The Rich Roll Podcast - James & Sunny Lawrence: Crushing 101 Iron-Distance Triathlons In 101 days

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

Conquering a historic feat of stratospheric proportions nobody thought possible, today’s guests will challenge every assumption you ever harbored about the outer limits of human capability. In 2010, Jason Lester and I were the first to complete EPIC5—5 consecutive iron-distance triathlons on 5 Hawaiian Islands in just over 6 days. I’m proud of that accomplishment. More proud that it has inspired others to rewrite their rulebook on personal possibility. But today’s guests James Lawerence—aka The Iron Cowboy—alongside his wife and co-captain Sunny Jo Lawrence, somehow makes my resume just sound…cute. In 2015, the father of five did something I was convinced was impossible when he completed 50 iron-distance triathlons in 50 states in 50 days—a stunning feat chronicled way back on episodes 149 & 166, in the documentary The Iron Cowboy: The Story of The 50.50.50, and in his book, Redefine Impossible. But as many of you already know, James recently topped that seemingly untoppable feat by completing truly one of the most astonishing achievements in the history of voluntary human endurance—101 iron-distance triathlons in 101 consecutive days. In case you don’t quite grasp the enormity of this truly epic feat, let me spell it out. Beginning in March of this year, James climbed out of bed, swam 2.4 miles, jumped on his bike and rode 112 miles, then completed 26.2 miles on foot, repeating this routine every day without missing a single day, for 101 days in a row. That’s 14,200 self-powered miles! Today James and Sunny tell the tale in a warts-and-all conversation that is not to be missed. In addition to breaking down the enormity of this feat—a team and family endeavor in every respect—James and Sunny drop a full-fledged masterclass on mental toughness. Where it comes from, how to strengthen it, and how to ignite the power we all possess to endure the unimaginable. We also discuss the critical role that leadership, family, teamwork, community building, and service play in accomplishing audacious goals and how presence and mindfulness hold the key to unlocking the impossible. This is a powerful conversation that just might forever change your perspective on human potential broadly, and personal possibility specifically. To read more click here. You can also watch listen to our exchange on YouTube. I have tremendous respect for these two. I love them dearly. And I’m proud to share this candid, behind-the scenes excavation of one of the most mind-bending experiences I’ve ever been privileged to witness. Enjoy! Peace + Plants, Rich

Nobody's the expert at the beginning of their journey. Nobody is. And you have to meet yourself where you're at today, and that be the expectation. The hardest thing to do is to start on any journey because that's where the highest amount of struggle is. That's where our experience and our momentum and our success is at its lowest. You know, I don't have a lot of tolerance for people who say, you know, it's just hard. I don't have the resources. I can't figure it out. And I'm like,

did you just figure it out? That's life. You just figure out nobody has the instruction manual. Nobody knows what they're doing. You just figure it out. And I mean, that was the whole journey of the hundred was adaptation. Nothing was ever the same. Every day, the mood, the injury, the fatigue of the crew or James, the food he wanted, the people that were showing up, the weather. I mean, every day was adaptation. And I remember being late in the journey going, man, we're 90 days in and nothing's ever the same. and nothing's ever the same. It's 100% physical and it's 100% mental. You straight up have to be 100% on both of them in order to accomplish something like that

or the journey or push your boundaries or your limits, right? It's a combination. You cannot rely solely on one or the other and allow that to be to get you through. You have to be so strong at both of them or it just doesn't work. The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. As I suspect many of you already know, I am, among many other things, an endurance athlete known for doing a couple things like double iron distance triathlons or that time I did five iron distance triathlons on five Hawaiian islands in under a week. on five Hawaiian islands in under a week. Well, the feats of today's guest, James Lawrence,

AKA the Iron Cowboy, makes all of that just sound, I don't know, cute, I guess, because back in 2015, this father of five did something I was personally convinced was impossible when he completed 50 iron distance triathlons in 50 states in 50 days. It was a stunning feat that was chronicled in two past appearances on this show,

episodes 149, as well as 166. It was also documented in the film, "'The Iron Cowboy," the story of the 50-50-50, and in his book, Redefine Impossible. Well, as many of you already know, this guy recently topped that seemingly untoppable feat by completing what I think is one of, if not the most astonishing achievements

in the history of voluntary human endurance by completing 101 consecutive iron distance triathlons in 101 days. Unbelievable, right? Well, today he and his amazing wife, Sunny Jo, share the story. It's a conversation I know many of you have been waiting for.

It does not disappoint and it's all coming up in a quick few, but first. 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. 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.

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I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you. Life in 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. And they have treatment options for you. Life in 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. Okay, the Iron Cowboy, Sonny Joe Lawrence.

Here's the thing. Just for context, in case you don't quite grasp the enormity of what this guy just did, let me spell it out. Beginning in March of this year, James climbed out of bed, swam 2.4 miles, jumped on his bike and rode 112 miles and then completed a marathon, 26.2 miles on foot. And then repeated this routine every day

without missing even a single day for 101 days in a row. That's 14,200 self-powered miles. I have a hard time comprehending it, even as somebody who has a bit of experience with this type of thing, even though I twice traveled to his neck of the woods, Linden, Utah for day 91 and day 100 to just experience a little bit of it for myself firsthand.

In addition to just breaking down the enormity of this feat, which was a team and family endeavor in every respect, this is a powerful conversation that just might forever change your perspective on human potential. It's also a masterclass on mental toughness, where it comes from, how to develop it. It's about the power we all possess to endure the unimaginable. It's also about the critical role that teamwork, community building, and service play in accomplishing audacious goals and how presence and mindfulness really hold the key to achieving the impossible. So settle in, prepare to have your mind blown and enjoy.

Good to see you guys. Thanks for doing this. Yeah, buddy. Last time I saw you, you were in a different state of mind. I'm not gonna say I remember much. You look a little bit better now. Yeah, thanks.

How is, I guess the first thing is, you know, how are you doing? Like, how are you recovering? How's the body doing? How's the mental state? I know it's been a bit of a battle. Yeah, it's been a journey for sure. Yeah, very different than coming off the 50 um

coming off the 100 i mean this is what they warned me about coming off the 50 was hey there's going to be a letdown there's going to be some depression there's going to be some whatever and coming off the 50 it was just like this whirlwind right into what was next and this one you know we're more established and there i was already doing what i was going to be doing coming out of the 100. And so you take a seven-week adventure and turn it into a 14-week adventure, which is a quarter of a year. That impact on the mind and the body is significant. And I had no idea the level of which my world was going to get rocked. We told him he didn't listen. Yeah. I had no idea the level of which my world was going to get rocked.

We told him he didn't listen. Yeah. Well, you told him after the 50 and it didn't happen, right? So he got all cocky about it. I did. Really? He did? I did. He really did.

Well, it's funny, and I've said this before, but had someone asked me on day 98, could I do 200? I think somebody asked me that on the therapy table, didn't they, one night? Yeah. Like close to the end, could you do another 100? Yeah. And I was like, immediate. Oh, absolutely. 100%.

Let's keep going. You were just in the groove. But then day 102, I was like, how the hell did we get to this point? How did we even do that? And so it was very apparent and very amazing to me the power that the mind has and what it was protecting me from. And then, but the team could see it from the outside looking in, right? Because I was on, when we do these things, we're on very different journeys, same storyline, different journeys, right? Same timeframe, different journeys. And so, and you don't go

from like, oh, day 60 to 61, you go from things are normal to I'm in a protective state. You slowly slip into that and you don't realize you're transitioning. Right, like your brain is compartmentalizing everything and just trying to keep you alive. So your blinders have you just focused on the task at hand and everything else is obliterated. And my team that intimately knows me, meaning my wife, she could see a slow change, but then she knows, okay, this is not normal to what?

Was there a moment, Sonny, where it tipped and you're like, we're in a danger zone situation here? Were you ever concerned beyond the normal? I've been married to James way too long for that. I disregard any morning signs. I think the thing that was most challenging was the mood swings. So on the 50, he was completely non-coherent. There was no one home. And it was like we were guiding this zombie through this journey where this time around, he had a little bit of his mind, but thought he had more of his mind than he did. And so there were some issues with him trying to make executive decisions or doing things

that he had no business doing, thinking his mind was right. But then the moods were all over the place. And so for me, I mean, we've been married 20 years. I know exactly what type of person he is, how he behaves under certain circumstances and whatnot. So to see these different moods and these different personalities come out, I was like, wow, he is in a really bad place

because we've been married 20 years and I've never seen this person. And so I had to check myself and make sure that I didn't internalize any of that and just say, I got to get him through this. And to know there were things I wanted to say in the moment that I had to check myself and say, but this is what I need to say. And this is how I have to work him through this. So that was quite complex. And frankly, I don't think anybody had the skills to do other than me

yeah so well being the team captain you had so many jobs i think i think you know people don't really appreciate you know the amount of effort and intentionality and just you know the extent to which this commandeered your entire life and your family's life this was a family journey but you being kind of captain of this ship part of that responsibility is given that you know James so well, knowing when it might be appropriate to pull him aside and pull the plug on this thing, right? If it's really going south. Definitely. And at the same time, masking the severity of the situation to James or towards James to make sure that he doesn't get discouraged because I'm the ultimate optimist

and I'm the ultimate problem solver. So if I showed any signs of weakness or concern towards James, it would have completely demoralized him. So I had to maneuver and manage the severity of certain situations behind his back without him seeing it or knowing it to make sure that it didn't demoralize him in this journey.

You know, that's a very complex thing, especially where I'm a very forthright person. I'm not one to just be like, everything's okay. You know, I'm, I'm very forthright. And so it was a delicate balance of saying, you know, what has to be addressed, what not. And at the same time, James didn't listen to anything we said anyway. So, you know, if I said, you know, this is really serious, you're going to die today. He'd be like, that's great. I've got things to do, you know? So it was, it was quite an interesting balance. Yeah. I was never going to die though. No, he was never going to die. No. But I mean, when I think about, um, the difference between the hundred versus the 50, 50, 50, as mind-blowing as the 50, 50, 50 was, a big portion of that was logistics and managing chaos and all the crazy variables that are baked into going from state

to state to state. And the difference with the 100, despite the fact that it's twice the distance, is that you could implement systems and minimize the amount of chaos to create, you know, some level of predictability. I mean, obviously when you're doing a hundred iron distance trial ones, there's gonna be stuff that happens that you're not gonna foresee and we're gonna get into that.

But I'm interested in your expectations for, you know, how it would go versus how it unfolded. Because you thought like, okay, well, I'm at home. I'm gonna sleep in my bed every night. I've got this team around me. We have a home base. I'm gonna go out and do this one thing. And it's essentially gonna be the same every single day.

Well, let me say this one thing first. Before we started, I said, I'm gonna sit down with the wingman. James, you're not invited. We're going to have a conversation about some of the things that went wrong in the 50 and how we can change them. And all of them were tied to logistics. Yeah.

So going in, we were like, we don't even know what to worry about because everything from the 50 that was complex had to do with logistics. Yeah. And that was the whole premise going into the 100 was, okay, if the 50 truly was chaos, logistics, if we remove that, can we double what we did? And because the original goal going into the 50 was how many consecutive can I do? What's my limit mentally and physically? And we set it on the 50 because it was a cool project we threw in the logistics and that became the kind of centerpiece of the project. And so with years removed from the project and having an opportunity to now, COVID happens, my calendar gets wiped clean.

Right. You were on the speaking circuit, basically traveling all over the place. Speaking, coaching and racing. All three of those things got shut down in 48 hours. And so I basically had a year to start to prepare and get ready and we were initially going to do the project in the fall like right now and I just kept getting the impression March 1st do it March

1st start March 1st and a lot of times with like gut or intuition we don't know why in the moment and a lot of people will not follow it because it's not logical it doesn't make sense and I Sonny and I just we talked about it's not logical, it doesn't make sense. And Sonny and I, we talked about it and she was like, well, if you keep getting the impression, we've got to do it in March. And now looking back on it, there's a lot of reasons why March made way more sense than it did now.

But the problem that it created was it upped the timetable six months and physically that's a big difference when you're preparing for this, when you have, over the past five years, removed from the 50, become out of shape and not ready. And I was really relying on past experience. And I also knew that, okay, this project is a quarter of a year,

and I'm going to use the 100, the first half of it, as training for the back half. Well, you just can't anticipate the toll that, you know, that amount of volume is going to do to your body. And right out of the gate, I just got riddled with injuries and problematics. And it was just like, now we've got to solve these problems. Right. Because we decided October. So that left. That was the original. November, December, January, February. We had four months, was it?

Yeah. And you didn't do a ton of running. No. Getting ready for it, right? I did almost no running. Wow. None. And if it was like a 12-minute mile on a treadmill, if it was.

Yeah. So I was running max three days a week. And the reason for that was what? Two. I say two. He says three. Two. Maybe it was two. What And the reason for that was what? Two, I say two, he says three. Two? Maybe it was two.

What was the reason for that? Did you have some injuries that you were dealing with with that? So I did have an ankle injury that I didn't vocalize, but I wasn't concerned about it because my body's great at adapting and evolving just from a decade worth of experience. But for me, running is the hardest on my body and always leads to, with any athlete that I coach,

running is the biggest contributor to injury. And so I was like, okay, if I can become super strong, super strong, powerful on the bike, I'm not going to be running fast. My body will adapt and evolve in the first part of it. Well, to go from running, my body will adapt and evolve in the first part of it. Well, to go from running, okay, two days a week to, what's the quick math? 26 times seven, 140 miles a week. Yeah, not a lot of wisdom in that. Yeah, that's the quickest way to get injured.

That's his mind though. He doesn't think, oh, I'm going to go from this to this. He says, I have this idea and I'm going to do it. Right. Right. He doesn't. I just remember in the early, I don't know, you know, all the, all the days kind of blur together, but it was definitely early in, in the conquest where things were going sideways and your mantra was, this is the process. Like this is the adaptation period. And it just looked like everything was completely unraveling and you were hobbling and it just was not. And you're like this, we just have to get through this phase until the body adapts.

And I was like, good luck with that. We couldn't believe it. Like, like things went sideways so fast and so early. Like so early, like not even a week. Right. Not even a week.

Not even a week. And I'm like, you know, I'm in a lot of pain and I'm in a lot of trouble. But our team just doesn't quit. And that's the interesting part. And we don't quit on each other. And so nobody was like, hey, we should probably dial this back. We're just like, okay. Your ankle was like three times the size.

I want to find that picture when I'm sitting on the fireplace mantle and it is just like, you can't tell the difference between my quad and my ankle. Well, and part of why I'm laughing so hard is because on the 50, I remember six days in he's miserable and I'm like, oh, he'll adapt like a day 10.

The day 10 comes and I'm like, oh, he'll adapt like day 15. And we're like to day 30. And I'm just saying, oh yeah, his body day 15. We're like to day 30 and I'm just saying, oh yeah, his body's going to adapt. It's going to adapt. By the time we were on like day 85 and we're like, why are we still dealing with foot problems and blisters? Maybe it's because you're getting up every day

and doing an iron distance triathlon and not giving your body the ability to adapt. Why are we so positive? You're such fools. I just remember Sunnyny saying multiple times like with 20 to go every single, like, why are we still dealing with this problem? Why is this still a problem?

Like, we're 80 days into this. We should have overcome this by. And so this, if I was to contrast it to the 50 and the 100, the 50 was chaos, logistics, and fatigue. This one was injuries, pain, and fatigue. This one was injuries, pain, and longevity. And it just never let up.

And so... They had nothing in common. They were two very different projects. On the surface, you're like, oh, consecutive, consecutive. Very, very, very different, excuse me, projects. And we were dealing with

very different things on both of them. And we were in very different times of our lives too. I mean, we're talking six months removed, I mean, six years removed from that accomplishment. And that was the biggest thing too, is like leading into the 50, we're talking a consistent decade worth of projects leading up to it, stepping stones, growth, and then right into the next one. Well, then you pause for six years because you're providing for the family. You're speaking.

You're coaching. You're mentoring. You're doing all these things. And then you're like, oh, let's just pick up right where we left off, double it, and try to. That's how James thinks. That's how he thinks. And I'm like, sweetheart. But what was the original impetus for the idea?

Like, was it because everything closed down? Or was it already something that you were planning on doing at some point? No, I had, you know, after the 50, I was, I was done. Like it was over like that. I was satisfied. It was, it was good. And we were just so busy. We were so busy with everything. There wasn't an opportunity to do what's next, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was always intrigued with what's possible. Is there more? Once you had time to reflect.

Once I had time to reflect. But there really wasn't an opportunity because even if I wanted to carve it out, we were booking our speaking well in advance. And for me, we live a great life now. And I was like, okay, I'd have to shut this down for a year in order to do something like this. Would that be the responsible thing?

Right, and now I've got teenagers, I got four daughters, that means four weddings, kids are starting to go to university. And I'm like, I'm looking at the cost of this and I'm like, I don't have the luxury to stop doing this over here to try to push my limits even further. And the pandemic really forced my hand in, for lack of a better phrase, but just really put the opportunity on the table

because literally 48 hours, my entire calendar got wiped clean. Every event canceled. My bureau called me. They're like, hey, we just had the entire year's worth of events canceled. Your month of March was, I mean, minute to minute. He had six weekends in a row of racing.

It was packed. So not only was it wiped clean, but it was like, I was inconsolable because I was like, oh my gosh, this is going to be an intense six weeks and then gone. Yeah. But I love the perspective shift. I mean, you can kind of wallow in misery and self pity over that, or you can use the pause to figure out how to level up.

And one of the things that I didn't realize about the 50 was the extent to which you guys were going through a very difficult kind of financial time. I mean, I've gone through something similar to that and using the 50 as a way, like, well, here's what I can do. Like things are not working out and we're having trouble making ends meet, but I can do this one thing.

And there's kind of a big faith piece there that if I do this, somehow the universe will conspire to support me in a new and unique way. Yeah. Oh, for sure. And the, you always get asked what's your why, what's your purpose, what's your reason for doing something. And people always ask too, well, why, why didn't you quit or how do you keep going? And on the 50, like our reasons were so strong. Like it was get our lives back, change the direction of our lives and quitting wasn't on the table.

And then to contrast that to the 100 and the reasons why you're doing it are very, very different. Like we're established in our, like it was a huge dice roll for me to double it because now I'm risking the criticism that we took on the 50. Like you don't make it past 50. So that, you know,

that really rings true on when you just said on week one, things start to go sideways and you're like, I'm risking my entire career and decades worth of work for this new project that I don't have to do because now the reasons that I was doing the 50 are very different than they are doing now. And this, this, the hundred was truly what am I capable of mentally and physically. Because career-wise, there wasn't a huge uptake. There wasn't a huge benefit to doing it.

I was already established in my speaking career. We've already got the book, the documentary. Everything's going great. And so it was really like, well, why are you doing this? What's the risk-re reward to what you're doing? What's the answer to that? Why did I do it? It was for me, it was personal.

Yeah, absolutely. It was redemption. I believe a lot of part of it was redemption for me. Well, you had told me that part of it was motivated by sort of silencing the critics because there was a little bit of mumbling about the 50 because of circumstances, et cetera, a bunch of nonsense. So it was about putting that to rest.

There was definitely a huge part of that for me personally. And a big part of my platform is like, look, don't listen to the grumblings, the haters, don't give them any power. And at the same time, I was like- They're eating me alive. They're eating me alive. And do you flip that coin and say well is there a little bit of reason

to what they're saying and are they and you really have to have that that's a hard conversation to have with yourself like balancing and reckoning those thoughts and okay is what they're saying truth and is there some validity to it and

over the course of five years and speaking on stages you start to you get off a stage and you post something that you did and it's just one one person says something online and you're like well am i a hypocrite did i really do what i said i did am i presenting what i truly believe and then i had this opportunity when the 2020 hit, like I have an opportunity to reset history. And when we were on the course of the hundred, man, day 51 was huge for me. Well, I even had little landmarks too, right? So make it past day 18 when you crashed your bike, fell asleep and crashed on your bike. Make it past day 19 when you got on the elliptical,

right? You make it past that and you're like, okay, I've reset that piece of my history. I've reset that piece of my history. That's no longer on the table. And then you make it past 50 and now you're 51 and every day you wake up, you get to break a new world record and then that becomes fun, right? And so there was, for me,

this was the tale of two halves. There was so much pressure on me personally that I put on myself to make it back to 51. Right? Because you don't get to 51 and you personally discredited everything you've done in the past. Because if they didn't think you did it the first time, you certainly didn't do it the second time if you fail. And so for me on my journey, that first 50 was like so important to me. And I remember having conversations with Aaron on the bike every single day. Okay, this day means this, this day means this.

Once we make it past here. And the back half became every day just like this is who we thought we were and who we said we were. is this idea of setting an audacious goal, but the path towards accomplishing something that is seemingly impossible is to break it down into these little chunks. I mean, it's truly about what you're doing in the moment. And there's a broader conversation that we can have about being present and the mindfulness that you have to bring to each moment

and just focusing on what you have to accomplish in the next day, the next hour, whatever it is. But having those little benchmarks and then allowing yourself to celebrate them is the fuel that keeps you engaged with something that otherwise is just too overwhelming to even process. Well, two different things. One, that moment happened early on.

Like when you said, looking from the outside, looking in that things went sideways. It was probably about day 15 when my shin was at the peak of its pain. The first shin problem was at the peak of its pain. And literally every step I took, I thought it was going to break my leg.

And I just continued to manage it. And I remember finishing one day, it was probably around 15. And I said to Sonny that night, I said, hey, I don't think I can manage that level of pain for 85 more days. Something has to give. And full knowing that something maybe wasn't gonna give,

Sunny just said, hey, look, and this is the best advice I got on the entire 100. She said, hey, the work is done today. Do you remember this moment? Of course I do. Okay. It happened more than once. She said, I remember the one.

Dropping the truth bomb. Because I was like, hey, I just, like I would kind of just shrug my shoulders and just complete. Totally demoralized. I was totally demoralized, totally dejected. Because I was the one that was managing the pain. And I couldn't, I couldn't like voice, voice how much I was dealing with. And. I don't think you could even conceive it

because your mind wasn't even, I mean, there was so much dissonance in the mind and the body. Right. And so I remember saying, I can't manage that level of pain for 85 more days because I knew what that took. And she said, you don't have to,

the work is done today. And I was like, what? She's like, just trust in your team. Let us take care of you tonight. You're done today. He was in the shower. I said, you're in a hot shower. Cause it was freezing, right? It was cold too. We were dealing with so much the first two weeks. And so, and she said, we have no idea what tomorrow is going to bring. You could feel totally different tomorrow. And I felt like crap the next day. But we did turn corners. And that became, for me, the mantra of the entire campaign was do the work today.

Do everything you can. Allow the team to take care of you. And then let's face tomorrow when tomorrow comes. And then for me, deeper into the campaign, back to what we were just talking about, about how we had those benchmarks and the first half was really me resetting history or my history.

Slow Twitch has been one of the biggest haters of me. The Slow Twitch forum is not a friendly place. It's not a friendly place. And I mean, they were ruthless towards me. And I've actually had the owner of Slow Twitch reach out to me recently and wants to sit down, which I'll do. Herbert?

Yeah, which I'll do. But there was a point in the 100 where Aaron's one of the wingmen and he had gone on to Slow Twitch and he said, hey, they have started a forum that says James has done it and this thread is nothing but positivity about it. And in that moment when Aaron came and said that,

I was like, I freaking turned Slow Twitch. How many days in were you at? Oh, well past halfway. Right. So it took that long before you could shift that Titanic around. Yeah. But for me, that was like the last thing for me to reset my history. Last thing, unfinished.

Unfinished business for me. It was like, hey, Slow Twitch has started a positive forum about you. And I'm like, whoa, that's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was kind of my moment. That's no small thing for anybody who's familiar with that ecosystem. Exactly. And so those kind of two moments for me were really pivotal.

That conversation with Sonny early, early on where I was completely broken, couldn't conceptualize 85 more, and then fast forward all the way to where we'd reset history, we'd made it past all of those personal benchmarks of mine, and then Slow Twitch starts a positive only form about the iron cowboy who has been their biggest target for years and years and years. So obviously Sonny, you know, this is a family decision.

So did James come to you with this idea? Did you concoct this together? Like, what does that look like as a family with five kids when 14 weeks are going to be monopolized by this endeavor and it's going to take everything that all of you guys have? And you've got kids who are living their own lives and need attention and care, like how does all of that work? Because if there is, you know, a sliver of criticism, it's like, oh, they're, you know, they're, this is selfish and they're, you know, they're shirking their responsibilities with their kids

and all of that. And like, as somebody who knows you guys and visited twice during this event and, you know, bore witness to what was going on, like this was a family adventure completely. Like all your kids are in, I mean, you know, Lucy, I mean, forget about it. We can do a whole podcast on how amazing she was

throughout this whole thing. But what did that look like as a family decision and as a family affair? We had conversed and researched some other projects. So a couple of years after the 50, James was like, you know, I kind of have some ideas. And so we kind of researched some ideas. And I was a lot of pressure from sponsors.

What's biggest question? What's next? What's next? What's next? And he's a dreamer. So, you know, his mind is always brewing. So we thought about all these different ideas and they weren't really working. And James has a lot of ideas.

You guys only see what happens. So as we kind of went through these ideas- If you can box Jake Paul or something. Sure, why not? Let's go. Where's McGregor? Where are you? Where's my hundred million for the bite?

I'm due for a payday, Rich. So we had kind of explored these different ideas, but I hadn't gotten all caught up in them because there's so much complexity to preparing them that my mind was open to ideas, but I hadn't gotten all caught up in them because you have to, there's so much complexity to preparing them that my mind was open to ideas, but I wasn't necessarily concerned about the investment yet. And then as they continued to fall through and, oh, these aren't going to work the way we thought would. He said to me one day early in that year, maybe May, he's like, you know, I just keep thinking about doing a hundred fulls. And I was like, really? Because he had, he had kind of not been soured, but had been turned off by the 50 just because it had been so intense that I was surprised that he was going to consider

something in that same type of realm, but even harder. So I was like, oh, that's interesting. You know, and then a week later comes back. He's like, no, I really can't stop thinking about it. So we kind of talked about it for a couple of weeks. And finally I said, if you can't stop thinking about it, that's God telling you to do it, which makes no sense. I mean, everything James has ever done in his life makes no sense, including sitting on a Ferris wheel for 10 days. It's no, there's no logic to James's goals and dreams and aspirations. So he's like, I'm going to kind of dangle a carrot, talk to some sponsors, kind of feel it out, do a little research and see how I can maybe make this work out. And how it would be received.

Yeah. How it would be received, how much support I could get, you know, if it really is something that could work. And so in August he said, hey, it's going to work. Everybody's in. And when you realize how long it is, then you're saying, okay, my gosh, how are we going to fit this into a four-season year? In Utah, we've got four seasons. So he said, I'm either going to catch an early snow or I'm going to catch, I mean, a late snow in the spring or an early snow in the fall.

And so we are less likely to have an early snow in the fall. And if you do, it's just going to be a one day thing and melt. So we kind of established the idea of starting in August, doing August, September, October and Utah. We have a lot of sunshine in the winters and you know, we don't get snow till a little later in the year. So we're like, this is going to be great. And then he comes to me and says, hey, I keep feeling like we should do this in March. I was like, March? He's like, yeah, March 1st. I'm like, really? So I kind of sat out for a couple of days

and then I looked at my calendar and I was like, you can't do it in March. I mean, I had the entire spring planned out from my 40th birthday to spring break to all of these things on this calendar. And I was like, James, if you do this in March, it's going to completely disrupt my year. It quickly came. Don't talk to me about this until after Thanksgiving and after Christmas, then I'll process. Yeah. Like, so I said, he's like, okay. And then he kind of came back again. He's like, I just feel like we should do it in March. And I was like, oh my gosh, right now in this moment, I hate you for this. Because James is a person of conviction and he's not going to come to me and say, I think we should do this unless he actually thinks we should do it. He's not bluffing on stuff like that. That's just on his personality. If he's passionate about something, there's something to it.

about something, there's something to it. So I was like, I hate you right now because I know this must be the right thing to do, but it's going to ruin my life. So this was like in November, our anniversary is at the beginning of December and he's like putting in little blurbs, like, you know, this and that. And I was like, I don't even want to talk about it. Like I have to process this. Like this is really going to mess my year up. And so our anniversary came, we obviously stressed out our mind planning for the hundred. I said, we got to do something. It's our 20th. We always travel, but obviously last year was different with COVID and everything. So we just did a staycation in park city and we got to dinner and he's like, I can't do this without your support. So you're telling me we can do it, but I know the support's not there. I know you don't have your own conviction or whatever. And so I was like, you just need to give me time to process this.

I did a lot of praying. And within two weeks, I was like, okay, I'm all in. He's like, you're all in? Shocked, right? Oh my gosh, you're all in. Are you sure you're all in? I'm like, I'm all in. Because at that point I had my own conviction. God had told me myself this was the right thing He's like, you're all in? Shocked, right? Oh my gosh, you're all in. Are you sure you're all in? I'm like, I'm all in. Because at that point I had my own conviction. Like God had told me myself this was the right thing to do. I knew. And so I just canceled everything. It was like the year was canceled because I knew from March to June, I mean, we had Easter and graduation and birthdays.

And I mean, just so many things that I was like, okay, I'll do the best I can to prepare for these before we start going so far as to packing Easter eggs and preparing all the baskets and putting them in my closet. So that when it came, because with the 50, there were a lot of promises of it's going to be this great adventure. It's going to be super easy, blah, blah, blah. And then it was complete havoc. So I'm like, I know the idea is that this will be simpler because we're at home, but the reality is I know that won't really happen. So I was trying to plan everything I could before we started, but then I knew, I knew it was go time. And I knew, so whenever James would struggle, I knew it's what we were supposed to be doing. And so I just always looked for a way through it. He couldn't do that because his mind wasn't there. So my job was to be the sound

mind to that experience and to rely on the faith that I knew it's what we were supposed to be doing and to seek solutions. And to be all in, I mean, it was all consuming. I mean, your house was completely taken over as this HQ for all kinds of people there. It's like everything I've done is gone, right? It's like, there's no- That's a huge sacrifice. I hope it's sunny time now. There's no- I ruined our 20th wedding anniversary

and our 40th birthday. It's two huge landmarks. It's the day of atonement, James, right now. But really, I wasn't going to try to find balance. It was not appropriate. The balance would come later. That 100 days was about this project. It was about James's project.

I knew I would have my time later. There was no need for balance. It was literally just dive in and go for it. Well, and when she signs off and says, I'm all in, I immediately panic because when she goes all in, it's all in. And then I realized- Yeah, it's official.

And then I'm like, I only have four months to get ready for this and I'm nowhere close physically. March start date. I mean, it was so early. So I'm watching this on Instagram and I'm like, it's snowing every day. It's freezing. And you keep thinking like, well, just maybe a couple more days of this and it'll get nice out. And, and that winter just extended, you know, I saw how the heat affected you at the end. So I understand the logic of that. Obviously you do better in cold than in heat. Well, and if you look now,

the fires that we're dealing with, like Utah has literally the worst air quality in the world right now. And this would be the month two of three months of doing it. Yeah, on top of the heat. We'd be dealing with the heat. And literally one week after we finished on june 8th

or june 9th um 107 degrees outside pavement temperature was 120 wow one week after yeah that would have buried you oh it just would have completely well and the other part was is that the family was occupied right so it didn't consume their summer. So the kids were still in school. My job was to make sure they were still living their life, feeling like they could just be themselves and enjoy this journey. And so they were still in school. They were still working. They were still doing their normal things. And they just enjoyed the hundred. They jumped in where they wanted to and they enjoyed it. So the timing was beautiful that. I think this became a full-time job. But she wanted that.

She crushed it. She did. I want to say quickly, too, for the listeners that maybe don't know us, is we have five kids and four daughters, one son. And during the campaign, they were ages 11 through 18. And so just for the new listener. Yeah, make them enjoy it. Maybe doesn't know who we are.

And then Lucy, of course, was the project manager of sorts and james's assistant and ran all the social media that's like her dream job though so although her stress level was like to the max oh man that's exactly where she wanted to be did she she ended up getting a job out of this right like any brand who was watching what was going on well she got a job offer from visa as an apprentice and i was like like, no, no, no, she's mine. So I've hired her full time. She had a whole lot of dates that she was asked on and she had a lot of job offers, all of which she turned down. Jobs and dates.

She's like, why is people trying to date me online? She was on point the entire time. It was unbelievable. She was special. So let's talk a little bit about some of the obstacles you faced. I mean, you alluded to the shin problem and the ankle problem early on. That got ameliorated by this brace, like this custom kind of carbon fiber thing that you got at some point that allowed you to offload some of the pressure on your shin. Yeah, I think any journey, especially if you, a longer journey to successful and any anybody that's been on a

journey will say that there was a little bit of luck involved and this brace situation was a whole lot of luck or jesus a bit of both um it just so happens the number one guy in the country that makes custom carbon braces for ankle and chin problems lived off of the trail that we were running on. Like he had just moved there. And one of the cyclists- In Linden? In Linden. Wow. One of the cyclists that joined us is an orthopedic surgeon that refers all of his post surgery clients to this outfit. And so I was on the run one day and he obviously got wind that we were struggling and my shoe was bothering. And he says, on the run one day and he, he obviously got, got wind that we were struggling

and my shoe was bothering. And he says, Hey, have you ever considered, um, a carbon plated shin brace? It's an insole for your shoe. The brace just holds it to the leg, but it's a carbon insole to absorb the shock. And I said, I don't even know what that is. So I obviously haven't, haven't, haven't considered it. And he goes, let me talk to my guy. What it is is it's a carbon, like Sonny just said, a carbon plate that goes on the bottom of your shoe that they fit custom. And then it's got a bar that goes up the side or the front depending on how strong you want it to be.

And then it anchors on the top of your calf. Essentially, that carbon plate and the anchor point with the bar completely offloads that shin and allows it to heal. And I said, well, can people walk in? He goes, people can run in them. And he goes, the first version we'll put you in, we'll completely offload it. It's pretty restrictive. You'll be limited to walking, but as we see, and if we see progress, we can get you into a running brace. And so we started with that one, and he would meet me at each one of those intersections off the trail. And he's like, do you have any, like he just said, these are normally custom, but we're going to give one to you. I've got one, and we'll have to tool it and tweak it as we progress.

And so he'd give it to me. I'd put it on. He goes, the goal is to have no touch points on your leg. And I was like, okay, it's touching here and here. And he would take it into the back of his van and he would machine tool it. And he would like quickly get to the other intersection before I got there. And we're like, put this on. And we did that over the course of 26 miles. And by the end of that day, we had a brace that was somewhat custom to me, but it wasn't touching any part of my shin,

relieving all pain and allowing me to progress. And so then every single day we would go through and manage the level of pain that I was having and where this brace was touching and we would tweak it and he'd come out on different days and make sure we were still progressing. And I ended up being in that brace for three or four weeks. And then we upgraded to the more flexible one, which allowed me to run some sections in it. And it was just, it was the thing that allowed us to continue. Because I, like I said- You told me that it was so painful, you literally thought you were going to snap your leg. I did. And you were willing to snap it.

You're like, I'm going to snap my leg before I quit this thing. Yeah, it was going to get to the point where it was going to snap, and that's what was going to allow it. That would be the only circumstance under which you would stop. It was going to be the narrative that the public would say, okay, that is an acceptable reason. That's a justifiable and acceptable reason to stop. Anything short of that, you're a quitter.

And I obviously don't want that. And so that brace saved it because it literally allowed that stress fracture to heal while doing a full marathon every single day, including the bike miles. a full marathon every single day, including the bike miles. Now, what came with that was the imbalance that it created, which lightning bolted up into my hip, which then was the next thing. And this project became, like I said, injury and management of injury. And it was this trickle effect or what's it called? One thing leads to another. Domino effect. Yeah, Like a domino effect of,

of injury. Cause it started with the ankle went up into the shin. You know, we dealt with that and we figured it out. We moved up through the body. And I just remember like, I was like, I have no shin pain today. And we're like, okay, we're clear. We can go. And the next day, my hip just exploded, like stopped me in my tracks. And I remember my therapist, Hayden, he was like, can we not get one day where we're not dealing with something? And it just became this domino effect of I was always dealing with something. Like the busted up feet were the relief.

It was like, oh, good, today you're just missing the whole bottom of your foot with skin. So relieved this is it today. You're looking at his foot thinking, how does your foot look like this 85 days in, yet we're celebrating this because this is all it is. Right, right, right, right. It's all perspective. Yeah. You told me some crazy stories about the sleep disruption.

Yeah. I mean, that just sounds terrifying. It was, because outside looking in, someone says, oh, okay, he's done the 140 miles today. He can now go rest and recover. Well, that was the second side of that coin or that journey, right? So on the outside looking in, you're like,

okay, he's doing the swim, the bike, the run, 2.4, 112, 26. And then they're like, okay. The complexities continued. Okay okay he gets to go home and sleep and rest well no as soon as i got home one i had to refuel two it's two to three hours of pretty intense therapy on the table you're on the massage table trying to immediately trying to eat while you're eating while they're working managing problems solving problems the the house is chaos because everybody's there trying to do stuff that's an

understatement yeah yeah and then once once everybody leaves and the therapy's done it was around 11 p.m midnight most nights they'd move into my bed and then my second wave of like managing things would would start and the three biggest things that we dealt with was And the three biggest things that we dealt with was incredible hot sweats. Like we're talking. Sweating through duvets. I mean like sweating like you've never seen. It was wild.

And then that leads to dehydration problems, you know, and trying to keep yourself hydrated. Panic attacks. Panic attacks, night terrors, which finally went away. Well, the hyperbaric chamber, after a while, we're like, you can't sleep in there because you can't just get out, right? If he's freaking out, we can't get to him. He can't get out.

It was wild. And kind of not really just being able to get a restful night of sleep, right? Like despite the extraordinary fatigue and you're laying there on the couch or whatever with Normatec boots on falling asleep, like you're sweating and having, and weren't you doing some sleepwalking too? There were some stories. Oh yeah.

Yeah. That was great stuff. The kids have some pretty funny stories. The kids loved it. That was the highlight of the hundred for them. I guess there was one time I went upstairs to just check on my daughters and I had no idea. And one time I was wandering outside the house and Dolly was coming home from something

and she was wondering what I was doing. I didn't realize it. And they were saying, hey, what were you doing outside last night? And I was like, I was in my bed last night. So these crazy stories. Which has no history. No recollection of it.

But it's so interesting. Like what is going on physiologically that would cause that? Like why, I mean, have you talked to anybody? Like you should hook up with like Matt Walker and have him figure out like what was going on with you or what precipitated like that kind of strange situation. Yeah, and I don't even know how you quantify it

or like study it now. Yeah. Literally when I go home tomorrow, I go to a brain MRI to where, cause I've been dealing with brain fog and depression and fatigue and things like that. It's still lingering. Yeah, for sure.

And I have good moments and bad moments and it depends on how much like mental energy I have to expend throughout a day right now. But there'll be a point of the day where if I've done a lot, I'd be like, Sonny, I think I need to just rest or I need you to drive home. Right after the 50, that's my favorite

story. Right after the 50, I was driving down the freeway. Like at the finish line, leaving the finish line. Was this leaving? Yes, because I was stuck with the, everybody left. We had all this stuff and all these cars and no one to drive them home. So James had to drive the van home from the finish line of the 50 with all the bikes on the back.

Oh, I'm thinking of a different story. Oh, there's more than one. I get pulled over by the police on the way home from the 50 and just had to have an interesting conversation with the police. But the one I'm talking about was after the 100. The 100 was over. You said after the 50. I'm sorry. I meant the 100.

She's got brain fog. Yeah. This fits perfectly to what we're talking about. I'm driving down the freeway and Sunny looks over to me and she goes, sweetheart, you're going 45 miles an hour. And I was like, oh, okay. I'll pick it up a little bit. And he did for five minutes.

And then I was like, sweetheart, now you're going 50. And I remember saying, this is a lot faster than we were going on my bike. Right. But you just slip into these bits of brain fog. Now you're going 50. And I remember saying, this is a lot faster than we were going on my bike. Right. But you just slip into these bits of brain fog. And so right when I get home, I'm super fortunate. Again, one of the only places in the United States that does this kind of study and testing for concussion and- TBI. Yeah, post-traumatic stuff, is in Utah.

And they actually put you into an MRI. They set up all the scans. And then they ask you a series of questions. And it's designed to light up every part of your brain once they take you through the whole protocol. And then they can see where blood flow isn't going and which pathways are blocked and what's going on. And then they put you through an extensive 30-hour protocol

based on the results that resets and repatterns your brain, turns it back on. And so this is like super exciting for me. Like professional, like a lot of football players will go there from across the country, NFL players or car accidents, concussion people, people that are showing like signs of Alzheimer's and things like that will go to this cognitive therapy place in Provo.

And I'm just so, so thrilled. So you haven't been there yet. You're going to go there. Right when I land, I go from the airport to get those MRI scans. And then based on the results, we'll start the therapy to kind of like reset my brain. Okay, back to the show.

But when you finished, you came down to UCLA like shortly after you completed the 100 and had a bunch of tests to run. I mean, what was the upshot of that? Yeah, so we had kind of a baseline testing done at UCLA prior to, and they were mostly looking at like cardiovascular, heart, lungs, things like that, the size of it,

what it does under stress, MRIs that way. And then they wanted to see, okay, if you put your body through, what the human body can do with 14,000 miles and then go and get stress test done, did we create like heart murmurs? Did we create arrhythmic problems? Did we create all these things

that we did damage to the body? And as Sunny and I have known, the body's an amazing piece of machinery. We completely stumped the cardiovascular world and these cardiologists, and they were like, you're fitter and stronger and you've done zero damage to your heart.

And didn't you break the record on the stationary bike there? Yeah, we broke the lost record just because I became such a solid cyclist. You do 100, 800 miles a week. And then after a couple weeks of break, you got back on the bike and were crushing some KOMs around your hood, right? Yeah, I PR'd around our neighborhood and some of the climbs that we do. And for me, it was more like getting out was more mental than anything. Um, just because sitting at home and focusing on the fatigue and I'm tired and I'm depressed and all that, that just

magnifies the problem. And so for me getting out with, I mean, the cycling community really came out on the hundred. And so I had, I had developed a lot of really great friendships. We'd sit on the bike for six, seven hours a day and just talk to these new people. And the community really came out and said, this is our project too. We're protecting you. We're going to get you through this. And then a lot of the cyclists went through the same thing I did. They would come out two, three times a week for a quarter of a year. And then overnight that goes away and they're like, well, where's our group rides? And where's that camaraderie? And where's, you know, we've missed that.

And so for me, getting back out was great for me. It was great for the community. It was great for those people that had their journey alongside our journey. A lot of people were struggling. I mean, COVID happened and the world shut down and a lot of depression and anxiety happened. And Utah happened to be one of the states from the outside looking in where like we had still an opportunity to go outside and do stuff.

And it was really great. And a lot of those people before, you know, we just come out of winter. And so people have been trapped inside and COVID and no families and a lot of people lost jobs. And so this was a project where it kind of like gave a lot of people hope and purpose alongside of what we were doing. I think this is the real story behind the story. There's a lot of focus on how did you do the 100 and like the particulars of that

and the family journey that entailed, but truly it's the community piece. And it was so impactful to visit and see not only like your town come out and support. I mean, it's like such a beautiful expression of solidarity, all these people who were just there for you guys in every which way. And then on top of that, all these people who flew in

or drove in from all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I met people from Eastern Europe who flew out to have this experience, to share this experience with you. People who were inspired by what you were doing and what you were sharing online and just so many lives transformed. And I think that gets to this piece about finding the blessings in the misfortunes,

like the fact that you were compelled to walk actually made it more accessible for a lot of people. And I think brought a larger, you know, contingent of people out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And became something that people could wrap their heads around, like joining you for a long walk. That part of it was so beautiful. Yeah. That part of it. Yeah, I can't tell you how many times every single day, one Casey would do kind of a roll count on who's here,

where are you from? And Casey did a great job at like including everybody talking because a lot of days I wasn't in a good headspace to do it and I was really focused on what I was doing. And their job, I mean, I spent a lot of time talking to those guys, like their job is to protect you, like keep you comfortable. Because you're gonna get some wacky people too, who are vying for your attention and their job is to like,

make sure that there's a buffer around you so that you, yeah, you could say hello, but like you gotta focus on what you're trying to do. And that was the amazing part was Casey would do the roll call every single day and then we'd start to hear about other people's stories and one where they came from. But then throughout the day, you know, we would, that was one of the coolest things for me to experience was people did give me my distance, um, and respect what I was going through. And yeah, just, just respected that. But what was a lot of fun was for, you know, five, six hours on the,

respected that but what was a lot of fun was for you know five six hours on the on the walk around you could hear the chatter and the people talking and sharing their stories and the subgroups and it just people that would have never crossed paths before and every single day without fail we had somebody say or we heard hey we wouldn't we wouldn't have been able to participate in this we wouldn't have been able to experience this had James been running. And it was just one of the coolest things that happened was the one, you know, you said community. Community was huge. But two, my pain and suffering and injury became a blessing to so many other people that badly wanted to be part of what we were doing, but otherwise wouldn't have had an opportunity to do so. And we were just talking at lunch about this five-year-old kid

who had just turned six. Do you know this story? I don't know. Jace, little Jace. Oh, I do, yeah, Patel, of course. Yeah, it's a really cool story. And this kid says he was a neighbor of Casey's, and the dad said, okay, we'll go out

because the kid really wanted to do part of the walk with us. And people don't realize we were walking at a pretty decent pace. And if we did take a criticism from the elites, it was that we were walking. I had to run. I couldn't walk that fast. We were walking to get a clip and we blew a lot of people. I was falling off the back a couple of times. I'm't walk that fast. We were walking up here to get a clip

and we blew a lot of people. I was falling off the back a couple of times. I'm like, he's moving pretty good. I gotta start running here to catch back up. And so this little kid just got inspired and motivated and said, I wanna go do a couple of miles with the Iron Cowboy. And the dad was like, okay, we'll get your shoes.

We'll get your shorts on. We'll go out, we'll pick our day. And he did, he knocked out three miles with us. And then his dad was like, okay, we'll get your shoes. We'll get your shorts on. We'll go out. We'll pick our day. And he did. He knocked out three miles with us. And then his dad was like, okay, we're done. We did the 5K. And he's like, no, the Iron Cowboy is still going. I want to keep going with him.

And you could see him as we started to progress and do more miles. He really started to struggle. But this kid had zero quit in him. Just bawling. He was just bawling. He was starting to cry. He was in so much pain. He was just in so much pain.

He ended up in a car accident. He ended up knocking out 20 miles that night. That's crazy. 20 miles. And he had to jog. Because he's just a little guy. Like you think of a five-year-old kid. Yeah, it's wild.

Right off the couch. He knocks out 20 miles and then was just so upset. His dad ended up telling us that he was so upset that he wasn't able to finish with us because he just couldn't go any further and so they plotted out another day and um he started before us while we were still on the bike and he knocked out five or six or seven miles and then we eventually caught him and he stayed with us the rest of the time and this five six year old kid ended up doing a full marathon with us. And it was just one of the most unbelievable experiences.

And we were with someone at lunch and they had just said, he hadn't been taught yet to quit. And it wasn't part of his culture. And so it begs the question like when in our adult journey did like was that is that a taught thing is that when did it become acceptable when did that be part of our culture because that kid was just like no i'm in a lot of pain but i i want to do this and i'm going to endure until i finish he was bawling the last three miles just crying and crying just kept going crying with a smile on his crying and crying, just kept going.

Crying with a smile on his face and just pushing, pushing through. It was really, really special. And for his father to allow him, a lot of parents are swinging in and rescuing this kid and Sean let him. Sean let him fight through those tears. Sean let him finish.

Like that's as beautiful of a story as it is that Jace gutted it out. Yeah, and his sense of personal possibility now is very different than it was before that. But that's just one, I mean, he's the youngest, but there were so many people who showed up who had never done anything before, or were coming off of crazy weight loss stories

and all kinds of stuff. There's a lot of first marathons. Yeah, I think the power in what you were doing was that it normalized something that seems impossible to most people. And just to see you doing it day after day after day and the walking piece made it accessible to people. And so they're like, well,

maybe I'll show up and I'll do a little bit. And then they end up doing a little bit longer than they thought they would. And then before that, oh, I'll come tomorrow and they're doing like a whole marathon and there are people who are doing the full Ironman. 17, 18 pulls. Yeah, like people who would never sign up

for an official Ironman showing up and doing the full thing because they see you doing it every single day. And suddenly it seems maybe not as hard as they thought it might be. We just sent out hundreds of shirts because what we said to people is like you said, hey, come join us.

And if you do all swim, all bike, all run with us, when this is over, we'll send everybody that finished to finish a shirt. And they finally came in and we literally, I mean, Lucy's probably still packaging them up right now, but we sent out hundreds of- They did the full draft one. They did the full, full with full full with us hundreds yeah hundreds of shirts we had four four full boxes show up

i mean we ran out of bags and i counted how many shirts we didn't have bags for and it was 50 and that was after we ran out of shipping bags yeah so yeah and so that many people and most of them it was their first like they just and we had people that would show up and like, okay, day 15, they're going to do part of the bike ride and see how the pacing goes. And then they showed up and did part of the run. Or they would see who was finishing the full triathlon, and they were like, well, if that guy can do it, I can do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If that girl can. We had, I mean, Clint, a 15-year-old kid, came out and did, had no triathlon background at all. He had no clips on his bike shoes. Yeah, he bought a bike two weeks before or something and he was falling over at intersections he was so exhausted it was so fun to see out these then he rallied and was bringing friends in and hunter sweeten he's just graduating he's lucy's age and he's had a really rough upbringing and he lost 70 pounds was doing 75 hard and this was his last final project he did a full triathlon and he finished it two o'clock in the morning

well after the group had finished what about the i forget his name the hispanic guy takashi yeah yeah never swam never bike never ran got it that full thing. He just posted a picture as proud as can be with his Concord shirt on. He's the most delightful person on this planet. Saif, how do you say his name? Saif, yeah. Yeah, Saif. Oh, Saif.

Saif. Yeah, from India. Who India by way of Dallas, like a PhD student who literally moved, like he just set up shop in Linden and he's doing his classes remotely and showed up for the marathon day after day after day. His last day was several days before we finished, but he was borderline hysterical at the finish line.

Like he just sat and hugged me and cried and cried and cried. His life is forever transformed. He said, this has changed my life forever. And another really cool story is an individual that followed us before the 50, through the 50 was a massive supporter. No, Josh Powell. Oh, Josh Powell. And Josh said, my goal by the end of this campaign is to be able to complete one marathon with you guys. And he would start way before us and he'd get dropped and couldn't finish. And by the end of

it, he did the last, I think weeks worth of marathons with us. He did a full marathon a day for seven days over the last part and was with us. And he just was so proud, had the biggest, smallest face, but he literally couldn't finish a 10K with us when he started. And just, he just showed up every single day. He's got a special needs daughter

and he would set up aid stations for us. She was out there cheering for us. A single dad with a special needs daughter. And he was just like, this is a goal of mine. I'm going to do this with you guys. I'm going to give you all the support you need. It's stories like that and Seth and Takashi. Alex who followed us on the 50 and then came out and did his first full marathon.

I think he started four hours before you. Before us. And his goal was just to finish the marathon. And he finished 10 minutes after. 10 minutes after us and was just bawling. Just these stories. And those are just the stories of the people that we got to interact with on site.

The hundreds of messages globally that came in and said, hey, because of your journey, it has given me hope on my journey and this is what I'm struggling with. And individuals, hey, I was about to take my own life and your journey started and it's given me hope and I'm fighting again. I mean, just you wonder why, for me personally, I wonder why I do things like this. And I joke that my gift is the ability to suffer. And there's not a lot of benefit to having this gift. And then we receive literally hundreds of messages

from around the world of these people that say your suffering has given me hope on the journey that I'm on. And that is just like soul shaking. When you receive those. We remember names, we remember experiences. Yeah, it's really beautiful. I mean, there was a sense of that with the 50,

every state that you were in, it seemed like you would pick up a few more people than the day prior. And there was like a momentum thing that was happening that culminated with you doing the final one in Utah and all the people that showed up for that. I mean, that was like bananas. So you had to have some sense

that you could replicate that on some level. But I think just being in the same place every single day created this like force field, like a tractor beam, right? That was attracting all of these people who knew they could just show up. It's like, hey, you know, people like, just I got on a plane this morning and can't, you know, it was wild.

It was wild. Yeah. It was wild. Yeah. It was wild. And we didn't know what to expect because travel restrictions and COVID and all that. And I just, every single day, what shocked me more was the cycling community that came out. Sunny would do a live every single day on the swim. And then she'd give me a rundown of the different countries that were live that day. And then we started shipping out shirts to Lithuania and Poland and Iceland. And we're just like...

I'm really good with geography and there's some countries that I'm like, I got to look that up. I've never had to look a country up. And I think for me and what people need to realize is you never know who's watching. And you never know who you watching and you never know who you can who you're going to or who you can impact and we had no idea that our small family and the journey that and the crazy adventures that we do would end up being this global type of impact and and changing the way people think about the journey that they're on and that was that's so humbling.

When you think of this, how big the world is and the reach that social media has nowadays. Yeah, it's really the best of what social media is able to do. Yeah, who needs media coverage? Not us. I know. Social media did a lot for us.

It's all, it's just so powerful. I mean, it was like, I mean, I would just every day like, okay, what's going on? You know? And it would, there was something about the consistency of it. Like this metronome, like, okay, here's when he, like you climbing out of the pool every day and putting the Crocs on. I was like, okay, I can start my day now. Like he's out of the pool. He put the Crocs on, you know, like I can go like out and do my thing. He's like, I got to see the Crocs before I can like legitimately

go out into the world he told me he's like this James is a swim towel that I got him out for Christmas each of them had their names and people you know were like wait what happened you changed the James towel because James said it's not absorbent enough I want a different towel and then everybody freaked out whoa whoa oh back to the James towel so I hung a good towel in the bathroom and still wrapped him in that James towel because as as normal and as routine things needed to be for us, I think people started to expect this certain routine. The Crocs and the James towel. The Crocs and the towel and me, you know, Lucy waiting for me to roll in off the bike.

And they just expect these moments every single day to happen. Right, you got to capture that. As long as you get that one thing every day, like, that's an important piece in the story that needs to be told every day. Which is funny because it was totally not the same for us every day. Sure. But that created an illusion of

normalcy. Right, normalcy, exactly. Adam Skolnick told me that, you know, when he was down kind of, like, hanging out with you guys and he did the swim on either the second to last day or whatever it was that, I mean, you did, I don't know what you, what did you, you, you, you just, you broke it up into a set of hundreds every day, right? So that the swim would be essentially exactly the same amount of time every day. Um, but you would kind of come into the wall and then everyone would wait for you to go. Like there's a weird like

cult thing to that. Like, okay, James is pushing off off we can push off now it was amazing and i i had to stand a certain way in the pool or i would immediately cramp up and so i had to be very particular with where i stood how i stood how i pushed off of each wall and it just so happened we were on the far south lane and all the other lanes were to the north of us and it just so happened we were on the far south lane and all the other lanes were to the north of us. And it just so happened I had to stand facing south. So I never saw any of this type of activity because I always had to have my back to everybody else that was there. Well, he wasn't the first swimmer.

So the first swimmer is kind of on the right side. Because I had two pacers. He's waiting here to get his turn to go to the other lane to head. So he wasn't even in position to face everybody to his left. And then I saw some of the coolest footage I'd ever seen. It was a drone. And it was on day 100 when all lanes were filled.

And I'd push off. And all of a sudden, all lanes would start to move. And it was this giant snake. And then when I'd stop, everyone would come in to move. And it was this like giant snake. And then when I'd stop, everyone would come in and stop. And then we'd get going again. It was just this really cool. And he says that. And I'm like, I saw that every day.

You didn't see that? Yeah. And I never saw it until I, you know, once you start to break something down and look back on it, you start to see footage and stuff. Because when you're in the middle of it, like everyone's like, oh, my gosh, Sonny's closet talks. Have you seen these? And I'm like, no. like no no you're right i have no idea what you guys are talking about like oh sunny's closet taco is epic today and i'm like okay he's like what is the closet what's a closet talk and they're like the wingman blah blah blah and i'm like what are you guys talking about and it was all these things that became normal to everybody else

that i had no idea what's happening right Because like the wingman breakdown happened when I was getting therapy, the closet talk happened. Wingman wrap up. There it is, wingman wrap up. Yes. So all these things would happen that I had no idea. So when I saw that really cool footage of that snake that you're talking about and that everybody would push off the same time as me, I was like, that's really cool.

What day was the bike wreck on? 59. 59. Yep. That could have toppled the whole thing well well here's here was a very interesting part about that wreck one it was very violent it was it was the hardest i've ever crashed i believe i got knocked out um i didn't realize it was that bad it was that bad um and i think that's part of part of the I got a concussion that day for sure. And what was interesting was the decision I had to make because I had reset my history.

We were at 59 and I had done everything that I'd set out to do. And that was one of those things like your leg snapping and a bike crash, something catastrophic where the public goes, yeah, that makes sense. You couldn't continue. We get it. bike crash, something catastrophic where the public goes, yeah, that makes sense. You couldn't continue. We get it. And so that was one of those moments where I like had to really gut check and be like, oh, okay. You did enough that it's acceptable. You've made it past those personal benchmarks that you wanted. You've kind of reset history. Now you have a decision to make. Now it's a matter of doing a hundred because

you said you were going to do a hundred and, and keep going. And the moment I remember laying there on the ground and I came back to really quick and they asked me that, you know, I could hear that my eyes were still closed and I could hear them saying, you know, they were on the phone calling the ambulance. And I was like, ah, crap, it's over. Cause I couldn't, you know, they were on the phone calling the ambulance. And I was like, ah, crap, it's over. Because I couldn't, you know, when you crash, you've got so much adrenaline dump. And I was like, okay, they're calling an ambulance. Maybe I can't see, maybe my leg's sticking out sideways or something. Then I realized it was for the other person in the crash. And they got, it was way worse. So it was a woman ahead of you. Something got caught in her spokes or something.

Yeah, and it was like she ran into a brick wall and she went straight over her bars and her face was the first thing to hit the ground. Aaron says, I look to the left and all I see is a bike flying through the air. And he's like, oh my gosh, that bike's gonna land and just hit. And I was the person right behind her.

And so I hit her as she was in air because it slowed her down stopped her but her face was literally the first thing to hit the ground she was definitely knocked out and needed ambulance and medical attention and as i was as they were saying you know calling the medical i was like oh crap this whole thing's over and and i i reached up and i felt my collar bones and i'm like oh they're not broken right that's the first thing and then they asked me a couple quick questions and i answered them right away and i'm like i'm okay and then i was like yes i crashed and i'm okay and we're going

to be able to continue because that just adds to the story right and then we made sure that she was okay the ambulance was on her way and most of the cyclists stayed with her. I went and I talked to her and she was like, please don't wait for me to go. I'm safe. I'm okay. And she was super kind. And me and three other cyclists. Can you imagine how bad she felt?

Yeah. Me and three other cyclists finished that bike ride and then continued on. And it was one of those, you know, it was one of those decisions or moments in the entire journey where it's like, okay, this is a pivotal decision. And I'd be lying if I didn't say like, okay, I need to weigh what public opinion is going to be on this decision. Because during the 50, we made a lot of decisions and didn't care what public opinion was because we

were on our own journey. We were figuring it out. Nobody had done this before. But this one, I did care because I wanted to get through this with a clean slate as far as public opinion is concerned. And so kind of those big decisions I made, I was like, okay, I'm conscious of what the public is going to do with this. And so I was like, no, we're going to continue. I'm capable. And that became part of my decision process every single day was like, okay, am I capable of continuing or is this a good enough of excuse to quit? Like I'd wake up in the morning and I was always amazed. I'm like, man, Hayden is a genius. Like I put me together every single night I'd wake up and I'd be like, crap, I can get in the water. Like I don't have a good enough of a reason to not start today.

And then I'd start biking and I'm like, no, I just don't have a good enough reason. And then I'd get on the run and I'd be walking and I'm like, well, my leg hasn't broken yet. And this really sucks. And I'm managing the pain, but this isn't a good enough reason. And that became my decision process every single day. Is this a good enough of a reason to quit? Will the public buy off on this? No.

Okay. I got to keep going. Yeah. My story with that bike real quick is that when he got up and rode off, everybody's like, I guess he's good. Like he doesn't, that happened a lot faster than he remembers that he crashed, he assessed, he checked on her and he was gone.

And all the cyclists were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, where's James? He's off, he's gone. So he made that decision that quickly. What day was it when you made the little video before you got in the pool and you were tearing up and you're like, I'm just gonna try today. Like you look like you were, that was,

I mean, I don't know if that was the nadir of the whole thing, but if there was a breaking moment, that looked like one. It was. And it was so interesting because I had never gone live before that moment. I didn't go live after that. Like, I mean, even before the swim.

And I just felt compelled to turn on my phone as I'm walking from the car to the pool. I mean, it's probably 200 meters to get to there. And for some reason I turned on my phone and I was just going to give an update on how I was feeling. And then I just got completely overwhelmed by emotion. And it was this insanely impactful moment for the viewers. And it just, it, it just like really resonated with people on the journeys that they were on. They, they really got to see, okay, he is, he is broken. He is really struggling and he still has 20 more days and he's not going to quit. That's almost three weeks. Right. I mean, 80 to 100 sounds close, but that's almost three weeks. Well, that was also-

That is a long time. It's the craziest thing with perspective. I was just going to say that. Because if you're like, I'm going to do 20 Ironmans, people would say, that's insane. But you're like, well, you've done 80, you only have 20. Right. Yeah. And that became so frustrating for me because it was like, oh, you're so close, you're right

there. So he's thinking three weeks. The public's thinking only 20 more, right? Right. That's not how, I mean, it's coming from a good place. Right. It's well-intentioned, but it's actually really not what you want to hear. It's not how we process.

And so that was really the peak because I was going through all the pain. I was processing everything. I know what the family's going through at this point. I know what Sonny's enduring. I know we're struggling as a couple. I know all these things are happening. I know the wingmans are falling apart. Everybody's really struggling. It just showcased how long of a journey this was for that type of thing. And again, I don't know why, but I turned on my phone. I was just going to share a few thoughts. And then I had that breakdown moment. And after that moment, that day's ride became very meaningful. Every single supporter that we had, that like the cyclist that would come out like once or twice a week, they were, I didn't know

this, but they were all on a big text thread together. All the different tri, I mean, all the different cycling clubs unified.'s so special they unified during this time and they were on a text ride and a text ride went out immediately anybody see that moment anybody collaborating who to make sure there's people there they all figured every single one of them figured out a way to take work off that day all of them showed up on that one day it was super interesting because not a word was said on the bike ride. Everybody just said, it was kind of like just like a memorial type of a ride where they were like, we are here.

We're going to get you through today. You don't need to say anything, and tomorrow we'll fight again. And to me, I think that was a big turning point in us getting to the finish. Because for me, where I was sitting, not from the outside looking in, but from my journey where I was sitting, the last 15 were ultra flow state for me. And I was just, I knew after that breakdown

and I knew after the community had come out. And when I had 15 to go, I was like, I knew after that breakdown and I knew after the community had come out and when I had 15 to go, I was like, this is in the bag. And I agreed that we're so close, but that's when I became super flow state and just like every moment of every day matters. And then you look at my times over the last 15 days and it was an ultra norm type of state. It was just execution norm type of state.

It was just execution at a high level. But was that, so that was the inflection point. I mean, what is the self-talk or the mantra or the kind of go-to emotionally that you rely upon in those moments where you're ready to flip? On that day 80? That day or any other day, like when you're up against it and you're backed into a corner

and everything inside of you wants to quit, how do you crawl out of that headspace? You shift your focus to the community and it becomes, I'm not showing up for me, I'm showing up for the other people. And by that point in the journey, we'd received so many messages of, your journey has impacted me in this way. And then you have the conversation with yourself.

What I alluded to earlier, we never know who's watching. You never know who you're impacting. And so you immediately switch the conversation to, if I don't show up today, who am I missing an opportunity to impact? And we'll never know, but who did we impact that didn't see or know of our story prior to day 80, tuned into it, and then we completely changed their paradigm or the way that they look or the way they experience what they're doing because we didn't stop or quit. And so that becomes the conversation of the mantra. It shifts from you or me to who are we going to miss an opportunity to impact if we don't show up today? And when you quit on day 80 and you don't get to have, in my opinion, the most impactful day, which is one-on-one. That doesn't even exist. It's not even in the narrative. You can't set that example. You can't lead from the front. You can't

bring everybody with you to that moment without that conversation and that mindset of like, who am I missing the opportunity to help today? I think something that gets missed in this story is the fact that you're able to execute on this goal by dint of the fact that you have incrementally worked your way up and accumulated knowledge and experience over many years and many challenges. and many challenges. And it's not a situation where, I think the instinct in people who hear this, it's so unrelatable. They're like, well, he's a crazy superhuman person and I don't get that. So yeah, maybe he can throw some platitudes my way,

but like, I can't even wrap my head around that. And the truth is very different. Like it's not like you're this, your gift really is that you're able to suffer, but you have figured out a way to express that through these challenges that get incrementally more and more difficult over the years that allow you to kind of be in the place

that you're in now. I didn't say that very articulately, but you know what I'm saying? Like this starts on a Ferris wheel for 10 days and it's not like you're out winning triathlons right away or anything like that. Like you have a very different path into this kind of thing.

I think that is the most beautiful or profound lesson that needs to be heard today is- That is looked over. That is looked over. Nobody's the expert at the beginning of their journey nobody is and and you have to meet yourself where you're at today and that be the expectation uh the hardest thing to do is is to start on any journey because that's where the highest amount of struggle is that's where our experience and our momentum and

our success is is at its lowest and a lot of people see the headline the hundred and think oh he's just born to do this kind of thing and i i i love saying it now that you you can't go from zero to a hundred and miss all of the the the moments in between i mean our journey started with a four mile fun run that I struggled through. And Sunny and I got into sprint triathlons together and did that for four years before even taking on the scariest thing to us at the time,

which was a half Ironman. I mean, it was 2004, November of 2004. Was that four mile run? Right. That was a long time ago. Yes and no. Like given what you've done, it's actually not that long ago.

What we've accomplished in that time. Feels like a lifetime ago. Yeah, it's actually not that long ago. What we've accomplished in that time. Feels like a lifetime. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. But the important message is that like, nobody would have said that that individual would have gone on to set sports endurance history. And everybody has a beginning, middle and end

to their journey. And we're not even close to our end as far as like what we wanna do. Well, you don't always get to know what the journey is. So like even for us, we're like, well, we don't even know how this actually ends because we're still. But it's the audacity to start and the courage to,

put one foot in front of the other. And I think a lot of people just get caught up in needing to understand how it's gonna unfold and they get paralyzed and never actually move forward. And two, that was beautifully said, but two, and social media, this is the bad part about social media, is they're comparing themselves against what other people are doing or showing that they're doing. And they say, I can't do that and I'm not good enough. And that's what stops them from starting.

and do that and I'm not good enough and that's what stops them from starting and that's tragic to me because thankfully social media wasn't big when we started and I didn't have basis of comparison and people were like oh who are your mentors and who's this and that and who do you look on to and I was like I don't know

yeah I don't know I used to say your grandma yeah because yeah my grandmother. An immigrant that started a business and made a life for herself. Yeah, she's the ultimate American dream that happened in Canada. But I would not compare myself to what the current standard of excellence was, and I would go out and try to do what I believed was possible.

And here's the perfect example. At the time when I said I was going to do the 50, the baseline was kind of like the Epic Five, right? And had I looked at that and said, oh, the Epic Five is the standard of excellence at the time, which it was, I would have said, okay, I'm going to double that standard to do 10. So why did I go all the way to 50? Because for me personally, I wasn't comparing myself about what others were doing and accomplishing. I went out and I set the standard of the bar to what I thought I could do. And that's where people get into problems and struggles is they are now comparing themselves to what they see the top, top guys doing,

and they just get overwhelmed and they don't start. And so there's two sides to that coin, right? Don't get sidelined by what you see people are doing, and then don't look what other people are doing and do what you believe is possible within yourself. So there's two kind of different- But also you can be inspired by what other people are doing.

Take it as inspiration. Yes. Well, don't copycat it. Like our society loves to copycat. Where James loved triathlon and loved sports and loved all this stuff. He didn't copy anything that anybody else did. He found his own level of excellence,

his own creative idea on how to be successful in the industry. It's fake. It's made up. He made this thing up. What do you mean you're gonna do a full distance triathlon in every state? What about Hawaii and Alaska? It's this made up thing.

So people should feel empowered to create their own dreams and their own aspirations based on what they see, but not copycat them. Get creative, do something different. I remember, do you remember, I saw you guys at the airport when you were heading to Hawaii? Met your wife.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, there they go, man. Listen to me. Your wife was so nice, and I could tell she almost pitied me. Like, these people think. I have no idea. I don't think so. No, this is what I felt like.

Like, these guys are so nice, and I feel so bad they think they can do 50. It was this energy of they're cute, it's naive. They're so cute, they're naive. Because she was coming from. You make it sound condescending, though. It wasn't. No, no, no, not at all. It wasn't.

Because she was coming from the perspective of experience having. With your journey. With your journey and whatnot. And she was like, okay, that's. I mean, even. She was so nice. She was taking her lead from me, though, because I was like, this guy, like he's going to do something great.

Like, I just don't. And I've said this to you, like, I think he's physically capable of doing this, but the logistics, like if one thing goes wrong, like the whole thing craters and you think you're going to go across 50 states and like something's not going to go like this. It was so kind and it was so supportive

and it was almost like this, oh, you guys, bless your hearts. You think you're gonna do this thing, you know? It's amazing how much our journeys have kind of intertwined over the past decade. Wasn't that so weird to see each other at the airport though? I know, it's crazy. That was the weirdest thing.

I mean, that's- On our way to Hawaii to boot. I know. On our way out to New York. I know the exact picture. I'm holding Quinn. He's wearing that green hat. He's got the sunglasses on there like crooked.

I know. And then you freaking went out and did it. And I remember coming out, like it was emotional for me. Like, I don't know if you remember when we did that podcast after you finished, like I got like choked up cause I was so touched by what you guys had done and the manner in which you carried yourself

and the way that you chose to express this incredible thing and the community that you chose to express this incredible thing and the community that you had built. And that was my first experience getting to meet Casey and Aaron and like those guys are just, I mean, they're unbelievable those guys, the positivity and the loyalty and just the extent to which those guys like show up for you is a testament

to you guys as leaders, because you don't get people like that unless you engender that level of kind of like trust and love and respect. Yeah, they are huge, huge parts of our journey. And what's interesting is I have a different relationship with those two guys and Sonny has a different relationship with those two guys and their relationships with each other is different.

It's just a very... And the way we got to meet those guys was so random and it was just happen chance that they were the only two guys available that would agree to do it in the 50. We didn't even know them. That's the way it works. It is the way it works.

And they have just totally become family. Well, Aaron did every one of those bike rides. Every single bike ride Aaron was out there doing. Unbelievable. Every mile. He's about to go grass loaded, yeah. And I got to tell you. His whole focus was James. It was amazing.

When I came out on day 91, I mean, it was great and all of that. But the highlight of the day was doing the wingman wrap up. And I was like, now I'm in it, man. I get to be on the wingman wrap up. Like, this is why I came. You were the guest to it, man. I get to be on the wingman wrap up. Like my day, like this is why I came. You were the guest to them, not them the guest to you. They're special boys. Unbelievable.

I remember on the day 100, when I came out, you were so in the zone and like, it was clear, like you were trying to really minimize your interactions with other people and just focus on what you were trying to accomplish. But you did say, I was like, cause you were walking and I was like, are you gonna break out the run?

And you're like, yeah, like I think you said a mile 20, you were gonna like let it loose and throw it down and things didn't actually go to plan. Yeah, so we had that conversation on 91. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then on day 100, I was like, okay, you're gonna, yeah,, he's like, I'm going to drop, you said, I'm going to drop the hammer. Yes, as we were running. Yeah.

Because I, from, on day 100, I was, oh man, I was being so patient and allowing my body to recover. Wait, pause. I want to run so bad. I want to run so bad. And we knew there was a 101, but nobody else did. Yeah, yeah. So then he's like. And we knew there was a 101, but nobody else did.

Yeah, yeah. So then he's like. Well, because I'm sure we'll get to 101 pretty quick here, but we didn't make the decision to do 101 until that Sunday, the final decision, so three days before. And when I had talked to you on that. You had the shirts made up and everything. In 48 hours. Oh, you did, wow.

And they were hand delivered. Uh-huh. Yeah, it's crazy. And people think it was planned because we had the jersey but that that was a it was like how'd you get the jersey we're like we don't know we don't know wow literally hand delivered in two days but when we had that conversation on day 21 i mean on day 91 i was being super patient my my shin was healing i didn't have any pain i was on the other side of the hip i was just, I am going to run that last day.

And right from the go, I started to run and I got to, I was so excited. But I knew things started to go south because I had already, I mean, obviously asked so much from my body and my mind. I mean, we're at the very tail end of a quarter of a year, had done something nobody thought was physically possible. And I had just really nursed my body back to health in the midst of so much trauma and so much so much stress and i made it all the way to 19 rich i made it to mile 19 running and then like you said if things went sideways in the beginning of the campaign they went sideways on day 100 and day 19. And I don't remember a lot of it because I had to check out. And I just remember the wingmen were there and Felicia was there. Our 110-pound friend had to be the one to catch him.

Yeah, and I just remember I'd manage it, manage it, and then my legs just, I had asked everything out of them and i they would give out on me and it gave the that collapse moments that i had gave me the 30 seconds to recoup and mentally we had a mantra and it was here we go and when you said here we go we start moving again and i i remember we were on the last out and back, headed out to 8th North, and we probably had three miles to go. It was after 19. I'd fallen apart. I had lost my goal to run the whole thing because my legs kept giving out on me. And we were probably mile 22 or 23, and I lost it again, and Felicia caught me.

And right before I went down, I was looking at my watch and I said, how fast are we running? And she's like, we're running at 930. And then my legs gave out and I collapsed again. And then I got back up and I said, I can do better than this. And her jaw dropped because she's like, you're on day 100 of 100 consecutive ironmans you've given everything you've had or had and your mindset right now is i can do better than this and that's truly where

my mind was because you you want to go out um kind of with a bang like we did on the 50. And I had been dreaming of it for a long time on that run and being so patient around my body. And I've obviously asked a lot for my body. But it was kind of that moment where like it was a proud moment for me because I was at the end, but my mind was still there from my perspective. And I knew I could, even in that moment, I knew I could do or be more. For people that don't know, I mean, you in the final miles,

for people that don't know, I mean, you in the final miles, you were literally collapsing. You were passing out and people had to catch you. Did you ever fall all the way down to the pavement? I didn't. And it's crazy because I've seen pictures now. It was bad. It was bad. And I've seen pictures now where like Casey and Aaron are like right there.

Any stumble or anything that I do, they are right there anticipating it. And I wouldn't have made it that last day without them just because of the pace that we're pushing. We'd done five hours on the bike course, which is moving. And so I'd asked a lot from my body just on that bike ride, knowing it was the last day, but also knowing we didn't want to let on that we were going to do 101 yeah and i i and i had been telling people on social media the whole time i'm i'm gonna run 100 yeah brace yourself if you plan to join me that day we're moving we're gonna go sub you know 12 11 and um and then and then things fell apart.

But at the back of my mind, I said, I can't allude to the fact that I gotta get up and do this again tomorrow. So even after I broke myself and drove myself into the ground and to figure out a way to do it one more time. We did fake celebrate. Yeah, I knew about it.

You told me about it, Adam knew about it. I mean, I remember- There's like six people- Oh yeah, Adam, because. I knew about it. You told me about it. Adam knew about it. I mean, I remember- There's like six people. Oh yeah, Adam, because Adam would have known. I went down, Adam and I went down to the finish line and we were kind of helping set up and all of that. And then Adam got word from Lucy, I think like, Oh, James is really struggling.

He's a couple miles out. And then we jogged up to like join the group. So I was there, i saw like maybe the last mile and a half of that and i was like oh my god like i don't think he's like he's so close and it just might not happen and you're like he's gonna do 101 tomorrow yeah i'm like forget about that like let's just get him you know into the track you know of the high school um and then you know running around the track like you came back to life and you started actually running pretty fast there at the end. I just couldn't believe it. You were literally falling down. You couldn't figure out how to put your foot on the ground without tripping.

It's just so crazy, the power of the mind. And when you're so close to something and the ability to turn it off, like Casey and Aaron were having a hard time keeping up on that last lap. Yeah. Because they had done the full thing. It was also really hot. turn it off like Casey and Aaron were having a hard time keeping up on that last lap because they had done the whole thing really hot and neither of them were trained for a full this triathlon and Aaron had biked all of those days and so so Aaron's like I almost Aaron said Aaron said one more half lap and I would have I would have fallen over and I just I just kept praying the entire time I was picking up that pace over the last two laps. I was just like, don't fall on your face in front of everybody. Even though I'd been doing it for six miles prior to this,

but I'm like, you're in the grandstand now. And every step I took, I couldn't believe it. I didn't fall over. I didn't fall over. I didn't fall over. And I just kept just saying, stay on your feet. Stay on your feet. How cool is that flag that you ran under?

It was really cool. It was very cool. And then 20 minutes later, you're up giving a speech looking fresh as a daisy. It's like crazy. Standing for like 45 minutes. I'm like, get the man a chair. Well, and then I did pictures for two or three hours.

You guys were there for a long time. Pretending that there was no one there. Two or three hours knowing I'm like, okay, I gotta get home. I gotta get on the therapy table. I've got one more day. So I left at 8.30 and you had left about 15 or 20 minutes before that.

So you were out there by about 8.10. The one-on-one just being like the core group, like just close friends. And that was even special too, because I was planning on just me and Casey kind of doing it. We didn't know. We had celebrated.

We had celebrated, and people probably wanted their rest too from the whole thing. And Lucy went live every single day on the swim. Sunny did. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, sorry. Sunny did. Lucy would push the button. Lucy would push the button. Lucy would push the button.

And we wanted that moment to where it was just me in the pool. And that's why we didn't tell anybody. And I started that swim by myself. And the chat boards and text threads kind of lit up immediately. Which is exactly what we wanted. The element of surprise. We wanted that conversation. With dissonance of like, wait a second, he's swimming.

Is this recovery swim? What's happening? I imagine people thought, oh, he can't sleep and he's going to kind of give a breakdown of what happened. This poor guy doesn't know what to do with himself. So he might just go do it again. And then by the time I finished the swim and got out of the water, the cyclist had- Yeah, there were, there were 12 cyclists together and then started meeting us on the road. And then

we did an undisclosed run location cause we wanted it to be kind of friends and family and core the, the day, day 100 was so chaotic. It's the opposite of my personality. It was so stressful. We had hundreds of riders out there. And last thing you want to do is crash at high speeds on the last day when you're that close and so it was a super stressful bike ride for me um and then obviously the the excitement and the emotion and the stress from that run um and so we i wanted to kind of go out on my terms and the feeling on that day was so different because we'd accomplished the goal we did it yeah we did it and so that like the the biggest of exhales happened and then it was just this fun chatty core group of of cyclists and runners that we got to experience and kind of go out on our terms and it was it was a magical day because you you knew you'd finish there's no timeline. There's no expectations. It's

the ultimate victory lap with your closest team and supporters from the past, however long. But it also sends a very loud and clear message that when you've accomplished your goal and done the thing you didn't think that you could do, you can actually do more. And it just was made undeniable. I would always get so frustrated speaking and someone would always ask after the 50, could you have done one more? And I was like, they are not going to ask me if I can do one more after this 100. And like we mentioned earlier, it was not part of the game plan. The week before we started to put it into play and Zoka Cycling Clothing, we called her up and we said, hey, we have this idea. We know it's in three days,

any chance. And she's like, send me the logo. And and she was planning to her and her team was planning to drive and be at the finish line and they handed that 101 jersey to Lucy at the finish line after and I put it on the first time that following morning and came out in that 101 jersey and so that was one of those little things that looked like we had a plan, but it came together so fast and everyone was willing to do their part to make that day happen. So you've had some time now to reflect on all of this, perhaps get a little bit of an objective perspective

on what it was all about. So, what does it mean to you? Like, what is was all about. So, you know, what is it, like, what does it mean to you? Like, what is this all about? And has that kind of changed or evolved? You go. I don't think we know. So James thought, well, I need to take some time off afterwards, which just led him into depression and, you know, misdirection in his life.

And he's just barely now picking back up. He said, in the middle of August, end of August is when I kind of pick back up. But I don't think we really know. I mean, my recovery didn't start till two weeks ago because I had to care for James post. And then we have summer and all of the things we have going on. And so it wasn't until the kids went back to school that I finally like exhaled. So I don't even think we've actually had the time to reflect yet because the summer,

even though it was supposed to, I mean, it was very relaxing for James, but not for, you know, me and Lucy, for instance, or the other kids.

This is your time. Yeah. You get to do what you want to do now. I think. Yeah. I mean, it's literally catching my breath. Nothing has been routine since December for me until...

Well, and here's the way any project happens is there's a preparation, there's an execution, and there's a post, which is, in our case, it's recovery. And that recovery still was intense for Sonny and caring for me and me going through those struggles and, and going out of it. And so this has kind of been like this trip kind of like, okay, kids are back to school full time. Kids are in their routine.

And this trip has kind of been like, Oh, this is kind of the first time where both of us have been like almost stress-free and relaxed and to where we're starting to reflect. And so this, this actual talk has been kind of the start of what that, you know, on the other side of that process. I think it's the first time that I've really actually thought about it,

to be honest, because even the last two weeks, I've been doing all the tasks that I've been putting off since last December, like organizing the pantry and getting shelves hung in the garage. So I mean, I think this is the first time that I've really actually reflected on it.

Other than reflecting every day, I kept a journal every day and then did my closet talk every day. So every day I was writing things down, but I mean, like there's some PTSD that still has to be worked through that I don't think either of us has really processed it yet.

And we don't really know what's gonna happen because we still don't know nothing. You know, we made everything wait till August to happen. And now it's just barely August. So it's like, I don't think we really know. I mean, I can't speak for James, but for me. Well, for me, my, you know, Sonny and I have always been on the same path,

but different perspectives and different journey because our roles are very different. And my role now quickly goes back into provider and to where I'm, you know, speaking full-time again, and we're planning on writing the second book. And I'm working with the film documentary crew to produce the second documentary and different opportunities show up in my email every day. And I could, you know, so I'm back into that world of, you know, business and trying to monetize what we did and trying to help as many people as we can and relaunch our coaching platform. I mean, rewriting your presentation.

Yeah, rewriting that whole thing. Yeah, rewrite that keynote. Yeah, getting the messaging back in it that we want. And we learn lessons and we evolve too on these journeys. And we want to share those and teach those lessons too. I mean, I think if someone gives the same keynote for 20 years, they're not evolving as a person either. And if you listen to my keynote over the past five or six years, it's the same story, but the lessons change and where I put emphasis changes on them because I'm evolving as a person. And so

what's next for me is very different than kind of what's next for Sunny outside of like our family goals and raising our kids. But Sunny is loving doing podcasts and getting into speaking. It's actually what she wants to do and empowering people. We get contacted all the time. And you and I had conversations recently, Rich, where like Sonny's the unsung hero of this journey. And people, every time I speak, people are like, who's your wife? And can we meet her? And she's an absolute. You have to wake up and just do one thing every day.

Exactly. She's got to do a thousand things and keep her eye on so many moving pieces. I know Sonny more than most. And she's expressed many times how now is not the time, but now is the time to prepare for when she gets to tell her story and be on stage and do that. And so she's got some exciting opportunities coming up, and still is, the kids. And what an unbelievable responsibility that is and the amount of work and the attention to detail and time that she puts into each one of our kids is remarkable. Well, your kids are great. Like, I love your kids. They're so awesome.

They're born that way. I'm telling you. I don't know about that. Me neither. It's a true testament to how much time and care and love and thought that Sunny puts into it. But her time is coming. And from my perspective, that's what's coming for her. She's just preparing, doing little things now that'll prepare her for her true passion.

Her true passion is teaching people and speaking and talking. And mine is like disappearing into the mountains on my bike. But you're very good. I'm waiting for that day that we, that we transition out of none of that. If you have a chance to see James do his talk, like I, what was that like three years ago when you were out here and you did it? Like, it's very good. Like you're very good at that. Thank you. And I can't imagine how much it's evolved since I saw it. So, you know, if you have an opportunity to attend an event and to hear James share his story,

it's something you should definitely check out. Oh, thank you. I look forward to Sonny's version. It's exciting. Maybe a little more girly. I don't know. But part of that talk and what you're all about is this subject of mental toughness.

And I'm sure people say to you all the time, like, how do you develop mental toughness? Where does your mental toughness come from? Like, what is that about? How can I be more mentally tough in my own life? The number one question. Verbatim. Yeah, yeah.

And I had to think about it a lot because I didn't know how to answer it. Because I mean, if I could write out that formula for someone, dude, my financial situation is completely different. But the reality is, is just through discussion and presenting and really having the opportunity to be and speak in 48 different countries and just all the different walks of life and different cultures, the number one thing is mental toughness. And I've just realized it's only through taking action. It's only through getting backed into that corner

and then having the courage to take that next step, saying, my leg might snap, but I am willing to take that next step. And you cannot learn it by reading it. You cannot learn it by hearing somebody. Those are all great like sparks or motivation pieces to get you going on your journey. But ultimately at the end of the day,

you've got to show up, you've got to participate, you have to learn. And you can't go from zero to 100. And I couldn't have done what I did mentally without learning and struggling and developing and sharpening that thing. The big question topic, are you born with it or can you develop it?

Nature versus nurture, the eternal debate, right? And my answer, just based on my personal experiences, it's nurture. You have to develop it, you have to work on it. Now, we're all born with a different baseline. Chase would be a great example. He obviously has a different starting baseline for mental toughness than some other people do.

Now, if he took- And you're the kid who was on the Ferris wheel for 10 days to win a prize. Right, exactly. So your baseline is probably a little bit different. Like how old are you for that? 22? 21, 22.

But I took that knowledge from that experience and then I've really showed up in my life and sharpened it. Jace has an incredible opportunity to be something very special in that mindset space. And I come across, you can pick out, okay, baselines higher, baselines higher, baselines higher, develop that talent. But everybody can develop it.

Because I'm a great example of this is a mental journey. I'm not the most physically gifted. Now you have to, the other big question is like, how much is physical and how much is mental for what we do or the journey that we're on? And my answer has changed over the years. And you hear a lot of people have different opinions. It's like 70 percent mental and it's a hundred percent physical and it's a hundred percent mental you cannot do what i did if i'm very strong mentally and i'm a 300 pound man you can't mentally you cannot drag your body through that experience and if you're extremely physical but have a weak mind,

I've seen so many athletes that are way more talented than I am fail because they don't have the mental component of it. And so you straight up have to be 100% on both of them in order to accomplish something like that or the journey or push your boundaries or your limits, right? It's a combination. You cannot rely solely on one or the other or push your boundaries or your limits, right? It's a combination. You cannot rely solely on one or the other and allow that to be to get you through. You have to be so strong at both of them or it just doesn't work.

Yeah. It's really a habit or a muscle, this idea of reflexively putting yourself into positions where you're going to be tested mentally, emotionally, physically, in all of these ways. And we're in a culture right now where it's kind of easy to opt out of that type of situation. So you have to almost have a little bit of extra gumption to like seek it out and put yourself in that situation. Sunny always says, and she is not lying when she says it, she says, if I have two paths in front of me, I'm going to intentionally pick the harder one

because I want it to hurt. I want to struggle. I want to learn. I want to grow. And that's exact opposite of what most people are doing today. They see two things and go, that's the easy route. I'm going to take that way. And that individual, sadly-

It's very unfulfilling. Yeah, it's unfulfilling. You think it's going to be, you know, like you're deluded into thinking that the happy life is the easy life, but the happy life, the fulfilled life, the purpose-driven life is the life that invites those sort of difficult situations

into your experience. Well, they're depressed and they have anxiety and all those things. I'm like, I'm sure you do. Because you're just taking that easy mountain bike path. It's just soft dirt. And all you do you do is you know there's no challenge there's no reason to develop any character but they're choosing that right so it's like well I'm sure you feel depressed like you're accomplishing nothing hard so that's definitely what our culture and our society encourages

yeah one of the easy path one of the biggest things you learn by taking the harder path is problem solving. And that's what our team and Sunny has become experts at is problem solving. That's all we do. We've become master problem solvers and we've learned how to problem solve in the face of adversity. And when you take that path of least resistance,

there's very limited opportunities or necessity to problem solve. And so you don't learn that skillset. And life is about managing adversity and learning how to problem solve at a high level. Under stressful circumstances. Under stressful circumstances. Yeah. The threshold for you being overwhelmed is probably really high. Oh, yeah. Like nothing's a big deal. No, no, I'll just figure it out.

I'll just figure it out. And I mean, that was the whole journey of the 100 was adaptation. Nothing was ever the same. Every day, the mood, the injury, the fatigue of the crew or James, the food he wanted, the people that were showing up, the weather. I mean, every day was adaptation. And, you know, I remember being late in the journey going, man, we're, we're 90 days in and nothing's ever the same. You know, you grocery shop for a week and James doesn't want anything you buy or, you know, and it's, it's literally minute to minute

to minute. So, you know, I don't have a lot of tolerance for people who say, you know, it's literally minute to minute to minute. So I don't have a lot of tolerance for people who say, it's just hard. I don't have the resources. I can't figure it out. And I'm like, did you just figure it out? That's life. You just figure out nobody has the instruction manual. Nobody knows what they're doing.

You just figure it out. And a lot of times you don't have the time to figure it out. You have like 10 seconds to figure out a solution right here, right now. I mean. And that was the premise of the 100 was remove the chaos, put in normality, put in consistency. The great illusion, remove the chaos.

Good luck with that. One of those things that we thought we were going to be able to control and ultimately it became. It was exactly the same. It became just as chaotic as the 50, but for twice as long. Exactly the same, but different. I mean, it was just as chaotic, just as necessary to solve problems,

just as dramatic, just different. It was unbelievably exactly the same as far as emotions and stress went. What's a story that hasn't been told, like a behind the scenes? Like what do people not get or not understand about how this whole thing unfolded? From both perspectives, James, what's yours?

I think, man, that's a great question. I've never been asked that before. You're a winner because he gets asked a lot of the same questions. I do this for a living. Yeah, this is my job. Yeah, but most people ask the same questions. You got them. Gosh. I will say this. Few people will ever understand what it takes and what the four of us went through,

even if you've read every book, seen every interview. I mean, it had to put a strain on your marriage. No. No? Well. I may be his. No. He's like, well, I don i don't know actually was out there riding my bike no um even i didn't know one of i i think it's sunny's actually super mature and one of the

biggest sighs of relief for me when she says i just gave you a hundred day pass on anything you said and anything you did and i'm like no other woman on the planet does that. But just her level of understanding of, okay, look, this isn't my husband. There's an imbalance. There's a hormonal thing going on. There's a stress thing going on. This is totally situational. And thankfully I did get a 100 day pass. I don't think people realize that it was literally second to second. I mean, it wasn't, and I don't know if that was everybody's experience,

but that was certainly mine. It was, I mean, from the second I got up until I was climbing into bed, knowing I was only getting two hours of sleep, every second was high intensity and demanding I mean there was no refuge so that I think about people in their own struggles and there's a lot of times you're like okay I'm just gonna I'm gonna go in my closet and take five breaths like that didn't exist for me because I had my family.

I had the crew. I had James. I had, I mean, the film crew, James. I had our working crew. I had the volunteer church stuff I was doing in the community. My parents live in my basement. You know, we have two dogs. I mean, there was literally.

And a lot of people whose needs need to be met, who are looking to you to meet those needs and not a lot of time for sunny to meet sunny's needs which i knew was only temporary so it was okay but 100 days is a long time long temporary phase yep and it took me about two years to recover from the 50 and so i promised myself this time along the way i would do things to prevent needing that much time to recover and so that's why now I'm like, there's definitely still some PTSD that I have to process that I just haven't had the chance to yet.

And I've just started that. So I definitely feel better than coming off the 50, but it was intense every second. Yeah. It's kind of like an extrapolated version of when somebody goes into crew like an ultra race and they've never crewed before and they think they're just going to be in a van listening to music and it's going to be super cool and chill when you run by they hand you a drink

wait like they're doing stuff all the like but that's times a thousand for a hundred days straight yeah i think the stories that haven't been told yet are the stories that we don't know yet of the people we've impacted. I think that's the biggest thing. They're yet to come. That are yet to come. And those are obviously the most meaningful stories. And a lot of them we won't ever get to hear. Yeah.

Back on the mental toughness piece, you had mentioned something that's a little bit tangential to it, which is this idea of showing up, right? The idea of being consistent and how that plays into long-term success. And the truth being that, you know, it's not sexy and it's not like something that like trends in social media. It's like that stuff that you do every single day, no matter what, that moves the needle forward ever so slightly, that puts you in the position to be able to do great things and achieve your dreams. I've got to have a really cool experience.

I've had the opportunity to speak to some NFL teams, and I was on the field for a warm-up for one of the games, and one of the coaches was there talking to me, and the quarterback was throwing the to me and he the the quarterback was throwing the ball to a couple different receivers and he said watch this and he threw the ball and the receiver caught it and immediately tucked it and then dropped the ball caught the next one and immediately tucked it and then he started throwing the ball to a newer member of the team more of a rookie and he would catch it and drop it catch it and drop it and he said he's not going to make it in this league and the reason he's a successful veteran is because

he's still doing the small things and working on the fundamentals that you would think they would take for granted of or not put much attention to it but the fact that he would catch it and still tuck it like it was a game situation or he was protecting it even in a just i'm just tossing a ball to you right that type of thing the coaches watch that kind of stuff and it's that level of consistency it's that level of showing up it's that level of doing the the small things over a long period of time that people aren't willing to do that separates that guy who makes it and the guy who ultimately will get cut. Yeah. So true. How does it work with balance? I'm sure you get that question a lot too. He does get that one a lot. Yeah. Your life's totally out of balance, dude.

No, it's not. Well, you're a guy with, you have four kids, right? Yeah. So, I mean, I'm sure you get that question a lot too. I do. I have a, my answer evolves, but I have kind of a response to that, but I'm interested in how you guys think about that. My answer has evolved too. And now that I have four teenage girls. It's so fun. It is fun.

But this is the example that I use. My 13-year-old daughter doesn't want 25% of my time. Because people assume, oh, family life balance. You're lucky if you get five minutes. Well, yeah. And people assume, okay, let's say, let's break life into work, play, family. And if balance equals 33, 33, 33,

then you've got to give that amount of time to each one of those. And that's the best example is my daughter doesn't want 33% of my time. Like that, that's absurd. What she does want is when I am getting over my time, she wants all of my time and she wants me to be right there, attentive, listening to the story that I don't necessarily all the details care about. But as a young, I mean, we've got one daughter who, Sonia will say, how was your day?

And literally from when she woke up. I woke up and then I did this and then this. And it's like. Oh, the whole time. I see, I would kill for that. I get a lot of like fine. And that's all I get. We have one of those too. How was your day?

Fine. Anything happen? Yeah. But family life and work balance doesn't mean an equal percentage. It means whatever you're doing, give that balance to it. anything happen? Yeah. But family life and work balance doesn't mean an equal percentage. It means whatever you're doing, give that balance to it. And the hundreds are perfect example, totally out of balance. But that imbalance is temporary and the sacrifices were discussed

with the family. Everybody was committed to imbalance, including the kids. Okay. Life's going to be completely out of balance for a while and it will shift back to imbalance. And to break through barriers and to reach certain levels and whatnot, there has to be some... Nobody that navigates this life successfully has a perfect balance at all times. Now, what you have to be careful of is going completely out of balance for a really long period of time. Now you're creating- Jeopardizing. You're jeopardizing and creating problems. What's your thoughts on balance? I think that balance is ebb and flow. It's like a marriage is never 50-50. Sometimes it's 60-40, sometimes it's 70-30, depending on which partner needs more attention at the time.

I think life is like that. Sometimes you don't need downtime, you need uptime. You don't need to rest, you need to be more exhilarated and have more passion. So I think the appropriate thing with balance is gauging where you're at personally, where your family's at, what your goals are, what the demands are, and doing so accordingly. Because like said it evolves right it changes over time like if you're if you're writing a book your time balance is going to be different than when the book's completing your marketing the book right now your time and attention is going to go somewhere else but it's the same project you're trying to accomplish the same goal but it has to

sacrifice differently to get to the end of that or even your activity level you're like i'm going to be sitting a lot more in the day than if I'm working in my garden. Yeah, I mean, it's a tricky thing. I mean, I think we're, I think culture dictates this idea that we should be aspiring to live our life in this super balanced way every single day

and that our time and attention is equally apportioned throughout the hours of the day so that everybody's taken care of and you're taking care of yourself. And it sets people up for failure and for guilt. Like we beat ourselves up because we're not adhering to that kind of norm. And that norm is an illusion.

Like, I don't think anybody adheres to that norm successfully. And on top of that, if you wanna do something amazing, your life is gonna have to look unlike other people's lives i mean that's just the truth like nobody achieves something great with some perfectly balanced life like you have to be temporarily out of balance so that something gets an extraordinary amount of time attention and focus period right yeah i think of it as a pendulum and that pendulum has to swing back like you have to make sure that the important buckets in your life are being attended to so that you're, you don't capsize completely, but you have to be in a situation

where you can kind of vacillate in and out of these things. And that's okay. As long as it always kind of like tips back in the right direction. Yeah. Beautifully said. And don't you think that people know when their life is out of balance? Sure. Because either you're sad or you're too tired or you're this or that, and then you assess, right? Well, our bodies are amazing too. They give us signals.

Yeah, I mean, I think, yeah. And I think it's more, I like to think of it more in terms of attention. Like where are you placing your attention? And is that the right place to be placing your attention? And when you're placing your attention on that thing, are you giving it all that you have? And you can pull out of it and then rejigger

and focus it somewhere else, but being present for what you're doing. And I think, a big piece of like the lesson that I extract, one of the lessons I extract from the 100 is this mindfulness piece, like this idea of being totally present with what you're doing. Like you can't, it's too overwhelming, right?

The only way that you got through it is by being exactly where your feet were, you know, every second of every mile of every day. Yeah, as soon as I looked too far ahead, it was catastrophic. Well, and you couldn't have balance. He had one job. Yeah.

Swim, bike and run couldn't have balance. He had one job. Yeah. Swim, bike, and run. That was it. If he tried to implement anything else, like you said, he couldn't have accomplished it. It couldn't have happened, right? So, yeah, that was out of balance. But the appropriate thing to do is to immediately, you know, balance out your time, time efforts and energies as soon as that project is done and i think that's where people struggle i think they try to continue what they're doing you know they don't recover after a race they just continue their training right but i think

you articulated that beautifully yeah and here sorry here's a great example of i sacrificed a lot of family time during those hundred years hundred 100 years, that's what it felt like. Get the MRI. Immediately, 100 days. But what did that sacrifice, like at what level did that sacrifice now bless my family? Create more family time.

And create more family time because of that sacrifice. And so imbalance for a quarter of a year or for a time period, but that sacrifice in turn will create an opportunity for me to be more- It's a leverage point. Yeah, it's a leverage point. Yeah. Well, here's one for you.

And I'm wondering whether you relate to this. Myself being someone who like appreciates suffering and I feel like I have a capacity for that as well. What happens with me is I equate, maybe not success, but whether I've given my all to something is calibrated and lockstep with how much I've suffered. So whether it's a book or writing a speech or preparing for a pie, whatever it is,

it's like, if I haven't suffered, like I didn't work hard enough on it. Like I could work harder on it. Like I could really go down the rabbit hole on this. You know, I have to really like feel it, you know, in order to feel like I did a good job and things outside of endurance sports don't necessarily work that way, right?

So the challenge that, like one of the things I'm trying to learn right now is can I hold these things a little bit more lightly and be more in the allowing rather than in the kind of self-will forcing of it, because that's my instinct, right? And that instinct doesn't always drive the best result in areas that are outside of like endurance sports.

Yeah, I battle with that too. Like if it, you know, back to taking the path of least resistance or the hard road. Sometimes when you accomplish something, if it wasn't hard, what is the, I could have done better. That project's not what it should have been. But sometimes it just is easy and it's okay.

And that's, I think that's what you're saying. You're trying to learn is like, it's okay to not have to suffer through something. It'd still be an excellent piece. Well, sometimes it's better if you get out of the way and just allow it to be, allow it to express itself in a more kind of like organic natural way than to try to force it.

Yeah, everything doesn't have to be hard or a struggle. It doesn't have to be. That's the thing, right? I think people hear some of the times when we say that as like, oh, okay, I have to struggle. It has to be hard. I have to face adversity in order to learn. No, that's just where learning is at its peak,

but you can still do things and accomplish things and it'd be easy and it's a breeze and it's fun and it's enjoyable and it's enjoyable. And so, yeah, there's obviously definitely two sides of that coin and I'm learning. I have to learn that as well too. Yeah, it's kind of a hard lesson because it just cuts across like my instinct.

Yeah, we're cut from that same mold. Are any of your kids into this stuff? Like are- Suffering or- No, just like the multi-sport thing or are they just on their own trip? They're on their own trip. And that's one of the things that I,

one of the biggest goals i set out as a parent was i am not going to force my passions my dreams on my kids i'm going to allow them to be on their own journey and i'm going to help create opportunities for them but ultimately i want them to follow their passions and um i would say quinn and as of the last six months no i'd say quinn and and daisy um have the have a great baseline for suffering but quinn only as of the last six months no I'd say Quinn and Daisy have a great baseline for suffering yeah but Quinn

only as of the last six months he's just wanted to be a little kid but he he showed like a YouTube channel now though

yeah she's got 776 sheepdog 776 sheepdog 776 what does he do on his channel parkour trampoline

he's learning how to do flips he's doing backflips all over the time. But the cool thing is that he, so this is in conjunction with James is saying, Quinn has found this passion and he is continuing to grow in this passion.

So he is continuing to learn new sports. He's moving to parkour on the ground and he's doing some Ninja Warrior stuff, but here's what else is cool. He's filming it. He's editing it. He's editing it. He's posting it. He enjoys that part of it.

And it's so cool to see. So for his birthday, we got him a tripod because he has friends that he gets to hold his camera for him. And it's been really neat to see him not only do what the sport he loves, but to continue to learn and grow in different parts of the sport. So it's been really neat to see him grow into that

because before he's like, I just wanna wear Spider-Man costumes and dress up, right? Where now he's finally showing some passion for athletics. And he's played lacrosse for years, but it was because his cousin played and so he wanted to hang out with his cousin. But now he's starting to show a little bit. And then our daughter, Daisy, that James mentioned,

she's our third daughter. She just turned 15. She is the most easygoing. She's just like James. She's like, I don't care if it's messy. I don't care if it's clean. I don't care if my homework is good grades, bad grades. I don't care.

But the second she sets her mind to something, she is unstoppable. And it is a force to be reckoned with. The trick is finding the right thing. So she, you know, coasts through life doing things her way. And then every once in a while, she finds something and she just dives into it. So that's really cool.

Cause that's a lot how James is. James is so easy going. He's just go with the flow. He has a play mentality and he's just like yellow personality. I'm a procrastinator at heart. Like he really is. But then when he finds that thing and he turns it on, he turns it on. I mean, and Lucy, Lucy's just like

hardcore all the time. Lily, she just wants to play and have fun. And then she realizes being organized is better for her. And then Dolly, our other daughter's just like, I just want to do hair and makeup. So it's interesting how it's all different, but those two are the ones that show kind of the turn on where it's like from normal to hardcore. Yeah, that switch thing. I mean, that is, you were talking about nurture versus nature. Perhaps that's a nature thing. I mean, you are a guy, like when I think of you,

it's like, yeah, your word is your bond. You say you're gonna do this thing. Like I know James is gonna fulfill on that promise or die trying, like whatever's gonna happen. Like you care so much about this promise that you make, whether whatever's gonna happen. Like he's, you care so much about this promise that you make, whether it's to yourself or to the public. And that becomes like this anchor that holds you accountable to yourself

in terms of like accomplishing these goals. Yeah, and it's fun. It is fun to watch those kids that follow in that and you can start to see, but as far as doing what we do, none of them have any interest, zero. We keep trying to pitch like mountain biking. But you did like a big family hike up this mountain the other day. They do that.

They love that. It's family time. Dolly was crazy excited the whole time. I just love hiking. This is so much fun. And she's the kind of girl that like have to get her out there and then she realizes, Sunny's this way too. I have to get Sunny to go do an activity.

She's very resistant and then she does it and it's like this is the best time I've ever had in my life. I'm a work-minded person. I've ever had in my life. Right. And so no, we do stuff as a family. They're very active and very healthy and they love to get out and do family stuff like that. She's not something like triathlon.

Yeah, not triathlon. Maybe golf, independent sport. I don't know. We'll see. Yeah. We'll see. Well, there is no such thing as an individual sport, as individual as triathlon and multi-sport is.

I mean, this really was a beautiful team effort and family journey that you guys went on. It's super inspiring to so many people. I love you guys a ton. I appreciate you coming to share today. And maybe we can just end this with a few thoughts for the person out there who does struggle with getting off the couch or just figuring out

how to bring that will into execution. How do you start to show up? Like what if you've never showed up or you haven't flexed that muscle before and you're inspired by what you guys have done and the example that you've set, like how do you get that person activated? Yeah, I think the biggest thing is helping them realize

that we started from the very beginning. Same self-doubt, same outside criticism coming in, same trying to battle that conversation. And just set yourself the smallest goals. One of the best examples I've ever read was from the book Atomic Habits, James Clear, when he said, okay, you don't go to the gym. You're 350 pounds.

Your goal is to go to the gym for literally five minutes when five minutes is up you have to leave the gym and the person on the beginning of their journey would be like I'm not going to accomplish anything by going to the gym for five minutes a day because the flip side of that is someone says okay I'm going to go to the gym 90 minutes six days a week and they fail every single time. It's inevitable. It always happens. Nobody that is at the beginning of that journey can set an expert level goal and accomplish it. And the whole process or reason for doing that is because it's a mind. It's a mind deal. And you now become, even though you've only gone to the gym for five minutes, if over the past two weeks, you've gone to the gym every day for five minutes

you now can say the words I'm a gym goer right I'm the kind of person who goes to the gym I go to the gym every single day and so my advice to someone who's just starting is one absolutely realize that your journey is worth it you're worth showing up on your own journey and meet yourself where you're at today and set that

expectation but then set yourself such almost a ridiculously achievable goal so that you can start to gain confidence and momentum. And once you do that, now push the limits. Now start to go. You can't go from zero to a hundred. My journey didn't start off the couch, a hundred Ironmans. It started a four mile fun run that I struggled through that Sonny made fun of me for that put us on this journey. So ultimately it's her fault that we're here. But really that's my biggest, that's, you created this whole insanity. So that's my advice is, is meet yourself where you're at today. Believe in yourself,

know that you're enough and to, to just start and set yourself almost a ridiculously low goal to give yourself some confidence and momentum. I'd say find something hard to do every day. For some people that hard is, you know, brushing your teeth or talking to the person checking you out at the grocery store or to just leave the house or to, you know, make a phone call that you have been putting off. But I mean, every time I mountain bike, if I'm on an easy stretch, I intentionally look for like hard rocks and stuff to hit

because I'm like, there's no better time to practice going over those rocks than in this safe zone. So find hard things to do inside your safe zone and just do it one hard thing a day. Yeah. One hard thing. Solid advice, both you guys. I'm gonna resist the temptation to ask you the question that I'm sure everybody asks you at the end of these things.

You know what it is. You know what it is. What's next? I'm not going to ask you that. I don't want to know what's next. There doesn't have to be a next. I've got a great answer. Do you? All right. I didn't ask you by the way. I know you don't. I'm going to volunteer. Let me handle this. Hey, Jay, so what's next? What's next? Yes. So obviously we're in the recovery phase of what we're doing. That is what's right in front of us, what's next. But I've kind of gone down this rabbit hole of recovery,

of biohacking the mind and the body and all of the incredible tools that are out there, if you have access to them, to utilize them, just with food and just everything um what's next for me would be to live a healthy sustainable quality of life beyond age 105 so it keeps changing it there you go it used to be 100 i know but then you said you said you're gonna live i said i can live i'm gonna live as a widow because i'll make it to 100 but you'll be 105 i know so i said 105 because it's five years difference.

See, I had to adjust it because I don't want to be with you. I got a couple of guys you should talk to and a couple of books for you to read. I'm reading Dave Astry's book right now. Yeah. If you read David Sinclair's book, you should read that. This guy, Sergey Young, who was just on the podcast, has a book that just came out called Growing Young. Cool. I'm fascinated with all of it because obviously my whole career

has been breaking my body down. And I'm at the point now where I'm like, okay, I need to- It's oxidative stress. I need to build this back up so that I can hit this goal of what's next and living to beyond 105. Well, the amazing thing is throughout this whole thing,

you really didn't lose any body weight. Like you maintained your weight. In both campaigns. Yeah. People ask us all the time, is he on steroids or something? No, he's just born like that. No, I just eat a lot of food.

You do, yeah. I eat so much food. It was one of the hardest things we did was eat that amount of food to maintain it. Yeah, it's been crazy. You guys are welcome back here anytime. I love talking to you today. Thanks.

We love you. And you guys are easy to find. So people should check out your book, Redefine Impossible. There's the documentary, The Iron Cowboy, The 50-50-50 Journey or something. What is it called exactly? It's called Iron Cowboy.

It currently sits on Amazon Prime. Right, cool. And then to follow anything crazy we do or what is next is we post everything on Instagram. So Iron Cowboy James, and then everything can be linked or found through our website, ironcowboy.com. Cool, right on. Sonny, ironcowboy.com. Cool.

Right on. Sunny, any final words? Sunny Jo Lawrence on Instagram. I'm not very good at posting, but I've set this new goal because people keep asking me to post. People keep requesting and I just, I have to get in the habit. You have to get out of your comfort zone. Do something hard, Sunny. Create that new atomic habit.

Be the person who person that's the plan i got it the problem is this i do those closet talks to day 98 and then all of a sudden instagram wouldn't let me load videos so i haven't been able to load any videos i can't figure out what's wrong with it it's this weird thing i've tried deleting the app tried everything so then i got out of the habit and so i've been getting requests like please post more so i'm i'm doing that starting the habit. It's happening. You are a problem solver.

I am. And this sounds like a problem that you could probably solve. I've been working on it. It almost sounded like an excuse. I know, right? We should end this right now. No, explanation.

This is it. This is the new habit. I'm going to post more. All right, I'm going to log on Instagram tomorrow and see what's what with you. It's going to happen. Okay. Tomorrow.

Okay, good for, good to know I got a deadline. I'm going to do something today. Peace. All right, you guys. Thanks, good to know I got a deadline. I'm going to do something today. Peace. All right, you guys. Thanks. Thank you. Peace.

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