210. From Near Amputation to Marathoner: A Story of Resilience

[00:00:00] You're listening to episode 210 of the Marathon Running Podcast. In this episode, we're going

[00:00:05] to hear an inspirational story of a runner who was told he would never run again.

[00:00:18] This is the Marathon Running Podcast by Letty and Ryan from We Got the Runs.

[00:00:22] Join us in our running community for weekly content that is motivational, educational,

[00:00:27] and inspirational, and let the Marathon Running Podcast take you from the starting line to the

[00:00:32] finish line and beyond. Hey runners and welcome to episode 210. My name is Letty. My name is Ryan.

[00:00:45] And we are here today celebrating our fourth podcast anniversary. Sure about that? Yes. So

[00:00:53] I've actually been telling people that we are in our fifth year, which we will be now, but

[00:00:59] I got really confused. So I got us a cake, which you guys have probably seen on Instagram by now,

[00:01:05] where I put happy fifth anniversary. That's confusing, right?

[00:01:10] This literally happened five minutes ago. That's pretty funny though. I shouldn't have

[00:01:14] gotten that number on the cake, but here we are. But the first podcast,

[00:01:18] first podcast introduction, you said it's our fifth anniversary. So happy four years of

[00:01:24] doing a podcast. And I was like, well, wait a minute. Let me replay that real quick.

[00:01:29] We are here today celebrating our fifth anniversary of this podcast, meaning that we've been

[00:01:34] podcasting every single week for the past four years. Wow. And congratulations, Ryan.

[00:01:41] You just said fifth anniversary and then every podcast for four years.

[00:01:45] That's how you turn five. No. Like look, if you've podcasted for a year,

[00:01:50] that's your first anniversary. If you podcast it for two years, that's your second anniversary.

[00:01:56] If you podcast it for three years, that's your third anniversary.

[00:02:01] If you podcast four years, it's not your fifth anniversary.

[00:02:08] See, yeah, that was the, uh, was it called blooper? The blooper reel? Yes. Anyway,

[00:02:13] so here we are quickly about us. So we started the podcast in May of 2020.

[00:02:18] And now it's May of 2024. So we've been podcasting for four years.

[00:02:22] And that would be the fourth anniversary. Now we're starting our fifth year. There you go.

[00:02:28] Applause, please. It was tough.

[00:02:32] It was. So within those last few years of podcasting, Ryan, what have you learned of

[00:02:38] anything? Letty is not a math major. Besides the obvious.

[00:02:45] There's a lot of good information in there. Like anyone to go back and look at other

[00:02:49] podcasts. I think Letty has done this not, I don't want to take any credit for it,

[00:02:53] but she's found some really good people that can give good advice and,

[00:02:57] and gotten a lot of good information there. And there's a lot of things that I learned even

[00:03:03] surprisingly, I guess maybe or just unexpectedly. I should unexpectedly learned,

[00:03:08] you know, things that wouldn't necessarily make sense. Like doing miles slow makes you

[00:03:14] faster. Things of that nature. Yeah. So I feel like the time you've spent doing

[00:03:20] the podcast has helped you become more popular or get more of a respect out of people,

[00:03:27] I guess. And so you end up getting more guests on and are able to get more guests.

[00:03:32] You've been able to go to like the media events at some of these marathons and some

[00:03:37] running events where they have a lot of new products and all this stuff has been hugely

[00:03:42] helpful too, because you get to see the new stuff that comes out. You get to hear some of

[00:03:46] the new information. You talk to some of the elite athletes even. So it's really cool. That's

[00:03:52] cool. And then to be able to like take that information and hopefully provide it in a useful

[00:03:57] way for people that are just interested in want to run and enjoy running. I think that's

[00:04:03] awesome. Yes. And I'm glad that you ended at that. The people that are listening, we are so

[00:04:08] super grateful for everybody that tunes into our show, whether it's weekly, whether today is your

[00:04:13] first time. We really, really appreciate it. We obviously wouldn't have the podcast if you guys

[00:04:19] wouldn't tune in and spread the message. And we hope that we can always provide you with

[00:04:24] information, great guests on nutrition and training, mental stuff, the race recaps that

[00:04:31] we share. Hopefully they're not just entertaining, but helpful for your own races. And then of

[00:04:37] course, the inspirational stories that I feel like we don't share enough off. But because this

[00:04:43] is an anniversary episode, we do have an inspirational story for you guys today.

[00:04:49] So it's actually fitting too, because the guest that you actually brought on is a veteran,

[00:04:54] right? Yes, Jared Ewing, our guest is a veteran and he was super happy when I told him

[00:05:02] this podcast is going to air the first day on Memorial Day. And yeah, he has a very,

[00:05:08] very inspirational story. Can you give us some history on Memorial Day and what it's about?

[00:05:13] Memorial Day is a day to honor and remember those who died while they were serving in

[00:05:17] the U S military. It was originally called actually decoration day. And it began after

[00:05:23] the civil war with people decorating the graves of the fallen soldiers. So today, you know,

[00:05:29] traditions include visiting cemeteries, holding parades, flying the American flag at half staff

[00:05:34] until noon, then raising it to full staff and participating in barbecues and gatherings.

[00:05:39] That sounds like you just took it right off the top of your head. It was so smooth.

[00:05:43] I did. And of course, one of the other ways of celebrating Memorial Day is nowadays is for

[00:05:49] us running 5Ks wearing American flag clothing. So, are you doing a 5K?

[00:05:55] No, I'm not running a 5K. As you know, I'm not cleared yet. But I'm going to go to a 5K.

[00:06:01] My friend Diana is running the 5K with a stroller. And I'm going to create a video

[00:06:07] titled You got beaten by a stroller for our YouTube channel. Our YouTube channel is at

[00:06:13] running podcasts. So hopefully she'll actually beat everybody so I can use that title if not,

[00:06:21] we'll tweak it. Well, she'll still beat a bunch of people, I'm sure. Yes, she consistently runs

[00:06:26] 5Ks in the 18-19 minutes with a stroller. So it's pretty amazing. I think that deserves

[00:06:33] some kind of light shine on it. So you want to get into our motivational story of the day?

[00:06:39] Yes. So without any further ado, we're now going to hear from Jared Ewing.

[00:06:45] All right, so I'm back on with Jared Ewing. Jared, thank you so much for joining me today.

[00:06:50] Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. It's good seeing you again,

[00:06:54] speaking with you. Yes, absolutely. And just to give our listeners a little bit of a background,

[00:06:59] I met you at the Boston Marathon. We had a mutual friend that, well, two mutual friends

[00:07:06] that introduced each other and then we figured out that we both were on the same podcast,

[00:07:12] the On The Run podcast as guests. And so then we talked about your story a tiny little bit.

[00:07:18] And you let me know that you'd be absolutely willing to inspire our community as well

[00:07:24] and share your story with us. So I really appreciate that.

[00:07:28] Yeah, it was, it kind of happened so quick there. We were just like kind of noticing

[00:07:32] each other at Boston. And I was like, wow, when is that very first day at Boston too? So

[00:07:38] what a way to start the Boston weekend, you know, seeing you, meeting you guys. And

[00:07:42] yeah, just getting a little bit to tell you just a little bit of my story at that time.

[00:07:46] So all right, so let's hop right into that. Your story is super inspirational. You were

[00:07:56] exiting a bar. And as you exited walking towards your Uber, you were hit by a drunk driver,

[00:08:03] landing you in the hospital and with huge problems in your legs. Luckily you survived,

[00:08:08] but perhaps you can take us back to how this all happened and the moment of your accident.

[00:08:15] Sure. So at the time I was like 32 years old, I was, I would say in the prime of my life,

[00:08:22] I had just started running marathons. This is 2017. I ran my first marathon.

[00:08:27] I got into reading about David Goggins and, and all everything he's about. And then the iron

[00:08:33] cowboy that did like 15 iron man, I mean, 50 iron man, 50 days. So I was like, all right,

[00:08:39] next year there's three marathons in the state of Ohio, all within four to five weeks.

[00:08:43] That'd be pretty cool if I could do those. So I trained up for a full year and I ran, it was

[00:08:49] the Columbus marathon, air force marathon, and Akron marathon all within five weeks.

[00:08:57] So the, the winner had come and I was still kind of, I just got to, to swimming and biking.

[00:09:04] I was going to train myself up to actually do an iron man. So I was in really good shape at

[00:09:08] that point. I was serving in the military as well, national guard army full time.

[00:09:14] I was living in Columbus. And so I came up to Cleveland for the, for the weekend because I

[00:09:19] have friends and family. That's where I'm from. I'm from Akron, just a little bit south of

[00:09:22] Cleveland. And so it was a regular weekend. I came up to visit friends and we all decided

[00:09:28] to go up to Cleveland for our friend's birthday. So there was about seven of us. We

[00:09:32] Ubered all the way up there. And so, you know, it was a long night, long night of

[00:09:36] drinking and celebrating. And it was the end of the night is about two, two or five in

[00:09:40] the morning. So it was time to go home. So a friend, you know, ordered up the Uber ride.

[00:09:46] So we left the bar thinking, you know, we're going to go catch the Uber, get all the way

[00:09:50] back down to Akron and head home. It'll be all just another night.

[00:09:55] And so whenever I was exiting the bar, took a left, there's a street that's right out

[00:09:59] in front of you, but the Ubers can't pick you up there. It's like a place where only

[00:10:03] civilians and stuff can walk at. So we took a left and we're walking down towards the

[00:10:08] Uber pickup area, which is like a roundabout. And me and my buddy is kind of leading the

[00:10:14] charge. The rest of the people were kind of like just hanging back and then I just

[00:10:18] very slowly exiting the bar. And so as I'm talking to him, he's off to my left.

[00:10:23] The buildings are off to my left as well. The streets off to my right.

[00:10:27] And so I'm looking to the left, I'm talking with my buddy and out of nowhere,

[00:10:32] I kind of hear like, you know, the sound of like screeching tires. And it seems like

[00:10:36] there's a flash of light just out of nowhere. And so I turn to my right and it looks like

[00:10:41] that this car is just coming directly at me. And so all I can do is just brace myself because

[00:10:47] I'm like, okay, like I'm going to get hit. And so it all happened very quickly,

[00:10:51] just out of nowhere, like boom, just happened. And so I got hit pretty hard.

[00:10:55] I got thumped, I hit the ground. And when I'm on the ground at this point,

[00:10:59] I'm not exactly sure what happened. I assume the car hit me. And so I'm on the ground.

[00:11:05] I'm trying to get up and I can't, you know, my adrenaline's going.

[00:11:09] So, you know, I'm a tough guy. I'm like, all right, get up, Jared. Come on, like,

[00:11:13] whatever. So I try to get up and I can't. And I thought that was kind of weird.

[00:11:17] And so then I started feeling like my leg, you know, my left leg just like burning

[00:11:22] and pulsating. And I looked down and sure enough, my leg was pretty mangled up.

[00:11:28] It was almost like a steak knife, you know, like flayed me open. I could see my bone,

[00:11:34] the pant legs were, my pant legs were all mangled up and bloody. So it wasn't a pretty sight.

[00:11:39] You know, I knew then and there that my life had just changed. And I didn't want to

[00:11:44] freak out too bad, you know? So with my military training and everything,

[00:11:48] I have seen photos, I've gone through plenty of first aid training, shock training and all

[00:11:53] that. So I knew I did that I was going to be bleeding out pretty bad. So I didn't know

[00:11:58] what was going to happen. I didn't want to go into shock. And so I kind of just started

[00:12:03] focusing on something like a star or some sort and just started focusing on my breathing.

[00:12:08] At the same time, you know, with every pulse of my heart, my leg feels like there's lightning

[00:12:15] going through it and it's burning at the same time. So I was very, at this point,

[00:12:19] I was sobered up. I was very conscious. There wasn't a second of it that I was in and out.

[00:12:24] So I was very aware of everything going on. There was people, you know, obviously the

[00:12:29] friends and stuff I was with was like kind of yelling, some were crying. And we're sitting

[00:12:34] there and we're just trying to figure out what to do. And so a buddy of mine that I had just

[00:12:40] met that night, another guy, they kind of rushed over to me and they took their belts off their

[00:12:47] pants and they were going to make a tourniquet for me. And so I knew that was like what was

[00:12:51] needed because at that time the cops weren't quite there yet. So they took the belts off,

[00:12:57] they wrapped it around my leg and they yanked on it. And yeah, it hurt pretty bad as you would

[00:13:03] assume, but I knew that's what was needed. So we're sitting there waiting. And so I told people

[00:13:08] to go put those over me because mean in the meantime, so this is middle of December and

[00:13:13] Cleveland and Ohio. So it's pretty cold. And of course, you know, I didn't really wear a

[00:13:18] coat that day because I knew it was going to be in and out of the car and out of the bars.

[00:13:22] So it was a long sleeve shirt, but so everybody kind of grabbed their coats and

[00:13:26] put them on me because you want to keep yourself warm to keep the blood kind of circulated in your

[00:13:31] core. And so I'm sitting there and I'm waiting and I'm waiting and there was one guy holding

[00:13:35] my head kind of talking to me. There was another guy holding my hand. And so we're all

[00:13:39] just kind of in this together, trying to get me to focus on breathing and keep my mind off

[00:13:46] what was, try to keep my mind off what was going on. But that was hard. But

[00:13:51] you know, at that point, I wasn't sure if I was going to live or not. I saw all the blood loss.

[00:13:57] I knew for sure at a minimum, I thought for sure my leg was gone. I thought my life had

[00:14:02] changed, you know, for the rest of my life. And so all I kept on thinking was, you know,

[00:14:08] so they say your life flashes before your eyes, but for me, it was just like jolted with

[00:14:13] like 100 questions of, you know, am I gonna see my family? Am I gonna, you know, see my

[00:14:18] goddaughters again? You know, all these things that I haven't done. So I don't know why I

[00:14:22] thought of the world majors. I was like, oh my, like, I just started running. Like, why me? Why

[00:14:27] now? I'm in the best shape of my life. This is what I trained up to do was like go on

[00:14:32] and do an Ironman. I had career implications that I was wanting to get done. So all these

[00:14:38] things that I had wanted to get done were just jolting through my mind, you know,

[00:14:42] what ifs. And, you know, I just ultimately wasn't sure if I was even gonna live.

[00:14:46] So I'm sitting there and finally the ambulance shows up. And so the ambulance comes, picks me up.

[00:14:54] That's the only time I really go out of it. So I blacked out for the ambulance trip. So they

[00:14:59] must have shot me up with something good before we get to the ER. And so when I get into

[00:15:04] the ER, that's when I kind of woke up. They were cutting all my clothes off of me. And so

[00:15:11] I kind of knew that was the process of what happens before you go into the OR, just from,

[00:15:16] again, some sort of medical background in the military. So I know that I was getting ready

[00:15:22] to go to war in a sense. So they're cutting all my clothes off me. And then they start

[00:15:27] asking me questions like, hey, where are you from? What's your name? So they're trying to

[00:15:30] gain how conscious I am. And I did very well. I would think I was nailing all the questions.

[00:15:35] I was pretty proud of myself, you know, asking me people's phone numbers to call. So I gave

[00:15:40] them my parents because these days I can hardly tell you anyone's numbers, really. You just click

[00:15:47] on a button. So for whatever reason, my mom and my dad's phone numbers were still stuck in my

[00:15:52] head. So I gave them their numbers. And so they're getting ready to kind of cart me

[00:15:57] out of the ER and into the OR. And they got the gas mask ready there.

[00:16:02] The trauma surgeon comes up to me and she explains to me that my leg, she's like,

[00:16:07] you know, your leg got pretty mangled up. It's pretty bad. She told me we're not sure if we can

[00:16:13] save it, but we're going to do our best. And so I pretty much just respond to her like, hey,

[00:16:23] I just want to stay alive. Just keep me alive. I'm not who cares about my leg? I mean, yes,

[00:16:28] try to keep it. I said, yeah, let's try to keep the leg. But I was like, honestly,

[00:16:31] just keep me alive. Let's go to war. Let's do our best to try to save everything we can.

[00:16:35] But honestly, just keep me alive and let my mom and dad know that I love them

[00:16:41] and that they need to get there. They need to get there, but don't give them too many details.

[00:16:46] I didn't want them to kind of worry too much because it's about a 50 minute trip to get from

[00:16:50] where they were to Cleveland. And so they put the gas mask on me and I was out cold.

[00:16:57] So then next thing you know, I'm waking up in the ICU. And so obviously, first thing

[00:17:04] on my mind is do I have my legs still? You know, and I'm getting pumped with all the

[00:17:10] sorts of meds. So I'm not exactly sure. So I'm like, all right, I got to look down.

[00:17:16] This is what we got to do. And so I looked down and I kind of see my foot underneath the

[00:17:21] sheets and I kind of like tug on the on the sheets and I could see my foot was there.

[00:17:28] And so I was like, okay, like, like, all right, that's like step one, we still got

[00:17:32] my leg there. Then like, okay, what can I can I move it? Like, what's going on here? So

[00:17:39] I see if I can move my toes and I could move my toes. So that was kind of check two for me.

[00:17:44] And really those were like after those two big things, I was like, okay, I think

[00:17:49] I'm gonna be okay. Like, okay, I got got the leg, I can move my toes. All right,

[00:17:54] the big checks. But what I didn't know was like everything in between pretty much my ankle

[00:18:00] to my to my knee was pretty jacked up. Right? I didn't know that but because I assumed the

[00:18:06] whole leg was there. So I'm kind of in and out of it, I see all my friends that were there with

[00:18:12] me that night. Most of them showed up, you know, in the ICU, they wanted to be there when

[00:18:16] I woke up, my mom and dad was there and a few of my really close friends that they had

[00:18:20] gotten a hold of. And so kind of when the whole room was there, I kind of knew in a sense

[00:18:26] that I was going to be okay. I knew, you know, life had changed. I wasn't exactly what happened.

[00:18:30] But I felt like in my heart, like everything was going to be okay.

[00:18:36] And so we waited on the doctors. But I don't know how long this was. But eventually the

[00:18:41] surgeon came in the one that spoke to me right before she put me out. And she had let

[00:18:46] me know that it wasn't so it wasn't the car that directly hit me the car hit a concrete

[00:18:52] ballard. So like those poles there on sidewalks that keep cars off the sidewalks like they're

[00:18:59] every five feet or so. So the car hit one of those and the concrete all from that exploded

[00:19:07] off like shrapnel wood and exploded off pretty much into my leg. So the car hits that all the

[00:19:12] concrete rips off that and dislodges off into my leg. And so the concrete from that is

[00:19:16] about what ripped my leg off. So the car never quite touched me. But all that concrete is this

[00:19:22] what pretty much made my legs is jacked it all up. And so then they told me like, hey,

[00:19:29] we had to remove your calf muscles. And so that was kind of really hard to like sink in and

[00:19:34] think of I had heard it. But it was like so surreal. So they told me they had removed

[00:19:39] my calf muscles and my Achilles tendon that they were too shredded up. They couldn't be

[00:19:44] saved and they had to be removed. And then they told me the two teeny tiny muscles there back

[00:19:49] there the solices were left there but they were useless because there was no again no Achilles

[00:19:54] tendon form and that they were just going to be kept there in case I kept my leg. So at this

[00:20:00] point, I had heard all that so I'm trying to sit there and think of how to take it all in

[00:20:05] and again, I kind of you know, felt kind of daunting and felt as daunting at first.

[00:20:13] And then I'm really good at kind of quick and turning that switch like, hey, okay,

[00:20:19] no more calves the rest of my life like that is crappy. That's a long time because I want to

[00:20:24] live you know, a long life. But I was like, but we can't sit here and dwell on it is what

[00:20:29] it is they're gone. I'm not going to get them back. And so I was like, we got to move

[00:20:34] forward. So I quickly just kind of turned the page in my head and then I was like, all right,

[00:20:39] you know, let's see what we got to do moving forward.

[00:20:43] Wow. I mean, I don't even know where to start. First of all, and we're going to get back to

[00:20:48] that. I think having that attitude that whole it is what it is. That's a personality thing.

[00:20:55] And like I said, we'll circle back to that. But wow. So it almost sounds like

[00:21:00] the car could have killed you but for the concrete hole, which then shattered your leg.

[00:21:07] So I guess silver lining, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, like it could

[00:21:12] have been much worse. I tell people either a car could have hit me and we don't know what

[00:21:17] would have came of that. Like what did have shattered my hair? What did have possibly killed

[00:21:22] me? Maybe it misses me and hit somebody else in the group, which I can't stand the thought

[00:21:27] of that because I'm not sure if anyone else would have quite, you know, got through it like

[00:21:34] I have or thrive through it like I have. And, you know, just because all the training

[00:21:39] and everything in my size and how my legs were built at that time. But yeah, so it was just,

[00:21:46] you know, that was just the wrong place at the wrong time. You know, that's it's so insane

[00:21:52] to think about it. You know, if I stayed in the club one minute later,

[00:21:58] does it happen? If I leave one minute sooner, does it happen? You know, but you can't think

[00:22:03] that way because that's not what happened. What happened is the reality of it. And so you kind

[00:22:08] of again, move, I got to move forward and I can't sit here and think about what ifs

[00:22:12] and any of that. So yeah, nothing, nothing would have changed that. I also think it's

[00:22:16] super interesting how your military training kicked in and you are almost coaching everyone

[00:22:22] on how to keep you warm and everything. Can you talk a little bit about that? How much of that

[00:22:26] was pre-programmed kind of in your brain? Yeah, so when you're in like the army or the

[00:22:32] military, you get trained in first aid literally like once a year. And I think even going

[00:22:38] before I joined because I joined the military when I was 25. But when I was in school at Ohio

[00:22:42] State, I worked at the rec center and I had to do first aid training, CPR training there as well.

[00:22:48] So I think just doing that over and over for extremely long time. And then again, in the

[00:22:53] military getting that training once a year, you kind of go through the process is it almost

[00:22:59] becomes like a muscle memory. Like it's just okay, this is what you do. And I think because

[00:23:05] of having all that, it kind of helped me out. Because again, shock is like one of the

[00:23:11] major things that happens when anything traumatic like that happens. You lose a crap

[00:23:16] ton of blood and then you go unconscious. And that can be really bad for your heart

[00:23:20] and your mind and all that. So I knew I wanted to avoid shock. And again, just the

[00:23:26] the way it is. I've had that training. It's just almost like a muscle memory. Like,

[00:23:31] all right, this is what we need to do. And so on. Yeah, almost like it gives you the

[00:23:36] ability that even though you're the one in the situation to look at what happened subjectively,

[00:23:42] you know, as you as you're also telling, you know, the physicians to not tell your mom and

[00:23:47] dad the full story. Normally, you wouldn't think that way. Yeah, I basically, you know, knew they

[00:23:54] were gonna be driving about an hour. And I just didn't want them to flip out. I knew they

[00:23:58] were already you know, their mom and dad, they're already gonna be worried, getting that

[00:24:02] call at three in the morning, you know, Tuesday, I don't like to think about that.

[00:24:06] You know, thinking about my parents getting that call, and then them having to go through all

[00:24:10] that. It just doesn't sit right with me. But yeah, I just didn't want them wants one

[00:24:16] them to get there. And then we could worry about once they get there, them getting the

[00:24:19] story and the full rundown on what had happened to me and all of that.

[00:24:25] Yeah. And so So with that, maybe tell us a little bit about the prognosis of no calf

[00:24:31] muscles and no Achilles tendons. What were you told you would be able to do and not do?

[00:24:38] Yeah, so with the prognosis, you know, of missing calf muscles, my Achilles tendon,

[00:24:44] we were trying to really at this point, move forward, seeing if I could even keep my leg,

[00:24:49] because there was a lot of blood, blood, was it like arteries veins, you know, all those

[00:24:54] kind of got wiped out too. Right? So it's like what is going to come of this leg.

[00:24:59] And there was a whole huge there was a big open wound over my shin, where you could see

[00:25:03] my bone. And so anything in the hospital like that, you want to get that covered up and

[00:25:09] closed because you don't want to get you know, everyone knows of MRSA or those those

[00:25:13] flesh eating diseases that can happen very, very easily. So really, the first key was let's

[00:25:17] get this closed before I catch any of those. So I had to have three major surgeries beforehand.

[00:25:26] And I had one where it was called a muscle flap where they took a piece of my

[00:25:30] the latissimus muscle on my side to try to cover up the shin before they would

[00:25:38] eventually skin graft over it and close it up. But unfortunately, that surgery didn't work.

[00:25:42] And so last ditch effort, we put some we got some synthetic material from a company called

[00:25:48] Polio Novo. And they put that in there. And by the grace of God, it worked and started

[00:25:54] taking to my leg. Right. So we finally got that bone covered up.

[00:25:59] So at this point, we knew keeping the leg was a possibility. So now this is kind of where you

[00:26:04] get into like the options, right? So it's all right. Now we have the possibility of keeping

[00:26:08] the leg. So now I'm kind of forced into this vision in this into this position of do I keep

[00:26:14] my leg or don't I keep my leg? Do I keep it or not? And so the day comes where

[00:26:19] there's like three or four doctors in the room. One was like a physical therapy doctor,

[00:26:24] there was a trauma surgeon, there was a plastic surgeon. I think there was an orthopedic surgeon.

[00:26:28] So a bunch of different surgeons were in the room with me along with some of my family members

[00:26:34] and some friends. And so we're sitting in there and they're kind of the doctors are

[00:26:38] picking up my leg kind of see what it can do and can't do. And they're kind of just again,

[00:26:44] trying to just see what the future of it's going to be. And I had a little bit of movement

[00:26:49] in my toes and stuff still, again, because I'm missing all those casts, I can't really move that

[00:26:54] ankle. But I could, for whatever reason, I have full feeling on the bottom of my foot

[00:26:59] and I can move my toes pretty good. Like I can crunch down on my toes almost like hammer

[00:27:03] curls. It doesn't do much, but it's something. And so the physical therapy doctor said,

[00:27:11] he's like, well, you have a little bit just a teeny tiny amount of movement. And there he's like,

[00:27:15] I think you could keep the leg. He's like, if you really wanted to, he's like, but we're

[00:27:21] just unsure. We don't know how no one's ever really gone through this exact thing. Everyone's

[00:27:26] different. And so we don't know if six months from now it's going to be worse or if it's

[00:27:30] going to be better. And orthopedic surgeons were pretty much all saying the same thing.

[00:27:34] Like, uh, you know, and so when we're in that room at this point,

[00:27:40] we, they all kind of know that I had ran like a couple of marathons. And I always chuckle

[00:27:45] because they were like speaking to me as if I was like a true runner at that time. Like I

[00:27:50] still didn't, you know, I think we all eventually come to the point that maybe like we're

[00:27:55] runners by this point. I didn't think of it myself that way. I was just someone that was

[00:27:59] very challenge oriented. I had run a couple of marathons. I hated running. And so they were

[00:28:06] telling me like, Hey, if you keep your leg, you're never going to be running marathons again.

[00:28:12] And so I wasn't challenged oriented at this time. I was very naive. I'm like,

[00:28:16] okay, I have a bunch of doctors here. They know what's going on. They've seen it all.

[00:28:20] They're telling me I'm never running marathons again. So, okay, that's probably true.

[00:28:25] But in my mind, I was like, well, and then I even said it, I was like, well, heck.

[00:28:28] I was like, I've ran four marathons. Some people have never even ran one. I was like,

[00:28:32] I don't need to run anymore. I don't even like running. Right? Like, okay, so what? So what?

[00:28:38] I, oh darn, I don't have to run no more. Okay, cool. Like I was like, okay. And so

[00:28:44] then they kind of just like looking at me with the headset, it's like a puppy.

[00:28:48] They weren't quite getting it. And I was like, but I was like, okay, so they listen,

[00:28:52] listen to them. They're like, but you know, you can get a prosthetic if you amputate.

[00:28:56] And, you know, there's plenty of people in the military and in para sports. And,

[00:29:01] you know, you can get right back to being very active. We know you're active.

[00:29:06] And so you can get the back to running and be an active person.

[00:29:10] And I was like, you know, again, like at this point, I had already been on social media.

[00:29:15] I was already starting to follow military members, athletes with prosthetics because I

[00:29:21] was thinking that's where my future was going. Originally was I was going to be losing my leg.

[00:29:26] And so I wanted to immediately start picking up inspiration and motivation from these people.

[00:29:30] So I was like, so they're telling me this. I'm like, sure. You know, if I get a prosthetic,

[00:29:35] I probably will. I'll probably get a blade and I'll probably be right back and probably I'll

[00:29:39] be like one of them. I'll be kicking butt with it. And so we're really at this point,

[00:29:43] we weren't sure if I was keeping or not. So we had all of that talk. And so pretty much,

[00:29:48] you know, I had one long night, I did a lot of praying on it. I spoke with, you know,

[00:29:53] my friends, my family members, and really ultimately decision was always going to be up to me.

[00:29:58] And so that's what they all kept saying, like the decision is up to you. And I'm like, well,

[00:30:02] yes, obviously. But, you know, I had to really think about it. And I, after a couple of days

[00:30:10] went by, I just spoke to them. And I was saying, like, look, let's let's just keep the leg.

[00:30:16] Because if I amputate it now, I'd be wondering my whole life. What if I would have just kept

[00:30:21] it? I'm like, if I keep my leg and I don't like it, I can always amputate it in the future.

[00:30:26] That's to this day is still an option. But, you know, I kept thinking about that, you know,

[00:30:32] if I would just amputate immediately, I'd be wondering my whole life, I would have never

[00:30:36] had given my leg a chance. You know, I didn't want that to sit on my heart the rest of my

[00:30:41] life. So what was it that made them give you the choice so early on? Would there have been

[00:30:47] any health perks to not try to see what happens with the leg? Or why was that choice given to

[00:30:53] you so early on before really trying to see what's going to happen with the leg?

[00:30:57] I think it was them just coming to their whatever conclusions or whatever they had seen

[00:31:04] in general, I think ultimately, it was they honestly thought I was gonna be a much active,

[00:31:10] they knew for me to be a happy person, I'd have to be an active person. Right. So whether

[00:31:16] that was with my job, or physically, you know, running or working out and stuff. So I think that

[00:31:22] they honestly thought that having that that prosthetic was going to give me that happier way

[00:31:28] of life, or and or they thought, okay, probably the back of their mind, even if I kept it,

[00:31:33] I'd probably be needing to amputate it and stuff like that. They never know, listen,

[00:31:37] they never once said like, hey, you need to amputate again, they were leaving everything

[00:31:42] kind of all options up to me. But in my mind, it kind of felt like that's kind of what everybody

[00:31:47] was thinking. And I've even spoke to family members and friends and to this day, and they're like,

[00:31:52] I would have just amputated it, you know, they're like, but you know, we're not you.

[00:31:56] And they're just still to this day simply amazed by me and inspired by me that I kept

[00:32:01] it and I was able to do the things that I've been able to do. But I think honestly,

[00:32:06] it's just I don't know if they they probably never met someone quite like me, you know,

[00:32:11] so I enjoy speaking with surgeons to this day is because I think the majority of their patients,

[00:32:17] you know, they come and see and I don't, you know, I'm not trying to pat myself too much on

[00:32:22] the back. But like, I'm a true go getter. And they probably have people that do minimum,

[00:32:28] and maybe don't have as good of outcomes. So I think it's maybe their jobs to not to give

[00:32:34] too many people too much help. And so I think that's ultimately it.

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[00:34:44] So you're talking about a muscle flap not working and other things than working a little

[00:34:50] bit. What kind of timeframe are we talking about that you were in the hospital for all of us?

[00:34:55] So I was in the hospital. So Metro Health, which is a trauma hospital in Cleveland,

[00:35:00] one of the best I'm blessed to have been taken there. I was there for six weeks.

[00:35:06] So the worst cabin fever in the world, you know, not being able to really get out of my bed

[00:35:12] and again, being an active person that took a toll on my mind. And so I was in there for

[00:35:18] six weeks. And so then eventually, no insurance caught up. It was like we need to get them moved

[00:35:24] because whatever the paperwork was saying, I guess that I was doing good at least,

[00:35:29] you know, because I needed moved on to a rehabilitation place. So after there,

[00:35:36] they moved me to like a nursing home, right? I had my flow of nursing homes that I could

[00:35:40] go to and what I mean, it's like a nursing home slash rehabilitation places. So not quite

[00:35:44] a home. Like it wasn't they weren't like they couldn't take me home yet. And I couldn't stay

[00:35:49] in the hospital yet. So I needed like a middle ground. And so I had plenty of them. I wanted

[00:35:54] to be near my hometown. Not in Columbus quite yet. Again, that's where I was working at but

[00:36:00] up near Akron. That's where I was born and raised. I have lots of friends still there.

[00:36:04] So like that's getting me in Akron somewhere. So it's a little bit south of Cleveland.

[00:36:08] And so I picked a nursing home and my dad used to work there a long time ago. So we kind of knew

[00:36:15] is where is that in location to everybody else that could come visit me? And yeah, so the

[00:36:21] majority I was there for four weeks. Now the majority of the patients there, you know, are

[00:36:26] probably 70s up because it's a true nursing home. But I was able to I was there for four weeks.

[00:36:34] And you know, that was a great experience. But I did a lot I did physical therapy and occupational

[00:36:40] therapy every day when I was there. And then I still needed I still needed one more major

[00:36:44] surgery. I still had that wound in my over my shin that was slowly but surely healing up.

[00:36:50] And I had daily, you know, skin washes, and they had to re bandage me every day,

[00:36:57] because I had a huge skin graft going on where my leg kind of looked like a Gucci

[00:37:00] bag from the skin graft that they took from the side of my leg. So that needed lotion

[00:37:05] every day. So I still needed like daily care from nurses that I couldn't get at home.

[00:37:10] So I needed to be somewhere and so that was like the middle ground, I was there for four

[00:37:14] weeks. And then after I was I moved out of there, I still had one more major surgery to go

[00:37:22] and I didn't want to go back to Columbus because it's two hours from Cleveland or

[00:37:26] two and a half hours from Cleveland. And I was still seeing my surgeon weekly at this point up in

[00:37:31] Cleveland, I had to go to Cleveland once a week to see him make sure everything's going good so

[00:37:34] I could keep an eye on my leg and keep me progressing. And so I was like, all right,

[00:37:41] where do we go? Well, I had friends luckily that I'm blessed enough that they let me

[00:37:45] live in their one of their extra living room. So they had like a huge day room and

[00:37:49] living room. And most of the time they live there in the day room. So the living room

[00:37:52] was kind of open. So they moved the bed in there for me. And I was able to stay with them.

[00:37:58] And I have my two goddaughters there, which was just a joy at the time they were like four and

[00:38:02] six years old. So it was just like awesome having Uncle Jared there. And so you know,

[00:38:07] just full full of good energy. And to keep my mind off everything. And so you know,

[00:38:12] it was awesome being there. I was there for like eight weeks.

[00:38:16] Also, we're talking eight. So sorry. So yeah, six weeks in the major hospital,

[00:38:20] four weeks in the nursing home, and then eight weeks with my friends at their house.

[00:38:25] All right. So we're talking 18 weeks as four and a half month into this. And when we're

[00:38:30] talking about you leaving one for the other and so on, how are you moving? Are you in a

[00:38:34] wheelchair at that point? Are you on crutches or what's going on with the leg?

[00:38:38] So it's slowly but surely. When I left the hospital, the main hospital, I still had to be

[00:38:44] transported in like a wheelchair. And so I was still in a wheelchair up to the nursing home.

[00:38:50] And then when I was in the nursing home is when I finally was able to start using a walker.

[00:38:55] Once I got through enough physical therapy and stuff there up on my feet enough,

[00:38:59] start using a walker. I never used crutches. I was a big fan of that. Never felt good on

[00:39:03] my armpits. And with me needing to still put some weight bearing on my leg, the walker was

[00:39:10] a better option for me. And so when I was at the nursing home, I used a walker or I was in the

[00:39:17] wheelchair. Most of the time the nurses wanted me in that wheelchair. They didn't want me falling

[00:39:22] over anything like that with the walker. So they'd always be checking in on me, making

[00:39:26] sure I wasn't because I'm stubborn and I wanted to recover faster. So I would try to get up

[00:39:30] on that walker as much as I could without hurting myself. But when I moved in with my

[00:39:38] friends at their place, at this point I was strictly using the walker slowly but surely.

[00:39:44] And so how I progressed so quickly was that they had an in-home physical therapist come to see me

[00:39:50] there once. He gave me some exercises to do. And I've always known that whenever you're

[00:39:58] given exercises from a physical therapist, that's like the minimum you need to be doing. If you

[00:40:03] want to recover faster, you got to move more. You got to go over and beyond without

[00:40:08] hurting yourself. I know my body and so I knew there was a YMCA super close to my friend's house.

[00:40:15] And I was like, I just need to get that YMCA. And so at this point I kind of weaned myself off

[00:40:22] all the meds enough to where I actually could be healthy driving, sober driving to the Y.

[00:40:28] And so I started two days later. So it wasn't long. I got myself a walk, used the walker,

[00:40:35] and it's like snow. It's like 10 inches deep in Ohio at this point in the middle of the winter

[00:40:41] time. And I just got to my car, took my walker with me, and I got to the Y.

[00:40:46] And I used the walker and I was moving slowly, very slowly but surely. But I got to the Y

[00:40:54] every day. And that's how I progressed so quickly was getting to the Y and just doing

[00:40:59] different things and just getting stronger each day. I got there. I was getting all

[00:41:04] sorts of crazy looks because my leg was still bandaged up. So I was still waiting on that last

[00:41:10] surgery. But I always thought, hey, my left leg's bad but I still have a right leg. I still have

[00:41:17] my other limbs. My whole upper body needs moved. And so you can still move everything

[00:41:22] else. So at a minimum, I was going over there. I was like, I'm going to hit all the machines

[00:41:26] just every day, rotate them through, get my body moving. And slowly but surely maybe

[00:41:32] I'll get myself on to the bike or onto the stair stepper or onto the treadmill.

[00:41:38] And so I took myself there every day without too big of goals on my mind except just to

[00:41:44] get stronger each day and then get there every day and show up. And every day that I got there,

[00:41:49] I'd just do a little bit more, a little bit more than the day before. That's

[00:41:53] saying to get stronger each day. And so I started using the bike one day.

[00:41:59] And then after that, I was like, hey, let's get on that treadmill. Because again,

[00:42:04] if I can use a walker, I could use the treadmill at least to hold myself up.

[00:42:08] And so the first day on the treadmill was literally like, hey, let's walk a quarter mile.

[00:42:13] And so that's all it was. And I got off and I'm very good at

[00:42:17] not doing too much and just doing enough and then getting off. I knew I had worked out

[00:42:23] myself enough. And so each day I just tried to go a little bit farther and a little bit

[00:42:27] farther on that treadmill. So while you were doing that, tell us a little bit about how

[00:42:35] or how your body works without having the calf muscle and Achilles tendon.

[00:42:40] Yeah. So with my body not really having those calf muscles or Achilles tendon,

[00:42:44] my ankle doesn't have much room for movement in there. I can barely move it because that's

[00:42:51] kind of what you need to move that ankle around. So the ankle is pretty stiff

[00:42:56] because I can't move it that much. But really, I still have quads, I still have hamstrings and

[00:43:02] everything else that kind of you need to move to move your leg up and down or forward or

[00:43:06] backwards. And so a lot of people are very intrigued on how I'm still able to run and

[00:43:11] everything. But really just because of that, those calf muscles that move your ankle and

[00:43:16] everything really that helps propel you forward. So it will help you jump. It will

[00:43:21] help move you faster. You can run faster with them, but you don't necessarily need those two

[00:43:26] walk or two jog as long as you can pick up that leg and put it down, you can still move.

[00:43:31] It's just in the meantime, I knew that I had to work out my hips. I know your hips are

[00:43:37] huge and with running and everything else. So I was doing kind of everything that I needed to

[00:43:44] to read the rehab myself, all my, all those other muscles in my leg, my hip muscles and

[00:43:50] everything else like that. I was making sure I was getting done. That was going to need

[00:43:54] because people have told me like, Hey, you're going to have hip issues in the future if you

[00:43:58] try to walk or jog, because your one side is going to try to make up for the other one.

[00:44:03] And, you know, I get this, I don't think they were blowing smoke. Like, yeah,

[00:44:06] that makes a lot of sense. I believe that so hey, I'm going to try to avoid that.

[00:44:10] So I'm just gonna work out my hips every day. I'm going to make sure I do

[00:44:14] do what I need to do to get all everything else functioning properly in the right way

[00:44:19] to where now when I jog or anything, I kind of call that that leg like almost like a human

[00:44:26] prosthetic because I literally just I'm picking it up and putting it down. But I've just

[00:44:32] been able to jog so much and everything like that that you can't really tell

[00:44:36] when you're watching me at this point. But really, yeah, it's kind of it's very surreal

[00:44:42] because when I'm when I'm running, I can't really feel that leg. Luckily, I still have

[00:44:46] the feeling on the bottom of my foot so I can feel my foot hitting the ground. But I can't feel

[00:44:52] a lot of the, you know, pains or aches like in the middle of that leg. That's pretty much

[00:44:56] the only time that I feel free is when I'm moving. Wow. I mean, that's pretty amazing

[00:45:01] because when I met you, I didn't I mean, it's something that we don't even notice if you

[00:45:05] don't know you, you don't walk different, you don't run different. I've seen your videos and

[00:45:10] I'm you know, I was curious. I'm like, what's his story? What's going on here? Because it

[00:45:14] doesn't look like there is anything and then I learned about your story. So, so the rehabilitation

[00:45:20] seems to have gone really amazing. But to help people that are currently in situations that

[00:45:27] they don't didn't ever ask to be and tell us about some dark moments and how you were able

[00:45:32] to overcome them. Did you have any kind of drawbacks? Obviously. Yeah, so just over time,

[00:45:39] I've become really good at allowing myself to feel like, you know, the bad feelings or negative

[00:45:46] feelings. But I try not to I know not to stay stay around in them. So I don't know if it's a

[00:45:51] gift from above. I've I've did plenty of reading, you know, I'm a I love stoicism,

[00:45:58] I love just listening to people with wisdom. And so I do take a lot of these quotes. That's

[00:46:03] why I post a lot of quotes. And, you know, I, I kind of take them for their words, if

[00:46:08] it's like, hey, like, be uncomfortable being, you know, be comfortable being uncomfortable,

[00:46:12] or it's like, you can't focus on things you can't change. But things like that. So I've kind of

[00:46:18] always been really good at putting those to use, believing them and using them to my to my

[00:46:23] favor. But, you know, when I would get no hard times, I would kind of just quickly just

[00:46:30] like, all right, we felt that again, but there's nothing you can do about it. So let's

[00:46:35] move forward. And let's focus on things you can change, right? I mean, it's like every day

[00:46:40] with my leg, it's very daunting, you know, this isn't all sunshine and rainbows,

[00:46:45] I am able to do all of this. But I still like right now I can feel the bottom my leg

[00:46:50] like twitching, you know, and they tell me if it's annoying in any way, that's a form of

[00:46:55] pain. But I know, I can't change that this leg is going to twitch like 24 seven, I can't

[00:47:01] change it. So why would I sit there and dwell on it? Right? So let's focus on the things I can

[00:47:06] change or work on. And that's like my attitude. And that's the you know, my efforts and my

[00:47:11] energy. As I always say, you know, when you if you have to, you know, learning about the past

[00:47:19] and knowing the past is good. But you don't want to sit there and dwell on it, you got

[00:47:23] to move forward. And again, just focusing on the things you can change. But, you know,

[00:47:28] things like that are going to happen. And you just got to keep on moving forward. Just like,

[00:47:33] you know, in a marathon, you know, things are gonna come up, aches, pains and bad feelings.

[00:47:39] But to get to the finish line, you got to continue moving forward.

[00:47:42] I love this. I love your perspective. And, you know, along with that, can you talk about

[00:47:48] the running community and how supportive they have been inclusive, because I know that early

[00:47:53] on when you first had your accident, you didn't really identify as a runner. But now fast forward,

[00:47:58] you had an accident, you are different. But you definitely, you know, define yourself as a runner

[00:48:04] now. Yeah. Well, let's I'd say just in general, you know, every day throughout my hospital stay,

[00:48:11] whether it was the six weeks in the hospital, the four weeks in the nursing home,

[00:48:15] I had visitors every day. So I was extremely blessed to have people there. For the most

[00:48:22] part, I can be introverted. You know, you wouldn't guess that now. But so people would come in and

[00:48:28] say, Well, I don't know what to talk about. And I always told people, you know, I don't really,

[00:48:33] we don't have to have conversations as long as you show up. And we just sit there and watch TV

[00:48:38] or we sit there and just look out the, you know, the window that's just showing up for me

[00:48:43] is huge. And so just having somebody there next to me the entire time was an absolutely

[00:48:49] blessing every day. I mean, there's maybe only a handful of days that I didn't have,

[00:48:54] but at least my dad was there and my mom was there as well. So I literally had somebody there

[00:48:59] with me every day. And that's just phenomenal. You know, I wasn't just sitting there by myself,

[00:49:04] you know, I had somebody to watch TV with someone to, you know, shoot the breeze with.

[00:49:09] But I mean, that was huge, right? So I think support's awesome. I got online every day,

[00:49:16] you know, online could be good. And I had tons of people reach out to me. I mean, tons of people

[00:49:22] that I hadn't seen or spoke to in years that reached out to me. And you know, that just means

[00:49:28] the absolute world to me was knowing that. And so I just knew that I had so many people that

[00:49:34] had my back even when I didn't think about it. You know, that, you know, to this day,

[00:49:38] I save a lot of saved a lot of those messages. I've seen what people post when

[00:49:42] you see the memories on Facebook. I saw what people had wrote to me. And it's just like,

[00:49:46] it is the daily, you know, humbled and reminder that like people are with me behind me and got

[00:49:52] my back even when I don't think so. So that was awesome. And then moving forward,

[00:49:58] you know, into getting into this running community thing. It's the same way it's,

[00:50:04] you know, a lot of these running groups, you know, we all kind of just show up every day

[00:50:08] and whether it's one person or if it's 20 people there, you know, there's usually somebody always

[00:50:14] there. And it's someone to talk to even if you don't know even if you don't talk to them,

[00:50:19] you just run with them, you know, share some miles with them. That's that's huge. I think

[00:50:22] that's the greatest part of the running community is there's usually someone's there that

[00:50:27] shows up. And I also like to think in general, everybody's got a story of some sort. So I

[00:50:34] like sharing mine because it kind of brings out other people to stare, share their stories.

[00:50:38] And I think that that only helps you therapeutically, mentally and physically to kind of share your

[00:50:43] stories. And once you start sharing stories, you kind of brings the world in. It's like,

[00:50:49] okay, we're all just, you know, very, very, we all learn the similar lesson,

[00:50:53] and just in different ways. And we all are going through this crazy thing called life.

[00:50:59] And it's, you know, it's not easy. Life's not fair. Life's not easy. And you know,

[00:51:04] it does take a community and we all are just trying to do our best with what we have.

[00:51:09] And I think, you know, the more people that show up, and the more that you can

[00:51:13] relate with people, the better that you're going to be in this again, the running

[00:51:17] communities also, I mean, just over time and time, it's just the more people I meet,

[00:51:22] the more people that you know, you become friends with, and there's a spread all out

[00:51:26] now. So now with me trying to run like the 50 states around the world majors, I'm starting

[00:51:32] to get no more people all across, all across the world and the states. And it just makes it

[00:51:39] that much better, you know, now every, every city I go to, or not every city, but every

[00:51:43] state or some for the most part, I know somebody. And so now I try to go hang out

[00:51:47] with them or at least try to, you know, if I can't stay with them or something, you know,

[00:51:52] or have a coffee or lunch, but it's been a true just, it's just a cycle of like

[00:52:00] you giving some and it returned to you, you know, a full like cycle of good karma. I swear.

[00:52:07] I love this. I love your story and I appreciate you sharing it with us.

[00:52:11] And do you have any marathons coming up this year?

[00:52:16] Yeah, so I have San Diego that's coming up in two weeks from now. I'm running ground malls,

[00:52:23] which is at the end of June. And then in July, I'm running Jack and Jill's out in

[00:52:26] the state of Washington. It's all downhill, so that should be fun. I'm running with a buddy

[00:52:31] for his first marathon. So we'll see how, how that goes. And then August, I'm kind of

[00:52:37] taking off ish. It's my birthday in there somewhere, but I usually do something. So I

[00:52:44] don't know what I'm gonna do yet. There's a 24 hour, like a last, it's called the last

[00:52:50] Buckeye standing. I might do that where you run a four hour, not four hour, 4.187 loop every hour.

[00:52:56] I'd like to see how far I can go there. But then moving forward, the fall is extremely busy.

[00:53:03] I got the Marine Corps marathon. I have Chicago. I have New York City. New York City is going

[00:53:09] to finish off my world majors. And then I signed up for the JFK 50 miler. So that'll be

[00:53:16] my farthest run. So I'm looking forward to that. And then I'm running Kiowa Island

[00:53:22] in December. So quite a few. So it will be a total of like 15 marathons this year with a

[00:53:28] couple of ultras sprinkled in there. But yeah, I always tell people I like to stay curious.

[00:53:36] Man, I just stay curious on now like what, what I can do, what, what this leg can do.

[00:53:42] I always say, you know, what can I get this lady to do? How fast can I get it to go? How far can

[00:53:46] I get it to go? And, you know, there's a lot of successful people in the world that always say,

[00:53:50] you know, stay curious, push the limits. And I've really taken that to heart. And now I kind

[00:53:56] of just been spreading that word to people is just to always stay curious, you know,

[00:53:59] and always start now. You know, people are like, I don't want to sign up for 100 miler.

[00:54:04] I don't know if I can finish. Well, in my mind, I'm like, that is a reason to start.

[00:54:08] That's the reason to do it. Because it's not about necessarily finishing that 100 miler. If you get

[00:54:13] to like 51 and you stop, okay, well, that that's awesome. That's probably farther than

[00:54:18] you've gone before. And you can find out, you know, that, okay, we can get back there.

[00:54:22] Let's see if we can go 52 miles, you know, I know that sounds dumb, but that's the way my

[00:54:27] mind works. That's constantly just try to go farther and farther. And just because you don't

[00:54:31] finish doesn't mean it's a fail. It's only a fail if you quit, right? So, you know,

[00:54:36] in that state of mind now where it's just constantly pushing me and see how fast I can go too,

[00:54:41] right? Because they told me I was never going to run marathons again. So just completing one was

[00:54:45] awesome. But then I was like, well, let's see how many we can do. And now I can run a 325

[00:54:52] marathon. And so it's just amazing to me that somebody like myself that's kind of missing

[00:54:56] some vital parts in my leg that was toward that. Now I'm running 325. So now it's like,

[00:55:02] can I run a 320? Well, I don't know. But we're gonna find out if I can, you know,

[00:55:06] I'm just gonna keep going after it. And I feel like that's just the way, you know,

[00:55:10] people should be attacking life not even just running but about their careers

[00:55:14] or relationships, but everything. I love this and all this coming from a person that never

[00:55:20] called himself a runner. Jared, thank you so much for coming and speaking with us. We will

[00:55:25] link your Instagram profile in our show notes so that way people that are curious about you

[00:55:30] are able to see you there. And yeah, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.

[00:55:36] Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. And it was great getting

[00:55:41] to meet you at Boston and speaking to you. And then, yeah, I'm just so honored that you

[00:55:46] have me on and allow me to share my story. It's just a true blessing in general, you

[00:55:51] know, that I can just able to do things like this now, you know, who would have thought?

[00:55:55] You're such an inspiration, just with everything you've done. It's truly amazing and we wish you

[00:56:02] the best luck going forward and, you know, we'll see you out there.

[00:56:08] Yeah, thank you so much. I'm humbled and honored.

[00:56:14] Thank you, Jared, for coming onto our podcast. It was very, very kind of you to come on and

[00:56:19] share your story and super inspirational. Yeah, I think it's something that people

[00:56:24] can appreciate is just having the opportunities that they have and enjoying their life the

[00:56:30] way it is. And, you know, these stories I think are really helpful to maintain that.

[00:56:35] Yes, keep it in perspective. Deal with the cards you're dealt. And I guess with that,

[00:56:41] Ryan, we're now going to walk over and start eating our five year anniversary cake for the

[00:56:47] podcast. Happy four years. Until next year, have a good week.

[00:56:57] Thanks for tuning in. For more information and marathon running news, please head to

[00:57:02] www.marathonrunningpodcast.com and we'll be back next week.

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