Ep. 23: Matt Johnson – Running Across Texas for Veterans

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Guys in gals like, it’s like, we need to get them in, you know, into the fitness community. Number one For me, I chose Valorfit because fitness changed my life. Without If I would have never started running, I would have never It would have never led me exactly where. You know. I believe that God gives you. You have a choice. You’re going to do this? Are you going to do this? And I chose to run, and fitness led me to where I am today. And I’m like, if I can get back to valor Fit. Who puts a veteran in the gym and then they the same thing happens to them that happens to me, and it changes the trajectory of their entire family’s life. My mission is.

00:00:33
Speaker 2: Completing oh out here. The stakes are real. Effective preparation starts with fitness, but it requires so much more. This show explores the tools, knowledge, resilience, and skills needed to be ready when it matters the most. Join me Rich Browning as we apply the decades of wisdom I’ve gained through training and competition to hunting in the back country. This is In Pursuit brought to you by Mouth Knoms in collaboration with Mayhem Hunt in Pursuit Birds Back. You’ve not been here for the last three or four, right, Scott. Scott has been in the Big Show.

00:01:18
Speaker 3: I have been here just doing other things.

00:01:20
Speaker 2: Been here doing other things. You got Matt Johnson, Matt or Matthew. You introduce yourself as Matthew in the coffee.

00:01:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do. I introduce myself as Matthew to everybody. I don’t know why that was kind of a thing. My name is Matthew.

00:01:34
Speaker 2: There you go, it’s Richard, but I go by rich.

00:01:36
Speaker 1: But on on on Instagram it’s Matt Matt.

00:01:38
Speaker 2: Okay, that was what I say. I’m Matt Man.

00:01:40
Speaker 1: Amanda don’t even call me by my name. A man calls me MJ. So I just kind of whatever. People are, like mat or Matthew. I’m like, I don’t.

00:01:46
Speaker 2: Care, Like, yeah, so I don’t really care. But Richard would be kind of weird. You know, it’s like too formal for me.

00:01:51
Speaker 1: Richard is weird. When, yeah, when we were talking about coming down.

00:01:53
Speaker 2: Here, Angela calls me Dick.

00:01:54
Speaker 1: Lisa kept calling you Richard and it felt weird.

00:01:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, rich rich rich is fine. My family calls me Richie, which is kind of my mom still calls me that, which when I was real young, I hated that. Now I’m like whatever, you know, like my family still called my aunt’s called me that.

00:02:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, my mom my mom calls me by my middle name. She literally just call me James James. Yeah, and I don’t know why.

00:02:17
Speaker 2: All right, So you’re honestly, the first video ever came across of yours was on you were making fun of high rocks and uh, I was like, that was pretty funny. I like it. And then dude, some of the crazy stuff you’ve done first and foremost appreciate the Service National Guard Iowa. Yeah.

00:02:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So joined I was fun. Fact, I was like terrified. I knew I had to join the service, but I wasn’t terrified. I knew how to join the service, but I didn’t want to leave my mom. My mom was a single mom, Like we grew up so close, and I was like, I didn’t want to leave her. So I joined the Guard because I found out that I could come back and be active duty within the National Guard. Okay, So I came back and worked a couple odd jobs for about two years and then got an active work my way up, got a technician job where you’re paid by the state, and then got an AIDS job where your active duty operational support AIDOS, and then got an a GR job where you are federally active duty. So I worked my way up and then it spent about six of my almost ten years active duty military. That was straight out of school. Yeah, right out of I went to you know, Midwest.

00:03:22
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:03:22
Speaker 1: See there’s the there is leave it in.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: I uh no. I I this morning, I was in sauna and I set my timer.

00:03:30
Speaker 3: It’s a long sauna session.

00:03:32
Speaker 2: It just keeps beeping every forty minutes and I keep forgetting to turn it off.

00:03:35
Speaker 1: Sorry, I uh no. I I went to like I went to factory jobs. Okay, So I was I was. I was raised in I was born in small town Iowa. My mom got married. It’s a horrible person. That’s we’ll get into that. But then we moved around and I got to the point where like, I hated this man so much he’s very abusive that for about a three year period, I went and I like told my mom, I was like, I’m not like I was twelve. I was like, I’m not leaving or the drag me out of this house. I’m staying with my grandparents. So we lived in Arkansas and my grandparents were both doctors at the VA. So I say that I grew up fourth grade through tenth grade in Arkansas and then we moved back to Iowa. And I had I had aspirations like I was going to go to the u of A, Like I was gonna go to college. I was going to do all this stuff. And I, you know, you are a product of your environment. And I moved to this small town and like, you didn’t go to college, you went and worked in the factory. Like and unfortunately, from tenth to twelfth grade, my mentality changed and I was like, you know, you know, go to college just you know, you lose money. And and so then I graduated and I’m like, oh shit, like now what. And I went to a factory immediately like was a ship bag. Got fired from that job factory Vermeer, which is like road papers. Then I went and worked at this is all within the same summer. Then I went and worked at Pella Corp. Corporation doors in Pella, Iowa. Doors yet my windows and worked there for a week and quit literally like my job to like drill indoors.

00:05:09
Speaker 2: Just I assembled air bags.

00:05:12
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and then it was awful. And then went and worked at Wyler, which is like or Vermier was farm equipment, pavement, I don’t know whatever. And then I was like no, like like what the hell? Yeah, and I had a boss and I don’t I don’t tell that. I’m I’m not sure if i’ve maybe he told the story once he came up to me. His name is Austin Clark and big, old, like bearded guy. I think he was probably I mean I was probably twenty, so he was probably thirty five at the time. And he came up to me one day and I was working on a sand I was sand blasting parts and this was his area and it come up to me and he just, you know, I’ve been working there for like three months under you know, he’s my boss. And he’s one day he’s like, why are you here? And I’m like, I don’t know, like it’s a it’s a job, like and he’s like, you don’t you don’t belong here. I’m like, what do you mean? I don’t blog here? And he’s like, he’s like, you need to like go do something else. He goes, I’ve been here for twenty years He’s like, you need to leave. He goes you this, this isn’t who you are. And that wasn’t like an AHA moment for me, but like it’s something I look back on now and I’m like, damnah, you know. And sure enough, like like I left, and then I got a job, you know, I got a job working at this place on Camp Dodge, and then it turned into one of the coolest jobs I ever had, Midwest counter drug. And then it turned into working and recruiting, which I loved because you could kind of manipulate your hours. And then I got into fitness and and you know, it’s just God leading me in so many directions to where I was stay. But that’s kind of a quick rundown of of previous young, younger life.

00:06:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then that led to military from there.

00:06:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think I got some time frames mixed up. I think I might have just just gotten into the military and came back home, I think. And then I went to work at a factory again. And then because you know, I was like, I’m go join the military. I’m done with this factory stuff. That’s what happened. And then I came back and I was like oh, right back to the factory before I could have gotten stuck.

00:07:17
Speaker 2: You know.

00:07:17
Speaker 1: Then the guard gave me that one week and a month, two weeks in the summer where you like throw a uniform on you feel like you’re somebody. And then he came up to me and he’s like, you need to leave. And then that’s when I think I got the ACTI duty job and then was active duty for about six years. But I went through a lot of and.

00:07:33
Speaker 2: Sorry, you’re right, so hey move his microphone closer.

00:07:38
Speaker 1: I went through a lot of you know, what led me to the military was my mother got married when I was I don’t know, that’s a whole like I’m so trauma blocked out of that. I was young, probably my little brother was probably four and we’re eight years apart, so maybe I was twelve, and we moved around Midwest and we lived out in Virginia. We lived in Brownsville, Texas. He was a government contractor, and we moved back home to Iowa, and like, come to find out, like he just changed. I don’t know if there was some like drug involvement that he ended up getting into or something weird happened, and he was abusive to my brother and I. Like there’s times where I remember in a place that we lived, like my mom left and he locked my little brother and I in our bedroom, and we were like my brother’s four years old at the time, and we were locked in bedroom for eight hours. Like my mom was at work, and I watched him drag my mom to her bedroom by her hair. She got her face bashed off the front of the truck, knocked her teeth out, and it got to a point where my mom I don’t know at this point, and this is probably a conversation I need to have with her, but like she oded on pills, Like she got to the point where she was so whacked out. Like I remember times seeing her when I was younger, because she was going through so much trauma that she obviously didn’t want to be present. And I remember times where she was speaking. I remember this one distinct time where she was speaking to me, but I was behind her. She was talking in the mirror, thinking that she was talking to me. And the very traumatic event that started the whole divorce was I was in school a small town. I got called to the football coach’s back room, and because he was best friends with my uncle, and he’s like, hey, like just sitting here. And then my uncle opens the door and comes in, and I’m like, what the hell is going on? And he’s like, hey, like we’re leaving, let’s go. So I hop in the truck with my uncle and he told me that they found my mom like pretty much dead on the floor and she had oded on pill and was she sent a text message. I think, you know, she was she was trying to get help. She sent a text message that she was gonna kill herself, and she sent a text message because she she didn’t want to die. And that started a whole debacle of the divorce, and you know, ship was horrible. The bank accounts got drained, my mom and I got left. We had no car, we had nothing, and it was me, my mom and my brother. And that was like the time where I felt like I was like I need to, like I need to get out of here, Like I need to do something too to be able to be something here, you know, like like I don’t know, do I need to do something to help her? Do I need to you know, I needed to just get out. And that’s what led me, all of that trauma is what led me to the military, which is kind of what led me to where I am today. Right, But that’s a that’s a breakdown of pretty much everything relevant of how I ended up. How did here? It’s like all of this, you know, learning how to navigate trauma and learning how to like I posted a real the other day and and you were like, post those reels and you’re like, I like this one, Like I don’t care if anybody else knows. You’re like, I like this one. And it was like, you know, like I learned how to turn my trauma into purpose, Like I learned how to take what I went through. Like everything changed when I when I learned how to take what I what I went through, and turn that and and and use that too. I’m not going to run from it. I’m going to run forward to navigate it. And that’s when that’s when everything just changed.

00:11:33
Speaker 2: Thank you. So you go military, do a couple of little factory stints. Well, how did how’d run in come about? I saw? I think I saw it where you talked about you didn’t you didn’t run across the country, you didn’t run track, You didn’t do anything that you actually like play golf or something to get away from the tracks I saw, Yeah, yeah, I did.

00:11:50
Speaker 1: So obviously like a small town, right, like every boy goes out for sports, like that’s what you do. And I was like, man, like I didn’t want to go out for track, and all my friends are going out for track. I was like, I was like, if I go out for golf, like then they’ll kind of just be like he’s all right, whatever. So I’m out for golf and and I enjoyed it, but running happened. So another traumatic event. So my little brother, uh, he’s my half brother. We have different dads. His dad’s African American and obviously living in small town Iowa, that is very uncommon, and we faced a lot of racism and sure enough, no idea how and I’m talking like small town of like a thousand people. Sure enough. When my brother was probably seven years old, these this family moves across the street from us, and two black kids, so like Davante Malachi were the two kids and my little brother and like they you know, their their mom and dad owned the bar uptown. So they those boys were always at our house. My mom was, you know, cooking for us, playing video games, and they were like our little they were like my little brothers, and a long story short there is that they split time between that house and their mom’s house in Des Moines, and at ten years later, seventeen sixteen and seventeen years old, they both went to their moms in Des Moines and they were They were murdered, executed in their closet of their mother’s house over an xboxes. My little brother dropped out of school, locked himself in his bedroom and gained probably one hundred and twenty pounds, like no bullshit and not being dramatic, like it was horrific. And so in that process of of of them being murdered and him having this go on, I’m now married, active duty living up in the metro of Des Moines, ancony, you know, which is like would be like a no suburb of Nashville. And I’m like, okay, like, how do I help this kid? And for some reason I didn’t read or write or anything. I just got on Google and I was like, like motivational books came across Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. So I started listening to the first chapter and I immediately text Marcus and I send him an audio, you know, book by card thing and I’m like, let’s read this book together and we’ll, you know, go from there. So we got about three chapters in. Through that process, he ended up moving in with me, went to Des Moines Community College to get his high school diploma, not his ged, but he went to get his high school diploma. And through that whole process, I had then read that book. Probably I had listened to that book probably ten times through like the next six months. And this is they were They were killed early twenty twenty, right before COVID and I started kind of lacing up the shoes late twenty twenty. And because I remember the first time I was listening to that book, I don’t know why I remember this. I was raking the front yard. Like I don’t know why I remember that.

00:15:12
Speaker 2: But I remember it. And Scott would call that a cannon event.

00:15:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just remember in my head, like I remember, I was like I need to text Marcus, like like I like, I was like, I need to text Marcus time we’re gonna listen to this book. And I remember I was raking the front yard. And so then I get stationed in Virginia in twenty twenty one. This is like now about four months later the beginning of twenty one, and I get to Virginia and we are so rural. It’s Rowanoke, Virginia. We’re in Salem right outside of Rowanok. Like there’s nothing around to do anything. And but we got all the trails and I just started running trails. And when I was first listening to Goggin’s book, I started Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I would go to work on Camp Dodge and there was a two mile loopy loop track and I would run four laps, eight miles and I don’t know my pay. I was just I was just I had like I had, like I had like six dollars nikes, you know, like I just found these shoes and I would just kind of go run and you know. Then I got station in Virginia and started running and running and running and running and running, and I got sick and I got out, like because I wasn’t eating right, Like I got skinny. I was probably one hundred and twenty eight pounds and I’m like one forty right now. And I got onto onto YouTube and I typed in how to eat like an endurance athlete bang Nick Bear, And I’m like, I mean because his YouTube stuff is incredible, and I like was infatuated with with him and I’d never been infatuated with anyone, and I was like, this is so dope. Started buying BPN products, started playing with nutrition you know, followed was a loyal follower of Nick Bear and BPN. And I see that they’re launching a marathon in the spring or January of twenty two. So another like grace of God thing, like you have a lottery like you there, They’re like, hey, seven seven pm on this day, be ready, buy your ticket. There’s only two hundred available. So I had me my wife at the time, and Marcus because Marcus moved out to Virginia with us too, and he was out there and we all like I all hoped my credit card and we were ready, like one of us was going to get a ticket for me. And I got the ticket nice and went to the marathon and went fourth overall note training and sub three. So I ran two fifty nine. And where I knew that I like, where I knew I had it is I I met Nick the night before and told him who I was, and he’s like, what are you gonna do tomorrow? And I’m like I’m gonna go sub three and he goes, how long you been training? I was like, I don’t know. I’ve been running this whole year. And he goes, all right, He’s like, what are you gonna run though, And I was like two fifty nine fifty nine and he that’s what he did, and I walked away and I ran two fifty nine to fifty two. And Natasha vandermer Nick’s triathlon coach, because he was in Tlung prep at that time, came up to me after the race and was like, hey, like, how did like how did you train for this?

00:18:05
Speaker 2: It’s right, I don’t know.

00:18:07
Speaker 1: And she’s like, we should chat and I signed on with her immediately. Another really cool story that not a lot of people know is in that timeframe, my mom had just sold her house and I was in the military. I was broke. I mean I wasn’t broke, but like we lived in decent you know, like I had a truck, but I had a truck payment out of a house and a house payment, and you know, but like we would pay the bills, we’d have five hundred dollars left for the month. And I told my mom, I was like, I want to do triathlon and I told her. I was like, I was like, I think that I can like be somebody. And you know, because that was the first time having the Tasha Vandermere like come up to me like that was the first time anyone was ever like I got. I was, I got the feeling like she was. She was like, I believe in you potentially, yeah, and it was. And then I find out coaching is three hundred and fifty dollars a month, and then I find out an Ironman bike is five dollars. And I told my mom all of this and she looked at me and she’s like, I just sold the house. She’s like, I have ten thousand dollars. She’s like, I want you to have it. And I was like no, and she’s like yeah. She’s like, if you really believe that you can do something with this, I want you.

00:19:15
Speaker 2: To have it.

00:19:17
Speaker 1: And my mom gave me ten thousand dollars and I bought everything for that iron Man and.

00:19:23
Speaker 2: Here you are, I had the Iron Mango.

00:19:28
Speaker 1: It did. It was yeah, you know, you know, it went good, swimming was it was.

00:19:31
Speaker 2: It was ra such a technical like that was notoriously anybody follows my career swimming was something I was really bad at and then I got pretty good at. But it takes a.

00:19:41
Speaker 1: Lot, it does lot. The really cool thing for me was I got in the pool February of twenty two and I couldn’t swim half of a pool, Like.

00:19:53
Speaker 2: I would just feel like you’re going to piss your pants.

00:19:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And it was just it was bad. And that was February. My iron Man was in June. So within four months I swam a seventy two minute iron Man, which is seventy two minutes two point four miles. It was like a one forty per one hundred, so I was really proud of that. I ended up going I think like ten fifty and my bike was great. My bike was like a five forty five and my run was horrific really yeah, like because I had a fueling issue, like like I didn’t know how to fuel we were talking about and yeah, and so I did that. But in the prep for that, I ended up going back down to where I was from where I grew up in Arkansas, and I ran on Ironman prep alone. I ran a fifty k and I won it, and then I do the iron Man. After the iron Man, I That was my very first time where I was like, hey, like I want to raise money for a veterans charity. Picked the Veterans Charity. I ran forty miles with the American flag. Then I get a call after this that at that point, I had my Instagram I have right now is from high school. Like if you scroll back on that thing, you’re gonna find some horrible shit. But where I’m going with this is I I had kind of like had like six thousand and seven eight thousand followers at this time and had a charity reach out and they’re like, hey, we have a spot at Leadville. Do you want in? And I’m like when is it? And they’re like twenty nine days and I’m like, hell yeah. I went in. Like like I watched Nick do Leadville. I’m like, good, Nick can do it. I’m like I can do it. And no, no, no, no, no, get to Leadville. No like never ran elevation, never ran a trail, and I ran. I went sub twelve for the first fifty which should have been my first red flag, and then I climbed the mountain, turn around, climb back on the mountain, come down. I se So that is uh, what is.

00:21:52
Speaker 2: It Scott’s Scott’s well versed on it.

00:21:55
Speaker 1: Now, Yes, so climb hose pass, climb hope pass again, come back. I’m a Twin Lakes. I sit down and once again this is yeah, but this is cool because now I’m like I just kind of clicked in my head. Marcus is always there. Marcus was there. And I go to stand up and I couldn’t stand up, and Marcus had to put his arms under me, pick me up and push my knees to lock my knees. I walked overnight in the thirty eight degree rain, fifty or fifty k thirty one miles and I got cut off by about fifteen minutes. I rolled into to May Queen inbound at like seven fifteen, and I was supposed to be there at seven. Now I kind of blame Adam Klink for.

00:22:43
Speaker 2: That because it was just one of the time.

00:22:48
Speaker 1: This was the first time he was there. And Adam collapsed right by me like like he that was we were right there together, and I stopped my stopped for like three minutes, So you know it Adam’s fault.

00:23:00
Speaker 2: Reference Adams worked at BPN real good dude. Yeah, it was crossfitter competed for years has tried lead Bill twice. Man, his problem is he gets out there on like Wednesday and the race is on Saturday, on a hunderd mile race. That’s like and so Adam’s problem missed twice squatting yeah, five hundred pounds and not running.

00:23:21
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah.

00:23:22
Speaker 2: He’s like, Oh, I’m like, how much are you running? It’s like about ten miles a week or something like that. Or I was like, uh, it’s not gonna do it, yeah, like trying to go do it.

00:23:30
Speaker 1: It was Yeah, So I did. I did the Leadville DNF that race and just had this like toxic like that was my first fail, right, Like, I went sub three, which is amazing. I won the fifty k, and like then all of a sudden, like I lose ye and I’m like and I became infatuated with with Leadville like I was. I couldn’t ever stop thinking about it, And that right there kind of became the slow demise of my marriage. And I started traveling to train and I started talking about wanting to leave the military. And my wife at the time, like she was a dental assistant making her way through college for dental hygiene and just kind of wanted the you know, wanted to stay there, like all her family was there, and I’m like, I want to move to Austin. And come twenty twenty three. Now get to February of twenty three. Go down. It’s BPN Ambassador Weekend. I’m now an ambassador with BPN. I got like thirty thousand followers. I think I’m the shit, you know, like not in a cocky way, but like I think, I’m like, I’m just you know, like I’m living this life that like I had looked at. And I leave Ambassador Weekend, I come back. I fly in on Sunday, go to work on Monday. Shit’s a little weird at home. Tuesday, I come home for lunch and my wife’s there and she’s like, I want a divorce. And I was like wow, Like I didn’t see yeah, you know, well, I like I I definitely saw it like it was. It should have happened way sooner December January. But as a man like I wouldn’t do what I wouldn’t have made that choice right and I should have Like that was probably me being a coward not doing that. And you know, you and I already talked a lot about this and you know, but she said that on Tuesday. On Thursday night, I was sitting up in my bedroom with a shotgun on my lap and I was gonna kill myself, like I had over those like three days. I was like like I I’m a piece of shit like I am. Like everyone in the military was like, don’t leave the military. You have a family to take care of. Like You’re never gonna be anything outside the military, you know, Like I had toxic leadership at that time. And you know, then I have my you know, my wife saying she wants a divorce and tell me how big of a piece of shit I am, and like everything is just.

00:26:03
Speaker 2: Wrong snowball, Yeah, and.

00:26:07
Speaker 1: I had. I was just in Austin on Sunday and something in my head is like text Harrison, who was a Midwest boy. He was in Austin when I was there. He was staying down there. He’s like, I’m gonna I remember when I left. He’s like, I’m gonna stay for another month because he’s like the weather’s nice down here. He’s an online coach, yep. And I was like, something in my head was like, just see if he’s there. And I texted him and I was like and he had no idea. Like I was right there and I was like, are you still in Austin? And he’s like yeah. And I’m like, do you care if I come back? And like we hang out and he’s like sure, He’s like. I was like, I’ll talk to you when I get there. Uh, Saturday morning, I packed one bag and my dog and we left Austin and never looked back. And I got down there and we split the money in the bank account. We had six thousand dollars. I took three and took off to Austin and uh, yeah, yeah, the rest is the rest is history.

00:27:06
Speaker 2: Man.

00:27:08
Speaker 1: So that’s what y’re That was twenty three.

00:27:10
Speaker 2: Okay, so twenty three, what’s like, what’s the next couple of months look like? How do you get back on track and get the get the road going.

00:27:20
Speaker 1: Yeah. So on my way down to Austin, I I have like my best friend that’s an adult, like my best friend from adulthood. He’s texting me and he’s like, you know, crazy enough. I didn’t even realize, but his wife is from college station. His wife’s mom was driving down that same day and she followed me all the way to Austin to make sure I made it there, you know, like like like like those types of those type of people. And he told me, he’s like, you are going to be so successful. He’s like, I know you’re going to figure it out. You’re gonna make a million dollars. He’s like you like you you got this. And I called my mom and I told my mom on the drive as well as like, I was like, I’m going to be an online coach because Harrison was an online coach, you know, he was down there. I’m going to talk to him. He’s going to teach me how to do it. You know. I got this. And I get to Austin and you know, I’m with Harrison and Airbnb and that’s a like that is a godsend because I wasn’t alone. Yeah, and and I and he stayed for two weeks and I was in it. I was in Airbnbs for sixty one days, so I had almost half that time or no, yeah, two months, so I had a good portion of time. And you know, I learned how he did his business. And I just started posting on my social media about thirty thousand followers still and you know, I’m like, hey, like I’m taking on you know, clients, and then we get on the call. I’m like, you know, it’s one hundred dollars a month. Like I’m like, I can just you know, get as many clients as I can. And I started doing that. I did that most of the summer, prepared for Leadville.

00:28:53
Speaker 2: Okay, so you are playing on Regil No no, no, no.

00:28:55
Speaker 1: I skipped. I skipped some important shit. So moved in February. At that point, I was talking to the BPN athlete manager and he’s like, you know, we want to make you an athlete. We want you to come run the BPN marathon. So I get down there and I’m like okay, like like I’m working, I go and I run the BPN marathon. And remember I still have this Ironman bike. This this comes in clutch. This is like how God works. It’s crazy. I run the BPN marathon and I win the BPN Marathon and I’m like yeah, hell yeah. And then I see that there’s an iron Man in Houston in six days. So I’m like, I’m gonna go race this iron Man. I’m gonna like make this like a like a like a thing, like win a marathon and do an iron Man. The same week, and I’m training my I am running my ass into the ground. And so I win the marathon on Sunday. I leave for Houston on Wednesday and I race Ironman Texas on Saturday, p r the iron Man. Right after winning the win in the marathon mile twenty four, I take a step and I feel this lightning bowl up my leg. I fractured completely through my fibula. And the reason why I’m able to continue this race because people are like, what is because the fibula holds ten percent, right, Like you don’t need the.

00:30:19
Speaker 2: I guess still painting.

00:30:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I fracture the leg and now I’m on crutches and I’m I’m done for and I move back and then now I’m on crutches. My shit’s broken. I didn’t go the doctor though, because I didn’t I don’t have insurance. Shit’s definitely messed up. And then I get back and I’m like, I’m out of money, and I’m I’m like like now it’s like it’s snowballing again, and I’m like, I’m out of money. I have no money. I’m in this airbnb. I need to be out in three days. I list my Ironman bike for sale, sell my Ironman bike on Facebook Marketplace for like two thousand dollars. In this process, I don’t know how all this worked, but I found two roommates that were getting ready to move to Austin, and I was like, okay, the six thousand dollars is the deposit, we’ll all pay. Two sold my Ironman bike, put a deposit down, and I moved into this duplex. And I walk in and I had nothing. And I went to Walmart and I bought a mattress pad and a blanket and a pillow, and we slept on the floor for two weeks, and I just slowly started, you know now that that summer. Now my leg is healing up. I’m starting to train for Leadville again because I’m going back. And yep, Leadville’s in August. So now like we’re into that was May. So now pretty much the whole month of May, I slept on the floor. I like, get one hundred dollars. You know, I’m still coaching, buy a couch, you know, bought a TV, bought a little mantle. You know, we’re just we’re throwing shit together as we go fast forward, because nothing really cool happens. Go to Leadville, Go to Ladville. I finished Leadville, super cool. September hits. I go and I run the Zilker Relay with which is this two mile like really fast race. The leg started hurting again. Get invited out to the Bronx ten miler to race with the pros, which is like the double A corral, which is like really cool and running. Went out and I went one hundredth overall, which is like crazy, like I ran a fifty six minute ten miler. The leg is hurting. I have this hundred miler coming up right, I’m running from everything still like I’m avoiding everything. Have this one hundred mileer coming up. The leg hurts. People think this is I mean, this is crazy. I couldn’t run the day before this hundred, but I thought I like I knew I had the capability of winning it. That doesn’t sound right, but I like had this in my head that I was like, I can win this race. Couldn’t even run the day before, and go out to this hundred lead seventy five miles of it. Get to the point where I’m in the most pain my entire life and I can’t run anymore. The guy passes me and I call my mom and I’m sobbing, and then I quit, like I couldn’t go any farther. That was the start of everything becoming great, because now I had to go home and I had to sit. I had no choice because then I go home and I go to the doctor on Monday and got my X rays and I got everything done and she’s like, hey, your fibula is like broken. And I’m like, yeah, but you know, I knew I heard it. She’s like no, like there’s calcium build up, Like it’s like off, didn’t heal right?

00:33:37
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:33:38
Speaker 1: She’s like, and you have three other fractures in your tibia. She’s like, when was your race And I was like Saturday and she’s like no, these have been there for a long time. She’s like, you ran on three fractures and I’m like all right. She’s like, you’re done for a very long time. And it was probably I was done September, October, November, December, Janey, five months. I had to just I wasn’t cast it up. I should have been. I played this, you know, this dumb mentality. I wouldn’t ever play anymore. But I had this mentality in my head where I started doing research on something I found called Wolf’s law, which is like, this is stupid. Don’t anyone listening to this, don’t ever do this. But it’s like if a tiger is out there and you know, hunting and breaks its leg, it just walks on it and it’s Wolf’s law, like if it it will. So I just literally limped for four months like they were like non weight bearing. And I’m like, nah, like I just didn’t lift or anything and limped for for.

00:34:45
Speaker 2: Three four months compensate in other places, and.

00:34:48
Speaker 1: Then my hip hurts and you know, so yeah, yeah.

00:34:53
Speaker 2: Around here stupidly right, yeah yeah.

00:34:57
Speaker 1: So but in that time, I had a conversation with a friend, Matt Choi, who’s a big influencer in the marathon world, and and you know, I kind of looked up to him, and you know, he was like you because I I’m like, hey, look, let’s meet for sun life. I’ll say you bowl. We sit down and and I’m like, all of my content is about running. It’s running, running, running, running. If I’m not running, I can’t make content. And I have I have, you know, probably fifty thousand followers at this point, and you know, I’m seeing him in ads and like, you know, we’d we’d been friends, like he actually not even until like last year, didn’t. He didn’t even know, Like him and I were running together, and I was just trying to figure out as much as I could from him. We were running together and I was sleeping on the floor and he had he had no no one had any idea. And at that time, I had met Eric Hinman, who I’d told you about who’s big in the CpG space, and I met him at Leadville in August. So now I’m watching him. I’m watching CHOI everything I’ve done in my entire life, Like I just watch people and I’m like, I want to be like this person, you know yeah, And he’s like, you need to learn how to tell a story, and he goes, you should have four stories lined up, A, B, C, and D. He’s like A can be running, B can be motivation, C can be funny, and D can be Matt Johnson. He’s like, all of your stuff is just running. He’s like, make it about you, and I like walked away from that and I’m like, simple, right, Mike, Like why didn’t I ever think about that? And the next month, I meet Amanda, who is my fiance now and is the most incredible woman that I have ever came across in my life. Like she is I’m a hard headed asshole, and like she loves me in a way that I have never been loved and supports me. And she took me back to church and all of these things that she gave me, and just meeting her helped me in this way of Now into November December, I start going back to church and I start switching. You know, I find out about you know, and I grew up with religion, but I never you know, I have tattoos of crosses on my body that meant nothing to me before. And I learned about praying and just talking to God, and you know, what’s the best way to talk to God? Reading the Bible because that’s his word. And then I find out about you know, how do you pray? And then you can just talk? You know, you can just yeah, you can just talk to God. And then it’s like okay. So then I start praying and I just and I have this like epiphany in my head where I’m like, I’m going to I switch my prayers from this is what I want to what do you want for me?

00:37:42
Speaker 2: Yep?

00:37:44
Speaker 1: And when I started doing that and actually living in his word and being a good person who I had never been, you know, like I have cheated, I have stolen, I have lied, like I was not a good person, and I just gave all of that up.

00:38:00
Speaker 2: Hmm.

00:38:01
Speaker 1: And that was in January and February I posted my first In February, I had this week, this week of like three reels where I started leaning into like I was like, the Ultra running space is so serious. Everyone is like just serious, and I’m like, I’m going to just make fun of it, Like I’m going to do everything the opposite and make fun of it and make funny videos.

00:38:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:38:28
Speaker 1: And I had three reels that went like five million, eight million, and four million in a week. And that took me from fifty thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand in a week. And then I meet a friend that I had met through Instagram, Evan Slaughter, also a veteran. He was Sharon Nashville. I met Evan and Evan’s like we do We filmed together for this brand. I just signed my first ever brand and it was two thousand dollars a month. I thought it was like that’s crazy to me. Because I’m like, I’m making four k month in the military, like two thousand a month, and Evan and I were like with this brand and we wanted to film a collab and he’s like, hey, I just hired a manager. He’s like, maybe you should try to hire a manager, and it’s Lisa, And so then I I get on the phone with Lisa, and you know, she’s like, yeah, I’d love to, you know, represent you. And I get off the phone and I had this another epiphany where I’m like, I need to hire out an entire team right now. And I was terrifying because I was like, okay, what, Like I don’t know anything. I know nothing. I’m like, I need an accountant and I need an assistant, and I need an assistant because of like, you know, I don’t know this is scheduling, Like I don’t understand this stuff. And I’m seeing what Eric Hinman is doing and how he’s scheduling things, but I don’t know how to schedule like that because I’ve never had to do it, because the military just gives you the schedule. And so I’m like, so I need an I need an assistant, I need an accountant, and I have a manager, and now all I had was four grand a month with coaching and then one brand new and I’m like, okay, so the manager takes twe and then I’m like the account is thousand dollars a month, and then the assistance a thousand dollars a month. And I’m like, well, I got left okay. I’m like, I got two grand left. Rant is one thousand dollars a month because we’re spliting in between three guys. My truck payment’s five hundred. I’m like, I got five hundred bucks left a month. I’m like, I did that back home. I got this yep, and I and I went all in, and you know, now we go into March. I now we’re in twenty four I win one hundred mile race. I go into the summer. That same summer, I gained another one hundred thousand followers by just being authentically me and just posting content like I’m like, I want to take my traumas, and like I’m like, what did I want? And I just started looking at social media as like a business, or like not really like a business, but like what would I have wanted from social media? And I’m very strategic with things that I post like I have a lot of friends that just they’ll just post them like talking to the camera. And for me, like, I want to be really strategic for like do people want to share this? Do people like this? Is it going to provide them value? Is it going to be funny? So I’m like, I want to use my trauma that I had, and like what did I want? I wanted to laugh, I wanted to open my phone and just get away for a second. And I started posting that and it was just like, you know, ten fifty thousand, it was just up up, up, up up, and yeah, I mean that’s really and then you know, then the next two big things, you know that we had a man. Then I moved into this amazing house. You know, I hit within three or four months. I hit my first ten thousand dollars a month, and we moved into this awesome house. I wanted to move in with me. And she has this wellness retreat business, and I’m like, I want you to go all in on this wellness retreat business and I’m going to cover all of the bills and like a really cool point for me, like I love being able to provide for her, Like I love especially because I feel like I didn’t I didn’t have that when I was younger, for sure. And she’s like, you know, getting her stuff from Philly because she had just moved from Philly and and she had to sell her jeep to move to move to get money. And she got home and I I bought her a Porsche andrade from a GP you know, but like but like and I don’t say that to be like you know, but like you know, like like I was like, I want I want you to have the like you have changed my entire life, and I’m like, I want to I’ve never been more motivated in my entire life to give somebody everything that they have ever wanted because I’m like, you single handedly brought me back to God and changed my whole life. And you know, and then we moved in this big house and then you know pretty much then now the next two years are are training for Texas. One in Texas to h.

00:42:50
Speaker 2: So you now ran across Texas twice. Yeah, what uh you know raising money for ballor fit and what is uh what is your average per day usually on that?

00:43:00
Speaker 1: Yeah? So Texas won. I ran from El Paso to Galveston, which was eight hundred and forty one miles. So that was the first one, and I averaged right under fifty miles a day. And how that worked was twelve hours on, twelve hours off, like I and we found this out went through. And I think we’ll talk a little more heavy on Texas too, because that is really we got a lot out of that. Texas won. It was kind of like the Bad News Bears showed up and we’re just like, hey, we’re just gonna run and happens, you know, and Texas too had a lot more intention and you know, so we just kind of ran and filmed it and had a horrifically beautiful time and it was cool and I feel like, you know, for me, people had started to see who I was, and then that was kind of like my my stamp on, like I told you I’m here and I belong here, and you know, in the in the fitness world. And at that same time, excuse me, the work we did a workout. I got everything wrong at that same time. Unfortunately, I don’t know if it was because it was an election year, I don’t know what happened, but we only raised thirty thousand for Valor. And I say only because it’s like, at that time, I had two hundred and fifty thousand followers. I’m like, how do I only raise thirty grand? And I felt so unfulfilled, Like I felt I felt at peace with what I had done, but like we got done. In November, we went to Costa Rica for Amanda’s wellness retreat. I took a lot of time off. In December, I looked at Amanda. We’re sitting on the couch, and I had felt like, like God put it on my heart that I had to do it again. And I looked at her and I was like, that’s exactly what I said. And she’s like, oh my God, Like she’s like why yeah, And I’m like, because I feel like I didn’t push myself hard enough and I didn’t raise enough money for veterans. And I was like, I feel like I can do both of those things better if I have one more chance. And by pushing myself hard enough, I mean, I don’t know why, but there’s this point in the documentary where I hit fifty miles for the day and I’m like, fifty stop my watch and immediately wouldn’t move any farther. And I’m like, that’s not me, you know, like like I had set like I would set a goal in my head and I would hit that goal and then I was like and I was like, I’m done, Like I’m not taking another step. And I remember another point where I stopped for the day. I drew the line and I’m not kidding. You could see the RV park that we were staying at, probably half a mile up the road, and I would not I’m like, you’re gonna drive me there? Like I’m you know, like it was just kind of things that I don’t know what was going on, but I just didn’t, you know. I set a goal of you know, I’m going to run across Texas, and I how I got there was on my own term, and I felt like I needed to do it again, and you know that that became all of you know, twenty twenty five and moving into that. I guess. Yeah, it was, Uh it was.

00:46:29
Speaker 2: Rough the second time. Yeah, worse than the first, right, Yeah, that was the way I was with lead building knowing what you’re getting into. It was way worse.

00:46:38
Speaker 1: It was worse, but at the same time, like it was so much better. Yeah, it was.

00:46:46
Speaker 2: Did you do twelve hours twelve on No? Matter, and you would just run for twelve and go more than fifty or no.

00:46:52
Speaker 1: So here was the so the whole plane was the same course. No no, no, so this time, so I set the record for fastest time to cross Texas. Now as I’m sure with CrossFit, you know you have people set these weird freaking rules, right, Like there’s it’s called FKT fastest Known Time. It’s like the Guinness Book of World Records. But if you don’t run the exact route and start and fit, you can’t have the fastest known time. Well guess what. I set the fastest known time. And I wasn’t going to run that guy’s route because I didn’t want to take that from him. Yeah, you know, like like I’m like, if I take one single turn off of this route, now I can’t take his you know, like like he can hold the FKT cool have it. I don’t give a shit about it. Yeah, I’m like I want to set the fact, Like I want to match his mileage and do it faster. And so that’s what we did. We made our own route. We ran from El Paso to Galveston. He ran from El Paso to like sam Benine Pass, and it was eight forty one. We had to do eight forty one. And so now coming back, I find this route called the Texas one thousand, and it’s from Oklahoma to Mexico. Once again, there’s an FKT for it. And at this point I had emailed FKT and I was like, hey, I’d love to submit a route variation, which means just a different route for the record, and they’re like, no, why would we do that. So now I’m kind of have a vendetta for FKT. So now I see that the FKT starts in Texas or Texas whatever on the no it’s like the Texas Mexico Border, New Texas New Mexico Border up in the north west Panhandle. And I see that this guy has the route, and I’m like, well, f FKT, Like, I don’t care about them. I was like, I’m going to start in a whole different town and I’m just gonna make it the Texas one thousand on my own. So que the Texas one thousand, and my goal was to run fifty three to fifty five miles a day and you know, set the record for the fastest thousand miles north to south, so I would be the fastest man to run across Texas and the only the fastest man to go north to south and the only man to do both. And so we take off right see you guys, and told you Riches tries to kill people out here, so weird idea. So we take off. We take off. In day one, I run fifty three miles and life is good. But at the end of the day, Drew, who has done all of my content events, we see this train and I had been running along the train tracks already, so I’m not blaming this Andrew, but we see this train and he wants me to stop. He wants me to run next to this train so we can get this drone shot super sick shot. As I’m running next to this train, I kind of like step on this rock and it just it doesn’t roll my ankle at all. It just kind of like it maneuvers it to where I’m like ouch, that hurt, and it kind of pulled on my achilles. Wake up on day two, I get out of bed and it’s the achilles is a little sore. We run fifty two miles that day. Wake up on day three, step out of bed. I can’t put any weight on the achilles, and I’m like, oh no, and that day I walked thirty miles in like twelve hours. I didn’t run that entire day. And we are like panicking. By we, I mean not me, Like in my head, I’m like, I’m like looking at Drew and I’m like, you know, I just think I’m gonna quit, Like, oh, kill myself out here, you know, Like I’m trying anything I can to you know, will it to will my way and oh thank you, I need that and I’m gonna crack this and I uh, maybe you’ve saw the video I like break down on the side of the road day four, like I am broken, like I am, I’m dry heating on the side of the road because I’m in so much pain that like I I in my head, I was like my achilles is torn, like I had torn my achilles, like I had never in my life thought that pain, thought that you could be in that much pain. And I’m like, I have sixteen more days like I like I I was. I was fifty three, fifty two, I was one hundred and five miles in when I when I when I couldn’t take a step.

00:51:23
Speaker 2: Do you have anybody like even bodywork and stuff obviously.

00:51:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, so with you making calls, well, no, I don’t have them with me. I’m making calls. So I have I have three girls back home that like, one’s val she’s my chiropractor but also does acupuncture, and then Victoria does acupuncture, and then like pt you know work, and then Sheila does like PMF body work. I’m calling all of them. And at this point, I’m like, you know, just like the saying like you know, you don’t want anything in the world until your health is at risk, and then all you want to do is be better. And I am like, I will you name your price? Ye like, and I’m like and you know, we had already budgeted everything for that, like I will pull this out of my own account, like out of I’m not going to use the Texas budget, Like I’ll pay whatever no one could get to me. And so this is this is the incredible story. So like day six, we’re struggling. We went like thirty and then you know, we went like forty two, forty forty one. You know we’re way off Yeah, we’re way off track. And we meet with these pets. We these pets like Rob Crew Chief. Rob finds this pet and Amilla whatever it.

00:52:38
Speaker 2: Remember, Uh, we go to Amillo a lot, and we’ve worked with a couple of pets.

00:52:42
Speaker 1: I have to I’ll pull them up on Instagram. They’re like Pinnacle something.

00:52:47
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:52:48
Speaker 1: Anyways, I’m in my hotel room, I’m eating and Rob calls me and he’s like, hey, the peats are down here, you know, do you want me to bring him up? And I’m like like them, I’m like, you know who? You know? Sure? So they walk in, these gigantic men in Jesus’s King t shirts walk into my hotel room, and I’m like it was just so cool, Like I’ve and this is I think the presence of God because I felt inferior, like when they walked in, like I felt I don’t even know how to explain it, but like I just kind of sat there and was like looking at these jacked, huge giant men men like which is so probably funny becase i’d see him now and I probably wouldn’t even think that at all, but like in the moment, I was like like it was like the presence of God, like walking with these men, and I was like, what is.

00:53:42
Speaker 2: What’s going on? Yeah?

00:53:44
Speaker 1: And they come in and they’re like, hey, like we believe in like you know, divine, you know that we’re here for a reason, and like first things first, we want to lay hands on you and pray for you. They pray for me. And then the reason they had all these people there is because they brought a nurse practitioner who gave me an IV. They had the PT, the body scraping and all of that, and we were just chatting, you know, the entire time. And this is like the the biggest thing that happened with with Texas, and like this is my first time telling this story, so this is really cool. I’m gonna backtrack for a second. It might be a long story, but this is this is the story of the event when I had that conversation with Amanda on the couch where I was like I feel like I need to do it again, Rob crew Chief, Rob Navy Divers Special Operations just you know, like go go go all the time. And during Texas one, Amanda stopped and was trying to like pet this horse, and Rob’s like Amanda, like we’re gonna go, Like we need to get going, like you want to set the record. He needs to go, and like I’m just like Lottie do watching to try to pet this horse. And so when Amanda and I had this conversation, I said as a joke and we laughed as I was like, no matter what, we’re gonna stop to pet the horses, and like that was like, no matter what, we’re going to enjoy it this time. So now I’m having this conversation as they’re working on me. I’m talking to this guy and I’m like, this is horrible because I’m staring at the ground for twelve hours a day because I’m in my own misery and I’m like and I feel like I can’t even enjoy yeah, like I can’t even enjoy what I’m doing, and he goes I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it was something, you know, around the lines of like don’t worry, like God will show himself. I’m like okay. And so about three days later, you know, the next day, I remember, I’m message him back and he’s like, how’s the Achilles And I’m like not any better, and I’m like pissed off at this guy because I’m like, you suck, you know, not realizing how bad he really was. And then the next day, now my hip is everything’s going wrong. And then three days later, so the next day, you know, we get going and you know, it’s a really cool morning, and I don’t remember where we’re at, but it was like it’s actually ended up finding out later it’s this one area is the largest down like valley in Texas.

00:56:16
Speaker 2: Alduro Canyon.

00:56:19
Speaker 1: South of Amarilla.

00:56:21
Speaker 2: I don’t know. Elo Duro is like the second largest canyon in the country. I think something like that.

00:56:26
Speaker 1: Have you been there?

00:56:27
Speaker 2: We mountain bike race there every year.

00:56:30
Speaker 1: It’s one from where I was at. It’s a highway down and then it just goes right back up like like you can see it. Okay, So that morning, it’s super foggy, We’re going to this valley and it’s a beautiful morning. The sun’s rising, and I’m running with Kevin, who’s a friend of mine, and as we’re running, he goes, wow, look at that. And I look over and here comes the most beautiful stallion of a horse running like out of a Civil War movie across a We’re probably five hundred yards away from this horse and it comes up and you know, there’s a ditch and it stops at the fence and it just does this and looks down and we both stop, and Kevin’s like freaking out, you know, He’s like this is so cool, and I’m like I don’t have time for this shit, like I’m moving so slow, like this sucks. And I’m like Kevin, like let’s go. And I hear my own voice in my head and it’s like, no matter what, we will stop and pet the horses. And I’m like, this is stupid shit, like you know, and I like walk down and as I’m walking down to this horse, it fully bows its head down to me and like won’t even look at me. And I called a friend later because I’m not familiar with horses, and it was Jamie and him and his wife, you know, his mom who I was talking about earlier.

00:57:55
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know, he followed me down.

00:57:57
Speaker 1: Da’ve owned horses their entire life, and him and Jac, him and his wife back home in Iowa. They have like seven horses. So I called him and I’m like, tell him what this horse did. And I’m like it literally like bowed down to me, wouldn’t even look at me. And I’m like it is that normal? And He’s like I feed Jac’s horses every single day and they all hate me. He’s like, he’s like, it’s not normal for a horse to come up to you and just not look at you. I go down and I reach out and I go to pet this horse, and like I instantly am sobbing, sobbing, like uncontrollably, just boohooy. And the horse it wouldn’t even like it wouldn’t even look at me. And then like I took a step back, and it finally like turned its eye and it looked at me, and and I like walk backwards. I have to. I have a video of it, and I like walk backwards and it kind of just steps back and looks at me, and I’m like looking at it and it just kind of turns and all goes and and I’m like telling Kevin, I’m like, yo, like I told Amanda that we would stop and pet the horses, and I pet this horse, and I’m instantly like I felt it into my body. I’m like, that was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. And we got to mile fifteen where we stop at the RV and I eat and refuel, and I stepped out of the RV and I never had a chilles pain again. Really, it was gone gone to the point where like I think that, like like someone out there thinks I’m lying that, Like I was hurt, and I told Amanda, I’m like, I’m like, God healed me through that horse, no doubt in my mind. M hm like that. Like because then that same day, we go into Post, Texas and as we’re going into Post, there’s a you know, brick wall that says welcome to Post, and there’s a copper silhouette of a horse. And the next morning we wake up and we’re running down the road and there’s a silhouette of a cowboy praying at a cross on the side of the road, holding the rein of his horse that’s right behind him, like one of those black silhouettes. That next day, the same day that we saw that, we get lost. Kevin and I take a wrong turn and we end up at a horse pin and there’s eight horses and they all come running out and run up to the fence and we pet every single horse. Yeah, And it was just it was horse after horse after a horse after horse. And I’d never had an encounter with horses like that. Yeah, never been around horses a lot. I rode horses in the Dominican when we were there one time, but other than that never so I have no familiarity with how to act or like what to do that and that was that. That was the story of Texas. And then after that, you know, we kept managing it. We kept you know, KT taping, like we were doing the things to keep it right. I always the way that I explained it is like the pain of of the achilles was gone, but it always kind of felt like I had like a like a something well something I felt pressure. There’s always a pressure there, but the pain was gone, even to the point that where before that horse. The day before we made a decision, we got onto YouTube and we said, hey, YouTube, like this is the Texas one thousand. But after my team and I have talked about it, like we think that it’s best to try to find the fastest route to San Antonio because I need to go get an MRI because my achilles is torn. And we made the decision to not go through Austin because we didn’t want to go that far east. So we made it. It ended up being eight ninety one, so we took off one hundred and ten miles. And I had had this idea of the Texas Traverse, which is the fastest, and I want I said this in Utah. I was like, I want someone to break this so bad. I think it’s super exciting. It’s total time. You have one year, you have three hundred and sixty three hundred and seventy days to start the event twice, and it’s called the Texas Traverse. You run west to east and you run north to south, and you have thirty six days. However many hours it took me to complete it seventeen hundred miles. You can do whatever route you want, but you gotta go. You gotta go cross and up and down. And I called it the Texas Traverse. So we started. You know, I leaned into that of like, you know, I’m gonna set the fastest time covered from Oklahoma to Mexico, the fastest time covered from El Paso to Galveston. Make it the Textas Traverse and hope that. You know, people will come and try to break it, and break it. They will for sure, and my team and I will always be able to say we were the first ones to do it. We set the precedent of people doing that. So you know, while in that process, you know we just it was incredibly we had so many big people. Sean Brady, Mma fighter followed me, message me. Michael Chandler, Mma Fighter followed me, message me. You know, Jelly called me donated twenty thousand dollars to Valorfit and because of that go abundance, this group of of very wealthy men in Austin all came together and put fifty thousand dollars towards towards us, and then there was a thirty thousand dollars anonymous donation. So many big names you know, we’re involved, and we ended up raising one hundred and forty thousand dollars for.

01:03:05
Speaker 3: Ivo’s awesome in that in your run, you said when you first started running, you had no idea about nutrition. Obviously you just ran across texts twice. Nutrition had to play a big part in that, I guess, just like that whole journey of what did you learn at first, like mistakes you made in your nutrition, and then what it looked like on that Texas trip.

01:03:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, the biggest thing with nutrition is, you know I always was. You see everyone in this world and they’re like, oh, like gels and carb mixtures and you know, turn quick. Yeah, well, and the thing is is like everyone says this is how you should do it, but what I have found out is like what works for you works for you. And you know, I started turning more towards you know, if I’m not if I’m running a three hour marathon, I’m going to take down jails because they’re easy, very quick, right, But when I’m running an ultra I what I have found out through we’ve also done, you know, I’ve got to the capability now to where we’ve done genetic test testing, We’ve done blood lactate testing, We’ve done all these different types of things, is that I have a naturally low heart rate when I’m running, excuse me. And what that does is it allows me. Obviously, anyone that knows fitness, if you are running or using a zone one, you’re actually pulling from fats. I don’t have a lot of fat on my body, so I need fats to be pulling from when I’m running in zone one. So then I started looking at I’m like, okay, like we don’t have any like fat gels, you know, and so I’m like, okay, how do I how do I start? You know, if I’m running a very slow one hundred like the Leadville one hundred. You know, let me say this first. When I ran the nineteen hour hundred and I won it, I was I was taking down carb gels, carb bars, carbs, carbs, carbs because I was running at a higher heart rates. When you’re running low, you need fats. So I started thinking, I’m like, what is what is the most high calorie, dense, fat, calorie thing I can find? And it’s donuts, cookies, and peanut butter. And then I found out this year it’s also pop tarts. So what I started doing was was using real food and the littlest amount of food possible with the highest amount of calorie content. And once I started doing that, that’s why I think that people come to me all the time and they’re like, what’s Matt And I want to use code MJ and get a supplement? What do I get? And I’m like a frickin blood test, Like get a blood yeah. And you know, I put so many people into blokes because you know, they’ll come to me like, well what do I need? And I’m like, well, here’s the thing I could tell you, right if you want to follow, if you want to follow everyone else in the world. Who’s like, oh, the the number one supplement for any human being is creating. We’ll guess that’s what. I don’t take creatine because my natural creatine is almost too high. And I found that out for blood. So then if you’re gonna throw one hundred dollars a month down on creatine and you don’t need it, you’re oversaturating yourself. You’re actually probably gonna cause kidney issues, or you just don’t need it, you know. So the biggest thing is, like, is you know, if you want to start investing in becoming you know, optimally optimally elite, maybe you know what you want to become good?

01:06:26
Speaker 2: I was to say, just just optimize your nutrition, optimize your health, fitness, like you you’ve got to figure out from a blood or gut. You know a lot of people like your guts different.

01:06:36
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and even when I did that, when I did the genetic testing, it was it was three x it’s called three x four and they’re they’re on Instagram. But the genetic test that they’re doing right now is in my opinion, more affordable than I thought it would be. It’s about four hundred dollars. It’s a swab you send it out and then you have a you have a doctor that calls you and goes over this whole report with you. But like even to the point where and don’t forget to come back to the nutrition on this, but even this genetic test, it was like I found out I have the longevity gene, which is only found in people that live to be over one hundred. But from what she told me, can also play into why I’m so good at endurance. And I also have the endurance gene. Don’t know what that means, but I have it, yeah, you know, but I also have I have the same that it’s like Tom forty or something like that, which is seen by people that get Alzheimer’s. But now I know that the number one way to combat Alzheimer’s is to not be seditary, you know. And so but like so finding out these good things, I’m like, before I would ever invest in a supplement, I would invest in something like that so I can find out what I need. But that’s where I found out that my body even even cool enough. We see it, right, Like I utilize fat first always. That’s what we found out doing my genetic testing. And then I’m like, oh, well that makes sense because I have a low heart rate and obviously my body if it utilizes fat, it would the heart rate lower to try to survive, you know. So it’s just I think that finding out what is going on within is the best thing, the best thing to do. But you know, for people like I was talking with Kyle Forgard about this, you know, with the Milk Boys, and you know he is it’s incredible because he doesn’t know much about running and getting ready for this hundred and you know we’re going over nutrition, right and I’m like, you have long enough. I’m like, actually, no, it wasn’t him. I was talking with the Feed So I work with the feed supplement brand, and they asked me, They’re like, what would you do if, like, you know, if you have a race coming up and you want to know because they carry their the Amazon of Fitness, they carry everything, what would you want to do if you wanted to know what to try? Like, like, what did you what’s gonna work? What are you gonna use? What would you do? And I’m like, if I can please start over, I would I would get a sample of something. You can buy everything in a sample. Now, I would get a sample of something and I would just take it when I when I sit on the couch, because because if I get something and I need to use it, I’m gonna take Let’s say it’s a scuper carbohydropower, I’m gonna take it. I’m gonna sit on the couch. How does my gut feel? Do I have to go to the bathroom? Does it cause me any type of distress? The next day, I’m gonna take it, and I’m gonna go for a short run. The next day, I’m gonna take it and i’m gonna go lift, you know, and I’m gonna take it three or four times and see how does the body feel? And then you do that over and over and over again. But where people go wrong, like even like myself to begin with, I just was like, okay, Nick Bear uses G one M. I’m going to use G one M because Nick Bear uses G one M. And then I use G one M and it heartburn, ruins my gut, gives me heartburn, gives you heartburn, Yeah, yeah, it just I try to use it during Iron Man.

01:09:39
Speaker 2: And our guys loves it. So I was like, yeah, I’ll try it.

01:09:42
Speaker 1: Yeah heartburn yeah yeah. Well, And and here’s the thing with him. He loves it.

01:09:45
Speaker 2: Yeah.

01:09:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then you know, I use the first form, the ultra formance powder, and that is amazing for this summer when I was training. Then I went to use it out there during the event and I was shitting my brains out and so and the reason I know it was that is because we pulled that out and it stopped like the body is. So you know, you have to think back to you know, everyone thinks it’s like, oh, we’re gonna take carbohydrate powder. When has our human species ever taking carbohydrate powder? Right now? Also, people can fight me on that and been like yeah, Matt, but like when do the human species ever eat donuts either? And I’m like, yeah, got it, tracking you know, But you know I think that, you know, I think about I mean, think about Lionel Sanders, one of the greatest t athletes ever does He’s from Canada, so that’s why he does it pure maple syrup and hot water. You know, Like, like I find the more that you can kind of simplify, the less you’re gonna have, the lesser issues.

01:10:41
Speaker 2: Get issues in an endurance event or even like a three day CrossFit event, it’s not good.

01:10:46
Speaker 1: No, no, no, yeah. In three day event. Yeah yeah, and then you get it on day one and you’re wrecked, wrecked, You’re you’re You’re done. And so I think that, you know, unfortunately, and this is why I am so much more into other things and CrossFit and all of that right now, is because you know, I, like I told Amanda, you know, like we obviously we don’t have a family, and you know, I’m gonna slow down. But what I what I have done is not healthy, you know, like like I was. And it’s even it’s even completely different than like when it comes to eating, it’s completely different than CrossFit because I was waking up at six am in the morning to go run thirty miles knowing I’m gonna burn four thousand calories, plus my wrestling metabolic rate is three thousand. I need to eat seven thousand calories today minimum. And I was waking up at six am, and I was eating two cosmic brownies at six o’clock in the morning, you know, like like Troy Peterson asked me when we went to kids, I kill them too, you know. But I’m having two cosmic brownies. I’m going out and I’m having carbohydrate powder. Go go go, go, go coming back to the house at twenty having a donut, you know, the little hostess donuts, and then and I’m and I’m like, oh, it’s okay because I’m running. But then it’s like you’re doing that six days a week, and even like when you know, Troy Peterson’s like, what are you most excited about? And I’m like that I can eat whatever I want now, and he just kind of started laughing, and and I’m like and I realized how that sounded right, because when someone says that, it means like cookies and doughnuts, and I’m like, no, no, no, no, I’m like beef rice, like I cannot eat for the first twelve hours of the day, or You’re you know, I can fat. I can do it. You know, I can stop eating at eight and I don’t eat again until noon the next day, and I’ll break, you know, I’ll get my run in and then I’ll have sour dough and five eggs and you know, an apple, and it’s glorious. Like going back towards whole foods. I mentally feel better, I physically feel better, Like everything feels so much better when I’m not, you know, shoving all of this shit into my body, like it’s it’s brutal yea, And yeah, I mean, you know, I don’t know. I mean, I guess I don’t really even know like how CrossFit is like that. I’ve seen videos of you know, CrossFit professional athletes that are like they’re waking up in the morning and they’re having like two cups of rice and then going and working out and coming back and doing you know, but it seems a lot cleaner than.

01:13:16
Speaker 2: Yeahs seed definitely pushes the clean carbs clean you know, lean meats, nut seats, some fruit, a little stars, no sugar, that’s what you know, the prescription is, I guess. But then yeah, when you’re competing at any level, you know, I think early on, we used to just mix up peanut butter and jelly in a jar or in a tub and eat it and then a lot of milk, a lot of you know, like you’re saying, high fat, high protein, and carbs. Really, you know, I think early on it was, you know, because it’s not as endurance based or focused. Man, I was working out several hours a day and tearing the body down, and so I think my problem was early on was not eating enough. Because if I get busy or focused on something, I forget to eat. Right. So I think having the endurance and doing those endurance events made me realize the importance of a lot of this stuff that you’re talking about. Is like, oh, man, you know underfeeding and you know so now in the last probably seven eight years, I try to take in about one hundred grams of fat, two hundred to two fifty grams of protein, and then depending on how much endurance I’m doing, because my heart rate gets a little higher. I’m more of a power athlete. So when I do endurance stuff, my heart especially running biking, and that doesn’t raise my heart rate as much, but biking, if I’m supporting my body weight, my heart rate gets high quick. And so I’m four to five hundred grams of carbs.

01:14:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yeah, and I’m sitting at like I would. I think I feel good around four hundred carbs probably one I mean I should I eat. I eat way more protein than I should just because I love protein. I love a pound of ground beef like that is like I eat at least a pound to a pound and a half every night, so I already know I’m weight past my protein. But at least probably two hundred protein, four hundred carb and probably seventy I like lower fat, lower fat when I’m not or something.

01:15:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is like peak competitive.

01:15:10
Speaker 1: Peak competitive. Okay, let’s do pound. I mean at least a pound of ground beef every night. So I would say I’m probably getting in one hundred and fifty one hundred and fifty protein, probably eight hundred carbs, and then I would say probably two hundred fat. Yeah, easily fifty miles a day.

01:15:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and like leading up to that in your year, when do you start that training?

01:15:40
Speaker 1: I guess this year, I started right at the end of June, because I’m I get very when I do right, I get very. I wrote out all my miles from last year, all my peak weeks, on the dates, how many well my longest run was, and then I put it side by something you’re.

01:15:58
Speaker 2: Doing six days a week.

01:15:59
Speaker 1: It looked like yeahcial media.

01:16:01
Speaker 2: And then you had a CrossFit das I saw on.

01:16:03
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah Sundays was just yeah, yeah, like I just liked, you know. We moved up to Georgetown right side of Austin, and I had the CrossFit gym right down the road, and she’s so Sam is so kind to me. CrossFit George Sound, They’re incredible. Like as soon as I got there, she knew me from social media, knew you know, they’re a valor Fit affiliate as well. And she’s like, here’s a key, like you can come whenever you want if you don’t want to be here when this is when classes are going on, so you don’t have to be here when people are here, but if you want to be here, you can. It was just so cool, like her husband would be cleaning the gym and I would just I would go in and they’re like, yeah, yeah, do whatever you want, like and and that was my first you know, I actually did CrossFit, which we can talk about back back in Iowa with Troy Peterson. That’s how I got with Vali Fit. I was like a like, valor Fit put me in the CrossFit, so that’s how I knew. But man, I tell you what, like I haven’t in my entrance to CrossFit, I haven’t found anyone bad yet, like you know or something like yeah, yeah, it was like.

01:17:06
Speaker 2: Running I bet. Yeah for the most part, everybody’s super positive and awesome, but you got some turns in there. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve learned that with you know, being in cross the turns are never around.

01:17:15
Speaker 1: No, but there are the loud ones on social media, yeah for.

01:17:19
Speaker 2: Sure, yep, yeah, yep. But I’ve learned that man with with cross fit, being a CrossFit community, being in the mountain biking community, being in the hunting community. Now, like I mean, I think it’s a society thing, right, Like.

01:17:30
Speaker 1: What’s what’s that crosshit guy’s name.

01:17:32
Speaker 2: Hilter Hiller?

01:17:34
Speaker 1: Hiller?

01:17:34
Speaker 2: Has he gone after you yet?

01:17:36
Speaker 1: No? So so someone someone I don’t think he wants to, okay someone When I did high Rocks, like apparently I wasn’t like getting so everyone like I had probably like thirty this is bad emos, Yes this is. But this is right after Texas, and I feel like this is why he was like I’m not going to touch this guy, because I went to I did a high Rocks literally ten days after I ran across Texas below parallel and and people were tagging him and he never But that’s how I even found out who he was, because I was like, why are people tagging this guy? And then I went and I saw his videos. Hunter McIntyre familiar with him. Yeah, so he’s a feed athlete.

01:18:17
Speaker 2: Him and Hiller have beef.

01:18:18
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, but but then, but then, but then Hunter came after me as well. He Hunter posted a clip of him sitting like this on a podcast and and screen recorded my training for the I was it was like how I run one hundred and twenty mile a week And it was so funny because which this is kind of scummy of Hunter because he actually has my cell number and we’ve chatted and then next thing you know, someone sends me this this post and he’s like, yeah, so like this is how you see, Like, this is why guys suck and they overtrain and they don’t know what they’re doing. And this guy thinks that running a hunt twenty miles a week. He’s like, hey, I like Matt, but and I’m like, nah, buddy, like and and I sent him a DM and I’m like, look, bro, I said him a text. I texted him directly and I was like, look, bro, I don’t know why you did that or why, like, and I never reshared it. I put a comment on there and I was like, hey, like I’ve done this once and I’m going to do it again. And you should know who I am before you start. Yeah, saying shit that.

01:19:25
Speaker 2: Doesn’t.

01:19:25
Speaker 1: And man, there was more comments in there of people being like, yo, like you’re coming after the guy who has proven over and over again then he knows what he’s doing, Like I wouldn’t do that, but I just didn’t give him the time of day. I was going to reshare it even after Texas. I was going to reshare it on my story after Texas and be like what happened?

01:19:44
Speaker 2: You know?

01:19:44
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean no, I haven’t had any I haven’t had anyone come really after me that much just that this year. I got a lot of hate when I was first coming up through social media in the like one hundred two hundred, three hundred thousand because people I think it was because people didn’t like that I was being different, you know, like I was, you know, smoking and joking SIGs and you know, make just doing funny stuff and you know, I don’t know, but I feel like I I built this persona where if people, you know, my opinion, like you were, you either are like dude, I love Matt Johnson, We’re like do I hate that? And you don’t even know who I am, you know, And then but I’ve had I had someone at High Rocks that I met and we were talking and like before we left, and I can’t remember who it was, but he came up to me and I was like, bro, it was like the manliest thing I’ve ever seen. And he’s like, yo, He’s like, I followed you back in the day. I unfollowed you and I like hated you. And he’s like, I just didn’t like who like and he goes and I was so wrong. He’s like, and I want to apologize. He’s like, because you are incredible. He’s like, now being around you in person, he’s like, you know, you are such an incredible person. I love what you’re doing for veterans I love And man, I’m just like, what a Like, what a world that we have to live in where we have to throw it up on social media and people just make a three second opinion about who you are?

01:21:04
Speaker 2: Yep?

01:21:05
Speaker 1: And yeah, so which I mean, I mean obviously I know for sure, without even knowing much about your background, that you have went through that in the cross.

01:21:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, people either love me or hate me. There’s no in between.

01:21:15
Speaker 1: That’s exactly where I get.

01:21:16
Speaker 2: Which, Hey, I had a friend say a fifty percent of the people love you, then you’re doing something right, Yeah, like I don’t want to be even know us.

01:21:23
Speaker 1: Well that’s what That’s what I said. Like when you know, I said right off the bat, before this second Texas run, I was like, this is not about gaining followers. It’s only about raising money for veterans I need to be able to raise. My goal was one hundred thousand. We did one hundred and forty.

01:21:35
Speaker 2: There you go.

01:21:36
Speaker 1: But afterwards, you know, we did a debrief with Drew and my team and it was like, okay, like we gained five thousand followers. Why why did that happen?

01:21:43
Speaker 2: You know?

01:21:44
Speaker 1: And I’m like because I’m like, I like, I’m I’m at six hundred k. I’m like everyone has seen me. You have made your decision. You have made your decision on do you like this guy or do you not. I’m like, I’m you know, like, I’m like, we’ve already picked all of the fruit from the running tree. And that’s why I’m really excited to you know, maneuver into different worlds, into the CrossFit world, into you know, into all these other worlds that we’ve already talked about, like you know, and just I’m interested in you know, I’m interested in all of it. And the cool thing is I’m thirty, you know, and I didn’t start till I was twenty seven. I’ve only done three years. I’m like, what where else can I touch in the next three years to continue to inspire and help people through these charity things and these other events.

01:22:34
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, I’m past my prime. I’m thirty eight now birds dead. Yeah, man, I think that means.

01:22:41
Speaker 1: He needs to become an endurance runner.

01:22:45
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, I don’t have enough cartilage left. But next we need to get him on a hunt out west. He said he did a little bit of Iowa hunting. He said he may have some connections. Oh that’s where we need to go.

01:22:53
Speaker 1: I mean I may have connections. I mean I have zero, but I’m sure I can like find somebody. I just got to send a couple of texts and like someone someone’s got to know. I mean, I know, like it’s like, oh, the Schneiders own this land. I remember all of that. So it’s like, you know, I just got to find the guy.

01:23:12
Speaker 2: We need to get him out west. That’s the thing. Now, it’s like he would I think he would enjoy the misery of that. Scott. I think he’s got the right space for that, so you’d enjoy that.

01:23:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to get out.

01:23:23
Speaker 2: Uh.

01:23:24
Speaker 1: I want to go chatting with Cam Haynes a couple of times and he’s a good friends with a jelly.

01:23:29
Speaker 2: Yeah.

01:23:31
Speaker 1: So Cam like replied to my story the other day and I sent him a message. I was like, I’m I was like, I’m ready when you are, and I put like the Rocky moji and he was like, yeah, like you know, I got hunting coming up, but he’s like, we’ll link up. So yeah, I’m I’m excited to get into It’s really cool to see. I’m very interesting obviously, you know, being from the Midwest and the hunting background. I just haven’t got into it, you know. I think I think the biggest thing and I’ve even talked to Nate Worth about that where I’m like, yo, I’m like, if I wanted to buy a bow, where would I buy it?

01:24:05
Speaker 2: We can get you hooked up.

01:24:06
Speaker 1: I’ve never shot a bow, even get choked up, never even nothing. But I’m like, I’m sitting in the backyard and I’m like, man, I could I can shoot a bow out here?

01:24:15
Speaker 2: Yeah? I can. It takes Yeah, So I think, man, it’s fun it’s different than I think than a rifle. It’s a little bit more therapeutic, you know, just get out there and shoot me. Yeah, and I had frustrating, super frustrating as well.

01:24:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I and I’ve I’ve sat multiple times with We had a family friends that owned land and they would hunt, and I was best friends with their son, and so he he would go and bow hunt and I couldn’t. I don’t remember why it was, because, yeah, but I would just we would go sit together because he’s my friend, and we would just, yeah, we would just go hang out and and you know, I remember a couple of times like he drew back, like we never got anything while we’re out there together, probably because we’re too eating.

01:24:59
Speaker 2: It’s tough to get.

01:25:00
Speaker 1: And he was also like, I’m pretty sure we were still in high school. I was probably a senior, and he was way younger than me. He was probably fourteen fifteen, so he probably had no idea what he was either way. But yeah, yeah, you know, so I’ve been around it and understand it, and you know, I’ve gutted an animal. I’ve you know, I got a dough when I we went shotgun hunting second season hunting in like December back home, and it took me like four days of completely emptying my weapon, completely emptying my gun on like even to the point where like, man, we were pushing, we were pushing these dough or these deer out and I’m not kidding. I had probably we kicked up probably ten deer within ten feet from me.

01:25:49
Speaker 2: You’re scanning with a shotgun.

01:25:51
Speaker 1: And I’m like, man, bam, bam bam, And I mean it’s just like that way, this way, that way, this way. And I was in the military at this point, like like like to the point where like I know how to handle a weapon and like I am good at weapons quall, Like life is good, but like out there it’s different. Man, Like I you kick them up and you’re like, oh, they’re just as surprised as they are that like they’re there.

01:26:14
Speaker 2: And yeah, been on one deer push. I think when I was like ten watching my uncles try to shoot him, and it was just yeah.

01:26:21
Speaker 1: And then yeah, and now I’m like now I know why people get shot. I’m like it just makes sense. Yeah, like when you’re hunter gets shot in the leg and you like and you hear about it, and you know, like we heard that. Man is like, oh my gosh, I don’t know how that could happen. So irresponsible, And I’m like, yeah, because they’re probably drunk out there, pushing deer, not knowing what they’re doing, and you can get spooked. But I finally got one. I got one.

01:26:47
Speaker 2: There you go. Yeah, well, man, let’s fall up and we’ll go on home.

01:26:50
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:26:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, sounds like you’re going to train Ben too to run his hundred. So like, yeah, yeaheah, he’s in.

01:26:58
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:26:58
Speaker 2: You appreciate you coming out, dude, anytime. It’s fun.

01:27:03
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys.

01:27:04
Speaker 2: Anything else, b I don’t even know.

01:27:06
Speaker 1: I feel like we didn’t even talk about nothing, and we talked about so much about everything.

01:27:09
Speaker 2: Man. I think it was cool. I think it was good. I think, you know, life story and overcoming adversity, adversity and then man, I think you’re doing some cool things. I think bringing awareness always to veterans is a huge thing.

01:27:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that’s the biggest thing.

01:27:23
Speaker 2: Man.

01:27:23
Speaker 1: I feel like, we, you know, just talk about this real quick. I feel like Troy Peterson, the founder of valor Fit, is the most amazing man in the world. He just doesn’t know how to market valor Fit, and you know he’s on social media and he’s running his social media and it’s just you know, it’s a dad running his social media, and you know it’s purple heart. You know, he’s deployed multiple times and and he just has a pure heart. What I thought was really cool and I told him this when Mike Egan did uh the world record just a couple weeks ago in the wheelchair. You’re familiar with Mike. Oh my gosh, that’s another guy you need to have. Mike Eagan stepped on an ID in Afghanistan twenty twelve, blues legs off and just recently I have met I met him through he was High Rocks’s Adaptive Fittest Man in the World or something like that. And long story short, Mike Egan decided, after him and I begin his friends, that he wanted to He pushed one hundred and fifty three miles in a wheelchair in twenty four hours and raised I think like thirty thousand for valor Fit. But in that process USAA was his main partner and USAA had to run a private Mike was not allowed to say anything a private investigation into valor Fit before they could be be good to go partners with them and you have to get three three checks and sure not like while I was running cross Texas might call me and the Validfit got three checks, third party tested, no one was allowed to know they ran everything. Are they doing the right thing? And check check check, good to go?

01:29:10
Speaker 2: That’s awesome.

01:29:10
Speaker 1: And you know, I feel like in my opinion, I you know, you see valor fit within the CrossFit community, but I feel like CrossFit could do more. I I really do. I mean, if I’m if I can go out as literally just in my a a nobody and and run this event and raise one hundred and forty thousand dollars through my connections, I feel like CrossFit has so many, you know, through jelly and through the anonymous you know. Yeah, And I just I don’t know. I look at I look at CrossFit, and I’m like man like, like I I want to, you know, now building this relationship with you, Like I want how can I help CrossFit help help valor Fit, not even valid Fit? How can I help CrossFit help other charities? How can we help CrossFit do it a little bit better?

01:29:56
Speaker 2: Yeah?

01:29:56
Speaker 3: And then if you want to, I guess I know they helped veterans. But then what exactly is like their mission.

01:30:03
Speaker 1: Valor fit yeap, So their mission is to take veterans that come back from well that that the number one is that that come back from you know war or you know being overseas, but just really any veteran. So the problem that you see is veterans just like my think about just I’ll relate it back to me. When you isolate, the worst thing in the world is about to happen, right, especially when you crave My entire life, I was in the military, I became active duty. I had people around me at all times. And the problem is is when you see someone that goes active duty Marines, active duty Army, like goes away and there they live with somebody. You have someone in your room twenty four seven. People are around at all times. Then when you get out, unfortunately, the military ninety percent of the time says you see you, thanks for your service. That’s the most unfortunate part. There’s no like yeah, yeah, you know transition, no no, no no, And it’s like, hey, sure you’re you know service connection. You know we’re gonna give you five grand a month, best of luck, have fun. And then you’re like, Okay, now I got five grand a month, but what do I do? So then they move into a one bedroom apartment and they isolate themselves they’ve never been alone. Leads to depression and they kill themselves. So you see twenty two plus veterans every day that commit suicide. So valor Fit is like, okay, let’s take these veterans and put them into CrossFit. And they chose CrossFit at the very beginning because of what we talked about earlier, the community of people.

01:31:35
Speaker 2: Yep.

01:31:36
Speaker 1: And so that’s why he chose CrossFit because CrossFit has a phenomenal community of kind and good hearted people. And I believe that because I’ve seen it at CrossFit Georgetown and he chose across it. And so what he would do is he just started you made this five O one C and he just started paying for CrossFit gym memberships and putting veterans into cross and it’s so cool, Like you know, now day after day after day, now he’s getting like he was telling me that he was getting an application every six hours during the Cross Texas and and it’s people saying like I need this, Like I’ve let myself go. I’m into drugs. I’m into alcohol, you know, the things that you and I talked about before this, like like people that have an addictive personality lean on, lean on anything that they can find. And guys, you know, guys in gals Like it’s like we need to get them in, you know, into the fitness community. Number one For me, I chose Valorfit because fitness changed my life. Without if I would have never started running, I would have never It would have never led me exactly where. You know, I believe that God gives you you have a choice. You’re gonna do this or you gonna do this, And I chose to run, and fitness led me to where I am today. And I’m like, if I can get back to valor Fit, who puts a veteran in the gym and then they the same thing happens to them that happens to me, and it changes the trajectory of their entire family’s life. My mission is complete and you know, so that’s that’s the big thing. It’s like, okay, like how can we all work together? And it’s not just for valor Fit, Like I believe that you know, as as men and as humans, like you know, I feel like I’ve been put in this position where now like I am making incredible money, and you know, how can I steward my platform and my money to not just valor fit but to help anybody? You know, how can we make the charity raising better? How can we you know, how can we get in front of CrossFit and and and figure out how to do it a little bit better? Right because there’s always a board of people who really don’t know what’s going on, and you know, it’s like, how can we, how can we how can we fix it? How can we how can we lead the charge? And you know, so we get into there that’s a little more yapping. But you know, if you’re listening to that and you have the capability of of leading the lead, to lead the charge and surround yourself with people that will that will help help you do that, and you will change so many lives. I think that’s the why are we here? You know, like I’m not here for me, like I’m I you know, if I can, if I can just help change people’s lives, I did what I needed to do.

01:34:14
Speaker 2: I love it, man, Yep, no, I do. I think it’s a good fit. It’s exactly what we try to do here, obviously with Mayhemon’s faith, family, fitting a service, those are the things we do. So appreciate you man.

01:34:25
Speaker 1: Absolutely some more goodness, cool,