The Rich Roll Podcast - From Crash Victim To Elite Athlete: A NYC Firefighter’s Long Run to Wholeness

Episode Date: February 21, 2015

In 2005, New York City firefighter, avid marathoner and ironman athlete Matt Long hopped onto his bike to do what he did every day — ride from his East side Manhattan apartment north to the Randall's Island fire academy where he helped train the city’s bravest. As he crossed 52nd Street, a 20-ton bus made a right turn from the middle lane. The bus didn't just hit him, it dragged his body completely underneath, where Matt was then quite literally impaled by his bike. After receiving 68 units of blood in the first 40 hours post-accident, Matt spent the next month in a coma. When he woke up, the doctors told him he was facing a one percent chance of survival. Matt had other plans. After a 5-month hospital stint and 40 surgeries in under two years, he did more than survive. He finally came alive. The story of Matt’s accident and his comeback quest to tackle the 2008 NYC marathon just 3 years after his accident was first chronicled in an extraordinary story in Runner's World by Charles Butler entitled A Second Life. That story was later adapted and expanded into Matt's exceptionally inspiring memoir, The Long Run* , a work of co-authorship by Long and Butler (not to be confused with my buddy and RRP favorite Mishka Shubaly's equally compelling Kindle Single, also entitled The Long Run*). Today Matt will tell you not only does he not regret the accident, it is the one thing that has made him whole. There are many words that can be used to describe Matt — firefighter, 9/11 first responder, ironman athlete, accomplished marathoner, advocate, bon vivant, husband and father. But one word will suffice: hero. Matt is a man I hold in high regard as an incredible example of the resiliency not just of the physical body, but of the emotional body — the indomitable, boundless strength of the human spirit in selfless service to others. Great guy. Great talk. I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange. Peace + Plants, Rich

I'm not a challenged athlete. I said, I'm an athlete with challenges. There's a big difference. That's Matt Long, and this is The Rich Roll Podcast. The Rich Roll Podcast. All right, podcast listeners, all you people out there in podcastlandia, greetings. My name is Rich Roll. I am your host.

I've been your host since day one. That's why the podcast has my name on it. Welcome to episode 130. Thank you for listening. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for spreading the word to your friends and on your various social media doodads and widgets. Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. Thank you for clicking through the Amazon banner ad at richroll.com for all your Amazon purchases. You might've noticed we've got a new website. It's a website that

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But the reason I'm bringing it up right now is because I've gotten a bunch of messages from people on Twitter and email and stuff like that saying, Hey man, uh, what happened to the Amazon banner ad? I want to support you. Uh, and it's gone. So first of all, let's just talk about how somebody reached out to me to tell me they want to support me and I'm making it difficult for them to do that. Like that in and of itself is amazing. So thank you for even being that engaged or interested to reach out to me and make that extra effort. And yes, the Amazon banner ad did move. It's because we have a new iteration of the site. Everything moved around, but we have it. It's really not that hard to find. If you go to the main podcast page, click podcast on the homepage, it takes you to a main catalog page where you can kind of peruse all the episodes. And you will see right below the main image, right below, there's a paragraph titled Unlock Your Best Self.

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appreciate all you people out there who have made a practice out of using it. It warms my heart. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. This show, this show is about, if it's about anything, it's about unpacking the tools necessary to live your best life, how to live more authentically, how to vibrate at a higher level, how to be more excellent. And so towards this end each week, I sit down with the best and the brightest, most forward-thinking, paradigm-busting minds in health, wellness, fitness, sports, nutrition, the arts, and entrepreneurship to tap their experience, to gain some knowledge from them, to garner some insight, to help you and me, because I'm on this journey with you guys, discover, uncover, unlock, and unleash your best, most authentic self. I think that's a worthy mission. Hopefully you do too. That's why you tuned in. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that

quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can be to find the right place and the right level of care, especially because, unfortunately, not all treatment resources adhere to ethical practices. by the people at recovery.com who created an online support portal designed to guide, to support, and empower you to find the ideal level of care tailored to your personal needs. They've partnered with the best global behavioral health providers to cover the full spectrum of behavioral health disorders, including substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, gambling addictions, and more. Navigating their site is simple. Search by insurance coverage, location, treatment type, you name it. Plus, you can read reviews from former patients to help you decide.

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It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can be to find the right place

and the right level of care, especially because unfortunately, not all treatment resources adhere to ethical practices. It's a real problem. A problem I'm now happy and proud to share has been solved by the people at recovery.com who created an online support portal designed to guide, to support, and empower you to find the ideal level of care tailored to your personal needs. Thank you. disorders, gambling addictions, and more. Navigating their site is simple. Search by insurance coverage, location, treatment type, you name it. Plus, you can read reviews from former patients to help you decide. Whether you're a busy exec, a parent of a struggling teen,

or battling addiction yourself, I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you. Life and recovery is wonderful. And recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. Anyway, this week's guest, I'm really excited about this week's guest, Matt Long, straight up. This guy's a hero. Straight up. New York City firefighter. New York City 9-11 first responder.

Ironman athlete. Marer, icon, with an incredible story that he comes here today to share with you guys. An incredible story of resilience, of overcoming tremendous obstacles to not only survive, but to accomplish things most people would think beyond the imagination. It breaks down like this. Back in 2005, Matt was a firefighter, New York City firefighter. And like he did every day, he hopped on his bike to ride from his apartment on East 48th Street in Manhattan up to Randall's Island, where they have a fire academy. And he was helping train some of the city's young, brave new firefighters. And as he came upon the intersection at 52nd Street,

he started to cross the street and a 20-ton bus made a right-hand turn from the middle lane. That bus didn't just hit him, it dragged him underneath along with his bike and his bike ended up impaling his body. When Matt woke up in the hospital about a month later, the doctors told him that he was facing a 1% chance of survival. 1%. After 68 units of blood in the first 40 hours post-accident, five months in the hospital, 40 surgeries in two years, Matt did more than survive. He came alive.

And the story of Matt's accident and his eventual comeback quest to run the New York City Marathon in 2008, just three years after his accident, is chronicled in his incredible memoir. It's called The Long Run. And for the record, this is the second guy to come on my show on this podcast with a book called The Long Run. And for the record, this is the second guy to come on my show on this podcast with a book called The Long Run. The first, of course, if you're a longtime listener, you will know is my buddy, Mishka Shubali. So sorry, Mishka. But hey, if somebody writes a book called The Long Run, it's almost a given that they're going to, I guess, come on my podcast and talk about it. But the truth is, is that I've been chasing Matt for a long time. I've always wanted to have him on his show. I think his story is so touching and extraordinary. And he's a guy I've been wanting

to meet for years. He's a guy I hold in really high regard as an incredible example of the resiliency of not just the physical body, the fact that he was able to rehabilitate and repair his body enough to run a marathon, but of the incredible resiliency of the emotional body, the resiliency of the spirit. And this is a guy for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for as an example of someone who has leveraged what many would see as a tragedy, but which he sees as just his experience. He's leveraged this for the benefit and service of other people. And that's amazing. He does it through his foundation called the I Will Foundation and through other avenues.

And anyway, he's a great guy. He is a hero. This is a great talk. I am inspired to know this guy and I'm so happy to now have him in my life. This is a good one, people. Seriously. So let's dig in and check out Matt. So you almost burned the building down next door?

Yes, I did. It was fun, but I did. In a past life, in a past incarnation, right? Yes, in a past life. What does a typical day look like for you now? Typical day for me is waking up at 6 and taking the dogs out and then tending to my 2-year-old. Yeah. And getting the older ones off to school. But after 9 o'clock, everything kind of settles down.

The older one's off to school, but after 9 o'clock, everything kind of settles down. Wife goes to work, and I'm back into training or doing whatever I can for the day. And we were talking a little bit before we started recording about how our lives are very different. They're sort of on different paths, but there's these, there's sort of common themes and, and, and they intersect in different ways. Like I sort of, you know, created this disaster for myself to have to look in the mirror and kind of change my ways and live a different life. And, and you had a, you know, a tragic intervening event, but it set you on a different kind of path for your life. And I think that's super interesting. Yeah.

You never know what, when you choose the road you're going to take in life, you never know what's going to happen. And I guess it's an old additive. When I go around talking about it, it's what you do after that event that changes who you are. Yeah, for sure. I mean, something like that,

you have two choices, right? It's either gonna, it's gonna crush you, it's gonna break you, or you have an opportunity to learn from it and grow and, and share something from that. And you obviously chose the latter, but it's the struggle and the journey towards that choice, I think, where, uh, you know I think, where your message is so powerful. Yeah, and that struggle and that journey was not easy. It's funny. I can go around and talk about it. I can laugh about it.

I can make some jokes about different things now. But those, let's say, two years of depression and surgeries and, you know, fighting different weaknesses in my body, it's, you know, it just felt like it was more than two years, like a lifetime. You know, there were multiple, multiple times where I said to myself, I can't do this. There were multiple, multiple times where I said to myself, I can't do this. You know, and you're right. You either just quit and it takes you or you fight. And, you know, I'm not, I don't think I've had any kind of level of success in winning the battle because I'm not who I used to be. And I never will. I'll never run as fast as I did.

You know, I'll never cycle. I'll never be as strong physically as I was. But I'm living my life the best I can, and there's no beating that. Well, I think if you take a more expansive definition of strength, you're a stronger person now. You may not be able to run as fast as you could, but I think in terms of overall strength, I would characterize you as now being an extremely strong person. You know what? It's funny we segue to that because two of men's fitness, fittest men in the world, sit in one room. In the same room at the same time. Unbelievable.

We should call men's fitness and tell them. That's right. Yes. Rich and Matt are doing a push-up contest right now. Yeah, right. It was, I think it was your 2010, that one, right? Or was it the everyman like hero kind of thing? Because that's how they pigeonholed me into that.

I think it was the year, I was 2009. That was the year before you, I think. 2010 was me and they just numbered the amount of surges I had and said, that's why he's here. Yeah, good, man. Yeah, it's cool. But I take it and roll with it. Yeah. Hey, man, listen.

You know what I always say? I was like, not for one second do I believe that I'm one of the 25 fittest men in the world, but that's pretty effective when you're trying to sell a book. It's like a good tagline. Absolutely. Right? But I think, you know, one question that comes to mind, you know, when you're sort of talking about how it was a hard road and such a struggle, you know, I'm sure people say to you every day, like, oh, you're such an inspiration, you know, thank you for your message and all of that. Like, how do you receive that?

Like, when you look back on your, you know, sort of the humanity of that journey and how difficult it was for you? How do you process that? There are times when I get told that and I embrace it and I enjoy it, and that is my finish line. That is my sense of accomplishment or my purpose now. And I really, really take something from it like you were a kid when, you know, they said, wow, what a game you played today. Great game, you know, great job today, good effort. And then there are other times when the person is delivering it to me is worse off than I

was and may never walk again or, you know, lost a leg or lost two legs, and they tell me, I've read your story, and you inspire me not to quit, not to give up. And at that point, I look at my wife or I look at someone close, and I go, I don't want to be this inspiration. This is hard. This is tough because I'm leaving here, and I'm feeling bad for this inspiration. This is hard. This is tough because I'm leaving here and I'm feeling bad for this person.

And he's looking at me like, you know, you're my, this is it. I'm pushing because of you. And he may never walk again. And I have plenty of friends now, because of this journey, two or three that I'm really close with that are still in wheelchairs. And

they let me know that I've inspired them. And I'm never going to tell them not to give up their dreams of walking again. I think deep down they may know it, but their inspiration to live a good life came from me not quitting. And it's hard. That's the hardest part. When you see someone who's overcome it and moved on, awesome. I'm glad I helped you.

When you see someone that is worse than I was, it's very challenging to want to take that role. How often are you going out and doing public speaking? And what does that look like for you now? I've been traveling about 12 to 16 times a year. Wow. So not too bad the last three years. Um, you know, this is speaking season is coming up, so things are rolling around. Um, but, uh, yeah, you know, I take one, I have, I do it because I need it for a living now. And, um, but I like certain audiences better than others because I feel like the message is more received. So I really enjoy speaking to college athletes.

I really enjoy speaking to high school athletes at a certain level. My story is pretty gruesome, I think, for younger kids. What about veterans? I haven't spoken to any veteran groups. That's surprising. I would have thought that you would be somebody who would be great for that. I haven't spoken to any veteran group. That's surprising. I would have thought that you would be somebody who would be great for that. I haven't spoken to any veteran groups.

I've helped personally or been involved on the background of helping some veterans. I really enjoy that, the sacrifice they made. I mean, I guess you could say I paralleled it by being a firefighter. I knew there was a chance in life that something really bad could happen to me with my profession. I didn't think it would be on a bicycle getting to my work. Yeah. The irony of that is amazing, right? Like it just, it happens in such a different way than you would have predicted. You know, if it had happened as a result of you doing your job, that's one thing, but the context in which that occurred is so, is so extraordinary. So let's take it back for, for people who may not have read your book or are not familiar with

your story. You grew up, a bunch of brothers in Brooklyn, firefighter, like set the stage a little bit. Yeah, okay. I'm the second oldest of nine children. I have six brothers and two sisters. Yeah, I like to joke about it. It's, you know, where did I get my competitive nature? Dinner on Friday night.

Dad had a small ice cream parlor. Mom didn't work. How could you work with nine children back in the day? Nine kids. So I think dinner on Friday night was a competitive event. First one in gets the best meal. That's kind of like a firehouse. Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. So I become a firefighter after college and, um, finding my way in wall street really wasn't for me. And I, my dad was like, Hey, you know, just take this test. Uh, in high school, he said, take this test. You need to have a backup plan. And I'm like, ah, you know, when you're 18, you're like, well, who needs a plan? Yeah. I don't need a plan, dad.

But you listen to them. And I took the test, and they called, thank God, because at that point I was out of work. And it was like the first time in my life I was like, wow, I loved it. I loved the job. And I felt like, wow, without knowing, without really growing up saying I was called to be a New York City fireman, it became my calling, and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed going to work every day. It was just unbelievable. However, it took me down this journey that changed. Eventually,

when I realized it changed the way I operated in life, changed the way I went about my daily routines. I got overweight, much like your story, in the fire department, it's a boys club and every night was a party. I mean, guy got promoted, you had a party. Guys retiring, you have a party. You know, guys getting divorced, let's have a party. Right, right. Plus a bunch of guys making food for themselves. It's not going to be on the healthy tip, right? No, no, no. Put another stick of butter in. Do you know, have you ever met rip

esselston do you know the engine 2 diet guy oh no no i turned around his fire yeah yeah so arizona in austin in austin yeah yeah um so anyway long story short on that bringing my uh what we're talking about here to to time um i started and doing this inventory check on my life. That's the way I like to talk about it. I started, you know, why is my back hurting? Why am I not as happy going to work anymore? Why am I not doing this? How old were you at that time?

About 35, 36. All right, I'm 28 pounds overweight. You know, things are changing in the firehouse. Guys are getting younger, stronger, bigger I found running I was an athlete my whole life But I found running now There was nothing that could clear your head

Better than a 60 minute run in the park You didn't need anything It wasn't as complicated as today You have your goose What pills are you using We just went out and ran. Well, it should be that way now anyway, but that's a different conversation.

So anyway, I started getting into endurance sports, triathlons, and running and making every race count and all this stuff. And lo and behold, I started using my bicycle as my means of transportation. And it was christmas time nine years ago and uh the new york city transit authority decided to go on strike shut the city

down millions of tourists no one can get around the city was jam-packed and i had it was like 18 degrees i got on my bike and i wasn't that strong of a person 18 degrees I was getting in my car right but just to like like hit the pause button here for a second you're kind of like glossing over the fact that like you weren't just out running and riding your bike like you were you were killing it right you did you did Ironman like Placid you qualified for Boston running like you were doing very well as an endurance athlete you weren't just dabbling like you were excelling. Yeah, I was excelling. I was excelling and I thought I could have done better. So I was on a mission to do better.

But this particular day was just transportation. Private bus that was hired to get workers past restriction zones in the city, you know, made a wrong turn. This guy made a judgment call in life that I'm sure he's upset about. But he just turned down a block that he shouldn't have turned down. He didn't see me. And next thing you know, the laws of physics as it comes to the accident investigators didn't exist with me. They normally say that in an accident like this,

I would have bounced off the bus, and the second impact is what would have killed me. Instead, I got sucked under the bus. So the bus is going up Third Avenue. It takes a right on 52nd Street, and you're there in the bike lane. Yep. And instead of bouncing off, you go underneath the bus and get dragged. Got swept under, and yeah, he just kind of honked on me.

Right. All right, so do you have memory of that happening, or is it all a blur? It's a bit of a blur. Over time, anything that I've been able to translate to other people has been told to me you know i do remember and i have dreams about it all the time putting my left hand up in the air as the bus was on my left side and like kind of reaching up to the like slap the side of the bus says, no, no, no, stop. And then that was it. I do have very vague memories of talking to, like, again, it's a small city, even though there's 8 billion people here.

I knew all the firemen on the east side. So as soon as they pulled my Nomex hood off and I heard one of the firemen say, you know, oh, my God, it'sdie Long from 43 truck. I closed my eyes, like almost to say like, I'm in good hands now. And that's it. You know, then the next six weeks I was in a medically induced coma and not knowing anything. Yeah. It wasn't just that, you know, you were in an accident. You were about as close to death as somebody's going to come. Absolutely. I mean, my doctors say 1%. I'm still friendly with all my doctors, and when we go out to dinner, they so calmly brush over what happened to me. I'm like, hey, hey, hey, I'm sitting right here. They're like, you were an academic exercise.

I'm like, what? I'm here. Yeah, what does that mean? Because, like, it was such an anomaly that you would actually survive. Yeah. He just had his residents and his interns or whatever you call them in the medical profession, and he's had them there saying, okay, what would we do for this guy if he was going to live? If he was going to live.

If. And they all just, I said, how do you guys do that? I mean, that's amazing that you can just shut it off and do that. I'm blessed and honored and I feel privileged that I went to the greatest or what I think is the greatest hospital in the world. But how do you – you can't teach that. Well, it's almost an emotional defense mechanism, right? If they're going to be seeing people like every single day, they can't get emotionally invested in it. They wouldn't be able to function, right?

I agree. And one of the things he told me too late in the morning was, he goes, I was more concerned about your life, not your quality of life. So, because, you know, afterwards, and I leave the hospital all attached with different tubes and things. I was, he was like, I was like, why would you help me so I could live like this? I'm not living. And he's like, well, that's not my problem. My problem is to save your life. My job is to save your life.

He goes, which we didn't think we'd do. You're an academic exercise. We were just going through the motions. And we left the room multiple times to come back thinking you'd be expired. And, you know, your heart rate's going to 28 beats a minute. This freaking guy's still alive. My doctor was a marathon runner, but he was out there doing it,

four and a half, five hour guy. And when he went outside to tell my mom and dad that they're doing the best they can, we have about a 1% chance of survival. And my mom was like, my mom, stubborn Irish Catholic woman, she just said to the doctor, said, Doc, he asked to survive. And he's like, I'm sorry? He's like, well, he just qualified for Boston,

and I don't know if you run, but that's a really big deal, and he's got to run Boston in April. And the doctor was like, well, go back inside a minute. I don't think you really understand what's going on here. But then he gave me a 5% chance. So run down the list of injuries. We'll go from the feet up. My left foot leg from heel to hip broken.

Compound fractures. All fractures were compound. Skinned open. Bones out. Tip, fib, femur. My right side of the pelvis was shattered. My abdominal wall was torn out of my body by the bike. I was basically cut open from stem to stern. So from my sternum to my rectum, I was ripped in half.

My right shoulder was crushed. And thank God, no head trauma. You know, thank God, no head trauma. But the bulk of the life and injuries was not the broken bones. It was the bite cutting me from my sternum to my rectum, severing my femoral artery, severing the sacral nerves, you know, the major pathway through your body, mind to muscle, just cut in half. Right. And so when you come out of this coma and start to realize the gravity of your circumstance,

what's going through your head? I don't think I realized it at first because I kind of remember the first thing I said to the doctor when I saw him was, when can I go home? Meanwhile, I'm holding, I'm resting my arms on a piece of metal that I just thought was like a shelf connected to my bed. And then I realized it was an external fixator holding my pelvis together. And I realized it was a part of me. And at that point, I was kind of like, why? You know, why me?

And I don't really think that I don't want to start a pity party for myself, and I never really did. Maybe I had my own, but it was why did I live, not why did this happen to me. But, okay, it happens to people all the time. In fact, we could be sitting here now, and something could be happening on the west side of the city. But why am I still here?

Why am I left to go through this? 42 surgeries. Why, why? And that is something that I played out in my head over and over and over again. What did I do? Why am I deserving of this? Like on some karmic level. Yeah.

I just couldn't figure it out. And I wanted to, but I couldn't. Do you feel like you've answered that question for yourself now? Well, I think, yeah, I know what the answer would be. We would reaffirm. Yeah. I, I, I, I think that when I look back at my life, all the things I've been through, I think that when I look back at my life, all the things I've been through, you know, I was rolling around life through the motions. You know, was I successful?

Yes, in some people's eyes, I was. I was a fireman. I owned two or three bars and restaurants in Manhattan. I was single. So, you know, dating wasn't a problem. Maybe it was a problem. Maybe I did it too much. I don't know. But so, yeah.

I got some of your ex-girlfriends outside. We're going to bring them in. Yeah. I'll take curtain number one, please. So but I think that I started to really kind of think back and like, well, why? What was I doing? Like, you know, if it had ended, what would they have said about me? What would your legacy have been?

Yeah, and I don't think it would have been much. You know, he was a good time guy. Everybody loved Matty. Yeah. And now, post-accident, I'm fortunate enough that I had this, you know, by no means do I think I did this on my own. Okay. I had a support group. I had tremendous family, fire department family, and was touched with written letters or emails from around the world. How my, this little fireman story, you know, of don't give up spread helped me not quit. And for some reason, going through the endurance world and, you know, pushing myself for Ironman and to get fast enough for Boston.

I built strength to not quit this journey. Strength to not quit this journey. And now it's funny. I'll go talk and I'll talk to 250 people. And there's Q&A and no one raises their hands. And then I'm like, it's okay. I'm going to be in the elevator. And someone's going to be going, I can't believe how much you told me.

I can't tell you. I got to tell you something. And I'm like, well, why didn't you raise your hand? And I help them. But now why didn't you raise your hand? You know, and I helped them. But now. This is a very personal thing. You know, it's, I think it taps into people's fears and, you know, makes them question what their own life trajectory is all about. And that's something that most people are not comfortable discussing in a public forum.

True, true, true. You know, but the short answer of that is I feel like I have a purpose now, and it's not going to be a world-saving purpose, but it could be a life-saving purpose for one person. And if I can do that. Well, certainly it's already been that. Yeah, I would like to think it has, yes. Yeah, yeah. Yes.

So do you look back on it now? Like in addiction recovery, you always hear the guy who says, like, I'm a grateful alcoholic, right? And when I was new in the program, I was like, what does that mean? Why would you be grateful for something like that? I understand that now. So I guess my question is, do you look back on what has happened to you with a level of gratitude? Or do you like what is your perspective on it? Do you feel like this is, this has been a gift? Or, or does it still is it still something you you know, it's, it's a burden? Do you still ask yourself why? I don't think I ever looked at it as a gift, but I have been asked if I could have that bus

miss me, if I can go back in time and have that bus miss me. Knowing what I know now, would I? And my honest answer is no. Knowing what I know now, the way I've touched people and my own life, never thought I'd be married. I'm married now. I never thought I'd have a child. I have a child. All that would go away if I could have that bus miss me. So, no.

So I would say yes. It's a gift. It's a gift that's personal to me and my journey and has quite frankly, shaped the person I was supposed to be. Does that color your idea of spirituality or faith or, you know, whether it's religion or some kind of non-dogmatic version of that,

like, you know, this idea of everything for a reason. It definitely strengthened that 100%. I do believe I'm a firm believer of everything for a reason. It definitely strengthened that 100%. I do believe, I'm a firm believer, everything happens for a reason. And I don't believe that everyone answers the call when they have an event like this or when they have any kind of event, and it could be very small. And I'm sure that in my life before the accident, there were plenty of times where I've been called to step up and, hey, you have a fight here. Or, you know, you could stay in the bar and continue to drink your beers and have a good time, be, you know, party time. So, yeah, it definitely strengthened my sense of faith.

And I believe in God. I believe that, you know, he let me or allowed me to survive this accident so that I can keep someone else from quitting. And when does the idea of starting to try to, I want to get back to like the timeline, like the idea of wanting to run again. Like, you know, certainly you have this, you know, very long protracted series of procedures, operations, you know, this idea that, you know, you're going to be crippled, you know, probably in a wheelchair, all of these sorts of things that you're having to weather. Like, I want to walk through that to get to the point where the idea of actually running a marathon starts to enter your mind okay so uh yeah i spent five months in the hospital um i when i when i was hurt i was

probably about 176 177 pounds you know really in in good shape and um physically and aerobically I was in perfect shape. And that had all dwindled away. By the time I am exiting the hospital, I'm 122 pounds. Can stand for maybe two to three minutes at a time. How long were you in the hospital? Five months. Five months. Yeah, five months and two days to be exact. And I think at that point I've gone through maybe about 30, 33 surgeries

and it was time to go home knowing there'd be more surgeries. So there was quite a long period of time where my battles became more mental. In the hospital you're being taken care of. You had a button. Anything I needed I hit the button.

But now your home is when I started to mentally realize that wow this could be the rest of my life. So there was some very low moments where I wished that I had not lived. What was the lowest moment? We can just be open. I guess the lowest moment is when I had a colostomy bag and I'm in a wheelchair and I'm prepping for a surgery. So I don't know why. I still had to clean my system out.

But I'm just emptying myself all over my bathroom because I can't physically move. And I have my number nine, that's what I call him, my younger brother Eddie, number nine, taking care of me, cleaning, cleaning me, cleaning up after me. And once that was said and done, I just remember saying, I looked over at the counter and I had the medication and the volume of medication to end it. And I never, well, what if I didn't have enough? Then what happens?

Then I'm a burden to everyone. So those thoughts came and gone quickly. I never battled with them too much. They got in my head, and I'm like, you're crazy, you're crazy. You survived now. You've got to get your act together. And it wasn't until a couple months after that that my mom really gave me the old tough, you know, Hey, this is it. Enough's enough. Got to, got to do what you got to do

with your life. You got to make it the best you can. Good Catholic mom, like slapping you around, wake up. And basically said, if you want to be a miserable son of a bitch, do it by yourself. And, and that hit home. And then I started to think about all the things that, um, cause she's not going to be codependent in this sort of... Yeah, she wanted nothing to do with it. She wanted nothing to do with the pity. She's like, look, you're here, you're alive, we're happy. You should be happy.

You didn't get hit by the bus, but we're here. We were there every night, every day. And we're here now if you want us to be. Much like your journey where your parents said hey when you're ready call us but until then right you're out so it was pretty much the same thing um and and and then the attitude changed that at that point the attitude changed i i stopped thinking about the things that were taken from me i stopped thinking about the words i can't and now i joke about it when i talk i, if you wake up every morning and say you can't go back to bed, I say, don't go to work because you're useless.

Just call the boss. I'm taking an I can't day. And the attitude became I will. And let's say two to three months of really not going through the motions of therapy anymore, really paying attention to the therapist, really pushing myself. And when they were happy, I stood and walked six steps. I was happy I walked six steps. And I said, okay, now what would I do before my accident? Well, let's walk seven steps.

And let's walk eight. And now let's do those eight steps faster and on and on and on. And then eventually I said to myself, enough's enough. I have to close this page of my life and move on. And the only way I'm going to do it is if I'm able to run again, I don't want the bus to take something I loved away from me. You know, I'll leave it on my own terms. When you talk about the physical therapy, uh, and rehab, what about the mental and emotional, like where, you know, the, the, the psychologist, the psychiatrist, the shrinks, the emotional aspect of trying to repair yourself?

I went. I went a couple times to a psychiatrist, and I don't think he was the right match for me. Yeah, it sounds like that was a misfire. Yeah, it was a big misfire. And I just, you know, I'm kind of that guy, maybe get blindsided in a conversation and you miss all the facts around it. And all I heard was, you know, my tennis elbow keeps me from playing tennis. And I was like, does this freaking guy just tell me his tennis elbow?

And that's always in my head. And I was like, I'm out of here. You got the wrong guy. And then I learned that, you know, sometimes the best therapy is right in front of you. And here I am being driven to therapy by a fireman, a friend of mine, who has a rare blood disease after being down at 9-11 for months and months. And his fate is unknown maybe uncurable and you know i'm feeling bad for myself because i'm gonna may live may live in a wheelchair so me and him started to talk and that became my therapy you know i kept sitting here looking at him saying you know

how do you get up every day come and take care of me when you don't know what lies ahead for you? Right. So, yeah. That's powerful, man. I mean, that's a lot like, you know, I mean, that's basically the foundation of addiction recovery. One addict or alcoholic talking to another. Yeah. Being able to share that common experience.

Find strength in that. And we did. We shared a lot of stories and a lot about fears, and he helped me through a lot of things. I mean, I think he might have been one of the first firemen that I was able to cry in front of. And that helped. That helped, and that pushed me.

And that's it. I haven't been to a psychiatrist since. But I'm not saying that I don't suffer from any post-traumatic stress or anything. I just deal with it differently. Right. You know, and I'm lucky enough that I could still deal with it on a bike. Yeah. So how did Ironman, marathon running, that experience of training, pushing your body, understanding your physical limitations and all of that, how did that play into the physical recovery going from six steps to seven steps and being able to maintain focus and positivity well at first it wasn't um any help at all because i

couldn't let go of the athlete i was or the athlete i was actually getting in the way it was getting in the way because as my therapist um you know one of the things we we started to do and i had when when the wheels started turning and i said i was talking to your wife earlier about it and i said you know uh i started researching everything i said, I was talking to your wife earlier about it, and I said, you know, I started researching everything. I'm doing everything I can to get better. So when some people say, oh, did you try acupuncture? I'm like, I did. Did it work?

I go, I don't know. And they're like, why don't you know? I said, because I did acupuncture. You did 20 things. I did everything together. So I'm going to say, yes, it worked, you know, for me. So I remember when my one therapist i had um hired my therapist to come home and one day a week from the hospital when i was home i was doing therapy three days

in the hospital gym three days and then two days a week the therapist came to me and we would just go out and walk and you know i went from two crutches we'd walk around the block and i go time me and next week she come back what was that time you write that down well i kept my journal so when she'd get happy that i walked around a city block in 13 minutes i started to say well you know i'm two miles in already yeah the old man it's two miles in 13 minutes come on you know this is nonsense don't get happy for me this is not a good time but it's about changing your perspective it It's not about like, Oh, I'm qualifying for Boston or, you know, how am I going to get to Kona as an Ironman athlete? It's how am I going to go around the block, you know, 30 seconds faster than I did last week. Right. And that's when things started

to tick and change. And, and that's when I had to say, for now, I had to say goodbye to the memory of the athlete that was before the bus. And say, forget about his results, but don't forget about the work he put in to become that athlete. So let's put that work in here and get faster. And let's put that work in fast and get rid of one crutch and get on your own feet. So how did you flick that switch? and get on your own feet. So how did you flick that switch? Like, was there something happening or was that a gradual kind of realization

that that was the attitude you were going to have to adopt? It was very gradual, but it definitely came from the two therapists, the two girls that had helped me. They'd come in, they'd eventually tell me, they'd look, you know, this is emotionally draining for us. You're making us cry every time we leave here. And I'm like, why? And they're like, because you're so hard to accept

the progress. You don't see it. You know, you shouldn't be alive. And you're walking around the block. Accept that. And I was like, wow. I was like, you know what? You're right. Find the gratitude in that. I said, you're right. I'm sorry. And I didn didn't know i was making you cry and and i said you're right and let's let's let's let's set some goals now let's set some things let's put some things in order and you know i said to myself once i was walking without or at least down to a cane that's when i started to look for other places to go and leave the city for a little while and that's when i said to myself, you know what, I will run again. And that's it. And they're like, all right.

So I did it. I went out to Arizona, trained. I treated myself like an athlete. I rented a small apartment near the Arizona State, found a place that would accept me for therapy. And I just in an email sent them my story, sent them newspaper links. And I said, I want to run again.

And these two young, one therapist and one strength coach emailed me back saying, we'd never tell anyone they couldn't run. And I flew out there. That was it. That was it. Just that one little,

like that little ray of hope. Yep. The other places I had emailed, some of them wrote back, set realistic goals. You know, you've been through a lot. And I was just like, delete, delete, delete. I wanted to email them back and it just would have gone nowhere.

You've been arguing. Yeah. So when I saw this email, I called them up. I said, where's a good place to live there? And they said, well, why don't you go down by Arizona State? And I said, okay. So I flew out there with a friend, and he flew home the next day. We got an apartment.

I got a car with handicap controls. I started driving again. I haven't driven a car in two and a half years. And that was it. I told them my goal. I'm here for three months. I said my goal is to get strong enough to run. And the day I left, I ran my first mile. Wow. 22 minutes. Wow. So what was it that they had to kind of put back

together? Like what were the mechanics of trying to get you from somebody who is on crutches to somebody who could actually run with him? With them, I went back to basic strength building. And three days a week was therapy. There was some massage therapy involved. More the functional movements that you would get in the hospital. Let's work on your rotator cuff. Let's work on your hip. Let's work on your hamstring. And then the two days a week with the strength coach was his method of basically, look, your body doesn't just move up and down.

It moves in multiple directions so let's start teaching those muscles they have to operate in multiple directions and we started you know he calls it triplex training and um and i was doing very simple stuff in a stretch cage just lunging to the right lunging to to the left, turning and twisting. And it eventually started to work, started firing up the muscles. In his theory, and I agree now wholeheartedly, the body wants to be healthy. And when one part of the body can't do its job, the muscles around it say, all right, how can we pitch in? So to this day, I don't have a glute. So I'm looking at you and I'm sitting on my left butt cheek just to keep me level level if i go like that you know i'm down i have no muscle on the

right side for my right glute so all the muscles around it pitch in to help me walk right so that's what we wanted to do and and and what kind of range of motion do you i mean you have a you have a titanium rod running down the left leg and a nine inch titanium screw going through my pelvis i'm from the right side um but um my range of motion is pretty good uh in fact it may be more so on my right side because my pelvis was reset almost a half inch to an inch higher so um the there's a lot of movement on my right side right that I can't control. If I do stretch and stuff like that, I do it with a band or a rope that I learned at the Wharton Performance Center here in the city

because they took me to the next level. And I control it because once I get to a certain point, I can be like, whoa, and I'm like, what happened to your leg? I'm like, I'm sorry. All right, so when you finally accomplish that goal and you run that one mile, I mean, this is a watershed moment. I mean, this isn't just, it's not just, hey, I want to run again because I love running. I mean, this is a symbolic, you know, accomplishment that I think means much more than just, you know, I've repaired myself enough that I can move my body better than I could three months prior. Yeah, it was.

I was frightened, to be honest with you. I was frightened. I said to them, well, you know, we had no attempt at running before this. No attempt. And I said, well, I guess I'll fall three times. If I fall three times, we stop and walk back and go back to work. But I ran the whole way without falling. And at the very moment of my last step, I looked at my watch and said,

we still got 20 minutes left on our therapy session. Let's go inside and go to work because I want to run the marathon. And they were like, excuse me? I said, yeah. This was a part of the steps I wanted to take. I said, I need to cross that finish line. I said, I don't care how long it takes me, but I need to finish my marathon.

And the reaction? And they were pretty cool about it. They both actually said, they both at mark uh the therapist was like you run the marathon i'll be there that's okay and i said kyle he goes i'll try that's okay so um left arizona in april but hold on a second so is that is that floating around in your head like all right i'm gonna get through this one mile i'm gonna make this announcement i mean obviously you're thinking about this but are you thinking'm going to get through this one mile. I'm going to make this announcement. I mean, obviously, you're thinking about this. But are you thinking like, if I can do this one mile, then I'm going to say that the marathon is my goal?

Or was that a spontaneous sort of thing that came to you? Complete spontaneous. I had always thought about it. It was like, will I ever run again? Blah, blah, blah. Finished the marathon. But the way it came out was complete spontaneous. Like just the elation of getting through that one mile.

Getting through the one mile and then knowing myself, knowing who I was as a person before. I'm very goal-driven. I need something to look forward to. Otherwise, I'll fall through the motions again in life. So as soon as I completed that, and their question was, well, what do you want to do now? I said, that's it.

I want to run the marathon. I said, but we've got 25 minutes left, so let's get back to work. And we started strength building again. And the next day, I got on my plane and came home. And then that's when I started researching, well, who takes me to the next step in New York? And who was that? All fingers pointed to Jim and Phil Wharton of the Wharton Performance Center. They got a place in Arizona and they got a place here.

And then what he did was he took me from what I did in Arizona, which was more one-dimensional, therapeutic. He took me to more, I'm sorry, over there I was on all different planes and three-dimensional exercises. And he took me to, let's concentrate on your weaknesses. Let's get the muscles, let's give the muscles that have been helping you a break, and let's work on the hamstring that doesn't work. Let's work on the glute that doesn't work. Let's fire these up. Let's start thinking about what you're doing. And when I went to him for an evaluation, he gave me a piece of paper.

He wrote down, he goes, write down your medical problems and issues. And I wrote, first of all, it was only two lines. So I just wrote, fucked. And put an exclamation point. Jim came in. He's like, this guy's fucked. And I said, yeah, I'm sorry, Jim. There's nothing else. I just don't want to write anymore about what's wrong. I told him my whole story. And he said, yeah, I'm sorry, Jim. There's nothing else.

I just don't want to write anymore about what's wrong. I told him my whole story. And he goes, damn. All right. He goes, let's unfuck you. Let's unfuck you. Yeah, let's tell a new story. Yep.

You know? Tell me about the pain. Like, you know, there's the challenge of trying to run this one mile, but what are you experiencing physically when you're trying to do that? At this point, I'm still taking some pain meds. I was going to say, what kind of meds are you on? What does that look like? I was still on a low dose of Oxy and a slow release like Percocet

that I learned pretty much by myself when and when not to take it so that I would get through the training session or get through the night of sleep that you need. Because to this day, I talk to everyone I train or people I train with. I'm like, what you're doing now is great, but if you don't rest tomorrow, you're not building yourself. You're not making yourself any stronger. They think they're going to get it now if they keep yeah so um uh i was able to deal with the pain on a day-to-day basis going through the training regimen and the

therapy it was the pain that i suffered after attempts of running and, um, you know, going in. Cause you know, look now I'm now at this point now I'm doing pain management, but now I'm trying to get onto a marathon plan, you know,

in five months. And, you know, um, it's, it's a lot harder to run slow than it is to get it over with in three hours. And you're out there for so much longer.

And I'm going to be out there for double the amount of time. And I was. I was out there for seven and a half hours. So the day after my runs, my recovery days were brutal, were really brutal. And it all stemmed from my lower back or that right side glute stabilizer muscle area that were gone and non-existent. After a couple, not even miles, after a half mile, which would take me eight to 10 minutes, the swagger I had when I run just crushed my back. Yeah, you're exposing yourself to injuring yourself in all kinds of other crazy ways trying to do that, right?

But it's also this transition of going from rehabilitative to being kind of proactively athletic, right? It's taking you out of the context of we're rehabilitating you after this accident to, okay, you're an athlete and we're preparing you for an event. Like that's a mental shift as well as a sort of a physical and kind of program, you know, kind of alteration, the way that you're perceiving how you're approaching your day-to-day, you know, physical routine. Absolutely. And going back to a question we talked about before, now this is where I am in marathon training before the accident starts to help me. Right.

So now you're starting to think like, are you starting to feel like you, yeah, you can tap into this. I know this, like this feels familiar. Like I'm back in that lane. Right.

I'm not, you know, I'm not worried about the time I'm producing in my efforts right now, but I know that I can go the distance. I know that, you know, I've been on those hundred mile bike rides by myself to train myself. And I am in when your head starts telling you, what are you doing out here?

You know, maybe you should just pull over and stop. You know, you fight those demons. So I said, I've beaten those demons before. I can push myself to the point where others would sit down and take that break. So I just need to know that I got to do it. It's going to take a lot longer now. And what are your buddies telling you now? And like, what's your family saying?

I mean, are they being supportive? Yeah, most of the people were 100% supportive to me. Now, whether they, when I left the room, said, you know, what's he thinking? Or we're worried about what's going to happen if he doesn't, this doesn't work out. Right. So I didn't know too much of that. I had my two friends, Frank Carino and Noel Flynn,

both sub three hour marathon runners. They were with me pretty much through my training and they were going to run the race with me that day. It was like two nights before the marathon. My brother, Jim, who was also a fireman, he calls me up And at this point In training I got to 14 miles And it took me about Four hours

So Jim Wharton said And I shut down I had to be, actually, thank God for cell phones And some of the modern changes in life I had to call my buddy and say Look, I'm sitting on the side of the road changes in life i had to call my buddy and say look i'm sitting on the side of the road in the park i can't move and my hip locked up my back was seized up i i they literally came got me put me in a cab picked me up in a firehouse and put me in a garbage pail

full of ice and um so i told jim i said jim wharton I said, I couldn't get past 14 miles. We have two months or months, five weeks. I said, what are we going to do? And he just said, yeah, we're going to adapt. We're going to adapt. We know we can get it done. We know we can finish. We know you can keep going. He goes, now we just got to take care of the body, get you to healthy.

So we dialed it down, and it was more of a mental thing than it was a physical thing now for me to complete that marathon. So two nights after that event, my brother calls me up and says, you know, the local newspapers are making a story about this fireman making an incredible comeback less than three years from near fatal accident. He said to me, what are you going to say to him if you fail? And I said, excuse me? Excuse me?

What did you just say? He said, well, Jim. He goes, Matt, if you don't finish, they're going to want to know why. You're a story no matter what now. And what if you don't finish? And I said to him, did you wake up this morning and say you're going to kick me in the balls? He goes, that's what you just did. Like, well, you know, how is that helpful?

I'm like, you know, we kind of had to chuckle like we just did. And he said, no, I'm just trying to be honest with you. And I said, okay. You know, I appreciate it. I said, it took me a little bit of time. And I said, you know what I'm going to tell him? I said, three years ago I was supposed to die.

If I finish 20 miles tomorrow and leave 6.2 on the course, it's not 6.2 miles of failure, but 20 miles of success behind me. And that's the way I'm going to look at it. How about just showing up at the start line?

You know what I mean? Some would think that was a success thing there. It goes back to this idea that I know you feel strongly about, which is it's the journey, man. It's the journey. Like you had the balls to stand up, the spine to say, I'm going to tackle this and take this on. And yeah, I might fail. I don't know, but I'm going to show up for it. And, you know, five weeks earlier, I seized up at 14 miles and here I am, I'm still going to do this. And whether or not you succeed or fail, I think is irrelevant. And you can't control how, you know, the narrative that the media is going to adapt around that. But

I would imagine, you know, they're going to still celebrate the fact that you even tried. And I think, you know, what we haven't really talked about is that you were, you took this on very much in the spotlight because, you know, in the wake of your accident, this was a big story, right? So people were paying attention. People knew who you were. They're watching you, right? And so the pressure that came along with that, whether you cave and decide, you know, I can't take this on or you decide to rise to the occasion, that's a story regardless. Yeah, you're right. And it's funny that you say that because part of the reasons for me leaving New York to go to Arizona was to try to get away from that. And what was the icing on the cake one night?

And my daily routine became, okay, get the crutches on, get taken care of, get cleaned up, and now I'm going to take the one-block journey to Starbucks to get my coffee in the morning and walk back to my apartment. That was part of me getting out into the fresh air. And the homeless guy outside Starbucks sees me walking in and he goes, my man, you're the guy that got hit by the bus. And I was like, oh, yeah. Oh, man, I've been praying for bus. And I was like, oh, yeah. Oh, man, I've been praying for you.

And I'm like, well, I'm praying for you too. I said, thank you very much. And I went inside. I'm like, even the homeless guy knows who I am. So I need to get away. That's so funny. All right. So you get that phone call.

You have that 14-mile experience. Was that still your longest run leading up into the marathon? So you didn't try to go out there and trump that before race day? Nope. I didn't try again. I kept any outdoor running between three and five miles. And we were down to three days a week at that. And then everything else was done

either just to build some aerobic power and i was swimming um i was doing indoor cycling um and i was on the elliptical so i would to mix it up i would do maybe all three for an hour or there were times when i was on an elliptical for three hours. Right, but just not as much pounding, even pounding. And the recovery time has to be far greater. What else you're doing? I would imagine you're doing ice baths. The rest aspect of what you were doing had to really require a bunch of focus. 100%.

I was doing ice baths. I was doing acupuncture at this time. I was doing everything to try to regenerate nerves. I was taking every recovery supplement that you read about. Someone's doing this. Okay, I'll do that. No, no, put your left hand in the air when you do that. Anything.

This worked for me. I was trying it all. I was really trying it all. So more importantly, I was mentally focused and, and you're right. You're a hundred percent right. It, looking back, it is about the journey more than it is about the finish. Um, but my journey wasn't over until I, for me, until I crossed that finish line you know mentally it it it kind of gave me this um gave me this victory over so maybe it wasn't really about crossing the finish line of the marathon but but give me

the victory over the bus to say well you didn't take running from me you know i'm not fast anymore i don't even look good while i'm running but you didn't take it away from me. You know, I got, I still have that if I want it. Yeah. It doesn't have that power over you. Right. And you know, I obviously went further from that day, but at some point it turned around and say, well, these are the things I love. These are the things that strengthened me. These are the things that gave me enjoyment and I still have them, but now I'm leaving them on my terms, not because you hit me. Right, right, right, right. And when you show up on race day, are you thinking, I'm finishing this thing? Or are you thinking, I don't know, man, but I'm here. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to give it a try. Like what's the mental state?

Marathon Sunday, you know, they gave me a three hour head start with the Achilles track athletes. And, um, I was grateful because I was like, oh, you know, the firemen three-hour head start with the achilles track athletes and um i was grateful because i was like oh you know the firemen are all gonna be done everyone's gonna be done out partying already like i said party everything in part of maryland so um i so i had appealed to the achilles track club and and they were grateful enough to to let me start with them and there was about 30 of us hand cycles wheelchair amputees blind runners it was amazing and from the naked eye to nothing really looked until i started to move you wouldn't think anything was wrong with me uh mary wittenberg the the head of uh new york roadrunners um she gave me a big shout out as she started that little group of of uh achilles athletes and i used

to tell my friends you know they like oh challenged athletes i'm like well i'm not a challenged athlete i said i'm an athlete with challenges there's a big difference so that's the way i kind of looked at it and um i didn't know if i'd finish okay but multiple little things happened along people i saw uh in fact so since i had a three-hour head start the fireman weren't even at Didn't know if I'd finish. Okay. But multiple little things happened along. People I saw. In fact, so since I had a three-hour head start, the firemen weren't even at the starting line yet. Oh, wow. They were still at the hotel in the city loading their buses. And as I'm going over the Arizona Bridge, line of buses stopped. And they're out the windows yelling my name, waving their flags.

And I was just like, wow. Go, Maddie. They all passed me at mile 16. So that was a kick in the balls right there. Yeah, yeah. Well, you've got to be that guy who's like, here come the elite women. Here come the elite women. Yeah, that was my first up-close-and-personal view of Carrick Goucher.

Right. So I was like, wow. Paula Radcliffe. She's pretty cute. Yeah. Yeah, wow, she's pretty cute. Yeah. Wow. So, so, uh, you know, walk me through that experience. I mean, you know, there's nothing like the New York marathon. I mean, just the, the incredible, uh, you know, environment, the supportive, you know, crowds the entire way. I mean, there's just,

there's, there's no other race like it. And for you to be this hometown story, you know, that everybody is kind of, you know, they're up to speed on, everybody knows what's going on with you. I mean, it had to be, you know, despite the incredible challenges and struggles of, of trying to get through those 26 miles to kind of absorb that support along the way had to carry you quite a bit it it absolutely did and and luckily enough that that i've involved myself in new york city so much through fireman through growing up in brooklyn um that you know almost like we didn't even talk about you being like at ground zero and 9 11 the experience of 9 11 and all of that i mean it's just you're you're

you're part of the fabric of this city. Yeah. Right. That's a good way to look at it. It's true. And, and, and fortunate for me that that 26 point mile journey at every point, there was someone there that at this point where the same reason why I left New York city is why, what I needed to finish this marathon. I needed someone to say, there's Matt. There's that guy. I'm sure you got a lot of that. I got a lot of it for the first nine miles because it was just us.

It was just me, Noel, Frank, and Charlie Butler, the guy who co-wrote my book with me. And so we got a lot of that in the early morning. And then when the runners started to come by me, you know, I started with 30 Achilles track club athletes, and I finished in 40,000th place. So 39,970 people passed me, and a good chunk of them patted me on the back as they went by or gave me words of encouragement. So they pushed me through a lot of the early miles. And then you hit mile 15, 14 to 16, you're on First Avenue. Well, that's where I just lived for five months in a hospital. My therapist, they were out on the avenue cheering me on at the finish line.

My doctors and his family were there. And one of the best moments of my finish you know i was emotional i cried and my family was there but one of the best moments is when my trauma surgeon dean lorich has i think he's three girls now and his baby was born just a month or two after i was hurt and he had to leave his home during christmas he had to leave he had to get his wife out Christmas. He had to leave. He had to get his wife out of bedrest and to get only to get to the hospital just to help be a part of saving my life. And he looked at his daughter and said, his older daughters and said, this is why

daddy's not home. And, you know, I, I looked at them and I said, thank you. Thank you for understanding that, you know, cause that's tough. He's a trauma surgeon. He's just not a guy you make an appointment with. And that was one of my best moments with him, at least. I'm still friends with him, and I'm very grateful that they sacrificed their lives and had their calling to be the best that they could be. Extraordinary. Yeah, I mean, it's easy to kind of go, Oh, you know, Matt and his, you know, amazingly inspirational story and look, look what he did. And that, that belies the fact

that there is this extraordinary team of people, you know, behind every success, whether athletic, professional or otherwise, like you don't get there alone. And, you know, it's cool to hear you recognize all the people that help you on your journey you definitely don't get there alone you don't you know whether you meet them when you're falling down that ladder again uh you know to i don't know but um but you don't you don't achieve true success by yourself and whether that's happiness or financial success, whatever, you don't, you know, and that person, I'd be wary of the person who says,

I did this by myself. I'm self-made. And screw you, because that's what he would do or she would do. Yeah, self-made is an illusion, I think. So what was the feeling when you crossed the finish line? You know, at first I remember the finish line, and there's some controversy around my finish.

It was probably a bad judgment call, but I don't know if you've ever seen the videos, Rich, but there was an incident right before the finish. Let me not defend my actions, but I'll tell you them because it's part of what I did, so you have to own up to it. I'm out there for seven hours and 18 minutes. At mile 25.8, I stop. And didn't say a word. I was in pain.

I wanted to quit. And I only had, you know, four tenths of a mile to go. I wanted to quit. I really did. And the guys, now at this point, I was only running with three other people. But at this point, a so-called entourage has come around me. Other people have given up their day to run with me. And now the pack grew to maybe 17 people. And, you know, I would say that my vision was blurred. I would say that, you know, I was not thinking straight. And we turn, get into the park, I start running again. And there's a gentleman jumping up and

down at the finish line and not in any hurry to finish in fact he had a video camera and he was just kind of video in the crowd imploring at the line and i just kept saying to myself that you know i had a path and he's there and i'm not going to fall down at the finish. Like, this is where I'm going. So I kind of Heisman-trophied this runner and went on my way. And, of course, the finish line, drop down the floor, do 10 push-ups. I wanted to do push-ups before I started bawling and crying, which didn't help because I got up and bawled and cried anyway. But it was a big controversy about the push and why did I push him?

You go back to the videotape. He wasn't in your way. Do I regret pushing him? Yes. Do I own up to the fact that I pushed him? Yes. Were you delirious? I could come up with a thousand excuses.

Instead, I just decided to say in the Internet world of slow twitch and the people that were killing me for it and calling me a bad person i just came out and basically said you know what you're right you know i shouldn't have done it and if i could apologize to this runner i would yeah i mean i speaking from somebody who has some experience with being delirious in the midst of an endurance challenge, you know, it brings out a certain aspect of who you are that might not always be so pretty. I mean, I had, you know, a similar experience when I did Epic Five and I was beyond tired and could barely, you know, function. And

that's what they always say, like in these ultra endurance races, don't bring your friends as your crew members. There won't be your friends anymore. There's dark, there's dark moments, you know, where then you come out of it and you're like, I can't believe I behave like that. So, you know, this, I, you know, I think that, that for anybody who hasn't sort of walked a mile in the shoes of, of what that is like, that they should reserve judgment on that. But, you know, I haven't seen the video, but thanks for being honest and open about that. But, you know, I haven't seen the video, but thanks for being honest and open about that. But, you know, so you have this extreme, you know, extraordinary experience of finishing this marathon. Then it's this big story. Then Runner's World writes this, you know, remarkable article about it. I mean, and that's my understanding is that's what kind of paved the way for you to write the book and everything that's come from that.

I mean, is that how that came about? Absolutely. One, you know, 100%. The, um, the, in fact, we were working on the article before even dreamed of running the marathon again. Um, the 2000, and so I was 2005 that I, my last marathon got hurt 2005. So the 2006 marathon, Charlie Butler was working for Runners World, and he was doing a story of the gangs of New York, the different running teams in New York. And two of the teams were the police and the firemen. So they had made shirts this year. They had shirts that said, Go Long on the back. And it was for me, and they didn't make a stink about it

they just did it i didn't know about it until race day and charlie was asking him for what's this go long and one of my friends tom grimshaw who's a little bit older than me but was a big influence of my running told him the story he's like wow i'd like to get in touch with him you know another story and charlie and i had met a couple times times and I was still not in a really good place. So the meetings we had were, he was still intrigued, but I was kind of like, whatever. And then I disappeared on him for about six months. I went to Arizona and I did my thing and I came home and I emailed him and said, Charlie, it's Matt Long. I know I haven't been around, but I'm him Mr. Charlie it's Matt Long I know I

haven't been around but um he's still interested and he's like well I'm not sure you know what are you doing I go the marathon he's like hello you know email stopped the phone call then and we sat down and did the story and it wound up being the the largest article Runners World ever published on a single athlete it was like 14 pages and then we yes then Runners World ever published on a single athlete. It was like 14 pages. And then, yes, then Runners World and Charlie and I turned it into the long run. Into the book. And the book, you know, had an extraordinary life. It was an incredible success.

And I'm sure, you know, opened up tons of doors for you. I mean, I would say, how has it changed? But like, how has it not changed? You know, I mean, everything about your life is different. Yeah, I've lived a good life. I really have. But, you know, being able to spread any bit of inspiration is truly a gift that I'm happy to have. So the book, getting my story out a little further.

Don't get me wrong. There's some places I go and it's, you know, this is great because it's going to put the kids through school or it's going to pay some bills. But the bottom line is, you know, when I get out there and I'm able to help one person, and I always get an email, it doesn't matter. You know, you get the email, you get it just stopped in the elevator, wherever, and they tell you their story. And then they realize that, that, you know, they're not the only ones out there having a tough time. One of the things that I always, uh,

talk about is the incredible resiliency of resilience, resiliency, resilience of the human body, the human spirit. You're certainly an example of that. I mean, how do you kind of, you know, when you were talking about like, I'm trying to regenerate these nerve endings and, you know, that's on the like micro level of like repairing the body, but, but it goes all the way to, you know, the highest level of repairing your spirit, your perspective of the world, you know, your role, what is your legacy? What is your, what is your gift and what are you leaving behind? And, and there's nothing more powerful than a story, a story well told, an incredible story well told. You're certainly, you're certainly that. I mean, how do you kind of look at this path and translate that into something that somebody can extract something to help them, right?

That's not very well said, but you know what I'm saying? Like, how do you take your story and say, all right, how can I convey my experience in a way that somebody can take something from that and implement it into their life for the better? You know, I think it could be simply answered with two words or replacing words. And it's basically starting your day with i will whatever that means for you whatever's at task for the day the week the month whatever your goals are you know we the body intrinsically wants to be healthy so you don't have a bad back. Now, look, there are people with back problems and things with real issues. But a lot of people have a bad back because they're sanitary. They just sit around. And they're not active.

The body wants to move. The body wants to get up. So that bad back could be telling 85% of the people in this world, get up. You know, lose 10 pounds. Strengthen your core. And the back will stop hurting. I had a bad back. I went to chiropractors.

I started running. I got in shape. The back pain went away. The body wants to be healthy. So what I talk to people about is, look, I'm not telling you to go out and do an Ironman. I'm not telling you to go out and do a marathon. You know, find what it is for you that's going to make you happy and do it. I use the analogy of the stove, you stove, which has come a long way, but when I was growing up or when I worked in Harlem, it was always just an old school stove with a pilot light in the middle.

And that light went out, you had a gas leak. I said, the human spirit is what will drive you to heal your body. And that human spirit is the pilot light. Someone's got to turn the knob on. And for me, it was my mom, who said, you know, let's get those burners going. And once I did that,

you know, am I perfectly healed now? No. I walk with a limp. I can't stand on my right leg. I can't move my right arm higher than, you know, 95%. But I'm healed mentally because of my human spirit. There's nothing wrong with it. There's no metal in my spirit.

It's just there and it flows because I love my family, extended and my own. And I try now to stay as healthy as I can so that when I'm older, I know what's ahead of me. I know arthritis is coming and I know what's going to be ahead of me when I'm older. But I'm going to be as healthy and as strong mentally so that I can handle that. And that's what I try to tell people. I'm like, you know, you have it. Me and you are exactly the same.

We have the same pilot light. Right. Just got to turn it on. Right, right, right. But if somebody's out there who's listening and they feel stuck, they're struggling, they're out of shape, they just don't know what the first thing to do is. They don't know how to turn that pilot light on or they don't know who that person is in their life that they can turn to or rely on. What is the message? The message would be to do an inventory check on your life. And it may be one of the hardest

decisions you have to make when you do that inventory check, because you'll find out who it is or what it is that's keeping you back. And, you know, it could be the person that's closest to you. We have to say, you know what? I just can't deal anymore. I can't do it anymore. I can't be around the negativity that's going to keep me in this hole. You know, and, you know, I said that. Like, I lost friendships post-accident.

You know, there were guys that just were happy enough that I lived and said, deal with it. This is it. You're okay. We'll go out with you in a wheelchair. I'm like, well, that's not what I want. That attitude, that energy, and I'm not this big atmospheric it's in the stars type of guy, but

that energy is not helping me. I don't need the person to tell me, just be happy with being alive. I said, well, what's good is being alive if not living. And to me, living was running, living was being active, living was staying in shape. So, you know, here I would tell this person, you have to do an inventory check. Find out, go back to being a kid. What was going on in your life when you were happy and i tell people all the time i realize it i did those inventory checks more than

once because again we didn't talk about 9-11 but after 9-11 i battled a little depression and i started to do an inventory check what was i doing in the times of my life when i was happiest. And it came down to one thing. I was dreaming. Simple. As a kid, you dream. As an adult, we set goals. It's the same freaking thing.

So for me, that is what I found. And I started to dream again about running, about cycling, about having a family, and I have it. Amen, brother. I love that. Thank you. You know, you said earlier that goals are really important to you to help keep you structured and focused and whether it's dreaming or goal setting. So, you know, what's the goal now? What do you dream about now or what's next? Well, you know, athletically is how it goes for me, you know, so

I'm 49 or I'll be 49 this year. And this is something you probably don't know. So after my bus accident, what else can happen to me, right? It's like, wow, the guy got hit by a bus and he lives. His bad luck cards are over. So I show up at a bike race in Central Park. And I line up with the Cat Fives. And some guy looks at me and says, hey, aren't you the guy I hit by the bus?

I'm like, yeah. He goes, what are you doing here? I said, I'm going to try to race with you guys. He's like, really? So, boom, gun goes off, and we start our first, like, 70 guys, and we start our first lap around Central Park, and the first climb, my right glute is evident. I'm done.

I'm dropped. Can't get back in the field. I roll around my five or six laps. And at the end of the race, I see that guy again. He goes, how'd it go? I said, I was dropped in the first lap. He goes, you know, you should be trying out with the power athletes. And I never looked at myself like that.

So I said, what? You know, I took it into it. I went home. I started Googling it and researching it. I'm like, you know, I emailed the guy from the para cycling committee. And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Without a doubt, I sent him my information. So I go.

Now my goal, back, this was in 2010, right after I finished the Ironman, is to become a paracyclist and go to the Olympics. So I go down to Augusta, Georgia for the Paranational Cycling Champions, Road Champions. Again, I did it without asking questions, so I didn't know what was really going on. I went down there, had my road bike. I signed up for the long course road race as a C3 classified paracyclist.

All the C1 through C5 raced together. So we're in a pack of 50, 60 people, men and women. Oh, no, the women actually started behind us because I got passed by quite a few of them. So amputees, they're all there in the pack, and you go and you finish. So I really never had an idea of what was going to happen at the end of this 28-mile race. I finished across the line, and I get called up for a gold medal. So I'm a parinational champion. And I'm, like, looking around, and they're not calling anyone else.

So I go up to the podium, and I'm like, who did I beat? And the guy's like, oh, you're the only one in the race you're like you're in your category like what is so i was like so it goes in line with the men's fitness thing i said well i'll take it but don't make me stand on the podium go where the uh go where the hurt is thin right you know so it turns out that in the the american uh parinational racing is so far behind European that they really only concentrate on time trial and track here because Europe is so far ahead of us. So when they go to the Olympics, they want to send – so all the C3 guys were in the hotel sleeping for the time trial the next day, and I didn't compete in that. I got you. So anyway, so my –

So where are you taking this? So now I'm talking to the coach i'm like well you know can i do this can i try this he's like absolutely you need to get officially certified in your injury i said no problem and he gave me like you know some coaching tips and i said well i'm going to start to train for 2012 london olympics he's like awesome so i go to uh my 2011 year start in florida to do a 10-day you know summer trip first day i get hit by a buick no way broke my arm slid across the road oh i didn't know that oh my god so that i remember completely that hurt i didn't lose consciousness i thought you were pre-disaster

you know like that's not supposed to happen again no i was like oh my god me and my buddy were cruising down and again my friend noel flynn who ran with me he was he came down on the cycling trip he was into cycling and triathlon so um i'm right on his wheel and i'm like this is great we're feeling awesome i'm like yeah this is good what what's it say i'm like, this is great. We're feeling awesome. I'm like, yeah, this is good. What's it say? I'm like, 25, 25 miles an hour. Let's go, let's go. We had a mile to go. The 49th mile, we had a mile to go home. And a car turns right in front of us.

I hear him yell, fuck. And I'm like, ah. He goes up and over. I slid under, land into the side of the car. You slid under the car. No, I hit the side of it. I slid the floor into the, broke my arm. You know, road rash the if we have time

the long the funny story about it is it happened in front of a bar in in clearwater beach called um crabby bills the bar empties out because we got there for the first day so it was like four o'clock it was a late day riding the bar empties out and there's a whole bunch of guys so the fire trucks they're they're putting me in the Stokes basket. They're stabilizing my neck and my friend. So I tell the fireman, I go, listen, guys, I'm a New York City firefighter

and thank God I had my fire department kit on. So they're like, oh, okay. I said, just don't take me to a bad hospital. I don't want any special, just get me to a good hospital. New York City fireman, please just take me where you would go. And they're like, all right, don't worry about it we'll we'll take care of you and um i now i'm wrapped up so i can only see straight and i hear the the uh paramedic go to someone on the side of the road say yeah you're a fireman the guy's like yeah yeah i'm a fireman he's like so is the guy in the street

oh yeah what's his name say what's your name so I say my name all you hear is the guy go again and I'm going trying to look like who is that so I'm in the emergency room in Florida and the nurse comes in and says Mr. Long

and I go yeah yeah that's me you got a visitor I go the only guy that knows I'm here is in the bed next to me and three drunk firemen came in to visit me

oh wow so the fraternity though man wherever you go right yeah wherever you go that's amazing that ended my uh quest so that ended your quest so so where does that leave you now though are you like back on the bike yeah i'm back at it i'm back um i'm back racing my racing my bike um more a little more focused because I'm still racing as a Cat 5 and still having problems staying with them. But this year I really focused, started a program with a cycling team in Brooklyn. And I'm making every, you know, when you're in your 40s and you're training for something, it's not like you have tomorrow.

Like, ah, I just got done tomorrow. It's like, wait a minute. You know, every second's got to count here. I got a two-year-old. You know, so everything's got to count. So I'm really, I think for the first time in my life as an athlete, I'm training with a purpose. You know, every workout has a reason. Every workout has a certain time that has to get done,

and everything's going pretty smooth so far. So, yeah, I want to race. My wife knows I want to race. She knows it keeps me going. That's great, man. And do you ride out in Brooklyn, or do you ride in Central Park? Like, where do you do your rides around here? Yeah, it's tough to ride around in New York City.

I ride out in rockaway beach is where i live and uh so i'll ride into brooklyn to the prospect park area we'll also come over the bridges i call it like a four bridge ride i do i'll come over from rockaway to brooklyn then from brooklyn to manhattan then manhattan to new jersey hit state line in new jersey then come back and repeat for about 100 miles. Yeah, nice. But getting into Central Park has gone through some changes. There's some unfortunate accidents. There's just a lot of people.

I'm getting a lot of it done indoors now. Right. Because I know plenty of pros that do that stuff. You can't get hit a third time, man. I'm running out of lives. Yeah, or you got to move out to California, ride some of the mountains around where we live. Yeah, I would love that. I would love to take a journey one day and see what it's like.

My wife was actually born in San Diego. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Oh, you get to do training camps. Come on, man. I do get away with a group that actually built my bikes for me because my bikes are custom made. And I've been to Mallorca three times.

Oh, wow. Nice. Riding in Europe is so different than riding here. It's just the people. The cars beep the horn to wish you good luck. It's the culture. Not to say get out of your way. It's the culture.

It's the culture. Well, that's cool, man. I think that's a good place to wrap it up and close it down. Great. I'm super stoked that you had me. And it's the culture. Well, that's cool, man. Let's, I think that's a good place to wrap it up and close it down. Great. I'm super stoked that you had me in this video. Oh man, are you kidding? I'm so glad that you came and did this. You're, you know, I'm sure you get fatigued of hearing this, but you are an inspiration.

Your story is extraordinary. And it really is a, you know, a beacon of light for, for so many people. And, and I hope that you keep doing what you're doing, man, and spreading your message. Thank you, Rich. Are you going to write another book? Thank you. Yeah. I don't know.

We talk about it. To be honest with you, we're focusing on making the book a movie. Oh, cool, man. Is there some activity behind that? It's been auction and stuff? There's a little activity. We have a guy in California that's turned it into a screenplay. And he's shopping it around

a little bit. It's very early and it could never ever get done. But he's pretty passionate about getting it done. And I just said as long as it can be done right and tastefully and if you really think that it will further the message. And he believes it will so

you know i it's my story who wouldn't want to have a movie about themselves you know of course man i still you know it you know what's funny is i get a lot of crap for my personality i just have one of those personalities i can come across to someone the first time i meet him as his cockiest son of a bitch they ever met or i i just like to say to people that I've always had a certain level of confidence and there's nothing wrong with it you know so

I guess it would be awesome you're a New Yorker man more than that I'm from Brooklyn and what about the what's going on with the I Will Foundation you didn't even talk about that yeah my foundation. So, you know, the foundation was birthed out of me saying the words I will.

And I can go real quick with it, is that I called a gentleman who I read an article about that was hurt. He's from Massachusetts, Fabio Slavic. To this day, I can't believe it, I still haven't met this guy. But I got him through the power of the internet we had phone calls and i basically said please i said you know you everything mirrored what happened to me happened to you help me and i'll help others and he's helped me tremendously and um without knowing i'm a perfect stranger and um so said, I don't want Fabio to be so hard to find for the next Matt Long. So I originally was going to be a webpage, I Will Foundation, Matt Long story.

You know, take from what you can and go. And then people started sending me money. You know, oh, I love it. And so I always started helping people. So it's small because it's me. It's out of my house. Any money I get, I try to give right to someone who needs help. And we've helped vets come home.

We've remodeled kitchens and bathrooms for vets that are now paralyzed. I've taken a guy with no arms, built a bike for him, and he rode the bike from Florida to Spokane, Washington. Wow. He's now doing a big thing in paris i know i'm not gonna know the name but he's riding like 1200 miles in paris wow and um we helped a girl who was born with polio be the first woman to complete ironman kona in a wheelchair wow so it's it's just about getting in there and helping them right away i don't want it to become uh where I have a building and where 30% go to expenses. It's like people write me letters, and unfortunately, sometimes I have to say no. But people write me letters and say, this is what I want to do.

Real quick story of it. One day, I'm walking in. Now, I'm moving out of Manhattan. My life has changed, and I'm married, and I'm looking for my bike shop. I have bike shops in Manhattan. So I go into this bike shop in Sheepshead Bay, Roy's bike shop. And I'm like,

oh yeah, I'm looking for this and this and that. And this gentleman comes in and he's talking about his bike and how it got stolen. And he kind of walks away

and I, just being, I guess, that nosy New Yorker, I said to the guy behind the counter, I said, what's the deal

with this guy? He's like, ah, he lost his leg in a motorcycle accident. So I looked down and noticed that he was an amputee. And he's kind of like in and out, living in like a shelter or something. And his bike was his only way to get around and make some dollars. We gave him a bike and the staff here.

We really can't do it again. He left it outside. It got stolen. So I said, today's his lucky day. I said, here's $2,500. Set him up. And we bought him a bike. You know, just helped this individual.

That's a nice bike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the budget. He did get a nice bike. He upgraded, for sure. But he got a $2,500 bike, and they put a special pedal on it for his leg and and and it that's something you can't do with a bigger organization so that's the way i want to keep the iwillfoundation so it's there iwillfoundation.com my story's there there's other people's stories there it's not just about me

and then we try to help people that that have that uh spirit to live yeah very cool and are you are you speaking uh anytime soon where the public can check you out like what's the speaking schedule look like or is that on your website my own website mattlongspeaker.com um we'll have events up but right now the only two on the schedule are private events. Marathon, half marathon season comes around. Usually I'm involved with the roadrunners. Hopefully I'm back with them. So maybe at those events we'll be around. Right on.

All right, so people who want to check out more about your story, obviously the book, The Long Run, you can find that on Amazon. Click through the Amazon banner ad at richroll.com your website and you're on Twitter Facebook all that kind of stuff

so Matt's Long Run Matt's Long Run Matt's Long Run it's mattslongrun.com too right you have that site

or that has changed to Matt Long Speaker Matt Long Speaker I made it more of a personal site yeah cool man alright well thanks so much for talking to me thanks for having me I appreciate it man good to be back in the neighborhood here cool to Matt Long Speaker. Matt Long Speaker, I made him all the personal site. Yeah, cool, man. All right, well,

thanks so much for talking to me. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, man. Good to be back in the neighborhood here. Cool. Yeah, you gonna go over to Third and Long now?

I'm gonna take a peek at the old Third and Long, yeah. The old bar, right? See what's going on. Right around the corner. Cool, man, thanks. All right, thank you. Peace.

Plants. All right, you guys, I think we did it. out matt's book follow him online what an incredible story if that doesn't inspire you i don't know what will maybe you don't have a heartbeat he is an extraordinary human being and that was great i love that and hopefully his experience will help you rethink your excuses for doing less than what you know you can, let alone the part about you that you're not even sure yet that you can do, but which somebody like Matt would probably tell you that you can if you would only accept that in yourself. How's that for a brain teaser? Send me your questions for future Q&A podcast and to find all the information education products

tools resources and inspiration you need to take your health your wellness your fitness and your self-actualization to the next level go to richroll.com peruse enjoy don't forget to sign up for my newsletter if you guys like video courses you're into a little online education then you might enjoy checking out my online courses because I got two of them. The first one is The Ultimate Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition. It's all about dialing up your diet. It's pretty consistent with the message of the new book. And also The Art of Living with Purpose, which is about goal setting, which is about understanding what makes you tick, helping you embark on the right trajectory for you.

Both of those are available at mindbodygreen.com. Click on video courses on their homepage and you can find out more there. If you are enjoying this podcast, hey man, give us a review on iTunes. It only takes a moment. And if you like it so much, you wanna go back and listen to episodes

older than the most recent 50, then why not check out our free iOS app in the iTunes app store? It's totally free, and it is the only way to easily access every single episode in the RRP canon. Support the show by telling a friend, use the Amazon banner ad, and by donating. You can donate. There are donate buttons on the site too. and by donating. You can donate. There are donate buttons on the site too. Keep Instagramming. I love the love. Tag me at Rich Roll. I dig that too. Let's close it down with this week's assignment. It's pretty freaking simple. And it goes like this. Stop whining. Stop whining, people. If you take one thing away from Matt and his example,

if you take one thing away from Matt and his example, it's that you should stop whining. Seriously. Really. See you next week. Peace. Plants. Thank you.