The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast

Right on Hereford, Left on Boylston: From the Boston Marathon to Stage IV Cancer

• Nikki Godwin • Season 2 • Episode 4

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With the 130th Boston Marathon running on Patriots' Day, Monday April 13th, 2026, we have the Boston Marathon Episode on this month's episode of The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast. Ty's son's Jesse and Keenan join dad to talk about Ty's FIVE Boston Marathon's, some marathon tips you've never perhaps heard of or don't want to know about the race, the 2013 "bombing year" of the Marathon and of course all sorts of tangents. Ty tries to stump the boys with The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast Movie Quotes.

Footnote: Ty incorrectly calls it the 100th running and of course it's the 130th running of the Boston Marathon. 

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SPEAKER_03

Okay, this is Ty and welcome back to the Butterfly Pavilion Podcast. As you can see, for those on YouTube, we've got a couple of special guests here today. We'll introduce them in a minute. But remember to like and subscribe. And for those on the social of the media, uh, find us on Butterfly Pavilion Pod on both TikTok and Instagram. You may notice if you're on the visual, Nikki is not here. She's currently in a contract dispute with the Butterfly Pavilion Podcast. She is not. She's been super busy. She will return next month. Um, so we'll be happy to have her back. But I am happy to have the other two-thirds of my kids joining me here today in the Manosphere episode. I I I don't think it's I don't think it's I don't think it's the Manosphere because Manosphere, I think, is about guys who are assholes. And I don't think that applies to either of the three of us.

SPEAKER_04

But I wouldn't consider myself an alpha male or sigma male guy.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so I don't I think it's I'm I'm sorry they stole the term manosphere, but why don't you two boys introduce yourself quickly uh before we jump into what I want to uh say is the Boston Marathon episode. What is going on, you guys?

SPEAKER_02

Welcome back to the Butterfly Pavilion Podcast. My name's Keenan. I'm the uh the oldest child. No, I'm the youngest child. Um I'm the baby. Uh let's go 27. Uh, this is my older brother here, Jesse, and just stepping in for Nikki while she's disputing her contract.

SPEAKER_04

Yep. Um, I'm my name's Nikki Godwin. Just kidding. I'm Jesse. And uh I'm just happy to be here with uh with the fam, with the boys.

SPEAKER_03

All right. It it is great to have the three guys here. So I'm a little scared of where this thing might go today. Um do we do we want to start off with fan mail? Fan mail! Fan mail, fan mail. Um, I think we we're still working on the jingle, but it's fan mail, fan mail. I do have a couple this week. Uh I keep on saying this week, it is a monthly podcast. Um that's with all I've got going on. Um, that's about as best I can do. But I actually got a uh note from Jessica. Uh Jessica, I met at the Runners World Half Festival. Um, gosh, this is probably I I don't want to name the year, but it was it's 10 years ago at least. But anyway, um they invited a bunch of run influencers. Your dad used to be a run influencer because I did blog Seeking Boss and Marathon. And actually, I used to get like shoes from different shoe companies. And anyway, um, one of the women that did a lot of promotions, she invited me. You know, I was the B the B level uh influencer, but anyway, Jessica uh I saw on Instagram that she recently had a double mastectomy uh from breast cancer, which kind of blew me away because you know I didn't know she was going through a cancer journey. But anyway, I I sent her a heartfelt message. Hey, didn't know that. You got this girl. She replied, Oh, sweet tie, you've been on my mind lately, and I'm so sorry you've been facing this bullshit. You are the strongest person I know. I'm sending you all the warm hugs and happy vibes. It's all about finding the joy whenever we can spot it these days. Uh, she's slightly, and thank you, Jessica. She's slightly off because the tagline is actually finding light and darkness here on the Butterfly Pavilion podcast. Uh, I've got one more um from a uh good friend of mine, Ken, who I work with, God, 30 years ago. I've known Ty for over 30 years. Uh, and he posted this on Apple Podcasts. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcast. I've known Ty for over 30 years, and truly has been a journey with the highest highs and unfortunate, unfortunately, the lows. I remember when Nikki was born. It's amazing how kids will change your lives. Just as big of an impact has been his fight with long COVID and now cancer. As many of us know who Ty will say, I don't know of anyone that's uh is that right? As many of us who know Ty will say, I don't know of anyone who that is fighting as hard as Ty. For him and Nikki to open up and share their stories, struggles, and love is just amazing. Life is so precious, and don't forget it. Get ready to laugh and cry or learn from subject matter experts. Love you, man, Ken. And the love is reciprocal. Yeah, actually, you know, we do those those snaps, the sorority snaps. Um that Nikki does that, hey dad, you you've done that every episode, so stop. Um we are going to talk about Boston Marathon, but maybe we we we covered some heavy stuff. Um, I might throw a curve at you guys. How are you both? How did you manage hearing about dad getting cancer and how do you manage or process it today? And Jesse, maybe I'll start with you.

SPEAKER_04

Sure. Um I think it was for me personally, it was definitely a lot to process for sure, because just to see see you see you go through something like that, and uh went through a lot of what-if scenarios in my head, but um, you know, the good the the puff the good thing is is that you're obviously still still here, not going anywhere, and uh that's all I can ask for. So that's pretty much all I got on that matter. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Um we're gonna have to break it out.

SPEAKER_02

Um I don't know if I fully process it. It doesn't feel real. Um because it doesn't feel like it's something that should happen to someone like you. Um the statistic is I think what one in every two people get it now in their lifetime. So it's not like the odds are really in anybody's favor. Um but I think the the toughest part for me was it was right when I kind of started my my corporate career um when I got the news. And I think that was probably one of the the toughest moments for me. Um just because you had to you had to go to work. Yeah, you go to work. And then trying to maintain the composure, right? Getting that delivered through the phone and then rushing over here right after work was over. Um That was a tough day. I think um I'm just grateful because it's been almost three and a half, four years were going on now since the diagnosis.

SPEAKER_03

Uh two and a half.

SPEAKER_02

Two and a half, okay. Two and a half that feels like four and a half. It feels like four and a half, and I mean I'm just grateful that we still have time with you.

SPEAKER_03

So well, thank you. Um feelings reciprocal. You know, the Franzi and I debate, because I the I had two oncologists. So the first one actually, you know, I'm I that deliver the news, I'm like, oh, I mean, we're devastated, and like I'm like a problem fixer. I'm like, so what are we gonna do? Do we start chemo? And shockingly, his response was, do you really want to do that? Um, don't you want to go live your life kind of thing? And that scared the shit out of me because there's no way to interpret that as it's stage four and it's too late for treatment. The good news is a you know, a month and a half later, and of course, this is over the holidays, which is a very tough holiday season. Um I met my current oncologist, and uh he asked me to state, hey, what do you know about your diagnosis? And I nailed it, and you know, it was stage four, I had a Gleason score of eight. Um, and I thought he said I had two to eight years to live. But as I told Nikki, I'm playing on house money at this point because it's two years, two almost two and a half years, and I am still here. So I am happy about that. Um, and Keenan will have to contribute to the cryjar. Um let's switch gears. Let's switch every time I do this podcast, my my voice changes. Um Jesse, I think we're gonna talk about Lone COVID awareness month.

SPEAKER_04

Uh yeah. Uh you want to give us a reminder of uh lung cancer awareness month?

SPEAKER_03

Or um I do have lung cancer, lung cancer, but it was sorry, lung COVID. Well, I've got lung COVID and cancer, so we can call it lung cancer. Uh we are recording just on the heels of Easter, uh, also known as We Need to Talk About Kevin Day inside the family. Um and March was Long COVID awareness month. So it was all about raising awareness, uh, you know, politically, on socials, you know. So I I actually did a reprieve of the long COVID mean tweets and had Dr. David Petrino on last month, you know, all part of you know my part of Long COVID awareness month. You know, to me, just quickly, it um I think there's a lot of anger in the social media sphere in the long COVID space, just because people have been sick so long and there is no there's no treatment for it. Um so a lot of people, there's a lot of people I know that are completely bedbound. I certainly have uh weeks and moments where it's uh if I have a crash, I'm either in bed or on the sofa uh for a week. Um so it's tough, but there's you know been a lot of anger, but I thought saw a lot of positive things, and uh was yeah, it was great to have uh Petrino on and um he thanked us at the Butterfly Pavilion for finding light and darkness, as the Kiko did the pre the previous month. So um anyway, it is tough because I'm dealing with both long COVID and cancer. Um, but we want to talk about Boston. Um before we do that, though, it you guys have had to deal with dad for six years of you know, because I haven't, you know, I eventually went on disability. Uh-huh. Is it feel the same as cancer, or you know, what what have the last six years been like, you know, dealing with dad who's just not the active dad that you used to know?

SPEAKER_02

I think one of the toughest things that I've kind of seen is I think earlier in your journey, maybe around like 21-22, as the rest of the world was kind of moving on from COVID and they were going back to the way things were pre-COVID, there's a lot of backlash online, I think, about the awareness around long COVID and it being a real thing and it actually physically affecting you. Um just seeing a lot of the things of people commenting that it's it's not real, it's all in your head. And watching you wake up every day and physically deal with symptoms that you can't control, it's just it's a very stark juxta juxtaposition. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Uh yeah, I mean, around that same time too, I had a hard time talking about it with people because if you talk to the wrong kind of person, especially people that don't or don't don't believe in vaccines or any medical practice whatsoever, it's well a lot of people, a lot of people jump right to oh your dad had vax damage. Yeah, or some some BS like that. It's just it was it got to a point where I just had I unless like I knew them personally, you know, just wouldn't bring it up because it was just it would just be too frustrating to talk to stupid people like that.

SPEAKER_03

Right. Yeah, there's a lot of ignorance. The um I've got this graphic that I will throw to people like that on social media, although I'm trying to turn a leaf and not uh not argue with bots and not argue with ignorant people, but um I do know people that are vax damaged, but uh I got sick in January of 2020, as we've talked about at length here. Uh obviously that was almost a year and a half before vaccines were even available. Yeah, so within three months, I I went from having trained for a half marathon to I couldn't run a mile, and I had a long list of of uh body lunacy that that uh ensued. But uh anyway, thank you. So we need to lighten this thing up because this is like a very dark episode. Yeah, let's try and spruce it up a bit. Yeah, why don't we? Um Keenan, why don't you sugue into running? Um also known as Segway.

SPEAKER_02

Obviously, it's it's springtime here in Denver. Uh the leaves are leaves are coming back on the trees, it's bright and green. Um, minus minus the water restrictions Denver's got in place for a lot of the the city and county. It's uh it's looking up, it's looking bright. Uh and the one thing you will notice with spring, especially in Denver, is all the cyclists, all the runners out on the roads, out on the trails, um, everyone pent up from the winter. Everybody's back out trying to enjoy the nice weather. Um, that's probably one of the most noticeable things about spring here in Denver.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so it um this year's hit me different because I I I've haven't been able to run in six and a half years, and I had kind of put it mentally on the shelf. Um I don't know why this year's different. It you know, I it uh it is tough you know to see runners go by it. Although I, you know, I I I I quickly switched to reflection of hey, I uh I call it a run career. I didn't never got paid for it. I got some shoes and chotskies along the way.

SPEAKER_02

I would say some of the free stuff you got was pretty sweet. Yeah, no, it's some of the shoes, some of the bags, it's all pretty sweet gear.

SPEAKER_03

Well, the the the trip to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for Runners World uh Festival in half, and you know, I I used to podium a lot, and I'm a very type A individual, so I I loved uh you know being able to go out and compete in a race and and win age group uh uh podiums, you know, along the way. Um yeah, but I I it it I miss it obviously, but you know, I think I'm probably at a a good place of acceptance. And maybe it's because this coming Monday is Patriots Day, but it's also the 100th running of the Boston Marathon. Woo! Um so why don't why don't we talk about that? Yeah, uh so I got a question for you, Dan. Jesse hit me with that question.

SPEAKER_04

So your blog is called Seeking Boston Marathon. Obviously, everyone on the podcast knows about that. Uh just want to ask you why why seeking Boston Marathon? And how did how did that whole thing start for you?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I'm gonna go a half a step. Thank you for that question. I'm gonna go a half a step back. So I never ran at any level growing up. In fact, in high school, I've I've shared that I would make fun of runners, um, my good friend Jim Parker's on the cross country team, and I would make fun of him. I was like, What is that? You know, why are you doing that? But um it ironically was when I was separated and eventually divorced from your mom, Jesse. And I was stressed. So I I found the gym and I found this thing called a treadmill inside the gym.

SPEAKER_02

And I was just a little hint for everybody. That's that's an old school, very boomer terminology for treadmill for uh an indoor running machine, guys. For all you Gen Z out there.

SPEAKER_03

Indoor running. Well, what do you call it today? Isn't it still called a treadmill? I'm just okay. You're just you're boasting. Um so I I gravitated to the machine, and of course I would do other other stuff, but I started running, you know, I got hooked on it because you know, type A again, and I had extra time on my hands, etc. Um, I would also joke that um it was A for stress and B, I was gonna be dating again, so I needed to look good naked. Um I don't know if I needed that. I it is true, uh but um that is the most awkward moment perhaps yet on this podcast. Um, but no, I wanted to get in shape and and it was great for stress. And I remember I ran a race and and then I discovered they have races, organized races, you know, because we didn't have races until back in like junior high in grade school with the you know beanbag race or what whatever, uh or potato sack race, not beanbag race. Um, so I discovered they had races, so I signed up for this race in Castle Rock, and I I absolutely crushed it in my very first race. And Grandma Marlene was watching you, Jesse, and Nikki, because you were very young, because this was like 2000.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I left right away, and I didn't realize till much later there's all this revelry after the race of beer drinking and vendors and and awards. So I if had I stayed, I would have, and I still have this little trophy somewhere. It's a shoe with wings on it, and so that got me hooked on the competitive piece. So I found Runners Edge of the Rockies uh here locally, which was a run group, because I'm like, hey, it's kind of boring running inside alone. And I discovered there's a you know this run group called Runner's Edge of the Rockies. So it's very you know on Saturdays they do organized long runs, etc. That is how I discovered the Boston Marathon. So after you know a run or two, I saw a woman with a Boston Marathon jacket, and I'm like asking around what what is what is that? And it is a race where you can tow the line with world uh you know, the the world's best in running that obviously compete at a professional level, but you line up right behind them. And so I saw that jacket and I'm like, I want that. And it was funny because I you know go on runs and and you know, people like, oh, you well, it's kind of tough to get. I mean, you just started this thing, but being the very competitive type that I was, it took me a few. I think I did a couple San Diego's, um, I did Chicago, ran on a stress fracture, by the way, and finally uh got my first BQ, which is what what's known as a Boston qualifier, at the Sacramento uh California International Marathon. Um, and I was just over the moon. So that wound up, you know, starting my obsession with uh the Boston Marathon. Uh and once you have one, you want more. Um, so that's that's kind of how it started.

SPEAKER_02

You know, I'm getting uh I'm getting a question from the audience. Question from the audience. How many how many Boston qualifiers do you have under your belt, Ty?

SPEAKER_03

Well, um I I think I might have more than the races because the the there's the qualifier, and then you actually have to run the Boston Marathon. Uh I've run five Boston marathons. Um for those on the YouTube, I'm reaching down. I've got my five Boston Marathon medals in a case. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, proof that I actually ran five of these things, or I bought five medals off off eBay? You just e-drove to the end and ran across the line with a fake number. Um on the interwebs. Um no, so once you once you once I had one, you know, I I wanted more. So that's how it started. Okay. That's how many I've got.

SPEAKER_02

How do you how do you feel like Boston compares to a lot of the other races out there? Obviously, it it's one of the pinnacles of the sport, but there's also hype around Chicago, San Diego, New York. How would you compare and contrast those races?

SPEAKER_03

Um good question because there, yeah, I I at one point I'm like there's some people that actually do 50 states. Uh there's also the thing, this thing called the five world majors. Um and I don't think I can name them all, but it's like London, Tokyo, Chicago, uh, Boston. Um, and I didn't think I could do 50 um because I started this thing pretty. Pretty late. But I did run a lot of other races because it became a travel uh destination uh thing for myself and uh your mom, my wife Franzi. Um so I qualified for New York, and that was the one where I was on a training run with a group of people, and I'm like, yeah, I did, you know, I want to qualify for New York, and New York is actually harder to qualify than Boston. And this guy kind of said, Well, it's kind of hard to qualify, and it was kind of a challenge because he kind of indicated, well, you'll never get there. Um, I went up qualifying for New York in a half marathon time. I think they still do that, but I actually ran, you know, probably my best race ever was a 129-half here at the Georgetown, Idaho Springs, which was a blast, it was all downhill, but um that was in the half marathon category. Um I'd say other big races, of course. I love San Diego because Aunt Marge lives there. I did a couple of those. Yeah, Chicago was fun because it's just a a great city, and you run in and out of all these neighborhoods in Chinatown. But the wild thing about Chicago is there are so many runners. I I remembered it was probably mile 10, and you're still rubbing elbows with people. I mean, it was that packed because there's so many runners, and it's just amazing that aren't there aren't more people that trip. Um, I definitely I think caught feet either in front of me or behind me a couple of times. Um, but I would have to say that New York might be uh God, it's a it's almost a tie in terms of which would be my favorite because I did eventually qualify for New York. I actually had a run injury, I couldn't run it that year. They gave me an injury in injury deferral. Um course, you you guys know we you know we've had family trips to New York. Um I would have to put New York right up there, uh, just because it's it's all urban. And you go over the bridges through all the boroughs, um going over the last bridge into the city. Um, there's a scream, uh scream mile. Um what's uh what's a scream mile? It's it's where you you're over this bridge and it's actually surreal because it's actually pretty quiet. All you hear is pounding of feet on this bridge, and as you come down off that last bridge into the city, it is packed with people, and it's probably the loudest part of the race. Yeah, um, similar to um there are different parts of Boston that have you know different unique neighborhoods because you go through different neighborhoods in Boston as well, because Boston's more of a point-to-point. Um there's the um Wellesley or Wellesley. Uh I could never my wife would correct me on the correct correct pronunciation of it, where it's an all-girls college, and it's like a half a mile of these college girls with signs and banners, and there's like this thing to kiss a co-ed um along the way. Above legal age limit, by the way. Yes, they were. And I was married at the time, of and of course I never did that. Wink wink.

SPEAKER_02

Um, one thing I will say is I do still have your your 08 your 09 Chicago jacket, the orange and gray one, and I will still wear that from time to time. I did wear it to the the 2024 Colfax marathon they did. Um, my company did the the relay for that. Oh, right. So I I kind of cheated. I only did about six miles, but it's it's kind of like you said, where it was really unique. I don't get out to Lakewood much, which is on the east, or I'm sorry, the west side of Denver for people who don't know.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um and there were some really unique like neighborhoods you wouldn't expect to find over on the west side of Denver in the Lakewood area. Um, so that that that was one of the most interesting parts of the whole thing was just being able to enjoy different parts of a city that I've lived in my whole life that I wouldn't have typically gone to before.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, some cool pockets and neighborhoods over there for sure.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think I did Colfax uh uh one year as well. Um and there's there's the phone going off. Um, I think we skipped over one question uh from what's that?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, looks like we've got another audience question. This one's from Karen in New South Wales, Australia. Uh, what are a couple runners tips or non-runners that may not sorry, rules from not for non-runners who may not be familiar with running. Voice changing as well. My voice cracked.

SPEAKER_03

No, that's so the the one thing about um Boston is you get out there hours early because you're bust from Boston Commons. Uh so you do have to, it's a huge mental game. So you've been training for months to run uh this race of a lifetime, and you're out in Hopkinkin, which is at a a school. Um, there's a couple of things. One is you know, it can be very wet, depending on what weather they've had that year, and 98% of the the runners are out just under tents and what could be really sloppy wet grass, which is really easy to run on. Well, I it this is the two hours of waiting around. So you you need to have throwaway clothes because you need to be warm because you're it's early morning, uh, it could be very cold. Uh, these aren't clothes you're gonna run the race in. So there's actually bags and volunteers in bags and bags, hefty bags, you know, uh picking up all these this clothing, and some clothing is thrown off in like the first half mile of the race. So you need to dress warm, but uh fellow runner gave me a tip, and that is bring a pair of beater shoes, and that's a pair of old shoes that you wear when you're just hanging out because those shoes are going to get wet. What you don't want to do is run the race in some very wet shoes. So I did that a couple of years, and that was a tip that was shared with me. The other is not necessarily a Boston tip, but that is um, and this is for the male runners out there. Um, and it requires a extra long hefty bag where you cut out a head hole and two armholes and a wide-mouth Gatorade bottle that eventually is empty. And that is for the 30 to 40 minutes where you don't have a porta potty, you've hydrated for the race, and what do you do when you got to go to the bathroom when it's five minutes before the race and there's a 20-minute line? What do you do? You dribble, you dribble out a little bit down your leg. Well, yeah, that's just and they are very hardcore. What's that bottle? Oh, it's raining. And it is a neighborhood, so they're very hardcore about you know, don't you don't urinate on the don't urinate, you know? Yeah, theoretically, people get arrested for that. So the hefty bag in the Gatorade bottle, you can start to visualize you cut out a head hole and two armholes, and you wear it around and it hangs just below the knee. And I've done this more than a few times. Um, where the empty Gatorade bottle becomes, you know, what you urinate in. Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. Yeah. Book him. Yeah, book him. Um, I maybe it's a loophole because I wasn't exposed, um, but I did urinate in public, um, but no one could see it. So it's kind of like your portal, your private portapoding.

SPEAKER_04

It's like an adult diaper, but it's a hefty bag.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I will say, at least from my perspective, it's a little bit easier on the triathlon side, especially when they let you get in the water. The first leg is in the water. You always you always wet your wetsuit. You always wet your wetsuit, and that is a unique opportunity to relieve yourself before the race.

SPEAKER_03

It's a one time where pissing yourself is actually, you know, it actually warms you up too. If the water's pretty cold in the lake swim, it's uh it fills the underside. Absolutely. Um, because of course I later in my career I had run injuries, so I started swimming, and then I'm like, wow, swim, run. All I gotta do, I know how to ride a bike, so then I I start a terathlon career. Um course, my Boston Marathon career ended um you know, when I started getting older and I discovered Liam. But before we get off that, I you know back on Boston. Yeah, um, maybe we want to talk. Oh, are we getting a another looks like the another question from the interweed?

SPEAKER_04

Another call from Jeze. Another call from um uh so dad, you ran the bombing here. Uh, do you want to kind of walk through what that day was like?

SPEAKER_03

Wow, yes. Um so I ran five. I do I do have the 2013 medal. Um I will quickly point out it was my best rate, my best marathon ever. I had a I had a personal running coach. Um I found this uh Benita Willis who did uh run coaching. Uh she was a professional um uh runner, and we would meet if again for long runs on Saturdays, but there'd be like five to seven of us. And these these were really fast runners. So that's the other thing. If you want to get better, you know, find somebody faster than you and and train with them. Um so it was my best marathon. I I would say that, and and I try and focus on that, but it's hard not to look at the the the events of that day and the tragedy of that day. I think five people lost. Um I finished the first question I get is well, where were you when the bomb went off? There was actually two bombs, and I had finished about 40 minutes before the first bomb went off. So at the end of that race, you know, as like with mini races, you um uh on Boylston, which is the last stretch of that race, um, I've actually got a great photograph of me. Uh uh there's uh Hereford, which is a very short block, which is as a slide uphill. Again, this is a very loud part of the race because there's a high density in this last little corner of the race before you turn on Boyleson. And I'm turning around that corner, and I look like it's the first mile of the race, and and I flew down that finish line. So you know, they always say if you've got gas left in the tank that you didn't go hard enough. Oh, yeah. Well, true. I I I did run a fast race that year, it was a Boston qualifier um for the next year. But um Boyleson is a very long stretch, and I I can't think of uh the actual number, but it's not a short block. I mean, you still have I don't know, maybe three tenths to six tenths of a mile. Uh, I'll correct it in the comments when we we go to production, but uh it's a long it's a long street, you gotta fly down and it's uh again a high density of people wanting to see the finish. At the end of the finish line, there's all these flags. And if you've seen the footage of the first bomb that went off, it what blew these flags, and and you see runners. Of course, the the scariest and place to be that day was was on the sidewalks. Yeah, and Franzi was there, your mom was there. Um the second bomb went off where she watched the race the year before. So that mess again was right uh near Starbucks, uh a little further back from those flags. Um, so again, back to that finish line. You finish, you get your medal, you get your your silver space blanket, you get your photo, and then they they quickly want to herd you off to the family meeting area, which is like around the block. So I was about a block north and a block away, and I had just met Franzi, and we hear this what I describe as like a dumpster thrown off the roof. Um, I'd never heard a dumpster thrown off a roof, but it was a noise I'd never heard of. I mean, who's ever heard a bomb? I'd never heard one, and we didn't have visual on it because of your downtown, all these buildings, so I had no line of sight. And we're like, oh, what was that? You know, we just kind of went about our business. We were meeting friends at uh the hotel bar nearby, still didn't know about what had happened, and we had actually had beer in hand talking about each other's races and how'd you do, how'd you feel? And words started coming in, word of mouth, in the bar as we see this happening on TV. And I mean, it was surreal. Um, of course, we tried to make phone calls right away because we're like, hey, people are gonna be wondering, hey, are you are you okay? Because this is a domestic terrorist event just happened. Um, but the phones were jammed. I don't know if the if if it was too many phone calls or they actually police shut it, you know, cell side shell towers down, what have you. Um it, you know, I think we were numb. The place we stayed at a uh rented a home in um um God, I can't remember the neighborhood. Um something hill, mom said. Beacon Hill, thank you. Our production manager and facts uh Czech person, my wife for the other room, Beacon Hill had this phenomenal place. We stayed a couple of years, it was just super cozy. They wanted letting us stay a few more days because they were like, God, you must be and I think we had some PTSD, but uh the PTSD honestly didn't, and I had uh business uh meetings in Chicago or Boston rather right after that. So we were there a few more days, and it was surreal because there's all these military vehicles, because they didn't catch them. So the race on Monday went on, they didn't they didn't catch them till Friday. Um but I would say you know, we got home and it was it was surreal because we're like, God, we you know what could have happened, and um because we're so close uh had I had a slower race, or they set the bombs off at a different time, you know. Um yeah, so I it's wild because I I've got fond memories because it was my best marathon ever, um, but also mixed with tragedy. But what do you guys remember hearing you you guys were probably at school? I know Nikki was at school.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I was I was at school when it happened, and I think one of my buddies in high school was like, Dude, your dad's in the marathon, right? And then he showed me on his phone the all the news headlines of what happened, and I remember trying to give you a call like a few times that day, but like you said, the the phone lines were pretty much down. So I was able I was able to get in contact with you later that day, but yeah, it was it's pretty scary.

SPEAKER_03

For you, Keenan, you were well, it was it was school year, it was a Monday in in April.

SPEAKER_04

We're in school, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

This was 13, right? I think it was like 13. Yeah, it was my it was April, right? So this would have been actually my freshman year of high school. Um funny enough, I was in my my Chinese class, so we're over here ni how ni how ni how and all of a sudden um you know this is a little bit before checking yourself safe on Facebook from events and stuff, but obviously news still spread fast. Um surprisingly our Chinese teacher let us have phones out in a class, and everybody in the class started freaking out about this bombing happening, and I'm like, oh, where? And the person sitting next to me is like, oh, at the Boston Marathon. And I'm like, what do you mean at the Boston Marathon? Because that's where my dad is. Um and unfortunately, I can't tell the story as well as uh Franzi could. Um but you you kind of alluded to it earlier, Ty. Just how close the bombing was not towards the finish line, but towards those flags you mentioned, and how mom spoke about she was pretty much standing right there at that trash can in front of the Starbucks a year prior.

SPEAKER_03

Across the street, across the street from that Starbucks, there was a collection of like the the free newspaper newsstand and whatever. She sat there the year before. So she was like, Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02

Right. And you know, uh no free publicity for Starbucks. But if you want to sponsor this podcast, uh feel free to reach out to our production manager.

SPEAKER_03

Sponsors could be you. Um we're now what episode 12. Um we we do this for fun, it uh, but we joke about sponsors. Um well that's wild. I don't it's been a long time since I've heard the stories of you guys hearing about that at school. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That is pretty wild. I think the toughest thing I didn't go into is um obviously you like you said, they shut down kind of the communication, I think, to kind of narrow in on the guy who did it. Um the toughest part was I wasn't able to call you guys, I wasn't able to call mom directly or you directly, because I think you guys had finished the race by the time it went off, and none of the calls were going through. So obviously it was very stressful. The whole thing of bad scenarios races through your mind.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Oh, of course. So what I think word got out, I think we eventually we got through to Aunt Kim. It's shocking, right? Aunt Kim is the news wire of the family. Um, excuse me, but I think we got word to Kim, uh, my sister, that we were okay. And then she was able to phone tree out to a lot of other people that you know were were obviously worried. But it was social media. Um, we were able to get our we are safe. Facebook didn't have the we are safe feature that they have now when there's a tragedy. Yeah. Um, but I had a post, and it's wild to go back and look at that post because it's still there with you know just tons of tons of comments. Um you know, people obviously saying, you know, thank God you you guys are okay. But um sorry for those, you know, five that perished, but uh Boston. I I I think it was Happy Gilmore, um Adam Sandler. Um I may have that wrong, but I think it was Adam Sandler who may have grown up in Boston has roots in Boston, but he said you pick the wrong city to fuck with because uh Boston had the resolve like nobody's business. You just don't, you know, you don't mess with their people. Um so you know, I I knew that, but it was wild because I had all these visions of oh, they're long gone, because they probably hopped on bikes, rode because you you could you transportation right around a major race, certainly Boston is very tough. You can't just like hop in your car and drive off because of road closures, etc. So I'm like, they hopped on a bike, they biked a mile away, they hopped in a car, they got on the subway, they're long gone, you know. But little did I know they were they were they they were huffing it in someone's backyard underneath the hiding, they're hiding in a boat in someone's yard, yeah. Yeah, but anyway, I've got fond memories of that and um uh many other Bostons. Jesse actually wound up going. Uh we had we had this thing in the family where each kid got to go on a trip uh with by themselves, and it was something I adopted from my mom that she did with us. Uh Keenan got to go to New York, it wasn't race related. Nikki got to go to New York, Jesse got to go to Boston for one of the marathons, yeah. One of the marathons. And uh who is that guy that you Jesse's got this knack of finding random people and having random conversations? I don't know. He just got out of prison or something.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, it's like, yeah, he was going about ranting about how he's like this tough guy in prison, and he showed me his fist, and it looked like uh looks like a

SPEAKER_02

Literal brick because of how much his guys like hitting the wall or something taped up.

SPEAKER_03

Beating guys up and but he was like a famous robbery, right? Yeah. Because we Googled it later.

SPEAKER_04

And he was a he was not he was not lying.

SPEAKER_03

He was he was it was like a jewelry store, wasn't it, where they like wheeled somebody in inside a cart that that I don't know what a delivery cart or something, and then he broke out of the cart off hours. And um, but I think he was from uh the town. What you know, there there's a there's an Affleck movie called The Town Across the Bridge, where they've got like the world's highest number of bank robberies. This guy was one of those, you know. Uh anyway, that was funny because Jesse happened to run into this. I walk out of the store and Jesse's talking to this you know bank robber dude.

SPEAKER_04

Um I think I was going outside to hit up my vape or something, and that's that's probably and then and then he was smoking a cig or something, and then yeah, started.

SPEAKER_03

Well, and you had just broken up with a girlfriend.

SPEAKER_04

Well, she broke up with me over the trip actually because I decided to go on the Boston Marathon trip instead of prom with her. So that was that was a deal breaker for her.

SPEAKER_02

Pretty serious, pretty serious thing.

SPEAKER_03

You know, I I I probably would have gone to prom and said, Dad, I'll I'll catch you on another race or another yeah. I didn't realize it was prom, but um wildness. Well, yeah we we want to jump into you know we're approaching the end of our podcast. It's been great to have my sons here and and talk Boston, talk uh a lot of different stuff. Uh we've got a new uh sound uh effect for incoming questions that Keenan is we'll have to we'll have to use that. But I think we're gonna end with a page four update.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, yeah, sure, absolutely. So obviously, this is Jesse and I's first page four update. Ty, is there there kind of updates just on your health that you'd be willing to share with ourselves in the audience?

SPEAKER_03

Um so we call it Yeah, happy to so we call it page four update. It's a play on words because I've got stage four cancer. And this isn't, you know, I've had run into people, actually, I think it was my brother Todd that says, Well, what is your podcast about? And um the genesis, of course, was um Jesse, your mom, my first wife Julie, suggested that Nikki record conversations with her dad. And I said, Well, we're gonna do that, let's do a podcast. So it it is a lot like today, where we the the idea is that we we have conversations about life and stories, and stories that you can have on the internet uh forever. Um, but we don't want it all to be cancer, cancer, cancer. Um, you know, it it is about finding light and darkness, but along the way, we do want to update because people are interested. Um, so we call it a page four update, and that's a cancer update. Um, since and we haven't done a couple in a while. I I do have quarterly, at this point, quarterly checks with my oncologist at UC Health's uh C U Antutes Cancer Center here in Denver. Um and we track my PSA level. PSA is a prostate-specific antigen, it's a blood test, and that is a barometer for you might have prostate cancer for so for those men uh talk to your doctor about when you should have that test. I don't want to be giving out medical advice, but once you have cancer, it is a barometer for cancer activity, so it has metastasized to bone in several places, and it's technically prostate cancer in the bone. Um, so the PSA is the first thing they test. So I go in, I will my quarterly meeting uh appointment is actually next week. Um my PSA level had started to rise, and we were going to do a clinical trial, and then it mysteriously dropped, which is a great thing. So any any time you can keep that PSA level down is just more more time I have on the earth and more life with with uh with um you guys. Um so it has been good. I I have my next appointment um you know next week. There's always a bit of anxiety that builds up, you know, as I approach that because I don't know. Um you know, and I think I've gotten pretty good about not worrying for 90 days. You know, there's some anxiety as I approach that appointment of you know what are what are they gonna find? Um, you know, because I'm I'm past the early bound of you could have as little as two years to live. So I'm in the danger zone, but yet I feel like I'm gonna be around for a while. So um I think I've got a pretty good um attitude. Um I don't I still cry occasionally. Uh it's okay for a man to cry. Um, so we'll find out, and we'll certainly post uh in the next episode when Nikki returns, once we resolve the contract dispute, which I'm uh um optimistic that we can do that. Um so thank you for asking about that. So kind of same news, but you know, I do have the appointment next week, and we'll find out you know where where we're at with PSA level and cool cancer activity. But I want to end because it's been a dark episode at points. Um, but we've also talked about some great things and I've learned some things from you. Hopefully you've heard some things from me you haven't heard in a while or haven't heard before, like the why did dad start running that you're gonna go to therapy uh for next week, because of half of the answer I gave you. But I've got movie quotes. I'm gonna throw two of you, two at you this week. Okay, and I want to get the quote out. Um, so this isn't a rapid buzzer buzzer beater uh buzzer beater. Um the first one. Okay. Uh yeah, I'm registered for this class. What class? Yes, history. I see the globe right there. Really? So Matt, come in? Oh, please. I get so lonely when I hear that third attendance bell ring.

SPEAKER_04

It kind of sounds like Wayne's world, but I don't think that's Wayne's world.

SPEAKER_02

I think too serious of a movie for that. It's got some comedy elements.

SPEAKER_04

Is Mike Myers in the movie? Is this a Mike's?

SPEAKER_03

Um, I'll get I'll give you a clue. And this is the one I thought was 50-50 on whether you'd get it because it is a bit older. Um one of the actors was married to Madonna at one time. And that may be two of us. I don't know. That doesn't help you. Uh who knows how many uh husbands she had. Sean Penn uh played Spicoli.

SPEAKER_04

Oh I know what movie you're talking about. I just don't remember the movie. He's like because Sean Penn's like the stoner kid in the movie.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, yes. Um, it is fast times at Rachel High. Okay, yeah. God, I thought for sure you would have got that one. This one I'm optimistic that you'll get. All right. Um because we do have family classics um within the household, yeah. Not counting, we need to talk about Kevin. And we only glossed right over that, by the way. So I I'm gonna have you maybe circle up with a close on that one. Um, so second movie quote. It seems louder over here. Hand me that candle, would you?

SPEAKER_00

Put the candle back.

SPEAKER_03

All right, I think I may have figured it out now.

SPEAKER_00

Check out the candle. I'll block the bookcase with my body. Listen to me very carefully. Don't put the candle back with all of your might shove against the other side of the bookcase. Is that perfectly clear?

SPEAKER_03

Moments later.

SPEAKER_00

Put the candle back.

SPEAKER_03

It's young Frankenstein. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02

It's a classic with Wilder.

SPEAKER_03

It is a it is a Godwin family classic, and that was too easy. Although I think I used the the him stuck in a bookcase voice twice. Um, so it wasn't 100% accurate.

SPEAKER_02

There, castle castle, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

It's not Frankenstein, it's Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_00

He must have an enormous Schwansticker.

SPEAKER_04

We're gonna have to watch that one again.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, we well, and and I'm gonna hold you to uh Jesse did come over one day to watch part of the Godfather. I fell asleep, he had to go to work, he got bored, because I'm shocked that my sons uh neither have seen all of the original Godfather movie. Um but uh keen you were speaking of movies. What was that we need to talk about, Kevin?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so uh why don't we talk about it? Why don't we talk about that? I can't remember what was the year 2014, 15.

SPEAKER_04

Well, this is not a proud dad moment. This is 2011 because the mass when the movie came out. Oh, okay. So you remember just fresh in high school.

SPEAKER_03

Just he knows obscure things. I wouldn't have never been able to.

SPEAKER_04

And we went to the I remember the theater I went to is a squire theater. Because it's it's one on six and downing. Yeah, closed now. It's closed down now. Very niche little theater.

SPEAKER_02

But what day what day was it?

SPEAKER_04

It's on Easter. Easter day.

SPEAKER_02

Someone had the bright idea in the family to go into a movie.

SPEAKER_03

So instead of going to church and or you know, having an Easter egg on it because you're too low for that. I took you to the most disturbing movie of our lives, and that was we need to talk about Kevin. He was he was into animal mutilation, and of course, animal mutilation only leads to one thing, right? School bow and arrow shooting.

SPEAKER_04

And yeah, and then yes, and then uh Okay, we don't need to share anymore. That's that's it's a dark movie, it's extremely dark.

SPEAKER_03

Not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. Not a proud dad moment.

SPEAKER_02

Um how much research went into that uh film prior to buying those tickets?

SPEAKER_03

Um, you know, that wasn't as bad as um Splice. Splice. Oh god, I did not research that one. I did not research that one. Splice. The ending was terrible. It was with Adrian Brody, right? Right. So I'm like, it's Adrian Brody. It's a bad movie, right? It's gotta be good, but there's essentially an alien rape scene. Ugh. In a while with my kids.

SPEAKER_02

Oh no, I I ducked out, but I later watched the movie of my own accord, which was a huge misstep.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. I don't think I've watched that movie since it came out.

SPEAKER_03

No, I don't think I ever will again. Um I'm gonna go off on one last movie tangent because movies are a central theme to a lot of my parody videos in Seeking Boss and Marathon, and it spilled over into the Butterfly Pavilion podcast. The most awkward movie, similarly of age, with me and your grandma Marlene, who's no longer with us, and I think it might have just been the two of us that decided to go see a movie, and it was coming home with John Voigt and Jane Fonda. Uh very different political spectrum today, by the way. Um, and it was about a post-Vietnam, John Voigt was paralyzed from the waist down, and there was a sex scene that was very graphic, and I'm sitting right next to Grandma Arlene. Um coming home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I know you've got a similar story of convincing Grandma Marlene too.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, yeah, the Simpsons movie. Because alright, so I was 10 years old, right? And I wanted to see the Simpsons movie, but my parents still were kind of shaky on me watching mature stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03

Movies you shouldn't watch.

SPEAKER_04

And I asked my mom to take me to movies. She didn't want to take it, she take me. Dad said no, I'm not taking you to it. So I wrote an email to Marlene about I was like, it's like an email.

SPEAKER_03

You wrote an email.

SPEAKER_04

I wrote an I wrote a full-fledged email saying I want to see this cartoon called The Simpsons movie.

SPEAKER_03

You were downplaying it. You said I want to see a cartoon.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly. You know, grandma had no idea what I was what I got her in got her into. And uh yeah, I mean it wasn't the worst, it wasn't the most awkward movie, but there was a scene where Bart Simpson's skating through Springfield, but he's he's naked, and then there's a little scene where you skip skating through a hedge, and like this you see his little tiny wiener like through the oh they didn't they didn't they didn't do the blur the blur thing. No, it's just no just a little pecker just behind the I've never seen Bart's pecker.

SPEAKER_03

Well, if you watch Simpson's movie, you hadn't. Um okay. I've got it, I've gotta match that with there was a family reunion, and all the girls decided to go see a movie with grand your grandma, and they took her to see Magic Mike.

SPEAKER_02

Thought it was about a magician.

SPEAKER_03

Shh, Grandma Marlene thought it was about a musician. She leaned over when the during the first like strip scene. I've never seen the movie. Um, but there's this it's about male strippers or Chippendale kind of thing. And she leaned over very early in the Chippendale opening scene, and she said, I thought this was about a musician, magician. Oh Lord. So we do love movies here at the Butterfly Pavilion Podcast. But uh you boys want to wrap it up. I think we're about time.

SPEAKER_04

Well, that's all, folks.

SPEAKER_03

I was I was not looking for a jingle, I was looking for something more profound. We can do the closing statement too. It was a little boring.

SPEAKER_04

This is uh this is my first podcast ever, so that was this is uh quite an experience. I would be more happy to join another one in the future.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I I'm you I think this has been great, um, even though we we hijacked Nikki's podcast. Um it's been great to have uh you boys as guests. It the whole idea is to you know tell stories and and I have had people that have cancer that have that that are are listeners and you know people find different things out of the podcast. So hopefully you you found something out of uh today's uh this month's podcast. Ty, Jesse, and Keenan uh signing off from the Butterfly Pavilion Podcast.

SPEAKER_02

Make sure you subscribe.

SPEAKER_04

We net Excuse me, are are we gonna get lunch? No, no, this is hard work.