#201 – Josh Vernon, Another Triathlon Podcast Co-Host & SuperTri Partnerships Manager: Two Lives, One Lesson

In this episode, I sit down with Josh Vernon, the North American Partnerships Manager for SuperTri and a co-host of Another Triathlon Podcast. From the moment we hit record, Josh’s calm presence and grounded perspective pulled me in.

Josh talks openly about the two versions of himself: the man he was before the hurricanes hit the Virgin Islands, and the man he became afterwards—a father fighting for custody, a husband learning how to show up, and a person choosing sobriety, purpose, and a totally new way of living.

Josh’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/joshmvernon/ 

ATP Pod: https://www.instagram.com/anothertriathlonpodcast/

Nothing Novel: https://nothingnovel.life

Socks: https://stupidquestions.show/pages/sq-merch

Newsletter: ⁠https://stupidquestions.show/pages/newsletter-signup⁠ 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the Stupid
Questions podcast. My name is Seth Hill and thank
you so much for being here. You will notice really quick I
if you are watching, I am wearing glasses.
I got glasses. They look kind of strange.
You may notice some extra reflections.
I don't know if that's cool or good or bad thing.
But anyway, today on the podcastwe're going to be talking with
Josh Vernon. He is another Co host on another

(00:22):
triathlon podcast. Recently just had an episode
with Jenna Car see Fried. You may remember that podcast
with her. So this is one of her partners
on another triathlon podcast. And also Josh is the
partnerships manager for North America with Super Try.
So we get to talk about Super Try, we get to talk about his

(00:43):
podcast, but more importantly, we get to really dive in deep on
who Josh is as an individual andthe life that he's lived that
has led him to where he is today.
I don't want to spell too much, but it's very good.
Lots of wisdom, lots of life experience and perspective to
consider as a man, father, a husband, professional person,
number of things. So thank you so much for being

(01:03):
here. Make sure to check out the show
notes for Joshua's information if you want to follow him or the
Another Triathlon podcast. And if you are listening on
YouTube or watching there, like comment, subscribe, turn on the
notification bell. And so many of you who do listen
regularly don't subscribe or follow.
So if you are on Spotify or Apple podcast as well, any of
those platforms like comment, subscribe, review really helps

(01:26):
to continue to grow the pod. All right, thank you guys so
much. And without further ado, want to
introduce you to Josh Vernon. Well, Josh, man, thank you so
much for taking the time for jumping on my podcast from your
podcast. Yeah, really appreciate having
you on. It's been cool building the
podcast over the past couple of years.
And there's, you know, you get like these handful of community

(01:48):
members who really kind of invest and jump in.
And you've been one of those because you've gotten some of
our socks. You've tagged me in a number of
posts, so I always appreciate that.
But yeah, it's a pleasure to have you on and thank you for
making the time. Thanks for having me.
It's been fun following your journey and jumping on a few of
those Mark Kubrick lives and thethe roulettes and yeah.
And then yeah, when you did the collaboration with Bamboo Works,

(02:11):
I'm a big fan of theirs and everything he's doing.
So I've got a ton of his socks. And I was like, what's another
couple pairs? So yeah, if you actually put
them on yesterday for my walk, I'm I'm coming out of the same
illness that you had. So I'm back-to-back to walking.
Yeah, I was going to say like I saw your story and like of your
or your Strava posts where you're getting walk in a little

(02:33):
bit, try to get over it. Did you just get a head cold as
well? Like what did you have?
Yeah, I I didn't test for COVID,but I'm not sure if that's what
it ended up being, but I was, I had like a high resting heart
rates. Friday, Friday night was the
worst of it all, like sweating, key fever and and all that.
But it was mostly that congestion, head, sinus,

(02:56):
everything. But yeah, Friday night was the
worst of it. Saturday afternoon kind of broke
a little bit, and then yesterdayit started feeling a little
better. Well good, hopefully get fully
back soon. I started.
I did some efforts this morning and my chest was still burning
quite a bit so. I got to swim later, so we'll
see. Nice.
Right on. So are you like, are you
training for anything in particular or are you just kind

(03:19):
of keeping it low key training through the offseason to stay?
This is the, this is the first time since I don't know if
January, February that I'm not training for something around
the corner. This is just a straight up get
back in shape, rebuild and in recovery phase.
It was probably the the biggest year I've had in terms of racing

(03:40):
and and setting goals and kind of knocked them all off and had
a good year. So this was a nice little forced
extra week of time off. I was starting to get back into
it early last week before I started getting sick and then
this gave me an extra week of just some more recovery so
really excited about it. The the only real race I have on

(04:00):
my calendar next year 70.3 worlds and then I'll be hopping
into some marathons with my wifeif I can get some bibs to some
world majors she's doing. Cool.
Yeah. How long have you been in the
endurance world? Because I know you've been doing
it for a little while. Not too long though.
My first try was 2022. I did a Sprint try locally here

(04:24):
and so I've now done that one four years in a row and finally
got on the podium this year. But yeah, triathlon, first one
was 2022. COVID was really where I started
getting back in shape. We, we had bought the house here
right before COVID, My daughter moved in.
I, I got full custody of my daughter in that February,

(04:47):
literally. So we got my, my daughter back
February 15th, bought the house,closed February 26th.
And then COVID hit a couple weeks later.
And so I was working from home and then got laid off because of
COVID layoffs. And then so I did a lot of
housework and a lot of stuff around the yard and was outside
just trying to figure out ways to do things.

(05:07):
And a good friend of mine started a virtual challenge down
in the Virgin Islands. And I was like, hey, you mind if
I hop in on that? And ended up that challenge
finished the day. We like the weekend.
We got married in September of 2020 and I had transformed
enough to win that personal challenge that he had put out

(05:28):
there. And there was probably like 1520
people in the group. And that kind of kick started
me. And in at the same time I was
doing some virtual Boston Marathon challenges where they
do the 5K of the 10K in the halfmarathon as a medley.
And the goal was to do the half marathon by the end of the year.
And that was going to be my longest run ever and got got

(05:51):
injured, found Peloton. So I started riding the bike a
little bit. And then December 30th, I went
out and did a half marathon, created a three loop course
around my neighborhood and my wife came out to the end of the
driveway and gave me my nutrition and did my first ever
half marathon virtually at the end of 2020.

(06:11):
And so that really kick started me into the whole peloton and
and training world. But I was AI was a team sport
athlete growing up and and neverreally thought endurance sports
would be it. It was that typical.
That's the punishment type thingin in mindset.
So my brother challenged me whenhe found out I was biking and

(06:31):
running a little bit to do a Sprint triathlon and that just
that that flipped the world really, really quickly.
Yeah, I set the fire. And you said team sports like
you were actually a basketball coach in the past, were you not?
Yeah, I coached girls high school varsity basketball for
five years up until my daughter turned 1.
So like the first year of her life, I I coached and that was

(06:55):
the last year I coached. But yeah, a whole bunch of us
Catholic school boys, a bunch ofmy friends who went to Boston
College, Notre Dame, we all tookover this program in Brookline,
MA at an Orthodox Jewish school.And some of them coached the
baseball team. I, I took over the basketball
team and coached the girls and I'd have like 13 kids try out

(07:18):
the first year for 12 spots. By the time I left, we had about
3540 kids trying out for that same team.
And we just, we turned around, turned it into a program really
and, and made it something that they wanted to do as opposed to
something that they just put on their resume to, to get into
whatever college they wanted to go to.
So still in touch with a bunch of the kids to this day and they

(07:41):
make me feel feel old when they're having like their third
or fourth kid at this point. How many years young are you?
47 going on 48 in February. So yeah, just a number at this
point. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah,
what is it to you? Because you're staring down the
barrel of 50 and 50's. I think when I think of 50, I
think of, OK, that's the age of wisdom.

(08:03):
Like that's when I step into my my true manhood.
I'll have some salt and pepper on the sides and yeah, well,
what are you? What are you thinking and
feeling about 50? Well, 50 means I might have a
chance to qualify for Konos. Opportunity that's.
Right opportunity. No, I, I still, I mean, and I,
I, I have to remind myself that I am 4748 for going up there in

(08:27):
age. And because I feel like,
especially now with everything that's happened the last few
years with fitness and, and Wellness and, and, and job and,
and everything being around thiswhole ecosystem that I've
created, that I feel young, I'm hanging around young people.
I'm, I'm competing with younger people.

(08:47):
And next thing you know, I'm in a room and I'm the oldest person
and I'm on the podcast, I'm the oldest person and, and I just
don't feel it or, or, or feel itas much as I should all the
time. And then I remind myself that
I've also earned a lot of wisdomover these years too.
And, and people do look up to mefor that.
And, and that's a really neat spot to be like I can still hang

(09:10):
out and chat with the younger group.
And, and at the same time, people are looking up to me for,
for feedback and, and different life experiences that I've had.
And I've had plenty of them. So if you had to choose, let's
say for the next two years, the the kinds of people you would be
able to hang out with, if that you had to choose between them
being older than you or younger than you, which would you

(09:31):
choose? I think a blend of both.
I mean, I, I've learned so much from this younger generation,
especially now with how hard they're getting after it and how
healthy and, and fit and, and forward thinking they are and,
and longevity and, and all thesebuzzwords that we keep hearing.
And, and I see it when I go to the gym.

(09:52):
I mean, I do most of my working out at home, run, cycle,
everything done here, but I swimat a gym and when I go to the
gym, it's like 18 year olds getting after it, 19 year old.
So I just, I don't remember being like that or having that
same mindset. So being around that inspires me
and keeps me going and, and I think that's really cool.

(10:14):
But at the same time, I've always had older mentors and
people that I keep in touch with, even my first boss back in
the early, late 90s and early 2000s.
I mean, we still touch base every couple like couple times a
year. And having people like that in
my life has been huge too, to remind me of how far I've come
and, and, and where things need to go.

(10:36):
And when I've been between jobs,those are the people that I
reach out to and, and touch basewith.
But I, I tend to find myself more and more around people a
little younger than me and it, it helps keep me going and
grinding. Like hey, if I can hang with
them, I can. I can hang with anyone.
Yeah, that the way you said thatmade me think because for the

(10:56):
past, I would say 10 years or so, I think I have favored
people hanging out with people who are older than me.
But in the world that I grew up when there wasn't a whole lot of
like, I don't know, elite level athletes, of course, but like
elite level people just in general in terms of like process
and thinking. So I've always been like, oh, I,
I skewed toward wanting to hang out people with older than me.

(11:17):
But you know, to your point, nowthat I've done this podcast for
2 1/2 years, I've interviewed people from the ages of probably
70 so, or all the way down to like early, late teens, early
20s on the triathlon side. And yeah, I think that it is a
mindset thing. I I try to surround myself now
more so with people who kind of inspire me or, or I feel like I

(11:39):
am at the bottom and they are above me and like that.
That feels good because it's like that striving for
something. Yeah, I think that's a good way
to live. Yeah, I agree.
I I think that it it does go both ways.
Where the inspirational piece isthere, but also the reminder of
like, OK, there's still more to work for by by talking to

(11:59):
somebody with a little bit more wisdom or or even someone close
in age. I mean, my boss is younger than
me, but I look up to him and go to him for questions all the
time and he'll do the same for me.
Like he's in a marathon block right now and he knows I just
came out of a marathon block andour our weekly check in usually
starts with us chatting marathonrunning ahead of his Valencia

(12:22):
marathon. So like just having those types
of conversations where it reallythere is no age consideration
whatsoever. We're just having a
conversation. And I think that's, that's at
the end of the day, that's really all I'm looking forward
to is having a good conversationwith people that it doesn't
matter what you look like or howold you are.
Yeah, Yeah. Now that we're thinking about

(12:42):
it, I'm like kind of processing through what you're saying and
considering what it, well, what is it about the older generation
they're like, and what if it's about the younger generation?
I think if I had to put a pen onit, it'd be I like looking to
the younger generations, not in general completely, but more
often than not for inspiration and the older ones for
perspective. Yeah, yeah.
You definitely are held in perspective, especially with how

(13:03):
easy certain things are and convenient things are nowadays
and and how not convenient and how easy they used to not be.
So I think that that perspectiveis a good one to to reminders
remind yourself, especially being my age where I'm like kind
of in the flux in between where things started to shift and and
got to see both sides of it. So from your perspective, and

(13:26):
you might know where this is going, but who is Josh?
So I, I did expect this was coming and, and I did think
about it a little bit, but it really is, there's been, I'd say
2 Josh's there. There's been that Josh, up until

(13:47):
the Hurricanes are memoria hit when I lived in the Virgin
Islands and and up until that point, I was just kind of going
through the motions of life and and went through your typical
path of school and college and and playing sports and and
starting a family and and just kind of chasing a dream.
But getting up and going to workand, and, and having drinks and,

(14:10):
and smoking cigarettes and they just, life spun out of the way
and, and I didn't really have a good clue of where things were
going. I was just kind of hoping they
would eventually get better. Those two hurricanes hit when I
lived down there and, and reallyput some perspective on my life
to the point where I realized I needed to do something to change
it for myself and, and for my, my daughter and I, my, my

(14:33):
ex-wife and I were no longer together.
And I use that as an opportunityto, to flip my life, move back
home, humble pie at 40 years old, living in my parents house
and going to court to get full custody of my daughter.
So the, the second-half of the life started around January 2018

(14:54):
and really flipping my life backaround to where it is now and,
and slowly put me back into a spot where I could live out my
dream. And, and that was always around
sports and health and Wellness. And like, how could I, how can I
make that a part of my life? And, and slowly was able to get

(15:15):
back into the things I enjoy doing, thanks to my, my wife now
Janine, and, and the things thatshe was happy and passionate
about. And that allowed me to really
just start focusing on what mademe happy, what made us happy,
and, and we got to do that together.
So she really helped drive me tothe next and and she supported

(15:36):
it and, and allowed me to last September leave my position,
which was a very good job in sales and marketing and in a
solar industry role. But chase the dream of trying to
find a job in in health and Wellness, either with like a, an
athletic brewing who I had a lotof relationships with or, or, or
super try where I ended up landing.

(15:58):
This is me chasing a dream that I love to do and wake up and and
get to do everything that I'm passionate about and love
talking about. And, and yeah, it's just there.
There's two parts of my life. There's the the before the
storms and the after the storms and and the after the storms is
way better. But I wouldn't be anywhere
without the stuff every day thathappened before that, the good

(16:20):
and bad. There I go.
So 2 questions. First one, you mentioned you
know it, the old Josh, before the storms, you were chasing a
dream. Were you aware of what that
dream was and has it died? Is that piece of that dream
dead? Yeah, I mean that that dream was
living in paradise and doing, doing whatever it took to live

(16:42):
on an island didn't have that lifestyle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And living in an island
lifestyle is not all it's made out to be unless you are very
well off and rich and, and set already or in a very good place
within your current lifestyle and, and dreams.
So for me and, and my ex at the time, that was literally just

(17:06):
being around the people that we'd like to hang out with and,
and drink and party with and, and do whatever jobs we could to
get by down there. But it wasn't the dream by any
means that I have any more. Now I want to go to every other
island around the world and, andtravel wherever I can to, to go
race or, or just go visit and, and see the world.

(17:26):
Whereas before it was literally go to Saint John back and forth
and, and I was, that was life until I ended up moving there.
And now it's about how do I do the things that I'm passionate
about and, and have fun with, with my family and with my
daughter and, and get her off tocollege and, and follow her
dreams and passions and, and have her look up to me.

(17:48):
Like with a lot of respect that if things kept going the way
they were going, we would not beliving together and and we would
not, she would not have the respect that she has for me now.
How old's your daughter? She is about to turn 18 on on
Friday. Yeah.
How does that feel? Again, I mean, it's that's

(18:10):
another reminder that I am the age that I am.
And yeah, it's, it's also a blessing.
I am A and I know you've got a new one coming, so Congrats to
you and your wife. Thank you.
And, and a daughter is a, a goodstart.
Always thought I'd have two or three very happy that I, I have

(18:31):
one very healthy daughter. And she knows where she wants to
go and what she wants to do. And it's not always easy getting
her motivated to do some things,but she, she has a very good
idea of where she wants to be inlife.
And, and she's into animals and,and the environment.
So she's at an agricultural vocational high school now and

(18:53):
going to go off to College in Pennsylvania in the fall of next
year. So Delaware Valley.
And yeah, she's, she reminds me that at the same time we're
lucky because she's starting to become an independent young
woman. And it allows us freedom to do
certain things that we wouldn't have been able to do if she was
still 10-9. And I look at friends of mine

(19:16):
who have kids who are younger and it's like, and they're like,
how do you do all the stuff you do?
I was like, well, my daughter's almost 18.
There's a lot of independence there.
And she she's working and and we're not looking for
babysitters anymore. I'm curious to to know, and I'm
going to make some, I don't know, blanket statements or kind

(19:36):
of assumptions about the world and the way I see it, but I'd be
curious to know what you think about this.
You know, raising a daughter in today's world is, I would
imagine it's going to be a very interesting experience because
there's a lot of just the facadeor the visual aspect of the
world. So women are beautiful, like
women are made to be beautiful, I believe.
And so that creates like this level of expectation of what a

(19:58):
woman should or shouldn't be with traditional values.
So as I raise a daughter, I'm going to be thinking a lot
about, well how do I raise her in a way to let her know that if
someone is interested just sexually or like likes her for
who she is as a person? The sexual part is a real piece
of it, obviously, because that'swhen you know, you get married.

(20:19):
That's what that that life is. But how do you raise a daughter
in the light of that world, giving her the potential to see
where her value truly lies and like, what's going on in here,
rather than just like? Yeah.
No, it's a great question and, and one that we have
conversations with her about a lot.

(20:40):
She has a good close group of friends and they're all very
curious as well. And, and so within her group of
friends, they're having conversations and, and really
we've had to make sure that we're understanding of
everything that's going on with her and her friends as well,

(21:01):
because both my wife and I have have always been from the
traditional mindset. And at the same time, we're very
understanding and aware of everything that's going on in
the world. And, and our daughter is hanging
out with friends who don't know what they want and, or, or are
curious of what sex they want tobe.

(21:23):
And, and that's OK with us. And we, and we've told her that
and what we've reminded her is it doesn't matter who you're
hanging out with, as long as these are people who are
supportive of who you want to beand, and what your goals are
and, and not holding you back from what you want to do.
You don't have to put yourself into a small group of friends if

(21:45):
they're not the ones who make you comfortable and, and support
your goals, even though you aren't exactly like they are.
And, and that I think has been the biggest thing to us because
our daughter continues to say that guy's hot, that guy's hot,
that guy's hot. And, and all of her friends are
like, well, she's hot, that he'shot, that they're hot.
I mean, but she's continued to be friends with all of them.

(22:07):
And, and that's the support thatwe've always wanted her to get
from her group of friends. And, and then reminding her,
Hey, you're going to continue tomeet new and new people and more
people in the world is so big. And she tends to originally grab
a hold of the things that she's very passionate about and they
become her entire world. And, and then we have to remind

(22:27):
her that there's so much more out there or that your boyfriend
from 3rd grade is not going to be your boyfriend forever, no
matter what. So there's all sides of it.
You just have to be open and understanding of of a how big
the the world truly is and and how free their minds can be at
certain points. What is something that she has

(22:49):
taught you about yourself that you did not think it was a
lesson you may learn? I think one of the things that
she taught me was the, the, the ability that she was able to
overcome some of the things thatshe had to go through through
the divorce and and and and now my ex-wife has since passed away

(23:10):
this year. Oh wow.
So not having a traditional mom around for most of her life and,
and being able to overcome that has been a huge piece of me that
I, I've taken in her strength and, and, and continue to remind
her too, because she still struggles.

(23:31):
And we remind her of everything that she's already overcome and,
and, and gone through and, and where she's at and able to, to
still be so that when hard things do come up, she knows
that she's had very similar to our life in triathlon and
training. Hard things are going to come up

(23:52):
and you're going to be able to overcome because you've been
there before. And, and that's the analogy I, I
give to her a lot is look, you, you've been through harder
times. And, and I know this assignment
seems difficult or this essay seems difficult, but yeah,
you've been through so much morethan, than any of your friends
for the most part. And and you can do this and and

(24:14):
you're stronger than that. And yeah, that she's giving me
the strength to to know that she's been able to because it
wasn't an easy life for her and in her early teens, which are
some of the biggest prime years for her growth.
Is there any pain that you've gone through from the first Josh
to now that you are thankful for?

(24:36):
I, I mean, I truly believe all of it.
I, I, I say it all the time. And, and since Janine and I met,
things have tended to happen in good ways.
But I don't believe any of that happens if a single day or
moment changed from the first iteration of, of my life.

(24:58):
And, and really, if we change anything in the past and you go
to the back to the future analogies and all that, it's you
could, you could change the entire future.
So I live from that, that mindset like I've learned and,
and become who I am today because of every single moment
that happened and, and some uglymoments of, of over drinking

(25:19):
and, and just getting in bad situations and, and financially
just not giving a crap of where I was and, and just hoping for
the best. Literally a lot of hope and and
dreams of just false hope really.
And that if any of that changes,I'm not where I'm at today

(25:41):
because it just built everythingthat's in me now for the
understanding and gratitude thatI have for, for this opportunity
that I've now been given and, and really running with it now.
There's still hiccups and still struggles along the way now, but
the the mindset I have gets me through a lot of it.
Because I know, again, similar to my daughter, what I've been

(26:03):
through and the fact that I havethis opportunity to be able to
have people reach out to me and say, hey, thanks for sharing.
The fact that you've been three years over six years over like
that, like just one message a year is enough for me to keep
doing what I'm doing to remind me of yeah, I'm glad I am where
I am at and and went through what I went through to get here.

(26:24):
Yeah. How many years have you been
sober? 6 1/2 over now.
So yeah, next April will be 7 years and I'm not worried about
that. You're not worried about getting
there? Yeah.
Yeah, no, it's, it's been a very, very, very rewarding
journey for me and some of the people that have been along with
me for it and including my wife.She saw me have my last drink

(26:47):
and and that was April of 2019. And just every once in a while,
I should say I want that old drinking Josh back who did work
out 20 hours a week, but she never, she never really saw the
kill a 12 pack of beer Josh on aon a Wednesday night either.

(27:08):
So I miss, I don't miss that part of my life at all.
And and now I don't miss the drinking at all.
Like even even shortly after stopping drinking, I was still
able to like go out to a restaurant or a bar and, and do
trivia nights and like be. So it was the social aspect for
me with for my ex-wife, it was atrue alcoholism and coping

(27:34):
mechanism. And for me, it was more of just
the social aspect. And I was able to replace that
social aspect with other things and luckily didn't have the, the
withdrawals or any of the, the needs to go to rehab and things
like that. But I did work the system, go to
meetings and, and talk to sponsors and, and, and work with

(27:55):
other people who also reached out to me for help.
And, and I think that's all justgiving me a reason to, to keep
going. And then you get a company like
Athletic Brewing that helps support you and your journey and
triathlon and, and everything else you're doing.
And they make good non alcoholicbeer.
So I get to enjoy one of those every once in a while.

(28:16):
Yeah, I was going to say just bythe way, really quick, I tried
that stuff. I drank once in college and got
quote UN quote drunk. I don't even know if I truly got
drunk but it was enough to make me feel like this is really
strange and I just didn't like it at all.
But I tried the athletic brewingstuff and I was like this is
actually terrible. So I'm from your perspective
though, you are a man who drank the 12 pack on a Wednesday
night. Is it pretty good?

(28:36):
Is it like even comparable? Yeah, no, it's very comparable.
I, I, I do a lot of ambassador work for them and we'll go to
pace testings or, or hand out beers at the end of 5K road
races or local events. And a lot of times people
wouldn't even know, wouldn't even know.

(28:56):
And I have like all the different seasonals and flavors
like they're they're I have a whole fridge downstairs.
Our our old fridge in our kitchen is now my downstairs
basement fridge. So and a lot of it goes to
different events that I'll donate it to.
Like I'll do AI do a season opener triathlon here in May
every year. And I usually bring all of the

(29:19):
the beer for that finish fest. And it's all the athletic
because it's 10 AM, 11 AM. So I mean, that's Sprint,
Olympic distance triathlon, people are done pretty early.
So we'll, we'll, we'll donate that.
And the race director appreciates it.
So yeah, I enjoy it. And I think it is actually
pretty comfortable. And there's a reason why they're
doing so well. It's not like they're spending
more money and. They got again and get a sales.

(29:41):
Exactly. Yeah.
I want to ask some more questions about your first life,
if that's OK. Josh, how long were you married
the first time? We got married in 2007, so 10.
Years ish. Yeah, just over 10 years.

(30:01):
We got, we got divorced in 2019.So yeah, 12 years.
OK, 12 years. Was it a mutual decision?
Yeah, at that point and, and we actually walked into court
together and and old fashioned, there's some courts in

(30:22):
Massachusetts where you can go in and, and get divorced on the
same day. But we've done all the paperwork
and, and all the conversations. When the storms hit, we were
still kind of together. We had somewhat separated,
gotten back together. And that was in September of
2017. And after the storm, she went

(30:48):
off to rehab and, and that was kind of the the signal for me
that all of a sudden I started having this huge weight off my
shoulders of worrying what was going to happen and where she
was and what she was doing. And, and that was the first sign
that like, OK, this needs to be my new life like this.

(31:09):
This is the way things need to be.
And if, if things work out and, and she comes out of rehab and,
and things are different than obviously we, we've got a
daughter together in, in a future there no matter what.
But as soon as she came out of rehab, she went right back to
drinking and, and, and then she went back into rehab again.
And at that point I had moved back home and, and we weren't

(31:33):
even communicating. Her parents thought I was the
reason for a lot of the, the, the problems at the time.
So I was literally going to court fighting for my daughter
for full custody. My parents were fighting for
visitation rights of their own granddaughter.
And overtime that changed. I, I would have to submit urine

(31:56):
tests and, and take drug tests and, and I just had to build up
trust with a lot of people and alot of bridges that I burnt.
And my ex was never part of the picture because of her
alcoholism and drug issues. And it was just me going back
and forth to court with her parents.

(32:16):
And over time they started to trust me a little bit more.
And then my, my ex father-in-lawpassed away in a car accident.
And yeah, so that, and, and thatwas another thing for, for my
daughter that was like her, her good cop and grandma was the bad
cop, the tough one. And, and shortly thereafter, we

(32:37):
thought we were going to be talking about how we were going
to transition my daughter back home at the end of the school
year of 2020 and her and her grandmother were not getting
along and, and we had this virtual court case.
I was remembered vividly. I was in my conference room and
work on Tuesday afternoon or something in February and she

(33:02):
stood up in the courtroom physically and and asked the
judge if I could come get my daughter that weekend.
And this was February of 2020. And I said, well, I can't come
get her this weekend. I will if you need me to.
But I would rather her be able to transition out, talk to her
friends, see her friends and andshe had a dance coming up a
cotillion if you know anything about southern life in in the

(33:25):
Virginia area. So she was getting all dressed
up for a big dance on Valentine's Day.
And that was the weekend we ended up selecting.
So I saw her after her dance that night.
And then February 15th, 2020, she came home with me full time.
And it's been that way ever since.
So yeah, it was a long journey to get back to that trust.

(33:48):
And now we grandmother has and her family have been very
welcoming to everything that my wife and I have done for for me
and very trusting. And it's taken years to get
there. And we were able to then work
with them when, when my ex-wife passed away in May this year.

(34:10):
And, and we actually had the, the Funeral services and
everything up here in Massachusetts instead of down
there in Virginia. And still saw a lot of that side
of the family and friends and kind of full circle of like they
could see where I was. I mean, I was literally when I
found out she had passed away, Iwas going to work at 4/30, 5:00

(34:33):
in the morning because I was working for Supertrig going to a
Sprint and Olympic transition zone to help all the the racers
get ready for their, for their day.
And yeah, you want to talk aboutlike full circle and, and she
passed away from complications of alcoholism at 50 years old,
so really tough. And, and she never really got to

(34:54):
be a part of her daughter's life.
They, they talked and chatted, but it was she never got fully
sober again. So thank God for my wife Janine
now who's become really her, hermother and everything she's
needed from the female figure side of things.
And, and I think in 5-10 years from now, my daughter will look

(35:16):
back at it and be very grateful for that.
Yeah, I'm sure it's not easy to do right now.
Losing a parent's like the hardest thing you can go through
as a kid, I would imagine. I mean one of the hardest
things. Yeah.
And, and I would say that is typically the case,
unfortunately for for, well, fortunately and unfortunately
for my daughter, that happened years ago already.

(35:36):
So the actual act of losing her mother wasn't as traumatic.
As. Yeah, that all happened back in
like 2016 in her eyes. So it had.
It had already been four years longer.
Yeah, yeah, almost. Nine years.
Nine years. Yeah, wow, man, you've had a lot

(35:58):
of experience, a lot of death inthat's touched your life.
Yeah, there's, there's been a lot of stories and it started
even like locally here in, in mysmall town.
I I now live in my hometown, which never thought I would do,
but we, we, we, we found a a sweet deal back in my hometown
right before COVID hit and couldn't pass up the opportunity

(36:20):
when rates were. Pristine.
Yeah, and refinanced and the house had sat on the market
because the first offer fell through.
And because, and this is the funniest thing too, because it
now becomes, it's like the placethat we spend most time in.
We're not the most, but a lot oftime.
The finished basement was it's basements the full size of the

(36:41):
the footprint of the house. They had 500 square feet
finished off downstairs and the rest of it's just an unfinished
basement. They never pulled the permits to
have that construction work done.
And the first offer, the guys like, never mind, I don't want
to deal with that. So they backed out and the offer
set, but the house was only 4 1/2 years old and the people

(37:02):
were being corporately relocated.
So I was working through a corporate relocation company and
we low balled and and got the deal after 100 days of it
sitting on the market. So closed literally 3 weeks
before COVID and yeah, refinanced surely thereafter.
Yeah, congratulations. Wow.
Yeah, so and, and there were a lot of people in this town, two
kids that I grew up with, small town of like 3500 people at that

(37:25):
.2 of my two of my friends growing up who had passed away,
one in fifth grade and another one we lost during freshman year
college. So really small.
And these are two of them my my good friends growing up.
So yeah, it's interesting in such a small town having that
many kids and, and not because of drugs or alcohol or anything

(37:48):
like that. It was just accidental or, or
rough time deaths. But yeah, been around it and
it's something that's definitelyhelped give me a lot of of
gratitude yet again. I mean, there's a lot of pieces
that lead to to where I'm at nowand and why I am who I am.
Are you afraid of dying? For sure I don't want to.

(38:11):
I don't think I'm done doing what I need to be doing.
I, I feel like there are times where it's like, why, why am I
still here? And like, why, how the hell am I
doing what I'm doing now? And, and there's got to be a
reason for it. And that's why I keep doing what
I'm doing. And, and even like starting with

(38:34):
like putting stuff on social media, like why are you doing
that? Why do you just keep, just live
your life and do things? I was like, well, I feel like
I've been given the second chance in this opportunity to
find this new world of endurancesports and, and health and
Wellness and, and event partnerships and, and
activations and, and helping other people live their better

(38:56):
lives. So why not put it out there?
And if it touches one more person, that's, that's another
huge asset to, to their lives. Then I'm doing something else
that I can, I can look back on and be proud of and, and my
daughter can look up too and be like that.
That's, that was my dad. And there's been some cool

(39:16):
things recently where she's beenlike, I'm not the cool dad right
now in her eyes at at 171618. Yeah, Dad, Dad's a dork.
And I'm an I'm addicted to fitness and things like that.
And, and then the the most recent one, which was I, I had
no idea, but I had an opportunity to run the New York

(39:37):
City Marathon with a Broadway performer celebrity.
So I had kick off the run in theVIP tent.
So I'm hanging out with apparently I didn't even didn't
realize who I was talking to, but Chelsea Clinton, Phil from
The Amazing Race and they Phil and I chatted for a little bit
and he's the only one I really recognize.
And then like Des Linden, who I recognize, but there were all

(40:00):
these actors and actresses. I had no idea who they were, but
the girl who sat next to us on the bus ride there and then we
were supposed to be running withwas a TikTok star.
No idea. I'm in her Tik Toks and my
daughter saw this and she's like, wait, what?
You were hanging out with Brooke?
So I was like, yeah, again, I was kind of cool.

(40:22):
And then she started talking to her friends and like, Yep, do
you guys see my dad in Brook Monk's TikTok?
And I was like, no idea. That's who that girl was that I
was talking to but made me cool again.
Yeah, that's awesome. Do you think that you're like
the way that you were brought upin Massachusetts?
Closely, closely resembles or maybe resembles more?
Is a better way to put it. Your life now or your life

(40:45):
first, Josh. No, I think it resembles more of
my life now. I, I, I think for sure there
was, I mean, I grew up in a pretty strict family playing
sports. I didn't have time to drink.
And I, I think a lot of that is I didn't have a, a single drink

(41:06):
until my like late in my senior year of high school.
And, and I I know for you that'searly for for me it was late
given everything else in a smalltown.
I've been literally farms. There's a there's a Cal farm
right down the road from here Outback you there could be 3D
running behind me right now. So it's truly small town and and

(41:30):
out in the woods and everyone has like an acre plus of land
and, and, but I truly believe that that is where the work
ethic and and other stuff that has now become part of my life
was born and I've been able to grab a hold of again.
And I think I took a lot of things for granted early on in
my life And life was just sportsand going to work and you're

(41:53):
supposed to have a family and, and didn't really look at how I
was going to get to the future. And, and now I have a plan of
how we're going to get there. And it, a lot of it just lives
off of the doing the things thatyou like to do and love to do
and, and chase that and, and pursue it until you have it.

(42:14):
Has religion or spirituality played an element into your life
and the journey that you've beenon?
It did early on for sure. I was born and raised Catholic,
Irish Catholic grandmother and she had 7-8 kids herself and
literally would walk to church and she raised us a lot.
My, my parents had three boys and I was the oldest of the
three. And, and it's really neat now

(42:37):
to, to be in similar area my grandmother used to live in, in
Boston, but as she got older, she, she was moved out here to
an, that's not even an unassisted living facility, but
mostly people of older age in these little condos.
And we drive by that area all the time.
And my daughter goes to take herto that same Dairy Queen that we

(42:58):
would walk across the street to go to.
And, and I remember my would walked, my grandmother would go
to church every day and we wouldwalk to that church.
So we still drive by that area all the time.
And just reminders of, of that part of my life.
I, I was and altar where I was aEucharistic minister, went to a
Catholic High School, wore tie in a suit coat every day.

(43:21):
And, and it was always a big part of my life.
And, and it's interesting because it got away from me and
I and I stopped going to church myself and, and took my daughter
for a little bit when she was younger and, and stopped doing
that and, and then moved to the islands and it was really gone.
But I think I kind of alluded toit earlier too.
And like, things are happening for a reason.

(43:42):
And, and I don't, that doesn't pass me by.
Like there's a bigger power behind some of the things that I
have. And I don't know why, but I
trust that there's something else bigger and better than I, I
need to be doing. And, and, and the only way to
get there is to keep going on the path that I'm on now because
it's, it's helped others, it's helped me and it's gotten to me

(44:04):
to a, a space in life where I'm happy and enjoying everything
that I do. Like totally stoked to get up
and talk triathlon everyday. Like it's crazy.
My wife says, are you, are you, are you on a work call or are
you on the podcast or are you being interviewed?
And and they all blend together now, and that's really, really
cool. Yeah, that's, I want to just say

(44:26):
congratulations are well done because it's it's really neat to
see when somebody's able to kindof build a life around their
interests and hobbies, but one that also that they can help
provide for their family and where they find fulfillment.
And yeah, it means so much to mewhen I see people do it because
it's something I have taken a large amount of pride in just to

(44:48):
be able to be the master of my own time rather than working in
95. And I don't not not to say that
like whoever does work in 95 isn't a good person because
honestly, there's certain peoplewhere that lifestyle fits them
very well and they like that they thrive off that.
My wife is one of those people. But from the people who I have
looked up to, like even met a few billionaires and whatever,

(45:09):
the people who are the happiest are the ones that can kind of
command their own time. So you can also be ACEO and
worth hundreds of $1,000,000 andnot have any time command
whatsoever. You can't choose.
And like, that's the worst form of torture for me.
It's like, well, what are you going to do with all that money
if you ain't got time? I, I, I completely agree.
And I, and I think and I, I, I left the corporate world, but I,

(45:31):
I and I, I still do work in the corporate world.
I still work for a corporation. I still have phone calls at 8:00
and I still have phone calls at 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM.
And the, but I, I work from homeand I work for an organization
that's doing really, really coolthings and, and trying to truly
change the future of triathlon, which is like you said, that's

(45:51):
just awesome. For to be able to do that and,
and have that turn into a paycheck and and not have to be
a professional athlete to do that is is really awesome and as
close as it gets, I guess. Yeah.
Well, since you are the partnerships manager for North
America for Super Try as of April, I believe, what have you
learned about the industry in that period of time and are

(46:13):
there any partnerships that you are excited about going into
2026 that you are allowed to talk about?
I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about.
Ferrari and Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
All those non endemic partnerships that we're working
on. No, I I've been truly like just
kind of a sponge for everything within the industry.

(46:36):
My, my boss comes from a, a partnerships world where he was
in like with British Cycling and, and, and football soccer
over in, in the UK. So huge amount of knowledge that
he has of the partnerships worldin, in sports.
And, and that was the piece I didn't have.
I, I had sales and marketing and, and sponsorship event

(46:58):
background and a lot of industrytriathlon knowledge from my, my
few years in the sport, but becoming a sponge there as well
myself. That, that was why they brought
me in. And, but I've been open to
understanding how super dry works now at the same time,
super dry as a young organization as well.
And, and yeah, the Super League has been around for going on

(47:21):
close to 10 years, but the, the transition that we've been in
since I joined really just started a year or so before I
did. And, and that's a transition
from a pro league into a mass participation league.
And, and that piece of me I loveand, and the short course world,
which got me started in triathlon, to be able to give

(47:42):
more people an opportunity to dothat on a grand stage that isn't
just your local 102 hundred person triathlon and be able to
go to an event every year. That is this, I would say an
Iron Man feel like event, Finnish festivals and, and
weekend long type events going on and activations.

(48:04):
And, and that's the, the, the future, the picture that we
have. And, and you can do that at a
super Sprint, a Sprint or an Olympic distance at, at all of
our events around the world. And, and now from when I
started, there were two now there were six last year and now
8 coming on for 2026. So the growth is there and we

(48:26):
all know people like to get to the long course and take a box
and and a lot of them leave and don't come back.
And a lot of that's due to, it takes too much time to train and
to keep doing it. And to be able to offer an
opportunity for people to have that similar experience at the
short course world and, and alsobe able to compete for things

(48:49):
and, and have challenges and, and rankings.
Those are all things that we're looking at.
And then there's some partnerships coming on that are
going to help us get there and do that.
And, and I can't talk about themyet, but very shortly they will
be coming out and and a couple of them I've been able to bring
on board in the last month or so.
Will they've been be announced before December 8?

(49:10):
They will not be announced before December 8th.
I think the first you might hearfrom them are around December
15th could be the earliest. Yeah, because.
That's what this episode. Is going to be like, yeah, yeah,
we, we can talk about it after, but not on air.
But we we've got some really good, good brand partnerships.

(49:32):
We do have also the athletic brewings of the world and we
have synergies, been a partner for a long time.
Varlo is is coming back on as a partner.
My Woosh is a big partner of ours.
So there there's some really neat endemic brands that have
backed into the Super try transition into long course now
the the pro racing is still the huge inspiration and beginning

(49:55):
of this this market and and we know how important our athletes
are to what's going to happen inLA in 2028 and they're going to
use super try pro racing as a big training ground going
forward. But the future of triathlon, we
believe is that competitive nature and, and everyone being
able to access doing a relay triathlon and and not having to

(50:18):
like you said, spend an entire month's budget on on getting
there to do it. Yeah, with am I going to say
lost my question? I this has happened to me for
far too many episodes now. I was going to ask you.
I can I can keep talking about super trying partnerships.

(50:40):
And. So, so one of the challenges
though is certainly like I, I have a good knowledge of what
endemic brands and, and identifying who those people
are. But getting people to understand
what we're trying to do at Supertry has been a, a
challenge. And, and there are some brands
that get it and, and a lot of itis started with just trying to

(51:00):
get them to events. And we had a few brands in, in
Chicago that were able to activate and I was able to step
up and, and help them activate because they didn't have the
bandwidth to do it themselves. And that has opened eyes to the
point where they're going to be those new partners jumping on
next year too. So really educating the market

(51:21):
on on what short course can do and, and 1st timers and the
importance of bringing first timers to the the sport that we
can control and keep in the sport and, and, and let them go
do long course, but come back and be able to do Sprint and
Olympic whenever they want. Yeah, Do you know Victor Bronco?
I do know Victor. I don't know him very well
though. OK.

(51:42):
Because I know I may have to introduce you guys officially.
Officially, because I know that they've been looking for ways to
get involved in the North American scene and he's a super
great guy. I could not talk highly enough
about that guy. Well, I will definitely open to
that introduction. I'm one of my favorite things to
do is to connect dots and and it's.
Fun. And to be able to put other

(52:05):
brands at the table with other people.
I mean, look, before I started this job, I was helping super
try out. I, I, I got this job technically
because of an activation I put together last August when Super
Dry was coming out of the Olympics.
First pro race was in Boston. And I had become friends with

(52:26):
the people at human Powered Health.
And they had opened their, they were opening their second study
center here and in Boston. So they had one in downtown
Boston, one in in Wellesley now,which is their biggest of all of
the performance labs. And I wanted to do something
around the Boston triathlon. I was doing my first Olympic at

(52:49):
the the local Boston triathlon and and wanted to be a part of
the entire super try experience.The Olympians were all coming.
How can we make the city of Boston understand this?
And and I organized a a shake out run with human powered
health and and then contacted Parker at at stars and Stripes
US project project podium and had a bunch of his athletes come

(53:11):
and and join us for the morning and and they brought the film
crew. And then super try is like, we
want to come check this out. And and now my boss and and
colleague were were there that morning and and that's where our
connection started. And, and super try actually used
a lot of content from that checkout run that morning over the
weekend. And it was really my first

(53:32):
understanding and and I had VIP passes that day and my wife and
I were just like, got to enjoy it up in front.
And this is what this racing is all about.
And, and from there I connected them with some teammates of mine
in Chicago to help them do the similar stuff there while they
were there the following week. And, and, and Chris Williams, my
boss and I stayed in touch over time and, and I actually

(53:53):
connected him with with Bill Schufelt and the Athletic
brewing team in the meantime. And they signed that partnership
right before I started working full time.
That was a connection I had madefor them and and trying to just
consult and do some things to keep money on the table between
jobs. Well, if your network is your
net worth, you are a wealthy man.

(54:14):
That would be amazing, right? That would, that would be the,
the ultimate goal would be like if I could just count the amount
of people I know and what they do and, and the connections that
they need to be made, that wouldbe.
But it has gotten me to where I am and, and yeah, definitely
appreciative. And I just love knowing what
other people are doing and wherethat, where their goals are and,

(54:36):
and what they're trying to do. And like, look, if I can put you
in touch with somebody else thatyou didn't know existed, that's
huge. And, and in my eyes and, and
continue to help people out. And next thing you know, they're
turning around and doing a favorfor you or or you guys are all
in the same room together for some reason.
So let me ask you this question because you sort of alluded to
I, I think a piece or probably alarge piece of it in that you,

(55:00):
one of your goals is that you know that your daughter can be
proud of you and, and that kind of thing and the relationship
you have with her. But do you have any other
internal goals or compasses or things that you're striving
towards, just on a professional level of what you would like to
see your life contribute to as awhole?
Yeah, I mean, I, I, I think being able to work for a company

(55:21):
that is in the space that we're in really helping change other
lives. Like immediately, the first, the
first event I did, I was able toto help somebody out.
I was training for a race, so I brought my bike to Austin, TX
and I happened to be working at an Expo booth because one of our
our colleagues had stepped away and, and overheard a a family

(55:42):
talking about how dad had just had his bike seat post break
when they parked the car in the garage or something like that.
And I was like, well, I got my bike.
I can, I'm not racing tomorrow. And next thing you know, this
guy and I have conversations like every couple months now.
And he was able to do the race, found out he's a pastor from San
Antonio up in Austin for the weekend, racing for the first

(56:04):
time with his sons. And so to be able to do that
type of stuff, like, look, that that literally kicked off my
weekend of my first day on the job at a race.
And to be able to do that type of stuff and, and be able to
share those experiences with my daughter and say, look, this is
not just a, a paycheck, a job, It's not just sport.

(56:25):
It's, it's bigger than that and,and truly impacting other
people's lives and, and their futures.
And, and those kids being able to race with their dad was, was
huge. Like they literally the next
like race day morning, the kid who finished and came up to me
and found me and like had the whole family take a picture with
me and like, it meant a huge amount to them.
And I'm not saying that's gonna happen every race.

(56:47):
It's not, but to know that you are having an impact like that
is super important to me becauseI, I think we all need a nudge
in a helping hand every once in a while.
And if I can help somebody be inspired to turn their life
around or, or give them that nudge that they need to go a
little further, it keeps me going.

(57:09):
And, and I think as long as I'm able to continue to train and do
the things I want to do personally, I can stay healthy
and fit enough to continue to give back professionally as
well. Are you a good man?
I'm a better man than I used to be, that's for sure.
And and I'd like to say that I am a very good man these days.

(57:29):
And I was not like you look backat who I was and not proud of it
at all. Now, I, there's, there's very
few things I would change on a day-to-day basis.
And, and that's kind of how I live and, and ever since I
stopped drinking, that's the what we live by is one day at a
time. And, and what can I do better

(57:50):
today? And, and I, I talked to my
daughter about it all the time too, is look, you can't control
what just happened. And, and, but what we can do is
our mindset and, and how we feelabout what can we do different
going forward. And oh, that teacher gave me
that assignment and I don't likethat teacher.
And I was like, that's great. You still have to get that work

(58:11):
done. And, and you can't change what
the teacher said last week, but you can, you can figure out how
you can best approach the next assignment and, and just small
little pieces like that and not trying to get lost in the
anxiety. That is the big picture all the
time. But what can I can focus and,
and, and tackle today and, and what projects can I knock off

(58:33):
today? And I've been very blessed with
not having the built up anxiety that I could have trying to dig
out of a hole that I had I was in before.
Yeah, I was going to say, like along those lines, do you feel
like you've you've made peace with yourself, like and you've
you've kind of you've forgiven yourself for the things that
have happened in the past? Yeah, for sure.

(58:55):
And, and a lot of that comes because through my actions,
others have been able to forgiveme.
And, and even a lot of that happened at my ex wife's funeral
too, or where people were thanking me for doing what I've
done and, and congratulating me for what I have done and, and
who I've become. And, and taking care of my
daughter first and foremost. And, and doing everything I did

(59:17):
to, to get back to where I'm at now is, was for her first and
foremost. And, and in order to do that,
though, I had to take care of myself.
So there was a lot of selfish behavior, had to be selfish and,
and, and still have to be selfish at times.
Like I, I train the way I train because that brings out the best
side of me as well too. So if I'm not happy and in my

(59:41):
day-to-day, then I can't give her what she needs and, and I
can't give my wife what she needs.
And I'm lucky to have a very supportive wife who also likes
to train and, and run marathons and, and, and give back and do a
lot of fundraising and, and all the other aspects of our lives
and, and being around our Peloton community and, and still
holding on to a lot of things there as well.
One thing I really like doing istalking to people who have not

(01:00:04):
just life experience, but peoplewho have been through the school
of Hard Knocks because it adds alot of, it adds a lot of
perspective, a lot of wisdom. But the temperament, like for
somebody who's come through a difficult part of life where a
lot of that pain was even self-inflicted, the temperament
of that person coming through that is more when they find

(01:00:26):
healing is a pretty calm, collected, slow to anger type of
a person. And I, I immediately got that
like the first 5 minutes just hearing it and your voice is
like, oh, this is going to be really good.
Because I feel like I can understand where you're at and
where you're coming from. But yeah, so I guess what I'm
trying to say is that like, I really affirm that I really
appreciate your, your tone, the way that you carry yourself, the

(01:00:49):
way you talk about things and the the forgiveness that you've
had for yourself. Which is really cool to hear
because not many people can get to that place or have gotten to
that place and just kind of sit in this ever descending vortex
of doom. So to be able to come through
that is pretty cool. And your daughter's very lucky.
And your wife, too. Yeah, and, and I'm very lucky

(01:01:10):
and, and, and I appreciate you saying all of that because it is
the truth, because you still seepeople who struggle with the
same things that I struggle withwho don't get this lucky.
And, and I think it's another reason to keep doing what I'm
doing. And, and, and the more people
see it, the, the more it gets out there and, and other people

(01:01:31):
share it and, and the more that the good story is shared, the,
the more hope that we have for the next person struggling.
And, and I truly believe I'm very grateful that I've been
able to mentally overcome a lot of that stuff, like you said,
and that that part of it's been been huge.

(01:01:51):
And it's not like I'm just brushing things aside.
I was able to do a lot of work and go to therapy and, and, and
have the conversations I needed to have and learn how to trust
my now wife. And there was the lack of trust
in the previous relationship. That's so many things that I
learned instead of redoing and, and just letting that circle go.

(01:02:13):
I, I had to change and, and I did, but I wouldn't be who I am
without every bad moment that happened before.
So I'm, I am happy that the mindset and the calmness comes
from a lot of that, like you said.
And, and also just the fact thatthis is the best I got today.
And, and truly that's where I'velearned the most is like, look,

(01:02:37):
I can't change the bad workout Ihad yesterday or I can't change
that. I, I did raise my voice
yesterday, but I can do a littlebetter tomorrow and, and do a
little better right now. So I still have bills to pay, I
still have things that we've gotto get better AT and, and, but I
can't really fix it all at once and, and, and slowly but surely

(01:03:00):
just keep checking things off and putting things in place that
my wife and I work on every day and, and communicate about.
Let the worries of today be enough for for this day.
Yeah, yeah. Exactly, and then we get to chat
all of triathlon. I want to chat with with my with
my Co host on the podcast. And it's that's the the other

(01:03:22):
side of the world that my my wife doesn't appreciate as much
as the she's glad I have the podcast people to talk to that
stuff about now because triathlon has become my life.
Yeah. What has been your leverage?
So there's a couple of your guests, like Yellow Beans and
Gustav Eden. I'm like, oh, I have this on my
list for 2026. I got to figure out how to make
that happen. What advice do you have for
someone like me? Like what did you do?

(01:03:44):
Did you leverage your super try partnership position?
Like, how did you, how did you get on the radar?
Well, so a lot of it's been. Through friends.
Yeah, through friends, but a lotof it's just direct message.
Yes. And, and so I'll send Adm and
the, the, and I say this to themon, on air.
I, I say it off air. That's the coolest thing about

(01:04:05):
our sport and, and triathlon in general and the endurance sport
market in general is a, we sharethe course with these pros and,
and B, they truly are us, but they're making money doing it or
chasing money to go do it and. They're the smart ones in the
equation. Yeah, yeah, y'all actually said
on the the the the episode last week that having a blue check

(01:04:26):
mark helped my my acknowledgement from him.
So he saw that on Instagram on the DM and message, but for the
most part, it's all just been sending a message at the right
time and them acknowledging thatGustav, we worked, I worked a
little harder for that actually went through AG one who I had a
connection with, with, with Manaapparel and my connection with

(01:04:50):
Lisa helping them out at Oceanside this past year.
So we wanted that to be our 100th episode and and make that
our AG one episode and way to go.
So that that was connecting somedots there and, and made that
happen. And yeah, reaching out to I, I
reached out to Sam Renouf over LinkedIn and months later he got

(01:05:11):
back to me. And that's where that episode
just came from. Scott Deroux had message
directly and he got back to me and then put us in touch with
his team. And, and then obviously I can
have Michael Dusan whenever I want.
But yeah, it's just a a little bit of nudging, not too much
persistence, but it's a testament to who a lot of the

(01:05:32):
athletes are at the the pointy end of our sport.
But Coleman, well, in final questioning with the podcast
that you Co host, is there something that's taken up a
little extra mental bandwidth that you're excited for about
2026 concerning it? I well, I, I, I think, I don't

(01:05:55):
think Jenna answered this on herepisode.
So I think one of the things that she I would like to touch
base on is we actually might do our first live show.
So I and I owe a lot of to whereI am to to Jenna and Fette for
letting me on the show. Like I I had not never met Jenna
in person. I've met her once since we met

(01:06:15):
at the Chicago Marathon last year for like 20 minutes, thirty
minutes at dinner. And I've met Fette now a few
times. Got to spend the weekend with
him in New York for the marathonthis past couple weeks ago.
So we've spent some time together, but we're all become
best friends and chat all the time and have our WhatsApp chat
for every race and, and the podcast has become another

(01:06:37):
family of mine. And it's a really cool space for
us to, to share the banter and, and back and forth.
And they gave me the opportunityto get into this sport a little
bit more than I was. And every little aspect of those
touch points that I'm able to make has gotten me to where I'm
at. And then I, I thank them for
that all the time on air, off air and, and looking forward to

(01:06:59):
next year where Jenna and I bothqualified for 70.3 worlds.
We're hopeful fed will as well. So potentially having that be a,
a live show type opportunity. But we've, we've had some good
connections and respect from Iron Man this past year and, and
Jenna's been able to get some media passes and, and the team

(01:07:19):
has offered us some opportunities there.
So I think in 2026 you'll see a little bit more of that and, and
us trying to get into some more of the on race at race coverage
and, and continue to do things there.
But yeah, it, it'll actually be a really neat treat to be able
to, to race the same race and, and, and do that for the first

(01:07:42):
time. And, and hopefully we can get
fed to nice because I'm just going to be looking to enjoy
that race. There isn't going to be any
podiums. There isn't going to be any top
10s or top 20s in my age group. 45 to 49 is not the easiest age
group. You, you talked about being 50.
Yeah, being 50 is going to help a little bit, but man, guys just
keep getting faster. That's true.
Yeah. So then final question, and it's

(01:08:05):
an advice question, one that I think you will hopefully have
some really good advice for on the topic of trust for people
who are having a hard time trusting people again, like
learning how to find trust, whatis something you can do or
whether we can do practically tostart to instill that trust back
in those, especially those closest to us?

(01:08:27):
I think it's your actions and, and putting yourself in
situations where you're just being yourself and doing what
you know you need to do. And, and I literally just
started living my life better and, and consciously made
decisions to this is how I want to live my life.
And it's going to take time. And, and giving that

(01:08:49):
understanding right off the bat is going to be a huge help in
your anxiety and your mentalnessand mental toughness and, and
understanding that you can't just say, trust me again, that
that's, that's gone. The boy who cried wolf is over
and it truly is. Your actions are going to speak
louder than your words. And, and it takes a lot of time
for those actions to start to build up to the point where the

(01:09:11):
people who lost trust in you aregoing to get it back.
And I, I, I like to live by the model that I somehow
dumbfoundedly found during COVIDwas don't just do good, do
wicked good. And that mentality goes to
everyday life and, and sports and training and, and also

(01:09:31):
giving back and, and being a good person by helping others
who don't have everything that they need or, or donating to a
nonprofit or a foundation or volunteering your time and, and
little things like that start toadd up, make you feel better
doing it. And, and at the same time, hey,
maybe those other people start to see the things that you're
doing and, and come around. But if not, worry about the

(01:09:55):
people that are there to help see you win and want to see you
win. And and that's all that matters
at the end of the day, is you'vegot a circle of friends that do
trust you. Wonderfully sad.
Well, Josh, thank you so much for taking the time again to be
on and to allow me to ask a lot of really personal questions
about your life. Lots, lots of deep stuff there
to learn from. So I appreciate you allowing me

(01:10:16):
to do that. I appreciate you doing this
podcast and having that different format for us to, to
be able to answer some of those questions.
Didn't think I'd go as deep as Idid, but you have a way of
getting that out of people. That's.
Right, let's go. I'm glad I'm gonna.
Makes me happy to hear. No, I appreciate it.
It's fun. It's a conversation.
Awesome. Thanks, man.

(01:10:36):
Thank you so much, Josh, for jumping on.
What a great conversation. Yeah, the cadence of that
conversation went so well. Josh is so calm, calming in his
personality. Like I said in the beginning,
lots of perspective and experience to consider and
applying to our own lives. Yeah, I really liked it.
That's all I think I really needto say.
I think that most of the things he said kind of carry their own

(01:10:59):
weight and don't need to be further explained.
But I really enjoyed that conversation and I hope when I
get to the beautiful age of 474849, even 50, that I am still
in a place where I am growing and able to learn from these
types of conversations. So I'll say that for sure.
Thank you guys so much for beinghere.
Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and we will talk to

(01:11:21):
you soon. See ya.