From Kidney Donor to Ironman World Championships | Andrew Langston & The Iron Kidney Project

00:00-02:57 Intro & how we met
02:57-06:03 What is the Iron Kidney Project
06:03-20:18 Why Andrew donated his kidney to a stranger
20:18-23:48 Honoring his Coach Joe Klinedinst after his tragic passing
23:48-30:01 Raising awareness by racing an Ironman with Geno (kidney recipient)
30:01-46:00 Our “kidney” & God connection
46:00-48:07 Geno’s health post-transplant 
48:07-54:32 How to become a donor & inspiring stories
54:32-57:25 What motivates Andrew to do all this?
57:25-01:08:57 Embracing a season of stillness (Psalm 49;10)

LINKS TO THE IRON KIDNEY PROJECT BELOW!
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What would make someone donate a kidney to a complete stranger and then race at the Ironman World Championships less than a year later?

In this episode of the Unquenchable Fire Podcast, I sit down with Ironman athlete Andrew Langston, kidney donor and founder of The Iron Kidney Project, to talk about endurance, sacrifice, faith, and what it means to truly give part of your life so someone else can live.

Andrew shares his journey from Ironman racing, to making the life-changing decision to donate his kidney to someone he had never met, to recovering and qualifying for the Ironman World Championships shortly after surgery.

During our conversation, we also discuss Jeremiah 17:9–10 and the fascinating biblical connection between the heart, mind, and kidneys in the Old Testament. The Bible says that God searches the heart and tests the mind and in the original Hebrew, this word is closely connected to the kidneys, the deepest inner parts of a person. Just as Andrew gave a kidney so someone else could live, Jesus Christ gives us a new heart so we can truly live.

If this episode encouraged you, consider sharing it around. Thank you!

LINKS: 

👉  The Iron Kidney Project (non-profit website): https://www.theironkidneyproject.org/ 

👉  FOLLOW The Iron Kidney project on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Iron-Kidney-Project-61572266528822/

👉  Donate to The Iron Kidney Project (PayPal): https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=8FT5TSEPCMTZ4

👉 Contact Info: 
TheIronKidneyProject@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

All right. We're live. Happy to be here. Yeah, thanks, Andrew, for coming on. I I mean we just we just worked out together. We did Cam Haynes style. We just went on a run and we've known each other for like eight days. Something like that, yeah. I think so. Okay. So I'm trying to figure out where to start because we just talked for an hour and a half and there's all sorts of routes I want to go. Um, but maybe we should give a little context on how we met. Yeah. Start there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, well, you just built our fence in our yard.

unknown 0:30

I know.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah. Very exciting. Yeah. The least exciting part of everything.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

But yeah. That's why you are here. Well, I guess that's why you're physically in my yard, you know, and we met. Um, but the as the story goes, we are getting ponies, uh, which I have nothing to do with. My wife, she's the rider, she knows what she's doing. I'm just along for the ride. Um, and we need a fence. We have a we have a barn, we needed a fence. And we were in conversation with a bunch of these pro fence companies, and we just Sarah one day before we're about to sign a dotted line with this company, was like, you know, I don't know. I think we should keep looking. And um, which which I was I was like, let's just let's just get it done, you know. And she's like, no, I want to keep looking. Like, I think I'm something's off. So um she reaches out, she she goes to the Facebook Marketplace route and the Angie's is Angie's list, right? And she puts the job on there. That's how you saw her, the job on there, and you you texted her, messaged her, uh, like what, 10 minutes after she put it on.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, I don't know how soon it gets to me, but yeah, yeah, it was on top of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

It was quick. And as soon as she like clicked your profile, clicked your company, she saw a laundry list of things that were like, this is our guy. She was like family-run business, check, uh, Iron Man athlete, check. Uh what? He donated his kidney to somebody like a year ago. Like, check. This is crazy. All right, this is our guy. She comes running downstairs. She's like, You're not gonna believe this, but is this guy, Andrew, is is who's gonna build our fence, you know? And so I'm like, yeah, this guy is like, he's like one of us. It's like cut from the same club. I know.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

We just I just kind of joked about pulling into the driveway, seeing the yard, knocking on the door. Took a couple minutes to get out, and we hear clanking. We were here for like probably 10 minutes. You know, I think somebody said you guys were coming, but hear clanking here and you lifting in the uh out in the garage. Yeah, and then the garage door opens up, and then you guys come out and they're like, So who's the Iron Man? Like Well, you know, like that's a good sign. Like, you know, they at least know what the heck an Iron Man is. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

So from there, it was it was just like, all right, um, well, yeah, I mean, we we end up sharing a lot of our story together, like how you know competitive nature, why we do these things, why we run ultras, I run ultras, you do Iron Man's, you want to run ultras. I mean, you do all the same kinds of things, but um, it just felt like you know, we were cut from the same cloth. So um, I mean, and I wanna I kind of want to get your your side of the story out there too, because I mean, what I've learned about you is you started uh this nonprofit called Iron Kidney. Yep, the Iron Kidney Project to raise awareness. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Um yeah, so obviously I donated to kidney back uh December 24, um, shortly after that. Decided, you know, that we kind of closed that chapter. We donated it, we got through it, all was good. Um, let's continue to try and do do uh do some more good work and try and spread awareness. So I wasn't really sure, and I'm still kind of winging the whole nonprofit thing. Um, but you know, the main goal is to just keep doing what I'm doing in my life, the Iron Man's doing hard stuff, but you know, sharing my story, sharing that my life didn't stop. Um, you know, you you could donate a kidney, you could do something crazy like this, save a life, still coach your kids in baseball and wrestling, and still run your business and still be a husband, still be a father, still train seven days a week, 15 hours a week, do Iron Man's. You know, I was in probably the craziest, most busiest part of my life, and somehow fit in donating a kidney. Um, so I just kind of like want to share that part, kind of do what I'm doing and bring people along and hopefully inspire people to, you know, that have thought about it. And I I can see that side of the risk of surgery and donating, but what's it look like after? Um, you know, I want to show what's what's possible after donation, you know.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

We kind of talked about it. Like I don't think my goal isn't to try to convince anybody to donate a kidney, but it's to hopefully get my story out there and uh hopefully the people that would do it see my story and then go, okay, this guy's still being active, still living his life. Nothing's changed. Maybe, maybe I will go down that road and actually see what it's all about and try to donate or or do something like that. So that's kind of what the the Iron Kidney project is. So it's a play on the Iron Man doing stuff like that. So we have an endurance team and just kind of show what's possible. Yeah. Um after donating, donating in a way.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yeah, well, you didn't just stay active. You're you're literally doing Iron Man's uh, you know, you you said, well, before we get to that part, you you were doing laps after your surgery around the hospital on Strabo.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Yeah, I forget what it is. It's like one lap or three laps is a third mile in the hallway and a mile, and it was like do 12 laps, and I'm just going by, and you know, the hospital. First thing is endurance athletes, the low heart rate, so they just turned off all my monitors because they were going off. Um surgery was like 8 a.m., back in the room at 12. And then that whole afternoon and evening, I'm just like going stare crazy, just walking laps while Sarah's sleeping in there on your comfortable bed. Every time she'd wake up, I'd be gone. Um, you know, have my little thing, my catheter just walking around doing my laps and every, you know, they're hey, how you doing? Yeah, that's wild. Um, yeah. So I'll have to send you. I have a the the Strava, yeah, you know, the post-donation, first workout after laps in the hallway at the hospital. If they would have let me wear my watch during it, I would have tried to track. Yeah. Um, but that was the next best thing was that that same-day donation Strava upload.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

So let's go to the origin of how you got into wanting to give your kidney away. You know how that came out.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Yeah, um, you know, I think which it's an issue, but sitting in bed, I always tell people just doom scrolling.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Wait, this is a this is when Doom scrolling had a had a had a good ending, a happy ending.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah, it did, and it's it it's funny. So just kind of just scrolling through like any of us do, nine o'clock at night, just whatever on Facebook, Instagram, and boom, this thing pops up, and picture of who was Gina, who I didn't know at the time, shared by a coworker of my wife, and it was just hey, this this 20-year-old kid needs a kidney. We're looking for somebody that you know, preferably owe negative blood, but that's not a deal breaker. Young, a young under 50, under 60, somewhat healthy, you know, just willing to do it. We need a living donor to save his life. Um and it was like really instantly, like just seeing the picture of him, reading through that. I'm like, check, check, check. Okay, like, cool. My kidney's going to this guy. Like, very naive, but in my head, like it's hard to explain. But when I talk to other people that have donated, it's very similar. Like, there wasn't any thought to it. It was not a why, but a how. So I was like, okay, so how are we gonna do this? Um, you know, sitting there next to to my Sarah, my wife Sarah. Hey, did you see what you know Bill posted? And she's like, Oh yeah, like that's yeah, that's sad. Like, it's really unfortunate that kid needs a kidney. Hopefully, somebody helps him. And I'm like, somebody's already uh that's me. Like, you know, and I we kind of left it there, and I was like, Well, I need to do a little bit more research and yeah, look it up. And I had just finished what, my second, third Iron Man, um, you know, in like six months, and I was prepping for Lake Blacid, so it was not a great time. But yeah, the next day, I remember being on the fence on a store. Remember that that fence that we were doing, talking to my dad, just out there, like, hey, you know, thinking about giving my kidney to this kid, and he's just like, you know, he was like, oh, that's cool. Like, he was pretty supportive, and he knows that I'm already pretty crazy and up for whatever. So for him, he wasn't super shocked, but you know, and I fill out this little link in this form and do that, and I was like, Oh, I think I'm gonna do it. So that was June 3rd of 24. I filled out the form, I messaged Gino's mom, Renee. I'm like, hey, I filled this out. Like, and I even told him, like, I'm pretty active looking back, you know, doing all these ultra events compared to the normal donor or somebody that tries, you know, definitely check that box, like, Mo Negative, like hopefully this works out. I don't really know what to do. Filled it out, but I want to help. Got a call scheduled when I was in Pittsburgh two weeks later. Uh, went through like three days of testing, passed all those. Um, then uh about two weeks later went up to Lake Placid. Uh, and the day before the race, I got the call, hey, you're approved.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Uh, which was which was awesome. And I had actually, and it all kind of worked out. I when I decided to do it, I was fully willing, and I made this decision, I was full in with Iron Man. You know, that that was the goal, the main focus. But I was like, even if I can't do another Iron Man ever again, that's fine. I still want to give this kidney, you know, we'll do like placid and then we'll give the kidney and and we'll be done. Uh, but through some more research, you know, Google, like, can you donate a kidney and do an Iron Man? Found a couple people, and I'm like, cool. Like, this really narrows it down. Like the population of Ironmans, population of people that are donors. There's a handful of us out there. Like, this guy, this guy did 100 mile ultra 30 days after donating a kidney. That's cool. This girl did it nine months after.

unknown 9:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Hillary, you know, she wasn't an Iron Man athlete, but she donated, then she did 12 marathons, one month or one marathon a month for a year. Two Ironmans in there, qualified for world championships. Her mentor was Steve. Come to find out that Steve is racing Lake Placid. Hillary's coming to watch. I reach out to them. I got to meet them the day before. Met them in the morning, got the call the afternoon. I was approved. We raced the next day. Wow. You know, it was a crazy whole full circle thing.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Was that race pretty emotional after hearing that news?

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Uh you know, it was and looking back, I don't know why it was so stressful, but there was so much like pressure. And it wasn't to perform or anything like that where it's a race, but I was just like so nervous, so I really wanted, really wanted to get approved. Yeah. Like I was so invested, like I'm doing this. And for once it was something out of my control. You know, you sign up for an ultra, you sign up for an Iron Man, like that's on you. If you don't finish this, I'm just hoping. Like, I went through it, I did my part. Hopefully, we get approved. So once, and I kind of knew like it got pushed out. I was supposed to hear the week before, but all the doctors were on vacation, so they pushed it out.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

And then the we the race week, they they called, and I was like, okay, we can breathe and we can focus on the race. Yeah. Now we can do that. Um, which which was nice. And then uh, you know, and be able to give that news to to the family and all that, and we're approved. Like it was just weight lifted off, like, because but between that time frame, and we were everyone had kind of accepted it. My family, Sarah, my wife, everyone kind of knew like we're trying to do this. Yeah, this is the goal. Like, we've accepted that it's crazy, and she was gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Your wife Sarah was like came around on board right from the getting.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

She asked the questions that I should have thought of, you know, is this safe? Yeah, what's this look like for the kids? How long are you out? Can you die on the table? Are you gonna be able to do Iron Man? You're gonna, you know, stuff that you care about. I was like, I don't know. I didn't look at any of that stuff. I figured they'll tell me that in Pittsburgh when I go and do the testing. Like, I don't know, people do it all the time. So, you know, a lot of times it's to their own kids, and but I'm like, why not? Like, why not? Let's just let's do it again. It's not a why, it's a how. And she kind of looked up some stuff, we looked it up, and you know, it's it was a very safe procedure and great outcomes, you know, very, very little risk um compared to the other stuff. It was way more danger doing an Iron Man training, riding my bike, running outside where we were than than doing this donation. Um and again, and I think even when the decision was made, it was initially like, I'm fine giving this up. I'm fine if you know I can't go and ride dirt bikes again, can't go and ride my bike again. If I can't, you know, I knew I could do other stuff, but yeah, if I've got to hang up the Iron Man, that that's fine.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Um, that blows that blows me away that part when you told me that outside, you know, where you're just like you had this complete piece that you're like, hey, if this is if this cuts my my competitive future like racing short, it's okay because this kid has a kidney now. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah, it felt like a bigger calling, you know, and we kind of talked about that and we'll get into it. Don't know what it was, but it was that something said you're gonna do it. And I just once I once I make a decision, I'm pretty good at following through, whether that's good or bad or ugly. I usually see it through. Sometimes that gets me into trouble, hence five Ironmans in 12 months. You know, things will spiral. So I think actually donating the kidney may have been a blessing to kind of put me back in check without the the endurance stuff getting completely out of control with uh with the family and stuff like that. So I know you're familiar with the struggles of training.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

It's not yeah, you gotta make time. You gotta it's hard, especially with Iron Man's like you're on a bike for six hours. Yeah, I go the longest run I'll do for a training for a hundred mile race is you know, three, four hours, you know, whatever. I don't get too much longer than that, but you're on a bike for six hours for six Saturdays in a row. Yeah, you know, that's that's a lot of time.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

And I found which I again I jumped headfirst into Iron Man without ever getting in a pool, without running a marathon, without being on a bike since I was five years old, minus you know, riding down the road was the lifestyle, and that that shift can be a little tough. Yeah. So it's it's seven days a week, multiple days or double workouts, 4 a.m. You know, I try my best to, you know, the kids like to see us training, but I try not to train while they're they're home and while they're awake. So it's a lot of 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. workouts and you know, before they get off the bus or when they go to bed, uh, you know, I try to be as present as I can uh with that. But yeah, that lifestyle of training and then so trying to balance that full-time job, full-time Iron Man. It's pretty much a part-time job, you know, and I'm not elite by any means, but it's that the best Iron Man athlete and the worst Iron Man athlete, we're still putting in the same, you know, amount of time and effort to do this, and it's yeah, it's just a lot of a lot of time.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

So from when you got approved a couple days before your race, it was six months, and you're on the table giving that.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

So from the time that I messaged Gino's mom uh and said, Hey, I want to help out, that was June 3rd. I filled out the form. Six months to the day, I w was on the table, just giving Tuesday, which is like a big fundraising and a big thing, which kind of just worked out, which was which was kind of funny. But yeah, six months to the day, which was a very still very quick turnaround. Um, but from the time that I decided to do it, again, they were like, they call me and say, Hey, we're gonna pre-screen, and then we you have to come out to Pittsburgh, you know, in six weeks and do this and get all the testing. I'm like, cool, perfect. I'll do that after late class. And they're like, perfect. And they call and they're like, actually, do you want to come out like next week and do it?

unknown 15:17

Like, sure.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Like, yeah, you know, and with the fencing business, I have that flexibility. Talked to my dad, said, Cool, let's, you know, go out and do it. So pretty much a week from when I decided, a week later, me and the family, Sarah's a teacher, but we all went to Pittsburgh. They went to some museums, they did some stuff, uh, and I got the full workup. Did all the testing, and then yeah, it was about two or three more weeks, and I was approved. So it was about a excuse me, about a month from when I decided to I'm approved and I could donate tomorrow. But, you know, lots of schedules, a lot of stuff we had to figure out between me, uh with Gino, the recipient of his family. Uh, so it got pushed to the fall, which was fine, worked out well for me with the business and work and just life and everything like that.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Was that like interacting with his family, like meeting him? Yeah. At least giving him your kidney.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Yeah, yeah, uh well, and I'll say, yeah, it I never met him, I never knew the family. To me, it was a stranger. So you know, there's there's direct where if I know you and you need a kidney, I fill out the thing, I know you, I really want to do it. So it's a direct donation or an altruistic where hey, I just wanna show up, I want to give my kidney, you guys find a good home. Then there was me that kind of I was a direct, but I didn't know this person. I just on paper was said, hey, this is the name, so I want to get tested for him. If that doesn't work out, then we can reevaluate and I might still do it, but I'm feeling compelled to give to this guy. Yeah, this is who I want to do it. Okay. So, but it was a stranger, and I think that was the hardest part for the family for Sarah for everybody who was like, This is just a why who is this? We you know, it's just a random person. And it's easy to say no to a random person, but to me, and again, for some reason, I could just picture it as my kid or you know, somebody I wish they would help me or help my family, and it was his mom doing all this work, and it's like, man, this is a mom that's like pleading for a kidney to save her child's life. So, you know, even though I'm was like kind of closer to his age, it was like I still and I say it, I feel like I was helping his mom save his life.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Yeah, you know, she couldn't donate. Uh yeah, yeah. You said something profound on a run that I've been thinking about is you said, like, all the questions you have are what if? What if my kid needs one? What if I die on the table? What if, which is super rare, but like what if all these things you can talk yourself out of it? Yeah, and you're like, hey, well, he needs one now. Yeah, like I can't think about what if in the future this kid needs a kidney now.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

That's what it was. It was, you know, what if my kids need it, but what if they don't? This guy right now. Um, you know, and and I don't know if I saw something in him that was like me, it was an athlete in high school, he did this, and then I felt like that was kind of ripped away from him, you know, stay qualifier in wrestling, and then senior year, it kind of just went downhill super quick. Um, so I don't yeah, and I don't know. I haven't put much thought into it, but just for some reason I felt connected and that my kidney needed to go to him. Yeah, you know, there was no thought really before, like it's not the day before. Yeah, there wasn't, you know, somewhere very deep. We've talked about where Iron Man was and all this other stuff. It was very deep. But for some reason, it popped up and I was gonna do it. And to me, it was a real person. You know, I didn't feel like I knew him, but I knew it was a real person, I knew it was a real family, I knew it was a real need. And trying to explain that to people was hard. Um, but after we got approved, and I say we because it's as much as I donated, man, it's it's a it takes a village. Like people to watch my kids, Sarah to take off work, leave, get you know, time off of work for school, go to Pittsburgh, stay in Pittsburgh for a week. My mom was there, like it's a lot of moving pieces. It's a it's a we we donated a kidney to this family. So uh, but we were able to I think like two months after, and then probably two months before surgery, meet up halfway, meet Renee, meet Gino, meet his mom and his dad. Me, Sarah, and my daughter went up. And what was that like? It was cool. It was for me. I felt like I already knew them. I talked to his mom every single day, all updates through the whole process. So it was cool to just finally meet them and meet Gino, and I think that really kind of hit the mom heartstrings for Sarah of like, okay, like this is a real person, this is a real mom, this is a real dad, this is their child. Like, I I get it. Like that's a uh I don't I don't think it was a click of like I did it, like I want to find somebody to get my kidney to, but it was a I get why he's doing it. So that was that was cool. It was and yeah, whenever his mom, whenever Renee talks about it, she's like, you know, it wasn't awkward. We just sat around like this, like kind of how me and you met. It wasn't awkward from the start, it was just like old friends just catching up who haven't seen each other. So, you know, it felt like it was kind of felt like it was meant to be. It was destiny just yeah, it was just path crossed, random. We don't live anywhere near each other, but you know, power of social media of that's one good thing that's come out of social media and doom scrolling. I know. There's a lot of that, but we'll take it and that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

So after that surgery, uh it was eight months later, you were racing for the world championships.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yeah, so yeah, if you go back sort of, I got approved in July, did another Iron Man in September, and like to say I accidentally qualified for the world championships. I had a great day that was not on my radar.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

You gotta tell that part of that story too.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

With your coach and that's so yeah, got approved, super excited, raced Iron Man Lake Placid, not the best day, but any Iron Man finish is a great day looking back. But, you know, uh two weeks after that, got a phone call that my coach, Joe Kleindance, who was also teacher, one of my teachers when I was in high school, um, and a co-worker of my wife, and his wife is actually a teacher at Dallastown as well, um, found out that he was killed while riding his bike training for Kona. So he was training for the World Championships uh in 24, tragic accident, and uh unfortunately lost his life while training, which again kind of put everything into perspective again with some stuff. But in his honor, I decided that I was gonna the only way I could kind of honor his memory for me was let's go rip an Iron Man in his name. He was a two-time defending champ of Iron Man Maryland. Wow, absolute beast, like my favorite Iron Man athlete of all time.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

So call me King of Cambridge, Cambridge, Maryland, that's where Iron Man Maryland is. I was like, it has to be here. Wow. So decided let's lace it up, let's uh let's go rip another one for him in September. Had a great day. So I feel like he was with me. Got a spot for world championships. So crossed the finish line. I had no idea, and they told me they're like, hey. You know, when you you normally finish like 70th, like you got a top ten and there's you know like eight world spots and you're just currently sitting in one, so that is you wanna go. And I'm like, that wasn't even on the radar, like like, but and then but then I'm like, okay, like that's awesome. Like I'm super pumped. Very emotional day, very emotional race. But then it was like, I committed to donating a kidney. I was planning to maybe hang this up or at least hang it up for a year, let my body recover, because everyone's like it's gonna take time. And I'm like, well, and you have to decide like right then and there, are you gonna take it? I'm like, let's do it. Like, let's let's qualify in September. We're gonna donate in December, and let's run it back in September, let's go to France and race the world championships. I was like, that'll be some motivation, and that that'll get that'll get me back. So I uh yeah, so we pulled the trigger and then I kind of made that my mission, and that's kind of what the Aren't Kidney Project was. It was like let's we qualified, we donated, we raced world championships all under a year. Check, check, check somehow.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

We did a couple races before that. I think four months after I went out to St. George U uh, Utah. I raced half Iron Man there, raced another one in July, kind of got ready. I won't sugarcoat it, it wasn't super great. That that year after donation, like healthy, no issues, but fitness, like going from five Iron Man's to kidney donation and kind of hanging out, being a little lazy leading up to that, and trying to get back to world championship quality fitness very difficult. So, but it was an experience, it was a it was a good time. But yeah, I kind of I checked all those boxes and that was in September, so now we're kind of back to life as normal, no issues with the kidney, just back on my cup of crazy, which is ripping more Ironmans.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

And you said you and Gino are doing a half Iron Man together.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Yeah, so I'm gonna race uh kick off the year in May with a half Iron Man by myself, and then June we're gonna go up to State College for Iron Man 70.3 in Pennsylvania, which is in Happy Valley. He lives up that way, kind of been pressure a little bit and trying to get him to see if he wanted to do a half marathon, and he finally agreed. So, you know, so hard to say no to the guy that did either. I was like, hey, it's okay. Like it's cool, but it'll be fun. I'm gonna be up there either way. So if you want to run, right? If not, I'll do it all by myself.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

So you're doing the swim and the bike.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm gonna swim, bike, and then hand it off the tracker, and he's gonna go run the half marathon, run all through uh the Penn State campus, through Beaver Stadium. Like, it's an awesome experience, it's gonna be awesome. He gets across the the red carpet and finish. You know, it's a big Iron Man red carpet that you can go through in a big old finish. It's it's an awesome feeling. So it'll be cool. Plus, he gets the advantage being on the relays. Everyone else is gonna be dead tired from swimming and biking. He gets to go out there fresh and have fun. So yeah, it's it's cool, it'll be it'll be fun. Uh, and actually, we're gonna have five or six other living donors, kidney and some are double, some are liver that are gonna be racing. So it's a little meetup race. Some of the people that I've kind of connected with. So half of us have done it before, and half of us, this is gonna be their first triathlon. So I've kind of been inspired and got roped into some friends here, and so it's gonna be it'll be fun, it'll be a good time. That's so yeah, it'll be like five or six of us living donors up there doing 70.3 and happy valley in June. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Yeah, this stuff this kind of thing is contagious. It is, uh huh. Yeah. Uh the the the training, the yeah, competing, uh, and it seems the the I'm learning from you, the this world of donation is also very contagious. Because from my perspective, I never thought about donating an organ in my life. You know, like so you don't know what you don't know. Yeah. And um, you know, there's a lot of things tests to do, but um it's more common than I had realized.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, yeah. And a lot of people don't talk about it. And it's not that I like talking about it in general for myself, but it's again that awareness. Like, and I get super pumped up when I happen to find somebody else, like post something, or somebody finds me and they're like, hey, I do I do this and do that, and I donate it. I'm like, man, you're awesome. Like you're already awesome for doing the donation, and you're already awesome for running marathons or 5Ks or whatever you're doing, but now you're like, we got two things together, so you're like double awesome. So it gets me gets me pumped up. That's cool. Uh but yeah, yeah, it's super contagious to the point, you know, I'm doing that in June, and then I'm off to Germany for the first uh Iron Man distance race of the year. So I'll be in Germany, and then I'll fly home on Wednesday, and then we had to lake placid, and my wife is gonna be doing her first full Iron Man and she got the bug. She got the bug. I don't know how I mean I do because as much as I think I don't pressure her, but it's it's contagious. I mean, you go to these hunters, you go to these marathons, these 50Ks, these hundred miles. It's hard to not be inspired and and see it, but you don't see a lot of the work that goes into it. So she's in the thick of full Iron Man training as a mom, as a teacher. We're both trying to balance that. It's yeah, it it's fun, but that's kind of the big race this year. Like I've got my races, but we're we're super pumped for for Lake Placid. Uh, of course, kind of kind of like you, yeah. Lake Placid, the hardest one, you know, in North America. So why not? But she's been to Maryland, she's been to Texas, she's been to all these other Florida, she's been to Lake Placid, and she's like, if I'm gonna do one, I want the most street cred, you know. Yeah, if I want one, I'm gonna do the hard one. Exactly. I'm gonna do this. If I'm only gonna do one, then we're gonna make it Lake Placid. So fair enough. That's so cool. She's in the thick of it, yeah. So it's gonna be I'm super pumped for that race.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

And she, we have full race kits, Iron Kidney Project, full design, full they're purple dish here because I let her pick. So she was gonna she she races in the full Iron Kidney Project team kit. You know, she's out there racing talking about it, and it's cool. We have our tents at the events, and people come up, you know, doctors and other people that have donated and stuff, and they think it's awesome, you know. And we're hanging out with the most fit people in the world, they're the best candidates. They're the best candidates to donate, and they're also the best candidates to be motivated to get back after donation. Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

You know, that's the kind of stuff that you were explaining earlier that I hadn't thought of. Yeah, you know, that it doesn't you can't just like want to do it, you have to be healthy enough to do it. You have to be able to recover well enough to do it. Uh, you have to be even your you said you did like a psych exam where they were asking you questions to make sure that you know you're not gonna have regret after you give, you know, and and you're gonna be able to get back into your life routine and they're checking on all that. There's there's more to it than just like, hey, this is a match, go do it. Yeah, there's a lot too much more to it.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah, and there is a lot of people that want to do it and then they they can't for some reason, you know. That's heartbreaking too. Like we meet people and they go through the process and and they get rejected and they c you know kind of feel like a failure, they did something, but you know, they they tried, um which is awesome. But yeah, we're trying to get more people to just learn about it. So you know, like you, you even if you you probably won't do it, but you're gonna you're talking to other people, you're talking to five, ten, fifteen, twenty people then might look me up or look up a story or this or that. And so I think that's what really trying to share the story so that you share the story and you share it to somebody else, and that person's like, huh. Okay. Like, I do this other crazy stuff, but the friend of his does it. Like, if he's doing this, maybe I've kind of thought about it. Maybe again, maybe this is a time that I can do it, and I don't have to wait until there's a good time. There's never a good time to donate an organ. Uh, you know, there's never a good time to do an Iron Man, there's never a good time to do at least like mile races.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

Yeah, right. Um, right. But I've been missing it. I have been telling the story of how we met uh to my friends, and I'm glad that we can sit down here and do this because there's a a a spiritual aspect to this that I definitely want to talk about because dude, I can't tell you. I like we met eight days ago, you know, and um when we were out, let me just let me go off for a second on the the spiritual side of what this experience and meeting you has done in my life already. And whenever we were out talking, the second day you were here, you were just you know out there working on our fence, and I'd come out and I was uh just asking you, like, why would you donate your kid? I wanted to know, like what's the story? You know, how does that happen? Um, because I'd never really met anybody that did that. So you're telling me, you're telling me all this stuff, and and um, and we're talking, and um, I'm just feeling really inspired. Like, what drives somebody to one day see something on social media and be like, I'm doing this? You know, like I feel like that is something that gets put on someone from God, uh, as someone who believes in God and believes in Jesus. It's like something transcendent has to overcome somebody to want to love someone like that, especially a stranger, you know? And so I was just really wrestling with that. So I was hearing your story, feeling inspired. And then I come inside and I'm sitting at my office uh chair right over there, and I'm kind of preparing for my next podcast episode on uh the topic was kind of the heart. I was gonna do I have an enlarged heart. Um, like I have an enlarged aorta. I found out in college when they're when I uh got to to to Lafayette for football. All the freshmen come in and they do uh EKG testing and all this stuff. And I found out then that like mine came back a little funny, so we did an extra testing, and it turns out I have an enlarged aorta. Yeah, you know, and maybe that helps me in uh running ultra races and endurance. Yeah, um, probably. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

So uh anyway, and not to cut you off here, but the funny it reminded me one of the things was that we had talked about with my wife Sarah. So they were like, You're gonna have to go to Pittsburgh and you're gonna have to get the full workup. I haven't been to a regular doctor in years. Yeah, yeah. So like we kind of talked, we're like, okay, so here's what's gonna happen. Either one, I'm gonna go in and get all the because they do every single test, blood tests, heart tests, MRIs, CAT scans. So they're either gonna find out that I have cancer, like a doctor in 10 years, or I'm perfectly healthy and they're gonna take my kidney. And it's not like it's a lose-lose, but it's like, man, like so he's either gonna find out there's something wrong with him, or he's perfect health to be able to give a kidney. Yeah, right. But yeah, same thing.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

So it's like, yeah, yeah, you find these things out, and you're like, okay, I guess now what do I do with this?

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's and yeah, I was like, cool. Yeah, I'm fine. That's kind of my yearly checkup, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

But yeah, yeah, or or like me, I don't go to the doctor that often either. Um, and I just don't like it. Yeah, I see orthopedic surgeons don't see regular to a hundred, you know, like you like you do with everything other things. So anyway, I'm back in my I'm in my office just 10 minutes after we had chatted, and I'm I'm kind of opening up the Bible, I'm looking at all these verses about the heart. And in the Bible, there's tons of stuff about the heart. You know, the heart is the wellspring of your life, it's where all your desires come from. You know, you desire something in your heart, uh, and then you act upon that and all this stuff, and Jesus cleanses the heart. There's all these verses, but there was one in particular that stuck out to me that more that day, and um, it was Jeremiah 17.9. And let me just flip there real quick. Because it stuck out to me, because uh most of the verses about the heart are like the heart is a good thing. You know, it's it's how you desire God, it's where your desires come from. But this verse, uh Jeremiah 17, 9, says, The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? And then the Lord responds to the prophet Jeremiah. He says, the next verse, he says, I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve. That stuck out to me because it says the heart is deceitful. You know, it's like this negative connotation on the heart. And and Jeremiah is asking, like, who can understand this? And God's like, I can. So, no joke, in this Bible, my NIV study Bible from 1985, there's a footnote next to the sentence where it says, Search the heart and examine the mind. I go down to the footnote and it says, mind, literal translation, kidneys. It's right there. Yeah. And I literally start sobbing, like kind of cry laughing, sobbing. I'm like, Are you serious? Ten minutes ago, I was out in my yard talking to you who just donated, who donated your kidney. You're in my yard building our fence, and I just heard this inspirational story about this kidney transplant. And here I open the Bible to this verse, and there and I learn that the mind is is translated to kidney. I start, you know, getting emotional and I start looking this up. Like, what the heck? How how does this how the kidney organ, how is that connected to the mind? And it turns out that in the Old Testament, there's 31 other times, it's the same Hebrew word for mind and kidney. Why? I'm like, why would they, why would they use why would they do that? You know, it's because back then they didn't know the use of all the organs. They didn't know why they uh the functions. And they learned through sacrificing animals that the kidney is the cleanser of the blood and cleanses what uh what the kind of the the heart pumps the blood, the kidney processes it and cleans it and and returns it back and gets rid of the bad stuff. So I'm like, it hit me right then. God was like, you need to take this, you need to take your Bible outside and go talk to Andrew. I was like, I mean, I can't say no, yeah, because this is like an insane moment. So I go outside and it's like kind of raining out, and I'm like, hey, Andrew, do you believe in God?

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Yeah, just a random thing out in the middle, middle of the field. Yeah, three, yeah, three construction guys out there just working.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Not the question you probably expected, and not the situation I expected to be in. But uh, I was like, Do you believe in God? And you're you're like, Yeah, I mean, I'm I wouldn't consider myself religious, but I grew up Catholic and my wife is Catholic.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

My wife's cat, yeah, I wasn't. I didn't grow up Catholic, but yeah, my wife, yeah. Whatever your wife's Catholic, yeah, married in Catholic church and all that.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Yeah, yeah. So I was like, Well, you won't believe what just happened to me. And I just went through all that with you and read this verse, and I was just like, you know, like your kidney, the thing that that your heart, your heart pumps out the blood, goes to your and your kidney cleanses this. And in the old testament context, that's exactly in the prophecy that Jesus Christ fulfills, he is the ultimate cleanser of our heart. And when he gives us a part of, he gave he gave himself to us for us, died on the cross for our sins. We have a new heart and a new mind. And you did something for this kid, Gino, where you gave him a kidney that works and that processes his blood and cleanses it. And I was like, that's exactly what Jesus does for us when he takes over our heart and our mind. He cleanses our heart's desires. The heart's deceitful, but Jesus fulfills that by cleansing us. And and we go from a deceitful heart to a transformed heart, a heart of flesh, that that now we are now we are one with our Maker. And I was just blown away by that connection. And I don't know, in the in the moment, um, it probably seemed a little unhinged to come out there like that.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

No, yeah, and it's and not that it, I mean, not that I was extreme, but yeah, like I end up talking with people too, and like my dad, you know, he kind of knows he doesn't come up to be like, what's going on? Like, why aren't you working? Like, something's going on, but I'm standing there with my Bible. Yeah, like weirder stuff has happened. So, like, but but yeah, it was funny because I talked to about stuff with Sarah when I get home from work, but not a lot, like nothing too exciting ever happens. And I'm like, guess what? It's in the middle of the field with our customer today with his Bible. We were praying and hugging out in the field, two grown men. He's like, What did you do? Like, don't like what are you doing now? Like, are you kidding me? Like, again, not like not surprised, but just like, what did you do? What did you say? Why is this person come you know, being called to talk to you?

SPEAKER_02 38:31

You know, it was a straight up message from God just funny, like to think about all the things that landed you in my yard, too.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

I keep on like I don't tell her any all those details, but it's like, oh yeah, because you came up with this, you know, this and the kidneys and all this, and we're hugging and praying and all this, and she's and it's just funny because when out of context, it just seems so wild. Seems you know, and then when it's done, I go back to work and talking to the guys.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

It was pretty wild to me. And then then then after we got talking, you were like, I was like, You want to come on my podcast? Like, I I want to share the story, I want to hear the details of all this. I think everyone needs to hear this. Because I mean, I don't know, man. I just I just see like God all over this situation from the way that you were doom scrolling, and just suddenly something hits you from God, be like, hey, that you can do this, and this kid needs one. And then all those questions, all those things that that you were considering, yeah, you knew you were gonna do it. Yeah, that's why earlier I was like, it has to be to do something like that, that love, like that's that's like a transcendent kind of love. Because it's it's a rare kind of thing to to want to just give away your organ to somebody, you know. But now that kid is walking around with a healthy kidney, yeah, because and he hit that kidney that you had is cleansing him and helping him live his life. And dude, the as as as a as a follower of Christ, I can't help but see that connection and be like, dude, that's that's what Jesus did for me. That's what he does for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

And it's cool. It's like, yeah, the kidney, I mean, yeah, it saved his life and did all that stuff, but it's so cool to like kind of follow this random person. Now they're in college doing this again, and got the text that, oh, hey, Gino made Dean's list. I'm like, hey, that kidney's never made Dean's list. That kidney's never made honor roll. Like, this is sweet. That kidney's killing it, like, you know, just funny stuff. Now I get updates, and it's like a proud dad of hey, good job, kidney. Like, you're doing your job, doing it, keep you know, keep on doing this so you know he can he can live his life. Yeah, you know, that's amazing. It's more just a fan. Like, once it was done, I was like, cool. Like, this is fun. So, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Well, every time I I met with a pastor a few days the next day, I told him this story that I meet with every other week. Uh, Stan is his name, and we were just talking, I was telling him the story, and he was like, dude, those are the that's the kind of story that changes people's lives. You know, that's the kind of story that cuts somebody to the heart and makes them want to take action, makes them want to to be introspective and like, what am I doing with my life? Or what what can God do in me that that I have never even considered because I've never opened myself up to my creator like that. And uh, and I've told this story to a handful of my friends, and each of them are like, dude, this is nuts, this is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

All the things that had to happen for us to be sitting here, even when I think even the last thing, yeah, right when after we did that and we're hugging, and for whatever reason, I was just like, Yeah, you know, all that stuff that's buried deep. You got the Appalachian Trail in your backyard, which is something I want to do. Yeah, eventually is do the whole thing. Anytime, come on, like literally in your backyard, and then I'm just randomly like, yeah, and you know, I'd like to adopt some a kid or or two here at some point in my life. And you're just like, I just posted a podcast yesterday talking about a friend that is all you know, director of foster care and adoption and stuff, and it's just like all kind of that was another thing, it's just mixed, yeah, it's all mixed in, and just like no matter what I say, it's like that's weird.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

So just how the paths I know it's almost like there's it's almost like there's someone up there that knows exactly what we need, yeah. You know, and that's what I keep coming back to. And it with each with each time I think about this story and think about what you've you've sacrificed. I'm just like, man, that's that's like the heart of Jesus like manifesting. Yeah, that's the kind of love that that I want to have. That's the kind of love that he tells us to have, and you're just like doing it.

SPEAKER_01 42:23

Man, I think it's crazy too. It's not I haven't met a donor that feels like it was a sacrifice. Yeah, I feel like we're all just like, why is there not a line outside every hospital with people volunteering to do this?

unknown 42:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

Like if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't a sacrifice. I wasn't worried about dying. I mean, you know, you start thinking about oh, it could happen, but yeah, it wasn't it wasn't a risk to me or anything like that. I was like, as long as I'm able to do it, this is all I gotta do. Yeah, in and out, like cool. Do it and go home the next day, recover.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

So it's all the what ifs. Yeah, it's all the what ifs.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Yeah, and it's like, yeah, why aren't more people doing this? And there is a lot of hoops to jump through. It's not as easy of a process to get approved, but yeah, it's it doesn't feel like a sacrifice, which might be something that's wired with all the donors that do it, but you know, every time I talk to them, we're all from doing different things, and all kind of have that same there was never a thought, never a why. Never nobody really took a couple days to think about it. It was it just happened. Yeah, for some reason it was like, I'm gonna do it. If I can do it, I'm gonna do it. Which is weird. So it is. When I look back, it's like it was a crazy time in my life, but it was just uh, you know, maybe that's the athletics part of it too. Just it was a goal like let's get to the finish line, let's get in and do this and check it off and and move on. Um I want I I want people to donate, but To force it, not gonna try to convince somebody, but somebody wants to talk about it and get more information. By all means, reach out. The only negative to it, I think you're gonna be fine donating, is you might get sucked into a marathon or an Iron Man, you know, after hanging out with me for too long. That does seem to happen, unfortunately. Um that is you know, I don't think they put that on the paperwork when you decide to donate an organ. Um is that part of the mentor? Yeah, you're in trouble. You got bigger, you got bigger problems. I think that's probably the one thing that my wife would say is yeah, the donating the kidney wasn't an issue. It's how do you not get inspired by donating a kidney and then doing Iron Man's? Like it does, but I I was inspired by the people that I Googled that did it. I was like, and that wasn't that I want to be them, but I was like, man, you guys already did it. Like I thought it would be cool, but I was willing to give it up. But because you guys did it, I can do it. That made my decision so much easier, and it kind of validated. I was like, cool, like yeah, I can still do what I love. And to me, it was like a side quest, which sounds insane.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

But it does sound insane when you say it like that.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

Yeah, but that's how it felt. Like it was just yeah, it wasn't a big deal. And to you know, when you say it, like, oh, he saved somebody's life, but it's not how it really felt. Um but you know, we went to top golf two days before surgery. My families all came together, his whole family came in, and he was in rough shape, like way worse than he was when we saw him two months before he was admitted into the hospital a couple days before. Yeah, like it was pretty bad towards the end for him. Uh really couldn't do anything, bags, all tubes, all sorts of stuff, like in really, really rough shape. And then we saw him the day after surgery and smile, like just life in his eyes and his face and all that stuff. Um you know, recovery was a little rough for him after that, but yeah, you could it was crazy how the kidney kind of cleansed everything and took right off, and it was wild to see how bad he was in person, and then a day later see see how good he was doing.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

That's amazing. Um was what's the uh the chance that that kidney wouldn't have taken? You know?

SPEAKER_01 46:11

It's a case by case thing. So he does have a weird kind of disease, so his blood is kind of attacking my kidney, and it attacked it very soon, and it was very possible you're very close to losing it. Like they were kind of throwing the kitchen sink. I think they were trying to make the kidney work and cure essentially at the same time, and it just didn't work. So he was having lots of issues and was there for like a month. Um, and the percentage of function just kept dropping and dropping and dropping and dropping, and then they kind of just stopped and let the kidney kind of because they were almost killing the kidney, um kind of stopped and it kind of started coming back and started to to improve. So the you know, how it right now it's how long can he get that kidney to last? He's young, it's probably not gonna last his whole life, so he's probably gonna have to have another one. Um but you know, that's not why I did it. If he gets a year, that's a better year than he had. Yeah. Um but yeah, hopefully he gets five, ten, fifteen, twenty years out of it. Um but you know, he's definitely much better off. He's not going home, plugging into a dialysis machine at six o'clock at night for twelve hours, not having a you know, a normal life of a 18, 19, 20 year old. So I think now he's just is he back wrestling and uh maybe not wrestling, not wrestling, but now back working he can actually work out. Yeah, actually have he's a normal, normal 21-year-old now.

SPEAKER_02 47:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

So whatever he's doing, I don't know. But he's up in college enjoying that. And wow. So yeah, it's cool like to see that part of it. Like I missed probably two years of the rough, really rough parts of it, because I just saw the end of May, it went downhill, got on the transplant list, they made they they posted it, I saw it, and that's kind of where I came in and played catch up.

SPEAKER_03 47:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

So he was already in pretty rough shape by the time I came into the picture. But you know, every every time I see every update, it's it's great. He's just a normal, normal 20-something-year-old kid that's living his life.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

If someone wants to either I'm gonna put all the information for Iron Kidney in the description, your email, all this stuff, but like process-wise, you know, if someone out there hears us and like, oh, I want to check this out. So what does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 48:23

The you know, I don't give out like medical advice or anything like that, but there's a lot of connections where and I keep hearing it from people that are like, oh, I've thought about it and wanted to try, and I just didn't know where to start. So I try to be that like, hey, I'm interested in it's like where do you live? Let's try and find the closest hospital that does it. Let's find you the forms and kind of put you and kind of stay on them. So that's kind of why I'm here, just to help them and just send them the link. Like it's usually just a link that they have to do, but trying to find that and follow up, it's it can be tough. So, you know, it's not a mentor, but it's just uh, hey, I want more information, or can you help me get involved or find somewhere that I might be able to help, or is there somebody that needs help? Does somebody need a kid near? Can I just be an altruistic donor?

SPEAKER_00 49:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

So it's kind of what I'm trying to be. Um, because that's what I did. I hopped on Google, I looked up these people, you know, they were doing similar stuff to me and they donated, so I just reached out, like, hey, yeah, you know, this is what I'm doing. I was already kind of involved and had it easier with the link directly sent to me. But, you know, just can you walk me through the process? Can you tell me the honest feedback, not what the hospital says? Um, you know, they give you a lot of statistics and stuff like that. But again, I kind of told you about a guy when I did my six-month checkup, he was two weeks out from surgery, and the only question he had for me was gonna donate a part of his liver to his daughter was when can I pick up my son? Like, you know, you can't lift heavy obviously more than 10 pounds for six weeks or whatever. Like, so he's like, When can I when can I grab my you know, two or three-year-old son and throw him in the air? That's that's all I want to know. Which I was like, I can understand that, that makes sense. Like, yeah, like you know, and then we can talk about that. It was not surgery, it was not recovery, it wasn't pain. It was when can I bend down and pick up my kid? Because I want to be able to do that as soon as possible. When can I hold my baby that I'm giving the chunk of the liver to? It's like, yeah, when it hits home, like again, no-brainer, maybe a little easier going to a daughter, but still like it's the kind of approach that you see as consistent in all the people that are donating.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

It's it's just like this. It's you said it's not uh what do you say? It's not a when but how? Yeah, you know, yeah, it's not a why. Like, yeah, why do you do it?

SPEAKER_01 50:38

I'm like, you tell me. Yeah, I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out, and I don't really put much thought into it. It wasn't a why, it was a I checked these boxes, let's get it done. Yeah, you know, and all the people that I know too, you know, a lot of them, some of them are family, but a lot of the stories I saw was the same thing. Hey, dad went to a golf outing and was talking to his buddy and his nephew needs a kidney. And I was like, and then that guy went and filled out the forms and did it. And same thing, like, oh, this person needs one. Or my friend did it, you know. And uh I have a buddy that lives in Florida that went and got tested. He was kind of inspired. Now he wears our kits and he went and got tested and got approved. So don't know if it'll go through and all that, but he went through the process to to give one and he's got a lot going on in his life, getting married and all that. So we're trying to help him and juggle and give feedback because he's racing world championships in October. So trying to make sure that donation fits into his life and what he's doing.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

Um but now he's seen you and he knows he's like it's possible.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

So we were talking, he's like, So if I do it now, can I get back? And I'm like, You probably can. It's gonna be a little rough. Like, how much you want to enjoy going to Hawaii? Like, how much you want to enjoy this Iron Man, you know? If you can do it after, that's what I would recommend. If your recipient can wait that long on dialysis, I would wait and do it after. Yeah. Um, but yeah, there's you know, a couple people, and this past week I've had like three different people. One was a customer, actually, who texted me and was like, Hey, you just happen to pop up on my Facebook of people you may know, and not to get too personal, but I clicked on your thing and it said you're a kidney donor. That's something I always have wanted to do, but didn't know where to start. And I'm like, sweet, like awesome, like cool. Like, so it's finally like the work I'm kind of doing, trying to put it out there and the nonprofits and people are starting to see it. And so, you know, that that that feels good because past year it is a such a slow process. Yeah, right. From an initial, there's not many people, and it's a slow process, but you know, having people reach out, you know, and went to Vegas in December to ride with some guys and happen to find out one of them, his brother needs a kidney and he wants to donate, but he may not be able to. And but he's like, if that doesn't work, I still want to give it, give my kidney away. Yeah, can you help me? If if I can give it to my brother, can we find a home? Like, yeah, that's amazing. Good. Yeah, we can find a home.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

Yeah, so you're people are already getting dropped in your life that can help and want to help, and you're able to connect them in the right path. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:05

That's amazing with that's what I think I like about the endurance world in Iron Man's, is people from all over the world, um, different jobs, different careers, all that. So it's all kind of intermingled, and then they go and they kind of spread random stories, and they see something, or they people they all the time now. I get text messages of billboards like this guy needs a kidney, and try to share that story and reach out and see if we can help. Um but it is a there's a big need for it, and just try to do a little at a time, do my part, and yeah, get out there and share your story. And then still just be a husband, be a father, do a couple Iron Man's here and there, do podcasts with guys we just met. You know, work my schedule around so on a random Friday I can come up here and do my workout, and yeah, yeah. The only stipulation is we gotta do a workout before yeah, campaign style.

SPEAKER_02 53:58

Yeah, that was good. I'm glad we did that. Yeah, yeah, that was good.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

I was like, we had to base the podcast schedule around my training schedule, yeah. Date that I have runs and just pray that it's not a speed day to that'll kill you. So yeah, I'm not fast.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

I mean, not fast. That was a good run, though. Uh how'd you feel like the pace was? I don't even look. I didn't even look, I don't look. I don't care. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

I think it ate something.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

We were under nine minute pace, yeah for six almost seven miles. Cap it easy. I got pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

I got a big weekend, so that's right. You got lots of hours on the bike, and yeah, we got a big bike ride, we got a late night.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

So but you keep grinding, yeah, you keep going. Yeah, that's cool. Last question the motivation for all this. If you had to think about and like put explain it somehow, the motivation, not just to race, but to uh do Iron Kidney, like to start this nonprofit.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

Yeah, I think I kind of mentioned it, and I like to use the hashtag and like to be be the change, so like be the change you want to see in the world, like with whatever I'm doing, you know, do hard stuff, but like just I try to be a good person, surround myself with good people, like people like you that just come into my life. I try to even win the fencing business, I try to be as transparent and honest with people. Um, it's a family business, you know. I had that little bit of motivation we kind of talked about, where turning 30, I wanted to do something cool every year for my 30th, or you know, for 30, 31, 32, 33. Issue is I kind of did a decade worth of stuff in like two years. So like you're gonna have a hard time finding seven years topping. And trip, you know, trip to France, or what yeah, like and it all kind of fell into my first marathon and you know, losing like 80 pounds, like it all kind of happened within two years.

SPEAKER_03 55:48

So um you just go, go, go.

SPEAKER_01 55:51

Yeah, yeah, and side quest after side quest. But you know, just again, just try to be a good person and surround myself with other good people, and yeah, it's weird.

SPEAKER_02 56:01

It's been probably like a year and a half or two years of like I mean, it's bad stuff happens, but it's like stuff's pretty good, like meeting good people, and more good people are coming into our circle into our and you said you're supporting your wife and her Iron Man goals, and you're kind of being a little more still, not still completely, because you're still racing.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

Yeah, she's she's seeing, yeah, on the surface when I signed up for mine, she's like, How did this happen? How did I sign up? How did how are we both training for an iron? This is not what it was supposed to be, and like I just kind of snuck mine in. But when you do so many, like it just kind of it's just another Iron Man. Like the first one, super big deal, second one super big deal, and now they kind of just like just another one, yeah, which is also bad because it's like there's double Ironmans and Hundred Mileries. I know, and then I heard there were 200 milers. Well, then no, it's like oh Moab, and I was like, that's my issue. It's if I give up Iron Man and I run a hundred miler, what's that? 100 miler's not gonna be enough, and that's my fear, knowing my personality and well, there's different styles of hundred milers too that are challenging.

SPEAKER_02 57:02

Well, I know, yeah. I did one that was just a straight, like course, yeah, you know, four laps a hundred miles, and then there was one that I just did that was the 100 miles, but it's a one mile loop for 24 hours. Yeah, and you know, that's just a whole nother beast meant to be.

SPEAKER_01 57:15

Which yeah, when I was looking up, that's what the one that I was looking a one mile, one point one mile around uh like a pond in Vegas in February. I'm like, maybe just throw that into the schedule off season 100 mile or once once you get going, it's like it's hard to stop.

SPEAKER_02 57:31

And I have I have I have I would say like I'm not racing right now. I'm not I'm not training for anything right now. I am in a in a season of stillness, you know, after dropping out of Coca-Dona, we were talking a little bit about it. Um, I got into my dream race and I was like, this is gonna be awesome. This is gonna be like the big crescendo of all these years of doing ultras. And and uh I just did like an 18 miler one day after training for I was like probably a few months in of training, and I ran 18 miles, and then every single mile, it just felt like the miles were getting worse and worse and worse. Not like physically, yeah, but just mentally, I wasn't there.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

And usually my race, a little bit of guilt, a little bit of the seeing the yeah, you can kind of picture what what's next week can look like. What's exactly months from now?

SPEAKER_02 58:19

And I wasn't even like in the thick of it, yeah. You know, I wasn't even in into the really long weekends and long runs and stuff. And to me, that was that was God saying, like, all right, this ultra running has been a great benefit because that's like time that I worship, time that I pray. It's some solitude, you know. As you know, like when you're on a bike for a long time, it's time you can think think stuff through. Um, and uh he was just like, Yeah, you can't do this race, like it's not the right time. Yeah, and uh I was missing stuff with with the family because of it. I was missing Bible studies, I was missing just like the more important things. Yeah, and then and then it started to become like, why am I doing this? Yeah, and I always was like, I would always tell myself, yeah, I'm doing it to glorify God, because he gave me this body. I like to suffer and I like to persevere and I like to see what I can do. But then I had said that and I was like, I, I, I, I like to do this, I like to do that, I like that. Okay, yeah. I think I think it's time to like hang it up for a second and uh reel it in for a second. And it's another verse that um kind of became Sarah and I's anthem for this year, which was Psalm 49, 10. It says, Be still and know that I am God. Yeah, and it was just like I'm gonna be okay with being in a season of stillness. It doesn't mean not do anything, yeah, it means re-prioritize, refocus my life, and know that I need to I need to do what he wants me to do, not what I want to do. Yeah, um, and it's not like I'm being still, I'm still working out a lot, I'm changing jobs, I'm getting a different job. Like there's lots of life stuff with getting horses and building fences, and like there's things going on. But it's the heart posture that has completely shifted. And I feel like God has blessed that, even though it was a hard decision to make. It was like that stillness has come with a lot of fulfillment in the things that matter.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

Yeah, that's I went pretty hard for a couple years, and I'd always have like one or two iron, I always have like a race past the next race because the full Iron Man in July, I'm like, I already that's already done. Yeah, what's the next one? And I told myself, I have nothing planned past July. So I'm like, I gotta leave it open and see like what's going on, what are the kids doing? My one-year kidney checkup. I was like, hey, while I'm here, can you just work me up for the liver? Like, I mean, so now I'm I'm technically an approved liver donor.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:45

Um that's crazy. It's kind of like a tattoo. Once you get one, you want to get more? Is that kind of how it is?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:51

I don't know, but then yeah, I'm like, you can be a double donor? So now I have a couple double donor friends, and I'm like, huh. That's pretty cool. I want to do it, but again, that's that'll be an altruistic. I don't have anybody in mind to like go to the hospital, you guys find a good home, do an exchange, do something. So that might be in the winter time when when fencing slows down. Kind of leave that that all open. Maybe get back into coaching the kids, they're getting busier. Um yeah, so I don't I don't know. What's crazy is I was thinking about hanging up Iron Man to run hundred milers because I thought it'd be less time commitment, which sounds insane. But it is a little less, I would say. It's yeah. Not by much. No, you still got long runs on the weekends but you can fit them in here and there. You do get a day off. I don't get days off. But you know, but then the my son is when's my triathlon, and it's like, well, let's find one, dude. Yeah, let's do it. Like, and they're into it and they get it. And you know, I think when they get older and they still realize, but they're like, Oh, my both my parents do Ironmans, my dad donated a kidney, my like it's normal to them.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

Yeah, you know, sometimes we have guilt and feel bad, but you're inspiring your kids, you know, with just by doing what you're yeah what you're doing right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:04

Yeah, yeah. And I don't half the time I'll think their teachers believe them, they're like, Oh, yeah, my dad donated a kidney last weekend. Talking about like I went into conferences and like the week after, and they're like, Did did you donate a kidney? Like, 'cause they hear random stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, yeah, we yeah, we do, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:21

But and you got a story to tell. Yeah, and then and then hey, that's another person that's like gay thinking about it. Yeah, that's how these things are.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

What they're gonna do. So that's one thing too. I wanna, you know, with the kids, and we're gonna start a scholarship fund too, through this. Like, for anybody that like these kids that have had transplants, or their dad or their mom or somebody donated. I'm like, that'd be cool. Like, how did being a living donor somehow, either you got a heart transplant or a kidney, or if your dad gave a liver or gave gave part of a gave part of a liver or kidney, like that's a cool little scholarship. So a little fun stuff to kind of do to kind of give back a little bit, but again, a little bit more awareness when somebody's like, Oh yeah, I got this scholarship because my dad donated a kidney 20 years ago, yeah, which qualified me. I'm like, that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

That is cool, like, yeah. What something I learned from the the foster care and adoption kind of world from my friend who who is in it, you don't have to foster a kid or adopt a kid to like be involved. You can support the families that that have done it or doing it just by like making meals for them or like driving them around if they need picked up from school.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:31

Yeah, which I'm sure you would feel like I've oh, you have to foster before you adopt. No, not you don't have to, but there's a lot more to it. I was like, man, I don't know if I could foster and then the kid go, you know, I feel like once they come in, I want to keep them forever. Sure, you know, yeah. But I did see when I had met with again another customer who had adopted six kids and we went to dinner with them a couple years ago. And but yeah, they were like, Oh, yeah, sometimes we'll have you know, the the parents go out of town and you're approved, and we'll just keep them for the weekend. It's like foster parent, like weekend foster parents like, that's pretty cool, right? Like, right, yeah, they just come over and weekend sleepover, like, and you're not tied for a month or six months or whatever, right? So it's a way to help without yeah, it was a way to help. I was like, Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

And there's probably ways that people can help, you know, the people that have kidney transplants that are recovering, like Gino was for many months, where like peep families can support them, you know, and people can support them without epidemic kidney.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:27

Yeah, the the community that Gino had and that whole family, they did like a fundraiser for because they had to stay in Pittsburgh for months, and they just they gave me gift card, and you know, you can't like make money from it, but you're able to support and um and and do it. But just the support from that community too to help help me was was crazy. So we try to try to do that, and a couple local people that are in need, and we're trying to push and find them some donors and keep doing what we're doing and going to soccer practice, going to gymnastics practice, and bedtimes and living life. Yeah, me and Sarah were training for for Ironmans and we're trying to uh document that if we can. So yeah, we've got our little Instagram account, so finish lines and bed times. So okay, yeah, like Finish Lines and Bedtimes, yeah. That's our little that's our little account. So yeah, like we'll put that in there, too. Yeah, yeah. Uh it's just a bunch of nonsense. Not to bowl up the other feed, because yeah, I've got again so many side quests that like my page would be ridiculous with asking you to donate your kidney and do an Iron Man at the same time. Yeah. Um but you never know. Yeah, like you should do both. Like, how cool would that be? Like, you should sign up for an Iron Man while getting tested for a kidney. Let's see what you're really made of.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

Well, that's amazing. Um is there anything else you want to cover? I think we got covered a lot. Yeah, yeah. We want to run, we're doing podcasts. I feel like we should do this. Yeah. We're definitely gonna go for some runs on the Appalachian Trail. Because you have a son and a daughter. Yep, yeah. I'm sure they would love to ride the ponies and check them out.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:13

We kind of put that Appalachian Trail in the back burner, but he keeps asking because he knew Joe who'd passed who had hiked the Appalachian Trail. Um we went on a couple hikes after that to kind of remember him and do stuff. So he keeps asking, like, so when are we doing that? Like he he understands, but he doesn't fully understand. So I keep telling him like high school, right around when you graduate. That's kind of our our plan. So that would be cool. Maybe some overnights. You know, get him ready. Yeah, yeah, that's our 10-year crazy thing. I gotta put it out there now so I'm not like surprising Sarah with random stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:52

Get her ready for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:53

Yeah, because like to me, like smart man. Sometimes it's quick. Sometimes it's I think about it, don't bring it up until I'm like, hey, I I signed up for the Iron Man. Or I decided to donate a kidney, and it's like she doesn't want to be mean and say no. Like, oh, what do you and then she'll like look like I get it. Like, yeah, okay. Right. There's no risk, there's no this, like it is what it is. So yeah, no, I'm excited to bring the kids up here and that'll be fun. Check it out and yeah, play with Angus.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:26

And yeah, hopefully they don't run, he doesn't run your kids over. He might, but we're trying to train him. Yeah, I'm excited to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:33

Yeah, I'm excited to see the horses and it'll be fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:38

Good. Yeah, well, uh, yeah, let's let's uh if you don't mind, wrap I'll wrap it up with uh some prayer. Yeah and I'll pray over this conversation. It was wonderful. Heavenly Father, God, I just thank you for being present uh in this room and and thank you for bringing Andrew and I together. Um, how you have uh kind of built this friendship up out of seemingly nowhere. God, it's uh we know nothing happens by chance, and uh your providence is perfect. So I just I'm just grateful to be here with Andrew to hear his story, to be inspired by it. God, I pray that uh this conversation would go out into the world and and inspire others. Um, and that you would be with Andrew and his family and Sarah as they just keep navigating these waters, as they continue to do, God, that you would just be with them as a family, build them up, strengthen them, and watch over them, God. So uh we also pray for Gino and uh just his recovery and and the new life that he's been given uh thanks to this kidney transplant, God, that uh you would just watch over him as well. Um we love you and we thank you. We thank you for your son, Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thanks for coming on, man. Yeah, man. Appreciate it. Yeah, yeah.