205.) Summit Sessions #77: Great Range Athlete WRIGHT Team

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the forty six of forty six podcast Summit Session,
where we'll talk all things Adirondack back country and beyond.
From high peaks, stories and adventures to trail tips and tricks.
We'll dive deep into the heart of these mountains and
the people who passionately climb them. Adirondack maps and spruce
traps to bushwacks and backpacks. It's all here, the forty

(00:21):
six of forty six Summit Sessions. Hello everyone, and welcome
back to the forty six of forty six podcast. I'm

(00:44):
here tonight with the recently graduated Great Range Athlete Right Team,
and it is a packed house. The Right Team was
a very special team in terms of the Great Range
Athlete community. It was the biggest team of all time,
but maybe the biggest impact happen been amongst the team
throughout the entire journey. So tonight we're going to talk
all about everything from their time training together, getting to

(01:07):
know each other, and also hear all about the group
hike up Right Peak, where it was arguably the windiest
day I've ever experienced in my entire Adirondack hiking life.
But without further ado, let's just jump right in. It's
going to be a campfire style episode tonight where we're
just going to chat and tell some stories here. But
Great Range Athlete, Right Team, Welcome to the forty six

(01:29):
to forty six podcast to all of you. So we
got people from Canada, we got people from Texas, we
got people from Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, all over the place Ohio,
just here to have a great old time. Everybody joined
with one goal in mind to become a stronger, fitter,
hiker and human being. And what a pleasure it was
watching all of you go from day one to actually

(01:50):
day day negative one, because you guys started a week
early and you all started like a bad out of
hell when we started our program. So it was really
fun watching you from the get go all the way
to the end. There were so many wins, so much
you know, growth and progress made during the six weeks
that you guys were together. And I can say with
complete certainty, and I know everybody who has done the

(02:12):
Great Orange Athlete program will listen to this podcast because
they all listen to the other team's podcasts. The Right
Team arguably became the closest team I think that of
any of the teams that I've had, so kudos to
all of you. And there's some teams that really grew
a very strong bond, but you guys had something very
different about you. So it was fun to watch. But

(02:32):
before we dive in, we're gonna go We're gonna get
into the group hike. And as I mentioned on the
group hike, or I mentioned about the group hike, the
group phike was up Right Peak, and I don't think
I've ever experienced wind so hard on Right Peak. I've
been up there four or five times, and it was
it was one for the books. I have a fantastic
picture of Dacy on top of the summit trying, you know,

(02:53):
trying not to get blown off the summit. So we
have lots of photos of that. But we're going to
get into the group hike. But right now I'm just
going to kind of start asking some questions. Just there's
so many of us here. There's like, i mean, like
fifteen of us here. So I'm just going to go
to the top left of my screen here as we talk,
and Mike Dawkins all the way from Texas, brother, talk
to me about what brought you to the Great Range

(03:14):
Athlete program and how did it go for you?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah? For me. You know, I found you on on YouTube.
I didn't.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
I didn't know about your podcast, but now I do
and now I'm listening to that.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
But I fand you on YouTube because I had a.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Climb that I had booked coming up, and I wanted
to make sure that I was specifically training for a long,
difficult hike. And you know, I looked at some of
the YouTube videos that you had and I think I
folded on a few that and you set some free
workout routines, and it just it made sense to me,

(03:52):
you know, and I thought, well, I'm going to sign
up for one of these. And I think when you
initially called me, I thought you were trying to sell
me somebody who you were, And almost until I remembered,
oh yeah, yeah, I used to.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
To James, I was like, who is this guy?

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Now?

Speaker 1 (04:07):
I remember, I remember you had booked a call and
he didn't show up to the Zoom call. So I
texted your phone number and then I called, and I
think we went toe to toe for a hot set
there where they goes.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I think I might have been a little rude at first, because.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
I get a lot of I get a lot of
unsolicited the sales calls and stuff like that, so I'm like,
who is this guy called you? But anyway, you know,
I was looking for specific training and like I said,
what what you were?

Speaker 2 (04:34):
What you were saying it says to.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Me, And so I signed up, and yeah, I mean
that's why I did it. And I didn't know there
was a hike at the end of the end of
the program, otherwise I would have, you know, planned accordingly.
Unfortunately I didn't make it up there, but man, it
looked like a great hike that Joe went on and
definitely saw the progress everybody made and you know myself,

(04:58):
it's it's yeah, I don't know how much you want
me to go into it, but it was.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
It was.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Very surprising what what this group turned out to be
for me and what the programming turned out to be,
very personally, very unexpected. I mean, I frankly was just
looking for some workouts, you know, and to get stronger,
and it turned out to be so much more than that,
and very appreciative of that. So, you know, I feel

(05:25):
I feel like I have a whole new set of
friends that I've never met face to face up to
the Northeast now that I that have got my back
in terms of.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
You know, reaching fitness goals and other things going on
in my life.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Ring It's been a great experience, highly recommended to anybody
off the hoard.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
So now when you said when you said it had
there was there was so much more than you expected, Like,
what was them more that happened besides just like meeting
some other people, Like, what was more that it brought
to you?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah? Well, I mean just the shift in mindset for me.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
You know I had mentioned on some of the Marco
Polo's help there was there was a time in my
life decades ago where I used to be pretty fit
and I'd let that go for a long time, and
just that mindset shift of getting back into showing up
for yourself daily, making it a priority to where it

(06:18):
become something that I felt like I had to do
each day, you know, it was it was something that
I wanted to just wanted to do it. I felt
like it had become part of my daily routine, weeknly routine.
And so that was a that was a big surprise
to me.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
I didn't think I.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Would have that much of a a shift in mindset.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
It certainly it certainly did.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
And I think it was attributed greatly to the group
of people that just held me accountable or checking in
each day, because I'll be honest with you, when I
first started out, I was like, I don't want to
do this. I don't want to check in on some
stupid app and talking about you know, it's just it
felt awkward, you know. But I thought, well, I paid
for it, might as well participate, And quickly that turned

(07:05):
into a lot of enjoyment, and I think it just
added a whole lot more to the to the program.
I think Meg mentioned one our making mentioned one time
that she had done a group previously and she didn't
participate as much in that first going around than she
did this time, and she said how it made all
the difference in the world to her as well. And

(07:25):
it certainly does, you know, participating being involved, you know folks,
Folks get to know you pretty quick and call you
out when you don't show up, you know.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
And uh, you know, I think we all got.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Used to seeing worry first thing in the morning, and
I just couldn't start my day right when I was
seeing Corey, you know, hitting it hard in the morning.
I thought, man, I can't. I can't let Corey down,
you know, and just turned into a great, great experience.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Glad to hear it. You know, when you got Corey
from Ohio beating everybody with his work out let alone,
people were even awake. Yet it makes it a lot
easier to show up and get your own workouts in.
So I'm glad to hear that. It was so impactful
for you, Mike. And yes, I laugh about our first
phone call, on our first interaction because it was a yeah,
was sorry about that. It's all right, I forgive you

(08:13):
this time. But you met you mentioned.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
Yeah, Brittany Jans actually shared that story with us on
the hike, Mike, So in the many ways that you
were with us, he shared that story with us too.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
That's great.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, Yeah, it was a it was a it was
a funny one. So Brittany, you were just talking. So
I'm going to call on you now. Talk to me
about your experience because you know, everybody on this team,
right like you all come from different walks of life,
different reasons for being here, different things, and you all
got similar things, but different things out of us. So
talk to me about talk to me about what brought
you to the program, how did it go? And then

(08:44):
I want to get into the hike upright peak because
you were a bit of a superstar on ay, a
bit of a superstar the whole time. Let's be honest.
Round of applause for Brittany from PA realistically, so you know,
but I talked to me story, tell us your story.

Speaker 5 (09:00):
I never hiked. It was never an interest of mine.
I never it was never something. It was never something
I wanted to do. And then my friend Kate who's
in the group, wanted to join and asked if I
would join with her, and through much hesitation, and then

(09:21):
she well, she might have given me a beer or two,
so she's like, come on, do this with me. So
I did. I signed up and I had already used
Marco Polo, so I was very comfortable with that part
of it. I've never lifted weights. I always did cardio
and just strength training with never in my realm of

(09:42):
things I wanted to do, and very quickly loved it.
And even even though I struggled with some of the
body weight workouts which were really hard for me, I
find myself like kind of looking forward to the split
that I get from it now and like wanting to
do those kind of things and keep my momentum going

(10:02):
on that. So the program really changed my mindset on
how to work out and instead of thinking skinny, thinking stronger.
So that was like a really big shift for me.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Awesome. You had quite a few, quite a few big
moments throughout the program or you know, you came on
the Marco Polo and for those listening, Marco Polo it's
a video texting app that people hate when they start
these programs, but then they eventually realized the impact that
they have. So that's what we're talking about. But you
came on many times, sharing massive wins, many times with

(10:37):
tears and laughter at the same time. So it was
seeing a lot of breakthroughs happened for you throughout the program.
Talk to me about what you felt the first couple
days and then there must have been a point in
the program for you where you did have this realization
where you thought, like, I can do this. Tell me
about that.

Speaker 5 (10:56):
Yeah, I remember one of my first posts on Marco
Polo was zaff for doing like a body weight exercise
like burpies. I've never done burpies. I couldn't do a
push up. I struggled really hard. I remember sitting out
here on my deck and like getting on Marco Pola
and being like that's not sweat, it's tears and sweat
and feeling just like I'm I'm not gonna I'm not

(11:17):
gonna match up to these people. These people are strong,
they're pretty bad ass, and like, I'm what am I doing?
What did I get myself into? I'm never gonna be
able to do this. I never hiked a hike. I'm
not gonna be able to hike a high peak. I
felt very embarrassed and very like uh, set back by myself,
and then I actually don't know. I would say my

(11:40):
biggest aha moment of like, oh my gosh, I can
do this with the moment that I did the two
mile rough with thirty pounds on my pack in twenty
nine minutes and eight seconds and I've actually saved that
polo and I've watched it since then because like, I
don't want to cry. I just remember that feeling. I
remember my body like shaking with agentlein of just being

(12:03):
like I can't believe I just did that, And then
I'm like, oh my gosh, I can do hard things.
I'm doing this and that really kind of like set
my momentum forward for the whole rest of the program
of like I can do this and I'm going too.
So that was like that was like probably my biggest moment.
I mean, I had tons of wins throughout it. It
was really good for my mental health, my marriage, my family,

(12:25):
my children, like so many things about it, like the
It was really really a positive experience for me. But
that moment of like, oh, I'm doing this was like
a whole it was a it was a whole feeling.
It was it was everything.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
That's awesome. Love to hear that, and everyone can think
of those, you know, those light bulb moments that people
hear me say a lot of aha moments where you
recognize that you can you can do hard things, just
like you just you just said, so let's let's go
to your first hike. So you got into this program
because Kate from PA wroped you into it. Shout out
to Kate, and you came up and did not just

(13:00):
your first Adirondack high peak, but your first mountain period.
So were what was going through your brain as you
were driving up to the Adirondack Mountains and then as
we started hiking, there had to be a moment where
you probably had a moment where you're envisioning what this
is going to be like, and then you actually get here,

(13:20):
and I'm willing to bet it's probably not what you
envisioned since you had never hiped him out before. But
kind of take me through that that sort of process
for you.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
Yeah, So before I even left, when I would like
look at pictures of people on summits, I'm like, cool,
you're looking at other mountains, Like, what's the big deal? Right,
Please don't hate me for saying that. But like I
just didn't get it, you know. But I was like, Okay,
I'm gonna do this because I met these great people.
So driving to New York, I wasn't really I wasn't
really in my head or that nervous. I did have

(13:50):
a little bit of a back injury which was making
me a bit uneasy. But I had a great time
driving to New York. I mean, we were on the
Marco Polo app. We were all chatting with each other,
listening to great music, singing whatever, and then I remember
the moment that we saw like the first high peak,
and Kate and I were like, oh, shit. It was like,
that's a big mountain. We have mountains here in PA,

(14:12):
but not like that, not around here anyway. So then
I remember being like, oh, I gotta get up that,
and then starting the hike felt fine until I realized
that that was not what I thought hiking was. All
the boulders and the rocks and the climbing and the

(14:33):
pooling and the uh it was it was a whole
workout going up. I actually I don't know. I I
definitely wanted to hike another high peak a little bit slower,
I think, to really be able to appreciate everything around me.
I feel like I was so nervous and in my
head going up and like just staying with everybody that

(14:54):
I didn't really get to like experience everything. I think
the first moment I thought about the fact that I
had get back down was when you were like, hey,
look at the sunrise, and that like the first moment
I took to look around and I was like, also
that down, Like how do we get back down that?
And once that hat in my head, I started getting
a little bit more nervous, But I've I felt okay

(15:20):
going up until we went to move a tree line.
I was very nervous. I thought I was going to
blow away, and so that was really scary and a
huge shout out to everybody on our team that was
there or that, like, you guys have no idea how
much you mean, how much you mean to me. Yeah,

(15:40):
I watched the videos back too of like everybody cheering
and it was just super magical. But getting up there,
once I finally settled down and had my back against
a rock and knew I wasn't going to blow away
and I was safe, looking around was like, oh, I
get it, Like I realized why people do this type
too fun thing because it's like that moment of like

(16:03):
seeing that and being humbled by how big these things
are was really amazing.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's awesome. I know I heard. I didn't get to
hear the full story. I heard little snippets from Annie
about your summitting moment. So I'm gonna have Annie take
us through what went down as we got Brittany from
pa on to the summit, because I heard it was
a full team effort to get her over the finish line.
So tell us that story.

Speaker 6 (16:30):
Brittany had the strength, Brittany had the determination to do
it on her own, she just hadn't quite decided whether
she was going to, so I know Andrew the guys
had summoned it a little earlier, so Andrew and Corey
had already been up there and they were waiting just
above tree line to cheer everybody on. I got up

(16:51):
there with Stewart and from other people and then came
back down because I knew Brittany was almost there. So
when I saw her, she was last them thrilled, not
only about the steepness, but the wind was pretty intense,
so I think that her fear of heights and laguod
biking experience we're kind of working against her. But Andrew

(17:16):
was standing right there just cheering her on. She's, you know,
taking steps on a steep incline with that strong of
a wind gust coming is hard for everyone, just people
that are terrified, so having the fear and stuff, so
there might have been showering tears coming from her. So

(17:37):
we just got down on the ground and you know,
bear crawled as best we could because it's the best
way to get up without feeling like you're going to
blow over. So it was like hand over hand and
foot by foot, and so she would look up and
she's like, do I have to go up there? And
I said no, but we're gonna, so let's go. So

(17:58):
she went a little further and and Jen Jen the
Riot was there with us, and it was a little
by little. Then it got a little steeper and there
was more things to climb on. So Andrew took her
pack and it was hand over hand waving some drippage,
lots of tears, but she never stopped. And well, I

(18:21):
told her beforehand that I was going to get her
up there. I didn't promise getting her down, but I
told her I would get her up there. So as
we started to get out to the summit, I knew
that Kate wanted to be there, so I.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
Scurried around, grabbed Kate and we.

Speaker 6 (18:34):
Sat on the on the summit, just waiting, and Andrew
crawled up. They were like basically on the bellies crawling
up and she made it and it was it was
pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
You know.

Speaker 6 (18:47):
Then you're once you get to the summit, the wind
is blowing so hard that you don't have many tears left.
I mean the wind was so strong that like I
was trying to talk to Leslie, I think, and the
wind took my breath out of me while I was
trying to talk. So sure, It's definitely the windiest hike
I've ever been on, and I can't imagine also being

(19:09):
afraid of heights, So having never hiked, being afraid of heights,
and being allergic to pine, she did pretty good.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
That's it.

Speaker 6 (19:18):
We've got a lot of things working against her, and
she still made it. And I think her making it
to the top was probably one of the most important
things to everybody on the team that day.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
It really was.

Speaker 6 (19:28):
She was the one that dubted herself the most, and
knowing that there was like thirty other people that believed
in her even more than she did, I think kind
of carried her up there.

Speaker 7 (19:41):
This areon.

Speaker 8 (19:42):
I have a tiny little tidbit to add to that scene.
I came up behind and to get Britney's hiking poles.

Speaker 9 (19:51):
Oh yeah, Aaron had her pole.

Speaker 8 (19:52):
And as I turned my face, my glap was went
flying off my face and skidding across the rock, and Annie,
just as cool as anything, without missing a beat, told Britney, hey,
you're fine, I'm gonna get you to the cop, stepped
over a couple of steps, grabbed my glasses, got them

(20:14):
back on my face, and then we continued us and
as fun as it was to get to the top,
but I also thought at that moment, wow, these are
good guides.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
We're in really good I'm.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Glad to hear it.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Annie left out the part where she almost fell on me.

Speaker 6 (20:30):
Listen, I slid. I was above her, and I slid
maybe a millimeter. But I'm very vocal and make lots
of sound effects, so I might have made a sound
effect that might have sounded like I was going to
fall farther than I was, and so she might have
screamed really loud.

Speaker 5 (20:49):
I wasn't going to take her out.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
No.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
I wanted to hear Britney's story because again, you were
the person who, like you, weren't a hiker that wasn't
on your radar in life. And then you came up.
You climbed an out are on a high peak, but
you didn't just climb it. You climbed it well like
it's supposed to be hard, but you did it. You
showed up, You kept pushing, You had the people around

(21:11):
you to cure you on and the times where it
got difficult, you went above tree line. You were in
very tough conditions above tree line to give the listeners
an idea. So I weigh two hundred and twenty pounds
plus like a thirty pound backpack. I was like, you know,
I could stand up there and like fall into the
wind and the wind would hold me up from tipping over.
That's how hard the wind was blowing that day. So

(21:34):
you were doing all these things despite all the you know,
despite this being so new, and you did it well.
So again, I just wanted to I want you to
recognize that what you did for yourself is massive. You
might not realize that, but it is. And what Annie
nailed it when she said it was important for everyone
to watch you personally summit that mountain that day, So
you know, again, kudos to you for doing hard things

(21:57):
and showing yourself that you can, and may you take
that exact same energy into everything else you're doing. It
was awesome watching you for the entire six weeks, Brittany.
I mean I mean that genuinely. I think everybody else
does too, if they're all shaking their heads. Thank you, guys, absolutely,
So let's talk. Let's let's move on now and talk
to some other people who have totally different stories for

(22:18):
being here Jen the Riot. You're on my screen right here.
So you totally different story. You're an Adirondack forty six er.
I met you at the banquet. What about you brought
you to Great Range Athlete? Tell me your story.

Speaker 10 (22:30):
So I've been listening to your podcast for years. I've
been hiking for about five years. I bought were your books.
I sort of was like really into listening to your
podcast and hearing all your stories. And I became a
forty six er listening to those podcasts. And I would
listen to you know, those mountains before I would hike
them off in them and so but you know, despite
hiking for the last five years, I have not been

(22:52):
in great physical shape these last five years, which you
know sounds you know when you became a forty six
er in not great shape. Yet it was freaking hard,
Like we did a lot of overnights, you know, the
sewards three peaks took sixteen hours, like the long long
day's in the mountains, And while I did them.

Speaker 5 (23:13):
It was extremely difficult. But I really wanted to have
more fun.

Speaker 10 (23:17):
I mean, you know, it's hard no matter what, but
I really wanted to have more fun in the mountains.
To get you know, more in shape, to get faster,
to get stronger, to feel like I wasn't dead for
a week after doing you know, one of those hikes.
So after hearing some of the great range Athleete podcasts already,

(23:38):
I think I'd listened to a couple of them at
that point, and I knew you were coming to the
forty six er dinner, so I made it a point
to stop by the booth and say I wanted to
do it. And sure enough, that night, after the dinner
was over, I was sitting there with a couple of
my friends. I had a drink, I guess, just one,
and I signed up right there. I signed up right there,

(24:00):
And yeah, I mean, I'm a little bit I don't know,
I people would believe this, but I'm a little bit shy,
Like I've never done Marco Polo before, that kind of
an interaction. It's a little bit difficult for me to
warm up to that kind of a type.

Speaker 5 (24:14):
Of interaction, I guess, but.

Speaker 10 (24:18):
It happened, you know, like, and I think in no
small part to this team who were just superstars. You know,
everybody was participating and encouraging each other so much, and
you wanted to hear people's stories every day, you know,
not only just of what they were doing in terms
of working out, but what was going on in their lives.
So it was really really motivational just to see what

(24:40):
people were doing. And yeah, if you didn't check in,
you know, you felt like, oh man, I didn't post today,
you know people are going to be missing me, and
you know, I wonder what other people are doing. So
so yeah, the whole system of Marco Polo and checking
in with each other every day is a really special thing.

(25:00):
And I've never had that before. You know, I've done
some workout programs in the past, and I did some CrossFit
for a number of years, And like, even if I
didn't show up to the gym for two weeks, nobody
was calling me and asking me where I was, you know.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
But that would never have been the case here.

Speaker 10 (25:18):
You know, like if somebody wasn't showing up, you know
people are asking, you know.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
Okay, are you injured.

Speaker 10 (25:24):
So so it was really really motivational for me, and
I definitely felt like I got so much stronger over
over the six weeks, definitely got faster, and I could
even tell about halfway through the program I did you know,
sort of a more difficult bike in Vermont, and I
was like, wow, the next day I felt pretty good,

(25:44):
whereas before I would have been wrecked for a couple days.
And everybody in my office knows that I'm working the
day after a hike. They see me sort of like
hobbling around the office because I'm on my feet all day.
I don't sit down actually for most of my job
on my feet, so they kind of seem like, but
just good for you know, at least getting your muscles moving.
But they could see me hobbling around or stretching and
doing all these kinds of things just because I was

(26:05):
just so achy and that didn't happen after that hike,
so it was it was pretty great.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
That's awesome. You know, anybody can stumble their way up
to a top of a mountain, but can you do
it well? Can you feel good at the top, feel
good back at the trail, and most importantly, can you
feel good the following day. That is the difference between
preparing physically for these things and not. So I'd love
to see it. Love to have you there, Jen. It
was awesome having you And again you're you're a forty
six er. So we just went from a person who

(26:30):
has never hiked a mountain to begin with to an
hot around a forty six er. Everybody can improve from
the level they're at to the level that they want
to go, and I'm glad to see the progress that
you had there and having that give you a nine roun. Absolutely,
that's it. There is no stopping, There is no stopping.
Very good. So I'm going to move on now to
Corey Jones, the first person who we would see slash

(26:52):
here in the morning, Corey from Ohio? What brought you
to Great Range Athlete and how did your Was it
your first time the Aroonic High Peaks for our hike?

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Yeah, so take me through. What what was that like
for you your first time in the high peaks?

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (27:08):
It was, it was great. I'm hooked, fully hooked on
the Adirondacks now. But uh yeah, the whole program really
like I had. I've been hiking for five six years
or so and getting progressively bigger and harder hikes and stuff.
And it was I think November of last year I

(27:32):
decided for my fortieth birthday, I wanted to do a
big trip and talk to my hiking partners and we
decided to come up to the Adirondacks. So I'm the
type that obsessively starts researching stuff and learning as much
as I can about the hikes, some movie doing and stuff,

(27:53):
and I started reading about the high Peaks. I thought, well,
I'm in Ohio, I don't have anything like this. I
better get ready to be able to do something like this.
So through all my research and stuff, I came across
your podcast and started listening to it, heard about a

(28:14):
couple of different programs you offered, and then ran the
excuse me, sorry, I'm a little bit under the weather
at the moment. Did the thirty day recalibration that you
offered for seats eary More and that went real well
for me. Unfortunately, I had some stuff in February March

(28:37):
where I kind of fell back off again. But I
also picked up your Gothics program that you offer on
your site and loved it. I've never done workouts like
this before. It's always been either like strictly lifting or
you know, just basic strength building muscle type stuff. Nothing

(29:01):
targeted towards something that I'm really enjoying wanting to do.
So yeah, I heard about the Great range Athlete through
your podcast, looked into that, played around with the idea
of signing up earlier in the year, never got around
to it, and then realized the trips coming up, I

(29:25):
better do something, so signed up, and like most other
people were saying, wasn't real keen to the Marco polo stuff.
Even once I did get used to it, I still
generally only posted once or twice a day maybe, but
it ended up being really good and felt strong, gained

(29:50):
some confidence to do some stuff part way through the
program that I hadn't had the confidence in myself to
be able to do. I did a twenty mile a day,
which was pretty big for me. And yeah, came up
a couple of days early for the group pike with

(30:11):
my wife. It was right after our anniversary, so we
kind of made it a hybrid anniversary trip as well.
And actually the day before the group Pike, I did
Cascade and Porter with her, and we chose that one
because I'd read Cascade is, you know, the easiest hides

(30:31):
heek and all that, but it kind of took me
off guard. I was like, Wow, this is the easiest one,
Like this is harder than a lot of stuff that
I've done before that I thought was pretty hard. But
then next day I woke up for the group pike
and didn't feel a thing. I was all right, I'm
ready to go again. Started on the group pikes. I

(30:55):
think the first mile or so, we kind of all
hiked together, uh to that junction there, and then you
had uh Mark Anderson there for taking pictures and all
that kind of had him get in front of the group.
And that guy can fly through the woods.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
He certainly does. Yeah, he certainly does. Season animal.

Speaker 11 (31:20):
Yeah, So yeah, Andrew and I ended up going with
him and kind of ended up pulling away a little
bit there, got up to the summit pretty early, which
it was awesome. He was telling us a bunch of
stuff about the different peaks in the area, so there's

(31:41):
almost like having a personal guide ourselves. And then uh yeah,
we waited up at the top and it was awesome
to have the advantage of having everybody coming up and
seeing everybody get to the summit.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
And you couldn't hear much because.

Speaker 11 (32:01):
Of the wind and all that, but we were yelling
for you guys and cheer and stuff, and it was awesome.
And then actually got to continue on after the group
came down off of right over to Algonquin and Iroquois,
which was amazing. It was probably not probably it was
the best a hiking I've ever done in my life.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Loved it.

Speaker 11 (32:25):
And yeah, I mean first time up there and got
five peaks done, and I'm going back up next week
again to get some more. So looking forward to.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
He is hooked on the Adirondack Mountains. Five high peaks
and two days good stuff, cascading Porter. You know they
get you know, they're they're called the easiest, but it's
not because of the climb. It's because you just start climbing.
There's no long approach to get there. But the mountains
themselves they hike as difficult as any other mountain in
the high peak. So it is always quite quite funny

(33:01):
how it gets dubbed an easy mountain. But it's a
farce if you ask me.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Good stuff.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Glad to have you though, Corey, you were an absolute
monumental part of this program. Once again, if you didn't
post first thing in the morning, if they didn't wake
up to see Corey Jones from Ohio sending a message
on the Marco Polo thread, people with people's days were confused.
It wasn't they weren't off to the right race, is there?
So I appreciate you being that kind of character in

(33:28):
the great range athlete world. So thank you for being there.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Thank you.

Speaker 11 (33:32):
I appreciate that it actually ended up being a motivating
thing for me as well. My alarm would go off
at four point thirty in the morning and I'd be
fighting with it and stuff, but then I'd think, well,
if I don't get up, some of these people are
going to have a bad day today, so I'd better
make sure I get up and get my stuff done.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
So you just sound ability for me. It's absolutely having
that sort of community and knowing other people are depending
on you. It's easy to let ourselves down, it's hard
to let other people down. I love that you were there.
As I'm looking around my screen here, I could do
an entire podcast episode with every single one of you
because you all have such a unique story. So I
don't even really know where to go next, but I'm

(34:10):
going to go down my screen to Megan from New
Hampshire because she's right next to Corey on my screen.
Megan from New Hampshire, the new champion of Step Ups,
in the world of Great Range Athlete, But talk to
me about your story. So what brought you to Great
Range Athlete, How did it bowl, how'd the hike go?
But more importantly, before you get to the hikes, stop

(34:32):
at what went into your mind during these Scotts. Step
up stage. We'll get to that, but tell you, tell
you through your story.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
So I will be honest. I'd never heard of you
chanced that's fine.

Speaker 12 (34:46):
Who was part of our group has been listening to
your podcast for years and had said, Meg, I wanted
to do this, you know, hiking string program, and do
you want to do irk me? And so I was
just like sure and kind of like blindly into it,
really not knowing what to expect, what it was going
to look like. I'll be honest, the first week I
was kind of like, oh my gosh, this is intense

(35:09):
from all levels. I feel like between the workouts, the
checking in, like I I knew I need, but I
knew I wanted to commit hard to it. I feel
like that first calling you did with us, the introductory one,
You're like, you know half of you aren't going to
make it, might not make it through, And I was like, well,
that's not going to be me and you.

Speaker 5 (35:25):
Know, I think that kind of like really like set
a tone for me.

Speaker 12 (35:28):
Like I'm going to get every ounce out of this
program that I can. And so anyway, yeah, I love hiking.
I've you know, I've been hiking the forty eighth in
New Hampshire and you know, always always up for another
hike in another steed, and so it was it just
felt like a good bit at the right time.

Speaker 5 (35:45):
And so yeah, and then.

Speaker 13 (35:48):
Like you know, with the workouts, we had our big
Scott step up day and I Leslie and I had
done two four thousand footers on Scott step ups.

Speaker 12 (35:59):
It was kind of funny like we were summoning up
one of the peaks in our my like phone or
my wrist was constantly going off and we'd be like,
somebody else just did their step up, somebody else is
halfway through, and you know, we couldn't be watching the polos,
and we both kind of felt like we missed out
that day a little bit because it was like everyone
was sort of eating and building off energity for one another.

Speaker 5 (36:23):
So anyway, long story short, I was behind.

Speaker 12 (36:26):
I feel like all program I haven't been behind, and
now I'm like a I'm behind everybody else than trying
to get all my workouts in, and so every single
person on this cane stepped up huge that day, Like,
I don't think this could be about my experience, because
it really, truly was such an amazing day for everyone.

(36:47):
People were just rising to the occasion, setting high bars,
and you know, I.

Speaker 5 (36:53):
Remember on Sunday, I had done my rocks again, I
was I was a little.

Speaker 12 (36:57):
Bit behind and popping onto Marco Polo to see Leslie
doing her thousand step books, which was like crazy talent.

Speaker 14 (37:05):
Me.

Speaker 12 (37:06):
I'm like, you know, and I remember like tearing up
watching her and just being like so proud of that.

Speaker 5 (37:11):
And so anyways, that night.

Speaker 12 (37:13):
Annie had come on because we had I think Dacy
set the challenge of let's let's do as many step
ups as.

Speaker 15 (37:20):
Feet as there is in right peak and then we
were like, well, we've already done the peak, we can
do it twice, but we need thirteen hundred and I
think it was like seventeen steps or twenty or something
like that.

Speaker 12 (37:30):
And so anyway, Annie kind of heard the challenge of
Meg like it was on you sort of, And I'm honest,
I didn't sleep that entire night, I was so stout
about letting the team down, about not getting these steps,
and I know that what wasn't the like a it
was like that wasn't fine time.

Speaker 5 (37:50):
For you to do all of them. But I was
that we could split them.

Speaker 6 (37:54):
I wasn't trying to do a thousand and so I
figured if we split them, then neither one of us
had to do that.

Speaker 5 (38:01):
And when I saw what you did, I was like, damn.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
It, It'd be too easy that way. So to give
the listeners some context, during one of the weeks, there
is a big day of doing not a big day,
it's just part of one training session where you do
a couple hundred step ups and the point of the
step ups are and or throughout the step ups you
report into your team on Marco Polo every fifty steps.

(38:25):
So what happens is you see these people's videos. He's
still two three second videos of people going all right,
fifty step ups, one hundred step ups, one hundred and fifty,
and they're breathing heavily heavier each time, and you see
their progression throughout. So what happens is, as is the
great range athlete, wait, people end up doing more and
they do more, and they do more, and then it
grows and the bar, the bar moves, the bar keeps moving.

(38:47):
And then Dacy threw a challenge down about getting the
amount of step, the amount of steps that the elevation
of right peak is, and then it just grew and
everyone was doing three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, six hundred.
Gino did about six thousand, Mike did six thousand, Megan
did six thousand. Everyone just started doing an absurd amount,
and it is it is very hard not to be

(39:12):
energized by seeing all of these people going above and
beyond and pushing themselves and pushing their limits and what
they're able to do. It is hard not to jump
right in and do the same. So what a day.
I'm going to get goosebumps thinking about it literally as
we speak right now. But you know, Andy and Andy
I talk a lot.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
That was.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
That's always a fun day when that week is coming
and it's about to be the Scott step up stays
because it's it's fun to watch everybody go above and
beyond what they expected to do and to see everyone
pushing themselves. So anybody else get a lot of energy
out of that day and find despite their being like
eight thousand, two second Marco Polos, it was just it

(39:51):
was just something special that day because I certainly felt it.

Speaker 5 (39:56):
I think it was crazy.

Speaker 6 (39:57):
Watch It's nice to watch the progression of people's exhaust
and like that originally was the funny part of it,
because you get to watch you do fifty and then
one hundred and they're sweatier, and then one hundred, Like
you get to watch the progression and the demise of her.

Speaker 5 (40:10):
But it's funny how now once.

Speaker 6 (40:13):
They get to two hundred, they just slowly build, like
their momentum builds and builds and builds. I know Mike
had a really emotional thousand that he put down, And
you know, I think the step ups become a time
of reflection. Like each fifty or each hundred that you're doing,
you're like thinking about what you've been through, thinking about

(40:36):
what you've built for yourself, thinking about how much more
you can do, and then thinking about why you did it.
Like the more and more and more that you pile on,
it's not even about the step ups anymore. It's about
why you're doing it, and you're doing it because you can.
And that's something that Gary from the Cascade team started
doing is you know, you get to you finished the challenge,

(40:58):
but then you do one more because you can, and
you do one more because it's a privilege. So I
love that this team carried that on and I think
everybody felt by the end of this horrible, horrible day
of horrible, horrible things, they all felt that, you know,
it was an honor and a privilege to be able
to do stuff like this because not everybody can.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, and doing it alongside other people also pushing themselves
just becomes infectious, and you know, you hit the nail
on the head that It's interesting how as people are
doing these hundred you know, fifty one hundred and fifty
two hundred, then when they start going higher than that,
it's like they get more and more energy as they're
going two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, and they just

(41:40):
keep going. You'd think that the energy level would be
like dying, but it's doing the exact opposite. So there's
something special that happens when you're pushing yourself to those
limits and again you're shattering the ceilings that you had
above you in those moments, So it's always an exciting time.
Megan you are now the leader in the Great Range asthlete.
I think it was thirteen hundred and thirty nine. That's

(42:02):
the number that's in my head. Is that the right number?

Speaker 5 (42:03):
Thirteen twenty five?

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Thirteen twenty five, okay, thirteen twenty five. Unbelievable. You are
an absolute beast. Thanks for being here, Meghan. It was
fantastic Meghan from New Hampshire. Now we're going to stay
in New Hampshire with this next story and go over
to Catherine Shackford because you you a story of redemption
for a lot of you on this team, but you,
especially Catherine. Talk to me about your story. You know

(42:26):
what you know, tell it, tell us your story. I'm
not going to spoil any of it. To tell us
your story. What brought you here?

Speaker 5 (42:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (42:32):
So I I found you through your podcast initially.

Speaker 5 (42:35):
Then we did some work through Seek to Do.

Speaker 16 (42:37):
More and that was in started in December of twenty
three and we worked together and then I went for
a hike in June of twenty twenty four and I
was in New Hampshire on Mount Mainadnock and I fell
and broke my ankle and through a combination of butt

(42:59):
scooting down the mountain as well as being carried out
in a litter. I got off the mountain in about
six and a half hours safely with a lot of help,
and then it was time to recover and figure out
how I'm going to get back into the mountains.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
So I had a couple of months.

Speaker 16 (43:18):
Obviously I was off my feet, and then it was
onto pet and throughout the next year, I would say,
we were in touch on and off about your programs,
and I know great Range Athlete came up a couple times,
and I just didn't feel that I was ready yet
to be able. I was still in physical therapy and everything.

(43:40):
I didn't think I was going to be ready yet.
And then it hit me and I in July fourth
of this year, I went back up to Mountain Adknock
and I.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Hiked.

Speaker 16 (43:54):
I hiked the mountain and I had my redemption hike.
I made it up, I made it down safely in
one piece, and I joined the right team and it
was just, oh God, I'm going to say it.

Speaker 5 (44:08):
It was the right time.

Speaker 16 (44:10):
So I started with this awesome group of people and
I was cleared from PT to to do all of
the exercises minus jumping and running. But you know, there
were ways to modify, but I was able to still
do burpies and all of that stuff. I just didn't
jump at the end or whatever the case may be.

(44:33):
But yeah, then the Hyke up Right Peak was the
first high peak that I hiked after my injury, and
that was a huge accomplishment and no injury sustained and
no pain, I should say also, you know I was

(44:53):
I was good to go and stronger because of the program.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
Absolutely, your redemption up mountainnad knock Is was awesome in
and of itself. But you continued and you know, you
you had your redemption ultimately, and that's that's really exciting.
You know a lot of people they'll you know, they'll
break their ankle and then that will be that will
be the end of their their experience in the mountains.
And then you you did not allow that to be
the case. So kudos to you. Love to see that,

(45:17):
love to see the progress that you made, but also
loved more than I just love a good story. My god,
it's just such a good story, you know, a story
of coming back when when the chips are down. Good,
good stuff. Glad to have you there. Now I'm gonna
go to Rachel. Rachel from Western New York, you also
had a fantastic hike and then maybe it was hard,
maybe it was challenging, but you also, just like brit

(45:40):
from my perspective, hiked the mountain very well. So talk
to us about what brought you to great range athlete
and how did the hike go for you? A bright peak?

Speaker 5 (45:48):
Okay, so what brought me will start there. What brought
me to a great range athlete is I had an
acquaintance reach out and Head mentioned what she was doing.
She was currently driving to the Adirondecks to hike a
high peak for I think it was her maybe her
first time alone, and I'm like, wow, that's really cool.

(46:10):
I've only been to the Adirondecks with with somebody else,
and I struggle with doing things on my own, like
away from my normal people. Right, So I started watching
James's Instagram. I didn't know about the podcast, so I
didn't I didn't see that, and I didn't read any books,

(46:31):
but I followed them closely on Instagram and outreached a
couple of times. The first time the one group was full,
So then we met for and we discussed some.

Speaker 9 (46:44):
Options and then.

Speaker 5 (46:48):
He just outreached to me randomly at a time where
I was sitting at my desk for a while and
my I don't know, it was just and I'm like,
we're in, we are totally in. There is shit that
I got to get done. I'm not going to do
anything by just sitting here. It was definitely intimidating, for sure,

(47:15):
But I guess that was kind of like at that
point where I finally needed to do something for myself
and having a group to do it with, and the
accountability is the thing that I really struggle with. So
the group thing was a huge part of my success,
and I'm sure everybody else is as well. Yeah, so

(47:37):
I think that was the biggest part the Marco Polo thing.
I wasn't like, I've never done it before. I've never
seen myself in my phone talking, So yeah, it was
totally weird at the beginning. But then this like thing changed,
Like I started like waiting to hear other people's messages,

(47:58):
and I many, many many times I would not want
to work out. That's a thing that I struggle with.
And I would see somebody pop on and get their
workout done and be like, all right, if they did it,
I gotta.

Speaker 9 (48:11):
Go do it right.

Speaker 5 (48:13):
So that that was awesome. And I never thought I
would develop friendships outside of my normal circle. I'm not
a very I'm a shy person in my neck of
the woids anyways, So yeah, this was great. Kind of
my whole trip to the Anderod Decks. Again, it was

(48:34):
my first trip by myself, so driving there was kind
of like this. It was just a great feeling. And
then I saw a sign on the road that said
entering the Adirondecks and like this, I'm doing this myself,
Like I'm totally doing this myself without anybody else. I mean, yes,

(48:55):
you planned the entire trip right, but we still had
to be prepared and physically be prepared into it. So
I yeah, climbed it. I was scared for my life
when we got above the tree line. That was really scary. Yeah,
that was super scary because you could just feel the

(49:17):
wind take you. So yeah, I don't know why I
didn't think about Britney's bear crawls, like that didn't even
cross my mind. But yeah, once I got up there,
I was quite impressed that I was able to get
it done again independently and not feel like I was

(49:41):
dying because I did Marshall and Mercy and a couple
of high peaks in New Hampshire, and each time I
would get to the top and just be exhausted and
not want to go back down or do anything the
next couple of days. So coming down was a little
bit of a challenge. The descent was a little bit

(50:02):
of a challenge, but the next day was I mean,
I think I had a couple sore toes, but endurance wise,
I would have totally done it again. I would have
gone the next day and climbed again, which that was
not the case prior to this program at all. So

(50:22):
I definitely surprised myself on the difference of what this
program could do versus what I had done previously.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Awesome love to hear that, love to hear the performance
improvements that you were all experiencing just from simply doing
some hard things, lifting some heavy things up and moving
your body in a way that's going to translate to
how you perform out in the mountains. Glad to have
you there, Rachel, it was awesome hiking with you. Keep
up the good work. Megan from Pennsylvania talking about more redemption.

(50:53):
You are here for round two of great range acts
that you were mentioned earlier by Mike, but take us
through your store. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:02):
So yeah, round two with the right team. I was
back on the Colden team. I think was that December
decemberow into January twenty five. Yeah, and first time in
your program. I stumbled across you probably a year before that.

(51:22):
I love the Adirondacks. Grew up going to Lake Placid
many times as a teenager and just went on White
Face Mountain.

Speaker 5 (51:31):
I mean, my.

Speaker 4 (51:32):
Story is very long, so I'm going to try to
make this sure.

Speaker 5 (51:36):
But my dad is involved in this story.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
He passed away and he loved the Adirondacks, the White
White Face Mountain all that. So love hiking came across
to actually through Sarah William because social media knows how
to connect you to people. And saw her working out,
kicking butt doing her thing. Was like really inspired by
her and through her, you know, she would tag you

(52:01):
and seek to do more. That got me digging further
and reached out. We had like the one on one
to try to figure out what was the best program
for me. At the time I came to your to
the Quota End team. I joined that team one thing
to improve hiking, for sure, But it really wasn't about

(52:21):
that the first time, James, as you know, it was
I was going through really tough things in my life
and trying to get myself out of the run and
needing like a new program, a new thing, and it just,
you know, what you had to offer seemed like, Okay, this,
this is the next phase of my life. This is
a thing to kind of kick my butt in motion.

(52:44):
But trying to figure out, okay, is it seek to
do more? You know, what is it?

Speaker 1 (52:48):
A team?

Speaker 5 (52:49):
What is it?

Speaker 4 (52:49):
And so you had invited me to try joining a team,
and I'm like, all right.

Speaker 5 (52:54):
Let's do this. Signed up.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
Hated polos us, like many of shared just some familiar
with this, and was very shy and coming into this,
you know, loving hiking, but so many other people with
more experience than me, so many people tougher than me,
and I kind of felt like I already knew I

(53:16):
wasn't going to do the hike at the end, and
you knew that, and you said, that's fine. You don't
have to do the hike at the end. You can
do your own hike, you can do no hike. Just
come in here and see what happens. So for me,
it was like this mental breakthrough I needed. I needed
something to help me gain strength mentally and emotionally in
my life, and it did do that. I did experience

(53:37):
a roadblock a couple of weeks in that all, you know,
the the injury experience almost caused me to stop. But
I just want to shout out and say that James
and that team, through talking to you, through the advice
given to me to not give up, to modify, to
keep going, it actually helped my wound heal. And I

(54:02):
think that was probably one of the greatest takeaways from
that is like in the past, injury would make me say, well, Pierre,
it goes again, can't complete the thing, you know, and
just give up and thrown the towel. But that was
a pretty That was a good injury. And I took
your advice and I took the team's advice. Everybody was
there for me.

Speaker 5 (54:20):
I did make.

Speaker 4 (54:20):
Paula's in and reached out and I got through and
I finished the program, but not perfectly, and I couldn't
go on my own hike at the end, but my
my injury was was healing. And I remember telling you
and the team by the end of that, you know,
somehow I can do burpies. It would just step them out,

(54:41):
and I didn't think I didn't think that was possible.

Speaker 5 (54:43):
So that was like a huge lesson for me. So
then I go off the.

Speaker 4 (54:48):
Program feeling defeated. I couldn't hiked, couldn't join that team
on the hike, all that stuff.

Speaker 5 (54:53):
And what brought me back this.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
Second time was, you know, transitioning in my life, moved
to a new town, new just life season, and just realizing,
like with working out, that even though I didn't like
the polos, I mean I liked other people posting plos,
but even though I didn't like participating in that, I
missed that team aspect and that that was really huge

(55:17):
for me, actually more than I realized, you know at
the time. So just decided I'm going to jump back
in and this time I'm not going to get injured.
I'm going to take care of myself and listen to
my body. I'm going to hike at the end although
I can't see the hike of the team due to
my life circumstances, and I'm going to participate. And so

(55:38):
this time the difference for me was I decided who
cares if I don't like the polos, I'm going to participate.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
And join in.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
And that changed everything for me as far as just
staying motivated, accountable doing the workouts every day.

Speaker 5 (55:52):
This team has become a family.

Speaker 4 (55:54):
And like I get emotional too thinking about it, like
to not to think like a couple of months ago,
we didn't know each other. Like I was thinking listening
to everybody talk tonight about how our very first zoom
we did together and looking at everybody like, oh gosh,
like who's that and who's that and what's their story?

(56:14):
And now we know each other And I just think
it's a beautiful thing that that's been created here, James.
And I know for me this time, I did not
have an injury. I completed the programs fully, I got
stronger mentally, physically, and I was able to do my
own hike even though I couldn't join everybody. So greats
success as time.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Pristure, Well, I love to hear it. You know, we
get what you put in, you get out of it
what you put in, and you you know you again.
It was like a redemption story for you in cold
and team and glad to have you here again, your
core member, always posting Megan from PA doing your own
hike when you couldn't make the team. Like, that's what
a team environment is all about, is, you know, solidarity
with the members. So it was awesome having you here.

(56:57):
We're gonna stay in Pennsylvania now and go to Gino.
Gino the step up champion, talk to us. You're about
to become on that around at forty six or hopefully
soon here in the next few weeks here, but I
talk to us about you know, how did your how
did your trip here in the world of Gray Orange
Athlete go? He's you're muted still. I know you'll figure

(57:18):
it out. Yes, all right, well we'll come back to you. Gino.
You get you get the mute button figured out. We're
going to move on right now and go above the
border to Joy speaking of redemption, Joy from Ontario talk

(57:40):
to us.

Speaker 9 (57:44):
Yeah, so this wasn't my first run at right Peak,
but it was my first time being there non winter,
and Brittany, I think I've told you this a couple
of times. It was the windiest I'd ever been up there.
And I also, like Megan, was part of another great
range athlete team. I didn't participate the way I did

(58:08):
in this one, and I didn't get what I got
this time last time out of this program, so definitely
that putting in more was key to my success this time.
I too disliked Marco Polo. I still kind of do,
but I've gotten used to it now so I don't

(58:29):
mind it as much. And I did find that, you know, okay,
today Corey's done it again. I gotta I gotta get going.
Corey did it. So you were a big motivator in
the mornings when I when I needed it too, like
everyone else was. Andrew reaching out a couple of times
on his own also a big part of this. He's

(58:50):
not here tonight, and I am, without a doubt fully
convinced that the forty six high peaks in New Or
are much easier in the winter.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Much easier. So Joy is almost a forty six er,
and this was her first time hiking one not in
the winter, so she is definitely a different, different kind
of animal out there only hiking in the winter. Good
stuff though, So how white you're first summer?

Speaker 9 (59:18):
Yeah, we have lots of good summer hiking here and
in other parts of Canada, So I do hike in
other times of the year. I just I just don't Okay,
sure I have mountains, I.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Don't have mountains.

Speaker 9 (59:30):
So we go down there. We've listened to your podcast
for years, James. So I have a group of friends
that just go down in the winter, although sometimes in
the winter not exactly winter conditions, but we've seen the
little bit of everything in late December and in the summertime.
We just tend to do what's around here. But other

(59:52):
than the rocks, I thought it was I thought it
was a fantastic experience with this group.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Glad to hear it.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
And you got to see the mountain in their green
glory for the first time instead of the snowfall snow cover.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Very good.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Glad to have you here again, Joy Gina. How are
we doing?

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Brother?

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
I think I got the mute by writer Erry goot
live and in person talk to us, So tell us
about your experience.

Speaker 17 (01:00:17):
Yeah, well, you know, I was a late starter into
this high peak business. I started, you know, at age
sixty five, and for most of my life I enjoyed
lifting weights and other type of working out, running and
things like that. But you know, I'd never done anything
geared towards hiking. I hadn't been a hiker til, you know,
until I was a senior citizen, let's say. And you know,

(01:00:39):
I'd watched the podcast and I came to know about
it and I joined up. And the only thing I
was worried about a little bit of arthritis from various
injuries over the years. And you know, the surprising thing
was this program. I got better as I went on.
I first started working around a little bit of pain,

(01:00:59):
but then I said, well, you know, I'll try to
do these even though my joints feel a little bit stiff.
And you know, by the end of the program, I
got better and better. The burpies, the mountain climbers, the
jump squads, these athletic movements made me so much better
of a hiker, I think. And I just enjoyed it

(01:01:20):
from beginning to end. And I couldn't do the group
I like had My fiftieth high school class reunion happened
to be on the exact same day.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
And you know, it's a funny thing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
I went back.

Speaker 17 (01:01:31):
I was just there this weekend and I hiked right
of all peaks. I intended to do some others. I'm
working on my forty six, and i'd already done right before.
But I did right peak because my wife went with
me and she hadn't done it, so it was one
of hers that she needed to do, and I was
thinking about the whole group. We went up there. We
didn't have the wind you guys had. We had a
beautiful weekend. But these hikes they used to tire me out.

(01:01:56):
I mean, I would do the hike, I'd feel fine,
but the next morning I'd wake up stiff. I mean
I woke up and uh, I think it was Jen
just said, you know, I could have just gone back
up and done a couple more high peaks the next day.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
And I credit the program with that.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
You know.

Speaker 17 (01:02:13):
I enjoyed everything about it, glad, and I love the
hiking community. And I got to meet so many people
of like mine and made friends along the way. And
I hope to get together with a lot of people
in the group, even though I couldn't join them for
the group.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Pipe.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Absolutely, that's the that's the beauty, beautiful thing about having
all these people together. You can always find a hiking
partner now and if you don't, if you are coming
up here to hike but you can't find a hiking partner,
you can call Lynette, who is just in Plattsburgh, not
very far and now she's up next on Great Range
Athlete TV. Lynette, talk to us, talk, tell us your story.

Speaker 18 (01:02:50):
Hey, Jaen's hey everybody. So I had seen a few
of your episodes and I went into this hoping to
build some strength, muscle strength, you know, and maybe endurance.
And you know, I think a lot of people have
said they were very hesitant. I'm normally very reserved and

(01:03:13):
so coming into it.

Speaker 19 (01:03:14):
When I found out we had to do Marco Polo's yeah,
I was like, oh my goodness. But that turned out
to be the best thing, and I came away. It's funny,
you know, I went in thinking, Okay, I'm going to
do some exercises, I'm going to get stronger, but it
really kind of was like a springboard, and I'm finding

(01:03:39):
that I'm eating better, I'm dedicated to my exercises. I
came away with all these friendships, so I you know,
I kind of came in expecting this much, but I
got so much more. So that's that's I guess kind
of where I'm at, just way more than I ever expected.

(01:04:01):
So thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Absolutely, you stepped outside your comfort zone and what happened.
When you step outside your comfort zone, you grow, You
get what you got. You know, you get more than
you expected. You know, you get what you put You
get out of it what you put in. And that's
just you.

Speaker 13 (01:04:14):
You.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
You're a prime example of that principle in life. So
glad to see it, Lenna, And let me tell you something.
You really came out of your shell throughout the program
as well on Marco Polo. You know, I think everyone
would agree that Lynette definitely came out of her shell
a lot. So it was fun watching that progression progression
as well on Marco pol But good stuff. Keep up
the good work. John from Austining, you're up next, tell

(01:04:37):
us your story, my friend you were you were live? Yep,
we're here. You're here?

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
Am I unmuted?

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
You sure are?

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Okay? Good? Good. Let's see.

Speaker 7 (01:04:52):
I had done a fair amount of running in my life.
I've done hiking, but I never did any specific trainings
work liking, and I'm finding that I was a little
slower than I wanted to be. I'd go up and
be a steward on a summit or a flier tower
and try to hike the next day, or hike the

(01:05:13):
day before that I'd always threw away more sore than
I thought I should be, so I was looking for
something could boost to my fitness for this. And I
think while I wasn't able to join the group like
with this team, because I had a prior commitment to
go psychlick with a bad life, that weekend, I did
go out and do I did saw an Eth on
my own, and then you know, I'm shorting event, and

(01:05:35):
then I did another one. I did a Guyant and similarly,
and they were easy compared to what had been the
case before. So the training really paid off for me
in that regard. Awesome I'd be here And I described
Marco Polo's to my wife. We've been together for forty years,
and she looked dumbfounded that she thought that I would
ever participate in that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
So it's kind of fun.

Speaker 7 (01:05:57):
To still believe it was surprised, right too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
All Right, you know, growth, John, there's still growth to
be had. You know, if you're not growing, you're dying.
So glad add to you. No, Amen, Amen, that's great.
I appreciate that. And again, Marco Polo, it's the it's
the constant, constant theme is what the heck is this.
It's why I harp on it so hard in the
first our first call. You're gonna hate it. You're gonna

(01:06:21):
hate it, but you're going to at least by the
end admit to me, you see why it's impactful even
if you still hate it. That's that's really what it
comes down to. A good stuff. Glad, Glad to hear it.
All right, Moving on to Nicholas McCormick down in Georgia, Sonny, Georgia,
Sir Nicholas, you're up next on Great Range Athlete TV.

(01:06:47):
Probably looking for the mute button. All right, We're gonna
move on to Kate from Pennsylvania. Kate from PA, timely
about your Great Range Athlete experience. Also, way to bring
Brittany into this realm and we all got to enjoy
watching her win. And now we're going to hear from you.

(01:07:07):
Hey guys.

Speaker 14 (01:07:09):
Yeah, So my husband Scott was on your Gothics team
and then did seek to do more and now is
on Mountain Strength. So I really wanted to see what
that was all about. And I was like, what is

(01:07:30):
this Marco Polo? And I am a shy person, so
that cracked me out of my shell.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
So thank you, brilliant, thank you carry what no it take.
It takes people jumping in the deep end. So many
of you said, you know, like I wasn't. I didn't
like it, I didn't want to do it, but I
said I'm going to do it and that and look
at look at what happens when you step outside your
comfort zone. You all experience some growth. So love to
see it.

Speaker 14 (01:07:55):
But yeah, continue, Yeah, I mean, I've done some pretty
cool hikes, but I've never been to the Adirondacks until
right and Peak, and I feel like on the summit
with the wind, I got my welcome package.

Speaker 5 (01:08:10):
And I want to do more.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
I want to go back up.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
I I'm hooked.

Speaker 1 (01:08:17):
Awesome. The mountains have that tendency to grab you even
on hard days. It's hard days, you forget, you get
back to the trailhead and you say, I'm never going
to hike ever again. I quit that thing. That is
so dumb a couple of weeks later, even on a
bad hike and say, y'all go again and then but
most of the time they tend to grab you, even
on the hard days. So glad to hear that. Kate,

(01:08:38):
do you have any hikes in the works for yourself.

Speaker 14 (01:08:43):
Not like super epic, just like you know. I mean,
I was actually on the Appalachian Trail today to do
I did my forty six climbs, you know, for charity,
and just a couple other little things. But I do
want to shout out to all all the people in
this amazing right group because y'all are amazing and definitely

(01:09:08):
Brittany hit it on the head with being It was.

Speaker 20 (01:09:12):
Just a magical experience, the whole thing, the whole thing,
And I never thought I could forge friendships from you know, your.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
Phone, so right, Thank you all. Two people who are strangers,
and then you meet in person at the trailhead when
it's dark out, and you forget you've never actually met
in person because you've seen their face so many times
over the last six weeks. Good stuff. Aarin from Maryland.
You're up next. Tell us about your quick tell us
that real quickly, your story, like what brought you here?
How to go? I know you and I hiked up

(01:09:43):
the mountain together, but tell me what happened for you?

Speaker 8 (01:09:47):
Yeah, So the program really helped me with a big
life transition change. I think I had mentioned on our
first call that I was worried about losing my job
or you know, being ushered into early retirement. During the
course of the program, that happened, and it really gave

(01:10:07):
me something to focus on other than the stress of that.
And you know, I had although you know, I'm now
retired earlier than I had originally planned, the thing I
really wanted to do was get outside and do some hiking.
And this problem really prepared me for this. If I
do have one regret, it's not engaging more on the Markopoulos.

(01:10:31):
But and so I've signed up for the next team,
the Giant team, and I'm gonna, you know, force myself
to do that and have the full experience. But I
will say that when we stepped out of above tree
line and got into that wind, it was fantastic. It
was otherworldly. I really, you know, it's hard to articulate.

(01:10:56):
I really I felt like, Okay, this is where I
wanted to be. Well, you know, six months of stress
sort of blow away in the wind. Thanks again, any
for saving my glasses. And then you know, by the
time we got back down the mountain, I knew this
was a right twice on wanted to do engage more.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
Awesome six months of stress blowing away and then your
glasses as well with that same gust of fifty to
sixty mile an hour winds. Glad to hear it, Aaron,
It was great, Great to have you. Glad you came
all the way up from Maryland to enjoy a nice
summer day in the Adirondack high Peaks. Moving on to Andrew.
Andrew was back for his sixteenth Great Range Athlete Team.

(01:11:38):
Maybe his twenty seventh Great Range Athlete Team, but Andrew,
Andrew was back. What brought you back? Brother? Talk to me?

Speaker 21 (01:11:45):
You know, the programs are great. You know this is
it keeps me accountable. It's what I use to keep
me accountable. And I really enjoy working with these teams.
And the right team was just absolutely not only no
exception to that. It was like you know, it's it's
it was a special group. This was a was a

(01:12:07):
very unique group that you know, the people that they
came here. Brittany, I'm gonna shout you out for kind
of setting the tone with vulnerability early on in the
UH in the in the group that I think kind
of helped some other folks just open up and and
share their experiences. And then everybody kind of growing and
and doing this thing together is really what you know,

(01:12:30):
It's what makes this thing what it is and makes
us all coming back, keep coming back for more. Yeah,
and then you know, to cap this off, you know,
I've I've, as you mentioned, I've done a few of
these before, but just timing wise, have not been able
to make it up for the hike. So it was
freaking fantastic to come up for this one. And uh,

(01:12:50):
you know, it really encapsulated what I love so much
about these teams and also what I love about the Adirondacks, Like,
you know, the Adirondacks feels like it's just on the.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Edge of like could be extreme, you know, like it's
not extreme.

Speaker 21 (01:13:05):
You know, these are hikes, these these are these are
tall mountains, but they're not you know, twelve thousand foot mountains.
But yet you come out into that bald peak and
the wind is whipping it, I don't know, sixty miles
an hour continuously, and it is otherworldly. So it was
a hell of a way to to cap off this experience.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
Awesome, And you've been so you've been training with me
all year since the Phelps team, which started like the
second week of January, and this was we finally got
up here into the mountains. So talk to me about
how did you know, how'd you do from your perspective,
how'd you do?

Speaker 9 (01:13:39):
Go?

Speaker 1 (01:13:39):
Yeah, mountains? Yeah, that's a great question.

Speaker 21 (01:13:42):
And I really was very eager to kind of test
my mountain legs there and really got the opportunity. You know,
there was a point, you know, just kind of illustrated
for your listeners there where there is a split in
the trail and it's a it's you know, you can
you can turn left to go to one set of
mountains and go straight to to go up another set

(01:14:02):
the McIntire range, And you stopped us there and kind
of explained that this is, you know, this is kind
of where some of the groups are going to form.

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
Uh. And we had Mark Anderson.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
Lead us up. The lead us up the mountain.

Speaker 21 (01:14:15):
Corey and I jumped to the front of the line,
and it was a part of me that comes like
I kind of want to stay for the group and
help the group out, but there was another part of
me that really was so eager to test.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
These mountain legs.

Speaker 21 (01:14:26):
I will say Mark Anderson set a pace that Corey
and I felt was very very quick and At one point,
Mark Anderson turned to us says.

Speaker 1 (01:14:37):
You know, this is a really good moderate pace, don't
you think And.

Speaker 21 (01:14:40):
We were like Corey, yeah, yeah, yeah, moderate, this is
so moderate, you know, this is great. But we flew
up the mountain. It felt awesome. I felt, you know,
I think we all we all felt pretty strong. We
were up there, I don't know, some very very quick
for us anyway, sub two hours, you know, hour and
a half or something like that. Whatever, it was, so

(01:15:01):
yes and and recovery. We went on to finish the
McIntire range that day and you know, like I was
ready to hike that night again, like I was ready
to certainly you know the next day. Last year that
would not have been the case. So great improvement, awesome, glad.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
To hear it. And you go in, did the whole
the whole range. You're able to test out the legs
that you've been working hard NonStop all year to build,
and you're you've seen the progress based on exactly how
you perform today. So glad to hear a dude, I'm
glad that you see so much value in what we're
doing here and the accountability the teams. You know, so
many people now from being on so many teams now,
so you know, it's it's always exciting to see to

(01:15:41):
see people repeat because they had a good time. So
I appreciate you being here, Andrew. Thank you. Nicholas McCormick,
you're up next, are you? Are you there?

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
Brother? All right?

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
Very good, very cool? All right, moving on. There's a
reason I saved you for the end. Dacy from Lake Placid.
Dacy grew up in Lake Placid, just like myself. But
when you grow up in Lake Placid and you see
these mountains everywhere, you don't really notice them because you
see them all the time. So, Dacy, what brought you
to great range athlete?

Speaker 5 (01:16:17):
Thanks James.

Speaker 22 (01:16:18):
Yeah, so it's funny growing up you definitely you pay
attention and you recognize them, but you don't necessarily the
realize that.

Speaker 5 (01:16:24):
They're grander, I should say. Right, So, growing.

Speaker 22 (01:16:28):
Up in Lake Placid, we would even do hikes during
school humanities class. In tenth grade, I hiked Hurricane because
that's what you do, and you huff it and puffett
and everything else. So then in my twenties and thirties,
I definitely was active, and now that I'm in my
mid forties, I have not been as as physically in

(01:16:49):
shape as I wanted to.

Speaker 5 (01:16:51):
I've known James forever, I think.

Speaker 22 (01:16:54):
So James had come and spoke to our rotary club
about his program and given me a book, his newest book,
which was forty six and eighteen Hikes. I had recently
been thinking to myself, you know, I need a goal
for when I'm fifty, or like to you know, achieve
by the time I'm fifty. So I'd already set a
goal for myself that I want to hike all forty

(01:17:14):
six by the time I'm fifty. I've got a nice
five years to still to work on it. But I
can't you know, save it all until I'm forty nine either.
So when I saw this next you know group coming up,
I decided to join it for myself to get into
better shape. And it was like everybody said so much
more than that. I also was not really excited about

(01:17:37):
the Marco Polos and so the first couple of weeks
I was like, all right, I'm going to do this
because everybody says it. I also I forgot who said
it early on, but our first zoom call when James
you know, basically called us all out and said half
of you are not gonna necessarily really kind of stick
with the whole program. That's just the way it is statistically,
and so I'm like, well, I'm not going to be

(01:17:58):
in the half that doesn't stick with the program. I'm like,
I have to. So that just kind of kept lingering
over my head too. And yeah, it was just awesome.
The you know, waking up every morning and seeing that
Corey had already woke up and worked out an hour
before I was awake was always a motivation and just
the everybody, everybody making each other accountable was just awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:18:21):
So and checking in, So.

Speaker 22 (01:18:22):
That was the other is with the Marco Polo, you
end up developing these other kind of secondary where somebody
just you know, shoots a note too, maybe you said
something that sparked an interest to them as oh, hey
you live in Lake Placid, I'm going to be going
and checking this out, or and so we also ended
up with these subgroups so or hey I haven't seen
you on in a day and a half, like, is
everything okay? So this the checking in I think Jen

(01:18:44):
had said it too, is if you're missing from the gym,
the person who works out next to you is probably
not going to just give you a call or see
what's up unless you are already friends.

Speaker 5 (01:18:54):
In this case, it was different.

Speaker 22 (01:18:55):
Everybody was kind of there. And then the day of.

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
The hike was also awesome.

Speaker 22 (01:19:01):
There was that time when you're getting to the top
of Right Peak and you are at the top and
not the total summit, and everything is windy and crazy,
and I had said it a couple of times that
if I was by myself, that would have probably been
good enough.

Speaker 4 (01:19:16):
I would have stopped.

Speaker 22 (01:19:17):
I wouldn't have done the final Brittany bear crawl to
the top to get myself all the way to the
true summit. I would have just stopped at what was
the summit, taking some pictures. Nobody would have known anything
else unless you would hike to that mountain and just
called it a day and then started the track down.
But instead, because everybody was there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:38):
It was just the whole group effort.

Speaker 22 (01:19:39):
It was pretty awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:19:40):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:19:41):
Yeah, I was fun hiking up with you, talking shop
about Lake Placid, how the town's changed, you know what's
different now, talking all these things, and you know, just
working your way up Right Peak. That's what it was.
And there were a few moments too climbing up right
peak where I remember coming down and saying like, oh,
what you can see there, Like that's the summit. I'll
have to admit to you. I knew that that wasn't

(01:20:01):
the summit. I just had to get you focused on
something to move towards. And then when we get over
that little hump, oh there's the next thing, that's the summit.
Oh no, it's not really the summit. But like I had, so,
I did lie to you on purpose.

Speaker 6 (01:20:14):
I want you to know I love I figured, I figured,
I saw, I saw it through it.

Speaker 22 (01:20:18):
And there was another time when James says a great
trick when you're like stopping to suck win for a second,
and he goes, oh, turn around and look at the view,
look at how great everything looks.

Speaker 5 (01:20:28):
And then you're like.

Speaker 22 (01:20:28):
Doing that, and it was great because then you're not
like looking up at what you still need to go up,
you are turning around appreciating what you did climb up.

Speaker 4 (01:20:36):
I mean, it was a great Like I completely understand
the trick.

Speaker 5 (01:20:39):
I loved it, like it and even know like.

Speaker 1 (01:20:41):
It just it worked, so it was awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:20:43):
So I appreciate that too.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
I'm glad to hear there's a deeper reason for that.
It's it's bigger than just what you're doing in the mountains,
that you have to also remember where you've come from,
what you've done so far, because if all you do
is focus on the crap in front of you, life
gets a lot harder. Sometimes you got to turn around
and recognize how far you've so it's a little trick,
but I'm glad that you enjoyed it. And also a
lot of times we had some nice views where you

(01:21:05):
happen to have to stop, so also works very well
in that regard. But glad to have you here, Dacy.
I think you're the first Great Range athlete from Lake
Placid is I think if there is another one, I
do apologize, but I pretty sure you are so awesome.
Glad to have you here. And now to finish off
our night, Annie, coach Annie, what are your overall thoughts?

(01:21:26):
Some up the Great Range Athlete right team. Also, by
the way, I did the math this week and Annie
has now officially coached one hundred Great Range athletes nationwide.
So kudos to you, Annie. Thanks for being here. I
appreciate you. But yeah, give us your give us your
rundown of the right team from your perspective.

Speaker 5 (01:21:43):
This team definitely started out fast.

Speaker 6 (01:21:46):
I remember like because they got sent some some pre
workouts and I said, they're starting too fast. What's going
on because it was the week before and I was like,
I can't keep up already.

Speaker 5 (01:21:56):
Because I thought we had a week off and we
did not. So it definite only started out fast.

Speaker 6 (01:22:01):
And it was a huge group, which we were both
a little nervous about because we weren't sure how that
was going to go. It was also a very female
heavy group, which usually there's either.

Speaker 5 (01:22:12):
A balance or it's more men.

Speaker 6 (01:22:14):
So having such a female heavy group was going to
be an interest in dynamic and I think for our
gentlemen it was a less than desirable dynamic to start with.
They learned a lot about dry shampoo, they learned a
lot about hair ties and hair clips, and they watched
a lot of tears. But somehow, well I did kind

(01:22:37):
of nudge some of the gentlemen who were not participating
as much to be more present and you know, bring
their energy because that was going to help the women
and it was going to help the other men too.
But somehow, over the course of the seven to eight weeks,
we were able to melt a text in so much

(01:22:59):
so that there was a conversation about Stuarts. And for
those who don't know what Stuarts is, it sounds like
just a gas station. But Catherine was kind enough to
teach everybody about the magic of Stuart's and so Mike
all he knows is BUCkies. So I received a giant

(01:23:19):
box to take on the group hike from Mike, and
I think everybody was delighted to see all of the
goodies that he sent, not what we expected. We got
beaver nuggets, we got pillows and all kinds of amazing
merch and a bunch of beef jerky. Since Mike couldn't
made the hike, so he brought a little in the
south up to the north for us. But yeah, I

(01:23:42):
think the women were able to gain strength from each other,
and then the men, you know, were able to become
vulnerable because this was a safe space. And I think
not that an all men's group wouldn't be a safe space,
but I think this kind of forced them to really
feel it. You think about working out, you don't think

(01:24:03):
about your feelings. You think about climbing mountains, you don't
think about your feelings you don't think about, like the
deeper meaning behind what you're doing. Uh So, I think
that the interesting mix that we did have ended up
really benefiting everybody. It was a very emotional group, but
I think that was for this specific group. I think

(01:24:25):
it was it was a benefit to everybody. Again, like
I thank everybody for like the privilege and the honor
of watching, being able to watch and being able to
be a small part of what you guys have gone through.
I tried to reach out to everybody and and let
them know, you know, something that that I saw in

(01:24:46):
their journey that was inspiring to me and special to watch.
I know it was a big group, but each individual
really contributed to the group.

Speaker 5 (01:24:57):
So I thank you all, and.

Speaker 6 (01:24:59):
I apologize to all future Great Range Athlete groups who
are probably going to end up doing some kind of
Britney Bear crawl in their workouts.

Speaker 1 (01:25:07):
Yep, you're also going to be doing a lot more
step ups probably too, thanks to Megan and thanks to
Dacy's Step Up Challenge. Now, so shout out to the
Giant team who is doesn't know right now, but they're
going to be having to do this the elevation and
step up. So good stuff. That is definitely something we're
going to continue moving forward. So shout out to you
Dacy for sending that challenge out to the team. And

(01:25:29):
Anda you mentioned you know you're like talking about you know,
the team tended to be a little more vulnerable than
some other teams. I have found very consistently the teams
that form the deepest bonds are the ones who will
just not sugarcoat stuff and will actually be real. I
look at things like the Gothics team, I look at
the Cascade team. I look at this team like they're

(01:25:52):
They're undoubtedly the deepest connection of any of the other
Great Range Athlete teams. No offense to the other teams,
you all had your own vibe. Everyone had their own
unique vibe. They're all good, they're just different. But the
tight knit bond that was formed in the right team,
I think is because people weren't shy about just being real. Hey,
this is what I'm dealing with. This sucks, this is

(01:26:14):
hard today because of this, but I'm still going to
go get it done. And I think that is the
mentality that we all need. And by having a team
environment like that, that's what helps you. You have the
Corey from Ohio's getting everyone up and riled up in
the morning, and then you have everyone else throughout the
day continuing to do it because at all times, every
single person has eight hundred reasons that are also valid

(01:26:36):
as to why they can't train, why they can't work out,
why they can't show up, or why they should go
do something that's different. But when everyone just puts those
aside and still does the damn thing, that's when beautiful
things happen. So it was awesome watching you guys grow
and watching you guys, you know, form this tight knit
bond over the last eight weeks. But that's going to
wrap up our experience here. The Right Team podcast is

(01:26:57):
officially recorded and therefore the Right Team officially graduated. So
great stuff. Everyone. Anyone have any last words they want
to share with myself, Annie or anybody else that's here
tonight going once.

Speaker 5 (01:27:13):
You know, I always don't have a lot of words.
I could take up another three hours on your podcast, James,
if you want.

Speaker 1 (01:27:19):
Brittany, I want you to save the final words here
send us home.

Speaker 5 (01:27:23):
You know, I'm I'm actually this is really bummed. This
is like the last night of camp for me. We
talked about like this being about like camp a lot
like when we were here. I go when we were
going up and it was like, you know, going to
see everybody and like getting to know everybody. It felt
like camp, and this feels like I mean, I'll still

(01:27:44):
see you guys on Marco Polo and you'll still see
me cry. I know that, but you know, I'm kind
of like, I'm kind of sad because I heard you
guys brainstorming Britz Bear crawls and then I was like, man,
I'm not gonna be there to see this. This happened.
This sounds like something I don't want to do, but
something I don't know why. But yeah, I just this.

(01:28:05):
I don't even have words.

Speaker 9 (01:28:06):
You guys are just so amazing.

Speaker 5 (01:28:07):
And I'm really grateful for all of you. So that's
all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
All Right, I appreciate it, brit Thank you to everyone
who was on the right team that wasn't able to
make the call tonight. I appreciate all of you. Thank
you to everyone who has joined a Great Range Athlete program.
You guys have all built this absolute animal that Great
Range Athlete has become because it's more than just training programs.
It becomes a family of people who show up for
themselves and each other, and it's just a beautiful thing.

(01:28:33):
But that's going to wrap up this episode of the
forty six of forty six podcast Thanks for sticking around
and listening to the story of the Right Team. If
you do find yourself wanting to join a Great Range
Athlete team in the future, head over at Great Range
Athlete dot com or head over to forty six outdoors
dot com to see all the other stuff that I
have to help you have safe, successful and enjoyable at

(01:28:54):
Airondack Mountain Adventures. But that's going to wrap up this
episode of the forty six of forty six podcasts. Remember
it always leave no trace, do the rock walk and
if you carry it in, carry it out. See you
on the trails. Everybody

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}205.) Summit Sessions #77: Great Range Athlete WRIGHT Team

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205.) Summit Sessions #77: Great Range Athlete WRIGHT Team

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