanistan, you walk in a ranger file. Right.

That is one person directly behind the other, and you try and take the same steps because IEDs were the most used weapon out there against us. They were the most effective. So we did everything possible to ensure no one hit IEDs. We had a sweeper up front checking for IEDs, and we would have 15 feet between us when we're walking through like enclosed areas. And, you know, I was more towards the front because I realized the shift of environment we were in. I wanted to have eyes on where we were heading. and I was probably one person behind the sweeper and took a step and stepped on that pressure plate. So you're the one that stepped on it?

Yeah. Steped on it. And then after that, you know, it was just a lot of confusion, right? Pain doesn't hit immediately. And I just remember dust everywhere. It was just surrounded by it and almost trying to get back up and dust myself off. Like, what the heck was that? And then realizing, oh, I can't get up.

And then just then it hit, right? The pain struck. And it was, it's really hard to describe pain verbally. But if I could describe it, I would say it's like standing. in a fire you can't put out. And it was just like what happened to my body. Like what am I still alive? And what hit me the hardest was seeing the faces of my guys when they approached me and just

seeing these hard dudes just break down because they thought I was dying. I mean, I was dying. And to see that shift in, you know, months of working together and them looking to me as a leader to thinking they're about to lose me was hard. Did you guys lose anyone up until that point on the deployment? Our unit did lose people. We lost two guys just the day before the 27. And we lost five guys on that deployment in total. But, yeah, my squad, no, we didn't lose anyone in my squad.

During that day, though, usually when they plant IEDs in the ground, there's tertiary ID somewhere around. And as my guys were working on me and putting it on the tourniquets and trying to stabilize me, my interpreter stepped on another. IED as well. So we were both injured at the same time. Man, when you came to after getting hit,

I mean, did they have, were there enemy forces that were waiting for that? Who started a firefight afterwards? There were, there was some firefights after. I know that for a fact and I know the remainder of that hop was crazy.

But yes, after there There were fire fights. They came out, you know, IED blast you can hear from miles away. So they pushed hard, but my guys came back with a vengeance. So did your medic roll up to you as soon as you got hit and throw those turnicates on you? Yeah, they, the only reason I'm still here is because they were so effective. Like, Mikeorman was on it. like tourniquets applied my lieutenant was on the patrol with me called in the nine line immediately

i mean you're miles away from any help right the only thing coming to save you is a medevac um and they did everything right um and yeah he applied the turnicates he got me stabilized he kept me awake um and i had another guy armed strong just like holding me just just trying to keep me up and keep me talking and um you know it was it was it was hard being in that position as a leader because i was just thinking i'm like what i still have a job to do but i realize i'm like that job is is done now and i just felt this shift of like one, I felt life slipping away, literally. I remember a point where it felt like breathing was optional to where if I wanted to stop, I could. And I don't know how to properly

explain that to people because it really did feel like a choice for me. me to stay at a certain point while I was out there. And I just realized I wasn't done and I want to stay here. And my guys are, they made sure I'd stayed awake and kept fighting. Do you remember that day pretty vividly? I do. I was awake the whole time and when they put me on the medevac, they put me in a medical-induced coma. And then from there, I was in that coma for at least another week. So when you woke up, where were you? The first time I woke up, I was on a C-130,

flying to another location to do more surgeries. And I just remember I wasn't awake long. They put me back under. But I just remember seeing other guys around me that didn't make it. But, and then the next time I woke up, I was in the hospital, stateside. That's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy.

They woke me up, or they didn't wake me up. I woke up one time on the flight line. They were transferring me. and I apparently attacked a doctor because I still thought I was in combat. So I was like highly like they thought I would go into shock and stuff. So they kept me in that medical induced coma to make sure I was stable and not out of control. Do they put you in the coma initially for the pain? Probably so to some extent, right?

There are choices of it. I have no idea, but I would imagine it's just shock or just keeping me in a stable, more comfortable position. Because over the next month or so, I went through about at least 30 surgeries, in total over 40 surgeries during my recovery. At any point on the objective, where you convinced that you were dead? like you aren't going to make it. Yeah. When I reached that point of just like, it felt like I was slipping away.

It really did feel like this was it. Like there's a possibility I don't make it out of here. And when they put me under, you know, they didn't tell me. But it all happened so fast that I just couldn't process any of it until I got to the hospital and then everything kind of flooded in. Did anything happen?

People talk about your life flashed before your eyes or you have like this epiphany before, did anything like that cross your mind? I didn't have like my life flash before my eyes or memories of anything. I just had a realization of like this could be it for me. Do I, I felt like I had the choice of if I want to let go, I could. And I realized I came in the realization I wanted to stay.

And I fought however I could to stay awake. And that was it. It was really just coming to terms with, like, this might be it. And I didn't want it to be it. Yeah. So when you woke up stateside then, what are some of the first things you remember seeing or being told or experiencing?

First things experiencing, I was happy to be in AC. I had, you know... You vividly remember that? Yeah, I vividly remember feeling AC again. And I was just like, oh, this is so nice. I had my family around me.

I was happy. You know, people were encouraging me. They were talking to me. I knew I was alive. I was grateful. heavily medicated and not fully comprehending what my life was going to look like after

all this. I didn't even know fully my injuries. I think it took me quite a bit of time to process that. But once I realized, okay, my legs are gone. I had metal bars outside of my body, holding my hip together because it had fractured in three different places. I had stitches all up my left arm, parts of my forearm missing. I had no feeling on the left side of my arm. My left, the blast was so strong that my left eye was actually to the side. TBI. I mean, you name it, I probably experienced it with that kind of traumatic injury.

So it was just like, where the heck do we go from here? How do I recover from this? And what does life look like now? I had no idea. Were both your parents there? Your mom and dad? Yeah, my mom and dad showed up during part of the recovery. My dad not so close with, but he did show up for a period of time.

But yeah, my mom, my sister, close friends family. all came and were there and it just felt good to be safe and alive, but I was also just consistently holding my breath to make sure, like, my guys got home. And that was just like I couldn't relax until I knew they were home. Man, I can't imagine. I'd love for you to walk me through up. you wake up your state side or were you Virginia? Originally in Virginia, yes.

And then they had a facility in San Antonio at BAMC where I eventually got transferred to. I had a friend stationed at BAMPY, BAMC. Yeah. You come to, you wake up, your state side. I'm assuming that there's this initial. gratitude of I'm alive, but then how quickly did the lows kick in of realizing my life is completely changed? I had very like awakening moments throughout my recovery.

I would say the gratitude lasted a long time because I had so much presence and support around me that it was just like everyone's happy I'm still here they're happy to see me you know being alert and moving around and and creating new milestones it's like almost like I was a baby again and I had to relearn how to live life and then every time I hit a new milestone in my recovery people were like clapping or cheering me on like you got this and that was nice and I was nice and I would say it didn't really get hard until I was out of the military. That support of the medical staff at BAMC was gone. My family went back home and I started living on my own and there was silence. And in that silence, I started experiencing the realization of what life looks like

on my own and how I was going to navigate life, the questions of like, what is my purpose? Like, how am I going to move through life in this state? And I didn't know the answer to that. And it took a long time and a lot of coping in the wrong ways to get to where I am today. I grieved. I needed to grieve. I think grieving is an important. process of recovery. Do you learn that on your own? Or did someone teach you that? I did learn that on my own.

And that's why it took longer than it should have. And I wish I had that guidance of someone saying, it's okay to, I would say the first person that really brought that to my attention was my sister. And she's the one that encouraged me to write and to explore the emotions. that I was experiencing because it's okay to not be okay. And no one told me that. They just wanted to see me happy. And I appreciate that, but I needed to face my new reality,

and no one was helping me do that. And it took a long time. How much time was there between the accident and you being home living on your own? probably about a year and a half. A year and a half. I'd say I'd spend about a year on base recovery, doing work with prosthetics, working with Pt, OT, working on my hand, dexterity. You know, I tried walking prosthetics, running prosthetics. They were amazing. The support that they provided me during that time. And they pushed me. and I just remember one of the PTs pulled me aside. He's like, hey, you should slow down.

Because once you check all these boxes, they're going to send you on your own and you might not have access to all this stuff. And I was just like, but I don't know how to slow down. I want to progress and I want to move on. So once I got out of the military, I realized it was like, oh, yeah, I see what it is saying. Now I've got to figure this out.

So essentially they, you stay in the military until you reach certain milestones within recovery. Once you've reached those milestones, they then transition you out, send you home. And it's like you are officially medically retired from service. Yeah. It's like an independence checklist, right? They want to make sure you're functioning at a level to where you're successful in your day-to-day. and they have a good blueprint, but it's that transition out of the military that's lacking for a lot of guys.

I saw a psychiatrist, I talked with people as well, but it's really that aspect of no one told me how hard it was going to be to repurpose my life after the military, and how was I going to be a functioning? member of society in a world that I just didn't make sense to me anymore. I didn't see things the same way. I didn't trust people the same way. I was constantly scanning the rooms and I was just not in a place to where I could operate in an environment that was safe because it just didn't feel safe anywhere. What was the plan when you got into that house living on your own?

for the next chapter of your life? I really just approached it as like, what do other people want me to do? Or like how, what would be successful to the people that care about me? I'm like, I'll go back to school. I went back to college. Didn't enjoy it.

I did it. I was like, because once I commit to something, like I commit to it, you know, like I said, I changed degree, like a couple more.

times landed on psychology, got my bachelor's, and never used it. And then after that, it was just like, okay, what the heck do I do now? Like, I did the thing that most people do, and I'm still not happy. I don't feel fulfilled. I don't feel a purpose-driven approach to life right now. How do I fill that void? Like, I had a... of helping people, like being of service somehow. And that's why I was like, psychology is a great fit. And I realized I'm a super introvert and I empathize with people wholeheartedly. And then I have like no energy left once that's done. And I was like, I can't do this as a career path. I was like, I need to find another way to be of service to others that is fulfilling to me. That doesn't take away

from me. And that's where I really started approaching fitness and coaching and really found a passion there. That introvert realization is a really important one. I think a lot of people think that I am an extrovert based off of what I do for work. I am also an introvert. And if I spend a lot of time with people or at events or these large social gatherings, I'm tanked after those. And the way that I recharge is alone, on my own, doing something without engaging with others. And I think people have to really understand

if they are introverted or extroverted and then take care of themselves accordingly. Like, how do you recover? How do you recharge? for extroverts it's around other people. For introverts, it's alone. That's, I think, a necessary recognition, realization that is critical for long-term health and wellness. Yeah, you can't show up for the people you care about if your battery is drained, right?

You know, especially like family life, you know, it feels selfish almost sometimes to go out and recharge the battery. but you also know after you do that you can show up so much more and have presence with everything that you do. So it's a balance and it is a strong realization. I think a lot of people need to find. So what was the next thing or things that change your life? How did things start getting better? I really leaned into coaching being a personal trainer. I felt good helping people hit their goals that they had set for themselves.

I found passion and fitness. I found it was good for my mental health. I found it helped with my depression. I think fitness is one of the best ways to cure depression. I know it's worked wonders for me. And I really leaned into the coaching aspect and finding a strong purpose in that. And then one day I did that for a few years.

I had a potential client come up to me who had a disability at Spina Bifida. And he's like, hey, I'm interested in working with you. I see you have this disability. I want to work with someone who understands that we're different. And I said, absolutely, I would love to train you. I know how to safely and effectively train myself. I want to learn how to do that for you. So I went out and did research on how to work with people with disabilities.

And I found an organization that was doing a seminar like two weeks from when I met that guy. And I was like, oh, heck yeah, they're training you how to work with people with disabilities. It's like, cool. I was going to go sign up for that. And I show up and it was a very, very, you know, eye-opening experience of stuff I didn't even realize that I could be doing. And that two-day seminar was a huge shift for me in how I looked at fitness, how I could be of service to not just a normal able-bodied person, but also people who have disabilities, people who may want to

recover from injuries, and push beyond what is seen as societally acceptable for people with disabilities, I think the standard is really low for what someone with a disability is capable of. And when I attended that seminar, they're like, no, you can do so much more. And I was like, I want to be a part of this. And through that seminar, it was very functional movement based, very like CrossFit-esque training, but more so functional fitness movements. And they took me through a workout during lunch because they're like, hey, you got big arms. Like, why don't you come work out with us during lunch. I was like, sure.

And they smoked me. And I loved it. And I was like, I want to do this. And they're like, you should compete in CrossFit. And I was like, I don't know. I was like, I never really saw myself as an athlete, but I enjoyed being a coach so much that I'm like, what's the number one thing I learned in the military is that in order to be a good leader,

you need to lead by example. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to. I'm going to lead by example. I'm going to go do something that's out of my comfort zone. Because if I want to ask someone to do that, I want them to be able to say he did that. So that's kind of where I started my competitive ventures. What year was this?

That was 2021. About five years ago. When did you meet your wife? I met my wife through that article. I wrote. Yeah, I read about that. Yeah. What year was that? Oh, man. That was 2014? Yeah, about 2014,

I believe. Or 2013, we started talking and then we eventually met together in 2014. So you wrote this article, they got picked up, you got shared, your now wife, Amy, reached down to you. From my understanding, she also partner overseas as well?

Yeah, so I wrote the article and they were like, hey, we want to publish this thing. And they did, and they posted it on their website, and they attached my socials to it, which I didn't know they were going to do. And then my wife reached out to me through that, and we started talking. And we were both going through a hard time.

So I was going through what I was experiencing. She also lost, she was in a relationship with a Marine prior who had passed away during a training accident. And we were there for each other in a very hard time in our lives. My wife is a phenomenal human being who has been through a lot. You won't be able to see that when you look at her because she's so kind and present. with everyone around her, but she's been through a lot. And we met each other at a time where we needed to just grieve together and learn how to move past it. And we did that for each other. And at the time, she lived in Seattle. I was in Texas and we talked for months and then

eventually met and rest was history after that. How did you convince her? moved to Texas and you didn't have to move to Seattle. I told her, Texas is really nice. You should come, it doesn't rain as much here. Honestly, I got my wife here. She was living in Nashville at a time. And I convinced her to come down for a John party concert at Stubbs Barbecue in Austin. And she told me, she said, I'm never moving to Austin, just so you know, never moving

to Texas. And a few months later, she was moving into Austin. We've been here since. You just got to get them here once. Yeah, that's it. That's it. So when did the pursuit of some of these more ambitious physical challenges start? Yeah.

So once I started CrossFit, I was like competing at the adaptive CrossFit games. I really enjoyed it. It pushed me in my fitness, overall fitness level. I was really strong before. I loved powerlifting, weightlifting, going to the gym. Like I said, I'm an introvert. I love putting the headphones in and just slamming weights. And I loved the approach of overall fitness

and pushing yourself in different avenues. And through competing in CrossFit, that really opened my eyes to that. And the first year, I improved so much. I was like, I'm going back next year, improved again so much. And then the third year I was like, okay, I think my fitness level is where it's at. Now I want to push it to the extreme, not in an overall encompassing level of fitness, but I want to find what I'm passionate about and push towards one direction. So after three years of CrossFit, I'm like, what the heck do I do now?

How do I push the envelope of what's perceived possible for someone with the disability? and I was like, well, there's Guinness World Records out there. Why don't I go chase one of those? I really leaned into, I found a love for endurance. I used to hate, like, endurance running. We have so many similarities. I'm telling you, we're, we're a great best friends, man. Yeah.

You told the story about when you were younger, lawnmowing. When I was in high school, I had middle school high school, my own lawn and mooning company. I had the signs all over our local town. There's a lot of similarities in the story. The bodybuilding, the strength training. I hated endurance. Sorry, you can keep going. I'm like, I'm really connected right now.

Yeah. No, I love it because it's so true. Like, I really hated running or any type of endurance. I was bad at it. I didn't enjoy it. I was just like, I just want to stop. like why, why would you want to do this? And I was like, well, maybe there's a, there's another side to this where I'm like, okay, maybe if I push this a little bit more, I can find some enjoyment

out of it. And I like a good challenge. And I was like, that's one area I've always been really bad at it. Why don't I lean into that? And I just remember going outside my house for like a three-mile run, just completely gassed, just pushing in my wheelchair up and down the sidewalk. And I'm like, I want to get better at this. I was like, I started taking notes, like how I did, what I can improve on, started watching videos, started finding ways to improve. And I got this crazy idea of going after the world record for the most miles covered in a wheelchair in 24 hours. And I was like, I want to do that. And I didn't tell anyone. I didn't tell. I didn't tell. I didn't even tell my wife for a while.

I was like, I want to see if I can commit to this. And she's, my wife's just like, you're going for cardio a lot nowadays. I was like, yeah, I kind of enjoying it. And I really just found comfort in the suffering of just going. And just being, there's nothing like being in your own head. space when you're doing cardio and just out there and just moving your body. And you know at any point you can quit, right? But you also know that, okay, I have a little bit more to give. I can push this a little further. And I think it's one of the most effective tools for my mental health

that I experienced was just getting out there and logging some miles. And it really reset me and got me in a good place for the day. And I could go home and I'm like, okay, I'm ready to be present with my family and be here. And I'm like, I'm going to do this world record because I like where this is taking me. So then I finally eventually told people, I was like, I'm going to put it out in the world and make it a reality and trained for a whole year. And just completed it. last November I did 152 miles and 24 hours. What was the record prior? 113.

Okay, so you crushed it. A little bit, yeah. What was the rally? Was it on a track? So months of planning went into doing the world record, and originally I had a military base that was going to let me run it on a flight line. It was like a mile and a half down and back. It was beautiful, perfectly flat.

and everything was ready to go. And then 10 days prior to when I was going to do the attempt, the head officer of the base calls me. He's like, hey, I'm sorry we can't do this here anymore because of the government shut down because that was back in November. And I'm just like, what am I going to do? And I reached out to an organization I work with locally called Morgan's Wonderland. They are a fully adaptive theme park for kids with disabilities in San Antonio.

It's an amazing place. And they helped fund and run a functional fitness program I coached for a long time, providing fitness for people with disabilities for free in the San Antonio area. So I reached out to Brooke and I'm just, she was on the email of all the invites I had to go to the space because I had to get their background info to get them base access because a lot of them were. civilian and I said, hey, base got canceled. I don't have the location anymore. You might want to cancel your flights, people flying in. This might not happen. And Brooke was like, do it at Morgans. And I was like, okay, let's do it. And I literally did a loop that is smaller than a running track for 24 hours. 0.21 miles. It was around a bunch of tennis racquetball courts. You should have hit me Yeah, we could have figured something out.

Yeah, well, now I know. There's this awesome location that would be great for an event like that. It's in Nashville, Tennessee. It's in Shelby Bottoms Park, and it's called the, I think, Cornelius Airstrip. It's an old abandoned airstrip. It's, I think, 1.2 miles around. I used to run it when we lived there all the time. They're cyclists there all the time.

people rollerblading perfectly flat beautiful area be perfect for something like that. I know. I look back on it now. I was like, man, what could I have done if I had like a good course? But yeah, it had to be perfectly flat per the standards of Guinness. Like I had to get a surveyor out there to level out. And it was off by just a tiny bit. It wouldn't have been a Guinness World Record. So I was like, I had 10 days. it was crunch time. I was reaching out, connecting to everyone. And that was the one for sure thing I had. And I was like, let's just run it.

I know I could still beat the current record. I might not get to where I wanted to be, but I was like, I'm going to fight like hell to get where I want to be. My goal of what I wanted out of it. Do you know what the pace per mile is for that? My moving pace was 820. With rest, it was 9.

55. Okay. And what is your heart rate? Because you're using your arms for everything. Like what is, how do you measure your heart rate and zones and just to compare and contrast traditional running? So when I was training, I wore the chest strap heart monitor. And I got some good data off of that. And then I had the watch on. But it was, was very inaccurate just because I'm constantly moving my wrist and you just can't get a good read. And then I also noticed, like, if I have a watch of my wrist while I'm pushing in a wheelchair, my right arm would blow up more than my left because of the watch was on it and circulation. So eventually, I just kind of nix the whole, like, the data collection of it.

I still do it every once in a while in training, but I'm usually in the world record, I had it the watch on my chair and we collected that on it but i was in the 130 range okay much the whole time so in a steady moving consistent pace but not to you know zone four anything crazy and then do your arms just get fatigue or do they get pumped they get pumped up and eventually depending on how long you go it's super swollen and like fatigue of the the the tendons and the joints. But my arms aren't the first thing to go when I'm pushing. It's usually my back.

I can imagine that. It's like doing good mornings just constantly of just back and forth. Lower, lower back? Lower back. Do you do any specific training for posterior chain lower back? I do a lot of seated deadlifts. Makes sense. Yeah.

Just strength. I would say I'm, my training is very unconventional. to what a runner would be, obviously, but I almost always do one-on-one-off strength and conditioning. Like, I do strength training as much as I do cardio, just because I am more injury prone. And I'd say once I get closer to big events,

I'll lean more into cardio. I'll push the miles a lot harder. But I need the strength base leading up to an event to make sure that nothing gives out. Yeah. Well, let's talk about the going more ultra. What was your initial goal? What did you want to come and do at the ultra?

Man, I wanted to fully utilize the format of the race of, I wanted to see what broke first. I wanted to go out there and leave it all out there. I remember, like, Max would come up to me. He's like, man, what's your goal out here? I was like, I don't have one. And I'm sure that's like a common thing a lot of people say of like, I don't have a goal. but I feel like setting a goal in a race like the Go One More Ultra is already setting yourself up for failure in a certain way.

Like I get it if like the furthest you've gone is like 70 and you're like, I really want to hit 100. That's a strong goal and that's something to chase. But I also know there was people who probably set that goal for themselves and then they're like as soon as they hit 100, they're done. 100%. Yeah. 100%.

because it's a limiter. It's a mental limiter you're placing on yourself, and I want to know part of that. And I was like, I'm going to go out here until I cannot go anymore. And that was my goal going into it. Yeah. When I did my last band standing in 2023, I told myself going into it, I just want a hundred miles. And it just so happened, my mind and body quit right after 100 miles. It's like when you're in the gym, I want to do 10 reps. You start fatiguing it. you hit RPE 10 on Rep 10. It just so happens because your mind tells the body what to do. Yeah, with the last band standing style race of all the races I've done was the mentally hardest race I've done.

Because I set that number and then when I got there, trying to convince myself to keep going after that was really hard. Because I was counting down, you know, if you're going to do a hundred mile race, you get to mile 80, I got 20 miles left, mile 90, I got 10 miles left. Last man standing. You don't have those check marks and milestones. It's just one after the other, after the other. It's a strong approach.

Yeah. When I did that world record, I had, it wasn't, you know, a mile goal necessarily, but I had the clock, right? There's a few more hours left and I'll be done. Two more hours left, one more hour left. And when I got to the end of it, that 24 hours, I asked myself, I was like, I think I could keep going if I had to. And I was like, I want to find a race that provides that. And then I just went down a rabbit hole of backyard ultras. And I was like, man, it's off road. We'll have to figure that out. But I was like, I want a part of that. It's doing 27 hours, 110 miles.

Did you get a custom wheelchair made just for this race? What do they have to do differently to it? A lot of things. Mainly more so the frame build had to be completely different because in an everyday regular wheelchair, the casters are pretty much right underneath you. And you need more stability and off-road. You hit a rock, like I'm going to flip over to the side.

So it's a much wider base. I had to get off-road tires, but not too knobby of tires because I have to push on the wheel itself. Since it is a little bit wider chair, the front casters had to be extended out. Those also needed to be off-road air tires. So it's not as jarring when you're hitting rocks or experience any instability in the same.

the chair or the course. It was a lot of brainstorming. And it was interesting taking what I had learned from the world record and realizing it does not apply at all to what I was trying to accomplish at the Go One More of, man, the world record, I could zone out and I could just listen to music and just go somewhere else in my head. you can't do that out there because for me

I'm not a runner I have four points of contact with ground at all times I feel everything and it was just mentally it was more mentally draining than anything like obviously physically challenging

right being off road but I had to stay so alert at all times well the course is so different too I mean there's there's not huge points of elevation but there's these small dips there's rocks

I think it's at mile it's probably like three where it's the back half by the river you go in this little dip and you should climb up out of it and someone had a video

of you climbing up and out out of that and I was like holy crap he's like he's working back there yeah the hills were brutal there's yeah that that one back hill got me every loop to like mentally prepare myself. I was like if ever I do stop for anything other than rain,

it would have probably been that hill just because if I let up for even half a second, I would be going backwards and there's no, and I would just have to find a way to grit my teeth and get up that thing every single time. You know, I enjoyed the downhills. The downhills were great, but I had to work for them on those up hills. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we knew rain was coming at some point that weekend. It's like every year we're hoping for good weather and it just dumps on us. Yeah. How did the, I mean, at what point did you know the rain was going to truly affect the race for you?

I mean, it drizzled here and there, but then we got, you know, a huge role of it coming through. How did that kind of affect your pace? Going into it, you know, I tried to train for any scenario leading up to the race. I trained in some off-road, you know, just freshly rained, some mud, and it was always a struggle just to complete a loop within an hour. You know, I had a nice, you know, 4.17 loop I would hit, and I trained in the mud, and I got in at like 59 minutes and 30 seconds. It took everything I got to work through mud. So I was like, okay, this might be possible. And then leading into the race, you got the weather forecast, the 10-day forecast.

It had rained the day before the race, the rain, the day of the race. And then eight days after the race. And I'm like, I trained for six months. I wanted to show people, I worked hard for this, that I earned my spot here, and that I came to show up and work. and I was like, man, this is going to suck if I just show up to the start line and I'm just stuck in the mud right at the start. And lo and behold, the skies opened up a little bit. And yeah, we got some sprinkles like here and there the first day, but it remained fairly clear.

When those happened, like, yeah, some mud stuck, but I could keep moving. And then I knew if we got heavy rain, that would probably be. probably be it for me because the mud out there is very different than, you know, what I had trained with. Like, mud will stick to my chair either way, but it never locked up my wheels to where I just was stuck. And when that torrential downpour came, it was like three minutes and then it was over. I made it about 20 feet, and I was just done. I couldn't push anymore. And I was like, okay, well, it's either I sit here and wait for someone to come get me or I keep going.

And I felt like I could keep going. So that's what I did. So you hop down to the chair and started dragging the chair. Yeah. The only goal I set for myself in that race is I said, I'm going to go until I can't go anymore. and I was not going to let the extreme conditions of weather prevent me from doing that. The chair is not an extension of me. It's a tool.

And I don't need the tool to get what I needed to do out there. So yeah, I got out of the chair and I started yanking it and dragging it. I knew the race was done for me, like still competing in the race, but I wasn't done with the race. Yeah. Well, that ended up being the most viral photo of the year. I think Cam Haynes mentioned on his podcast that it should be the time photo of the year. And I am like, I don't know how best way to describe this. outside of my children very few things hit nerves in me and make me emotional

but when Trey walked out to me I believe it was Trey was right after the rain came in he's like hey Mike's out there still I was like yeah I know he's dragging his chair I was like what do you mean

he showed me a video and dude that like Eagle parts of like emotion enjoy enjoy and jacked up as I watched that. I was like, dude, send that to me right now and post that my story.

And the amount of like positivity and inspiration and just motivation people got from seeing that was incredible. I'm curious, like how, I can imagine, but I'm curious, how was it received on your end? This is overwhelming.

I had no idea the effect it would have on a lot of people and how it would speak to people. You know, I went into the race with my goals and aspirations and, you know, my coaches talk to me. They're like, what are you going to do if it rains? I was like, I'm going to keep going however I can. And I could never have imagined it being received the way it did. I passed out almost immediately once I got back to a bed and showered and I woke up and I just had like hundreds of messages from people all over the world

of just telling me how it spoke to them and how it lit a fire in them and how they just wanted to push themselves more than they currently are and I'm just like, holy crap, dude. Like, I had no idea. You know, I was out there for, I think, about an hour, dragging the chair, eventually leaving the chair behind and just going on my hands. But, you know, I felt a shift in something.

I was like, I'm supposed to be doing this. And I don't know. if it was the other runners I don't know if it was the other people being out there but I was like I need to keep going this is I felt a part of it was like this is bigger than me and man the runners out there

they were amazing you know I got stuck in the mud they come up to me and they're like let me help carry your chair what can I do and they were just like in awe of like what I was doing and I just I didn't it didn't click to me like that at the time but after after the race was just insane you know I can't even recall all the amazing messages I tried to respond to as many as I could but you know people tell me they were going through cancer treatments and they were lost parts of their body and they couldn't figure out

how to find a way to move forward and see my video and they go out for a run or they set a new PR or a girl in a wheelchair told me she started playing wheelchair soccer, you know, finding a reason from what they saw to go out of their comfort zone. And I'm just like, how the heck did I get in a position to have that kind of effect on people. Yeah. Insane. Yeah, I can't imagine that was part of the bingo card, you know, when you transitioned out of the military years ago.

I was just in my Bible two nights ago, and I was reading in the book of Matthew, the parable of talents. And, you know, God gives these three individuals different amount of talent. And more of the book and the story is that God provides us each individually with different talents for us to go steward and use and multiply in the way that those talents were unique and specific to us as individuals.

And I can only assume that, you know, 2012, you get hit by this IED, you lose both your legs. It's like, what are my talents now? What is my purpose? What am I supposed to do? And it takes years and years and years of you adapting and building and refining to now go to multiply those talents you've been blessed with. Or there's millions of people on the other side that are watching this and you're now changing

their lives, the amount of comments on my YouTube video from the race that I've been like, what is my excuse of why I can't get up and push and go one more and train and get out my comfort zone? And it's like, it's a testament to the purpose that's on you, your mission in life. And the impact is as much larger. than yourself. This is service equally as important as your military service. What you've done while in uniform and out of uniform. Yeah, I had no idea that my life would lead me here.

I couldn't envision that. I knew I was really good at not quitting. And the pursuit of, of finding a better version of myself and everything that I do spoke to a lot of people. I think we always try to improve and we don't know how. And it's really just going out there and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone in whatever shape that takes. It doesn't have to be physical.

It could be mental. It could be showing up more for your family, your friends. The pursuit of becoming a better. version of yourself is something I aspire in everything that I do and was a large contributor of why I want to do this race because there's certain things I wanted to overcome. I attach a goal outside of the goal of a race of like everyone's goal would be when BPN go one more. But I always feel like there's another goal inside of that. You should create something that drives you that creates that passion of why am I doing this? Am I going to be a better person for

enduring this? Or am I just going to win a race? And I feel like if you attach something that speaks to you personally and you find an avenue of self-improvement within that, it will push you well beyond what you think you're capable of. And yeah, that's the approach I took and the response from it is insane. It's the intent you talked about earlier in the conversation. Right. Having a true intent, a genuine intent behind it. Well, brother, I appreciate you.

It was so awesome to see you throw down at the race and get connected. and now have you on the BPN team and to see what you're going to do next and allowing us to be a part of it. I'm very grateful. I'm very proud. Super excited for what you're about to do. I'm excited too, man.

I'm beyond honored to be a part of the team. I love what you guys are doing here, what you're about. The forefront of everything you do has integrity. And that's what I believe should be at the front of everything. everything that you do. And I'm just happy to be a part of BPN and yeah, I'm excited for what the future holds. Thank you, man. Thank you.