Ryan Keeping Keeps Breaking Records While Running Around The World

75 kilometers every day for 98 straight days across the second-largest country in the world. This week we cheers Ryan Keeping, the man who ran across Canada, from St. John's, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia, captivating a nation and gathering nearly 100,000 followers along the way.

Ryan's story defies conventional wisdom about athletic training. Canned ravioli ? A best friend for a cameraman and a loving father to operate the van? Inspired deeply by Terry Fox's legacy, Ryans' story isn't just about ultra-endurance; it's about finding something that drives you and pursuing it relentlessly. 

Ryan is already planning his next ultra-running challenges, including a potential run across the United States. Whether you're a runner or simply someone searching for motivation to pursue your own dreams, Ryan's journey shows how ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things when they refuse to place limits on their potential.

Give Ryan a follow on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/ryan.keeping/?hl=en 

This episode was recorded at Big Leagues in Bayers Lake. Thank you for the great food, drink and hospitality!

#running #endurance #terryfox #davidgoggins #canada #US #marathon

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Transcript

Meet Ryan Keeping: Canada's Cross-Country Runner

Speaker 1 0:15

Cheers and welcome to the Afternoon Plank Cheers. I'm Mike Tobin. I am Mike.

Speaker 2 0:21

Conrad, and who do we have with us today? Today we have Ryan Keeping. I'm sure many of you guys know me as the guy that ran across Canada. Probably.

Speaker 1 0:28

Ryan, Keeping the man that ran across the entire country. Yep, that is me.

Speaker 2 0:33

Insane. Yes, you realize how incredibly massive the country is and also how most of the country is nothing. There's like a few big cities and then just trees. Yeah.

Speaker 1 0:45

Right, and so did you like Trans-Canada Highway the whole way, or how did that work? For the most part, yeah.

Speaker 2 0:51

So it kind of just was recreating, obviously Terry Fox, my biggest inspiration, recreating kind of his route. So went all the way from St John's, Newfoundland, right down where his statue is and then all the way to Victoria, British Columbia. Finished at mile zero, it was 98 days and it was long, long days, a lot of running. It's crazy 98 days, jeez.

Speaker 1 1:11

When did you start running? Like when did this become a thing that you wanted to do?

Speaker 2 1:16

Yeah, that's the million dollar question people always ask um. So I was always very passionate and I always played sports like I love playing hockey, soccer, baseball, everything as a kid, but didn't like seriously start running until I was 25.

Speaker 3 1:29

So I was kind of isn't that long ago? No, when I was running across canada.

Speaker 2 1:33

It was less than two years I'd been running. So it was like I was kind of always the guy that like I think when I was 20 or 21 I went out and I ran a marathon not horrible time, but I think I just did it because like I had a buddy that was doing it and just went and did it. So I was always like athletic and could run, but I never did till 25, crazy yeah, toby, do you remember when we ran the bluenose?

Speaker 3 1:57

yeah, same kind of thing someone else made us do it, you did the full. Yeah, we didn't do the full Blue Nose.

Speaker 1 2:02

No, we didn't. We did the bridge, we did the 10K, the 10K, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 2:07

And that was again. That was somebody else asked us to do it.

Speaker 1 2:09

You didn't make it no call. I wish I could call phone a friend on the show. Do we do? We do? We have the metal I have the picture you left came back. Didn't you cheat, or something?

Speaker 3 2:22

are you nuts?

Speaker 1 2:22

I swear to god you cheated. I did not cheat mark and I were going I think it was mark and I yeah, like across the bridge and like I'm not. I'm sorry, I gotta just just. I'm pretty sure at some point he's like where's conrad?

Speaker 3 2:36

and I lost you guys, but I 100 and you did not cheat and you took the goddamn ferry.

Speaker 1 2:40

Yeah, I took the ferry.

Speaker 2 2:41

You took the ferry.

Speaker 1 2:42

You were behind or you were ahead. You lost because you were.

Speaker 3 2:44

I was behind. No, 100%.

Speaker 1 2:45

I was behind, no no, no, all of a sudden he was gone Took the ferry and next, thing, you know, I seen this guy in a boat.

Speaker 3 2:59

No, I ran with my dad.

Speaker 1 3:00

I thought you just met us for breakfast after. No.

Speaker 3 3:02

I ran with my dad you moron.

Speaker 2 3:05

Alright, we're calling Walter. Was this the beginning and the end of your running career all at the same time? 100%, it was the end of mine.

Speaker 3 3:12

I actually went and did Tabata training to do this thing. What's Tabata, tabata?

Speaker 2 3:22

training is this whole thing where it's like you like run really hard for like a minute and then you like walk for like a minute and then you run interval training.

Speaker 3 3:26

Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, so like I did that, but it was uh, uh. I was the one person who told me to do that was my.

Speaker 2 3:31

I was um rear-ended yeah and it was my physiotherapist I thought you're gonna say it was the guy that rear-ended you. No, the it was my physiotherapist.

Speaker 1 3:38

I thought you were going to say it was the guy that rear-ended you. No, it was my physiotherapist. You guys start running.

Speaker 3 3:43

You start running, I'm going to hit you again.

Speaker 2 3:46

No, it was my physiotherapist.

Speaker 3 3:47

I got rear-ended, yeah, yeah, and so I definitely finished. But I finished slower because I was freaking injured. Okay, you were injured. I'm sorry. You still get it done though. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I did, I did it.

Speaker 1 4:01

I did it in 111 an hour and 11 minutes. That's not for 10k. I don't know what I did.

Speaker 2 4:03

It it's not bad, yeah, but yeah, I don't, I can't remember 10k and I try to tell people all the time any distance is a good distance. People say you know, I only ran a 10k. It's like that's a fire that was a lot of running.

The Mental Challenge of Long-Distance Running

Speaker 3 4:14

That's a long time it's's terrible, but you know what the weird thing about running is and this is why I can admire someone who's going to run Well, first of all, running across the country is insane anyway. But, anyone who just runs, even the blue nose, like the marathons and things like that. It is far, but the mental focus it takes, yeah, no-transcript. Oh my god, this is. When's this gonna get over?

Speaker 2 4:49

yeah, well, and running is just incredibly boring. Yeah, it is. So you find it boring?

Speaker 2 4:54

oh yeah, wow, it's, I don't know. It's like it's a to do as much running as I do. You almost have to like love it and hate it at the same time. Right, because I'm doing it so much that, like, say, in the preparation to run across the country, I'm running so much and a lot of it is quite slow because you're just trying to build your base, you're trying to run in zone two and just pretty much run to a point where you can run a lot every single day, like when I'm running across the country a lot of the time. It's just very slow.

Speaker 2 5:21

Yeah, so you're bored the whole time. But I don't know you. Just I love it and I hate it at the same time.

Speaker 3 5:26

It's weird to describe. Are you like a music listener or are you like the silence?

Speaker 2 5:31

Uh, it depends. Like Canada was really weird because you're like 12 14 hours a day, like I was doing 75k a day. You run out of stuff to listen to. You can only listen to so many podcasts or motivational speeches or music, and then it's like and then in a weird way, you almost like zone in on one song and I just right you start listening to like one song proclaimers 500 miles over and over again. Kid rock midnight train to memphis well, is that the song?

Speaker 2 5:56

wasn't it? I listened to that song so many times and, the funny thing, I never listened to Kid Rock in my life. My uncle came out. He drove the van for a few days with my dad and I was owed to music. This was like day 30. I'm like man, I need some songs.

Speaker 3 6:08

He suggested that what a wild song.

Speaker 2 6:10

And then I just it would like put you into a flow state of like it's weird.

Speaker 3 6:23

It's hard to describe, but you're just. You know exactly what's gonna happen in the song. You just zone out. You try to keep running.

Speaker 2 6:25

We've been way, way more fun if he was just like celine dion I know all day, every day. Oh see, it could be. But the the thing too, it's like uh, you don't, like, you couldn't really listen to metallica all day because you're gonna just burn out, you're gonna run too fast, so you almost need something that's kind of slower.

Speaker 3 6:37

Okay, yeah, yeah, in a certain sense.

Speaker 1 6:39

So, like you said, flow state, and I mean that's the thing. You must feel almost like a certain kind of euphoria after running, because I mean I feel like if I do anything enduring long enough, you start to almost I don't want to say float, but you know what I mean. You feel a bit of a high. How do you feel inside after?

Speaker 2 6:57

so long A runner. Well, the thing is, when you've done it that long, you don't really have a runner's high anymore. Okay, like to do something like across the country and you're doing 75K a day. By the end of it, you're just, it's weird, because you finish and you'd think you'd be like man, I did it. Like, ooh, you kind of finish and you're just like, well, of course I got here. Like, ooh, you kind of finish and you're just like, well, of course I got here. Like it was so long, every single day, that like to do something like that, it's just, it's not even a physical it's just mental it's like you're almost it's almost mental torture every day.

Speaker 2 7:29

Fair enough, and you just keep going and keep going, and keep going. And I mean obviously I had a reason why, like I was raising money for heart stroke foundation, yeah, I dedicated the run to terry fox and my dad. So my dad has heart disease and obviously.

Speaker 2 7:39

Terry Fox, biggest inspiration, ever greatest Canadian of all time. Plus, like I had social media following when I was doing it and people were sending me crazy messages of support. But yeah, it's, I don't know, it's crazy. And then you finish in like that period of time went by so slow but so fast. It like felt like it took forever, but then you're done.

Speaker 3 8:00

you're like, oh, it's kind of like. It was kind of like that covet period where you're like it feels like forever, but it also feels like it's not, and then you look you look back at it and you're like did that even happen?

Speaker 2 8:09

yeah, yeah and it's like for me it's like some of it just feels like a dream. Yeah, like you just kind of zoned out and you kept like I remember like half of it.

Speaker 3 8:18

And then half the time.

Speaker 2 8:19

You're just exhausted.

Speaker 3 8:20

So when you started, okay, so you started. I mean, you have nearly 100,000 people following you on Instagram right now. Yeah, wasn't?

Speaker 1 8:25

that when we started. Well, that's what I mean. Yeah, Like so like.

Speaker 3 8:28

Did you start your Instagram with? Like? You know, like everybody else, like 500 people kind of thing.

Speaker 2 8:32

Yeah, so to guess it would have been like summer three years ago, I guess now. And so this is when I first started running, found the ultra marathon stuff, kind of started listening to David Goggins and these other crazy people. I listened to that whole book, man you know, so I read the book listened to the speeches and that's when I had the idea I was like I'm going to run across Canada. I guess mainly the idea for that came. I went down to the States, so Goggins kind of expired it a little bit.

Speaker 1 9:05

Yeah, big time, big time, wow, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 9:14

And then I went to the States and I did my first ultra marathon.

Speaker 1 9:16

I wore a Terry Fox shirt and he's such an inspirational Canadian so I was like I'm running across Canada.

Speaker 2 9:22

I want to do the whole thing dedicated to him. Talk about how he's the greatest Canadian of all time. Say do it for Terry. Like just trying to get people from all over to like remember him, respect him, learn about him. He's talking about your dad with heart disease.

Speaker 1 9:33

Yeah, he's still here.

Speaker 2 9:35

So yeah, he actually drove the van the whole time. Another crazy story.

Speaker 2 9:38

We can get into it, but yeah, so, like, when I started my Instagram, it was just my personal Instagram. I probably had 400 followers or whatever, and I just said I'm going to run across Canada and it was like a year and a half of training. I documented a lot of my training and it grew and I think by the time I started to run across Canada, I might have had like 10 000 followers. Yeah, and within a week I was at like 60. Wow, like I think there was one day I gained like 12 000 and your dad would just came to drive along with you yeah, well, my dad, the crazy story.

Speaker 2 10:35

I basically was like I'm gonna do this, nothing's gonna stop me, like this is my life, this is what I want to do with my life. I want to inspire people, motivate people, do content like. I quit my job, took out a line of credit, trained like a professional athlete. What would you work for your job? Construction, just construction work.

Speaker 3 10:49

I mean, so it was still physical job too, yeah.

Speaker 2 10:51

But I just was like this is my purpose in life, I don't care however long this takes. Like this is going to be a career. I'm going to make money doing this. I'm going to motivate and inspire people. So for the Canada run, I had like no sponsors and I just said I'm going to do it Like I. My dad said he would come for Newfoundland and then I had no idea what was going to happen after that. Like I was going to have to try to find friends or people from Instagram.

Speaker 1 11:13

Respect for doing Newfoundland first by the way, yeah, yeah, it was, it was. You might have a surprise you weren't done after Newfoundland there was some like.

Speaker 2 11:21

I remember day three. It was like freezing rain and hail all day and I was soaked. There's a video. You can see my face, my cheeks. I look like I got frostbite pretty much, yeah. But yeah, so my dad was going to do Newfoundland and he came up to do Newfoundland basically realized like all right, my son is going to do this or die trying. He's like I have to be there. So he basically called his boss and was like, hey, I have to. Hopefully I don't get fired.

Speaker 1 11:45

I have to follow my idiot son across the country.

Speaker 2 11:47

Yeah, like at this point in time it was kind of blowing up. We were raising, like the followers were coming in, we were raising money.

Speaker 1 11:55

So he starts to see that this has a movement.

Speaker 2 11:56

He drove the van for 98 days at like seven kilometers an hour behind me every day.

Speaker 1 11:59

Anybody else go with you, or was it?

Speaker 2 12:00

just you and your dad, I actually. So my camera guy. Another crazy story I just had a buddy and he was kind of into cameras but like never had any experience, didn't do it as a job, he worked sheet metal and I just needed someone. So I like we were kind of blown up and I call him. I'm like all right, like what do you make doing sheet metal? I'm like I'll try to give you like 70, 80% of that. We were doing gofundme. So I was trying to get him his money and like super crazy, but he ended up we bought him a camera, flew him out and he was with us probably 60, 70 days documented.

Speaker 2 12:30

Did the youtube videos that's awesome and it's like a guy that like his first day with us didn't even like first time ever holding a real camera yeah, and he's like trying to film it.

Speaker 1 12:37

So it was crazy to see his progress in the videos and you can do a studio documentary on him, uh, and then like, just you know, documentary on the guy documentary.

Speaker 3 12:46

Yeah, just keep the levels going, but people like it was.

Speaker 2 12:50

It was nuts, like how this all came together and like we. We got me who just started running. We got my dad who never crewed anyone, anything like this.

Speaker 3 12:57

We got my camera guy who doesn't know how to do like we all came together, but that's the thing a bunch of unemployed guys running across the country. We just did it. It's happening, man, it's awesome.

Speaker 2 13:05

The crazy thing too, is like so I was raising money for Heart and Stroke Foundation, it was an 80-20 split, so 20% to fund the run, 80% goes right to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Speaker 1 13:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:16

And like we finished the run and I remember like made the donation and I think made the donation and I think I had like 116 dollars left in my bank account. It just came, so like that it worked. And like in the last, I think, week we raised like 100 grand. So if we didn't do that I was like gonna be like a line of credit donating because it's expensive to go across the country and do this like I think it was like close to 50 grand it ended up costing what were your big expenses?

Speaker 1 13:40

just food stuff, food hotel rooms, hotel would be the biggest thing Paying my camera guy, like there was just gas.

Speaker 2 13:46

There was just so many things add up. You got to think like we're feeding me, who's eating? Like five people.

Speaker 3 13:52

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you're probably running so much you need to fuel it, right.

Speaker 2 13:58

And then we're feeding my camera guy, my dad and to help crew different sections. So yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 14:03

What was the thing you ate the most? Ravioli.

Speaker 2 14:06

Canned ravioli Canned ravioli. I'll never eat it again. Well, I'll probably eat it again, but I haven't really had it since.

Speaker 3 14:12

That's fair, that's legit, or just your goal fuel oh the thing is Just like straight out of the can.

Speaker 2 14:25

My dad doesn't know how to cook cook anything that's amazing, yeah. And then like when you get to northern ontario or these places, oh yeah, there's nothing, nothing.

Speaker 1 14:29

So it's like we could buy like steaks or something and try to northern canadian so there, there would be like, oh man, it would be 300 kilometers of nothing people don't know how like crazy that highway.

Speaker 2 14:40

We just got like canned ravioli and canned tim hortons chili.

Speaker 1 14:44

Any wildlife up there that you saw while you were riding A couple bears.

Speaker 2 14:46

yeah, you see everything on that highway.

Speaker 3 14:49

Listen, my cousin and I drove up around Lake Superior there and we actually almost hit a wolf, so like I never seen a wolf.

Speaker 2 14:57

Yeah bears a couple moose, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 15:00

No, it's pure national I'm sure there was so much more wildlife.

Speaker 2 15:02

I didn't see because I was just staring at my feet, kind of yeah yeah, yeah like even the bear. I didn't realize there was a bear in the car, went around the van and like slammed their brakes on what's that person stopping for and you just see the bear run across the street, run back across. I'm like first time ever seen a bear. I was that's crazy.

Speaker 1 15:18

So you get through interior and then you get to the flatlands. Oh God.

Speaker 3 15:22

Yeah, I mean that must have been easier, but incredibly boring.

Speaker 2 15:26

Yeah, it's like I don't know when I did these things. I kind of went into this with a mindset of like every day could be incredibly horrible and no matter what, I'm just going to move forward. The 75 kilometer distance sounds crazy, but technically you could walk it if you had to yeah, it would take a really really long time.

Speaker 2 15:44

But it's. Some people say like what was the hardest part of the easiest part or different. It was kind of all the same. It was all just like one task that you had to do and yeah, yeah, I mean like the prairies was was flat, was boring, there was tons of headwind. Yeah, northern ontario was crazy hills. I mean, probably the easiest stretch would have been from the time I got into Ontario to like Toronto because there were so many people okay yeah, like that kind of gives you energy.

Speaker 2 16:08

There wasn't a single step I took in Ontario by myself.

Speaker 3 16:11

There was always people with me and even did people do the whole Forrest Gump thing like start running people every day, man every like.

Speaker 2 16:18

pretty much not at the beginning, becausefoundland it was kind of just starting, but like Ontario, we had did a group run in Toronto and there was like a thousand people that showed up.

Speaker 3 16:27

Wow. So when I hit big cities.

Speaker 2 16:29

I do 70K and we drive to like a park and do the last five days.

Speaker 1 16:32

So how were you managing that element while you were on the road? So did you have folks doing your social media as well, or?

Speaker 3 16:36

was that you doing it?

Speaker 2 16:38

For the first, until I got my camera guy, which he came like right before Toronto. It was all me, so I would be like running up the highway on my phone doing my video on CapCut, putting the captions on stuff or doing the stories.

Speaker 3 16:56

I was trying to reply to everyone that was sending me messages, so it was like, I guess that alone would keep the run like kind of occupied.

Speaker 2 17:00

And then even sometimes, like it would be, I'd be getting four hours of sleep a night because I'd be finishing and I'd be trying to answer emails. I'd be trying to do all the instagram dms and there's so many messages coming in I'm trying to get content out.

Speaker 1 17:10

So it was like busy, busy busy and now, like david goggins, I mean that the most horrific part of that whole david goggin story is his feet. Right, I mean just running so hard and going so hard. What happened to his feet, I think? I think that's one of the most terrible crazy thing though yeah, I didn't lose a toenail.

Speaker 2 17:27

No, oh wow, I didn't even really get a blister. Oh, what I mean? I had been running like crazy for, as I said, like almost two years leading up to it.

Speaker 1 17:36

Uh, my shoes were you wearing. You know, you just deteriorate. A couple different brands.

Speaker 2 17:40

I started on one brand, went, went to another. Okay, yeah, a couple different shoes.

Speaker 3 17:45

But like you know where's these shoes, deals coming up right.

Running Across Canada: Daily Challenges

Speaker 2 17:47

Where are these shoes deals? They just don't exist. I don't know. Seriously yeah it's crazy, but yeah, so like the thing is, if I say you go to a trail, run or whatever, you're up and down, jumping over stuff, like that's when you'd lose toenails. But on the road, like I wear usually, I wear something that's like a half size too big and right you're not really crunching your toenails. You know what I mean yeah, yeah, yeah, so like I lost feeling in my heels. I couldn't feel anything in my heels.

Speaker 1 18:14

They were completely days on end.

Speaker 2 18:16

They're just done yeah, they're just numb like the skin was like oh, four inches thick. It was crazy like you. Just you tap them and it sounded like you were like a hobbit feet. Yeah, straight up ravioli, like you were tapping like a park bench, just like a, like that type of noise wow, because they were just it was. You just calloused up, yeah, and then for four months the skin was coming.

Speaker 3 18:36

It was gross like after it was done, it was coming off and yeah, chunks, and stuff, yeah, but yeah like no serious issues in my feet.

Speaker 1 18:44

It's such an interesting thing about adaptation when you think about it, how your body just adapted to that kind of constant.

Speaker 2 18:51

Yeah, it's weird because almost the first two weeks was the hardest. Yeah, because your body's, in a certain way, kind of trying to shut you down, rejecting you. Yeah, so it's like I remember there was a whole day probably like day seven or eight, where I just felt like I broke my foot the whole day. It just was horrible pain, wow. That lasted a few days and then it just went away and I knew it. Like that issue didn't come back. You know what I mean. So it's like what was that?

Speaker 1 19:13

your body's rewiring like that, no, like survival there was different issues that would come.

Speaker 2 19:18

But I kind of always knew, and even when I was doing this, the weird part was when I felt good, I was like oh, fuck, yeah, because you know that the bad's gonna come yeah, and then when you feel horrible, you're kind of like, okay, well, I'm gonna feel better eventually, and it'd be every day. It'd be, you'd be 12 kilometers in. You're like I feel like I'm gonna die yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 19:36

So, like the, the hardest part must have been the Rocky Mountains.

Speaker 2 19:42

The hills going up hills isn't bad, Downhill horrible, Bad on the knees, especially near the end. Yeah, there was a certain point near the end where I was going up a hill faster than I was going down Because I was hobbling so bad going down, because everything was so sore. Right, right, yeah, but worst part, best part, yeah, I don't like worst part, best part, I don't know like. I mean, the headwinds in the prairies was horrible because it was like I thought that'd be the easiest part.

Speaker 2 20:10

I thought it was just in my brain, just because I'm like it's flat, it should be, but the way the weather patterns go, I think it's about like 80 of the time the wind is pushing west to east right, so it would be like 60 kilometer headwind all day so it feels like you're running on a treadmill yeah, yeah, so I had, like I remember, uh, my girlfriend, she came out not my girlfriend at the time, my girlfriend now though um, she came out and, uh, she had a speed work, run or whatever she's gonna do speed session, and she was trying to do her speed session into the wind and like she was supposed to be running at whatever four something a kilometer, and it was like two minutes slower she's running and she's like I don't know how you're doing this all day yeah, and she's running like, and it's literally feels like you're being pushed backwards and you're trying to sprint through the wind and it's just not working and it's it's like horrible that part, because you just feel like you're getting nowhere.

Speaker 3 21:03

Wow, that's an interesting thing though, because you know everyone thinks that you know with athletes like professional athletes. You always see them like running up hills and things like that, but apparently like go to Saskatchewan and run against the wind and there's your resistance training right.

Speaker 2 21:15

Oh man, and it was cold too, like I remember.

Speaker 3 21:20

Yeah, when was that? What time of year? What were the months? Wow, it was three months that you were gone.

Speaker 2 21:24

I started April 1st in Newfoundland which is like still winter. Yeah, yeah, so that was snowing and freezing cold the whole time. I remember where were we Edmonston, New Brunswick, it was like minus 18. That was in like. Was that cold?

Speaker 3 21:38

where edmonston, new brunswick, was minus 18 in may.

Speaker 2 21:42

What's horrible, wow. And the problem was the day before it was like eight degrees, so I was like warm, had my slick you know, I'm just wearing a t-shirt, and then you wake up in the morning and you're like what?

Speaker 3 22:08

the fuck.

Speaker 2 22:09

You're outside and it's like headwind and you're just froze and like you weren't expecting in newfoundland. I just knew us.

Speaker 1 22:14

This is gonna be a shit show. I would have expected that in northern one two, but uh, I guess I don't know, it's cold, and then I mean it's cold.

Speaker 3 22:21

But I wouldn't have thought in may, when when's father's day, that's june, right uh?

Speaker 2 22:25

yeah, because I remember we did a video like a shout out to my dad for father's day, and so the video I'm running and it's like so windy and he throws me the microphone. I'm talking, we're in the video, but I just remember it was like I think, five degrees and like 70 kilometer headwind all day, and this is june. Wow, like I'm wearing like two sweaters and like I think I still have the clip, but I'm like trying to talk into the mic and all you can hear is just the wind going crazy, like can't even hear what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 22:55

Basically, I'm screaming into this mic and it's just like that windy, it's like the blair witch project like it's running man, the wind is wow, okay, all right but you know, uh, we were talking a little before here that, um, you know, running across the country and everything, you got the attention of uh at the time our nation's leader, of Justin Trudeau, which is kind of cool.

Speaker 2 23:20

Yeah, that was crazy. So when I finished, we did my final post and he left a nice long message and he's also sent me a big sign and it was a letter. You will never afford a house, but it's cool to get recognition from, I mean say, what you want, the you know leader of the country.

Speaker 3 23:45

A hundred percent.

Speaker 2 23:45

Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool, but like there was man, that final post I made, I think there was maybe 3 000 people commented on it like the engagement was crazy.

Speaker 2 23:55

Every video I was putting out was getting like 100 000 views on instagram and so many comments and like, for example, to show the support we had. Um, there's one day we needed gatorades and we put a post out hey, can anyone bring us gatorade? I think 800 gatorade showed up. No, two hours later we had to put a post out and say guys like, like, if you're coming with giving us, but like don't bring any more.

Speaker 2 24:16

Yeah and like or food and stuff. I felt bad. We had to put a post and say like don't bring any more food, because there was days where we were getting like 10 spaghetti dinners like, so we were like had to throw some of it out. So we had to put a post of like, maybe like a gift card that makes more sense people were showing up to my like people would figure out where my hotel room wasn't, and people were knocking on the door and bringing spaghetti dinners and meatloaf.

Speaker 1 24:40

That must be kind of weird. Eh, it was cool, that's kind of awesome.

Speaker 3 24:44

I mean, you know, I think it's incredible.

Speaker 1 24:45

How could you not be connected with that movement? To be following you. Like the amount of people too.

Speaker 2 24:50

That must just still have my location, because whenever someone would DM me on Instagram hey, I want to run with you, I'd just get them to text me and then I'd share my location. Oh yeah, so there's probably a thousand people with my location indefinitely.

Speaker 1 25:01

Now they could just see at big leagues right now Like well, he went down, but they're just drinking at the pub. People come to the hotel room.

Speaker 2 25:08

I had you like, oh yeah, you sent me your location Awesome.

Speaker 3 25:13

That's crazy man.

Speaker 1 25:14

That is crazy.

Speaker 3 25:15

But you know that's kind of cool Like. But you know that's kind of cool Like. You know you really get to see and meet, like you know, the people of Canada in such a positive way yeah.

Speaker 2 25:22

Yeah, like people. I think in a certain way, people just needed something to like, cheer for.

Speaker 1 25:28

Yeah, yeah, I mean positivity is I think that yeah.

Speaker 2 25:37

Yeah, so it was like like a lot of my time, so I said that in most of my videos.

Speaker 3 25:40

I think he was voted number one. Cheers to Terry Fox.

Speaker 2 25:44

Cheers to Terry what he did, and people don't realize how young he was.

Speaker 3 25:49

He was like 22 years old Exactly. He died when he was 23,.

Speaker 1 25:51

I think yeah, so it's Wow, that is crazy. I never thought about that in a long time.

Speaker 2 25:56

Like to be that young and do that, and I mean like I did the run and I don't know how he made it up some of the hills. Yeah, like, how old were you when you did the run? 26, that's still pretty impressive.

Speaker 3 26:05

Yeah, he did it with two legs.

Speaker 2 26:06

Yeah, like seriously but, back then too, it's not like now, like where they got technology and I'm sure you could have a decent running leg of course back then is like the walking leg. I could probably fallen over all the time.

Speaker 3 26:18

Oh yeah, 100%. Just a hunk of wood in. Pretty well, it was a pirate's leg, yeah.

Speaker 2 26:24

Imagine the chafing on the stump, and then also.

Speaker 3 26:27

I do remember reading about that. He did comment about the chafing on the stump and then imagine his one hip would have been destroyed because he's double skipping every time.

Speaker 1 26:35

it's true, yeah, yeah, it's like he's only 22 yeah people don't understand, thinking about the gravity at just that alone.

Speaker 2 26:42

I've always said they have to make like a like a, a movie about him that's in the theaters. Like a like a feet, like an actual movie. You know what I mean. Like we have like there's some movies like the cbc one or whatever like, but they need one that's like high budget. People need to know this story.

Speaker 3 26:58

No, I agree because agree.

Speaker 2 26:58

Because it's the craziest what he did. And then it shows it doesn't matter how long you live. If you live, you can make a huge impact.

Speaker 3 27:06

He just did. He knew he had to do that. Well, I mean, the thing is I think it was his original goal was to raise a million dollars. I think he actually fell short of that, obviously because he passed away before really completing it, but when you think about his legacy, it's almost he left.

Speaker 2 27:20

It's almost a billion dollars that the foundations are is so I mean it's a sin that he died and it's I mean, who knows like doing that run did it take time off his life? Like possibly?

Speaker 1 27:33

I bet it probably did probably was a little taxing on your, on your body, yeah, and like, your body wants to repair it.

Speaker 2 27:37

So the crazy thing too is like he had cancer when he's doing it. Yeah, exactly. He didn't know he did, but it's like for that to get diagnosed, then he probably had it the whole time. Yeah, right, if not?

Speaker 1 27:47

it would have developed what part of the run was he diagnosed with cancer. That's when he had cancer until it moved to his lungs. Is that right, yeah?

Speaker 2 27:59

And it's like, yeah, how are you breathing?

Speaker 3 28:02

Yeah.

Speaker 2 28:03

Seriously.

Speaker 2 28:04

You know, I guess he was like coughing up blood, and so that was. It was Thunder Bay where he had to stop. Yeah, which is? I mean he made it up all those crazy Hills in Ontario, like if he can't, he 100% would have made it if that cancer didn't come back and ultimately take his life. But yeah, and then it's also for me it's like there's no position to complain, or it's like if I'm having a hard day, man, I'm healthy, I got two legs, I got all the support, like I have nothing to complain about. Think about the pain he was in.

Speaker 3 28:32

No, it's true, Definitely more than the pain I was in. It's definitely good to bring into perspective, like how lucky we all have at some point.

Weather Extremes and Physical Adaptations

Speaker 2 28:38

Yeah, and it's like after you do something so crazy like run across the country, it's like there's no bad days anymore. Yeah, fair enough, or like imagine it's after you've ran for 14 hours a day for 98 days in a row. It's like what's a long day?

Speaker 1 28:52

Right.

Speaker 2 28:54

You know what I mean stuff now and it's feels a lot less because you're like man. I struggled for 98 straight days like minimal sleep.

Speaker 1 29:02

Yeah so going back before the goggins book, that kind of inspired you a little bit. Before that did you feel a little bit lost in yourself. You know you're doing construction. You said like did you just feel like you just didn't have any direction in?

Speaker 2 29:13

life or what was going on then. Yeah, so like I, I'm the type of person where I kind of need an obsession.

Speaker 1 29:20

Okay, like.

Speaker 2 29:21

I need everything I do. I'm going to do pretty hard, okay cool. So it's like I remember like playing team sports as a kid. Then that finishes and you're like what am I like? You don't really have anything. You can go play like beer league hockey, but you can't try hard.

Speaker 3 29:34

Right, and for me it's like if.

Speaker 2 29:35

I'm not going 100%. I don't really want to do it.

Speaker 1 29:38

Yeah, the guys in beer softball leagues that try super hard.

Speaker 2 29:41

That'd be me. They're the worst. They're the worst ones to play with.

Speaker 1 29:44

I'm just trying to drink beer and not do anything too difficult.

Speaker 3 29:48

And you were making this game not fun with your home runs and your anger.

Speaker 2 29:51

That's why I just don't play Like I only do running. I don't play others.

Speaker 1 30:00

I just go to her. There's something. I just can't not try her.

Speaker 2 30:02

So you're an animal, you need to find something, yeah so I think I just and in a weird way, I kind of always felt like I was destined to do something huge, like really help people. I just didn't know what it was. Yeah, and then it's like that's why, as soon as I found running, I was like, oh, like everything else in my life is temporary, like I might work another job or I might do that, but like my ultimate goal is to do these crazy runs, motivate and inspire people, have millions of followers. Yeah, like, and it's even with the Canada run, like that was just the first time I'm going to do. Like I said, like what's the best way to learn how to run across the country? You run across the country.

Speaker 1 30:34

Like, I'm going to do crazy challenges, so you have a run in mind, so you're going to do this again.

Speaker 2 30:40

I'll be doing Canada again. I'll be doing the States eventually. Name a crazy challenge. I want to try to do it. So now it's kind of just trying to figure out what is the most beneficial Kind of pick and choose these challenges. But yeah, I've got tons of time. I'll be doing this until I'm 50.

Speaker 3 30:56

How I first heard about you was my wife actually talked to me about you and she was like yeah, did you hear about this thing?

Speaker 3 31:02

And it was funny, I almost kind of forgot about it. And then we were getting it on the podcast. I was like, yeah. So I said we're getting Brian Keepy on the podcast. Do you know him? And she was like, yes, I told you about him.

Speaker 3 31:13

And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, so she's been following along like for a while now and everything and uh, but like my, my, so my wife's not a runner, but she's a really avid hiker, okay, and she likes, she, she likes to challenge herself every summer. She's a teacher, so she's off, right, so she likes to challenge herself every summer to a really and everything. So, but she has a couple goals, um, so I think she can kind of like relate to this. I think that's why she like relates to your, your account, and everything is because she wants to do, uh, everest base camp and she wants to do another one that she's been talking about a lot lately is she wants to do the I can't remember the name of it oh, the pacific trail, okay, which is, which is from the Mexico border to the Canadian border on the West Coast. Let's go Right, that's awesome. That's what she wants to do at some point in time.

Speaker 3 32:05

Now the good thing is, she's a teacher, so she actually has summers off.

Speaker 2 32:08

Yeah, she got summers. She can actually do those things right.

Speaker 3 32:11

So yeah, she wants to do base camps Like this year, or she's doing something in Cape Breton where it costs $1,500 to go because you have to bring a guide and you go from Pollard's Cove up to Meat Cove right through the deep wood of Cape Breton to the highlands.

Speaker 3 32:31

I can see that kind of thing where it's like you want that challenge. It's like what's the next thing I'm going to check off, kind of thing. So it's kind of cool. Is it just running? Is hiking that type kind of thing? So it's kind of cool, like yeah, but like is it just running? Like it's like hiking would be like that type of thing be challenging to you at all, or is it interest you?

Speaker 2 32:44

yeah, it's kind of anything I do so I try to tell people too. Like it's not that, like I just love running. It's, that's just how I express myself now yeah, so it's really like I've just chose to get as good as I possibly can at running, but it could have been anything yeah, but it's like in order to like.

Speaker 2 33:02

For me, I kind of have to solely focus on running because like, yeah, you can be good at a bunch of stuff, but if I want to be like one of the best or, yep, you know as good as I can possibly be, I kind of have to just laser focus in on.

Speaker 3 33:15

I'm just going to give him a stupid challenge. I want him to be the first person to run up Mount Everest. Run up Mount Everest.

Speaker 1 33:24

I'm going to put that in his brain and now he's going to obsess about it or run to the North Pole right yeah, going to Santa or a. Russian submarine Either, or That'd be kind of cool, yeah, no, that'd be cool, I don't know. I mean, yeah, the thoughts are endless with you, there's endless challenges. It's the sandbox at this point.

Speaker 2 33:39

Well, it's even like I just went and did Florida. I ran the entire length of Florida in 10 days, 752 kilometers Amazing. And people ask like why there? Well, I just picked it. I wanted to do something solo, so I did this one, completely self-supported. I just wore a backpack it was actually a school book bag, it wasn't anything fancy.

Speaker 1 33:57

Did you get sponsors with this one?

Speaker 2 33:58

No, no, no, just kind of did it, just to feel good it was all off my own line of credit.

Speaker 3 34:04

Yeah, you were saying you went down and you had some random people pick you up.

Speaker 2 34:07

Yeah, people help. No one murdered you, no, no.

Speaker 1 34:11

I've heard there's a pretty crazy part of Florida too. You've got to be, careful.

Speaker 3 34:14

Yeah, exactly, gators.

Speaker 2 34:16

I was by the water the whole time, which you kind of find in Florida. Anything by the water is nice, and then probably more inland might be not the nicest. But for me I ran through, basically only nice. Well, there's a couple of sketchy spots, but nothing like. Most of it was pretty nice.

Speaker 3 34:31

Yeah yeah, those Jacksonville Jaguar fans are pretty out there.

Speaker 2 34:36

So you had to go right through there.

Speaker 1 34:43

Jacksonville was one of the spots where I ran through a sketchy. Yeah, yeah it doesn't surprise me.

Speaker 2 34:45

Yeah, do we have that on your thing on your on your instagram. Uh, there'd be videos of me in jacksonville.

Speaker 3 34:48

Yeah cool I gotta check that out.

Speaker 2 34:49

I remember I like I usually I'll take a break, say every five, ten kilometers, something. Sit down, eat a bit, drink whatever. And there was a spot in jacksonville or it was pretty sketchy, so I think I had to run for like 20 straight kilometers.

Speaker 3 35:01

I was like I really love a drink right now. I just, I don't know, I'm just gonna keep going here. So did you go all the way down to the?

Speaker 2 35:07

keys. Yeah, so right to the start. Of the keys is where I stopped. I wanted to do all the keys also. It's expensive though. Oh, I bet yeah to get hotel because, I was just like staying in really shitty motels Right Like I was going on Expedia. What's the cheapest one, stay there.

Speaker 3 35:21

So why Florida?

Speaker 2 35:22

Well, I wanted to do something solo and I'm also obviously trying to grow my state's audience because there's so many more people. That's right, I have almost 100,000 followers here now and I think like 95% is Canada, Right. So I'd love to grow into the States you kind of have to if you want to take things to the next level, sort of. So I just picked Florida and I mean Florida was good because the whole thing's populated.

Speaker 3 35:45

Yeah, it's warm.

Speaker 2 35:46

It's warm so I didn't have to worry about it. It was pretty easy.

Speaker 1 35:50

You could just do a running from ice run Start in New York City and just feel free.

Speaker 3 35:56

Runs from winter. No, no, I mean the immigrant. Oh ice that ice.

Speaker 2 36:03

Yeah, sorry that ice. Sorry, I do hate winter. Well, it's okay to run in, but everything else is just freezing all the time.

Speaker 3 36:11

I like how you went with the immigration services and I went with Ryan.

Speaker 1 36:15

runs from winter A lot of people down there are getting detained and stuff A lot of Canadians. Sorry, that was a joke.

Speaker 2 36:21

Everyone was saying all this stuff about how I needed to be so worried to go to the States. I mean, my experience was like to get across the border. What are you doing? I'm running the entire state of Florida. Oh cool, Let me through. I went there. Everyone in Florida loved me. They loved the fact that I was from Canada. They're, oh, we love Canadians Right, Came home, had no issues. So I think a lot of times like people are just people, yeah, no, it's all this division and stuff.

Speaker 1 36:47

I think it's a tough year.

Speaker 2 36:48

Yeah, I think it's a particularly tough year.

Speaker 1 36:50

I have family in Colorado. I go there I've been there and I think. But this year I was a little apprehensive. We changed our family vacation.

Speaker 3 37:03

It's just weird times now, but hopefully things boil over Even still, though, but like you said, people are people. And you know what the thing is, that the issues that we're really having are with governments.

Speaker 1 37:10

Yeah, it's not every day, not the people. That's 100% right. Yeah, totally.

From Social Media Following to Movement

Speaker 2 37:16

It's a total problem with just what the leadership is saying down there to do, and I even found, like I got some, like I decided to do this Florida run, probably two weeks before everything went crazy. So I'd obviously booked my flight and a few hotels and stuff and then, like I actually lost followers going there.

Speaker 2 37:33

Like I was hoping it would work and it didn't really seem to hit the algorithm in the States. So it was all the Canadian people. And then Canadian people were mad at me because I was in the States and there was people like commenting a couple of comments, someone was like Terry Fox would have never went to the States under these times. And then people are like I can't bullshit what a shit thing to say.

Speaker 1 37:53

I have challenged that and then everyone's like I can't believe you're going to Trump's America. And I'm like, I'm just a runner, guys, maybe people thought it was politically motivated or something.

Speaker 3 38:03

Yeah, but it was like I just Donald Trump didn't send you a nice little signed thing?

Speaker 2 38:09

But I mean, I just went to run, I got some blowback on it, but really, I just keep going yeah, that's horseshit.

Speaker 3 38:15

If people want to get mad about that, it's like sorry, no, I'd be mad. I'm mad about that. That's not fair. Everything was booked.

Speaker 2 38:20

It's like people are like you got a can. I'm like no, I'm not going to.

Speaker 1 38:23

I didn't know, some guy was going to start a trade war. Yeah, so if?

Speaker 2 38:29

anything. It's like it almost can kind of bring the countries together in a certain way of like showing. Like I went there, I had support from people like there was.

Speaker 2 38:39

I remember going to I had to get from where jacksonville to the border and on my instagram some lady came and picked me up and drove me to the border so it was like it's crazy support, or even like a guy came and finished the run with me like the last last night when I did like 109 kilometers to finish, so I finished like two in the morning okay, he came and ran with me at the end, so it was like tons of support from people man yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 38:59

I think people just want something to believe in, no matter what you're canadian, american, whatever, like, whatever.

Speaker 2 39:03

People just want something, I think too, like the best way to inspire someone is to just chase your passion as hard as you can. Yeah, it doesn't matter what it is. It's like I like kobe bryant. I don't care about basketball, I just liked that he was.

Speaker 1 39:13

He was crazy and he pushed the limits as far as he could he's psychopathic like you like seeing people I mean the same as jordan like, yeah, you like seeing people push for it and it has nothing to do with running or basketball, whatever it is, it's just you're like okay, that guy's intense, I like that yeah, that that psychopathic like mentality.

Speaker 3 39:31

Right, like the tom brady. I'm a big patriots fan, so yeah, tom brady has that like I'm gonna sit here, I'm gonna study and I'm gonna know everything better than you and I'm gonna come more prepared than you, and it's the same thing.

Speaker 2 39:42

I love that jordan documentary because jordan, just like sometimes saying yeah purely willed yeah yeah, winning right, it's like say what you will about him, but there he's, a winner oh yeah, it's like don't want to be an idiot, to be a jerk, right it's almost. It is tough and certain like to be that at something you almost have to suck at everything else, like you know, it's like you see Tom Brady, or whatever his wife leaves him and all, but it's like he's probably so obsessed with football like he doesn't leave much time for other things.

Speaker 3 40:11

Yeah, he totally lost his marriage over football. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 40:14

But it's like, well he probably wouldn't have been the best ever if he didn't go that far in the football.

Speaker 3 40:18

So it's a weird way to try to balance and not let things ruin your life. Man I'm reading. All I'm hearing right now is that Ryan's like the goat at running. I guess, yeah, he's comparing himself to the goats, yeah, so there you go.

Speaker 2 40:32

Not currently but trying to get there one day.

Speaker 3 40:34

There you go. I like that. It's everything in give things 10, 20 years, and are you trying to sign up for, like, a bunch of different, like of those like well-known, famous marathons and things like that? I'd like to. They're expensive though.

Speaker 2 40:53

Yeah, definitely people need sponsors and stuff yeah, like I, I want to do a 200 miler this this year and they're like two grand, wow, okay and then by the time it's like you gotta fly there, you gotta stay there.

Speaker 3 41:03

Yeah no, you gotta bring a crew with you.

Speaker 2 41:05

So it's like you end up spending five grand on yeah five days.

Speaker 3 41:09

So the? The other thing, too, is like, um, like, if you have you ever heard of the uh, the compost style, like the, the pilgrimage that goes from like, uh, like the border of france, like, and it goes all the way over to spain. Have you heard of that? So it's this pilgrimage that people go and generally people walk it, but like, and there's hostels and things like that along the way, but it's something like I don't know. I think it's like I could be completely wrong on this, because it might be more, but europe's not that big. So I think it's like 900 kilometers, yeah, makes most people walk it, but like, I think it'd be kind of a cool thing because it's supposed to be like a religious experience.

Speaker 3 41:43

Okay yeah, so it's like that's something that I think could be definitely on your radar. That could be and I think that's something that I think could be definitely on your radar and I think that's something that you could probably do for pretty inexpensive, because it's like a pilgrimage. There's a lot of people along the way that actually help out.

Speaker 1 41:58

I'm a little different from the running thing. I think you should take a pogo stick or something like completely different Pogo stick.

Speaker 3 42:03

I'm going to pogo stick, pogo stick 100 miles there you go, my way right through Cairo. I Pogo stick 100 miles there you go, my way right through Cairo. I'm going to pogo to the top of the pyramid. I would watch that.

Speaker 2 42:15

Oh, I'd watch it. Who wouldn't? Yeah, of course, man, I wonder how long a pogo stick a marathon. Damn, it might take a while, I bet.

Speaker 1 42:22

By the end.

Speaker 2 42:23

you'd be falling over, You'd be tired.

Speaker 1 42:25

My goal now is to get you researching pogo sticks tonight. They're fascinating devices.

Speaker 2 42:29

I've never done one. I'll try it.

Speaker 1 42:30

It's a peak of athletic performance.

Speaker 3 42:32

Yeah, 100% yeah. And you know what, speaking of pogos, we actually did something kind of fun today, so this will already be out on.

Speaker 1 42:41

Instagram by now, by the time this gets out, because I think our episodes are a month ahead. Yeah.

Speaker 2 42:48

We're almost a month ahead. Now, we're over a month ahead.

Speaker 1 42:51

I can't even tell what do we do.

Speaker 3 42:53

Matt, today we did a little bit of a collaboration with Afternoon Pint that we arranged with you and a friend of the show, chip, at Three Overs Daily. We did this sponsored by Three Mile Outfitters. We did a three-mile run where you were training Chip to run and it was hilarious and a bit of a disaster, but we had to put in some things there to kind of level the playing field, because obviously you're a much better runner than Chip.

Speaker 2 43:21

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 43:21

But one of the things was eating a pogo Not the bouncy pogo, but the Korean so Kong Dog actually donated these Korean pogo corn dog things, massive hot dogs, huge, delicious, by the way.

Speaker 2 43:33

They're really good. If you're in the area, where is it? Downtown Halifax, right, no?

Speaker 1 43:36

that's on the Bedford Highway.

Speaker 2 43:38

Oh, I'm thinking of it, okay.

Speaker 3 43:41

I don't know if it's Kong Dog, but it's another thing that's like that.

Speaker 2 43:43

No, they're delicious though man.

Speaker 3 43:44

Delicious though, man, they were great, but what, like you know? Go and check that out, obviously, because that was a really fun experience.

Speaker 2 43:51

Um, it's a it's a month later. Now chip might be recovered. We also did.

Speaker 1 43:55

We also did street caesars right outside of where we're recording today, yeah spicy street caesars right outside of big leagues here that's right.

Speaker 3 44:03

So we're in big leagues, we're having a really good time, so that's something you, you don't drink.

Speaker 2 44:07

I'm drinking my energy drink. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 44:08

So you're like, you're straight edge, right? Yeah, I guess you'd call it that.

Speaker 2 44:13

It's like I don't have anything wrong with drinking. I just in the same way, I run everything I do I want to do full out.

Speaker 3 44:19

Yeah, fair.

Speaker 2 44:21

For me it's to drink a few beer doesn't interest me, I would just end up drinking 15 and it's not, would just end up drinking 15 and it's not sure. Like, yeah, you in order, in order to run, it's you don't want to be hung over and it's nice. But I probably haven't drank in two and a half three years well, you're not running, are you?

Speaker 1 44:35

are you training to be just ready to go for the next run? Like, are you going to gym daily now, yeah, I run, keep it to top shape every day.

Speaker 2 44:43

Yeah, yeah, for the most part run every day and I go to the gym two or three days a week. So yeah, it's my whole life is like I'm training, like, basically, like a professional athlete would be I'm training as if this is my well, it kind of is my job. It's, yeah, exactly, not making enough to. You're definitely living off the line of credit currently, but I'm kind of, you know, banking on the future and trying to just do big runs and keep training yeah, I.

Speaker 1 45:07

I'm sorry for the next massive expedition. I'd love to see some tutorials. Thank, you. I'm bad with multi-syllable words sometimes, but I'd love to see some training on how people can get started, how people can do what they want to do.

Speaker 2 45:21

So I've actually just started dropping a lot more tips-type content and just kind of showing how I'm training. So actually I've partnered up with a trainer, um, first time ever really I did. I did everything prior just by myself, so kind of I wanted to to get my mental as good as I possibly could and kind of peak and almost plateau before I started tweaking everything.

Speaker 3 45:44

No, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 45:44

Currently. I started working with a trainer and seeing big results and we're posting a lot more training content now of kind of what I'm doing in the gym, what I'm doing with my runs.

Speaker 1 45:54

I mean, we had a past episode where we had this kind of phenomenal story about this guy, derek, you know, had a wicked weight loss, phenomenal weight loss.

Speaker 3 46:02

He lost like 200 pounds.

Speaker 1 46:03

Oh wow, and this guy Rick the trainer that kind of helped influence him to get to there.

Speaker 2 46:07

Right yeah, this guy Rick Rick the trainer, that kind of helped influence him to get there Right, Like so we had the both on the show.

Speaker 1 46:10

It was really cool yeah. And and I mean you know I could totally see you doing that Are you planning to kind of do any kind of coaching to get other people?

Speaker 2 46:17

Eventually. Yeah, it's kind of something that's that's in the works now and for the longest time. Not weird about it, but I believe the most important thing is to just kind of get started and just go do it. I ran across Canada without even really having a trainer.

Speaker 1 46:35

Right.

Speaker 2 46:36

But I've kind of realized I'm a unique person. Yeah, that's not normal, I don't need accountability, because I just go do it, yeah. So yeah, that's something we're currently working on.

Speaker 1 46:52

So I'm working with my trainer and we're going to hopefully be doing some coaching and some programs and stuff like that. You guys totally should, because I think people will be receptive to that right.

Terry Fox's Enduring Inspiration

Speaker 2 46:55

Yeah, because the biggest thing is almost more accountability than anything. You know what I mean, and a lot of people just kind of need that accountability or a way to get started. So yeah, it's currently something we're working on.

Speaker 3 47:13

But, yeah, so that's going to be coming in the future. Awesome man, yeah, cool, well, cheers to you, brother.

Speaker 1 47:16

This was a really cool conversation.

Speaker 3 47:16

So yeah, it's fun. Before we uh move over 10 questions, I want to ask ryan like you know we have to, the listeners will want to hear it. Okay, I want top three craziest things that happened on your journey across canada. Oh man, top three, three craziest, craziest people, craziest stories, whatever, just something to you know, top three's heavy.

Speaker 1 47:33

So if you just got one, that's fine, that's cool, but if you want to give us three, we'll hear them all. Oh man, there's so many.

Speaker 2 47:39

I guess I can't really talk about craziest people, because they might be watching this, you know? Oh, give us one crazy person. Well, I can say like through doing this, eventually we kind of stopped staying with random people. Yeah, so at the beginning we were staying on coaches. Yeah, Sometimes people don't understand that we need to sleep. Oh yeah, and they just want to talk. Oh yeah, and like we're at their place, so like if they're sitting in the bedroom with you and you're trying to be like yeah, it's like 1 am and they're asking you questions about like how many pairs of shoes did you wear, and all this.

Speaker 2 48:16

So, yeah, eventually we had to just kind of be like, okay, we're just gonna get hotel rooms yeah, crazy man. Uh well, I guess the craziest weather would have been newfoundland and there was days where it was just miserable like you'd have to go back and look at my instagram, but it horrible weather like that would have to be a crazy one of like stalkers not that I know, of no all right, okay, you know what.

Speaker 3 48:41

That's awesome, though, like if you've had a pretty relatively normal experience.

Speaker 1 48:44

Yeah that's awesome, staring at us the entire time. Yeah, there's someone there. She just she, just she just hit me, pointed her out, yeah yeah, they all have your uh tracker they're tracking me anyway so, um, that's awesome. Top three is crazy. Ready to a bear, I'd say that would be somewhere.

Speaker 2 49:01

So many things that happen, like we had the some guy at a bar try to fight my camera guy in like northern ontario.

Speaker 2 49:08

For no reason because he parked over too much to drink yeah, anyway just like random stuff like that happening or uh, like my dad went for a run one night when we were done and me and my camera guy fell asleep in the airbnb we were at and like was locked and my dad couldn't get in, so then he just like slept in the van or like multiple nights of, like, my dad getting no sleep because he's running around trying to get every like laundry done and this and that right, or one day, like we, did all of our laundry and then the uh drying machine didn't work oh, laundry just

Speaker 2 49:42

everything was soaked so we had to hang it in the van. Okay, or like, uh, in the prairies we had a tick problem in the van because I had a bed that I'd laid on the ground and stretch every morning and ticks got on it. So then my camera guy would be like editing, and the tick on his ear or on his arms and stuff Brutal.

Speaker 2 50:00

Almost got arrested in Quebec. Like kicked off the highway. I guess you weren't allowed to run on the highway. I was on Whole crazy story there. But like ended up in cop cars and you ended up in a cop car, I actually did, my girlfriend did oh, she just go wild on him or what? No, um, so the thing is in the back of the van, like my camera got me back there, but there wasn't a seat belt or seats or anything so everywhere else.

Speaker 2 50:26

The cops were like this is fine, whatever right in quebec they hated us for some reason yeah, so like I'm running on the highway probably three kilometers, this is one stretch, or else I have to go like 20 kilometers around right, so I'm running on this three kilometers stretch and as I'm going off the ramp to get off it, there's like six cop cars show up. They get.

Speaker 2 50:44

Oh, yeah, it was like it was crazy. I think they're just trying prove a point. So they come out and they're freaking out and whatever, and then they realize that there's no room in the van for my camera guy or girlfriend's there, so she has to go into the cop car and then they drove us all around. It ended up taking like two hours and then I ended up running until I don't know 1 am that night. Had like two hours and then I end up running until I don't know 1 am that night had to get up at five the next day.

Speaker 2 51:11

Just crazy stories like that. Like the van broke down a few times and just had to keep going. People came on the side of the road and fixed the van with us. I had to run like 30 kilometers alone no food was kept up to you. Yeah catch up to us and so it's just. There's so many stories. If anyone's listening to this, like we did YouTube videos from each province, so go back and watch them, but like there's Cool yeah.

Speaker 3 51:34

Oh, that was good.

Speaker 1 51:35

You just gave us eight stories. Yeah, you gave us eight. That's good, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 51:38

But the tick problem in the van, that sucked.

Speaker 1 51:41

That'd be a really horrifying experience. That could be an episode.

Speaker 2 51:51

Yeah, so you're gonna make a book. Are you working on a kind of?

Speaker 1 51:52

memoir.

Speaker 2 51:52

I will eventually, but I want it to be like a masterpiece. Yeah, I want it to almost like a david goggins, where it was like 15 years of time, right, I could have ran across canon made a book, but for me I just want that to be one chapter, right, because I plan on doing so much big stuff that I'd rather put a book out and have it be a bestseller, millions of sales, instead of of do it now and have a thousand people buy it.

Speaker 1 52:10

I hope that that happens and I hope we get to say oh yeah, that guy on our podcast I'll come back on back then, Come back on shooting.

Speaker 2 52:18

I kind of think if I can do enough undeniable stuff, run across the country again, do this, do that. Eventually people are going to follow him.

Speaker 3 52:28

Or you'll die One of the two.

Speaker 1 52:29

Yeah, it's pretty similar. That's reality, but it's like one thing after another, after another.

Speaker 2 52:34

One of them is going to like I gained 60,000 followers in four days, or whatever for Canada.

Speaker 3 52:38

That will happen again, so cool it could have been the Florida run.

Speaker 2 52:41

It could be the next one I do it's just don't quit for 15, 20 years, man man.

Speaker 1 52:45

I'm sure you inspire our nation. Hopefully you inspire somebody listening here on this show today. Hopefully that's really cool yeah.

Speaker 3 52:50

Awesome. So now we're going to do 10 questions.

Speaker 1 52:53

Okay, 10 questions.

Speaker 3 52:54

Yes, all right On the spot here, right on the spot. These are really random, okay.

Speaker 1 53:00

So yeah, yeah, so they're super random. I'll start off Matt.

Speaker 3 53:04

All right.

Speaker 1 53:04

Okay, from your final post on your 99-day run, you cited Terry Fox as an inspiration for your journey. Yeah, name an inspiring non-athlete you look up to.

Speaker 2 53:17

My dad. It would have to be my dad. Perfect answer. He taught me. Me and him are very similar and he taught me to push my limits. He taught me Everything I know is basically from him. Yeah, he's just. You know, he had me when he was young and stuff, but I'm sure, like when he's seeing me run across Canada, part of him is seeing himself Can you give me an example of when, like you remember growing up, when he taught you how to push your limits.

Speaker 2 53:41

Oh, I just remember going to hockey games and stuff and it wouldn't matter if we won or lost. You just, you just go as hard as you possibly can. The most important thing in life is to just try hard. You can win, you can lose, whatever it is, but just as long as you give 100%, we're good.

Speaker 3 53:55

That's an awesome answer man yeah, all right. Question number two so what do you value most in friendship?

Speaker 2 54:01

I guess loyalty, yeah, yeah, yeah, someone that's by your side, no matter what kind Someone who can drive a van.

Speaker 3 54:06

Yeah, no matter what kind of, someone wants to drive a van, preferably with a license and or a camera.

Speaker 2 54:11

Yeah, yeah, van drivers, yeah yeah, the van thing's hard because it's like if I go do this again, I won't have my dad.

Speaker 1 54:18

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 54:18

Because, he'll get fired Unless. I get rich and can just hire him full time, that's true, which I'd love to do one day, but yeah.

Speaker 3 54:30

Loyalty I do one day, but yeah, yeah, get loyalty I guess for a friend. But yeah, yeah, you gotta find, you need to. You need to find a teacher, right yeah, yeah, see, that's it right there.

Speaker 2 54:35

Find a teacher. Okay, teacher, if any teachers are listening to this and they will every summer you can do something for 60 days, yeah, yeah that's, that's yeah I never thought of that, ready for another super deep question.

Speaker 1 54:44

So if your life was a movie, what would you call it?

Speaker 2 54:50

I'm still standing. Oh, oh, that's what I call it so you know, you know that, elton john song yeah, we listened to that a bunch across canada. I'm still standing kind of great, you know all the crazy stuff and I'm still standing, so perfect yeah, awesome, uh.

Speaker 3 55:04

So question number four so longest distance ran without a break?

Speaker 2 55:13

Well, I did 250 kilometers Now, like without a break. I mean I'm taking little five ten-minute breaks here and there, but basically continuous 250?. Yeah, and it was in a snowstorm. You know the Halifax Commons. I ran laps of the Commons.

Speaker 1 55:24

You ran 250 in a snowstorm, dressed up like Santa Claus, yeah.

Speaker 3 55:27

We raised like eight grand for Ronald McDonald's it 250 in a snowstorm. It's messed up like Santa Claus.

Speaker 2 55:30

yeah, we raised like eight grand for Ronald McDonald. It was around Christmas. I called it the Ho-Ho 250K. That's amazing. It took me 44 hours, wow, and it started. It was like minus 20 snowstorm.

Speaker 1 55:37

So you took like tiny breaks and stuff, just little breaks in there.

Speaker 2 55:40

But like I didn't stop until like, the objective was 250 kilometers, 44 hours it took me.

Speaker 3 55:46

Amazing kilometers 44 hours.

Finding Purpose Through Extreme Challenges

Speaker 1 55:52

It took me amazing. All right, uh question. No, no, it's you, isn't it? Oh sorry. Yeah, what was your favorite tv show growing up as a kid? The cartoon, now I think cartoon, or something easier sample on the television. Tv show as a kid? Yeah, you can't remember anything like. I don't even know any age 10, 12, like, did you like?

Speaker 3 56:07

Sonic the.

Speaker 1 56:07

Hedgehog.

Speaker 3 56:08

Yeah, but like I think, I kind of just like that's a good one I watched a lot of.

Speaker 2 56:12

I was way too slow on that one. Sonic the Hedgehog Took me like a whole minute, it's blue and everything. I was like oh wait, yeah, he's really fast that guy?

Speaker 1 56:24

Yeah, I don't know, gosh, was there a cartoon or something you liked? I don't know if I really watched many. Were you a?

Speaker 2 56:27

Batman guy. I like Batman. Now, I don't know if I liked it when I was a kid, though Really Maybe. Spider-man or something like that Okay cool. Yeah, no, that's fine Hockey Night in Canada. I remember watching that every Saturday.

Speaker 3 56:38

All right. Question number six If you could invent a new holiday, what would it be?

Speaker 2 56:43

and why I'd invent a holiday where you only get the holiday if you do some sort of physical activity. Okay All right. So workout day Maybe you got to do like imagine, say, there's a race or something, and if you go do it you get the holiday.

Speaker 1 57:04

I think that'd be cool. National leg day, because everybody hates leg day, yeah. So there you go.

Speaker 2 57:08

It'd get people moving. You know, I don't know how you could do that, I don't know how possible that would be. But like, imagine the blue nose marathon, but it was on a wednesday and you got the day off work. If you actually went and did it, you'll get people active, okay I like it.

Speaker 3 57:18

I mean, I don't know, that's cool.

Speaker 1 57:20

No, that's great. All right, finish the song lyric. I'm gonna uh move your body Sure. Yeah, that's great, it could be whatever you want.

Speaker 3 57:35

No, you passed Question number eight. So I know we talked a little bit that you were into some sweets and stuff like that as you ran across the country. Cotton candy ice cream Cotton candy ice cream. So I think you just answered what I was just about to say, but I was going to ask you what was your favorite ice cream.

Speaker 2 57:55

Cotton candy man man, I had a lot of ice cream. Yeah, yeah, it was like my. Every time my dad would go to like a gas station, he'd get me an ice cream bar. Anytime we went by like a place, he'd get me cotton candy ice cream. My birthday, I got a treats a pizza cake from dq. Okay, that was.

Speaker 3 58:07

That was good. Treats pizzas are good.

Speaker 1 58:11

Man, I haven't seen one of those in a long time. They're delicious, they're so good.

Speaker 2 58:14

I think we were in Regina for my birthday.

Speaker 1 58:16

Yeah, I remember those.

Speaker 2 58:17

Yeah, man, their treats. A pizza is good. You still make those, yeah, yeah, oh man, wow, hopefully they do. I mean I had it last number nine to you, I think. I mean you kind of answered this earlier. So where do you want to be in 10 years? Obviously you're going to have a lot more accomplished. Yeah, I just want to be inspirational to people. Uh, I probably love to have some records in the running the altar, running community. Um, yeah, it's inspired people, man, motivate, have more followers, really like. The more people that follow me, the more people's lives I can change. Yep, awesome.

Speaker 2 58:49

More of the same, but just bigger.

Speaker 3 58:50

Yeah, great answer, question number 10. That's the one that we ask every single person who comes on the show. So what is one piece of advice that was given to you that you'd like to give to us?

Speaker 2 59:02

One piece of advice that was given to me.

Speaker 2 59:12

It might be generic, but I mean life, life's pretty short and a lot of people just do stuff that they don't like, like have a job, they don't like their relationships or their friend like just do what makes you happy, just go out and push your limits. I mean I'd hate to be 70 years old and be like, oh man, I never ran across canada because I had to keep working construction, right, yeah, and it's like, don't be afraid to take risks. But yeah, like a lot of people just get stuck in the rat race and just hate their lives, and for me it's like I'd rather try to try to do this and and go completely broke or whatever. It doesn't really matter to me because I'll have the memories. I'll know I'm helping people. So just find what you like.

Speaker 3 59:44

You can always go get a job right like, really like, really Like, honestly. There's another book.

Speaker 1 59:49

And listening to you today really inspired me to bring this up. This book was suggested to me by Toucan, a previous guest on our show. He's completely in a different world.

Speaker 1 59:59

He's in the AI startup world AI yeah yeah, yeah, he's starting up a new business, a very successful entrepreneur, here in Halifax. One of the books he recommended to us was the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Okay, last Lecture, yeah, I mean hearing your story. And this is a guy who wrote a story when he realized he was going to die, right, and he was a professor and a very great one, right, and he worked. I guess he worked more in kind of a digital world, right, but he was inspired by Walt Disney and a university professor.

Speaker 3 1:00:35

One of the coolest books I ever heard and read.

Speaker 1 1:00:37

I think you'll totally love it. You can read it or you can listen to it on Spotify. And it's only six hours.

Speaker 2 1:00:42

Oh, listen to it. I love listening to stuff when I run, yeah, so anyway, I recommend that one to you, man, just keep keep inspiring you because I think you're brilliant. I love inspirational stories.

Speaker 1 1:00:50

Yeah, anything, yeah yeah, love what you're doing, man cheers cheers.

Speaker 2 1:00:54

Thank you for coming on the podcast. I'll be back on in 10 years and hopefully you'll have a million followers and have inspired a lot of people sooner than that yeah.

Speaker 1 1:01:01

Well, yeah, we'll see, I'll definitely run across country by then. Maybe you'll drive the van.

Speaker 3 1:01:06

I can do cheers, but maybe you'll drive the van A van. I could do Cheers, cheers.