December 22, 2025 • 79 mins
This breaks down the entire run across South Carolina, all 194 miles of fun. I share the heart behind Breaking Ribbons, the people who sparked it, and how purpose, planning, and community carried us through rain, injuries, police checks, and long miles on empty roads. We talk mindset shifts that mattered—reframing nerves, perspective shifts, and choosing gratitude when everything hurt. The real finish wasn’t the run itself, but raising over $20,000 to bless five families, starting with a mom heading into another round of chemo.
Key takeaways:
- Purpose changes how pain feels—and what it produces.
- Big missions are built on small details: logistics, people, and presence.
- Less than 1% of a year, done with intention, can redefine the other 99%.
Thank you for tuning in! If you feel led, please subscribe & share the show to others who you believe would benefit from it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
When I think about the run and what we're doing, we
weren't running.
This wasn't a run.
This is answering prayers tofamilies that have someone
fighting the good fight and aregoing through something
infinitely more difficult thanwe're about to go through right
(00:21):
before we step off thiswrestling room and go on our
way.
When we look at things beyondwhat they are and connect them
to a deeper purpose and assigndeeper meaning to them, we will
be able to push through thedifficult moments.
(00:42):
We will be able to answer thequestions that we ask ourselves
as to why did we decide to dothis?
Oh, that's right.
We're answering prayers.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
My name is Ryan Cass, and I'myour host.
My purpose in this world is tohelp push people further and
(01:04):
harder than they believepossible and become unshakable
in what matters most to them intheir lives.
Every week, you're gonna learnfrom either myself or a renowned
expert in their field, and we'regonna unveil pieces of our
playbook to help you win today.
Please, if you love this show,subscribe and share it with
somebody that will benefit fromit.
(01:24):
Let's dig in.
I believe this quoteencapsulates the journey that we
just went on and I'm about totake you on right now.
Behind every success story is ariver of tears, a mountain of
obstacles, an ocean ofimpossible odds, and an
unbreakable warrior spirit.
(01:45):
That's what I think about whengoing back and detailing the
194-mile journey across theentire state of South Carolina
to provide to families that havea loved one currently battling
cancer and going throughsomething infinitely more
(02:09):
difficult and more painful thanwhat we dedicated three days of
our lives to.
So I'm gonna go through thewhole process, everything from
why to what happened during somechallenges, and ultimately what
(02:30):
we're doing now is a result ofrunning across the entire state,
which in my book qualifies asthe third coolest thing.
So the journey, the distance,the miles, that's neat, but it
is not the ultimate highlight ofthis journey.
The ultimate highlight is what'sto come, as we're going to be
(02:53):
blessing five families with over$20,000 this year in a time of
need for them.
So, with that, we're recappingwhy we went down this path and
some stuff, some lessons learnedalong the way.
And it's my wish that as I sharethis, that you get to experience
(03:16):
the journey for yourself.
And I'll do my best to paint thepicture to where you're riding
along in the van or runningalongside me and the crew, and
we'll go from there.
So, for those that may be brandnew to this channel, or you were
led to this as a result ofseeing the run for the first
(03:40):
time, wondering who is thiscrazy person and who are these
crazy guys doing this run.
The reason for this run goesback to 2023.
I launched Breaking Ribbons as away to honor the lives of three
people who are close to myheart, Anita Cass, Noah
(04:00):
Mayberry, and Juliet ThomasSofich, who each had a battle
with cancer and they are nolonger physically with us in
this world.
But I wanted to do something tohonor their lives and make
running, which is something veryimportant to me, bigger than me.
Meaning I don't run just to run.
I want to run to inspire people.
(04:22):
I want to run to help make theworld a better place, to help
improve lives of people in mynetwork and the community,
people going through somethingway harder.
So I asked myself a question in2022 with these three amazing
people on my heart and in mymind.
(04:43):
What's the hardest thing that Ican do to honor them and to be
able to provide to others thatare going through what they went
through?
And what came into my mind andheart at that time was doing a
100-mile bridge run back andforth on the Ravenel Bridge here
in Charleston, South Carolina,which we did on October 26,
(05:04):
2023.
It was a 22-hour adventure, 20laps back and forth non-stop.
We raised$5,000 and blessed fourfamilies that year.
So in 2023, I asked the samequestion with the intention of,
okay, well, if$5,000 in fourfamilies is the new bar that we
(05:28):
have set, how can we go further?
How can we go harder?
And ultimately, how can we helpmore people?
How can we bless more people?
That led to a 150-mile bridgerun on October 26th, 2024.
43 hours raised just under$8,000, which we blessed another
(05:49):
four families.
Now, what's the question I askedto the in 2025?
What's the hardest thing I cando?
And now that we have a new barset, it appears that we're
increasing the distance byroughly 50 miles per year now.
That I want to run across theentire state because it's
roughly 200 miles.
(06:10):
I can run from my hometown ofFort Mill, South Carolina, to
now current hometown ofCharleston.
And let's see what happens.
So that is the genesis of this.
And I'm so grateful to say thatwe now have a new bar that has
(06:31):
been set as we are going tobless five families this year,
and we raised over$20,000, whichstill blows my mind to say.
Over$20,000.
And we actually broke the$10,000goal before the event even
(06:52):
started.
One thing that's challengingwith fundraising, or at least in
my experience, what I've seen isthat you have a lot of people
that'll tell you, okay, yeah,I'm going to help you out, and
that's awesome.
And we're going to, we're, we'reright on board.
And then the event gets closerand closer and closer.
And you know, people are likingyour posts and everything, but
(07:13):
the donations aren't flowing in.
Then you start to wonder, okay,what's what's happening here?
Are we going to raise anything?
And even if we didn't hit ourtarget, anything greater than
zero is a blessing to thesefamilies that we'd be able to
give away.
But the amount of support thatflowed in right off the bat was
(07:33):
absolutely remarkable.
So that's that's the the whatand the why.
You might be thinking, okay,what's coming for 2026?
I don't know yet.
What I do know, 100% certain, isthat it will be over 200 miles.
I don't know the route.
(07:54):
I'm flirting with a coupleoptions.
If you have some ideas, anythingthat you think is absolutely
insane, is up my alley.
So I'm open for ideas andsuggestions as to what the 2026
challenge can be.
But ultimately, what I'mthinking about is how do we
continue to raise the bar andbless more families, and we'll
(08:17):
figure out the rest later.
So that is really the why why wewent down this path.
It wasn't something that I had arandom thought of going into
this year.
This has been systematic andit's been a been so amazing to
see how it's continued to growover time and how much people
(08:40):
have come to support it.
So I am incredibly grateful forall of the support, continued
support, and all of the lovethat has flown in, flowed in
this year, especially.
This really took off.
And I want to first spend timeexpressing my gratitude and
(09:02):
thank you to everybody involved,whether you were a sponsor, a
donor, a crew member, media,family, friends, combination of
those things.
We really had everything in2025.
(09:23):
To my crew in our van, SeanRhodes, Coos, Shane Burke, Nick,
Nate, our amazing camera guys.
Thank you, doesn't do justice,but thank you, thank you, thank
you again.
Y'all are absolutely amazing toeverybody in Jake's van.
(09:46):
I believe Aaron, Bobby, Colin,Liam, thank you guys for keeping
Jake afloat and for being outthere, dedicating three days of
your lives to living in a FordTransit 12-seater van.
Not the most luxuriousaccommodations, but y'all took
(10:09):
time out of your lives to be outhere and help make sure we had
everything that we needed,Edwin, Jake, and I, to keep
rolling.
And I cannot express mygratitude enough.
We had a lot of friends thatcame out and joined us along the
way.
We were on desolate roads prettymuch the entire time.
(10:32):
You can travel from Fort Mill toCharleston without ever hopping
on a major highway.
If you ever want to know theroute, maybe you're curious
about doing this yourself.
You can take U.S.
Highway 21 from Fort Mill toColumbia and then Highway 176
from Columbia to just outside ofCharleston before you connect on
(10:53):
to Highway 52, which then bringsyou all the way into downtown.
So we had people joining us atall hours of the day.
We had people that were meetingus on these desolate roads at
various parts of the evening.
It didn't matter that it was twoo'clock in the morning on a
Friday.
We had friends coming out there,dedicating their time, which was
(11:18):
absolutely incredible.
People dropping off hot food,absolutely amazing.
Sponsors, NAD underwear, canefootwear, LMNT, all day running
company, Hydrofly Electrolytes,Sweet Feet Socks.
I mean, blown away, truly, thatthese brands were getting behind
(11:42):
us.
Hall's Chop House, even puttingout some recognition as well to
Live Five News and Post andCourier, publishing amazing
pieces that helped more peoplesee this.
Just thank you, thank you, thankyou.
So now let's get into the intothe event.
And right before the start, sothe first lesson that really
(12:07):
comes to mind that I want peopleto extract is that I see if
you're nervous or have somedoubt about something, take
nervousness and doubt as signalsthat you're doing something
meaningful, and take nervousnessas doubt and any other emotion
(12:29):
synonym that you may feel, maybebefore you do something big,
take that as a signal that youhave put the work in and things
are gonna go well.
What I've found time and timeagain is that before I'm about
to go into any major event oranything that is deeply
(12:49):
meaningful to me that I'vereally put my heart into, that
nervousness and doubt creeps in.
Those thoughts of what if youdon't make it across the state?
What if things go wrong?
What are people gonna thinkabout you if you have to bow out
at mile 120, 130?
What if this fundraiser doesn'treach the level that you thought
(13:14):
it would, and that you've reallybeen putting out there in the
world that it that it wouldreach?
What happens?
And I know that that voice willvisit everybody, but I've simply
reframed it to this is a signalthat good things are coming.
And this is completely normal.
(13:35):
I say that as encouragement thatthis voice, it's totally normal
for it to visit anybody.
It visits the best of the best,the people that we often revere
the most, that we may think, oh,they've just got it so figured
out to where this voice of doubtnever vis never visits them.
(13:56):
The same voice that visits thosefolks that we love to admire,
dream about, talk about is thesame voice that visits you, it's
the same voice that visits me.
But what I what I know to betrue over over time is that hey,
things are gonna go well.
That means you prepared, itmeans you care.
(14:17):
If you didn't have thosefeelings of nervousness and
doubt, then I would question,did you really prepare hard
enough?
And is your heart really inthis?
So nervousness and doubt aresignals and a reminder that your
heart is fully invested inwhatever it is that you're about
(14:40):
to do.
And that's a good thing.
So that was that was coming up,but I don't believe I've ever
shared that those are signals.
I like to look at them assignals versus spirals, where
then I'm gonna have a toughnight and second guess every
little thing that happens, notsleep well, and go into the
(15:05):
event not feeling excited as ifI'm not ready, because those
things are just not true.
So those are signals, those aregood things.
Now I will say that I was sonervous on December 3rd, but
really had so many signals thatI wish we could have just
started that night.
(15:26):
I wanted to go, I was ready toget rolling.
I didn't care if we kind ofdidn't care if we didn't sleep
and just started running becauseI was also just producing so
much adrenaline there in thatmoment, in those moments, that
(15:46):
hey, let's let's get this thinggoing.
But slept really well thatnight, actually.
We had a later start on December4th from Fort Mill High School.
We waited until after schoolstarted, which I'll get into
here in a second.
But overall, it went into thiscompletely well rested, knowing
(16:06):
that the next three days wasgoing to offer little to no
sleep.
And we were good.
So next time that you feel oneof those emotions, whether it is
nervousness and doubt orsomething similar, whatever may
come and visit you, I encourageyou to reframe that as a
positive signal that you've putthe work in and good is to, good
(16:33):
is to come, good is on your way.
Now, getting into the day of theevent, December 4th.
There's significance behindthat.
And what I didn't sharecompletely with the crew and
everybody involved, a lot ofpeople thought that we were, or
(16:53):
may have thought, that we werestarting on December 4th because
that is my birthday.
That is actually not the reasonwhy we started on December 4th.
So every year, the last threeyears of this run, I've aligned
it to a date that honors one ofthe ribbons that are on my
(17:16):
singlet.
So the last couple years, we'vestarted on October 26th because
that is uh Julia Tomasovich, oneof my best friend Andrew's
mothers.
That is her birthday.
And I've started at 4:26 in themorning on the the first year we
did this because that is Anita,Anita Cass, my grandmother.
(17:39):
That April 26th, that is herpassing date.
So December 4th is actuallyJulia's passing date.
So I aligned it to that, whichalso happens to be my birthday.
But I think about there's nobetter way that I could have
spent a birthday because Ibelieve that the best gift that
(18:04):
we can give in this world is togive back.
So how cool is it that I canring in turning 33 by kicking
off the greatest challenge of mylife thus far and running the
longest distance of my life thusfar.
And we were starting at FortMill High School in the
(18:24):
wrestling room because when Ithink about the two places that
has really helped me establishthe foundation upon which I live
on today from a valuesperspective, from a discipline
perspective and mindsetperspective, it's the Fort Mill
wrestling room being on thewrestling team and the Citadel.
(18:47):
I credit those two places withso much of what I have in this
life today.
I really learned how to push mybody and mind first at Fort Mill
on the wrestling team.
That was a place that was a safehaven for me when things at
(19:09):
home, you know, my parents aredivorced.
Things at home were reallychallenging.
Wrestling was my safe haven.
I could go and brawl for twohours a day and let everything
out, and in the and while doingso, become the most physically
(19:32):
fit, disciplined person thatI've ever been up until that
point in my life.
And I I love the sport ofwrestling.
There's no excuses.
It's you versus the otherperson.
It is, I believe, the purestform of of combat, and you can't
(19:55):
be a great wrestler off oftalent alone.
It's not one of those sportsthat who's the best athlete.
It's a sport that really digsinto who's got the biggest
heart, who's got the mostenduring motor, and put those
(20:17):
things, those two thingstogether, and then let's go
battle.
So that's why we started there.
I'm still very involved with theprogram and help out whenever
I'm home.
The wrestling coaches are stillthe same ones from when I was
there, Coach Brock and CoachMarillo.
I loved them to death.
And they were gracious enough tobring the wrestling team into
(20:38):
the room before we got started.
And I got to speak with them.
So I had my family there, mom,dad, sister, Christina was
there.
And then we had our crews, andthe post and courier was there,
and I got to share someperspective with the wrestling
team, which the leads us intonumber two.
(21:02):
So when we look at an activityfor purely an activity, meaning
if we look at running as justrunning, and it's not connected
to something deeper, somethinggreater, then when moments get
difficult, we may be more likelyto fall down a path, a cliff, a
(21:28):
mindset cliff, meaning thatwe're only looking at this run
as a run.
Therefore, when it getschallenging, if we look at this
run as just a run, then we canallow our possibly allow our
minds to take over when it getschallenging, because it's not
connected to something deeperand greater.
(21:48):
I encourage everybody to, of thethings that you do in life,
especially the ones that havesome meaning to you, to connect
it to a deeper purpose, a deepermeaning, because it's inevitable
that things will get tough.
It's inevitable that there willbe inconveniences.
It's inevitable that you mayquestion why you're even doing
(22:10):
this thing.
And it and it and that's forthings more than just running in
physical fitness.
You may question why you'rerunning a marathon, why you
chose to run a marathon, whythis was a good idea, or an
ultra marathon.
You may question along thejourney of being an
entrepreneur.
You may question, man, is thisreally the thing?
Like, money is not consistentright now.
(22:31):
Am I really doing what I'msupposed to be doing?
You may question a lot of thingsin life.
If it's only looked at for whatit is in that moment, it could
be a lot easier to not continue,to not persist.
Versus, here's what I'm gettingat is the things that you are
doing in life that have meaningto you.
(22:53):
Either A make sure they'reconnected to some sort of
greater purpose so that when itgets tough, you're able to lean
on to the greater the purposepart and why you're doing this
versus the activity itself.
There's a story that I love toshare.
It's called the Stone CutterPrinciple.
There's three folks who arebuilding a cathedral back in the
(23:19):
back in the day.
So many of us have seen thegreat cathedrals or churches,
whether it be Notre Dame or Icould go on and on.
Think about a beautiful buildingthat you've either seen a
picture of or entered that wasmade of stone back in the day
(23:41):
and made by hand without all thetechnology that we have right
now.
So there's a manager,construction manager that is
that goes in and talks to thethree men that are cutting
stone.
And he asks the first one, Whatare you doing?
And he responds, I'm cuttingstone.
(24:02):
So all the first person sees isthe activity he is doing as the
activity.
He can only see the activity forwhat it is.
He goes down the line, themanager goes down the line and
asks the second person cuttingstone, What are you doing?
And he says, I'm building awall.
So he's doing the same thing asperson number one, but he's
(24:25):
connecting to something greaterthan just cutting stone.
He at least is connected to atask, which is better than just
being connected purely to anactivity.
Not the best, but we're better.
Now we go to the third personthat's cutting stone.
And the manager asks, What areyou doing?
And he says, I'm building abeautiful cathedral and a house
(24:46):
of worship.
He's doing the same thing as theother two guys, but he is
connected to the greaterpurpose, the greater vision.
So when it gets tough cuttingthat stone, or when it gets
cumbersome or annoying, he'sable to tie into I'm building a
(25:06):
place of worship.
I'm not just cutting stone.
When I think about the run andwhat we're doing, we weren't
running.
This wasn't a run.
This is answering prayers tofamilies that have someone
fighting the good fight and aregoing through something
(25:27):
infinitely more difficult thanwe're about to go through right
before we step off thiswrestling room and go on our
way.
When we look at things beyondwhat they are and connect them
to a deeper purpose and assigndeeper meaning to them, we will
(25:47):
be able to push through thedifficult moments, we will be
able to answer the questionsthat we ask ourselves as to why
did we decide to do this?
Oh, that's right.
We're answering prayers, and youwill persist.
It is immensely important thatthe things that we do in life
(26:13):
have a greater sense of purposeand meaning behind them because
those inevitable things Imentioned before will come and
visit you, and sometimes that'sthe make or break between a
person that goes and getssomething done versus a person
that gives up on a dream becauseit's not connected to something
(26:34):
greater.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Is there anything that you havein your life that you look at
purely for what it is?
Meaning, are you cutting stoneand only see it as cutting
(26:54):
stone?
Are you cutting stone to cutstone, or are you building
cathedrals in your life?
That's my call to action.
That that might be one of themost important lessons we share
here.
So that is the after I sharedthat, we walked out of the
(27:14):
wrestling room into a gloomy40-degree day, and had the whole
wrestling team behind us, hadfamily, friends watch watching
alongside.
We had our our two Ford vans,our Ford Transit 12-seater vans
ready to roll.
(27:36):
And Edwin, Jake, and I were offand had a nice applause there,
and it was time to get going.
So we were left at about 9 20a.m.
on Thursday, and that was it.
I was so excited to just stepoff and and get going.
(27:59):
Had no more nervousness anddoubt.
It was pure excitement,especially coming off of that
talk with the team.
And now I have what's fresh inmy mind is hey, I'm not going on
a run.
I'm going to answer prayers.
And that's what we're doing.
That is exactly what we'redoing.
This moment that I told Edwinabout in the middle of 2024 has
(28:24):
now come to life.
Edwin committed to doing thiswith me in, I believe, May of
2024, when I had sent him a textabout this idea that I had.
That here we go.
And Edwin, I'm so grateful foryou and the fact that you said
(28:46):
yes without even thinking aboutit.
And I'm grateful for your yes,as as we say here.
And wow, what what an adventure.
Nobody else that I would want tohave alongside the whole time.
And such a blast.
So we're going.
Roughly every 10 miles, our crewhad a we had a meeting point
(29:10):
with our crew.
I actually drove the routemultiple times to make sure that
I knew where to go, but thenalso that we then so that the
crew knew where to go as well.
I didn't want to tell them, oh,just go find a spot 10 miles
ahead.
Uh everything was mapped outprior.
One thing I messed up is that Ithought, having driven the route
(29:33):
in my Ponda Civic a coupletimes, you're being in a car
versus being on the road, youmay not see as much elevation.
Now, South Carolina is not thehilliest state, especially going
down towards the low country,but especially on the back
roads, there are some deceiving.
(29:53):
There are surprisingly, rathersurprisingly, and there are a
lot of deceiving hills, butsurprisingly, a lot more hills
and climbs than you would think,and some absolute monsters as
well.
So I knew it was going to behilly going in from Fort Mill to
at least Columbia, which that'swhere the bulk of the the of the
(30:15):
hills were.
But what I told everybody isthat after 110 miles, it
flattens out.
I was wrong.
That I clearly was beingdeceived in my in my civic,
thinking that the last 80 milesare flat.
And I believe that that uh thatmay have had an impact on on
(30:38):
some folks.
So it's not completely flat.
I will say that.
But every 10 miles, give ortake, the crew would get ahead
and go meet us there in the van.
And it was so cool thatespecially as we're going
through all of these verydesolate roads, there's very,
(31:01):
very few areas where we hadsidewalk.
That some of the aid stationsthat I picked out, I I picked as
churches, thinking that, okay,especially as we're later on in
the game, if things go reallywrong and we really need either
help from people or need to getshelter for whatever reason, a
(31:26):
church is usually going to be agood bet, or at least we we
believe that that's where we'llmeet some of the nicest people.
And sure enough, it was reallycool to see that as we stopped
at some of the churches and metthe crew that were waiting for
us to refill our bottles andgive us nutrition, that there
(31:48):
were members of the congregationcoming out wondering, okay, what
are these two vans full ofrandom, random guys doing?
And as they explained what wewere doing, they got offered to
the crew got offered to goinside.
And if we needed to go in therefor whatever reason, or shelter,
use the bathrooms, anything, uh,they were all just opening us,
(32:10):
welcoming us with open arms,which was really cool to see.
Especially in Sandy Run, SouthCarolina.
There was a gentleman named Jujuthat came out and spoke with us
for a little while.
I believe this was right afterwe took uh about a two-hour nap.
He came out and we we talked tohim about what we were doing,
(32:32):
and he had shared that he's beena member of his church for 30
years, and and I asked him,where are we?
He said, You're you're in God'scountry, son.
You're in Sandy Run, SouthCarolina.
It's like, all right.
So I'm a fan of Sandy Run, SouthCarolina, and I believe it was
the Beulah Baptist Church,something like that.
(32:53):
So if you ever find yourself onHighway 176, know that the
churches along the way, thereare great people there.
But yeah, every 10 miles we'rerolling.
I never want to see anuncrustable again until we do
this next year.
A lot of people were askingabout nutrition.
(33:13):
What were we doing?
Uh, the van was absolutelystocked with everything from
G1M, BPN nutrition gear.
We had all of the electrolytes,LMNT, Hydro Fly that Ed got a
hold of.
Ed did such a great job gettinga hold of multiple brands that
(33:36):
were more than willing to sendus gear and and help out.
I remember reaching out to LMNTthinking, all right, they're
probably not gonna say anything.
I don't have a huge following orreally the most, I would say,
attractive social profile interms of followers and well
designed content, but they gotback almost instantly and and
(34:00):
offered support and asked wheredo we send where do we send
these electrolytes to?
I was thinking, wow, this is socool.
The van had probably, I believe,12 boxes or more worth of
uncrustables that I bought fromCostco.
We had peanut butter bagels, wehad Welch's fruit snacks, we had
(34:24):
candy, everything, everything.
We had freaking everything.
And the crew was amazing.
Every time that we came to stop,really all we had to do, all I
felt I ever had to do was giveup my water bottles and say what
I wanted in them for the next 10miles and what I wanted to eat,
(34:44):
and it was all pretty much givento us.
Shout out, special shout outagain to the crew.
Sean Rhodes, Coos, Shane Burke,absolute MVP crew chief that
went the extra mile.
My only concern that I had forthe crew and the camera team,
(35:07):
Nick and Nate, is that theyweren't sleeping enough.
These guys were workingtirelessly to keep us afloat and
to pump out content along therun so we could continue to
spread the good word.
But Shane Burke, wow, what anamazing guy.
(35:27):
First off, he's actually acancer survivor, brain cancer
survivor, and now Iron Man.
Flies down from Philly to livein a van, makes a binder of all
of our aid station stops, wherewe need to go, what we've eaten,
(35:48):
emergency contacts.
He's keeping the van organizedbecause it looks like the van is
literally eating people's shoesand food and everything.
Wasn't the easiest to keep thevan organized.
And he's making sure that we'reactually following the route,
which you would think should beimpossible to not screw up
(36:11):
because it's stay down these twohighways, but we did, and I'm to
blame for one mist turn thatadded an extra mile, which good
made it just a little bitharder.
But Shane calls us and lets usknow that we've gone off course,
thankfully, with only one mileto spare versus several miles
(36:35):
off course.
This guy was on it, I mean,absolutely on it, and uh can't
say thank you enough.
So if Shane ever needs a crew, Iwill be there.
And awesome, awesome.
So that that covers the crew andreally how we handled the stops.
(36:56):
One question came in onInstagram about calorie burn.
I believe we all burned around30,000, if not more, calories.
I know that my watch said Iburned 28,672 calories.
There is no way that I even cameclose to consuming that much
(37:19):
between the uncrustables, themartin gels, the Welch's fruit
snacks, the peanut butterbagels, the McDonald's pancakes,
the diner pancakes, the rice,the bone broth, the nerds
clusters.
Yes, I'm can I've consumed allof these things along the three
(37:43):
days.
I don't know how much.
Definitely a lot, definitely notclose to 29,000 calories worth,
but ate as much as humanlypossible along the way.
So yeah, we moved, we movedquite well.
And there were two times that wetook longer naps.
(38:04):
We stopped around mile 70 andattempted to sleep for about two
hours.
I won't call out who exactly wasresponsible for making the van
cool, but they did not, and thevan was like a hot box for two
hours, and I believe we spentmore time sweating and than we
(38:30):
did sleeping for that firstattempted nap, but we did get to
lay down and rest our legs, sothere was that.
Now, the second one, the folkswere were better about making
sure the van was actually niceand cool, and we got to sleep
(38:51):
for about a little over twohours at mile 130.
What's so crazy is that wedidn't have great weather at all
the whole time.
For the first day, we wereactually fairly fortunate in
that we we had some rain, somesprinkles, but nothing too much.
Uh, but days two and three werepretty much raining the entire
(39:14):
time, up until the last twohours before the finish, it
cleared up again.
But the two times that we tookour longer naps at about two
hours, it was absolutely dumpingrain.
And nobody was checking radarsto plan our naps around weather
or rain.
But I find it just so uniquethat the two times that we took
(39:39):
naps based off of how we werefeeling or how certain people
were feeling, that is when itactually rained and dumped the
most.
So I believe that we really hada lot of folks and guardian
angels and the big man and andpeople looking out for us,
sending a lot of prayers.
And that was a A huge, huge aid.
(40:04):
Because I will say that one ofthe more challenging things was
managing our all of the clothesand shoes that we had.
We each brought multiple pairsof shoes, knowing that A, it's
important to rotate regardlessof weather, but B, that we were
going to be getting weather.
And one thing you don't want todo is run with wet feet because
(40:27):
that will your feet will blisterup way faster than running on
dry feet.
And when you go that distance,anything beyond a marathon, your
feet are going to blister upeither way.
But the wet feet justintensifies it.
So we knew that it was going tobe a a battle with rotating
(40:53):
shoes and rotating clothes,doing our best that we could to
stay dry and warm.
But that was that was, I wouldsay, one of the things that we
had to really work through wasit's we can't change that it's
raining.
We can change our shoes, butthat's only going to help us
temporarily.
We can change our clothes, butthat's only going to help us
(41:15):
temporarily.
We're sweating through things.
It's not like we brought acloset full of clothes.
So sometimes you're having toreplace wet clothes with less
wet clothes and wet shoes withless wet shoes.
But when I think through all ofthat, I wouldn't have it any
(41:36):
other way.
Didn't want it to be easy.
It shouldn't be easy.
The people that were serving theprayers of families that were
answering are going throughsomething way harder.
So if you have wet feet,blistered feet for three days of
your life, suck it up.
Who cares?
Good.
(41:56):
Doesn't matter.
We could have ended that at anypoint in time.
The people that were serving,they don't get to choose when
their battle ends.
They don't get to choose, okay,for these three days, I'm not
going to have cancer, and thenI'll I'll resume the battle
later.
So the fact that we had theelements, the fact that we had
to battle through the blisteredfeet, the chafing, everything, I
(42:22):
believe made it certainly morespecial, but more resemblant of
like the of what life bringspeople.
We don't get to write all thechapters in the story.
We don't get to choose we don'tget to choose everything.
We get to control the we onlyget to control the response.
(42:45):
If we got to write all thechapters in the book, there
would be no runs to honor peoplethat are battling cancer because
cancer wouldn't even exist.
So I loved that we got toexperience that suck beyond just
(43:07):
what running 194 miles was gonnado because that has its own
thing.
Then you've got the soremuscles, the sore quads, the
ailing ligaments, everything.
Wouldn't have written it anyother way.
So that's now I'll jump intosome more mindset specific
(43:33):
things.
I don't want to go through everymile by mile, and then I'll also
bring up some of the moredifficult moments that that we
faced.
So like I like I mentionedbefore, we're here's here's
everything I'm grateful for interms of the challenge that that
we were delivered.
(43:55):
So one thing that often kept megoing mindset-wise, so I'll dig
into mindset for a little bit.
When things got challenging,when my blistered feet, which my
feet had blood blisters on therethat you would not want to see.
I don't even think the peoplethat have foot fetishes would
(44:18):
want to see how disgusting myfeet were during during this
event.
I remember around mile 40-ish, Ibelieve, is when it started.
And then you think, okay, wow,then you have 154 more miles to
go, and your feet have alreadystarted chafing or sorry,
(44:39):
blistering your ass.
Yes, my ass.
I think the worst part aboutthis whole thing, because
overall, physically, I felt feltpretty damn strong up until mile
172 where I had shin issues.
I believe one of the worst partsabout this entire thing was my
chafed ass and gooch.
Like the worst spot to be chafedbecause now you can't even run
(45:04):
straight.
And I apologize if that's toomuch information, but I'm being
as real as possible that youwant to talk about running and
then feeling like you'rescratching sandpaper between
your freaking butt cheeks forover two days.
(45:24):
Be my guest, come join.
It was brutal.
I if I I'll take feet blistersall day long.
If I can figure out a way or ifsomebody knows a way, especially
during wet conditions, to nothave a freaking chafed ass, like
(45:46):
please let me know.
Because it seems like everyultra marathon, that is my arch
nemesis, and it is not freakingfun to deal with.
I would rather have leg pain,quad pain, whatever, than
chafing pain.
So as that was going on though,I would often smile, look up,
(46:14):
and remind myself what we'redoing.
We're not running, we'reanswering prayers.
I would literally look up andsmile and just think about the
families that we're gonna thatwe're gonna bless here soon.
And I would think about Anita,Joe, Anita, Noah, Julia, and I
know that they're that they'rewatching over and protecting us
(46:37):
as well.
But I would look up and and givemyself that perspective shift.
I'm like, you know what, thischafed ass isn't that bad.
These toes, these these bloodblisters that are literally
scraping up against my feetright now, and it feels like
there's razors inside of myshoe, it's not so bad.
(46:57):
There's a lot of people thatwould love to have your biggest
problem in life.
I can imagine that folks thatwe're helping who are going
through chemo right now wouldtrade their what they're going
through for a blistered foot anyday of the week.
(47:19):
They would go for it instantly.
Oh, that's the worst thing thatyou have right now is a
blistered foot.
Okay, you know what?
Sign me up, I'll do that.
Meanwhile, we're thinking thatthis is the worst thing in the
world and all hell is about tobreak loose.
So there is somebody in thisworld that would love to have
(47:40):
your biggest problem, but alsoremember that it's so important
to connect what you're doing tosomething greater than that
activity itself.
So that was the thing that Ireally relied on the most from
my mindset perspective.
And the other thing is someoneasked, like, how has this
(48:00):
evolved over time?
So I always look for reframes,or I remind myself of a few
things that like I said earlier,hey, you've got blistered feet,
good.
Because that's gonna make youbetter, it's gonna make you
tougher, it's gonna make youstronger.
That's a that's a mindset shift.
You're out here, this sucks.
(48:22):
Hey, you're you're answeringprayers, awesome.
What's on the other side ofpain?
What's on the other side of adifficult moment?
What's on the other side of ablistered foot and enduring
through that?
What's on the other side ofpushing past the chafed ass and
gooch?
A better, stronger, more capableversion of you.
(48:46):
One thing I love that Ed Milettesays is on the other side of
pain is a better version of you.
So knowing that just by stayingin the fight, by staying in the
arena, you are going to meet andencounter a better, greater,
ultimate version of yourself,but it's only available if you
(49:08):
keep pushing through.
You've got to persist.
But that's what's on the otherside of that.
That keeps me going.
Another thing that has evolvedthis year, especially, that I'll
tell myself during marathons.
I started using this in Bostonthis year, is when things were
(49:29):
getting difficult and voiceswere getting in my head, or the
pressure was mounting.
That man, what if you don'tbreak three?
You've told all these people allthese things, etc.
I reframe what I'm doing to,hey, I'm out here setting a
great example for people andhelping plant a seed in at least
(49:50):
one life.
To do something morechallenging, to do something
challenging for themselves, todo something meaningful for
themselves.
I think about a promise that Imade myself when I was six years
old after a really challengingnight at home, seeing my parents
go through, go through somethingvery difficult that I promised
(50:14):
myself in that moment that I'mnever gonna put my future family
through this.
I'm never gonna, I'm not gonnacarry on this trend of
alcoholism in my family.
I promise that that's not gonnahappen.
I often think about my life andI think, man, I'm just a man
that's keeping a promise to alittle boy.
And doing these activities,whether it's a marathon, whether
(50:36):
it's giving back, whether it'svolunteering, a lot of the
things that you see from me, I'mout here fulfilling a promise
that I made to little Ryan.
And that makes me smile, thatmakes me find extra strength and
meaning in difficulty.
(50:56):
So that's really I would sayeverything I I use and used from
a mindset perspective.
And I look to add on reframesfrom time to time, and I'm
constantly seeking those things,but that's really what I see.
(51:16):
And what I was telling Ed andJake along the way that, man,
how cool, how cool is it rightnow?
Look what we're doing, guys.
You know, at two o'clock in themorning on Friday or Saturday.
Look what we're doing, guys.
How cool is it that we'reanswering prayers right now?
(51:37):
What an opportunity, what ablessing.
How cool that we can use ourbodies as vessels of service to
others.
So I encourage you all to again,if you don't have a mental
reframe, I'm wishing that maybeI just gave you one or helped
create one for yourself.
(51:57):
But we should all have mentalreframes that we can use that
when it gets difficult in thearena, because it will, we
continue to push forward.
The other thing that I would sayreally helped is I've been
really focused this year onbeing, like simply being, just
(52:22):
enjoying and noticing thesurroundings and the world
around me.
More so than I ever have.
Like it is, it is I'm not sureexactly what it is, but I've
been way more in tuned to theenvironment and being able to
slow down, listen to the birdschirp, see trees and branches,
(52:49):
everything that I've beenwalking past for years or
running past in this case, andnoticing the environment and
really being in more in awe ofof all the beauty that surrounds
us.
And even being on these desolateroads in the backcountry of good
(53:10):
old South Carolina, I foundmyself really just being in such
appreciation for everythingaround.
Like, how cool is it?
We're we're running past acotton field right now.
Like I've never seen a cottonfield up close.
How cool is it that as we'regoing through these remote areas
(53:32):
that there are goats that are ontop of haystacks right now, and
they're looking at us like, whatthe heck are you guys doing?
We've never seen runners comingdown here before.
Appreciate simply being.
(54:00):
She was a former Emmy Awardwinner and now children's
author.
And at the time when Iinterviewed her, she had stage
four cancer.
She's battling stage fourcancer.
And I asked her, what would shesay to people that weren't in
her spot right now?
(54:21):
So her being a stage four cancerfighter, what would she offer as
advice to you and I?
And she said, watch thesquirrels play a little bit
longer, sit down in the park,listen to the birds sing, look
at the leaves blowing in thewind, and just be.
(54:48):
And I remember taking that toheart, thinking about, man,
there's so many things that Ibelieve I know I've missed
because either I'm distracted orI'm thinking about I need to be
in the next place.
It's we don't have time to wasteand how much we can hold for
granted, how much things that wecan, how much beauty we left we
(55:10):
leave unseen because we don'ttake time to slow down and
appreciate it, smell the roses.
We never know when when thislife may end.
We never know when holy smokes,that we face an unexpected
battle with cancer.
So as we were going along, itwas really cool just to be, not
(55:36):
think about anything.
I didn't use headphones orreally listen to music at all
throughout the time, justfocused on being and staying
locked in and in immenseappreciation and gratitude.
And I believe that that's animportant thing for people to
do.
So getting into some of thedifficult moments, some of the
(56:01):
some of the standout moments.
Uh there's there's a lot thatyou can go through along 194
miles with with a couple guysand and and a bunch of crew
members that you just you neverknow.
Now, one thing that didn'thappen, at least for me, that I
(56:22):
was expecting to happen werehallucinations.
I didn't see anything like Ihave before.
I've I really felt incrediblylocked in this entire
cognitively the entire time.
Uh certainly got tired, butnever really felt really woozy
or started seeing things.
(56:43):
So I'm very grateful for that.
I know that I believe Jakeapparently saw traffic cones and
and asked someone to move atraffic cone that that wasn't
there.
I don't believe Ed hallucinatedeither, but I I could be wrong.
So he'll he'll let me know if Iwas wrong.
But I know that we all were wereat times in immense physical
(57:06):
pain that Ed had the the feelingin his shin of uh for us that
that road razor scooters, y'allknow that spinning that scooter
around and when it would hityour shin, if you didn't time
things right, it's a prettyfreaking brutal feeling.
I believe around 130 or 140,mile 130, 140, that's when it
(57:28):
came up for him.
I was definitely nervous for himfor a while because he had his
whole shin wrapped up andeverything.
And and Ed being as tough as heis, I know that if he had to do
that, that the pain must havebeen immense because he wouldn't
do that if it was just hurting alittle bit.
(57:48):
It would have had to beenhurting a ton.
But that speaks to Ed being anabsolute warrior and and fighter
that he is.
Now, I did give him a tough timefor pulling out poles because I
believe that you should only beusing poles if you're you better
be climbing damn Mount Everestor or going up Leadville if
(58:10):
you're using poles, not in SouthCarolina, but I know that that
was something that really helpedhim.
And and so it's it's okay.
But I will say now that he wasbeing a little bit of a Susie
with the poles.
But I love you, brother, and Itold you that when I was next to
you, so but uh and I know Jakehad a whole monstrosity of of
(58:34):
issues as well, a lot of timeswhere he was holding people, you
know, had had his crew holdingon, holding on to them over the
shoulders and a lot of momentsaround mile 172.
It feels like the shin pain.
Maybe this is my karma formaking fun of Ed's poles, that I
felt the the shin pain as wellthat I've never felt before in
(58:57):
my life or in my running career,never had shin issues, but same
thing where it literally feltlike someone kicked me or that I
slammed a scooter along my shinand it stayed pretty swollen,
and I couldn't see my ankle forabout a week.
(59:17):
So yeah.
Brutal, brutal pain there withthe shin and definitely changed
changed our running gait quite abit.
There were a lot of times wherewe we walk, we we power hiked
the uphills, but there weretimes that even running for a
tenth of a mile was incredibly,incredibly painful.
(59:43):
And it felt like a tenth of amile at times was one mile.
So but again, how beautiful, howawesome, what a gift, what a
blessing it is to suffer as Seanand and and Ed say.
So tough ones that stood out inparticular were about mile 160
(01:00:11):
or 70.
We were completely on the grass.
So there were a lot of roadsthat were were on back highways.
So we're running along thewhatever little piece of road we
can that is out of the way ofcars and at times using the road
(01:00:32):
when we can, but oftentimeswe're jumping out of the road to
get on the grassy section, whichis very uneven and actually
quite scary in some areasbecause there was very little
margin for error.
And it was a littlenerve-wracking to think we
already live in a verydistracted world as it is.
(01:00:55):
If these drivers are not payingattention and texting and
driving and they go just off tothe side a little bit, we're
we're toast.
Not a single instance where wehad to jump out because a car
almost hit us or where anythingfell off of an 18-wheeler.
Like we truly were well lookedafter.
(01:01:18):
So the about mile 160 to 170,there was a seven-mile stretch
where the road was so busy thatwe had no choice but to be in
the grass.
It was raining a ton.
We were cold, we're chafed,we're Ed and I have have the
shin issue.
We're both going through.
(01:01:39):
Jake is really struggling.
And this six-mile stretch ispurely uphill.
We're getting pelted, and it itfeels like it's never ending.
I believe one of the worstthings that someone can tell you
if you're if you're goingthrough an ultra and you've got
a crew member or somebody or apacer, I believe one of the
(01:02:02):
worst things is them telling youhow much further you have to go.
Because now you're internalizingwhat six miles should take and
what it feels to you versus whatit actually is, versus I believe
the best thing you can do isjust say, hey, we're we're up
the road a good ways.
Now after that, just shut yourmouth.
(01:02:23):
Don't ask a thousand times, arewe there yet?
Are we getting closer?
Are we getting closer?
That was one thing that got alittle frustrating was hey,
we'll we'll we'll we'll we'rethere when we see the freaking
van.
Let's keep going.
So this six-mile stretch,though, in the rain along the
(01:02:43):
grass with uneven surface, veryhurt bodies, and completely
soaked feet sucked, absolutelysucked.
Another tough stretch was aroundmile one tennis or so, where we
(01:03:09):
got pulled over on foot, not forgoing too fast.
That's the joke people have, notfor going too fast, but uh we
got pulled over three timeswithin a mile and a half span
from Calhoun County police thatI guess there were complaints,
or we'll call them concerns frompeople that there's three random
(01:03:30):
guys running on the road, andwe're concerned that they're not
getting out of the road fastenough or that they're gonna get
hit.
So we get pulled over.
I tell the police what we'redoing, and I'm the founder of
Breaking Ribbons.
Here's we've got we're going toCharleston.
They say, okay, please stay onthe grass as much as you can.
(01:03:50):
Go on the road when you need to.
And we go not even a mile, getpulled over again.
I don't know if these officersspoke to each other or not, but
please stay off the road.
We're looking out for you.
We keep going again, pulledover.
And this cop offered us if youneed police escort, if you need
lights, we'll help you.
They were all very gracious.
They were all doing their jobstoo.
(01:04:12):
That they can they can help usout.
But that certainly made us spenda lot more time in the grass
than in the road, probablybecause we were paranoid at this
point that we're gonna getpulled over even for being in
the road when there's no cars.
And I don't want anything tocompromise this journey and have
police officers say, you'redone.
We don't care what you're doing.
(01:04:34):
You've we've had four peoplecome and see you now.
So that that definitely made usspend a lot more time, I would
say, in grass than road, whichsounds like not a big deal, but
we're talking about completelyswitching surfaces, completely
switching our gait, workingcompletely different muscles,
everything.
(01:04:55):
So there was there was that.
The third most difficult moment,I would say, was actually as we
were approaching the citadel.
So that was the ending point.
We ended at the citadel.
It's uh actually Edwin and I isalma mater, but that's the
(01:05:16):
second place in life that reallytaught me how to do hard things
and do things that are biggerthan you and be of service to
others.
Going into the citadel, Ibelieve we're all mentally just
wanted to be done.
This is where minutes go by likehours, and hours go by like days
(01:05:39):
that time is not moving veryfast.
We're all we're all mentallyenvisioning the finish line
being right around the corner,and and it's not there.
And that's where it's also funjust to keep good spirits, laugh
and smile as much as youpossibly can.
I love this speech from AdmiralBill McCraven.
(01:06:03):
Y'all may have heard this yearsago, but if you haven't, a great
speech to watch is theUniversity of Texas commencement
speech.
It's popular enough on YouTubethat the one that will pop up
will be the one with AdmiralMcCraven, former Navy SEAL.
And the thing that peopleremember most from his speech is
if you want to change the world,start off by making your bed.
(01:06:25):
He talks about 10 Navy SEALlessons that apply to real life.
The one that I love the most ishe talks about this story at
SEAL training where they are inmud and they're getting wet and
muddy.
It's a cold night in Coronado,California, and one of the SEAL
(01:06:47):
candidates starts to sing asthey're crawling through mud.
And now the Navy SEALs arethreatening this one candidate.
If you don't stop singing, likewe're gonna torture you all
night, and this is gonna suck.
And what it what happens is nowanother person starts singing,
and another person, and thewhole class is now singing,
(01:07:11):
singing in unison, althoughthey're being threatened by the
SEALs that you guys are about tohave the worst day ever.
But as they started doing that,what happens?
The mud starts to feel a littlebit warmer.
It doesn't suck so much thatthey're crawling through mud.
So Admiral McCraven says, if youwant to change the world, make
(01:07:32):
sure to sing when you're coveredin mud.
I I interpret that too.
If you're going throughsomething tough, make sure
you're smiling and find find areason to smile, find some find
some joy so that you can keepgoing.
So I would often smile, singsome songs in my head, or joke
around with with the crew.
(01:07:53):
There was at one point Iattempted to copy a Ric Flair
quote that a lot of people maynot may not have understood what
I was attempting to do here, butthere's a a Ric Flair quote that
(01:08:14):
uh he says, you know, I've I'llbe I'm the wheeling dealin',
Rolex wearing, diamond ringwearing, jet flying, son of a
gun.
And I think people thought I wasjust being delirious, but I'll
I'll see if I can if I can playit here.
(01:08:48):
We'll see if that picks up ornot.
And I'll see if I can layer inthe uh the actual Ric Flair
audio as well.
(01:09:14):
But that's what I was attemptingto embody.
Uh more so to make myself laughand make others laugh and show
that, hey, when you're goingthrough something challenging,
just you can you can sing yourway through it.
You can find joy.
You can find joy in almostanything in life.
So there's there's that.
(01:09:36):
We finished around three o'clockin the morning on Sunday.
And I what I originallyenvisioned was that we would
have been there Saturday nightand had a large crew of friends
and and whatnot, but it was agood opportunity to a good ego
check opportunity for me too.
I know that we were we Icertainly wanted to be done by
(01:10:01):
and and predicted we would havebeen done by maybe Saturday
night around eight o'clock, nineo'clock, maybe ten.
And that would have been earlyenough for a whole slew of of
people to come out.
But at the end of the day,that's that's not even what what
this whole thing is about,anyways.
But we still had friends comingout at three o'clock in the
(01:10:24):
morning on a Sunday to to bewith us there as we finished at
the Citadel.
And those those closing steps,some of y'all have seen the
video.
If not, go go check it out on onone of our Instagram pages.
I wouldn't really call it a runthat we that we did across the
finish line, but we did, it wasmore than a walk.
(01:10:44):
It was something.
And it was really reallyamazing, so so rewarding to to
be done, to have people thatwere trailing us the whole way,
and people that that came to tobe there for the very end.
So special at a very specialplace for for myself and Edwin,
(01:11:07):
I know.
And I remember hugging Edwin andJake there, and it's expressing
my gratitude to them that hey,they didn't have to do this, and
this isn't even their theirorganization, but they they
battled through, they got itdone, they helped rally people
around the cause as well.
(01:11:28):
And ultimately, you know, nowwhat we're doing is starting on
December 26th, we are blessingfive families.
The first family has alreadybeen identified, and it is a
woman who's 46 years old, justfinished up a round of chemo
recently, about to start anotherround, has an eight-year-old son
(01:11:51):
and really, really strugglingand in need.
So she does not know why she isgoing to be attending this
meeting on the 26th, why she'sbeing asked to go to the
nonprofit workspace that thatwe're going to be meeting at.
But she will soon know that sheis the recipient of I would say
(01:12:15):
y'all's fruits and labor, ourfruits and labor, and there will
be four more families.
So that is the the absolutehighlight.
One thing that looking back onthis and for more perspective,
(01:12:35):
we spent three days on thisjourney.
Three days out of 365 days in ayear.
Less than one percent, if lessthan one percent of my 2025 was
really freaking hard, but cancreate a lasting memory and
(01:12:58):
moment in multiple families'lives that will extend far
beyond 2025.
It is so worth it.
But think about that for yourlife as well.
Sometimes we think, I believe II hear people talk about, man,
(01:13:19):
this was I don't want to dothat.
That's that's way too hard.
Some of these challenges andthings that we deem is too
difficult in our minds literallyrepresent less than a percentage
of our life and our year, butcan give us benefits and returns
(01:13:39):
for an entire lifetime.
This experience right here in2025, less than 1% of 2025 is a
defining moment for 100% of2025.
This was certainly a definingmoment of 2025, and it took less
than 1% of the year, it tookthree days.
(01:14:00):
Less than 1% can be a definingmoment for 100%.
Let that sink in.
And when you think about this ona timeline of life, assuming
that I get to live for at least80 to 100 years, this three-day
journey literally represents0.000005% of my life that will
(01:14:27):
pay dividends for decades andplant seeds in other people's
lives for decades, andgenerations rather.
It doesn't take doing a bunch ofgrand things, my friends, to
make an em to make a majorimpact in this world, or it
doesn't take even spending a tonof time.
(01:14:50):
This was less than 1% of theyear.
Yes, a lot went into it, a lotled into it for sure.
But we can trade a littleinvestment for a ton of return,
infinite return, rather.
(01:15:11):
It's my wish that by taking onthese challenges that it that it
inspires at least one person totake on something meaningful for
themselves.
It doesn't need to be amarathon, it could be anything.
Something that's close to yourheart.
I believe that's the secondcoolest thing about this whole
adventure.
You know, number three was therun.
(01:15:33):
This was more than a run, butit's really the third coolest
thing in my view.
The second is the positiveimpact, the ripple that comes
from this.
The first are the blessings, theanswered prayers, what we're
doing now.
Another amazing thank you.
And now highlighting Nick andNate specifically, Nick Benton,
(01:15:58):
Nate, Nate Benzwitz, our cameraguys.
Uh, there will be a documentarythat follows this, but those
guys worked tirelessly in thevan, incredibly inspiring.
I believe they slept just asmuch as it maybe even less than
we did.
These guys were not only filmingus along the way, but then had
(01:16:23):
their laptops, they're workingon hot spots in a stinky, sweaty
van that's literally messy withwet shoes, clothes, everything,
and they're pumping out amazingclips that we can put on our on
our Instagram throughout theentire run.
(01:16:44):
What did that ultimately leadto?
It led to more donations, it ledto more awareness, it led to the
world finding out what we'redoing, it led to the news
reaching out to interview meafterwards, like so much that
came from that.
But they are true professionalsand craftsmen, and I was blown
(01:17:07):
away by by what they were doing,and it made me want to push
harder.
So huge thank you.
Documentary is coming.
We will have updates of the fivefamilies that we're gonna bless.
Another big thank you to EdwinMartin that really put put a lot
(01:17:29):
of his heart into this as well,and getting the word out and the
training and reaching out tocompanies, it's so much.
I I couldn't have asked for abetter right-hand man with that.
Uh, to Jake for enduring, youbelieve you went through the
pain cave a lot longer than wedid.
(01:17:50):
And there were certainly timeswhere I questioned, I don't know
if you're gonna make it, and youdid.
And you had your your crew withyou that that helped you and
stick stuck with you the wholetime and kept you going,
literally had your arms aroundtheir shoulders for a long time.
And uh, I respect anybody thatwill get in the arena and stay
(01:18:12):
in the arena because there's alot of people that jump in and
jump out.
To our crew again, to family,mom coming out with bone broth
with Christina to coming out,meeting us at various points,
various sections where y'allaren't sleeping much as well
either.
To all of our donors, to MikeCarter and eGroup for the
(01:18:38):
generous donation and match thatwas completely unexpected.
So many thanks, so many thanksto come.
But ultimately, I'm I'm sograteful that we get to do what
we get to do now, which isanswer prayers.
Remember to help, remember toconnect to greater and deeper
(01:19:00):
purpose in life, and that willhelp you push forward, that will
help you live your dreams, andit will help you win today.
Thanks so much.
When I think about the run and what we're doing, we
weren't running.
This wasn't a run.
This is answering prayers tofamilies that have someone
fighting the good fight and aregoing through something
infinitely more difficult thanwe're about to go through right
(00:21):
before we step off thiswrestling room and go on our
way.
When we look at things beyondwhat they are and connect them
to a deeper purpose and assigndeeper meaning to them, we will
be able to push through thedifficult moments.
(00:42):
We will be able to answer thequestions that we ask ourselves
as to why did we decide to dothis?
Oh, that's right.
We're answering prayers.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
My name is Ryan Cass, and I'myour host.
My purpose in this world is tohelp push people further and
(01:04):
harder than they believepossible and become unshakable
in what matters most to them intheir lives.
Every week, you're gonna learnfrom either myself or a renowned
expert in their field, and we'regonna unveil pieces of our
playbook to help you win today.
Please, if you love this show,subscribe and share it with
somebody that will benefit fromit.
(01:24):
Let's dig in.
I believe this quoteencapsulates the journey that we
just went on and I'm about totake you on right now.
Behind every success story is ariver of tears, a mountain of
obstacles, an ocean ofimpossible odds, and an
unbreakable warrior spirit.
(01:45):
That's what I think about whengoing back and detailing the
194-mile journey across theentire state of South Carolina
to provide to families that havea loved one currently battling
cancer and going throughsomething infinitely more
(02:09):
difficult and more painful thanwhat we dedicated three days of
our lives to.
So I'm gonna go through thewhole process, everything from
why to what happened during somechallenges, and ultimately what
(02:30):
we're doing now is a result ofrunning across the entire state,
which in my book qualifies asthe third coolest thing.
So the journey, the distance,the miles, that's neat, but it
is not the ultimate highlight ofthis journey.
The ultimate highlight is what'sto come, as we're going to be
(02:53):
blessing five families with over$20,000 this year in a time of
need for them.
So, with that, we're recappingwhy we went down this path and
some stuff, some lessons learnedalong the way.
And it's my wish that as I sharethis, that you get to experience
(03:16):
the journey for yourself.
And I'll do my best to paint thepicture to where you're riding
along in the van or runningalongside me and the crew, and
we'll go from there.
So, for those that may be brandnew to this channel, or you were
led to this as a result ofseeing the run for the first
(03:40):
time, wondering who is thiscrazy person and who are these
crazy guys doing this run.
The reason for this run goesback to 2023.
I launched Breaking Ribbons as away to honor the lives of three
people who are close to myheart, Anita Cass, Noah
(04:00):
Mayberry, and Juliet ThomasSofich, who each had a battle
with cancer and they are nolonger physically with us in
this world.
But I wanted to do something tohonor their lives and make
running, which is something veryimportant to me, bigger than me.
Meaning I don't run just to run.
I want to run to inspire people.
(04:22):
I want to run to help make theworld a better place, to help
improve lives of people in mynetwork and the community,
people going through somethingway harder.
So I asked myself a question in2022 with these three amazing
people on my heart and in mymind.
(04:43):
What's the hardest thing that Ican do to honor them and to be
able to provide to others thatare going through what they went
through?
And what came into my mind andheart at that time was doing a
100-mile bridge run back andforth on the Ravenel Bridge here
in Charleston, South Carolina,which we did on October 26,
(05:04):
2023.
It was a 22-hour adventure, 20laps back and forth non-stop.
We raised$5,000 and blessed fourfamilies that year.
So in 2023, I asked the samequestion with the intention of,
okay, well, if$5,000 in fourfamilies is the new bar that we
(05:28):
have set, how can we go further?
How can we go harder?
And ultimately, how can we helpmore people?
How can we bless more people?
That led to a 150-mile bridgerun on October 26th, 2024.
43 hours raised just under$8,000, which we blessed another
(05:49):
four families.
Now, what's the question I askedto the in 2025?
What's the hardest thing I cando?
And now that we have a new barset, it appears that we're
increasing the distance byroughly 50 miles per year now.
That I want to run across theentire state because it's
roughly 200 miles.
(06:10):
I can run from my hometown ofFort Mill, South Carolina, to
now current hometown ofCharleston.
And let's see what happens.
So that is the genesis of this.
And I'm so grateful to say thatwe now have a new bar that has
(06:31):
been set as we are going tobless five families this year,
and we raised over$20,000, whichstill blows my mind to say.
Over$20,000.
And we actually broke the$10,000goal before the event even
(06:52):
started.
One thing that's challengingwith fundraising, or at least in
my experience, what I've seen isthat you have a lot of people
that'll tell you, okay, yeah,I'm going to help you out, and
that's awesome.
And we're going to, we're, we'reright on board.
And then the event gets closerand closer and closer.
And you know, people are likingyour posts and everything, but
(07:13):
the donations aren't flowing in.
Then you start to wonder, okay,what's what's happening here?
Are we going to raise anything?
And even if we didn't hit ourtarget, anything greater than
zero is a blessing to thesefamilies that we'd be able to
give away.
But the amount of support thatflowed in right off the bat was
(07:33):
absolutely remarkable.
So that's that's the the whatand the why.
You might be thinking, okay,what's coming for 2026?
I don't know yet.
What I do know, 100% certain, isthat it will be over 200 miles.
I don't know the route.
(07:54):
I'm flirting with a coupleoptions.
If you have some ideas, anythingthat you think is absolutely
insane, is up my alley.
So I'm open for ideas andsuggestions as to what the 2026
challenge can be.
But ultimately, what I'mthinking about is how do we
continue to raise the bar andbless more families, and we'll
(08:17):
figure out the rest later.
So that is really the why why wewent down this path.
It wasn't something that I had arandom thought of going into
this year.
This has been systematic andit's been a been so amazing to
see how it's continued to growover time and how much people
(08:40):
have come to support it.
So I am incredibly grateful forall of the support, continued
support, and all of the lovethat has flown in, flowed in
this year, especially.
This really took off.
And I want to first spend timeexpressing my gratitude and
(09:02):
thank you to everybody involved,whether you were a sponsor, a
donor, a crew member, media,family, friends, combination of
those things.
We really had everything in2025.
(09:23):
To my crew in our van, SeanRhodes, Coos, Shane Burke, Nick,
Nate, our amazing camera guys.
Thank you, doesn't do justice,but thank you, thank you, thank
you again.
Y'all are absolutely amazing toeverybody in Jake's van.
(09:46):
I believe Aaron, Bobby, Colin,Liam, thank you guys for keeping
Jake afloat and for being outthere, dedicating three days of
your lives to living in a FordTransit 12-seater van.
Not the most luxuriousaccommodations, but y'all took
(10:09):
time out of your lives to be outhere and help make sure we had
everything that we needed,Edwin, Jake, and I, to keep
rolling.
And I cannot express mygratitude enough.
We had a lot of friends thatcame out and joined us along the
way.
We were on desolate roads prettymuch the entire time.
(10:32):
You can travel from Fort Mill toCharleston without ever hopping
on a major highway.
If you ever want to know theroute, maybe you're curious
about doing this yourself.
You can take U.S.
Highway 21 from Fort Mill toColumbia and then Highway 176
from Columbia to just outside ofCharleston before you connect on
(10:53):
to Highway 52, which then bringsyou all the way into downtown.
So we had people joining us atall hours of the day.
We had people that were meetingus on these desolate roads at
various parts of the evening.
It didn't matter that it was twoo'clock in the morning on a
Friday.
We had friends coming out there,dedicating their time, which was
(11:18):
absolutely incredible.
People dropping off hot food,absolutely amazing.
Sponsors, NAD underwear, canefootwear, LMNT, all day running
company, Hydrofly Electrolytes,Sweet Feet Socks.
I mean, blown away, truly, thatthese brands were getting behind
(11:42):
us.
Hall's Chop House, even puttingout some recognition as well to
Live Five News and Post andCourier, publishing amazing
pieces that helped more peoplesee this.
Just thank you, thank you, thankyou.
So now let's get into the intothe event.
And right before the start, sothe first lesson that really
(12:07):
comes to mind that I want peopleto extract is that I see if
you're nervous or have somedoubt about something, take
nervousness and doubt as signalsthat you're doing something
meaningful, and take nervousnessas doubt and any other emotion
(12:29):
synonym that you may feel, maybebefore you do something big,
take that as a signal that youhave put the work in and things
are gonna go well.
What I've found time and timeagain is that before I'm about
to go into any major event oranything that is deeply
(12:49):
meaningful to me that I'vereally put my heart into, that
nervousness and doubt creeps in.
Those thoughts of what if youdon't make it across the state?
What if things go wrong?
What are people gonna thinkabout you if you have to bow out
at mile 120, 130?
What if this fundraiser doesn'treach the level that you thought
(13:14):
it would, and that you've reallybeen putting out there in the
world that it that it wouldreach?
What happens?
And I know that that voice willvisit everybody, but I've simply
reframed it to this is a signalthat good things are coming.
And this is completely normal.
(13:35):
I say that as encouragement thatthis voice, it's totally normal
for it to visit anybody.
It visits the best of the best,the people that we often revere
the most, that we may think, oh,they've just got it so figured
out to where this voice of doubtnever vis never visits them.
(13:56):
The same voice that visits thosefolks that we love to admire,
dream about, talk about is thesame voice that visits you, it's
the same voice that visits me.
But what I what I know to betrue over over time is that hey,
things are gonna go well.
That means you prepared, itmeans you care.
(14:17):
If you didn't have thosefeelings of nervousness and
doubt, then I would question,did you really prepare hard
enough?
And is your heart really inthis?
So nervousness and doubt aresignals and a reminder that your
heart is fully invested inwhatever it is that you're about
(14:40):
to do.
And that's a good thing.
So that was that was coming up,but I don't believe I've ever
shared that those are signals.
I like to look at them assignals versus spirals, where
then I'm gonna have a toughnight and second guess every
little thing that happens, notsleep well, and go into the
(15:05):
event not feeling excited as ifI'm not ready, because those
things are just not true.
So those are signals, those aregood things.
Now I will say that I was sonervous on December 3rd, but
really had so many signals thatI wish we could have just
started that night.
(15:26):
I wanted to go, I was ready toget rolling.
I didn't care if we kind ofdidn't care if we didn't sleep
and just started running becauseI was also just producing so
much adrenaline there in thatmoment, in those moments, that
(15:46):
hey, let's let's get this thinggoing.
But slept really well thatnight, actually.
We had a later start on December4th from Fort Mill High School.
We waited until after schoolstarted, which I'll get into
here in a second.
But overall, it went into thiscompletely well rested, knowing
(16:06):
that the next three days wasgoing to offer little to no
sleep.
And we were good.
So next time that you feel oneof those emotions, whether it is
nervousness and doubt orsomething similar, whatever may
come and visit you, I encourageyou to reframe that as a
positive signal that you've putthe work in and good is to, good
(16:33):
is to come, good is on your way.
Now, getting into the day of theevent, December 4th.
There's significance behindthat.
And what I didn't sharecompletely with the crew and
everybody involved, a lot ofpeople thought that we were, or
(16:53):
may have thought, that we werestarting on December 4th because
that is my birthday.
That is actually not the reasonwhy we started on December 4th.
So every year, the last threeyears of this run, I've aligned
it to a date that honors one ofthe ribbons that are on my
(17:16):
singlet.
So the last couple years, we'vestarted on October 26th because
that is uh Julia Tomasovich, oneof my best friend Andrew's
mothers.
That is her birthday.
And I've started at 4:26 in themorning on the the first year we
did this because that is Anita,Anita Cass, my grandmother.
(17:39):
That April 26th, that is herpassing date.
So December 4th is actuallyJulia's passing date.
So I aligned it to that, whichalso happens to be my birthday.
But I think about there's nobetter way that I could have
spent a birthday because Ibelieve that the best gift that
(18:04):
we can give in this world is togive back.
So how cool is it that I canring in turning 33 by kicking
off the greatest challenge of mylife thus far and running the
longest distance of my life thusfar.
And we were starting at FortMill High School in the
(18:24):
wrestling room because when Ithink about the two places that
has really helped me establishthe foundation upon which I live
on today from a valuesperspective, from a discipline
perspective and mindsetperspective, it's the Fort Mill
wrestling room being on thewrestling team and the Citadel.
(18:47):
I credit those two places withso much of what I have in this
life today.
I really learned how to push mybody and mind first at Fort Mill
on the wrestling team.
That was a place that was a safehaven for me when things at
(19:09):
home, you know, my parents aredivorced.
Things at home were reallychallenging.
Wrestling was my safe haven.
I could go and brawl for twohours a day and let everything
out, and in the and while doingso, become the most physically
(19:32):
fit, disciplined person thatI've ever been up until that
point in my life.
And I I love the sport ofwrestling.
There's no excuses.
It's you versus the otherperson.
It is, I believe, the purestform of of combat, and you can't
(19:55):
be a great wrestler off oftalent alone.
It's not one of those sportsthat who's the best athlete.
It's a sport that really digsinto who's got the biggest
heart, who's got the mostenduring motor, and put those
(20:17):
things, those two thingstogether, and then let's go
battle.
So that's why we started there.
I'm still very involved with theprogram and help out whenever
I'm home.
The wrestling coaches are stillthe same ones from when I was
there, Coach Brock and CoachMarillo.
I loved them to death.
And they were gracious enough tobring the wrestling team into
(20:38):
the room before we got started.
And I got to speak with them.
So I had my family there, mom,dad, sister, Christina was
there.
And then we had our crews, andthe post and courier was there,
and I got to share someperspective with the wrestling
team, which the leads us intonumber two.
(21:02):
So when we look at an activityfor purely an activity, meaning
if we look at running as justrunning, and it's not connected
to something deeper, somethinggreater, then when moments get
difficult, we may be more likelyto fall down a path, a cliff, a
(21:28):
mindset cliff, meaning thatwe're only looking at this run
as a run.
Therefore, when it getschallenging, if we look at this
run as just a run, then we canallow our possibly allow our
minds to take over when it getschallenging, because it's not
connected to something deeperand greater.
(21:48):
I encourage everybody to, of thethings that you do in life,
especially the ones that havesome meaning to you, to connect
it to a deeper purpose, a deepermeaning, because it's inevitable
that things will get tough.
It's inevitable that there willbe inconveniences.
It's inevitable that you mayquestion why you're even doing
(22:10):
this thing.
And it and it and that's forthings more than just running in
physical fitness.
You may question why you'rerunning a marathon, why you
chose to run a marathon, whythis was a good idea, or an
ultra marathon.
You may question along thejourney of being an
entrepreneur.
You may question, man, is thisreally the thing?
Like, money is not consistentright now.
(22:31):
Am I really doing what I'msupposed to be doing?
You may question a lot of thingsin life.
If it's only looked at for whatit is in that moment, it could
be a lot easier to not continue,to not persist.
Versus, here's what I'm gettingat is the things that you are
doing in life that have meaningto you.
(22:53):
Either A make sure they'reconnected to some sort of
greater purpose so that when itgets tough, you're able to lean
on to the greater the purposepart and why you're doing this
versus the activity itself.
There's a story that I love toshare.
It's called the Stone CutterPrinciple.
There's three folks who arebuilding a cathedral back in the
(23:19):
back in the day.
So many of us have seen thegreat cathedrals or churches,
whether it be Notre Dame or Icould go on and on.
Think about a beautiful buildingthat you've either seen a
picture of or entered that wasmade of stone back in the day
(23:41):
and made by hand without all thetechnology that we have right
now.
So there's a manager,construction manager that is
that goes in and talks to thethree men that are cutting
stone.
And he asks the first one, Whatare you doing?
And he responds, I'm cuttingstone.
(24:02):
So all the first person sees isthe activity he is doing as the
activity.
He can only see the activity forwhat it is.
He goes down the line, themanager goes down the line and
asks the second person cuttingstone, What are you doing?
And he says, I'm building awall.
So he's doing the same thing asperson number one, but he's
(24:25):
connecting to something greaterthan just cutting stone.
He at least is connected to atask, which is better than just
being connected purely to anactivity.
Not the best, but we're better.
Now we go to the third personthat's cutting stone.
And the manager asks, What areyou doing?
And he says, I'm building abeautiful cathedral and a house
(24:46):
of worship.
He's doing the same thing as theother two guys, but he is
connected to the greaterpurpose, the greater vision.
So when it gets tough cuttingthat stone, or when it gets
cumbersome or annoying, he'sable to tie into I'm building a
(25:06):
place of worship.
I'm not just cutting stone.
When I think about the run andwhat we're doing, we weren't
running.
This wasn't a run.
This is answering prayers tofamilies that have someone
fighting the good fight and aregoing through something
(25:27):
infinitely more difficult thanwe're about to go through right
before we step off thiswrestling room and go on our
way.
When we look at things beyondwhat they are and connect them
to a deeper purpose and assigndeeper meaning to them, we will
(25:47):
be able to push through thedifficult moments, we will be
able to answer the questionsthat we ask ourselves as to why
did we decide to do this?
Oh, that's right.
We're answering prayers, and youwill persist.
It is immensely important thatthe things that we do in life
(26:13):
have a greater sense of purposeand meaning behind them because
those inevitable things Imentioned before will come and
visit you, and sometimes that'sthe make or break between a
person that goes and getssomething done versus a person
that gives up on a dream becauseit's not connected to something
(26:34):
greater.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Is there anything that you havein your life that you look at
purely for what it is?
Meaning, are you cutting stoneand only see it as cutting
(26:54):
stone?
Are you cutting stone to cutstone, or are you building
cathedrals in your life?
That's my call to action.
That that might be one of themost important lessons we share
here.
So that is the after I sharedthat, we walked out of the
(27:14):
wrestling room into a gloomy40-degree day, and had the whole
wrestling team behind us, hadfamily, friends watch watching
alongside.
We had our our two Ford vans,our Ford Transit 12-seater vans
ready to roll.
(27:36):
And Edwin, Jake, and I were offand had a nice applause there,
and it was time to get going.
So we were left at about 9 20a.m.
on Thursday, and that was it.
I was so excited to just stepoff and and get going.
(27:59):
Had no more nervousness anddoubt.
It was pure excitement,especially coming off of that
talk with the team.
And now I have what's fresh inmy mind is hey, I'm not going on
a run.
I'm going to answer prayers.
And that's what we're doing.
That is exactly what we'redoing.
This moment that I told Edwinabout in the middle of 2024 has
(28:24):
now come to life.
Edwin committed to doing thiswith me in, I believe, May of
2024, when I had sent him a textabout this idea that I had.
That here we go.
And Edwin, I'm so grateful foryou and the fact that you said
(28:46):
yes without even thinking aboutit.
And I'm grateful for your yes,as as we say here.
And wow, what what an adventure.
Nobody else that I would want tohave alongside the whole time.
And such a blast.
So we're going.
Roughly every 10 miles, our crewhad a we had a meeting point
(29:10):
with our crew.
I actually drove the routemultiple times to make sure that
I knew where to go, but thenalso that we then so that the
crew knew where to go as well.
I didn't want to tell them, oh,just go find a spot 10 miles
ahead.
Uh everything was mapped outprior.
One thing I messed up is that Ithought, having driven the route
(29:33):
in my Ponda Civic a coupletimes, you're being in a car
versus being on the road, youmay not see as much elevation.
Now, South Carolina is not thehilliest state, especially going
down towards the low country,but especially on the back
roads, there are some deceiving.
(29:53):
There are surprisingly, rathersurprisingly, and there are a
lot of deceiving hills, butsurprisingly, a lot more hills
and climbs than you would think,and some absolute monsters as
well.
So I knew it was going to behilly going in from Fort Mill to
at least Columbia, which that'swhere the bulk of the the of the
(30:15):
hills were.
But what I told everybody isthat after 110 miles, it
flattens out.
I was wrong.
That I clearly was beingdeceived in my in my civic,
thinking that the last 80 milesare flat.
And I believe that that uh thatmay have had an impact on on
(30:38):
some folks.
So it's not completely flat.
I will say that.
But every 10 miles, give ortake, the crew would get ahead
and go meet us there in the van.
And it was so cool thatespecially as we're going
through all of these verydesolate roads, there's very,
(31:01):
very few areas where we hadsidewalk.
That some of the aid stationsthat I picked out, I I picked as
churches, thinking that, okay,especially as we're later on in
the game, if things go reallywrong and we really need either
help from people or need to getshelter for whatever reason, a
(31:26):
church is usually going to be agood bet, or at least we we
believe that that's where we'llmeet some of the nicest people.
And sure enough, it was reallycool to see that as we stopped
at some of the churches and metthe crew that were waiting for
us to refill our bottles andgive us nutrition, that there
(31:48):
were members of the congregationcoming out wondering, okay, what
are these two vans full ofrandom, random guys doing?
And as they explained what wewere doing, they got offered to
the crew got offered to goinside.
And if we needed to go in therefor whatever reason, or shelter,
use the bathrooms, anything, uh,they were all just opening us,
(32:10):
welcoming us with open arms,which was really cool to see.
Especially in Sandy Run, SouthCarolina.
There was a gentleman named Jujuthat came out and spoke with us
for a little while.
I believe this was right afterwe took uh about a two-hour nap.
He came out and we we talked tohim about what we were doing,
(32:32):
and he had shared that he's beena member of his church for 30
years, and and I asked him,where are we?
He said, You're you're in God'scountry, son.
You're in Sandy Run, SouthCarolina.
It's like, all right.
So I'm a fan of Sandy Run, SouthCarolina, and I believe it was
the Beulah Baptist Church,something like that.
(32:53):
So if you ever find yourself onHighway 176, know that the
churches along the way, thereare great people there.
But yeah, every 10 miles we'rerolling.
I never want to see anuncrustable again until we do
this next year.
A lot of people were askingabout nutrition.
(33:13):
What were we doing?
Uh, the van was absolutelystocked with everything from
G1M, BPN nutrition gear.
We had all of the electrolytes,LMNT, Hydro Fly that Ed got a
hold of.
Ed did such a great job gettinga hold of multiple brands that
(33:36):
were more than willing to sendus gear and and help out.
I remember reaching out to LMNTthinking, all right, they're
probably not gonna say anything.
I don't have a huge following orreally the most, I would say,
attractive social profile interms of followers and well
designed content, but they gotback almost instantly and and
(34:00):
offered support and asked wheredo we send where do we send
these electrolytes to?
I was thinking, wow, this is socool.
The van had probably, I believe,12 boxes or more worth of
uncrustables that I bought fromCostco.
We had peanut butter bagels, wehad Welch's fruit snacks, we had
(34:24):
candy, everything, everything.
We had freaking everything.
And the crew was amazing.
Every time that we came to stop,really all we had to do, all I
felt I ever had to do was giveup my water bottles and say what
I wanted in them for the next 10miles and what I wanted to eat,
(34:44):
and it was all pretty much givento us.
Shout out, special shout outagain to the crew.
Sean Rhodes, Coos, Shane Burke,absolute MVP crew chief that
went the extra mile.
My only concern that I had forthe crew and the camera team,
(35:07):
Nick and Nate, is that theyweren't sleeping enough.
These guys were workingtirelessly to keep us afloat and
to pump out content along therun so we could continue to
spread the good word.
But Shane Burke, wow, what anamazing guy.
(35:27):
First off, he's actually acancer survivor, brain cancer
survivor, and now Iron Man.
Flies down from Philly to livein a van, makes a binder of all
of our aid station stops, wherewe need to go, what we've eaten,
(35:48):
emergency contacts.
He's keeping the van organizedbecause it looks like the van is
literally eating people's shoesand food and everything.
Wasn't the easiest to keep thevan organized.
And he's making sure that we'reactually following the route,
which you would think should beimpossible to not screw up
(36:11):
because it's stay down these twohighways, but we did, and I'm to
blame for one mist turn thatadded an extra mile, which good
made it just a little bitharder.
But Shane calls us and lets usknow that we've gone off course,
thankfully, with only one mileto spare versus several miles
(36:35):
off course.
This guy was on it, I mean,absolutely on it, and uh can't
say thank you enough.
So if Shane ever needs a crew, Iwill be there.
And awesome, awesome.
So that that covers the crew andreally how we handled the stops.
(36:56):
One question came in onInstagram about calorie burn.
I believe we all burned around30,000, if not more, calories.
I know that my watch said Iburned 28,672 calories.
There is no way that I even cameclose to consuming that much
(37:19):
between the uncrustables, themartin gels, the Welch's fruit
snacks, the peanut butterbagels, the McDonald's pancakes,
the diner pancakes, the rice,the bone broth, the nerds
clusters.
Yes, I'm can I've consumed allof these things along the three
(37:43):
days.
I don't know how much.
Definitely a lot, definitely notclose to 29,000 calories worth,
but ate as much as humanlypossible along the way.
So yeah, we moved, we movedquite well.
And there were two times that wetook longer naps.
(38:04):
We stopped around mile 70 andattempted to sleep for about two
hours.
I won't call out who exactly wasresponsible for making the van
cool, but they did not, and thevan was like a hot box for two
hours, and I believe we spentmore time sweating and than we
(38:30):
did sleeping for that firstattempted nap, but we did get to
lay down and rest our legs, sothere was that.
Now, the second one, the folkswere were better about making
sure the van was actually niceand cool, and we got to sleep
(38:51):
for about a little over twohours at mile 130.
What's so crazy is that wedidn't have great weather at all
the whole time.
For the first day, we wereactually fairly fortunate in
that we we had some rain, somesprinkles, but nothing too much.
Uh, but days two and three werepretty much raining the entire
(39:14):
time, up until the last twohours before the finish, it
cleared up again.
But the two times that we tookour longer naps at about two
hours, it was absolutely dumpingrain.
And nobody was checking radarsto plan our naps around weather
or rain.
But I find it just so uniquethat the two times that we took
(39:39):
naps based off of how we werefeeling or how certain people
were feeling, that is when itactually rained and dumped the
most.
So I believe that we really hada lot of folks and guardian
angels and the big man and andpeople looking out for us,
sending a lot of prayers.
And that was a A huge, huge aid.
(40:04):
Because I will say that one ofthe more challenging things was
managing our all of the clothesand shoes that we had.
We each brought multiple pairsof shoes, knowing that A, it's
important to rotate regardlessof weather, but B, that we were
going to be getting weather.
And one thing you don't want todo is run with wet feet because
(40:27):
that will your feet will blisterup way faster than running on
dry feet.
And when you go that distance,anything beyond a marathon, your
feet are going to blister upeither way.
But the wet feet justintensifies it.
So we knew that it was going tobe a a battle with rotating
(40:53):
shoes and rotating clothes,doing our best that we could to
stay dry and warm.
But that was that was, I wouldsay, one of the things that we
had to really work through wasit's we can't change that it's
raining.
We can change our shoes, butthat's only going to help us
temporarily.
We can change our clothes, butthat's only going to help us
(41:15):
temporarily.
We're sweating through things.
It's not like we brought acloset full of clothes.
So sometimes you're having toreplace wet clothes with less
wet clothes and wet shoes withless wet shoes.
But when I think through all ofthat, I wouldn't have it any
(41:36):
other way.
Didn't want it to be easy.
It shouldn't be easy.
The people that were serving theprayers of families that were
answering are going throughsomething way harder.
So if you have wet feet,blistered feet for three days of
your life, suck it up.
Who cares?
Good.
(41:56):
Doesn't matter.
We could have ended that at anypoint in time.
The people that were serving,they don't get to choose when
their battle ends.
They don't get to choose, okay,for these three days, I'm not
going to have cancer, and thenI'll I'll resume the battle
later.
So the fact that we had theelements, the fact that we had
to battle through the blisteredfeet, the chafing, everything, I
(42:22):
believe made it certainly morespecial, but more resemblant of
like the of what life bringspeople.
We don't get to write all thechapters in the story.
We don't get to choose we don'tget to choose everything.
We get to control the we onlyget to control the response.
(42:45):
If we got to write all thechapters in the book, there
would be no runs to honor peoplethat are battling cancer because
cancer wouldn't even exist.
So I loved that we got toexperience that suck beyond just
(43:07):
what running 194 miles was gonnado because that has its own
thing.
Then you've got the soremuscles, the sore quads, the
ailing ligaments, everything.
Wouldn't have written it anyother way.
So that's now I'll jump intosome more mindset specific
(43:33):
things.
I don't want to go through everymile by mile, and then I'll also
bring up some of the moredifficult moments that that we
faced.
So like I like I mentionedbefore, we're here's here's
everything I'm grateful for interms of the challenge that that
we were delivered.
(43:55):
So one thing that often kept megoing mindset-wise, so I'll dig
into mindset for a little bit.
When things got challenging,when my blistered feet, which my
feet had blood blisters on therethat you would not want to see.
I don't even think the peoplethat have foot fetishes would
(44:18):
want to see how disgusting myfeet were during during this
event.
I remember around mile 40-ish, Ibelieve, is when it started.
And then you think, okay, wow,then you have 154 more miles to
go, and your feet have alreadystarted chafing or sorry,
(44:39):
blistering your ass.
Yes, my ass.
I think the worst part aboutthis whole thing, because
overall, physically, I felt feltpretty damn strong up until mile
172 where I had shin issues.
I believe one of the worst partsabout this entire thing was my
chafed ass and gooch.
Like the worst spot to be chafedbecause now you can't even run
(45:04):
straight.
And I apologize if that's toomuch information, but I'm being
as real as possible that youwant to talk about running and
then feeling like you'rescratching sandpaper between
your freaking butt cheeks forover two days.
(45:24):
Be my guest, come join.
It was brutal.
I if I I'll take feet blistersall day long.
If I can figure out a way or ifsomebody knows a way, especially
during wet conditions, to nothave a freaking chafed ass, like
(45:46):
please let me know.
Because it seems like everyultra marathon, that is my arch
nemesis, and it is not freakingfun to deal with.
I would rather have leg pain,quad pain, whatever, than
chafing pain.
So as that was going on though,I would often smile, look up,
(46:14):
and remind myself what we'redoing.
We're not running, we'reanswering prayers.
I would literally look up andsmile and just think about the
families that we're gonna thatwe're gonna bless here soon.
And I would think about Anita,Joe, Anita, Noah, Julia, and I
know that they're that they'rewatching over and protecting us
(46:37):
as well.
But I would look up and and givemyself that perspective shift.
I'm like, you know what, thischafed ass isn't that bad.
These toes, these these bloodblisters that are literally
scraping up against my feetright now, and it feels like
there's razors inside of myshoe, it's not so bad.
(46:57):
There's a lot of people thatwould love to have your biggest
problem in life.
I can imagine that folks thatwe're helping who are going
through chemo right now wouldtrade their what they're going
through for a blistered foot anyday of the week.
(47:19):
They would go for it instantly.
Oh, that's the worst thing thatyou have right now is a
blistered foot.
Okay, you know what?
Sign me up, I'll do that.
Meanwhile, we're thinking thatthis is the worst thing in the
world and all hell is about tobreak loose.
So there is somebody in thisworld that would love to have
(47:40):
your biggest problem, but alsoremember that it's so important
to connect what you're doing tosomething greater than that
activity itself.
So that was the thing that Ireally relied on the most from
my mindset perspective.
And the other thing is someoneasked, like, how has this
(48:00):
evolved over time?
So I always look for reframes,or I remind myself of a few
things that like I said earlier,hey, you've got blistered feet,
good.
Because that's gonna make youbetter, it's gonna make you
tougher, it's gonna make youstronger.
That's a that's a mindset shift.
You're out here, this sucks.
(48:22):
Hey, you're you're answeringprayers, awesome.
What's on the other side ofpain?
What's on the other side of adifficult moment?
What's on the other side of ablistered foot and enduring
through that?
What's on the other side ofpushing past the chafed ass and
gooch?
A better, stronger, more capableversion of you.
(48:46):
One thing I love that Ed Milettesays is on the other side of
pain is a better version of you.
So knowing that just by stayingin the fight, by staying in the
arena, you are going to meet andencounter a better, greater,
ultimate version of yourself,but it's only available if you
(49:08):
keep pushing through.
You've got to persist.
But that's what's on the otherside of that.
That keeps me going.
Another thing that has evolvedthis year, especially, that I'll
tell myself during marathons.
I started using this in Bostonthis year, is when things were
(49:29):
getting difficult and voiceswere getting in my head, or the
pressure was mounting.
That man, what if you don'tbreak three?
You've told all these people allthese things, etc.
I reframe what I'm doing to,hey, I'm out here setting a
great example for people andhelping plant a seed in at least
(49:50):
one life.
To do something morechallenging, to do something
challenging for themselves, todo something meaningful for
themselves.
I think about a promise that Imade myself when I was six years
old after a really challengingnight at home, seeing my parents
go through, go through somethingvery difficult that I promised
(50:14):
myself in that moment that I'mnever gonna put my future family
through this.
I'm never gonna, I'm not gonnacarry on this trend of
alcoholism in my family.
I promise that that's not gonnahappen.
I often think about my life andI think, man, I'm just a man
that's keeping a promise to alittle boy.
And doing these activities,whether it's a marathon, whether
(50:36):
it's giving back, whether it'svolunteering, a lot of the
things that you see from me, I'mout here fulfilling a promise
that I made to little Ryan.
And that makes me smile, thatmakes me find extra strength and
meaning in difficulty.
(50:56):
So that's really I would sayeverything I I use and used from
a mindset perspective.
And I look to add on reframesfrom time to time, and I'm
constantly seeking those things,but that's really what I see.
(51:16):
And what I was telling Ed andJake along the way that, man,
how cool, how cool is it rightnow?
Look what we're doing, guys.
You know, at two o'clock in themorning on Friday or Saturday.
Look what we're doing, guys.
How cool is it that we'reanswering prayers right now?
(51:37):
What an opportunity, what ablessing.
How cool that we can use ourbodies as vessels of service to
others.
So I encourage you all to again,if you don't have a mental
reframe, I'm wishing that maybeI just gave you one or helped
create one for yourself.
(51:57):
But we should all have mentalreframes that we can use that
when it gets difficult in thearena, because it will, we
continue to push forward.
The other thing that I would sayreally helped is I've been
really focused this year onbeing, like simply being, just
(52:22):
enjoying and noticing thesurroundings and the world
around me.
More so than I ever have.
Like it is, it is I'm not sureexactly what it is, but I've
been way more in tuned to theenvironment and being able to
slow down, listen to the birdschirp, see trees and branches,
(52:49):
everything that I've beenwalking past for years or
running past in this case, andnoticing the environment and
really being in more in awe ofof all the beauty that surrounds
us.
And even being on these desolateroads in the backcountry of good
(53:10):
old South Carolina, I foundmyself really just being in such
appreciation for everythingaround.
Like, how cool is it?
We're we're running past acotton field right now.
Like I've never seen a cottonfield up close.
How cool is it that as we'regoing through these remote areas
(53:32):
that there are goats that are ontop of haystacks right now, and
they're looking at us like, whatthe heck are you guys doing?
We've never seen runners comingdown here before.
Appreciate simply being.
(54:00):
She was a former Emmy Awardwinner and now children's
author.
And at the time when Iinterviewed her, she had stage
four cancer.
She's battling stage fourcancer.
And I asked her, what would shesay to people that weren't in
her spot right now?
(54:21):
So her being a stage four cancerfighter, what would she offer as
advice to you and I?
And she said, watch thesquirrels play a little bit
longer, sit down in the park,listen to the birds sing, look
at the leaves blowing in thewind, and just be.
(54:48):
And I remember taking that toheart, thinking about, man,
there's so many things that Ibelieve I know I've missed
because either I'm distracted orI'm thinking about I need to be
in the next place.
It's we don't have time to wasteand how much we can hold for
granted, how much things that wecan, how much beauty we left we
(55:10):
leave unseen because we don'ttake time to slow down and
appreciate it, smell the roses.
We never know when when thislife may end.
We never know when holy smokes,that we face an unexpected
battle with cancer.
So as we were going along, itwas really cool just to be, not
(55:36):
think about anything.
I didn't use headphones orreally listen to music at all
throughout the time, justfocused on being and staying
locked in and in immenseappreciation and gratitude.
And I believe that that's animportant thing for people to
do.
So getting into some of thedifficult moments, some of the
(56:01):
some of the standout moments.
Uh there's there's a lot thatyou can go through along 194
miles with with a couple guysand and and a bunch of crew
members that you just you neverknow.
Now, one thing that didn'thappen, at least for me, that I
(56:22):
was expecting to happen werehallucinations.
I didn't see anything like Ihave before.
I've I really felt incrediblylocked in this entire
cognitively the entire time.
Uh certainly got tired, butnever really felt really woozy
or started seeing things.
(56:43):
So I'm very grateful for that.
I know that I believe Jakeapparently saw traffic cones and
and asked someone to move atraffic cone that that wasn't
there.
I don't believe Ed hallucinatedeither, but I I could be wrong.
So he'll he'll let me know if Iwas wrong.
But I know that we all were wereat times in immense physical
(57:06):
pain that Ed had the the feelingin his shin of uh for us that
that road razor scooters, y'allknow that spinning that scooter
around and when it would hityour shin, if you didn't time
things right, it's a prettyfreaking brutal feeling.
I believe around 130 or 140,mile 130, 140, that's when it
(57:28):
came up for him.
I was definitely nervous for himfor a while because he had his
whole shin wrapped up andeverything.
And and Ed being as tough as heis, I know that if he had to do
that, that the pain must havebeen immense because he wouldn't
do that if it was just hurting alittle bit.
(57:48):
It would have had to beenhurting a ton.
But that speaks to Ed being anabsolute warrior and and fighter
that he is.
Now, I did give him a tough timefor pulling out poles because I
believe that you should only beusing poles if you're you better
be climbing damn Mount Everestor or going up Leadville if
(58:10):
you're using poles, not in SouthCarolina, but I know that that
was something that really helpedhim.
And and so it's it's okay.
But I will say now that he wasbeing a little bit of a Susie
with the poles.
But I love you, brother, and Itold you that when I was next to
you, so but uh and I know Jakehad a whole monstrosity of of
(58:34):
issues as well, a lot of timeswhere he was holding people, you
know, had had his crew holdingon, holding on to them over the
shoulders and a lot of momentsaround mile 172.
It feels like the shin pain.
Maybe this is my karma formaking fun of Ed's poles, that I
felt the the shin pain as wellthat I've never felt before in
(58:57):
my life or in my running career,never had shin issues, but same
thing where it literally feltlike someone kicked me or that I
slammed a scooter along my shinand it stayed pretty swollen,
and I couldn't see my ankle forabout a week.
(59:17):
So yeah.
Brutal, brutal pain there withthe shin and definitely changed
changed our running gait quite abit.
There were a lot of times wherewe we walk, we we power hiked
the uphills, but there weretimes that even running for a
tenth of a mile was incredibly,incredibly painful.
(59:43):
And it felt like a tenth of amile at times was one mile.
So but again, how beautiful, howawesome, what a gift, what a
blessing it is to suffer as Seanand and and Ed say.
So tough ones that stood out inparticular were about mile 160
(01:00:11):
or 70.
We were completely on the grass.
So there were a lot of roadsthat were were on back highways.
So we're running along thewhatever little piece of road we
can that is out of the way ofcars and at times using the road
(01:00:32):
when we can, but oftentimeswe're jumping out of the road to
get on the grassy section, whichis very uneven and actually
quite scary in some areasbecause there was very little
margin for error.
And it was a littlenerve-wracking to think we
already live in a verydistracted world as it is.
(01:00:55):
If these drivers are not payingattention and texting and
driving and they go just off tothe side a little bit, we're
we're toast.
Not a single instance where wehad to jump out because a car
almost hit us or where anythingfell off of an 18-wheeler.
Like we truly were well lookedafter.
(01:01:18):
So the about mile 160 to 170,there was a seven-mile stretch
where the road was so busy thatwe had no choice but to be in
the grass.
It was raining a ton.
We were cold, we're chafed,we're Ed and I have have the
shin issue.
We're both going through.
(01:01:39):
Jake is really struggling.
And this six-mile stretch ispurely uphill.
We're getting pelted, and it itfeels like it's never ending.
I believe one of the worstthings that someone can tell you
if you're if you're goingthrough an ultra and you've got
a crew member or somebody or apacer, I believe one of the
(01:02:02):
worst things is them telling youhow much further you have to go.
Because now you're internalizingwhat six miles should take and
what it feels to you versus whatit actually is, versus I believe
the best thing you can do isjust say, hey, we're we're up
the road a good ways.
Now after that, just shut yourmouth.
(01:02:23):
Don't ask a thousand times, arewe there yet?
Are we getting closer?
Are we getting closer?
That was one thing that got alittle frustrating was hey,
we'll we'll we'll we'll we'rethere when we see the freaking
van.
Let's keep going.
So this six-mile stretch,though, in the rain along the
(01:02:43):
grass with uneven surface, veryhurt bodies, and completely
soaked feet sucked, absolutelysucked.
Another tough stretch was aroundmile one tennis or so, where we
(01:03:09):
got pulled over on foot, not forgoing too fast.
That's the joke people have, notfor going too fast, but uh we
got pulled over three timeswithin a mile and a half span
from Calhoun County police thatI guess there were complaints,
or we'll call them concerns frompeople that there's three random
(01:03:30):
guys running on the road, andwe're concerned that they're not
getting out of the road fastenough or that they're gonna get
hit.
So we get pulled over.
I tell the police what we'redoing, and I'm the founder of
Breaking Ribbons.
Here's we've got we're going toCharleston.
They say, okay, please stay onthe grass as much as you can.
(01:03:50):
Go on the road when you need to.
And we go not even a mile, getpulled over again.
I don't know if these officersspoke to each other or not, but
please stay off the road.
We're looking out for you.
We keep going again, pulledover.
And this cop offered us if youneed police escort, if you need
lights, we'll help you.
They were all very gracious.
They were all doing their jobstoo.
(01:04:12):
That they can they can help usout.
But that certainly made us spenda lot more time in the grass
than in the road, probablybecause we were paranoid at this
point that we're gonna getpulled over even for being in
the road when there's no cars.
And I don't want anything tocompromise this journey and have
police officers say, you'redone.
We don't care what you're doing.
(01:04:34):
You've we've had four peoplecome and see you now.
So that that definitely made usspend a lot more time, I would
say, in grass than road, whichsounds like not a big deal, but
we're talking about completelyswitching surfaces, completely
switching our gait, workingcompletely different muscles,
everything.
(01:04:55):
So there was there was that.
The third most difficult moment,I would say, was actually as we
were approaching the citadel.
So that was the ending point.
We ended at the citadel.
It's uh actually Edwin and I isalma mater, but that's the
(01:05:16):
second place in life that reallytaught me how to do hard things
and do things that are biggerthan you and be of service to
others.
Going into the citadel, Ibelieve we're all mentally just
wanted to be done.
This is where minutes go by likehours, and hours go by like days
(01:05:39):
that time is not moving veryfast.
We're all we're all mentallyenvisioning the finish line
being right around the corner,and and it's not there.
And that's where it's also funjust to keep good spirits, laugh
and smile as much as youpossibly can.
I love this speech from AdmiralBill McCraven.
(01:06:03):
Y'all may have heard this yearsago, but if you haven't, a great
speech to watch is theUniversity of Texas commencement
speech.
It's popular enough on YouTubethat the one that will pop up
will be the one with AdmiralMcCraven, former Navy SEAL.
And the thing that peopleremember most from his speech is
if you want to change the world,start off by making your bed.
(01:06:25):
He talks about 10 Navy SEALlessons that apply to real life.
The one that I love the most ishe talks about this story at
SEAL training where they are inmud and they're getting wet and
muddy.
It's a cold night in Coronado,California, and one of the SEAL
(01:06:47):
candidates starts to sing asthey're crawling through mud.
And now the Navy SEALs arethreatening this one candidate.
If you don't stop singing, likewe're gonna torture you all
night, and this is gonna suck.
And what it what happens is nowanother person starts singing,
and another person, and thewhole class is now singing,
(01:07:11):
singing in unison, althoughthey're being threatened by the
SEALs that you guys are about tohave the worst day ever.
But as they started doing that,what happens?
The mud starts to feel a littlebit warmer.
It doesn't suck so much thatthey're crawling through mud.
So Admiral McCraven says, if youwant to change the world, make
(01:07:32):
sure to sing when you're coveredin mud.
I I interpret that too.
If you're going throughsomething tough, make sure
you're smiling and find find areason to smile, find some find
some joy so that you can keepgoing.
So I would often smile, singsome songs in my head, or joke
around with with the crew.
(01:07:53):
There was at one point Iattempted to copy a Ric Flair
quote that a lot of people maynot may not have understood what
I was attempting to do here, butthere's a a Ric Flair quote that
(01:08:14):
uh he says, you know, I've I'llbe I'm the wheeling dealin',
Rolex wearing, diamond ringwearing, jet flying, son of a
gun.
And I think people thought I wasjust being delirious, but I'll
I'll see if I can if I can playit here.
(01:08:48):
We'll see if that picks up ornot.
And I'll see if I can layer inthe uh the actual Ric Flair
audio as well.
(01:09:14):
But that's what I was attemptingto embody.
Uh more so to make myself laughand make others laugh and show
that, hey, when you're goingthrough something challenging,
just you can you can sing yourway through it.
You can find joy.
You can find joy in almostanything in life.
So there's there's that.
(01:09:36):
We finished around three o'clockin the morning on Sunday.
And I what I originallyenvisioned was that we would
have been there Saturday nightand had a large crew of friends
and and whatnot, but it was agood opportunity to a good ego
check opportunity for me too.
I know that we were we Icertainly wanted to be done by
(01:10:01):
and and predicted we would havebeen done by maybe Saturday
night around eight o'clock, nineo'clock, maybe ten.
And that would have been earlyenough for a whole slew of of
people to come out.
But at the end of the day,that's that's not even what what
this whole thing is about,anyways.
But we still had friends comingout at three o'clock in the
(01:10:24):
morning on a Sunday to to bewith us there as we finished at
the Citadel.
And those those closing steps,some of y'all have seen the
video.
If not, go go check it out on onone of our Instagram pages.
I wouldn't really call it a runthat we that we did across the
finish line, but we did, it wasmore than a walk.
(01:10:44):
It was something.
And it was really reallyamazing, so so rewarding to to
be done, to have people thatwere trailing us the whole way,
and people that that came to tobe there for the very end.
So special at a very specialplace for for myself and Edwin,
(01:11:07):
I know.
And I remember hugging Edwin andJake there, and it's expressing
my gratitude to them that hey,they didn't have to do this, and
this isn't even their theirorganization, but they they
battled through, they got itdone, they helped rally people
around the cause as well.
(01:11:28):
And ultimately, you know, nowwhat we're doing is starting on
December 26th, we are blessingfive families.
The first family has alreadybeen identified, and it is a
woman who's 46 years old, justfinished up a round of chemo
recently, about to start anotherround, has an eight-year-old son
(01:11:51):
and really, really strugglingand in need.
So she does not know why she isgoing to be attending this
meeting on the 26th, why she'sbeing asked to go to the
nonprofit workspace that thatwe're going to be meeting at.
But she will soon know that sheis the recipient of I would say
(01:12:15):
y'all's fruits and labor, ourfruits and labor, and there will
be four more families.
So that is the the absolutehighlight.
One thing that looking back onthis and for more perspective,
(01:12:35):
we spent three days on thisjourney.
Three days out of 365 days in ayear.
Less than one percent, if lessthan one percent of my 2025 was
really freaking hard, but cancreate a lasting memory and
(01:12:58):
moment in multiple families'lives that will extend far
beyond 2025.
It is so worth it.
But think about that for yourlife as well.
Sometimes we think, I believe II hear people talk about, man,
(01:13:19):
this was I don't want to dothat.
That's that's way too hard.
Some of these challenges andthings that we deem is too
difficult in our minds literallyrepresent less than a percentage
of our life and our year, butcan give us benefits and returns
(01:13:39):
for an entire lifetime.
This experience right here in2025, less than 1% of 2025 is a
defining moment for 100% of2025.
This was certainly a definingmoment of 2025, and it took less
than 1% of the year, it tookthree days.
(01:14:00):
Less than 1% can be a definingmoment for 100%.
Let that sink in.
And when you think about this ona timeline of life, assuming
that I get to live for at least80 to 100 years, this three-day
journey literally represents0.000005% of my life that will
(01:14:27):
pay dividends for decades andplant seeds in other people's
lives for decades, andgenerations rather.
It doesn't take doing a bunch ofgrand things, my friends, to
make an em to make a majorimpact in this world, or it
doesn't take even spending a tonof time.
(01:14:50):
This was less than 1% of theyear.
Yes, a lot went into it, a lotled into it for sure.
But we can trade a littleinvestment for a ton of return,
infinite return, rather.
(01:15:11):
It's my wish that by taking onthese challenges that it that it
inspires at least one person totake on something meaningful for
themselves.
It doesn't need to be amarathon, it could be anything.
Something that's close to yourheart.
I believe that's the secondcoolest thing about this whole
adventure.
You know, number three was therun.
(01:15:33):
This was more than a run, butit's really the third coolest
thing in my view.
The second is the positiveimpact, the ripple that comes
from this.
The first are the blessings, theanswered prayers, what we're
doing now.
Another amazing thank you.
And now highlighting Nick andNate specifically, Nick Benton,
(01:15:58):
Nate, Nate Benzwitz, our cameraguys.
Uh, there will be a documentarythat follows this, but those
guys worked tirelessly in thevan, incredibly inspiring.
I believe they slept just asmuch as it maybe even less than
we did.
These guys were not only filmingus along the way, but then had
(01:16:23):
their laptops, they're workingon hot spots in a stinky, sweaty
van that's literally messy withwet shoes, clothes, everything,
and they're pumping out amazingclips that we can put on our on
our Instagram throughout theentire run.
(01:16:44):
What did that ultimately leadto?
It led to more donations, it ledto more awareness, it led to the
world finding out what we'redoing, it led to the news
reaching out to interview meafterwards, like so much that
came from that.
But they are true professionalsand craftsmen, and I was blown
(01:17:07):
away by by what they were doing,and it made me want to push
harder.
So huge thank you.
Documentary is coming.
We will have updates of the fivefamilies that we're gonna bless.
Another big thank you to EdwinMartin that really put put a lot
(01:17:29):
of his heart into this as well,and getting the word out and the
training and reaching out tocompanies, it's so much.
I I couldn't have asked for abetter right-hand man with that.
Uh, to Jake for enduring, youbelieve you went through the
pain cave a lot longer than wedid.
(01:17:50):
And there were certainly timeswhere I questioned, I don't know
if you're gonna make it, and youdid.
And you had your your crew withyou that that helped you and
stick stuck with you the wholetime and kept you going,
literally had your arms aroundtheir shoulders for a long time.
And uh, I respect anybody thatwill get in the arena and stay
(01:18:12):
in the arena because there's alot of people that jump in and
jump out.
To our crew again, to family,mom coming out with bone broth
with Christina to coming out,meeting us at various points,
various sections where y'allaren't sleeping much as well
either.
To all of our donors, to MikeCarter and eGroup for the
(01:18:38):
generous donation and match thatwas completely unexpected.
So many thanks, so many thanksto come.
But ultimately, I'm I'm sograteful that we get to do what
we get to do now, which isanswer prayers.
Remember to help, remember toconnect to greater and deeper
(01:19:00):
purpose in life, and that willhelp you push forward, that will
help you live your dreams, andit will help you win today.
Thanks so much.
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