Cycling Oklahoma
We will talk about everything cycling in Oklahoma. We cover races, athletes, bike industry, local gossip and everything fun that has to do with 2 wheels.
Cycling Oklahoma
Pedaling Through Adversity Zach's Story
What happens when life throws you a curveball and you find yourself on an entirely new path? Meet Zach, an inspiring cyclist and military veteran, as he shares his compelling story of resilience and transformation. From his early days growing up in the Yukon area and joining the Marines, Zach's journey is marked by moments of challenge and triumph. His tale takes us from the rigorous demands of military service to the exhilarating world of competitive track cycling.
Join us as we explore the profound impact of a life-altering cycling accident that tested Zach's physical and mental limits. Miraculously recovering from severe injuries, he found new purpose and ambition in cycling, a passion reignited through support from Paralympic programs and VA initiatives. With candid insights into the technical and emotional aspects of rehabilitation, Zach reveals how cycling became a beacon of hope and a catalyst for his Paralympic aspirations.
This episode also celebrates the unique world of track cycling, highlighting the thrilling races, innovative technologies, and the camaraderie at events like the Endeavor Games. Discover the vibrant stories of community, competition, and connection that make cycling a unifying force. Zach's experiences, intertwined with a couple's journey into foster care and adoption, offer a rich tapestry of inspiration, encouraging us all to embrace our athletic dreams and engage with the cycling community.
Instagram @zachthemarinebarber
what is up? Cycling oklahoma? Thank you so much for tuning in for another great episode. Uh, we're just going to start right out of the shoot with does your garage door suck and is it ugly and does it need some love this winter?
Speaker 1:If the answer is yes to any of those, then please reach out to our friends, the og sponsor of cycling oklahoma and our little world that we have here more overhead door. Reach out to them. They support us, they support our community. I say it every single time, uh, but they can take care of you. Their family owned and operated right here in more Oklahoma or in, yeah, in more Oklahoma and they are looking to uh to help you out with any of those garage door needs. So I know several of you have reached out to them over the past few years of them sponsoring us and giving back to our community. So please continue to do that. I can't think more overhead door enough and I cannot wait to share some of the other things that they got their hands into in our cycling landscape here in Oklahoma. So the other thing is is I want to say thank you so much to Mr Wayne, edgar of Pope and Edgar Law. They are stepped up and they've supported the podcast. They're going to be supporting the podcast for a while and I cannot say thank you enough. Wayne is a fellow cyclist and is an attorney and does a little of everything and so if you have some attorney needs, I know we have quite a few attorneys in our cycling community. But Pope and Edgar has really stepped up and try to sponsor this and be a part of our community, not only physically but financially, and I can't say thank you enough to them. They're licensed right here in Oklahoma and in Texas and, like I said, they can do everything from your estate planning, probate, business bankruptcies, real estate engineering, construction, like anything that you can think of. Reach out to talk to these guys because let's see if they can help you. And then you know, let's keep it in our family, keep it in the circle, and they support us, so let's support them. So thank you so much, wayne, for stepping up and helping out. So Pope and Edgar attorneys at law reach out to them. It's pretty easy to find them on the internet. They're down in more or in Norman. You can reach out to them at 405-360-7555. Or just give a quick Google search for Pope and Edgar law firm and they will get you all taken care of.
Speaker 1:I want to say thank you so much for Zach, who sat down to take time out of his busy life, and whenever you hear this episode, you're going to realize how busy of a life this man has. It's a very inspirational story. I think you're going to find a lot of heartfelt moments here and just overcoming and perseverance in this story. It's not kind of our typical episode, our typical story that we have. I started riding the bike when I was a kid and then I'm really fast and naturally and then I just keep going fast. It's a wild journey. His story is very interesting. He's doing some amazing things with his cycling outside of performance, and you know how we got involved in cycling and how he stuck through it, through some really big ups and downs, and what cycling has meant to him is pretty interesting and pretty amazing. Uh, zach and his wife have hearts of gold and so I think you're going to see that in this episode and I hope you really enjoy it If you see Zach out there. Uh, he's usually wearing's usually wearing an armed forces kit, and we get into his military service and I think you'll want to become friends with Zach and you'll definitely want to get to know him and get to meet him and get a little bit more personal relationship with him, because he's a very interesting man and man. What a wild story. So, zach, thank you so much for sitting down and taking time to do this. Thank you so much for sitting down and taking time to do this, and I can't thank all the listeners enough for this fun journey and hearing the stories of all of our friends that are in the site.
Speaker 1:Here in Oklahoma, a lot more fun gets lined up, a lot of fun things coming up ahead. Again, we're going to be doing the first state championship gravel race in the fall of 2025. So stay tuned for more details there. Please go check out cyclingoklahomacom. Download your gravel routes there. We have ways through all trails that you can find mountain bike trails If you're not familiar where to look in Oklahoma and find those. If you have a route that you love, please email me at cyclingoklahoma at gmail. Send that file over to me. I want to upload it. I want to keep these files fresh. I want to keep new trails and new um routes uploaded on there so people can find their next new adventure. We got some a new video coming really, really, really soon and a lot more fun, exciting events and things that we're going to do.
Speaker 1:Just try to keep the spirit of gravel alive and the true adventuring spirit of what gravel riding and mountain biking is all about, and that's the mission here is to help you find your next adventure and help support you on that adventure any way that we can. So if you have ideas, if you have thoughts of things that we can do to help support our community, let me know. If you want to be on the podcast or have people that you think would be great to be on the podcast, feel free to shoot that message over to me. But you know, I'm excited to be here, I'm excited to be a little bit, uh, part of your journey and your cycling and your adventure journey, and I can't wait to see you know where this goes. I can't thank you enough for tuning in and, uh, we'll talk to you again next time. All right, zach, we are officially rolling and, more importantly, you're the first one to bring a dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:So clearly you are now my favorite podcast guest and he's Malinois, which we've talked about, that same as my dog for anybody that's seen him. So it's gonna be tough to beat zach as a guest already it's time to get people to like me I like I. I do the same thing I I use what I can uh-huh, zach, I appreciate you taking time to sit down. We've we've talked about doing this for gosh, probably maybe a year, six, eight months year, something like that, yeah, so we've finally been able to make this happen.
Speaker 1:So I don't even know where to start, but I think it'll start at the beginning, like where did you, where were you raised? Like kind of, where did you grow up?
Speaker 2:Born in Edmond, raised in like there in Yukon area.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Pretty chill split up, but how old are you 39.
Speaker 1:Old man, old, when's your birthday, august? Oh, so just turned 39. So you're not hitting the top of the hill yet. Yeah, right, yeah, you got anything planned for the 40th? No, nothing yet I don't think I did it. I don't know what did I do for my 40th. I don't even know what I did for my 40th. That one wasn't a big one.
Speaker 2:I think the Marine Corps stopped me aging at 20.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my 30th, I was like not cool with it. 40th, I was like bring it on, man.
Speaker 2:Let's do this. I'm pumped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and 50,. I already got my 50th planned. I told my college buddies the other day I was like, guys, I got a great idea for what we could do for our 50th because we're all going to be about the same time and I told, told them they were like man, that would be awesome. I don't know if we could do that and I'm like you have five years to pull this off, like you have five years to plan this with your kids, with your budget, with your spouses, like, yeah, let's make it happen.
Speaker 1:You can ask permission yes, and all of them were like, oh, that would be cool. But I don't know, I'm like, okay, this is what I'm doing for my 50th. If, if you boys want to join, it'd be cool to come along. Yeah, come on, come play. So all right. So you grew up in, did you grow up in Yukon?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay, I moved out there when I was in fifth grade, okay.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. So how did you? When did you? Did you play other sports before we get into the bike stuff?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I played baseball, uh, high school, through high school, and then he got into riding bikes my dad and like, got into triathlons when I was. I don't like 13 or 14 you did, or your dad, my dad did, okay. And then, uh, I was just like bored at home one day and he was going for a bike ride and I grabbed my bike and I was like, well, I'm bored let's do it, let's go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did uh what got him in aathlon Just something to do. Does he still do it?
Speaker 2:No, he retired fly fishes a lot, much more relaxed. Feels like riding a bike. He'll go ride a bike.
Speaker 1:So he still does ride every once in a while.
Speaker 2:Every once in a while. Okay, he'll do a lap around after he's a big yoga guy.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, did you get into riding just as for fun and hanging out with just like every little kid does? Yeah, definitely, when did you? And then you graduated from UConn? Hi Mustang. From Mustang okay, and then do you join the military right out of school?
Speaker 2:No, I went to UCO for like three years.
Speaker 1:Okay, what'd you major in?
Speaker 2:Forensic science. What were you going to do with that years? Okay, what'd you major in uh forensic science? What were you gonna do with that? Uh, one, be like a pathologist? Okay, like, or medical examiner was the end goal, okay. But uh, I was a little overzealous and what I wanted to do, uh get done with uh undergrad in four years. You know it was like a five-year program uh-huh and like just one day after three years I was like, yeah, this is doing like 18 hour semesters oh, they weren't far from being done now, but it's like 18 hours of like physics and organic chemistry and yeah, I just went to the registrar's office, dropped out and went to the recruiting office.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, what the heck caused that just it just burned out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just like this. And then kind of the prospects was like oh there you go, like 16 years of this. Oh yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:I can't do it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's rough.
Speaker 1:What's a better option? So what made you choose military instead of just changing your major?
Speaker 2:Uh, so like my grandpa was in the marine corps in like uh world war ii okay.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of always like a little bit of an interest and uh I mean the uh like iraq war is kind of at its peak.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh, it's kind of like well, why not?
Speaker 1:I don't know what to do like, let's go see see what that's all about. That's a bold move to like.
Speaker 2:Go see what this is all about yeah, I mean obviously like I didn't know what to do since, like the college thing wasn't necessarily panning out. So yeah, well, this will give me a few years to figure that out and you did marines.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, was it marines because a family?
Speaker 2:yeah, okay, I just wanted to continue that tradition yeah, and kind of just like you know the coolest uniform and the toughest challenge or whatever.
Speaker 1:But yeah, yeah, I will say there is no uniform that touches the dress uniform yeah, yeah, exactly, it's the best by far it's so clean yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:So I was like it's marketing sucker jam, I know yeah fighting a volcano monster with a sword or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, always in their commercials yeah where uh? So where'd you do basic? Uh, san diego, okay, is that where everybody goes?
Speaker 2:no, if you're like uh, west of the mississippi, you go to san diego, east, you go to paris island. Where's that? South carolina?
Speaker 1:okay because army I feel like they kind of go several different places I didn't know, the marines only has two places. Yeah, interesting. Um so how long were you in san diego?
Speaker 2:so boot camps, what 13 weeks? And then, yeah, I went to my schools in north carolina, jacksonville how brutal was boot camp uh, it's mental game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mentally pretty tough uh well, what do you, what do you remember being like the toughest physical part, Like. Do you remember anything that's like man? That was awful.
Speaker 2:It was more running than I thought it was going to be, so, yeah, Do you have to do a lot of beach stuff being in San Diego? Uh, I mean it's all sand Cause, yeah, it's like everywhere sand. Well, yeah, the bootcamp out there shares a fence with, like, the airport of San Diego, so like, yeah, sometimes like the drill instructors would like march you out and like make you sit in the sand and just watch planes take off.
Speaker 1:Just like screw with you, yeah.
Speaker 2:Look at those people. They're early, they're going on vacation, yeah.
Speaker 1:They're like, you're like a prisoner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, like you're like a prisoner, yeah, like a tip of the like little recruit depot or whatever like is across the bay from downtown. So they'd like they'd march you like on friday night, like just make you here like downtown, although good times.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's cool. Thanks back to the barracks boys. Yeah, yeah, man was, but man was there. Uh, did you during that whole process? Did you regret to signing up?
Speaker 2:Uh, I mean, no, uh, I was, I was 20 when I went in, so I was older, yeah, and so like that helped, you think definitely yeah. And so, like the, the drill instructors kind of like leave the older people alone a little bit, just because you kind of know how to act yeah.
Speaker 1:Those 18-year-old punks yeah.
Speaker 2:And then also, yeah, you get put in like more of the leadership roles. And so it wasn't you know too bad.
Speaker 1:What did you want to do in the military?
Speaker 2:So I was a helicopter mechanic, so I went out and then I kind of helped out in the back occasionally on some longer flights gotcha, what, uh, what helicopters you work on it's called ch53 which one is that the? Biggest helicopter america has like the big like.
Speaker 1:Is it like a cargo?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, it kind of carries troops and how many troops can you put in one of those things?
Speaker 1:because 55 is it a double rotor one? No, that's a chinook.
Speaker 2:So it's bigger than that, okay, ours carries that when it breaks man, that's crazy yeah, it's a 100 feet long and 30 feet high. 100 feet long helicopter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, holy crap. I don't know if I've seen one of those. Yes, I'm sure I have.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's big, and so you, they fly over oakland city every once in a while, do they?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's cool, make a sound that just like yeah, like I hear I'm like running, like no, no, I'm out, I'm out, um, so then you went to your schools in north carolina, where at at jacksonville okay yeah, the camp, camp lejeune did you like? Oh, campjeune, that's where I hear the for the. What's that? That lawsuit? Oh, yeah, yeah, the water. Yeah, for the water, that's what it is. Yeah, that's the only reason I know that name. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that was three months.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And that which, surprisingly, that's all it takes to learn how to fix a helicopter.
Speaker 1:That's scary and good. Yeah, it's all you know learning everything by doing it.
Speaker 2:But uh, then where'd you go back to san?
Speaker 1:diego, okay, yeah. Did you like the west coast better than these? Oh yeah by far did you yeah, yeah, how long were you in san diego?
Speaker 2:uh, so I did my entire uh enlistment there you know, minus deployments, right yeah, so did you do four years, six years yeah, it's a five-year contract, Okay, but I got hurt and you know, military like kind of takes responsibility for you when you get hurt and then so my EAS, like my end of active service date, got erased, just a blank mark, which was terrible.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially as, like, my original EAS date came and went. Oh, I was like, oh man, so you still don't have? A well, no, it uh, they finally did. Yeah, I finally did it once, the paperwork and everything came back, but uh yeah, I ended up doing uh, basically right at five and a half years.
Speaker 1:And you said deployments Yep. Where'd you go for that?
Speaker 2:I went to Iraq once, and then I went on the boat for eight months.
Speaker 1:Where'd you go on the boat Pacific? Yeah, we went all over the place, how'd you?
Speaker 2:like that. It was terrible, the boat was terrible, I hated the boat.
Speaker 1:yeah, was it like an aircraft carrier?
Speaker 2:So like an amphibious assault ship, like a mini aircraft carrier, huh.
Speaker 1:And you just live on that thing for eight months, Pretty much.
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean you stop. So, like we left San Diego, went to Hawaii, Hawaii to Australia and then Australia. To where did we go? Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, and then North Korea got lippy. So we like went to North Korea and then we were like eight hours from North Korea and they said, never mind, Just cruising around, yeah. And so then we were like eight hours from north korea and they said, never mind, just cruising around, yeah. And so then we had to go from north korea to yemen because, like the I don't know if you remember, like the christmas, like underwear bomber dude, like ratted, where all the terrorist camps were in yemen so we had to go from north korea to yemen.
Speaker 2:So how long did that take? It's like no.
Speaker 1:I think it was like 90 days on the boat without seeing land, yeah, just terrible is that like screw with your mind, or is it just like it's terrible because you just see nothing?
Speaker 2:yeah, every 30 days you get like a steel beach picnic, they call it. They like take all the aircraft and put them down below and they like bring out like basketball goals and stuff and everyone gets a couple of beers. Well, that's kind of cool. At least I tried, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's a month in between is rough yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's real dark out there. It's gotta be beautiful Kinda Kinda yeah.
Speaker 1:At nine. I mean it's gotta be amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's dark yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, but it's like you're like, I don't care, man, yeah, yeah, it's kind of scary too, because you're like oh, I am really in the middle of nowhere, like literally nothing can save you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, did you? How is it with that many?
Speaker 2:people on such a confined space. Uh, I mean it's not. You get used to it like I'm like a cruise ship has way more people. That's way bigger but, yeah, but.
Speaker 1:But I have a lot more cool amenities on a cruise ship boat has, you know, everything you need, want yeah did you ever like fights?
Speaker 2:oh, yeah, I mean it's marines, that's what I'm saying, but that many fight each other for fun dudes. Yeah, what do they?
Speaker 1:do when that stuff happens? Let's just break it up, move on. Yeah, orb, does anybody like get in trouble? Trouble? What do they do with you?
Speaker 2:I mean they have like a jail on them. They do yeah, huh yeah. They've, like you know, all those weird like maritime laws, so like uh does anybody ever go to jail I mean, no, I feel like you'd do like something real bad.
Speaker 1:But that'd be, that would be brutal be stuck in jail on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you gotta be real peace for that yeah, I think they can get away with like just giving you like bread and water yeah, they just gotta keep you alive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much pretty much.
Speaker 2:But yeah, from yemen we went to africa and then from africa back to australia oh my god. Then australia back to hawaii. Then when you get to hawaii, the second time half the boat leaves, I think I'll get ready, you know they fly back to san diego, and you get to Hawaii the second time, half the boat leaves, I think I'll get ready, you know they fly back to San Diego and, you know, take half the crap with them too, like tools and stuff like that. Try to get ready for your arrival.
Speaker 1:So when you come back they're there to get you back.
Speaker 2:It's like three days, I think, it took from Hawaii to San Diego, but yeah, and then you can have a family member meet you in Hawaii and sail back with you.
Speaker 1:That's cool. Yeah, did you do that? No, oh, but that would be really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't hate my family enough to they come to you like hey.
Speaker 1:Nobody thought it was going to be a good idea. Yeah, no. Did you enjoy that deployment or did you enjoy that? Enjoy is probably not the right word. Which one was the most memorable and the one that you're like? This is what I signed up for.
Speaker 2:Uh, Iraq yeah.
Speaker 1:Where were you out?
Speaker 2:there, uh, al-assad Okay.
Speaker 1:Which is Western Iraq. Yeah, and then how long were you there? Uh, like it'd be being like eight months, okay yeah were you there in the summertime?
Speaker 2:uh, so yeah, I got there in like late fall and left in the like late spring.
Speaker 1:So you didn't experience it all, you didn't get the like brutal, brutal summer it was 149 the day we left how's that even possible? I don't know it's stupid I mean, after a certain point is it just the same hot?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's after like a joke, like after like 115, it's just hot, it's just hot. Yeah, it's 115 or 125, it it just the same hot. Yeah, it's after like a joke, like after like 115, it's just hot, it's just hot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's 115, 125, it's just the same, still hot, yeah man, yeah, my, uh, my cousin was in the striker unit in the army, um in iraq and, uh, through all the crazy stuff and it all went down, and I remember him telling us like how hot it was and they, they were in that striker just cruising around and, just like you know, six of them packed inside of that thing with everything locked up and it's 120 outside.
Speaker 2:Nope.
Speaker 1:You know, full of the teas. I'm like, Nope, it's shocking. There's not more like and there may be, there is, and we just don't hear about it but more medical issues, that kind of stuff Cause it's just almost unlivable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's gross. I mean, I do a pretty good job. Make sure you're drinking water.
Speaker 1:Do as much as I can yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's not fun, no not fun at all.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, so then we you get back to San Diego. Um, you still at this point, have you been? Did you continue riding your bike? Through your life and just kind of like as an exercise, as a fun thing, or how did the bike stay involved in your life? Yeah, just kind of that would uh just here and there, yeah, and then you picked it back up in san diego uh, yeah, just riding a little more frequently there because, yeah, more fun obviously very terrain and you have more uh different cast of characters out there.
Speaker 2:You know more uh different cast of characters out there. You know get like world tour pros that you'd see uh just casually cruising Uh that's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Did you think that? Uh, did you have a plan of staying in the Marines, like for a lifer, or what'd you think?
Speaker 2:So when I got hurt, it was like right at that point where it was like starting to be time to decide and like I was like 75, 25, get out oh okay like still, like I don't know what you kind of think that you might want to go do. It's like I didn't know. Really, like you know, my dad was a cop for like 40 years. So like doing something like law enforcement wise, but maybe, like on the federal end of the thing, maybe sounded appealing, but then, anyway, I got hurt.
Speaker 1:Okay, so through another wrench in the program. That's a big wrench and we briefly talked about it before we started and I don't and I didn't want to ask too many questions because I even talked about the dog a little bit I don't want to ask too many questions because I want to record it because, I like to keep it fresh for me too, so let's talk about that as much as you want to, and as much as you can, it's about getting hurt. So what happened?
Speaker 2:So I got hurt, despite being in the military, in the height of a war, in a bike wreck yeah, yeah, going down one of the mountains in San Diego Okay, just going downhill and got essentially cut off by a car Okay, and I swerved and missed the car. But then I discovered the frame had some flaws in it and my swerving to miss the car, uh, exposed those flaws and snapped the frame in half. Oh my gosh. And uh, I broke my fall off my face because I'm super smart yeah anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then it was uh, yeah, like a chip and seal road and slid 150 feet.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh yeah, so how fast were you going, I think 48. Okay, do you remember it? No, not at all. Yeah, not at all.
Speaker 2:I remember being at the top of the mountain and sending my dad a picture because the only time he had been to San Diego before was like boot camp, graduation, and he had like, only we only like saw like the little area of san diego where boot camp was.
Speaker 2:So he had no idea how big san diego was, and like this mountain is like pretty much right on the coast, okay, and so like I just sent them like a panorama shot of like oh, here's the entire sprawl, yeah, like how huge the city is, uh-huh and uh, yeah.
Speaker 1:Then the next memory is them taking my breathing tube out oh my gosh, so you're just cruising down the mountain, car cuts you off. Yeah, you swerve. The frame does what it does yeah did it? Did you break, like the steer tube, the top tube or just the?
Speaker 2:so the down tube came out of the lug on the bottom bracket and then the top tube came out of the lug on like the seat post. Oh, literally like stamped in half.
Speaker 1:Holy cow, yeah Going 50.
Speaker 2:Yeah, essentially.
Speaker 1:Yep, jeez, okay, so you land clearly had trauma right. Yeah, right on your face and anything else broken.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have the great luck and I landed on a rock with my eye Jeez Can you see, yeah, how the heck did that happen? Yeah that was the first question they asked me when I looked up they were like. Can you see, I was like. I had no idea how long I'd been out. So I was like yeah.
Speaker 1:Why are you asking these questions?
Speaker 2:Of course I can see yeah, for, like you know, wouldn't put in pieces together. But like yeah, I thought I was off like 10 minutes so I was like yeah and how long? Was that it was like two weeks oh, jeez, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what you thought was 10 months, two weeks, it passed yeah, I was in a coma for two weeks. Oh my gosh okay, so they get you off the mountain. So did the driver stop?
Speaker 2:uh, no. So the, the eyewitness, the guy that called 911, lucky, who's an ER doctor, on his way home from work, oh my gosh, yeah. And so I was aspirating on the side of the road and so he said it looks like you're coughing, but you're throwing up and it's just not making it out, going right back into your lungs. So he knew what to do clear your airway and all that. Wow, how fortunate. Oh, yeah, right, yeah. But uh, he said that I made it through the intersection and so he's like, even if that guy was looking at his roof and we're like, oh god, like I may have just hit that guy or came close to hitting that guy, he's like he saw you go through the intersection gotcha you know, you yeah close, yeah, but anyway it happened right after that.
Speaker 2:Yeah you know that I'm saying right, don't know firsthand, but yeah, he said that like. Uh, he saw like the bike coming apart and was like dying, dialing 911, like before I crashed, oh he's like, oh, this isn, this isn't going to be good.
Speaker 1:I'm assuming, yeah, okay. He's like, well, this isn't going to be good. Oh my gosh. So he saw the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then gosh got lucky again. Uh, fire station was.
Speaker 1:I think like a quarter mile away man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like best of worst case scenario at the fire station.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they uh. You know, like I said my doctor earlier, my dad was a cop for 40 years. So he said that uh, you know like the kind of crappy part of their job is they don't ever get to find out how the people fare you know, that they, and so, anyway, you had the after I woke up the paramedics came to the hospital room, you know, to like say hello type thing, and uh, oh yeah. They were like, yeah, you ruined our uh, our record on uh response time yeah, now they got standards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, yeah it was like 46 seconds or something like that. You're like, I didn't have 47 yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:So it was kind of funny.
Speaker 1:And then Did you have broken ribs and collarbones and arms and any of that stuff?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I fractured my skull, shattered my orbit Well, I said punctured a lung Like my shoulder, knees and knuckles were like ground down to the bone. Yeah, because you know, chip and seal road 150 feet. Yeah, it's a long way, that's a long ways. Yeah, holy cow, like the pictures from, like the cops you know my gosh impact. Oh my gosh, like where he stopped oh horrible.
Speaker 1:So you were in. You said you were in a coma for two weeks. Yeah, do you remember?
Speaker 2:anything? Uh-uh, no, not a thing.
Speaker 1:And it was like a medically induced coma or you were just out.
Speaker 2:So I was on my way myself and the paramedics told me when they came in the brain swelling and all the things. And they came in there like brain swelling and all the things, like yeah, so yeah, the paramedics said like yeah, we, you know, have much better success if we can, like put you out on waking you up. So we, we went ahead and put you out for sure. But uh, yeah, they said that. You know, obviously all of that was a hole, yeah, but uh, you know, bleeding everywhere and all that.
Speaker 2:They said that I kept home. I had to get back to work. I'm not today, buddy, yeah, yeah, they said that I kept trying to like sneak away oh my gosh. So you were like it's terrible, my subconscious is worried about work.
Speaker 1:Ish Like the body was awake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the lights were on responding. That's wild nothing, yeah wow, so you were.
Speaker 1:You were in, knocked out for two weeks. Then you come, come up, come awake, you're in san diego hospital. Yep, um, what, what happens?
Speaker 2:next. So I said I woke up and they're taking my breathing, and when, like what time of year?
Speaker 1:uh july 2009, july of 2009. Okay, yeah and then what happens next?
Speaker 2:so, yeah, I woke up when they're taking my breathing tube out and, uh, did not get all the instructions of like, breathe out the entire time, and like, even when you're out of air, breathe out the entire time so your throat doesn't get messed up. So, yeah, anyway, I panicked, obviously, yeah, and yeah, just absolutely. You know, covered this poor nurse that was just trying to start me like a lawnmower. I just covered her in. You know chunks of throat and vomit everything.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I sat up, I like looked around, like saw I was in a hospital. So confused oh yeah, and I looked at her and said well, I guess that bike ride didn't go very well and then passed right back out.
Speaker 1:Oh, jeez, that was your like coming out speech. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Yeah. My poor family had to endure that yeah.
Speaker 1:So you went back out for a little while of just like in and out, I'm guessing. Just for the rest of that day, yeah, and then started the process.
Speaker 2:So how long were you in the hospital or an icu and all that kind of stuff? So in the civilian hospital for about a month. Okay, it's like a little over three weeks.
Speaker 1:Was it ever like life-threatening?
Speaker 2:yeah okay, yeah, so because the paramedics were so close and like the hospital is, I think, less than 10 miles away, Okay, I got to the hospital so fast that, like all of the initial scans were fine.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Like didn't show any brain swelling or anything, Wow. But luckily the ER doctor there, the trauma guy, trauma guy was like I think we're just early and obviously you know this was right. I'm all messed up and you know I still have like asphalt in my ear from it crazy. But uh, he's like, so I was going to surgery anyway, right? And he's like, let's redo the scans before surgery, right, and then, yeah, the second scans were showed. All the stuff yeah everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, brain swelling, yeah, like subdermal hematoma and all that. And so, yeah, the you know initial thing was, like you know, my uh wife at the time when she got there best friend, when he got there, you know, the doctor told him start making funeral arrangements Like he's going to die any time. Yeah, because of the brain swelling. Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I mean I was on my way out, but it got like right to the point where it was like all right, we're going to start doing, like you know, the craniectomy thing or craniotomy or whatever you know, they take the flap of skull off and
Speaker 2:all that and they're like you know, that's our last ditch. And it got right to that point and then, like the pressure just stopped right there, man, and then started going down. But then it was like the neurologist would come in. You know, obviously he's not going to die, it doesn't look like, but you know it might be a vegetable. It might, right, I don't look like, but you know might be a vegetable, might, right, and don't know. And then the trauma guy would come in like hey, like we don't know like you know, we don't really have any idea how the body recovers, it's like, so just wait, just wait.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're on his time now. Unfortunately, that's wild and yeah.
Speaker 1:I woke up Because usually those stories don't turn out well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, mm-mm.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, yeah, when I woke up or whatever, the neurologist was like well, you know he's awake, you know they asked me a few questions before I passed back out all the way. And yeah, it was like what day was it? And August, something. I told him it was like late October, way off, because the World Series was going on, I think.
Speaker 1:I was like yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Apparently, the brain was on autopilot there Wild. But yeah, I got that I was married. And then I got how long I'd been married for close enough. They're like brain isn't all there. Like he got the important questions right, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:But yeah, they basically kind of still painting a little gloom picture and yeah, the trauma guy was like he's going to be fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know my dad you know two weeks of that.
Speaker 2:Basically going back and forth was like you know you're telling me one thing, the other guy's telling me, like what is going on. And uh, the trauma guy's name is dr dan dan, from iran, that's amazing yeah but yeah, he said he goes.
Speaker 2:listen, because I judge my patients on their recovery on two things, and two things only it's how quick their sense of humor comes back and how long it takes them to tell me that the hospital food tastes like crap. And he said he ruined his throat. So that's going to be a long time before he tells me that he goes. But he opened with a joke.
Speaker 1:That's a good sign he's going to be fine. That's a good sign. That's awesome. That's a good sign he's going to be fine, that's a good sign, that's awesome. So you were in, in, so you said civilian hospital for like a month Were you did you have like any um, like walking, eating, like, uh, motor skill issues? Yeah, Okay, yeah. So you had to go through all the therapies for all those things.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, therapies for all those things. Yeah yeah, it was total. I was in the hospital for a year.
Speaker 1:Wow, Like you never got out for a year or you were in and out.
Speaker 2:So I was supposed to be inpatient, okay, but I lived a mile from the Naval Hospital in San Diego, okay. And like I said, it was at the height of the Iraq War, so obviously a bunch of people injured, and all that. And I made a deal as long as I was never late.
Speaker 1:I could stay at home, okay, so that way they could keep it. So how long were you like in in?
Speaker 2:I mean technically.
Speaker 1:I was impatient.
Speaker 2:They just let me look the other way when I left. Okay, gotcha man, that's wild. They just counted me there when I wasn't.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's crazy. And so what were the motor skills that you remember being so challenging to do rehab for?
Speaker 2:I had to relearn how to walk. Wow, really, yeah, which is weird.
Speaker 1:That is strange.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because usually when you see that with people, there's usually some sort of sign of that, but you don't have any sign of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have like muscles suck really bad, like super tight Gotcha yeah.
Speaker 1:You know that happened in 09.
Speaker 2:I learned how to kind of Like muscles suck really bad, like super tight Gotcha, yeah, yeah, you know, that happened in 09.
Speaker 1:Like, I learned how to kind of hide it really well.
Speaker 2:You do hide it really well, yeah, yeah and my like left arm is like it's asleep all the time.
Speaker 1:Oh, like like tingly asleep, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:If you see me hold stuff with my left hand, I drop it all the time. Interesting, yeah, you see me hold stuff with my left hand. I drop it all the time.
Speaker 1:Interesting yeah huh, and then bike races. I can't feel it. Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, real mix, grabbing your front brake a lot of fun as long as better.
Speaker 1:I guess better your front one not being great as your than your back one. Yeah, oh my gosh. Okay, so those are the things that you still kind of deal with on a daily basis yeah, for sure, okay, yeah, and you had no vision loss at all.
Speaker 2:No, that's great yeah, it's weird, yeah, super insane. Yeah, I think that this, like my eyeball just moved out of the way amazing. Yeah, wow, I think the rock just kind of pushed it all out of the way and then a year of rehab, yeah, and then what the heck do you do?
Speaker 1:because at this point, you're still in the military, yeah, um, but things have clearly changed. So what do you do whenever you finally get clearance and like all right, man, this is like we're.
Speaker 2:We're as good, as we're gonna get, it's all we can do, yeah. So, uh, the first it was like, yeah, I kind of like stay in and so they're like all right, like let's kind of see what you can do, and yes, I'd try to go run and all that, and I can make it a quarter mile before like the lay down on the side of the road and like throw up and like be dizzy and all that and yeah that went on for like a month and finally, like the doctor was like, yeah, let's do like an mri and see what's going on.
Speaker 2:Well, I still had a brain bleed, oh my gosh. Good thing you didn't try to make it a half mile, no, kidding. Who knows what would have happened. But uh, yeah, yeah. So obviously I was like, well, staying in is probably not the right right call. So yeah, I got medically retired.
Speaker 1:Okay. Which is you know blessing, yeah for sure. Yeah, it turned out to be the best thing, yeah for life today.
Speaker 2:Anyways, yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a long drawn out process with the va, but yeah, but now it's what's forged all these amazing opportunities that you're taking advantage of now for sure. So once you get, once you get out, you're done. Did you move back here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because that was in 2011. Okay, so yeah, the speed of bureaucracy. What was that? Three years or whatever to do the paperwork to get me retired, yeah, so what?
Speaker 2:did you do once you came back to oklahoma? Uh, yeah, so thankfully, yeah, my ceo and my staff and ceo so like my like bosses, uh, I rode bikes with them every weekend, so it's like on like a first name basis you know with them, uh. But after I got hurt and they like let me go back to my unit, they were like and then became clear they're like right, that wasn't gonna gonna work. Yeah, they were like you know, we love you. We unfortunately gotta get used to life without you, right? So like you don't have to come in, dude yeah just hang out.
Speaker 2:Uh, one of my good friends uh owned a barber shop like three blocks from my house, uh-huh, so I get bored sitting at the house it was like at the end it was like just a list of what you can't do right instead of what you could do or what you could even try right. And so, uh yeah, bored, depressed or whatever, and just go hang out up there and then after like six months, he was like you know how to do, like everything.
Speaker 2:You should probably look into this, and so anyway, yeah and uh, just cut hair for a living yeah, so you started cutting hair in like like 20 2010 2010 yeah and then, yeah, we moved back here in 2011, went to school, uh-huh, and yeah, I got the license and all that yeah, and all the all the stuff yeah, yeah, yeah, wow, that's kind of fun what a wild ride.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you, uh, and when did you get back on the bike again?
Speaker 2:uh, so I begged and pleaded in like 2010. Oh really, yeah, I was like, look, because I remember the year anniversary of my crash, I like went and finished my ride.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I'm surprised you were able to do that.
Speaker 2:It was very much like ill-advised but, they were like uh, I think like what are? You going to do? Yeah, not going to hurt anything. Doctor ahead. Well, yeah, uh, I think, like, what are you gonna do? Yeah, the doctor I had. Well, yeah, I think the doctor's like, I think your like mental well-being is uh yeah, the most gonna take a better, take more of a hit. If I tell you no, then your physical uh yeah but yeah, she was like don't you better not crash?
Speaker 1:I'm not signing off, but do what you're gonna to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think she had worked with Marines enough to where she knew what she was doing. She knew, yeah, I was going, whether or not I had her blessing or not, for sure?
Speaker 1:So when did you pick up writing in the way that you are writing now? When did that start? You were like you know what? I'm just going to start writing? Writing, and not just for fun.
Speaker 2:And I want to like get fit and I want to do some things with this. Yeah, what sparked that again? The paralympic, like had the paralympics had an office at the naval hospital? Oh okay, like a whole military, like little kind of arm okay.
Speaker 2:And so I just kind of befriended them because they were in like the building that the barracks were in okay, like I was in there most of them anyway and like our physical therapist, uh was like really good like as far as thinking outside of the box. So like obviously, like I ruined my like balance issues like part of the brain and all that and so we're getting really like.
Speaker 2:It was me and like six other guys with brain injuries. Uh, it's funny because they all got hurt by bombs and war activities and I got hurt in a bike wreck and I was by far the worst injured. Oh my god, yeah and uh. But so, yeah, that was damn bicycles yeah it, uh, yeah.
Speaker 2:So he was really good as far as thinking outside the box, because we were getting good at the test on like balance and they were like, oh, let's sign these guys off, they're great at balance, you know, they have the balance stuff down and but you've learned all that we're done with them yeah and yeah he's like I don't think so.
Speaker 1:You know, I see them every day.
Speaker 2:Uh, see him try to walk down the halls. Uh, I think they're just good at the test, yeah for sure, and uh, so, yeah, he thought outside the box and got us with, like, the recreational therapist, um, and that's whose office was the next door to the Paralympic people. But yeah, one of the uh like therapies we did was track cycling, because the. San Diego Velodrome is across the street from the Navy hospital.
Speaker 1:Interesting yeah.
Speaker 2:So we got to do track, cycling, tennis and all sorts of fun surfing. Huh, yeah. So I'd sign out of work, like I have a doctor's appointment, I got to go and I'd go surfing for like five hours.
Speaker 1:I mean, could have been worse therapy. Let's be honest, yeah, yeah, so that's kind of. When you fell in love with the track. Yeah, first time you were on a track, okay, yep, then that's, that's your thing. Yeah, yeah, that's so. You fell in love with the track. Then, yeah, um, so when you moved back to oklahoma, did you do then?
Speaker 2:Just uh, drove a lot First go is still around. So, I drive down to Dallas you know two and a half hours.
Speaker 1:Did you know you wanted to compete at that point, or did you just do it for fun?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I uh compete a little bit. So, uh, before you move back, yeah the, the va has a program where, if you have like a service, uh connected disability, and you can make uh the athlete pipeline of a olympic or paralympic sport, they give you a little bit of a extra little stipend and so yeah, and then with the paralympic office, there, you know, there's a you can make work. Yeah, they were pushing hard for that. And I think one of the stories of vets, for sure. Still able to do stuff.
Speaker 1:Look at us Bigger and better than before kind of situation.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So yeah, started competing for that and then kind of, uh, you know, obviously for fun, uh-huh, and then I got on the track.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh, this is a blast yeah, and so when you were back here and you were doing a little bit of racing um, you were racing paralympic stuff at that point, or did you?
Speaker 2:yeah, okay, yeah, and then road and track Okay.
Speaker 1:So that was back in like 11 and 12 was kind of whenever, uh okay, and then when did you find like your niche of like this I'm going all in on this and this is my thing and like I really want to push it and try to see what I can do.
Speaker 2:I think it's like 20, he's like 2011,.
Speaker 1:2012 track nets. Okay, second, he's like 2011 2012 track nets okay, second and a kilo, and I was like all right. So for people that don't know what that is, explain what the kilo is just one kilometer as far as you can go, yeah four laps on a you know in la.
Speaker 2:Okay, it was like that's just like the only international like standard uh-huh fancy track in america, but yeah, four laps started like a pneumatic gate that's tied to the start clock, so like no going early so, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So it's not a rolling start, no, it's from a stop yeah, one gear fixed so no, how hard was it to learn how to ride a track bike so not very hard, it's like when I was doing for physical therapy I was obviously like super easy gear and so if you like, forgot you couldn't coast.
Speaker 2:It was such a light gear, you just kind of skid your back tire, oh okay. But you know, obviously now running big boy gears, yeah, it will throw you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Did. Uh, and for people that don't know, there's tons of different track categories or races. Why did you settle on the kilo?
Speaker 2:I think I liked it because it was like because you know it started like started when I was still kind of in the military, so it was like kind of that like explosive, like yeah violent. Uh-huh like aggressive, it like aggressive stuff.
Speaker 1:It's just short and just as hard as you can possibly go.
Speaker 2:Yeah that, and like you didn't have to go, do five-hour rides and all that yeah. You could, you know, like go super hard in the gym, yeah, and like kind of it doesn't come down to like a weight as much exactly. I mean, they're really almost not at all for a kilo what's the uh?
Speaker 1:what's like a short track event, what's like the longer track events, like for distance wise? Do they have like one lap stuff or two?
Speaker 2:I mean not because they have the like match sprint, which is like timed 200 meters or a flying 200 meter.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But I mean there's a couple of laps beforehand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so everything's going to be about. That's going to be about a short of kind of a thing, yeah, and then the longer ones they have, like some of those relays and some of that kind of stuff. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:I mean, but when you look like, the lap count is like crazy, you know like oh, but they're only 180 laps or whatever. But then you like oh, okay, divide by four, that's how many kilometers it is. And you're like okay, and then how many miles? Oh, it's not horrible 16 miles yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you enjoy the track more than outside?
Speaker 2:yeah yeah, why is that?
Speaker 1:it's just more like you versus the bike, I guess, yeah, you you, and you more so than you, and the elements and the people for sure, yeah, it's like well, it's.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1:Like oh, that hill beat me or, like you, beat me because of the hill it's yeah, you and for you, beat me because you're better than me. Yeah it just is what it is. Yeah, and for people that don't know, track cycling is wildly. I like it because it's very much like multi-sport, where it's like kind of no rules and whatever you can do to go faster within those parameters, like make it happen. So there's so much cool tech and design and shaping and aero that comes out of track.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which influences?
Speaker 1:everything else, but the bikes are phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think they did really kind of a good job of like the past Olympics, like showing all the craziness that goes into it.
Speaker 1:So cool. Do you have parameters on the bikes?
Speaker 2:or is it kind of?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's all the same, like aero rules and all that it is but their forks and stuff yeah they can play with that a little bit more, because there's no wind yeah, so they have the same parameters but they have more availability because they don't have to worry about, yeah, crosswinds and handling in a pack and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, for sure. What's the most expensive track bike you know of?
Speaker 2:so I mean, I'm question japan had that like 160 000. That's right, but they're all like crazy expensive, like factors was 60 000 and all that, but like like an olympic track bike. Was it 50 to no, I mean they just had those because Factor had Australia signed on to it, gotcha. But they legally can't make it just Australia's bike, that's true. So they make it the same with Japan. Uh-huh, it's made for Japan, but couldn't say that. So they're like what do we do? Let's make it $163,000.
Speaker 1:So nobody orders any of it, no one buys it, that's true Great Britain. Yeah, it's done that forever.
Speaker 2:Their bikes are always wild. They're the masters of that Uh-huh. But.
Speaker 1:Like what like 20, 25 grand yeah For like a Look or Argon, uh-huh. And those are the big brands, yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a new company called Strom.
Speaker 1:That's what you got right. Yep, Okay, cool.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, and they came out kind of in spite of you know, a $10,000 frame that then you have to buy everything proprietary.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh yeah.
Speaker 2:Came out and put their minds together and, yeah, came out with a $5,000 frame that uses standard bike parts. Uh-huh frame that uses standard bike parts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's actually, I think, faster than the look in argon frames. That's awesome. Yeah, so you can be all in on a high-end super decked for 10 ish, 12 ish, 11, yeah, okay because of the build I'm doing right now is, I think it was like 11 one okay, it's, it's top of the top line, everything. Yeah, that's wild. Where do you um? Where do you have to go for races? Where do you go for track?
Speaker 2:yeah, uh, right now, since frisco's gone, uh, colorado springs, or houston, or la houston's is that's outside right?
Speaker 1:yeah, because that's the one that got smoked in the hurricane that time, and yeah, was it harvey.
Speaker 2:Who was it that? Yeah, whichever one that was, and then just went blank on his name credit loss yeah, yeah. Did all that fundraising for it?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, during the tour when he was like riding just and he was broken in half, dead last. Yeah, kept going for the track for the track and raised like hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2:I think it was like over 150k or something like that, yeah same um, so you don't get on the track super often then uh, not too often enough, but how?
Speaker 1:how often do you need to get on a track to feel like, have the feeling of the track? I mean clearly more the better, but yeah more the better.
Speaker 2:But I mean, if you went a month or two, would it matter? No, oh okay. I mean, yeah, if I'm, if you could go every every other month even. Yeah, that'd be great. But I mean, yeah, I go a handful of times a year and do just fine, okay. Um cause I think it's just because, uh, it's like the para stuff, you know, like they have their rules for like. Yeah, let's talk about that. How does?
Speaker 1:para stuff work.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, how do they do the different categories? So it's based on like level of disability. So like for upright bikes it's c1 through 5, okay, which you know sounds like cat one through five and kind of same idea okay, so like c1s are like the most disabled okay, like physically or whatever so you can be different disability issues, but the same, I guess, like output capabilities.
Speaker 1:Is that how they compare, or?
Speaker 2:what is it? Yeah, so it's done by like they have like guidelines okay and like for like, let's say, to go to worlds. Okay, you'll have like a panel of doctors like exam and you and I think it has to happen two or three times before they say like, and you get the same results before they say that, cool, that's your permanent gotcha classification and then you don't have to do it anymore. Okay, but then, like they observe you all the weekend.
Speaker 1:Could they like move you to another category?
Speaker 2:Okay, it happens all the time. Okay, like one of my uh like competitors or whatever, like that's just happened to him. Uh, he was a C5. Uh, huh, for a long time, uh huh. And then got to the. I can't remember if it camera fairs, but worlds are the olympics and they're like oh, you're c4, which is the most like, probably competitive category.
Speaker 1:C4 is yeah, okay which is weird that sucks. That's that is weird. Yeah, so he had to move to the c4 for that, which is yeah, do people sandbag it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like a big where you're like controversy, but I know where I can go and have to get moved, or I can like not go as hard, yeah and stay here. It's like a controversy, but I mean I don't really know how much you can really fake the funk.
Speaker 1:Too much you know what I mean, like people get busted for that not really.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know, is it kind of more of an honor system? Yeah, I don't know, I don't really keep up with, like that side, the top end of the stuff, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so whenever you compete in these Paralympic events because I know we did a fit on you gosh, maybe two years ago now and you were getting ready to go to one- or try to qualify for one.
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, I was just starting to get back on the bike a little bit yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so do you have like hey, I'm going to go to this event, and are they like regional events or they like cause? They're not clearly like state championships, but are they just like hey, we have a series, or a series that happens throughout the country, or how does that work? Or they just put on random events.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just kind of like USA Cycling. Okay, there's nationals.
Speaker 1:Is there other events? That you can go to throughout the year, or is it just nationals? I wanted a t-shirt for one.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Sarah Hammer is the para coach for track cycling, Okay.
Speaker 1:And she tries to put on a race, like in February, march, where it's like a, it's called like the US Para Cycling or U us para track cycling open or something like that.
Speaker 2:It's all para athletes. Yeah, okay, and yeah, just trying to uh more opportunity to race besides.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just nationals so you only have a couple events a year that are deading. Can you go race at races that aren't para?
Speaker 2:yeah, you can do able-bodied stuff.
Speaker 1:That's what everyone normally does, yeah so when you go to those, is there because I don't know anything about track cycling is there categories like road cycling? Yep, okay, yep, it's like the same ones. Yeah, one through five, yep, okay. And then point system to move up and down and all that kind of stuff yeah, except it's kind of reverse. Well, no, I guess not really yeah, no, because yeah, time trials yeah time trials don't count for upgrade points right am I being uh looking at the kilo, because all your stuff is basically a time trial.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, are you on the track by yourself? Okay, yeah, have you done track races where you're on the track with others?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, I mean because in san diego they do Tuesday night races and Friday night races.
Speaker 1:Is that crazy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1:Is it fun? Yeah, is it scary? Yeah, is it worse than crits? They're the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, because there's no coasting and no breaks.
Speaker 1:That's true, smaller field, but, man, there is no room for error.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, you're definitely bumping into each other.
Speaker 1:All the for air?
Speaker 2:no, yeah you're definitely bumping into each other and all the time. Yeah, how steep are the corners? Every track's different, uh-huh, so like la is it's like wildly steep.
Speaker 1:Some of them it's like 47 degrees la is. Is that like scary? The first time you go around that I mean it's scary. Every time I feel like you're gonna slide off yeah, it's scary every time, oh my gosh but uh, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have to have to go, you know you have to definitely be moving. Yeah, to stay stuck, yeah, but then I think uh yeah, what's what San Diego is, but it's super shallow like 33 or something like that. Yeah, Do you like?
Speaker 1:the bigger banks or the shallow?
Speaker 2:Yeah, bigger banks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so talking about your life here in Oklahoma city, you do wheeler crits, you are cutting hair and you have your own space in wheelers. That's still there. What's the name of it? Try and chew barbershop. Okay, is it just you, or do you have other people that work with?
Speaker 2:you. I got a couple of people trying to how do you?
Speaker 1:and you do mainly men's hair, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Men's only. Yeah, I mean the. The state says, state says I can, you know, do one woman's haircut, but that, uh, beards and all the things. Yeah, okay, that was uh, doing the woman's haircut during the exam was, uh, definitely, uh, hey, please don't fail me yeah, I just like I gotta get through this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, and you're married. Yep, got, let's talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you said, you have five kids a basketball team?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what the heck Five kids, yeah. Goodness, and that some of them are adopted.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Three adopted one biological kid and then one's in foster care.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, but we, but we got involved doing foster fostering and then oh my goodness, yeah. So when? How long ago did you get involved in doing fosters?
Speaker 2:so I mean coming up on six years. Wow, what, what led you to that? Uh, my wife, she has adopted siblings. They got adopted from foster care, so it's kind of like her passion, and then, uh, she worked in it.
Speaker 1:Oh my my goodness, she still does Uh-huh, but yeah she certifies foster homes. Oh, that's a man. What a wild world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she lives in it and so, uh, anyway, I she originally started. Yeah, just brought work home with her.
Speaker 1:Because that's the only way to put it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And uh, yeah, we had some, uh, a couple kiddos stay with us for a little while and then, you know, I needed some care. That was a little beyond what we could do, but that's why we took them for what we could, because we didn't have any other kids and right, it's just me and her. So we're like uh-huh give a shot. Oh, they can't be placed in the home with another kid, okay, yeah yes, yeah, we'll help give it a shot.
Speaker 1:We can yeah.
Speaker 2:And then we got placed with uh, yeah, like preferred age group was like four to nine, I think we told them yeah, they call him like hey, we've got this like eight year old girl, you know, you guys interested. No, zero behaviors at all. I'm like okay, like, yeah, like. So I was like sure and I said oh, she has a sister Like okay, I guess, tell us about the sister, like we have room and like, well, my wife's like, well, when's her birthday, and they're like February 6th.
Speaker 2:And I was like, okay, like what year? Like this year? Oh, no, so I was like okay, five month old, oh goodness. And uh, yeah, like our age range was four to nine and now you have an eight and a newborn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then anyway me.
Speaker 2:I was like let's do it, you know keep siblings together, I guess you know, and anyway, yeah, we were the only like house I guess in the state that said cool, we'll keep them both wow and anyway, how long ago was that? Uh, let's see, charlie is five now she'll be six in february.
Speaker 1:So okay, and then you got another uh, adopting another one along the way yeah, so it's their.
Speaker 2:Uh, charlie's biological full brother, and then leah her her half brother.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you have the whole. They're all related. Yeah, okay, gotcha. And then you have your own yep, which is she's four okay, so yeah, right in the mix.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have a wild house yeah, yeah, it's a 14 year old, 13 year old five four, A 14-year-old. 13-year-old five four and then two. Oh my gosh, Two-year-old's the only boy.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, Are you going to continue this pattern? Are you full? No, yeah, we're done, you're full. Yeah, man, how in the world do you find time to ride a bicycle? Or is a bicycle what saves your sanity?
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you look at my Strava, it's real late night rides.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's usually really really late or really really early. Yeah, a lot of Zwift, a lot of.
Speaker 2:God, yeah, yeah, luckily. Yeah, the doing the track stuff you know two hours is a really long ride on that.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's true For track workouts that's good, but yeah, do any of them play sports or anything?
Speaker 2:The 14-year-old does track and running track and cycling and the 13-year-old plays softball. Okay, nice and the littles are interested in bikes. Oh, okay, yeah, they yell real loud at Wheeler.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, I was going to ask if you brought them out to the Wheeler to do the kids race. They do the kids race, they do the kids race.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they ask every week it's today the kids race they missed the last kid race.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you need to get them.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah they uh, still on training wheels, so a little hard get them a strider, get them out there yeah, that's awesome yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:So man, it's saying, your wife still works in the foster care world yep, yep, she just certifies foster homes.
Speaker 2:For what?
Speaker 1:a rewarding and heart-wrenching world to live in and work in.
Speaker 2:Yeah so went on the rewarding part. But well, you get it, it's just still tough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, yeah, man.
Speaker 2:So um your big event that you just went to which we were going to do this, I guess maybe a couple still tough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. Yeah, man. So, um, your big event that you just went to, which we were going to do this, I guess maybe a couple of months ago, um, let's talk about that before we, before we wrap up today. Um, you just had a really cool thing happen, so like, tell me about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So and tell me how it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So like we talked about earlier, that VA little stipend or whatever getting in that athlete pipeline for Paralympics In my case, I went to a track race in Colorado and I was able to sneak my way in to the athlete pipeline for Paralympics, which gets me access to a little bit of cash to help fund some of this your adventures.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have five kids. Yeah, exactly, you got to figure out a way to pay for it all.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that mainly what it does? It helps provide financial assistance for you to continue being active, being involved, and is there requirements for them for you to share being your service background or anything like that?
Speaker 2:No, not really. It puts you on their radar. So, like the coaches, like then oh they made.
Speaker 1:Do you get coaching and stuff like that?
Speaker 2:Uh, no, so like I'm part of a good group, uh, like a organization called team simplify orper fire. Yeah, uh, they pay for my coaching okay yeah, it's just a group for injured nil like marines, and they open it up to all the services now but called the america's fund for all the services.
Speaker 1:But and those and that goes for um people in like just cycling only or endurance sports, any sport, any sport.
Speaker 2:Okay, they do fly fishing with them. That's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they do every sport Okay, so it's just a way to help vets, yeah.
Speaker 2:Their big mission is using sport as a recovery, so they do anything and everything. I want to say like I think eight people from team simplify were in the paralympics oh, wow, yeah, so it's like every level yeah, from like, yeah, like hey, oh, you're interested in this. Like cool, like we'll get you plugged in with the basics and oh, you're at the team simplify.
Speaker 1:And what was the name of american fund? America's fund america's fund, okay, yeah, and then so you had to go to qualify. You had to like, not qualify, but you had a time standard you had to hit. Yeah, so does every um. I don't know what you call it category, what's that? What's called?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, classification, classification does every classification.
Speaker 1:Have a time correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they have to hit yep and then if you hit that time, then you qualify for some financial assistance yeah, for the front through the va so if you're that, yeah, okay otherwise, yeah, you just get on like the radar and then until you're on like the national level, okay, and then does that get you into any like races or anything, or is it mainly financial help? So not like my you know first little rung yeah but the next ones, yeah, I can like.
Speaker 1:Oh, like you could be selected to go to a race to go do some cool stuff, yeah, and then whenever you guys do they have, whenever you guys go to like nationals and stuff, do you have like a military um division or is it everybody against everybody? Yeah, it's the c1s and fives okay gotcha and and then you go to nationals every year I try to yeah yeah yeah, no, I do what's uh, and so in your category, what wins? Like your races, like time wise so yeah they.
Speaker 2:the guy that was in my category, a C5, which is like the, you know, the least physically disabled, uh, he was like podium, me getting on the podium at the elite kilo. Oh, wow, yeah so he. He ruined all the time standards for years.
Speaker 1:No, kidding man. Come on man, come on, chris, Not helping a brother out over here. I know, come on man, come on, chris, you're not helping a brother out over here, I know, right, yeah yeah, especially like as I was trying to get back into it after you know. So is it based on a percentage of the winner's time, or is?
Speaker 2:it just like a flat standard it's like, based off of percentage of, like the winner's time from worlds, okay, of the previous year so it's a floating number. Yeah, it changes every year that's tough yeah, february, I went out to la to try to get it and I missed it by three tenths of a second, oh my gosh. And then you know, then, between february and august, the numbers that came out, and it was, I mean, like almost two seconds faster oh, oh, it got faster.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Jeez. So when you went back you're like I missed about three-tenths, but now I have to beat two-point-three-tenths. Yeah, two seconds and better, right, yeah, that's tough, but next year it could go back the other way.
Speaker 2:It could, but it's going to be based off the Olympics.
Speaker 1:So it's never going to happen, or Paraly never gonna happen, so do you have to re-qualify every year? Yeah, you're good for one calendar year on that VA stipend okay, so are you gonna try to continue to do that every year? Is that kind of? That's kind of like your a race of the year is going and qualifying for that? Yeah, going in nationals, yeah yeah, and where's nationals at it's?
Speaker 2:a move. Yeah, I mean it's pretty much always at la because of the rules they have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like's like. Yeah, what? When is that?
Speaker 2:Uh, nationals is always like in July.
Speaker 1:Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 2:And so as far as training for that, you said Zwift, um yeah, that's where it's just out and I live out, you know, west of Yukon, so country roads, yeah, I live out there on my track.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's not so good. Do you do any other outdoor riding? I mean I know you do the crits at Wheeler. Yeah, Do you do much other stuff?
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, just kind of hop on the trails and use those, but yeah, until Oklahoma City builds a velodrome.
Speaker 1:I know somebody needs to fund that I don't know. Maps 18 needs to put in.
Speaker 2:It could be lucrative for the city. There's like a way to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like kind of, it's been discussed a lot but that's cool.
Speaker 1:That'd be amazing If they could put something like that in the uh, where all the stuff's going in for the Olympics and the rowing and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stuff yeah, I think uh, yes, la is ran by a private kind of organization, but the city owns, like, the building and so anytime la puts on like a big race, they lose money. The people that actually put on the race.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the city makes millions, yeah, and and so yeah For bringing people in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause I mean for like worlds or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, teams are there for a month it's track cycling, like when you go down to Houston and when it was in Frisco. Like is it popular, cause it's so different than anything we have here. Like, how popular is it?
Speaker 2:It's becoming more and more popular. I think especially with like the success that in the olympics in paris that you know, like ed grant. So I think you had a bunch of random okies watching track cycling for the first time ever who's the guy that did the gravel that came across from?
Speaker 1:oh, ashton, ashton, yeah, that dude, yeah, and now he's doing. I saw him.
Speaker 2:He's sailing the sailing, yeah, with another track cyclist john's doing. I saw him, he's sailing, the sailing, yeah, with another track, cyclist john crew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw. I watched the little special on gcn, so if people haven't watched that, I highly recommend it. There, gcn just did a video. Now they have cyclists basically as the power units on the next america's cup, yep, and they have a whole little like I don't know maybe 15, 20 minute documentary and talk about the power numbers they hit and he was like 500 watts for like an hour.
Speaker 1:500 watts for an hour is what they basically the minimum, yeah, which is and those guys are doing it at like 200 pounds, yeah, which is insane on ashton, yeah, and, but he's bulked up a lot, yeah, compared to what he used to yeah because he even talks about because I think he's up to like 60-something kilo or something like that is what he said Because he had to gain a bunch of weight and they were like it's insane what those guys can put out.
Speaker 2:And his wife's an astronaut. Oh, that's right. I heard him on a podcast. That's wild. What a crazy and successful little family, that is yeah, and she's an elite cyclist as well.
Speaker 1:My gosh man, when you think you're like man, I've kind of got my stuff together and you hear people like that and you're like man, I'm a dud.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. That's kind of the fun part about the track cycling world. It's small, so you get to meet the big people at these races.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is it a cool vibe at these events.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Is it? Much more laid back, or is it much more laid back or is it stuffy? It's super laid back, okay. I mean like that 2011 nationals or whatever they like heard. Yeah, 12 was like one of the first ones. Uh-huh. Yeah, they'd like made it uh like uci, like not a world cup, but uh like a qualifier, and this is right before you know london. So all the big like international people were there and you're like oh like that's chris hoy.
Speaker 2:Like all the people that you like have idolized and watched like you're so good at riding a bike, they made you a knight you know that's like when you cross another level. Yeah, but then, like you know, because obviously you know everything happens at the track, like you get to watch them train, you get to watch them. You know, so get to watch him. You know, so you'd watch, like Chris Hoy or whatever, like rip off, like 500 meter efforts in two laps and then come in and like deadlift 500 and something pounds and then get back on the bike.
Speaker 2:You're like what?
Speaker 1:They're just freaks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but then just being like super chill and like talking with you. That's cool, showing you like tips and tricks.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool. Yeah, like what? Okay, I'll save those for yard sale because I just thought of them. Okay, so, and then like, what's your fastest time you've ever done in the Kilo.
Speaker 2:Like a. I mean it's this like since I came back, or whatever, from starting a family and business or whatever this is basically what I just did, like one 15, which is still slow, but one 15, which I have no perspective on that.
Speaker 1:So I don't know. That sounds fast to me.
Speaker 2:I mean it's not a kilo in a minute.
Speaker 1:It's fast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's not a kilo in a minute, it's fast. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, it's not the world record is 54 seconds, 54 seconds. That's insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my gosh. And then so does it? Does the banking of the track affect your speed? So the more bank, the faster you can go?
Speaker 2:Depends on the shape of the track.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Yeah, have you gone and done what's your least favorite track?
Speaker 2:to ride. Uh, frisco at the end, okay, cause it was falling apart, yeah. Bumpy and holy. What is?
Speaker 1:LA, your favorite for Colorado Springs.
Speaker 2:No, colorado Springs is kind of fun, cause it's faster, cause you're at elevation. Oh, that's true's true, yeah, it doesn't have la's wood so it has like a little bit of give what's the one in colorado springs concrete.
Speaker 1:Oh interesting give but which? Depends on the right day, I guess, but well, get you out of here on your time here. In a second second let's jump into yard sale. What gears do you run?
Speaker 2:on the track bike. The last one was a 58-15.
Speaker 1:58-15?. Yeah, what are like the big boys run.
Speaker 2:So the guy that set the world record, Jeffrey Hoogland, I think he did a 70-15. A 70?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I couldn't even get it started. I don't know if I could stand on one pedal and get it started.
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, he, oh my gosh, he didn't run the race with the power meter because he said if he didn't get the world record, uh, he didn't want to know by like how much he missed it by uh-huh and I'll say that would be 70.
Speaker 1:He missed it here.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh yeah, he said that he wanted to come off the line at 2800 watts and finish at still over 900 oh my gosh, do you have power meter on yours?
Speaker 1:yeah, what's the most watch you've ever put up? 2200 oh is that off the start?
Speaker 2:yeah, 2200 watts five seconds yeah that's wild yeah, it went kind of what do you?
Speaker 1:what do you?
Speaker 2:golly, how hard is the start it's so hard, so hard, yeah, I mean, it uses every muscle that you've ever thought you had yeah that's right. Yeah, I mean having like limited like one arm, like oh my gosh, yeah, yeah, hard to pull.
Speaker 1:yeah, when you only have one arm, it's a lot of hoping and praying. Oh my gosh, that's insane. Have you ever wrecked on the Belladrome?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what happened? The slide out in the corner?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a guy in the before nationals one year was, I think, fibbed a little bit about how much he had experience on the track and we were warming up and he peeled off and then slowed down in the turn which you don't do and so he slid out, but was above me, gotcha, and so slid out right into my front wheel and we were at the top, like at the rail, so like if there's a crash on the velodrome or on the track, like you can turn right because, like the tracks are banked you know, down, so everything's gonna slide to your left and you can go most of the time you can kind of avoid it, yeah, but anyway I couldn't avoid this one.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's the top of the rail and basically, like fell two stories, like on my hip cracked it wow, yeah, I had to drive back from la with the that's miserable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's the? What's the most expensive bike you've ever touched?
Speaker 2:uh, I mean probably like the german olympic, those fes's or whatever. How much one of those 30? Oh my yeah, for like the frame, oh my gosh, you know.
Speaker 1:Then, plus everybody, 50 total you know, geez Um, who's the coolest person you've ever written with. Coolest in your mind? Yeah, in your mind.
Speaker 2:I mean like man, I don't know, hmm. It's a new one. Yeah, so funny story. Like back in San Diego I would see after I got hurt. You know I just ride every day at work and we never rode together but I'd see Brad Huff every day riding right in opposite directions.
Speaker 1:We would wave to each other every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it ran into him at rule of three. I was doing like haircuts at the finish line one year and I was like dude like did he remember?
Speaker 1:I mean I had a clue. I mean that's just Brad, you know, just says hello to everyone on a bike. But yeah, I just says hello to everyone on the flight.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I was like that's cool, but so that's like the brush with like the first, like celebrity pro like oh, that's Brad Huff.
Speaker 1:What was your?
Speaker 2:favorite thing about the military. I'm just kind of the people that you meet, you know like the brotherhood?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, do you stay in contact with any of them? Yeah, do you stay in contact with any of them? Yeah, do you. Yep, that's cool. Do you see any of them or just talk to them?
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, a few and a half years. Yeah, it was just spread out, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's the one thing you wish you would have never had done in the military? I mean, I'm sure there's a list.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, I mean, I'm sure there's a list. Yeah, right, yeah, what was it? What was?
Speaker 1:your least, one of your least favorite parts of the military.
Speaker 2:Uh.
Speaker 1:I mean just the boat. All right, yeah, yeah, that was terrible.
Speaker 2:But no, I mean yeah, just uh. I mean I think yeah, just the negative, every, every negative aspect that you think of military life.
Speaker 1:You know like right.
Speaker 2:I mean fact that you think of military life, you know like right, I mean yeah, just as far as like losing people. The yeah, yeah, for sure, but like as far as like your physical, day-to-day life, what was your least?
Speaker 1:favorite. Uh, I mean, yeah, waking up at like 4 30 in the morning, go work out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's stupid, yeah, and then work a 12 hour, 14 hour day like this is stupid.
Speaker 1:That stuff, yeah, that stuff. Um, do you wish you would have stayed in the military?
Speaker 2:uh, no, I mean it worked out the way it's supposed to yeah, like um wish I didn't have to like have had a massive brain injury to make it out, yeah maybe like have you get out just like hey, my five years are done, I'm done yeah, um have you cut anybody famous's hair besides chad hodges, right yeah? Thunder play a couple of hundred that's cool.
Speaker 1:That's years ago. Okay, that's cool. Yeah, I don't really uh, I don't know yeah, nobody on the regular, or at least that you would say yes, yeah, I don't know what the thunder players how'd you get hooked into that.
Speaker 2:There's was worked out like a walk-in only barbershop.
Speaker 1:They just walked in, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's cool, and yeah, that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is kind of cool. Um, if you could go ride one track in the world, where would it be?
Speaker 2:Uh yeah, like Paris or Berlin, I think they're super fast when they had the Olympic had had the Olympic events.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, what's a favorite piece of bike equipment? No price.
Speaker 2:No price.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh.
Speaker 2:Probably pedal straps.
Speaker 1:Hmm, interesting. Yeah, because pulling a pedal is super scary. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Broke my collarbone pulling a pedal. Good night. Yeah yeah, broke my collarbone pulling the pedal.
Speaker 1:Good night, yeah. How many wrecks have you had? How many wrecks have you had? It's like three. You've had good ones, though. Yeah, you got your money's worth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, made it, made up for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you packed it all into this thing. I was at Lake.
Speaker 2:Hefner too, On the dam yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:There's so many people that have gotten hurt on that stinking dam.
Speaker 2:Yeah it was like before, like 2012,. Matt, oh, my God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like you had a rough couple years. God I know it was like I can't believe you stayed with it.
Speaker 2:Too dumb to take the hint. Well, maybe that's what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was like.
Speaker 2:Look, last sprint was horrible, let me do one more. My foot came out of the pedal, oh, my god I was doing like 40, whatever miles an hour. We're hitting like for the uh, that wire like fence, you know, on the damn oh, yeah, I was like you know, I don't know what that's gonna feel like.
Speaker 1:Oh, like I got an idea what hitting concrete at 40 feel like it's not gonna be a whole lot better, but at least grass on the other side, yeah, I found I had everything tucked in, but as soon as I came to a stop, it's like cool, I broke my collarbone man but then race gnats two weeks later geez what?
Speaker 1:um well, I think you're doing a dream build right now, so I can't ask you that one yeah, process. Yeah, no kidding. If you could ride bikes with one person, dead or alive, doesn't matter who it is, they don't even have to ride bikes.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, who would it be? Man, I don't know. That's a real long list, uh-huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you pick a couple. If you go ride with a couple people from history, yeah, it could be family, it could be famous people, it could be anybody who would it be yeah, so I think my grandpa would be cool.
Speaker 2:That'd be cool because he died before I was born.
Speaker 1:Okay, that would be awesome and don't you know, that quiet.
Speaker 2:Uh didn't talk about anything uh type, so it'd be kind of fun to pick his brain that'd be cool, like hey.
Speaker 1:So let's get caught up on some things. We were both in the marine corps let's talk about some things yeah, yeah, that'd be a cool, that'd be a cool brotherhood outside of the family piece.
Speaker 2:Yeah so that'd be kind of fun, and uh, that's what that's a good one famous, yeah, I don't know. Uh, it's kind of like a lot like the, the bike heroes or whatever like from, especially like the track stuff.
Speaker 1:Like I've kind of had conversations with With the ones that you would want to talk to. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know like, yeah, the ones that I kind of like I grew up, you know like Idolizing kind of thing, yeah.
Speaker 1:Did you grow up idolizing track stuff Like that's?
Speaker 2:No, I don't, Just since, like I, I got you know hurt or whatever. That's why you fell in love with it. Yeah, um, he didn't really know anything about it until then.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, yeah, it's kind of usually with track. You kind of usually come from an area that has a track or there's a reason that that you're tied into it because it's not it's so different compared to anything like it's around here. Yeah, yeah, um, well, wrapping this up, is there anything that, uh, you want to cover or talk about that we, uh, that we didn't touch base on? I? Don't think so, yeah, just come see you for a haircut. Yeah, come see me for a haircut.
Speaker 2:Every cyclist out there needs a high, and tight do yeah, that way I can uh keep giving money to wheeler crit or whoever local local. Uh well, I try to throw in a couple times a year yeah, you do local race.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do. You do wheeler. Uh, any signs of uh possibly doing gravel stuff or anything like that?
Speaker 2:for me, god, no, yeah I have a cyclocross bike and I think my friend's dad has it. You don't even know where it's at.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, okay, yeah, fair enough, fair enough the coach asked me if I was gonna do the off-road wheeler well, I did not even, not even real sure, when my kids here's the thing I did it last night for the first time no barriers, wonderful, wonderful, so it was really really, really fun. I really enjoyed it. Um, and I love that there was no barriers, cause I didn't have to get off my bike, but and so and the the place that they set it up was very simple and fun and it was very enjoyable. Highly recommend for anybody that wants to do it, but I need to. I totally get it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just maybe used to pushing 800 Watts to go more than five miles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is a true story Cause I pedaled real hard and went real slow. Yeah, yeah, but I think that's a. I think that's an engine problem not a bike problem.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent For sure. Um.
Speaker 1:Zach, I greatly appreciate taking time and telling your story. I know it's kind of a vulnerable one and it's um. It's amazing when I think there's going to be people that take some things from this, because you have a very unique and such a cool fighter story, I mean. So I think people can get inspiration if they want it. Um, and I would encourage people to talk to you about either people in their lives that, um, or military bets who want to get plugged into that scene. Yeah, Because I think there's a lot out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a good thing. Uco does every year called the endeavor games. Yeah, because you've that's what you go and race in the summer times. Right, you do some time trial stuff, because it's right. Yeah, you know, 20 minutes outside my door.
Speaker 1:So we'll talk about that as we're wrapping endeavor games like it's for military only, nope for any anyone with a disability.
Speaker 2:And yeah, it's gonna be, you know, pretty broad on the spectrum of the things yeah of the abilities, and then hopefully, the the bike race this year is going to be uh like a usac. So, and knock on wood, it'd be like a regular time trial, so able-bodied folks can come out too, and that'd be cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, huh, and that's in the summertime, right june, june, yeah, it's like usually like the first weekend of June. Is there anything that the community could do to support that better?
Speaker 2:I think just kind of look into it. Okay, they're always needing volunteers and all that, but it's fun.
Speaker 1:And never games. Yeah, because you do time trial there, right?
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, it's like 15K time trial in the morning and then they have like a 5k one too. Okay, it's more for like kids and all that, but yeah, it's fun Do you go beat up on all the kids. Yeah, exactly Nice, no mercy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Last night I about took a little kid out into a corner and Aubrey drama was like dude, you got wrecked that kid. I'm like yeah he's on the race course is going to drop me and put me into a corner.
Speaker 2:I'm taking advantage of it while I can, he didn't technically wreck.
Speaker 1:He didn't stop pedaling, it just got a little dicey. For both of us, being technically wrecked is the best kind of wreck.
Speaker 2:That's right, he learned.
Speaker 1:He learned that this old guy has no skills and he needs to watch out.
Speaker 2:for me is what he learned, poor little guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Zach, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thanks for taking time.