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Speaker 1: Being in a wheelchair, being in a walker on a cane,

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Speaker 1: barely walking, hitting my head so hard on like trees

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Speaker 1: and like falling and you know, needing assistance. You know,

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Speaker 1: Crossing that finish line is just everything. I can't even

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Speaker 1: describe how incredible that feeling is, you know, to know

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Speaker 1: that I did it and I overcame this, and I

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Speaker 1: am better than this, and I am more than this

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Speaker 1: illness that I have, because I don't want it to

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Speaker 1: define me. Yes, I have it, but I don't want

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Speaker 1: to be seen as a person that has MSS. I

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Speaker 1: want to just be seen as like someone that you

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Speaker 1: say hello to and we can have a conversation with

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Speaker 1: and you don't have to ask me about my MASS

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Speaker 1: and if you want to, yeah, I'll talk about it

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Speaker 1: because I'm because I'm okay with it, you know, and

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Speaker 1: I've accepted that. But I just want to be seen

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Speaker 1: as a regular person. I want to be I want

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Speaker 1: to challenge for things as a regular person. I want

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Speaker 1: to compete for things as a normal person. And that's

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Speaker 1: all I wanted, And that crossing that finish line for

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Speaker 1: me was exactly that.

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Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, emilyah Badi here, coming to you live from

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Speaker 2: the ag Studio. You are listening to Hurdle, a whileness

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Speaker 2: focused podcast. Reconnect with everyone from your favorite athletes to

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Speaker 2: top experts in industry CEOs about their highest ties, toughest moments,

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Speaker 2: and everything in between. We all go through hurdles in life,

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Speaker 2: and my goal through these discussions is to empower you

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Speaker 2: to better navigate yours and move with intentions so that

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Speaker 2: you can stride towards your own big potential and of

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Speaker 2: course have some fun along the way. For today's episode,

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Speaker 2: I could not be more excited to bring you Will Valderama.

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Speaker 2: He's a runner based in Brooklyn, New York, and I

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Speaker 2: was so taken by his story that I knew I

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Speaker 2: needed to talk to him for the show now. In

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Speaker 2: May of this year, Will called Willie by his friends,

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Speaker 2: was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Three days after that diagnosis,

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Speaker 2: which landed him in a wheelchair at times using a

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Speaker 2: walker and a cane, he decided to sign up for

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Speaker 2: a marathon. Today in our conversation, we talk you through

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Speaker 2: all of it. The symptoms that he was experiencing which

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Speaker 2: landed him in a hospital after talking to a neurologist,

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Speaker 2: the shock he experienced when getting his diagnosis, the family

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Speaker 2: history that he has and how MS had impacted his

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Speaker 2: life up until this point when he found out that

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Speaker 2: he too had it. His journey from May through this

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Speaker 2: October when he ran his first marathon and did so

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Speaker 2: in four hours and twenty two minutes. This story is inspiring.

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Speaker 2: Will is inspiring, and his outlook is one that we

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Speaker 2: can all learn from period. As he says in today's episode,

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Speaker 2: his circumstances have taught him to be more empathetic. And

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Speaker 2: I know that this episode has reminded me of the

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Speaker 2: value of kindness and just understanding and reminding myself every

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Speaker 2: once in a while that you never know what the

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Speaker 2: person next to you on the street is going through

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Speaker 2: at any given time. And so I'm so grateful that

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Speaker 2: Will was willing to give me his time, that he

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Speaker 2: is here to tell us his story, and that he

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Speaker 2: will have the opportunity to continue to inspire so many

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Speaker 2: through sharing that story and the work that I know

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Speaker 2: he wants to do in the future. Make sure you're

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Speaker 2: following along with Hurdle over on social media. It's at

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Speaker 2: Hurdle Podcasts. I'm over at Emily a Body. A huge

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Speaker 2: good luck to everyone else that is gearing up to

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Speaker 2: run the New York City Marathon this week. I can't

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Speaker 2: believe it's finally here. My nerves are in full force.

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Speaker 2: I am in high recovery mode. I'm gonna be uh

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Speaker 2: living in my normal tech boots until uh until next Sunday.

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Speaker 2: But if you're going to be out there, make sure

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Speaker 2: to shoot me a DM and let me know where

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Speaker 2: you're going to be so I can look out for

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Speaker 2: you when I am on the course. And with that,

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Speaker 2: let's get to hurdling. Today. I am sitting down with

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Speaker 2: Will Valderama. How you doing well.

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Speaker 1: I'm doing great. Thank you.

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Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be here with you.

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Speaker 1: I'm excited to be here with you.

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Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. We have okay, we have a lot,

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Speaker 2: we have a lot to cover here. But I feel

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Speaker 2: like I need to provide some context for how you

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Speaker 2: and I ended up in the hurdle studio, which the

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Speaker 2: hurdler's listening right now. They know how excited I get

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Speaker 2: when I get to actually bring someone I r L

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Speaker 2: into the space. Becuys after the last year, doesn't happen? Often?

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Speaker 2: Doesn't happen often? I was taken by Will on social

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Speaker 2: media and he happens to be local we'll get into

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Speaker 2: the whys and the particulars very shortly, but happens to

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Speaker 2: be local. And I was like, when can you get

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Speaker 2: into the studio and he said, how about next week?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? I worked out well.

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Speaker 2: I will say that having a mutual friend usually like

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Speaker 2: makes that whole process a little less sketchy and or

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Speaker 2: like intimidating.

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Speaker 1: Oh for sure.

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Speaker 2: Shout out shout out to Tim West from Bandit, who,

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Speaker 2: by the time this episode goes live, the Hurdle community

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Speaker 2: will actually be familiar with because Tim and I are

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Speaker 2: going to be sitting down tomorrow night at the Hub

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Speaker 2: seventeen inside of Blue Lemon for a little chat. Ski.

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Speaker 1: That's incredible. Tim's amazing guy, super super amazing guy. And

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Speaker 1: I actually have a funny story about how I met Tim. Oh.

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Speaker 1: I was wearing a banded hat and I just went

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Speaker 1: to this random board to meet a friend or just

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Speaker 1: he was working there, and he was sitting there and

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Speaker 1: then he came over, said hello, invited me to just

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Speaker 1: to have lunch, and then we hung out pretty much

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Speaker 1: the whole day and then we've been We've been friends

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Speaker 1: ever since.

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Speaker 2: I love that. I love that so so started some context,

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Speaker 2: here are our mutual friend Tim owns a company called

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Speaker 2: Bandit Running. They're they're gonna be doing some big things

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Speaker 2: coming up, So keep your eyes peeled for for what

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Speaker 2: Bandit has coming down the pipe. But Willie, so happy

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Speaker 2: to have you here today. Why don't you give us

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Speaker 2: a little context as to what you recently completed.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so I recently ran my first marathon. A little

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Speaker 1: bit further back into the story is that I was

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Speaker 1: diagnosed with multiple.

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Speaker 2: Sclerosis and many okay, lost.

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Speaker 1: Vision, lost, my mobility, ability to walk, can dexterity, so

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Speaker 1: some selight memory loss as well. And and I ran

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Speaker 1: a marathon five months after.

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Speaker 2: And I feel like a lot of people can share

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Speaker 2: that sentiment if they ever go for running a marathon.

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Speaker 2: I remember after my first New York I said exactly

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Speaker 2: that sentence, like best day of my life. But for you,

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Speaker 2: I mean, what a different weight that has after what

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Speaker 2: you went through. So before we talked through that diagnosis

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Speaker 2: from May, why don't you give the hurdlers a little

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Speaker 2: bit of context into what kind of life you were

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Speaker 2: living before this. Where did you grow up?

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Speaker 1: So? I was born in Columbia, moved to the States

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Speaker 1: when I was six to New Jersey, grew up in

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Speaker 1: New Jersey, soccer player all my life. I'm a soccer coach.

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Speaker 1: I'm a Utah coach. And then I moved to New

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Speaker 1: York in twenty seventeen, and then I started running recently.

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Speaker 1: I started running like I'm a pandemic runner. That's what

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Speaker 1: I called myself.

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Speaker 2: I think a lot of people are, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I'm a pandemic runner. And I did it to lose weight.

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Speaker 1: I was pretty heavy. I was like it, you know,

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Speaker 1: I felt not the best about myself, and I used

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Speaker 1: I used the time, you know, through obviously a very

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Speaker 1: tough period to just take care of myself and change myself.

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Speaker 1: So then I started running, and then it just started

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Speaker 1: going really really well. I started hitting like small milestones

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Speaker 1: and small winds, and I fell in love with running.

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Speaker 1: And then after that I was pretty hooked and I

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Speaker 1: just kept on going. Yeah and yeah, and that's that's

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Speaker 1: kind of what led me to design to run a

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Speaker 1: marathon and doing all those things.

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Speaker 2: So you got into running before your diagnosis.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which is pretty crazy because I think running

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Speaker 1: really helped me with my recovery. And I actually when

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Speaker 1: I first started getting symptoms and I might be getting

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Speaker 1: a little bit head here. But that was a Monday,

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Speaker 1: May third, and I ran ten miles that Monday with symptoms,

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Speaker 1: and then Tuesday run ran another eight with symptoms. But

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Speaker 1: it were light symptoms. It was just like vertigo. And

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Speaker 1: I just thought, well, I'm just gonna shake this off.

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna run this off. It just it might

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Speaker 1: be just a light headache. I had just gotten like

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Speaker 1: a new glasses prescription, so I thought maybe that would

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Speaker 1: have been something that could have contributed to that, and

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Speaker 1: I was wrong.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, wow, okay, And I think I mean, first

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Speaker 2: of all, also you saying you starting to run to

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Speaker 2: lose weight, A lot of people can definitely relate with that,

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Speaker 2: especially I think over the pandemic, all of us not

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Speaker 2: typically moving as much as we had been at one

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Speaker 2: point or another, especially with like the lack of a

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Speaker 2: commute or the lack of going to social activities. So

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Speaker 2: I myself like definitely leaned into running during the pandemic

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Speaker 2: to just feel a little bit better in my body.

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Speaker 2: And to highlight you saying like I felt a little

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Speaker 2: bit dizzy. I felt like it was vertigo. I mean

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Speaker 2: high prime example of like the thing that we all

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Speaker 2: go to like WebMD four right, Yeah, the Google. It's

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Speaker 2: like I feel a little bit dizzy, and it's like

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Speaker 2: it could be cancer or it could be I mean,

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Speaker 2: unfortunately like what you ultimately learned it to be. So

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Speaker 2: after day two of running me miles than what happens?

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Speaker 1: Oh man, So I it got worse obviously. I remember Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: I was walking my dog around Karen Park and I

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Speaker 1: absolutely whacked my head like on a tree branch because

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Speaker 1: I couldn't see it. I was really starting to lose

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Speaker 1: vision at that point. I was I lost peripheral vision

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Speaker 1: on the left first, and then it started, it slowly

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Speaker 1: started just boxing in, you know. And then at that

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Speaker 1: point I knew there was something like wrong, and I

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Speaker 1: knew that that I was starting to get sick. I

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Speaker 1: didn't know exactly what was happening. At that point. My

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Speaker 1: whoop strap actually was telling me that I was getting

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Speaker 1: I was getting eight nine hours of sleep, you know.

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Speaker 1: And I was still in the red, you know, I

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Speaker 1: was still in like the yellow, and I just didn't

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Speaker 1: understand why. Right, I was eating, well, hydrating, doing all

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Speaker 1: the things, and it was still in the yellow, and

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Speaker 1: it was still like like slightly in the red, but

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Speaker 1: like teetering towards yellow. And then I started asking questions.

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Speaker 1: I remember, I remember Clear's Day. I posted a story

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Speaker 1: about about positional vertigo, asking if anyone knew anything about

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Speaker 1: positional vertigo, this and that, and then someone someone suggested

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Speaker 1: I go see a chiropractor. So I did. That was Thursday.

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Speaker 1: That was Thursday, May sixth and then uh, they adjusted

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Speaker 1: my back. I felt great. Immediately after, I was like, Wow,

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Speaker 1: this is perfect. I feel good and I'm healed. That's it,

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Speaker 1: this is done. And then that Friday, I woke up

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Speaker 1: and I had no vision on my left I was

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Speaker 1: really struggling to walk. I needed like the walls to

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Speaker 1: keep me going. And then and then I decided to

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Speaker 1: make a phone call to a family friend who's a

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Speaker 1: who's a neurologist and explain to him what was happening.

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Speaker 1: And he gave me the three options of what I

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Speaker 1: might possibly have, one being MSS, second one being like

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Speaker 1: a like a slight stroke or like a laceration in

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Speaker 1: the brain. So then obviously those none of those are good,

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Speaker 1: you know, and I decided to go to the hospital.

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Speaker 1: I called around and just figured out or he suggested

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Speaker 1: I go to wild Cornell in the Upper East Upper

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Speaker 1: East Side, and yeah, I got to six.

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Speaker 2: You living, you living alone at this point, so.

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Speaker 1: I lived with my girlfriend and her dog. But my

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Speaker 1: girlfriend was in Pittsburgh. That's where she's from. So she

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Speaker 1: was in Pittsburgh at that time, and and she obviously

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Speaker 1: couldn't help, you know, and you know, she was there

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Speaker 1: for like a family event, so it was just really

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Speaker 1: hard for her to come back for something so silly

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Speaker 1: like positional verdigo, right right, right. And so then Friday,

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Speaker 1: I decided to go to the hospital. She decides to

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Speaker 1: come back from Pittsburgh, and I get to there. They

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Speaker 1: take me in right away, and they started doing some tests,

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Speaker 1: like some like walking tests and you know, and and

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Speaker 1: then they just they think that I pretty much just

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Speaker 1: have really bad migraines, and and I was pretty much

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Speaker 1: like that's it. And positional vertigo, which again I had

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Speaker 1: web mded, you know. And then after they started realizing

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Speaker 1: that you know, this might not be the case, went

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Speaker 1: for in for a cat scan an MRI, and then

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Speaker 1: and then and then that's when they told me that

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Speaker 1: like I was showing early signs of MS and they

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Speaker 1: were gonna admit me.

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Speaker 2: So for someone who doesn't know much about MS. Talk

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Speaker 2: to me a little bit about firstly what it is

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Speaker 2: and what's it mean to have like early on set,

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Speaker 2: Like are you in a better position because you found

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Speaker 2: it early or how does that work?

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Speaker 1: So? Multiple sclerosis is an auto immune disease where essentially

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Speaker 1: there's a protective wall around like your your nerves, right,

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Speaker 1: It's called the Milin wall, and that deteriorates, so it

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Speaker 1: starts breaking down and then that that open nerve you know,

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Speaker 1: when it when it comes in contact with a bunch

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Speaker 1: of different things, like it it doesn't connect well with

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Speaker 1: the brain or muscles, and and that's so that's essentially

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Speaker 1: what MSS is. Early signs are really hard to detect

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Speaker 1: because there's no real clear indication of how long you've

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Speaker 1: actually had a mess for it, you know, Like this

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Speaker 1: was my first clinical episode, right, but looking back, I've

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Speaker 1: I I might have had different symptoms that I would

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Speaker 1: have classified as like normal or me just being tired, yeah,

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Speaker 1: or me you know, just like acting strange for a

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Speaker 1: couple of days, you know, and you know it's it's I.

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Speaker 1: You just I have no way of telling, you know. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I possibly could have had a mess since like

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Speaker 1: I remember like the first somewhat related symptom was when

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Speaker 1: I was like sixteen. You know, I'm thirty now and

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Speaker 1: I was twenty nine when I got diagnosed.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what happened when you were sixteen?

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Speaker 1: I couldn't swallow certain foods, which is like a very

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Speaker 1: big a mess andthumb really and it was for like

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Speaker 1: it was for closer a year, you know, so what

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Speaker 1: kind of it's chewy foods, so like lots of meats.

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Speaker 1: I remember like almost choking on a calamari, like like

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Speaker 1: nearly died. So it was like foods like that, like broccoli,

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Speaker 1: like asparagus since it's like really stringy. So that was

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Speaker 1: I remember that being like the first one where I

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Speaker 1: was just I started asking like what was going on?

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Speaker 1: And you know, I never went to a doctor, right,

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Speaker 1: but you know, I just I was young. I you know,

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Speaker 1: I was playing soccer. I just thought, well, this is

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Speaker 1: just something whatever, you know. So so yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: so that's pretty much what happened. And like even with

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Speaker 1: like running, like my recovery time when running was like

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Speaker 1: when I first started running was really long, like sometimes

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Speaker 1: like when I first started hitting like ten like twelve miles,

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Speaker 1: my recovery was like three four days sometimes, you know,

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Speaker 1: and that's a long time.

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Speaker 2: You know even that what you were saying about the

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Speaker 2: whoop data like that is super interesting to me. And

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Speaker 2: you reference like being in the red being the yellow.

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Speaker 2: Basically the goal every day for someone who may not

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Speaker 2: wear a whoop is that you're hoping to like be

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Speaker 2: in the green, which is that means that like you're

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Speaker 2: recovering well, your body is in a prime state to

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Speaker 2: go after the next day of activities and take on

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Speaker 2: new strains. So if you're continually waking up in the

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Speaker 2: red or the yellow, and you're doing all the things

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Speaker 2: that you can do to be mindful of your overall recovery.

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Speaker 2: You mentioned sleep, perhaps not consuming much alcohol, or consuming

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Speaker 2: alcohol like early in their day, not close to bed.

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Speaker 2: Things like wearing blue light glasses can impact this. There

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Speaker 2: are so many factors that can impact your overall recovery,

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Speaker 2: including obviously how much strain you take on during the day.

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Speaker 2: So that is just such an interesting thing that we'll

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Speaker 2: have to we'll just turn well in the team onto

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Speaker 2: what happened in your in your case, but so I

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Speaker 2: can't even I'm like sitting here shaking my head thinking

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Speaker 2: about how you must have felt when they told you

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Speaker 2: that you had MSS.

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Speaker 1: I didn't process it at first, and at that point,

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Speaker 1: I think my body went into just I think my

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Speaker 1: body was that was in survival mode because I was

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Speaker 1: still able to stand and I was still able to move,

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Speaker 1: and I had to touch things and you know, and

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Speaker 1: I had to touch things and like move to help

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Speaker 1: me move around. But I was getting around. And then

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Speaker 1: as soon as they told me, I remember calling my

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Speaker 1: girlfriend and she's she came home right away. And then

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Speaker 1: I remember calling my mother, called my mom, and you know,

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Speaker 1: she was she was pretty upset. It's hereditary. Oh MS

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Speaker 1: is hereditary. And I have an uncle who does have MS.

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Speaker 1: And the first thing I thought about, he's his, his his,

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Speaker 1: his type of MSSES is it's pretty it's pretty developed.

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Speaker 1: So where like I have something called relapse from remitting MS,

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Speaker 1: where it's you know, you you you go into remission,

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Speaker 1: and then the goal is always not to relapse, right

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Speaker 1: because the next time you relapse, it's gonna get worse. Interesting,

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Speaker 1: and then it's just it's gonna get worse, and then

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Speaker 1: at some point it's gonna become a primary progressive where

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Speaker 1: that's where you see people in wheelchair you know, MS

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Speaker 1: patients and like uh that are struggling to be a

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Speaker 1: little more mobile, you know, and and their their symptoms

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Speaker 1: are just consistently throughout the day. And that was the

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Speaker 1: first thing that I thought about, was like, I see

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Speaker 1: how much it struggles, how much he struggles, how much

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Speaker 1: his family struggles to help him, you know, and how

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Speaker 1: large of a task it is. And I didn't want that,

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Speaker 1: you know. And but that was that was the first

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Speaker 1: thing that I really thought about. And but I thought

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Speaker 1: about my uncle a lot, and I didn't process it

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Speaker 1: as like I I have U. I process it as like, man,

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Speaker 1: this is really hard for you, and like I don't

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Speaker 1: want to go through that, yeah, you know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And then after and then when I got admitted, I

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Speaker 1: that's when I I couldn't even walk and I had

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Speaker 1: a little bit of ability on my right leg, but

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Speaker 1: my left leg was completely gone. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So and when they when they admit you, I mean,

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Speaker 2: I'm sure the questions that are going through your head

350
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Speaker 2: are just rampant, Like you want if you want all

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Speaker 2: the answers, you want as many of the answers as possible, right, Like,

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Speaker 2: how is this going to impact me? What is it

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Speaker 2: going to do to the rest of my the rest

354
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Speaker 2: of my days. Nevertheless, like next week, next month, Am

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Speaker 2: I gonna have to like completely change where I live?

356
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Speaker 2: Am I gonna have to move? Like all of these questions?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Unfortunately I didn't actually get to ask

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Speaker 1: those questions until like the second or third day. There

359
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Speaker 1: was a big gap of just a great area you know,

360
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Speaker 1: of of me not knowing what was happening. It was

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Speaker 1: just admitted and right away into like a spinal tap,

362
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Speaker 1: which was the worst because they kept missing. They were

363
00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:14,080
Speaker 1: just so spinal tap is they're trying to extract fluids

364
00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:18,040
Speaker 1: from your spine, and my lower back muscle al was

365
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:20,919
Speaker 1: like a bit too thick, so like they couldn't get

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Speaker 1: past the spinal area the muscle all the spinal area

367
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Speaker 1: two extract, so they just poked me like ten times.

368
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Speaker 1: It hurts so much. So so it was like that.

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Speaker 1: And then plus put you on steroids to try to

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Speaker 1: slow down the lesions in your brain. And then and

371
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Speaker 1: then so I had lesions in my brain. They figure

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Speaker 1: that out, and I also had lesions into my upper

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Speaker 1: cervical spine. So it was everywhere, like you know, and

374
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Speaker 1: and that's the reason why I was why my episode

375
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:52,359
Speaker 1: was so severe, you know, because it was. Yeah. So

376
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Speaker 1: then after like two days, I just didn't know what

377
00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:58,000
Speaker 1: was pretty much happening. I finally saw a neurologist, and

378
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Speaker 1: I remember asking him like three times, like are you

379
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Speaker 1: sure it's MSS like you know, like and he's like, yes,

380
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:04,439
Speaker 1: it's it's a mess. You know.

381
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Speaker 2: There's a known silver lining as the story progresses that

382
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Speaker 2: you are in a much better place now than you

383
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Speaker 2: were at this point. Yeah, but at that point, when

384
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Speaker 2: did you even feel or have any assurance that you

385
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Speaker 2: may be able to go back to what could have

386
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Speaker 2: been considered previously your quote unquote normal life.

387
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest with you. It wasn't even anything

388
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Speaker 1: with the doctors. It was it was just I knew

389
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Speaker 1: that I was going to get back, Like there was

390
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Speaker 1: no way that I wasn't going to get back to

391
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Speaker 1: like being that person, and and the doctors coming to

392
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:45,919
Speaker 1: talk to me, that was just confirmed it, you know.

393
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Speaker 1: And but it took a while, like I like I

394
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Speaker 1: got admit into like a like an impatient rehab program,

395
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Speaker 1: and that's really when I was able to ask those questions,

396
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,280
Speaker 1: you know. But but it was more about like the timeline,

397
00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:05,560
Speaker 1: not so much of like you know, is this am

398
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Speaker 1: I going to be able to get back? You know?

399
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:09,720
Speaker 1: It was when yeah, you know, like when can I

400
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Speaker 1: start running? Like when can I start moving when I kicked?

401
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:17,480
Speaker 1: When can I go back to coaching? And And I

402
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:21,360
Speaker 1: didn't get my final answer until I met my specialist,

403
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:25,959
Speaker 1: and that was three days before I was discharged, and

404
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:30,680
Speaker 1: she gave me a timeframe of running of early July,

405
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Speaker 1: early to mid July.

406
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Speaker 2: So you were to the extent that you had described.

407
00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 2: When you go into that inpatient facility, which is where

408
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 2: it's in.

409
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Speaker 1: It's it's in WL Cranella in the upper east Side.

410
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 1: They have they have like a like like like an

411
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Speaker 1: impatient rehab center in you know where they they admit

412
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Speaker 1: you in and you stay there for X amount of

413
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,240
Speaker 1: weeks days, you know, and it's it's intensive. It's from

414
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Speaker 1: like nine to five, like occupational physical, cognitive therapy. There

415
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:04,960
Speaker 1: was everything. Doctors come and see you like all the time,

416
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,360
Speaker 1: tons of test Yeah, and it was intense and honestly

417
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Speaker 1: it was pretty hard.

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Speaker 2: Well I would imagine that at any point it would

419
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Speaker 2: be very intense and very hard, but I would also

420
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Speaker 2: guess that it had to be a little bit more

421
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Speaker 2: difficult because of the climate of what was going on

422
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Speaker 2: in the world at the time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that was tough. Yeah, that was really really tough.

424
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Speaker 1: That was tough because there was a lot of people

425
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Speaker 1: that wanted to see me, and I wanted to see

426
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Speaker 1: a lot of people, and when you lose contact for

427
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 1: x amount of days, it becomes really hard, and you know,

428
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Speaker 1: and I know it was also it was it was limiting,

429
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:49,800
Speaker 1: like people couldn't people could only come and see me

430
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:53,200
Speaker 1: from like nine to like eight, But it wasn't really

431
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 1: nine to eight because I was in therapy for like

432
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 1: four hours in the morning and then you know, and

433
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Speaker 1: like four hours in the afternoon, and then like after

434
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Speaker 1: that I had pretty much homework and like you know, yeah,

435
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,440
Speaker 1: and so that was that was difficult. And then also

436
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,200
Speaker 1: the weather was turning. It was it was like really

437
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:10,879
Speaker 1: cold when I when I went into the hospital, and

438
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,399
Speaker 1: then it was just like mid seventies, and you know,

439
00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:14,680
Speaker 1: it was really really nice.

440
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:18,720
Speaker 2: Do you, upon arriving there start to meet anyone that

441
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,440
Speaker 2: like makes an impact on you, Yes, yes, Oh I

442
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 2: love the enthusiasm.

443
00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:27,960
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yes, and impatient. There was this this

444
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:29,800
Speaker 1: older guy, his name was his name is Steve. I'll

445
00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 1: never forget him. He was so nice.

446
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:32,680
Speaker 2: What's Steve's deal.

447
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:39,000
Speaker 1: Steve's deal is that he he had a bad accident

448
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:43,239
Speaker 1: and I don't know, I don't remember exactly what he

449
00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:46,240
Speaker 1: was diagnosed with, but he was he was he was

450
00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:49,199
Speaker 1: the place is called Baker eighteen or and that's what

451
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 1: they just called the patient. But he was there really

452
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 1: close to a month, and he was just like going

453
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 1: through the wringer and he was so positive about everything.

454
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:01,800
Speaker 1: And he was my roommate. I was only there with

455
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:03,679
Speaker 1: him one night, but he made such an impact. We

456
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:06,439
Speaker 1: watched the Yankees game. I don't even like baseball, sorry,

457
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 1: but you know, like we watched like a Knicks game,

458
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 1: and we watched a bunch of different things, and he

459
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:16,640
Speaker 1: would just talk to me about like you're gonna be fine,

460
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: you're young, this and that, like you should be you

461
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:21,120
Speaker 1: should be happy that you're not my age because you'd

462
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:24,280
Speaker 1: be here for two months and and he was just amazing,

463
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 1: an amazing, amazing guy. And then actually when I when

464
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:29,400
Speaker 1: I after I got out of the hospital, I saw

465
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:33,160
Speaker 1: him like two months later, and I said hello to him,

466
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:35,199
Speaker 1: and you know, and we talked her a bit, but

467
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:37,440
Speaker 1: he was. He was one of those people that made

468
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 1: an impact. And then also the therapist. I mean they

469
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 1: were incredible. Like, you know, I'm really fortunate and grateful

470
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:50,439
Speaker 1: that i had such a tremendous team around me in

471
00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: that week and a half that I was there, because

472
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:58,879
Speaker 1: they got me from walking three feet to walking hallways.

473
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 2: And then they send you back home or what happens

474
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,159
Speaker 2: with that. I'm sure you needed a lot of like

475
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 2: you needed to kind of shift things up a little bit, right.

476
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 1: So the reason why I had to stay there was

477
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,919
Speaker 1: because I couldn't go upstairs and I live in a

478
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:16,119
Speaker 1: three floor walk up and they needed a plan and

479
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:20,320
Speaker 1: I needed a plan, right, So they got me to

480
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:23,800
Speaker 1: a baseline where pretty much I could just go upstairs

481
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 1: and that was it.

482
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:27,160
Speaker 2: And at this point, your vision is better.

483
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:32,400
Speaker 1: Not fully, yeah, not fully, everything's really blurry. Light sensitivity

484
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,439
Speaker 1: was a massive deal for me. Yeah, huge, huge problem

485
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:38,680
Speaker 1: for me. Yeah, that was rough. That was tough. Light

486
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:42,200
Speaker 1: sensitivity was really really hard. Anything would hurt my head.

487
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 1: One of the largest things that was really really challenging

488
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:50,480
Speaker 1: was the sirens. You know New York sirens everywhere and

489
00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:54,200
Speaker 1: as soon as you hear them, like in a maybe

490
00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:56,440
Speaker 1: like a three block radius. I just like would lose

491
00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:01,000
Speaker 1: vision immediately and headaches right away, and yeah, what.

492
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:02,280
Speaker 2: Can you do to manage that?

493
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: Nothing? Yeah, nothing, literally nothing. You just have to take it.

494
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:12,520
Speaker 1: And that was for almost like a month, you know,

495
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,439
Speaker 1: and you're just there and you just you know, fingers

496
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:17,399
Speaker 1: to the ears and just trying to just close in

497
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:19,880
Speaker 1: your eyes and just trying to just let it go

498
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 1: and pass. And it's a fire truck and after that

499
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 1: it's an ambulance and then there's.

500
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,200
Speaker 2: You know, and did you think about just leaving New York?

501
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, big time, big time. I thought about

502
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: leaving New York. And I couldn't you know, I couldn't walk.

503
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:37,520
Speaker 1: I pretty much had a full time job of being

504
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,760
Speaker 1: seen doctors after I got out for the Perth until

505
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: like August. Yeah, specialist, doctor's, therapist, everything was here. I

506
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:50,679
Speaker 1: couldn't just leave, but solely based on the fact that ambulance, firetruck,

507
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 1: all these like sirens were killing me. I wanted to

508
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 1: leave so badly.

509
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 2: And I mean, beyond that struggle, I would also imagine

510
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 2: that obviously all this takes such an emotional toll on you.

511
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 2: So during I would say, let's say pre August, because

512
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:09,240
Speaker 2: it seems as though we're going to get to a point,

513
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 2: come like end of August, where you're starting to like

514
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:13,919
Speaker 2: feel a little bit more back at home in your body.

515
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 2: So leading up to that point, how do you even

516
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:20,960
Speaker 2: stay grounded or like deal with the day to day

517
00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:23,919
Speaker 2: frustrations of something that's just so uncontrollable.

518
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:28,639
Speaker 1: I started setting myself just like little goals, you know,

519
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,720
Speaker 1: like small goals like I'm trying to think of, like

520
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 1: the first one that I set myself taking the subway,

521
00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 1: not ubering, and I couldn't drive, you know, so it

522
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 1: was ubers you know, it lifts. And then my first

523
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: goal was I want to take the train, and I

524
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,360
Speaker 1: did it and I was super happy about it. And

525
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,479
Speaker 1: then after was getting off the cane, and then I

526
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:52,960
Speaker 1: was able to get off the cane, and then after

527
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: that was regaining vision with fast movements. And that one

528
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,240
Speaker 1: took a really really long time, more than I had expected,

529
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: But it was one of the goals that I set

530
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:05,600
Speaker 1: for myself. It just it took longer to get there.

531
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 2: But a goal like that, like how much of that

532
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 2: is actually within your control?

533
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:11,240
Speaker 1: It is because there's there's therapy for that. So we

534
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 1: did something called vo R VR vo R, which it's

535
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 1: like vestibular something response whatever, and it's essentially just a

536
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:23,240
Speaker 1: big letter B, right, Yeah, it's just capital B. And

537
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: you're just moving your head left and right on a

538
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 1: metronome and you're just going left and right, left and right,

539
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 1: left and right. And then after you go with the

540
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:32,600
Speaker 1: with the the be you go up and down. Yeah,

541
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: and that helps with your vestibular system. And you're just

542
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 1: doing that for like ever, for like two minutes, like

543
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: like four sets of two minutes.

544
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 2: And I'm just sitting here like shaking my head a

545
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 2: little bit, thinking about the grit that it takes to

546
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,760
Speaker 2: commit to that, knowing that, for example, like I'm dealing

547
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:54,440
Speaker 2: with I would say, last phases of a strange so

548
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 2: as muscle, which required physical therapy and like physical therapy

549
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 2: homework that I drited doing, whereas I'm talking to someone

550
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,200
Speaker 2: that needed to do this for like hours a day.

551
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a lot. And then yeah,

552
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 1: so that was like one of the workouts that I did.

553
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: There was something called the Brock string, which is like

554
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 1: it's just a string with like different beads and then

555
00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:19,160
Speaker 1: you're just going and just moving and you're just going

556
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: from be to bead and then moving your head left

557
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 1: and right. And there's different exercises with this one string.

558
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,720
Speaker 1: And it's so elementary, right because it's just a string

559
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 1: that's tied to your doorknob. But you're there and you're

560
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 1: trying to focus because I couldn't focus. I had I

561
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 1: had a big issue with convergence, so like getting both

562
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: eyes to like work together to meet in the middle.

563
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 1: And so I'm just doing that and I'm doing this

564
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 1: this VR this with this letter B and just moving

565
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 1: my head left and right, you know, going down the

566
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 1: streets of like Brooklyn, just like left and right, and

567
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:54,480
Speaker 1: everyone's looking at me, like what's going on with this guy?

568
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:54,800
Speaker 2: You know?

569
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: And so those were two of the big workouts that

570
00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: I did and and again super elementary, but it makes

571
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 1: a difference. Yeah, And if you're not doing it, your

572
00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 1: recovery just you know, it grows by like exponentially.

573
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 2: And I mean talk about the application of this like

574
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:16,200
Speaker 2: relevant to whatever other goal or task that you have

575
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 2: at hand. When we're talking about like setting small attainable

576
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 2: goals so that you can get to where you want

577
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,960
Speaker 2: to be, even if these small goals like aren't as

578
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:27,040
Speaker 2: far along or as progressed as you were hoping.

579
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 1: With these little goals there. I knew that they were

580
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 1: just going to build up to something greater, right, And

581
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 1: I also knew that I didn't have a choice, you know,

582
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 1: I knew that this was my only route.

583
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 2: Yeah. But that acceptance, that acceptance is like what so

584
00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 2: many people struggle with, right, Yeah, I mean that's what

585
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 2: separates like a fixed mindset from a growth mindset. You

586
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,760
Speaker 2: can either like commit to wanting to be better that

587
00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 2: includes accepting the shit that you can't change, or you

588
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 2: can just be sitting at home being mad about the

589
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:55,120
Speaker 2: things that you can't change.

590
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, And you know, and I know tons

591
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:00,800
Speaker 1: of not tons, but I know some of them mess patients,

592
00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:04,239
Speaker 1: and you know that that struggle with that, you know,

593
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: they see it as something that they can't deal with

594
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 1: or they struggle to deal with. But even though it sucks,

595
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: and it it changes your day, like by an hour,

596
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 1: you know, each hour, like I today, we can be

597
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:20,760
Speaker 1: talking or like right now we could be talking, and

598
00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:25,240
Speaker 1: then once I leave here, I might lose like handexterity

599
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 1: or might have like foot drop. But you got to

600
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 1: be okay with that, and you got to be okay

601
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:32,160
Speaker 1: that this stuff is, it's going to happen, but there's

602
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 1: stuff that you can do to prevent that. There's stuff

603
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 1: that you can do to maybe not have it happen

604
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,960
Speaker 1: as frequently, you know. And that was my mindset, is

605
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: I don't want this. This hurts, this is terrible, and

606
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 1: if I can avoid it, I'm going to do it.

607
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 1: And you know, but but yeah, it's truly hard for

608
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:47,560
Speaker 1: a lot of people to do that.

609
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 2: Is there like a moment where you feel as though

610
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 2: a lot of these exercises that you're doing or the

611
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 2: I would say, maybe some of the sacrifices you're making

612
00:32:57,400 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 2: are really starting to pay off.

613
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:05,160
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I June seventh, So I my birthday was

614
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,240
Speaker 1: June eighth. June seventh, I set another little goal to

615
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:13,640
Speaker 1: just run, to just run a lap around the track

616
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 1: at mccaron Park. And it was way too early for me.

617
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:19,760
Speaker 1: I knew it was way too early for me, but

618
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:22,440
Speaker 1: I was like, whatever, I'm going to do this. You know,

619
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,800
Speaker 1: I just need I needed it, you know. So I

620
00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 1: did it. I did it, and then I ran the

621
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: first one, walked and then I got to three quarters

622
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:35,920
Speaker 1: of a mile and I felt great and then at

623
00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 1: this point, I was like, Wow, I'm actually running. I

624
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:40,800
Speaker 1: might not be running in a straight line, but I'm running.

625
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:43,120
Speaker 1: You know, I might be a little it might be

626
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 1: a little blurry, I don't really see anyone on the

627
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:48,080
Speaker 1: left or right side of me, but guess what, I'm running.

628
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 1: And that's when I knew a whole Like that's when

629
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,320
Speaker 1: I figured out that therapy was really really working and

630
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: I was getting closer to taking my next steps of

631
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 1: my Marith fun Yeah.

632
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:04,200
Speaker 2: I mean I'm sitting here thinking about if I had

633
00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 2: happened to be at the track at that day and

634
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:10,319
Speaker 2: just I mean forget like what it looked like to

635
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,400
Speaker 2: like to actually for someone on the outside not knowing you,

636
00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 2: seeing you run. But really what I'm thinking about is

637
00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:20,799
Speaker 2: the idea that like you never know what anyone is

638
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:23,280
Speaker 2: dealing with, like it walks by you on the street,

639
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:27,160
Speaker 2: for one person to like have like learned that about

640
00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:28,839
Speaker 2: like that thing that you were doing at that time

641
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:30,879
Speaker 2: on that track, and how meaningful that was to you,

642
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:33,800
Speaker 2: Like Wow, what what an accomplishment?

643
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:36,160
Speaker 1: But what like a moment. It was a moment, And

644
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:40,040
Speaker 1: you know, I think that day I became more empathetic.

645
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 1: I started to really understand what people might go through

646
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: that I just don't see. Yeah, and I had and

647
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 1: I had a really nice I remember finishing and I

648
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:54,839
Speaker 1: just laid on the ground for a little bit and

649
00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 1: just close my eyes and just try to like get

650
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 1: my vision back. And while doing that, I remember are

651
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:03,560
Speaker 1: just thinking like, holy shit, I just did this. And

652
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 1: there's people that are struggling with what you wars, and

653
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 1: even though I'm going through this, I'm one of the

654
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,560
Speaker 1: lucky ones. And I think that's why I really want

655
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:12,719
Speaker 1: to talk to you about this too, because I think

656
00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: it's really really important to just put more awareness out there.

657
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 1: And I think we're starting to see them more with

658
00:35:17,600 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 1: m mess as maybe the last three years, but there's

659
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:24,240
Speaker 1: not enough out there, especially for athletes.

660
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you

661
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:36,879
Speaker 2: about my sponsors. First up, Daily Harvest. Now, this time

662
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 2: of year for me usually means getting back into a

663
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Speaker 2: busier schedule. And you know, I love food, but when

664
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:45,160
Speaker 2: I am swamped, it is hard for me to focus

665
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:47,360
Speaker 2: on what's for lunch when I'm trying to manage my

666
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Speaker 2: inbox and coordinate interviews and write articles and you get

667
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 2: the picture. Anyway, thanks to Daily Harvest, my freezer is

668
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669
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670
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Speaker 2: all built on organic fruits and vegetables right to your door.

671
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Speaker 2: And the best part is that it literally takes minutes

672
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Speaker 2: to prepare and it never uses preservatives, added sugar or

673
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674
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Speaker 2: their crimini and asparagus pot pie, unbelievably delicious and memes.

675
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Speaker 2: I'll throw in a couple of Turguni balls to go

676
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Speaker 2: in with that. Also the roasted eggplant and red pepper

677
00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:34,840
Speaker 2: cappanada pi. Yes, every day, Thank you. This is the

678
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:36,799
Speaker 2: kind of stuff that I would never have the like

679
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 2: brain bandwidth to come up on my own, and it

680
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:44,560
Speaker 2: helps me eat well when I'm trying to do good too.

681
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 2: Of course, Daily Harvest has an awesome deal for you.

682
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:51,439
Speaker 2: Enjoy this time of year even more like I do

683
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:54,560
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684
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687
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Speaker 2: D at Dailyharvest dot com to get up to forty

688
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Speaker 2: dollars off your first box. That's Dallyharvest dot com. Dailyharvest

689
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 2: dot Com. I also want to give some love to

690
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:20,759
Speaker 2: my friends at Revtown. Revtown is on a mission to

691
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:24,520
Speaker 2: make your favorite pair of genes, and I can personally

692
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:29,200
Speaker 2: say mission accomplished now. I man, I feel like forever

693
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:33,400
Speaker 2: for me, buying denim has just been an absolute headache.

694
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:35,799
Speaker 2: I feel like nothing fits my thighs as well as

695
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:38,680
Speaker 2: it fits my waist. I've always been made to feel

696
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:40,839
Speaker 2: like something is wrong with me because none of these

697
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:44,400
Speaker 2: styles work well for me and my body. That is

698
00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 2: until I tried on Revtown dena. Now there styles there

699
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:54,720
Speaker 2: inherently naturally inclusive and super accessible to women of all

700
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 2: shapes and body types. Plus the material is super comfortable.

701
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 2: It's a signature Italian denim, Italian denim that's unparalleled and

702
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:10,080
Speaker 2: comfort for half the price of so many other designer genes.

703
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:12,960
Speaker 2: Plus they've got super cute trims on so much of

704
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:16,799
Speaker 2: their styles, pem treatments and distressing, and I love just

705
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 2: all of the different washes. Again, Revtown is my go to,

706
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:22,760
Speaker 2: and I know that you will love it as well.

707
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,560
Speaker 2: Head on over to revtown dot com. That's R E.

708
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:29,839
Speaker 2: V t ow n dot com slash hurdle to check

709
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:32,799
Speaker 2: out some of my favorites. Again, that's revtown dot com

710
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:42,600
Speaker 2: slash hurdle to check out my favorites today. The question

711
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,520
Speaker 2: that comes up now is when does the you know,

712
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 2: three quarters of a mile turn into like more plurals.

713
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:55,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, it actually came really quick after that. Yeah, I

714
00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:58,840
Speaker 1: did safely. I was okay by by by my therapist,

715
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,759
Speaker 1: my physical therapist, and we set another small goals of

716
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:04,840
Speaker 1: just like you know, ten percent increases and then after

717
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:07,240
Speaker 1: that and it went up to like twenty and then

718
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:12,239
Speaker 1: so I moved to like one mile full run felt great,

719
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:16,960
Speaker 1: but I was running like thirteen minute miles. And the

720
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:19,879
Speaker 1: whole thing with the way that I have to run

721
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:21,640
Speaker 1: now is that I have to keep my heart rate

722
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 1: at a certain level. So all of my training had

723
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:28,279
Speaker 1: been zone one zone two throughout, and which is great,

724
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,560
Speaker 1: you know, like you know, bunners know that zone one

725
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,200
Speaker 1: zone two is like easy run or your bread and butter,

726
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:36,880
Speaker 1: and you know, and you should be doing that. But

727
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:39,799
Speaker 1: when you don't, when you can't run and you haven't

728
00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:42,640
Speaker 1: ran in such a long time. Zone one is a

729
00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:45,680
Speaker 1: fourteen minute mile, like zone two is a thirteen minute mile,

730
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:48,439
Speaker 1: and my heart rate is still just like spiking into

731
00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:52,919
Speaker 1: like one sixty five one seventies yeah, so so yeah.

732
00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:55,879
Speaker 1: So from from mile one it quickly went into mile

733
00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:59,680
Speaker 1: four and then mile four to like mile six and

734
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 1: then and at that point I was feeling much better.

735
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:04,319
Speaker 1: And that was I want to say, that was like

736
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:06,239
Speaker 1: close to August at that point.

737
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:12,440
Speaker 2: Wow, wow, And just I love the approach that like

738
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 2: it doesn't look like how it used to, but it

739
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:17,319
Speaker 2: still makes me feel great. That's like something else that

740
00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:20,799
Speaker 2: I think is a hurdle that many of us struggle with,

741
00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:23,600
Speaker 2: especially when it comes to either having to get back

742
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:27,440
Speaker 2: into a fitness routine, or maybe it's with how you're eating,

743
00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:29,759
Speaker 2: or you know, there's just so many, so many different

744
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:32,640
Speaker 2: circumstances where this is applicable. But to not judge like

745
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,440
Speaker 2: that beginning too harshly, right, because it's so easy just

746
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,319
Speaker 2: to be frustrated. But if you're again you know this theme,

747
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 2: if you're spending your time being frustrated about like where

748
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:43,160
Speaker 2: you're at, then you can't focus on really where you

749
00:40:43,239 --> 00:40:43,680
Speaker 2: want to go.

750
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:48,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's very true. And I definitely thought about

751
00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 1: just not running, you know, because it was taking me

752
00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:54,120
Speaker 1: so long to run two miles and and you know,

753
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:58,360
Speaker 1: it's frustrating, you know, especially especially knowing where you were before. Yeah,

754
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:00,640
Speaker 1: So but I kept going and I knew this is

755
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:02,839
Speaker 1: what I wanted. And then after I started really enjoying it,

756
00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:05,880
Speaker 1: and I started really seeing it as my time to

757
00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:07,520
Speaker 1: just what's the word I'm looking for?

758
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:08,200
Speaker 2: Do you compress?

759
00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 1: Do you compress? But also accept, right, and it was

760
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:15,319
Speaker 1: it was it was my time to really reflect on

761
00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 1: what I was going through and how how this was

762
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:25,080
Speaker 1: changing my landscape as a person, as a partner, as

763
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,520
Speaker 1: a soccer coach, as you know, as as a lot

764
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:31,799
Speaker 1: of things. And I really started enjoying it, and I

765
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 1: would think about like the craziest things on my run,

766
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 1: like these really long short runs, you know, Like I

767
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 1: would think about, you know, everything from like what I

768
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 1: was going to eat for dinner that day because I

769
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:46,840
Speaker 1: had to transition my diet, and to like literally thinking

770
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:49,319
Speaker 1: why is this happening to me? Like why am I?

771
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:53,200
Speaker 1: Why am I in this place? You know? So and

772
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:55,640
Speaker 1: those two sides of the spectrum are so nice and

773
00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:59,399
Speaker 1: just they're so important when you're when you're going through

774
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 1: something like that, because it really helps you accept who

775
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 1: you are as a person. It really helps you accept

776
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:09,920
Speaker 1: your challenges, and it helps you get ahead.

777
00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 2: Yeah you know, yeah for you. I mean you said

778
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:15,800
Speaker 2: you had to adapt your diet. What had to shift everything? Yeah?

779
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:19,800
Speaker 1: Everything, low sugar, low sodium. I'm pretty much plant based

780
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:23,839
Speaker 1: with with some with some like high fat fish. People

781
00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:28,000
Speaker 1: ms are usually vitamin D deficient, so we got to

782
00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 1: keep that up. And so I do have fish, but

783
00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:35,760
Speaker 1: mostly plant based and no meat. And to be honest

784
00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:38,960
Speaker 1: with you, I just I feel sick when eating like

785
00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:44,400
Speaker 1: high fat meats now, you know. So that's where I transitioned.

786
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 1: I also don't really drink as much anymore. So I

787
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:50,360
Speaker 1: pretty much cut alcohol from my life now. Yeah, I

788
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:52,520
Speaker 1: drink occasionally, you know. I still have some fun, but

789
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 1: it's it's just not worth it totally. It's not worth

790
00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:58,360
Speaker 1: it for me anymore. My recovery, like from a hangover

791
00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:01,240
Speaker 1: is four days. And who has four days?

792
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:02,879
Speaker 2: No, no one, Life's too short.

793
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:03,680
Speaker 1: Let's way too short.

794
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:06,960
Speaker 2: That's way too short for you. Also on the run,

795
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,960
Speaker 2: were there any perhaps like safety precautions or things that

796
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:13,239
Speaker 2: you had to shift in the way that you would

797
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,000
Speaker 2: go out versus what you did before you were diagnosed.

798
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:18,480
Speaker 1: I had to switch up my routes. I had to

799
00:43:18,520 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 1: switch up my routes and make sure that they were safe.

800
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:23,239
Speaker 1: I set up my routes where I had water, like

801
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:26,880
Speaker 1: water fountains if I didn't have water. I started running

802
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 1: super early in the morning because it was in the

803
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:32,760
Speaker 1: because I started running or running back again June July

804
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:36,319
Speaker 1: August right so right, so I couldn't I couldn't run

805
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day. So I started running

806
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:42,360
Speaker 1: like four thirty in the morning, five thirty morning.

807
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:44,960
Speaker 2: When do you sign up for a marathon?

808
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:49,000
Speaker 1: I signed up for my marathon the third day I

809
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:52,440
Speaker 1: was in the hospital. Stop it, oh, I swear. I

810
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:56,640
Speaker 1: signed up for the New Jersey Marathon, which got canceled

811
00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:59,399
Speaker 1: and then and then they moved it to or we

812
00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:02,880
Speaker 1: were able to just move our entry to the Atlantic

813
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:05,480
Speaker 1: City Marathon. And that's when I that's when I signed up.

814
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:08,239
Speaker 2: Talk to me about that thought process.

815
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:11,360
Speaker 1: I wanted to do it. That was the goal before

816
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:15,160
Speaker 1: I got diagnosed, and nothing was going to change that.

817
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:17,480
Speaker 1: Nothing was going to change that for me. I knew

818
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:19,480
Speaker 1: that I wanted to run it. I knew I also

819
00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:21,680
Speaker 1: knew that if I didn't run it, I was going

820
00:44:21,719 --> 00:44:26,480
Speaker 1: to really suffer from that emotionally right. And I knew

821
00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 1: my head, my mental health could possibly be at risk

822
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:34,319
Speaker 1: if I didn't even try it, you know, or have

823
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:36,839
Speaker 1: like a goal. It was the second night transit moving

824
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:41,000
Speaker 1: into the third you know day, I I couldn't sleep.

825
00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:43,879
Speaker 1: I couldn't sleep at all. Those beds are super uncomfortable,

826
00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:48,000
Speaker 1: and I was awake. And I just signed up for

827
00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:50,960
Speaker 1: this marathon. I just needed to sign up for something

828
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:53,359
Speaker 1: that was going to push me out of this and

829
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:55,480
Speaker 1: that was going to help me look forward to something

830
00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:58,239
Speaker 1: because it had been a really crappy year. And I

831
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:01,120
Speaker 1: just I thought about the feeling of me crossing that

832
00:45:01,160 --> 00:45:06,239
Speaker 1: finish line and I visualized it, and I and and

833
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:07,840
Speaker 1: I just thought, man, this is going to be the

834
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:11,600
Speaker 1: greatest feeling ever to be able to accomplish something like

835
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:16,160
Speaker 1: this after what I just went through. And I know

836
00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:18,560
Speaker 1: that if I finished this marathon, I'm going to be

837
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 1: able to get through anything.

838
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:22,959
Speaker 2: Can I ask you a personal question, do it did

839
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:26,200
Speaker 2: you beyond like the therapist that you worked with for

840
00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:29,760
Speaker 2: all of your recovery, start seeking any therapy for mental health?

841
00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:32,880
Speaker 1: Yeah? For sure, Yeah, yeah, I needed to talk. Therapy

842
00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:37,719
Speaker 1: was super important for me. I had I didn't. First

843
00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:40,000
Speaker 1: of all, I'm not a good communicator, write something I

844
00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:45,160
Speaker 1: really struggedly struggle with. And I didn't know how to communicate.

845
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to communicate with myself about you know,

846
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:51,320
Speaker 1: getting through this, you know, which was really really hard.

847
00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:53,200
Speaker 1: And I'll just get real with you, Like I didn't

848
00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:55,600
Speaker 1: have insurance with I didn't have insurance either, so I

849
00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:57,560
Speaker 1: had so when I got out of the hospital, I

850
00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:00,239
Speaker 1: had like a two hundred thousand dollars debt, you know,

851
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:04,960
Speaker 1: and that alone is like, that's enough stress to put

852
00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:08,640
Speaker 1: you into another episode. Yeah, you know. I was really

853
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:11,239
Speaker 1: fortunate and we were able to set up a GoFundMe

854
00:46:11,360 --> 00:46:13,560
Speaker 1: and we reached the goal one hundred thousand, which is great.

855
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:15,640
Speaker 1: We settled with the hospital and then we were able

856
00:46:15,680 --> 00:46:19,400
Speaker 1: to pay that awfully, so that's gone, wow, which is great.

857
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:22,760
Speaker 2: And then yeah, but like the ongoing treatment still.

858
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:26,359
Speaker 1: The ongoing treatment still so, but now have insurance, which

859
00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:30,920
Speaker 1: is great, and you know, but for for the first

860
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:33,040
Speaker 1: couple of months, I had to just deal with that, yeah,

861
00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:34,880
Speaker 1: you know, and I didn't know and I didn't know

862
00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:36,200
Speaker 1: how to deal with it. I didn't know who to

863
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:39,719
Speaker 1: talk to about it. You know. I also was struggling

864
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:42,279
Speaker 1: cognitively obviously, you know, so I like I would call

865
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 1: I would call insurance companies, and they were just talk

866
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:48,760
Speaker 1: to me about all these things that I just didn't understand,

867
00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:51,560
Speaker 1: and I couldn't comprehend it. I just couldn't grasp all

868
00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:54,239
Speaker 1: the things that were being said to me, and you know,

869
00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:58,120
Speaker 1: and that was really just difficult, you know. So and

870
00:46:58,200 --> 00:46:59,120
Speaker 1: that was just one of those.

871
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 2: Things, you know, talk to me about the longest run

872
00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:04,160
Speaker 2: before the long.

873
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:09,120
Speaker 1: Run, long run being my marathon. My longest run was outstanding.

874
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:12,520
Speaker 1: I hit eighteen. I bought some Nike Alpha Flies.

875
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:19,279
Speaker 2: Oh you're flying, I'm flying, I'm cruising, and hashtag sponsor me.

876
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:24,840
Speaker 1: That's it please Nike. Yeah, it felt great. So I

877
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:27,000
Speaker 1: bought these. I ran with them up for a little

878
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:30,960
Speaker 1: bit right and then right away as soon as I

879
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,880
Speaker 1: started that run, my heart rate drasticully dropped, and it

880
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:37,239
Speaker 1: was incredible. It was because this is exactly where I

881
00:47:37,239 --> 00:47:40,640
Speaker 1: need it right right, and I'm around like mile ten

882
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:44,680
Speaker 1: making my splits in like low tens, which was good

883
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:48,600
Speaker 1: for me at that point, and then and then hitting

884
00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:51,319
Speaker 1: some nines but my heart rates still like at like

885
00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:56,440
Speaker 1: you know, which is phenomenal. That's where I want to be.

886
00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:00,480
Speaker 1: And I finished my eighteen I I could have gone

887
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:03,080
Speaker 1: for like another like four miles, and I felt so good.

888
00:48:03,120 --> 00:48:04,920
Speaker 1: And at that point, I was like, I knew that

889
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:07,120
Speaker 1: I was ready for this marathon. I knew that I'm

890
00:48:07,160 --> 00:48:10,120
Speaker 1: going to absolutely crush this thing. And I was so

891
00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:14,279
Speaker 1: confident in myself yea about doing this that I like

892
00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 1: it helped me with the nerves. My nerves are completely gone.

893
00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 1: I was starting to taper down. I had an amazing

894
00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:24,000
Speaker 1: program with my run coach, Jimmy Williams, and then I

895
00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:28,800
Speaker 1: also seeked out string training through Brooklyn Athletic Club in Greenpoint,

896
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:32,240
Speaker 1: And so I was ready. I was prepared for this marathon.

897
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:36,880
Speaker 1: I had done everything possible, yeah, to absolutely smash this marathon,

898
00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:40,040
Speaker 1: and that last run solidified it.

899
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:48,120
Speaker 2: Question, low sugar, what are your electrolytes? Oh, there's nutrition

900
00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:50,640
Speaker 2: like a rough spot for marathon training for you.

901
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can imagine Morton's DCAF. You know, jels,

902
00:48:56,800 --> 00:48:58,400
Speaker 1: those are my bread and butter for long runs.

903
00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:01,239
Speaker 2: Have the right albument. No, I'm going to give you

904
00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:04,120
Speaker 2: some before you leave here. Yeah, it's salt, no sugar,

905
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:05,320
Speaker 2: no gluten.

906
00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:07,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll give you something that'd be amazing.

907
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:10,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, it's one of my favorites because I

908
00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:13,440
Speaker 2: was I was leaning into some sugary options before and

909
00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:15,839
Speaker 2: I felt like a little drained from it, and once

910
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:18,520
Speaker 2: I started drinking Element. I mean, obviously it's a beverage.

911
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:21,280
Speaker 2: So if you're I drink it before and after mostly,

912
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:23,280
Speaker 2: or I'll drink it on the bike when I go riding.

913
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:25,759
Speaker 2: I don't like carry my own bottle when I'm doing

914
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:28,280
Speaker 2: a long run. I'll I'll do some more in gels

915
00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:30,680
Speaker 2: as well in that case. But yeah, I'll give you

916
00:49:30,719 --> 00:49:32,600
Speaker 2: something awesome. Yeah, I got you.

917
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:34,719
Speaker 1: Yeah it was it was really hard. I mean with

918
00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 1: eluxtual lights. That wasn't even part of my my my

919
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:39,880
Speaker 1: marathon training.

920
00:49:39,960 --> 00:49:41,960
Speaker 2: Right, this is your first marathon. Had you run at

921
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:43,200
Speaker 2: half or anything before this?

922
00:49:43,560 --> 00:49:46,040
Speaker 1: Yeah? By myself, you know, I like before I got

923
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:47,440
Speaker 1: diagnosed over in two halves.

924
00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:52,080
Speaker 2: Okay, So talk to me about the mental roadmap for

925
00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:55,839
Speaker 2: like you running the marathon, like, because I can't even

926
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:59,520
Speaker 2: imagine the array of emotions that like the closer you

927
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:03,200
Speaker 2: get even I mean hell, like starting first of all,

928
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:05,439
Speaker 2: through like the whole, the whole bang.

929
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:06,759
Speaker 1: Where do you want to start?

930
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:08,400
Speaker 2: Like wherever you want to start?

931
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:18,440
Speaker 1: Okay? So July I started getting therapy through Finish Line

932
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:21,600
Speaker 1: pt and then they set me up with Jimmy Williams,

933
00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:25,359
Speaker 1: who also became my run coach. And then and then

934
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:27,840
Speaker 1: I was I was looking for I was like for

935
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:30,200
Speaker 1: strength training, which was weird because no one wanted to

936
00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:32,319
Speaker 1: work with me as like an MSS patient. Everyone was

937
00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:35,840
Speaker 1: really everyone shied away from it. But but Brooklyn Athletic

938
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:38,800
Speaker 1: did it, and they set me up with Andrea Tilleman,

939
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:43,319
Speaker 1: who who worked with people that mess. So it was

940
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:45,560
Speaker 1: like a perfect fit. And that was that I got

941
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:49,400
Speaker 1: super excited because I my hamstrings felt great, I was

942
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:53,120
Speaker 1: getting stronger, I was I was starting to have like

943
00:50:53,200 --> 00:50:56,680
Speaker 1: less and less symptoms, and as I built my aerobic base,

944
00:50:56,719 --> 00:51:00,720
Speaker 1: I just felt so good, so so good. And then

945
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:05,960
Speaker 1: come September. I come September, I start realizing like a

946
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:07,839
Speaker 1: really like a big shift in my training where I'm

947
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:11,440
Speaker 1: just like cruising on my runs, hitting fourteen fifteen mile

948
00:51:11,560 --> 00:51:15,040
Speaker 1: runs and just feeling great. Recovery was also good the

949
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:17,319
Speaker 1: next day and I just wasn't getting sore at all.

950
00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:20,000
Speaker 1: One of my big symptoms is tight chestnis so like

951
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:21,840
Speaker 1: what we call like the MS hug where it feels

952
00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:26,160
Speaker 1: like someone's just like like literally just crushing your insights

953
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:29,359
Speaker 1: from you know, like from the sides. And I wasn't

954
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:34,040
Speaker 1: getting any of that. And then and then yeah, therapy

955
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:35,799
Speaker 1: was going great. I was able to go from two

956
00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:38,960
Speaker 1: from from twice week to once a week, still doing

957
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 1: twice twice two time string sessions, and and so that

958
00:51:44,120 --> 00:51:47,200
Speaker 1: was that was my first go when I really set

959
00:51:47,239 --> 00:51:51,719
Speaker 1: to myself, Okay, like I'm going to do this, like

960
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:54,600
Speaker 1: I'm going to run this marathon like actually, and then

961
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:58,160
Speaker 1: September hit great month of training. The initial goal was

962
00:51:58,200 --> 00:52:00,960
Speaker 1: just to finish it. I just want to finish this marathon, right.

963
00:52:01,239 --> 00:52:02,680
Speaker 1: I don't even know what the cutoff was. I think

964
00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:04,560
Speaker 1: it was like six hours or something like that. And

965
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:07,400
Speaker 1: then after we hit it like five thirty. And then

966
00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:10,279
Speaker 1: the last week of the marathon, you know, we're coming

967
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:12,640
Speaker 1: up with Jimmy and I are sitting down and we're

968
00:52:12,640 --> 00:52:14,760
Speaker 1: talking about kind of like the strategy for the marathon,

969
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:17,200
Speaker 1: and you know, how we're going to like approach you know,

970
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:20,560
Speaker 1: first ten you know, and then after like the last

971
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:24,080
Speaker 1: like ten k right, and he's looking at my times.

972
00:52:24,120 --> 00:52:26,600
Speaker 1: He's looking at like my data, and he's like, dude,

973
00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:28,799
Speaker 1: I think you can run four thirty if you know

974
00:52:29,360 --> 00:52:31,560
Speaker 1: sub Ford thirty. I was like, holy crap, dude, I

975
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:33,680
Speaker 1: think they're right. I think I can do this right

976
00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:35,800
Speaker 1: as long as I keep my as long as I

977
00:52:35,880 --> 00:52:39,720
Speaker 1: keep my heart rate low till like mile eighteen nineteen,

978
00:52:40,200 --> 00:52:42,920
Speaker 1: I'll just power through the last ones, you know. And

979
00:52:42,960 --> 00:52:45,040
Speaker 1: he's like, yeah, I think that's a good plan. It's like, okay. Cool.

980
00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:50,760
Speaker 1: The day before the day before the marathon, my partner's

981
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:53,560
Speaker 1: dad lives in it lives in Atlantic City, and he

982
00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:56,240
Speaker 1: lives on the route, so it was it was perfect

983
00:52:56,360 --> 00:52:58,880
Speaker 1: and it was about half a mile away from the

984
00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:03,560
Speaker 1: starting point. So we drove down Saturday, had a great

985
00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:06,520
Speaker 1: meal tim Western bandit. I talked to him a lot

986
00:53:06,560 --> 00:53:10,680
Speaker 1: about it and he and he recommended that I do

987
00:53:10,760 --> 00:53:14,720
Speaker 1: the bandit. Uh. The bandage tradition was like two glasses

988
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,279
Speaker 1: of wine before before the marathon. I said, okay, I'll

989
00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:21,000
Speaker 1: do it, man, like this is fine. So had so

990
00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:24,520
Speaker 1: much pasta the whole week I was just carving up,

991
00:53:25,080 --> 00:53:29,120
Speaker 1: you know, eating super super healthy. And then and then yeah,

992
00:53:29,160 --> 00:53:32,279
Speaker 1: the day of the day before, we just my my

993
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:36,600
Speaker 1: family was there. I had friends there, my sister, her husband,

994
00:53:36,640 --> 00:53:38,839
Speaker 1: and my niece who were really important to me. They

995
00:53:38,880 --> 00:53:41,920
Speaker 1: came down and they were ready to support. And then

996
00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:46,480
Speaker 1: I went to sleep around nine o'clock. Well, I wake

997
00:53:46,560 --> 00:53:48,880
Speaker 1: up early, so I woke up around like five, like

998
00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:52,520
Speaker 1: four am actually, and then I started doing some meditation

999
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:56,880
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, I started doing some meditation and I

1000
00:53:56,920 --> 00:53:59,440
Speaker 1: did some breathing exercises to just open up the chest

1001
00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:03,640
Speaker 1: and just opened up my lungs and just to like

1002
00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:07,319
Speaker 1: calm down my bring down my heart rate because I

1003
00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:10,239
Speaker 1: hadn't even I hadn't even started changing. And it was

1004
00:54:10,239 --> 00:54:13,880
Speaker 1: like at one sixty five, I was so nervous about it, and.

1005
00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:16,000
Speaker 2: How are you tracking that? So are you wearing anything

1006
00:54:16,040 --> 00:54:18,360
Speaker 2: besides the woop? Got a garment?

1007
00:54:18,480 --> 00:54:21,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got a garment, and so I just kept

1008
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:23,279
Speaker 1: tracking it and just like seeing where my heart was

1009
00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:25,719
Speaker 1: and I knew. I knew right away like this isn't good,

1010
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:30,799
Speaker 1: Like I need to just calm this down. Yeah, and

1011
00:54:30,920 --> 00:54:34,200
Speaker 1: it felt good, Like I remember crying. I just started

1012
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:36,440
Speaker 1: tearing up. And that's when the emotions like really started

1013
00:54:36,480 --> 00:54:39,920
Speaker 1: hitting me. Like when I did this meditation for like

1014
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:44,360
Speaker 1: for like endurance and sports, and they were talking about

1015
00:54:44,520 --> 00:54:46,760
Speaker 1: they talked about like Kobe Bryan and like his approach

1016
00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:50,080
Speaker 1: and stuff like that through the meditation and and his

1017
00:54:50,239 --> 00:54:52,840
Speaker 1: like work ethic. And I'm not comparing myself to Kobe

1018
00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:55,360
Speaker 1: Brian by no means, you know, but it just touched

1019
00:54:55,400 --> 00:54:58,360
Speaker 1: me for some reason, you know, and I really felt

1020
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:01,680
Speaker 1: like I was doing something more than just for myself,

1021
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:07,160
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, And I started crying. And and then I

1022
00:55:07,640 --> 00:55:10,879
Speaker 1: think that was like the weight of the last five

1023
00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:15,480
Speaker 1: months just out and I needed that so badly, so

1024
00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:18,279
Speaker 1: so badly before this marathon to help me bring my

1025
00:55:18,320 --> 00:55:20,279
Speaker 1: heart rate down because there was a lot of weight,

1026
00:55:20,719 --> 00:55:23,120
Speaker 1: a lot a lot of weight totally and I just

1027
00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:24,160
Speaker 1: needed to just release it.

1028
00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:27,919
Speaker 2: What Apple reason for our meditation, Aura, Okay? Yeah?

1029
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:30,400
Speaker 1: And then yeah, I just felt great. I felt super

1030
00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:33,400
Speaker 1: good about it after and then had some good breakfasts,

1031
00:55:34,200 --> 00:55:37,560
Speaker 1: went hung out for a little bit, you know, showered,

1032
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:41,359
Speaker 1: changed up, and then I was I was ready to go.

1033
00:55:41,480 --> 00:55:44,480
Speaker 1: And then and then when I got to suddenly I

1034
00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:47,640
Speaker 1: wasn't nervous or anything like I was. I felt great.

1035
00:55:47,680 --> 00:55:52,440
Speaker 1: It was a cool day, a little breezy, It was nice. Yeah,

1036
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:54,200
Speaker 1: And then I met with a friend who was who

1037
00:55:54,280 --> 00:55:56,759
Speaker 1: was also running in and we agreed that to do

1038
00:55:56,840 --> 00:56:01,520
Speaker 1: the first mile together, and so that helped because he

1039
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:04,560
Speaker 1: calmed winners and we're just chatting and you know, and

1040
00:56:04,600 --> 00:56:09,600
Speaker 1: then and then it started. It started, and then my stomach,

1041
00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:13,960
Speaker 1: like my heart dropped, My stomach dropped, and then that's

1042
00:56:14,200 --> 00:56:15,680
Speaker 1: I was like, shit, all right, let's do this, like

1043
00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:18,520
Speaker 1: this is this is it. We're We're in it. We're

1044
00:56:18,560 --> 00:56:21,640
Speaker 1: in it. And then my first mile it was like

1045
00:56:21,719 --> 00:56:23,839
Speaker 1: nine thirty. I was like and I and I knew

1046
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:26,120
Speaker 1: that that might have been a little too fast for me, right,

1047
00:56:27,120 --> 00:56:30,879
Speaker 1: but my heart rate was also at one sixty five

1048
00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:34,160
Speaker 1: at that point and I hadn't even finished my first

1049
00:56:34,160 --> 00:56:36,040
Speaker 1: half mile. There was two things that I was going

1050
00:56:36,080 --> 00:56:37,920
Speaker 1: to do. It was I was either going to slow down, right,

1051
00:56:38,040 --> 00:56:39,520
Speaker 1: or I was just gonna keep going at this pace

1052
00:56:39,560 --> 00:56:42,400
Speaker 1: and just see how, you know, how it continued. So

1053
00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:45,400
Speaker 1: I decided I could just keep going at that pace,

1054
00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:49,200
Speaker 1: and I just I was cruising. I felt great, no symptoms,

1055
00:56:49,800 --> 00:56:51,879
Speaker 1: and I was able to hold like one sixty five

1056
00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:54,040
Speaker 1: till like one seventy three, which is that sweet spot

1057
00:56:54,080 --> 00:56:59,960
Speaker 1: for me, until around like mile like sixteen, you know. Uh,

1058
00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:04,600
Speaker 1: and then like at like mile mile fifteen and a half,

1059
00:57:04,640 --> 00:57:08,320
Speaker 1: like sixteen, I started losing like feeling my feet, which yeah,

1060
00:57:08,760 --> 00:57:11,880
Speaker 1: which was scary, but I also I was also dealing

1061
00:57:11,920 --> 00:57:13,800
Speaker 1: with like a pinky to issue, where like I stubbed

1062
00:57:13,840 --> 00:57:16,439
Speaker 1: it four weeks and it was terrible, Like, of course

1063
00:57:16,440 --> 00:57:21,080
Speaker 1: this is going to happen to me, And so it

1064
00:57:21,120 --> 00:57:23,480
Speaker 1: wasn't the worst thing because I knew that I was

1065
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:25,240
Speaker 1: going to get symptomatic and I was ready for this,

1066
00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:30,080
Speaker 1: right but this pinky toe was bothering me so much

1067
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:33,640
Speaker 1: so this whole run, and then I couldn't feel it,

1068
00:57:33,760 --> 00:57:36,720
Speaker 1: so it was okay, it was all right, you knowver

1069
00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:41,720
Speaker 1: lining silver lining exactly. And then I had set up

1070
00:57:41,720 --> 00:57:45,560
Speaker 1: where my best friend Josh, he's also a runner, he

1071
00:57:45,640 --> 00:57:47,640
Speaker 1: was going to he was going to set up in

1072
00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:50,600
Speaker 1: mile seventeen and be my aid because that's that's where

1073
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:54,880
Speaker 1: I planned to start getting symptomatic, like heavily, right right,

1074
00:57:56,280 --> 00:57:59,120
Speaker 1: So meet him up at mile seventeen. Around like mile nineteen,

1075
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:01,320
Speaker 1: I started losing vision like on the left hand side,

1076
00:58:01,320 --> 00:58:04,200
Speaker 1: and thank god he was there because he I would

1077
00:58:04,200 --> 00:58:06,120
Speaker 1: just bump into him. He would just like walk like

1078
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:08,200
Speaker 1: I mean, he would just talk to me and he

1079
00:58:08,240 --> 00:58:12,720
Speaker 1: would just kind of guide me through that and and yeah,

1080
00:58:12,720 --> 00:58:15,440
Speaker 1: and then like I felt great my feet, like I

1081
00:58:15,440 --> 00:58:17,400
Speaker 1: couldn't feel my feet, I couldn't really see. But other

1082
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:20,240
Speaker 1: than that, I felt pretty good. You know, honestly, I

1083
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:22,040
Speaker 1: felt really really good. And at that point I was

1084
00:58:22,080 --> 00:58:26,040
Speaker 1: actually dragging like a sub for marathon, which was crazy.

1085
00:58:26,080 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 1: And then I just I couldn't hold it. My quads

1086
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:31,800
Speaker 1: got super tight. Yeah, I had to stretch a little bit,

1087
00:58:32,080 --> 00:58:35,680
Speaker 1: but I finished. I finished at four twenty two, and

1088
00:58:36,560 --> 00:58:39,400
Speaker 1: which was an hour before my initial goal.

1089
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:44,280
Speaker 2: The video I saw of you which caused me to

1090
00:58:44,320 --> 00:58:49,080
Speaker 2: reach out to you, is you like crossing that finish

1091
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:53,840
Speaker 2: and like the hardest veer to the right ever? Yeah,

1092
00:58:54,200 --> 00:58:55,960
Speaker 2: just like toward all of your people.

1093
00:58:56,080 --> 00:58:58,400
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, there's a funny story with that. Yeah,

1094
00:58:58,400 --> 00:58:59,480
Speaker 1: it's a really really funny thing.

1095
00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:00,400
Speaker 2: And god they wrong the right.

1096
00:59:00,880 --> 00:59:04,720
Speaker 1: They got there on the right. But okay, like the

1097
00:59:04,800 --> 00:59:08,400
Speaker 1: last point too, I booked it like I I was

1098
00:59:08,480 --> 00:59:11,320
Speaker 1: running like a like a six minute mile the last

1099
00:59:11,360 --> 00:59:13,200
Speaker 1: point too, because I was so excited, you know, the

1100
00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:17,120
Speaker 1: adrenaline just spiked. But I couldn't see. So I get

1101
00:59:17,160 --> 00:59:21,360
Speaker 1: past the finish line and then I I like I

1102
00:59:21,400 --> 00:59:24,280
Speaker 1: hear the voices right, like my my friend and family, right,

1103
00:59:24,320 --> 00:59:27,040
Speaker 1: So I that's I started going to the right. My

1104
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:31,200
Speaker 1: girlfriend's blonde, right, and one of her friends is also blonde,

1105
00:59:31,920 --> 00:59:35,000
Speaker 1: is also blonde. But my girlfriends she she's not there.

1106
00:59:35,080 --> 00:59:37,080
Speaker 1: She's at the she's at the front. She's like in

1107
00:59:37,080 --> 00:59:39,560
Speaker 1: front because she wants to get that shot in that video.

1108
00:59:40,040 --> 00:59:42,720
Speaker 1: But I didn't see her. So I went directly to

1109
00:59:42,840 --> 00:59:45,320
Speaker 1: our friend Brittany, and I was ready just to like

1110
00:59:45,320 --> 00:59:48,439
Speaker 1: give her a hug and a kiss. And then as

1111
00:59:48,480 --> 00:59:52,120
Speaker 1: I'm like in our distance, I'm like, oh crap, this

1112
00:59:52,240 --> 00:59:52,720
Speaker 1: isn't Ali.

1113
00:59:56,120 --> 00:59:57,000
Speaker 2: It wasn't the plan.

1114
00:59:57,240 --> 00:59:59,640
Speaker 1: I know, this wasn't the plan. And then I could

1115
00:59:59,720 --> 01:00:01,680
Speaker 1: again I couldn't see anything, and I just I'll send

1116
01:00:01,720 --> 01:00:03,400
Speaker 1: you a video where I'm just like I'm right there,

1117
01:00:03,640 --> 01:00:06,160
Speaker 1: like where's Ali, where's Aali? Where's Ali? And then I

1118
01:00:06,200 --> 01:00:09,080
Speaker 1: find Ali? And then and then yeah, and that was

1119
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:09,840
Speaker 1: that was that?

1120
01:00:10,080 --> 01:00:11,360
Speaker 2: And how do you feel.

1121
01:00:11,960 --> 01:00:16,040
Speaker 1: During the during the finish line? Yea, oh my gosh,

1122
01:00:16,160 --> 01:00:22,040
Speaker 1: I felt I felt like top of the world, Like yeah,

1123
01:00:22,120 --> 01:00:25,439
Speaker 1: there's nothing like it. There's nothing like it. There's there's

1124
01:00:25,520 --> 01:00:30,720
Speaker 1: no better feeling than finishing that cross line and just

1125
01:00:30,760 --> 01:00:38,840
Speaker 1: like achieving your goal, like MS acidem society. Like just

1126
01:00:38,880 --> 01:00:42,920
Speaker 1: finishing a marathon is a huge task and it's a

1127
01:00:43,000 --> 01:00:47,080
Speaker 1: huge challenge. But being in a wheelchair, being in a

1128
01:00:47,120 --> 01:00:51,920
Speaker 1: walker on a cane, barely walking, hitting my head so

1129
01:00:52,040 --> 01:00:56,760
Speaker 1: hard on like trees and like falling and you know,

1130
01:00:56,920 --> 01:01:01,120
Speaker 1: needing assistance, you know, crossing that finish line is just everything.

1131
01:01:01,640 --> 01:01:05,400
Speaker 1: I can't even describe how incredible that feeling is, you know,

1132
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:08,560
Speaker 1: to know that I did it and I overcame this

1133
01:01:09,400 --> 01:01:12,880
Speaker 1: and I am better than this and I am more

1134
01:01:12,920 --> 01:01:15,200
Speaker 1: than this illness that I have, because I don't want

1135
01:01:15,240 --> 01:01:18,160
Speaker 1: it to define me. Yes, I have it, but I

1136
01:01:18,200 --> 01:01:20,680
Speaker 1: don't want to be seen as a person that has MS.

1137
01:01:20,720 --> 01:01:22,400
Speaker 1: I want to just be seen as like someone that

1138
01:01:22,560 --> 01:01:25,000
Speaker 1: you say hello to and we can have a conversation

1139
01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:26,680
Speaker 1: with and you don't have to ask me about my

1140
01:01:26,880 --> 01:01:28,800
Speaker 1: mass and if you want to, yeah, I'll talk about

1141
01:01:28,800 --> 01:01:30,680
Speaker 1: it because I'm because I'm okay with it, you know,

1142
01:01:30,720 --> 01:01:33,600
Speaker 1: and I've accepted that. But I just want to be

1143
01:01:33,640 --> 01:01:35,680
Speaker 1: seen as a regular person. I want to be I

1144
01:01:35,720 --> 01:01:38,080
Speaker 1: want to challenge for things as a regular person. I

1145
01:01:38,120 --> 01:01:41,120
Speaker 1: want to compete for things as a normal person. And

1146
01:01:41,160 --> 01:01:43,360
Speaker 1: that's all I wanted, and that crossing the finish line

1147
01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:44,720
Speaker 1: for me was exactly that.

1148
01:01:45,280 --> 01:01:48,840
Speaker 2: Looking at this journey, what would you say one of

1149
01:01:49,120 --> 01:01:51,760
Speaker 2: the biggest lessons, aside from what we talked about about

1150
01:01:51,800 --> 01:01:54,640
Speaker 2: breaking things up into little doobles, yeah, has been for

1151
01:01:54,720 --> 01:01:55,520
Speaker 2: you that.

1152
01:01:55,520 --> 01:01:58,640
Speaker 1: I'm capable of just doing the impossible, that there's no

1153
01:01:58,800 --> 01:02:02,960
Speaker 1: feats like large to like break me down. You know. Yeah,

1154
01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:06,080
Speaker 1: Like I'm like, I'm super confident now after this marathon,

1155
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:09,280
Speaker 1: Like I believe in myself more than anything now, you know,

1156
01:02:10,520 --> 01:02:13,560
Speaker 1: Like I'm my next one is an ultra marathon, Like

1157
01:02:13,600 --> 01:02:15,000
Speaker 1: I don't know which one it is, but I'm going

1158
01:02:15,080 --> 01:02:15,520
Speaker 1: to do it.

1159
01:02:15,640 --> 01:02:16,320
Speaker 2: You know, do it it.

1160
01:02:16,400 --> 01:02:19,640
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it and and you know, And

1161
01:02:19,720 --> 01:02:21,560
Speaker 1: that's that's the type of confidence that I think a

1162
01:02:21,560 --> 01:02:23,040
Speaker 1: lot of people should have. You got to believe in

1163
01:02:23,080 --> 01:02:27,680
Speaker 1: yourself and you know, everyone's everyone's roadmap is obviously a

1164
01:02:27,720 --> 01:02:31,040
Speaker 1: lot different, but you can overcome anything. And I believe that.

1165
01:02:31,160 --> 01:02:32,000
Speaker 1: I truly believe that.

1166
01:02:32,240 --> 01:02:35,200
Speaker 2: For someone not struggling right now, whether it is with

1167
01:02:35,520 --> 01:02:38,320
Speaker 2: MS or just another hurdle that they're navigating on their

1168
01:02:38,360 --> 01:02:42,560
Speaker 2: own time, what kind of advice would you offer them

1169
01:02:42,760 --> 01:02:44,320
Speaker 2: to be able to move forward?

1170
01:02:45,680 --> 01:02:50,080
Speaker 1: It's okay, dude, just it's Okay, tackle it, you know,

1171
01:02:50,400 --> 01:02:52,640
Speaker 1: take it day by day, see how it goes, you know,

1172
01:02:52,800 --> 01:02:55,640
Speaker 1: just stay consistent and just see, you know, see how

1173
01:02:55,680 --> 01:02:57,959
Speaker 1: that goes for you. If you're able, if you're able

1174
01:02:58,000 --> 01:03:00,880
Speaker 1: to just tackle it like day by day, you're gonna

1175
01:03:00,880 --> 01:03:03,400
Speaker 1: get ahead. And that that's that's it'll change you.

1176
01:03:03,600 --> 01:03:05,120
Speaker 2: What else excites you right now?

1177
01:03:05,440 --> 01:03:07,439
Speaker 1: What excites me? When I was getting back on the road,

1178
01:03:07,920 --> 01:03:10,480
Speaker 1: I want to. I haven't ran, so I'm excited to

1179
01:03:10,600 --> 01:03:15,120
Speaker 1: just run again. That excites me. I'm excited to to

1180
01:03:15,640 --> 01:03:18,760
Speaker 1: finish school, which I again we I've been doing like

1181
01:03:18,880 --> 01:03:21,880
Speaker 1: this career shift into like ux design, and I'm excited

1182
01:03:21,920 --> 01:03:26,960
Speaker 1: for that. And and then I'm also just really excited

1183
01:03:27,000 --> 01:03:30,520
Speaker 1: to just not be symptomatic and not have another episode

1184
01:03:30,680 --> 01:03:33,840
Speaker 1: because I treat my body like it should be treated,

1185
01:03:33,960 --> 01:03:37,720
Speaker 1: you know, And and I appreciate life so much now,

1186
01:03:38,040 --> 01:03:41,480
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, that's another thing I think everyone should should,

1187
01:03:41,680 --> 01:03:45,400
Speaker 1: like really do, is appreciate the little stuff, you know,

1188
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:53,360
Speaker 1: Appreciate walking, Appreciate seeing, you know, appreciate you know, just

1189
01:03:53,360 --> 01:03:55,959
Speaker 1: like being able to say hello and good morning to someone,

1190
01:03:56,360 --> 01:04:00,000
Speaker 1: you know, because it's really simple, like it's really easy.

1191
01:04:00,280 --> 01:04:02,720
Speaker 1: Just you can just get that taken away from you.

1192
01:04:03,520 --> 01:04:10,360
Speaker 2: I do think to a certain extent many of us

1193
01:04:10,440 --> 01:04:13,560
Speaker 2: had to find some of that small appreciation for the

1194
01:04:13,560 --> 01:04:17,680
Speaker 2: little things that were stripped because of the pandemic. Yeah,

1195
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:22,480
Speaker 2: obviously a very different scenario, but I find it to

1196
01:04:22,520 --> 01:04:25,560
Speaker 2: be really beautiful that there does seem to be a

1197
01:04:25,600 --> 01:04:29,440
Speaker 2: little bit more of what you're getting at here, and hopefully,

1198
01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:31,200
Speaker 2: you know, that's something that we don't lose sight of

1199
01:04:32,400 --> 01:04:35,880
Speaker 2: as things knock on wood, right, you know, kind of

1200
01:04:35,880 --> 01:04:37,960
Speaker 2: get back to a little bit more like they used

1201
01:04:37,960 --> 01:04:38,120
Speaker 2: to be.

1202
01:04:38,720 --> 01:04:43,200
Speaker 1: I definitely see that ass like especially like in my

1203
01:04:43,520 --> 01:04:47,440
Speaker 1: little community of like that Williamsburg area. You know, Yeah,

1204
01:04:47,520 --> 01:04:49,480
Speaker 1: it's I definitely see it. I've met a lot of

1205
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:51,640
Speaker 1: people through the pandemic, which is like crazy, you know,

1206
01:04:51,800 --> 01:04:57,680
Speaker 1: and some really amazing people you know, through it. But yeah,

1207
01:04:57,840 --> 01:04:58,960
Speaker 1: just say a oat of someone.

1208
01:04:59,320 --> 01:05:03,240
Speaker 2: Yeah it helps, it does, it really helps. All right? Well,

1209
01:05:03,320 --> 01:05:07,800
Speaker 2: right now, right now, you have an opportunity to offer

1210
01:05:08,720 --> 01:05:14,920
Speaker 2: the you a piece of advice. On Friday, May seventh, Yeah,

1211
01:05:14,960 --> 01:05:18,720
Speaker 2: looking back on that day right now, oh wow, what

1212
01:05:19,440 --> 01:05:20,920
Speaker 2: do you tell yourself?

1213
01:05:22,600 --> 01:05:27,160
Speaker 1: It's hard, but it's not but it's manageable, you know,

1214
01:05:27,280 --> 01:05:29,560
Speaker 1: and you're going to go through You're going to go

1215
01:05:29,640 --> 01:05:33,880
Speaker 1: through it all hell, but you're gonna be okay. Man,

1216
01:05:34,680 --> 01:05:38,360
Speaker 1: You're gonna be okay, and you're going to be healthier

1217
01:05:38,400 --> 01:05:40,800
Speaker 1: than what you were, you know. And I think if

1218
01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:42,960
Speaker 1: I would have known that that May seventh, I would

1219
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:47,439
Speaker 1: have been okay with everything. You know, I just didn't

1220
01:05:47,520 --> 01:05:50,400
Speaker 1: know what was happening. But I'm healthier now. I've i

1221
01:05:50,520 --> 01:05:53,400
Speaker 1: dropped from one eighty to like one fifty five. I've

1222
01:05:53,400 --> 01:05:55,280
Speaker 1: put on a good amount of muscle. I'm stronger. I

1223
01:05:55,360 --> 01:05:57,760
Speaker 1: just ran a marathon. And had I known, had I

1224
01:05:57,800 --> 01:06:00,640
Speaker 1: known him back then, that my life was about to

1225
01:06:00,720 --> 01:06:03,640
Speaker 1: change drastically for only a couple of months, but then

1226
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:07,360
Speaker 1: after change in a really good way, I would have

1227
01:06:07,400 --> 01:06:08,000
Speaker 1: been okay with it.

1228
01:06:08,840 --> 01:06:15,600
Speaker 2: What the most unbelievable and beautiful perspective. I'm so happy

1229
01:06:15,600 --> 01:06:16,240
Speaker 2: that we did.

1230
01:06:16,040 --> 01:06:18,960
Speaker 1: This, Tim, I'm super happy, I know.

1231
01:06:19,080 --> 01:06:21,080
Speaker 2: I mean as opposed to some of the other people

1232
01:06:21,120 --> 01:06:23,080
Speaker 2: that come on the show. You may not have the

1233
01:06:23,120 --> 01:06:26,600
Speaker 2: biggest social media following, but are you open to having

1234
01:06:26,720 --> 01:06:31,040
Speaker 2: a few more followers? Okay, So tell the hurdlers how

1235
01:06:31,040 --> 01:06:32,439
Speaker 2: they can keep up with you? How do they follow

1236
01:06:32,440 --> 01:06:34,040
Speaker 2: along with you? Give us the details?

1237
01:06:34,120 --> 01:06:36,680
Speaker 1: All right, So the best way for you guys, to

1238
01:06:36,760 --> 01:06:41,320
Speaker 1: just keep up with me is through Instagram. What's that

1239
01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:44,800
Speaker 1: called the profile? My handle, my handle? Sorry, sorry, no,

1240
01:06:44,880 --> 01:06:50,680
Speaker 1: you're good. My handle is Willie Valdrama and yeah, that's

1241
01:06:50,720 --> 01:06:52,920
Speaker 1: the best way to just get in contact with me

1242
01:06:52,960 --> 01:06:54,040
Speaker 1: and just follow me. Yeah.

1243
01:06:54,160 --> 01:06:56,520
Speaker 2: We love it, We love it. I'm over at Emily

1244
01:06:56,600 --> 01:07:01,440
Speaker 2: Body and at Hurdle Podcast. Another Hurdle conquered. Catch you

1245
01:07:01,440 --> 01:07:02,080
Speaker 2: guys next time.