#85 No Finish Line in Sight: On Pain, Joy, and the Lifelong Pursuit of What Matters Most - Best of Q2, 2025

Every few months, I pause to reflect on the conversations that left a mark—ones I keep thinking about long after the recording stops. This episode is a curated collection of those moments from Spring 2025.

You’ll hear stories that go beyond performance. These are reflections on resilience, identity, aging, and the human drive to keep exploring what’s possible—physically and emotionally.

In this episode:

• Sarah Thomas reflects on childhood, potential, and joy after record-breaking swims and cancer survival.
   🎧 [#76 Four Times Across the English Channel: What One Impossible Swim Can Teach You About Identity, Grit, and Starting Over]
• Bob Becker, 80, shares what he’s learned from DNFs and brutal finishes in 100+ mile races.
   🎧 [#73 Unstoppable: The 80-Year-Old Who Runs 100+ Mile Ultramarathons—and Reminds Us Why Showing Up Still Matters]
• Bill Ramsey introduces the “Pain Box” and how meaning comes from effort, not ease.
   🎧 [#75 The Thinking Climber: What a Philosopher’s Double Life Reveals About Curiosity, Reinvention, and the Long Arc of Mastery]
• Bob Babbitt takes us back to the wild early days of Ironman—where athletes taped bananas to bikes and finished races on Big Macs and pure guts.
   🎧 [#77 Still Racing at 73: Triathlon’s Wild Origins, Daily Rituals For Recovery, Energy, Clarity, and Why Sport Is the Real Fountain of Youth]
• Bianca Valenti recounts a terrifying moment that launched her into big wave surfing—and a fight for equal pay.
   🎧 [#72 Bianca Valenti’s Second Act: How She Won Equal Pay, Redefined Her Sport, and Trains Her Body and Nerves for Big Waves — and for Life]
• Rob Matheson, age 74, recounts his bold climb of an E7 sea cliff route—and what came after.
   🎧 [#78 When the Gear Might Not Hold: Cutting-Edge Rock Climbing at 74, Mentorship Across Generations, and Why Boldness and Growth Don’t Have an Age Limit]
• Dean Karnazes on laying it all on the line for the world’s first marathon at the South Pole.
   🎧 [#70 Dean Karnazes: Fighting Fit in His 60s, Running Ultras on Weekends, and Tracing the Marathon’s Roots in Greece]
• Andy McVittie, climbing physio, shares how to assess your shoulder health and why tendon care is everything.
   🎧 [#65 The Movement Optimist: Knees, Shoulders, Elbows, Hips, Bulletproof Yourself! Never Late to Get Strong!]
• Jerry Moffatt narrates one of his proudest moments: the visionary onsight of Equinox.
   🎧 [#67 Jerry Moffatt’s Revelations: Dangerous Free Soloing Before It Was Cool, The Power of Obsession, Letting Go at Your Peak, and His Surprising Key to Success]
• Neil Gresham, climbing coach, explains why Rob Matheson wasn’t treated any differently—and what that tells us about aging, mindset, and training.
   🎧 [#80 Lexicon, Boldness, and the Long Game: Training Smarter, Climbing Harder, Peaking Late—Because Age Doesn’t Matter]

Each of these clips holds its own power, but the full conversations go deeper—into mindset, identity, resilience, and what it means to keep pushing, especially as we age. If something in this episode resonates, I hope you’ll go back and give the full interview

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